How do you think about the ONLINE LESSON?

There are many ways to study English even if you are

in countries where English isn't spoken.

The best way must be having friends who are native

English speakers. However, it is a little difficult to find

such friends when you don't have any opportunities

to meet a lot of foreigners at your schools or work

places. Therefore many people go to English conversation

schools. So do I.

Since the internet has become a very useful communication

tool these days, many web-sites where you can study

English have been appearing.

'English channel' is the one of them. You can take a

50-minute lesson every day if you have a microphone.

It costs about 7,000 yen a month. It's incredibly cheap

compared to taking lessons at English conversation schools

in Japan.

I'm thinking about becoming a member of 'English channel,'

mainly because I'd like to speak English as much as possible.

However, when I think about talking to someone who I don't

really know through the internet, it is so weird for me.

So I hesitate to sign up. I do want to know if there are

nice ways for me to speak English every day.

It must be .... talking to myself ???

Japanese buckwheat noodle

There is a famous Japanese buckwheat noodle

restaurant in Toyohira-town which is in the

northwestern part of Hiroshima prefecture.

The restaurant is in the mountain and there are

only a few houses around it.

You have to drive through mountains to get there,

and it takes you about one and a half hours from

downtown Hirshima.

Even though the restaurant serves only SOBA

(buckwheat noodle), many people (even from

Osaka and Kyushu) visit there.

I have been wanting to visit for a long time

because I like soba and they say the soba at the

restaurant is really tasty.

I finally went there during GW.

On my way to the restaurant, I saw a lot of

nature such as flowers, rivers, wild plants, even

lizards and snakes!! I was frightened when I saw

a snake passed in front of our car.

After going through the bomboo forest, I saw a

fancy Japanese building. The decorations of the

restaurant were so nice that I couldn't believe

that I was in the mountain. I took some pictures

of them.

I didn't see many cars on my way there, but the

restaurant's parking lot was crowded, so we had

to wait to park our car. We also had to wait to

be seated for one and a half hours.

Since there was nothing but trees around the

restaurant, we got bored while we were waiting.

Actually, there are only 17 seats in the restaurant,

so I knew why we had to wait.

I left home at 10:00 in the moring and I was seated

at 1:30 in the afternoon. It means it took me three

and a half hours to have the noodle!!

The noodle was good, but it wasn't as good as I

expected. However, I enjoyed the atmosphere at

the restaurant and a lot of nature.

Tofu ice cream

I went to ses my friend and her daughter in

Miyoshi in the northern part of Hiroshima

prefecture.

I hadn't seen them for a while so I was excited

to see them again. Especially, my friend's daughter

Rena-grown up to be a smart and pretty girl.

I was happy that she remembered that I would

often play with her when she was little.

After we had lunch at a small Italian restaurant

in Miyoshi ( I had a spaghetti lunch set, though )

we went for a drive in my car. We dropped by a

spa in Kimita which is the next town from Miyoshi.

We actually didn't take a bath there, we just looked

around and bought some homemade bread and some

sweets.

I found some interesting ice cream at the cafeteria.

There were soy milk flavored, sweet red bean paste

flavored and TOFU flavored. I tried the TOFU one

and it was delicious.

The server in the cafeteria told me to add some soy

sauce on the tofu ice cream because it would be nice.

At first, I didn't trust her and I didn't put any soy

sauce on it. But after a while, I don't know why, but

something suddenly urged me to try it and I did.

Ice cream with soy sauce....? Yucky.... I thought.

However, it was so delicious!! It was so tasty.

I couldn't tell exactly how it tastes but I really

loved it. When you have a chance to have some tofu

flavored ice cream, I really recommend that you add

some soy sauce on it.