家具屋 (Furniture store)

娘と孫３人で証明器具と電池を買いに出かけた。大きな家具専門店で、家庭で必要な家具全般が揃っていっる。大きな家具類は組み立て式のもの多く、１０メートル以上あると思われる棚に積んである。何処かの倉庫に来たみたい、その他棚、食器類、寝具、照明器具、家の中の飾り、etc.は綺麗に並んで販売されている。見て歩くのも大変、店があまりにも大きいので迷子に成りそう。孫は買い物の間、子供を預かり、遊ばしてもらえる所で１時間（１時間単位）遊んでいた。その他大きな食堂もあり、買い物に来る人のために便利に出来ていました。

Went shopping to buy a table lamp and batteries with my daughter and my grandson. The store I went was really huge and it sells the furniture and all the household goods. Many of the big furniture are assembly required. They are stored at a huge shelf which is about 10 meter high. Also, the store carries shelves, tableware, bedding, lighting, decorations, etc. They were displayed neatly. The store was so huge and I felt lost. While we were shopping, my grandson went to a kid's play area. This is a supervised play area and the parents can drop off the kids for 1 hour while shopping. There is a big restaurant upstairs which is convenient to the shoppers.

パソコン (PC)

娘夫婦は仕事で出かけ孫と二人で留守番、今日は、珍しく一日雨模様、私がこちらに来て一日雨模様は初めて、こちらの雨はざーと降って止むケースが多いのです。午前中は孫とテレビを見たり、ふざけっこをしたりして居ましたが、飽きてしまい２階のパソコンルームで、孫はパソコンでゲーム、私はパソコンで日本のニュースやスポーツニュース、を見ていました。新潟で大きな地震があったようですね、被害も甚大な様で被害に遇われた方たちの頑張りに期待します。
My daughter and her husband went to work so I babysat my grandson. It was raining all day today. Since I came here, there was never a day "raining all day". Every time it rained, it rained a lot but stopped sometime later. In the morning, my grandson and I watched TV and playing around. But we got bored so we went to a den upstairs. There, my grandson was playing some PC games and I read Japanese news and sports news in the Internet. I learned that there was a big earthquake in Niigata, and there were a lot of damages. My thoughts goes people who experienced this tragedy.

陪審員 (Jury duty)

日本で今話題になっている裁判員制度ですが、皆様ご存知だと思いますが、アメリカでは昔から陪審員制度があります。アメリカ人の娘が今日裁判官より呼び出しを受け、裁判所に行きました。娘の話ですと、１００名呼び出され、いろいろな条件が有るみたいで、本当に陪審員として裁判にでるよう選ばれたのは２０人位、選ばれた人たちは、これから長い裁判に出なければ成らないそうです。娘は選ばれなくて、ほっとしていました。
These days, a lot of people in Japan have been talking about a public "jury system". As you know, a public jury system has been established in U.S. Today my daughter (who became an American citizen a couple of years ago) had to go to a court house because she got summoned. According to my daughter, about 100 people were called and filled out some questionnaires. In the end, I guess about 20 people were selected to be a jury for this particular trial. The people who have been selected had to be at this trial for about a week. My daughter was glad that she wasn't selected.

マクドナルド (McDonald's)

娘と孫と３人でマクドナルドに食事に行った。多くの人はテークアウト、車に乗ったまま注文して持ち帰る人、店の中で注文して持ち帰る人、私たちは、店で食べることにした。なぜならば、ここにもジャングルジムが有るからです。日本ではあまりマクドナルドを食べない私、大きさや味を比較することができませんが、多分大きくて安いと思います。飲み物に就いては、店に居れば飲み放題みたいでこれは日本と比較に成りません。（すいません写真はありません）
Went to McDonald's with my daughter and my grandson. I saw some people came inside and ordered a take-out and some people used a drive-through. We decided to eat inside because there is also a play scape for kids. The food seems cheaper and bigger here, although I don't eat at McDonald's in Japan so I don't know if I should compare the differences in the taste and the size between McDonald's in Japan and here. But at least you can get all-you-can-drink if you eat inside, and I don't think that's true at McDonald's in Japan. (Sorry, I don't have any pictures today).

芝刈り (mowing)

芝生がだいぶ伸びた、膝の具合もよいので今日は、私が芝を刈ることにした。芝刈り機はエンジンで手押し、ゆっくり押しながらやるが、けっこう力もいる、約一時間で終了綺麗になった。

午後からは娘と孫がゲームセンターに行くというので付いて行った。また、ここも大きな所で、子供用ゲーム機が沢山並んでいて、ゲーム機の周りにはテーブルが並び、食事や飲み物が取れるようになっている。ここでは子供の誕生パーティが何組か行われていた。孫はいろいろなゲームを楽しみ、点数制なのか点数が貯まると小さなおもちゃが貰える。ここで関心したのは店の出入りが結構厳しいこと、多分子供の誘拐防止だと思われる。

帰り道に市立図書館により、孫はここでもパソコンのゲームで遊んでいた。この図書館も大きい、大きな子供専用図書室も有り、本の貸し出し、ビデオの貸し出し等なかなかよいシステムになっている。

The grass grew tall. Since my knee's feeling well, I decided to mow today. The mower has an engine but I had to push it. It took about 1 hour to mow the yard but it looked good after I did it. In the afternoon, we went to the arcade game places. Once again, everything in America is big, so the place we went there was not exception. There were many video games and some tables so the families can eat and drink there. I saw some birthday parties going on there. My grandson tried many games and got some "points". Those "points" can be exchanged with toys. I was impressed that the security was pretty tight there to enter the place. I guess the security was there to prevent a kidnapping. On the way home, we stopped by the library. My grandson played with a computer game again. This library is also big. There is a place for children's section and people can check out books and movies.

テレビ (TV)

やるこことが無いのでテレビ観賞、当たり前のことだが殆どが英語で見ていても分かりません。チャンネルの多さには驚きます。数えた分けではありませんが、１００チャンネルは軽く越えると思います。ニュース、天気予報、交通情報、ドラマ、クイズ、バラエテｲー、スポーツ、ショッピング、映画、その他いろいろの専門チャンネルが有ります。日本ではどうして沢山のチャンネルが出来ないのかな？不思議。
今日は、多くのチャンネルの中から日本映画をピックアップし楽しみました。１９７７年製作の八墓村でした、もちろん日本語です。このところ古い日本映画と香港映画を交互にやっているチャンネルを探し出し、面白い映画だと見るようにしています。昔の映画ですので私には懐かしく面白いのです。
I was bored today so I decided to watch some TV. Of course, since I can't speak English, I don't understand most of the programs. But I was surprised to see the numbers of channels we have here. I've never actually counted but I think there are at least 100 channels. Many of them are "speciality" channels like news, weather, traffic information, drama, quiz, variety, sports, shopping, movie, etc. I don't know why we don't have many channels like this in Japan? I watched a Japanese movie today. It was "Yatsu Haka Mura" (produced in 1977). Of course it was in Japanese. I found one channel which shows Japanese movies and Hong-Kong movies alternatively, and if a movie seems to be interesting to me, I watch. The old movie is interesting to me and makes me nostalgic.

コーヒー店 (coffee shop)

娘が孫を連れて、子供が遊べるジャングルジムがあるコーヒー店に行くと言うので、付いていった。大分大きなジャングルジムで、子供たちが上ったり、降りたり、走ったりして大騒ぎしていた。孫も約一時間ばかり駆け回っていた。親たちはテーブルで好きな飲み物を飲みながら歓談している。ちなみに入店料は子供だけとられ、大人は無料、飲み物は別料金だが、例えばコーヒーが飲み放題で１５０円位その他クッキーなど販売しているが凄く安い、小さい子供のいる奥様方には良い所のようです。
My daughter decided to take my grandson to a coffee shop which has a big jungle gym so I went with them. The place had a huge play scape. Children were going up and down and running around all over. Their parents were relaxing and talking to the friends while shipping some drinks. It required an entree fee for children but it's free for adults to enter. Of course, you have to pay for drink - but coffee was all-you-can-drink and only cost about 150 yen. They also sell some food and cookies but it's reasonably priced. It's a good place for moms who have small children.

菜園 (garden)

裏庭に手作りの菜園がある、芝生にスプリンクラーで水をやるついでに、菜園のかぼちゃ、トマト、ズッキーニ、トウモロコシ、エンドウ豆等に水をやる、日差しが強く、水も豊富なので育ちがよい、豆が一番に収穫できた。次は一週間もしたら多分トマト、ズッキーニが収穫できる。そんな大きな菜園ではないので大量には収穫できないが、野菜を育て収穫するという楽しみがある。

In our backyard, there is a vegetable garden which my daughter's family made. While I water the grass everyday , I also water squash, tomato, zucchini, corn, green bean plants. Since the sun has been shining every day, and I watered diligently every day, they have been growing well. We harvested some green beans today. Maybe within a week, we can harvest some tomatos and a zucchini. It's not a big garden so we can't get a lot of vegetable but we still have a fun time growing and harvest our home-grown food.

蜂

今日は、芝への水遣りも終わり、やることが無いのでテラスでのんびりしていた。でも暑い、すごい日差しだ。気になっていた蜂がまた５～６匹現れ飛び回っている。この辺は蜂が多いとのこと、蜂退治のスプレーが専門店で売っているくらいだ。それでは蜂退治、スプレーを片手に蜂を追い回す、なかなか命中しない、しかし３匹は退治できたと思う、スプレーが当っても直ぐ落ちる蜂と飛んで行ってしまう蜂がいるが、しばらくは飛び回る蜂が少なくなっていた。明日様子を見てみる。

When I finished watering the yard, I didn't have anything else so I was at the deck relaxing. But it's really hot today... the sun's very strong. Once again, some 5-6 wasps flew around me. There were so many wasps around here. The spray for wasps are sold at near-by stores. I decided to kill some of them. I head a can of a spray on one hand. When I saw wasps, I sprayed them but it didn't hit that well. But at least I killed three of them. Some wasps fell immediately when the spray hit them but others just flew away. After a while, there were only few wasps. I will check them again tomorrow.

裏庭 (backyard)

裏の庭には、種々な動物がいる（来る）特に鳥たちが多い、鳥の名前が分かるもので、鴨、キツツキ、カージナルス、ハミングバードなど、その他名前の分からない鳥が沢山来る。テラスに座って見ていても飽きないが、大敵は昼間は日差しの強さ、夜は蚊に襲われるので、のんびりと座って居られない。
ウサギが二匹現れた、美味しそうに草を食べていたので、写真を撮った。日が落ちて暗くなった、テラスに座ってウイスキーを片手に蛍が光るのを見ながら一服、こんなこと日本で出来るかな？と思いつつウイスキーが２杯、３杯と空く、酔っ払った。案の定蚊に３箇所刺されていました。
We have a lot of animals in our backyard. Many birds come to visit us - for example, ducks, woodpeckers,cardinals, hummingbirds, and other birds I don't know their names of. I sit at the deck and I don't get tired of looking outside. But the sun is really strong daytime and I get bitten by mosquitoes at night so I can't just sit and relax there. Early evening, I saw two bunnies eating the grass so I took some pictures. After the sun went down, I drank some whiskeys while looking at some fireflies. The glass got empty really quickly so I got another one, and another one... I got drunk. And, of course, a mosquito got me, too.