Views from Himalayan hotel

These were some of the things we saw from (or in) our hotel in the mountains.

We got back home to the city on Monday, and feel melted in the heat!

The newspaper says that monsoon rains should start within the week.

Kids' creations with Bubbles, LaQ and Zoob

Sawyer got bubbles mixed with glue, so that the bubble holds its shape long enough to sculpt--he stuck a butterfly sticker to it.

Meena used Japanese building blocks called "LaQ" to make a rabbit whose mouth seems shaped exactly like hers!

Satoshi made a huge centipede out of Zoob, to wrap over the railing of the stairs where we housesat.

scrabble

These are Scrabble tiles, so it is a little harder to build than dominoes. After many failed attempts, Satoshi and Meena worked really hard to use up the whole Scrabble set in one go!

Would You Like a Ride? part 2

Riding a bicycle rickshaw is a normal way for us to get around our neighborhood in Delhi.

But take a ride downhill on a narrow road in the steep, angular Himalayan foothills--with a sharp drop-off just beyond the guardrails--and it was as thrilling as a roller coaster ride! The views were spectacular.

Would you like to go for a ride?

サイクロリクシャー（３輪自転車のタクシー）は、デリーでもよく使います。けれども、ヒマラヤの麓の坂道で乗るリクシャーは、ローラーコースターのようにスリル満点でした。

Would You Like a Ride? part 1

This is a man-powered ferris wheel that we saw today...but did not ride.

Would you like to go for a ride?

人力観覧車です。

Relaxing with books

Hiroko's Watercolor -- Peacock

Robber's Cave

Yummy

How To Drink A Mango

1 Gently squeeze the fruit on all sides until it is soft and mushy.

マンゴーの食べ方。

１．ぐにゃぐにゃっとなるまで、指でやさしく押す。

2 Bite or cut the tip off of one end.

２．端っこの皮を少しだけ噛み切る。

3 Slurp up the juicy pulp, squeezing from the bottom of the fruit upward.

３．マンゴーのおいしいジュースを、指で押しながら吸うようにして食べる。

4 As the large seed emerges, use your teeth to strain any bits of left over fruit.
４．中の種が出てきたら、種についているマンゴーもきれいに食べる。



5 Remove the seed and squeeze out all remaining fruit, flattening the sides (see left).
6 You can then blow into the hole at the top to inflate your mango (see middle).
7 Peer into the hollow to feel the satisfaction of how much you ate (see right)!

P.S. This method only works with 1 special variety of mangoes,
so you may need to purchase an air ticket to fly to India to try it!

５．ペタンコになるまで、吸いきる。
６．最後に、風船のように息を吹き込み膨らます。
７．殻になったマンゴーを人に見せ、満足感にひたる。
注意）インドのある特殊のマンゴーのみ、このような食べ方ができるので、日本でトライしてみるときはお気をつけください。

a yellow bird in a window

A tiny beautiful yellow bird keeps visiting the kids' room just outside the windows. Itcomes back to the same window, as if she's a friend who wants to drop in.

窓に、小さい黄色鳥が、よくたずねに来ます。顔や手を窓に近づけてもぜんぜんこわがりません。

View from the rooftop

休暇で、ヒマラヤの麓にある友人の家に来ています。屋上から山が見えます。ちょっと札幌を思い出します。ヒマラヤ山脈はこの山の向こう側にあります。

Road Trip

We saw many busses and trucks tipping to one side

傾いているトラックやバスをよく見かけます。だいじょうぶかなあ。

We passed a herd of goats and many trucks like this, loaded with water buffalo

水牛を運んでいるトラックを多く見かけました。ヤギ飼いも道端で見かけました。

Can you see the craters in the road? For one 30 km stretch the asphalt basically ran out!

道路にある、穴ぼこ見えるでしょうか？穴ぼこを右へ左へと避けながら運転するのです。

Passing distances can be measured by millimeters

バスと、トラックの間は数センチしかありません。ベテラン運転ですね。

Carrying goods or people, some trucks are WAY overloaded or top-heavy

トラックや車の上に積むものに制限はないようです。

Hiroko's Watercolor--butterfly

Meena's Journal--A plant is like a pet.

This is a plant in our garden. The pot that is under the leaves has no plant in it. The pot above is the one that has been growing these long vines. The green leaves are quite dusty some mornings, so Mama uses the hose to not only water the plant but also to clean its leaves!
I think that from one point of view, plants are pets. They are like animals. Because they are alive they need water. The ones in the rainforests are not tended by a human so those are wild. They are alive, so they could be a kind of pet. And a little care will make them happy.
They need water
And they like being washed
And they are alive—
That is wondrous, isn’t it?

(Meena took the photo.)

When it's too hot to play outside....

Here is footage of Sawyer riding around the dining table on a Ripstik. Listen for Meena practicing a hymn in the background, as well as a vegetable vendor calling out his wares.

暑くて外で遊べない時、悟志と創也はリップスティックを家の中で乗ります。バックグラウンドで美奈のキーボードを練習している音が聞こえます。野菜を売りに来たおじさんの声も聞こえます。

Seth's swimming pool

Book Nook?

３輪バイクのタクシー。黄色と緑のオートリクシャー。３人乗りだけれども、５人でも乗れる。大きなバスやトラック、車、牛の間をするすると通り抜けていくのは、ローラーコースターのようなスリルだ。外は４０度ほど暑さ。路上の煙たい空気にむせる。うるさいエンジンの音で、話もできない。そんな環境を無視して、小説の世界に入り込んでいる悟志。

Bumper-to-bumper traffic. 100 degrees. 5 people crammed on top of each other. Auto-rickshaw on Outer Ring Road, New Delhi. (We're in a green-and-yellow three-wheeler just like the one in the background.) Kissed by pollution, caressed by vibration from the hot motor beneath our seat...What better place to read a novel?

Meena's Journal--Salt Clay Day

9th June, 2010

Last Friday morning, I woke up. That was the day we make Salt Dough clay!
Mama had found a recipe in a book, so we all could make things with air-dry-clay!

This day was also the day we had Anjuli and her brother Sean to our house for a sleepover.
That day Hannah Beth came too.

We all played till Mama called us to the dining room for snacks--mainly popcorn and apple juice with cookies on the side.

Soon after that we started making things out of salt dough clay. I made…
a lot of snails
a pizza
a cat and her bed with fish.
Sean made a praying mantis and a man,
Sawyer made Twinkies and Toshi made a stubby man with glasses and a stubby onion.
And a stubby owl.
The dough is still drying out before we can paint it.

This was the day before Anjuli went to the USA for one month--so tragic because she is a good friend!

Humayun Tomb

We took our guest to the Mughal monument nearest to our house (15 minute's drive north): Humayun's Tomb (which became the prototype for the Taj Mahal, which would be built later in Agra, 5 hours' drive south). You can read more about it (with lots of photos) on Wikipedia.

It rained the morning we went, so we enjoyed being in the royal gardens on one of the coolest days of the summer so far!

オーストリラリアからのゲストと共に、世界遺産であるフマユン廟へ行ってきました。家から車で１５分くらいのところにあります。昨晩雨が降り、とても涼しい気持ちのよい日でした。

South Indian food

We took our Australian guests to eat South Indian food.

We ordered "thalis" (in this case, large plates with lots of smaller dishes of

lentil stew, vegetables, coconut-based dishes and yogurt, with breads to eat with your hands.)

南インド料理のレストラン。大きなお皿に、小さなお皿のいろいろなカレーがついてきます。これは一人分です。これを手でぐちゃぐちゃっと混ぜて食べます。

Yukata

Meena put on the Japanese Yukata (informal kimono), but even though it is made of cotton, she took it off, saying, "It's too hot--it wasn't designed for India!"

日本で買った浴衣を着た美奈。背が伸びた美奈には、短すぎるようです。「これはインドで着るには暑すぎる！」とすぐ脱いでしまいました。

Sports center

朝のまだ涼しいとき、近くにある市のスポーツセンターへ行ってきました。

15 min drive away, there is city-run sports center.

We're trying to go there early in the mornings during the hot summer months.

They have a big skating area that is great for skateboards and riptstiks,

and a well-kept playground (which is unusual to find).

Thick Books

The boys love to read thick books.

本を読むのが大好きな子供たち。

goat curry

We love goat curry.

山羊のカレーです。

Satoshi's yoyo

We saw the Yo-yo World Champion on YouTube. He was Japanese. The children were excited, since they have Japanese blood, too! Since then, Satoshi and Sawyer have been practicing a lot. They are getting quite good.

YOUTUBEでヨーヨーのワールドチャンピオンを見たところ、日本人でした。それに励まされ、創也と悟志は、毎日ヨーヨーの練習に励んでいます。

Meena's project

Meena is in "Making" mode. She wants to create something every day. Today's project is sewing a cloth doll.
美奈は何かを作ることが大好き。今日のプロジェクトは、布の人形。裁縫は初めてです。できるかなあ。
ぬ

Sawyer's hair

Sawyer hasn't cut his hair for a year. He likes his curly, soft hair. In India, all the boys have very short hair. You wouldn't believe how many comments we parents get, saying we should cut his hair. One time when we went shopping for his clothes, the shopkeeper directed us to the girls' section. Sawyer thought it was silly.

創也は、日本を発ってから一度も髪を切っていません。くせ毛なところが気に入っているようです。

インドでは髪の長い男の子はいなく、女の子によく間違えられます。