Take a bath with ...

Yesterday it was winter solstice.
Then people say "We should take a bath with Yuzu citron.
Did you take Yuzu bath last night?

In our house we would go to a super-spa to enjoy a big Yuzu bath.
However, I came back home around 10:30 because of my job,
then we had supper so we couldn't go there
although some of the spas are open until 1:00 or 2:00 am.
Instead of going to a spa, we enjoyed it at a bath in our house.

To enjoy seasonal events is interesting recently.
Now Christmas is coming, and soon year-end will come,
then, a new year 2011 will come with a lot of luck!

A small but big mistake

Now it is 18:00. I made a small but big mistake.
I watch one TV drama every Tuesday,
and today it will have the final episode.

Usually this drama finishes at 22:00,
but tonight it will finish at 22:20.
However, my DVD recorder will record only until 22:00 as usual.

I don't want to miss the final episode......
Especially the ending is the most important!

Oh, what should I do?

To keep in touch with ...

Now I am writing a mail to friends of mine in foreign countries.
It is the year-end, so it is the season of Christmas cards.

Most of them live apart, not in Japan but abroad.
So it is a little difficult to keep in touch with them.
They are also very busy and I am also busy,
so we often forget to reply to each mail,
and the relation often finishes unfortunately.

Then, not to finish the relation,
At least I intend to write a mail every year.

They live abroad, so it isn't easy to come to or visit Japan.
I also can't go abroad easily to visit them.
The distance in the relationship is big.

However, I want to keep in touch with friends of mine
in foreign countries, because they are my treasure.

How do you keep in touch with your friends in far places?

Three objectives for 2011 of mine

We have only 13 days except today this year.
How was your 2010? My year 2010 was very normal.
One of the biggest events is that I bought a new car.
It was very exciting, and still I enjoy going for a drive in my car.

By the way, what is your objective for 2011?
Now I have three objectives for 2011.

One of them is that I want to watch more movies next year.
These three or four years, I haven't watched a lot of movies.
I watch my favorite movies very repeatedly (more than 20 times)
but I want to look for my new favotite movies.

This year I was very interested in
looking for my favorite picture books and reading them.
Like this, I want to be interested in finding my favorite movies.
Stories give a power to us. Stories can motivate us.

Do you have your favorite stories?

Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer

Christmas will come two weeks later.
In my car, I often listen to Christmas songs.
They make me very happy.

Of course I have lots of favorite christmas songs,
but one of them is "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer".
You must know this song, too.

I like the lyrics of this song.
Usually the Rudolph is made fun of by everyone
because his nose is red. However, on Christmas night
the Rudolph is needed by Santa Claus
and he became very glad even though he was always sad and cried.

Everyone must be glad if someone needs him or her.
On the other hand, everyone must be very sad
if nobody needs him or her.

However, everybody can have a feeling to try anything
if a person finds that somebody needs him or her.

The Rudolph must have been very glad
because Santa Claus needed him very much.

I also want to say to people whom I need,
"I need you", and they must be glad and be able to try something!!

NHK's period drama

Last Sunday NHK's period drama of this year finished.
This is Ryoma Den.
I had watched it for one year.

To tell the truth,
I watched NHK's period drama for the first time.
Until Ryoma Den, I wasn't interested in any period dramas at all,
because they are too long for me.
(This is why I don't watch Korean dramas, either.)

However, my wife said she wanted to watch Ryomaden this January,
so I also watched next to her at first.
At that time, I wasn't very interested in it.
Then I became interested in it little by little,
because people want to know the next episode/story
once they watch the first episode.

This is why I started to watch it
and had watched it until the final episode.

I prefer an actor M.Fukuyama to a singer M.Fukuyama.

Probably I will not see NHK's period drama of next year,
because it isn't very attractive to me.
However, if my wife says "I want to watch it," .......

Christmas in 2010 is coming!!

How are you going to spend this Christmas?

Today I was listening to some Christmas songs
while I was on the way to one of my offices.
I was very happy to listen to the Christmas songs.

They make me happy every winter.
Which christmas songs do you like?
Do you have any episodes about christmas? Let me listen to them.

Last Christmas how did you spend? Do you remember it?
I spent it with my family last year.

Christmas makes people warm and tender.
Today my boss started to decorete a christmas tree.
I am glad to see it and stay with it.
Have you decorated your Christmas tree yet?
Are you going to see any Christmas trees anywhere?

I wish your merry christmas this year, too.

Shinkansen has extended to Aomori

Tohoku Shinkansen went to Shin-Aomori station.
A lot of TV programs focused this incident last week.
It takes 3 hours and 20 minutes from Tokyo to Shin-Aomori.

This extention has a lot of pros and cons
for people in Aomori, Sendai, and Tokyo.

By the way, why couldn't Shinkansen go to Aomori station,
not Shin Aomori station? This is one of the problems.
Shin Aomori station is 4.2 km away from Aomori Station.

Shinkansens have many Shin-○○ stations,
and those stations aren't very developed, and aren't very convenient,
such as Shin-Shirakawa, Shin-Yamaguchi, Shin-Osaka, Shin-Yokohama.

If those stations could go to the central station of each city,
it would be more convienient and have less problems
although it might cost more, of course.

In 2015 they say this Shinkansen will extend to Hakodate,
and in 2020 it will go to Sapporo.
In addition, Linear motor car will take us in one hour
from Tokyo to Osaka in the nearest future.

How amazing those are!!
At least I want to be alive until that time.
It is amazing!!

Strange Weather

The weather yesterday was really strange.

In the morning, it was raining very hard
even though the sky was fine.
That rain also suddenly stopped, suddenly re-started,
and suddenly stopped again. I was very annoyed yesterday and
became very irritated in the morning, unfortunately.

From the afternoon, the temparature became almost 25 degree.
It is almost summer or so on. Now it is December!!

Because of a lot of reasons, the earth climate is strange recently!!
How will it be tomorrow?!

The reason why .....

I had been in a really bad condition,
then I couldn't write anything here
even though I hope to write something every day.
(I mean, I have to write every day, to tell the truth...)

However, today my condition became normal as usual
then from tomorrow on, probably
I will be able to write something new here every day.
I hope so.

I always write down the topics to write
in my mobile phone, not to forget them
as soon as I find each topic.

Anyway I'll be glad to write some of them here
this weekend and next week.

To express what I think

Are you good at writing sentences in order to express what you think?
Do you like to write sentences in order to express what you think?

I had really disliked to write a composition
and had been very poor at it since I was a junior high school student.

However, I began to read books,
and reading books became interesting,
then I became to like writing sentences to express what I thought.
Now, I have a lot of topics to express,
but I can't always express them freely because of several reasons
I would be glad if I could express anything freely though....

Don't you have similar situations?
Could you guess why?
I wonder how you will guess the reasons.

Presentation

Today I visited an office in 表参道,and made a presentaion there
to introduce some English education system to them.

I prepared last night hard,
and the presentation succeeded without any problems.
I was very relieved and glad.

Basically I tend to be nervous in such a situation,
even though nobody believes this, but today I wasn't very nervous.
I don't know the reason though...

Anyway it succeeded well,
then I have to prepare lots of things hard and make efforts
to have the project and education system better.

I will do my best!

Have got a cold!?

Unfortunately I definitely have got a cold....
I have a runny nose, sore throat, and probably fever, too.
Last night because of those, I couldn't sleep well.
Also today I can't concentrate anything.
That's why I didn't/couldn't upload my blog, either.
So I should take enough rest tomorrow at my place,
and have to ready for classes, work, and presentation.
Is it because suddenyl the weather changed?

Missed Dramas

In this cour (from Oct to Dec) I would watch five kinds of TV dramas.
I recorded each of the first episodes of all dramas, and watched them.
Unfortunately I missed some of second episodes
because my DVD recorder had no capacity...
Eventually I watch only one drama. Oh my god!!
Can you guess which drama I watch?
And can you guess which dramas I wanted to watch but missed?
Don' t you have such an experience?

Difficult or not?

Are recent topics on my blog difficult or not?
What I want to write recently tends to be difficult...

So I am going to choose an easy topic today.
Yesterday and the day before yesterday, I watched one drama.
TBS broadcasts this drama from 9:00 for straight five nights.
Do you also watch it or not?

This drama is about Japanese Americans in Seatlle.
Especially this drama focuses the first-generation and
second-generation Japanese Americans.

They had many difficulties and discriminations there.
At the same time, I began to think that there are many
non-Japanese immigrants in Japan, too, such as
Brazilian Japanese, Korean Japanese, Chinese Japanese and so on.
And they also have probably had many difficulties
and discriminations here as Japanese American had them there.

Oh... did my topic today also become heavy?

Logical and Sensory

"Men are logical and Women are Sensory."
Do you agree or disagree to this?

I often feel so in both positive and negative ways.
Of course not all men are logical and not all women are sensory.
This should be kind of one of tendency.

Some men have a brain which is sensory,
and some women have a brain which is logical, too.

Both have good points and bad points when we do anything.
I am a man, and actually I tend to want to know theory and reason
and always ask for them.
Meanwhile, I know sense, nuance, and feeling are also as important as them
because I know only either of them is not necessary to get any skills.

Therefore a person whose brain is sensory should ask for logical answers.
On the other hand, a peson whose brain is logical shouldn't ask for logical answers anymore and should try to be more sensory.

Are you sensory or logical? How is your way of learning?
Do you tend to ask for logical reason or understand sensuously?

Official Language in office

Some companies in Japan started to make English the official language.

What do you think about it?
If you agree to this, try thinking about the demerit.
If you disagree to this, try thinking about the merit.

Some people insist that
"To speak correct Japanese or Japanese ability is more important
for current Japanese people. Before starting English,
Japanese must have an opiniton and enough content to talk about,
and improve ability to transmit first."

I understand this idea very much,
but anyway such people will not start English forever,
because through communicating with non-Japanese people in English,
people notice that those skills are also important,
and they can get them through learning English at the same time.

Therefore, such people who say Japanese skill is first
are same as the people who do nothing.

Peope naturally study a thing or make themselves study it
by themselves (without being forced)
when they have such a circumstance.

Hay Fever

Last night my hay fever started this year, too.

I have hay fever twice unfortunately, in spring and in autumn.
However, my hay fever starts at the beginning of every April.
So it is caused by pollen from cypress tree, not cedar.

Anyway l couldn't sleep well last night.
This made me awake until 3:00 a.m. So now I am very sleepy.

My vernal hay fever began when I was 20 years old,
but it stopped once when I lived in Hong Kong
because of no cypress trees there.
Unluckily it re-began when I came to Japan.
I was very disappointed.

Five-sixths of this year

November is coming soon. It suddenly got cold last night. Will winter come soon?
Five-sixths of this year 2010 is going to finish soon. Time flies really fast.
On our school days, one year was very long.
We had to take an examination five times in a year,
and the three-years was really slower than current three-years.
This is like theory of relativity, isn't it?
I want to enjoy rest of this year and want to let it be good.

Haneda International Airport

The other day I tried going to Haneda International Airport.
I went there two days after it opened.

There were many visitors (not travelers!) to observe the airport.
I was very surprised, but it was enjoyable.
Especially Edo Komachi which is a shopping arcade is good.
Edo town is designed there for foregin tourists.

However, Haneda International Terminal is much smaller
than Narita Airport, as you probably know.
Haneda has still many problems to overcome,
but it will be more convenient in the future.

On the other hand, I wonder how Narita will be.
This airport also has had many problems for a long time.
It is also far from central of Tokyo.

Incheon Airport in Seoul also has problems.
This airport is very big and now it is a hub airport,
but it is also very far from central of Seoul city.
I wonder if Incheon will be similar to Narita in the future.

Airports near the central are really convenient.
Now Haneda is really close to the central though,
the capacity is small unfortunately.

Anyway I wonder how these three airports will be
and if I will go abroad from Haneda someday.

Colorful Train

Trains in Tokyo are really very colorful and well-designed.
Each line has each own specific color,
so we can recognize the line if we see the color.

About JR, Yellow Green is for Yamanote Line,
Orange is for Chuo Line, Blue is for Keihin Tohoku Line,
Red is for Keiyo Line, and so on.

Tokyo Metro also has such a color system.
Also subway in Seoul has it. Subway in Hong Kong has it, too.
Subway in Los Angeles has it, too.

In the past each train car had only one color.
However, recent car is made of stainless steel,
so the whole base color is kind of silver
and the color of the band is its own specific color.
I like this design very much.

Probably this design started in Japan,
and it spread all over the world.

Japan is great!!

Pasta

I'm going to see two friends of mine after work tonight.
We haven't met since this summer,
so I am looking forward to seeing them.
They are going to come to my office, and after that,
We'll go to the Italian restaurant near my office,
because we can eat pasta at half price now. Isn't it great?
However, this service ends tomorrow. Do you know this restaurant?
One of my students introduced this service last week.
I am lucky and told some of my students, too.
What am I going to eat tonight? I am excited!

Composers I respect

I like music and listen to it very much.
Also I have lots of my favorite composers,
but I strongly look up to two great composers.

Have you heard the names, David Foster and Andre Ganyon?
You probably have heard of their numbers somewhere
even if you have never heard ot them or don't know them.

Some of his famous works are that,
he made the numbers of "Celine Dion" or "Chicago".

You may be able to recognize their names or numbers
if you type "David Foster" or "Andre Ganyon" on the inter-net.
You may be able to listen to their works.
(Ask someone around you how to listen to them if you can't do it.)

Now David Foster is staying in Japan
(for his promition?!) and this is a very rare case.
This morning I was watching one TV program とくダネ on Channel 8,
and he was there. He was invited to the program.

The main personality Mr. Ogura was also very impressed
because he also loves David Foster's numbers.

Anyway for a long time I have respected these two composers
most strongly of all composers all over the world.
I am glad if you listen to their numbers and get to like them.

Picture Book

This picture book is one my favorite picture books.
Lots of people must have read this at least once.

Last week I happend to find that
there are a lot of stories about Nezumi Kun.

Soon I went to the library homepage and researved some of them.
Today before I came to my office,
I dropped in the library, and got it.

This is the following one.












Have you read it ever?
This book also warms us. I like picture books
because those always warm my heart and make me tender.

Languages all over the world

Do you know how many languages are used all over the world now?
There are about 180 countries in the world, but...........

The answer is ..........
↓
↓
↓
↓
↓
↓
↓
↓
6910 languages

Last week I read one article in the newspaper.

コロ語 is the ne of the 6910 languages.
It is used by a very small tribe in India.
Only 800 people use this minor language.
However, this tribe doesn't have people under 20 years old.
So this langueage may disapper soon.

Reserchers say that
"Half of the 6910 languages will disappear by 2100.

This surprised me very much.

Playing the piano

Recently I want to play the piano as much as possible.

I had learned piano for almost 11 years since I was four years old.
The reason why I started to play the piano is
one day my grandmother bought a toy-piano for me
and brought it to my house as a present.

At that time I got interested in it,
and kept playing for a long time.

Also at that time, my father wanted to start to learn something
as his new hobby, then he decided to learn electone and
decided to let me learn electone,too.
Probably my father wanted to share the same thing with me.

In addition, my mother asked the shop clerk in a music shop
about how they think a four-year boy will start to play the instrument.
One shop clerk said, "A boy should try electone, not piano,
because boys tend to be interested in machines in their future,
so they guessed that electone should be more interesting for me.

So my parents let me learn electone, not piano.

Sometimes I wanted to stop learning it
because girls often learn piano, but boys normaly don't learn piano.
and I was really embarrassed in front of other boys,
however, I kept learning it, and now I really thank my parents
since they let me learn it and enabled me to play it.

Honestly speaking, I want to buy a piano
and play in my house if possible because to play the piano makes me relaxed.

TV program ‘Gift’ on NHK

Have you watched a TV program about English ‘Gift’ on NHK?
Or have you never heard the title of this program?

This program is broadcasted from 23:10 to 23:30 every Tuesday.
It introduces a famous person or an historic event in English.
It doesn’t have a Japanese caption,
but what it says is showed as an English caption,
so you can follow the story or the explanation,
and improve your skills to follow English speed and think in English.

Most of TV programs to learn English has a Japanese subtitle,
so I don’t think it is good to learn English.

Try watching this TV program for your improvement!!

Melon

The other day I bought a melon at the shopping street.
'Melon 500yen' was written on the board,
So I thought that was very reasonable, and closed to the clerk.

He gave me a slice of several kinds of melon to have me try eating.
Certainly those were sweet and delicious.
So I decided to buy one melon.

However, 500yen melon is very small,
and he tried to sell more expensive ones.
The other kinds of melon were so-so expensive,
but I couldn’t leave that place, and bought it.

Oh, my got! I really hate such a way to sell.

Retail shop or Large-scale Store?

In my mind I have one rule about my buying products.

It is that I intend to buy products
in a retail shop as many times as possible
if the price at a retail shop is as same as one at a large-scale shop.

I don't like the idea that
people or groups with lots of money are winners.

More than 25 years ago,
there were lots of retail shops or shopping streets.
These were very prosperous and very active.
They had deep humanity there.

However, those small retail shops or streets were getting bankrupt
because of too strong power of large-scale groups.

They can give us very big discount,
and this is very thankful for us and our current economic situation,
but self-employed workers are decreasing,
thus everyone is losing its own motivation or energy.

This is very sad.
So if the price in a retail shop is almost similar,
I intend to buy there.

For example convenience stores sell a beverage for 120 yen.
Small retail shops also sell it for 120 yen.
If so, I buy in a retail shop,
because 120 yen in a convenience shop isn't very big for itself,
but 120 yen in a small shop can not be small.

This is one of my recent rules.
I have the more other rules, too.

Attentive or Selfish?

Do you think Japanese people are attentive?

Lots of my non-Japanese friends image (or say, think) that
Japanese people are really attentive to others, kind, and tender.

However, I really wonder if
recently Japanese people are attentive to others.

Certainly, in the past Japanese people were really attentive.
Parents strongly told children not to bother others.
Children were educated so.

Then, Japanese people at that time were really attentive,
sometimes they were too attentive so didn't insist about themselves.
So Japanese people were told to insist thier own opinions more.

Maybe with its rebound,
recent Japanese people get to insist their opinions,
but I think they insist in a bad way.

They insist only their rights,
but they don't fulfill thier obligations
or don't care about others at that time.
This means that they are only selfish.

They insist their thoughts,
but don't think of others and don't care how others feel or think.
Despite this, they make a strong complaint
if others do the same things to them.

They wield only their thoughts, points of view, rights and so on
without others' situations, thoughts, points of view, rights and so on.

This month I had such incidents several times.

Do you think that really Japanese people are attentive?
Is the non-Japanese people's image about Japanese people right?

Milk Tea

I like milk tea very much.
Probably I have like that since I was a high school student.

There was(is) a kiosk in my high school,
and during the break between 2nd and 3rd periods,
I often went to this kiosk with some friends of mine
to buy beverage. Almost every time I used to buy milk tea.

Several friends of mine imaged that I always buy milk tea.
At that time 'Santory Pekoh' was my favorite one
although I don't think it is sold recently.

I prefer Royal Milk Tea wich is milk-rich to normal one.
One of my current friends also like milk tea very much,
and my favorite taste is similar to his.

The picture above is the milk tea which he recommends.
Today at the supermarket this was sold reasonablly,
so I tried buying it. It is in the fridge now for chilling it.
I intend to drink this tomorrow, so I'm looking forward to this.

Autumn

Autumn will come soon, although it hasn't come yet...

In the past I didn't like autumn,
because autumn felt sad or so on...

However, recently I like it little by little.
It is not hot/humid but cool,
so I feel very comfortable to do anything.

This autumn I have lots of things that I want to try.
So I am looking forward to autumn very much.

Calorie ZERO

I often go to the supermarket before I go to my office.
Also today I went to the supermarket to buy a beverage.

Recently Calorie Zero beverage is very popular,
however, I really don't like that and I can't like that taste.

Today there were only Zero beverages in that supermarket.
I was really disappointed and a little irritated/angry.

Why don't they sell normal beverage?
Why don't they prepare two choices (normal one and Zero one)?
Am I a minority person?

I am really disappointed at the shops with only Calorie Zero.

Broadcast Library

I visited Broadcast Library in Yokohama.
http://www.bpcj.or.jp/
This is the reason why I went to Yokohama the day before yesterday.

I got to know this library at Wikipedia
when I was searching something on the inter-net.
I had wanted to go there for almost one year,
and could go there the day before yesterday.

In thie library you can watch old TV programs or commercials.
There are a lot of booses to watch them.
Of course we can watch at no charge.
Old programs or commercial remind me of my old days.

Why don't you go there to remember your old days?

Yokohama

I like Yokohama very much.
Yesterday I visited Yokohama.

I have longed for living in Yokohama
since I was a high school student,
however, this dream hasn't come ture yet.

I like the atmosphere of the town Yokohama.
It has a lot of aspects, such as
exotic, fashionable, classy, sea-side, or hill-side mood.

Once, I had a chance to live in Yokohama,
but at that time, I didn't decide it with some reasons.
However, I regret it a little even now.

Yesterday I strongly felt
why I hadn't chosen Yokohama as my place for living
when I came to Japan...

In my future, I definitely will choose Yokohama
if I have a chance to move.

Lismo

Lismo is one of my favorite characters.
I am an 'au' user, so I have several Lismo goods, but I want more.

I want to try going to Lismo Shop in Harajuku once.
http://www.kddi.com/lismo/service_index.html#/forest
We can buy lots of Lismo goods there.
Today I got to know this shop.

Who are there? Are there only many teenage girls?
I must be embarrassed but I want to try going there...

I really respect the illustrators who can draw such a character.
because I am very poor at drawing unfortunately...

Reverse -Abekobe Ya-

Yesterday I went to the shop above.
The name of this shop is Abekobe Ya.
This shop is in Urawa, Saitama.

4-3-3 Harayama, Midori-ku, Saitama-shi, Saitama
Zip Code:336-0931
Click this URL:http://www.donki.com/abekobeya/

In summer they sell winter products at reasonable price,
In winter they sell summer products at reasonable price.
Isn't this idea interesting and clever?

I didn't buy anything yesterday, but I was so-so excited.
I want to try going here again this winter.

The Horse Whisperer

This book is that
one of my acquaintances recommend one story for me.
And yesterday this book was sent to me. I am glad.

The story is;

One winter morning in New York State,
there is a traffic accident on an icy mountain road.
Thirteen-year-old girl and he much-loved horse are very badly hurt.
Her mother believes her daughter will recover
if her horse can be saved.
Can the Horse Whisperer nurse her horse back to health?

Doesn't this sound interesting and exciting?
Try reading this if you are also interested,
and share how it is each other.

King of super-bathhouse?!

I went to the super-bathhouse in 東久留米 last night.
The name of it is お風呂の王様.
http://www.ousama2603.com/

This bathhouse is on the way
between my parents' house and my house.

I had never been there although I saw it a lot of times.
This became one of my most favorite bathhouses after a long time.
I could be very relaxed last night.
Honestly speaking, I wanted to be there more.

I applied for a membership and got a membership card.
One of the other branches is in 光が丘,練馬区.
Of course this membership card is available in other branches.

Next time I intend to be there for a longer time
to enjoy and be more relaxed.

Ryoan-Ji Temple

During my stay in Kyoto,
I visited Ryoan-Ji temple after almost 20 years.
This temple is very unique as you know.
Time goes slowly, and this makes us relaxed.

When I visited last time (20 years ago),
I wasn't very interested in this temple.
A friend of mine said she wanted to go, so we went.

However, this time, I could be very relaxed.
I noticed that I changed little by little for these 20 years.

Especially lotus and green moss were very beautiful
besides this stone garden.

International City

I visited Kyoto for four days three nights.
I went there in my car. I left Tokyo for Kyoto at 23:45
and arrived there at 16:00 because I didn’t use the express way.

It was cloudy there, so I was lucky
because we could enjoy sightseeing without hotness.
I visited a lot of places, but they gave me
new and different impressions from the past ones.

I saw lots of non-Japanese visitors in Kyoto.
Kyoto is really a very international city.
I heard not only English but also many kinds
of languages in many places.
And clerks in shops also don’t hesitate to speak English at all,
probably because they need it.

It is said that Japanese people are poor at English,
however, we must be able to be good at English
if a lot of non-Japanese people are around us like Kyoto.

The best way to be able to communicate in English is
whether you have non-Japanese people around you or not.

My current favorite song

Can you see You-Tube?

My current favorite song is as follows.
Copy the following URL and paste it on the top of your internet explorer.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PfqgBNSmIh8

This song makes me fun,
and it reminds me of lots of summer memories of my school days or so on.
I really liked summer when I was younger,
and went to a lot of places by car or so on with friends of mine.

I like their another song, too. The title is さくら.
They released this in 2005. It is the year I came to Japan.
This song also reminds me of lots of things.

Not Ken but けん

Last Saturday a steak restaurant けん opened along 平和橋 street.
I like this restaurant very much.
It was Royal Host several years ago.

We can enjoy Salad buffet if we order one dish of any steaks,
and it costs only from 980yen to 1,500yen.
(It depends on what stake you order.)

Until last week, I visited the restaurant けん in 松戸 or 鎌ヶ谷.
They are a little far for me, so I am very glad.

Visit this with your family someday, please!!
http://www.steak-ken.com/

江東区 Fireworks Festival

I went to see the fireworks festival of 江東区
with some of my friends last night.
We had it between 南砂町 and 西葛西.

This festival is smaller than lots of the festivals in Tokyo
but it was good enough because of the size.

Also this year, I could go and see the fireworks.
I like them because we can feel summer and become excited.
From now also on, for a long time in my future,
I hope to be able to go and see fireworks in summer.

Where am I?

This frog is somewhere in my office.
He is one of the members of my office, too.
Have you even seen him here?
He wants you to find himself every time.
I like such animal character goods.
It heals me very much!

Fireworks Show

Today we have Fireworks Show of 葛飾 in 柴又.

Five years ago I went to see it, and I was very excited.
At that time, that was my first year after I came to Japan.
So I was very very impressed with it.

The level of fireworks in Japan is really really high all over the world.
Last year I went to see the show of 江戸川&市川.

Unfortunately today I can't go to see it because of my work.
Every Tuesday I work, also every Saturday I work, too.
Recently fireworks show is held on Saturday.....

Luckily I found a fireworks show held on Sunday.
Then, I'm going to go to see it with one of my non-Japanese friends.
He is really interested in seeing it, so I will take him.
He must be impressed with it.

Summer Vacation

I am planning to go to Kyoto this summer.

My best friend lives in Kyoto now,
and we haven't met for almost six months.
Until this Feb he lived in Tokyo but moved to Kyoto.

I'm planning to go there in my car little by little.
I like to visit several places on the way to Kyoto.
So my final destination is Kyoto.

However, Kyoto in summer is very hot, especially humid.
In addtion it is very crowded.
Should I change the season to go there?

My parents' cellphones

I have made a contract to buy a car,
so I have to undertake about my father's cellphone.

Several years ago, one day my mother suddenly said,
"I want to try having and using a cellphone."

At first my mother got interested in cellphone.
My father wasn't very inretested in it.
but they bought two cellphones and started to use them.

After a while, my mother probably became tired of it,
and she stopped using it, decided not to have it, and cancel it.
My father has been continuing using it.

However,they aren't familiar with those recent items,
so my father pays hign monthly fee even still now.
One day I went back to their house, I noticed it.
And I suggested them to change the plan to save monthly expense.

They can't do that by themselves,
so I have to do it instead of them,
but I had been too busy with many things
to help them for several months.

This time, I am less busier than before,
so I am going to visit them and help them to save,
in my new car.

How hot!!

I am going to recommend this cup-noodle tonight.

I bought this at ピカソ this month.
Have you seen it or have you eaten it before?

The original Ramen is from the Ramen shop in 石神井公園.
We can eat this there, and this is very popular.
So they started to produce cup-noodle version, too.

I like spicy food, such as Korean, Salsa, and Mexican Chili.
It makes me excited. How about trying buying it and eating?

Let me hear your feeling after you eat this.

I have decided

I have almost decided what car to buy.
This morning I went to the dealer and tried taking the cars.
It made me able to decide which car to buy.
I am getting excited little by little.

Buying a car

I noticed I hadn't renewed my blog for one week.
I have one reason.

Now I am planning to buy a car.
Expecially now buyers can receive tax credits
for purchasing hybrid cars or other eco-friendly cars.

They say the deadline is Sep 30th,
but after the goverment finishes using budjet before Sep 30th,
this tax credits must finish, even before Sep 30th.

I really think this system is good but strange too
because some people will not be able to receive tax credits
even though they buy a car before Sep 30th.

So I also have to decide wheather I will buy or not soon.
I am going to decide withing this weekend.
Then I have reaserached a lot of things
about the cars which I want to buy.

That's why I could not renew my blog for more than one week.
Sorry.......

To read books

Recently I have to read this book
“The Phantom of the Opera” because of my work.
I enjoy reading this novel.

In the past, especially when I was a child,
I didn’t like to read books.
Many teachers and my parents told me to read books,
however, I didn’t start to read books.

In Japan, people often say,
“It is the best way to read a lot of books
if you want to improve your Japanese skill.”
I really agree to this idea although I didn’t believe it in the past.

My English skill at elementary school or junior high school
wasn’t good because I didn’t read a lot of books then.

However, to read books became interesting little by little
when I was a high school student.
Then, my English skill also became better and better.

Every Japanese person knows or understands,
“Reading a lot of books is the shortest way
to improve Japanese skill,”
but very many Japanese people don’t read books in English.
This is very strange for me.

I strongly believe that
learners’ English will become better
if they read not only one book but a lot of books.

One-day pass

This is an one-day pass of Toei bus service.
I like this ticket very much, because it is only 500 yen,
and we can go to a lot of places with this ticket.

I wrote about the Korean restaurant in 赤坂 this week,
but I took a bus a lot of times and arrived there.
Before reaching 赤坂, I dropped in 豊洲, 有明, お台場, 浜松町, 新橋,
but it cost only 500 yen.

Of course we can go to farther places,
such as western Tokyo or so on, but it costs only 500 yen.

If we pay 200 yen more　(700 yen),
we can get an one-day pass of 都営バス, 都営地下鉄, 舎人ライナー, and 都電.
Don't you think it is great?

I also like an one-day pass of Tokyo-Metro which costs 710 yen
an one-day pass of JR(Tokyo's 23 wards) which costs 730 yen.
These are also reasonable and can take us to a lot of places,
although we can't take a bus...

Delicious Korean Dishes

Last night I met a Korean friend of mine,
and we went to the Koean restaurant in 赤坂.
The name of the restaurant is やさい村 大地.

He introduced this restaurant to me,
and we decided to go there last night.

Recently there are a lot of Korean restaurants
but it is difficult to find good restaurants.
So I always ask my Koeran friends to take me to those.
I believe his sense of taste.

This restaurant serves us many kinds of vegetable leaves.
It impressed me very much and made me excited.

We met each other after two years,
but I was glad to talk with him a lot.
We can discuss similarities & differences
between Korea and Japan, and this discussion is very fun.

I also recommend this restaurant. Try it once!

Training

Since the beginning of this month,
I have been training 10 new teachers
who will start to teach English this July.

They are very capable, eagar and practice very hard.
So I also have to make efforts to enable them to teach well.

To train a student or a teacher is really difficult.
I am really wondering wheather I can do it or not
even though I have to do it and I want to be able to do it.

I want a lot of help and ideas.

Confidence

How do you get confidence?
Do you know how to get confidence?
Have you ever thought about how to get confidence?

I don’t have the confidence about one thing now.
However, I want to overcome this
and I have been wondering how I can overcome this.

I know how to overcome this.
That is to have experience.

I strongly believe that
confidence comes after only experience,
not only one experience, but lots of experiences.
So I know that it takes a very long time.

This means that
without experience, we can never get confidence

Even if we study, practice very much and hard,
nothing improves without experience.

As you know, we can’t drive a car
even if we read a textbook in the classroom.
Driving schools make us practice driving a car
not only once but many times.

Therefore, I have to have a lot of experiences a lot of times
to have confidence and be able to overcome my problem.
Lots of experiences need a very long time.
I will try this to reach my objective.

I often hear about the following story.
These people have a bad circulation.

When we study something,
　we can’t have a confidence.①
　　⇒ we are frightened of trying.②
　　　⇒ we don’t try, thus we can’t have an experience.③
so we can’t have confidence again.①
　　⇒ we are frightened of trying again.②

BAD CIRCULATION!!

How can we overcome this situation?
The point is ③.

We Have To Try(③),
even if we don’t have a confidence(①) and we are frightened(②).

If ③ changes, we can have an experience,
And we will be able to have confidence.④ ← This is New Number 4.

This is only one way to change the situation.
The point is ③.

We Have To Try(③)

TV Drama

What drama do you watch in this cour?
Most of dramas will finish this week or next week.

I am absorbed in watching three dramas now.
They are “Tumbling, Mother, 新参者”.

And I am getting sad day by day because they will finish…
but although I want to know the endings very much.

I have liked watching dramas
since I was a junior high school student.

I have watched a lot of dramas, recorded and stocked them.
Each drama reminds me of lots of my old episodes.

Also I have bought lots of the sound track CDs about the drama.
The music also reminds me of lots of my old episodes.

From this July, new dramas will start,
and I have been wondering which dramas I will watch.

Cell Phone

This is my current cell phone.
http://www.sonyericsson.co.jp/product/au/urbano_barone/index.html

This March I bought this phone.
Recently I am being used to this phone little by little.
Probably I haven’t used many functions yet though…

By the way, there are very many kinds of cell phones sold in Japan.
I have never seen the person who uses the same cell phone as mine.
Have you seen such a person?

Probably lots of people have seen the person whose family name is same as yours.
(I know just one person who has the same family name as mine though…
because my family name may be rare?!)

However, the percentage about seeing the same mobile phone must be lower.
This is what I thought in the last train last Thursday on my way from my office.
Have you never thought about such a thing?

Sky Tree

Yesterday I went to see Tokyo Sky Tree in 業平橋.
Now it is 398m tall, however it will be 634m next December,
and it will open. I am very excited.

I visited Taipei 101 in 台湾 last October(!?)
and went to the observation deck to see the Taipei view.
It was also great and it excited me very much
although I was a little frightened of the height.

After Sky Tree opens, how will 押上 and 錦糸町 be?
Will they be more fashionable, expensive or so on?
I want to see how they will be.

This new tower makes me very excited,
and I am looking forward to the days.

Library

I like libraries.

There are lots of books, magazines and CDs,
and we don’t have to buy them but can read them.
We can borrow a lot of language textbooks or CDs, too.
Then, freely and for a long time,
we can read a lot of books without money.

This is a great thing, isn’t it?

I like also book shops,
but basically there are no seats to read books and I can’t be relaxed.

Also esterday, I spent in the library for almost three hours.
One magazine isn’t very expensive, but it is weekly or monthly,
So if we buy it every week or month, we need much money.
Therefore, library is really great.

Recently we can search books or CDs and request on the inter-net.
As soon as those books or CDs come to us,
the email from the library is sent to my e-mail.

Library is really great.
We should use a library more and usefully.

Iris Garden

I went to the Iris Garden yesterday.
This garden is in 堀切, 葛飾区.
I went there for the first time.
In the past I was not interested in flowers or nature at all.
My parents took me to a lot of such places,
but I was always very bored.
However, recently to see flowers or nature is becoming interesting.
Last month I went to 秩父 to see 芝桜,
and yesterday I went to 堀切菖蒲園.
It makes me released from many things, and time goes slowly.
They say that June 10th will be the best time to see.

Saturday

My work today has just finished,
and I am released now. I love this moment best.
Especially I can watch my favorite drama on Saturday,
so I am very looking forward to it, and I am being very excited.

As I wrote here last week(!?),
I have been quite busy since I came back to Japan.
My brain is in a panic this week, and this will still continue.

Oh........

But now, only now let me feel released from everything...
I'm goint to start planning what to do tomorrow after I arrive home.
This is also my favorite thing.

Have a nice weekend!!

Where I am

I am still in my another office.
Tonight this office held a welcome party for a new staff.
We were ten of us. It started at 7:00 and finished at 9:00.

Unfortunatelly my today's work hadn't finished yet,
so I came back to the office and I am still working now.

I am writing this blog to have a short rest.
Probably I will take the last train tonight. Sigh...

When will I be able to be free?
I haven't been free yet probably because of my current work.

Supermarket

Last Sunday I went to four supermarkets in my car alone.

Almost every Sunday I go to several supermarkets around my house in my car,
and buy groceries for one week every Sunday with my wife.

These supermarkets sell very reasonable groceries.
I happened to get to know some of them,
and I heard the others from friends of mine.

Usually I do this with my wife,
but last Sunday she was really busy with her work, so I did alone.

Most of these supermarkets are in Kasai.
Kasai is very great, convienient, close to the central of Tokyo,
and the cost of living is not also very high.

I like to compare the prices among the supermarkets,
and I remember and use them when I buy groceries.
Supermarkets in Japan are great.

The busiest week

This week I was really too busy to write a blog here.
From last Friday to this Monday I stayed in Seoul,
so I had many things and works to do
after I came back to Japan.
I didn't afford to write here at all.
Excuse me...

In Seoul I enjoyed very much,
and Seoul had me want to live there.

Everything is written in Hangle,
and everybody speaks Korean.
Everythng makes me speak and listen to Korean.
This is very good stimulation for learners.

I have aleady known that I have to force myself
to go into such an environment
because I am really a lazy person.
Probably many difficulties must come to me
and they depress me, but I will get lots of things
after/if I overcome those difficulties.

This time I visited one friend of mine,
and he lives near Seoul.
He didn't speak Korean at all
when I met him for the first time.

However, seven years have passed,
and he became to speak Korean well.
He hasn't have any Japanese people around him there.
Everyone is Korean.
In such a situation, he could get this skill.
He probably made lots of efforts
even though he doesn't show them to me.
I respect him very much and envy him and his environment.

I strongly believe that
we can't get a great skill without efforts and difficulties.

Also almost eight years have passed
since I started to study/learn Korean.
This eight-years brought my current Korean skill to me.
Time flies. I want to improve my Korean more.

I am in Seoul now

I am writing this blog at the hotel in Seoul, Korea.
To attend my friend's wedding ceremony on 23rd, I came here.

Tomorrow I am going to meet another friend of mine here.
I met him in Hong Kong for the first time when we stayed there.
Almost seven years have passed since I met him for the first time.

I am very excited to meet him.

How to leave a comment

Some people who read this blog said to me,
"I want to leave a comment but I can't leave it."

I tried doing that just now,
but I also couldn't do it easily.

This seems to have a little complicated system.
So I am going to change for an easier site.

Do you know any good blog sites
where readers can leave their comments easily?

Wasabi Flavor

Last Saturday I bought this at a super-market near my house.
This snack was really really yummy.
I recommned this although it is a little strong...
Anyway try it if you find this somewhere.

I love Wasabi and lots of foods with Wasabi Flavor.
It smells quite good, and also tastes good.

However, the stake with wasabi sauce was not very tasty.
I ate this in a stake restaurant in Nagano last summer.
This restaurant is famous for stake, but in this restaurant
I recomment other kinds of the sauce there.

The other day I watched わさびもんじゃ on TV.
It seems very declious ad stimulates me.
Unfortunately I forgot the place.
Doesn't anyone know it?

Mr. Kazuyoshi SAITO

Do you know him? He is a Japanese singer.
He was born in Yamanashi on June 22nd, 1966.

Recently I like three of his songs.
Especially I like "歌うたいのバラッド".
Have you even heard this song?

Visit here
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tin52H6tNMI

He relieased this on Nov 21st, 1997.
At that time, I didn't know this song,
and also I was not interested in his songs at all.

However, recently I happened to hear this song.
This song impressed me very much.

Do you know his song "歩いて帰ろう"?
Probably you have heard this song.
This song is the opening theme of ひらけポンキッキ.
The ryhthm of this song gives me a power and makes me happy.

Visit here
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WaSKd92mWdw&feature=related

The last one is his brand-new song.
You have heard this on TV CM recently.

Visit here
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_BHnfd1-yc4

Now I enjoy these three songs on my way to the office.

Site for English Learning

I work for a few companies in Japan.
Yesterday my work finished at 23:30,
so I couldn't leave anything here.

One day I happened to find several interesting sites
for English Learning when I was working at one of my offices.

These sites must be interesting for Japanese learners, I think.
They are like games on the inter-net.

I am going to introduce one of them today.

http://a4esl.org/j/g.html

Level 1 is boring, but some of them from Level 2 can be interesting.
Click several parts and enjoy them to be a better English speaker.

Headache

Yesterday I had a strong headache through the night,
so I couldn't sleep well and enough.
Before one or two hours, I can know my headache will come.
Also yesterday I got to know it one hour before.
This morning my pain almost went away, and I left for my office,
but still I have a headache a little...
I hope it will go away tonight.

Shoes

I bought two pairs of shoes on the other day.
I like shopping very much, but recently I don'T often buy anything.

That day at first, I bought the one pair of shoes.
However, I found the second shoes when I went out of the shop.

I would buy the second shoes last summer,
but I didn't buy them at that time after all.

This time I saw the shoes at a more reasonable price.
I was very glad to see them, and decided to buy them soon.

I was very very lucky.

Phlox Subulata

Yesterday I went to 羊山公園 in 秩父 to see Phlox Subulata.
Japanese people call it 芝桜.

I saw it for the first time. It was really really beautiful.
It was like a big flower carpet.

I would go to see during this golden week,
but I cancelled it because the park and the road were too crowded.

However, yesterday they were not very crowded,
so I didn't have to wait almost at all. I was lucky.

Haircut

I am going to have my hair cut tonight.

Basically I go to my friend's hair salon, and he cuts my hair,
but I sometimes go to the salon near my office
when I don't care about my hairstyle very much.

Every time I show one picture to the hair stylist.
I want him to cut my hair like that.
However, I am very embarrassed then.
You can understand my mind, can't you?

In the past I didn't like my short hair,
and my hair was a little long.
However, I prefer my current short hairstyle
once I had my hair short.

It is getting warmer and warmer recently,
so short hairstyle should be better, too.

Super Public Bathhouse

I like to go to a super public bathhouse.

I go to a super public bathhouse once or twice a month recently
but in the past I went every weekend.

I have ever been to more than 30 super public bathhouses
in or around Tokyo.

The day before yesterday I went to 華の湯 in 成田
because it was a national holiday then.
It costs only 800 yen even on Saturday, Sunday and national holiday.

One of the students in our school recommended it for me in the past,
and I remember it suddenly, so I decided to go to this bathhouse.

This bathhouse has two kinds of bath style.
One is Japanese style, and the other is Eastern style.
This time I entered the Eastern one,
but I may prefer the Japanese one.

I have seen the Japanese style on only the homepage,
and the Japanese style seems better for me.
Someday I want to try the Japanese one if I go there again.

Which super public bathhouse do you recommend for me?

Homepage of this super bathhouse
http://www.hananoyu-narita.com/

My first Blog

Thank you for your visiting my blog site.
My name is Ken.
This is my first Blog.
What should I write here?
I have a lot of things which I want to write about.
I am going to write about them little by little from now on.