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 ..........
↓
↓
↓
↓
↓
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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.