I got a quick response this time.

I had the interview with one company today, which I mentioned the other day.
The interview went quite well, because it was conducted in Japanese. haha.
Although I once declined this position when an agent introduced me because of the company's bad reputation, I got more interested in the position through the interview.

To my surprise, I got the feedback of the interview from the company through the agent just 2 hours after finishing the interview. What a quick decision making and response! It's completely different from the company which I had an interview with last month.

I can advance to the 2nd interview. It's on this Friday. In that time, unfortunately the interview will be conducted in English, because I meet the HR director who is American. Whew...
I'm going to take as much time to prepare for that as possible.

Using possessive case or not

Tim was kind enough to point out my English mistakes and explain about them in details.
(Thank you, Tim!)
One of them is the following.
http://sandfriend.blogspot.com/2010/08/current-situation-of-my-job-hunting.html

It's very detailed explanation, isn't it?

I've always thought that possessive case is used TOO often in English sentences, such as "She took HER glasses off", "He divorced HIS wife", "The children are enjoying THEIR English class."
In Japanese language, using a possessive case like those is very strange.
But I thought I got used to using possessive too often in English. I have picked up the habit of adding possessive case when I speak English.
However!!
Tim taught me that people say "have a future", not "have one's future." Ohhh!
I guess there are other more expressions which you shouldn't add possessive case.
That's good to know, but I have no idea what expressions I should add it or not. It can't be helped.

Anemia?

When I got up this morning, I felt ill and my vision went dark purple. So I went back to bed.

I wonder if it was anemia. I've been incredibly healthy, so I have no idea about the anemia symptoms though.
Just in case, I went to buy nutritional drink with iron.
I hope there isn't any problem anymore.

The current situation of my job hunting.

I got the feedback of an interview I had last month. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to advance to the next step.

I got the feedback a month after having the interview. Don't you think it's very slow response? Actually, it took no less than one and a half months to get the result of resume screening. How slow they are.
Actually, if someone asked me what kind of companies I don't want to work for, I would immediately answer that it's a company which is slow to do anything, especially making decision. I don't think such a company doesn't have has their a future. And working for a slow-pace company is stressful for me. So the result this time may be good for me. Am I too positive? (^o^)

Just after I got the negative feedback, an agent introduced me to another position. The position itself is really interesting, but the reputation of the company is bad. I usually don't care about a company such as company's size, name value, industry etc. I just care about a position, I mean it's important for me what I do in a company. However, the case of the company in this case, actually some other agents have already introduced the same position to me before, and I declined all of them due to the company's reputation.
So I once declined in this time too. But the agent emphasize on how attractive the position is for me. I agree with her. Then I decided to try to apply for the position and talk to them.
My resume screening went well and I'll have the 1st interview next week.

My bad listening comprehension #19

I write the "My bad listening comprehension" series for the first time in a long time. That doesn't mean I haven't misheard English during that time, needless to say.

This time, I caught the following sentence when I did dictation.

And robot happy with our respective jobs.

Of course, this sentence is strange and I obviously misheard it.

The correct sentence is;

And we're both happy with our respective jobs.

I wonder why I can hear "robot" for "we're both." Those are different at all.
However, although I have already known the correct sentence, I can still hear it "robot."
I tried to listen to the sentence repeatedly, but it's still "robot" for me.
Whew...

My hearing wrong of the past:
http://sandfriend.blogspot.com/2009/11/my-bad-listening-comprehension-18.html

The Trick Art exhibition was a bit disappointing.

I like trick art, and found that there was a trick art exhibition in a museum in my neighborhood. I went there the other day.

Hmm... those trick arts were not so surprising arts. They were not less impressive than I expected. It's too bad.

Dinosaur exhibition

I don't know why, but I like dinosaur. I'm not familiar with their names, features or figures at all unlike small boys who love dinosaurs. But somehow, I like them, so when there is a TV program which features dinosaur, I always watch it.

I went to a dinosaur exhibition the other day. It's summer holiday for kids now, so almost all visitors were small boys and their mothers. haha.

I put some pictures.

At first, there were skeletal preparations.

Someone bites someone?!

Or a mother brings her kid?

Mammal ancestor, Exaeretodon. G,g,gross!!!

Oops! Backlight.

It's on the 52nd floor. So the view from windows were great.

You can see Tokyo tower on the right side.

Movie: Inception

It was an amazing movie! And the story was very complicated. I knew it was complicated, so I read the preparation site before going to see it. It was a kind of spoiler, but I really thought that it was good to read it in advance. If I had watched the movie without the preparation, I wouldn't have understood it.

3D images were really amazing, but I was more impressed by the story's intricacies. How did Christopher Nolan come up with the story?! He has incredible imagination!!

12 hours napping

I was lying on a bed yesterday and I fell asleep around 3:30pm. Then I woke up 3:30am this morning. It symbolizes my laziness...

Hang in there! Baby Panda!

How cute!

3D aquarium

There is a famous aquarium in Okinawa, which is "Okinawa Churaumi Aquarium." I really want to visit there sometime.

Every summer, there is an event in Tokyo which shows a part of Chraumi Aquarium in 3D display. Today, I went there for the first time.

First, there was a real tank out of the building.

Shark!!!

On the 1st and 2nd floors, there are some small displays and fixed 3D glasses. You can see 3D images looking through the glasses.

Fixed glasses looks very strange, do they?

Finally, I arrived a small theater. I was handed 3D glasses at the reception.

People are waiting for starting the 3D aquarium.

Many non-Japanese who probably tourists came there too
3D aquarium was great!! Especially a manta!! Big manta swimming slowly with elegance come out of the screen. What a grand image!
Like this.

haha. Of course it's not a real photo. And it's not a manta, but a whale shark.

I'll go to the real Okinawa Churaumi Aquarium without fail!!

Triple depressing events about my poor English

A friend from Lang-8 came to Japan from the US with his girlfriend and I met them last Saturday.

We went to have sushi and had a chat. Ah---, my English is---- terrible as usual.

When I was asked by a Korea tourist,,,
When I attended the network event,,,
Then when I talked to them,,,

I have triple depressing feelings about my poor English in couple of weeks.

Documentaries about wars

August is something like "the war month" in Japan, because 6th is the atomic bombing in Hiroshima, 9th is the atomic bombing in Nagasaki and 15th is the anniversary of the end of World War II (for Japan). A lot of documentaries and dramas about the war used to air on TV. So I've been getting many information about the war since I was a kids. However, those programs rarely aired recent years. I've been concerned about this situation because people would start forgetting the horrors of war and in the end nobody would know about those.

However, to my surprise, a lot of programs about war are airing this year.
As a war researcher Sand, I can't missed them!

Yesterday, I watched the documentary about Okinawa where became a horrible battlefield by the landing of American troops.
Today, I watched the documentary about the Holocaust.
And now, I'm watching the documentary about the detention in a Siberian labor camp.

I know about those things very well because I've been aggressively finding out the information about wars since I was a kid, from such as TV documentaries, exhibitions, books and so on. In spite of that, I'm still distressed and in tears.

Some of the survivors of those horrible situations never talked about their experience, even not talked to their families. From that, I can imagine that they had gone through a hell. Although some of them talk, they talk in a toneless voice, and suddenly cry. What a disastrous situation they went through.

By the way, I wonder why the detention in a Siberian labor camp isn't known so much.
Soviet interned a lot of captives and made them work in forced labor in a very cold land with little food. Besides, it was conducted AFTER THE WAR, which was the illegal acts disobeying the Potsdam Declaration. A lot of captives died. I think I can say that their life in the Siberian labor camp was more harsh than in Auschwitz Concentration Camp. In fact, the former President of the Russian Federation Yeltsin expressed that apology for the inhumane acts.

There are more programs which I should watch... no, people should watch to know the fact.

The 65th aniversatry of the atomic bombing of Nagasaki

In the ceremony of Nagasaki, even the U.S. ambassador Roos didn't attend. Attending the ceremony of Hiroshima was just pretense?

It's a different topic from atomic bombing though, Convention on Cluster Munitions entered into force on 1 August 2010.
I know how dangerous cluster munitions are, but I've been feeling that this convention is very strange. Cluster munitions or antipersonnel mines (mines are prohibited in another convention) shouldn't be used, but other weapons are OK? What is the criteria to divide into OK or prohibition? Wars make human really stupid.

The US doesn't signed the convention. Obama, although you stated the elimination of nuclear weapons, is it OK to use cluster munitions and antipersonnel mines with you?

I think Nobel committee should think about strip him of the Nobel Peace Prize.

The 65th aniversatry of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima

August 6th is the day that America dropped the atomic bomb on Hiroshima, which is one of the most terrible horrible things humankind did.

The 65th anniversary of the atomic bombing of the city has been held. This year, the UN Secretary-General and the delegates of the US, the UK and France attended for the FIRST time.

TOO late! It's been 65 years. Sixty five years has passed!!!

Obama had the U.S. ambassador Roos attend the ceremony. Huh? Come to attend yourself, Obama. He really is a person who doesn't deserve the Novel Peace Prize.

9th is the day that America dropped the atomic bomb in Nagasaki. If you have decent human feelings, I'm sure you never be able to drop the atomic bomb after knowing the miserable devastation of atomic bombing. America did though.

Networking Event

I attended a networking event held by a famous business school. Of course, the purpose of the business school is soliciting students. I'm now going to a correspondence university so I'm not going to the business school so far, but I thought I was able to get some information about business and training. Attendances came from various fields. I think I should attend such events more to expand my horizons, get various information and build my network.

Having a warm feeling in the movie

I wonder if the movie "Punchline" is famous and popular. I don't know why but I happened to watch it on TV a couple of times.
Leading characters are acted by Tom Hanks and Sally Field.

The story isn't so attractive to me as a whole. But I like the part which is the family bonds of the woman acted by Sally. Although her husband is a bit fat, not handsome, and commonplace person, he is very warm and faithful. if you had a husband like him, you could have a happy life. In fact, in the movie, the woman realized it at last.

My favorite scene is, one day, the woman had her hair cut and got a perm, and she ended up having terrible hairstyle. When she came back to the home from a hair salon, she was almost crying and said "I didn't mean to..." Her husband and two daughters saw her, although they were a bit surprised at her hairstyle, they tried hard to compliment her hairstyle. It has a warm feel to it.

John Goodman who played the husband.

The name "Goodman" fits the character he acted.

Simon Kjaer is in the spotlight?

Recently, my blog is often accessed by people from Europe, especially Germany. It seems that they search photos of Danish soccer player Simon Kjaer, then reach the photo which I put on my blog.
Here it is;
http://sandfriend.blogspot.com/2010/06/sleeping-until-game-denmark-vs-japan.html

In fact, Simon Kjaer moved to VfL Wolfsburg which is a team of German Bundesliga.
But, that has been decided before. Why are they checking him recently? I wonder if he created controversy or something in Germany.

Anyway, I'm going to keep an eye on VfL Wolfsburg. Unfortunately, unlike the English Premier League, the Spanish Liga Espanola and the Italian Serie A, information of Bundesliga rarely comes in Japan. I'm going to check the team website often.