Aim for working in the 2020 Olympics and a new blog site

From the moment that Tokyo was decided to host the 2020 Summer Olympics, I made up my mind to be involved in the Olympics in some way, probably working as a volunteer. And so, I've started another blog for writing about the my path to the Olympics.

http://mytokyoolympics.blogspot.jp

I hope I can achieve this aim, or rather I believe.
Please keep your fingers crossed for me!

Two cute tiger cubs?!

The TV news programs aired a very cut scene of a toddler and a tiger cub. It's so cute!
So I tried looking for the video on Youtube and luckily I've found it.

According to the news, a toddler Marshall is 2 years old and the tiger cub is 6 months old.

The first of the month visit

The other day, I saw the article about the "Tsuitachi Mairi" which can translate to "The first of the month visit" in English.
You visit Shrine on the 1st of each day, and thank for your last months good luck and wish happy next month.

I started doing it this month.
I went to Meiji Shrine on the 1st this month, which is one of the most famous and popular shrines.

When I arrived there, an event was just taking place. It was a kind of concert of Koto (Japanese harp).

I'm wondering where I'm going next month. Probably the same shrine, I'm not sure though.

Happy Birthday, Rubel!!

Today is birthday of my sponsored child, Rubel.

When I became his sponsor, he was still 4 years old And he became 8 years old today! I can't believe that!

Happy Birthday, Rubel!!

Cafe & Restaurant Anniversaire

I finally went to a restaurant to have lunch that I've wanted to go. It's "Anniversaire."

I had a chicken dish. Somehow, it tasted so bland, it's healthy dish though.


According to the HP, the restaurant was redesigned last week, but I wondered where was redesigned. The ceremony for the redesigning seemed to take place in a big way with two famous actresses, but it looked the same as before to me. haha.

While I was eating, a bride and groom walked right past the restaurant being celebrated by the staff and other people, because it also has a wedding center. It's more like the wedding center is the main facility of Anniversaire.

Next time, I want to come to try morning menu.

Not aid but cooeration

I watched the documentary on TV that featured Naoyuki Kawahara, who has been carrying on his wide-ranging medical activities in Sudan.

Every his activities are very impressive for me, but what I was impressed by most was his word, "What we do should not be aid/support, but should be something like cooperation."
I think the important thing is not help someone, but try to achieve something together with them.

As many other people who has produced great achievements in the humanitarian field , he moved into action as soon as he thought about it.

The following is the website of NPO/NGO Rocinantes that Kawahara has established.
http://www.rocinantes.org/eng/index.html

Movie: Monsters University

As I mentioned in one of my previous article, I went to see the movie "Monsters University."

Although I thought "Monsters Inc." was better than it, I enjoyed it too. Even the end-title roll was fun!
It seems that the staff really enjoyed making the film.

Tokyo Gains Rights to Host 2020 Olympics

Tokyo won 2020 Olympics over Istanbul, Madrid!! Finally it was decided and finally the Olympics will be held in my city for the first time in my life.

Tokyo, or rather Japan is excited about it.

The presentations of the members of the Bidding Committee were very good. Especially prime minister Shinzo Abe did a good job, I think.
I've thought that he is bad at speech. Somehow his talking always sounds undependable even though he says very good things. He seems to have practiced a lot.

Many medias abroad say his presentation and answer to the nuclear leak-related question helped a lot with Tokyo's wining.

http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/09/07/us-olympics-2020-winner-idUSBRE9860HQ20130907#!

Other members did well too, except for governor Naoki Inose. I think he was a kind of deadweight. His presentation was immature and surprisingly, when he answered to a question, he looked as if he was angry with the questioner.

Anyway, I'm happy and I hope I am able to go to see the opening ceremony. I've always thought I must go to see an opening ceremony of Olympics at least once before I dies. Also, I hope I can play some form of role in conducting the Tokyo Olympics.

Uncanny Valley

The title of a script I used today for my English study was "Uncanny Valley."

I heard it for the first time.
I always feel creepy when I see something that looks too much like a human in movies or on TV. Now I found that it isn't only me and it is called "Uncanny Valley."

There seem to be pros and cons on this theory, but I completely agree with it. haha.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uncanny_valley

World War I wills

I often use the BBC Learning English site for my English study.
The news that I used today made me get misty-eyed.

The following is an excerpt from it;

The last wishes, thoughts and concerns of more than 230,000 soldiers who died in World War I are to be made available online.

The wills and letters that accompanied them give a picture of the lives and loves of the some of the millions of soldiers who served in the First World War.

They tell of the family and friends that the men at the front had left behind.

The following are extracts from those written by Privates Harry Lewis Lincoln and Joseph Witchburn:

Private Harry Lewis Lincoln:
My dearest Clara, I have been expecting a letter from you. I expect you thought I might not get it. But you can always write to the last address. It will always find me, dear Clara.
Private Joseph Witchburn:
If I get killed in active service there will be a medal for me somewhere, and I hope you will try to get it and keep it for the boy to wear when he grows up.

When I read the yellow-colored parts, although I was on the train, I got misty-eyed and read them over and over again. I get sad thinking about what feelings they had when they wrote those.

The full article of the BBC site;
http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/learningenglish/language/wordsinthenews/2013/08/130830_witn_wwi_wills.shtml

Extraordinary, ubnormal heat

This summer is incredibly hot. Especially the last couple of days, horribly hot! The high temperature today in Tokyo was over 38 degrees Celsius!!!!!
Whenever I'm walking outside, I find myself saying repeatedly "it's an extraordinary heat, extraordinary heat..."

On the other hand, in some other areas in Japan were subjected to torrential rain. Surprisingly, the Meteorological Agency refer to it as "unprecedented heavy rain."

"Monsters, Inc." is a masterpiece!!

Because "Monsters University" has come out here in Japan recently, "Monsters, Inc" was aired on TV, and I watched it for the first time in a long time.

When "Monsters, Inc" was released on 2001, I went to the movie theater to see it. Although I'm not so into animation films, I was very very impressed by the movie.

It's a really great movie. I think it's not too much to say that "Monsters, Inc" is a masterpiece.

I'm looking forward to seeing "Monsters University"!

Monsters University Official site;
http://disney.go.com/monsters-university/

It has it's own website like other real universities!!
http://monstersuniversity.com/edu/

A sweet boy melts my heat!

I happened to find the following video.
A boy is giving his mother a card on Mother's day. He is trying to surprise her and seems to be so------ excited!! It seems that he is such a sweet boy. I especially like his facial expression when he just hands her the card.

I also saw his other videos and I can see how what a tender-hearted boy he is.
Each and every his reaction or remark is very sweet and funny. Most of them become my favorite videos. How did his parents raise him to be such a fabulous boy?!

It seems his videos are quite popular, especially the following one. Funny!!

Hot, Hot, Hot, Humid, Humid, Humid!!

This year, the rainy season end very early, more than two weeks earlier than usual. As soon as the rainy season finished, it's extreme heat each and every day! Terrible!!

It is still in the first half of July. I don't want to imagine how it is in August...

High temperature is fine with me, but terrible humidity is... torture.

Babys' mistique

Deaf 2-year-old boy, Cooper put a cochlear Implant and hear sound for the first time.

At first, he looked a bit confused at hearing sound for the first time. However! when his mother said "Hi Cooper!", he showed very joyful, happy reaction. It's incredible! Although he heard his mother's voice for the first time, he was able to recognize it's her!

Yes We Scan

The US president Obama, his famous word "Yes we can" is being ridiculed by rephrasing "Yes we scan" because of the matter I wrote in my previous article.

FYI:
http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/06/15/us-usa-germany-idUSBRE95D0I420130615

Existence of a surveillance program "PRISM" was revealed.

I've recently been watching the US TV crime drama "Person of Interest."
The details of the story is here;
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Person_of_Interest_(TV_series)

If this story happened in the real world, it would be quite scary.
However, it seems to have happened.

Edward Snowden, who worked for NSA and CIA before, has leaked that the US has been collecting personal information through a surveillance program PRISM.


Scary! Horrible! But I wouldn't put it past the US to do such a thing.

And, the US always justifies anything it is doing or has done.

Global Peace Index 2013 Global Ranking

1. Iceland

2. Denmark

3. New Zealand

4. Austria

5. Switzerland

6. Japan

7. Finland

8. Canada

9. Sweden

10. Belgium

About Global Peace Index
http://economicsandpeace.org/research/iep-indices-data/global-peace-index
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Global_Peace_Index

To see more results of 2013 Ranking
http://www.visionofhumanity.org/

Beckham was a great soccer player.

An English soccer player, David Beckham has retired.

He was a really really great player.
Unfortunately, he has been getting too much attention for stuff other than soccer, but his achievement as a soccer player was outstanding.

I sometimes recall someone's comment;
"Although he is a super star, he is always running around the pitch. His physical activities in games are incredible."

I guess he is just a boy who genuinely love soccer, even now after he's become middle age, he is such a boy.

 Crying Beckham after his last game

 

I personally think he looks the best in a uniform of the England National team.

The scene which filled me deep emotion

After the the retirement ceremony of Hideki Matsui and the National Honorary Award ceremony for Matsui and Shigeo Nagashima, and before a game, there was the impressive opening pitch ceremony.

Pitcher: Hideki Matasui
Batter: Shigeo Nagashima, (aka Mr. Giants)
Catcher: Tatsunori Hara


The combination of the tree filled me with deep emotion.

For people outside Japan or people who are not fans of Giants, it's nothing special. However, I couldn't help writing this historic moment on the blog.

(By the way, the umpire in the opening pitch ceremony is Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.)

Surprisingly, Nagashima and Matsui wear a matching suit!! Tie and shirt too!!!

"Aung San Suu Kyi was such a jerk!"

 Aung San Suu Kyi went back to her country today after staying in Japan for about a week.

When I saw her interview on TV, every her comment and answer made me somehow feel unpleasant about her personality.

This morning, I was on the train and happened to see one of ads of a magazine. One of the headlines said "Aung San Suu Kyi, she was such a jerk!"

Wow, my feeling the other day was not necessarily wrong.

Aung San Suu Kyi and our Prime Minister Shinzo Abe

Happy Birthday to You... CHA CHA CHA??

As I've been writing here, I really love toddlers. I often visit several toddlers' blog sites which are written by their parents.

The other day, I saw the video in one of my favorite toddler blogs which showed 5-year-old boy's birthday party.

All the kids were singing;

Happy Birthday to you. CHA-CHA-CHA
Happy Birthday to you. CHA-CHA-CHA
Happy Birthday Dear
Happy Birthday to you. CHA-CHA-CHA

I heard the birthday song with CHA-CHA-CHA for the first time. It's fun.
I wondered if this CHA-CHA-CHA sound is hot among American kids. So I checked on the Internet.

Hmm...

Many American people are asking in the Internet that where CHA-CHA-CHA came from, where, when it started by who.

I see. Happy Birthday song with CHA-CHA-CHA seems to be a big hit with American kids.

Anyway, it's cute!

Tandoori Chicken

A restaurant I frequent provides Tandoori Chicken, though it's not an Indian restaurant. It's one of my favorite dishes in the restaurant.

Today, I tried cooking Tandoori Chicken at home. I checked several recipes on the Internet. It was more fuss-free than I thought.

But! It's not as tasty as one in the restaurant. What is the difference? Curry powder? Other seasonings? Should I have marinated chicken in sauce?

Hmm... I need deeper research. Also I have to go to the restaurant to eat the Tandoori Chicken again.

Anniversaries

11th March
The second anniversary of the Great East Japan Earthquake with big Tsunami

Although it's been already 2 years since then, over 300,000 people are still in evacuation life.
The nuclear power plants are still in dangerous situation.

20th March
The 18th anniversary of the Subway Sarin Incident

Surprisingly, it's been already 18 years. It is fading from people's memories, but it's a fact that there are still many people who suffer from something due to the Sarin incident, not only physically but also mentally.

Looking at the world,
20th March (Japan time)
The 10th anniversary of the start of the Iraq war
It was definitely a wrong war, there is no war which is not wrong though.



I wonder if there isn't an anniversary of good things.

Make peace with my past?

I put "7 Rules of Life" in the previous article, because I thought it said good things and I would try to follow those.

However, I'm not sure what it means to make peace with my past. I wonder if it means that you forgive your past mistakes, or that forgive someone who did something bad to you, or...

I don't know who wrote this "7 Rules of Life" so I have no idea where I should refer to.
So I've decided to interpret it as meaning that I should be positive about my past!

7 Rules of Life

New Idiom "at one's earliest convenience"

Whenever I use "as soon as possible/you can", I somehow feel as if I force a counterpart to do something urgently.

For example, I write on an email, "Could you give me a reply asap?"
Then I feel I would say, "Reply already! Hurry up!"

Although it's just my own feeling, I've been wondering if there is more soft and polite way. Then I found "at one's earliest convenience."

I'm not sure how the difference is between them for native speakers, but I'm quite satisfied with finding this idiom. (^o^)

My apartment is also under repair.

A major renovation work on my apartment started at thee beginning of this month. It is repairing the exterior wall. It takes more than 4 months!! Too long!

The scaffoldings (?) has almost constructed.

It's the scene from the window of my room.

From another window.

Terrible. The workers are walking just in front of my window.

There was a nice white sofa and table in the common space on the 1st floor, but now, it has been removed and a messy construction work office is now there.

I can't believe that this situation continues until the beginning of June!!

It's only exterior wall renovation, but from outside, It is as if I live in a construction site.

My apartment viewed from outside

However, because the apartment will become clearer (I hope so), I should be patient. Also I thank the workers for their work during such very cold weather.

Having said that, 4 months is too long------!

My smartphone is under repair.

Yesterday evening, a touch panel of my smartphone suddenly started responding strange. I had to tap something repeatedly, and long-tap no longer worked. It was almost impossible to enter characters. Terrible. It's been only 15 months since I bought it.

I went to a cell phone shop to ask repair. A staff said it would take a week or even 2 weeks to complete the repair. Ugh!
And, although I have an insurance policy, it may cost. Why?!?!

The staff also asked me that if it's OK that the data I saved in the smartphone and the apps I installed will be all lost and the setting I configured on the phone will be reset.
Ugh...
I'm using cloud system for the important data, so, OK, I'll give up other data. OK, OK, I'll take time to install all the apps again and to configure the same setting after my phone comes back. The top priority is repairing is completed as soon as possible.

Then, after I came back home, I realized I didn't back up the bookmarks! Uh---! I know it's possible to associate bookmarks with a Gmail address, but I didn't do that for several reasons. I should have done...

Furthermore, one more bad thing.
Although I was able to have an alternative device that was the same model, the color of it is pink! I don't like pink. I don't like something girly. It would have been better if it had been light soft pastel pink, but it was shocking pink! Haha.

I already miss my smartphone!

Meteor fall!!

February 15th, 2013, a big meteor fell in Russia. Since them, TV news have been reporting about this event every day.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2013_Russian_meteor_event

The diameter of the meteor was about 17m. Huge! Over 1200 people were injured mainly by shock wave. Shock wave!?!? Scary!

Hurricane, typhoon, earthquake, tsunami... there are many natural disasters, and I realized there is one more natural disaster, meteor fall, which comes from way too far away.

In this accident, I found meteor fall is very very dangerous. Having said that though, I'm still skeptical about the theory of dinosaur extinction by a meteor.
I've been wondering if it's possible that an only 10km diameter meteor can wipe out most of species on the earth 12700km across.

My profile is the top 1% most viewed.

I don't use SNS so much. I don't use either Twitter or Facebook. I just write this blog and joined LinkedIn which is a business specific SNS.

Today, I received an email from LinkedIn that says my profile in LinkedIn is one of the top 1% most viewed profiles for 2012. Surprising!!

I'm wondering why???

"in advance" vs. "beforehand"

I checked the difference between "in advance" and "beforehand" on the Internet. I saw some sites where people discuss the difference. But they don't reach any conclusion. OK, even native speakers are not sure about the certain difference, I could not know and don't need to worry about it.

However, probably native speakers distinguish them unconsciously. That's the difference between a mother language and a 2nd language.
In Japanese language, there are many which I know those are different but I can't explain the difference.

By the way, I somehow feel recently that I've gotten quite good at my English conversation skills.
Too positive or over-optimistic? haha!

Give it a What?

I found an idiom "Give it a shot" the other day. I learned it a long time ago, but I've completely forgotten it.

A couple of days later, I saw another a similar idiom "Give it a go", and I wondered what the difference was. I checked the dictionary but I couldn't find any specific difference.

I tried using Google Ngram which Tim kindly let me know. (Thank you, Tim!)

The result of a comparison;

 Hmm... Almost the same, but around 1985, it was inverted. But yet, no big difference.
 

By coincidence, just after I checked Google Ngram, I found an idiom "Give it a try."
So I tried checking Ngram again including "Give it a try."

Wow, "Give it a try" has been used overwhelmingly.
I somehow feel that "Give it a try" is subtly different from the other two.

Dont't speak so fast.

As one of resources for my learning English, I watch (or more precisely "listen") TED talks videos, one or two videos a week.

http://www.ted.com

Today, I listened the following.

He speaks so fast that I can't understand at all what he are speaking!!!
I saw the transcript and I found that he didn't say so difficult things. However, even though I listen to it seeing the transcript, I can't keep up with his speaking at all.

It is obvious that it's impossible for me to work abroad. In Japan, most of non-Japanese at companies in Japan speak slower and clearer. I guess there are many people in English speaking countries who speak like him.

M learning English never seems to end.

Value of human lives

The hostage crisis in Algeria ended up death of 37 hostages.

The situation the news were reporting indicate that most of the hostages weren't killed by the terrorists, but by the Algerian government army.

It's obvious that the purpose of the government army was just breaking down the terrorists from the beginning and their aims never included rescuing the hostages. Although it's important not to give in to terrorism, that would be unthinkable in Japan.
For example, when terrorists were moving to another place by five cars carrying the hostages in each car, the government army bombed them and the four cars of five were completely destroyed. Hard to believe!!

This reminded me of what one Chinese told me, who lived in Japan.
When he came to Japan, he was really impressed that Japan was a country which valued human lives. It felt strange to me first, but he explained some examples of how much China ignored human lives.

I think there are more countries where human lives are taken incredibly lightly.

7 Japanese people were killed in this hostage crisis in Algeria, and 3 Japanese people still remain missing.

Weekday Veg

I wrote "I should have more vegetable-focused diet" on this blog about a week ago.

However, I found that it's very difficult to cook perfect vegetarian foods.
As I need to increase the number of my recipes of vegetables, I was searching on the Internet. One of recipes I've found is a "baked Tofu with cheese."

1. Coat Tofu with flour
2. Coat them with beaten egg
3. Bake them with grated Parmesan cheese

Yummy!! (and easy!)

But!!

I realized that vegetarians never eat eggs and cheese, right?

But I don't mind. I'm not a vegetarian. Shouldn't be so strict!

Helping people is...

When I was walking along the street, one homeless person was standing holing a magazine up.

The magazine was "The Big Issue." You might know it. It is intended to help homeless people earn income and get back into society.

The Big Issue
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Big_Issue

As I had been writing on this blog, what I was trying to be involved in is helping poor children in the world receive education. Actually I'm not so interested in the philanthropy toward Japanese people, because, even though some people are under terrible situation in Japan, their situation is MUCH better than people other than Japan I want to help. And homeless people in Japan are different from ones in other countries. Japan is a country where people can live without becoming a homeless person. In fact, there is NO street children in Japan.

I passed by the homeless person. I hastened to somewhere. However, I was having a feeling I wasn't sure about. Then, although I was already a bit far from him, I turned back to him and bought the magazine.

I realized that to help someone is not logic, but something urge which you can't help doing. In fact, the people who made great results in philanthropy areas started doing something immediately just after they thought so, such as Mother Teresa, John Wood and so on. In contrast, I do nothing special yet, I've been saying I want to help children though.

Water leak

Today, when I entered the vanity unit in my place, I saw the floor flooded. I didn't understand what happened for a while. Then I found the leak in the ceiling.

I called the management company of my apartment, and told the person upstairs what was happening and asked to shut off the main water as the person of the management company.

After a while, workers came and fixed it. Whew... It had me worried there for a while, but so far, so good.

It was good that today was a holiday. I spent half a day for it. And I thought that being a victim is better than being a person who caused damage. The person upstairs profusely apologized, although it's not her fault but the facility's.

"Pursue" vs. "seek"

I was creating a document for my job, and I was wondering which word I should use.

After creating vision and develop the strategies, which expression should I use, "seek the vision and the strategies", or "pursue the vision and the strategies"?

So, I searched the Internet for "difference between pursue and seek."

Hmm... It's hard to choose...
From several explanations on the Internet, I ended up using "pursue", because I felt that "pursue" contains something like nuance of "achieve", I'm not sure though.

Subtle differences of nuance in other languages are really difficult to grasp.

Snowing

It's surely colder this winter than usual. And today, we are having the season's first snow in Tokyo where it rarely snows in.

Here it is the scene from my apartment's window.

Although the picture can't show how much it's snowing, it's a lot snowing from left to right, not from top to down, because it's also windy. I can hear the sough of the wind.

I was going to a coffee shop to study something related to my job. The coffee shop is in the building next to my apartment, but the snow and strong wind discourage me... Whew...

Fortunately today is a national holiday, so many people don't need to go to work. But there might be some small panics tomorrow morning because people in Tokyo are not used to snow.

Tofu hamburger

I've thought I should have more vegetable-focused diet. Today, I tried cooking Tofu hamburger.

Tofu hamburger doesn't includes any meat, but only Tofu (soybean curd) and lotus. Very healthy! Also very cheap!!

Tofu doesn't has so much taste of its own, so you can make and put your favorite sauce on it. I recommend Ankake or Teriyaki sauce for it, both are Japanese unique sauces.

Next time, I'm planning to making Bagna càuda sauce.

Drobox

I've been thinking that I should use "Cloud Computing" and finally I decided to do it.

First, I needed to decided which clouding service (for individual) I use. My blog and email is Google so I wondered if I should use Google Drive. Then I ended up using Dropbox.

https://www.dropbox.com


I've installed it to my PC and smart phone. It seems to be nice. It's simple and easy to use.

Trend color??

According to an article, the trend color this year is "Monaco Blue."

Monaco blue?? I checked what kind of blue it is on the Internet.

Here it is;

Humm...
I wonder why it was named "Monaco" blue.




By the way, I visted a shrine today as usual New Year, I didn't do at the 1st this year though.

Kumano shrine with typical New Year's days' fine blue sky and skyscrapers

The challenge for my English is still strengthen listening..

The first transcript I use for my English learning in 2013 is about the Berlin Wall.

In the transcript, the phrase "the wall came down" appears some times. Even though I know what the speaker says, every time I hear it, I can hear it "the walking down", I listen to it many times though.

I'm now in a family restaurant. A non-Japanese father and son are sitting at the table next to me and they are speaking in English. I can't understand what they are saying, especially the boy's talking. Whew...

I wonder if he is around 5 -6 years old. He is very cute anyway!

Happy New Year 2013

I'm going to be focused on two things this year,

- To live a healthy and regular life
- To build my network of contacts

.;*~*;..;*~*;..;*~*;. I wish all of you a Happy New Year!! .;*~*;..;*~*;..;*~*;.