Aflac Duck

I got an Aflac's mascot yesterday. If you put its tummy, the duck sings theme song of Aflac TV commercial.

Let's think carefully---. Money is important---.
Aflac, Aflac, Afla--c!

<-- It doesn't look like a duck?

Waste of time

Suddenly, I couldn't send mails from my PC address to my cell phone address today. There was no problem till yesterday though. I set my PC mail system to transfer its mails to my cell phone so I could read mails I received anywhere at any time. But no mail was sent to my cell phone today! Too bad and inconvenience!

I was trying to make many kind of investigations into the cause of it. And then I called a support center of cell phone. An operator indicated some operations but I have done all of them before calling. After that, I mailed support centers of both PC mail and cell phone. I struggled against this problem for about 4 hours without having a meal!

During I write this article, my cell phone is receiving many mails one after another. Wow! It was fixed!

Hmm... It was definitely due to server of cell phone mail. Boo... I wanted to go to bed early because of lack of sleep. BOO---!

My cell phone is keeping receiving trapped mails now.

The deterioration of a situation in Lebanon

Israel's attack against Shiite Muslim militant groups "Hizbollah" based in South Lebanon, is intensifying. Many unrelated civilians including children were killed. Terrible.

Finally, Israel bombed the UN Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) and 4 Ceasefire Monitoring Committee Personnel, an Austrian, a Canadian, a Chinese and a Finish, were killed.
U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan accused Israel of obvious intentional attack in his statement.

I can't mention deeply Arab-Israeli dispute because there are many immeasurable issues and deep history and it's hard for me to understand that.
But I can criticize the U.S. The reason that the U.S. always side with Israel sucks big time. As is well known, there are many many Jewish voters in the U.S. If anyone is against Israel's behavior, he (or she) can't be elected, can't be president.

My bad listening comprehension #4

Title of today's English dialogue I study was "Shipment". I heard a word "customs decoration form" in the dialogue. decoration??

Yes, right word is "Customs declaration form".

I'm seldom able to catch pronunciation of "la" in this case. Whew...

My bad listening comprehension #3
My bad listening comprehension #2
My bad listening comprehension #1

Doyo no Ushi day

It's the Doyo no Ushi day (the day of the ox in midsummer) today. I don't know the origin of it. It is Japanese traditional day and we eat broiled eel at the day. It is said that eel is good for prevention of summer weariness. It's the wisdom of the people of the past.

I ate it today of course. Eel is not reasonable food though...

<-- Today's my supper, broiled eel on rice.

My English conversation skill is still poor.

I talked with foreigners in English after a long interval. Hmm...

My English show no improvement at all!!

Magma spa

~~~ Today is the Marine day.

Bedrock spa is becoming popular in Japan now. But I heard "Magma spa" today. It seems that the magma spa's benefits are bit different from the bedrock spa's one. I didn't think I wanted to go the bedrock spa but I'm a bit interested in the magma spa. I checked it on the Internet. Hmm... It's not so expensive. But I don't like taking a sauna... I wonder it's similar to the sauna. I think I will try it sometime.

I need an iPod?

I listen English-learning CD every day on my OLD CD Walkman. I got it about 15 years ago. It is very durable, I don't see any person who has such an old equipment recently though. Haha. It doesn't matter for me because I use it only for listening the English-learning CD, it's a bit heavy though. But recently it has poor audio. Hmm... I wonder it's time I bought new equipment.

My cell phone is Vodafone, and SoftBank Corp. bought Vodafone in Japan. Where have I heard that SoftBank announced they would release the cell phone with iPod function in collaboration with Apple Inc? I'm not a heavy user of cell phone and I must use iPod only for learning English even if I buy it. So it's good for me to have one equipment that has both functions, cell phone and iPod, rather than having two separate equipment.

But there is no announcement of that on SoftBank and Vodafone websites, I checked their press release back numbers though. Did I dream??
My TOO big equipment

Blonde hair turns brown as kids get older?

I like babies and toddlers very much. I sometimes see blogs that parents put on their kid's photos. They are ve--ry cute!

There is a thing I wonder. Although both father and mother have dark brown hair, their kid's hair is blonde. Why? It is not uncommon? I don't know about it, because I was born and grew up in Japan so most people around me have black hair. (There are many people who color their hairs though.)

I wonder if blond hair is recessive heredity like blood type O. Or it turns brown sometime?

Oops! my futon is...

Although it's rainy season, it was sunny day (and terrible muggy day as ever) today. So I *aired out my futons and went to a neighborhood restaurant to have a breakfast.

I had a breakfast, read a newspaper and studyed English at the restaurant, then I went back my place. On my way home, it was getting cloudy, and it started sprinkling a little. Oh, I leave the futons putting out on the veranda. I thought I must have hurried back. And then, it began to rain shower. Shoot!

It was pelting down with thunder and lightning for about an hour. And then, it is sunny again now. The weather forecast didn't mention the showers. Boo...

-------------------------------------------
* airing out futons
Most Japanese air out their futons sometimes. People who don't do that are... for example dirty men who live alone...

Finding a new coffee shop

It's TOO muggy. I already can't wait for autumn.

I found a new coffee shop I had never seen the other day. It's "Seattle's Best Coffee". There are many (too many) coffee shops from other countries, such as Starbucks, Excelsior Caffe etc. But I saw it for the first time so I tried to enter the shop. Although it's coffee shop, there were some kinds of tea. I prefer tea to coffee so I liked it. But according to the website of the Seattle's Best Coffee, there are only 4 in Tokyo, there are 207 Starbucks though. What a pity.

Movie: The Da Vinci Code

I went to see the movie, The Da Vinci Code today.

http://www.sonypictures.com/movies/thedavincicode

Hmm... It mostly stuck closely to the original, it means it scratched the surface of the story. The original is more complicated and deeper. For example, there are deep stories about Silas, but I think people who don't read the original think of him as a mere lunatic. But it can't be helped. It's difficult to condense such an original into about 2 hours.

Did you read the original and watch the movie? There was one thing that was MUCH different from the original. To be more exact, the thing was different from MY IMAGE.
When I read the original, I though Lt. Collet who was Captain Fache's subordinates was still young, late 20s or early 30s. But!! I was very very surprised because he was a middle-aged man in the movie. What!! He looked like even older than Captain Fache.

Is it Ron Howard's image?

My general comment on the 2006 World Cup

The World Cup has finished. I really enjoyed it, I often blame soccer though. I knew many foreign players I hadn't know, so I intend to take note of European soccer more than ever.
Most articles in this blog these days were about the World Cup. It is the last article about it, maybe. Thank you for entertaining me with nice playing.

I tried to choose MY AWARDs.

_/_/_/_/_/_/_/ Best Player Award _/_/_/_/_/_/_/
Klose (Ger_FW) and Lampard (Eng_MF)

Their positioning was very good and they were good passers. (Although Klose is a FW.) And they seldom overbalance even if opposition player hits them. Lampard couldn't play so well this World Cup, but it's enough for me to know his ability.

It's notable that they don't do soccer's typical bad things most players often do. Top players of top players are superior on not only playing but also mentality.



_/_/_/_/_/_/_/ New Face Award _/_/_/_/_/_/_/
Lahm (Ger_DF)

He is still young, 22 years old. And he is 170 cm tall, very small. (Actually He and I stand at even height. Haha. I'm tall as a Japanese woman.) But he ran and ran a---nd ran all around the pitch and made a lot contribution to the team that was the 3rd place.

When I saw his playing, I always wondered why his cheeks went red and its shapes were triangle.




_/_/_/_/_/_/_/ Coach Award _/_/_/_/_/_/_/
Australia's coach Hiddink

He is really a good coach. At the 1998 France, his team Netherlands placed in the top 4. It's no wonder because Netherlands is on of soccer superpowers. But he placed in the top 4 again at the head of Korea at the 2002 World Cup! His ability as a coach was called "Hiddink's magic" at the time.
This time, I thought Australia was very good team. Unfortunately they were defeated by Italy but they played very well and I thought they would win the game against Italy. Italy won the cup. I think it represents how great Australia team.



_/_/_/_/_/_/_/ Best Team Award _/_/_/_/_/_/_/
Germany

I was cheering for England and Ukraine, especially England. There were many talented players in England team.
But I choose Germany team for this award.
There are many young players, and both young and experienced players did well together. Prior evaluation of them wasn't good but they placed the 3rd. They were growing in the World Cup and became a good team.



_/_/_/_/_/_/_/ Special Award _/_/_/_/_/_/_/
Japanese chief referee Kamikawa

Referees are also tournament system like games. Only good referees can be in charge of next game. Kamikawa refereed just one game at the last World Cup. This time, he refereed 3 games including the 3rd-place match with a Japanese assistant referee Hiroshima, result of Japanese soccer team was terrible though. We are proud of them. In fact, Kamikawa's judge was very good!
I didn't know referees also could get medals. They got bronze medals as with Germany.



_/_/_/_/_/_/ Nice-looking Award _/_/_/_/_/_/_/
Friedrich (Ger_DF)

My friend said she wasn't interested in the 2006 World Cup so much but she watch games. Especially she checked cool guys. Oh---! I forgot to do it because I was watching games with fascination. I might have missed out on any cool guys?






~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
That's it for the Awards of MY CHOICE. By the way, real awards are followings.

Golden Ball Award ==> Zidane (Fra_MF)

Golden Shoe Award ==> Klose (Ger_FW) 5 goals

Best Young Player Award ==> Podolski (Ger_FW)
(Qualification is all players born on or after 1 January 1985.)

Les Bleus vs. Azzurri -- the World Cup final game

France vs. Italy. Italy won by a shoot-out.
Astonishing result. Zidane was sent off for an off-the-ball incident in which Materazzi was butted in the chest. The game was Zidane's last game as a professional though...

Person of the match I choose is Gattuso. If you see his gutsy playing, you can understand why his nickname is "Ringhio". It means a mad dog's growl. Haha. His contribution to the team in this World Cup was very great.
But surprisingly, he seems to be a funny and facetious guy. After the game, Italy's players were cavorting of course. But those of them were too funny! I thought it was "the merry Italian"! And the most humorous person was Gattuso. I liked his character.

It is becoming a hot topic what Materazzi said to Zidane. There is a lot of speculation. A media of Brazil that read it using lipreading said that he called Zidane's sister a whore. The Associated Press and Britain newspaper Guardian said that he called Zidane a terrorist. BBC said it was insult to Zidane's mother. A French TV station said it was insult to Zidane himself who is an Algerian immigrant child. I can't believe! Of course, Zidane's behavior was very bad but if it is true, shame of you, Materazzi. Many soccer players, especially Portugal and Italy, fight the game with "words", not playing. I often say I don't like both of teams because they often do typical bad things of soccer, dirty plays, simulations, complaining to judges too much... But I came so close to liking Italy team because they did very very well in the final game. But Materazzi made me lose this feeling. He is terrible as a player, no, as a human. But it seems that no Italian blames him and he is a hero in Italy. It's hard to believe. And most terrible thing is that such a behavior goes unmentioned in the soccer world.


Merrymaking Italian!

The Germanic spirit -- the World Cup the 3rd-place match

Germany vs. Portugal.

Germany is in a pinch! The Deutschen Fussball-Bundes announced that DF Mertesacker wouldn't show up for the game. He is injured and has left from the team for surgery. Oh... Moreover DF Friedrich also has an injured knee so his appearance is doubtful. Oh, 2 defenders...
And Klose is injured too. He said that he want to play but if he can't make a contribution to the team even if he plays there would be nothing he can do except give up.
Furthermore!! Germany's coach Klismann said that he makes Ballack absent. Oh, my goodness! I'm concerned about this situation... Germany team! Show us your Germanic spirit!

By the way, Japanese often use the word "the Germanic spirit" when talking about Germany. Do people in other countries often use it as well?

Klinsmann also announced that GK Kahn is in the starting lineup.

It's time that game started. I will come back to this article after the game. See you later.

------------------------------ after the game ------------------------------

The game was a clean sweep for Germany, 3 - 1. So Klinsmann could afford to send young players who hadn't play yet in this World Cup to the pitch from the second half.

Person of the match I choose is Schweinsteiger. He is still 21 years old. 9 players out of 23 in Germany team are 20 - 23 years old young players. Especially DFs. 4 players out of 9 are under 23. (Of which 3 are over 190cm in height. Very ta--ll!) This World Cup was very good experience for them.

By the way, a chief referee and one of assistant referees of this game were Japanese. I think the chief referee Kamikawa judged rightly. Cristiano Ronaldo often fell down in a very artificial way as ever, but the referee saw through his artifice and was never deceived. What a nice judge!

Congratulations on the 3rd place!

One article wrritten by one soccer journalist

I often wrote about bad side of soccer and some teams do those things very often. I found the article similar to my opinion. It was written by a British soccer journalist living in Japan. I extract passages from it. (I translate it so there must be many strange English in spite of the article in a newspaper. Sorry.)

===========================================
Show us "Beautiful Portugal" at the end

In the Portugal team, there are players who have brilliant talents, especially Cristiano Ronaldo. But there are also players who mirror the bad part of modern soccer, yes, one of them is Cristiano Ronaldo. When this young winger comes back to the Man U, he will be treated harshly by even fans of Man U. It is due to his role in Rooney's direct red. The revulsion against him is very strong and he was booed by even fans of France in the semifinal game.
His play is speedy and he is good at controlling the ball, but he can't quit playing foul. He falls down in a very artificial way and always aims for chance of FK, PK and cards against opposition players.
----- *snip* ----
If Portugal team concentrates on showing every good parts of soccer, it's fun to see their games. But they often do gamesmanship and spend a lot of time misleading a judge rather than playing. Especially they have a pronounced tendency to do that at being wining.
Figo also should serve as a model for young players in the world, instead of pretending to be injured or repeating complaining a judge. I guess I'm not only one who rejoiced at seeing that Figo's header went wide of the goal in the semifinal game.
----- *snip* ----
Portugal has one more game that is the 3rd-place match.
----- *snip* ----
Taking this opportunity, I think Portugal and Germany have a duty to entertain people in the world. I hear the word "the beautiful game" many times in the World Cup, but it is not so beautiful so far. There are few people who remembered which team won the 3rd-place match. The game is not expected for big things.
So I think both of teams have role to enjoy playing with smile and show fun like things soccer usually creates in the world. Or I wonder this hope is too high even in the 3rd-place match.
===========================================

Whew... It was too hard for me to translate it...

Oh, my favorite views are...

I live near the skyscraper in Shinjuku. I also grew up around here. So I like skyscraper views very much. When I come back from trip and see the view, I am relieved.

I can see the view at all around my neighborhood. Some of them that are my favorite are disappearing.





There are 2 highways around my place. There has been construction at one of them. Oh, no! New highway interrupts my favorite views of skyscraper! Shock! Boo------!!

The right photo was my most favorite view. The skyscraper visible from between 2 buildings. Especially night view was beautiful. But this view is mostly disappearing...

the Wimbledon tennis championships vs. the Soccer World Cup

The Wimbledon tennis championships is being held now. It is one of the biggest tennis tournaments, isn't it?

Hmm... Which game are British grooving to?

Tanabata day

Today, 7th July is "Tanabata" day. It is the day Altair and Vega meet at the Milky Way once a year. In our tradition, we (mainly kids) write our wishes on different colors of "tanzaku" and put it on bamboo leaves.

What wishes do you write?

Hospitalization of the manager of the Fukuoka Softbank Hawks Oh

Sadaharu Oh takes a leave of absence from his post as manager of the Fukuoka Softbank Hawks to have stomach surgery. Many people are surprised. It's in the middle of the pennant race now. He must have many regrets. He led Japan to the championship in the World Baseball Classic in March and won. He might get more and more tired.

The Fukuoka Softbank Hawks got the first place in the Pacific League pennant for the second consecutive year, but they missed league title by playoff. (The Pacific League playoff system is really hogwash!) So they definitely want to win.

I think Oh is well-known in the U.S. too. He is the home run king in the world. He compiled 868 homeruns.

Cute kids in the World Cop

Players enter the stadium with kids hand in hand. This role is very honor for kids and they must be very happy. They stand by world's top players. (Probably competition is very keen.)

Sometimes I find very small kids among them. Very small. How old are they? It seems that they don't understand why they are there. Haha. Probably people who are proud and happy are their parents and other families. But a few years later, those small kids might realize they were in wonderful place.

Germany's players and kids

France's elegant plays -- the World Cup semifinals 2

France vs. Portugal. Score was only France's one goal and it was PK. I'm glad that France won but I feel sorry for a Portugal's player who gave France PK. He must be depressed very much.

Person of the match I choose is... France's defense. (It's not a person this time.) France's defense is excellent, wonderful, perfect!! Italy's defense called Catenaccio is very famous but it seems be the defense by force. But France's defense is very systematic and even elegance.

When Portugal's Cristiano Ronaldo kept a ball, he always drew boos from the crowd. According to a newspaper, it may be due to his behavior on red card of England's Rooney. I also felt bad to see that he ran to a judge (very fast!) and took the lead in complaining although he wasn't a party in charge. Of course most stupid person at the time was Rooney though.

I found the nicknames of Portugal's Deco. He has three nicknames and "Deco" is one of them. Another is "Magico" its meaning is "magician". And "Japones". Its meaning is "Japanese". Why? Does he look like a Japanese? Hmm... Maybe.

Taepodong

During I watched the World Cup, Germany vs. Italy, North Korea launched missiles. So topic of it covers most part of news.

At first, media didn't have much information about it but most news programs were taking much time for it. Stupid. They had no accurate information so they just talked with invited critics about hypothetically speaking hours upon hours. And critics say nothing but ubiquitous things as ever. It was very boring. It is same situation as election reporting. I think those are self-satisfaction of media and journalists. Please carry the correct things accurately, and COMPACTLY.

North Korea launched 7 missiles. What is their objective? I heard that the launch for the 1st missile was almost same time as the launch for the space shuttle Discovery. Hmm... I wonder it represents something?

Host nation Germany dissipates -- the World Cup semifinals 1

Germany vs. Italy. Extra game again. I wanted Germany to win but... Almost. 0 - 0 continued but Italy got a goal at the 119-minutes! In a minute. And Italy got a goal again soon.

Person of the match I choose is Grosso. I think his goal was greater that Del Piero. When he scored a goal, he looked REALLY HAPPY. He was almost crying.

Germany did well but they seemed to be tired. After England and Ukraine I cheered for were defeated, I hoped that the semifinal was Germany vs. France, and Germany won the cup. Like I said before, I don't like soccer of Italy and Portugal. They play dirty pool. I wrote that there was no sportsmanship in soccer. Dirty plays, simulations, complaining to judge too much... They sometimes keep having a ball and don't give it opposing team in spite of the opposing team's ball. What a childish behavior! Portugal's Deco did it although he is one of the top players, so he didn't come into the next game. Italy and Portugal are teams that do those behaviors so very often.

The game France vs. Portugal will start soon. Good luck for France!

Men's crying remains me my days as a player.

Two of four quarterfinals games were decided in penalty shootout... Showdown by penalty shootout is very cruel.

Players fight for 90 minutes, and for 30 minutes extra game. They tough it out, and then penalty shootout. Defeat by penalty shootout gives much stronger shock. Many players cried.


Beckham of England gave away 7 minutes into the second half as injury, and he was crying in the bench. As for I wrote before, I was a handball player when I was a student. I have experience that I watched our game from the bench as injury so I know so well how he feels.

After the game, England players were crying and Beckham comforted them. I also know how they feel. When I played handball, our target was the top 8. At the game of a tournament, we were defeated by 1 point, just one point. (In handball game, total score usually is over 10 at least, not like soccer.) If we won the game, we could be the top 8. We couldn't stop crying.

Fortunately, we placed in the top 8 at the our last tournament. Of course we were so happy, but I remember we didn't talk at all on a bus home. Probably we felt totally drained of energy because of achieving our target. Haha.

Now, I wonder how England players are feeling. I hope they will show their good playing soon.

The king Brazil went away. -- the World Cup quarter finals 4

Brazil vs. France. Likeliest Brazil left from the World Cup. It was said that this World Cup became Ronaldinho's one, but he couldn't perform brilliantly.

Person of the match I choose is Ribery. I know everyone thinks Zidane was best. Yes, playing of Zidane and Henry came to the fore. But Ribery ran and ran, and made a lot contribution.

Top 4 was decided. Germany, Italy, Portugal and France. The teams I cheered for, England and Ukraine have been eliminated...
So I hope Germany win the cup. I have a good feeling toward team of Germany. The final game is... Germany vs. France? Because I don't like teams of Italy and Portygal so much.

the draining duel again -- the World Cup quarter finals 3

The World Cup showed an exciting game again. The game was a cliff-hanger.

England vs. Portugal. Both of teams fought on to the end for 120 minutes and there were no goal, so penalty shootout again... and then England lost... I'm too shock for words. Even the penalty shootout was dramatic. England players were crying.

Person of the match I choose is... I can't think about it now because of despondentness.

Probably this game will be handed down as a historic game.

England leaves from the World Cup this time. That's really a shame, and a shock...
Bye bye England

England players stand with arms around shoulders during the penalty shootout
Beckham gave away as injury, Rooney was ejected for red card, so both of them aren't in the picture.

My six sense

My friend started to work for a university as an assistant professor in April. Generally members of laboratories put their pages on laboratories web site so I checked his site before but he hadn't put it yet.

The other day, somehow I checked it again. No special reason. Just casually. I found his page and told him it. He said he put it just 3 days ago. Oh! Feeling in my bones? Haha.

I often have such experiences. So I believe my six sense. For example, when people tell a lie, I sometimes know it's a lie. I don't know why and there are no grounds. But I know. I don't tell anyone though. When I was a university student, my friends, a guy and a girl went steady but they kept it secret. But I knew that. There was also no reason. Just I thought and I was sure.

My six sense was more sensitive when I was a kid. This ability is getting lower and lower as I get older. Come to think of it, I was far ahead of others in my studies when I was a kid. Just listening in classes, I got a perfect score on every test. Many friends went to cram school. But I didn't study even at home, I just listened classes. Even if every other student answered the question wrong on the test, I aced the test. When I think back, my parents should have done something to develop my ability. Haha.

And then, unfortunately I am a mere mediocrity now.

Ukraine lost the game. -- the World Cup quarter finals 2

The game Ukraine vs. Italy, Ukraine I cheered for lost the game. That's a shame but most people thought Italy would win.

Italian soccer is known for their solid defense called Catenaccio. Yes, their defense was really impregnable wall. They perfectly prevented Shevchenko from his playing as a world number one striker.

Person of the match I choose is Cannavaro of Italy. He is an excellent defender. He and goalkeeper Buffon are key persons of Catenaccio.

I want to say to Ukraine that they did well in spite of their first appearance in the World Cup.

After the draining duel -- the World Cup quarter finals 1

At the World Cup, the top 8 were decided and the first game of them started today.

The first game Germany vs. Argentina has finished just now. It was very good and exciting game. The game was sent to the extra time but it wasn't decided, and then Germany won by the penalty shootout. In this game, I cheered for Germany, but I felt very sorry for Argentina when the player who missed his penalty kick was crying. Both of teams played great and tough game. The penalty shootout is cruel way to decide a winner.

I like watching sports. But I always have heartache when I see losers.

Person of the match I choose is Lehmann of Germany. He made many great saves. I can understand that he took over the regular position of the goalkeeper from Kahn.

It's 3:20 am in Japan now. Midnight. But the game of Ukraine I cheer for will start soon, at 4:00 am. I can't sleep yet.

Where is their sportsmanship?

I'm watching the World Cup these days. But today, I mention bad things about soccer I always think.

I always think there is no sportsmanship in soccer. Players are doing not only too much dirty plays but also simulations. Simulations! Shame of you! Rugby and American football are rougher sports than soccer. But they don't do foul plays as much as soccer, and they hardly complain to judges. There are too much complains to judges in soccer games.
If I have a son, I want him to play sports except for soccer.

But it is a fact that I enjoy the World Cup very much. (^o^)
Go for it, England and Ukraine!

Microsoft Office 2007

When Microsoft upgrades their products, they sometimes make strange changes. Even if it is the function that is not changed at all, its place for setting or even its name was changed. Why? I've been a computer trainer and when I teach new release products of Microsoft I sometimes have troubles. Especially Windows Server and functions of networking. Application is no exception. It seems to be HOBBY of geek engineers of Microsoft?

Microsoft Office 2007 will be released half year later. I saw about it in a computer magazine. New functions are not surprising but its screen and operability are much different. Wow.

I'm thinking of buying new PC after the release of Office 2007 (and Windows Vista). My PC is dickey, it's more like "it's broken". I wonder if the PC will keep until then. I hope so...

The supplement to the magazine was CD-ROM of beta version of Office 2007. But I shouldn't install it because of my PC's erratic behavior?

Interesting insurance for the World Cup

I've heard that there were some strange insurance.

"The trauma insurance" in England.
One man insure against psychological trauma when England team exits from the 1st stage of the World Cup. Its insurance fee is 105 pound and benefit is million. If England exits, the insurance firm asks 5 experts whether England's exit is too early or not. And the man has to prove medically that he suffered trauma.
The insurance firm added Rooney's match absence due to his fracture to the exclusion clause.

"Taking a sicky insurance" in Holland.
If employees are absent from work because of pretended sickness to watch the World Cup, the insurance firm compensates against the companies. According to the news site, when the 2004 European Championship was held in Portugal, the tens of thousands Dutchmen took a sicky in Holland. I wonder how the insurance firm judges real or pretended illness.

Those are interesting insurance in football-orientated Europe.

Japan exited from the World Cup.

Japan couldn't win even one game. Many Japanese supporters were very shocked but I know it's Japanese team's real ability. In fact, Japanese team's playing gained a bad reputation from many medias abroad.

Japanese players looked very very shocked. Not because they lost games... I'm sure because contents of their games were terrible.

What they are missing are...
1. Scoring abilities
2. Strong mental power

About "1", one media said there were no forward in Japanese team. It's an accurate expression.

As for "2", Japan often gives away goals the end of the game or even in added time. They have a short attention span.

And Zico who is a coach of Japanese national team said that they lack professionalism. It's also an accurate expression.

Fighting against English vowels

I think Japanese is one of the most difficult languages, but its pronunciation isn't so difficult, I think.

There are only five vowels in Japanese. But English has 22 vowels! 22!!
It's very difficult for Japanese to distinguish and pronounce English vowels.

For example, followings are same pronunciation for Japanese.
luck - lack
stamp - stump
bird - bard

I'm training English pronunciation using the text book "Eigo mimi" (= English ear)
It shows tongue position etc... by pictures.

I'm training every day but it seems that there are many pronunciation using the back of the throat in English unlike Japanese so my throat hurts, sometimes I feel like throwing up. Is it right training?

Ice cream corn??

I had thought that "Ice cream cone" was "ice cream corn" for a long time. I knew the correct word today... Pronunciation between cone and corn is different. And yes, ice cream cone is conical in shape. But cone and corn are same pronunciation in Japanese. And I had thought that ice cream cone was made of corn.

I think there are some Japanese people who think so... I think...

Foreigner's age

I'm enjoying watching the World Cup these days.
When I watch international sports events such as the World Cup and Olympics, I'm sometimes surprised to hear age of foreign athletes. Even if I think they are veteran, actually they are 24 years old, 22 years old, even teenagers! Foreigners sometimes look old, I know Japanese (Asian) rather look younger though.

For example,
John Terry (England)
I thought he was older than Beckham... but he is 25...






Arjen Robben (Netherlands)
I also thought he was veteran. But when he got a goal, an announcer said "the young player Robben.....!" Young player? Yes, he was 22. I couldn't believe!





Djibril Cisse (France)
Unfortunately he isn't a member of the national team this time due to injury. I remember that he played at the 2002 World Cup and I thought he was a good player. I was very surprised to hear that he was 24. It means he was 20 at the last World Cup I remember?? Oh---!




I wonder how old Japanese players look for foreigners.

My bad listening again

Hmm... I found my bad listening again. This time is...

"---s to have"

I hear it one word "stahave". What is "stahave"? It's a sister shop of Starbucks? Haha.

It was going on bad season.

It's in the rainy season in Tokyo. Humid... very humid. I really HATE humidity. (So I don't like even taking a sauna.) After rainy season, humid summer will come. Oh---! Summer in Japan (except for some areas) is very humid. High temperature or rain doesn't matter for me, but humidity is terrible. So I like summer like in Hawaii, haha.

By the way, there is Teruteru-bozu in Japan and I thought there was that in foreign countries too. But I couldn't find English of Teruteru-bozu from dictionary. Why? Teruteru-bozu is only in Japan?
Japanese kids make teruteru-bozu and hang it up window when they want to have a sunny next day, for example there are a school athletic meet, a school picnic and so on next day.

England vs. Paraguay --- the 2006 World Cup ---

The game; England vs. Paraguay, was finished just now. England barely won. That was close. Was England really a favourite? Whew! Although most England players are top players in several famous club teams, especially MFs. Look England MFs! Formidable talented players.


(Lampard, J Cole, Gerrard, Beckham)


A goalkeeper of Paraguay was injured early in the game and changed to another goalkeeper. He was crying when he left the pitch. Very poor thing...
Many many players are striving to get regular positions. He finally has got No. 1 jersey and was on the pitch of the World Cup. But he played only 5 minutes. He must have felt frustrated and been sad very much.

I was playing sports when I was a student. Training was very very hard. So I know players feelings. I always tend to give an eye to players who missed the game or couldn't play because of injuries. When I see such a situation, I always ruminate about how hard they were practicing and so on.

I hope the goalkeeper will come back next game.

Origin of the word "Dutch treat"

I found a funny article in a newspaper.

There were postcards in a souvenir shop in Brussels. Its title was "the Perfect Europeans". Following phrases were in it.

- The good cook like a British
- The big name like a Luxembourger
- The humorist like a German
- The good mechanic like a Lusitanian
- The reliable person like a Belgian

Of course these are "sarcasms". Hmm... I see.

One more,

- The big spender like a Dutchman

Oh! So splitting the bill is said Dutch treat (account) or going Dutch?

The inauguration of the 2006th World Cup

Finally, the World Cup begins!

The team I cheer for best is Ukraine. The second is England. I cheered for England last time too. England is the country where soccer originated but they can't win the cup for a long time, they were not even favourite team. That is why I'm cheering England. But it seems that's not the case this time. It seems that England is one of favourite teams. Yeah. There are many talented players in England team this time, Gerrard, Lampard, Becham, Rooney...

As for Ukraine, player I know is only Shevchenko. I learn Ukraine team while watching their games. So please roll, Ukraine!

Before the inauguration, some players were injured. Cisse of France broke a bone. Poor things. He is a very good player and important to France.

Ballack of Germany was also injured and misses the first game. Germany, pinch!?

Oh! Polar bears I love are...

Like I wrote in this blog before, one of my favorite animals is polar bear. IUCN announced the Red List about one month ago. Oh! The polar bears were designated as an endangered species. Main cause is the global warning.

According to one new site,
They need lots of ice to hunt on and to raise their cubs. As more ice melts because of rising temperatures, they are finding it hard to survive.

Sad...

The movie "White Planet" will hit screens soon. I will go to see it of course. The director of the movie said that scenes in the movie would disappear in the future. Very sad...

http://www.whiteplanet.jp (Japanese site)

The game of Giants

I went to see the baseball game, Giants vs Swallows, with my friend in Golden week. (about 1 month ago) When I go to see the game, game was boring and Giants always couldn't win. But Giants won and it was a very exciting game this time. Wow!!

Giants maintained a lead in Central league and many people thought Giants was strong this year. But I was concerned as a fan. As suspected, Giants fell from the top after I went to see the game.

Giants was in the lead again a few days ago but my worries about Giants are endless.

Unfortunately, my camera has no zoom function. Players are very small...

If the world were a village of 100 people Part 4

I watched the TV program "If the world were a village of 100 people, Part 4" today.

It featured 3 children this time. One of them was a 9-year-old boy who was a street children in Ukraine. He escaped from his father's violence. He has HIV because of his father who is a drug addict.

He asked a Japanese reporter if she was hungry and eats food he had. He had food... probably it was not food for Japanese. And it was today's first food for him. But he considered her who probably has never have trouble eating. He also was worried about his younger sister who was in an orphanage. He said he hoped his sister didn't spend life like him and want her to go to school and spend normal life, he also wanted to go to school. I couldn't stop crying.

He is always running away from police. If he is taken into protective custody by police, he will be taken to the orphanage, and end up with going back to home where violent father is in. TV program staff tried to talk him into going hospital but he adamantly refused to do.

There are many street children who escaped from their family's violence. They have only 2 choices, being street children or living with violent family? Why country doesn't protect them?

There are many children who are under harsh situation. Many associations act for helping them. But I think the root of the whole problem is "country (government)". Each country must take appropriate policies to resolve this problem.

In Japan, there are no street children, no child labor, every child can go to school... although until about 60 years ago, many poor children couldn't go to school and did heavy work.
Why did Japan could make present good, and rare situations?

Japanese TV sometimes airs the program like this. And then? Is that all? For what purpose did they air those? Most Japanese who watched the program feel "poor thing!". That's all.
Japan (including me) should DO something.

Somebody! Help me with English!!

After I joined new company this month, I have already had meetings and conference call in English some times. Conference call with overseas people is too hard for me! I must improve my English IMMEDIATELY but it's impossible. Worst of all is that most people think I can speak English fluently.

My new boss who is a bad workman.

I'm very busy with my new work. Too busy is no problem for me. But my immediate boss is very dull and bad workman. That's too stressful for me.

Most people who are bad workmen are good at suck-up and dodging responsibility by excuse. My boss too.
His way of working is terrible. Even young girls do much better than him.

I think everyone have hopes about their job. Me too. In my hopes about job, there are two important points I can't compromise. One is whether I can do professional jobs as a professional person. The other is whether I can work with capable workers, at least I don't want to work under a dull and bad work boss.

It seems that those are unattainable hopes in the present company. According to the employment contract, at first I work as a contract employee for 6 months, then I will become a permanent employee. I intend to endure this situation stoically for 6 months. And I also intend to search another job during 6 months.

Too----- busy!!

I don't update my blog at all... Like I wrote in my previous blog, I started to work new company. And I get very very busy. I'm on a hectic schedule so I can't have even time to boot my private PC.

I will update my blog this weekend!

Engaging in the humanitarian assistance

I watched the movie "Beyond Borders" on TV although it was aired midnight, because I'm thinking about engaging in the humanitarian international relief operations. Like I wrote on this blog before, I want to do activities to help children go to school.

At the price of yourself, even your life, can you support others? I don't have confidence at all.
When I see children (people) who are under harsh and terrible conditions, tears always came into my eyes. That's not good. At least, I must be stronger to engage in the activities.

By the way, the filmmaker of "Beyond Borders" might have described the heroine Angelina Jolie performed as a brave woman. But on reflection, wasn't she just selfish? I felt bad for her husband. Haha.

The 20th anniversary of the Chernobyl nuclear reactor accident

This April 26th marked the 20th anniversary of the Chernobyl Accident. It was really horrible accident of course, but reaction of the former Soviet authorities after the accident was also horrible. Concealment of socialistic countries is terrifying.

I remember what one Chinese said. He worked in Japan. When someone asked him how was Japan, he answered that Japan valued people's lives. What?
He said that China didn't value human lives. Many years ago, one big accident (I didn't remember well. maybe earthquake? Mudslide? I think it was something like natural disaster.) was happened in China. Many countries offered the disaster assistance but China declined them. After several days later, at last Chinese authorities declared the number of dead from the accident. He said that if China accepted the offers, many lives were saved.

Those are a part of life in the socialistic countries?

Tibetan Buddhism culture series 1: about Kanjo

It has been more than one year since I began to be interested in Tibetan Buddhism. I went to the Tibetan Buddhism Promotion Association that name was Potala College to take a lecture class today. Potala College provides many kind of classes about Tibetan Buddhism and I took "Tibetan Buddhism culture series" class. Today's theme was "about Kanjo". Although this class is for beginners, it was a bit difficult for me. But it was VERY impressed! I can't explain this feeling.

I don't intend to be a believer of any religion. But teaching of Tibetan Buddhism is very interesting and there are some things I sympathize with.

But it is very profound. It is difficult to understand it soon. I try to know it little by little.

Next class is next month and its theme is "variety of tangka".

TOEIC exam result

I got my result of TOEIC exam.

Total score is 660. Listening section is 355, reading section is 305.

Oh! I reached my goal score that was 650! I can't believe. As I wrote on this blog, I did badly on the exam... I'm sure that my real English skill is lower than score 660. I need to study more and more.

I intend to take the exam in September again. Next my goal is 730.

My favorite characters

I watched "The Lord of the Rings - The Return of the King" on TV. Actually I haven't watched Part 1 "The Fellowship of the Ring", and I have watched only half part of Part 2 "The Two Towers". So I couldn't understand some words, especially proper names, such as person's name, place name, tribe name... Even if someone talked about one tribe, I couldn't understand if it was ally or foe. Haha. But I enjoyed the movie.

Who is your favorite character in this movie? Probably Frodo, Aragorn, Legolas (Orlando Bloom is very popular in Japan) are popular characters. But I like Sam! He isn't handsome and cool, but he is very faithful and pure.

My favorite character in the "Star Wars" is Chewbacca. Don't you think he is also faithful and pure? I want Chewbacca as a pet!

By the way, in "The Lord of the Rings", at last peace has come. Isn't person who contribute most is Sam?

Bye bye, Calvin

It's April from today.

I changed back to Japanese newspaper. I was taking English newspaper for about 6 months to improve my English. But newspaper was one of the most important things for me and I liked reading newspaper, even insertion, which has many infromation, not only news but also other various things. I missed them so I changed back.

Today, I read Japanese newspaper after a long time.

In the English newspaper, there was my favorite cartoon. It's "Calvin and Hobbes". The main character is Calvin who is a kid. (Maybe about 7 years old?) He is insolent and often pesters his parents. His best friend is Hobbes that is a stuffed tiger, but in Calvin's imagination (maybe), Hobbes is a real tiger and they are always enjoying many things together.
I feel sorry that I can't read this cartoon from today.

Too bitter chocolate

I love chocolate very much. Especially bitter one. I don't accept too sweet chocolate, such as white chocolate, as a real chocolate. Haha.

Recently, chocolate that contains much cacao component is very popular in Japan. I found two new chocolates in a convenience store today. One was "Cacao 75%", the other was "Cacao 85%". Hmm... I don't know how much cacao was contained in chocolate I eat usually, but I like bitter chocolate so I bought "Cacao 85%" chocolate.

Too bitter!

I can't eat it because of too bitter. This is the first chocolate I can't eat.

I took the TOEIC exam for the first time.

I came home from taking the TOEIC exam. Hmm... My English is very poor, I knew that though.

I couldn't catch English well in listening section. In reading section, I didn't have enough time to answer every question because my reading speed wasn't fast as usual. My problems are same... It means that my English doesn't improve at all.

I will get the exam result one month later. Too late. Most certification exams are conducted on CBT so we can know our test result as soon as we finished exam. Why is TOEIC conducted on old way? I must wait the result about for a month.

Movie: Eight Below

Hollywood movie "Eight Below" is hitting screen in Japan now. It is remake of a Japanese movie that title is "Nankyoku Monogatari" (Antarctic Story).

http://disney.go.com/disneypictures/8below

It was released no less than 23 years ago! I watched it and remember it well because the movie was a big hit. It was very impressive movie.

But I wonder why Hollywood remade it 23 years after its release.

8 dogs appear in the movie. But what does "Eight Below" mean? Word "below " is used for, such as "below average", "below 30 degrees C"..., isn't it?

Japan won the WBC.

Japan became the first champion of the World Baseball Classic! Congratulations!!

We were almost ready to give up advancing to the final 4. But Japan could barely do, and won the championship. I watched the games full of nervous excitement and really enjoyed them.

Favored teams, the U.S., Dominican Republic, Venezuela, that all members were Major Leaguers, couldn't advance to the final 4. Especially this WBC was coordinated all for America's wining, for example judges, paring of the tournament, location and so on. The U.S. couldn't even advance to the final 4 although everything was in its favor.

This time was the first WBC so there were many problems as the world game. I hole WBC would reach maturity as world championship. Next WBC will be held in 3 years.

The cherry blossom front

Cherry blossom will be in season soon. At this time of the year, the Meteorological Agency releases the flower forecast of cherry blossom. This year it seems to be earlier than usual.

In Tokyo, it is about 22nd March. So I wonder the weekend after next is best for Hanami (cherry blossom viewing).

This is map of the cherry blossom front. -->

Is it only Japan?

Movie: Hotel Rwanda

I went to see the movie "Hotel Rwanda". I was thinking about seeing it, it's not famous and popular in Japan though.

It was the story of the genocide in Rwanda.
I can't write my impressions of the movie here because the subject is too deep. Actually I can't understand my own feeling... sadness? anger? empty?

I want many people to see this movie.

http://www.hotelrwanda.com/main.html

Polar bear Peace

My favorite animals are "dolphin" and "polar bear". Most people are surprised when hearing that I like polar bear.

There is one polar bear whose name is Peace at Tobe zoo in Ehime prefecture. She is a hand-raised bear and it's very rare case.

Sometimes, TV program about her aired. I love watching it! She looked like a stuffed toy when she was child. Very cute!!

Moving Peace is much cuter. You can see some her videos in the following site. (It's a Japanese site.)

http://www.tobezoo.com/shiiku/peace/p_w/html/indexmain.html

She is 6 years old now.
Oh! Very big!

Health spa

I went to health spa with my friend today. At first, we took a bath leisurely. After that, we got a massage for about one hour. And then, we talked over drinking beer. What a wonderful day!
Yes, today was supposed to be relaxed day, but!

Before going to the health spa, I was in a coffee shop and studied English. And I received a phone 3 times. Every call was business call... I took a day off today though. I had to take some business calls even during I was in the health spa. And I ended up going work after the spa, although I said that I couldn't meet with our client because I wore jeans.

In spite of my day off, it was a hectic day today. But I enjoyed the health spa enough!

Open-air bath in the health spa I went to

Trying new method of learning English

I bought 2 books for studying English today. I'm thinking about trying new method of learning English after I take TOEIC exam on 26th this month.
Left book, "Dialogue 1800" is for increasing my vocabulary. Right book, "Eigo mimi (English ear)" is for improving my listening skill. I put emphasis on my 2 weak points.

By the way, I heard English wrong again. It was almost same mistake I made the other day.

I caught an English sentence a speaker said.

"A man is taking office hat."

What is the office hat? Correct answer is

"A man is taking off his hat."

Whew...

2006 is sports year!

Olympics have finished. And then, World Baseball Classic started yesterday.
http://www.worldbaseballclassic.com/2006

There are many sports events this year. Olympics, WBC and Soccer World Cup. I like watching sports very much so I'm happy, especially I like baseball.

Japan whitewashed China, 18 - 2, yesterday. Japan will place in the top 4, but I wonder it's difficult for Japan to take the first place. There are many heavy odds, such as the U.S., Dominican Republic, Venezuela...

The result of Japan on the Olympics was terrible. Probably Japan can't advance to the final 16 in the Soccer World Cup. So I hope Japan get a good result in WBC.

I can't catch English sentence as usual.

On one of the questions of TOEIC mock exam, a speaker said,
"The man is cleaning off his glasses."

But I could hear
"The man is cleaning office grasses."

?? Office grass?? Is there grass in an office? Does someone sometimes clean it? Hahaha...... ha...ha... My listening skill is too bad as usual.

Spring will come soon?

March has begun. According to the calendar, it's spring... but it's still cold. It's also rain. I feel that spring is far.

But spring is approaching with every rainfall every year.

Right is a photo of ume (Japanese plum) my friend gave me.
Spring is just around the corner.