Just one happy thing among many bad things

My watch was running out of a battery so I had to take it to a shop.
I can't remember how long it has been since I had the battery changed last. It was lo---ng time ago. The battery lasts quite long. So why now?

My bicycle was stolen. My hair dryer was broken. Then it's the watch this time. Whew...

In case of Japanese watches, a shop changes its battery on the spot and the cost is cheap. But my watch is TAG Heuer... so...
It takes TWO WEEKS! and costs 6,800 yen! (64us$, 40euro) I can buy another cheep watch for 6,800 yen.
And life without the watch is very inconvenient for me.

But regarding my stolen bicycle, I received a letter from Shinjuku Ward office yesterday. The letter says that they have removed my bicycle so come to take it.
Oh!

But, my bicycle was removed on 20th of the last month. The notice is too late. Some people might buy new one by the time they receive the notice. And, I have to pay 3,000 yen for removing fee. Boo...

As bad things is going on happening around me recently, but at least there was one good thing. My bicycle will come back, I'm a bit worried about its condition though.

Pronunciation of "T"

Native English speakers strongly pronounce plosive, such as "T", "P" and "B", for Japanese. Japanese don't pronounce them so strongly. So when I hear English conversation, those sound a bit too much, especially "T". They pronounce "T" very strongly.

On the other hand, sound of "T" sometimes disappears.
For example;
Twenty --> I can hear "tweny".
Internet --> I can hear "innernet"

Hmm... strange...

The building opposite to my apartment

This is a high rise new building across the street from my apartment.


It was completed last month. It has not only rent room for individuals but also offices for the companies. Since a couple of weeks ago, companies moving has started.


Actually I was thinking of living in there during it was under construction. But its completion was a bit too late for me.

But... I found that... even if it had completed earlier, I couldn't have lived there. Because its rent is expensive.

"Electric" vs. "electronic"

I often confuse those words. When I use either of the words, I always have to think "well, which is..."

Probably I sometimes say, electronic wire, electronic power or electric dictionary.

Haircut

I had my hair cut today. I ordered to cut my forelock shorter than usual. So it is a bit too short. Hmm... OK, hair will grow soon.

In English, they say "I had my hair cut."
But in Japanese language, it's a bit different.
We say "I cut (my) hair" in Japanese even though we don't cut ourselves.
For example;

Next day of your haircut, probably your friends or co-workers say in Japanese,
"Oh, did you cut (your) hair? It's ---"

Another example;
"Where do you go now?"
"I'm going to cut (my) hair."

Such being the case, it's a bit difficult for me to adapt myself to the phrase "I had my hair cut".

"Even though"

I didn't know that the meaning of "even though" is a bit different from that of "even if". As far as I remember, I learned the both were the same in junior high school. So I always use just "even if". Ooh...

Even though I had to say "even though", I used "even if".

A boring American drama

The other day, I found that the popular American TV drama "SEX AND THE CITY" was on air. So I added it to my English TV drama line-up that was for my studying English.

But it was disappointing, because its story was very boring. "Desperate Wives" is MUCH more fun!
Many American TV dramas, which were grate hit in the US, are on air in Japan and those are amusing. (I think "24" becomes boring and boring though.) But I can't undertstand why "SEX AND THE CITY" became so popular in the US.

By the way, why aren't all of 4 actresses in "SEX AND THE CITY" so beautiful? I wonder if the producer chose them intentionally. Come to think of it, there are no cool guys in the drama, too.

Hard to pronounce

The words I can't pronounce well are "insist" and "expect".

I seem to be bad at "S" pronunciation. In "insist", there are two consecutive "S" with a vowel between them. It's very difficult for me.

I don't know why I can't say "expect" well. Actually it's quite new word for me. I learned the appropriate way to use it around the last autumn, and I knew it was very useful, more like essential word.

"I expected it to be -----."
It's almost impossible for me to say it.

I expect myself to be good at those pronunciations.
Is it a strange sentence?

Having entirely opposite meanings

"Temper" is a bit strange word.

1)
One of its meanings is kind of "mood" or "feeling".
For example;
She is a good/bad temper.

2)
Other meaning is "calmness" or "composure".
For example;
He lost his temper.
He is keeping his temper.

3)
On the other hand, one more meaning is "anger" or "conniption fit".
For example;
She is in a temper.

2 and 3 are completely opposite. One word has opposite meanings...
I wonder if there is such a word in Japanese. Could be.

The worst season

Although it's still rainy season, it's fair weather this weekend.

Over 30 C degrees temperature and terribly high humidity. It's almost mid summer.

Walking outside for a while, then on stopping walking, I sweat and sweat. It doesn't stop.
My body really doesn't like humidity. My skin condition becomes bad, I lose my appetite, and even feel sick.

Such a season has come, this year too.

The explosion of my hair dryer

A few days ago, when I used my hair dryer, I found the connection between the body and the codecord had very high heat. I thought I needed to buy new one.

Today, I was still using it. But it sometimes stopped working, so I checked the codecord and found a small burnt scratch. Oh, it's dangerous. I have to go to buy new one tomorrow.

I continued to use it hoping it works 5 more minutes. Suddenly, there was a sound "PUN!!" over my head, then it never worked again. The codecord terribly burned.

Ooh, it was dangerous. I know I should have stopped using it as soon as I found its trouble. It was good that nothing happened to me.

Sarkozy's ability

There are many police officers around the center of Tokyo these days, because the summit talks is taking place next week. The site is in Hokkaido where is far from Tokyo though.

The other day, morning news said that Japanese government was officially informed that one of the first ladies didn't want to move place to place with other first ladies on the same bus. Huh? Which country's first lady says such a stupid thing?
One commentator said in joke, "It might be French...". But he was right.

Evening news of the day said that it was decided that French President Sarkozy's wife won't come to the summit, due to her other job as a singer or something.

What a silly excuse! Everyone has known it's not due to her other job, but due to just her selfishness. I don't care about her character. The problem is Sarkozy who permitted that.

I doubt his abilities as the head of state.

Meaning of stranger

There was the following sentence in a mail.

"Keep in touch. Don't be a stranger."

Don't be a stranger? What does it mean?

For me, a stranger is a kind of weird, odd or suspicious person. So I checked "stranger" in a dictionary.

It was much different.

Example sentences in the dictionary are;

"I'm sorry I'm a stranger around here."
"A passing stranger"
I see. A passerby isn't a weird, odd and suspicious person. Haha.

"You're quite a stranger./Hello, stranger!"
I see, I see!

But when it comes to a stranger, my brain still images a weird, odd and suspicious person. It seems to take much time to change the image of stranger.

A new word "heck"

I learned a useful (at least for me) word the other day. It's "heck".

How in the heck ----- ?
What in the heck ----- ?

An expression that I thought is the most useful is "What the heck!". Hmm... I can use it in many ways.

But I wonder if I can say it on business, or in the situation where I should be polite.

I'd better learn not only business English but also...

There are words I won't be able to memorize. One of them is "ambulance".

Whenever I learn English, I put emphasis on business-related words and expressions. Basically I need to speak English just on business now. So even if I couldn't memorize "ambulance" that has nothing to do with business, I didn't care about that.

But! If I work abroad sometime, words for my daily life would become much more important than business English?!
If I were in an accident or something, I couldn't say, "Call an ambulance, somebody!". Ooh, it's in crisis.

My bad listening comprehension #11

"Not the capriow! The vency, real node the vency's DNA."

I had no idea at all. I thought there were some words I didn't know, I had to check the dictionary such as capriow and vency. Of course there aren't such words.

The correct sentence is;
"Not DiCaprio! DaVinci, Leonardo DaVinci's DNA."

I can't say anything about that...

My hearing wrong of the past:
http://sandfriend.blogspot.com/2008/06/my-bad-listening-comprehension-10.html

EURO 2008 the final game

Unfortunately, Germany I was cheering couldn't win... Just one goal was made by Fernando Torres then Spain won the championship.


I don't think it was good judgment for Germany to relieve Philipp Lahm. I think he was extremely exhausted, but even so, Germany should have made him play till the end of the game.

I have appreciated his play since the World Cup 2006.
Look --> http://sandfriend.blogspot.com/2006/07/my-general-comment-on-2006-world-cup.html )

While I was watching the game, actually I didn't think Germany could win. Playing of Spain looked much better than Germany's one.

The invincible Armada finally got the championship. It's been a long time.

No conversation in the movie

There was the movie "Terminator 2" on TV. I have watched it a lot of times so I didn't intend to watch it.

When I got home, it was still on air. I tried watching it in English, for learning English.

But, because it was the last 20 minutes of the movie, as you know, there was little conversation. Sounds I could hear were just a lot of gunshots, explosions and crashes. Even if somebody uttered voices, those were cries and shouts, not conversation. It was useless for studying English. Haha.

Disappeared sound

In languages, sound of words sometimes disappears or is put next word together. It's often the case in Japanese, too. And it troubles non-native speakers.

I thought I was getting used to catching such sound in English recently, but it was my misunderstanding.

I heard;
"So a-lee he still ga a lot of options."

Correct sentence is;
"So at least he's still got a lot of options."

I could catch just "a-lee" was "at least".

No wonder I can't understand English dramas, movies and news.

Network of contacts

I've always wanted to expand network of contacts, especially on business and humanitarian assistance.

A book I have just finished reading says;
You should have solid relationship with A person who have relationship with 100 people. It's much better than having superficial relationship with 100 people. So you should treasure a few people you have already known.

Hmm... It's a deep word.
The book is about accounting though.

A guy who studies Japanese

On the train on my way home yesterday, I was reading my English studying notebook as usual. A person behind me caught my eyes. He was a non-Japanese and seemed to see my notebook. He spoke to me with smile, "English is difficult, isn't it?" in Japanese. I said, "You speak Japanese well. Have you studied Japanese?" He said he goes to kind of language school.

Many non-Japanese in Japan don't try to learn Japanese. So I feel happy when I meet a non-Japanese like him.

I hope his Japanese improve lot, and, my English too!

Movie: One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest

It's very old movie. I know just an old Jack Nicholson, but he is quite young in this movie.

When I find a movie I want to watch, I usually write it down in my note, from old movies to the latest ones. When I have time to watch movies, I choose one among them. This movie is also one of them, but I can't remember why I listed this old movie.

The theme is a bit deep. I don't know why but I had some sympathy for a main character acted by Jack Nicholson.

While I was watching this movie, I didn't notice that one of the actors was Danny Devito. He looked MUCH different person. I was very surprised to know he was Danny Devito after watching the movie.
I thought Jack Nicholson's acting was very good but that of Danny Devito was also excellent.

A wonderful, excellent and incredible coach, Hiddink

Russia team defeated the Netherlands team!


Russia qualifiered for the finals holding THAT England team. But probably no one thought they could win the group league. But! they defeated Sweden team and advanced to the quarterfinal contrary to everyone's expectations. Then, they defeated a shoo-in the Netherlands!! It's miracle!!!

The coach of Russia is Hiddink. That Hiddink!

He steered South Korea team to the top 4 at the 2002 World Cup. People praised him and he established himself as an excellent coach.

At the 2006 World Cup, he steered Australia team to best 16. He prove that his ability as a coach was real. Most people admitted he was one of the greatest commanders.
Look at my article at that time. --> http://sandfriend.blogspot.com/2006/07/my-general-comment-on-2006-world-cup.html I chose him as a coach award!

Then, in this time, he brought off again. (EURO 2008 hasn't finished yet though.) I hope Germany and Russia compete in the final game.

If he became a coach of Japan team, I wonder if they would also become strong. Hmm... I think potential is different...

Bad things go on happening. -2

In addition, I lost all the programs I recorded. One of them was a movie which I had wanted to watch for a long time. I haven't watched it. What a shock!

It is more like anger than shock, about a chain of bad things.

Bad things go on happening.

I was watching one of the quarterfinals of EURO 2008, Russia vs. the Netherlands.

The game was in a tie, 1 to 1, then it was going to go to the extended game, and then... my TV on my PC (one-seg) suddenly down. Huh??

I tried to start it some times but just an error massage appeared. I reboot the computer, but the situation didn't change.
Uh... I uninstalled the software then reinstalled it. It didn't work.

I was almost giving up. I uninstalled and reinstalled the software again and installed just its driver again.

Finally it started working. It took about an hour. Of course the game has finished...

What is the next bad thing?

EURO 2008

Unfortunately, my favorite team England couldn't qualifier for the finals, so I am cheering for Germany team. I'm glad that most members of the team are the same as ones at the last World Cup, so I know most of them.

They won the group league, then their opponent team at the quarterfinal was Portugal I don't like! So I wanted them to win without fail. Then Germany defeated Portugal!! Good job!!!

Aim for the championship!

The value of my very useful bicycle is...

I went to the police to report that my bicycle was stolen.

One of the question from a policeman was;
"How much do you think is your bicycle if you sold it now?"

What? Hmm. Probably the report has to include the amount of damage.
But I don't know general price of used bicycle. It's impossible for me to estimate it.

I said to the policeman that I had no idea. He said that in such a case most people price 3,000 yen (28us$. 18euro)
3,000 yen?? I see... OK... I price 3,000 yen too...

Poor thing. The value of my bicycle is no more than 3,000 yen... It's almost 0. Although it serves my purpose a lot and is necessary in my life.

I wonder where my bicycle is now. Probably I can never see it again...

Bad things happen consecutively.

Unlucky again...

I needed to go to a place to do something. It's a bit far from my place on foot, so I always go there by bicycle. But since my bicycle was stolen yesterday, I went there on foot today.

It is humid, TOO humid these days. It's cloudy and temperature is not so high because it's rainy season, but I sweat slightly and my hair clings to my neck. Typical Japanese climate. Terribly HUMID!

In such climate, I had to walk to go to the place. Then finally I got there and then, I found that I left my wallet at my home! Too bad! Going back to my place and come to the place again? I should do that because it will rain all day tomorrow, but... I gave up.

I wonder if my biorhythms or something is at the bottom now...

My bicyicle was stolen!

After work, I came back Shinjuku station. There wasn't my bicycle! What a shock!!
It's not good days these days... I'm going to go make a report to the police.

Today is an unlucky day.

More like a bad day...

My bad listening comprehension #10

"I think we can make a lot of transfers within the company."

It makes sense for me, but... the correct sentence is;
"I think we can make lateral transfers within the company."

I didn't know the word "lateral", so I checked it in a dictionary. I see... Oh, now I remember.

I was a handball player in high school. There was "lateral pass". "Lateral" is that "lateral"!

My hearing wrong of the past:
http://sandfriend.blogspot.com/2008/05/my-bad-listening-comprehension-9.html

Excessive "for me"

An example sentence in the dictionary;
"Can you change this bill into 10 dimes for me?"

Why is "for me" needed? Should I say it whenever I want to change bills? I think it is unnecessary, more like excessive.

In Japanese, we never say it in this case. If somebody says "for me", it's very strange.

A friend of yours needs some change but there are no coins in his wallet. He can't speak English, so you go to a shop to ask to change with his bill instead of him.
Do you say "can you change this bill for a friend of mine?"?

Addiction to sleep

I wrote on the previous article that I awoke as 1am last night. Then after I went to bed, I couldn't sleep until 5am, I don't why...

Then I fell asleep.

I woke up and looked at the watch. What!? It was 5pm. 5:00PM!!
But my difference from other people is...
I fell asleep again! and woke up at 7pm. I watched news and a drama in bed then I got up at 9pm. I'm such a lazy person...

I just wrote that 24 hours a day was insufficient. Yes, I really think so usually. But on the other hand, I always waste MUCH time sleeping.

I wonder if there are any sleep-addiction people like me.

A meeting with a wonderful person

I met a very nice person on business today.

She is a person of my generation but looks like much younger and beautiful. Her manners are very polite and charming. I'm sure that she never offends anybody. In such her soft attitude, I felt that she was superior professional and had high skill on her job.

I was happy seeing her and even a bit excited on my way home.

By the way, I wrote on the previous article that I was going to come straight home and go to bed, but I'm still awake, it's already after 1:00am, because something to do came up. I've always thought that 24 hours a day is insufficient.

After exciting week

This week was gone rapidly, because I had a lot of new things to learn on my job.

I like something new. It always excites me.

After such exciting week, I'm a bit tired. I have to visit a person on business from now. After that, I am going to come straight home, then go to sleep!

I missed "HEROES" this week...

I found this morning that "HEROES" wasn't recorded, I set up programmed recording for sure though. What a shock!

The recording system has worked wrongly or even not worked a few times so far. But I didn't want it to happen on recording of "HEROES". I am really depressed.

Movie: A Sound of Thunder

I wonder if this movie was a great hit.

I thought that its CG was a bit cheap, although it must not be so old movie. (Probably in 2005) I wonder if its production cost was very low. In fact, no big-name actors and actresses appeared.

While watching it, I felt I had seen the leading actor. So I checked the Internet. He is Edward Burns, actually one of my favorite Hollywood actors.

Whew... as I wrote, I am really bad at distinguish non-Japanese's faces, but I couldn't recognize even my favorite actor...

Lemon Cream Spaghetti without lemon?

I've heard that lemon-flavored spaghetti is general in Italy. I like it very much but unfortunately there is few restaurant which provide it in Japan. I wonder why.

Today in a restaurant, I found the Lemon-flavored spaghetti in its menu! Goody!

I ordered it of course. But...???
I couldn't taste lemon at all. It was just a cream sause spaghetti? My sence of taste is strange?

I tried to taste it carefully again and again. Then I decided to ask the restaurant. I am a person who seldom complains to shops, restaurants and so on. Even if a restaurant provides a different dish from one I ordered, I usually eat it without saying anything.
But, this time is another case. I was really glad to find lemon-flavored cream spaghetti in the menu. I felt even I must eat it.

I asked a waiter then he took my dish to a kitchen. A few minutes later, he came back and said, "We are sorry. We forgot to put lemon into the dish." Haha. It was good to pluck up courage to ask.

Finally new dish came. Yummy!

Reading wrong

I have put the articles about my bad listening comprehension series. Considering my English level, this series must continue.

I often do, not only "hearing wrong", but also "reading wrong".

When I read,
"Bill fell down some steps."
I thought he felt down. So...
He was depressed about... steps? I see. I guessed he tried to achieve to do something step by step, and he probably felt depressed on the way to his goal.

"This soup is very salty."
I thought it was soap. So...
Soap is salty? I see. The soap includes famous salt which is good for skin, such as the salt of the Dead Sea.

How imaginative...

"some" vs. "any"

Almost all English grammar books explain about "some" and "any".
For example;"Any" is used for negative sentences, while "some" is used for affirmative sentences. In interrogatives, "any" is used.
And, there are many exceptions.

I don't know why but I have understood that very well, even the exceptions. When I answer the book's exercises about that, I can say correct answers automatically and unconsciously. I think it is good.

But! I found one thing about "some" and "any". In IF-sentences, "any" is used. I didn't know.
"Let me know if you need anything."
Probably I say "if you need something". Um... It must take a long time for me to be able to say it unconsciously.

The invitation race started just now! -2

I found this "uchiwa (fan)" in the library today. It was written on the box that "take it freely", so I took one of them. Uchiwa is very useful for terrible humid Japan's summer, more like necessary.

Those were made by the Tokyo Olympic Bidding Committee. It is written on the other side,

Bring the Olympic to Tokyo, 2016!
http://www.tokyo2016.or.jp/

I was surprised to find those uchiwa, because the 4 cities' selection was announced at the last midnight. But such things are already in public facilities today.

What an accurate preparation!

The invitation race started just now!

4 cities passed the 1st selection for the 2016 Olympic site, Chicago, Madrid, Rio de Janeiro a--nd Tokyo!

Fierce competition will start finally.

I hope Tokyo wins!

Definite(ly), Obvious(ly), Distinct(ly)

I'm not sure the difference among those 3 words. The meanings of them are not the same, are they...?

There are many other words I can't tell the differences, such as;
restrict/limit, classify/categorize, relevant/relative, predict/anticipate/forecast, faulty/defect, gain/obtain/acquire, major/primary/main, involve/engage, previous/preceding... Whew...

I wonder how I can understand their differences. All I can do at the present time is picking up example sentences as many as possible, then trying to grasp subtle differences.

"What do you do?" vs. "What is your job?"

When people ask someone for his/her job, they say "What do you do?" in English. I feel it strange.

If someone asked me "What do you do?", for example we were talking over lunch, I want to answer "I'm having lunch." or "About when are you asking? About my personal time such as the weekend?"

"What is your job?" makes a lot more sense for me. But today, I found that it is inappropriate because it's impolite. Hmm...

Japanese people tend to avoid telling something directly. They tend to insinuate something, and care about being polite MUCH more than English speakers. But when Japanese ask someone's job, they say "what is your job?" in Japanese.
I wonder what point is impolite in English.

Living in another country without fluent speaking

There is an English learning TV program of which title is "studying abroad on TV". It broadcasts the scene of English classes of a university in New York. You can study as if you attended the class. All students are of course from overseas and some of them speak English even lower than me, but they lives in New York. I really respect them.

I think living in another country is very tough even if they can speak the country's language fluently. If they can't speak it well like the student of the class I mentioned, it's much harder.
If I got sick, how can I communicate with a doctor?
When I went to a hair salon, how can I explain to a stylist my hair style I wish?
If I was gotten into a trouble, an accident or even a crime?
There is no end.

People around me have said since I was a kid that I was not afraid of anything. My parents used to be sometimes surprised and sometimes worried about such my character, even after I became an adult.
But, the language issue is another thing. Then, I go on studying English and seeking more efficient and effective way to learn English.

Before working abroad...

What will you do in 5 years? It's the question which you hear often. (Especially at job interviews.)

Actually it's my policy not to set such a thing strictly. I want to react flexibly depending on the situation at the time. I believe flexibility is very important and necessary thing on business, and my advantages are to be flexible and adaptable.

But I am thinking of a rough plan now, working abroad for a few years a couple of years later.

I'm a person who LOVE Tokyo and don't want to live in places other than Tokyo. In fact I've never lived other areas. But working overseas is good to know various businesses and broaden my horizons.
It's also a good chance to see situation in other countries about humanitarian assistants I'm interested in, and broaden personal relationships in connection with that.

My current situation enables me to do that? Hmm... There is no possibility. I wonder if I should try to find a position (job opportunity) where there is possibility, it's very hard though.

But before everything, I have to improve my English more and more and more!! Even if I were in the situation where there was possibility to work abroad, a company would never transfer me overseas unless I can speak English fluently.

Plunging into the worst season

The rainy season started in here Tokyo. I think it's earlier this year. Humid terrible climate lasts over a month. Gloomy.

But after the rainy season is finished, much more humid horrible "Japanese summer" will come. It's more like horrors than gloom.

won't vs. want

I can't tell "won't" from "want" in hearing.

I know those phonetic signs are different and even can pronounce both words individually. But, when I hear what somebody says, I can't distinguish them.

For example, a friend of yours came to your place and said,
"I won't stay long." "I want to stay long."

Those have entirely opposite meanings.

He/she says "I won't stay long", but I answer, "sure! you can stay as long as you like".
It can happen.

What is his intention?

I can see office buildings, apartments, houses and so on through my window. There is a three-story apartment across the street. In a balcony of a room on the third floor of the apartment, futon is hung out every day. Every day. It's very rare case, I think.

One day, I found that the resident of the room was a non-Japanese guy (or guys). I was a bit impressed that non-Japanese had the habit of hanging out futon. Besides, every day!

But, his futon is always hung out until night. Hmm... It's a pity. Hanging out futon is very good but it should be taken in early.
It's none of my business though.

When I lived with my family, my mother used to scold me about futon. After 2pm, she always said "haven't you taken your futon in yet? Hurry up!" Around 3pm, she almost shouted, "there's no point in hanging out futon if you leave them till late!"

Now, I hang out my futon on the weekend and take it in at latest by 1pm.

It was raining all day today. In the morning, I looked out of the window without intention. Oh! He leaves his futon hung out although raining! Oh---! I wonder if he didn't come home last night so he couldn't take it in! Anyway, too bad!! It's a big trouble!

In case of the washing, it's often the case for people living alone. You hang out the washing in the morning, then it started raining before you get home, and then you say "oh, my god, my washing is..." (The washing also should be taken in early as well as futon though.) And I also have such an experience some times. But, futon!
It's not my futon but it's a shock!

After I get home, I found that the futon was still being hung out. I could see the light in the window so it seemed that the resident had already come home. I wonder why he doesn't take it in.
He means to wash his futon by rain?

My favorite characters's common points

As I wrote, my favorite character in "HEROES" is Matt.


I usually don't watch TV so much but I started to watch foreign dramas recently for learning English. So other my favorite characters are;

in "Full House", Joey


in "Dsparate housewives", Tom who is a Lynette's hasband


And, I wrote it a long time ago, my favorite character in the movive "The Lord of the Rings" is Sam.


Their common points are;
- They are not central players, but backseat players.
- They are sort of rustic.
- They are not cool or handsome so much.
(Sorry, I am talking about those "characters", not actors themselves.)

Yes, I like such a person, not only in TV dramas but also in my daily life.

So my favorite character in "Star Wars" is, of course! him!!
(The answer is here.)

The definite article

I am always annoyed about whether I should put article or not, especially the definite article.
As you can see from this blog, my way to use articles is entirely wrong. There is no "article" in Japanese. So it is very difficult.

For example, about proper nouns.
Basically "the" is not needed, but there are many (TOO many) exceptions.
"The" is not needed for place-name, such as country names, continent names, state names and mountain names. But for sea names, river names, Channel name and canal name "the" is necessary. Why?Hmm... first, I thought things in connection with water needs "the". But!! "the" is not needed for lake!!

If there is kind of "rule", I can guess even if new words come up. But there is no rule! So, even if I understand about above, a new word, for example "harbor" in this case, comes up, it's impossible to find "the" is needed or not. I need the rule! I want to know why! Why "the" is necessary in that case? Why... Too fuzzy.

Someone said that languages are fuzzy. Hmm... In case of mathematics, if I know basic formulas (=rules), I can solve complicated math problems using the basic formula. But in case of languages, what I need to do is just remembering.

That reminds me that I was a student who liked mathematics MUCH more than English.

Chiboust

I like sweet food. One of my favorite cake is Chiboust.

There is one shop which is famous for Chiboust around Shinjuku station, which means it's in my neigborhood.

I went there and ate it today. Yummy!

The same person or just resembling?

Probably I have written about it on this blog some times that I'm really weak at distinguish foreginers' faces. Their faces sometimes look the same for me.

This tends to be disadvantage when I watch foreign dramas and movies. For example, I occasionally misunderstand that a character A and a character B are the same person, or a character C is a different person from him/her in another scene. Then stories don't make sense.

Such being the case, I'm not sure but...
The police officer Matt, who is my favorite character in "HEROES", is acted by the same actor as Eric Wiess who is one of CIA members in "Alias"? Am I wrong?

I enjoyed meeting my friends.

I met two friends of mine last Saturday. It's been a long time since I saw them last.

We had dinner at a Spanish restaurant in Tokyo Midtown. I enjoyed conversation with them. I always enjoy it whenever I see them. They are very smart so their talks are interesting and useful.

One of them is an associate professor. She attends conferences held in the world and gives presentations in English. The other friend is now a housewife but she can speak not only English but French. Whew... I really respect them.

My bad listening comprehension #9

The sentence in this time is;
"Most companies don't go as far as allowing..."

I can hear "most companies don't quest ...", even if I hear it repeatedly.
"Go as" and "quest". Those are entirely different though...

At the last my wrong listening is; "might go" --> "Michael".
(Ref: http://sandfriend.blogspot.com/2008/04/my-bad-listening-comprehension-8.html )
It seems that I tend to hear "K" for "g". My ear is very strange, and... probably isn't cut out to hear English?

One more my bad listening.
"They'd be encouraged to work harder."
I can hear;
"They'd been carzed to..." (There is no word "carzed" though.)

Terrible. My listening skill is really terrible.

It's impossible to suffer from insomnia.

Recently, I have a trouble to fall asleep, although I'm sleepy. Why?

When I'm too tired from terriblly busy work, I sometimes get into such a situation, but I'm neither busy nor tired now. Besides, as I often wrote on this blog, I primarily love sleep and in fact I really can sleep even all day.

It's after 3 o'clock at the midnight now...

Japanese language spoken in the drama "HEROES"

In the U.S. drama "HEROES", there are two Japanese, Hiro and his co-worker Ando. Hiro speaks Japanese well, although every Japanese people can know from his accent that he is not a Japanese.
But I can't understand well what Ando says. Why don't the filmmakers choose an actor that can speak decent Japanese for the part of a Japanese?

By the way, I wonder why Japanese subtitle is often different from what they speak.

Barack Obama

Obama declared victory in the contest for the party's nomination the other day. I feel contented with this result. I　don't mean I supported him. I was just feeling disapproval of Clinton. (I like Mr. Clinton, though.)

At the same time, Obama was selected as one of the healthiest 25 people in the U.S. magazine of fitness or something. I don't think he looks healthy so much. Hmm... there are so many unhealthy people in the U.S.

The contest for the party's nomination was really warming up. Then, Can Obama win against McCain?

"to ---" vs. "--ing" In case of "NEED"

I didn't know there is a "need --ing" pattern.

What I learned is;

"The batteries in the radio need to be changed."

"Need --ing" can be used instead of "need be done".

"The batteries in the radio need changing."

Another example sentence is;

"This room needs redecorating. (= to be redecorated)"

I saw "need --ing" pattern for the first time. I wonder if native speakers use this pattern often.

My room needs arranging as soon as possible.

Gerunds or To-infinitives

After English verbs, there are cases that gerunds or To-infinitives follow those. Depending on verbs, some verbs have to be followed only by gerunds and some verbs have to be followed only by To-infinitives. It's difficult.

More difficult thing is...
Some verbs can be followed by both gerunds and To-infinitives but in case of some of them, the meanings are different.

For example, "try".
I had thought that "try" was the verb followed by To-infinitives but I found it could be followed by both. But! the meanings between "try to ---" and "try --ing" are different. The similar things apply to other verbs...

If I mistake to choose gerund or To-infinitive, (and I think it is often the case), it would be at risk for making somebody misunderstand by what I don't intend to say. Dangerous. Very dangerous. Especially on business.

Movie: The Chronicles of Narnia - The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe

The movie "The Chronicles of Narnia - Prince Caspian: The Return to Narnia" will be released soon, so before that, there was "The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe" on TV.

As well as movies like "Lord of the Rings" and "Harry Potter", it seemed that a lot of money was used for making this movie. But the story was very simple. I think adults can enjoy "Lord of the Rings" but "The Chronicles of Narnia" is just for children.

I wonder if it is the difference of tastes.

Book: The Dalai Lama, FREEDOM IN EXILE

This book is an autobiography of the 14th Dalai Lama.

While I read this book, I had an impression that he was not something special, but just an ordinary person, like us. He sometimes gets angry, is sometimes excited at something interesting and sometimes feels depressed. There is no difference from us.

What prompted me to start having interest in Tibetan Buddhism was one TV program about Tibet.
In the program, many Tibetan appeared and their characters were... how can I say... very impressed. I wondered why their characters were so excellent, wonderful, great... I don't know an appropriate expression. Then I guessed that it was due to Tibetan Buddhism. That's why I had interest in Tibetan Buddhism.

Before reading this book, I read another book in connection with the 14th Dalai Lama. It was what he talked in his lecture when he came to Japan. I felt he (his speech) was something special. (And some of those were a bit difficult to understand.) Especially he talked about love and benevolence. I thought his mind transcended usual human mind. But what he talked was from Tibetan Buddhism doctrine. I found it from his autobiography that the Dalai Lama himself was just one ordinary person. I'm more and more interested in Tibetan Buddhism.

By the way, there was the following sentence in the book;
"I wished China behaved as civilized people when......"

I've also always thought the current China is far from a civilized country. So I really feel it strange that the IOC chose China as a host country. So now, a pile of problems came out.

Idiom "be supposed to"

This idiom seems to be used often. I often hear it in English conversation. But I couldn't understand its meaning enough even if I checked a dictionary.

Thanks to Murphy book, finally I somewhat started to grasp the meaning. So when I heard the idiom in a drama the other day, I was really happy to be able to understand it! But it will take me some time to be able to use it in my conversation.

If I want to put an article on my blog in the daytime of weekday, I have to do it by sending the article through my cell phone, because we are not supposed to use the Internet for private purposes in most office.

A word "memory"

"She has a good memory for names."

At first, I thought she has a kind of good experience or affairs about her name, somebody praised her name or something. (I missed the plural form of name.)
So I thought it was a bit strange example sentence. But...

The meaning of the sentence was that she is good at remembering names.

Oh, I've learned the idiom "have a good (bad/poor) memory for" before. At that time, I wondered how I could distinguish meaning of memory between "ability of remember" and "good or bad affairs in the past". I might have written about that on this blog.
Then I thought the same thing again in this time.

I have a really poor memory for English learning.

My sleep addiction

Woo... I went to back to laziness. My decent life lasted just one day.

Self-hated.

Is it impossible for me to overcome temptation of sleep?

Full day!

For a very lazy person, I spent a sort of massive (full?) day today. Good good.

I should go on it. I will try not to go back to usual too lazy Sand tomorrow.
First of all, get up at fixed time!
It is the worst difficulties for me who LOVE to sleep.

I hope to be able to write a good result here at the end of tomorrow.

Backache

I have a backache for a while and it isn't getting better.
I have to be very careful with my back.

New knowledge

I'm learning new things from my new English grammar book "Murphy book".

I also found several my misunderstandings. For example;

"I'm going to" and "I will"
"Could" and "was able to"
I had thought those two words were completely the same meaning.

Thanks to Murphy book, I understood the differences but I need time to think before I speak...

Will, would, can, could, shall, should etc... How to use auxiliary verbs is one of difficult parts of English for me.

I was losing my wallet again.

I left my wallet in the bath room of a restaurant AGAIN! It is really stupid of me!!

The wallet was back to me safely as well as the last time. Money, cards, driver's license, everything remained in the wallet.

At this point, I can't help giving thanks to such a good country Japan!

Japanese like "corner".

I'm in a restaurant now. I'm sitting on the right side table. The left and the middle tables were vacant. A man came and sat in the middle table!! Why?!?!

It might not be strange in other countries and for non-Japanese but it's quite strange for us Japanese.

Japanese tend to avoid sitting beside an unacquainted person. If ONLY the middle table is vacant, everyone sits in it of course. But both the left and the middle tables were vacant, in this case, almost ALL Japanese sit in the left table. The same applies to sheets in the train.
That's why I felt it strange.

Besides, he is a suspicious action. He is talking to himself and sometimes looking at me. I'm a bit scared.

By the way, if every table were vacant? Japanese also sit in the side (corner?) table. The same is also true of sheets in the train, benches in parks and so on.

Japanese seem to prefer corner. In fact it's more comfortable than sitting in the middle place.

Big earthquake in China

There was an earthquake of magnitude 7.XX (I forgot...) in China. It caused extensive damage. It's really terrible.

Chinese medias report the scenes Wen JiaBao visits disaster areas, or someone is recued. They never report real terrible damage. It's "the China". China uses even such a terrible situations for politics. Horrible.

China declined some offers of help from foreign countries. It is said that one of reasons is China wants to avoid that their imperfections of infrastructure etc come out.

I remembered one Chinese person's word. He said that China was the country which didn't value human lives. I was very impressed because it was said by a Chinese himself.

Dalai Lama said in his book that human lives were made light of for China because of its huge population.

Movie: THE CHAMP

I watched very very old and famous movie, "THE CHAMP". In spite of very famous movie, I had never watched it. Of course I had known it well and had heard about it well, about the genius child actor, too.

But I was really impressed with his acting. I was crying crying. What a great actor he was!
Actually I recorded it just for English learning. It was really good to record and watch it. I watched it twice in a row.

Probably he is in his 30's now. I wonder if he is still active in the front line.

Incomprehensive Japanese

I like toddlers very much and I have some favorite toddler's blog sites. One of them is written in French. So I always have the site translated using Google language tool.

Until now, there was no translation from French to Japanese so I had used French-English translation, but Google language tool seems to have been updated. I found French-Japanese translation the other day.

I tried it. Hmm... It seems that I might as well use French-English. I completely can't understand Japanese which Google language tool translated. I have known that every Internet translation system translates into Japanese very oddly. You can say it's not Japanese. haha.
Very easy example is...
There was a French sentence which means "I played piano".
A sentence translated into English means;
"I made piano".
I can understand.
A sentence translated into Japanese means;
"I am piano". What??

I know, I know. Grammar of Japanese language, especially word order, is much different from English, French, German, Italian... (Japanese and Korean are the same.) So I can understand that there is limitation to translate from those languages into Japanese.
I just want to read my favorite site in my language...

Arranging my room #2

As I wrote, my room is empty. Things which there are in my room are;
My favorite picture of Greece, a mini sansevieria which I have already introduced on this blog and a note PC.

I am enjoying this TOO simple life so far. But I need a desk. At the moment, I use a desk in the library standing diagonally opposite. haha.

I am trying to be in a flood of English.

On TV, I'm trying watch nothing but the programs in English. When I watch TV news, I hear them in English. And I am recording TV programs which are broadcasted in English, such as dramas, movies and so on, one after another.
For example;
CSI New York, Alias, HEROES, Re:Genesis, Sponge Bob, Nature Dramatic (I don't know its correct title in English), Desperate Wives (I don't know its correct title too.), CBS Documentary and so on.

Many kind of genres. It doesn't matter if I'm interested in or not. It's the point that it's broadcasted in English.

But it's difficult to understand them perfectly. Depending on the programs, I can't understand AT ALL. But If I'm interested in a program, I want to understand it perfectly, such as HEROES. In that case, I watch them in English at first, then watch in Japanese or with Japanese subtitles, and then I watch them in English again. It's good for studying English.
But of course, it takes me a lot of time, so it is not mandatory activities. When I turn on the TV, I watch them.

The programs which I can't understand English are crime dramas, such as CSI and Alias. Unexpectedly, English in Desperate Wives is easy to understand. Actually I can't understand well English in Sponge Bob, because voices of characters are not normal. Too high or too low? Anyway, abnormal. So I also can't understand Sesame Street. I respect toddlers.

By the way, foreign dramas broadcasted in Japan are just from the U.S. and Korea. How about other countries ones?

Gas leak alarm

Yesterday, a person from a gas company came to my place to set up a gas leak alarm.

Its alarm is,
In case gas leak;
Woo---! Woo---! Pippippippi! Isn't gas leaking?

In case imperfect combustion occurs (CO is increasing);
Woo---! Woo---! Pippo Pippo! The air is foul and it's dangerous. Open the window to ventilate.

Very big noise. I live by myself so there is no person in the room in the most time. If it alarms while I am out, I wonder if it continues to alarm with such big noise.

What's wrong forwith my watch?

I looked at my watch to check the time and it was 4:30 pm.
Today is a national holiday so the library closes at 5. 30 minutes to go. I thought I would go to the library to return a book and check another book.

Then I got to there but it was closed. Why??

I asked a custodian if the library was closed today. He said it closed at 5 because of national holiday.
??? But it's still 4:30...
I asked him again what time it was now. He answered "6:10".

What?!?!

I couldn't understand for a while what happened.

My watch is run out of battery? No, it works. Low battery? No. Its second hand would move by two seconds to notify low battery. It is moving by a second.

It broke down? No---! It's my favorite. I have been using it about 15 years.
It's TAG HEUER so it should be very strong. When I bought it, a shop staff said, "TAG HEUER watches are very strong. Even if an owner (me!) died, this watch could survive". I don't think he spoke a good similitude but he is right.

I adjusted my watch to correct time. It's 7:47 pm now. It is working correctly so far.
I hope there is no problem to my watch.

Arranging my room #1

As I wrote before, I threw electrical appliances away on the occasion of the moving. I have thrown away not only them but also furniture.

I need to buy electrical appliances as soon as possible but I won't buy furniture hastily. I want to choose them carefully. I won't buy until I find favorite ones.

I've already gone to some furniture and housewares shops. But don't be in a hurry. It's a bit inconvenient that there is no furniture but it's OK. I will enjoy looking for favorite furniture and the process until my place becomes perfect.

I started watching "HEROES".

I started watching American popular TV drama "HEROES".

One of Heroes is a Japanese whose name is Hiro, so there were some scenes in Japan. Some of them were unnatural.

He teleported himself from on the Japan's subway to the US. But it was easy to find that was not Japan's subway. There isn't such a train in Japan. I'm sure that's the subway of New York. So I felt that he teleported from America to America.

Another is the scene that he stared the clock.
Numbers of the clock were Chinese numeral! I have never seen such a clock!!

By the way, my favorite character in HEROES is the policeman so far.

OneSeg 2

I wrote yesterday that OneSeg screen was as small as a palm.

No--! It's much smaller than a palm.

English expression of concrete fixed plans of the future

I have introduced the English grammar book which I'm using now. It's "Grammar in use". I call it "Murphy book". (Because it was written by Raymond Murphy.)

The Murphy book says in its section of the future expression that when you express plans which have been already scheduled concretely you use present continuous.
For example;

I'm not working tomorrow.

She is arriving at the airport at 8:30.

But according to my previous English grammar book, simple present is used to express fixed plan of the future. This book's example sentence is;

He leaves for San Francisco next Friday.

Hmm...

For now, I concentrate on the Murphy book.

Since I start studying with the Murphy book, I have been able to clear some things which had been obscure for a long time. I rely on this book.

The previous book was not so bad though.

My bad listening comprehension #8

The sentence which I heard wrongly this time is;

"Our company Michael bankrupt".

Michael bankrupt??
Correct sentence is;

"Our company might go bankrupt."

Might go --> Michael

When I tried to do dictation, I was able to guess it must be "might go", because I carefully listened even repeatedly and had time to think while doing dictation. But when I just listen it as a part of conversation, I can't hear but "Michael" even if I listen it many times...

My hearing wrong of the past:
http://sandfriend.blogspot.com/2006/12/my-bad-listening-comprehension-7.html

OneSeg

I have thrown my electrical appliances away. I had been using them for a lo---ng time and it's time to change to new ones. Moving is a good timing to do that.

But electrical appliances are all expensive. I can't afford to buy all electrical appliances at the same time. (It was possible to throw all of them away at the same time thought. haha.)

I don't have the TV now.
So I bought an OneSeg tuner today. Then I can watch TV on my laptop PC. It's possible to record TV programs on PC. I've already reserve recording some programs using an OneSeg software. Goody!

But its screen is very small, as small as a palm.
OK, I endure that until I buy a new TV.

Mail for me hasn't been delivered.

I have moved some times in the last a year so I've applied for the post office to forward mail, and mail for me had been forwarded correctly.

Since about a month ago, no forwarding mail comes. I had been feeling it a bit strange, but I didn't care about that so much.

But I found that the last months' cell phone bill hasn't come. I asked the cell phone company and they said they have already sent it to me and it hasn't been returned. Finally I was sure that the mail forwarding wasn't working.

I went to the post office.
They checked it (they kept me waiting long time.) but nothing was unclear.

Probably, some mails for me were lost before I receive. Too bad!
I hope there isn't any important mail among them.

Moving has finished.

I finally finished moving. Whew...

As I wrote, it takes just 10 minutes on foot from the previous place to the new place. So I carried heavy burdens myself plying between the places many times. (My bicycle sometimes helped me with doing that.) I have a backache now.

Then I was injured and bled!

Haha!
I just grazed my hand. It's a small graze.

Zenko temple declined to be the starting place of the torch relay.

The Olympic torch came to Japan and the torch relay was held in Nagano city yesterday.
There were a few skirmishes, 6 people were arrested and 4 people were injured. Then the torch has left for Korea.

At first, Zenko temple was scheduled to be the start place of the torch relay, but it declined that.
The reason is safety for cultural assets and believers, and consideration for Tibetan problem as same Buddhists. Personally, I applaud their behavior.

Of course, it was a big blow to Nagano city because Zenko temple is the most famous spot in Nagano city.

Then the new starting place was... a city-owned empty lot. Mere empty lot.
It was changed from Zenko temple which is a symbol of Nagano city to the mere empty lot?!

Many flaws of my new place

I got a call from the real-estate office this morning. He said they would check the smell of my new room I complained this morning.

Before lunch time, I went to my place and met the person of the real-estate office by coincidence. He said the deodorizing process has just finished and that deodorizing was very strong. So I decided to wait for a while, about 30 minutes or an hour. He also said that the ground connection of an air-conditioner wasn't connected, so other person would come to connect it. Hmm... Following the smell problem, flaw again.

I tried to park my bicycle in the parking area of the apartment, I found another bicycle which was not authorized has already parked at my parking. I had to call a facility management company. Third flaw.

In the afternoon, I was cleaning the room. When I cleaned a toilet room, I found that the ground connection here was also unconnected. Fourth flaw.
The toilet has functions of bidet, heated seat, and even automatic lid. I sometimes hear that foreign celebrities buy Japanese toilet like that when they come to Japan. But in Japan, those are not just for celebrities. Many Japanese use it. Most toilets in department stores are like it.
But I don't think it's necessary. I've always thought that. Money is being spent on nonessential.
So it's OK for me that the ground connection is not connected. (I can connect it myself though.) I don't use those functions. I know that the toilet seat in winter is very cold, but if you use a seat cover, no problem. And why is it necessary that a toilet lid opens and closes automatically?

Sansevieria

The real-estate company gave me a small foliage plant. It seems that they give it all the people who signed with them.

It's a sansevieria. It's known to generate negative ions. OK, I will grow it carefully. But according to some web sites, sansevieria isn't very pretty because it's big (more like long?). My sansevieria is still small and cute though.

My new place

I went to a real-estate office to pick up keys of my new place yesterday. I'll move again, it is neighborhood of the current place though. It takes about 10 minutes on foot. I don't like leave from the area I'm living.
This is the entrance of my new apartment.

Then I went into my new place for the first time. Yes, it's the first time.

It was smaller than I expected. Hmm... Actually I decided to rent this room before I looked the inside of the room. The previous resident had still lived at that time and if I had waited for his leaving I couldn't have rent it because it's very popular apartment. It was the first time for me to sign up without looking inside of a room. I looked just its floor plan.

When I went into the room, it was smelled like smoke. I thought the previous resident was a heavy smoker. Too much smell. Hmm... It's a big problem.

I found the following thing on the kitchen.

At first I thought it was a candy box or something which renovating & cleaning staff carelessly left. But looking closely at it, it was a kind of room deodorant. I see. They realized the smell was too bad. But it was opened so it didn't work. I opened and left it in the center of the room. I wish it worked effectively.

And then, I called the real-estate office to complain that. A person in charge of renovating seemed to be unreliable. Talking with him bugged me. He said they change all the wall paper and even cleaned an air conditioner. It means that he admitted that the room was very smell. He droned on. Don't talk about unnecessary things! Then what do you go with this problem?! He said he would discuss how to deal with it in the company and let me know later. But call from him was nothing today. I'm moving on Sunday though.

Another meaning of "reservation"

I found today that "reservation" has the meaning of not only "making a booking", but also "anxiousness" or "concern". I didn't know!

A dialogue I am using for my English study today is about economic conditions, especially the low unemployment rate.

A person says that America is what they call "a worker's market". (This English material was made long time ago.) He also says that you can get any job you want. Then his boss says that he has reservations. Reservations? So I tried to understand that it meant he applied for some jobs and got some offers or was waiting for the results. But, of course, it was different at all. He is anxious about the worker's market situation. Hmm... If you didn't know another meaning of "reservation" like me, you would entirely misunderstand this story.

My poor English is sometimes dangerous.

A photo exhibition of Medecins Sans Frontieres

A photo exhibition of Medecins Sans Frontieres is taking place in Aoyama and I visited it yesterday.

The Photos were about activities by MSF in Kenya, especially efforts toward AIDS treatment. A German photographer, Mattias Steinbach took those pictures and he explained us about the photos and the situation there.

It was meaningful to visit it, it was a bit different from the activities I want to do though. I want to involve in the activities to help poor children in the world with going to school. But the activities of MSF are involved in the life-or-death issues. Probably all children who appeared in the photos can't go to school.

When I started to think about doing humanitarian assistance, I thought I should have become a doctor or other medical expert. What can I do when I go somewhere to do humanitarian assistance? In the poor countries, the disaster areas and conflict regions, medical experts are most necessary people. But according to the information, many people who are not medical experts are working even in MSF, such as administrators and logisticians. Clinical psychotherapists are also working, it's a part of medical experts though.
I thought that psycholotherapists are also needed for helping poor children with going to school. I wonder if it's difficult to be that. But to be the clinical psychotherapist, I have to go on to graduate school... Things are not easy.

Some toddlers in the photos are smiling, cherishing a doll, hugging their mothers... those are not any different from other toddlers in blogs I often access to. But real situations are much different.

"Should" and "Ought to"

I hadn't known the difference between "should" and "ought to". Many English grammar books say about these, but I had always thought those were the same and I wondered what is different.

Now, I have been studying English grammar using "Grammar in Use Intermediate", which is one of the "in Use series" published by Cambridge University Press. Those are very famous and used in the world. Of special note is (at least for me) that it was written by a native speaker in an English-speaking country. Many English studying books were written by Japanese in Japan. Sometimes native speakers point out mistakes or unnatural expressions in example sentences in those books.

In the Grammar in Use Intermediate, it says that you can use "ought to" instead of "should". Oh--! So I couldn't understand the difference. Oh, those are the same! Thank you, the book.

My subtle health condition

Somehow, I couldn't sleep last night. So decided to watch the movie I recorded before, at 1:00am.

I was watching "The Siege" eating caramel corn. Eating caramel corn at midnight. Uh, it is too bad for health.

To change the subject, I found I had a pain in my throat. And now, I feel a cold coming on. Uh, too bad. I want to put some articles on my blog today, but I should go to bed early.

Enough sleep, enough fluid and Vitamin C!

Totally mistranslation

Also this year, many Japanese baseball players are playing in the Major Leagues.

Fukudome moved to Chicago Cubs and has started his first season in the Major Leagues. His debut game was at 31st March and he played really well, 3-for-3, including 3-run homer. Wow!

Of course, the media in Japan reported his excellent performance, but actually they featured another thing more than his play. It was the boards the fan of Cubs held up.

Look this photo. Fan of Cubs held up the boards with Japanese words when Fukudome played.

According to one report, one local newspaper company made those boards and distributed them to the fans. They intended to translate "it's gonna happen" to Japanese. Pity! Mistranslation.

After hearing that, I tried to check Google Translate. Yes, the Google Translate was responsible for this mistranslation.

This Japanese word means "it's just by coincidence". It is rude to Fukudome. Haha.

Movie: 2001 A Space Odyssey

I watched the very old and famous movie.

Hmm... It was boring for me, and mysterious. After watching the movie, I checked the Internet about this movie, then I finally understand some of it.
At least I don't like the movie like it. It is self-complacency of creators.

Hmm... I can say just one thing; this movie is very Stanley Kubrick.

The Olympic flame has arrived at India.

The Olympic flame has arrived at India where there are the largest exiled Tibetans.

Things in connection with that has been big news since the rebellion happened in Lhasa. It's really an interesting topic for me, because...
There are 2 reasons.

Reason 1: I've always felt it strange that China was selected as the venue of the Olympics.
Reason 2: I'm very interested in Tibetan Buddhism.

About reason 1;
Food safety, the pollution in the air, the humanitarian problem... it was obvious that China had many problem like these before it was selected. So I had always thought why the IOC chose China. I personally think China is immature country to have international events like Olympics. Chinese can't even stand in line.

About reason 2;
I've always concerned about Tibetan problem. So I am for boycott for the Beijing Olympics Games by leaders from around the world. In a sense, this is a good opportunity that many countries and people in the world address the Tibetan problem by China.

Nice Weather

One scene of my neighborhood.

Spring!

I haven't written the blog for a while. The last article was about snow. But it is already very warm these days. 18 degrees C today!!

I found sakura (cherry blossom) today.

Snowing hard!

It is snowing hard in Tokyo all day today and the snow accumulated much!

The snow accumulation in Tokyo was 3cm. Very few? No, no. We can say it is the heavy snow, at least for Tokyo people.

I'm worried about commute tomorrow morning.

The induction program for new mid-career employees

3 days induction program for new mid-career employees is held at the beginning of every month in my new company, and I attended the first day of that today.

Attendees were 20 and HR said it was more than usual. There were both young and old.

Today's items of agenda were almost overview. From Monday, it will get onto details of each department's business and technology which the company provides. I expect those to be useful.