Planned backouts

Although aftershocks don't stop, tsunami warnings are finally called off. But other than it, it seems that nothing gets better. About the situation of nuclear power-generating plants even get worse.

Due to nuclear power-generating plants problem, Japan is facing electricity shortage. So it was decided that planned blackouts will be conducted from tomorrow. Tokyo and 8 prefectures around Tokyo are divided into 5 areas and power will go off in each area for 3 hours in turns.
But!! I can't get any information about planned blackouts schedule!! I had no idea when power goes off in my area. Any TV news don't mention the schedule. It's impossible to access the website of a electric power company. I finally got the information that center of Tokyo where I live will be excluded from the planned blackouts coverage areas on the first day. But people in other areas must be worried.

The Japanese government is undependable. Especially Prim Minister Kan lacks ability in leadership. He made a speech today. It's hard to think that it's the speech of a leader of one nation. He is really dull.

Dull Kan is making a speech

A nuclear power-generating plant is in critical condition.

Although it's about 31 hours after the earthquake, aftershocks are still following.

Many terrible damages are becoming apparent. Everything disappeared in areas where tsunami attacked. It is as if Hiroshima and Nagasaki just after atomic bombing.

Trains broken by tsunami

Most houses disappeared and became just woods due to tsunami.

A vessel was swept into the middle of town.

Now, one of the biggest issues is one of nuclear power-generating plants which is in critical condition. At first, the Japanese government ordered people living within a 3-kilometer radius to evacuate. Then it expanded to 10-kilometer radius, and then, now 20-kilometer radius. I hope nothing happens.

The places around the epicenter are very cold area. I wonder if all evacuees can keep warm.

Oh---, now, it's shaking. Quite big for aftershock.


Moment of the explosion of the nuclear power-generating plant

The biggest erthquake which I've ever experience

The 8.8-magnitude earthquake hit Japan around 3pm today. Although the epicenter is the northeastern region where is far from Tokyo, the shaking was incredibly strong. It's the biggest earthquake which I've ever experienced. And many aftershocks are still following. It's also the first time that I experienced such long-continued aftershocks.

The quake damage in Tokyo is not so big. Most building and houses in Tokyo are fine. However, infrastructure completely stopped. All trains and subways stopped. All highways were closed. Cars and buses can't move in roads due to traffic congestion. So people can't go home. I can see wave of people who are walking in roads to get home. All food in every convenience stores are sold out. Cell phones don't work. I felt scared seeing those scene.
Most building in Japan, especially new ones, have earthquake-proof structure, but how weak the infrastructure is.

The damage in the northeastern area where is around the epicenter is terrible. Especially, the damage of Tsunami is larger than the damage of earthquake. Tsunami took part many houses and swept away them which weren't damaged by earthquake.

TV news just announced one of the terrible damages, which is that 2 - 3 hundreds bodies were found on the road in an area. who seems to have been swept up by the tsunami.

Formal or Informal Expressions

The theme of an English workshop which I attended the other day was "Conversations in the Office."
One of topics is "Formal or Informal expressions."

Some expressions that I thought is formal were informal, and vice versa. It's quite difficult.

The followings are some of the expressions which I thought are formal but actually informal.

make a plan

Police are looking into the crime.
I think you should try this restaurant.
turn in a report
Excuse me, do you have a few minutes?

But polite expressions in Japanese are MUCH more difficult. I'm sure there are many learners of Japanese language struggle with Japanese polite expressions. It might be good that I'm a learner of English, not Japanese. haha.

Which do you use "like" or "unlike"?

I have been wondering which I should use "like" or "unlike" in negative sentences.

For example, I came across the following sentence.

One woman whose desk is very cluttered says;
His desk isn't covered by stacks of paper like mine.

When I heard the sentence, I thought her desk was also neat (like him). If her desk was very messy, I think she should have said, "His desk isn't covered by stacks of paper unlike mine."

If somebody says, "He doesn't like animals like John.", I wonder if John likes animals or not.

Take action! --- knowing Beer or Books and Room to Read

I encountered a person who organize "Beer for Books" which raises money for childhood literacy in developing countries.
I told him that I've wanted to help all children in the wold receive education, and got his business card.

Beer for Books raises money for "Room to Read." You may know Room to Read because it's famous. I read the book "Leave Microsoft to challenge the world" written by the Room to Read's founder John Wood.

I'm really impressed both by John Wood and the organizer of Beer for Books, especially their energy. In contrast, I've just thought that I don't know where to begin.
Take action like them!

Desks go?

One of the new English words I learned recently is "desks go." But actually I'm not sure what case it is used. In the context, it means a desk itself.

A person compliments her boss's desk because he keeps his desk very neat.
"I'm very impressed by your desk."

But her boss misunderstands.
"As desks go, It's nothing special. I'm not one of those power-tripping executives who think they need a desk the size of a football field to make themselves feel important."

I wonder if what "desks go" exactly means and it's used so often.

Happy New Year 2011

Happy New Year, everybody!
I wish all of you good luck for this year.

For New Year's visit to a shrine this year, I chose Yoyogi Hachimangu. That's because the lucky direction this year for me is the South and the South-Southwest, and Yoyogi Hachimangu is in the direction from my place.

It's not so big shrine, so it was not so crowded unlike other famous and popular shrines, although I had to stand in line for about an hour.

I want to make this year the significant breakthrough year for me. I'll definitely do that.

Yoyogi Hachimangu

Golden years

I just learned the word, "golden years."
I feel that it's a bit strange, because in Japan, "silver" is used for something old ages. For example, priority seats for old folks is called "silver seats", and the word "silver age" is used for old generation.

The reason "silver" is used in Japanese is, I guess that it comes from gray hair. But
I wonder why "golden" is used in English.

Tokyo Sinfornia concert - Sibelius Serenade

As I wrote the previous article, I attended the classical concert tonight. The reason of why I who are not familiar with classical music went there is,

A music director contacted me through LinkedIn and introduced his orchestra Tokyo Sinfonia to me. The orchestra is quite unique. Here is detailed information.
http://www.tokyosinfonia.com/index.html

Somehow, I thought I would go. I don't know why.

I'd never attended classical concert. Surprisingly, live performance was much different from listening to CD or from on TV. It was something like... it was as if sound rushed toward the audiences, it was very grand and sometimes magical, it was as if it had a story (actually it had)... Amazing.

Tokyo Sinfonia does concerts about once a month. I'd like to attend as many of them as possible. I think I should never attended with lack of sleep though.

Listenning to clasical music with lack of sleep?!

I'm attending a classical orchestra concert tonight. However, I'm undersleeping and although it's still 1pm, I'm terribly sleepy!
I need to drink a lot of coffee before going to the concert. I think sleepiness win caffeine though...

I have been busy.

I've been very busy with work, so I can't have time to write my blog, there were lots of things I wanted to write.
But it seems that my work is going to calm down a little bit. I hope so.
I shouldn't let work control my life.

Happy Birthday to me, 2010!!

I haven't written on my blog for about a month. I started my new job at he end of the last month and I've been incredibly busy.

My new job is... hmm... there are a lot of issues I have to solve. That's OK. That's why I'm in the company. The matter I hate most is that there are some people whose attitudes is annoying and disgusting. I should ignore them. Concentrate my tasks and missions to achieve my vision.

Today is my birthday, and I went to a nail salon. I had been doing nail art myself, but I'm going to have my nails cared in the nail salon. A small splurge. hehe.

Impossible to pronounce

Long time ago, I wrote on this blog that I was bad at pronouncing "S" sound. Especially it's hard for me to pronounce "insist" and "expect."
http://sandfriend.blogspot.com/2008/07/hard-to-pronounce.html

I found harder words for me to pronounce. "Seriously" and "uncharacteristic."
About "seriously", there are two "S" sounds I'm bad at in the word.
"Uncharacteristic" is... it's rather "impossible to say" than "hard to pronounce." So I'm going to say "That's unlike him" instead of "That's uncharacteristic of him." I hope both of them are completely the same meaning.

Finally I signed the contract.

Today, I went to sign the contract. I'm starting new job the week after next. It took only one month since an agent introduced me to this position. Very fast!

I'm very interested in the roles of the position, I'm satisfied with the salary, the people I'll work with seem nice, the working environment seems good because many employees work for a long time. Everything seems great except for the social company reputation which I have mentioned on this blog before.

So I understand that one of my roles is improving the company reputation. I'll make the company famous as one of the excellent companies in the world in 5 years!

Lunch with future colleagues?

As I wrote, I'm in the screening process of one company. After I had the 2nd interview on 3rd, I met HR manager on the agent office on 7th. According to the agent, they consider me favorably, but HR director is now in the US so they can't finalize until he comes back later in this week. Meanwhile, they arrange casual lunch for me with the team members who would be my subordinates. I haven't gotten the official offer though.

I went for the lunch and met the people.
They were all nice people. I enjoyed the conversation with them.

Two of them have worked for the company for more 10 years. It seems that many employees of the company work for a long time. The job-retention rate is high. It's quite rare for foreign companies.

Movie: Vantage Point

Vantage Point was one of the movies I wanted to see. It was carried on TV yesterday, so I watched it.

Hmm... it's a bit disappointing. The story is a bit boring. My impression of the movie is only too long a car chase scene. It's just the filmmaker's self-satisfaction like many other movies.
Some people commend this movie for its element of surprise. But, at least for me, there wasn't any element of surprise. It was somehow predictable.

The high school reunion

I attended the high school reunion yesterday.

It was great!
Over 100 people gathered and we enjoyed meeting each other for the first time in a long time. It brought back the good memories of the past.

Some of the people didn't change, and some has changed too much to recognize them. haha.

Many of us attended the follow-up party.

I hope this kind of gathering is held sometime again.

Lethal Weapon??

Whenever I study a new English dialogue, I learn a lot of new words and idioms.

I learned a new word "lethal" the other day. I thought I've never heard this word before and it was completely new for me.

However, I suddenly noticed, oh, it's lethal of the movie "Lethal Weapon" by any chance?
I see!

I got a quick response again.

I had the 2nd interview today. First, I had an interview with a Japanese for an hour. Then I had an interview with HR director who is American, which means the interview was in English.
Two hours interview was a bit tough, but it went quite well. The English interview too, because mostly the interviewer spoke. haha.

And, once gain, I got an incredibly quick feedback, just 3 hours after the interview. I can advance to the next step. Next week, I am visiting the agent office to talk with the agent and a person of the company I had the interview with. So far, so good.