Movie: 50/50

Although it's a movie about a cancer patient, it's like a comedy movie. However, the movie is based on the real story of the movie director, and it includes deep issues behind the comedy.

One article says that Joseph Gordon-Levitt, the leading actor, is the best when it comes to playing an ordinary guy. It might be true, but the first time I saw him was when he played in the movie, Inception, in which he played a character far from an ordinary person. So my impression of him was different from "ordinary."

  Joseph Gordon-Levitt in "Iception"

Joseph Gordon-Levitt was great in the movie, but the best for me is Seth Rogen!

 Seth and Joseph

I can't believe Seth is 20's!!

It's snowing!!

It's snowing in Tokyo, which is the first time in this winter.

It rarely snow in Tokyo, but I've been feeling that it's colder this winter than usual, and I found that it was true seeing the snow.


I miss spring!

A Japanese won Ballon d'Or!!

A Japanese soccer player Miss. Homare Sawa got FIFA Ballon d'Or!!
Terrific!! Incredibly great!!!!!

After women's national soccer team won the World Cup last year, "Nadeshio", which is the nickname of the women's national soccer team, has been the thing in Japan. Then this wonnderful news of captain Sawa.

Many people in Japan must be encouraged by their brilliant achievements.

The National team's coach Norio Sasaki was also awarded the Women's Coach of the Year prize.

Sasaki and Sawa with their trophies

Men's Ballon d'Or is Lionel Messi. He is awarded for the Third consecutive year!!

Messhi, you are unbelievably a great player!!!!!

Sawa and Messi shaking hands

Happy New Year 2012

As usual New Year's day, I visited a shrine, praying and drinking amazake.

Although New Year's day is always fine whether with clear blue sky in Tokyo, it was cloudy this year.

Unlike other women, I seldom see any fortune-telling, but there is one I always check. According to that, the important thing for me this year is to gain the trust of people around me.

The word of this year:

Gaining Trust

I hope all of you have a great year.

My Smart Phone! Hooray!

Finally, I got my smart phone!!

Unfortunately, I've got a lot to do today so I can't use it to check its various functions.
I'll do after I come back home tomorrow.

Bye bye, my cell phone life, and hello, my smart phone life!

Finding a smart phone, which is the last one!

I think I wrote in October that I would buy a smart phone for my birthday.
Its release date had been postponed, and finally it was on sale the other day!!

However, it's a very very popular model and it was sold out as soon as it was released.
I was almost giving up and thinking about buying another model. As the last try, I called from shop to shop just now.

And one shop has one!! It's the last one. Ve--ry lucky!!!!!

I'm going to the shop this evening!

I can't get over a cold.

I think I've been having a cold over 2 weeks. Whew... I even don't see a sign of recovery.

Improper use of the word "Possibly"

I found that I had used the word "possibly" incorrectly for a long time.

When I want to say something like "Hopefully" or "If possible", I've always said "Possibly."

For example, when a recruit agent introduce a new position to me and ask my salary expectation, I say "possibly ----- yen" instead of "hopefully --- yen."

Hmm... I wonder how they interpret what I said...

Guests from the world's happiest country

The king and queen of Bhutan returned to their country yesterday after 6-day staying in Japan.

Bhutan is known as the world's happiest country. It uses the concept of GNH (Gross National Happiness) instead of GDP.

The king projects kind, gentle and warm atmosphere.

Although Bhutan is called the happiest country, it has a lot of problems like other countries, for example, against China. But I think most of Japanese people were convinced that Bhutan must be a happy country from the king's character.

I'm not so interested in countries in Asia, but I thought I want to visit Bhutan sometime in the future.  It's also an interesting point for me that its established religion is Tibetan Buddhism.

An eye or eyes

For Japanese people, I think plural is one of the most difficulties regarding English. In Japanese language, we rarely use plural. Even if you ate two apples, you should say "I ate apple." in Japanese. Even if you see many flowers in a garden, you should say "What beautiful flower."
(By the way, an article doesn't exist in Japanese.)

I felt strange when I saw some English idiom using "eye."
For example;

"Her beautiful hair caught my eye."
 Catching only one eye, not both eyes?

"Keep your eyes peeled for new information."
"Keep an eye out for new information."

Both are almost the same meaning, but the first sentence uses "one's eye" and the second one uses "an eye."

I think that it's much better to use both eyes when you try to pay attention something. haha.

IC-embedded driver's license card

I went to the department of motor vehicles to renew my driver's license. I didn't know but driver's licenses has become IC-embedded cards.

I wonder when it has changed.


It requires us to have two PINs. Those are surely not used. So I think many people would forget their PINs. haha.

New PC VAIO and WIMX

I wrote in the previous article that I was going to buy a smart phone. Before that, I bought a PC last month. It's better to say that I HAD TO buy it, because my PC was almost dying.

It's been four years since I bought my old PC.
http://sandfriend.blogspot.com/2007/10/new-pc-finally.html

In this time, I bought VAIO.

It's not like I'm a VAIO fan. It's just because it was on sale.
I wanted  white one but it was sold out, so I bought black one.

Also I signed up for WIMAX!
So I no longer need a cable to access the Internet in my place. Also I can access the Internet any place. It's every convenient!

Movie: Source Code

The movie blurb in Japan set up an expectation that the ending was very surprising like never before. So I was looking forward to seeing it. However, I was a bit disappointed.


Hmm... The move itself wasn't so bad, but was it surprise ending?

By the way, the leading character was acted by Jake Gyllenhaal.

 He acted a high school student in the movie "The Day After Tomorrow." He has grown up so fast?!?! So I checked. When he acted the high school student, he was already 24 years old!!
Look at this pic. He looks exactly a high school student, not 24 years old guy!

And next year, he appeared in the movie "Brokeback Mountain" as a gay guy.

It's always surprising that actors role various generations!

Happy Birthday to me, 2011

I'm going to buy a smart phone for my birthday!

New cheese

I like cheeses. My favorite ones are camembert and mozzarella.

I bought assorted cheeses today.
I found very delicious one which I've never eaten before. It's "boursin - garlic and herb."
http://www.boursincheese.com/products/boursin.htm

It doesn't seems that it's old traditional cheeses. It's tasty! But be careful. The garlic taste is strong.
There is plain type too, so I'll try it.

Movie: Rise of the Planet of the Apes

http://www.apeswillrise.com/

It's the first time for me to go to see the movie on the day of the premiere. I was really looking forward to seeing it and couldn't wait.

It's just what I expected. I was quite satisfied.


Especially, psychological descriptions of the ape Cesar was great.

CGI is... CGI is CGI, not real. It can't be helped. I don't like CGI movie so much. But in this movie, Cesar's facial expression was interesting. He's gotten incredibly high intelligence. So his face sometimes looked like a human.

Look at his face. It's almost not an ape, but a human.

Even though the credits start appearing, don't leave the theater. Otherwise, you will miss one scene.

I felt scared a bit. The story is about why and how apes acquired enough to conquer the world. But the last scene indicates why and how the human perish.
 

Dentist

I went to the dentist for the first time in a very long time to fix cavities. Probably It's been over 20 years since I last went to the dentist.

The situation of my cavities was terrible, so the nerve was removed.

Now, the anesthesia has started wearing, so it hurt!! Pain, pain pain!!

torture

The second day of the schooling class is finishing in an hour. Following yesterday, it's boring. His speaking is very redundant. It's almost torture!

Boring class!

I'm now attending a schooling class of my university.

Boring!!
The subject is "Management Organization" which is definitely an interesting topic for me.
The reason I'm bored must be the professor's way to explain.

He should acquire decent skills of instruction, facilitation or presentation!
I have to be patient for 3 days... terrible...

Glasses debut!

Finally, I started using my glasses.
It's the first time I've worn glasses with degree.  So it's hard for me to keep waring them. It's as if I get carsick. I call it "Glasses-sick."
I think that it will take time to get used to them. Whew.