The way to Go Green

Hello, everyone~!

September finally has come! As I've got used to the way I've spent time on vacation, I just felt that August would last much longer than it'd been. I guess the extreme heat that's been active lately seems to be taking some rest now. I'm not sure whether or not it'll ever wake up and keep me from going outside, but I definitely feel autumn coming closer. I always feel a hunch that tells me the coming of autumn at this time of year, and I like how it makes me feel. ^^ Also, that's one of the things I've liked about Japan because I can see or feel every season coming closer!

But I worry that it might change in the near future because of global warming... Talking of global warming, there's been so many opinions out there that we often end up having no idea what to believe and getting lost. I've read several articles about the topic on this week edition of NEWSWEEK (JP edition), and I came to know that the things that need to be discussed have been trapped unfortunately by political ties. So, as long as opponents exist, it'll be hard to do what we need to do to restrain global warming.

Thinking things like these, I was surfing on the Internet.
And I found the article that definitely gave me some hope!?

How about this? I happened to find the article on the blog called "Funny and Stupid Ideas". You can see that the relationship between electronic products and plants is actually much better than we've thought, isn't it? We want them to live happily ever after...right?
H

O

W

E

V

E

R
.
.
.

Things don't always go the way we want them to be, do they? (FYI: This is not MY keyboard! Hahaha...) I just can't believe how strong the power of the plants could be! It seems that they'd grown so much that the person who did the experiment wasn't able to type anymore... At the present period, everyone and everything tries hard to go green. However, I guess there's something that should be left as it is. So, that might mean we've still got a long way to go! Hahaha...! ^^

I hope you enjoy the picture I updated!

Alright, that's all for today.
See you soon~!

My Friend's Blog (2)

Hello, everyone~!

Today, as usual, I was surfing through the websites that I regularly go and read. I've written about a friend of mine who have started blogging recently on the previous post, and she left the comment saying that she was glad to see her blog introduced on my blog! In return for what I did, she did the same thing on her blog which was to introduce my blog.

I was so glad not only because she talked about my blog and our friendship through the training program at the Fuchinobe campus, but also the post was written in English! I've seen a lot of people who kept saying "I want to improve the skill of writing in English", but it's likely to turn out that they do nothing. So, I was literally impressed by how much she wrote and the effort she made! Though it's a bit strange, it's always fun to communicate with the people who usually speak Japanese in English! I just don't know why...it's because how sentences in English are structured, maybe?

I hadn't thought very much that the language each of us speaks has something to do with who he/she is. By speaking and writing both in Japanese and English, however, I now started to believe that it matters more than I'd thought. For me, it's like having two different personalities on my mind, but they are inseparable. So, it's sometimes better to communicate in English with the people who speak both Japanese and English, and vice versa. It's really interesting, isn't it?

For those who are interested in reading my friend's blog, I put the URL for the blog! She usually writes in Japanese. But don't be discouraged! The post that talked about my blog is written in English! So, I think you'll be able to enjoy reading it. ^^　→http://blog.livedoor.jp/a_canq2i/archives/161295.html

Alright, that's all for today!
See you soon.

Evangelion...

Hello, everyone~!

Today I went to a CD store to buy Hikaru Utada's new single "Beautiful World / Kiss & Cry". As I've listened to the songs over and over again, I started to feel like talking about them here!

The first song, "Beautiful World" is the theme song for the movie called "Rebuild of Evangelion". Some of you might be familiar with the TV anime version of "Evangelion" because its popularity has been spread throughout the world. Some of my friends have talked about the movie version, and they just don't seem to stop talking when I ask some questions about the episodes and the characters! Their passion for "Evangelion" has even inspired me to go and watch the movie. ^^


The song you hear, "Fly Me to the Moon" , is also perfomed by Hikaru Utada.


In this trailer, the theme song is "Beautiful World".


The other song is called "Kiss & Cry". What the name of the song means is that it's okay for you to express how you feel more. How so? Well, Do you know what will happen after a figure skater finishes his/her performance? You might recall the emotional expressions that he/she made there such as kissing, hugging, and crying. That place is called "Kiss & Cry". So, in my opinion, what she wants is to make the world be the place like "Kiss & Cry"!

I hope you enjoy watching the videos!
And I just can't wait to watch the movie version of "Evangelion"!

Alright, that's all for today.
See you soon. ^^

1 0 0

Hello, everyone~!

Finally.....
I DID IT!

Oh, you don't see what I'm talking about?
Okay...I'll tell you. ^^

I would like to tell you that this is my 100th post! I'm glad to see how far I've come in terms of experience points for blogging. To be honest, however, I don't care very much about how many posts I'd updated because what matters most is the fact that I've enjoyed writing in English!

Anyway, I'm going to keep writing and trying to be better!
So, I really hope that you'll keep coming to my blog. ^^

Also, THANK YOU SOOO MUCH for the comments you left on this blog!
I really appreciate it. ^^

Alright, that's all for today!
See you soon.

XOXO
Hiromi

Formula One!

Hello, everyone~!

This weekend, what I'd been looking forward to was... the Formula One Turkey Grand Prix! The races of F1 have been held at the places throughout the world, such as Japan, Malaysia, Bahrain, the US, China. A season lasts for 6 month, from April to October. The machines for F1 run so fast that ordinary people can't drive, and I guess that makes the races much more exciting!

I'd known about F1 races, and I'd seen them on TV. However, all I could think of at the time was that the noises annoyed me so much that I would like to switch to another channel. But eventually, I've started being interested in the races because of the influence from my friends who love cars! I even enjoyed reading several books about how F1 races have been operated , and how they attract people in the world through broadcasting and the Internet. Moreover, my friends have helped me a lot develop my understandings about how sensitive a machine for F1 can be, what needs to be done to make a team come at the top through the relationships between machines and humans, and how spectators can analyze teams' tactics by looking at everything you see in a race circuit. Once you realize these things, it'll much more interesting and exciting to watch races! For example, just looking at tires that a machine wears tells us a lot about what will happen next.

I've enjoyed not only watching F1 races itself, but also looking at appearances of machines! They always fascinate me because colors and labels for advertisement are so diverse. Sometimes, they've inspired me to create my own picture of imagined machine! Hahaha... Anyway, my favorite, right now, is from BMW Sauber F1 Team. I really like the combination of the colors, white and blue. ^^ Also, it's refreshing for me to see it running on a race circuit because the color of the machines I've encountered would always be RED!

If you have a chance, I encourage you to watch a Fomula One Grand Prix!

Alright, that's all for today!
See you soon. ^^

Lovely Weekend

Hello, everyone~!

Today, I went shopping to a home improvement store with my parents to buy household goods. On the way to the store, we went by the US Yokota Air Base. I happened to see the fighter planes (I guess they were F-14, what we call Tomcat) take off from the runway. The airplanes went up much faster than I thought! My dad has loved almost everything about airplanes. Thanks to that, I've been interested in airplanes since I was a little girl. So I enjoyed watching it happen before my eyes, and I was even thrilled by the sounds that the airplanes made. ^^

After me getting excited, we arrived at the store. The store was so gigantic that I didn't know where to go first... But at the same time, we could have so much fun shopping around thanks to the bigness. ^^ So, we enjoyed being there very much!

Then, we went to the Japanese restaurant to have dinner! The picture on the left side shows what I ate...! I really love this restaurant, and there's too much to choose from. Every time I go there to eat, I just can't decide what to eat! So, I always end up ordering everything that comes into my sight! Hahaha... I even had a dessert! It's called "Kuzukiri". It looks like thick noodles, but if you look closer, you'll see it's like jelly and a bit translucent. Noodle-like things basically have no taste, so we usually eat it with the syrup made from muscovado and toasted soybean flour. I think it really is the perfect dessert for summer! ^^

Alright, that's all for today!
See you soon. ^^

Temporary Farewell to My Friend

Hello, everyone~!

Today, I went to Shibuya to hang out with my friends who went to the US with me as participants of the program at American University! We actually got together on August 9th, but unfortunately the one we'd been waiting for, whose name is Mao, didn't make it at the time. Whether or not she would come has been really important because she's going to go to China for one year to study.

And finally, she made it! Even though the people who came up were 3 persons, I literally enjoyed talking to them about how each of us had been, and what they're going to do on the vacation that would still last about a month. ^^ I was so glad to see her not only because it's been a while, but also I could talk about the Japanese boy band that we've liked "ARASHI"!(I went to the concert with her, and since then I've been a fan of them! So, she's influenced my taste for music a lot! ^^)

After talking about the things we usually chat about, we moved on to girls talk which obviously seemed to be unstoppable! Since I talked thoughtlessly about one of my guy friends who's been kind to me lately, I was overwhelmed by the questions! Ahhhh.... I shouldn't have said anything! Hahaha...

Anyway, I had a lot of fun hanging out with them. ^^ Mao said that it would be unthinkable for her to think that we wouldn't be able to see each other as frequently as we did, she would miss me a lot. That was exactly what I thought. However, we still can keep in touch by using MSN messenger. (Sometimes, talking through it makes me want to meet the one I talk to face to face, though.) For now, I hope her stay will be a really good one!

Alright, that's all for today!
See you soon. ^^

My Friend's Blog

Hello, everyone~!

I'd wanted to add a new post, but all of a sudden I got sooo sleepy... I guess I was still recovering from the fatigue I got from the internship. I ended up sleeping for almost 12 hours!

Today I'd like to introduce my friend's blog! Her name is Akiko(I call her Aki-chan), and she and I have participated the program that I talked about previously in Fuchinobe campus. At the beginning of the program, I was a bit anxious about how I should get along with everyone. But after I met her, it turned out that there was no need to have the anxiety because she's been easy to talk to! And it's been always interesting for me to listen to what she's learned about, which is business economics. And It's not too much to say that she's made the program more enjoyable to me. ^^

She has created her own blog as a way to how it works, and she'll use it for her research. On her blog, she talks about the internship that she participated. To tell the truth, she was also a participant of the one-day internship by Cisco! I didn't know that she applied for the program and that she was chosen! What a coincidence! ^^ I was surprised to find out that she would be there, and glad to see her at the same time because it's been a while. ^^

If you're interested in her blog...
Go to http://blog.livedoor.jp/a_canq2i/
It's written in Japanese, but the pictures she updated will help you understand what she's talked about. ^^

Alright, that's all for today!
See you soon. ^^

One-Day Internship @ Cisco Systems

Hello, everyone~!

As you might guess from the title, I went to Roppongi to visit the office of the company, Cisco Systems, for participating "One-Day internship" program. I talked about me being chosen as a participant on the post I wrote about a week ago. Though I've been learning about constructing networks, I had no idea what I was going to do. So I was a bit nervous, but at the same time excited because I looked forward to meeting the people from other universities! Meeting them always makes me rethink about who I am and realize the plain fact that I belong to Aoyama Gakuin University! We seem to be the same in terms of age, but take into account the environment that each of us has been surrounded by, each of us can be so unique and different. Moreover, the company has its office at the area called "Tokyo Midtown", where many people come to do sight-seeing or chill out on weekends. So, as I went closer to the entrance, it made me wonder what it would be like to come here for work. Do you think it would be almost the same as going to a university in Shibuya? Hahaha.... Maybe it would.

The first thing I did after arriving the site was to fill my stomach in order not to starve to death during the program! So, after shopping around the cafes I decided to go for the Japanese style. I had an Onigiri (rice ball), and iced green tea. Hmmm... YUM YUM! One of the foods that energize me the most is rice, so I secretly devoured it! Hehehe. ^^

This is the entrance of the building called "Midtown Tower". As the name of the area "Tokyo Midtown" shows, there are many kinds of facilities here such as a hotel, parks, shops, restaurants, hospitals, museums, offices! The building I visited as a participant was mainly consisted of companies' offices. But I saw many tourists as well...

Have you seen the picture I put on the right side? If you haven't, what do you think it is? It's a two dimensional bar code called "QR code", and "QR" stands for "Quick Response." I don't know if it's popular outside Japan, but I found the article about it on Wikipedia.The way it's used is, for example, that a company puts a QR code on an advertisement page and customers who are interested in its product can visit the company's website by making a cell phone's camera read the QR code. So, you don't have to type URLs which are often too long to type. The one you see on the right side is the code for this blog. Oh, why am I talking about this? Because... that's what I used as a way to get through the entrance! Don't you think it's cool? For those who are interested in how it works, I put the picture of the gate on the left side. ^^ Each of the gates has a bar code reader that allows the people with registered codes to go inside. It was the first time for me to see the code being used like this, so I was fascinated! After getting through the gate, I got on the elevator to go from 21st floor to 25th floor.

Finally, the program started! The short lecture they'd given at the beginning helped me think about what systems engineers do. I could see that they've been proud of their job. Also, I had a chance to collaborate with the people of the group I was in through an experience program! The tasks were to make a network environment for a certain company. I enjoyed the program because the more I thought about how I would construct the network physically, the more I realized the needs to step into the customer's shoes. It really inspired me to rethink about the relationship between humans and computers. Plenty of information flows mainly through the Internet rapidly and heavily than ever, and I've seen a lot of people who said they didn't like the current situation. As for me, however, it seems like it'll be more interesting than ever to live the moment like this! Yeah, I have to admit that I sometimes feel it's a bit too much to grasp everything and I think that I might end up getting lost just like the people who don't like the situation. But for now, I'd rather look at the bright side! I don't want to waste time refusing to try something new, and it's better to enjoy!

The last part of the program was to have friendly talks with the employees whose age was a bit older than me. We talked about what they did when they were my age, and why they decided to be where they are today. I enjoyed talking with them because the way they talked about each of their college lives made me feel closer to them. ^^

Alright, I definitely have gone too far~~! Hahaha... But I hope you'll get the idea of what I've done there! ^^ Lastly, I put the picture of myself! I was wearing the suit I bought the other day. How do I look??

That's all for today!
See you soon.

P.S
As always, I put the rest of the pictures on bubbleshare! So please enjoy~. ^^
This album is powered by BubbleShare - Add to my blog

Pocket Tissues

Hello, everyone~!

Today, my parents and I went to Tachikawa after my mom's work finished. Tachikawa is the west side of Tokyo, and a kind of suburban area compared to the cities such as Shinjuku and Shibuya. After getting off the car, we walked a bit from the parking lot to the store we'd hoped to go. While I was walking down the road, I saw a person who had a pocket tissue coming towards me. I just can't help but be predictable about what would happen next... He handed out the packet of pocket tissue to me just like I'd imagined on my mind. And since we walked down the same road to go back to the parking lot, I got another one! If it's round-trip, the number of pocket tissues you'll be given will be doubled!! Every time this happens, it reminds me of the remark made by a foreigner when he came to Japan for the first time, "Japan must be a good country because you can get tissues for free."

Interestingly, even though I walked down the road with my parents, they seemed to care only about my presence. My parents were surprised at the things happened while they were walking with me! Hahaha... I'm sure that I was their target consumer because what the information inside the packets said was about so-called "mizu-shoubai" in Japanese, which refers to the job at drinking places especially for men. In specific, girls are paid by men to enjoy drinking alcohol with them. Hmmmmm.... that's not something I'm interested in. Anyway, whatever they'd hoped to achieve, I got plenty of pocket tissues! Yaay. ^^

Then, I happened to find the article("Pocket Tissues") about pocket tissues handed out in Japan, and how it's become popular as a way to advertise. It was quite fascinating for me to read the article like this not only because I'd just received plenty of them(Hahaha...), but also because there was a lot of the things I didn't know about the industry of pocket tissues! (I didn't even know it existed!) Moreover, I think I'll be able to explain this to the people from foreign countries. I once was asked about this, and she also asked me why some girls refused to be given. Though I did answered the questions, but I don't think I explained why in a way she could fully understand. (I guess some girls don't receive pocket tissues because they regard accepting as a kind of insult.)

Alright, why don't you come to Japan and see it happen before your eyes?
Hahaha.... At least, I hope the article and my post will help you imagine what's happening here. ^^

That's all for today!
See you soon. ^^

Pastime for a Day Like Today

Hello, everyone~!

It's 14:50 pm here. My dad and I just came home after finishing the errand which my mom asked him to, and having lunch. Today's lunch was... UDON! Yaaaaay! I've enjoyed eating UDON more than I can count in this summer, but I never get tired of it. ^^ I just love it sooo much.

After enjoying Udon very much, we came home. And now, I've been watching TV just like a couch potato does! Hahaha... But I guess it's one of the best things to do among things like eating ice cream! The thing I've been watching was the baseball game, LA Angels vs NY Yankees. ^^ Watching baseball games like this couldn't be possible before, but now a lot of the Japanese baseball players have gone to the US. So, a lot of the Japanese people watch games on a daily basis. As for me, it's quite fascinating to be able to watch the games by Major League Baseball because how they play baseball is different from what I've seen in the games played in Japan. Also, in my opinion, the way the spectators in the US cheer the teams up differs a lot. We often play horns and sing to the sound of them, but I don't see that in the US. I'm okay with the sound of horns at the Japanese stadiums, but still I like the US style better because it enables me to concentrate on watching games and hearing sounds at the stadiums, especially the sound that can be heard when a ball thrown by a pitcher is held by a catcher's mitt!

The game has just ended, and the result is LA Angels 7, NY Yankees 6. Though one of the Japanese successful major leaguer, Hideki Matsui seemed to try doing his best, Yankees lost... :( But I guess it was an exciting game. ^^

I'm going to keep watching baseball games. But this time, it's a different kind! It's the High School Baseball Tournament at Koshien Stadium!

That's all for today!
See you soon. ^^

"SEVENTEEN" and Messenger

Hello, everyone~!

Today, I visited newsweek.com to see if something new has updated as usual. I happened to find the article that talks about the one of the famous magazines for teenagers in the US called "SEVENTEEN". Though I went to the high school in Japan and enjoyed being a so-called teenager, thinking about the magazine really reminds me of my high school days. Since I first encountered the magazine at the age of 16 or so, I'd loved reading it very much. I'd looked forward to reading it so much that I even subscribed the magazine directly from the publisher! I haven't had a chance to read it recently, and the price here keeps me from getting a copy. But after reading through the article, I feel like reading it again!

Well, one of the other things I did today was to chat through MSN messenger. ^^ Since I've installed the tool and someone to talk to, I can't help but be a kind of addicted to the fun I've been able to have while talking to my friends! I enjoyed talking with one of my friends today, and it was nice to talk to her because it's been a while. I think that each of us had a lot of fun talking about how we've been lately and plans to do in this summer. In addition to her, I also had a chance to talk to Ji Won. ^^ As you know, we're far away from each other, but thanks to the technology we have today, it doesn't make me feel we are! However, I've always ended up thinking that we are actually far away and wishing you were here after talking to the people who don't live in Japan through the Internet. :( It's something that can't be helped, isn't it?

Anyway, being able to talk to the people throughout the world itself is great! And of course, I'm looking forward to talking to you very soon at Tapped in. ^^

That's all for today!
See you soon. ^^

Living with Robots?

Hello, everyone~!

You might notice that I'm a kind of book junkie by taking a look at my profile on this blog, and I'll be glad to admit that I am. Now I even think that I love reading not only books but also anything printed in Japanese and English. I mean, magazine, newspaper, and articles on the Internet. Many people who are older than me have kept saying that young people in Japan don't read books for years. I always feel sad when I hear them say the thing like this because I think it definitely is a misunderstanding that doesn't need to be popular! :(

And today, I looked through the website of the famous magazine, Newsweek. I bookmarked the website because I like the website better than the website of TIME magazine. I like the way they write each article and most importantly, it's always easy for me to read. So, I just can't help but spend much time taking a look at the articles that interest me! I'd like to share some of them with you here. ^^

"Homemade Robots"
I found it interesting to read the article because I've been thinking about what it would be like to live with robots since I'd seen a movie called "i, Robot". (Have you seen it? If you haven't, I encourage you to check it out!) The movie I've seen recently, "Transformers"(Remember I talked about this on the previous post?) has inspired me to think about living with robots more. Technically speaking, we've actually lived with robots already in terms of assembly lines.

However, the same thing doesn't seem to happen soon at home, right? The reasons why it's taken so long to make that happen are that it would definitely cost you a lot, and that it would be difficult to fix problems by users who wouldn't be familiar with mechanical things. In this article, the writer talks about an experiment that might bring us one step closer to our goal. The main purpose of the experiment is to create "a series of build-it-yourself robots". According to the article, it'll be easy for everyone to make. Moreover, the price of a kit will be cheap enough for almost everyone to buy.

It also talks about their approach to develop robot's self-expression ability for communicating with humans. I've seen several robots on TV that walked with two legs and read our facial expressions before, like the robot called "ASIMO". (Do you know him? You can see him on the website) I've also seen some of them respond to remarks made by humans. Every time I see a footage like these, it gives me a message from robots that "I can understand you." However, that's not what I expect to see. :( What I want to see in the future is communicating with each other evenly. Is that too much that I'm asking for? Hahaha... It also makes me wonder if we ever need to make that happen in order to live with comfort because living in this world is never really easy and getting harder and harder, don't you think? But at the same time, that's something that enriches our lives. ^^ So, we might have to think about how we live while trying to make a robot!

Alright, I hope you enjoy reading the article! ^^
That's all for today.

See you soon~!

Going Shopping for a Suit ^^

Hello, everyone~!

Since the vacation began, I haven't let a day pass me by without thinking about updating my blog! At first, I thought that there would never be something interesting to talk about for every day's post. However, it's turned out that I've somehow manage to find one for each day so far.^^ It's made me think that interesting things definitely have happened every day actually, and whether or not you'll realize them happen matters! ^^ Maybe, I'm fond of seeking for something interesting by nature! Hahaha...

Well, I went shopping with my mom today. ^^ It's one of my favorite things to do, but the extreme heat which almost made me melt has kept me from going outside. Hahaha. So, it's been a while!

The main reason for shopping was to get a suit for my internship and job hunting. It's extremely important for myself to pay attention to how I look in terms of business situations. Why I think so is that no matter how much I try to brush up my internal aspects, it sometimes allows companies' people to judge me. So, from now on, I have to care about what kind of messages I send to interviewers nonverbally through what I wear, which I'm not very good at! :( But I'll try doing so anyway.

After shopping around the stores, I bought a suit. and probably I'll be able to show pictures of myself wearing it when I participate the internship program by Cisco Systems. ^^ So, please look forward to it! I'll definitely take pictures of the place where the office is located as well. ^^ So don't worry! Hahaha... :)

So, that's all for today!
See you soon!

Hana Yori Dango

Hello, everyone~!

Since the vacation began, I've been obsessed about a TV drama called "Hana Yori Dango"! The drama actually ended on January, and I've started watching it now as the episodes have been aired again as a rerun. I happened to watch it as I was being lazy in front of TV in the morning, but I found myself getting drawn into it! I'm really pleased with the fact that it's a rerun. ^^ Thanks to that, I've been able to watch it everyday! It's a sequel actually, but it doesn't keep me away from watching it at all because I've already read the original.

Yes, It's originally come from the Japanese comic and it now becomes the best-selling girls comic in Japan. With the popularity, it's been exported to the Asian region. As you can see by the picture on the left side, it's been translated into English as well. I clearly remember being addicted to them when I was a high school student! (In fact, I even enjoyed reading them at my high school. Oops! Was there the moment when you want to act a lit badly through high school days, wasn't it? Hehehe...)

It's a high school drama that could be categorized as "romantic comedy", "friendship". What's interesting to see is the relationship between Domyouji Tsukasa, who comes from a rich family, and Tsukushi Makino, who is a working-class girl. As you can guess, so many things which they can't take control get in the way. In addition to that, the moments they just can't understand each other make them upset emotionally.

One of the things I like about this drama is that even though love triangles appear sometimes, each of the episodes is always peaceful. So you can watch it without being worried about how many people will be dead in one episode.(Like the one I'd been addicted to until recently, "24"!) I've seen the short footage of the Japanese dramas that had been aired recently on TV, any of which didn't make me feel like watching. So, I haven't seen a Japanese drama for a while because I thought that the attractiveness of Japanese dramas has been disappeared. But now, It turned out to be sooo wrong!(at least about this drama. ^^)

Hana Yori Dango 2 Returns 03 Part 2/3
Uploaded by Blaice

For those who are interested in the drama, I put the video that I found on Dailymotion. It's the episode 3, so I don't know if you'll figure out what the story is like. But at least I hope it'll help you get some ideas of "Hana Yori Dango"! ^^ (I've already seen this episode, but it still makes me cry at the last half of the video!)

Alright, that's all for today!
See you soon~♪

What's inside my head?

Hello, everyone~!

To tell the truth, I don't have anything to post about today! But I just happened to think that it would be interesting to talk about a kind of game that has become popular among young people in Japan.

It's called "Nounai Maker". Can you guess what it means? "Nounai" can be translated into "inside the head". So, as you might see by the name, it'll tell you what your head is consisted of! You probably wonder how the result would be known, and how your head could be tested through the Internet. All you have to do is to type the Chinese characters of your name in the box on the website.

So, let's take "佐藤宏美" ("Sato Hiromi", which is obviously my name!) as an example. After typing them in the box, you can push the button to submit. And the result appears after you wait a minute. ^^

Here it is!

Well, you might not be familiar with Chinese characters. So I'll explain to you how each of the characters shown on the result would be translated into English.

• 食- the character whose color is yellow green. It would be read "shoku", and it relates to food. I just don't know how many "食" is in my head!!!!
• 友- the character whose color is blue. It would be read "tomo", and it means friends. I guess it's good to know that a part of my head is consisted of friends, but it's too few! Hahaha.
• 忘- the character whose color is white. It would be read "wasure", and it means "forget". Does it tell me that I'm good at forgetting the bad things and moving on, or just forgetting everything happened in my life regardless of good or bad? Hahaha.. Anyway, it tells me a lot.
• 負- the character whose color is black. It would be read "make", and it means "lose". Ohhh... I wish this told me when to lose! Hahaha!!
• 泣- the character whose color is light blue. It would be read "naku", and it means "cry". It appeared in my head probably because I've been easily moved to tears!

Many of my friends tried this as well! Every time a result comes out, it always makes me laugh because each of results is so different and unique!

So, if you're interested, go and get tested! http://maker.usoko.net/nounai/ (You might have difficulty visiting the website since many of the Japanese TV programs introduced this page! So please be patient if you want to try. Moreover, I'm not sure if typing in English could be tested. :( )

Now you see what I'm thinking? Hahaha....
That's all for today!

See you soon~

Cooking at Midnight....

Hello, everyone~!

Even though I'm not the one who is there with you guys, I'm also sad that the ending of the program is really near. I felt exactly the same when I had to leave there last year, and reading their feelings about departure reminds me of the feeling I had at the time. But as Ji Won said at the time at the airport, "It's just the beginning!". And now I started to realize that after one year has passed since last year.

Anyway, I've heard that some of AGU 2007's participants have IDs for mixi. We created the community for those who participated the program. I think it'll enable us to communicate with each other. So, if you're a mixi user and interested, feel free to join! ^^
http://mixi.jp/view_community.pl?id=1220785

Well, let me now move on to the topic I'm about to talk about today. It's about cooking! I was wondering if I could ever call it "cooking" because it was much easier than I thought, but since I don't know any other way to call it, so I'll talk about it as cooking~!

What I made was pudding. In Japan, a pudding is basically baked. So you need to chew when you eat it because it's hard. But the one I tried to make was different, and mine is called "Torokeru Purin". We, the Japanese, use "torokeru" when we eat something that melts in the mouth. And "purin" would be translated into "pudding" in English. I found the article about the product on the magazine, and it said it was one of the best-selling products in the first half of this year. Also, according to the article, one of the reasons why it was sold very much was that it was easy to made and even children could help moms make it. After I read it, I was interested in how it tasted and how easy it would be to make it actually. So I was glad to find this at the supermarket near my house! ^^ And I came to decide to make it in the middle of the night... Hahaha!

Even though the article said it was easy to make, there was the instruction on the back of the product's box. First of all, put the powder in the bowl. After that, pour milk in slowly. Then, all you have to do is stir up slowly with a whisk for two minutes. I guess how I describe the steps I took looks like I did cooking, but actually it was almost finished! Anyway, let's keep following the instruction!

This was how it looked after stirring up for two minutes. At this point, I began to realize that it was too easy to call it "cooking"! Hehehe...

Then, you divide the mixture into 4 glasses. After that, put them in a refrigerator for about an hour or so.

It's finally done!

Alright, that's all for today!
See you soon~. ^^

Cisco

Hello, everyone~!

First and foremost, talking to the participants of AGU 2007 through the Internet was sooo fun and exciting! I enjoyed being there so much that I even lost the sense of time. ^^ I really hope that they'll keep having a lot of fun through the rest of the program! Oh, needless to say, I've enjoyed reading each of their blogs as well. ^^

Well, as I talked here on my previous post, I've been learning about how the information on the Internet gets carried through personal computers in the world, and how to get computers connected physically in order to be able to move the information to where we want it to be. Whether or not you realize it, the technology of the Internet has contributed greatly to our convenient daily life that seems to be nothing special.

Then, as I've learned the field little by little at the Fuchinobe campus, where I actually don't need to go anymore if I'm not learning about it, and started to grasp what it's all about slowly, I applied for the program by Cisco Systems which is called "One-day Internship". Whether or not I would be able to take part in it seemed to be decided by the company today, and I got the e-mail that said I was the one who would be there! Yaaaaay!

It might look too short to know everything about what the company does in a day, but I'm already excited about it because I think it would be absolutely interesting for me to visit the company that looks unrelated to what I've majored in. Additionally, the place where the office is located is one of the coolest places in Tokyo now! It's called "Tokyo Midtown"(The link will bring you to the official website of the building.). It's located in Roppongi (it's a part of Tokyo) , where a lot of foreigners live in, and the symbol of the building which is called "Midtown Tower" is the highest building in Tokyo! Though the reason why I'll be there is to participate the program, I'm probably going to enjoy visiting the building as well.

I'll definitely write about it on this blog, so please look forward to it. ^^

You see how much excited I am now?
That's all for today!
See you soon~.

It's only love...

Hello, everyone~!

There's a song that I'd like you to listen, and I'll introduce it today! ^^ It's called "Beautiful World", and sang by Utada Hikaru. Mentioning her might remind you of the post about her live, and the fact that I've been a big fan of her since I was much younger than now, probably at the age of 13 or so. So, though I've already been able to listen to the song on Youtube whenever I want, I just can't wait to buy the CD! The song will be heard in the movie "Rebuild of Evangelion". I heard a lot about "Evangelion" from my friends because they've been obsessed about the animated version which were aired on TV several years ago, but I'm not sure what it is because I was not interested in it very much. But as the opening day of the movie approaches, more and more people talk about it and it makes me want to check it out! I'd like to know your impression about the series of the animated version if you've ever seen it. Well, I'll translate the lyric of the song into English for those who are interested in what she sings about.

It's only love

もしも願い一つだけ叶うなら
Moshimo negai hitotsu dake kanaunara
(If only one wish were to come true)

きみのそばで眠らせて　どんな場所でもいいよ
Kimi no soba de nemurasete donna basho demo iiyo
(Please let me sleep next to you, and I don't care where it would be.)

Beautiful world

迷わず君だけを見つめている
Mayowazu kimi dake wo mitsumeteiru
(I don't hesitate to look only at you)

Beautiful boy

自分の美しさ　まだ知らないの
Jibun no utsukushisa mada shiranai no
(Your beauty it's something you're still unsure about)


It's only love


寝ても覚めても少年マンガ
Netemo sametemo shounen manga
(Waking or sleeping, boys' comics)

夢見てばっか　自分が好きじゃないの
Yume mite bakka jibun ga suki janaino
(are what you're endlessly dreaming of, you don't like yourself?)

何が欲しいか分からなくて
Nani ga hoshii ka wakaranakute
(You're not sure of what you really want)

ただ欲しがって　ぬるい涙が頬を伝う
Tada hoshigatte nurui namida ga hoho wo tsutau
(You end up wanting to be given, I feel lukewarm tears running down my face)

言いたいことなんか無い
Iitai koto nanka nai
(I don't have anything to say to you)

ただもう一度会いたい
Tada mou ichido aitai
(All I want is just to see you again)

言いたいこと言えない
Iitai koto ienai
(I can't tell you what I want to say)

根性なしかもしれない
Konjou nashi kamo shirenai
(Maybe I'm gutless)

それでいいけど
Sore de ii kedo
(I don't care about it, anyway)


もしも願い一つだけ叶うなら
Moshimo negai hitotsu dake kanaunara
(If only one wish were to come true)

君のそばで眠らせて　どんな場所でもいいよ
Kimi no soba de nemurasete donna basho demo iiyo
(Please let me sleep next to you, and anywhere is fine)

Beautiful world

迷わず君だけを見つめている
Mayowazu kimi dake wo mitsumete iru
(I don't hesitate to look only at you)

Beautiful boy

自分の美しさ　まだ知らないの
Jibun no utsukushisa mada shiranai no
(The beauty that you have, that's something you still don't know)


It's only love


どんなことでもやってみて
Donna koto demo yatte mite
(Try to do anything you can)

損をしたって　少し経験値上がる
Son wo shitatte sukosi keikenchi agaru
(If you end up failing, your experience point will go up anyway)

新聞なんかいらない
Shinbun nanka iranai
(I don't need a newspaper)

肝心なことが載ってない
Kanjin na koto ga nottenai
(It doesn't tell me what's important)

最近調子どうだい？
Saikin choushi dou dai
(How have you been these days?)

元気にしてるなら
Genki ni shiteru nara
(If you're fine)

別にいいけど
Betsu ni iikedo
(That's okay)

僕の世界消えるまで会えぬなら
Boku no sekai kieru made aenu nara
(If I wouldn't be able to see you until my world disappears)

君のそばで眠らせて　どんな場所でも結構
Kimi no soba de nemurasete donna basho demo kekkou
(Please let me sleep next to you, anywhere is fine)

Beautiful world

儚く過ぎて行く日々の中で
Hakanaku sugite iku hibi no naka de
(Days pass me by fleetingly)

Beautiful boy

気分のムラは仕方ないね
Kibun no mura wa shikata naine
(I just have to admit that my mood swings)

もしも願い一つだけ叶うなら
Moshimo negai hitotsu dake kanaunara
(If only one wish were to come true)

君のそばで眠らせて
Kimi no soba de nemurasete
(That would be to sleep next to you, and anywhere is fine)

I hope you've come to understand what she sings about! ^^
That's all for today.

See you soon~!

Old Japan

Hello, everyone~!

First of all, I did enjoy talking to the members of AGU 2007 through the online chat! Though we hadn't met face to face before, it made me feel like I had. Moreover, I couldn't help but be grateful for the technologies that has allowed us to connect with each other internationally! I'm looking forward to talking to you again on Monday!^^

Well, what I'm going to talk about today is my visit to the American embassy. You might remember that I've talked about my visit to the American embassy with Hiro to listen to the lecture which had something to do with the collaboration between the Japan Self-Defense Forces and the Armed Forces of the United States. This time, I went to visit there again by myself to listen to the lecture about the cultural exchanges that occurred between the Japanese and the American in the 19th century, and how the American discovered the things about the Japanese culture, and also how the Japanese rediscovered our own culture through these exchanges.

Though I'm not particularly majoring in this kind of field, I was interested in what the speaker would talk about because I thought that to know how the cultural exchanges were done in the 19th century hopefully would offer me some new perspectives for the cultural exchanges that I've tried to promote in my daily life. In addition to that, I've always been amazed by the power of a piece of work that has let us connect with each other, and inspire others regardless of linguistic barrier and historical background between each other's country. What matters most is what one says in his work, not who he is or where he comes from. You might see what I mean If you think about the influence of the Japanese animation and "MANGA", right? Lastly, as the Japanese rediscovered our own culture at the time, I also would like to rethink about my own culture by listening to the lecture by the American author whose name is Christopher Benfey. (The picture on the left side is the book he wrote called "Great Wave".)

While listening to the lecture by the author, it really made me realize how much ignorant I've been about the Japanese literature and I was ashamed of my lack of knowledge. However, I was glad to be able to face with the face because I'm now interested in reading the books that the author mentioned such as "And Then" by Soseki Natsume, "Book of Tea" by Tenshin Okakura. I didn't know that Tenshin Okakura wrote "Book of Tea" when he was in Boston, and to my surprise, it was written in English at first! It must be really interesting to read something Japanese in English, don't you think? Also, it would definitely make me think about who I am.

So, I'm going to buy the book and read it! Which do you think is better for me, the book in English or Japanese, or both at the same time?

Alright, that's all for today!

I hope you enjoy reading today's post. ^^

See you soon~!

Hello Kitty from Kinugawa

Hello, everyone~!

First of all, I've literally enjoyed looking at the picutures on agu2007.blogspot.com. Though I'm not the one who is there with you guys this year, reading the blog of AGU 2007 and the blogs of the participants makes me feel as if I were there again! ^^ Meanwhile, I visited agu2006.blogspot.com as well. As I started remembering what we did last year, I imagined you guys take the same steps that I took. ^^

Well, as you can guess from the title, today I'm going to talk about the souvenir I've bought while I was on the trip to Kinugawa several days ago. Do you remember that I added the post about the souvenir I got from Eriko, which was a kind of key ring of Hello Kitty? I've got another version of it, and I'd like to show you the picture! The first picture that you can see on the left side tells you that this is the version of Kinugawa Onsen (Do you remember what "ONSEN" means? It means hot springs which are Kinugawa is famous for.), and that you can get this only in Tochigi prefecture. Now, here she comes!

Don't you think it's kawaii(cute)~?
I think she is definitely enjoying to take a bath in Onsen with monkeys! I did almost the same things except for the encounter with monkeys. Hahaha.

I hope you enjoy taking a look at the new member of my Hello Kitty's collection!

That's all for today.
I'm looking forward to paticipating the online chat with the participants of AGU 2007!

Until then, Sayonara! ^^

The Trip to Kinugawa! Part 2

Hello, everyone~!

As I said on the previous post, I'm going to talk about the trip I took to Kinugawa! So here we go!

On the second day, the first thing I did was "Line-kudari" which would be translated into boat tour. I've experienced this at a different place in Japan before, so it was the second time for me. But I felt that this time was a different one, and I enjoyed boarding the boat with my friends! The picture on the left side gives you an idea of what it's like to be a passenger of "Line-kudari". Though I showed you the picture, I don't think it'll help you see the way I want you to... :( So, it sounds like it's time for me to use Youtube to share what I saw with you, right?

After boarding the boat, we got on the bus to go to the station to ride a cable car! By riding a cable car, we could visit the observation deck at the top and the place where the monkeys the Japanese deer have lived in. I just didn't know why they were there, and I was surprised how much they've got used to humans who constantly stand surrounding them! They desperately reached out their hands for the foods given by tourists! The video I put on below will show you how it's done!

After witnessing the monkeys being fed by humans, we went back to the hotel to do discussions about the topics we chose. What we talked about was that how you would accomplish a certain mission as a Japan Overseas Cooperation Volunteer with keeping cultural conflicts from happening. In addition to that topic, we also talked about how you would promote the relationship between the company which introduces child labor as way to reduce costs and the children who are employed by the company. The topics like these might look like something we don't need to care about so seriously, but they actually require a lot of cultural understandings that help you imagine how the people from different cultural backgrounds feel about what you do to them. I enjoyed talking about these topics with the members of the seminar because though everyone was given the same tasks, everyone had different opinions about them. So it was really interesting!

After that, we enjoyed eating dinner! You can see the picture of the dinner I had on the second day on the previous post. ^^ We went outside to do something fun, it was Hanabi(fireworks)!

I hope you're now feeling that you are one of the participants of this camp! Hahaha~. ^^ At least, I think it'll tell you how much fun I had!

As always, I put the picture I took on the trip on bubbleshare!
I hope you enjoy taking a look at them. ^^

This album is powered by BubbleShare - Add to my blog
Alright, that's all for today!

By the way, I hope I'll be able to join the online chat today!
See you soon~. ^^

The Trip to Kinugawa! Part 1

Hello, everyone~!

I went to Kinugawa from August 5th to August 7th to participate the summer camp of the seminar I've belonged to! Some of you might not be familiar with the seminar because the way we are given the class is different from the US's. We usually choose a seminar that each of the students in my department is interested in when we are sophomore, and he/she belongs to a seminar to learn about a field he/she wants to study, and to write your own thesis at last. So, I'll attend the seminar once a week for 2 years, junior and senior. As you can see, it's important for me to try getting along with other members of the seminar! That's why we went on this trip!

Well, have you heard of Kinugawa Onsen? It belongs to Tochigi prefecture, and it takes about 2 hours to go there from Asakusa. (It's a part of Tokyo.) It's famous for hot springs, and what I've wanted for this trip was "Kimochi-ii Ofuro"(Awesome hot springs) and "Oisii Gohan" (Yummy meals), so I got everything I wanted! Yaaaay! The picture on the left side was the entrance of Asakusa station, where the trip began.

After being on the train for about 2 hours, we arrived at the hotel finally! The first thing I saw when I entered the entrance of the hotel was a number of "omen" (This is not the name of the movie, it means "mask".) hanging on the wall! If you enlarge the picture on the right side, You can see Mickey Mouse, Daisy, Hello Kitty, Doraemon, Anpanman, and so on.

As I said, the reasons why we decided to go on a trip were to get to know each other, and more importantly, to do something that related to the field we've learned about: Communication! So, we watched a movie called "Crash" which was awarded with the Oscar for Best Motion Picture of the year at the 78 th Academy Awards ceremony. It's dealt with cultural conflicts between different races, but at the same time, it's also encouraged us to keep having hope for the people who lives in this world that is so diverse. I've seen it before, but I always find it interesting to listen to what others think about the movie I saw because it makes me realize that there are many different ways to look at things.

After watching the movie, we ate dinner! There were so many different kinds of foods on the table that I just couldn't decide what to eat at first. ^^ I decided to put all of the dinners' pictures here! So, please enjoy looking at the foods I really enjoyed! I hope they will help you imagine how they taste like... yum yum! I'm sorry if you're hungry now, hehehe. ^^

After the dinner, I guess this was one of the most important parts of the trip! It's time for OFURO! (Hot Springs!) Yaaaay! You might think it's just having a bath, but it's not! Some of you have read the previous post which I talked about going to a public bath near my house with a friend of mine, and as you can see from that, I love taking a bath!! So I was glad to be able to enjoy Onsen(hot spring) there! Yeah, I really was!!

I guess I should stop writing about the first day here.
I'm going to continue talking about the trip on the next post, so please look forward to it! ^^

American University Reunion!

Hello, everyone~!

Hmmm... I just can't help but be surprised at the fact that it's August 9th already! I still think the vacation has just begun, but I feel a day pass me by much faster than school days.

Anyway, I went to Shibuya yesterday to see my friends who went to the US with me to visit American University! The reason why we got together was to say temporary goodbye to one of them who is going to go to China in September as an exchange student. So we wanted to surprise her by only telling her where to come. However, everyone including the organizers was way too secretive about the party and none of us gave her further information except the date of the party! And guess what happened? She had another plan! So, after we found out that she couldn't come, we decided to have fun eating, drinking, and most importantly talking!

I enjoyed being with my friends very much! Needless to say, talking to each of them is always awesome!!! ^^ Moreover, the thing we spent time most there was to play a game called "Wink Killer"! You decide who to be "the killer" and "accomplices", and after that, all you have to do is to gaze intently at each other to look for the killer who wink at everyone to "kill" the others. It was sooo fun to play this game that we lost the sense of time, and we finally found ourselves realizing it was time to leave! We spent an hour and a half playing the game! You might think we were crazy, but I think playing this game is so much more exciting than you think! Now my eyes are exhausted....

Alright, that's all for today!
See you soon~. ^^

More than meets the eye...

Hello, everyone~!

First of all, I've enjoyed leaving comments on the participants' blogs of AGU 2007. ^^ As I get to know about each of them by reading his/her blogs, I hope that they'll enjoy reading my blog as well.

Alright, what I'm going to talk about is the movie I've seen recently. It's "Transformers"! As you might guess from the post which talked about the class I've taken with students in the information technology and engineering majors, I've been interested in those kinds of things these days. Also, my friends from the class talked passionately and continuously about it as if it was a must-see film in this summer. I asked them why they were so sure that the movie would be a great one, and what they told me was that they enjoyed the animation very much. Moreover, I've wanted to see what the latest screen technology could do in the theater. So, I decided to go and watch the movie!

In fact, I've never seen the animation before. So I just didn't know what the story would be. However, I had so much fun watching this movie because how the robots in the movie got transformed was so fascinating to me that I might even start to imagine that the cars in streets would get transformed suddenly! Hahaha... ^^

Anyway, what I liked about this movie is that the story of the movie was not based on the idea that machines are always evil. My favorite character is called Bumblebee(You can see the picture of him above.), and he played a role as a guardian for the main character called Sam. I really liked him play the role in the movie because it would be something I hope to happen in the time when robots are able to live together with humans! Moreover, the screen images were so interesting to look at. But it was too fast to see everything that happened in each of the scenes when transforming occurred. So I would like to see it more slowly...

After all.... it really was an interesting movie!
I encourage you to check it out if you're interested in robots and cars. ^^

That's all for today!
See you soon~

Visiting Yokohama and "Ratatouille"

Hello, everyone~!

First of all, I enjoyed leaving comments on AGU 2007 participants' blogs! I couldn't help but be grateful for the technology of the Internet that has allowed us to connect with each other. ^^ I hope they will get used to the way they put what they want to say on a blog.

Well, what I'm going to talk about today is hanging out with Yuiko at Yokohama! I haven't seen her for a while because of the exams, so I had a lot of fun meeting her again!!

We met each other at the station, and after that we headed to the theater to get tickets for the movie. It was so hot that all I remembered saying is "atuuuui" (it's so hot!). Hahaha. But we somehow managed to get through the extreme heat, and we decided to eat ice cream after receiving the tickets. We enjoyed eating ice cream so much that we even thought that eating ice cream made us feel like we were in heaven! The picture on the left side was what we enjoyed eating!

Since we had time to go around the area, we walked a little to visit Yokohama Anpanman Children's Museum. Some of you might wonder why we decided to go there because the name of the museum said it was built for children. Contrary to what you think, not only children but also the people whose ages are not children any more can enjoy being there, and I was absolutely one of them. Anpanman hasn't been so famous as Doraemon or Pokemon(especially Pikachu) has, but I've fallen in love with Anpanman since I started watching the TV show at the age of 3 or 4.

Yuiko and I went to the bakery which is located inside the museum. Can you guess why there was a bakery? The answer is Anpanman is a kind of bread. "pan" means "bread" in Japanese, and "man" means the same as English. Then, what about "an"? It's the Japanese ingredient and it would be called bean jam if I try to translate it into English. Now, you understand why the bakery was there, don't you? In the TV show, Anpanman is the main character and he always helps the others by giving his part of the face, which I think can be eaten as a delicious anpan. ^^ The picture on the left side shows you other characters appeared on the show.

After shopping around the museum, we finally headed to the theater to Watch "Ratatouille". Before the movie began, Yuiko bought the giant popcorn and the drink for me! You can see what they looked like by taking a look at the picture on the right side. As you can see, the hat that looked like the one the chef in the movie wore was a free gift. Can you guess what I did after I went home? Yeah, I tried it on!

Don't tell me how silly I am!(because I know it!) Hahaha! Anyway, how do I look? I thought Yuiko definitely expects me to take a picture of myself with the hat, so I just did! I hope you like it. ^^ Lastly, if I can talk about the movie a little bit, I really enjoyed watching it. I've been a fan of the movies made by pixar and I liked how the story of the movie told me that trying to go beyond limitations regardless of where you come from and how you look is really a good thing even though we are likely to think it's impossible to do so. I would like to encourage you to check this out if you have time!

As always, I put the rest of the pictures I took on Bubbleshare! So Enjoy~! ^^

This album is powered by BubbleShare - Add to my blog

Alright, that's all for today!
See you soon~. ^^

Chang's Meeting!

Hello, everyone~!

First of all, I'm glad that the participants of AGU 2007 arrived safely! I hope that all of you had slept well on the plain so that you wouldn't get jet lag. ^^

Well, I went to Akasaka (It's part of Tokyo) to visit Tokyo American Center to listen to the lecture conducted by United States Forces, Japan. The division of the US government has given opportunities regularly for undergraduate/graduate students to know more about American culture, politics, and so on. I came to know this because a friend of mine who belongs to different seminar from mine talked to me abotu that, and I began participating. Today was the second time for me, and the topic of the first time was "President Race '08". This time, the topic was about how the US Forces in Japan has worked with the Japanese Forces. After visiting the base of Japan Air Self-Defense Force, I've been interested in how Japan-US Security Treaty has influenced on missions and the relationship between the US and Japan. So it really was a nice opportunity for me!

Moreover, I thought it might also be interesting for Hiro to go to the lecture. So I asked him if he wanted to go, and he said he was interested. So it became literally "Chang's Meeting"! After the lecture, he was able to ask the speakers several questions face to face. He seemed to be glad to do so becaues what he majors in is International Relations, especially in the era of Cold War. We've also got some materials at the end.

After listening to the lecture, we felt like going to the book store near Aoyama campus called Aoyama Book Center to take a look at magazines and books that each of us was interested in. So we got on the train and headed to Shibuya. Hiro and I enjoyed being at the book store so much that I just didn't think about leaving there until we realized that we were hungry! Hahaha~. We finally came to decide what to eat. What do you think we had as dinner? UDON!! It was so delicious that I even forgot to take a picture for you! Sorry! Hehehe~ Donmaikeru. ^^

Alright, that's all for today!
See you soon~. ^^

Me on the Magazine!

Hello, everyone~!

I just can't believe that August has already begun! It really makes me remember someone's remark I saw on TV "The only thing I'm certain of is now." Moreover, the fact that I'm not 20 years old any more is so unrealistic that I even forgot yesterday was the day I turned 21 years old. The emails that congratulated my birthday helped me realize the fact that I turned 21 years old! Hahaha...! It also should be remembered that it's been a year since I participated AGU 2006. From then on, every time I think of my birthday, the memories that we shared at the time come to my mind!

Well, let me move on now to the topic I'm going to talk about! As you can guess from the title, I appeared in the magazine called "蛍雪時代"(Kei-setsu-ji-dai). It's the magazine that provides the information about how high school students should prepare for entrance exams of universities. When I was at the age of 18(it was time to begin preparing for the entrance exam for the universities I was interested in.), I gathered the information about the universities by logging on to the websites, talking to the people at the cram school, and asking my teacher at my high school questions. So I didn't know much about the magazine, but I enjoyed scanning through the pages after publishing because it's given plenty of information about how you should spend time on studying while you're on vacation, how the students of particular universities enjoy their campus life, and so on.

The article I got involved is about international exchanges. Do you remember that I was a participant of the program whose purpose was to go to the United Nations? That was the topic I talked about on the article. When I was a high school student, I didn't care about what AGU was doing to promote international exchanges very much. However, as I was asked to answer the questions in detail, I came to realize that students today are really considering overseas training programs as one of the important things when they think about where to go. I really hope that my article helps readers know more about the choices which they'll be able to have when they enter AGU, especially the department I belong to!

It actually was the first time for me to be a part of a magazine, so I wondered what I would be asked. The questions I was asked were the reasons why you were interested in participating the program, the things you did while I was in NY, and the things I've learned through the program. Talking about it did bring me back to the moment I set foot at the United Nations! It was a nice opportunity for me to rethink about the program because it made me realize that the experiences I'd had in NY definitely have helped me to be who I am today!

Moreover, what I have to mention about is that the other article is about the program of AGU 2006 by Hiro! I really hope that readers would not be confused by our name. Hahaha...! He also talked about the reasons why he chose to go to AGU, the reasons why he decided to participate the program, and the things he's learned and found through the program. Since we first met in the program, I never had a chance to know the reasons why he participated AGU 2006. So it was interesting for me to read about it. I was grateful for the opportunity I could have and the fact that it led me to meetings with awesome people like him!

Okay... have I gone too far? Hahaha!!

That's all for today!
See you soon~. ^^