M y - S w e e t - D a y s

Lunch with Yuki

2008-08-14T10:24:00.006+09:00

Hello, everyone~!

This time, I would like to talk about my summer vacation. On Aug 12th, I finally could meet Yuki (from AGU2006) in Harajuku to have lunch together! Though we've talked about having lunch or dinner together sometime soon, each of us had been busy taking exams and doing what we needed to do such as part-time jobs and practicing an instrument. (Yuki belongs to Aoyama Gakuin's orchestra, remember?)

We got together in Harajuku. Do you remember the post I talked about this place just a little while ago? As I mentioned, it's famous for fashion and the birth place of youth culture. And the picture on the right side is the entrance of Takeshita street. (You can see the name board of Yoshinoya on your right. It's a restaurant that serves beef bowls, and they have restaurants in the US! ) It's a must-visit place when you visit Harajuku. You can visit clothing stores, accessory shops, fast food restaurants, and so on. As you can see by looking at the photograph, many people were there because it was midst of summer vacation! People from all parts of Tokyo and throughout the world came here. Yuki and I hasn't been here for ages, so we felt really old. Hahaha.

After going through the street, we found the restaurant called "SHANTI". What they serve is soup curry. Soup curry was born in Sapporo, Northern part in Japan, and it's influenced by cuisines of South Asia and South-east Asia. I tried it when I visited Sapporo and I told Yuki that I really liked it. After that, she told me that she knew the restaurant where we could enjoy soup curry in Tokyo! We did enjoy eating soup curry so much that I completely forgot to take a picture of it! :( If you want to know more about soup curry, please google it!) And we talked about what each of us has been up to lately, the boy bands that I've been into, and girl talk! We realized that we kept talking for about 3 hours! Wooow. I felt fast, though. It's always fun to talk with girl friends, especially about guys! Hehehe.

Also... we enjoyed the dessert as well! When you go out for lunch or dinner, don't you feel like eating something sweet after having lunch or dinner? (If you are a girl, you might be able to understand what I mean! I really hope so. I think that's why we have a saying "There is room for dessert".) So, we started walking to look for something sweet and yummy. After looking through several shops, we decided to have Harajuku roll crape. As you can see from the picture, it's not an ordinary crape that you think of. It's covered with crispy and thin pancake. Inside of it, fruits and cream were covered with thin pancake. So, you don't have to worry about spilling out while eating. Mine was chocolate and bananas! Hmmm.... yum-yum!

Oh my gosh... have I gone too far?

That's all for today!

The Chat with AGU2008

2008-08-13T23:58:00.004+09:00

Hello, everyone~! ^^

On Aug 13th, I enjoyed chatting with the members of AGU2008 at Tapped In! As I expected, the chat room was really crowded. But I'm really glad to be able to talk to you guys! (virtually, though.) Thank you so much for letting me join the chat! I hope I'll see you guys in Japan. :)

Some of you thought you did well on the chat and others thought you could have done it better, but don't worry! It's natural that you would feel overwhelmed or you think that it's hard to follow the conversation. It depends on how well you can type or how much you get used to chatting on the Internet. If you think that it's a bit hard, I'm sure you'll gradually improve. :) Chatting at Tapped In and Doing IM(instant messaging) with mentors have helped me improve and sustain my skills of writing in English and typing! Additionally, you will be able to keep in touch with the people in Maryland by doing them! So, let's keep trying. :)

As many of AGU 2008ers mentioned that the program is about to end, I'm feeling sad as well... We do know that things always have an end and nothing lasts forever, but reading posts that you guys don't want to go back to Japan reminds me of the feeling I had when I was there in 2006. Hmmm.... honestly it still makes me a bit sad.

Anyway, I hope all of you keep having fun until the program finishes completely! (Actually, the end of the program is the beginning. That's what I talked about when I was at the airport, waiting for boarding.)

That's all for today! See you!

Welcome Back!

2008-08-12T02:57:00.003+09:00

Hello, everyone~!

As I've said on the previous post, I'm going to talk about what I've done lately. I've done several things, so I don't know where to begin.... But the first thing that came to my mind was about the reunion of AGU '06 & '07 in Tokyo!

As some of you know already, Laura has come to Japan as a member of the JET program. Before she went to the place she would work, she stayed in Tokyo to receive a training for several days. So, Ai arranged the reunion at Shinjuku on August 5th! (Thanks a lot! :) )

Though I was the only one from AGU 2006, I was glad to meet Laura and the members from AGU 2007! We enjoyed eating and talking each other about what each of us has been up to. Laura showed me the handouts of the training and I was surprised to know that there literally was a lot to remember!

After that, we headed out to a "must-visit" place for us. Yes, Karaoke! As always, we were fascinated by Laura's voice and we all enjoyed singing! ^^

I enjoyed being there so much that I forgot to take pictures! (Sorry about that!) But, Ai took pictures! So, please visit Ai's blog if you're interested.

Okay, that's all for today!

AGU2008 has started!

2008-08-11T04:47:00.004+09:00

Hello, everyone~!
It's been a little while since I've updated this blog several weeks ago.... how have you been?

I've done several things since the vacation began, so I'll talk about them one by one soon! But before doing so, I'm happy that AGU 2008 has started finally and to be able to see the members update blogs! ^^

Though I won't be able to join physically, leaving comments on the blogs makes me feel as if I were a part of them. (I almost forgot to tell you about myself when I left comments, I'm sorry!)

Also, reading what you guys did during the trip really reminds me of the wonderful time that I had two years ago. I'm still surprised to know that two years have passed since I visited the UM, but I do remember it as though it were yesterday! (Speaking of AGU2006, I talked with Ji Won several days ago. ^^)

Anyway, I hope you'll enjoy the trip as much as possible and learn something from this experience that you've had in a different culture. And if I could say a thing or two, it would be... please sleep well every day! I'm sure you've got a lot to get through in terms of classes and activities, right? When I was there, I got tired almost each day because of the classes and activities and it made me go to bed early! (I did enjoy going out for Karaoke sometimes, though.) Looking back, the tight schedule worked really fine for me to sleep well at night! Hahaha.

Lastly, I'm looking forward to talking to you in Tapped In! ^^

I'm now 22 years old!

2008-08-02T04:53:00.003+09:00

Hello, everyone~!
As I came back here again from yesterday to update this blog, I realize gradually that it's really nice for me to be here as a blogger because I've enjoyed doing so. It helps me maintain my writing skill in English, of course!

Anyway...Today is my birthday! As the title of today's post says, I'm now 22 years old. I'm glad that my friends celebrate my birthday and I'm really happy about that, but when it comes to the fact that I turned 22 years old, I just feel nothing! I even started to wonder if it's important to see myself by counting the years I've lived. Hmmmm.... what do you think?

Moreover, I just can't wait to see AGU 2008 begin! After I visited Maryland as a participant of AGU 2006, I do think back of what I had at the time every time this season comes! I really do. (Such as... Karaoke nights, how some of us became shopholics, and how I enjoyed making waffles every morning and eating it! Hahaha.) As I said on the yesterday's post, the memory remains the same like it happens just yesterday! So, I really hope that this year's participants will also enjoy the program as much as I did! (Before that, should I hope that they will have a good flight and get over jet lag? Right?)

That's all for today!

Lastly, though it has nothing to do with what I've said above, I put the picture I took the other day. I took this picture when I went shopping to Harajuku after my part-time job. The place I work is located in Shibuya and it just takes 10-15 minutes to go to Harajuku. Some of you might be familiar with Harajuku already, because I think it's famous for young people throughout the world. (Especially in the US??) It definitely is the city for fashionistas or shopholics, and that's what it's famous for. When I felt tired a bit after shopping and looked up to the sky, I found this beautiful sunset! I hope you enjoy! :)

See you soon~

It's been a while...

2008-08-01T01:49:00.004+09:00

Hello, everyone~!
I'm sorry that I haven't updated for a while. As you might guess already, there was one thing that I should worry about before the summer vacation began. Yes, EXAMS! It's finished finally. So, I'm now ready for the vacation. Yaaaaay! On the other hand, I just can't believe that this vacation will be my last summer vacation during my school days.

Also... I turned over a calender today and realized that August would begin.

Hmmmm...... it means.....

I will be 22 years old on August 2nd.....!!!!!

Ahhhhh! Time flies! My body clock feels like I'm still 18 or so, but it's undeniable. But I guess it's not that bad to get older.(Too early to understand?)

Also...

Members of AGU 2008 depart finally!

I still feel that the time we had happened just yesterday, and thinking of what I did two years ago makes me want to listen to the songs I'd enjoyed listening to at the time. It really makes me feel closer to the days I enjoyed with AGU 2006 members! Though I won't participate the program as a participants, I will do my best as a blogger in Japan! Hahaha. :)

These are the songs I'd enjoyed listening to at the time.
Do you remember?

"Gallery" by Mario Vazquez

"Chasing Cars" by Snow Patrol

"Ain't No Other Man" by Christina Aguilera

"Tell Me Baby" by Red Hot Chili Peppers

It shows that I watched the morning shows on MTV almost everyday in the hotel room! That was how I woke up at the time. (And making waffles! Hahaha.)

There's more!

Laura will be arriving soon!

I just can't wait to see her again!!! She will stay in Tokyo before she goes to the place she will work. Have a nice flight, Laura! ^^

That's all for now. I actually have a lot to talk about, so I will do it little by little. Please look forward to it!

See you soon~

Should I Buy....or Not?

2008-07-04T01:44:00.004+09:00

Hello, everyone~!

Today, I'll be talking about a thing that I've been thinking about lately.

It's about.... whether or not I should buy iPhone, which arrives in Japan soon.

I downloaded a keynote address by Steve Jobs, a CEO of Apple, from iTunes when I heard that he finally announced the debut of iPhone. At the time, I almost fell in love with functions it got and imagined what it would be like to have mine.

After waiting for almost one year, it'll come out finally in Japan! But I didn't get excited very much somehow when the news about iPhone's debut in Japan was released. It's just because I've never been able to be so passionate about iPhone or it's just too late. In addtion to that, I've heard about negative things about iPhone. I do understand nothing is perfect in this world, but hearing the things like that let me down and I just can't make a decision!

My father said he would definitely change his cell phone to iPhone when it comes out, because a deal its company offers is cheeper than now and having iPhone mesmerizes him.

What about myself? Hmmm.... I think I can stick to Docomo. (Docomo is a big telecom company in Japan) But once I take a glimpse of iPhone, I cannot but keep looking at it!

It's important to be cool when you buy something, but usability is also crutial at the same time. Don't you think? So, if you have your own iPhone or friends who have iPhone, would you please tell me your opinion?

Getting My Nails Done

2008-07-03T01:08:00.004+09:00

Hello, everyone~!

I just can't believe that July has already started! I feel time fly faster and faster as I get older... I guess that's the feeling that tells me that I'm moving on to "Obachang" stage? Hahaha! I've thought of things like this because I have only a month left to be 21 years old finally! I'm not saying that I want to be 21 years old forever, but becoming older makes me a bit sad somehow. (I do understand age is nothing but a number, though.)

Well, the fact that I have only a month left to be 21 years old means that summer is just around the corner! Wondering if the rainy season has finished yet, I met Eriko and Yuiko yesterday when I attended a class that we all have taken for this semester.

After the class, Eriko told me that she brought a bottle of nail polish with her because she said that she only finished wearing a manicure for only one hand. And she said she wanted to get my nails done as well. I once said no because I thought it might take some time and she had to get ready for her next class. But she insisted and was eager to paint my nails, so I finally gave in! Hahaha... :)

Getting my nails done is one of my favorite things to do in terms of cosmetic things. Though I enjoyed doing it so many times last year, I haven't done it for a while because I couldn't have time to do so. But after Eriko painted my nails beautifully, I thought that I might try to do it again. :) It's just my self-satisfaction, but it's always nice to see my nails be painted in colors that I like. I hope I'll have time to do so! :)

That's it for today!
See you soon.

Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull

2008-07-02T22:32:00.005+09:00

Hello, everyone~!

Today, I watched the movie "Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull". I've been trying to watch as many movies as I can in my spare time since I've started to work as a part-timer. Before I did that, I was likely to pass in going to movies because because I figured I would have time to see them later. But now, when I think about doing something, I'll just do it right away. My seminar teacher once told me that it would not necessarily be the case that people who have much time would do something better than those who are busy. That's so true, I guess. Sometimes, being busy doing a lot of things encourages you to think about how to spend time efficiently and cleverly, and a way to find a fraction of time that you would have missed before, such as when you are on a train to school. But at the same time, you have to be careful because being busy sometimes makes you confused or overwhelmed, especially when you can't prioritize what you have to do.

Oh, I guess I got off the track. Let's move on to the topic I would like to talk mainly about today. It was the first time for me to watch "Indiana Jones" series. Though I already knew the theme song, which I even played when I was an elementary student, I had no idea what to expect. But the fact that I liked the movie "National Treasure" (It seems to me that this movie was inspired by "Indiana Jones" series.) helped me decide to give it a try.

Hmmm..... whether I can say I like it or not depends on how I enjoyed the movie. If I focus on thrilling action scenes, it was awesome. (Sometimes, I thought of the scene as unbelievable because they did things that seemed to be impossible to happen in the real world! Hahaha. They survived after they fell into waterfalls three times, for example. It can't be!) But when I think about the story, I guess I should never try to take it seriously, even once! If you start to think about the story carefully, you might be disappointed. I don't really like how it ended, actually. Anyway, as long as you follow the story without thinking seriously, you can really enjoy the movie! The fact that it's back means a lot for the people who have waited for years, right?

Though I talked a lot about how I think of the movie, I think it was not that bad for the beginning of summer-vacation movies season! I just can't wait to watch movies this summer. :)

But before that, there's a thing I need to go through....EXAMS!
Hopefully, everything's gonna be alright!

luxurious toilet

2008-07-01T22:44:00.005+09:00

Hello, everyone~!

In the last week's chat, Nina introduced mean article from Washington Post. The article is called "In Energy-Stingy Japan, an Extravagant Indulgence: Posh Privies". I finally had time to check it out.

Before I start to mention the detail of the article, I was surprised to see the Japanese toilet get focused on a news paper published in the US. I have heard that, one of the famous companies that make luxurious toilets, TOTO, had once struggled in the US market because almost no one cared about experiences in bathroom. Several years later, the people in the US seem to understand what luxurious toilets truly are.

I sometimes come across these toilets in department stores at the center of Tokyo. In Japan, how well-equipped public toilets are is really important for customers. It can also be said for supermarkets, and even for schools. I once heard that employees of a certain supermarket were asked to clean restrooms there when a brand-new chief executive officer came into office. My university is trying hard to turn ordinary toilets into advanced toilets, literally! The other day, Eriko told me that the restroom where I hated to go before because it looked out of date had been updated completely. I was surprised to find it so much that it took a little time for me to accept the fact! Hahaha....

It makes me remember the moment I changed impressions for stores I visited. Though I am satisfied with a store itself, restrooms sometimes disappoint me. But now, almost every toilet I use when I go outside is well-equipped just like the toilet you can see on the article.

Moreover, it was fascinating for me to learn about how the Japanese habits for toilets have influenced on the environment. I am glad to see attention being paid to the Japanese toilets, but it is a little bit sad to know that it might keep Japan away from being green.

That's it for today!
See you soon. :)

Hana Yori Dango Final

2008-06-30T21:40:00.003+09:00

Hello, everyone~!

On Monday, I watched the movie "Hana Yori Dango Final". Well, do you still remember me talking about it last summer? I enjoyed watching the rerun of the drama while I was on vacation at the time. When I thought about going to the theater and watching it, I thought I was a bit tired. But when I was seated in the theater waiting for the movie to begin, I got really excited.

"Hana Yori Dango" series have got a huge popularity as the story between Doumyouji Tsukasa and Makino Tsukushi moved forward. The story was basically based on the comics version, but this time, another story was written for the movie.

"Hana Yori Dango" (We call it "Hana-Dan" Yeah, abbreviation! We are really good at it. :) ) is very famous in Asian countries, as well as the rest of the world. Thanks to websites such as YouTube and DailyMotion, where you can see as many videos you want, more and more people watched the drama ever before. Some even uploaded videos with subtitles in English so that people who are not familiar with Japanese can enjoy!

As I said on the previous post, I can watch this without being worried about someone would get hurt or feel sad. At the same time, it can be said that it is easy to foresee what will happen. But I could still enjoy watching them becuase it is always nice to see them. And it made me realize that, though I know almost exactly what will happen in the movie, I actually have been waiting for them to come back. Yeah, I missed them somehow.

I will not talk about how it ended for those who have waited like me for them to come back. But it's obvious, you know? For fans like me, just imagining how Doumyouji and Tsukushi get married happily is amazingly fun, I guess.

This is the trailer of the movie. I hope you'll enjoy!

And... one thing you can't miss! The movie's theme song is performed by Arashi. You know what I mean. Hahaha. I hope you'll have fun watching it! It's called "One Love".

That's it for now!
See you soon. :)

I'm addicted to.....

2008-06-29T23:45:00.001+09:00

Hello, everyone~!

I talked about my favorite boys bands previously, and now I just can't get enough of them! Hahaha~. Though I have things to do for school, videos I can watch on YouTube literally makes me stay in front of my computer! As Monday is coming, and it actually is Monday already here, it's time to take control of myself.

They're seductive and addictive, however. And the fact that I'm going to Hokkaido by plane to go to Arashi's concert next week really makes me excited already! Now I also think about going to Kat-Tun's concert, but I think it's almost impossible to get a ticket for that because they're so famous and many people think about the same thing as me!

Right now, I would be able to talk about them almost forever.... I guess I would fulfill conditions for Johnny's geek perfectly! (In Japanese, we say it "Jani-ota". It's an abbreviation for "Johnny's Otaku") Ahhhhh, I just can't believe how I've been mesmerized by them because I once was the one who hated to watch them on any media. But now, I'm eager to go to their concerts!

I've also tried to make my friends like them! I might look like an evangelist! Yuiko and Eriko liked Arashi's latest album, Dream "A" live. And surprisingly, it turned out that my friend at my workplace likes Arashi so much that I now enjoy talking with her very much. Though I and she go to the same university and actually belong to the same seminar, I didn't know much about her. After finding out the fact that she also likes Arashi, we suddenly get really closer! I'm really happy to have a friend like her, and every time we meet each other at the workplace or our university, we can't stop talking about Arashi!

Hmmm.... as I said, it does remind me of the days I was literally into the US boys bands such as 'N Sync and Backstreet Boys! There's always some people who hate the bands like them, but it's impossible for people like me not to pay attention to them. I can't help but be drawn to the people like them.

All right, I'll talk about my visit to Hokkaido after Arashi's concert. (It's going to be held on July 6th.) I just can't wait to see them~.

See you soon~!

Lunch with My Mom and My Grandma

2008-06-28T21:09:00.001+09:00

Hello, everyone~!

Today, I enjoyed eating lunch with my mom and my grandma. I woke up at about 11am today, so it was brunch for me! Hahaha...

We chose to eat the Japanese foods such as sushi, tempura, and so on. It's our favorite actually! If I could complain one thing or two, I would say that I always eat too much when I go there. Hahaha!

Well, though we've lived differently across generations, it's always nice to do girl talk! :) I also talked about what I do as a part-time job, when to get a driver license, and so on. My grandma always makes me and my mom laugh because it seems that she has nothing to be afraid of now. She's most experienced among us in terms of age, so it's a kind of interesting to listen to her because it makes me imagine how she's lived till today. She also encourages me to see things in a way that I don't usually realize, and remember something that is important. I guess the differences between what she experienced and what I experienced enabled me to do so.

Well, we really had a good time and enjoyed talking so much that I forgot to take pictures. Sorry about that! Please look forward to it next time.

That's all for today!
See you soon. :)

Akanishi Kun

2008-06-27T23:56:00.006+09:00

Hello, everyone~!

Last year, I talked about the Japanese boys band called Arashi on this blog when I went to their concert. Since then, they've been one of my favorite artists. When my friend who had already liked them at the time asked me if I would like to go to their concert, I didn't think that I would be really into them at all. Lately, listening to their music literally relieves my fatigue. (How I've chased them on TV, magazines, and so on really reminds me of the days I liked the American boys band, Backstreet Boys. To some degree, I still do.)

In addition to the fact that I've become addicted to Arashi more and more and I even introduce them to my friends, new boys band that debuted from the same office as Arashi has just been added to my favorite artists' list! Oh, I definitely have a tendency to be passionate about boys bands. Whatever! Hahaha. I'm sure it's an important part of my life that makes me happier and happier everyday.

It's "KAT-TUN". They are very very famous already in Japan, of course. And even in Asian countries. You might think that why the name of them is KAT-TUN(ka-toon), it actually derives from the initial letters of each members. They are Kamenashi Kazuya, Akanishi Jin, Taguchi Junnosuke, Tanaka Kouki, Ueda Tatsuya, Nakamaru Yuuichi. Now you see why? The name also has a message that people want to see more just like when you start turning pages of manga(cartoon), and the Japanese "勝運"(katsu-un), 勝 means winning and 運 means luck.

Well, I think they actually need no introduction. If you watch them, you'll see why. They all are good at dancing, and singing! They have different characters from those that the members of Arashi have. A video you can watch below is called "Don't U ever stop". I hope you'll enjoy! Fortunately, you can listen to it with English subtitle!

My favorite member is, as the title of this post says, Akanishi-kun. His dancing is amazingly awesome, and even sexy! He's also good at singing. I'm sure that he's talented from the beginning, but at the same time, he's worked really really hard to be where he is today because it seems to me that he understand almost exactly what he's good at, and what he should to please audiences. Some people say that he tries to be cool too much, but I think that he is looking at himself really critically and always thinks about how to improve his own performances. That's what every professional does, right?

This song is called "Pinky". I wasn't interested in Kat-tun at all until I found this video. I guess I easily become mesmerized when I watch someone dance really really well.

This song is performed by one of the members, Akanishi Jin, who seems to be the most popular among them. He actually went to the US, Los Angeles, for learning English at the moment when the band itself started gaining huge popularity. (I don't know if it was a good choice to visit Los Angeles, though. There's too many Japanese people, don't you think?) He's back now, and he writes songs in English thanks to the staying. Though his decision to visit the US was criticized as selfish, it seems to me that he's just trying to be himself and to bring the band to the next level. (He said that he doesn't want his band just to be famous in Japan, and he wants to be "global". I guess that's why he went to the US.)

I ended up buying their latest album today, and I literally enjoy listening to it. I hope you'll have fun watching videos!

Remember Me

2008-06-26T23:14:00.002+09:00

Hello. everyone~!

On today's post, I would like to introduce Preston Gannaway, who has been a photojournalist for the Concord Monitor in New Hampshire since 2003. She is the winner of the Pulitzer Prizes.

Actually, I happened to know that there's a lot of different categories for the Pulitzer Prizes when I read the Japanese magazine that basically focuses on articles from foreign newspapers and magazines, whose name is "COURRiER Japon". In the magazine, the editor in chief talked about the Pulitzer Prizes and felt a bit sad because the Japanese media just covered the category of "Breaking News Photography". Yes, it literally is really shocking and it has to be covered by the Japanese media because the person in the photo, who had been killed when he visited Myanmar to get a story about the demonstration on streets there. But still, there's a lot of great photographs and articles which are worth paying attention to, and reading.

One of them ,which also was introduced on the magazine, is from the category of "Feature Photography" and the work is called "Remember Me". It's a story about a woman who is close to death due to a terminal illness. After she realized it, she decided to live the rest of her life in a way that she wanted it to be. She wanted to be surrounded by her family when her time finally came, and the photographs not only captured the moments of her life, but also grasped the feelings that she and her family had at the time. Not only she She, but also her family, struggled. as a mother, was afraid that her youngest son would not remember her if she's gone. And her sons struggled to face with the fact that their mom would go and never see them again.

It is really sad. But at the same time, it made me realize that, as much as I've thought of how I live, it's really crucial and meaningful to think about how I would like to die. It sounds a bit negative and sad, but there might not be a lot of differences between living and dying. Even if it's wrong, I think there's definitely a strong connection between how we live and how we die.

Hmmm... it's a bit philosophical!

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

Chat at Tapped In!

2008-06-25T23:54:00.003+09:00

Hello, everyone~!

Today, as I mentioned previously, I enjoyed talking to some AGU people at Tapped In! For those who came there tonight(this morning), thank you! And those who couldn't make it today, I hope I'll see you next time!

This time, Hiro(Ojichang) made it! Though Hiro and I are in Japan, and actually go to the same university obviously, we haven't seen each other for a little while. So, it was really nice to talk about what he's been up to, and know that he has been writing a paper for the class he's attended in our graduate school.(Students in Aoyama Gakuin University can attend the classes in the graduate school, and we can even get credits.)

And also, I would like to check and read Confucius Lives Next Door, by T. R. Reid. In addition to that, I will also read the article that Nina introduced at the chat, In Energy-Stingy Japan, an Extravagant Indulgence: Posh Privies. It's interesting for me to know a little bit about Japan from a view of outsiders. It gives me another perspective for ourselves, and a way to make a comparison between how we are being looked at and how we look at ourselves, right?

There was some conversations in Japanese, English-mixed-Japanese, and Japanese-mixed-English when I, Hiro, and Ji Won talked about lots of different things such as Hiro's selection of graduate schools and their requirements for application, Ji Won's precious cars that had sadly gone away, summer movies, and so on.

It's always awesome to talk to AGU people even though we virtually meet online! But hopefully, I'll see you face to face! Hehehe.

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

Tokyo Next

2008-06-24T23:51:00.002+09:00

Hello, everyone~!

Today, I got a call from Yuiko after I spent time at the library looking for what I've been working on for my graduation thesis. She actually called me because she thought she would encounter the commuter rush if she tried to go home now, and she wanted to spend some time to avoid that. And I guess she needed someone to talk to while waiting for the rush time to pass her by.

I got a call from her and I decided to go to where she was. She went to BAGEL&BAGEL, where you can enjoy lots of different kinds of bagels, she chose to go there because one of her favorite foods is bagel. She can even make it by herself!

There, we talked about how each of us is doing right now, and the things each of us has been interested in lately. One of the things that we both has kept an eye on is that, H&M, which is an European fashion retailer, is coming to Japan very soon. I just visited the store once when I went to New York several years ago, but I remembered enjoying to be there at the time. So, I'm kind of excited that it's actually coming to Japan finally.

Well, why "kind of"? Hmmm... I guess it's a little too late. The same can be said for another famous fashion brand, Abercrombie and Fitch, because it seems to me that A&F has been afraid of their image being damaged due to their trial to come to Japan. Of course, it definitely is a good thing for fashion brands from other countries to come to Japan because it's a kind of sign that a brand is being regarded as truly famous and valued at one of the centers of fashion throughout the world. But at the same time, it means that a brand might struggle because the Japanese people are usually said to be easily excited at first, and sooner or later, we will be sick of it because everyone starts to have "it". So, it's really hard to follow what's hot in Japan, especially in the areas such as Harajuku, Shibuya, Shinjuku, and so on.

In the situation like this, H&M is now trying hard to promote their opening in Tokyo at their website. Last week, I was surprised to watch their podcast focus on fashionistas (people who have good taste for fashion) in Tokyo areas. Harajuku, Ginza, for example. I think the people who came up for this podcast are very very passionate about fashion. Though I go to Shibuya everyday and I think that fashion is a part of our daily lives, I just don't understand why some people are unbelievably crazy for fashion! But at the same time, it's fascinating to watch them because it somehow gives me new ways to look at clothes.

If you're interested to watch their podcast, CLICK HERE.

Alright, that's all for today!
I'm looking forward to seeing you at Tapped In!

Stanford's Commencement Address '08

2008-06-23T23:20:00.000+09:00

Hello, everyone~!

You might already know that I've been a frequent user of Podcast on iTunes. In terms of learning English, it's impossible to miss because it's totally free!

And if I could introduce my favorites, one of them would be annual commencement address at Stanford University. I found the program about a year ago and the very first one that I listened to at the time was the commencement address by Steve Jobs. He need no introduction literally. His charismatic character saved Apple.

This year, Oprah Winfrey talked at the commencement. Though she's very very famous in the US as one of extremely successful people, she's not so famous in Japan. So, people here don't react at all to the news that the most influential celebrity is Oprah Winfrey. But I'm sort of familiar with her because CNN covered the news about her efforts to build a school in Africa.

The fact that Steve Job's speech was awesome let my expectation for Oprah really high. But, anyway, her speech was also inspiring and there's so much to learn from the way she expressed her emotion, presented herself, and how she chose particular words for particular meaning.

So... enjoy!

You can also get the whole script by clicking here!

The Ways to Improve My Writing in English

2008-06-22T03:33:00.011+09:00

Hello, everyone~!

I planned to write a paper whose deadline is next Tuesday, but time has gone by.... Oops! There's too many temptations, especially this weekend. The qualification procedure of Formula 1 race in Paris was aired on TV, and now it's time to watch the soccer game of EURO 2008, Netherlands vs Russia. Awwww..... I can't help but become couch potato! Whatever! Hahaha.

So, I decided to practice writing a paper before I actually start writing. The theme is "What are ways to improve your writing in English for a paper?" It's simple, but at the same time, it makes me think because what I do here now is one of the reasons. Don't you think?

Alright, let me point out several points that I want to focus on the paper.

1. Acquire the basic style.--- When you do something, being creative is always important. But we also need to know how it's been done. So-called "outside the box thinking" only comes out when you know "inside the box thinking", and vice versa. So, the very first step to write better in English would be to acquire the basic style.

2. Do as much reading as you can and always remember that it's for outputs that you'll make.--- That's what I'm trying to do. Reading English books, developing the sense of lexical collocation, for example. Reading English books has taken fear and resignation for long articles in English away from me, and it helps me understand how I should use particular words for particular meanings.

3. Do "plan-do-check-act" process over and over again.--- Of course, you can't write perfectly at the beginning. Rather, what's important is, I think, to define what you can and what you can't, and think about what to do for each of problems and improvements. Sometimes, it's good to focus on what you can't but sometimes doing the opposite might work. So, keep trying and practicing to make a difference.

4. Ask others to see your writing.--- It's always good to get feedbacks from others because it definitely gives you perspectives that you don't have or haven't realized before. So, you can create your own blog like me, or ask your friends to see your writing. If your friends are good at English, that would be perfect! Being looked at by someone you know is a good way to keep your motivation and it makes you alert for grammar. Even if you don't have friends who are good at English, you can easily look for friends throughout the world online! In this "everyone's connected era", it's a choice you can't miss!

Okay, now I'm getting ready for writing them down for the paper. But I actually started to watch the soccer game! Ahhhh, I should probably write a paper to discuss how I should spend time better. Hahaha..!! Well, it definitely sounds like an excuse, but the soccer game is a "must-see" for me. And more importantly, it's held once in every four years!

If you have any comments, feel free to post!
Thank you.

That's all, see you soon!

Blood Barrels

2008-06-21T23:10:00.002+09:00

Hello, everyone~!

You already know that I now have part-time jobs and one of them is to work as an assistant at the school for the people who wish to be translators.

When I work there, teachers always choose materials that they use for each class. Materials are videos, cassettes, and articles from magazines. So, there's a lot of magazines written in English. Foreign Affairs, TIME, Newsweek, The New Yorker, and so on. It's interesting for me just to see the covers of them. And sometimes, I get chances to turn pages a little bit.

This week, one of the materials that the teacher I've assisted use was the article from the magazine "Foreign Affairs". The article was "Blood Barrels -Why Oil Wealth Fuels Conflict-" by Michel L. Ross from the University of California, Los Angeles. After making photocopies, I had a little time to read it. (If you jump to the link above, you can't read the whole article there, but you can read the summary.)

Basically, what's written was that how the oil-rich countries have struggled to manage revenues from oil and governments that control them, and what we should do to solve the problem. According to the article, so-called "oil-rich countries" such as Kazakhstan and Nigeria have spent their revenues from oil on building new capital cities, and failed to provide running water to many villages who need it.

At the same time, we also need to think about the way we live on a daily basis because the way we live is the reason why they produce oil aggressively. The author also said that we should solve this problem as we've done for the problem of blood diamonds. He suggested that oil-rich countries' governments are required to be transparent, and the rest of us also think about each of our lifestyle that depends on oil more than you think.

After reading it, I wondered which would be happier if a country doesn't have any resource such as oil, or a country do have a lot of resources. I thought of the same thing when I watched the movie "Blood Diamond". Though we are often likely to think that the haves are happier and the key to prosperity, it's not always true. The haves and the have-nots are actually struggling in different ways.

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

JUNO

2008-06-20T23:44:00.003+09:00

Hello, everyone~!

On Wednesday, I watched the movie "JUNO". I happened to know this movie when I visited the iTunes store for the US customers. I check theatrical trailers there regularly because it tells me what's happening in the US's box office, and I can watch trailers of movies that are unscreened in Japan much much earlier. It's really fun to watch and predict what to come. And hopefully, my English proficiency improves by watching them. I think it does because trailers I can get there are always without subtitles.

"JUNO" is one of them. I also see this movie's soundtrack climbed up the ranking of the iTunes. At the time, I was wondering why.

Though I always feel frustrated time lags of releasing between the US and Japan, it's finally come to Japan. The fact that the movie was made low-budget but it got really famous after all made my expectation high. And one of the reviewers that I heard of on TV said that the way Juno dealt with her pregnancy was fascinating and that's one of the points that he said you should check out.

Is that really so? That's what I thought and I'd been actually thinking of watching it as soon as possible.

For some of you who might not be familiar with the movie, I'll explain the story briefly. If I could explain very shortly, it's about "the girl who gets pregnant and how she and the people surrounding her deal with that". That's it. But what if the girl was 16 years old? What do you think she should do? That's what you'll think and enjoy, I guess.

At first, the girl, Juno, thought of getting pregnant as a simple thing. But her mother said it wasn't. So, she started thinking of abortion and visited the hospital. She ended up getting out of the hospital, however. And the decision she made finally was to give her child to someone who desperately needed.

In Japan, movies and dramas about teenage pregnancy have a negative image because though we should not quickly judge by the image or figures that all of teenage moms are not good, we can't say that it's a good choice to have a child at that age either. So, we usually end up making a conclusion that they should get abortion and sadly, the number of people who get abortion has been on the rise. These days, a kind of mailbox for children has been placed in several hospitals in Japan and mothers who they think can't afford to raise their children go there and put their children away. Some say it's irresponsible while others say it works because it makes sure that children are protected. It's very sad and hard to accept, but it's the reality in Japan. So, what the Japanese might think of when we hear the word "teenage pregnancy" or "abortion" would be things I mentioned above.

So, as I said, how Juno and the people surrounding her dealt with her pregnancy really fascinated me. And I found that her pregnancy brought a family connection that their family has lost for years. How Juno changed emotionally and physically through her pregnancy is also interesting to watch!

If you have time, why don't you give it a try?
I hope you'll like it! ^^

"Last Friends" finished finally...!

2008-06-19T23:44:00.000+09:00

Hello, everyone~!

My favorite drama in this spring-summer season, "Last Friends", finally finished today. Though an additional episode will be aired next week thanks to the increase of viewers, it now officially finished... I've missed the day I couldn't wait for every Thursday to come since the moment when the very last episode finished.

As much as I'm feeling sad that the drama finished, I was actually happy to see the story move forward. (You know what I mean if you had favorite shows now or before.) If you recorded the last episode and you haven't seen it, please just skip what's written below.

In the last episode, Sousuke, the one who becomes violent when things don't go the way he wants them to, committed suicide because he finally figured out that Michiru (his girlfriend) could never smile if he was with her and realized that she no longer belonged to the place in their heart where Sousuke and Michiru once were together happily.

After Michiru figured out that he committed suicide and found the letter written by Sousuke, she went to where she was born. And she began working at the Japanese style hotel. But suddenly, she felt sick and she happened to know that she was pregnant. Before Sousuke passed away, Michiru was actually sexually abused by him. The fact that she was pregnant literally broke her heart, but she decided to bring up her child by herself even though her mother said that it would be tough.

In the meantime, Ruka and Takeru, who still live in their share house, found out that Sousuke committed suicide when Michiru's mother made a call to know where Michiru would be. They decided to look for Michiru by going to the places where they thought Michiru would be. And they finally could meet Michiru!

Lastly, Michiru, Takeru, and Ruka decided to bring the child together happily.

As the story went on more and more, I just couldn't foresee what would happen. So, I even thought that the ending would be really sad such as someone killed someone. At least, that case didn't happen. But I got confused that Sousuke ended up committing suicide. I can understand he had complicated background and it can't be said that it was all his fault, but violence would never be justified. Right?

So, if I were to watch it whole new episodes, I would want it to change. Because it seems to me that the drama says the problem about Sousuke's violence can't be helped. If there's a solution, Michiru might not have lost him and the consequence would be different. But in the drama, Sousuke just escaped from the reality by killing himself. Maybe, that's how the director of the drama want to provoke our discussions or that's the true perception of domestic violence? I don't know....

But anyway, "Last Friends" is one of the interesting, thought-provoking, and moving dramas I've ever seen. So, if you have a chance to see it, why don't you give it a try?

CHANEL MOBILE ART

2008-06-18T22:32:00.015+09:00

Hello,everyone~!

Today, I went to Harajuku to visit "CHANEL MOBILE ART in TOKYO."

I happened to know about this when I watched a news show on TV, and it literaly drew my attention! In addition to it, it turned out that the event would be held near Harajuku station, which takes less than 5 minutes to be there from Shibuya! Though going to Shibuya for school is a bit tough because it's always crowded, but this time, I couldn't help but be thankful for the location of my university! Yaaaay!

Do you remember the post in 2006 that I talked about Utada Hikaru's concert? "Mobile Art" opens at the same place as the concert, Yoyogi National Gymnasium. I hope the link for Google Map helps you imagine where it would be.

大きな地図で見る

"CHANEL MOBILE ART" is a project by the international luxury brand, CHANEL, obviously. But what's new about it is that the museum travels around the world, such as Hong Kong, Tokyo, New York, London, Moscow, and Paris. Usually, people travels around the world to visit so many different kinds of museums. But this time, the opposite happens. Sounds really fascinating, isn't it?

Though I was interested in visiting the museum, I just thought that it would be nice if what I would see was fascinating and would end up talking about it here. And I wasn't sure what to expect actually, because I have never been familiar with the brand itself. (Anyway, I felt lucky because I was able to get the ticket!(It was free, actually! But I needed to make a reservation by obtaining the ticket.) This event has become so popular that the tickets have gone.)But when I went there, these worries just went away! There was a really unique and beautiful construction, and it stood where I've visited and seen many times. The construction let me see the place that I've thought was ordinary in a different way from yesterday. And I even thought that I'll remember the construction being there every time I visit here from now on.

This is the construction by the architect Zaha Hadid. Since I haven't been familiar with the contemporary art or architecture, I have to admit that I just have no idea who she is and why she's so famous right now. But the truth is, the construction has gotten me interested and definitely drew my attention! I think that this is the perfect example of how people judge the beauty of something. You know what beautiful things are without being mentioned about who creates it or how it was made.

I'm going to talk about just a little bit more detail of the museum now. (But I couldn't take pictures inside...unfortunately.) So, please just skip if you're planning to visit there because it'll contain the things you don't want to know before the visit. If you really are interested in what's inside, you'll be able to take a glimpse of it by looking at the blog by Verbal from m-flo.

After entering the museum, the first thing I did was that a headphone and an mp3 player was loaned. And after the staff helped me arrange the setting for the player, the music began and I began walking when the voice that said "Now, please stand up." came to my ears. You might be wondering the typical type of voice guides at museums, but it's totally different. It even told me where to see, where to turn, and how many steps that I should take. So, though how I should see or feel or capture each of installation wasn't suggested, I automatically paid much attention to what she said while I was walking. And in a result, the sense that I don't use usually had been heightened. Concentrating on listening to what she said was as important as concentrating on seeing what was in front of me.

It took about 50 minutes to see all of the installations there with the mysterious audio guidance. After that, I got the booklet about "MOBILE ART."(Surprisingly, it's free and everyone can get it as long as you're a visitor.)

And one of the postcards in the bottom of the picture said the idiom "empty your bag", and I was fascinated by the episode of why this idiom was born. According to the postcard I got, "In bygone days, in the legal world, case files were just simple sheets of paper rolled up and carried in leather bags. Each lawyer had his own, and took his scrolls our one by one in from of the judge in order to read his defense speech. In other words, he "emptied his bag". To "empty one's bag" has become an idiomatic expression in French, "vider son sac: dire ce qu'on a sur le coueur", used when someone reveals something that was kept secret for a long time." It even made me want to say Wow!

Alright, I definitely have gone too far this time!
Anyway, I want you to know that it's worth visiting!
And more importantly, it's free!
(Also, I found the article about this and if you read it---CLICK HERE)

See you soon!

Hillary Clinton's Speech

2008-06-17T23:19:00.000+09:00

Hello, everyone~!

After I came home and eat dinner, I looked for something that interested me. That was Hillary Clinton's concession speech. I actually read the quote of her on the Japanese edition of NEWSWEEK, and that was "Although we weren't able to shatter that highest, hardest glass ceiling this time, thanks to you, it's got about 18 million cracks in it. "

I've heard about the term "glass ceiling" many times before, and though it was one of the ways she expressed herself in the speech I was surprised to hear that even the person like her felt glass ceiling standing in front of her and couldn't break it this time. I'll keep some of the speech here just for me to remember.

Now, on a personal note – when I was asked what it means to be a woman running for President, I always gave the same answer: that I was proud to be running as a woman but I was running because I thought I'd be the best President. But I am a woman, and like millions of women, I know there are still barriers and biases out there, often unconscious.

I want to build an America that respects and embraces the potential of every last one of us.

I ran as a daughter who benefited from opportunities my mother never dreamed of. I ran as a mother who worries about my daughter's future and a mother who wants to lead all children to brighter tomorrows. To build that future I see, we must make sure that women and men alike understand the struggles of their grandmothers and mothers, and that women enjoy equal opportunities, equal pay, and equal respect. Let us resolve and work toward achieving some very simple propositions: There are no acceptable limits and there are no acceptable prejudices in the twenty-first century. (From npr)

As a reader of her book "Living History", the fact that she ended up suspending her campaign disappointed me a little bit because she's been so passionate about the current situation in the US and has worked as much as she can to make every one's voice heard. Though people criticize her sometimes, I respect her because she has been capable of turning her ideas into actions. There's a lot difference between people who say something actively but don't act, and those who say something and act at the same time.

In addition to what she says, I learned a lot from the way she did speech. I don't do speeches in front of so many people like her, but sometimes I have to do presentations in English. So, it gave me tips for how to make people listen by taking a moment sometimes, how I should keep being paid attention to, and how I should choose words to make what I want to say sticky or easy to remember.

If you want more detail or listen to her speech,
Go to npr.org.

Alright, that's all for today!

Convenience Store

2008-06-16T23:01:00.001+09:00

Hello, everyone~!

Today, I read the article that the governor of Kanagawa prefecture has been considering about issuing regulations for the opening hours of convenience stores in the prefecture.

The reason that he came up with the idea like that was he wanted the prefecture to be energy efficient, and eco-friendly. Other than limiting the opening hours, what he suggested was to reconsider logistics and operations at stores.

I looked up the Wikipedia to search how many convenience stores exist in Japan. In a result, there are about 50000 stores throughout this country! I've felt that there's been too many stores, but I was surprised at the number of stores when I finally fount it! And now, it's not unusual that two stores are located at almost the same place, and what makes them different is whether or not you have to cross the street. But unfortunately, a store doesn't exist where I want it to be. Hmmm.....

I'm not sure how many of the stores I mentioned above exist in Kanagawa prefecture, but I assume there are many stores there. As a frequent user, the suggestion that the governor of Kanagawa prefecture gave us is a little bit confusing. I can imagine limiting the opening hours would be a good solution for environmental problems, but when I think about roles that convenience stores I often go play, it's not the problem that we can solve just by saying yes or no. There's good and bad things for it.

Good things are, obviously, by doing that the prefecture can be a leader or role model for eco-friendly city. People pay attention to the city thanks to that, and respect. But at the same time, there's bad things as well. I think that our taken-for-granted assumption that there's a convenience store at midnight somehow makes me relieved when I come home after hanging out with my friends. And also, the lightness, though some say it makes the clock of human being go wrong, keeps cities safe and peace.

It might be the time to change the way we spend time, see the world, perceive the situation right now? But it's hard to say goodbye to what we take for granted!

I don't know how the argument would turn out, but I really hope that a solution everyone can agree on would come up! ^^

Sophia in Japan!

2008-06-15T11:55:00.005+09:00

Hello, everyone~!

I just came back home from Shibuya, at about 0:30am. It's already June 16th, but I still feel like it's Sunday! Well, you're now wondering what I did today?

Yes! I finally could meet Sophia and the members of AGU2007 face to face, not virtually, I mean. We hung out in Shibuya for eating dinner together. I was a bit nervous to meet them because I haven't met them before and I wasn't so sure that they've recognized me as a person who left comments on each of their blogs. But the fact that I've known about them somehow from their blogs encouraged me to send an e-mail to Kana(Y), and asked her if it would be okay for the members of AGU2006 to join the AGU2007 reunion with Sophia. And she said okay! Yaaaay!

I went there with Eriko, and I really had a good time eating Asian cuisines. I enjoyed talking to them about the lectures that I once attended in the Fuchinobe campus and how I passed them, which is techniques from seniority students! Hahaha!! But that's definitely something we've had in common, and it made me remember the days I had in Fuchinobe.

After eating dinner, we visited an amusement center to play "purikura". You can make photo stickers by playing it, and you can even write something on photographs and print it out! It's really famous for young girls in Japan, and it seemed that Sophia was interested in it. So, we tried really hard to put all the people in pictures! To take pictures, we had to go into the small room covered with a curtain and get ready for "3,2,1...smile" calls from the machine! Looking at the picture on the left, you'll probably be able to imagine how hard it would be just to make everyone be taken! But at the same time, it was really funny, and I guess we did really great!

In addition to having a lot of fun creating "purikura", we decided to do our favorite thing, Karaoke!! Though I met them for the first time, I was the very first person to sing! I had no idea what to sing, but I chose to sing "Sk8er boi" by Avril Lavigne. I also sang this song when I stayed in Maryland, so it did remind me of the late night karaoke we enjoyed at the time! Hahaha. I also enjoyed singing Utada Hikaru's song ("HEART STATION", you can listen to it from the window below.)

On the way to home, I and Ai got on the same train and I found out that where Ai lives is close! That's why we happened to get on the same train, and I really enjoyed talking to her about the day she had in Maryland last year, and talking about the things like that reminded both of us of a little bit exhausting schedule we had in Maryland, which finally turned out to be awesome!

I literally enjoyed being with them because they welcomed me as if I were a member of AGU2007 as well! I hope I can meet them again face to face, or online! And also, I'm looking forward to seeing other mentors in Japan!

Anyway, I hope Sophia will have a really good time for the rest of her stay!
That's all for today! See you soon!

Fukutoshin Subway

2008-06-14T18:45:00.009+09:00

Hello, everyone~!

Today, 7.2 magnitude earthquake has hit in northern Japan at about 8:43 am. (Iwate prefecture and Miyagi prefecture, specifically.) I heard from the news that a tremor hit Tokyo as well in the morning, and the elevator in Roppongi (One of the popular places in Tokyo) stopped for a while. At the time, I was sleeping and I didn't feel anything at all.

Meanwhile, the Fukutoshin Subway, which said to be the last subway built in Tokyo area debuted Today! The line connects through Saitama prefecture to the subcenter of Tokyo.(Ikebukuro, Shibuya, Shinjuku) The word "fuku" means sub, and "toshin" means center. So, as you can imagine, "fukutoshin" means sub center. I don't know who defined it, but Tokyo can be divided into "toshin" and "fukutoshin." And the places that belong to "toshin" group are Otemachi and Tokyo, Chuo Ward, Minato Ward and Chiyoda Ward. And "fukutoshin" districts are Shinjuku, Shibuya, and Ikebukuro. (But these play a very important role in terms of the current Japanese young culture, definitely!) The fact that the name of the line is "fukutoshin" implies Tokyo's subways have been concentrated in "toshin" districts. And the subway company expect it to be the trigger for the new movement of the people in Tokyo. The places that once are considered far away is going to be much closer because of the stations of Fukutoshin Subway. (By the way, the picture on the right side is rail toys.)

In fact, there's a station of Fukutoshin Subway in Shibuya! So, I'll go there and take some pictures very soon. I'm looking forward to visiting there because the design of the station was done by, one of the Japanese famous designers, Tadao Ando. And he created the station just like a space ship. It's called "地宙船"　in Japanese, and it means a space ship in underground. Sounds fascinating, isn't it?

Alright, that's all for today!

After Watching "Last Friends"...

2008-06-13T23:05:00.002+09:00

Hello, everyone~!

On Thursday, as I've said previously, I enjoyed watching the drama "Last Friends." As the story has gotten deeper, it seems it's out of control. No matter how things will go, the time everyone in the drama is happy would never come. Usually, relationships in fictional dramas focus on bright sides of them, and it ends up being together happily.

But "Last Friends" does the opposite. I even think that it's too much! In this week's episode, after hurting Michiru again and again and many lies being told, Sousuke committed suicide at the end of the episode. I somehow imagined that it would happen at some point in the drama, and I felt it coming. But watching as it happened overwhelmed me, and I've been wondering how Michiru would respond to it in the next week's episode. Though he has battered her, she once thought surely that he was definitely the one and loved each other. It's a contradictory feeling, and it fits in with the drama's key words "The more you try to separate, the closer and stronger a relationship becomes."(ほどこうとする度に、離れられなくなっていく)

Hmmmm..... things become so complicated that I just can't predict what will happen! And I can't wait to see it! But at the same time, I'm a bit sad to accept the fact that the drama will end very soon.

Airight, that's all for today!

Last Friends

2008-06-12T23:43:00.000+09:00

Hello, everyone~!

I'm now waiting for a TV show to air very soon. It's the Japanese drama called "Last Friends." (The link will bring you to the official website, which is created in Japanese.) I haven't been into dramas for years because I felt that stories of the Japanese dramas really got boring. Instead, I've been watching the dramas such as "24" and "Prison Break", which are the American dramas.

But I happened to watch "Last Friends" because one of my favorite artists, Utada Hikaru, sings the theme song for it. (It's "Prisoner of Love", which I've introduced to you on the previous post.)

I hope the trailer helps you imagine what it's like.

Basically, it's about young people who live in a house together(which they call "share house"), who are going through the problems that each of them has. Though they seemingly happy, the problems they have are overwhelming and it's not hard to imagine how difficult it would be to come out.

The main characters on the show are...

*Michiru Aida (by Masami Nagasawa): She works as an assistant of a beauty specialist as a beauty salon. She is always smiling, but a bit indecisive. Since she grew up in a single-mother household, she's dreamed of creating a happy family. She has a boyfriend and now lives together. It sounds really happy, but in fact she's a victim of domestic violence. She is battered by her boyfriend, Sosuke.

*Ruka Kishimoto (by Juri Ueno): She tends to pretend to be strong, but she is actually vulnerble. She is practicing to be a professional motocross rider. It looks like she is an ordinary woman, but she has a secret that she can't tell to anyone. She has difficulty in accepting the fact that she has been regarded as female.

*Takeru Mizushima (by Eita): He is working hard to be a hair and make up artist. He doesn't look like a man very much because he has an androgynous look. But because of his experience in his childhood, he's afraid to have sex.

*Sousuke Oikawa (by Ryo Nishikido): He is Michiru's boyfriend, and the one who becomes violent when things don't go the way he wants them to be. It seems that he likes her so much that he loses his mind when he becomes violent. But in public, he is really kind to others and he works for the city government. Obviously, there's some contradiction here.

*Eri Takigawa (by Asami Mizukawa): She works as a flight attendant, and as you might easily imagine, she is kind to everyone even though what she says is too honest sometimes. And she gets along with almost everyone. But inside her mind, she feels lonely and she can't be No.1 for anyone. Though she feels alone, it's really hard to tell someone because almost automatically she pretends to be happy.

At first, the story began when Ruka came across Michiru. And when Michiru found out that her boyfriend, Sousuke, got violent and hurt her for the first time, Michiru escaped from Sousuke's house to where Ruka lives(share house). At the time, it seems that they're living happily together. But things got really complicated when each of their problems that they kept away have been discovered. After it happened, almost everything each of them did out of goodwill turned out to be the trigger to get things even worse...

But more and more people watch this because what it deals with is really thought-provoking and it even makes you think about how I would do if I were one of the characters in the drama. Many of my friends, including Yuiko and Eriko, are also into this drama and we often talk about the episodes.

Actually, the last episode will be aired next week!
I just can't wait!!!

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

microtrends

2008-06-11T23:55:00.000+09:00

Hello, everyone~!

Today, I would like to talk about the book called "Microtrends: The Small Forces Behind Tomorrow's Big Changes" by Mark Penn and E. Kinney Zalesne.

I happened to know this book when I watched the TV show whose story was about a popular economic analyst who has spent so much money on purchasing books, and of course reading them. In the show, she went to visit her favorite book store and looked around the shelves. She picked up the books she's interested while she's pondering something. Looking at how she made decisions about books, it seemed to me that she has never had difficulty making decisions what to buy. In fact, it looked so because she buys when she can't decide! Anyway, one of the books that she chose was the Japanese edition of this book. Actually, I've paid attention to it because the cover of the book fascinated me somehow and made me want to read the inside. But I just didn't have a chance to take it at the store. After watching the show on TV, the fact that she might have read it encouraged me to go further. Yeah, I finally got mine. It's the English edition, though.

To tell the truth, I wasn't sure if I would finish it at all because there's 520 pages!! But I tried to remember the time I read the book "The World is Flat" by Thomas L. Friedman because it also had almost the same number of pages. All I can do was just to convince myself that I could finish! Hahaha. So, I made up my mind and had a goal that hopefully I would read 50 pages a day.

And... I did it! At first, it was a bit tough. But once I got used to it, it became as much fun as I have when I read in Japanese.

The book explains many different kinds of phenomena happening in the US society and the world. One of the authors, Mark Penn, worked for President Clinton's 1996 election campaign, and is good at numbers. The authors looked at figures and tried to put them into context. Each of them is relatively small and the people who are involved in these can been seen as minority. But, as the authors mentioned, the small ideas trigger large changes in the society. For those who are interested in the book, I'll pick some of them for you to share.

*Social Geeks: Geeks have been thought as unsociable. But for some of them, the situation is reversed now. Some people are even more sociable than others!

*Long Attention Spanners: More and more people are eager to read longer articles, longer speeches, and so on. As the Internet has come to our society, and many people seem to value time more than ever. So, it makes us think that we should everything quickly. But in fact, that's not always true.

*Numbers Junkies: The number of children who like studying math and science has decreased, but the TV shows and movies that deal with numbers do really well.

*Extreme Commuters: The number of couples who live separately and even have houses for each in on the rise. Bill Clinton and Hilary Clinton do so for years. Mentioning that, it might make you think that it's about couples who earn a lot of money. That's wrong. As more and more women can pursue their careers, they don't move with their husbands.

*Vegan Children: More and more children in the US choose to be a vegan or vegetarian. Several years ago, it was rare to see children who have the eating style like that. But many parents today cherish their children's independence, and for them choosing to be a vegan or vegetarian seems to be one of choices that they make as a citizen.

In the English edition, there are 75 kinds of "microtrends." It gives you a brand new way to see the world and it would be interesting to think about how you can put these into context. In addition, the authors not only analyzes the figures but also makes comments and thoughts for each of microtrends, such as how we should make the voices of these people heard, how we unite as a society in the world where we appreciate individualism, and what needs to be done for the future.

Alright, I hope you'll read the book and hopefully share thoughts with you!
See you soon. ^^

Fujio Cho

2008-06-10T23:49:00.004+09:00

Hello, everyone~!

Today, Fujio Cho came to AGU to give us a lecture. Some of you already know about him. First of all, however, let me introduce him for those who are not familiar with him. He is serving as Chairman and Representative Director of Toyota. In 2004, he was chosen as one of 100 most influential people in TIME magazine. There were almost 500 people in the audience.

To tell the truth, I also was the one who didn't know much about him until I've started reading the book called "ZOOM." In the book, he is mentioned as one of the members who created the Toyota Way which has been created when the company went abroad for business.

What he mainly talked about was that how he's worked for years, and what companies want for university students when it comes to a business person. There are several points that he mentioned in the lecture. So, I'll write them down just to remember.

*In Toyota, no matter who you are, you're expected to act and get a result from it.

*「出会い」(de-a-i) "meeting people" is really important. Even if you don't think about the future at all, the people you meet in the right time at the right time would lead you to the place you need to be.

*Theories and practices become meaningful when they can bring a balance. And practices enable you to learn more than you think.

*Just face with facts, and be humble about them.

*Trying to be better little by little everyday, and at some point, you'll be higher place.

*Don't think that you'll succeed by trying just once. And even if you fail, don't think the situation gets worse than now.

One of his mentions, "Just face with facts, and be humble about them." reminded me of the mention by Marissa Mayer who is the Vice President of Search Product and User Experience at Google, "Don't politic, use data."

It was the first time for me to see him, of course. And I was surprised that he was really humble. Actually, one of the students out there asked the question "How come you're so humble while you're in high position?" Many people laughed, but I guess everyone actually thought that for sure! He talked as if he were talking to his friend. That's why he's inspired so many people, maybe?

Well, I hope you'll find the mentions meaningful or interesting! ^^

That's all for today!
See you soon.

Grace is Gone

2008-06-09T22:57:00.002+09:00

Hello, everyone~!

Before I started writing today's post, I was wondering what to write about. But don't worry! I ended up coming up with a story, which is about the movie I've seen lately.

The movie is called "Grace is Gone." As you can see on the poster, John Cusack stars in the film.

The story itself is very simple, but it's thought-provoking as well. It's a movie about a young father whose wife has gone to the war, and he was told that his wife was killed in Iraq. For him, the fact that she's gone meant he needed to tell his daughters what happened to their mom. For him, his wife's death was very hard to accept. But even in the situation like that, he still had a thing to do. He somehow needed to make his daughters understand their mom's death.

I've been interested in this film even before the movie company in Japan began paying attention to it due to the fact that the movie won the Sundance Film Festival 2007. But I wasn't sure about if it would be released in Japan. So, I was really glad when I heard about the news that it could be seen in Japan! ^^

What interested me was the story is based on the family whose mom has gone to war. In Japan, we simply can watch the news footage about the war in Iraq, but when it comes to each of the people who have been deployed in Iraq, it's very rare. And the news about the people out there is on the air, it's usually about the men. So, the movie gave me a point of view that I couldn't get from the media I've seen or read previously. The number of women in the military reflects the current situation of how much women in uniform are featured on the TV news shows. But as more and more women join the army, I think the need for the coverage of women in uniform would increase because the more we know about their situation the more we can think about actions that needs to be done for themselves and families.

And as a student who studies International Politics, it definitely made me realize how much time we would need to understand the meaning of war and I felt a bit frustrated at the fact that just learning how the world works surely has a limit and even makes me confused sometimes. According to what I've learned, the war itself is a phenomenon and a view like this rarely pays attention to the people who are involved. After watching the movie, I thought about how the family would have gone through the loss they've experienced. Hmmm.... once I started to think about it, it easily becomes complicated. But the one thing that's true is, the pain that the family like the one on this movie has would never heal.

If you have a chance to see the movie, why don't you give it a try?
You can watch the trailer here!

Alright, that's all for today!

The Price We Pay

2008-06-08T23:40:00.001+09:00

Hello, everyone~!

Today, I indulged myself in sleep especially because I was tired from yesterday's watching of the football match.

After I woke up, I checked my e-mail and websites that I visit everyday for news and the information that I'm interested. And I found the very very saddening news happened in Tokyo, Akihabara.

In this Sunday afternoon, a man suddenly stabbed the people there at random at Akihabara and it results 7 innocent people killed, 10 people wounded. At the moment I heard the news, I just didn't know what to say. It's beyond my imaginings.

When I was an elementary student, I often went there with my father to buy computer goods because my father has been familiar with computer since then. After 10 years or so, I went there for the event of job-hunting. I couldn't but realize how much the atmosphere of Akihabara has changed. It made me remember those days I and my father had there, and I came to think that the change is not always a bad thing because more and more people are attracted by Akihabara's features such as an electronics quarter, maid cafe, and the culture of Otaku. But suddenly, these things got overtaken by the incident happened today.

According to the police, the suspect did this because he was "tired of life and sick of everything." It seems he works as a temporary employee. Of course, he's really really bad. But at the same time, I think we need to think about the society in Japan that made him commit the crime like this. After I criticized him for what he did, I became confused because I thought that the Japanese society itself has done something unknowingly to make him do this. And it makes me wonder how we, as a society, can help others be a good citizen by doing the right thing.

In Japan, the situation of temporary employees has gotten worse so much that the gap between rich and poor is widening more than ever. Some say they are responsible for what they are, and they don't do enough independent efforts. And the people who have opinions like this usually don't try to look at the situation that they don't want to face with. So, the voices of the people who are stuck in the situation I mentioned above probably won't be heard or be lost because many people think it's their problem.

But if we think about it carefully, we might gradually realize that the burden they've got is definitely ours. The incident like this lets us realize the inconvenient fact. And the more we pretend to be ignorant about this fact, the more we have to pay the price which is ultimate.

As a citizen, however, I just can do very little things such as casting a vote, talking about it on the blog, and so on. It's a bit frustrating, but I guess I'll do as much as I can because we can't afford to leave the society like this for the younger generation, right?

Anyway, for now, I pray for the victims of the incident.

If you look for more detail of the news, you can go to the link below.
"7 dead in stabbing spree in downtown Tokyo"
(The fact that the article of the incident comes to the top of Yahoo! News(US) is really disturbing, and really really sad....)

TAKE ACTION: FOOTBALL MATCH

2008-06-07T21:22:00.009+09:00

Hello, everyone~!

Today, I went to Kanagawa prefecture to watch the charity football match hosted by Hidetoshi Nakata. If you're familiar with football, you might have heard about him. As of now, he no longer plays football professionally. After he announced his retirement, he's taken trips to the places he's wanted to visit such as Africa, Asia, and so on to see what's really happening. To his surprise, what he's seen was so different from what he thought previously that he came up with the idea that, by using his popularity and talent, he can invite football players and have some fun! At the same time, everyone who gets involved the match can contribute to the issues around the globe.

He named it "TAKE ACTION!+1." The name stresses the importance of action. Also, in Japan, contributing to others in need has been thought as a difficult task, and that fact has kept many people away from contributing. But as more and more people is getting accesses to the information around the world, many people in Japan, the young in particular, started to realize we can do something. One of fruits developed from these thoughts is today's football match.

The match was taken place at Nissan Stadium. Many people already showed up when I arrived there. One of the things that I was pleased to look at was smiling children were everywhere! At the time I didn't know much about the

situation in Europe, the fact that people are safe when they are watching a game sounds ordinary to me. But as I've heard about how the players who came from other countries and play in Japan felt about the safety at a stadium on magazines, and I saw my favorite player (Kaka, who plays in Italy) mention that he hopes everyone in a studium to be safe and he wants families to come to a game because that's how he started dreaming about being a professional football player, I started to realize how great it has been for us to gather no matter who you are.

After entering the gate, I got a bag. Brouchures were inside. In addition to them, "ACTION SHEET" was there as well.

What you can do by being a part of this match is written on the sheet.

*ACTION 1: First of all, please take a time to read this sheet. It's the very first step for you.
*ACTION 2: Let's hold up this sheet when the players are introduced, and cover the stadium in green.
*ACTION 3: By purchasing the raffle, let's contribute to the people in ruined areas. (Burma and China)
*ACTION 4: Be a sender of the message from Hidetoshi Nakata, and spread through your friends.

Can you see almost everyone holds up the sheets, and spectators' seats becomes green! By looking at my blog reporting how much green the environment of the match was, you might wonder the match itself was exciting. Though it was an exhibition match, it was really exciting! It was Japan Stars vs World Stars, so I could enjoy comparing each of their playing styles. Moreover, I was so glad to be able to see Jose Mourinho, who was the head coach of Chelsea(one of the clubs in the England's Premier League) and now joined the Italian football club, Inter Milan as a head coach. He is one of my favorite head coaches, because he's always confident and literally passionate about the team. Moreover, I really like his attitude toward football.

I guess I definitely have gone too far......!!

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

Maid Cafe

2008-06-06T23:09:00.000+09:00

Hello, everyone~!

As I was browsing through the websites that I visit regularly, I found an interesting website of a cafe in Los Angels, which obviously are inspired by the Japanese Otaku culture. (Have you heard of that?)

I've heard that a Japanese term "OTAKU" can be understood in the US just like "SUSHI." I don't know if it's true, but by looking at the website like this, it makes me want to believe that.

It's ROYAL/T Cafe.

A lot of cafes just like this are everywhere when you go to Akihabara.(It's a region in Tokyo, and famous for big electronic stores. Needless to say, it's known as heaven for geeks, Otaku in Japanese.)

And related to today's topic, "maid cafe"(meido-kafe) is one of the things that is famous when it comes to Otaku culture. Though I haven't tried to visit there, I once looked up for it because I and my friends did a presentation about Otaku's communication. The word "OTAKU" originally means "out-group", and when you hear it today, it's basically about a person's character. There are several fields of Otaku such as Anime Otaku, Manga Otaku, Game Otaku, and so on.

I'm wondering what it would be like to visit Maid Cafe in LA!

The Rainy Seaon Has Begun!

2008-06-05T23:45:00.001+09:00

Hello, everyone~!

On my way to school, I found the beautiful hydrangeas today!
Honestly, it's true that raining is a kind of letting me down.
But looking at the flowers that bloom in the season like this makes me happy.
I hope you'll enjoy. ^^

For your information, all of the pictures were taken by the camera function of my cell phone! I just can't believe how much it's developed in such a short term. After realizing it, I often forget to bring my digital camera because the camera of my cell phone works really really well.

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

27 Dresses

2008-06-04T23:43:00.001+09:00

Hello, everyone~!

In Japan, the rainy season called "tsuyu" has officially begun. It's a bit sad that I'll embrace less sunny days just for a while. On the other hand, however, I can enjoy the cities in a way that I can't when it's sunny. Right?

Well, I somehow wondered what to write for today before logging on this website. And I decided to talk about the movie that I've seen lately.

The title of the movie is "27 Dresses"(In Japan, the title has been changed as 「幸せになるための27のドレス」.("27 dresses to be happy" in English, it somehow implies the ending...?)) I didn't know what to expect when I watched the trailer of this movie for the first time, but I was suddenly interested in it after knowing the fact that the writer from the movie "Devil Wears Prada" wrote the script. (I liked "Devil Wears Prada", I even read the book. Remember?)

But this time, the story is totally different.

According to the movie's page of Yahoo!,

"Jane is idealistic, romantic and completely selfless--a perennial bridesmaid whose own happy ending is nowhere in sight. But when younger sister Tess captures the heart of Jane's boss--with whom she is secretly in love--Jane begins to reexamine her "always-a-bridesmaid..." lifestyle."

It's basically about the woman, Jane, who has been kind to everyone but herself, in her private life and at work. And she hardly says no. So, the happiness of others always comes first. And the title, 27 dresses, comes from the fact that she has 27 dresses that she wore at the wedding ceremonies as a bridesmaid. As she says, she's happy to help others feel happy, especially on the happiest day of someone.

Actually, I haven't been familiar with a wedding ceremony with bridesmaids. In Japan, there's no custom like that. So, at first I was a bit confused why she has to attend so many wedding ceremonies with different dresses. Also, as far as I've experienced, we probably don't choose a specific theme for the ceremony like "Gone with the Wind"or something like that. So, the style of wedding in the US that is represented in the movie fascinated me very much.

Moreover, though the US is famous for the fact that almost half of married couples would end up divorcing at the end, it seems to me that there's still some romantic yearnings for wedding. I guess every woman in the world has some kind of feeling like this, don't you think?

Anyway, it's a good movie especially for working women who care too much about others sometimes. It's also interesting to watch because you can understand what it feels like to be a single woman in the US. Though many women can pursue careers, by watching the movie like this, getting married looks like the biggest moment for women. And I could see that the society expects women to do so.

Alright, that's all for today!
If you have a chance to see it, just give it a try! (I hope you'll like it. ^^)

The Dilemma of Contribution

2008-06-03T11:51:00.000+09:00

Hello, everyone~!

As some of you might notice by reading previous posts, I've been interested in the current situation of poverty around the world, and the solutions to be a better world. It's because of the fact that Bono, a famous musician and an influential leader on global issues, and Wangari Maathai, who won the 2004 Nobel Peace Prize, visited Japan just a little ago.

And Lately, on the SNS website called "mixi"(mi-ku-shii, it's like the Japanese version of Facebook), I've read my friend's diary about contributing to others, especially for those people in need most now in developing countries.

As a way to help others, she's done two things. The first one is to buy the Product RED edition of iPod. According to her, 20 dollars will go automatically to the foundation that helps to eliminate AIDS, malaria, and other diseases that threaten the children throughout the world. I really think that it's a good idea because we, as customers, don't need to do anything other than just purchasing.

The second one is to buy "My Hashi."(hashi means chopsticks. So, it's like chopsticks just for your own to use wherever you go.) I once was thinking about doing it because the Japanese people are said that we use too many "waribashi" at restaurants, and I thought that I should do something. (waribashi is chopsticks made to be used just once, so we always use them when we go out for meals.) However, the fact that "My hashi" is usually made by plastic, the material that we can't live without today but made from oil, made me think twice. Also, "My hashi" needs to be washed every time it's used because it obviously gets dirty when you eat a meal. So, what I thought was that, the water I would use for washing it also needs to be clean by a waterworks department or something. If it all comes together because of obtaining "My hashi", would I be a person who contributes to the earth or a person who actually does harm to the earth?

Well, that's what I've been thinking since the idea that bringing your own chopsticks to everywhere you go has come out there. More and more people now go for this idea, and the related businesses are everywhere. Hmmm..... don't they see only what they want to see? Or don't they think about how it turns out to be at last?

It's just my opinion, so there's nothing wrong about choices my friend made. But when it comes to myself, I just can't make a decision for it. I even think that getting much information about global issues confuses me sometimes. It's like, the more I know about it the less I think I can make a difference. At this point, I truly can understand why a certain famous person said previously that having hope is really important on the matters like poverty and diseases.

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

Choices and Responsibility

2008-06-02T23:11:00.004+09:00

Hello, everyone~!

To tell the truth, I have nothing special to write today, but I somehow decided to fill today's space with something. So, I tried for a moment to look back at the conversations I've had these days.

Well, what came to my mind was that the conversation I've had with my friend about our own future, especially job-hunting. She's third year right now, so she almost had no idea how it would be done and turn out. I was on the same path as well, so I could understand what she's feeling about the upcoming job-hunting. It seems so far and far away from actually doing it for now. But it's really getting closer actually.

And one of the things she said was that she's not sure what she wants to do in the future. Being able to choose is a really good thing. But when there's too many to choose from, especially when it comes to choosing the things that may change your life path, you'll be stuck and will feel like you want to stop thinking about that. I guess that's what my friend has been doing for years. Though choices are on the table, she's chosen not to choose because it keeps her away from taking responsibility for what she chooses. (But on the other hand, I hate to see the people try to have everything they want and at the end they fail to do so. I'm not saying that trying is a bad thing, but I sometimes hope that people make a decision with more responsibility. Don't you think? But is it a reality after all?)

For me, it means getting nothing after all. If it were me, I would ask myself if it's what I'm living for, choosing to not choose. From my point of view, it's a bit sad to know that she thinks that way actually. However, I guess it's fine as long as she accepts. And what she values most in her life would be different from mine, obviously.

The moment like this, I always wonder how I should give advices in a way that I and she can agree on. I'm not quite sure about that. It's okay to give my opinion, but at the same time, it means that I disagree with her opinion. So it would definitely break the harmony which is important for the Japanese culture.

Hmmm...I just can't make a clear conclusion for it and I need to think about it more and more.

What do you think?
See you soon!

Prisoner of Love

2008-06-01T23:29:00.001+09:00

Hello, everyone~!

Today, I would like to introduce one of my favorite songs called "Prisoner of Love." It's originally one of the songs from her latest album "HEART STATION." But it's released again as a single because this song is used as a theme song for the Japanese drama "Last Friends."

Laura has already talked about the drama on her blog, and she really likes it.(By the way, I'm not sure how she's watching it. Through YouTube, maybe?) I'm really into it so much that I come back home directly on Tuesday in order not to miss any of it!

Heiki na kao de uso wo tsuite
Waratte iyake ga sashite
Raku bakari shiyou to shiteita

Telling a lie with a straight face and laughed
Being depressed by that
I have been trying to take the easier way

Naimononedari buruusu
Minna yasuragi wo motometeiru
Michitariteru no ni ubaiau
Ai no kage wo otteiru

Asking too much blues
Everyone wants comfort
Even though we experience satiety,
We still want more and scramble
We're chasing the shadow of love

Taikutsu na mainichi ga kyuu ni kagayakidashita
Anata ga arawareta ano hi kara
Kodoku demo tsurakute mo heiki da to omoeta
I'm just a prisoner of love
Just a prisoner of love

Days that have been boring started to shine
Since the day you came to me
I could feel alright even when I'm alone or the difficult time
I'm just a prisoner of love
Just a prisoner of love

Yameru toki mo sukoyaka naru toki mo
Arashi no hi mo hare no hi mo tomoni ayumou

The times in sickness and in health
And even stormy days, sunny days
Let's walk together

I'm gonna tell you the truth
Hitoshirezu tsurai michi wo erabu
Watashi wo ouen shite kureru
Anata dake wo tomo to yobu

I'm gonna tell you the truth
Without being seen, I've chosen the harder way
And you cheer me up
You're the only one that I can truly call friend

Tsuyogari ya yokubari ga muimi ninarimashita
Anata ni ai sareta ano hi kara
Jiyuu demo yoyuu demo hitori ja munashii wa
I'm just a prisoner of love
Just a prisoner of love

It became meaning less to pretend to be strong, and greedy
Since the day you've loved me
Even though I have freedom, and have room to breath
It's empty without you
I'm just a prisoner of love
Just a prisoner of love

Oh mou sukoshi da yo
Don't you give up
Oh misute nai zettaini

Oh you're almost here
Don't you give up
Oh I'll never let you go, never

Zankoku na genjitsu ga futari wo hikisakeba
Yori issou tsuyoku hikare au
Ikurademo ikurademo ganbareru ki ga shita
I'm just a prisoner of love
Just a prisoner of love

When brutal reality tears us apart
Feeling drawn to each other more strongly
Again and again I feel that I can hang tough
I'm just a prisoner of love
Just a prisoner of love

Arifureta nichijou ga kyuu ni kagayaki dashita
Kokoro wo ubawareta ano hi kara
Kodoku demo tsuraku demo heiki da to omoeta
I'm just a prisoner of love
Just a prisoner of love

Just an ordinary life started shining suddenly
Since the you came to me, my heart was stolen
I could feel alright even when I'm alone or the difficult time
I'm just a prisoner of love
Just a prisoner of love

Stay with me, stay with me
My baby, say you love me
Stay with me, stay with me
Hitori ni sasenai

Stay with me, stay with me
My baby, say you love me
Stay with me, stay with me
I'll never let you be alone

I hope you like it!
See you soon.^^

The Concert by AGU Orchestra

2008-05-31T23:49:00.000+09:00

Hello, everyone~!

Today, I went to the concert by AGU Orchestra with Eriko. As some of you already know, Yuki belongs to it. I was really happy to see her play the instrument, which is horn.

It was the second time for me to be there, but it's always nice to go to the concert like this. I usually go to concerts by singers like Utada Hikaru. So, it's refreshing to go the concert held by the orchestra.

The play list was...

*Brahms: Symphony No． 4 in E minor, Op.98

*Mendelssohn: Overture to Midsummer Night's Dream, Op.21

*Chaikovski: Nutcracker Op.71

Unfortunately, we couldn't meet Hana-chan(Yuki's nickname) after the concert. However, the concert was amazing! I also realize that being the hall to hear the music would put a different context to the experience. Today, you can easily download music of live shows through the Internet, but when it comes to feeling it, I strongly think that I have to bring myself to the concert! Don't you think?

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

Chabo!

2008-05-30T18:42:00.001+09:00

Hello~, everyone!

As I've said previously, I'm now trying to read more by saving time to do other things. Through this effort, I came across the project called "Chabo!" which means bantam in Japanese, and also the abbreviation of Charity Book. The name of the program has a message that, as the program develops day by day, a bantam (basically can't fly) could fly throughout the world someday.

Well, when you hear the word charity, what comes to your mind? To me, I imagined I opened the wallet and give some money to organizations. So, it means that I knowingly have to give some money which can be used to buy whatever I want. By doing so, it certainly makes me feel better. At the same time, however, it somehow requires me to make up my mind. I guess that's one of the things that keep me away from participating charity program, honestly. When it comes to charity, what I think of at first is that my wallet would be hurt!

That's how I've thought about charity. But these days, there are a lot of charity programs that raise money from their revenues from sales of their products. So, practically, consumers literally don't have to do anything at all. and that's how I like about Chabo! program.

You might wonder how Chabo! works actually. Okay. You can contribute to Chabo! program by purchasing the books certified as "Chabooks". It's as simple as that! 20% of the royalty on these books will go directly to the organization called JEN. According to the website, it works on reconstruction of the places in the world which are destroyed by war or disaster.

For your information, I'd like to introduce the mission statement of Chabo! program:

*Through contributing a part of the money that we get from writing books and holding seminars, Chabo! does education and self-reliance support for the refugees and the ruined areas in the world.

*We are aiming to grow as readers, the supporting areas, the people who do support activities, and the authors. In addition to that, each of us are expected to learn each other through the program.

*By contributing to the donation, we realize how big this world in, possibilities we have, and the preciousness of human lives. Also, the importance of education and self-reliance support would be realized as well. By thinking of these things and acting, the authors' view would expand and we hope to create a civil society rooted in Japan.

It's inspiring, isn't it? I would like to participate as much as I can, which means buying Chabooks. For more information, why don't you visit Chabo! website? (Unfortunately, there's no pages in English for now.)

I also would like to talk about one of the contributors of the program whose name is Kazuyo Katsuma later. So please look forward to it! ^^

L'Espace Rose @ Shibuya

2008-05-29T21:52:00.002+09:00

Hello, everyone~!

On Wednesday, I went to the museum called Bunkamura the Museum with Eriko! I only had one class on the day. And Eriko was also there in the class room. After the class, we went outside the campus to buy lunch and Eriko attended the afternoon class. At the time, I didn't have anything to do in particular, so I took a rest on the bench and read the book.

Suddenly, Eriko sent me an e-mail after her class to see if I was still at the campus. And she told me that she was interested in the exhibition held at the museum near the campus.

The title is "L'Espace Rose." The exhibition is about botanical art. It mainly focuses on the artist whose name is Pierre-Joseph Redouté. The exhibits by Alfred Persons, Yoshio Hutakuchi, and Fujio Saimon were also there. Air fresheners used there smelled just like roses. So, it made us feel like we were lost in a rose garden!

Botanical art basically exists for scientific reasons, and collecting materials of flowers, plants, and so on. So, as for this exhibition, the way roses are written is painstakingly accurate. I have no idea how he acquired the skills to do it. According to what I've read in the museum, Pierre took a trip for practicing at the age of 13! I was surprised at the fact that he thought about his future so early. But that decision ended up bringing him to meet the people such as Josephine, whose husband was Napoleon Bonaparte, and Marie Antoinette.

Moreover, the fact that Napoleon allowed his wife to keep having the rose garden interested me. I'm not sure if the garden that Marie Antoinette had was the same one as Josephine enjoyed, but I wondered why Napoleon decided to have the garden because I think he would think of it as the symbol of a waste of money or something negative. Or did he think it would be beneficial? Or was he actually mesmerized by the charm of the roses? Hmmm...

Anyway, we enjoyed being there very much! Though keep standing in the museum was tiring, it turned out to be worthy. If some of you who live in Tokyo haven't decided yet, I urge you to visit there. ^^

Also, outside the museum was a little garden with beautiful roses! I took pictures of them, so I hope you enjoy. :)

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

The Chat at the Tapped In

2008-05-28T01:02:00.001+09:00

Hello, everyone~!

Yesterday(Not so long ago, though.), I enjoyed talking to the people of the AGU group at the Tapped in!

I wasn't sure how many people would come at first. But as we virtually hung out for a while, hahaha, many people came to talk to each other! ^^ You might hear me say this before, but I'm going to say it just in case you've missed it. It's always nice to talk to you, and you literally make my days happier! I mean it! ^^

Moreover, the fact that each of us is connected with each other physically or virtually makes me stronger and happier! I love this chat because not only it helps me improve my English but also I'm able to know what each of you is doing right now.

I've talked about the next chat in June, and I might be able to talk to this year's participants of AGU 2008! It's exciting, isn't it? As Ji Won said, I just can't believe it's been almost two years now since I visited MD. But fortunately or unfortunately, time flies whatever we do. The time we had at the time and the memory we've shared will never change, anyway. Right?

Alright, that's all for today.
I hope I can see you at the next chat. (Is it too early to be excited? Hahaha.)

See you soon!

Just for Fun

2008-05-27T21:57:00.001+09:00

Hello, everyone~!

Before taking part in today's chat, I decided to update my blog. As I told you previously, I have several books that I finished reading and I would like to talk about it.

Today's book is called "Just for Fun: The Story of an Accidental Revolutionary" written by Linus Torvalds and David Diamond. If you're familiar with computer things, the spelling of one of the author's name, Linus, reminds you of the open-source software, Linux. (Relax! I didn't realize it either when I came across the book for the first time. Hahaha...!!) The fact that my favorite author called Banana Yoshimoto recommended this book on her web diary encouraged me to give it a try. (By the way, the picture you can look at on the left side is the English edition and the link brings you to Amazon.com. I read the Japanese edition.)

The book is basically about how his habit to play with his computer has turned out to be one of the great inventions in the history of the IT industry. Moreover, he rebuilt the business style and working style and he made us realize the basic and simple fact of human-being, we love to do what each of us loves. Moreover, we are likely to be good at doing what you love and it often ends up being able to do your best.

So, even though he often is asked why he's successful or how he intended to make it happen, his answer would always be that I do it just for fun. When you hear the story like his, what comes to your mind would be the fact that not everyone would be like him. And that was exactly what I thought after reading the book. However, I can imagine it would be awesome that everyone makes his/her own living by doing what you love. I really hope that it would be realized some day, and I do think that the birth of the Internet encourages everyone to do what you love to do as your job.

Alright, it's finally the time to chat!

For those of you who are coming to the chat, see you there!

For the rest of you, see you soon! ^^

I was a bit sleepy today... and What I do at Work

2008-05-26T22:20:00.004+09:00

Hello, everyone~!

I was a bit sleepy today.... why? I watched the match of Formula 1 held in Monaco on TV yesterday. I was just curious who would win this race because the race in Monaco has been famous for its difficulty. At the beginning, what I intended to do was just to take a glimpse of it. But finally it turned out that I watched the whole race... Oops. When I was a bit younger than now, I wasn't interested in Formula 1 at all. I even thought that watching it was a away to make some noise in the room. But now I'm now looking forward to watching every race... I don't know what triggered this habit. The same can be said for watching football.

Well, today was the second day of my new part-time job in Shibuya. One of the things I do there is to write down the contents of the news shows that run everyday. I work at a kind of the English institute(As I mentioned before, the people who wish to be interpreters and translators visit there.), so the materials like news clips will be used in the class room. In order for everyone to look for them easier, I and other assistants write down what the news shows deal with. The news shows are, for example, CNN World News, BBC World News, and so on. You might think that I can listen to them only in English, but actually they also are translated into Japanese. So, I sometimes choose the Japanese, and vice versa.

As you probably know, I like to watch the news shows and I often download the podcasts of the shows. So, this task has been really enjoyable to me and I can watch the other news clips that the Japanese media don't cover often, such as the number of violence happened in South Africa has been on the rise lately, and the special report on the Egyptian economy and so on. I'm planning to introduce some of them to you on this blog when I find something interesting.

So, please look forward to it!
Well, that's all for today. ^^

By the way, the day of our chat is finally coming!
I hope I can virtually see many of you there.

The Small Talk about English and Blog

2008-05-25T02:58:00.006+09:00

Hello, everyone~!

As you might realize by browsing through the blog, I've been able to keep posting almost everyday! I always think about how I can make my English level stay the same as it is now, and hopefully keep improving. Of course, learning and using English is what I like to do. So, I'll definitely keep studying and never be satisfied with what I can do in terms of express myself in English.

At the same time, however, I often wonder if I lost the ability to use English. I'm not saying that I forget how to use it completely, what I'm trying to say is that I might lose the sense to handle it such as the way I think, the way I choose words to mention what I experience, and the fact that how I express things would differ when I am trying to write in English.

So, I guess I'm trying to believe that I've made efforts to keep improving by updating my blog. Moreover, I started to try spending more time on reading books. After starting this blog, I came to realize that the more I experience directly(hear, eat, and especially read) the more I enjoy writing, and it slowly became obvious to me that making more inputs directly leads to a better output. It's just a fact, but looking at the people around me, they just don't seem to realize it because there's a lot of things to do everyday. Of course, I'm not saying that I can do it perfectly. But the fact that they don't realize it sometimes makes me sad because I'm sure each of them is capable making more inputs for themselves and cultivating ideas. Hmmmm..... should I tell them or not? I don't know.

Anyway, I'm going to keep trying to read more books by turning the TV off as much as I can. (There's several TV shows that are my favorite. Oops!) And hopefully, I'll talk about them on this blog. I already have finished some books that are written both in English and Japanese, so I'm now thinking about how I'm going to introduce them to all of you. (Relax, I'm not going to make my blog a book review! I still would like to talk about what I experience while I go shopping, etc.)

Hmmm.... finally I'm not sure how I would wrap up this post! : (
Please keep visiting my blog! Hahaha.....

The End of Poverty

2008-05-24T22:15:00.003+09:00

Hello, everyone~!

I just finished watching the volleyball match Japan vs Thailand. The result was 3-2, and Japan won. the Japanese national team has just won the ticket to the Olympics in Beijing yesterday. It's nice to hear that we can watch our national team play against other countries, but I'm a bit worried because the team is not strong as the media wants them to be. Hmmm.....

Anyway, I'm going to talk about the book I just finished reading called "The End of Poverty" by Jeffrey D. Sachs. The author is the director of the Earth institute at Colombia University.

I still remember one of the AGU 2006, Rikko, bought this book when we stayed in Maryland. I had been interested in the book since then, but I missed the chances to do so because there's 500 pages! Moreover, I couldn't decide which editions I should try, English or Japanese.

But this time, I finally decided to read this book. I found that there's the Japanese edition at my university's library. Actually, I don't like reading the books which are translated in Japanese very much, because what the authors want to say may change and even though I understand that it's much much easier for me to read books translated in Japanese, I want to understand what authors say by reading what's literally written on books in the original language, in my case, English. Hmmm.... it seems that I should have read the English edition???

Well, whatever language is, it's an interesting and meaningful reading. In this time of the world, the power that each of us has seems so powerless to change the situation that we give up trying to do so from the beginning even if we know the fact that so many people in the world are suffering poverty, and we need to do something. The trigger for change isn't there yet, however.

When we hear the word "poverty", it seems impossible to improve the situation that we face now because we always think that there's too many obstacles, and that the money we give to countries that struggle against poverty isn't helpful.

At the same time, however, can it be said that it's our mistake not to be able to eliminate poverty? This is one of the questions that the author gives us, and he gives the views on the current situation and the specific solutions for it. He understands that people always want the perfect solution that eliminates all of negative factors such as poverty, aids, malaria, child labor, reproductive health problem, and so on. But as we might imagine, there isn't that kind of solution at all. So, he explains what to do for each of the problems. If, the countries that we call "developed countries" pay just a little bit from their budget, we definitely can eliminate poverty. But we just can't even now. Is it because we don't have an ability to do so, or we don't have moral sense to help others??? Hmmm..... it's gotten me wondering.

One of the things I found interesting was that canceling all the debt is actually a good thing to do. When the G8 meeting was held, the world wide campaign called "Make Poverty History" often said that the debt should be cancelled. At the time, I just couldn't understand why because I thought about the possibility that the countries that had the debt would lost their credibility and I thought the situation would get worse. According to the author, however, the situation would get better because the economic situation would be stabilized. Is it really so? I think I need to read more books about this.

If possible, everyone who is interested in the world's situation should read this book because it helps us imagine what each of the countries that are struggling against poverty are really like, and how they try to make a difference. Most importantly, it definitely would make you realize that we are literally lucky, we have to have hope for better even if we feel powerless. This book will give you the power to keep believing! ^^

Well, that's all for today!
Oh, by the way, I'm looking forward to talking to you on the next chat!

The First Day of My New Part-time Job!

2008-05-23T23:45:00.004+09:00

Hello, everyone~!

I'm a bit tired today because it was the first day of my new part-time job. I talked about this on the post of AGU group, so some of you may already know about it.

Well, basically my new job is to help with the teachers who teach how to be translators or interpreters at the school. Making some copies of articles, cleaning up classrooms after the classes are my job. But actually I am expected to do anything when needed, such as putting the papers through shredder, making summaries of the news shows by watching them, and so on.

Today was the first day, so I was busy remembering what I should do and where I should go to get things done. In terms of tasks, I came to realize that what looks easy may actually be hard or tiresome to do. Some say "it's just making some copies", but there definitely is a lot of things to think about when you do it. How you can make it faster, cheaper, and reader-friendly, for example.

I don't know if I can do what I should do well next time, but I'll just keep doing my best!

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

The Rise of the Rest

2008-05-22T21:36:00.001+09:00

Hello, everyone~!

These days, I've done a lot of things that I would like to talk about on this blog. But I don't have enough time to cover everything right now, and it obviously becomes hard for visitors to read long entrees. So, I would like to talk about them one by one.

Well, what I want to talk about today is the article that I've read recently called "The Rise of the Rest." It's written by Fareed Zakaria, the editor of the NEWSWEEK international. I've seen his name on the magazine because he also appears on the Japanese edition of NEWSWEEK and I read the articles in English from the magazine's website, newsweek.com.

This time, however, I didn't know the detail of the article very much until I heard about it from the teacher of the class that I'm taking. The journalists from the major news companies in Japan come to AGU, and do lectures. As a part of the lecture, he introduces articles or papers that he thinks are interested or helpful to understand what journalism is about. One of them was "The Rise of the Rest."

Inside the article, what Zakaria wants to say is that the American doesn't need to be sad just because of the fact that the power of America has been shrinking due to the rise of the countries that we think of as developing world.

It's interesting for me to know not only the fact that the article like this comes up on the magazine, but also the fact that the booming of information causes us to fear terrorism, and feel insecure about what's going on throughout the world. Moreover, I think it's crucial for each of us to think deeply about his/her own country. And also, acquiring the ability to think about ourselves as a member of this world is important.

There are so many things to think about and talk about in terms of the future. Lately, I've been thinking about whether or not people in Japan who are much much younger than me would have what we take for granted now, such as "omoiyari"(People care about each other.) A lot of elderly people in Japan have said that we are losing something important, and everyone feels it as everyday life has been covered with the value "time is money" and "caring only about yourself." So, we are also losing what we take for granted because of ourselves...??

Well, no one is sure how it'll turn out and that's where we can find hope, I guess.

Hmmm..... Am I getting a little bit serious this time?!
Anyway, if you're interested in the article.... "The Rise of the Rest"

See you soon!^^

Boku no Kanojo wa Cyborg

2008-05-21T01:14:00.005+09:00

Hello, everyone~!

In Japan, especially in Kanto region, the Typhoon arrived in this morning. Fortunately, I did not have a class. But I found a lot of broken umbrellas on the way to the school today.

Well, what I'm going to talk about this time is the movie called "Boku no Kanojo wa Cyborg.僕の彼女はサイボーグ"("My Girlfriend is a Cyborg" in English.) It's coming to the theaters on May 30th. You may wonder why I will talk about this before it arrives at theaters. Actually, I got a chance to see this movie a bit earlier than everyone because I won a ticket for the preview! Yaaaaay!

As you might guess from the title of the movie, the story is about a boy falling in love with a girl who is actually a cyborg. I'm sure you're wondering, how come a girlfriend is a cyborg? The boy, Jiro, is having an ordinary and a bit unfortunate life. He is a kind of boy who has no one to celebrate his birthday, and he even asks a store staff to wrap his birthday's present just for himself. But one day, the girl comes to him and she goes everywhere he goes. She does it because she is sent by somewhere outside the globe to make his life a happy one and she knows he passed away and how he lived before. And according to her, her emotional feelings develop as she interacts with him and others.

As the story went on, I realized how crazy it was to fall in love with a cyborg, which we believe has no emotion. At the same time, however, that's kind of things that we hope to happen or imagine at least. Moreover, we cannot help but wonder how the things would have or could have been if we looked at the different options. We all know that it's meaningless to do so, but we often think or say so. I guess that's why we live, struggle, and laugh everyday. It also makes the life so special and precious. And if we can press "rewind" so easily or go back to the past, the life would be so boring than you would imagine.

That's what I thought after I watched the movie. In the movie, a man goes inside the school with a knife, and the teacher and the student there are really scared. At the time, the girl(cyborg) comes running and she cleans up the man. After that, she says that Jiro broke his heart when he heard the news and that's why she goes there to make a difference.(It means that she knows what will happen before the incident happens because she is sent from the future.)

Lastly, why don't you watch the trailer of the movie?

If you want to know more, visit the official website!

I wasn't sure what to expect very much by watching this movie. However, it turns out that it was a really interesting film to watch! I urge you to check it out if you have time! ^^

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

Krispy Kreme Doughnuts

2008-05-19T11:31:00.012+09:00

Hello, everyone~!

As I've mentioned on the post I wrote at Yahoo's AGU group, I've been really busy since I told everyone that I now have plenty of time! Well, doing my best is what I can give them. So, it keeps me going.

Today's topic would be, as you might guess from the title, the visit to a Krispy Kreme Doughtnuts' store! Though I've heard that there's several stores in Tokyo(Shinjuku, for example.), I've never visited the stores before because it's always extremely crowded. On Saturday and Sunday, it's not unusual to wait for an hour to get the doughnuts! Unbelievable, isn't it?

But this time, the store opened in Tachikawa. It takes 20 minutes to get there, so I decided to give it a try!

The building where the store is located is called LUMINE, and you can go shopping and get on train in the same place. As I walked through the station and went down the stairs, I saw the sign of the store and it said "0:25". It meant that you had to wait for 25 minutes to get the doughnuts. Whether or not this waiting time feels longer depends on people, and I decided to get in the line. I really wanted to try the taste which has made some Japanese people blindly wait for an hour or more, and was wondering it was worth waiting.

After going inside the store, the store's staff warmly said "Irasshaimase~(Welcome!)" and gave the doughnut to every customer for free. It's the original glazed, and according to the information I got on the menu, the story of the company has begun from this product.

It was moderately warm, and it was yummy. But I still don't know it's worth waiting for an hour! Hmmmm........ Actually, the same thing happend when the ice cream company called Cold Stone Creamery arrived in Japan. I think it's a part of who we are and there's even a saying that explains this behavior. "Nesshi yasuku, Sameyasui"(be easily warmed up but just as easily cooled down.) And one thing I've learned from this visit was... the doughnut that tastes the best is definitely the one I got inside the store. Obviously.

It seems to some people that I didn't enjoy visiting the store because I'm looking back at this critically. Well, I have to admit that I had a lot of fun going through the process to get something that attracts many people especially in Tokyo.

It's always exciting to discover something new, and experience it. ^^

Moreover, being able to watch how the doughnuts are made was really fascinating! In this size of the store, for example, it can make 3000 original glazed doughnuts per hour.

After all, all of my family members enjoyed eating!

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

Hisashiburi! (It's been a while.)

2008-05-01T15:35:00.004+09:00

Hello, everyone~!
Writing a new entry makes me feel a bit strange... Hmmm.... this feeling makes me realize how long I hadn't been here.

Well, I have nothing special to write here today actually. However, the fact that I've got the time to be here finally encourages me to find something special or interesting again, and share with all of you! ^^ They are what I've been missing lately because the job-hunting kept me away from doing them...

Right now, I'm actually at the computer room in my university and I'll be on my way to a small AGU 2006 reunion with Miki, Yuiko, and Eriko! Even though I've met each of them almost everyday at Aoyama campus(They finally came here! Yaaay!), I just can't wait to see them and talk a lot! ^^

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

Snowfall ^^

2008-01-27T02:03:00.000+09:00

Hello, everyone~!

It's been a while, right? It's so good to be back here! ^^

Oh, by the way, I enjoyed talking with the AGU people from 2006 & 2007 at Tapped in. While, I was talking to you guys, I'd found that Ji Won logged on to MSN. He was about to come to our chat, but the computer he used didn't allow him to log on to Tapped in somehow. But I was glad to know that he's been doing fine!!

In Japan, the temperature suddenly dropped and I almost freeze every time I go outside. And it's been so hard for me to get out of futon(To put it simply, it's the Japanese style bed) in the morning. I just need to stay warm to survive this winter! Hahaha... I think this winter is so much colder than last year, and I say "samui~ samui~"(It's so cold~ I'm freezing!) more than I can count this year!

And on January 23rd... it snowed!
Actually, it wasn't the first snow this year but I was surprised to see snow falling because I hadn't seen Tokyo being snowing for 2 years or so. It does give you an idea how cold Tokyo has been these days, doesn't it?

Do you see snow falling down? I thought that there would be enough snow for the ground to be filled with, but there wouldn't. It's literally beautiful and kind of makes me excited to see snow falling, but I don't like to see the color of the snow getting darker after falling on the ground. The character of the Japanese movie said that she didn't like to see snow falling in Tokyo because it definitely got darker and made the streets look dirty. I totally agree with that!

Can you guess where it is? Yeeees, it's the Fuchinobe campus! Unfortunately or not, I had the things to do on the snowy day, and I took this picture. The place the snow fell a lot was the grass. I imagine it would be sooo fun to walk on the grass! Hehehe~.

Even though I don't like to see what happens to snow after falling on the ground, snowfall makes me excited! So, I hope it'll be snowy again....

Alright, that's all for today!
It's sooooo cold out there, so watch out for cold!^^

See you soon~

FreeRice

2007-12-25T05:52:00.000+09:00

Hello, everyone~!

Christmas Eve has gone so fast... In Japan, this day is more important than the Christmas Day. I just don't know why! It's definitely one of the things I found interesting about how we, the Japanese, have spent time in this time of year. If I would say one more thing, that would be the Japanese thinking that the Christmas Eve is the day when couples spend time together. I have no idea how the idea of Christmas has been imported to Japan, but I can't help but wonder how many of us really understand the meaning of Christmas! Maybe, it's been commercialized so much that we aren't really able to comprehend anymore... :(

Anyway, I enjoyed Christmas Eve with my family and lots of yummy foods. ^^ I was thinking that I would go shopping, but my guess that a place like a shopping mall or something would literally be crowded kept me from going there. So, I enjoyed a quiet Christmas Eve! ^^

After eating dinner, I was surfing on the Internet and I visited the blog created by Nina. It's called "English Power" and Nina has introduced the websites or tools that will definitely enhance your skills of English. I'd heard of the website from Nina when I enjoyed talking to her and the others through the online chat.

As I scrolled down to the bottom, I found the link to the website called "FreeRice". I wondered why the website has been named that way, and at the same time I was interested in how it would enhance my English skill. The website said that the English words I would learn enabled the campaign organizer to give rice to those most in need. The idea itself interested me very much, and what's more, I enjoyed the word game as well. ^^ The more I enjoyed, the more I could contribute! It sounds really great, right?

Because of the department I belong to, I've paid much attention to the campaigns which try to solve the problems throughout the world. And I've seen many people really act on those. However, to be honest, these efforts looked meaningless to me even though I understood that acting was better than doing nothing, because what the ordinary people can to solve the problems that hurt many people around the world is just a little. So, I rarely get the feeling that I'm a part of the solution or something when I acted somehow. It's easy for me to think that "This has to be solved." But I didn't know what to do and had no time to do something that would take some time.

After I've been looking around the campaigns' websites, I think this website, FreeRice, gave me a solution for that. One of the reasons why I thought so was that it produced a win-win situation. I can help the organization while I'm learning the words. And it's even fun! ^^ So, I would like as many people as possible to give it a try!

Alright, I wish you a very merry Christmas!
See you soon~

Happy Holidays!

2007-12-24T07:37:00.000+09:00

Hello everyone~!

I'm so glad that I've been able to update this blog as much as I want now thanks to the vacation! Also, as I said, I've slept so well without an alarm clock~! ^^

Anyway...

All I want to say for today is,

H a p p y H o l i d a y s !

H a p p y H o l i d a y s !

Do you think that someone turned the Christmas tree upside down? Or do you think that I photoshopped the picture and that's why you see the Tree turning upside down? The answer is...NO! This Christmas tree has been displayed at the metro station which is located near AGU.

You're guessing why this tree has been displayed like this, aren't you? Yeah, the Tree is located at the METRO station which is, obviously, underground. You see? So, the Tree tries to convey the messages such as "Don't you think I look like a Christmas Tree?" and "It looks like roots of Trees, doesn't it?".

A place like station tends to be plain and sometimes even boring, but seasonal decoration like this has made the station more special and fun!

Alright, I also wish you a Happy New Year!
I hope I can add some posts before 2008 begins! ^^

See you soon~!

The UM in the Film!

2007-12-22T05:50:00.000+09:00

Hello, everyone~!

I've come all the way here now... I'm finally on vacation! Yaaay! Even though it only lasts for about 2 weeks, it allows me to clean up what I've wanted or needed to do such as going shopping, sleeping without an alarm clock (It sounds amazingly good, isn't it?), and finishing the applications for the companies I've been interested in.

Anyway, I'd like to talk about the movie I've seen which is called "National Treasure: Book of Secrets". As some of you already notice, it's a sequel to the movie "National Treasure", which was released in 2004. I saw the first one after I visited Washington DC for the first time, and I really liked it not only because the story that the main character looked for treasures fascinated me, but also it really made me feel as if I were in Washington DC. So, I'd been looking forward to seeing the sequel of the movie.
At first, I was thinking about watching the movie "I Am Legend". But I found that the sequel of "National Treasure" has been released, and I couldn't help but think that I definitely would enjoy watching this movie. So, I decided to watch it. ^^ While deciding to watch "National Treasure: Book of Secrets", I wonder what "I Am Legend" would be like. Has anyone already seen it?

I really enjoyed watching the movie, and this time, it seemed that a variety of locations were selected as places for filming, Washington DC, Paris, and U.K., for example. Additionally, the scenes taken at the Mount Rushmore National Memorial Park were really impressive and it did make me wonder how the human faces had been sculptured. It even made me want to visit there!

As the story went on, the main character called Ben and his dad visited the university where his mom were teaching because they needed someone who could translate the old language to get clues for treasure hunting. And surprisingly, the university was University of Maryland!! At the moment I found that, I almost felt like starting to introduce the university I visited to the other people in the theater...! Hahaha. It was really nice to see the UM again like this, and the buildings reminded me of the time we had there.

Moreover, I found the article on TERP magazine. The link will bring you to the top page, and scroll down to the bottom of the page. And you'll see the title "Lights! Camera! College Park!". I hope it helps you imagine what the movie would be like. Hopefully, you'll see the movie and share the experience I'd had in the theater with me! Hehehe... : )

Alright, see you soon~

I don't know where to begin with...

2007-12-11T18:28:00.000+09:00

Hello, everyone~!

I'm now being at my school in Shibuya, right after the seminar I belong to. After writing this post, I'm going to go to a welcome party for the new people who'll join the seminar from 2009! So, I really am excited to meet them and imagine what it would be like to work on something with them next year.

Well....I don't know if you're interested in what I've been up to these days, but as you might have imagined, I had been busy! I've been working on the two project and the one was done today! Yay! (But there still is the other one. :() Also, I've been doing job-hunting, and as the end of the year nears, everyone starts to move such as doing self-analysis, looking for the information about job-hunting, and so on. So, just watching the other people move makes me a bit nervous. Anyway, screening stages have not begun yet, so maybe I should not be so nervous about it. I'll try my best to have fun looking for the job! ^^ I guess it should be because selecting the job that is the best for me is one of the ways to seek for my future, right?

Alright, I've got to get moving now!
So, please take care!

See you soon~

Discover NAA!

2007-11-13T00:11:00.000+09:00

Hello, everyone~!

First of all... I'm glad that I finally have time to update this blog! I really am! As you can imagine, not being able to add a post for the blog means that I'm busy. Though I always try as much as I can to update this blog to keep all of you updated, there hasn't been enough time to actually do so.

Anyway... I would like to tell you how I've been up to these days. I don't know where to begin, however. So, let me talk about what I did on Monday!

As many of you already know, I've been working on job-hunting and I've visited various kinds of companies to know what each of them does as a company and how I would be able to contribute to a company if I were to be an employee. So, as a part of the efforts, I visited Narita International Airport today.

Being a Japanese, I've had to go to the airport if I would plan to go somewhere foreign. Also, this has been a place where I've seen my friends off when they'd gone for studying abroad, and where I've waited for them to come back to Japan. So, for me, it always makes me feel something special when I'm at Narita Airport because being there itself remind me of a lot of memories that I've treasured very much.

So, I haven't thought about working there. That was why I participated the tour for job-hunters that I thought enabled me to see what it would be like to work at the airport. While I was on the tour, I could visit the places that weren't open for public and it was quite interesting for me to go there! ^^ Moreover, I had a chance to talk to the people who work at the airport and it helped me to understand what they do, and at the same time, it makes me think about what I would be able to do if I were to work here.

I would like to share what I saw with all of you!
So, as always, I put the pictures I took on Bubbleshare. ^^
BubbleShare: Share photos - Print Christmas Coloring Pages.

I hope you enjoy it and see what I saw there!

And also...

I had a chance to see the moment when the airplane made a landing. I've really liked to see it go up to the sky and land at the airport since I was a little girl.

At first, it looks like nothing happens in the video. But...please pay attention to the sound you'll hear. The voices come from the control room.

Hmmm....finally, it turns out that I would really like to go somewhere! Hahaha.

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

Long Time No See!

2007-10-20T05:57:00.000+09:00

Hello, everyone~!

How have all of you been these days? I'm sorry for not being able to add a new post! I hate to say this because it looks like an excuse, but I've been quite busy lately getting ready for the new semester, and most importantly, working on job hunting, which I hadn't been familiar with! However, I've tried having as much fun as possible through the new experiences. So, right now I've kind of enjoyed the job hunting because listening to stories of companies' employees interests me, and helps me imagine what it would be like to be a member of society in terms of employment.

Anyway.... you probably figure out that I'm doing just fine!
So, let me now move on to the school's topic.

I saw some of AGU 2006 & 2007 in the Fuchinobe campus. I saw Hiro, Yuiko, Eriko, Seri, Miki, Tetsuya, Nobu, Ryo, and Ai from AGU 2007! Since we all had been on vacation, so I think it really was a nice opportunity for each of us to know what we've been up to recently. I'm glad to know that everyone was doing fine! ^^

Sophomore students, who are going to come to the campus in Shibuya soon, now have to decide what kind of seminars they'll belong to. So, junior students visited Fuchinobe to introduce the seminars we've belonged to and sophomore students got to know what the junior students learn and how to apply for the one you want to go.

Now I'm junior and fortunately I was able to belong to the seminar I'd wanted to join. Thinking back, however, I was overwhelmed by the information I got at the time and what friends of mine talked about just like the sophomore students do now. So, watching them shop around the rooms to decide where to go literally brought me back to the days in Fuchinobe. Also, it did make me feel old...Ouch! Hahaha....

Alright,
I promise I will update more often! ^^
The temperature here has suddenly dropped.
So please watch out for cold, everyone!(including me!!)

See you soon~!

It's still kind of hot, but...

2007-09-18T06:55:00.000+09:00

Hello, everyone~!

It's been a little while, right? As the title says, it's still kind of hot here but I'm sure that summer has gone already... Well, I couldn't update this blog because I'd been busy these days especially participating the internships I'd applied for. At first, It was a bit strange for me not to write a post in a day, but once I'd gotten used to it, it surprisingly becomes an ordinary thing. The days without blogging enables me to realize how hard it would be to keep doing something regularly. ^^

Anyway... what's encouraged me to write a post for today is the fact that my academic grade for the previous semester came out finally! I surely remember talking about this last year, and how it makes me feel remains exactly the same. So, I felt so nervous to log on to the website of AGU that I even thought about two different ways to deal with the possible results that would make me feel happy or sad. To my relief, it did turn out to be the happy one! Yaaaaay! Though I've fully enjoyed the vacation, I've felt a part of me subconsciously cared about my academic grade. So, I was glad to finally be able to see it. ^^

Alright, I hope you'll see how happy I am right now! Hehehe....

That's all for today!
See you soon.

Typhoon

2007-09-06T23:47:00.000+09:00

Hello everyone~!

It's about 11:30 PM here, and a typhoon is coming to the Kanto area! Now, I've listened to the sound of the wind that seems to get louder... I don't know how long it'll be staying here, but I'm surprised at the force of the wind! I hope it'll be gone tomorrow because I have another one-day internship to go!

So, I'll update more about it tomorrow! ^^

See you soon~!

A_R_A_S_H_I

2007-09-05T23:35:00.000+09:00

Hello, everyone~!

I talked about Backstreet Boys yesterday, and I'll talk about the boy band in Japan called "Arashi"! Ahhh... it seems that I just can't help but be attracted to these guys! Though I've liked Backstreet Boys since I was 14 or so, I hadn't been interested in the boy bands in Japan for some reason. Maybe it's because too many of them have been out there. So, I might end up getting lost and giving up to catch up!

But... after I went to the concert of Arashi, I've been into them sooo much that I even went shopping today just to get their new single! Hahaha.... A friend of mine who got the tickets and went to the concert together was really surprised because she thought that I wanted to experience what the Arashi's concert would be like! And since then, I regularly check their TV appearance. ^^ Before going to the concert, I had no idea why she's loved them sooo much that she skipped classes to participate recordings for their TV shows as a spectator. Now I totally can understand what she did. I imagine it was like a dream come true for her!

And I decided to put some of their videos I found on youtube. By doing this, I'll be able to see them whenever I want without logging on to youtube! Hahaha....

The boy who dances on the stage is Ohno-kun! The song is called "Song for Me", and it's his solo on their album. (Arashi's members are Ninomiya-kun, Ohno-kun, Matsumoto-kun, Sakurai-kun, Aiba-kun.) Though it looks like he's lip-syncing, I like his dancing! It really is awesome. ^^

This one is performed by Ninomiya-kun, and it's also a solo work. The name of the song is Niji, which means "rainbow". Fortunately, the lyric is translated! ^^ So, I think you'll enjoy listening to the song. The lyric is written by him, and sooo sweet!

With everything being said, I now started to feel that I'm actually getting younger... Hahaha~!

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

Is this because.....

2007-09-04T01:15:00.000+09:00

Hello, everyone~!

I happened to know that Backstreet Boys will release the new album. After hearing that, I found myself visiting their website. Yeah, I know some of you say they've become the people of the past. However, I still can't help but follow news updates about them! I'm actually writing this post while listening to the sounds of my favorite tune, "I want it that way".

I feel sooo old when I think back about my junior high school days, and how passionate I'd been about them. Ouch! (Hehehe.) However, their songs absolutely have kept helping me improve my English and learning the expressions that aren't on textbooks. I think that's why they've been the band which I keep coming back to from time to time. ^^ Their songs definitely bring me back the memories I had with my friends from the junior high school. As the songs go on, the feelings I had and what we did start to be recalled specifically.

Is this how getting older makes me feel?
It also makes me want to see one of my best friends who went to the junior high school with me! Ahhhh....I'm certainly getting older! Hahaha.

Alright, that wraps up today's post!
See you soon. ^^

Soul-searching?

2007-09-03T01:36:00.000+09:00

Hello, everyone~!

Lately, I've been working on filling out applications for the internships that I hope to be accepted. It's called "entorii shi-to(entry sheet)" in Japan, and sending it to companies is the very first step for those who want to participate internship programs. Whether you're required to write this really relies on companies' manners. And I think the definition of internship in the US is not always suitable for the Japanese version because some companies in Japan have introduced the internship programs for letting students know more about companies by giving us seminars and chances to talk to the employees, not for working experience. I like both styles of internships because each of them has different positive and negative points.

As I've been thinking about what to write, I can't help but start thinking about who I am and the path I've taken so far. I personally don't think that I can see something objectively in the true sense of the term because the part of me that tries to be objective and the other part of me that doesn't will never be apart. And I still think so. However, I realize that the environment that embraces me allows me to have a kind of objective view about myself. The environment includes my parents, my friends, and the things I did. Needless to say, I've been greatly affected by my parents and my friends, and they always encourage me to go the way I am. At the same time, they make me realize I'm the only one and so is each of them.

The other thing I can think of in terms of the environment I've been grown up with is English. I hadn't noticed that English has had a big influence on me until I've got over with being worried about making mistakes, and improved enough to be able to write in English. I now feel like I have another room in my mind where I can visit quite casually when I feel like getting out of the room I've got already for Japanese. I'm supposed to have a switch button to decide where I'll be, and I guess I am. Sometimes it doesn't work that way, however. I feel the little part of me is left at the Japanese room when I think I stay at the English room, and vice versa. That's one of the reasons why I feel I'm a different person when I write in English, maybe?

Anyway, I like writing in English because it allows me to express myself differently and I've been able to feel something that left sealed in the Japanese room being turned into words, which is visible.

So...the conclusion is that I'm going to keep writing!

That's all for today.
See you soon!

Oshiri kajiri mushi...!!

2007-09-02T01:36:00.000+09:00

Hello, everyone~!

Today, as I was surfing through the Internet, I happened to find the music video that's been getting popular in Japan. The song is called "Oshiri kajiri mushi". The translation would be "An insect that bites butts". Yeah, I know it sounds really strange, and even ridiculous. First time I'd heard of the character, I completely had no idea what it looked like... Finally, I had a chance to see it and I liked how the character has been described! So, why don't you see it moving and what it's singing about?

Though I'm Japanese, I just don't know what the lyric wants to say! But I guess it's okay because it's a song for children and the primary purpose of the song is, I suppose, to make people dance and smile!

I hope you enjoy the video and hopefully dancing! Hahaha...

That's all for today!
See you soon.

ARASHI : Happiness

2007-09-01T01:51:00.000+09:00

Hello, everyone~!

I was finally able to see what I've been waiting for! It was the Arashi's music video. ^^ Do you remember I talked about their concert which I enjoyed much more than I'd thought previously? Their new single will be released on September 5th! Yaaay! So, why don't you watch and listen to their new song called "Happiness"!

Even though I'd known that they've been out there for years, I didn't pay attention to them very much because it seemed to me that they were just one of the boy bands. However, after one of my friends who have loved them since she was much younger took me to their concert, I completely changed my mind! Their performance went much beyond my expectation. ^^

Since then, I've kept checking their TV appearance. I assume their schedule must be crammed, but I can see that they always try to do their best! That's one of the things I've liked about them, and also that's what I learn by looking at what they do. ^^

And a friend of mine who introduced "Arashi" to me, Mao, just left Japan to study in China. So, every time I see them sing or dance, it definitely reminds me of her! For now, I just don't feel what it'll be like not to be able to see her for a while because the new semester hasn't started yet. But as time goes by I'll slowly miss her and I guess I actually do a bit right now. Though the fact that we're apart remains, we still can talk about them throught the Internet! So, I'm looking forward to talking to her again soon! Also, I'm deeply grateful for the technologies that enable us to communicate with each other. ^^

Alright, I hope you'll like the video I updated. ^^
That's all for today!

See you soon.

The way to Go Green

2007-08-31T03:38:00.000+09:00

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)

2007-08-30T04:49:00.000+09:00

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...

2007-08-29T01:04:00.000+09:00

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

2007-08-28T12:33:00.000+09:00

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!

2007-08-27T03:38:00.000+09:00

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

2007-08-26T23:59:00.000+09:00

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

2007-08-25T16:12:00.000+09:00

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

2007-08-24T09:42:00.000+09:00

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

2007-08-23T02:08:00.000+09:00

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

2007-08-22T04:15:00.000+09:00

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

2007-08-21T14:47:00.000+09:00

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

2007-08-20T04:01:00.000+09:00

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?

2007-08-19T05:02:00.000+09:00

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 ^^

2007-08-18T01:17:00.000+09:00

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

2007-08-17T06:04:00.000+09:00

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?

2007-08-16T23:15:00.000+09:00

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....

2007-08-15T23:49:00.000+09:00

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

2007-08-14T05:15:00.000+09:00

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...

2007-08-13T23:37:00.000+09:00

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

2007-08-12T02:26:00.000+09:00

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

2007-08-11T06:15:00.000+09:00

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

2007-08-10T04:48:00.001+09:00

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. ^^

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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

2007-08-10T02:57:00.000+09:00

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!

2007-08-09T20:38:00.000+09:00

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...

2007-08-08T05:47:00.000+09:00

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"

2007-08-05T03:34:00.000+09:00

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~! ^^

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

Chang's Meeting!

2007-08-04T05:10:00.000+09:00

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!

2007-08-03T01:35:00.000+09:00

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~. ^^

ARASHI

2007-08-02T01:29:00.000+09:00

Hello, everyone~!

Today, I'm going to talk about the boys band called "ARASHI"! The reason why I chose this as today's topic is that I actually went to their concert yesterday with a friend of mine!

The video I put above is one of their songs, and it's called "Love So Sweet". Thanks to the English subtitles, I think you may be able to understand what they sing about even though it's a Japanese song.

Well, a friend of mine, Mao, who got the ticket for me has liked them for years. As for me, however, I didn't know about them very much. So, while being excited about the fact that I would go to a concert, I had to admit that a part of me had no idea about what to expect from it. But I ended up enjoying the concert and I even bought their latest album on the way to my home! Now I've started to understand why Mao has been into them for a long time!

Mao is going to go to China as an exchange student very soon. So it was really nice to see her like this before her departure! I really hope that she will have a good time there!

That's all for today!
See you soon~

P.S
I hope the participants of AGU 2007 will arrive safaly at the airport! ^^

Now I'm Test-free!

2007-07-31T02:42:00.000+09:00

Hello, everyone~!

As I told you on the previous posts, the semester has just finished and I'd taken all of the exams that I had to take. However, there's been an exam that I haven't talked about on this blog... The exam of the training program I mentioned previously, which is CCNA.

The exam that I had was a practical exam to see whether or not I could type in several commands, I could make a setting, and I could write lists to permit or deny infomation that goes through routers. I'm not really sure if you're familiar with these kinds of things, but I hope you can imagine what I've learned by taking a look at the picture I put on the previous post!

In the exam, there were so many tasks that I had to deal with that I actually took the exam three times to pass! So, it felt like I still had an exam to be taken, and I literally did even though the exams of my department were over.

Anyway, now I finally can relax!
I'm so glad that I made it. ^^

That'll wrap up today's post!
See you soon~

P.S
The beginning of AGU 2007 is finally approaching, and as I said, I just can't wait to read blogs of this year's participants!

A New Thing I've Been Learning Through The Semester

2007-07-28T23:29:00.000+09:00

Hello, everyone~!

As July is about to end very soon, I recall the exciting feeling that I had last year about going to AGU 2006 program! I presume this year's participants are already excited about it, too! Even though I would not be there, I'm already looking forward to talking to you through the online chat, reading what you guys do in the US on blogs, and hopefully meeting you guys face to face in Japan after coming back!

Well, I would like to talk about the thing I've been learning lately, CCNA. Have you heard of it? It's a training program conducted by Cisco Systems, and the word "CCNA" stands for "Cisco Certified Network Associate". Some of you might wonder why on earth I'm learning about this kind of thing because the department I belong to(which is International Politics, Economics, and Communication) and the things I've studied have nothing to do with IT or something like that. However, contrary to people's expectation about what I've learned, don't you think it's great for me to be able to have knowledge about networking?

As more and more people have realized how important it has been and will be for us to always connect with each other, I think it would be useful to have knowledge about how we can get connected with each other. That's why I decided to take the class. I would not get a credit when I finish the class, but I absolutely think it is worth learning not only because it's for free (Yay!) but also I have given the opportunity to meet the people from the departments such as Integrated Information Technology and Electrical Engineering and Electronics. Some of them are graduate students. They are the people I wouldn't have encountered if I just go and attend the classes in Aoyama campus, so it's quite interesting for me to talk to them and I'm really grateful for their knowledge about what we do. Most importantly, every time I have difficulties doing the tasks and resolving the problems, they always help me!

These things are the devices and the cables I deal with in the class. There are personal computers, routers which helps information go to the right places, and the cables which connect the devices physically. What I learn is to connect them with each other properly, and to learn about how to operate them through the software. These days, being connected through the Internet has been taken for granted, but we won't be able to get connected unless the infrastructure for it has been properly developed. So, I think not only engineers but also the people who connect to the Internet need to learn about this kind of thing. ^^

I'm a bit sad that many of my friends had no idea about what I talked about today on this blog, but I guess that's how students with majors in the school of humanities would respond because in my opinion they basically don't need to know the thing like that. Moreover, they are likely to regard the people who are familliar with computer as "Otaku" (In English, I guess it's "geek"). So despite the fact that they usually get connected through the Internet, they don't think that having knowledge about computer is cool or useful....I just don't know why. As for me, I definitely think that being good at using computer is great and very fun!

Anyway, I've enjoyed what I'm learning and that's all that counts!

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

Urawa Reds vs Manchester United

2007-07-25T16:25:00.000+09:00

Hello, everyone~!

As I've talked on the recent posts, I had been preparing for the exams which I just don't remember what I wrote any more(just kidding! Hahaha...), and writing the papers. That's for sure. But while doing so, I actually went out a bit to escape from the reality.

On July 17th, I went to visit Saitama Stadium to watch "Saitama City Cup" with my friend. It was a friendly match, but I thought it was worth watching because Manchester United came to Japan just for playing the game! Sounds exciting, right? These days, the number of people in Asia who watch soccer games constantly, such as me, has been increasing so much that the clubs in Europe are now impossible to ignore that. Moreover, the team's visit to Japan not only made the supporters happy but also let the Japanese professional soccer players know what it felt like to play the game with them. As for me, it was really awesome to be able to watch the game of the team that won the British premier league! The Japanese team, Urawa Reds is one of the Japanese famous clubs and it is called "Red Devil". As you can guess from the picture which I put below, it was the battle between the Japanese red devil and the British red devil!

Anyway, most importantly, one of my favorite soccer players in the world, Cristiano Ronaldo was there!! Thanks to the early reservation, my seat was so close to the field. ^^ I want to share what I saw there with you guys, so if you're interested, enjoy the video which I updated on Youtube and the picture I'd taken at the stadium. I hope you like it!

Just see what he did! That'll tell you who he is and what he can do. ^^

It was rainy and a bit cold, but I enjoyed being there.
(FYI:The result was 2-2, yes it was a close game!)
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After watching them play, I would like to go and visit UK to watch a game at their own stadium someday!

Alright, that's all for today!

Oh, by the way, I came across Uchida sensei at Aoyama campus! He was on the way to the conference and we talked about how each of us has been. Thinking back, I just can't remember the last time I met him. So it was nice to be able to talk to Uchida sensei!

See you soon~. ^^

Wearing Kimono!

2007-07-23T02:10:00.000+09:00

Hello, everyone~!

Many of AGU 2006 members are now preparing for the exams. Well, I've actually finished taking them because I wrote 8 different kinds of papers instead of taking exams!(I did take 3 exams anyway...) It almost seemed to be endless at first, but I was glad to find that I somehow managed to finish it.

By the way, I enjoyed the chat on Saturday! I was pleased to talk to some of the participants of AGU 2007. There would be another opportunity to talk to them through the internet after the program starts, so I'm looking forward to it!!

Alright, let me move on now to what I want to talk about today. On July 15th, I went to my relative's wedding! As you might guess, I should have studied for the papers but when it comes to the thing like wedding, don't you think it is okay to escape from the reality? Hahaha....

When I heard about the wedding, the first thing that came to my mind was what to wear becaues it was the first time for me to attend the wedding, and I had no idea how I was dressed. However, I realized that I've got the Kimono which should be appropriate for the ceremony like wedding. So I decided to wear it. Some of you might be reluctant to wear Kimono because it's too tight. But as for me, I really like wearing Kimono because it always makes me feel special!

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The wedding was interesting and beautiful. Moreover, I enjoyed eating the dishes even though I felt the tightness of Kimono, and it was really nice to see my best friend because we couldn't see each other for a while.

As always, I put the pictures on Bubbleshare!
So enjoy~!

That's all for today!
I can't wait to "see" AGU 2007 through the next chat!

See you soon~
Take care.

*M y - S w e e t - D a y s*

Lunch with Yuki

The Chat with AGU2008

Welcome Back!

AGU2008 has started!

I'm now 22 years old!

It's been a while...

Should I Buy....or Not?

Getting My Nails Done

Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull

luxurious toilet

Hana Yori Dango Final

I'm addicted to.....

Lunch with My Mom and My Grandma

Akanishi Kun

Remember Me

Chat at Tapped In!

Tokyo Next

Stanford's Commencement Address '08

The Ways to Improve My Writing in English

Blood Barrels

JUNO

"Last Friends" finished finally...!

CHANEL MOBILE ART

Hillary Clinton's Speech

Convenience Store

Sophia in Japan!

Fukutoshin Subway

After Watching "Last Friends"...

Last Friends

microtrends

Fujio Cho

Grace is Gone

The Price We Pay

TAKE ACTION: FOOTBALL MATCH

Maid Cafe

The Rainy Seaon Has Begun!

27 Dresses

The Dilemma of Contribution

Choices and Responsibility

Prisoner of Love

The Concert by AGU Orchestra

Chabo!

L'Espace Rose @ Shibuya

The Chat at the Tapped In

Just for Fun

I was a bit sleepy today... and What I do at Work

The Small Talk about English and Blog

The End of Poverty

The First Day of My New Part-time Job!

The Rise of the Rest

Boku no Kanojo wa Cyborg

Krispy Kreme Doughnuts

Hisashiburi! (It's been a while.)

Snowfall ^^

FreeRice

Happy Holidays!

The UM in the Film!

I don't know where to begin with...

Discover NAA!

Long Time No See!

It's still kind of hot, but...

Typhoon

*A_R*_A*_S*_H*_I*

Is this because.....

Soul-searching?

Oshiri kajiri mushi...!!

ARASHI : Happiness

The way to Go Green

My Friend's Blog (2)

Evangelion...

1 0 0

Formula One!

Lovely Weekend

Temporary Farewell to My Friend

My Friend's Blog

One-Day Internship @ Cisco Systems

Pocket Tissues

Pastime for a Day Like Today

"SEVENTEEN" and Messenger

M y - S w e e t - D a y s

A_R_A_S_H_I