Going Shopping for a Suit ^^

Hello, everyone~!

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

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

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

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

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

Hana Yori Dango

Hello, everyone~!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

What's inside my head?

Hello, everyone~!

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

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

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

Here it is!

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

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

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

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

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

See you soon~

Cooking at Midnight....

Hello, everyone~!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

It's finally done!

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

Cisco

Hello, everyone~!

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

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

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

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

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

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

It's only love...

Hello, everyone~!

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

It's only love

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

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

Beautiful world

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

Beautiful boy

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


It's only love


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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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


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

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

Beautiful world

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

Beautiful boy

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


It's only love


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

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

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

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

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

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

別にいいけど
Betsu ni iikedo
(That's okay)

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

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

Beautiful world

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

Beautiful boy

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

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

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

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

See you soon~!

Old Japan

Hello, everyone~!

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

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

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

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

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

Alright, that's all for today!

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

See you soon~!

Hello Kitty from Kinugawa

Hello, everyone~!

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

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

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

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

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

Until then, Sayonara! ^^

The Trip to Kinugawa! Part 2

Hello, everyone~!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The Trip to Kinugawa! Part 1

Hello, everyone~!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

American University Reunion!

Hello, everyone~!

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

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

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

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

More than meets the eye...

Hello, everyone~!

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

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

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

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

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

That's all for today!
See you soon~

Visiting Yokohama and "Ratatouille"

Hello, everyone~!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Chang's Meeting!

Hello, everyone~!

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

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

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

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

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

Me on the Magazine!

Hello, everyone~!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

ARASHI

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!

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

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

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!

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.