around me

After typhoon Samba

2012-09-18T06:22:00.001+09:00

It became a bit cooler than usual. It may be because of the typhoon Samba.

I wanted to wash my car to get rid of salt which rain and wind bring. I went to a gas station but there were a line in front of the washing machine. I gave it up because it seemed to take an hour to get my turn.

Arashiyama observatory

2012-09-02T00:07:00.001+09:00

When you drive to the northern Okinawa mainland or Yanbaru, Stopping by Arashiyama observatory is one of good choices. You can see a variegated landscape of Haneji-Naikai or Haneji inland sea.

Looking in the direction of Wakugawa, Nakijin Village.

Warumi-Oh-Hashi and Kouri Island

Yagaji Island

Warumi-Oh-Hashi was a arch type bridge, which was opened in 2010. The bridge was located in high altitude. If you go to Kouri island, Going through it is more shorter path than via Yagaji island.

Looking for Kouri-Oh-Hashi in the above picture is difficult. The length of the bridge is about 2km.

The sight that small islands are spotted in the water

was compared with Seto inland sea.

大きな地図で見る

Nishihara San-A City and QB barber

2012-08-26T13:32:00.001+09:00

San-A group, whose founder is Okinawan, has many brunches in Okinawa prefecture.
Their shops are mainly classified as two types. One is supermarket style which sells foods, commodities like detergents or tooth brushes or clothes. The other is a mall style which has several shops which are run by San-A or other companies. Needless to say, The malls are bigger than the supermarkets.

Nishihara San-A City is a mall, located in Nishihara town. It looks like wrong that there is a city in town but It is indeed called "city." There are many shops, which are clothes, a electricity appliance "DEO-DEO", restaurants, cafes including Starbucks and Mister Donuts, a 100 yen shop "DAISO", a book store, a photo studio, a massage service, and so on.

I sometimes go to the QB which belongs to a national barber chain in Japan. It is located near the Starbucks. They give us quick and reasonable services. To do these, They practiced their own system that is different from other barbers and I feel it a little odd and inconvenient. When you go there, you are going to buy a ticket from a ticket vending machine. But this can accept only 1,000 yen bill so that they don't need to prepare changes. Therefore you have to prepare a 1,000 yen bill before going there. This is why I said. They don't offer washing your hair or shaving your beard. After having your hair cut, your hair is vacuumed by a special vacuum, which is just for customer's head and never for the floor. Although I have a complain about their service, It helps me to get things done in no time.

Another QB barber is in Naha San-A main city.

Talking to a stranger

2012-08-25T17:51:00.002+09:00

For people who is shy, it is difficult to talk to a stranger. Today's theme was talking to a stranger. We practiced to start talking with following topics.

commenting about surroundings.

It's hot in this room, isn't it?

asking for the other's opinion.

I wonder if this train had more space. Do you think so too?

offer information about yourself.

By the way, I am from Japan.

There may be another way that is asking about the other but I am not sure that it is that.

Perhaps, we have more chance to be asked by a stranger on board of plain, train or bus. If I didn't want to the other, I would brush them off or gave them the cold shoulder.

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In plain, Seats that are near an isle are called isle seats and ones that are near window are called window seats.

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The word "line" in the sentence "What line of work are you in?" means type of work, for example, sales , IT or medicine.

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The money you pay when to rent a house is deposit, which is "Shiki-kin" or 敷金 in Japanese.

Souvenir

2012-08-18T18:40:00.002+09:00

Today, I learned how to describe objects. Today's case is about souvenir.

According to my teacher's story, word "souvenir" is from French, which means "to remember." Therefore souvenir is to remember the trip for the traveler neither their family, friends, nor colleagues.

In this meaning, I might not have any souvenirs.

There is a list of attributes to describe things.

size and shape

the same size as ...
heart-shaped
carve (cut)
curve (shape)

appearance

polished
glossy,luster <-> dull, lusterless
tufty, fringe

color

gray-ish

material

molded
brass
ivory (elephant's tusk)

condition

cracked
chipped

(These green heart-shaped leaves are named Hoya. I looked them at Bios's hill)

The words "carve" and "curve" are difficult to distinguish by listening to their pronounce.

"Statuette" is used to describe a statue which size is smaller than what is called statue.

When comparing things with our impression, we can use, for example, "It is lighter than it looks."

I told about an ornament of awl which made from a pine corn bought by my wife.

I feel like buying some souvenirs for myself when I am on a next trip.

Portrait generator

2012-08-04T18:01:00.000+09:00

Portrait generator can create portrait images by choosing facial parts. It is available on Android. You can download the image and use it on SNSes. Please feel free to try it!

Giving instructions

2012-08-04T17:49:00.000+09:00

I learned about giving instructions of games like chess, darts, cards and sports.

Following things are needed to play the game.

Setup

things to play the game.

Objective

how to win the game.

Movement

how to deal with cards, pieces or something.

Special rules

like you can change all your card before bet

I found that billiards and pool mean different game.
Accoriding to wikipedia, there are two kind of billiards, one of which is called pocket billiard or pool billiard, the other is carom billiard the table of which has no pocket and the game is played with 3 balls.

Movement of piece in chess is different from Shogi. but some pieces have similar movement. For example, bishop moves diagonally, which has the save movement of Kaku(角) in Shogi. As I heard Queens move any directions, Queens look like a mixture of Kaku and Hisha(飛車) which moves vertically and horizontally.

We talked about Monopoly and Jinsei-game or life game, which are games like rolling the dice and landing your piece on a square. These games use dice. The word 'dice' is plural but I've heard that it is often used as singular. I think why we don't use singular of dice is because it is 'die'. In Monopoly, there is no goal, therefore players go around squares on the board until the game finishes until someone win.

Nutrition in food

2012-07-21T17:56:00.000+09:00

Today, I learned how to talk that which food is good or bad and why.

Eating Brabra's hamburgers is bad for you because they are loaded with bad fat.
Egg yolks are high in cholesterol so you should cut down on them.
Kelp is a good source of iodine so you should increase your intake of them.

I also learned following words;

saturated fat - 飽和脂肪
polyunsaturated fat - 多価不飽和脂肪
protein - タンパク質

I make a list of nutrition that are often used.

carbohydrate - 炭水化物
sugar - 糖
trans fat - トランス脂肪
vitamin - ビタミン

I learned how to use "while" and "during." "while I work", "while working" and "during work" are good but "during working" sounds something strange because "During" is followed by words that mean a period like "the day."

While talking about food, I took mistake that I said "I asked my wife not to enter the meet" where I should say "I asked my wife not to put meet in my lunch box."

Countable and uncountable are difficult to use. For example, "food" is uncountable but "foods" are used when we talk about kinds of food.

Discrimination in workplace

2012-07-14T15:02:00.000+09:00

In English conversation class, we learned how to talk about discrimination in workplace. I think that aging, gender bias and sexism are discrimination often seen in Japan.

We might have idea that which gender is favorable for specific occupation. For example, Nurse is suited to women. Bus and taxi driver is for men. But actually we could see male nurses and female drivers. We can not say like that you can not be the occupation because of your gender.

Although, there would be chances that we want to choose the gender of service person. For example, we want to be taken care of by doctors who are the same gender. we can not refuse their service for sake of their gender but we would choose service person by gender if it was allowed because it would be more comfortable for us.

We talked about aging. It would be difficult to get a new job if we were above about 40. I think that age does not matter but companies would concern about age because older people have higher risk of being ill than younger people.

Reminiscences

2012-07-07T23:52:00.002+09:00

I learned about how to talk about reminiscences.

If someone says something that makes you remind, you start your story following key phrases.

That reminds me of (something to remember.)
I used to (do something.)
I must have been (about/around) (age) years old because (reason why I was the age.)
The thing I remember the most is (how /the way) I ( used to / would ) ...

For example;
The picture of the hotel building where we held our wedding party reminds me of that time.
I used to prepare the party every night and day. The thing I remember the most is how I would call people to invite the party.

As I am sure how old I was at the moment of the story, I don't use "I must have been ..."

Raising a baby

2012-06-11T01:10:00.000+09:00

Now, two of us have been raising a baby. It is not easy.

We use mother's milk and powdered milk when it needs. We can use cube-shaped powdered milk. I learned that making them burp is must if giving milk by a baby bottle. There are many kind of baby bottles. We use ones which is made that it is harder to drink milk than to do from breast directly to avoid babies stopping drinking mile from their mother's breast.

Changing their diapers after peeing or pooping is one of our tasks.

Taking them into a bath is daily work of us. My coworkers gave us a bathtub which is swollen with air. It is very useful.

We are now realizing how our parents had been working hard to raise us.

Stunk by a moth

2012-05-24T00:53:00.000+09:00

My eye has been swollen by touch of moth at last evening. The moth was a small white one. When I checked my eye just after being stung, there is a small swell on my under eyelid. But swells were on both the upper and the under eyelid in this morning. I had to go to a dermatology.

The doctor at the dermatology said that cooling the part you are stunk just after being stunk is a good remedy.

Online articles 20120521

2012-05-21T17:40:00.001+09:00

As I had listened to some VOA news articles, I wrote short summaries and comments about them.

http://learningenglish.voanews.com/content/worried-that-people-are-laughing-at-you--150686245/609498.html

This is an article about a research that how people feel and behave when they are laughed at. The reactions of people are different between countries. I was a bit surprised to know how to fee when being laughed at.

Keyword: Gelotophobia

http://learningenglish.voanews.com/content/obama-support-same-sex-marriage/566243.html

The president Obama said he supports same-sex marriage. Some welcomed his announcement, but the others didn't. I wonder how the family registry system would be affected if same-sex marriage was allowed.

Keyword: civil union

http://learningenglish.voanews.com/content/censoring-sina-weibo-users-china/666406.html

China and India governments have been trying to limit free speech online. I think the limit might prevent culture in both countries from growing.

Keyword: overthrow

Rainy season

2012-05-19T20:33:00.000+09:00

Okinawa is in rainy season.We'd better stay in house in case we don't have any appointments.
But we will be bored unless we do something.
The best way to enjoy in rainy season is to read books or surf the net.

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I learned following phrases;

we'd better ... in case ...
we will ... unless
The best way to ... is to ...

A cold day.

2012-01-24T00:04:00.001+09:00

It was cold day today. Without any heaters in my house, I have to wear a jacket .
I was going to do walking but changed to do running because I can't stand this temperature.

If the low pressure system is located east of Japan and the high pressure system is located on China, they are called the pressure system formation in winter and the weather becomes cold.

I want it to be getting warm.

I'm absolutely sure

2011-11-11T10:56:00.001+09:00

I learned how to say things with confidence.

I'm (absolutely | 100% | pretty | fairly ) ( certain | sure ) ...

Other phrases to show confidence:

probably (50% - 60%)
maybe
perhaps (50%)

Could, might and may are also used to show confidence:

could (have | be)
might (have | be)
may (have | be)

All of a sudden

2011-11-11T10:46:00.001+09:00

I learned phrases following:

When all of a sudden the building began to shake, some of people screamed.
We got out just as the building was about to fall down.

I found an interesting video clip when to search "a goner."

Oh, that reminds me of the time ...

2011-10-23T08:04:00.001+09:00

I learned phrases at my english class yesterday.
Those phrases are to say about what I used to do remembered by someone's story.

Oh, that reminds me of the time ...
I must have been 12 at the time.
Anyway ...
It was ...

For example,

Oh, that reminds me of the time when I first went to the kindergarten.
I must have been 4 at the time.
Anyway, I kept crying for a while after my mon had gone.
It was an unforgettable event.

Business English class (10)

2011-10-23T08:00:00.001+09:00

I learned the importance of regime from the teacher in the last class of Business English class. He said most of us tend to forget what we archived in our life, so it is good idea to write them on your regime and use it when you show what you have done ever.

It was hard to make time to attend the class but I can have good experiences to think about business in different cultures between Japan and other countries.

From news paper:reconstruction bond maturity

2011-10-21T07:50:00.000+09:00

http://www.japantimes.co.jp/text/nn20111020x1.html

DPJ bends on reconstruction bond maturity
New Komeito seems OK with tobacco tax hike; LDP opposes

I think that the redemption period should be shorter because if it were long,

We would put burden to pay money for the bond on next generation.

Shredder

2011-09-19T12:15:00.000+09:00

送信者 around me

I broke a shredder when putting some papars into it. I opened it and found that 2 cogwheels of a gear came off. Things will be broken if I don't deal with them with care.

Typhoon Roke

2011-09-19T01:11:00.000+09:00

Many events had to be postponed or canceled because of this typhoon. In my case, The tennis competition was postponed and I stayed at home all day.

This typhoon doesn't look like usual ones, which bring heavy storm and rain. I could even see blue sky. I don't know why we give up many events because of this.

I hope it will be better weather next consecutive holiday.

My friends Wedding Ceremony

2011-07-17T07:18:00.004+09:00

One of My friends will hold his wedding ceremony and party today.
He has looked busy. We had seldom looked him until yesterday.
He had remained single for long time, but If he hadn't do that, He would never have met such a wonderful lady.
I really hope that it will be great day today.

english class:if you ask me

2011-06-04T12:01:00.003+09:00

I learned “if you ask me “ today.
It means “if you ask me (to say )“ or “I think...“

if you ask me, staff of fast food restaurants speak funny Japanese.

Cycle Blueprint - GEICO Commercial

2011-05-14T21:31:00.003+09:00

I often saw this TV commercial while I was on a trip. It is one of an insurance company's commercial. It is nice.