American Machanical Pencils

Hi everyone! Recently, it's been getting really cold, right? I love winter though. There's a lot of great event in winter like Christmas, A New Year's Day.. But! Be careful! Don't get a cold!! hahaha



The other day, when I was talking with my American friend in my psychology class, she grabed her machanical pencil, and she said, "Oh it's almost done. I need a new one!" I was so surprised when I heard it. I asked her why she didn't use refills, and she told me, "Oh, we don't use refills. We can get 20 machanical pencils set like 20 cents so we don't have to charge leads." In Japan, if you get a machanical pencil once, you'll use it until it doesn't work any more and won't throw it away right? And leads are gone, you get some refills don't you? That's a really interesting difference between American stationeries and Japanese ones! I got a picture of the pencil which my friends use.

http://asia.bicworld.com/japan/productenlarge.cfm?img=images/products/BIC Matic ClassicFull.gif

Kaiyuukan!!!

Hi everyone! How was your big weekend? I had a bunch of great time! On Friday and Saturday, I enjoyed our school festival, On Sunday, I went to Nara with some international students:) And On Monday, I went to the aquarium called Kaiyuukan with my boyfriend!! I haven't been there for three years, so I was sooo excited!!
There's a big ferris wheel in front of Kaiyuukan. We took on it after we got out from Kaiyuukan. I'm afraid of height, so it was kinda scary for me.

I saw 2 sea turtles there. I had a turtle before, so I like turtles. They were so cute and their way to swim was really kalm.

I could learn how to call the animals and fish in English there. For example.. sea lions, sea otters, and so on:)

Look at that guy! He's cleaning the tank, ant the ray came to him and tried to bite him! WHOAAAAA!!! Haha just kidding.

Penguins!! They're sooooo cute and funny!! There were 3 types of penguins.

I really really enjoyed my big weekend!!!!

Halloween!!!

On October 30th, the Halloween event was held at Gaidai. So, I wore my high school uniform. This picture (above) is Bruse Lee(Shark Boy) and a School girl(Me).

This picture is a kitty boy(Glenn) and a School girl(Me).

Mayumi and I are from the same high school.

From left, Scot, Sharkboy, Me, Glenn, Jason and someone in fromt of CIE.

That was my first time to wear a costume on halloween. So at first, I was kinda embarrassed but I was so excited! There was a competition in the evening. It was soo fun!!

Movies!

Hey everyone! I watched a lot of movies in these days. I'm gonna introduce some of them.

This is kanda old one and I'd never watched it before I watched it a few days ago. It's "Out Cold". One day, one of my American friends showed me it and it was awesome! It's a movie about snow boarders in Araska. There are lots of American jokes so it's really really fynny! But you should watch it in English of course. Because if you watch it in Japanese, you won't get those jokes!

This one is "Nights in Rodanthe". I watched this movie last Monday and I was so impressed and cried. This is kinda love story, so perhaps it's boring for guys haha.
But! If you are interested in it, you should watch it! You're gonna cry and miss your BF or GF!!!

This is Angelina Jolie's latest movie, "Wanted". It was awesome as well, but for me, it was too hard to wabtch it. I mean, There were sooo many bloody scenes so I sometimes have to close my eyes!! Angie was so beautiful, so sexy and her action was so cool!

I think most of you know this movie. Yeah this is "Hancock"!!! Will Smith as a super hero was soooo cool!! I watched it twice. The music in this movie was so cool as well:)

I watched so many mivies this summer and fall, I watched "Dark Knight", "What Happens in Vegas", and "Sex And The City The Movie" as well. They were all awesome! I'm gonna watch "p.s. I love you" next week and I can't wait to watch it!

Thanks for reading!

Pictures are from goo.映画 and Wikipedia.

A Class in CIE

Hey everyone! How are you doing upto? Our fall semester started on September 25th right? Are you enjoying it? Well, actually my fall semeater started on September 8th, because I'm taking a class in CIE!! When I found that I could take the class in CIE, I was so surprised and really glad!! Now, I'm taking "Cross-Cultural Psychology Social Experience" class. At first, I thought it's too hard for me to study psych in English. I didn't have any basic knowledges of psych and I was really worried about if I can understand what the international students say. So I was so nervous at the first time. But I didn't have to be so nervous. The professor is really good and funny, and I could make some friends in the class! We always have a discussion in the class, it's still kind of hard. I'm trying to follow them.
This is the text book of the class!

Take care!

Memories of Staying in Australia

A couple of days ago, I was seeing at pictures which were taken during our staying in Australia. It's been 3 years since we got back from there. Our high school has two sister schools in the US and Australia. I've been in Australia for a couple of weeks as a exchange student when I was 16 years old. Beside me, there were 9 exchange students. The picture below is the sign board was standing at the front gate of the school. When we found it, we were so excited and happy.

The picture below was taken during our class. The girl of right side, it's me! And the left side, she is my best friend. We are in the same university now, and we know each ather very well. In the class, we learned so many interesting things about Australia. There were many good activities like making boomerang (which is aboriginean tool), helping Australian students with their Japanese class, sports activity, cooking Australian foods and so on. The two women standing behind us are our English teachers.

This is the photo of Melbourn station. I went there by train. In Melbourn cuty, I got some souvenirs for my friends and family. It was so fun! My host family showed me around, and I got a carriage for the first time! It was a little strange for me that there were cars, trams (trolly cars), and carriage on the same street.


We went up the tower which is the highest in Melbourn city. I am an acrophobe, so it was too scary for me to go up the top of the tower! But, the view from the top of the building was so beautiful. I wanted see its night view too. My friends who went there an night showed me the picture of it, and it was more beautiful than that in the daytime.
Of course, I saw some animals which can be seen in Australia! There was a zoo near my host family's house, and they took me there. I saw Koalas, kamgaroos, wombats, wallabies, and so on. I touched an wombat and a wallaby then. To be honest, I wanted to touch koalas, but it was forbidden in the Victoria state. If you want to touch or hold koalas, I suggest you to go to Sydney!

I miss the days and the people there..

Thank you for coming! ;)

Last Friday

Last Friday, I went to Kyoto with my close Japanese friend and the international students from the Netherlands. One of them were in KGU last year, and he came back again for his school project. My close Japanese friend is dating with him, and the three of us are good friends:) It has been about a year since we saw last, so I was really glad to see him again! After greeting with some guys who I saw for the first time, we went to the temple which sacred to Shinran. Shinran is a great priest who is patriarch of Joudo-Shinshu(a kind of Buddhism) in the Kamakura era. The picture below is the inside of the temple. I forgot its name, but it was so big and beautiful!


We walked for a little while, and we got to Toji-temple. This is also in Kyoto. The picture below is the five-storied pagoda in Toji. There were also some huge statues of Buddha, but we wern't allawed to take pictures of them. It was so great, so Iwanted to take some pictures of them...! Some guys enjoyed feeding turtles and carps in the pond in Toji. There were no kappa..haha:)

We enjoyed dinner after that and I got home around 11.00p.m. that day. When I whiled in my room, my cell phone rang. I checked the E-mail from one of my friends who works at the same cram school as mine. It was sent to me with 2 pictures, and they made me so surprised! On that day, my cram school was flooded! When I saw the picts, I shouted "Oh my god!!", because I've never had flood before. The picture below is the flooded class room!

The picture below is the street in front of the cram school, and as you can see, it looks like a pond! My friends who worked on the friday soaked calf-deep in the "pond". We can't still use that cram school, so we need to borrow the space in the different building to have classes!

Thank you for coming!;)

Aloha!

Have you ever seen "Disney's Lilo and Stitch 1,2"? I really love these movies, so I often see them on DVDs. Of course I love the characters and the story. But things which especially I like with these DVDs are...the SONGS!! My dad loves Hawaiian music, so I've heard it since I was a little girl, and I love it! The picture below is the CDs of "Lilo and Stitch". There are some Hawaiian songs in these CDs. Most of the songs are sung in English, but some are in Hawaiian:) I especially like "He Mele No Lilo". I can't understand Hawaiian now, but I'm really interested in Hawaiian, so I want to learn it some day. Oh, you can read Hawaiian though! Because they are written in the Roman alphabet! I think most of Japanese students have studied the Roman alphabet when they were children;)



The pictures below are the snacks from my Canadian friend! She gave them to me a little days ago.There are snacks which I've never seen in Japan in the box! We exchanged some snacks of each country. So, I sent her some Japanese snacks! She was really glad to get them! I think, Japanese people like plain tasted food. The tasts of snacks from the other countries are a little strong (I love them though).




This is a cup of Canadian maple syrop! It's a genuine maple syrop:) So it must be good I think! (I don't have it yet) And you can see some words in French. Why is that? Because my friend who sent it lives in Quebec. In this state,they speak French! I'm studying French, so I wanna go to Quebec some day!



And this is a jar of maple butter. I've never seen it until she gave me. According to her,it's really popular food in Canada. We can eat it on toast, waffles or crapes! If you have a sweet tooth, you can eat it by itselt!! haha :D Actually her father does!

Aloha!!("Hi", "Good bye", "Welcome", "I love you" in Hawaiian)
Au revoir! ("Good bye" in French)

French and English

Hi there friends! How are you doing?

As you know, I'm really interested in french. Actually, I take a french class every Monday and Thursday. When I was a freshman, the teacher was Japanese. I liked her, but I can't understand french grammer because it's different from Japanese one! Now, my French teacher is from France and he teaches us French in English. There are so many French words which are roots of English words, and the grammer is similar to English. So, I can understand it more easily now than before!



Have you ever seen these books? Yeah, this is one of the most famous books in French,"The Little Prince". For the fisst time, I read it in Japanese when I was a little girl. And after I took the french class, I bought the French one and English one. It's interesting for me to compare the 3 languages with the same story! If you are interested in some languages, try this! It's gonna be fun and good for your language skill I think!

And, this is the picture of one of my favorite DVDs! This movie,"Howl's moving castle" is one of Hayao Miyazaki's works. I love his works, but especially I love it!:)when I watch it, I change the language from Japanese to English or French. At first, I needed Japanese subtitles. But now, I can watch it without subtitles (Only in English. I need French subtitles when I watch it in French :P)

This is a picture of the news paper in English. I think, we need to know about things all over the world. And I wanted try reading news in English. Sometimes, it's quite difficult for me to read them actually, but I'm glad when I could some articles! There are many articles about China and Myanmer now. If you want to get some news papers in English, you can get them in the stand at the stations! ;)

And I just wanna show you the sweets I got today as a giveaway! Fresh strawberries with chocolate corting! My mom gave them to me! Hmmmm!

Can you see the sticker "Made for You" on the box of the Macdonald's hot apple pie? When I had it with a friend of mine, I found it. It was on the box only mine! hahaha! I just wanted show you again! hehe

So, thanks for reading! See you next time! ;)

My weekend with English

Hi there friends! ;)

Usually, I read and watch something in English. I'll show you what I had with English today:) I've been really interested in world histry since I was high school student. I've wanted to read books about world history in English. However, they seemed to be difficult to read the history books for adults. So, I searched the book for children in English over the internet. Finally, I found the text book for children in the US or some other English country.

↑This is the picture of the book cover↑

It has many pictures and illustrations, and it makes me understand easily. I try to read it without dictionary as I can. But anyway, I sometimes use my dictionary. There are some words I don't know, so I often think I need to improve my vocabulary. Well, when I finish reading this book, I'll try to read more academic history book for adult :)

↑This is the contents of the book↑

And, this is one of my favorite movies, "BRIDGED JONES -The Edge of the reason-". I think, some of you've seen this movie before. I saw this movie for the first time some days ago, and I did really like it. We can hear British English in it. It's quite different from American English. We, Japanese more often hear American English than British English. So, it's interesting for me to know the differences of the expressions between American English and British English. Well, one of my hobbies is watching movies, so I'm going to find more interesting things from movies in English! There are sooooo many movies in English and they have many kind of English. Then, I can learn more about English from them!

This is the DVD of "BRIDGED JONES"

Thank you for coming and see you next time! ;)

Ikkyuji Temple in Kyoto

Hellooooo! Everyone! XD How are you doing? Do you enjoy your Golden Week? Me, went to Ikkyuji Temple last Sunday. Recently, I'm really interested in the historical places like temples. So, I'll show you some pictures of it today :) First of all, I'm gonna introduce about Ikkyuji Temple. This temple is named after one of the famous priest in Japan, Ikkyu. Most of people in Japan know him because of his wit. For example, look up at the picture above. You can see "このはし わたるな" on the sign board. In Japanese, "はし" has several meanings. This case,most of us think, we shouldn't go on this bridge, because one meaning of "はし" is "bridge". but Ikkyu thought another meaning of "はし" which means "side" or "curb". So, he went on the center of this bridge and he could go to the other side safely. This is just one of his witty story. He worked so many times with his wit, and it was appreciated by the load. In this temple, there are lot of stuff concern with Ikkyu.

↑This is the statue of himself.↑

↑
This is the bath boom which he used actually about 600 years ago.

↑This is hiｓ garden.↑

I can't show you all of the things in this place, so if you have an opportunity to visit Kyoto, why don't you go there? :) It's gonna be great and you'll enjoy it!

Thank you for reading! Bye now!

Walk Around Kyoto

Hey everyone! Today is...TGIF!!! Yay :) I had 4 classes, and after school I went to Sanjo (a part of Kyoto) with my friend of mine. I've wanted to go there because I found the information about the book store. This book store specializes inported books from all over the world. Kyoto has so many streets and they are really complicated. My friend and I have no sence of direction,so it was too hard to get the store! we didn't notice that we passed the store and walked around the arcade for a long time. We asked the clerk at the convenience store the way to the store. Then we realized that we were on the wrong way !! We turned back the way we walked, and finally, we found the store! Its name is RANDOM WALK. We enjoyed shopping for an hour and get books! I got "MiB 2 (Men in Black 2)". The store were having a sale today so we got the books at a special price :D After we were on our way to Sanjo station, we found the grocery store. It also specializes imorted things!! We looked around the store and there are so many interesting syuff!! I really like imported snacks or candy :) I put the some pictures of those 2 stores!! Oh there are soooooo many wines from all over the world too!! Thank you for reading :)

The first picture : A shop sign of "RANDOM WALK"
The second picture : Candies from all over the world

The purpose of my blog

The purpose of this blog is to show you my favorite things with English, French, and Japanese which I get, find, watch, hear, read, study, or experience.I want you to know and be interested in my life with those 3 languages. I'll put pictueres, too! I really hope to many people will enjoy this blog!! :)