There's a way.

Merry Christmas, my dear friends!
I hope you have a lovely time with someone you love...

If you need to be alone, it will be your precious opportunity to think about your life, your love, and your prospective future.
May you be very happy!

There are many ways to spend Christmas season; my family spends it by having an annual treasure hunt. My husband and I held the game two days earlier than usual this year because he was off today. The children were very excited. While my husband took them out to do some shopping, I was busy hiding 25 cards in our living room. Each card had a number on it, and each number showed what kind of presents they could get.



I bought two dictionaries for children, because they really wanted them. My daughter started studying English, so I bought her an English-Japanese dictionary.


Who could find this card?



How about this?



I don't know how much loner we will be able to play this game together, but I'd like to prepare for our annual event as long as possible.

Our children were under the weather last week, so they didn't take a swimming lesson. Their swimming class is usually on Saturdays, but today I took them to their swimming class after school for an alternative. My daughter is good at swimming and my son is quite an eager learner. I'm always impressed to see how much they are improving.

After the class, we hung around in a shopping mall. There were many Christmas trees with sparkling ornaments here and there. We heard Christmas songs, and we passed by some shops selling things for Christmas. There are many people carrying some presents which seemed to be for their children. Everybody looked busy and happy. Christmas is just around the corner.

We ate out for lunch and had ramen which is my husband's favorite. He often eats out with his collegues, so he knows better than me where to go. Our 7-year-old son is a big eater, and he loves noodle. I was very surprised to see him ordering a refill which is called 「替え玉」 in Japanese!

Ramen is quite popular in Japan, and there is a wide variety of ramen---Miso ramen, Tonkotsu ramen, Shio ramen, etc. I have an interesting story about ramen, by the way.

There was a critical opinion about Japanese people's poor English skills.
"It's so funny that Japanese people often confuse "l" with "r" when they are speaking English. They even confuse ramen and lamen."
Hearing this, one Japanese guy replied.
"It's so funny that people from abroad confuse ramen with lamen. Those two aren't the same. I'm afraid you can't understand the subtle difference, can you?"
I like his witty very much!

I used to be an early bird, especially when I was a working mother. It was very difficult to find some time at night because there were many things to do at home and I was tired after having worked all day. I used to wake up at 4 almost every morning and spend time reading or studying.

Things have changed, and the same goes for my lifestyle. Surfing on the net, writing a letter to my friend, look at me! I'm completely a night owl. I'd like to have some good sleep at night, but I can't resist sitting in front of my PC...

Have you ever read "Harry Potter" books? I've been a huge fan of the series since I read the first one entitled "Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone." I'm not sure how many times I've read this book. Every time I open its pages, there is something new -- discoveries or mysteries -- I hadn't realized before.

The other day, another new thing popped up.

Are we Muggle allowed to go through the barrier of Nine and Three-Quarters? I thought only wizards and witches were supposed to enter the barrier because they had migical power; however, some of them were born in the Muggle's society and they had Muggle parents. On the 1st of September, some parents are on the platform designated Nine and Three-Quarters to see their children off. Muggle parents should be there as well. How do they manage to go through the barrier?
I'm very curious about that!
Does anyone know the answer!?

未曾有


Can you read this kanji? You don't need to let yourself down because one of prime ministers misread this kinji during his speech in public, despite the fact that he was speaking his own mother tongue.
「未曾有」, which means "unheard-of" or "unparalleled," should be "mizou," not "mizouyu."
After the exposure of the prime minister's embarrassing illiteracy, one book has become a best seller here in Japan.

読めそうで読めない間違いやすい漢字 (2008/01/23) 出口 宗和 商品詳細を見る

Are you interested in learning kanji? Well, children's mistakes often sound cute, but it doesn't work for grown-ups' mistakes. If you hate to be looked down on, I guess this is about time for you to study or restudy kanji. Otherwise, your unwitting mistakes make a fool of yourself.

One morning, I heard someone crying outside while I was hanging out clothes. It was a little boy who lived in the next building. There was nobody except for him. "What's the matter?" When I tried to speak to him, I heard someone else---his mother.
"Hurry up, I said!" she yelled.
"You must know we're running out of time!"
As usual, they were on the way to his nursery school.

She is one of my neighbors, so I know her well; she is a young, bright and promising working mother. Every time she sees me, she speaks to me in a gentle manner. However, on that morning, she sounded completely different.

In a way, I can relate to her because I used to be a working mother. Being a working mother was quite irritating. I had to leave my house with my baby girl by 7 every morning, and I couldn't get home until 8 almost every night. After doing my job at the office, another job was waiting for me at home. Which means, no matter how much work I had, I couldn't do extra overtime because I needed to pick up my children by 8 at the latest.
As a mother of two, I was busy all the time. I always felt like being chased by time scale. I found it very difficult to have some relaxing time just for myself, and it led me to take my frustrations out on my innocent children.

I think a lot of people have said this before, but I hate the sound of a child in distress.

I don't know why her little boy was crying on that day, but he might have been unwilling to go to the nursery school. He might have wanted to be with his mother. It may sound odd, but I feel a bit sorry for him thinking about these things...

There are a number of people who can ice-skate in the world, but I assure you that Mao Asada is surely the cream of the crop. Her skate is elegant. Her movements are always just the way things should be. Once she starts dancing on the ice, I can't take my eyes off her. Her skating reminds me of a story that has been in my mind.
She won the World Grand Prix Figure Skating Championships, which was held in South Korea.

ノッティングヒルの恋人 [DVD] (2008/11/27) ジュリア・ロバーツヒュー・グラント 商品詳細を見る

I studied English with my friends. In our workshop, we usually read an article from several English newspapers, but today, after chatting in English as usual, we watched one of my favorite films, "Notting Hill." I thought watching a movie would be an interesting way to improve our listening comprehension skills.

'I'd better be going."
"Tempting, but, no (thank you)."
"I'm just looking around."
"I'm also just a girl, standing in front of a boy, asking him to love her."

I've learned so many English expressions from this movie.

While taking an English writing class today, I asked my teacher to help me understand a sentence from an English newspaper. Let me introduce you the sentence here.

"I hope to our life can return to normal."


I didn't understand why they put "to" after "hope." We say "I hope to see you again." or "I hope you like it," but in this case, shouldn't it have been "I hope (that) our life can return to normal."?


My teacher said, "No wonder you've been confused, because this sentence is not correct."


Oh my gosh, but this comes from an English newspaper!
Newspapers should be a role model for any writer, I suppose!


"That's why I've kept telling you! Teachers make mistakes, anybody makes mistakes, and do newspapers. I can tell you this. It'd be better to follow your instinct whenever you are in trouble."


Gee...

The Tales of Beedle the Bard (UK) Standard Edition (2008/12/04) J. K. Rowling 商品詳細を見る

I've been reading a new book written by the fabulous storyteller, J.K.Rowling. When I finished reading the final story entitled "Harry Potter and Deathly Hallows," I felt a bit lonesome thinking about my life having no expectation of any new Harry's adventure. Now, I'm so happy to be with a wonderful book to read!
This book is about some famous children's story in wizards' world, and one of them plays a quite principal role in Harry Potter series.

Listen to your heart
When he is calling for you
Listen to your heart
There is nothing else you can do

This is one of the songs that my friend introduced me before going back to his country. This song reminds me of the days we spent together.
I didn't know that Roxette sang a song for a movie entitled "Pretty Woman." No wonder her voice sounded a bit familiar to me. I highly recommend this CD to you.

A Collection of Roxette Hits: Their 20 Greatest Songs! (2006/09/07) Roxette 商品詳細を見る

Today's phrase ... 物持ちがいい(Monomochi ga Ii)

There is a Japanese expression, "物持ちがいい.(Monomochi ga Ii)"
It means "to cherish something for a long time."

I have my favorite boots that I bought around 15 years ago. They look perfectly good, and I can still wear them.
When I was a child, my mother would laugh and say "You really keep your things well so I don't need to buy new ones for you."
I can't say I am a neat person to care for the things I have, but I'd say I'm not into buying new things.

I had my hair cut today. I didn't have a plan to go to a beauty shop until noon, but I suddenly wanted to change my hairstyle. Actually, I rarely go to a beauty shop because I feel a bit uncomfortable chatting with beauticians. I just want to sit down reading some books while they are doing, but sometimes they speak to me and ask some trivial questions... Maybe, they kindly try to make me comfortable; however, it seems to work the other way around.