Present again!

Another cute rabbit came to my room. My animal in a glass case~

It snowed a lot!!!

I'm not sure if I'm really in Kyushu island...

operator

Today something exciting happened!

When I answered a phone call in the office, a guy asked "Can I talk to Mr. XX?" in Japanese with a slight accent. I answered that Mr. XX was at the meeting and then he asked "Is Mr. YY there?" again in Japanese. I said he was on a business trip in Japanese but he didn't seem to understand it so I asked him if he speaks English. Since he said yes, I said the two people he wanted to talk to were out, and that Mr. XX would be available in three hours in English. He praised my English and even asked my name. It turned out that he was one of the business partners of our company and was calling from Canada. My coworkers heard me speaking English for the first time, and they said they were impressed, too. I felt fluttered....

I felt comfortable when talking with a stranger on a phone in English, to my surprise. Two years ago when I picked up a call from an English-speaking guy, I was able to talk with him but I was nervous and intimidated, not normal. I saw some improvement in myself and was happy about that!

Cool Japan

A TV program "Cool Japan" is really cool! There are around 10 foreign people of different nationalities talking about a specific topic about Japan and giving their own ways of thinking.

Today's theme was "Household budgets". A research found that it is the wife who takes care of household budgets and she gives her husband monthly allowance in 60% of families interviewed. The non-Japanese people were surprised to know that the husbands give all of their income and have it under their wive's control. It was impressive that one Italian guy said "Receiving allowance is humiliating for Italian men" and a French lady "It's like you are treating your husband like a kid". That's understandable. On the other hand, there are approvals like "It's an effective way of saving money".

But when a husband wants to buy something expensive, how do they get that? Many answered that they would "ask their financial minister". It seems that Japanese men do not buy many things compared to those in other countries. Observing my colleagues, I also noticed that male workers are not particular about clothes, watches or shoes. They buy houses or big cars for his family but not so much for themselves. The only thing they spend a lot on is parties and drinks, though.

That is why it is said that ladies tend to be the target of marketing. They are the ones who control the money and purchase more things than men. Personally, I want to have the separate bank accounts as well as a joint account for daily expenses such as food and lifeline. With your own account you can save as much as you want and buy whatever you want. But we don't know what happens in the future so what we need is pliability.

And also, a housewife was featured in that program, who does manual hand-crafting work at home. She folds a paper and put it in a plastic envelop to seal, which will be distributed as a paper toy for kids. She earns 1.5 yen per each toy, and she completes 2000 per day while her son is in kindergarten. She has to do housework and take care of her children as well as that work. The reporter pointed that there is no facilities to nanny your kids when they are sick and so many women have to quit her job after giving birth. The support is not enough especially in big cities, where young couples live far away from their parents.

A Singaporean lady said that "There are many choices in Singapore. You can hire a made to help take care of your kids and you can also rely on the child care center". And American guy "If you attend a meeting when your kid is sick, your colleague will frown on you". He would be further surprised to know Japanese workers are very hesitant to take paid leave to take care of their sick children. They think that work is something public that must not be interrupted by your personal matters. So the women are feel pressured and think that they shouldn't cause their colleagues any trouble. That is what maintains the Japanese diligence and productivity, but there are sacrifices behind the success.

Very interesting to know different perspectives of foreign people with different cultural backgrounds. It tells me that the world is so huge and there are many many things out there that I have never seen or experienced firsthand.

Chilblain

It's terribly cold for the past few weeks! The windshield of my car is frozen every day; hot water is a must have when you go out in the morning. The forecast says we will have snowstorm tomorrow and day after tomorrow with the lowest temperature -3C. The road is going to be icy and highways are likely to be closed. hmm... I have nowhere to go...

I suffer from chilblain on my toes at this time of a year because of the poor blood circulation. It's painful when it's cold, and gets very itchy when I enter an air-conditioned room. Scratching is difficult because of socks... It doesn't allow me to concentrate on my work. (good alibi?) I use antipruritic cream but I know it will stay until the spring comes.

Humidifier

Newly bought. It's like an electric kettle with a jet, so is very easy to clean! I already broke two old humidifiers due to the accumulated scaly deposits, which need to be removed by adding some acid and scrubbing the tank. hope this one will last long..

Homemade apple pie

My mother is really a good cook!

Beefsteak

Cooked a beefsteak for the first time! I used some garlic, butter, olive oil and brandy. "Well done"!

Speech Script

Just found the script of my speech when I attended an English speech contest when I was in junior high school. I'll keep it here just for the sake of record...

--What a lot of wasted food!

One day at a morning assembly, our principal said, "Well, boys and girls, do you know how much food our school leaves after a school lunch? The amount of three classes' food is thrown away after lunch time every day. And most of the leftovers are burnt as garbage. I want all of you to think about it."

What a lot of food! Of course I've known this serious fact. When I was a member of the student council, I often saw a lot of uneaten bread, rice, meat, vegetables, fruits and so on. The heavy carrying cases of lunch were brought back to storage from classrooms after lunch. Today I want to think about food in my school.

My grandparents live in the countryside and grow vegetables there. Every August I visit to see them and help them to reap the vegetable. One summer day I was in a green house to reap green peppers. The shining Sun, no wind, busy noise of a lot of cicadas. Can you imagine how hot it is in a green house? It was a terribly hot summer day! Sometimes standing, sometimes lying on the ground, my grandparents and I cut green peppers off the tree one by one with scissors and picked them up from the ground. Then we shifted to the next tree. We continued this work from early morning to late in the evening. I was very hot and very tired. I even suffered from a serious backache. Everyday my grandparents have to do this kind of hard work during the summer season. I guess this is very hard for old people like them.

Then I noticed farmers do such hard work to supply us rice or vegetables. My grandparents take a lot of care growing them. They are trying not to use agricultural chemicals in order to provide the consumers safe and nutritious vegetables even if it makes their work much harder. All of us should appreciate their efforts. Through this experience I realized that "Thanks to many people's efforts, we are able to eat and taste various kinds of foods. Not only the farmers or fisherman's effort, but also the people who work at the market, the people who transport the products, and the people who cook them."

Now let's go back to our school lunch again. Most of us students don't consider many people's efforts when we leave food at lunch, saying, "I don't like this", "It isn't tasty", "It smells bad" or something. We should stop such wasting as soon as possible.

It seems to me that we waste quite a lot of food in our daily life in Japan. On the other hand, many many people are dying or suffering from hunger in some countries. It is not natural to be filled with enough various food around us. We should be thankful for foods and for the people who supply them. Let's start something right now not to waste food in our daily life.

So what am I trying to do? Well, for example, my family tries to use a whole green pepper for a dish without wasting any parts of it. We always remember my grandparents' hard work. We also do not buy vegetables more than we can eat because we have let vegetables go bad in the refrigerator many times. Aren't there any uneaten old food in your refrigerators?

--Thank you.

It really takes me back and I was impressed by this amazing script written by my English teacher back then. Memorizing and practicing pronunciation were very hard for me especially because I had studied English just for two years at that time. Still, it was a great opportunity to improve my English and keep motivated.

New Year's Day

Kind of the usual new year's day... Visited my grandparents' house then on the way back picked up my other grandmother to stay with us tonight.

It was snowing last night and really freezing! but it's warmer today. Still nowhere to go and a bit bored...

I was thinking about the new year's resolution lately. The most of last year's came true so it's meaningful to set them at the start of the year. I'm going to read more, both English and Japanese, and travel abroad. Also, I will polish my manners and try to respond someone's kindness as soon as possible.

May everyone's 2011 be filled with improvement and happiness..