Hairspray

I watched an American musical movie called Hairspray last year. It was the first time I had ever watched a musical movie.

Before I watched the movie, I did not expect any musical would be fun but I really enjoyed it.

The story was about a chubby teenager, Tracy and her friends in 1962 in Baltimore. The city was beautiful on the screen. I was involved with the musical from the opening scene in which Tracy was singing and hopping around in Baltimore with joy. She had the great power of making people feel positive and I also felt the same power from her.

In the film we could see many people using hairspray in their hair as the signature of the movie. That reminds me of my mother. I was familiar with the smell of her hairsprays when I was little. It was probably in the late 60s when my mother would spray it in her hair before going out for something special. I did not like the smell then but now I sometimes remember it with nostalgia.

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Sunfloewr

I saw some sunflowers blooming in my neighbor's yard. I realized that when I rode my bike for work this morning. I do not know why I did not notice until today, though I pass the side of the yard every day.
The flowers are small, the height is about 30 centimeter, but the color of yellow is bright and beautiful in the yard. Probably, the small sunflowers might be displayed in a vase in my neighbor's living room or hallway in a few days time. I also think it is quite early for sunflowers to bloom. It is still in the rainy season now and the sky has not been clear in recent days.
In my childhood, sunflowers meant tall flowers and they symbolized very hot summer sunshine. When I was in elementary school, we were raising sunflowers in the school yard. We had to go to school several times to water them during the summer vacation. We would hate doing that because no one liked to go to school in the summer vacation. To tell the truth, I skipped doing that in secret. Forgive me. That is all history now!

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Curry Plant

My co-worker is raising a curry plant in a small pot at our work place. The curry plant is a herb which is used for cooking and it has a strong smell of curry.

I heard only a leaf of the herb will make any curry tasting food. Normaly, curry powder is made up of twenty or more kinds of spices and herbs. Isn't it amazing?

I am looking forward to smelling and tasting the curry plant when it grows up.

Where are The DVDs?

A series of Japanese comedy movies, Otoko wa turaiyo, It's tough being a man, is one of the most popular movies in Japan. I love the movies very much too. In fact I have watched all of the stories, amazingly the forty-eight films is a Guinness book record, on DVDs. It took a year to watch the whole of the DVDs and it cost about 15,000yen for rent. I would dream of having the DVD set.

A few months ago I found the complete DVD set at a used DVD shop. I needed to pay120,000yen for a new one. At that time I could see 68,000yen on the price card and I realized it used to say 80,000yen initially. I was eager to buy them but they were too expensive for me. I thought no one would buy them because of such a high price so they would cut down the price soon.

I decided to wait to buy them. I waited for two weeks. They were still there. Another two weeks, oh, they were gone! I shoud have bought them immediately!

Ladybirds

My eight- year- old son is very interested in insects. He likes many kinds of insects; ants,butterflies, crickets, dragonflies and so on. I think he likes praying mantises the best because they are strong.

Now finding ladybirds turns him on because he is taking part in a survey which is conducted by Shimane Prefectural Museum. When he find any ladybird, he notes the date, the place, the size and the pattern. He will send all of the data to the museum in September and he will get some special goods for help doing the survey.

A few days ago he found twenty-five ladybirds. How many ladybirds will he be able to find at the end?

Fireflies

Fireflies have come to a small river which is in my neighborhood again this year. The number of fireflies is not large so few people know they can be seen there. Only my two sons and I were watching them tonight. We were fascinated by the pale glows for a long time and we had a rich time alone together tonight.

Many Japanese are looking forward to watching the glow of fireflies as their annual event even if they have to go far away to watch them. In contrast, we are quite a lucky family because we have the spot for doing that in our neighborhood. I hope we can watch the beautiful glows here forever.