Driving with My Son

I went to Izumo public health department to submit some documents the other day. I was off that day so I took my younger son to Izumo. There is a nice drive along Lake Shinji between Matsue and Izumo. I thought the 40 kilometer drive would have attracted my son but while I was driving he was asleep in the car.
It took thirty minutes to hand out the documents there and my assignment was over; then we went to Yume Town, a large new shopping mall, to have lunch.
After lunch, we went to the Izumo Dome, a domed stadium. We were able to tour the dome freely. My son likes baseball so he was excited when he stepped onto the baseball ground in the dome. No one was there but us, so he could run from the batter's box to first base or could pretend he was a pitcher on the pitching mound. We took some pictures in the dome.
On our way home, my son was asleep again and he missed out on watching a beautiful view of the lake.

The Second Day of a Family Camping

It was fine on the second day of our family camping this summer.
My two sons got up early to find beetles in the woods but they did not find a lot of them.
My wife and I made breakfast; bacon, fried eggs, salad, miso soup and rice. I think having meals outdoors is the most delightful thing with camping. I love doing that very much.
After breakfast, my sons went swimming and played in the river which was across from the campsite. I fell asleep and I took a nap for a while.
Then we checked out of the campsite and had lunch at a restaurant in Kakeya and then we went to Yakumo Wind Cave where a very cool wind blew up from underground. We went down into the cave. The temperature was over thirty degrees Celsius outside that day but in the cave it was ten degrees celsius. I was almost frozen! The cave used to be used as a natural refrigerator for storing some agricultural crops in the summer for neighbors.
After that we went to a hot spa and bathed there then had dinner.
We enjoyed the two days of camping. I hope we will go camping in the winter next time. I think the idea of camping in the snow is really great.

The First Day of a Family Camping

Our family has just returned from camping. We went camping at Ogidani Campsite.
We went there for five years in a row.
It was the first time that we used a rented log bungalow; we used to use our own tent before. That was more comfortable using a log bungalow than I expected. The interior was wide and cool and my two sons loved the loft-style bed.
The weather was fine through the days we were camping and the air was cool.
I enjoyed playing tennis and volleyball with my older son there and I lost a tennis match 4-2 with him because he had learned to play tennis two years ago.
My younger son swam in the river which was across from the campsite. The water of the river was clear and crisp. He caught six rainbow trout in the river when the children's fish catching event was held there and we ate the fish at a barbecue. He even caught some dragonflies, beetles and cicadas. He looked very happy.
Before we had our barbecue, we took a bath in a Rotenburo, a Japanese style outdoor public hot spa. I think it is a luxury to take a bath outdoors when it is light.
We took a walk under a starry sky at night and we could see the Wain very clearly and big in the north. Then we played Uno, a kind of card game, until we went to sleep.

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Family Camping

My family, my wife, two sons and I, go camping every summer. Before my sons were born, my wife and I went camping alone together.
We are going to go camping in Ogidani Camp Site, Hiroshima Prefecture next week and we are all looking forward to doing that very much.
Ogidani is our favorite camp site because it has a river, a mountain, woods and open fields. We can swim and catch fish in the river, we can hike in the mountain and the view from the top is amazing. We can find beetles in the woods and we can play baseball or other ballgames in the fields.
My older son would be eager to play volleyball because he began to play that this April. My younger son is studying where he can find beetles in the woods. My wife is looking forward to having a barbecue. I will be happy when they feel joyful in the camp.
The camp will be only two days because of my job but I wish we could go camping for at least one week.
The whether forecast said it will be fine there on the days we are there so it is quite certain that we will have a good time at the camp.

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Fishermen Stopped Operations

About 200,000 fishing boats stopped operations to protest rising oil prices on July 15th. The fuel cost for fishing boats has tripled in price over the past five years so the fishermen are facing a difficult situation.
A friend of mine is a fisherman who owns some fishing boats and he has some problems in his business now.
Firstly, of course, he is in a struggle with the high-price of fuel. He mainly fishes squid so he uses a lot of oil because squid fishing needs giant lights and the electricity for the lights is produced by oil-powered engines; squid have a habit of gathering around lights in the night.
Secondly, he is facing a lower price of seafood. Japanese people used to eat seafood very often but now we don't eat it like we used to do so the price of seafood hasn't gone up any more.
I think the primary industries, agriculture or fisheries, are most important for a nation and that means the primary industries should be protected by the government or the citizens of the nation.
I hope the government will help these people immediately and ever after.

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To Point Out Mistakes

I am practicing writing essays in English to improve my English skills now. I have corrected my essays corrected by my teacher even though the essays do not make sense. Thanks to my teacher! I will acquire more English skills by doing that.
A Japanese professor, Goro Tajiri, who has been featured as a charismatic teacher in the world of Newsweek and is a former public junior high school teacher, explained his idea of leaning English in a Japanese monthly magazine ,AERA English; The most important tip for learning English is to have mistakes in your English pointed out by native speakers if you can manage it. I completely agree with this and the development of information technology makes it easier than before.
I also use IT to correct my English essays. I am really thankful to the Internet.
When my essays have been corrected, the mistakes which I made will improve my English. The mistakes make a big impression on me and I won’t forget about them. However, I make the same mistakes so often but I believe I am getting better by doing it!

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Water Shortage

We have hot days like a real summer these days here. I have never seen any rain drops in a week. I think it seems like the rainy season has finished here in Matsue, Shimane Prefecture, but the Met Office have not declared that the rainy season has gone.

Recently, the authorities would announce it a few days after it was over. If the rainy season was be over now, I would be worried about the water shortage here. Our city, Matsue, often has a crisis because we do not have big rivers or dams in our city. Of course, we have a large lake called Lake Shinji, which is the seventh largest lake in Japan, but it can't be used for drinking because the water of the lake is brackish.

I hope someone will invent some equipment to make real water from salty water or brackish water and if it could be done any water crisis in the world would be solved.

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An Old Friend and Table Tennis

I went to a karaoke bar with my colleagues and met one of my old friends there. I think I met him for the first time in ten years. He works at the karaoke bar which is owned by his family. He is five years younger than me and we belonged to a table tennis team at the same high school. Of course we were not on the team at the same time but even after I graduated from the school, I often visited there and played with him and other members.

We talked about table tennis and our old teammates. He said that he is playing table tennis now and he sometimes takes part in some local tournaments with our old team members. On the other hand, I finished playing table tennis ten years ago because I was tired of playing table tennis for such a long time; I played for twenty-three years!

To tell the truth, I felt a little bit fed up with it then but while I talked with my old friend I surprisingly thought I would like to play table tennis once again with my old team members.

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A Birth of a Swallowtail Butterfly

My younger son keeps many kinds of insects. He even keeps caterpillars and one of them changed to a swallowtail butterfly this morning. The butterfly was beautiful in yellow and black. My son looked forward to watching the birth of a butterfly from a pupa but he missed out on the chance to watch that because the birth happened so early in the morning. He despaired at that and I felt for him. When a caterpillar becomes a pupa next time, he will get up early.

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The Dynamic Tower

I was surprised at the news of Dubai's new skyscraper, The Dynamic Tower. I cannot believe that  each floor of the building can rotate independently from the other and besides that the building will be 420 meters high. Each floor spins 360 degrees which would mean the building is supported by only a column. If an earthquake broke out there, would the rotating tower be safe enough? Of course, the design must be safe but I would not want to live in the new skyscraper if I had enough money to live there.

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Don't spoil children

I was in a restaurant today and I could see a boy and his mother having lunch there. The boy was about four years old and he ate some special meal for kids. The dish had two pieces of jelly on it and he accidentally dropped one of the jellies on the floor. He told his mother that he wanted to get a new one because it was ruined.
I thought his mother would say to him,
"Honey, you cannot get a new one because it was your fault. Be careful how you handle your things next time, OK?"
But hey, she unexpectedly said to the waitress,
"Will you fetch another jelly for him? He dropped it. He prefers a grape tasting one. Give him one of those"
I could not believe I was hearing that. I think she missed an opportunity to teach her son to be well-behaved.
I believe people should learn social rules or common sense at a young age. It might be too late to learn that when they grow up and of course adults, especially their parents, must have the responsibility to teach them about that.

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Racer Bike

My nine-year-old mountain bike has broken.It is blue and I ride the bike for work.I love the twelve-time-get-flat-tire bike.

Its rear gear or latch,I did not know exactly which,was not working when I was on my way home. Since then even if I pedaled my bike hard, it did not move any more.

The next day I took my bike to a bike shop to fix it. The shop worker said I needed about 10,000yen to get it repaired. Then he showed me a new racer bike. It had narrow wheels and it looked like a Tour de France bike. He said I could try to ride it and I rode it.It was an exciting ride. Smooth, fast and fun. He said only 10,000yen would pay for the racer for a month and I could get it. How many months? Four? Five? He said, fifteen, no interest.

Good-bye my racer. From tomorrow, I will ride the nine-year-old mountain bike again. We will live long together!

Tuesdays with Morrie

I read a weekly English newspaper, Syukan ST published by Japan Times, and I found an interesting column this week. What I was hooked on was about the father of the columnist; he was Professor Morrie Schwartz.
I was very surprised at this fact because I have known the name of Morrie for a long time. Morrie became famous after his death because his old student, Mitch Albom, wrote a book about him called Tuesdays With Morrie: An Old Man, a Young Man, and Life's Greatest Lesson . The book jumped to the top of the best-seller list, then the story was made into a TV movie and won an Emmy. I have watched the movie on DVD two times and read the original book in English. I was struck by the story. The book was about Morrie who developed ALS, and his favorite student Mitch. Morrie did not hide his weakness and Mitch did not shut his eyes to the truth. They were not only a teacher and a student but also friends to each other until they had to be apart due to Morrie's death.
I realize from the story that people should be honest and involved with each other, despite facing  tragedy. I hope I would do the same as them.
Morrie's son, a columnist of the newspaper, said that is wonderful but also strange because the people who know his father's story do not really know his father. But he also said the more people his words have helped the more he rejoices in it.

Tuesday's With Morrie 販売元：Walt Disney Video 発売日：2003/07/01 Amazon.co.jpで詳細を確認する

Milk

One of my sons, a freshman at a junior high school, belongs to a volleyball team in his school. He practices volleyball for six days in a week and he enjoys it a lot. I am very happy to see his joy.

I don't know much about volleyball but one thing is obvious; tall players are more advantageous for the sport. Unfortunately, he is not very tall now.

Recently, someone told him that the more people drink milk, the taller they will be and he drinks milk as much as he can; at breakfast, lunch and before sleep at night. I think he will be taller soon and I hope he won't get any stomach troubles due to drinking too much milk.

The Magic Hour

My wife and I watched a Japanese comedy movie called The Magic Hour on July 1st. We needed only 1,000yen for each ticket because the theater had Movie Day on that day; we usually have to pay 1,800yen for each one.
When we arrived at the theater, the ticket counter had long lines of women. I thought we would miss out on seats but I was wrong. The long lines were for another Japanese film, Hana Yori Dango, which was based on a TV show that was popular with various ages of Japanese women.
My wife likes the director of the movie, Koki Mitani, so she was looking forward to watching the film for a long time.
While the movie was playing, the theater was filled with laughing voices and we highly enjoyed watching it. I couldn't stop laughing with tears in my eyes many times.
The movie reminded me of an American movie, The Sting, which is my most favorite movie I have ever watched. The Sting was set in old Chicago and The Magic Hour was in Sucago, which looked like a 50's American town. I think it is obvious that the locale of the Japanese movie would refer to old Chicago.
Anyway, I would grade the movie as four stars out of five and I really recommend watching the comedy.

Karate

I have belonged to a karate organization since 2000 but I was not able to practice in the dojo, which means the place of practice, for three years because I have been busy at work. I sometimes do karate practice all alone in my house at night so I cannot shout out loud and I feel stressed out.Usually, we practice karate in the dojo with loud shouts but I miss doing that now.

My Top Five of Agatha Christie

Agatha Christie is a famous mystery writer. I used to be hooked on her books when I was in my teenage years. Of course these books which I read were translated into Japanese. I have read all of her mystery books including some play scripts and I even read many of these books twice or more over. I would make my own ranking of Christie's mystery books several times only for fun. Now I will rank her books again. This is today's top five of Christie.

Rank 1.  Towards Zero (St. Martin's Minotaur Mysteries)
Rank 2.  The Murder of Roger Ackroyd (Hercule Poirot Mystery)
Rank 3.  A Murder Is Announced (Miss Marple Mysteries)
Rank 4.  The Thirteen Problems (Miss Marple Mysteries)
Rank 5.  And Then There Were None (The Christie Collection)

While reading her stories, I would dream of traveling in the UK, especially in the countryside. My favorite detectives of Christie are Mr.Battle and Miss Marple. I believe Miss Marple is a real English lady and I think she represents Agatha Christie. As a matter of fact, I don't really like Mr. Poirot because he has too much confidence. A few years ago, I tried to read her original book several times but it was too hard to read for me then. I wish I could read the whole of her books in English if I get more English reading skills.

My Pension Plan

I went to the social insurance office for correcting my pension plan data today because  my data was incorrect.

The mail I got from the Social Insurance Agency said I paid the payments of the pension for only twelve years but I paid for twenty-two years. My ten years date had disappeared from the date!

When I arrived at the office it was jammed with people who needed to correct their pension date there. Millions of Japanese have gotten this type of pension problem. I needed one and a half hours to wait and correct it.

I hope the government and the agent will never cause the same pension problem again.

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Message on T-shirt

I can see many Japanese people wearing T-shirts which have English words or phrases on them. I did not care much about what words or phrases were on them, but since I have begun to be hooked on studying English I often focuse on them.

A few days ago,on a hot afternoon, I saw a couple walking ahead of me. Both of them wore T-shirt. The man's back said ANTIAGING and the woman's back said VICTIM. Were they antiaging victims?

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