Friday, February 28, 2014

Elephants Hunting in Tanzania

I listened to an interview show on the BBC radio today. It was about ivory trade in Tanzania. The trade in ivory has been banned since 1989. But in Tanzania, 30 elephants are killed for ivory everyday. They send ivory to mainly China, Hong Kong.
Of course elephant hunting is not allowed in the country but the hunting is still happen. The number of elephants are decreasing. The government have patrol officers but don't work well because they ignor hunting for money. They get money instead of overlook the illegal hunters. 
Tanzanian goverment should strengthen the regulation for illegal hunting.

Thursday, February 27, 2014

Bitcoin Trade Stopped

A Bitcoin trade company said that they have stopped their exchange work. Apperently, their system was hacked and the huge amount of Bitcoins were disappeared. No government involves the virtual currency so the value of Bitcoin is not protected officially. 
I wonder if the system will collapse or regain credibility. We should watch it carefully. 

Wednesday, February 26, 2014

I Forgot To Remember

I listened to the Diane Rehm show this morning. Today's guest wrote a book titled "I Forgot To Remember". 
When she was 22, she completely lost her memory due to a brain accident. At that time, she was merried and had two children. She did not remember her husband nor her children. She even did not remember how to speak not how to use spoon. She had to build her life again. 
I couldn't imagine how hard she and her family were. It's really incredible story.

Tuesday, February 25, 2014

Car License

My son has got a car license after he failed the exam once. Technically it's not car license but he can only use moter bike.
And he just started to taking car driving course. He isn't a fast learner. I hope he gets the license without taking any extra lecture. Otherwise I have to pay extra money for that.

Monday, February 24, 2014

The First Song of Japanese Nightingales

The temperature was only 2 Celcious in this morning but I didn't feel a chill. It was a different type of cold air, maybe a spring one.
A friend of mine said on Facebook, he heard the first song of Japanese nightingales of this year. Spring is certainly coming around the corner.

Sunday, February 23, 2014

A Lecture for City Guide

I'm a new member of a volunteer tour guide for forein people in my city. I had a lecture in Matsue Castle tour today. Twenty people took part in the lecture. I learned how to explain the castle and how to answer questions.
Matsue Castle has its 400 years history. I don't think I can explain about the castle well but I'll try to do that as much as I can. I think I need to prepare for the guide more.
After the course, we went to a Japanese style cafe. We had matcha and Japanese sweets there. Senior members told us their experience about volunteer guide. I hope I could help many foreign tourists.

Saturday, February 22, 2014

Conflict in Ukraine

Many citizens have been killed due to the conflict between the goverment troops and protesters in Ukraine. I can see lots of bloody photos and videos on the net. 
The president and the goverment should ground their arms and talk with the protesters. Otherwise this conflict will make more numbers of miserable victims in Ukraine. Put the weapons on the ground first!

Friday, February 21, 2014

The Day of Takeshima

Tomorrow, we would have a noisy day because we call February 22nd as the Takeshima Day in Shimane and will hold a ceremony for the day. We celebrate the day every year. On that day many Japanese political groups come here and to protest against Korean gavernment to return the islands. 
I think this issue should be judged by the International Court.

Thursday, February 20, 2014

Electronic Money in Sri Lanka

Buddhist temples in Sri Lanka will introduce electronic money system devices because lack of coins in the country, according to a radio news in this morning.
People in Sri Lanka keep lots of coins in every family for donate to temples for their worship. And if they can melt the coins, they get more money from the melted coins. So the government has to produce more coins but they don't have much budget for that. That's why the government ask to Buddhist temples to accept electric money such as debit cards for donation.
But I don't think Sri Lankan use such electronic cards in temples. They would keep their Buddhist tradition.

Wednesday, February 19, 2014

I'm Flying in Dreams

I often have dreams that I'm flying. Sometime I flew 15 cm above the ground, sometime three meters height but not so high in the sky.
What does this kind of dreams mean? I've chocked some web site. The meaning of these dreams are like this, I might have some stresses and I'm trying to escape from them. That's right! Yes, I have so many things that I want to escape from! 

Tuesday, February 18, 2014

TIME X 2

I've subscribed TIME magazine but I didn't get the last week's issue. I thought I had to ask their office but two TIMEs arrived today. The last week's one and this week'a one came here at the same time. How come this happened?
I can't read the magazine cover to cover in a week. How can I read that much? The snow in Kanto area made this happen?

Monday, February 17, 2014

Figure Skating

Women's single figure skating in Sochi is coming soon. It would be the most momentous event in the Winter Olympics. I hope everyone perform well and Japanese skaters get medals, especially Mao-chan. 

Sunday, February 16, 2014

Kasai Got the Silver

41-year-old jumper Kasai finally got an individual silver medal in Sochi Olympics. It was his seventh Olympic Games. 
I really admire his effort t fighting against younger jampers at the highest level. He got several injuries but he over came the difficulties many times. 
I hope Japanese Nordic jumpers win another medal in the team competition in Sochi.

Saturday, February 15, 2014

Hanyu Won The Historic Medal

Yozuru Hanyu won the gold medal in men's figure skating for the first time ever in the Sochi Olympics. It was also the first time in eight years for Japanese athlete since Arakawa won the gold medal in women's figure skating in Torino. 
He performed so beautiful and got the high score even he made several mistakes. I was really happy that moment because single figure skating is the main event in the Winter Olympics like marathon in the summer games.

Friday, February 14, 2014

Children's Books

I've been reading TIME everyday. It's good for deveroping my English skills but I sometime feel tired of reading it because the articles in the magazine 
are hard to read.
When I feel tired or it I read children's books instead. I feel relax myself while reading that kind of books. 
Now, I'm reading Louis Sachar. He writes funny stories. I really like his books.

Thursday, February 13, 2014

After Affect of War

Many veterans in the U.S. are suffering from mental illness. About 20% of 2.5 million men and women who served in resent war have PTSD or other mental ills. But the treatment for them is useless like every six months for 30 minutes of consultation. That's obviously not enough. 

Wednesday, February 12, 2014

Many People Died for Soccer

Many workers have been killed at construction sites for the World Cup Soccer in Brazil and Qatar.
In Qatar, many of the workers killed and injured there are migrants. I think their working conditions are poor and severe. 
Why they have to held the event in the country which doesn't suite for playing soccer because of the hot weather. Even they doesn't have deep foot ball culture. For money?

Tuesday, February 11, 2014

TOEIC Skype Moshi

I took part in a TOEIC Skype Moshi, or trial exam, today. Thanks to Jun, it was the first moshi for me. Four people including me solved the Moshi at the same time. I don't think I could do that all alone. 
After taking the test we reviewed the moshi  together. I got a lot of advice on that. I think I would get a good score next time.

Monday, February 10, 2014

Cursive Letters

 I used to write in block letters in English but I'm writing in cursive style now. My handwriting isn't good enough but even so cursive letters look beautiful. 
I'll try to write in more beautiful cursive letters. 

Sunday, February 9, 2014

Tokyo Governor Election

Masuzoe become the governor of Tokyo today while only 34% of voters went to vote. It was quite heavy snow there but more people should vote for the election.
I don't really like Masuzoe but I hope he works well for Tokyo Olympics.

Saturday, February 8, 2014

Heavy Snow Hits Tokyo

It was snowing heavily in Tokyo today. The train lines and traffic are confusing all day long. The snow reached over 20 centimeters there.
Many people were injured but children looked happy in the news show. They made snow man and fighting each other with snow balls. It must be good memories for kids.

Friday, February 7, 2014

Japanese Beethoven Admits His Flam

Mamoru Samuragochi, a Japanese deaf composer, has admitted that he didn't write his music and instead he hired a ghost composer for 18 years.
Many people including NHK and other media were not able to read his lying. His ghost writer said he even has hearing ability and cannot write music scores at all.
The big point of this issue is I think whether his works are good enough to play and listen to. I want to know how critcs who has approved his works before would make a comment about his pieces after reveal the fact.

Thursday, February 6, 2014

To Stop Selling Cigarettes

According to the BBC radio this morning, CVS Caremark, one of the largest pharmacy chains in the US, will stop selling cigarettes and other tobacco products. 
The shops will reduce their profit but they said it's the right thing to do. It seems strange they sell health care products but on the other hand they sell health destroy products now.
The BBC said about 18% of Americans are current cigarette smokers today. This policy will influence other stores and will cut down the number of smokers in the U.S.

Wednesday, February 5, 2014

The Winter Olympic Games

Putin's Olympics held in a summer resort are coming soon. According to the BBC radio, the construction costs are much higher than previous ones because of piles of kick backs. To make things worse, some of the workers there from all over Russia and even from other countries could not get proper wages. 
At the end, could they say it's a successful event?

Tuesday, February 4, 2014

Atsukan

The cold weather is getting back. It was warm a few days ago. On a day like this I'd like to have at sultan, hot sake, with oden. Oden is a kind of Japanese stew.
Fortunately, today's dinner is oden. Sorry, I'll give up to studying English tonight and drink atsukan. It'll be great! See you!

Monday, February 3, 2014

Dreams

I had dreams twice in this morning. The same two dreams appeared in my head. My black briefcase went missing when I was about to go out for somewhere.  I wasn't sure but something important things inside it. I was upset and looking for the briefcase desperately. After I had the dream I got up once before the alarm clock went out and slept again and had the same dream. What's the signal?

Sunday, February 2, 2014

A New Suit

I went to a clothing store with my family to tailor a suit for my son. He selected deep blue color. The suit we ordered wasn't much expensive one but I wanted to buy a tailored suit for his first one. I hope the suit would suit him well.

Saturday, February 1, 2014

Pronunciation

I took an online English lesson tonight. It was nice but the teacher said I had to pronounce more clearly. I knew one of the reasons. When I read or speak English sentences without confidence I tend to speak too fast. I should speak English more clearly with confidence.