Saturday, October 31, 2015

New TOEIC

According to some SNS sources, the form of TOEIC will be changed in May, 2016. I'm not quite sure the details, but if my skills would be the same, my score would be the same as well. Am I wrong?
ETS, the examiner, may not reveal the specific details before the change. I think it's unfair for TOEIC examinees. Some people depend upon the test for their success or proportion. ETS should release new version of TOEIC as soon as possible. Anyway, I would like to take the test in January and May next year. 
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Friday, October 30, 2015

One Child Policy to End

China's one child policy will end because of growing elderly population. The government will allow two children for a couple. 
The one child policy started in the late 70s for suppressing growing population. Due to the policy, their working age population, aged 15 to 59, could fall by around 7% from 2010 to 2030. Even after changing the policy, the working population would not increase any time soon. 
I don't want to live in a totalitarian country like China. The people there can not live what they want. 
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Thursday, October 29, 2015

A Bitter Gold

The world gymnastics championships have been held in the UK and Japan got the men's team title for the first time in 37 years. The Olympic all-around champion Uchimura really wanted to get the title. He fell off the horizontal bar, so he looked a little bit disappointed in his own performance. 
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Wednesday, October 28, 2015

US Destroyer Cruises Disputed Water

U.S. military sent a guided missile destroyer into disputed area, the South China Sea. This would be a President Obama's warning to China. Chinese government has been building military facilities on the landfill reefs where only China claims as their own territories. 
The Obama's decision was too late to suppress Chinese desire for expanding their territories for the water. I can't understand his slow action for the controversial Chinese activities of the South China Sea. Vietnam and other nations were trying to prevent the China's behavior, but the president didn't do anything for it. 
It's important to put pressure on China over territorial matters. Otherwise, they will continue to expand their territories by the power. 
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Tuesday, October 27, 2015

Sabu-chan Triumphs in Kikuka Sho

The G1 Kikuka Sho (Japanese St. Leger), the final Classic in the Japanese horse racing season held in Kyoto on Saturday and Kitasan Black won the race. 
The owner of the horse is super famous Japanese enka singer Kitajima Sabro. The name Kitasan comes from his stage name. Kitasan Black became Kitajima's first G-1 horse. He expressed his joy with singing his song, Matsuri. 
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Monday, October 26, 2015

China's New Political Rules

Chinese Communist Party has made strict rules for their members. For example, the party has banned extravagant eating and drinking, engaging in improper sexual relationships with others and playing golf. The new rules are everywhere in their activities. 
I don't think they can obey every rules because theses are against natural human desires. More over, Chinese political members have huge power to do so, and it's hard to resist them. 
The rules may work for excluding political enemies of President Xi and his allies. 
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Sunday, October 25, 2015

Nippon Series

NPB Nippon Series has been held at Fukuoka Dome. Today is the second of the series and The SoftBank Hawks won over Tokyo Yakult Swallows two games in a row. 
Swallows have great hitters, but they could not perform well in this series. They might be examined by Hawks intelligence team. On the other hand, Hawks looked aggressive for getting scores and did it well. 
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Saturday, October 24, 2015

Grand Prix Figure

I watched several skating at the Grand Prix Figure Skating on TV. It's been held in the U.S. 
I happened to watch Evgenia Medvedeva of Russia at first and she was really nice, so I continued to watch the TV program. The last skater was Satoko Miyahara. She was a 17-year-old Japanes and the second place of the world championship last season. She marked the third place at short program. 
After the skating, she had an interview and said that she was a little bit nervous, so she wasn't able to perform well like at practice. 
I hope she will be able to do her best tomorrow and gets the title. 
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Friday, October 23, 2015

The UK and China

British PM David Cameron and Chinese President Xi Jinping held a press conference in London. 
Both leaders expressed a strong relationship with the two nations. After their statements, they let one question for each country's media. The BBC reporter bravely asked a question. 

"Prime Minister, if you were a steelworker who had lost their job yesterday, at the same time as seeing President Xi being ferried down Whitehall in a golden carriage, how would you have felt? Is there any price that’s worth paying in order to further our business interests with China? 

And President Xi, why do you think members of the British public should be pleased to do more business with a country that is not democratic, is not transparent, and has a deeply, deeply troubling attitude towards human rights?" 

The two leaders' answers were, in short, money first. 

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Thursday, October 22, 2015

Baseball Amateur Draft

Nippon Professional Baseball held 2015 amateur draft today. Over a hundred players will enter the professional  baseball world. 
I hope everyone will perform well in the world and make fans excited. 
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Wednesday, October 21, 2015

President Xi's Visit to Britain

The UK has super welcomed Chinese President Xi Jingping while some people protested against China's oppression on Tibet. Britain seems to want Chinese investment to the country. 
China is about to build a nuclear plant in the UK. How come Britain wants to make a deep relationship with China? Is the economy in the UK so weak that they have to depend on China's money? 
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Tuesday, October 20, 2015

Cricket

Football or soccer is the most popular sport in the world. What is the second popular one? Baseball? Rugby? No, it's cricket. Cricket is the second-most popular sport in the world. 
Cricket began in England, so it is popular in the former British Commonwealth. Top players can gain fame and money. Some of them in India and Pakistan have developed political careers. 
I didn't know much about cricket and its popularity. Even TIME magazine called an Indian popular player Tendulkar "The God of Cricket,” and said he was “the world’s most famous sportsman” and “the world’s best athlete.” 
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Monday, October 19, 2015

A Closed Market

A fishing market has just closed in my city and we have only one market here now. At first, the closed fishing market was the second largest fishing maker in Shimane prefecture. There have been lots of fishing boats, thousands of fishermen and buyers around the market many years ago, but fishing resources have been decreasing in recent several decades. As a result, many fishing companies have stopped operating. 
There are still some fishing boats which use the port next to the market. They have to bring the fish they catch to another market by truck. Old residents in the town might miss the lively old market.
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Sunday, October 18, 2015

Analyzing the Photos of Nanjing Massacre

I bought a book about an analyzing the photographic evidence of Nanjing Massacre. The researchers studied 143 pictures used for evidence of the Nanjing Massacre, but every single one were not proper for the evidence. 
The authors traced the origin of the pictures. Some photos were taken in other places like Shanghai. Some pictures were made up of two or three materials. 
Of course, showing the proof of improper photograph evidence is not simply a denial of the massacre, but how could anyone kill 300,000 people in a city that held only 200,000 citizens?
The Chinese leader Chiang Kai-shek, who had escaped from Nanking just before the attack by the Japanese military. He never mentioned the incident to the Chinese people until the end of the war. 
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Saturday, October 17, 2015

Swallows Advance to Nippon Series

Tokyo Yakult Swallows beat Giants at Climax Series. I'm glad to hear the news, but I'm not a fan of Swallows. I'm just a super anti Giants. I wanted Carp to go to the final, so I'm a little bit sad. 
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Friday, October 16, 2015

Mansion and Apartment

In Japanese language, we often hear a mantion which someone lives in. In that case, English speakers would think of a huge house like it has 10 rooms with a swimming pool in the backyard. So, we should call it an apartment instead of mantion. 
We usually think an apartment as small one, but in English, apartments come in all sizes and prices. Some apartments can cost thousands of dollars a month to rent. This kinds of misunderstanding are everywhere between English and Japanese.  That makes learning languages more interesting.  
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Thursday, October 15, 2015

Diet

The word "diet" can be used as a noun and a verb. When you use "diet" as a verb, it means controlling the amount of food you eat to lose weight. 
"Diet" as a noun has two meanings. One of the meaning is the same as the meaning of verb. "I'm dieting", "I'm on a diet" are good examples. 
Another meaning of "diet" is the usual food and drink of a person or an animal. For example, Japanese diet means common Japanese foods.  
Well, I should go on a diet. 
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Wednesday, October 14, 2015

The Brave Blossoms

Japan won over the United States at the 2015 Rugby World Cup in England. It was the first time that Japan won three out of four matches in the first pool, but Japan couldn't advance to the quarterfinals. 
They return to Japan with historical three victories. Many rugby fans welcomed the Brave Blossoms at the air port. It looked rugby became more popular than befor the World Cup. 
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Tuesday, October 13, 2015

Subscribing TIME

I'm thinking about renewing my subscription of TIME magazine, even though I'm not a good TIME reader. In fact, I've been subscribing the magazine more than two years, but I don't read an issue cover to cover. 
It's hard to read the magazine within a week for me, but it's worth to do it for an English learner, so I'll continue to subscribe it again. 
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Monday, October 12, 2015

Try to Eiken

My younger son took Eiken, an English test in Japan, yesterday.  Many Twitter friends also took the test and reported their impression of the test. I once took the test in January this year and I was exhausted to take English tests since then. 
I have to study English hard if I take Eiken, but I'm not in the mode now, anyway. I think I should wait for my enthusiasm and until then, I should read, listen, speak and write English as much as I can. But would the time come to me? 
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Sunday, October 11, 2015

Withdrawing from the World Cup

I listened to a BBC radio news this morning. That said Japan could not advance to the quarter finals of the Rugby World Cup even though Japan didn't play today. Scotland beat Samoa and that made South Africa and Scotland have succeeded the next stage in the group. 
I was surprised that BBC didn't said Scotland's victory over Samoa, but Japan's withdrawing from the event. That means Japan's victory over South Africa made a huge impact to the rugby world.
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Saturday, October 10, 2015

Nanjing Massacre?

UNESCO will list Chinese documents on the "Nanjing Massacre" to the Memory of the World heritage". Off course Japanese government has been against the nomination because the so called Naning Massacre was a totally fiction story. No one can believe that about 300,000 people in the city were killed in a short period of the time and there have been no clue for the incident.  More over, it first appeared at Tokyo Trials and before the trials, no one insisted on the incident.  
There are many studies for the massacre, but every researches can not find any evidence of the incident. I'm so frustrated with it. Japanese government and foreign ministry should protest it more strongly. 
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Friday, October 9, 2015

Russia Launches Cruise Missiles

Russia launched cruise missiles to Syria. The missiles were shot off from the Caspian Sea. That means the missiles flew over Iran and Iraq.  
The United States claimed that some of the missiles crashed in Iran, but Russia and Iran denied it. 
According to some articles, it is the first time Russia has used cruise missiles in combat. It seems that Russia wanted to show off their military equipments. 
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Thursday, October 8, 2015

Online Shop

I'm making an online shopping site these days. I have to do lots of things for that. There are thousands of password and ID number there. I'm not good at IT, so it's hard to do that for me.
I don't think it's easy to be success, but I'll try hard to do that well.
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Wednesday, October 7, 2015

Betting Scandal

According to the Yomiuri Giants, Satoshi Fukuda and Shoki Kasahara have bet on the summer high school baseball tournament and professional baseball games, including Giants' games. Fukuda is believed to have lost a total of more than one million yen through the gamble. 
Gambling on baseball games privately is illegal. The police and NPB, Nippon Professional Baseball, will punish them if it is true. 
Betting on baseball games scandal happened among sumo wrestlers some years ago, and they held a tournament without spectators as a punishment. 
NPB and Yomiuri have to do a through investigation.  
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Tuesday, October 6, 2015

The Nobel Prize

Two Japanese researchers, Mr. Satoshi Omura and Mr. Takaaki Kajita, have won the Nobel Prize so far this year. I'm glad to hear the news. 
Omura and two other researchers won the prize for their discoveries concerning therapies against parasitic diseases. Their efforts have been helping thousands of people from thediseases every year. 
Kajita became a joint winner of the 2015 Nobel Prize in physics for the discovery of neutrino oscillations. I'm sorry, but I can't totally understand the meaning of their reserch. Anyway, the study revealed something fundamental stuff. 
Could another Japanese win the Nobel Prize this year? How about Haruki Murakami?
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Monday, October 5, 2015

Syrian Civil War

The United States and Russia have criticized each other on the issue of Russia's air attacks on Syria. Russia helps Assad regime, but America and allies want to help anti government groups. 
In the Arab Spring movements, militaries helped anti government side, but Syria's military has been supporting Assad regime. That's a big difference. To make things worse, even though there are lots of conflicts there, anti government side has ISIS. More over, secretary Ban lead the UN doesn't work well like other problems. Meanwhile, many citizens have been escaping from Syria as refugees. 
This is the problem of Syrian people, but unless The U.S. and Russia reach an agreement on the issue, this civil war will never end. That's so sad. 
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Sunday, October 4, 2015

MVP Cup from Samoa

Japan has added another victory at the Rugby World Cup 2015. The Brave Blossoms won a score of 26-5 against Samoa. I watched the second half of the match on TV last night and it was a really nice game for Japan. Both teams were fighting each other very hard. 
After the game, this morning, I found a tweet with a photo by Goromaru, Japan's No.15. He said that he was really happy because the Samoa gave him a MVP cup for the match. I think the episode describes the spirit of rugby like when the game is over, there is no side of them. 
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Saturday, October 3, 2015

Mass Shooting

A gunman killed nine people and wounded seven at a college in Oregon, the U.S.  This kind of mass shootings at school happen so many times in the country. 
I think that the law of ban on gun ownership is needed. Otherwise, mass shootings tragedy will occur again and again in the U.S. That would be difficult to realize, though. 
A reporter said in a news show on VOA radio that if gun possession would be banned in the U.S., there would be another civil war in the country. Around 2 million people have been killed in genocides by governments all over the world and American people afraid of that, he said. I'm not sure his opinion is the majority in America, but he said that firmly. 
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Friday, October 2, 2015

Swallows

Haruki Murakami might be very happy now because he is a big fan of Tokyo Yakult Swallows. Swallows have just won  Japan's Professional Baseball Central League Championship tonight. Congratulations, Yakult and their fans! 
I don't know Swallows' manager and most of players, but I'm sure Furuta is no longer in the team. 
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Thursday, October 1, 2015

At a Lawyer's Office

I went to a lawyer's office today. I've been involved someone's financial problem, but I might be ok. 
After the interview, the lawyer and I talked about sea food. We were agreed that sea food in ryokans are not good. They usually use farmed fish for their dishes. They might look nice, but do not taste good. 
If you want to have a good sea food dish, you should go to local private-run restaurants. That's for sure. 
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