The Showshank Redemption

I watched The Showshank Redemption on Hulu. It was a remarkable American movie. Many people have recommended it as the best movie ever.

I really liked that film especially Morgan Freeman's performance. I also liked his role in Driving Miss Daisy.

I think it would be good if I could imitate the lines in the movie for my English skills.

TIME

The first TIME magazine this year arrived today. I've been reading the magazine since last June. I should read cover to cover but it's hard for me but I'm trying to read it as much as I can. 

One of my New Year's resolution is to read TIME 2,000 pages this year so I have to read at least 6 pages a day. If I read 2,000 pages of TIME, my English reading skill would improve so much.

The New Year Tuna Auction

Today is the first day fish market auctions open all over Japan this year. Tsukuji market in Tokyo also held its first tuna auction today. 

Last year, the highest price for a tuna was five hundred fifty million yen, 1億5千万円! But the bubble of the New Year's tuna collapsed dramatically this year. It cost about seven million yen, 700万円. Of course the price was much higher than usual. I think the fisherman who caught the tuna felt really disappointed.

Old Tin Plate Toys

My wife and I went to a exhibition about old Japanese toys. There were a lot of old toys like cars, trains, robots, ships, animals and planes etc. all made by tin plate. All of them are collections of famous collector Teruhisa Kitahara. Looking at these old toys I could remember my childhood. My family was not rich but even so my parents would bought me some tin toys. I really liked them and I was happy in those days.

A Tip for Cooking Instant Ramen

I cooked semi-instant ramen noodles with a lot of vegetables and minced pork today. The vegetables I used are onion, carrot, green pepper, cabbage and soy sprouts.

Before making the ramen soup, I fried the minced pork with the vegetables. After that, I added them to the ramen soup. It made the soup more tasty. I highly recommend doing that to enchance the taste of the ramen soup.

Go to My Mother's House

I went to my mother's house with my family today. My brother's family come back from Osaka evry new year but not this year because some of them have to work this new year. 

We had osechi and sushi. It was fun but I little bit missed my brother's family. I hope they come home at obon.

The New Year's Day in 2014

I went to five shrines and had lunch at Yoshiniya with my family. After that my younger son and I played table tennis with my old friends. We called it Hatsuuchi, the first play at the year. We played two hours so I was really tired. And then we drunk together at izakaya. I spend a good day with my family and friends. I could not study English, though.