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!

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 will not forget about them. However, I make the same mistakes so often but I believe I am getting better by doing it!

My Pension Plan

The other day, I went to the social insurance office for correcting my pension plan data 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.

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.

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
Rank 2. The Murder of Roger Ackroyd
Rank 3. A Murder is Announced
Rank 4. The Thirteen Problems
Rank 5. And Then There Were None

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.

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.

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.