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【No. 1457】Akakara Nabe (赤から鍋 - A Red Hot Pot)

Dec 14, 2018 23:40
Akakara Nabe

Today I ate akakara nabe (赤から鍋).

Akakara nabe is a kind of dish that is popular in Nagoya, Aichi, and is a very hot pot made by blending red miso (味噌 - bean paste) and red pepper.

Aka (赤) means "red," kara (から) means "hot" or "spicy," and nabe means "hot pot," so the literal meaning of akakara nabe is "a red hot pot."

In fact, it is red and hot.

Today was a very cold day, but I was able to warm my blood by eating this meal.
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【No. 1387】iPhone Xs

Oct 5, 2018 20:35
iPhone Xs

About three months ago, I bought a smartphone equipped with a physical keyboard, BlackBerry Key2.

Unfortunately, various problems occurred while using the smartphone; some applications often crashed, terrible noises occurred during a call, and the sound sometimes stopped ringing.

Therefore, I decided to buy iPhone Xs this Monday.

(The big price of 150,000 yen put a big dent in my wallet.)

It has only been a few days since purchasing, but I have been able to use it comfortably without any problems so far.

The only regret I have is that the usability of the BlackBerry Key2's keyboard was really comfortable.
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【No. 1353】My 31st Birthday

Sep 1, 2018 14:50
My 31st Birthday

Today is my 31th birthday.

In the past several years, I have spent my birthday alone.

However, since I have someone who celebrates me this year, I'm looking forward to the small birthday party tonight.

Incidentally, the Egnlish word "birthday" is referred to as tanjōbi (誕生日 - literally "birthday" or "birth date") in Japanese, whereas "birth date" is referred to as seinen gappi (生年月日).

Sei (生) means "birth," nen (年) means "year," ga/getsu/tsuki (月) means "month," and pi/hi (日) means "day."
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【No. 1339】Mountain Climbing Alone

Aug 18, 2018 15:31
Mountain Climbing Alone

Today I woke up early and tried to climb Mountain Hinode alone.

Since it takes about only three hours to climb up and down the mountain, it might be closer to hiking than climbing.

However, it was really tough for me to reach the top of the mountain, because these days I have not taken exercise.

When I reached the mountain's peak, I felt awful, so I needed to rest on a bench for about 30 minutes.

After recovering from the bad feeling, I realized that there were beautiful mountains with a nice view.

This is the best part of climbing.
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【No. 1338】A Family Trip during Bon Day 2

Aug 17, 2018 22:59
A Family Trip during Bon Day 2

On the second day of the Nagano trip, we first went to the Chihiro Art Museum Azumino.

Chihiro IWASAKI is a famous artist painter and picture book writer in Japan, and she has affected a lot of Japanese people including my family.

In this art museum, in addition to her works, there were many picture books by various artists around the world.

After visiting there, we went to an innkeeping town called Naraijuku, which is located at an altitude of about 900 meters.

Since traditional Japanese houses and streets were kept, it was beautiful.
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【No. 1337】A Family Trip during Bon Day 1

Aug 16, 2018 23:42
A Family Trip during Bon Day 1

I went to Azumino city, Nagano, with my family and relatives during the last two days of Bon holidays (that is, from August 14th to 15th).

First, we visited Daiō Wasabi Farm (大王わさび農場 - literally "King wasabi farm"), then saw the wasabi farm and ate dishes that use wasabi.

Transparent water on the farm was very beautiful, and the wasabi dishes were delicious.

After that, we checked in at a hotel, got into a hot spring, and went to a fireworks display.

We really enjoyed a grand display of 12,000 fireworks in the night sky.
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【No. 1332】Traffic Jams at Midnight

Aug 11, 2018 23:02
Traffic Jams at Midnight

Today is the Japanese national holiday called Yama no Hi (山の日 - literally "Mountain Day").

In most Japanese companies, the long summer holidays called obon yasumi (お盆休み - literally "Bon Holidays") began today.

I also returned my parents' home in Aichi from Tokyo.

In order to avoid traffic jams accompanying the holidays, I departed by car around 1:30 am, but I underestimated this holiday.

Despite midnight, I got traffic jams on the expressway.

I tried to take rest on a rest area, but there was no space to stop.

Surprisingly, the length of the traffic jams grew to around 30 kilometers at aroud noon.
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【No. 1327】Thirty-Six Books

Aug 6, 2018 12:44
Thirty-Six Books

I have been trouble deciding on a topic for posts on Lang-8 lately.

Therefore, I looked for books concerning words or culture on the Kindle store, in order to use them as a reference for a topic.

Then, I noticed that a special sale was being held -- many books were sold for 99 yen (about 89 cents).

Impulsively, I clicked "Buy now with 1-Click" button many times, and finally, I bought 36 books.

I bought various kinds of books -- books of kanji, books of English grammar, books of history, books of religion, books of trivia, etc.

I will write entries using these books starting tomorrow.
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【No. 1318】Tyhoon No. 12

Jul 28, 2018 22:54
Tyhoon No. 12

It is raining cats and gods.

This is because Typhoon No. 12 is approaching.

Also, I have a terrible headache.

This is because the atmospheric pressure is dropping dramatically due to the approach of the typhoon.

Today I found a website called zutool (頭痛ーる - literally a headache tool), which shows information about atmospheric pressure and the percentage of people who are feeling headaches.

https://zutool.jp/

According to this site, now the atmospheric pressure in Tokyo is significantly lower than usual, and the 86% of users are feeling headache.

I would like to take medicine and stay in bed today.

【No. 1298】Muda (無駄 - Waste)

Jul 8, 2018 20:54
Muda

I worked more than three days in a row, without returning home.

And today, when I came back to my apartment, I noticed that my room was very cool and comfortable.

Yes, the air conditioner was on for three days...

I was full of grief.

What you do not need or useless things like this situation is referred to as muda (無駄) in Japanese.

【Example】
・Denkidai wo muda ni shita (電気代を無駄にした - I wasted the electricity expense).

I'm sorry today's post is almost a diary.

【No. 1292】Shimekiri ni Owareru (締め切りに追われる - Being under a Deadline)

Jul 2, 2018 17:56
Since the deadline for a manuscript of an academic conference was 9 o'clock this morning, I worked through the night.
(Unfortunately, I couldn't make the deadline, and missed an opportunity to visit Italy.)

Doing work desperately like this is often expressed as "shimekiri ni owareru" (締め切りに追われる) in Japanese.

Shimekiri (締め切り) means deadline and owareru (追われる) means being chased, so the literal meaning of this phrase is "being chased by a deadline."

As you can guess, we use the verb owareru (追われる - being chased) to imply that the deadline is approaching.

This phrase can be translated into English as "being under a deadline" or "facing the pressure of a deadline."
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【No. 1288】Me and the Foreign Language

Jun 28, 2018 17:13
Today I would like to write my post under the theme of 'me and the foreign language.'

The reason that I study English is closely related to my purpose in life.

I am currently researching diagnostic and measurement technology at my university, and I would like to become a researcher who is active on the front lines of that field.

Toward this goal, two abilities are essential: one is the ability to read scientific papers written in English, and the other is the ability to disseminate study results to the world in English.

Because of this, I learn and write English on Lang-8 every day.

However, these days I have not practiced listening and speaking; undoubtedly, I need more practices towards an international conference that is held after a few months.
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【No. 1281】Sea of Blood

Jun 21, 2018 21:49
Sea of Blood

Around 4:30 am today, I woke up because of feeling uncomfortable.

I was sleeping on my face down, and I felt that something dropped from my nose.

I thought "Ah, my nose is running," but when I saw my bedding, I found that there is a sea of blood.

A lot of blood flowed from my nose.

While becoming so depressed, I wiped off the blood on my bedding by using a wet towel repeatedly.

After I dried my bedding, I fell asleep again with a feeling of weariness.

The cause might be that I ate dinner at 11:00 pm yesterday -- eating food late at night increases your blood pressure.
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【No. 1238】A Cold May

May 9, 2018 18:53
The maximum temperature in Tokyo yesterday was about 14 degrees Celsius.

Furthermore, the maximum temperature today is also about 14 degrees Celsius.

It is cold for May.

According to the records about temperature, it is the first time in recent 25 years that the maximum temperature in Tokyo in May was less than 15 degrees Celsius for the second successive day.

In spite of that, according to the weather forecast, the maximum temperature in the next week will be 30 degrees Celsius.

The number is double.

When there is such a severe change in temperature, you could upset your health.

Since I have a significant event next week, I have to be careful.
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【No. 1221】Starting My Blog

Apr 22, 2018 15:05
I have written and posted short English texts on a language exchange social networking website called Lang-8 every day for about 1220 days. However, today I cannot connect to the web page. I am not entirely comfortable with such the interruption though I have tried to continue the challenge. Therefore, today I would like to write and post English texts on this blog page. Perhaps native English speakers would not correct these texts, but I have almost no other choice. If Lang-8 doesn't recover or its unstable state continues, I will post English texts/essays on this page in the future.

【No. 1113】U-Turn Rush

Jan 4, 2018 13:50
Ive been staying at my parents house in Aichi prefecture since last Friday.

Unfortunately, I have to go back to Tokyo by tonight because I have work tomorrow.

Originally, I planned to drive to Tokyo yesterday in order to have leeway, but I watched the news about "U-turn rush" and stopped departing.

"U-turn rush" means a crowded situation that occurs when people who have come to their parents' home go back (u-turn) to Tokyo for work.

The highway that I planned to use seemed to have a 31 kilometers long traffic jam.

Since many Japanese do their work from today, not only roads but also trains were very crowded yesterday.

Today I will drive on unoccupied highways in comfort.

【No. 1101】Bounenkai (忘年会)

Dec 23, 2017 12:22
During this time of year, a lot of 忘年会 (bounenkai) are held in Japan.

A bounenkai is a drinking party that is held at the end of the year, in order to forget the past year.

There is no religious meaning or particular style.

The 忘 (bou) means "to forget," the 年 (nen) means "year," and the 会 (kai) means "party," so 忘年会 (bounenkai) literally means "forget the part year party."

I think that End of the Year Party is very similar to bounenkai.

Incidentally, today I will participate in a bounenkai - this is the third time this week.
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【No. 1066】Cold or Food Poisoning

Nov 18, 2017 15:14
Yesterday I became sick.

Since I had a sore throat and a headache, I thought that I caught a cold.

Therefore, I went home early, ate dinner, and went to bed.

However, I woke up in the middle of the night due to a severe headache and a feeling of nausea, then I vomited all food I ate for dinner.

It was very painful because I woke up repeatedly with the headache and the nausea.

After I slept for about 18 hours, these symptoms were finally lessened somewhat.

However, my condition is still bad -- in such a day, I will post a simple diary like this.
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【No. 1000】Self-Introduction Updates for the Second Time

Sep 13, 2017 19:58
Since the number of my entries, 1000, is a round figure, I rewrote my self-introduction a bit as follows. Note that there are many overlapping parts.

------------------------------------

Hi, I'm a teacher at a university in Tokyo, Japan. I'm engaged in some studies related to non-destructive inspection/diagnosis in X-ray CT imaging. On this Lang-8, I've written about a Japanese idiom, Japanese culture or a trivial matter every day. I hope these posts will be useful for foreigners who learn Japanese.

Please feel free to send a friend request. :)

[ Hobby ]
My hobbies are watching American dramas, solving math and programming problems and riding my road bike. I think that I've watched a lot of American dramas, for example, Friends, Dr. House, Numbers, Ugly Betty, Breaking Bad, Person of Interest, Suits, Lie to Me, FLASH, The Big Bang Theory, The Mentalist, Modern Family, and so on (sometimes UK dramas like SHERLOCK are included). If there is a drama that you can recommend, I want you to tell me.

[ Dream ]
My dream is to study in a university in the US and to become a professor of a university.
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【No. 0999】The 1000th Post

Sep 12, 2017 17:41
Today the number of my posts on Lang-8 finally reached 1000.

Since I tend to slack off or goof off my work, it was really hard for me to continue writing articles every day.

Also, today I was received a letter of appointment -- it means that I officially promoted to assistant professor on September 1, 2017.

Incidentally, the day, September 1, 2017 was my 30th birthday.

Furthermore, on that day, the domain of my personal homepage expired.

The day was an unusual day when various events overlapped.

Next, I will do my best to post 2000 entries and become an associate professor.