Who’s inspiring?

As the first semester is ending, I want to know if you guys know any inspiring prof.
All my prof this semester were not so inspiring to be honest.
They were either like a high school teacher or they didn’t care about students at all.
Some of them even claims that their classes are boring because students don’t care.
However I think the lecture has to be boring first, for us to not care about it.

So, if you got lucky and had any interesting, inspiring prof, let me know in the comment!

Dealing with stress

I came across a video on internet the other day.
It was a video of a lecture, where the prof asked students, while holding a bottle full of water,
“What’ll happen to me if I hold this for a minute?”
Students’ answer was “nothing”
Then the prof asks again
“What if I held this for an our?”
Students answer “your arm might become sore”
“What if I held it for an entire day?”
“You’ll suffer a sever pain”

Prof let go the bottle and turns to students, saying
“Notice that the weight of the bottle didn’t change at all”
She continues
“Even if the problem is small, by holding that for a long time, it could become a major stress for you. Sometimes it is better to just let go of the problem, rather than looking for a right solution.”

This was kinda inspiring for me. How important it is to let go your problems.

vocabulary builder

I try to involve with vocabulary builder every day although my grade on Friday's test is not that satisfying. It seems like there are always some new words coming out that I didn't practice before. I will try harder I guess!

Finished IT

I just took the last test for IT😄
I'm glad that I'm over with it now, but now I have nothing to do during my free periods.
I thought it was going to take the whole semester to finish it, so I left the periods open on purpose. Now I really regret it.

I hope this semester will be over soon so I won't have that much open periods.

Logorama

Summary:
It tells a story that happens in Los Angela where a criminal(MacDonald) is being chased by polices(Michelin). When they confront at a small restaurant all of a sudden the earth's surface begins to split apart and the mixture of water and oil submerged the whole town. Lady Esso and the Big Boy were the two left on an island.
Message:
This video is filmed by French so I think it is mocking at the American's food invasion and how their own country's food tradition( Michelin is a French brand not only for making ties but also for the evaluation on restaurant-Michelin Guide) is being harmed by American's brand and culture. In the end, Lady Esso, which is also an American brand wins with the fast food brand Big boy.
Brand and logos:

Windows,Red Bull, Starbucks, Evian, M&M’S, MTV, Excel, Leica, Disney, Mastercard, NASA, Pringles, Canadian nature, Cruz, Marlboro, Dell, Durex, Parament, Dole, Pizza Hut, KFC, Sprite, Milky way, Ghostbuster, Pepsi, Hollywood, Audi, Macdonald, Fanta, Universal studio, MGM.

Varmint

Summary:
varmints lived in nature, sustainably and peacefully. The protagonist looked like a botanist, as he was sampling plants. It is clear that the protagonist has a strong affection for plants and nature.
Then, there comes a huge fortress, pulled by a lot of urban varmints. They look so much less healthy than the normal varmints, and they almost look like they are enslaved by the fortress. The fortress destroys the nature, and the protagonist had to live there with a branch of tree which he was barely able to bring in.
Inside the fortress is dusty, heartless city. Varmints live in small apartment rooms and they are all ill. The protagonist’s branch is the only nature to be seen. After some time, the protagonist becomes ill just like others, and right when he was about to die, he was rescued by a mysterious jelly fish.

Ending:
The ending can be interpreted in many ways. It could be symbolizing the life after death, or return to the country side. One thing for certain is that the city remained there. It’s not like varmints changed the way city is, and improved the life for all.
I think it is obvious that the fortress symbolizes the civilization and all the destruction it caused. Varmints used to live harmoniously with the nature but after civilization, they started to harm the environment and themselves.
It is also important to note that the jellyfishes emerged from inside the city. They grew inside the apartments, and did not came from outside. I think jellyfish symbolize technology. The technology that allowed some varmints to live a healthier lives again.
In real life, humans are like varmints. We used to live harmoniously with the nature, but we started destroying them. Then, some country moves on to tertiary industries. People in developed countries will start living a healthier lives, somewhat sustainably. However, there always remain developing countries, who would destroy the environment instead of them.

country side

In the future, I want to live in the country side, not in the urban city. The reason is because I like the place where it's quiet and surrounded by greeneries. Maybe, the time after I retire, I would like to live in the place where it is quiet

varmint

Summary:
 There was a small animal  having a fun time surrounded by grasses and leaned on a tree. Then, black fog invaded the place where the small animal was and the gree grasses were dying. The small animal grabbed some green grasses before it dies. in the black fog, there were many buildings and the small animal had to live in one of the buildings. In the room he stayed, he decided to grow the plants which he grabbed. One day, a huge white balls that looked like a jellyfish appeared and swallowed many people. The small animal got swallowed too. In there, there were many green grasses.
Theme:
We need to be careful to spread our area of where we live. 

Smell

In japan, there is a effecient way to kill mosquito. It is to light "katorisenkou". I don't know why but i like the smell of it .

varmints

Summary
Once upon a time, there was a varmint living in a place where is surrounded by nature in peace. One day, sudden emersion of modern building made him live in a modern society. His hope living in a society was to water his plant and while fetching a glass of a water, he found an unknown white objects sticking on the buildings. Few days later, the white object turned into a big jelly fish and took everyone somewhere else. After the varmint woke up, he found himself in where he used to live; place filled with nature. But the place was actually a place made up by jelly fish and in real world, there was only desused buildings left.

Theme
May be what we are seeing right now is only a dream made up by someone.

Varmints--Video Analysis Assignment

Summary-
A creature―he looked like a cross between a rabbit, dog and a kangaroo, in my opinion―loves plants and animals, and spends his time studying them. Suddenly one day, a dark atmosphere takes over his peaceful town. Life is not the same anymore, and he is forced to live in a dull cell. The critter's only hope is a small plant by his windowsill, which he waters every day. During his stay at the cell, he meets a girl, and falls in love. However, the warm feeling is soon broken as his world becomes more violent, and hard to live in. At the end, a jellyfish-looking creature ascends from the sky and takes him and all the others in the world away. There inside the jellyfish, the creatures live on happily.

Theme-
"The frog in the well knows nothing of the great ocean."
I feel that the warm atmosphere of the world before it was taken over was a symbol of the world we live in before we go out into society. There are harsh realities that we encounter after we abandon our childhood.

Ending-
I think the jellyfish represents heaven. In other words, I think all the creatures died in the storm-like phenomenon of the taken-over world.

Technological Failure

I just posted the Varmints homework and I do not understand why but it seems to have a bug ... I wrote summary, ending, and message,  but on the blog the texts are overlapping and everything is weird...

Varmints

Summary

It starts with the varmints living peacefully surrounded by beautiful nature. The place was filled with green. blue sky, white clouds and butterflies. However, one day black varmints that moves like they have been controlled by someone, changes all the green into the urban dystopian environment. The new world once filled with green was surrounded by polluted air, and suddenly leads to infectious disease that caused numbers of death. The main character did not get infected because, the small plant that he saved in the last minute grew safely in his room. The huge jelly fish suddenly comes to his polluted town to save those who took time to think about the green nature. In the jelly fish, he once found the mother nature that he once loved. 

EndingMessage（Theme）I believe that the message that the creator wanted to tell us was that environment fragile. He describes us human as a varmints, because through our history we have been harming the nature. Environment could be broken in just a few seconds, and once it is broken, no one knows how to fix them. However, we have the ability to save them and take care of them like how the main character was taking care of the small plant. Through this short film, the creator urged us that we are the ones to save the environment that is left in our planet. x


At the end, the polluted dystopian town will be once again filled with green, because the jelly fish distributed new seeds to the polluted town. Nature is something that could be destroyed easily, but at the same time very strong that once all the conditions matches, it can grow up anywhere. In my opinion, the town will be a place where varmints and the mother nature live and support each other. 

Varmints

Summary
The little varmints lived peacefully in nature observing the plants and insects. However, a big city took over the place killing all the plants except for the one branch a varmint took. This varmint started to live in the big city taking care of the branch. One night the branch let out a mysterious fluffy white thing into the air which landed on the building and grew. Everyone started to get ill and die. When this happened the white thing burst out into making a huge jellyfish like thing that floated. They took the varmints and took them to a clean environment with nature.
Ending
In the end, the white jellyfish like thing took the varmints to a place full of nature without any pollution that the big city made. This gave the varmints a better environment to live in which saved the lives of the varmints.
Message
I believe the main message of this is to make the people realize all the damage we have done to the Earth which once was full of nature. We are constructing many buildings making big cities around the world, but this is eventually going to harm ourselves just like how the varmints started to die. We need to protect the natural environment that the Earth had for a happy life.

Aladdin

I went to see Aladdin today!! I was so excited to see it the whole day!! It was amazing! I loved it so much and I want to go see it again! The tiger, Rajah and the monkey, Abu were so cute!! I already knew the story, but it still made me cry a little. I'm probably going to go see it again with my friends!

Saturday

On Saturday, I had my Korean classes until 12:30. After the class, I did not have any plan so I was heading home, but the minute I was about to get on the train, my friend called me. Apparently, his schedule changed and had about 5 hours till his part time job. We decided to go to McDonalds but the 2 shops we went were full with people, so we went to Taco bell in Shibuya. There were few people there, so we stayed until the time for his work came. I thought 5 hours would be really long, but the time passed quickly because we just kept on talking about Japanese comedians, which turned out being really fun.

Varmint

Summary
There was a varmint living in a peaceful world, surrounded by lots of nature. One day, tons of dark building started to build towards it and took over the place where the varmint was at. Before getting concurred, varmint took few dirt on the ground and one wood from the tree. He entered the new environment, where everywhere was dark and dirty, and had no nature. It was 180 degrees different from where it was living in the past. One day, a jellyfish like creature started to take away other varmints and brought it to another place. The varmint also went to the new environment, where it was filled with nature just like where he used to live.

Ending and message
I think the original environment varmint lived is the nature we have right now in this world. However, as things developed, people started destroying the nature and created many artificial buildings. Deforestation, air and water pollution, and global warming are all caused by human beings. Even though new buildings are created for a positive purpose, it is just being a disaster, creating more environmental issues. The dystopian world shown in the video represents the world where the nature have been destroyed. The new world shown in the last represents the developed countries in this world. They are satisfied with where they are in, but do not realize the fact that many natural environments are being destroyed each day in the other parts of the world.

Varmints

Summary 

One day a varmint and his kinds are just enjoy what Mother Nature had gave them.  The trees, the grass, the dandelions are all what they love and care for. But out of nowhere, a big dark wind waves over the land taking away the beauty of nature and replacing it with buildings. It left the Varmint with nothing but a plant and a big city. He then starts to live and work there with the others until what looks like the “last” plant starts to die. Then tens of  hot air balloon looking jellyfish appears in the city and starts grabbing the varmints, putting them inside of the jellyfish. But what was on the inside was what the varmint thought he would never see again. It was filled with grass, flowers and the girl that he had fallen I love with. 

Ending

I believe that by judging at the health of the varmint that he had died and the jellyfish came to the city to take him to his happy place, where he can live in peace.

Message

The biggest message behind this video was to make us people look what we had done to our city from a third perspective. To make us realize that the Earth is slowly dying, along with the plants, animals, and the people that are living on it. 

Battery %

I tend to worry if my battery percentage gets low on my phone because you know, what if I get lost in the middle of nowhere? So I charge my phone wayyy to often and because of that now my phones battery capacity is at 68%.  So it’s true what they say, don’t charge your phone every once a hour.

...

There's actually nothing special happening around me, I just can't wait to visit South Africa this summer :)

Varmints

Summary:

One day there was a varmint which was living in a peaceful place where the nature spreads out all over the place. Suddenly that place gets covered with concrete buildings and thick smoke. The main character grabs the last branch of the surviving tree, and takes care of it. However, as the time goes, whole area gets polluted and other varmints get sick and dying. Eventually, the last tree that the varmint was taking care of also withers. One day, the varming notices that some kind of jellyfish like things are floating in the sky. That jellyfish catches other varmints, and they live in the jellyfish. Compared to the dusty and polluted city, inside of the jellyfish looks more comfortable and peaceful.

Ending & Message:

At the end, I think the varmint will also be catched by the jellyfish and lives with other varmints in there and come back to the exactly same place where it was first living. I didn't understand the exact message that this video was trying to tell, but I think this was representing some kind of environmental problem. Human beings break the nature and its ecosystem by constructing buildings deforestation and more. However, that environment cannot be placed back like it was before. This film tells us to be more kind to the nature.

Varmints

Summary
On a peaceful day, there was a varmint picking flowers in a beautiful grassland. However, all of a sudden, a dark wave came toward the whole field and turned the entire place into a dark world. The varmint managed to keep a plant in his bag just before everything dissapeared and a city popped out of nowhere. He went to the city and began to grow his last green plant, unfortunately it started to die because of the city's environment. The plant spreaded out somekind of seed that turned into a jellyfish-looking bubble, transfering the varmints in it.
Ending
Inside the jellyfish-looking bubble there was a beautiful grassland waiting. I believe this story shows how the society is today. People keep on trying to improve their society by destroying nature for them to create more factories for the country's development. If we want to live in a world, where everyone and every animal could live happily, we need to keep the environment how it is.

varmints

Summary:
A rabbit-like varmint was living happily in the nature full of plants. However, one day, the many varmints came and built a civilisation. The natured died away leaving one branch that the varmint saved. Taken away his place of living, the varmint had to become a part of the civilisation, and in the contaminated city, he keeps growing his single plant. Many varmints died because of the air pollution and the hard labor, and the varmint notices a jellyfish-like something appearing in places of the city. One day that "something" flies in the sky and collects the varmints. In the jellyfish, there is no contamination, and it is full of nature.

Message:
I did not understand the story clearly. However, I think it is symbolising today's world that is destroying the nature to develop civilisation. The message is that the dystopian world in the animation might become our future; people dying because polluted air and destroyed nature. To prevent this, we must cherish nature and prevent from them being harmed because of human activity. The jellyfish-like "something" is heaven, in my opinion. I think it is actually bad ending, and they all died after being harmed their health. We have to do something before it becomes too late. One thing that I did not understand is the fact that only the rabbit-like varmints were onboard the jellyfish. It must have a meaning, but I can't figure it out. Is it a racial something? Somebody please help...

Chorus Competition

Today I went to my sister's school to go see her chorus competition. My sister is in the first grade of high school, and she did the conductor of her class. She said that she did not have enough time of practice, but the harmony was beautiful and I was proud of her. And surprisingly, her class won the bronze prize winning against the 'senpai's. I know I am a "姉バカ", but I am really happy that her effort was rewarded.

Swan song

Last Friday I went to my high school’s sports festival. The sports festival is the last school event that the 12th graders can participate in the six years of junior and senior high school years. The 12th graders dance the swan dance every year. I was persuaded by my English teacher when he told me that swan song is a metaphorical phrase for a person’s last work or performance. I like how the costumes and the choreography have been passed down by seniors ever since the first sports festival.

mustard

I've been eating a lot of chicken recently and I always put ketchup or other sauces on it. Yesterday, I tried mustard and it was amazing. I like the kind of mustard that is sold in America, not the one in Japan.

Part time job

I am currently working as an English assistant teacher for my part time job. The students I teach are K1-P6 which is about 5 years old to 12 years old. They are so adorable, but sometimes too energetic. I feel rewarding when students understands the new lessons, and become proactive. However, I sometimes have difficulties teaching students whose first language is not English. Not being allowed to use Japanese in class, I have to choose the easiest vocabularies to have the students understand what I am trying to tell. I guess time will solve this... just crossing my fingers that it would.

Saturday live

I just remembered that I didn't write my second entry for this blog...

Last Saturday, I went to ZOZO Marine Stadium in Chiba for Radwimp's live concert. I left my room at 12:50, and got lost for about 20 minutes around my house, and went on 2 trains to get to the Stadium.  It turns out there were 37,000 people in the Stadium in the end.
Since there were so many people there, I almost missed the last train. I was worried I would have to take the taxi or something when I first saw a bunch of people waiting in line to get inside the ticket gate. I went to the convenience store to eat something, looked for a place to sit, but I just ate while standing because there were about 30 roly-polies on the bench I was about to sit. I thought I was okay with roly-polies, but I couldn't stand how they looked in the dark, going onto each other.
Anyways, I had fun at the live although I have muscle pain on my legs for the past two days now. I really liked Kuwa's tags on his post on Instagram.

I hope Satoshi can be there next time they have a live concert😢

Varmints

Summary
One day there was a varmint who was living in a peaceful world where nature spread out endlessly. He spent his time observing the nature and cherishing them. Suddenly an industrialized city took over the beautiful world and destoyed it. The varmint started living in the industrialized city, but soon saw other varmints gradually becoming sick and dying. As the varmint became sick himself, the one and only plant that he brought from the beautiful world, scattered its seeds. The seeds grew into a huge jellyfish-like thing and took all the varmints inside of it. Inside the jellyfish was the beautiful world with nature just like the one the varmint used to live in.

Ending and Message
Through out the whole video, the industrialized city was illustrated in a dark tone compared to the bright and beautiful world in the begining and the ending. I think this implies that doing harm to the environment will do no good to humans. In the ending, the jelliyfish spreads its seeds all over the industrialized city. I think this shows how great the nature is and how we can never control or win against it. This video seems to be giving caution to humans that we should not destroy the nature, but in fact try to coexist with it.

Varmints

Summary:
In an unknown rural land, a possum-like creature lives peacefully with nature surrounding him, when suddenly a city appears, and nature dies away. After that, this creature starts living in the city, taking care of a plant that he got before the city took its life away. As days went by, both the plant and the creature starts to get weak, probably because of the polluted air. The plant had released a sort of white substance which grows and change its form to a jellyfish.

At the end:
The creatures get sucked into the jellyfish that grew big. The jellyfish generally symbolize protection, as well as caution. Probably, the creature did live and got protection from the world that had air pollution. However, it also tells the audience that humans must be cautious and start initiating programs to go against the problem of pollution.

Theme(Creator's Point):
First of all, the definition of the word varmint is a troublesome wild animal or a mischievous person. I immediately thought after knowing this fact that the creature represented in the beginning is not symbolizing the "varmints," something else is. In my opinion, the varmint is us, the audience. The humans.  The director probably wanted to show the audience how much corruption the urban society has brought upon nature.

Varmints

Summary:

A place where used to be covered by lush vegetation someday suddenly turns into an industrial city but a varmint break one of the tree’s branches and grow it in his room. While the air pollution getting worst and every varmint is getting sick, the seed dropped from the potted plants which the varmint grow becomes bubbles with lush vegetation inside saves all the varmints and fly to the sky.

Ending of this story:

In the end, there are white dandelions floating and dropped at the industrial city where varmints used to live. Since there are no varmints live there anymore( because they are all sucked into that big white jellyfish-like bubble), the seed of that plant which is the white dandelion began to grow and within a month the city is back to the place where it used to be, with lush vegetation.

Theme:

The environmental problem once is done, it is hard to retract.

So we must take care of the earth where we live now.

EBook PDF Resource

Hi everyone. It got busy and I didn’t get to complete my thoughts about our books for the Second Book Report. I want to let you guys know that if you cannot find (or don’t want to buy) a physical copy of your book, try accessing it in PDF file from this site: https://epdf.pub/ . I tried various of your books randomly and ALL are there. I don’t think you even have to make an account. Enjoy. Blog on!

book report

The book I am planning to read is called "Decline and Fall". It is a story about a man named Paul Pennyfeather who has forced to leave Oxford and begins a new life out in the wide world. I personally didn't like the last book I read, so I hope the book I'm going to read this time is a kind of book I like.

Book

For next book Report, I am interested in reading Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson. My sister was reading this book for her school, and it seemed to be a good book to have a discussion. She’s in first grade of high school right now, and unlike me, she is a good reader. Can’t believe I’m the older one  🤭

Sherlock

For the Nextel book report, I am planning on reading one of the Sherlock Holmes series by Sir Author Conan Doyle. I have always enjoyed watching the movies and the tv series based on the book, so I am excited about reading his book.

book

I have no idea of how everyone is chossing their books. By knowing that coraline is a story about going to a different world it made me want to read it a little bit. So I think I'll probably read Coraline for my next book report.

Akiba

I went to Akihabara last sunday. It was a hot, sunny day  and the weather was really nice. It was about a year since the last time I've been there, so I enjoyed touring around the place.

book report

For the next book report I want to read The little prince. I really love the book and I've read the French version a little so I really want to research more about it to get a deeper understanding of the book. However, if the book is too short I want to read Alice's Adventure in wonderland. I've seen the movie, but I never read the original book so I'm interested in reading it. If none of these are good I want to read Animal Farm.

Book report

one of my options for the book report is the notebook, but I also want few more suggestions so that I’ll have more choices. I want to try reading romance/love story. Does anyone have recommendations for books from those genre?

summer

Do all of you have any plan for summer vacation?

We still have about 1.5 months, but I’m planning to do part time job and go on a trip with my friends. Some of our options are Osaka, Kyoto, and Okinawa. We didn’t decide anything yet but I’m already excited for the vacation.

Book choice

I’m thinking of reading 1984 for my book report, since my first book report was a George Orwell book. I might change it, but if I read 1984, I think I can have a deeper understanding about George Orwell and his writings.

Sunny or rainy

I heard that it is gonna be sunny until Wednesday, but from Thursday, it is gonna be rainy for like a week or so? The temperature changes a lot so it is difficult to choose what to wear and all those kinds of stuff.

Weather

The weather has been really unstable lately. It gets cold and hot suddenly. I have migraines so this is not really good for my health. I hate this season.

Next book report

I think I want to read a horror genre for the next book report. I really like horror and dark themes. Does anyone have a recommendation?

Book Report

It's already Monday, but I haven't decided what to read for my next book report!!!

If you guys have any reccomendation, please tell me..

choice

i am thinking to read a book called Narnia-the lion and the whitch-. If there is someone who read the book, please give me comments

Environment issue

This weeks theme is environment. And we still got one listening report on environment.
To be honest, environment issues is so hard to discuss about. Maybe I will find something other than that.

Book report

I am thinking of reading A Walk to Remember by Nicholas Sparks for my next book report. I have watched the movie before. It was a love story, but watching the movie, I thought that there were religious themes concerning
Christianity. I would like to compare the book to the movie and find out other themes that might be in the book.  

summer vacation

I'm going to Bangkok, Thailand during this summer vacation!! I'm really excited. I'm going there with my mother and we already booked the flight and hotel! We're going because my friend from when I was in study abroad lives in Thailand. He was an exchange student from Thailand and we had a same class together, so we got along well. It's been about a year since we haven't met so I'm really looking forward to seeing him again!
We don't have any plans yet, so if anyone knows anything about Thailand let me know!

Aladdin

I saw the movie Aladdin with my friend yesterday. Jasmine was beautiful, Aladdin was a nice guy, but Will Smith had so much presence over all. I love his character, and after seeing the movie, I think nobody else suits the Genie position. Everyone’s saying this, but I recommend you go see it.
I love movies and I like seeing them at home as well. Do you have any recommendations of movies??

Midnight

I came to this blog because I couldn’t sleep at all. I usually go to bed at 10 or 11, sometimes even 9. I just can’t stand having to stay awake during the night. But today, something is stopping me from going to sleep. I listened to a song called Good Night by Ji Jinseok, but it didn’t work at all. No offense to Ji Jinseok and his song. It’s a really good song. Anyways, please let me know if you have a good way to put yourself to sleep!

Rainy Saturday

I realized I’ve only blogged once this week. But what is there to talk about?? Lol. We’re having very gloomy weather today. My schedule for today is 1) go to first period and 2) go to choir practice. We’re working on several songs at the moment for our concert in December. They’re all really beautiful songs.

Fahrenheit 451

I'm going to read Fahrenheit 451 for my next book report. I've always heard good things about this book from my friends in high school, so I'm pretty excited to read the book.

Book report

I think I'm going to choose And then there were none, I have always favor the horror type and that poem of Ten little soldiers.

Lady Bug

When I was riding on a train, a lady bug landed on my hand. I wanted it to fly away, but since I was on the train, a place where lady bug shouldn't be, so I endured with it for about 10 minutes. When I got off the train, I shook my hand a bit and the lady bug flew away to the sky.

The First Attempt

On Tuesday, me and my friends ordered dinner using Uber Eats for the first time. We set the accepting place as Aoyama Gakuin University, but we were very nervous, because there are many entrance in our university. We rushed to 正門 when the app notified us that it will be delivered in a minute, but I think we waited more than that. I found Uber Eats very useful and looking forward to using them again!

Aogaku discounts

I found out that this tapioca place called Alfred Tea Room, which is right across the Aoyama dori from our campus, gives you 10% discount if you show them Aogaku student ID.
Tapioca are absurdly expensive, so 10% discount makes you much less guilty buying them.
Id say their tapioca was decent, so try them out.

Do you guys know any other places with Aogaku discount?

New Environment

Keeping our environment fresh with a New look. All comments enabled. Blog on!

Wuthering Heights

For my second book report, I am thinking about reading Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë. I had it in mind when I was deciding what to do for my first book report. Since I learned about Emily Brontë in my English literature class, I thought it would be perfect for me to write about not only the book but also a little bit about her life. If anyone has read this book before, I would love to hear what you thought of it.

Uber eats

I think at this point you all know I do Uber eats as my side job.
It’s an app-based bicycle delivery job, that you can start and stop anytime you want.
It takes few steps to get started, but once you do, it’s really easy.
I recommend doing it especially if you have useless 空きコマ.
There are a lot of restaurants around our college.

Personally Uber eats is not the best paying, but definitely the easiest job I’ve done.
If you’re interested I have invitation codes so hit me up on LINE.

Sleep Paralysis

I was wondering if anyone had sleep paralysis before.
I don't have it as often as I did in high school, but I sometimes have it when I feel super tired. 
I got it so many times in high school that I don't get scared of it anymore. I close my eyes and wait for me to sleep. Have you ever had sleep paralysis before?

my birthday

My birthday was on Saturday!! I went Disney with my friends! We went with the starlight passport but it was relaxed and it was a lot of fun!! My friends got me a birthday cake in surprise. I had an amazing birthday !

Last Thursday

I went to a band’s concert on Thursday! I finished class at 12:30 so I went earlier than my friends to buy concert goods for me and also for my friends. I used too much money I think. I couldn’t buy the t shirt that I wanted so I was a bit sad but the concert was awesome!! They’re going to have a tour in November I’m  thinking of going!

English camp

Last weekend I volunteered at a English camp for elementary school kids. We went to Aikawa with about 30 kids and 30 volunteers from different parts of Asia. I learned a lot including how to interact with kids and cultural differences. I was especially surprised and touched when the kids started crying when they were told that the camp was almost over. And it was only two days !They were far more pure and energetic than I had imagined. I hope this experience will be meaningful to the kids as much as it is to me.

Next book report

Have you guys decided which book to read for the next book report? I haven't... I think I should choose one that is not so long beucase my last one was pretty long, it had like 290 pages or something... It would be much better if the book has the movie version as well.

Amazon Prime

Amazon Prime is the best. I can watch so many kinds of movies and dramas for free. It is always nice to hang out with my friends, but this is another best way to spend my weekend at home...

Something new tomorrow~

  I've just got some of my Chinese snacks delivered to my house today so I an going to take it you guys tomorrow. Hope you guys like spice stuffs!💕

9 years ago

A few weeks ago, I was hanging out with some of my friends from high school and we started talking about about where we went to elementary school. And it turned out that I went to the same school as this one girl that I only stayed for about two months. We both literally cried because who knew such a thing could happen.

Panda

I saw the news today and it said that Shan Shan, the panda, was extended it’s stay in Japan. Until I heard this news, I thought that Shan Shan was a present to Japan. I did not think that we had to send him back to China. Now that I know, I kind of want to go see him. I have never seen a panda in real. Have any of you seen Shan Shan??

burrito

I bought burrito at the convenience store. Her name is Britney. She had two kinds of cheese in it. It was margherita. It was 30 yen off. I hope to meet her again.

Routine

Lately it just feels as if I'm repeating everything that I do every week, like that movie "Happy death day." Doing the same homework, watching the same shows and all. I don't know, maybe I just need something to look forward to. (all this negativity because of the rain

To Wataru

Hey, I am a type of guy who cannot do homework at home too. So I also sometimes do what I have to do at a cafe. It keeps me concentrated.

blogger

I always forget about the blog. How can I remember it? I think I will make Wednesday my blog writing day, so Iwill never forget to do it.

Vietnam Festival

Today I went to Yoyogi park with two of my friends. In one of our classes, we had to participate in a cultural exchange or intercultural communication related event outside of class, and write a report for it. Therefore, three of us went to the Vietnam Festival held at the Yoyogi park. There were so many shops selling Vietnamese foods, and many people were visiting the place. We bought and shared Vietnamese fried chicken and two types of pho, one with soup and one without soup. It was my first time eating pho, and they were all very delicious!!

Album

On Wednesday, I went to HMV shibuya and bought 2 albums of my favorite singer. One is called 'teenage' and the another one is called 'Al1(read as 'alone')', and I wanted to buy them from a long time ago, so I was so happy I got to buy the 2 albums at once. There are still few albums I don't have, so I want to complete all of the collection in the future.

Wandering

There are some situations where I don't exactly know what I really want to do. Internet has been a great source for me to get an answer or at least find a hint, but this time it's doing the opposite thing. Informations on the internet is leading me to this very complex maze. I thought I could scatter my mind by doing something else, but maybe it is not working for me today. 😑 

studying in a cafe

I am the kind of person who can't study at home. At home, it takes time to start studying and even if I start studying, I get distracted from other things and stops studying. So today, I came to a cafe to study for the tests and finish my homework.

New nails

I had my friend do my nail art yesterday. She was really good at it so I’m thinking of asking her again next time. I’m rooting for her career as a nail artist. I hope she does well in the future.

Astro Boy notebook

I went to Tokyu Hands today and found an Astro Boy notebook(B5) from Moleskine. I like Tezuka Osamu's art style, so I almost bought it, but I didn't because it cost like 3500 yen. I think I would've purchased the notebook if it had Phoenix or Otomo Katsuhiro's Akira for the design. I really like going to Tokyu Hands, even if I don't buy anything.

The Lost Thing

I was forgetting to write about this - but I figured it's better late than never.

Symbols:
The Lost Thing- Childish characteristics, such as imagination, purity, and creativity.
Train- Mind-numbing everyday routine that adults go through
Arrow Sign- Sliver of hope
Gray Smoke- A sense of deprivation
Colorful world- Childhood memories

Theme(Message):
The director Shawn Tan, as an artist himself, is warning people of the loss of childish characteristic. The society, through its dull environment and boring routines, takes away the purity that was once in our hearts, and makes us "adults". We consider this as "growing up", but there are always some "lost things" behind this process. They are the things that are depicted with colors in the film, and it is so valuable yet we cannot get it back once we lose them. It might be true that we need "adults" more than we need creativity. However, we should always know to cherish the childish characteristics, and not suppress them.

Photos in the Nana Café.

Allow me to make another post about the Nana Café. Lol. I'm in the photography club, and every month we have an event called 学内展. We submit photographs to the group Line, and we get our submitted photos displayed in the Nana Café. The theme for this month was 都市風景, and one of my photos is currently on display:) (The reason why the photo's so dark is because it was pretty late when we went in to hang the photos up. If you look really closely you might be able to see my name on the little name plate thing underneath the frame)

I'm planning on submitting photos for the coming 学内展s as well!

Book Report Reflection

I’m not a type of person who reads a lot of book which also means that I’m not a good reader. I decided to choose a short and easy book to read for my first book report, however love romance was not suitable for me to get my discussion going. (We had a great discussion with various opinions, but it wasn’t what I had been expecting) We are still a student and how are we supposed to discuss about true love? Yes, it was a very good book with great plot and beautiful language, but maybe the topic was too deep to have a short discussion in class I guess... For next report, I’ll try to find something that is easier to get the opinions from the listeners.

Bubble tea

Did y'all know you could get bubble tea (tapioka tea) at the Nana Café? It's not on the main menu, so maybe not many people have noticed. I like to order milk tea and put sugar in it, but you can also choose beverages like maccha and cocoa (I think?). You might also be able to order your favorite drink and ask for them to put tapioka in it, but I've never tried it before so I'm not exactly sure. I'm not a bubble tea expert, but I think it tastes pretty good:)

I miss Chinese food 😿

 Chinese food is spicy and have a strong taste, the Chinese restaurant in Japan did some adjustment on their dishes so it doesn't taste the same. I miss that taste so much so I have some instant food and sweets delivered from China, funny thing is food didn't cost over 6000 en but the shipping fee is 8000 en. Looking forward to have it arrived at my home so can I EAT IT~~~~

Next book report

I watched the movie The Shaws shank redemption this week, such a good film I wonder how could I never watched it before. And I find out it is adapted by it’s original novel. So I might read the novel too and compare it to the movie version of it as my next book report assignment.

TFW when you miss the last train

You’ve been drinking so happily to the point where you forget the existence of the last train
You go to bathroom, become sober, and feel like you should check when your last train is
You realize that you have already missed your last train, and your friends start leaving so that they don’t miss theirs

Crap

At least you get to see the sun rise, and it’s beautiful

the lost thing

Symbol
door-the border between the two different world
bell-the way of showing the feeling
road sign-sign of where to go
Theme
I thought it was trying to look at the surroundings more.

the lost thing

Symbol
town- school/workplace
citizens- people in the major group
the lost thing- people in the minor group
bell- signal of 'help'
dark room- depression
colorful place- heaven/ death

Theme
I think the creator wanted to remove the 'a nail that sticks out get hammered' kind of society. The lost thing, which is the minority has a different appearance from the other citizens, and is not being recognized by them. The creator wanted the people in the majority to realize that discrimination can lead to people having depression and even cause them to end their life.

The Lost Thing

~Symbol~

Robot- imagination/creativity

Bell-  happiness/joy

Lights(ornaments)- bright side of life

Gate- the wall between reality and imagination

TV- social media and how we are easily affected by it

Arrow- direction towards our goals and dreams

Town- the world today


~Theme~

I believe that the main theme of this video was to show the world that we live in a third person point of view. Because we live in this society too distracted by social media and such that we do not recognize what the world has changed into since the beginning of time. The creator may have wanted us to see that we lost color in life and that we need to live with passion and creativity in order to notice all the good and the beautiful sides to life.

The lost thing

Symbols

book - knowledge
bell - lost things emotion
TV - source of information
tall gray building - place to get rid of unknown organism
arow - sign to destination
colourful place - place where any body can live in peace (utopia)

Theme
I think that this film is telling that nobody is alone and there is a place where you are accepted. It could also take as an irony for the racist who think it is strange when someone is different to others.

Facebook

I was on Facebook today to look at what my friends in high school were doing and found a video that was taken in my English class in junior year. It was during the end of the year, so my teacher set up a Wii on the projector and some of my classmates started playing Smash Bros. on it. I remember how much I hated that class because there weren't that many girls in the class;) One time one of my classmates had jumped out of the window, and I think there is a video of that somewhere too, but I couldn't find it.
Anyways, it was fun seeing these things from high school. It reminded me about some of the memories I had forgotten.
(I'm still not going to remake my Facebook account though)

Dism

I can't remember who exact, but I remember someone posting about a band named  "Official髭男dism "and I decided to check them out on Youtube. And I'm glad that I did because they have really catchy songs like "Pretender" and I'm really into them at the moment. ((So thank you to the person that posted about this group :)

The lost shoes

I have lost my shoes for playin basketball. I think I have left it in the train, too bad. So I'll recommend you guys to double check your properties before getting of a train. Anyway, now I need to use my old one until I buy another.

So fast

It's already June. Almost half of the year has passed. Can you guys believe it!? I can't.. The time flies so fast. I still have so many things that I want to do, but I don't think I have enough time for them, Hehe.

The Lost Thing

Symbols

The lost thing - creativity, imagination, freedom

The arrows - signs of where they should go

The colorful city - new place, freedom

The bell - the feeling of the lost thing.

The black city - dull place

Message

I think this short film tried to tell us that it is important to have our own imagination. There is nobody that are needless, we all have somewhere that we belong to. 

This week

This week there are several things I’m looking forward to. First, on Thursday I will be going to a concert of a band that I like! I’ve been looking forward to it for a while. Also, on Saturday I’m going to go to Disney! I’m excited because it’s my birthday as well!

The Lost Thing

Symbols:
the world - adults who forgot to have fun
the lost thing - creativity, memory, childishness, originality, imagination
people in white uniforms - fade of memory
the other world - memory of childhood
ball - childishness
bells - cause of recalling memory

Theme:
The animation takes place in a dystopia where people had forgotten to enjoy their lives. The film is giving alert to the modern society where people are too busy to look back at their memories and stay childish. Steve Jobs once told in his speech that he has always remembered to "stay hungry, stay foolish". Being foolish, you question things, and without that childless, there is no good creativity. Things are becoming uniformed and dull, but we must be careful not to forget important things because of busyness.

The lost thing

Symbol

The lost thing – Dreams, hopes, and fun we have in our childhood.

The bell – The voice, emotion, and feelings of the lost thing.

Sirens – goodbyes

Train – restriction

Town – Forceful society

Theme

The story’s theme is that no matter where you go, or what kind of environment you live, it is important to have your own sense of creativity, imagination, and uniqueness. Finding your difference to other people helps you create your own identity, and one must not restrict themselves just to adjust to the society.

Middle name

I have a middle name and it is Allison. It is because I  hold a dual citizenship in Japan and America. I get asked so many times, but no, I am not mixed race. My mother is from Okinawa, and that is probably why I get mistaken by people that I am not a complete Japanese. But I get asked too many times that I’m starting to wonder if I really don’t have the blood of a different country... I got off track, but do you have a middle name??

The Lost Thing

Symbols:

The Bell- It shows the feelings of the Lost thing

The Lost Thing- Childhood feelings (creativity, uniqueness, joy, imagination)

Train- Shows the repeating everyday cycle controlled by time

Key/Arrow Sign- Hopes for seeking a better and brand new pathway 

Gray Smoke- A dull city where people lost their emotions and creativity

World with Pastel Colors- The memories that we once had but not anymore. 

Theme(Message):

I believe that through this short movie, the director Shawn Tan is trying to tell us that the power of conformity and dangers of suppressing creativity and individuality. He tries to describe the things that we are hiding or we have forgotten due to the busy society that we live in without any creativity nor individuality through the lost thing. We live in an environment without any inconvenience, and this leads us to less need of creating new ideas. We tend to forget the joy and enjoyment that we would have in our childhood when be become adults. I believe that is why at the end the main character said that he doesn't see the lost thing anymore or at least not as much as he used todo. 

The Lost Thing

symbols
The lost thing - creativity, imagination
The dark city - dull society
The colorful world - hapiness,imagination, freedom
The gate dividing the two worlds - border line
Arrows - direction

Message
I believe this film was created to make people recognize the beautiful and unique things there are out in the world. In the film people do not look around to find beautiful things, instead they limit their sight because they are too busy. Nowadays, because of the usage of smartphones, the same thing could be said.

The lost thing

Symbol
The lost thing; creativeness and pureness that adults has forgotten about
The grey buildings; the dull life and society that doesn’t change much
The colorful place behind the big wall; happiness, creativeness, imagination that people have forgotten
The big door; complete division between the two world
The long paths to the big door; the difficulty of getting it back
Theme
I think the theme is to tell people(adults) how much they are losing the creativeness and pureness that they had as a child. They also tells that even though it is deep inside and maybe closed that feeling should still exist somewhere. We need to realize this and still always remember our feelings from childhood.

Sister

My sister will be coming back from America tomorrow!
Well, rather than calling it 'coming back', I think 'visiting' is the right term, because she will leave again after two months.
The last time she came back was about 1.5 years ago. I kind of predicted that she will come to Japan this year, but I thought it will be around July. She decided suddenly and told us less than a week before. All of my family members were surprised but happy about it. My grandparents miss her a lot but they still don't know that she is coming back to Japan. I am excited to bring her to their house without telling them beforehand😂😂😂

Hula

Yesterday I went to see my friend’s hula performance. She will be going to a University in Malaysia this summer, so this was my last chance to see her performance before she goes. I have seen her hula a couple of times. Every time I see her performance, it makes me feel very happy and proud. I easily get tired of doing one thing, so I admire and respect people who have things that they are engaged to or good at.
What are everybody’s hobbies? Do you have anything that you have been working on for a long time?

The lost thing

Symbols
The city: dull society where creativity is forgotten
The lost things: creativity, pureness, imagination that are forgotten by people
The big gray building: pressure of the society that takes away creativity from people
Colorful world: place where everyone’s childhood creativity and imagination belong after they are forgotten by people
The thickness of the door that divides the colorful world and the city: how adults cannot easily get their creativity back
Message
I think this film maker wanted to remind the adults of creativity and imagination. The movie Marry Poppins had a similar message. The second Marry Poppins movie emphasized that with one’s imagination and creativity, anything can be possible and they can give people hope. Aside from giving hope to people, I think imagination can reduce discrimination. No matter how different people may be from each other, they can try to imagine what others may think or act in order to get along.

To Wataru

I never knew that you've been in Hokkaido. (though you might not have any memories) I always wanted to go their to eat delicious seafood and go skiing. Let's go to Hokkaido together someday.

where I was born and raised

I was born in Hokkaido because my mother's hometown is Hokkaido. However, my family lived in Kanagawa, so right after I was born, I went to Kanagawa and was raised there.

Akira

There is going to be a live-action movie of Akira by Warner Bros. in 2021, which is going to be produced by Leonardo DiCaprio. I never watched the animated film for Akira, but my parents have Akira's manga series, and I read them in my childhood. I saw this news on Twitter last week, and I have mixed feelings about it. 
First, I'm glad the movie won't be made in Japan because it will be in low-quality for sure(in my opinion). However, I don't think the atmosphere can be illustrated in a live-action movie as it does in the manga. Also, English translation of the quotes that each character says may have a different nuance from what they are actually saying in Japanese. 
I think it could've been better if they just made another animated movie for the manga, not a live-action one. I don't know why the entertainers keep on making live-action movies for the mangas and animes when people are telling them not to. 
I might still watch the film when it comes out, though. 

Comments Enabled

Thanks to Ayumi for her good message. I have fixed the comments to this point. There is a bug in the system that does not allow me to default the comments function, meaning that I have to manually turn on comments for each post. But, I have to moderate each post anyway so I am happy to do that if we can increase our interaction on the blog. Blog on! :)

Insidious

I just watched insidious yesterday. It was so interesting that I also watched part 2 and part 3 in one day. It was a good mixture of fiction and reality which made the movie more appealing to myself. I was really sad to see Elise die in the 1st part.

Concert

On Thursday, I went to Lauv’s concert with my friend Chihiro. I had been listening to his songs since he was not as famous as he is now, so going to his concert was one of my dreams for a pretty long time. What I love about his songs are the lyrics. Right now I’m reading The Notebook for my book report, and the lyrics of “The Story Never Ends” matches one of the scenes in the story a lot. Whenever you have time, please check out his songs!