ネイティブが教える英会話のジェムスクール☆Teachers☆

This week I got a Fitbit! A Fitbit is a little device that you can wear to keep track of your exercise. I got a purple Fitibit that I can wear on my wrist. I have been playing with all of the settings and checking all the data it is collecting very often. I think I am checking so often because it is so new and there isn't much data yet. I am very curious to see what the data will tell me about myself in a few weeks. I am so excited to see all the information!



  

First of all, like many of you, I despise doing household chores, but it is something that is necessary to living a peaceful life.

Living in dirty clutter might be okay for some people, but not me! My OCD kicks in when I see dirt and messes (that doesn't mean I automatically pick it up) and it adds to my stress level.

Camilo and I share the chores, we divide them so it's fair and convenient. We take turns cooking, doing the dishes, vacuuming, etc. There are some things that only Camilo does, for instance mopping because it is very bad for my back, and then I clean anything that needs bleach because it is bad for Camilo's lungs.

When the house is clean we are both happy!

How do you go about cleaning your house?  

Hello Again!

I thought I was going to miss out on seeing the plum blossoms this year because I missed the plum blossom festival in Saijo. Luckily I went to Matsuyama last weekend and I was able to see many blossoms!




Many of the blossoms on the trees were already gone. But a few trees were still full of bright pink blossoms. They looked so beautiful!

Were you able to see any blossoms? Where did you go? Let me know!

Thanks for reading,

Kristen  

Do you like Chai tea? Did you know there are different ways to make Chai tea that doesn't involve a tea bag? I recently learned how to make Chai tea from a friend, and the process to make it is very different from just steeping a tea bag or straining loose-leaf tea. It involves a pot, water, loose-leaf chai tea, ginger, Cardamom seeds and sugar (optional) oh and of course, milk! With all these ingredients in a pot you just let it boil. It's really tasty and I've become addicted to it!

Do you like Chai?

- James Barbosa  

Last weekend I got to go to the Utazu Hinamatsuri Festival. It was really cool seeing all the collections of dolls along the street. We don't have any festivals like that where I'm from. The dolls all looked really pretty, and there were some really nice kimonos that were made for them as well on sale. I also got to see several statues made completely out of 5 yen coins. It was super cool.   

Last week I mentioned the care package my parents sent us. Today we bring you a couple of items that were inside. I enjoy cooking quite a bit, but it can be a slight headache when your knife isn’t sharp enough to get through the tomato skin without spilling the insides of it. Before becoming a teacher in the U.S. I had a variety of small jobs like any regular college student. One of those jobs was selling cutlery, which is just a fancy way of saying knives. This job required me to travel regularly and without a car that meant 2-8 hours of travel time on public transportation each day. As a college student I simply did not have that kind of time. When I left the job I was able to purchase the set of knives I used for demonstrations with an 80% discount.

In America my mother did most of the cooking so it made sense for her to use my knives. Now that I am cooking in Japan I need my knives; so I asked my mother to send me a couple and for her to keep the ones she uses the most. The knives are really made to make your life easier. They make any task in the kitchen a snap. You do have to be very careful, because the knives are so sharp they can be very dangerous. Sadie accidentally ended up cutting a tendon on her hand. This required surgery and very painful therapy. If you have ever had to cut anything with greasy hands you know just how often knives tend to slip. Well with my knives I don’t have to worry about it. The special material used on the handle means they never slip with grease, water, soap, or anything for that matter. The blades or teeth, depending on the knife, are incredibly sharp. Even the steak knife is sharp! It makes it easy for people with bad arthritis to cut their own steak. Sadie has terribly weak joints and for her this knife is perfect. The best part is that they come with a lifetime guarantee. If I believe they aren’t as sharp as when I first got them I can send them back and have them resharpened. If they get really old, maybe 15 years from now, I can have them replaced with the newer models!

I must admit the one downside of the knives is that you can’t sharpen them yourself. For most chefs or cooking aficionados this is a deal breaker. In the past 5 years these knives have not needed any sort of sharpening so I am very happy with them.

Do you like cooking? How are your knives? Do you feel they are good enough or do you enjoy having higher quality tools for your trade?   

Oh my! What could this be? It's so cute! It looks like a squirrel.

Last weekend, my sister told me that she and her boyfriend got a sugar glider as a pet! We call it a sugar glider because it loves sweet foods (like fruits) and can glide through the air. I didn't know that American pet stores were selling these animals, but lots of people have said that they make good pets.

Sugar gliders came from Australia and Indonesia rain-forests. They are from the same family as the koala, which might be why they love to be in pouches, pockets, and bags! They are very intelligent and good for people with allergies (like myself). They are nocturnal animals (meaning that they're awake in the night time) but they can be trained to be awake when everyone else is.

When I go back to visit my sister, I'm going to have a very unique roommate!

  

I was never big on clothes shopping. I guess most guys aren't really. But I have been in Japan nearly two years, with pretty much the same clothes that I brought with me. Yes, I have bought an occasional t-shirt, or pair of pants. But it was pretty much the same mess of clothes everyday. I have been thinking about a new wardrobe for a while now, but haven't really had the money or time or money. But now that Spring is here, and with a little help, I think I can manage something. I have already junked a bunch of my clothes (brought to Hard-Off, only made about $10, hahaha). So I'm down quite a bit of clothes, but I also received a bunch of nice ones that apparently suit me (courtesy of my friend). So now I want to get a bit more, especially going into Spring and Summer. I'll need to ask my friend to come shopping with me to see what looks best on me, and how to match up clothes, hahaha.  

The wonderfully temperate rainy days of spring have started! It is an amazing season of life and new beginnings! The plum trees have already blossomed and dropped their flowers and next are the cherry trees! I can't wait! Cherry trees are so beautiful! They are so gentle and short lived! I really hope you all get to go out and see them. Even if it's only one tree go see it! They are amazing to ponder on! Take a book, sit under a tree, and read!  

Hello!

Today, I want to talk a little bit about a subject I hold near and dear to me, the movies. I have been a big fan of movies ever since I can remember, and at one point, was even going to school to learn to be an actor with the purpose of trying to be in them.

In the last couple of years, I have seen fewer and fewer of them, for a number of reasons: I havent had the time to spend watching movies like I did in high school and university, and the kind of movies that I enjoy just aren't being made in great numbers anymore. I have never been a fan of the slew of superhero movies that have been made in the last decade or so (with the exception of the Dark Knight series, which I love), and many of the Hollywood made films just don't interest me.

The kinds of movies that I enjoy has always been hard to define. Like music, movies to me are an art form, and there's no way to express in black and white terms what's good and bad. Generally, if there's a unique story or something about the filmmaking that shows a personal touch, I'll be much more receptive to that movie. Sometimes it's a filmmaking technique, or an actor's performance that strikes a personal note with me, but there has to be something that I can identify with as an audience member.

One great example of both a personal touch in directing, and standout performances by the actor is a Russian film that was produced during and after the second world war called Ivan the Terrible. It is part biography and part metaphor, detailing the life and rise to power of one of the most infamous Russian Tsars, Ivan IV. Done entirely in black and white (except for one sceen near the end), thus film was made during a time of great artistic repression by the state, and has been the subject of many controversies in its time, mostly due to the idea that people weren't sure if it was pro-soviet or anti-soviet at the time.

Directed by Sergei Eisenstein, who was the father of modern day filmmaking and the inventor of many of the film techniques that are used today, Ivan The Terrible is a fascinating study of the corrupting influence of power, even for a good purpose. I have not seen if there are Japanese subtitles available for this movie (it's all in Russian, of course, andn I had to watch with the English subtitles), but there have been lots of printings and re-releases of it through the years, and I'm sure a copy of it exists either online or in video stores.

Alex  

Lately I've been completely obsessed with something new, skin care! I've always loved make-up, but I never really worried about what I should put underneath it. That is, until a few weeks ago when I found... WRINKLES!

Ok, so I'm only 23, and there are definitely worse things than wrinkles but I was still very surprised. I realized I haven't been kind to my skin, I was sleeping with my make-up on, and even worse I never wore sun screen! Sun screen is important for preventing more than wrinkles, it also prevents skin cancer! I realized that I needed to make a change for my own health (skin cancer is much scarier than wrinkles!) so I started to do some research and got completely hooked on skin care!

I decided to challenge myself that every morning and night I'd go through multiple skincare steps, including cleansing my face, moisturizing my face, and most importantly applying sunscreen in the morning. I wanted to do this for one week (and continue using the sunscreen forever), but I ended up loving it so much that I've done it every morning and night for the past three weeks!
What started as a fun challenge has turned into a way to relax and spend some time taking care or myself.

Taking care of my skin is my way of making sure I give my body the care it needs, and my success this month has inspired me to look after myself in other ways and try to adopt more healthy habits. I hope I can become a healthier person from now on.

Here is one of my favorite things to use! It's a mask with honey and black sugar. Honey is really good for cleaning acne prone skin, because it's naturally anti-bacterial!



You only get one body, how do you care for yours?

  

  

Hey, all—

A new movie opened in Japan this weekend. I'd love to see it if I get some time. It's called The Big Short, and it just won an Oscar for its screenplay... but I can't watch The Big Short in Japan. In Japan, the movie's called... Money Short. The only trouble is, "money short" is nonsense English!

One of the oddest things about living in Japan is seeing English film titles get changed to different English titles for their Japanese release. Usually the Japanese titles are either worse, or complete nonsense. For example, The Martian, about a man trapped on Mars, was renamed... Odyssey. This title makes no sense—although Ulysses is stranded several times in the original Odyssey, the word "Odyssey" means "a very long journey." It's the opposite of being stuck in one place! Other current examples include:

—Point Break, which is called "X-Mission" here
—The Finest Hours, which is "The Blizzard" (the movie is about... a rescue at sea), and
—London Has Fallen, the sequel to Olympus Has Fallen. The new movie is called, "End of Kingdom" in Japan, because the original was called... "End of White House."

Now, the Japanese title is not always worse than the original. I will never forget how hard I laughed when I heard a deep-voiced narrator bellow the Japanese title of Fast Five: "WILD SPEED: MEGA MAX!!!" That title is so absurd, I have to love it.

Sometimes even when titles are translated into Japanese, the Japanese title is... odd. My favorite example is We Need to Talk About Kevin, which here is called, "少年は残酷な弓を射る." This means, "The Boy Wields a Cruel Bow," or maybe, "The Boy Is a Cruel Archer." This title is what we call "a little too on point."

Of course, other countries do this too. South Korea renamed In Bruges "Killer City," and cut about 20 minutes of the movie, so you never know what to expect overseas!

—Matthew  

I recently moved to Kagawa from Hokkaido and I love the warm winter weather here. Where I lived in Hokkaido, snow falls almost every day in the winter. People have to shovel off the roofs to prevent the weight of the snow from collapsing the buildings. I don't miss shoveling snow!  

Nestled away in Matsuyama is a tonkatsu restaurant called Kiyomaru.


They serve a fried rice and tonkatsu dish that is nothing short of amazing. I love it.
They also have a really delicious katsu sandwich. I can't recommend this place enough.

It's very close to Takashimaya, just down the street in fact. Give it a try the next time you're in Matsuyama.
  

As I have mentioned in blog posts before, I love reading. One thing I love to read over and over again are fairytales! I love to read the orignal versions, and i especially love to read modern retellings! Retelling fairytales is very popular right now, and I can't get my hands on enough of them. Reading them makes me feel the way i did when i was just a little girl hearing them for the first time. One thing i rmember best from fairy tales if the Prince Charming. This was the man who would always come in and save the day. One fairyale that I remeber is called "The Frog Prince". In this fairytale a young princess finds a frog and promises to do him any favour he asks. He starts asking for small things, and eventually he asks her for a kiss. When the princess kisses him, he transforms into a handsome prince! This week I met my frog prince!
Isn't he cute?

Do you like fairy tales? Which one is your favourite?


-Taylor  

So just to let you all know my birthday is on March 6th! Which is this Sunday, tomorrow! I will be turning 24, a nice even number.

Every year around my birthday my mother starts to tell me the same things, how my Aunt and Grandfather were already in town having her walk around the block to induce labor, and how at this time 24 years ago she was on her way to the hospital, this and that. I know the whole story by now but it's nice that she wants to tell me every year!

When's your birthday?  

Like I said in my last post I am really looking forward to Spring. It inspired me to make a new resin pendant. It is shaped like a teardrop. I used red and white to make a pink color. I also added lots of pink glitter and some gold cherry blossom shaped flowers. I added some small pearls and a piece of chain in the back. It was so much fun to make!

Have you ever worked with resin? Let me know!

Thanks for reading,

Kristen
  

Have you ever seen a time-lapse video of the Milky-Way? It's absolutely beautiful. A time-lapse is a technique whereby the frequency at which film frames are captured is much lower than that used to view the sequence. When played at normal speed, time appears to be moving faster and thus lapsing.

Many astronomers use this technique to capture amazing videos of space. You can find many of them and they're all very beautiful.

Here is another of a time-lapse from NASA:



Awesome, don't you think?

- James Barbosa





  

I also went to Edinburgh on my trip. It was super beautiful. In fact, I think its the most beautiful city I've ever seen. Everything is made of old stone.

If you think it looks familiar it might be because this is where they filmed Diagon Alley for the Harry Potter movies.

While there I ate Haggis, which is a traditional Scottish dish. I was super excited because my family's ancestors are Scottish, and I always wanted to go there and try haggis out. It was delicious