ネイティブが教える英会話のジェムスクール☆Teachers☆

Man it's cold lately. I've finally had to turn on my heater and get out the winter futon.




It snowed in Tokyo in november! That's crazy rare, the first time in 54 years. I miss the snow, and I'm excited to experience it here again.

  

When we were in Matsuyama, my friends and I went to Matsuyama Castle! This was very exciting. I loved seeing an original Japanese castle, and the historical features were all really fascinating! I also liked seeing all of the old samurai armor and swords. They were really beautiful in their workmanship and so different from European armor. There was even an area where you could try on some fake armor to see how it felt and how heavy it was. One of my friends tried it on, and got some really great pictures. I was so jealous! I would have tried it on too, but I was already wearing a kimono. Putting on armor over the kimono that I was wearing would have been very difficult, though it might have been funny, now that I think about it. Maybe I will get to try the armor next time!  

Hello!

Today, like last week, I want to talk about another civic holiday in Canada that we celebrate. In Canada we have national holidays, like Christmas or New Years, where businesses close and Government takes the day off, and other ones called Civic Holidays, which we observe, but companies and businesses continue to be open. This holiday, celebrated on the first Monday of August, is called Terry Fox Day, and is meant to commemorate a young man named Terry Fox who tried to run across Canada to raise money to help find a cure for Cancer. In the late 1970's, Fox, who was diagnosed with cancer and had to have his leg amputated, attempted to run across Canada for what he called the Marathon of Hope. He started in St. John's, Newfoundland, and ran 5,373 Km before he was forced to stop due to his failing health.

Canadians today still celebrate his historic run, and marathons and races to raise money for cancer research are held every year in his honour. I remember being in elementary school and running with my whole class to help, and students will go around to local businesses or to people they know to ask for donations to the cause.  

Pictured is my old reading chair from last year. My neighbor had it all along. It was something I had bought out of my own pocket to sit in for the personal library I was building last year before I left. I got it originally from my local Daiki after I went around to several other furniture stores to try out their offerings. I was actually reluctant to settle down to Daiki for my hunt since the other chairs at Nitori and the like were far superior. However, I had to take a realistic stance and accept the fact that I had already planned to leave Japan last year to make my return to academia, so I did end up throwing down my ego and going for this chair here. I spent about an hour in the store just sitting in this chair among the other alternatives on display, getting a feel for its back support by sitting in it in various positions, shifting here and there with various leg postures, folded or straight out or one brought up so that I could read with my head on it. I even remember sitting in it sideways so that my back was supported by an arm while my legs were thrown over the other arm. It is extremely important for someone like me with a long torso and bad reading habits to have a comfortable and ergonomical chair to nuzzle in. My neighbor, who had it the whole time, from last December when I left to just last week when she returned it, even found it comfortable and useful to meet her gaming needs. It isn’t perfect, since the ergonomic curve supporting the lumbar region has too sharp of a gap where its hinge is, and the chair can only be set into three different settings of incline. It’s come back to its original master at the perfect time, as the dropping temperatures will make for wonderful reading weather. I’ve placed it right in front of the window in order to get ample sunlight during the day, and so I can take in a beautiful view of rooftops and mountains during the night, as well as a nice breeze whenever the weather would be so gracious. Normally I would just read on my bed, sprawled on the tatami mats, or on the folded futon couch thing my friend gave me, all far from ideal places to support my reading habits, since in the first two places my supine position would often encourage me to doze off and the last place didn’t give me any comfortable writing surface should it arise that I’d need to make a note on any of my readings. With this chair all of that is fixed, since I now have chair armrests atop which I can place my notebook or book or elbows during my reading sessions. Normally, as I report here in this blog, I would just go to a cafe like Starbucks, Junkudo, or Joyfull for my study needs, but now I have added to that last of haunts my own place!

Oh, and I’ve decided on my kanji name! I’m pretty confident on 恵等詠履媛, or ケイトウエイリエン for Arian Cato. I’ll write on why I’ve chosen these kanji for my name in my next post.