ネイティブが教える英会話のジェムスクール☆Teachers☆

One of the blogs I posted a couple of months back discussed a book I had begun reading about the UK Legal System and who's author was the Secret Barrister. Well, the other night whilst browsing Reddit, I discovered that the Secret Barrister had published a new book: Nothing but the Truth.

This book is definitely more autobiographical in nature in that it discusses their secondary school education through university studies through their being called to the Bar and becoming a barrister. I purchased an electronic copy of the book and so far I am finding myself satisfied with the purchase. I may purchase a hardcopy in the future, given that I am slowly reading the digital copy and much prefer paperbacks. AND the price tag for said hardcopy is not too outrageous.


  

Ever since coming to Japan and having to find a way to feed myself every day since arriving, I have had a few interesting encounters with pre-made foods at the convenience store. In general, fried chicken, desserts and bottled drinks are what they say they are. But, when it comes to pre-made salads, sandwiches, onigiri and even bagged snacks, there is often an unexpected visitor: fish.

It first started when I browsed the aisles of the convenience store, looking for a tasty midnight treat to tide me over until breakfast, and I happened upon what I thought was only small strips of cheddar cheese in a bag. Only when I bit into one of them did I taste a surprisingly “fishy” flavor. I immediately re-examined the package and saw that I had missed a vital component of the snack’s labeling. The food in question was “cheese wrapped in cod strips” or something of the like, but the dried cod strips were so thin on the cheese that I didn’t notice them at first. I included a picture of this type of snack above. :)

It was only a week or so later when this same surprise struck again. I wanted to pick up a premade noodle and chicken salad for lunch, and didn’t examine the outer packaging very much. From the outside, it looked to be only that. It was only when I tasted the dressing’s distinctly “fishy” flavor that I re-read the label and saw that it was “cod roe cream dressing”. I had to throw the salad away because I was not in the mood for any kind of fish at the time.

It is a funny, if not disappointing discovery to make when you don’t expect or want it. In America, this isn’t an issue, since fish is not commonly inserted into foods such as salads or bagged snacks. However, with a different culture’s palate, comes a different desired flavor profile in everything. In general, I love the Japanese flavor profile, but sometimes it strikes in ways that I do not expect. Ever since these “fishy” incidents, I make sure to read labels closely, as to be completely aware of what might be secretly hidden in plain sight.
  

Which do you prefer, cats or dogs? Personally, I like dogs more than cats. I like very big dogs because I'm also quite big so it's fun having a large dog by my side. But, I still think cats are very fun and cute as well. My friend has a lot of cats and I often see hers and they make me happy. Which do you prefer and why?  

I planted bitter melon and they didn't wilt to nothing! I'm looking forward to eating that classic okinawa dish with my own goya. It's almost as expensive as the meat sometimes. The price is not important. The taste is worth it.

Do you like goya champuru too?

  

I celebrated my birthday recently and had this excellent cake. It was so delicious! It was a super fun birthday because I spent it with my best friends.  

My next few blog entries will be about Brian Eno,
as mentioned before. I will start with "Before and
After Science" which was actually Eno's fifth
album, but I start with it because it was the first
album of his I heard, back in 1977. Eno's music can
be classified as either "rock" or the more avant-
garde "ambient" music. BAAS is primarily a rock
album. One of the most notable tracks is "By This River" a track he made with the group Cluster. Phil Collins of Genesis plays drums on a few tracks.  

The Enso Circle is a Zen Buddhist symbol that is used in Japan to convey the idea of infinity, imperfection, enlightenment, and a variety of other concepts that Buddhism promotes in their beliefs.

The word Enso basically means a circular form/shape. It is typically written with a special calligraphy ink called sumie in one brush stroke and left incomplete – where the circle is left open and cannot be altered once drawn or painted. With one stroke, the Enso embodies the Buddhist concept of Wabi Sabi, which believes that everything is imperfect, incomplete, and impermanent.

There are many different interpretations of the Enso Circle, and each one has value to the person who interprets it. That being said, the simplest way to look at the Enso is as the cyclical nature of life (with birth and death), or nature and the changing seasons that repeat once the circle has been completed. A kind of circle of life – if you will!
l  

Have you ever seen laser tag? It's a fun activity that I did in the summer. There was one summer that I went often. We even paid for a membership so that we could have Player names.
When you shoot the other player, it tells you the name of the player. You also run around and shoot zone markers. The room is big and decorated with neon paint. It pops under blacklight.

Being a part of a team was just for fun, but others were intimidated! They thought we were the best but actually, I wasn't very good! I tried but I got caught a lot. Hiding was sometimes helpful, but it's boring. Do they have laser tag in Japan?  

This is a woodpecker. I think it is a bird called a kumagera. The black woodpecker is the largest woodpecker in Japan and is quite rare.
I enjoy walking around in the forest and taking photos of birds. It requires patience and is also relaxing at the same time. When I saw this bird I was actually trying to photograph a different type of bird and saw this one.   

The first module of the degree program that I am starting on June 27th, Data Structures and Algorithms, makes heavy use of the Java programming language. Not only does it make heavy use of it, the module actually tries to educate you with as much of the programming language as it can in a two week time frame before moving onto the more pressing contents. So, I have been trying to find the best way to prepare for that....I don't want to get overwhelmed too quickly right at the start. I think I may have found a resource that will help me, and my next post will cover it.


  

I feel like all of us developed a bit of a problem with online shopping during the pandemic. With nowhere to go in the early days of it, the only way to entertain ourselves was to either watch content online, or temporarily satisfy our brains by going on the hunt for a new item of the day and clicking “purchase”.
Luckily, at the time, I had the means to do this without much worry, since my mom let me use her credit card to purchase smaller items online.
I think I exploited that privilege pretty heavily during the pandemic. I am not going to lie, I am not proud of the amount of pointless fast fashion, skincare products and home decor that I bought to satisfy a hole in my soul that they were not going to solve.
And even worse, I would inevitably end up reselling the majority of the stuff on Mercari, a second hand resale app, since I only ended up liking around 20% of what I bought.
You’re probably thinking to yourself “Ariel is a spoiled brat!” and you’d be right. At least, the past version of me was. I completely condemn the behavior of 2020 me, don’t worry.
With the world opening up and us all having more and more to do, the problem faded from prominence. I got a job in the States and had better things to do with my time. I even, now, am diligent about only spending money that I have earned, myself, unless absolutely necessary. I’m glad I have a mother with the means to help me out in this way, but we are both glad that I am not doing it anymore.

  

The NBA finals have begun and I'm very excited. The two teams who are in competition to be the NBA Champion are the Golden State Warriors and the Boston Celtics. The Warriors best player is a man named Stephen Curry. Stephen Curry is extremely good, he is the greatest shooter in NBA history, he's a 2x MVP, and a 3x NBA Champion. The Celtics best player is a young man named Jason Tatum. He has a lot less experience than Curry, but Tatum is also very good. His mentor was Kobe Bryant and Tatum plays very similar to him. I'm excited to see who will win the NBA Finals.   

The Takamatsu art museum has great rotations. This one was really for the kids, but I had a blast. The "yokai" room was a clear winner for me. Yokai are great, and if you like them too then go to Shodo island for the Yokai museum.

Do you recognize any of these from kids books? The authors have a large library of books for infants and preschool kids.   

Do you like pizza? This is from Mariage, in Kanonji. The Italian-European food there is phenomenal!  

My next few blog entries will be about Brian Eno.
Eno is a keyboard player, composer, record
producer and sound innovator. He first came to
prominence in the late seventies with the band
Roxy Music. He has acted as producer for many
others: U2, Talking Heads, Devo, Coldplay and
Ultravox, to name a few. His own music varies
between rock music and avant garde "ambient"
music. I will explain more in subsequent blogs.  

Water is one of the major sources of life on earth. Water covers over 70% of the planet, but approximately only 3% of this water is fresh water, and per the World Wildlife Foundation about 2/3 of this fresh water is located in glaciers or in areas unavailable to utilize.

Water is used to sustain in life in so many ways. We drink it, cook with it, use it for farming irrigation, bathe in it, etc. Thus, the importance of water cannot be understated. Over 1 billion people worldwide lacking access to water, and over 2.5 billion people have only a scarcity of water at their disposal. Sanitation issues also account for serious water borne diseases in over 2 billion people. Of these diseases, more than 2 million people annually die from water-related issues – most of them children.

Water problems have been around for thousands of years. In today’s world the water problem has become more prominent and serious due to large populations and overcrowding. The overuse and consumption of water (especially in the western nations), along with climate change, have prompted serious concerns from most nations in the world. This crisis will likely get worse by 2025 (per the World Wildlife Foundation), and may cause serious water shortages in over two-thirds of the world’s population.

More needs to be done to increase worldwide awareness to this problem, and people everywhere need to be more careful in conserving their use of water. Water will not last forever, and until we find a solution to this most serious issue we will need to do our utmost to help out in our own way!
  

One of the things that my mother sent me was candy. I was very happy to see some Snowcaps! This is a movie candy that I grew to enjoy. It is made of chocolate chips that are covered in sprinkles! They're so good! It's very nostalgic for me to eat these right now. Maybe I should save one box for a new movie soon?  

A grey heron getting ready for take off from the shore of Lake Toya. I am not completely sure this is a grey heron but it looked like one. I really enjoy seeing these birds. They walk around on the shore of the lake looking for food and are quite large. This is one of the largest ones I have seen.