http://lang-8.com/289828/journals/rss kuro's latest journal entries Lang-8 Inc. Thu May 23 03:08:19 UTC 2013 Thu May 23 03:08:19 UTC 2013 Lang-8 http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss Lang-8 I want to explain it in English.

We need more than 3 players and prepare an empty can.
1. stand the can on a ground and draw circle around it.
2. choose one tagger.
3. kick the can for starting the game.(a player except the tagger does.)
4. tagger picks up the can and put it on where it was and counts 60 seconds.
While the tagger are doing so, other players have to hide.


The tagger have to stop others from kicking the can.
When the tagger finds other players, he calls their names and steps on the can.
Then the tagger catches them. A player whose name is called have to stay within circle around the can. When the tagger can catch all players, he wins.

Other players have to sneak to kick the can.
When they succeed to kick the can, players caught by the tagger are released.
The game restarts again from 4 and continues till the tagger catches all players.


This game is very fun to play.
However, I'm not sure whether kids play it now in Japan.

Posted at Mon Jan 28 13:32:24 UTC 2013
]]> http://lang-8.com/289828/journals/51071961811090975587365062976139945547 http://lang-8.com/289828/journals/51071961811090975587365062976139945547 kuro Mon Jan 28 13:32:24 UTC 2013
All receipts you receive in Taiwan have 8 digits numbers.
They are not only receipt, but also government-run lottery.
This aims to increase tax income.It's very unique and attracting idea. Winning numbers were announced Nov. 25th.
I checked my receipts, but I didn't win the lottery.

Posted at Thu Nov 29 14:02:53 UTC 2012
]]> http://lang-8.com/289828/journals/1802140 http://lang-8.com/289828/journals/1802140 kuro Thu Nov 29 14:02:53 UTC 2012 We've been there for honeymoon 3 years ago.
So it is like our second honeymoon.
I'm really excited to go to Taiwan again.

I found a web page introduces delicious taiwanese foods.
ttp://www.cnngo.com/explorations/eat/40-taiwanese-food-296093
Every time I see the web page, I can't stop my mouth from watering.

Posted at Sun Oct 07 11:14:32 UTC 2012
]]> http://lang-8.com/289828/journals/1715690 http://lang-8.com/289828/journals/1715690 kuro Sun Oct 07 11:14:32 UTC 2012 This Sunday, I was going to join a marathon. However, I decided to give up participating in it.
I have to take some rest for a while to heal my knee. Wish me well.

Posted at Tue Oct 02 15:10:00 UTC 2012
]]> http://lang-8.com/289828/journals/1707766 http://lang-8.com/289828/journals/1707766 kuro Tue Oct 02 15:10:00 UTC 2012 It was about a British airplane company which tried to improve their meals served to passengers during international flight.
In the middle of the show, there was a scene a chef hired by the company said Umami so many times. Umami is the fifth taste sensation and it was discovered by a Japanese scientist.

I was surprised because I had never seen non-Japanese used the word before.
I didn't know Umami is a common word.

Posted at Mon Mar 12 15:09:42 UTC 2012
]]> http://lang-8.com/289828/journals/1360964 http://lang-8.com/289828/journals/1360964 kuro Mon Mar 12 15:09:42 UTC 2012
At the end of last month, I went to see drift ice with my wife.
We took on an ice-breaking ship to enjoy seeing it.
We were surprised that there were a lot of tourists from all around Japan.

It depends on the weather and temperature if we can see drift ice well.
If the temperature keeps warm, drift ice will go away from the land.
On the other hand, it will approach the land if it keeps cold.
Fortunately, it was so cold that the ocean was fulled with drift ice.
It was very beautiful.
We got excited when we heard the sound of drift ice broken by the ship.

Posted at Sat Mar 10 02:28:24 UTC 2012
]]> http://lang-8.com/289828/journals/1356402 http://lang-8.com/289828/journals/1356402 kuro Sat Mar 10 02:28:24 UTC 2012


My wife and I went to a snow mountain yesterday.
The weather was great for climbing the mountain.

We saw some people skiing on the mountain.
I thought it seemed fun to ski after reaching to the top.
Unfortunately, we don't have any ski equipments.
We climbed with snow shoe this time.

I want to buy ski till I go to the mountain next time.

Posted at Wed Feb 29 00:30:06 UTC 2012
]]> http://lang-8.com/289828/journals/1339199 http://lang-8.com/289828/journals/1339199 kuro Wed Feb 29 00:30:06 UTC 2012

My coworker invited me to go for ice fishing last week.
I had enjoyed ice fishing before. It was 6 years ago when I was a university student.

We went to a lake which is one of the most famous place for ice fishing in Hokkaido.
A person in charge of a fishing place drilled the surface of the lake.
We rent a tent and fished inside it.
It was exciting. We caught over 100 fishes.
We stopped counting the number of fish because we fried some of them right after we got them.
Fried fishes was very delicious.

Posted at Thu Feb 23 16:09:20 UTC 2012
]]> http://lang-8.com/289828/journals/1330391 http://lang-8.com/289828/journals/1330391 kuro Thu Feb 23 16:09:20 UTC 2012 Especially in winter, it is useful to warm our bed and body before falling into a sleep.
In addition, it's an environmentally-friendly goods.
Instead of keeping a heater on, we can easily sleep with a hot water bag in our bed.
Hot water bag is called Yutanpo(ゆたんぽ) in Japanese.

I recommend you to be careful not to get burned when you use it.
The other day, I actually got burned on my leg due to a hot water bag.
I went to a hospital to see a doctor.
Fortunately, he diagnosed it as a superficial burn injury.
He advised me to use a bag properly by following its instruction.
What a mess! I finally realized that the way I had used a bag was wrong.

Posted at Thu Feb 09 15:33:01 UTC 2012
]]> http://lang-8.com/289828/journals/1307392 http://lang-8.com/289828/journals/1307392 kuro Thu Feb 09 15:33:01 UTC 2012 It's called Fuyutopia(ふゆとぴあ).
It's a pun. It's the combination of winter(冬) and utopia(理想卿) in Japanese.
There were a lot of sculptures made of snow and ice.
They were spotlighted with variously colored lights. They were nice and beautiful.

In addition, some fireworks were shot off during the event.
I've lived in Hokkaido for almost 10 years, but it was my first time to see fireworks in winter.
When the fireworks exploded in the night sky, all things covered with the snow shone in various colors. It was so fantastic.

Posted at Sat Feb 04 14:45:24 UTC 2012
]]> http://lang-8.com/289828/journals/1298870 http://lang-8.com/289828/journals/1298870 kuro Sat Feb 04 14:45:24 UTC 2012 I was very surprised because it was my first time to experience it.
One of my co-worker told me that the temperature of this morning was -22 ℃.
It made sense that my nose was frozen today.

I got the result of English exam I took last month.
The result was better than I expected. I passed it.
As I described it in my past entry, the exam is called Eiken(英検).
After passing a paper exam, I have to take speaking test on a different day.
I'm not good at speaking English but it is said that the speaking test isn't so difficult.
I hope I could pass it eventually.

Posted at Sat Feb 04 10:40:34 UTC 2012
]]> http://lang-8.com/289828/journals/1298526 http://lang-8.com/289828/journals/1298526 kuro Sat Feb 04 10:40:34 UTC 2012 Time always flows faster than I think when I'm in Tokyo.
I'm sure it means there are a lot of things to do in Tokyo.
Most of my friends live in Tokyo and the surrounding area.
I saw some of them during my stay in Tokyo, but I don't have enough time to meet all of them. I feel sorry about that.

Tomorrow is my 29th birthday.
I can't believe I'm going to be almost 30.
My wife will prepare some delicious feast for me.
I'm looking forward to eating it.

Posted at Sun Jan 29 02:47:19 UTC 2012
]]> http://lang-8.com/289828/journals/1288497 http://lang-8.com/289828/journals/1288497 kuro Sun Jan 29 02:47:19 UTC 2012
I'm going to Tokyo for a business trip tomorrow. I'll stay my parent's house for 5 days.
I'm glad to leave Hokkaido for a while because it is too freezing in winter.
Before leaving my house for Tokyo, I have to stop water supply by closing a valve and make water tubes empty. Water tubes might be frozen and burst out without doing this procedure.

Tomorrow, my sister has a day off and is coming to have a dinner with us.
All family member are getting together. It happens a few times a year, so I'm looking forward to seeing them.

Yesterday to this morning, it kept snowing.
This picture was taken by my wife. You can see my car covered with snow.
It is a nuisance to remove the snow before driving a car.

Posted at Tue Jan 24 14:06:07 UTC 2012
]]> http://lang-8.com/289828/journals/1282271 http://lang-8.com/289828/journals/1282271 kuro Tue Jan 24 14:06:07 UTC 2012
Today, I took an examination called Eiken(英検).
I'm sure that I could pass it.

To prepare for it, I tried to memorize a lot of words.
I believe it helps to improve my English to some extent.
However, there are still a plenty of unfamiliar English words for me.
In addition, I know my speaking is poor.
I would like to put more pressure on me to improve my English.

Someday, I want to become able to express what I think and how our cultures are effortlessly in English.

Posted at Sun Jan 22 15:09:48 UTC 2012
]]> http://lang-8.com/289828/journals/1279418 http://lang-8.com/289828/journals/1279418 kuro Sun Jan 22 15:09:48 UTC 2012 It's on next Sunday.
It's like TOEIC test, but a little different from it.
This exam consists of paper and interview test.
If I could pass the paper test, it's allowed to take the interview.

Paper test includes reading, listening and writing.
I feel writing is difficult.
The writing test is to make sentences for replying a letter which asks some questions about Japanese culture.
I can manage to make sentences, but I don't think they are good answer.
It's because some questions are difficult for me to explain if I'm allowed to use Japanese.
There are some categories I'm not familiar with.

While studying English, I had better learn Japanese culture and how to describe it.

Posted at Sun Jan 15 14:32:39 UTC 2012
]]> http://lang-8.com/289828/journals/1269068 http://lang-8.com/289828/journals/1269068 kuro Sun Jan 15 14:32:39 UTC 2012
During new year days, we ate too much and gained some weight.
That's why we decided to work out today.
I usually run for work-out. However, all streets are covered with snow.
It is too slippery and dangerous to run outside.

Therefore, we walked on snow with snow shoe.
It was very fun to walk in a forest and on hills covered with snow.
That was a nice exercise for us.
After walking, we went to a hot spring and enjoyed it.

Posted at Fri Jan 06 15:15:59 UTC 2012
]]> http://lang-8.com/289828/journals/1255896 http://lang-8.com/289828/journals/1255896 kuro Fri Jan 06 15:15:59 UTC 2012
The new year has come. A Happy New Year!

As you know, many Japanese have new year holidays.
In my case, I don't have any new year holidays.
Since I started to work for my company,
I haven't felt like that a new year is coming or has come.

Anyway, I wish to improve my English more this year.

Crane is an auspicious creature for Japanese.
It is appropriate to post the picture to celebrate the new year.
In winter, it is easy to see crane in Hokkaido.
I love to see them. They are one of the most beautiful bird, aren't they?

Posted at Tue Jan 03 13:01:12 UTC 2012
]]> http://lang-8.com/289828/journals/1251189 http://lang-8.com/289828/journals/1251189 kuro Tue Jan 03 13:01:12 UTC 2012 But I hadn't seen it.
I watched it tonight because one of DVDs I had borrowed contained a episode.

It was very fun to watch it. I want to watch more episodes.
I'll borrow them when I visit rental shop next time.

Posted at Tue Dec 20 15:38:01 UTC 2011
]]> http://lang-8.com/289828/journals/1234095 http://lang-8.com/289828/journals/1234095 kuro Tue Dec 20 15:38:01 UTC 2011 It goes "I suppose I'm dispensable. Anyone can do my job."
I sometimes feel like that while I'm working.
Thanks to this sentence, I easily memorize "dispensable".

Looking up words in a dictionary is fun because we sometimes encounter to interesting sentences.

Posted at Thu Dec 15 12:59:38 UTC 2011
]]> http://lang-8.com/289828/journals/1227398 http://lang-8.com/289828/journals/1227398 kuro Thu Dec 15 12:59:38 UTC 2011 The light of the moon seemed orange during eclipse.
It was beautiful and at the same time weird.

Moon eclipse is called Gesshoku(月食) in Japanese.
月 literally means 'moon' and 食 means 'to eat'.
So when they are combined into one word, it literally means 'moon is eaten'.
What eats the moon?
Moon eclipse is a phenomenon that the moon seems to completely or partly disappear because it is passing between the sun and the earth.
The shadow of the earth covers the moon.
So 月食 means that the moon is eaten by the shadow of the earth.

Posted at Sun Dec 11 02:18:30 UTC 2011
]]> http://lang-8.com/289828/journals/1221189 http://lang-8.com/289828/journals/1221189 kuro Sun Dec 11 02:18:30 UTC 2011 They announced to collect all the suspicious products.
However, some of them have been already consumed.

We sometimes hear a similar news about farm products such as rice.
After distributing sacks of rice and consuming them, it turned out that some of them contain a radioactive substance.

I wonder why Japanese food industry and government aren't wiling to research how much radioactive compounds food products contain.
It looks like that they are trying to hide the facts.
Their attitude makes Japanese people doubt food safety in Japan.
We try to avoid eating food which come from the area near Fukushima nuclear power plant and fishes caught in the Pacific Ocean.

Posted at Thu Dec 08 15:09:04 UTC 2011
]]> http://lang-8.com/289828/journals/1218139 http://lang-8.com/289828/journals/1218139 kuro Thu Dec 08 15:09:04 UTC 2011 I felt upset because I had to go to my office by 9 o'clock.
I quickly changed my clothes and ate a piece of bread.

Fortunately, I live near to my office. It takes 2 minutes to go there.
I managed to attend a morning meeting in time.
I forgot to set my alarm this morning. I should be careful not to forget it again.

Posted at Wed Dec 07 10:28:01 UTC 2011
]]> http://lang-8.com/289828/journals/1216320 http://lang-8.com/289828/journals/1216320 kuro Wed Dec 07 10:28:01 UTC 2011 According to my dictionary, it is also used as adjective.

I thought it was just used as noun which means the city where the government of a country is , an amount of money that you use to start a business or the large form of a letter of the alphabet and so on.(I refer to my dictionary.)

When it is used as adjective, capital means connected with punishment by death.
Come to think of it, Japan has a capital punishment system.
I heard the news the leader of a religious group who ordered to scatter a nervous poison gas in a subway in 1995 was about to be executed.
I don't know whether it is right or not.


Posted at Mon Dec 05 03:42:01 UTC 2011
]]> http://lang-8.com/289828/journals/1212793 http://lang-8.com/289828/journals/1212793 kuro Mon Dec 05 03:42:01 UTC 2011 When I tried to put sodium hydrate into a tank, the water in the tank came to a boil and scattered to my right arm.
I poured water to my right arm to get rid of sodium hydrate.
But it was too late. My arm was a little swollen.

I should have been more careful to avoid getting burned.

Posted at Fri Dec 02 12:22:27 UTC 2011
]]> http://lang-8.com/289828/journals/1209272 http://lang-8.com/289828/journals/1209272 kuro Fri Dec 02 12:22:27 UTC 2011 We are going to Sapporo to attend Hiromi Uehara's concert.
I love her since she released her first music album.
Her music is so cool and great. It always encourages me.
I really look forward to going to the concert.



Posted at Sun Nov 27 12:12:30 UTC 2011
]]> http://lang-8.com/289828/journals/1201967 http://lang-8.com/289828/journals/1201967 kuro Sun Nov 27 12:12:30 UTC 2011 When we want to express that a place is where various things are or a plenty of people gather, we use the word Mecca.
For example, it is used like that. Akihabara is a place where we can easily see various Japanese subculture such as animation, comics and games, it's like Mecca for anorak.
(秋葉原はアニメやマンガ、ゲームなど日本のサブカルチャーを簡単に見られる場所で、オタクのメッカだ。)

I have a question I would like to ask you. In English, do you use the word 'Mecca' like that?
Mecca is the holy place for Islam and many pilgrim visit there.
That's why we use Mecca as the place where a lot of people gather or various things are.

Posted at Wed Nov 23 07:27:02 UTC 2011
]]> http://lang-8.com/289828/journals/1196282 http://lang-8.com/289828/journals/1196282 kuro Wed Nov 23 07:27:02 UTC 2011 He is Mr. K, living in a neighboring town. We sometimes see and go to eat.
We ate soba noodle at that time. We talked a lot about various topic.

When we talked about how our friends working for our company are doing, he informed me that one of them made a decision to marry his girlfriend. He is the guy called Mr. H.
The other day, Mr. K called him and was told that he is going to marry.

After going back home, I immediately text to Mr. H. 'Congratulations, I heard you are going to marry. I'm glad to hear that.'
He replied to me quickly. He told me that he would like me to keep it secret because he hadn't informed it to so many people yet.
If he invites me to their wedding, I'm willing to participate it.

Posted at Sun Nov 20 12:28:50 UTC 2011
]]> http://lang-8.com/289828/journals/1192090 http://lang-8.com/289828/journals/1192090 kuro Sun Nov 20 12:28:50 UTC 2011 Instead of hanging out in a tavern, we bought some alcoholic drinks and something to eat and went to our friend's apartment. In addition, we ordered pizza on food delivery service.

After finishing eating and drinking, we played with X-Box.
One of my friend brought X-Box and Kinect for us.
It's my first time to play with Kinect. I found it fun and interesting to play a game without using controller.
The sensor of Kinect can recognize our movement. What we have to do during playing games is to respond to various situations like jumping or squatting for avoiding objects, waving our arm for smashing balls and so on.
It might seem weird that four guys who were all around 30 years old were playing games at night. Anyway, we all enjoyed playing X-Box.

Posted at Fri Nov 18 02:14:59 UTC 2011
]]> http://lang-8.com/289828/journals/1188862 http://lang-8.com/289828/journals/1188862 kuro Fri Nov 18 02:14:59 UTC 2011 They live in Tokyo and I live in Hokkaido.
that's why I can't meet them so often.

One of them is working as an electronic parts salesman.
He told me that it was such a tough and stressful work that he felt stomachache before going to office every morning. Furthermore, he often has to work overtime.
During this recession, it is hard to find new customers and sell products.
He said to me he wanted to exchange his job for mine.
I can't imagine that I work as a salesman like him.

I sometimes complain about my work because I don't want to live in a countryside and work in a mass production line. But what he told me made me reconsider my work.
In fact, I live in a countryside far from a big city, but I work overtime not so often.
Working in a mass production line may be a boring routine, but it is less stressful than sales. For these reasons, my friend envied me.
All things have both merit and demerit.

Posted at Thu Nov 17 04:36:44 UTC 2011
]]> http://lang-8.com/289828/journals/1187510 http://lang-8.com/289828/journals/1187510 kuro Thu Nov 17 04:36:44 UTC 2011 It was my first time to see him. I had been looking forward to seeing him.

We were supposed to meet at a station. On my way there, I felt a little nervous somehow.
It might be because my sister had never introduced her boyfriend to me before.
After meeting at the station, we headed for an Indian food restaurant.

At first glance, it seemed that her fiance was a nice and handsome dude.
We talked a lot in the restaurant. He was honest and sociable.
I was relieved that my sister found the good man.
They told me that they were going to hold their wedding next November. I can't wait it.

Posted at Thu Nov 17 03:03:19 UTC 2011
]]> http://lang-8.com/289828/journals/1187434 http://lang-8.com/289828/journals/1187434 kuro Thu Nov 17 03:03:19 UTC 2011