Blog#8 My plans for this spring vacation

Kazu Hatakeyama

Now the second semester is about to finish.
I know some of you are very busy doing your assignment or studying for final examinations.
So, do I.  It seems to be hard for every students and teachers to do such kind of things
without any rewards. 
Then, why not planning something nice for your coming spring vacation?
Today, I would like to introduce my plans during the holiday. 

Firstly, I am going to go to Tokyo Disney Land with my university friends.
As I go there countless times in my life and I went there about 5 or 6 times in 2011.
I love Disney very much.  The reason why I love there is not because that I can enjoy
roller coasters but that I can enjoy dreaming fantasy!
Since I was small, I have enjoyed Disney animations such as Cinderella, Snow White and recently Tangled.  My dream was becoming Jasmine who is a princess in Aladdin and the Magic Lamp.
I'm sure many of you have your favorite characters in Disney animations, too.
As for the story, dream and fantasy are main theme so that both children and adults can enjoy them.
Last November, I visited the Tokyo Disney Land with an after six passport, which allows people
to enter after six o'clock in the evening with cheaper price. 
At that time I was excited with the rides called フィルハーミュージック.
It is a kind of theater and people can enjoy music and animation with 3D glasses.
There are big screen and stereos at a 360-degree angle.
Because of that, we can enjoy as if the characters are actually running around us or jumping into the wall.  Music is so wonderful that people want to enter there repeatedly. 
If you go to the Tokyo Disney Land next time, I would like you to try it!!
I'm sure you will like it!

Second, I'm going to participate in the local music concert in Febuary.
As I told you at the last presentation, my hometown Iwatsuki is famous for making Hina Dall.
Local people are trying to apple the products to inside and outside our city. 
Then, a woman wrote a song for spreading an awareness that Iwatsuki Hina Dall is our treasure.
I sing the song at annual local music concert.
Usually, I sing the song alone with playing the piano and sometimes sing with Koto music.
I have sang the song for about 6 years and I love the song.
Surprisingly, the song is going to be on air on 14 January. 
I am not going to sing it because it is very early morning and nowhere to sing it.
In steaed the CD I sing will be on air.
If you get interested in this, please check it at NHK channcel 7:30 in the morning.

Finally, I have my second older sister's wedding in next month.
The wedding is going to be Japanese style so she is going to wear kimono.
I am looking forward to attending the ceremony and looking her in kimono.
Besides, I will wear my own kimono which I wore at a coming-of-age ceremony last year.
I don't have many oppotunities to wear kimono in my life so I am really happy.

This spring, I have to study for gaining teacher licene.  It will be an imprtant term for me.
However, for relaxing, I like to make some more plans for coming holiday.

Blog #6 cherry blossoms

Asumi Oda

Hello, everyone.
This time I'd like to talk about cherry blossoms.

In Japan, there are lots of cherry trees and most Japanese people love cherry blossoms.
In April, many people go out to see the cherry blossoms and have a picnic under the tree.
But did you know some cherry trees are in full bloom in winter?

These cherry trees are called 四季桜. The flowers start blooming in the end of October, they are in full bloom in around January and February, and they fall in April. I have one of these cherry trees in my backyard and they gradually started to bloom. Here is the picture of my cherry tree. I'm sorry, it's not a very good picture.

The flowers have just started to bloom, so they're still very small and few.

I also have another cherry tree in my backyard, and it is a usual one, ソメイヨシノ which is one of the most popular ones in Japan. It's nice to have both, because I can enjoy the cherry blossoms almost all through the year.

Some people prefer the usual ones,ソメイヨシノ because, I suppose, they are more gorgeous than this one.This cherry tree is very small, the color is bit paler, and I think the flowers are much smaller.

But, I love this kind of cheery tree ( 四季桜 ) because it's so beautiful to see them in full bloom with snow. Especially in February, when we sometimes have snow, this cherry blossom is the only flower in full bloom and it's very fantastic and almost miraculous to see them in snow. I can't wait for all these flowers to bloom and I also hope it'll snow around January or February so that I can see the beautiful scene again.

    Well, I guess I still have to wait for a couple of months. I can't wait!

Asumi

Blog#6 Massages from animals

Kazu Hatakeyama

Hello, everyone. 

Do you have any pets?

I have a cute dog at my home.  His name is Rocky.

He is a Labrador retriever. 

He became 10 years-old and it is about 60 years old if he is a human. 

He likes socks.(^∀^)

When I come back home, he always welcome me with my socks in his mouth. 

While I go out, he may walk around my room and find my socks!!

I really love him because he is cute, kind and wise.

He can wake me up just in time in the morning,

bring newspaper in exchange for getting  milk as a reward,

look for my another pet, a parrot, if it escapes from its birdcage,

and pretend to be asleep when he hates to take shower.  

(She is my parrot Nana who can talk  her name and sing off-key. )

These are too much pride to my pets.

The other day, I watched an interesting TV program about animals.

It was 志村動物園 , 日テレ.

It mentioned a woman Heidi who had a special ability to read animals feeling. 

She could talk with animals by telepathy 

and inform their feeling to the owners. 
She looks an animal and concentrates on scanning an image inside of the animal.
While communicating by telepathy,
the animals stop moving and look deep into her eyes. 
She identify the image of the animal and confirm it to the owner. 
Owners are surprised to hear her words
because she alwas tells them the image or story that only owner must know. 


Now, I will show one story aired on November 19. 

Kazami Shingo, who is Japanese talent, lost his daughter Emiru

due to a cruel traffic accident in 2008.

His family including his wife, younger daughter, a dog Toto

all were disappointed with the sad news. 

Toto was loved by Emiru the most so

the Kazamis were worried about him. 

After three years has passed, Toto has changed phisically. 

Although there was no difference on his body soon after her death,

Toto has become thiner and thiner recently. 

Mr. Kazami took him to veterinarian but there was nothing worng with him. 

Then, Mr.Kazami asked Heidi to find the reason of Toto's problem.

Heidi looked Toto deeply and communicated with him by scanning.

Heidi told a surprising thing to Mr.Kazami.

She said that "Toto became thiner not because Emiru's death directly

but her younger daughter. 

Younger daughter often crys on Emiru's bed, and Toto tries to encourage her. 

Toto makes effort to cheer up her and gets tired.  "

Mr.Kazami was so surprised but understood Toto's kindness.

The Kazamis could have decided to restart their happy life thanks to Toto.

I watched this program at dinner time with my parents

and we cried too much to continue our meal. 

Some people dout Heidi but I believe in her special ability.

I realize that  animals can read human's emotion even though

they cannot understand our words itself. 

I would like to love Rocky  more and more

and spend happy life with him. 

You can watch Heidi's power more.

Guest blog by Ms. MacGregor: Baking brownies

Hi Everyone,
Quite a bit of interest was stirred by Diane's blog on cooking. By your comments it seems that some of you are interested in eating and cooking. Also, you seem to have an interest in chocolate. As I am a big chocolate lover, I would like to introduce this easy recipe for brownies (sorry Kazu, it requires an oven - but it is really really simple!). Here we go:
Ingredients (c. means cup, based on 1 cup = 250ml)
1/2 c. butter       3/4 c. flour
1/4 c. cocoa       1/2 c. chopped nuts (walnuts or pecans or anything you like - or no nuts at all)
2 eggs                pinch of salt
1 c. sugar

Get a medium sized pot and melt the butter and cocoa on the gas burner. Take it off the gas burner when it is melted. In a different bowl, beat the eggs well and them add the sugar and flour, nuts and sugar and mix well with a spoon or spatula. Then pour the butter and cocoa overtop and stir well. Pour into a baking pan and bake at 180 degrees celsius for about 15-20 minutes. Check frequently by sticking a toothpick in the middle. When the toothpick comes out with just a bit if brownies sticking to it, they are done! Take out of the oven, and let cool. Then cut into squares, make some coffee, and have with vanilla icecream if you like.
Sound easy? Yes! I hope some of you will try it and enjoy them.

Blog#5 Food issue in China

Shuhei Wada

In China, problems of food are very serious and as everyone knows, there are so many problems there.

In this blog, I would like to introduce one of the biggest food problems in China is “地溝油” waste oil.

In China, about 10% of oils are this waste oil.  Waste oil is the oil that has extracted from drain. The oil will be filtered once but it is still look a bit dirty. This waste oil tastes almost same as normal safety salad oil.

Since the cost of making oil is free, the job to extract oil from drain is very popular. They can earn about 130,000yen in one month and this wage is very high in China.

Because of its reasonable cost, waste oil might be used for processed foods in Japan.

Scary point of this oil is that the  waste oil is containing aflatoxin.

Aflatoxin has some hundreds times stronger poison than arsenic(ヒ素).

There should be more detailed and strict check for these imported foods from China and some other developing countries.

This web site is explaining more detailed about this waste oil

中華的雑記帳

 http://business.nikkeibp.co.jp/article/world/20061214/115674/

Blog #1 Rickie Fowler

 Shoyo Yamaki
Hello everyone! I'm sorry that I'm late to write the blog.
By the way, did you watch the news yeasterday?
Ryo Ishikawa made hole in one at the golf tournament in Japan!
I belong to the golf club. And I love playing and watching golf.
So I want you to know one golf player. His name is Rickie Fowler.

He is an American professional golf player. He is known for his colorful fashion and cool face. And he won the Rookie of the Year award. He did't win the tournament so far. But I believe he will win this year. I like his fashion, face, and swing. So I referred to his swing and playing styles to improve my golf skill.

If you want to know how nice his skills are, you should watch this video! This is so cool.

And if you are interested in golf, please tell me! I wanna make more golfer friends.

Blog #5 Cooking Ideas

    by Diane

Hello Everyone!

I hope all of you had a great week,

Today I am going to talk about one my passion:cooking!

Living as a student, I find it quite difficult to prepare the dishes (unfortunately there is no oven at hand in the accomodation )so i am slowly trying to adapt my cooking with one stove !

I started cooking when I was about 12 and I would always try to change recipes according to the seasons.I would usually cook for my family and friends.

It is actually the process itself which I find quite therapeutic:it will help me get over stressful days and give me some sense of achievement when the dish is finally ready to be devoured !

Here are some easy to do desserts I love to prepare:

-The “Fondant au chocolat” , an all-time classic and very easy to make.It is a very smooth chocolate cake with an almost liquid centre.The trick with this recipe is to put very little flour so it can keep its creamy texture,and be careful with the amount of butter you put in the mixture as it could end up being quite “heavy” which is not what we’re looking for.

I love putting them in small ramequins,for both visual comfort as well as..baking purposes .In fact,the smaller portions you put in the ramequins ,the quicker it will cook.I would usually only put them in the oven for 20 minutes (180 degrees)and leave them in the fridge for 2 hours.

It is really important to not overly cook them as the whole purpose of it being a “fondant” is for it to stay creamy.You can then decorate it with icing sugar ,but I prefer serving it with strawberries.The dessert itself is quite filling so I would skip the temptation of adding ice cream or clotting cream on the side.(the lighter the better..right?)haha

    Here is a preview:

   

 An other dessert I love, is the “Meringue lemon Tart” or “Tarte au citron meringuee” in french.The tricky part would be to make the pastry,but if you are in a hurry,don’t feel guilty buying a ready made one.Japanese stores (in Shinjuku) specialise in French products ,so you could easily find some there.

You mix the lemon zests,lemon juice,and sugar all together.The hardest part would be to make the meringue.I whip the whites until they become firm,it requires a little bit of effort from the upper arms but it's worth it!You then incorporate the meringue mixture on top of the lemon one and leave in the oven for a good 20 minutes (at 170 degrees).

      

 You can find some more detailed recipes anywhere online but I like to be creative and add some twist to my desserts (whether it would be the presentation,or the flavour).

Basically,make it your own!

I love watching cooking tv shows,they inspire me to make my meals a little more diverse.If you are interested in learning simple recipes I would suggest watching Jamie Oliver's shows (available online)

or Nigella Lawson's ones.I personally prefer reading recipes on "cuisine.tv"which I found the best recipes in.It is  unfortunately mostly written in french,but if you need any help with translating a recipe I am there!:)Here is the link : 

http://www.cuisine.tv/

I hope I made some of you want to try something new!

Best of Luck with your recipes,

Diane