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

Blog#4 Prevention of a cold

Kazu Hatakeyama

Hello, everyone! 

How are you? 

It has been colder and colder recently and some of you may

catch a cold because of the weather changing. 

In fact, I caught a cold and had a slight fever these days. 

Winter is a beautiful season but something should be considered

against cold.

Today I would like to write about some ways to prevent catching a cold.

I have a cold so it is too late for me.....but....

Anyway, I will introduce some effective ways for keeping our body healthy.

Firstly, as you all know, gargling and hand-washing is necessary. 

In my home, we prepare a mouthwash which called イソジン in Japanese.

I know it is efficacious but I hate the smell and taste of it. 

It looks like a poison and tastes like iron.

Since I hate イソジン I sometimes gargle with a cup of Japanese tea. 

Japanese tea has a strong sterilizing power so that it is a good way to prevent catching cold.

Actually, when I was a elementary school student, I brought a canteen with hot Japanese tea to school.

In winter, our teachers used to have us gargle with tea at every break time. 

Surprisingly, an elementary school in Shizuoka prefecture has introduced a tap running tea.

It means if they turn on the tap, they can drink tea and gargle with tea anytime!!

It is very convenient, isn't it? 
Additionally, a city in Shizuoka tried to run "tea tap" to the citizens' house, too.
However, the pipe was clogged with tea leaves and the plan nearly disappeared. 

Next, I will introduce my favorite way to prevent catching cold. 

That is an aroma humidifier. 

In order not to make air dry, you can use it in your room.

IT has been popular in Japan and not only individuals but also some shops use an aroma humidifier. 

It is easy to use.

All you have to do is to pour water in the pot and add a drop of your favorite aroma in the water.

Every one can enjoy aroma anytime.

This is my own aroma humidifier. 

While spreading steam with aroma smell,

the pot can turn pink, blue, yellow, green so you can choose your favorite color or all.

In my case, I turn on this pot when I go to bed rather than room light. 

I can not only humidify but also relax by enjoying the smell and soft light of it.

My favorite aromas

the right one is Rose

the left one is Lotus which is my favorite one

Aroma has many special powers that make our body healthy.

When I went to Iwate prefecture as a volunteer, I did hand massage by using natural aroma.

An aroma therapist told us that aroma has antibacterial power and it protects us

from catching cold. 

For example, when your nose is running, you can be calmed by putting a drop of aroma on a piece of tissue paper and sniffing at it. 

I always do that and I realize it is truly good for my runny nose.  

You should try it and prove it!

You can know more about the effect of aroma and you can choose your suitable one here.

Like this, you can relax and keep your body healthy!

Blog #4 : ancient Greek

Asumi Oda

Hello, everyone.
This time I'd like to talk about ancient Greek.
Have you ever learned Geek before?

Since I'm majoring in philosophy, and I'm especially interested in Greek philosophy, I'm studying ancient Greek. I really love ancient Greek, however, it's very difficult. For example, each verb usually conjugates in 156 ways! In English, for example, a verb EAT conjugates like EAT-ATE-ATE and it's only 3 ways. In my Greek class, we are using a text book and now we are close to the end!
From next year, we'll be reading some of the original texts of Plato or Aristotle, and others.
I'm sure it'll be extremely difficult, but it's worth trying and I think there're lots of things we can lean from the original ones, not from the translation.


I'd like to show you the picture of my text book, grammar book, and ancient Greek-English dictionary that I'm using.

The biggest dark blue one is the dictionary. The height is about 30 cm, and 10 cm in thickness.
It's too heavy to carry around so I can never bring it to school. Even in my house, I have to be really careful not to drop it on my feet.

The second thickest maroon colored one is the grammar book. It's written in English, but not so difficult to understand and it's always very useful. It has a lot of information and always help me when I need any help.

The smallest green one is the text book we're using in class. It's written in Japanese.


I really wanted to tell you some ancient Greek words, but I couldn't type it.
And instead, I found an online ancient Greek-English dictionary so I will put a link here.
You can see the Greek letters and you can look for some words you like.
I think most of the Greek letters are quite familiar to you. What's funny to me is that I often find Greek letters used in 顔文字.  Ever since I started to learn Greek, I can't see 顔文字 as a face but just the letters.


Well, starting from next week, two of my friends and I will read "Politeia" (in Latin, Res Publica ), which is one of the most famous works of Plato and is written in ancient Greek, and we'll do some discussion based on this text with a graduate student majoring in Greek philosophy. I have to be well prepared and I want to finish reading its Japanese translation by then. I'm sure it's going to be a lot of fun!!



I think it's very important to read the original texts. There are many translations in the book store and I read them, but now that I can try to read it in the original language, I think there're more that I can learn from it. It's always exciting to learn a new language, and for me, it seems like  ancient Greek is one of the most difficult but interesting language.