Anne of Green Gables

I read Anne of Green Gables written by Lucy Maud Montgomery. It is Canadian novels and Green Gables is in Prince Edward Island. PEI is very close to Halifax, Nova Scotia which is in Saint Mary's University so I enjoyed reading it:)

There are 11 chapters: Anne Arrives in Avonlea, A Sad Story, Red Hair, The Party, Love and Hate, Dianna Comes to Tea, A Cake for Mrs. Allan, An Accident and a New Dress, Some Stupid Mistakes, The Queen's Collage Class, and A New Start.

It is a story about Anne Shirley, who was is a orphanage. Matthew and Marilla Cuthbert bring her up. Anne hate Gilbert Blythe because he made a fool of her red hair. Dianna Barry is her best friend. Anne grows up fine with these people.

I like this story because I can sympathize. When Anne could say sorry to Mrs. Lynde, I feel happy for her. I think it is good that Anne and Gilbert can become friends at last.

This is not too difficult book, so please read it once!!

Anne of Green Gables, Penguin Active, 978-1-4058-5205-0
Points: 2.2
Reminings: 0

(188 words)

The Return of Sherlock Holmes

I read The Return of Sherlock Holmes written by Conan Doyle. I like Holmes' series:)

The stories come from my notes of the cases that we worked on after his return. Three of the best cases are here: The Six Napoleons, The Norwood Builder and The Golden Glasses. I hope you will enjoy reading then.
(Dr Watson)

There are some new characters, for example, Mr Lestrade and Stanley Hopkins. They are the detectives from Scotland Yard, which is a police. Mr Lestrade is older than Hopkins. They ask Holmes to help them.

The Six Napoleons means the busts of Napoleons. Mr Lestrade think the criminal hate Napoleon but Holmes realize that the busts is important than Napoleon.
In The Norwood Builder, Mr Lestrade read a riddle faster than Holmes, but it is a miss.
The Golden Glasses is an woman's and Holmes can guess the woman clearly.

I think it is interesting that in The Norwood Builder and in The Golden Glasses appeared secret rooms. If Holmes cannot find the rooms, the criminals can escape. I found Holmes more clever than ever. I want to read other Holmes' series!!

I really recommend this book, so please read one of his stories once;)

The Return of Sherlock Holmes, Penguin level 3, 0-582-42697-9
Points: 3.4
Reminings: 2.2

(215 words)

The Hunchback of Notre-Dame

I read The Hunchback of Notre-Dame written by Victor Hugo. It is a French novel and I've read his book titled Les Miserables in Japanese before. I've been interested in French and French novel but I didn't know these novels are written by same writer. I've watched a movie of The Hunchback of Notre-Dame made by Disney company before.

It has 5 chapters: A Day of Surprises, Broken Hearts and Broken Lives, Evil Thoughts and Evil Actions, One Honest Heart, and Together in Death.

The main characters are Father Claude Frollo who is a priest, Quasimodo who is a hunchback bellringer, and Esmeralda who is a gypsy girl. Notre-Dame is like their prison or sanctuary. They all have problems in their minds.

There is good and evil, love and hate, life and death. Some people are kind and others are bad, but they are all real. We understand their actions. We want to find out how their storeis will end.

It is not happy-ending story. The last is too sad but I could feel something from this story. For example, about love and hate. There is a witch named Sachette who is Esmeralda's real mother. She hated gypsy for a long time because the gypsy robbed her baby, so she couldn't recognize that Esmeralda is her daughter just before she died. It was too sad but I understand Sachette's mind. I thought that love is the reverse of hate, and also good is evil's and life is death's reverse.

This novel is too long but I recommend it. I hope you to find some meanings from this sad story. If you have a lot of free time, please read it once!!

The Hunchback of Notre-Dame, Penguin level 3, 0582 81986-5
Points: 3.4
Reminings: 5.6

(294 words)

☆SMU ESSAY★

This is an essay about Saint Mary's University in Canada written by me at a class. In the class, we had to write a report about an university in which we will study. I and other 3 friends who will study in SMU wrote it together. I wrote Support and Conclusion section appeared below.



This section will introduce health care, insurance, and counseling at SMU. There are 9 hospitals in Halifax, and the nearest one from SMU is Family Focus Medical Clinic (Halifax, n.d., online). There is also a clinic, named Health Service Clinic in SMU.

To go to the clinic, we need an AIG Insurance card. Without it, we must pay for our own medical fees. The average medical fees of international students are about $900.00 a year. The SMUSA Student Health Plan insures all international students including coverage, prescription, and so on. MSI is also an insurance service by the Provincial Government. To apply for MSI, we should call 902 496 7008 or sign a form at the Student Health Plan office (International Student Handbook, n.d., online). According to M. N (2010, personal interview), we can apply for insurance in Japan before we go to Canada. It also covers medical fees if we go to any hospital in Halifax. However, students who go to TESL shouldn't apply for it, because they must apply for insurance in Canada even if they have it in Japan.

There are male and female professional counselors in SMU. They can assist with many kinds of problems, for example, communication, classes, future, and so on (International Student Handbook, n.d., online).


There are 2 international centers in SMU. One is the International Office and the other is International Activities. According to M. N (2010, personal interview), the International Office has information of many events by international students. If we have trouble, we should go to International Activities. Also according to Y. U (2010, personal interview), there is a Japanese woman named M. A in International Activities. She doesn't like to speak Japanese, and recommends that students speak English in Canada ever with other Japanese. Both international centers are in the Student Center in SMU. They are open Monday to Friday from 9:00 to 17:00 (International Student Handbook, n.d., online).


For academic advice, international centers have an International Student Advisor. The ISA can support anything for international students, for example, scholarships, living places, health insurance, and so on. They also hold an orientation for all new students before classes start (International Student Handbook, n.d., online). According to N. M and Y. U (2010, personal interview), the ISA can advise classes especially. If you to ro TESL and you want to take classes at SMU, you should ask them. They introduce some classes that you can take, but you may not get credits of the classes.

There is a Writing Center in SMU. We can get advice about writing anything from our peer tutor for free there (International Student Handbook, n.d., online). There is TESL support. They have reading, writing, listening, speaking, note-taking, vocabulary building, and spelling strategies supports for not only international students, but also immigrants and Canadians who use other languages more than English (English as a Second Language Support, n.d., online).



Saint Mary's University has full facilities of academic, dining, and living. There are fascinating classes, clubs and activities in SMU and in TESL. Halifax is too cold in winter, but there are many places to enjoy life in the city. SMU and TESL also have enough support to help international students. As you can read, you can surely have a great time in Saint Mary's University and in Halifax, Canada.

(607 words)

★TEST WEEK☆

I have 10 tests in this term. Those are International Society and Japan, Cultural Anthropology, Western Philosophy, Western Art History, Linguistics, Japanese Linguistics, Biology, Law, English Writing, and History of Book or Library.

I already took tests of English Speaking, English Listening, English Reading, and American Literary History. I wrote some reports instead of tests for Lifelong Learning, and Japanese Grammar classes.

Monday, I took 3 tests and those were not allowed to bring any reference books, so I studied hard for them on Sunday. Tuesday, I also took 3 tests but those were all allowed to bring references so I took them easy. Wednesday, I had no tests:D Thursday, I took 2 tests and these were not easy:( Friday is no tests day for me and I will take 2 tests on next week.

I do my best for all tests but I don't know whether I can get all credits.

(152 words)

☆RECENT DAYS★

I bought something recently. For example, I bought cakes for my mom because her birthday was Jan 11th, I bought own notebook computer and a voice recorder for studying in Canada! The notebook computer is white and Toshiba's dynabook. The recorder is sony's and it has music record function, so I put it some CD's from computer!

I entered facebook recently. I wanted to enter it but I didn't know how to use it. My friend told that and she became my friend at facebok first! I found many friends in it and I want to enjoy using facebook from now on:) I also want to watch Social Net Work because it is about facebook.

I went to a preview of Gene Walts on Jan 25th. It was about Japanese obstetrics and gynecology. Main Character is an obstetrician played by Miho Kanno. It based of a novel written by Takeru Kaido who wrote Team Batista series. I cannot write about the movie because it isn't released yet.

(167 words)

★COMING OF AGE DAY☆

January 10th was Coming of Age Day in Japan!! There were ceremonies to celebrate being 20 years old men and women all over Japan. Almost women wore long-sleeved Kimono and almost men wore suit or Hakama then.

I chose the kimono colored green and hair accessories colored purple. I cannot wear the kimono by myself so I woke up at 4:30 a.m. and I went to a beauty salon to get the kimono worn at 5:30. I met some old friends there and they were very beautiful. In my turn, I had a bad stomachache:( It was unbelievable but I took medicine soon, so I could got the kimono worn and got my hair set:) I went to my grandparents' house before the ceremony. I took some pictures with my family and my grand parents. After that, I went to the ceremony and I met many friends so I took many pictures with them! After the ceremony, I went to downtown to meet one of my friends. We took PURIKURA and talked and talked;)

In the night, I took part in alumni meeting. I met many old friends in junior high school days. I was surprised that one of my friends have a child! I also met some teachers and they remembered me! I ate and drank and talked with them much so I had a good time there:9

In my surprise, I awoke 22 hours at the day:8 I was very, very, very tired and sleepy at the next day.

(251 words)

☆WINTER VACATION★

There were 11 days in this winter vacation including Christmas and New Year's Day. I think winter vacation is too short at the university, but I'll happy in next spring vacation because spring vacation is too long.

By the way, I had 9 days of part-time job in winter vacation so I was very tired. However, thanks to my 2 friends, I had a good time at one day after the job. I went to KARAOKE with the 2 friends. We like ONE PIECE and other animation, so we sang a lot of animation songs. My friends are very goot at singing so I heard their songs more often than I sang. They sang songs of ONE PIECE, SLAM DUNK, INU-YASHA, Studio GHIBLI, and so on.

Other day, Christmas, I got a present from me;D I bought a DVD for me:) It was "GINTAMA: A New Retelling Benizakura Arc", which is an animation movie. I really like GINTAMA and it was filmed last spring at the first time, but I cannot go to watch it:( I wanted to watch it for a long time, and I can watch it anytime I want to watch now:D My brother like GINTAMA too, so I watched it with him. It was very, very, very interesting at first and last section, and it was also exciting, and moving, and the characters are sooooo cool!! If you know GINTAMA, please watch it once! If you don't know GINTAMA, please read Weekly Shonen Jump or comics of it once;)

Other day, New Year's Day, it was too cold day with snow but I must go to post office to work in the morning:8 I walked to there and it took for 30 minutes. However, there were little New Year's cards so I didn't feel hard and it was lucky! After work, I paid a visit to Kengun shrine with my family. I was very hungry so I bought a fried potato at a booth after visiting.

I was very busy with my part-time job in the post office but I had good times too in this vacation. I cannot study hard including writing this blog and reading English books so I'm doing them on this week. I want to try hard and I'll do my best!!!!!

(380 words)

My Favorite sport to watch

I like watching sports better than playing. First, my favorite sports to watch are soccer, baseball, volleyball, and so on during big tournaments like World Cup, WBC, and Olympics. I know it's called hastily acquired fan so I don't know any correct rules. However, figure skating attract me in recently Winter Olympics. Especially, the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics was excited! Miki Ando, Akiko Suzuki, and Mao Asada's skating were really beautiful. Confrontation of Mao Asada and Yu-Na Kim was in the spotlight. I liked Akiko Suzuki's skating the best, because I like her selection of music and I thought she is good at expressing herself. Miki Ando and Daisuke Takahashi's jump are very good. She could jump quadruple Salchow before. I'm looking forward to watching next figure skating tournament or 2014 Sochi Winter Olympics!!

(134 words)

My Favorite place

I like going to somewhere to go shopping, to travel, to eat, and so on. First, I'll write about my favorite shopping places. I often go shopping to youme town Hikarinomori, because there are less expensive boutiques. Also I go shopping to downtown, and my favorite shop is earth music & ecology in New-s and LOWRYS FARM in PARCO. Second, I'll write about my favorite traveling places. I recommend Kyoto in Japan to travel, because I'm not tired of sightseeing in Kyoto. I also recommend Perth in Australia, but you may not like there if you go there on too hot season. Finally, I'll write about my favorite eating places, but I wrote that on past topic about my favorite dish. I think going somewhere is good but staying home is also good or better.

(135 words)

My Totals 6

Blog stats from November 4th to December 24th,

135

152

139

165

111

136

133

139

141

118

130

108

132

146

61

131

115

136

134

143

130

41

45

137

38

49

Total words: 7963

Total posts: 26

book points: 11.0

book points remaining: 9.0

posts with label "Project": 11

posts with label "My Podcast": 6

Fifth episode of My project

I'll talk about Creatures of Harry Potter.

1. Harry has a white owl named Hedwig, Ron has a rat named Scabbers, and Hermione has a very clever cat named Crookshanks.

2. There are also magical creatures, like dragon, goblin, phoenix, and so on.

3. Do you know Dobby?

Check it out here:)

(49 words)

Fourth episode of My project

I'll talk about Characters of Harry Potter.

1. There are Hogwarts' students and teachers, other wizards, and Muggles.

2. Who are Harry's enemies, or who are Harry's supporters?

3. I hope you to find your favorite character;)

Check it out here!

(38 words)

My Favorite shoes

I like putting and watching many kinds of shoes. I have a lot of shoes, for example, sneakers, pumps, sandals, and boots. My favorite shoes in spring and autumn are pumps, because I think pumps is just good these seasons which are not too hot and not too cold. My favorite shoes in summer are sandal, because it easy to put on and I can put on it without socks. My favorite shoes in winter are boots, because it can warm my legs. My favorite shoes on a rainy day are rubber boots, because it can protect my legs against rain. I like collecting shoes too but I cannot put on shoes with high heels so I watch them only in shoe store then. I want more shoes and I want to put on different shoes everyday.

(137 words)

POST OFFICE

I went to a Post Office in UEKI in order to work. My part time job is distributing New Year's cards. Yesterday is my first working time. It was from 10:00 to 15:45. I worked with 2 women, one is older student at KGU but her department is SHAKAI-FUKUSHI, another one is as young as me and she goes to a school to learn business. We become friend soon, and we talked a lot of things on free time and after working. To be surprise, our birthday are same month and very close, and we all like ONE PIECE!!!!! I didn't expect having some friends, but I was very happy to become friends them:) We cannot talk during work, of course, but I'm looking forward next working time with them;)

(130 words)

Creatures of Harry Potter

There are many kinds of creatures in Harry Potter. Animals like cats, owls, mice are owned by wizards. For example, Harry has a owl, Ron has a rat, and Hermione has a cat. Harry's owl, Hedwig has beautiful white wings and he is very clever. Ron's rat, Scabbers is actually a person, Peter Pettigrew who is one of Death Eaters. Hermione's cat, Crookshanks is very very clever like his owner. There are also magical creatures, for example, dragons, ghosts, centaurs, giants, goblins, and so on. My favorite magical creature is phoenix named Fawkes which is a pet of Dumbledore. He never die, because he is born again as a young bird from ash if he become very old and burn himself. I know Dobby is most famous magical creatures and he appeared Harry Potter and Deathly Hallows so you should check it out!

(143 words)

STRONG WORLD

I watched a movie named ONE PIECE FILM STRONG WORLD on TV last Saturday. How exciting the movie is! It was released last year and I watched it soon so I've watched it twice. It all created by Eiichiro Oda who is author of ONE PIECE. There are many strong animals and they fight and fight in an island. One day, Luffy's pirates arrived there and they fight them and Shiki who is a bad captain in the island, because he kidnapped Nami who is a mate of Luffy's pirates. The guest dubbers are Aiko Kaitou who is an anchor, Kousuke Kitajima who is a swimmer, and Naoto Takenaka who is a Japanese actor, and he dubbed Shiki. I think it can enjoy watching if you don't know ONE PIECE, so please watch once;)

(134 words)

My Favorite clothing

My favorite clothing is skirt because it is easy to wear and to match other clothes. First, I like to wear a miniskirt with T-shirt and leggings in spring and with tights or jeans in winter. Second, I also like one-piece dress because it is also easy to wear. I wear it with vest in summer and with jacket or cardigan in autumn. Third, I like wearing hats or caps because it is useful to cut sunbeam in summer and to warm in winter. My favorite fashion brand is “earth music & ecology” but I cannot buy many clothes there because its price is a little expensive for me. I like “honey club” to buy clothes because its price is less expensive. I think it is the best that buying good clothes at a inexpensive price!


(136 words)

Third episode of My project

I'll talk about Books of Harry Potter.

1. Do you know Yuko Matsuoka? Who is she?

2. I really like books of Harry Potter in Japanese because of perfect translation!

3. Can you read books of Harry Potter in English?

Check it out here;)

(41 words)

Second episode of My project

I'll talk about Actors of Harry Potter.

1. Harry, Ron, and Hermione played by Daniel, Rupert, and Emma.

2. What's happened to the actor played Dumbledore?

3. When you watch Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, please focus on Harry, Ron, and Hermione's growth!!

Check it out here;)

(45 words)

The ROOTLESS

Today, I will write about The ROOTLESS which is one of my favorite artists recently. The ROOTLESS is a Japanese rock band. The members are Shin Nohata who is a vocal and plays the guitar, Duran Naitoh who plays the guitar, Takuya Ihara who plays the bass, and Yusuke Ohtsubo who plays the drums. I think you know One day which is a song of them, if you like watching ONE PIECE on TV animation. I wrote about One day before, so I should write other things about them. I read their blog sometimes, and it is very interesting. I really recommend their music, so please listen to their songs or read their blog once:)

(115 words)

My Favorite color

I like a lot of color and I cannot choose only one color so I'll write about my favorite useful colors. First, I like wearing violet clothes. For example, I have violet beret, T-shirt, dress, and gloves. Second, I like having pink goods, for example, I have pink cell phone, pen, pass case, bag, purse, and so on. Off course, I liked KGU's diary in 2009 because it was pink! Third, I liked making up my face with orange cosmetics. For example, I use orange cheek rouge and lipstick, because it is too cute using pink cosmetics. Finally, I like green and orange, because they are my favorite artists' symbol color. Green is GReeeeN's and orange is ORANGE RANGE's symbol colors! As you can see, I like pastel and rainbow colors.


(131 words)

Enchanted

I watched a movie titled Enchanted on TV last Friday. It is called Maho-ni-kakerarete in Japanese. It was interesting that the characters in the animation moved to real New York. I was surprised that Giselle cleaned a room with dirty animals like flies, sewer rats, and cockroachs. If you haven't watched it and you like Disney movies, you should watch it;)

(61 words)

★CERAMIC☆

I went to Tamana with 8 overseas students, 3 Japanese students, 2 teachers, and Mrs. Shioiri's son in order to experience ceramic on December 4th. We went to there by bus and it took about 2 hours. When I heared about this event from Mrs. Shioiri, she said "we will go to 八代(Yatsushiro)" so we wondered why the bus went to Tamana. Actually, we went to 小代焼一先窯(Syoudaiyaki-Issakigama) in Tamana so I think she may confuse "Yatsushiro" and "Syoudai". Mr. Yamaguchi, his wife, and his son taught us how to make teacup, mug, and dish from clay. I made a mug but it was too difficult for me. I couldn't take pictures because everyone's hand were attached a lot of clay. I think everyone made nice works from clay! I had a very good time and I'm looking forward to receive my mug after baking in January;)

(146 words)

My Favorite dessert

My favorite dessert is cake, because I like sweet tastes very much!! I like shortcake with strawberry the best of cake shops. However, I cannot eat Mont Blanc because I don't like chestnut's flavor. I also like homemade sweets, for example, cookies, muffins, puddings, chiffon cake, and so on. My mother is really good at baking chiffon cake! She made it twice a last week and I helped to make it. It was very nice so I want to make it alone someday! By the way, I can make some sweets, though I'm not good at cooking dishes. I bake cookies sometimes especially I bake it on Valentine Day or White Day to give it for my friends. As you can read, I like sweets and I also like to make it!!

(132 words)

KAIJI

I watched a movie named KAIJI on TV several weeks ago. It was about some games like gambles. People who have much debts can take part in the games. If the players fault, death or hard work wait for them. Main characters are Kaiji Ito played by Tatsuya Fujiwara, one of the debt collectors played by Yuuki Amami, one of the organizers of the games played by Teruyuki Kagawa, and one of the players played by Kenichi Matsuyama. Kaiji challenged 3 games and he won the final game, but his prize money are cheated in the end. The story is continuing and the sequel will release next year.

(108 words)

My Favorite flower

I think almost girls or women like flower. Of course I like many kinds of flower, for example, cherry blossom, rose, lily, sunflower, cosmos, and so on. Though I like flowers which are sold at a florist, I like wildflowers better. For example, I love violet, dandelion, Michaelmas daisy which is called SHION in Japanese, and so on. When I find a flower, I take a picture. I took some pictures yesterday, because I went to Takachiho-kyo with my family. I could take pictures of camellia and some wildflowers. I didn't know the name of the wildflowers, so I want to search it. As you can see one of my topics named “My Favorite season”, many wildflowers bloom in Spring. I'm looking forward to coming next Spring from now on!!

(130 words)

Blog Stats

My brother's birthday

November 21st was my brother's birthday. He became 12 years old and he wanted to go to somewhere so my father decided to go to Takachiho-kyo. It is in Miyazaki prefecture, but near to Aso, so we had to wake up early. There are beautiful deep blue river and some people were canoeing. There are also beautiful mountain with colored leaves so we took many pictures with it. It was warm day so we had a very good time there!! When we went back home, we ate cake and I gave him a present. It was a jigsaw puzzle of ONE PIECE, because he likes the characters of ONE PIECE. He was pleased so I was happy, too!!

(118 words)

My Favorite class

My favorite class is American Literary History. We watched many DVDs of American Literary in the class, for example, The Last of The Mohicans, Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, The Great Gatsby, and so on. We watched whole of that's three DVDs, because we must write report about them. I chose Huck Finn in spring semester and we had to write about Gatsby in autumn semester. Teacher tells us interesting information about authors, literary, or movies sometimes. By the way, I like American Literary so I read some books when I find interesting one. I wrote about it in my blog's book reviews before. For example, I read Little Women, The Legend of Sleepy Hollow, The House of the Seven Gables, and so on. If you don't understand a literary in class, I recommend that you should read the book about it!

(141 words)

ZOO KEEPER

In Zookeeper, the animals at the Franklin Park Zoo love their kindhearted caretaker, Griffin Keyes (Kevin James).

The animals, in a panic, decide to break their time-honored code of silence and reveal their biggest secret: they can talk!

ZOO KEEPER is really interesting, and I think it looks like Night Museum, because the animals can talk human words. Main casts in the movie are Kevin James, Rosario Dawson, and Leslie Bibb. Kavin plays Griffin Keyes who is a Zookeeper, and he decides to leave the zoo in order to get a girl! The animals in the zoo love him, so they are in a panic. ZOO KEEPER will be in theaters on July 8th, 2011. I'm looking forward to watching it in theater!! If you want more information of it, you can go to the website of ZOO KEEPER:)

(139 words)

Honey and Clover

I watched a DVD a few weeks ago. It was Honey and Clover, and it is called HACHIMITSU to KURO-BA- or HACHI-KURO in Japanese. Main characters are Hagu played by Yu Aoi, Takemoto by Sho Sakurai, Mayama by Ryo Kase, Ayu by Megumi Seki, and Morita by Yusuke Iseya. I like him recently, because he played Shinsaku Takasugi in Ryoma-Den which is a Japanese historical drama. Shinsaku Takasugi is one of my favorite Japanese historical people. By the way, HACHI-KURO is about love, especially, one-sided love. For example, Ayu loves Mayama, but he loves Rika who is his boss at an office and she is a widow, and Takemoto loves Hagu but she loves arts... However, Morita and Hagu may like each other. If you watch HACHI-KURO, you will feel love, I think:)

(133 words)