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)