Chicken

血金

Because it is difficult to get a turkey or goose in Japan, I often roast a chicken at Christmas. My local store is Konnichi wa Midori Subete, and on Christmas Eve they often sell out, so I went there last night to reserve a chicken, to pick up tonight. They had two kinds of chicken, the usual one and a bigger one called Amakusa Daiou. This one was much more expensive, but I had heard about it many times before so I decided to go for it, because I would like to try it just once.

Tonight I will coat it in celery salt, ginger powder, and black pepper, and roast it on Christmas Day.

Christmas & New Year

Do you know much about Christmas? The first thing that many people don't know in Japan is that Christmas is twelve days long. The best way to remember that is to remember the song The Twelve Days of Christmas:

On the first day of Christmas my true love sent to me… a partridge in a pear tree
On the second day of Christmas my true love sent to me… 2 turtle doves, and a partridge in a pear tree
On the third day of Christmas my true love sent to me… 3 French hens, 2 turtle doves, and a partridge in a pear tree
On the fourth day of Christmas my true love sent to me… 4 calling birds, 3 French hens, 2 turtle doves, and a partridge in a pear tree

On the fifth day of Christmas, my true love sent to me 5 golden rings... 4 calling birds, 3 French hens, 2 turtle doves, and a partridge in a pear tree.

partridge ヤマウズラ
pear tree 梨の木
turtle dove キジバト
hen めんどり
calling bird = collie bird = 炭鉱用の鳥

Delicious

Check out http://micahvandegrift.wordpress.com/2010/12/17/r-i-p-delicious-or-data-curation-thrust-into-the-limelight/

Christmas

What are you all planning for Christmas? I'm glad this year because Christmas Day is on a Saturday, so I won't have to go to work on Christmas Day or Boxing Day (26th). In England, both of those days are public holidays, so I'm always a little disappointed when we have a faculty meeting on Christmas Day! We don't have anything terribly special planned, but we'll go to church on the evening of Christmas Eve, and then roast a chicken on Christmas Day. On that day, the grandparents will come round and we'll eat the chicken and a cake. They will stay overnight and we'll go somewhere for a walk or drive on Boxing Day.

I got an Apple TV recently, and I'm looking forward to trying it out over the holiday. According to the information I read, we can rent movies from the Apple TV, or stream videos, music, or photos from the Apple TV to our TV.

Harry Potter 7, Part 1 (Part 2)

Let me talk a little more about Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part 1. Although I read the book little more than a year ago, I had already forgotten what the Deathly Hallows were, so the movie had some suspense for me. I remembered fairly well the Horcruxes part of the story.

It's a little surprising how well the movie is made. David Yates, the director, has until now done made-for-TV movies and TV series, but he seems to have a great grasp of how to make a satisfying theatre experience. I'm looking forward very much to Part 2 next year.

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows

I like the Harry Potter series. I've read all the books, and seen all the movies. I've been looking forward to seeing Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part 1 for quite a long time, and I was worried that the subtitled version would disappear soon. Last week I at last got a chance to see it. I was surprised that there were only 5 people in the cinema!

Anyway, I thought the movie was great. It managed to maintain a dark mood throughout, even though the movie was quite long, and I thought the way they split the seventh volume of the series into two was appropriate, with Voldemort obtaining the Elder Wand at the end of the movie and setting up Part 2 for an exciting conclusion. Another interesting point was the relationship between Harry and Hermione. I also liked the animation sequence showing the origin of the Deathly Hallows. To tell you the truth, I had already forgotten what they were from when I read the book!

Usborne Reading Programme

The Usborne Reading Programme isn't an original series from Usborne. Its origins are the Usborne Young Reading Series 1 and Usborne Young Reading Series 2, which were already very popular. Usborne decided that they needed an integrated programme that would take young children from beginning reader to advanced reader status. For the more advanced stages they added Usborne Young Reading Series 3, and for the beginning stages they created a new series called Usborne First Reading. This is divided into four levels.
Thus the Usborne Reading programme consists of 7 levels:

1. Usborne First Reading Level 1
2. Usborne First Reading Level 2
3. Usborne First Reading Level 3
4. Usborne First Reading Level 4
5. Usborne Young Reading Series 1
6. Usborne Young Reading Series 2
7. Usborne Young Reading Series 3

Tobu Fureai Festival revisited

Hi everyone. Let me tell you a bit more about the Tobu Fureai Festival. It's a festival that has been going on for about 5 years now. It's designed to advertise Tobu Sports Club, the biggest general sports organization in Kumamoto, with more than 1000 members. It offers basketball, softball, tennis, badminton, volleyball, and table tennis.

The festival featured a stand from Onoue area (with yakisoba and dagashi), a yakitori stand, a shop from Moe no Sato, a 3D TV stand, and also curry and bentos. There were also soccer and ground golf competitions.

Tobu Fureai Festival

Hi everyone. Yesterday was December 5th, and the fifth (?) Tobu Fureai Festival was held, in Higashi-machi Junior High and Kengun Higashi Primary School. It was a very tough and long day, and we organisers had to be there by 7:30, to set up tables and tents. From 8:30 to 10:30, I was standing outside the back entrance to stop unauthorised cars coming in. Then I joined the other organisers from Onoue to make yakisoba. Then we cleared everything up, finishing at about 3:30, then we had an "uchiage" party.

November & December

October was a terribly busy month for me, so I was looking forward to a less hectic November. Unfortunately, many things cropped up this month, and December looks like being even more hectic, so I'm feeling snowed under. But there are some things to look forward to. We got a new 42" TV last week, and I just ordered an Apple TV to go with it. That will allow us to rent movies without going to the rental store, and to watch movies already stored on our Mac or iPad.

Blog Stats

J League

I heard yesterday that the J1 championship was decided this weekend. It seems that Nagoya Grampus have secured the championship with a few games to go, because they now have 10 points more than 2nd-placed Kashima Antlers (who won the championship the last 3 years). I think this is their first time to win the J League. Winning the championship is good for teams moving forward, too, because they win 200 million yen, as opposed to the 100 million yen for the 2nd-placed team and the 80 million yen for the 3rd-placed team.

Table tennis tournament

Yesterday, the first table tennis & badminton competition of Kumamoto Prefecture's general sports clubs was held at the prefectural gym. I was asked to put together a men's team of 4 players for Tobu Sports Club, so we went over to the gym very early. Unlike past tournaments, it was easy to get some practice before the tournament began, so I felt pretty good. The competition began with a league competition, and we were successful in getting through to the quarter-finals, but then we met Sakuragi Sports Club, who were very strong, and went out. But we all felt very satisfied with our performance, because we hadn't done any special practice, and we had had many satisfying games.

The Next Three Days

Our lives are defined by moments...especially the ones we never see coming..."You're under arrest for murder."

There's nothing more dangerous than a man with everything to lose.

The Next Three Days looks like a very exciting movie, about a man whose wife is arrested for murder and who decides to break her out of prison. It stars Russell Crowe, whom you probably know for movies like Robin Hood, Master and Commander, and so on. His wife is played by Elizabeth Banks. To tell you the truth, I had never heard of her, but according to the Internet Movie Database, she has appeared in many movies such as the Spiderman movies and Seabiscuit.

I looked for this movie on AllCinema.net but it doesn't have a Japanese title yet, probably because it hasn't yet been decided when it will be released in Japan.

Ladies' Volleyball

The third-place playoff for the world ladies' volleyball championships was played last night. Japan beat the US in five sets. Japan was losing by two sets to one, but took the 4th and 5th sets easily, to win a bronze medal. Apparently, that was the first time in more than 30 years for the Japanese team to win a medal.
I'm not sure whether the final has already been played. I guess that must be/have been between Russia and Brazil.
In the J-League, Kashima Antlers got 3 points to keep their title hopes alive, but Nagoya also got three points, so Kashima weren't able to close the gap. I think Nagoya will probably clinch the title in the next or next but one match, because it doesn't look like they are going to fold under pressure.
Moving to another topic, you may know that the PUK campus festival was held yesterday and Saturday. I went there both days, and I had a good time, but I ate too much! I especially enjoyed the dance yesterday afternoon.

Recent sporting events (continued)

As I mentioned in my last post, there have been many sporting events recently. Continuing on the volleyball theme, Japan played much better when Yuko Sano was playing, and in the end they beat Turkey easily. Apparently, what they are playing now is the 2nd round, and there are 2 matches left. Japan has been defeated only once, but they still have to play Korea and Russia. It seems that there is a pretty good chance of going through to the semi-finals if they lose only one of their remaining matches. Russia is considered a very strong team, so probably they need to beat Korea tomorrow night.

Another major event is the Japan Series baseball. The penultimate match, on Saturday, was the longest in Japan Series history, I heard. Last night's decider was won by the Chiba Lotte Marines.

Recent sporting events

In October, there were some interesting soccer matches involving the Japan national team. When they had finished, I was a little sad, because I thought that there wouldn't be anything interesting in sports until the Asian Cup began next January. However, there have been lots of interesting events since then.

First of all, there's the world ladies' volleyball competition happening right now. I don't know volleyball so well, so I'm not too familiar with the setup, but it appears that the world's teams are divided into 4 groups, and each team has to play every other team in its group. That means there are a lot of matches, and the Japan team seems to be playing nearly every day. I don't have time to watch all the matches, but I've seen a few. I saw Japan lose to China the day before yesterday, and then beat Turkey yesterday. My impression of the Japan team was that their attack is a bit predictable, but Ebata's attacking shots are so good that they were able to beat Turkey. Also, I felt that Japan's defence was rather weak, until they brought on their libero (I don't remember her name).*

*I'm told her name is Sano.

Onoue Festival

Every year, my school district Onoue holds a festival in autumn, called Onoue Matsuri. As an officer of the district sports association, I have to help with the organization of the festival. This year's festival was held yesterday. As you know, the weather was very nice early yesterday morning, so the festival went ahead as planned, so I and the other officers and helpers started preparing around 8 o'clock. Unfortunately, it started raining before 10, when the festival was scheduled to start. We were all a bit worried, but the rain was very light at first so the decision was made to go ahead. However, the weather became worse and worse, but by that time it was too late to change the schedule. The area around the tents became flooded, and most of the attendees went home.
Because another event is scheduled for today, we had to move all the tents and other equipment away. However, they were too wet to fold up, so we just carried them off to the side. They were very wet and heavy. Maybe in 2 or 3 days we'll have to go there again to clean and dry them, and fold them up and put them away.

Scripts for 1st podcast episode

Hi, I'm Rick, and welcome to the first episode of my podcast. In this site I introduce Usborne books. As you may know, Usborne Publishing is a British company, and in recent years they have become one of the most respected publishers of children's books in the world. A few years ago, they were basically unknown in Japan, but now Usborne books are considered an essential part of extensive reading programmes even in universities.
Usborne has a very wide range of books. So in this site, I'm going to introduce the various series and sub-series they offer, and recommend some of my favorites. Take a look through the site, and please also listen to the other podcast episodes as they appear on the site.

Zack Japan revisited

Last week, I made a prediction about Japan's match with Argentina, suggesting that the chances of a Japan victory were very slim. Japan surprised nearly everyone by winning 1-0 and by looking just as good as Argentina for most of the match. Of course, flying over to Japan to play a match is very tough is Argentina's players; perhaps Japan would not have won if the match had been in Argentina. But Japan has played Argentina several times before, both at home and away, and Japan had never won until this match. I think Japan has progressed immensely.

The following game was a special one, as it was against Korea, and Japan has a poor record against Korea. Japan was unable to win, but I felt that a draw away was again symbolic of the team's progress.

Zack Japan

On Friday, Japan's new senior team coach will take charge for his first match. It's against Argentina, and apparently superstars such as Messi will be in the squad (though of course we don't know who will be playing in the actual starting eleven).
It's a difficult situation for Zaccheroni (spelling?) because Japan won its first two matches after the World Cup with its caretaker manager, Harumi Harada, against Paraguay and Guatemala. At that time, Shinji Kagawa were on fire after being excluded from the World Cup, and scored one of the goals; now, he's probably a little bit tired after his first few matches of the season and the flight back to Japan from Germany. Similarly, Matsui and Honda will have to fly back from Russia, and neither has been scoring goals recently. And above all, the opponents are very strong this time!
Unfortunately for Zack, the mood is good now, and despite all the extenuating circumstances if Japan loses the mood is likely to get worse. But at least it looks like he wants to attack: he has called up eight forwards!

iPad software

Do you know the iPad, Apple's new portable computing device? I bought some of them in July, and I have been using them since then. I find that the iPad is very convenient, because it turns on much quicker than a notebook computer and it doesn't have a lid. Also, the software for iPads is very good, the variety is very large, and improvements are very quick.

My favorite iPad apps are:
Share Board: an electronic shared whiteboard
Index Card: electronic index cards that help you organize your writing or projects
VOA Player: software that bring Voice of America broadcasts to the iPad
Papers: software to organize your PDFs

(104 words)

World Cup, World Cup, World Cup

As I said before, although the World Cup is over I can't forget about it yet. The preparation for the conference in Spain and the actual trip there distracted me from the tournament for some time, but I managed to see both semifinals while in Spain. Unfortunately, I was so tired when I got back that I couldn't get up for the beginning of the final. However, I did see extra time. It turns out that the match was not very good, so seeing extra time only was probably best!

Anyway, there are several lessons that some reporters are drawing from the World Cup. One is that to win teams need to make a choice between controlling the ball and controlling space. Spain's approach is to control the ball, so in each game they had very high possession. The German approach was more to control the space. Spain's approach won, and it was very nice to watch, but it is very difficult for most teams to play.

World Cup?

Oh, no! The World Cup is over! For the last few weeks, I have been writing about the World Cup whenever I got the chance. It seems strange now that it's over. But that doesn't mean I can't write about it! What are my impressions of the World Cup, and are there any lessons to be drawn?

It's clear that England has many problems! It seems that Capello didn't do a very good job of managing the team during the tournament. And as usual the players were too tired after a long season with no winter break. But England's tactics were poor, and there were too many players who played badly for the whole tournament.

Spain was very good, even though they were not at their best.

Barcelona again

One of the most beautiful buildings in Barcelona is the Casa Battlo, designed by Antoni Gaudi.

Another is the Sagrada Familia, a church designed by Gaudi, and built from donations only. Only one of the four sides has been completed, but the Pope will visit the cathedral this November to consecrate it. Because the funds for building come only from donations, it is not certain when building will end, but they hope that it will be completed by 2026, the 100th anniversary of Gaudi's death.

I didn't have time to see any more, but if I go to Barcelona again I would like to go to Park Guell.