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.

England in the World Cup

Have you been watching the World Cup? How about England's matches? I have seen all of them except for the Algeria match, which was shown only on SkyPerfect. I was not very impressed, although I guess the Slovenia performance was pretty good. Last night's knockout match against Germany was very poor. In case you haven't heard, England lost 1-4. This was their biggest ever defeat in the knockout stages of the World Cup. The England players looked very slow and old.

Germany scores again!

Many commentators are now saying that English football needs major reform. One problem appears to be that England does not invest enough in training young players, nor in educating coaches. The Premier League also values fast and strong players more than skillful ones, and the attitude appears to be the same in schools, so that small and light players are not chosen even if their ball control is excellent.

World Cup again!

The World Cup is still continuing in South Africa. A couple of days ago, the preliminary rounds finished and the knockout stages started. The teams knocked out so far in the round of 16 are USA, South Korea, Mexico, and England.
I saw the England-Germany match last night. As you may know, England lost 1-4, a very bad performance. I also wanted to see Argentina vs. Mexico, but that match was broadcast only on TV Tokyo. I get confused with the schedule, but I think tonight's matches are Chile vs. Brazil, and Spain vs. Portugal. As you probably know, Japan will play tomorrow night.

Soccer, etc.

I haven't had enough time to watch as much of the World Cup as I would like, but it's a lot of fun!

Soccer & other matters

As everyone knows, the World Cup is well underway. Every team (?) has played two matches. The first round of matches was disappointing, because most teams were scared of losing rather than trying to win, but in the second round teams that had lost the first match tried very hard to get a win, so the matches became more exciting.

The best teams seem to be Brazil and Argentina. I think Brazil will win, but I hope that Spain make good recovery from their defeat in the first match.

The Chilly Little Penguin

1. The Chilly Little Penguin lives at the North Pole.
2. He found a box.
3. He tried to get warm.

Please listen here.

The Chilly Little Penguin

1. Perry found a box.
2. But he was too cold to eat it.
3. What did he do?

Please listen here!

A long way out in the deep blue sea there swam a school

of fish.Not just ordinary fish-each one had sparkling silver scale.

Ever since Rainbow Fish had shared his scales,

these fish had done everything together.

They swam together.They played together.

They ate together.They even rested together,

floating in the shadows of the reef.

They were so happy together,they had no interest 

in other fish.So one day,when a little striped fish 

swam through their game of flash-tag,

they all stared at him.

"Hey,"the little striped fish finally said,

"Can I play too?" "It's flash-tag,"said one

little fish,"and you don't have a flashing scale!"

"Do you have to have a special scale?"

the little striped fish asked.

"Of course you do!"said the fish with the

jagged fins."Come on,let's play!"

he called to the others.

"Don't worry about him."

Then all the fish turned and went back to their game.

Rainbow Fish hesitated.He was afraid of losing his

new friends, so he didn't dare stand up to the fish

with the jagged fins.Feeling a little ashamed,

Rainbow Fish reluctanly swam off to join the others.

The little striped fish floated all alone at the

edge of the reef.He looked sad as he watched the game.

The other fish were having such fun-darting and diving

in the deep blue sea,their shiny scales sparkling.

Rainbow Fish remembered what it felt like

to have no friends and how lonely he

had been when all the fish had ignored him.

He had been so proud of all his glittering scales

that he had refused to share them.

No wonder nobody had wanted to play with him.

But now his friends did want him to play,

and Rainbow Fish soon was caught up in the game.

No one was paying attention when danger

entered the reef....

Suddenly a shark shot like an arrow

into the middle of the school.The fish darted in every

direction and managed to escape to their hiding place.

There,in a narrow crack in the reef,the shark

could not reach them.They were safe.

But the little striped fish wasn't.Rainbow Fish couldn't keep still,

he was so worried.

"What's wrong?" asked the shinny fish.

"It's the little striped fish," said Rainbow Fish.

"He's all alone out there.We've got to help him!"

With that,Rainbow Fish left the safety of the

hiding place."Let's go!" he called.

The other fish trembled with fear,but they knew

what they had to do.They sped out of the

crack after Rainbow Fish.

They soon saw the shark.And there was the little

striped fish, swimming and spinning away from his jaws.

Rainbow Fish could see that the little fish's strength

was failing fast.

"Hurry!"shouted Rainbow Fish,and all the fish swarmed

straight for the shark.This confused the shark,

because usually fish swam away from him.

He turned this way and that,snapping right and left

until he was dizzy.

The shark almost got the fish with the jagged fins,

but the escaped with just a few scratche.

Quietly,Rainbow Fish led the little striped fish to safety.

"You were really brave,"said the little striped fish.

"Thanks for saving my life."

Together,they watched as the exhausted shark gave

up and swam away.

When all the fish returned safety to the reef,they welcomed

the little striped fish.

"Why don't you stay and play with us?"

Rainbow Fish offered.

"How can I play flash-tag when I don't have a shiny scale?"

asked the little striped fish.

"We can play fin-tag instead!"said the fish with

the jagged fin."Touch a fin and you're it!"

All the fish cheered,and then they swam off

to play together in the deep blue sea.

This book is lovely.

First, fish would like to enter

friends, and try hard.

Result, friend treated fish

"This way please!" went off, enter friends.

But,It's hard for friend.

I found tough position fish is in.

I know how fish feel, fish suffer from.

Feelings of inferiority.

Everybody got through a serious crisis.

Fish win a fish's trust.

I judge a person only by person's appearances.

I just assumes that person are wrong.

I found I thought they were a reliable person

but I was wrong.

Everyone has his strong and weak points.

For example, person's humorous side,

good point see and go with!

Kumamoto mind map

j

Table Tennis tournament & World Cup

Do you like table tennis? I like it very much and play it every week, usually two or three times. I played in a tournament yesterday, and I was very happy to get through to the 2nd round, for the first time ever. I heard from some students that I was on the news yesterday evening!

Of course, the biggest sporting news these days is the World Cup, starting in South Africa this coming weekend. I'm looking forward to seeing the England and Japan teams playing. However, at home we only have terrestrial TV, so maybe I won't have so many chances to see England, unfortunately. You may have heard that the England captain, Rio Ferdinand, has been ruled out with a knee injury, so I doubt that England will do very well this time. However, the manager, Fabio Capello, is very famous and experienced, so maybe he will make a difference.

Table tennis tournament and other matters

Yesterday, I played in a table tennis tournament. It was a team competition with three players in each team, each player playing one 5-set singles match. One of my teammates was Mr Tomei. I am very happy because we won the first round and went through to the second round, and also because I won all my games. Unfortunately, Mr Tomei lost all of his games!

Articles

1. I went to Canada when I was high school student.
2. My mother likes taking a picture.
3. We have been all around the Kyushu.
4. He took us to many camping place.
5. I was member of marching band for many years in high school.
6. I like a strawberry.
7. My younger brother is junior high school student.
8. I play the basketball.
9. I joined a tennis club in high school.
10. I did part-time job on Saturday.
11. I want to be the teacher.

More rhymes

I talked about rhymes in my last post. Here, I'd like to talk about a few more. Here's one:

A liter of water's a pint and three quarters

And here's another:

Celsius to Fahrenheit

Times by two, add twenty-eight

These ones, and the one about jam in my last post, were popular when I was a primary school student. They were designed to help us move from the Imperial system of measurements to the metric system.

Rhymes

Rhythm is very important for speaking English well. And it's especially difficult for Japanese learners of English, because English and Japanese are very different.

Rhymes (rimes) (e.g. hen - pen - den) are also very useful for learners of English (including native speaker children) because they help us learn the sound system and increase our vocabulary.

Learning short rhymes teaches us rhythm and rhyming. Here is an example. Can you guess where it is from?:

Three rings for the elven kings under the sky

Seven for the dwarf lords on their dark thrones

Nine for mortal men doomed to die

One for the dark lord on his dark throne

No? Well, here's the last part:

One ring to rule them all

One ring to find them

One ring to bring them all

And in the darkness bind them

That's right. It's Lord of the Rings. Here's a question for you: How many rings are there? Here's another rhyme:

Two and a quarter pounds of jam

Weigh about a kilogram

What do you think that's about?

World Cup squads

Did you see the announcement of Japan's squad for the World Cup in South Africa next month? Mr Okada announced all 23 members much earlier than other national coaches, most of whom have announced provisional 30-member squads and will cut their squad down to 23 very soon.

Japan's squad doesn't contain many surprises, although many were surprised at the inclusion of Kawaguchi, who is quite old and injured. Most people assume he will not play, but is included to help maintain a good atmosphere in the squad. In defence, I think everything depends on Tulio and Nagasawa not getting injured. Iwamasa is a great defender in the J League's best team, but he hasn't looked good in matches for the national team, and hasn't been given enough playing chances to get used to the team.

There are few surprises in midfield. My feeling is that Kengo Nakamura is the most likely midfielder not to play at all. He is a good player, and can replace the other Nakamura or any of the volante players, but will probably only get a chance if someone is injured.

The Cranberries

Do you know the Cranberries? They are a band from Ireland, perhaps Ireland's most popular band ever apart from U2. They were most active through the early part of the 1990s, and only made five original albums (and no live albums), but they sold more than 14.5 million albums in the United States, and many more worldwide.

Their second album, No Need to Argue, was their most successful, and it contained the hit song Zombie. But their most famous song is Dreams, from their first album, Everybody Else is Doing It, So Why Don't We?

Golden Week

In Golden Week, I went camping in Aso with my family and several other families. This is the same as we have been doing for the last few years. However, this year the number of families was less than in previous years, because as the children have grown up they have become busy with entrance exams and so on.

Anyway, we stayed for two nights. This is the usual schedule, but in the last we have often had to come home early because the weather has worsened. This time the weather was good for all three days, although it was very cold on Saturday night!

Camping in Golden Week

I'm going to write about Golden Week. In Golden Week I went camping with my family and a few other families. We have been doing this for several years now. Actually, the number of families has gone down recently because the children are getting older and some of them are busy with entrance exams and so on.

Sorry! I got interrupted so I can't type for 10 minutes!

My Blog Stats

Total words: 390

Total posts: 6

Book reviews: 2

Alice in Wonderland: the movie!

I went to see Alice in Wonderland on Friday night…finally! Alice in Wonderland is actually the theme of two of my classes this semester, and I have told my students to see the movie as soon as possible, so I was a little embarrassed not to have seen it yet!

I wasn't actually looking forward to it so much, because my impression of Tim Burton (the director) in recent years is that he has gradually deteriorated as a director and has set into one pattern, always using Johnny Depp in the leading role and so on. However, I thought Alice in Wonderland was magical!

I saw it at the Warner cinema in Clea, which I think is the best movie theater in Kumamoto. Two things I like about it are that fact that we can choose our seats when we pay for tickets, and that the 3-D glasses are much lighter than the Toho ones, so we can wear them for 2 or 3 hours without discomfort.

Until then, I had seen two movies in 3-D: Avatar and Up! I thought Avatar was a terrible movie, with poor dialogue and a too simple storyline, and that the 3-D effects, although clever, failed to make the movie a good one. Up! was a great movie, but to me it didn't make much difference whether it was in 2-D or 3-D. But with Alice in Wonderland I think the use of 3-D has been taken to a new level.

244 words

The Dragon and the Phoenix

Long, long ago, a dragon lived beside a magic river.

I read The Dragon and the Phoenix. It's about a dragon and a phoenix and an egg, and it explains some of China's landscape.

The Dragon and the Phoenix, Usborne First Reading, 9780746085424

41 words

Alice in Wonderland

Because Alice in Wonderland is playing now, I felt that many students would be interested in the topic, so I have made it the theme of two of my integrated skills classes at PUK. Actually, I don't know Alice in Wonderland so well, so this has been a learning opportunity for me.

(52 words)

The Fox and the Stork

Fox and Stork were friends,

but Fox loved playing tricks

The Fox and the Stork is a famous story by Aesop. It was very funny. Watch how the stork gets his revenge!

The Fox and the Stork, Usborne First Reading, 9780746085295

38 words

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8

Welcome to my test blog!

Hi everyone. This is my test blog!

7 words