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.