Masaya's days: December 2009

31 December 2009

This is what I've done?

I got an e-mail from WWF Australia recently, but I don't know how they knew my name and address... Here the body of the e-mail...

Are there any people who got the e-mail like this?

Anyway, I started to use twitter again! My account name is "MaSaYaY",
if you want please follow me~ lol

Thank you.

Good day & Peace and Smile!

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30 December 2009

It's almost 30th December! I've started to post my blog every weekday since August last year. So, this year I've already posted 236 articles in this year. This is the new record in my blog since 2006. So, I will review my articles in this post... lol I'm using Google Analytics to check visitors, popular articles, where visitors from, and etc. First, the result of 5 most viewed articles in this year.

TOP 5 articles (1st January - 29th December)

Ultra realistic paper craft (61 pageviews)
Studying English for Eiken (44 pageviews)
Nana mail (43 pageviews)
Toshocard (39 pageviews )
buzzwords 2009 (27 pageviews)

(I excepted the top page but it marked 1,503 pageviews.)

TOP 5 countries/territories the visitors from

Japan (870 visits)
United States (395 visits)
Canada (57 visits)
Malaysia (44 visits)
Brazil (37 visits)

(Visitors came from 67 countries/territories in this year)

Anyway, 1,655 visitors read my blog and marked 2,243 pageviews in this year. Thank you very much!

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29 December 2009

The year-end party

Friday is 2010. We have only a few days to go 2010. Yesterday, I went to the year-end party. We played bowling games after noon and after that, we went to "居酒屋(Izakaya)" the Japanese style-pub. We played 3 games, it was really tough for me, because it's really rare to play bowling games. Maybe, I play bowling games less than once in a year.

After I drunk for 2 hours in "居酒屋(Izakaya)", I went to ramen shop with my friends to eat a ramen there. I like to eat ramen after I drink.

How about you? What food do you like to eat after you drink?

Thank you.
Good day & Peace and Smile!

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28 December 2009

Say good-bye to Wendy's

There are many kinds of hamburger chains in Japan. McDonald's, Mos burger, Freshness burger, Burger king, Wendy's and etc... Of course, McDonald's is most famous but I prefer Mos burger... lol

Anyway, one of these fast-food restaurant chains will retire from Japan in this year... That is Wendy's. I like Wendy's, but the hamburger shop named "Wendy's" will disappear from Japan next year. I visited Wendy's last week. There were a lot of people who wants to buy some burgers. I hope they will come back soon...

Thank you.

Good day & Peace and Smile!

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25 December 2009

Xmas Decoration

Merry Xmas!

And there are only 6 days until 2010.

The streets are illuminated. I found the vending machine that illuminated. You can check the photo of that vending machine. How do you feel?

When I first saw this vending machine, I felt "it's too decorated".

Anyway, enjoy your holidays!

Thank you.
Good day & Peace and Smile!

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24 December 2009

Giant postbox

The giant postbox appeared at Roppongi Hills in Tokyo. I forgot when they started this campaign, but they decorate this building every December these years. I heard this is the largest postbox in the world. It is 15 meters high. Between 5 p.m. and 11 p.m., we can watch the projected image. In the projected image, there are people who are posting their post in front of this giant postbox.

This is the campaign of new year's greeting card. We call it "年賀状(Nengajo)". I think, we should send new year's greeting cards so they'll arrive on 1st January. There are many many new year's greeting cards that Japan Post will deliver on 1st January. So, they are announcing that post new year's greeting cards until 25th December. Yeah, it's tomorrow!

Of course, they will deliver your new year's greeting cards but they cannot deliver it on 1st January... I didn't post it as usual, but I will send new year's greeting cards if someone send me new year's greeting cards.

Anyway, you can check the largest postbox at Roppongi hills.

Thank you.
Good day & Peace and Smile!

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22 December 2009

Short short day time

Today is the winter solstice in Japan. We call it "冬至(Toji)". Of course, it means midwinter, and day time of today is the shortest in year. Also today's daily minimum temperature marked the lowest in this season. Yeah, it's really cold today...

In Japan, there are some customs that we do on the winter solstice. I know two customs that we do on the winter solstice. One of them is the custom when we use bathroom. On the winter solstice day, we enjoy our bath time with "ゆず(Yuzu)". We take Yuzu bath in an effort to stay healthy during cold winter. We call it "ゆず湯(Yuzu yu)".

Another one is delicious and easy. Just eat squash on the winter solstice day. Of course, I did both of them today... lol
If you can, you should try it... lol

Thank you.
Good day & Peace and Smile!

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21 December 2009

New comedian star

Yesterday I watched the comedy program named "M-1 Grand Prix" on TV. "M-1 Grand Prix" is the annual Manzai competition that the Japanese comedian Shinsuke Shimada planned. This had been the 9th competition since it start in 2001.

Comedian who won "M-1 Grand Prix" became popular and they would appear frequently on TV shows. I watched whole program yesterday... lol

The winner of this year was "パンクブーブー(Punk boo boo)". Anyway, the comedian pairs who set up within 10 years have chance to try this competition. So, veterans can't try for this...

I think, many Japanese watched this program so, there are a lot of videos on YouTube... lol You may be able to watch their story on YouTube...

Thank you.
Good day & Peace and Smile!

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18 December 2009

Illumination

There were decorated buildings, lights, trees... Today I saw the
luxury illumination at 六本木(Roppongi). There are some areas
that we can see these luxury illumination and 六本木(Roppongi)
is one of these areas. This year the illumination at 表参道
(Omotesando) restarted, that illumination didn't hold in past few
years. (I forgot exactly how long it is)

Japanese spend romantic time with partner in Chiristmas season. Some
native English speaking teacher told me that is not 'real' Christmas.
I didn't know that but according to her, we should spend with family
in Christmas. Maybe most of Japanese are misunderstanding about
Christmas. And maybe this is the reason that why there are many
illumination spots in Japan.

I wish I was able to show you some pictures of these illuminations.
But I cannot do this right now...

Thank you.
Good day & Peace and Smile!

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17 December 2009

Too cold to walk around

These days, I need to go many places to take some seminars or companies' employment-explanation meetings. Most of companies hold these events in their headquarters or convenient places. So, I need to ride train for about an hour to get there. And I should wear suit to take such events. Usually, I don't wear suit and leather boots.

I couldn't join such event, but these days I started to join these events. I went to the company today to join the seminar. I will join 4 more events in this year. I think, it's enough to me, but some job hunters told me that they joined more than 10 events in this year.

Anyway, some weather forecaster told us it will be mild winter, but it's not mild winter, I felt. According to some weather forecast says tomorrow's weather will be colder than today...

Thank you.
Good day & Peace and Smile!

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16 December 2009

e-book

On Monday, some of my friends told me that we can download Kindle for iPhone in Japan too. Kindle is amazon's electronic book and I can buy real kindle on amazon.com. I was interested in this book but I didn't have a chance to try it. Sometimes I bring a paperback to read it during riding trains or buses. All the time I bring the paperback I feel that paperbacks are weak, big and thick. I also don't want to highlight the unknown words on the book.

According to some advertisement of e-books, e-book clear all these problems. I downloaded kindle for iPhone on Monday. I have an account of amazon.co.jp but I need to create an account of amazon.co.jp. Well, I didn't have an account of amazon.com so I registered my information. After that I downloaded sample of "twilight" because it was in top chart... lol

I felt it's good to read English books, and it can mark highlight easily! It's easy to bring but it's tough for my eyes and my iPhone's battery life... If there are Japanese books, I want to purchase some but I couldn't find it.

Anyway, I found some Haruki Murakami's books. I read many books that written by Haruki Murakami in Japanese and I remember the outline of most of his stories, then I might read his book in English on kindle for iPhone.

Thank you.
Good day & Peace and Smile!

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15 December 2009

one month rule

I used to use one month rule to suppress my extra shopping. One month rule is very simple. If I find something that I want to buy, I need to think about that product for a month. After a month, I will think about that products again and make a judgement. Of course, I cannot use this rule for food and drinks. I cannot wait for a month to eat something... lol I use this rule only for the expensive products.

Anyway, there is one another "one month rule" exist in Japan. Usually, I don't want to write my opinion for some policies, but today I want to write about this. If you want to receive the audience with Japanese emperor, you must apply before a month. Of course, ordinary people cannot do this. This is the rule for state guests. This means Japanese emperor don't judge these guests with their nation, nation's power, relationship with Japan and so on.

I think, this rule is good because they should not consider their guest with such a things. But Japanese Prime minister Yukio Hatoyama offered to ignore this rule for Xi Jinping (the vice president of China). I strongly disagree with Yukio Hatoyama in this judgement. Even Barack Obama followed this rule.

How will they explain this for other countries that couldn't receive the audience because of this rule? They made a big mistake, I felt.

Thank you.
Good day & Peace and Smile!

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14 December 2009

Where am I?

Sometimes, I open google's top page from my iphone. I can check my latest location on that page, if I send my GPS data. If I touch "update" button, my latest location would be updated in my latest place like "新宿駅(Shinjuku station)". Last Friday, I opened google's top page as usual, but I found something difference on that page. My latest location was "Colorado Springs"!! Look at the photo on top. Yeah, I've been to Colorado Springs!! If I could say so, it means that the result told me the truth. BUT I've never been to Colorado Springs! In fact, I've never been to the United State of America in these years. Anyway, I sent my GPS data when I was in "品川駅(Shinagawa Station)", last Saturday. ("品川駅(Shinagawa Station)" is one of the stations in Tokyo.) At that time, they told me the exact place that I was in near "品川駅(Shinagawa Station)" but now they tell me I was in Colorado Springs. Even if I update my location, they will tell me the wrong last location "Colorado Springs". Maybe they loves Colorado Springs... lol

Thank you.
Good day & Peace and Smile!

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11 December 2009

新

The Kanji on the title is this year's kanji. "Xin" or "Arata" in Japanese but it means "new" in English. This is because many things changed this year, I think. New President of the United States Barack Obama, new prime minister of Japan Yukio Hatoyama, new record of Ichiro, new influenza "H1-N1" and so on.

The Kanji of the year have started in 1995 and the Kanji announce on every 12th December but this year the Japanese Kanji Proficiency Society announced it on 11th December. This is because 12th December is Saturday. The Japanese Kanji Proficiency Society choose Kanji of the year. There are some other list for the Kanji of the year I heard. For example, "薬" it means drug and this is because many celebrities were arrested because of using drug in this year.

I heard that Taiwan and China hold similar event "Kanji of the year", but I don't know the result of these ones... lol
If you know, please tell me.

Thank you.
Good day & Peace and Smile!

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10 December 2009

again and again

These days, I couldn't post new article... I was in a little bit busy week and today I took TOEIC IP test. I was not thinking that I would take again in this year when I took TOEIC test in September. This is my second time to take IP test but this is also my third time to take TOEIC test in this year...

I think, I took too much TOEIC test in this year and I don't think I could get high marks on today's test. I couldn't study for this test much time and I believe that I lose my score from the score that I could take last time...

I don't know when I can check the result exactly, but it might be available until the year will be over.

Thank you.
Good day & Peace and Smile!

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07 December 2009

Changing hair style

On Saturday I went to the college community centre(学園都市センター) to see some presentation. Some of my friend explained their researches at that time and student of our laboratory explained his research at there too. I’ve never done poster session...

I listened some explanation of the poster at that time. Of course, I listened my friends’ explanation but I listened some explanation who came from different colleges. Some people were explaining about information technology, some were explaining about chemistry, some were explaining about environment and some were explaining about hair style!

There’s booth for beauticians’ school and they were explaining and changing some participants’ hair style!! I’ve never seen such a unique scene. Most of students were explaining about their researches using poster but in front of them, students of beauticians’ school were changing some participants’ hair style... Have you ever seen such scene?

Anyway, I had much time, so I tried it.. lol

Thank you.

Good day & Peace and Smile!

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04 December 2009

I installed google's Japanese input support system

This week, I heard that we can install Google's new software at free. "Google Japanese Input". This is Input Method Editor (IME). We don't need IME when we type English or other european languages because they can type directly from keyboard but for some languages like Japanese and Chinese, we must chose which kanji that we want to type.

There are many IME for Mac, for Windows and for other OSs. ATOK, Microsoft IME, ことえり(Kotoeri), かわせみ(Kawasemi) and more. Microsoft IME is standard IME for Windows, and ことえり(Kotoeri) is standard IME for Mac OS X.

I'm frustrated to IME when I meet miss-conversions again and again but it's rare case, I felt. Usually, I feel these default IMEs are not so bad because it works, but sometimes they make miss-conversion... lol

If we want to use better IME, we had to pay for it before. (ATOK and かわせみ(Kawasemi) are not offering free.) I've never tried both ATOK and かわせみ(Kawasemi) but some told me, these are better than Microsoft IME or ことえり(Kotoeri). So, I felt that I want to use these other IMEs in the future, if I have a chance.

This is the big chance for me... lol
Google provide us "free" IME for both Mac and Windows. I used it a little bit, so I want to write a little bit of my impression. I felt it works quickly like other IME and it works like "google suggest". It's very useful when I write long words in Japanese. I also surprised because they convert correctly when I typed my friends' name that I couldn't find with Microsoft IME... Anyway, I don't think this is perfect IME because they made miss-conversion too, but I hope google or other companies works well to improve IME.

Thank you.
Good day & Peace and Smile!

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03 December 2009

My favorite memo pad

Yesterday I ran out of my memo pad because I wrote down many many things on to it. Today I went to the stationery store to buy new memo pad. I have my favorite memo pad. The photo on top is the most favorite memo pad "Rollbahn".

I felt this memo pad came from Germany when I first saw this memo pad but this was not correct. This is made in Japan. Japanese maker made this "Rollbahn". There are some Germany words (maybe) on the front page but I cannot read these...

Anyway, I like this series. This became my third "Rollbahn" memo pad... lol

I also use "evernote". This is not paper but I like this application because I can use this on my iPhone, on my MacBook and even on Windows PC. Do you have any favorite memo pad?

Thank you.
Good day & Peace and Smile!

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02 December 2009

expo expo

Right now, I'm writing this article in fulfilled train... :( Today, I
joined Matlab expo 2009. Do you know Matlab? I'm using Matlab and
studying image processing with them in the college. Anyway, I've never
joined matlab expo. The Matlab expo 2009 held at the prince park tower
Tokyo (the hotel near Tokyo tower).

I took 3 seminars at the expo. One of them was the seminar that
related to my research very much. Other two seminars were not related
to my research but I could enjoy both of them. But I'm tired a little
bit... lol

Thank you.
Good day & Peace and Smile!

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01 December 2009

buzzwords 2009

This year's Japanese buzzwords have been announced today. I searched my old articles and I found my old article that about Japanese buzzwords 2008. You can check the article from here. Last year, I wrote about this news on 2nd December, 2008 but this year I will introduce you on 1st December, I mean today!!

I will write top 10 of Japanese buzzwords 2009, but these are all Japanese words, so there are some miss translations by me, I believe. If you find better translation, please tell me...

"こども店長(Kodomo tencho)" Child store manager
This word came from Toyota's commercial message. On that commercial message, 8 years old actor act as "Kodomo Tencho(Child store manager)".

"事業仕分け(Jigyou shiwake)" Assortment on businesses
This word came from DPJ's new unit "Government revitalization unit". Some say this is like a "Stanford prison experiment".

"新型インフルエンザ(Shingata infuruenza)" H1N1 flu
Maybe most of people know this words.

"草食男子(Soushoku danshi)" Herbivory males
Herbivory males are kind and easy to deal with but they are not active for love affair.

"脱官僚(Datsukanryou)" Debureaucratize
This is also one of the DPJ's policy.

"派遣切り(Hakengiri)" Lay off of temporary workers
After the bankruptcy of Lehman Brothers last year, many companies laid off temporary workers.

"ファストファッション" Fast fashion
I don't know exactly about this words but maybe this is like fast food...

"歴女(Rekijo)" Young women who like history
I heard they fall in love with historical hero. I think, they like historical hero than history...

And the grand prix was...
"政権交代(Seiken kotai)" Regime change
This was the keyword that DPJ set up for the general election that held in August. They realized "Seiken kotai"(regime change) on August.

Thank you.
Good day & Peace and Smile!

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