I am on...

http://minkara.carview.co.jp/userid/676424/profile/ みんカラ　車の情報サイト　Minkara - A community for car owners wanting information on their cars.

http://twitter.com/Sqwashy Twitter

http://lang-8.com/120243 Lang-8 Language-learning community Great if you are learning languages!!!

http://www.flickr.com/photos/moshisqwashy/ Sharing and viewing photos

I also use 'mixi' and Facebook as well ^∀^

Favourite Bible Verse

●　Enter by the narow gate, for wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and there are many
who go by it.

Because narrow is the gate and difficult is the way which leads to life, and there are few who find it.

Karuizawa Part 2

I don't normally tell people that I am a christian, but for as long as there is a good church to go to, I would go whenever time allows. First one's Karuizawa South church, I met the owner of the church ( I think he was the owner )told me that the church has on-going communications and events with universities & churches in my hometown.
Okay next one's St, Paul's catholic church, I really loved the atmosphere how it was so similar to the one I used to go in Australia. Hillsong is the best tho...

Kitty せんせい！

Kitty せんせい http://www.kittydakitsune.deviantart.com/

Karuizawa 軽井沢 Part 1

This is the only Mcdonalds in Karuizawa... lol Yes unbelievable I know, next one is like 30 minutes away. 軽井沢で唯一のマクドナルド...　一番近いやつでも、約３０分ほど離れています...
The only bookstore in town... Looks big outside, but it really isn't... これまた町で唯一の本屋さん.... 外見は大きいですが、中は本当に小さいです... 田舎の実力発揮と言ったところでしょうか... 本もそれほど必要ないといわんばかりです... lol
Again,(!!!!) the only supermarket in town... ( There's another supermarket bigger than this one 15 mins away) お弁当２５０円（すぐに無くなりますが...)　おにぎり一個５８円！！　とても安い、町で唯一のスーパーです.. lol
Just a warning kinda thing (?) I saw, saying ''Enhanced security measures being taken for terrorism'' and I'm like '' hahaha... you think terrorists are that bored to bomb this small town with nothing'' lol 　　テロ特別警戒実施中...　こんな田舎に来るテロリスト　いないと思います　テロリストが、軽井沢のあまりの田舎さに、逆に襲われます... lol

かりん糖

長野　軽井沢に来てやっと一週間　今日は久しぶりの日本語ブログです^^　

先日近くのスーパーに行った時、こんな変わった物を見つけたので、思わず買ってしまいました　(とはいっても、全部しっかり値引きされてます lol)

味は、どれもとてもおいしかったです　特にリンゴと牛乳はお勧めでした！

What to do with my day off

Being in this small ( extremely small ) town of '' Karuizawa'' I have absolutely nothing to do on my day off and I always have to think about where to go because I'm not just the type of person who could sit down & do nothing, TVs are so boring I get sore neck and everything if I go use the internet in the lounge so therefore I am left with only one choice to go out driving nowhere. It's tiring too but just a lot better than sitting down at home wasting my time.

Imogashi (literary potato snack/sweets)

This has been my favourite sweets for quite a long time now, it's really delicious but somehow ridiculously overpriced ( 10 of what you see in the picture for $ 10/ 1000 yen !!! x.x ) so I can't buy this as often as I'd like to, and besides no one sells it around here you have to drive all the way up to '' Noto'' the other part of the prefecture that I live in...

REVE SENSIBILITE FRANCE

It was such a nice warm ( not too hot ) day today, I went to '' Kanazawa Citizen's Art Center'' http://www.artvillage.gr.jp/ to learn a lot about France. ( Event called ''REVE (dream)　 SENSIBILITE (sensibility)　 FRANCE''

リア～んさん専用ブログ？ ほぼ個人的なメッセージ状態 lol

さてさてこのブログの数少ない定期読者リア～んさん　いつも私のつまらないおしゃべりにお付き合いいただき　本当にありがとうございます！！　感謝しております。

そしてこのブログのチェックもありがとうございます！！　　Merci !!!!!

さて本題に移りますが、このあいだ飛騨高山に行った時、大通りでこのお店を見つけました。

あまりにも、外国風で、目立っていたので、写真に収めました。　

まさに、私の夢見ているおみせ　そのものです！
　
かなり落ち着いたイメージがあって、中でわいわいがやがやゆっくりとした時間をお話ししながら過ごすには、もってこいのデザインだと思いませんか？

ぜひぜひ、ご感想をお願いします！！！　<3

Ishikawa Zoo

Today it's children's day http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Children%27s_Day_%28Japan%29 in Japan & the last day of the Golden Week, the roads are packed with people returning to their homes , as well as buses trains and planes.

I chose to go to the Ishikawa zoo, offering free entrance to children for it is children's day, the zoo had many people as any other place would today.

It was very good but could be better it was too hot and there were too many people you could hardly breathe!!!

Bear^^

Some cute adorable bears today. http://www.nande.com/kuma/



Anyway inside the park, you could purchase a packet of bear's food ( no idea what they are called) for a dollar/ hyaku-en (100 yen)

Free 500ml bottle of tea!!!

Okay this had never happened to me before ( and I never expected it to ), but today I was offered a 500 ml o-i ocha (literary '' Hey tea!'') bottle for FREE!!!

I spent 2000 yen ($20) at circle K ( a convenience store in Japan) , and (luckily) the store manager served me at the check out, I have no idea if it was to everyone or not, but it kinda made my day!! (Worth 125 yen $1.25) ^^ Probably my first and last experience ever!!! Has anyone had a similar experience ?

Car Radio Fixed

For some strange reasons the radio wasn't working in my car, but as I said in my blog before I attended an event my local radio station ''FM Kahoku'' organised, so I thought I might as well start listening to them...

No News Good News ??

No news is good news ? I don't believe that.

There's nothing worse than sending someone an email of course expecting a reply and never hear a thing from them. I just hate it! I hate it for a few reasons.

First, it makes me wonder/worry what happened to them as to why they are not replying. ( Do they hate me or something ? )

Second, it also makes me think that maybe the email didn't go through. ( Yes, asking them to send you a very short message confirming they've received the email is a good way, but you know that's too much trouble I guess... and kinda hard to ask too...)

And last, as I can be such a pessimistic person at times, it's really hard to ask them why they haven't replied or even to talk to them ever again, just sort of assuming that they didn't reply to my emails on purpose. I know that's not why I didn't get my reply ( most of the times hopefully), but I just think like that... x.x

What would you do in situations like this....

Unbelievable

This is unbelievable.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w0wVctS36TQ

うんこ漏れそうな車

こちら　せっかく車内にドライブレコーダーがあるので作らせていただきました　

ぜひご覧ください！　

http://www.youtube.com/user/Themoshisqwashy#p/u/0/oyYrPH_stHw

私の大先輩です　http://www.youtube.com/user/gerozoido01#grid/user/666609DF084EB9E9

Grapefruit ^^

I just had a delicious grapefruit just then ^^

I let it ripe for about 3 days ? ( not really lol I was just too lazy to cut it and eat ) and it was so yummy.

Golden Week

For those of you (I suppose most) who are wondering, ''Golden Week'' is what they call this longest weekend ( 5~6 days normally) in May in Japan. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Golden_Week_%28Japan%29

On the news today they said that almost 560,000 Japanese will go overseas during this upcoming Golden Week.

My point ? I wonder where they get their money from..... lol

Couldn't believe what I found

Today I had to do like an hour drive (One way, so 2 hours return) and there about 40 minutes away from where I live, there's a ''toysrus'' there I just thought I would go in and have a look today. And look what I found !!! Never thought you could get this in Japan, it's a Twix bar ( mini version & my favourite ), and that cost me $ 8 (800yen) for about 25 of these mini ones ^^ I suppose that's reasonable, I really think that it'd be better if the chocolates were sold ridiculously more expensive, then I wouldn't be able to buy them so much, easier to stay away from them ^^ But yeah. happy to have them again!

Would you believe this ?

Sushi http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0b75cl4-qRE


would you believe what they say in this video...? lol

Delicious!

Awesome chocolate from America I could totally go for this everyday, only if I had the money and courage to get even fatter. This cost me 300 yen wonder how much it is in America...

Funny English in Japan

Wrong> Please call us! We will provide you with any emergency. lol

What they wanted to say > Please call us! We can help in an emergency. (Ad. for babysitter)



Wrong> Please fasten seatbelt to prepare for crash. ( OH NO!!! are we going to crash !!!???)

What they wanted to say> Fasten seatbelt for your safety.



Wrong> ( On the apple juice packaging) Used apple juice from Aomori


What they meant> Apples from Aomori used

偏見

皆さん（皆さんっていえるほど、読者さんいるのか？？？　笑）　こんばんは！！　^^
私が書きました　Racial prejudice and stereotyping　　　を、日本語でもう一度書いてみます！！　気に入ってもらえたら、幸いです　^∀^


先日、地方ラジオ局FMかほくさん主催のイベント、恥ずかしがらずに英語をしゃべろう　へ行ってきました！　　当初の予定参加日本人数は19でしたが、皆さん各自の予定等で、最終的には約10人程度の方がきました！！　みなさんいい人ばかりでした！　<3

さて注目の外国人の方ですが、本当にびっくりしました。　皆さんの、アメリカ人に対するイメージはどんなものですか？　　銃社会で、すぐに切れそう。　喧嘩ばかりしていそう。　人殺しが多い。　車の運転が荒い　などなど悪いのもが多いと思います。　実際私も恥ずかしながら、そのような偏見を持っておりました。

ところがそれは、まったく違うのもだと勉強しました！！！　この日集まってくださったのは、約10名の英語教師の皆さん　アメリカやイギリスから、日本の学校へ英語を教えに来ている皆さんです。　　

最初に座ったのは、アダムさんとレイチェルさん。　二人ともアメリカの出身です。　私は人見知りが激しいので、案の定打ち解けて話すのは、とても緊張しました。　特に彼らがアメリカ人で、私が今までほとんど接した事のないお国の方だったからです。　　　さらに私は、前に述べたようなあまり良くない、怖いというイメージを持っていました...

しかしいざ話してみると、彼らのやさしい事！！！　私たちの英語を聞きとろうと一生懸命です！！！　しかも積極的に話してくれて、とても私の持っていたイメージとはかけ離れたものでした。　私は、自分がそのようなイメージを持っていた事を、少なからず後悔しました。　

私がこのようなイメージをアメリカ人に対して持ってしまったのは、テレビやメディア、映画等が大いに関係していると思います。　なぜなら、ほとんどすべてのアメリカ映画は銃がつきもの。　カーチェイスや乱闘、強盗に誘拐等、悪いイメージしか抱けません。　さらにテレビでも、アメリカで起こった事件をやったりと私たちに悪いイメージを植え付けました。

私たちはよく、中国人はこうだ、アメリカ人はこうだ　と言いますが、必ずしも皆がそうでないという事、そして、差別や偏見自体が良い物ではないという事を、再度深く認識させられました。　<3

Racial prejudice and stereotyping

Ok, so.... Hmmm I'll have to level with you... I was completely wrong and I'm so so so glad that I was. You know this racial prejudice and stereotyping people not according to their looks or anything but just their nationalities, it's quite common and popular I guess.

And for the longest time, I had this feeling that Americans are hmmm aggressive, scary, short tempered sort of like gets angry very easily and try to solve everything with violence ( OF COURSE not all, but most of them I thought are like that) what a shame I know, blame all these American movies with gangstars and such you know what I mean, I guess I watch too much of it.

As I said in my yesterday's blog, I was made aware of how I was absolutely wrong. The teachers, mostly from America, were so nice, both boys and girls ^^ I was like wow!! this is not what I thought!! I never expected and thought people from America to be this kind and friendly!

I also think it has A LOT to do with the media. The news from america that you see on TV is always bad, which planted me the idea I had towards them.

But anyway, I'm so glad that now I know the truth!

An international event in Kahoku

Yesterday, I went to an international event this local radio station called '' FM Kahoku'' gathered about 10 of the very nice English teachers from overseas working in Ishikawa. The event was held in this french restaurant where we were offered a cake and a drink for $ 1000. Oh oops, I meant 1000 yen. lol (Yes I made that mistake on purpose lol) Anyway, the radio station, the promoter of this event successfully managed to get 10 people, which is a surprising fact really, considering how you know they normally would prefer to do whatever they like to do on the weekend. On this occasion we only had about 20 Japanese wanting to come, of which we had about 10 people not eventually coming, due to their schedules or whatsoever, but I believe and hope we will get more people as the word spreads and we become famous, I do know for sure that there's a huge number of people studying English around my area, from school kids to housewives, due to an expanding need for English speakers in many companies and for its convenience being the second most spoken language in the world.