Oops... I made a mistake.

I was asked by somebody who is to write a speech on the future of Japan's nuke energy. She wanted me to help me write in Japanese. But, I was so stupid that I tried to answer the questions given to her. Anyway, this is going to be my humble opinions about this issue.

1) What is your opinion regarding environmental problems and nuclear power?

On the other day, Albert Gore, who wrote "An Inconvenient Truth," got a novel prize. It means that more and more people pay attention to environmental problems and their focus are fixed on reduction of CO2.Then, fossil energy is more and more avoided because it may produce greenhouse effect. Instead, people may rely on Nuclear Power more.

2) What is the latest status of nuclear power policy in your country?

A couple of incidents happened. So, people doubt the security of nuclear power stations in Japan. They are afraid that nuclear power can be dangerous. Also, they wonder whether present nuclear power stations in Japan are located in the best places or not.

3) What is your opinion of the current nuclear power policy in Japan and do you have any recommendations?

To tell the truth, I don't know much about nuclear power policy in Japan. Part of the reasons is because both the government and media didn't tell us enough information with clear explanation. Those who object to have a nuclear station just hold a demo against it. Most Japanese people don't know much about the merits and defects of nuclear power.

Dorothy is to American lechers what girls in sailor to Japanese lechers!?

According to the Internet, one of the popular Halloween costumes is Dorothy cosutumes. I like the movie "the Wizard of Oz" to some extent. But I still wonder why adults are so obsessed with its main character. Maybe some American guys fantasize about being with Dorothy like some of the Japanese guys fantasize about being with high school girls in sailor blouses.

A very weird dream

I just had a dream, which was too real. In the dream, I see one of my friends who I haven't met for a while. We talk about what we are doing each other. And then, I see her filing newspaper articles. They're from the Mainich Shimbun. She says that she has keeping a frontpage article and her translation of it every day for a while, and that she is preparing for a translation job. I come to know that I haven't done anything that requires some consistent efforts and I feel ashamed...

Rigth after that, I woke up. But, I feel very odd because those kind of things often happend to my life. It might be my homework God assigned me.

It is not easy to lie in English.

I went to Tokyo American Center yesterday to listen to the speech by Christopher F. Wurzel, Enonomic Policy Unit Chief, US Embassy. I wasn't interested in the topic that much. But, joining the speech was free and it was a nice opportunity to listen to educated American's speech.

Anyway, he discussed global economy. He insists that Japan needs to be open for global market, citing the growth of UK economy and criticizing protectionalism.

I was very impressed when he said "globalization did seem to increase income gap between highest and lowest." And I thought that it was hard to hide your weekness when you discuss English. In Japanese debates, you don't have to answer any questions about the weakness of your opinions.

http://japan.usembassy.gov/j/irc/ircj-kisokoza35.html

Court Name or Code Name?

Call her "Shin"? No, I never wanna do that. She should be called "Takahashi."

Recently, I don't like to watch volleyball games on TV. Why? Because Japan's national team is so gross that I don't feel like supporting them, especially women's. I'm not saying that they are too weak or something like that. However, they are behaving like Morning Musume, Japan's top idol group. Each member of them has her "Court Name," which is really weird.

Did he live up to your expectation?

Yesterday, the Red Sox captured the American League pennant and a trip to the World Series.

As you know, Japanese media praised Daisuke Matsuzawa.

Matsuzaka gets his revenge at the moment of truth.
Matsuzaka produces results at the crucial moment.

But, I think that Hideki Okajima is to be appreciated. He came in to pitch relief at the sixth and got away with the crisis in the 7th.

Better than anybody else

I happend to find this column in the newspaper, which I bought for classified ads. This would be a good reading text for English learners in Japan. It is written in good English and tells you about some characters of American people. I believe that EFL learners ought to read authentic materials like this. They tend to read only passages in workbooks for college entrance exams or the TOEIC test.

Ambitious to a Fault
By Robert J. Samuelson

Thursday, October 18, 2007; A25

A great strength of American society is the drive to succeed -- well, not just to succeed but to do better than anyone else; to be a star, a tycoon, an authority, a power, a celebrity or a leader; to be admired, respected, feared or obeyed more than your peers. It is the belief in these possibilities that motivates countless Americans to strive for excellence, to work hard, and to
search for new discoveries and inventions. As for one of the great weaknesses of American society, see all of the above.

It is an enduring paradox of the American condition. There is a point at which ambition and the determination to succeed, which generally serve us well, turn destructive, corrupting and dishonest. Success becomes its own god. Winning is what matters; the methods or consequences count little or not at all.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/10/17/AR2007101702117.html?sub=new

Natsumi Abe's new song? Well, that doesn't interest me.

I was a little bit perplexed by the news that Natsumi Abe releases her new song. She just showed up in the media when she was caught in a car accident, which seems to have been her fault. I thought that she would back out for a while until her public image that went bad fade out as other celebrities often do.


Natsumi Abe belonged to Morning Musume a long, long time ago.

However, celebs in the United States don't do such a thing as you know. Britney Spears is producing her latest song while trying to get parental rights and causing several incidents.


She sings, "gimme, gimme, gimme...," and not a few people wants to say something about her recent looks. She doesn't fade away from public. This comment might be kind of corny, but it seems difficult to keep getting public attention any way.

To tell the truth, I have another question about Abe's producing new song. How come she sings despite the fact that she's not a good singer. I know whether or not a female singer can be popular depends on her appearance rather than her singing skills. In her case, she could be a TV personality because she is already popular as an ex-member of Morning Musume.

She is getting popular because she is pretty. She also has good voice and her songs aren't bad, though.

Mop Girl cannot beat Tru Calling.

Yesterday I watched the drama named Mop Girl and came to know that the drama took some ideas from Tru Calling, which is one of my favorite drams. Although Mop Girl is a comedy, several scenes are quite similar to those of Tru Calling. For instance, Mop Girl's female main character is working at a funeral home, while Tru, the main character in Tru Calling, is working at a morgue. Anyway, I don't think that I will watch Mop Girl. Tru Calling gives me a very philosophical question about whether or not man has a right to change others' destinies, but Mop Girl doesn't make me think about such a profound question.

Naruse vs Darvish

I can't take much time to update this blog site just because I have to read a book relevant to my work and my thoughts are occupied with other things such as baseball.

Today, the final game of the Climax Series of Pacific League is held. Since two of the best pitchers in Japan will be starters, it will be a good game, I guess.

Are you wearing a butt?

It seems like shoes shaped like boots named "booty " are in fashion. But, It sound odd to me. As you know, "booty" is a slang item that means "ass" or "butt." I wonder whether or not this type of shoes are called "booty" in English-speaking countries.

Well, I am a guy who's not interested in fashion items. So, probably I shouldn't talk about it too much.

The French are a tolerant people.

It is said that truth is stranger than fiction. Sometimes truth is funnier than fiction, I guess. I read an article about Sarkozy, President of France, today. And this is very impressive.

The French are a tolerant people. Their presidents have had mistresses and even fathered illegitimate children and life went on. But divorce? How . . . conventional. How . . . bourgeois. How . . . unconventional, actually.

This part tells you about French people. Plus, the first sentence might be difficult for English learners in Japan.

People is plural when it refers to human beings in general or to many indivisual human beings together; but when people refers to a particular racial, ethnic, or national group, it's singular, and the plural is peoples. (Collins Cobuild Advanced Dictionary of American English)

English teachers in Japan often give their students this example:

- The Japanese are a hard-working people.

Let's get back to Sarkozy and his wife. How they have been since they met each other is described below:

Cecilia Ciganer-Albeniz, a onetime political aide, was married and had two small children when the two fell in love in 1987. Nicolas Sarkozy, then mayor of a Paris suburb, was also married with two children and assionate about politics. They moved in together, but it took several years of divorce wrangling for Sarkozy before they were able to marry in 1996. A few years later, after he became interior minister, he set her up in the office next to his as an aide-de-camp.

But in 2005, she ran away with another man to New York for eight months. While she was gone, he took up with another woman only to dump her to lure Cecilia back.

One more ESL stuff. Japanese people tend to think that "in" is the only preposition that comes after "absorbed" because they have been required to memorize "be absorbed in" as an idiom. However, in this article, we can find "by."

"She saw him as completely absorbed by politics, unbearable to live with," Clerc said, "and I think she wanted more."

It often happens that learners' choices of prepositions will be restricted by the instruction they have had before, especially when "be + past participle + preposition." I call this "The rule of 'be surprised at.'"

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-sarkozy13oct13,1,7855575,print.story?coll=la-headlines-world&ctrack=2&cset=true

Dental Care in the US -- "Some people can get it, and some people can't."

I read the article named "Boom Times for Dentists, but Not for Teeth" (Oct 11, The New York Times). This sentence makes me think about the gap between have and have-not in the US.
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/11/business/11decay.html?_r=1&ref=health&oref=slogin

For middle-class and wealthy Americans, straight white teeth are still a virtual birthright. And dentists say that a majority of people in this country receive high-quality care.

But many poor and lower-middle-class families do not receive adequate care, in part because most dentists want customers who can pay cash or have private insurance, and they do not accept Medicaid patients. As a result, publicly supported dental clinics have months-long waiting lists even for people who need major surgery for decayed teeth. At the pediatric clinic managed by the state-supported University of Florida dental school, for example, low-income children must wait six months for surgery.

One more quote from the same article for another purpose:

“Most dentists consider themselves to be in the business of dentistry rather than the practice of dentistry,” said Dr. David A. Nash, a professor of pediatric dentistry at the University of Kentucky.

This sentence would be a good example of "rather than" for English learners in Japan. High school students in Japan are often taught "not... so much as..." as a commonly used English phrase.

- He is not a manager so much as a salesman.

However, this phrase is not easy for Japanese. They often get confused where to put "a manager" and "a salesman." Therefore, I recommend that you use "rather than."

- He is a salesman rather than a manager.

Do you like to be monitered?

Being monitored doesn't sound good even for security. It reminds me of Orwell's 1984.

According to MSNBC.com:

Several U.S. auto insurers have begun offering in-car cameras or global positioning equipment to help parents monitor their teenagers’ driving behavior, hoping to reduce the alarming number of crashes involving young new motorists.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21225268/

Wal-Mart

A few years ago, some big foreign supermarket chains such as Carrefour and Wal-Mart were starting business in Japan or buy the stock of a Japanese supermarket. However, Wal-Mart seems declining. This news doesn't surprise me. When I lived in the states, most people bought meat at other supermarkets looking for freshness.

According to MSN:

- Talk back: Is Wal-Mart past its prime?

Today, though, Wal-Mart's influence over the retail universe is slipping. In fact, the industry's titan is scrambling to keep up with swifter rivals that are redefining the business all around it. It can still disrupt prices, as it did last year by cutting some generic prescriptions in the United States to $4. But success is no longer guaranteed.

Convenience, selection and quality

Rival retailers lured Americans away from Wal-Mart's low-price promise by offering greater convenience, more selection, higher quality or better service. Amid the country's growing affluence, Wal-Mart has struggled to overhaul its down-market, politically incorrect image while other discounters pitched themselves as more upscale and more palatable alternatives.

The Internet has changed shoppers' preferences and eroded the commanding influence Wal-Mart had over its suppliers. As a result, American shoppers are increasingly looking for qualities that Wal-Mart has trouble providing.

http://articles.moneycentral.msn.com/Investing/Extra/TheEndOfTheWalMartEra.aspx?page=1

Aren't you annoying somebody at work?

Some of these habits can be applied to me. How about yourself?

By Mary Lorenz, CareerBuilder.com writer

10 Habits of Highly Annoying Co-Workers:

Habit No. 1: You make a daily call to your partner to "check in," which can last anywhere from 15 to 45 minutes and, depending on how you two are getting along these days, can result in either a nasty fight or the sweet murmurings of baby talk.

Habit No. 2: You just can't seem to make it to those early morning meetings on time. If only the wait at the Starbucks next door weren't so slow, you'd never have to ask your co-workers what you missed.

Habit No. 3: You almost always leave the office early "to beat traffic." You're positive that you have the worst commute of all your officemates.

Habit No. 4: You buy a huge gift basket for someone in the office without consulting any of your co-workers, and then tell everyone that they owe you $10 to chip in.

Habit No. 5: You borrow your neighbor's stapler without asking and only remember to return it when your neighbor complains that he or she can't find it.

Habit No. 6: You can't understand what the big deal is whenever you ask your co-workers for "a tiny favor." Don't they know how much work you have piling up? You talk about it all the time.

Habit No. 7: You've once again forgotten to take home and wash the container that has the remnants of your tuna salad lunch a few days ago.

Habit No. 8: You answer questions or reply to comments with "That's what she said."

Habit No. 9: You don't see the need to learn how to send a fax or fix a paper jam when there's always someone around to help you do it.

Habit No. 10: You play your favorite boy band CD on repeat. All day. Every day.

http://msn.careerbuilder.com/custom/msn/careeradvice/viewarticle.aspx?articleid=1164&SiteId=cbmsnhp41164&sc_extcmp=JS_1164_home1&GT1=10466&cbRecursionCnt=1&cbsid=abe45d5d019c42559feca2f243f1f7a3-245322541-JF-5

I am sure you don't want to have a coworker like her.

leggy actress? Sure she is.

I just learned a new word.

According to MSN Entertainment (Bolded and colored by outrageous 2007):

Cameron Diaz and Bradley Cooper must have really bonded over those "flirty messages" they were recently rumored to be sending to one another. According to the New York Post, the leggy actress, 35, and the easy-on-the-eyes B-lister, 32, just enjoyed a "romantic weekend" in New York.

http://entertainment.msn.com/movies/hotgossip/10-04-07_2

According to Collins Cobuild Advanced Dictionary of American English:

If you describe someone, usually a woman as leggy, you mean that they have very long legs and usually that you find this attractive.

Coffee milk crazy

I like coffee. In the United States, most people drink only regular coffee. In Japan, however, people have canned coffee and packed coffee as well as regular coffee. So do I.

She doesn't drink canned coffee in the morning as Keisuke Kuwata does.

I have been having AGF’s Blendy Hikitate (freshly ground) Café au Lait, a plastic bottled one you can easily find at any convenience store. I’ve found some other good ones these days, though. I was fascinated by TOYOBEVERAGE’s KO:HI:KAN Sumibi Baisen (charcoal roast) Blend Coffee and AGF’s Maxim Caffè Latte Premium Taste.


I’m not a big fan of canned coffee. But, my favorite one is DYDO’s American Coffee, whose can is bigger than that of other canned coffee.

"American Coffee" is one of the English phrases Americans coming to Japan will learn in Japan. They feel that coffee most Japanese prefer is a bit too strong.

Japan for non-Japanese

I showed a vistor from the states around Tokyo today. I took her to Shibuya and Harajuku. She didn't seem to be interested in Japan's old stuffs (kabuki, sumo, shrine...) and very new stuffs (animé, costumes,...). Therefore, I felt difficulty showing her around. Even if you have a good command of English and you are Japanese, it is hard to teach others about Japan.