I don't know who I would vote for if I were an American.

Hillary Clinton could be my choice.

I dunno.

No offense, but ...

for me

Clinton is simply...

scary.

Happy (belated-again) New Year!

"What does 'agree' mean?"

"怒ってる(okotteru)?"

"Hey, it's 'angry'!"

"Ah, then it's '醜い(minikui),' isn't it?"

"Come on, that's 'ugly'!!"

My dear visitors, if you have a big laugh at it, you may be a Japanese expert.

"Do you want to know why I never misspell the word 'together'?"

"Yeah?"

"I always remember it this way: To get her!"

"... Wow!"

Wow...

I found a video clip.

Do you like it? I remember M once said she liked the song very much. I guess there are a lot of non-Japanese fans of the song. If you like it, tell me how you like it.

So, J, I'll email you the Romaji lyrics. A translation? Well, ask M if she did it. ;)

But I have to admit winter has its own beauty. You know, Christmas should be white. (Oops, never in Australia!)

Well, the following photos were taken during "Abashiri Ryuhyo Matsuri" (the Abashiri Ice Floe Festival) this year by, er, my wife.

It's Feb-yoo-ary 13 today. That means, it's my birthday. Wow. You know, I'm a 年男 this year. 年男 comes every 12 years. So you can guess my age. ;)

Frankly, last year was not a good year for me, in a lot of ways. How bad? You know, so bad that I didn't feel like blogging at all. (C'mon!) Uh well, now that the new year has started, I hope it will turn out to be a good year.

It's the year of the wild boar this year, and I'm a 年男 (toshi-otoko: the male who was born in the corresponding animal's year. For the famale, it's 年女, or toshi-onna.).

So, folks, Happy Belated New Year, and yoroshiku this year, too!

8th graders in class:

"Isn't Sydney a country??"

"Wow, I've thought it's a country, too!"

"Yeah, I thought it's a country because the Sydney Olympics were held."

Seems like I have to teach them New York is not a country, either.

9th graders yesterday:

"Now we're studying English, a foreign language. Do you think there are people in other countries who study Japanese?"

"No, I don't think so. A great number of people study English because it's used all over the world. But, hey, who uses Japanese?"

Mmm....I have to try to open my students' eyes to the world around them.

As for me, I have nothing special to share with you this time. I went for a long drive to Sapporo, and got back home exhausted.

Just like talking, I tried to write my blog, and enjoyed it.
Once you stop updating, however, it would be very hard to restart.
Unfortunately, KEC Journal fell into such a cycle around 2004.
Returning to the blogosphere this past April was also a challenge for me.
Never disappoint my friends and myself again, I said to myself.
And it's been a month now, and seems like I'm still blogging.
Let me say, guys, it's really fun to blog with you!

(Read the first letters of each sentence down.)

I, as a Japanese citizen, would like to thank Mr. Bush for meeting with Mrs. Sakie Yokota, the 70-year-old mother of abductee Megumi Yokota.

Are you a good sleeper? I sleep about 7 hours a night. It's once in a blue moon that I have trouble going to sleep, like when worrying too much about things or excited about the next day's enjoyable activity. Oh, I couldn't sleep well the night before a school outing as a kid. Though I'm not the type who can sleep anytime anywhere, fortunately to this day I haven't suffered from insomnia.

I hear when you can't get to sleep, simply lying on the bed, without worrying about not being able to sleep, makes some sense. It can at least relax your body and mind. Better than nothing. Yeah, you can sleep when real sleepiness comes to you. Wait until then relaxing. Even if it doesn't work, it won't matter much. You can manage to spend the next sleepy day (maybe). Then, you will be able to have a good sleep the next night! Don't worry. You're still young, um, kinda. No, no, don't think about your age. Who cares? --- That's what I say to myself when having a bad night. ;)

Still if you have a hard time going to sleep, as the article advises, read a dull blog like mine. It could work. ;)