When I was walking near my house I saw a bicycle in a waterway. It was rusty & covered in rubbish, and - I guessed - damaged. Nevertheless, I wanted to rescue it & try to fix it.
And I did! It took a while, but it was fun.
However,if I use it, there is a chance I`ll be stopped by the police, and maybe they won`t believe that I found it & fixed it. Maybe they will think that I stole it & I`m lying (because I have a big nose). I don`t need that kind of trouble in my life.
So I don`t ride it; I just keep it in the garage. One day I`ll probably throw it back in the waterway.
On Sunday I went to an exhibition of art by Spanish surrealist Joan Miro at Kiyosu City Haruhi Art Museum 清須市はるひ美術館. Do you know him?
He`s an interesting guy, because he has a girl`s name. Also his art is interesting because it looks like a small kid did it, but he`s an adult...
Actually (maybe you can guess!), I don`t like his art much.
However, I`m interested in art, and especially printmaking e.g. etching, engraving & woodblock printing, which is what Joan Miro usually did. Besides the exhibition, the museum also had an interesting display of art printing equipment & decriptions of different art printing methods. I enjoyed looking at that.
Do you often go to art exhibitions? I recommend it. Even if I don`t really like the art, I always feel positive, creative & motivated afterwards.
At an izakaya or barbeque I usually drink beer, but when I have a nice meal, especially pasta, I prefer wine. A bottle of cheap wine in an Italian restaurant is usually about 2000 yen, but recently I found a family restaurant where a 500ml carafe of wine is only... 370 YEN! Wow - that`s cheaper than beer! And it tastes okay (but I`m not very fussy).
Of course the name of the restaurant is Saizeriya. It`s a chain, so there`s probably one near you. Do you often go there?
There have been a lot of bad refereeing decisions this World Cup, so it is good to see somebody do a good job. Congratulations to Japanese match referee Yuichi Nishimura - & his linesmen - for their performance in the Netherlands-Brazil game. I also like his `low-key` (calm & relaxed) style & manner. Other referees` actions are sometimes too energetic & theatrical - they look like they are doing Michael Jackson dance moves or something.
Did you know:
Referees tend to run 12 miles during a game - five more than the players, according to data from the U.S. Soccer Federation.
On Saturday I went to Gifu`s salsa party, and enjoyed some cold beer, hot food & super-hot dancing - wow! Thanks Rosa & Mitsuo (in the above photo) for the amazing salsa dancing demonstration. Rosa also demonstrated some basic salsa steps, which we could practice. I didn`t dance, but I should have. After, I regretted not trying... Next time I`ll try!
It was a great night, and everyone had a good time. I also enjoyed chatting with various students from Gifu & Ginan Teragoya.
Gifu`s next event is `Rock Night`, and the band `God of Thunder` will play live. I`ve seen them before and they are AWESOME! Please come and check them out. The party is on Saturday, 24 July, from 6 - 8pm. See you there!
The group stages are now over, so we can say goodbye (& au revoir, & ciao!) to 16 teams.
Some of these teams will be very disappointed (France, Italy) but others, like New Zealand, can be very proud of their performance.
Of course I`m disappointed that Australia is going home. We always seem to have bad luck with referees in World Cups, but of course a lot of other teams have suffered because of bad refereeing decisions too.
From now on, if the games are still drawn at 90 minutes, they will go into extra time, and then penalty shoot-outs! Agh! So stressful!
I`ll probably go to Sportscaster bar in Ichinomiya to watch the Japan-Paraguay game on Tuesday night. How about you?
In English, we have a saying which I like: "One man`s trash is another man`s treasure."
Japanese beaches are a great place to find interesting things that other people think are trash, but I like to collect and keep. Sometimes I even make things from them. Because they come from the sea, they have usually been washed clean, so I don`t really think of them as `real` rubbish like the stuff you put in your rubbish bin at home.
In the picture above, you can see some things I collected last week when I went to Mihama Beach in Fukui. Do you recognize any of them? Have you ever picked up these kinds of things from the beach, maybe when you were a kid?
Anyway, this is the first in an intended series. I hope you enjoy it.
Wow! Every World Cup delivers shocks and unexpected displays, but this World Cup is like no other. Who could have expected these results? There have been so many surprises! Although having said that, some things never change.
What? The games? No! I`m talking about the hair!
These are my choices for the worst haircuts of the 2010 FIFA World Cup.
By the way, I know some girls like ponytails. Actually, me too - but not on guys!
Who do you think has the worst/strangest haircut at the World Cup?
![2010 South Africa World Cup N...]()
I love football (soccer) so of course I`ve been watching a lot of the World Cup games. I realise some strange/American/dead people are not interested in the FIFA world cup, but for the rest of you, here is the first installment of my...
2010 South Africa World Cup Notes
- I was just getting used to white boots; now they are all the colors of a radioactive rainbow; orange, yellow, violet... One guy had fancy orange ones that look just like the shoes that some little Japanese boys wear.
- Germany is very strong, and deserved their 4-0 win over Australia, but they got TWO yellow cards in one game for DIVING... I don`t like teams that cheat & try to trick the referee
- a few of the `big` teams have drawn their first games against `weaker` opponents: Italy, France, England, Portugal. Brazil only beat North Korea by 1 goal. Interesting.
- Congratulations Japan! (though I thought Cameroon played quite poorly). One more win and you`re into the next round!
- Congratulations New Zealand! 1-1 against Slovakia.
DON`T FORGET:
This Saturday, Ichinomiya teachers, staff & students will be watching the Japan v Holland game at a bar called Sports Casters, near Ichinomiya Station, from 7.30pm (kick-off is 8.30). 800 yen. Come on! Let`s cheer Holland... I mean JAPAN! It will be a lot of fun. You can get lots of practice saying "Where was our defence?!?" in English.
Last Saturday I went to Mihama Beach in Fukui Prefecture. It`s one of my favourite places in Japan. It`s on the Japan Sea coast, but it only takes one & a half hours by car, so it`s pretty convenient, and now on weekends the highway charge is only 1000 yen.
The beach is long & the water is much cleaner & clearer than the Pacific Ocean side of Japan, near Nagoya. Now it`s still too cold to go swimming (last year I tried to go swimming there in May & I almost had a heart attack) but when the weather is warmer, it`s a great place to snorkel.
I like walking along the beach and collecting interesting things. In my next blog post, I`ll show you some of my treasure (not trash!)
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birdy 
内倉憲一 
田仲なお美 
bokushi 
PSPINC JP 
yukio 
エメラルド 
TERAGOYA おとな 
mokomoko 
KUMA