My girls

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Originally uploaded by joe tomei.

After I got back from Osaka, we went to undo koen, over by KKR Wing on Saturday. Boy, was it hot! My youngest daughter, Lana, fell in love with the big slide there. Unfortunately, she is only 22 months old, so I would walk her up to the top of the slide and she would slide down with her big sister, and then I would have to run down to the bottom and take her hand to walk her back up. She cried when we said that we had to go home, but if I had to run back up and down one more time, I would have been crying!

Strange sign

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Originally uploaded by joe tomei.

I took the night train back from Osaka to Kumamoto, which is a little cheaper and I get back to Kumamoto at 7:30 in the morning and can get home to do something with my family. The train is a bit old and there is a machine with a button that says 'drinking water', which I pressed and filled up a glass of cool water, which I enjoyed. But then, I saw this sign. I haven't gotten sick, but I have to admit, I was a bit worried. Why have a button that says 'Drinking Water' in English, and a sign that says 'don't drink this water' in Japanese?

Sazare no ishi

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Originally uploaded by joe tomei.

Also at Hachiman Jingu was this. I have always wondered what "Sazare ishi no
Iwao to narite" meant. I mean, shouldn't it be boulders (iwao) becoming pebbles (sazare), but if you look at this, you can see how all of the pebbles have become one piece of rock.

I have always thought that Kimi ga yo was a very moving piece of music, but I understand that some people think that it represents Japan during a more imperialistic period. It's interesting that we don't play it at any Gakuen ceremonies. I wonder when the university stopped doing it (it was before I came to here)

Thomas Edison at Iwashimizu Hachimangu Jinja

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Originally uploaded by joe tomei.

I was at Iwashimizu Hachimangu Jinja, (a very beautiful place, if you want to visit, take Keihan from Kyoto or Osaka and go to Yawata-shi, then take the cable car up the mountain to the shrine) and I was surprised to find a memorial to Thomas Edison? Why? If you are the first to tell me the answer, I'll buy you an ice cream!

What shape are your feet?

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Originally uploaded by joe tomei.

I went to Osaka/Kyoto for part of Golden Week and this billboard caught my eye. My shape is the middle one (roundo), which has always bothered me, because my big toe always looks very fat!

Funny Italian web site

I found this website to be pretty funny, especially the differences between men and women video. Take a look!

My Golden Week plans

This Golden Week, I am going to go to Osaka to participate in the 大日本居合道連盟大会. This will be my 4th time. Last time, the team I was part of won second place, but I have never been able do well in the individual competition. Unfortunately, I am now a 3rd degree black belt, so the competition is much stronger. But I will do my best and I hope to have good news in two weeks!

My daughter's blog

Many of you may have met my daughter Tabatha. It is important for her mother and I that she be bilingual so she can have more choices in the future. To do that, we are getting her to write in English, even though she doesn't have to study English at her elementary school. So we have gotten her to write a blog. As you can see, she makes a lot of mistakes, but her grandparents in America can see her and what she is doing. Unfortunately, we've been a bit too busy, but during Golden Week, we will get her to start again. I hope you can do as well as she does!!

Movie trailers

I don't have very much time to watch movies, so I often watch movie trailers. One of the best sites for me is the Apple quicktime site. I recommend that you use the medium size for the movies because they download much more quickly. Enjoy!

How to tie your shoes

This site is amazing, because it gives you 14 different ways to tie your shoes! Who knew there were that many?

Asian pop culture wiki

I mentioned wikis yesterday and this wiki looks very interesting. It is a wiki for asian pop culture. If you would like to write about Japanese pop stars in English, please join!

Carbonated Drinks

I like carbonated drinks, which are called by several names. In America, they say soda (after soda water) and pop (for the sound the bottle makes when it opens. In England, they call them fizzy drinks. The most famous is Coke, or Coca-cola, but my favorite is a drink called Dr. Pepper. Most Japanese people (like my wife) think it takes horrible, like medicine, but I love it. Have you tried it?

Kumamoto-i wiki

http://www.blogger.com/img/gl.link.gifKumamoto-international is an email list that Kirk Masden, in the Kokusai Kezai department began about 4 years ago. Though it is a list for foreigners, anyone is welcome to join. In fact, one of the requirements for the Computers and English class in the 2nd term is to join the list and post.

Because there is a lot of interesting information on the list, I started the Kumamoto-i wiki, which you are also invited to join. A wiki is a special kind of website where people can edit the site using the internet. The most famous wiki is the wikipedia (which also has a Japanese version). Check them out!

Links for students

I've put up a list of study sites and things to help students on my website here.

Please take a look at these and recommend the ones you like best in your blog!

keitai email etiquette

Students often use their keitais to send email to me. This is fine, but there are some things you have to remember. The first is that you have to put your name. If I get a message from i_love_puffy_1979@ezweb.co.jp, that doesn't tell me who sent me the message. The second thing is to make sure you add a subject to the email. It only needs to be one or two words, but if it doesn't have a subject, I can't tell what it is about.

I'm checking my email a lot during the day and often late at night, so email is the best way to ask a quick question. Simple English is always best. Good luck

horoscopes and blood types

One point about that is different between Japanese and Westerners is that Japanese believe that bloodtypes and personality traits are related. However, in the west, this is not believed by very many people (I want to say no one believes this, but I'm sure that there is someone somewhere who believes it) This article, originally from the now defunct Mangajin magazine.

You may note that Japanese don't worry if the person's blood type is positive or negative. (here's a tutorial if you want to get up to speed) (btw, positive and negative reminds me about this factoid, which is that Japanese call a Phillips screwdriver a 'plus' driver)

Now, if there is a system that is similar to bloodtypes that Westerners believe in is the notion of horoscopes and the study of astrology (the wikipedia entry is very detailed, so don't try to read it all). And, for the Japanese students, horoscopes are a good way to increase your vocabulary because a lot of words that are commonly known and describe personalities, but you may not encounter very often are found in horoscopes. Also, you can get a better idea of whether a word has a negative meaning or a positive meaning. Try some of these sites and see if what they say about you is true.

here
here
here
and here

joyo96.org

Here's something for the exchange students. This site, which sells a lot of things for studying Japanese has the Ice Mocha application that helps you to study kanji. The site may strike you as a bit too commercial, but the Ice Mocha app is quite interested

video blogging!

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Originally uploaded by joe tomei.

Woo-hoo! If this doesn't get you blogging, nothing will. Go to the new videogoogle site and find something interesting. This is a Utada Hikaru video that I like.

My favorite movies

It's difficult to choose three favorite movies. To tell you the truth, I don't have very strong tastes. However, this vacation, I will be watching Yasujiro Ozu's films, something that I have been meaning to do for a long time. Ozu's Tokyo Story （東京物語）is considered one of the best films of all time (it's 7th on this list and 5th in this poll)

I also want to watch Kill Bill Vol. 2, and I will probably watch Kill Bill Vol. 1 again.

Also, I haven't seen Hero yet, but I hope I can get the DVD this Christmas.

It's beginning to feel a lot like Christmas

Masumi's post, Thanks In Advance: Shop Till You Drop!!, reminded me that it is time to think about Christmas presents. Unforutnately, if we buy something here, we have to send it this week for it to arrive on time, so we will probably do internet shopping.

How about some blog posts about best presents for Christmas?