Fasten your seatbelt 機内のおとなりさん

I was very tired when I arrived at the destination in NY because it was a 27 hour travel from home. Very long.
But I had a really good flight!
Delta was much better than I excepted. Especially food was good I think.And the best thing was that I met 2 nice people. They were my neighbors on the airplane.
One was a Korean girl from South Korea and another was a Japanese girl from Tokyo.
Both of them were international students in New York.
Because I've been thinking about studying in the States, I enjoyed talking about being a student and living abroad.
The Japanese girl has been learning in the States for years. I could ask her questions about college system like taking credits, transfer, majors,,,
I've been gathering information on going to colleges but sometimes it's difficult to see everything from reading books or the internet. I often feel "I need more specific examples"
So talking to them was a very good chance to know more about colleges. They answered my questions and told me their experiences too.
The more I learn about colleges, the more I feel like study in the States.Good flight on my birthday!
I guess this is a special birthday gift from God♪
What a great beginning of a year!

Boarding ご搭乗

I'm flying to NY by Delta airline.
Now it's boarding time.
I'll have a good flight♪

Narita airport 旅行記はじまり

It was snowing in my town, Hiroshima this morning. I left home at 5:30am and now I'm at Narita airport.
3 more hours until my boarding time...
It is nice weather here! I've been watching airplanes.
I like airplanes♪ Because they make me feel I'm on a very special occasion, being away from ordinary days.
...well, it is a special occasion today, my birthday!
I'm very lucky because I can take a vacation on my birthday and do my special favorite things,
travelling abroad by airplanes!
I appreciate it very much!
I'm sure I'm gonna have a great days!

Sashimi 盛合せ

My friend took me to a nice Izakaya restaurant last night.
Nice fresh fish before travelling abroad was her idea.
I really enjoyed their very good Sashimi...
yum-yum... I'm lucky to be a Japanese!We also had crispy fried fish born, Shiokara and steamd vegetables...
oh, and Nyumen noodles at the end.Everything was very good!I'm leaving Japan from tomorrow.
Last night was a big Japanese food night!Good food with good friends always make me happy♪

english radio 旧型だけど活躍

This is very old school, huh.

I often turn on this radio for AFN.

When the reception is good, especially until the evening time, I can listen to English radio at home.
I also enjoy listening to best hit songs from music chart in the US.

And Dr. Laura's show is interesting,,,
People call her to talk about their problems of their lives.
Sometimes it seems very serious, like family problems.
Then she gives them advice

... very directly!

It sounds cruel sometimes.

Yeah, she is like Mino Monta, I think.

She often speaks too fast for me to catch everything, but I enjoy the subjects when I understand what they are talking about.
This is one of the good listening exercises♪


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Break 昼休憩中

I'm having a break at work.
I had spaghetti at the employee's cafeteria and am relaxing for a little before going back to work.
Tully's coffee from a vending machine just to keep me up.
And cough drops because I've been having a bur in my throat.
Well, I gotta go back to work now. I have so many things to do today!
It's already 2pm,,, time goes so fast everyday!

kids meal toy ズボンは四角

McDonald's Happy Meal for my lunch.


I went to McDonald's during lunch break just because I wanted the kids meal toy.

My favorite SpongeBob plastic tumbler!
This is what I wanted♪
You can hear SpongeBob talking when you hold the tumbler and try to drink from it.

haha... I know this is a kids stuff! But I like this cartoon♪
I think grownups can enjoy SpongeBob cartoon more than kids do because it's very surreal and crazy sometimes.
But it's happy and cute, basically. That's why I like it♪

ランチはマクドナルドのハッピーセット。
おまけのおもちゃが欲しいがために、昼休憩はマックへ。
大好きなスポンジボブのコップよぉ！これが欲しかったんだぁ♪コップを持って飲もうとするとスポンジボブがしゃべるの。
ハハ、、、子供のもんだわ！でもこのアニメ好き♪
なんだかキテレツでブッとんでたりするから、子供よりもむしろオトナの方が楽しめる気がする。でも基本的にはハッピーでかわいいの。だから好きなんだ♪

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2days 人生最長の誕生日

Yes!
My helpful travel agency gave me a call and told me
"You can book the good tickets with the best price"

Because all the best price seats were unavailable. I was thinking "maybe I should pay more for my flight"
But the agency advised me to wait for a few more days and see what's gonna happen.
Something good happened! Somebody canceled the reservation.

Thank you,,, somebody!

I'm flying to the US on my birthday.
That means... I'm leaving my town in the birthday morning, spend most of my birthday time on airplanes and when I arrive at the US, it's still my birthday! I'll spend my birthday one more time♪
I like traveling, I like being on airplanes, I like going to places I've never been to.
It's gonna be the longest birthday I've ever had! And of course It'll be great!

I'm going to work really hard for one more week and leave everything alright, so I'll be able to be away from work for a while and enjoy my birthday vacation as much as possible!

やった！旅行代理店さんから連絡があり、「良いチケットが最安でとれるようになりました」と。
安く出ている席はもう満席だったから、「もっと払わなきゃいけないかぁ」と思っていたところ。
でも代理店さんが、もう数日待ってどうなるか様子を見た方が良いですよ、と教えてくださったの。そしたら良いことが起きた！キャンセルが出ました。
その人に感謝！
今回は我が誕生日にアメリカへフライト。…ってことは、誕生日の朝にこっちを出て、一日のほとんどを飛行機で過ごし、アメリカに着いてもまだ誕生日！もう一回誕生日ができるのね♪
旅も飛行機も知らないところに行くのも大好き。今までで一番長い誕生日になるわ！ステキ！
じゃあ、あと１週間しっかり働いて仕事を片付けなきゃ。心置きなく仕事を離れて存分にお休みを楽しめるように！

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Everything's same! つまんない！

My nose is running, my voice is funny,,, I caught a cold.
I can go to work and eat, so I'll be fine soon. But there is a big problem now.
The problem is I can't taste anything because of my nose!
Whatever I eat, everything tastes nothing...
This is boring.
I've been missing the good part of my life! I put a piece of chocolate bar into my mouth. I was supposed to taste and smell strawberry cake.
But I couldn't taste anything... It was just something sweet in my mouth. I'm going to go to sleep early tonight and take a good rest so I (my nose) will be better soon.
ハナが出るし声は変だし、カゼひいたっぽいわ。
ま、仕事は行けるしご飯も食べられるから、じきに良くなるでしょ。
しかし困ったことに何が大変て、ハナのおかげで味が分からんのね。何食べても味しない…。
つまんない…
人生の楽しみ、だいぶ損してるよ！
試しにチョコを少々食べてみたの。
いちごケーキ味のはずなのに、何もわからん。ただの甘い物体。 今日は早く寝てしっかり休もぉ。早く(鼻が)よくなりますよーに。
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my score 結果が届いた

My first TOEFL score has arrived!

I'm not gonna mention here but,,,
It is enough for most community colleges in the US
and acceptable for some 4 year colleges or universities.

Honestly, my score is better than I expected because the test was really difficult and I didn't have enough time finish all of it.
The score was sent with some details. The results for the each sections were also writen.
Reading, listening, speaking and Writing.
Everything except reading was "Fair" or "intermediate"
I know my reading is the No.1 problem! It says "Low"... sigh...
Yeah, I need more vocabulary and to read faster!

Now the things are clear.
I don't have time to be depressed.
I'll study harder and do my best for a better score next time!
This is just a beginning yet♪

TOEFLのスコアが届いた！
えぇ、数字はここじゃ言わないけど、アメリカのコミュニティカレッジには大丈夫、４年制大学はいくらかなら入れるところありそう、そんな点数。
正直なところ、思ったよりも点数がよかった、、、だって、本当に難しかったし時間切ればかりだったから。
スコアにはリーディング、リスニング、スピーキング、ライティングって各セクションごとの評価も載っていて、リーディング以外は「まあまあ」か「中級」だと。
そうよ、リーディングがダメなんだなぁ～、「足りない」んだと。あぁ～あ。
分かってんだ、もっと言葉を覚えて早く読めるようにならなきゃ！
まぁ、これでハッキリね。
落ち込んでもいられないし。これからしっかり勉強して次回はもっと良い点とろ！
まだまだこれからよ♪

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Ready? 旅支度

My vacation time is coming soon!
I'm leaving Japan at the end of this month.
It'll be just a few day trip. But I gotta get ready for my trip ahead because I'm not good at packing... I'm going to visit a travel agency to book my flight. The agent my friend introduced to me is very helpful.
I appreciate a chance to meet people♪ And packing...
Packing is fun! Everyday get excited before holiday trip.
I always pack my stuff looking forward to my trip too.
But it often takes me long time to pick up clothes, shoes,,, and everything!
I always wonder what to take and not to all night long.
Then thinking like "just in case..." always makes my baggage bigger!
Well... I'm a woman, it happens... I guess.
Maybe because I get too excited!
そろそろ連休よぉ♪月末から日本を発つ予定。たった数日の旅だけど早めに準備を始めないと、なんせ荷造りはだいの苦手。。。
さっそく旅行代理店へチケットを頼みに行こう。友達からの紹介の代理店さんがとってもよくしてくださって、こういう人とのご縁にはいつも感謝です♪
そして荷造りね...　楽しいよ！それはみんな休みで旅行となればワクワクでしょ。私もいつもルンルンで荷物を詰めるけど、服だ、靴だ、なんだかんだと時間がかかるのねぇー。何持って行こうか夜通し考えちゃって。で、「万が一のために」ってやってると、やたら荷物がでっかくなる始末！まぁ...女ですもん、よくあることでしょ。たぶんね、単にワクワクしすぎなんだと思うけど！

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reading 読む練習

I've tried to read an English newspaper and English magazines.
But I always gave up reading because some articles were too long and too difficult for me.

I saw this book recently.
This book seems to help me with a reading practise.
Each pages have the headline and the short article with translation so we can finish reading in a minute.
This is a small book so I can put this in my bag and try to read anytime I want.

I'll be able to read more and faster... I hope!


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reason それぞれの理由

It's been a week since I took TOEFL,
One more week to know the result!
Even if it's not a good score, I'm very excited about recieving it because it's going to be my very first official iBT score!

I usually said "Because I can communicate with more people in English. Learning English is one of my hobbies" as an answer to a very common question at the English class "How come you learn English?"
But I answered "Because I want to study abroad" recently.
And it reminds me of the time when I first started going to the English school.
I was a high school student and used to say the same thing "I want to go abroad"

What happened later is... I couldn't make it happen.
I began to work hard and became very interested in career building instead of being a student.
I didn't give up my plan. It was just... Not a Good Time for me then.

Now I got older! ... the older I get, the more I feel like doing what I really want to.
So... the reason why I learn English now is beacause I want to go abroad and study there♪


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JOSHIKAI... 女子会

Chatting with friends is fun!
Especially when we are interested in the same things.

I went to lunch with my friend from the same English school.
Of course, both of us like English.
We also like traveling abroad, eating, drinking...
And we are hard workers, too!

All my friends are very nice women.
They are very independent, energetic, generous and often global minded people.

Seeing my friends once in a while and listening to them are fun.
I appreciate the good relationship with them!

友達とのおしゃべりは楽しい♪　興味関心が同じだと特に。
今日は英会話スクールの友達とランチへ。
もちろん、二人とも英語好き。海外旅行においしいものを食べたり飲んだりすることも、、、
それに私達ってば働き者だし！
ほんとに、私の友達はみんな素敵な女性、
とても自立していて、明るく元気で親切、それにグローバルな人たちです。
たまにこう会って、いろんな話を聞けるのがとても楽しい友達ばかり。
すてきなご縁に感謝です！


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will it snow? 雪降るって？

The weather forecast says it will snow a lot tomorrow and the day after tomorrow.

It certainly is the lull before the storm.

I can see the nice blue sky from my window.
What a beautiful day...
I guess I should do something today, like shopping, driving,,,

But I've been too lazy to go out! I just feel like staying home and do my house stuff today♪

天気予報では、明日明後日と大雪になるって。
まさに「嵐の前の静けさ」
窓の外には真っ青な空だし、なんていい天気．．．
こんな日にはショッピングとかドライブとか、いいんだろうけど、あいにく今日はダラダラしてんの。
家で家のことして過ごすんだ♪


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food court with a nice view

Isn't it nice?

This is a view from another favorite spot in my town.
The spot is a food court on the 11th floor, at the top of a shopping mall.

The food court has some fast food shops for example, McDonald's, The Don,,, like ordinary food courts in Japan.
And the something extra is the nice view.

Do you feel strain when you bite your hamburger? When you slurp your noodles? When you put takoyaki into your mouth?
No, we are relaxed and happy with fast (junk) food.
Moreover, we can enjoy the nice view there! ...with paying only a few hundred yen for your food.

So I can say this food court is also one of my favorite spots of the city.

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Peace Memorial Park

I try to take English classes on my day off.

Yesterday, I took 2 classes in the afternoon.
After the first class, I had more than 3 hours until the second class.
So I went to a library to review my first class and study some more.

The library is in the International Conference Center which is built in Peace Memorial Park.

Peace Memorial Park is one of my favorite spots in my town.
In winter time, it is too cold to sit and relax in the park for a while.
But this is a nice park to relax in the middle of the city.

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bulb, bulb, bulb

A light bulb for my lamp burned out when I turned the light on yesterday.

I always turn on the light during my relaxing time at home
and usually leave it on while I'm asleep.


It seems that people tend to try putting LED light bulbs.
It is also said that LED light lives much longer than an incandescent light bulb and eco friendly.


But I like the warm light and the relaxing atmosphere of an incandescent light.

I went to a 100yen shop before work to buy bulbs.

2 for ￥100... that's nice♪


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P!nk... stimulus

I love P!nk.

I like her music, her voice, her performance, her style and her attitude too.

I can enjoy many types of music now.
But I only listened to Rock music when I was younger,
so I can say I'm picky about Rock.
... I'm rockin' wasabi, so...

Her music often encourages me a lot when I'm about to get unconfident.
It also reminds me of being myself.

I really want to go to her show and get soaked with her live music!
She's the stimulus to me.


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TOEFL in Kyoto

I woke up 4:30am yesterday, got myself ready

and cought Shinkansen before 7:00am.

Morning time in January,

It was still dark outside and only a few people were on the train.

But I saw many people at the train station.

Some people already started traveling this early in the morning. Well,,, yesterday, I was one of them too.

...TOEFL in Kyoto...

The test was held near Kamogawa in Kyoto city.

I was thinking like... I wish I was here for sightseeing...

My first iBT, so I was a little nervous and excited too.

The test was... SO difficult!!!

And keeping myself focusing for 4 hours was very hard too!

The articles were with a lot of words I didn't know,
It took me very long time to finish reading the passages, longer than I was given so I couldn't read some of it before time's up.

Yes, I faced the reality.

My problems are... slow reading, limited vocab and...
I can write and speak some but it's not academic, not logical at all.
Mine's just enough to live daily life.

I'll see my score in 2 weeks,,, I hope I won't get too depressed!

Honestly, I got a little bit unconfident,
But I won't give up!
This is just a beginning!
I'll study more and get higher score next time.

On the way back to my town,

I enjoyed my relaxing time after hard work.

Canned wine and sushi on Shinkansen♪

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STEP 1

I'm taking my very first TOEFL iBT tomorrow.

...but I got very anxious and unconfident...
Because TOEFL iBT seems very difficult!

I just tried the sample test,,, finally! (I know it's kind of too late though)
It was much more difficult, more complicated and more exhausting than I expected.
(Maybe that's why it's called a TEST!)

TOEFL score is necessary. Taking the test is just a beginning of my future plan.
But I think this is gonna be a big Going Forward.
I don't need to be negative before the beginning!
I'll just do my best this time and study harder then I'll do better next time.


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"busy!" is good,,, sometimes

I've been busy... that's good!

I really like to make myself busy sometimes.

My winter vacation time is coming at the end of this month.

But I have many things to do before my vacation.

I have to finish sales report today,

Tomorrow's my TOEFL day so I'll get up really early in the morning and take trains,,,

And the most important thing is getting everything alright at work before leaving for vacation.

I'll work hard for a few more weeks so I'll be able to enjoy my vacation time a lot!

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IKAMERA & Shopping

My very first IKAMERA experience was much better than I expected.
Using some types of anesthetic and sedative made me feel weird for a few hours.
But I got alright before noon.

So I had lunch and went shopping.
I was looking for a worm jacket and some scarves.
When I was walking around in a shopping mall somebody called me.
It was a customer of mine.
I didn't know she was working there, DKNY shop.
She brought me a nice jacket. I tried it on and thought... "Hum... this one looks good."
And the sale price, 50% off... "This is very good!"
I bought it, of course! I'm lucky to meet it. I also appreciate her help!

I shopped around for a while after that.
It was a good shopping day!... and an interesting IKAMERA day too...

Because I spent hours for my shopping the sun was setting when I was heading home.
The sunset was beautiful so I took a picture of it on a bridge in my town.


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"Good Luck!" to me

I usually enjoy my own time drinking, reading and watching movies in my room at night before my day off.

But I can't do it tonight because I'm going to have a medical checkup tomorrow.
I've already had once in November.
And the result was... "I gatta have my stomach checked again."

They say they'll put an IKAMERA (endoscope, I guess) in my stomach and see what's going on there.

Sigh... I hope my stomach is alright.

No wine, no food, no night snack for tonight.
And I have to get up early tomorrow morning,,, much earlier than my regular work day!

I say "good luck!" to myself!


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sleep well and work hard!

I came back from work earlier than usual tonight.

I changed, had dinner and some wine,,,
As soon as I sat and started reading a book, I fell asleep.

I just woke up and thought... "oh, I gotta write something in English..."
Writing something here everyday is what I try to do, even if it's a small stuff.

... Honestly, I don't think of any,,, anything special though...

Well, I'm in here just to update with writing something today.
So I'll go back to sleep soon. I gotta go to work early tomorrow too.


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Taking TOEFL

I'm taking TOEFL this month.

Have I been studying hard enough?

... No, not at all...

I know it's just making an excuse but,,,
I've been busy since I registered for the test.

I've taken TOEFL once before,,, when I was a student.
So many things have changed since then.
The test is on the internet through each computers
And it has writing and speaking parts.
My town doesn't hold the test so I need to go to other bigger cities.
And... one test costs $200... very expensive!

But I know I need TOEFL score to study abroad.
So I'm taking once this month to see how much I can do so far and which level I am on.
Then I really need to study after that so I can make a better score next time.

I hope the next time is going to be the last time and I'll be able to get an enough score to go to a college that I want to enter.


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