next summer vacation

Today I would like to talk about my journey to London which I am planning to go next summer with my friend called Chihiro. Chihiro is one of my best friends who used to be in same class in ICU high school and also we belonged in same dance club. We promised to go when we become 2nd grade in university since we were 2nd grade in high school, so we were talking about this travel to London for 3 years. The reason why we chose London is we both used to live in Britain and we miss it so much.

 As I had some free time on Wednesday I went to travel company to see how much it would cost. I thought it would cost more than 500 thousand yen including aero plane, hotel, food and many other things. But I found out that if we go there as the student travel it would only cost 200 thousand yen which is still expensive but not impossible. So if I save 20 thousand yen every month I would be able to go in 10 month.

 I started to have part-time work from this summer vacation so it is exactly a year until I leave for London if we are really going to go. Now I have aim to go to London so I think I could work harder than now. I and Chihiro haven't actually made the plan in detail yet so we are going to meet recently.

 I have many things I want to do in London.

First of all, I really want to go to the shopping center to buy some clothes and also some tea! I really love teas:) There is a tea shop called Wittard and I love this shop so much! This shop sells many flavored teas and also some coffees. They also sell pretty tea pot and mug cups! So I want to see what kind of flavor they sell now. I also want to go to "Accessories" which is an accessory shop. There is one in Kichijyoji where I live but it is very small and also expensive. And I believe it is cheaper if I buy it in London as it is brand in London.

 Secondly I want to go to the supermarkets!! It's funny to say I want to go to the supermarket, but I really miss supermarkets like Tesco, Sainsbury, Waitrose and others. I want to buy the cheap biscuits and also cheap teas!! When I was in London I realized the tastiness of dipping chocolate biscuit in English tea. I want to eat that again;)

 Thirdly I want to visit the castles. Since I started to learn about the castle and the English history in British culture lesson I noticed how precious to visit the castle. So by having my information about the British history I would like to visit the castles again.

 Also I want to go sightseeing in London. I want to see London more slowly. There are many more other things I want to do!, like watching musical and visit my friends and my old house.

 I have many things which I look forward but I also have some worries like procedure of hotel, aero plane and other things. Because when I go traveling to other country, my family was always with me so my father did all the difficult procedure things for us. So when it comes that I have to do it myself I'm really worried. But still I'm excited;)

 By writing this blog I think I have to earn more money. 200 thousand yen is not enough! I have too many things I want to do. I hope I can really visit London with Chihiro next summer.

My summer vocation in Osaka

This summer I went to visit my grandparents in Osaka for a week. We did a lots of things！ 

 First of all my mother went to Osaka 3 days before my sister and I went,so I had to do all the house works. It was hard work. I actually enjoyed making foods and washing plates but what was the most tiring thing was washing the clothes. I had to wake up early so that I can dry the clothes when the sun was up. Also had to fold all the clothes at evening which I think it is the time when I feel the tiredness the most. It saved me that I only had to do this for only 3 days. 

 Before we got on the bullet train we had time to choose the lunch called "ekiben" and also some sweets for our grandparents. As Tokyo station was having ekiben festival at the time, there were many ekibens and it took us long time to choose one. I think it took about 45 minutes just to choose one. At last I chose konnyaku box lunch and my sister chose seafood box lunch. It was so delicious!! I realized how delicious the konnyaku was at that time. 

 We arrived at Osaka station and head to my father's parents house. They prepared sushi, yakitori and many other delicious food. I liked yakitori the best.

 Now I'd like to choose 2 things I did in Osaka as I think it will take long long time for me to explain every thing I did in Osaka. 

 One is Kaiyukan which is the big aquarium. As it was so hot I asked my grandmother if we can go to the aquarium to cool down ourselves. However my idea was wrong. This aquarium is so popular that many people, especially a family with small children, were visiting. It was so squashed and there were long queue. I really regretted that I chose this aquarium but has I see the fish and animals living in water I was satisfied. I really liked the otter. They were so cute. I want to have one at my house if possible! At last there was a gift shop and I bought a ball point pen. I was looking for otter stationary but it was not actually pretty so I chose the seal. Though it was so crowded I enjoyed the aquarium after all. 

 Next is Universal Studio Japan (USJ). I went to USJ since I was 9 years old and I only had the bad expression. I rode on the attraction called "Back to the future" and I cried. And this was the only thing I remember from last time so I had the mixed feeling of fear and excitement when we decided to go to USJ. But I grew up. I actively rode the roller coaster which is like the "space mountain" in Disneyland and also I revenged "Back to the future" and thought it was fun. I also went to the snoopy town and everything in this area was cute! I just couldn't stop taking pictures. When we went out of the cafe in the snoopy town I saw Charlie Brown so me and my sister tried hard to make Charlie Brown notice us and took picture.  We rode on the roller coaster in the snoopy town as well. It looked like the roller coaster for small children but when we actually got on it was quite scary. 

 My grandparents took us to some other places as well. So I was able to have dense week in Osaka.

looking back this semester

 First of all, I cannot believe that 14 weeks has passed since I entered this university. Time flew very fast. In these 14 weeks I think I have grown up.

 When I was in high school, I didn’t talk as much as I do in this writing class. Every time when we had discussion, I was only nodding or looking up on dictionary. However in this class I tried to participate in the discussion, so I had more chance to talk in English. Also I tried to ask question to professor and not only struggling not knowing what to do. I think I was able to do this because Professor Leyda was so kind that I had a confidence to speak English not being afraid of the mistakes.

 In this semester we had to do 10 blogs. This allowed me to express what I think in words, which was quite difficult. By writing these blogs I am more confident writing what I feel in English. Now I’m having less trouble thinking of the expression, what I want to write. Also as this blogs gave much information on the writer it gave us chance to know each other.

 Mostly we studied on the poem and short story called ”My Last Duchess”, which poem is by Robert Browning and the short story by Margaret Atwood. This was so hard. I have not had chance to read the poem this much deeply before and also I think this poem was so complicated. But I noticed the enjoyment of deciphering the poem with my group. We had many interesting idea about it. I think I was able to enjoy this because each of our group well prepared, worked very hard on this poem and participated in the discussion.

 I also learnt the MLA format. Before I take this lesson I didn’t have a clue on this. The textbook was written very easily so I was able to understand soon. There were many rules when writing the essay. I can’t remember all of it so I would like to repeat the corrections and rewriting again and again until I remember so that the MLA format would be in my head.

 I thought Peer Mark was great system. We had the chance to see other people’s work. It allowed me to steal other people’s good point and learn by other people’s mistakes. As I was able to hear many people’s opinions I was able to make my essay much better than the first one.

 In the next semester there are 3 things I want to improve. One is that I want to be able to use more formal language. I think my English is too easy. So I want to use more upgraded English. Second is that I want to be able to find arguable topic. For the essay this time, I was able to finish off my essay but I don’t think the context is great by reading other people’s essay. And finally I also want to be able to write an essay, which attracts the readers.

 Anyway, thank you to my classmate who read my blogs. Let’s enjoy ourselves this summer vacation as we really tried hard studying for the entrance exams last summer. I am looking forward to seeing you again in the next semester.

 And I also want to say thank you to Professor who helped me with my essay and also listened to me patiently when I was speaking.

 I’m so happy that our class and also the professor is not changing next semester and really looking forward for the next lesson. 

Summer vacation

This time I would like to talk about my plans on the summer vacation. Actually I only have three schedule at this point which is having a camp for training in G-splash, going to Osaka and going to see the dance competition called "Japan dance delight final".

As I have mentioned before G-splash is the dance club which I belong. We are having a training camp from 2nd August to 5th, I think. Now we are divided in to 8 genres; hip hop 1, hip hop 2, hip hop 3, girls 1, girls 2, Lock, House and Break. I belong to hip hop 1 which all the member is so good at dance and I am feeling some kind of inferiority. But the elders who are taking charge of this group is so funny but dances very cool so I am practicing my best so that I can be like the dancer they are. In this training camp, on the first day we are practicing the piece. On second day we are going to show our piece to other group and finally on third day we will be having fun in the sea. I'm really looking forward for the third day.

 And I haven't decided when but I am going to visit my grandmother's house, which is in Osaka, for a week. My father's parents are still both alive but my mother's side my grandfather is not here. So I am worried if she is not feeling lonely or not. Luckily she has five grandchildren including me so she has many chance to meet us. But mostly she is by herself so my mother is calling her almost every day. And when I call her she talk to me very happily. If I can I want to visit her house every day but in reality it is impossible so when I go to her house I would like to help her and make her relax as I think she is tired of doing all the house works.

 Finally the "Japan delight final". I have never been to such a big dance competition, so I am really looking forward for it. My friend is friend with the person concerned to this competition so we are able to have a good seat. It opens from 12:30 and starts from 2 p.m.. And it finishes at 9p.m. I don't know if I can stand for 7 hours but I think it is going to be great.

 I haven't talked to anyone so it is still my own selfish schedule but I want to go some where with AQUO member. Last Sunday they went to summer festival except from me. I went to dinner with my family to Outback steak as my mother and father's 20th marriage anniversary was on last last week. So I couldn't go. And I want to revenge by going to the festival with everyone. hahaha. There is a suggestion that we can go fishing. I think it is going to be fun as well. I also want to meet my friend in high school as well. We were planning to go to Disney land but because I have no money and I haven't started my part time job, they extended for me. I was not going to study this summer as this is my first summer after entering university. However my conscience didn't allow me. hahaha.. After I entered this university I realized how clever other people are. And I am feeling impatient about it. So I am planning to study for Eiken. I failed Eiken 1st grade last summer so I want to revenge. As I haven't studied Eiken for about a year now I have to restart doing it. So I would restart studying for it.  

Musicals I saw in London

This time I would like to talk about the musicals I saw in U.K...When I was in U.K. I saw Blue man, Fame, STOMP, We will rock you, mamma mia, wicked, chitty chitty bang bang, mid-summer night's dream and twelfth night. Well, actually the last two by Shakespeare was not a musical. Anyway, I saw these musicals. And this time I'd like to talk about Fame, STOMP and Blue man.

First of all, the Fame. This was the very first musical I saw in U.K... It was about half a year after we moved to London, when we saw this. This musical is about high school performing art in New York City. It included many dancing and performances. As I was still nervous of talking to the classmate in English and I was giving up finding the dance class because of my poor English, my father bought me the ticket of this musical. After seeing this musical, my passion toward dancing became stronger and I tried to go to the dance class which my mother found for me. After all I really enjoyed the dance class in U.K. and also I was able to improve my English as there were no Japanese in this dance class.

 

Next is the STOMP. This musical is the best musical I ever seen. I don't know how to explain this musical but it was so great. The actors make noise with the things which we saw in everyday life such as the broomstick, match and lots of others. This musical really affected me that I made the piece called STOMP when I was in high school, and this piece was really met the favorable reception. We danced this in the open campus and also this become kind of the tradition that my junior in high school are doing this every year and it is taken over. The power of the sound the performers make vibrates all my body. I was moved that I got goose bumps when I saw this. I would like to see this musical again some times in the future.

 

Finally the Blue man. I think everybody know this. Well this musical gave me another different emotion. The blue men do beyond my expectations. And everything they do is so interesting. I like the one which they put the paint on the drum which is lighted up. I wonder why the blue paint on their face and body doesn't disappear even though they wipe their face. I also like the last performance which we drag the big toilet paper from back to the front where blue men are. My mother told me that it was my second time to see this musical as I saw this when I was in America. I thought what a shame that I couldn't remember seeing such an interesting movie. 

 

 I really wanted to see "Billy Elliot". However I had my entrance exams for high school so I didn't have time to see it. And by the time I finished all my exams and ready to see it, I heard that the boy who is playing the main character was changed to Chinese boy so I reconciled and changed it to "We will rock you" which my sister wanted to watch. When I visit London next time, I would definitely see "Billy Elliot" musical. I am also interested in the musical called "Grease" as well. Grease was originally a film and I had a chance to see this in my leaving party in the primary school as we had to wear the clothes which was in this film. So I'm interested in the musical as well.

 

 If there is any musical which you suggest please tell me:)