A letter from Perth

Today, when I got back home from school, I saw there was a big white envelope on the table in the kitchen. And it signed my name on it. I felt excited because I seldom receive any letters from anybody. I picked up the letter and checked whom it was from. I was really surprised when I saw the name on the back of the envelope. It was from my English teacher in junior high school. I haven't seen or heard from her for almost 7 years and suddenly got this letter.
The letter said that she now lives in Perth with her Australian husband for three years. I was glad to know that she still remembers me having had many many students after I graduated the junior high school. It's been already 7 years since after I graduated junior high school and it makes me feel old. Anyway, I'm going to have to write her back with some pictures. It was such a heartwarming surprise for me. The highlight of the day.

186 words

Congratulations Johnny

This year's Golden Globe awards winners have been announced. I like movies so I watch the award show every year. However, this year was a bit different from the usual. The writers and actors have been on strike so the show was actually canceled. I was a bit shocked when I heard this news on TV because I was looking forward to watching the show. But, on the other hand, there is a good news. Johnny Depp still won the Best Actor award. I like Johnny Depp so I'm happy for him. And I hope the strike will end soon.

[97 words]

My broken PC

Yesterday, when I tried to turn on my computer, there was something wrong. It just didn't turn on. I think it's broken. Maybe virus. I don't know what to do. I'm really upset. I hate computers.　Fortunately, my father knows much about computers so I’ll ask him for help tonight.

[50 words]

UNIQLO

Today I went to UNIQLO with my sister. My sister now lives in Fukuoka but came back for this weekend. You may all know but UNIQLO is a clothing shop. It’s cheap and good. We went there by car and shopped. I bought a black long sleeve T shirts and grey sweat shirts. I liked them very much. They were simple and comfortable. What I like about UNIQLO is its design and price. The design is very simple and fits any style and you can get them at very reasonable price.

[86 words]

Grandma came home

My grand mother came back from hospital today. It’s just temporary so she will go back to the hospital soon again. She will stay here for 2 nights. She went in the hospital a few months ago. She has a problem with her back. Today she looked very fine. I guess she’s very happy to be home. I want her to have a good time here.

[66 words]

The Final

The final examination is coming in this month. It will start 2 weeks later. I’m going to have 7 in total. I hate examinations. I’ve got to work so hard to get credits. I also have some reports and presentations. I’ll be really busy. It gets me down. But after the examinations, I’ll be in spring break. I can’t wait for that.

[62 words]

My firend's birthday

Today's my friend's birthday. He turned 26 now. He lives in my neighborhood and I know him for a long time. When we were little, we played together a lot. My sisters and his brother played together too. Now he's 26 and I'm 23. I feel very old. Time flies and everybody gets old.

[64 words]

First dream

I had a dream last night. It was my first dream in 2008. It was a dog. A dog was sucking my blood from my arm by a straw. It was weird but I liked that dog in the dream. So I didn't drive him or hesitate and it was more like I was feeding him my blood. It was a very strange dream. I wonder what this dream could mean.

[62 words]

Beauty Queen Arrested

As I was browsing the internet today, I found this interesting news. The former Miss. Arizona has been arrested for abducting and confining her ex-boyfriend. She is also a student of law school. I saw her mug shot and she looked such a mess. She’s crying and didn't look like a beauty pageant at all. I want to show it here but I think I shouldn’t. If you’d like to see it, please go to http://abcdane.net/blog/archives/200801/kumari_taiho_missaz.html

[70 words]

The Last Otoshidama

Today, my aunt and cousins visited our house. We ordered sushi and ate together. Every year, they come to our house for new years and we eat sushi. I didn’t expect it at all but my aunt gave me otoshidama. I wasn’t sure if I should get it because I’ll be 23 this year. I’m not a kid. But I was pretty sure that I wanted to get it so I got it. I really appreciate her. She’s very nice charitable aunt.

［88 words］

Working on New Year's Day

Yesterday I went to a shrine to earn some money. I stood up by the stand of masks and sold them. I was pretty surprused by the fact that one mask costed 1000 yen. But the most surprising thing to me was that people still bought it. There were many kinds of characters of masks for kids there. I didn't recognize the most of them and I felt old. Unbelievably, just one Doraemon's mask was sold out of ten. Doraemon was the most popular character when I was a kid but now it can make only one mask. The mask which was sold the most was some girl's pink warrior thing I didn't even know the name.

It was very cold outside. I had to be there for 24 hours. It was the hardest job I've ever had in my life. Just standing by the stand alone, I felt the time passed so slowly so I started to observe peopel in shrine. When they pass by my palce, all the kids get attracted to the masks. The most paernts didn't want to buy it so tried to distract their kids' interest. I found it very funny.
I won't do this job next year because it was very hard. Next year, I want to stay in the house and relax on the new year's day.

［224 words］

A Fear of Norovirus!!!

When I woke up this morning, I found my father still in bed. He's usually the one who wakes up earliest in the family so it was weird. I asked my mother if there was anything wrong with him and she said he had a stomachach and threw up a few times last night. She took him to the hospital and he was diagnosed as having the notorious norovirus. Norovirus is a highly infectious disease and prevelaent for these years so I was threatened when I heard that. I'm very thankful from the bottom of my heart for the fact that there are two bathrooms in the house. I will never use the one he has been using. He's been locked in his room and asleep all day. Every time he uses the bathroom it should be sterilized. It's not nice to say but I really don't want him in this house right now. It is very scary to be in the same house with him. But it's too cold to be outside so I have to stay here.

The virus appeared to come from the oysters he ate last night. They were raw and he was the only one who ate the. Thank god I didn't eat that oyster yesterday!! Oyster is usually my favorite food but yesterday, I just didn't feel like eating it. I'm so sorry for my father but I don't want to even get close to him right now. And I learned another lesson from this experience: get oysters cooked, before you eat them.

［261 words］

Eiken

I've aplied to the English test which will be held on Jan. 27 th. The test is called Eiken. The level I'm taking is pre 1 which is the second hardest. I went to a book store to buy a text today. I browsed the book just briefly but it seemed very difficult. I really want to pass this test so I will start strdying today. I've got a month to prepare so I think I will be fine. I need to know as many vocabularies as possible. So I will try to remember all the vocabs I don't know in the text. I am very motivated because I paid for this test by myslef and it wasn't cheap. I don't want to waste my money so I will work hard!!!

I want to go to Europe

I really want to visit Europe someday. Maybe I go there next year. I have a friend in Paris. He's a French guy but speaks Japanese fluently. I think I'm very luckey to be his friend because he says I'm always welcomed to stay at his place and he's gonna me around the city. I don't wanna visit only Paris but also visit other countries in Europe such as Italy, German, and Spain. The only problem is that I don't have money to get the airplane tickets. Why are planes so expensive? They should lower down the price immediately.

Cleaning day

I cleaned my room today. It my little dusty and messy before and now it's clean and I feel good. There is a custom to clean throuout the house or work or school before the new year starts in Japan. I cleaned throughout my room. The weather was perfect for cleaning.

First, I had my huton and blankets hang outside so that there was much more rooms in the room. I put away the things on the floor and used the vacuum cleaner. It didn't take so long because my room is pretty small. I like my room clean but it will be a mess soon again.

［107 words］

My favorite socks

When I work outside at night, I'm cold at first. As I move more I got less cold and warmer and warmer. However, my toes are always cold. No matter how much I move, my toes stay cold. I always didn't like that. One day I talked about it to my mother and a few days later she bought me a pair of socks. They are in different shape from what I usually where. They have 5 bags for every single toe. She said they keep it warm. I was suspicious at first. Besides when I wore them, it felt something was stuck between the toes so I didn't really like it. But I was wrong. During I was working today, my toes never got cold the whole time. I was so impressed. These socks are amazing. I have seen some people wear those socks including my mother and I sneered of them because they looked ridiculous and weird. They didn't look stylish to me. But now I realize weather it is stylish doesn't matter. I prefer to keep my toes warm. I thank someone who invented the socks and my mother who bought me them.

［196 words］

X'mas Eve

Today is X'mas eve but it doesn't matter to me. It's a big deal to some people especially couples but I personally don't think it's important. There are lots of decorations and lights everywhere. I think they are beautiful and fun to look at. However, I'm fed up with the X'mas songs played everywhere. They played the same song over and over again so it's annoying. They air special TV programs for X'mas at all channels. Some of them are funny, some of them are boring. I've been watching the good ones at home. In 2 hours I have to go to work as usual. It's chilly outside so I'd rather stay home being lazy. But I want to earn money and buy an i-pod. That's good motivation to me.

［130 words］

MSN is cool

I have a friend studying in Vancoucer, Canada. We're very good friends so we still have contacts by emailing and chatting. He once suggested me to buy a microphone so that we can talk free on the messenger. Messenger is a software you use for chat. I wasn't really interested at first but I eventually bought it today and talked to him for the first time. It was really exciting! I couldn't believer it was free because it's exactly like using a phone. Phone costs some but messenger doesn't. It was amazing. I felt like he was here with me but he is actually very far in Canada. It was kind of odd. Thanks to the technology, I would try to call another friend in Australia tomorrow.

［127 words］

Back from Bangkok

Today I saw my friend I hadn't seen for 6 months. He went to Bangkok to study English and now he's on holidays so he came back temporarily. I was surprised when I saw him because I didn't know he was back. He looked a little different. He looked more Thai to me. He said people sometimes think he is Thai and talk to him in Thai in Bangkok. He also said he lost his weight. Maybe that's why he looks different. He said it's fun to be in Bangkok. He also has traveled some islands. Thailand is one place I always want to visit. Hopefully, I will go there before he finishes school there. I asked him to show me some pictures but he didn't have any on him then. It was very good to see him unexpectedly today.

［140 words］

A hard day

I couldn't sleep much last night because I came back home from work at 4:30 am. I finished working at 3 am and went to a public bath after that. That is why I came home a little later than usual. I started to work part time from 11 pm to 3 am until the end of the year. I will soon be in holidays and have much of free time so I decided to use it to earn money. But I still had 3 classes today.

I actually got into bed before 5 and had to get up at 9:30 for the first class which starts at 10:40. Even though I was very sleepy and didn't feel rested at all, I immediately got ready and left for the university by motorbike. I didn't eat breakfast. It is extremely cold when you ride a motorbike in winter. I wear a mask to cover my face so that I can avoid the wind and I also wear a knit cap underneath the helmet so that my ears won't hurt as if they fall down.

The first class was International law. This is very interesting and I usually enjoy it but today, I was too tired. I couldn't concentrate on the lecture. It was hard just to be awake and sit. I tried hard. In the break, I went to library and rented some books to write reviews for Writing 4. I wanted to sleep there for minutes but I still had other things to do. I needed to visit a professor for something but she wasn't in her room that time. I needed to go to Maruzen, the book store and pay 6000 yen and apply for the English test. I had no time to sleep or eat lunch during the break. The next class was Education. I couldn't stand anymore and slept for about 20 minutes so I felt better. My friend sat next to me. He said he's going to buy a computer. The last class was TOEFL. We practice TOEFL in this class. We did writing practice today. Writing doesn't make me sleepy so I was fine during this class.

Finally I'm finished all the classes in 2007 and came home.Once I came home I ran to the bed and fell asleep. It is now 9:35 and I just woke up. I feel good. I think I will be awake all night because I already slept a lot today. But I don't have school tomorrow so I guess that’s ok.

［423 words］