Strong coffee & flavored tea

A famous Taiwanese singer who boomed in Japan during 70'-early '90. She released many Japanese songs and awarded the several prizes as well. I love her round face, sweet voice and attitude towards politics, though she passed away on May 8, 1995 at the age of 42 due to a severe asthma attack in Thailand. Seeing the video, I feel missing her so much! Since I have been studying Chinese lately, I decided to memorize one of her best songs in Chinese... Japanese title : 時の流れに身をまかせ Chinese title: 我只在乎你

I organise an event called 'Girl's Night' once in a while. It's just dining out with female friends. The reason I started this was because women love food. Guys really don't care what they eat, as long as they can drink. We catch up each other when we meet up. My friend who visited in Tokyo from Osaka for a business trip joined some times ago and she called it ' Sex in the city' ! In a way, yes it is:D We had dinner at Korean restaurant called ' Sonamu ' in Roppongi Area, they were on TV the day before. Good food and pleasant staff. I tried to speak some simple Korean language to the waiter. 'Brother' is ' Oppa ' in Korean, so I called out ' Oppa !' when we need him. It's easy to remember and funny too. And we agreed that the friendly waiter was cute in a way. I should have taken his picture, sorry! Korean food have many beef and pork menu. In secret, I don't eat meat so I was kind of hungry until the last though, hah...

There are 7-8 tables, man decorated premises but cozy casual french restaurant. What we amazed there was that only one guy worked in the store. He cooks, serves, does everything by himself with a pleasant smile which impressed me a lot. You have two choices between eight entrees. I had a piece of crab quiche and grilled fish, they ca ll it 'Poele'? At the end we ordered assorted dessert selections which includes all kinds sweets on the menu! (Japanese) テーブルが7つか8つ、男の人が装飾したような店内、こじんまりとしたカジュアルなフレンチのお店。 驚くことに、男の人がたった一人で切り盛りしていました。 料理を作り、お客さんに出す、全部一人でまわしてました、しかも笑顔で。 ８つのメニューから前菜とメインを選べるので、私はズワイガニのキッシュと鯛のポワレをいただきました。 そして最後はデザートの盛り合わせ。なんとスイーツ全種類！

I LOVE muffins! I used to have them often when I was in Vancouver. It is one of typical western foods for me. It had been not easy to find good muffins in Japan but only Tokyo could make it possible! Ben's cafe @ Takadano - baba I stopped by Muffinaris in Shinjyuku Mitsukoshi ALCOTT on the way home from Jyunkudo which is a big book shop in Shinjyuku . I bought a blueberry crumble muffin, the dough is so tasty and blue berries are so juicy! http://www.muffinaris.com/muffinaris/muffin.html They also have vegetable muffins such as onion & salmon etc, which I never tried before. I prefer non sweet drink but for muffins, hum... (Japanese) 今日新宿三越アルコットのマフィナリーズと言うマフィンのお店で ブルーベリークランブルと言うのを食べました。 生地もおいしいし、底にごろごろジューシーなベリーが入ってて素敵でした。 他にも野菜系のマフィンなどユニークな種類がたくさんありました。 近くに行かれる事があれば是非試してみてください！

Someone asked me if I would think Japanese first then translate it into English in my head when I was speaking in English. I wasn't sure either way, didn't care about it. But slightly I'm getting realise that I have built an English brain space besides Japanese one. It's not very big or capable as you know. Kichijoji (吉祥寺） In fact, the reason I write English post first here is that it's much easier and faster to think in English first then translate them into Japanese(my mother language). I can't do it in reverse. Of course the biggest reason is that there would be　massive vocabularies and expressions in a native language though. I would prefer sticking with English when I need to speak otherwise I become speechless. Inogashira Park(井の頭公園）　 I met a recruiting agent people during the past week.　　　　　　　 He is Japanese but speaks very fluent English as the company have many foreign staff as well as costumers. 　 That was first time to meet him in person after we...

My mother sent me a text message last night, which said "You should go home earlier as it is going to be heavy rain". She was right, we had a spring storm all day long. Many people said that they broke umbrellas this morning. By the way, Japan is the largest consumer of umbrellas in the world. Someone said he had seen 13 broken umbrellas were in a trash can at the station on the way to work. He counted them with a sense of amusement. (He should have taken a photo, though!) I don't like too much winds, but I love the word 'Spring Storm' somehow. (Japanese) 昨日の晩、母親が雨が強くふるから早く帰るように、と携帯にメールをしてきました。 その通りで昨日から激しく雨と風が続き、春の嵐でした。 みんな傘が折れたという話をしていて、ある人は駅のゴミ箱に１３本折れた傘が捨ててあった のを見たと話てました。（ぜひ写真を撮ってほしかった＾　＾） 風が強いのは好きじゃないけど、 ’春の嵐’と言う言葉はなぜか惹かれるものがあります。 ところで、今日帰りの電車で三島由紀夫の’永すぎた春’を若い女の子が読んでました。 そちらもなんだか感慨深かったです。

There are frequent questions for foreigners who visit in Japan such as 'Can you use chopsticks?' or 'Do you eat Natto ?'. And relatively one of the latest might be 'Have you ever watched Lost in Translation?'. And interesting thing is that people who are familiar with Japan well or live in this country for a long time didn't really like that movie. (Including me) I was asked by my friend why, I replied that Sofia Coppola emphasized strange things of Japanese a little bit too much. The Japanese hooker didn't have to be that old woman with such degrading English. The director must have intended it to compare to the heroine who was young and a white beautiful girl. By the way, I and my other friend went to the bar at Park Hyatto in Shinjyku to experience Lost In Translation in last January. The hotel was splendid. All these three picture were being taken by her camera.