Happy New Year!

I'm back in Manchester from my holidays in Paris.

Merry Christmas!

Annual Concert

I have been a member of The University of Manchester Chorus for two and a half years and there was an annual concert on 5th December.
I joined the chorus with my husband so I was not alone. However, when we practice, we sit apart from one another and I take a seat in the middle of strangers. Naturally we say greetings before rehearsals start and during the rehearsals we basically are not allowed to chat so it took a long time to find a friend at the chorus. One year after joining the chorus, I now find a good friend and one of the good points about taking time to form a relationship is that, once we are friends, the relationship lasts longer. Both the Japanese and the British live in islands so I find some similarities in our personalities. People are polite and shy in general although it depends on the individual personality. Some people change their personalities after drinking too much. I feel comfortable talking with British friends.
Still there are some differences. In Japan, we normally line up on stage according to the height. It is practical and everybody needs to see the conductor on the concert day. However, here in the UK, people stand wherever they like. Even in Japan, I’m short so in the UK, I’m very short and I need to find a good place to stand on stage. Where you stand is fixed “first come first served” so I need to go to rehearsal one hour early for getting a good place to stand. It is different from how we do things in Japan but it is acceptable. Nobody cares whether I am short or tall. This could be said to be a kind of freedom!
On the day of the concert, a girl next to me asked “You’re not British, are you? ” I have been asked many different kinds of questions since I came to the UK. However, this is the weirdest question. At first I didn’t get her point so I did not answer her. She said, “I mean I’m also not British. I’m from Costa Rica.” It is very difficult for me to tell someone’s nationality if they speak very good English. Because I am not a native English speaker, I just speak English if it is necessary. However, this girl kept saying whatever she was thinking. Maybe this is one of the reasons she can speak English very well.

My journey to Seoul

I visited South Korea on my way back to Japan. I enjoyed sightseeing and tasty foods!

British Jokes

I listened to the raid and heard that "Johnny Depp had never appeared in Manchester. It was a joke."
Now I take an Academic writing class. My teacher is a retired gentleman and he said, "I'm 96 years old." None of my classmates laugh nor surprise. My friend says "it's his joke." What's the point of these jokes if no one laugh at about it?

YUZU (Japanese restaurant)

I had a "Tendon" lunch at a Japanese restaurant "YUZU". The restaurant opened in August 2010. It's a new restaurant and a web site isn't ready yet but taste is very nice! This Tendon lunch costs only 5.95 pounds. I'm happy to find good quality and reasonable price Japanese restaurant in Manchester.

Filming

On raid, I heard a Hollywood movie was shooting in Manchester Piccadilly. They said Johnny Depp was coming and shooting the film. So I went to the location with my camera and binocular.


Yes, they are shooting.


However it's blocked...




I could have a look of shooting location from distance however I couldn't see Johnny Depp...

Surprise!

They are in a show window at DEBENHAMS. At first I thought they look so real and eventually I noticed they are human beings! Soooo cute!!!

Edinburgh

Edinburgh is one of the most popular sightseeing places in UK. There are many beautiful places to see.


Edinburgh Castle


The Royal Yacht BRITANNIA


Rosslyn Chapel

TUNISIA

I had wonderful summer holiday in Tunisia. There are so many beautiful places to see. I show some of them.

El-Jem



Carthage



Mosaic



mosque


Olive trees


fish market


Beach!


Foods: salad, Brik and Couscous (from left)

Liverpool

I went to Liverpool and joined Liverpool F.C. stadium tour. According to Wikipedia, "Liverpool Football Club are a professional football club who play in the Premier League and are the joint most successful team in the history of English football, with no other club having won more trophies."
So the stadium tour was also very popular.


Many kids are dreaming of being a player for Liverpool F.C. They may be future premier footballers.


I also visited the museum and found our mistaken Japanese expression. Probably, it meant "Be the world best Club". It should be written 世界一のクラブに however it's written 世界が一つのクラブに and it means, "The world unite to one Club".

Dunham Massey

I visited Dunham Massey today. Unfortunately it was a typical British rainy day however hydrangea was lovely under rain.



I love English garden because I see many pretty flowers.



Deer are very peaceful here.



I luckily saw Peter Rabbit!

1Q85?

I finished to read 1Q84 Book3. I was wondering whether Book4 would be published or not so I searched website and found interesting comment. Some people say, "Book3 describes from October to December, so if Haruki keeps writing the story, the title may be 1Q85 in Book4?" So some others say, "Probably, the Book4 would describe in the past. Book1 starts from April so Book4 would be from January to March but not after Book3 but before Book1." Well, we'll see.

Twilight Eclipse

A vampire and a human love romance is very popular in UK. It started in cinema from 9th July. The showing schedule is amazing at ODEON, the biggest cinema in citycentre, they show it at 12:30, 13:00, 14:00, 14:15, 14:30, 15:00, 15:30, 16:00, 16:30, 17:00, 17:15, 17:30, 18:00, 18:30, 19:00, 19:30, 20:00, 20:15, 20:30, 21:00, 21:15, 21:30, 22:00, twenty-three times in one day!
Before the film starts, we need to watch boring commercials and some trailers. Until the film started, people were eating snacks, chatting with friends and it was very noisy. However once the film started, it was very quiet and people were concentrated on watching it. I felt many people were addicted to the film and I'm definitely one of them.

1Q84

I borrowed "1Q84" from my friend. To be honest, I'm not a big fan of Haruki Murakami however I really enjoyed reading this. There are some particular attractive facts. One of them is music. My friend from Manchester Chorus let me listen Janacek's Sinfonietta as her favorite. In this book the music is described as a hard to notice as it is. Thanks to this book, nowadays many Japanese recognized it but thanks to my British friend, I knew Sinfonietta before reading the book.


The other fact is one of character's name is Eriko. It's common name and I found my name in some different books. I don't know the reason but usually the character named Eriko is not normal. If you read "1Q84", it's obvious. As another example I add Eriko in "Kitchen" written by Banana Yoshimoto.
I assume the main reason that I enjoyed reading Haruki's novel is that now I'm getting used to his writing style. In this book, one person said, "If you need some explanation, it means you wouldn't understand it with explanation." Hum, tricky isn't it?

LEGOLAND

Many of landmark building in Manchester are made with LEGO blocks.

The Cloud

This is the hottest and the most beautiful summer in this three years. My friend took my husband and me to such a beautiful place called The Cloud.

World Cup 2010

On Sunday I went to Chester with a group of friends. The World Cup match for England vs Germany was held the same day. I saw some people who are ready for supporting England.


All pubs were crowded with England supporters. One of our friends brought his radio and updated the match for all of us. Everybody knew England has many good players however they lost the game. On TV, people analyze the reason and blame about the misjudged goal.
To tell you the truth, I was not so much interested in World Cup when it started. I didn't watch the match even Japan vs Cameroon. It didn't mean I didn't support Japanese team but I was afraid to watch Japanese team lost. However after the victory to Cameroon I started to watch and couldn't stop watching it. Even they lost, the match was fantastic. I really enjoyed watching Japanese games.

Happy Reunion

My friend emailed me and told about her business trip to Liverpool. It takes about an hour by train from Liverpool to Manchester so I was very excited to see her. Although her stay was only four days, she could make to come to Manchester! It was happy reunion.

Little Moreton Hall

Is this house strained?


Yes, there is crack in the house.


Windows are also curved. It's amazing that this house is well preserved for many years.