Sports

I watched football games, Euro Cup 2008, and Wimbledon Tennis. I did not watch these games when I was in Japan. What happened to me?

One of the main reasons is that I try to act like British people. They enjoy watching these games, so I would like to share their feelings. Also it is a good topic when I do not have any common things to talk about. I can talk about sports without worrying about complicated matters like politics or religion.

If I watched games more, I would understand the rules better. I am gradually getting in to watching football and tennis. Still I never have tried to watch Cricket. Once my English teacher explained about the rules, but none of class mates understood it. I imaged that its rules are similar to those of baseball.

In Europe, many people do not even know the rules of baseball. Once I tried to explain to my friend about baseball. In my opinion, baseball is good, not only physical, but also mental. Each player is more concerned about winning for the team than about their own glory. This kind of mental team-play has strong connections to the Japanese way of thinking. That is why the Japanese love baseball. However my friend told me, “If you're talking about team-play, football is also team play. We cannot play it alone. And you say baseball matches the Japanese way of thinking, but it came from America.” I see. Football could be more popular than baseball in Japan soon. Actually for the younger generation, football may have already became more popular than baseball.

These Days

Since I quitted my part time job in April, I've been attending free English classes. It's “first come first serve”. So I should be there approximately 40 minutes before the class and wait until it starts. I spend this waiting time chatting with my class mates. Sometimes I talk too much before the class and am quiet during the class.

Japanese students usually try to answer correctly. I try to find the answer that the teacher expects to hear. Because I take a long time to answer, I miss my chance to speak in the class. Other students speak out whatever they think. I don’t think I could speak anything in the class, but I should speak if I have some ideas. Anyway I am happy to see people and listen to the stories about their countries. We have a different six teachers every two weeks. Every teacher has a different accent. Thanks to this class, I’m getting used to British accent. Once I start to like British accent, I like British people. Although, I still have many things to complain about. For example after waiting eight months, I'm still on the waiting list for the dentist. The registration procedures for the dentist never end. In my flat, one of three lights in the kitchen is broken and one of two rolling curtain is also broken. I have complained about these problems twice, however, they have not been fixed yet. I dislike these things. Of course I still can't say I like this, but now I can accept this.

In Japan, things are efficient. On the other hand, I always feel pressure that I should do everything people expect of me. If anyone waits after me, I automatically hurry up. Here, no one would hurry for others. And no one would let me hurry. It might be hard for me to adjust to the Japanese style after coming back to Japan. So far I enjoy the British style.

Did I Improve My English?

I just finished my English classes from a volunteer teacher. In the last class, our teacher asked us “Did you improve your English?” My answer was “I’d thought I would have improved my English more.” All of my classmates had the same impression. We were happy with our English teacher. He always brought interesting topics like recycling, foods, art and education systems. The classmates were coming from all over the world. Sometimes I had different ideas from them. I enjoyed talking about these topics and listening to other's opinions. All of my classmates really enjoyed our class, but we’ve never been satisfied our English. Even I could talk about some specific topics it didn't help understanding daily conversation. As my excuses, people in Manchester speak very fast. They are talkative and speaking to me, but they don't care whether I understand them or not. Even though I didn't understand what they said, I pretended like I understood. And the conversation was over. It was frustrating.

When I watched TV at home, I didn't fully understand the story. I needed to read subtitles. It was tiring. Yes, I’m lazy. I had dreamed that after staying one year in England, I could be a fluent English speaker. It's been one year since I came here. However, it didn't happen to me. Sometimes I feel happy about my speaking, but still I don't feel any progress in English.

In my daily life, I'm not expected to speak fluent English. All I'm expected to speak is short clear sentences. So it doesn't help in improving my English.

I'm not saying I'd like to speak like a politician, but I'd like to communicate with local people without a problem. I'll stay here more, so I wish I could improve my English before coming back to Japan.

Wagamama

My brother asked me to buy these T-shirts in Manchester and send them to Japan.

He cares about fashion very much. He usually wears stylish clothes. I couldn’t believe he wanted to get these, so I thought he must have been joking. However he told me, “That’s the T-shirts I wanted to get.” I told him, “Well, if you like it.”

What do you think?

Trip to London Part 3

“The Lion King” show was finished at 6:00pm. My bus back to Manchester would leave at 7:00pm. I thought I had enough time to go to Japan Centre which was the biggest Japanese shop in the U.K. I wanted to buy a book written by Haruki Murakami. His novels are popular not only in Japan but also all over the world. My friend, Belle recommended me to read “The wind-up bird Chronicle”, ねじまき鳥クロニクル. She told me, “The main character in the story quit his work and the situation is just like you.” It sounded interesting to me.

I should have known the directions to Japan Centre because I went there in April. Although it was not smooth, I found the shop. The book was priced more than double compared with the Japanese original price. However I needed the Japanese edition. When I bought the book I heard the announcement in the shop, “Now all sushi is 50% off.” It was a good idea to have half priced sushi and have it on the bus on my way back. However, there was a LONG queue for buying shushi. If I waited it, I might miss my bus. I was fascinated by 50% off priced sushi, but I gave it up and went back to Victoria station. It was the same bus terminal where I got off the bus from Manchester that morning. I tried to remember the way from the bus terminal to Victoria station. It did not work. I could not find the way to the coach bus terminal. I asked people how to get there. They were kind and told me the way to go. I followed the directions but I just found the local bus terminal. I asked some other people. Everybody pointed to the same direction. So the directions should have been correct. I did not ask about the distance, but I thought it was not so far away. I started to think what should I do if I miss my bus?

It was 6:45pm. Anyway I kept running in the direction where the bus terminal should be. Finally I saw a National Express bus coming out from the corner. The bus terminal must be over there. I felt shame. Nobody was running around Victoria station except me. When I got to the terminal, I was very happy. I checked terminal number of the Manchester departure on electric signboard. The terminal number was 18. All I had to do was go to the terminal 18 and get on the bus. Yes, I made it!

It was 6:55pm. It was better to go to the toilet before the long trip. So I went to the toilet and went to the terminal just before departing time. I saw the destination of terminal 18. It was shown “Rochdale”. WHAT? It should be “Manchester”. I was in a panic. I checked the destinations of terminal 17, 19 and 20. I could not find Manchester. It was almost departing time. The electric signboard for all the destinations was in the main entrance. It was a big bus terminal. If I went back there to check the terminal number, I would not catch the bus. I read Manchester was terminal 18.

Why it was shown Rochdale?

Where is Rochdale?

I came closer to Rochdale sign. And I found small letters written “via Manchester”. Oh, my goodness. I made it!

In many cases British transportations are behind schedule, but this bus left on time. I came back to Manchester on time.

Trip to London Part 2

I had a nice chat and lunch with my friend. There were so many things to talk about, so as always, we were behind the schedule. Actually my friend needed to go back to the conference. And I was planning to go to watch a musical “The Lion King”.

We got on the underground together. I thought I could change the line at Euston where my friend would get off. However I could not change the line at the station. I needed to stay on one more station to Kings cross. After I said good bye to my friend, I got on the same line and got off at Kings cross. I was planning to buy a half priced ticket. So my first destination was “Tickets”, a discounted ticket shop. I should have transferred to the Piccadilly line at Kings cross station. I checked the direction to the South and got on the tube. However, I arrived at Euston again! What happened? I could not transfer to the Piccadilly line at Euston. This meant I did not get on the Piccadilly line. I got on the Victoria line. Why did this happen to me? I really checked it before getting on it. Oh, no. It was all my fault.

Anyway, the direction to the South was not wrong. So I could change to the different line at the different station. In London, the underground system is convenient.

After taking much longer time, I could arrive at “Tickets”. It would be closed at 3:00pm on Sunday. I arrived there at 2:40pm. I thought yes, I made it. I asked “Is there a ticket for The Lion King?” The clerk said “You should go to the theatre.” I was surprised and asked, “Are there tickets at the theatre?” He said, “I don’t know. Anyway, The Lion King starts from 3:00pm. So you should be in a hurry.” I knew it.

I had no choice and run to the theatre. I arrived at the theatre and found a queue there. Yes, this must be a queue for the tickets. So I followed it. A gentleman came to ask us, “Do you have tickets?” I felt it was a silly question. If we had tickets, we would not be in a queue. Everybody answered, “No”. And he said, “I’m sorry, but all tickets were sold out.” I did not know why people did not stop queuing. I asked, “Is there any chance to get a ticket?” He said, “If you don’t mind standing, you could get a standing ticket. It costs 13 pounds. The other person asked, “Is it possible to have a seat with a standing ticket?” Everybody laughed. I arrived here after a long journey, so I really wanted to watch it. I did not mind keep standing, so I bought the ticket and watched it.

After I started to watch it, I remember, The Lion King is from America. It was not London original musical. I thought I should have chosen British original one. Anyway I enjoyed watching it.

Peak District

I went to Peak District on Saturday.
It was beautiful.

Animals were peaceful.

Some people enjoyed mountain biking.

I enjoyed hiking while watching (or watched by) an animal.