Friday's English Horror!

Yes, HORROR! Well, I was just thinking of Koji Suzuki's novel "Ring". I've never seen the movies, but I found the book in English at the Setagaya library. I read the "dust jacket" and it was very interesting - he wrote the novel while being "Mr. Mom" with his daughters. Before that, he was a "cram school" teacher and told scary stories to his students and they enjoyed the stories. While his wife was working as a school teacher, he stayed at home to take care of their young daughters. With his daughter on his lap, he worked on "Ring".

That "story behind the story" is almost as cool as the horror story about "the ring" itself. If you haven't read the book, you should. I've heard it's quite different in a few ways from the movies. Quite different in very, very interesting ways...

PS: apparently, he likes Hemingway's stories, too.

漆って。。。

普通はブランドにはあまり興味がないけど、S.T. Dupont のライターはすごいです。特に、漆の（英語のページで"Chinese Lacquer"って書いてある!^_-)はきれいだと思います。（16296ライン2を見てください）

８万円あれば、このライターを買って、このおいしい葉巻も買えるね。(<-CAO葉巻サイトの音楽が好きです。彼のピンストライプスーツ/黒いシャツもかっこいいと思う)。前、世田谷にある天野屋で売っていました。
^_^

PS:　カタカナで「シャーツ」か、「シャツ」かどっちが合ってる。。。調べながらこの面白い写真を見つけました。^_-

Friday's English "Bad Habits"

This is the post I promised Kさん but I've been putting off...

I wrote before about my bad habit of snus. Anyway, finally on Tuesday I got my latest package from "The Northerner". I ordered Ettan, LD Original with bergamot (like Earl Grey Tea), Landströms Grov, and Göteborgs Rapé. The Göteborgs Rapé is especially nice (note that it's not the English word "rape", but the French word "Rapé"!), because it has oils from juniper berries in it.

About Göteborg: a couple of years ago I met a Japanese/Swedish girl at the Circle-K here in Setagaya. She was kind of cute. I asked her to say "Göteborg" and when she said it, with the Swedish pronunciation, it was really interesting and sexy. ^_-

Yes, Kさん asked me to write about snus. She said, "be sure to write that it gives you a buzz!" The online dictionary says this about "buzz":

1. A state of pleasant intoxication, as from alcohol.
2. A state of stimulation or overstimulation, as from caffeine.

Another friend, Tさん, always nags me to stop using snus. She thinks it's as dangerous as smoking cigarettes. Well, cigarettes are much more dangerous. But I guess snus is still not "healthy". But anyway, Sweden is one of the only countries where the cancer rate is falling. People think it's because Swedish guys use snus and quit smoking. All the other European countries still have higher rates of cancer. Probably because so many people smoke (like in Japan).

日本の冗談？？

妻っないから、つまらないです。
家内いない。

横浜

今日久しぶりで、横浜に行ってきました。元町の近くにあるアメリカ人（カナダ人？？）のスポーツバーで飲みました。面白いのは、彼が「いらっしゃいませ」と言った時「What the hell did you say!?」と聞こえた。。。;-)

Friday's English Valentine

So next Tuesday is Saint Valentine's Day...

Hopefully I'll get some chocolate from my students. The wikipedia page has some interesting history. I learned that here in Japan, there's not just "girichoko" (chocolate given to male co-workers by women, out of obligation), but also "honmeichoko" (chocolate given out of true love). I hope I get some of the latter... ^_^

The wikipedia page says that Valentine's Day in Japan is a result of marketing. It's interesting that in the states, Valentine's Day is for both men and women to show their love for each other. But here in Japan, it's mostly for women to give to men. For my native English speaking readers (all three of you ;-), the Japanese confectionary companies also managed to create a second holiday - "white day", when the men can return the favor by giving sweets to women.

What I didn't know was that there is a "black day" in Korea, when men who were spurned on Valentine's Day can drown their sorrows with noodles in black sauce (see the wikipedia page).

Back when I was a child, Valentine's Day was when you gave a card to a girl you liked and revealed your love for her (and vice versa). To me, this is more romantic than chocolate, especially "girichoko". But I like chocolate, so I won't complain about "getting some".

梅まつり

もうすぐ梅ヶ丘駅の近く、羽根木公園の梅が咲いていますね。１９９８年の冬初めて日本に来ました。バレンタインデーぐらい。最初の週末彼女と一緒に羽根木公園へ梅を見に行きました。その日はまだ雪がありました。夜は下北沢に行って、初めてお好み焼きを食べました。じゃ、バレンタイン、梅まつり、渓流釣りの解禁、さくら;-)、アミガサタケ。。。楽しみにしています。^_^

眠気スッキリ！

最近アメリカのオタク（geeks）の中で人気ある：ブラックブラックガム。 Wired Magazine で紹介されたと、いろんなウェブサイトで売っています：

"Lotte Black Black Gum: A great chewing gum with a strong, minty flavor that's designed to give you a lift and wake you up, this popular gum is loaded with caffeine."(from J-box)

特に "loaded with caffeine" の英語が好き。後はLotteの"Hi-Technical, Excellent Taste and Flavor"も面白い。先週ぼくも買いました。でもカフェインがたくさん入っているからじゃなくて、別の興味ある物入っているから。（前ポストを書いたね） - Ginkgo biloba (イチョウ）葉エキス！^_^

このガム（とXylishのHyper Cool)のパワフルなミント味はryecatcherの好きなFisherman's Friendsに似ています。

Ah, those pesky blue-eyed foreigners...

この人がこれを言った。

その後、英語で「But you blue-eyed foreigners, please continue buying Japanese cars and electronics!」と言った。^_-

ところで、「foreigner」とはたまに冷たい、たまに失礼言葉で、英語を話せる日本人は知っていましたか？

Dracula (Friday's English)

As I type, I'm drinking Guinness and munching Sapporo beer crackers. Got them at the beer museum in Ebisu yesterday. I always have a beer when I'm there, since it's cheap (about 250Yen) and pleasant enough. Yesterday I had an ale.

Well anyway, today was payday, and I was thinking about getting a copy of The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova. It's a novel about Vlad the Impaler (I think), who was the inspiration for Bram Stoker's Dracula. Not sure if the novel will be my style... (too many novelistic adjectival flourishes?) But Bookslut liked it, so I'm guessing it's not bad. ^_^

Brain Wide Web link alert: Vlad the Impaler was Romanian (from Transylvania?) - a few years ago in Aichi, I was teaching with a Romanian girl (she was nice and kinda hot, by the way). Also, not far from my "furusato" in America, there's a Transylvania University!?!

wwwじゃなくてbww

Brain Wide Web
最近「ウェブは人間の考え方に似ている」と思います。いろんなアイデアから"リンク"がありますね。今日またインターネットを使いすぎ、ゴールデンバット(昨日のポスト）と無頼派（９月のポスト）の"リンク"を見つけました。太宰 治 (だざい おさむ）はゴールデンバットが好きそうでした（ここに見て、勉強に成りました）。それと、「無頼派」の一人でした。

「無頼派」とは変なSuntoryウイスキーの名前だけじゃなくて、小説家の"グループ"で、知らなかった。何でポストを書いた時誰もCommentで教えなかったの？！^_- じゃ、「人間失格」を読んだほうが良いですね。読みましたか？どうでしたか？

Designs I like

この二つのデザインが好きです。^_^ 心配しないで、まだcigarettesは吸わないですね。（でもDr. Pepperはよく飲みます！）^_-