My home town

I’m going to write about my home town. I was born and raised in Mifune town, Kumamoto which is surrounded by nature. The town has been famous for its dinosaurs. A few decades ago, the first fossil of a tooth of a dinosaur was excavated, and this started a series of large-scale excavations that went on one after another. After that, a number of dinosaur fossils were found in many places around the town. Due to the results of the excavation, a museum for displaying the fossils was opened, and recently, about a month ago, the big new museum opened to replace the old one, and it was widely reported by TV, newspaper, and some magazines. It is very close to my house, but I still haven’t visited there, so if I have time, I will go to the museum.

During the summer, I can see beautiful green forests and rice paddies from my house. There is also a river that is a short walk from my house. I used to play in the water with my friends at the river when I was in an elementary school student and when I got into junior high school, my parents bought me a bicycle, and my activity range expanded. As a result, I was able to go to my friend’s houses which were located in remote areas from the center of the town. Most of their houses were at the foot of the mountain, or in a forest. Every weekend without club activity, I usually went with my friends to their houses. At that time, there were some TV game, such as Nintendo 64 or Play Station 1, and also “Pokemon” was really popular. Many classmates were involved in that TV game, but we were not only interested in them.

When we reached our friend’s house, first, we started to play survival games in the forest at the back of the house. There was an area of bamboo groves in the mountain, and we engaged in gun battles there covered with mud. After we finished the game, we went to a mountain stream near my friend’s house. That mountain stream was clear, transparent, and beautiful. We heard a joyful bird’s song, and also we were able to see rare fishes, for example, mountain trout and masu trout. We usually went fishing there in order to catch sweetfish. When we had tired of fishing, we often dove into the water, and caught fish or crabs by spearing them with a portable small harpoon.

After that, we broke up for the evening and brought some fishes back home respectively. I went on to a high school which was in Kumamoto city, I stopped going to my friend’s houses for my club activity and high school life. However, I kept in touch with my childhood friend who lives in the farthest area from the center of Mifune town. In the winter season, if the road which leads to my friend’s house had not frozen, I went there in order to see raccoon dogs and deer. The area where he lives is true countryside. There is no convenience store, and or even a supermarket, but there is only a mailbox near his home.

When I visited his home, I usually stayed the night at there. After the sun went down, we put dog food by the veranda-like porch, and around midnight, we were able to see the raccoon dogs through the window in dim light. Sometimes I saw a beautiful snowy landscape. Everything was covered with snow as far as the eye could see. At that time, we had a snowball fight, and built a lot of snowmen. And now, the town has been changing rapidly in the last couple of years. There were so many rice paddies surrounding my house. In summer season, in the daytime, when I went there, I can see a beautiful green rice field. And in the evening when the moon is up, I was also able to see the image of the moon filling a rice paddy with water, and also heard a chorus of peepers. In the early autumn, I was able to see the glowing ears of rice.

I love to see such sight and atmosphere, but due to construction work to widen the road in the town, more than a few rice fields have disappeared. Accordingly, there are so many drug stores, supermarkets and even a gas station were built on either side of the road. I understand that those stores or facilities are very useful for inhabitants, people can have access there easily, and buy daily necessities. In addition, for the town, they can get more tax revenue from those stores, and I sometimes use those stores to get sweets or groceries. However, to be honest, I love quiet beautiful rural views that used to be there.

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My nephew

Last week, my older sister came back home with her a year old boy in order to see him for us. She lives in Chiba with her husband and the son now. When I met him last time, about a half year ago, he was only still crawling. However, I returned home from the university, and met him for the first time in a while, he was standing and staring at me! I was really surprised and couldn't stop laughing because no sooner had he seen me than he ran around and around laughing in the house.

What's more, I have a male dog, and usually he is very nice. However he seemed to dislike my nephew because his face looked sad. I think he didn't like my nephew's actions, such as chasing him and grabbing his tail. When he chased by bad boy, he came to me and asked for help. I feel sorry for him but it was funny as well.

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My other classes

This spring semester, I have about 18 classes. Don't you think too many classes do you? Actually, It's killing me. However, some classes are so interesting, for example, Public Speaking which conducted in English by Prof. Sato. His way of speaking is really gentle and his pronunciation is easy to understand. What's more, he is very kind to everyone, he is a respectable person. On the other hand, I don't say the name of the class, but I have a class that I hate the best. I think students who attend the class understand that the teacher look down on us, so I don' want to his class.

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Deep Purple Forever!!!!!

How I study English

I usually get up 5 a.m. and turn on my computer, then I read aloud the online version of BBC, Japan Times, and other English newspapers. Next, NHK radio conversation starts at 6 a.m. so I put my recorder in front of an audio speaker. While I going to KGU, I listen to the program that I recorded. In my spare time in KGU, I go to the audio visual room, and do English Central or Power Words.

[80/2003]

My treasure

This time, I’d like to write about my trip to Australia. About six years ago, I was a
second-year student of KGU, and I belonged to the faculty of commerce. At that time, I
was twenty years old, and I was really interested in English. In addition, I had doubts
that various kinds of people really existed in the world, so I took advantage of the
summer vacation, and I decided to go to Australia. Before I went to Australia, to tell the
truth, I had the mistaken idea that Australia was a country of perpetual summer.


However, of course, the difference in temperature between daytime and nighttime was
great. In order to go to Australia, I had to save enough money to stay in that country,
and also persuade my parents. Convincing my parents to let me go abroad made me so
exhausted, but I managed to persuade them eventually. The place where I went abroad
was Gold Coast, Australia. When I arrived at the airport, my host mother came to pick
me up in front of the gate. Her name was Eileen and she got me in her car, and she
drove me to her home.


On the way home, we were introduced ourselves to each other, but I wasn’t able to
express myself well. After we reached her house, and as I set foot on foreign soil
(Correctly speaking, I had already set foot on it at the airport.), I was amazed at the
beautiful view. Her home was located in an area a little far from downtown, and maybe
thanks to this remote place, the house were surrounded by nature, and wrapped in
silence. The air was fresh, clean, and clear. She was so kind to me all the time, within
the first day, she showed me around the city, and taught me some rules of her house.


In that city, I got into a language school which was teaching English to foreigners.
There were a lot of students in the school, most of them were Chinese, Korean, Japanese,
Hispanic, and there were a few students from Western Europe. On the second day,
students were given placement tests. After the tests, we assigned to a class that was
suitable for our English abilities. In the school, we were forced to speak English, and if
the staff noticed that the students speaking in one’s native language, they warned us,
and we had to pay a dollar fine as a penalty (I think that KGU should be consider the
introduction of this system.).


As for the contents of the classes were almost the same as the classes conducted by KGU,
I think it is equivalent to freshmen’s classes. We usually studied grammar, vocabulary,
team activities, and so on. Most of the classes started at nine o’clock and finished
around two or three o’clock, so I often went to the beach or souvenir shops after the classes.


Few days after I entered the school, I made some friends, most of them were Japanese,
but there were some Koreans, Brazilians, and Germans. On the weekend, we usually
went to the beach, and we played Frisbee and got tanned. A week passed, we had tired
of going beach, so we finally decided to go sightseeing around the Gold Coast.


First of all, we applied for a sightseeing tour through a Japanese travel agency. It was
sightseeing some famous spots in Gold Coast. First, we went to “Q1 Tower” which is the
tallest building in the Southern Hemisphere. We were able to see a 360-degree view of
the beautiful ocean and buildings. Then we rode an “Aqua Duck” which is an
amphibious vehicle, we went round and round in the city area, and after that, the
vehicle moved to near the beach, and plunged into the ocean.


To be honest, I was a little bit concerned for fear of drowning. Next, we went to
“Currumbin Wildlife Sanctuary” which is a park located further from the downtown
area. We saw a variety of animals such as koala, huge alligators, and kangaroos. We fed
the kangaroos, if they noticed that we have food, they gathered around us, and we were
so excited. What’s more, we had a yellow snake around our necks, it was such an
unusual experience, and I will never do that again. All of our faces were drawn with
fear.


Then we experienced riding a water bike. We went to a secret beach, it was perfect
beautiful white sand there. The instructor had got us on the water bike, and we were
able to see a thornback in the water. Finally, we went to a night club for our farewell
party. So far, all of the students have never went to such a place, so everyone was really
excited and drunk, including me. The day after that party a lot of students were
hungover. It was only a month, and it is very short period vacation, but I really enjoyed
the summer vacation.

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Food/eating habits

In Golden Week, I'm planning to finish some reports I have to do until the end of May. There are a lot of reports. However, also I need to work where I working at because in Golden Week, amounts of customers coming my work place (AEON MALL). They don't have a nice place to go, like zoo, sightseeing places.

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Golden Week plans

In Golden Week, I'm planning to finish some reports I have to do until the end of May. There are a lot of reports. However, also I need to work where I working at because in Golden Week, amounts of customers coming my work place (AEON MALL). They don't have a nice place to go, like zoo, sightseeing places.

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