Tumblr



This time, I would like to write about Tumblr. It is a kind of twitter, but the difference from the famous communication tool is that it is mainly used to post images. When people start Tumblr, first they need to follow someone's account which seems interesting. Then you can find images, gifs, and texts you like the most from their posts, and quote them. If you want to, you could communicate with someone, and they usually respond to your questions and perhaps someone asks you one day.

I met this site about...I'll check it, please wait. Well, according to archive, I started Tumblr in August, 2013. Accurately speaking, I had known this site before 2013, but I didn't feel like making an account because I felt it wasn't necessary to make it to collect pictures. I mean I didn't understand the utility of making an account. However, I noticed that if I registered it, accounts which followed by me send everything they collected every minute. After I got an account, I don't need to browse the Internet spontaneously in order to get images. It is really convenient.

The reason why I use Tumblr instead of Twitter is that my beloved Tumblr doesn't required activeness. It seems that if someone gets an account of Twitter, they must post texts or it doesn't make sense. On the contrary, we Tumblr users are rarely post texts, instead we quote from other users or lots of websites on the Internet. The best thing of this SNS is that has diversity. It is really fantastic feeling that knowing the different way of thinking or seeing pictures which I have never seen them.

I think there seem to be a change between the beginning posts and the current of it. However, fundamentally, my penchant for beautiful women, naked, fashion, and other kinds of splendid images will never change. Viva Tumblr!

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First episode of a foreign TV drama

“Everybody lies”

Dr. Gregory House is a man who is known for his “Unusualness”. He never wear a white coat, and try not to diagnose patients as much as possible, even though he is a doctor. However, he is also known to everybody for his genius at diagnosis. One day, a female patient was carried out a hospital, Princeton–Plainsboro Teaching Hospital, which is the place that House is working. She is a teacher at a kindergarten, and during class, she suddenly fell down.

Because of her unexplained disease, her family doctor sent her to the hospital. House is not interested in communicating with patients because he says that “Everybody lies”, so he seldom appears before patients. He gives a diagnosis by using a various kinds of information about patients, and debating with his subordinates. House's diagnostic team consists of Dr. Robert Chase, Dr. Allison Cameron, and Dr. Eric Foreman.

After meeting the teacher, the team started to diagnose her, but they couldn’t determine the cause of her disease. When they struggling to find the cause, House came up with a good idea which may aid her recovery during a diagnosis of another patient. Steroids is the medicine that House hit upon to cure her illness. It made her bad condition better temporarily. However soon after the recovery, her condition became worse than before. They had to think again about the cause of the disease from the first.

When they are debating in House’s office at the hospital. Dr. Foreman began to talk about the result of search in the patient home. House ordered them to go there, and find something that could have caused her illness. Foreman found a slice of ham in the refrigerator, and House realized that this was the cause of the disease. The true cause of the disease was parasites in the ham. They reached her brain and had a harmful effect on it. The source of the disease was discovered, and the team informed her to the result. However, she refused to receive the treatment. She wanted to die to protect her “Important thing.”

In the end, finally, she decided to live, but how did House persuade her, how did they
convince her to accept the treatment? What was her “Important thing”? If you are
interested in the results, please watch it.

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The best day of my life

Four years ago, I was in Kyoto to celebrate my girlfriend's birthday. At that time, I and she had been dating for four years. Until then, every her birthday, I took her a lot of different places, such as Huis Ten Bosch which is a huge theme park located in Nagasaki to see a beautiful illumination and a gorgeous fireworks carries out in the night, or an aquarium in Kagoshima, and we often go to Aso many times.

There were still a lot of places to visit in Kyushu though, but I thought I wanted to leave from Kyushu in order to refreshing our mind. I asked her to go to Kyoto, she happily accepted my proposal. Her birthday was October 13th, so we decided to go there the day before her birthday. Before leaving Kumamoto airport, we were so excited and had been talking about places where we want to go. Fortunately, it had been cleared up during the trip. On her birth day, we went to a lot of places that we scheduled before.

First, we visited Kinkakuji and Ryuanji, both of them are really famous sightseeing spots, so there were a lot of tourists. Kinkakuji was gorgeous and beautiful. A combination of golden temple and its reflection on the surface of the water was very good. And Ryuanji which is famous for its Stone Garden, exactly it was good, but to tell the truth, it was too hard to see it relaxing because of a full of visitors.

Then we went to Sanzenin which is a place far from Kyoto station. That temple is well known to it is in a beautiful nature, and it lives up to its reputation. There were only a few people, so we were able to spend a very worthwhile time comfortably. It was awesome sight and I want to go there again one day.

After we finished went around some temples and sightseeing spots, I took her to a restaurant that I reserved in advance. We were able to see a night view from there, and I gave a birthday present for her. She seemed happy and satisfied with that whole day. I spend the all money instead of her, so my life had been difficult after a couple of months. However, I'm satisfied with seeing her smile, and spending an enjoyable time with her.

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My self introduction (2034)

(20 years later, in 2034, I will be 47 years old. 47 years old!!!!! Uhhh....I'm starting to feel dizzy. Well, 20 years later, I think I am managing to live. I'm aiming to become an English teacher now, so by the time I am 47 years of age, probably I'll be the teacher.)

Hi, I'm Toru, 47 years old and I'm an English teacher of xxx private high school in xxx ward, Tokyo. I have been living in an apartment near the school for the past 14 years. Before I came here, I lived in Kumamoto, and was teaching English in my old school, Kumamoto Technical High School. I had been teaching there from when I was 29 to when I was 33 years old. Now, in addition to teaching English, I'm a staff advisor to a tennis club. Thanks to the students and their passion for playing tennis, we became the champion team in the prefecture tournament.

I got married 13 years ago, when I was 34. A year later that I came here, in Tokyo. I met her in a volunteer group which helps students who can't go to a school due to family reasons. She was 26 years old and an English teacher too. She was really kind to students, not to mention me. She killed me with her smile. Then when I was 35, she gave birth to a baby boy. So, I became a father. Two years later, we had a baby girl. Now, the eldest son is 12 years old and the eldest daughter is 10 years old. They are in the same elementary school. Both of them are brisk and naughty, so

I'm worried about whether or not they are bothering their teachers in the school. My older sister's house is in Chiba, so I often visit there, and my sister and her husband meet with my children. I'm going to be promoted to assistant principal in the coming year, and if I got a raise, I want to buy a house for ourselves, and I'd like to have a dog. What's more, I want to send our children to an international school. I don't want them to struggle with learning English.

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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 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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Letter to a host family

Hi, I'm Toru. Please call me Toru. First of all, thank you so much for having me at your home while I study at XXX university. I really appreciate it. Next, please let me briefly introduce myself.    

There are 5 people in my family, my parents, grandparents, and me, also we have a miniature dachshund. I'm a third year student of KGU. I'm in the Faculty of Foreign Languages, and I'm majoring in English. I love running and getting exercise, for example, swimming, playing tennis, and other sports. In addition, I love to read novels written in English, especially novels by Ernest Hemingway, and Truman Capote. If I have a chance, I want to go to the library, ant get involved in reading books. I also I want to run in both urban areas, and in nature in Texas. Because this is my first time to visit Texas. I heard that there are so many beautiful places, such as the ocean, mountains, and wilderness areas. What's more, I want to visit them at any rate.

Lastly, the main reason why I decided to visit Texas is to learn as much as possible English. I want to become an English teacher in the future in Japan, but I worry about my lack of fundamental lack of English skills, which means speaking, writing, hearing, and reading. I believe that I can improve and enhance may English abilities to have a conversation with all of you, and also making friends who speaking English has a positive effect on me. Furthermore, I will not only study English, but also I want to learn about the differences between American and Japanese culture and customs. I'm looking forward to seeing you seen.

Sincerely,

Toru

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