Here are a couple of articles that grabbed my attention today.
Firstly something about
China's new environmental protection laws. Each time I travel to China, I come back slightly depressed at the level of pollution, the number of cars, the obvious signs of economic costs accompanied by the even more obvious signs of the damage that this is bringing. I hope that these new laws are actually enforced and really do help improve things. I am a bit dubious, but we can hope.
If China can get things sorted, then we just have to
wait for the US government to come to its senses and stop putting concerns about the economy ahead of the environment.
I also couldn't help find the articles about Nakanishi Kazuyoshi rather interesting (
English and
Japanese). Apart from the sheer amount he drank, I am impressed by the fact that he managed to describe reaching inside a woman's dress and feeling her breast in such terms that they can be translated into English as 'causing a great deal of trouble'. (I couldn't find what he actually said in Japanese on any of the websites I looked at, but I can imagine how bland an apology it was.)
Finally,
here is a not so serious story about the US exit strategy from Iraq. The problem is, I can imagine
Bush actually thinking this...
The results of the Japanese Language Proficiency Test I took last December finally got here on Thursday. I passed Level One!!
Yeah!!
今週の木曜日に去年の12月に受けた日本語能力試験の結果が届いた。一級に合格!
うれしい!
I have made a decision.
I am only going to update this Blog once a week or so, and then more often when I am away on trips. Since I haven’t updated since last week, this is pretty much just what happened anyway. However, over the last week, I have found myself thinking a number of times ‘I must update my blog’ and then spending time trying to think of something to write about. But I have to acknowledge the fact that in the course of an average day, not really that much interesting happens, so there isn’t always anything worth writing about.
What’s more, I was beginning to get a bit annoyed with the feeling that writing the blog was something that I had to do rather than something fun. I get fairly pissed off with people who I feel let themselves be controlled by their mobile phones rather than looking at them as a useful tool, and it was getting to the stage where I could see hints of this in my blog.
When I originally started my blog, one of the things I most wanted to do was to have a way of communicating with Hiromi, family, friends etc. when I am away from home. I am still planning on doing that, and writing as often as I can when I am away. When I am away, genuinely interesting things happen, things that are worth writing in a blog. But to try and find something to write every day when I am just going into the office, coming home and spending the evening studying at home is, I think, pushing things a bit unnecessarily far.
There are many people out there who do update their Blogs every day or nearly every day, and they always seem to find something interesting to write about. I have nothing but respect for you! I don’t know how you manage to write interesting things so consistently. But I guess I am a bit of a dull person!!!
Do still keep coming to have a read of my page and leaving your comments. I do enjoy reading them!
決定しました!
このブログの更新は、普通に週に一回ぐらいで、出張の時できることなら毎日の程度にすることにした。先週から更新していないということを考えて見れば、週一回の更新はもう事実になっている。けど、この一週間、何回もブログを更新しなくちゃと思って、しばらく何か面白くて、書く価値のあるものを考えようとした。でも、僕の日常生活はそれほど面白くなくて、書く価値のあることがほとんどないという実情を認めなくてはならない!
それに、僕はこのブログを書くのは、楽しいことより、しなければならないと思うようになったことにちょっとイライラしていた。
このブログを始めた時の目的の1つは、出張の時、ヒロミや家族や友人に電話で話せなくてもその日の出来事や面白いことを伝えることだった。だから、出張の時、ブログの更新をできるだけするつもりだ。出張の時、面白いことがけっこうあるし!でも、出張以外の時、仕事に行って、帰って、夜まで勉強するというパターンの平凡な生活の中、毎日面白いことを探そうとするのは、大分無理しているじゃないかと思うようになった。
ブログを毎日かほとんど毎日更新する人がたくさんいる、さらに、この方々のホームページが本当に面白い。どうやって毎日こんなに面白いことを書くことができるのが、よくわからないけど、僕には無理!皆さんを尊敬する!やっぱり僕はちょっとつまらない人かな。
皆さん、また遊びに来てください。コメントもお願いします!
1) Woke up to see that 6 centimetres of snow had fallen over night.
2) Awful journey to work. Traffic jams. The journey took 90 minutes instead of 40. Bus was full. Someone near to me had B.O. I think it was the woman sitting in front. 3 people with stereos on far too loud. People calling work to tell them that they are going to be late. One woman called about 5 different people to tell them she would be late: ‘The traffic is awful. I have been on the bus since seven but we are nowhere near town yet’. Next call: ‘I have been on the bus since 6:50’, then ‘6:40’ and finally ‘6:30’ (No you weren’t. I got on the bus at 6:50 and you were not on. And the bus doesn’t actually set off until about 6:45). There was a man talking to anyone who would listen about his company that makes parts from fibreglass for yachts. Fascinating.
3) Snow melted by midday.
4) Now snow has started to fall again. And Hiromi has just asked me to go and buy some fish from the chip shop from her.
5) I am not thinking that tomorrow’s journey to work might be a bit of nightmare. Aaagh.
For anyone in overseas who has not had the pleasure of experiencing how the UK responds to snow, I should explain. Traffic jams, accidents, everything stops working. A few centimetres cause everything to stop. This also happens with rain, wind, fog. Pretty much every kind of weather that is slightly unusual tends to cause chaos.
Strange country. The UK is known for its pretty crap weather, but seems to be unable to cope!
1) 今日、6時に起きたら、6センチくらい雪が積もったことに着付いた。
2) 朝のバスは最低だった。渋滞。いつもなら40分しかかからないけど、今日90分もかかった。バスが超満員。誰かが体臭が強かった。(僕の前に座っていた女だったと思う)。3人がウォークマンを聞いていた。バスに乗っていたほとんどの人が携帯で遅れることを職場に伝えていた。1人の女が5回くらい電話した「遅れるよ。すごい渋滞だ、7時にバスに乗ったのに、まだまだ着かない。」次の電話「6時50分に乗ったのに…」次は6時40分、最後の電話で6時30分にもなっていた。(あのね、違うでしょう。僕は6時50分に乗ったけど、あなたがその後に乗った。更に、バスが出発したのは6時45分だから6時半に乗ったって無理や。嘘つき。)で、自分の会社について話していた人がいた。会社がヨットの部品を作るようだ。ぜんぜん面白くないよ。
3) 昼前、雪が溶けた。
4) 今、夜になっているけど、まだ雪がまた降り始めたことに気がついた。で、ヒロミに頼まれて、近所のチップ・ショップ(フィッシュ・アンド・チップなどを売る店)にフィッシュを買ってきた。
5) 明日のバスも大変になるだろうと心配するようになった。
海外にいる、雪の時のイギリスをこと経験したことのない方に少し説明させていただきます。雪が少ししか積もらなくても、イギリスが大混乱になる。渋滞や事故、電車が走らないなどなど。大雨の時、強い風の時、霧がある時など天気が少しだけ異常になった時でも混乱を起こすこともある。
悪天で有名な国なのに、異常な天気にこんなに適応性がないことが不思議だね。
I found this story about Japanese police...
Watch
this, watch the video and laugh... or maybe that be cry??
They ran away from someone...
日本の警察についての記事を見つけた。
これを読んで、ビデオを見たら、笑えるかもしれないが、本当は泣くべきだろう。
警察が人から逃げた。。。