Table Tennis Exhibition Match

I went to new Matsue City Gymnasium yesterday. The 50th anniversary Matsue City Table Tennis Taurnament was held there. To celebrate the anniversary, table tennis association invited two male Olympic players there. 

The two player, Seiya Kishikawa and Kenta Matsudaira showed their practices and did an exhibition game. Their play was beautiful and fascinating. Many fans enjoyed their extraordinary plays. Sometimes, it looked achromatic. 

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Autograph of Olympic Player

I went to new Matsue City Gymnasium to see my friends. A local table tennis tournament was held there. I had to work a little, so I couldn't join the games. 

I got there before noon and I found a Japanese female table tennis player, Kasumi Ishikawa, seating in the audience. She is four-times Japan's champion and won the team silver medal in the London Olympic Games. She is my friend's daughter and came here with her father. Luckily, I could get her autograph for my son. He's a big fan of her. 

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Present and Past Sentences

I'm listening to a Murakami, "Hard-boiled Wonderland and the End of the World". I listened 6 hours and left 8 hours. There are two different storylines. The first one was narrated in preset sentences and the other was in past sentences. 

Sometimes, I've found preset sentences in books and interviews. Some interviewee spoke in past sentences, but when his story went into his abduction experience, suddenly he spoke in present sentences. It was really interesting.  

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Speaking English

I started again learning English several years ago because I wanted to read English books. That meant I didn't want to speak English then. But some years later, I began to think how nice if I could speak English, so I took online English lessons. I took TOEIC, a kind of English test, and the score was about 600. 

At the time, I found some friends from a language exchange site and talked with them on Skype. I sometime talk with two or three foreign friends a day. I even made my English podcast with them. I uploaded over 60 podcasts in a year. I wasn't a good English speaker, but it was so much fun. I could enjoy conversation in English. I didn't care much about my poor English skills then. 

Afterward, I study English more and I could get better TOEIC score or Eiken grade. Though, I don't feel comfortable while speaking English now. I'm really frustrated. Studying English grammar and words made me awkward to speak English. Or I just have lack of practice for speaking. 

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What Brings You to Learn English?

I rarely have opportunities to speak English. I don't need studying English at all. No need for my work. But why am I learning English? The reasons for studying English are vary from person to person. I wanted to read English novels. That was my start. I was eager to be an old man who reads English book at a cafe. What about you?

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TOKYO 2020 Olympic Logos

Tokyo 2020 Olympic logos came out today, after the first emblems' withdrowal due to its accusation of plagiarism. Among other three candidates, the new design was the most simple one used traditional Japanese color and patterns. They said it represented the intercultural themes of the Games. 

I also like the new emblem. In my view, the new one has a good traditional Japanese touch in it. 

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The Wedding

I finished "The Wedding" by Nicholas Sparks in English with Audible app. I read the book several year ago. It was hard to read the novel then. That was why I didn't feel anything about the teller, Wilson. Since I misunderstood here and there, so I was just surprised the last and felt happy.  

This time, I could understand the story better than before and I found him, Wilson, was a bit too much. He had another way to show his love. That was too much. I don't think women like his way. Am I wrong?

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Japanese Manga

Manga plays an important role of Japanese culture. Manga attracts people from all over the world. Many people learn Japanese and visit Japan because they like Japanese manga. I have to admit that reading manga is fun and sometimes useful. I used to read manga, but I don't read manga for a long time. 

I rarely read manga because I like reading novels. While reading novels, I can imagine my own world, but I can't do that by reading manga. I easily lost concentration while reading manga. Manga has the authors image already. That makes me bored. 

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A Bridge Beam Falls

A bridge beam under construction in Kobe fell down and killed two workers. The bridge beam was being lifted by a crane at the time. 

I watched the moment on the TV, someone took the video. Under the bridge beam, many cars and trucks were running. It was terrible   

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Bathroom Reading

Bathroom reading is fun. Not a few people would read books in the hot tub. I'm one of them. 

My book for bath is Flowers for Algernon now. I want to read 10 pages a day, but I couldn't read that much. I'm tired recently, so I feel asleep soon after bathing. I can read only few pages in the bath tub. It'll take five or six month to finish the book. 

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English or Spanish?

I finished an audiobook, "The Great Blue Yonder" and I selected to listen to "Kitchen" as the next audiobook. I downloaded the title several days ago. 

I started to listen to the novel with Aufible app. And right after the audiobook started, I felt something wrong on it. I couldn't understand the story even only a little. It wasn't in English, but Spanish! I bought and downloaded wrong version at all. 

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Justification

I really enjoy listening to English audiobooks. And I want to read more and more books, both English and Japanese. I'm too busy. And I'm not young anymore. I have no time for preparing English tests. I'm really sorry, but I couldn't. Forget about studying English. If I were young, I'd study hard, maybe, perhaps, possibly. 

Don't blame me, if I couldn't get good score or grade in English tests. The reason is above. 

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The Great Blue Yonder

I'm listening to "The Great Blue Yonder" with Audible app. I read the young adult novel several years ago and I was really moved. The story was about a beloved dead boy who was accidentally hit by a lorry. He couldn't say farewell to his family and friends. 

When I read the book, I just started extensive reading in English, so it was quite hard to read then. I managed to finish the book. It was a good memory for me. 

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New City Gym

I went to Matsue City General Gynasium opening event today. The new gym was big and clean. As the old one became inconvenience, the city has built a new facility. 

There many events were held in the new gym, the main one was a valley ball women's top league match. Although star players were away for Olympic national team training camp, the game was an exciting one for me. 

I'll use this gymnasium for table tennis games from now on. I can enjoy the new facility. It's nice. 

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Second Quake

The second massive quake hit Kumamoto prefecture on Saturday. This time, at least 19 people were killed and many buildings have been damaged or destroyed.

SDF and others have rescued and helped the residents. As frequent aftershocks have been occurring, many people had to leave their houses. 

There are some nuclear power plans in Kyushu area. Some of them are still working. They are obviously in danger now, so the power company should stop the plants and check if they have damages. It looks like they never learn from previous accidents. 

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Kumamoto Earthquake

A massive earthquake hit Kumamoto prefecture yesterday. Nine people were killed and more than 780 people were injured by the quake. The magnitude 6.5 quake was the biggest quake for Kumamoto. 

Many people had to evacuate from their home. SDF, Plice and fire department have rescued victims. 

Aftershocks have been occurring and it will be rain there. There would be a high risk of landslide. I hope residents pay attention to information and protect themselves. 

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Ito Beats World Champion

Japanese female table tennis player Mima Ito, 15, won over women's world champion Ding Ning of China with a 4-2 at East Asian qualification tournament for the Rio de Janeiro Olympics.

She won the World Tean Championships silver medal this year and became the youngest winner on the World Tour last year. She said that "my dream is to get gold in the singles and team event at my home Olympics at Tokyo 2020.” I believe she can do it. 

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English Synonyms

I bought an English words book "Practical Guide to English Synonyms" written by Fumi Saisho. The author was a Japanese woman. She wrote movie reviews to an English newspaper for 26 years. She said in the introduction that this reference book was based on the experience. 

The book, or dictionary, is useful for writing. I'll refer the book while writing my English blog. 

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The Samurai

I'm listening to "The Samurai" with Audible app. The novel was written by Shusaku Endo. I'm a big fan of Endo, so I read the novel right after it was published. This is one of the top three Endo's novel for me. 

The story was a kind of adventure novel based on real history. The samurai was the first Japanese to go to Europe. He was a lower ranked samurai, but he had to do a special mission. 

Like other Endo's novel, Christianity was one of the theme of the novel. I'll enjoy the story to the last with audiobook.

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A Volunteer Mate

I went to Matsue Castle for volunteer guiding yesterday and I talked with a volunteer member who joined recently. He was in his sixties.

He said that he started to learn English when he was 48. Suddenly, his company asked him to go to a language school without working. He had to learn English for a year there. And soon after one year had passed, he went to London to establish a local company. 

When the new office started, he became the president of the British company. Among its 150 employees, he was the only Japanese in the company. He said that he couldn't believe he could run the company with his English ability at the time. 

People can do anything when the time comes. 

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Goes to Rio

Japanese Swimming Olympic Trials were held in Tokyo. Only top two swimmers who surpassed Olympic qualifying time at the races can take part in the summer Olympics. That was very simple. Olympic marathon runners should be selected by that kind of simple way. 

While former gold medalist Kosuke Kitajima couldn't reach Rio de Janeiro, many young swimmers including a junior high school student will advance to the summer games. I hope they will perform their best at the Olympics. 

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A Japanese Canadian

I met a Canadian at a Japanese style pub, izakaya and talked with him in English for a while. He was originally Japanese and moved to Canada when he was a child. He said that he was 98% Canadian. Now he was in his sixties.

He said that he was lazy to learn Japanese, so it was hard to read some kanjis for him. Even he was traveling in Japan, mostly he spoke in English here. 

He said that he found some wrong subtitles on TV news shows. He watched some interviews in English, but the Japanese translations were different from the originals. He said it was funny. 

I said that I was studying English and he suggested watching English dramas. 

When we were about to say farewell, I told him a joke. It was like, "I read a book about Canada. It said that the most famous products in Canada was snow," and he laughed. 

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Tokyo Olympics New Logo

Tokyo 2020 Olympics organizers showed four replacement logos for coming Tokyo games. The original embl was denied because it was suspected of plagiarism.

I like A, the simple one, navy blue Japanese style checkerboard pattern, called 'ichimatsumoyo'. It looks simple and strong. How about you?

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Japanese Badminton Players Admit Illegal Gambling

Japanese top badminton player Kento Momota and Kenichi Tago have admitted that they visited an illegal casino in Japan with their teammates, their team NTT said on Tuesday. 

Momota is the world second ranked player and about to take part in the Rio de Janeiro Olympics this summer. Tago is six times Japanese national champion and participated the London Olympics. According to the police sauces, they visited an underground casino which the police had raided last year. The casino was apparently run by a Japanese crime cyndicate. 

Japan Olympic Committee said that if the  allegation is true, Momota wouldn't take part in the Rio de Janeiro games. 

Their behavior was not only illegal, but also helped yakuza, crime cyndicate. It shouldn't be happened. 

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Hard to Understand

I'm listening to an audiobook titled The New York Trilogy by American writer Paul Auster. The audiobook consists of three stories. The first one was fine for me. I managed to understand the story. But the second one, Ghosts, is too hard to understand for me. The story is very complicated. I feel lack of English comprehensive ability. 

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GSL Words

I bought an English words book based on the General Service List. The General Service List is originally a list of 2,000 English wards published in 1953. The author has replaced dead words for newly frequent words. I can learn the 2,000 words with quiz type problems. 

Ninety percent of spoken English and 80 percent of written English were based on the 2,000 words, so it's very important to learn the words in the General Service List. I shouldn't be lazy to do so. 

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Djokovic Beats Nishikori

Japanese tennis player Kei Nishikori was defeated by No. 1 player Novac Djokovic with a 3-6, 3-6 score at the Miami Open final on Sunday. Djokovic, 28, also made a record of 28 Masters tournament wins in his career.

It was Kei's second masters tournament final. Many Japanese fans were waiting for his first victory of masters. He tried hard, but he couldn't get the title.  

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First Auster

I'm listening to a Paul Auster's novel with Audible. That is his first novel. I've just started it, and even so I've really got interested in the story. A wrong telephone call was the start of the story.

I enjoy the audiobook, but I think I couldn't really enjoy reading the same novel like listening to. I prefer listening to reading novels. While listening, I can concentrate on the story, but I can't concentrate well while reading that.

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Finally Finished 1Q84

I finished a long story "1Q84" with its English audiobook version. The recording time is 46 hours and it took entire three weeks for me to listen to. It might be the longest novel of Haruki Murakami. 

The overall story was quite fantastic, but realistic in detail and kept in good suspense. The heroine who lived in 1984 strayed into the year of 1Q84 which has two moons. That was the start of the story. It might not be the best of Murakami, but you can't stop reading or listening to it. 

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Cherry Blossom Viewing

Cherry blossoms are blooming in my neighborhood. I live in the next to an university and it has a lot of cherry trees. These are in full bloom now. They are really beautiful. 

My wife and I are thinking of going to watch cherry blossoms somewhere in the weekend. I'm a little bit nervous because it will be the first time to do that only two of us since we had children. Our older son is independent and younger son is busy for sports activities at school. 

Unfortunately, the weather forecast said it will rain on Sunday. I really hope the forecast would be wrong. 

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