Birds of New Zealand ＆ Japan

I searched about birds. New Zealand has a lot of original birds and most of them are becoming extinct. The national bird of NZ is kiwi and that of Japan is pheasant (kiji).

Kiwi is the name of the bird and the fruit. The fruit was named after the bird and that was named by Māori because they heard the bird’s cry like “kiwi”. Kiwi is the species of flightless birds, but this can run fast. The size of kiwi is about chicken. The kiwi lays the largest egg in comparison to its body size.

Kiji is the species of flight, but this is not good at flying, but this also can run fast.　The size is about 80cm(♂). Kiji lives all over Japan except Tsushima. Both of them are drawn on the coin and the bill.

Next is about the original birds of NZ. Most of their names are in Māori, for example, Kea, Tui, Takahe and Kakapo and they live in forest. Moa is also one of the original birds. The height was about 3.6 m with neck outstretched, and weight was about 250 kg. This species has already extinct. I was so surprised by this bird having been.

New Zealanders are proud of kiwi and love that. So they call themselves "Kiwis". But I don't think many Japanese know the national bird of Japan is pheasant.

If you want to see kiwi, you should go Tennoji Zoo in Osaka. You can watch kiwi only there in Japan.

Let's go to TENNOJI ZOO:-)

Autumn Festival

There are a lot of autumn festivals throughout the world. Especially, school festivals are hold all over Japan. I think the most famous festival in autumn is “Halloween” so I search it.

As you know, Halloween is held on October 31st. This is celebrated in the United States, Canada, Ireland, Japan, New Zealand, United Kingdom and parts of Australia. The origin of Halloween is in the ancient Celtic festival and Halloween is All Saints ‘Day’s eve. The symbol is pumpkin which has a candle inside. It's called a jack-o'-lantern. These traditional colors are black and orange and people wear that colors clothes like witches, ghosts and devils. Especially, children visit their neighborhood and say "trick or treating" to the hosts. Then they are given the sweets and hold a Halloween party. In Japan, almost all people know Halloween and many stores sell its goods but my superior does not know that!! When I heard that, I was so surprised:-0 I did not think there is a person who doesn’t know Halloween.

Halloween comes in autumn so many people eat autumn foods. Candy apples are a common Halloween food. It looks so delicious:p This is also eaten in Japan when summer festival like fireworks festival.

I have never participated in Halloween party so I’d like to do it someday!!

Have a nice HALLOWEEN★

My Favorite Movies

I did not see many movies in the theater. The only movie I saw is “Hana yori Dango Final(2008)”. It’s from the girl’s comics in Japan but it’s a life action movie. That is so popular in Japan and Asian countries. It became dramas too. This is the love story. The main characters are Tsukushi Makino (starring Mao Inoue), Tsukasa Domyoji (starring Jun Matsumoto) and other men. There are one girl who is very poor and 4 boys who are very rich. They commute to the same high school and 4 boys are called F4.Cause 4BOYS are cool and beautiful like FLOWER. Tukasa loves Tsukushi so he appeal to her to love him. This movie is before them marriage. The theme songs of the movie are “kiss hug” sung by aiko & “One Love” sung by Arashi (Jun joins this group) I like love story because I think this is to pursue the true love. The casts are so cool!! and there are popular all over Asia. I wanna see once again.


Another movie is “The Terminal(2004)”. I saw it in MLC, NUFS. The director is Steven Spielberg. As we know, he made Jaws, Indiana Jones series, Jurassic Park　etc. The main character is the person who has no his nationality and he comes to John F. Kennedy International Airport in NY. His name is Victor Navorski (starring Tom Hanks). He cannot speak English well because he is from Eastern Europe. He can not leave the airport without his nationality and starts living in there.
I like this movie because The Terminal is not only funny but also making me an impression. He could spend there because he is a countryman. I think countrymen are so kind people!!

Anyway, I love watching movies:D

Exercise

Exercising has some meanings. It can let us not to gain weight. We can feel better to exercise and get happiness, I think. But I don't belong to any sports club or circle. So, I searched the sports I want to do.

As we know, bowling is the ball game which we roll a large heavy ball along a wooden track in order to knock down a group of pins. Some people bowl as their hobbies, other bowl as their jobs. There is the association in Japan. It's Japan Bowling Congress(JBC). This page explains about competition. We can enjoy bowling with friends!! Let's go bowling in your summer vacation!

Next is badminton. It's the game that is similar to tennis but played with a shuttlecock instead of a ball. You think we don 't much move in this sport than like basketball or soccer. But this require the quickly movement. So we can lose weight like basketball. We play badminton singles or doubles. I think we can get a good relationship. Here is Japan Badminton Association. Now the badminton team is popular in Japan. They will participate in the Beijing Olympics. I'm looking forward to watching it. The Olympics is starting on 8.8 2008! It has a lot of "8". Let's play badminton and watch Beijing Olympics!!!

picture by wikipedia & キャラプレ

Have a nice summer vacation:-D

Diet

Some people diet by eating healthy food without exercising. I introduce Japanese healthy foods. 　Japan has lots of healthy foods. For example, konnyaku, harusame( looks the spring rain), kanten(=agar)…etc. The food I choose is kanten. Kanten is made from a kind of seaweed but the appearance is not seaweed. It just looks jelly. Japanese sweets use kanten. It has some effects for our health. First, it has few calories so we eat it a lot ,we don't take many calories. Second, it prevent our bodies from absorbing oil and sugar. Third, it have the blood pressure be lower so this is good medicine for the people who have high blood pressure. I think these are wonderful!!

By the way, February 2nd is called "kanten no hi" in Japan. It means " the day of agar". Nagano Prefecture established the day because the agar was well-known on TV on that day. Nagano is the No.1 producing district of the agar.

My mother sometimes cooks me the agar jelly. You can season with that various. I love cocoa flavor;-9 Let's cook an agar jelly!!

picture by かんてんぱぱのホームページ

Laughter:-)

　A proverb has it says that Fortune favors cheerful homes .
　
But is it real that laughter conveys the happiness? This is proved chemically. Laughter is the medicine which works for several disease and good for our health. First, laughter works for cancer .The cancer cells disappear by laughing .

There are some kinds of laughter for example, a laughter , a chuckle , a snicker , a smile and so on. But it is not related to that how we laugh even we put on a feigned smile. Second, laughing trains our abdominal muscles and we can sleep well. Finally, I think that laughter is important for our lives.

Why don't you laugh:-)?

1.Laughter for Health
2. Medicine


This is the movie. There is a baby and his father in the room.　Whenever father is tearing pieces of paper, the baby is laughing. Because I think the baby is so cute!!! , it is funny. I can't stop laughing!

Another funny movie is here.

His name is Takahiro Yamamoto. He is Japanese comedian and often imitates Yuji Oda who is the actor. I think he is a Yuji Oda look-alike!! Let's watch it!