Reading books aloud

Often I read books aloud.
I do it because I want to improve my speaking skill.
For reading material, I choose very easy English books, like texts for junior high school students.

Mr. Masao Kunihiro, a famous interpreter and translator, has spread the idea of reading aloud to English learners.
He claimed he read same books aloud over and over again, and it amounted to several hundred times.
His English speaking skill was splendid.

I am not sure reading aloud works for me to improve my speaking or doesn't, but I am trying it.
I hope I will be fully fluent like Mr. Masao Kunihiro near future.

Eat Curry Rice on weekends

Most of Japanese people like "curry rice (steamed rice with hot curry sauce and ingredients)".

There are various kinds of curry rice.

However standard curry rice consists of meat of chicken or pork, potato, onion and carrot.

We can eat curry rice at many kinds of restaurants.

The nice restaurants serving western gourmets serve curry rice, cheap restaurants in downtown serve curry rice, beef bowl shops which serve cheap foods also serve curry rice...etc.

In addition, of course, curry rice shops are exist.

They focus on serving only curry rice, so we can expect nice quality to their curry rice.

That type of shops are especially popular among business people and college or high school students.

Therefore we can see many curry rice shops at business districts or students' quarters.

Also we cook curry rice at home.

How to cook the food is simple.

We cut each ingredients to pieces and simmer them and add some curry roux or curry powder.

As a dinner curry rice is eaten everyday, however some people prefer eat that particularly in weekends.

In old custom of the Japanese navy, curry rice is eaten in Saturday.

On board, seamen expect curry rice as a symbol of weekends.

To sum up, some people likely obey the navy's tradition.

It is funny, isn't it?

By the way, I cook curry rice often on weekends.

I am easily influenced by interesting custom!

Nobunaga's Ambition

Do you play video games?
I have played them so long.
I like any type of video games but especially, I played "Nobunaga's Ambition (or Nobunaga No Yabou)" series games a lot.

Nobunaga's Ambtion is a war simulation game.
In each plots of medieval period of Japan, you choose one of daimyo (Japanese feudal lord) as a play character and extend your territory through the battles with enemy daimyo.
The ultimate goal of the games is the unification of whole country.
In the historical fact, Toyotomi Hideyoshi accomplished the unification in 1590.
However you can do that with any daimyo you chose in the games.

There are so many daimyo you can select.
As famous daimyo,
Oda Nobunaga from Owari province (the western half part of Aichi prefecture).
Toyotomi Hideyoshi, he also was from Owari province.
Tokugawa Ieyasu from Mikawa province (the eastern half part of Aichi prefecture).
Takeda Shingen from Kai province (the same area as Yamanashi prefecture today).
Hojo Ujiyasu from Sagami province (the central and western part of Kanagawa prefecture).
Imagawa Yoshimoto from Suruga province (the central part of Shizuoka prefecture), etc.

Moreover, you can choose other many daimyo and employ so many generals of the samurai army.
One of attractive points of this game is, the fact that all daimyo and generals in the game were real people in history.
In the game you can get a good knowledge of each daimyo and generals.
I'd recommend the series of games to everyone who has interest  to Japanese history!

Butaman or Nikuman?

In Japan there is a popular Chinese food called "butaman" or "nikuman".

They are kinds of pork buns.

You can buy them from Chinese restaurants, street vendors or even convenience stores nowadays.

Actually, butaman and nikuman are same stuff.

In eastern Japan (for example , Tokyo, Kanagawa), usually the word "niku (meat)" means pork meat for the people of the region, so they call the pork buns nikuman.

In contrast to east, people in western Japan (Osaka, Hyogo, etc.) use the word niku for beef meat.

Japanese word for pork is buta, so in Osaka, Hyogo or other prefectures, people call the pork buns butaman.

See?

Even their names are different depending on the region, you can enjoy them without worry.

In the end, let me tell you some brands of our pork buns.

In Osaka city, "551's butaman" is popular as a daily snack or a souvenir of Osaka.

The pork bun is soft, springy and containing tasty gravy inside.

I myself eat it often.

Besides, a pork bun from the restaurant "Roushouki" in Kobe city is famous too.

As the inventor of butaman, the restaurant has a longer history than 551 restaurant.

The pork bun served by them is smaller than 551's but tasty as well.

I want to tell you about famous nikuman brands too, but unfortunately I haven't eaten any nikuman at the eastern region yet.

I hope you will tell me about them near future.

Halal foods at Gyomu Super

Sometimes I go shopping to a "Gyomu Super (means "a Business Supermarket")".
Gyomu Super is a supermarket chain.
Originally that was a kind of supermarket provides foods only for restaurant owners.
But now, even general customers can do shopping at the market too.
Foods there came from all over the world.
Most of the foods are cheap and interesting to see.

Also their merchandises includes "Halal" foods.
Halal food is food served according to Islamic law.
So if you want to get Halal foods, you can find them at Gyomu Super.

I always go to the market when I want to buy interesting foods or when I don't want to spend  so much money.
Maybe I will try some of Halal foods next time.

Regional sushi ingredients

Perhaps you already have been to "kaiten-zushi (conveyor belt sushi)" restaurants in your country.
Also you can find so many of these restaurants in Japan.
Sushi they serve at these restaurants are mostly cheap, fresh and tasty.
In addition, we can eat most kinds of sushi ingredients at any place.
Fortunately for us, the highly developed distribution system made that possible.

However, there are some regional fishes served only in local restaurants.
As an example, we can eat "hamo (pike conger)" in kaiten-zushi restaurants only in Osaka and other prefectures in western Japan.
In eastern Japan, it is not common to eat hamo.

Many of seaside regions have their regional fishes that we can eat with sushi.
Do you have a interest to visit such seaside regions?
Kaiten-zushi restaurants are enthusiastic to serve local ingredients for sushi, so if you want to eat special sushi, I recommend you to enter kaiten-zushi restaurants at seaside regions.

I hope you will have fun with these local sushi.

To put mayonnaise on many foods

Do you like mayonnaise?
I like mayonnaise.
Many Japanese people do.
Even there is a Japanese word "Mayoler" which means a mayonnaise maniac person.
They put or spread mayonnaise on everything they eat.
Even though I myself am not a Mayoler, I put mayonnaise on many foods.

For example, I put that on natto.
Natto is a traditional Japanese food of fermented soybeans.
Usually Japanese people eat it with only a dash of soy sauce and mustard.
But if you put mayonnaise on natto, it will be more creamy and tasty.
You can try that.

How to live with noises

There are noises everywhere.
When you are trying to sleep, you may hear a noise from your bedroom window.
If you have earplugs and if you can use them, use them.
But in case you have to hear the noise, how do you ignore that?
Let me tell you how.

Imagine the noise as a lullaby.
Who making the noise is trying to help you sleep.
Think the lullaby is comfortable, then you will be sleepy.
You sleep.

If you have to hear a noise in the daytime?
Imagine the noise as a cheer for you.
Think the cheer is comfortable, then you will feel beter.
You feel better.

A way of breathing to relax

Now, I'd like to tell you how to breath to relax.

There are many methods of breathing, for example Zen breathing, Yoga breathing, Tai chi breathing or Karate breathing, etc.
Each of them have their own benefit and are worth to practice, however it takes time to improve those particular way.
So, let's try most easy way with me.

First, make sure if you are in safe place(trying in your room is better).
Stop where you are and stand still.
Close your eyes.
Inhale through your nose, deeply and slowly.
Then purse your lips and exhale through your mouth as deep and as slow as you inhaled.

Repeat inhaling and exhaling with same way until you feel calm.

...How was it?
The breathing makes your feeling better.
In addition, it has another effect.
When I have a stomachache, always I try this breathing.
Most of time the pain goes away.
Correct breathing can ease or erase your pain.

Try the breathing anytime if you need a break.

Have a green tea

When you can't progress, you can take some detours.
Moreover, you can stop where you are and enjoy the taste of a cup of  tea in a while.
While you have a tea, you can relax.

Here, there is a green tea for you.
Let's enjoy the tea time.