My diary: Learning languages I think that languages are one of tools which I can communicate with others, put my thoughts into words, and shape my thoughts. As I get older, I have come to understand several different ways to express something in Japanese. Just like many other people, I learned lots of words through education and understood the meaning of those words through my own experience. Recently, I have tried to express what I’m feeling without making it sound too much of an overused phrase kind of “never give up.” Actually, using a phrase is an effective way to communicate with others. However, since I’ve heard phrases so many times, they don’t really hit me deep anymore. I also think if I neglect efforts to think things by myself due to using phrases, it would diminish my ability to think. That's why I try to let out what's floating in my head in my own words (when I express things in Japanese). Meanwhile, I have a lot of phrases which I have to learn in English. Sometimes I find some English phrases which don’t have appropriate Japanese expressions and vice versa. I mean I find the new expressions and when I want to use the expressions, it makes me think more deeply. So learning languages are to find the way to express my feelings and deepen my thoughts.

Please correct a birthday message for my friend. Since I'd like to send a birthday message to my friend, who is a girl and is living in other country, please correct the following message. ------------------------------------------------------------- Happy birthday! I'm pretty sure you thought that I made a mistake about your birth day, right? No, I wanted to surprise you. I know your birth day is March 5th and that time you have a plan to go on a trip to Paris! We couldn't find time to talk from the new year to the present day, thus I just wanted to give you words of congratulations first of all. I am not being driven by Facebook’s notification and I wanted to express about I am thinking about you. That’s why I send you this message earlier than your birth day. - Take care of your health. - Just follow that heart and keep smiling. - Spend time on what you really want to do. - Try whatever you want without being afraid of failure. - No matter what happens, I know you can do it. You will be fine. Everything is going to be okay. - No matter when you are frustrated, disappointed and discouraged, I will smile you. - I’m believing in you.

My diary: Today’s snacks are chocolate and Purple smoothie! Today is in the middle of this week. I was a little tired at work and then I found snacks which made me feel better in order to survive this week. I enjoyed chocolate with buttery toffee crunch, while drinking Purple smoothie. Since the chocolate was made in a Hawaiian confectionery company, it reminded me that I swam with wild dolphins in North Shore Oahu the summer before last. The Purple smoothie consisted of grapes, berries, and purple sweet potatoes. Since it was rich in dietary fiber and iron, I could take the essential nutrients which aid digestion and make my blood. When I am busy and can’t take a balanced meal, I make it a habit to supply nutrients that I tend to lack through vegetable juice. Vegetable juice is capable of easily taking the quantity of nutrition which are required each day for a healthy life. It is necessary to keep in mind that I drink juice which contains iron, because I have experiences that I fainted from anemia on my way to work on a subway train a few times in my life. Anyway, today’s snacks helped me with both my physical and mental health. I’ll do my best tomorrow! The following is a picture of today’s snacks.

My diary: Today’s snack is Sakura Caramel Milk! – It is the Starbucks' cherry blossom themed drink. Though Valentine’s Day has already passed, I’m still basking in the afterglow of the happy day and today I enjoyed my favorite cookies together with Sakura Caramel Milk, which features flavors of cherry and caramel, as well as sweet fruit pulps of mixed berries. We still have cold days but Starbucks Japan released the beverage just in time for the cherry blossom season. This beverage had a sweat and sour taste and reminded me of cherry blossoms, as suggested by its package. According to the cherry blossom forecast, this year’s cherry blossoms are expected to begin blooming more and less according to their average schedule. In Tokyo, they will start to flower around March 19 and will reach full bloom around March 27. It is now less than a month until the day cherry blossoms bloom! Since there were still some areas where it had been snowing in Japan yesterday, I felt that spring would be long in coming, but on second thought, I found out the days are getting longer. Spring is approaching little by little. Please come to Japan during the cherry blossom season! The following picture is Shortbread, which is cookie containing much butter, and the Sakura Caramel Milk. I was satisfied with just the beverage and I guess that the Shortbread goes well with coffee.

Japanese Culture: St.Valentine’s Day In Japan, Valentine's Day (February 14th) is a special day for women to voice their affection for a special man. Generally, women take encourage to express their love to a special man by giving “Honmei-choco” which means the chocolate gift filled with their true love. This tradition began around sixty years ago, when a Japanese confectionery company ran a promotion encouraging women to give a heart-shaped chocolate to a man they like in order to increase the chocolate sales. The custom of giving chocolate became popular with shy Japanese women because they were given an opportunity to ask someone out on an excuse the Valentine’s Day. Today, women often give chocolate not only to the object of their affection, but also to their bosses, colleagues and friends as a sign of appreciation of their relationship. This type of chocolate is known as “Giri-choco.” While women give chocolate to men on Valentine's Day, the women expect to get gifts, such as candies, cookies and marshmallows, in return for the Valentine’s Day gifts a month later on White Day (March 14th). This day was also established by a Japanese confectionery company around forty years ago. Some women expect to get a gift of three times the value of the gift which they gave on Valentine’s Day! I gave chocolate to all of those who have helped me but I forgot to take a picture of those gifts. The following picture is gifts that I got from my colleagues and friends yesterday. I enjoyed my coffee break with lots of chocolate and I will have pimples on my face in a few days!

My diary: I try whatever I want! Since I have being swamped with work for a few months around the turn of the year, I plan to take a vacation once everything settles down. Thus, I am thinking where is the best place to go for an overseas trip in April. Last night, I was surfing the net to find the place, taking a subway train to go home after working. I happened to read the story of the woman who traveled to the 7 Wonders of the World in 13 days after being diagnosed with skin cancer. The 7 Wonders of the World is seven monuments which were chosen by more than 100 million people around the world. She fell over the cliff, got hit by a car and then was diagnosed with the skin cancer, all in one month. After the worst month of her life, she decided to see the seven wonders to live in the moment. Now she finished her traveling, she thinks that what she didn’t start doing things which she wanted until getting the disease, as the reason that there wasn’t enough time or money, was just an excuse. What she was really afraid of was failure. She needed to stop thinking that whatever she wanted to do was impossible and started thinking how to make it come true. I agree with her thought and I think if I have things which I procrastinate, those things may not be what I really want to do. Or it may be said that I am satisfied with my current situation on a certain level. However, it doesn’t necessarily that I am able to keep the status quo. I also think it’s up to me whether I will be happy or not because everything is my choice. I will keep looking for the way to have more fun in my life and will keep challenging myself with something new without fearing failure. I am sure that I will not give up what I want to do, even when I get into a scrape.

Japanese Culture: Ehomaki – It is a long sushi roll which is eaten on the night of setsubun! February 3rd is the day of Setsubun, which indicates the ending of winter and the beginning of spring. Setsubun literally means division of seasons. Out of all the days of the beginning of four seasons, the first day of spring is especially celebrated as the start of a new year. On this day, Japanese people have customs of eating a long sushi roll, called "ehomaki," and throwing beans, called "mame-maki," in order to pray for their happy and healthy life. - Ehomaki It is known as a fortune sushi roll, which is eaten in one go on the night of setsubun while facing toward the year’s lucky direction and making a silent wish. People make it with seven ingredients which they like. Rolling seven ingredients in seaweed means to share in the good luck from the seven gods of happiness. The following picture is my ehomaki which I made at home last night! I spread seaweed on the bamboo rolling mat, then spread the sushi rice over it. I put Japanese basil, cucumber, seasoned omelet, tuna, salmon and avocado on top of the rice, and then rolled the front end of the bamboo mat to the other end! - Mame-maki The name is derived from the words "mame" meaning "beans," and "maki" meaning "scattering." People throw and scatter roasted soy beans inside and outside their houses in order to bring happiness and drive out the negative vibes. After throwing the beans, they eat the same number of beans as their age. It is hard to clean up all over the house after throwing beans, but please give it a try while looking forward to eating ehomaki! By the way, eating all the ehomaki in one go is very hard! I hope you will go well!

My diary: Today’s snack is macha! – It is one of green teas. I enjoyed an orange flavored chocolate together with matcha during my work. This chocolate made in the Japanese confectionery company was one with rich aroma and was exhibited in SALON DU CHOCOLAT 2017 held in Paris in last October. Usually, I rarely drink matcha but I had a cup of matcha today. The matcha is one of green teas and is called powdered green tea. Do you know the difference between the typical green tea and the macha? The following is the difference between the green tea and the matcha in terms of the manufacturing process, the constituents and the effects. - Green tea It is made from young tea leaves which were exposed to sunlight. The steamed and dried leaves are infused in hot water to make the beverage and the leaves are discarded. Since there is a lot of catechin in this tea, it helps prevent the absorption of fat. - Matcha It is made from young tea leaves which were blocked sunlight. The steamed and dried leaves are pounded into powder and the powder is mixed with hot water. Since there is a lot of theanine in this tea, it helps relax both your mind and body. Main constituents of the green tea are theanine, catechin, caffeine, vitamin c and dietary fiber. Tea particular contents are the theanine which is known as the sweeting constituent and the catechin which is known as the bittering constituent. These constituents are in proportion to how long the tea leaves were exposed to sunlight. When the leaves are exposed to enough sunlight, the catechin is increased and the theanine is reduced. On the other hand, when the leaves are shut out sunlight, the catechin is reduced and the theanine is increased. The catechin has a high effect of inhibiting the absorption of fat. The theanine has relaxation effects. It also has an effect of improving the circulation of blood. If you want to go on a diet, please choose the green tea! If you want to relax, please choose the matcha!

My diary: The heaviest snowfall in four years in Tokyo! It has been snowing from this afternoon in Tokyo and the snow has piled up 23 centimeters as of 11p.m. The Japan Meteorological Association reportedly said that snow coverage exceeded 20 centimeters for the first time since February 2014. There were lots of companies which urge the employees to hurry home in order not to get stuck in traffic disruption. Although Japanese public transport is well-known for its punctuality, many commuters were forced to suffer from train services that were either delayed or cancelled tonight. Usually, my commuting time to work is about 40 minutes by train but it took about 3 hours to get home tonight because there were so many commuters in the station that the entry was restricted and a long line formed in front of the entrance. However, there were some people who profited from the heaviest snowfall. There were most hotels in Tokyo which didn't any vacancies because many people gave up to go home. There were many food delivery services such as pizzerias, which swamped with orders from customers who refrained from leaving their homes. There was a great view from our balcony. There was snow as far as the eyes can see. The following picture is seven snowmen which I built!