Christmas Day and New Year's Day

In Christian countries, the Christmas day is the most important day in a year. I went to my friend's house at Christmas eve; my friend's family are Catholic. According to my friend, in Christmas eve, they go to a church with good looking dresses and pray to God, then they go back to their house, have a big dinner and spend a time with their family and close friends. When I heard it, I thought that Christmas day in western culture is similar to New Year's day in Japan.

In Japanese New Year's day, we usually gather with family, have a New Year's day special breakfast, celebrate our happiness and health, and send special cards (Nenga-jo) to our friends too. (My mother's generation, they wore Kimono at New Year's day!) When I realized it I felt very happy, because I found a common sense in different culture.

We went to a museum to see Christmas trees in my class

At Christmas eve, I brought Mochi (rice cake?) to my friend's house and cooked it. They're very interested in Mochi and my handling chopsticks, I showed them Japanese culture with pleasure. I'm very happy to have such good friends. I like people who like me! I had a great holiday with my friends! Thanks God!! :-)

Merry Christmas! (I'm late :-p)

Our Handicap

When I study English, I always realize the same thing. What's this? It's a handicap of vocabulary. Especially, while I'm learning in my class with Romance language speakers, I feel our gap strongly.. Because sometimes they have similar words in their language and they can remember it easily. Actually, we (Japanese) have similar words to English, but most of them are noun and they have different pronunciations. So it's rough for me to remember verb, adjective and adverb in English..

And idioms, I think most of idioms arise from culture; so if culture were totally different, you couldn't understand idioms. Don't you think so? See, which is closer to America and England, Europe or Asia?

I like to study English and I feel I'm making progress day by day. But sometimes I'm jealous other language speakers.. Why Japanese is so different from English? Do you know any language similar to Japanese? We are lonely in the world??

One of my friends told me
"I think Japanese is one of the most difficult language in the world"

The Glory of America

In my last class, my teacher asked us this question.
"Which three countries do you think will be the most powerful by 2050?"
First my classmate and I said "China". I know it's true and now China is the most progressional country in the world. Then I told my classmate "How about United States? I think U.S will still have power". But my classmate said "I don't think so, because the history tells us the greatest glory doesn't continue such a long time.." When I heard her opinion, I was very satisfied myself and I remembered a famous story of Japanese history. Do you know "Heike-Monogatari"? I like this sentence that is written in beginning of this story.

祇園精舎の鐘の声、諸行無常の響きあり。娑羅双樹の花の色、盛者必衰の理をあらわす。おごれる人も久しからず、唯春の夜の夢のごとし。たけき者も遂にはほろびぬ、偏に風の前の塵に同じ。

Especially I love this part; "The proud do not endure, they are like a dream on a spring night"
What do you think about United States? Are they like a dream on a spring night?

Do you like George W. Bush?
I think he is a kind of troublemaker..:-p

White Out

Finally we had a snow storm today! It stayed over Montreal for just one day, but the ground was covered with 40-50 cm snow. It's horrible, isn't it? All cars, streets, houses and roads were covered with heavy snow. If we don't remove it, we can't go to anywhere! Most of Canadian have a snow blower and they removed the snow by themselves.. But Don't be afraid; according to Canadian, a snow storm isn't common and it comes 2-3 times in winter. When I heard it, I was really relieved.

This is donwtown!

Montreal is in white!

One of my friends has never seen so many snow, so I told her about some plays with snow. We printed our body shape on snow.. I know we're like a kid!! But It's funny, isn't it? :D

My prints, is it sexy?

I hope that tomorrow will be sunny, because sunshine plus snow bears beautiful effect which I can't express with my childish English.. Anyway, I like snow.

Pickled Plum

Do you like a pickled plum（梅干し）? When I heard that "Ume-boshi" is called "a pickle plum" in English, I felt very strange; because I don't understand why they do.
Do you know Ume? It's a kind of plants and I agree that it's closely related to the apricot or plum. But I disagree that Ume is called Plum; because we never eat Ume as a fruit like plums. We usually use Ume when we make Ume-boshi and Ume-shu (Ume sake).
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ume

Ume has beautiful flowers

Fruits of Ume are very sour!
Maybe You can't eat fresh fruits!!

And I think that it's totally different to make between Ume-boshi and pickles and they have different taste; Ume-boshi is very sour and salty, pickles are sour and sweet(I'm not sure). Actually they're used vinegar to keep for a long time without rotting. When I make pickles, I have to add to vinegar. But when I make Ume-boshi, I don't have to add vinegar; because Ume 's originally a very sour fruit and I can get Ume vinegar from Ume in the making Ume-boshi process.

It's very sour and salty!

I don't like Ume-boshi so much. :-p

Anyway I'm wondering why the first person decided to call "Ume-boshi" "a pickled plum". I know there are many food called by Japanese name. "Sushi" "Sashimi" "Miso" "Tofu" and so on.. Why Ume-boshi isn't called "Ume-boshi" in English? I think Ume-boshi is a very traditional Japanese food and it's difficult to translate...

Wonderful Last Weekend

My last weekend was a blast but very busy!!
First, my friend and I went to St-Joseph oratory to listen to a Xmas concert. It's beautiful and nice, I was very impressed. I thought a choir was formed of only boys, but my friends said there're some girls.. I'm wrong or right? If you know about it, please tell me.

St-Joseph Oratory

After that, we went skating in old port. I'm into winter sports! I like sliding on ice or snow, because it gives me a thrill! One of my friends wasn't used to skating, while I was skating she stayed on the ice like a statue! Maybe next time, she'll get used to it. We skated only 30 min, but it's a very chill time!

I like winter sports!

After supper, we went to old port to see fireworks. It's fascinating.. In Japan, it's common to do fireworks in Summer. But here, we saw fireworks with cold weather and frozen pond..;-) It's a little strange but it's OK, we had a good time while we're seeing fireworks.

Firework in Winter

Afterward, today's main event's coming. We decided to go clubbing, but we didn't know where is the best club. After we wandered around downtown about 30 min, we entered one club in Crescent Street. It's a very ordinary club, nothing special but expensive! There're some guys who tried to attract us, but I wasn't interested in these guys because they weren't handsome and able to speak English..sigh.;-p I was disgusted by these guys, I don't like much drunk people. (According to Montrealer, there're not good clubs in Crescent Street. This street is a place for tourist!;-()

Many things happened last weekend. I was pretty tired next day, but I think I had a great time with my friends!

Food In Montreal

There're many kinds of restaurants in Montreal because there're lots of people who come from different countries. Today, My friend and I went to a food court in Eaton Center in downtown. I ate Poutine, do you know Poutine? It's a Quebecoir's junk food and made by french fries + Cheese + Poutine source; It's pretty heavy and greasy. If you like junk food very much, you're falling love in Poutine! :-)

Someone says "Poutine is an Only traditional food in Quebec.
I know it's a joke.

In same food court, I found a Japanese food shop named "Sukiyaki". I recommended my friend to have "yaki-soba", because I was very interested in Japanese food in Canada. Before she ordered it, I expected it's not Japanese food. But It's beyond my imagination far away, there's a completely different food in front of my friend. I could only laugh and explain to my friend what is different between a real yaki-soba and a fake. Yaki-soba in Montreal is made by those things; meat->chicken, noodle->Udon, source->Vietnamy source... Can you imagine? It's a real here! :-))

Yaki-soba in Montreal

But I like that kind of surprise, because I can feel differences between foreign country and Japan in the depth of my mind! :D