Farewell Party

Hi, everyone.

Did you enjoy this weekend? I hope you did:) On Saturday, April 21st, we had a kind of farewell party for St.John's residence students at King's head pub in downtown. One of regular students in St.John's planed the great party. As Summer break starts, a lot of regular students go back to their home towns, some of them come back after a few months, and some of them will not come back. That is why this is a kind of farewell party. I really had a good time at the party, so today, I am going to tell you about this memorable party:)

I was in the residence for 7 months. This residence is small and old, the walls are slight thin, and our voice goes through next doors. Probably,that is one of the reason why people say we are more friendly than other residence.
Making friends who are regular students was fun. They speak mostly native English, they are kind, friendly and funny. Since I moved to home staying, I had not seen many friends. It was grateful that I was invited to the party.
We left the residence at 9pm. Some of the students had been there already, and some came after. We drunk alcohol, ate nachos, danced with Irish music and talk a lot.:)!! After that, we went to patine restaurant, and then, drunk alcohol at the residence again.
It is always hard to say goodbye. I did not feel anyone of them is going back and cannot meet again.
I do not forget the day and many friends in the residence. I hope we will see sometimes again.

Thank you.

Sports event

Hi, everyone.
It is getting warm recently, Spring comes. I feel I want to go outside and play sports.
Today, I am going to tell you about a sporting event I attended recently.
On April 20th, I went to go cart which was an IEP activity! I do not know if I can call it an ''event'', but there were many activities, and I played sports, so I would like to tell you about these activities as a sporting event.

There are a lot of activities that I couldn't remember.
First, I did go cart race. We have mini cart for each person, go around three tracks. This is so much fun. We can not bump but can race. I was little scared before I did, but once I got ride, I was totally absorbed.! I did it three times with my friends.
Second, I did trampoline. This is not normal trampoline, we play basketball with jumping on the trampoline! It is for two people, we can jump super high! It was difficult to get a score for me, but so much fun! I laughed a lot!!!!
Next, I did batting cage. We hit balls thrown by a machine. There are a few levels of pitching speed. I tried the fastest and the second fastest one. I could not hit at first,but I got used to the speed and could hit them! When I hit balls, I felt so happy and so excited!:) I did batting cage sometimes in Japan, but it was the first time in Canada. It was so much fun!
Finally, I was really enjoyed, refreshed and had a really good time at that time. There are more activities such as mini golf, big trampoline and so on!
I would like to try new sports activities now!

Thank you:)

Japanes Weddings

Hi, everyone.
Which style of wedding do you want in the future? You might get married a person who is from your country. You could get married a foreigner. There are many kinds of wedding styles in the world. These depend on histories, religions, and traditions. Of course, in my country, Japan, we have some sort of styles.
Today, I am going to tell you about Japanese wedding styles.

We can divide Japanese weddings into three types; Shinto Wedding, Buddhist Wedding and Christian Wedding.

First, Shinto Wedding is one of traditional wedding styles. Shinto is a kind of religions which is called Shintoism in English, however, most people who have this kind of wedding are not followers of Shintoism because most Japanese have no religion. This is a kind of choice that we can choose, and very different from Christian Wedding.
The bride and groom wear traditional Japanese dresses which are kinds of kimono. This kind of wedding is usually held in a shrine, and attendants are only their families and go-betweens. The program are set details. The ceremony is for a short time, only for 20 minutes or so.

Next, Buddhist Wedding is also a traditional style, however, mostly, Buddhist have this kind of wedding, so this is not popular style. The bride and gloom also wear Japanese traditional dresses, and they have wedding in a temple. All attendants hold Buddhist rosaries.

Lastly, Christian Wedding is the most popular style of wedding nowadays. Although only 1 % of Japanese are Christian, about 60 % of couples have Christian Wedding.
The bride usually wears a white dress, and the gloom wears a black or white tuxedo. They usually have a wedding in a church and a hotel. Attendants could be hundreds.The program is flexible.

Finally, we can choose wedding styles in Japan. Some of couples choose both Shinto and Christian Wedding. Which one did you like? I hope you enjoy Japanese Weddings!

Chocolate festival!

Hi, everyone:)
Do you like chocolate? Today, I went to the Forks with Alix and Sukyung!
What did we do....?
We went to CHOCOLATE FESTIVAL!!!yey
It was awesome, so I would like to tell you about the festival today.

The name of this event is ''Tour du Chocolate''.
You can buy a passport which is used for tasting or recieving 22 kinds of chocolates or chocolate gifts. The passport is 7 dollers. We started to try chocolate fountain. You can choose two kinds of chocolates from four; white, milk, bitter and diet chocolate, and then, choose two kinds of fruits or masumarrow.
We go around the Forks. Many shops participate in the chocolate event. We had decided that we chose which chocolate was the best after we went around.
We ate deep fried chocolate bar, pancakes with banana and chocolate sause, chocolate requre, chocolate mousse with crepe, chocolate panna cotta, chocolate yogurt frozen, chocolate banana shake, chocolate ice cream, chocolate fudge,chocolate bonbon and so on!
In addition, we got chocolate incense, chocolate mint tea reaf, a chocolate coockie, chocolate bath products, and choco rocks for gifts . We can take them for souvenier! Isn't it so nice?:D
After  we finished this tour, I felt I do not want to eat chocolates any more! haha
Although, it was awesome festival!

Finally, my favorite chocolates were chocolate moose with crepe, panna cotta, and chocolate frozen yogurt!
All of us loved the frozen yogurt:)!
If you have chance, you should try!

I wanna try new festival again:)

Thank you for reading:)

Antique

Hi, everyone:)
What did you do this weekend? Did you enjoy Easter holiday?
I went to my host grandmother's house. Then, I found that my favorite stuff. I felt I really want to live with these stuff. Today, I would like to tell you about the things that attracted me.

I stayed her house one day on Saturday for Easter holiday with my host mother, father and brother. This house is about one hour far from University of Manitoba. This house is amazing. My host grandmother has a lot of antique furniture and small articles. These and the house are in harmony, really cute and attractive. The house was her mother's before however, all furniture and stuff are still beautiful. She said she got many stuff from her friends and relatives. The colors, shape, detail, whatever I saw were fantastic.
Firstly, I found cute small articles in a bathroom. These were a cheek brush stand and a bottle. Then, I found that a room where I stayed was wonderful. On the cupboard in the room, there were some perfume bottles, brooches, sepia photos of host grandmother's relatives, and accessory cases. The bed, chair, lamp, curtain and mirror all match the color and design. White and nice blue were suited well. I looked around the house, and even tea strainer is cute and antique.
I think we can not make such interesting and antique stuff today.
That is why vintage stuff attracts me.
I would like to live surround by such many cute things in the future.

 Thank you for reading:)

How to give yourself a haircut

Hi, everyone:)
Today, I am going to tell you about how to give yourself a haircut. Especially, I would like to introduce how to cut a bang. I used to cut not only my bang, but also my friends' in Japan. You can get a natural bang if you follow these steps:)
 First, decide how much and where you make your bang. Second,  put your side hair with hairpins. Third, put your half up bang to the top of your head. Fourth, cut your half down bang. Finally, cut your half up bang.

Firstly, decide how much and where you make your bang.
Divide hair that you will use for your bang and other hair.
Second, put your side hair with hairpins. You need to separate hair that is for your bang and not for bang. Not to mix them up, it is better to put hair you don't use for your bang with hairpins to both your left and right sides.
Third, put your half up bang to the top of your head using hairpins. To divide half up and half down is important not to mistake a lot.
Fourth, cut your half down bang. When you cut, the important thing is using clippers longitudinally. Do not cut transversely. Also, cutting eventually is important.
Finally, cut your half up bang. Take out the hairpin that you put your half up bang, and then cut same as you did at the fourth step.
Take out the hairpins that you put. Your bang must be a natural shape.
Enjoy your hairstyles!
Thank you.

New life

Hi, every one. Today I would like to write about my new home!

I moved to home stay from St.John’s residence. I have 5 months left until I go back to Japan. I decided to move in March and moved on April 1^st.

My home stay house is not so far from here. It is on Whitehaven Road.

I have host mother, father and 8 year-old brother. My host brother is very cute. He knows almost every thing about map. He loves geography. He knows details well. I learned about Canada. Also, he made a map for me how to get to the nearest bus stop to university from our house. That is so sweet.

My host father is a manager of supermarket. He gets up very early. He is kind and likes joking, but I do not understand well the jokes. I hope I can understand his joke someday:)haha

My host mother is an English teacher, so she said to me that when I have problem with English, ask her. I am happy to hear that because I can learn more English. She is kind and sometimes likes joking, however, her joking is also difficult for me. I hope I can catch all words what they say someday, and I also want to tell jokes one day :Phaha

My host family said, after it gets warm, we eat supper outside the house. That sounds awesome! I really look forward to do that! I also want to play sports, have events and have fun together as a member of this family.

The change to homestay is big for me. I wish my life changes in a good way!



Thank you for reading:)

Two places where I have visited

Hi, everyone.　Today, I am going to write about two places where I have ever visited.　The places where I have visited are Australia and China. I only had visited these countries as a foreigner before I came to Canada.　When I was a high school student, I went to Sydney, Australia as an exchange student. It was the first time to go abroad, so I was half nervous and half excited. I went there in August. August is summer in Japan, in contrary it is almost winter in Australia. In morning, it is very cold. Not that colder than Canada, but for me, to contrast to Japan, it was freezing and dry. During the day, it is warm. There was a strong san shine. The food there was similar to Canada, I think. Many fast food. I also enjoyed fresh sea food. The prices there, was little bit higher than here. They take trains or cars when they go out.

I went to China 2years ago as a trip. I enjoyed food and sightseeing. Shanghai expo was the most memorable memory. It was September, To compare to Australia, China is hot and humid. All day, it was hot so many people use air conditioners. The food there was very nice. Well..maybe, it depends on the restaurant. The price is very cheap. You can many things if you have 30 dollars. I enjoyed shopping. People use cars, trains, subways, motor trains, bicycles, motor bikes. Many people were in China.

These countries are very different, however both have good point, and bad point. You definitely enjoy both countries.



Thank you.

Trip to Quebec City

Hi, everyone.
Today I would like to tell you about the trip to Quebec City!
As I talked about the trip in Canada last time, Quebec City was one of the city we visited, and the best of all three city we visited this time.
Quebec City was small, but roads were complicated. The weather was much more colder than Toronto, Montreal and Winnipeg.
We stayed 3days there. It took 2 hours from Montreal to Quebec City by bus. After we got to our hotel( more likely apartment it was!), we went around the city using map. The city was beautiful because of the buildings and lights. When we arrived in front of Formant Le Chateau Frontenac, which is an old and beautiful hotel, we found a big slide! That tickled our curiosity:D We quickly get a sleigh, we did it!!!! I have never tried such a long ice slide. We run through a cold wind with exciting screams. It was so much fun.



We saw beautiful St. Lawrence River, took a lot of pictures. Next day, we went to a group tour. While we went around the city, the tour guide told us history, recommending place and restaurant. We also went to the Citadel, which is a fortress. We met wonderful man and wife there, they were very kind and humorous. We were surprised that the couple were from 2hours far by car from Winnipeg, and were graduated from U of M:)
The last day, we went shopping and ate maple candies that ware sold on the snow. I thought I experienced the Canadian culture! because I cannot taste them in Japan.
The very last day, we went skiing! This is what we really wanted to do in Canada. We have many ski resort in Japan, however, I really wanted to slide on the Canadian snow! The day was beautiful! but it was so cold. We bought googles, and neck warmer. I felt froze but really enjoyed.
If you have opportunity to trip in Canada, I recommend you Quebec City!:)

Recycling

Hi everyone!
Have you ever heard 3R? In my country,Japan, this is one of the big topic to save our environment these days. 3R means Reduce, Reuse, and Recycle.  As we live on the earth, we have to think about our lifestyles. Today, I would like to talk about recycling.

What does garbage cause?
Landfills, the ozone layer, global warming are main problems that are caused by garbage in Japan. First, a landfill that is the place we put garbage is limited. Everyday, we produce garbage, then we put them under the ground. Especially Japan has only few places we can do that, so we carefully consider about landfills. However, the ground is limited on the earth. This is a problem around the world.  Then, depletion of the ozone layer is one of the serious problem. The ozone layer is what helps our skin from ultraviolet rays. Once the layer is destroyed, that causes skin cancer, cataracts, blindness, less immunity, and easy to have viral disease. When we dispose of some electric machine ,such as refrigerators, air-conditioning, cars, and so on, the ozone layer is destroyed. Third, carbon dioxide, which is made when we incinerate garbage, causes global warming. The effects of global warming are not only rising temperature,but also ecological destruction, abnormal weather, rises in ocean level and so on. As you see, garbage is a big problem.

What can we do?
To save our environment, what do you think we can do?
Recycling is one of the best way to reduce environmental pollution. We can make clothing from plastic bottles, building materials from cans and polystyrene, bottles from used bottles, paper from old paper and so on. We can produce many things using our garbage. The problems of recycling I think is the cost when we produce new things from garbage. However, this is much better than just producing garbage because of the problem that I talked first.

Finally, to think about the problems that are caused by garbage and effects of recycling, we should recycle. There are some boxes that we can recycle on campus, let's use the boxes from today!

First trip in Canada

I would like to tell you about the memorable weeks to trip in Canada in a winter vacation! It was the first time to trip around Canada. Also, it was the first time to travel only with my friend. I made a lot of memories.

From December 25th to January 1st, Yuko, who is my friend ( used to be in IEP), and I traveled to Toronto, Montreal and Quebec City. Our plan was, firstly we took a flight to Toronto, secondly took a bus to Montreal, thirdly took a bus to Quebec City, then took a VIA train to Toronto, finally flew to Winnipeg. We knew this was hard schedule though, the most important thing for us was "enjoy with low cost!"

The first activity was shopping to Eaton Centre in Toronto. On December 26th, it was Boxing Day. Almost all shops discounted the price. Many people were on line, the shops were crowded and we gave up to buy at that day.

Next day, we went to Niagara Falls, which is located 2hours far from downtown by bus. Unfortunately, it was a little rain, however the falls were amazing. After we were enjoyed to see it, we tasted ice wine. This is famous around Niagara Falls. It is much sweeter than normal wine. I did not like wine before, but I love the wine!

In Montreal, we went singhtseeing around the old city. They were beautiful. We also celebrate the New Years Day there. However we could not understand French, we really enjoyed. I felt I came to an European country because of the building, atmosphere were so much different from Winnipeg or Toronto. I also enjoyed shopping. I bought boots, a bag, accessories, clothing and sky jacket to have got ready to Quebec City.

The last place was Quebec City. It was the best place of all place that we went in this vacation. We enjoyed sightseeing, shopping, and skiing there. People were kind, activities were really nice, and the city was beautiful. We rally enjoyed this city, so I would like to write about the city next time!

A time when I lost something

Hi, everyone!
Today, I am going to talk about a time when I lost something. Usually, I lose something around me. For example, I lost more than five rip sticks after I came to Canada, I lost my favorite hat in the bus I came to Canada, a cardigan at Whisky Dixs and so on... I do not remember all. Too many things I lost I guess.. I choose one that I was really worried to have lost in Canada.

It was in December. I had not used my cell phone so often, but I used it this day. I went shopping to St.Vital, came back by bus, and walked from Dysart Road. After I came back to my residence, I realized that I did not have my cell phone. I put it in a pocket of my bag. Usually, I find important equipment soon, such as a wallet, a pass port, cards and so on, however I could not find my cell phone at that day. I felt I could find it easily. It was already dark outside, it was cold, and the road was covered by snow. I went back the road, which I came back from the bus stop to my residence. I looked for it very carefully. Unfortunately, I could not find, but I could not give up. I was thinking if I lost in the bus, on the road or in my room. I looked for in my room, my bag, but I could not find. I thought if it was on the road, cars might went on my cell phone, so I hurried to have look for it to outside again. I was half giving up to find. It was just before I arrived at my residence. I found the purple shiny my cell phone at the parking area in front of my residence. I was so relieved and happy that no cars went on my phone.

When I was a child, my mother told me that I should decide the place that I put something, so I would not lose. YES, I should do it. I remembered the word after I came back to my residence. I hope I will never lose anything in the future.