少し夜遅くまで飲みに行った帰り、台風が近づいていて外はけっこう激しい雨だったので、東京駅から家までタクシーで帰ることとし、丸の内北口のタクシー乗り場からタクシーに乗りました。
しばらく走ったところで、何気なく腰に手をやってみると、ホルスターに入れて腰につけている私のBlackberryが、ホルスターごとなくなっていることに気づきました！
(more…)Author: Masayuki (Yuki) Kawagishi
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SHOW BOAT
去年で最後にしようとか言っときながら、結局また今年も國學院栃木高校の文化祭に行ってしまいました。
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Kelso Heartland Homestay Program 2008
In addition to the musical SHOW BOAT by the Musical Club, one of the Cultural Festival's attractive displays I wanted to visit was the reports of "Kelso Heartland Homestay Program" by some students who visited the United States. Devin Kelso, born in Mount Vernon, Iowa, working for Kokugakuin Tochigi University High School as a communicative English teacher, hosted the home stay program with his family.They arranged the host families in Mount Vernon to encourage them to accept each of the participants.
About a dozen of high school and junior high students took part in this program. They spent about two weeks with the host families, learning English, and taken to cities around Mount Vernon for shopping, camping, barbecuing, and sightseeing. Every picture displayed on the boards showed that the students had been very excited to experience unknown new culture.
They brought back plenty of American items as well as American mind. They are really nice.
According to an article of a local newspaper, Devin Kelso began this program to encourage Japanese youths to have such experiences that he did when he was 15. He visited Mexico with his father and learned many things there. He found out that his Spanish he had learned at school worked well, and that the people were getting along well without English.
I thought the students were very happy to see the world of different culture when they were very young. I hope I could participate in this program some day 😉
Extra: the pictures of trains from Tochigi to Tokyo.
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SHOW BOAT
Today I went to Kokugakuin Tochigi University High School to see the musical SHOW BOAT that the students of the Musical Club of this high school performed. Every year I go to Tochigi to watch Musical Club’s performance because they play very well like professional actors, although they are just high school students, and you can see such wonderful shows for free.
I used to drive to Tochigi by car but this year I have no longer my own car so I got there by trains (Subway and Tobu Isesaki and Nikko lines). I arrived at Tochigi station at 8:30 am.
It took about ten minutes from Tochigi station to the high school.
This was the musical SHOW BOAT, the story by a troupe on a boat sailing the Mississippi river.
For those of you who don’t know what the story is, here’s the synopsis.
Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.
The show boat Cotton Blossom is a pleasure boat sailing the Mississippi river. There is a troupe who gives performances on the boat. Magnolia Hawks, a daughter of the owner of the boat, dreaming to be a superstar, is now just a staff member occupied with trivial routine duties. When the show boat is anchoring at Natchez, Mississippi, she happens to meet a gambler, Gaylord Ravenal, and falls in love with him. Her mother, Parthy Ann Hawks, is against for her to meet him, but her father, Cap’n Andy, allows him to get on the boat.
One day the leading actress of the troupe, Julie La Verne, who is a daughter with a black parent and white one, is arrested for being married with a white man, because it is illegal in this state that a non-white person marries a white one. Losing the leading lady of the company, Cap’n Andy makes Magnolia the leading actress instead of Julie and at the same time hires Gaylord, who is experienced of playing on stage. The show business results in a big success with them.
Magnolia and Gaylord love each other more and more deeply, and eventually they marry. They retire from actors and get off the boat to live their new life.
However, the new life by a steady-minded woman and a gambler doesn’t last long. Gaylord does nothing but gambling instead of working, and they manage to live in a cheap apartment. Depressed and shamed by his inability to support his family, Gaylord leaves her. Magnolia has a baby, and gives birth to a daughter Kim. She gets back to the show boat and begins an actress job again.
The troupe of the show boat is doing a show with another troupe at Trocadero Theatre, where Julie is a leading lady of this company. Julie meets Magnolia again, and suddenly leaves Trocadero so that Magnolia can fill her position. Magnolia passes the audition and is hired. She becomes a great musical star on the Trocadero stage.
Julie, disappearing from Trocadero, joins a different musical troupe and happens to meet Gaylord, who is a member of the company. She tells him how Magnolia is doing, and encourages him to see her again. He is uncertain whether he has the right to ask Magnolia to take him back, but she does. They becomes happy again with their daughter.Cultural Festival 2006 at Kokugakuin Tochigh University High School 1 (Oliver!)
Cultural Festival 2006 at Kokugakuin Tochigh University High School 2 (Write what you hear) -
Setting up my house / お部屋作り
日本文が後ろに続きます。
After I moved in the new house in Fukagawa I’m installing furniture necessary for daily life. Yesterday I went to IKEA at Funabashi to get a tall bookshelf and a table lamp (it was my first time to shop at IKEA!). At the same time I went to COSTCO at Makuhari to look for cool American groceries. After all I prefer COSTCO…
A set-top-box for NTT’s optical TV service was delivered to my house, so I have it installed. Now I can watch CNN and BBC World News you can’t watch without it.
I can finish setting up my house if I have a washing machine and a writing table today.
新居もいろいろと家具が入ってきて、少しずつ整ってきました。
先日は南船橋のIKEAに初めて立ち寄って本棚とテーブルランプを買ってきました。ついでに幕張のCOSTCOにも寄っていろいろと小物を買い揃えてきました。どちらかというとIKEAよりもCOSTCOのほうが品物は好きですね、個人的には。
今日は、「ひかりテレビ」のチューナーが郵送されてきたのでセットアップしました。今まで新居では地上波のテレビしか見れなかったのですが、これでまたCNNが見れます。その上、旧居に引いていたJCOMのケーブルTVでは見れなかったBBC Newsも見れるようになり、非常に幸せです。
あとは明日に洗濯機とライティングデスクが届けば、お部屋作りは晴れて一段落です。
テレビの環境が整ったのでしばしFOXのドラマなど見ると、夕食にちょうど良い時間になったので、近所に出かけて夕食をいただいてきたのですが、帰りには、もときた道が消防車や警察の車でふさがれて、野次馬たちも群がって、たいへんなことになっていました。
どうやら工場のような建物が火事になっているようで、焦げ臭いにおいがあたりに広がり、息もつまりそうな状態。
食事に出かけるのがあと数十分遅かったら、巻き込まれてたかも。
家に帰ってNHKをつけると「陽炎の辻２～居眠り磐音 江戸双紙～」をやっていて、ちょうど深川の街が火事になっているシーン。うーん、黒頭巾の仕業か？
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I got Blackberry! / Blackberryをゲット
日本文が後ろに続きます。The nearest DoCoMo Shop had informed me that a new Blackberry device (Blackberry 8707h) had arrived, so I got there this Monday and bought it. The handset costed 28,000 Yen. Very reasonable.
Setup is very easy. I keep three of my email addresses (including Blackberry-specific one) in this handset. I can catch incoming mails and reply to them, wherever I am. The key strokes are very confortable. Even if you type long emails your thumbs won’t get tired.
I’m not saying that I got completely accustomed to this gadget right now, but soon I will. This must soon become the item that I can’t do without, as many Americans may think.
8月からいよいよ個人向けにリリースされたドコモのブラックベリーを手に入れようと10日にドコモショップ大手町支店で端末予約をしていたのですが、予約時には入荷日未定と言われていたのが13日になったらはや入荷したという連絡が入ったので、実家から帰京した今日、さっそく大手町支店に出向いて入手しました。端末の価格は28,000円。当初の予定（30,000円）より少しだけ安くなったような気がします。
さっそくGmailの自分のメールアカウントをブラックベリー端末にセットして読めるようにしたのですが、なんと、
ややこしいIMAPサーバの設定やポートの設定など一切しなくとも、自動的にブラックベリー端末側（とブラックベリー網側？）でそういった項目は設定してくれるようで、メールアドレスとパスワードさえ端末に設定すれば、もうGmailアカウントのメールの読み書きはできてしまうという優れもの。これならパソコンに疎い爺さん婆さんでも簡単にメールが使えるでしょう。→【2008/8/19追記】ちょっとやり方が違っていたようで、GmailのIMAPの設定はやはり専用の画面があるようです。キータッチも絶妙な配置で、NOKIA E61に較べれば打ちやすさは極上。これなら長いメールでもいくらでも書けます。なるほど世のアメリカ人たちがCrackberryといわれるほどブラックベリーにのめりこむわけがわかってきたような気がします。
操作方法や入力方法は今まで（NOKIA方式）とくらべれば少し違うところがあるので、おいおい覚えていきながら、使いこなしたいと思います。
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中村友梨香、北京を駈けろ
帰省ついでに、母校に立ち寄ってきました。
母校出身の中村友梨香選手が、北京オリンピックの女子マラソン代表選手として17日朝に走ります。
ちなみに4年前はこれです。
全然変わっとらん～。
校舎の入口には、中村友梨香選手を応援するためのパブリックビューイングのお知らせ。残念ながら事前予約が必要なようで、飛び入りでは参加できないようですが……。
中村選手はマスコミでもほとんどとりあげられてませんが、まあライバルも1人減ったことだし、ここで金メダルでも取れば扱いがガラッと変わることでしょう。
頑張ってほしいものです。
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旧居引渡し
土曜日に練馬区の旧居のBフレッツのONUとCATVのSTBを撤去してもらい、今日は部屋の鍵を不動産屋さんに返して、すべてが終わりました。
「一人暮らしの住まい方」を教えてくれた思い出深いこの家も、7年以上住んだ練馬区も、そして10年間お世話になった西武線も、今日限りでsay goodbye。
帰るところはもう江東区の家だけになりました。
もう、後ろは振り返らない。
前だけ向いてがんばります。 -
Moving out to Fukagawa
Last month I was very busy with moving out of my house at Nerima-ku, Tokyo, because I had thrown my own car in May and I wanted to live where it was closer to downtown Tokyo and more convenient to live with public transportation only. As I got a bonus in June and I had enough money to move out, it was time for action.
The new apartment where I started to live is at the Fukagawa area, Koto-ku. It's been a renowned neighborhood for almost 400 years located only within 5km east from Tokyo station. Plus, according to Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department's web site, these areas have relatively lower crime rates than other major areas of Tokyo. It's 22 sq. meters wide with 1 bedroom+kitchen+bathroom. Its monthly cost is 90,000 yen. It's more expensive than that of the apartment where I'd lived before, but totally I have to pay monthly as much money for the new house as for my former one, because now I don't have to pay for parking lot anymore!
I got a key of the new apartment on August 1 and had all of my luggage and furtiture moved into it on August 3. For the first few days I felt uneasy as if I had stayed in a hotel room, but living for one week I feel to be accostomed day by day. The next thing I want to do would be to buy curtains, a brand new mattress, a tall bookshelf, a chest with drawers, and more, to make my rooms more comfortable.