We have some beetles as pets at my house. 僕らは家で何匹かカブトムシを飼っている。 It’s common to catch some types of bugs and to keep them for pets among Japanese children. 日本の子供の間では、いくつかの種類の虫をとってペットにするのはよ…

I've been having this weird back pain for several months. この数か月、妙な腰痛に悩んでいる。 To be precise, it might not exactly be a pain, but it’s always there causing uncomfortable sensations. 正確には、痛みとは言えないが、常に不快感が…

My back pain still goes on. 腰痛がまだ続いている。 I feel like it actually worsened after I got a massage and acupuncture at a clinic last weekend. 先週末に整体で指圧と鍼を受けた後にもっと悪くなった気がする。 That’s why I looked for and we…

Many times, people will start having chronic health issues when they are in their 40s. 人々は40代になると頻繁に、慢性的な健康問題を持ち始める。 The back pain is one of such issues that torment us both physically and mentally. 腰痛は、その…

Yesterday, I heard an ominous economic prediction from one of my language partners in the US. 昨日、アメリカの言語交換相手から不吉な経済予測を聞いた。 From what he said, the US economic situation has come to the extent that some telltale s…

I’ve come back home from my parents’ house a while ago. しばらく前に両親の家から帰ってきた。 Shortly before I left, unexpected visitors dropped in. 向こうを出る少し前に、思いがけない来客があった。 They were my father’s sister and her son. …

Back in my university days, a professor recommended two books to me; Narcissus and Goldmund by Herman Hesse and The Magic Mountain by Thomas Mann. 大学時代に、ある教授から2冊の本を薦められた。ヘルマン・ヘッセ著『知と愛』、トーマス・マン著…

Today, I got my hair cut at last. 今日はついに髪の毛を切った。 I had been procrastinating for about two weeks. 2週間位先延ばしにしていた。 I usually have a hard time explaining what hairstyle I want because I don’t have a clear idea what’s…

I have a language partner who is Ukrainian. ウクライナのランゲージパートナーが1人いる。 She and I have been practicing English over years by having conversations in English once a week. 何年間か彼女と週1で英会話をしてきた。 When I heard ab…

Today I knew that my parents got COVID when I called them after work. 今日、両親に電話をした時、彼らがコロナにかかったことを知った。 It seems that it was probably my mother who fell sick first during the week before last. おそらく先々週に…

I started taking online English conversation lessons again.オンライン英会話を再開した。 Because of this, my amount of the time of speaking English so far has been going about 1.5 hours or less a day. これによって、自分の英語を話す時間は1日…

The COVID testing system in Japan is very confusing. 日本のコロナ検査の仕組みは非常に紛らわしい。 As for the healthcare insurance covered tests, there are two general options. 健康保険が適用される検査については、一般的に二つある。 The firs…

My motivation to learn mostly comes from a mixture of curiosity, aspiration for growth and anxiety for future. 僕の学ぼうとする動機は主に好奇心と向上心、あと将来への不安の入り混じったものから来ている。 I always want to learn and grow as a …

My winter vacation this year started last Sunday. 今年の冬休みがこの間の日曜日に始まった。 It goes until January 4th, so I’m having about ten days off. 1月4日まで続くので、約10日間の休みがある。 I feel lucky because this is longer than oth…

Today I knew my result of the TOEIC test on Nov. 28th. 今日11月28日に受けたTOEIC結果が分かった。 My score plummeted to 890, 80 points down from the previous one. 今回はスコアが890点に急落、前回から80点下がった。 I’m not sure when I have an…

There is a business custom in trading companies that when sales people have some deals involving equipment installation work or construction work at client sites, they should be present on site while work is underway. 商社で、営業担当者が…

Today, I had a TOEIC test. 今日はTOEICを受験した。 This time, I’m sure I messed up. 今回はやってしまった感がすごい。 In the listening section, the knack to accelerate solving the problems is to read the given questions and choices to choos…

Buddha stopped off at a village and met a desperate woman who had lost a son to a disease some time before. 仏陀はある村に立ち寄り、一人の途方に暮れた女性と出会った。彼女はしばらく前に病で息子を失っていた。 She loved and couldn't forget th…

A young, good looking lady walks into a department store crowded with shoppers one day at the end of the year. 年の暮れのある日、若く容姿端麗な婦人がひとり、買い物客で混み合ったデパートに歩いて来る。 She looks to be in her mid-20s. 20代半…

These days, I sometimes practice overlapping (imitating voices of people speaking English) using movie trailer videos on YouTube. この頃、YouTubeにある映画の予告版のビデオを使ってオーバーラッピング(英語を話している人の声を真似すること)を時…

I’ve been on medication to lower my uric acid level for years. 尿酸値を下げるために長年薬を飲んでいる。 Because of this, I regularly have to go see a same doctor to get my prescription. そのせいで、処方箋をもらうために定期的に同じお医者さ…

Since the beginning of October, several health issues have been popping up in my household. 10月の初めから、家族の中でいくつか健康の問題が起こっている。 I’m probably distracted by them and can’t feel very motivated to practice English. た…

I applied for the TOEIC test that’s due on November 28th. 11月28日実施予定のTOEICテストに申し込んだ。 It’s not decided yet whether I can in fact take the test because they do something they call “random selection” to select and decrease th…

I started teaching my eldest son English some time ago. しばらく前に、長男に英語を教え始めた。 What we mostly do are practicing English pronunciation and reading out loud by using a textbook specially designed for practicing reading Englis…

This Thursday, I got my second jab of covid vaccines. 今週木曜日、コロナワクチン2回目の接種があった。 Next day, when I woke up, I had a slight fever, had an arm pain on my left arm where I was injected, and felt lethargic. 次の日、起きたと…

During this summer, my family and I kept trying to do something special for my oldest son’s birthday which was today. この夏の間、家族と自分は、今日の長男の誕生日に向けて何か特別なことをしようとずっとしてきた。 We finished it with a very t…

The Japanese ministry of education basically avoided the responsibility to make decisions about whether students should go back to school or not after the summer break, and left it up to each local government and schools. 日本の文部省は、…

The Tokyo Olympics finally ended. 東京オリンピックがついに終わった。 I didn’t watch its broadcast at all except for news on sns, so I don’t know how it was. 自分は、SNSのニュース以外には全く放送を見なかった。 I still believe it was very in…

The Tokyo metropolitan government achieved the agreement with several manufacturers in order to rent 500 oxygen concentrators for the need of the covid patients who are waiting to be hospitalized at home. 東京都は、自宅で入院待ちとなってい…

Tokyo and some other cities in Japan have been experiencing the biggest uptick in COVID cases due to the Delta variant. 日本では、デルタ種のせいで、東京と他のいくつかの都市でこれまでで最大規模のコロナウイルス陽性者数の増加に直面している。 …