2008年4月アーカイブ

Hey hey :)

Recently I've been making good use of the gorgeous sunny weather we've been having - why can`t it be like this all the time? - by playing frisbee with my boyfriend at the park.

It's a really fun way to relax and enjoy the sun and get a little exercise, especially since I've been cooped up in the house for too long, addicted to my many favourite tv series.

Speaking of which, has anyone seen a tv series called Firefly? If you haven't seen it, watch it watch it watch it! It's fantastic! It's a Sci-fi/Western series that is set slightly in the future. Earth was becoming overly populated, so other planets were terraformed and set up as new `Earths`. Now, the central planets, called the Alliance, want to bring everyone under their control, using their abundance of new technologies. The outer planets are striving to resist, and so there's a kind of ongoing war between the two sides. The main story revolves around a man called Mal and his `Firefly' class ship and his crew, trying to keep a low profile, so as not to gain the attention of the Alliance. Having a ship means you can get work, such as cargo-ing goods to and fro between the planets and it also means you`re free to go wherever you please. Each episode follows captain Mal and his crew on a different adventure, and the setting of the series allows for many interesting stories to develop, with a variety of planets to explore, and the characters and their relationships are brought to life really well. There's a lot of humour thrown in too. It's really different from any other series I`ve ever watched and definitely my favourite.

Leo ☆♪

こんばんは！

今日は先日行われた「第一回イマージパーティー」の写真を

掲載いたします。

場所はイマージの隣にあるビルの地下１階「ふぉど」さんにて

貸切で開催いたしました。

 参加して頂いた皆様、お疲れ様でした。そして有難うございました。

実はゲームやらなんやら用意していたのですが、そんなものは

必要なかったですね、皆様大いにお話が弾んでいたようで

事前に購入していた「黒ひげ危機一髪＜松崎しげるさん仕様＞」は

出番を迎えることなくパーティーを終えました。

下の写真はジェリーお得意のギターでビートルズの歌を皆で熱唱！

昭和の居酒屋みたいでとっても楽しかったです！

次は夏前ぐらいに開催したいと計画中です。

もし、また皆様のご参加をいただけるのであればとっても嬉しいです。

乞うご期待です！

イマージ　赤松

Hey everybody!

This is my second blog post, the first being an amazing piece (haha) about good places to eat around Umeda.

This time I thought I'd write about my favourite TV show ever, it's called 【Dexter】. It doesn't show on free to air Japanese TV but if you get cable it's on one of the channels that shows American drama series. The show's second season has just finished and the third is scheduled to start in October of this year.

Dexter is set in Miami and is the story of a forensic (法医学) specialist who works in the Miami Police Department. At first you might think from this description that this show is another C.S.I or the like but it's not :) The story follows Dexter's life and depicts his struggle with coming to terms with who he is. You see the interesting thing about Dexter is that he is a serial killer (連続殺人者). Don't let the fact that the main character is a serial killer put you off, the show although a little dark is a drama comedy and has some of the best writing, acting and pacing of any TV show I have ever watched.

Each season is twelve episodes and one episode runs for about 50 minutes.

The English in the show isn't too hard for the most part except in cases where the characters discuss things related to forensics, the law, etc. If you do decide to watch it on cable make sure you watch it in English rather than Japanese, if possible watch it with English subtitles as well as this is a good way to study, it really helps you pick up new vocabulary and expressions.

I hope someone out there checks the show out and enjoys it as much as I do!

Talk again soon :)

Scott　Townsent

Never again will I go out to Karaoke! Here in Japan, going out to a Karaoke bar is a big deal that many people take part in, I’ve known people who go at least once a week. Back home it’s not such a big thing to go out, get yoparai and belt out the words to random songs in front of a bunch of people. Most Canadians would rather go to a club and dance in front of a bunch of people; I feel it’s a little less embarrassing.

My girlfriends co-workers have been bugging us to come out “karaoking” with them since we got to Japan but I have succeeded in turning them down every time, until the other weekend. We went out for dinner and a couple drinks the other weekend, and apparently I had one too many because I let my guard down and was scammed into hitting up the Karaoke bar after dinner. Let me tell you, never again do I let that happen! Haha

When it comes to singing I am very shy! I am more of an “in the shower singer.” In the shower, I “think” I sound pretty great but apparently that’s not the case when I’m forced to sing in front of others. I felt too nervous to sing alone in front of everyone so I told my girlfriend to sing along to a Nickeback song with me.

To me, Karaoke should be a bunch of friends, who can’t sing going out and making a ‘fool’ of themselves; if that were the case then Karaoke might be fun for me. It turns out that my girlfriends co-workers are the next ‘American Idol’ finalists, because every one of them had a pretty good singing voice!

Anyways, it was my turn to sing so I figured I’d suck it up and hope for the best. Did I mention my girlfriend was supposed to sing along with me? Yeah that wasn’t the case because as soon as the song started she sang one word, got embarrassed and left me hanging to sing alone haha. So it ended up being just me butchering the words to the song all alone. Apparently my ‘great’ singing voice which I thought I had in the shower didn’t turn out to be so great! I was off tune, my voice was horrible and I was messing up the words to the song, how embarrassing! Hahaha. Ahhh well, there goes my singing career! Guess I won’t be starting up that rock band after all. I had fun though, it was still good times despite my brutal voice, but ya never again!

So ya no more Karaoke bars for me, I’ll just stick to singing to myself in the shower; it’s a lot less embarrassing!

こんにちは！英会話スクール　イマージ受付担当　大黒です。

先生＋私の計６人で週２回このブログを更新してるわけですが、もう私の番が回ってきました！

早いものです。

最近の私はといいますと、今月からジムに通い始めました！

なぜかといいますと…先月のおわりにあるお方から「昨日死ぬほど飯食ったか？」との一言。笑

やっぱり見た目にでちゃうんでしょうね・・(゜A゜)

ということで、すぐにジムに入会してきました！

イマージの先生、ジェリー＆ナジャもジムに通っていて

私とナジャの会話は常に「Did you go to the GYM today?」から始まります

ヽ(○｀・v・)人(・v・´●)ノ

仲間がいるととても励みになりますね！

とりあえず週に２～３回を目標に-3キロ!

・・・・・地道に頑張ろうと思います。((*・V・)

★大黒でした★

Hi everyone!

This is Gerry, and I just want to post about the hanami party I went to this past Saturday.  It was my second hanami party since coming to Japan two years ago.  A bunch of us went to Shukugawa on the Hankyu line – it’s very famous for lots of beautiful cherry blossoms.  We got there in the afternoon, and were able to find a spot under a small cherry blossom.  The weather was really nice, too, so we put out our blue tarps.  Why are the tarps always blue?

Everyone brought lots of food and drink – for food, we had kaki-pea, o-kaki, potato chips, cheese, bread, tako-yaki, sweets, etc., and for drinks we had chu-hi, beer, and wine.  We all ate and drank too much, and people were falling over each other laughing.  It was really fun, and we tried to talk to some of the other Japanese people who were hanging out near us.  They were drunk, too, and singing the Super Mario Bros. theme song.  I sang along with them, but I don’t think they noticed.

I hope everyone has a chance this year to enjoy the hanami season!  I’ve added some pictures – one of them is from Shukugawa, and the other is from a shrine in Mikage.

Take care!

~Gerry

【Nadja】

Today I had a very interesting lesson with my student. His name is Takeshi and he went to a Bob Marley concert 25 years ago at Kosei Nenkin Main Hall in Osaka. I was so surprised to hear this, Bob Marley is a legend. He is from Jamaica and he is the greatest reggae artiste today. He grew up in Kingston, the capital of Jamaica where I am from and his house is only 20 minutes from where I live in Jamaica.

Some of his famous songs include No Woman No cry and One love. If you haven't heard a Bob Marley song I highly recommend It. You won't be disappointed. His songs are about topics such as love, racism, war and life in Jamaica. So there is a song for everyone.