Kiki

Have you ever had a dog? I’ve had a dog for 10 years. She is an Irish setter.

She is the most curious dog I’ve ever had. She likes following people; especially me.  She waits to see what we do then starts playing, even though we don’t play at all. Also, she moves restlessly all the time.  When I walk her, she always looks for cats, birds and even insects.  If she finds them, it is going to be a trouble for me. She starts running suddenly to catch them. Even I can’t see them, but she knows where they are. That is her instinct, because she is a hunting dog. When she was young, I often got injured during walks. She was so mischievous.  Now she is old, but she’s still energetic like a puppy. However, she doesn’t like being alone outside. For example, when I go into a supermarket with her, she has to wait for me outside. Then she will cry until I return.  But, as soon as she sees me, she stops crying and romps so much. That is so cute to me. She is like my baby.

When I first got her, many people thought she was a dachshund with long legs.  But since she has such an interesting character and not so many Japanese people have Irish setters, she is known very well in the neighborhood. In addition, she is always friendly, so people talk to me often while I’m walking her.

I really like having Irish setter.  So, if I have a dog next time, I would like to have Irish setter again!

I found a movie that we can know about Irish setter. I will be happy if you like them after you see it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ooK_VY3nA4w

My Dream

Do you like flowers? I like it so much! One of my hobbies is arranging flowers. I’ve started learning it since early this year. I took a lesson once a week before I went to Canada. So, I am still pretty new in this hobby, but I always enjoyed it when I had lessons.

Also, I like making bouquets; especially mini bouquets.Since I am interested in arranging flower, my dream is to become a florist. I want my dream to come true, but I think I need more skills in flower arrangement and obviously more knowledge about flowers.

Lately I have been thinking about taking a flower arrangement course in Japan once I graduated from college. During the course, I will work at a flower shop as a part-time job. I think it should hopefully prepared me in getting ready to go into work fields. I was worried that maybe I should concentrating in studying rather than working while studying. Because my part-time job is related to my course, this should help me well in the future. If I have more than basic skills about flowers, it should help me a lot when I am working in my work field. This is the first time for me to have this kind of spirit. I think this is the way for me and I want to make this as my long term career.

In the future, I want to work at a flower shop somewhere overseas .
Hopefully I can be in charge of coordinating the flowers for big events like weddings and functions. I think it is fun to coordinate flowers, because it keeps changing depends on the event.I believe my job can make people happy. That is what I want to do in my life.

Japanese Snow Monkeys

Japanese monkey or known as Japanese Macaque or saru (as the Japanese called it). Is a native Japanese mammal with an interesting behaviour. You can see this animal easily during winter especially near natural hot springs in Japan.

Can you imagine monkeys actually enjoy in taking bath just like human? Some monkeys go there and take a dip in hot springs. They do it to keep their body warm by using the heat from hot spring. Just like any normal human, monkeys like to take a dip in hot spring together with their families. That’s why it is so interesting to see monkeys do the same thing as human.
These animal can be seen only in cold region in Japan, especially places that snow often. The scenery of hot springs with full of monkeys and the snow as the background is so harmonic. It feels so relaxing, looking at the monkeys enjoying the hot spring. That’s why many tourists come just to see the view of monkeys in hot spring every winter.

I wish I could see it someday!

Character Bento

   Have you ever heard of bento? Bento means lunch box in Japanese. I’d like to explain more about lunch box called character bento or people called it Chara-ben.

  People make cute characters like animal, famous people or sometimes cartoon character for lunch box. The ingredients are just ordinary foods like we normally eat. For example, meat, vegetables and fruits or more less whatever they need in order to create the characters. You will notice that Japanese people use seaweed very often in making their bento. Why would they make bento as attractive as possible? Who normally eats it? Here is one answer I know. In Japan, most of children in kindergartens and many students in primary schools bring bento for their lunch to schools. As you know, it is hard to feed children; even if they have never ate it before. What mother wants is to have their children eat healthy foods. So they try to make bento more interesting. It is not easy for mothers to make chara-ben interesting. After many trials and errors, some mothers created blogs in how to make chara-ben to help others in making a good chara-ben.Nowadays, chara-ben doesn’t just make children fun, also it made mothers go crazy. Because mothers have made chara-ben as their hobbies and they enjoy in sharing their knowledge about bento with others. 

   Chara-ben is such a wonderful lunch box. Because when children open the bento, many colorful foods attract them and it makes them eat more. Sometimes children do not know what are the ingredients . Because they just love the funny decoration that is on bento. By the way, not all mothers in Japan make chara-ben. But many mothers do. 
    
Chara-ben is not just a lunch box. It makes people enjoy eating and feel happy when they see it. It would make people eat more and more. So, if you have the opportunity to try, I really recommend you to eat it and I am pretty sure you will love it!!

 

UNIQLO

            UNIQLO is a clothing company from Japan. The company runs about 944 stores all over the world and sells high quality Japanese clothes. I would like to use the UNIQLO store in NY as an example. Because it just opened on 5th avenue this year and I visited there this past October. So you will see how nice of store it is and you will know what kind of company UNIQLO is.

           First, I had a first good impression when I visited UNIQLO in NY. When you see the store from outside, you will be surprised by the big show windows it has. Also, there are some mannequins wearing chic clothes, which make us fascinated. As soon as you step through the door, there are two long escalators to the second floors in front of you. Also, you will see the high ceiling, bright lights and hear nice music. Then you can feel the modern atmosphere with white color as a main theme, too. While you are shopping, you will see some wide monitors that keep showing us many models wearing UNIQLO clothes. And many fashionable staff wearing UNIQLO clothes are everywhere in the store. So if you see the monitors and the staff, they will help you to imagine yourself wearing the clothes you want. Also if you have any questions about clothes, you will be able to ask the staff without constraint. I asked them about clothes when I was there, and they were very friendly.

           Second, why do I choose UNIQLO to buy clothes? Because I like casual fashion, and the clothes are high quality, and the prices are reasonable. So I don't hesitate so much when I choose to buy them.  In addition, they have good variety of clothes. For example, they make their original designed clothes with animations, famous designers and singers. Then the company sells them for the limited time. Also, it uses famous people as models for its advertisement. They really attract people to buy clothes. If you go to subway in NY, you will see many advertisements of UNIQLO with many models. Also they have the most famous product named HEATTECH. Its lightweight high-tech fabric which creates heat to warm you up and keep you warm. A lot of people in Japan buy it to spend the winter season.

            UNIQLO isn't a company that just sells clothes. The company has great ideas to make the world better, and believes in the power of clothing. I have seen a documentary of UNIQLO before. One example of this is that the company collects clothes that their customers don't wear any more, and distributes them to people who need the clothes in developing countries. I have never seen a company do charity work with clothes. I think it's a new activity made by UNIQLO.  Also, I think the company has a great responsibility as a clothing company. I was really impressed to see it. And I thought I am proud of UNIQLO as a Japanese company in the world.

              Finally, why do I buy clothes from UNIQLO? That's because I like their clothes very much and I respect the company. Also, I feel I can change the world with UNIQLO, if I give it back my used clothes. This is so great, because if many people do it all over the world, the dream of improving the world can come true. UNIQLO is such a great company which provides nice clothes and has a responsibility for the society. So I really recommend you go to stores if you have a chance. 

Here is UNIQLO website:http://www.uniqlo.com/us/ 

Please check it out!