View from Shinjuku

Last week, My mother and I went to a observatory of Tokyo Metropolitan Government Tower in Shinjuku. My mother said to me that the city view from there looked like a graveyard. I agreed with her. There are too much buildings. How ugly the city is......

I can't do that, Sir.

My husband got a DVD of exercise program for me a couple weeks ago. The DVD is called "Billy Blanks Boot Camp"and I heard it was popular in USA and Europe nearly 20 years ago. Now it has come to Japan at last and very popular.
Basically, I don't like doing any sports, but I knew I needed to do exercise to lose some weight. So, I tried the program a several times and every time I did it, I got muscle ache. I think the program will work, if I can continue to do, but I'm not sure I will be able to do it. Maybe, I should do yoga or something like that. Ouch!

Here is too hot.

This summer, we are having extremely hot weather in Japan. Recently, my room temperature is always nearly 36 degrees centigrade. Of course we've installed an air conditioner, but I don't like artificial cold air. So, I usually don't use it. I know that using air-conditioner makes hot air and it'll be a cause of global warming. But, if I don't use it, I'll suffer from heat stroke. (This year, some people were died by it in Japan) It is vicious circle...sigh....

By the way, this picture is a bottle of Japanese isotonic drink. If you feel to dehydrate or hungover, it'll work to it very well. I know the drink name sounds strange(yuck!) to English speakers, but I also know, once they know the work, nobody cares the name.

Yokohama Hakkeijima Sea Paradise

My friend wanted to see fireworks, so, last Saturday, she and I went to "Yokohama Hakkeijima Sea Paradise" which was a kind of amusement park and it took 1 hour from Tokyo. There are a good Aquarium and some rides such as a roller-coaster, merry-go-round and so on. The park is popular among families and also famous as a place for young couples.

In Japan, fireworks displays are usually held in Summer. Big displays takes over 1 hour and shorts are 10 minutes or something. This time was only 10 minutes, but it was beautiful and worth to watch.

I can't speak English.

Yesterday, I had a job interview with my agent. I heard the job is required ability to concentrate and speaking English. It sounded I fitted the job.
At the first, the interviewer proudly said to me "All my staff are Japanese, but almost all of them are like native English speaker. Some of them had education overseas and some of them worked in foreign countries over 5 years" It didn't surprise me, because the company was famous as they only hired bilingual people. He continued "But my staff don't want to speak English on the telephone, because it makes them feel embarrassed, cos it seems everybody hear and checked the English. So if you don't mind that my staff hear your speaking English, I'd like to ask you to make phone call to foreign companies to ask something."
It sounded very Japanese, so I said it was OK, but I felt something fishy. Because it doesn't make sense if they can speak English like native speakers and required to speak English, but they don't want to speak, why the people can get such high salaries? I thought there were other reasons, so I asked him the detail of calling and I found it was complicated. I wasn't sure if the call is in Japanese, I can do it or not. He showed me a paper which there are short conversations in Japanese and asked me to speak them in English. I tried, but it was failed even it wasn't difficult. He sniffed (may be he didn't it) me and said "If I hired you, both of us would be unhappy."
OK, I'll never say "I can speak English.", especially, in business situation. I disappointed myself, I believed I could speak English better than that.
In addition, my agent was angry about the client, because the client didn't say about the detail. If she knew it, I would be able to prepare and get the job or she would introduced other person. I thought no thank you to get the job, because I wouldn't be able to handle it. She also was angry about the client attitude to me. I said to her that I was OK, because my ex-boss was more awful than him. She impressed my attitude and she promised to get new offer. I was just older than her, which meant I met more people than her. Oh, Getting old wasn't bad:)

Source of Noise

This photo is a cicada which makes noise during summer in Japan. The sounds make me feel more sultry. I don't like their noise.

Three kinds of them live at least in Tokyo and the sounds tell us the summer is just start, middle or end, because each them have specific sound and start to make sounds from different point in the summer.

I heard they react temperature to make noise. When I was a child, I had never heard the noise during nights in summer, but recently I sometimes hear the noise at the night, which means the night temperature is higher than before. It is an evidence of global warming .

The first step was successfully finished

Yesterday, my first step to restart work was finished on schedule. It was easier than I'd thought, but before I started to work I wasn't sure I could work or not after I spent my life lazily for 2 years. I thought I would never be able to back to work, I mean office work, because many my friends once became housewives and never back to work.
Now, I'm a member of a temporary staffing agency. I'm still thinking what I can do and what I will do next 10 years.(It makes me embarrassed. I'm not young I should have decided it before.) I will try whatever it seems I can do.
I've got some new job offers already, but I haven't decided yet.