End of The Year

It is the last day of the year.

I started to work as an assistant English teacher at a public junior high school since this April.

I thankfully experienced a lot of things and have gotten motivated by the students.

I will study English more to get a better job in the future.

My goal is to become a lecturer at college.

In order to reach the goal, I have to enhance my English skills and research on English education.

I will not only study English with workbooks but also watch movies and read English books.

By doing so, I hope I will reach the goal someday.

Raw Meat

I had a fever last night, because I ate a small amount of raw pork mistakenly for dinner.

I thought the meat was well heated, but some of them were not.

I felt strange in my body in a few hours after eating them.

As I imagined, my body temperature rose while lying on the bed.

I am now feel better but still not in the best condition.

Through this experience, I learned that I need to care more about what I eat.

By the way, I am going back to my hometown this afternoon.

I will enjoy talking with my grandparents and eating dishes with them.

Karaoke

I applied for a karaoke competition yesterday.
It is going to be held on February 2nd in a public hall.
I found a poster that advertises the competition yesterday and made a phone call to the office on the day.
I am not really good at singing but it would definitely be an unforgettable experience.
The office is closed from today to January 3rd.
On January 4th, I am supposed to go to the office to tell the song which I will sing on the stage.
I haven’t decided yet which song I will sing in the competition.
After deciding it, I will practice at a karaoke place as many as possible.

Extrovert

I live in tranquil days since our school vacation.
Yesterday, I went to the gym,  near my apartment, to workout and studied English after wards at their waiting area.
There are tables and chairs, one can make a use of during their free time after the gym so I frequently use the place to study and to read newspapers.
However, I realized that I need to talk with people more to become more extrovert.
I have to go to various places in this city and if I find a good place, I will keep going there to get to meet more people or see acquaintances too who might be frequenting that area too.
I will use my time for that purpose during my vacation.

Next Job

I have a holidays off until January 6th.
During this time, I'm trying to find another job for the next school year.
I'm an assistant public school teacher in junior high school.
However, the job includes class management, joining a club activities, and other small chores.
I went to a Public Employment Security Office branch yesterday.
I want to focus in teaching English only and so I asked if there are such job openings.
The staff showed me some openings which suit my expectation.
I will think about what I would apply this vacation.

Reading Books at Cafe

My favorite pastime is to read books at a café.
There is Starbucks apart from 5 minutes from my apartment by car.
Since I am in the middle of vacation, I have more time to use for myself.
I can concentrate on reading books under the cozy atmosphere.
I also like seeing customers and imagining their personalities judging from their faces and appearances.
By the way, books, English, and exercise make me happy, but to get more satisfaction, I need to do something for others’ happiness, too.
Being able to make people happy means that I will also be happy.
I want to be a person who can always care for others.

Meaningful Day

This was my ideal life.

Being able to read books, exercise in the gym, and study English in a day is my ideal life.

Since it was a public holiday yesterday, I did all of them within the day.

The impression after completing the mission was I don’t need a full time of the day but need only half a day to do them.

That means if I make money within a half day, I can use the rest of the time for them and every day will be satisfying to me.

To achieve my ideal life even off vacation, I will think about my job for the next school year more seriously.

Flight Ticket

I checked prices to travel abroad on “sky scanner”.

The good thing of the website is it tells us the fares to many foreign countries arranging them in order of low price after typing the departing airport and date.

That means you can see which fare is within the budget in one search.

As of this moment, I cannot go to any foreign countries because of less savings.

It costs about twenty thousand yen to go to LA from Kansai Airport.

I cannot afford to it, so I wish I can go there during the next long holidays after saving enough money.

Time to Think

I come to think about things simply.
I considered what my ideal life is.
Earning money is necessary, but having more free time is the most important thing to me.
During my free time, I exercise, read books, and study English.
Also, in a vacation, I go abroad for sightseeing, if possible.
In conclusion, having less working hours and having more free time is my ideal life.
In order to achieve it, I need to think about how to make money within a short time.
Since I am in the middle of a vacation now, I will look for more information about jobs at the public library.

Winter Vacation

The second term finished yesterday and we, teachers, had dinner together at a restaurant after work.
We have holidays until January 7th, although I have to go to school for a few days to prepare for the next term.
My plans for this vacation are studying for TOEFL, meeting my grandparents, and reading all volumes of ONE PIECE.
Besides these, I need to look for a job for the next year.
I have already applied for Japanese teaching jobs in China and I’m still waiting for the replies.
The seventeen-day vacation will be over soon, so I’ll try to make the best out of the time I have.

Job at Southern China

I applied for a Japanese teaching job in China.
The college is located near Hong Kong.
According to my research, the southern part of China has less air pollution than its central part.
Its weather is comfortable and there are Japanese grocery stores.
My application is still pending and I am still waiting for the reply from the person-in-charge.
Nowadays, direct flights to the Philippines and Vietnam are available from Hong Kong, so you can easily visit these Asian countries.
Also, Hong Kong and the city where I live has a direct flight, so I can come back to Japan without transition.
As for now, I hope to get a welcoming e-mail from the college.

Job Interview Via Phone

I took a job interview last evening.
The job was teaching the Japanese language in China.
A teacher at the college made a phone call to me and we talked in Japanese.
I had thought the person in charge would be a man but it was a woman.
She explained about many things such as the environment of the city and the job itself.
As a result, I declined my offer, because the city is heavily polluted by smog during winter.
The benefits of the job is good but I cannot live in polluted air.
I will look for another job for the next school year.

Working in Foreign Countries

I want to put myself at a challenging environment next school year.
Living in Japan is definitely comfortable, but this too peaceful life makes me bored.
I’m looking for job openings in foreign countries.
I applied for two Japanese teaching jobs in Chinese colleges but one rejected my application.
The other one is still on the process of selection.
I’m going to take an interview within a few days online.
There are many job openings in the Philippines as well.
The salaries are around 60,000 peso.
I’m not sure if the amount of salary is high or not.
I will look for more information and I wish to get a job overseas.

The Last Week

This is the last week for the students to take classes.
The winter vacation is going to start this Saturday and will end on January 7th.
January 8th is the first day to resume classes for the third term. 
The students and teachers have a long week to take a rest.
However, most of the students and teachers go to school even during the vacation to join club activities.
In my case, I don’t need to go to school for more than ten days since I am not a full-time teacher.
I will read as many books as I can and look for a job for the next school year.
I hope this two week break would be blessed with so much happiness with my family. 
It is Christmas and Christmas is family and friends.

Teaching Japanese in China

I applied for two Japanese teaching jobs at colleges in China.
Both of them are not located in the city.
I checked if hospitals and gyms are available around the schools, and there are several those facilities around them.
Google Map helped me a lot to figure out the geography of the areas.
Since those colleges are not in the southern part of the country, it can be below zero degrees Celsius during winter.
Although there were difficulties that I need to overcome in some foreign countries, I want to experience more challenges in the next school year.
If I pass the interviews, I will prepare myself to migrate.

Being A Foreigner

I would like to know what is to be a foreigner like.
I have been to several foreign countries but all of them were short stays within one month.
Being a foreigner in some foreign country is my aim to be achieved.
If I don’t go abroad and stay in Japan in all my life, I will definitely regret my life after getting old.
Since I work as a teacher now, teaching Japanese language overseas is a reasonable option to migrate.
Living in Japan is comfortable, but I want to put myself in a challenging environment.
I will look for more job opportunities for the next school year.

Winter Vacation

The downtown in our city is decorated with Christmas ornaments.

Christmas songs are played in the arcade.

Since I don’t have a girlfriend, the day is not related to me.

By the way, the school term is going to be over next Friday.

I can probably take a long holidays during the winter vacation.

During the more than 10 days off, I want to travel to somewhere.

It’s expensive to go abroad, so going to some city in Kanto Region is a reasonable option.

For the next school year, I want to put myself in an environment which is filled with more skillful English speakers to get stimulated from them.

Those people usually gather in urban cities, so I will look around such cities during the break.

Mixed Life

I used to think that I want to live abroad, but recently, I think that living in Japan and in foreign countries is a good option.
There are many Japanese people who live in Asian countries, especially Thailand, and they have some internet jobs.
Living in Japan is comfortable and safe, but I am gradually losing my hungry spirit, the strong feeling to make money and contribute to our society.
My ideal life is to live in this country in spring and autumn, and live in a foreign country in summer and winter.
To accomplish that goal, I will study about engineering which allows me to work anywhere.

Paid Holidays

I can take five more paid holidays within this school year.
The winter vacation of our school is going to start on December 22nd and the new term is going to begin on January 8th.
Although the students don’t need to go to school during that period, but we teachers need to go for several days.
I am planning to use a few days paid holidays and go for a long vacation.
In regular terms, teachers usually cannot take days-off on weekdays, so the paid holidays during winter is the last chance to take a few days vacation.
I need to keep a few days of paid holidays for emergency purposes.

Comfortable Town

I found an interesting survey that researched about comfortable towns to live in Japan.
There were some points that were checked such as transportation, hospital, and safety.
Most of the cities chosen below top ten are located in Kanto Region, which is Tokyo and the places around Tokyo.
Inzai City in Chiba Prefecture was chosen as No.1.
The city has good accesses to both Tokyo and Narita Airport, which is the main international airport in Japan.
I have never lived in the region so I cannot imagine the life near Tokyo.
Since I am looking for a job for the next school year, working in Chiba is an option because of the comfort.

Medial Check-Up

It is often said that you should eat 360 grams of vegetable per day.

That amount is not small for me, so I use several ways to consume vegetables, for example, putting them in the soup or steaming them to make them soft.

Eating salad is good to keep nutrients alive, but it takes time and it is difficult to swallow.

Today, I am going to take up a medical check-up.

The public employees can take it for free once a year.

I am not allowed to eat breakfast this morning.

I will revise my eating habits after receiving the result.

Seminar in Hiroshima

I went to Hiroshima to attend a seminar which was held for junior high and high school English teachers.

There were more than 60 attendees from different prefectures.

Two high school teachers held lectures about what they do in classes.

One of the two showed us how to conduct classes in front of us.

What amazed me the most was that he gave only a few explanations during the mock lesson.

The explanation was about 5 minutes out of 40 minutes.

We wrote, listened to, write, or spoke English during the rest of the time.

I learned the importance to repeat practices again and again after understanding the passages.

I will use some of his methods in English classes.

Interesting Books

I was studying English for the TOEFL exam yesterday which is going to be held next month.

There is a public library near my apartment and I went there to study.

The questions in the book are very difficult for me, so it will be a long journey to get a good score in the exam.

I walked around in the library to see what kinds of books were available.

A lot of books caught my attention, but I have things to do before reading.

My ideal life has plenty of time to read at least one book per day.

To make the life come true, I’m thinking about my job for the next school year which can give me more free time in the day.

The End of The Second Term

There will be two more weeks to go before the end of this second term.
The closing ceremony of this term is going to be held on December 21st.
During the two-week winter vacation, the students can take a rest at home, although they still have to do their homework.
Parent-teacher talks are going to be held from December 18th to 20th, so the classes will be over in the morning during the last three days.
The parents will come to school at a designated time and talk with the homeroom teachers about their kids' current situation.
Since I am an assistant teacher, I am not participating.
It is getting colder these days, but I want to finish this term in good health.

Seminar for English Teachers

There will be a seminar for English teachers that will be held in Hiroshima this Sunday.

A famous high school teacher is going to have a lecture about activities in English classes.

It takes about two hours from this city to Hiroshima but I am looking forward to attending it for these two reasons.

First, I will be able to listen to his lecture.

Second, I will be able to meet many English teachers from many places.

The teachers who will join the seminar may have more passion for teaching, so I want to talk with them and make friends.

I will make some friends whom I will study English with to keep motivation for improving myself.

Work Life Balance

On weekdays, it is difficult to have new experiences because most of the hours of the day are filled with my job.
I don’t drink alcohol, don’t gamble, and don’t smoke, so I think my expenses for one month is not as costly as other men’s.
I want to have more free time to read books, study English, and watch movies.
Therefore, working 5 days a week is too much for me.
My ideal life is to have a working time is allocated only in the morning and the remaining time of the day can be spent on myself.
To acquire this ideal lifestyle, I need to be content with a lower salary.
I am wondering how to balance of work and free time.

Divorce

635,156 pairs got married and 226,215 couples got divorced in Japan in 2015 fiscal year.

I am not sure how many couples exist in Japan, but the divorce number was more than I assumed.

The major reason for divorce is mismatching of their personalities.

I wonder why those people didn’t spent more time to understand their partner’s personalities before getting married.

Aged from 30 to 34 years old has the highest rate of divorce.

I am a single and 30 years old now and I don’t want to get married.

It may be ideal to make a partner at around my age.

If I have room for money and feeling, I will think about marriage more seriously.

English Teachers

More than seven months have passed since I started to work for the junior high school as an assistant English teacher.
The main teachers who are adopted as full-time English teachers are very busy.
I think teaching English is not only their main job.
There are many tasks aside from teaching English such as managing a designated classroom, joining club activities, and getting in touch with the parents.
The full-time teachers have to come to school even on weekends, so they cannot take enough rests.
Those who are passionate and dedicated to their job can only continue it.
I cannot do the job as well as they do, so I am looking for a true “English teaching” job.

Gentleman

Gentleness is a virtue any man would desire to possess. Unfortunately, I think it's something I don't have much of. 
I have yet to increase my knowledge of history, philosophy and the arts. 
Gentlemen are regarded with high esteem. 
They are known to pay attention to people and a help at hand anytime.
My ideal person is Katsumi Kitamura, a Japanese bodybuilder. 
He was a student of the University of Tokyo. 
He has several videos on bodybuilding, where he recorded his training and diet. 
He was very accommodating and always had a ready smile painted on his face. 
Thus he became powerful and influential as many people wanted to emulate him. 
Sadly, he passed away 18 years ago at a very young age of 40. 
I myself am his big fan. 
I would follow him at any event. 
I hope to learn from his video materials how to become a gentleman like him.

News Programs In America

I watch American news programs on YouTube such as CNN, BBC, and FOX NEWS.
They speak very fast, so it is difficult for me to understand what they are saying.
However, it is a good way to practice English and is useful to get the latest news.
Japanese news programs are mostly same; all of them usually have the same topics.
On the other hand, American programs are different even if they have the same topics.
For example, about immigrant caravan news, the main male newscaster of FOX NEWS, Tucker Carlson, frequently argues with other reporters.
The offensive discussion scenes are a little bit scary for me.
Also I think the stance of President Trump’s policies are always a point of argument among these broadcasters.
I will practice English more in order to understand what they say in these programs.

Training in Hiroshima

I went to Onomichi in Hiroshima Prefecture to meet my friend.

He and I were the students at the same university until this March.

Both of us like weight training, so we went to a gym to train our muscles today.

The two-hour training was hard, but it is always fun to do exercise with him.

After that, we went to an all-you-can-eat restaurant.

We ate a lot of meat to intake protein for muscle recovery.

I had never been to famous places in Onomichi, so he guided me around the city.

The harbor was very beautiful in the evening.

We promised to meet in January next time.

End of November

Today is the last day of November and we have one more month to go this year.

I am not a type of person who makes resolutions on the New Year ’s Day.

Regardless the date, I make a resolution and revise it.

My current interest is my job for the next school year.

When I think about the ideal life for myself, having more free time is more important than making a lot of money.

During the free time, I will read books and study English more.

Years later, I want to start my own business to contribute our society.

I will consider how to live my life in more reasonable ways.

Finding a Group

I was moved by a quote “Find a group of people who challenge and inspire you, spend a lot of time with them, and it will change your life.”
This is what I have to do: Find a group of people who study English hard.
I live in a rural area of Japan so it is difficult to find such a group.
There will be a seminar next month in Hiroshima.
The seminar is for English teachers who work in junior high school or high school.
Hiroshima is a bigger city than my city so I might as well find a group of people who study English hard.
I will apply for the seminar hoping that I can make friends who study English harder.

Dinner at The Mall

I met my friend after work yesterday and ate dinner together at the mall.
We belonged to the same tennis team when we were in college.
He got married a couple of years ago and had a baby last month. 
His wife and child went to her parent's so that we can hang out.
Right now I am still single.
Honestly, I feel comfortable to live alone and don't want to have somebody in the same room.
When I talked to him yesterday, I felt like going back to our college days.
I am looking forward to seeing him again.

Exam Week

More than seven months have passed since I started to work for the current school.
I come to understand each student’s characteristic and the school's culture.
We still have one month to go for the second term. 
The second term is from September until December.
End-term exams are held for three days from Wednesday to Friday.
Traditionally, there are no big events or school activities until December. 
These begin on January, when the winter vacation is over.
I feel less pressure compared to the days when we were preparing for the choral competition.
I still don’t have any plans for the next school year.
If possible, I want to go to a foreign country to work.
I will search job openings in Australia, Hong Kong, Singapore, and Canada.

Hong Kong

The region is nominated as one of the top ranked countries of universal healthcare.
The number of hospitals for the population is more than other countries.
English is also used as a public language so it is relieving for me to visit there.
There is a direct flight from this city and the fare is reasonable if you reserve seats beforehand.
Since the place was colonized by Britain, you can see remains of the era such as buildings and cuisines.
I watched a video that filmed the downtown sceneries of Hong Kong, and it has an Asian atmosphere than I expected.
I wish I can travel to the region soon.

Keeping Data Online

I like to take a lot of pictures using my smartphone.
Using Google Photos, I am able to store all of my photos online, but I want to move them in my USB storage so I can categorize all of it.
Also, I try to keep track of my documents like utility bills and personal online receipts. 
I use a phone application to convert them into PDF.
Next March, I plan to leave my current apartment.
It will be a hassle to carry the paper documents when I move out.
Once I understand how to store my photos and documents, I can manage these files in simpler ways.
This morning, I will do all of these things.

Living in Japan

It is often said that you need to love yourself first before loving someone.

In my case, I don’t like myself while speaking Japanese because I am shy and not funny.

On the other hand, I can be more generous while speaking English.

Also, I can be manly while doing weight lifting or playing tennis.

That means that English and exercise makes me love myself.

As long as my life goes on in Japan, using Japanese is necessary.

I am seriously thinking about going abroad after this school year.

I feel alienated for being in the Japanese society.

To behave naturally, living in a foreign country is a good option for me.

Wedding Ceremony

I attended my friend’s wedding ceremony today.

The groom and I belonged to the same tennis team at high school.

The new bride and groom went to Disney World in Florida and held their ceremony a couple of months ago.

Today’s guests watched a video that recorded their ceremony in America.

The bride likes Disney movies and characters very much, so they looked very happy.

Also, the female guests were watching the video enviously.

I enjoyed eating delicious cuisines, talking with other tennis teammates, and being in their ceremony.

I don’t want to get married at this moment, but it was fun to see my friend’s new departure.

Long Weekend

Tomorrow is a public holiday, Labor Thanksgiving Day, in Japan.
On Friday, I’m going to attend my friend’s wedding ceremony which will be held in Ehime Prefecture. 
It is 150 km away from here.
Therefore, I will go back to my parent’s house after work today.
On Saturday, I’m going to play tennis at a university where I graduated.
The former boys and girls of the tennis team will gather to play tennis together once a year.
On Sunday, there’s nothing to do the whole day.
Therefore, I will relax at home or meet my childhood friend who lives in Kagawa Prefecture.
To enjoy these three days, I will focus on my job today in order not to make any mistakes.