Blog#8: My neighbourhood (Takayuki)

I live in Den-en-chofu now. This town is famous as very high-class residential area, but I live really normal apartment. However, I see many luxurious houses when I walk around this area. So, I question why normal apartment is built surrounded great houses.

This photo is the station. There are many cherry trees around the station, so we can see beautiful cherry blossoms in spring.

Next, I tell you the row maidenhair trees. In fall and winter, This road looks like gold world. It is so magnificant, but the smell of ginkgo nut is too bad. You can see this scean near the station.

This is the lane next to my apartment. I like this lane because the mood of it is so nostalgic and mild.

I live in Den-en-chofu 2 years or below, so I don't know very well. I enjoy discovering new good points in this area everyday.

Blog#8: My neighborhood(Mamiko)

I live in Kodaira. I always use Hanakoganei Station, Seibusinjyuku line to commute. But I used Kokubunji Station, Chuo line when I was in high school. Kokubunji is more popular and has a shopping building by the station. So I often go there now.

Aruond my house, there is a park where I played with friends in my childhood. We call it "pudding kouen" because there is a little white mountain made of concrete. Everyone tries to climb to the top.  It's a little dangerous for children to try. Even now a lot of children come there after school. In the morning, some old people exercise together.

Hanakoganei station where I use the best was improved several years ago. So now it is clear and comfortable.

You can see Family Mart, TSUTAYA, mister donuts and Domino's. I walk in front of them every day. And on the way to home, I sometimes drop in there. They are convenient.

Hanakoganei is very quiet, and Kokubunji is good for shopping. So I am lucky to able to use both of them.

Blog#8: My favorite neighborhood(Kanae)

I live in Toda, Saitama. This city is located along the Arakawa river. The nearest station from my house is Todakoen on the Saikyo line. It takes about 20 minutes to get to this station on foot. And I can get to Kawaguchi station and Nishikawaguchi station on the Keihin Tohoku line in about from 10 to 15 minutes by bus. I use Kawaguchi station occasionally. But then I usually go to this station on foot. It takes about 40 minutes.

This picture is taken from outside the front door of my house. My house is an apartment surrounded by houses.

There are many supermarkets, convenience stores, drugstores, and so on around my house. But I use hardly these stores. When I do the shopping, I generally go to Todakoen station. In This station, there are a supermarket, a bakery, a coffee shop, a drugstore, a bookstore, a hundred-yen store, some clothing stores, various delicatessens, etc. So I can buy most of commodities here. Especially, I like a supermarket. Because of this store is open to half past 0, I can do the shopping on my way home when I'm home late.

This is Todakoen station. Downstairs are the supermarket and the clothing store.

But I think this area also has a bad point. It is air pollution. In this area, there are a lot of factories and the volume of traffic, that's why asthmatics are not rare. While there are good points too, for example, this area is near the center of Tokyo. Todakoen is less than 20 minutes to Ikebukuro. So I can go to this university from my house within an hour. And also I can go to Shinjuku or Shibuya without transfer. I like this point.

I prefer my neighborhood very much. So I'm pleased every day.

Blog #8 My nighbourhood (Tomoka)

I live in Nokendai. It is located in south of Yokohama and has been grown as a residential area .

 

It takes 20 minutes to get to Nokendai station on foot. There is Yokohama high school near the station. The high school is boy's school and famous for a competitive baseball team. This team won the Kanagawa competition and got in the Kosien champion ship in this summer. Daisuke Matsuzaka who was belonged to Boston Red Sox graduated from this school.

 

Our dailiy shopping  is at Ito Yokado near the station.  So this town is convenient. Nokendai is a livable. I love Nokendai.

 

Blog#8:My neighborhood(Natsumi)

 I live in Kita-Koshigaya. It is a northern part a little than a center of Koshigaya City, Saitama Prefecture. My nearest station is Kita-Koshigaya of the Tobu SKYTREE line.
 The area I live in is called " Osawa ". It takes us over twenty minutes to walk to there from the station. When I go to the station, I usually take bus or ride a bicycle. So I can go the station in about ten minutes.

 My house is a solitary house. It is located in a residential street so there are many houses. In front of my house, there is a parking lot.  And, in neighborhood, there is a buckwheat noodle shop.

 Koshigaya City has a wild bird park. It is called " Campbellt town Forest of Wild Birds". It is located on northwestern Koshigaya. It has many kinds of birds which are from Campbell town City, Australia. It has not only many birds, but also some animals, for example, emu, wallaby.
This link is an explanation of that.

                                 

    Since Koshigaya has concluded the Campbell town city and the sister city agreement, there is such a park.  Koshigaya also has Campbell town park which doesn't have any animals and birds and only has some athletics.

 

 

Blog #7: smartphone application (shinji)

A lot of applications are developed for smart phone. Applications give us much important information.For example, they inform us time table of train. Everyday, we care time particularly in Japan.  Second, now everyone has a phone, people can make sure time. So, we become not to have a watch. 
I think one of the most convenience applications is news application.

This application is separated into many columns. Sports, business, social, top news and so on. I usually watch only sports news only. Applications will give us acknowledgments someday.

Blog#7: A useful thing I can do on my cellphone (Takayuki)

I use iPhone, but I don't have any application. I generally use my phone only three purpose, to do a search on the Internet, to play games, or to call.
 I think it is really useful to do a search on the Internet anytime and anywhere. For examble, Wikipedia has so many information.

To be honest, I don't keep up with increasing tools! I can use my cellphone perfectly!

Blog#7: It's a cute application.(Kanae)

My smartphone is "Q-pot.Phone SH-04D". This smartphone is built in original application, for example, wallpaper, game, and so on. Today, I would like to introduce one of those application, "Dress up Baby Ghost". This is interesting and cute application.
This application is wallpaper of a chocolate. This chocolate shows remaining battery. As battery decreases, a chocolate melts too. So I know how much battery remains at a glance.

When remaining battery is 88%.

When remaining battery is 73%.

And if I touch somewhere in this chocolate, there melts and sometimes a ghost appears!

When I touched a chocolate.

When ghost appears. It's irregular.

I love this wallpaper. So I have never changed wallpaper since I got this smartphone.

Blog#7:A fun thing I can do on my cellphone(Natsumi)

I have an android made by NTT Docomo. Its series is "ELUGA" which was made by Panasonic.
An application that I found it fun is "Line Camera" . Can you see it in the screenshot oh the homepage? LineCamera is the first icon from the left in the second row.

When I use this apprication, I want to change the image of a picture I have taken. For example, writing and drawing something and adding some frames.

a picture before I change      

              











 writing and drawing
                

And, I can change tone and optical condition of a picture.













I introduced some kinds functions of this application. But, it has other kinds which I didn't introduce here.

If you have a smartphone, I recommend that you get a Line Camera application. Because when you change a picture you have taken into your favorite, you will find it fun.

Blog#7: The cool thing about my iPhone (Tomoka)

This application is very helpful for me to avoid missing my stop.      
When the train comes close to my stop, it tells me arriving soon by vibration.

 

My house is located  at Nokendai station in Yokohama . It takes about 1 hour 20 minutes between Nokendai and Meziro .
I sometimes taking a nap in the train.
It saves me from tardiness.

 

Blog#5:Yokohama(Tomoka)

My home town is Yokohama. You know that Yokohama has a lot of tourist spot. For example, the Yokohama China town,  the red Brick Park and the Hakkeijima Sea Paradise.

Visiting there places is so fun. But I like better to visit museum. Especially in Minato Mirai 21, there are a lot of  museum. Mainly historical museum are there. I major Japanese history, so I feel happy.

My favorite Yokohama of museum is Kanagawa prefectural museum of cultural history. Mainly, this museum exhibit about history of end of Edo period.

This is historical papers about Ansei Treaties. I want to research this time. So this museums is worthwhile for me.

Blog#7: The cool thing I can do on my cellphone(Mamiko)

We are surprising at the evolved smartphone's app. I have some favorite free apps. I show you one of them.
The app I often use is transfer guide. This app enable me to know where to transfer. And I use this when I want to know the time a train leaves. It is really useful. Because of this, I keep promises to arrive on time. And I noticed that this app tell me how long time needed to transfer from a platform to another platform. This function is very genius. This one is what we don't want though we use if it is. Moreover when I use to know how to get somewhere, this tell me many ways, for example, the most fastest way, the cheapest way or the easiest way, that is, less time to transfer.



the icon of this app 

Like this, you can find information that you need easily. If you want to change the time to leave, you can change train before one or after one.

Anytime you are worrying about train, you can une this app!

Blog#6: my summer vacation(shinji)

 I went to a lot of places in summer vacation.

  In these places, the most impressive place is Shirahama. Shirahama is the beach.

 I went there with my lacrosse teammates by a car. It takes us two hours to reach at our destination if we didn't mistake the way.

 We were composed with 14 members so we split up and rode in three cars. My group had a mistake that exit of a superhighway which we should get off!! Others reached there earlier than ours by an hour.

 On Shirahama, we enjoyed the beach. We played beach volleyball and spoke to stranger.

on the beach

 At night, we did BBQ. We grilled poke and vegetables. These were very delicious!! This day was very great!!

BBQ!!

Blog#5: this is my city(shinji)

 The name of my city is Ichigao.There is nothing in my town. The most biggest store of my town is  SEIYU.

This store is very convenient . It opens 24 hours and sold things in this store are high quality merchandise.

 My city is good peace and order. Ichigao is such a peaceful city. And more, my town has many houses which famous people live. For example, many pro baseball players live in this town. The location of my town is very good.

 The train can take us to Shibuya in one hour. When you go to the urban, wherever you go, the train from my town take you to the urban place about one hour. This is strong point of my town.

this is tokyu denentoshi line. it will takes you urban cities.

Blog#4: My favorite baseball player(shinji)

 My favorite baseball player is Ichiro Suzuki. His back number is 51. I think that he is the best baseball player though I have seen a lot of players. He has established only wonderful achievements.

 For example, he hit two thousand in all at 2004. In long pro baseball league history, people who achieved two thousand hits are only forty one!! Moreover, he did three thousand hits in 2008!! People who accomplished three thousand hits are two men including Ichiro.
 His achievements are not only the total number of hits but also the annual number of hits. He had hit two hundred year after year from 2001 to 2010. In 2004, he accomplished the record for the most hits (262) in a year. The record for the most hits was established by George Sisler in 1920. Whenever Ichiro accomplishes the new records, people who have each records are the center of attention. Because of these reason, I think that he is a time tripper to be spotlighted to a great person of the past.

this movie is the time he established the new records for the most hits

Blog#6: My trip to Korea(Mamiko)

Hi! Everyone. How are you? I will tell you about my summer trip through the dishes I ate!

 During this summer vacation, I went to Korea where I have wanted to go for a long time. Why I have wanted to go is my korean friend have told me about Korea a lot. Finally the dream came true!
I visited three cities, Ulsan, Busan and Seoul. Ulsan is my friend's hometown. And my friend's korean friends made plans to do for me and my Japanese friend. All is five people.
 In Ulsan, I stayed at my korean friend's home. Korean houses ware big, claen and comfortable. I love them! They look like skyscrapers. I ate korean home cooking that korean friend's mother made. As you can see, korean eats kimuchi as breakfast also. And it was not so spicy but different from Japan's one.

In ulsan, we eat korean shaved ice. Can you imagine this size shave ice? People eat them together. Certainly it was delicious to share with friends. I want to eat them in Japan.

And one of my shocking dishes is korean chinese food. We had it delivered. I like to eat chinese food in Japan. But these taste were the first time I ate. Look at the black sauce. It is really difficult for me to explain this taste. Anyway I love it! It was so great that I bought some retorts of this sauce.

In Busan, the best one was this! Toppogi chige!This was also really spicy and terrific! This chige had various ingredients called "oden" and Toppogi. If you do not know Toppogi, you should go Shin-ookubo where there is a korean town.

Korean drinks this sweet juice with spicy food. When I drank this, surely hotness was eased.

In Seoul, there was an interesting cutlet. This cutlet has sweet potato paste in pork cutlet. It is not unique dish in Korea. Maybe almost all Japanese like it!

Final dish is a delivery again! Pizza! Thought I ate a piece of pizza by chance, it has a big surprising! Look at the crust. In fact there is being egg tart! Unbelievable! Only crust was sweets! A korean friend said that the reason is people tend not to eat the crust. And Pizza was improved as people like. I liked it also.

Korean food were really much to my liking all over. After I came back to Japan, I miss korean friends, the places I went and food. 

Blog#6:Yokohama Dena Baystars(Tomoka)

 On August 4th, I went to watch baseball game with my senior. This game is the Yokohama Dena baystars vs the Chunichi doragons. I live in Yokohama. So, I cheer the baystars.

But the baystars lost 10-12 . In the game which I went to watch  in the Yokohama stadium, I never have seen successful battle. I wanted to successful battle.
Why this team lost? I think It is badly off excellent pitchers.
But this team has good defensive player and exllent batter. For example Nyjer Morgan,　Alexander Ramires and Norihiro Nakamura. I wish this team victory in  Central League.

Nyjer Jamid Morgan

 

Alexander Ramon Ramirez

 

Norihiro Nakamura

This is Yokohama Dena Baystars website.

 

Blog#5: Welcome to my hometown (Mamiko)

My hometown is Kodaira in Tokyo.
 First Kodaira is famous for blueberries. Kodaira grew blueberries as farm products fastest in Japan. There is a blueberry farm near my house. So I eat blueberries every year when they are in season. I like them! And Kodaira has some wine and sweets after blueberries for example cakes, jams, puddings and dorayaki. Thought I have never tried them, I think it good. But if you come to Kodaira, you should try blueberries as it is.

He is burube like "yuruchara"

 Second what I want you to see in Kodaira is mailboxes. You can see a lot of mailboxes in Japan, however many of them are square mailboxes. In Kodaira you can see many columner mailboxes which is old type of mailbox. And what I was surprised is big size columner in the city hall. Its height is 2.8 meters. The reason Kodaira made such a big mailbox is Kodaira has the most available columner mailboxes.

the mailbox in the city hall with a soccer player

 Moreover what I recommend you to do is go to Koganei park. This park is really big. There are 2 things to do. The one is to do ohanami there in spring. Koganei park is famous for beautiful sakura. So a lot of people come to see sakura in spring. Of course I go there also. The other one is to go to the museum in the park. The name is "Edo Tokyo Tatemono en". In the museum, you can see many restored buildings. One of them is famous for a model of a jiburi movie "sen to chihiro no kamikakushi". I went there about ten years ago.It was not attractive but artistic. I liked it.
 Finally I reccomend you a ramen street. Kodaira has a ramen street in shin koganei aveneu. There are about 20 ramen shops which compete each other. My brother often goes to "Tsubaki" where is one of famous ramen shops there. If you like ramen, you should try!


Kodaira doesn't have something interesting especially. But I love this town. Come to Kodaira once!