flying to Moscow

2008 are coming to an end. It means that my travel season is coming. This time my destination is Russia. Russia is the country where I have really wanted to visit for years. Then I have prepared to get a visa and studied survival Russian since October. This Saturday I am finally flying to Moscow. My friends in Moscow dropped me a line that it is -5 degree Celcius and it is getting colder. My trip to Russia will be the most freezing and challenging trip I have ever experienced. However, I would like to experience the Russian winter which defeated Napoleon and Hitler.

obama has got a lot going for him

Before this historical November comes to an end, I would like to congratulate the U.S on the great election.

On 4 November 2008 the U.S chose the first African-American president, Barack Obama. Nobody could have imagined this historical achievement 50 years ago. He definitely has a lot going for him at the moment. Those who expect him to change the world are not only American people, but also other people all around the world, because the U.S president is the most powerful and influential person in the world. In this post I would like to find out why he was elected and how he has got a lot going for him.

The 21st century has begun with lots of gloomy events, which have made the world more unstable and insecure. Unfortunately, George W. Bush has not met the specifications to tackle the events. We know he is not a bad man, but lacking intelligence and consideration for other counties. American people realised at the election that their country needs changing. The reason why I find the U.S a great country is that they have the ability to swing to the right position back if they went wrong. That is why americans chose Mr. Obama as the president who is likely to change his country in the right direction.

Mr. Obama looks young, articulate, sensible and intelligent. There are lots of positive adjectives to describe him, but the most important thing why he has got a lot going for him is the fact that he has survived the most heated election campaign that the U.S has ever had. He defeated the first female candidate for the Democratic nomination Ms. Clinton. He has not made critical mistakes or gaffes for his 22 months campaign although Ms. Clinton and Ms. Palin did it a lot and he was taken advantage of by racial issues. The long term election campaign screens candidates out who deserves to be the president. He is the one to be left.

There are so many problems president Obama has to tackle. He might make a mistake and fail to clean them up. However, nobody would deserve to lead the country more than him in this difficult time. In choosing him, the U.S has shown a great determination to renew the country. For the time being, the world cannot help keeping its eyes on a man who has a lot going for him.

Why do many famous attractions fail to live up to our expectations?

Travel guide books have driven lots of people to tourist destinations over decades. Mysterious archeological sites or picturesque sceneries provide us with unforgettable experience. However, some exaggerations of adverts and out of date information make us feel let down. In this post I would like to find out from my own experience what factors result in a sense of disappointment for tourists and what keeps our expectations from disappointing factors.

Firstly, the travel industry has inflated tourists' expectations too much. Indeed, a sensational phrase affects our decisions which destination we are going to the next holiday, but after the travel we often realise that it was not all it is cracked up to be. If they had not got trapped by biased information, they could have enjoyed their entire journey. Unfortunately travel companies sometimes provide us with huge expectations and a little bit disappointment rather than a real experience.

Secondly, the passage of time plays a key role in the gap between information of travel brochure and the reality. Most destinations have changed as time goes by. For example, I went to Prague, the Czech Republic last May. The city has been completely renovated but has become a tourist trap. The price was almost same as Tokyo, but the quality was not adequate. I could not cross the Charles bridge without touching someone's shoulder. The first time I visited the city was before the Republic joined the EU. It was less people and less commercial so that I could enjoy its medieval atmosphere. It was more attractive than it is. However some travel guide books and brochures do not mention the latest information.

Tourists tend to seek the ultimate destination which is must-see but provides satisfaction. It seems difficult to live up to our huge expectations. To conclude, there is some advice that avoid feeling let down in the end. Resist temptations to taking all information from travel companies on board. Take every opportunities to search for actual information on the internet on your own. These attempts would keep our expectations from getting too unrealistic.

A Visa Application

This morning I have been to the Russian embassy in Japan in order to apply for a Russian visa. Russia is one of the few countries where Japanese are required to have visa, even for tourism. An applicant for a tourist visa has to prepare documents, which are an invitation letter and a travel voucher from an appropriate Russian travel company. The Russian visa system is really complicated and a real hassle for me. What I found interesting during learning the complicated procedure is that there are different explanations between Japanese sites and English sites on the internet. Lots of Japanese sites, especially in travel agents, are written that the entire journey must be booked in advance, so it is almost impossible to travel freely in Russia. However, in English sites free travel is possible. I do not know which the correct answer is, but I would like to travel by myself freely and stay in cheap accomodation. This time I chose the latter. In either way, there is a lot of paper work and travellers have to pay for their visa application. Indeed, the system would make a profit for some travel agents, but I think the complicated visa system is inefficient in the situation where the government personel and applicants have to do a lot of paper work. Although Russia has lots of touristic sites, it has been still terra incognita for tourists because of its visa system. It would be more profitable for thr Russian government and Russian people if they allowed us to travel Russia without visa. The strict visa system sounds a little bit out of date. Anyway I hope my Russian visa would be issued without a problem two week later.

Shanghai 2008

I have been to Shanghai this week. I took a 4 days holiday and visited Shanghai. It was my first trip to the main land China. What I was overwhelmed by was lots of people. The city is really large and streets are wide, but because of too many people, I did not feel large compared with Tokyo. Walking around streets there are lots of people dropping litter. I found lots of food wagons selling Chinese food but did not feel like buying and eating on the smelled street. Lots of people do not obey the traffic lights at the crossroad. It seemed to me that there was not public order in the city. Shanghai is the most developped city in China, but the city is completely different from Tokyo. When it comes to Chinese food, I found also the difference between Tokyo and Shanghai. Although I had really looked forward to eating the genuine Chinese food, unfortunately it was not my taste at all. It was so oily that I could not eat up. I went to cheap restaurants instead of posh restaurants. I realised that my favorite Chinese food in Tokyo is arranged for Japanese. There is one more thing I was astonished at. The gap of price between expensive and cheap was really wide. Chinese food local people eat costs just JPY 150 to JPY 300, on the other hand a cup of coffee and a piece of cake in a posh cafe costs JPY 800! Getting across the river by underground costs just JPY 45, but by the tourist tunnel costs JPY 620. Going up the tallest and the newest skyscraper costs JPY 2500. I think ordinary people cannot afford to go up skyscrapers. The high price is set for foreigners and rich Chinese. I realised the gap between rich and poor in China. My accomodation in Shanghai this time was amazing as I had not expected the quality. I stayed at a youth hostel. The staff spoke English well and the room was really clean and modern. You cannot imagine the quality when you are walking down the smelled street in Shanghai. The hostel equipped Wi-Fi and the room key was IC card. The bar had nice atmosphere. I must say thank the staff for their hospitality. I could totally enjoyed Shanghai.

comparing to Finnish education

I found an interesting article about education. What I thought after reading the article are that the education system in Finland is brilliant and the educational environments between in Finland and in Japan are completely different. Looking back the Japanese education system that I was taught, I would describe that the Japanese system is a sort of training in military fashion rather than education. In Japan students wear uniforms and exercise how to march round school grounds in physical education. They learn how they work well with others, but not how they recognise and encourage diversity. They are tested and evaluated by the way in which they get a good score in a test and cooperate with others. The idea in Japan is completely opposed to the idea in Finland. I think the reason of the difference would drive from the volume of the population. Japan has about a population of 127 million, which is about 24 times as large as Finland has. In addiotion, the population density in Japan is 21 times as large as in Finland. There were over 40 pupils in a class when I was a child. As a teacher has to lead 40 pupils in an overcrowded classroom, the class would be regulated and tend to be like a military exercise. It is easily imaginable that nobody can afford to think about the quality of education in that situation. For that reason, Japan has had to regulate its uniformed education system over the last few decade. However, this trend is coming to an end because Japan has one of the most aging populations in the world. We have lots of opportunities to improve the quality of the education in the process where the Japanese population is going to shrink in the next few decades. The Finnish education system could push our educational standard ahead. It is time for us to show our determination to restructure the current system. I think all children should take better education than their parents.

a name of hunter was hunted 11 years ago

A year ago, when I was listening to BBC news with my ipod, I heard the following.

"It is the point to remember. The whole of the irony is about Diana, perhaps the greatest this is a girl given a name of the ancient goddess of hunting was in the end, the most hunted person of the modern age."

I realised that the 10th anniversary ceremony of Princess Diana's death was being held. I thought that the speaker of above was pulling up other's leg with strong irony or cracking a joke. However, he was Princess's brother. I was surprised at the phrase. Thinking about the prhase in Japanese, it sounds a little bit cynical or joking. Listeners could keep a straight face. A woman named after hunting was finally hunted. It was the moment that I learned that English people say such a phrase in such a situation.

Olympics and Politics

The modern olympics games have had to contend with protest, boycotts and even terrorism. Looking back at the notorious games, Nazi Germany was the first country to take advantage of the event as political propaganda in 1936. In 1972 the Olympics became a target of terrorism. I knew the event by watching a film of Spielberg's "Munich". In 1980 Moscow and in 1984 Los Angeles both games were a exchange of boycotts, which became a battle field of the cold war. These trends will continue to the next olympics. The controversial Beijing olympics has been held this year. Media criticises the Chinese government for its censorship on the internet and human right issues. The Chinese Premier Hu Jintao insisted in the runnup to the opening ceremony that politics should be kept out of sports. Indeed the olympics charter says that no kind of demonstration or political, religious or racial propaganda is permitted. However, lots of people would consider the extent to which olympics has a political aspect. The Olympics always takes on a political aspect because athletes are chosen by countries. They always wear their national flags and national anthems are played during a prize giving ceremony. The audience cannot help feeling a sense of nationalism. It is the one that politics is seeking for. One impressive news report about olympics I watched on TV last year is that a Russian city Sochi was elected as the winter olympics 2014. The president Putin attended to a meeting to discuss the host city and gave a speech to help Sochi get elected. The highlight of his speech was not its contents, but the language. He did it in English and in French. I had never heard his English although I knew that he is good at foreign languages especially German. Sochi is located by the black sea near current disputing Georgia .It will be inevitable that the 2014 olympics has political content again. Politics and olympics are unlikely to go separate ways in the future as politics and religion do so.

Schnapszahl

Heute ist eine Schnapszahl.
08.08.08.
Ich weiß nicht, warum man Schnapszahl sagt. Vielleict trinkt man vielen Schnaps? Meine Kollegen gehen in die Kneipe. Aber ich gehe heute nicht.

Die Olympische Spielen biginnen in Peking.
Die Spielen sind umstritten.

The secret of happiness

Mr. Koizumi once said "As all lives are various, so are companies( that may employ a non-working individual such as young Koizumi.)" He managed to put his scandal away with this phrase. As to happiness, I would say, "As all lives are various, so is happiness." Happiness is often associated with daily circumstances such as family, love, money and religion. So it varies from person to person. I would like to find happines in society. In my daily life in Japan, It seems that there are loads of unhappy elements. For example, we have to work for a long time. Holiday is short and is not easy to be taken. Most of the Japanese who live in greater Tokyo spend more than 2 hours in a day on extremely crowded trains. I often feel as if we might be a herd of cattle. There could be no dignity. On the other hand, though I sometimes talk about these complaints with one of my colleagues, we are assured our life as far as we accept the complaints. When I look around foreign countries, it seems that our complaints would not be much of a problem. We are never in danger of life in Japan. There is plenty of food and clean water. Everytime I go abroad, I feel that I am living in one of the safest countries in the world. Our society is not perfect, but I am sure that we unconsciously enjoy the benefit to some extent. This may be happiness or a kind of happiness. I do not understand what happiness is exactly. Because it is intangible. I do not notice how I am happy. This may be the secret of happiness itself and it is certain that we should be sceptical about a tangible happiness such as Mcdonald's Happy Meals.

haft des kriegsverbrechers und sarajevo

Am Montag wurde ein wichtiger Serbenführer und Kriegsverbrecher in Belgrad verhaftet. Er hat das gräßliches Massaker von Srebrenica geleitet. Nach der Nachrichten freuen sich die Leute in Sarajevo über die Verhaftung. Ich erinnere mich an meiner Reise nach dem ehemaligen Jugoslawien. Ich habe in der Weinachtszeit 2006 Sarajevo besucht. In der Stadt gibt es katholische Kirchen, orthodoxe Kirchen, Moscheen und Synagogen. Ich finde das wunderbar. Von der Stadt fing der ersten Weltkrieg an. Im Norden liegt das Olympiastadion. Aber dort gibt es viel Kreuze. Ich konnte wegen meines Beileides keine Fotos machen. Die Stadt hat einen unauslöschlichen Eindruck auf mich gemacht. Ich hoffe, dass der ganz ehemaligen Jugoslawien friedlich wird.

Ein Schüler bekam Punkte mit Schimpfwort

Letztes Woche habe ich einen interessanten Artikel gelesen. Nach dem Artikel schrieb ein englischer Schüler ein Schimpfwort "fuck off" als die Antwort in einer Prüfung und bekam er 7.5% der maximal Punkte. Die Aufgabe war "Beschreiben Sie das Zimmer, in dem Sie jetzt sitzen." Der Prüfer sagte nach der Prüfung, "Sein Antwort bedeutete. Er buchstabierte recht. Wenn er das Wort mit Ausrufezeichen schreiben würde, könnte er mehre Punkte bekommen. Es wäre schlescht, null Punkt für seine Antwort zu geben, weil er irgendwelche Fähigkeiten zeigte. Leere Antwort ist am schlechtesten." Ich war überrascht über die Erklärung. Es ist unmöglich in Japan, dass ein Schüler, der ein Schimpfwort schrieb, in einer Prüfung Punkte bekommt. Mutter oder Lehrer würde den Schüler ausschelten. Meiste Japaner betrachten leere Antwort als besser Antwort im Vergleich zu einem Schimpfwort. Aber ich bin für die Erklärung des Prüfers. Ich sollte Leere Antworten vermeiden, obwohl ich keine Schimpfworten schreiben will.

Das Pfandsystem

Was ich in Deutschland ein gutes System für den Umweltschutz finde, ist das Pfandsystem bei Getränkeverpackungen. Als ich erstmals in Deutschland gereist bin, wusste ich gar nicht, warum eine Coca-Cola in der Plastikflasche so teuer im Vergleich mit dem Nachbarländern war. Ich konnte damals nicht verstehen, dass ein Bier in der Glasflasche manchmal billiger als eine Cola in der Plastikflasche war. Ich denke im Augenblick, dass eine Ursache des Preises das Pfandsystem war. Das Pfand von einer Bierflasche ist billiger als das Pfand von einer Cola. Als ich in einer Jugendherberge übernachtet habe, hat ein Junge mir das Pfandsystem erklärt. Dort habe ich Bionade, die eine in Duteschland entwickelte Limonade ist, kennengelernt, seitdem habe ich nie wieder Coca-Cola in Deutschland getrunken. Letzten Monat habe ich in Deutschland mein Bestes versucht, dass ich Pfandflaschen abgebe. Aber ich konnte nicht verstehen, welche Flasche eine Pfandflasche ist und wo man sie abgeben kann. In meisten Fällen wurde mir gesagt, "Tut mir leid, wir können das Pfand nicht zurückzahlen." Ich war sehr enttäuscht.
In Japan gibt es das Pfandsystem nur bei Glasflaschen, aber nicht bei Plastikflaschen. Ich trinke gerne Ginger Ale, so dass ich Ginger Ale Pfandflaschen im Kasten kaufe, statt Plastikflaschen. Japan steht Deutschland leider im Pfandsystem nach. Wir sollten das Pfandsystem bei allen Getränken annehmen.

Wilhelm Tell kam nicht an.

An die Amazon.co.jp

Sehr geehrte Damen und Herren

Drei Monate verging seit ich ein Buch(Wilhelm Tell) im Internet bestellt habe. Aber mein Buch ist nicht angekommen. Daüber ärgere ich mich bei Ihnen. Ich wende mich mit einer schriftlichen Beschwerde an Sie.

Als ich das Buch bestellt habe, hat Ihr Homepage gezeigt, dass die Lieferzeit 4 Wochen ist. Einen Monat später habe ich eine automatische E-Mail bekommen. Sie haben geschrieben. "Wir brauchen einen Monat mehr, das Buch zu liefern." Ich war damit einverstanden. Aber einen Monat danach habe ich wieder eine automatische E-Mail, die im gleichen Kontext war, bekommen. Ich musste nur auf das Buch warten. Am Ende habe ich eine E-Mail bekommen. "Tut mir Leid, Wir können das Buch nicht finden. Also wird Ihre Bestellung automatisch abgebrochen." Ich habe drei Monate auf das Buch gewartet. Wenn Sie mich früher daüber informieren könnten, könnte ich das Buch in einer anderen Buchhandlung kaufen. Sie sollten ein Buch, das Sie nicht liefern können, nicht bestellen.

Mit freundlichen Grüßen
Toru Hiroe

#Nachdem ich mich beschwert hatte, hat Amazon mir einen 300 yen Coupon mit Entschuldingug gegeben. Aber ich hatte keine Lust, ein neues Buch zu finden. Ich kann Wilhelm Tell nicht lesen.

expensive oil

Oil prices hit record high above $135 a barrel

When it comes to oil prices, the US and the Middle East have played a key role in them. As there is huge amount of oil in the ground of the Middle East, the world's top oil consumer has had no choice but to get involved in the region. However, the US has failed to get along with Arabic people. Sometimes they tried to get oil by force, which resulted in a war. As wars use astronomical amounts of oil, they put pressure on high oil prices. To make the matters worse, Israel is accelerating the bad relationship between the US and Arabs. The US lets Israel have everything its own way in the Middle East. Whilst Israel has the right to live, it is unreasonable that the US overprotects Israel. This would be one of the biggest reasons why Arabs cannot trust the US. If the situation in the Middle East improved, it would be possible that oil prices becomes half of what they are at present. I think political issue makes up a larger part of the oil crisis than economic issue. I am sure that it takes time to solve the problem, but we have to continue to be involved in the Middle East. This might be the shortest way to overcome the current oil crisis.

Does Perrier need to fly? No!

This week I have been to Germany on holiday. I felt a sense of mixed feelings in the return flight. My flight was Frankfurt to Tokyo operated by All Nippon Airways, a Japanese company. When I was served drink on the airplane, I asked a cabin attendant if she has German beer. The answer was "No", because all the drinks were loaded onto the aircraft at Tokyo. Then I ordered a cup of sparkling water insted. She gave me a can of water with a plastic cup, but the thing is the can was Perrier, a brand of bottled mineral water made from a spring in France! As Jpanese letters were written on the can, it must have been packed in Japan. It was a real let down. Why did the company load with French water in Japan, but not with German beer in Germany? The airplane flew from Germany to Japan. While drinking Perrier on the flight I thought how many miles this Perrier had been transported. The water had travelled from France to Japan, Japan to Germany. It would be at least 12,000 miles! It's definitely a waste of fuel and unnecessary. According to lonelyplanet's column, two people taking a return flight between Europe and the US costs an average household's fuel consumption over a whole year. I think water should be loaded at the place the aircraft takes off. Indeed fuel efficiency is important, but we should avoid unnecessary transportation. We can shift our perception from "use" to "do not use" as long as it's unnecessary. It would be the most effective way to survive global warming and a real life with frugality. It won't be so bad after all.

How much water is required in a meal?

It used to be once said that clean water and security are free in Japan. However, the myth is on the verge of collapse. I have read an article in the Nikkei newspaper on 11.05.2008 about Japanese water consumption. What I found really interesting is how much water requires in our meal. To make the explanation clear, the concept of "Virtual Water" is introduced in the article. Virtual water is the amount of water that is used in the production of food. For example, a cup of milk requires 110 liters of water in the production process. A kilogram of beef costs 2 tons of water. I was astonished that a huge amount of water is required if we convert our meal into virtual water.
Japanese annual rainfall is 1,718 mm, which is double the world average. However, if we look at the amount per capita, it is only one third of the world average. An expert explains in the article that one of the reasons we do not feel seriously water shortage in Japan is that we import plenty of food from abroad. Japanese self-sufficiency rate of food is only 39%, which is the lowest rate among the developed countries. If Japan tries to produce all the amount of food we need in Japan, it will costs 62.7 billion tons of water. It is quite difficult to achieve it, according to the university of Tokyo. The nobel prizewinning organisation IPCC reported that water resource in the globe will be dwindling to 10% to 30 % by 2050 in the face of global warming. I think food shortage results in water shortage. It seems to me that all the problems in the world are linked to water shortage. I have no idea how to find the solution, but I have to keep in mind, our days of plenty are numbered. It is time to live with frugality, which is a phrase I was taught by my grandfather.

3 things I do not agree with in modern life

The top 3 things I personally feel really annoying in my life in Japan are crowded transportations, uniformness and too much cleanliness.
The inhabitants of Greater Tokyo are faced with a lot of problems such as traffic jam and overcrowded trains and so on. Though Japanese cars are one of the best cars in the world, there is little space to drive with them in Greater Tokyo. Once you start driving, you get stuck soon. I hope that the government will control and restrict the number of cars in the Greater Tokyo area. I think we do not have to own a car. Toyota and Honda have sold too many cars in the small islands.
What I find incredibly embarrasing is why everybody is doing the same thing at the same time. When I was a student, students wore a uniform and I felt teachers prefered middle, which top end and bottom end students were not welcomed in all the subjects. I remember in my school life that I learnt how we work well with others, but not how we recognise and encourage diversity. When I grew up, people still wore uniforms at work, work on same days and took a holiday on the same days. Fortunately, our income also tends to come middle compared with other developped countries. I think most of the Japanese think of themselves as middle class. Whenever I think about this topic, I remember my professor when I was studying economics at university. He told me that Japan might be one of the most successful socialist countries in the world.
The last topic is cleanliness. I am proud of the cleanliness of the Japanese. One of the members of Oasis told an interview that he visited Tokyo to go shopping and he purchased a toilet (Washlet). We prefer clean, but sometimes it is too much. When I buy a lunch box, called bento, at a convenience store, it is wrapped too much. It takes a lot of time and makes litter. It really makes me annoyed. I think onece we start doing something, it tends to be escalating. Nobody could stop it. The same as plastic bags, I have got a bunch of plastic bags in my house. I am sure it is unnecessary.
Though I have written 3 complaints, I know that we enjoy benefit from them. However I am sure that there is room for improvement.

ein wütendes Mädchen

Wenn es mir um ein Kraftwort auf Deutsch geht, erinere ich mich an
ein deutsches Mädchen. In Letztem Weihnachten bin ich frierendes
Rumänien gereist. Am Weihnachtstag habe ich in einer privater
Jugendherberge in Brasov, die auf Deutsch "Kronstadt" heißt,
geblieben. Es gab ein Japaner, ein Amerikaner, ein Australiener und
zwei Deutsche in meinem Zimmer. Als ich am Abend ins Zimmer getreten
bin, hat ein Mädchen mit ihrem Handy auf Deutsch angeruft. Sie hat
sehr ärgerlich ausgesehen und hat sehr schnell gesprochen, so dass
ich konnte nicht verstehen, was sie gesagt hat. Aber ein Wort, das
sie vielmal gesagt hat, das ich verstehen konnte, war "Scheiße". Nach
dem Telefon hat sie noch mit "Scheiße" vor sich hin murmelt, als sie
sich angezogen hat, den Koffer gepackt hat, eine SMS gesendet hat und
so weiter. Dann ich habe sie gefragt, warum sie immer "Scheiße"
gesagt hat. Sie hat gelächelt und sagte, "Weil "Scheiße" einer der
wichtigsten Wörter auf Deutsch ist, müsst ihr zuerst das Wort
lernen, wenn ihr mit Deutsche sprecht." Ich und der Amerikaner sind
in Lachen ausgebrochen. Und wir sagten, "No way! hilarious!" Sie
wurde wieder zufrieden. Wir haben über Romanien unterhielt. Sie war
Studentin und hat damals in Rumänien ihr Praktikum gemacht.

Russia and English

If I was a native English speaker and was an English teacher, I would work in Russia. This idea comes from my last trip to Istanbul on new year's holiday. I stayed in a hostel and shared a room with a Russian couple and a German guy. I went for dinner with them on the evening of the new year's eve. The woman of the couple spoke fluent English. She is an English teacher and runs a launguage school in Moscow. According to her, launguage business in Moscow is really profitable. The most popular is, of course, English, the second is Italian. She had opened Japanese courses recently. She made a joke about me that I would be a well-paid Japanese teacher in her school. I laughed at her offer and crucked a joke in return that her English business would be expanding in 2008 because the British Council in Russia had been orderd to close and loads of students would rush into her school. All of us had been laughing during the talking. It was a really funny and interesting dinner in Istanbul. It situmulated my interest in Russia. I felt how Russian people enjoy their economic grouth and how English has become important in Russia for the decade. I wuould like to go to Moscow in the near future. I think Russia and Britain must get along with each other.

The Life of Others (Das Leben der Anderen)

I have watched a good film on TV recently. The title is "The Life of Others (Das Leben der Anderen)".
The film is set in November 1984. Gerd Wiesler who works the secret police(Stasi) of GDR is assigned to spy on Georg Dreyman who is a playwright and regarded as pro GDR government. The secret police install tapps in Dreyman's apartment. In the apartment he lives with his girlfriend Christa-Maria Sieland who is an actress. She has relation with government minister in order to keep her job. Once Wiesler starts tapping their life, he realise why he is assigned to spy on Dreyman. Because the minister is attracted to Christa, he wants to find Dreyman's fault and Dreyman to be arrested. This makes Wiesler lose his motivation for his job. Then he starts helping Dreyman and Christa. Dreyman writes an article about sucide in GDR for a western magazine "Der Spiegel", after one of his friend commits sucide. Though Wiesler was tapping the action, he acquiesces and makes false report which Dreyman was writing a story about Lenin. Once the article is published in the West, GDR and Wiesler's boss have suspicious of Dreyman. However Wiesler reports no problem. The police arrests Christa because she takes illegal drugs and interrogates her. She knows how Dreyman wrote the article. It was written by an unregistered western made typewriter which is hidden under thr floor. She had no choise but to confess in order to go on her carrier as actress. Then she is set free and the police searches for the typewriter in Dreyman's apartment. However they cannot find it in the place that Christa revealed. Wiesler hid it in advance. In shame that Christa told a lie to the police as a result and betrayed his boyfriend, she throws herself in the front of a running truck and dies. Finnaly the police gives the search up and Wiesler'tapping fails. He is degraded. After the cold war ended, Dreyman realises that his life was entirely tapped but Wiesler acquiesced. He tries to say Wiesler "thank you", but he does not directly. As a playwright, he writes a novel named "Sonata for A Good Man". Wiesler finds the book in a book shop and also finds a credit "To HGW XX/7, with gratitude" in the book. "HGW XX/7" is Wiesler's code name. When he buys the book, the sales person asks if he should wrap it as a gift. Wiesler says "No, it's for me".

This film describes difficulties of creative people such as novelist, musicians, actors and so on in Communist era. I have also sympathy the charactor of Wiesler. He is diligent but alone. Every charactors gave me deep impression. The last 10 minutes is the highlight of the story. I felt transported myself to the 1980s in GDR. I think this film is very good but someone who does not know the background of the film might lose interst.

IP address is personal

A software giant Microsoft offered to buy a search engine giant Yahoo
in the U.S last Friday. This week Google responded that it would be
bad for the internet. When it comes to Microsoft and Google, The
European Union comes first. The union has adopted a tough stance
toward both giants. I have read an article about it. An EU's data
protection commissioner told an EU parliament hearing that IP address
has to be regarded as personal data. According to the article, IP
addresses may not always be personal data, but anybody can ask
"Whois" who owns IP address. For that reason, it has to be regarded
as personal data. This idea is completely different from Google's
idea. The company says it just uses IPs to provide accurate search
results and to protect advertisers. Using IPs is essential to drive
out "Click Fraud". However, The European Union, which has almost 500
million population market, may oppose to Google's activity in the EU
area. Last year Google gave up to keep search queries for long time.
It reduces to 18 months. In addition, cookie expiration time is also
reduced from 30 years to 2 years. It might be getting out of the
critics of the union. The company might be scared of Microsoft's
dispute with the EU. European bureaucrats are good at making rules.
ISO comes from Europe. It's headquarter is located in Geneva. The EU
has grown since 1992. Giant company can't ignore 500 million market
any more. I'm really worried that my country has completely left out
about this issue. We are always a follower. We aren't good at
establishing rules. This might be one of the biggest reason why Japan is waning.

new year and buckwheat noodeles

Whenever I think about new year, Soba comes first. It is my favorite food.

In Japan it is customary to eat buckwheat noodles towards the end of the old year's final day usually round 23:00 at home. the noodles are called "Toshikoshi-Soba", literally means "Seeing the old year out-buckwheat noodles". This cumtom implies that people pray for their happiness for a long time like long noodles. It is ominous that eating nooldes does not finish during new year's eve. So, the noodle must be finished eating on new year's eve. This cumstom varies from region to region, but eating noodles is in common.

However, I have not eaten the noodles for the last few years...

Winter holiday 2007-2008

The most freezing trip I have ever taken was when I went to Romania and Turkey in this winter break. Romania and Istanbul were fascinating places for me and I had really wanted to go there for the last few years. My journey to Bucharest, the capital of Romania, was absolutely exhausting. When I arrived at Moscow airport, my connection flight to Bucharest had already departed. I was astonished when an airport officer told me that I might not go to my destination in the next few days. Threre were several Romanians who were goning to Bucharest like me. They were really furious with the officer. As I was completely disappointed, I did not get angry. As a result, the officer arranged for a flight to Bucharest via Sofia on the next day. The next evening, I manged to arrive in Bucharest. It was -6 dgrees celsius. As I had got off a wrong bus stop, I wandered through lonely gloomy Bucharest as a creep for 2 hours, terrfied of huge stray dogs. I was truly miserable.

I spent Christmas day in Brasov, which is preserved a fantastic mediveal old town, and went to Bran Catsle, known as "Dracula's Castle". However I could not enter the catsle because it was a bank holiday in Romania. I felt relly let down. In Brasov I met a German girl who was shouting "Scheiße(shit)!" repeatedly. She told me that the word is one of the most important words in German. I laughed at her and said "hilarious!".

I left after 5 freezing days and took a train to Thessaloniki, Greece. It took almost 24 hours. On the train I shared a compartment with a romanian guy and we got talking. Thanks to the boiling compartment, we did not sleep well, while the open air was freezing. As the train was reaching Thessaloniki, snow had disappeared. We swapped addresses and went our separate ways. I stayed Thessaloniki just 1 day, but I could enjoy warm sun shine of the Mediterranean Sea. My freezing trip was over in the city.

Istanbul was my final destination. I arrived in the city by train in huge expectation. I got off the train from Greece with deep emotion because it was the terminal station of the Orient Express. On the other hand, all around the city was crowded. It was absolutely disappointing. For example, when I went to a palace, it took 2 and a half hours to enter. Other palces, mosques and museums were same as the example. I spent new years day in the city. On new year's eve, I had a very international dinner and count down. As I stayed in a dormitory, I went for dinner with my room mates. One German, two Russian and me, we expected a new year event, but it was not held. We thought Turkish people do not celebrate a new year. We had to see the old year out at an Irish bar instead of huge square. Finally, As we talked about all around the world, my 2008 started very internationally and it was amazing. After I separated them on the next day, I heard shocking news that some new year events had been planned in Istanbul, but they were cancelled because of terrorism. I felt really let down when I heard it. We could have enjoyed more.

Fortunately the sun went never down during the whole journey. However it was absolutely freezing, especially in Romania. I'd like to go there again in spring.

Mein Traum

Wenn ich einen Riesen kennen lernen könnte, würde ich mit ihm eine
Weltreise machen, als ob wir auf der ganzen Erde nur spazieren gehen
würden. Ich würde immer auf seinen Schultern stehen. Dort könnte
ich schöne Landschaften sehen. Er könnte schneller als Züge laufen.
Ich freue mich darauf, in Peru die Nasca-Linien zu sehen. Ich habe
kein Lust, aus dem Flugzeug sie zu sehen, weil es laut ist und ein
Flugzeug in der Luft nicht stillstehen kann. Es wäre sehr bequem, auf
seinen Schultern die Landschaft zu sehen.