Blog #6: My favorite novelist

This is Akane Homma. I'm sorry for posting my blog too late.
Some days ago, I bought a novel written by my favorite novelist. So I'd like to tell you about the book and the novelist.

The title of the book is "Ushinahareru Monogatari"("Being Losted Story"-I'm afraid to be innocent of its spelling.), and  it is written by OTSUICHI.  This novel is omnibus of some stories of his work, and contain 8 stories. My favorite story of this omnibus is "Calling(the first one)".It is a eccentric love story, and story is sad and painful but warm-hearted at last.






 
OTSUICHI makes his own atmosphere in his works. It is sometimes dreamy, sometimes sentimental, and sometimes dreadful. He writes both cruel story and delicate story. If you like horror and mystery novels, you should try his novel. For instance, "GOTH", "ZOO", and so on.
If you want some strange love story, I really recommend "MOMOSE, Kocchi wo muite"("MOMOSE, please look to me"). The novelist name of this book is NAKATA EICHI, but he is the same person as OTSUICHI.
I hope you enjoy his wonderful world in the novels.

*Here is information about him from Wikipedia.

Blog #6: Recipes

Hello, this is Yu Yamanashi.

In this post, I want to introduce you my favorite cooking recipe website. It is called COOKPAD(クックパッド), and you can jump to the website by clicking here. COOKPAD is the largest recipe website in Japan, and you can search from over 1,260,000 recipes by just typing in the name of the dish you want to cook. You can also post your own original recipe on this site, which is why most of the recipes are of easy-to-make homemade dishes.
This is what the website looks like.




As you can see, the website is full of appetizing photos of dishes. One neat thing about this site is that it shows you a list of popular recipes, which were chosen by users for their quick, simple and tasty dishes. My family and I are often inspired by this recipe list when we can't decide what to make for dinner.

Do you cook at home? If you do, COOKPAD will surely make your mealtime more fun and delicious, and it will enrich the variety of dishes you can make. If you don't, summer break is the time to start! COOKPAD recipes will teach you how to make dishes of all kinds.
Please visit this website!

Blog #6: Gakushuin Life

Hi! This is Kaori Shimamoto.
     As everybody knows, I lived in Illinois for my entire life until I recently came back to Japan last summer. I don`t know if I can call it "coming back", since I`ve never really lived here but I consider both countries my home town. It has already been a year and a month since I left America and I have been through a lot of changes.
     First, I am finally a University student! I never knew Gakushuin University until my cram school teacher recommended it to me. At first I didn`t know if I would be able to make friends and adjust to the enviornment. However, from the first day of school I made a lot of new friends and I became to make a good start of college life. Joining club activities helped me expand the bond between upper grade students and it helped me live a full life.

                       Graduating High School                and                        entering College!!

     Second, my fashion has greatly changed. In America, we were able to wear outfits like sweatshirts, sweatpants, and flip flops, but in Japan everybody is so fashionable and cute that I had to push away those sweatpants into a box. My friends in America will probably be suprised to see how I look now!

From THIS                    to THAT

     Lastly, my views of Japan has changed. Being a returnee, I was afraid of being looked differently. But I was wrong. Every students and friends I have met in Gakushuin are all very nice and polite. They were unprejudiced that I myself was prejudice towards everybody! Getting education in Japan not only will help me achieve my dreams of being a teacher, but also help me understand my other homeland that I have never seen or lived.

     Everybody has a life changing experience more then once in a life time. My life changing experience is right now. What were everybody elses? I hope everybody is enjoying their life in Gakushuin and hopefully have a great experience throughout the rest of the year!

Blog 5: Film Introduction

Hi, this is Yu Yamanashi. I am sorry to be late in updating my blog.

Today, I would like to introduce you a film I really adore. It is called Forrest Gump (1994), a heartwarming drama starring Tom Hanks and winning 6 Oscars.

The story unfolds with Forrest Gump (Tom Hanks), a man with a low IQ but an innocent, pure heart, telling the story of his life to people waiting at a bus stop in a small town. Despite being poor in intelligence, Forrest's mother raises him to choose his own destiny. Forrest unawaringly achieves many great things in life, obtaining fame, fortune and glory, but his one true love eludes him.

There are two plots in this film: the extraordinary tale of Forrest's life and the heartbreaking romance between Forrest and his only love, Jenny. The message to be passed on to viewers throughout the film is that determination, love, courage and honesty are more important than intelligence. The stories of Forrest's life made me think about how I want to live the rest of my life. Before watching this film, I believed somewhere in my heart that succeeding in society from and gaining fame from an early age was everything. Forrest, however, was never happy even after he captured great fortune. All he wanted in his life was to be with the person he truly loved. Now, I look at life differently. I feel that every person has their own unique goal in their lives, be it large or small, and they have all the time in their life to find that goal and achieve it.

Here is a trailer of Forrest Gump on youtube. It will change your view of life, too!

Blog#5: a movie I saw

 Hi, this is Akane Homma. I'd like to introduce "From up on puppy hill", a movie I watched. This is one of STUDIO GHIBLI movie, shown in 2011 and directed by Goro Miyazaki.

Here is a trailer of the movie.

 The story has two main characters. One is a girl named Umi, and the other is a boy named Shun. They are high school students, and they make every effort for preservation of a old building in their school.
The main theme is that preserving tradition is important. I felt the spirits Japanese people have. I mean the film showed the people took it for granted that they were kind to each other and lived together. Moreover, the time of the story is Showa period, and various scenes reminds us of old Japan, so we can enjoy the  flavor of that era.
 These days, people in Japan are getting used to western style and loosing their own style the people did in the past. lots of new substances are coming from one to another, and many people focus on only such tings. However, there are often important things in the old ones. We must remember that.
 By the way, Story of "From up on puppy hill" has another aspect, in other word it is a kind of love story. Umi and Shun fall in love each other, but they are in strange situation. It becomes obstacle for their relationship... This is also a worth point to watch.

 I enjoyed this movie, so I hope you enjoy it, too!