Laughter brings good luck!

Do you know the "Tiger mask"? He is an animation hero who is a masked pro wrestler. It had been popular about 40 years ago,but recently,one news made his name become famous again.

One or two months ago,there was a news that someone sent a lot of school bags to a children's home. Nobody saw him but they found the sender's name "伊達直人（Date Naoto）" in the letter. It's exactly the name of Tiger mask.

I don't know much about Tiger Mask,because it's old animation. DATE NAOTO is the masked pro wrestler "Tiger Mask" and he always donates his fight money to the children's home in this story. Maybe someone who likes Tiger Mask donated school bags to children's home,and used his favorite hero's name.

This goodwill donation spread quickly to everywhere in Japan and people who donate something to children's home are increasing now.
I saw a TV news that a lot of children's homes of all prefectures got something from DATE NAOTO. But it's not that DATE NAOTO is one person. TV news said that there are lots of people who copy his ideas.
I think it's really good news. I see lots of bad news everyday,so I was happy to hear this news. And after I saw it,I felt that I'd also like to help someone.

I hope this event is not just a fad.

After I quit the English conversation school,I've been looking for some good ways to keep and improve my English skill. I took an skype lesson for the first time last week,but I didn't know whether it's good for me or not. Actually,I want to talk face to face with someone in English,not online. But I can't find any other way to have opportunity to speak English yet,so I'm going to take an online lesson again.

Well,I read some English books if I have time. Everyday I read essays titled "American Pie". This book is written by an American woman who has been living in Japan for a long time.


American Pie―Slice of Life Essays on America and Japan
Kay Hetherly

She is saying a lot of things she noticed in Japan in her essays. One of her essays reminded me about my ex English teacher.

This is my favorite animation Teinenpi-girl Heidi.
Heidi is a famous character from the Swiss novel and the animation of Heidi used to broadcast on TV in Japan.

But this is not Heidi.
This is the Teinenpi-girl Heidi.
It's just a parody. This animation was made for the commercial of a car.
The strong point of the car is "Teinenpi".
Teinenpi is a Japanese word and it means economical.

The girl wearing a red dress is Teinenpi-girl Heidi.She doesn't know what Teinenpi is,so she always asks "What is Teinenpi?" to people.

His grandfather and his friend Peter don't know anything about Teinenpi,but her friend Kurara(wearing a blue dress） told her that she has a lot of Teinenpi at her home. So,Heidi decided to go to Kurara's house in Frankfurt.

This is the story of part six and it's about happening in the train. Heidi is enjoying the journey but his grandfather didn't know that she goes to Frankfurt.Kurara noticed that her grandfather is chasing the train. He is chasing the train and is saying "Stop the train!" "Heidi! Come back!". But the train didn't stop....

There are 4 characters in this animation,but it has just two voice actors. Sebastian,Kurara and Heidi's grandfather are same voice actor. And also,they are a comedian,not a voice actor.

Other stories are here.

As I wrote before,I quit the English conversation school lately. Of course I'm continuing to study English even if I quit the school. I had been enjoying English class but after a certain point,I started to feel the conversation school means nothing to me. I liked my teacher and class mates but I thought what I need is having more opportunities of talking with other people. Every time at the lesson I talked with same members,but I don't think it's good for improving my English skill.
That's why I decided to quit the school and now I'm looking for any other way to improve my conversation skill.

And now,changing the subject, I started to go to Spanish school from 6 months ago.
I like studying foreign language and recently I'm really interested in Spain because of soccer. I'd really like to read soccer news or my favorite club's web site in Spanish,and of course I'd love to go to Spain. That's why I started to study Spanish.

I played a soccer game last night. ...but we lost the game. The opposite team has some great players and is quite strong so it's natural that we can't win the game. Most members of our team are beginners. I'm also a beginner who have been playing soccer for four years. However,some players of the opposite team used to play in a women's pro soccer team. Actually,their playing was spectacular.

Last night,I played behind the striker. I usually play as a center forward but have some opportunities to play behind the striker lately. It's really difficult to judge the situation in a game but I can touch the ball a lot when I play behind the striker. It's really interesting. So,I like playing behind the striker more than a center forward.

I don't know whether women's soccer is common or not in foreign countries. I can't say it's really popular in Japan. There are still few environments of playing soccer for women. But fortunately,my home town Shizuoka is really famous for soccer and there are some women's soccer teams. I feel really happy every time I play soccer even if we lost the game.

We already played 10 games in the women's league and won only 4 games. I got 3 goals until now. We have more two games in the rest of this season.
I hope to get some goals in the rest of games.

I've just quit the English conversation school I had been attending for 6 years. Last Wednesday,I went to the last lesson. I really like my teacher and class mates and of course enjoyed the class. But one day,I realized that I feel it's stuck in a rut.(and also the cost is quite high） So,I decided to quit the school and try another way to study English.
But,I can't find another way yet.

Anyway,I'll update this blog more often than before. I'm sure that it would be good for keeping my English skill.

By the way,I've been a iPhone user since 8 month ago. Recently,I'm hooked on the iPhone application "Instagram". It's really interesting tool.



This is a photo of my sons and my niece. I took it by iPhone. Original photo is just perfect ordinary but converted photo is really artistic,isn't it? I really like this. I think it's increasing the frequency of using iPhone camera than before.

If you don't use "Instagram" yet,you should try it!!

I almost forgot about this blog...
I've just started to study Spanish at a school. My Spanish teacher is a Peruvian and she is a cheerful person. Her lesson is really interesting but Spanish is quit difficult.
I'd love to go to England and Spain to see soccer games,so I want to improve my Spanish and English abilities.

from iPhone