Very good Patagonia down jacket

Last November, I was fully taking advantage of current exchange rate between US dollar and Japanese yen when I bought a Patagonia down jacket.

http://www.patagonia.com/us/product/patagonia-mens-down-sweater?p=84673-0-889


When I came to the bay area, I did not bring any jackets of mine because I heard that the bay area is warmer even in winter than Tokyo in Japan and jackets are not necessary. However that`s not true somewhat . It is certainly true in the daytime, but in the morning and night we definitely need jackets because temperature often goes down to 40F in this season. That`s why I decided to buy a jacket.
When I told so to my colleague who likes outdoor activities, he really recommended a Patagonia down jacket. According to him, it`s designed for outdoor usage but I can wear it in daily life, and it`s light so it`s easy to carry and store. As you can easily imagine, it is more expensive than other competitive products. I placed much value on lightness so I decided to try it. First of all, I googled it ,and found that a Patagonia special shop is located in Santa Cruz near to the exit of highway 17. At one day after thanksgiving, I went there while expecting thanksgiving sale, but unfortunately the shop did not have it. However I found a favorite jacket there, furthermore I could find XS size which just fits me perfectly. I decided to buy it immediately because it`s really difficult to find good size clothes for me in a lot of shops in US. Evey time I can not find good size clothes I wish I were a little bit taller. And I wish so every time I read motorcycle magazines and catalogs because almost all motorcycle seat is higher for me. However $200 price of that seemed to be expensive for me, so I used Japanese credit card because Japanese yen is obviously stronger than ever before compared to US dollar. One dollar was equivalent to about 120 yen 5 years ago but it is about 77 yen now !  
Anyway let me tell you how the jacket is. It`s is really light and hold warmer air inside the jacket and keep me comfortable during walking. When I went to the office with the jacket, everyone told me that this looks light and easy to walk.

I really like it and I am considering to buy some clothes more.

Thanksgiving day

Key words ; thanksgiving day, turkey day, whole foods, cooked turkey

Thanksgiving day was the first time since I came to US. Things which I got to know about the day are two. The first one is that family members come back and gather home. Second one is that family typically enjoys to eat a roast turkey together with gravy and cranberry sources. Therefore I tried to follow the manner mentioned above. Firstly, I was thinking to cook a roast turkey from scratch, but as I checked how to do it, I got to feel like that it is difficult for me to do that easily just by following manners available in internet because it takes much time to complete every complicated process for more than 6 hours since a turkey is put on a oven and it needs a lot of staffs like sources, a dedicated oven board. Immediately after realizing that, I decided to ordered a cooked turkey because I wanted to experience a perfect cooked roast turkey. And at that time I was thinking I would cook it by myself next year if it is delicious.

During 2 weeks before the thanksgiving days, local radio advertisements were all about the special day which included a organic turkey pre-order at whole foods market. So I went to the whole food nearest my house and tried to order an organic turkey, but unfortunately it was sold out but a non organic order was still be available. My family is only my wife so I wanted a small one but 10 pounds size one was minimum. It is obviously too much size for two peoples, but I ordered that size reluctantly because I really wanted to try how taste a roast turkey is.

(This is just an aside but I sometime see a herd of turkeys in the Racho san antonio park)

At the day, I went to whole foods at 11am and picked a roast turkey with an instruction paper to warm an cooked turkey in an oven. At whole foods, I bought gravy and cranberry sources, and a wine additionally. As soon as I got home, I started to pre-heat a oven and put the cooked turkey but it was a little bit tough work because the 10 pounds turkey was heavier than I though. 2 hour later, everything was ready on a table finally. I remember that my expectation was highest at this moment. Soon after one bite, I was positively feeling that it was very happy for me to experience a traditional food, and at the same time I was negatively feeling that I expected too much and chicken taste is better for me. I did not want to admit that because the ordered turkey was expensive but it was honestly true for me. Finally I realized that likes and dislikes depend on person, and the difference of cultures because a lot of American people continue to do like this annually.

Much part of the turkey was left over but don`t worry about that. I enjoyed that with a fried rice and sandwich later.

Taste was not what I expected,however I thought that this was great experience totally.  

Dosa party

Have you ever heard of dosa ?
I knew what it is first time last Saturday.

Dosa is traditional food in south India, which looks like crepe or pancake made from rice batter and black lentils. Ingredients are vegetables, and dosa is typically served with some soup.
Here is a example picture of Masara dosa from wikipedia.
Link

Last Saturday, our boss in the group, an Indian guy, invited team members and families to a dosa party at his house. According to him, he did a similar party last year and he got a lot of favorable comments from many people so he decided to do it again this year. I replied to him that I would join his party with pleasure without making sure that my wife wants to go, as soon as I got a invitation email from him. Mainly there were two reason. One reason was that dosa was first time for me and my wife. Another reason was that this was very good opportunity for me and my wife to communicate other families in the company. Although I told that to my wife later, she was willing to join with a promise that I never forced her to speak English. It is because she is extremely shy. On the day of the party, we arrived at his house at 6:30 on time. However other people did not come yet and we were surprisingly first. I thought and he told us that this is true Indian time which means that if party is announced to start at 6:30 in advance, then it actually starts at 7:30. This is funny point of a sense of time between Japanese and Indian. If start time is 6:30, then Japanese always come punctually and a party typically start on time. At first when I came to a bay area office, I was very surprised at that, but I spontaneously got used to that over time. As can be expected, everyone came by 7:30 and the dosa party started. At first I tried Masara dosa which ingredients are mainly mushed potato, onion etc. I ate it with curry type of soup. This taste was amazingly very good and I have never experience such taste before in my life. My wife tried mysore dosa which is little bit spicy. She was also surprised at delicious taste because it is first time for her as well and beyond a expectation. Before the party, we worried about its taste because as far as I know, dosa is food for vegetarians and a vegetarian party is first time for us. Finally we were very happy to be abe to enjoyed it this time, and decided to go Indian restaurants which serve dosa foods. If this party will be taken place next year, we are willing to join it.

It's still difficut to communicate in english [pronunciation]

I had a shock for my English communication this week.
Last weekend, I got a overheating alarm on the front pale of my car, so I brought my car to the maintenance shop of car dealer. At that time, I took car shuttle service from the shop to the office at morning and the return path in evening. The shock I had was that I could not communicate with a driver in English. To put it more precisely, I could not understand what he said, and he could not understand what I said. I am 100% sure that the reason must be pronunciation. Honestly speaking, I do not ever care about pronunciation but about how to construct sentence correctly as well as about remembering a lot of words as much as possible. This is partly because that my Japanese accent does not matter in the office and additionally people in bay area usually tolerate many accents depending on many countries. However this shock is good one for me, which makes me realize strongly that proper pronunciation is really necessary.

Mountain Lion

Have you ever heard of mountain lion ?
I had never heard of it before I came here.

My colleague warned me to be careful for mountain lions during trekking in mountains when I was searching good parks for walking around south bay area. He said to me about mountain lions that they are cowardice and scare of human but if I come across them suddenly then they attack me and try to kill me in order to get rid of own scare emotion, like bears. When I heard of that at first time, I thought that the story was exaggerated and lions were not so really dangerous. However I come to know that they are big and  really dangerous ,and we should avoid to see them even by accident as I know them throughout information available in internet. It's because they really look a female lion and are called "Puma" in other word. A lot of people have heard of name of puma, because it is commonly used other than mountain lion which is frequently used in the united states. If you look at the linked page below, you can easily figure out the reason why they are called mountain lion. They are almost like a female lion. 

pictures of mountain lions

Recently, a lot of mountain lions were frequently seen at residential area in bay area. It means that possibility of encounter with them really increases. In fact, several persons were attacked by them and as far as I know, one old man was deadly injured. Moreover a mountain lion was seen twice at Rancho san antonio park where I often go and walk. So I am preparing to protect my throat in the case when I encounter them by accident because they usually aim at throat to kill animals.  

Today morning, I was talking to my other colleague who recently moved to new house close to the castle rock park in Saratoga. According to him, his house is located almost at top of mountain around 1500 feet above the pacific ocean. In fact I know how deep inside mountain his house is because I often go and enjoy trekking at the park near his house and I have seen a coyote there before actually. And I asked him if he has seen a mountain lion, but he said to me that he has not but his friend living near his house has seen a mountain lion in a back yard. Additionally he showed me some pictures which a motion sensor camera took at that time. It was surprising picture that a mountain lion was eating a deer which was caught and killed a short time ago. The mountain lion in the picture almost looks a female lion in the middle of Africa and It is very scare for me. Before I saw this picture, I wanted to see a mountain lion, but I really have to change my mind and try to make noise during trekking so that a mountain lion notice me at first and escape from me. He suggested me that if I come across mountain lions, then hands up to make me appear larger and make noise loudly by speaking and fight back if attacked and never escape from them.

According to information in internet, in the united states mountain lions live at western part of country, so be careful when you visit mountains.

Fleet week in San Francisco 2011

Last weekend, I went to San Francisco to enjoy Fleet week, Navy Airshow, together with my senior who is very familiar with military related things..

I thought we needed to buy tickets for dedicated seats at first when I was planning , but I concerned bad weather seriously because weather was not so fine since early October. Therefore, I did not buy them actually in case for rainy weather.

Fortunately, it was very good weather from early morning. This was really rare because weather at San Francisco was usually fog at morning even in summer season. Although it is less than one year since I came here, but I'm sure of it because I always watch weather forecast which is from Golden Gate Bridge in TV everyday.
Although air show would start at 12:30, we left south bay at noon at that day because our main purpose was to enjoy blue angels performance at first. As we approached to San Francisco, we could noticed that airshow started because we could see some aircraft fly above the city from highway 280. At the same time, I noticed that we were approaching the tail of  long lines of cars ahead to exit, so I though that parking lots near main locations would be already occupied and it would be difficult to find a space to park my car, so  I immediately decided to park my car near Union-Square which is a little bit far from main locations close to Golden Gate Bridge. It's mainly because I had not ever seen such a heavy traffic condition on highway 280 at weekend noon.
After parking the car, we walked to main locations between Golden Gate Bridge and Pier 39, which took around 40 minutes by walk in one way. Those who have visited the city of San Francisco before may know how hard it is to walk there for long distance because there are a lots of steep hills in the city. I can say walking was almost like a light trail in the city. After the exercise, I finally got to the locations, San Francisco Maritime National Historical Park. Additionally we got to know that our previous decision was correct because every parking lots were already full. When we reached the park, there were still space left and we laid our seat on the grass to sit down there. As soon as we started to enjoy to watch air show, FA-18 started to fly and a lot of people enjoyed very much because it was very fast and really close to us. The most surprising thing is that the city of San Francisco permitted that such a huge and fast aircraft can fly over the big city to show its grate performance and enjoy people. This kind of air show in cities would be not acceptable in Japan because Japanese government concern possible accidents. Off course, it is permitted in local areas like outside urban area. Well, finally we enjoyed blue angels performance. They are trained well and showed us how skilled they are to fly over closely each other. However, the missing show was that of B2 stealth boomer. I knew that regrettably when I got home and watched TV.

Here is the link to main page for Fleet Week 2011
http://www.fleetweek.us/page_airshow.html
If you miss this year airshow, do not worry. This takes place every year so enjoy next time though you needs to be patient for one year.

Some people try to get out of nuclear exposed area in Japan

Last time, I wrote about nuclear exposure due to collapse of the nuclear power plants.
This time, I am going to write about story that some people get out of that exposed area.

I'm in California, so I'm not so familiar with recent Japan, but I'm very concerning especially my home town 200 miles far from the plants because it is close to the nuclear plants and exposed with nuclear radiation more or less. It would be dangerous to live there considering accumulation of nuclear material in human body although the Japanese government says it is safe and it does not matter immediately. I strongly sure that it does not soon, but it will matter later as increasing rate of cancer later.
 A few weeks before, I talked to my friend living in Tokyo about how this nightmare disaster affects on behavior of people living there. According to him, those who are older or do not have a child does not care about it so much, but those who have small children really concern how nuclear radiation does harmful effects on their children. Unfortunately the Japanese government does not announce and warn nothing about it while saying it does not matter immediately. However some experts who are very familiar with the Chernoby case strongly emphasis and warned to us that it is not preferable for small children to live even in Tokyo for long time if they judged by detected amount of nuclear radiation. The point we have to think about is that it takes a few years for some results to come out. But if we notice something and take action after that, it will be too late to improve and take care of something. The friend of mine are really really concerning about that, so he calculated the risk of caner and the risk of death by researching a lot of published papers and books by himself. According to his estimation, one of 100 children will die if they continue to live there for 10 years there which is based on the statistical results of Chernoby case. If calculated pessimistically, more than ten times children will die. Therefore he already decided to move to safe area in order to protect his family even though his home town is there and he likes the area very much.

According to him, a lot of people consider similarly that it is better to move somewhere it is safe, and some of them will move actually in the near future.

I have to seriously consider it because I have to go back some day.

Life style changes since large earth quake hit Japan 1

Today I would like to write about how large earthquake affect life style in Japan.

I do not know how much percentage of people in the world know the large earthquake hit Japan March 3 2011, but let me tell you how large it is. The observed magnitude was 9 which is 810,000 times as large as atomic bomb which was dropped to Hiroshima in 1945. Japanese is used to middle class earthquakes because earthquakes like 5, 6 class occurs somewhere in Japan every year, but this is the largest one which has ever hit Japan. As a result, more than 20000 peoples unfortunately died because of Tsunami which was equivalent to 10 meters, although number of peoples who died due to breakdown of house and building was less which showed how strong Japanese house is against even large earthquakes.

In addition to that, worst thing happened at the same time. Nuclear power plants collapsed and became out of control, and consequently evacuated much nuclear material, like, Iodine, Cerium, etc, due to melt down. These nuclear material spread out in south direction from nuclear plants, which is called Kanto including Tokyo, the economic center of Japan, and accumulated there. As our world experienced similar nuclear accident of Chernoby nuclear power plant case which occurred in 1986 in Ukraine, we have already known how nuclear radiation is dangerous and how terrible it affect on human body, especially small children. According to reports, people exposed to be nuclear material are likely to suffer from cancers and some of them can die. As is easily predicted, the risk of cancer is much higher for small children than for adults.  So a lot of people in Kanto are, especially those who have small kinds, have been concerning and afraid of its effect. Actually there are two kinds of exposures. One of them is called external exposure though skin, and another is called internal exposure by eating exposed food, like vegetables, fish, meet, chicken, pork etc which are harvested and caught in exposed area. Unfortunately, half life of accumulated nuclear material Cesium is 30 years, so Japanese people in Kanto area have to continue to worry about everything they eat and its effect, even though it will take more than a few years to be able to see its effects come out.

Next time, I would like to tell you about the story that fear for nuclear exposure drives people move to safe place.

Employment system of Japan

Hi, today I would like to tell you about employment system of Japan.

Last long time after the defeat of World war II, Japanese employment style is type of lifetime employment which is practice of continuing to employ hired employee up to a fixed retirement age. With this type of system, It is good both for employers and employees in a sense that it is pretty stable employment for employees and employees can see easily future promotion and salary increase if they work harder, so employees can keep motivation for work higher. "Stable" here means that employees are never fired unless they commit something bad, like crimes. This system worked well until late 80s because Japanese economic had been growing rapidly up to be becoming the second largest economic country even though Japan had lost everything in the World War II.  However, economic value of Japan was overestimated and its imaginary economic finally collapsed as a large falling in stock market. After this tipping point, Japan has lost its competitive power in the world and entered into long recession period. As a consequence, lifetime employment have not worked well, but Japanese people still has a dream of that employment event though we admit partly that the system is over. So we still stick to it. Japanese companies also still have such idea, so they are not able to fire employees easily. And companies hesitate to hire new employees easily because company still have a idea that they have to employ new person up to a fixed age. This idea is one of reason of bad flexibility of employment and employee can not change their jobs easily.

My point is that Japanese people has to change a mind and forget lifetime employment because it works well only in the high growth of economic. And it does not work in the recession period.

I would appreciate if someone tell me your country employment systems.

English lesson through TV series ( 24 )

Today, I would like to tell you about what I have watched with Netflix.

That's 24, TV series in FOX network. 24 series which had finished last year in 2010 and series had continued up to 8th since 2001. Each series consists of 24 episodes which cover 24 hours about main character Jack Bauer who is federal agent in CTU in Los angels.

These series are very popular in Japan for long time. DVDs were usually released later by a few months along with Japanese translation but I didn't watch them at that time when I was in Japan because DVD rental was only available at that time. One DVD rental typically cost $3 per a few days, so it was pretty expensive for me. But situation changed since I came to United states because I can watch them with fixed $8 per month in Netflix whenever and wherever I want.

Used words and sentences in 24 conversation are not daily English, and they are used in federal agencies against terrorists, which however helps me understand a lot. Let me list up such new words and sentences which I learned throughout 24 here,

Words,
kindnap, testify, insane, hostage, assassination, detonate, swear, unleash, abuse, interrogation, DOD(department of defense), warhead, dispatch, privilege, formidable, propaganda, provoke, treaty, ,,

Sentences
What the hell is that ? What the hell is going on here ? What the hell are you doing ? Son of the bitch. Damn it. I swear I don't know anything about that.

These words and sentences are not often used in daily, so I think I don't have chance for me to use them. Additionally I could learned a lot of things other than words and sentences listed above, like how to say, and how to use English. Let's take "What do you want", "What are you talking about" as examples which are usually used in ordinary life. These sentences seem to be pronounced "Whadoyou want" and "Whareyou talking about". Each words are connected together without breaking between words. I hear so at least although native speakers may do not do so. We, not native speakers, are not used to that, so this is difficult point for non native speaker like me to understand what native speakers say. In addition to that, there is another difficult point for Japanese. It is structure difference between Japanese and English languages. For example, If I say "I have to go home" in Japanese structure, that is "I home go have to". So it needs some translation time for Japanese to understand English at early study stage. Throughout 24 series, I can reduce such time very much although I am still not able to understand all

I am trying to continue to use Netflix to improve my English skill.
If someone knows useful programs in Netflix, please let me know.



   

Netflix

Netfix, this is a great tool for me to get used to English listening.

Let me explain what Netflic is to those who do not know it. Netflix is the largest DVD rental and on-demand moive service company. Originally, service was only DVD rental, but on-demand service was added to services. You can choose whatever combination you like, for instance, only on-demand, only DVD delivery, or both of them. With on-demand service, you can see wide variety things like, movie, anime, TV-series, documentaries, and whatever you want to see. You, however, get to notice that many famous movies are not available in on-demand service, but available only in DVD delivery service. Damn it ! This is the only complaint for Netflix, which I think every time when I see "This movie is only available in DVD service". Nonetheless, I like it very much because I can see a lot of TV series as well as documentary videos from National geographic which are very helpful for me to learn daily English.
So I really thank to the founder of Netflix.   

Next time, I will write about what I have been watching and have learned from TV- series like, " Prison Break " and " 24 " although used words in such video are a little bit slang. 

How lazy I am !

It is more than 2 months since first post even though I decided to start this for my English training.

How lazy I am !

First of all, I would like to tell you about me briefly. This kind of introduction would be necessary when I meet somebody first time. So it's better for me to remember whole sentences so that I can introduce myself smoothly.
I was born and grew up in Japan and am currently working as a engineer for Japanese company. And last year, I was fortunately moved to the branch in bay are in California. This is great opportunity for me. I can learn a lot of things from my colleagues because engineers in the branch are from all over countries, for instance, India, France, Iran, china, Korea, Vietnam, and Romania. I can learn culture, religious things, and how to work. I can, off course, give them Japanese culture.

Since I came here, I realized that I need to improve my poor English. I can not tell them what I think in my mind well yet even though I want to tell my self and Japanese culture more. My reading level is enough, but listening and speaking are not enough to communicate with my colleagues in English.

Regarding listening, only way is to listen English as much as possible from TV, movie, and conversation with my colleagues. Last June, I found internet service "Netflix"which is very useful for me to be exposed in English environment. I can gradually get to know how to speak English throughout TV series in Netflix. I will write it later.

Regarding speaking, only way to improve my speaking is just speak a lot as much as possible. So I need to think a lot of things in English and need to prepare something in English in advance when I need them. That's why I started to this blog.

Therefore I will prepare here what I think and feel.

First post

Hi all,

This is my first post. First of all, let me tell you reason why I decided to start blog.
Honestly, it`s for my English lesson because English is not my mother language and
I strongly believe that thinking, writing, and speaking always in English are
important trainings for me to use English well.
So, in this blog, I am going to put what I see, what I find, what I experience.

I hope this activity help me use English well.