maiko-san

C1 Examination for Goethe-Institute in wrirting expressions (65 minutes) Today  many people write emails as a means of communication. What advantages and disadvantages of emails do you see when you compare them to writing a letter? State your thoughts, considering following 4 points. 1. Examples for email (Your personal experiences) 2. Meaning of email in your coutry 3. Argument for these communications 4. Your personal opinion A large amount of people write more email than a letter these days in Japan. I find the means of email totally modern. Thanks to Microsoft Corp. personal comupters developed dramatically in 1990s. The advantages of email are simple, fast and free of charges. Furthermore adresees can pick up your email anytime he likes without wasting his important time. Here I'd like to show you examples. I used to write emails to an American. About 10 minutes later I got an answer from him. It was surprising that I was able to receive it so fast. I could h...

Good morning, everyone. Today I'd like to talk about my memory of New Year Holidays in my  childhood, in Koenji, Tokyo. One the Eve of New Year, my mother bought a pine tree and decorated the front door of our house with it. When the wall-clock hit 12:00 O'clock midnight, I ate "over the year noodles" with my family, hearing temples' bell ringig 108 times. On the first day of January we ate for breakfast  Ozoni made of Bonito's soup, a rectangular shaped rice cake and various vegetables. My mother cooked the best Ozoni in my life. After breakfast I went outside to see Aki-Chan, my best friend in the neighborhood. We went to an elementary school nearby. On the school ground we flew kites high up in the sky. Then we dropped in Aki-chan's house where we played various games together, for example a banker's game, a baseball game produced by Epox Company. We had lots of fun. During the course of time Aki-chan went to Gakushuin school while I went to S...

Hello everyone! Today I'd like to introduce to you a book entitled "Seduction". It was written by an Austrian author by the name of Marlene Streeuwitz. She was born in Viena in 1950. At a university she studied law, slavish and cultural history. After graduation she worked as a film director and pesided over theater performances and TV dramas. I decided to read this novel, because Goethe-Institute recommended that those who take intitute's C2 examination should read the book beforehand and write a review of the book during the examination. The main character is a 30-year-old young woman named Helene Gebhradt, who is a single mother. For she married Greror in her early 20s. But soon he walked out on her because of his secretary. Therefore Helene had to take care of thier small daughters, Barbara and Katharina, while she worked for a PR company to get a salary. At the same time she was always looking for right guys to satisfy her sexual desire. She had a best friend...

Good morning, everyone! Today I'd like to talk about relationships between nature and health. For years I suffer from tinnitus or ringing sounds in ears and in the head as well. My tinnitus drives me crazy when I stay alone in the high-rise apartment. I believe the air pressure of the 20th floor's height has a bad effect  on my ear-ringing. My doctor says that my disease is incurable; All you have to do is to learn to live with tinnitus. Now I'm going to tell you how I deal with this obstinate disease. Every morning I go shopping to a supermarket to buy fruits, vegetables, Cokes and snacks for my family. That's a good excercise for my blood circulation. After that I drop in "Doutor" to drink an iced coffee that costs me 220 Yen. When I hear rock and roll music in the 1970s in the cafe, it kind of heals me. You know, music therapy works out. I make it a point of taking a German book with me. I try to read at least half a page to get accustomed to the la...

Our class teacher took us to Hakone in summer in the 2nd year of Seikei elementary school. We spent a couple of nights at Senkyorou-inn and Kanpourou-inn. Senkyorou stood on the hill far away from the center of the village. The inn was a shabby-looking house. When it was dark it seemed to me as if a lot of witches lived in there. We called it a spooky house. On the other hand Kanporou-inn was a big gorgeous Ryokan near the Ashinoko-lake. When I ate lunch with other classmates on a large 100 Tatami room, I noticed a beautiful white flower through the window by the staircase. I asked a middle aged woman who waited on me, "I was wondering what's the name of the flower." She answered the flower is a lily. After that I went out into the garden and found so many beautiful lilies blooming beside the pond. Later on I visited Chicago on my buisness trip and took part in a seminar held by the mother company named Amoco Chemical. A beauftiful young blonde woman happened to sit nex...

I was born in 1948 in a small farmhouse in Toyoda near Tokyo. I remember that my father in his farmer's clothes working diligently on the field, harvesting fruits and vegetables, while my mother was busy watering plants. She wore a worn-out work trousers(in Japanese "monpe" ). One day my mother took me out for a walk. It was a beautiful, sunny, and  warm day. As a matter of fact we were surrounded by the green forest, the small Asakawa-river and the yellow rice field. At a far distance in the west I could see the blue colored Keio train chugging along in the direction of Shinjuku. In the west I enjoyed watching the small Takao Mountain on the edge of Tokyo. It was the first time in my life that I encountered nature. It was so peaceful. However, I belatedly got to know that my family had lived in so many different regions in Nagano Prefecture during the Pacific War. After the War they ended up living far out in Toyoda from downtown Tokyo. Because of the bad t...

A couple of weeks ago I left Minoo at 11:30 as usual and arrived at my condominum exactly at 13:00. I was surprised to see all the three elevators were not in operation. The front desk manager said that they would repair the elevators until 14:30 Therefore I  had to climb up the stairs all the way up to the 20th floor. When I reached my apartment, I was so exhausted that I wanted to take a nap. On the spur of the moment, there was an annoucement over the speaker. It says, "Fire! Fire" The fire broke out on the 14th floor. Please proceed to the emergency exit and calm down while you are evacuating." They made the same annoucement over and over again. My wife didn't think about it seriously. But I was frantic. I dashed out to the elevator hall where I met Mrs. Lawyer who also lives on the 20th floor. She said she would check out on the 14th floor and went down the emergecy stairs. All of a sudden the annoucement has been changed. It says, "Fi...