the final post!

This is the final post at last! I will talk more about the video game, Dragon Quest. The latest available Dragon Quest is Dragon Quest 8. You can play it with PS2. Unfortunately it was sold right before the entrance examination of high school. I almost play it because my brother played it next to my room. However I was patient not to play until I pass the exam. I could pass the exam of the high school which I wanted to enter the best and started it. The 3D graphic was great and I though as if I got in the world of Dragon Quest. Not only the graphic, I like the story. If you have not played it yet, you should buy and play it. It would be cheaper than I bought it because Dragon Quest 9 will be sold on March 28. You can play it with Nintendo DS, but I don’t have it. I have to ask my brother to lend it for me. However I do not expect so much with it. Because I do not like to play games on small picture of DS and the main character is too childish. In addition, you can make the main character’s appearance by yourself. The loss of icon is disapponted for me. Even though I pretend not to looking for it, I have to confess that I have already reserved to buy it because my family and I are huge fans of Dragon Quest. I can’t wait for it!!!

I have written more than 14,000 words for this blog this year. The number 14,000 is overwhelming, isn’t it. It was very hard for me because I am not good at doing something regularly. So I had to write in February so much to post tp this blog. I really regret for my rudeness. This writing class was the hardest in throughout this year. It can be the hardest in 4 years in university. However it gave me opportunity to write. I really appreciate for it. Finally I want to say that I’m sorry that my blog posting is late. Not to stop writing, I will continue posting this blog. I will not write as much as 700 words, but I should not stop this practice to write something. If you have a time, please come and read my blog sometimes.



・How do you think your academic writing has changed?
Before this semester and this year, I did not know about MLA at all. I had no idea that there is a strict form to write an academic paper. And my writing before was not able to convince readers because there were not enough reasons and examples to support it. It was so difficult to decide the thesis statement. If the thesis statement is not proper for the paper, I had to change all from the start. Even though I decide the thesis statement, finding proper examples to make readers convinced is hard. However now I know what a thesis statement is and how to show examples.

・What do you think you still need to work on?
If I stop writing, I would forget how to write. And if I read more, I will be able to find examples more easily. I should get accustomed to reading and writing.

・What do you think you can do well now?
I think I can make work cited list well. Although it should be natural that writers can make it correctly, I did not know how to make it at all before. And it will be very useful to write academic paper from now on.

・What will you work on the hardest in your final essay?
What I worked on the hardest in my final essay is to gather examples to support the thesis statement. Because I am not good at reading, it was so difficult for me and took quite a long time. Most of the books in the library that I tried to use were too old to refer to and useless for my paper. So I had to search database on the Internet. Because of this effort, I think I could gather examples to make my paper more satisfying.

countdown and about my hobby

I spend my countdown from 2008 to 2009 in Nanja Town in Ikebukuro with my boyfriend. Only on the New Year’s Day Nanja Town is al-night. We had a very happy time together and went home at 8. My grandmother and uncle came to my family’s house and we had lunch together. My uncle knows that my mother and I like crabs so much and buy us crabs every year. I always looking forward to it every year. My grandmother seemed to be so glad to see us. She likes to talk about old days when my brother and I were small.
The next day, on January 2nd, I went to another grandparents house. My cousins came there too. They are Yuu, 9 year-old girl, and Hinata, 7 year-old boy. Yuu is flexible and learns rhythmic gymnastics. Hinata is leaning judo. I have heard that his father, my uncle, was good at judo when he was young. We are all good friends. After playing for a while we ate crabs, again! It was good! We ate pizza, too. We ate little osechi, japanese traditional meal for new year’s days.
On January 3, I had nothing to do so I stayed at home all the day and studied Spanish because I had an exam on January 6. Spanish was very difficult for me to memolize the conjugation on verb. But now I think I did well on the January 3 as well as January 23, the term examination.
On January 4, I did not go out of my house. In addition, I almost did not go out of kotatsu in my room. It is warm and very comfortable to stay in kotatsu, but I think kotatsu is a monster. Once I get in the kotatsu, it is so hard to get out. If it is in my room, all my family come to my room. As a result, we all played video game for 3 hours! We played with a racing game. My brother is very good at it and it was difficult defeat him. I am the second best player and I won sometimes. Both my parents are not good at racing game. The way my mother drive in the game was terrible. It was fun to play with my family because the last time we played video game together was very long ago. I was shocked that I waste time playing video game, not studying Spanish. However I like to play video games. The best I like is Dragon Quest series. As I wrote before, I have been to the concert three times and I have played all of Dragon Quest, Ⅰ～Ⅷ. Hero of Dragon Quest 1 is alone and travel around the world to defeat the King of Dragon who tries to take over the world. In Dragon Quest 2, there are three main characters: two princes and one prinsess from three kingdoms. I started to play this in February of 2008, and finished on December 27. It took almost tem months because I was busier in university life than I had expected. Dragon Quest 3 is the first that I played. You can make a party member as you like. Because it was the first, it was hard to remember the names of spell. I played Dragon Quest 4 when I was a high school student. I think it took about half a year. The situation the hero is in for the first is tragic. His villege is destroyed and the people are killed by the minions of the devil. He hides in a basement and survives. So he start off alone and gradually meet other members to get in the party. I was so moved tothe story of Dragon Quest 5. At first the main character is a boy and travel around the world with his father. He goes adventure with his friends but his father is killed. He is taken to somewhere and had to work as a slave. He barely escape there and later he knows his real position. He marries, you can choose a bride, and has twin kids. He goes to defeat the devil who killed his father with them. I like Dragon Quest 6 the best. There are two world and the hero finds the way to come and go two world. I would not tell any more because I don’t want to spoil your enjoyment when you play. Dragon Quest 7 is very long, so some say it is boring. However I like it. The main character is a boy living in a small fishing village and he goes to past with his friends using stone stales.

at the end of 2008

On December 24
It was Christmas eve. Most of Japanese are not Christian, but Christmas is something special for us too. I went to Tokyo Dome City with my boyfriend. He does not like roller corsters but we first ride Thunder Dolfine. It is the most extreme ride in Tokyo Dome City. It was the first time that I experienced it. It was very exciteing and I really liked it. On the other hand my boyfriend was so scared. After enjoying in Tokyo Dome City, we went to Roppongi to watch Blue Man Group. I had hoped to watch it since I knew that it going to perform in Tokyo. It was far better than my expectation and what Blue Men did was unpredictable. Looked closely, the faces of Blue Men were scary. Even though I watch it again, it would not be boring for me at all. I want go and see Blue Man Group again!

On December 25
It was Christmas! I went to Odaiba with my boyfriend. We first went bowling. I am really bad at bowling. My ball always went to gutter for the first. The score of one game is about 90. After that we watched a movie P.S. I Love You. I like Gerard Butler. I have been his fan since I watched him in The Phantom of the Opera. I think his voice and himself is so sexy. 300 is also my favorite movie. I like fighting men in movies. Anyway I liked P.S. I Love You, too. It was so moving and I was almost moved to tears. I guessed that my boyfriend was also so moved because his eyes were a little bit red after watching it. After that we went to a huge Ferris wheel but the waiting time was more than one hour. We thought it was ridiculous to wait that long for it so we decided to go home. I was disappointed not ride the Ferris wheel but it was a wonderful christmas.

On December 28
In the morning I planned to go to Sanadabori ground to practice archery. However I got up at eleven so I went there in the afternoon. I am not good at getting up on time. Even though I get up on time once, I tend to go back to bed again. If I have a class, I try so hard not to sleep again, but if I don’t, it is so difficult that I can not get up early. In the ground, there were a few people practicing archery. I shot about 100 and got tired. I wanted to go home and sleep. However I had a birthday party of my friend. He is also a member of the archery club and he came to practice archery, too. The party was held in a yakiniku, grilled meat, restaurant in Shibuya. Before going there, one of my friend, who was also going to the birthday party, went to Loft to buy birthday present. There were 12 people in the party and we all enjoyed it. Yakiniku was very good. After the yakiniku party we went to take purikura. Although some of the member went home earlier, there were still 8. It was hard to take prikura for 8 people. However we got funny purikura and I really like it.
On December 30, I practiced archery. It was the last to practice archery in 2008. In Japan, there is a traditional event “joyano-kane” the temple bell toll on New Year’s Eve. It is a tradition to ring the temple bell 108 times because 108 is the number of our worldly desires. So today, I decided to shoot 108 arrows. Surprisingly I hit my new high score of 50 meters. Until then my best record was 250 which I made this when I first shot 50 meters. And today my score was 254! It is only by 4 point, it was very huge for me and so happy. I was very satisfied today because not only I shot 108 arrows to remove 108 worldly desires but also I broke my own record of 50 meters. In 2009, I want to broke my record of 30 meters soon.

Symphony No. 9 in d-minor “Choral”

Now I talk about the classical concert on December 18. the main program was Symphony No. 9 in d-minor “Choral” composed by Ludwig van Beethoven. Before that, Masayo Katsuyama played the pipeorgan: Paraphrase sur un Choeur de “Judas Maccabée” de Handel composed by Alexandre Guilmant, Chorale Prelude on “Silent Night” composed by Samuel Barber, and “Toccata” from Symphonie pour orgue No. 5. It was the first time that I heard the real sound of it. In the hall of Tokyo Geijutsu Gekijo (Tokyo Metropolitan Art Space), there is a huge pipeorgan. I had been to this hall a few times and I always wanted to hear it. The sound was sometimes powerful and sometimes soft and sensitive. It was like an orchestra although she plyayed alone. I was overwhelmed throughout her playing. After a short break, we came to listen to Symphony No. 9 at last that I had been waiting for with excitement. Last year, I listened to Symphony No. 9 for the first time on TV on New Year’s Eve. Somehow, it became a tradition to play Symphony No. 9 of Beethoven the end of a year in Japan. And it is one of the most famous works of classical music, some melodies were familiar even though I did not knew the melody was from Symphony No. 9. When I first listened to it, I studied German a little. So I looked for the lyric of the fourth movement and tried to sing with my mother who studied German when she was a university student. We enjoyed to listened to it, however it was impossible for us to sing with TV. It was difficult to sing in German. Since then, we have been fans of Symphony No. 9 and we have looked forward to go to the concert and listen to live performance since we bought the tickets in October. The conductor was Kenichiro Kobayashi and played by Japan Philharmonic Orchestra. The first movement starts with unstable tremolo and develop into solemn theme. In the second movement, I especially like the rhythm and timpani of the first part. Between the second and third movements, the chorus came onto the stage because the fourth movement starts as soon as the third ends. The third is my favorite. Opposite to me, my mother says it makes her sleepy. Because it is in B flat major, it has tender and bright sound against the two previous movements. The biggest reason that I like the third movement is that I can hear bassoon than any other movements. The first sound of it is bassoon and it is easier to find the sound of bassoon because it is quieter than other three movements. Although I said my favorite is the third movement, I like the fourth as well as third. It starts only with orchestra first and three motives of previous movements appears and motive of the fourth appears at last. Contrabasses play this motive first and others start to play it gradually. And when the strings and some woodwinds play the main motive, bassoons play obbligato. It is not the main melody but it is said to be the most beautiful obbligato in the history and I think it is true. People usually hear the main melody but I try to listen to this obbligato carefully. If you have chance to listen to this you would satisfy of this. The chorus of the fourth is also attractive. Not only the sound of instrument, I like human voice, too. Bass leaded the chorus first and it is very overwhelming. By the way, soprano was Emiko Suga, alto was Yumiko Kan, tenor was Ken Nishikiori, bass was Satoru Aoto and the chorus was Tokyo College of Music. I have heard Ken Nishikiori’s singing voice on TV, but the live voice was far different and stunning than on TV. I was so surprised knowing that there was not microphone. And the large chorus was also amazing. The chorus was very beautiful, let alone it was powerful.
The concert was great but there is one thing I want to say at the end. There were people who did not turn off their cell phone and speak during the performance. It was very annoying to hear telephone ringing middle of the play. If you go to classical music concerts I ask you never forget to turn off your cell phone. Please!!!

classical music

On Thursday 18 December, I had three classes and I went to a classical concert with my mother. Until I became a high school student, I was not interested to classical music at all, nor was my mother. However I joined the brass band club and knew how wonderful to play music. When I was about ten there was a school event to go to a classic concert. I fell asleep because I was not able to understand classical music and did not like it. It was nothing but boring for me then. However I only remember “Sabre Dance” composed by Aram Khachaturian. I liked the speed of the rhythm and the liveliness. It was very powerful and it was not boring at all. I really liked it. It is the only one that I still remember played that day.
In junior high school days, I had no opportunity to listen to classical music. However in high school, I became a member of the brass band club. In addition, a drama “Nodame Cantabile” became popular and I liked it. It is based on a comic about classical music and students of a college of music. One of the main characters is Megumi Noda. She is called “Nodame” because her name is “Noda Me”gumi. Nodame is a piano student. She is a very talented pianist but she wants to be a kindergarten teacher. She can play what she hears although she is not good at reading the music score. Shinichi Chiaki is also a piano student but he is a talented pianist and violinist who wants to become a conductor. Nodame and Chiaki happen to be next door neighbors so they affect each other and slowly fall in love. I like both the drama and the comic. Not only they are fun, they give me knowledge of classical music. If I did not watch this drama, I would not have been interested in classical music.
It was before this drama that I went to an orchestra concert of my motion. The program of the concert is music of Dragon Quest, which is one of the most popular RPG in Japan. I really like this video game and the music is very beautiful and wonderful. If you hear the music played by the orchestra, you would never think of it as a game music. I started to get interested in classical music right after this Dragon Quest concert in 2006.
In 2007, I went to two classical concerts with my mother. One is Dragon Quest concert regularly held in August. The programs in 2006 were from all Dragon Quest series, but in 2007 the programs were from Dragon Quest Ⅵ. The music of the Ⅵ is the best for me. The other concert we went to played the Symphony No. 9 in E Minor “From the New World” composed by Antonín Dvořák, Piano Concerto No. 2 composed by Rachmaninoff, and Boléro composed by Ravel. If you are not interested in classical music, you might know the melody. It is very famous. Piano Concerto No. 2 is not as popular as “From the New World” so I did not know this until it was played in “Nodame Cantabile”. Though I can not play the piano at all, I can see it is far difficult. In the Piano Concerto No. 2, I like the first movement the best. Boléro is my mother’s and my favorite. It starts with a steady rhythm by Snare drums and the rhythm continues to the end. The melody is passed among different insturuments: flute, clarinet, bassoon, clarinet, oboe d’amore, trumpet, saxophone, horn, trombone and so on. The rhythm is passed these instruments with a steady crescendo so it gets louder and more powerful. I like the swelling of this. And when I listen to this, I look forward to a part of a bassoon solo. As I said before, many instruments pass the melody and bassoon is the third. It is always difficult to hear the sound of bassoon in a loud orchestra but I can hear it clearly when it is the solo part of bassoon. I was so moved glad to listened to Boléro live and so was my mother. We were very satisfied with the concert and then we became the real fans of classical music.

my childhood friends

On December 8, I met three childhood friends in Shibuya. They are Manami, Kyoko and Chizuru. We have been friends for more than 15 years because we lived in the same condominium. We went to the same kindergarten, same elementary school and same junior high school. We went to school together every morning and played together after school. Even on weekend and in vacation I did not feel lonely at all because I was able to see them easily. In junior high school days, we all three belonged to the chorus club. We were used to sing on our way home, which is now, I think, embarrassing. When I was with them, I felt so comfortable and fun. However when we were the third grade students in junior high school, Kyoko had to move to Yokohama. We were so sad and missed her. After that, we all chose different high schools and went to respective ways. We had few opportunities to meet when we were high school students. We were so busy since Kyoko and Chizuru had part-time job, and Manami and I belonged to brass band club of each high school. We could meet only once a year. Two of us became university students, and the others became junior college students. We gathered in Ikebukuro in May. I wrote about it last semester. And although we are all busy we could gather with other members of the chorus club in September. We went to a family restaurant and chatted for about more than 4 hours. After dinner we moved to a park and played with fireworks. It was so beautiful and we really enjoyed it. However because it was almost 11 and one of the members’ appearance was a little bit childish, the police stopped us and talked to us on our way home. We were so confused but the police confirmed our ID and age, and let us go. Although we had a trouble like this, we enjoyed that night very much.
Now, let’s return to the subject. Three friends and I gathered in Shibuya. Kyoko, Chizuru and I met in front of Hachiko at 16:30 but Manami had to attend a class until 17:30. So we went to a karaoke and sang for about an hour. We first sang “butter-fly”. It is an opening song of a Japanese animation “Digi-mon Adventure” about 10 years ago. When I was little I liked it and watched it every week, so did my friends. We did not have to hesitate to sing any song because we have known each other for quite a long time. We enjoyed singing and at 18:00 I got a call from Manami. The day before Manami told me that she wanted to go to “Sweets Paradise.” You can eat as much as you like for 1,480 yen at the restaurant. There are not only delicious cakes but also spaghetti and curry and rice. Manami joined us at Shibuya station and we went to “Sweets Paradise.” After singing a lot we were so hungry. There were many kinds of cakes and I ate most of them. I liked cheesecake the best. They were very good but I was sick of eating only sweets after a while. I started eating spaghetti and salad so I was able to eat sweets again. We talked and ate a lot. I wished the time being with them would last forever. After one and a half hour we were not able to eat any more. We walked to Parco because we thought it would be hard to be shaken in a train right away because we were full. We didn’t want to go home so soon but we decided to go home at 9:00 because we didn’t want our parents worry about us. It was sad to say good-bye to Kyoko because she lives in Yokohama and we live in Saitama. As I have thought, the train was very crowded. But it was easier than always for I was with my friends though I always take a train alone. We went to the same condo together by bike from the station. I want to make as opportunity to gather with them soon.

Tokyo Disney SEA!

Friday 31, October
It was the day before Sophia festival and the school was closed. So I went to Tokyo Disney Sea with my friend. Although the time Disney Sea opened was 9:00, we arrived there at 8:00. I don't like to be in the back of the long line before entering the park. So when we stand in the line, it was only 3 meters to the gate. It was a little bit cold just to stand for an hour. We talked about the plan what to do in the park. I like exciting roller coasters such as "Journey to the Center of the Earth", "Raging Spirits" and "Tower of Terror". However he told that he was weak at them. I asked him to challenge with me and he accepted reluctantly. When the gate opened, a lot of people ran toward "Tower of Terror", the newest ride in Disney Resort. The last time I went there was in March and I really liked it. He ran fast but I was not able to run that fast for a long time. So I handed him my passport to get a fast-pass and he ran alone. Fast-pass is a very useful ticket that if you have one, you can get on the ride without standing in the long line for a long time. After we got the passes, we got in the normal line to ride it. The concept of this ride attraction is an elevator falling from the top of a hotel. It was so exciting and I loved it. On the other hand, he was scared to trembling. After that we went to "Journey to the Center of the Earth". Sadly, it was stopped to check the system. So we went to "Raging Spirits". It is the second newest ride that turns 180°. Usually I have to wait to ride it for more than 30 minutes, but it took only for 5 minutes today! When he saw the twisted rail for the first time, he was really scared. However he got calm after the ride. He seemed to accustom himself to ride such roller coasters. So we went to "Indiana Jones Adventure: Temple of the Crystal Skull". In this ride, we get on a vehicle like a car and run through Temple of the Crystal Skull. I like the movies Indiana Jones and this ride too. After that we had lunch in a restaurant and watched a show of Donald, Goofee, Chip & Dale, and Mickey there. I always have lunch in the restaurant every time I go to Disney Sea. It is my favorite restaurant. I ate chicken burger, and he ate fish burger. After lunch we went to aquatopia. It is a ride that runs and turns on water. It is especially beautiful at night because it is illuminated. However it was day when we rode it. We went to "Journey to the Center of the Earth" in order to check whether it is available or not. Fortunately, it was available and there was a twenty-minute wait. So we got in and I was so excited, however he was scared. It was very fun as I expected, and less scary for him as he expected. He seemed to become like it. When it got dark, the park was illuminated and the scene was so beautiful. And it got less crowded at night. We rode "Raging Spirits" without waiting at all. Because we didn't have to wait, we went to "Raging Spirits" about eight times. And the friend was no longer scared of it. We rode so many ride that I can't remember them all. It was the least crowded day that experienced in Tokyo Disney Sea. We could spend more wonderful time than we planned because it was not crowded. I was so happy to go there with him, and I want to go to Tokyo Disneyland with him soon.

However this is not the end of the story. I used Musashino line to go home and the train was so crowded. I thought I might be crushed. It was so tough to be in the crowded train after walking a long time. All seats were occupied, and I had to stand for about 30 minutes. Fortunately it got less crowded and I could sit down. I was so tired but I had a very good time.