Life as it is... living in Japan

“I guess you’re wondering how I became so international,” she said. 「どうして私がこんなに国際的になったんだろうと思っているでしょ！」と彼女が言った。 Actually I was kind of wondering that. Here is a woman in her late 60s, raised in a time when English education was based almost entirely on the grammar translation method which ensured that her generation can say nothing but ‘This is a pen,’ speaking to me confidently in conversational English beyond that of many of the English teachers that I work with. 実はその通りだった。英語教育が文法翻訳法を中心にしていた時代に育った６０代後半の女性が自信満々で英語で私と会話をしていた。同じ年代の人のほとんどが This is a pen しか言えないのに、この人は一緒に働いている英語の先生よりぺらぺらだ。 Let me tell you the story that she told me as I remember it. 彼女の話をちょっとだけ書かせてもらおう。 “Well,” she began, “it started when I was in university. I was studying English at a university in Tokyo. Of course at that time, English education was not very good, so I couldn’t speak English at all. There were two exchange students at my school, who were travelling around the world. One was a man fro...

At the suggestion of my lovely friend Sinead, I have decided to write in detail about my experience in running my first half marathon. 大好きな友達シネードのおすすめで、初ハーフマラソンについて詳しく書こうと思う。 Let me just start with, unless you have time to train and follow a proper nutrition plan, I don’t think a half marathon is ideal. A 5km or 10km you can wing to a certain extent, but a half marathon will cause some serious burden on an unprepared body, especially the joints. My knees and ankles really hated me during the race and for several days after as well. I could barely climb the single flight of stairs to my second floor apartment. まず、体を鍛えるトレーニングと栄養プランがないと、ハーフマラソンはきついと思う。 5 キロや 10 キロのマラソンだったら、なんとかなるけど、ハーフマラソンの場合、準備しないと体の負担が大きい。特に関節。走っている時から数日後まで、膝と足首がすごく痛かった。２階にある自分のアパートまでの階段がきつかった。 So let’s talk about training. I have been running regularly (approx 2-3 times a week) for about 2 years now. My usual distance is 4-5km which I can run easily under 30 mins. I sometimes push myself to do a long...