(Wednesday, January 18, 2006)
　I could expect what would happen at the special committee of the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, and Transport carried out yesterday. Susumu Ojima, the president of HUSER, repeatedly refused to answer questions from the law-makers. It was only too natural. When you were in serious danger of being terminated, would you be brave enought to tell all the truth? After the testimony Susumu Ojima told the press that he would do his best to make up for the loss of his customers, not hesitating to show tears in front of TV cameras.

　Today in the staff room of KGC I was surprised at the conversation between the two native teachers. One of them asked the other one some questions so frankly that I myself felt a little nervous. It's important to be frank with co-workers, but we always need to be thoughtful and to pay respect to each other. But when I look back on my past life, I used to have such frank conversation with my co-workers at public schools. Maybe I was so frank with them that I was hated by lots of teachers, which was no problem for me, though.

(Thursday, January 19, 2006)
　One of my customers who ordered an e-dictionary from me was a college student in Tokyo. She was going to start working as an English teacher at a small cram school this April. I hope the modern technology will fully help her improve her own English. Anyway I was so happy to get to know a young woman who had lots of dreams in her bright future to come. I thought I had to try my best to become a better English teacher myself.

　The vice-president of a LIVEDOOR-related trading company has been found dead in Okinawa, who is believed to have killed himself after the sensational stock incident. Why did he have to do that? It is true that the Tokyo Stock Exchange Market stopped all the trading late yesterday afternoon for the first time in its history. But it is also true that people were too crazy about making lots of money by exchanging stocks, which seemed to go too far. The vice-president should not the only one to be blamed. Who has caused this bubble-like atomosphere?

　This morning I was almost dead crashing into the car running ahead of me. The car pulled over suddenly because there was a car far ahead parked illegally on the side of the street near Tsujido Station. I myself had to pay attention to another car trying to suddenly come out into the street and it was too late when I noticed the car ahead had made a sudden stop. I braked but I couldn't avoid running into the car in front. The basket attached to the front of my motorbike was crashed, but it absorbed most of the shock and I was nearly safe except for a slight pain in my both shoulders. The driver of the car I ran into was surprised and came out to see I was OK or not. I was lucky that the driver was so nice to me. It was MY fault. I've got to be more careful when we ride my motorbike around there.

(Friday, January 20, 2006)
　It's so cold here in Shonan Area. According to the weather forecast, we're going to have some snow next Sunday or maybe tomorrow. I have a lot of classes on Saturdays, so I hope it won't snow tomorrow.
　On my way back home from KGC it already started to snow. Will we have snow-covered ground tomorrow morning for the first time this winter? But it's only kids who would be happy to see lots of snow covering the ground. Many business people including me would have some trouble going to work if it snows heavily.

　I have good news today. As I already wrote in my diary, Peare Fujisawa is closing at the end of this March, but the English classes that have been handled by KGC instructors are going to be maintained at KGC from this April. The students in my class seemed to be happy to hear the news. I was also relieved to know that Mr.Hatanaka, the Principal of KGC, has made a quick action as he promised us to do. Those who would like to start something new to enrich their retired lives should be guaranteed good chances to learn whatever they want to. This is what the word "life-long education" really means.

(Saturday, January 21, 2006)
　Hey, all the Shonanians, look out of the windows! The ground is covered with snow as if it were a Christmas morning. This is the first snowfall this year around our Shonan Area. Many businessmen still have work on Saturdays, so they are having a hard time getting to their offices this morning. Of course I'm wondering how I should go to work this morning. My first class starts at 10:30 in the morning, so maybe I'll be leaving home in about 15 minutes and riding my motorbike slowly to the language school. No more accidents, please!

　I heard from my wife that Ryoma looked really happy when he left home for his walk with my mother in the snow. It was his second time to take a walk in the snow. I've been believing that he hates cold weathers, but I might have been wrong in thinking that way. "Dogs look happy running in the snow, while cats stay in the kotatsu running away from the snow." As the old Japanese song goes, Ryoma could be fond of snowy days.

(Sunday, January 22, 2006)
　When I woke up this morning, I found it had already stopped snowing. But the small path to the wider street was covered with ice. So all the neighbors gathered together to take the ice away from the path so that their cars might easily come into their parking space. It was so tiring. I didn't feel like eating breakfast for a while because I was too tired.

　Today my cousin's funeral was held and after that his body was cremated. My wife and I picked up one of his bones into the urn, or the pot for the cremated bones and ashes. Life is so fragile. Until the end of last year he was in so-so health. It was about ten days ago that he was carried to the hopital because of the brain bleeding. He'd been alive thanks to his strong heart. That's what one of the nurses said to some of his relatives. Now what I can do is just sincerely pray for his soul. Please God bless him.

(Monday, January 23, 2006)
　Mr.Horie, the president of LIVEDOOR, was arrested with three other co-workers soon after he was asked to visit the Tokyo Public Prosecutor's Office to answer their questions. It means that the prosecutors had already collected enough evidence to arrest him and other members of the company. It is said that the prosecutors acted wisely so that the top people including Mr.Horie might not delete every information that would prove their crime. This time it was really a "LIVEDOOR shock" to many people in this country.

　Asked if he had some responsibility in supporting the arrested president in the 9.11 election, Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi told the press that the LDP had nothing to do with him and that the LDP had had no intention to completely back him up in spite of the fact the some big guys of the LDP, such as Mr.Takebe and Mr.Takenaka, went over the Hiroshima to make a back-up speech for him to win against the former LDP big cheese Mr.Kamei. Now it must be a great shock to the LDP also.

(Tuesday, January 24, 2006)
　I feel it's getting colder and colder day by day. We Shonanians are not used to chilly weathers, so we're having a hard time riding a motorbike through the freezing-cold wind at night. I don't know why, but more and more drivers are getting irritated and tend to think only of themselves. When they are in a hurry, they ignore the traffic rules and try crazy driving through busy cities. Can the take responsibility for what might happen because of their mad driving? Last year a man was hit by a car early in the morinig. He was instantly killed in the accident, but the responsible driver ran away. The crazy driver was such a careless guy that he visited the police station for what happened to his car after the terrible accident and the police found the evidence left on his car that could prove he was the killer driver.
　How can you stay calm after killing a man by accident? In many hit-and-run cases, the killers usually confess their crimes when they came to themselves. But in the case I mentioned above, the killer driver was not thingking of confessing his crime. What a scary world we live in!

　Anyway when you ride a motorbike, you'd better run as slowly as possible. When you're riding a motorbike, nothing will protect you when you're involved in a car accident. If you don't want to give your life an unexpected sudden ending, you must drive carefully and pay every possible attention to the pedestrians and vehicles around you.

(Wednesday, January 25, 2006)
　It is true that the Japanese Constitution assures our free thought, but when you are in an position that is both important and influencial, you sometimes have to hide your thought or emotion from public attention. Prime Minister Koizumi's visit to the Yasukuni Shrine is not just a personal question. He has to take into consideration how many people in China and Korea feel about his visiting the shrine. Even if Mr.Koizumi has no intention of justifying Japan's involvement into the Pacific War, they don't necessarily feel the same way as him. How can a top Japanese statesman be so blind to the international situation surrounding Japan? Why do so many Japanese people support his points of view?

　I think all the statesmen should think of the interests of their people first. Is it beneficial for Japanese people for the Prime Minister to visit the Yasukuni Shrine where the souls of some first-class war criminals are enshrined? If Mr.Koizumi personally hopes to pay respect to those who were killed related to World War �U, he should secretly pray for them in his own room, not in before public eyes. What do you think, everyone?

(Thursday, January 26, 2006)
　Last night I fell asleep in the living room. At 3:00 sharp, as my mother told me, Ryoma sneaked into my futon to escape from the coldness. Until then he had been sleeping on the sofa, which he usually does. My mother has often told me that Ryoma makes it a rule to sneak into her futon at 3:00 sharp every morning. It's quite interesting that he knows the time to go into the futon exactly.

(Friday, January 27, 2006)
　Since I had an accident in which I ran into the car in front, I have been so careful when I ride my motorbike to school. It's so dangerous to run along the main street running side-by-side with the JR railroad, because there're so many sideways connected to the main road. Sometimes careless drivers try to suddenly come into the main road, when I have to make a sudden brake. So now I try to run as slowly and carefully as possible so that I might not be involved in a traffic accident.
　On the other hand I sincerely hope that the police will take some immediate action for the lot of cars illeagally parked on the side of the main road, which might cause serious accidents. Those drivers are not interested in the likely accidents their parked cars might cause to happen. They could be punished severely. Maybe many people would agree with me.

(Saturday, January 28, 2006)
　Today I started teaching at 10:30 in the morning and finished teaching at 9:00 in the evening. Saturdays are my busiest day of the week. I feel exhausted around the time when I teach the STEP pre-1st class. After the class is over I ride my motorbike for about half an hour to move to a private house in Takinosawa, where I teach English to a 9th-grade boy for about two hours. I think I can keep on working like this because the students are so eager to learn English from me. I'm sure they always give me energy to keep up with the hard schedule.

　It was freezing cold last night. On my way back from Takinosawa I felt as if I was going to become an ice sculpture driving down the long slopes on my motorbike. I couldn't even turn my head right or left. I even felt some pain in my neck. I think I should wear a muffler around my neck, not for my motorbike, of course.

(Sunday, January 29, 2006)
　Recently I noticed that we don' have NOVA near Fujisawa station if I understand correctly. It is said that where you have NOVA other language schools can't easily make profits. As long as we don't have NOVA in Fujisawa it means we have good chances to get lots of students at ECC. But there are some other language schools like AEON which is financially by far the toughest. But I believe ECC have the best qualified instructors, Japanese and native. That's why the company hasn't been out of the market for more than 30 years since it was founded in Kansai.

　Why doesn't the suspect Horie keep on denying what he's been involved? Does he think someone in power would help him out of the terrible situation he is in? Some politicians of the ruling LDP are concerned about the incident? Wow, it really is a LIVEDOOR shock!

(Monday, January 30, 2006)
　I'm now taking care of the private lesson at ECC in which the student is learning how to read effectively and quickly. So-called fast reading is not such an easy job as you expect. First you have to stop pronouncing every English word in your mind while you're reading the paragraph. If you speak silently the speed you read at will be sure to slow down. But is it possible to move your eye from a position to another position at a certain speed and grasp the general contents of the paragraph? Yes, it is, but it needs a lot of training. You have to enlarge your eye span or the area which comes into your eyesight.
　Some Japanese people are very good at reading fast, which is called "naname-yomi." They move their eyes quickly from postition to position and still can able to understand what is written in the paragraph. My wife is a fast reader because she's been reading a lot, but I'm not.

　In the age when we can't see our future clearly, we tend to long for the appearance of a strong leader. At first Prime Minister Koizumi could be the one, but he betrayed our expectation. Who's going to be in charge of the Japanese government? Who's blessed with a strong leadership that most of us expect? Is there anyone who can rule the country just like the 8th shogun Tokugawa Yoshimune did?

　What a great mistake! I said we didn't have NOVA around Fujisawa Station. But I found the big sign of NOVA near the ECC building. Why haven't I noticed such a big signboard? The only advantage we have is ECC is closer to the station than NOVA.

(Tuesday, January 31, 2006)
　Native speakers usually speak so fast that sometimes we don't catch what they're talking about even when they're usuing easy words to express their ideas. Last night an American co-worker at ECC asked me about the weather outseide. I couldn't understand what he said, and had to ask him to say that two more times. He just said, "Is it still warm outside?" He spoke so fast and his words were so much connected together, which usually happens in American English, that I couldn't easily catch his words. I should train my listening ears much harder.

　When I came home from ECC, my wife was upstairs and didn't hear the bell, and Ryoma welcomed me in the hall with a small ball in his mouth. It seemed that he wanted to play with me with the ball. He could tell the sound of the engine of my motorbike, so when I stood in front of the door, he was already in the hall waiting for me to come in. How smart he is!

(Wednesday, February 1, 2006)
　I'm really sorry for the students who have been learning English at NCB, which suddently went bankrupt and had closed the door to its students without notice. All the students at the language school are at a loss what to do now. The manager of the school told the press that he would try his best to ask other major language schools to accept its students who have already payed their tuition for the coming school year.

　It was raining "cats and dogs" late this afternoon. I asked one of my American co-workers if they really use the expression "raining cats and dogs," and his answer was in the negative. According to him they would rather say, "It's pouring." when they want to say, "It's raining heavily." Some information we get here in Japan is too old to use in practical conversations. So I often enjoy checking it up asking my native co-workers. It's fun to get up-to-date information about the English language, because it means I make my own grammar book.

(Thursday, February 2, 2006)
　It's a very warm morning we had today. I was almost freezed while riding my motorbike back home last night, so I felt so comfortable this morning. Now that the coldest day "taikan" is over, it's natural that we're having more and more warm days toward the end of March. I'm looking forward to the season of cherry blossoms. I hate the cold weather. I might come to like the season if I start skiing again someday.

　I used to check my lottery tickets soon after the results were made public every time I bought ones. But these days I'm not so eager to check my tickets. Maybe because I don't believe I can easily get the first prize. But still I keep on buying the lottery. Maybe because I hope someday suddenly the Goddess of good luck will smile at me. Today I bought two tickets for 2,000 yen, but I haven't checked them yet. It's already past twelve midnight.

(Friday, February 3, 2006)
　It seems that I've caught a bad cold. This morning when I woke up, I had a bad headache. My wife had a diarrhea. Our dog Ryoma often sneezes. My mother seems to have a cold too. I had a cold from the end of last year to the second week of this year. I thought I had got rid of my cold, but I hadn't. I should have been more careful. My cold affected all the other members of my family. I'm very sorry for them.

　I was surprised to see the mimic board for the softball pages. Why can they ban me without knowing anything about what happened to me? Did they read my book? They think that I ran away from some difficult situation. Why do they say that? I'm in more difficult situation now. Do you think today's public school teachers are willing to quit the job so easily? As long as they stay there, they can get incredibly high salary that usual people cannot afford to get. I got upset to read the board, but if I worte anything to explain my situation, there would be more disgusting writing. So I wrote in here in English, because I knew that those who were against me would not be interested in my English diary.

(Saturday, February 4, 2006)
　"Setsubun" is the day when we say goodbye to the cold winter and hello to the warm spring. But according to the weather forecast, we're going to have a real chilly day today. The temperature of the early morning will be just 1 degree Celcius, which will be enough to freeze a lot of people to let them stay home. I have to go to the morning class starting at 10:30a.m. on my motorbike. What a lucky guy!

　I was wrong in understanding that "setsubun" is the day when the warm spring starts. More exactly it is the day when the cold winter ends. According to the dictionary "setsubun" is the day before the starting of spring called "risshun." Last night, as I wrote above, the weather forecast said that we would have a very cold day today, but it's been comparatively warm since this morning. Maybe the cold air didn't come southward as they had expected.

(Sunday, February 5, 2006)
　I was wrong again in feeling that it was a relatively warm day yesterday. Actually it was the coldest day of this winter so far. Late yesterday afternoon it suddenly started snowing here in Chigasaki City. It was snowing while I was walking our dog Ryoma. He seemed to be happy to see snow again, but I wanted to come home as soon as possible. As the temperature of the ground went down toward yesterday evening, the snow stayed on the ground easily to make it all white in a moment. They had 3-centimeter-deep snow in Hachijojima Island, which was the first great snowfall since the great snowfall in 1946.

　It's so dangerous and scary to ride along the ice-covered road. Sometimes I can see the surface of the road is covered with thin ice. My Canadaian co-worker told me that it was called "black ice" in his country. Black ice is the one which cannot be easily seen and makes it much more dangerous for car drivers to run on the roads with it.

　The semi-fainal leagues of the Kawasaki Open Softball Championship were held today. Hagisono Junior High couldn't go on to the final tournament, which I knew from the writing to the mimic board of my website. Hagisono's manager Mr.Ide has just come back from his recuperation period after major surgery he got last hear. It must have been hard work for him to manage his team. Good job, Mr.Ide!

(Monday, February 6, 2006)
　Last night I saw a popular TV program "Dramatic House Reforms―Before After" in which a family of 4 people living in a narrow house asked for help. An first-class architect tried his best to reform the narrow house into a modern one with lots of convenient structures. After the reform made by a genius architect the house was incredibly modernized and every one of those four people could have their own personal space in their new house. It cost them as much as 8 million yen, but the reformed house was worth much more than that.

　It started snowing while I was handling the regular class at ECC. When I got out of the building, it was not snowing heavily, but on my way back home on my motorbike, the snowflakes blowing to the shield of my crash helmet got bigger and bigger. As I came close to my house, I had to ride my motorbike as slowly and carefully as possible. I guess it's going to snow all through the night to let us see snow-covered landscape tomorrow morning.

(Tuesday, February 7, 2006)
　Contrary to my expectation, it stopped snowing early this morning and we're having a rather calm morning today. The weather forecast says that we're going to have an early summer weather this afternoon. Soon the warm wind from the south will starts blowing into the Japan's mainland and the highest temperature in Tokyo will rise to be 16 degrees Celcious. I wrote that the winter still seemed to stay with us, but somewhere we don't know we've been welcoming the warm spring. What a surprise!

(Wednesday, February 8, 2006)
　I started a new English blog entiltled "Things As I See It" today. I'm going to try to write in something different from this English diary. I don't know if it's worth putting into practice. Let's see what will happen to the blog. I decided to work on it after knowing there are so many people who manage their own English blogs and who want to link their website to other people's websites. If I find my blog to be a good place for some people to exchange their ideas, then I'll try to like my site to other blogsites in English.

　This morning soon after finishing my breakfast, I felt sick and went to the bathroom to throw up. I hadn't completely got rid of my bad cold. Until late in the afternoon I felt something wrong with my stomach, but when I came back home from KGC around 9 o'clock, I was quite all right. I hope this is the end of the long period of my having a bad cold.

(Thursday, February 9, 2006)
　Just after twelve midnight I had to take our dog Ryoma out for a walk, because he seemed to wat to go to the bathroom. Now that he's almost two years old, he never eases nature inside the house. The night before he didn't relieve nature when he went for an evening walk with my wife and around 4 o'clock yesterday morning, he moved around in the living room where my mother was sleeping to try to wake her up. After all my mother got up early and she had to take him out for a morning walk to let him do his important mission. Give us a break!

　It's 5:15 in the afternoon. I have to prepare for the two classes at ECC tonight. But Ryoma wants me to pay attention to him, so he tosses a piece of bone and sometimes barks at me. He wants to let me join him playing with the bone. "I understand how you feel, but I have only a little time to prepare for the lesson, Ryoma." You may think that a dog cannot understand such kind of a situation, but surprisingly he undrstands waht I want to say. Animals are such great creatures. I'll have to play with him after coming back from ECC.

　It's 10:34 in the evening now, and Ryoma looks so happy to have both his Mom and Dad with him that he suddenly started eating the rest of his doogfood. I can't believe his appetite. Even if he has finished all his dinner, he still wants to eat something more. Some people once said that dogs' appetite had no limits, which now I think is quite right.

(Friday, February 10, 2006)
　Why do many people suddenly start talking about the number of medals that they expect Japanese athletes will successfully obtain druing the Trino Winter Olympic Games? Most of them are not usually interested in winter sports at all. Is it so important how many medals they will get or what color their medals will be? The most important thing is to show the world that we have such wonderful athletes here in Japan too. Whether they will get medals or not is not a problem at all. Genuine sports fans should be happy just to see them show us their best performances. Let's see what will happen after the Olympic Games are over.

　I've found a reasonable color laser printer of EPSON which costs me just less than 100,000 yen. It can print on A-3 size of sheets, which really satisfies me. I now compare the one in the nearby shop with the one I could get on the Internet. But there's one problem. I wanted to know if the price included everything needed such as toner, oil unit, etc. I sent an e-mail to the company twice but there have been no answers yet. I wonder if I can really trust the company. If there're no answers to my e-mails, I'll buy the printer at the computer shop near Tsujido Station. Their price is about 7,000 yen more expensive than that of the one on the Internet.

(Saturday, February 11, 2006)
　It's getting warmer little by little. As a matter of fact, the potted ume flower in my garden is in full bloom. But we still have to be careful, because it often snows a lot toward the end of February in this Shonan District. When more and more people start suffering from hay fever cause by cedar pollen, it means that we're surely at the beginning of spring. I used to have pollen allergy, but recently I haven't have serious symptoms of pollen allergy. I just sneeze more often than usual.

　Lying on a heated carpet is no good for your body. You will gradually lose water from your body. That's why you feel so tired after waking up from a sleep on it. Hey, Ryoma's sleeping on the carpet just in front of the oil heater as well. My God! I have to wake him up right now.

(Sunday, February 12, 2006)
　It's been a long time since I saw the music TV last. This morning I saw Channel 21, which used to be my favorite. It shows us the best 100 songs of the week. This morning I was impressed by the songs of Kobukuro, Exile, and Matsuura Aya, etc. Listening to those songs I cannot but remember the days I enjoyed making special cassette tapes for the softball girls to hear during the morning practice. How many tapes I edited, I don't remember now.

　Do you know why Japanese people cannot be good English speakers after learning it for at least 6 years in junior high school and high school? The answer is quite obvious. They're not used to speak it a lot. When you look back on your English lessons, you'll understand what I'm talking about. How much time did you spend practicing speaking English? "Repeat after me," your English teacher might have said to you. But how many times did you repeat after him/her? Maybe once or twice. Did you practice reading the text aloud at home? Maybe not. That has made Japanese people poor speakers of English.

　Today as I was cruising the Internet, I found that Mr.Hayakawa or Jay got the full 990 points for the TOEIC test held last month. He's still in his twenties, but his capacity of English is getting bigger and bigger. His presence is a good inspiration for my progress.

(Monday, February 13, 2006)
　The Bush Administration is in a critical situation becuase of its eavesdropping of the usual people they suspected were related to terrorism. It's sounds like a science fiction world, but almost anything is possible using the high-tech equipments. I wonder if our daily conversation is eavesdropped by someone who's interested in my family.

　It's a shame that more and more dogshit are seen left unpicked on the ground here and there. Those who keep dogs should obey some rules. Picking up the dogshit is one of the most fundamental of them all. I guess more and more people tend to ignore social rules including traffic ones. What kind of society do they want to build? They should notice that they themselve are the ones who make the society uncomfortable to live in.

(Tuesday, February 14, 2006)
　It's the day again. Why do Japanese people get so excited when St.Valentine's day comes every year? Why gorgeous boxes of chocolates? Why not just a bunch of tiny flowers with a thank-you note? I guess many Japanese people don't know exactly what they should do to celebrate the day. It's the day when people, men and women, equally have chances to express their gratitude to those who they care about. You don't have to spend such a lot of money on delicious-looking boxes of chocolates, which is not an original custom in western world.

　Almost all the Japanese Olympic athletes haven't done a great job at the once-in-four-year competition. Many people are interested in how many medals Jpananese athletes will get, but results are not everything. Every athlete participating in the Torino Winter Olympic Games is trying hard to reach the same goal. Who knows what will happen in such harsh competitions? If you really want to cheer for them, you should not stick to the number of medals they have got. I hope they will try their best as representatives of our country.

(Wednesday, February 15, 2006)
　I've made a great mistake. I've been calling the Winter Olympic Games "Torino," but the English name for the old city in Italy is "Turin," so I have to call it the Turin Winter Olympic Games. Yesterday the most capable speed skater Ms.Okazaki skated Women's 500-meter race, but she turned out to be 4th, not reaching the medal. Good job! I know she had been aiming at the gold medal, but you cannot always get the best results as you expect. She tried her best, which encouraged us very much.

　I'm planning to use some Oxford University Press textbooks for the English conversation classes for people older than high school kids. But they're so expensive! My favorite one costs at least 2,400 yen. In my school I decided that the price of the textbook is included in the monthly tuition. I should have excluded the price of the textbook, but it's too late.

(Thursday, February 16, 2006)
　Now the world "money laundering" is often heard at the TV news reporting something new about the LIVEDOOR case. I looked up the word "launder" in the Oxford English-English dictionary, which says, "to move money that has been obtained illegaly into foreign bank accounts or legal businesses so that it is difficult for people to know where the money came from." It does sound like something likely to happen in the world of the Mafia.

　The TV news this morning said that most of the members of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs had been getting double income for a long time. According to the news their extra income went up to 8 million yen a year. What a waste of money! It had been paid to them from the money we paid as tax. Why do poor people have to support the lives of the rich people? Something is completely wrong with the society of our country.

(Friday, February 17, 2006)
　Gee, my pollen allergy is back again this year. Last year it was not so serious and I felt relieved to understand that my physical situation had changed completely, but I was wrong. Or the severe coldness of this winter might have caused greater pollen allergy to more people than usual. I used to call it hay fever as most native speakers do, but from this winter on I'm going to call it Japanese cidar pollen allergy, which describes the symptom much more exactly.

　Recently I do feel that in Japan rich people get much richer and that poor people get much poorer. The government told the press the other day that the difference between the rich and the poor has become unexpectedly begger. It is said that the income of the richest is about 165 times as much as that of the poorest. They say that they're planning to take some measure to make up for the great gap, but to that idea I don't agree. Those who are talented enough should get high income, or more and more people will lose their interest in trying their best to improve their status. Of course it's very important for the government to take care of those who are in serious financial situations, but they should not go too far.

(Saturday, February 18, 2006)
　We suddenly had a cold weather last night. That's how the weather is like around this time of the year. I hear they had some snow in Shiga Prefecture, where a terrible murder happened yesterday. Two kindergarten kids, a boy and a girl, were stabbed to death inside the car of their frined's mother. Cay you believe the mother was the killer? I hear she was mentally unstable, but you don't want to hear any excuse for killing little kids.　

　Later news revealed that the killer mother had spent a few night without going into sleep thinking of her own daughter. She confessed to the police that she was worried about her daughter believing that her daughter had been put pressure on by other kids. That' why she had decided to kill other kids. After the incident, the kindergarten stopped the system which askes some mothers to carry other kids along with their own kids in their cars. Then what would happen to those kids who have to walk to the kindergarten alone?

(Sunday, February 19, 2006)
　The brand-new jel-jet printer arrived yesterday, but the huge cardboard box is still in the entrance hall to my house. Maybe later I'll have to unpack the box and carry the parts inside upstairs one by one. The box is too big for a man to lift up to my study on the second floor.

　I'd like to make my language school have some high-tech equipments. One of my plans is to set 6 sets of headphones so that each student listen to the tape or CD clearly through them. I have never heard of any language schools that have such system. I hope it will become one of the special features of my language school.

　This evening my wife and I took Ryoma for a walk together. He ate up a whole pancake as his birthday present for lunch, so we expected he would soon have a shit, but he didn't. We walked more than 2 hours, but it seemed he didn't feel like doing his important job. We finally gave up and came back home. He's now sleeping on the sofa in complete peace.

(Monday, February 20, 2006)
　There was a large-scale landslide in the Philippines the other day, which might have killed more than 3,000 people including many elementary school children. Landscapes that have been happening in the Southeast Asian countries are said to be brought about by the massive destruction of the tropical rainforests. The biggest buyer of the lumber used to be Japan, but today China has also become the big buyer. Where there are those who want something, there should be a big business chance. In order to prevent the large areas of rainforests from vanishing, some advanced countries including Japan have to take some action, like introducing some new industries into those poor countries.

　I was so cold riding through the rain to ECC tonight. Especially in the weather like this, it's so dangerous to ride a motorbike. You can't see far through the shield of your helmet with many drops of rain. When there's a car coming from the opposite direction, it gets even more difficult to see clearly what's ahead of you. If you're a little too careless, you might crash into the car parked on the street because those cars are hard to identify in the rain at night.

(Tuesday, February 21, 2006)
　The stereo headphone amplifier I ordered on the Internet arrived this morning. I was so happy when I unwrapped the package to see beautifully shining compact equipment in it. Most of the shop clerks working at an electronics shop told me they have never heard of anything like this equipment, which always discouraged me. But now I know they still have to learn more about electronic goods. The next thing to do is to get 8 sets of stereo headphones that are not too expensive.

　I don't get along well with middle-aged women who cannot understand how the other people feel to hear their thoughtless words. I hate middle-aged women drivers who cannot understand how to drive safely without bringing other cars into troubles. Is this a kind of discrimination? Or is this just a prejudice of mine? But they really make me crazy.

(Wednesday, February 22, 2006)
　This evening an Indian scientist came to visit my house with her only son. Her family lived in Japan until two years ago, when my wife's mother worked as a home helper at their home. But suddenly her husband was to be transferred to the IBM Canada. Before they left Japan, they came to Chigasaki, when I met the intelligent Indian couple for the first time. Since then we've been good friends. Now her husband's in India and she's paying a short visit to Japan with her son "Abi-kun." At my wife's parents' house he saw some pictures of our dog Ryoma and he asked his mother to visit my house together.

　Abi-kun looked so happy to be so close to a dog. Ryoma was also happy to make a sensational debut into the international stage. Both the mother and the son spoke to Ryoma sometimes in English, sometimes in Japanese. I was surprised to hear Abi-kun speak such good Japanese. His mother also remembered how to speak Japanese. So I talked to her in 80% English and 20% Japanese. We always enjoy talking to each other in English. In Ryoma's Pages you can see some photos of the happy reunion, which will surely warm your heart.

(Thursday, February 23, 2006)
　This morning I had a lesson to manage at KGC. I usually use a textbook of basic patterns published about 20 years ago. It's a good book, but as it was written such a long time ago, some of the explanations written in the book are out-of-date. What's most important for us English instructors is to always try to get as much up-to-date information about the language as possible, hopefully from native co-workers. For example, you can find a sentence "Your husband's more handsome than Tom." in the book, but the word "handsome" is no longer used especially in Australia. The sentence should be "Your husband's better-looking than Tom."

　Do you know the name of Japan's popular figure skater Ando Miki's super peroformance? We call it "Yonkaiten Jump," which is officially called "quadruple" according to the Japan Times. Technical terms are very difficult to learn, aren't they?

(Friday, February 24, 2006)
　I still remember the cute smile of Janet Lynn. She took part in the women's figure skating and got the bronze medal in spite of the big mistake she had made during the free skating. It was my first time to write a fan letter in English, though I'm not sure if I mailed it or not. Anyway I was so crazy about her that I bought a new pair of figure skates and hoped that I would also perform on the ice in the spotlight. I was such a simple-minded boy.
　I think athletes are great in that they can give dreams to lots of children and let them hope that they'd like to be like them in the future. Many athletes who participated in the Turin Olympic Games should have also influenced lots and lots of children all around the world. It's much more important than the colors of the medals, I believe.

　I really want to go to the movies with my wife, but we're too busy to find time when we can go to the movies together. We were planning to see "Our Battleship Yamato" and "Flight Plan," but the former one is already out of its run and the latter one will also be out of run in a month or so.

(Saturday, February 25, 2006)
　My young co-worker Jay(Mr.Hayakawa)'s going to give a lecture at Yoyogi Seminar in March. He's now majoring in the Teaching Method of the English Language at the Graduate School of the Japan Campus of the Temple University. He's steadily going on his own way, which makes me more determined to find my own way of life.

　I started a new blog entitled "Ryoma's Bow-wow Blog" this evening. It goes in a style that I translate what Ryoma wants to say. It's impossible to fully understand his feelings, but with the help of my wife who can more deeply understand dogs' language I'm going to give a lot of fun to many readers who love animals.
　Do you believe in the theory that dogs can understand what we human beings talk about? I sometimes feel it's true. Or more exactly, they can understand our feelings quite accurately. Or I should say they can read our minds. Anyway I'll have to observe his behaviors more carefully to keep his blog worth your reading.

(Sunday, February 26, 2006)
　We've been having a cold rain since this morning. It was a hard day for both my mother and my wife, because they both had a hard time letting Ryoma make dirt. He's so sensitive that he sometimes hates to do his job especially on a rainy day. After all he didn't make it in the morning when he went for a walk with my mother. He didn't make it in the evening when he first went for a walk with my wife. My wife was so worried about him that she was kind enough to take him for a second walk, when at last he made it in the rain. He's now lying on the heated rug and enjoy sleeping. He must have been tired after going for three walks a day.

　In the evening I had a private lesson at ECC. It was the last of 11-day fast-reading course. I really enjoyed teaching him with the LONGMAN textbook, which was surprisingly well edited. It also helps us English conversation instructors to brush up our own English abilities. If I have chance, I'd like to be in charge of similar lessons at ECC.

(Monday, February 27, 2006)
　Ryoma used to have a diarrhea so easily when he was a little boy, you may say he's still a little boy, though. Yesterday he took a morning walk in the cold rain and two evening walks in the colder rain, which must have cooled his belly. Around a little past three o'clock this morning he started to suffer from some trouble with his stomach, my mother says. This morning when I came downstairs he was in a rather stable situation and he ate up all the stuff for breakfast, which made us feel relieved. Now my mother is back from the morning walk and says that nothing was wrong with his dirt. It took him some time to feel like doing it, though.

　It's been nearly two weeks since I started to put the signboard at the entrance of the sideroad to my house. But I've had no enquiry from those who are interested in my language school. Of course that doesn't encourage me even a little, because I knew it would be a difficult job to get students at my school. I'm looking for the first phonecall or visit from someone who really wants to learn how to speak English at my school. Some of the mothers at Peare Fujisawa told me that they would like to enter my school, so they might be the first students here.

(Tuesday, February 28, 2006)
　What's going on in the Democratic Party of Japan? In the 9.11 election last fall most of the people in Japan voted against the party. Don't they understand they are not supported by many usual people? If they make more troubles they'll lose everything. Why didn't Mr.Nagata consulted other law-makers in his party about making the doubtful e-mail public in the Diet? Why didn't he try to explain what had happened to him about the e-mail? Now that he escaped in the hospital, most of the Japanese people don't trust him any more. Such a stupid guy!

　According to the lawmaker of the Democratic Party of Japan, Mr.Kawamura, all the lawmakers are given lots of privileges, most of which should be abolished. Those privileges could only be possible on our taxes. How can a public servant live a gorgeous life using taxes paid by citizens? Does Mr.Koizumi really intend to reform those unreasonable aspects of the present system? Or does he just pretend to be interested in those problems?

　The last group of Japanese athletes who had taken part in the Turin Winter Olympic Games arrived at the Narita Airport late this afternoon. Of course the now world-popular figure skater Ms.Arakawa was among them, hanging the gold medal from her neck. They were welcomed by hundreds of people at Narita. Ms.Arakawa was friendly enough to shake hands with some people who cheered for her. Never be too proud, that's what she has to be careful about.

(Wednesday, March 1, 2006)
　The warm spring is just around the corner. In Japan March is the time when everything comes to an end and we have many goodbyes. Graduation ceremonies are held in this month from kindergarten to college. But you have to believe that after so manyh goodbyes you're sure to have as many hellos in April. Now peach flowers are in full bloom and watches everything going on around them.

　These days I almost burst into anger when I listen to the conversation between by mother and my wife. Even when my wife tries to be polite to my mother, she answers in a rude way. I know my mother never has any complaints to my wife, but if so she has to be more nice to her. I don't understand why women tend to have difficult situation with other women. Are they less intelligent than peace-loving gorillas?

　I felt kind of nasty to see Mr.Koizumi talking friendly to Arakawa Shizuka on the phone. How can he be so rude to the international star skater? He's just a prime minister. He's not been taking care of her, has he? He should concentrate on other important political matters in question at present. I don't want him to pretend to be a sports fan.

(Thursday, March 2, 2006)
　The only happy news these day is the gold medal that the figure skater Arakawa Shizuka got in the Turin Winter Olympic Games. She's now in the spotlight, which makes me happy too. But without her news, we have lots of terrible things happening around us. Everyday someone is killed for some ununderstandable reason. The night before last two high school students were killed in a car crash. They were having their graduation ceremony the next morning. There was new about an angry son trying to run over his father the other day. Japan is no longer a good place to live in.

　It's a cloudy morning again. According to the weather forecast, the temperature doesn't go up as high as that of a usual year. It sometimes happens in Japan that we have rather cold days in March, the starting month of the spring season.

(Friday, March 3, 2006)
　Today is the Doll's Festival when we wish every good luck for little girls. Girls are so cute when they are young, but these days many of them grow up to be disgusting creatures when they're around 16 years old. They learn to put on strange make-ups, which make them look like phosts showing up in the haunted house. That's why I'm afrind of having a baby girl. I'm not sure I could let them grow into a nice lady. Parents wish them good luck, but they lack something very important to girls.

　Until years ago in our country, children were educated not only by their parents but also by the society they belonged to. Anyone in the soceity didn't hesitate to scold children doing something wrong. But today it's alomost impossible for most grown-ups in the society to talk to children in their neighborhood. Today's children are so easy to be pissed off that even grown-ups are afraid of being attacked by those gangsters. How can we re-establish the good old healthy society where all the children could be educated any grown-ups in their neighborhood? It's not the parents, not the school teachers, but the society itself that has the strongest power to educate children.

(Saturday, March 4, 2006)
　Today's the opening day of my own language school, Mt.Stone Language Institute. I know that my adviertisement has not been good enough to get a student. But you can't make an original stone instantly into a shining jewel. You have to take time polishing it day after day until it starts to shine brightly. I've got a lot of things to do. I'll never look back. Trust me.

　I like the new printing machine. I succeeded in installing the software for the printing machine in the desktop computer upstairs. The desktop which I have not often used so far is so smart that it will help me manage the language school at lot. I know that the new operation system called "Windows Vista" will be released this fall, but I don't think I need that brand-new type of computer for the time being. I'm not going to launch a rocket into space.

(Sunday, March 5, 2006)
　Now a small machine to learn English conversation is on sale on TV shopping. Why do so many people want to master a foreign language in such a short time? I'd like them to look back on how they learn to sing their favorite Japanese songs. They must listen to the songs hundreds of times and try to sing along the cassette tapes or CDs. Even for learning how to sing Japanese songs they take so much time, but they don't think they have to spend much more time to master a foreign language.
　Learning how to speak English is not a hard job to do, but it takes you a long time until you become a good speaker of English. A small convenient machine couldn't be enough to learn English conversation. The TV advertisement is nothing but cheating those who are really interesting in starting English conversation.

　Japan is not a country where we need to speak English in daily lives. In a country like this it's not so easy to learn English conversation by just listening to the CDs. You shouldn't belive in something that is good to ears. Everything needs some efforts to accomplish it.

(Monday, March 6, 2006)
　Did you notice that Crown Prince and Princess were at the Tokyo Dome last night to watch the WBC game between Japan and Korea? Crown Princess Masako-sama looked rather fine, which should have mede lots of people feel relieved. I've been sorry for the young lady to have serious depression because she couldn't bear a baby boy. I hope she will get much better when the warm spring comes.

(Tuesday, March 7, 2006)
　Ryoma is such an attractive dog that he is liked by almost all kinds of dogs he meets. Even a small dog who's afraid of big dogs doesn't hesitate to play with Ryoma.
　When he was a little puppy, he grew up among five dachshunds kept by a petshop owner. I guess he was taken good care of both by those five dogs and the owner couple. I still remember the day when he first came to my house. After leaving the petshop in Hiratsuka Ryoma stayed in my wife's arms trembling a little. He's been loved by everyone around him since then.

　I belive dogs can understand if they are really loved by human beings or not. If they are loved they learn to love other dogs and people. That's why Ryoma has become such a lovely attractive dog. He's very popular in this neighborhood.

(Wednesday, March 8, 2006)
　It seems that I've gotten a cold again. How many times do I have to catch a cold this winter? Every time I get a cold I have a different symptom. I didn't have a fever so far, but this time I guess I have a slight fever, which makes me feel a little too tired to do anything. But I've decided not to stay away from the lesson, so somehow I've got to get down my fever and ride my motorbike to Fujisawa this evening.

　Have you ever touched the paws of a dog? They look like a rabbit's paws and so cute. When I touch the paws, I can feel he's such a fragile animal and I have to protect him from any danger.

　One of my co-workers at KGC comes from Canada. He is still 25 years old and he lost his wife last year by heart attack. Since then he's been having a hard time living the day. Now he's suffering from some trouble with his stomach, which he suspect is stomach cancer. He went to see a doctor in a big hospital near his place, but the doctor didn't give him enough explanation about his symptom and he just told him to take medicine. He must have been so helpless in a country where he doesn't have many friends to talk to. I'm going to take him to the Tokushukai
Hospital on the morning of coming Friday. I hope the doctor there will make him relieved with
some happy news.

(Thursday, March 9, 2006)
　In my language school, even the number of the students doesn't reach the minimum 4, I'd be willing to start the lesson. But most of the major language schools do not start the class with less than four students, because it doesn't pay. I understand the system to protect the company's profits, but as an English instructor I feel it's too businesslike. I think I can manage my language school even if I have a class of just one student. If two students of different language levels are to stuy in the same class, it will be a big problem sooner or later. It's no good for either of them. I'd like to give every student the best atomosphere in which they can develop their own language proficiency. I don't think I have the wrong idea.

(Friday, March 10, 2006)
　Today all the public junior high schools in Kanagawa Prefecture had graduation ceremonies. I was sorry for the 9th graders and their parents to have the memorial day in this cold weather. I still remember the lonliness I felt when I saw my students leave school. When they got their graduation certificates they looked so big, which invited teardrops one after another coming down on my cheeks.

　I loved to listen to the songs by 9th graders who sang some graduation songs from the very bottoms of their hearts. Even if I knew that there would be a wonderful new meeting with 7th graders in April, I couldn't but feel the world was going to end at that moment. Now I'm out of school, but I still have some special feelings on the graduation day. I wish every good luck on those who are opening the door to the new world. Congratulations!

(Saturday, March 11, 2006)
　It was a very lucky day for me in many senses. First I asked the manager of KGC, Mr.Hatanaka, to give me some information about getting Oxford textbooks. Then surprisingly enough, he promised me to introduce me to the textbook dealer in Shinjuku which will sell me various types of foreign textbooks at a discount price. I was so glad to have his warm-hearted words. So after the lesson I felt likie going to a Pachinko parlor nearby to see if I was really lucky enough. Then surprisingly again, with just a 500-yen coin I got as much as 20,000 yen within an hour. It was really a lucky day for me today. Of course I should not expect the same luck comes to me again soon. Anyway thank God for the 20,000 yen!

　After my wife came back from her work, we drove to a bookstore with our dog at the backseat. He was waiting for us while we were looking for some books we wanted. I bought some books about learning English and my wife two guidebooks of the city of Kyoto. On our way back home we dropped in at a convenience store to get some chu-hai and some snacks.

(Sunday, March 12, 2006)
　The condominium-complex next to my house allows the residents to keep pets in side the rooms. One of them has a little dog and it barks so often. Every morning when my mother starts for the morning walk with Ryoma, the crazy dog barks and barks as if it went really mad.
Why does the owner do something for him? When a dog barks so often, he/she must have some problems, mentally in many cases. In the case of the dog, I have never seen the owner taking him for a walk. Maybe they think that their dog can freely walke around in the room and that they don't have to walk him/her. If so, it's a great misunderstanding. Even a dog has lots of stress when it cant't go out into the open air. I'm sorry for the crazy dog. Or should I call it the poor dog kept by a crazy owner?

　My brother and sister-in-law has sent their son to a private junior high school. They had a hard time coping with their older daughter's resistence to the local public school. They no longer could trust the local public junior high school. I agreed to their idea of sending their son to a private school. Most of the public school teachers are garbages. That's what I know better than anyone else. But they now realize that even teachers working in private schools are no better than public school teachers. My nephew's school has too many holidays. I wonder why they're not trying to give the best education to their smart students. I feel they're no different from the garbages in public education.

(Monday, March 13, 2006)
　I was so shocked to see the baseball judge change the judgement when the magager of the U.S. team made a claim against the start of the Japanese third-base runner. Baseball was born in America and still now the MLB is the top of world baseball. Nobody denies that. Then what they have to do is just play fair. Their too much eagerness to win the game is very similar to their government's international policy. Not to hesitate to do anything to win.

　Public officers at the City of Unzen made a studying tour and they had a drinking party at night, when a so-called baseball rock-paper-scissors game to finally make one of the companion women all naked. Of course the tour was carried out for public expenses. Most people in Unzen are too embarrassed to hear the news to make any comments.

(Tuesday, March 14, 2006)
　These days I often think of what will make the atomosphere of a group of people. I guess that a certain type of a strong character decide what the group will be like. I have seen many such cases and I'm sure of that. If the person misleads the group, it will be a big problem. Many of you have experienced that situation. Right? But most of the cases the person himself/herself doesn't know how he/she affects the other people. Such poor people they are.

(Wednesday, March 15, 2006)
　Today was a pay day of KGC, which disappointed me a little. I thought I had been working so
hard that I would make at least 120,000 yen for February. You can't make much money by working part-time. Totally I need at least 400,000 yen a month, but actually I just make only half of it. If I had stayed in a public school, I would have made at least 480,000 yen a month excluding taxes. What a difference! I sometimes feel like hating myself.

(Thursday, March 16, 2006)
　When I left home for ECC, it started to rain heavily. While riding on my motorbike, it poured so much that I was all wet from head to toe. At the time I reached ECC, my underwear was also wet seriously. I was such an unlucky guy!

　It never rains but pours, so goes a famous English saying. There were six high school students in the second class tonight. It happened to have only on worker. Six out of the seven students were high school kids. They were so quiet that I sometimes felt they were not interested in learning English. It was really boring to teach a quiet class. Do you still say it's because of my way of teaching? You may be right. Next week we're having the last lesson of this school year. Let's see what will happen.

(Friday, March 17, 2006)
　I was almost killed this morning. Just when I was passing by a car parked in the middle of the road, the back door suddenly opened to hit my right fingers. I couldn't move sandwiched by the fence and the car. Just then the old woman in the car tried to open the door wider to get out. I felt my fingers will be crushed into pieces. I screamed but the woman didn't understand what was going on. Then a young man working near the site rushed to us and kicked the door to free my injured fingers, which was successful. Thanks to him, my fingers were saved from being cut off by the crazy old woman.
　The young man used his cell phone to call the ambulance, which came in about 10 minutes. I was carried to the City Hospital. I took the X-ray examination and the doctor told me that my finger bones were safe, but that I had to stay still druing the day. I felt relieved. If I had lost two of my right fingers, I would have a hard time working on the computer.

　The driver was born in 1927. He's too old to drive his car safely. He could have killed me. I hope the police will take away his driver's licence.

(Saturday, March 18, 2006)
　Today one of the native instructors at KGC was absent, which the staff had been told already. But the student came to school and didn't know what to do without any teacher in his room. He was sent to my TOEIC class for some reason I didn't know. I was so sorry for him who had come all the way to KGC. Such a situation must never happen at a language school. The staff should check the lesson schedule times and times again to avoid such a case. I think I'll be careful when I manage my own language school.

　It was around 7:15 when I got a phone call from Lala, a female student of my EM class at ECC. Lala, Holy, and Hiro were supposed to visit me at my house tonight. I soon drove to the station to pick them up. We had a very happy night together. Ryoma looked so happy to have three young people who loved dogs. Of course he could join us in our dinner secretly.

(Sunday, March 19, 2006)
　Congratulations on the splendid victory in the WBC! I think the Korean team was worried about what was going to happen in today's game, because it's usually quite difficult to win successive three games against the same country. Japan won the game by 6-0, but the victory was, in a sense, brought about thanks to the strong Korean team. I hope Japan and Korea will be good inspiration to each other for a long time to come.

(Monday, March 20, 2006)
　Today's my 48th birthday. This morning my wife hesitated a little to come to me wispering to my ears, "Happy birthday, daring." It's not a big difference for me whether I'm 47 or 48, but I was very glad to hear my wife give me her most warm-hearted words. She's been coughing a lot and she seems to have some pain in her chest when she make a deep breath. I'd like her to get her good health again. And then I think I'd like to take her for a drive or something.

　One of the staff at the car insurance company of the old couple gave me a phone call as they had promised last weekend. The young guy in charge of my accident sounded nice, but he was not going to visit me at my house. I think they should see my insured fingers, so I asked my wife to take some digital photos of my swollen fingers, which I'm going to enclose in the envelope they will send me to mail back.

(Tuesday, March 21, 2006)
　It was such a great game that was fought between Japan and Cuba. At the top of the first inning, Japan gained 4 runs thanks to the unstable pitching of Cuba. But you couldn't know what will happen until the baseball game is over. Cuba hit a two-run homer to make the game close with Team Japan leading by 6-5. Cuba was only 1 run behind toward the end of the game. The good luck seemed to be with Team Cuba, but there was an explosion of Japanese batters at the top of the last inning to lead the game by 10-5. Cuba gained one more run at the bottom, but finally Team Japan won the game to become the first WBC Champion, which will long stay in the history of Japanese baseball. Congratulations on the great victory! I'd like to thank the winning manager Sadaharu Oh and all the players on Team Japan.

　Not to change the subject, Beet Takeshi's TV program showed us that it was dangerous to take medecine in your own manner. You should obey the doctor's direction as to how to take medicine. I was once told by one of my doctors that I should not take medicine with milk because it would reduce the acid in the stomach. But tonight's program said that it was not so bad to take medicine with milk. Anyway you can't be too careful when you take medicine even if it has been given by the doctor you see in the hospital.

(Wednesday, March 22, 2006)
　This morning I made a phone call to JA Sagami to complain about their dull action about the car accident that I was involved in. When I talked to the man in charge of my case on the phone on Monday, I suspected that he wouldn't send me an improtant form by special delivery. I was right. He used a usual mail. It was so important and urgent. Does he really feel sorry for what happened to me? On the phone I shouted at him, which should have surprised him a lot. My mother also made a phone call after I finished talking to him. She talked to his boss also to point out that he would be mad at the insurance company if his own child had been involved in a car accident and if the insurance company had done the same slow action. He agreed with my mother.
　In the afternoon just when I returned home from KGC they paid a visit to my house. But I'm sorry to say this, but the boss didn't look like an honest guy. They're so disgusting! They smell the same as my co-workers in the teachers' rooms.

(Thursday, March 23, 2006)
　Early this morning I got a phone call from the man at JA Sagami who's in charge of my case. I didn't agree with him, so I told him not to intervene my case any more and that I would talk to the aged car driver in person. Later I called the old man and complained to him about the stero-typed attitude of the JA Sagami. I asked him to tell them to do what they had to do. Soon after the phone call I made, I got another phone call from the man in charge. This time he offered a satisfactory proposal for the first time since we had started our negotiation. I asked him again to take a quick action and close the case as soon as possible. What a stupid guy! I wouldn't have gone mad if he had done everything in the right way. I hate those who never make efforts just because they have back-up from a big organization just like local public workers who often do dull jobs here and there.

(Friday, March 24, 2006)
　In the morning two engineers from NTT East Japan came to my house to connect optical fibers to my computer. Now that they have set every equipment we need to use optical fibers, all I've got to do is install the software for the broadband rooter. My younger brother is worried about my making a serious mistake doing that scientific job, which he'll know was right or not when I try that tomorrow evening.

　My wife has been suffering from coughs for about two weeks, so this morning I drove her to the City Hospital to see a doctor. The doctor said that she had a slight bronchitis and that it would be cured by taking medicine. The problem is that she has some allergy to certain medicine. I hope she'll get well soon. She's been working too hard, I guess.

(Saturday, March 25, 2006)
　Today I took Ryoma for an evening walk. For the first time in one or two months, we met a big female mixed-blood Kahana. As is usual the case with the two dogs, they soon got into a fight, which is a sign of friendship for them. If you see them crashing into each other, you will probably think they're really fighting. They like each other so much.

　Before that he played with a young female Shiba dog Hiro. When I was patting her, Hiro snarled for a moment. Her owner said that Hiro sometimes snarled like that recently. I thought it was a kind of jealousy that Hiro felt when people around her did not pay attention to her. It is often said that Shiba dogs are so smart they can understand what we talk about. I think it's true. Not only Shiba dogs but also other kinds of dogs can understand what we talk about or how we feel.

(Sunday, March 26, 2006)
　I went to Odawara to take the 121st TOEIC test with my wife. We left home just past 10:00 and drove to the South Exit of Odawara Station, where we found a parking building to park our car. We walked along the pedestrian deck over the railways to get to the opposite side of the station and took a taxi to the Odawara Campus of Kanto Gakuin University. First we were planning to walk to the campus, but when we reached the North Exit of Odawara Station, we only had 25 minutes. I couldn't be late for the reception, so we decided to go by taxi.

　The test finished around 3:00 and my wife and I started to walk slowly toward the gate around 3:20. On the way we saw a lot of beautiful cherry trees. But actually some of them were plum trees, which we were told by a passer-by. We were deeply impressed when we looked down at the city of Odawara from the hilltop.

　At the station we ate Hakone Soba and then went to Starbucks to have a couple of coffee and some cinnamon rollcake, which satisfied my wife so much. My wife told me that she would be glad to share some relaxting time with me sometimes like we did today. I promised her that I would surely take her around on holidays. We really enjoyed walking in nature.

(Monday, March 27, 2006)
　Today I finally bought a laminater which only cost me 9,800 yen. The one which can laminate A-3 sized sheets usually costs more than 15,000 yen, so I was a little bit worried about the high-tech machine I found near Kita-Chigasaki Station on the JR Sagami Line. But when I made the first laminated poster of my language school, I was so impressed by the amazing job it had done. I was lucky to find a cheap machine.

　I haven't been offered any classes for the next school year from ECC. Does it mean I'm having no classes from next month at ECC? That's nonsense! I've been trying my best to offer the best lessons that I could give, which has made some students decide to stay at ECC another year. I feel I'v been like Don Quixote who had done meaningless efforts.
　This afternoon I sent an e-mail to Geos, another popular language school which has its branch schools both in Fujisawa and Chigasaki. They're looking for English instructors up to the age of 40, which is sure to eliminate me who has just become 48 on March 20. I wonder how they evaluate my experiences as an English teacher. Let's wait for the answer e-mail.

(Tuesday, March 28, 2006)
　Tonight I had the last lesson at ECC of the school year 2005. I don't think I'll be able to teach English conversation to the same students I have taught so far. At which branch school of ECC will I start teaching in April? Am I going to have no classes? It is true that I've had one-year contract with ECC. So they can fire me at any time they want. Poor me!

　Just before 12 midnight I took some photos of myb wife and Ryoma sleeping together on the sofa in the living room. They're in deep sleep now. When I see them sleeping head to head, I feel as if I was looking a mother and her son sleeping together. Actually my wife is a mother for the young Ryoma, which I can't deny.

(Wednesday, March 29, 2006)
　Today I went to my favorite barber's to have my long hair cut. The barber was kind enough to let me put two shieets of posters of my language school on the wall outside. There're usually some posters of Aeon or Geos, but according to the barber they have gone because of strong wind that blew yesterday. My mother asked the fish shop near the barber's to let me do the same thing and got green light for doing it.

　Just past 8:30 my wife, our dog Ryoma, and I drove to Chigasaki Station to pick up our guest Lala, who has been in my conversation class at ECC for a year. She's going to leave Japan on Friday and she wanted to come and talk to us before going to Canada. We had dinner together at a restaurant near the Southern Beach Chigasaki and after that we drove along the Route 134 to Shonan-daira Hill to enjoy the night view of cherry blossoms and the city lights. I hope Lala will fully enjoy her one-year stay in Canada.

(Thursday, March 30, 2006)
　Now that the lessons of my language school have already begun, I have noticed that the room is equipped with high-tech machines more than enough to ahndle the class efficiently. Especiall thanks to the desktop computer and the fast gelget printer, materials suddenly needed during the lesson could be searched and printed out immediately. When we want to see some scenes of 9.11 terrors in the United States, for example, I could show the students DVD films that have something to do with the incidents. It's so convenient.

　I went to Yokohama to see the softball games of the Yokohama-Seifu High School Cup. It seemed that the players had rather poor skills around this time, but Toyoda Junior High and Umeda Junior High were not so bad. Especially Toyoda Junior High players had very good motivation to make the game so intense and exciting. I thought they would be more and more splendid toward the last Championship Tournament to be held this summer.

(Friday, March 31, 2006)
　Now we have finally the last day of March. Quite opposite to the cold weather yesterday, we're having a very warm spring morning today. At 11:15 two women are coming to take the first lesson of my language school. They used to learn English conversation from me at Peare Fujisawa. They're both over 50, but their attitude toward the learning of English is much better than that of most students these days. After the first meeting, I'd like to go to Yokohama again to see the final league of the Yokohama-Seifu High School Cup, if I have enough time.