2017-10-18 22:56 Having no friends
Y (Kuma's owner)
I moved into the current house in 2013. I like the town I live in now; beautiful nature, friendly neighbors, small but convenient shopping centre. My husband and I preferred a small town and this town was exactly what we wanted.
However, I have one issue since I have moved here. I have no friends.
Several years ago, I lived in a much denser residential area and I often had chances to meet neighbors. I sometimes had a chat with my neighbors and it was fun. We visited each other's houses for talking or having tea and I'm sure it helped my English. In retrospect, the days I lived in that town was a very good environment for learning English.
Here I am in one of the small towns in Queensland. The population is not so big and my neighbor's houses are not close. Therefore, I don't have much chance to meet them. My time to talk in English decreased sharply, and in addition all my friends have sold their houses and moved too far away. That was very unlucky for me, I couldn't believe that all of them have gone.
I don't think this situation is good for me. I'm now looking for some gatherings of hobbies. Isn't it a good idea to join a club or a gathering? However, here I also have an issue. There are no gatherings or activities that I'm interested in. This town isn't big and no wonder there are no varieties of activities and gatherings. Now I'm at a standstill.
Should I join an activity even if I have no interests? No, I don't think so. I think it would be fun to talk with the local people but I have to put up with something that I'm not interested in. I found some volunteer work several months ago. The one I was interested in was the volunteer work of planting tree seedlings in the wild area. I love nature and maybe I will have a chance to meet people who have the same interests.
I believe that I'm able to find some activities or gatherings that I'm interested in someday and it would be great if I could find good friends there.
2017-10-17 03:00 Escargots
Y (Kuma's owner)
It has been raining since last week and all my vegetables and flowers got wet and look miserable. This year there are many snails and my vegetables were eaten by them. I heard that it is because the weather during winter was good conditions for snails to propagate.
I have something to remember looking at snails. It was my good old days when I was in Tokyo. The company I worked for held a Christmas party every year at a hotel in Tokyo. Most of the time, we had French cuisine at the party and one party I saw snails on the dish for the first time. I knew that was famous French cuisine but it was a big challenge for me to eat snails.
Snails look ugly and in addition I had heard that they have parasitic worms. I hesitated to eat them but I made myself believe that this was a good chance to try them. So, I tried one. What made me think was it was tasty! I didn't expect that. It was really good and I took another one.
It always needs courage for the first step when we encounter something unfamiliar, doesn't it? My first step at the Christmas party was worth enough to do it. I still have some food that I don't want to eat but if I tried, maybe I would be able to eat them or maybe not?
2017-10-15 03:30 The greeting that is misunderstood
Y (Kuma's owner)
I have been having a strange feeling for a long time about greetings that foreigners (except Asian) do to Japanese. What I'm writing is the greeting of putting hands together in front of your chest and making a bow. I don't know why but so many foreigners do this greeting to Japanese and I'm sure that almost every Japanese has a very strange feeling. Please remember Japanese don't do that greeting.
Tonight, I saw a TV program of introducing one of the famous historical places, Kyoto. The reporter was an Aussie woman, she wore Japanese traditional clothes "Kimono" and looked nice. However, she put her hands together in front of her chest and made a bow several times. I was disappointed to see that.
I think she tried to do the Japanese greeting that she believed. What she did was strange to me but she was in Japan and I know she did it because she tried to show her respect to Japanese customs.
But sorry mate, what you did just made Japanese feel strange and maybe they thought "What is she doing?"
I wonder what made people believe that Japanese greet that way? It's incomprehensible, isn't it?
If you have a chance to go to Japan, please remember that greeting isn't a Japanese custom. The bow is a Japanese custom. If you don't get used to bowing, just smile. Smiling is the universal language.