2017-03-02 21:28 What are you, little one?
Y (Kuma's owner)
I have sown some Acacia seeds, commonly known as Golden Wattle. There are many kinds of Wattles in Australia. The Acacia is a bird attracting plant, and the birds called honeyeaters love it.
I checked the tray where I sowed the seeds everyday, and five days after I sowed them, I found a tiny sprout, just one. I gazed at it with expectation thinking that it must be a Golden Wattle!
However, I didn't have any proof that was a Golden Wattle. It could be a weed. To begin with, I didn't know what a Golden Wattle sprout looked like. I searched the Internet for pictures of it but I couldn't find any. The sprout on the tray looked just like an ordinary sprout; it has tiny round leaves, that's all. Then, I thought if the other seeds germinate, I would be able to compare them with the first sprout. If the sprouts have the same appearance, they must be the same plant, the Golden Wattle.
Days have passed, and I'm still waiting for them to come out. I sowed the seeds about two weeks ago and still nothing has happened. The first sprout has not grown yet; it's just there, and nothing has changed.
Are the seeds going to germinate soon or not? I thought that if the sprout is a kind of weed, I can pull it out, but if it was a Golden Wattle, I will regret it.
What are you, little one?
2017-02-28 08:42 Slow and steady wins the race
Y (Kuma's owner)
I've been here in Australia for more than five years. Some Japanese people say that if I've been living in an English language country I must be good at English. However, I'm not as good at English as other people think. It's not easy to acquire foreign language ability, especially for adults.
Generally speaking, I heard that Japanese are good at writing, and are not good at hearing and speaking. I'm also not good at hearing and speaking. Unfortunately, I'm not talkative and even in Japanese, I don't talk much. I don't have much will to talk, so the most difficult part of improving English for me is speaking. I cannot change my character, if I could have friends who have the same interests or hobbies, I think I can talk a lot more than usual.
Concerning listening to English, I use movies. I bought DVDs and I see movies almost every night and see the same movies again and again. It depends on movies, some movies are easy to catch the words and some of them are difficult. Generally, old movies are easy to listen to.
Seeing the same movie many times sometimes works for improving listening ability. At first, I couldn't catch the lines at all, and gradually I was able to get some words one by one with repetition. The other merit of seeing movies is I can use the subtitles, it's really helpful.
I always encourage myself and say " Slow and steady wins the race."
2017-02-24 01:13 Ant Watching
Y (Kuma's owner)
I love science books and love to read scientists' biographies as well. Richard Feynman has written lots of books not only for physics, he wrote about his childhood and his daily life. I had read one of his books and there was a description about ants. He said he liked to watch ants moving and so I do.
I feel like I have become a giant and look down on a small town of ants. There are so many kinds of ants in Australia. Comparing Australian ants and Japanese ants, Australian ants are aggressive and I have been bitten by ants many times.
To me, the lawn in the yard is flat but to ants it must be a forest. In the movie "Honey, I Shrunk the Kids", a scientist which was played by Rick Moranis invented a machine that can shrink everything, and there are scenes of ants walking under the lawn. As long as I have seen the movie, an ants' life seems not to be so easy. They are always busy as business people in New York or Tokyo. I haven't seen an ant that was taking a break, they are moving all the time.
One day when I was watching ants moving, and I found that they were running on a hose. Lots of ants were running on the hose. It looked like cars running on a motorway. Then I noticed that running on the hose is easier than running on the ground because there are no obstacles. Hoses are really the motorway for ants. I have never thought that they used a hose that way. We think that insects are not higher animals and not clever but they seem not to be so stupid as we think.
Yesterday, when I was feeding my cats, I saw a tiny flake of Katsuobushi was moving.
Maybe I should explain what Katsuobushi is, before starting this topic. Katsuobushi is dried flakes of smoked fish (skipjack tuna). It is very common in Japanese food. Usually, cats love it and that's because I sometime give it to my cats that don't have a good appetite.
Back to the topic, I gave some Katsuobushi flakes to one of my cats. I think he dropped a Katsuobushi flake onto the floor. A strange thing happened, a tiny Katsuobushi flake was walking! I moved my face close to the flake and made sure it was an ant carrying the flake. She was carrying a flake that was four or five times the size of her body. That state reminded me of a bearer who was carrying a flag in the opening ceremony of the Olympic games. I don't think people say "adorable" to insects but this time I thought she was adorable.
I don't expect people to understand my feelings, but I think that if Richard Feynman was still alive, he would.