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Total words:

Post Counts

September/October: 25
November: 11
December: 7
January: 11

Book Reviews

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Podcast

Podcast Episodes:
Scripts:

Typing 太平

Juppun ha Juubun Stats

April 16th: 84
April 23rd: 127

October 1st: 89
October 15th: 109

January 7th: 185
January 21st: 93

First 2: 211
Middle 2: 198
Last 2: 278

My speed went down a bit over the first semester, but rose during the second semester.

[34 words]

Salmon fishing in the desert

A movie called Salmon Fishing in the Yemen started showing on Saturday. I haven't seen it yet, but it sounds very interesting. It stars Ewan MacGregor, along with Emily Blunt and Kristin Scott Thomas. Probably you all know Ewan MacGregor from movies such as Trainspotting and Star Wars. You may also have heard of Emily Blunt, who recently starred in Looper and has also appeared in movies like My Summer of Love. Lasse Hallstrom, the director, also directed Chocolat, The Cider House Rules, and What's Eating Gilbert Grape?

[88 words]

Warning against unacknowledged copying

If you copy sentences from a book, for example, and don't mark the copied parts as quotes, this behavior counts as cheating, and your grade will be a fail.

Blog stats

Post Counts

September/October: 25
November: 11
December: 7
January:

Word Count

Total so far:

Book Reviews

Total so far: 23
Other reviews: 2
Total: 25

Podcast

Total episodes: 2

Scripts: 3

Typing

Total posts: 0

Juppun ha Juubun stats

April 16th: 158
April 23rd: 127
October 1st: 89
October 15th: 109
January 7th: 185
January 21st: 93

First 2: 285
Middle 2: 198
Last 2: 278

The weekend

At the weekend, we had the Center Test, a nationwide exam for third-year high school students and anyone wanting to go to university. The subjects tested were Koumin, Kokugo (Japanese), English (written test), and English (listening test) on the first day; and science and maths on the second day. The students must be very tired!

Recently, I saw the movie A Dangerous Method, starring Keira Knightley, Viggo Mortensen, and Michael Fassbender. It was an interesting movie, especially for the performances of Michael Fassbender and Viggo Mortensen, who played Sigmund Freud and Carl Jung, respectively.

The Sorcerer and the White Snake

Today we watched the trailer of The Sorcerer and the White Snake on the iTunes Move Trailers site. Here is the summary on the site:

Action director Ching Siu-Tung helms this fantasy film based on an old Chinese legend about an herbalist who falls in love with a thousand-year-old White Snake disguised as a woman. Jet Li stars as a sorcerer who discovers her true identity and battles to save the man's soul.

I had heard that Jet Li wasn't planning to do any more action movies, so I'm looking forward to seeing this one. There wasn't much action on show from him in the trailer, but I'm hoping there will be more in the film. In any case, it should be interesting to find out about the legend.

The Sorcerer and the White Snake

Today, we watched The Sorcerer and the White Snake, a movie starring Jet Li. It's a fantasy movie, and it also appears to be a romance movie: it seems that the sorcerer has to choose between his duty and his love. Apparently, it's based on an ancient Chinese legend, but I don't remember this legend. I don't know when the movie is coming out in Japan, but I'll be on the lookout for it.
Another movie I want to check out is Zero Dark Thirty, coming next month.

Soccer in December and January

• Christmas Eve
• Christmas Day
• Boxing Day
• matches
• disappointment
• move up the table
• relegation
• avoid relegation
• be unlikely to avoid relegation
• promotion
• near the relegation places
• New Year's Eve
• New Year's Day
• The Guardian

In the holiday, I didn't have much chance to see or read about football, because the place where I was staying doesn't have any Internet connection. That was a pity, because the winter holiday is a very important time in the football season. Most teams in the Premier League play a match on Boxing Day (the day after Christmas Day, i.e. December 26th) and another match on New Year's Day. It is often said that, if you at the foot of the table on New Year's Day, you are rather unlikely to avoid relegation. At the top of the table, it is generally thought that, if you are not in the top 3 or 4 spots at this time of year, you are very unlikely to be the champion.

I get most of my football news from the Guardian, my favorite British newspaper. Although I was not able to read it during the holiday, I did see some news about Kagawa, who returned from injury to set up a goal or two for Manchester United.

By the way, what films are you looking forward to in 2013?

Remaining lessons

Remember that, after today's lesson, next week (January 14th) is a holiday, then we have classes on January 21st and January 22nd (virtual Monday).

New Year holiday

This New Year holiday was a little shorter than usual. I went to Amakusa on January 30th, then came back to Kumamoto on January 3rd to prepare for intensive lectures at PUK, which went on from January 4th to January 6th.