November

November is coming soon, and it looks like we're going to get some real autumn-like weather at last!

The Great Gatsby, and other matters…

We just saw a documentary on the costume design and production design in The Great Gatsby, the new Baz Luhrmann film starring Leonardo DiCaprio and Carey Mulligan. Check out the site! Note that this is not the first time that the book has been made into a film. Previously, Robert Redford and Mia Farrow starred in a big-screen adaptation. See a comparison of the two movies!

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.

Football & Nagoya

I went to Nagoya at the weekend.

Nagoya and other things

Hi everyone, how's everything? At the weekend I went to Nagoya to attend a seminar and use the Nagoya University library. The seminar was very good, and the library was very nice, and I also had the chance to see The Hobbit, so it was a very good trip.

Chelsea

I had a network problem this morning so I can't do the full 10 minutes. You may have heard that last week Chelsea fired their manager, Roberto di Matteo, because of poor results over the last month. Chelsea fans were a bit angry because he had led Chelsea to victory in the Champions League only 6 months ago. But they were VERY angry when they heard who was to replace him: Rafael Benitez!

The Bourne movies

In my last post, I mentioned The Bourne Legacy. As you know, this is the fourth Bourne Movie, the preceding three being The Bourne Identity, The Bourne Supremacy, and The Bourne Ultimatum.

Summer vacation

As I mentioned earlier, I saw a few movies in the summer holiday. One of them was Prometheus. To tell you the truth, I wasn't expecting very much from this movie, as several movies from Ridley Scott have been disappointing, but I quite enjoyed it. I don't think the ending was very coherent, and I'm not sure exactly how it links in with Alien, but there was some good acting and it was quite exciting.

Summer Vacation

Most of August and most of September comprise the summer vacation at Japanese universities. Two months sounds like a long time, but unfortunately it's really only around six weeks. We also have many meetings and marking tests and things like that, so the holiday actually whizzes by. I had a short trip with my family to Hiroshima and a few other places, and a couple of days at my wife's ancestral home, and I also found the time to watch several movies. The rest of the time, I was working pretty hard, although I unfortunately wasn't able to complete any big projects. Oh, no!

Never Let Me Go

Olympics

As you know, the Olympics are starting very soon in London. You may have heard that there are several problems associated with the Olympics. The biggest one is that the company that was going to provide security for the Olympics suddenly said that they weren't able to get enough personnel, and that they weren't even sure how many people they could provide. In addition, England's transport system is rather old, so there are worries that people won't be able to get to the venues in time.

Movie, Movie, Movie

There are many good movies coming over the summer. In the previous post, I talked about Brave and The Dark Knight Rises. In this post, let's look at some other movies that are coming soon. The first one is Man on a Ledge, coming this month. In August, 7 Days in Havana is coming. I don't know much about this one, but it is directed by Benicio Del Toro.

Movies playing now or coming soon

This season is traditionally a very good one for movies. It's a good chance to catch some good but not blockbuster movies before the summer holidays, when a few mega-hits are shown endlessly. Let's think about some of the movies that are playing in movie theaters now or are coming soon.

Sports Day and the Euros 2012

Yesterday was my daughter's last sports day at elementary school. As usual, I went to the school at 4:30am to get a place to sit in the shade. My daughter appeared in 4 events, and I managed to get more photos than usual, by using the "rensha" function on my camera. But I wish my camera had a stronger optical zoom!

The football scene is heating up, with many international friendly matches going on as preparation for the Euros 2012, and also the final World Cup qualifying rounds starting, too. On Saturday, England played Norway in Oslo, in the first match of the Roy Hodgson era, winning 1–0. The best point of the match was that Andy Carroll and Ashley Young looked good in attack, and probably the worst point was that the midfield looked weak.

Golden Week

Golden Week was lots of fun this year. In the first half we went to Amakusa, and during that trip we went walking in Tenjiku, which was very beautiful. In the middle of Golden Week, I worked for three days, and then we went camping in Misato-machi. The weather was very good, and we had a relaxing time.

Football, football, and more football!

As I mentioned yesterday, there is lots of football going on all through the winter holidays in the UK, and this includes not only the Premier League but also the F.A. Cup and the Carling Cup (formerly the League Cup). I watched some soccer news on TV this morning, and I heard that the Japan Under-23 team will be playing a match on February 5th, and then two more matches soon after that

This week in football

The most notable results this past week have been Barcelona's win against Real Madrid, and Sunderland's win against Blackburn Rovers.

The first result means that Barcelona still have a realistic chance of catching Real Madrid in the championship race.

Soccer again

As I mentioned in my previous post, the two top teams under some pressure, Manchester City and Chelsea, both won at the weekend. Sunderland, playing between managers, weren't able to win, and their victors were Blackburn Rovers, whose manager is under lots of pressure because they are near the relegation zone, and because the fans don't seem to like him.

Go

Hey, everyone, I'm not sure what to talk about today, so I guess I'll talk about soccer… as usual! All eyes were on Manchester City and Chelsea this weekend, because of their poor performances in the Champions League, but both won fairly straightforward victories. There was also excitement surrounding Sunderland, because the manager, Steve Bruce, was fired last week, and Martin O'Neill was appointed in his place. Sunderland lost yesterday, as usual, and O'Neill will take over today.

Premier League again

Things are continuing to heat up in the Premier League. Hitherto unbeaten side Newcastle United lost 3–1 to Manchester City, and Chelsea continued their losing streak, putting pressure on their manager.