One day in Ginza
My sister asked me to go to Tokyo with her, and I said yes, so we went.
We've got a to-do list for the day (made by her and for her)
1: Eat Vietnamese food in Shinjuku
Raw spring rolls, fried spring rolls, steamed spring rolls.
Pho with chicken and Vietnamese curry rice.
Since this restaurant is in Lumine1, even lunch menus are over 1000 yen.
But when you order one main dish, you can get those delicious spring rolls as appetizer, and after eating main Vietnamese coffee is served on your table. (Can't believe I forgot to take a picture.)
2: Step into Ginza
Itoya grows plants in the top floor of its building in Ginza.
4: Get something sweet, expensive, and worth at Pierre Marcolini
5: Find cool things in Ginza
Lindt café. Next time.
Colorful building
Nissan is making future.
You'll see.
6: Go to "THE PARK・ING GINZA"
7: Take a picture of the landmark in Ginza
Tokyo is big.
Tokyo is deep.
Tokyo is interesting.
Intelligentsia Coffee
I just remembered a café which offered me a cup of good iced latte in Chicago.
That was Intelligentsia Coffee.
I didn't know that it was famous for the third wave coffee. On that day I really wanted to get coffee from local cafes (not like Starbucks or Dunkin Donuts, you know) so just searched places around downtown Chicago and Intelligentsia was on the top of the list, so I went there.
It was not a big space but the ambience was really good.
Not too many tables and chairs, that means not too many people. Tokyo should be this.
And, I fell in love with the sign.
LOVE & "B" L😊VED
Actually, I went there in May, 2016. Now it's January in 2017.
The reason I remembered this café even after 7 months is that the coffee beans from Intelligentsia were used Mr. Holmes Bakehouse in Seoul, South Korea, where I visited to eat cruffin in December.
Cruffin & coffee in Mr. Holmes Bakehouse in Seoul
They put a logo of Intelligentsia by the espresso machine(I didn't take a picture of that) and I thought I had seen this logo somewhere else before. When I found out it was in Chicago, I told my friend about it like I solved a difficult math question lol Of course she had no idea why it is so surprising, and said へぇ～ (it means like "...Well, okay.")
34, Apgujeong-ro 10-gil, Gangnam-gu, Seoul
Iced latte was very good! I don't like latte which makes me feel like taste of milk still remains in my mouth after swallowing. (Does it make sense? It's really hard to tell) But this latte was not at all.
In order to write this post, I searched Intelligentsia and got information about it.
As I already said, it is famous for third wave coffee. It was started from Chicago and now they offer good coffee in Los Angeles and New York. Especially, Venice location is very popular because it's on the Abbot Kinney Blvd and inside of the café is really cool.
I thought it was originally from LA and then came to Chicago to expand their own business to the Midwest.
Mr. Holmes Bakehouse in LA also offers Intelligentsia's coffee same as in Korea.
It seems like they make partnership these days, you will get cruffin and croissant at Intelligentsia in the morning.
I have to go back to the States to visit there again.
So see you then!
・Intelligentsia Coffee
Millennium Park Coffeebar
53 East Randolph St. Chicago, Illinois 60601
New year, new me?
あけましておめでとうございます。
2017年です。「今年も楽しい一年だった」と12か月後に思えるように過ごそう。
春からは人生で初めて正社員として働きます。
未知の世界に飛び込むワクワク感と人生で史上最高クラスの責任感を同時に持ちつつも楽しめたらいいな。「楽しい」の中には良いことも悪いことも含まれていることでしょう。
どうなるのかね。
でも、これまでも自分の選択が間違っていたことはないし、仕方なく、もしくは流されるようにして過ごした過去もなんだかんだで楽しかったので、これからも多分そう。
楽観的に考えないと人生暗くなっちゃいそうだしね。
今年はちゃんと文章を書く。
アウトプットする。
以上！
Walking around Ueno
アメリカ編と並行して、日本に帰ってきてから行った所や食べた物についても書こうかなと思います。多分、人生で一番美味しいもの食べて、行きたい所へ行っていると思う。なぜなら大学へ行っていないから！単位取得済みで卒業確定なので今学期は授業を取っていません。卒論を書かなくても、ゼミの単位が貰えないだけで卒業要件には関係がないので、書かないことにしました。
群馬から東京に通うのも大変なので、帰国してから来年３月の卒業までは勝手にギャップイヤーだと決定しました(笑)就活と自分の好きなことをする時間として、グダグダと楽しんでいます。寝すぎて身長伸びてそう。
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6月にモニークが短期研修旅行で日本に来ていたので、モニーク、理紗子、摩美、私の4人で上野で遊びました。
日高屋のW餃子定食がお昼。3人とも同じやつを注文。
モニークは日高屋のコスパに感動してた。確かに620円でこのボリュームとクオリティは、アメリカには絶対ないもんねぇ。アメリカでこれを食べるとしたらチップ込みで軽く$20はするんじゃないかな…。そう思うと日本の外食は平均レベルが価格、品質ともにかなり高い。ありがたい。
私、人生初のアメ横だったのでモニークと同じくらい楽しんだと思う。
東京って楽しい所がたくさんあるのねーと再認識した日でした。
人生で初めてクレープを食べた時、人はこんなにも幸せな顔をするのねと思った瞬間。
かわいすぎ。
上野公園
Chilling at Ueno park
夜の上野。ゴージャス。
Night view in Ueno
Monjya-yaki and okonomi-yaki in Asakusa
夜の浅草もとても綺麗でした。
ライトアップされると、なんで建物はあんなにもセクシーになるんだろうか。
日本の夏って感じでじめじめした一日だったけど、初めての場所を大好きな人達と行けてとても楽しかった。モニークはいつも笑っているから、周りにいるみんなも笑っちゃう。私もそんな風になりたいなぁと会うたびに思う。次に会う時にも、お互いがこれまで以上に笑っていたらいいなぁ。
Chicago
Hi, guys. How is it going?
Japan is turning into fall, gradually as the temperature in the evening becomes lower and lower.
It's still hot and sometimes humid in day times, but much better than last month. Yes, fall is coming.
I was too lazy and did put only a few memories in this blog. I don't have a paper diary as well.
And, suddenly, I realized that my memory is going far away little by little, and in the future I would remember only brief summary of each events I have done. Time is changing. I am changing. People are changing. Things are changing. It's impossible to remember all of them otherwise memory explosin might happen in my head :P
However, I don't want to forget everything. I want to keep all the moment I feel happy and sad somewhere I can touch. Don't need to hold them in my arms. Instead of that, I want to put them at some places. That might be here, blog.
I don't know how long my attitude toward keeping my memories continues, but for now I'm sure that this is what I should do.
First thing I want to keep in my blog is about Chicago.
Though I could walk around downtown Chicago only twice during staying in the US, I fell in love with the city. Risako and I got there after leaving Milwaukee. Risa stayed two days and then headed back to Japan.
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ここまでは2016年の9月11日に書いていたみたいです(笑)もう一カ月以上経ってしまった。もう完璧に秋です。誰が何と言おうと秋です。というわけで、一個前の投稿と言っていることが若干被っていますが、忘れたくないことを忘れないために書きます。
しかし英語で書くと慣れてなくて時間がかかりすぎる…こういう時に母国語がいかに最強かということを思い知らされる。日本語で表現することは、楽だし楽しいし面白い。私の英語力がまだまだっていうだけかもしれないけれど。
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Throw back to memories in Milwaukee
Fall is here. This summer was a bit longer than last year, and even I say it's fall we still can go out only with t-shirt. But it's fall finally. Fall is the best. We don't need to find shade to hide from the sun and don't need to eat lots of ice-creams, also don't need to worry about wearing grey clothes because of sweat. We just can enjoy comfortable warm weather and get enough nutrition by eating many good food, and be ready for winter. I'm so happy that I was born and raised in the country which has four seasons and be able to feel the change of each season.
It has been 4 months since I came back to Japan. I remember that last October started with Oktoberfest, drinking beers and making new friends. Umm I still can't believe I was there with them. Anyways throwing back to memories in Milwaukee made me feel like I must not forget it, so from this post I try to write all of them. Though my memories is fading away, especially older ones, newer ones are still vivid. I do remember my last trip to West Coast, San Jose, San Francisco and Los Angeles. Asahi took me too many good places during I was staying there, so I have many things to write down.
ついに秋になりました。昼間は半袖でもいられる気候の時もありますが、朝晩は涼しいというか、寒いって思っちゃうほど。秋の過ごしやすさは、人の心を少し幸せにしてくれると同時に、一年の終わりを感じさせはじめて、少し切ない気分にもなりやすいなぁと個人的に思います。でも、季節の移り変わりに感傷的になれることは、ある意味幸せなことだと思います。秋に気付くことなく冬を迎えるほど忙しい人も日本には沢山いるはず。そんな人たちによって、世の中は回っているので感謝と尊敬を忘れずに、私は美味しいものをたくさん食べます。なんてったって、食欲の秋。
日本に帰ってきてから4カ月以上が経って「去年の今頃は、あそこ行ったなー」とか色々なことを思い出します。2015年の10月はオクトーバーフェストから始まったようです。ビール飲んで、ブラット食べて、友達も沢山できて、オクトーバーフェストに参加したことで色々な経験が出来た。とにかく、ミルウォーキーでの思い出を振り返っていたら、忘れちゃいけないことが沢山あるってことに改めて気付かされました。だから、書こう。古い記憶からどんどんと朧気になっているけれど、比較的新しい思い出はいまだに私の頭の中に住んでいるので、そこらへんの思い出達から「文章」という形として住処を引越しさせようかなと思います。あさひに会いにカリフォルニアへ行った記憶はとても鮮明なので（iPhone6sにした後だったから写真も沢山撮ったのもある）まずはそれについて書こう。
Also, I will start writing about my ideas of news topics in daily life. I'm personally interested in eco-friendly system and recycling. When I was in the U.S, it seemed that people (mostly American) didn't care about leftovers, recycling or separating garbage so much. I know not everyone is like that, my suite mates were separating them and so did I, such as separating cans, plastic bottles and cardboards. I just feel that we consume too much. I think I can understand why Andy Warhol drew Campbell's soup cans now. Not only about mass consumption but also about social system and gender (and more and more and more topics) are often stuck in my mind as watching TV programs and reading magazines. It is not just started, I've had many ideas and opinions for everything I knew, but I didn't tell those precious things to anyone at all. Blog is easy, just write whatever I want and someone I have never met or I will never meet might find my blog, and read it and think something from it(I hope so.) I think I have to say something to the world even if it's tiny tiny one. This blog is going to be the one.
エコ、大量消費、リサイクル。そういうことを以前より少し深く考えるようになったのは、アメリカのカフェテリアでみんなが躊躇なく食べ残して、躊躇なくそれを捨てる光景を見たからかなぁ。アメリカに限ったことじゃなくて、日本人も同等もしくはそれ以上に消費して、捨ててるはず。思う事は沢山ある。エコに限ったことじゃなくて、テレビで知ったことやネット上で話題のことに対しても私が思うこと、考えることは沢山ある。私が思ったことは取るに足らないことと今まで思っていたけれど、ブログ、Facebook、Twitter、instagramで誰もが発信できる時代になったから、自分自身の独断と偏見を世界に発信するのはそんなに悪いことじゃないのかも(笑)と思えるようになった。だから、たくさん書きたいと思います。うん、これでいこう！
What is "ペラペラ" ?
Hey, guys! Thank you for reading my writings. In my last post, I think I said I was going to write about my trip to CA and my flight to Japan by Singapore Airline for my next blog post. Well, life is sometimes not easy, I had an urge to talk about what I have experienced past few weeks in my daily life. I promise I will share my great trip to West coast with tons of great pics. It's coming soon, so just be patient and waiting for the day. Lol
Since I came back to Japan from my study abroad in the United States, some new people who I met recently often asked me like "じゃあ、英語ペラペラなんですか？": it means that "so can you speak English very well / naturally / fluently?" My answer is always "NO"
What is the definition of ぺらぺら? (pronounced as pera-pera) I still have no idea what it does mean.
I can understand why people ask me about my English level. If I was a person who never studied abroad and met someone who had been in America for a year, I also would be curious how much he can speak English. Also, study abroad just sounds super cool (I would say it's cool but at the same time it's very hard, in my opinion) and people have some expectation such as "One-year study abroad must make the person speak second language very fluently because he is there for a year! A year!" At some point, it's true. I'm sure I can live in the United States without any serious problems. I got used to speak English in daily life, can communicate with my friends (even if they don't think so, I do feel I can do it :P) and tell my opinion to someone.
However, is that ペラペラ? Just using English is defined as ペラペラ?
For me, ペラペラ sounds like you can speak, write, listen, and read English like a native speaker. I seriously hope that I will be ぺらぺら in the future, and also most Japanese people who study English as a second language might think they have to / must be ぺらぺら if they learn any languages.
It's important and cool to speak other languages very well. Who doesn't want to be cool? But as you learn you would face another big wall that blocks your way, wouldn't you? At an early stage, the wall might be not so tall. You could go beyond it with a little effort and power. Since the wall is getting higher, you would realize you need to put a lot of time to go the other side of the wall. It takes time and there's no guarantee you will make it.
Living in the United States made me grow up as a person. My English improved a lot and I could have experienced many things which I can't do in Japan. But, simultaneously (this is my favorite English word, by the way) America taught me that "I am Japanese" No matter how much I study English, I can't be a native speaker. I can't be ぺらぺら. That sounds like sad thing, but that is true. So I think we don't need to be ぺらぺら. It is cool, but I think more important thing is "trying to be ぺらぺら" You are already super cool because you are doing your best to be cool!
It's not mandatory you become native speaker. Your English is already good, so just keep brushing up for what you really want to be.
