New blog♪

I started a new personal blog as a this English presentation class.

In the blog, I will write about preparation in Japan to study in Australia and my daily life in Australia because I'm going to study in Australia from February to November. The title of my blog is "mi-hop step jump".

I'm very happy that you read articles and give me some comments!

New Years Day in Japan☆

How do you spend New Years Day? I will introduce you how to spend New Years Day in Japan.

We prepare to come to New Year since late December. On December 30th, people make Kagami-Mochi (鏡餅）. It is a rice cake with 3 layers. We put it at Tokonoma (床の間 It is a part of room, alcove. People believe that there is a God.） On December 31th, Oshogatsu kazari （お正月飾り） is decorated at front door. Our grandfathers make it by straw hoping for a good crop. In the night, We eat Toshikoshisoba (年越しそば）. At 12:00 pm, people who live near temple, can hear Jyoyanokane (除夜の鐘）. Buddhist priest tolls the bell 108 times. It is said that 108 means humans worldly desires or sufferings by Buddhism.

On January 1st, we eat Osechiryori （おせち料理） which is made by our mothers. It contains many kinds of dishes. Several dishes have several wishes. For example, Kazunoko, egg of herring, symbolizes a wish to be gifted with children. Children can get Otoshidama （お年玉）, money gift, from their parents and grandparents.

On January 2nd, we go to a shrine with our family. We make a wish to Gods. Someone draw Omikuji (おみくじ）. It is a lot written fortune of many subjects. For example, health, love, study, marriage, and so on. There are some ranks of lot, 大吉(excellent luck）, 中吉（second luck）...., 凶（the worth). If you draw 大吉, you should take out as a charm. If you draw others, you would be better to tie it in rope or branch which is near box of lot. (image source)

There are traditional ways to spend New Years Day in Japan. Japanese people think New Years Day is more sensational than Christmas Day. It might be interesting to spend New Years on Japanese style!

My favorite musician♪

My favorite musicians is Avril Lavigne. She is from Canada.



This movie was shown on a Japanese news program "Mezamashi (めざまし) TV" which is a live broadcast in the morning. She is so popular that news reported her to come to Japan.

I have known her on other music program. When I watched her for the first time, I immediately became a her fan. She is so cute and fashionable. It is unbelievable for me that she is 23 years old! Because she seems to be younger than I expected. She has already married. Her voice impressed in my mind straight. After listening her song, I found her CD. When I was a high school student, I have played "Sk8er boi", her debut song, in rock band.
In addition, she writes lyrics of her own song. I'm often encouraged by her words. She almost sings love song. I respect her strong will.
As the program says, she is active in many countries. "Girl friend", the most recent her song, is sung a part of this song in Japanese, Spanish, French, German, and so on. I expect her to sing a song in all Japanese someday.

Listening foreign music is good for studying. It is interesting to find differences between ordinal lyrics and Japanese translation! Don't you think so?

My other face (^_^*)

I have had two kinds of part time-job.

Previously, I worked at a jeans shop as a shop staff. Shop staff have a lot of working. To sell jeans, I memorized about them. For example, shape, material, maker, size, price, and so on. According to customers, I found the best jeans for them. It was very difficult. But I learned how to provide services for several people. In addition, the shop dealt with not only jeans, but also casual clothes. How beautiful we display clothes on counters influences gross sales. I had to fold clothes quickly and clearly. Sometimes, customers asked me to show them a nice coordinate with jeans which they bought. It was like a test of my fashion sense! I enjoyed that feeling like playing dress-up doll. When the customer who wear clothing that I had chosen came to the shop. I can't forget the happiness.

Now, I work at a Western restaurant as a waitress at a station building. I fell different difficulties from working at jeans shop. This photo is "Hamburg steak set". I have to provide service for all customers. Sometimes I am confused serving some dishes for customers who sit different table at a time. And It is hard for me to serve appetizing dishes when I am hungry. But the happy times working at a restaurant are when customers say to me "it was so delicious!" and "GOTISOUSAMA（ごちそうさま）!" (It is said after eating something.)

image source

What I learned by working would be effective for our future. I want to enjoy and to learn more!!

Annual events!

I took part in some activities in school festival. Especially, I introduce activities as a member of wind orchestra club.

My wind orchestra club has some annual event in our school festival.

The 1st day, freshman paraded wearing fancy costumes around this university. We walked the head of line playing the musical instruments every year. We dressed in matching yellow polo shirts made for this festival with club members. It was very hard to play walking long distance and bringing heavy musical instruments. So we were tired. But gallery seemed to be pleased our music clapping in rhythm to us.

The 2nd and 3rd day, we opened udon(うどん) store. Udon is a Japanese wheat noodle. Most of other clubs sell different foods but we sell them every year. Managing the shop by member of sophomore and freshman was based on the our club's tradition. We also wore the yellow club polo shirts. At the store, we boiled fresh noodle, made a soup stock, and put seaweed and spring onion. This recipe is really simple. But we were busy to cook and to sell them. The shop was in bad place to attract people, we delivered them on campus. Fortunately, it was little cold these days, so hot noodle sold out earlier than we expected!

Thus, our wind orchestra club spent school festival enjoying these annual events. The time flew very quickly!

☆Fascinations of my hometown☆

My hometown Nirasaki is well known for its speciality, peach. In spring, the peach blossoms are out. These look like a pink carpet. And after bearing fruit, farmers wrap fruit with white pack. These look like a white carpet. Both scene are so beautiful! In addition, I can see Mt.Fuji, the highest mountain in Japan from my hometown. Contrasting these pink or white with blue of mountain show us different flavor. (Image source)

This town is also famous for soccer. The soccer World cup were held, citizens cheered for Japan team together. Because the one of the player commuted the high school in my hometown. There are many monuments relate with soccer in a station, a park, and so on. In New Year holidays, generations enjoy playing soccer.

My favorite place is a "Galactic train" park. "Galactic train", the name of this park, come from Japanese story. In the story, the main character travels by train in galaxy. we can see a similar scene from this park. Because trains run in sides and in-car lights appear prominently at a distance at night. We can see not only trains but also stars and town light. This park is a minor sightseeing spot.

There are not many kinds of transportation and shops. It is little inconvenient. But instead, we feel rich nature. If you come to my hometown, I recommend you to enjoy seeing the scene from many places.
(Image source)

Wind orchestra club♪

I belong to wind orchestra club in Yamanashi University. I play the percussion instruments. I enjoy playing the instruments with about fifteen members. Shiho who write articles on this blog is one of club members.

We practice for five days per a week. It is very busy for us. Even so, all members practice hard because they love music!

In this summer, we performed famous music "Swan Lake" written by Tchaikovsky at wind orchestra contest. We couldn't get the excellent prize. But we could have a confidence to be able to perform the famous music and make a good memory.

Recently, we are going to take part in school festival on November and hold the regular concert on December. We practice many kinds of music for it. For example, classical music, jazz, samba, and so on. In addition, Sometimes we perform not only in a concert hall but also in a hospital and kindergarten. We are very active to encourage many people with music power!

Nice to meet you!

Hello!
My name is Miho. I'm sophomore majoring international culture. Especially I'm interested in English phonetics.

This is my picture taking with my friends. The person at the head side of left is me.

I have a family, father, mother, and young sister. They like traveling. We travel once a year. This year, we are going to go to Kyoto. Do you know Kyoto? It is famous traditional city in Japan. If you come to Japan, I recommend you to go there.

My hobbies are listening to music and playing the instrument. I belong to wind orchestra club in Yamanashi University. I play the percussion. I listen to not only classical music but also foreign pop music. I want to talk about music.