Mukomachi Coop EnlgishコミュのWhy don't we start a new thread?

Thank you, Karuna, for the new thread.

I've been having the same feeling as you.
Shall we make a rule that we put the limit on 30 massages
in a thread?
And if you write the 30th massage, you can get a privilege
or something?

And today.
I went to my tennis club in the morning and I had a ukulele
meeting in the afternoon.
I played tennis after three-week-interval this time.
I'm not so enthusiastic it in the winter.

But I had to go there.
One of our teammates was coming for the first time last four
months.
He had an accident while drivin on a motorbike and got injured.
He hadn't been able to walk for more than two months.
He probably got leave for two months.
Nevertheless he wasn't fired maybe as he was a city servant.

And the ukulele meeting was so live.
It was held at a cofee shop in Shimamoto-cho.
More than 15 people gathered there.
Some skillful ukulele players, guiter plyers, clasical vocalist
and a magician of Yoshimoto-kogyo were among them.
Of course they were ukulele lovers.
They played by turns.
It was good time.

That's all for today.
See you on Wednesday, Karuna and on Friday.

Tak

Hi, Tak and Scarlet,

Moving to a next thread after every 30 messages sounds like a very good idea.
Thanks a lot for suggesting it, Tak.

Tak, sounds like you had a very nice day.
A combination of having what is good for your body
and what is good for your heart sounds quite wholesome.
And it was very nice of you to go to the tennis club
for your tennis friend's "rehabilitation."
He must have been very happy to see you all for the first time in four months.
Friends are nice to have.
They make you happy, feel warm in the heart, and enhance your self-worth.

As for my day:
I went out for jogging for the first time in years.
I jogged up to the water purification plant, to the Bamboo Forest Park,
to Rakusai New Town, the 6th Koyo Elementary School,
and finally back down to my "mansion."

It was such a nice feeling.
Jogging gives me a sense of self-containment.
It also gives me time to talk with my body, and actually my mind, too.
I had a quality time today jogging out there.
I think I will go out jogging at least a couple of times a week.

But I have to be careful not to overdo it.
The last time I jogged, I did it to the point where I injured my feet.
In fact, injuries were what made me stop jogging at junior and senior high school.
I belonged to the track & field club and was quite fast in long-distance races.
But at the beginning of my third year at junior high,
I injured my Achilles tendons, then my knees, and finally my waist joints.
I had to keep going back the hospital.
But the treatment didn't work.
But I didn't stay away from running long enough for the treatment to work.
So I had to finally stop running altogether.
And for the first time in my life,
I had a pretty strong feeling of failure and despair.

But now I can jog without these bad feelings.
That's very nice.

Oops, it's getting late.
I'd better sign off for the night.

See you guys,
Karuna

Hellow, everybody.
How are you?
Scarlet, how have you been?

It's really cold.
Today surely will be the coldest day in this year.
Shall I bet it?
Maybe it's my hope.
I never want to have a colder day in next couple of weeks.

Spring has already started on the calender.
And it's bringing you ,not only Scarlet also Kazz, hay fever.
Fortunately, I've never suffered from hay fever till now.
There are some things about physical condition that people
suffer from but I haven't experienced.
Hey fever, stiff shoulders and natural coldness of hands or feet.

My doctor often asks me " Do you have stiff shoulders or natural
coldness?"
But I can't have a certain answer because I don't have any sense
of what they are.
But, you know, I have some other sickness of dizziness or so.

I never drink alcohols and I have few oily or solty dishes.
But my blood pressure isn't very low.
A lot of complicated functions would make my condition.
Anyway take care of your health.

I hope I'll see your helthful smile next time.
Bye for now.

Tak

Hi guys,

It was very good to see you in the lesson today.
It was also very nice to have all three of you in class.

And Scarlet, thanks for the Valentine chocolate.
I really appreciate your thoughtfulness.

You know, getting chocolate is a pretty rare thing at our age.
I guess men get irrelevant as they, or we, age.
As we lose our youth, we seem to lose the respect of people.
It's like out of youth, out of reverence.

Times have really changed, I am afraid to say.
We used to get a lot of respect when we became old.
We were called wise men or sages.
We appear in old folk tales such as Hanasaka-jiisan,
Sitakiri-suzume, and Taketori-monogatari,
and played very important roles.
We had stories to tell, and morals to pass over.
We sure were venerated in old times.

But, alas, not any more.
Good old days are gone.

Nowadays, we are called by insulting names like koki-koreisha,
and made to pay a large amount of tax.
What happened to the love and attention we used to get.
A society that doesn't give due respect to old men, I'm afraid, is doomed to fall.

Today, however, we found out that we have not lost
all the respect for the old thanks to the sweet chocolate
that you brought for us.

Thank you, Scarlet,
You have save out country.

Karuna

Oops, I made a number of mistakes above.

"We appear" should be "We appeared," "in old times" should be "in the old times,"
and "You have save out country" should be "You have saved our country."

Sorry for the mistakes.

Have a nice day,
Karuna

Good evening guys!

How are you?
I've not been able to bear these freezing days.
When will this be over?
Though Kawazu-zakura, early flowering cherry blossoms,
are getting bloom in our town.

Scarlet I also appriciate your kindness.
I don't think so seriously like Kazz, though.
Time goes by..
And everything is changing.
It brings good things and bad things.
We can't stop the time.

Last century was the century of America.
Material civilization has overwhelmed spiritual culture.
And we have lost many important things.
"Respect" is one of them.
"America" also means "power"including military power and
economic power.

But it may change.
Their president said "Change".
Above all, the power will be equalized among some important
countries in the world.
And values will become multified.
So we have to take our own culture with importance.

This was my lecture of social science.
Thank you for your careful reading.
That's for today.

See you.

Tak

hi guys,

let me write in a text-message style today.
that means no capital letters and maybe lots of shortened words.
but not having fully learned the way young people write on the net,
i'm not sure i can really look/sound like someone who's grown up with the next.

went up mt. daimonji yesterday with a friend of mine.
we started from near nanzenji temple and walked our way up north.
we got up to nyoigatake, where we took a break with some refreshments.
and did some stretching.
from there we walked down and finally got to daimonji.
there we saw blackened fire beds for the bonfire last august.

the weather was fine when we started out,
but by the time we got to daimonji-yama,
a cold wind started blowing pretty hard,
and it finally started raining.

we finally came down to ginkakuji.
there we had something hot to drink.
in fact we had a cup of coffee and some smoked cheese.
the cheese tasted good,
but its smoky taste and the bitterness of the coffee didn't go well.
still we enjoyed both after a couple of hours' walk.

i have'nt walked in the mountains for a long time,
but because it was a short and light hike,
i didn't feel like i had been away from the mountains for a long time.

still i feel a bit tired tonight although it's good fatigue.
i can feel the good effect the hiking did on my body.
it has given me good blood circulation throughout it.
it's supposed to be a cold night tonight,
but because of the good blood circulation i have today,
i don't feel cold.

Scarlet:
DS can be a good tool to build up your vocabulary.
You use it for that purpose, and with that please read papers.
It's also important to get exposed to these words in real contexts.
Please keep up the good work.

Tak:
I agree with your opiniong that the last century was America's century.
This century won't be so, and especially in the second half,
other powers will become conspicuous.
Just as The Tale of Heike tells you, the strong won't last forever.
What about Japan?
Well, it will be downhill from now on.

Hi, guys,

How was your day?
Did you have a good time?

It sure rained hard this morning.
I had to walk to the Muko Community Center this morning.
By the time I got there, the bottom part of my jeans was pretty wet.

But thank God, the rain has let up and the thick clouds are gone.
The sky is not completely clear yet,
but it looks like we're gonna get sunshine tomorrow.

I'm very happy that Okuri-bito has got the Academy Award
for Best Foreign Language Film.
And the Oscar seems to have given a big boost to the numbers
of audiences for the film across Japan.
More people are lining up for the movie in front of the theaters
where the movies is showing.
There are movie theaters that are planning to play it.

This is a very moving film.
But it may touch different people in different ways.
But I hope people who see this excellent movie will learn
death is not something dirty and ugly　and impure,
and that has to be avoided no matter what.

Death is part of life, and is very sacred
because it serves as the closer of this thing called life
that is very sacred itself.

Maybe doctors are some of the people
who can learn most from this movie.

Karuna

Hello, everybody.

How are you?
Fine day isn't it, after several days of bad weather?
In my town, people begin to walk out and I feel some ripple
of them.
Blooming season is comming soon?

At work, in my school, yesterday was the graduation day.
For me, it was very easy to finsh my work because most students
had left their school before I started working.
And teachers went back home earlier than usual.
It makes my job easy.

But a group was still at their school in the cooking room.
That was the girls' basket ball team.
They had a farewell party with their teacher.
They were sitting in a circle and singing together.

I think they were one of the most tight-knit teams in the school.
The school has a sports course and many students are training there.
Some of them, kendo, boys' basketball, saccor, baseball team have
ever got winning titles of kyoto prefecture, or even of nation.
The girls' basket ball team wasn't the strongest team but the nicest
team, I think.

They were always practicing till late in the evening.
And before the school test they studied together in their classroom
sitting face to face, helping each other.
And they were the only group who voluntarrily cleaned the entrace of
their school building once a week.
It was very nice of them.

And the day, It was time to separate.
They finished their party and they claened up the room and said goodbye.
Leaving some sentiment.
It was a case of Deperture.

See you next time.

Tak

Hi Tak/Scarlet,

Was a beautiful day today, wasn' it?

But a beautiful day at this time of year means a lot of pollen.
And a lot of pollen means hay fever.
Yes, hay fever is here with a vengeance.
And I'm suffering from many of the hay fever symptoms.

One: Sneezing:
I sneeze a lot. Especially, right after I wake up, I start sneezing.
Sometime I sneeze for about 10 minutes.
As I sneeze, my nose start running, and I have to blow it.
But sneezing works like magic.
As I sneeze, my body temperature goes up.
And as I feel warmer and warmer, the sneezing get less severe
until it stops, and won't happen until maybe in the evening.

Two: Itchy eyes.
Itchy eyes are another symptom of hay fever.
Vision takes up a big part of human perception.
If you want to keep up with the world,
you have to keep your eyes wide open all day.
This pose a big problem for those who suffer from hay fever.
Bigger the eyes, maybe the bigger the problem.
Staying home sort of minimizes the severity of the problem.
But it doesn't free you from keeping your eyes open.
You may ｂlink your eyes bit more often,
but usually it doesn't help.
Pollen gets in your eyes and cause itchiness.
And since you can't see pollen, you cannot pick it up and take it out of the eyes.
This is a big problem, something that keeps your from opening your eyes.

Three: sore throat.
Sore throat is associated with a cold.
But since pollen attacks mucous membranes,
and the throat is covered with mucous membranes,
you get a sore throat with hay fever.
It doesn't go to deep as when you get the flu,
but it does cause some inflammation of the throat.

Four: Dizziness
Just as when you feel dizzy when you have a cold.
You feel dizzy when you have hay fever.
Dizziness is a mechanism of the body to protect it from its being damaged further.
When you feel dizzy, you slow down
and take a rest and concentrate on healing yourself.
Thus dizziness is a signal from your body to tell you to slow down.
But if you have something you have to do, dizziness may get in the way.
And if you fight with the dizziness, it won't serve its purpose.
Busy life in the business oriented world is not fit for healing, I'm afraid.

Anyway, what I wanted to say was I have these hay fever symptoms.
Since you don't suffer from it, Tak,
no matter what I say, you may not understand this.
What about you Scarlet?

Karuna

Hi, everybody.

How are you?
Fine and warm day like a real spring day, isn't it?
I played tennis in the morning after three weeks' interval.
Actually I don't like to play tennis in winter.
But I kept playing at least once a month to hold my membership
of our team.
It was some like a practice of Buddhist monk.
But it's really good to play in the fine weather of spring day.

By the way I found a book I had been looking for at Junkudo.
It was the famous story of Sakuramori by Tsutomu Minakami.
I've been thinking to liven up our city with cherry blossoms
as a community member.
And our city is one of the towns the story takes place.

I once visited a small lake of Yogo with a girl though it was
long long ago.
And the reason was just what was the location of "Umi-no-koto".
It was one of the most important works by Tsutomu Minakami.
I don't like the novelist specially but at that time I had some
romantic image there of the story.
Maybe it was because of my young age.

I think it was a lonly rural scenerly now.
But I have had an idea that the stage of good or populer stories
have special value for visiters.
And some people may be attracted by the image and come to see there.
I think Sakura-mori is a useful story for our town.

I know cherry blossoms are the flower of Muko-city.
And there are some nice spot of cherry blossoms in the city.
Muko-jinjya, Daigokuden-site, Funsui-koen and some other spots.
And the raising field of cherry trees in the story was locating
at the Mukoudai-danchi.
Though you can't find any trace there.

I think it must benafit for us.
I will offer some idea for our community.
Anyway cherry blossomes will start blooming soon in our town.
Spring is the best season for people except hey fever sufferers.

Kazz, see you on Wednesday.
Scarlet, see you probably three weeks after.

Tak

Hi Tak & Scarlet,

Spring is indeed here.
That's how I feel.
No one tell can me exactly when it's here.
Even the Meteorological Agency can't do that.

It's not like telling people when the rainy season starts.
Every spring, the Agency announces its beginning.
Even that is not exact science.
They just set up some conditions, and when all of them are met,
they put out the message that the rainy season has set in.

Do we have something like that for the arrival of spring?
I don't think so.
Every one of us has to decide when it is here.
That is, it is left to each individual to know when it's spring.

So today, I officially declare that spring is here.
Why? Because I feel that way.
That should be enough reason that this warm season is finally here.

Spring, of course, is the season for cherry blossoms.
They are beautiful.
They are everywhere, they are noticeable.
They come out en masse in one area.
The sakura front goes up the country from south to north.

People love cherry blossoms.
I don't know exactly why.
But I guess it lets us know spring is here.

Well, time to go to bed.
See you next time.

Karuna

Hi, how are you?

Do you know Kawadzu-zakura?
Kawadzu-zakura is a kind of early blooming cherry blossam tree.
And it's probably named from a town in Izu area it was developed
or discovered.

I'm always looking at them on the way to the train station in this
season.
They are blooming in the front yard of a drug-manufacturing company.
That's the only company in the residence area.
So they keep their factory so fine to give good impression to their
neighbors.

Their factory is finely made up with flowers through the year.
And they also has a few pecious Kawadzu-zakura trees.
I took a picture of them with my cell phone the day before
yesterday.
They seemed a few days later from their best.
But they looked fine.

I'll put the picture here.
Let's enjoy spring days!

Good morning...
I feel like being in a fog.
I had a deep sleep for 9 hours last night.
This is a relaxing time on the weekend.

But it's not good to have such a long rain at the beginning
of long awaited spring days.
Is this called Natane-dzuyu?
But Na-no-hana haven't got their season.
Maybe Omizu-tori at Todaiji have begun already?

And people seem restless at the school, I'm working there,
this season.
Few students are there after short school hour so most teachers
don't have much work.
But they have some important events in this time.
Graduation day was already over.
The weekend before the last was the day of entrance exam.
And on next Tuseday they can know the results.

Then they, teachers, start preparing, admission procedores or so.
Now they are replacing cables for their computer sistem and painting
the wall of school building and I found our shoe locker was renewed.

Sorry it's time to leave.
See you.

Tak

Sorry to suspend writing.
There was something to disturb.

I had an appointment with a doctor in Saikyo Hospital.
She is a doctor of Chinese medicine.
She always asks me about something better or worse.
And says "Let me show your tongue".
Then she put her hand on my wrists and takes the pulse.
And gives me a comment like "You should keep having current
medicines for a while".
It's not sure whether the treatment is good or not for me
but I like the doctor and the hospital, so I'll keep getting
it.

The streets of Saiin were pritty joyful with a lot of stores
but really not sophisticated.
But I don't hate the town.
I walked toward Ohmiya looking at stores and restaurants.
The weather already had turned fine but the wind was a bit
strong.
I didn't feel it unconfortable, though.

It'd been several monthes since I'd walked in the warm wind.
It was a good time and I'd walked to the Karasuma Station.
Best way to spend the weekend afternoon, isn't it?
Allow me to leave the suspended story of last message.

Scarlet, I'll see you two weeks after.
Three weeks absence, it's a long time.
How have you changed?
Kazz, I'll see you on Wednesday of 25th a few days before Sc.
Good days.

Tak