Haruki Murakami

Good morning.

It's been nice and warm around here.

The city where I live at the moment is quite quiet and safe, which is good.

Haruki Murakami, a Japanese novelist, used to live right in this area.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haruki_Murakami

He is writing in his book titled 'Yagate Kanashiki Gaikokugo'

that Princeton is quiet enough to concentrate on writing.

Yesterday, I finished reading this book.

It's interesting and I have several things I would agree.

There are lots of translations of his books coming out,

but I'm afraid this book hasn't been done yet.

You've ever probably come across 'Norwegian wood', haven't you?

I like 'South of the Border, West of the Sun' the best.

By the way, do you like music?

What kind of music do you listen or play?

I do listen to classical music, Rock, Jazz and such and such.

I love music which makes me feel great whatever it is.

I play the piano. I started learning it at the age of 2.

So it has a kind of feeling that it's a part of me.

I've ever learnt a bit about the violin and guitar, but

not much to express myself.

The photo is one of my pianos.

I left it in Japan and really miss it.

I haven't got the instrument here.

I'm just thiking if I'm gonna rental it,

but haven't really decided it yet.

see how it goes.

cooking

Hi everyone. How's it going? I hope everything is going well for you.


As I'm writing one of my hobbies is cooking in my profile, I love cooking.


I cook Japanese traditional cuisine, daily ordinary cooking and sometimes


ethnic one.


I tried "enpanada" and "umita" from Argentine food the other day.


A friend of mine who is from Argentina had a look at some photos


which I had taken my cooking and said,


"Enpanada looks good, but umita doesn't look like our umita."


I told myself to cook with a recipe. It says we need to use


some rounded molds. I don' t have them and then


I used the squared pan in stead. I guess it made mine


look different. As for the taste, umita was delicious to me.


Have you tried Argentine food, everyone?

snoopy

Hi everyone! How's it going? I'm fine.

It was the first day of this winter to have snow around here

the day before yesterday.

I was a bit worried about the weather,

but it was ok.

It has all melted and is very sunny day today.

I like sunshine very much. Wherever I am,

I feel it gives me a lot of energy.

I didn't used to feel like that when I was much younger.

I don't know why I feel so now??? getting older...?

Did you watch the Westminster dog show yesterday?

When I turned on the telly, I've just found the programme.

It was a lot of fun. The dogs are really cute and clever.

I'm not quite sure about the judgement system, so I was

just curious.

The show has a long history, doesn't it? though I didn't know it.

The winner dog is "UNO" which is beagle.

He is really clever. You can see how cool he is in this picture.

According to the news, beagle dogs have never ever won

in this competition. It is brilliant, isn't it?

Congratulations, UNO!

In Japan, we have the twelve zodiac signs(a kind of astrology).

You can know your own simbol animal with your birth year.

As far as I'm concerned, it is DOG.

Sometimes I feel I'm dog(^v^) rather than human being.

Can you find yours?

http://www.onmarkproductions.com/html/12-zodiac.shtml

my life in USA

Hi. My name is Rina. I'm from Japan.

I live in NJ now. I came here last Dec.

About one and a half month has passed

since I came here.

I decided to start this blog in English because

I wanted to record my life in US, and

to brush up my english skill.

I always feel my English is so limited that

I can't express myself well.

I hope it's somehow ok to you.

Please correct my English WHENEVER you find

the mistake.

Let me just briefly introduce myself.

My hobby is cooking and playing instruments.

I am interested in my country's traditional culture,

such as Kimono, Bunraku, traditional music,

Cha kai seki(special cuisine for Japanese tea ceremony),

Sado and so on.

It sounds like uncommon for most of

young people in Japan, because people are

getting away from such kind of things nowadays.

I will write about those cultural things later on.

Oh well, it's snowing outside. I hope the weather

won't be so awful.

See how my life in US goes and

See how much my English improves as well!