（不）勉強のベン

不勉強、不要

2010-12-23T22:07:00.000+09:00

このブログの読者はいないと思うけど、ま、僕は何年前から、日本語でブログを書く暇がない。

世界一周の途中です。

もし良かったら、右側の「English Blog」をクリックしてください。又は、日本語の「hozunari.blogspot.com」を見てください。

免許！

2008-05-05T16:14:00.002+09:00

一ヶ月かかったけどやっと手に入れた！これからのツーリングを楽しみしてる。木曜日に初めて自分のバイクを乗れる～

地下鉄のポケモンラリー

2008-01-28T20:57:00.000+09:00

このようなイベントはイギリスの地下鉄で行うことを想像にもできない。

ポケモンスタンプを七つ集めた坊ちゃんのお母さんをお疲れ様でした！

f*ing

2008-01-21T15:48:00.000+09:00

英語で「f*ing」の意味をわかるか？この写真と「f*ing collection」や「basic f*ing」を合わせるのはかなり面白いよ！わからない方にヒントを上げる：テレビや雑誌で口汚い言葉を放送するとき、たまに最初の文字と「*！＠」とかを映る、そうして、よく「f***ing」や「effing」や「f*ing」を見えるよ。

正月の泳ぎ

2008-01-14T13:03:00.000+09:00

正月の泳ぎ、寒かったよ！

初詣2008

2008-01-14T12:40:00.000+09:00

イギリスと違って、日本では大きなにぎやかなカウントダウンパーティーは東京みたいな広い町で行うと思う。やっぱ、今年も函館にいる僕らはカウントダウンパーティーじゃなくて、伝統的な初詣をやった。美根子さんの家で同僚のケイシーと忘年会を行った。
函館八万具神社。
千尋と友達。
僕は小吉、ケイシーと千尋は末吉。おみくじのいいところは悪い運命を取ったら、神社に置けばいい！
なんでこうするの？今までに誰も教えてくれてない。
西洋の警察と違って、函館の警察はやさしいな。

千尋の誕生会

2007-12-27T19:04:00.000+09:00

かれーやケーキやラムやウイスキーもあったし、皆楽しかった。まあ、ケイシーはアレルギーのせいで死にそうだったけど彼女によってそれは普通の状況かな～！（笑）

これから又ブログを頑張る。（多分）

歯みがきとタバコ

2006-10-17T09:22:00.000+09:00

塩味？マジで？！読んだら絶対に買わない！

一番面白い「タバコは健康に悪い」広告。二年前初めて見たときから色々な絵何回も見たことある、いつも笑い過ぎる。

よさこい

2006-10-09T21:21:00.000+09:00

ソーラン、ソーラン！

パークゴルフ

2006-10-02T22:54:00.000+09:00

飲むなら楽しいだろう！

値段と大きさは

2006-09-26T23:36:00.000+09:00

イギリスではビイル一本二十四回買う値段とビイル二十四本買う値段が全然違う。日本では両買い方の値段が同じくらい。二倍大きさパンは二倍代償になる。食べ物とか飲み物とかよくそのようだ。

Then you have this thing with Coke. I quite like the idea that there are plenty of people out there who will choose to buy the smaller can.困惑させるよ！

自分で撮ったけど誰？どこ？全然覚えてない～

日本のトイレ

2006-09-18T09:52:00.000+09:00

日本のトイレで三つ型を見たことある。鋳型一番目は「穴」、鋳型二番目は「王座」コントロルパネルあるし温かい席あるし～、鋳型三番目は「せ～まい！」僕より大きな人達が全然使えない！あの三つ型が西洋で見えないと思うよ。

青森後

2006-08-21T16:36:00.000+09:00

午前の五時まで函館に帰ってきた。すーごく楽しかった！

青森・４番目

2006-08-21T16:33:00.000+09:00

青森・３番目

2006-08-21T16:31:00.000+09:00

青森・２番目

2006-08-21T16:30:00.000+09:00

青森・１番目

2006-08-21T16:29:00.000+09:00

ドラえもん電車

2006-08-07T20:54:00.000+09:00

エバンが飛行機を作った。

元和台　海浜公園

2006-07-25T09:04:00.000+09:00

五稜郭祭

2006-07-04T09:10:00.000+09:00

一昨年の祭り似てたのに今年私はパークス公人だった。アメリカ人じゃなかったし重い旗を運ばなかったので良かった！

花見２００６：松前

2006-06-27T20:51:00.000+09:00

いっぱいいっぱい桜があった、緑桜も！
友達と一緒にお好み焼きを食べたし花見をしたし色々な遊んだし。

パボッツ

2006-06-18T13:27:00.000+09:00

西武スーパだったけど去年パボッツに変わったんです。

パチンコ：なんでそんなに人気だ？

「パボッツ」と言う？意味は？
壁でその説明を見える：パチンコ・楽しいこと・つまらない・味見・の
えっ？！誰の？つまらない味見か？ほんとですか？もう～

囲碁！

2006-06-05T17:34:00.000+09:00

よしお五段と一緒に俺の最初の対局をしました！初めて碁会所へ行ったときは良かった！三人が優しかったから楽しかったです。

松前のアイヌ

2006-05-29T11:38:00.000+09:00

最初松前へ来た日本人を助けたアイヌの絵。怖い！

皆が面白い名前と言う、例えば「起殺麻：キサマ」とか「訥室孤殺：ノチクサ」

花見２００６：弘前公園

2006-05-21T18:23:00.000+09:00

今年の桜が遅かったから南へ行ったのに弘前もまだ咲いてなかった。それでも弘前は北海道よりきれいと思う。枝垂桜がほんとにすてきです！又もとてもきれいな山が見える。

博物館でちっちゃいよろいかぶとや武士の服が見える。背が低い昔の武士！びっくりした。

昼でも夜でも弘前城がきれいだけど人がちょっと変わるんだ。

花見２００６：五稜郭公園

2006-05-16T10:46:00.000+09:00

すごいきれいな！（公園も）
古いトワーが小さそうね！

誰？ああ洗濯機だ。

2006-04-30T13:28:00.000+09:00

昨日洗濯機から電話した。ほんとにびっくりした！

パンツ！

2006-04-29T17:19:00.000+09:00

とてもかわいいじゃん？.

俺はこれからDVDを絶対買わない。今朝パソコンで一つ複製不能DVDを見えないからほんとに面倒臭いですよ。二時間ぐらい直してみたけどなにも出来なかった、映画を見えなかった。複製不能ソフトが大嫌い！

プリッツ持ってるくんと麻雀と羊

2006-04-24T14:40:00.000+09:00

プリッツ持ってるくん：すごい紙だ！

写真で麻雀も見える。

In 'I didn't have a camera handy' news, I'm regularly amused by the way people react at the pedestrian crossings on my way to work. There's one in particular where there's a period during which all the lights are red, and a tiny side street flashes green for a bit (so many drivers miss that, and sit there for several cycles, but that's beside my point). Anyway, if there's no traffic merging from said tiny street, I usually cycle over the crossing while everything is stationary and red-lighted.

The number of people who will automatically start across with me, then see the red lights, catch themselves, and leap/stagger/fall backwards towards the perceived safety of the pavement they just left is just staggering!

The other day two old Japanese ladies in kimono at another crossing did exactly this after some young Japanese cyclists bombed it over the crossing ahead of an oncoming tram. As it thundered slowly towards the crossing these two ladies were heads down shuffling after the cyclists, totally oblivious to the tons of oncoming metal and the red lights. About halfway across it clicked, and I bet they haven't had occasion to move so fast in decades...

Thankfully they were laughing about it once they got over the shock =)

無益なTシャツ

2006-04-16T14:39:00.000+09:00

This has to be the best Japlish T-shirt I've ever seen, courtesy of a teenage student who had no idea what it said. I know this would sell well in the UK. Not much to add here, except that it's snowing again...

俺の宝物

2006-04-11T14:37:00.000+09:00

An impressive haul last weekend, the likes of which has never been seen collected in one place before, but displayed here for your viewing pleasure!
Finally, a Japlish T-shirt of my own! My favourite bit is the 'serial number No...................' on the label.
More sake than you could shake a dozen sticks at, mostly consumed and discarded, these two kept for posterity.
Candied crabs and squid strips, the perfect accompaniment for sake consumption.
A fine strawberry hat, for those ichigo moments in life.
A PMX-001 PALACE-ATHENE, complete with "Mega Beam Cannon, Double Beam Gun, Diffusion Beam Cannon, Beam Saber etc. [sic]" in a dynamic pose.
A long-overdue manbag, with all the brand labels recently picked/filed/cut off, to replace the carrier bags I usually tote my junk around with.
Yay! A rare delicacy on this side of the world.
Last but not least, cuter-than-cute cards, a handkerchief (which as Andre pointed out is quite handy given the lack of towels, soap, or just about anything else in most public/restaurant toilets) and a killer hangover which still lingers a good 30 hours after I stopped drinking (60 hours since the session began!).

ジャプリッシュ

2006-04-03T14:36:00.000+09:00

Just a random selection to illustrate the varieties of English mauling over here: the verbose, the word collisions, and the wonderfully nonsensical.

Got a shiny quiet new computer as a birthday present to myself, realised I didn't have a hub and the hard drive cables weren't compatible with each other so spent a good half-day transferring all my music over in itty bitty chunks using my iPod nano. Joy.

Having said that, silent running makes it all worthwhile!

六人が寝てる

2006-03-23T14:35:00.000+09:00

Proof that I can sleep six in my cavernous mansion!

Great people, all met through Couchsurfing .com.

I hear people in more popular locations get overwhelmed by emails, but I enjoy playing host to visitors every month or so in remote Hakodate.

聖パトリックの祝日

2006-03-21T14:33:00.000+09:00

These images courtesy of Tomoko, the happiest camper! My earlier shots didn't really do justice to how beautifully lit the whole festival was at night, so these pictures plug the gap nicely.

It's funny how the one 'Irish' pub in town is plastered with exactly the same Guinness images that I always think of in relation to James, Kelly et al from university. It's like a taste of home, with extra nostalgia value. Shame the beer is crap and overpriced though.

A moment of Japanese-ness: You go to a pub on St Patrick's Day and find that the majority of table space has been reserved, and that the people who later arrive, who made the reservations in the first place, are all old guys wearing suits who wouldn't recognise a Patrick's Day party if it slapped them in the face with a wet fish.

雛祭り

2006-03-16T14:32:00.000+09:00

The princess/doll festival that takes place on the 3rd of March (note: the boy's festival is held on the 5th of May, so rather enterprisingly the gay community has claimed the 4th of April as their own!)

This particular set belongs to the mother of the owner of a noodle shop I frequent, the same noodler who discovered my bike two days after it got stolen, minus a saddle but basically OK.

Bike thieves and mutilators, may their consciences be forever wracked with guilt, or their organs with cancer... either would suit me fine.

雪祭り：雪

2006-03-06T14:31:00.000+09:00

Finally, we got to fulfill our ostensible purpose in visiting Sapporo! Here's a selection of the awe-inspiring work on display: The popular golfer, Aiko-chan, with anime-sized head; Taiwan's offering, complete with giant buddha, peace memorial arch, the same tower I was at for New Year and the weird teapot-head family; A well-lit peacock in the nightclub district; A dragon, in the same area; Australia's offering (some railway station); Other stuff, including two cute kids and the amazing Tottoro!

Well worth the trip, as always.

雪祭り

2006-03-06T14:30:00.000+09:00

In Sapporo for a weekend of alcohol, debauchery, love hotels, curry and aggressive barmen. Pictures to follow.

Meanwhile here's the only evidence of an anti-smoking movement I've ever seen in Japan. Nice to know they have a sense of humour too...

雪祭り：ラッブホテル

2006-02-18T14:30:00.000+09:00

We were in Sapporo the day before the snow festival was due to open, and were debating where to go. The main criteria were warmth and the ability to drink carry-out alcohol, since the bars were mostly still closed, what with it being the early afternoon and all.

I argued that since none of us had ever been to a love hotel before, a room would make for a much more interesting atmosphere than the usual 'karaoke box with jacket over the window' approach. We eventually found the love hotel district, after a few calls of 'bugger this for a lark, it's too cold' and several inquiries of locals that met with terse 'I wouldn't know about that' replies.

The next mission was to find one that would let seven people, six of whom were large, white and noisy, into a single room for purposes best left unspecified. The lobbies and entranceways we entered varied from the fabulously strange to the dull, and the interfaces from touch-panel displays to cracked and peeling buttons to a polite suited male receptionist in one up-market instance. We were variously told that only two, three or four (with supplementary payment) people could enter a single room, in almost every case by a nearby phone ringing while we milled around and tried to select rooms by the automatic interface. The few hotels with face-to-face contact we didn't even bother asking.

The eighth(?) attempt, whereby two people scouted out and chose a room, followed by two successive groups, worked in every respect but one. When we had four people in the room and three still coming the door was shut and we were slightly horrified to find it couldn't be opened from inside or out! If Chihiro hadn't been on hand to pick up the phone and apologetically explain that she had entered the room while her boyfriend was still outside we would have been rumbled for sure. There was an emergency 'break glass to exit' panel, but the time-locked doors certainly took us, and I guess any past rape/claustrophobia victims, by suprise.

Sad to say that we didn't secure one of the weird and wonderful rooms with rotating beds, mirrored ceilings, aquarium walls, red lighting or other delights, but we did have a five-foot porn display, and a few hours to play truth or dare and get hammered.

Note the crazy regulation pixellation that afflicts all legal Japanese porn, and Felicia's rapt viewing of same.

節分

2006-02-02T14:28:00.000+09:00

OK, so, armed with my oversized log of sushi, a bag of beans and my map to happiness, today I endeavoured to rid my self of demons, devils and wrongdoers, and hope for a wondrous future.

Step 1: Pelt the lurking horrors with beans. He seems to be enjoying it though, perhaps I should throw them harder?
Step 2: Every corner of my colleague's classroom is littered with beans, now to orient myself in a SSE direction.
Step 3 (and 4): With all and sundry scared off by the bean onslaught, the coast is clear for me to consume the SSE pointing oversize sushi roll without uttering a word for the duration. This done, I make a wish. The wish does not involve waffles.
Mm-mmm... this IS a tasty burger.

東京

2006-01-30T14:27:00.000+09:00

People used to seem pretty shocked when I told them that I'd been in Japan over two years and had never spent any time in Tokyo.

Now I have.

It was big and shiny just as you'd expect.

I liked this train too, designed to take advantage of the sea view, and the grassy embankments blocking said view. Cheers to Brandon for the cheesy pose.

Oh yeah, and apparently I can live a happy life now I've been fortunate enough to see the very top of Mt. Fuji on a clear day with no haze or clouds. I pity all you sorry souls who'll never witness it, and never know true happiness as a result.

キノコがある

2006-01-22T14:26:00.000+09:00

There is indeed.

雪

2006-01-17T14:25:00.000+09:00

So, ah, you're not driving this winter then?

この写真が大好き

2006-01-09T13:15:00.000+09:00

お正月

2006-01-09T13:06:00.000+09:00

１０１ビルは世界で一番高いビルと思います。一月の一日、００：００にここで素晴らしい花火大会を見えた。

台北のルール

2006-01-05T14:24:00.000+09:00

There seemed to be a remarkable number of such rules and regulations around Taipei, and the ones in the airport I especially wanted to take photos of - including things along the lines of: 'Anyone with a fever, cold, diarrhoea et al must report their condition to the authorities on entering Taiwan'; 'To prevent the spread of avian flu, passengers must not bring poultry on public transport'; 'Passengers arriving from Cambodia, Laos, Thailand et al must take special precautionary health measures for the first ten days of their stay'; 'To prevent the spread of Dengue Fever, the use of long-sleeved garments is recommended'.

I can just imagine turning myself in upon arrival with a case of diarrhoea and being locked in a shiny white cubicle for the duration of my holiday...

日本のクリスマス

2006-01-05T14:23:00.000+09:00

Hope everyone recovered OK from New Year!

Here's some pictures from the aforementioned rained-out Christmas festivities. Held every night of December, the 'Hakodate Christmas Fantasy' features a giant-headed amusingly voiced Santa, his cohorts and sleigh, and a Christmas tree imported from Hakodate's sister city in Canada. This year the top broke off, but it got better (those with long memories may recall that last year's tree had to be replaced from Hokkaido due to a bug infestation).

The usual weird techno music featured, with the same Pet Shop Boys track being the centrepiece ('Go West'?) and the dancers did an admirable job despite the sleet drizzling down.

新しい図書館

2005-12-12T12:22:00.000+09:00

すごい！静なのに賑やかです。たくさんパソコンやDVDやCDや雑誌や漫画や本があります。少しだけ英語の本もありますから、村上春樹の小説を借りました。

イスラエル六番目

2005-12-05T14:22:00.000+09:00

The Wailing Wall. Imposing, wall-like, worshipped in a way that seems to jar quite badly with my pre-conceived notions of God-worship. No idols, right? Anyway, it's impressive enough, and it amused me that I could enter where Tamar couldn't (women get a small screened-off section of wall to the far right).

These pious-looking types will just spontaneously gather and when they reach a quorum all sorts of murmuring and head-nodding will kick off, in orders of magnitude greater than they can achieve alone.

So the idea is that whatever you write on a scrap of paper and stuff into the wall will be read by God. I figured I might as well do so, and wedged my slip of paper in amongst all the others. Much later an Israeli said to me "So what did you ask for?" to which I replied "Wait. What? I was supposed to ask for something?".

This is the closest I got to the amazing mosque in Jerusalem, as just a little futher down the road there were eight soldiers with big guns who informed me that only muslims were permitted to go any further. Note that all these folk are men, and all are headed away from the mosque.

イスラエル五番目：イエス・クリスト

2005-11-29T14:20:00.000+09:00

A place of hushed murmuring, candles and cold stone; site of Christ's sepulchre.

A place as holy as this, in a city as contested as Jerusalem, is naturally a hotspot of religious one-upmanship. I heard it operated on a kind of time-share system, where each respective sect gets to do their necessary ablutions in rotation.

Ohad told a tale of one sect barricading itself in and changing all the locks overnight. The police were summoned, but were powerless as they couldn't damage a protected building! Drawn-out negotiations led to a resolution, but it's an apt illustration of the constant sectarian tensions at work.

Depicted: The slab where Jesus was laid out prior to burial; The sepulchre; The roof.

今年最初のスノーボードすること

2005-11-27T21:36:00.000+09:00

アダムが穴を見つけた！

イスラエル４番目：同名聖人！

2005-11-21T14:38:00.000+09:00

シオン聖丘ではベネディクト会修道士の修道院です。

聖ベネディクトです。

イスラエル３番目：宗教の戦争

2005-11-13T13:10:00.000+09:00

「イエス‐キリストがこの世に戻るときこの丘の上を歩きます」と予言されました。でも救世主は墓地の中に入れません。

ずっと昔トルコ国民はエルサレムを征服しました。トルコ国民はイエス‐キリストが救世主じゃないと思ったからそのときに広い墓地を立てました！

面白い物語と思います。

イスラエル２番目：「houmous」

2005-11-13T12:21:00.000+09:00

私の一番好きなイスラエルの食べ物は「houmous」です。

ひよこ豆やオリーブ油やニンニクやレモンジュースなどを使って作ったのが「houmous」です。ピタや玉ねぎで食べます。美味しいですよ！

イスラエル１番目：死海

2005-11-13T10:25:00.000+09:00

イスラエルで子供のライフル銃兵がよく見られます。
エヤルとタマーとミヘッル、死海のそばを歩きました。地平線と水平線が全然見られなかったです。死海は三十五パーセント塩だから私達が水中に浮いたのです。
死海の泥が肌にいいですけど私達は肌の手入れする必要ない。楽しむことでした！
後で泉で洗いました。

死海は平均海面より四百メートル下にあります！世界で死海は私が今まで行った所で一番変な場所だと思います。

原型

2005-11-01T15:10:00.000+09:00

これは私の日本語のブログです。上手じゃありませんから日本語の練習しています。間違いしたら教えて下さい！原型のブログは：

http://benkyonoben.blogspot.com

英語で読んで下さい！英語のブログはこのブログより面白いと思います。

最近イスラエルで旅行しました。