Today I would like to introduce our web designer to you.
He is thirty something and married.
He is a little bit chubby. (maybe a little bit?)

He likes net surfing and drawing illustrations.
On the wall paper of his desktop, there are illustrations of frying onions which he got inspiration from onions.

There are a lot of goods around his desk that inspire him as a designer.
It's like a toy box.

Anyway, as you can see from our site, he is very good at making web designs.
So, have fun with our site from now on....

We will make the best endeavour.
Thank you.

If you have any comments on this journal or on this page itself, please feel free to send us your mail to the address below.

mail:info@le-noble.com

Do you have any supernatural experiences?
I do have some....but I am not still sure if they were just a dream.
It happened when I was in my jnior year of high shool. I had been studying for the test up until midnight in my room upstairs with the window opened.
At the time I felt very sleepy, I heard the sound of a bird singing. At first, I thought it was strange for a bird singing in the midnight.
Then, I heard a whistle by somebody, so that I imagined that somebody was looking for a bird running away.
However, suddenly the sound of bird changed into the whisper of human voice and it said, "Peko-chan".
I was very surprised and looked outside very carefully, but nobody was there. While I leaned over from the window, the whisper came from behind (inside of my room), saying "Peko-chan, look around!"
I followed the voice and looked around but nothing was there.
I was too scared to stay at the room, and so went downstairs and woke up all of my family.
I told them what had just happened, but they didn't take it seriously and they believed that I had been dreaming at the desk without studying...

Did you get the cool from my story?
Going to a haunted house might be another good choice.

If you have any comments on this journal or on this page itself, please feel free to send us your mail to the address below.

mail:info@le-noble.com

Hopefully we could recover good old days.

I have decided to start my own little project called, "Laughter saves the earth". Sounds great, isn't it?
So, to begin with I decided to collect funny and heart warming stories.

Let me introduce you my good experience the other day.
I made a telephone call to my mom from a public phone.
Since I was in a hurry, I started the conversation as follows;
"Hi, Mom. It's me. Now I am in Osaka."
"Where are you, again? How come you are in Osaka now?" she surprised.
"I had some errands to do here and I've got some free time. So, I called you."
"What about your husband and children?" she asked.
At that time I felt somethin odd about the conversation.
I wonder when I got a husband and children????(which I hoped for always though)
"Is this ??'s house?" I asked.
"No, it is xx. Aren't you my daughter?" she answered.
"No. I am very sorry. I must have a wrong number."
I expected that the answer would be negative one with some anger or she would just hang up the phone.
Instead of that, she said,"It is OK. Your voice resembles my daughter's. And you made me very happy since I missed my daughter living far away."
I felt very bad and apologized my call.
When I was about to hang up the phone, she said,"Please make a wrong call again sometime."
This last phrase made my day.
Since then, I have tried to be nicer for wrong calls.

Let's make good episode voluntarily.
Thank you for reading.

If you have any comments on this journal or on this page itself, please feel free to send us your mail to the address below.

mail:info@le-noble.com

How to spend summer holidays varies from country to country. Japanese people like to travel abroad, though the number is decreasing recently under the influence of terrorism and/or SARS.

Since I do not have enough time to travel abroad, and not even domestic trip, so that I would like to see a lot of films.
What I want to see this summer is "Talk to her" and "Geroppa (Get up)".

The reason I want to see "Talk to Her" is that the trailer on TV is very interesting. Also, a famous film critic in Japan called "Osugi" praised it very well, saying, "I weeped with a century worth of tears".

As to "Geroppa", my favorite actor, Toshiyuki Nishida, is on the movie and it is comedy. I like watching comedy films.

Anyway, I will write about them in my jounal after I watch them.

Visit tomorrow again, thank you.

If you have any comments on this journal or on this page itself, please feel free to send us your mail to the address below.

mail:info@le-noble.com

We used to refer to a night game as Nighter. We believed it was a correct English and people in English-speaking countries used it as we did.
However, it was a newly coined expression.
We are surrounded by a lot of coined words that we believe they are correct English.
Those words are called "JUNGLISH" which is also a coined word of Japanese-English.
I think most of foreigners living in Japan know this word.

There are a lot more.....

Finding Junglish might be a way to learn Japanese faster.
Or may be a way to confuse you????

If you have any comments on this journal or on this page itself, please feel free to send us your mail to the address below.

mail:info@le-noble.com

In this rainy season, the chances you might get food or water poisoning are higher, so please take care of yourself.

It is scary to take medicine of foreign make, isn't it?
When the symptom like me occurs, we have a popular medicine to take. It is a long seller item and it surely works well.
Most of Japanese know the name very well and take it at least once or twice in our life. However, it smells awful and the person takes it smells for a while.
(Recently there are variations of that medicine, so we can choose the one which is coated with sugar and less smells.)

Have you taken the medicine for the above symptom in the United States?
Usually the dosage of medicine in the United States seems plenty for Japanese people who is relatively smaller.
So, I used to take the dosage for kids in USA.
What I got for the above symptom was a bottle (about 200ml) of slimy pink (I would say shocking pink )medicine and taste nothing. It was like Barium you have to take for x-ray checkup, and PINK.

Needless to say, the bottle made me more sick with that appearance!!
I could not finish the bottle, but it worked well later.

Additionally, it is difficult to explain the symptom at the doctor in foreign language.
Looking up the words beforehand is important, but ill comes suddenly, so that you might not have time to look up. Star now!

When I went to the doctor, I did not know the word 'diarrhea'.
Guess what I said?
It is embarrasing but I told the doctor that I had 'water poop'. As you can imagine, everybody around laughted at me but it got through.
Be prepare not to be embarrased.

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mail:info@le-noble.com

-Kanji tattoo-
I have read a magagine and it said that Kanji (Chinese Character) tattoo is in fashion in the United States.
It ran some photograph of popular Kanji tattoo.
They seem not to care about the meaning of Kanji, they like them because they look cool. That's all.
Julia Roberts, an actress in USA, also had Kanji tattoo in her shoulder which said "CHIKARA (It means power literally)"; however, that character is not cool at all to me and maybe to a lot of Japanese people.
It made me think of well-developed biceps.
Also, the photo introduced a person tattooed upside down but he seemed so happy with his tattooo.
Funny.

We also see the opposite situation a lot in Japan.
I will write about it tomorrow.

If you have any comments on this journal or on this page itself, please feel free to send us your mail to the address below.

mail:info@le-noble.com

This is one of the biggest festivals in Japan originated in 869 when the city was ravaged by a series of plagues. The festival started at the beginning of July and reaches its high point on the 17th with a parade of gorgeous floats. The event of Gion Festival continued up to the end of July. Thirty-two highly decorative wheeled floats with spears on top leave Shijo-karasuma at 9:00 a.m. and parade through Shijo street, Kawaramachi street, Oike street, and Shinmachi street.
Viewing is free. Observation seats are also available with some fee.

Whenever I hear the word 'Gion Matsuri (festival)', my embarrasing episode comes across my mind.
When I was younger (I am still young though??), I did not know much about Gion Festival, but since I had liked festivals, especially summer festivals, my friend and I decided to go after work from Osaka. (It takes about 40 min.)
We wanted to arrive there as soon as possible, so we went there without eating supper. That was a beginning of our nightmare....
There was such a crush at the festival, and we hardly moved forward. It became already late and exhausted, but above all we were starving.
On the way to back home, we saw a lot of signs of "CHIMAKI" selling alongside the street.
"CHIMAKI" is used for displaying outside at the front door, in order to protect home from plagues or disaster.

However, we bought them for the different reason.

"CHIMAKI" has another meaning in Chinese cuisine.
The appearnce is very similar to the one at Gion festival, but there is rice with some vegetables (sometimes with meats) inside of Chinese "CHIMAKI".
Needless to say, we bought it for eating.
Then we went to a path avoiding the crowd, starting peeling the cover of CHIMAKI on the street. There was nothing inside...but we tried peeling it harder and harder until they came apart.
After all, no miracles happen unfortunately.

The following day we learned a fact.

If you have any comments on this journal or on this page itself, please feel free to send us your mail to the address below.

mail:info@le-noble.com

If you have any comments on this journal or on this page itself, please feel free to send us your mail to the address below.

mail:info@le-noble.com

I don't have much time to write my journal this week....sorry.
But, please come back again next week.
Thank you.

If you have any comments on this journal or on this page itself, please feel free to send us your mail to the address below.

mail:info@le-noble.com

So, please come back again tomorrow.
Thank you.

If you have any comments on this journal or on this page itself, please feel free to send us your mail to the address below.

mail:info@le-noble.com

-travel by air (2)-
What is necessary for a pleasant trip by air?
eyemask?, travelling pillow?, ear plugs? mules?
These goods are always intorduced on the travel magazines or books issued in Japan, but I have not seen many people using them.....only some Japanese?

(continuing from yesterday)
Anyway, I could get on board the plane at last, and I placed my carry-on bags under the seat in front of me. As I mentioned in the last issue, I could not check in my big bag because of its weight.
So, my bag was unfitted under the seat.
Then a flight attendant, a big, confident American woman with no smile, came up to me and she kicked my unfitted bag inside in order to clear the way.
It was a shock! my first culture shock -She used her leg to put my stuff in order!!!

As I get used to American culture, and the situation of flight attendants in USA, I could understand her attitude later on.

Using legs to do something is thought of as bad manners in Japan, but not in USA as far as I understand.
Also, regarding a flight attendant, in Japan it is an ideal job for women and well-paid and well-treated. (Though, these days it is gradually changing.)
On the other hand, in USA the image of flight attendant is just a hard job with low paying.
No wonder...Aha!

However, at that time I did not know the background, so that everytime the flight attendant passed by, I was a kind of nervous......It was a 9-hour trip to LAX, but for me it was more than that.
(exaggerated a bit)

Well, finally in transit at LAX.
But again I got a feeling that something would happen there, because a stranger was looking for me and calling my name at the transit gate.

To be continued....

Please come back again tomorrow for my LAX transit episode.

If you have any comments on this journal or on this page itself, please feel free to send us your mail to the address below.

mail:info@le-noble.com

Today I want to write about and share the impression and experinece of traveling by air.
How was your flight to Japan?
Was it a great experience? or something interesting happened?

My first trip alone was for Washington D.C. through L.A. with airlines of USA, and with a lot of funny stories.

Before reading on my story, please kindly keep in mind that I was overwhelmed by too much information, especially scarey information such as kidnapping, robbery, rape, and murder overseas.
In addition that I had never travelled alone even in Japan before.
Now you could imagine how nervous I was at my first boarding.

My funny story started at the very beginning when I left home.
On the morning of departure, I was still struggling with my luggage. My suitcase was too much stuff to shut.
My friends who were awaiting in a car in front of my house to see me off at the airport, were irritated and got off the car to help me pack the stuff.
To their surprise, when I opened my suitcase they found a lot of Japanese novels and music tapes which probably took a couple of years to read and listen...
Needless to say, they were removed from my luggage.
(I thought I would miss Japan a lot at that time...)

In spite of unexpected happening, we managed to arrive at the airport in time.
Then I went to the checking counter, and found out there were limits for the numbers and weights that we could check in. (Of cource, if we pay extra money, it will be no problem or if you are not economy and discount ticket holder.)
Believe it or not, at that time I had four luggage with me: a suitcase, a big Boston bag, a backpack and KOTATSU (Japanese traditional heater).
Now, I can't believe myself having carrying a KOTATSU with me oversears.
As I could check-in two luggage with no extra charge, I decided to check a suitcase and a KOTATSU.
Because of this, I had to carry on my big Boston bag with me.
I could not notice at that moment that this bag would make another episode later......

Next, at the security check.
Have you heard the feep sound when you went through under the security check gate?

Me? Yes, of course I have.
And this time was no exception.
I was stopped and asked to open my backpack and they found my VICTORINOX, a swiss knife. (I didn't even think that bringing a knife inside is dangerous thing at that time.)
Because it was about 10 years ago when security check was not so severe, there were no farther investigation luckily.
(However, my VICTORINOX had to fly with the captain in the cockpit, and I had to pick it up with special luggage claim in L.A.)

Finally, I could arrive at the boarding gate. It was already a long trip and I was still at the Osaka airport.....

To be continued....

Please come back again tomorrow for my on-board episode.
Thank you for reading.

If you have any comments on this journal or on this page itself, please feel free to send us your mail to the address below.

mail:info@le-noble.com

Usage:
English: What's up?
Japanese: Genki?

English: Good!
Japanese: Genki! (once or repeat twice)

Intonation is the same as the one in English.
In questions, it goes up, and in answers, it goes down.

It is pretty easy, isn't it?
Try it and your Japanese friends will be surprised and pleased for sure.

Come back tomorrow.
Thank you.

mail:info@le-noble.com