Summer essentials/sun glasses, sun cream

Depressing hot hot hot Japanese summer has come!Even though it's May, the maximum temperature is almost 30 degree. This is crazy.....Guess it's beautiful in the UK :( I wanna go back.....Anyway now summer has come. I just can't live without these.Sun cream!

This NIVEA's invisible protection transparent spray is really goodI bought this last year in the UK. I don't like how you feel after you apply normal sun cream. Sticky. However, this is a spray type so you won't feel sticky AND you don't have to make you hands dirty with sun cream. Also this spray smells nice. Personally I like it but I can't explain what it's like. I just wanna mention that it has a smell. I just don't wanna get sun tun so I chose 50. They've got about 4 different levels. You can choose whatever you like. When I took this photo, I checked how much inside. It's less than half... Omg I need to find a similar one with this here.It might be famous that Japanese people don't like to get sun tun. They want to keep their skin lighter. It's surprising on a street, there are so many people with umbrellas even though it's not raining. HahaPersonally I don't like to get sun tun but I don't put that much effort to avoid it.I just wear sun cream and these cute sunglasses.

 The main feature of these sun glasses is that they are foldable. You can carry them inside the small black box in this pic. So handy!Actually this pair is my second one. My first one was stolen in Malaysia. If you read my previous post about my wallet, yeah they were stolen at the same time.I thought it might be a good timing to buy and try new type of sun glasses, but they are so handy. I decided to buy the same one again and I'm really happy about these :)
It's been after four years for me to spend Summer in Japan since I was away previous summers. To be honest, this is not an exciting news for me because I don't like JP damn summer. However, there are many summer events in Japan. I'll try to enjoy them.

Japanese supermarkets

Today was such a relaxing day despite the fact I had a part time job. I almost forgot about it!!! Omg Stupid me! But I remembered it ;) Anyway after led very relaxing life enjoying days in the UK, how I live has been totally changed. I stay home more and do more house stuffs. I used to be a super 'out going' person spending most of the time outside. I'm still sometimes super busy but try to spend more time at home relaxed and to enjoy my time alone. It's sometimes difficult thanks to mum though haha.  Today is a good example. I just didn't anything spectacular but it was a good day.  I cooked lunch and made a Japanese sweet. My brother asked me to make it yesterday. To decorate the sweet, I needed to do some shopping. (it's called anmitsu but this is not exactly the one so let's say anmitsu-ish haha)

I just thought it might be a good idea to share how JP supermarkets are. To be honest, I'm not that much used to them cause I started to shop groceries in the UK for the first time in my life. After I came back to Japan, I was really surprised the differences of their items. It is of course because cultures are totally different but I was just surprised. I didn't have any clue the price is reasonable or not most of the time. Especially cheese is unbelievably expensive in Japan.  Anyway when you step into a supermarket, what you see is like this. 

Vegetables and fruits Oh another expensive thing in JP is fruit!!!!!! Now I guess people enjoy berries in Europe..... I'm soooo jealous.... I just can't afford them..... Poor me haha So I bought a can of fruit!

What I like most of JP supermarkets is that they have a lot of varieties of fresh seafood! For your meals, you don't have to do a massive cooking with fresh seafood. Only thing you need is to cook rice. Then you eat fish and rice! Yum

Many supermarkets have a lot of ready-to-eat food. They are delicious and sometimes cheaper than you actually buy ingredients. They are helpful but at that same time, when I fail cooking, I feel terrible thinking about these ready food... Haha

Aisles are like this. 

Since I shop at a supermarket a lot, I feel how much the price has risen the past 10 years or so. Maybe I was too young to understand the price but I have an impression vegetables used to be around 100 yen back at the time. The tax increased as well. I kinda understand why Japan is famous for its high cost of living. JP government wants to rise the tax up to 10% in the near future. Even if it is necessary, I'm just worry what it would be then.....

This post is a bit different of other normal posts. I just wanna express how living in JP actually is like at least to me. X

Ayahの英語勉強方法;モチベーション、単語ノート、DRIPPY、受験英語、長文

英語が大っきらいだった中学１年生のとき、あまり好きじゃなかった先生が
「私は英語がきらいでした」
っていう話をしてた時、
「私も嫌いだけど時間がたてば話せるようになるのかしら」
と漠然と思ったことをよく思い出す。
ほんとにほんとに英語勉強したくない人は、私の英語勉強法の初めての投稿をもしよんだら、綺麗事とか同情を買おうとしてるとか思ってるかもな～とかちょっと今感じてる・・・・
実際私がそんなかんじだったから笑　実際に先生がそういって、きっと彼女は「だから今はしゃべれなくても、嫌いでも、勉強してみよう！そしたらできるようになる」ってことを伝えたかったんだと思うけど、ただ私は「時間が解決してくれる」と思っただけ・・・笑
だからどうして私がこんなに英語にこだわるようになったかっていうのはすごく自分でも謎で笑、きっかけっていうのはほんとネガティブなものからきているから、人のモチベーションをあげるってほんと難しいな～とか今思ってる。
ただ、一ついえるのはきっと私は英語を勉強することで日本以外の文化に触れることで、なかなかうまく日本社会で生きてこれなかったと思っていた私でも、これでいいんだって自分に自信がもてたってことが、きっと今でも私が英語に魅了されている一つの理由だと思う。竹をわったような性格といわれ、日本にいるとネガティブにとられやすい私だけど、逆にそれは英語表現だととても重要なことの一つになる。もちろん、逆にそこから日本の素晴らしさを発見する人もいると思う。だからもしも、自分ってなんだろう、とか思っている人がいたら自己表現の一つとして英語を勉強するっているのもいいのかなってちょっと思った。
前の投稿で基礎英語の重要性の強調したんだけど、ある程度基礎英語をやったら少しずつ本にシフトしていくのもいいと思う。まあ全部具体的にここでゆってしまうと、私が尊敬する英語の先生（上で触れた人とは違う）のやりかたをただゆってるだけになるから、その中でもお勧めするものは、DRIPPYとリトルチャロ。DRIPPYに関しては昔ファッション雑誌の裏の広告にうさんくさくのってたんだけど知ってるかな？今でものってるかな？

実際に先生が教材としてつかっていたから、そして自分でやってみてうさんくさいことはないと判明したんだけど、その広告はほんとうさんくさかった笑

このDRIPPYを音読して読んでわからない単語は調べて自分の単語ノートをつくる。

この音読、自分の単語ノート作成っていうのはその後ずっとやり続けたこと。小説や本によって英語の難易度は変わっていくから、自分の習熟度にあわせて変化させていけばいい。

いつも思うけど、こうやって書いてみるとほんと単純なことばかり。でも実際にやってみると時間もかかるし定期的にやり続けることは難しいな～って思うと思う。まあ、私がスーパーなまけものっていうのはあるけど笑

この単語の意味を書く際に重要なのが、その文章内で使われている意味を覚えること。英語と日本語はほんとに一対一対応しないことが多くて、どの意味？ってなると思うけど、そのコンテクス内での意味を覚えればいい。どんなコンテクスの中で使われているのかっていうのに触れないと、実際に記憶して使えないと思うから。これは実際に私がそうだった。

だから、本屋さんにたくさんある「use;使う」みたいな単語帳。（意味わかるかしら・・・単語と日本語の語句が羅列されているやつ）私はあれが大っきらいだった。この単語帳をめぐっては、だいっきらいだった某進学塾の校長先生とおおもめした覚えがある笑。毎回毎回単語テストをやってて、私にとってはなんの利益もうまない不毛な時間だと思ったため、その授業をやめるっていったらスーパー止められたという・・・笑あんまり声を大きくしてはっきりとはいわないけど、その塾はホントお金のにおいしかしなくて大っきらいだった。ほんとお勧めしない。

まあ、おいといてとにかく自分が長文で出会った単語をその文脈内での意味を調べて、せめてそのわからなかった単語だけでもちゃんと覚えようとしたら、それこそ膨大な数になって実際単語帳なんかやっている暇はなくなる。

まあ、単語に関してすっごく強調したいのはこんな感じかな～

注意してほしいのは、これは私の価値観でもし単語帳に関して疑問をもっているならやめたら？っていうアドバイス。ひとつの方法として読んでいただければと。

なにかお勧めの英語の本とかあれば、そして知りたかったらコメントまってます(^^)/

petomato/ペットマト

東急ハンズでみつけて５分くらいその前に立ち尽くして悩んだ商品。

最近体がさしみを欲していて、青じそとたべると最高で何かと最近青じそを使う機会がおおくて、毎回買うんだったら育てたほうがいいんじゃないかと思ったんだけど、でも私いつもこういうの枯らしちゃうから笑どうしようとか思い、そして違うトマトとかもあってそれもいいな～とかめっちゃ悩んだけど、頭痛くなってその日はやめたの。

で、やっぱり忘れられなくて笑せっかくだから育ててみようとおもって。

ちゃんとお水替えて頑張ってみようと思う！

This is a kit to nurture green perilla. It goes really well with sashimi. I just cannot eat sashimi without it so every time I buy it. When I encounter this, I thought it might be a good idea to nurture it instead of buying every time. However, a pack of green perilla cots like 40p on the other hand, this kit costs like 5 pounds. After more than 5 min's consideration, I didn't buy it at the first time. However, I just couldn't forget about this, I finally decided to buy it! haha

このペットマトはなんか土がいらなくて、ペットボトルとかコップにお水をいれるだけでいいんだって～

ちゃんと芽がでてくれるといいな～

The main feature is that you don't need soil. Only thing you have to do is to change the water once a week. There are so many cultivation kits in Japan. I tried once or twice but I just couldn't do well. Every time the plant died..... I really hope this time finally goes well......

I'll keep update this my new baby! haha X

Laline's Body Lotion & Body Cream/ラリン ボディークリーム＆ボディーローション

As I mentioned this post, I've got these great body cream and lotion!

Left: LALINE, Body Cream, Vanilla Patchouli

Right: LALINE Body Lotion, Vanilla Patchouli

A staff told me that they don't have another vanilla one even though they have it for a diffuser set.

There are three Ayah's measures to decide which body cream is good.

First, whether it actually helps my skin to be moisturized.

Second, whether it dries quickly. Sometimes you feel cream on your skin for a long time.

Third, whether smells good or not. The longer the smell stays, the better

These two complete all standards!

The feeling after you apply the lotion is silky. It is suitable for summer time!

What I wanna tell you most is about their smell. It remains over night and stays for a day. Last night I used this lotion and today I enjoy of my smell. hahaha It does sound creepy but my smell was really nice today even I didn't wear perfume. 

Laline's body cream and lotion are highly recommended!!!! X

ついにラリンのボディクリームをボディローションを手に入れました！

ディフューザーではバニラの香りが２つあったけど、バニラパチュリしかボディクリーム系はないらしい。

だいたい、良いボディクリームを見分けるのに独自の基準が３つあって

１．ちゃんと保湿してくれるか

２．すぐに乾くか。時々ずっとべとべとした感じが残るのあるじゃん？

３．いいにおいかどうか。

この、ローションの方はつけごごちが軽くてほんとにさらさらした感じだから夏にぴったり！

そして何よりも声を大きくして言いたいのが、すっごくいいにおいでそのにおいがちゃんと残ること！

昨日の夜つけて、今日１日中私は自分のにおいがいいにおいすぎてずっと自分のにおいをかいでた笑（頭おかしいよね。うん。きっとそう思われるよね笑）とりあえず香水つけなくてもすっごくいいにおいがするの！

めっちゃお勧め！もしもにおいが長く残るのを探している人はぜひためしてみてほしい！！！

GODIVA Sables Chocolat/ゴディバ サブレショコラ

Guess what's inside????

GODIVA Sables Chocolat!!!!!!!!!

ゴディバ　サブレチョコレート！！！

My mum is seriously addicted to GODIVA. She just loves their chocolate. Of course their chocolate is amazing but these sables are just fantastic!!!!

They are like solid macaroon. They were sold during last winter collection but they are back now!!!! Mum and I thought we wouldn't be able to eat these again, bought several boxes in March. hahaha
Now they've got new flavors like Dark chocolate & almond, Strawberry & white chocolate, Mango & white chocolate, Cassis & white chocolate. Their color is so pretty and taste amazing!!

私のままはほんとにゴディバにはまってて、もうかれこれ６年くらい笑

もちろんゴディバのチョコはめっちゃおいしんだけど、そのゴディバの商品で一押しなのがこのサブレショコラ。３月くらいまでの限定商品で売ってたんだけどまた夏に復活！！！やった～！！！

しかし、３月増税前だしもう２度と食べれなくなるかもということでその時ちょっとだけ買占め笑

でもまた売り始めた！！！笑

今回は新しい、ダークチョコ＆アーモンド、ストロベリー＆ホワイトチョコレート、マンゴー＆ホワイトチョコレート、カシス＆ホワイトチョコレート、が追加！

めっちゃカラフルだしギフトにもすっごく最適！

By the way, about a brand GODIVA, as far as I know, GODIVA is a quite posh chocolate brand in Japan. When you buy a piece of chocolate by your choice, staffs pack them with white gloves!!! However, when I went to America, I bought some boxes of GODIVA chocolate at an airport. I opened them when I got home. The chocolate inside was totally mess. Many of them were up side down. Their color is a bit strange..... I concluded that GODIVA in America is not that much a high brand.... Maybe?? Is it true? How do you think GODIVA?? 

Anyway I'm gonna eat one of the sable from now on hehehehe X

Musical Little Mermaid/劇団四季 リトルマーメイド

四季劇場夏/Shiki Gekijyo Natsu at Oimachi

The other day I watched musical 'Little Mermaid'! It was just awesome!!!!

Ok I have to be calm down cause I can get easily excited about Disney things hahaha

Personally I don't go to watch musical or concert that much often in Japan. I guess it's just because my father is not that into it. When I was a child, my mum often brought me to musicals and plays. I really liked watching and still do. So guess what happened? When I graduated from an elementary school, my dream was to be a actress of Gekigan Shiki which is very famous musical performance group in Japan. Obviously I'm not a actress right now. I just gave up the dream. Yeah anyway it's been a while since I watched a musical in Japan last time. 

By the way, I watched some in London, Bristol and NewYork! They were all amazing!

この間劇団四季の「リトルマーメイド」を観てきました。がっかりするわけもなく、素晴らしかった！
日本ではあまり ミュージカルとか舞台には行かないな～って思ったんだけど、小さい頃はそういえばよくつれていってもらってて、小学校を卒業する時の私の夢は劇団四季の演者になることでした・・・もちろん、その夢はそうそうに忘れられてしまったんだけどね・・・
留学中は結構ミュージカルを観ることができて、ロンドン、ブリストル、ニューヨークでミュージカルを観ました（*^_^*）俗にいわれる本場！

This was taken in NY. Stupid me was kissing this actress in a board haha Oh! The day I watched, he didn't act. I'm not sure but it was kinda day off for him. 

これはニューヨークのタイムズスクエアのところで、ミュージカル「エビータ」を観た後。この人がかっこいいとかさわいだ私はこの写真を撮ったのです笑

Ok back to my story about Little Mermaid in japan, it seems as if the musical is very popular and tickets are sold so quickly. I booked ours like three months ago! Now you can understand how excited I was! Without no reason, I thought I should dress properly to go to the theater but everyone wore casual clothes. If you are wondering, just let you know ;)

As far as I know from my hours research on youtube, it is very difficult to make a world in the ocean. Thanks to the technology, people can fly which can be applied to look like swimming in the water, but it is very difficult for actors and actresses to sing while being wired(?) 

Because of their all efforts, I could be into a sea world during the show. Other thing what I was fascinated by is how they move their body while their foot are on the stage to show as if they were swimming. (Does it make sense?? not sure...) What I wanna say is that they actually put so much effort to create a sea world. 

'Part of Your world' is a song I used to study English when i was 13. A English teacher at that time said singing songs helps you for a good pronunciation. Maybe I just like singing songs, I followed the word even though I didn't like her. Anyway I'm familiar with English version of this song so it was a bit strange feeling to listen to the song in Japanese. My understanding is that if you want to translate English lyrics into Japanese, it just doesn't fit in melody. As a result, musical music has its own special lyric type.... Oh I wish I could explain this more properly.....

When a song 'If only' started to play, I couldn't stop laughing... Sorry.... The lyrics were just too romantic for Japanese people to say. Does this kind of thing happen in English or other language musical songs????

The one thing I want this musical change is that the volume of music. This one does not  have live orchestra. Even though nowadays, the sounds quality has been improved, but still I wanted to enjoy its music with powerful live orchestra music especially 'Under the World' The stage at that time was really colorful but I needed more people, more volume of music. 

To sum up, it was really really really good. I'm kinda getting addicted to musicals and plays. I wish I could watch them more often! 

この劇団四季「リトルマーメイド」は相当人気みたいで、すぐチケットが売り切れちゃっていて私は今回のチケットを３カ月以上前に予約しました。（たぶん笑　でもすっごく前！）他の劇団四季のミュージカルもすごく人気なのかな？？個人的に勝手に観に行く時はドレスアップしないといけないんだと思っていたんだけど、みんなカジュアルな感じで少しびっくり。

今回の「リトルマーメイド」は海の世界をいかによりもっと表現するかっていうことで、様々な努力がなされいるみたいで、昔のブロードウェイの動画とかと比べるとほんとに海の世界にすごく入りやすかった！足が地面についている時でも、体うねうねさせてて（他にどう説明すればいいかわかんなかった。。。ごめんなさい。。。。）惜しみない努力って感じだった！

英語でミュージカルは観る機会が最近多かったから、劇団特有のあの日本語歌詞と表現は実際ちょっとびっくりしたのは事実・・・笑　「一歩づづ」っていう曲はホントにびっくりする！

ひとつだけ残念だったのは、音楽がオーケストラじゃなかったこと。やっぱりオーケストラのほうが臨場感と迫力がある・・・「アンダー・ザ・シー」の時は舞台上がすごくカラフルでわくわくしていた感じがでていたけど、なんとなく音楽の迫力にかけてるな～って感じてしまった

でもでも、すっごく素敵で「わらわは満足じゃ」って感じだった。もっともっとミュージカルとか舞台を観に行きたいなって思いました（*^_^*）

さきいか/Sakiika

さきいかがおいしすぎる！！！

小さい頃から酒飲みみたいなこういうおつまみがだいすきな私。もちろん小さいころはお酒飲んでないし、今もそんなに飲まない。

自分がいかくさい・・・・笑

I guess many people would say 'Oh gross! This is one good example that Asian people eat strange things sometimes.' This is called 'saki-ika' basically dried squid with some flavor. This kind of things go well with sake, but since I was child, I really like eating this without sake / alcohol. If you got a tiny bit of interests, please try one of these in Japan! Other dried things like this would be made from scallop as far as I know. You've got to be careful with the smell by the way!

毛穴の黒ずみなどに困っている人！！！/ To people suffering blackheads

毛穴のくろずみ・・・・もはや私は中学生くらいのときからきになってた悩み。

顔をちゃんと洗っても、そして小鼻パックをしても、まったくなくならない毛穴の黒ずみ。

きっとピーリングとか毛穴をシールでとるやつとかして悪化してしまったんだと思うけど、

もうそれはどうしようもない！サロンでちゃんときれいにしてもらおう！！！やっぱりつまっちゃうとどんなに頑張って洗ってもとれないものみたい・・・

そこで、ある日ママがうれしそうにここのお店のクーポンを持って私の部屋にきたわけです笑

I've been troubled by blackheads for a long time. I tried peeling gel long long time ago. I guess at that time I did too much and my pores got hurt. Since then I just didn't do anything special for my blackheads apart from facial mask and normal face wash. It seems as if there is nothing I could do with them unless I go to a special salon. 

そこで、このPORELESS LABOに行ったわけです。Poreとは毛穴のことでまさしく毛穴ゼロサロンです。コースではクレンジング→マテラブラッシング→マテラ洗顔→超音波洗浄→毛穴マッサージ→吸引→LEDトリートメント→トリートメントの順番でやってくれます。
コースが終わって鏡みるとほんと顔が白くなっててびっくりする！
このマテラとはなんぞやと思うとおもうんですけど、これはマテラ鉱石をファウンデーションくらいまで粉々にした粉のことなのです。このマテラ鉱石は愛媛県でとれる火成岩で「流紋岩」というものでこの粉が毛穴の奥の汚れも洗浄してくれるみたいです。

Sooooo I went to this salon 'PORELESS LABO' literally sounds like something related with pores. They do treatments including one with ultrasonic sound wave. They wash your face with what so called 'Matera Powder' which basically made from a igneous rock in Ehime prefecture. 

このマテラ鉱石気に行って買ってみた！あと、クレンジングも！なってゆったって、わたし良い化粧落とし絶賛募集中だからね。ちなみに、これはオイルフリーだって！マツエクしてもつかえるよ(^^)早くマツエクした～い！！！

I really like this Matera powder. I bought that and makeup remover which is oil free :)

ほんとは洗顔料も買いたかったんだけど、増税前にたくさんかったヘラルーノ（大髙酵素）の洗顔料がたくさんあるからちょっと我慢。
ちなみに、このマテラパウダーは自分がもってる洗顔料にもそして化粧落としにも混ぜて使えるんだよ！
Actually I wanted to buy face wash as well but there are many Hela Luno ones which I bought before tax increased. Staffs told me I can mix this powder with any face wash and makeup remover.

ちなみにこれね。私がつかってる洗顔料。

毛穴は排泄器官だからちゃんと毎日綺麗にお掃除してあげなきゃいけないんだって。

サロンにもまあ月１くらい行って毛穴の黒ずみがなくなるように頑張ってみる！！！

By the way, I use this face wash :)

Staffs told me pores are also excretion organs (organs??? I'm not sure how I should put this....) so that we have to clean them every single day. Yeah I do but I mean more carefully! 

I'm gonna stick to this salon and its products especially Matera powder in order to clean my blackheads!!

Tomato; 大浜の恵み・みなみレッド

I think now fruit tomato is very popular in Japan. Fruit tomato is basically tomato but tastes very sweet as if it's a fruit. I am a big fan of tomatoes! I LOVE tomatoes! haha As far as I know, the best fruit tomato is called Amela. It's very expensive so I'm looking for less expensive but good taste fruit tomato these days.

最近もまだまだフルーツトマトがはやっていますね！私はトマトがとってもとっても大好きなのですが、フルーツトマトのキングであると思われるアメーラを定期的に買う金銭的余裕はありませんですので、安くて甘いフルーツトマトを探す旅をしているわけであります。

This tomato is from Ohama, Kumamoto prefecture and called 'Ohama no Megumi.' Can you spot a black bear in the photo? That is Kumamon. Now in Japan, this kind of characters is really popular. As far as I know, every prefecture has their own characters. The most famous one is called 'Funasshii/ふなっしー' It appears on TV a lot in this year. I have not a tiny interests on them but many people love this kind of charactes. (yurukyara)
Ok so back to tomatoes, at the first time I ate these, I was like 'omg! these are yummy! The taste is almost like Amela!' However, in the second time, 'well... Still good but not really good...' And in the third time, 'Well yeah I have to find something new! '
So I tried this one.

これはくまもんで有名な熊本の「大浜の恵み」
はじめて食べた時はおいしい！ってなったんだけどじょじょに感動がうすれてきてちょっと違うのを試そうと思って

Minami Red from Aichi prefecture. To be very very honest,'Ohama no Megumi' is better than this.  

愛知県のみなみレッドを試してみたんだけど、そんなに甘くなかった・・・

いまのところ、「大浜の恵み」が一番かな！

MACCHIAlb; clear esthe veil/MAYBELINE NY PURE.BB MINERAL BB CREAM

I have to say that I'm on my way to discover the best foundation. There are sooooo many foundations in this world. I've been feeling totally lost what I should use. I think it is common for Japanese people to say that foreign company's foundations are not for us. They are too strong for Japanese skin. However, still well-known brands' are still famous. Well so I'm just doing my research on foundations. I kinda feel that it's reasonable to say Japanese people should use Japanese brands products. That is because we cannot deny that skin types vary depends on where you are from and what diet do you normally have. I simply think Japanese skin type is rather sensible, so if your skin is sensible and if you are having difficult time to find a good foundation for you, I might be able to help you! (Many products will be sold only in japan though....)

まだまだ自分に合う最高のファンデーションを探している途中で、個人的には日本の会社がつくっているのがいいのかな～って思ってるとこ。

   

MACCHIAlb; clear esthe veil
今これを使い始めて、すごいいいかも！って思ってる。うまくのびるしよれない！アンチエイジングに効果的みたいで、ちょっと私には早いかなって思ったんだけど、お肌には絶対いいはず！

I've just started to use this one. This spread very well!!!! It seems like for above 30 years old people and very good for anti-aging..... Yeah I thought it might be a bit too early for me to use but it must be very good for my skin. 

Before use MACCHIAlb; clear esthe veil, I used this MAYBELINE NY PURE.BB MINERAL BB CREAM(I'm not sure whether I should type them in caps or not...)
This one was nice but comparing to the foundation above, it didn't spread as good as the foundation. To be honest, I'm not sure what BB cream means, but I just simply thought BB cream is not that bad.

MACCHIAlb; clear esthe veilの前にメイベリン、ピュアミネラルBBクリームをつかってたんだけど、これよりもマキアレーベルのファンデーションのほうが断然のびる！
BBクリームってすごくはやってるけど一体何者なのかいまだよくわかってないんだけど、これを使ってみてそんなに悪いものではないのかもって思った！

最近気温もあがってきてもう夏なのかしらって感じだけど、夏にかかせないものが日焼け止め！フェイスに使ってるのはこの大髙酵素の日焼け止め。とりあえず、私は大髙酵素が大好きできっとこれなら顔にダメージを与えないだろうと思ってる。日焼け止めのべとべと感もないし化粧下地としても使えるよ(^^)/

In Japan, it's getting hot hot summer. In summer, you cannot live without sun cream. I use this sun cream for my face. This is from Ohtaka Koso which sells products with enzyme. I just love this company so much so I believe this won't damage my face. 

My research of foundations is still going on! ;)

Ayahの英語勉強方法：暗唱、基礎英語

このブログを英語で書いているのからも推測できるとおり、私はネイティブイングリッシュスピーカーじゃなくて、留学は１年したけど俗に言う帰国子女でもないです。
私が書いている英語をみて、「あんまり英語しゃべれないな」って思っている人には、「そうなんです(>_<)なにかミスとかがあったらぜひコメントを残していただけるとありがたいです！」って伝えたくて、もし「英語なんて勉強したくない！嫌い！でも勉強したい！」って思っているひとがいたら、その気持ちはすごくわかるから私が今までどんな勉強をしたかシェアすることで力になれたらいいなって思ってこのlabelをつくりました。

私がはじめてまともに英語を勉強しはじめたのは中学１年生のとき。もちろんやらなくてはならなかったから笑
当時の私は今では自分で自分が信じられないんだけど、「私は一生日本で暮らす。英語なんて話す必要性がない」って思ってて（今は日本から脱出したい。英語を話す環境で暮らしたいって思ってる笑）ほんとにほんとに何んにも勉強しなかった。しかも中学１年生の１年間ほんとになにも勉強しなくて、be動詞の存在がよくわからず、ただただ補習に参加していました。
まあ１年も補習に参加すると、人はやはり悔しいとか思うようになって、ちょっとなんとかしてみようと思い始めるわけです笑
さすがに補習は抜けようって思って、でもまずbe動詞を理解していないわけだからそこから学校の勉強を頑張ってもちょっとちんぷんかんぷんで、１つ下の学年の子たち対象の英語塾で一からやり直したわけです。それこそアルファベットの書き方からやり直しました。
その時に思ったのは、基礎の大切さ。This is a book. These are books.とかの基本がわかってないとやっぱりその次にいけないし、そういう基礎といわれる文法って話してる時にとってもよく使う。そしてある程度学校の進度と追いついてきた時、基礎英語をみっちりやる塾にも行き始めて、だんだんと英語の虜に。
私の中学は自動的にNHKの基礎英語のテキストを配ってくれてたんだけど、もちろん？自分で聞くというようなスーパー頭が良い子ではなかったので、もはや古紙再生されるだけであった基礎英語を聞いてそれを暗唱するようにするだけで、発音もそして文の構成もすんなりと頭に入るようになったのです。そんなことだけに聞こえるかもしれないけれど、実際毎日聞いて暗唱するまで覚えるっていうのははじめは特にすごく時間がかかることで、想像するより大変です。そして、想像する以上に効果がある。先生がいってたのは、暗唱するためには音読が必要で音読は目も耳も口も使うから脳により刺激がいくってことで、それによる効果が大きいんだなと私は個人的に実感したわけです。
もちろん基礎英語じゃない別の本をみっちりやってもいいし、ただ毎日暗唱できるくらいの量のダイアローグが基礎英語はついてるから暗唱に最適かなと思ってます。
まずは音読、暗唱の重要さを見直すことが英語学習で大切なことの一つかなと思います。

まずは第一段！
今度は基礎英語の次のステップ、短編小説、そして単語ノートについて投稿しようと思ってます(^^)/

Night out in Japan; ESPRIT

At the beginning I planed to make this blog about my favorite stuffs. Yeah I still do. But gradually I've come up with more things I'd like to share on this space. One is about my life in Japan. Personally I've got interested on teaching Japanese recently and I thought it would be nice more people like Japan! (It's a bit contradiction that I really like the U.K. and want to live there. But you know I just cannot change the fact that I am Japanese.) 

I have to say clubbing in Japan is in a very difficult situation. I don't know much about it but it seems as if dancing is prohibited in Japan. Many clubs have been closed because they were exposed of allowing people dance inside a shop..... I do know it sounds very bizarre.....

I looked up internet about this topic but I just don't understand what's going on actually.
So anyway all I can say is that Japanese government thinks clubs connect to gangs, drags, prostitution and those kind of dirty stuffs.

However, there are many places which can be called as clubs in Japan. 

Yesterday I went to Roppongi one for the first time in my life!

The most surprising thing when I was walking Roppongi street, was many massive black people. In general, you don't come across many foreign people in Japan. I do feel many tourists are coming to Japan but the black men are not tourist. They are standing at Roppongi street and trying to get you inside their 'clubs'. (I guess)

Another thing is many kebab shops. When I was in the U.K., I often eat kebab after clubbing. It seems as if Japanese people are picking up the kind of custom as well.... donno

Oh and the last thing I wanna mention is that there are soooo many promoter at a corner of Roppongi street distributing tickets which made me really confused. If I were not with my friends who know Roppongi night out well, I might have ended up 'oh oh! Which one is better? Oh Oh?' haha

As you can tell, I went to ESPRIT this time. They played many popular pop pop pop music like Tyler Swift which was really good. I could request music I like too :)
Personally even I haven't done a lot of clubbing in Japan, I think Japanese clubs like to play electric type music. I like it too but I prefer pop pop pop music for dance, so music there was really good! It has two floors and not too big but not too small. 

In London, there are 24 hours buses but Japan doesn't have them. Once you decided to go to clubs, you have to stay there until about 5 when the first train starts. Of course you don't have to stay at clubs all the time, there are few 24 hours restaurants. In Japan, people can smoke inside 'clubs' which I hate a lot! Actually it's very dangerous especially when the club is really packed.  This means after you finish clubbing, you just smell disgusting. To sum up, I sometimes book a hotel room near club areas to be able to take shower and rest well AND do a girls night with my friends :)

I had a good night yesterday and got sore throat. haha

I'm writing this post feeling a bit hungover... :p

Hope you know a bit about Japanese night out! X

Afternoon Tea in the U.K. and Japan

Well I think I did mention I was in the U.K. but I didn't say why I was there properly.
Yeah it doesn't have a big history behind but anyway I was in the U.K. for one year as an exchange student. oh it was the best time in my life.....
Since I'm in Japan now, I miss Europe in general a lot every single day.... I know! I have to stop thinking negative! haha
So there are plenty of stories and thing I'd like to share with you here but I've been really busy and I'm having difficult time to find good photos for this blog. Now I regret a lot that I didn't take a lot of photos during the best time of my life.... :( Let's say I was busy with enjoying it! yes!

One thing I really enjoyed is afternoon tea!!!! If I say this, some people might think 'Oh is that because you are Japanese? Do Japanese people drink tea? No no green tea! Just a tea!' The answer is YES! hahaha We do drink tea. I'd say afternoon tea is not popular.

My first afternoon tea was at Browns.

I was really fascinated by cottage cream. Yummy!!! 

This one was at a posh hotel in London. I can't remember the name. I guess it was the most expensive afternoon tea I've experienced in the U.K.. This was amazing! Sandwiches were all-you-ca-eat. My friend and I got excited and went to the second round. After we finished the afternoon tea, I was really really really full. This is the thing we've got to be careful with afternoon tea. You get unbelievably FULL! To be honest, at that time, I felt a bit ill because I was really full which sounds hilarious, so we went to Hyde Park and I had a nap to digest. haha 

This one was also in London. can't remember the name again. 

This one is at a Marriott hotel in Bristol. To tell you the truth, on that day, my friend and I were suffering hangover. haha We got up and took shower and talking, 'ok you've got to do something! otherwise, we'll end up staying home doing nothing!' So we went out even though the weather was terrible. 

I did afternoon tea a lot when I was in the U.K.. 
It is imaginable I miss a lot about it. So I went out to try aternoon tea in Japan!

This was at Imperial hotel Tokyo. (Updated!) I really like this afternoon tea because they have cold flavored tea as well! You can see them in this pic. The shop is located in the top floor of the hotel so that you can see a nice view of Tokyo. (Personally I don't think Tokyo view is not beautiful just a lot of skyscrapers anyway) The most impressive thing of this afternoon is its service. Once you finish your tea, you don't have to ask for your another tea because a staff notice it just right before you finish yours! This timing is very difficult because if the stuff comes early, the customer feel they have to be hurry so they cannot relax tea time. So I was really surprised their level of service.

This was at Conrad hotel Tokyo on my birthday! My besties took me here :) I love them!

These sweets were cutely assembled and tasted amazing. However, I personally prefer afternoon tea with there floors....?? I don't know the name of the thing for afternoon tea....

I really wanna do afternoon tea outside in a garden one day....

ok I've gotta goooooooooo! bye!

adidas Originals Honey Plimsoll/ アディダス ハニープリム

I've got these FINALLY!!!!!
ついに手に入れたアディダス　ハニープリム！！！！

だいぶ遅いけど、最近白のスニーカーはやってるな～合わせにくいかな～あ～でも今日の洋服とかに合わせてはきたい！ってつい最近思って近くのABCstoreに行ったら私のサイズがなくて、オンラインショップを一通り見てみてもなくて、ないと絶対手に入れたいと思ってしまうのが人間の不思議なところ・・・笑

あらゆるお店でサイズ確認をしてもらって、希望薄く？期待低く？吉祥寺のABCstoreに行ったらあった～！！！！即決。

なんかグンゼのこの形のソックスは脱げにくいってお勧めしてもらってそれも一緒に買った～
パンプス用のこういう靴下ってホントすぐ脱げるからいらいらしちゃうんだけど、ホントにこれは脱げにくくていい感じ！お勧め！
そして靴下のグンゼっていう会社は有名なんでしょうか？お店のお兄さんが、「あのグンゼですよ！？！？」的な感じでお勧めしてきたから、私今までしらなかったあらま～って思ったんだけどどうかしら？

I think white sneakers like these are very popular in Japan now. How about your country?? The other day, as other tons of other people, I really wanted to get these but my shoe size is very small so there was none at almost all the shoe shops. (When I was in the U.K., I could get a benefit from my small shoe size. I could buy kids shoes which means they are half price comparing to adults ones haha) I was really excited to find my shoe size o these at one shop and bought these straight away :)  

はくとどんな感じになるかっていうイメージをこの写真で。実際白スニーカーはこのコーデにマッチしてるかどうかっていうのは触れずに笑

ついにスニーカーもおしゃれになってきたなんてちょっと考え深いのは私だけかな・・・

スニーカーはやっぱり歩きやすいっていうことを日に日に実感する今日このごろ。

暑すぎず寒すぎないけど、風邪がつよすぎてよくわからない天気が続く最近にはぴったりな靴！たくさんはこ～っと（*^_^*）

I do realise this look is not the best one for these white shoes but I just wanna show you guys how they look like when they are worn. 

Recently the Japanese weather is really crazy like strong wind. I guess wearing these shoes is really comfy especially in this weather :) I just have to be careful not to make them dirty which probably impossible for me haha

My Room Fragrance; Laline, Classic Diffuser Set/ラリン ディフューザーセット

One day my mum came home with this diffuser set. 

Laline, Classic Diffuser Set, Vanilla Patchouli and Vanilla Musk

ある日ママがこれを買ってきました。

ラリン、クラシックディフューザーセット、バニラパチュリ・バニラムスク

To be honest, now in Japan, there are soooooo many products like this seriously A LOT! When mum showed me this one, I thought 'oh yeah' nothing special at all. She put this in a computer room. Since I changed my room at home, the computer room became my room. That means I have to smell this smell every single day. And guess what happened??

I just LOVE this smell!!!!!!!!!!

At first, even though this smells really nice, it was too strong. You know how you feel when you smell very very strong perfume, that's kinda of thing. However, either this smell is getting settled in my room or my nose got used to it, I feel home when I smell this flavor :)

最近写真みたいなアロマディフューザーが今日本にいっぱい出回ってて、どれがいいのかな～もうよくわかんないって思ってて、これをママが買ってきた時もあんまりわくわくしなかったんだけど、このディフューザーを自分の部屋で使い始めたら、はまっちゃった！！！！

始めは結構においがきつくてあれれ？って思ってたんだけど、私の鼻がおかしくなったのか、中のオイル？の状態が良くなったのか、このにおいをかいでやっとお家に帰ってきた！って思うようになってしまった・・・

As I wrote on this post about my current perfume, I love vanilla flavor. I'm thinking to get body cream of this Vanilla smell. 

Sometimes this kind of diffuser sets cost a lot. Where as this one is, I think, reasonable. 

100ml: 2,808yen

250ml: 4,212yen

500ml: 6,372yen (based on Laline Japan Online shop)

(I'm not sure how much it would be in the U.S. but I just checked up US online shop. They have this kind of products!)

I've just found out that Laline is an American company! Is this right??? I'm glad that I can buy its product in Japan but at the same time, it's funny! Again Japan has Everything! (apart from Primark and Motel.... Oh Motel is a clothes brand btw!)

前の記事でも紹介したとおり、私はバニラのにおいが大好きでこのディフューザーのバニラのにおいはほんとにいいにおいだから同じ匂いのボディークリーム買おうかなって思ってる！

ラリンの商品は高すぎず安すぎずいい感じ！

オンラインショップみてたら、ラリネってたぶんアメリカの会社なんだね！

すっかり日本にしかないのかと思ってたら・・・笑

ホントに日本にはなんでもあるなと実感する今日この頃。

Bonbon watch

The other day I was wearing this watch and my friend said she really likes it. I thought it might be a good idea to share this here :)

In a summer, I was walking in Paris (this sounds super cool! but I was just simply on my holiday haha) I came across a Bonbon watch shop. I read about it before in a Japanese guide book about Paris. I thought it was very cute but I was not that much motivated to look for a shop and purchase this. However, my friend encourage me to get this, so I started to have a look inside the shop.

Let me say, it was surprising that a shop staff was a Japanese lady. (I said this based on a typical idea that not so many Japanese people working in Paris.) There are drawers of the watches. She opened them one by one and let me pick my favorite one in the drawer. After that, she showed me watches I picked from each drawers and asked 'so which one is the most favorite??' 

Then I picked this one even though I was in two minds about this one and another dark blue one. I really like how she made me choose! If she wasn't there, I had not been able to buy this watch because every single watch looked really nice!

Since this watch is very colorful, I cannot use this for formal occasions. However, I like wearing this in casual occasions especially on my holidays :)

There are some shops selling this Bonbon watch in Japan too. If you are interested, please have a look! As far as I know, you can only get Bonbon watches in Paris or Japan! This is a bit ridiculous haha Japan has almost everything....X