Expression

縁起が悪い：of bad omen / inauspicious / ominous / sinister symptoms
縁起でもない！：Don't jinx me!

※日本語の「ジンクス」は良いことにも用いられますが、元になった英語のjinxは縁起が悪いことや不運をもたらすという意味で使われる言葉です。

Luke is hoping that the White Sox break their jinx this year and win the series.

縁起の良い日：auspicious day / fortunate day / propitious day
縁起の悪い日：black-letter day / unlucky day

縁起物：lucky charm / good luck charm / talisman
縁起をかつぐ：superstitious / do something for good luck

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■縁起がいいもの・こと
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おみくじ：written oracle / paper fortune
破魔矢：lucky charm arrow
お守り：talisman / lucky charm
招き猫：beckoning cat / welcoming cat
だるま：Dharma doll
七福神：seven gods of good fortune
茶柱が立つ：tea stalk is floating straight up

I bought a talisman for the safety of my family.

In Japan, we believe that a cat with its right foot up brings money, and the one with the left foot up brings customers.

When you see a tea stalk floating straight up in your cup, that's a sign of good luck.
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■豆知識～英語圏の「縁起物」
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four leaf clover / horseshoe：蹄鉄 /rabbit foot / ladybird：てんとう虫
penny：ペニー硬貨 / shooting star /wishbone：鳥の胸のY字型の骨

My drawing

A Happy New Year 2008!!

I wish you a super happy☆彡

Thank you very much for your coming here last year &
I'm looking forward to your comments in 2008, too!!

'Ote' in English

・ お手：Paw. （ポォ）/ Give me your paw. / Shake.　
脚（leg）の、足首から下の部分を、人間なら「foot」と言うが、犬や猫の場合は、「paw」と言う。
pawの「肉球（にくきゅう）」は、「pad」（パッド）。　

＜犬のしつけに使う表現。＞
・基本命令
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お座り　：Sit!　 お手　　：Paw! / Give me your paw!　
お代わり：The other paw. / Give me the other one.（別の手を出させる）　
伏せ：Down!　 待て：Stay! / Wait!　 おいで：Come!　 立て：Stand up!　 つけ：Heel! （人間の脇に付くこと）

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・ほめる
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よしよし／お利口さん：　Good dog! / Good boy / girl! / That's my boy

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・叱る
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ダメ：No!　 やめなさい：Don't do that!

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・その他の芸（Tricks）
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ちんちん　：Stand up!　 おねだり　：Say please! / Beg! 飛べ：Jump!　
ロールオーバー：Roll over! （ごろごろ転がってお腹を見せる）　 ワンワン　：Speak! （ワンと吠えさせる）　 　
チュ：Give me a kiss! 　　 おまわり　：Turn (around)! （回らせる）　 持って来い：Fetch!　 死んだふり：Play dead!　 キャッチ ：Catch!　

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・その他の命令（Command）
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出せ　　：Out! （口の中にくわえている物を出させる）　 離せ：Drop it.（くわえている物を床に置かせる）　
触るな　：Leave it.　 吠えるな：No barking! / Enough!　
なめるな：No licking!（ペロペロなめるのを止めさせる） 散歩だよ！：Walk!　
さあ、行こう！：Let's go!　 お外：Go outside! （屋外へ出す）　
おうち　：Go inside!（屋内へ入れる）　 ハウス　：House! （自分の小屋／場所に行かせる）
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※犬がしっぽを振るときの「振る」は、shakeではなく、wag（ワグ）という動詞を使う。
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・いろいろな犬・働く犬
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番犬　：a watchdog（監視者、見張り、という意味も）　 牧羊犬：a sheepdog　　 猟犬　：hound　
のら犬：stray dog / cur 子犬　：puppy　
＊「top dog」は重要人物・お偉いさんのこと（別に皮肉ではない）

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・犬にまつわる慣用句イロイロ
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doggy bag / doggie bag ：持ち帰り用の袋（食べ残したものを犬にやるから）　
dog ear： 本や雑誌のページを折って目印にしたもの／または折れ込んだままの製本　
the hair of the dog：迎え酒（毒を制する毒）　 　　　dog-eat-dog：私利私欲を追求する／モラルのない競争　
It's a dog-eat-dog world out there.：厳しい世界だ。　
We eat our own dog food.：自社サービス ／製品を自社でも使っているときに言う
dogged determination：不屈の決意

My first attendance to English cochin

I attended English cochin with nickey yesterday.
It is a English conversation club in Nagoya.

We discussed around one and a half hour in English
and it was great exercise for Speaking English.
I could say that it's more practical than English lessons which I take at the English school now.

After the discussion, we held year-end party at a bar(Izakaya)
and we spend happy time together.
(at that time, we spoke in Japanese.)

I appreciate the members who were kind to us.
Thank you very much.

Permanent wave

I got a paid holiday in the afternoond of this Thursday and

I've my hair permed.

A Christmas wreath

My friend sent this picture by E-mail.

The shape is like a wreath for Christmas and it's really cute, isn't it?

My friend and I've gone to same cooking school for about two years but recently she graduated on ahead and it's last work she cooked at school.

Now I have no friend to go that school together, so
I feel little lonely,
but I like cooking and I continue to attend lessons.

Financial circles

Today I went to a bank to ask about investment trust and time deposit.
Of course I don't have big money, you know, just I was interested in.

I'm so exhausted because I tried to understand everything a cl ark said
but more than half information was new for me.

That's why no sooner had I gotten home than I fell asleep.

Anyway, it was good lesson for me to know about financial circles.

At the first floor of our building.

At the first floor of the building we work,
this object appeared just around a week ago.

It's not bad, but not marvelous, I think.^-^;;

Ｇｙｏｚａ, salad, soup and rice

Today I cooked dumplings and so on at cooking school.

I've already cooked dumplings countless times with my mother , but
I wanted to know how to make them better in the professional way.

Illumination for KIDS

My home town turned to be a city a couple of years ago and

soon after the address changed from Cho to Shi(City),

many apartments and homes have been built.

The picture's house is one of those and

they decorates outside of the house with illumination.

They are excited about Christmas.^^

Fir tree

Today my ex-coworker brought me to a cafe by car and we had beautiful cups of cappuccino with cookies.

The fir tree on the surface of cappuccino is cute, isn't it?

Mottainai

・What a waste.
・That's just wasted.（それは、もったいない）　→That's a waste of money.　　
・It's a shame to　～　（～するのは、もったいない）→It's a shame to throw things away.　

＜良すぎて身に余る＞
・Oh, I don't deserve all of that!　（私にはもったいないことです）

Rum-soaked raisins and white peaches cake

I baked this cake today for my ex-colleague's birthday present.

She used to be my senior at the office and she is still one of the best advises for me.

We have lunch once a couple of months on the weekend and we talk about job, love and anything.

She understands me very well and give me many words, so I always appreciate her.

Talk about Jogging

I jogged last weekend after 8 years blank and today, I jogged again.

It's shameful to say that, but I could run only several hundred meters both times.
But at least, when I ran today, I could run in a better condition than last tme.

I want to continue to run.
Even if it's short distance and at times, it's much better than nothing.

Originally I'm not good at any sports, but I've been doing excersise a little by myself since I graduated from the University because It's not only good for my health but mentality.

Ｓｈｏｕｍｉｋｉｇｅｎ in English

Best if used by / Best before： 味や質の面からみて、おいしく食べることのできる期限。賞味期限に近い言葉。
Use by：品質保証期限や使用期限にあたる。消費期限に近い言葉。
Sell by / Display until： 売り手にとって、売り物として並べておいてもよい期限。
買い手にとってはその日以降に購入してはいけない商品。

Ichiou in various cases

1. to some extent→I can paint to some extent, but I'm certainly not as good as you.（なんとか（一応）
2. tentative→We have reached a tentative agreement on this project.（仮の（一応の）
3. for the time being/for now→He will handle the matter for the time being/for now.（さし当たって（一応）
4. run through→I've run through the report.（ざっと（一応）
5. just in case→Could you ask Bob, just in case?（念のため（一応)
6. rough→I made a rough schedule for that project.（大体の（一応の）

TOEIC EXAM on Jan 13th,2008

I applied for TOEIC Exam on Jan 13th, 2008 at English school today.

I think TOEIC score doesn't show people's total ability of English properly,
but at least, it's true that higher score is better to do many things in this country.
For example, it makes easier to enter the class of higher revel at English school.

I hope I'll be able to get higher score than last time.

Good ex-colleague

Hello guys, how have you been?

Today I met an ex-coworker in the lunch break.
Both of us work at the same area, but the different buildings now.

So only the time we can afford to go out at the break time, we can meet.
We are usually busy for work, so we couldn't meet for a year.

These days, we realized again that old companies are my treasure
because I'm really encouraged and healed by them.
I've got the power by sharing time and space with them.

To be honest, I wanted to spend time alone for a while.
It was because I had been too busy to work and I had no time to be alone or even doing housework.

But after the busiest time passed,
I started eagering to spent on the weekends alone and to do so for about a month,
I got back my original nature and
Now, I really think I need to cherish my companies.

It might owe to my experience of too much overtime work.
although I never wanna experience again!!

After all, even if we experienced bad things,
we could learn something new as long as we endeavor to do so.

I'm not sure it's a hundred percent true,
but I should be optimistic about the past or negative things.

Self-introduction

I'm practicing to introduce myself because
tomorrow, I'm going to attend an English speaking club for the first time.

Let me start.

My name is Azusa. My nick name is Okky, so you can call me either Okky or Azusa.

I'm working at the office in Japan.
I'm handling the exportation of car-parts to China and Portugal.
Sometimes I have to use English during the work hour,
but I don't need to use English everyday.

I'm interested in Languages. So wherever I travelled,
I was interested in these country's languages so far.

I attend the English conversation class once a week,
In addition, sometimes I join the drinking party where people speak English.

As for other hobbies, I like cooking.
I bake cakes at times. I'm happy if I can make people happy to give them these cakes.

----I'm closing self-introduction now,

but I may tell other stories of myself someday.^-^---

Have a good night☆彡