PPS

Have you seen Google's new trick? Go to google.com and type in "let it snow."

•  davidbarker
• 2011年12月19日 23:07

Hi David,

Are you going back to the UK? That's great!
The trick is lovely;-)

Wishing you joy and happiness not only at Christmastime but every day of the New Year.

Have a good trip!

Maki

•  匿名
• 2011年12月19日 23:19

Hi David,

Oh, are you going back to the UK? That's nice!
Wishing you a Merry Christmas and a Happy New year!

Looking forward to hearing from you about Christmas stories and other ones.

Have a safe and happy flight!

By the way, the trick sounds lovely, but my PC circumstance is old, so I can't see..., but I found how it looked! Yeah, it's lovely^^)

Anne

•  Anne
• 2011年12月20日 07:13

Hi David and everyone,

Unfortunately, the trick didn't work on my computer, but someone introduced it on You Tube, so I was able to see the trick. Apparently, you can see another one if you type "Hanukkah".

Wishing you all a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year☆

Tomo

PS Glad to see you back on the blog, Maki:)

PPS Have a lovely time in Britain, David!

•  Tomo
• 2011年12月20日 09:02

Hi David and all!

Have a fantastic holiday season!

http:// snipurl.com/21azira

Ash

•  ashmoleanmuse
• 2011年12月20日 18:38

Hi, David

Thank you for your entries this year. Even though I couldn't write a comment frequently, I read every entries with interest, and thought of how I would comment in English. I am sure those were very helpful to improve my English skills.
Please have a nice holiday in your country.
I am looking forward to your new entries next year.

Hi, all

Have a lovely Christmas and New Year holidays!
よいお年を！

PS: I am very happy to see Maki's comment.

•  panda
• 2011年12月20日 21:22

Hi David,

Going back to UK during Christmas season? Good for you;) Have fun and send my regards to your family.

I was thinking of traveling this winter but it will end up being a pie in the sky:( Anyway, I hope I could have a couple of days off and have some fun

Bye for now,
amo

•  amo
• 2011年12月20日 22:28

Hi David,

Thank you for your corrections every time. I appreciate you very much.

Have a nice holidays in the UK with your family. Have happy Christmas and New Year.

I'm looking forward to seeing your new entries.

Bye　for now,

katherine

•  Katherine
• 2011年12月21日 01:00

Hi David,

It's nice to be with your family in this season.
Have a safe and pleasant trip!

Hi everybody,

Wishing you the best this holiday season!

ksk

•  ksk
• 2011年12月21日 04:03

Hi Anne,

Thank you for letting me know your idea to my question as always^^

The first one you wrote "It's no use trying to impress the other mothers. " was pretty close to my thought.
In addition, yeah, "It's not sensible" I think.
Because to show off belongings to the others doesn't mean to love children but stuff itself,I believe.

Hi David,

Your holiday season is coming!
Have a safe trip and look forward to your report in your home.

Hi everyone,

Have a lovely Christmas!

noriko

•  noriko
• 2011年12月21日 17:39

Hi David,

You are going back to the UK today. Have a wonderful time with your family and friends! And have a safe flight.

Our Christmas plan is not special. I make Christmas dinner, roast chicken legs, salad, soup and cake, on 23rd. We are going to see illumination on 24th.
The weather forecast said the temperature is going down for a couple of days. We might have a white Christmas.

Thank you for helping me to improve my English. This blog is definitely a fun and an effective way to learn English! ( I want to express my appreciation for your kindness.　日本では年末にお世話になった人に、お世話になりましたと言うので、この場を借りて挨拶しておきたくて。）

I hope Kim Jong-il's death triggers solving abduction issue.

Hi Maki,

I'm glad to see your comment after a while!^^

Hi David and everyone,

Wishing you and your loved ones all the wonder and magic of christmas!☆彡

Fumie

•  Fumie
• 2011年12月22日 06:19

Hi David and everyone,

I hope you are all enjoying this nice season. Thank you for everything here. I'm glad I've been writing about interesting topics freely on and off with you.

I'm holding a Christmas performance party of my work on the 25th afternoon and joining a gospel concert at a church in the evening. This is the first time I've learnt gospel songs, and they didn't give us any copies of score but just a CD. I've been listening to it many times. It was really difficult for me to learn by ear till last week. I just became a little confident in my alto part this week. I'm going to finish this year's work on 28th and think about what I did in 2011 and what I want to do in 2012.

Hope you will have a lot of fun with your family and friends in the UK. If you meet Kattie, please send our best wishes to her too. I hope I will be able to homestay with her in the festive seasons.

Tsuneko

•  tsuneko
• 2011年12月22日 13:15

Hi David and everyone,

I hope you are enjoying this nice season.
Today is Christmas Eve, and I guess many of you will a Christmas dinner
with your family or friends tonight.

I am happy I could be with you and this blog all through the year.
I am thankful for David, and members for everything.

I don’t have any special plan for Christmas, but my younger son came back home yesterday,
so we had Christmas dinner last night ,one day earlier.
No turkey, no eggnog and no mulled wine, but chicken instead, salad, soup and Christmas cake.
Have any of you cooked turkey?

David, I guess you arrived home and are having a great time with your family.
Please send our messages to your family wishing their joy and happiness all through the year.
As tsuneko said, if you meet Kattie, please send it, too!
Christmas market in Manchester must be beautiful and wonderful now!
I wish I could stay there sometime.

>noriko,

You are welcome.

>tsuneko,

Good luck with your concert and party!
Both of them sounds very nice!

Happy Christmas, everyone,

Anne

•  Anne
• 2011年12月24日 08:50

it's me again.
Sorry, I made a mistake!
"many of you will a Christmas dinner" should be " many of you will have a Christmas dinner."

Anne

•  Anne
• 2011年12月24日 08:54

Hi David and everyone,

☆☆☆I wish you a Merry Christmas☆☆☆
I'm very busy in these days, too, so I'm sorry I haven't writen commentf for long time.
☆☆☆I hope all of you have a nice time on Christmas Eve☆☆☆

BTW, do you see "Tokyo sky tree" that is illuminated ?
It's nice!

Green

•  Green
• 2011年12月24日 16:35

Hi David and everyone！

How was Christmas?

I went my favorite musician's concert.
I had a wonderful time.

Belated Merry Christmas!

AKKO

•  AKKO
• 2011年12月26日 14:01

Hi David and everyone,

How are you doing? Christmas is over, and New Year is just around the corner. I guess you are having busy days.

I heard a funny story from a friend of mine about Christmas the other day.
His mother said to his father one year on Christmas season, "Honey, I want to see Tiffany's face this year." Then, his father took her driving and passed through the Tiffany shop and said," Now you saw it, didn't you?"

I don't know what happened between his parents afterwards, but when I heard this, I thought," Oh,his father looks like 100% my husband." and I could not stop laughing!

I guess almost all the women would get angry if this happened to them.
Is it just in the movies or books that the husband sent Tiffany's jewelry to their wives saying"Sweetie.."?

In Japan, women around 30s and 40s seem to be the most important customers for the department stores on Christmas selling season.
That means women in their 30s and 40s use much more money than any other generation.

Did Santa visit your home?

Bye for now,

Anne

•  Anne
• 2011年12月27日 23:42

Hi everyone,

How are you doing?
I am on my way to work, and today is the last day of the year. I believe that many people aleady have started their holidays. The train is not so crowded, so I was able to have a seat ;)

Hope you are having a nice holiday season.
amo

•  amo
• 2011年12月30日 08:10

Hi David and everyone,

How are you doing? Some of you might be having a busy few days. Some of you might return to your hometown and are having a great time with your family.
Me? I went to the family tomb this morning and then went to two supermarkets with my husband. The supermarkets were, as you know, very crowded with people for buying New Year's dishes or some other things. I don't cook as much New Year's dishes as I used to do, and I started year-end cleaning early this year, so it's not that bad for me.

My two sons come back home tomorrow night; the elder son is from Osaka, and the younger son works for a supermarket, so he must have been having a hectic time with work. For supermarkets, this time of the year is an excellent time to increase sales,right?

Have a great New Year,everyone!

Anne

•  Anne
• 2011年12月30日 22:51

Hi Anne,

Happy Birthday!
Many happy returns of the day!
You and your husband must be excited to see your sons. Hope you having a lovely time with your family.

Fumie

•  Fumie
• 2011年12月31日 05:16

Hi David and everyone,

How are you? I finished year-end cleaning mostly with the help of my husband and children. I'm lucky because I have a son who likes cleaning very much.(I mean my eldest son). So we can feel at ease and go to ski trip. BTW, it's been more than 20years since I did ski last time and for the first time for my children. So we should be careful not to break our legs!
Have a lovely New Year!

Fumie

•  Fumie
• 2011年12月31日 05:36

Hi Fumie,

Thank you for your Birthday message!
Have a great time at ski resort with your family!

Thank you for sending me birthday messages personally, my friends. I don't name each one of you, but your messages made my day.

Hi everyone,

I almost finished cooking New Year's dishes, and dropped by here to take a short break.
The weather is fine around here, Nagoya and according to the weather forecast, it is supposed to be fine.

Hi David,

Are you walking up to the Snoudonia mountain on New Year's eve?

Bye for now,

Anne

•  Anne
• 2011年12月31日 13:27

Hi everyone, and happy birthday Anne. I just got back from a few days in London. I still haven't decided how I'm going to spend New Year's Eve. It's still only midday here, but I guess there are only a few hours of 2011 left for all of you in Japan.

Whatever you are doing, I hope you have a great time, and best wishes for 2012.

Bye for now.

•  David
• 2011年12月31日 20:47

Hi David and everyone,

Happy new year!

How's your holidays? I am on the way to work. Today is my first day of the year at work. My holidays was only four days and it was not enough. I am already looking forward to this weekend.

Are you coming back to Japan this week, David? Have fun, the rest of your stay;)

Have a good day,
amo

•  amo
• 2012年1月 4日 08:08

Hi David and everyone,

A happy new year !!

It's been ages since I last joined this blog .
I'm going to write my comments here as much as possible this year. It's kind of my new year's resolution .

The other resolution is that I'll try not to gain weight to stay healthy.

What is yours,everyone?

•  Rose
• 2012年1月 4日 19:09

Hi David and everyone,

Happy New Year!
I hope you had a great New Year holiday.
As amo said, some of you might start working from today.
I went to a shrine near my house on Jan.1 and had relaxing holidays.
It's nice to have dinner with my family because it's just once or twice a year that all of my family get together.
We drank and talked a lot over dinner and it lasted long!
I'm weak with alcohol, so I usually don't drink, but on that day, my son who works for a supermarket brought several sample cans of liquors, so I tried "white spritzer." It had a good and fruity taste, so I drank it like it was juice. Just after that, I regretted what I had done! My heart started pounding and my face became red. I wish I could enjoy liquor. All I can drink are just non-alcoholic ones. By the way, I found the designs of the liquor cans to be very fashionable and nice. The wine spritzer is going to be sold on this Feb.

I also made New Year resolutions and one of them is that " I'd like to keep joining here and to write as much comments as possible.
Oh, I made another resolution that I have been making every year; "Losing weight!"

Good night!

Anne

•  Anne
• 2012年1月 5日 00:14

Hi David and everyone,

A long time has passed since I posted my last comment on this blog. I forget when. (lol)
However, I've read all of your comments.

This blog looks really interesting because we can find more comments on weekdays than the ones in holiday seasons.

In 2011, I went abroad three times on business trips and used English at work. It was an unusual year. I don't what happens in 2011. But I'd like to learn English this year, too. I hope I can improve my English skill, especially on its accuracy.

By the way, I attended ten-kilometer running race on January 3rd, and finished running without walking or stopping. That was my tenth race so I wouldn't retire from the race. While I was running, I talked myself that I would run for the distance. It was happy for me that I did so.

Anyway, I'm looking forward to reading your comments on this blog.

By for now.

Gussan

•  Gussan
• 2012年1月 5日 05:47

Hi David and everyone,

Happy New Year!
Is your work started already or are you still having a holiday? Did you have a nice holiday?

We went to skiing during New Year and had a fun time. First we were afraid of ski down the slope, but once we got the hang of it, we became enjoy it.
One of my New Years resolutions is enjoy my life to the fullest. Nobody knows what will happen tomorrow, right? So I try to do what I want to do on that day, eat what I want to eat, buy what I want to buy, as much as possible.英語ではうまく言えませんが、なるべくその日のうちに、やりたいことをやり、食べたいものを食べ、欲しいものを買う。
I'll try to keep writing comments here along with my facebook.

Fumie

•  Fumie
• 2012年1月 5日 06:31

Hi David and everyone,

Anne,
Very related happy birthday!
Hope you will have an another fruitful year with your beloved family ^^

Fumie,

You had a great holiday at ski resort!
I haven't done this kind of winter sports for ages, envy you^^

David,

You are coming back soon to Japan?
I haven't checked this blog for whike so it feels like yesterday that you told us your New years's plans!

I'd like to share my good/bad news with everyone.
Bad one is, my beloved mini turtle named Midori died yesterday;(
It was just an accident but my fault.
I think taking care of animals are difficult...
Good one is, I pregnant another child ^^
I 'm already 42 years old, I'm lucky and happy, hope new baby is growing with no troubles, meet him/her coming summer...

noriko

•  noriko
• 2012年1月 6日 16:42

Hi noriko,

I'm sorry about your bad news. But don't blame yourself. That kind of things happen often.

Congratulations! You are expecting another child. You and your family must be exciting. Please take care of yourself!

Fumie

•  Fumie
• 2012年1月 8日 05:35

Hi noriko,

Sorry what happened to you, but as Fumie said, these things could happen.

Congratulations! That's wonderful! Please take care of yourself.

Hi David and everyone,

How are you doing?
I had a Nabe-party with my friends at one of the friends house last night, and we had a great time!

Anne

•  Anne
• 2012年1月 8日 11:06

Happy New Year to you all!

I suppose David is now busy unpacking his luggage. I just wonder how many stones he has gained.

Ash

•  ashmoleanmuse
• 2012年1月 8日 16:36

Happy New Year, all!!

Hi, Noriko,
You are expecting another baby!!
That's wonderful!
Please take care of yourself, and give birth to another lovely one!

Hi, Gussan
I am happy to see your name again.
Wow, you ran ten kilometers without stopping!
That's amazing! It must be a start of another great year.

Hi, Anne
I like reading your comment very much.
Please fulfill your resolution!!
My resolution is to become more optimistic and be happy.

•  panda
• 2012年1月 8日 19:00

Happy New Year!

I'm posting your blog first.
Although I am a begginer of English, I'd like to read this blog and post a blog sometimes.

What about going back to UK?
Let's get the year off to a good start☆

•  Dai
• 2012年1月 9日 08:06

Hi Panda,

Thank you for your response to my post. Your respose makes my last holiday happy.

Usually I don't have chances to post something on this blog, so I thoght anyone does not remember me.

Anyway, we can expect cold days for a while.
We'd like to prevent a cold, flu so so forth.

See ya,

Gussan

•  Gussan
• 2012年1月 9日 16:55

Happy New Year, my friends! I hope things are going well for you.

I spent the New Year’s holiday in my hometown of Osaka. Spending time with my parents, getting together with old friends, and doing some bargain-hunting :-)

I’ve been away from this blog for a long time, but nothing really has changed in the past few years. I’m doing just fine. It’s nice to see this place always alive with people.

May the new year bring you all good luck and a lot of happiness.

>Panda, good to see you again here :-)

•  Lily
• 2012年1月 9日 22:54

Hi Fumie, Anne, panda,

Thank you for the massages ^^

Well , some members told us their New Years resolutions.
I'm doing this too.
I'm going to join in this blog frequently again, learn lots of things from David and members.
Say, after while kept me away from here,it took me a really long time to write comments.

noriko

•  noriko
• 2012年1月10日 16:14

Hi David and everyone,

How are you doing? The new term started today at my area, and I guess some of you ,moms are relieved and happy about it a little bit.

I visited a Ise Shrine with my husband yesterday and had a great time!

Hi Gussan,
I do remember you! Looking forward to reading your comments again^^) By the way, it's amazing you join the running race every year.

Hi panda,
I'm glad to hear that you like reading my comments^^)

Hi Dai,
Welcome to the blog!
Looking forward to reading your next comment.

Hi Lily,
I'm hoping that I can read your comments a lot more this year,hehe^^)

Bye for now,

Anne

•  Anne
• 2012年1月10日 17:30

訂正
"a Ise Shrine " should be " Ise Shrine."

•  Anne
• 2012年1月10日 23:11

Hi, all

I would like to comment about Kim Jong-il's death.
After his death, there are so many news about North Korea, but I am a little irritated because TV shows the same picture again and again, and there are so many ''might be''s and ''is likely to''s on the news. I hope TV news give us only true informations and no more fuss about it.

I think Japanese have to be more informed about historical facts about North Korea, how it became a country like that, how it's poverty is related to the fall of the Soviet Union, what Japan had done to the country, instead of fear- luring gossips about it.

Hi, Gussan
I am sure many members remember you!

Hi, Lily

Thank you for a comment for me. I am happy to know that you are doing fine.

•  panda
• 2012年1月11日 09:07

Hi everyone,

I am back in Japan now. I got back on Saturday, but I had a really sore throat after the flight, so I have been taking it easy. I'll do a new entry on Monday.

Bye for now.

•  davidbarker
• 2012年1月12日 09:57

Hi David,

I'm glad to see your comment. How was your winter
holiday in the UK ?

Please take good care of yourself.I hope that you feel better soon.

Hi Noriko,
You are expecting another baby.Congratulations!
You and your family must be excited.

Hi panda,
Come to think of it ,I don't know much about the
history of North Korea .
Every time I see Megumi Yokota's parents' faces on TV , I feel sorry for them and I hope the problem
should be solved very soon.

Hi all,
It's cold ! Please keep yourself warm . I'll have something hot tonight such as Kasujiru , Oden or
Nabe.

•  Rose
• 2012年1月12日 15:58

Hi David,

Sorry to hear about your sore throat. Hope you feel much better now. Oh, and wrap up warm and get plenty of fluids.

Ash

•  ashmoleanmuse
• 2012年1月12日 20:45

Hi David,

Welcome back! Sorry to hear about your sore throat. Take a good rest and hope you feel better soon.

Hi Panda and everyone,

The death of Kim Jong-Il was unexpectedly early and the country is unstable.
There are only few things that North Korea uncover it's situation, and every country including Japan need to keep watching how the country(region) moves.
For Japan, we especially have had very sad abduction problem, so this is a very stressful and important situation at the moment. I guess that's why TV continue talking "the same thing." Whenever I see Youkota-san, as Rose mentioned, I always feel sorry.

Bye for now,

Anne

•  Anne
• 2012年1月12日 21:31

Hi David,

Glad to hear from you. I'm sorry about your sore throat. Please take good care of yourself and get better soon. Looking forward to hearing your story in UK.

Fumie

•  Fumie
• 2012年1月13日 06:16

Hi David,

Welcome back and sorry to hear your sore throat.
My doctor told me before that eating ice cubes would be a good remedy to be better.
Ice cubes would reduce your pain.

Hi Rose,

Thank you for the message^^
It was a surprising news but am happy. Thanks^^

•  noriko
• 2012年1月13日 08:16