HI, ladies!!
How are you doing?
Plum, I appreciate your frequent contribution to this blog, and I am interested in your various topics.
Tell the truth, I have much been obsessed by a big band since last year. This early morning, I got home from the concert of a-ha, the worldwide Norwegian band, held at the Tokyo JCB Hall, by a night bus. It was soooo excited that I couldn’t sleep a wink last night, keeping dozing off during the trip. The reason why so getting excited was that it was held in Japan for the first time in the last nine years, and that they already announced the dissolution of the band at the end of the next year. They have played for 25 years...
The hall was not so big that I could fully enjoy their good figures and beautiful songs at close. Most of the audience who gathered there were middle-aged women and men, singing, dancing, clapping and shouting all together! Me, too, of course…
Now I am completely groggy after this absolutely gorgeous experience…
I hope you are having a great time, too.
See you next! Night, night….
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17 comments:
Hi, ladies!!!
It’s delightful to hear, Cherry, that you had a fantastic time at a-ha’s music concert held in Tokyo. I believe that the concert was so exciting and you fully amused yourself , singing, dancing, clapping, and shouting, along with other a-ha fans.
Alice, thank you for giving me your brilliant guess. I do like all the foods you listed, but unfortunately the foods considered as healthy in a US web article on food are a little different from yours.
According to a Yahoo article on November 11, 2009, 8 Perfect Stay-Young Foods are eggs, green tea, garlic, grapefruit, Greek yogurt, avocado, bell peppers and almonds. The article also presents the benefits of those foods and their substitutes. It’s fun to know them, isn’t it? Thus, I will let you know their benefits and substitutes one by one.
EGGS
Benefit: Weight loss
Substitute: Egg Beaters egg substitute
GREEN TEA
Benefit: Longer lifespan
Substitutes: Yerba mate, white tea, oolong tea, rooibos (red) tea
GARLIC
Benefit: Cardiovascular strengthening
Substitutes: Onions, chives, leeks
GRAPEFRUIT
Benefit: Weight loss
Substitutes: Oranges, watermelon, tomatoes
GREEK YOGURT
Benefit: Feeling fuller for longer
Substitutes: Kefir and yogurt with “live and active cultures” printed on the product label
AVOCADO
Benefit: Reduced risk of heart disease
Substitutes: Olive, canola, and peanut oils; peanut butter; tahini
BELL PEPPERS
Benefit: Improved immune function
Substitutes: Carrots, sweet potatoes, watermelon
ALMONDS
Benefit: Improved memory
Substitutes: Walnuts, pecans, peanuts, sesame seeds, flaxseeds
Do you like all these foods? Probably, I am not able to eat Greek yogurt, simply because I am used to eating it. (Actually, in Sydney, I once tried to have it, but gave it up, thinking to myself that that food was not produced for me.)
Are you convinced that green tea can bring about longer lifespan?
Hope you are having a lovely evening.
Goodnight to you all, my precious friends.
Hi, ladies!!!
Here is a quiz for you and me.
The title of this passage is Eggs. Yes, eggs are one of the eight foods, as you can easily guess.
Enjoy the quiz.
EGGS
Benefit: Weight loss
Substitute: Egg Beaters egg substitute
When it comes to breakfast, you can’t beat eggs. (That was too easy, wasn’t it?) Seriously, at (1) cost of only 72 calories, each large egg holds 6.3 grams of high-quality protein and (2) powerhouse load of vital nutrients.
(3) study published in (4) International Journal of Obesity found that people who replace carbs with eggs for breakfast lose weight 65 percent quicker. (5) researchers in Michigan were able to determine that regular egg eaters enjoyed more vitamins and minerals in their diets than those who ate few or no eggs.
By examining (6) surveys from more than 25,000 people, (7) researchers found that egg eaters are about half as likely to be deficient in vitamin B12, 24 percent less likely to be deficient in vitamin A, and 36 percent less likely to be deficient in vitamin E. And here’s something more shocking: Those who ate at least four eggs (8) week had significantly lower cholesterol levels than those who ate fewer than one. Turns out, (9) dietary cholesterol in (10) yolk has little impact on your serum cholesterol.
Do you have your cholesterol level checked on a regular basis, my lovely friends?
Answers:
1. a
2. a
3. a
4. the
5. ---
6. ---
7. the
8. a
9. the
10. the
Hi, ladies!!!
Are you familiar with catechins contained in the leaves of tea plants? Me? Unfortunately, no, not. Some of you who are familiar with catechins must be knowledgeable about the health benefits of catechins.
How many cups of green tea do you drink a day? In order to achieve the aim of longer lifespan by the way of green tea, we, probably have to drink a bucket of green tea every day, it seems.
Good news about immediate results from habitually drinking green tea is that catechins are effective at boosting metabolism. Nonetheless, this statement is still suspicious to me. Why? Because my husband likes green tea and drinks 2 or 3 bottles of tea a day but his present body weight and waistline remain what they have been over the years.
Now, enjoy the quiz, my lovely friends.
GREEN TEA
Benefit: Longer lifespan
Substitutes: Yerba mate, white tea, oolong tea, rooibos (red) tea
Literally (1) hundreds of studies have been carried out documenting (2) health benefits of catechins, (3) group of antioxidants concentrated in the leaves of tea plants.
Among the most startling studies was one published by (4) American Medical Association in 2006. (5) study followed more than 40,000 Japanese adults for a decade, and at (6) 7-year follow-up, those who had been drinking five or more cups of tea per day were 26 percent less likely to die of any cause compared with those who averaged less than a cup.
Looking for more-immediate results? Another Japanese study broke participants into two groups, only one of which was put on (7) catechin-rich green-tea diet. At the end of 12 weeks, (8) green-tea group had achieved significantly smaller body weights and waistlines than those in (9) control group. Why? Because (10) researchers believe that catechins are effective at boosting metabolism.
Answers:
1. ---
2. the
3. the
4. the
5. The
6. the
7. a
8. the
9. the
10. ---
Hi, ladies!
Plum, thank you for your sending us the information on the healthy food. One item I am not familiar with is Greek yougurt. It sounds Greek. What is the difference between common yougurt and that of Greek?
As for the green tea, I am anxious about the effect of agricultual chemicals. I like bitter green tea and I drink a lot.
Garlic is good if it doesn't smell badly. They say that whole garlic does not smell more than that when
it is ground. These days they sell black garlic, or farmented garlic. For me it smells and tasted like a fruit. Have you ever tried?
As for nuts, I like any kinds of nuts, not to mention almond. They seem to have a high calorle, but the truth is that they have good effects of reducing cholesterol. Before a big meal, Western people eat some nuts because they are effective. Eating too much does not have good effect, though.
Eggs are the perfect food. I eat almost everyday. With some salt, the white becomes solid fast. I hear that the half raw has the most nutorition. Western people does not have a custom of eating raw or half raw eggs. I hear an American say that it has a germ, so they never eat it raw. Isn't it interesting?
Today I feel a little chilly, so it might be good to go to bed early. Good night to you all. Have a wonderful dream.
Hi, ladies!!!
Thank you, Peach, for having interest in the
Yahoo’s article 8 Perfect Stay-Young Foods I introduced in this blog message.
I am also grateful to you for mentioning something about almonds.
According to the article, the most recently discovered health benefit of almonds is improved memory.
This means that we Japanese English learners are recommended to have almonds in order to get a wider range of vocabulary, doesn’t it?
This article lists sesame seeds as one of the substitutes of almonds. I wonder if sesame seeds work as well as almonds in improving memory.
In addition, according to this article, almonds are effective in taking our mind off our hunger.
Today’s quiz is, of course, from a segment on almonds. Enjoy the quiz, my lovely friends.
By the way, Peach, you had an early night last night, since you felt chilly, I understand. Are you feeling better now?
ALMONDS
Benefit: Improved memory
Substitutes: Walnuts, pecans, peanuts, sesame seeds, flaxseeds
(1) ounce of almonds—or about 23 nuts—a day provides nearly 9 grams of heart-healthy oleic acid; that’s more than (2) amounts found in peanuts, walnuts, or cashews.
This monounsaturated fat is known to be responsible for (3) flurry of health benefits, the most recently discovered of which is improved memory. Rats in California were better able to navigate (4) maze (5) second time around if they’d been fed oleic acid, and there’s no reason to assume that (6) same treatment won’t help you navigate your day-to-day life.
If nothing else, snacking on (7) brittle nuts will take your mind off your hunger. Nearly a quarter of an almond’s calories come from belly-filling fiber and protein. That’s why, when (8) researchers at Purdue fed study participants nuts or rice cakes, those who ate (9) nuts felt full for an hour and a half longer than (10) rice cake group did.
Answers:
1. An
2. the
3. a
4. a
5. the
6. the
7. the
8. ---
9. the
10. the
Hi, Cherry and friends!!!
You had a fabulous day in Tokyo, Cherry. To my regret, I don't know much about A-ha. I will check the U-tube and listen to their songs so that I could share the fantastic time!
I can find a rational reason to eat chocolate with almonds. I can eat a box of it at one time, which tells how much I like it....
I also like rice cake, especially rice cake with soy beans. Have you ever tried? The mouse experimented was very lucky.
To keep hunger away it is a good way to eat almond.
I will have a dream full of almonds
Hi, ladies,
This is a very interesting article, whether you believe this discovery or not, and I hope you enjoy the quiz.
Language after stroke
Summary
13 November 2009
A new initiative aimed at helping people re-learn language after suffering a stroke has shown the success of the learning may depend largely on which language the stroke sufferer is trying to learn.
Reporter: Julian Siddle
Report
Stroke sufferers often lose (1) ability to speak or remember events, but how difficult or easy it is to re-learn (2) language can depend on which part of (3) brain was affected by (4) stroke and which language is being learnt.
Professor Anthony Kong from the University of Central Florida noticed this when working in Singapore. He found (5) big difference in stroke patients' symptoms depending on whether they spoke English or Chinese.
Professor Kong 'In Chinese there is (6) higher portion of right hemisphere activation, in terms of processing (7) language, and this contrasts with English or other Latin based languages in which most of the activations are on the left side of the brain.'
He says brain imaging techniques show tonal languages, such as Chinese, make more use of the right side of the brain, whereas (8) processing for Latin based languages, such as English, tends to occur in the left side. This means for Chinese speakers, most of the medical research on re-learning language after a stroke may not be relevant to them, as it comes from investigations with English speakers.
Professor Kong is now about to start the first Chinese specific research project on (9) way brain damage affects speech. He hopes this will lead to (10) better after stroke therapy for speakers of Chinese and other tonal languages.
Julian Siddle, BBC
tonal languages
languages where using specific tones, i.e. the quality of the speaker's voice (e.g. pitch, rising or falling intonations etc.), is very important both for expressing yourself while speaking and for understanding the speech
Answers:
1. the
2. ---
3. the
4. the
5. a
6. a
7. the
8. the
9. the
10. ---
Hello Cherry and my precious friends.
Did you see the full moon on Tuesday’s night?
It was shining so brightly and clearly in the night sky that I took a walk in the park in the neighborhood with my husband. There were few stars and I found two planes flying flashing red and green lights on and off.
The other day I had a lucky chance to ascend to the 41st floor of Midland Square with one of my old friends from Kumamoto.
The panorama form the Sky Promenade was gorgeous, especially the view of the sun setting in the west was superb.
Plum, I always drink green tea after dinner. My husband is supposed to make a green tea after supper. I love powdered tea with Japanese sweets.
I habitually drink cold water or oolong tea soon after I get up in the morning and after taking a bath at night. It is highly likely that I take a bucket of water every day.
It’s great to know thatalmonds helps to improve memory. I have to have almonds on the daily basis to prevent forgetfulness.
Accidentally, I use sesame seeds, especially ground sesame almost every day for cooking. I sometimes splash sesame on salad. I like vegetables and meat dressed with sesame. I didn’t know the effectiveness of almonds to take our mind off our hunger.
By the way I have information about Prisca Molotsi’s Jazz and Gospel Concert.
It will be held at Nagoyashi Geijyutsu Souzo Center on December 9th from 7:00 P.M.
It costs Y 4,000 for an advanced ticket. You can easily buy tickets by calling 0570-02-9999.
P-code is 337-743, which means Prisca Molotsi concert.
I’m expecting to listen to her powerful and impressive singing voice.
Hi, ladies!!!
This morning three gardeners, real, professional ones, came to my place, and cut and trimmed branches of the trees in my tiny garden, and, after about seven hours of work, off they went, leaving me a bill for 80,850 yen.
I have no idea whether it is expensive or not, although one day in the past my next door neighbor mentioned that she normally hired a farmer and his wife, which means two gardeners, for her garden and they charged her only 10,000 yen for their full day’s work.
Having said that, she asked me whether I would like to know their phone number so that I could ask them to work for me. Ah, ah, ah…
Probably, I was not feeling well due to my hernia, when my neighbor stopped me outside my house in order to give me that information about gardening work at a quite reasonable price.
Of course, I knew she provided that tip out of kindness, but, perhaps because of my ill health, being indecisive, I turned down her offer very politely.
Should I have got their phone number? Later on, I sometimes asked myself. None the less, my answer was always it’s OK, it’s not a big deal. But, but, but, probably it’s a big deal, isn’t it? There is a big difference between 80,850 yen and 10,000 yen.
Perhaps, next year, I will pay just 10,000 yen for my garden, I hope.
Goodnight to you all, my precious friends.
Hello Cherry and my precious friends.
I feel very sorry that this blog is going to be closed soon, so I was so excited to find one new message from Plum.
I’m afraid that no one is not going to post articles any more.
Plum, I feel so sorry to hear the expensive cost of trimming by professional gardeners.
I wonder if you didn’t ask how much it will cost before they started to get to work?
Several years ago, I remembered paying one gardener 30,000 yen for his 6 hours work in my tiny garden.
If I remembered correctly, he seemed to tell me the price he wanted to have before starting his job.
When my husband asked Duskin Corporation to cut and trim branches of his father’s garden in Kobe after he passed away, if I remembered correctly, he paid about 80,000 yen or so. My husband told me that three professional gardeners came and did a great job although the payment was not easy for his purse.
Plum, I suppose the three gardeners who cut and trimmed branches of the tree in your garden did the highest level of work as professionals.
Perhaps, next year, you will pay just 10,000 yen for your garden.
Good night, my dear friends.
Hi, ladies!!!
Do you sometimes get lonely? How do you normally overcome your loneliness?
Usually people try to talk to another human being to relieve their loneliness, don’t they?
But loneliness is infectious, unfortunately, according to a study carried out by teams at three American universities. Be careful, my lovely friends.
Tomorrow my son and his family will come to Nagoya and stay with us for three days. At least this weekend I will have no time to get lonely…
Catching loneliness from the lonely
Summary
2 December 2009
It sounds like a contradiction in terms but loneliness is catching. That's the conclusion of a detailed study into people's behaviour carried out by teams at three American universities.
Reporter: Jack Izzard
Report
It's (1) medical paradox. People who feel lonely can spread (2) emotion to others - much like (3) virus. After poring over data collected from nearly 5,000 people, (4) researchers concluded that loneliness is more than just (5) personal feeling, it's (6) infectious mental condition.
This was a statistical rather than medical study, so it doesn't explain how the contagion happens. But what it did find was that the friends of a person describing themselves as lonely were 52% more likely to become lonely themselves, and that their friends were at (7) increased risk too, even if they didn't know the lonely person.
The study's authors suggest this may be down to the way lonely people behave. (8) tendency to be wary or mistrustful of others can make their loneliness (9) self-fulfilling prophecy, as it may drive friends away.
This much may seem obvious, but the study also hints that this behaviour can rub off on other people, painting a rather bleak picture of lonely people driving each other into ever greater isolation. Its advice to the lonely - surround yourself with (10) network of friends, as long as they're not lonely too.
Jack Izzard, BBC News
poring over data
examining or looking very carefully at the evidence or the information
a self-fulfilling prophecy
something you do or say about yourself so often that it eventually makes something you say about yourself true (here, lonely people don't trust other people so they become more lonely, so they trust other people even less and so become even more lonely)
rub off on
influence, have an effect through being close to someone or associating with them
Answers:
1. a
2. the
3. a
4. the
5. a
6. an
7. an
8. A
9. a
10. a
Hello, Cherry and my precious friends.
Did you hear the sad and stunning news of Tiger Woods who is taking an indefinite break from professional golf because of his infidelity.
He apologized to his wife and children, promising to become a good husband and father, and asking forgiveness. He seems to make repair of his family however hard it will be. It will take time and maybe it might be difficult to repair once broken credibility between he and his wife. It was really a terrible shock for me to hear downfall for the world’s No. 1 player, who is said that he rarely made news off the golf course.
At the same time I adore his boldness of his decision to take an endless rest from playing golf and admit his wrongdoing gracefully.
Have a good-night sleep, my friends.
December 13, 2009 12:36 AM
Hi, ladies!!!
I have noticed with each passing year that I appreciate life so much more. Every day is truly a blessing. I get more joy from the simple pleasures in life and appreciate the important gifts of life, such as family and close friends. I guess that’s a natural evolution of the life cycle. As our time is shorter, we value every minute so much more.
The passage I posted above is not my writing, but that of my close American lady friend. She is one year older than me, which means we are in the same age group, but we have lived in different countries all our lives and have not shard the same culture. Nonetheless, her writing exactly reflects my thought and feelings toward life. Intriguing and fascinating, isn’t it, my precious friends?
Hi Cherry and friends,
It is December, 17 and we have only two weeks left in 2009. How fast time flies! It’s freezing cold today. I think Plum is on the way to Sydney where the weather is warm and pleasant.
Plum, thank you for sharing the passage from your American friend with us. Yes, it is really intriguing and fascinating. What she wrote to you is just what I’m thinking about, too. I feel how wonderful and blessed it is to have family and close friends around me. I’m very much indebted to all the people who have been supporting me. Wherever they live or what culture or experience they have had in their lives, we, between family members or between friends, can share a very much same feeling. I also believe that finding simple little pleasures in every day life is very important and grateful.
Plum, I’m looking forward to reading your story about your life in Sydney.
Have a nice dream, my precious friends.
Hi, ladies!!!
How are you, my precious friends?
This morning I took Kenken to the children’s library, which was one block away, for the first time on my own, while my daughter took Yujin to the beach and had a party with her friends and their young kids, most of whom were married to Australian, New Zealand or British men.
I was afraid that Kenken might cry for Mom, since he still thought I was a stranger to him, but he did not, to my joy. He played in the play area packed with children’s books and a variety of toys for toddlers for about half an hour. Then, we went to the shopping center and ate lunch inside the building because it was too hot outside in the plaza and it was air-conditioned inside. What did I have?
Of course, fried calamary rings plus chips along with diet coke. Yes, I am a junk food junkie. What did Kenken have? My daughter made a box lunch for him, which not only contained rice cooked with hijiki and some finely cut vegetables but also two chops of boiled corn.
To my surprise, he did not eat anything in the box lunch his mother had prepared but kept picking my chips!!! Oh, no, I am not supposed to get him chips, but he, just like me, loves junk food. Oh, dear, dear.
Anyway, today is getting over and we will have a new day tomorrow. There is a two-hour time difference between Sydney and Japan. It is almost time to get ready for bed here in Sydney.
Sweet dreams. Good night to you all, my lovely friends.
Goodbye, my dearest Cherry's Blog.
I love you!!!
Thursday, December 31, 2009
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