He left for the day.

... is the expression I learned today. I work in the library and I answer phone when no full-time employee works at the desk. Today someone asked an employee on phone who already had gone home. I said "he stepped out", but it meant that he was out for a short time or for lunch. In this case, I should have said "he left for the day!"

Bank

Talking about a bank in philadelphia or should I say PNC bank that I use, some services are different from Japanese banks. The good thing is that they won't charge when I withdraw money even at the midnight. The bad things are ... I can deposit money only at the ATM in the bank, and when I deposit money, I have to put money in the bank's envelope. I wonder American banks do not want us to deposit money.

M. Jackson

The other day I found Michael Jackson's picture on the front page of the newspaper. I could not help reading the article. I usually don't check all the unknown words in readings for my courses, however, this time I checked every single word that I did not know.
to fondle...ichatsuku, to concoct...to make up, decchiageru, ply...(osake wo) shitsukoku susumeru, deviant...ijouna I enjoyed reading the article.

The Fresh Grocer

The Fresh Grocer is a pricy supermarket on campus. Since it is the closest one to my place, I usually go grocery shopping there. It is unbelievable to Japanese, however, I have to check items VERY carefully because they sell rotten fruits and vegetables. After having bought rotten apples, strawberries, and mini tomatoes, I started to check items in a pack or bag from the bottom and side. Then I could not find any one which did not include a rotten stuff! It's not FRESH Grocer at all!!

MC SQUARED

One of my American friends is a beatboxer as well as a medical student at Penn. A beatboxer is a musician(?) who makes sound of beatbox by one's mouth.He's like a DJ who makes music without a machine.He is also fluent in Japanese. He completed making his own DVD and lent me. So I watched it with other friends.It was GREAT! He won the all four rounds of Apollo Theater Amateur Night Competition and got first-place title of 2002 Apollo Theater Super Top Dog. His name is MC SQUARED.
He is going to Africa this summer for internship. He works at a hospital for AIDS patients.He is multi-talented. I wish his success.

Strange Americans

I do not fully understand Americans. I wonder why they don't mind wasting food, plastic plateware, and energy. The most strange thing to me is that I often see people in a doctor's smock on campus. They eat outside or in a restaurant and go to school and go home in the smock. (By the way, the doctor's smock is green in the US.) The dress hygiene may not be strict, however, I feel discouraged about the moral of the future doctors.

Kind Americans

It seems that Americans are kind to strangers. Recently, I met some kind Americans in a row. When my friends and I were taking pictures in turn at a ballpark, a stranger came to us and offered to take a picture of us. Next day, when I was in a regional train to go to suburbs, I was checking a train map carefully because I was afraid that I had missed the station. Then, one of passengers came to me and asked where I was going to. Luckily enough, I had not missed the station. The other day, when I was riding my bike on my way home, I saw two people were pushing a car. Then, a guy who was walking a sidewalk noticed them and helped them.
I think Americans usually don't hesitate to help strangers likeJapanese do.

Major League

Today I went to see baseball, Phillies vs Arizona Diamond Bucks (I'm not sure). Because my friend's friend (Japanese) is working for Phillies, he gave us free tickets! I heard he is kind of famous in Japan because his interview was on the Nikkei newspaper and Kuriyama Hideki's HP. The seats were so close to the mound and great! There was no net except the one behind the homebase. So, it was pretty comfortable to watch. Some people brought their gloves to catch balls.
There were two games because the game of yesterday was cancelled because of rain. The first game started around 5pm and the second game was over midnight. Phillies won both games and they were pretty amusing because many batters hit home runs.

Canoeing

I went to canoe with friends. The place was in New Jersey, a hour-drive from Philadelphia by car. It was a wonderful day. We got up early in the morning and made sandwiches and left around 8am. We canoed about five hours including rest. Two people paddled one canoe, so we used two canoes. My canoe was OK but my friends' one tipped over 4 TIMES! It was hilarious.
The fee including the rent of canoe and drive to and from the river was $20 each. We had a great time. However, I got two big bug-bites on my face!