SUITE IRU

I wonder if it will be empty

IRU DESHO

I wonder if he is ...

Mirrors on old Japanese cars were on the front.

In North America, cars' side mirrors are beside the windows.

This is the Bloor & Gladstone Library, where I learned to read.

Most of the streets in Toronto are named after old British politicians, like Bloor and Gladstone.


KORE WA GAKKOU NO TOKI WATASHI GA ITTA TOSHOKAN DESU.

Post Office

YUUBINKYOKU

郵便局

At a gas station,
if there is a sign that says "SELF SERVE" or "SELF",
then you have to pump your own gas.

If there is a sign that says "FULL SERVE" or "FULL",
then the gas station employee pumps the gas.

Some gas stations are half self-serve and half full-serve.

This part of the city is called "Korea town".

Notice two interesting things:

i) The air conditioner on the left is Japanese (Fujitsu).

ii) There is a rope ladder from the "balcony" to the ground - clever idea to save space.

There's a rope ladder from the roof of the garage to the ground - clever idea :)
 

ESL

fractions

1/3 = one-third of the cookies are white (or two-sixths = 2/6).

2/3 = two-thirds of the cookies are brown. (or four-sixths = 4/6)

The motto of Canada is "A MARI USQUE AD MARE",
which is Latin for "from sea to sea".

The Latin word "mari" (sea) is used in English words such as:

 maritime - related to the sea

 marine - in the sea

 submarine - under the sea

ESL Tip of the Day

The plural of 'fish' is 'fish', but in Old English they sometimes say 'fishes'.

Example: one fish, two fish

Jesus multiplied the loaves and fishes.


Normally 'water' has no plural, but if we are talking about water in different places,
we call say: "waters".

Example: I've sailed in many different waters.

This is a light-house in Port Credit on Lake Ontario.

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ESL

The plural of 'house' is 'houses',
but the plural of 'mouse' is 'mice'
and the plural of 'moose' is 'moose'
although some people say 'mooses';
and the plural of 'goose' is 'geese'.

"graffitti" is a Greek word, so we don't add 's' to make the plural.

In Greek, "graffitto" is the singular and "graffitti" is the plural;
but we normally use the plural in English.

"Made in Japan" is the name of this fast food place.

 9 kind of uncountable nouns (click to see it bigger)

ESL Expression of the Day: "used to"

"used to" + verb (infinitive form)

    means that it was true in the past, but it's not true now.

Examples:

I used to smoke.

He used to be a teacher.

The sidewalks used to be made of wood.

ESL

still - adverb - means that it was true in the past and it is true now.

example:

The garbagemen are still on strike in Toronto.
or
The garbagemen are on strike still.
or
Still the garbagemen are on strike. (formal or strong)


still - adjective - means that something is not moving.

The waters are still. (calm)

Sit still. (Sit and don't move.)

This is an Ipod ad in the Eaton Centre, which is the big shopping mall in downtown Toronto.

Eaton's used to be the biggest department store in Canada, but it is defunct (out of business) now.

ESL Tip

"advertisement" is abbreviated to "advert" in British English, but to "ad" in American English.

Van Gogh was here.

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ESL Expression of the Day : "on the fritz"

example: My air-conditioner is on the fritz.
or
My A/C is on the fritz.

means:

My air conditioner is broken (not working).
 or
My air conditioner is working off-and-on (only sometimes).


No one knows where this expression comes from.
It might come from a turn-of-the-century comic strip called "The Katzenjammer Kids"
which was about 2 German kids who break things.
"Fritz" is a German nickname.

"turn of the century" is another expression for the years around 1900.

This is an old ship being used as a breakwater.

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40 Expressions of Advice

1. Walk for 10-30 minutes every day while smiling.
2. Sit quietly for at least 10 minutes every day, in isolation if necessary.
3. Upon arising in the morning, one must immediately say, ”My goal today is…”
4. Listen to quality music every day. This is real nourishment for the soul.
5. Live with the 3 Es: Energy, Enthusiasm and Empathy.
6. Play more games than last year.
7. Read more books than last year.
8. Look at the sky at least once a day, appreciating the majesty of the world that surrounds us.
9. Dream more while awake.
10. Eat more foods that come from trees and plants. Eat less manufactured foods.
11. Eat berries and nuts. Drink green tea, plenty of water and a glass of wine each day; toast something beautiful in life, and, if possible, in the company of a loved one.
12. Try to make at least 3 people laugh every day.
13. Eliminate clutter in the home, the car and the office. Let a new energy enter your life.
14. Don’t spend your precious time immersed in rumors, things from the past, negative thoughts or things beyond your control. It’s better to invest your energy in the positive present.
15. Life is a school, and we’re here to learn. Problems are lessons that come and go; what we learn from them will serve us for the rest of our lives.
16. Eat breakfast like a king, lunch like a prince and dinner like a beggar.
17. Smile and laugh more often.
18. Don’t let an opportunity pass to hug a friend.
19. Life is too short to waste time hating someone.
20. Don’t take yourself so seriously. Nobody else does.
21. It’s not necessary to win every argument. One must accept that the other person is not in agreement, and learn from his/her position.
22. Make peace with your past, so as not to ruin your present.
23. Don’t compare your life with others. You have no idea of the highways they’ve traveled during their lives.
24. Nobody is responsible for your happiness, except yourself.
25. Remember well that we have no control over what happens to us, but only what we do.
26. Learn something new every day.
27. What others think of us is not completely under our control.
28. Appreciate your body and its marvels.
29. Whether the situation is good or bad, it will change.
30. Work will not take care of us when we’re sick. Our friends will. Stay in contact with them.
31. Reject everything that isn’t useful, amusing or beautiful.
32. Don’t lose time. We already have all the things we need.
33. The best is yet to come.
34. Nothing is as important as sitting, standing, getting dressed and helping others.
35. Have a fantastic love life– always in harmony with the other person.
36. Phone your family regularly and tell them “Hi, I was thinking of you.”
37. Each day before going to sleep, say: I am thankful for_______. Today I succeeded in_______.
38. Remember that we have too much that is good to be stressed.
39. Enjoy the voyage. There is only one chance to be successful.
40. Pass this on to all your friends that you appreciate.
Life is beautiful. You must appreciate it as much as possible. Have a wonderful journey, my friends.

Toronto is on Lake Ontario. It was a nice day today.

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ESL Expression of the Day : "on board"

original meaning - to be on a (wooden) boat, to be part of a crew

slang - to be on a team, to support the team goals

example:
"Obama says that the economy will recover in 2 years, but the Republicans are not on board."

meaning: The Republican Party doesn't support him. They are not on his team.

Heart Lake

winter 1979

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ESL Tip

"innit" is used in British English as a tag question.

"innit" is a slang abbreviation for "isn't it?"

Example: "Cold innit?"

It is not used in American English.

Vancouver — From Tuesday's Globe and Mail Last updated on Wednesday, Jul. 08, 2009 04:40PM EDT

It's been a long time – if ever – since a prominent royal visited the city's notorious Downtown Eastside, even in its former, more benign status as Skid Road.But that's where the 75-year-old Emperor of Japan and his 74-year-old wife will come calling during their three-day stop in Vancouver.The rare royal foray into the area by a frail couple, from whom aides warn reporters to expect very, very slow movement, did not land on their agenda easily. It took weeks of intense, behind-the-scenes lobbying to overcome initial resistance to the idea of Emperor Akihito and Empress Michiko venturing through neighbourhoods few tourists see.In the end, history won out.

The streets of the Downtown Eastside were not always rife with the boarded-up businesses and daily horrors we see today. Once, this was the heart of Japantown, a thriving ethnic community every bit as significant as nearby Chinatown, before internment scattered the residents and delivered their businesses and possessions into the hands of others.

On Sunday, the Emperor and Empress will pay their respects to the sole remnant of the old Japanese days that remains intact and in business, the Vancouver Japanese Language School and Hall. The historic, 80-year-old building also stands as the only property in the city to be returned to Japanese-Canadian hands after the war.

Laura Saimoto, a member of the language school's board of directors, couldn't be more pleased. She is proud of the building's history, its survival and where it is, just a few blocks from the drug bazaar at Main and Hastings Streets.

“My grandparents and my parents were interned. Like all Japanese, they lost everything,” she said Monday. “But in spite of that history, in spite of all the tough times, we are still here. We stuck it out. To have the Emperor come here gives us a huge moral uplift and incentive to keep going. It's a huge, huge honour to us.”

And coming to the Downtown Eastside, itself, is also positive, Ms. Saimoto said. “When you come to see a city, it's good to see both sides. History is not clean and perfect. History is history. Yes, this neighbourhood is rough, but the media is far too negative about it.”

A mere two months ago, Naomi Yamamoto was elected to the B.C. legislature as the province's first Japanese-Canadian MLA. She, too, believes that it's a good thing for the Japanese royals to see something of the province beyond the picturesque.

“It would be a shame if they left B.C. with just images of the Nitobe Gardens [at the University of B.C.] and the [Olympic speed skating] Oval. I think it's terrific they are visiting the Language School, and hopefully, it will convey to them the many years that Japanese-Canadians have been here. It's not the best part of town, but it has a lot of history.”

Before it was closed by wartime authorities in early 1942, the Japanese Language School, an impressive white building with black and gold mosaic tiles, had more than a thousand students. For the next five years, it was occupied by the Canadian Armed Forces, then used by various local businesses until 1953, when half of the property was restored to the Japanese-Canadian community after a vigorous campaign.

The return of the school was pivotal to returning ethnic Japanese, said Gordon Kadota, who came back to the city in 1952.“We came back with nothing,” said Mr. Kadota, 75. “We had to start all over. That language school was our only meeting place, so it was very, very important to us. It has that history, and it's still being used today.”

However, even Mr. Kadota had a bit of a start when he heard the Emperor and Empress of Japan might be paying a visit, given the area's reputation and hardened streets.

“The first thing I thought was: ‘How are they going to get there? Along Hastings Street? Along Powell? Are they able to see outside?' All that crossed my mind. But I think it's a good thing they are coming. It's our history, after all.”

This is an ad for a foreign movie; I think it is Iranian.

"South Asia" means the countries of India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and the other countries of the Indian subcontinent.

"Central Asia" means the countries south of Russia such as Afghanistan and Iran.

"Middle East" means Israel, the Arab countries and Iran (which is not an Arab country).

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ESL Expression of the Day

"skid" means "slip" or "fall".

"on the skids" is an expression which means "falling", "failing", "poor", "drunk", or "in trouble".

"Skid Row" is old slang for a street where drunks and bums hang out.

"Row" is an old word for a street.

house on the hill

a bicycle store

ESL : KAGI

lock - is the thing that keeps a door closed.

key - is the thing that you use to open a lock.

ESL

Modal Verbs

Modal verbs are special verbs in English.
They are followed by a verb in the 'bare infinitive' (base form).

can - for example: He can see the sky. (not 'sees')
could - He could see the sky.
may - He may eat a cookie.
might - He might eat a cookie.
will - He will eat a cookie.
would - He would eat a cookie if he was hungry.
must - He must eat a cookie because he is starving.
shall - He shall eat a cookie if he finds one.
should - He should eat a cookie because he is too thin.
ought to - He ought to eat a cookie because he is too thin.
 

ESL Expression of the day

"to see the writing on the wall"

or

"to see the handwriting on the wall"

means

"to know that you are finished".

This expression comes from an old Bible story:

The king in a city was evil. One day he saw some writing on a wall that said

"MENE MENE TEKEL UPHARSIN"

but no one knew what it meant. Finally he asked the prophet Daniel, who told him

"It means that you are evil and you will die". Soon after, it came true.

So the expression is used today like this:

Sarah Palin resigned because she saw the writing on the wall.

This means that she quit because she knew that her career as governor was finished.

It's summer, but it's not really hot ... just about 20 degrees Celsius (Centigrade).

I think Canada is the only country where they say "Celsius".

=

ESL Expression of the day: "the dog days of summer"

This means that it is very hot.

Some people think that this expression means that dogs go crazy when it's hot;

but other people say that it's because Sirius (the "dog star") is overhead in the night sky.

 

a nice day: not great, but not terrible

leftover Yen from 4 years ago:

The lady is the poet Higuchi Ichiyou.

The man is the writer Souseki Natsume.

ESL

Expression : boot the PC [Personal Computer]


Cowboys wear long boots with "bootstraps" to pull on their boots
without help from another person.

There is an expression: "pull yourself up by your own bootstraps",
which means "be successful without any help from anyone else".
For example:
 "Barack Obama came from a poor family, but he pulled himself up by his own bootstraps".

The computer program that starts a computer is called the "bootstrap program" by programmers because it runs without any help from another program.

Then "bootstrap" was shortened to "boot".
So "Boot (your PC)" means "turn the PC on";
and "re-boot (your PC)" means "turn your PC off, and then turn your PC on again."

Japanese park