Movies

I saw many great movies during my vacation (actually I saw them on the plane on my way to and from England!). Among the movies I saw were Iron Man, Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian, and so on. I'd like to tell you a bit about two of the movies that I really enjoyed: "The Bank Job" and "Flawless". Both movies were similar in that that they involved some kind of robbery: in the Bank Job, safety deposit boxes are robbed; in Flawless, diamonds are stolen. They are both true stories. And they are both set in England during the 1960's or 1970's .

Let me begin by telling you about the "The Bank Job". This is a story about a gang of small time thieves that decide to rob a London bank. The plan is very simple. They dig a tunnel under the city. The thieves are amateurs really, so they make many mistakes. Probably the most serious mistake involves them using "walkie-talkie" radios to contact each other. The police are able to listen in on their conversations. It is this action that makes the movie exciting, I think. Although the plan is very simple the story is quite complicated because it involves member of the Royal Family and Government Officials.

The second movie that I would like to tell you about is "Flawless" and starred Michael Caine and Demi Moore. Like the previous movie this one involved stealing something; in this case diamonds.

My Summer Vacation

I had a really nice summer vacation. The first half of my vacation was spent in Nagoya and the second half was spent in the UK. As you know, it’s very humid in Nagoya. We need air conditioning. I stayed home a lot of the time with my family. My son is now 7 months old. So it was great to be able to spend some time with him. One of my hobbies is studying Japanese. I’m especially interested in Kanji. In order to remember them, I carry kanji cards around with me, and read children’s books.

The second half of my vacation was really interesting. I went to Cambridge in the UK. This is my hometown, so it was nice to spend some time with my friends there. I don’t think that English food is very good (Japanese food is much tastier!), but there are one or two things that I wanted to eat. One of them is ‘Fish and Chips’. It’s very British: French fried potatoes and deep fried fish with salt and vinegar on top. Another thing that is difficult to find in Japan is blue cheese. You can get blue cheese in Nagoya, but the taste is not good. If you go to England be sure to try these things! The weather in England this summer was terrible: it rained almost every day and so we hardly saw the sun at all.

Since I had a hire car on my trip, I was able to go for a few long drives. One day I drove from Cambridge to Birmingham and back to see my grandparents. My grandfather was so happy to meet his great-grandson for the first time. In fact they both have the same name! This made him especially happy.

Our trip back to Japan was very long: 2 hours by car from Cambridge to Heathrow Airport, 11 hours from Heathrow to Hong Kong, an hour and a half from Hong Kong to Taipei, 2 and a half hours from Taipei to Nagoya, and an hour from Centrair to my home! We had no sleep on the plane as my son was crying most of the time. Lucky the flight was not busy so we were able to use some spare seats next to us to spread out and relax. I was surprised when I got back to Japan how hot it still is. Even at the end of September Japan is hotter than England in June/July! Where shall I go for my next trip? That’s difficult to decide. Most of my relatives live in England, but my sister lives in the United Arab Emirates and my parents live in New Zealand! How was your vacation?

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