Dogoween?

Are you a slightly disturbed individual 
with more money than sense and way too much free time on your hands? Well than why not think about dressing your dog up in a stupid costume for Halloween this year?

Click the picture for more puppy related idiocy.

KITCHEN GUN!

sports festival

There is one thing I am very curious about it is sports festival. I think it is great schools in Japan organize this kind of event. In France we don`t so I wish I could go to one of them! Lots of my students are having undokai recently...really wish I could go spy on them to see how they do and support them!! Not sure they would be too excited to see their crazy teacher shouting like crazy and probably louder than the parents though...

What's next? Google Sea???

So we all know now that Google holds the best map application.  Come on, can you beat Google Earth?  Or even their street view?  I have relied on Google maps and its street view a countless number of times.  Basically that is my car navigation.  So what's next for Google since they have covered almost the entire Earth?  Space?  No, not yet, but we may see that in the future.  Their next area of mapping is the sea.  Yup, they are now going underwater and taking photos of many sea creatures and reefs.  The goal is to create an archive of the world's reefs and to allow scientists to monitor those reefs.  Now we can view many reefs around the world without having to actually take the trip there. 

Monkey brains!

Click on the cartoon above to make it bigger.

D

in the name of art

I can already hear all the Apple freaks crying their hearts out (which makes me laugh already!). Isn`t it pretty???

iPhone 5!!!

So how many of you have gotten the new iPhone 5?  Did you wait in line for 2-3 days?  Well maybe you got lucky and were able to pre-order it so you didn't have to wait in line.  How many of you really want an iPhone?  There are many other phones out there that are the same or even better than the iPhone.  I will share some of these phones with you to help some of you decide on a new phone.

so of course here is your iPhone 5.  comes in white and black. 

then here is one of my favorites the samsung galaxy SIII









There are other phones as well like the HTC One X, Nokia Lumia 920 and 820, Motorola RAZR, Samsung Galaxy Nexus (yup another samsung phone), Sony Experia Ion, Motorola Photon Q, Samsung Galaxy Note II, LG Optimus Vu, and last but not least Asus Padfone. 

So which phone will you get???

More Idioms!

How did everyone do on the idioms quiz?  If you haven't had a chance to do it, click here to try it.

Here's a picture with more idioms using body parts.

She CAN eat it, but she doesn't WANT to

OK last time we looked a what a vegetarian can & can't eat.

This time lets take a look at what it means to be VEGAN.

A vegan is basically a strict vegetarian, 

as they don't eat anything that comes from an animal.

This includes milk, cheese, eggs and honey etc.

Many foods that you wouldn't expect contain animal products.

Many beers & wines for example
use fish or eggs in their filtering process, 

bread is often made with butter or eggs,

white sugar is mixed with bone,

and most sweets, jellies, candies & ice blocks etc as they

contain gelatin which is made from animal collagen.

So if you're cooking for a vegan friend,
you need to be extra careful.

5th grade spelling test

A native level 5th grade test.

Kind of difficult yeah?

Whoever this kid is he spells everything just as it sounds.

Unfortunately that doesn't work in English.

"Real" Art

Is this real or is it just art?  Well, unfortunately this is just art.  But it looks real huh?  A Japanese university student named Cho-san is the artist behind these "real" works.   She was bored one day in class and started drawing, and realized her art was a little realistic.  Then, she decided to pursue this art.  Here are some more of her works of art:

More Lame Pun-coon

N

Another Crazy Video!

How many of you have seen a fire tornado?  If not, here's a video of a fire tornado from Mauna Kea in Hawaii.



If you ever do come across a fire tornado, run!  Do not try to get close to it because it is VERY dangerous.  It can throw out bits of fire ember 100s of feet. 

Le Grand Raid

In Reunion there is a contest called Le Grand Raid. You have to walk about 162km. The race starts in the south eastern part of the island and you arrive in the north after climbing pretty high mountains. Le Grand Raid is known for being one of the hardest races in the world. The best sportsmen usually finish it in about 22 hours. My parents did it too and trained hard for it. But I think my mom didn`t finish it... if I remember well!! This year for the very first time a Japanese will very probably take part in the contest. His name is Tsuyoshi Kaburaki. Do you know him???

Crazy Train Riding!

Have you done some crazy things in your life?  Maybe some have eaten durian or eaten something super spicy or jumped off a cliff or fought a bear.  But have any of you ridden a train from the outside?  You must be thinking huh?  Check out this video of some teenagers from India doing some crazy things while riding a train.

Extraordinary

Here are some people who are about to appear in the new edition of the Guiness Book. Personally, I am pretty horrified by those muscles and that hot dog just looks gross! Looooove the dog though! It`s beautiful!

E

fun history classes

Here is a British history teacher who had the fun and brilliant idea to post videos on youtube to make his classes more fun and keep his students interested in his subject. Personnally I used to hate history in junior high school. My teacher was scary as hell and the way she taught didn`t make me love her classes. History it is all about dates and events so if you are not a tiny bit interested it is hard to keep up! Wish I had had such a fun teacher back then! Plus, French history is really interesting and rich, it`s a shame I don`t know more about it!!!

Idioms Quiz!

Try this idioms quiz and see if you can get a perfect.  If you do, you are one step closer to becoming that perfect english speaker you are all aiming to become.


1.  Your English teacher tells you that you are an eager beaver.  He means that...

a.  you talk too much
b.  you are an enthusiastic and hard worker
c.  you are very thoughtful of your classmates
d.  you love wood and wood products

2.  You are having a terrible day and you would like someone to say nice things about you.  What do you do?  You....

a.  fish for compliments
b.  fly for compliments
c.  hunt for compliments
d.  devour compliments

3.  At a sports festival, your friend shouts at you, "You are moving at a snail's pace!"  Then you shout back, "No I'm as...."

a.  quick as a cat
b.  nimble as bumblebee
c.  fast as a fox
d.  quick as a bunny

4.  One of your good friends let the cat out of the bag.  This means that...

a.  they let the cat run away from home
b.  they hurt another friend's feelings
c.  they made a mistake
d.  they told a secret

5.  A wolf in sheep's clothing is ....

a.  someone who is not fashionable
b.  someone or something who looks harmless, but is really dangerous
c.  something that is not correct
d.  someone or something that looks scary, but is not

Please post your answers in the comments section and I will let you know how many you got correct.  Good Luck!

Iron Chefs in Hawaii!!!!

Does everybody remember this show?   I sure do!  It was one of my favorite shows as a child.  Well two of the iron chefs have opened restaurants in Waikiki, Hawaii.  One is Morimoto, iron chef Morimoto Masaharu's restaurant, and the other is Sakai of Hawaii, iron chef Sakai Hiroyuki's restaurant.  They are both in Waikiki so people on vacation can check out these restaurants without having to rent a car.  I have not tried these restaurants yet, have you? 

L

Gangnam Style

 
      Quite possibly the best music video I have ever seen.
  I don't understand Korean at all, but it's still an ace tune.

Phobias

I don't remember why, 

but recently I was talking to some students about PHOBIAS, 

or irrational fears / anxiety disorders. 

Click the picture for a link to a list of phobias.

My favorites have to be,

Hippopotomonstrosesquipedaliophobia – fear of long words

Anatidaephobia – the fictional fear that a duck is watching you.

and

Venustraphobia – fear of beautiful women (Which I have!)

:Phil

Buddha pear

I thought fruits in Japan were incredibely expensive until I found this article about chinese pears shaped into buddhas that are worth 6$ each...they`re very cute though!

S

cheap cheap imitations

I just read an article about parents complaining they were mislead by DVDs that just looked very much like the original ones. And I have to say I understand their anger. It happened to me before. Especially when it comes to movies! How disappointing to get a poorly made low-budget movie when you expect the real one! I mean now I don`t fall for the fake one anymore but I understand why some people do. The characters look similar, the title too and the DVDs come out at about the same time... it just doesn`t help!

sand sculptures

I found those sand sculptures absolutely breathtaking!