funrick’s blog

I like science fiction and fantasy very much. Recently, I have read the first volume of the Song of Ice and Fire series, called A Game of Thrones. The series consists of four books altogether. I found it very interesting. First of all, the writer's style is very good, something which often is not true of science fiction and fantasy. And the ideas are very interesting. Most of the book feels a little like historical fiction, but there is also a fantasy element.

I also like science fiction. I have just started reading Hyperion, a book by Dan Simmons and the first book in the Hyperion series. This is a very well-regarded series, and critics say it has many interesting ideas. However, from reading the first few pages, I feel that the style is not very polished, so I'm wondering how enjoyable the book will be.

I haven't had time recently to go to the movie theater, and anyway there haven't been any movies that I really wanted to see. But I did get a chance last weekend to see Gran Torino on DVD. Gran Torino is Clint Eastwood's latest movie; he directed it and starred. Many people think it might be his last movie, too, because he is now very old (79 years old). He has acted in and directed many movies. Do you know the Dirty Harry series?

Anyway, Gran Torino is about an old man, played by Clint, who lives in a neighborhood that used to be all-white but now has many Asians, including his next-door neighbors. Clint is very grumpy and appears to be hostile to his neighbors, to the point of racism. But as the movie progresses, he discovers that his neighbors are human beings just like him, and that in fact they have more in common with him than his own family does. I recommend that you check out this movie!

• Greece (especially the Greek Islands, of which there are more than 1400!)
  
• Finland (my brother used to live there)
  
• Italy (particularly Sicily, Sardinia, and Tuscany)

Italy has the 8th highest quality of life index score in the world. It's also known for its natural beauty and of course the great history of the Roman Empire. Greece is an even older civilization than Rome. Finland is a very cold country and it's dark for about 20 hours per day in winter, but it's very beautiful and the food looks interesting! (Try reindeer with lingonberry vodka and cheese!)

I like traveling and I used to travel quite a lot, although I haven't traveled much the last few years. The first country I visited was Germany; I went there three times when I was a secondary (junior high and high school) student. I also went to France for a homestay for a few weeks when I was a high school student, as well as visiting Paris for a week on a school trip. I also stayed in France for a year before I went to University.

At high school I liked languages very much, so at university I studied Chinese. We had to go to Shanghai to spend our second year. I enjoyed my stay in Shanghai, and while I was there I had many chances to travel around China. I went to Beijing, Suzhou, Hangzhou, Guangzhou, Kunming, Harbin, and Qiqihaer. My longest trip was from Shanghai to Kunming: it took 52 hours by sleeper train.

In my third year of University I went to the Netherlands. And since I came to Japan I have been to Hong Kong and South Korea.

Recently, there have been many international soccer matches. Through most of the world, there have been important qualifying matches for the 2010 World Cup. Japan has already qualified for the World Cup but Japan has had to play qualifying matches for the 2011 Asia Cup. It has also taken the opportunity to arrange friendly matches with teams that have also finished their qualifying campaigns, whether they failed or succeeded to qualify. Matches have included Holland, Ghana, Togo, and Scotland.

Japan lost 3-0 to Holland, and many journalists were very critical, but they won all the other matches, and there were many good signs. Finally, Japan appears to have 2 good strikers (Morimoto and Okazaki), and they also appear to be able to change the members while maintaining the system.