Taking shower in the morning I found my best lifehack idea that eventually changed my life. After graduating from vocational college and becoming a businessman, I was getting hard to wake up early in the morning. Until now, I hardly ate breakfast, and even worse, I didn’t check my appearance, skipping grooming my beard. Often time, I hurried to put clothes on and rushed to get on the train. My morning routine was absolutely not my ideal one, so I decided to analyze my morning behavior to turn it to be better one. I tried to rearrange my alarm clock to keep away from my bed, forcing me to get up and walk to stop it making noise. This doesn’t work at all, because I eventually turned back to my bed. I was disappointed at myself to do so. How lazy I am. To change my behavior, I had to change my morning routine fundamentally. Then I came up an idea which succeeds after all. The idea is to take shower in the morning instead of at night. This makes me get up in the early morning to wash my body. I can’t get back to my bed because it feels gross. I eat breakfast everyday and the idea gives me pocket of time to read news and study.

Are video games bad for kids? I don’t think video games are bad for kids. As far as children play them regularly, they can be beneficial in some ways. First, in case of games which force you to use your brain to play, such as puzzle games, they give children an opportunity to experience the joy of solving problems. These games seem to be attractive for many children rather than mathematics or other subjects from the visual and accessible aspects. Second, thanks to the Internet, we can easily communicate with foreign people, and even children can. I started playing online games when I was 12 years old. The game was from America, so I had to learn English so that I could understand the contents and talk with native speakers. Video games could emerge you into a different world. All you need is just an Internet access. Last, this has a duplicate which I mentioned above, however, video games can be a good chance to make new friends who also like video games. There are numbers of games now, and it means you have a lot of things to talk about, such as your or others favorite games and tips to be good. Once you play video games with them, the relationships will be deepened. Consequently, I think video games are not necessarily detrimental for kids. they can be a great opportunity for children to find passion, or a chance to find solving problem fun.

Shadowing I have done shadowing for 30 days straight to improve my English listening and speaking skill. I can understand the overall of contents, but can’t hear some articles and postpositional particles perfectly. Also I’ve been struggling with the native speaker’s speed of speaking. Although I think I’m far away from my goal of English level, I feel I’m getting good at them. When I recorded my speaking voice, I found I often stumbled especially when I tried to say lots of numbers(such as 54355). I hear the whole script once first, and then say as fast as the speaker speaks. When I look at the script, I often miss “a” or “an”, also “s” of plural words. Maybe these are just tiny mistakes, but these will cause different meanings.

Eating the rainbow I’ve just heard this word, Eat the rainbow. I couldn’t understand what it meant at all at first. So I just googled it, and then I was like, “Oh, I see. There is a similar word in Japan too.” This word now makes so sense to me now. I love this expression. Attached image is the Japanese diet balance diagram.  The body shows food, the axis shows water or tea, and the human running around the axis on the body shows exercise which is essential to keep your body healthy. The width of each section of the body expresses the amount of intake you need in a day. From the top to the bottom, The body shows staple food, vegetables and grains, meat and fish, milk or milk products, and fruits. As the diagram shows, Eating variety foods is very important. However, in this busy world, it sounds difficult to keep preparing for variety foods. How do you maintain your health healthy as possible?

The Weird Dream I Had Have you ever had a weird dream that you can’t explain clearly or remember what exactly it was. I still remember one dream which I can’t forget. That was when I just became a junior high school student. I had a grandfather, who is a drunkard, and often has a quarrel with my grandmother. After every fight, my grandmother was always looking sad. I didn’t want to see such her face. I don’t like him so much because of a fight. But he is very kind to me and my brother. When I was a child, he bought me some games, took me around the city, and talked to us about funny things, with a childish smile. Once he gets drunken, he becomes hot-tempered so I wish he would’ve never been drunken. When I was going to graduate from the primary school, my grandfather became ill. He was diagnosed with lung cancer. He was a heavy-drunker, but also a heavy-smoker. His condition was getting worse. However, I had never been to the hospital where he was because I hated him so much at that time. One morning, I had a very weird dream. In the dream, I was in my grandfather’s house(he lived separately). I was seeing him off at the entrance ,waving my hands as he was smiling meaningfully. And then, the dream was ended. I jumped to wake up and realized I sweated so much. At that time, I thought it does mean nothing and he would be better, then drink a lot again. After a year of the day, he passed away. I couldn’t talk to him while he was in the hospital. I am now regretting that I have never been to see him while he was sick. I have a lot of memories about him. he was not very good grandfather, but I can’t forget his smile and laughter. I’ve been making stories to bring to heaven, to talk with him.

Should advertising for harmful substances such as alcohol and tobaccobe be more heavily restricted? There are enough restrictions for alcohol and tobacco, so I don't think we should do that. Alcohol and tobacco may cause a health problem as everyone knows. And those who are using or addicted to such substances can't stop buying them, knowing their side effects. Because alcohol and tobacco will give you a dopamine and relieve stress temporarily. In current society, we all have so much stress any time. To look away from these burdens, drinking alcohol or smoking are evacuation shelters. Such substances have prevailed since 1960s or 1970s, and the prices have been rising year by year, especially for tobacco. a price of a pack of tobacco is now about 450yen in average. Also Japanese government has restricted the area where they can smoke. That's why I think we have enough restrictions. Plus, benefits of economic effects are the biggest reason. Consumptions of these products have contributed to the nation's economy. While Japan is in a recession age, if we would restrict the use of alcohol and tobacco, the damage would be inevitable one. As long as we use alcohol and tobacco properly, I think they would be good for our life, our nation, and out future. -- P.S This is just for practicing an essay. I don't drink alcohol and smoke. To be honest, when it comes to tobacco, you should never use it. I agreed to say yes to this topic just because that was easy to write.

The Way of Becoming Good Friends with Foreigners In today's world, we have a lot of options to become frineds with foreign people. You don't have to go aborad. The Internet makes it easy to communicate with people around the world. Still, it is more helpful to quickly improve your language skill to place yourself in a native environment. I'm shy, so I feel talking with someone I just met kind of awkward. To introverts like me, talking with people via monitors is more comfortable. Starting with finding someone who has same hobbies or interests would be good to get along. I love playing video games, and I often watch streaming on Twitch, so I started streaming my game play with describing that I'm interested in English. Of course, most of viewers were from Japan though, a few people from other contries left comments and followed my channel! Unexpectedly and happily, many koreans who are interested in Japanese came to watch my stream! Even though I'm not very talkative, they tried to write Japanese, and they taught me a few useful korean words. I don't totally know Korean but after conversing casual talks, I get interested in Korean. Now, I am speaking in Japanese, English, and Korean(very limited vocabulary) on my streaming. Suddenly, when I was rewatching my streaming to see whether there are any sound or video issues, I noticed that I was talking a lot than usual. I was enjoying talking without realizing it. I had joined an Englsih conversation class to improve my English skill and make frineds if possible, but I've felt something was wrong and importantly, that was not fun. I recommend to find someone who has same hobbies or thoughts!

Encouragement for Getting Certification How many certifications did you get? In my junior high/high school days, I hadn't been interested in getting any certification at all, but after entering a technical college I've got several certifications which are mostly technological ones. I got Oracle Master Bronze12c, CCNA, Excel/Word 2013 Expert, Fundamental Information Technology Engineer Examination(only available in Japan), and TOEIC for testing my English skill. In Japan, to get a job, it is quite important for students to get some certifications to appeal themselves. Compared to those who don't have certifications, they are often regarded as they have potetial to learn and can build up own skills themselves. So companies prefer those who have motivation or eagerness to study. Though certifications don't necessarily prove that you're skillful or well-experienced resource, the process of getting certification does gives you an essential, fundamental knowledge. It is really helpful before getting a job. Also achieving something gives us satisfaction and enhance your self-respect. I think certification could show you this experience clearly!

How Can You Prevent Diseases? In 20th century, There are countless diseases in this world. Lots of illnesses can be curable thanks to developed medical technologies. However, you still can’t feel relieved even if you just have a cough or a light headache. Possibly there will be an unexpected result , such as pneumonia or bronchitis because of a slight fever. To prevent from developing illnesses, we have some countermeasures or precautions. But I am wondering how other people take precautions on a daily basis. Seeing from the recent situation like coronavirus which is rapidly developed in China, I am afraid of my precautions. I always wash my hands with hand soap and gargle for at least ten seconds. I’ve never forgotten to put on a mask when I go out. That’s it. I am worried about something is missing. Do you have any recommendation or something that you’re trying to do?