Recently, I heard of some expats in Japan talking about how great pairs of purchasable socks at Family Mart are. Some said they were even the most comfortable socks they had ever worn. Of course, this sounded ridiculous, but I was still curious. So, I decided to buy a pair of my own. They were about 400 yen, which is more expensive than socks at Uniqlo. And I must say…. they are quite comfortable.

So, I did some further research and found out these socks have been quite popular, even with Japanese people. There have been social media trends and even celebrities such as Kimura Takuya spotted wearing them in photos. Some Family Mart stores have even been going out of stock.

I guess the story here is that Japan’s convenient stores really are convenient. You can even buy surprisingly high-quality socks from them!

日本（もしくは東北アジア圏）において書く文字のきれいさはある程度重要性を占めるかと思います。一旦海外へ出ると、現代ではそこまで言われないものになりました。

英語で書く履歴書も手書きよりタイプ打ちされたほうが整然としていて喜ばれるどころか、手書きNGの方が多いのですが、日本ではまだまだ手書きの履歴書は重要視され、手蹟は見られていると思います。

我が子の書く字がひん曲がりすぎて担任の先生からも指摘を受け、耐えられずに検索したら、とある塾の先生が書かれていたブログがありました。

これは常日頃から私も思っていたことです。

http://socialstudies.boy.jp/%E5%BE%92%E7%84%B6/post-1191/

端折って言えば：男子は字が汚くとも学力の高い子供はいる→字をキレイにさせようと躍起にならなくてもいい女子で字が汚くとも学力の高い子は…あまりいない→学力の高い女子で字も汚い子はあまり見たことがない

うんうんうん、と何度もうなずきました。NEOでも子供たちに宿題やワークシートをさせると思い当たることは多々あります。もちろん当てはまらない事例もあるでしょうが。

手書き・筆跡についてもう1つ気になるのは、若い人が書く日本語の丸文字です。その人が平素からあまり堅苦しくない様子なのに、字を書かせると意外にきっちりとした日本語を書くこともあれば、その逆も然り。学校の先生が丸文字で黒板に書くなんて見たことがないでしょう～。字が下手とはまた別の次元の話です。そして丸文字だとある程度の年齢もわかります。画像のように英語の丸文字はあります。私も10代の頃に真似をして書いていましたが気づけば丸文字からは卒業していました。

同じ漢字圏の中国でも若い人だと丸文字を使うのかと思ったことがあります。全くないわけではなさそうですが、一般的には手書きの際は漢字を上手く崩して書いているようです。
私は最近自分の書く日本語の手書き文字がババくさくなってきました。電話に出たときの声と同じで20代の頃と同じつもり。自分では声なんて変わっていないつもりでもはっきり変わってきている、アレと同じですね。

Dave-sensei was on "Let's Enjoy English!" on Radio MOMO (79.0 FM) . Dave and D.J. Chiaki Kamibeppu talk in English and Japanese about Halloween, the election on Sunday and Culture Day. Click the button below to listen.

Dave-sensei will be on Radio MOMO (79.0FM) with D.J. Chiaki Kamibeppu on Thursday, October 28th (today!), at about 5:40 pm. They will talk in English and Japanese about Halloween.

10月28日（木）5時40分ごろにDave先生がRadio MOMO (79.0FM) に出演します（DJは上別府千晶さん）。英語と日本語の両方でハロウィーンについて話します。

• http://www.fm790.co.jp/

Last night, my sons Tatsuki and Satoshi carved NEO’s pumpkin into a jack-o-lantern. In America, carving jack-o-lanterns is a very popular tradition around Halloween time. Many families go to a local pumpkin patch and hand pick the pumpkins they want to carve. Usually, each child will carve their own pumpkin.

I wanted to have two pumpkins to carve, but I couldn’t find a second pumpkin to buy. I drove around to several shops and Ayumi called a few stores, but there were no pumpkins around. A lot of pumpkins in Okayama are sold quite early, the end of September or the beginning of October. If we carve the pumpkin too soon, it will go rotten before Halloween comes.

There are a lot of seeds inside of a pumpkin. We collected our seeds and roasted them the oven with butter and salt for about 45 minutes at 150 degrees. They were delicious!

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

About six years ago I went and stayed at the international villa on Shiraishi island in Kasaoka for a friend’s goodbye party. But it was during the cold season, and it rained the entire time. So, we just hung out at the villa and ate a lot of food.

During the Neo break I decided to take a trip to Shiraishi Island again. But this time, I wanted to go back and see more of the island in better weather. We went on a Friday, and we were the only tourists on the island that day. It was still very hot for October, and as we found out soon after, the island was covered with giant spiders. They had made webs across many of the walking paths.

We tried to go to as many sightseeing spots as possible. Kairyu Temple in the middle of the island was one of the most beautiful locations. There was also a climbable rock, high up on one of the island’s hills. We were able to get a great view of the island from there. Even though we didn’t swim that day, there is also a great beach on the island.

Shiraishi is known for getting many foreign tourists. Sadly, it is difficult for tourists to visit right now but hopefully in the future many people will go there again.