I'll have a rest for a while.

Meditation is great

I will wake up at 4:30 am every morning from today. I have woken up at 5 o'clock am.

I'm not conscious about that, but I was able to make the time for meditation more. So I meditated this morning in addition to meditation around noon and twilight. I'm feeling great this morning.

I came to think that the world's problem will be solved if everyone meditates. Meditation is a great way to train your mind. You will dramatically feel good if you continue meditation for 2 weeks, maybe. It takes only ten minutes for beginners.

I have a lot of time

I don't have anything to write this morning.

I woke up at 3 o'clock AM. I read early morning quota of Creating a Learning Society. And I started the morning routine at 4:30, that finished at 5 o'clock when I wake up usually. I had a lot of time. I meditated 20 minutes and did fast reading training that I'm doing recently. I read nine English and Japanese books with fast reading techniques.

I have a lot of time this morning. I need to find things to do.

hay fever

I caught hay fever.

it was warm and fine day yesterday. And pollen was scattered from the mountain. My nose started running. So I took a medicine against allergy. I felt OK with hay fever with a supplement made of lactic acid bacteria recently, But it's hard to bear.

I'll finish Shoe Dog and start Creating A Learning Society

I don't have anything to write as usual.

I'll finish reading Shoe Dog today. Using the currency gap is a basic tactic from old age, and they did that. I'm not sure that that is still OK in today's world, but I'll bear in mind.

I'll start reading Creating A Learning Society. I already read over 20 times with photo-focus technique. If it would be very difficult for me, I would stop reading it and switch to The Four.

It will take 3 years

I'm reading about 7 or 8 books twice a day as a fast reading training.

I can understand some books and can't understand others. I know from a book that you can understand books reading very fast if you continue reading fast, even if you can't understand the contents now. It will take about a year, I guess. And If done, it takes about 3 years to complete the effort.

the lack of energy

I don't have anything to write this morning.

I decided not to go to the hospital for a blood test. I have pondered about that, and I guessed that this bad condition is caused by the lack of energy, in other words, food. So I'll try to eat more and check my condition by myself.

Reading in Japanese

I read two books in Japanese with PaperWhite after dinner yesterday.

Recently I find reading books in Japanese, my native language, is very fan. I can read Japanese books relatively faster now thanks to fast reading training. In addition, I can read many books for free by Amazon Prime. I'll read more books in Japanese with PaperWhite.

I went to the hospital

I went to the hospital for my low blood sugar like symptom.

The doctor said that I'm in a good condition in blood sugar when I took the test in the last autumn. So he reluctant to test again. But I decided to take the test next week. I need some reassurance because my low blood sugar is very tough.

Low blood sugar

I don't have anything to write this morning.

I felt a headache a little this morning. And the progress of my morning reading was a little slow. I'm feeling tired now.

Actually, I'm drinking high lycopene tomato juice yesterday's afternoon. That's the mottainai matter for me. And I didn't eat sweets yesterday because I had a little more rice at lunch. Maybe I need some sweets for keeping the condition.

I'll drink Monster Energy to keep my blood sugar level.

Finished The Power and started Shoe Dog

I finished reading The Power and started reading Shoe Dog.

The Power is a novel about discrimination against women. The story is that girls get unnatural power and beat the conventional authority. I thought that extreme sexual discrimination makes the world worse. This books English difficulty isn't high but it's hard for me to understand the situation of the story, maybe because of my lack of experience of reading novels in English.

Shoe Dog is a memoir of the founder of Nike. I heard somewhere that this book is an easy-going entrepreneur story of Nike. I'm not sure about that for now. I already read about 30 pages for an hour this morning. I set the quota of my daily reading 60 pages a day for this book. I could finish it for about a week.

Meditation is great, but...

I found that meditation is reducing my body fat level.

As I wrote, I stopped taking high lycopene tomato juice. My condition is becoming better, but my body fat level isn't increased. So I'm still intaking sweets to keep my condition.

I found on the web that meditation reduces body fat level, so I guess that I won't be fat if I continue to meditate. I don't know it's good for me or not. It will be the worst if I stop eating candy and my blood glucose level lower.

I need more information to keep my condition. I'm dizzy while I'm writing this entry.

Tomato juice is the cause

I was feeling tired yesterday morning. I found the cause.

I was drinking high lycopene tomato juice every morning. And lycopene fosters to generating insulin. Insulin lowers glucose blood level. That's the cause. I was low glucose blood.

I stopped drinking the tomato juice, and I'm feeling good this morning. Taking too much unnatural food is bad for our health. But I'm still considering to drink normal tomato juice every morning. I like tomato juice.

I'm tired

I don't have any particular things to write this morning.

I'm practicing speaking English on Twitter. But I don't have anything to say even in speech. And I'm feeling tired of the daily routine. I want to do nothing, but my habit doesn't allow me being lazy.

My English ability is becoming worse now. the pages of extensive reading are reducing. And I don't come up with what to write and speak. And I can't listen to English perfectly. I'm tired anyway.

I'm tired

I don't have anything to write this morning.

I'm recently reading many books, seven or eight books, with a fast reading technique. It makes me fatigued. And I don't come up with what to write for this blog. I'm tired of reading too many books.

I really have nothing to write this morning.
I'll have a rest.

Something is wrong with me

I wake up late. Something is wrong with me.

I'm reading eight books with fast reading technique, except for usually reading books in English. So that's the cause to feel tired recently. I'll stop fast reading today.

My head doesn't work this morning.

Finished The Da Vinci Code, started The Power

I finished reading The Da Vinci Code and started reading The Power.

The Davinci Code is a novel about searching the Holy Grail in France and Britain. I have already read Origin, the novel about the secret of humankind, about 6 months ago. The story is very interesting. I thought that I need to solve the riddle by myself to read the kind of novels, but I can enjoy it only to read the book.

I have already read twenty pages of The Power and I found the novel is using very easy language. Maybe the book is for young people. But the book's story is fascinating for me. Girls get a supernatural power and do something. The book has about 330 pages so I need to finish it for about a week. I'll read 50 pages a day.

I started speech training

I don't have anything to write this morning.

I started to record my speech in English two days ago. I'm uploading the video on Twitter. But The twitter's limitation of video length is making the speech very short, 140 seconds, about only 2 minutes. But Twitter is the easiest way to stimulate my motivation to speak in English, and I'll continue it.

My speaking skill in English is not very good, I need to improve my ability to speak something.

The result is today

I don't have anything to write this morning.

The score of the TOEIC test in January will be revealed today. I'm afraid that the score will reduce from 900. But I know my English ability is growing and I could probably get a decent score. Probably.

I'll write about the result on my Japanese site https://tosh-jp.com/ in Japanese, regardless of whether I get the nice score or not.

A season of hay fever

I don't have anything to write this morning.

The season of hay fever is coming. Fortunately, I have no symptoms of hay fever for now. I have been taking the medicine made with lactic acid bacteria from the same time of last year, probably it's working.

But my hay fever starts with feeling something wrong around my head, so it's difficult to distinguish from catching a cold. I need to watch carefully.

Meditation and fitness

I don't have anything to write for this blog this morning.

I have meditated for about 2 weeks, and I found that meditation is good for my fitness. After starting the meditation, I'm becoming slim. But I have been feeling something wrong when my body fat is 18%. And recently my minimal body fat was once around 17%. At that time, I'm feeling ill so I took sugar intently like by energy drinks. Now I'm eating more than before for my condition. I don't need to eat less.

I'll write in Japanese

I'll write about my English learning in Japanese at https://tosh-jp.com.
Please check it, if you can read Japanese.

That's the health issue?

I don't have anything to write this morning.

I'm feeling dull this morning and my progress of morning reading was a little. I checked my body fat level and found it's not so high after getting much sugar yesterday. So I had a can of monster energy for securing my blood glucose level.

Yesterday, I felt dizzy after fast reading and meditation. I found that that's a signal of getting worse the next day. And I need a sugary drink to keep my condition after that.

By some chance, I have some health issue?

The secret of fast reading

I have nothing to write for this blog this morning.

I knew what he wanted to say in his book about fast reading. At the first reading, I didn't understand it correctly. But I understood it after trying photo reading.


I need more training for fast reading, but I'll try it anyway.

Getting thin

I have nothing to write for this blog this morning.

The progress of early morning reading was a little. I guessed that my condition was a bit wrong, and I checked my body fat level. It was 17.2%. At the usual bottom, it was around 18.5%. So I'm getting thin.

Yesterday, I did photo reading several books. And I felt dizzy after that. So That was the cause, maybe.

The contents weren't on my consciousness but those were somewhere in my brain. Photo reading needs to pick up the contents onto consciousness intently. But I haven't done that. So I lost the meaning of the reading.

I'm reading The Da Vinci Code

I don't have anything to write for this blog this morning.

I'm reading The Da Vinci Code now. The difficulty in English isn't high and I found that the book is very good for my extensive reading. The story is very interesting too. I'll finish reading 200 pages total by today.

I found somewhere on the web that the smartphone deactivates prefrontal cortex. So I thought that I need to reduce the time for Twitter for my mental health. I know that Twitter is a kind of popular person's media and that it has no means for ordinary people like me. Twitter makes my life more complicated by showing unnecessary things.

It's not the realization, though

I read The Science of Being and Art of Living in Japanese with photo reading six times.

The book describes the meditative guru's world view, not how to meditation itself. After reading it, I meditated as a daily routine and found that I come to have a very flat emotion, especially I reduced the negative emotions in my mind. I was surprised. And my sense of noise was reduced surprisingly. I have literally been suffered from neighbor's noise, but by some chance, I could forget it.

I see myself as a less religious person, in the world view. It was a surprise that I was able to get a sense of wonder with the less religious way and without a medical thing.

This experience is too instant, so I guess it's not a true realization. But I'm stably changing my mind. I can proud of that.

photo reading

I don't have anything to write this morning.

I read a book about photo reading in Japanese. And then I read a book related to meditation with the photo reading technique. After that, I felt bad with my stomach. I wasn't able to recognize the contents on my consciousness, in other words, I wasn't able to read the book normally. But in the photo reading's view, the contents is input into my unconsciousness. I'm not sure that the method is really useful.

I read that I need to practice more, so I'll try it either today.

Meditation, I started

I forgot to write about the meditation which I'm doing recently. I knew that meditation makes frontal cortex more active and that mental illness will reduce by meditation. So I started meditation about a week ago.

I'm doing a kind of mantra meditation which I knew by a book and in the web. Recently I'm becoming mentally sharp enough to read Japanese books very fast. And I'm becoming mentally resilient. I'm also experiencing a mental change with meditation, and I'm becoming not to feel bad in my breast physically when I see the irritative things on Twitter. Or I don't even feel irritated to see that sort of things.

Finished Neuromancer, started The Da Vinci Code

I finished reading Neuromancer, and I'll start reading The Da Vinci Code.

I finished reading Neuromancer. Actually, I wasn't able to understand even the rough story because the English difficulty is a little high for me. So I read it aloud in my mind from the middle of the story and finished it. In English learning perspective, it will be O.K. even though I can't understand the whole contents.

But reading books without understanding is becoming very tough for me. So I'll read The Da Vinci Code next. I was able to enjoy Origin, the same series by Dan Brown, and I guess that I can understand the book.

about yesterday's entry

I don't have anything to write for this blog this morning.

I didn't write enough about the English class I wrote yesterday. I want to write more about the part of "not to drink". I thought that drinking no alcohol is good for our health, and I said: "not to drink." So I'm not wrong about the issue. But the teacher was able to understand that I said: "not too drink." So the teacher who corrected to "not too much drinking" was not also wrong, in her perspective.

1-day English cafe, I attended

I attended 1-day English cafe as I wrote. That was not what I expected.

It was a simple English class with soft drinks. We studied a sample text that teaches "I like to" or "I like -ing" thing. The teacher was Japanese and spoke in English and in Japanese. That wasn't an English-only class. I was disappointed.

We talked about what we like. I like walking. I was asked how long I walk. And the teacher said "distance." I thought that ordinary people don't measure how long they walk and said "distance..." The teacher said like "two kilometers, for example."

And We discussed how to keep us healthy. I said "not to drink", and the teacher said the kind of "not too much drinking, great." I didn't convey what I wanted to say. But I'm not sure whether I'm wrong or she.

I felt a subtle thing on the way to home. In my home, I was reluctant to do anything related to English. What was wrong?

1-day English cafe

I'll attend the 1-day English cafe if I can.

My mother showed me a flyer of 1-day English cafe and encouraged me to attend it. I don't know what the cafe actually is. I guess that's an ordinary Engish conversation class which old persons attend. But I'm feeling needs to speak English as well as to write, and the tuition fee is really cheap 500 yen. So I decided to attend the cafe. I need to call them to keep the seat, though.

the situation is getting worse

I'm feeling better now than yesterday. But I can't find what to do to make money. Totally lost.

Ikehaya, a Japanese influencer, is saying that you need three years to change your mind, that makes sense. I need three years to get the English ability. But I don't have time to prepare. Once I thought that I'll be better after mastering English, but AI made the situation worse. I have lost three years to improve English ability.

I'm lost

I don't have anything to write for this blog this morning.

I woke up late. This morning, I come to think that my daily effort like extensive reading as horning my English ability has no meaning to live in the future world. I wish that I'm wrong. I'm still doing English language training.

I'm lost when it comes to what is valuable. Maybe no ordinary people in Japan know that.

it's too hard

I don't have particular things to write this morning.

I'm wondering about how I live in the near future. Once I thought that I study translation but AI probably made the job meaningless. So the pondering of my income should be restarted from the beginning. Youtube is saying "Don't be bothered to make money" or that sort of things. But nobody is saying what to do. No hint to actual action. Maybe that's video creators' business.

It's too hard for the man in one's 40s.

Restarted Anki

I restarted using Anki.

I forget that I have written about my walking exercise that has a reading break at the convenience store. But the reading break when I read BBC News and The Economist make me feeling status quo. So I decided to memorize the English words at that time with Anki.

Anki is a handy memorizing app that manages my schedule of memorization. Anki is a Japanese word simply meaning "memorization." It's a popular app among Japanese learners of English on Twitter, as well as all overseas people. I already input some words of SVL (Standard Vocabulary List by Japanese publisher) Level 10, around 10,000 words level.

Actually, I have already used the Anki app before. But I gave up it when I realized I need to handle many cards if you get SVL card from public storage of Anki. But I felt the needs of vocabulary building reading many English books. I decide to reuse it.

Finished The Culture Map, started Neuromancer

I finished reading The Culture Map and started reading Neuromancer.

The Culture Map is, as I wrote, saying that I can see your colleagues according to their cultural background. If you are Dutch, your saying about a negative aspect is a little harsh for American colleagues. The book contains that sort of interesting issues. The books difficulty in English is not hard for me, and I enjoyed reading it.

Neuromancer is a cyberpunk classic written by William Gibson. I have read the book in Japanese when I was a high school student, over 20 years ago. The books sentences were difficult for kids even in the native language. But I recently decided to read more novels for vocabulary building in English, so I'll read it anyway.

In my experience, even if I couldn't read a book in English properly, you would be able to clearly read the same level as the book someday by reading the book aloud in your mind anyway. You need to generate the sound of the English sentence in your brain, though.

I'll take SW

I don't have anything to write for this blog this morning.

I decided to take TOEIC S&W (Speaking and Writing) test in April. I don't have a certain plan to win the test, but I'm thinking that I need to take a practice test as soon as possible, as TOEIC L&R (Listening and Reading) test. I already ripped the CD tracks of SW textbook into my iPad, and I'm ready to take the preparation.

I'm aiming S:150/200, W:150/200, but I'm only a beginner. So It's O.K. that I get the below of that. I'm just a beginner of SW.

I'll write in Japanese

I'll write about the TOEIC test I took in Japanese on https://tosh-jp.com/.
Please check it if you can read Japanese.

I'll take the test anyway

Today is the public test day of TOEIC.

I'm reluctant to attend the test suddenly, but losing the tuition fee without taking the test is truly a "mottainai" matter for me. So I'll go to the test venue anyway. By some chance, I may be able to get a good score.

By the way, the testing time is unsuitable for me. the test starts at 1 pm and we need to together 30 minutes before. And I need to leave my home around 10:30 am. And the test ends at 15 pm. From 10:30 am to 15:00 pm. Almost a whole day I need for the test.

I'll take the test anyway.

keeping my condition

I don't have anything to write for this blog this morning.

I'm spending time not to be wrong before TOEIC test on Sunday. I need to keep my condition for the test anyway. But it's my concern to reduce the speed to read English book. Not to be tired, I'm reading less now.

Quality of my writing is a little bad this morning. I'll keep my condition anyway.

I had a rest

I had a rest yesterday because my condition was getting worse. Now I'm fine.

I was in a futon and listened to TOEIC listening part. It was LR3Ttest1 and LR2test2 if my memory works. I'm still not a perfect listener to that.

I also listened to the listening material that I have bought when I have come to think "I'll study English, probably." At that time, it was feeling like a machinegun talk, but now I felt too slow and too easy. I thought that the best policy to study English is never to quit anyway.

Alcohol is the worst

I'm feeling dull. The cause is probably yesterday's alcohol.

I'm not sharp this morning, I wasn't able to read a book in English fluently. And I went to bed again after reading the book. I'm feeling tired and sleepy.

I drank a little and that's the cause of this tiredness. I didn't drink very much, but my performance is suddenly spoiled. Alcohol is the worst thing to have.

Finished willpower, started the culture map

I already finished reading Willpower Doesn't Work, and started reading The Culture Map.

Willpower Doesn't Work is saying that you are what your environment made and pointing out how to establish the circumstances to make it. It has a unique insight for me and I can say that it's one of the best self-help books which I have ever read. Though I haven't read enough amount of self-help books to rate them.

I already started reading The Culture Map. The book is describing that in an international team, you must see your colleague not according to individuality but their cultural background. The interesting point is that American people are less direct critics when it comes to negative feedback compared to the culture of more direct criticism, like Dutch one. On the other hand, they are low-context people that are saying simple and non-indirect things. The book's difficulty in English is moderate for me to understand. I'll finish it after a while.

Too much is the worst

I'm reading the reading part of the TOEIC preparation test.

January's test of TOEIC test is next Sunday. So I'm doing some preparation. I already solved the preparation test. And I found that my grammatical knowledge is enough and that I need to be familiar with TOEIC-like document more. So I decided to read part7 (test for reading documents in English) every day for practice.

But I won't be too hard to do that because, for the September's test, I was suffered from a headache to read part7 materials hard. Too much is the worst.

My nephew returned to home

My nephew returned to his home.

He didn't depend on me about his homework at all. At the first time, I thought that I need to help his assignment, but he never asked me help. He was taught calligraphy by my neighbor who was a Japanese teacher, though.

I sometimes saw him doing homework, but he was almost playing Minecraft when I saw him in his room. Maybe he is controlling his life by himself. I felt he is becoming an adult gradually.

His class is starting from tomorrow.

feeling fatigued

I'm feeling fatigued from the morning.

I reluctant to write this blog, but I thought that not to write at all is the worst policy. So I'm writing this entry anyway. I'm going to do a walking exercise after this, and have an iced coffee at the convenience store. I'm sleepy now.

Finished Digital Age, (already) started Willpower

I forgot to write that I finished reading The New Digital Age and that I started reading Willpower Doesn't Work.

The New Digital Age describes how the computer effects among several social situations, conflict and rebuild from it, for example. As I wrote, the book is old, published 2013, but it has the information what I didn't know. So I could read interested in it.

Willpower Doesn't Work is saying that your environment makes what you are and that you need to change your environment if you want to make a change, according to Introduction. The rest of the book to read is already under 100 pages. And I'll be able to finish it two days later. I'm reading 35 pages a day.

In Minami-Shinjuku

Happy new year. I didn't write this blog for a while.

I went to the new year sale at Kinokuniya in Minami-Shinjuku. I unusually thought that I would buy SF rather than non-fiction. I bought eight books, and it costed about 10,000 yen. I ordered delivery and the books will arrive in this morning. I'm especially looking forward to the works by William Gibson, which I have already read in Japanese when I was a high school student.

My brother's family came to my home yesterday, one of his sons was already here at my home though. Maybe it was a new year greeting but nothing special happened. Simply talked about daily things and ate dinner together.

I'll return to the usual routine from today.