Akiko

Akiko's avatar'

speaks: Japanese

learns: English

likes: reading, travel, cooking, language learning, health, art, cinema, language exchanges, philosophy, music, history, tv shows, programming, movies

Akiko's avatar'

I live in Toyama, Japan. In winter it snows a lot and we have to dig our cars out of the snow. I was a single mother raising my only son. Now he is independent and lives in Tokyo. Later then, I have started to relearn English during the Covid lockdown period and also started playing guitar at the same time. I am a web engineer and working remotely for a company.

Toyama, Japan

- -
Recent Posts
Stats
headline image

Language Exchange Between Babies

I recalled an old memory while writing my previous post. I once visited a friend of mine with my son when he was six months old. My friend had a seven-month-old baby. At that time, my son only said
6
5
Apr 1 - 1 min. read

Read post

headline image

Children's Laughter and Voices

This weekend, I attended my monthly guitar practice meetup, and there’s so much I want to share with you. However, since it’s already late, I’m going to write about just one small thing. A friend of
7
22
Mar 31 - 1 min. read

Read post

headline image

Cloudy Heaven

I have a lot of favorite musicians, but Tenniscoats is undoubtedly a special one for me. Tenniscoats is a duo consisting of guitarist Ueno Takashi and vocalist Saya. Saya's vocals are my greatest
4
15
Mar 26 - 1 min. read

Read post

headline image

#009 The Tough Days Of February

I've uploaded my ninth episode! https://listen.style/p/paperandguitar/vznlen83 Previously, I recorded sentence by sentence because it was difficult for me to pronounce the whole episode correctly.
5
11
Mar 23 - 1 min. read

Read post

headline image

My Dearest And Oldest Friend

I met up with my dearest and oldest friend last month, and today, I want to write about her. She and I first met as coworkers when I started working as a new graduate. We worked in the secretarial
8
37
Mar 16 - 3 min. read

Read post

headline image

#008 A Strange Festival At A Snowy Mountain Village

I've uploaded my eighth recording! https://listen.style/p/paperandguitar/pnwdbbdd Uly gave me a lesson on the pronunciation of [r], and I can now pronounce it correctly when speaking word by word.
6
16
Mar 12 - 1 min. read

Read post

headline image

Cormorant Fishing

Have you ever heard of cormorant fishing? Well, in the midst of all my hustle and bustle, I feel like one of those cormorants. It's a traditional fishing technique whereby these skilled birds are
6
50
Mar 1 - 1 min. read

Read post

headline image

The Tough Days Of February

In January, I only worked six hours a day as contracted, which was really great. However, not so in February. This was due to a scheduling error made by my boss. When he said, "I believe you can do
6
12
Mar 1 - 1 min. read

Read post

headline image

#007 "Heat Shimmer" By Fujifabric

I've chosen the seventh episode from my recent posts. I find that words connected to emotions are easy to memorize, and I think this method of learning really suits me. I'm using the Repete Plus app
4
6
Feb 22 - 1 min. read

Read post

headline image

A Strange Festival At A Snowy Mountain Village

This is a story from nine years ago. I tried to research this festival to write this post, but I couldn't find anything. I've already forgotten the exact location and the name of the village. The
5
44
Feb 14 - 3 min. read

Read post

headline image

#006 The Same Guitar Strings That Elliott Used

The sixth episode is also about music. https://listen.style/p/paperandguitar/ndrsapcc I have to read it aloud a lot of times, so I always choose posts that I enjoy reading. That's why I frequently
5
4
Feb 11 - 1 min. read

Read post

headline image

"Heat Shimmer" By Fujifabric

I read a young Journaler's post about Japanese rock, which prompted me to write this post. I'd like to talk about Fujifabric, a band from the 2000s. Shimura, the former frontman, passed away at the
11
21
Feb 8 - 1 min. read

Read post

headline image

Midwinter

This morning, I had to go to the Driver's License Center, so I got up early and shoveled the snow from around my car. I don't know much about the driver's license system outside of Japan, but we
5
30
Feb 4 - 1 min. read

Read post

headline image

#005 My Favorite Korean Artist

I've uploaded my fifth recording. https://listen.style/p/paperandguitar/kctqvimr I recorded this post just after writing it as well. At that time I was completely worn out and even experienced jaw
3
2
Feb 3 - 1 min. read

Read post

headline image

A Ramen Shop

I haven't been to a ramen shop alone for several years because ramen has too many carbs for me. However, during my son's stay last month, we went to this ramen shop together for the first time in a
9
15
Feb 2 - 1 min. read

Read post

headline image

A Preconception Of Having No Preconceptions

Most of what Uly teaches me isn't individual word pronunciation but phrasing. However, there were a few words he pointed out that I didn't pronounce correctly. One of them was photo. I didn't know
13
9
Jan 30 - 1 min. read

Read post

headline image

#004 My All-Time Guitar Idol

I've decided to record some of my past, well-written posts. This is the first try. https://listen.style/p/paperandguitar/jogtbqoj I enjoyed repeating after Uly's flawless recording. Thank you as
4
7
Jan 29 - 1 min. read

Read post

headline image

Pronunciation and Phrasing Influence The Four Language Skills

I haven't written any posts lately because I've been focusing on improving my pronunciation and phrasing. Needless to say, practicing them improves your speaking skills. Also, as Uly said to me, it
6
11
Jan 28 - 1 min. read

Read post

headline image

#003 Mochi Is Deadly Weapon

I've uploaded the third episode. https://listen.style/p/paperandguitar/xtfvfhn0 Uly helped me again. I understood all of theories he explained, but some of them are difficult for me to pronounce in
6
12
Jan 17 - 1 min. read

Read post

headline image

My Blowout With My Son

I'm planning to move to Tokyo in the middle of this year and have started to drastically cull my things. I made my son come home to help me declutter my apartment. I even paid for him to take the
5
21
Jan 13 - 1 min. read

Read post