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'

Hi! I'm living in Tokyo, Japan. I raised my son as a single mom, and now that he's grown and independent, I've started focusing on myself. During the Covid lockdown, I decided to relearn English and picked up the guitar. I work remotely as a web engineer for a company in Nagoya. I can't always read all the Japanese posts, but feel free to mention me if you want me to check or correct yours.

Recent Posts
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Snow in Tokyo

Tokyo saw light snowfall from January 2 to 3. Our local government had sent us a Big Snow Alert, and I couldn't help laughing — the snow was all of an inch deep. But I know it's dangerous to walk on
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Jan 17 - 1 min. read

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What's Eating Gilbert Grape

Have you seen the movie What's Eating Gilbert Grape? It's my favorite movie of all time. It came out more than 30 years ago, but it's still shimmering — shimmering is the word Gilbert's mother uses
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Jan 14 - 1 min. read

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日本での年末年始の挨拶について

日本での年末年始の挨拶について、簡単に説明します。 日本では、大晦日の夜中の12時までは、だいたいみんな「良いお年を(お迎えください)」と言います。そして、日付が変わったとたん、「あけましておめでとう(ございます)」と言います。大事なのは、どちらも、1回しか言わないということです。 たとえば去年の12月中旬に生協さん(食品配達の人)が配達し終わって、帰り際に私が「良いお年を」と言ったら、彼はびっく
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Jan 3 - 1 min. read

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Listening with Your Fingers

Aoi Morikawa is a Japanese actor, and she's astonishingly talented in various fields. She's especially known for balancing and juggling. She always masters tricks in a very short time, sometimes even
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Jan 1 - 1 min. read

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#014 Work, Life, Art

It's been about a year since I started recording my posts. When I first began, my pronunciation wasn't accurate, so [no article] AI often misunderstood me and generated something different from what
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Dec 30 - 1 min. read

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The Lyrics of the Song I'm Practicing (Updated Version)

Today, I'd like you to edit the lyrics of the song I'm practicing. The song is titled "おかしい" and written by Tomoko Shimasaki. It's for piano, so it took quite a long time to arrange for the guitar.
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Dec 29 - 1 min. read

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The Lyrics of the Song I'm Practicing

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Dec 28 - 1 min. read

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I Got My Electric Guitar

I've known this red guitar for about three months. I take guitar lessons at a studio in a guitar repair shop and usually chat with the master of the shop while waiting [no preposition] my turn. When
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Dec 17 - 2 min. read

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Four Types of Seventh Chords — Part 1

I usually make AI check my posts before publishing. I don't think using AI for learning languages is bad or useless; actually it's really useful, but not using AI is probably effective as well. So
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Dec 9 - 1 min. read

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I'm Going to Sell The Guitar I Just Bought

I just received the guitar I bought from a secondhand online shop called Mercari. I really like its appearance, sound, and playability, but it's heavier than I expected. I already knew electric
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Dec 7 - 1 min. read

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Radio Taisō

Before moving, I used to drive to the gym, but now that I don't have my car and all the gyms are too far to walk or bike to, I've just been doing some strength training and Tai-Chi in my room. In my
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Nov 29 - 1 min. read

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The Final Answer: I Wanted To Be A Millionaire — Part 4

The show's staff told me they had already selected ten contestants for the week and would instruct me as to where and when to gather after getting the approval from the board meeting. So what
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Nov 10 - 2 min. read

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I Wanted To Be A Millionaire — Part 3

Continuing from Part 2. While doing my best to prepare for the top prize, I was becoming more and more reluctant to appear on the show. It was probably unique to the Japanese version that it featured
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Nov 6 - 2 min. read

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安住紳一郎の日曜天国

私はテレビを持ってないので、この安住紳一郎という非常に人気のあるアナウンサーについても、顔と名前が一応一致する、というくらいにしか知らなかった。でも、YouTube のおすすめに出てきたこの番組を何気なく聴いてみたらとてもおもしろかった。気分が沈んだとき、英語のポッドキャストを聴くのに疲れたときにもこれを聴くと気が紛れたので、紹介しようと思います。日曜の午前中の2時間のラジオ番組で、ポッドキャスト
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Oct 31 - 1 min. read

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The Haruki Murakami Library

Although I'm in the middle of a series of posts, I'd like to write about the Haruki Murakami Library today. It's located on the Waseda University campus. One of my friends invited to visit it with
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Oct 25 - 2 min. read

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I Wanted To Be A Millionaire — Part 2

Continuing from Part 1. I'm not sure about the rules of the show in other countries, but in Japan, only three out of ten contestants in the studio were actually able to sit in front of Minomonta.
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Oct 18 - 2 min. read

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I Wanted To Be A Millionaire — Part 1

Today, I want to share a story from over twenty years ago. Back then, there was a TV show called Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? that aired in a lot of countries worldwide. In Japan, it was called
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Oct 10 - 1 min. read

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My First Lesson with Isao Tsukamoto

Yesterday I took my first lesson with Isao Tsukamoto, and it was really exciting. He's a top-notch guitarist, so I thought I would be nervous in front of him, but for some reason I felt relaxed from
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Sep 29 - 1 min. read

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Jaw-Breaking Crunchy Senbei

Sometimes I crave something crunchy. My dentist warned me not to eat too many crunchy foods, but when I feel stressed, I can't help it. Today was such a day; I went to the nearest supermarket and
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Sep 21 - 1 min. read

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Tomoko Shimasaki

Even in Japan, very few music lovers know Tomoko Shimasaki. She couldn't afford a hotel, so when she came to Toyama, I put her up and drove her to her venues in Kanazawa, Takaoka, and Toyama. I'm a
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Sep 14 - 2 min. read

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