来月はＷ杯ですね。。。
日本対ドイツの親善試合の結果は２対２の引き分けだった！残念なことだね！
結果についてこちらで読める： http://www2.asahi.com/wcup2006/news/TKY200605310086.html
新聞記事を読むと、「逃げ切ることができなった」という言葉を習った。前半の終わりまでに日本は勝っていたのに「逃げ切ることができなった」。英語で「they couldn’t break away」と言う翻訳でしょう。なか、面白いと思う。
とにかく、Ｗ杯が始める前に親善試合一つが残っている。それから６月１２日にオーストラリアだ。ブラジルも同ブラケットに入っているので、負けてはだめですよ。がんばれニッポン！！
We once again return to Paris. This time from a distant land. I must fight the urge to respond with a はい (hai) or pardon myself with a すみません (sumimasen) and again switch back to ‘oui’ and ‘pardon’. I also must once again become accustomed to the mostly indifferent, at best, attitude pervasive in France (or is it just in Paris?) – a polar opposite from that enountered in Japan.
…Fortunately we didn’t have any nasty surprises waiting for us in our apartment this time. We just came home to the usual musty smell of the apartment. The leaking appears to have been fixed without having to break through our ceiling. Let’s hope that things look brighter in Paris for the second half of the year…
学会が終わって、「打ち上げ」という お祝いパーティーに行ってきた。昔の研究室の人たちと一緒に居酒屋でやった。久しぶりに日本語がそんなに話していないが日本語が段々思い出してきていった。。。だが、どんどん飲むと（３杯でも）口が遅くなった。
明日の朝、鎌倉に行く可能性があるので 二次会に行かなかった。。。
… phew. I finished with my first invited talk. No problems and my computer didn’t die. What a huge relief. My wife also survived being the MC for the banquet the night before. The symposium just ended and now it’s time to party. お疲れ様！
…less than an hour before my invited talk. I’m a bit nervous. I haven’t been able to enjoy fully my time back in Japan yet because the talk has been on my mind. Let’s hope that my computer doesn’t suddenly decide to die on me…
We arrived in Japan this morning! As soon as we disembarked from the plane the humitiy hit us and we knew we weren’t in Paris anymore.
We got picked up by my wife’s parents and we went straight to Tsukiji (the district in Tokyo famous for its fish market) for some sushi. It’s one place that I hadn’t been to before, despite intending to for a long time. It was in the middle of the morning when we arrived, so we weren’t around when they auction off the fish. Still the sushi was great and people were lining up at most places. I had really been missing most everything about Japan for the last four months in Paris. Good sushi is hard to come by ouside of Japan.
Live blogging here…:
…A plumber is here this morning to take a look at things. Of course it was important to first contact everyone’s insurance company…
…They are making a test of the leak, running water upstairs. "ça commence! l’inondation a commencé" We spent so much time cleaning up things yesterday and the day before… It was almost dry! Now water is coming down from the ceiling in streams…
…They say it is a big problem, not easily fixed. I don’t quite understand the French, so I ask my wife to translate for me later. They will try to access the pipes from upstairs. However, there may be a possibility that they will have to break through our ceiling to fix the problem. This will happen while we are away, of course.
To think of all dust generated breaking through the plaster and the ancient beams… It’s not going to be pretty when we get back…
We came home Sunday night from our trip to Toulouse. Before opening the door I got a sinking feeling as if something is not quite right. As expected, we found that there was a pool of water in the kitchen and into the living room with evidence of water having leaked from the ceiling. A lot of water.
…to make a long story short: Our ceiling leaks when the people in the apartment upstairs use water.
… at least for now it has stoped and we have contacted all the necessary people. Now we must wait for a plumber, but ufortunately it looks like they wouldn’t be able to fix anything until after we will have left…
What a horrible time to have this happen. We are getting ready to go to Japan this week. I need to work on my talk for the conference next week!
Some impressions of Toulouse:
-The city maintains a very strong red brick motif. Even the sidewalks are done in red, albeit in concrete and not usually brick.
-There is not as much dog droppings on the sidewalks as in Paris. Though it is still noticable (I stepped in some on our visit to the La Cité).
-Parking is a nightmare. Or worse, peut être. The streets are completely lined with cars. It’s incredible, especially on the small side streets. You have to see it to believe it. I thought Paris was bad.
-There is a lot of open space. Did I mention this is lacking in Paris? I feel that this may be the last chance that I will get to live somewhere without a crowded skyline and heavily polluted air…
-Météo France can be incorrect about weather predictions in their own neighborhood.
…
Toulouse was great. We got a chance to walk around the city center the day after my talk. The day following our friends who we were staying with took us to visit a castle (La Cité) in neighboring Carcassonne. The day we returned to Paris we went for a picnic in the countryside. There’s plenty of open space around that I really miss while I am in Paris (or in Tokyo). We would have to get a car, if we were to move to Toulouse, but having a car would not be something I would mind so much (as long as it weren’t necessary to commute to work). It would be nice to have the freedom to travel a bit through the French countryside, to nearby Spain, or to the coast…
