Travelling and Living: Locky's Trip to Tokyo (Part 2 -- Ladies' Fashion)

Japanese people are famous for their incredibly polite manner, and when you visit Japan, the services you receive make you feel like kings and queens. No objections? I think not, which is why so many Hong Kong people love Japan.

What surprised me was that, I supposed the Japanese female casual fashion to lead the trend, but the truth is far from reality.

 Harajuku 原宿 Fashion 

from Locky's English Playground

In fact, most younger Japanese ladies wore pretty much the same clothes -- the same blouses and skirts or dresses, and very different from my expectations, they were pretty conservative in terms of dressing up.

Okay, how were they the same or conservative?

Well, if you look at the picture above, they wore at least 3 pieces of clothes (excluding undergarments) despite 34 degree Celsius of temperature. (I wonder how they handle this heat?)

It could be

1. a thin inner blouse with an outer top and then a small denim jacket / a cardigan, or 
2. a thin inner blouse with a one-piece dress and a jacket. 

What is definitely obvious to me was their fondness of skirts-looking shorts. The shorts looked like a skirt from the first sight, but when the ladies walked, they looked like a pair of pyjamas pants cut short. ( See the girl in the middle of the photo above) That was definitely conservative.

And so it was very very hard to find a girl who dressed less than a girl does in Hong Kong (sorry to disappoint the guys), but this actually suggests that the Japanese girls are generally very well-trained by families, well-nurtured with their cultural values and thus they are decent ladies. (I guess the AV industry has just too much spread.)

Harajuku Fashion 

from Locky's English Playground

But then of course, "conservativity" also has its pros, especially during festivals with fireworks display, the elegant side of the Japanese traditional fashion unleashes to the fullest.

Japanese Lady in Yukata

from Locky's English Playground

Yukata 浴衣, a casual + summer version of kimono 着物, is definitely the highlight of my trip to Japan as it was almost the only way for me to distinguish Japanese ladies from the rest. I had always thought that kimono is one that has a huge obi sash 帯 and Yukata has simply a belt, but after a little research, I know I was wrong. It is the materials used (cotton for Yukata, silk for Kimono) and the design.

Obi Sash around the waists

from Locky's English Playground

Simply looking at the different patterns of the Yukata was enjoyable and worthy enough. I wanted to go to Japan to see Japan as Japan. Had I seen Japan more or less the same as Hong Kong, I would have regretted it.

Yukata of lovely flowery pattens

from Locky's English Playground

from Locky's English Playground

Once I left the pop streets and back to the common places, everything was, sadly, rather similar to Hong Kong (except that all Chinese characters are replaced by Japanese ones, and the streets are 100 times cleaner). People dress pretty much the same as we do in Hong Kong, look pretty much the same as we do (which made it impossible for me to tell whether they were tourists from Hong Kong until they started speaking) ...

Ueno 上野

from Locky's English Playground

... they are as busy as people in Hong Kong (except much more polite and friendly)...

Tokyo 東京 JR Station

from Locky's English Playground

...and they take trains to go everywhere, just like us (except that they get to choose to take the faster trains with less stops but we don't)...

Ikebukuro  池袋 JR Station

from Locky's English Playground

So, what are you trying to say, Locky? Isn't that already very "different"?

Oh yeah! It is! So, I'm glad.


Vocabulary:
blouse -- (n)[C] a shirt for a woman or girl
conservative -- (adj) If you are conservative in your appearance, you usually do not like fashionable or modern clothes or hairstyles
nurture -- (vb)[T] Formal to take care of, feed and protect someone or something, especially young children or plants, and help them to develop
decent -- (adj) socially acceptable or good
"conservativity" -- (n) a word created by Locky, the noun of "conservative"
Yukata 
Kimono 
Obi sash


Resources:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yamanote_Line
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yukata
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kimono
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Obi_(sash)

http://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/british/blouse
http://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/british/conservative_1
http://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/british/nurture_1#nurture_1__3
http://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/british/decent

Travelling and Living: Locky's Trip to Tokyo (Part 1 -- Greens)

Image from Locky's English Playground

Although this was my second time to Japan and the first time to Tokyo (last time was to Hokkaido), I am already really impressed with the minds of the Japanese. From the moment I laid my eyes on slopes besides the road, I was admiring the environmental-friendliness that the Japanese offer to Mother Nature. They really do care a lot about their home country, their greens -- forest, trees, plants, farms, etc.

Image from Locky's English Playground

Although they still have to build their roads and buildings, they have never forgotten to place some greens back to nature -- slopes are green, Jersey barriers are green, crash barriers are green, even noise-barriers are green. It makes me think of only one thing,

"What on Earth have the high-earning officials in the Hong Kong Environmental Protection Department been doing? Surfing porn sites again???!!!"

Image from Locky's English Playground

Moving through the highways, passing the fields and through the forests was simply enjoyable! Your eyes get the maximum relaxations, the sky was blue, clouds were white, trees were green, I already felt like I was having vacation already (even before I had even reached the hotel!)

You have to care and respect, to create so much green. And I think we lack this care and respect for our natural treasures.

 I recalled that some years ago the Hong Kong officials went onto a "Journey to the East" to obtain the Nippon Sūtra on environmental protection, now I bet they only went their to enjoy the sushi!

What our government is doing, is not even close!!!

Vocabulary:
clap/lay/set eyes on sb/sth -- to see someone or something for the first time

Mother Nature -- (n) [U] often humorous nature, especially when considered as a force that controls the weather and all living things

porn -- (n)[U] informal for pornography books, magazines, films, etc. with no artistic value which describe or show sexual acts or naked people in a way that is intended to be sexually exciting but would be considered unpleasant or offensive by many people


Resources:

http://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/british/clap-lay-set-eyes-on-sb-sth#clap-lay-set-eyes-on-sb-sth__1

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jersey_barriers
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crash_barrier
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Noise_barrier
http://www.epd.gov.hk/epd/eindex.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Journey_to_the_west
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japan
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sūtra
http://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/british/mother-nature
http://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/british/porn_1
http://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/british/pornography

Travelling and Living: Locky's Trip to Tokyo (Part 0 -- Aerophobia)

Image from Wikipedia

Hello, people! Do you like the movies and shows that I have recommended? Have you been practising your listening skills while I was away? Have you learnt anything cool and useful?

Well, now comes Part 0 of my trip to Tokyo, Japan. I hope this is what most of you have been waiting for. Why Part ZERO? Because I want to share with you what happened before I even got on the aeroplane.

I used to be greatly disturbed by aerophobia, or fear of flying. I wasn't born with it. I remember when I was a little boy around 5 years old, I took the plane to London and I was fine with the experience. It was a long-haul flight! It was until I watched this horror movie called Final Destination (a year 2000 movie) and I was stupid enough to act professional that I immersed myself completely into the protagonist's role. What happened then? The guy dreamt about a plane explosion and so he got off the plane, and the plane did explode, and the death scene was so real and so detailed that I was then haunted by this aerophobia ever since.

(If you would like to suffer from this, you may also get the movie on Blu-ray and a HDTV to try out. I suggest you don't try at all.)

So, it had been ten years, even though I still travel by the aeroplane, I started feeling depressed and anxious 2 days before departure, shuddered before I got onto the plane, and had to hold onto the arm-rests of the seat every time the plane shook a little, which means, throughout the flight. I struggled to keep calm, my heart beat really fast, my whole body sweated, like almost having a panic attack, and I might explode when my family members failed to understand my pain.

They never understand any of this phobia because they are not afraid of it. They still don't understand. I guess it is logical, since I don't understand why some of them are afraid of cockroaches (Entomophobia) and some are afraid of spiders (Arachnophobia). But the thing is, I never laugh at their phobias, because I know how it feels like to be afraid of something that others might not understand. Thinking about this, my family has been kind of cruel to me!!!!

Anyway, aerophobia is one of the most difficult phobias to treat. Why? Because you cannot avoid it. You can stay away from spiders, cockroaches, ask someone to kill it and you'll be better in a short time, but flying on a plane takes hours, and you can't really avoid it.

Quoting from Wikipedia,
"The fear receives more attention than most other phobias because air travel is often difficult for people to avoid—especially in professional contexts—and because the fear is widespread, affecting a significant minority of the population. A fear of flying may prevent a person from going on vacations or visiting family and friends, and it can cripple the career of a businessperson by preventing them from traveling on work-related business.
Commercial air travel continues to cause a significant proportion of the public and some members of the aircrew to feel anxiety. When this anxiety reaches a level that significantly interferes with a person's ability to travel by air, it becomes a fear of flying."

So my suggestion is, if you have family members who are afraid of something, respect them and give them support and understanding. PLEASE don't try to laugh it up, it does really really hurt their feelings!!!

Okay, so now, back to where I started.

So the day before my flight, I started to feel anxious, but I knew I had to stop this, because I had had this for 10 years and it was time I fight against this phobia, and like the last time I went to Bangkok, I went online for cures. I felt better the last time round, but still I was not completely cured, in fact, I had a feeling that I was coming back, so I needed something stronger that could help me, and so, I went to Youtube to look for videos that might help.

But they were mainly too commercial......

Watching other victims who have much more severe cases than mine didn't help much either......

Educating myself about how aeroplane flies do comfort myself a little, but still not persistent enough......

This is really comforting, but I have watched this the last time round......

And this time, I found what I have always been looking for ... an expert who can help me using hypnosis.

And so I visited Jospeh Clough's website and I found other even more useful videos, and there I found this video that I used for self-hypnosis to cure my aerophobia.

And just like that, I was 99% cured!! That last 1% was the sweating on my palms. So if you are afraid of something and you really want to cure it, I suggest you also try the same, but try not to randomly use hypnosis for all purposes, you never know how far it can get.


After 4 hours, I landed my feet on Narita Airport, Tokyo, fear free...

Vocabulary:
aerophobia / aviatophobia / aviophobia / pteromechanophobia -- (n) [U] fear of flying
long/short-haul flight -- (n) [C] a long/short journey by air
panic attack -- (n) [C] a sudden period of severe anxiety in which your heart beats fast, you have trouble breathing and you feel as if something very bad is going to happen
-- (n) [C]
entomophobia -- (n) [C] fear of insects
arachnophonia -- (n) [C] fear of spiders
persistent -- (adj) lasting for a long time or difficult to get rid of
hypnosis -- (n) [U] a mental state like sleep, in which a person's thoughts can be easily influenced by someone else






Resources:
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0195714/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fear_of_flying
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Panic_attacks
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_phobias
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Entomophobia_(orchid)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arachnophobia_(film)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hypnotherapy
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Self-hypnosis

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qZzbiYfDoxQ
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3M249eFKVL0
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lAfuI2iaJbc
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ttrQDHpQpcE
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=62CWpNkPzcw
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G0-u8bDtWG8

http://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/british/haul_4#haul_4__3
http://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/british/panic-attack
http://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/british/persistent
http://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/british/hypnosis

Learning Methods: Have No Fear when Learning

Hi guys, just came back from my Japan trip yesterday so I am now washing my smelly clothes from the trip, fixing my broken computer for the n-th time, and clearing my old emails. After I have got all these done, you will be getting lots of interesting topics from this playground. For now, while I am clearing my emails, I have some really good questions from my students asking me on the right learning methods, and I think I should really share them with you, in case you also have similar troubles when learning English / anything.

Email 1:

Student K has problem expressing themselves, they always have some English words or sentences  in mind, but fail to speak out.

Same as my experience in Japan, I know very little Japanese, so I couln't say exactly what I want, but I tried, I kept trying. If this way didn't work, I tried another. If I didn't know the word, I tried to look for similar words, to get to the closest meaning. Never give up is the key, I could have easily used English, just like you might use Cantonese, but you can't learn like this. I love to learn, so I never mind going by the difficult way -- that is, using my limited Japanese. Body language can help a lot, but most importantly, I learnt the words from the native Japanese people after they understood what I want to say.

Email 2:

Student N is writing a job application letter and is looking for references.

Those on the internet which you can randomly searched are more or less the same, and they are mostly very useful. You can take about 5 of them to be your reference. Should cut and paste the best from those websites which suit your style to refine into your own one. Once it is written, you can keep it as your best template and modify it according to the job you are applying. 

Email 3:

Student B wants to further improve her oral, writing and listening skills, would like me to recommend course/school to them. Student B bought some grammar books but they are not so useful. Student B has problem communicating even with daily English. 

Honestly speaking, I don't know where you can find good courses or schools to further improve your English apart from Prime, others that I know of care more about money than their students, so with my limited knowledge, I have yet to find an answer for this question.

Since I don't know which grammar books you have bought, I can't say they are good or bad, but I have suggested some which I personally think are the best, and you can easily find out what they are by clicking on the Books button on the right-hand side of this English Playground, or you can simply click here.

As to why you can't communicate with daily English, there could be many reasons: age, practice, mindset, environment ... just to name a few. But let's not generalise too much, every learner's case is different, you need to know, in details, which areas of your learning are having problems before you can find the right cure. My suggestion is to find an experience tutor / teacher to give you a diagnosis and so that you can work on solving your learning problems.

I have a lot of labels on this English Playground that can help too, check out on Learning Methods or Learning Psychology sections.

Hope all these suggestions help.

Resources:

http://lockyep.blogspot.com/search/label/Books

http://lockyep.blogspot.com/search/label/Learning%20Methods

http://lockyep.blogspot.com/search/label/Learning%20Psychology

Movie: "30 for 30" No Crossover: The Trial of Allen Iverson

Image from demonoid

No Crossover: The Trial of Allen Iverson

Image from documentary.org

Right, I guess you are thinking right now, "What?!!! TV, TV, and more TV???"

Well, yeah! That's because I want to keep you occupied while I am away. You can then select which ever show you like and spend your time wisely over the weekend.

Image from The Sport Zone

And if you are a basketball lover, I am sure you know this incredibly talented player, Allen Iverson.

Here's a short intro of him from Wikipedia:

Allen Ezail Iverson (born June 7, 1975, in Hampton, Virginia^[1]) is an American professional basketball player who most recently played for the Philadelphia 76ers. The 76ers selected Iverson with the number one pick in the 1996 NBA Draft.^[2] He was named the NBA Rookie of the Year in 1996–97 season. Iverson is an eleven-time NBA All-Star which includes winning the All-Star MVP award in 2001 and 2005.

Winning the NBA scoring title during the 1998–99, 2000–01, 2001–02 and 2004–05 seasons, Iverson has become one of the most prolific scorers in NBA history, despite his small (listed at 6 feet, 0 inches) stature, with a career scoring average of 26.7 points per game, being sixth all-time. Iverson was also the NBA Most Valuable Player of the 2000–01 season and led his team to the 2001 NBA Finals the same season. Iverson represented the United States at the 2004 Summer Olympics, winning the Bronze medal.

You may now know his brilliance, but do you know his past apart from his basketball career?

Do you know how much he had suffered before becoming a world's famous basketball player? How was he involved in an extremely sensitive issue of racism? And how did the trial of this "golden child" sharply divided the city along racial lines?

Do colours separate good or bad?

This is not at all a movie of basketball, but a documentary of why racism should really disappear from this planet.

This documentary is rated 7.4 out of 10 on IMDB.com, surely a nice movie.

And you can practise your listening skills, particularlly, the African American accent.

Press here if you want to watch the whole movie continuously.

Resources:
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1509850/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Allen_iverson
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a7gLgFcrzJA&feature=related

TV: Anthony Bourdain: No Reservations

Image from Capital Spice

(Hm.... by the time you get to see this article, I should be in Japan enjoying some village life......)

As I am looking for all sorts of information about Japan -- food and food, Anthony Bourdain: No Reservations came to my mind. Haven't been able to watch the show for some time, but once I start watching, I can't stop. Like all good shows, I watch them because they are intellectual. and informative, my taste.

I like Anthony Bourdain's style. He's humorous, direct ... he speaks his mind, he uses great adjectives to describe what he experiences, and I like his metaphors.

6 Seasons of "Anthony Bourdain: No Reservations", with the 7th one coming, how can you miss that much? Loads of new discoveries,

Na! Not every episode is that disgusting, but just to attract your attention. Hope I did the trick......

You get some short clips on Youtube's TravelChannelTV channel, but he has loads of fans who will put up his entire episode on Youtube in parts. To name a few good ones. I have added all that I can find on Youtube. This took me over 4 hours, so please make good use of it.

Season 1
Paris (France), Iceland, New Jersey, Vietnam, Malaysia, Sicily (Italy), Las Vegas (USA), Uzbekistan,  New Zealand

Season 2
Leftovers, Asia Special: China & Japan, South Florida (USA), Peru, (Québec) Canada, Sweden, Puerto Rico, Japan, US/Mexico Border, India (Rajasthan), India (Mumbai Kolkata), Korea, Indonesia, Decoding Ferran Adria, Beirut (Lebanon).

Season 3
Leftovers 2, Ireland, Ghana, Pacific Northwest, Namibia, Russia, Los Angeles, Shanghai, New York City, Brazil, French Polynesia, Cleveland, Hong Kong, Argentina, South Carolina, Tuscany, Holiday Special

Season 4
Singapore, Berlin (Germany), Vancouver, BC, Greek Islands, New Orleans, London/Edinburgh, Jamaica, Romania, Hawaii, Into the Fire NY, Laos, Colombia, Saudi Arabia, Uruguay, U.S. Southwest, Tokyo, Spain, Egypt, "So Long, Summer", "At the Table with Anthony Bourdain"


Season 5
Mexico, Venice, Washington, D.C., Azores, Chicago, Food Porn, Philippines, Disappearing Manhattan, Sri Lanka, Vietnam: There's No Place Like Home, Chile, Australia, Rust Belt, On the Street, San Francisco, Thailand, Montana, Burning Questions, New York Outer Boroughs, Sardinia

Season 6
Panama, Istanbul, Brittany, Prague, Hudson Valley, NY, Ecuador, Obsessed, Harbin (China), Provence, Vietnam: Central Highlands, Techniques Special, Maine, Food Porn 2, Caribbean Island Hopping, US Heartland, Liberia, Kerala (India).




Vocabulary:
intellectual -- (adj) relating to your ability to think and understand things, especially complicated ideas
informative -- (adj) providing a lot of useful information


Resources:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/No_reservations_tv

http://www.youtube.com/user/TravelChannelTV?feature=chclk#g/c/650989F35950D781

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GJ-SPTIiFA4
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AXTwGNDRJlo&feature=channel
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eXbOAcuD_ps&feature=channel
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yCk5prnopyw&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GcEXJo5h5_U&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GcEXJo5h5_U&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sswbeMR42lY&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XViDoAI53gQ&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rOztyYUjXh8&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-cOfXjm0FXA&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YaF74lJhJBw
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C5FjGiPW8v0&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PadVnIXBSow
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OlADlfq7F6w
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d2CYs7wDEVA&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vrFpN44UCBE
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IC6cliYQKBY
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KjEHkLucz2g
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ok2tXKsseSk&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wjFzX9qZD_s
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b5p1Mbi-5AU&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NDrH6bBCbHA&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vOq9zQfZpNI&feature=PlayList&p=930692E8C09970EA&playnext=1&index=15
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CHLTLZ4thvs&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ft7-6bFTamU
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=956u_ykB3Po
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v8yulE1imCw

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pZ7AkkOPNXE

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZSklJCZ40V0

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MoZpjQr3XmU
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u3lpZ7am_M4
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jICjaXeyFKs
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8KmvpBil5EA&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=muAFU5KL5is
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=75ECqhxnrc0
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ONq_3wD6VsE
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sOSTQwwRr_w
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AyQvTefwP48
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wrg2S-cJWKw
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0r7Uw_XQP7g
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MQ3DFlZQbAM&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l8tIJmMZwAc&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nTKes_YtbfY
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WQBUCAP0Y1Y
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qTeOtAdBr-o
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V2RhOGNmzd0
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ulmd_jFkqAg
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hmUwXzcmHdA
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6QS1POHhKi4
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZlZhwzLy4YA
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Y_SqitVDjc
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PHX-c7KD8SU&feature=PlayList&p=78724A094A337BAA&playnext=1&index=16
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LwW2p5988V4
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l44SKK-KV0Q
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pz223HRovno&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W6CA4dRZePg
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_GcwFVWNKkY
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0eBwy8lXetw&feature=PlayList&p=725768D8258988A8&playnext=1&index=23
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mhkkYBfJrRw
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zLf2BsuaTqs

http://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/british/intellectual_1
http://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/british/informative