Royal Milk Tea

Do you know royal milk tea? It's a type of milk tea popular in Japan. You first infuse 3 teaspoonful of tea leaves with a cup of hot water in a milk pan, second add a cup of milk to the infusion, and finally heat them together until they nearly boil. I always use Earl Grey for milk tea but the choice of tea leaves depends on your taste. Because the ratio for milk is relatively higher than typical milk tea, it has a rich creamy taste, and that's why I love the tea. 

I always thought the cooking method had been invented by somebody working in the kitchen of Buckingham Palace. Because why else would the name include the word "royal"? And I knew British people loved tea.

But I was totally wrong. I found out yesterday that the name was coined by Lipton, a Japanese tea company when they released a product called Royal Milk Tea under their brand of "Royal" in 1960s. Later the term became a synonym of milk tea made with the method mentioned above. I have no clue why they used the adjective for their brand name, but at least, now I've learned royal milk tea is a Japanese-English term and it has nothing to do with the British royal family.

Toughest decision in my life

My father fell ill and got hospitalized in November. He returned home the other day, but since then, he has been bedridden and becoming less and less responsive. Sometimes I even wonder if he can recognize me. Our doctor told us on the day of discharge he would not be as healthy as before. But my mother and I couldn't give up hope for his recovery.


On 20 December, he became ill again. He survived. But our visiting nurse hinted that he would not last long. This time my mother and I decided that we would not ask for active treatments anymore. We believed it would be a torture for him to be forced to stay alive.


It was frightening to imagine that somebody else would make a decision on my life while I was not even aware of that.


That was the toughest decision I'd ever made in my life.

My First Original English Pun

A girl was trying to feed her teddy bear, but he kept refusing. So she asked her mother why he didn't even take a bite.

The mother answered, "Because he is stuffed".

Reference to "Congo"

I found a quest that might be a reference to an American novel "Congo" by Michael Crichton. The quest is called "Chasing A-Me 01".

In this quest, a robotic gorilla called A-Me 01 is dispatched by a female dwarf to collect data of real gorillas in Un'Goro crater. The robot eventually becomes a family member of wild gorillas. 

In "Congo", a gorilla called Amy (not robotic) helps an American expedition party find diamonds in a jungle. In the end, she left human society and starts to live with wild gorillas.

Back to Azeroth

For the first time in 7 years, I am playing World of Warcraft. 

This MMORPG is my English teacher. 

I started playing WoW in 2005. Back then, my English was terrible. I tried to avoid conversations in the game as possible as I can. I was very jumpy in fear of being talked to. 

But I gradually learned how to use English. Eventually, I joined a U.S. guild and started to run raid instances. 

Thanks to WoW, I became confident of my English. Even after stopped playing WoW, I continued to study the language. I played so many other video games from overseas and read so many English books. Thank you, Blizzard Entertainment! 

Worst Delivery Service Ever

If you purchase a product on amazon.com, they will ship it through a delivery company called UPS. This company is a piece of crap compared to Japanese carriers. First, they don't deliver on Sundays and public holidays. Second, they return the package to the sender after 3 failed delivery attempts. This really sucks!

Is it common in the U.S.?

アメリカのアマゾンで買い物をするとUPSという運送会社が配達に来る。この会社はクソだ！第１に、日曜と祝祭日に配達してくれない。第２に、不在が３回続くと商品が送り主に返送されてしまう。こいつはクソすぎる！アメリカではこれが普通なのか。

Last week, UPS tried to deliver a package, but I couldn't receive it because I didn't have a day off during the week. They had already made 2 delivery attempts when I found their delivery absence notices in my postbox last Friday. 

先週、UPSが荷物を届けに来たが、平日に休みを取っていなかったので受け取れなかった。金曜日に郵便受けの中の不在通知に気づいたときには既に２回配達が試みられていた。

I was very concerned. At this rate, the third attempts would be made on the next Monday and the package would be returned to the U.S. 

これは困った。このままでは３回目の訪問が完了し、荷物がアメリカに返送されてしまう。

So I searched through the internet and found this website. 

http://samuraibridge.jp/blog/p1000

Having followed the instruction on the site, I asked UPS to send the package through Yamato Transport, a Japanese carrier, which operates on Sundays and public holidays. 

そこでインターネットで検索してこのホームページを見つけた。このサイトの説明に従い、UPSに荷物をクロネコヤマト経由で送るようお願いした。クロネコヤマトは日曜日と祝祭日も営業している。

That was successful and I was able to received the package.
これがうまくいって、荷物を受け取ることができた。

King Kong (2005)

I just watched King Kong (2005) yesterday. Now I regret I did. It was a horrible film. More precisely, it was the most vomit-inducing film I'd ever seen this year. Because every gigantic insect in the film looks unnecessarily realistic. It gives me goose bumps just recollecting how they crawled or buzzed around poor humans... Dude, it's a King Kong movie, not Starship Troopers! I bet whoever designed the bugs must've been a psycho!

The worst creature in the film was the centipede... My childhood home was located near bamboo woods where I could find centipedes under stones or inside logs. Sometimes, I would even find them crawling in my house. What's worse, one day, I was bitten by a centipede in the pinky toe. Thank God it was a small one, but I cried for a good one hour in a terrible pain! That was a living hell.

So when I saw a much bigger one crawling in King Kong, I really regretted I had started to watch the film.