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I just got back from Suzuka. It was a long day, and it was very, very hot. The track temperature was 53 degrees! I was really hot just wearing shorts and a T-shirt, so I have no idea how the riders survived in their helmets and racing leathers. Today was the official qualifying session. There are three riders in each team, and each rider rode for two 30-minute sessions – one this morning, and one this afternoon.
Tonari San is riding for a team called “Motokids,” and there are three bikes in the team, each with three riders. The bikes are #51, #52, and #53. Tonari San and his two riding partners are #51. Actually, both #51 and #53 had crashes today, but no one was badly injured. Tomorrow, the ten fastest teams from today’s qualifying have to fight it out for the first ten places on the grid, so that should be fun. The actual race is on Sunday, from 11.30 a.m. to 7.30 p.m. If I don’t die of heatstroke, my job will be to hold the gas tank to refuel the bike when it comes in. I’ll let you know how we got on on Monday.
Here is some feedback on your comments. (Sorry there is not much, but I’m really tired, and I have to get up early again tomorrow.)
so we had no choice but getting a housing loan under my husband’s name.
so we had no choice but to get a …
most of them complained that finally it costed them much more than they expected.
most of them complained that it ended up costing them much more than they had expected.
and told my children not to make big noise
and told my children to to make a lot of noise
because my son is 2 years old and getting noisy day by day
because my son is 2 years old and getting noisier by the day
They wanted to move closer to their house just in case for living together in the near future.
They wanted us to move closer to their house in case we needed to live together in the future.
I didn’t know what “double glazing” was, and I checked it up in the dictionary. Is it 二重窓 or somthing else!?
That’s right. When I came to Japan, I couldn’t believe that the houses didn’t have double glazing, but I think that most new houses have it now.
Yes, “転勤” is one of the difficult aspects that discourage people from buying a house.
Yes, 転勤 is one of the things that discourages people from buying a house.
I started writing a comment and I’m not sure whether I sent it accidentally before I had finished it! Anyway, I’ll try again!
Hi Kattie – nice to hear from you again. I’m looking forward to seeing your house for myself in a couple of weeks.
It seems like just yesterday that you mentioned it on the blog.
Nice sentence.
I couldn’t undrstand well why the prices of houses in the UK go up over time
I couldn’t really understand why the price of houses in the UK goes up over time (A-Z: well)
Both of your stories remind me of the days I stayed in Cambridge for two weeks.
Both of your stories reminded me of the time I stayed in Cambridge for two weeks.
That’s all for today. Have a great weekend, and I’ll see you again on Monday.
Hi David and everyone,
I can’t imagine temperatures like that! This summer has been particularly horrible in the UK, I think it has been the wettest since records began and, until this week, the temperatures have been very low – we feel very excited if it reaches 20 degrees! I think the weather is one of the biggest problems in the UK and it’s something we can’t change! A lot of retired people move to other countries in Europe, like France and Spain, to escape the weather here.
David – we’re looking forward to seeing you soon – let me know when you’re free. Tom is gigging a lot at the moment so if you can give us a few alternatives that would be good.
Hi Fumie,
Yes, modern, plain houses also go up in value over time, in fact all houses, unless they have a big problem, are expected to rise in value over the years. There are several reasons why this happens, many of which we have already mentioned e.g. there is a general shortage of housing, people aspire to own their own homes, it often costs the same or less to rent etc but one very big reason is that in the last 30 odd years the banks and building societies have been lending people larger and larger amounts of money to buy their houses. 20 years ago the banks might have multiplied a person’s incomes by a maximum of 3 and lent them up to this amount (a house loan is called a mortgage) but before the recent credit crunch, some banks were lending 5 or 6 times this amount and this fuelled house prices. This has lead to a lot of problems because if a person is unable to make their repayments, the banks take over their house and sell it quickly… and at a loss. If this happens on a large scale it can lead to a house price crash. Luckily we have not had a huge price crash yet, even though the UK is in recession and many people have stupidly high amounts of debt, but this is probably because interest rates are very low at the moment so most people are still just about managing.
Hi Anne, Thanks for the links – those folk houses look lovely, one of my Japanese guests visited a folk house village and sent me a photo of these houses. I find Japanese culture very interesting and it’s always nice to exchange ideas, I hope Tom and I will have a chance to visit Japan soon and see them in real life!
I hope everyone has a lovely weekend – we’re going to be very busy because we have 3 Japanese girls coming to stay next week for a month, so we have to tidy our house! Kattie
Hi Kattie,
It’s nice to hear from you again!
Three Japanese girls are coming to stay next week? I guess more Japanese people will visit Manchester to see “Shinji Kagawa” who newly joined the Manchester United next years…and maybe you’ll have more Japanese guests than ever!?
Hi David,
Thank you for your feedback when you are very very tired! I think you’d better take a good rest, you must be very exhausted…
Anyway, I’m relieved to hear that no one had badly injured…
Now I’m watching London Olympic’s opening ceremony on TV. Wow, just now the actor as James Bond(I don’t know his name…) in 007 series jumped off from the helicopter that he had been on!!
Anyway, I’ll be very tired every day from lack of sleep from today on…
By the way, are you going back to the UK for the summer vacation!? That’s nice!!
Oh, now “Mr.Bean” started playing the electronic organ.
It was in the plane for London when I saw “Mr.Bean” first. He was so funny that I couldn’t stop laughing!! It was more than 20 years ago from now… Time flies…!!
Well, please be careful with heatstroke and enjoy the race on Sunday. I’m looking forward to hearing your next story in Suzuka!
Have a great weekend, all !!
Hi David,
Thank you so much for your feedback although you were so tired!
I can’t survive without turning on air conditioner during day time and night from a few days ago. It must be so hard to do your job in this crazy weather without air conditioner. Please take care of yourself. Looking forward to hearing the outcome of the race.
Hi Kattie,
Thank you for answering my question.
> Yes, modern, plain houses also go up in value over time.
I see. Because of the business recession, it seems there are many problems.
Japan is in recession too. I hope economy will get better both in the UK and Japan.
It must be depressing having the wettest weather for some time. I hope it will be warmer and drier next week.
>I find Japanese culture very interesting and it’s always nice to exchange ideas, I hope Tom and I will have a chance to visit Japan soon and see them in real life!
Yes indeed. Exchanging ideas is nice especially when we see them with our own eyes.
Hi David,
Thank you so much for your feedback after having such a tough and long day.
Today and tomorrow is supposed to be HOT again, so please be careful not to be dammaged with the heatstroke.
Oh, you are going back to Wales? That’s nice.
>Both of your stories remind me of the days I stayed in Cambridge for two weeks.
Both of your stories reminded me of the time I stayed in Cambridge for two weeks.
—Actually, I noticed that I should have written “reminded(past tense) after posting my comment, but it’s difficult to figure out the difference in meaning(nuance) between “the days” and “the time.” Thank you.
Hi Kettie,
It was really nice to hear from you. I hope you’ll have a chance to visit with your husband; you can enjoy the change of the seasons.
As YU said, I guess a lot more people are interested in visiting Manchester!
Hi YU,
Thank you for your live report! I also enjoyed watching the Opening ceremony.( It’s almost over.)
It captured various aspects , history of the UK and was amazing. Each scene had visual effect.No wonder if you hear the name of the director of this ceremony is Dany Boyle, a famous movie director.
Wasn’t it amazing?
>the actor as James Bond(I don’t know his name…)
— I think he is Daniel Craig.
Have a lovely weekend, everyone!
Anne
Hi David.
Thank you for your feedback when you were very tired!How did you survive in the situation that track temperature was 53 degrees!?Anyway I’m glad to hear you had a great time yesterday and looking forward to hearing about the race of today.
Hi Kattie.
Very nice to hear from you again!
It’s good to know about the housing in the UK and I’m still surprised to see it’s completely different from Japan.And my idea that “new house is better than old one” has changed after reading your comment!
Hi YU and Anne.
I was moved with the song of Paul McCartney at the end of Olympic Opening ceremony and am really looking forward to watching the game of football and match of Judo today!
Have a great weekend everyone!
rinko
Hi David,
Thanks for your feedback:)
How’s the weather in Suzuka today? Hope not that hot like last Friday.
By the way, are you going back to the UK in a couple of weeks? That’s a good idea to go away to avoid the heat of summer in Japan 🙂
I am going back to Okinawa the end of next month, I will stay there ten days.
Hi everyone,
How’s your weekend?
I was on duty today but not that busy so I was able to leave the office around 3:30.
Bye for now,
amo