LETTER FROM HAPPY ENGLISH SCHOOL October 2nd, 2019

Hello. Now it is getting cooler in the morning and in the evening in spite of the hot weather during the daytime.

Autumn is the season for reading and playing sports. It is also good for outing. I hope everybody explores their own interest more in depth in books and sports and on outings in this season. It is good to enjoy stories and learn a lot from reading. It is good to exercise and keep fit. When you go out, you can always find something new and different even in the familiar townscape.

Having said that, however, I do not seem to have time to read books or play sports. I always end up idling away and watching TV in my free time. After　work I often do not feel like opening a book and bringing myself to start reading. Even if I open a book, I easily fall asleep dropping it. As for exercise, I haven’t played any sports since I broke my knee bones in 2000.

Yet I always carry an NHK textbook and an e-book to read on the tablet computer when waiting at a clinic, at the station or traveling on the train. I always do not use escalators but stairs to go up, taking two steps at a time at that. My nature being lazy, I would like to incorporate reading and exercising in my everyday life activities so that I can continue them with more ease.

Using spare time effectively may be a key to doing something that you sometimes find difficult but challenging and rewarding after all. I mean not only reading and exercising, but also tidying up, cleaning, studying and dieting.

If you continue to do something seemingly hard but beneficial to you even little by little, l believe you will get yourself ready to attain skills, proficiency and expertise in the field. With that mindset and practice, you steadily make progress. Even when you face a barrier to progress, you will never give up because you are the person who knows a continuous little effort will eventually take shape and lead you to success.

Finally, outings expand your world. You can broaden your horizons when you see things with an inquisitive mind and experience something with an attitude to learn from it. I am planning an outing. I would like many people to join our walking tour to the Abeno Disaster Prevention Center and around it. We can experience an earthquake of magnitude seven on the Japanese scale, learn how to use an extinguisher, simulate a tsunami and evacuation, and get ready for disasters. We will see whether we are really prepared for these emergencies.

日中はともかく、朝晩涼しく秋を少し実感する今日この頃です。秋は読書とスポーツ。なかなか読書もスポーツもできていないなと思う人もいるかもしれません。私もその一人で、ついつい仕事が終わるとテレビをつけ、ボーっと過ごすことになってしまいます。

しかし心がけていることは、隙間時間に読むそして運動するということで、いつも出かけるときは読む本を携え、時間待ちに読む、そしてエスカレーターは使わず、階段を一段ぬかしで上がることを習慣にしています。生活の中に組み入れて少しずつ続けられることを行っています。

読むことは楽しいし、軽い運動で気分爽快になります。

そして行楽の秋。阿倍野防災センターに今回は行き、そしてその周辺を歩きます。

マグニチュード７を体験し、消火器の使い方を学び、津波と避難の模擬体験

などをします。天王寺断層も見る予定です。災害の備えは十分か見てみましょう。