Tokyo Milk Cheese Factoryは英語の使い方に注意した方が良い。

This was a really delicious cake, something like steamed bread filled with a very thick custard. It might be a bit sweet for Japanese tastes, but for my American tongue it was great!

The funny thing, though, is the slogan under the picture:

× Your cheek might drop. ← wrong grammar 

× Your cheeks might drop. ← right grammar, wrong meaning

• cheeks 面, 頬 (definition from Weblio)

According to my kind students, this is a direct translation from Japanese. First, the grammar point. You have two cheeks, and in this case, we should probably refer to both by using the plural form.

In English, we don't say it this way, though. We associate cheeks rising with smiles. If you tell me that someone's cheeks dropped, I guess that they stopped smiling. Usually it means their mood has become serious and the fun has ended. That's exactly opposite of what this cake will do to you, though.

We do say "your jaw will drop". That means your mouth hangs open as a result of a surprise. If your jaw drops while you are eating, though, you are going to make a mess! Besides, who wants to see what's in your mouth?

• make someone's jaw drop〔驚嘆すべき事態などが〕（人）の口をあんぐり開けさせる、〔主語の事態に驚いて〕（人）は口をあんぐり開ける (definition from Eijiro on the Web)

They probably mean something like "your mouth will be in heaven", but that idiom might be overused (cliche).

• cliche【名】〈フランス語〉〔使い古された〕決まり文句、定型表現◆つづりのeにはアクサンテギュが付く。 (definition from Eijiro on the Web)

It's going to take a real copywriter to come up with a good one, something like... no, everything I think of sounds like sexual innuendo. If I said those, your jaws might drop. Anyway, I hope Tokyo Milk Cheese Factory can do something about their slogan.

• sexual innuendo 性的なほのめかし (definition from Eijiro on the Web)

「人が亡くなる」を英語でどう言う？

I have to apologize for not posting in the past two weeks. My grandmother became very ill, so I returned to America to see her. She passed away while I was there.

• pass away - 亡くなる、死ぬ、死亡する、死去する、他界する、逝去する、逝く、この世を去る、永眠する、帰らぬ人となる、去る、終わる、廃れる、なくなる、自然に帰る (definition from Eijiro on the Web)

Once I got back to Japan, I had really bad jet lag.

• jet lag ジェットラグ、時差ぼけ (definition from Eijiro on the Web)

I couldn't stay awake past midnight, even though that's my habit. Even yesterday, I was worthless by 11 pm.

Now I'm behind on my posts, so I'll try to catch up.

There are a lot of other ways to say it, depending on the situation, but "pass away" is definitely the most useful one for you.

Still, be careful about the correct use of the words related to the verb "die".

• die (v) 死ぬ
• dead (adj) 死んでいる
• death (n) 死

I often hear mistakes like:

× He dead in the war.
○ He died in the war.

I got these nice flowers from someone the other day. I'll enjoy them until they are close to death, but that's one of the problems with cut flowers: they always die. Anyway, like the cherry blossoms nearing the end now, maybe their transience makes them more beautiful.

• transience of nature 移ろいやすさ (definition from Eijiro on the Web)
• transience【名】一時的であること、はかなさ、無常 (definition from Eijiro on the Web)