Comparing Scotland and Japan

It is so far from Japan to Scotland as it takes about 22 hours by direct flight. However, we can find similar cultures with them. We have an image of tartan-checked kilt for Scotland. There are infinitive patterns by different number/width of lines and color combinations. The combinations are decided for each family. It is like family crest in Japan. In addition, I’m amazed that only royal family could use purple color on tartan. In Japan’s traditional rank system, purple was royal color.

Moreover, you can enjoy seafood at both countries as they are surrounded ocean. One of the Scottish famous dishes is cullen skink, which is seafood soup. Usually, it made from haddock, potato, onion, and milk. It sounds nice, and I guess Japanese likes the taste.

On the other hand, I feel there are differences between the two countries. In the past, Scotland battled with England. Although they are members of United Kingdom nowadays, the countries are separated for each. In Japan, although people fought to expand their territories as well for hundreds of years ago, Japan became one country.

It seems there are big differences between the two countries, there are surprisingly similar points.

What happened in 1912?

January: A Japan Antarctic Expedition group led by Mr. Shirase gave up reaching south pole.

February: Arizona became 48th state of America.

March: The Ozaki Yukio who is chief of Tokyo sent three thousands of cherry blossoms to Washington D.C.

April: The Titanic sank on her first voyage.

May: Stockholm in Sweden hosted the Summer Olympic and this was the first Olympic for Japan.

June: Mt. Katmai erupted, and its power was one of the biggest volcanos.

July: Emperor Meiji passed away. His death marked the end of the Meiji era and the start of Taisho era.

August: The 1st taxi company in Japan was established.

September: 661 people died by one of the biggest typhoons named 1st typhoon in Taisho era. It made much damages especially to areas along the Sea of Japan and Hokkaido.

October: The 1st Balkan War broke out in 1912 and ended in 1913. It was War between Ottoman and Balkan who consist of Greece, Bulgaria, Montenegro, Serbia. 

November: The Japanese government officially established the Imperial Guards Division, an elite military unit responsible for protecting the Emperor and the imperial family.

December: The 1st police dog started the job. The explosion in the coal mine in Yubari, Hokkaido took 216 lives though the explosion in same coal mine took 276 lives last April. 

A postcard from...Ulan Bator, Mongolia

 

I'm having really exciting days in Nomadic Mongolia, incredibly wide and wild. 

People are brave and powerful.

I have been having absolutely precious experiences, such a living ager of nomad, wild horse riding...

Also, I was able to enjoy the annual traditional national festival "Naadam".

My dear friends help everything. How lucky I am!!

I can't forget these lovely exciting days in Mongolia.

Teruki

A Japanese folk tale - Kaguya-hime

Once upon a time, in a small village, there was a kind old man and his wife. They were very poor but were happy. Everyday, the old man went to the mountains to cut bamboo.

One day, while cutting bamboo, the old man saw a shining bamboo. He cut open the bamboo and inside these was a beautiful girl. The old man and his wife were very surprised but delighted. They named her "Kaguya-hime" and raised her as their own daughter.

Kaguya-hime grew up quickly and became a beautiful young woman. Many men came to ask for her hand in marriage, but she turned them all away. Kaguya-hime told her parents that she wasn't from this world and that she must return to the Moon.

The old man and his wife were very sad, but they understood. One night, a group of moon people came down on a bright, shining chariot to take Kaguya-hime back.

Kaguya-hime said goodbye to her parents and gave them a letter and a small bottle of elixir. She told them to remember her and promised to watch over them from the moon.

The old man and his wife watched as Kaguya-hime went up to the sky, becoming a beautiful light in the sky.

Posted for Miki

 There was a time when I did not want to go to junior high school.The reason was school-provided lunch.

As you may know well, the school lunch is nutritionally balanced and included meat or processed meat every day. Furthermore, there was a policy at the time that it was good to eat all of our school lunch and not leave any food, so it was not allowed to leave food on my plates. I struggled to finish my school lunch thinking how to swallow it itself or with other foods because I am unable to eat meat or processed meat. If there were things that I could not eat no matter how hard I tried, I packed them in my lunch box behind my teacher’s back to dispose them at home. However, I always had another concern because I had trouble that the juice from garbage made my school bag dirty.

I understood at that time that during growth period, it is important to eat without being picky about what I eat. Also, I learned some problems about food until now. There are a lot of people in the world who are unable to eat enough. Leaving food is not good action to aim for the 17 SDGs. I think the current school lunch style to share the food in advance to someone who wants to eat more is better and I often wish I was in junior high school now.

Cinderella - happily ever after

Once upon a time, there was a girl named Ella who lost her mother. A new mother and sister came right away, but they were very terrible people. Ella had to make meals and do the laundry because her new mother and sister didn't do anything. After a while, Ella's father also passed away.

The dress for a dance party at castle was also torn, Ella was very sad. Then a fairy, called Fairy Godmother, appeared. She have Ella a beautiful dress, glass shoes, a pumpkin carriage, and more. She told Ella "You have to be back by 12 o'clock".

Ella was very happy to go to the dance party. In the castle, Ella was able to dance with the prince and had a good time. Ella heard the bell announcing it was 12 o'clock. She ran away from the castle. The prince chased Ella. While she was running, one of her shoes came off. Ella arrived home and the magic was lost, but Ella was very happy.

After a while, the prince came to the city. He said to the people of the city "I will marry the girl who can wear this glass shoe." Ella was able to wear one of the shoes. Ella lived in the castle as the prince's wife. They lived happily ever after.

Posted for Ayumi

The monkey and crab - a Japanese folk story

Once upon a time, there was a family of crabs. One day the mother crab found a big rice ball. She was so happy, and tried to bring it back to her house for her children. Then she met a monkey. 

"Hey, you!! I'm so hungry. Give me your rice ball." he said. However, the mother crab refused. 

"Okay. Then let's trade your rice ball for my persimmon seed" the monkey suggested. "If you have this seed, you can grow a persimmon tree. You can eat many persimmons." In the end, the mother crab gave the monkey the rice ball. 

She started to take care of the tree. After a while, the seed grew up to be a big persimmon tree. It had many persimmons. The mother crab tried to pick them, but she couldn't because she was too short.

Suddenly, the monkey came and said "Hey, may I help you? I can climb it."

"Yes, please. Thank you." she said.

But when the monkey reached the top of the tree, he started to eat all the persimmons. The mother crab got angry. "No. You should come down from my tree right now."

Then the monkey threw some hard persimmons at her. "Shut up!" he said. One of them hit her, and she died.

After a few days, her children tried to kill the monkey. They had some friends who could help them. The chestnut, a bee, a cow dung, and a handmill. When the monkey came into their house, the chestnut and the bee stabbed him. The cow dung lost his footing. Finally, the handmill crushed him. They killed the monkey and lived happily ever after.

Posted for Akane

Our Amazing Picnics - after reading project from young learners

Reading is a crucial part for any language learners' path to vocabulary acquisition/activation, familiarity & flexibility with grammatical structures, coping with long texts, exploring new as well as familiar topics...and letting imaginations run away (a bit like the robot character does in this yarn when it gets supercharged by 'fantastic' lightning!).

This after reading project page, in an Oxford Read & Imagine level 2 graded reader (The Big Storm),  was all about personalising the background story to the adventure > going for a picnic. Sub-topics here recycle vocabulary sets of food (likes & dislikes), friends (physical descriptions), weather, places to go around town...we all love recycling language! (This is approx CEFR A1; 450 Headwords at this level, 689 words in this title)

As with all young learners, some love drawing & in Japan, have ninja-like skills - others (like me) have a complete phobia about blank drawing spaces and will produce the bare minimum as quickly as possible (and only after considerable cajoling!). NB This was not an arts/crafts lesson - rather, get us some content to work off, with the writing aspect my targetted outcome. (As with any open-ended task like this in my classroom in Japan, I try hard to minimise the use of erasers...a quick correction or fine tune is fine; rubbing out/erasing 20 minutes-worth of work & starting over is not!).

Regardless of artistic skills, we all needed encouragement to look back through the book to get 'more' ideas...and the same applied to finding the words we subsequently 'needed' to produce the written output. Importantly, don't cramp the artwork with this 'news' in advance (otherwise you'll end with carefully chosen/limited drawings!)...so then to find the words/structures we need to describe our work. From the story already (quizlet set of the glossary here by the way!)

 

Eleanor's favourite song - Inochi no namae"

 To begin with, my favorite song's name is "Inochi no namae" (The Name of Life), which is the song used in Ghibli's movie "Sen to Chihiro no Kamikakushi" (Spirited Away). This song was written in 2001 by Hiroshi Joe, Kimura Yumi and Kaku Wakako.

 Following this, the message of this song is words that express simple feelings we feel every day I think. This song's lyrics and melody makes me relaxed and cheerful. The songs lyrics is not exactly thing, but this abstract words gives us inspiration, and I feel like I understand it somehow. What's your opinion?

The song has got the "Orikon" 43rd in 2001 and 136th in 2002. Also, the song has got gold medal in 43rd Japan Record Award. This is amazing thing, don't you think so too? 

I recommend you watch Ghibli, "Sen to Chihiro no Kamikakushi" at first, and I want you to listen carefully of BGM. You can hear this song too.

Posted for Eleanor

Hinata's favorite song - Cause and Effect

 My favorite song is C.A.E. "Cause and Effect" is full name of this songs. Misekai was released this song in May 2023. I lke this song lyrics which were written by Amarashi who was inspired by Neg's illustraion and he made sound.

This song got 1,000 Repost and 18,000 likes on twitter, and 340,000 view on youtube.

Amarashi said about this song "Salvation is not the only beautiful ending". I think this song give us coriage.

I like this song, and I'll continue to listen to this song.

Posted for Hinata

Yona's favourite song - "Strong"

I would like to explain about the song "Strong" from Cinderella. At fist I chose this song because I
watched the movie when I was a little child. After I watched it, I came to like it and I found this song on the internet.

Sonna Rele

I like Disney aniimation and movies so I watched movies other Disney movies. I longed to be a princess, just like little girls do. This song has not only ephemeral but also about courage. The lyrics express the power of endurance in the face of difficulty. I felt Cinderella's own strength and her kindness.

This song was written by Sonna Rele in 2015. Sonna Rele is a singer songwriter from UK. Before it was released she was an ordinary person while she found by Ne-Yo and after that she debuted. "Strong" was a very big hit so she became more and more famous and she recorded other music, for ecample "Kaise Juda Rahein", Just like kiss me", "Time" and "Something's Gotta Give". However, the most famous song is "Strong".

Cinderella had animation and live-action. "Strong" was released especially when the movie was produced into a movie. All six songs played in the movie, but this music became very famous and popular with popular with other people who watched Cinderella. Many people were interested in the songs Finally, this song is very famous right now.

I was attracted to the bright tune, positive lyrics and the powerful singing voice. It is synchronixed with Cinerella's life and when I liste to this song, I am reminded of the world view of the movie.Of course, there is a difference between the world of fairy tales and the real world, but I like this song because it gives me a push at times like that. I will continue to listen to this song and nowadays I wish lots of people will listen to this song.

Posted for Yona

This is what I know - Kolkata

 Kolkata is located in West Bengal, India.

The population is 14.85 million.

During the colonial period, Kolkata was the capital of the empire.

St.Paul's Cathedral, Howrah Bridge and Mother Theresa's house are the famous buildings.

Posted for Nanaha

Yurina's favorite song - High Hopes

The most favorite song ever I have heard is "High Hopes" by "Panic! at the Disco" in 2018. It has wonderful lyrics and it shows us the solution of life. This song was written by 4 people in 2015. 

First no one wanted this song, but the vocalist of "Panic! at the Disco", Brendon Boyed Urie, liked it and started recording. Previously, the main part of this song was rap, but it was changed to uptempo chorus. Interestingly, a moving studio was used for recording.

After it was released, a man who climbed up the outside of the building in MV be the big reason for a hit. Countless people around the world covered it as a sign of how famous it is worldwide. In fact, it ranked in a lot of music award and saw MV in Youtube 700,000,000 times. 

In conclusion, I love "High Hopes" because of its lyrics, tempo & MV. This song makes me indominable.

Posted for Yurina

Singer died tragically young: Amy Winehouse

I’m going to introduce about Amy Jade Winehouse. Although she became one of the most famous singers at a young age, she ended her short life, just 27 years.

I think she was always in an environment that she was exposed to music. She was born in England in 1983. Her father was a jazz singer and mother was a pharmacist. She formed a rap group at 10, and she was given a guitar from parents at 13. Although she entered to a drama school, she dropped out of the school because of her pierces and tattoos. After that, she sent a demo tape to a record company. It was highly regarded, and her first album was released at 20. She won five Grammys by hitting the second album, “Back to Black”.

Although she got married, both husband and wife became addicted to drugs, alcohol. She began a European tour. However, the audiences booed at a concert as she arrived late, and she was not in condition to sing by drunk. These scandals by paparazzi have cornered her. She was found dead in her home, and the cause of the death was determined to be alcohol intoxication.

This is what I know: Timbuktu, Mali

Timbuktu Mosque

Timbuktu is an ancient city in Mali. It is the capital of the Timbuktu Region. The population is 54,453. The area is 40 square kilometers. Timbuktu's official language is French.

The weather in Timbuktu is hot all year around. Timbuktu is world heritage. So I think Timbuktu has grown.

Timbuktu is famous of spices. It has twelve, for example cinnamon and black pepper.

Reasearched and written by Hana, after unit task from Oxford Discover

This is what I know: Oslo, Norway

 Avoiding the repeated task of writing about our hometown, our young learners were instead tasked to find out about another city. Here is what Nicole discovered for Norway's capital city. After her mini-talk, we raided Google Maps to have a look around!

Oslo was founded as a city at the end of the Viking Age in 1040, under the name Anslo, and established as a trading place in 1048 by Harald Hardrada. The city was elevated to a bishopric in 1070 and a capital under Haakon V of Norway around the year 1300

Yo Hitoto - my musical role model

Yo Hitoto

Yo Hitoto is a singer-songwriter who is from Tokyo in Japan.

Her friend became paralyzed from the waist down due to a sudden accident. Yo Hitoto  went to a local city with her to assist her wheelchair life. They faced difficult 'barea' (barriers) ...Yo Hitoto felt  (that) people who face hindrances find life difficult. Therefore she wanted to do something to help.

At first, in 1999, she worked for a wheelchair users magazine company "Chairwork Wawawa". Later, she made a band with wheelchair users internet staff. They started performing at social welfare facilities, old people's homes and hospitals. A famous comedian was impressed with their performance on stage, so they made a demo tape.

Finally, she debuted as a singer-songwriter in 2002. She did more charity events because her mother, who had hidden her illness, died when she was a high school student. She was sad because she couldn't take care of her mother. As a result, she is continuing to perform even now. She said that everyone who listened to her songs & felt happy, so she felt music was miraculous. She thought about happy children, who have obstacles which thay can't explain conversationally, but were hugged & cried in reaction to her songs. Yo Hitoto has done over thirty charity concerts, not only domestically but also abroad, for example  in Cambodia, Myanmar and Kenya.

She has spent twenty years as a singer songwriter now. She made a gigi project in order to spend good times and meet people. She thinks life is happy when people want to listen to her tunes. I wish her creativity will continue to be listened to for 100 years.

Posted for... a keen HS fan

This is what I know: Georgetown, Malaysia

Asked to find out about a certain place around the world, as a follow up to a study unit in Oxford Discover text books (instead of everybody writing the same tired description of Matsumoto, which I know they are repeatedly made to do through their school careers here!). 

Souichiro researched about this city in Penang.

Georgetown in Malaysia is a World Heritage Special Zone. They have many kinds of people & many culture. And their population is two hundred thousand. Attraction is Penang Museum, Skywalk, and Kek Lok Si temple. There are British buildings, too.

Musical role models - K-Pop group BTS

 

The amazing Taylor Swift - most admired musician

Taylor Swift is a really famous singer, al over the world. Amazingly, she has already won 12 Grammy Awards. However, she hasn't only performed music. She has shown us heart-warming contributions to society.

Taylor is a 34 year-old singer songwriter, who is from the USA. Her hit songs, which she composed, have been enjoyed by countless people. I think there is no one who has never heard her music on the Earth. She is a really successful celebrity!

While Taylor has been developing her music and adored by her fans, she has made a lot of contributions to society. She has donated millions of dollars to people in difficulty. Maybe most famously  was donating millions of dollars after a tornado in Tennessee, where she is from. She didn't only donate, but also launched "Speak Now...Help Now" fund. This funding institution has helped victims of tornadoes and floods. 

Following this, she has met a lot of children in difficulty, like those who are in hospital. The most heart-warming episode is that she made a song "Ronan" for a young kids Ronan, who died of cancer aged three. How kind a person is she?

In conclusion, Taylor Swift is making a big difference to people all around her. She was selected as a celebrity who contributed to sociaty by dosomething.org, an American charity group in 2014. She is a real role model for us all!!!

Posted for - a Japanese HS teen fan :)

The musician I admire most - Motoki Omori

Motoki Omori is the vocalist of Mrs. Green Apple. The band was formed in 2013. "Mrs. Green Apple", the band name, means "we want to keep going like a green apple - never ripen". "We want to project a soft, androgynous image as a band".

Motoki Omori

He has been active for a long time. When he was a high school student, he established the band with his friends. He was born in Tokyo, Japan, in 1996, and loved music from when he was young. Omori, who was influenced by "Mongol 800", bought an Epiphone bass guitar when he was in sixth grade at elementary school. Then he formed the band "1733" (one seven double three) with his classmates and a teacher, motivated by the desire to stand out at the graduation party. With his band, they performed their first original songs and Mongol 800 cover songs.

When he was in the first year of junior high school, he started DTM. At the time, Omori said "I didn't understand the concept of programming, so I was just groping around and trying things out" He didn't know how to recors guitar, so he played drum sounds on an electric paion and recorded the rhytm by putting a microphone close to the speaker.

Later, wanting to learn chords, he started playing the guitar. He had a toy guitar at home, so he took it to a music store and learned how to change the strings - and bought a Les Paul type guitar from an unknown manufacturer. He was self-taught in songwriting at the time, but he used his experience, starting out with the bass, to create his songs from chord progressions. In addition to creating original songs, he copied 'Radwimps' and 'One OK Rock'. 

Now he is very popular, and he is widely loved by fans of all ages, not just young people. Songs which his band wrote are positive and make people cheerful. His positive and interesting character makes us curious about him. He and his band have never forgotten their original intentions, that made them more and more popular. Nowadays, they are famous not only in Japan, but in foreign countries too. Do you think that they could be more famous or popular? I think they will be!

Posted for ...a high school student

Rei the reader!

I want to read!

Adopting Oxford Phonics World as our 'go to' phonics resource/series at Luna International was a no brainer, especially with covid-induced needs for online resources/presentation tools. We love the clarity of the materials, the logical presentation & progression. I am not a fan of the North American drawl that undermines accurate pronunciation in the audio of some units...but, I am very picky.

Unfortunately, we now have little brothers & sisters not even needing to come to Luna because they've grabbed a sibling's classbook and submerged themselves into the learning!

Screen time smasher!

Big brother Yoshi I have known since kindy...and he's been learning with us at Luna as well for a quite while now. He used to hide behind his classmates & not say 'boo' to a goose, but no more - a confident reader, neat writer & speller, and almost glib with answering too easy questions! Loosing games no longer a 'problem' either :)

I've been told his five-year old brother Rei is #OPW fan number one! As you can see, he's an independent learner...and has had to have a home screen time limit for the OPW app imposed to 15 minutes (maximum!) daily. Oh my word - if only we had that 'problem' with our students :)

I blame his parents..

Not fair?

As you can see in the pic above & videos below, Rei is an independent learner already. So, dad will be out of a job soon (as well as me!). 

Just imagine if every five year old in Japan had this kind of leg-up from mum & dad before they even get to elementary school? Game changer! Goodbye 'romaji' crap & katakana cribbing. Well done mum & dad...and thank you dad for choosing Luna International again for your family...like your parents asked me to teach you & your buddies when you were at elementary school.

Turbo-charged learning like this could/should be a game-changer for Japanese children. Tragically, I doubt very many decision makers within MEXT or BoE have the first clue about how vital a grasp of phonics is...especially with the ongoing race to the bottom which is 'providing' language teaching to children in kindergarten & elementary schools (and JHS/HS) from the lowest bidder/freshest face on zoom or YouTube/flashiest app on some administrator's TikTok feed. 

Hinata's musical postcard

 

Dear Jim,

I went to a big music festival in this weekend. First day, I enjoyed my favorite artist live. I like this artist more.

Today I went to the world Natural Heritage in this city. That's place is one of Japan's most beautiful and unspoiled national parks. I enjoyed the view and take many picture.

I will do my homework tomorrow. Because I have a lot of homework but I didn't do my homework in today and yesterday. I want do that tomorrow.

Thank you

Mark Zuckerberg's short biography

Mark Zuckerberg was born on May 14, 1984, in New York is well-known for founding Facebook, Inc. (Now, Meta Platforms, Inc). He showed an interest in computers and programming. He began coding at a young age and created several software programs while he was in high school.

In 2003, Zuckerberg and his classmate launched a software “Synapse Media Player” for playing music while he was in high school. After entering Harvard University, Zuckerberg launched “Coursematch” and "Facemash.com" networking site initially for Harvard students. And then, he launched “Facebook” and wanted to connect people and to cultivate communities via social network.

In 2006, the function named “News Feed” was added. It could know what your friends were doing on Facebook and was a convenient function among friends. However, it had a risk to be used for cyberstalking. In 2010, the movie “Social Network” was launched, and it described the battle named “ConnectU” between Zuckerberg and his classmates.

Through the various troubles, Facebook became famous and attracted attention, and it was grown drastically as one of the most influential companies in the world. Through Facebook, he transformed how people interact online and created digital communication in ways which could not image before.

Yurina's musical postcard

Dear Jim,

Today I went to a live house in Italy. A man, whose hair is curling, was playing drums and other instruments were played. I really enjoyed the music.

I'll go to eat pizza tomorrow. Eating pizza in Italy was my hope for long years, so I can't wait!!

See you next time.

Yurina

Moeka's musical postcard

Dear Jim,

I'm travelling in the United States. I'm in New York now.

I saw the Statue of Liberty yesterday. I was surprised that is was bigger than I imagined.

Today I see a circus. Animals like lions and monkeys were performing. It was very pretty and exciting.

I'm going to listen to jazz. That will be cool!

I will talk a lot when I get back.

Your student, Moeka
 

Triggering creative writing in teens

Album artwork (unseen)

This activity is an oldie (like me), but still a worldie!

My high school class on Thursday evenings has been focussing on music recently - what we listen to, when, how it makes us feel etc. Obviously, as the fuddy-duddy in the room, I have no clue about the J-pop & k-pop sounds they are into...and they have no comprehension of what a CD collection is!

With a (scary) blank piece of paper, they were tasked to draw any image that came into their heads from some music I'd chosen (an EP, for vinyl fans = more time to be creative!)...and to then pass their picture on to the left & keep drawing, in the vein they were inspired to be feeling/imagining, and so on until they got their original picture back, with everyone else's contributions 'on top'.

Once the imaginative juices had been fired up, the follow up task was to keep the music in mind & use the artwork created to 'see' an imaginary holiday experience, and to write a postcard thus inspired. You will see unique takes on Bob Marley's Iron Zion Lion reggae track here in the next few days - I hope you'll enjoy!

Artists at work!

I'm never critical about 'drawing' or art skills - I'm rubbish! I was hoping that my students would show their imagination & reactions to the team pictures & the vibe from the music, and explain their holiday so far, current activity, and plans for the next day or two > subliminal aim = demonstrate control of a variety of tenses. How did they do? Any other tips on getting cool music into high school students' doamin?!

My best friend

 Mariko has been my friend since we were two years old. We often played together after elementary school and I remember that we were delighted to be classmates at junior high school. I have a lot of special and fond memories of junior high school and these memories were created with Mariko.

Our families lived within walking distance.  Unfortunately, Mariko’s mother died when she was nice years old. My mother sometimes cared about Mariko as she might have had something on her mind which was hard for her to say to her father. This is why I feel Mariko is my best friend and is a part of my real family.

I am very happy that she lives with a very kind husband and a cute son.

Surf & Snow in Naeba vol. 44

When did we come here to the Naeba ski resort last time?  In 2006 probably?  The Naeba Prince Hotel was totally different from my faint old memory.  The hotel was a whole Yuming world: the entrance was full of flowers celebrating Yuming, the ski hill viewing restaurant offered a special lunch with five different cocktails inspired from her songs.  And full of happy people who didn’t look like skiing at all, just like us.It is always extremely difficult to get tickets for this special annual winter concert and we were on the waiting list.  The agent let us know this was uploaded just about 20 days ago.  We also got lucky with a special five course dinner: each plate was related to her songs and the chef came over to our table to explain the meaning of every dish.

It was a very warm day, and snow was not so good for skiing, but lots of people were enjoying themselves on the slopes and the lightning was beautiful at night.

Yumi Matsutoya, Yuming, started this special annual winter concert, YUMING SURF & SNOW in Naeba in 1981 at this hotel’s restaurant, and in 1992 the hotel built a concert hall for her which she named “Blizzadium” after one of her popular winter songs “Blizzard”

The concert from 9pm, lasted for over three hours, and the hall capacity is about 1,300, so the audience is very close to the stage, just like a live house, but the stage set is always spectacularly gorgeous.  This year it started with her danceable song plus sixteen drones flying around.  We stood up, clapping hands, jumping!  The miraculous time had begun!

There is always request time, when she points to the audience to raise their hands, with the lucky one invited onto the stage, have a little chat and take a photo with her, get some presents before Yuming sings the requested song.  I knew she would never point at me but I only regret that I didn’t even try.  It was a very rare opportunity and it might have been our last chance to get tickets.  So I made up my mind that I will make the most of it for every opportunity as life is too short and seize the day!!

We went to the last day and there was the quadruple encore “Sotsugyo Shashin” and the whole audience sang along with her, which provided a very emotional moment.

I just really hope we can come again next year as well!!!!!

About my home town - HIgashi-ohmi city

I lived in Higashi-Ohmi city, which is in Kansai area in central Japan. It has a population of over 110,000 people, and it has the largest lake (Biwa-ko) in Japan.

Higashi-Ohmi is in the countryside. It has no famous buildings, museums, universities or statues, but it has a lot of rice farms and nature, so there are good camping areas along the riversides.

The weather in Higashi-Ohmi is hot and humid, so it is not cold with little snow. It snows about twice a year. June to July are very rainy. There are a few typhoons every autumn.

Higashi-Ohmi has a few famous temples "Egenji" and "Hyakusaiji", which have beautiful autumn leaves.

It is so convenient for Kyoto, about 40 minutes by train, and an hour to Osaka. It's a clean & quiet place.

Posted for Makiko

Temple I want to visit many times

I recommend visiting Kiyomizu Temple in Kyoto. As you may know, it is the one of famous temples in Japan. Since my university was in Kansai, I visited many tourist sites of Kyoto meanwhile, and I can call those memories back, others not. However, I have strong memories of Kiyomizu temple.

A narrow road goes through to the temples, and there are souvenir shops both side of the road over few hundred meters. Although it is a bustling road, if you get sidetracked, there are quiet paths where you can see traditional houses, typical for Kyoto. Since the temples are very famous, it is always crowed. However, there are also places you can be alone and spend a quiet hour as the temple has a large area. In addition, I went there when I had any troubles or felt gloomy. I don’t know reason, but the place made me feel good and calm down. Therefore, it is the wonder place that I want to visit not once or twice.

I think it is also fun to go into side streets as you can see traditional streetscapes or go on a food crawl, which it is hard to find from main streets.

The most idyllic island "Kohamajima"

Have you ever visited Kohamajima island in Okinawa prefecture?The Kohamajima is the most idyllic island I have ever visited.We can access there by a regular liner from Ishigakijima island, and it takes about 30 min.

Kohamajima island is small and has a small population, so the island is a quiet and peaceful place. It is best to go sightseeing spots by bicycle and we can go around the island in half a day. We rarely see cars and people and can stop where we want to see view. The ocean around Kohamajima is breathtaking clean and blue, and I loved to look into the clear ocean. The breathtaking scenery makes us forget the time. 

Accommodation in Kohamajima island is limited and a large part of tourists will leave there before sunset. However, if we want to relax completely, it will be one of the best choice to stay at a hotel “Resonare Kohamajma” operated by Hoshino resort. It is high on my list of things what I want to do.

Do you have an urge to visit the Kohamajima island?  I promise that you can refresh and relax in the Kohamajima island.

A famous musician who died tragically young: Linkin Park

I'm sure you've heard about Linkin Park’s song somewhere. A debut album was a worldwide commercial success, and this band is very famous around the world. 

One of my favorite bands is Linkin Park. Especially I like the vocalist’s voice. The lead vocalist was Chester Charles Bennington.

Bennington was born in 1976 in America. He was interested in music since he was child and dreamed to become a member of his famous band. He had experienced something hard in his childhood. An older male friend sexually abused him until he was thirteen. He couldn’t ask help for anyone because he didn’t want them to think he was gay or liar. When he was eleven, his parents were divorce. After the divorce, his farther had gained custody of him. He started to drink alcohol, using drug. Because of his lifestyle was changed, he was skinny and looked difference. To remake his life, he moved to his mother’s home. He worked at a hamburger’s shop until his musician career was started. 

He joined the predecessor band; Xero, the band’s s name was changed to Linkin Park after signed to a major label. They had phenomenal success in early 2000. Meanwhile, he was struggled health problems. 

On July 20, 2017, he killed by himself at the age of 41. He was found dead at his home.

Two months before he died, his best friend was suicided by hanging. Oddly, the day Bennington died was best friend’s birthday.