A World Flag for Tokyo 2020

With the 2020 Tokyo Olympics up ahead, I encouraged some high school students to design a 'World Flag' for independent Olympians to unite and represent a common cause. Here are the results accompanied by a written description.

Top left has a building, bottom left has house, top right has mountain, bottom right has river. The centre has Earth.

After reading- Miami Police File: the O'Nell Case

We are going to have a Halloween party.
The Halloween party is held in Buenavista where near Matsumoto station. Food and drink including alcohol are prepared by the hotel. We will request the hotel to provide Halloween food. The room will be putting up Halloween decorations. We will arrange a lot of jack-o’-lantern to decollate the room. The light is little bit dark.
We offer to our colleague a dress code. It is important things to success the Halloween party! We need to wear Halloween costume to go this party. 
We are planning to have a game in the party. In our plan, we will do bingo game and winner will get a gorgeous gift. In the end, we will take a picture for our memory.

Lesson One - a super fluent self-intro

Check out the creative skills on my new super achieving 7 year old student! She made this blue-eyed terrier, and had him narrate her self-introduction with an Aussie accent. I think it's super nifty, and got us off to a great start!

http://tinyurl.com/y8vkbhvy

Thank you Tomomi & Yuasa at CUP in Tokyo for advice on the book as well...Guess What!

A posctard from Taipei

Hi everyone,

I am in Taipei, where the Chihiro Iwasaki(my husband’s mother’s) exhibition has been held. Yesterday my husband Takeshi gave a lecture in the National History Museum, the place is held the exhibition. Lots of people came to hear that. It made me surprise. After that, we are enjoying good Taiwanese food. People in here is very warm and kind. This country is getting familiar for me.

From Teruki

Monstress self-portrait!

Monstrous self-portrait!

Postcard from...Boston, Massachusetts

Dear Jim,

I have been enjoying staying in Boston for almost two weeks since 17th Feb.

Boston is an amazing city! You can enjoy sports, music, culture and academic atmosphere at the same time.

If you haven't, you must visit Boston!

Taka

My relationship with my phone - After reading

I use my mobile phone every day to see Instagram and twitter and to send text message like LINE. And I rarely talk on the phone to contact someone except for emergency case because the text message can be read at receiver’s convenient timing. Before I make phone calls, I always worry that she/he may be at silent space where talking on the mobile phone is not allowed like train, hospital, and she/he or her/his baby may stay in bed or may be busy now.It is my reason that I prefer sending text message to contact someone. When I contact hospitals, hair care salon, restaurant etc, I usually use my mobile phone, not fixed line.
I phone the most to my sister to do video chat with my nephew though he is 15 month olds and cannot say any words.
My mobile phone is always set in “Silent mode”, so vibration makes me find that I get a phone call. My ring tong has never been changed after I bought my mobile phone 3 years ago, but when I was high school or university students, I changed the ring tone downloaded by application called “Chaku-melo” and “Chaku-uta” every month.

A day in the life with Megumi - I got a mouth ulcer!

Hello!  I’ve worked hard everyday and drunk much.
One day, I drank whisky with soda.
I got drunk.
And I forgot soda, drank whisky straight.
I thought “!!!!!”.
I couldn’t drink it soon, kept it in my mouth a while.
And I was hungry, I ate green curry.
... I got a mouth ulcer.
It was so painful that I hadn’t be able to eat meals for three days.

It healed now.
I enjoy drinking time!

The place where I live

I live in Iwaki city. It's in the south of Fukushima prefecture in Touhoku region. It's located 150km south from Sendai,200km north from Tokyo. Population is 345,000 over. Iwaki has extensive area. It was the biggest city in Japan until 15 years ago.

There is the pacific Ocean in the east, Abukuma mountains in the west. Using rich nature, people make many kind of agricultural products and fishing industry. on the other hand, industrial production is developing. In the past, Mine development was major industries because there are many mines. We can see coal mine heritage as a historic building. And we can enjoy spa springing from coal mine at "Spa Resort Hawaiians". It's large sightseeing leisure facilities that opened in 1966. It's drawn in the movie "Hula girl".

There are roughly three kind of weather in Fukushima because mountains divides the prefecture into three area. Iwaki is on the seaside. In the summer,cool wind blows from the sea. In the winter, it doesn't snow because mountains are blocking the snow, so don't need statless tires. Sunshine hours are the longest in Touhoku region. It's very comfortable in all year.

There are some famous tourist spot. Many tourists visit to seaside area. There is a beautiful building aquarium and marine tower and big fishmarket where people can buy or enjoy seafoods. Fishing and surfing are also popular in seaside. Hot springs are popular to relax. Ocean view,mountain view, both good. "Spa Resort Hawaiians" is the most famous for tourist. Other famous spot as a religious building, Shiramizuamidado temple is a national treasure that related to Mr.Fujiwara of local ruling family in Touhoku region. It's a beautiful japanese style building. Not famous among tourist, but my recommendation is traditional performing arts. Fukushima has more than 800 kind of traditional performing arts at each area. we have more than1200 kind in showa 30's, but it is decreasing year by year.  The famous one of these is "Jangara" that performing in summer in Iwaki. It has religious meaning for us.

What I like best about Iwaki is beautiful seasonal scenery and seasonal local food. Seasoning Touhoku is the best for me. And I like talk Iwaki dialect with my friends, family or local people. When people talk in dialect, can be naturally relaxed and friendly. I also like to visit retro places and rustic country scenery because it's still many remained in Touhoku. I love nostalgic scenery.

The Railway Children - Living near a railway line

If I live near a railway line, I would think about going on a trip often. When I see people on a train, I wonder where they will go and who they are. It is a kind of magic of train that people forget about their real life and dream to go to a new world, just for a while.

When I lived in California, there was a canyon near my house. And under the canyon there was a railway line. Sometimes I saw the trains running and my children were excited to see them. It was nice to see trains running through the canyon.

For people who live in a country, trains associate journey and admiration for the city. But, for the people who live in a city, trains are daily transportation. In the big city like Tokyo, train comes every 5 minutes. It must be very noisy to live near the railway line in a city. When I go to Tokyo by train, I can see many houses very near the railway line. I always think it will be very difficult for me to live near the railway line. Because of noise and light I feel restless and can't sleep well at night.

Posted for Yasumi

The Brontë Story - Jany Eyre explained

To editor of Smith and Elder pubishing company,

I'm so glad to give me your sinsire advice. Along with your advice, I've written "Jane Eyre" in 3 volumes.

In volume one, Jane Eyre lives with an unkind aunt, and then goes away to a school called Lowood. She has lived eight years in this strict school. Enduring a miserable and poor life in this school, she becomes a strong woman.

In volume two, she puts an advertisement and then she gets a job of governess in Thornfield House. The master in Thornfield house falls in love with Jane, and tries to get married, even though he already has a wife who has been mad. Jane runs away from her master.

In volume three, a rector in Moor House helps Jane Eyre while wondering Moors. Coincidentally a rector and his two sisters are Jane's cousins. For the first time, she can gets true family. At last, the story is happy ending.

Jane Eyre is an independant woman. She always says her thought by herself, even though in front of the nobles. She says a genuine affection to the man. This is sensational, but her life will move women in the world.

I want to change my name "Currer Bell" No one thinks women can write good books, so I would like to use man's name. My sister's books, "Agness Grey" and "Wuthering Heights" are dicided to publish from Thomas Cautley Nawby publishing company. Please think about my book "Jane Eyre"

Posted for Hiroko

Martin Luther King - American Conscience Martin Luther King Jr. Dies at 39

Martin Luther King, an American Baptist minister as an activist fell caused a gunshot head wound on 4 April in Memphis. Just after 6 o’clock in the evening, he went out of his hotel room to fresh air. Suddenly there was the sound of a gun, his friends told. They ran outside and found him lying on the ground. An hour later Martin Luther King died in a Memphis hospital. He was thirty-nine years old.

He was born on 15 January 1929 in Atlanta, Georgia as a child of a minister in an Atlanta church. He became the most visible spokesperson and leader in the civil rights movement from 1954. He is best known for his role in the advancement of civil rights using the tactics of nonviolence and civil disobedience based on his Christian beliefs and inspired by nonviolent activism of Mahatma Gandhi. He led the 1955 Montgomery bus boycott and helped SCLC.

On October 14, 1964 King received the Nobel Peace Prize for combating racial inequality through nonviolent resistance. Recently he expanded his focus to include opposition towards poverty and the Vietnam war. There were several famous speeches were given. “ I have a dream” “ Beyond Vietnam” and so on. It is certain that we have lost a great person.

Posted for Naoko