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.

Social media and Elon Musk

Elon Musk was born in 1971 in South Africa. His father, Errol Musk, is an engineer, and his mother, Maye, is a model. He was interested in making something and likes reading books since he was a child. He studied programing by himself at age 10, and he got 500 USD by making and selling the self-made game software at 12.

Although he entered to Stanford Graduate School in USA, just after two days he left it. After that, he started online contents company and online payment company, and he got about 500 million USD by divesting the companies.

By getting a lot of money, he invested for space, car, and social media business. He acquired Twitter in 2022. Since he calls himself “free speech absolutist”, I think he hopes social medias become space for free expression. There was ethical AI team, which was internal watchdog group, to monitor Twitter for transparency of information, fairness, dignity, and human rights. However, many engineers were fired for cost reduction, and the team was disbanded when he acquired the company. I think Twitter is the space for free speech, but meanwhile, I’m afraid that it becomes the space lost ethical.

A World Wonder where I want everyone to visit

 The Atomic Bomb (Genbaku Dome) was the only structure left standing in the area where the first atomic bomb exploded on 6 August 1945. It shows the estructive force created by humankind and it is a symbol to hope world peace and the ultimate elimination of all nuclear weapons.

I visited the Atomic Bomb and the Atomic Bomb museum two times and spent much time to see all exhibits. People who visit there might turn their eyes from the exhibits because the destructive damage was worse than they might think. I believe that most people who visit there may think that the use, for whatever seasons, of destructive force/weapons should be banned and we should reduce all nuclear weapons.

Recently, there are various wars/fights around the world. I really hope that all wars/fights are stopped immediately, but I sometimes stay on the sidelines because I do not want to see terrible situation in broadcast etc.I think that we should not get accustomed to the situation that various wars/fights are caused and should think that world peace is the most important.In order to express the hope for world peace, the Atomic Bomb (Genbaku Dome) and the Atomic Bomb museum are the most important World Wonders for me.

A miraculous day - a lifetime in the day of a superfan

 Avoiding the end of the year ceremony, having made a huge excuse, my husband and I got on the Shinano.  The train was packed like sardines with overseas tourists and Japanese families going to their hometowns for the New Year holiday, and our destination, Nagoya.  It was the 28th December, the last working day of the year.  Although we were rather uncomfortable on our journey, we were overjoyed with the prospect of being able to see the final show of our favorite singer,Yumi Matsutoya, Yuming, on her 54th concert of her tour, “The Journey “.

When we arrived at Nagoya, there was an announcement of cancellation for further service to Shinano because of some falling rocks.  We felt so lucky to have gotten on an earlier train, even though it had been a very painful two hours.

Our seat numbers of the show only came out at midday on the day of the concert on our phone, and we found out that our seats were on the 2nd lane in the arena, the best seats we’ve ever had in the seventeen previous shows we’ve been to!  We were absolutely thrilled to see that but the seat number was so tricky that we never knew if it was a real good seat or not until we were actually in the concert hall.

knick-knacks

With our huge expectations we arrived at Nihon Gaishi, and joined a long queue to purchase some concert souvenirs, such as a tin-badge unique to every venue, T-shirts, bags…. During this concert tour, concert staff had been introduced through Instagram and we felt as if they were our old acquaintances.  So when we saw the person in charge of the stalls, we greeted her, and she kindly responded with her beautiful smile, which gave us more familiarity.

After we had had a happy little chat with the sales lady, it was time for the lottery for the special pair of glasses, released as a commemoration set; we had been able to get the lottery ticket only when we bought her new CD.  Actually we bought four, even though we already had three copies : to tell you the truth, we had a little discussion about the necessity to buy this same CD just for the glasses, even though they were ‘special’.

There were lots of people in front of us and we had had no luck so far.  It was our turn.  We were at the lottery desk without any hope.  First my husband, Isamu tried and failed, of course, then me…  Goodness gracious!  I’ve made it!  Yeeeeeeees!  Hooray!  The lottery guy was so surprised that he dropped the big hand bell and there was a huge noise and he screamed ‘You got it!  Congratulations!’

I was extremely surprised and couldn’t believe it because I had never won any lottery before.  Of course I was very happy but at the same time I started being anxious about what would happen next, as we had been too lucky that day so far.

It was about 4 pm and the concert started at 6:30 pm, so we went back to our accommodation, only a ten minute walk from the hall to calm ourselves down.

At the hotel, we had a little snack, changed into the white tour T-shirt which we have always worn on this tour (our uniform) and got perfectly ready mentally and visually by 5:30 pm…and off we went back to the hall and found an excited audience of!

About 10,000 people were already there, and we lined up to find our seats, East 3 Block 2nd lane 11, 12, which were super good seats, we called ‘god’s seat’!  We were absolutely delighted and thrilled!!

We felt all the audience’s huge excitement and anticipation, the concert started with the familiar introduction, then our goddess, Yuming, was walking towards the stage in front of us!  That stage set up was centre-stage so if our seats were the opposite side of the 2nd lane, we couldn’t have seen her passing through.  So we were super lucky indeed!!

superfans 

The concert was the very best, Yuming and the other performers played so well and I felt as if I had made eye contact with Yuming a couple of times.  The absolute highlight was when she pointed at me in the middle of  ‘Mamotte Agetai’ … I almost fainted with joy.  

We were dancing, jumping, clapping our hands, waving at her frantically, screaming, singing along, enjoying ourselves every minute, I have never been happier!

At the end of the show, all the staff were on the stage and they hugged each other, which was a very emotional scene and made us cry as well: the show, the tour, The Journey really is finishing…

There was a triple encore that was very rare, and moreover Masataka Matsutoya, Yuming’s husband & producer and director of the show and a great musician himself, accompanied her on keyboards for her last song, ‘Sotsugyo Shashin’, one of her iconic tunes and the best song for the final.

Mr and Mrs Matsutoya came down from the stage and they walked past in front of us, under the thunderous applause from the crowd.

Finally the overwhelming show and our miraculous day was over. 

Postcard from...Taman Ayun, Bali, Indonesia

Hey all,

I'm sunburnt! Today I went snorkeling between Bali & Lombok - it was great :)

I've seen amazing temples & a palace; Balinese dance & gamalan; all kinds of animals including bintorung, and wonderful sunsets. Did I mention the food? It's so delicious!!!

Leaving tomorrow, and looking forward to hearing all your holiday stories xxx

Jim