Hikaru Utada - a biography

 Utada Hikaru is one of the most famous singers in Japan.

She was born in New York in 1983, and lives in London now. She debuted in 1998 when she was only fifteen years old. She became quickly popular because of her beautiful & unique voice. So her first single "Automatic" sold more than two million copies and her first album "First Love" topped the Japanese album sales chart.

Hikaru Utada

Her songs were were getting more & more famous. Therefore, "Flavor of Life", which was released in 2007, recorded first place of degital songs sales in the world. She also received a prize named 'Artist of the Year' in japan Gold Disc Grand Prize. However, in 2010, she suddenly declared a pause. Nobody knew the reasons. It made many people sad and they though she might not come back. 

Then, in 2016, she suddenly started her activities again. Actually, she married and gave birth to her baby. "Fantome, which was first released when she came back was recorded first place in Billboard Japan. It show how she is loved by many Japanese people. 

Today, Utada Hikaru's songs are used by many daramas, animes, and movies. She and her songs are loved by many people all over the world.

Posted for Akane

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

Visiting Grandma in the woods

A sixth grader writes...

My favourite day of the week is Friday. In the afternoons I usually sweep the floor, then I sometimes go to the supermarket in the evening.

We're shopping at AEON Mall. My favourite shop is a speciality tea shop & AEON Style. I bought two sweaters. They're so cute!

I'm walking to school. We always have fun. Yesterday, it was rainy. I hung out with my friends. It was fun.

My brother's birthday is October twenty-ninth. I buy a cake and a present with my mum.

Posted for Akane (12)

Better than karaoke - What do you have?

Everybody Up is a popular series here at Luna and after watching the following clip you can understand why. The songs are wonderful and allow for us to add our own actions to get our students interacting with each other. The following video is from my new Monday class and there's no lack of enthusiasm! Leave a comment of your favourite song from the Everybody Up series.

Saturday night party

Must be something about the time of year - another round of beers and food with classmates and colleagues!

Tonight a tried and trusted Chinese restaurant in town, with my NHK brigade. I managed to have a good chat with Takeshi and Chisato this evening, and we schemed to visit NZ soon. Masa met Tana, and managed not to ask her anything about South Africa in English - a shame as he is going there in March. This evening we were probably saying goodbye to Akane again, who has to move back to Kofu. We will miss you, so make sure you come back for the summer BBq at least?

We were delightfully served by a top secret waitress, who usually shouts 'hello' at me, but was a bit quieter tonight - think she was worried I'd dob her in!

A fun night out again, thank you guys - cold rainy walk home though!
(More photos here)

Postcard from Tahiti

Hi, Jim & Everyone, How are you?

I'm in Tahiti, French Polynesia. There are so beautiful lagoon, the horizon & cobalt blue sky. weather is wonderful, it's around 25C. I feel fresh everyday. I can see many tropical fishes from my aquatic cottage. And then, I played dolphins which were extremely clever & cute, you know. It was an amazing experience for me. I wish I could stay here longer.

From Akane. See you.

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Poster project - Germany