Nobel Peace Prize winner - Barack Obama

The Nobel Peace Prize winner I'd like to introduce is Barack Obama. He was once the president of the United States of America. Also, he was different from previous presidents in that he was the first Afircan-American, person of color, and Hawaiian-born president.

Although he was once out-ranked by former First Lady Hillary Clinton in terms of name recognition, his skillful speeches and charisma attracted people, and he gained supporters as he continued to campaign.

While his policies are criticized for lacking specificity and being largely abstract & idealistic, his speeches have been described as the reincarnation of John F. Kennedy for their persuasiveness. In his speeches, he employs a technique of layering short phrases with frequent use of "we" and "you". In particular, two phrases "Change" and ""Yes, we can" were frequently used as catchphrases during the election campaign.

He was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2009. All media reports cited Obama's diplomacy as a victory for the prize, due to his vision of promoting international cooperation toward nuclear abolition, which he announced in Prague in April 2009, and his call for reconciliation and dialogue with the Islamic world, which he made in Cairo in June.

However, if we see only Obama's diplomatic ideals as the driving force behind his Nobel Prize, we are only seeing half the truth. There is another half which is not clear from the surface. That is the change in the US's security strategy that took place in the 2000s. behind this Nobel Prize lies the foundation of the cold, realistic US's security strategy, which is the globalisation of the use of advanced conventional warheads and the promototion of nuclear non-proliferation. 

Furthermore, Obama's visit to Hiroshima. the first by a sitting US president, was an historic opportunity of great inportance to commemorate the war dead and to revive international momentum toward a world free of nuclear weapons. At the same time, it symbolized the strength of the US - Japan alliance, an "Alliance of Hope", that has been built up over the 70+ years since the end of World War Two.

Posted for Eleanor

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

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

Postcard from... Australia

I went to Australia. We went to an aquarium with my uncle.

We saw lots of fish! It was very cool. I ate fish and chips.

I love fish and chips!

from Eleanor

(This journey took place in early March!)

My Dream Holiday

I would like to go to Australia. I can go with plane. I want to go to Wollongong in Australia. I can see my cousins. My cousins names are Joe, Louie, Fred and Charlie. I can play football with my best friends.

I want to make snacks with my aunt. Australia is very fun place. Do you want to go to Australia?


Posted for Eleanor.

Pen Pal from Wollongong, Australia

Nanako's psotcard from Singapore

Best friends at school

A holiday postcard - Eleanor (10)

Postcard from...Bulli, New South Wales (Australia).

Hi everyone,

Mrs. Turner's wonderful class

Maybe you noticed that Eleanor has not been around lately? Actually, she has spent a whole school term at a primary school near Sydney, with her cousin Joe. She has been 'home staying' with her four cousins, and her Aussie aunt & uncle (except they're both English!).

I took an extra day away from Luna (June 29) to arrive early, and surprise my little girl...we had a wonderful reunion at her bus stop, coming home from school. I got to meet her classmates - they had a lovely goodbye party for her on their last day of term. A very cheerful & chatty bunch of bright faces, shepherded by Mrs. Turner, who has been her teacher and overseen quite a transformation!

Last soccer practice with coach Mark

Before flying back, we had a big family reunion (my mum, my cousins and all their children - 19 of us in a local pizza restaurant) and time for a weekend of sport. Eleanor played her last football match for Woonoona and had to say good bye to her very best "bestie", and shared the goalkeeping gloves with cousin Joe. Lovely buzz around the mixed team, even though they were well-beaten. I went to support cousin Louis play rugby union in a floodlit U15 game, and Uncle Mike play in a 'seniors' league fixture (football) - very good standard & very fit. Memo to self....

Fish 'n' chips in Shellharbour

Long walks on the beach, fish & chips, family dinners - all squeezed into an extended weekend. Delighted to have my girl back; an amazing episode in all our lives. Homestay in 2017, anyone?

Brit awards - What are they wearing? (Click Jan-Feb 2016)

Many of you may be aware of Mary Glasgow as a publisher, but have you ever heard of Mary Glasgow Magazines? The magazines cover all CEFR bands and targeted mainly for young learners. It is an excellent reading resource for current topics that are exciting and engaging for kids and teens. Plus a subscription comes with a mountain of online resources, videos, competitions, extra news and much, much more! We can't sing enough praise for the magazines at Luna and love using them with our students.

Here are a few videos (courtesy of the Sock Puppets app) Eleanor and Nanako made about what the stars at this year's Brit Awards are wearing in the January-February edition of Click magazine. Watch this space for more content involving Mary Glasgow Magazines!

Black Cat Song

listen to ‘Black Cat Song’ on Audioboo

ghosts?!

I think you can see we had a lot of fun with our new topic yesterday - we will be talking about our bodies and doing more cool stuff. The trick I learned from my daughter's kindy was to use rubber bands as well as string to prevent tearing.

 

If you have got any cool masks you have made, why not share them?

Trainspotting

MosBurger's waiting room!

Platform three at Matsumoto station, just before eleven o'clock in the morning is the place to be!

We bundled up very warmly, and toddled off across the road to stand at the bus stop - just as the freezing rain started to come down. Brrr. The kids piled into MosBurger's heated entrance while Jim kept his eye up the road to Asama onsen.

We jumped onto the back seats and enjoyed the warm ride into the city centre, passing a number of our familiar landmarks along the way - mobile phone shop, hardware store, supermarket, cranes & diggers.

Back seat gang

We took the escalators up to the concourse, and the lift down to the platforms. We found Super Azusa & Shinano trains arriving from Shinjuku & Nagoya, as well as local trains on other platforms; we waved at them as they left, then welcomed the trains going the other way as well. The driver waved to us from his perch on a Super Azusa; so did the guard as the last carriage shot past on the way to Tokyo. Brilliant!

E351 series Super Azusa - platform 2

We saw one train going through a giant trainwash, and saw lots of others (we counted twelve) waiting or being shunted around. Sota knew all the trains' names, as well as all the Thomas ones. Eleanor and Hina were keen to stay behind the yellow line! Eleanor got a stunner off the ticket barrier - walloped shut in her face because Jim had the wrong ticket. Oops - not funny for Eleanor, as it sent her flying & was a real surprise...her nose is still red like Rudolph's :(

Chilling on platform 3!

Snack time in the warmth of the bus station (we saw a spotty bus on the way back from the station - Kevin says it had chicken pox?!) where there were lots of old ladies! We had time to kill so we popped up to the seventh floor in the lift and jumped on the escalators all the way down - no window shopping! Back seat gang again back to Luna - Sota fell asleep it was so nice & cosy.

Spotty bus spotted!

A great morning's trainspotting - beats learning the alphabet :)

Sota in September

We welcomed Sota to our little coven called pre-school last Friday, and a torrid time did he have. My oh my. Never actually seen a child wail themself to sleep before. Poor lad was distraught when mummy left. AS I was the only person he knew, he was naturally dangling from my neck most of the day - only really letting go to join in a run around towards the end of our day. He promised to come back today and play with "Thomas" - train bonkers - today.



For sure we had a few tears again this morning, but didn't last long, quickly joining in with the girls in their new challenge - finding matching pictures and circling them. He quickly got the hang of that and we all settled down to a number of tricky pics!



Everyone is doing really well in their bathroom training - only trouble is when everyone decides they want to go at the same time! Bit difficult to prioritise three year-old claims of urgency! Neither do we want to rush things along - very important they get the space & time they need to start managing this function. All in all, I think they are coping very well (touch wood, OK?).

Birthday bonanza - three times three, plus one

Today we celebrated four birthdays all happening within a week, within the pre-school, and invited friends to come and join us for the afternoon. Altogether, twenty little & large ones made up our birthday bash.

Our preparations were very disrupted as Yuki couldn't join us - Hijiri caught a bug he doesn't want to share - and therefor couldn't take care of food & 'crowd control'.

Our mums stepped up to the task but a flat battery saw lunch stalled in Jusco & the cake in danger of melting; indeed we all melted with the heat, even with the extra shade we put up along the riverbank. It was impractical to try & play the games we intended.

The food did make it just in time, and we had a lovely chatty lunch with the children sharing nicely and asking for things politely. I culture shocked my own daughter eating grapes, skin & all. Why wouldn't you?!
We found relief from the blazing sun in our great big main room, teaching our visitors a couple of our favourite songs and getting mums to roll around on the floor singing "ten in the bed"/get chased around the room playing "Mr. Wolf"! The splendid chocolate cake, with a nice pink 3 on it, met with approval and stuck to fingers & faces just right!
Check out all the photos on our Facebook page right here!
Of course we had a good sing for Naomi, Hinata, Eleanor and Sota - a great big  

Happy Birthday  

What's the time, Mr. Wolf?

Not three yet!

Happy New Year!

Trains, vowels and a picnic in November

Hijiri joined us in pre-school on Tuesday - he's been away for a while and was really sweet to see the girls literally take his hand and guide him back into the swing of things; it didn't take him long to get totally immersed in things and 'forget' about mummy! (He was going to come today, too, but mummy got a cold & best stay away from school).

As we know he into his trains, we showed him our train set and he helped us cobble it together - trains crashing into each other, bridges and tunnels in no time at all. Carnage!

We showed him a couple of our favourite songs and games, and he particularly liked the physical aspects of the Hokey Kokey and our vowel race, as you can see.

The weather today was so nice we just couldn't bear to stay inside; we took a blanket and had a picnic lunch on the riverbank outside Luna. The girls enquired about Trolls, but we couldn't see any :) It was a great change of scenery for us, with butterflies and ants to watch. There was a plane circling around, and a troop of kindy kids paraded past us too.

Lovely funshine and healthy appetites, all made us a bit sleepy in the afternoon. We know how Goldilocks felt when she gate-crashed the three bears' house - we watched her on DVD and started to remember the songs! Creative & problem solving puzzles are in high demand, no less so today. A new 60 piece one posed no real challenge, apart from size - took up the whole table!

Summer holidays!

We're all going to be having a holiday next week, so please remember to take your towel to the beach, put on the suncream, and to take an umbrella (it's pouring with rain today - the ducks in the river are having a ball!)

Hijiri and Eleanor made a go-cart out of the Lego cupboard this morning in Pre-School, and my back still hurts from pushing them around, 'again' and 'again'! Big turn out today and we had fun trying to cut things out of our colourful play dough - still plenty to go around. We think Jim enjoyed mixing the food colouring into it rather too much yesterday!

HOpe you all have a great Obon Holiday - read an English book if you've nothing else to do? Send us a postcard if you go somewhere nice - or share a picture here or on our Luna International group on Facebook?!