Help for chick

When I was a junior high school, I found a chick at my feet at bicycle parking in school. Although I looked around, it seemed there was no parent bard. I worried about the chick if it can’t go back to a nest itself as it was too young. I shouldn’t have helped a wild animal, but I brought it back my home for help as I couldn’t overlook it.

Next day, I contacted a zoo to know how to take care it. The zoo took it under care although there was no experience for them to take care a type of bird. They did best effort to help it. However, I received a call from zoo after few days and they informed me of its death. I was so sad to hear that and also regretted what I did. The zoo said that they found what kind of food and how they should have given the type of chick the food after its death. Also, they advised me not to touch wild animals as far as possible.

A name of the bird spices is greenfinch which has yellow wings to a part of body. They are called hiwa in Japanese and they usually live closed to us. Therefore, I occasionally see them and still bring back the memory.

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