Wednesday, February 23, 2011

Changings in Japanese female names

(ranking names for babies for 2009-2010 reported by the Insurance Company)

According to the annual survey conducted by one of the big insurance companies in Japan, a girl's name ended with the Chinese character(kanji) “子”(ko) has risen to 2nd in ties on the list for the first time in 27 years. This name was "Riko" which was marked the 55th in the previous year.
Why is this topic featured? You may be wondered.
In Japan, traditionally the Chinese character(kanji) for female names such as "子"(ko) is added to the end such as in Mitsuko( famous for Guerulan perfume named after Mitsuko Coudenhove-Kalergi, the wife of an Austrian diplomat in the end of 19th century) and as in Michiko (our loyal Empress). I would say roughly up until 70s, this general rule are very much reflected in ranking. I remember when I was a student, almost all the girls names I found in the classmates list were ended with "ko" like Mariko, Kyoko,Yoko, Kimiko and more. Most parents were likely to follow this traditional fondness because for one thing the origin of using “子” had a long historical value back to the ancient era through samurai period to the modern era. “子” had been used for women whose families were socially influential and powerful. Adding ”子”(ko) is a prestigious style of naming. The tendency has been then gradually changed since 1980s, parents have been more likely to prefer unique and only-one-name in the world for their girls. “子” has been gradually put away from their choices as being out of date or out of fashion. So here are some from the recent ranking, Sakura(cherry blossoms) Haruna(an image of popular young celebrity on TV?), and Yume(dream)------whew it's sometime so hard to read these names in kanji even for many Japanese like me since young parents trying to dig out so many uncommon kanji that makes us difficult to read.
Now then people come to think “子”(ko) is not as bad as ever? That might be a good reason for "Riko" ranked in the second this time. Yes, history may repeat in naming too.
Oh by the way, my daughter has no “子” in her name and -----curiously enough, me neither.

Sunday, February 20, 2011

Ready to go!



It's now 10:02 PM Sunday Feb.20 in Japan.
I worked for my OWOH giveaway packages on Sunday afternoon.
This is one of the most exciting part of the giveaway.
I just pictured each of my packages going to make a long journey and finally getting to each mailbox of two winners, Mimi and aliceinparis.
These are just two small packages but I hope they will make you smile.

Wait for a while. They'll be leaving home tomorrow.

Saturday, February 19, 2011

Have a nice weekend!


I didn't see him for two weeks. It was so hard to see him off at the time the Internet was not so widely used in our daily life. Oh, it was just a story about 10 or 20 years ago not an old story of half a century ago, I'll tell you.
Thanks to the arrival of the new technique, I don't have to send an air mail in care of the hotel front desk, nor make a call, nor ask the hotel front to hand out a fax document to him while he was out.
Anyway, we've been doing this for years and years since we got married. Now I don't have to worry too much anymore. I can get him on the mobile phone, send him a message to it and to his PC anytime. The world is surely getting much smaller and so is our bloggers' friendship over the webs.

I've been busy for this past week what with visiting new friends from OWOH on the net and what with my daily life. Now he's back and the things in the house are going around a bit faster.

Have a nice weekend to all of my friends.
Is there any plan over the weekend?
Whatever it is, have a restful one. Another Monday will be with us so soon.

Friday, February 18, 2011

OneWorld OneHeart 2011 Winners !



The Lucky Winners are:

Mimi from "Screaming Mimi" #16visitor
&
aliceinparis from "Alice in Paris" #88visitor

Hey, Congratulations!
I've decided to draw two winners for 2 sets of my giveaways
because there were much more visitors than I expected.
Thank you!
I'm going to e-mail two of you soon to exchange some more information
for sending out packages.

(Please check my first post on OWOH2011 here.)

Thank you Lisa and hundreds of participants for welcoming me.
I took part in OWOH for the first time. It was just about 10 days ago that I sent my email to Lisa about the entry. It was just amazing right after Lisa added my name in her list, the visitors started coming in eventually with 134 women leaving their kind and sweet words in my blog.
I enjoyed my visits to many bloggers and their visits to mine. I'll definitely go back each of my new friends to know more about her enthusiasm, her life and her culture.
OWOH2011 was over but for me it is the beginning of new friendships.
Let's stay in touch.

Saturday, February 12, 2011

The problem


Since last night there has been a problem that many of my pre-posted pictures don't show up.
Some don't lose links but some do.
I found out it might be a bug problem which shows in many other bloggers posts.
I'm going to leave this for the moment to see if there is an easy way to get rid of this.
It's really disappointing and irritating that the pictures are not shown
and I have to click each blank to see it.
Sorry about this inconvenience.
If you have any good advice, I would be most happy.
I'm going to work on this in the evening.

Thank you for visiting.

Tuesday, February 08, 2011

Over 70 comments came in


It's been less than 24 hours since I posted "One World One Heart" last night.

This is "OMG." Is this what OWOH is all about?
My post on OWOH has still been attracting bloggers over 60!
I've never had such a large number of comments in any of my previous posts before.
Every single comment is so sweet and heartfelt.
More than anything else, I feel so glad to hear that they like my posts in the past as well as the giveaway. You know, it's such a nice compliment for me whose native language is not English.

Thank you so much every one who kindly came in here today.
Now I feel so happy that all of a sudden, I got so many friends, that I'd never expected to come across in this world unless I had made one step forward and joined OWOH.

It'll take for a while for me to visit your blogs but I'm sure I will gladly do and will enjoy"talking" to you.
Let's stay tuned until we see who will be the lucky one!
We have still a week to go.

Monday, February 07, 2011

"One World One Heart 2011"

Hello! Welcome to "My Hodgepodge".
I'm so happy to join "One World One Heart" from Japan.

A couple days ago, Jeany in Germany whom we've known each other in this blogsophere over the years, introduced me in her blog about "One World One Heart" project. As I was reading what it was all about, I was carried away with this project for bloggers across the countries.

"One World One Heart" project had been brought to all the bloggers(strictly limited as blog owners) throughout the world by one artist whose name is Lisa. Please visit her blog and learn more in detail about "One World One Heart".
This is a huge giveaway project that I've never run into before.
Go and visit Lisa's page to see more than 800 participants enrolling in this project with beautiful give-away presents. It is something like exchanging handmade gifts but there is more to it. You will know how large a number of women in the world, keeping their blogs, expressing their own thoughts and own life-styles, opening their doors to the outward world. By getting a chance to visit their blogs, we'll be able to know one another. That's friendship. Thus, the whole world is getting smaller. How nice this is.

So I've also made up my mind to join this project by presenting my giveaway. Of course, you can join the project just by visiting others , enjoying their blogs and leaving a message saying you'd like to sign up for a give away.

Well, to tell you the truth, I'm not good at handcrafts.
I love making things with my hands if I have time, but this is only for my own pleasure. None of them makes a good gift to be sent out.
So here are some cute little goodies I've bought from some shops before for adding to my favorite collections.

Let's enjoy "One World One Heart" together. This time it will be the fifth and will be the last project after all. How lucky that I joined the last "One World One Heart"project.

Here are my giveaway gifts: a very small set of dolls and three small pocket envelops.


The dolls are called "Hina Dolls." On March 3 we celebrate the Girls Festival in Japan by decorating Hina Dolls at home. Those small pocket envelops are originally for putting in small amount of money to hand out to others in Japan. They are too cute just for envelops.


In order to join my give away, please leave your comment , your blog URL and your e-mail address here. I'll choose one lucky winner by lot.(I'm ready to use one lottery free soft from the web.) Don't forget to write your e-mail address. Otherwise, if you were the winner, I've got to choose the second person.

Finally thank you Lisa for your taking time for this project for five years.

Sunday, February 06, 2011

Besides blogging


When I opened my eyes this morning, I didn't get what had happened to me. 'What time is it?' I grabbed my alarm and could not believe it was past 10 o'clock on Saturday morning. Shocked. My alarm clock was definitely on but I had not heard anything. Thanks god, it was Saturday and I didn't have to send off my husband to work much earlier in the morning. (He's in India now.) For these weeks I was quite busy with this and that. I felt so exhausted with all the works at my computer.
Having a slight headache, I just wanted to stay away from my desk even forgetting about blogging. I didn't want to sit at it another minute.
There are several things that I'm always longing to spend time on, which is nothing to do with a computer. But for these weeks I didn't have time for any of them.
These are 1) reading books 2) having favorite tea of the day 3) writing one or two letters to my computer-illiterate friends 4)watching a video 5)water painting 6) taking pictures 7)arranging flowers 8) going out for meeting friends or just for shopping.
So today I read a book with my favorite blended tea and wrote a letter to my ex- English teacher in NY and finally drove to my parents to say hello.

Probably, I've got to learn to make a good balance in-between my work and my wishing lists.
I should not keep some of them too long in my list especially as for 5) 6) and 7). I've got to find out the way to make one step forward for these three goals.

Well, what makes you feel comfortable when you feel so exhausted with your job or daily life?

Thursday, February 03, 2011

We throw beans today!


Before I started my post tonight, I just checked my past posts and learned that I hadn't posted on this topic ever since 2005. Wow, that's quite a long time ago.
It's probably because it is not a family event anymore with my children growing old enough and being reluctant to throw food. Well, who on earth ever feel happy about throwing food on the ground?
However no matter people would say about the Japanese throwing food, as long as it's Feb.3, it is just OK. We throw beans inside and outside the house! Young parents who are usually determined to discipline their children to be good, will hand out some roasted soy beans to them and tell them to scatter all over! They all start throwing while shouting, "In with good luck. Out with bad luck." After all, this is one of our traditional events which has been enjoyed for years and years.
So maybe you'd like to know more about this event. Let me link my past post in 2005 here.
By the way, though my children grow old, I already prepared some beans from several shops. Even at the bakery shops, they sell some yummy buns in the shape of a cute goblin.
So tonight in the evening I will throw some beans on behalf of all of my family for our happiness shouting as "softly" as my neighbors won't hear me but as much "softly" as good fortune can hear me.