It's Magic!

I have a very nice story to tell you.

It was on the way back to the cable car to get down from the top of the mountain where Gifu Castle stood when I realized that my hat was gone.

Where did I lose it?

Then I remembered I took it off and put it in a coat pocket, perhaps, on an open-door observatory floor. It was very windy. I might have dropped it there. My friends, Marta and Junko suggested that we should go back and get it.  But I was not sure where I dropped it and I didn't want to walk a bumpy and steep path to the castle tower again only to find nothing there.

It's time to say good-bye to my hat -----this must be destiny for my lovely hat to leave me and be replaced with a new one.  I almost gave up on my hat before I identified a very familiar item sitting on a bench ahead.

OMG! My Hat! 

See, I was wrong. Now I learned I must have dropped it before we reached the castle tower.
Marta and Junko were so excited with this. My hat showed up in front of us the moment we discussed its loss. Someone was kind enough to pick it up and leave it here on a bench..... in front of a small shrine along the path.

Everything is at the mercy of gods.

We were overjoyed with this and laughed a lot.
Welcome back, hat. Happy to see you again. I will keep you company until you get worn out.

So I gave a little prayer of gratitude in front of the small shrine with my hat on.
Isn’t it a nice story?

Cupnoodles Museum

 

Over this weekend while we were visiting Yokohama, 

I went to Cupnoodles Museum and made my only one in the world package. 

It was really fun. 

You design a cup, select your favorite soup and toppings. 

At the end , you put it into an air cushioned bag to make a special souvenir.

Everything was so cool there.

More than anything else,  I learned about ANDO Momofuku(1910-2007), 

who invented Chiken Ramen , the world's first instant ramen 

and later made  Cup Noodles which are now popular in many countries of the world.

His enthusiasm for creativity was really amazing and inspiring to me.

I liked his philosophy for a creative thinking.

I'd like to note his six key ideas about his creative process.

These are true not only to any inventors 

but also true to any one who is anxious to make his/her dream come true.

Six key ideas

1)Discover something completely new

2)Find hints in all sorts of places      

3)Nurturing an idea                       

4)Look at things from every angle    

5)Don't just go with the status quo  

6)Never give up                           

Steam Locomotive runs in the city

This morning I saw several helicopters hovering over the sky above the station area.
"What's going on?"  Noisy sound really bothered me. Then I noticed that today and tomorrow the city runs a steam locomotive C56-160 for the first time in 27 years as an trial event.
Nagoya City Mayor, Kawamura is aiming the operation of locomotive  in the city will bring about some good effects on the economy.  During the demonstration run for two days, they make some research  on  surrounding areas in terms of noises, shakes, smoke and soot.  If the results clear the regulation, we may add a new attraction spot in Nagoya.
 
 A C56-160 will run tomorrow three times. It's a 20-minute-ride to a terminal.  A total number of 1,200 seats for two days were booked by lot in advance.
Here some more information on schedule.(Japanese only)

You may be also interested in this article, too.

pictures from TV news program：

By the way,  you may see some reflections in a picture.  
This is not a Psychic photograph , I'm afraid　:<

Reunion

Friendship is one of  the incredible miracles in our life.  No matter how long or how far we are apart,  the same experiences and concerns that we shared in those days never made our friendship fade away.  This turns to be more than happiness when we finally meet again face to face across time and space.

Last weekend all this happened to me . For the first time in 30 years.  This is about the Rotary students who shared two months  during the summer at college in the US, where the Rotary International provided us with the orientation before we left for each applied university in the US.

My close friend, Suchada stopped by Tokyo over the weekend on her way back to LA from BK. We spent two days together. We felt for two days as if we were all riding on a merry-go-round.

Yes finally we made it.  The instant we saw each other at the hotel lobby,   we didn't feel we were apart for such a long time.  Ahead of the fancy dinner with two boys, now gentlemen, in the evening,  three girls enjoyed the afternoon chatting to fill in each 30 years' interval.  And the dinner was just lavish enough to make it up for our 30 years. Our talk seemed endless before we knew we stayed too long at the restaurant.   We talked and laughed a lot. The food was awesome and the service was great.

Now 17 Rotary classmates are united in Facebook group page.  In this reunion with Suchada,  wherever we go,  at every visiting spot,  she and I were busy "check-in" in Facebook with each iPhones to update our photos and messages to the rest of our friends.  It was just fun because every time we checked in,  our friends of all different places on the earth  gave us "likes" instantly.   We giggled at the results.  We owed Facebook so much.  There will be another reunions in the near future in Japan, or somewhere else in this world.  No matter where it comes up,  we will share our exciting moments together.  And one day, we are hoping , all of us will get together at one place like we once used to do.   How thrilling !  This was a great weekend.


You may also like to read this.

A notepad in my bag

I feel so bad about my recent absence from updating my blog.  I haven't given up on it, though.  I just didn't have enough time to write. Well, that's an excuse.

This year　I've made up my mind to spend more time as a volunteer guide interpreter rather than that of a language interpreter in English.  It seems to me that there is more opportunity to act as an guide since recently we  don't have big international events such as the Expo or the international conferences in Nagoya that many volunteer interpreters used to make the best of their language ability during the past few years.
One difference between an interpreter and a guide is the latter can talk and explain with her own words and idea ,while the former  is required to translate what other speaks. Both are challenging and on a volunteer base I really like doing both.

Ever since I have more chances to guide visitors from abroad as a volunteer,  I have one addition in terms of the items in my bag.  I always keep a little notepad in my bag to write down some  information for them.  It may not be something new at all for those experienced guides.   Well it  occurs  to me more often when I am not in charge of guiding but at some other occasions such as when I just walk across the tickets machines at a local train or subway station,  I run into a foreign visitor at a loss. Most of the times, he/she is in trouble figuring out the way  to their destination. So I jotted down the directions on a notepad page and hand it out to them. It is interesting but I am often asked to write down the names of the stations, the buildings or even some sentences using the Japanese letters such as "この電車は刈谷駅で止まりますか？　Does this train make a stop at Karia station?"
This happened one day.  The young man from Christchurch who landed on Japan for the first time in his life asked me to do this. He explained that he was going to show this piece of paper  to anyone on a platform so that he would not take a wrong train.   "Ah, that is smart," I thought.
Since then I have a small note pad with me in my bag.  Just a piece of note can be a help.
At the same time, however, I have to keep it in mind that a foreigner in trouble is not necessarily a tourist but a resident and he/she speaks Japanese so well.

The First three days of the New Year

(snapshots from my New Year's holiday)

We had a very moderate weather during the first three days of 2012.
How are you enjoying your New Year's holiday at your place?
Hope you had a very special First day of the New Year.

On the first day of 2012, my husband's mother came back to us from her nursery house for a short visit. Before her, having our daughter back home from Yokohama at the end of December, our whole family got reunited again. Though my mother-in-law didn't speak much as she used to, she seemed that she enjoyed having Osechi (authentic food especially for the first three days of the New Year) together which I cooked all by myself taking three days to complete just in time. In fact, having the New Year is definitely the most hectic time for every housewife what with cleaning a house and with cooking in advance. Yet the New Year's holiday is the most exciting festive event in every family all through the year.

On the first day, we went out to our neighboring Shinto shrine to pray for our healthy and happy year. Getting a happy charm and drawing a sacred lot to tell my fortune of the year was such a fun. In fact the fortune I got said "Excellent luck!" How lucky me! Shopping arcades adjacent to shrines and temples were crowded with people which I loved to enjoy strolling along busy streets while picking some sweet dumpling or other traditional sweets from some popular food stands.

The New Year's Holiday is the biggest event on a calendar in our country. Many people move between their home and their parents living in the remote cities for a happy reunion.

　　

This trip meant a lot this year especially for those whose hometown located in Tohoku. Many lost their loved ones, many lost their home and many still don't have a place to settle down due to the tragic earthquake and tsunami. Yet people looked so happy to be back where they belonged to for the sake of their family bounds and friendship.

"Happy New Year to every one! May this year bring all of you lots of happiness and good health! "

You may like to read this one, too.

(the last two images are from the web news)

Challenge or Torture

Today's blog is about one of my unfavorite topics. "Evaluation." What evaluation am I talking about? It's about the proficiency of English as a foreign language.

I'll tell you the conclusion first. I had two kinds of language certificate examinations in summer and in autumn. It was my New Year resolution. One was the EIKEN Test in Practical English Proficiency and the other was The TOEIC test (Test of English for International Communication). Well the evaluation from the exams were like as follows: I was certified as a holder "pre-1st Grade"(second highest level) from EIKEN and as a holder of 895 scores out of 1,000 from TOEIC. Whew, I did better than I expected. EIKEN is my second and TOEIC my first trial.

These tests are very distinguished ones and performed widely throughout the country. Every year, millions of people mostly students, businessmen and other English learners take either of these tests for getting an admission for a higher education or their own evaluation or better job positions.

In fact, I took my first EIKEN way back when I was a freshman at high school. It was school compulsory. Yap, it's a long time ago! I haven’t had it since then. As for TOEIC. Since it had not been launched yet in my school days, I had never had it before and had not paid too much attention to it. I impudently didn't like the idea. I didn't like taking these kinds of exams and hated that my language ability was judged by scores. I think at that time I was slightly offensive against language proficiency judged by scores. Maybe I was young.

On the other hand, our society gradually had been active in the international world. English language had been required as a communication tool in various fields. With a huge population of studious English learners, these test results became an objective gauge that the learners themselves as well as the third parties could locate one's ability in the whole group. In short, it is that there are too many people with too many levels of English language ability.

That was the reason for my trial. My life for these years became more involved with English language. Being a member of a volunteer interpreter, I had to keep up with my English and to improve it. Sometimes the results of these tests are prerequisite for a requested job. Although I didn't like the score-oriented idea, I knew I was in a situation that I had to know my ability in a huge population of English learners.
I thought studying for the exams basically should be fun to me. Now I think I am quite in it as long as I enjoy studying English. Maybe I'll try out for better results next year. It's "a challenge" not "a torture." anymore.

Finally some of my friends who are professional and qualified interpreters/translators, tour guides, and language teachers eventually gave me a push to make one step forward. Otherwise, I don't think I accomplished my New Year resolution.

all the images above are from:
TOEIC http://www.toeic.or.jp/toeic_en/index.html
EIKEN http://stepeiken.org/

Errrr, this is not a joke !

Well, I don't have any excuse to make.
I would have been too busy to make any baskets. Look, I did it again !

I'm addicted to making baskets and I'm feeling sick now because I don't have enough eco tapes to complete one anymore. It's not enough. I have to wait until I get new rolls of tapes.

I should discipline myself to put me away from eco crafts. I should get my work started.
My, my, it's already Wednesday here.

So here is a picture!
The front one is the newest.
Thank you for sharing an excitement with me.





Here is one more picture on the process.
(click for a larger image)

Excuse me but AGAIN !

You may be fed up with finding the same kind of baskets in this blog. But my friends, here is my newest cute little basket! (clap! clap! clap!)

"Again? Doesn't she have any other things to tell us in life?"

Sorry about that. I just start to get into making baskets.

I am always admired so many blogger friends who are very talented with hand crafts making. Yes, I'm talking about YOU and YOU and YOU-----every one I know here. Whenever I see their beautiful crafts, art works ---errrr--- everything created with hands, I cannot help admiring them. I wish I could make something with my hands, too. Then some day I will be able to tell a friend of mine proudly on her birthday, "Happy Birthday. I made this for you." Isn't it nice to give something only one in the world? So I put myself into it. Thanks to you all for inspiring me.

Will you be generous enough to share these updating on making baskets for the time being? I'd be happy if I can show you some more for advanced works.

Um, sorry I have to tell you one thing before I leave you tonight. This week will be a busy one for me. So-----my next basket may not appear so soon.(sigh)

one of my favorite time

(Click for larger images)

I'm not a crafty person but sometimes I do love working on a so called "eco craft bag." Isn't it something that I can make "the only one in the world?"

In fact I had made these before but since then I didn't have enough time to put myself into it. But then again, I had another chance to learn this from the same friend that showed me how at the very beginning.

It was really fun especially when a teacher and her three students were all close friends. What a busy class with handcrafting and chatting! Sometimes we need this. You'll feel accomplished in the end----- in many ways!!!

See also here and here for the previous works.

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.

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.

"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.