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.

RI Convention in Bangkok

 I am back from being in a pretty bad shape (that was why I didn't show up in FB for these weeks) and also a trip to Bangkok. Glad that I came over the two extremes for the last three weeks.
Two purposes for the trip to Bangkok were to attend the Rotary International Convention from 6-9 and to get reunited with one of my dear friends for these 30 years.   I was scheduled to arrive on 4th but due to my condition, I changed my flight on 6th. My husband left for BKK two days earlier.
I had the splendid days to get in touch with the amazing history and culture of Thailand and the pleasant encounter with people, especially my new friend,  Fay who is extremely talented and charming young Thai woman.
Unfortunately Suchada was not able to arrive at BKK from LA while I was staying but we are to make it next time somehow in BKK or in Tokyo with our friends.
In the House of Friendship, I met Mike, an Alumini Relations Specialist from the Rotary Foundation and had a nice suggestion to get reunited with more friends who spent time together in Statesboro, GA in 1980.
I'll try to write him sometime soon to get more information.
Hey, 17 guys, just wait for my next report. Oh my, where on earth is Yuna now?   We miss her sooo much.

Celestial Show in March

"Fly me to the moon and let me stay among the stars.
Let me see what spring is like on Jupiter and Mars"

-----Well, it was not Mars tonight but Venus.
If the clouds were clear, we could have seen the beautiful show of the trio---Venus and Jupiter aligning with the young crescent Moon in the west sky.

Unfortunately the sky in Nagoya tonight was covered with clouds.
I saw only brilliant Venus and the young crescent moon.
Yet I definitely saw Jupiter just below the moon in my heart.
We will enjoy the quartet adding Mars with tonight's three in 2015!
How romantic!

Left or Right

Every time I display the Hina Dolls on our house alcove in time for the Festival on March 3, my husband never fails to bring about a topic just like an annual event.
It's a matter of the position of the two dolls. One is the Emperor Doll and the other is the Empress Doll. Now when I place the two dolls, I always put the Emperor on left and the Empress on right on the display. If you have a chance to look at all those Hina dolls decorations at the department stores or in the Internet, you will see most of them follow this position. Most Japanese take it for granted that the Emperor Doll sits on the left and the Empress Doll on the right. But my husband has the different idea.

popular position

Kyoto position

If you visit Kyoto,the ancient capital over a thousand years, you will notice the position of the two dolls is opposite from the position of our own dolls at home-----left right reversal, so to speak.
My husband would rather follow the Kyoto position. Why? Because in the ancient aristocratic society of Kyoto, "left" is considered more superior, sacred and divine than "right" during our long history. So when the ancient loyal couple appeared to the public, the Emperor had a seat on his left side and the empress on his right side. This custom which was deeply connected with the Chinese philosophy. It had been practiced over centuries until the new government changed its custom when the Meiji Emperor was crowned in 1867 in Tokyo, the new capital.

There are some explanations on why this manner was changed to the reversal after a long history of left-dominated value. At that time the government was open its doors to the foreign countries. It is said that they followed the western style and modified the ancient habits to the new ones. They changed our rule in the name of “internationalization.” Since then, our Emperor and Empress have appeared in the same way like many other loyal couples in the western world. This also affected the position of the Hina dolls which represented the Emperor and the Empress. Most people applied the same rule even to the Hina Dolls. Hmm, that was a problem. The whole display accompanied by an ancient aristocratic custom was disturbed and meant nothing.

I just wondered if there is a universal rule in the world. I saw some images of the loyal couples in the Internet. The pictures I saw didn’t convince me that they had a definite rule in terms of the standing position for the loyal couples in the world. It seems that there are both or some cases are exceptions. If there is not an universal rule, our people wouldn't have made a mess in the Hina Dolls position today. I feel so grateful that people of Kyoto have kept our ancient value in Hina Dolls display without being disturbed by a fraud "internationalization” that the old government declared.

examples of the loyal poses
(click for a larger image)

By the way, as far as our Hina dolls are concerned, I’d rather have them stay in the same position, though. If I changed, they might complain with saying,
“ Yuck, what is this all about? We don’t feel at home. We don't want changes. "

Listen ! Just a little sign of Spring will help us

It is often said that time heals one's sorrow but we have learned this is not true for people in Tohoku area at this moment. For many of them time has stopped since March 11, 2011.

The arrival of spring ----- it means very special to every Japanese this year, since many of those who met the huge disaster are now trying to make one step forward out of desperation, anger, and sorrow.

It was raining yesterday. It was chilly. And somewhere in my garden little guests called "Uguisu(Japanese bush warbler)" were singing on trees. In fact they showed up last week. They were too small for me to find on brances but their singing was so rich and clear. Their arrival is a sign of the spring.

It's ironic. We are just helpless against the mighty nature. However it is that nature that gives us lots of comfort and courage for the future.

For many victims time has stopped since then. Time never heals their minds. Yet I sincerely hope a sign of spring such as singing birds and cherry blossoms will tell people that they are "alive."

Too many arrows

This is just like my daily life.

Too many things to do in this and that directions.
I see my resolutions, desires, works, and wishes in the distance.

It seems to be hectic but fun.

Hadaka Maturi and tiny pieces of mochi

These are just some tiny little three pieces which were shared from the huge 4 tons of Kagamimochi（rice cake） that were offered on the alter at Konomiya Shrine of the city of Inazawa, Aichi Prefecture.

Across the nation, we have so many unique ritual events so called "Maturi", literally means "festival." At Konomiya Shrine, every year at this time of the season, people hold "Hadaka(naked) Maturi" which large crowds of half naked men trying to touch a divine man of the year in their rough and wild fray.
It is believed that a divine man can ward off bad evils so anyone who touches him can be blessed and free from every evil throughout the year. It’s quite rough and wild event but has been handed down for centuries.

After the festival, the huge rice cakes are devided into thousands of pieces and turn out to be an offering to people. A friend of mine gave these to me wishing my family may be blessed with good health. How? I cooked them and served with stewed red beans and sugar. That’s one of the very popular way to cook mochi(rice cake). My husband, my son and me had them. Sorry about my daughter and my mother-in-law. They were not with us at home for the moment. Since these tiny offerings were so important and limited, three were just all she could keep for us. I'm pretty sure the Shinto gods are generous enough to bless all of my family. Right?


All the three images here are from the website of Konomiya Shrine. http://www.konomiya.or.jp/

Edible Fujisan

Here you are! Senbei(sen-bay)! ----- Japanese traditional rice crackers baked and brushed simply with sweet soy sauce or additionally coated with green seaweed or crystal sugar , sesame, red pepar----- In fact there are varieties of flavor. Besides flavor, there are varieties of shape as well such as a square, a circle shape or other modified shapes.

Recently my daughter brought a bag of senbei as a souvenir when she visited Shizuoka Prefecture which is famous for Fujisan(Mt. Fuji), a symbolic mountain of our country. She found a unique shape of senbei at a store.

You see, how these senbei look like Mt. Fuji! Just pleasant idea to take an advantage of a prefecture being at the foot of this symbol of Japan.

Delicately they are coated with different taste toppings. Guess what each senbei represents? Yes they have a reason for this. Not being coated in random. Look at a picture of Mr. Fuji above. You see an answer.
Amazing! Each represents the four season. Mt. Fuji senbei covered with white snow on top, one with trees of which leaves changed colors into red, one with green leaves in spring and presumably with no sprinkle on senbei representing summer. How do you like this idea?

It surely added casual topic to our tea time.

January 17

(image from Yomiuri Online)

Seventeen years have passed since then.

The disaster took away more than 6,000 lives ,
which left a great sorrow and grief in their families and friends.

And

we will share the prayers again today at the exact time
when the Great East Japan Earthquake took place last March.

My thought is with them throughout the day today.

also my previous post in 2005

Reunion on Facebook

(young peer group of various nationalities)

It was in 1980 when a total number of 60 or more Rotary International ambassadorial scholars from the world got together at Georgia Southern College in Georgia, US. It was for an orientation for us to get prepared for the following school year to fulfill an ambassadorial task as well as an academic purpose. 　Two months was long enough to develop our life-long friendships. We shared lots of time with studying and attending activities prepared by the Rotary. We were much concerned about why we were there. We had enough time to talk about various topics such as our own concerns, country, culture, politics, academic interests and so many. We were just so frank to expose ourselves into a unique community and eager to understand the differences.

Of all my close friends, including me, none of us applied to the same universities in the US. It meant we would have little chance to meet again. That brought us about a desperate moment of good-bye at a municipal airport while carrying a large luggage and going through a gate for each destination in the US at the end of summer.
If Apple or Windows had been there with us those days, it would not have been such a sad farewell. I think they arrived in a society a little bit late for us.
Since then, many had failed to keep in touch with one another except one or two.

Now this is what happened last fall. Owing to Facebook, we were united again! It was really amazing and dramatic. The only thing to do was that you just type out a friend's name in a friend search box. Then, look what you got there. Like we drew a fishing net, we found out familiar faces one after another. Sometimes we had to ask others in the Internet whether a profile picture we saw was exactly the one we had been looking for. Yes, it has been 30 years. It sometimes was not easy to tell. But most of the time, this kind of anticipation turned to be a big scream of joy at a computer screen. "Bingo! We got you!"
This way, now we had 17 members in our Facebook group all from different continents on earth.

(right click to open this in a new window for a larger image)

We're now seriously thinking of the whole reunion in person somewhere in the world not on Facebook anymore . In a timely fashion, in May, the Rotary International will have the International Conference in Bangkok, Thailand. Ahead of the main conference there will be also the Rotary Alumni Meeting for granted students. It would be nice if some of them can get together during the event. Yet, taking the mileage indicator into consideration, Bangkok might be too far for some of us. The choices are Argentine, Belgian, Brazil, Egypt, Finland, France, Indonesia, Japan, Mexico,Thailand and USA. Wow! I don't have any idea.