Last Sunday, I went to the local Library/Community Centre for the annual International Friendship Festival in my town. There were stands selling food from different countries and many of the stands were run by people from those countries. There were people from Thailand, the Philippines, the Sudan, Vietnam, China, Mongolia, Iran and India. I did not realise there were so many people living in my town from other countries.



As well as different food we could try, there was also a speech competition where some young people gave speeches in Japanese. After that there were some performances, mainly dancing. The best was a dance performed by a young woman from Mongolia. She was dressed in her traditional Mongolian costume; large boots, silk pants, a long silk gown, and a kind of pointed hat. When the MC announced there was going to be a Mongolian dance performance I thought it would be many people, but then it was just this one woman. She did not seem nervous at all. The music started up and she danced around. This dance involved a lot of moving around in a circle. I can imagine what it must look like with lots of people doing it. The music sounded kind of Indian or Arabian, mixed with traditional Chinese.



After that, some Pilipino children danced. It was something called a "Bamboo Dance". There were two women kneeling on the floor, each holding the end of some long bamboo sticks. They would bang them on the ground and then bang them together in a rhythm. The children had to jump over the sticks when the women banged them together while they were dancing. After they finished, they invited members of the audience to try and people got up and had a go. It looked pretty hard.



Next, the MC came on and announced there was going to be a special guest. Everyone was surprised, no one knew what was happening. Then, some Michael Jackson music started playing and the MC said the guest was Michael Jackson. Onto the stage came a man dressed as Michael Jackson doing the moonwalk. Actually the man was the Mayor of my town, dressed up in Michael Jackson clothes. The Mayor has quite a sense of humour. I have met him quite a few times, because my wife works for the city government and my wife's father is a member of the City Council. The Mayor came to my wedding and made a speech. I wish he dressed as Michael Jackson at my wedding!



Everybody had a good time, especially my daughter who is seven months old. Recently she has learned how to wave, but I do not think she knows what is means yet. She was waving to everyone and they were surprised, but they waved back. My daughter was very pleased.


▼▽▼▼【講師】Eddie先生のバックナンバー━━━━━━━━
・【The Election】2009.09.04 (Fri)

In my previous blog, I discussed "being hot." So for all those who are "temperature challenged," this blog serves two purposes. First, thinking "cool" now may help you out in your so-called current predicament. Second, it may help to curb the "It's cold" comments which are sure to follow the summer.

What is cold? The Boomerang Nebula is the coldest known natural location in the universe, with a temperature of -272.15 degrees C. Man, that's cold ! But check out these photos, it's also very beautiful to look at :

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boomerang_Nebula

Ironically, the super-cold Boomerang Nebula was formed from a hot star. It was formed from the high-speed gases flowing out from it ( 164 km/second ) and is expanding rapidly into space. This expansion is the cause of the nebula's very low temperature.

Now, I grew up in a cold environment too, but NOT as cold as the Boomerang Nebula ! I was born in New York, and we had winter temperatures sometimes as low as -30 C. I remember small pieces if ice crystals forming in my nose, numb fingers that needed mom's help to unfasten buckles on my galoshes, getting my tongue stuck to an iron grid on the ground ( that's a long story ), losing a toenail to frostbite while ice skating, and having frozen mittens that could stand up by themselves against a wall.

As a child, there were many wonderful memories in the cold of winter. Our family lived next to a catholic school. There was a small hill next to it, and we would sled down the frozen surface across an empty Sunday parking lot. One sled trip would take about 30-45 seconds. It was so cool ( pun intended ) to glide freely across the ice, without any effort. Of course, we made up for it on the long walk back, and walking up an icy hill in golashes was no easy feat !

Kids can easily turn a blizzard aftermath into an adventure. I remember being astounded that we couldn't get out of our house after a record New York snowfall. My dad got a shovel from our garage, and said we had to remove the snow blocking the front door and put it in our bathtub... because there was no place to throw it ! Then us kids pulled 2 empty sleds to the local store, with my dad leading the way. We came back with grocery bags on our sleds and smiles on our faces. I still remember that decades later. What an adventure !

▼▽▼▼【講師】Rob先生のバックナンバー━━━━━━━━

・【It's Not Hot !】2009.08.28 (Fri)

Do you know the summer sport of my home country, cricket? I'm sure you've heard of it but I'm also sure that you have no idea of the rules. Don't worry, I'm not going to write about the rules. If I did, it would take about ten years to explain! I just want to explain how much I have fallen in love with this sport again.


This summer there has been a series of matches between England and Australia. The series is called The Ashes because over a hundred years ago when England lost to Australia, many journalists were so shocked that they said it was the end of cricket and the equipment should be burnt!


England and Australia have a very long, aggressive rivalry. For many years Australia has beaten England because they were more talented, more aggressive, and mentally stronger. However, recently England has become mentally tough too. Cricket is no longer just a game for gentlemen in England. We have become nasty!


I watched all the matches on the Internet in the evening. I should apologise to my family for ignoring them during this time! I was totally hooked on the outcome. Cricket is a very psychological game. Each match lasts 5 days and sometimes no one wins. Can you understand that? The game has many twists and turns and often ends with a very tense conclusion. This year was no different. I was incredibly nervous watching the final deciding game but luckily England won and took The Ashes. I was so happy but had no one to celebrate it with. Everyone I know in Japan isn't interested. Even Eddie, though he is from Australia, doesn't like the game so I couldn't even have any pleasure from gloating about it to him.


I think cricket is the one thing I miss more than anything from home. Japan of course has no interest or understanding of the game. But if you meet anyone from India, Pakistan or Sri Lanka you will realize that they love cricket even more than English or Australian people. They are crazy about it.


If you want to talk to me about "googlies", "wickets", "LBW" and "third man" then let's talk about cricket some time. I promise you will be really confused!

▼▽▼▼【講師】Anthony先生のバックナンバー━━━━━━━━
・【Summer Holidays】2009.08.21 (Fri)

There are those of us who like to have their future planned out, and those of us who prefer spontaneity, reveling in the uncertainty. I like to think that I am somewhere in between the two; I try to do enough planning to give myself some direction and a sense of my goals, but I don't always worry if things don't go exactly the way I expect them to.


The end of this month will mark the third anniversary of the day I moved to Japan. The odd thing is, though, that only four years ago if anyone had told me that I would be moving to Tokyo to start a career after graduating from university, I probably would have laughed in their face and brushed it off in disbelief. But nevertheless here I am, having now lived in Japan much longer that even I would have guessed after first arriving.


Over the last few months and in various conversations with my close friends, I have had a little bit of time to reflect on where I am now in spite of how inconceivable my current circumstances might have seemed in the past. These reflections have occasioned me to think about some of the other things in my life that haven't gone the way I thought they would have, starting with the university that I wanted to attend and leading all the way up to my current living arrangements.


While these things would take an awfully long time for me to explain in detail--and I may explain more of it in future posts--I think it's pretty safe to say that life often takes some very unexpected twists and turns. And those twists and turns, as many of my friends and family in America are discovering, can be disappointing as often as they are exciting. But based on my own experiences, and still mindful that some of these unexpected situations end up much worse than we would like them to, I think that these events can help us to mature and make us wiser.


What is the practical application of this maturity and wisdom? I think that it enables us to give good counsel to other people who have to make important decisions about their lives. I also believe that it can help us to be more sympathetic to others when they are going through tough times.


If we are lucky, sometimes those events in our lives that end up completely different than how we had things planned can actually turn out better than what we might have imagined for ourselves. (I myself am certainly thankful for the life I have now.) I certainly hope that those unforeseen changes of circumstance in your own life turn out to be more often fortuitous than unfavorable. And in the end, maybe the best lesson that we can take from these experiences is that sometimes the best things in life come to us when nothing goes according to plan.

▼▽▼▼【講師】Melanie先生のバックナンバー━━━━━━━━ ・【Home for the (Summer) Holidays】2009.08.14 (Fri)

I was very interested in the recent election. Actually I am interested in all elections; I read about the elections in the U.S., Germany, France, Holland, Turkey, India etc with interest. In Japan however, I am especially interested because I have lived here for five years.


I feel that now is a very exciting point in Japanese history. One party has ruled country almost continuously for more than fifty years. It is amazing to think that their time at the top has ended. Obviously they ruled over Japan during a lot of changes, and saw Japan achieve great successes. Many Japanese people I have spoken to recently have expressed mixed feelings about the LDP; many feel that they have not been doing well in recent years, but are nervous about changing.


My Western point of view is that if they have not done well recently, change them! Even if the new government is not so different, which is what many people say, it is still good to change the government so they do not get too comfortable and remember that they will lose their jobs if they do not at least try to do what is best. For most of us, doing a bad job at work will have some negative consequences. We work to the best of our ability because we want to avoid those negative consequences. Every politician should know that there will be consequences for their positive or negative performances as well.


I was interested to see Taro Aso in T.V. yesterday looking very bitter. My wife told me he resents the mass media coverage of the election and blames the media for such a large loss, believing that they covered the election in a biased way. My opinion is that any man who can be so insensitive to the situation of normal people and says that poor people should not get married and have children at a time when Japan is facing a serious economic recession and unemployment is high only has himself to blame!
It was interesting to see his reaction to the election results. We could blame his actions on his personality but I think his bitterness is also a signal of something deeper...


Everyone expected the LDP to lose, but many people (including many LDP members) were surprised at how big the DPJ's victory was. My theory is that the LDP planned to lose the election, but still retain enough seats in the Parliament to form a strong opposition. While in government, the LDP experienced a lot of obstruction from the DJP, who had gained enough seats in the Parliament to prevent a lot of the LDP's proposals being passed. Many people, both within the LDP and in the wider community pointed to the deadlock in the Parliament as a key factor in the government's inability to deal with the problems currently facing Japan. The LDP did not have enough of a majority to do what they wanted to do; as a result the government was handicapped and the LDP was blamed for this situation. I think that in the recent election, the LDP wanted to cause the same situation for the DPJ - lose the election, but keep enough seats to maintain a strong opposition to the DPJ, obstruct the DPJ's efforts and criticise the DPJ for their inability to govern in the same way the LDP has been criticised recently. Then, after a period of deadlock and inaction for which the DPJ would appear responsible, the LDP could claim that changing to the DPJ was a dangerous gamble that has harmed Japan. I believe some LDP members either planned or hoped for this type of scenario. Now, however, with the huge majority the DPJ has gained, this option is not available to the LDP. It will be interesting to see what happens next...
Gambatte Nippon!

▼▽▼▼【講師】Eddie先生のバックナンバー━━━━━━━━
・【Monkey DNA】2009.08.07 (Fri)