Tuesday 5 March 2024

Surf & Snow in Naeba vol. 44

When did we come here to the Naeba ski resort last time?  In 2006 probably?  The Naeba Prince Hotel was totally different from my faint old memory.  The hotel was a whole Yuming world: the entrance was full of flowers celebrating Yuming, the ski hill viewing restaurant offered a special lunch with five different cocktails inspired from her songs.  And full of happy people who didn’t look like skiing at all, just like us.It is always extremely difficult to get tickets for this special annual winter concert and we were on the waiting list.  The agent let us know this was uploaded just about 20 days ago.  We also got lucky with a special five course dinner: each plate was related to her songs and the chef came over to our table to explain the meaning of every dish.

It was a very warm day, and snow was not so good for skiing, but lots of people were enjoying themselves on the slopes and the lightning was beautiful at night.

Yumi Matsutoya, Yuming, started this special annual winter concert, YUMING SURF & SNOW in Naeba in 1981 at this hotel’s restaurant, and in 1992 the hotel built a concert hall for her which she named “Blizzadium” after one of her popular winter songs “Blizzard”

The concert from 9pm, lasted for over three hours, and the hall capacity is about 1,300, so the audience is very close to the stage, just like a live house, but the stage set is always spectacularly gorgeous.  This year it started with her danceable song plus sixteen drones flying around.  We stood up, clapping hands, jumping!  The miraculous time had begun!

There is always request time, when she points to the audience to raise their hands, with the lucky one invited onto the stage, have a little chat and take a photo with her, get some presents before Yuming sings the requested song.  I knew she would never point at me but I only regret that I didn’t even try.  It was a very rare opportunity and it might have been our last chance to get tickets.  So I made up my mind that I will make the most of it for every opportunity as life is too short and seize the day!!

We went to the last day and there was the quadruple encore “Sotsugyo Shashin” and the whole audience sang along with her, which provided a very emotional moment.

I just really hope we can come again next year as well!!!!!

Sunday 25 February 2024

About my home town - HIgashi-ohmi city

I lived in Higashi-Ohmi city, which is in Kansai area in central Japan. It has a population of over 110,000 people, and it has the largest lake (Biwa-ko) in Japan.

Higashi-Ohmi is in the countryside. It has no famous buildings, museums, universities or statues, but it has a lot of rice farms and nature, so there are good camping areas along the riversides.

The weather in Higashi-Ohmi is hot and humid, so it is not cold with little snow. It snows about twice a year. June to July are very rainy. There are a few typhoons every autumn.

Higashi-Ohmi has a few famous temples "Egenji" and "Hyakusaiji", which have beautiful autumn leaves.

It is so convenient for Kyoto, about 40 minutes by train, and an hour to Osaka. It's a clean & quiet place.

Posted for Makiko

Wednesday 14 February 2024

Temple I want to visit many times

I recommend visiting Kiyomizu Temple in Kyoto. As you may know, it is the one of famous temples in Japan. Since my university was in Kansai, I visited many tourist sites of Kyoto meanwhile, and I can call those memories back, others not. However, I have strong memories of Kiyomizu temple.

A narrow road goes through to the temples, and there are souvenir shops both side of the road over few hundred meters. Although it is a bustling road, if you get sidetracked, there are quiet paths where you can see traditional houses, typical for Kyoto. Since the temples are very famous, it is always crowed. However, there are also places you can be alone and spend a quiet hour as the temple has a large area. In addition, I went there when I had any troubles or felt gloomy. I don’t know reason, but the place made me feel good and calm down. Therefore, it is the wonder place that I want to visit not once or twice.

I think it is also fun to go into side streets as you can see traditional streetscapes or go on a food crawl, which it is hard to find from main streets.

Tuesday 13 February 2024

The most idyllic island "Kohamajima"

Have you ever visited Kohamajima island in Okinawa prefecture?The Kohamajima is the most idyllic island I have ever visited.We can access there by a regular liner from Ishigakijima island, and it takes about 30 min.

Kohamajima island is small and has a small population, so the island is a quiet and peaceful place. It is best to go sightseeing spots by bicycle and we can go around the island in half a day. We rarely see cars and people and can stop where we want to see view. The ocean around Kohamajima is breathtaking clean and blue, and I loved to look into the clear ocean. The breathtaking scenery makes us forget the time. 

Accommodation in Kohamajima island is limited and a large part of tourists will leave there before sunset. However, if we want to relax completely, it will be one of the best choice to stay at a hotel “Resonare Kohamajma” operated by Hoshino resort. It is high on my list of things what I want to do.

Do you have an urge to visit the Kohamajima island?  I promise that you can refresh and relax in the Kohamajima island.



Wednesday 7 February 2024

A famous musician who died tragically young: Linkin Park

I'm sure you've heard about Linkin Park’s song somewhere. A debut album was a worldwide commercial success, and this band is very famous around the world. 

One of my favorite bands is Linkin Park. Especially I like the vocalist’s voice. The lead vocalist was Chester Charles Bennington.

Bennington was born in 1976 in America. He was interested in music since he was child and dreamed to become a member of his famous band. He had experienced something hard in his childhood. An older male friend sexually abused him until he was thirteen. He couldn’t ask help for anyone because he didn’t want them to think he was gay or liar. When he was eleven, his parents were divorce. After the divorce, his farther had gained custody of him. He started to drink alcohol, using drug. Because of his lifestyle was changed, he was skinny and looked difference. To remake his life, he moved to his mother’s home. He worked at a hamburger’s shop until his musician career was started. 

He joined the predecessor band; Xero, the band’s s name was changed to Linkin Park after signed to a major label. They had phenomenal success in early 2000. Meanwhile, he was struggled health problems. 

On July 20, 2017, he killed by himself at the age of 41. He was found dead at his home.

Two months before he died, his best friend was suicided by hanging. Oddly, the day Bennington died was best friend’s birthday.



Friday 2 February 2024

Social media and Elon Musk

Elon Musk was born in 1971 in South Africa. His father, Errol Musk, is an engineer, and his mother, Maye, is a model. He was interested in making something and likes reading books since he was a child. He studied programing by himself at age 10, and he got 500 USD by making and selling the self-made game software at 12.

Although he entered to Stanford Graduate School in USA, just after two days he left it. After that, he started online contents company and online payment company, and he got about 500 million USD by divesting the companies.

By getting a lot of money, he invested for space, car, and social media business. He acquired Twitter in 2022. Since he calls himself “free speech absolutist”, I think he hopes social medias become space for free expression. There was ethical AI team, which was internal watchdog group, to monitor Twitter for transparency of information, fairness, dignity, and human rights. However, many engineers were fired for cost reduction, and the team was disbanded when he acquired the company. I think Twitter is the space for free speech, but meanwhile, I’m afraid that it becomes the space lost ethical.

Thursday 1 February 2024

A World Wonder where I want everyone to visit

 The Atomic Bomb (Genbaku Dome) was the only structure left standing in the area where the first atomic bomb exploded on 6 August 1945. It shows the estructive force created by humankind and it is a symbol to hope world peace and the ultimate elimination of all nuclear weapons.

I visited the Atomic Bomb and the Atomic Bomb museum two times and spent much time to see all exhibits. People who visit there might turn their eyes from the exhibits because the destructive damage was worse than they might think. I believe that most people who visit there may think that the use, for whatever seasons, of destructive force/weapons should be banned and we should reduce all nuclear weapons.

Recently, there are various wars/fights around the world. I really hope that all wars/fights are stopped immediately, but I sometimes stay on the sidelines because I do not want to see terrible situation in broadcast etc.I think that we should not get accustomed to the situation that various wars/fights are caused and should think that world peace is the most important.In order to express the hope for world peace, the Atomic Bomb (Genbaku Dome) and the Atomic Bomb museum are the most important World Wonders for me.




Wednesday 24 January 2024

A miraculous day - a lifetime in the day of a superfan

 Avoiding the end of the year ceremony, having made a huge excuse, my husband and I got on the Shinano.  The train was packed like sardines with overseas tourists and Japanese families going to their hometowns for the New Year holiday, and our destination, Nagoya.  It was the 28th December, the last working day of the year.  Although we were rather uncomfortable on our journey, we were overjoyed with the prospect of being able to see the final show of our favorite singer,Yumi Matsutoya, Yuming, on her 54th concert of her tour, “The Journey “.

When we arrived at Nagoya, there was an announcement of cancellation for further service to Shinano because of some falling rocks.  We felt so lucky to have gotten on an earlier train, even though it had been a very painful two hours.

Our seat numbers of the show only came out at midday on the day of the concert on our phone, and we found out that our seats were on the 2nd lane in the arena, the best seats we’ve ever had in the seventeen previous shows we’ve been to!  We were absolutely thrilled to see that but the seat number was so tricky that we never knew if it was a real good seat or not until we were actually in the concert hall.

knick-knacks
With our huge expectations we arrived at Nihon Gaishi, and joined a long queue to purchase some concert souvenirs, such as a tin-badge unique to every venue, T-shirts, bags…. During this concert tour, concert staff had been introduced through Instagram and we felt as if they were our old acquaintances.  So when we saw the person in charge of the stalls, we greeted her, and she kindly responded with her beautiful smile, which gave us more familiarity.

After we had had a happy little chat with the sales lady, it was time for the lottery for the special pair of glasses, released as a commemoration set; we had been able to get the lottery ticket only when we bought her new CD.  Actually we bought four, even though we already had three copies : to tell you the truth, we had a little discussion about the necessity to buy this same CD just for the glasses, even though they were ‘special’.

There were lots of people in front of us and we had had no luck so far.  It was our turn.  We were at the lottery desk without any hope.  First my husband, Isamu tried and failed, of course, then me…  Goodness gracious!  I’ve made it!  Yeeeeeeees!  Hooray!  The lottery guy was so surprised that he dropped the big hand bell and there was a huge noise and he screamed ‘You got it!  Congratulations!’

I was extremely surprised and couldn’t believe it because I had never won any lottery before.  Of course I was very happy but at the same time I started being anxious about what would happen next, as we had been too lucky that day so far.

It was about 4 pm and the concert started at 6:30 pm, so we went back to our accommodation, only a ten minute walk from the hall to calm ourselves down.



At the hotel, we had a little snack, changed into the white tour T-shirt which we have always worn on this tour (our uniform) and got perfectly ready mentally and visually by 5:30 pm…and off we went back to the hall and found an excited audience of!

About 10,000 people were already there, and we lined up to find our seats, East 3 Block 2nd lane 11, 12, which were super good seats, we called ‘god’s seat’!  We were absolutely delighted and thrilled!!

We felt all the audience’s huge excitement and anticipation, the concert started with the familiar introduction, then our goddess, Yuming, was walking towards the stage in front of us!  That stage set up was centre-stage so if our seats were the opposite side of the 2nd lane, we couldn’t have seen her passing through.  So we were super lucky indeed!!

superfans 
The concert was the very best, Yuming and the other performers played so well and I felt as if I had made eye contact with Yuming a couple of times.  The absolute highlight was when she pointed at me in the middle of  ‘Mamotte Agetai’ … I almost fainted with joy.  

We were dancing, jumping, clapping our hands, waving at her frantically, screaming, singing along, enjoying ourselves every minute, I have never been happier!

At the end of the show, all the staff were on the stage and they hugged each other, which was a very emotional scene and made us cry as well: the show, the tour, The Journey really is finishing…

There was a triple encore that was very rare, and moreover Masataka Matsutoya, Yuming’s husband & producer and director of the show and a great musician himself, accompanied her on keyboards for her last song, ‘Sotsugyo Shashin’, one of her iconic tunes and the best song for the final.

Mr and Mrs Matsutoya came down from the stage and they walked past in front of us, under the thunderous applause from the crowd.

Finally the overwhelming show and our miraculous day was over. 

Friday 12 January 2024

Postcard from...Taman Ayun, Bali, Indonesia

Hey all,

I'm sunburnt! Today I went snorkeling between Bali & Lombok - it was great :)

I've seen amazing temples & a palace; Balinese dance & gamalan; all kinds of animals including bintorung, and wonderful sunsets. Did I mention the food? It's so delicious!!!

Leaving tomorrow, and looking forward to hearing all your holiday stories xxx

Jim

 

Friday 22 December 2023

Postcard from...Bangkok, Thailand

Dear Jim

Today is December 17th. I and my friend have to return to Japan tonight :(

We went to the railway market and the floting market today by tourist tour. Because the markets are difficult plave to go by ourselves, and we are a bit tired :)

The railway market is so narrow market. Space between train and shops are about 10cm

I was able to record the movie from the train, so I'm going to show it at next classroom, and a lot of pictures too.

I'm looking forward top see you next time!

Best wishes,

Makiko




 

Sunday 17 December 2023

Rina's African animal🦓


My favourite African animal is a zebra. 

My zebra runs in Africa. 

He goes to the jungle to find food, and he can find the grass. 

So he's happy!

Saturday 16 December 2023

Wanted poster

 Wanted Dead or Alive

Toothless Annie
Reward of 500 doubloons for the capture of the pirate "Toothless Annie"

Real name: Anne Bonny

Age: 23 years old

From: North Carolina

Appearance: a female, with red hair & green eyes

Crimes: Piracy (stealing ships)

Contact: Chief Nicole


Thursday 14 December 2023

Ruka's African animal☆

 One day a giraffe.The giraffe was very beautiful. 

She fell into a trap. 

She was sad, but tonight many
animals helped the giraffe. 

She was happy!

Wednesday 13 December 2023

Arisa's African animal

One day, a zebra heard tales of a rare grass, deep within the forest.

So, she started to go to the forest. 

She met a lion, and she was scared so she run away, but at last she found the rare grass. 

She overcame her shyness.

Tuesday 12 December 2023

Wanted: Dead or Alive...

 

Mary Read
Reward of 500doubloons for the capture of the pirate "Young Man" - real name MARY READ.

Born: 1690

From: London, England

Lives: in the Caribbean, on Jack Rackham's ship "The William"

Crimes: Get money from her grandmother, killing a sailor, and killing Captain Hudson

Appearance: a slim womon with long hair, and she usually wears men's clothes and a scarf

Contact: Governor Nanaha

Wednesday 6 December 2023

Love always comes in a hurricane

My favorite story in this book is “Sherlock Holmes and the strange Mr. Angel”. After I read it, I knew that this story is generally called “A case of identity”. This is the third short story of “Sherlock Holmes” series, exhibited by Arthur Conan Doyle in 1891.

Honestly, I had a distorted image of “Sherlock Holmes” as the writings before I read this story. I had taken it into my head that Holmes deals entirely with cases of murder. However, nobody dies in this story. I think that the action and motive of Miss Sutherland’s mother and Mr. Windibank is very human, and in a way, I feel close to them.

Like Miss Sutherland, a woman’s longing for a man is stronger than you may think, and nobody can stop it. I feel Miss Sutherland’s mother and Mr. Windibank took it too lightly. I grasped the meaning of the line from “ONE PIECE”, a Japanese famous manga, that “Love always comes in a hurricane”.

This case doesn’t cause human casualties, but Holmes proves his ability, for example an amazing insightfulness and astute observation, and he succeeds in solving the mystery. Arthur Conan Doyle is considered that he was not thrilled with writing “Sherlock Holmes” series, but I would like to appreciate him continuing and developing it.

The Sherlock Holmes Museum

Wednesday 13 September 2023

My Father’s Dragon

Sayuri meets her dragon!
 When I read this fabulous story for the first time, I was an elementary school student.  I fell in love with this lovely front cover picture at first sight, and as soon as I started reading it I was so much into it I had to read it all the way through, again and again for ages.  Over the year though, I forgot about until I saw an advertisement about an exhibition for the original illustrations of this book at PLAY! Museum in Tachikawa.  “I have to go there!”

Tachikawa is a well-planned, beautiful city with the Museum just a 10 minute walk from the railway station.  We arrived a little earlier than the opening time, but the smiley staff welcomed us and let us wait in the cool foyer.  At reception we got a sticker and lovely paper-craft pictures of dragons as souvenirs.  The receptionist told us we could re-enter the Museum anytime that day, using the sticker.  We were even allowed to take photos inside.

My first photo had to be with the beautiful Boris the Dragon at the entrance!  He was so lovely, just as I had imagined.  I was over the moon - I felt like my lifelong dream to see the Dragon had came true!!

As well as the original pictures, the exhibition room was full of black and white animals made me feel as though I was on ‘Wild Island’ with Elmer Elevator, the main character.  The original pictures were drawn into so much with pencils and their captions were put with which were shaped like twigs, lollipops, chewing gum, bird feathers, which were iconic items in the story.

There were also crocodiles lined-up like stepping stones which Elmer had used as a bridge in the story.  In the display the crocodiles groaned when we stepped on them, which was so much fun.

The Museum shop was really exciting too.  There were so many lovely items like T-shirts, postcards, books, posters, socks, lollipops, water-dorm, etc, etc…paradise!  I bought books, T-shirts and other trinkets! Shopping done, we went to the Museum cafe and enjoyed interesting dishes inspired by the exhibition.

‘My Father’s Dragon’ and the subsequent Ruth Stiles Garnett stories, ‘Elmer and the Dragon’ and ‘The Dragons of Blueland’ were written in 1944, being translated into Japanese and published in 1963.  I had only ever read them in Japanese before, but now I’ve got an original English version which I’m looking forward to reading and seeing the Dragon I love.



The most dislike story is "The Room in the Tower"

The most disliked story is “The Room in the Tower”. 

According to this story, the writer had a bad dream many times. In his dream, he met with a man who was from his old school, but he didn’t know him well. If I’m the writer, I won’t want to see a person who don’t know very well in my dream. Of course, I don’t want to meet a stranger in my real life. 

I imagine that he couldn’t only sleep very well due to the bad dream, but also, he couldn’t spend his life lively during he had a bad dream. It is important for us to sleep, so his situation was terrible. I don’t want to be annoyed by the bad dream. Because I cannot wake up easily when I had a bad dream. Also, I couldn’t refresh my body and brain. It’s hard for me to work a day. I believe there are some bad effects without enough sleeping time.

In the end, he was nearly killed by old lady. The lady was painted on a picture, but she appeared in front of him and put her hand his neck. It was really terrible.  

When I read this story, I felt weird from the beginning. I thought that this story was written like “Déjà vu” story, however, the end was such as ghost story!!! I cannot understand what happened after that. 

After finishing of reading, it left me a bad aftertaste. 



Sunday 10 September 2023

A little bit of Project Based Learning

How do you make pentagons?
Just because you didn't turn to the next page in the text book, does not mean your lesson went nowhere!

Learners need a change of gear, a change of task, a change of procedure...whilst they can recycle the language they've been exposed to & need another way to exploit (they don't know they want to do this, by the way...they do know they want to do something not English, maybe, involves some art and yes please, a game on top :)

The basic premise, nicely embedded in Everybody Up 2 is an arts & crafts detour to review learning in units 1 & 2. Themes/topics = jobs, the five senses, and places around town. Some drawing, review of spelling & flipping back & forth through our text books = priceless refreshment of learning. None of this explicitly teacher directed, but rather, learners realising what they need to do & help each other out & find 'short cuts' (aide de memoire?).

The hardest part = how do you divide a paper plate (left over from our BBQ!) into equal fifths?

End of the day, don't sweat the details (we do not have protractors...and bannish erasers from any task like this!); just get on with it - primary objective is the language output (next week, conveniently open/observation week at Luna). 

We're ready - bring in the parents :)

So, what we actually accomplished is a nice little ambush; students "have" all the language embedded  into their paper plate, subliminal cues & rehearsed structures etc.

All I have to do next week is arrange the extra chairs & maybe provide the odd prompt, notice if we've got something to fine tune (the week after open week, without parents critiquing) and give high 5s.




 

Friday 8 September 2023

Teacher says - almost nothing? Let the kids play!

Teacher said 'rip it up'!
It's been a while since I've shared our classroom activities here. My students inspire me, and I love how the simple things work best - we are more or less back face to face & done with blended zoom lessons - where we couldn't use physical resources...

Any teacher of young learners will tell you that the physical interaction of learners with their own resources, and their physical interaction with each other is priceless - and we are more or less mask free too (not a policy, just the mood).

You can see we are continuing to use online resources - really cool presentation tools & 'distracting' audio/video components. And of course you can see our students all have their own text books = physical resources we at Luna think are irreplaceable. 

You can see flashcard chaos? 

Let's get organised!
I see students managing their own stuff, sorting and saving - and helping each other. Gentle corrections and lots of unsponsored vocabulary spoken...I mean, no teacher talk time, but students prompting, checking, repeating. Teacher's job = shut up & listen! Sure, a few subtle corrections & non-verbal encouragements, nudges & thumbs up, but hey, the students are doing all the heavy lifting! All the non-involved (but attentive) teacher needs to do is a little bit of fine tuning of pronunciation/word substitution & make sure we all have the same number of cards.

Pro tip? Before you take flashcards out of the books (eg Compass's Sounds Fun or Oxford Phonics World) ask students to 'tag' their own cards with their own unique colour - a pink dot in all the top left corners, for example. Why? Well, any card game you play = they will need to unsort quickly! And give then a zip lock bag to keep their precious cards, and elastic bands if you want to save even more time & bundle sets/units together - I don't...the "sorting hat" scramble is another opportunity for learners to queitly/quickly re-process vocabulary & categorise/sort it. Another little win, sensei!

I think I'd estimate teacher talk time in these lessons at about 2 minutes/hour. As a game player - setting the standard/modelling output & answering "Jim sensei, what's this?" questions, & joking along (H told me to 'Go away!' instead of  'Go Fish!') fully involved - but as a peer & actually trying to loose the game itself. 

I have a cunning plan!
How much Japanese did the teacher need to speak? Nope, none.

How much Japanese did the students come out with? Precious little, apart from 'social'or game play reactions.

How much explanation went into the games? None - we started, and guess what, the students figured the rules/goals out for themselves & stress-tested their ideas - and then refereed when Jim-sensei tried to blatantly cheat!




 

Thursday 7 September 2023

Saori writes from her study abroad in England

 

Bath - World Heritage Site
Dear Mr. & Mrs. George

Hi Jim & Yukari, greetings from London

Time flies, already three months have passed since I arrived in the U.K.!! I've just finished taking lesson in Bath. I had been staying with my host mother for six weeks. She was very generous ...so I was lucky.

I could make a lot of foreign friends. And I could know different culture. I've already had many good experiences.

Besides, I went on a trip. For example, Oxford, Cardiff, Cotswolds, Weymouth, Bristol and Cheddar Gorge. In October, I'm going to Venice to meet my friend again. She was my flatmate.

I think that living in England is a great experience to improve my English skill. I feel my English has improved more than before. I'm going to another language school in Winchester on 4th of September. I'll do my best!! I'd like to show my growth by next meeting. Next time (when I come back to Japan), let's talk about what's going on recently.

I'm looking forward to seeing you again.

Best regards,

Saori

Monday 4 September 2023

The old wooden name tag

Recently I found an old wooden name tag with my name and class room on it, which reminded me of my first summer holiday from elementary school.  So let me tell you about my bitter-sweet memory, and the shadow of my mum that still effects me deeply.

Do you like swimming?  Actually I do now, but I certainly didn't use to as I was afraid of water.  I would hide in the toilets during swimming class, and go home with my never-used-dry-swimming suit, and secretly put it in the laundry.  In the summer holidays, students had to go swimming almost everyday, with their neighbourhood friends.  When you arrived at the school pool, you needed to put your name tag on the board to show who was there.  

The author, with THAT wooden peg 
One day, when I was hiding in the toilet as usual, my teacher showed up with my mum and found me there.  I was terrified and froze in shock, bursting into tears with the horror of punishment for my bad behavior and embarrassment.  However, my teacher was rather gentle and sweet, and asked me why I was there.  After I explained my aquaphobia, he took me to the pool-side and showed me how relax and be comfortable in the water, on a hot summer's day.  He led me through the cool shower gently and took me to the big pool step by step.  Almost everyday after that, my teacher came to the swimming pool and made sure I was there safe and sound.  Gradually, my fear of water disappeared and I could even swim a little by the end of the summer holiday.  My place was very close to the elementary school, and I spotted my mum spying on me from behind the wall around the pool, with her parasol in her hand, everyday without any doubt.  I thought I couldn't hide anything or anywhere from her.

Thankfully I'm not afraid of water anymore and I can swim for a long distance, but I still feel my mum's eyes watching me everyday, even after almost half a century...she's watching.


Tuesday 29 August 2023

Postcard - from Matsumoto, Japan!

Dear Luna family

To students past and present, thank you all for your kind words and support through the years.

We had an amazing time celebrating our wedding in Matsumoto where our relationship began.

Hope to see you all at a future Luna event!

Damian, Rumi, Emma & Millie

Friday 28 July 2023

If I could switch places with another person

If I could switch places with another person, I would like to switch to a model like Victoria’s Secret.

I think everyone has some sort of complex for their appearance. However, the models look like not only slim and tall, but also have beautiful muscles. Most importantly, they walk down a runway with a big smile and a full of confidence.

Since I’m not a tall, the clothes are limited I can wear. Even if I think the clothes are nice, they may be too long to wear for me. If I was a taller, I could wear them. In addition, the view is different when I wear shoes with high heel. I feel refreshed as I can see the scenery better. In my opinion, height affects people’s feeling and personality more than a little.

On the other hand, I’d live a hard lifestyle to keep the ideal body shape if I would be the models. I guess they’ll train hardly and pay particular attention to their diet. Since I would like to eat as much as I want, I thought it’d be fine as is.

Monday 24 July 2023

First day at Boston

 When I get off an airplane at Boston, I am quite sure that I want to walk because I sit for almost 13 hours on the airplane. At airport, I take a bus using “Go City Boston” pass to reach near a hotel for leaving my heavy luggage.

After left the hotel, my first sightseeing is Museums of Fine Arts, Boston. It is the 4th biggest museum in the U.S.A. and it will be good chance for me to enjoy arts and to exercise.

Next, I move to Newbury Street where has various shops, restaurants, café etc. for my short break including lunch and shopping. I will enjoy walking along the streets with so much atmosphere which are different from the ones of Japan. Also, I definitely enjoy Italian sweets called cannoli which cream is put into pastry shell.

At the end of my first day in Boston, I visit a place called “View Boston” to overlook Boston and see the sunset and the night view. I check-in the hotel early night to get a recommended activity, place, food, souvenir etc. at reception and to get enough rest and for enjoying my 2nd day in Boston.



Wednesday 28 June 2023

Postcard from Suomi (Finland)

 

Dear Jim & Yukari

Hi!

It's been 4 weeks since I came to Finland and I finished my mission.

Time passes quickly!!!

It's frustrating day when I can't say what I want to say, but what you taught me is so useful :)

I think that I shold keep learning English.

Best wishes,

Makiko

Thursday 22 June 2023

Letter to Holmes

Hi Mr. Homes. How have you been well? I’m Glichrist. I’m working as a policeman in South Africa, and I’m doing good here.

I still regret that I shouldn’t have made the mistake. Although it may be a selfish, I feel thank you as I would live with a guilt feeling forever if I took the exam. In addition, my parents are glad me to become a police officer, and I think I could repay them. My parents would feel disappointed if I passed the exam and didn’t go back my country.

Every time I face criminals, I recall you. You hold me kindly when I cried, and I could tell you everything honestly. Sometimes, I do the same thing to people who commit crimes, and they open their mind to me. I learned importance to forgive people when they make mistakes. Of course, I shouldn’t do that for everyone as I have a responsibility to save safety of the citizens.

I learned a lesson from the past mistake, and I will make best effort to be a good police officer who can consider how people are feeling. Please let me know when you come to my country.

Wednesday 24 May 2023

Letter from Miss Sutherland to Sherlock Holmes

Dear Mr. Holmes,

I had been waiting couple of months for Mr. Hosmer Angel after I visited your office. Previously, Mr. Angel visited my home when my farther went to France, but he never showed up at my house. I couldn’t forget about him easily and I wanted to know the reason why he left me. I believed he married with me. I put an advertisement on newspaper again to find him, however, I couldn’t see him. I had to take an absence for typing work due terrible feeling. 

My parents worried about me. They provided me with a ticket for dance party to get chance to meet another man. In the beginning, I didn’t want to go but I understood that I should forget Mr. Angel, so I went to the party. Then I met my future husband at the party. We talked and walked around. I concerned myself about him because I didn’t want to make a mistake again like Mr. Angel. Fortunately, as I spent with him, my worries were gone away. He will never disappear from me. I can trust him, and my parents like him. 

I’ve got engaged now. I’m happy now and I forget Mr. Angel completely. 

Anyway, you really helped me out last time. Thank you so much.


Best regards,

Sutherland





About ignored advise from others

Dear Mother,

Hope you are doing well. 

Can you imagine where I’m now? As you know, I have been traveling different place. When I’m writing this letter, I’m in Italy. I enjoy staying here. The weather is nice, people is kind and foods are delicious. I’m going to stay Italy for couple of months. 


When I’m writing this letter, I remember our worst time. We suffered a great sense of loss at my father’s death, but we didn’t have time to be depressed. I imagined you had hard time in England. For me, it was not as hard as I thought.

To be honest, I liked the life with you in England. I enjoyed playing with many friends. Because they didn’t know who I was. They didn’t care about my birth and my farther. When I was in Boston, we were lived lonely. People hate us and they were not kind for us. I pretended not to care about other people. 

After moved to England, I felt what nice world outside of Boston! So, I wanted to spend my life freely without any worries. 

I heard you help poor women and children in Boston. It’s really great things! It’s difficult for me to support together with you there, but I’ll send you beautiful clothes, foods, etc. Please let me know if there are anything to help. 


Take care.


Best regards,

Pearl




A letter from Pearl to her mother

Dear Mother,

Hope you are doing well. 

Can you imagine where I’m now? As you know, I have been traveling different place. When I’m writing this letter, I’m in Italy. I enjoy staying here. The weather is nice, people is kind and foods are delicious. I’m going to stay Italy for couple of months. 


When I’m writing this letter, I remember our worst time. We suffered a great sense of loss at my father’s death, but we didn’t have time to be depressed. I imagined you had hard time in England. For me, it was not as hard as I thought.

To be honest, I liked the life with you in England. I enjoyed playing with many friends. Because they didn’t know who I was. They didn’t care about my birth and my farther. When I was in Boston, we were lived lonely. People hate us and they were not kind for us. I pretended not to care about other people. 

After moved to England, I felt what nice world outside of Boston! So, I wanted to spend my life freely without any worries. 

I heard you help poor women and children in Boston. It’s really great things! It’s difficult for me to support together with you there, but I’ll send you beautiful clothes, foods, etc. Please let me know if there are anything to help. 


Take care.


Best regards,

Pearl





What did George use his money?

I hope he used to buy land for because he had promised with Lennie. The land was big, and there was a river. He made his farm, and plantation. As it was hard to manage his farm by himself, he hired some workers. 

He kept a black dog as a pet. A dog was named “Lennie” because the dog was big and kind like “Lennie”. When George played with the dog, he recalled a tragedy that happened in Lennie. He felt bad about what he did. He took care of a dog very much as if he asked forgiveness for the past sins.

As his job was succussed, he earned a lot of money from his farm. He was engaged in expanding his land more and more. When he was a worker, his goal that getting much money to buy farm or marry beautiful lady. However, his mind had been changed while his farm was bigger. He noticed that it is not important to earn money. He understood that it is more important what he use the money for. After recognized, he spent the money for good things, like dotation for non-profit organization. 

As time goes by, a tragedy of Lennie fades away, but he suddenly remembered him, unexpectedly. George wanted to forget Lennie, but he couldn’t until his life end.




Thursday 18 May 2023

Letter from Brown to his doll

 Hi, my doll

I found you in a small shop when I took a walk in the warm sun. I was sometimes sad and often bored because I don’t have many friends, and usually don’t talk to many people. I didn’t have any definitive reason to buy you, but it might be one reason to buy you that I wanted someone to talk to even though you had never talked to me.

After I bought you, there were some strange incidents. For example, when I was taking a bus to go to an office, I heard that someone abused an old lady verbally, but all passengers including the Old lay thought I said it to the old lady. As this example shows, the strange incidents caused bad impact for me. Were the strange incidents caused by you? What is your purpose? Do you have something against me that you hold grudges? I do not understand at all why you caused me some troubles. If I am with you continuously, some bad incidents will happen to me continuously and you will break my life. It is much better for me to lead a boring life than having some troubles.

I am really sorry, but I have decided to say goodbye to you. And I hope that someone you love takes you new home.

Best regards, Brown



Tuesday 25 April 2023

Postcard from...Bologna, Italy.

 

Ciao, Tutti!!

From Bologna

It has been 10 days since I came here in Bologna. Taking Italian lesson is not easy, but I am enjoying life here. I found good small restaurants and a lovely bakery, market. Basically Italian people are nice, cheerful and very kind. After staying few more days, I am going to travel to Puglia southern part of Italy.

with love, Teruki


Monday 13 March 2023

My dog

I have a dog, which performs as a duck hunting dog originally, from last year.

Although this type of dog was the duck hunting dog, they did not hunt ducks directly. There were traps around pond to catch ducks and the dogs tried to get attention of the ducks by wagging their tails. The ducks were interested in the wagging tails and chased them. The dogs just leaded the ducks to traps to help people for hunting. Therefore, there is no ferocity, and they are calm and friendly.

However, they need a lot of exercise. My dog acts up by much stress if exercise is not enough. Since it is not enough just walk, I go jogging with my dog every day. Since she likes a ball playing, she repeats to catch a ball and bring it to me forever until I finish.

She sometimes becomes a spoiled child. She tries to get in the way of my use of smartphone by getting in between me and it. She is also cunningly clever. She sets chin, have a hand on me, or turn over on her side when she wants my attention. She knows people feel it is cute if she does it.

This dog is also good for training. She enters to crate by herself when I go out or she goes to bed.

I am glad to feel her growing.


Thursday 23 February 2023

What's Mr. Windibanks like?

Please let me introduce Mr. Windibanks. Mr. Windibanks is stepfather of Miss Sutherland. Mr. Windibanks was nearly fifteen years younger than mother of Miss Sutherland and they were married after Miss Sutherland’s father died. He works for a wine company.

Miss Sutherland received one hundred pounds a year from her Uncle Ned in New Zealand after her father died. She gave her mother and Mr. Windibanks the hundreds pounds, and he got it from Miss Sutherland’s bank and gave his wife it.

Mr. Windibanks had tickets for a dance every year, but he didn’t want her daughter to go to the dance because he though “They’re not very nice people”. Mr. Windibanks often goes to France for two or three days. During he was there, Miss Sutherlands could get to the dance with her mother. After Miss Sutherland met Mr. Angel, he could visit her house during Mr. Windibanks were in France. After he came back to home, Mr. Angel wrote a letter to his girlfriend.

Mr. Windibanks was interested in his wife’s money. As well as the money of his wife, he was interested in Miss Sutherland’s money which receive from her uncle. If Miss Sutherland marries anyone, Mr. Windibanks may not be able to receive Miss Sutherland’s money. Thus, Mr. Sutherland did not want Miss Sutherland to marry.


 

My regret the most

I have made a lot of mistakes I regret in my life, but the most I regret is about my pet I had. Although I really wanted to have a dog when I was a child, my father did not allow me it. Therefore, I had a hamster as I like animals.

In order to take care of a hamster, I read many books about it. After I had the hamster, I did everything I could such as keeping hamster cage clean, preparing not only commercially available food but also vegetables, and taking her for walk in my room. I believed it was all for her.

I would dream hamsters sometimes after her death, and I recalled her. Unfortunately, the dreams were nightmare. Every time I dream a bad dream, I consider I could do that or should have done it for her that time. When I cleaned her cage, I replaced all floor materials and tissue papers. However, I recently knew the materials should have been left a little as hamsters feel easy if their smell remains after cleaning. Also, I’m not sure if I could touch her well.

I have a dog now. Since I do not want to have the same regret, I just do everything for her I can do not to regret even if I was busy or tired.