Takehisa Yumeji & Matsuo Basho

Ayako decided to present two "decorative handkerchiefs" to Ilsemarie in Germany as her birthday presents. On one is printed a portrait of a Japanese traditional beauty painted by Takehisa Yumeji. Takehisa Yumeji (1884-1934) was very famous and popular in so-called "Taisho Romantic Era".
In the other was printed a famous Matsuo Basho's haiku. "Samidare o atsumete hayashi
Mogami gawa" I had to explain it in English, but it is too difficult for me to do it. "Early summer rain gathered by the Mogami flows so fast" I tried to translate it like this, but I am not confident at all whether it is understood or not.
It snowed a little in the morning. It is still some weeks before spring to come.
I went for my walking exercise and bought some ink cartridges for the printer and sushi for my lunch on the way. Ayako went to the municipal hospital to see her friend, Mrs.Yamagishi, who is suffering from kidney desease.

I wrote a celebration letter to Ilsemarie on her birthday.

It took a fairly long time today to finish writing a celebration letter to Ilsemarie, my friend in Germany. The 3rd of March will be Ilsemrie's 70th birthday.
( She says it is her 60 year-and-120 months' birthday). I have exchanged e-mails with her for over 10 years, and in September 2007, I visited her house in Barsinghausen near Hanover with Ayako, Ayako's sister Masako, and Masako's husband. We stayed with Ilsemarie's family for three days and nights, and had a very good time with them. Ilsemarie's husband Hardy showed us around the town of Barsinghausen, and Ilsemarie drove us to Hameln, which is famous for the legendary tale of "Pied Piper of Hamelin", and other places. The reason it took a long time to finish the letter was that I attached to it some pictures which remind us of the days we stayed with them. The 3rd of March happens to fall on the Girl's Day in Japan, so I wished her special happiness and her long life.

Langwage teaching & learning

In the morning, I prepared materials for teaching Japanese to Bryan. Easy questions in Japanese, counting the number,in Japanese, of the dates of the month, of people, and prices of things. Difficult, even for us Japanese. Names of fruits,vegetables, fish,and animals.
To teach a language is as difficult as to learn it. I began learning English when I was 14 years old, and have continued to learn it, and I am now 74 years old. That means,I have continued to learn it for 60 years. In the morning, I 'listen to' NHK TV program "World News" in English. When I take a walk in the morning, I always wear earphones and listen to English by walkman. I write this blog every day. I go to the city hall to teach Japanese and when I need to explain something, I speak in English. But,I am not satisfied at all with my ability to express in English what I want to say. Yesterday I watched a TV program in which, in a kindergarten in Gifu, nurses spoke to children only in English. Then, in three months, the children became able to communicate only in English. It was quite surprising, but the head of the kindergarten said they never taught English, but they just did everything through English. I'll consider more about it.

I"ll have to prepare materials for tomorrow's Japanese class.

Tomorrow, I'll have a class of Japanese. But I am afraid I may lose my enthusiasm, because I have only one student, Bryan Rose, now. However, I think I must do my best.
In the previous lesson, Bryan told me about his weak points - "I am 41 years old, I don't have enough time to learn Japanese, and I am too proud to be taught by my Japanese wife or children." he said. I had heard the same excuses before. Why does he make such excuses repeatedly? I want to say that,without being embarassed by making mistakes, we cannot make progress in speaking a foreign language.

News from Christchurch devastated by the earthquake: 98 people were found dead in the fallen building in which there was the language school where more than 25 Japanese students were learning English. It is unknown whether the bodies are male or female, or of what nationalities they are. It is so sad to see the fallen buildings around the Cathedral Square,including the Cathedral itself, which I visited and saw several years ago.

Christchurch Quake

It is reported that 75 people are confirmed to have been killed so far and about 300 including 23 Japanese are missing in Christchurch New Zealand. Most of the Japanese people missing are students who are learning English in Christchurch,and they are trapped in the building fallen down. Before, most of the students who wanted to learn English went to USA, but recently New Zealand and Australia are very popular, because they think those countries are safer to study abroard. How tragic it is that in the country they thought the safest, they would fall to victim to such a terrible disaster! I just pray for their safety. And, of course,I sincerely sympathize with the people of Christchurch.
This morning,Ayako and I went to the funeral of Mr.Hiromi Kumagai,our neighborhood association official Mrs. Kumagai's father-in-law. Late Mr.Kumagai,a former railway station master, was 94 years old. I extend my codolence.

The earthquake in Christchurch,New Zealand

Today it was reported that Christchurch,New Zealand, was hit by a big earthquake. At least 65 people have been killed so far,and the number is supposed to multiply. I saw the pictures of the scenes of the earthquake on TV, and saw the buildings fallen down which I had seen when I had visited the city several years before. In such a peaceful country like New Zealand, I could't believe so dreadful a disaster would happen. There were over 30 Japanese people who were staying there to learn English, and they had been trapped under a fallen building. At present,7 people were saved, but some of them were injured, and what is worse, 11 people were not confirmed whether they were safe or not.
We cannot predict when and where an earthquake will happen. Neither can we about other kinds of disasters. I worry about the people trapped under the fallen buildings there, and at the same time, I thought we must always be prepared for such a disaster that we cannot predict when and where it will occur.

This afternoon, our son Takashi and his wife Sachiyo called us by Skype. We were relieved to know they were well.

How should I celebrate Ilsemarie's birthday?

For those days, I have been thinking how I should celebrate Ilsemarie's birthday. Ilsemarie Straub is my German friend with whom we have been exchanging emails for over 10 years. She is a travel journarist who lives in a little town near Hanover named Barsinghausen. In 2007, my wife Ayako and I visited her and her family with Ayako's sister Masako and her husband Yasuhiro. We stayed with them at Barsinghausen for three days. Ilsemarie has a husband,two sons and a daughter. Her family were all very kind to us, though we couldn't see her daughter because she worked in former East Germany. Ilsemarie showed us around not only Barsinghausen, but took us to Hameln which is famous for a legendary tale of "Pied Piper of Hamelin."
Ilsemarie's birthday is March 3rd. She says this year's birthday is special for her, because it will be her "60th year plus 120th month" birthday. A humourous expression, isn't it?

ISU Four Continents Figure Skating Championships in Taipei

ISU Four Continents Figure Skating Championships are being held in Taipei,Taiwan. Yesterday and today, I watched Four Continents Figure Skating Championships on TV.In the final results of men's free program,Takahashi of Japan won the championship and Ha-nyu,was in the second place, and Kozuka was in the 4th place. On the other hand, in the final results of women, Ando wan in the 1st place, and Asada was in the second.
Japanese skaters were doing good jobs. Japan has many excellent skaters in every age group, and it will be very hopeful in the next winter Olympic games to be held in Sochi,Russia.
In Japan, baseball is the most popular sport and very good players come newly in waves, and, recently, soccer is in the similar situation. On the other hand, in ski jump,the same skiers are still on the top rank domestically, but young skiers can not beat them. Most of the top ranked skiers are already around 40 years old. The Japan Ski Confederation have failed to bring up young ski jumpers. In Nayoro, where I went last week, there is a very good ski jump schanze,but there is no jump coach, so no jumper does not come from there. Why isn't there a coach?

A cold winter day after a warm spring-like day.

Yesterday, in my Japanese class, when I asked Bryan "What season is it now?" in Japanese, he answered,"It is spring." in Japanese. Then I said,"It will be a winter day tomorrow." Yes, when I woke up at five this morning, I found my garden covered with fresh snow.
There is no good news these days,especially about Japanese politics. The ruling party, Japan Democratic Party, seems to be divided into two parties. Since the party lost many seats in the Upper House election last year, and became a minor party in the Upper House, political turbulance has been going on. The prime minister changes in a short period. If the House of Representatives were to be dissolved now, would the prime minister change again? By having issued a large amount of government bonds for many years, Japan is now in a financial crisis. These situations were brought about by the former ruling party, the Liberal Democratic Party. The leader of LDP, Mr.Tanigaki severely criticizes the government or JDP, but isn't his party responsible for these situations? If the election is held now, will the people vote for LDP? What should we do?

I went to the city hall to teach Japanese.

I went to the city hall to teach Japanese to the foreign resitents in Tomakomai city. But today's student who attended my class was only Bryan Rose from New York. I taught him how to ask questions in Japanese and how to count the numbers in Japanese.
I came home at 3:00 p.m., and then, my wife, Ayako, went to Sapporo to attend the dinner party with her friends in her ceramic art class. I went out for a walk at 3:20, and on the way back home, I bought sushi,and some other things for my supper.I drank some sake, but without anyone around, I didn't feel like drinking much.

Chonaikai or a neighborhood association

This evening, I attended the meeting of our neighborhood association. I have been a vice president of the association for 8 years. Japanese society is said to have been a well organized society since long time ago. Police stations and police boxes (koban) have become world-known. Public health centers are everywhere all across the country, and have played an important role in the improvement of public health. About weather stations, not to mention.
Chonaikai has also played an important role in the lives of the neighborhood. In the meeting this evening, we talked about garbage collection, anti-crime activities, the protection of children, problems of the elderly, and neighbors' gatherings to promote friendship,and other activities and event plans,etc. We will make a plan of activities for the next fiscal year beginning in April.
According to the news from U.K.,Prime minister David Cameron says they need to build "a big society",which means common people should work voluntarily for making their country a better and comfortable society to live in. The national budget is short, so to cut it down, he asks people to help. Japanese chonaikai system is a hint, isn't it?

A class reunion

A student in one of the classes I was in charge informed me that they would hold a reunion for the first time in 20 years on July 16,when it is a long way off. Anyway,I look forward to seeing my old students, who will already be about 40 years old.
A class reunion is a good occasion for the former classmates and the teacher to know how each one of them has led his/her life so far since their graduation. And it is, basically, for the classmates themselves, not for the teacher. They can enjoy the warm atmosphere, because there are no boundaries, or no barriers, and, of course, no conflicts of interest or no pecking order among them.
I, myself, went to Narugo, Miyagi prefecture, last September to attend my own class reunion. At that time, 22 old classmates attended including 11 men and 11 women. We were already 73 or 74 years old. I saw some of them for the first time after our graduation from junior high school 59 years ago. I was very happy because all of them were so nice and kind to each other.

I wrote a letter to my old classmate in Sendai.

This morning, I sent a letter to Tomoko,one of my old classmates of our junior high school days,about 60 years ago. I haven't seen her since we finished a junior high school in a little town in Miyagi. In September last year,we had our reunion, but she didn't come because of her serious desease - interstitial lung desease,which I had never heard of. It is said that this desease is not cured, so the only way to survive it is to transplant lungs donated by the brain dead person. By the way, I remembered her well, because she often wrote me letters after I had left Miyagi and had come to Hokkaido. She was a little, pretty girl,then,I mean,about 60years ago. After returning from the reunion last September, I wrote her a letter. Then, she called me, saying she was very happy to receive my letter. With an artificial respirator, her voice was husky,sounding like a whispering voice. She said she lived with her son's family in a wheelchair. And she had been working till she was in her 60's. While working,she cared for her own father and mother, and her husband's parents, who are all dead. But several years ago, she,herself,came down with the desease, and her husband began to care for her. But unfortunate things continued to happen. Tomoko's husband became ill and was diagnosed with cancer. Only one year after that, he passed away, and Tomoko was left alone with her two boys. She said she didn't know why she had been destined like that.
I had sent 11 letters so far after the reunion last September, and I am determined to continue to write letters to her to encourage her. We will turn 75 years old within this year. I wish she would live long, and I would meet her some day.

In Nayoro, February 7th, the first day.

I arrived at Nayoro on the afternoon of February 7th, at about 1:00. Mr.Hasegawa was kindly waiting for me and drove me to the Grand Hotel Fujika. I checked in and rested for about 3 hours. Then I left the hotel by a chartered bus with foreign participants in the competition for the Nayoro Municipal Astronomical Observatory. The bus was almost full. In the bus, a volunteer guide explained about Nayoro city, and the observatory, and I had to translate his explanation into English. According to the guide's explanation, the astronomical observatory was founded by a former senior high school teacher named Mr.Hideo Kihara in 1973,and after Mr.Kihara's death, it was donated to Nayoro city in 1992. The construction of the new astronomical observatory began to be built in 2008,and the old observatory was closed in November 2009. The new observatory opened in April 17th,2010, last year.
In the observatory building was two storied, and there were an exhibition corner, lecture rooms, and a planetarium on the first floor, and a sliding roof observation room, two research rooms, an open air astronomical observation space, and an observation room on the second floor. There were big telescopes, and one of them was the second largest in Japan. I had never imagined such wonderful observation instruments there. We saw a movie of the Japanese asteroid probe "Hayabusa"'s travel to the asteroid "Itokawa". in the planetarium. It was a very interesting movie. But I didn't have time to explain about it in English, so I was afraid how much the foreigners understood it. I hope they could enjoy it.

It was good to have worked as an interpreter in Nayoro again.

I woke up at 6:30 this morning. I may have been tired, because I usually wake up around five o'clock.
When I was requested to work as an interpreter in Nayoro in December for the sixth time in a row,I first declined the request, because I am now 74 years old,and am getting harder of hearing. But as the snow sculpting competition was drawing near, I felt like going there again this year. I recalled the scenes of the competitions who I had met there so far and friendly faces of them. I emailed to Mr.Hasegawa, the chief of the international department of the organizing committee of the Nayoro Snow Festival. Then, Mr.Hasegawa earnestly asked me to come to Nayoro, saying he couldn't find any interpreter, and without me, they would be unable to hold the competition. I went there. After staying there and serving as an interpreter, I thought it was good and meaningful to me. I could meet and was welcomed by the people in Nayoro, and could work for the foreign artists. I will write more about my stay and my experience there this year later.

I returned from Nayoro

I returned from Nayoro. Though I was very busy, it was a very good opportunity to practice interpretation. I interpreted the short speeches in the meal time by the local sponsors,including the speeches by the representatives of the Rotary club, the Lions Club, the Soroptimist Club,Duskin Takizawa,Nayoro Human Exchange Promotion Society,etc. On the first day, that is, on the 7th of February, we took foreign people to the Nayoro Astronomical Observatory, which was a brand new observatory opened only on April 17 last year. On the way, in the bus, a local volunteer guide explained about not only the astronomical observatory but the city itself,and Nayoro Municipal University, etc. And,in the observatory, the chief resercher of the observatory, maybe a person belonging to Hokkaido University, explained about the second largest telescope in Japan which has just installed. But those explanations were all in Japanese,so I had to interprete them all into English. It was very difficult, but a very good experience for me. Then, we saw a movie about the Japanese probe Hayabusa's adventurous space trasvel to the asteroid "Itokawa". It was very interesting, and moving.

I will go to Nayoro tomorrow.

Tomorrow I will leave for Nayoro, where the 11th international snow scrupting competition will be held. I will stay there for a week and serve as an interpreter. I will take a train at 9:18 from Itoi station, 10 minutes' walk from my house, and will arrive at Nayoro at 1:56 p.m.
In the evening, I will go with foreign sculptors to the Hokkaido prefectual Sunpillar Park, and visit the Nayoro Municipal Astronomical Observatory and the Nayoro Sunpillar Exchange Hall. The Astronomical Observatory was opened on April 17th last year,so it is brand new,and I am looking forward to visiting it. In the Exchange Hall, the organizing committee of the competition is going to let the foreign participants play curling there. I have visited the hall once before.
Five foreign teams will come this year, including France,Germany,Romania,USA,and Korea. I have met members of German team,USA team,Korean team, but I have never met members of French team and Romanian team. Anyway, I am looking forward to seeing them all. I will return home to Tomakomai on February 12,Saturday. So, I will not be able to write this brog until then.

How difficult it is to translate !

I've been trying to translate a book written by an American jounalist since about a year ago. The title is "Chippewa Chief in World War II". It is a story about an American Navy airman whose fighting plane crushed down in Hokkaido Japan, and survived hiding in the mountains. His name is Oliver Rasnussen, and he was born in native American's reservation. I was interested in how he had grown up there. He lived in the wild land in the reservation, just as I lived in the wild land in the mountains in Miyagi prefecture during the war. And more than that, the place where his plane had crushed down was in the mountains of the foot of Mt.Tarumae,a volcano in the suburbs of Tomakomai city,just close to my house.
I have finished translating as far as p.163 of the book of 190 pages. But I stopped it,feeling difficult, because there are a lot of technical terms of the flight navigation and navy jargons. The time was during world was II, more than 65 years ago. I have tried to look up those words in dictionaries and on the internet, but in most cases, I couldn't find them. Can I continue, and complete the translation? How can I find anyone who would help me.

Diseases of bovines,birds,eruption of a volcano,heavy snowfall,......

Something is wrong everywhere in the world. In Japan, foot and mouth disease of bovines,bird flu,the eruption of a volcano (Mt.Shin-nen)-these were all in Kyushu,especially in Miyazaki, heavy snowfalls in the district along the coast of Japan sea. In Tottori,many fishing boats were sunken by heavy snow last month,and in some parts of Ishikawa, Hukui, Niigata, the depth of snow has got over 2 meters. In the Eastern part of Australia, the rivers were flooded, and houses and farms in the vast areas were under water. And, now, at this moment, a huge cyclone is hitting the northern Australia. Heavy snowfalls and blizard has paralyzed the transportation in north-eastern USA. Europe was hit a big snow storm in December last year. Something is wrong. What is wrong is not only nature, or natural phenomena. In Egypt, a million people are now demonstrating in the streets of Cairo,the capital,and in the cities and towns all over the country demanding the president to resign. Bloody outbursts are happening. Where can we see a bright future?

A difficult task-Translation

Today,I received an e-mail from Nayoro, asking me to translate the order of the opening ceremony of the International Snow Sculpting Competition which is going to be held on February 7th. The name of the competition was "The quality of Snow No.1 in Japan" Festival. (literal translation) But, from this time on, the organizing committee wants to change it to "Japan's Finest Snow Festival". The original meaning was that the quality of snow is the best in Japan, because Nayoro is one of the coldest cities in Japan, and the snow which falls in and around Nayoro is always fine,beautiful powder snow, and the people living there are proud of it. But if they change the name of the festival to "Japan's Finest Snow Festival", people from other places will take it as "the finest( snow )festival in Japan". There are a lot of snow festivals everywhere in northern Japan, but, of them all, the snow festival in Nayoro is the best in Japan. Is that what the organizing committee wants to express? I don't know. Anyway,I pointed it out.

A Photo Exhibition

Last Saturday,I went with my wife to see a photo exhibition at Tomakomai Katsudo Center. It was being held by a young man named Takahashi Naoki, who had worked in Niger,Africa, and in Fiji,south west Pacific, as a member of Japan Overseas Cooperation Volunteers (JOCV). Mr.Takahashi was a nice young man who had graduated from Tomakomai Komazawa Senior High School. In Niger and in Fiji, he taught the native people how to grow vegetables. He said he had learned about agriculture before he left Japan. There were photos of big cabbages,pumpkins,cucumbers,eggplants, etc. The photos of him surrounded by smiling native people seemed to show that he was doing a very good job there. He is going to Indonesia to teach Japanese language. My wife and I were very happy to know there were such nice young Japanese.
Today, I received an e-mail from Mr.Koshito, one of my old students. He said he visited Miyagi prefecture, where there is my hometown. He says he and his classmates are planing to have a class reunion. I look forward to it.