VS Final Day

Facing the final day of this year, the first thing I have to do is to go back to my hometown, Kyoto. But, unfortunately, because I drunk wine a little last night, I haven't even gotten a train yet. I told my father that I would come to his house around lunch time. But, my lunch would be around dinner time.
On 31th December, most people look back to this year and remember many things. To me, I don't have to remember anything. I just read old articles in this blog. It's very easy. But, Past is Past. My thinking has already been walking toward the future.
Next year would be the big changing year for me. I have worked for almost twelve years in the publishing world. 12 years is long. This much experience can give me a lot of chances. And, actually, I have already gotten some new missions from my company. I can't write the detail because it's confidential. But, you can know that making new things is exciting.
My Aeon life will be ten years old in 2008. It is also long.(too long?) Because Haruka will leave Aeon, an era will finish. I don't know how the school's atomosphere will change, but change might be always needed in our life. My English must change, too.
My sufing life will be two yaers old. "When surfing, we can see the God." I started to surf after hearing of it. But, I have never met the God yet. Maybe it's not because I am not a religious man, but because my training for surfing is less. My sufing skill have to be better the next year.
For love, the life has not been born. So, I have nothing to comment here now.

I hope you and I have a great happy exciting beautiful sexy peaceful dramatic funny new year!

VS Pakistan

After happy Christmas, Japanese shift thier attention to the coming new year. We have winter vacation around then. Some will go for a trip. Some will spend relaxing time in their hometown. Basically we can have very peaceful time now.
In the famous tournament for Japanese comedians(M-1 grand prix), Sandwich Man won.
You don't have to know who Sandwich man is. You should only know that it is Japanese concern in this season who the most interesing comedian is.
That's why, the worst news, Bhutto's death in Pakistan was shocking for me.
Someone kill someone, in order to reach their poitical purpose. I thought such a crazy thinking has almost gone in the world. Because it can't be a good method to get political success. But the thinking is still alive.
We know they are crazy. And, they also know they themselves are crazy.
It can be the right to be crazy? I don't know.
Now, I think, it is clear that Pakistan is not the country we can trust well, for coorparating together with many world-wide problems.
Next year, soon, it will become a big political issue in tha Japanese Diet which Japanese self-defense should support Pakistan's navy fighting for Iraq war again, or not. Because I don't think Pakistan can afford to think about Iraq, I don't think Japanese self-defense have to support them.
For the group who killed Bhutto, my opinion is welcome, because their purpose is to destroy the order made by America and its friends. However, for eternal order, the power to make self-order is needed. Pakistani have to try to get the power for themselves now. SO, we must encourage their concern to focus on the issue for themselves.

VS Very Merry Christmas

The conversation in Japanese needs enough time and experience to understand it well enough.
If "I will think about it." is the answer to "How about a dinner with me on X'mas day?", 80% of what it means seems to be "No." in Japanese.

Only 20% is left now.
Although I am not sure whether this percentage is high or low, compared with the possibility that I can get Christmas present from Santa Claus, it is 100% certain that Japanese language is difficult to study like a woman's heart.

VS Business School

Some students studying in American business school came to my company recently, in order to reseach Japanese company. I and my coworkers had the meeting with them. It was our first experience to help students to study the business in Japan, but we enjoyed it very much.

Their theme was to study how international companies mamange their business in Japan. Some foreign companies can make a success in Japan. Some can not. What is the key point for success? What is the diffrence between Japan and other countries?
The theme is too big to answer smoothly, of course. So, the students asked us for a lot of things for our daily working.

Unfortunately I don't have the experience to work in foreign companies, so I can not compare Japanese company with other countries', but I think Japan is special.
Because Japanese market is big and matured, it has their own rules, diffrent from the world. That's why many foreign companies are comfused when they try their business in Japan.
One of my company's business partners introduced the students to us, so they came to my company. The business partner is an american company, but only Japanese staffs are hired in their Tokyo office. For their success, it seems to be the easiest way that Japanese sells something to Japanese.

Before the meeting, we thougt we should give them a souvenir. We prepared a coffee cup with my company's logo.
At the beginning of the meeting, after the introducing each other, the student told us that they had a souvenir for us. It was a coffee cup.
As you know, the exchanging same items is one of the worst happenings in a party.
Please understand how unhappy our feeling was when getting their kind gift.

Anyhow, I hope they can successfuly finish their study after coming back to America.

VS Beach Clean

I took part in Beach Clean on Enoshima beach, by chance. Even though two years has passed since I started to surf on the beach, I had never joined such an event. Because I didn't know how to join it.
One of surf shop staffs invited me to participate in it, when I went to surf on the day. That's why I tried to keep the beach clean for the first time.

Beach Clean is a relaxing event. An organizer of the event gives us trush bags. Then, we start to walk on the beach. Some walk with chatting. Some walk with dogs. If you find artificial things on the beach, you can get them and put them into the bag. That's all. After a while, you can feel it is fun to collect the trash.
"More trash! More trash!" was the feeling of me on the day.
But, fortunately or unfortunately, the beach was clean on the day. Comepared with summer season, not so msny people come to the beach. So, it can be clean to some exrent.
Thus, I think I couldn't contribute to cleaning the beach enough well on the day, but my dirty mind might be cleaned due to joining the nice event.

VS Hair Treatment

Hair is Life. From my childhood, I have heard of this maxim. So, I listen to and obey the idea of a hair professinals straight away. Yesterday I went to Cross Roads for my hair cutting and coloring. Recently I changed my hair color into a little bright. Artificial coloring can damage my hair, so I need more the care by proffesionals.

I leraned about Shampoo a lot from the shop owner, Mr.Beard.
I am not able to explain the detail, but I recommend you to check the shampoo you are using now. Read the shampoo's components' list.
On the top of the list, there must be "Water". It means that water is included into the shampoo the most. The list is the order of the rate of components.

If your shampoo has "Sodiumu Lauryl Sulfate(SLS)" or "Cocamidopropyl Betaine" on the list(Especially they are No.2-5 on the list.), Congratulation! Your hair can keep its health forever. Even if you can't find the strange names on the surface of your favorite shampoo bottle, it is no problem. But, go to a drug store soon, buy better one and throw away the old useless cleanser. It desreves car-washing.

By the way, Michelin Guide Tokyo 2008(both Japanese version and English version) was sold out as soon as it was released! Are there so many people who can go to the expensive restaurants in Japan? I also ordered the book though...

VS Document Archiving(2)

Although Document Archiving is important, Japanese hadn't known the importance for a long time. So, a lot of important Japanese documents are now found out in foreign countries, even though tey were originally made in Japan. One of my jobs is to import such documents, and sell them to my customers. It might be good for my business, but I sometimes feel strange.

I went to listen to the presentation for Prange Collection in the Library Fair. It's a collection of a huge number of Japanese books, magazines and newspapers published soon after WW2. At that time, GHQ governed Japan, and collected all documents published in Japan in order to censor them. After their governance finished, the documents were sent to America and preserved in University of Maryland.
Of course, Japanese theirselves also preserved them, but they have only 5% of the collection now. 95% of them are now in America. Preservation is important.

However, it is not enough only to preserve them. Because the collection is too huge, nobady know what really exists in it. That's why it is very difficult to use the collection. From my experience, I know it is easy to preserve vagetables in my refrigerator, but it is difficult to remember what is in it. Thus, damaged vagetable is sometimes found out to throw it away.
In the presentation, I could know Waseda University is making a digital databese for the collection. It's a very taugh and significant work.

By the way, my computer was broken a few weeks ago, and I knew it was impossible to fix it. Now I am thinking, that I don't have my computer, seve everything on internet sites like Google and use them in Internet Cafe. Is it the good way to archive my documents?????

VS Document Archiving(1)

I went to Library Fair last week. This event is the biggest one for Japanese librarians and their friends, like book-sales men. It is held once a year, in Yokohama. In the event, we can know many new things and trends in the library world; for example, new trends for copyrights, new databases to help library services, how to protect libraries from crimes, and so on. For most people, such things are far from their life, but the people related to library business are intersted in them. So, I joined the event.

My interest in the fair was Document-archiving.
How to keep books forever is an old, big and basic theme in library. Even in my house, it is sometimes a big problem. I want to throw away some books to make my room space large, but if the books were rare and difficult to buy it again, I have to think how to save the books.
My solution is to use the books as a pillow, but librarians are more advanced. Digital-archiving is their solution.

I joined the forum about JSTOR, one of the biggest organization to archive many important academic literatures. Their mission is to archive and digitalize academic journals. They started their project with some social science journals. Now they covers all genres of journals.
I am not interested in the journals because I can't undersatnd what is written in the academic journals, but I have only the interest in the technology to keep and protect useful documents forever. So, I was impressed by the forum very much.

Everytime I join this kind of forum, I feel the gap between Japan and America is big in the field of information management. As an information consumer, Japanese is excellent. We can use easily high-spec mobiles and get much useful information in our daily life. But, social management of information is still old-fashioned. When we go to agovernment office, many types of paper information are required.
Even when we use digital technology, we are sometimes required to use paper-like information. For example in a company, "please report about it by Word-document-file, not by a paper." I can't understand why simple email is bad?

I could understand the importance of document archiving not only in JSTOR's forum, but also in the forum about Japanese old magazines and newspapers. I will write it in the next articles.

* This article is written for showing you my professionalism. You can remenber it. Or, at least, I can remember it.

VS Shadow

Shadow is difficult. Last night I and Haruka tried to shadow a couple. To be precise, they haven't been a couple. We arranged Yakiniku dinner to make a man and a woman a couple last night. So, they were a future-couple.
After the dinner, we asked them to go to a bar for one more drink, but she told us that she would go home. That's why, we said Good-bye to her and him, then we left the place.
After five seconds, our shadow started.
She would really go home? He would really and disappointedly let her go home?
Making other passangers a barrier, we hided our existence and chased them.

They walked slowly to a station, then had arrived at the center exist of the station. And they had a conversation for a while there. I and Haruka looked at them carefully from the place where they couldn't look at us. The moment, I thougt this night hadn't finished yet.
At the next moment, history moved.
They started to walk to the city. It was clear that they had gotten another aim different from going home. We also started to walk silently, and shadowed them.

They chose a narrow unpopular street as their walking route. It made us difficult to chase them, because we couldn't hide us among many unknown people. If they had checked their back side just once, perhaps we couldn't succesfuly shadow them. But, fortunately, they were very busy to think about theirselves. They couldn't realise they were shadowed.

I thought they would go to a bar or Karaoke. But, they walked to Denny's, a family restaurant. If they were high school students, I wouldn't complain of thier choice. But they are adult. So, I couldn't understand their intension. In addition, they stopped again in front of Denny's. And, after a few minutes' conversation, thet began to turn back to the station! What were you doing?

"The back I want to kick" is a million seller novel's title in Japan a few years ago. I remenbered the title when walking to the station "togeter with them".
Soon after the finish of the incomplete night, we sent a complaint e-mail to her. She is now scared to us.

I heard that they will meet again next weekend. I hope they can find us then.

VS Halloween Night

My costume idea has already been out of stock. I couldn't escape from being blue before the party was coming. But, everytime the solution emerged on the day and I was helped. Also at the last night's Aeon Halloween Party, I could luckily get a good costume idea just two hours before the party started. I joined the party, costumed in the wear of the person providing a school lunch.

The party space was BASIL. Recently Aeon's party is always here. Maybe the restaurant size is good for the party size. The restaurnt owner lived in Australia before, so Aussie food is sometimes on the menu. It's nice.
In the party, students weared good costumes; Rice ball, Lupin, Chinese lady, Mushroom, Boxer, Pirate and so on. On the way to the restaurant, all passangers on the street looked at the funny group. Naturally our walking speed became fast.

As you know very well, our party schedule was as usual. After crazy drinking at 1st stage, Karaoke was waiting at 2nd stage. After crazy singing, some people still left and went to Sushi restaurant. It was 3rd stage as usual. Midnight Sushi was so cool. Once you experienced the taste, you wouldn't escape from it. But, we couldn't stay in the place allnight. We had to wait for the first train warking untill around 6 o'clock. In summer time, we can use Hatopoppo park, but now it is a little cold. So, we went to Jonathan, a family restaurant. With feeling sleepy, I waited for the 1st train, drinking beer.

Altough I have joined Halloween Party many times, I don't know the meaning of the party. I am worried that our style of spending of Halloween night could be utterly wrong?

VS Old Mac

He is just seven years old. He had never been sick in his life. He was very well untill the day. But...
My Macintosh was broken suddenly.

On the day, I had listened to music by my Mac.
In my house, there is no TV, no CD player and no Video player. So, Mac is the only one electorical equipment for fun in my house.
The Mac had played J-POP music very well as usual. I enjoyed it with reading a book.

A strange thing happened after a few songs play. Suddenly, I couldn't listen to the music.
I stopped reading a book, and checked a moniter.
I thought he stopped playing, but he had been still playing. But, I couldn't listen to the music. I clicked a volume controller. Then, I could listen to the music again.
I didn't understand why such a starange phenomena had happened, but I was satisfied that the trouble was fixed up. So, I started to read the book again.

However, the trouble was not fixed up in fact.
My Mac stopped working suddenly, and shut down by himself!
I couldn't understand what happened, so I tried to boot it up again, but he didn't make it.
I kocked at him a several times, but nothing happened.
I had no idea what I should do then. So, I decided to go to bed. I hoped that everything would go well on the next morning.

The next morning, everything was unchanged unfortunately.
My Mac was completely dead.
I called Mac office a few days later, and asked the staff for the possibility to make him alive again. The answer was miserable. Because my Mac is very old, they can't fix it now.
He is just seven years old, though....

Now, I can't check my e-mail and use Internet. No sound and no movie in my house. My house is very silent. I sometimes push some keys on my Mac, but he doesn't give me any reaction.

VS Octoberfest

What is Octoberfest? Although I didn't know anything about it but the name of a festival, I decided to go to watch it with Lance. I write my impresson of the festival at first. It was very interesting. I enjoyed it very much.

The event has been held in Akarenga-souko (Red Brick Warehouse) in Minatomirai area in Yokohama. It is German festival, and this year's one is 5th. We can enjoy great German beer, foods and music there.
I was very surprised that a lot of people was joining the event. When I and Lance arrived at the event area, all seats were occupied others. The air there had been filled with drunker's high. So, we had to drink beer as soon as we could after buying the ticket for the event.

If you have not drunk German beer yet, and want to try it, I can recommend you to drink Franziskaner (In Japanese, Furanchesukaana). It is a fruity white beer and very popular. Of course I enjoyed it at the night. Easy to drink. Fitted to any kind of food. I drunk it with a sausage and a salty bread.

A personally impressive thing in the event was that I could find out the wine for which I had serached for a long time. Pieroth blue is the name. A several years ago, a woman intimate to me told me that she met a German wine by chance in a local restaurant and the taste was great but she couldn't find it at any other bars and restaurants. Because she didn't memoraise the wine name exactly (She remenbered only that the name started with "Pi" and the bottle color was blue.), I couldn't find the wine then. That's why I was very happy when I met the wine in the event place. The intimacy of us had already gone, though.

The climax of the event was German music and Beer cheering. Lsitening to the powerful music by German band, someone danced, someone sang and everyone drunk beer, shouting "Cheers!". Almost over 500 people felt our unity there. I understood again that the power of beer can make our world peace. German is wise. Japanese also should give the people in the world the beer they made, not the oil they bought.

VS Myanmer

The demonstration in Myanmer seems to be shrinking now. The monks leading the movement are not on the road. The army government is too strong. Nobody can't damage it. This country will not be a democratic one forever. Unfortunately they have a lot of natural resources, and the best climate for farming. They wouldn't collapse naturally.

Even though Japanese journalist was killed by the shot of the army, Japanese government has not made a strong protest to Myanmer yet. Newspaper says Japanese government is afraid of losing the connection with the country with rich natural resources.

China is the most important country for Myanmer. That's why they can affect the army government's behavier to some extent. But, China's comment is this. "Both sides should be calm to solve problems." Ha ha.

Without any pressure from foreign countries, Myanmer government is going to be alive forever. If I am an activist for democracy in Myanmer, I will go out of the country soon. Because I don't think we have a good condition to change the country now. The country doesn't deserve our effort and life.

VS Castello di Brolio

Some days have passed since Japan's prime minister Abe quit his job suddenly. Now he is in a hospital. His previous job seemed to be too heavy for him. I can't understand why he quit his job more earlier. The timing for quiting was bad and late, as many say. If his decision was faster, he could come back to the politician's world soon. However, I think now his lifetime as a politician finished.

Now, people's interest is Post-Abe. LDP have to choose their new leader as soon as possible. Mr.Fukuda seems to be No.1 candidate, for his matured character. It might be only the reaction to young Abe. I doubt his leadership, but he must be the only one choice for LDP .

Last weekend, I went to Ristorante Real, an Italian wine restaurant in Yokohama, with someone, without thinking about Japan's politics at all. The restaurant was the place to which I wanted to go someday. My desire was achived at last.
It is located near the east exit of Yokohama station. Many original restaurants are around there. Some call the area Ura-Yokohama. I like the area.

My target in the Italian restaurant on the day was red wine made in Toscana. I needed an deep energetic impact on my heart by Rosso the day. I heard from my best wine adviser that Toscana's Rosso is great and gorgeous. So, I selected it.
However, the restaurant has many varieties of wine. Even in Toscana wine, there are over 30 or 40 types of wine. That's why I asked for the restaurant owner's advice, and I ordered Castello di Brolio(2001). The taste was strong enough, but it was easy to drink. I enjoyed it with some baked seafoods and a roasted duck. I think the restaurant's food is perfect for wine.

My wine life started with Australian wine last summer. And, now I am walking on the road of Italian wine, even though I am nearly on the start line. I heard that the concept of the new world wine like Australian's and that of European traditional wine like Italian's are diffrent. I can't explain it correctly, but my image to Austraian wine is "Nature", on the other hand, Itarian wine is "Culture". So, if you want to talk about cultural topics with some with drinking wine, Italian wine might be better. Of course, on the day, I talked about cultural topics like Science Fiction, in the restaurant. Next time, I have to talk about Opera or something in order to get back my lost scores.

VS Teaching

Japanese workers have many trainings after they start to work. On the Job Training (OJT) is the basic style for their training. Senior workers become trainers or teachers, and new workers learn a lot from them.
This summer, suddenly, I was asked to be a teacher for new workers by my company. I have to prepare for their training in the next month, so I am very busy now. Even though today is Sunday, I worked whole the day to prepare for it.
Fortunately I had gotten a lot of teaching technique in Kid's English Teaching Class. I think the basic technique to teach children English can be used even in Adult's Working Class. That's why this prepareation for the training is a very interesting work for me. It's a good chance for me to judge my teaching man's potentiality.
I think teaching is a very creative work. When I prepare for the training, I need to create something for it. How to explain what I know is sometimes very difficult. I have to create the explanation for it.
Unfortunately, creativity cannot happen in my office. It can happen only in a relaxing mood. So, recently, I am working even in my home! Of course, with alcohol. I know I can be the most creative, in my house and with drinking something cool. However I have a problem. The more I become creative, the more I become sleepy, for the alcohol. The balance between creativity and alcohol is difficult.
This week, I will join the new wirker's training as a teacher.
I hope the students are nice to understand well what I say and even what I don't say.

VS Oriental Magic

I don't know the reason why, but I have a strong neckache from last weekend. When I get up in the morning, I can't stand up smoothly due to the neckache. And, my neck-movability is very bad now. So, it's a very taugh work even to drive a car.
I thought this situation is very dangerous, and went to a hospital. X-ray check told me that I don't have any bone problem. This problem seems to come from my muscle around my neck. It became too hard for some reasons, so the strong pain occured.
Now I am getting some medcines, so the situation is getting better. I will be okey in a few days.

It just happened I went to an Acupuncture school for business yesterday. This school is planning to make a new school library, so I have helped them.
The school staffs are professional. They realised my neck problem soon, and they asked me to go to their doctor's room, almost without talking about our business matter.
They asked me to take my shirt off, and I was enforced to take an acupanture treat. It was my first time to experience such a treat, so I was very nervous then to be honest.
I told the doctor that it was my first time, so she stuck some needles into my neck very softly.
She asked me, "It's getting better?"
I thought that if I said "NO" I would get more needles. So, I told her "Good!".

I heard from the school staff that they call acupanture Oriental Magic, not Oriental Medicine. It is the reason why, too many wonders are left in it to call it medcine. So, even for them, it's a kind of magic.
After the treat, my neck-movability became better certainly. Human body is interesting.

VS Feast

Atsugi is now in a very feastive mood. Its annual feastival, Ayu Matsuri, started with the pre-night live by Creazy ken Band yesterday. Tonight we will have a big firework show near Sagami river. Last year, I missed it for the travel to Australia, so I can't miss it this year. I will watch the show in my friend's house, eating food and drinking wine. It's nice. Some brave watchers have already been near the river from around noon, to keep a good space to watch the firework, even though it's over 30 degrees today. They are taugh.
All night drinking is the manner hear after the firework show. All bars and pubs will be full tonight. Atsugi is the city for a feast. Endless drinking and "fooding" deserves this city.

VS Voting Day

Today is the voting day in Japan. I've not decided to vote for who even now. But, I've already decided to vote against the ruling parties. I don't have any reason to keep my country unchanged.
Not only I but also many Japanese think so too. From the newspaper's analysis, it seems to be clear that the ruling parties will lose. And, the point at this moment is how many seats in Diet they will lose. If the lost seats are too many, Prime minister Abe can't keep his position. I think he shouldn't keep it. Maybe, the position is too heavy for him. When he started to work as Prime minister, he was seen a strong young leader. But, now, he looks like an immatured man. And, in addition, his thinking smells an old man's one, at least for me. He wouldn't be fresh at all.
It might be better for him to be our country's leader again someday after experiencing many things. Ont the day he will be older physically, but many experiences will make him fresher mentally. I am looking forward to the result of this election.

VS Egyptian Child Book

In Tokyo International Book Fair, I could know many interesting books from foreign countries. Egyptian books were one of them. I couldn't totally understand what is written for my no-understanding of the language, but I could enjoy the covers and the illustlations enough well.

As other foreign pulisher's booths did so, Egyptian booth displayed a lot of child books. Because, like me, most Japanese can't understand their language, so the books with many illustlations are easier for us to understand. In addition, the market of "child" books are growing in Japan, even though the market of books itself are shrinking now. It is nice that Japanese can afford their children's education.

From the view point of the worker in Japanese publishing world, Egyptian child book have to be changed more for Japanese customers. A huge numbers of child books are published everyday in Japan. The competition is hard. The story, the illustlation and the material of the books are very sophisticated. In Japanese public library, it takes the longest time for librarians to sellect child books.
If Egyptian publishers want to make a success in Japan, they had better know this super-hard competitive situation.

In a picture book, the main character is a soldier. He battles, beats his enemy, and helps people. The story looked simple.
Like a police officer and a nurse, it might be natural for Egyptian to read the story of a soldier in a child book. However, my impression was embarrassment when I found the book. I am not sure whether this feeling is only Japanese one or not, but most Japanese, I think, think it is bad to describe a soldier or an army beautiful, in the books for kids. So, in my life, I have never watched Japanese child book to describe a soldier.
I don't know this thinking will be alive in the future in Japan, but at this point, such a book is impossible to sell in Japanese market. If I have a chance, I will give this advice to them.

VS Iranian

Last weekend, I went to Tokyo International Book Fair in Odaiba. It is one of the biggest events for publishing companies and book lovers in Japan. It is a wonder that I've never been to the fair even though I am working for book-sales. So, I had been looking forward to joining it.
A huge numbers of publishers had their own booths to display their publications. Watching many new books itself seemed to be exciting for heavy readers. All booths were very crowded. People could buy the books on cheap prices. They could get special discounts in the fair. They looked happy.

Most booths were Japanese publishers' ones. But, new players in publishing business also joined this event. Google was the representative of them. Their booth was bigger than other old media companies, and they showed us some new ways for publishing. By chance on the day, I read an article in a newspaper that Google entered into an alliance with Keio University to digitize a large numbers of books. We don't know if they are our friend or enemy, but their project can not be ignored by all players in the publishing world.

All booths were interesting, but my purpose was to watch the booths of foreign companies. I could enjoy watching many books from other countries there.
It was surprising for me that Iranian companies' booths were the most there. I had no idea of Iranian books, so everything in thier booths were new for me. Unfortunately most Japanese including me can't read their words.
That's why the main books displayed there were art books or visual books. Pictures can be understood by anyone. The quality of each books were high, so I could enjoy watching them.

I had the chance to talk with the staff in Iranian booth. He is an Iranian student studying in Japanese university. I wanted to know the publishing world in Iran more, so I gave him some questions.

I: How many publishers are there in Iran?
He: Mmm, many. It's countless.
I: Ok. How many bookstores are there in Iran?
He: Mmm, many. It's also countless.

In Japan, there are 5000 publishers and 20000 bookstores.
I wanted to compare Japan with Iran, in order to understand the situation of publishing in Iran. But, I couldn't know anything due to his unclear answer. Maybe, he was not familier with it. So, I gave him another question.

I: The bookstore in Iran is so same as in Japan?
He: Mmm, a little diffrent. Like Akihabara for electorical equipments in Japan, we have a big town for books.

His answer made me surprised.
Certainly I know there are big towns for books in the world, like Frankfurt in German, or Kanda-Jinboucho in Tokyo. But, the book town in Iran was utterly out of my image. Why?
I thought publishing business can flourish only under the freedom of speech. That's why I couldn't imagine that Iranian have a big publishing economy in their country. Their religious thinking looks very strict, so I had thought that they couldn't express their free thinking. My image of Iranian publicing was very poor.

However, from the Iranian student's words, I knew they have a very rich publishing society. I felt the respect for the country soon. Some people see the country very dangerous. But, now I can say they are very intellectual. So, I think we can understand each other by communication, even if their government is making atomic bombs.

Unfortunately Iranian doesn't have the route to sell their books in Japan. Their great history and nature deserve to be shown here. I would get my new mission in my job.

VS Punk Rock

Punk Rock is one of the farest things from my life, but I went to listen to it tonight. A punk rock party was held at Club 24 West, in Yokohama. The place was very small, and it doesn't have the stage for bands. But, we can listen to their play very close to them. So, I could enjoy to feel tonight's bands' energy very much.

My and my friends' purpose to go there was to watch the performance of our friend's band, Herts The Turks. This time was the last one that we can watch, because they will leave Japan soon after the live. So, we couldn't lose the last chance to listen to their play.

Before their play, some Japanese bands played. They were very powerful, and the listeners were also powerful. They ran, jumped, kicked and tackled each others on the floor. I didn't think they were dancing then, but it might be a genre of dancing.
Anyway, their energetic performance made the floor warmed up very much. So, the play of Herts The Turks was very hot from the beginning. Everybody enjoyed it very much. This time was the second time that I listened to their play. Compared with the last time, I thoguht their performance became better. The combination of Turkish female vocal and British male vocal became more beautiful.
I heard that they will go to England after leaving Japan. Their combination is going to become better and better.

After the live, my ears were strange for a while. The too noisy place seemed to damage my listening capability. However, the damage was also comfortable for me. This feeling might be the charms of Punk Rock.

VS Translation

From the beginning of this year, I have tried to read a science book "Warped Passages" in English. But I don't finish reading it, and I almost give up reading it. It's too difficult for me. The theme of the book is the extra-dimension of space which is the newest theory in applied physics. I could understand the theory roughly in the book, but it's hard to read the descriptions for physics in English, for my lack of the knowledge and vocabulary of physics, which is the subject I hated in my high-school days.

However, it was very happy that this book was translated into Japanese at last. Because I heard that it might be impossible to translate the book into Japanese, I became excited when I knew the Japanese version. Of course, I ordered it soon. Now I'm waiting for the book coming.

Japanese is lucky. We have a very strong translation culture. Thet's why we can get new information soon, and understand even difficult knowledge easily. This translation culture can become obstraction of our English study, though. Anyway, once I will read it in Japanese, and next I will try it in English again.

From 5th in this month, the 14th Tokyo International Book Fair is going to be held. For book-sales business, it is one of some big events. The Book Fair gives Japanese and foreign publishing companies good business chances. The deal of the right to translate good books is the main topic. The coming last volume of HARRY POTTER must be the most expensive right.

VS Optimism and Pessimism

Last day's discussion class was interesting. We discussed about the future of newspaper in this internet eara. The theme itself was exciting, but, before the discussion, we talked about Optimism and Pessimism. "Are you optimist? Or pessimist?" was the question. It was the warming-up talk for the class.
Some students said "I am an optimist." Some were pessimists. I was on an optimist side.
Basically I think my future life is rosy. I think I am convinced of my opinion, idea and future vision any time. So, I must be an optimist, basically. But I am not sure whether it's good or bad. My teacher Sudhan's opinion was interesting. He had been an optimist for a long time, but he is now thinking that an pessimist can be better for his/her life. Because a pessimist can become happier than an optimist if something small but good happens. An optimist tends to have a big expectation, so he/she couldn't be satisfied with such a small happiness. I can understand his opinion well.

After the class, I thought I have to modify my thinking a little, even though I told that I am an optimist. Because, for love, I can easily move from an optimist side to a pessimist side. And, actually at this moment, I am moving at random between both sides.
Afetr meeting an ideal woman three months ago, my mental conditon has been unstable. Now I can't concentrate on anything honestly. My performance of working is very low, and my English study has been stopped. Sometimes I have even physical ache around my heart( I am afraid that I can die soon.), so my performance of surfing is also bad! I can say I'm facing an mental and phisical crisis now. Very tiny things between us influence on me. Even though I was an optimist yesterday, I suddenly become a pessimist today. At the moment that I am a pessimist, I tend to drink alcohol very much. On the other hand, when I am an optimist, I can't stop drinking because it's my real happy hour. So, recently the quantity of daily drinking is becoming bigger and bigger. My liver must be damaged very much.
To make my mental and physical condition peaceful, I am thinking that I hurry to get any judgements. I should ask the woman at least in a month if we can have a special relationship or not. But, the only thing I don't know is the timing. Should I ask her it in my optimist mood or pessimist mood? And, the only thing I am sure of is that I will use alcohol power for myself.
(Mmmm, this article would be too private.)

VS Manifests

Now many Japanese politicians are busy to preare for the coming election for the House of Councilors in July. We can find easily the politicians making a speech on the street recently. My friend reported me that he saw an ex-prime minister eating ramen in an local city ramen restaurant. I think he comes to the city to make a speech for the election.

I am often checking the manifests of each political parties on a newpaper or the parties' home page. It is interesting for me to read their future vision of our society. As you can easily understand, thier vision is made beautiful. We wouldn't trust it at all, though. But, anyway, thier vision must influence on our society more or less. So, we should know them fully.

When recently reading the biggest two parties in Japan, LDP and DP, I thought, to be honest, our future vision is very poor. Certainly they are talking about many issues Japanese are interested in. For example, the pension problem is a big issue. Now Japanese pension system have to be designed totally again, due to the bad management by the government. Some people have the risk to lose their pension in the future.
Event though I know the pension problem is important for our life, I am not interested in it so much.

The problem of the people kidnapped by North Korea seems to be a big issue in Japan. To solve this issue is treated as the important issue for our future especially in LDP's manifesto. But, I can't have, unfortunately, the same sympathy with the issue.

What am I unsatisfied with?
For me, their manifestos look very domestic. They are looking only at the issues the voter are interseted in. It is okey to get their vote, but I think Japanese future vision at this moment should be more international.
As I wrote it in this blog before, Japan should have their own immigrant policy. Even though Japanse government is thinking that Free Trade Agreement is an important economic policy, they don't think the physical moving of foreigners is the key of the success of the policy.
It is very surprising for me that there is not the word "foreinger" in their manifests. The existence of foreign people seems to be out of our future.

Now the number of foreirners coming to Japan for sightseeing is growing. Last year the number was the biggest. The percentage of international marriage in Japan is also growing. Now 5% of all marriages in Japan is the combination of Japanese and foreigner. So, I can't understand why Japanese big political parties don't have general policy for foreigners.
At the end of July, can I vote for anyone? I am not sure now.

VS Rain

At last rainny season has started in Japan. The ministry of weather mis-forcast the beginning as usual, though. They thought it would come earlier.

For a book-sales man( maybe for everyone), this season is very annoying. Rain is a big enemy for books. So, I don't want to go out from my office. I tend to stay in my office now. It's more confortable. My business performance might be bad now.
But also for my cliants, this season seems to be bad. They are losing any motivation to work. Today, I met a professer for business. He is old. He doesn't want to do anything this tiring season. When I visited him, he gave me a cup of coffee soon without talking about business. At the moment, only he wanted to do was just to be relaxed with someone. It was the same thing I wanted to do then. we talked about something which is totally not important for a long time, and I said good-bye to him, and I went home. I can say business is impossible now.
How about taking a holiday in a rainny day, like farmers. They wouldn't work in a rainny day and a windy day. I think they are very rational.
I want to propose this new working rule for our society.

VS Yokohama Stadium

The game arrangement of professional baseball changed a little in Japan last year. Japan has two diffrent leagues, and the games were basically produced in a same league. The team A belonging to the league X didn't fight against the team B belonging to the league Y. But, from last year, A vs B has been possible in the early summer season. We can watch more varieties of games now.

So, I went to Yokohama Stadium yesterday, to watch the game, Softbank howks vs Yokohama baysters. To be honest, I am not the fan of both teams, but I could enjoy the game very much. I sat on the seat of Softbank side. Unfortunately the day was not for Softbank. The picher of Yokohama was good the day, so Softbank couldn't get scores at all.
Even though our side couldn't have the chance to win the game, the fans had been excited through the game.
Japanese baseball fans are funny. Some of them don't watch the game. They are very busy for singing songs for each players, and dancing on their seats. Compared with Major league, the fan's watching style is very diffrent. I had thought Major league style was good for a long time, but yesterday I thought Japanese style is also okey. For loseing team's fans, the existence of another excitement is very good.

The location of Yokohama stadium is good. There is China town near it. The old-modern bars around Kannai station closest to the stadium are nice. In additon, the open-air stadium is very comfortable. Now, most stadiums in Japan are Dome-type. They are actually convenient even in a rainy day, but we can't watch the sky and feel breeze. I could find again the goodness of the old style stadium yesterday.

VS Human Death

Although I had many happy things recently in my daily life, I write down an unhappy thing here. Because it was the most impressive thing for me last week.

A man I know a little committed suicide in his company midnight. Before his death, he emailed his colleagues to apologize to them, because his sudden death would make them shocked.
One of his colleagues reported soon the email to his boss. The boss went to the company soon midnight with the man's family, to search for him.
The man was found by the boss in a warehouse at 3:30 am. He hanged himself in the cold place.
Soon after that, the police came to the place, and checked the hanged body for a while. To check it carefully, anyone couldn't move it. So, the body had to be hanged for a while even after it was found out.
While the police was checking it, the dead man's family stayed in a room far from the warehouse. Because it must be very shocking for the family to watch the man hanged. But, the boss who found the body was beside the police to check it together.

I heard that the dead man had a mental illness. It might be the reason why he commited suicide, but nobody know the real reason of his death. Some said that his bad working position killed him, and his suicide in his working place meaned his protest.(Actually his working position was bad. He had nothing to do in his company.) Some said the only one place left for him was his company, so he chose it as his death place.(He seemed to have no friend.) The rumors or interpretions changed, depending on the talkers.

I had the chance to talk with the boss for my business a few days after the incident. I thought he had heavy shock in his mind, before meeting him. But, he told me that he was not shocked even though the incident was a very sad thing.
He said to me, "A person will die someday. So, we have to think about human's death anytime. It must be sad for a person to commit suicide, but it is his/her choice. Before the suicide, he/she must think about it seriously. So, the only thing we can do is to respect and accept his/her decision. Don't you think so?"

When facing a human death, we tend to ask why? But the boss didn't care for it. He thinks the asking is meaningless. For me, his thinking was very impressive.
Afetr talking about his death for a while, we started to talk about our business soon.
Some might think the boss's thinking is cold. But I didn't. He told me that, when he found the body, he wouldn't scared with it. Watching the dead man's face, he thought the man looked relieved from something.
His impression might be too beautiful, without thinking about the dead man's mental crisis. But it's not my point to agree and disagree with him. The most impressive thing for me was that he always prepares for human death including his own death. Because I think I wouldn't die, his viewpoint of death and live was unique for me.

VS Science Fiction

At the end of this August, the world-wide biggest Science Fiction convention, Worldcon, is going to be held in Yokohama.
This convention has a long history in SF fan's community. The first one was held in New York in 1939. This year's one is 65th.
In the history, all conventions had been held in USA or Europe. This summer's one in Yokohama is the first time in Japan, and in Asia. Some Japanese SF lovers had invited the convention to Japan for a long time, and the dream will become true. That's why, it will be a very memorial one. Japanese SF fans must be excited in this summer.

My company is planning to have a booth in the convention, cooporating with some publishers. Maybe, we will try to introduce many Japanese SF works (for example, novels, mangas, movies and so on.) to foreigners coming to join the convention. I am looking forward to it.
Japanese SF is not famous in the world because of the language barrier, but I think the quality is not low. So, I think it is a meaningful job to join the convention, and to display great works of Japanese SF for the people who don't know them.

From my junior high school days to my high school days, I loved to read SF novels very much.
SF is a wide category. Some think Fantasy like Harry Potter series is SF. Some think Space Opera like Star Wars is SF. For me, Hard SF was real SF. It was like a science book. The detail of the description in such a book is very realistic, but not real in fact. Star Treck series on TV might be a good example to explain my preference. The logic or discription of space travel in the work was of course a lie, but looked realistic. Great SF has a great lie, and we know it must be a lie, but we can believe it might be true. Or, we are willing to be cheated. What the truth is isn't a problem. The problem is what we can think is the truth. I learned the important philosophy of our life from SF.

Many novelists, movie producers and artists will join the convention. So, it is cultural and academic to some extent. But, I am guessing the convention will be like Halloween party. SF fans must like to wear very maniac costumes. I think thier mentality is similar to manga or animation freaks. So, many people will come to the convention in strange wears. I have to find a cool costume for the party.
The costume of Super Justice in "Dai Nipponjin" might be a good idea. (What's Super Justice? To know it, please watch the starange movie. It's unfortune it has no English subtitle, though...)

VS Dai Nipponjin

Caution! The writing below is related to a new movie now on screen. If you will go to watch it, please read this blog after that. I don't want to give you any bias for the movie.

* * * * * * *

I went to watch the new movie, Dai Nipponjin (Big Japanese), directed by Hitoshi Matsumoto, Japanese famous comedian. This work is his first movie. I was looking forward to it.
This movie didn't give us the advertisement. So, we couldn't get any information about it until it comes to the screen. Thus, our expectation became big.

It's difficult to say the genre of this work, but it is a kind of Hero movie. The image of Hero in this movie is very diffrent from our typical image, though.
This movie is filled with the Hitoshi Matsumoto's worship or respect for Hero character. It might be close to Taratino's maniac perspective. But, the expression style is utterly diffrent. Hitoshi Matsumoto's backborn is not movie but TV comedy. He prefers very cheap expressin very much.
So, watching this movie in a theater, everybody must think they are in front of television in their house.

The best part of this movie is conversation. The nuance of the conversation is great. To understand it, we have to master Japanese language. Fortunately I've already mastered it, so I could enjoy the conversation in this movie very mush. Some parts are very abstract and summarized too much. Even Japanese can't explain the exact meaning, but can laugh at it. Language is very interesting.

Like all jokes in the world, we have to have cultural resources to understand many laughing points in this movie. A lot of old Japanese comedy jokes are inserted into this movie. Many jokes look to have a special meanings in this movie, but they don't have it at all. But, we naturally think they mean something special. The tactics of Hitoshi Matsumoto is very magical.

But, to be honest, I think this movie is incomplete. Its basic idea is very good and interesting. But, the story is not organized well enough. I think this movie can be shorter. If it is more compact, it could be a greater work. When I finished watching it, the reaction of other audiences were disapointment. The lady next to me said "I'm sleepy."
I was not sleepy, but I could understand her feeling.

However, this movie is certainly very challanging. It has a great impact on the method of expression in movies. I think the blood of Japanese comedy was mixed with the world movie, in this work. So, I am looking forward to watching a second work by Hitoshi Matsumoto soon.

VS Under Construction

Typhoon season is coming in Japan. Two typhoons had already been born this month around Japan. They were weak, and their life time were short, but they had great power certainly. So, they could make good waves on the sea. I think you can understand why all surfers are looking forward to the typhoon season.

Now the water tenparature on the sea is very comfortable. On Enoshima beach, there are many people coming to swim or to get suntan. Of course, a lot of surfers are there too.
We can find many surf-school students there now. The sea is filled with a lot of surfing biginners now. Needless to say, their surfing is terrible. Even keeping their balance on the surf board might be very difficult for them. I was so too. Surf instructer is pushing the tail of the surf-board of the students, because they can't paddle well enough. Then they try to stand up on the board, but they drop into the water soon. And, they try again. The loop of push-stand-drop looks endless. However, they look happy. So, I think they will not give up surfing, like me.

On Enoshima beach, now, the rest houses on the beach (uminoie) are under construction. From July 1st, the beach will be open for the people coming to swim.
Of course, even now, the beach is open for them. But, the beach is used mainly for surfers. It's uncomfortable and dangerous for them. So, from July 1st to August 31th, from 9:00 AM to 5:00 PM, the beach is monopolized by normal swimmers. Surfer's activity is limited.
The rest houses are for the monopolizing swimmers. They searve food, drink and the rest space. Some houses are open for 24 hours. They are used like dance halls! Enoshima beach is unsleeping in summer.

VS Golden Town

There is an area called Golden Town in Kabuki-cho 1 chome, Shinjyuku. The town is the area for drinking people. I went there last week.
There are over 150 bars in the area. All bars are very small. The average size is about 10 square meters. Each ones have 7 or 8 sheets only. They look very private places.

Golden Town has a long history. After the world war II, the area became a black market governed by Yakuza, Japanese mafia. But, some people started bars around there, and they became popular. And, soon the number of bars incresed very much. Then the area became the biggest drinking area in Tokyo.

A lot of novelists, journalists, poets, publishers, social activists and artists loved the area's atomosphere. So, the area became not only a drinking spot but also a kind of cultural place. I think, my company made the biggest bookstore then in Shinjyuku, for the area's cultural power. Actually the first president of Kinokuniya was a famous regular customer in Golden Town.

I went to a bar managed by a middle-age lady. I heard from others that she was an actress of pink movies. Without asking for my order, she searved soon whisky with water for me. And, without asking, she searved a small vegetable food for me. Perhaps, it is not cool there to order something there. Only I could do was to follow her searve.
When I and my colleagues drunk there, a drama directer came. He seemed to be a regular customer. I gave him my seat to him because I was a visiter. The local has priority. It's a sufer's rule, so I used the rule in the bar at the time.

Basically Golden Town is an old-fashioned place. So, it is for old men. But, recently, young people seem to start to work there. The nostalgic and unique atomosphere would give any impressions to them.

VS Head Office in Shinjyuku

Yesterday I went to the head office of Aeon, in Shinjyuku, to join a class for Kids-English teacher. It was my first time to visit there. From here, all schools of Aeon in Kanto area are governed strictly or loosely. I was a little excited before visiting.
Outside of the exit of Nishi-Shinjyuku station on Marunouchi line, Aeon staff waited for students. They had a sign to show the direction to the head office. I could go to the office smoothly by them. The office is in a big building. Family Mart is the landmark of the entrance of it. I bought Evian there.
Aeon head office is located on 16th floor of the buliding. It was more gorgeous than I expected. At the entrance of the floor, beautiful staffs waited for us, and checked our name and class. I was introduced to a big room next to their office room.
Before my class, I checked the toilet of the floor. I know the level of the toilet equals the level of the company. The company with a beautiful toilet must be beautiful. The company with an old toilet must be old-fashioned.
The toilet of Aeon head office is very gorgeous, clean and relaxing.
It has the wood-based wall, personal rockers and a wide window. Of course, it has enough toilet papers and a washing-machine in each rooms for a big size.

I wanted to check the gorgeous lunch box which Aeon staffs eat regularly, but I couldn't on the day. And, I didn't check 19th floor where there is a big textbook factory. Many new textbooks are developed there everyday. Zac did it before. We wouldn't or couldn't forget him forever.

The class for Kids English was good as usual. The teacher, Kaoru.T, was professional. I think Kids English is a kind of science, and a hard physical work! At the end of three-hours class, the teacher Kaoru.T looked to be almost dying, but she had kept smiling. Smiling is most important to kids. She was professional.
Next month, I will visit there again. I think I can study Aeon's managing system more then.

VS The Origin of 20 years old

"To be alone, and to be immatured, it is my origin of twenty years old." With this impressive sentence, the book with the same titile of this article starts.
This book was published 35 years ago in Japan, and prented again many times. But, it is now out-of-print.
The author is Etsuko Takano. She wrote the book when she was 20 years old. To be precise, she didn't write the book in order to publish it. It was a kind of diary for herself. She wrote down her thinking on a notebook. After her death (She committed a suicide.), her diary-like notebook was found out by her family, and published later.

She lived in the eara of Student Power.
Student Power... This word might be a dead word, so I should write the meaning. In 60's and 70's, the students all over the world had political power, or were seen have the power. They were very critical about their government and society. Vietnam war was a simbolic incident they should criticize at that time.
Student Power means the social movement lead especially by unversity students. Etsuko Takano spent her unversity days in the atomosphere.
She was not a political woman at first. But, she began to commit a political movement soon when she became 20 years old. The notebook was the document of her thinking in the movement.

She was influenced by political activists, but I don't think she was biased. She was very honest to herself. Soon after she wrote her political opinion in her notebook, she understood her bias and wrote down the possibility of her misunderstanding on it. So, she wrote that she was immatured. I like her stance.
Even though she committed a political movement, she was not a strong woman. Under the big pressure of politics, she committed a suicide. Maybe it is difficult for us to understand the reason of her suicide. Because for us, politics is the inncident on TV, not in our real life.

Now, my company is planning to reprint and sell out-of-print books. I recommend "The Origin of Twenty Years Old" to my company. I get tired of too many boring publications in Japan. I think this book is worth to reprint. I don't know it can be sold very much, though.....

VS Knock Forever

In this golden week, Knock Yokoyama was dead. He was a comedian and a politician, especially popular in the western Japan. It just happen I spent my golden week holidays there. So, I could watch the news on TV many times.
Even for Japanese living in the eastern Japan, he was famous. But, I think, for them, he was jsut one of many popular comedians on TV. It was same for the western Japanese. However, the position of comedians in a society is a little diffrent there.
For the western Japanese, TV comedians are sometimes our relatives. Sometimes, they are our friends, teachers or students. In short, the distance between TV comedians and other people is close.
So, the news of Knock's death was more shocking for the western people.
Unfortunately we couldn't watch him on TV recently. Because, when he was a president of Osaka prefecture eight years ago, he made a sexual harassment to a woman and had to quit his job. After that, he couldn't have the chance to come back on TV at all. Osaka people wouldn't forgive him. Because the relationship with comedians is close, the people would have not forget his crime soon. I think, if the same kind of thing happened in Tokyo, the comedian can come back on TV earlier than Knock.
Other comedians say Knock was shining among comedians' community. It was not only because of his bold head but also his personality. We don't forget Knock forever.

VS Publishing in Japan

The book titles below was the most sold ten books in Jpan in 2006. As a book-salesman, I have to check the trend of Japanese publishing world.

1. Kokka no hinkaku, (The dingnity of the nation)
2. Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince
3. Tokyo tawaa okan to boku to, tokidoki, oton, (Tokyo Tower, me and my mom, and sometimes my dad)
4. Enpitsu de oku no hosomichi,("Oku no hosomichi" traced with a pencil)
5. Byooki no naranai iki-kata,(How to live without becoming ill)
6. Oide yo doubutsu no mori. Kanpeki gaidobukku,(The complete guidebook for "Come in to the forest of the animals")
7. Hito wa mita me ga 9 wari,(The 90% of information conveyed without using words)
8. Shin ningen kakumei,(The human revolution, 2nd series, Vol.15 an 16)
9. Ko-sodate happii adobaisu(1)(2)(3),(Three volumes of advice on how to bring children up happily)
10. Kagami no housoku. Jinsei no donna mondai mo kaiketsu suru mahou no ruuru,(The rules of the mirror. Magic rules for solving any problems at all in human life)

No.1 is the book for Japanese national identity. Shit.
No.2 is a too long story. No.3 is the novel for Tokyo people. Unfortunately I'm Kyoto people. No.4 is not a book but a notebook. No.5 is none of you business. No.6 is a guidebook for a game. Shit. No.7 is the book for biasist. No.8 is for religious people. No.9 is for mothers. No.10 is for the people who can't think about their life for themselves.

All books are out of my interest. Therefore I've never read all these books.
I can be a good book-salesman?

VS Tissue Paper

After Aeon discussion class, in front of Hon-Atsugi station, I watched Aeon staff gave passangers the tissue paper with the advertisment of the school. I didn't have to get the school information because I am its student, but I wanted to get a tissue paper, so I came close to the staff and I got it.
The advertisement said "20% off, Until today."
I was excited a little even though I didn't know what is 20% off. Actually this tissue paper advertisement system has magical power.

When I got the tissue, I was completely free. I didn't have any plan at the moment. So, I continued to watch her working.
I didn't have any idea of the tissue giving job. Usually except for hey fever season, I don't get such a tissue on a street. So, I didn't know who get the tissue, what the technique of the job is and how hard the job is.
Standing next to the staff, I realised that old men and women got the tissue easily. Young persons ignore the tissue offer more, but old people don't refuse the offer.
In addition, some old people came close to the staff, and asked her to give them the tissue.
An old woman, who realised the tissue was the advertisement of English conversation school, started to talk about her son working in America for five years. He seemed to tell her to come to and live in America someday.
"Do you think the old woman like me can study English?"
She asked me. She seemed to think I was the school staff.
"Of course, Madame. It's no problem."
I answered with smile.

My answer didn't have any knowledge for old people's study, and my smile could include a natual reaction and intension of salesman. However, I don't think it was a problem. If she can trust her own possibility by my answer, it's ok. If she will decide to study English someday, I hope 20% discount extend until the day.

VS First Pay Day

April is the first month of a fiscal year in Japanese companies. Many new things start. New works start. New people start to work.
For booksales, this season is a textbook-sales season. As well as Japanese companies, the schools in Japan start a new educational year in April. So, all students need new textbooks. It's a big business for me. I am busy now.

New workers (a man and a woman) came to my office this month. I and other old staffs have to teach them many things. They don't know the system, the rules, the common sense or the way to live in a company world. The world has many interseting points and many boring points. If they will know only boring things before finding out intersting ones, they would quit and change their job soon. Actually, recently in Japan, around 33% of new workers quit the job within 3 years. It's very bad, at least in Japan. Nobody want such a situation. Everybody want young people to stay longer in their working place.

What kind of working place is comfortable for young Japanese? Recently I read an intersting survay in a newspaper.
Veteran workers think young people want to work free, as they like. So, the veteran don't say anything to the young.
But, from the survay, working free is not so much prefered by the young workers. What do they want?
The young workers want them to be taught very kindly by the veterans.
"Do it as you like." seems to be a bad order. "Do it as I explain how to do." seems to be requested by Japanese young workers.

Yesterday was my company's pay day. For new workers, it was their first pay day. I talked to them, "First pay day will not come again. So, this day must be something memorial. So, you have to eat something memorial. Now, you have two choices. Good fish or good beef. Which?"
They looked to undertand what I said.
Female worker's answer was "Beef." Male worker's answer was "I follow her." That's why we went to a good korean yakiniku restaurant. We ate top three expensive meats on the restaurant's menu. The meats' quality was very nice.
Maybe, the memory of the good yakiniku will be left in their mind for a long time. The bill was also memorial.

VS Enforcement

Don't push me, Mike. I need 15 days to think about and write political issues here..........

Now Japanese Government seems to be very sencitive to the word, "Enforcement". Two recent issues related to the perspective of historical facts have us know it.

The first issue is the one which Chinese people, Korean people and American Congress are interested in. The sexual slave in World War II is it.
Some Japanese politcians including the prime minister Abe denied recently that Japanese army and government "enforced" Asian women to be sex workers to Japanese soldiers during World War II.
This opinion made the people above be surprised at it and get angry with it.
But, in Japan, I think most people weren't surprised at it.
It doesn't mean they agree with the opinion. It means they are accustomed to listen to it.

The politicians don't say there were not sex workers to Japanese soldiers. They say Japanese army didn't enforce Chinese and Korean women to do it. What's their point?
They think about this issue like this:
Japanese army invaded the cities in China and Korea. In the cities, there had already been sex workers. They worked originally in their country. Japanese army hired them, and gave sexual services to the soldiers. In short, it was business, not enforcement.
They ask, "Are there any documents to certify the enforcement of Japanese army or government? I know the answer. The answer is Not."

Document. It's the key word.
Their asking is right to some extent.
For historical facts, the existence of documents is important.
In order to understand historical facts, historicians value the documents written soon when the facts happened.

An incident happend one day.(For example, A farmer met Alien.) The article for the fact in newspaper is very important for historical study.(A young farmer in Idaho could contact Alien this morning.) The diary for it written by somebody is also important. (Gash! Tommy was talking with Alien in his farm today. He is heavy!)
Alien's official report is very important.( Project code 1988. Mission: To calculate the farming ability of Earth people. Result: They can make only potatos.)
But, the importance of the book written later about the incidents is seen less. (In this summer, I had a trip for U.S. I met the person who said he had seen Alien in his childhood. He told me that they came to the earth to steal his potatos.)

Historicians think a historical fact or story will change gradually after it happens, depending on the talkers for the fact. So, they value the document written soon when the fact happened.
In this case of sex workers or slaves to Japanese soldiers, there are not this kind of documents. There are just testimonies given by the old women who were sexual slaves during the war, but the value of thier confession is seen low from the view point of historical studies. That's why some Japanese politicians deny the issue even though many people in the world get angry to them.

Testimony. It's the next key word.
It's really valueless? It is always the wrong description different from the real fact, like that Tommy explained Alien's purpose wrong?
There is the place that people value testimony very much. It's the Court.

Most criminals wouldn't make official documents to commit a crime. From the testimony by Tommy, we can know the Alien stealed( or, at least tried to steal) his potatos. But, from the official document written by the Alien, we can't know the fact. To judge this crime, we have to depend on the testimonies by the related people. It is clear that no document doesn't mean no crime.

Back to the sexual slaves problem, we can know the two diffrent viewpoint of the problem. Oviously, Japanese government sees it the problem of Historical Studies. But, Korean, Chinese and American Congress see it the problem of War Crime.
For Japanese government, the opinion of K, C and AC might be too emotional and not logical. But, for Korean, Chinese and American Congress, J's thinking might be cold, too self-defensive or foolish.

In addition to this issue, Japanese government recently erased a description in the textbooks of Japanese history: Japanese government and army enforced the people in Okinawa to commit suicide in the case that they couldn't fight against US army.
Actually, many Okinawa people committed suicide before they were captured by US army. We can know the same kind of story from the movie "Letters from Iwo Jima".
But, Japanese government says that it is not clear whether there was such an enforcement or an order by the government during the war. So, they erase such a discription in textbooks.
For this issue, the value of documents and testimonies are key words again.

In this article, I tried to show the point of the historical and political issues in Japan. Historical Study vs War Crime is the key point.
If I say my opinion, I think the viewpoint of Historical Study is more important. Because the things in the war are just histroy for me. However, over 60 years has passed after the war. If Japanese government thinks Historical Study is important, they should have studied it more earlier.
To be honest, I think they were not interested in these issues for a long time after the war.
So, I think the person over 60 years old can't have the right to insist on the viewpoint of Historical Study.

Fortunately or unfortunately, the prime minister Abe is under 60 years old. He might have the right to say his own opinion for history free. But he has a big problem. His talking is boring. That's why I want to recommend him not to use his right.

VS Leah Dizon

Now I'm writing this blog excited. Today I went to Leah Dizon's first memorial historical great super live in Roppongi. Maybe because my behaiver is good everyday, I could get the very rare ticket which the only limited people can get.

As you know (if you are Japanese.), she is becoming popular in Japan now. She started with a gravier model, and now she is a singer. She released her first songs recently. So, we can sometimes watch her singing on TV.
However, when it comes to me, I've never watched her on TV because I have only a broken television. So, the live was my first time to watch moving and singing Leah Dizon.

The live space was surrounded by a kind of enthusiasm.
It was her first live. Nobody had never watched her live.
I think it is very easy for you to understand the very special situtation. Everybody looked excited.
Especially, the girl sitting next to my seat looked very excited. Before the live, she looked not to wait for Leah's coming in front of us.

Then, at last, her live started with her new song.
My first impression was this.
"Gash. She is moving."
All audiences seemed to look at her moving and singing very carefully. We wouldn't miss anything in front of us in the live.
The girl next to me had repeated "Kawaii, Kawaii" many times. I agree with her. I also repeated it in my mind.

After some songs and her talk, the lot corner started.
Only five audieces could get the chance to take pictures with Leah Dizon on the stage.
Don't be surprised. I got it.

Again. I got it.
My seat number was called, and I was ordered to come to the stage.
If I express the feeling at the moment by one word, it was "guilty". Of courese I was very happy at the moment, but I knew the girl next to me was a super fan, so I couldn't look at the girl at the moment.
But, anyway, I was on the stage, very close to Leah Dizon. I could get a picture with her, and shaked hands with her.
I was required to say a comment on the stage, but I couldn't say anything special. At the moment, I was the sandwitch of Guilty and Happiness. There was no comment fitted to my feeling at the moment.

After the live, my friends told me that I finished to use all fortunes in this year. I think so too. But the fortune deserves one year. So, I'm satisfied with it. Cheers.

VS Kojima Usui

Kojima Usui. He was a banker in Meiji period. He worked for a bank all through his life.
But he had other unique aspects. He loved climbing and loved literature. So, he published a magazine to focus on nature writing. In addition, he was a great collecter of art works.
Now we can watch his great collection in Yokohama Museum of Art. I went to the museum with my customer recently.

I didn't know him before going to watch the exhibition. As everyone could do so, I realised soon his scale-wide world when watching the collection. He was interested in many genres of art, so his collection is huge.

At first, he collected a lot of Japanese pictures which went abroad. When he worked for foreign branches of his bank, he bought many Japanese pictures there.
Why did he buy them not in Japan but in foreign countries?
Japanese didn't understand the value of Japanese art at first, so many important Japanese art works were bought by foreigners in Meiji period. It meaned that Japanese lost their own estates.
Kojima Usui was the one of the first Japanese to understand the significance of Japanese art, so he tried to collect them in foreign countries. In the exhibition, we can watch many famous Japanese pictures by Hiroshige, Hokusai and others.

Not only Japanese works but also Westeners' were the target of his collection. Millet, Manet, Hugo, Degas, Renoir, Gogh, Picasso and many others are included. We can watch these big names at the same time in the exhibition. I think it's great.

In addition of these great art works, he collected strange things like advertisements. Maybe in the eara when he lived, people didn't see them art. But, now, from our viewpoints, these strange things look a kind of art.

I had the chance to talk with the professinal in the museum.
He told me that Usui's world was very big, so even for the professionals, it was very difficult to study him fully.
I heard that there are about 900 works in Usui's collection.
But we can watch only 200 works in the exhibition, because the museum doesn't have enough space to show all his collection. If you have a chance, I can recommend you to watch the huge collection in the museum.

VS St.Patrick's day

Now it doesn't deserve to be compared with Christmas day and even with Halloween day, but St.Patrck's day actually and steadily seems to become popular in Japan.
March 17th is the day. Irish people celebrate St.Patrick, who was the first person brought Christianity into Ireland.
I heard that everybody have to drink Irish beer Guiness all through the day on this weekend.

So, I went to Irish pub in Machida last night.
I went to the pub soon after it was open, because I wanted to drink in a happy hour. But, the day was special. All time was a happy hour.
When I went to the pub, there was only one customer drinking beer. But most seats had already been reserved.
And soon the pub became full.
I started with,of course, Guiness. The pub was decorated by green, Irish color, and Celt music sounded there. I don't know why, but a wolf man movie was on the TV screen in the pub. I thought it was fitted to the Irish festival mood.

I could enjoy the day fully, but the only one thing I don't know remains. How does St.Patrick's religious matter relate to the beer drinking? I read the explanation for the day in the pub, but I couldn't get enough information.
In Japan, the new year day has a religious meaning the most. Japanese drink sake in a temple or a shrine. The sake has a religious meaning then. People think it makes us clean.
I don't know Guiness beer has such a meaning, but the relationship of Religion and Alcohol is understandable, and even in the case that they have no relationship, I still continue to drink. Happy St.Patrick's day.

VS Sketch of Conversation

I listened to a very small part of a conversation between two ladies in a train by chance.

"You know? Even though she is a one-year-grade worker, she weared a cardigan today."
"Really?"

I didn't know the context of the conversation.
So, I couldn't understand what it exactly meant.
But, fortunately or unfortunately, I could supplement the lack parts, guess the exact meanig, and think the conversation was understandable or "natural". Because I am Japanese.

If you can understand the conversation easily, you are Japanese or japanised.

VS Okinawa bar

I found a new bar in Atsugi today. The bar name is Froggs. It is an Okinawa-style bar.
I've been to Okinawa a few times. It is a very relaxing place. For me, Okinawa is like a hometown, even though I don't have my relatives there. I can be peaceful there very much.
In the bar, we could drink Orion draft beer.
Orion beer is a popular Okinawa beer, but its draft beer is rare. So, when I drunk it in the bar, I was very surprised.

I ate some Okinawa original food there.
Tofu-yo was one of them.
Tofu-yo sounds like Tofu, but is diffrent.
It is like a cheese and has a strong smell. The taste is salty.
When we eat it, we can use a toothpick.
We don't pick it up with the toothpick. We just dig it a little with the head of the toothpick, and lick it.
As you can easily imagine, it takes a long time to eat Tofu-yo.

We can eat Gurukun, the fish popular and cheap in Okinawa, in the bar. The taste is not special. Honestly speaking, the quality of fish food in Okinawa is low. We can eat better fish foods in other areas in Japan.
However, because Gurukun is related to the memory of my Okinawa trip, it was very happy for me to find the fish in the bar. I've never seen the restaurants to use it around here.

KuuSuu should be drunk. So, I drunk it there.
KuuSuu means an old Sake in Okinawa language.
I don't know how to express the taste. "It is round on my tangue." I hope this explanation works well.
The bar has some types of KuuSuu.

New restaurants and bars are increasing recently in Atsugi.
I thought this city was dying before, but now it is getting alive again.

VS Foreign Settlement

It was strange that I took part in an academic workshop by chance last week. It was the gathering of scholars to study foreign settlements in Asia.
There were a lot of foreign settlements in Asia including Japan. Three big settlements in Japan were Yokohama, Kobe and Nagasaki.
But, the workshop's interest was not for the study foreign settlements in Japan but for the study of Japanese settlement in Asia, especially in China.
Some particepants are studying it from the view point of China-Japan relationship. Some are interested in it as the case-study of the company management in foreign countries. And, some focus on the culture in the settlements.
Each person had their own interest in the workshop.
When it comes to me, my interset was, needless to say, book-sales. This study is very young. Many books and documents will be published in the future. That's why I joined the workshop, even though I didn't have any knowledge for it. I thought I could get the hint for my business there.

For the people who study foreign settlements in China, Shanghai is a special city. It was the city which had foreign settlements most then. Therefore, Shanghai became very international. And, now a huge amount of documents for the settlements are preserved in Shanghai. So, it is the city easy to study.
In the workshop, it was said that Shanghai is focusd on too much for the easy-study condition, but other cities in China should be studied more. But, because I even didn't know that there were Japanese settlements in Shanghai, I thought the gap between professinals and ordinary people was big
. I think, most Japanese don't know at all where Japanese settlements were in China, except for Manchuria, the country made by Japanese government before the war and located in the northen China. Or, there is the possibility that even Manchuria is forgotten.
A chinese scholar joined the workshop, and he introduced us to some recent studies for foreign settlements in China. He spoke Chinese. He looked like a humorous man, and actually said a joke sometimes. Some participants laughed very much. I could understand it later by translation, but it was bad for me to lose the timing to laugh.
He told us for the universities in China.
From March 5th this year (Tomorrow), the university students in China are going to be oblidged to study official-history written by Chinese government. He studies history and he has his own opinion for history, which is diffrent from the official-history. But, he is oblidged to teach it to his students. He talked about it to us with smile. I couldn't judge at the time whether I should also simle, or not.

The study of history is sometimes difficult. I can be political. It can be emotional. Even in the scholar's workshop, some looked biased for me. But history could be like that.

VS Historical Animation

My company has the division to make visual contents. It made recently a DVD collection for the histroy of animation films in the world. I watched it.
The works are very old, made in 1920's or 30's. For example, Walt Disney's very early works are in the collection. They were the ones before Micky Mouse. Young Disney's works were very different from the ones we know as Disney animation. The most famous one was Alice series, in which a young real girl "Alice" acted with animation characters. Real film and animation were combined.
The works of Max and Dave Fleischer II were also impressive. A character they made are a very famous one. Betty Boop is it. Japanese calls it Betty-chan.
Watching some old mono-tone Betty series, I thought they were certainly unique. Even though the animation was for kids and the stories' themes were adventure, friendship or thriller for instance, the existence of Betty reminds us of sexuality. So, I guess that Betty was very exciting for the kids in early 20 centuries.
Very very early animations in 1910's were also interesting and exciting. The oldest clay animation by Willis O'Brien "Swat the fly" was very short (about 3 minutes) but the impact was strong. It enlarged the possibility of expression in animation. And, he made many films of prehistorical story, especially about dinosaurs. Their moving in his films was very realistic. Therefore, his skill of animation-making created one of the most famous monster character, King Kong later.

I sometimes drew pictures on the rims of a textbook in my school days, and made animations. The works would be historical in the future.

VS View of Enoshima

Last weekend, the view of Enoshima was beautiful.
Even though it was very cold in Japan then, I went to surf there.

Fine day. The sky was blue. Enoshima island was existing peacefully as usual, in front of horizon. We could also look at Mt. Fuji existing far away from the beach.
Far away. But, it's huge. I always misunderstand I can go there soon from there. Of course, impossible. The mountain is covered by snow now. Surfing on the sea with watching a snow mountain. It's funny.

There is an aquarium in Enoshima. It has dolphin shows everyday. I can listen to the music and announcement of the shows on the sea.
For some surf lovers, the loud sound might be noisy. Actually it erases the sound of the wave. It might be destroying the peaceful atomosphere of beach. But, for me, it's ok. For me, it's Enoshima beach.
This beach is always messy. In summer season, a lot of shops are built on the beach. Some are open almost for 24 hours. The access to the beach is very easy, so many people come there. The beach looks like a rush hour train. We can't count the number of people on the beach like the number of sand.
Not only in summer but also winter, many people come there. Some are for dating. Some for fishing. Some for just looking at sea. And, a small portion of some for surfing.
I think Enoshima souldn't be a silent beach. The unique atomosphere colors the beach.

Sometimes, fish jump up from the surface of sea into the air. When I saw it first, I thought they were playing. But, it's not true.
I knew they are fighting each other to keep their territory in the sea. And, the loser jump up into the air to escape.
Last weekend, I watched a lot of jumping fish on the sea. The battle in the sea seemed to be escalated.

I had stayed on the sea for three hours on the day. It was longer than usual. The longer I stayed on the day, the longer I wanted to stay. It might sound masohistic. But, the truth was that the water temparature was warmer than the cold air. That's why I couldn't get away from the sea. Now I realised, I should go to hot spring in this season.

VS Terrorist?

Everytime I get on a plane, I become very nervous. I always guess the possibility of the accident of the plane. How much is the probability of falling down of the airplane? How much is the percentage of my survival possibility in that case? I can't escape from calculating the risk of death before the flight everytime. Besides that, lately, to be worse, I have to think about the case of terrorist's attack of airplane.
That's why I had to be more nervous in this trip.

On my last day in Australia, after I ate dinner in the Sydney airport and drunk beer to be relaxed, I got on an airplane to come back to Japan.
In the airplane, two old male fight attendants and an old female one were working for us. Because I knew the working of old flight attendants didn't mean that the plane was old, I could rely on its safety flight. Even though I could lose the interest in the flight attendants a little, I was totally satisfied with the well-maintained airplane before its flying.
Sitting on my aisle seat, I waited for the flight without anything to do. I checked the movie schedule on the flight and the menu for night food, to kill time. But, suddenly, a young woman asked me to stand up for a few seconds in order to sit on her window seat next to me. I stood up gently soon, and she could sit down there softly. My interset moved naturally from the airplane-inside information to the outside view from the window. I wanted to memorise the beautiful scene of Australia then, even though it was completely dark outside. I could expect for the happening of drama in the flight.

Then, something happened soon.
A flight attendant suddenly started to check a Japanese passanger before flight. His board ticket and passport were checked very carefully, and he seemed to be asked for something. He looked surprised because he couldn't why he was checked.
Everybody near him were looking at him very well, including me. He looked an ordinary man. But, of course, his looking could hide his wrong political or religious thinking. It was clear that he didn't have any weapon at the moment, so if admitted, I could attack and submit him soon at that time, because now he concentlated on the flight attendant but me, so it was very easy for me to punch him from the back-side of him.
However he was seen clean.
Soon after that, another flight attendant came close to the guy next to him, and asked the guy to remove his bag under his seat to a shelf. He obeyed the attendant's suggestion soon, and put his bag up on the self.

I couldn't understand what exactly happened and was the problem then. Anyway, I started to be more nervous after that. I lost the room to glance at and check the window.
The terrorists were still sitting near us. I was not admitted to attack them. It was very natural that my feeling was very uncomfortable.
Soon after the plane taking off, I ordered a flight attendant a bottle of wine. The wine was not special, but I could be enough drunk by it, so I could be relaxed under the dangerous situation. But, of course, I didn't stop checking the suspicious Japanese men during the flight. If I was ordered, soon I could put my heel on their head from the dangerous angle of the buck-side. They would be calebrated by bloody-shower, and become in comma if I did so.
However they seemed to understand their situation. They continued to behave as normal persons till the plane reached Tokyo. That's why I lost the chance to show my diamond-heel-stamp-technique.

I drunk two small bottles of wine in the airplane. So, I could sleep very well. When I got up, I had already been in Japan. The terorrists looked to have a sleep very well, too. The woman next to me also looked to have a good sleep by the help of beer.
Finally my travel finished peacefully. The plane reached Japan, and I went home by bus. Three days travel to Australia was certainly short, but it took more days to go back to my daily routine life in Japan. I might be still dreaming.

VS Cricket

One of the purpose of this trip to Sydney was to watch an international cricket game; Australia vs England.
The game was the first cricket game I watched in my life.

Cricket is one of the sport Japanese are not familier with. I didn't know the rule, the palyer's name and the interesting point of the sport, before the game. I had no idea about it at all.
I tried to know the rule at least, before going to Austlaria. But it was impossible. I went to a bookstore in Japan (it's my company.) to buy a book about Cricket, but there were no Japanese book about it. I even searched for Cricket book in the database of book market, but there were no books I could get. Japanese don't have the chance to know about the sport. It's a shame.

I would have been a strange watcher in the cricket studium.
Australia vs England. The game was the important and high-quality game. I heard that the importance of the game was as same as the one of the world cup of soccer. The level of both countries was very high.
However, I didn't know the rule of the game. Imagine that the person who don't know the soccer rule comes to the game, Brazil vs Italy. The person must be strange.
So, in the studium, I was such a person.

The game started at 1:15 pm.
But I arrived at the studium at 11:00 am. That's why, I waited for the start of the game, with beer and humberger. I was so excited when waiting.
The ground was large and the turf was meintained beautiful.
I thought it's was very comfortable to play the game in such a good field.

At 1:15 pm, the game started with singing both countries' songs. As I imagined before, Cricket was a very strange sport for me. Historically, it seems to be the origine of baseball, but now they are utterly diffrent sports.
I saw cricket the combination of handball, hockey, golf and baseball. ( This must be the incorrect and misleading explanation of the sport. But, I thought so at the time.)

During the game, I sometimes went outside to eat, drink or have a break, because the game was very long! The game started at 1:30, and finished about 10:00. ( Actually, the end of the game was not normal. The game finished for the day's bad weather. So, it could be longer.)
It was very natural that we must sometimes take a rest during watching the game.

The game was often stopped due to the rainy weather. So, I didn't stay in the studium until the end of the game, to escape from traffic jam.
The rain was bad for the game, but would be good for Australia. Because the people in Australia suffer from the lack of water now.

It is often said that cricket is a gentlemen's sport. But, I knew it was not true in the game. Many supporters said to the going-out players "Fuck off! Go home baby!"
I heared that even the players wouldn't behave as gentlemen on the ground. Bad phrases like "You are dixx-hexx!" seemed to fly there. The ground looked very nice, but it was ertainly a battle field.
The players and the supporters were very energetic. For me, it was interesting to watch them, without enough knowledge of the sport.

I bought a cricket ball for official games, and brought it to Japan. It was a good souvenier for myself. Now, my mission is to make this sport more popular in Japan. I think it is fitted to Japanese people.

VS Harbord Beach

No, no, Mike. My dreaming was reality. Surely, indeed, at last, I stood on the soil of Australia again. It was the summer I dreamed of.

I had stayed in Sydney for just three days. This time, my trip was very short, but it was still ok for me to escape from winter for a while. I enjoyed the trip very much.
Ont the first day when I arrived at Sydney airport, I and Peter went to Harbord Beach soon. The reason was, of course, because we had to surf there. As I wrote it before in this blog, the beach is a memorial place, because the first surfer in Australia did surf on the beach. As an representative amature surfer from Japan, I had to respect the beach, so I tried surfing there.

It was cloudy on the day, but the sunshine was still strong. The waves were big and powerful.
It was Saturday's daytime. Many people were there. But, compared with Enoshima beach in Japan, Harbord Beach was not crowded at all. People were enojoying swimming, surfing or banana boating.

When I watch the waves at first, I thought it was easy to catch it. Because basically weak waves are more difficuly to catch, and I am familier with it on Eoshima beach.
But I thought wrong. Actually it was very taugh to surf there.
For me, the pattern of size-up of waves was irregular and random. Besides that, everywhere on the sea was waving. There were no flat space and time. That's why it was difficult to keep my balance. The waves wouldn't give me the enough waiting-time, and, without enough prepareation, I had to try the waves. If I had more skill and experience against such a condition, I could control myself well. However, I didn't have them. Even for Ausiee, the beach seemed to be uneasy for surfing. So, it was understandable for me to have the difficulty of surfing there.
Although my performance was not good at the time, I could say that I enjoyed my first surfing oversea very well.

I used Peter's surfboard, which was made by Manly Long Board Co. It was a local company in Manly.
The surfboard was cool. It was 9.2 feet long. The body was thin but strong, because it was made of a hard but light materials. Its float was strong, thus it makes us stand up on it easily.
At my best ride on the day, at the moment, I felt I was flying, not surfing. The strong wave was combined with the strong floating power of the surfboard, to make the feeling.
It is the most excellent moment when we surf.
It was lucky for me to get it at this time.

I will write about my first game of cricket I watched in my life on the next post.

VS Summer Dreaming

Strong Sunshine, Birds Singing, The sound of the waves crashing on the shore, Brown Skin, Beautiful Bodies, BBQ, Beer and Wine.
Am I dreaming............