VS Turkey

When I checked my blog, I found I wrote 99 articles here, and this article becomes No.100. It is not a surprising thing because some people are writing more. But certainly it must be a memorial one for myself.
In this memorial article, I want to write something memorial. Have I? Yes. I had something memorial last weekend.

It might be the sign of the memorial thing coming. Last week, Orhan Pamuk, a famous turkish novelist, got Novel prize of literature. When I got the news, soon I took the list of his works and tried to sell them to my customers. "He made it! Buy for him!" Any prize can be a business chance for booksales. Of course, the effect of Novel prize is best of best.
Some Japanese novel lovers expected Haruki Murakami to get the prize this time, but he couldn't. However, we can use the fact that he failed to get the prize. I tried to sell Haruki's books too. "He lost! Buy for him!"

Who is Orhan Pamuk?
I want to cite an introduction of him.
"who in the quest for the melancholic soul of his native city has discovered new symbols for the clash and interlacing of cultures"

I've never been to Turkey. I don't know about Turkey at all. But, for a long time, the country has existed in the center of my interest. Why? I don't know the exact reason. Maybe I am interested in their exotic atomosphere. (And, the exotic women.) So, I had a desire to see Turkish for a long time.

Back to my something memorial.
At last, my desire was achieved last weekend.
The last weekend, after English discussion class (The topic was about Japanese emperor system and the new-born baby.), after buying a photo book of an American gravure model (She is a half of French and Philipina.), after eating Ramen (Yokohama style), after surfing (Good size wave effected by typhoon), I went to Takadanobaba in Tokyo, in order to listen to a rock band.
The band was three players; British man(vocal & guiter), Japanese girl(drums) and Turkish lady(vocal & bass).
Needless to say, my aim was to see the turkish lady.

To be honest, I would have fallen in love with her in a second after seeing her, unless I heared that she has a boy friend, the british guiterist. Fortunately, love affair is not my business. So, I could contact her as a gentleman.
I enjoyed the conversation with her. I could know about Turkey from her. It was nice.
However, now I think she was diffrent from my imaginary Turkish. It has no bad meaning at all. What I want to say is that I could see real Turkish. Before meeting her, my image of Turkish was both extremely passional and extremely polite. (I'm not sure where this image came from.) I can say I met an ordinary person like me then.

This memorial contact with the Turkish woman I met first in my life is making me being more interested in the country more and more. Now I am reading a cheap tour guide to Turkey. Someday I will visit there. By Turkish, I am seen the same as their imaginary Japanese?

VS Election

Today, the ticket to vote was sent to my house by mail. I knew an election would be held in my prefectue this month.

The political scene in Japan looks to become boring after the prime minister Koizumi left the government. He had very well directed an interesting political show for five years. I think his show was a B-class drama, but it was certainly interesting. Altough I don't support him, for now I miss him a little.
It must be an unlucky thing to be compared with Koizumi. Anybody looks less attractive than he. So, our new prime minister Abe will have a difficulty of appealing himself. I am not sure he has any appealing points, though.

During the five years, The Democratic Party in opposition had been weakend by the magic of Koizumi. After his leaving, altough now is the chance to get power again for them, their shadow looks still thin. They also don't have an enough appealing point. I think our political show is going into a new stage without main characters.

Looking at the world politics, I guess the president Bush feels lonely now.
Because, Koizumi finished his job happily and had gone. Blair wouldn't be happy, but he will be able to escape from a heavy duty soon.
However, Bush have to continue to stand alone more for a while. As we know, it is fashionable to come late to a party. And in addition, I think it is also true that early getting out of the party is cool.
For Bush, the cool way was difficult to choose.

Back to our new prime minister Abe, he will go to China and Korea tomorrow. I don't know why the two countries agreed with meeting him. I think his visiting has no more the meaning of saying-hello. I don't expect for any honest conversation among them in his visit. Only typical political performance will go.

I am not sure I will go to the election because this month I am very busy not only for business but also for barbecue, surfing, Halloween party and so many attractive events on.
I hope the candidates will give me the motivation to the election.

VS World Travel Fair (2)

I thought Korea and China booth was aggressive to the passangers in the fair, and I thought that was a good thing. When I walked by their booth, they always tried to talk to me,or give me some pamphlets. Of course, it was welcome for me. I could easily get many informations and chances to communicate with them.
They understood very well the reason why they were there; they did come to Japan and join the fair, in order to introduce their country's charming points to Japanese.
I think they made their mission completely.
On the other hand, as I wrote in the last article, the Arabic booths were not exciting. I was looking forward to an exciting conversation in Iran booth, but I couldn't have a chance to talk with the stuffs. They looked not to have the interest in Japanese customers. Or, they might lack the passion of their business, even though their booths were very gorgeous.

* When I talked about this experience and my impression
to my English teacher Sudhan, in my discussion class, he
said it's natural for them. Not only Arabic people but also
South Asian seem to have not so strong interest in unknown
other people, even in such a business fair. But, I heard from
Sudhan, they seem to be very passionate in a private
situation.

The conversatin in Belgium booth was good. Although I didn't ask the stuff for alcholic matter, she started soon to explain Belgian beer. I don't know why. I might have alcholic smell at the time.
Anyway, if you can drink beer but haven't taste Belgian beer yet, I can say it's a tragedy. Belgian beer is Art, the art of liquid. Like French respects their wine, Belgian respects their beer. It has its history, variety and unique taste. Honestly speaking, I know nothing for Belgium but the beer. My opinion is that drinking can break the barrier of language. So, I know I can share the same perspective of this world with Belgian, even though I don't have Belgian friends.

Many African countries had their own booths in the fair.
For Japanese, African countries are the most unfamilier ones. Maybe same for all people in the world but African.
Africa is the forgotten area.
So, I was a little surprised when finding many African booths.
I could have the oppotunity of talking with the stuff in Uganda booth. However, she was not African. She was just a representative of African tour company.
What is the appealing point of the tour in Africa? I didn't have any idea. She recommend me of Mountain Gorilla watching tour. In Africa, Mountain Gorilla lives near the human. She said they are very peaceful, not dangerous, so we can even touch them.
Compared with other countries, African countries have less resources for tourism. It might be taugh for them to compete with other develping and developed countries in a business exhibition.
I had complex feelings to listen to the Mountain Gorilla tour from her. The image of Africa is certainly fitted to the Gorilla plan. However, Gorilla is really only one resource for their tourism? Or, they are trying to adjust their business to our stereotype image of Africa?
In the booth, I became to want to know Africa more.

Travel fair must be a good oppotunity to compare with many countries' culture. On the day, Tokyo Game show was held in other place, but if you want unexpected surprise and finding, Travel fair must be better.

VS World Travel Fair (1)

World Travel Fair 2006 was held last weekend in Odaiba, Tokyo. This fair is produced once a year by JATA, Japan Association of Travel Agency. Because I heard that it is not only convenient for getting together the travel information, but also good for knowing a lot of diffrent countries' culture, I joined the event.

Each country has its booth in the exhibition area. At first, I went to Iceland booth with my friend Akira II. He is planning to go there this new year to experience minus 30 degrees. His problem was not his crazy desire but the lack of the information about the country. Fortunately, he could have a chance to talk with the persons who know the country very well. In winter season, the country's social infrastructure is freezed, therefore it becomes difficult to move freely. But he could know some bus routes are alive even in winter. His desire will be satisfied next year.

I visited China booth soon. I went there many times before, but I know only a small portion of the huge country.
China booth was divided into the smaller booths of many cities and areas. So, total China booths were as very big as the country itself.
I talked with a chinese staff in Shandong booth. Shandong is located almost between Beijing and Shanghai. She explained the city was the hometown of Chinese old philosopher, Koushi (This is Japanese pronunciation.). However, because we all didn't know his philosophy, we talked about famous beer, Thin Tao, which is made in the city. The beer is programmed rationally to fit to Chinese foods. Maybe, we talked about a kind of science matter then.

In Nepal booth, I talked with the staff about the country's political situation. This year, an inside war happened there.
For me, Nepal politics is very complex and difficult to understand. It was good to hear from the staff that now the social situation is peaceful.
Through the inside war, the king of Nepal lost thier political power, then the people in Nepal is discussing whether the king system should be left or not. I recommend the stuff to make the king just only a symbol of the country. Needless to say, it's the same system as Japanese emperor.

The most disappointing booth was UAE's. Now, Dubai is one of the most developing cities in the world. A learge number of oil money is coming to the city. I herad that my company will make a branch there. It means I can possibly work in the city, so I wanted to know it.
The booth was very crowded and there was a long line. I waited on the line for a long time. But, all I could get was just the hotel informations.
My impression is that not only UAE booth but also other Arabic countries' were gorgeous but not appealing. To be honest, within my short-time experience, compared with other countries, I thought they don't have enough skill or idea to introduce themselves to the people who don't know them at all. Still now, for me, they are secret. What different from me do they have? What same things do we share? I couldn't get them in the fair. Should I work in Dubai someday to know them more?
Hm, maybe it's a good idea.

(To be continued.)

VS Labour Market

Japan and Philippine had recently the agreement to open their labour market a little. Japan will get one thousand philippene nurses in two years. I heard that the hospitals in Japan don't have enough nurses now. So, I think the agreement is very good.
Now the population in Japan is decreasing, so my opinion is to open the labour market in Japan more to foreigners. We will need to get more labour power from foreign countries, and actually we know foreign workers have already been necessary in some industries. I hope Japanese government will have such agreements with much more countries.
For the agreement with Philippine, it doesn't seem to be an enough one. The worker from Philippine have to clear some high barriers to enter Japan; for example, the workers have to have a Japanese language lesson for a long time. I am not surtisfied with such barriers, but I can understand step-by-step immigrant policy is good for Japan because we aren't familier with immigrants. However, needless to say, the step should be accelerated.

VS Reprinted books

Most people wouldn't be familier with reprited books, even if they like to read books. Every year, a lot of books are published, sold, bought, left over unsold, thrown away and at last to be out of print.
The existence of such books were once forgotten, and the time had passed, and then one day somebody found out these books on a shelf in a dark library. If the somebody is a publisher, he must think about the possibility of printing and selling it again.
That's why a lot of reprinted version of books are published every year too. One of the important jobs in my book-sales is to sell these reprinted books.

I knew an university (it's my customer) has a large number of rare books in their library. These books were preserved in a special room in the library. Most people in the university didn't know the existence of them. They had not been used and read by anybody except for a few librarians for a long time.
Luckily, I am a book-salesman. I could have a chance to go to the library many times, and enter the special room several times. One day, I heard that the people in the library have the desire to introduce their collection of rare books to the public. So, my company offered them the plan of these books' exhibition. They recieved our offer soon.
Next year, the library will have the book exhibition in my company's gallery in Shinjyuku. They will exhibit a lot of antique books and photos for Japan study. Most books were published in 19 centuries, and written by the foreigners visiting Japan.

Now, I am recommending the people in the university to publish these rare books. But, I and they know it is so difficult to sell such special books though easy to reprint. If the sales is bad, they have to hold a lot of stocks in their warehouse.
So, I am offering them to publish digital version of these books. I think it's a good idea because they can escape from the risk of stock. As Google is doing, the digitalization of books is a big trend now. The technology itself is not special. The most important thing I think is what is degitalized.
Now I am not sure whether they are interested in my offer.
But I think these books are worth read by many people. It's a good business chance for them, and for me.

VS Cat Killer

Thinking about the world-wide risk of terrorism and complicated problems related to it, this topic is a good example of how Japan is peaceful. Now in Japan, not Human-killing but Cat-killing is a hot issue.

The issue began with an economical newspaper.
A Japanese novelist wrote an essay on it. She said in the essay that she killed a baby cat.
To be more precise, she has a female cat, and the cat had a baby cat. She, the novelist, throw away the baby cat near her house. Maybe the baby cat was dead after that.
Why did she do such a cruel thing?
First of all, she doesn't want to have more cats in her house. In this case, most cat owners make their cats sterile.
But, the novelist thought it was a bad thing. She thought her cat could have a right or something to experience bearing.
So, she permited her cat to become pregnant and bear a baby. However, she doesn't have a desire to have more cats. So, she threw away the baby cat soon after it was born.

As we can easily imagine, many people reading her essay started to criticise her soon. She doesn't have or know the spirit of animal protection!
But, some people started to protect her.
Now 400 thousand cats a year are killed in Japan. Why can we criticise her?
And more radical suporter says we have to think about human abortion first. Abortion is a legal human-killing. Why do we have to think her behavier is a big problem?
Suporter's point is that we have bigger problem before criticising her.

For me, the surporter's point is like a illegal parking car driver's excuse. "Other drivers do the same!" or "No parking space! It's the failure of city design!"
I can understand what they say, but first of all, the problem is you. You shouldn't be an annoying car driver, and a neighber. So, we shouldn't throw away a baby cat near our house.

The novelist has started to object the criticism to her in a magazine. I don't have an interest in this issue much more, so I don't read it. I am worrying that Japan is too peaceful.

VS Long Board

September is a good month for the people who want to start surfing in Japan. During summer time, the sea was heated by the high air temparature. Thus, now, the water temparature becomes very high. It is warm and will be kept until November( till the end of Fall). We can paractice to surf very well in the season.

At last, I bought my own surf board today.
It is a long board, 9.2 feet. The body color is cocoa, and the edge is cream with a thin yellow line.
Until now, I rented a surf board. Because I didn't know what kind of surf board is good for me.
But, I decided what is best for me today.
My surf life launched out on a new stage.
I bought it in my favorite surf shop in Shonan beach.
The board is cool and a little retrospective.
But the shop's staff said it look "delicious".
Ok. I name this board Delicious.

I rent a space to keep my board in the surf shop. It costs \5000 a month. I can keep my wet suit there too.
So, I can come to the surf shop without anything, and play surfing anytime I like. It's very convenient.
When I used Delicious for the first time, the wave was weak as usual in Shonan beach. But, I sometimes could catch waves very well. I don't know it's because of my skill up of surfing, or because of the new surf board. But anyway, my first riding on Deicious was good. I think we can be good partners.

VS Honeymoon

I'm planning a honeymoon now.

Recently, the couple without a wedding party is increasing in Japan. The party costs very much, and it is sometimes not only for the couple, but also for their families, in Japan. Even now, some Japanese think a marriage is not an individual matter but a family's one.
It is not bad in general to respect their family, but sometimes, Japanese wedding party is too formal and boring. So, the people who disike such a party, don't want to have a wedding party. I can understand it.

But, a honeymoon is diffrent. Many new couples like to have it. The first travel with his/her partner is a very important event. It must be a great memory for them. Moreover they can understand each other more in an unusual situation and place. It must be a good chance to test their partners for their long life. And, needless to say, the first travel includes the first night. All couples have to make a rule, a style, a format, a manner or something on their bed at the night. That's why a honeymoon can't be missed by all couples.

My friend Marcy will get married on Nov. And, another friend Kosei will on Dec. too.
Now I'm planning "their" honeymoon. Because, I want to attend them.
It is very good for me to know what kind of honeymoon is successful or not. By arranging it, I can sharpen my honeymoon skill for my honeymoon coming someday.

Now I present my plan to the two friends.
One is confused. Another is asking his wife.
They don't seem to understand why I can attend them. But, they will know the merit of my plan soon.
As we know in general or from our experiece, two persons' travel is very risky for their relationship. They can't escape from fighting.
Therefore, the existing of the person on a neutral position is very helpful for the couples' long time relationship.
I am waiting for their answer "We follow you."

VS Monkey Park

Still hot and humid in Japan. To wipe away our sweat on the face, blue handkerchiefs are needed still. But, we are also feeling a slight change of summer. It looks to prepare for leaving. The festival season is certainly gradually finishing.

I used a few holidays to go to Kyoto, my home town and the most classical city in Japan. I don't always have anything special when visiting my home town, but I go there a few times a year. What I do there is only to see my family, friends and a dog. For I'm not a traveller in Kyoto, I don't have to go to many sight-seeing spots. I can just be relaxed there.

However, as we know, when coming back from a trip, our friends usually ask us a lot about the trip; where did you visit?, what's happened in the trip?, how about the food? etc.
They must have many questions.
But, my answer can be "I visited my parent's house, watched TV with them and ate the dishes my mother cooked." That must make my friends disappointed easily.

That's why, though I didn't have to and want to, I went to a sight-seeing area with my friend. The aim was to make a special episode in this travel.
I went to Arashiyama area.

The area is located in the north-west in Kyoto city. It's famous for beautiful forests and rivers. In fall, the forests bocome yellow, orange and red beautifully. Many people visit there to see the beautiful nature in the season.

Even in summer now, certainly the nature in Arashiyama was beautiful. The air was cool, and the sound of rivers were comfortable. They were nice.
But...., to be honest, I prefer Human to Nature. So, I wanted more attractive events there.
Looking at a travel map for a short time, I found out a good event spot. There are a monkey park there.
Monkey. It's a human...in the future. So, it looked fitted to my preference.

In front of the park, we can see a notice soon.
"Don't look at monkey's eyes. If you do it, they think you are hostile to them, and will attack you."
Ok. I tried not to look at them in the park.

A few problems happend.
First. A lot of monkeys lives there. So, it was very difficult to avoid looking at them.
Second. The monkeys were often looking at me, maybe because they think I have something to eat.
Third. Only when looking at the sky, I could escape from the risk of looking at monkey's eyes. But, it was very boring. "Why am I here now?"

In the park, I tried to only "glance at" them, not look. And, I sometimes whistled to show my peaceful personality to them. I think(or I hope) they could understand my message.
But, maybe, their interest was only whether we have foods or not. So, they didn't seem to have any interest in me, because I didn't have any foods.
At the end of my walking in the park, no monkey looked at me. (They looked at only the people with some foods.) It might be good for me because I could easily avoid looking at their eyes.
However, I want to say, they were impolite.
They should study social manners a little more if they want to be a human someday.
I was a guest in the park, and they are staffs or something there. So, they sould show their politeness to a guest a little more. They shouldn't ignore the guest. They were disappointing.

Conclusion: Monkey has't been Human yet.

VS Samurai Base

Japanese has the desire to be boiled regularly with high-mineral water. So, we invented hot springs.
Last Saturday, I and my friends went to a Japanese restaurent with hot springs, JINYA.

This restaurant has not only hot springs but also hotel rooms, party rooms, a bar and a beautiful garden.
In addition, it has an unique history.
Long time ago, it was Samurai's base. It was used for Samurai's sword practice, in Kamakura eara, about 800 years ago. The existing houses are not the ones built such a log time ago, but they are 250 - 400 years old! Yes, historical enough. We can see Samurai's armors, swords and many other old stuffs there.

You might know TOTORO, an Japanese animation. I found a picture of TOTORO there. I didn't know its relation to the restaurant, but soon the restaurant manager explained it to us.

Fact 1: The restaurant was owned by Mr. Miyazaki.
Fact 2: TOTORO was directed by a famous animation director, Hayao Miyazaki. But, he doesn't manage a restaurant.

Answer: Hayao Miyazaki is a JINYA's relatives.

I heard from the manager that he is the restaurant owner's cousin.
He spent a lot of time there, and got the inspiration of his animation. That's why the picture of his animation character is displayed there.

We used only hot springs there this time, but didn't use the restaurant. When I used it with my co-workers for a party before, the dishes were very good. We could enjoy authentic Japaese foods there. And, the place's classical mood made the party very gorgeous. If you want to have a special party near my area, JINYA is good and reasonable(it's important).

VS Sydney(3)

My traveling policy is to forget my home culture and to focus on the local one. For example; for foods, I think I should eat the local food only.
However, in this trip, I ate a lot of Japanese foods in Sydney. One of the reasons was because my friend Peter loves Japanese food. Another reason was that I was interested in Japanese foods foreigner cooked. How do they interpret Japanese foods?

We went to a Japanese restaurant, KATSURA, which is located in Neutral Bay in Sydney, where many Japanese lives. The restaurant has two divisions; one serves Sushi and Sake, and another serves Yakiniku.
The chef was Korean. For me at first, it was strange that Korean cooked Japanese food. But, he was a good chef. I heard from him that he had studied Japanese dishes for ten years in Japan. In Australia, the materials for Japanese disies are limited, but I could enjoy his work very much.

Another Japanese restaurant, TOTOYA, was also great. It is also located in Neutral Bay.
It is completely same as Japanese typical Izakaya. I could enjoy Yakitori, Tofu, Karaage, Edamame, etc.
I don't know why, but all customer there except for us was Chinese people.

I could go to even Karaoke Box in Sydney, after drinking.
Second stage is generally needed in Japan. Sydney can give it us. For Japanese, no incovenient factor is there. We enjoyed singing a lot of Japanese songs there.

I couldn't have the chance to go to the most famous Japanese (or Japanese-French) restaurant, Tetsuya's. I heard that the restaurant is No.4 in a restaurant competition in the world. We have to book the seat before six months!
I shouldn't miss the restaurant when I visit Sydney next time.

Looking back to my trip to Australia, I have a lot of things I can write here. But, I stop it now.
The last thing I should write is that Syaney is a beautiful city. The wind from the sea was very comfortable. Many historical architectures were beautiful.
I wanna visit there again in Summer time. It may be soon.

VS Sydney(2)

I visited a typical Australian home one day.
When I came into the house, I was comfused; whether I should take my shoes off or not? Because, in the house, the sons and a daughter didn't put shoes on, but the parent did. I couldn't the shoes rule in the house soon.
So, I asked them what to do with my shoes.
The answer was clear. "It's up to you."

This episode was the impressive one for me to understand Australia, and maybe the countries like Australia.
As we know, Australia is the country that many immigrants come together. So, the society is very multi-cultural. It has British culture, Italian, Spanish, French, Chinese, Korean and so on. Each person has a very different and unique backgraund. This cultural variety makes Australia attractive.
On the other hand, therefore, it looks difficult to share the same sense of value there.
As we know better, many conflicts can easily happen among the people with the diffrent sense of value.
But, Australian people has a good wisdom to escape from such a problem. "Up to you" is their culture.
They don't mind others too much.
Thus, I could be relaxed in Sydney very much. More relaxed in Japan, I think.
Of course, it doesn't mean they don't care for others. In fact, they are very friendly and easy-going.

Japanese and other Aisan countries' cultures seem to be diffrent from Australia.
Our culture is also internationalized to some extent, but still domestic.
The culture in Asia is a mosaic. Japan is Japan. China is China. Korea is. India is....
We might say that it is also a good point for Asia. But, it sometimes makes us to understand each other.

(To be continued)

VS Sydney(1)

I spent my 10 days holiday in Australia. It was my first visit of Australia, and English-speaking country in my life. Before flying to the country, I was very excited. To be relaxed, I continued to drink beer in Narita airport. It was a great taste.

Now Japan is in summer, but Australia is in winter. After 9 hours' flight, the season changed dynamicaly. I was in T-shirt. It was very cold. But, the temparature was about 10 degrees. So, for Japanese, it was like early spring. Australia is a basicaly warm country.

On the first day I walked around the center of Sydney city, and went to Manly to see my friend, Peter.
Sydney is a business city, a commercial city, a cultural city and a multi-cultural city. This kind of city isn't in Japan. If I have to find out a simillar type city in Japan, Yokohama may be closer. But, Sydney is very original.

My company, Kinokuniya, has a book store in Sydney. So, I went to check it first. It was a very big store, and I heard it was the biggest book store in Australia. I met a friend working there, and had a coffee in the store cafe. As I wrote above, Sydney is multi-cultural. Thus, the book store there is also multi-cultural. There are varieties of books there; English, Japanese, Chinese, Korean and other languages' books. It's very interesting for working place.

In this trip, I drunk a lot of cups of coffee.
Actually there are many coffee shops in Sydney. Everybody drink a coffee outside. Outside drinking and eating is a very important culture there. It's very relaxing and makes our feelings open. Especially near the beach, it is very good to drink a coffee listening to the sound of the wave.

Food was also great.
I ate very delicious pizzas near Dee Why beach. Lamb meet pizza was so great. I enjoyed it drinking beautiful red wine.
In this trip, I enjoyed a lot of foods I can't eat in Japan.
Kangaroo meat was one of them.
It was very light, not oily, and easy to eat. I ate it when I went ot Hunter Valley, the most famous place for wine making. The meat was fitted to red wine very much.

If you like wine and have the chanece to go to Australia, Hanter Valley is the place you shouldn't miss the chance to visit.

(To be continued)

VS Kids Engish

When we can explain something to others, we can say "I understand it."

That's why I am trying the course of English teaching for kids.
I took a group lesson recently. It was very fun.
I could learn from a professional teacher how to teach English for kids. Her method was very logical, rational and very professonal. She is investigating kids' mind and has a great technique to catch their interest. I watched her demonstration lesson. During watching, I became a kid. I thought she was a magician.

Teaching not only English but also everything to kids is a difficult thing.
They don't share almost any knowledge with us. So, we can't use almost any resource to explain something.
When we teach English to kids, we sometimes use Japanese to explain. But, kids are not even good Japanese speakers. Thus, our explanation in Japanese can not be enough for them.
Therefore, we have to use gestures, body languages, games, songs, and so on.

If I quit my job, book-selling, it might be good to be an English teacher for kids.
In Japan, learning English is just a leraning.
But, I think learnig English or any other languages is to brush up our communication skill. We should understand and try a different communication style from Japanese.

To brush up my communication level, I will go to Australia today.
I am excited now.

VS SINKING OF JAPAN

I watched a Japanese SF movie "Sinking of Japan", which is based on the original novel written by Sakyo Komatsu, 70 years old, who is a famous SF novelist in Japan.
The original story was written around 30 years ago, and soon became a millionseller.
In the story, Japanese faces the crisis of sinking of their country. The mantle dynamics under the soil of Japan couses a lot of earthquakes. And, the plate on which Japan stands slides into the sea. At last, the land of Japan sinks to the depth of the sea.
The novel is an authentic scientific fiction. The description is very realistic. When I read this novel in my school days, I enjoyed and was surprised very much.

That's why I was happy to hear of the movie, even though I had almost forgotten the story.
Compared with the novel, the moive is less realistic. Maybe because we can use our immagination in reading more than in watching a movie.
The movie was not a "hard" science fiction but a love romance.
It may lose the greatness of the original novel, but it might be good for the sales of the movie, because most people like a love story. In fact, when I went to a theater, a lot of people was there to watch the movie.

Now, the book about the story after the sinking is on sale in Japan.
It is the most important book for me to read in this summer.

VS HO CHI MINH (2)

If you go to Viet Nam, you will find out soon a lot of moterbikes on the road. Moterbike is the most popular for Vietnamese traffic. Even though the economy of Viet Nam is growing, car is still expensive for the people to buy. And, the railway is not constructed enough. We can't use it for our moving. So, many people use moterbikes.

Watching Vietnamese driving, I thought I couldn't ride a bike there. For me, their driving looked crazy. Nobody looked to care for the traffic rule. The distance between bikes are short. They change the lane suddenly and rapidly, without no sign. At the intersection, all bikes from all directions are keeping moving. I can't understand why traffic accidents don't happen more there.

I remembered the crazy car drivers in Shanghai.
Their driving was also crazy when I went to China last year. Now Chinese is importing and making a lot of cars. We can see varieties of cars there. Maybe for Chinese living in a city, a car is not a special thing now. However, their understanding of the rule or manner related to a car life is not enough at all. I can say simply their drinving is very selfish.
So are Vietnamese driving. It may take more time for them to sophisticate their culture on the road.

It was unfortune that I couldn't go to many historical places in Viet nam in this trip. I didn't have enough time to visit many places.
But, I heard that the bar I went to with my business partners was a historical place. The bar name was Saigon Saigon Bar. It is in the seventh or eighth floor on a building. The place was used for many journalists during the Viet Nam War.
There are not many high buildings in Ho Chi Minh city even now. So, the view from the bar is good to look around the city. Many journalists stayed in the building, checked the situation in the city and reported the war to the world.
Thinking about the journalists' brave soul, I drunk a lot of whisky there. It was a great time.

My English teacher, Sudhan, asked me after my coming back to Japan, to say one word in order to express my image of Viet Nam. It was difficult to describe a country by one word, but I said "Peaceful".
I am not sure if I can get a correct image of Viet Nam by such a short stay. But I hope my image is fitted to the country which had suffered from a long war time.

VS HO CHI MINH (1)

Today, I came back from Ho Chi Minh city to Japan.
I stayed for three nights there. It was my first trip to Viet Nam.
The main purpose of my trip was for attending a business meeting. I could enjoy the meeting itself, and, in addition, I could enjoy to see a lot of people from many Asian countries. Of course, the culture of Viet Nam was also enjoyable for me.
This trip was very impressive for me.

I stayed in Park Hyatt Saigon. It's a five-star hotel, located in the center of Ho Chi Minh city. Very gorgeous! It wa very lucky for me not to pay the hotel fee. My business partner paied everything for me. Not only for the hotel fee, but also for all meals, drink, taxi, and so on. I was treated very much. Maybe too much!
I don't know when I became such an important man?
Certainly same as other developing countries in Asia, the living cost in Viet Nam must be cheap. But, same as other countries, five-star hotel are exception.

Before going to Viet Nam, I heard that the trip to Viet Nam is veru popular in Japan. I didn't know that, so I had no idea of the reason.
In this trip, I thought Vietnamese is similar to Japanese. If my impression is right, I can understand why Japanese traveler like to go there.

I ate a lot of foods there. Viet Nam food is very healthy and light.
Compared with Chinese food, it's less oily.
Compared with Thai food or Indian food, it's less spicy.
The original rice noodle, Pho, is very easy to eat. It's like Japanese noodle.
The food preference of Vetnamese is, I think, similar to Japanese.
May because of such a healthy food, the body shape of Vietnamese is very good. I didn't meet fat people there at all.

One day, I joined a dinner cruise on Saigon river.
This river is wide and long. It's clean and peaceful. The view form a ship was very nice. This river must be a symbol or an identity for Vietnamese. I was very impressed.
Now it is summer and a rainy season there. That's why it's very humid. But the great river brings cool air to the city, so I felt comfortable. Actually I thought it's more humid in Japan when I reachd Tokyo today.

(To be continued)

VS North Korea

Seven unlucky missiles were launched from North Korea toward Japan last week.
All of them dropped into the sea of Japan. Now Japanese government is searching for them, and investigating the details. Many TV programs are treating this issue. Now Japan is filled with the missile information.

I thought North Korea is a more challenging country than we thought, though nobody knows what they are challenging to. Their launch of the missiles must be surprising for all countries, because we can't understand the rational reason for North Korea to do it.

For Japan, North Korea is like a crazy neighbor. Honestly speaking, we don't want to keep in touch with them. But it is impossible, because they live next to us. We hope they will move somewhere someday. But it's also impossible. They are the pain in the ass.

Maybe Japan and US can't communicate with North Korea successfully. I expect China to control them. I don't think the friendship between China and North Korea is the real one, but they pretend to be a friend. So, North Korea may listen to only China.

Today I am going to fly to Viet Nam for a business meeting. I can meet many Asian people in the meeting. I will ask Chinese to scold North Kore

VS Viet Nam

After the lost of Japanese team against Brazin in the World Cup, my body condition became bad. It must be a summer cold. Now it is a rainy seson in Japan. So, many people have the difficulty to adjust to the weather change. I also caught a cold and suffered from a throatache. I couldn't drink, eat and speak for a while. It was too terrible.

Now I am OK. I have to hurry up for the prepareation for my trip to Viet Nam in a week.
I have no idea of Viet Nam at all. Today, I went to buy a guide book for Viet Nam.
My trip is mainly for a business meeting among Asian publishers and book-salesmen; from India, China, Shingapole, Thailand, Korea, Japan and so on.
I am now becoming intersted in a publishing world in Asian countries. I think this trip must be stimulating to me. One of my dream is to make an international publishing company in Asia, so this trip is a very good chance for me to know Asia.

I will go to Ho Chi Minh city. I see on the guide book that the city is both modern and traditional. I thought the image is similar to Shanghai in China. Of course, it's a just image from the book. The real image might be diffrent.
My stay is only three nights. And, two days are only for business. So, I can't have an enough time to go to many places. But, if I will focus on the center of Ho Chi Minh, I think I can enjoy the city fully.

Unfortunately I have no time to study Viet Nam language!
I think it's a fatal element in a trip whether we can communicate with the local people or not. So, if I can, I should study the language before going there.

"Xin chao" is Hello.
"Cam o'n" is Thank you.

How many phrases can I meomorize in this week? I'm not proud of my memory function....