Can Mr.Loach save Japan?

As is often the case with Democratic party's election, the prospect this time was also untransparent like muddy water in the bog. I fished around in my head who would be the winner, but I was wondering how many people could have imagine Noda could have won this election.

In my speculation, I thought Maehara fished in troubled water because he was the most charismatic and impressive among four candadates, but the result was completely different.

Maehara lost at preliminaly election. After that, the incumbant minister Kaieda and Noda competed to get the majority at final election.

I was sure that Kaieda never won because he was supported by Ozawa party members. Many democratic members thought that Ozawa is a fishbone in their throat. Ozawa is a bigger fish to fry!! He is fish out of the water!! At press conference, Noda told the media that his own character was similar to a loach's, which has nothing special and vaccums muddy water at the bottom of bog. In my opinion, he looks like s catfish, but he did not mention it because he might offend people in Tohoku region. The catfish is now cynical icon that shake earth deep underground.

Unlike the former Prime Minister Kan, he is not a cold fish. He promised that he try to solve many problem through human friendly approach.  I hope he will make gloomy prospect crystal clear like fresh water before  Fish begins to stink at the head.

Final Summer event: watermelon breaking party

This weekend we joined watermelon breaking party, which was held by the board member of our condo's steerring committee. 

There are some watermelons suddenly exproded in the world becasue they were grown too much chemical to acclerarate theri growth, but this time we were able to enjoy local and safe produce.

I was not able to find the origin because there was no mention of when it started. This watermelon breaking party is generally held by the seaside.

It's one of the Japanese famous scenic attraction in summer.

There are set rules in this event. The participants have to be blindfolded either with a towel or a scarf. Then they have to be rotated at least 5 times according to the rule by the Japan Suika-Wari Association. Then the participant heads to the watermelon guided by the spectators instructions. By only listening to the audience's voice, they try to crack the fruit with the stick.

In the official competition, the beauty of the crack on the fruit determines the winner.

This time many children participated in this party and crack many watermelons.

I ate a lot of watermelons until I became full. 

Report @ English Debate forum

Instead of caring about my family, I attended an English debate seminar sponsored by ESUJ(English Speaking Union of Japan) to improve my debate skills in English. 

This is the first time that I attended this seminar. At first, a frequent debate champion, who is very young but has outstanding ability to defeat other speakers, taught us how to debate and judge the argument between the speakers. He used only paper material.

After his lecture, we saw the debate between the previous champion and person
who have won nationwide debate contests in his studentdays. The proponent was for the government and oponent was antigovernment.

The theme was:

'Government should raise consumption tax.'

At first, the proponents presented their opinion on why the tax hike is needed. In his opinion, they need tax increase because  people in Tohoku need money to build houses and eat food. They insisted that they need 30 trilion yen to save and rebuild Tohoku area. By increasing the tax 1% each year by 2015, they can collect 30 trilion yen. They have little no room for creating revenue except tax raise. We should not burden for future generation. stabilize national finance and revitalize better around future Japan.

Camping in Akikawa valley part 2

We gathered at Musashiitsukaichi station, because some participants didn't have car and had to take the train. Picking them up from the station, we went to the supermarket to get ingredients for the BBQ. Then we headed for our destination.

The road to the village was very impressive to me. about 10 munites drive from small towm reached inhabitat and widing road between deep forest Akikawa valley has a variety of scenic driveway that we can never see in urban area. beautiful waterfall and beautiful trees.

All of participants rode on six or seven car. There are no other car except us. We drove windingly through narrow valley road. If we looked from at the other side of the mountain  so the cars we drove looked like rattle snakes because the road was so meandering.  After 40 munites drives, we finally arrived our destination.

 
This is ''Goemon''bathtab.  ''Goemon'' is derived from Azuchi momoyama era. (AD1560-1600) Infamous theft ''Ishikawa Goemon'' was arrested by kyoto official and he was executed by boiling in the large steel pot at Sanjogawara, Kyoto.  This human size steel pot was begun to use as ''Goemonburo''.  By burning wooden chip under the steel pot, steel pot can heat bathwater. We have to cut many wooden chips. The picture is not good, but I thought it was worth trying once.

Children were able to enjoy fireworks. We prepared 300 unit fireworks, but instantly we run out of them. We enjoyed scenic beauty in summer. Children was

able to have memory that they can't never foget this summer.

Camping in Akikawa valley

The day for the camping had arrived. As I was the organizer of that event, I was very happy to hold it. The participants were children from the same class of a nursery school and their parents. It was a long way for me to get concensus from parents to have overnight camping.

Some wives complained why we planned to do such event, since we didn't have any outdoor activities before. They thought we don't have enough capacity to manage the camping. Some parents wanted to go camping just for a day. On top of that, a pregnant woman who is expecting on the very day of the camping, wanted to join the camp. The begining of this camping was literally chaotic.

Fortunately, other parents, who wanted to go camping and belonged to the majority, supported this plan. After all parents argued about this issue in the meeting, we finally reached the agreement to go camping .

Although we had well-prepared camping tools such as, cooking pot, meshed bowls, tarpaulin, and BBQ meals, the day before the camp, it rained cats and dogs.  I was very worried if we could execute our camping.

Inferno about contaminated firewood issue

This year Okuribi  in Kyoto not only caused the burning of the trees but it also set a flame a very hot controversy.

Every summer, residents in Kyoto hold Gozan okuribi, which is one of the major summer feature like Gion festival.  Burning firewoods in mountain slope is a kind of religious ritual to send spirits on the ground back to the underworld. This year artist who lives in Oita prefecture and support Rikuzentakata residents who suffered from devastating Tohoku earthquake and tsunami mediated this events to supply firewoods from affected area.  He negotiated with Rikuzen takata city and contacted to Burning daimonji preservation association, which manage Gozen okuribi events comprehensively. They planned to burn firewood came from pine trees in the Takata-Matsubara scenic area. The trees were knocked down by the March 11 tsunami. They recieved firewood which was engraved in message for the victim and brought them to Kyoto.

But the issue arise from some residents in Kyoto.  Kyoto residents claimed to the department of cultural asset preservation in Kyoto that these pine trees might be contaminated with radioactive substances. Therefore, they requested to stop burning them.  City officials announced that they canceled to burn these trees before they check if there were radioactive chemicals in them.  After that, they got 1,000 complaints through telephone. Complainants insisted that the government in Kyoto should decide to burn these firewoods to ease emotional pain of people from Rikuzentakata.

 After receiving flood of claims, they had no choice but to check how much radioactive materials were contained.  According to their inspection, they were able to find a certain amount of radioactive substances in those firewoods trees. Consequently they officially reanounced that they unwillingly canceled to burn these trees. In my opinon, the government should have decided to burn these trees or not after they finished checking if there were radioactive substance in them.This issue may bring secondary impact into our daily life.

 I wish this inferno will disappear soon. 

Summer Vacation@Kamakura

In this summer, I went to Kamakura with my familiy and my parents.

Should we support Sousuke Takaoka's opinion about Korean entertainment?

Korean pop stars and TV programs are rapidly permeating the Japanese entertainment industry. I simply feel that Japanese media don't exert their best in developing their very own artists and program quality that will attract Japanese viewers.

The other day, a young and popular artist Sousuke Takaoka—29 years old and the husband of the famous actress Miyazaki Aoi—announced that he left his agency because of his anti-Korean status on Twitter.

According to his comments on his interview, he tried to criticize the Japanese government that pay more attention to Korean entertainment.

 Eventually media regarded his opinion as anti-Korean and consequently he received negative criticism from Korean pop supporters and similar groups.

In my opinion, artists and industry failed to develop their business globally, consequently their growth reaches a plateau. Compared to  them, Korean government and its entertainment industry have cooperatively made blueprints for expanding their business in Asia.

Before they complain about their current situation, artists and entertainment industry should make their best to tap into emergent entertainment industry like southern east Asian countries.

I hope that Japanese artist will grab all the limelight in growing Asian countries.