A villa of Mito Kohmon

Mito Kohmon’s real name was Tokugawa Mitsukuni (July 11, 1628 - January 14, 1701). He was a famous territory lord during the Edo era, and many TV dramas have been made using the “Mito Kohmon” name. As a result, almost all Japanese know about him.

I went on a trip to Ibaraki prefecture and saw his villa last Sunday. He lived there after he retired, and eventually wrote a history book. The villa has a large, beautiful garden and receives many visitors each year.

When I was a kid, children were always joking about Kohmon because the word has the same pronunciation as “school gate” and “anus”. Kids must still make this corny joke even now.

Thank you.


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tokugawa_Mitsukuni




http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3ff7XRVbF80&feature=related



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=28S-IxNapBw

Koir, thanks!

A University Entrance Examination

I think many of your schools start in September every year, while Japanese schools start in April.


The Japanese school system is six years of elementary school, three years of junior high school, three years of high school, then two or four years of university.

Many foreign countries seem to have many options to finish schools, while we only have the 6-3-3 system in Japan.

Just after I graduated high school, I entered a pharmaceutical school. Normally, you would complete university training then enroll in a professional school in your country, right? You can take time to decide your profession which seems very convenient.

However, students in Japan need to decide before they're seventeen whether to become a doctor, pharmacist, lawyer, or another profession. I took an entrance examination for pharmaceutical school when I was seventeen. The school was one department of a university where they taught medicine and other fields of study typical for Western universities.

When I worked as a pharmacist, one of the office women said to me, “You decided to become a pharmacist when you were 15 or 16 years old, didn’t you?”

She was right. I decided when I was 16 and started preparing for the exam. Japanese universities and professional schools are hard to enter, but many of them are easy to graduate.

She said, “I can’t believe that! I didn’t imagine anything about my future when I was 16! I wish I did. If I have done that, I could have gotten a better job and salary!”

How old were you when you decided your occupation?



By the way, this is when I had the entrance exam. I didn’t know a certain English word in the English examination. The word was “pub”.

I have been to some pubs in Ireland now, but normal Japanese 17 year students don’t know what “pub” is! What do you think?



Thank you!



http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Education_in_Japan





Koir, thanks for helping as always.

She said, “I feel queasy.”

Years ago, when I had just started working in the pharmaceutical department of a hospital, the senior nurse came into the pharmacy and said, “I feel queasy”.


Hearing that, you would think that she was suffering from nausea, wouldn’t you?

Well, she said it in Japanese, and the words she used were “mukamuka suru.” That means both “I feel sick to my stomach” and “I feel offended”, so I first thought she had had some sort of conflict.

I said, “What’s up?”which meant “I’m prepared to listen about your worries.”

She didn’t realize I was misunderstanding her, and kept repeating “I feel queasy.” for several minutes. I waited for her to confide in me. Then she said, “E ga itai.”

I was in a crisis! “Itai” means “have a pain”, but I didn’t know what “e” was. I thought it must have been a part of a human body I didn't know about.

“I should have studied harder!” I regretted my lack of knowledge since earlier I had mistook “nose bleeding” for “a small amount of bleeding” during a phone call from a paramedic. (Both words have the same pronunciation in Japanese medical terms.)

I said, “Which part?” with some hesitation. She repeated “E ga itai” for about 20 minutes.

And then, she told me that she had eaten too much. I finally realized what she was saying.

“You have a pain in your stomach?”

She angrily looked at me. Her eyes seemed to be saying “How many times do I have to tell you?”

However, “stomach” is “i”. Not “e”. Never!

She just wanted some stomach medicine.

Afterwards, I found out the senior nurse was famous for her dialect. Many people had problems understanding what she would say. This made me wonder how possible it was that she was unaware of her dialect and how it confused people, but I didn’t have the guts to ask her.



Thank you!

Koir, thanks as always.

Music : TAKE Heart~Tobitate heiwano hatoyo~ by Yukio Hatoyama

Yukio Hatoyama is the Prime Minister of Japan. He recorded this song in 1988, and released it last month. The lyrics are as follows; “Take heart. Let’s live together looking forward a better tomorrow, pursuing liberty and peace.”


He often speaks about the spirit of “yuuai”. My English-Japanese dictionary says that “yuuai” means “fraternity”, and an online English dictionary says that “fraternity” has the following meanings:

1 : a group of people associated or formally organized for a common purpose, interest, or pleasure

2 : the quality or state of being brothers

3 : persons of the same class, profession, character, or tastes

However, the Japanese word “yuuai” doesn’t mean such a group, quality or people. Instead, the word means “friendship and love”. I believe when Mr. Hatoyama says “yuuai”, it also means “Everybody lives at peace”.

His name “Hatoyama” means “pigeon mountain" (hato means pigeon, yama means mountain), and a white pigeon is the symbol of peace. So I think his deeper feeling is that he should pursue world peace, as his name contains the symbol for peace.

Thank you.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yukio_Hatoyama

Koir, thanks for helping as always.

Book : Guin Saga Vol.129

This is the latest volume of Guin Saga, entitled “The Child Chosen”.


This is what Skarr (the second son of the Arugosu’s king) said:

"You say that we, who are at the mercy of the gods, try to escape fate desperately to survive or try to achieve our ambitions while, all around us but just out of sight, necromancers and strange monsters who came from nowhere are struggling for power to dominate the whole world?"

The storyline seems to be becoming a magic and monster story. I prefer human stories to stories about magic or monsters. If a powerful wizard appears, settles wars and saves people in the end, the story is absurd.

I believe that telling a wizard story is difficult because the author must decide what a powerful wizard can’t do. If there are many almighty wizards, regular people are useless. The author of Guin Saga might have known this and therefore made Skarr speak the lines above.

The problem is that the author has died. Who can take over the world’s longest great story?



Thank you.

Farewell Party

I gave a farewell party for one of my friends from belly dancing class.She is going to Kobe, which is very far from Kawasaki. I will be missing her. When I belly danced for the first time at the belly dancing party, she danced with me. It was very fun to practice together, and to talk about the costumes for the party.
We were sad to say goodbye, so we took many pictures with her just before she left us.I wish she lives in happiness in Kobe.

Thank you.

This is the restaurant where we held the party.
http://www.rest-intiraimi.com/food_menu.htm

Koir, Columbine and DougLewis, thank you for helping.

Ise Grand Shrine

I went to Ise Grand Shrine last week. Ise Grand Shrine is the headquarters of approximately 80,000 shrines, and the most traditional site in Japan.

The Ise Grand Shrine has two distinctions. One of them is that the shrine has two gods.

There are 125 shrines within Ise Grand Shrine, and the two main shrines each house a major god (not saints). The names are “Amaterasu-oomikami” and “Toyoukeno-ookami”. “Amaterasu-oomikami” is said to be one of ancestors of Tennoh(Emperor of Japan) and the Imperial Household of Japan.

The other distinction is that the two main shrine buildings and the gate bridge are rebuilt every 20 years.

You would think a very traditional shrine would be old and huge. However, Japanese people believe that gods would like to live in new houses. We think gods lives in the shrines, not in Heaven Above. So we can’t take pictures near the buildings. (I took the picture shown above at the foot of the stairs in front of the building.)

Another reason for rebuilding is the architectural style known as Shinmeizukuri. That means the building doesn’t have groundwork. Ise Grand Shrine is the one and only shrine built in this style.

When I entered the gate of the shrine, it started raining. I walked about 20 minutes to get to one of the main buildings in the downpour. I thought gods might dislike me.

Thank you.

http://www.isejingu.or.jp/shosai/english/index.htm

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ise_Shrine
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amaterasu_Omikami
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emperor_of_Japan
http://www.sengu.info/index.html
Koir, thanks as always.