Thursday, February 22, 2007

Children learn from learning Parents

I read a piece of issue on the "Asahi Shimbun," Japanese leading Newspaper, that says a child whose parents are enthusiastic with learning something tend to study hard at school. According to the writer, junior high school teacher, when listening spontaneously to conversations among students, he found that they were proud of their parents learning something. A student saying "My mother joins chorus. Her practice sometimes bothers my homework" seems to be proud of her mother, the author said. A further student showed a picture letter drawn by her mother to her company with a happy look.

The teacher introduces this story when he is consulted by some parents who gripe that, "My sons or daughters never study at home. How can I have them work hard?"

I totally agree with him. It is true that Kids want to be proud of their parents. If kids are very young, they undoubtedly imitate what their parents do. From that perspective, I really admire my 80-year-old father-in-law because he keeps studying at the University of Air and leads a vivid life.

As for my wife, while she is rearing a two-year-old daughter, she studies baby massage and the teachings of Seicho-No-Ie, which not only shows how to lead a fruitful life based on true faith but also deals with the latest issue like Climate Change or the state of the art scientific technology. I believe her behavior has a good impact on our kid's education.

Anyway, I will keep it in mind and this blog as much as possible.

-TA

Friday, February 16, 2007

An Awesome Grandma of Saga

I read a very impressive non-fiction book written by a Japanese comedian, Yoshichi Shimada. The book is "Saga no Gabai Bachan," or "An Awesome Grandma of Saga."

The author's father passed away from hibaku, or receiving nuclear radiation during World War 2 in Hiroshima when Shimada was very young. This is why his mother had to work until late night, so he was transferred to a rural town in Saga, western Japan, when he was eight years old from an educational perspective. When he had lived with his mother, though his life was hard and lonely, he led a relatively happy life except for his mother's absence during night time.

Therefore when he heard that he would move to Saga he expected to be a more comfortable life there, while felt isolated being separated from his mother. However he was astonished and shocked to find out that his awesome grandma was further needier than his mother.

What impressed me most is that the awful grandma was an extreme optimist. She once said laughing, "There are two kinds of poor in the world. One is gloomy, the other is cheerful. We're happy because we are cheerful poor. Do not worry about that because it is not recent that we've got poor but we are 'hereditary poor.'" In this way, whatever happened to her, she was never upset and took it in a very positive manner.

Another episode that strikes me is as follows:

Yoshichi: Grandma, I don't understand English at school.
Grandma: Write your answer sheet that "I am Japanese(that I don't need English)."

Y: I am also bad at History...
Grandma: Do you also hate History? Write that I don't care about the past.
(He actually wrote that way but his teacher heavily scolded him...)

Y: I need to write something about my father as my home work, but I don't remember who he is. How do you think I should do?
Grandma: Write only "I DON'T KNOW." with a big letter in the paper.
(He got a perfect score by writing that way)

Other than that, there appears lots of heartfelt community members, teachers, friends and so on.

This book has gotten extremely vogue among Japanese people because it I think speaks well for good old Japanese, which has been fading away these days. The impressions also comes across to me.

The book is written with very plain Japanese, so if you can read Japanese or want to learn Japanese and its heart and culture, I strongly recommend you to read it. It only costs 540 yen or 4.5$.

-TA

Saturday, February 10, 2007

Bridging the Gap

I found a very intriguing story about a Japanese group, members of which kept planting seeds in an abandoned and devastated Chinese village, on the English version of Asahi Shimbun, one of Japanese leading newspaper.

The paper features a serial of issue titled "Bridging the Gap." As you may know the relationship between Japan and China is sour mainly due I think to misunderstandings. I feel very pity of the fact that Japanese soldiers exerted kinds of atrocities on people in China during Japan-China War and we need to reflect upon those situations in a sincere manner, but there is another fact that such brutalities have been much focused on school education in China. More than that, I feel very sorry that some Japanese nationalistic legislators said what hurt Chinese people several times.

Despite that, the news reasonable and moderate citizens keep efforts to bridge the gap pleased and relieved me a lot. The project is organized by Osaka-based nonprofit organization Green Earth Network and its Chinese counterpart office in the city of Datong, Shanxi province over the past 15 years. According to the article, since Shanxi province was the location of harsh combats during the War, when 58-year-old secretary general, Kunio Takami, visited the village and planted for the first time, he was disdained and told as demon. However their continuous dedications broke the ice and started to bear beautiful fruit. The group so far "provided nearly 800,000 apricot saplings to farmers and schools, as well as instructions on how to grow the trees," the issue said.

As a result, once ravaged village was revitalized and local peoples' memories of Japanese military acts were separated from current Japanese people. In August, Takami was awarded to be an honorary citizen. Now that whenever he visits the village, he is greeted by cheers.

I am really moved by the story. Heartfelt dedications by selfless people not only revivified the land but also bridged the gap between China and Japan. Whatever difficulty I face in my life, I want to do what I can step by step. You can read whole story by the address.

http://www.asahi.com/english/Herald-asahi/TKY200702050124.html
-TA

Monday, February 05, 2007

Biofuel Technology

The news on the report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change is spreading around the world. We've already known and sensed that human activities have contributed to climate change, but this report is a final declaration for human being to be able to SURVIVE or NOT as a member upon the Earth.

More than that, we have futher news that shows even though the goal is admirable, if the steps to achieve that goal is not appropriate, the outcome will not be good. The article titled "Scientists are taking 2nd look at biofuels Dutch efforts verge on nightmare" may be an eye opener for even those environmentalists enthusiastic about promoting biofuel technology.

According to the article, increasing demand for palm oil in Europe caused devastation of Southeast Asian rain forest. Worse than that, space for the expanding palm plantations was often created by draining and burning peat land, which sent huge amounts of carbon emissions into the atmosphere. As a result, the article said, "Indonesia had quickly become the world's third-leading producer of greenhouse gases that scientists believe are responsible for global warming, ranked after the United States and China, concluded a study released in December by researchers from Wetlands International and Delft Hydraulics, both in the Netherlands." Here is an address of the issue:


http://www.iht.com/articles/2007/01/30/business/biofuel.php

I think we need to concentrate more our energies, technologies and efforts on alternative energy like wind, solar and hydrogen one.

-TA

Saturday, February 03, 2007

Effective Diet

Recently, my wife has successfully losed her weight by about 10 kilograms in the two years and half. But she said that there is no intention for her to slim down but she only hopes to be healthy preparing for the next pregnant, although there is yet any sign.

All she has done is an exercise of stretch, taking the dog for walk and avoiding snack as much as possible. She has eaten regular meals three times a day but prevented foods with beef, pork and poultry by religious and ecological reasons.

Actually, when she gave birth her first baby in August 2004, there was a critical accident that her placenta started to leave the fetus in the womb. Very fortunately, the baby was not damaged by that incident, but so huge was our anxiety. This is why she decided to create a healthy and sound body for a future better childbirth. She is even now keeping these efforts, so I am looking forward the following outcome.

From this fact, I learned that to set a clear goal is really efficient when it comes to realizing your dream. In addition that, if the goal comes from an unselfish desire, you may get to the objective easily.

-TA