HI, ladies!!
How are you?
I wonder how long this cruel hot weather will continue…
I am dying to go on a journey to a cooler place!
This evening I’m going to go to bed earlier than ever.
So, good night…sleep tight. Bye!
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Dear Cherry and Friends
There is one big difference between Christianity and Buddhism. I haven’t known about Christianity and haven’t read Bible. But I feel pious Christians tend to stick to their belief and their mission. They always seem to talk with God and act upon God. On the other hand, Buddhism monks always struggle to free from sticking to something. They are seeking an ideal mind, so called “empty”. Japanese Buddhists seem to look for peace of minds of individuals. That is the main reason that monks seldom do social activities.
So, I think Takeko Kujo was a rare personality as Sunflower mentioned.
Now, I’ll go to bed early tonight, too. Good night, friends.
Dear Cherry and friends,
Hello. How are you?
Cosmos, you gave us an interesting question.
And your idea is interesting. Roughly, I agree with you. Let me support your idea.
Although I don't know much about difference between Buddhism and Christianity, probably what I'm reading now gives us a hint.
In my opinion, charity is the key. The word came from the Bible. It means kindness and understanding toward others. While in Christianity, the word charity is explained well by the expression, "Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself," jihi (charity) in Buddhism means that Buddha pities people, gives them pleasure, and removes their agony. The important difference is that in Buddhism only Buddha can have such a heart to pity people.
In Christianity and modern society, charity sometimes means alms giving, that is, giving money to the unfortunate. It is not only a virtue but also a practice. In the Meiji era, Japanese people first encountered charity practiced by missionaries. In Great Britain, charity had been practiced through organizational efforts since the 18th century. The poor and sick were visited by neighbors. Some witnessed such informal customs, but district visiting societies appeared and assigned foot soldiers as the charitable army "to combat the evils of poverty, disease, and irreligion." (Prochaska, 2006) District visiting on a significant scale began around 1875 when a Methodist, John Gardner, established the Benevolent, or Stranger's Friend Society in London. The similar societies spread throughout the country by 1810.
Victorians believed that benighted people would be saved if others visited them assiduously. Visitors belonged to various kinds of affiliations, e.g. Churches, hospitals, temperance societies, settlement houses. Some distributed tracts, others visited the sick. They provided those who needed with social services. Most visitors were women. Visitors and visiting societies increased during the Victorian era.
Hello, Cherry and my precious friends.
It’s 25th of July. The Beijin Olympic will come in fortnight from today. How exciting it will be to root for Japanese team! At the same time I watched a send-off party in honor of judo team and wrestling team.
Saori Yoshida is a Japan's woman wrestler and she got gold medals in the Athens Games in 2004. However, she lost the game in January by the nameless American wrestler. She was too shock to sort out her feeling. But Saori realized that she had a bad habit whenever she attempted to tackle. She decided to fix it up by Beijing. She added that she had a lot of time to improve.
I admired and surprised that even the champion had to have incessant evolution. Much more like an ordinary man should make strenous
efforts to reach a goal.
Cherry, I’m most grateful to you for your voluntary contributions to videotape our performances and take pictures of us in the Aichi seminar. I managed to print out a group photograph including your cute daughters thank to your great supports.
So it's ver late at night.
Good-night,my precious friends.
See you tomorrow.
Hello, friends.
After a long interval I asked my DH
to take me to Kakino Onsen which is good to cure my desease, and went there in the morning. I could feel refreshed, but I couldn't stop my sweat for a long time, so in the afternoon I went swimming to the gym near my house, where I found one of my friends who spent 5 hours there from the morning, she said, " I couldn't bear the heat in my house, so during the summer, I decided to spend the daytime here."
She always swims 1000 meters everyday in addition to yoga and aerobics. She is really a healthy woman and climbed high mountains in Rishiri Rebun island this summer with her DH.
But her DH, who is not a member of the gym and just working in the office and making vegetables on his holidays, was stronger than her on the mountains.
She said that she was shocked.
In the evening my younger son's family came to see Kasugai Firework Festival, so I went with them and enjoyed beautiful and gorgeous fireworks with my grandson on my lap. It was a wonderful night.
Hi, ladies!!!
It has been another humid day today. I thought that we would have a big shower this afternoon, but unfortunately the shower lasted only a few minutes in my area. So it’s still hot and humid. What horrid weather we are in!!!
Just this morning I discovered a tiny Japanese fatsia, which we call yatsude in Japanese, growing in my garden. What a pleasant surprise! It must be a lovely present for me from Heaven. In fact, the seed, maybe, in a bird’s dropping, rooted in my garden, scientifically speaking. Anyway, I am going to look after this plant, watering in this summer, because it is a new life, that is to say, a sign of future, and very precious to me.
I started to read two books just recently, one in the daytime and the other in bed, before me going to sleep. The daytime book is called The Anchoress of Ste. Maxime. I have never been to France, but since Ste. Maxime, which is the location set in this novel, seems to be a well-known French resort for Europeans since a long time ago, I have got a huge interest in France now, though my French is so extremely limited and not advanced enough to understand some French conversations taking place in this narrative. Perhaps you can guess who wrote this story. Yes, that’s right!!! It was created by Mary H. Cornwall Legh. I am still working on her literary productions prior to her coming to Japan.
I am a bit relieved today because my daughter and her family went to Mie to visit her husband’s parents and stay overnight. It has been so nice and quiet, even peaceful, in my house since this morning. I like it!!!
---break---
It is getting dark and the time to say goodnight is coming nearer, and I am very happy that I could have the end of this weekend in this way. Goodnight to you all, my fantastic friends. Have sweet dreams… See you tomorrow.
Dear Cherry and friends,
Hello. How are you? How did you spend this weekend?
On Saturday, I visited the Nagoya campus of Nanzan university to listen to the speeches made by 6 researchers. This was an international seminar in American Studies. Only key note speeches were open to the public. All presentations were given in English. 3 key note speakers were from the US. Two of them were native English speakers. After the key note speeches, 3 Japanese commentators responded. I was very impressed by one American woman sociologist and one Japanese woman researcher. Their research interest was close. The former has been studying racial and ethnic identities. The latter, American immigrant arts. What impressed me the most was the way they spoke. All presenters except one prepared manuscripts, Native speakers and the Japanese woman researchers didn't sound like they were reading the manuscripts.
I wondered how they could do it.
On Sunday, I have been at home and reading. I finished reading the third chapter of Prochaska. In the third chapter, we can find the motives which encouraged people to visit the poor. In other words, they are the roots of missionary work. One of the important motives was supported by the interpretation of the Bible. For Christians, God, or Jesus, is among the poor.
If they don't help him, they would go to Hell.
Prochaska argues that other motives were to escape from the everyday routines of their households or unhappy marriages.
Most district visitors were women. Some kept diaries or recorded their work. Ellen Ranyard, for example, called district visitors the Bible woman. The Bible woman were likened to important women in the Bible. The Ranyard Mission placed the Bible woman between the poor and their fellow men. The mission recruited and trained Bible women. They were the first paid social workers in England.
By the way, in Meiji Japan, woman missionaries sometimes companioned with Bible women who mediated between them and the Japanese.
Talk to you later.
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