Hi, ladies!!
Good morning. Now about 6 AM, and we are going to camping to Gujo-hachiman, Gifu. But I'm afraid of the weather forecast for tomorrow, predicting rains...my family has never been to camping, so I can imagine many hard things would attack us during this trip...Anyway, I will be back two days later. Thank you, everyone. Have a good day!
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15 comments:
Hello, everyone.
Good morning!
Cherry, Are you going to enjoy 'Bon Dance' held in Gujohachiman?
I would like to appreciate the atmosphere of Gujo bon dance once.
Today, I will go to Tokyo. See you again.
Hi, friends,
It is Wednesday, August 13th. Why do you study English? What will your answers be? I remember Sunflower told us about her motives in Aichi Seminar. For me, the answer changes every time, or I didn’t answer on the spot. I have read a book whose title is Nande eigo suruno by Nakatsu Ryoko. Her motive is very clear; to make living. Today I found one of my answers; to have a broader mind or gather unbiased information. If we study English and understand its history and culture, we wouldn’t be foolish enough to elect a politician who is favorable to war.
I was so moved by Tomoda, a gold medalist in gymnastic. His comment excited us. His motive is to pursue the beauty in gymnastic. He looks like a true samurai, doesn’t he?
Hi, ladies!!!
It is always exciting and delightful to read messages in this blog.
I am especially contented that Peach is trying to write in regularly, since I really want her to improve her English writing skill. It is required to command a high level of English writing in order to pass the STEP test. Just pushing oneself a bit more makes a big difference. Peach and Cherry, I sincerely hope you will past the test and prove you are capable and skilful. Yes, you can!!! Keep this in mind: just a little push to yourself.
I asked my husband to drive to Cosmos’ place and put what I wanted to hand in to her, in her house mailbox, and he did that for me. She emailed me this afternoon saying she got it, and it was joyful to hear that. I could not make it to the farewell party held at a restaurant for Jonathan on 15th, but I have one important gift for him and wanted Cosmos to get it well in time for the party. (That’s the reason I asked my husband to deliver it to her place safe and sound. I thought of mailing it, but I was afraid that it might not reach her in time, just in case, you know.)
Maybe you want to know what my present to him is by now. It is Essays 2007 in book form. But please do not misunderstand that that is gorgeously bound, looking like a real book. It is simply bound with a paper fastener but I believe he will love it, definitely and surely. It will remind him of the time he spent with you over these five or six years, you splendid ladies.
He is a most interesting American academic. He is honest, definitely, and sometimes gets confused quite easily, which is just between you and me, but tries to help people, though within his own capacity like anybody else, merely because he likes “people”. He is sociable, occasionally charming, and mostly talkative. He likes you, you terrific ladies. There has been mutual respect and admiration all the time between you and Jonathan, which is wonderful, straightforwardly stunning.
Now I am quite certain he has made a right decision. His son needs him and he needs his son. Happy father and son!!!
I hope you and Jonathan will enjoy the last meeting on 15th, and say “thank you for everything” for me, please.
Well, I think I have to get ready for bed now. Bye-bye, my lovely friends… Have sweet dreams.
Hi, friends!
I have been bit by mosquitoes every evening while I am sprinkling water on plants in my tiny garden, which is tiny enough to compare to a cat’s forehead. I wonder where such a large amount of mosquitoes are coming out from. I have to bear the itching for a while. Japanese mosquitoes are moderate. Some kinds of mosquitoes are very terrible. Dengue fever is spreading through the insects even today in Africa. A flea used to be also a frightening medium of the Black Death, which had decreased the population by half in 14 and 15 century in England. I am now reading the history of Great Britain, wondering if it was really great.
Now, good night, friends. Have a nice holidays!
Hello, friends.
Plum, thank you for handing your precious gift for Jonathan to cosmos. I think it is a very good idea to give that present for him.
Essay 2007 is the fruits of our toil, sweat and blood, so I'm sure he'll cherish it.
Whenever he misses Japan and us, he'll read it, I hope. I wish he could introduce our essay to his community college someday.
Thank you for your sincerity, Plum. We, members have deeply been moved by your faith and I suppose Jonathan would surely think so, too. Please tell my gratitude to your husband, who carrying the precious package to my house. I can't say thanks enough.
Hello, Cherry and my precious friends.
Today my challeng is to summarize 'The Advance of Women as Contributors' by Prochaska.
I wonder how many people can answer properly for the following question that “Does the benevolence of mankind most harm or good?”
A large amount of money was donated each year to charity in the nineteenth century in England. There were nearly 1,000 charitable institutions in London alone and charitable receipts came to more than the national budgets in European nations such as Denmark and the Swiss confederation.
Auxiliary system was organized by the support of women. The first auxiliary established by women was the ‘Female Missionary Society’ and another early example was the working-class Female Servants’ Society.
After women became aware of suffering and distress of a particular society on hearing sermons at church, they set up special agents and traveled the country and collected funds.
At first conservative churchmen criticized women’s auxiliaries because they were too stupid to administer efficiently or even add up their collections correctly.
On the contrary, women were very good at making profit. This was much more than pin-money.
Women contributed large sum of money. They gave their money carefully. They preferred to contribute to those charities which dealt with pregnancies, children, servants, and the distressed elderly and distressed females.
In the mid-and late Victorian years, women’s organized philanthropy got good reputation so that committee-men frequently welcomed female members to their ranks.
Moreover in the last years of the century even a few of the more traditional institutions admitted women to their inner councils.
An explosion of charities managed exclusively by women took place in the 19th century.
The more power women held in a society, the more likely they were to contribute to the society.
p.33
There is a tendency that women leave much more to charity than the men on average and unmarried women left rather more than widows. The reason is that men have families to provide for. In other words, women were more generous because the large number of widows and spinsters had no family obligations.
The mid-Victorian period was perhaps the heyday of female charitable activity. The lively discussion of female rights and duties were going on at the time.
Philanthropic priorities varied from time to time but as a whole the financial contribution of women to charity continued to increase.
It is noteworthy that the social class of the women subscribers were from middle class. They came between manual workers earning wages.
The philanthropy of working –classss women was typically casual and not uncommon.
It is open to question whether the poor wished to make contributions.
There is, however, ample evidence that many poor people worked on behalf of charitable institutions and most of the working women who contributed to organized philanthropy did so willingly, such acts sprang naturally ftom their traditions and aspirations. P.44
Women had a great power and their solidarity was amazing. It is my comment after reading Women and philanthropy in 19th ceutury England.
Good-night, my sweet friends. Have a nice dream.
See you tomorrow.
August 13, 2008 11:48 PM
Hi, ladies!!!
The other day we had the first day of August, and now two weeks are passing away. What have I done over the past days? I have so much to do and so little time. It isn’t fair. I just need more time for my work. (I’m just screaming to myself, and so please do not worry about me.)
It seems that Alice and Sunflower got interested in Prochaska’s book: Women and Philanthropy in 19th Century England. When he had this book of his published in 1980, he was a tutor at London University. Probably at that time philanthropy was an unknown genre in the academic world, and he was, I assume, a frontrunner in this field. Thus, this book is quite intriguing and fresh to us, though Victorian society studies was itself a well-explored category. Missionary studies, especially female ones, is a less discussed and developed area, at least in Japan, and thus it is extremely interesting and attractive to me.
Anyhow, Prochaska’s book is beautifully written and is definitely worth reading. You will never regret reading it, I assure you.
Yesterday I got a very pretty e-card from Noriko san (I have forgotten her flower name), and then I asked her to come back to this blog as soon as possible. I just wonder when she joins us. Just wait and see…
It’s getting late, and I have one important thing to do before going to bed. So, good night to you all, my lovely friends. Let’s have a joyful chat again tomorrow.
Dear Friends,
It’s Thursday, August 14th. I am really impressed with Kitajima’s comment just after the race. He expressed his gratitude again and again. This seems to be the reason of his strength. The more humble one becomes, the stronger one can be.
Now I got another PC. DH was endowed. It is old Windows 98, but it works well so far．
Today I’d like to copy writing on the problem concerning unemployment of young people rate.
The unemployment rate in Japan particularly among young people has now reached record levels and is the cause of a variety of related problems. I’d like to mention some of these problems and suggest what society should do to deal with them.
First feeling of powerlessness prevails among people in general. Even employed people tend to the fear for their jobs when their company experiences a crisis. This, in turn, tends to have a negative impact on employee perception of both job satisfaction and job security.
Second, the high unemployment rate will lead to the eventual collapse of a reliable pension system. If in the absence of a steady job, young people decide that they are simply unable to afford marriage, the decline in the birth rate will probably accelerate in the foreseeable future. As a result, there will be too few taxpayers in the younger generation to provide financial support in the forms of pensions upon retirement to the next generation.
To resolve these problems the Japanese business world should hire more young employees even in the present economic depression. Companies should be concerned about not only about their profits but also about the future development of Japan.
Copying sometimes can be a good practice as long as we have a will to make well use of.
On hearing Johnasan's return, I remember his asking me a question on my presentation at last summer seminar. I guess he asked me the difinition of culture. I was lacked in paying attention to use the word culture. What I'd like to say was that the every effort of realizing one's dream could form a basis of culture. Cultue: the arts and other manifestations of human intellectual achievemnt regarded collectively (ODE) I regret that I was too upset to understand his question. Also lack of listening ability acceralated my pointlessness.
I've got to put my hands down. Good night, my dears
Dear Cherry and friends
Hello. How are you?
How have you been spending the Obon holiday? We are extremely busy. It is unusual. Although my father told customers that we would have holidays from 12th to 17th in advance, we got orders extensively just before Obon. I myself received a new order on Tuesday. The client brought eight brand-new signboards and asked us to fill them with the signs, “Construction ahead,” company names, etc. He told me he would come to pick them up on Monday. “By next Monday? These, too?” I asked him to confirm, and he answered “yes” apologetically. Some clients often treat us like a convenience store. Thank God! Highly business-minded people would be grateful and appreciate prosperous trade. Although we have a lot of work to do, I insisted that I would take a day off tomorrow to go to Nagoya.
Plum asked me how long I read a day. I had not recorded time but probably I read about 5 hours on average. For example, I read about 4 hours today. I read more than 8 hours if I can shut in.
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About a few months ago, Sunflower lent me books about Japanese Christianity.
I am reading one of them. It's Otis Cary's “A History of Christianity in Japan.”
Before making intrinsic comments on the book, I would like to mention how I've been feeling while I read this. Very nostalgic feeling arose because it resembled how I felt while I was reading history books published by Time Life. I used to read them when I was a high school student. I was not interested in rote learning and bad at memorizing what happened when. Instead, I liked to read stories about historical events. I still do. Cary's book contains a great deal of episodes about many people. Some of them are surprising.
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Next time, I will write more intrinsic comments on it.
Good night.
Hi, everyone,
It is Friday, August 15. The other day I was acompanied with DH and went to a place where there is a small stage with audio equipments and musucal instruments as guitars. It locates near the subway station Takaoka. He is a great fan of Takuro Yoshida. He sang not only Takuro's songs but also other folk songs in Takuro's style. Takuro puts many words and phrases like talking which sounds a bit unnatural as a song. Sometimes it sounds like shouting. Unfortunately enough for him, I am not crazy of folks. He asked me if some of my friends like singing folks. He really would like to share the time singing folks....
Dear Cherry and friends,
Hello. I attended a farewell lunch for Jonathan on Friday. Essay neatly bound by Plum pleased him a lot. He gave us his e-mail address. He promised to help us with English by e-mail. And we can visit him in Hawaii. Now, we have a friend in Hawaii! Isn’t it wonderful?
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From Otis Cary's “A History of Japanese Christianity,” I would like to introduce little-known episodes about Christian missionaries and Japanese policy toward Christianity before 1873.
In 1843, the Loochoo Naval Mission(-1861) was formed by a number of officers in the British navy. The British called Ryukyu Loochoo. Ryukyu was the former name of Okinawa. The Loochoo Naval Mission sent B. J. Bettelheim, M.D. to Ryukyu in 1845. In May of next year, he reached Naha. He was not welcomed there. The Loochooans reluctantly provided rough accommodation. Dr. Bettelheim called it “the meanest hovel.” The government officials in the Kingdom of Loochoo earnestly implore Dr. Bettelheim to leave Loochoo. He refused it and started attempting to preach. In 1850, the Bishop of Victoria visited Loochoo. He witnessed ill-treatment of Dr. Bettelheim by the Loochooans. A man who declared his belief in Christianity was punished for it. Dr. Bettelheim found it and tried to save him in vain. Soon, he was told the man was dead.
When George Ensor reached Nagasaki, he could not preach openly because the Japanese government prohibited it. If somebody dared to tell a missionary that they wanted to be baptized, a sacrament needed to be administered secretly. At every street corner was an official notice board which prohibited Christianity. When somebody was found to be converted to a Christian, he/she was put into jail. Westerners found the fact through a missionary.
In 1871, an embassy headed by Prince Tomomi Iwakura set forth to visit the US and Europe. Their main purpose was to ask Great Powers to abolish extraterritoriality. Western countries insisted that Japan should guarantee the religious liberty and release prisoned Christians. In 1872, Japan removed the notice boards.
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Have a good day!
Hi, ladies!!!
It is August 16, 2008, today. It is hot just as yesterday and there is no sign of shower at the moment. I wish we could have a cool shower, however quick it is, and then we will be refreshed.
Cherry had a wonderful time with her daughters at the camp, I believe. It is always fun and joyful to take part in summer activities or programs for families, especially to primary school kids.
I got an email from Gloriosa (is the spelling ok?) yesterday, saying that the leg in which she got an operation got swollen. She did not mention whether it was painful or not, but probably it was painful, and I felt so sorry about it. It is fairly hard to cope with this kind of physical condition, I assume. On 23rd of this month, she and Sunflower are going to meet Bev at a restaurant or something like that, and I asked Sunflower to give Bev, on that occasion, the copy of Essays 2007 that I had already mailed to Sunflower. It took a long time, a much longer time than I expected, to complete this collection of your essays this year, and I would like to set a due date for the next one to the end of February, which some of you might find difficult to follow. Nonetheless I really would like you to start your writing a little earlier this year so that you could hand in your essay in time for the due date.
I hope all of you are having a brilliant Saturday afternoon, although the weather is not so friendly to us. I will talk to you tomorrow, my lovely friends. Have fun!!!
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