Brainstorming

Hi, ladies!!

This morning, azalea, peach and I gathered at a family restaurant at Yagoto to discuss our essay subjects as our first session. Both azalea and peach made so steady progress, and we could run a good brainstorming meeting on the issues about Ichiko Kamichika and Mumeo Oku. I’m afraid that I’m not so getting well now, but today’s fantastic moment will act as a stimulus to me. We junior members enjoyed three hours’ analysis over lunch, and planed the next meeting on January 12 in the coming year at azalea’s house. Then we said good bye about two o’clock or so.
There are only several days left till the new year starts. Have beautiful days!

Merry Xmas

Hi, ladies!!
It is Thursday, December 25, 2008, and Merry Xmas!
I hope you are having wonderful holiday season.

I skipped writing on this Blog because of some hectic days with my daughters. Yes, it is as you guessed…They are now very excited in their winter vacation, and making a lot of plans to enjoy themselves fully, such as Xmas party, Xmas present, vacation trip (we’re planning on going for the Disney Resort on Saturday), and homecoming visit to Osaka. I’m afraid that we won’t go well for all arrangements. Anyway, I have to do many chores one by one…

Plum, I was happy to read your accounts of the three missionaries, since all of them are really helpful for me in writing my English essay.

Alice, I was also glad to learn your report on the interesting lecture by Prof. Mackie.

So, I will get back to my homework, see you next.

A fiery spirit

Hi, ladies!!
It is Friday, December 19, 2008, today, and has been quite cool but dry.

Though Sugako Kanno had not properly educated except for elementary school, she was eager to establish herself as a writer. Then, she asked her brother’s literal teacher Bunkai Udagawa, influential playwright in Osaka, apprentice her to him. She also wrote to Tamemasa Nagae, the president of Osaka choho, regional newspaper expected to publish in a short time;

...I’m afraid that I am a worthless person due to my unhappy and thus uneducated life, but have a belief that women could do an excellent work as well as men do. Now I hear about your publication of a new fine newspaper, and I would like to realize my own faith. I will do my best for your company if you take into account my wish....

She showed a fiery spirit as a woman writer from the start.

Thank you for reading.
Have a good weekend, bye!

As a very common woman

Hi, ladies!!

Sunflower, thank you for contacting Bev sensei, and I was also impressed by your sweet mail to her. I hope all arrangements will go well.

I’m now re-reading the articles written by Sugako Kanno for my essay writing, and I’m interested in her way in which she depicted herself as a very common woman on the regional newspaper articles. For example, an unattractive face, an odd person, a degenerated man. According to her essay, she used to be said that her face was quite ugly because "her mother’s sin was visited upon the child."

It isn’t hard to imagine that her strong-minded character was partly formed by those unfeeling comments in her childhood. In addition to this, her home life was not a happy one due to her father’s ups and downs. The worst phase for Sugako after her mother’s death was the sudden appearance of his second wife, who was not on good terms with Sugako to the end.

So, see you next. Bye!

Hunger in a world of plenty

HI, ladies!
It is Wednesday, December 17, 2008, today, and has been raining off and on. Unfriendly weather, isn’t it?

Hunger in a world of plenty (summary): the material from Alice

Recently the world faces serious shortages of food, and experts now forecast a structural shift in global demand that will keep prices high and people hungry. There is no simple answer to explain the shortages.
First, bad weather in food producing countries has been a factor.
Second, it has also raised prices of seeds.
Third, skyrocketing oil prices have pushed the price of fertilizer and feed.
Fourth, producers are holding off on sending foods to the market, and some governments are making matters worse by restricting food exports.
Fifth, there is the push to develop greener fuels, diverting million tons of food to biofuels.

There are some coordinated responses to them.
First, governments have to provide funds to help hold off crises.
Second, investment in agricultural infrastructure is essential to ensure that crops get from the fields to the market.
Third, energy efficiency must also increase.

…It is very hard to talk fluently about those current social issues, partly because I have little knowledge of various fields.

So, see you next, bye!

Beiou kairan jikki 2

HI, ladies!!

Yesterday I finally finished reading the book beiou kairan jikki 2, which took longer than I expected. It was really hard to come to the end due to those old Japanese, but I’m now relieved that their long journey in USA and England was over. I was always surprised by a lot of trivial things the author wrote in it, but it must show his great tenacity of purpose in that turbulent age. Anyway, I thank you for letting us know this interesting book, Plum.

By chance, TV drama atsuhime also ended peacefully, and I found that story very touching, probably because I’m learning the Meiji era for our essay writing. Most impressive line of atsuhime, is “This is the only path in life women can take”(?), which can show her resolution and firmness as a woman even in such patriarchic Edo era.

I haven’t decided the whole composition of my essay yet. It will take a long time…

So, I’m going to tackle the plan! See you next!

Verb + on, off

HI, ladies!!
It is Monday, December 15, 2008, today, and has been sunny.

I’ll try a verb + on or off.

That man got into his car and drove off at high speed.
The baseball game was called off because of rain.
I dozed off while I was watching TV.
The fire alarm went off in the middle of the night.
I have a few things to finish off before lunch.
My mother paid too much for that picture she bought, and I think she was ripped off.
I was told off by my father for being late for the meeting.
He always tries to show off how smart he is.
I always try to put my husband off smoking.

We all get on really well together.
I must get on with my work.
It’s frustrating that I keep on making the same mistakes in writing English.
We drove on without stopping along the road.

…I hope all of you are getting on well, while having much work.
See you next. Bye!!

Care + some preposition

HI, ladies!!
It is Thursday, December 11, 2008, today, and has been another sunny day.

I’ll try care + some preposition

I was very selfish, and didn’t care about other people.
I promise I’ll take good care of your camera.
I don’t like this hat because I don’t care for the color.
I have to care for those elderly people.
I don’t care what happens now.

…See you next, bye!!

A verb + to, with, about

HI, ladies!!
It is Wednesday, December 10, 2008, today, and has been quite warm and pleasant as if autumn’s coming back, hasn’t it?

I’ll try sentences with the correct preposition, to, with, about.

Time is the solution to a broken heart.
There are many advantages to being able to write an English essay.
(but)The advantage of writing an English essay is that we can express our opinion towards the world.
My attitude to my parents was not good at that time, but their reaction to me was always the same.
I didn’t know what the answer to question 1 was.
I didn’t know when she was engaged to a friend of mine.

I’m not satisfied with my progress in learning English.
I was angry with my husband last night.
(but) I was angry about what he was doing last night.
The people next door might be furious with us for making so much noise.
I was a bit disappointed with the hotel.

I was quite excited about the news.
I am still upset about what he said to me yesterday.
He said he was sorry about the situation.
He said, “ I’ m sorry for what I said.’

…I’m ashamed of lacking these fundamental knowledge of English grammar.
See you tomorrow. Bye!

A verb + out

Hi, ladies!!

I’ll try sentences using a verb + “out”.

I've become fitter these days because I was working out regularly.
My close friend got married a few years ago but it didn’t work out, and she divorced.
Sometime it works out more expensive to cook for one person than to eat in a restaurant.
I’m trying to work out how to use my new computer.
I have to sort out the problem in writing essay.
My kids like to sort out New Years cards for each member of the family.
I ran out of time due to my failure in cooking lunch.
I phoned the library to find out what time it closed.
I’ve fallen out with a friend of mine about a trifle.
I thought she was Japanese at first, but she turned out to be Filipina.
The weather has turned out poor.
The lights went out because a fuse blew.
It will take several hours to put out the forest fire.
The kind teacher gave out leaflets about the Hansen’s disease archives.

…A lot of out.

See you next, bye!

Fruitful Victorian study

Hi, ladies!!

Yesterday’s Victorian study was very fruitful as usual, and I am satisfied with this period for a while. When the program started on this April, the Victorian age was a world that made no sense to me, because I knew little about it. In addition, after we were given a lot of texts from Plum. I felt regret having attended the meeting so easily…

But thanks to repeated encouragement, I managed to come to the halfway point. I’m now looking forward to reading the rest.
So, see you next, bye for now.

Questioning the ethic of marriage 2

Hi, ladies!!

Summary; Questioning the ethic of marriage 2

Mrs. Margaret Oliohant---the novelist who claimed that things are discussed freely and easily which it would a few years ago have been a shame to mention, and concerned about those who regarded marriage as a tyranny.

Mona Caird---she accepted that not every woman was a dauntless heroin, yet suggested solutions; equal rights, economic independence, ending of the patriarchal system and establishment of real freedom in the home.

Cicely Hamilton---she thought marriage so humiliating that no woman at all should get married, and everyone should get a paid job.

Christable Pankhurst---she feared of venereal disease, and thought votes for women would end the problem.

…Their ideas are very intriguing, aren’t they?
So, have a good weekend. See you!

Questioning the ethic marriage

Hi, ladies!!

Summary: Questioning the ethic marriage

The Pre-Raphaelite movement revived in the 1850s and 60s, and anti- marriage movement was sought to be gaining ground. But opponents skilfully linked Socialism, free love and any criticism of marriage together, and thus many women stopped listening to advocates of women's rights.
On the other hand, the availability of easier divorce after 1857 confounded many of the sex radicals.

Annie Besant---famous women's activist and adovocate of contraception, approved of easier divorce but not of free love.

Libertinism have taken root in England and flourished in the 1860s, but Francis Newman thought that more often it was used as an excuse for the free indulgence of passion.

Beatrice Webb---she didn't approve of free love, but pointed out it was the subject of many popular theatre plays, and found difficulties in her Febian friends, H.G.Wells's experiment with free-er love affairs.

The Bloomsbury set---the most influential literary and artistic group, whose world was transformed around 1910. Vanessa Bell (sister of Virginia Woolf) gave the lead by proposing a libertarian society with sexual freesom for all.

...see you next!

Winter has come

Hi, ladies!!
It is Monday, December 01, 2008, and has been chilly since last night. Winter has come, finally…

Yesterday we junior members had a productive meeting for our essay writing at Plum’s house.
In fact, recently I had been little involved in my work about Sugako Kanno since the summer seminar finished on July…So I had been concerned about the meeting until I met Plum and other junior members. But thanks to our passionate teacher, we were strongly vitalized and motivated in a positive way. Though I feel uneasy about our future even now, we’ll say “Yes, we can!”

By the way, I was surprised by the booklet Plum gave us on the feminism meeting a week ago. According to this, Dr. Noboru Ogasawara, who greatly contributed to Hansen’s disease, had brother Hidemi, Buddhist priest, philosopher and poet. Both relieved the poor and the invalid without discrimination in Kyoto. What I found on it is a sentence, saying “Mr Hidemi Ogasawara took part in the Heimin Shimbun.” (p66)

Oh, Heimin Shimbun! Then I found some facts on the Net, that he was on good terms with Syusui Kotoku, the leader of socialism at that time. I can recall Wakayama members who were executed at the Treason Incident in 1911. They were also doctors or priests, who were struggling to help the poor and the invalid, while being shunned by neighbors. Strong state power must have disliked and frightened of a union of those people…

So, see you next. Bye!