Students at Embassy

The International Event "Global Getdown"

On November 21st, the day of the international event, I was in the hall called "The Cave" where the event would be held.  I was helping the host of the event, decorating the hall with countries' flags while I was waiting for my rehearsal time.  I was as nervous as if I were a runner before a race because I was going to sing a Japanese song as a Japanese representative in front of lots of people from around the world.

After the rehearsal, I got back to my house to eat and take a nap, but I could neither eat enough nor go to sleep because of being under pressure. Half of my mind, on the other hand, was secretly thinking that I wanted to make it fun for the audience some way. "Only singing a Japanese song is not really exciting", I thought, so I made funny T-shirts writing Japanese flags and some Japanese words on white shirts and prepared secret stuff too.

It was around seven thirty p.m. in "The Cave", that an audience started gathering, and a dance group, one of the performers was break-dancing.  In the silent darkness, "Global Getdown" started with the Korean anthem. People from around the world performed one after another and entertained and excited the audience. I was doubtful if my performance could win a burst of applause as other performers could.

When the event was almost ending, our turn came up. Thinking back on the time when I decided to join this event as a performer, I had same feeling as I felt at the time, "I want other countries people as many as possible know about Japan or start being interested in Japan as much as possible." Setting foot on the stage, although I got extremely tensed up, I thought "Now, I better just sing it."

After singing, the audience gave us a burst of applause. Even though most of them could not understand what we were singing about, I felt the Japanese music and our enthusiasm for people to know about Japan touched them. Also, things I prepared that T-shirts and "Shuriken", a weapon ninja use, made from paper cause to gather people's laughter and receive well response. I was glad I decided to perform in the night.

 

I am Japanese after all

     From the end of October to the beginning of November, I spent time in Japan, where I am from. Since I started studying English in the U.S., I have met lots of different countries' people. As I have found out what kind of people they are, I have thought about what kind of person I am. At times my South American and Asian friends tell me that I am not like other Asian people, and they have thought I was from a Latin country when they first saw me. I guess I had sought myself, but now I know I am Japanese after all.

When I got back to Japan after an interval of 7 months, I naturally became energetic. In spite of the fact that I had been in a stifling economy seat for 10 hours and there was jet-lag between the U.S and Japan, I was bursting to do something right away. Easily passing migration gate and picking up my luggage, three faces which I was really used to seeing were waiting for me. These were my family. At the moment, I felt as if I finally put down a heavy weight. I became so calm.

When I stayed in Japan for a week, I enjoyed every moment despite the fact that I scheduled until midnight everyday. I attended my best my best friend's wedding and saw his happy face and my friends there. Also, I spent time with my family. Casual talk with my family and my mother's normal cooking soothed me. Even second-class comedians on the TV made me laugh. Above all, the moment when I saw my girlfriend, who I had not seen for one year, was unspeakably happy for me. Even though she criticised my new hair style immediately before hugging or something which I had expected for a long time, I was reassured.

Everything I saw, heard, and tasted in Japan were like meditation for me. I have never thought I did not like my life in the U.S., but the tiny island is the best for me. I am Japanese after all.

One for All

In this small world, over five billion live together and everyone is different from each other. Because of the different characteristics, nationalities, religions, and races, understanding each other is difficult, and collisions easily happen. However, as everyone knows, people can not live on their own. To live peacefully and to be friendly with others in this beautiful world, everyone should do something good for others.

If people did not think about others, their every single act would bother others and everyone would easily get irritated with each other. For example, in public places, smokers would neglectfully smoke in a cloud. In addition, they would throw cigarette butts away if there was no ashtray near them. Likewise, if you share your life space with someone, you have to care about the person. For example, you need to cleanly use things you share, and if you get them dirty, you have to clean them up at once, before the person use them. Otherwise, someone will get irritated.

Likewise, the action which a person does for the others makes the society peaceful, lively, and delightful. As an example, here is an interesting story: presidents of successful companies clean up their companies' restrooms on their own. Lots of successful presidents oddly have this similarity. Actually, it is not only cleaning up restrooms. In other words for it, the top of the company does a work whick others do not want to do for other workers and customers. So, the workers and customers feel good to go there because of it. As a result, the company becomes lively and peaceful. It is not talking about only inside a company. Doing something good for others is important to cooperatively live others in every area of our life.

As one of examples of cooperating with others, the idea of team sports is exactly what we need in our daily life. Here is one of example of a team sport named "Ekiden", a road relay, which is famous in Japan. Each team has about six runners, and each runner has to run his/her own area and relay to the next runner. Even though a runner gets fatigued in the middle of his/her zone in which he/she has to run, the latter runner is waiting for the former runner. So, each runner can not give up because of personal reasons like "I want to take a rest" or "I want to quit because I feel sick today". Every runner does their best for the others, one for all.

Basically, all people are selfish. If people did not try to think about others, they would do everything only for their own good, not for others. However, we all come across someone everyday and we can not insist too much or demand only what we want to others. If we did not listen others' demands or requests, they also would not take our opinion or more, would ignore us. Similarly, if we made someone happy once, the person might does something good to other person as well. After all, this relaying would make peaceful, cooperative, and friendly world. One is for all because we all are in the same huge team called earth.

These people were my baseball team mates when I was in a high, and now we are good friends. They all think about each other. Nice guys!

Preparing in Case of .....

I am a man, and I always think one thing, "as a man, I must be physically strong". This thought might cause some dispute between men and women, such as not only men should be strong, but also women should be strong, or the idea that men look down on women as weaker people.

However, technically men are physically stronger than women, and I would have not to fail to help a girl if she asked for my help. If the girl were strong enough to protect herself, that would be fine.

I started learning martial arts to prepare in case of this kind of situation, also to protect myself. If  my girlfriend came across a creepy man who was bigger and stronger than her and dangerous, and she asked for my help, I would have to defeat him.

This kind of situation might not happen a lot, but it is like the saying "practice makes perfect", and "forewarned is forearmed".

Falling short of my goal and overcoming

I failed a test the other day. The test was very important for me because the result of the test would decide if I could enter a school. The school has a program that is for English teachers who want to teach English to foreign learners and is called "TESOL". Entering this school and taking the course was my goal of studying abroad in the U.S.A.

Since I decided my goal, I have been strict about my English studying; I have been speaking only English, shutting any Japanese language out such as music, books, dictionaries, and others, and participating in all my classes with maximam effort,  because I have been aware that the goal of studying with other students who are native English speakers at the school is formidable.

However, I failed the test. When I was coming back all the way from the school after the test, in the bus I listened to a Japanese song, and everything in my sight - passengers and scenery gliding by- seemed like a dream. Since the day, I have been depressed for several days.

I remember what someone said something like "If the door which you wanted to go through is closed, there is always another opened door. It depends on you whether you try to find the next door or not". The door in front of me is now closed. It depends on me if I choose to be relaxed as I give up my goal in front of the closed door or choose to go to dark and harsh place to find an open door. Now it is time to overcome obstacles.

San Francisco

During my vacation, I travelled to San Francisco with a friend. It was tons of fun even though we could spend only a little money. I'm going to introduce the attractions in San Francisco that I visited, with my comments.

• Pier 39

This place is called Pier 39 and has tons of entertainment such as restaurants, a small stage show, souvenir stores, and other fun things. The thing I most recommend you to see is the sea lions. Hundreds of sea lions are lying down on the wooden floats on the ocean by Pier 39. They have caught lots of people's attention, and there is the restaurant named "Sea Lion Cafe".

• AT&T Park

This is the home baseball stadium for the San Francisco Giants. It has a very long history and is famous for the unique shape of the stadium. The right stand is beside the ocean and very thin. If a batter hits a home run (HR) to the right stand, the ball goes into the ocean. It is called "splash hit" because the HR ball falls into the water with a splash. There are lots of people who wait for HR balls on the ocean. I and my friend visited the stadium but we did not watch the game. We just felt its atomosphere and looked at the classic building from the outside.

• Seafood restaurant

There are tons of seafood restaurants by the ocean. It seemed like crabs and shrimps are famous and sort of expensive. I tried a meal made out of tiger shrimp and my friend had crab cakes. Both our foods were amazing tasting and made us satisfied.

• Youth Hostel

The youth hostel we chose cost just 19 dollars each person per day including breakfast. The unique thing is there are 14 beds in each room, so you can see strangers and have to share the space with them. Many backpackers or tourists tend to use this kind of youth hostel, and the price and the system (you can use the Internet for free) helps for their cheap trips like ours.

• Alkatraz

Visiting Alkatraz was the main purpose of our trip to San Francisco. This is an old prison on an island 15 minutes' journey by ship away from mainland. As we were approaching the island, the sight of the old building was making me uneasy but excited because it definitely seemed and smelled like an old prison. Inside the building it was much more like "prison" than the prison I had imagined. It was unbelievable that there used to be hundreds of inmates on such a remote island, and I was lost for words to see a real prison. I started wanting to know more about Alkatraz and bought a book  about it written by an old man who used be an inmate. When I was heading to the mainland, I was feeling like I am going back to the real world. Alkatraz was such an unreal world.

• Golden Gate Bridge

We visited Golden Gate Bridge almost at the end of our sightseeing. I just can describe it with the words "huge" and "great". The sight of the bridge from outside and the sight from the bridge, both are incredible. From the bridge, we could see all of the town of San Francisco and horizons on both sides of the bridge. I had heard that the place is famous for suicide. I looked from the bridge down to the ocean, and the rumor made sense. Golden Gate Bridge is one of the biggest faces of the town San Francisco, and I strongly recommend you visit, not to commit suicide there when you go to San Francisco.

Very Berry

Berries are very healthy. Especially, blueberries are well-known as food which are good for our skin and eyes. Today I asked my friends to go blueberry picking. This was the second time we went blueberry picking, and this pleasure is becoming our mutual hobby.

In the park, there are thousands of blueberry  bushes. Also, there are blackberry bushes. Many people in the park, enjoy blueberry picking, not blackberry because blackberry is the rose family and the bush has thorns, and the thorns stick in people's body when they try to pick blackberries. Since I picked only blueberries the first time I went there, I wanted to get blackberries at this time. "Ah!!" we shouted as often as our hands almost reached the berries. Nevertheless, none of us stopped fighting against the bushes, and we were filling our bottles with blackberries little by little. When we had finished picking blackberries, we had many cuts on our legs and arms. We got more than enough blackberries, yet we went to the blueberry area to get them, too.

After I came back to my house, I washed the berries and put blueberries in containers, and some of the containers went into the refridgerater and some went into the freezer for preservation. As for blackberries, I put them into a plastic bag and pressed them. Then, I put the juice into the bottle and mixed with milk and suger. Recently, I enjoy a piece of bread and the blackberry milk at breakfast. The blackberry milk tastes a little sour, but makes me healthier and gives me energy for studying every morning. A third time I will go berry picking will probably be this weekend.

The Olympics

It is 2008 and Olympic year. At this time, the Olympics are being held in China and has been exciting.  In the Olympics, first-rate athletes gather from all over the world, and only a few of them can get a gold medal. The high level competitions make audiences excited and move us. On the other hand, the Olympics make athletes too enthusiastic and sometimes problems happen. I strongly believe that the Olympics lead to world peace.

First of all, the Olympics should be the biggest symbol of peace. Many athletes from all over the world are gathered in one place, and all the people who live in the entire world focus on this event. Athletes shake hands and praise each other's performances no matter where they are from. This is the most beautiful picture in the Olympics, and it seems that there is no problem of nationality, race, religion, or other serious issues. On the other hand, people strongly feel their own nationalities and feel proud of their own countries only in the Olympics. I believe the Olympics peacefully connect people and countries with each other.

One of the most pleasurable points of the Olympics is that people can enjoy the highest level of performances from athletes. The beauty, power, balance, and speed of their performances and sometimes competitions between rivals attract people. There must be tension when an athlete challenges to change the world record, or one athlete tries to get more than two gold medals in different events. As an example, in this Olympics, Micheal Phelps, the American swimmer, got eight gold medals, and every time in his races, I am sure that people had goose bumps. Watching the highest level competition is an extreme pleasure for people, and the Olympics is one of the most delightful events.

On the other hand, the Olympics gives us not only delightful news, but also nasty news. A gold medal, the symbol of the best athlete, makes athletes too enthusiastic. One athlete who got a bronze medal got in trouble since he threw his medal away. For him, nothing but a gold medal is valuable. Likewise, athletes occasionally cry with depression even though they get a silver or bronze medal and say that they can not go back to their own country without a gold medal. Furthermore, sometimes audiences heat up too much and boo their rival coutry as they do not want their rival team to lose. We have to rethink what the Olympics is for, and that medals are just prizes and are not everything.

The Beijing Olympics in 2008 has been exciting. While people are watching the games in front of TVs, they get happy or sad depending on how their teams are doing. Sometimes people give foreign athletes a big hand and are moved when the athletes perform well or keep performing although they reach their limits. That is exactly how the Olympics should be. Nothing but the Olympics can gather the attention of people from all over the world and only in the Olympics can share every person their happiness, excitement, surprise, and many other joyful things. I believe, from now on, the Olympics is held for the world's happiness and peace.

The title of this painting on the left is "PEACEFUL RACE". I hope this "Olympic Man" will be the symbol of Olympic peace. If you can not find your country's flag on the picture, there is your flag on his back, do not worry! Peace!

Big Move!!

When you move, you usually need to bring big things and need a large amount of money. Bringing big stuff from your former house or a store to your new house is hard work. If you ask the company to help your move, or buy new things, you have to spend a lot of money. I just moved the other day and it was such a big move. To tell the truth in advance, I do not have such a large amount of money.

My new house only had a fridge-freezer, microwave, electric stove, and mattress. Before I began my new life there with my two friends, we discussed what the most necessary things are in the first few days. Our answer was mattresses and bedsheets. Then, our discussion went on about our need for desks and a dining table and chairs. Everything must be expensive if we buy them. Again, I can not afford to pay big prices.

However, I had prepared secret strategies since I decided the day of my move. After we brought our baggage to our new house, we went to Kent in my friend's car. Kent is a place located in the north-eastern part of Tacoma. A person who wants to give me a mattress lives in Kent. I got this information from the internet. We did not expect the mattress to be clean and in good condition. However, to our astonishment, it was a shiny black, gorgeous, queen sized, and free. Someone gets a good thing that someone does not need anymore. What a beautiful system!

However, the only problem for the mattress is that it was too big to go inside the car. We changed our plan, and put the mattress on the car and hung on to it using our arms. When we were driving on the freeway, our arms were numb because the strong power of the wind was lifting the mattress up against our arms' power. Obviously, we bought a rope to tie it up afterwards. We stopped in Puyallup and got another mattress for ten bucks.

The other day, I went on a trip to get a desk for studying. The destination was a store thirty blocks away from my house. At this time, I did not have my friend's help. After I bought a desk and chair quickly, I put them on a wheel barrow which I brought from my house, and bound them very firmly. My long trip started. For me, normally, the distance from 15oth street to 120th street is not too far, but the heavy stuff and strong sunshine made me tired. People who passed me on the street looked at me and smiled. At intersections, drivers stopped the car for me and gave me a smile. I like to see the people that.

I had been looking for a dining room table and chairs on the internet, but I had given up. Sometimes I found a cheap one that someone was selling, but I had to give up as the location was too far or another person already bought them when I contacted the owner. Finally, I found a good and cheap one and immediately went to the house. I was listening to the directions on the phone and it was near Pacific Ave., the main street in Tacoma. "It's not too far!" I thought. However, I was still walking down along the street even though one hour had passed after I got off the bus on Pacific Ave. I made a left and another left, and went down another street, and made a left again. At last, I saw the family who were selling the table. They had been thinking that I was coming to their house by car. They laughed at me and were impressed by my attitude that I would walk back to my house with the heavy stuff. Consequently, they discounted the price of the table, gave me two Cokes, and added a toaster oven that I was planning to buy later. In addition, they brought me back to my house with all of the stuff by car.

Again, when you start a new life, you need a la rge amount of money for moving or buying new things. Paying  a big money is the easiest and fastest way. However, there is another way to use your body and time. Doing it yourself is the cheapest and a beautiful way to connect with other people.

Revenge ~Matsuzaka, Ichiro, and Keita~

I went to Safco Field to watch the baseball game, the Seattle Mariners vs the Boston Red Sox. The game against Boston was one that many baseball fans wanted to watch because Boston is the most recent champion team and has many stars.

As I knew that Matsuzaka, the Japanese pitcher for Boston, would pitch against Ichiro, who is also a Japanese player, for Seattle, since I heard the news the other day, I was extremely excited. In the stadium, there was tension when the two Japanese faced off and two men were swearing to take revenge on the day.

For me, being Japanese, the match Matsuzaka vs Ichiro was unspeakably exciting. Matsuzaka, the pitcher of the game used be called "Monster" because he shut batters out like a monster. He was enrolled in the Boston Red Sox last year contracting 100million dallars for several years.

On the other hand, as for Ichiro, he is called "Genius" or "Hitting Machine" by baseball fans because he seems like he easily can get a hit. They are now star players all over the world. Luckily for me, the ticket I bought was the day that Matsuzaka pitched against the Mariners by chance. Amazingly, this happened a second time. The match between the "Monster" and the "Genius" used to be familiar when they played in Japan. The monster usually used the word "Revenge" when he lost a game.

One of the two persons who was swearing to take revenge was Matsuzaka. In the last game when Matsuzaka pitched against the Mariners, the other day, he perfectly lost, moreover, the genius got two hits from the monster.

After the game the monster must swear to take revenge on the Mariners especially Ichiro and wait for the day of revenge. From the beginning of the game, he was shutting the Mariners' batters out. It seemed like his revenge was going to be complete. When Matsuzaka almost accomplished his aim, the genius calmly stopped the monster violently acting on the mound. Ichiro got a big hit at very end of the game. Consequently, Matsuzaka succeeded to take revenge on the Mariners perfectly except on Ichiro.

Another revenger was in the stadium. It was me, Keita. Fortunately, when I watched the Mariners' game vs the Red Sox the other day, the pitcher of the Red Sox was Matsuzaka as well.

However, I had stayed far away from players during the whole game and took pictures of Matsuzaka and Ichiro just as small as a piece of rice: in the stadium, you can move to a closer place to the players, though you can not take different seats from the one showed on your ticket. I was looking forward to a second chance to take pictures of them since I failed at the first chance. Through my strong desire, as a result, I, unlike Matsuzaka, completely succeeded in taking my revenge on the game.

On the same day, two people swore to take revenge but for each the result was different. One perfectly succeeded but another could not. I am sorry to Matsuzaka that only I succeeded, but I can not support him because all of us, Matsuzaka, Ichiro, and Keita, have to live in the professional level of world. Some win and some lose. That is the rule of professional world. Cheer up, Matsuzaka. You can do it next time!