National Cherry Blossom Festival in US

One day I was driving and listening to the radio, american news. The topic was about a extremely warm winter in Washington D.C. Then they said that the March is so warm that you can enjoy Sakura Blossom from 14th until 17th. I was so surprised to hear that. First of all, because of the word Sakura instead of cherry. Then it was surprising to hear American newscasters enthusiastically discussing Sakura as if they were real Japanese. I thought that maybe this particular news station located in Okinawa was influented by Japanese culture but to tell the truth, Okinawan sakura is not a big tradition comparing to mainland (Tokyo and Kyoto). I didn't know yet that next day I will be given a complete answer to this!
Next day I went to the Japanese language school to watch my Philippino friend's classmates congratulating their senior students who graduated this year. Current students sang a song in Japanese. Then graduated students made their short speeches. One girl was from the States, particularly from Washington D.C. And she said that her homeland proudly has its national Cherry blossom festival enjoying real Sakura trees which were presented from Japan over a hundred years ago from mayor of Tokyo in sign of friendship. Every year people enjoy real Japanese sakura, usually in April. The girl came to Okinawa 8 years ago. First years she felt homesick away from her family. In spring she went to watch Okinawan sakura blossom to northern mountains but she was disappointed because Okinawan sakura was not as gorgeous as on the mainland and it was a far cry from Washington Cherry festival, too. Finally, she said, she managed to like Okinawan small pink flowers which blossom when green leaves are already showed up.
I hope she will have a chance to watch Sakura blossom in Tokyo someday. This season is coming soon. Sakura alleys along rivers and channels will cover with pink and white foam of flowers, and then small nicely shaped petals will fall slowly to the ground and onto the water suface, reminding a snowfall.

Wiki link

Using expressions "Rule out" and "Put off"

Using the expressions "Rule out" and "Put off".
This morning I was listening to my favorite English course and studied two phrasal verbs - "Rule out" and "Put off".
Today I want to try to create an essay using those two words.
It is always easy to start something new but it turns out so hard to keep doing it regularly... Just like my blog.
I started it for the purpose of practice my english writing. Fortunately I was going to school so I had some time to write during the lessons. I had hoped to write every day, just a few paragraphs. But when I finished school I became even busier because there were so many things that I had to put off during school that needed to be done! These things gave me good reasons to put off my blog writing. It's not that I forgot about my blog, but that I just postponed the writing for tomorrow. And when that "tomorrow" came there was something else to take care of. Finally I realized that I would never have any spare time for my writing. I remembered my first blog that said "make a habit, make time". It sounded so reproaching!
I thought that I better rule out some unimportant errands from my daily "to-do" list. Needless to say that those trivial things like checking SNS or rearranging your room furniture take up most of your time when you are alone at home. But those things are so pleasant you can't resist them! When nobody is watching you it's hard to accomplish the most important job first.

Show me your non-present devices!

Show me your non-present devices!

When I worked as an IT adviser at elementary schools, a part of my work was to take care of old computers, fix the hardware and make the software work faster, so the machines could be reused for educational purposes. In order to make old computers work better I did a lot of small things; revising all background processes and startup applications, uninstalling unused applications, upgrading drivers and applications to the latest edition and so on. The best solution, of course, is the clean installation of the operation system, but for several reasons I couldn't do that. For example, old computers might have some licensed software, but the school staff might loose the installation disk or the license number. Teachers change every three years, and it is hard to trace all of the management history. The only option I had was to clean the software and optimize settings manually. Among many tricks, both efficient and not too good, I found a command to show all "non-present devices" in the device manager (SET DEVMGR_SHOW_NONPRESENT_DEVICES=1). Deleting the history of all devices which were connected to the computer in the past didn't improve the performance of the computer, but it helped to avoid some malfunction when the USB memory or an external disk couldn't be recognized or be accessed. In human terms, computers keep  all memories of all external devices with whom it had been acquainted with in past. Just like people do. And sometimes we apply our stereotypes (or "driver software") to new people that we've met, and we can easily be driven by our old experience without judging new acquaintances properly. Unfortunately, we can't delete our list of "unused devices". But we can laugh comparing computers and human ways of acting.

Just imagine a nice notebook computer (a girl), meeting a new "boyfriend" with 3.0 USB port. "Oh, this is something new! Let me see whether I have drivers for this guy! Oh, no! His spec is something new... OMG, I'm so confused.. He's trying to establish a link, but I don't know. Am I doing it right ? ...I need to contact my manufacturer..."

"Hello, mom! How come I don't have any 3.0 USB ports? Am I so old? Oh, no! How can I communiate with young guys? They say I'm too slow... Can you send me some upgrade? Please! No, I don't like 2.0 USB, it's not cool anymore."

 Or in the case of misjudgement. "Hello, the new external hard drive! Hmm, I think we've met before. Yes, I remember you, the same Toshiba, 320Gb! It wasn't you? Really? God, you look just the same. Anyway, let me see your file system. What's this? Say it again? I can't read this format. Do you speak "NTFS"-ish? Hey, user! What the hell did you connect to me? Don't hit my keyboard! Easy! Don't pull this hard guy out of my port! Maybe we can find something mutual. User! I'm sorry, I'm not a Mac. I wish I were.... Don't sell me!" Alt+F4, Enter, bye...

"Zen" Buddhism at the school

"Zen" Buddhism at the school
    Today my son unwillingly experienced nearly three hours of "Zen". He is in the sixth grade of elementary school and he will graduate  in March. After that he has to enter junior-high school and continue the obligatory education for three more years.He goes to a private elemetary school, and I want him to enter a good junior-high school, private or prefectural one.   
    Today we went to take entering exams for a junior-high school which is attached to the University of the Ryukyu's, the only state university on Okinawa island. The University of the Ryukyu's is famous because of its faculty of education, training teachers for a very huge range, from elementary to high school positions. The university has an elementary school and a junior-high school, attached to the facility. Young teachers can try their skills in teaching kids. Future teachers conduct research on experimental educational programs, and before those programs are offered for implementation, the university might try new methods on elementary and junior-high students.
    I thought that the new educational approach might be good for my son, rather than just let him enter the ordinary public school. That's why we decided to challenge in entering that Ryukyu's junior-high.
    In the morning we went there long before they started to accept students applications, because the morning traffic is heavy,  and if you are late, you're out. We arrived around 8 am, while the reception was scheduled for 8:30. All kids and parents waited outside in the chilling air. At 8:30 the school staff opened the door, and students got in two neat lines. The exams started at 9. Parents were asked to wait at the gym, where the school provided several rows of cheap metal chairs.
    After exams kids should go to the interview. The school separated kids into three groups, because today more than a hundred students came there to take the examination. Today was a day for boys only. I think that the number of girl students also will be nearly the same, but girls exams and interviews are scheduled for another day to reduce the crowd. Unfortunately, my son went into the third group and so he had to wait the longest. All kids were supposed to wait in the classroom until the time for the interview.
    The writing test ended at 9:30. My son had more than two hours and a half to "kill" along with the other kids from the same group. He didn't know what kind of ordeal was waiting for him.
    The staff asked all students to sit down and put all notebooks and pencils inside bags. Reading books was prohibited, too. Some kids asked if that was ok just to write something on the white paper, for example, memo notes for the interview, but the answer was, "no, you may not". My son asked also, could he borrow a book or a textbook from the school's library. He got "no" again. When he asked, why, the teacher said that all students should remain in the class room to maintain the order and equality. My son continued then, "if I can't leave the room, could you, please, bring me something to read?" The young female teacher was astonished by such audacity but managed to answer, no. Because, she said, I don't know whether my choice will be good for you or not. My son didn't give up and asked again, could he go out the room and drink some water? He was asked then, how thirsty is he. When he said, just usual thirsty, he got the "no" again. So he sat down and waited for the long two hours, just like other kids did.
    When I finally met him after the interview, he was so exhausted and mad! He felt like they had stolen 2 hours from his life. I wouldn't say that, because we all could spend so much time doing nothing (just"relaxing"), watching TV or playing video games. But still it must be hard for kids to sit with nothing to read or write. I made a call to the municipal board of education and explained the situation to them. I also suggested that it would be nicer to let kids write something in their notes or to let them borrow some textbooks from the library. It would be a good chance to make children feel how it is nice to read or write. Just imagine yourself imprisoned in a cell without a single piece of paper or a pencil. And then you are suddenly allowed to read or to write. How grateful would you feel about that!
    The board of education was surprised by my call because they haven't had any precedents. Fortunately they listened attentively and seemed to understand my point, and they promised to improve the situation in the future. They also mentioned "Zen" religion, where monks should undergo many tests, including long-hour meditation, sitting in uncomfortable pose, starving and thirsting. And being beaten by a master monk, when he decides to reestablish a discipline. I think now, maybe that junior-high schools treat kids that way on purpose? To see, how they could handle imprisonment in the room with nothing to do. I doubt though, that it could serve any good purpose. For me it looks just like laziness and lack of creativity. Young teachers-to-be could interact with kids, to imrpove their teaching skills and discover personalities of students-to-be. Not just dumbly standing in the classroom with imprisoned kids and saying "no" to everything. So sad to have such a policy (?) in the school we are trying to enter. I didn't like it and I feel pity for both, teachers and kids. Teachers, because they can only follow stupid rules. And for kids, because they just obey and don't try to complain, or even just to clarify their rights and duties. My son was good at trying, I'm proud of him. He was taught a bitter lesson today.

(My friend's comment: "If it was meditation practice, they would have told the kids...". Yes, right, and they should have made parents to meditate together and see, what happens! )

Young leaves and dead leaves

Young leaves and dead leaves.

In Japan you can get a driving license when you have turned  18 years old. Your first driving license is valid for 2 - 3 years from the day of the issue until your second birthday date. Then you need to renew it every three - five years, depending on your accident history and age.

When you get your first license, it is obligatory to put the "beginners sign" ("wakaba mark") on your car during the first year of driving. That sign looks like a young leaf, green with yellow, and symbolizes "the green, inexperienced person at the wheel". The purpose is to notify other drivers about your poor driving experience, so they could be aware of you or, on the other hand, seeing the sign, people might be nice and letting you in (which is not likely in real).  
In 1997 the Road Traffic Law of Japan in addition to the "beginners sign" issued a law to use "elderly driver" ("koreisha mark") signs on cars driven by people over 75 as an obligatory matter, and ask people over 70 to endeavor to use this sign. The "elderly driver" sign was designed as an autumn leaf, yellow and brown, which soon became a target of irony, because it obviously symbolized  a dried leaf or a fallen leaf. Elderly didn't want to drive with this dead leaf mark on their cars, finding this new law rather insulting. In 2011 the government finally changed that "aged driver" sign to another one, a four-leaf clover, a lucky mascot.

The average age of Japanese is getting higher every year. People stopped getting married and having babies, on the other hand the elderly got healthier and are now living longer. So the elderly society grows bigger and stronger. Now they laugh about age and death. Some people started to love  the  old "dead leaf" mark, because it shows their long experience not only of driving but of life itself. So the "experienced driver" leaf became even more popular than the “beginners" young leaf.

I just wonder how many people would be nicer to a car with either of those signs? I tried to drive with the "beginner sign" and I felt like everyone tried to overtake or cut in, thinking that I might be too slow or too dumb to counter their intentions. I didn't feel any kind of understanding or assistance. It was rather dangerous to drive with usual speed. What kind of mark should I put on my car to avoid such abuse? The only way is to look like a police car, I think. 
(A comment from my friend: "Or drive an old large car with lots of dents on it, letting everyone know you've hit a lot of cars and it doesn't bother you"). A tank might do, too?

Do cats really have nine lives?

Do cats really have nine lives?

   Today in the evening  I was driving down a skinny road with one lane on each side.

I went with my youngest son to complete some errands - to return CDs I rented from a media rental shop,to bring mail to my Filipino friend who uses my address, and to throw my postcards into postbox near the biggest post office in our town, so they could be collected first thing in the morning.

   We drove slowly, in a good mood, listening to my son's favorite game music. Suddenly I saw a big white cat, running from the right side of the road, just under the wheels of a big white Toyota van which was approaching toward me with pretty good speed. I saw as if in slow motion how the cat escaped one wheel of the van, then another, while the van was pushing breaks and nearly hitting the ground with front grill.

   The cat succeeded to escape from the van's wheels but continued to run across, just right under my wheels! I glanced into the rear mirror and saw a car right behind me. Damn! I couldn't push the brakes! I held my breath and prepared to hear the deadly sound... But I didn't hear anything. I passed away smoothly. When I glanced in the rear mirror again I saw the white Toyota van still standing in the middle of the road, and several cars behind it. Probably the cat was scared of my car and darted back under Toyota, but fortunately that time the Toyota van had stopped completely.

   I realized that nothing bad had happened with that cat and I continued driving. However, my hands were shaking and my heart was pounding heavily. Then I had burst into tears. It was an aftereffect of the shock I got, I think.

   Anything can happen on the road. I was taught a  lesson once again to always stay alert.

   Cats might have nine lives, but I don’t want to test it again.

How I brought my friend's fish tank to my home

How I brought my friend's fish tank to my home.

   A few days ago my friend Yulia, who leaves this island soon, asked me to pick up her gigantic fish tank with tropical fish inside it. I went by car alone, because I hoped to fold rear seats and bring the tank, fish, and the stand in one trip.

   First we decided to throw out two thirds of the water and try to lift the tank. The full tank had approximately 100 L of water, so we thought that one third will be around 35-40 kg. We filled three buckets with water using a hand pump and threw the water into the toilet. Then we tried to lift up the tank. No way! It was still too heavy. I suggested to move all eight species of fish in buckets ( there were five small fish and two big and they were probably expensive).  
   My plan was to use three buckets - one for each of the VIP fish and one for the rest. My friend started to worry about fish feelings and asked me to try to lift up the tank again. But it was almost immovable. We chose plan B with personal buckets. I brought a scoop-net and the fun had begun! It was so hard to catch fish, especially the expensive one, who even had a name "Mary". My friend was whining about not to hurt her Mary, and it was pretty distracting.  When I suggested to her to help me, she declined, saying that it's too much for her heart. 
   After 10 minutes of chasing fish I moved all of them in buckets. Fish didn't like the new home and tried to jump out. It was good that I didn't put much water into buckets. Then we drained all water from the tank and tried to lift it.  It was still too heavy! Finally we understood (some people  might laugh, but we really didn't think about this in the first place) that all of the gravel on the bottom is pretty heavy itself. We scooped all the gravel out of the tank and only then could we lift the thing!

   We put the tank and three buckets in my car. I couldn't put the stand there, too, there was no space left. My car already looked like a fresh fish delivery truck. I decided to come back for the stand again later. My friend lives not too far from me, but in the evening traffic one way takes at least 40 minutes.

   I was a little bit of a hurry because I didn't want to spend all the day driving back and forth. When I started to drive I found out that I can't drive faster than 30 km per hour without the risk of spilling all the fish and water from the buckets onto the floor of my car. 
   I went to the big state road because its surface is relatively flat and smooth. I drove very slow in the very left lane (in Japan we drive on the left side of the road), and all cars who overtook my lane tried to look into my car to see what kind of nut is driving so slowly. It was another adventure to experience. Fortunately, slow driving brought me a record of fuel consumption - the best eco drive ever!

   When I got home Mary was still alive. My friend was texting me every 10 minutes to ask whether her fish is ok or not. I brought all fishy stuff upstairs and went again to pick up the stand. After the big fish tank, lifting up the stand of 20 kg was a piece of cake. When I finally got home, it was already after 7 pm. I needed to buy new gravel, so I hurried to the nearest shop which closes at 8 pm. I finished my big work around 10 pm. 
  It was so nice to seat in front of the tank, sip on coffee and observe the fish happily swimming in clean water and catching flakes.

   I threw out all snails and mollusks with the old gravel so now I can't observe their wars for survival. But today I found small white eggs on the bottom. We will see what happens soon!

Sakura in Japanese life

Sakura in Japanese life
Sakura (cherry trees) play very important roles in Japanese life, symbolizing many things.
When sakura trees are in blossom, the view is breathtaking. It's so beautiful, as if the trees are covered with fine pink and white laces. The petals, slowly  falling on the ground, resemble a snowfall. This beauty doesn't last long, only a few days.
So this symbolizes the philosophy that everything has its end, and nothing is forever.
Japanese people enjoy the taste of sadness even observing sakura petals on the ground, after the cherry blossom festivals are over and the flowers have faded.
Yes, people here can find pleasure in observing rather dark and fatal things.
But let's turn our story to the bright side. Sakura also symbolizes the start of the new year in schools and universities. That's because sakura trees blossom in April, when many things in Japan start. Also, most companies count their financial year from April. Here sakura flowers bring us a feeling of something new, fresh and promising, like a New Year dawn.  During this period you can find sakura ornaments on shelves in the school goods sections in many shops, or at clothes stores where they sell business suits for recruits.
However, recently I was surprised by a totally new usage of the sakura theme. It was on the news, that many city offices decide to bring some life into official application forms, decorating them with famous animation characters or traditional ornaments.
For example, if you have moved to another city, you have to go to the city office and fill out an application for registering your new address. While you are filling it out, you could enjoy its cute ornament and feel better, I suppose.
But there was a mistake in designing new divorce applications. For unknown reason the form has a sakura tree but its flowers have already started to fade and fall down to the ground.
People couldn't resist making fun of that, because it so obviously  symbolizes that all good is over.
 (Sort of like the old person driver sign in Japan was depicting a dead leaf, until they have changed it to...  It might be an interesting topic, too.)
Yes, Japanese can enjoy sadness and make fun of the end. Maybe that's the secret of their indifference, decadency, nihilism, and.... longevity!
News link (in Japanese):
http://www.sankei.com/premium/photos/170102/prm1701020015-p1.html

Should I send New Year postcards or not?

Should I send New Year postcards or not?

    I don't know what is so special about New Year except a chance to rest from work

or school and I don't like some customs which keep you unnecessarily busy in the end of December, the time you could enjoy more time with your family.

    For example,  Japanese people have a tradition to send greetings postcards on New Year.

They send them to friends, business partners, and far relatives who live out of walking or driving range. New Year post cards are called "Nenga-jou", which means "a letter of celebrating the New Year". The first line in the card usually starts with "congratulations on starting a new year". The closing line says "We hope to have your further favor in new year."

    Speaking of "favor", the middle text might contain the line about "being grateful for all your help and support during the last year" even without having something concrete in real.

Generally, the Japanese new year card starts with congratulations, continues with gratefulness (and sometimes, best wishes of happiness) and ends with expectations of having more of the above.

Every year there is nothing more in the post cards. 

    However, for many years people worked out some ways of enjoying this obligatory tradition.

First is - to check the pictures. Many people think that putting their happy family picture on a new year postcard will serve two purposes - to remind their friends how the family looks (who they are) and to ensure people that they are happy indeed. Receiving pictures of each other, people may count the number of kids (oh! another baby!), or the number of wrinkles (oh! she looks much older, haha), or check the new condo or the fancy car in the back (oh! they spend more that they could afford!).

    Elderly use this new year tradition as a chance to make a full inventory of their acquaintances,

who has made it to the new year and who unfortunatelly hasn't.

Recent popularity of social networks and smartphones has made it easy to exchange seasonal greetings. The tradition of sending postcards is already in a danger of extinction. Now all you have to do is to create proper groups and contact lists on your devices and send your "congrats - thanks - best wishes" message by one click.

    In my opinion you don't have to burden yourself with purchasing hundreds of post cards, writing, printing, and sending them to all your co-workers or acquaintances just to follow the tradition. But if you want to share something good or make someone happy, you don't have to wait until the end of the year.

    It's so easy to do it with the internet right now. 

“Sentimental driving” (December, 27)

“Sentimental driving”

Yesterday, when I returned home and switched on the TV, there was a show named "Sentimental driving".

I was intrigued by the word "sentimental". Usually all shows about driving and  travelling are rather funny or just educative. I sat down with a cup of tea and started to watch.

The show was about old vintage cars and people who used to own them. A narrator (producers chose two famous actors for that role) goes to some used car store and finds an old car for sale, and the story begins. They chose very special brands of cars which were

very popular and expensive, but not later than 40 years ago. The first car was Isuzu 177 coupe, the second was Nissan Skyline GT.

Then the narrator reveals the timeline of all people who had owned this particular car, but names and adresses are hidden under the stickers. The narrator starts from the most recent owner, the name and address. Then he (or she) has to drive this car to its owner and go meet him. When the narrator gets there, the car should be hidden from the ex-owner, and ex-owner is asked for an interview, why he bought that car, how did he like it, what memories had he created with the car etc.

Finally, the narrator takes the ex-owner to the place where his car is parked and points at it without revealing the truth. Then it’s interesting to guess whether the ex-owner will recognize his car or not.

In the end the owner has a chance to take a picture with his old car and with the famous actor or actress, and the narrator opens the next owner's info and goes there.

It was exciting to watch  how people reacted to their old cars! Escpecially the primary owners, who bought those cars 40 years ago.

All of them remembered their cars and all the memories related to the ownership. And most of them cried, remembering good old times. That was the purpose of the show, I think, to get people sentimental.

It was fun to compare reaction of men and women to the car which was repainted and modified.

The male owner could exclaim, "Wow! They changed color and fenders!" while the owner's wife or doughter could only say calmly, "Oh, it almost looks like our car but the color is different". Yes, guys could easily distinguish their old car by some scratches, dents, the smell of salon and other small details, while ladies could care only about color and they weren't sure about the car, was it their own or different one?

It was nice to go back in time together with the old car and learn about its owners and their stories.

Most of the owners were glad to see the old car as if they met their own child who grew up and had changed.

It was a nice show to watch. Now I'm curious who was the first owner of my old Toyota Porte?