"Rakkyo"

IMG_2297.JPG, originally uploaded by bikenglish.

Today, I received home-made "Rakkyo"（らっきょう） from my parents. "Rakkyo" is a kind of Japanese traditional pickles. It has unique smell, so some people don't like it.

"Kujyu" and "Yume-oo-tsurihashi"

Last weekend, I went to "Kujyu" with my old friends. "Kujyu" is a very popular place among people who love mountain climbing. I have taken several photos of this mountain area.

We arrived at Tyojabaru vistor center"（長者原ビジターセンター） at about 1pm on Saturday. After a short rest with simple lunch, we started climbing. We walked along a route for about 3hours, it was not hard course because we had still arrived at high level point. We saw several famous places in this area that include "Hokkein-onsen"（法華院温泉）,"Sugamori-goya"（スガモリ小屋）,"Bouga-tsuru"（坊ガツル）. We enjoyed very good mountain view and beautiful green.

Back to mountain foot, and after healing our bodies at an onsen, we had a BBQ dinner outdoor near our member's log cabin where we stayed that day.

Next day, we visited "yume-oo-tsurihashi"（九重夢大吊橋）. I found a Taiwanese tour group among a lot of visitors.

The bridge is built above a deep valley. We saw two waterfalls from this bridge. We also enjoyed great natural view there.

After that, we headed toward our home.

Today, a portal navigation device has arrived. I ordered it to a shop through the Internet. Its price is about 30,000yen. Recently, we have received "teigaku-kyufu-kin"（定額給付金）(in my translation, "subsidy to each family from the government") that totals 64,000yen , so we have decided to buy it.

１Q８４≒１９８４

A famous novelist, Haruki（春樹） Murakami（村上） has recently released a novel named "1Q84"(ich-kyu-haci-yon) . Several days ago, I have learned that an idea from "1984" written by George Orwell let him to write a new book .

I read "1984", but I have no plan to read "１Q84", because I don't like Haruki Murakami's works.

Lifelog of a man in Japan

I have started a photo diary（写真日記） named "Lifelog of a man in Japan" on the Internet. To post photos, I use a device, "EYE-FI CARD". I will continue this album for a while.

"Haimaya Bridge"2

I have already written a comment about a movie named "Haimaya Bridge". This time, I post a review about it from Asahi Newspaper. It has praised the movie very much.

I try to translate the last part of this comment.

偏見、差別、愛、家族→Prejudice, discrimination, love, family
重くて大きなテーマである。→These are heavy and huge theme.
といって、ここには硬直した感覚はみじんもない。→But, there are no inflexibile sense at all, here.
なによりも、ウルフォーク監督の心優しい視線が心地よい。→ The most remarkable thing is that we can feel comfortable from the warm "eyes" of the director, Woolfolk.

(If you know better expression in English, please tell me about it. )

EYE-FI CARD

I have bought "EYE-FI CARD" after I learned it through reading a book named "Cloud Computing"(クラウド・コンピューティング). It was a purchase without considering（衝動買い）.

Now, I will start a public "lifelog of a man in Japan" by using this device on the Internet.

"kamaboko"

Last Saturday, I visited my son's high school with my wife and daughter. My son belongs to its wind orchestra band, our main aim was to see its performance in the school festival（文化祭）.

The number of band members is about three times as large as one of the junior high school that he used to belong to. So, we enjoyed their performance very well.

A very interesting thing were sold at the festival and we bought it. It is a "saiku-kamaboko"（細工かまぼこ）. "Kamaboko" is a processed food made from fish meat. "Saiku-kamaboko" is a decorative "kamaboko", of course, we can eat it.

Clustrmap

I have learned the "Clustrmaps" through Zarte-san's blog, and have added it on my blog. Now, I can know about where visitors on my blog live. It is really interesting, I think. Thank you Zarte-san!

"The Harimaya Bridge"

Last Thursday, I saw a movie named "The Harimaya Bridge"（はりまや橋）. I took part in an event that projected it before it is officially released on June 13, and included a short appearance of this movie's director and writer, Aaron Woolfolk and an exchange activity with him.

I would like to watch this movie after I read an archive about it on my friend's blog.

Aarone Woolfolk talked about his this movie to the audience before it started. Unfortunately, I could understand only a very little part of his English, but "you know" in his word left in my ear, because he used it very often. In this case,"You know" means "Eee"（エー）that some people in Japan use in their speech to connect with next words, I think.

And, he didn't speak any Japanese, though I expected that he did. But, I could understand his situation after I had learned that he spent only one year in Japan as an ALT(assistant language teacher).

After I saw this movie, some comprehensive impressions left in my mind. Those mean that it is a good example of an educational movie, but not an entertainment movie. This is reason because its story is too simple, many people can easily imagine what will happen next. And there might be some sponsor's views that it should be educational. I felt some kind of "human right educational movie"（人権啓発映画） in it.

The main character is described as an arrogant American and a typical (many Japanese think) foreigner. For example, he does not remove his shoes in Japanese room. And he feels anger when he learn a Japanese man whom he speak cannot understand his English.

These scenes may look curious to foreigners that who have good knowledge about Japanese style, I think.

I have to refer to good parts of this movie. You can find "beautiful green" in Japanese mountain area in this movie. And, you can also see the director's special skill on movie, because he have studied movie techniques at the Columbia University.

When the film roll satrted, I left the theater before the exchange activity started.

*The second photo is from Asahi newspaper on June 6.