Sensu

Sensu, traditional Japanese fan, is typically made of bamboo ribs an paper.
It was a fan, but it is not only for take a cool, but also communication tool.
In Tale of Genji, which is oldest Japanese classic novel, Sensu appears a lot.
Ladies usually covered their face for the sign of embarrassment. Fan was also a communication tool between lover because they were not allowed to talk directly.

This Fujin Raijin, by Tawaraya Sotatsu, famous artist in Edo era, around 16th century.
There are two god, god of wind and god of thunder, and this is made of dynamic composition, which was very rare in this era. It is said that Sotatsu draw in this composition, thinking to put on the Sensu. That is why those two gods are far apart, located on both ends of Sensu.

Sensu is used many of Japanese traditional scene and is always with us!

Entrepreneurship :)

Always, have a entrepreneurship!


Professor at Stanford University, Tina Seelig says.
Even though you are not actually managing company, you should always have a entrepreneurship.
Entrepreneurship is to find the problem and solve it in unique way.

For example, you have five dollars. Only five dollars. Nothing else. Then, what would you do if you were told to maximize the value of five dollars in one day?

Some people say they will go to Vegas and gamble. Some people say they will buy a lottery.

It's good, but there is some other solutions. Some people prepared tool to put air in the tire of bicycle, and they put air for student in the college for a buck. Some people came up with the service that sells reservation at popular restaurant. For example, you reserve the seat, and sell your seat to the people who are waiting. And they made $600 in one night!!

There are always unique way to solve the problem. So, people usually hates the problem, but problem is a chance! You should see from different perspectives, and change it to a chance!


If you wanna know more about how to do it.....
see "What I Wish I knew When I was 20" by Tina Seelig!

Do you see Shikoku island on the ma above?? This is where I live now. not my hometown, but my grandma's. There are "Towel Museum" near my home.

Literally, towel museum has tremendous amount of towels!!! From plain to character, for adults to for children! there are many many many towels you can choose! The reason there is a towel museum is because this area is very famous for towels. They have many towel factories!



This is towel that looks like roll cake :) It was very cute, and I couldn't choose which towel I want to buy. There was also big figure of cakes, vegetables, popcorn which are made of cotton ;)

Ah, by the way, right now you guys may be enjoying thanksgiving dinner with your families, right? Thanks giving is one of my favorite event in the US as well as Halloween :) it is such a great thing to get together with families and have biiiiig dinner together:) It is very warm, sweet, and I really feel lot of thanks to have great family and delicious food! Unfortunately, there is no such a event in Japan, but I miss it sooo much! I just wanna go back to the US just for the thanksgiving. I hope you guys are enjoying Happy thanksgiving break!!<3

LA!!

Today is about LA trip <3 I have friend n LA, who I know since when I was high school!!
Here's a famous chinese theatre! It was a great place to begin with :)
I looked around inside, but it was actual theatre, despite of my expectation. The movie was shown in side. And the tour guide explained us about many famous celebrities she knows.

Here's palm tree :) I love palm trees because my home town has them, too. I loved LA's tropical atmosphere!!

I enjoyed beach volleyball in Hamptom Beach, where my friend lives :)


And I went to Universal Studio!! there were a lot of unique designs and shops. it was surreal, and very fun!

At last, there were the wax museum! This is made of wax! Can you believe it?? While I was there, I often confused with actual tourist and wax person!! I thought wax person as tourist, and tourist as wax person! There were many famous actresses and actors made of wax! so I felt like I was taking picture with them!

I lived in California, around SF area for a while.
I know, I DO move around a lot...
I lived in Idaho, going LCSC for 2 years, and I moved to Oregon, beside portland area.
And finally, I moved to Califonia!!!

Ok, to begin with, you can't talk about California without Frozen Yogurt!!
Thinking about encountering great Frozen Yogurts, I can say that I won't regret about moving to California!! These are sooooo goood!! This is Frozen Yogurt place in San Carlos, 20 minutes away from SF.


This is in the middle of SF. There is a cathedral in the middle of the town~!


And if you've been to the SF, you know the SF is consists of succession of incredibly steep hill!! It was almost vertical... I'm know exaggerating. Seriously.

And bay area is very fun place to visit!<3 There are a lot of fun shops <3

And this is Alcatraz island, where the prison was. This prison was famous as "impossible to escape." It is also shown in the movie, "The Rock!." It was little spooky..... actually. The staff in the souvenir shop told me that he actually got to sleep in the prison as a part of educational training.... He told me it was fun...... Mmmmmm.... I don't think I can do that. I will get too scared!

Kagoshima

This is my hometown, Kagoshima. It is in South part of Japan.
This is charcoal ice cream!! You think it is gross, right? But guess what! It is very delicious :)
It is also good for health :) It tastes almost like yogurt.

There are a lot of palm tree! Because it is semi-tropical weather :)
And this is the preserved town where Samurai lived. There are many historical houses, and people actually live here. They are offsprings of Samurai soldiers.
But, we can go into actual people's house and look around.


There are an active volcano and many hot springs in my home town! Also, there is a museum that shows about Kamikaze soldiers, who joined in WWII, put only one way of gas in the plane and took off to attack. They true feeling of sadness, thanks for family, and how much they love their family and how much they miss them is written in their letters. ( Because basically, they are about to die "for country" ) These are shown in the museum. I've been there, but it is extremely sad place. Those people who wrote those letters are in their teens.

Because country did not allow them to talk back, they could not say 'no' to the country to join the war, flying to attack with only one-way fuels. They publicly declared that they were glad that they were nominated as soldier and they are proud that they could fight for country. However, in those letter to families, their true feelings that they don't wanna fight, they wanna stay at home with their families, and they miss their family so much. It is very very sad. And makes me feel that how terrible the war is. Even though I have not experience the war, I could feel the grief atmosphere of war period in the museum. So, though it is very sad and could be depressive, I recommend you to visit here. And other places are so much fun and relaxing to visit ;)

Please visit my home town Kagoshima sometime;)

Translator Tour Guide

Translator Tour Guide..... The person who guide Japan to Foreigner in English.

we have to take a test to be a translator tour guide.
This is what I am trying to take, other than my real job :)