When in UK, I wanted to come back to Japan.
It looked a good place to live.
But, back home, I hate it very much.

They can say what they want only when they are anonymous.
They keep silent in meetings and speak ill of others a lot in the internet. I hate it.

Me? speak a lot in meetings and spoken ill a lot somewhere else.

UK too?
Maybe France is different???

Allow me to be anonymous here in this blog.

It is snowing in tokyo today.
Rather wet snow. Can't be helped.

First time in this winter.

As much as children can make snow men.

More quiet than usual.

I want go skiing.

I hear Japanese good ski resorts, as Niseko in Hokkaido, are full of foreigners, especially the Australian.

Australians and Europeans find prices in Japan very cheap.

Yes, euro has become very expensive.

I always wonder how intelligent conscientious people in the US and other countries of so-called new continents can live in their countries mentally or psychologically peacefully without feeling guilty.

Because it is very clear, if you study the history, that it was not their land untill only very recently. Their land belonged to the people who lived there and were forced to move from where they used to live.

If they say to their children, "if you take something from others against their will, you have to return it", they have to return their land to those who it belonged to.

I hear Australians have returned some land to the natives.
I can see that they felt that things were not quite right from the ethical viewpoint of the second half of 20th century.

A friend of mine says "that is called loser's psychology".

We, the Japanese, must return Hokkaido, the nothern island, to the Ainu, though. I feel guilty.

Wars for resources forever ???!!!

A Chinese student studying in a Japnese university told me that it was more difficult for her to learn Japanese than English because of its very different syntax.

A teacher who is teaching Japanese to overseas students in a Japanese university told me that the Chinese learn Japanese twice as faster than the European and the Korean learn it three times faster than the Chinese.

Maybe, Chinese language is somewhere halfway between English and Japanese.

I feel strange that (relatively) many people have visited my blog in this month though I haven't written anything since July. Why?

A bit about Japan.
My son, 7 yrs old, told his teacher, a woman in her 50s but very sporty, that his friends often pat or even kick him.
She told us that these things among boys should be tolerated to some extent.

A couple days ago, Japanese public TV (called NHK) started to show English football. I saw ManU vs Blackburn which was interrupted by my wife.

The NHK is showing "Doctor Who" too but only the ninth doctor series.

Hello,

I'm back home in Japan for good.
Actually I came back in April. But had no time to work on this blog.

It is a peaceful country.
I go with my purse in my hip pocket.

It seems wars and terorrist attacks have nothing to do with our lives.

But we are always fighting with earthquakes and typhoons which ordinary English people can't imagine.

Japan beat Australia in a football Asian cup quarter final a few hours ago. They joined the asian organisation recently.

Today, i read "cricket and ants" with my son (Year 2) which was given to him to read for this week with other 2 books.
"Oh, small world. The same everywhere" i thought.

The book goes,

In the summer, cricket sings and plays and laughs at ants who collect foods for winter.

Winter came and cricket runs out of food and shivers.

Meanwhile, ants were preparing their party underground.
One ant says "something is missing for our party. ??? entertaiment!"
The other says "Cricket!"

The ants went to the cricket to invite him to sing songs at their party.

They enjoyed the party very much, especially cricket, of course!
Warm place and plenty of foods!!! But...

party was over and cricket got sad as he had to go.

When cricket was about to leave reluctantly, ants said
"why not stay with us for the whole winter and play music for us!"
"oh! yes! thank you!!!" "you are welcome!" !!! -END-

????? what is this book all about?????

You should do what you are good at and exchange your products/service?

The book was published by "Jolly Learning Ltd".

Another result from 7 countries questionnaire which can be relevant to the present situation in the world.

http://www.ism.ac.jp/~yoshino/arito/eg/top_e.htm

Q64. Some people say that although there are many different religions in the world, each with their own beliefs, their teachings really all amount to the same thing. Would you agree with this or disagree?

____________________1.Agree__2.Disagree__8.Other_9.D.K.
1992_ITALY__1,048____60.9______27.7_______-______11.5
1987_FRANCE_1,013____57.8______33.0_______1.0_____8.2
1987_FRG____1,000____61.8______20.7_______0.4_____17.1
1993_NL_____1,083____70.1______22.3_______1.5_____6.1
1987_UK_____1,043____71.2______24.5_______0.9_____3.4
1988_USA____1,563____56.5______39.9_______1.0_____2.7
1988_JPN____2,265____63.3______16.4_______0.5____19.9

Now, 20 years on, maybe "Disagree" has increased?!
(I don't know how different people think now.)

Basically, though 20 years ago, I am surprised at the fact that 2/3 of Europeans (+Americans) agreed with the proposition.

The Japanese exchange Christmas presents, go to Shintoism shrines for New Year, get married in Shintoism shrines/christian churches(regarded as fashionable), and have funnerals in buddism temples.

No wonder they "agree".

found an interesting questionnaire survey.

http://www.ism.ac.jp/~yoshino/arito/eg/top_e.htm

Some results are below.

Q62a. Do you have any personal religious faith?
________________n____1.Yes___2.No____9.D.K.
1992__ITALY___1,048___87.8___12.0____0.2
1987__FRANCE__1,013___64.4___34.8____0.8
1987__FRG_____1,000___74.8___21.8____3.4
1993__NL______1,083___57.1___38.7____4.2
1987__UK______1,043___64.2___34.3____1.4
1988__USA_____1,563___85.3___13.9____0.8
1988__JPN_____2,265___36.5___63.5____-

Q37. Home is the only place where I can relax and feel good"?
(year and n are the same in the question above.)

________1.Yes____2.No____8.Other__9.D.K.
ITALY___73.6_____24.7_____-_______1.7
FRANCE__65.4_____29.7_____3.3_____1.6
FRG_____56.1_____37.5_____2.0_____4.4
NL______31.6_____65.5_____0.8_____2.1
UK______50.7_____48.0_____0.4_____0.9
USA_____44.8_____54.4_____0.1_____0.7
JPN_____80.3_____16.3_____0.6_____2.8

My 6-year-old son has been in a local english school for more than one year and has come to speak in english better than I.

One thing shocked me a little is that he and other children (and people at large) often use the expression "loser!"

It sounds very strong to me.

We usually think that when one won, one should not say that one won too much because someone lost and that is the rule.

In sumo wrestling, a japanese traditional sport, you will be warned if you display your victory. A mongolian Yokozuna-champion was once really critised very much. (judo, kendo, the same, but being internationalised, things are a little changing.)

Calling someone who lost "loser" after you won over them is impossible.

Is it because the english have been always winning against their enemies in wars?

Or just that is the world standard (shared at least by the english and monglian) and we are minority as is often the case.