THE LIGHTING FESTIVAL

Anna and I joined the lighting festival in Sagamihara campus the day before yesterday. It was a very sacred and beautiful night. I have never attended such a Christian event until I entered AGU and I enjoyed the atmosphere with other students. I'm excited to attend Christmas Mass for the first time this year. I got the image from Anna yesterday. Maybe, you can see the same thing in her blog!!!

ODEN & TEKKADON ★★★★★

I cooked a lot of Oden yesterday, so I invited my sister to my place to treat her a nice lunch today. I added Tekkadon of my own making to it. I just put cut seaweed and shiso and preseasoned tuna on the rice seasoned with sugar and vinegar, so it was one of the easiest dishes I often make though... She ate them a lot too and Oden was almost finished!! Obviously, I ate too much today as I did yesterday, so I’m sure I've been gaining weight!!

BRIDGET JONES'S DIARY

Today, let me introduce one of my favorite movies. It is Bridget Jones's Diary which made a big hit in 2001. It was the time when I was studying English in Boston. I bought VHS of this movie at that time and have kept it until now. In this movie, Renee Zellweger was playing well as a cute and funny heroine, Bridget. In preparation for the role, she gained much weight. Her efforts were approved by the public and so she was chosen as a nominee of Academy Award for Best Actress. I can't help laughing at her performance to the end of this movie. Hugh Grant and Colin Firth were also playing well the roles of guys who were fighting over Bridget. Hugh Grant whose role was Daniel. He was a chief editor and so called a cunny hunter who had another girl friend and broke up with Bridget all of a sudden. On the other hand, Colin Firth whose role was Mark. He was a once-divorced attorney and so called a square. After Bridget was dumped by Daniel, she made up her mind to change her job, lifestyle and herself as well. She started to make a career as a reporter, which made her shine and become more beautiful. Bridget and Mark first didn't like each other due to misunderstandings, but they were naturally getting close and realized they became drawn to each other... Daniel changed his mind and proposed to Bridget, however she has already found something more extraordinarily than that... Bridget and Mark became a nice couple at the end! However, I have one question about this movie because when Bridget's mother was talking about Mark's ex-wife who was Japanese and cheated on Mark with Daniel, she said "Japanese are cruel race." Therefore, I'm wondering if there is a popular belief in which Japanese are cruel race in England...

I think this movie is very helpful when you are brokenhearted or depressed because you can get a lot of energy from Bridget and become cheerful!!

Sauteed Beef, Mushroom and Vegetables ★★★

I cooked sauteed beef, mushroom and vegetables for dinner tonight.

It was so good!! With a grilled meat sauce I made it so easily!!

I have a slight fever today, so I gave up going to school and stayed home all day.

However, I 'm going to make a presentation tomorrow in my English Grammar Class, so I got an energy from meat!!

MY VHS COLLECTIONS

I'll show you some of my VHS collections today. VHS is now old-fashioned, but it doesn't matter to me because everything with memories are special for me now and forever!!

IE 2 BOOK REPORT #2 : Frankenstein

BOOK REPORT #2

REFERENCE:
1) Author: Mary Shelley.
2) Title: Frankenstein.
3) Publisher: PENGUIN BOOKS LTD.
4) Place of Publication: London, England
5) Date of Publication: 1992
6) Number of Pages: 208.

PLOT SUMMARY:
At the beginning, Robert Walton, an explorer looking for a new passage from Russia to the North Pacific Ocean via the Arctic, found a man who was weaken by the cold and told the man’s tragic story in the letter to his sister in England.
The man named Victor Frankenstein was grown up in Geneva, Switzerland and moved to Germany to study natural science. With time, Victor became obsessed with the ambition that he could recreate a human body. After his experiment with electricity, Victor made the ambition a reality. He opened graves and gathered limbs and organs from the dead body and put them together so as to produce an ideal artificial human. However, after bringing the creature to life, Victor soon regretted it because he was not a human but a “monster”, and abhorred his ugliness and deserted him. While the monster was following after Victor heading Swaziland, he learned how to read and speak from books and gained intelligence and human hart. Also, he learned who he was from the experience that he was mistreated by others due to his ugliness. Then, he appeared before Victor and demanded a creature of another sex to make his own family. If Victor did so, the monster promised not to appear again. At first, Victor tried to fulfill the promise from sympathy with the miserable monster, but finally refused because he feared the further increase of monsters. The monster got angry about it and vowed revenge against Victor, and then murdered his brother, friends and wife. His wife, Elizabeth, was killed on their wedding night as the monster warned.
Walton heard the Victor’s whole story and learned that Victor came here to kill the monster. However, Victor died on the Arctic Ocean without fulfilling his mission. Then the monster appeared before Walton and told him his side of the story, and disappeared in the darkness of the sea saying “I shall die.”

LITERARY TERMS:

1)Setting: The end of the 18th century Russia →The Arctic (present)
Switzerland, Germany, England and Ireland (reminiscence)

2) Point of View: This story is told from omniscient.

3) Conflict: Victor vs. the monster who was created by him.

4) Symbol: The ugliness of the monster means the ugliness of Victor himself because he
toyed with a human life.

5) Climax: When the artificial human became a real monster and killed Victor’s brother,
friends and beloved wife.

6) Irony: Although his ambition to control human life became a reality, Victor finally met with
a terrible misfortune. (Victor was revenged by the monster he created.)

7) Theme: Human cannot take control of nature including human life no matter how advanced
natural science has become.

EVALUATION:
This book is the most famous work among Gothic novels. Gothic novels are considered a prototype of Science Fiction or Horror novels. Around the end of the 18th century, people became interested in the world which they could not explain with reason. They were impressed by the ragged mountains and rude sea and enjoyed them in fear. In this book, I could find many descriptions about awesome nature. I think that Shelly intended to show the difference between nature and artificial illusion.

I thought Frankenstein the name of the monster before reading this book, but I soon found that it was the name of the doctor who created it. Frankly speaking, this book is much harder to read than I thought because it has not only difficult words but also some parts which require deep interpretations, so I also read Japanese version to keep better truck to understand the story. After reading this book, I felt sorry for the monster who had never been loved even by the creator himself. Through this book, I think that Shelly would like to warn that scientific advances might destroy humans if taken incorrectly. Especially, human life should not be controlled by human but should be only by God.

Introduction of A Citizen Judgement System

In summer, I went to Yokohama District Court to attend the orientation of a new Citizen Judgement System and to watch a real trial, because I had to write a report for my Jurisprudence class.

I watched the case where the defendant was tried for violation of narcotic law.

He bought drugs from foreign dealers and used them for two years. He got guilty and was sentenced to 1.5 years in prison with 3 years suspension of sentence.

After the trial, three judges and we participants started the discussion over the new Citizen Judgement System and the trial we watched. Two of the participants asked the judges the following questions:

Q1) What is the background that Japan decided to introduce the new system?

A1) It is to follow the system of other democratic countries.

Q2) Does the fact that the defendant had some criminal records affect judgement on the verdict?

A2) No, it doesn't because it's been more than twenty years since he got guilty for the last case and it can be dangerous if he is tried with a prejudice that a person who has a criminal record must commit a crime again. In addition, we find that this case and the last one are different from each other, so we should try him for a new case this time.

When I went to the court, I found that most of the participants were housewives or pensioners. Therefore, I doubt that busy businessmen can contribute to the new system. If I were chosen as a citizen judge, I would provably accept the offer, anyway.

Clean My Room!!

I was so busy for a week that I couldn't keep my room clean,
so I spent more than three hours cleaning it up today.

A messy room makes me tired, so I try to tidy my room
on a daily basis though...

I had to wash my dirty stuffs as well,
so I ran the washer three times a day.

Now I finished all things I got to do!!
Let's hit the sack!

Cream Stew ★★★

I cooked cream stew tonight.

I put a lot of vegetables in it, so it's healthy for its calorie!

This is one of my repertoires. I cook it nearly once a month,

because I can enjoy leftovers!

The recipe is so simple. I love easy cooking!

Actually, I like beef stew better though.

Ukiyo-e’s Contribution to Monet’s Great Works

Claude Monet, one of the greatest impressionists, left many works including a series of “Water Lily” under the influence of Japanese woodblock prints called Ukiyo-e. This can be proved by the fact that he was deeply committed to collecting Ukiyo-e works by the grate Japanese masters, Hokusai, Hiroshige, Utamaro and so on.

Ukiyo-e was first introduced to Europe at the international exhibition of London in1862 and of Paris in 1878. Then, there was a Japanese boom called Japonism in which many painters in the 19th century were influenced by Japanese prints and paintings. Like many others, Monet soon became obsessed with the sensation because the artists of the Far East were taking a completely new approach toward art. In particular, the flat and asymmetrical composition of Ukiyo-e was breaking the Western painting convention. As Monet later described, Japanese art shaped his style and the way he saw the world around him.

The best examples of his obsession with Ukiyo-e are his Giverny home and garden. Giverny is a suburb of Paris with many beautiful lakes and the place where Monet surrounded himself with the collected Ukiyo-e works and continued creative activities until he died at the age of 86. He planted water lilies and wisteria flowers and then built the arched bridge called “Taiko-bashi” in the garden to replicate Hiroshige’s world. To draw his inspiration from the garden, he gathered various kinds of trees, grasses and flowers and planted them by himself. He also created three greenhouses and hired six gardeners to keep it beautiful.

Moreover, his passion toward Ukiyo-e extended to the interiors like kitchen, dining room and even bathroom by coordinating the color of the interior with that of the Ukiyo-e works. Now you can visit Monet’s house in Giverny to see both his wonderful Ukiyo-e collections and his ideal garden.
A series of “Water Lily” was born here in Giverny. Monet made every effort to express the color of the flowers subtly changing with sunlight and varying with weather and season, so his garden was often compared to a living canvas or a living atelier which focused on the very moment of the changes in nature. In fact, this was exactly the one that Monet would like to express.
In this way, Ukiyo-e aroused Monet’s imagination and enabled him to leave many great masterpieces. Although he never visited Japan, it could be said that Japanese art significantly contributed to his works beyond the sea. Moreover, they still attract many admirers all over the world. Especially, Japan has a lot of Monet’s fans and it is because there is such a strong relationship between Monet and Japanese art.

LOC CITY

When I went back to my hometown last weekend,

I stopped by a shopping mall named "Loc City" which

name seemed strange to me.

However, I suddenly realized that "Loc" was

an abbreviation for local.

Everything there is cheaper than that in Tokyo,

so I couldn't help buying something on impulse.

My mother and I had Tan-men at a cafeteria there

and it was so good!!

The taste reminded her of Tanmen she liked to eat

at her favorite ramen shop when she was an office

worker about 40 years ago!!

So, I'm sure she will try that again!!

Dee-Dee Part2

Dee-Dee'd appeared in my blog again!! I'd really like you to see her cute shots.

My mam is taking me for a walk, but I'm too tired to walk anymore.

I love to take a nap. Every time my mam leaves me alone, I enjoy sleeping and relaxing with a friend of mine!!

Kamakura Tour ②

After we moved to Hase by Eno-den , we walked to Hase temple and then to Kotoku-shrine. Hase temple is famous for the statue of the Kannon deity and for the beautiful command of Yuigahama.　While watching the view, we enjoyed having Japanese cake with Matcha at the cafe there. Then, we visited Kotoku-shrine to see Big Buddha which was a symbol of　Kamakura. I found many foreigners taking pictures of it eagerly.　Maybe, the statue is very unique and totally different from the one in European style.　We got tired from walking all day, but I think we also had a chance to get good exercise!!

American Presidential Ellection!!

Barack Obama won the American presidential election today.

I was very impressed by his victory speech and the fact that

many white people voted for him.

I watched the news all day and was excited to see the moment

when the African American first became the American president.

I believe that the United States has made progress for "New America" without racial inequality and hope that President Obama will make it possible to change the country as he says " Yes, we can!!"

Kamakura Tour ①

I went to Kamakura with my sister and niece on Saturday.

As it is called "Little Kyoto", Kamakura has many temples and shrines with a long history.

First, we dropped off the train at Kita-Kamakura station and walked to Enkaku-ji、Kencho-ji and then to Tsurugaoka Hachiman Shrine.

Enkaku-ji was erected by Tokimune Hojo and is famous for its magnificent gate. We had a lunch box I made there. It was fairly good.

Next, I took a picture of the gate of Kencho-ji, but we gave up visiting the temple for saving time. Then we visited Tsurugaoka Hachiman Shrine. It was the time of the Seven-Five-Three Festival which is held to celebrate children's growth and to pray for their future good health.

I very much enjoyed seeing many boys and girls wearing beautiful kimonos!! I also consulted an oracle (Omikuji) there. Lucky me!! I drew a good fortune (Kichi)(^0^)v