Strong in the rain

“Ame ni mo makezu / kaze ni mo makezu / Yuki ni mo Natsu no atsusa ni mo makenu / Joubu na karada wo mochi / Yoku wa naku / Kessite ikarazu / itsumo shizukani waratteiru / ... / so iu mono ni / watashi wa naritai”

This is the Japanese poem wrote by Kenji Miyazawa, who was the famous poet and fairy story author in Japan, discovered after he died. In this poem, he describes how he wants to be ideally. “Strong in the rain / Strong in the wind / Strong against the snow and summer’s heat / With a strong body / Unfettered by desire / Never losing temper / Always quietly smiling / … / That is the kind of person / I want to be”

Why I introduce this poem here is because I’ve found the book titled “Strong in the rain”, telling about the big earthquake, tsunami, and the meltdown of nuclear plant occurred in the east of Japan on 11 March, 2011. This book was written by Lucy Birmingham and David McNeill. They try to describe what exactly was happening and what the survivors was thinking and acting.

When the earthquake occurred, I didn’t feel the shake because I was in Hiroshima prefecture located in the west part of Japan, far from the seismic centre. I just watched the TV news, and I was really shocked when I saw the tsunami devastating a number of buildings or sweeping up cars and all kinds of stuffs.

No matter how hard I think about this disaster, I can never understand the survivors’ feeling precisely because it must be beyond imagination. Fortunately I haven’t been near the seismic centre when catastrophic earthquakes occurred, though I have experienced several small and middle earthquakes. However, as long as I live in Japan, I cannot avoid the risk of encountering earthquakes and other natural disasters. The most important part is to take measures to lessen the damage to the minimum. We need to learn from the history.

Individually, when I encounter the natural disaster, I want to be the kind of person Kenji Miyazawa described in his poem. To be honest, I am not that kind of person at the moment. I am weak, I don’t have a strong body, I feel difficulty to be quietly smiling and I often lose my temper.

I haven’t seen and being conscious about his poem for a long time but I am impressed again when I read this book. “Strong in the rain, strong in the wind, … that is the kind of person I want to be.”

100 times

I finally completed 100-times uploading. In fact, I didn’t expect I could keep my English blog such a long time. I’ve been writing about the school, my daily life, trips, and running etc. I sometimes couldn’t write well when I have nothing to tell about. Even now I sometimes feel difficult what I should write. I have lots of things I want to express but it is really hard to write in English. My vocabularies and grammars are absolutely limited. I want to learn more ways to express using several beautiful English. I believe the more I keep my blog, the better my writing skill will be. Whether or not I can improve my English skills depends on how long I keep practice. There is a Japanese proverb "Keizoku wa chikara nari", which means if you stack up efforts bit by bit, you will be better at doing it.

 

At the same time, however, I have to learn more vocabularies and a lot of ways to write because I feel my writing style hasn’t changed recently. I always use same expressions and that’s the problem. If I didn’t learn new things, I wouldn’t be better at English any more. I have focused on quantity so far, but what I need is to focus on the quality.

Coromandel trip 2

On 16th Aug, what we did was bone carving which is Maori’s traditional art craft. The workshop centre was located in Whitianga and we were explained how to carve bone there. Maori has many shapes of carved bone and every one of them has different meanings. There were three types of patterns we could choose from at that time. I chose Koru, which has spiral shape and it seems to be a symbol of peace, growth, new life and tranquility.

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

The carving itself was not that difficult and everyone can do easily because the carving equipment were already prepared and the three of staffs were very kind and taught us how to do that and check how we did in every stages. It took approximately two and a half hours to complete, though it would take much less time if there were a few people.

It was really nice experience and I was glad when I completed and picked up the bone pendant I carved. It must be a great souvenir.  

After the bone carving, we had fish & chips on the beach near the workshop centre. The rest of the plan of the trip was just going back to Auckland. I thought it was so early that I was a little bit unsatisfied. I wanted to go to hot water beach and we had enough time to visit there. I don’t know why the tour guide set off to Auckland as soon as finished bone carving, but I have to thank them to drive safely during the trip. Anyway, we arrived in Auckland around 3.00pm and we went home then.

That was pretty much about our school trip. Time went so fast and I could have a wonderful experience. The graduation from the school is coming soon. I want to go through a more variety of things not to regret.

School trip – Coromandel Peninsula 1

On 15th and 16th August, I went to Coromandel Peninsula, which is one of the best sightseeing places in North Island, New Zealand, with my classmates as a school trip. It's still winter and I didn’t expect that this trip would be fine. To be honest, I didn’t want to go there at first because I was not excited at all. However, the weather was almost perfect to travel and it was not colder than I expected. I have already been to Coromandel before with my friends, but at this time the places we went was different from the previous trip.

When we went to Coromandel for the first time we haven’t done any activities, although we could really enjoy walking to Cathedral Cove or relaxing in the beach. At this time, we focused on doing activities to experience because we are studying travel & tourism! What we did in this trip was kayaking and bone carving.

Around 8.15 on 15th Aug, we set off to Coromandel from Auckland. It took approximately two and a half hours to get there. At first we went to water works, which is the theme park with using some water tricks. There was nothing attractive in the water works because the tricks were all made for kids and I think only the families can enjoy in this place. I am old enough not to enjoy this kind of thing, so I just drank a cup of coffee and had lunch in the café located in the entrance of the park.

After visiting the water works, we headed for the beach in Hehai to do the Cathedral Cove Kayak Tour. This tour started from the beach in Hehai and kayaking to the beach in Cathedral Cove, exploring the beautiful coast line. In addition to kayaking, the tour guide offered us a cup of hot chocolate in the beach and it was really nice. As the duration of the tour was approximately three hours, we could enjoy enough looking around the odd rocks, small islands and of course kayaking itself.

I think kayaking is harder than the people usually expect. I have done kayaking in Japan and I got an arm sore at that time. And this time, my partner said to me “Faster, faster!” to go faster than others and I used my muscles uneconomically. In the result of that, I got sore again. But strangely enough, I got a leg sore this time. I guess why I got a leg sore was I couldn’t set my leg in right position from the beginning and my posture was strange all the time. Other than that, anyway, I could really have a good experience because I had wanted to try marine activity in New Zealand.

After Kayaking, we went to the backpackers’ hostel named “Turtle Cove Backpackers” to spend a night. This backpackers’ hostel was amazing. Although I had had stayed a number of backpackers before, this “Turtle Cove Backpackers” was one of the best place I had ever stayed. The room was clean and tidy. The kitchen was also clean and tidy enough to be relaxed and to have dinner and breakfast. Moreover the atmosphere was peaceful, I felt really comfortable. If you have opportunity to visit Coromandel, I recommend you to use this backpackers’ hostel.

The plan of the second day was to experience bone carving. I will update the details later.

Keep working or not

Actually I am really wondering whether or not I should quit the job. At first I thought I had to get a work experience for the next step, and I got it. But the job I got, which is receptionist in the backpackers’ hostel, was so boring. Because of the winter season, not so many customers come to our hostel. Recently, by the way, it has been getting a little bit busy and it would contribute to improve my speaking skills and customer service skills, although I still have much free time. On the other hand, I want to study for IELTS to prepare for job hunting next year. In addition, my health is getting worse because living situation, especially the bed condition and the air in the room, is undoubtedly bad.

I can’t decide whether I should keep the receptionist job or quit and concentrate on studying and be healthy. If I quit I can’t do any part-time jobs after that because I don’t have enough time to keep working until my graduation from the school. However I can work as much as I want after that.

My mind is leaning to quit the job at the moment.

Anyway I have to decide during two weeks’ holidays from next week.

School trip

I am going to go to Coromandel Peninsula, which is famous for beaches and some water activities, with my classmates this week. This trip is a part of the classes and we are going to experience some activities. I am kind of excited a little bit, but there is a problem. It is still winter and too cold to go to the beach! We are also supposed to do kayaking there, so I hope it would be warm enough to do it.

I have been to Coromandel Peninsula before and it was really amazing. As I went there in May, it was not too cold and luckily it was sunny. However I haven’t done any activities at that time because we didn’t have much time and money. In the result of that, I am looking forward to doing kayaking this time. I just hope it wouldn’t be rainy otherwise I will miss the great experience.

The school curriculum will end in three and a half months. Time really flies away and I can’t believe that I will graduate from the school soon. I don’t seem to be ready for getting a job, but it’s time to consider about that. Not only do I need to improve my English skills, but also to make really attractive CV as well. I should have time to think and take action. I should gradually change my mind from being a student.

Meaning of running

“Why are you running?” “What’s so interesting to run for you for such a long distance?”

How many times have I been asked these kinds of questions? – I would have to say "uncountable". And whenever I was asked why I ran, I couldn’t answer well enough to make someone who asked me understand. I always had to take it consider again and I couldn’t figure it out after all. As I want to be able to answer this question well, I will write down my thoughts about running in this article to figure out why I keep running.

Recently, though I guess it has already been a long time, running is getting quite popular in Japan (probably not only in Japan but also in many countries including New Zealand). For instance, the number of those who applied to Tokyo Marathon, which is the biggest running race started in 2007 in Japan, was more than 300,000 and the entry rate was 10.3 in 2013. What a surprising number it is! I don’t know how many people applied to this marathon seriously, but undoubtedly there are quite a lot of runners who habitually run every day or several days a week. Some runners run seriously to break his/her own or others’ records, some run for a diet, and some join in a community and just have fun. They all have their own purpose to keep running and the reason they started running is also different from each other. 

For me, though, I haven’t thought that running itself is interesting or funny. In my opinion, the value of running is to make my life more rich or satisfied. To be stronger both physically and mentally by running changes my attitude to be more positive and active. And stresses never build up while I am running. Running makes my thoughts clear and tidied up. Indirectly speaking, running might be interesting because these benefits of running possibly lead to be fun.

/// Expectation and Satisfaction ///

As I mentioned above, I don’t think running itself is interesting. Depends on the distance and the place to run, or the condition of myself, running always includes more or less suffering. If I felt only suffering during running, however, I would never keep it for more than four years. Fortunately or unfortunately, I am not the person who feels happy or pleased for continuously suffering. Then, what exists except for suffering in running? I think it is a kind of expectation. “If I finish running today, can I go one step ahead?” “If I keep running every day, how much stronger will I be?” I often have these kinds of thinking. In other words, I can expect better myself after running.

In addition to that, I can definitely get satisfaction after running. I think the fact I have just run gives me a solid sense that at least it changed myself to some extent or a feeling that it is equal to accomplishing something in value. As I mentioned before, running always includes suffering. The fact I got it over may become a satisfaction after running, such as “I’ve done very well today!” Fatigue I get after running is basically comfortable unless I run too much or in bad condition. This comfortable fatigue gives me a solid sense that I am gradually growing up. I actually don’t need to participate in the competition to get this solid sense. 

These facts may be acquired knowledge. Only those who have kept running know that running can give them feelings of expectation and satisfaction. I also didn’t like running at first. When I started running, I wanted to exercise to improve my body and I was just running without any specific thoughts. In the result of keeping running, however, I realized that I am getting more positive and active. Moreover, I have been trying some competitions. But I sometimes hesitate to start running because I can run comfortably only after running for more than 30 minutes. 10 or 20 minutes’ running is not enough to be the running mode. That means I can’t get any satisfactions when I run for less than 30 minutes. Many people may feel as same way as me. I guess that is why there are a number of people who don’t understand the reason to run. After all, those who have run just a little never realize the meaning of running. If you want to understand it, you need to keep running for ages until you feel changes.

As these are my opinions, some people would be in different side. I guess everyone who habitually runs has their own meaning of running. I am still in beginner level as a runner and I run much slowly than average. I want to run a lot more and I want to improve myself. The important thing is I believe I can do that. I undoubtedly tell you that I will keep running and I will improve myself for running as much as I want.

If you have different opinions, please let me know. I would like to know how other runners think.

Getting warm

It has been getting warm in Auckland. Only two months are left until summer time starts. In New Zealand they use summer time from October to March instead of the standard time from April to September. They change the time one hour forward in summer time, so the time difference between New Zealand and Japan will be four hours.

As I didn't bring the jacket for winter, I am so glad that winter will end soon. It was colder than I expected and I had to be patient when I was in outside.

Moreover, there is only one public holiday in winter season which is Queen's birthday on 1st July, although there are a lot of public holidays from December to March. Basically people in New Zealand work hard in winter season and save money to enjoy a lot in summer season. I think skiing and snowboarding are the only entertainments in winter season in New Zealand, especialy very popular in South Island.

I am going to have two weeks holidays in August, but I am not planning to do anything. I probably save money because I want to travel in summer season.

If you are interested in traveling around New Zealand, please make sure to choose from December to March. This period is the best time to visit. You would be amazed with stunning scenery. 

Underground

I have been reading "Underground" written by Haruki Murakami in English. This book is the collection of interviews of the victims in the Tokyo Gas Attack which happened on 20 March, 1995 in Japan. More than 18 years ago, this catastrophe shocked us because we did not expected that kind of terrorism had happened in Japan. And also this was just two months after the Great Hanshin Earthquake.

When the Tokyo Gas Attack happened, I was 10 years old. To be honest, I did not understand exactlly what was happening and how serious it was, though I knew something wrong was happening to some extent. And now as almost 19 years have passed since then, I didn't remember the details before reading this book at this time. It reminded me what a stupid and serious thing the Tokyo Gas Attack was. The important thing is to make this kind of terrorism never be happened.

From the point of English, it is quite nice to remember some vocabularies because this book is the collection of interviews and these are very similar stories. Therefore, I often came across same words.

It was useful for me though I haven't finished this book yet.