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Golden Week indoors...

4/30/2013

How is your GW? Terrible weather, isn't it?
I've spent all week inside - with a cold, watching Youtube videos and TV. I've only left my home once...to go to Odori and see a film.
VERY slow holidays.
When I finished work on Friday I felt a little tired. By Saturday I was really sick and had aching muscles and a bad headache. I'm a little better now, but still a runny nose and sneezing.
At least I don't feel I am missing gardening chances, as the weather is so bad I don't want to go outside and do anything! I stay inside and warm.

The best YouTube entertainment I have found is the British TV documentary "7 Up". This started in 1964, when the film-makers found and interviewed 14 children from different background about their lives, opinions and dreams.
In 1970 they went back to the same children, then again in 1977, 1984, 1991, 1998, 2005 and 2012.
It's a famous documentary with themes of social change and class and education.
I've seen some of the programs, but never all of them. Now they are mostly all on YouTube. Wow! Thankyou.

If you would like to watch them too - here is the first program.

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London wildlife

4/24/2013

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London is a big city and most visitors don't see many animals when they visit: birds (pigeons and sparrows), pet dogs and cats, deer in the royal parks and the horses used by the Buckingham Palace guards and police.

But in the gardens of London there are wild animals quietly living.

My friends live in Totteridge, which is nearly the end of the Northern Line - only 11 stations from busy Euston.
In their garden this spring are some special visitors!

A fox sleeping in the flower bed!

A Hedgehog - gloves are important!

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Spelling Police on Patrol

4/13/2013

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The car park is back!

4/10/2013

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Remembering HER...

4/8/2013

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Margaret Thatcher died yesterday - I heard it on the 9 pm NHK news.
My feelings?
Many, many angry feelings.
I lived through the Thatcher years and it was not a happy time for the UK.
She was Prime Minister from 1979 to 1990 - I went to university in 1979 and I came to Japan in 1992, so that time was my adult years in the UK.
I never met "the Iron Lady", but those years as a student and then as a newspaper journalist were dominated by her image.
She DID change British life, and many of the changes were necessary - but it was a hard time for millions of people.
She is admired in Japan as a tough leader etc. However, I think if she became leader of Japan today her policies would shock many Japanese people who have a comfortable life. There are many problems in Japan today and Japanese politicians are too afraid to make necessary changes...so they do nothing.
Margaret Thatcher never did nothing. That's the best I can say :-)

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Yuichiro Miura speaking English :-)

4/4/2013

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Local hero Yuichiro Miura is going to climb Everest soon - and hoping to become the oldest climber ever to reach the peak.
Here is the link to the BBC News interview with Miura-san, and old film of Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay who were the first there in 1953.

Miura-san speaking English! I've seen him several times at Mount Teine ski area, once I looked behind me on the chair lift and saw that he and his father were sitting on the next chair back.
Let's hope he has a successful climb at Everest.

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Virtual choir

4/1/2013

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Can you see C.A.?

Do you remember my friend C.A.?
If you came to Imagine tea party last summer you met this super-energetic American lady.
She loves singing and often performs with a chorus group in Sapporo.
Recently she was the ONLY singer from Japan to join the first performance of a virtual choir with a live choir.
TED is a worldwide series of talks by all kinds of people. Recently a composer and conductor called Eric Whitacre gave a talk in California....
He was joined on stage by singers...and then the screen above them came to life and 34 singers from many countries around the world joined in and sang together!
C.A. had to audition for this performance. She also had to be awake in the middle of the night in Japan and stand alone in her apartment with SKYPE on the computer...a microphone...camera....and sing :-)
You can see C.A. in the picture above - she is far right, third one down.
Here is more information about the project, in Japanese.
TED 2013 Virtual Choir

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Golden Week indoors...

London wildlife

Spelling Police on Patrol

The car park is back!

Remembering HER...

Yuichiro Miura speaking English :-)

Virtual choir

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