Was I able to achieve anything on my “to do list”?

●Make 100 friends!

  I wrote “I want to make 100 or more new friends” before. I think I was able to make more 100 friends at University of Tsukuba and enjoy my campus life. I want to get closer to my friends and make more friends.

●Practice koto and shinobue

  I was able to practice koto hard, but I can’t say I practiced shinobue hard. This is because I had a chance of playing the koto at Souhousai, the university festival, but I had chance of playing the shinobue. We will have a graduation concert in March and I’ll play only the koto. So I’m busy practicing koto and I can’t practice shinobue. After a graduation concert, I want to practice shinobue, too.

●Go to Disney Land

  I was not able to go to Disney Land this year. I want to go there next year.

●Watch Disney movies

  I wrote “I want to watch all Disney princess movies.” and “I want to watch “The Princess and the Frog”.” before. But I didn’t watch “The Princess and the Frog”. Next time, I’ll watch this. Though I was not able to watch all Disney princess movies, I watched and enjoyed some Disney movies.

●Learn to cook well

  Now I can cook better than before. When I wrote “to do list”, I cooked only a few kinds of dishes with recipes and I wasn’t satisfied with dishes I cooked. But now, I can cook more kinds of dishes without recipes and I can cook dishes of my favorite taste. I like cooking, so I want to cook better and better!

●Study hard

  I wrote “I have to study hard at university. I enter university to study. I must not forget this!” before, but I sometimes forgot this. I didn’t study hard this year. Next year, I’ll study hard and never forget this.

●Be taller

  I was not able to be taller. I drank little of milk. Actually, I realized that I can’t be taller and gave up being taller. So, I’ll wear high-heeled shoes when I want to become tall.

●Travel abroad

  I was not able to travel abroad. I want to travel foreign countries in spring vacation. But I afraid that I can’t do that because my friends and I plan to travel Kyoto in spring vacation. I’ll earn enough money to go for a trip, and next summer, I want to travel abroad.

●Go to zoo

  I was able to go to zoo once this year. I went to Ueno zoo with my friend. I like lion and my friend likes panda the best. We were able to see these animals at close range! We enjoyed seeing cute animals and we felt relaxed and comfortable. I want to go to Ueno zoo again.

●Live with music

  I was able to live with music. I listened to music every day, and I played music many times. I love music, so I’ll live with music from now on.

A dinner party with 8 people we admire

●Guests

Nicolaus Copernicus

A Polish astronomer, who is known for the Copernican system. Copernican system is the idea that the earth and other planets go around the sun, and he suggested this idea for the first time. I admire him because he changed the fundamental idea which all people except him believed in. Maybe I can’t do it if I live to be a thousand.

Isaac Newton

A British mathematician, physicist, astronomer, who is known for the laws of motion. And he made the idea of differential and integral calculus. I admire him because he made the fundamental idea which are used even now. I can’t do any academic thing without Newton’s idea.

Ichiro Suzuki

A famous baseball player, who is called “Ichiro”. He is called “Wizard” or “Hitting Machine” in America. I admire him because of his numberless records and prizes. He has too many records and prizes to write down here. He is a Japanese hero.

Koichi Wakata

An astronaut who belongs to JAXA. He has been to space four times for his mission. I admire him because he is a first Japanese person in the middle echelons of NASA. And he has the record of longest stay in space in Japan.

Walt Disney

An American business magnate, cartoonist, and filmmaker, who created a famous character, Mickey Mouse, and influenced and contributed to entertainment. I admire him because he made many dreams come true. Now nobody don’t know Disney, and many people watch Disney movies, enjoy at Disney land, and love Disney characters.

  

Steven Allan Spielberg

An American film director, screenwriter, producer, and business magnate, who is known for famous movies “E.T.” and “Jaws”. I admire him because he made many wonderful movies. He was awarded a lot of prizes, and his works are watched by many people.

Leonardo Wilhelm DiCaprio

An American actor and film producer, who is known for “Titanic”, which is a famous film. I admire him because he is very handsome and his works are wonderful. He has been nominated for five Academy Awards and ten Golden Globe Awards and won Golden Globes for Best actor in Drama and the Best Actor in a Musical or Comedy. 

Lionel Andres Messi Cuccittini

An argentine professional soccer player, who plays soccer as a forward for Spanish club FC Barcelona and captain the Argentina national team. I admire him because he is very good at playing soccer and his play is attractive. He won an Olympic gold Medal and received the Ballon d’Or four times.

●Seating arrangements

 I want to make seating arrangements like this picture.

 I want to be seat between Walt Disney and Messi because I admire them the most. I want to talk to Disney about how to make our dreams come true and I want to be given many dreams. And I want Messi tell his successes and his love to soccer.

Next to Messi, Ichiro Suzuki will be seat, and they talk about sports. Messi plays soccer, but Ichiro plays baseball, so they will find similarities and differences between soccer and baseball.

Disney, Steven Spielberg, and Leonardo DiCaprio are engaged in jobs related to movie. They will talk about creating wonderful films. They may make plan for co-created film and ask other participants of this sinner party.

Koichi Wakata and Copernicus will talk about the space. Copernicus will be impressed surprised to Koichi’s experiences in the space, and Koichi will thank Copernicus for his works.

My partner, Masanari, Newton, and Copernicus will talk about physics and astronomy.

Ideas of newton and Copernicus are very profitable for study.

 I want everyone to enjoy this dinner party!

Place arrangements

I will hold the party at a restaurant in Tokyo Disneyland to show Disney his job. But Spielberg may be angry as I don’t hold at USJ, which he supervised. I want them to be friends…

Food arrangements

I will serve them with dishes which are connected with them.

1.           Gaspacho

Gaspacho is a Spanish cuisine, and the team Messi belongs is a Spanish team. Maybe Messi knows a lot about this cuisine and other Spanish cooking, so I’ll be glad if this dish become a first lead of their conversation.

2.           Salmon steak with mousseline source

This dish was served at the real “Titanic”. I don’t know DiCaprio, the leading actor of “Taitanic”, ate it in the filming, but I want him to tell everyone the episodes concerning his experience in the filming. Maybe some of them don’t know anything about Titanic, so I must prepare some pictures of Titanic and tell them about the movie.

3.           A selection of space foods

Now I hear space foods are delicious unexpectedly. So I want to serve space foods and ask them whether it is really delicious. Koichi must have eaten them a lot, so I want him to tell everyone about other space foods he have eaten, and impression of old space foods. And I’ll be glad if this dish become a lead for Copernicus and Newton to ask Koichi about his experience in the real space.

4.           A selection of sweets of Disneyland

In Tokyo Disneyland, there are a lot of sweets like chocolate, cookie, churros and so on. So, I will serve some popular sweets in Tokyo Disneyland, and if they take to any sweets, I will give it them as a present.

My impressions on “Wanderers”

  I became afraid of the possibilities of human beings when I first read the script and watched the short film. At first, human beings were only a species of creatures, but thanks to human beings being wanderers, we can live now as a species that have been developing. I’m glad that our species is wanderer. I can’t imagine what we are what we do now if human being were not wanderers.

  This short film shows us the possibilities for space. Now we can live only on this planet, but in the near future, we will be able to go to other planets, and also live there. This is very exciting.

I want to see the scenery which the pictures on this website shows with my own eyes someday. Especially, I like the picture which shows the famous Rings of Saturn, “RINGSURF – (rings of SATURN).” This picture are fantastic and I feel that I were near Saturn. I know Saturn has the rings, but I don’t know these are ice blocks. The sentence written under this picture says the distance between the edge of the inner D Ring and the outer F Ring are very far. I would be impressed by this large scale rings.

Many things about space are still unknown, but I think this makes space attractive. Human beings are wanderers and are very curious, so we want to know unknown things. We will develop unknown areas in space in the future.

This short film tells us “the sedentary life has left us edgy, unfulfilled.” I think this sentence means that we should be wanderers, and if we are sedentary, we only lead dull life. I usually like to wander, but sometimes I’m sedentary. If I spend this sedentary time actively for other meaningful things, my life becomes more meaningful. So I’ll be wanderer from now on.

How to enjoy Japanese traditional music

Have you ever listened to Japanese traditional music? If you have, did you enjoy it? Do you know koto, shakuhachi, or shamisen? These are Japanese traditional musical instrument. I’ll tell you what these Japanese traditional musical instruments　―　koto, shakuhachi, shamisen ―　are and a way to enjoy Japanese traditional music.

  First, I’ll introduce koto.

  Koto is a Japanese traditional musical instrument which has 13 strings. 13 white objects called “kotozi” or “zi” support strings and we can change pitches by moving them. We play the koto with “kotozumes” which are like small white board. We wear three kotozumes and push or pluck the strings of koto with them, then we can make sounds. Sometimes we pluck or hit the strings with finger without kotozume.

  Some people think that playing the koto is very difficult, but you can play the koto easily. It doesn’t take you 1 week to learn to play “sakura”, which is a famous Japanese song.

  Second, I’ll introduce syakuhachi.

  Syakuhachi is like recorder and it has 5 holes. Shakuhachi was named after its length ― issyakuhassun(一尺八寸). I heard that there are 10 most difficult musical instruments to play in the world and shakuhachi is one of them. In fact, it is very difficult to play the shakuhachi.

  Third, I’ll introduce shamisen.

  Shamisen is like guitar and has three strings.

  You play the shamisen with “bachi”. University of Tsukuba has a Tugaru Zyamisen club, Mugenzyuku(無絃塾), so some of you have heard the sounds of shamisen. Tugaru Zyamisen is a kind of shamisen and it makes strong sounds.

  Next, I’ll tell you how to enjoy Japanese traditional music.

  I recommend first you focus on “sounds”. If you listen to the sounds of koto, you feel it is very beautiful! If you listen to shakuhachi, you will notice immediately that the sounds of shakuhachi are very different by players.

  I also recommend you imagine a scene listening to it. Many songs were made by the feelings of the impressions of any scenes.

  There are not only classical music but also modern music. Japanese traditional musical instruments can play pop music. I played a song like jazz.  Modern music may be easy to listen.

By all means, please listen to Japanese traditional music without any sense of hesitation and enjoy it.