Father's Day

Father's Day is on the third Sunday of June. Today is the second Sunday, but my son gave me a present for Father's Day because he'll be busy next Sunday. Thanks to my son, the gift was a nice polo shirts. I'm really glad for such a nice gift. 

He gave me some letters and pictures on Father's Day when he was a elementary student. This was the first time he bought me a present on the day after graduated from high school. He's grown up and I've got older. Time passes so fast. 

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JFK

I listened to a VOA radio program, The Making of a Nation, in this morning. Today's topic was the start of John. F. Kennedy's presidency. At that time, there was a huge conflict between the United States and the Soviet Union, especially in the issue of their nuclear weapons. 

The inauguration speech of the first 20th century born president was so powerful that it was judged to be among the best in American history later. His way of speech was, of course, impressive, but I think English itself has a great power to make a speech. A good speech maker delivers a speech like a song in English. Japanese language can not be so. 

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Doraemon in China

A Japanese famous animation film Doraemon made a record hit in China. Japanese movies had been banned since Japanese government bought Senkaku Islands in 2012. The relationship between Japan and China has been improved recently, so Chinese government allowed to be shown Japanese movies in the country. 

Doraemon has earned 75 million dollars for eight days. 

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POD

I bought a book about learning English. The title is "Power Ondoku Nyumon." The author is a Japanese-English interpreter who learned English all in Japan. What made him to be an interpreter is Power Ondoku, which he showed us in the book. 

I learned his method, POD, via YouTube before and tried a while, but I didn't continue to do that. It takes only 15 minutes to do the training for one set. If I have a strong will to be a good English speaker, it's not hard to continue to do the training. I'll practice the method everyday from now on and get the fluent English speaking skill. 

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Don't Publish the Book

In 1997, a 14-year-old boy killed two elementary school girl and boy, and injured three other students in Kobe. The boy did not get any severe punishment because he was too young to be punished and had mental problems. He got eight years of psychiatric treatment in some juvenile training schools. He became free in 2004. 

Now, he is about to publish a book about his murders or something. A father of a victims strongly opposed the publishing of the book. The father said that the book might hurt the victims and their families. He said he could not understand why he can do so. 

It's obvious that the book can do nothing but hurt many people. The killer never feel for others. That kind of person does exist. If he has compassion for others, he can't publish such a book. The publisher should withdraw the book immediately. 

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Hashima Island

Hashima Island is commonly called Gunkanjima. The island is about 15 kilometers from Nagasaki. The abandoned island has been proposed to be a UNESCO World Heritage Site of The Modern Industrial Heritage Sites. 

The island had a major coal mine and it played important role for industrialization of Japan in Meiji and Taisho era. The abandoned facilities make a strong image of Gunkan, Battle Ship form distant view. 

South Korean authorities have opposed to the proposal to become a World Heritage Site. They say many Korean people were forced to become miners in the island during the Korean Annexation, so the island should not be a World Heritage Site. 

Please don't be so mad. The proposal was to be the Industrial Sites. It should include both positive and negative things.

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Rainy Season

The rainy season has just started here. I don't like this season like most of the people in Japan. Foods go easily rotten or get moldy. Really annoying. 

When I was a child, however, I liked the rainy season. I liked wearing a rain coat and rain boots in the rain. I used to jump into a rain paddle and made a big splash. I sometimes went outside without a rain coat or an umbrella and soaked in the rain. That was really fun. People can change a lot. 

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