Mike's Meditations

Recontracting Conference

Well, I'm back at work after three days in the Portopia Hotel in Kobe for the JET programme's recontracting conference. In JET, everyone is on a one year contract and in order to stay on must apply to recontract. If their school agrees (which they usually do, they don't want to deal with an irate JET asking why they were declined) then they can stay on. Everyone who is staying for another year has to go to the recontracting conference with half going to Kobe and half going to Tokyo, depending on which place is nearer.

The conference was OK. It lasted three days (really one day and two half days) and I got to stay in a nice hotel even though I live only about 30 minutes away. The first day was just an opening ceremony and some lectures which put me to sleep (apart from the one from the boys at Genki English but the second and third days had workshops.

It was a bit hard going to all of the workshops on Tuesday (there were four) so I chose ones I thought would be more relaxing towards the end of the day.

Wednesdays workshops (although lecture like) were surprisingly good and I'm glad I went to them. Overall I think it was worth going and I did benefit from it. Next thing I'm going to do is think about what I got out of the Computer Assisted Language Learning (CALL) workshop and the Global Education workshop (the CLAIR one on Wednesday, not the Tuesday one which I didn't go to) and see what I can do here.

On a final note I was happy to be reminded by the Genki English guys that only 33% of my job is about teaching English as I tend to get a bit wrapped up in that part rather than seeing what else I can do as well.

(Final final note, I think the Genki English bit might have been on wednesday, I'm not sure any more. Anyway the best thing about the conference was the people giving good advice. Although I'd heard most of it before I need reminding sometimes.)

Broken Comp

Just a quick note to say my computer has broken down. I can't even turn it on. That means that until I get it fixed or replaced I can't easily post on this site. The only posts I can do will be done from work (like this one) and so will have to be kept short as I have to share the computers with everyone else here.

Hopefully everything will be sorted out soon.

Hisashiburi Desu Ne!!!

Long time no see! Sorry, I haven't been updating the site regularly, I will try to do better from now *hangs head in shame*.

Just to explain, "hisashiburi" (or "Ohisashiburi" if you want to be more formal) is used when you haven't seen someone for a long time, kind of like "Long time no see". I think there is another way of saying it too but I don't remember just now.

So next time you meet someone you haven't seen in a long time, just tell them "Hisashiburi" (and explain what it means if they don't speak Japanese!). To be properly formal (if you're speaking to the boss for example), it should be "Ohisashiburi desu" ("desu" is often left out in casual speech).

The George and Keiko Show

I just signed up for The George and Keiko Show. Its an online TV show for learning Japanese. George and Keiko talk about a topic, introducing new Japanese words and explaining things in English as necessary. Watching the show makes me feel like I can actually understand Japanese. So I signed up for the monthly fee (Just under $8 dollars) which gets me four shows.

Take a look, its good fun. There is one sample show you can watch too.

Hiroshima Pics

I just got sent some more pictures from the parade in Hiroshima so I thought I'd share them here.

Parade Pictures

Demonstrating the five Falun Gong exercises in the parade.

The main body of the parade.

I was doing exercise two which is like a standing meditation. It is very simple consisting of four postures. Each is held for a long time but how long is up to the person practising.

The two boys were doing the sitting meditation and each of the adults did one of the four standing exercises. The boys were very popular with the crowd.

Group photo. The dancers costumes were really beautiful. In the background (big picture) you can see the Chinese characters Zhen-Shan-Ren (Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance) which are the core principles of Falun Gong. (Japanese pronunciation is Shin-Zen-Nin)

I was only in Hiroshima for the one day but many other Falun Gong practitioners stayed the whole weekend. Those who stayed on collected signatures to raise awareness of the case of Yoko Kaneko (Chinese name Luo Rong).

Yoko had gone back to China to appeal against the unjust persecution of Falun Gong. She was arrested on 24th May 2002 for handing out flyers defending Falun Gong on a Beijing street. Amnesty International have issued "Urgent Action" to appeal. It says:

Luo Rong, a Chinese Falun Gong member with permanent residency in Japan, is currently serving one-and-half years’ “re-education through labour” in a Beijing labour camp. She was detained in the capital while handing out Falun Gong leaflets on 24 May 2002 during a visit to China She is reportedly seriously ill and has been hospitalized for high blood pressure. However there are serious concerns that she may not receive adequate hospital care. According to reports , Luo Rong has bruising around her wrists and has lost a lot of weight indicating that she may have been tortured or ill-treated whilst in the labour camp.

It also mentions Yoko's sister:

Luo Rong’s elder sister, Luo Zhen, a resident in China, was reportedly detained on 5 November by the Public Security Bureau in Mudanjiang City, Heilongjiang province, northeastern China, following her involvement in publicizing her sister’s case. She is reportedly held in incommunicado detention, and the family has not yet been informed of her whereabouts. According to unofficial sources, she may have been assigned to two years’ re-education through labour.

(complete text available at http://www.rescue-yoko.org/en/news/urgent%20action.htm)

For more details about her case please visit the Yoko Kaneko Rescue Commitee

Falun Gong has been banned in China since 20th July 1999. Find out why here

To find out more about what Falun Gong is go here

Appeal Pictures

Passers-by signing a banner and writing a message.

A boy signing the banner

Some fellow gaijin (foreigners) finding out about Yoko's case. I hope there were plenty of practitioners who spoke English there. On a side note, if anyone in Japan needs help finding out about Falun Gong I can try to put you in touch with someone local who speaks English or you can email me questions if you've got any.

Golden Week Day 2

(Yesterday was the first day of Golden Week by the way. Why it is called Golden Week I don't know, seeing as it is only three days this year!)

(Click on the pictures for larger versions.)

The Tatsumi family at Suma Rikyu Park. (Thats Yuka on the far left.)

Me and my fountain in Rikyu Park.

The Danjiri (sorry its blurred but it was either blurred and bright or sharp and dark and bright just looks better!)

Today I went to Suma Rikyu Park (Suma Detached Palace Park) with Yuka and her family. Its a large park with lots of flowers and an arrangement of fountains and other water features leading up to the "rest house". It all looks very grand and impressive anyway. After that we went to a small French restaurant in another city (I forgot the name of the city but I'll check). It looked to me like it was a converted apartment (it was on the second floor of a "mansion") and was run by a family, the husband cooking and the wife serving so there was a bit of a wait to be served but the food and atmosphere were good so we didn't mind.

Towards the end of the meal there was loud drumming outside. Apparently the city was having a Danjiri festival that evening and the drumming was accompanying the Danjiri as it paraded through the streets. A Danjiri is a big wooden thing on wheels about the size of a small caravan which is pushed and pulled around by hordes of local men (and women? Not sure, didn't see any) with some dancing and waving lanterns on the top. I think the Danjiri is meant to be some kind of shrine but I'm not entirely sure. Anyway, it was fun. I saw Mr Doi, one of the teachers from Kita High School, who apparently lives nearby. He's quite a young guy and I didn't recognise him in his T-shirt, shades and flat cap - at school he always wears a suit!

Parade in Hiroshima

Dance practice in Hiroshima

More dancing.

Just me.

I got a bit mixed up and I'm sure I told people I was going to Himeji instead of HIroshima. Quite a mistake to make as Himeji is quite close and Hiroshima very far away. So, sorry to anyone I misinformed...

Today there was a big parade in Hiroshima, I'm a bit short on information about it other than that it was big and they have it every year. Falun Gong was invited to be part of the parade so I went along with some Falun Gong practitioners from Osaka. We got there around 11am after about two hours on the shinkansen (bullet train) and went to a small park/recreation area where the others were getting ready.

Some practitioners (about 100 by my count) did a form of traditional Chinese dancing, with a large group doing a fairly simple dance and a smaller group doing a more complicated one. In front of them in the parade was a small truck with some musicians playing for the dancers and in front of that was a larger truck with six practitioners demonstrating the Falun Gong exercises.

I was invited to be one of the people demonstrating the exercises which was... interesting. I hadn't realised quite how difficult it is to stand motionless on the back of a trailer even when its moving quite slowly. I'd love to say more about the parade but seeing as I was practising the exercises I had my eyes closed so I didn't see much (which by the way made it even harder to not fall over).

After the parade was finished we all went to a seminar room in some kind of seminar room containing building (OK, I can't think of a better way to say that right now) and had informal experience sharing. Experience sharing is basically chatting but about any problems or experiences we've had (good or bad) and by talking we try to learn something from them. This is quite a fundamental part of Falun Gong (learning from what happens to you and those around you) and is great for setting you back on track. All in all I had a great time and met quite a few people who I either hadn't seen for a while or who I had never met before but knew through email.

Which reminds me, I was given a copy of a photo taken of me in Hong Kong in February (and yes Hong Kong is a very warm place even in February when this was taken. Hence the T-Shirts). I'm not quite sure why the quality is so poor as the original wasn't so bad (if a little scratched). Maybe I should have been more patient and set my scanner to a higher setting (which takes ages to scan).

Further Goals...

Continuing the highly motivated, goal oriented theme I have further goals to add since my last post. I thought about it and I have a strong urge to be a writer but I know its not something to take on lightly and my attitude towards writiing is a bit naive. In order to get a better idea about and some practise of writing my next goal is:

Practise the art of writing by:

Writing at least one post a day on this site

and

Writing at least one other thing, be it story, poem or writing exercise a week.

Getting away from writing, my other major goal relates to an Open University course in Computing I am just starting. I have been wondering for some time what I will do after I finish on JET (still a long way off) and thought about updating my computing knowledge to give myself more options. My goal relating to this course is simple:

Study for and pass well (70% or higher) my OU course in Object Oriented Programming.

I haven't done a proper break down yet of what I need to do to achieve this but I will soon.

Goal Setting

I was reading through Vision Magazine last night and saw an article on goal setting in one of the older issues. I was intrigued and had a read through. Its great! Its aimed at goal setting related to a writing career (which is one of my dreams at the moment). I had a think about it but decided I needed to do a bit more actual writing before dedicating myself to writing a novel. Nonetheless the goal setting article was really useful. One goal I've had since coming to Japan which I haven't been doing so well with is learning Japanese. So, following the articles advice I decided to make the goal more specific so I had something to work towards. So here is my goal:

Goal: Pass Japanese Language Proficiency Test Level 2 in December 2004
Date set: 1st of may 2003
Finish Target: December 2004 (whenever they hold the exam)

I checked on the JLPT website and I need to learn about 1000 Kanji (chinese characters) and 6000 words. Have a high grasp of grammar and be able to talk/read/write about general things in japanese. I worked out that I need to spend about one hour per day and learn two kanji and ten words per day. In reality if the figures given on the site are reasonable I can do less than this as I already know some Japanese (though only about 80 kanji).

So there you have it. My goals for Japanese learning until the end of 2004. If you have anything you want to do or are dreaming of doing, give the goals workshop a try.

Quite a Nice Guy

I paid for my newspapers today.

Everyday, I have an english newspaper delivered. I signed up for it because I thought I might as well when the smiling salesman knocked on my door. I have since come to regret it.

The newspaper is, I'm sure, a good one, but I don't have time to do more than turn the pages and read the cartoons. It really is a waste of money. But that isn't the main problem. The main problem is me.

I'm a very private person and usually don't appreciate unannounced visitors. So when in the evening someone knocks on my door while I'm in the middle of something I don't really appreciate it. What has this to do with my paper? Payment. Once a month a wiry little man rings my doorbell and if I don't answer, bangs on my door as well. I live in a one room apartment so its difficult to ignore (and terrible if you are in the bathroom at the time, I have visions of someone bursting in on me. Not a pretty picture).

Today was different however. He came yesterday and I didn't have enough money, so I had to ask him to come again today. Not only had I asked him to come but I truly did owe him the money. All my excuses were gone and with them my negative feelings. I smiled sheepishly and paid him his dues. Not only did he smile back but we had a little conversation. He asked me where I came from and wished me all the best in Japan. He wasn't some big bad money grabber come to make my life difficult.

He was quite a nice guy.