Heating up Sushi in a Microwave

I had a dream.

In this dream;

I'm a student living in a dormitory of a university with a Western roommate.

He brought a pack of Sushi for his dinner. He asked me if he could my microwave. I felt strange and asked him, "Well, what are you doing with the microwave?"

He replied, "I must heat up the sushi."

I was surprised and said, "Heh, what are you doing?"

He said again, "I'll heat sushi."

"Well, why will you heat the suchi?"

"'Cause I don't eat raw fish and heated sushi tastes good. Haven't you tried it?"

"Hmm, does it really taste good? I've seen someone heat onigiri in a convenience store, but..."

"Yeah, heated sushi tastes as good as heated onigiri."

I like to challenge bizarres foods.

I said to him, "Can I try a piece of the sushi?"

He said, "Sure."

And then I ate heated tuna sushi. Vinegar evaporated and the heated sushi smelled too sour to eat.

We can't Get Anything without Paying a Painful Price - What I've Gotten through Suffering from Depression -

I've been suffering from depression for about four years. I've almost recovered from it now, but I'm still going to a psychiatrist and taking antidepressant and sleeping pills.

When I developed my depression, I worked quite hard as a project manager. I suddenly became not able to go to the office and took three month medical leave. And then the next year I took three month medical leave again and transferred to the division that I belong to now.

I lost a lot of things because of depression.

As I wrote, I almost recovered but it doesn't mean that I can work as hard as I used to. Basically I loved and still love to work as a project manager, but I will never do it again. Even now sometimes I get so tired that I can't do anything expect lie on the bed.

But at the same time I've gotten a lot of things from depression.

Before I suffered from depression, I didn't know myself well. Of course I don't perfectly understand myself now, but I know myself far more than before suffering from depression.

At that time I was too self-confident. I believed that I could have done anything if I seriously tried doing it. But in fact I couldn't do things well and I was always disappointed with what I had done.

Depression made me know that what I could do was so little. Sometimes I can't even get out of the bed. Lying on the bed is just all of what I can do. And now I accept myself as someone who can just lie on the bed. I think that it’s really important to accept.

After accepting myself I've been able to think of what others think of and feel. Before suffering from depression, I wasn't satisfied with others and myself. I always required too much to others and I didn't give them anything. Now I think about what I can give someone else first. I can get satisfied with what I gave them, even if it was so tiny. And I'm happy, even if I can't get anything back. Interestingly, I can get more when I give someone without expecting something back than I require something to others.

I may be able to do a job as a project manager better now than before because of suffering from depression, but my depression wouldn't allow me to do a job as a project manager.

We can't get anything without paying a painful price. But I could get things that are worth their price.

And life goes on.

Amazing Voices

One day I was listening to Mary J. Blige on my way to the office in a crowded subway train on my iPod. I got bored with her songs and I looked at the list of other artists on the iPod. I found that Marvin Gaye was next to Mary J. Blige and I accidentally listened to his song "Let's Get It on".

When I listened to the first phrase of this song "I've really been trying, baby," I was completely fascinated by his sweet, sweetest voice and I couldn't stop listening to his song. His voice is really amazing.

"Let's Get It on" by Marvin Gaye


Some singers have such amazing voices, which take my mind away only by one phrase. James Brown and Otis Redding were two of the singers who had "it".

When I hear James Brown shouting, "Watch me!" at the beginning of his song "Super Bad", I forget everything, even where I am.

"Super Bad" by James Brown


Otis Redding's singing, "Sittin' in the mornin' sun. I'll be sittin' in the evenin' come", brings me to "the dock of the bay" and makes me "watching the ships roll in".

"Sitting on the Dock of the Bay" by Otis Redding


Three of them had different voices and their own style but I can't think of anything but their voices when I hear their songs.

P. S. A Sweet Protest Song

Protest songs are usually kind of songs that crowds attending a demonstration sing together. John Lennon's anti-Vietnam song "Give Peace a Chance" is such a typical protest song and it was actually sung by people in many anti-war demonstrations in the late 1960s.

"Give Peace a Chance" by John Lennon


Marvin Gaye also sang the anti-Vietnam song "What's Going on". His voice was so sweet that it made everything, even a protest song, sweet. This song sounds too sweet to provoke anyone but makes me feel the pain of mothers whose children were dead in the Vietnamese War.

"What's Going on" by Marvin Gaye

"The Beginning of Rangaku (蘭学事始)"

I've read the book "The Beginning of Ranagaku (蘭学事始)" by Genpaku Sugita.

Genpaku Sugita (1733 - 1817) was a Western medicine doctor and famous for the translation of "Kaitai Shinsho (解体新書)". "Kaitai Shinsho" means "the New Book of Anatomy".

In the Edo era (1603 - 1868) the Edo government strictly restricted trade with foreign countries and this policy was called "Sakoku (鎖国)", seclusion. Japan traded only with China and the Netherlands under the control of the Edo government. They were allowed to visit only Nagasaki, which is the East end of Japan, and go around just in "Dejima (出島)", a small island in the port of Nagasaki.

At that time there were three schools, "Kangaku (漢学)", "Kokugaku (国学)", and "Rangaku (蘭学)" in Japan. "Kangaku (漢学)" was a study of classic Chinese philosophy, mainly Confucian. It was the main school and "Samurai (worrior)" class should learn "Kangaku (漢学)".

"Kokugaku (国学)" means "the National study". In the middle of the Edo era "nationalism" and "nationalists" had appeared. They instead that Japanese culture were contaminated by "Kangaku (漢学)" and studied pure old Japanese history and culture before "Kangaku (漢学)" arrived at Japan.

If I translate "Rangaku (蘭学)" directly, it means "the study of Dutch". As I mentioned in the Edo era Japan trade only with Netherlands among Western countries, and Japanese people could study Western culture and sciences only through the books written in Dutch, so study of them were called "Rangaku (蘭学)".

The author of the book "The Beginning of Rangaku (蘭学)", Genpaku Sugita, was one of the latest scholars of "Rangaku (蘭学)". He had been a Chinese medicine doctor. He happened to get the book about Anatomy written in Dutch, "Ontleedkundige Tafelen", which he called this book "ターヘル・アナトミア". Of course he couldn't read Dutch at all but in this book there were many anatomy charts.

At that time it was rare that a human body was dissected and Japanese doctors didn't have the precise knowledge of the internal human body. He had a chance to see a dissection of a condemned criminal and found the Dutch book about Anatomy was quite precise. He decided to translate this book into Japanese and use it to improve Japanese medicine. He got some friends together and began to try the translation.

But the situation was really severe. They didn't almost know Dutch language at all and had no teacher, no dictionary and of course no the internet. Genpaku Sugita wrote in "The Beginning of Rangaku (蘭学)" as follows.

先づ、かのターヘル・アナトミアの書にうち向ひしに、誠に艫舵なき船の大海に乗り出だせしが如く、茫洋として寄るべきかたなく、たゞあきれにあきれて居たるまでなり。…少しづつは記憶せし語ありても、前後一向にわからぬことばかりなり。たとえば、眉（ウエインブラーウ）といふのは目の上に生じたる毛なりとあるやうなる一句も、彷彿として、長き春の一日には明らめられず、日暮るゝまで考へ詰め、互ひににらみ合ひて、僅か一二寸ばかりの文章、一行も解し得ることならぬことにてありしなり。また或る日、鼻のところにて、フルへッヘンドせしものなりとあるに至りしにこの語わからず。これは如何なることにてあるべきと考へ合ひしに、如何ともせんやうなし。

At first we were looking at this "Ontleedkundige Tafelen" and we didn't know what we should do as if we were boarding a ship without a rudder in the big ocean. …. We remembered a few words but we couldn't understand the full sentences at all. For example we couldn't understand the sentence "eyebrows are hair above eyes" for a long day in spring, and we were thinking until evening looking at each other. At the end we couldn't understand just one sentence. In the other day we found the word "フルへッヘンド" on the nose in an anatomy chart and we discussed about the word, but we couldn't get any conclusion.

At the end they had translated this book.

斯くの如く勉励すること両三年も過ぎしに、漸くその事体も弁ずるやうになるに随ひ、次第に蔗を囓むが如くにて、その甘味に喰ひつき、これにて千古の誤も解け、その筋たしかに弁へ得しことに至るの楽しく、会集の期日は、前日より夜の明くるを待ちかね、児女子の祭見にゆくの心地せり。

As we had studied for three years, we became able to understand this book step by step. We resolved our old mistakes and enjoy understanding it as if we ate sugarcane and taste its sweetness. We looking forward to the meeting since the night before and we felt like children going to a festival.

Methods and Materials are important, but motivation and friends are far more important.

Let's enjoy learning languages together!

Where has the "stupidness" gone from Hip Hop?

At first would you watch these two videos?





The former is Parliament, which is one of the most important funk bands in the 1970s. How stupid they were! (Of course I use the word "stupid" in a very very very very good sense.) At that time sound the conditions of the cool funk band were groovy sounds and stupid fashion, lyrics and behaviors. Uncool was cool. Parliament was the most uncool and cool funk band!

The latter is Kanye West and Jay-Z, who are two of the contemporary richest Hip Hop musicians. They aren't stupid at all. They are sophisticated and gorgeous. I like Jay-Z, but he isn't uncool cool but just cool.

At the beginning of Hip Hop history they were still stupid. Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five, the origin of Hip Hop, were stupid enough to be uncool cool. Where has the "stupidness" gone from Hip Hop?



Ah, we have LMFAO! They are soooo stupid and uncool cool.



And George Clinton, the leader of Parliaments, is still stupid now!