My work １２(Not children's story but a short story) "The sound of dust"

  This year is going to finish soon. 

  I had various things in this year. This blog had one-year anniversary.

Today, the viewers of my blog have been recorded "13400". 

And people from 78 kinds of regions of the world have visited my blog.

  I hope the viewers go beyond 23000 next year.

  And one of the biggest things was to start writing stories more than ever.

I could not take time to do that at the end of the year though...｡ﾟ(ﾟ´Д｀ﾟ)ﾟ｡

  By the way, today's dinner was Soba.

 Maybe, I remember posting the photo of Soba last year as well.

  We eat this soba on December 31st. We eat soba, hoping that we can live long
in our lives.  

  I translated the part of my work. I attach it on this last post of this year!

  This is not for children. I just tried to make a story of Samurai period.

I will attach the next one in the New Year.

  The aim of the 2014 is to write more stories. Don't you think the only way
to gain the fruitful life is to spend time for what you want to be in the future? 
  We say Yoi Otoshiwo! (よいお年を！＝よいおとしを！)to everyone. 
It means like "Have a good year!"

  Hey everyone, Yoi Otoshiwo!

The sound of dust  ~1~

A drop of water fell on Jougen’s forehead. Jougen wiped forehead. He knew that it was large drop of rain from the touch of the finger-tip. He rose immediately. He was taking a rest under the tree near a small temple.

The large drop of rain spread over the square of the precincts of the temple. He hid under the small roof of the temple.

“We have had a heavy rain quite often recently. That’s unusual…”

 A monk appeared in a corridor.

“This sky shows the unrest of this world.”

Jougen said to the person with his face tuned upward to the sky. Jougen didn’t know the color of the sky facing then. Moreover, he had never seen the grain of the wooden corridor. He went up the steep stairs to come to the temple, called Saimyou-ji . However, he had never seen the color of the stone stairs. He had never seen the color of the rosebay that was flourishing besides the stone stairs. Jougen was a natural blind person.

“Where are you going?”

The monk in Saimyou-temple asked to Jougen.

“The house ahead…”

“You mean, Mr. Suenaga’s house.”

“I don’t know his name.”

  The monk got surprised to know the blind man was about to visit the house without knowing the lord of the house.

“His name is Suenaga.”

“I see.”

  The rain stopped. A lot of sun light came from the break in the cloud all over the area.

Jougen drawed his instrument, “Biwa” close to him. And he wiped the Biwa on his towel.

“Mr.”

  Jougen heard the monk’s voice from his back.

“The samurai you’re going to meet get mad easily. You need to pay attention to your words.”

“Oh, I see. I appreciate it. But I don’t spare my life.”

  Jougen held his Biwa in his arms and stood up. He started to walk slowly. An aged samurai was unnoticeably standing there. There were a lot of wrinkles on the aged samurai’s face. His armor and helmet was broken a bit. The aged samurai lead Jougen

to outside the temple.

 

 “Mr. Jougen, this is Suenaga-sama.”

  The aged samurai asked Jougen to sit down in front of the host and went out the room.

“Mr. Jougen, I know the reputation of your storytelling. I would like you to show me your storytelling.”

“Certainly, but, the salary won’t be low. We can survive by such fee.”

“Of course, I know. I’m ready.”

  After having remained silent for a while, Jougen took hold his Biwa in his stomach. And it became silent a few moments. He was mumbling. He seemed to talk with someone. And then he made a frown and sounded a string of Biwa with the plectrum. The room echoed with the sound of a string. Jougen started to sing.

The sound of bell from Gionsyouja (Buddhist temple)

It reminds of impermanence

The blossoms of the sal-tree proclaim that prosperity is subject to decline.

Insolent men are fated to go to their doom.

It is the same in ephemeral

 After he finished the foreword, the room fell silent again. Suenaga gazed at Jougen’s storytelling and said.

“Mr. Jougen, I would like you to do “Nasuno Yoichi (the name of samurai)”.

Jougen didn’t say anything. However, he suddenly sounded a string again…

 To be continued

Thanks for reading!
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Japanese lifestyle ~72~ The door in Japan

  I found an interesting article on Japanese styled door.
It was written about the difference of Japan and other countries.
  Japanese door opens outward like below.

  How about your country? I guess the door may open inward.
  I've heard that the door which opens inward has the meaning of
welcoming the guests. I've been to abroad some times, but
I did not check the doors.
  But why does Japanese door open outward?
  The article I read says, it is because we have the custom to
take off shoes. So the door opens outward so that people
can keep the space to put on their shoes.

Japanese traditional culture ~43~Oosouji

  The season oosouji is coming! I wrote about oosouji at the end of the last year.
Oosouji directly means "Big cleaning".
  We focus on cleaning home or the workplace and so on in this season.
We do that so that we can welcome the new year in the cleaned environment.
And we started to wash the curtains of the window. I am kind of busy on my
business now, so I need to start Oosouji little by little so that we can
finish by the end of this year.
  This tradition would have the meaning of protecting people from evil.
Recently, I believe cleaning the room or house leads to stabilize the
good mental condition

  I really like the season of the beginning of the year. Because the
atmosphere is so refreshed.

　By the way,I don't do anything in my house at Christmas.

Japanese traditional culture ~42~ゆず湯 Yuzu yu

Yesterday was Touji 冬至.(the winter solstice）
It is the day when the night time is the longest in the year.

In Japanese traditional culture, we put yuzu; an aromatic citron in the bath.
It is a hot bath scented with yuzu.
The reason is because you can get your body warmer.

And you can enjoy the aroma of yuzu.

Japanese traditional culture ~41~ しわす師走 shiwasu

  In Japan, we sometimes call December "Shiwasu".
If I write it with Kanji, it's like this "師走".
Shi し（師） means the monk of Budhism.
Wasu わす（走） means "running".

  So, this word means "the monk is running."
All people are busy in December. So, even the monks
run from place to place in December.
This word "Shiwasu" shows the busyness of Japanese
life in December.

Japanese lifestyle ~71~The decoration at my wedding

I show you a decoration which I used at the wedding.

I bought these dolls to put on the reception desk.
I have introduced about Eto(えと) on this blog before.
There are the  twelve horary signs in our culture.

Let's review those signs.

1 the Rat
2 the Ox
3 the Tiger
4 the Hare
5 the Dragon
6 the Serpent
7 the Horse
8 the Sheep
9 the Monkey
10 the Cock
11 the Dog
12 the Boar

I was born in a year of the Horse. And the bride was born in the year of Rat.

Well, now the season in which I have to write a Nengajou is coming.
That is, I will send the New Years post cards to all people who came to
the wedding. And also, I need to write some more people.

I would like to value the Japanese yearly events. One of the reason is
that I introduce about something on this blog.

Japanese lifestyle ~70~

Last Sunday was my wedding.
I will write something about it later.
So far I have to do some things...

Japanese traditional culture ~40~

  Tommorrow is my wedding.
I need to think of my speech. I've already made a speech roughly.
I need to think again so it would be better...

  I will introduce about this blog at my wedding.^ ^
I will have a Japanese style's ceremony.

Japanese lifestyle "Orizuru ~70~~cranes with origami~"

  One more week until the wedding.
The cranes with origami were completed.

Thankfully, some people helped me to make these cranes.
  Almost all things have been ready.
The seating chart was done.
  Today I have many things to do.
  I will have a meeting with my friends of high school.
I am going to dance with those friends while I leave the wedding hall.
And also, I need to think the speech I will make at the beggining and the end of the party.

  Today, I found that the photos I took in Germany had been developed.
I developed those photos a few weeks ago.
  My memories in Germany haven't gone.

I  haven't done my work on writting a story about biwahoushi very well.
I would like to do that after the wedding. And I'll post on this blog
within this year.

Japanese education Yutori education

 Yesterday's newspapar told that the recovery of Japanese education.
The news showed the result of reserch on education between countries.
The test was conducted by OECD. And it tested the abilities, such as
mathmatic literacy, ability to read and understand, science literacy.
Japan was 7th at the mathmatic literacy, 4th at the ability to read and
understand, 4th at the science literacy. That seems to sound nice.
 Looking at the countries which are higher than Japan, Asian cities
are seen, such as Shanhai, HongKong, Singapore. (I don't know
why they researched Shanhai, HongKong not China. Maybe there
are too many population and it would be difficult to servey)

  Maybe Shanhai, HonKong and Singapore are rich countries.
People's living standard would be much higher than the average of
Japan. So, people would be able to pay a lot of money for children.
 
  Besides that result of research, the newspapers told the result
 got better compared to a few years ago because Japanese education
system changed from "Yutori" education.
 What's Yutori education?

 That is the movement of about more than 10 years ago. The goverment
decreased the assignment of each subject. And people used to insist on
the decrease of Children's task because they thought children needed to
take a rest more. Yutori education means "education free of pressure".
 As the result, I heard that children, especially those who are lazy( most of
children are lazy...hahaha) became to escape from studying.
 After the discussion, Japanese government shifted the policy to
increasing the assignments again.

 Japanese education has been aware of focusing on the ability to
"think" not just "memolizing". The high level private school gives
the entrance examination of such test. They test how much children
can "think".

 Japanese people tend to lower the self-esteem. In spite of the reslt of the
result, some people may think Japanese education system is running later
than Western countries's education.

Japanese lifestyle ~69~~Emoji orz ~

 In Japanese,   alcohol is called "Sake"
One kind of the Sakes is "Nihon syu".
The other day, I drank after my work.
That was one of my enjoyments in my daily life.
 Today, I found my memory card (the card that
contains a lot of photo data) was broken...
 I reminded that I spilled the Nihon syu over my desk.
Maybe the SD card was broken at that time.
  In that SD card, there were a lot of photos
I took in Germany. There were some photos of the stature of
Bach, Beethoven, and a drawing of Goethe.
  OHHHHHHHHHH My GOSH!!!

 My memories in Germany have gone!!　Such a cruel thing...

 orz

  By the way, do you know the " orz "?
This is a kind of "Emoji", a drawing with some letters.
Can you recognize a person kneeling down from that Emoji?
A head is left side. You can make is just by typing "o" "r" "z".

 Japanese people use this "orz", when you feel frustration.

 orz