Timing

I think timing is very important. If I missed it, I would lose myself at that moment forever. I did what I really wanted to do today. I wanted to communicate my true feeling to someone. It might be a selfish hope, but for me, it is the first priority to live here. I am a bit afraid of a reaction of someone, but I am confident in me for being true to myself. I hope we will live helping each other even with unknown people in society.

No more war

I read a book written by Michael Moore in Japanese translation version. I don't know the original title. It is about last president election. He is against the war between the U.S and Iraq. He suggests that the U.S should stop the war immediately because Iraq did no wrong to the U.S. If it is true, the U.S should be blamed. He insisted that the Vietnam war was genocide as Vietnam did no wrong to the U.S. From these two wars, I feel the U.S. likes the war. It must be a few politicians. What did they fight for? Are there any reasons for that? He said that it was always people, not the politician or the rich, who became victims in the war. I think he does the right things, expressing his idea to make the U.S comfortable to live for everyone. He has a sense of humour and that makes the book easier to understand.

There is one thing I respect the U.S, it is a movie such as "Platoon." It was a sad movie but I feel the U.S can accept what they have done even it was ashamed. I hope people especially politicians in the U.S would remember and sense the sadness of the war.

Travel recommendation

I feel it is better to spend the hottest season at cooler place. I wash clothes every day, my legs and arms skin became red, less sleep, and taking nap. I know the hottest season won't last so long, maybe 3 weeks, but I don't want that 3 weeks in vain.

It is good to travel in this season somewhere cooler and it is better abroad. I heard someone recommended on the radio that we should travel abroad once a year alone. Did he mean that we can improve our communication skill by doing that? It might be included, but he said staying inside makes people become nationalism without accepting others. I think going to unknown place gives people a lot. It must be exciting each day and we should accept the way of that place to survive there. That will make our hearts broaden and tolerant towards others.

It is ideal. It depends on how we work. I never think of going abroad when I worked for the company. I had things to do during holidays and holiday season is same for almost all Japanese employees, traffic and sight seeing is very busy. If I really want to go abroad, I can think the way to carry out the travel but I don't have a passion to go now.

Different expression

I started the trial for a Japanese-English checker. I felt English is different from Japanese. No one doubts about it. I have to check many words to check that it is a right word in this meaning. I found many cases that if I translated this sentence, I won't use this word. Thanks to Google, we can check any sentences to check whether it is common or not. I think Japanese-English translation takes more time for checking sentences for Japanese than English-Japanese translation because we are not native English user. I try to enjoy the difference of expressing way.

Summer Triangle

As I woke up after midnight about 3 am, since it was too hot to sleep, I don't use an air conditioner because of my constitution, I saw the Summer Triangle top of the western sky. It was a starry night and the air was cool. It reminded me when I was an elementary school student. I had seen the sky almost every evening, sometimes with my parents, my brother, or neighbor kids. I was observing clouds in daytime as a homework. I always had been watching the sky in summer holidays at that time. I have not seen the stars these years. Summer is the good season to watch a starry starry night in the evening but I hope I can sleep well.

Speaking of observing nature, I saw birds in the weeds in a pine park this morning. It looked like the pigeons at first, but they seemed female pheasants, brown and smaller, they must be the young but there wasn't their mother as far as I saw. Out of the room, I can see the wonder of the nature.

Walk to the pine park

I found a park near my apartment. It was a small park with many pine trees. The road to the park was hot by sunshine even it was 6am, the park was cool because of shadow of a big apartment and there was a small canal along the park. It was the first time since I came here to walk in the morning. In summer, I like in the early morning air and the night one. They are only air I can feel relieve in summer. I remember Japanese woman poet in Heian Period(794-1192) wrote in her work that the best time in summer was night. Moon, firefly, and rain. We can hardly see a firefly today though. It is quiet here in the night and just a little cool air from the window. I can hear some insects.

Learn from others

We have a Japanese proverb "Make yourself correct by observing others." I realized that was true. I have learnt a translation lesson in this way. I found which is good and which is wrong. It is difficult to doubt myself because I thought it was right. But when I saw what others wrote, I found that what I wrote was something wrong. It shows that we can't learn alone. We can learn among others because we are just different each other. If I don't know what is going on around, I can't feel anything except what I feel, that is just a small world. Only inside of what one person can think. Thinking of that, school system might be a good system since we can learn among many students. It can say same thing also the company system. In society, even working alone, there must be a relationship with others though. Whether it is great or something wrong I felt by observing what others wrote, I can learn from both of them. I will try to observe what others wrote in same things I do.

Be true and passion

Summer has coming. I am thinking of watermelon. I can have it only in summer, it will be only for 4 weeks, before Bon. Four weeks are enough to enjoy watermelon. I don't have to worry about it.

Every summer, I clean the room. This year, I moved here just a month ago, it seemed to be a few place to clean. For the rest of time, I can read and study, and go somewhere.

I have read a novel written about Hayashi Fumiko, who wrote "Horoki" and her way of living has impressed me. She lived true to herself in writing, daily life, and loving people around her. She hated pretending, even in others behaviour. She only loved what she trusted because she was confident in herself. She trusted what she felt from her heart and wrote only about it. I admire her spirit. What she trusted herself might be a love she had been given her parents or people around her from her childhood. I feel she lived her life being always herself with passion. It is one of the most beautiful way of living.

I just listened to the radio saying same thing:

"Be true to yourself and find something that sustains passion."

What a coincidence!

Cooking

Since I live alone and staying my room almost all day, I don't meet people all day recently. Sometimes my parents call me and I speak to them. I meet dance friends at least twice a month. Do I feel lonely? I don't feel so very much because I am studying for a job I really want to do.

For my part, cooking is a relaxing time. I like cooking because I feel I am human being when I cook. I use a knife and a cutting board, and cut vegetables. The more kinds of vegetable the more I feel happier. I like vegetables very much. I also boil green leaves such as Komatsuna at least once a week. I cook rice in a pan. I don't use a rice cooker because I just didn't buy it and I would rather rice cooked in a pan than an electric rice cooker. It takes less time to use a pan. I have to watch out before it boils over and listen the sound of burning. I like all these things because I also like eating.

Although I eat alone, cooking for myself makes me feel something confident in me. I can live depending on myself. It surely is better to eat with others I feel. I will go to my parents or ask friends to eat lunch sometime.

Time for translation and checking

I translated about for 5 hours and I feel I did good job. It took a lot of hours to translate for me because I can't translate fast. A professional translator I met at the seminar uses time for checking as much as 5 to 6 times of translating. I think she translates very fast and takes enough time for checking. She says the checking is very important and it is the most interesting part of translating. We should check mistakes and consider the sentences in order to make the best sentences. I think it must be true. I will check precisely to make sentences easy to understand and accurate to the original one.

Twilight

It has rained a lot these days. It is the end of rainy season now. When it rained a lot, it sounded noisy. I woke up even in the midnight because of the sound of rain. I saw beautiful twilight this evening after raining. The air and the scenery become clearer after rain because the rain washed all dirt in the atmosphere. I like to go out after rain. But the twilight disappears in short time and it becomes dark night. It is lucky to see the twilight. I feel happy today.

Suspicion

I am influenced by the book I am reading now. It is about during the war: the World War Ⅱ. There are 2 men who are military policemen. They suspect people whether who are communists or not, and if they found the evidence or just suspected, they take innocent people to a prison and conduct a torture. How violent they are! It could say that it was a war time and they just conducted their job. Yes, we could say so. The war makes people common less and no heart. Anyone could not trust others because they might be a military policeman and observing everything around. In the book, one military policeman looked kind and friendly but he was pretending to make a heroine relax and try to find out the evidence. It must be a horrible society; everyone has to suspect each other to protect oneself. The war makes people suspicious. No one can speak truth of their heart. I appreciate the time I live now: a peace time. Although it seems a peaceful time, there are small violence around us. We have to be careful of any violence, otherwise we miss what we take for granted now: expressing true to oneself.

Subtlety

I read a Japanese scholar Umesao saying "My English cannot handle the subtlety of my thoughts" on the newspaper. I sometimes feel my diary written in English seems to be written by an elementary school student. It is because my English does not seem to be same level of English for my age. I use an easy vocabulary because I don't know difficult words very much. I think that one's thoughts depend on the vocabulary one use. If I can use only easy vocabulary, my thought would be easy one, it would never be complex one. When I think something in English, the result will be easier than what I really want to express if the idea of mine and what Mr. Umesao said would be right. I should think in Japanese when I think something delicate. I can understand and agree with Mr. Umesao. The vocabulary makes the thoughts. I sometimes see non-Japanese native speakers speaking in Japanese on TV, and they sound a bit strange when their Japanese is not good very much. It is same to me. I will try to enrich my vocabulary and also think in Japanese to keep my thoughts as same level for my age.

Write true to one's heart and with passion

I was reading a book from the afternoon to the evening. It is interesting book which is written about a writer Hayashi Fumiko. She worked as a writer during the World War Ⅱ in South East Asia and China. She wrote only what she felt from heart, she was always true to herself when she wrote. It is very important to being honest because the words used in the writing will be true to oneself. It is also important that there is a passion to write when we write. It must be reached to others' heart only there is a strong feeling of writer to communicate to others. She only writes about it.

I have to appreciate the time when we can write freely without any control of others. During the war time, it was not admitted. Those who lived in the war time had to write under the control of military power. The writers always had to be careful of what they write. They must not be able to be themselves, otherwise they would have been put in a prison. I haven't read her famous book: "Horoki" yet though, I want to read it in the future. I am interested in her, she made her house which is ideal to her: very convenient to live and she loved it very much. She made her every day life important to herself. She cooked as much as possible and cared for her son very much. She must be a lovely character.

Election day

I went to vote in the afternoon. I decided the party by the reason which is the party against the tool free policy. From the environmental point of view, the toll free expressways policy is not accepted. Many drivers who use expressways often will please that policy, but it is clear that green house effective gas will increase. People who use the train or ferry will shift to car. Why should Japan be against the environmental issue? I can not understand the policy they are going to conduct. I only see this point to decide the party I vote. I don't know other points to compare, but as far as I know, this is the only a big difference between each party. I hope the tool free expressways policy will disappear.

Believe in continuing

I study translation now. I am happy to do it. I found I am improving a translation skill because I can see the mistakes which I made 2 months ago. I couldn't notice about them at that time. Keep studying makes me surely improve the skill. I can believe and I will continue to study.