A Smile

Yesterday traditional poems created by Imperial family members were read out at a special ceremony in Tokyo. Each year the theme changes and this year it was 'smile/laugh'.

I read the English translations in the newspaper today and Princess Masako's poem was lovely. She wrote about her daughter playing with other children:

When one in the circle laughs,
So does another,
And the children's laughter
Spreads more and more


I think the princess has captured the innocent beauty of children all around the world. Someday her daughter might become the Empress of Japan, but in fact, Princess Aiko's spirit is the same as the poorest child.

It is such a pity that we lose such joy and innocence as we grow older...

Minus Four Degrees!

I'm glad I'm not a plant! Nights are so cold lately that most of the pot plants in my garden are frozen! Did you know that pansies can freeze every night, thaw in the day, and still be alive? I wonder if people can ever be frozen and brought back to life?

Yesterday was the first snow of the season in Tsukuba. My garden looked lovely covered in snow but I had to go to work before 7am so I didn't have time to take any pictures. (The pictures here are frost, not snow.) Actually, I was really worried because there was quite a lot of snow near my house and my car doesn't have snow tires. I drove at about 20km an hour for the first 300m, but when I got out of the woods surrounding my house, I found that the roads had no snow. Closer to the city center there was very little snow anywhere and light rain later in the morning meant it all melted. What a pity - I didn't get a chance to make a snowman! Next time I hope it snows on a weekend not a working day.


Actually, one reason I like living in the Kanto area (Tokyo and the prefectures surrounding it) is that the weather in winter is usually fine. Very cold, but sunny! Winter back in my hometown in Australia was depressing. Cold (not as cold as here though) and mostly rainy or cloudy. I really like the cold, crisp and very clear air here in winter. Mt Tsukuba looks lovely this season - a single blue mountain with twin peaks.

The only problem with the lovely clear air is that the humidity level is so low that my skin dries out too quickly. Ironic that in June/July I have to use a de-humidifier to keep mold at bay, but this season I use a humidifier so my skin doesn't look like a raisin ...

Andrea

at bay - (keep mold away) {The dictionary didn't have a good translation for this.}

Manners

Do you have good manners? I hope so. I really hate people with bad manners!

For example, right now I am so angry about the lazy people who park on the road near my office. Not just on one side, but on BOTH sides so it is almost impossible to drive down that road. Why do they do it? Because they are too lazy to use the carpark of the liquor shop they want to go to. Hey, just drive 5 meters around the corner, won't you!!!!! Not only is it bad manners, it is outright dangerous - I've seen so many near-accidents that I have lost count how many. I wish the police would come and give all the bad mannered parkers traffic tickets ....

Another thing I HATE is when I see sportsmen spitting. (I rarely see women athletes spit - maybe just marathon runners sometimes.) I think it is really disgusting so I was happy to see an article about this subject on the BBC website today. It seems some people are campaigning to make footballers stop spitting. Yay! --> http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/england/manchester/4594052.stm

Sadly there was another article about manners in the BBC today, too. -->
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/4245754.stm

Are our manners so bad these days? According to the article modern Brits have bad manners but Americans are better behaved. True??? I wonder about Australians? The article says that Japanese people have very good manners. Hah hah! Not any more!

Is complaining bad mannered? Maybe I am bad too ....