2008/07/15

2008 June 23 Monday thru June 25 Wednesday.


Monday morning at 10:00 I had my first gig of this year at the Chestnut Tree Kindergarten くりの木幼稚園.

You can see a photo of the chipmunk who guards the front door of the building, above/left.

This kindergarten has about 220 students and they all assemble at the same time in the big hall for my performance, so it is almost impossible to talk face to face with any one student at a time.

Therefore, I bring my guitar along with me, plus a lot of big colorful laminated flash cards, that are related to the songs, and the kids and I spend most of the hour singing songs together.

What else can I do in such a situation?

Kids just naturally respond to music and in fact understand it better than spoken language at this point in their lives.

After that was finished at about 11:10, I took my sweet time driving back to my place, because the weather was so beautiful today.

At 13:00 I had my usual 90 minute class at the 神楽公民館で英会話を楽しむ会.

One of the students, the longest attending member of this class, told us about a 3 day trip she and her husband had recently taken to the Tokyo Metropolitan Area.

She described many interesting things about her trip, including the fact that they had visited the
YASUKUNI SHRINE 靖国神社.

When she told all of us the reason for their visit to the shrine, it literally blew my mind.

It turns out that her husband's father was killed on the tiny island of Iwo Jima, in 1945 during the
Pacific War!!!

I almost fell out of my chair. I myself have also lived on the island of Iwo Jima for about one year in 1976 as a member of the United States Coast Guard.

In fact, that is where I first started learning the Japanese Language.

Another amazing fact about this lady, is that she is the ONLY original member of this group that is still in attendance, after 12 years of continuous classes!!!

Is this a coincidence??? Or, is it synchronicity.

You decide. I already KNOW what IT is.

By the way, a word about Yasukuni Shrine.

In my opinion, visiting Yasukuni Shrine by any Japanese person, be it the Prime Minister of Japan or the garbage man of Shinjuku, is a TOTALLY PRIVATE matter for that person.

Anybody who criticizes someone for visiting the shrine, is out of line.

In the newspapers, on TV and other media, I often see China or Korea or some other country making a big fuss over the Japanese Prime Minister's visit to the Yasukuni Shrine.

It is none of their phucking business! The only difference between a WAR HERO and a WAR CRIMINAL, is the fact that the war hero's country WON THE WAR, and the war criminal's country LOST THE WAR.

That is all. WAR IS ATROCITIES!!!

We never hear anybody criticizing the President of the USA for laying a big flower wreath at the
ARLINGTON NATIONAL CEMETERY, do we.

Use your phuckin' brains and get a clue. WAR IS ATROCITIES and Yasukuni Shrine is an issue for the Japanese People, and the Japanese People ONLY!

The rest of you can all go jump into the Pacific Ocean.

The TRUTH between RED blood and GOLD medals is ORANGE goo.