Last time I wrote about what honey bees do, the number of honey bees is decreasing drastically, and what can we do?. Today is also about Honey Bees on a different side.
I think there are many things to learn from that small and lovely creature such as working hard, carrying pollen, making honey, having a social structure where role sharing is properly done… What is more surprising is that they are excellent mathematicians.
Today is about “Honey Bees” which is becoming big news these days.
I am embarrassed to know recently, but as the number of bees is drastically decreasing, scholars say they will be extinct in 20 more years, and beekeepers say in ten years.
In the past, a traveler who is going to see Ise Shrine,
It was supported
To “enforcement” of Ise people who provide
Rice balls, baths, water, straw etc.
If you put a dipper
At the end of Gosa rolled into a tubular shape
That’s why “Going on a pilgrimage to Ise” is called “Thank you pilgrimage”
Beginning around the power spots, the number of people going around shrines and temples has increased, and there are also many nice stampbooks (to collect red ink stamps at shrines) in recent years. Among them, I think that there are many worshipers in particular “Ise Jingu (Shrine)”, I also love it.
Today is about the big news in the world which is about the case where the 12 boys of the football team and the coach in the cave in northern Thailand that was submerged were confined and it was rescued about two weeks later. I would like to introduce about their experiences in the cave and after discharge.
Today is the marine day in Japan! This holiday which came into effect in 1996, the date of enactment was July 20 and the date was fixed, but it was changed to the 3rd Monday of July by the Happy Monday system. Moreover, it seems that it was an anniversary called “Sea anniversary” before being holidayed as “Marine day”.
The day was known as Marine Memorial Day until 1996. Communications Minister Shozo Murata designated the day in 1941 to commemorate the Meiji Emperor and his 1876 voyage in the Meiji Maru, an iron steamship constructed in Scotland in 1874. The voyage included a trip around the Tōhoku region, embarking on a lighthouse boat in Aomori, and a brief stop in Hakodate before returning to Yokohama on July 20 of that year.
By the way, it seems that only Japan is holidaying as “Marine Day”, I think that there is a unique feeling of the country surrounded by the sea on every side.
…The introduction has become longer, today is about the “Sea Song” named after the “Marine Day”.
“The Little Coconut” English words by Greg Irwin
There was a coconut
He fell down from his mother tree
Then a wave took that young coconut away
Far, so far from home, he landed on that seashore
And never ever could return home anymore
His mother palm tree
Now just a memory to him
Did she still sway in the sun or in tropic winds?
All alone there on the beach with sand as his pillow
Was he just a coconut or would he grow?
That little coconut
He grew into a fine palm tree
But he dreamed ever more of a distant shore
When the sun would set and waves would wash the sand
He dreamed of going back one day to his island
—–
It is a song composed by Toraji Onaka in 1936 to Toson Shimazaki’s poem written in 1901. It was also chosen as “100 songs in Japan”, I learned at elementary school. Even though I do not understand the meaning of songs that I learned at elementary school, I still remember well. I recall this song as summer approached.
I thought that the sound of the lyrics was beautiful, I did not think much about the meaning while I’m singing this song. (For the first time in decades!?) When I see what I characterize, there is something new to see.
It is said that Kunio Yanagida, who stayed at Irako Cape in the summer of 1898, was a poem born at the beginning of telling Toson about a story the fruit of the palm flowing to the beach. Cape Irako is located in Tahara City, Aichi Prefecture, facing the Pacific Ocean at the tip of the Atsumi Peninsula, which overlooks the Pacific Ocean and Mikawa Bay.
Toson’s imagination is amazing to make such a wonderful poem by listening to the story that palm fruits have flowed on. And that Japanese beauty (It is classic style, some of the words are not used now). Many things can understand meanings for the first time by reading in kanji like this (sweat), I fall in love as to what a beautiful expression.
Please imagine the scenery with the atmosphere of the poet as a whole.
A song was attached in 1936, it seems that Taro Shoji was the first to sing, but its sound is here.
Today is an introduction of Japanese sweet shop “wagashi asobi” in Ota Ward, Tokyo.
The brands of three Japanese sweets craftsmen based on this philosophy “Make wagashi (Japanese sweets) with feeling to one moment and one grain (one by one)”. I have the opportunity to hear stories about the brand from representative Motoshiro Inaba, they have been working with very nice ideas.
He worked for a long time at Toriya (Traditional Japanese sweet shop) and he was also working at a New York branch, then he has been independent after returning Japan and seventh in this year. There are only two items at “wagashi asobi”. The one on Mr. Inaba’s work “Herbal Rakugan” and his partner Asano’s confidential work “Dried fruit yokans”.
Today is the introduction of New York/Brooklyn brand “Out of Print“.
They produce and sell T-shirts etc printed on the cover page of masterpieces of the world at the online shop based on the concept “Wear Literature”. It is a brand whose mission is to ‘make the world’s great novels known to the world through fashion’, a wonderful brand that has commercialized high sense goodness of the analog brilliantly in the digital age. And they donate books to Africa by donating one book to “Books For Africa” every time one item is sold.
You might think the brand is orthodox and serious brand by this explanations but it was born in Brooklyn, New Your you know. It is so cool and the products are very fashionable.
I introduce a book today. I saw it at the book store the other day, it looked interesting and I tried reading it. “Everyday is a good day: 15 happiness taught by ‘Tea'” (only in Japanese) by Noriko Morishita.
First I introduce the overview.
Twenty-five years have passed since I began learning tea. Everyday I stumbled upon my job and kept searching for my whereabouts with anxiety. In the sorrow of broken heart, death of my father, when I noticed, there was “tea” beside me. Freedom that has come to me in a straitjacket of rules. A mind resting that “Only staying here is okay”. I smell rain, I can hear one grain of rain… Together with the pleasures of tasting the seasons with five senses, “I am alive now!” I spell that impression vividly.
Shirakami-Sanchi (literally white god mountain area) has been registered as a World Natural Heritage Site, and since this is the 25th anniversary this year, I went to “Beech School” because a special lecture was held by the local guides of Shirakami-Sanchi.
At the Tanabata event, people decorate wish things in strips and decorate them with bamboo together with Tanabata decorations such as folding cranes and windsocks. It sounds silly and winds in the wind, it is very nice to have a taste. Well, why is bamboo?
Hello! My name is Yuko. I am a freelance graphic & digital designer based in Tokyo.
I write about creating things, art & culture, travels, and sometimes universe. I post something like what makes your life happier through my perspective. I write this in Japanese as well. More about me
