I needed to return books I’ve used for my job and for my volunteer work. Also, I wanted to borrow books for research for the manuscript I am now working on.  In the photo, you can see Fukushima Prefectural Library.

My apologies for the slanted horizon. When I took the photo, I was concentrating on getting the front of the library plus the trees in the distance. You can see the leaves changing, although so far our weather has been very mild. (Too mild, in my opinion.)

See the front windows? During the Big Quake of 2011, they shattered completely. (I know this because the library has photos of the damage done by the quake.)

Because we are inland, though, Fukushima City’s buildings were NOT affected by the tsunami. The city is very far from the coast.

After the library, I headed next door to the Fukushima Prefectural Art Museum. I go to all its exhibits because I purchased a one-year pass. (A good deal!)

This exhibit was amazing! (I could not take photos inside the actual exhibit. In the photo, I am in the lobby.)

It was mostly statues and woodwork. The artist was born 130 years ago in what is now Fukushima Prefecture’s Soma Town. I asked if this artist is famous all over Japan, and was told that he is. After I saw his work, I definitely believed it. His work is fantastic!

I was told that though he grew up in Fukushima, he left for college in Tokyo. Then he studied in Paris. The first part of the exhibit appeared non-Japanese–it looked influenced by European and Egyptian art. But the end of the exhibit was definitely Japanese-influenced. I can’t describe it, but I loved it.

There was one section that had sculptures of animals—and I had flashbacks to a zoo when I looked at a lizard basking on wood in a glass case! That made me think that it would be interesting to sculpt small animals (lizards, snakes, frogs) and display them in cases–like an actual herpetarium. That would be fun.

Here’s more info about Sato Gengen. (If you are wondering, Gengen–a cool name–is not his birth name. Like many Japanese artists and writers, he changed his own name to a pen name.)

https://www.gurutto-fukushima.com/detail/783/news/fukushimaguide-90730.html

I received my test voucher yesterday so I’m all set!

Luckily, the testing venue is just down the street from my home.

It’s a test for foreigners to gauge their Japanese ability. It’s basically reading, grammar and listening skills.  (I don’t have to write or speak.)

I don’t know many people who have passed it. It’s very difficult for a non-native speaker of Japanese.

I’ve passed N2 (the second hardest level.) N2 is generally what is required to get a job in the field of Japanese.

This is my first time taking N1 and I don’t expect to pass it. My knowledge just isn’t there. I’m taking it more to go through the motions and get a good feel for the test.

As a library volunteer, I go to the classrooms and read picture books to the students. But once a year, all the volunteers get together and we read a picture book together to all the students in the school.

The library volunteer leader chose Leo Lionni’s “Little Blue and Little Yellow.” I read it in English, alternating page by page with volunteers who read it in Japanese.

I did not make the blue and yellow circles! The leader made them.

It’s held in the gym, and kids watch the story on a screen as we read it.

My reward afterwards….Snack Time!!!!!!!!!

This is me going to work (Halloween Party for kids in a school) yesterday:

This is me after the Halloween party:

(It was one craaaazy party.)

This article is in a non-Japanese newspaper:

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/oct/17/there-is-hope-here-fukushima-turns-to-tourism-after-nuclear-meltdown?fbclid=IwAR3fT8ziHVIqula2PaiW9XyhT9oPbfJMs-ZP-oUQoHU7S07HgGk-EwsYR_U

My quick thoughts:

1.) “Turning to” is not the right word. Pre-accident, Fukushima was a very popular place for Japanese people to go. It’s got history, onsen, beauty….What this article is talking about foreign tourists, who were very much unaware of Fukushima before the accident. Fukushima is not trying to “turn to,” rather, we are trying to get back to how we used to be (a relaxing getaway.)

2.)  “Fukushima Brand”??? Ugh…  Fukushima is not a “brand.” It’s a place.

My husband and I celebrated our twentieth anniversary in September of 2018. We were married (first) in Kansas on a hot September day, then we had a second ceremony in October for his parents’ side.

He’s an extremely good person, and a great husband. ❤

I signed up to take the highest level Japanese Proficiency Language Test (in December, 2018.) So I am going to stop blogging for a while to concentrate on studying for that. I might pop in every so often for urgent news reports, but basically I’ll be Nihongo-ing.

And as always, I’m writing jotting down penning  banging out my work-in-progress. It’s terces pot, which in Backwards Language means…. Well, we need a Backwards Language Dictionary to correctly translate it. It’s difficult to define.

Okay, signing off for the next three months……….

Have a great autumn! (or spring, for those below the equator)

In the 1990’s, I was in my college town of Lawrence, Kansas (home of the University of Kansas.) I entered a bookstore to look around. A picture book called “Everyone Poops” was on display. It surprised me (but in a pleasant way,) because I had never ever seen “poop” mentioned or illustrated in a picture book before. Wow! 

“Everyone Poops” was/is a Japanese picture book for kids by the ultra-famous Taro Gomi (Gomi Taro in Japanese.This is more about his books.) When I arrived in Japan in 1995, I noticed that poop drawings were common here. My junior high students might doodle poop for fun (always in the shape of the top of a soft-serve ice cream cone) and poop was frequent in manga (Japanese comics.) Poop drawings were absolutely no big deal, although I hadn’t seen them at all in the U.S. (I think poop has recently reached America’s shores and the country is now excrement friendly in illustrations.)

When I was in the U.S. during the past summer, I saw the English version of Gomi’s “Everyone Poops” in a used book store and purchased it. I thought it would be perfect for my library volunteer activity of reading aloud to kids at my son’s former elementary school.

Once in Japan, I borrowed the same book in Japanese from our public library. I also prepared eight flashcards to teach words from the book. I thought certain words are very useful, but they won’t get taught in regular English classes that the students will attend. Yet, aren’t poop and flush useful words to know if one finds oneself constipated while travelling abroad?

I was slightly worried because this book is about poop… But not too worried because Japanese parents and teachers, etc. are much more open to these kinds of books than American parents and teachers.

Despite “Everyone Poops” being virtually the only Taro Gomi book that Americans know, this book isn’t especially famous among today’s Japanese children. A few of the kids I read to knew it, but not all. (It’s an old book.) Taro Gomi, on the other hand, is an author that all the kids recognize. He’s both prolific (tons of his books are not published in English) and extremely famous.

So basically, the book was a success. The English and Japanese are written at the level of a toddler’s understanding–which is about right for the elementary school students who don’t know any English at all. And isn’t it cute? And teaches a great lesson. 🙂