maiko-san

When the days are getting shorter, it's time for robust soup, roast meat and inflammable cakes. Especially  we crave for strong aroma, intensive vegetables and various fruits. If you are a vegitarian, it's likely you would end up eating red beets, cabbage und pumpkings. We enjoy eating autumn food every which way. It'a a shame I can't tell you autumn recipe because I can not cook. So I'd like to tell you about typical autuman fruits in Japan. They are pears, kaki and grapes. The best of all I like the red- yellow kaki . Kaki -tress grow only in China, Korea and Japan.When I was a kid, I used to climb up a kaki -tree in the garden and reaped kaki for my family. It's usual that people peel a kaki before they eat. But I love eating kaki with  the peel. Since kaki's upper part of the peel contains lots of nutritious fibrestuff, sweet and juicy substance, it's good for digestion. Kaki is also a season word for Japanese Haiku. I'm going to qu...

In April 1961 I entered Seikei Junior High School in Tokyo. As I also went to Seikei Elementary School, there was no entrance examination to go to Junior High School. I rode an excaltor that brought me automatically up to Junior High. As soon as the first term ended in July, we went on a journey to Summer School in Hakone. I remember a shabby-looking dormitory where we stayed two nights. We called it a spooky house. But we enjoyed seeing beautiful white lily flowers on the garden. During the summer vacation in August my father took me to Itoh Seashore, Shizuoka Pref. where I leaned to swim. My father told me, I would not be able to swim, unless I drowned in the surf once or twice. Brrr.. The second term started on the 10th of September. I couldn't sleep well on the very night before school started. It was exciting to see my classmates again! The beginning ceremony of the second term was held at the auditorium. About 1000 students gathered. For starters the principal gave a ta...

The other day I attended a meeting at Kobe German-Japan Society Club. 15 People gathered. One German  couple, a young Korean woman, a young Chinese from Hong Kongs, two co-eds from Kobe University and 10 elderly people who have retired from work. The theme is about "The relationship between Japan and its neighboring countries" and by the same token "The relationship between Germany and its neighboring countries." The facillitator started talking about the number of civillians and soldiers killed in the Second World War. He said, "In the Pacific theater 5 million people were killed and in the European theater....." All of a sudden a German woman screamed at him and said, "Do we have go all over this? I have enough of it. Why do we have to dig up the past? I'm here to talk about the present relationship between Germany and our neighbors." The discussion leader cleared his throat and answered, "Mrs. Merkel, I'm just touching on the ...