Hot Springs

Do you know hot springs?



The picture above, which looks like a swimming pool, is called "Hot Spring" that is a traditional bath in Japan. This huge bath often placed in the outside as it is made to take bath with beautiful view such as nature. It really reflesh and relax our body. It can be mentioned that there is nobody who hates hot springs in Japan.



Most of Japanese-style inn have such hot springs in general. These inns are normally located in a place being able to see the great nature, especially in such countryside.

(Inside of an inn)


If you visit the inn, you may be able to eat healthy food, which is picture below, that is our typical meal in old days. (Of course we eat them in these days, however it's not really common food to eat as usual.)





Picture above is also our traditional food calld "Tempura." It is fried vegitables and sea food such as shrimp. We eat them with soy-based sauce.



Plenty of hot water in hot springs is pure water heated by magma in deep under ground or in a volcano. So, such hot water is very good for our body as it can make skin smooth and pains such as lower-back pain ease.

Do you know OPTICAL ILLUSION?

Have you ever heard about OPTICAL ILLUSION? It is something such a picture following that tricks your eyes and makes you think you can see something that is not true, or makes you see something as different from what it really is. It's quite interesting, so I decide to write about it today even with my blog title, my home country.

Now, look at the picture below.

How do you think about the darkness of color according to the tile A and the tile B?
Which is deeper?

Majority of people mentions that it's obviously the tile A. At first, I naturally thought so, too. However, the answer is no because their darkness of color is the same, unbeliebably. If you concentrate to see, you may finally get it.

Optical illusion causes when a human brain made a mistake while measuring of distance. When we look at an object, our brain resolves information such a shape, a color, etc. To recognize what the object in front of your eyes is, our cerebrum have to gather these reports. While organizing the information, the misinterpretation of the sensation happens, which is called optical illusion.

Then, please look at the next picture. It is a famous one, so I think many people have ever seen it. You know? You can see both OLD WOMAN and YOUND LADY in this picture, surprisingly.

Did you see? The Old Woman looking to the left with her chin to her chest and the Young Lady looking away from you over right shoulder are in the picture above. If you couldn't, you need to concentrate and think the necklace of young lady is the old woman's mouth or the ear of young lady is the old woman's eye.

There are more optical illusions.

1. Which line is longer?

Answer: They have the same length.

2. Are the horizontal lines below parallel?

Answer: They are all parallel. (If you have any doubts, please try to put rule along these lines.)

3. What does not happen in the reality according to the drawing?

Answer: The water goes up.

4. Is the pattern of leaves moving?

Answer: No. (If you don't think so, please look at each leaf. )

Traveling Japan -Pig-

Okinawa (a prefecture in Japan)
The object in the picture above is exactly a pig as you notice. He is a pig that you may be able to see when you visit Okinawa, a famous island in Japan. (Okinawa prefecture is an island.)Okinawa is one of popular place to travel among Japanese, especially high school students as they ordinally visit there while a school trip. There is a great nature and an unique traditional culture.

Don't you think it's very beautiful? The water seems to be emerald green normally in Okinawa even with its purity.

Since pork is well-known as a food which make our skin sleek in Okinawa, the average of consuming porks is very high. So, the reason why tourists see the pig with decoration many times is that it is one of the symbol represents Okinawa.

As I told above, many people eat porks. However, their traditional way to eat is a bit different from ours. You know? The picture above is TAILs of pigs. The citizens have their meals using tails such a salad without feeling disgusting unbelievably.

Also, they eat SNAKEs as one kind of meat. For instance, there is a restaurant that gives costumors a humbur ger steak using them.

How do you think what it is? Of course, I'm not talking about food anymore. Hahah This is a famous talisman to protect people in Okinawa called "SeeSaa" means lion. This is a picture of a temple in Okinawa. It's not a traditional shape of Japanese temple since the culture in Okinawa is more related to Chinese culture. (Okinawa island is very close to Taiwan and China.) It is an aquarium in Okinawa. It's wonderfully fabulous. There are many huge boxes with the plenty of the water to display many marine organisms. I really love to visit aquarium...

Halloween ~trick or treat?~

Happy Halloween!

Halloween is one of my favorite celebration in a year. At Chapel School on Friday I saw many children wearing pretty costumes as a witch, a ghost, a monster, a skeleton, a devile and so on. They were very cute and looked having fun. When I was in Japan, I had never seen such a pleasant sight during Halloween as we don't ordinally celebrate it. So, I love to see people with such costumes and to feel Halloween's mood.

On Friday during my English class, each student made a poetry. As I remembered elementary students were celebrating Halloween, I decided to compose a poetry about it.


Trick or Treat? Just a second. I give you a story instead of a candy. It is a story related to Halloween. Let me see. Then, listen.

Ghost appeared, in front of a lady. As she screamed, a men came. With a gun he said, "Freeze!" to ghost, likely thief. But ghost approached, so he pulled the trigger.

Ghost wasn't thief. A Japanese boy was dead. As he was beginner of English, he couldn't get what "freeze" meant. The DEATH instead of a CANDY...sad story........

Halloween is a fantasic and a pleasant festival for everyone. However, it reminds me a sad accident every year when this season comes. The poetry above which I made during my English class with Ms. Feitosa describes about the accident happened during Halloween. Because of a misunderstanding as a thief by a man, a high school student boy who came the U.S to learn English was shot unfortunately. As it was Halloween, he just visited their house to receive candies. His name was Hattori. People told he was a very nice boy and was really having fun with the different culture of the U.S from his nation. I can't stop thinking if he could have understood the word that the man said to him or if men could have noticed that he wore costume of ghost for Halloween. If it happened, he hedn't been taken his life.

Language is a great invention of human beings to communicate with the others, but not at all people can speak the same language, of course. Such as the accident above, a lack of language skill might be a big conflict to understand each other and to deal with a complicated situation. In my case, I actually have some problems to go to outside as I'm not good at speaking Portuguese. I had once followed by a strange guy, who looked like a hippie, while walking in a park. Even though it was better not to ignore him to avoid making him mad, I couldn't say anything to that hippie as I couldn't totally understand what he said. Good thing, he didn't have a gun. So, I escaped as a result. However, I really hoped if I could understand. As there is a possibility that he just asked me the way to go somewhere, he might think I, Japanese, was impolite. It is difficult to be a fluent speaker, but I want to learn English and Portuguese more to be good at both of them.

Artistic Lunch

Can you believe that the all objects in the picture following are food?
I think you see the pretty teddy bears staring at each other in the flower garden. They are made of rice, ham, and vegetables.

In Japan it's common to bring lunch to have it at school as schools don't ordinally provide meals for schoolchildren at public expense or school don't have a system to give lunch for students. So, students or their mothers are certainly required to make meals every school day. In fact, my mother always packs lunches for my two younger brothers and my younger sister, who study at Japanese school in Sao Paulo. She is very busy to make them in the morning.

Normally, we use lunch box to bring. Despite the small size of the box and the short time to cook, many students and mothers fill it with an elaborate dish, fabulously.



Very cute, isn't it? Do you know the character called "Sponge Bob"? A mother who has a daughter going to a kinder garden made it. Recently it's very popular to fill lunch box with beautiful food, which is decorated. Such as Sponge Bob, many people use characters to make an artistic meal.

1, Kitty

This character is called "Hello Kitty" in Japan.

2, Wedding Kitty



Oh my god! She is wearing a beautiful dress. Can you believe that you are able to eat all of things in the picture (except lunch box, of course)?

3. Flog



It's a famous animation character. I forget his name, but I remember he is an alien of flog coming from the other planet. He is cute, though.

4, Girls



Can you see a keyboard of piano??
Girls love meals like these in Japan. I was used to, too. Hahah

5, Christmas



Christmas tree with colourful ornaments...very beautiful!

6, Halloween



I think the light one is quite artistic. You know, the black part is sea weed, which we use to make rolled sushi.

7, Snow White and Seven Dwarft



Yeah, the face drawn on the rice is exactly Snow White's face!

8, Winnie-the-Pooh

I love this character! He is so pretty.

9, Pokemon

Do you know Pikachu which is one of Pocket Monster? Oh my god, I can't believe we can eat above! Especially, lunch in the right picture.

10, Barbapapa

I think everyone knows these characters.

11, Birthday

Can you see that it says "Happy Birthday" and there is a cake made of rice?

12, Penguin

Small penguins are made of a sausage. I really want to eat them. kkk

13, Lion

So pretty, isn't it? He is made of eggs.

14, Mice

I know these are characters of a famous book for children. This is the picture of the book's cover.

15, Dinosaur

Such lunches often make little boys very happy.

16, A girl wearing Kimono, Japanese traditional cloth

How fabulous it is!!

17, Doragon Ball

Do you know him? I think this animtion became a movie in the U.S.A.

18, An actor in Japan

(←real)

Oh yeah...it may be similar, I think.

19, Cowboy

It looks like a real person!

20, ??

Can you see? The object in the picture is an eye! I remember it's a famous monster in an animation. Oh my god! Can you eat?

Well...it's not something that make us eager to eat. Actually, the cook who made this lunch said that she made it for fun! And a man in the picture is her husband who looks like a Japanese comedian. Hahah