Dear People of the World (formerly Dear Americans)

A Candadin man experiences FUNDOSHI, Japanese traditional male underwear, swimming suit and custume for festival.

Read Chapter 1 first.

Jacques wanted to swim in the water. Japan’s summer is hot. Not just hot, unlike Canada, it was very humid. So he got so much sweat. Staying in a room with air-conditoner on was a way to avoid the hot and humid. Since Jacques was a sporty person, he could never stand staying home for a long time. After he finished translation work, he came to want to go out.

Yuriko recommended him to swim in the sea. It was first time for him to swim in the sea because Montreal had no sea. It had lakes and river but he never swam there. Where he swam was swimming pool.

Since he came to coastal town, he thought swimming in the sea wasn’t so bad. For Japanese it seemed swimming in the sea was to avoid high temperature and humidity.

But there was a problem, latex allergy, he bought and tried to put on swimwear, allergy symptoms appear on his waist. This isn’t good. Where can he purchase swimwear without rubber-band? Fundoshi? But fundoshi for underwear seemed not work for swimming. It can easily be loosen in the water and front cloth floats.

What did Japanese wear before they had modern swimwear? He just got interested in it. Was there any fundoshi for swimming? He searched on internet and found one.

That was different type of fundoshi, called Rokushaku. It goes like putting on a long cloth between legs and roll it around body knit it and bend on your back and then roll and finally connect and tie the edges. It was like origami technique.  

Jacques went to kimono shop and asked the shopkeeper if he had any of it. The shopkeeper took out a roll sheet of cloth and cut it at 3 meters long from the roll.

“No one really wears things like that these days”he mumbled.

He imitated the way internet video showed how to put it on. After struggles, he finally could make it. Unlike modern swimwear, putting the cloth on to fit his own body and tighten not dropping was really hard work. It took 30 minutes to find best way to put on.

After wearing it, he felt totally different from when he wore modern swimwear. Showing his bare ass, the cloth was narrowly attached to his skin from front to break of his ass. It seemed like the cloth got into his asshole. It made him feel really weird. He felt like his asshole was tightened. It was very uncomfortable.

This is like sumo wrestler's cloth. Do they fight in feeling like this?

Jacques tried to go to the beach where not many people were in. Just in a few minutes walk, he found very quiet and small beach. It was a very clear day and nobody was there. Why he went there alone was he did not show his ass in public. Furthermore, he was foreigner so he had to attract more attention from others.

He did not even want Yuriko to see so he went to the beach while Yuriko was out. There he arrived and tried to bathe. Somebody called him in English of Japanese accent.
"Is this what your people think barbaric underwear?"
He looked back and found Taro.

Continued to Chapter 5

Biopic of former British prime minister, the only female PM in British history. Maybe she was as notable as Queen Elizabeth in pre-modern time.

She was born in a family of grocery. Her father was local mayor. She studied in Oxford.

She lived through 2nd world war, and struggled with male dominated society.

After she became prime minister, she won the war with Argentine over terriroritorital sovereignty in South Atlantic sea. At that time US was not very supportive, rather Reagan proposed peace pact with Argentine. That taught us what would happen if similar thing happens between China and Japan.

At that time, Thatcher told the U.S., what did you do when Japan attacked Pearl Harbour? Did you abondon Hawaii because it was so far away and not many people lived there? Did you propose peace pact to Tojo?

She was once about to be assassinated by IRA but survived.

This film described her being woman did not matter to what she did. She had capability of what she wants to do.

Recently I asked some British people about their reputation of Mrs. Thatcher. Surprisingly they did not like her very much. Is it because of her neo-liberal policy? She cut budget spending and privatised national businesses.

Whether that resulted in a good way or not, she had done those things with her firm determination.

Why we never had such a strong leader in our country's politics!

A Candadin man experiences FUNDOSHI, Japanese traditional male underwear, swimming suit and custume for festival.

Read Chapter 1 first.

"Hi, May I help you?" a very poweful voice from a middle age man was heard.
Inside was small dining place with several tables and a counter. Over the counter was the big fat middle age man who seems like the restaurant master.

"Long time no see, Gen-san" said Yuriko. They seems to be aquaintances.
"Hi, Yuri-chan, Such a long time we haven't seen each other. Is that a guy the rumor tells your Canadian husband?"
"Yes, his name is Jacques."
Jacques smiled at Gen-san and greeted saying "Nice to meet you, I'm Jacques."

"Oh, you really chose a very nice guy, didn't you. You have great talent of choosing a quality man."
Yuriko looked a little embarrassed by his words.
"Now get in. Jacques-san. I treat you dinner. I've got a great fish. This is celebration for reunion with Yuri-chan and meeting with her new partner, Jacques-san, a very handsome husband."
Jacques thought localies are nice. They seems not type of outsider hater as Yuriko described. He thought he would be getting along if he could try politely.

After Jacque and Yuriko sat down at a table, Gen brought sake and glasses to the table and poured sake into their glasses.
"How is Taro doing these days? I heard he went to England" said Yuriko.
Taro. Very first name he heard. Who is he?
"Well, he was such a stupid boy. After all, he went back to Japan. He tried to imitate what you are doing and study abroad. But he could never get used to living in foreign country."
"Does that mean he went back here?"

Yuriko sounded kind of strange whe she said that. What is wrong with her?
"Yeah, he knows you came back. But he is so ashamed of seeing you. You came back home with such a handsome husband. He can never see you."
Suddenly sound of door opening was heard.
"Hey, speaking of" said Gen.

"Taro, long time no see" said Yuriko. In front of her was young boy who looked the same age as she. He really looked local young boy with cute face. The face resembles the restaurant master, meaning son of the master. The height was as tall as Yuriko. Not big but his body was muscular.

"Yuri-chan" said Taro. He seems very close to her. Taro looked at Jacques.
"Is he your husband?"
"Yes, he is. His name is Jacques."

Taro looked at him very strangely. Jacques smiled and said "nice meeting you." He should have said "I've heard so much about you" in that situation but he never heard of him. Why didn't she ever talk about him? The answer to the question was known by his face and action he took right after this. 

"Yuri-chan, why are you doing this? Do you want to make me more miserable than ever? You are Japanese girl but why did you marry a foreigner?"
"Taro" said Yuriko looking so guilty.
Behind Yuriko Gen said "Taro, shame on you. It can't be helped. She got really crazy about this foreign guy. That is the way it is. You should grow up". Taro started to drop tears from his eyes.
Then Gen shouted angrily "You do such a shameful thing as being Japanese boy, Nihon Danji." Taro immediately stayed away from the place and ran away.
Yuriko looked at him running away and dropped tears as well.
"What is wrong, Yuri?" said Jacques.

"Ha, ha, ha, Jacques-san, you make both Japanese girl and boy cry. Sucha a naughty guy!" said Gen. His words made them uncomfortable.
"Let's go out," said Yuriko. She took Jacques's arm and got out of the restaurant. They walked for a while and got in dark beach.
"Tell all about this" Jacques asked Yuriko.
Yuriko told him all about what just happened. 

Taro and Yuriko were friends from childhood. Taro and Gen were local fishermen and managed the restaurant "Nihon Danji." From childhood they promised to marry when they grew up. But thing has changed since Yuriko was awarded scholarship to attend college in Canada by winning English speech contest in high school. She wanted to enroll college after high school graduation but enrolling in Japanese college is too expensive. Scholarship was free and enabled her to attend foreign college and speak English. She thought it would be beneficial for her life. Then she flew to Canada telling Taro to be patient until her graduation of the college.

But she met Jacques in Canda and got married to him. One of the reasons she never wanted to go back home was Taro's presence.
Taro got so shocked when he heard the news Yuriko got married in Canada. He once thought of flying to Canada to get back Yuriko. He decided to study English hard to confront Jacques but he was very poor in English. He saved money for studying English in England. Then he went there and studied some English for a year but he came back after he found he was never good at English. Now he saw her again in hometown very miserably.
"Sorry, I never told you that."
"It is OK. I understand why you never wanted to" said Jacques kindly thinking what a trouble he got, so that he should not see Taro again while he was in this town.  

Continued to Chapter 4.

A young woman who lived in New York decided to write blog on her try on all of recipes wriitten on America's most famous cooking personality named Julia Child.

After she completed all the recipes, she became famous for her blog. That was a true story.

The movie itself wasn't so impressive. Kind of typical and exaggerated. Just one thing that impressed me was writing blog indeed changes your life.

Is it every blogger's dream that your own personal blog became so famous that a lot of people read it and make a fortune?

Even you can't have so many readers and make so much money by that, you can still enjoy writing blog. Sometimes you get comments which impresses you. Even small number of readers that are impressed and tell you how they feel about it, that is good enough.

I am experiencing that. It is just fun to share your life experience with other people whom you have never seen. Like Julia, when you start something new and want to complete, you should declare that on blog, then that can be the promise with other people and that can motivate you to go on, not easily giving up.

Plus, taking notes of every progress teaches you how to manage yourself regarding what you do later on.

I like blog.