Dear People of the World (formerly Dear Americans)

Please listen to the music. It is a good one.

Umi Yukaba (If I go away to sea).

I like it. I can feel the souls of dead soldiers belonging to Japanese army.

The song is played with translated lyrics (English and Russian).

The song is not played in public any more because it souds encouraging military men to die.

But it had been considered Japanese imperial army's anthem and second national anthem until the end of second world war.

The below one is without lyric subtitle but with adequate images for the song.

I never support war actions for invasion but I like the song anyway.

Today was a big news day for showbiz.

The king of Pop Star, Micheal Jackson died of heart attack and one of the hottest angel of "Charlie's Angels", Farrah Fewcett died of cancer.

Two big icons of American entertainment died. Both of them were very familiar to me.

I remember when Micheal Jackson visited Japan in 1980's. He stayed in Japan for more than 40 days.

He really liked Japan and gave big compliments to our country. He said something like "In Japan shy people like me can be welcomed unlike the U.S."

Did it mean he was not welcome in the U.S.?

The other big star, Farrah Fewcett was one of the casts of my favourite show "Charlie's Angels."

Actually I liked Cheryl Ladd who acted as her sister better.

The three beautiful women acted as detective. The story was made into film.

I like the episode that Cheryl Ladd and Farrah Fewcett were together as sisters.

But Micheal and Farrah are gone.

Not only that, my image of America of those days were gone, too. America is not dream country any more.

Actually I hate that country although I had lived there for more than 5 years.

Maybe since I learned the U.S. Navy decided to deploy nuclear aircraft carrier in Yokosuka.

But America has drastically changed recently since 911, war in Iraq and financial crisis.

The End of Era.

Even Obama, the first Black man to be the president of the U.S. work too well, the things would not be much better.

This article describes why.

Good bye, Micheal, Angel and the era of America!

This was in fact Scottish folk song.

The song for rememberance and friendship. In 19th century the song was introduced to Japan and was used as martial song.

Japanese translated version "Hotaru no Hikari, The glow of a firefly" was for promotion of patriotism and imperialism.

I learned this song when I was small. Recently I enjoyed the song in the war story film "Umi-yukaba."

The story took place in early 20th century, when Japanese sailors fought against Russian fleet.

When the battle ship departed from Japanese imperial navy's port, Sasebo. This tune was played on the ship by its brass-band.

The sailors were waving their hand to the local people who were waving national flags to them.

The battleship was called "Mikasa." I have strong spritual connection with the ship.

I remember when I first visited Yokosuka to join the protest activity against deployment of USS George Washington last year.

I was invited to the ship by the souls of the sailors. At first I tried to get to the office of the activist group from the train station, but I got lost and after a while I found myself standing in front of the ship exhibited in the marine park.

The Mikasa was flagship of Japanese imperial Navy in early 20th century. During Russo-Japan war (1904-05) the ship and its fleet struck down Russian imperial navy's Baltic fleet in Sea of Japan. Japan won Russian Empire. The ship was built by British. Japan was supported by Great Britain in the war. British did not allow Baltic fleet to pass Suez Canal so that the Russian fleet had to spend more time, supply and coals to reach Japan's sea.

We owe a lot to Great Britain but unfortunately two nations fought against each other in the war later.   

I recently found a good video clip for the song. The background image is scenes from a classical film "Waterloo Bridge" which Vivien Leigh, an actress who also starred in the very famous classical film "Gone with the Wind." I don't know who sang the song. I wish some day I would be able to listen to the song sang by a famous British singer, Suan Boyle.

A big surprise in this world.

A 47 year-old Scottish woman who had never been married and even kissed by a man sang a very beautiful song.

You can never match her appearance with her voice.

I am waiting for the CD of her singing released in Japan.

Surprisingly she was never noticed as a professional singer until now.

It is like Cinderella Story in 21st century.

She's having an ordinary sigle life living with a cat. 

Now the world knows her.

This is where you can find her.  

But you can easily find her by searching "Susan Boyle."

I learned that a song titled "I dream a dream" exists.

She gave a dream to everyone. Even you become a middle age person, you still have a chance in life.

I went to Former Furukawa House & Garden Park in Tokyo. The house and garden used to be owned by one rich family named Furukawa, who established very big conglamour. The house was designed by British architect Josiah Conder. It was built in 1917.

Now it is owned by the Tokyo metropolitan government. It is beautiful, especially the time like this with beautiful roses blossoming in the garden.

See the photos of the below.

I'll post some more photos of the garden on album section.

The Poem reading and guitar playing show was held in the garden. The below photo is a woman reading a Shakespear's poem.

You can also enjoy the You Tube clip of the visit.

Enjoy the acoustic guitar playing at last part. It was very nice.

By John Mayer released last year.

I bought a CD which contains the song. I just happen to hear this song on the radio then I liked it very much. That is why I bought it.

I like the lyric very much. "It is hard to beat the system. So you have to wait on the world to change."

This song reflects the current situation of America regarding ongoing war in Iraq.

Many people want to stop the war but the system doesn't allow it.

It is true not only regarding the war but other issues in this world.

You just have to wait, you can't do anything to fix, not right away.

Things would be eventually changed after massive casualties were seen.

Yes, this is the world we live. And this is our life.

20 years ago, I was a big fan of Billy Joel. That was when I was in secondary school.

 At that time I did not live in a big city where a big star like him would come. Now I live in Tokyo.

I bought a ticket that cost 10500 yen ($85). Actually I am not his fan any more but somewhere inside me I still wanted to see his performance.

 Indeed his performance was as great as I expected. He was 2-300 meters away from where I was standing. But I still could see him moving on the stage, drinking water while singing. He got older, and bald. But he was very energetic. I could not believe he is close to 60 years old. He sang the songs I know, and I still remember although I haven't heard it for years.

Just the way you are!

Stranger!

Big shot!

New York State of Mine,

Allentown

In the middle of Night

My life

Honesty

Innocent Man

And other songs I still know but could not remember title of it.

The last song he sang was kind of his debut song "Piano Man."

He sang playing piano by his hands and whistling harmonica set on his shoulders.

"Sing a song, Piano man, Sing a song tonight."

Unfortunately my favorite among all, "Uptown Girl" was not sung.

 The dome was almost filled with tens of thousands of spectators.

 I realized he is still a big star to me!

Thank you, Billy.

I just recently bought the CD that contains the song of the below.

From the Halls of Montezuma
To the Shores of Tripoli;
We will fight our country's battles
In the air, on land and sea;
First to fight for right and freedom
And to keep our honor clean;
We are proud to claim the title
of United States Marine.

Very rythmical and powerful song, isn't it?

Then I want to ask,

What are they doing in Iraq?

Fight for right and freedom?

To keep your honor CLEAN?

See this! 

This is just like Japanese troops in China in 1930's.

I am now listening famous folk songs.

The following is the numbers on the CD I have. I bought it at 100 yen(=$1) shop.

1. Carry Me Back to Old Virginia
2. Silver Threads Among the Gold
3. Clementine
4. De Camptown Races
5. Aloha Oe (That is Hawaiian?)
6. Home on THe Range
7. What a Friend we have in Jesus
8. Molly Darling
9. Deep River
10. I've been working on the Railroad

Are they familiar withe you?

I also like "Old Black Joe." The lyric starts with "Gone are the days...."
That was one of the first English songs when I started to learn the language.