Handmade

Aloha Summer Festival

Okonomiyaki

at Kiji in Osaka
Open 11:30am-9:30pm (closed Thursday)
Umeda Sky Building-B1
TEL: 06-6440-5970
http://www.takimikoji.jp/shopnews/kiji.html

Nara

Kasuga Shrine in Nara
http://www.kasugataisha.or.jp/

English Meeting

388th FADIG Meeting
Saturday, April 11, 2009, 2:30-4:30pm
at Ten-noji Gakkan High School
by Ms. Omara Turner
Program : An Assessment of Barack Obama’s Inaugural Speech

Ms. Turner was born and brought up in Kingston, Jamaica.
She studied Literatures in English and Political Science at college.
She came to Japan in July 2007, and is currently teaching English
at Kumeda Senior High School in Kishiwada.
She is interested in foreign language acquisition and cultural studies.
This is her third lecture for us.

Dear members:
We would like to collect our membership fee \2,000 for the
first half of this year in April. (Our annual fee is \4,000.)

sakura and the moon

Spring

videos on Yappr

These are some videos on Yappr.

Obama's Part 1
http://jp.yappr.com/welcome/Video.action?videoGuid=8597BF15-2C39-45CA-8C6B-19AEFFC9DFA1

Part2
http://jp.yappr.com/welcome/Video.action?videoGuid=E2842F1A-BAFD-4B46-8CF4-59EB4D80FE2B

Part3
http://jp.yappr.com/welcome/Video.action?videoGuid=836FFF87-1CF2-4C1B-92B8-4DDEBBFAE4E1

book shop

Books Kinokuniya Sale
English books sales is on at Kinokuniya book shop in Umeda.
Date:21st(Sat)-29th(Sun) ,March 2009
Place:Kinokuniya book shop Umeda Main Store,Event space.
(Hankyu Sanbangai, 1-1-3 Shibata, Kita-ku, Osaka)
Time:10:00am-10:00pm,(29th 10:00am-6:00pm)
There are 10000 books at English book sale Kinokuniya!
TEL:06-6372-5821

Junkudo Book Sale
They have a 70 percent off sale until the end of March at 6F The foreign book section.(Some books are not on sale at the section. )
Date:-31st March ,2009
Place:Junkudo Shoten Umeda Hilton Plaza, Hilton Plaza East 5F・6F
　　　1-8-16 Umeda, Kita-ku, Osaka
11:00am-10:00pm
TEL　06-6343-8444

lunch at Cafe

English Meeting

387th FADIG Meeting
on Saturday, Feb 14, 2009, 2:30-4:30pm
at Ten-noji Gakkan High School
by Mr. Duane Levi with Showto
Program : Comedy in English

Mr. Levi is from the USA and studied psychology and
political science at the University of North Carolina Charlotte.
He came to Japan in 2001, and now he has his own music
promotion company, Shalestone Music, http://shalestonemusic.jp.
He made his TV debut in NHK “Eigo de Shabera Night” on Dec. 8, 2008.
He also performs English Rakugo himself with a stage name,
Juen (寿演).
This is his third lecture for us.This time he will perform “This is Rakugo” with Showto,and there will be a workshop by Showto with some of the audience.
FADIG
http://fadigosaka.blogspot.com/

English books

Junkudo Book Sale
Did you know they're having a 50 percent off sale until the end of January? English books are half price at 6F The foreign book section.
(Some books are not on sale at the section. )
Date:November 15th,2008-January 31st,2009.
Place:Junkudo Shoten Umeda Hilton Plaza, Hilton Plaza East 5F・6F
　　　1-8-16 Umeda, Kita-ku, Osaka
11:00am-10:00pm
TEL　06-6343-8444

English Meeting

386th FADIG Meeting
Saturday, Jan 10, 2009, 2:30-4:30pm
at Ten-noji Gakkan High School
by Mr. Justin Rajala
Program : An Outlaw Town: The History of Denver

Mr. Rajala was born in Tucson, Arizona and brought up in Colorado, USA.
He studied religion, focusing on Hinduism and Christianity in America
at the University of Denver.
He also studied in Madurai, India for three months in 2005.
He came to Japan in 2006, and is currently teaching English
at Osaka Ichiritsu High School in Hirakata.
This is his second lecture for us.
His first one in September was about ”The Religious Face of America”
FADIG
http://fadigosaka.blogspot.com/

Snow

I could see snow on 26th of December 2008 in Japan.I thought it was rain.It is a little wet snow but I like to see snowing.
In the morning it was cold.

My grandmother passed away on Sunday.I remembered her when I saw the snow in the sky.I feel she watches me.

Candle Night in Umeda

Candle Night in Osaka city 2008 winter
1,000,000 people's Candle Night

Date:11th December,2008
6:00pm-10:00pm ,Light off 2 hours(8:pm-10:00pm)
Place:Nishi-Umeda
http://candle-night-osaka.jp/

FADIG Lecturer Debut NHK

FADIG Lecturer Debut NHK!
Dear FADIG members and lecturers,

Mr. Duane Levi will be appearing NHK "Eigo de Shabera Night"
(英語でしゃべらナイト）.
This program will be on air 11:00-11:30pm Monday, December 8th 2008.He gave us lectures twice this year and his third speech will be about English Rakugo on February 14th 2009 at FADIG.
Please don't forget to tune in.

FADIG:
FADIG stands for "Foreign Affairs Discussion Group" and is called 'Kokusai-Rikai-Kondankai' in Japanese.It is a very friendly and informal English speaking group in Osaka.

Manyoshu

Manyoshu is the oldest collection of poems.It was made in about 760.Many poems were selected in Japan.There are 20 volumes and about 4500 poems.Many kinds of people in every status composed poems.Someone edited them.Manyoshu means "a collection of ten thousand of leaves".People wrote their feelings and beautiful natures.They didn't use Hiragana and Katakana.They still only use Kanji for it.We call "Manyogana".
Manyogana is the phonetic use of monosyllabic Chinese graphs to represent syllables of the Japanese poems in the Manyoshu.Hiragana and Katakana were made from Manyogana.
In 2003 one narrow strip of wood was found at Ishigami ruins in Nara.
Takashi Morioka, an associate professor of Tsukuba University,read these words on the wooden strip and found out it is a part of a poem in Manyoshu.This strip is believed to be oldest of its kind.
He said"It's become clear that composing poems in kanji in the phonetic Manyo style was popular among people of a certain social class in the Asuka period.The wooden strip provides clues to understanding how people of that time tried to compile poems and how they decided which characters to use to write them."

Rakugo in English(Osaka)

15th Ofuku-Yose "Rakugo in English"

Welcome to English Rakugo World!Have you heard English Rakugo?
Rakugo,comic story, is one of Japanese traditional speech.
It is fun. This group have a show once a year.
(http://ofuku.wisnet.ne.jp/)(http://ofukuyose.blog9.fc2.com/)
Admission Free.You do not have to make reservations
but the number of seats is only 150.

Date:November 16th(Sun),2008
Time:Open 1:30pm Start:2:00pm (Free)
Place: Municipal Life Long Learning Center 5F
http://osakademanabu.com/umeda/
（at Daini-building in Umeda）
1.This is Rakugo by Shima & Juen
2.Monkey by Hasshow
3.Tsuru by Sinocchi(debut)
4.Myogaya Inn by Koito /(intermission:15minutes)
5.The raccoon and the gambler by Kanan(debut)
6.Kouzu Shrine by Showto

autumn sky

Beautiful autumn sky.

The law of attraction

・The Great Secret of Life is the law of attraction.
・The law of attraction says like attracts like, so when you think a thought,
you are also attracting like thought to you.
・Thoughts are magnetic, and thoughts have a frequency.As you think
thoughts,they are sent out into the Universe, and they magnetically attract all like
things that are on the same frequency.Everything sent out returns to the source-you.
・You are like a human transmission tower, transmitting a frequency with your thought.
If you want to change anything in your life, change the frequency by changing your thoughts.
・Your current thoughts are creating your future life.What you think about the most
or focus on the most will appear as your life.
・Your thoughts become things.
(Secret)