Sunday, February 24, 2013

Trip to Death Valley



There are places, which impressed one for visiting. These are places one keeps in his memory for a long time. He will never forget. In visiting Milan, Italy, the South Alps seen from northern Milan was also something. South Alps stood like towering wall. It was breath-taking. New York City is different from any other cities in the world. Japanese compare it to Tokyo, but, it is different from Tokyo, in many ways.

Japan is a country with abundant water. Japanese never worry about water since it is there whenever they need it. As a Japanese, it was quite an impression to see and stand in the desert. Death Valley is one of the places, which is outstanding in the US.

According to the people who know deserts in Mid-east, they say they are more like dry soil not sand. Instead, people, who knows Sahara desert, says it is actually sand. The sand can come down between fingers, when one scoops up the sand. The desert of Death Valley is different from both of above categories, if one expects to see one of the above.

If one drives approaching Death Valley, he will notice that the scenery outside changes from green to brown, brown to almost no color. When he arrives Death Valley Park, he is standing in the world with no color but white and light brown.

First, one may wish to see the lowest point of Death Valley, "Bad Water Basin". Death Valley is dried seawater lake. Deep down on the ground, there still be water, and it sometimes come out to surface. Cowboys who found this water source trying to drink it and found it "Bad". This is why this place is called "Bad Water Basin". The white part of desert ground is salt. Ones impression will be; "it is sea of salt". When one takes a close look at the surface of the desert, it does not look like a view in this world. It is light brown dry and cracked.

There is a small fish living in the water stream wherever it is. There are rat kinds of animal who can live without drinking water for about 2 years. Is not it astonishing?

Is there any indication of living there? There are some murals discovered in one of the caves in the area. The mural was painted in Ice Age. They might have been painted before the lake is dried and formed Death Valley. There was no indication of living creature at all as far as one could see.

Death Valley has some unique records. It is the lowest altitude desert in the world. It located at an altitude of -282 ft sea level. Staying on the bottom of the Valley looking up a hill, one may see the signboard says "Sea Level". It has smallest precipitation in North America. It is 20mm a year. It marked highest temperature in North America, 120 degree F. One can visit Death Valley in winter. Still the temperature will be well over 85. It is vast and desolate place. Visitors can still feel the beauty in it.

How did this dry lake named "Death Valley"? It is simple but dreadful name. Many people may wonder how. In the Gold Rush period starting 1984, gold miners thought this valley a short cut to Gold Mine area in the west. The people who once went into the valley, had never come out, due to a harsh nature. The record shows that it was only one cart came out of the valley. One of the people said, "Good Bye, Death Valley". Then people started to call this place Death Valley.

This desert lies over 2 states, California and Nevada. The area became "National Park" in 1994 under Bill Clinton administration. It is now under Federal Management. The desert is desolate. It keeps some beauty. The beauty is almost noble. Maybe this impression came from the nature, which does not allow people to survive. The scenery amazes visitors. It is breath-taking. Still, when the bus started to move out from the valley, visitors could feel relieved.






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Sunday, February 17, 2013

What Is the Most Important in Real Cross-Cultural Exchange?



NHK, (Nippon Broadcasting Corporation) has been broadcasting good English learning programs historically. Now they have one of more modern and talk show style, English studying program. There is a show host, young American who speaks fluent Japanese, 2 male students, 1 female student, and a guest. The guests are usually famous people who are involved in the international community, in various fields. Their activities are United Nations related, international sports event, overseas business, or entertainment.

It is enjoyable to watch improvement of regular students and stories from guests. It was particularly interesting was the male student whose English was not good at all in the beginning of his study. He needed to try to take an American girl out for dating in US, the girl he talked was polite, but still she needed to ask him to brush up his English and ask again. It is not his broken English, however. It was noticeable that no matter how many times he has made mistakes, he has never given up. The people who were laughing at him started to be serious helping him. He was making his progress!

This student reminded me one person who I have worked with in my business experience. He was a Senior Engineer from my previous employment. He and I worked together for License of Technology. There are some Americans visited us for the license. Alas, he could not speak English so well. He depended me on English translation and business matters. We were a good team and worked together with Americans and Europeans. Whenever we had visitors from overseas, there was one thing everybody noticed. Despite his limited ability of English, the visitors admired him, appreciate what he did for them, and remembered him very well.

He was the one, who made sure that his guests stay in the proper place, and they are comfortable. In addition to his engineering capacity to prepare for visitors will go back with some result, even not an agreement, he was the one select their hotels, transportation, and meals. He visited hotels to make sure his visitors' stay would be comfortable. When one of guests became ill, he took the visitor to a hospital and stayed up all night to make sure he was okay.

This my friend died from a heart attack about 20 years ago. I felt I lost my own brother. He was the one who taught me that language ability is nice and convenient tool, but it is not everything. What is more noteworthy is one's mind for loving, caring, and people oriented. Even if you find one who could speak perfect English in Japan, if he was selfish and cold-hearted, and just business like, you would not feel like speaking with him for a long time, would not you?





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Sunday, February 10, 2013

Dog Friendly Town, Carmel, CA



Every year just after Christmas and New Year, my family goes for a vacation trip. My wife and I took my wife's mother to Las Vegas and Los Angeles in 2008. In 2007, we were in Tokyo and Beijing, and so on. It is due to my family being away from home countries not having nearby or reachable family member to visit, feel a little bit.

Last year, we took new family member, white dog, Snow to the No. 1 dog friendly town, Carmel, CA. Carmel is famous for being the top 5 dog friendly city constantly. Many restaurants have dog menu. A dog owner can take his dog to inside of any shop there. In the beach, dogs are leash free like in a large dog park.

A couple of the route is available for driving from San Francisco to Carmel. One is taking 101 South. The other is to take CA-1, Pacific Highway, which runs along Pacific Ocean Coast. CA-1 has fantastic ocean views. One can plan to take several stops before reaching Monterey, Carmel area.

There were several public beaches on Pacific Highway, CA-1. A dog lover may not like if he lands the beaches which banns to bring in dogs. There are many beaches where many beaches where one cannot bring in his dog. It is not pleasant to see signboards say "No Alcohol, No Smoking, No Dogs." "Dog Friendly Town and Beach, Carmel" is particularly valuable for dog lovers.

If it is too early to check in to a hotel, one can continue to drive to Ocean Avenue, Carmel. Driving to the beach entrance, one can see so many people who walk their dogs. Dog loves can feel happy. Walking down to the beach, we found lots of dogs running around. Visitors can meet big dogs, small dogs, young dogs, and old dogs.

Shortly after we started to keep Snow, my wife and I started to realize that even American society is not friendly to pets or animals. There are people everywhere to chase out cats trying to take a nap in their back yard. In West Bay, there are lots of parks, which ban to bring in dogs. One cannot take in his dog especially to a park where there is kids amusement equipment.

Many hotels do not allow to bring pets in to stay. It goes without saying that restaurants, even with Patio Dining area, do not want people to keep dogs close to their eating area. Food shops do not let people bring in pets. Even no-food related shops do not want customers to bring pets. My wife and I took Snow to a DIY home repair center, one day. We knew that they did not mind customers to bring dogs. A customer at the cashier complained about us bringing in a dog. Instead, cashier of the shop was friendly and kind.

This is not society acceptance issue. Instead, this is people's presumption. People who have no experience with pets always have the presumption that animals are dirty, smelly, dangerous, and so forth. They imagine that any dog will bark, scratch, chase kids, and bite.

Whereas there are people who oppose to one, he can always find people who are on his side. That is the spiritual foundation for building and forming "Dog Friendly Town" or "Dog Friendly Environment". The Carmel by the sea beach is the one, which is always in the top 5 dog-friendly places.




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Sunday, February 3, 2013

Copying Is an Important Skill to Master Something



Suppose someone starts to ski for the first time in his life. What he will do first depends on his personality. There are people who buy new clothes and equipment copying world-famous skiers. There are people who laugh at them. These are people who buy books, CD's and DVD's to learn. These people think copying just clothes and equipment of top skiers is meaningless. They think copying outside without learning and mastering internal skills and souls does not make sense.

It is true that one, wearing expensive ski clothes and equipment, looks funny if they are poor skiers. Is it so funny starting something new with copying someone who is a master, already? Copying only outside appearance may be strange. What if they try to copy the skills and souls of professional players? Copying outward appearance is just the first step for them. Do you still want to laugh at them?

Thinking about the learning process, copying plays a crucial role in learning. First a child needs to watch and listen his parents to know how they speak and act. Then, 90% of all 12 - 16 years of school education is for students to copy their teachers and seniors.

If one is new to PC, he needs to learn how he can use PC. He may need to buy a new computer desk to pub his new PC and Display. Is it unnecessary investment? It is not if he can comfortably use his new PC and spend his time using it on his new PC desk.

Learning a foreign language is all about copying. The people, who learn new expressions by their heart and go out to use them, will be those who master a new language quicker than others. Those are the ones cannot stop themselves to use new expressions they learn.

It is the same thing to learn a new sport or a Martial Art. Take a look at the form of a Martial Art. The beginner training is repeating their masters and seniors. Martial Arts' forms were so designed that students can copy basic skills easily.

Copying plays a vital part of learning. Let us stop laughing at the people who copies outward appearance of masters. It can be essential first step for a beginner to learn and master a new skill. In Martial Arts, forms are not fighting. They are not even fighting training. One who intends to master Martial Arts cannot make light of the importance of forms. If one copies and masters essence of forms, it will help him to master fighting techniques. Martial Arts beginner can buy a new outfit and copy their masters and elders in appearance first. The beginner can and will copy skills, techniques, spirits, and souls, later.





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