More Great Fruit - part 2-

  On the Grove Street, under the strong sun shine, I was walking with my cell phone which seemed to have no confidence.

“Where is Loria?” 

  Buildings, people, trees and even the sun, everything was strange. A big squirrel ran, stopped beside me and stared at me with its large glass eyes as if it talked to me, “Hey, Japanese Guy. You are losing your way? Don’t be negligent. This is America. This is New Haven!! ” Then, the squirrel ran away and left me in the miserable situation.

   “Ok, Mr. Squirrel, I understand what I have to do. I have to be more careful because I am new member of the Yale.”

  I restarted the walk looking for Loria feeling the nasty sweat. I knew I was already late for the first orientation of this program. I looked up at the sky. The sky was light blue and beautiful, but I felt loneliness in the sky. I sighed “How is the sky of Tokyo now?” That day was the first day of this program, the 30^th of Jun.

 

  From that day, my life in America started. I studied English, played table tennis, ate food in the dining hall, played soccer, ate in the Japanese restaurant, traveled to Boston, ate lobster and clam chowder, chatted with my friend in a Arabic restaurant, went to the mountain, watched “Lion King”, won the championship in the tournament of table tennis, traveled to New York and read poems in front of many friends and teachers.

 

  I really got many unforgettable memories. I also got many precious friends and I was often inspired by them.

  My Muslim friend astonished me by his belief and encouraged me to notice that there are different values in the world and I don’t have to obey any specific ones.

  My Chinese female friends surprised me by their politeness and kindness, and promoted me to have warm heart.

  My Chinese and Korean male friends were very friendly to me. I noticed that we have many similarities and so we can definitely make trustful relationships in the future, even though the relationship between our countries is bad now.

  My French friends were not only lovely friends but also good rivals. We played together a lot, such as table tennis, soccer and porkers. We won the championship in the tournament together.

 August 6th

  Now I am walking recalling my memories of the Yale on the same Grove Street under the same strong sun shine. This scenery looks similar to the first day’s, but they are totally different because I am now familiar with buildings, people, streets and the sun in Yale!

  Even the squirrels smile to me and speak to me, “Hey, Taka. Will you play soccer in this evening?”

 

So what is the great fruit? If you have read my article about my first impression of the Yale and compared this article with it, you may understand what I want to say. How different they are! My Writing & Reading class teacher Carrie told me how interesting and delightful it is to create something with my own imagination. This is another great fruit I got in the Yale. Thanks Carrie a lot.

 

Great Fruit part 1

  Time flies. The end of the Yale summer program is coming soon, so now I want to look back to my exotic experience and to think about what I learned. I can come up with two important things I learned here.

  First, pronunciation.

 

In this program, there were many students from different countries, so I could get many opportunities to talk with them. I decided to talk with foreigners as much as possible, but I didn’t notice that I had a big problem. In the first class of our pronunciation class, my friend pointed out.

“Your pronunciation of “R” is strange, but it is common because Japanese don’t have the pronunciation like “R”.”

  He was kind enough to teach me how to pronounce “R” and often pointed out my mistakes. My pronunciation teacher, Drew, also helped me.

  “Culture, culture, culture, culture, culture, culture, culture, culture……”

  “Thursday, Thursday, Thursday, Thursday, Thursday, Thursday, Thursday………”

Drew demanded me to repeat same words showing correct examples himself. I looked extremely carefully at the movement of his mouth and tongue and struggled to reform mine. However, my mouth and tongue were as hard as my grandmother’s shoulder. Although I had trouble in many words and often repeated and repeated, he was tolerant enough to teach me again and again.

  Outside of the class, I also began to pay attention to my pronunciation

  ‘’I want to go to drink water because I am sarsty. No! I am thirsty.’

  Thanks to my friends and teachers, I could understand how to pronounce English correctly like natives. However, still not enough, so I will continue to study English in Japan paying attention to my pronunciation. This is the one of the greatest fruits in this program.  (to be continued....)

 

 

Technology Heaven

         

 

   This poem is based on an idea that we civilized human beings lose important things because of depending on technology a lot.

Technology Heaven

All houses don’t know darkness.

You can run away, and even fly to the universe.

You can stay in a refrigerator in summer.

You don’ have to worry about carrier pigeons.

That is a “Technology Heaven.”

 

But on a dark island occupied with many wasted memories,

How are seagulls feeling?

In a river polluted by unwelcome fatal guests,

How can killifish sing?

In a forest vanishing by cruel overwhelming steels,

How can monkeys have good dreams?

In a city covered with heavy rotten air,

How can children play soccer outside?

 

We are slaves.

The master is called “money”, who has no will and no emotion.

We are tightened with invisible chains and forced to work

for the master.

In the past, in America,

Slaves were tightened with visible chains.

People struggled against slavery with

furious blood and millions of tears.

Finally they saw the sun rise on the desert.

Visible chains are not here anymore.

Please tell us

What it means to live.

 

 

 

 

                          

                               

 

My Great Teacher

 

   Ms. Y was my elementary school teacher when I was a fourth-grade student. In Japan, elementary school teachers teach every subject by themselves, so she taught me math, Japanese, sociology and science.

 

  She was a small lady with short black hair. She wore the glasses with no frame and, behind them, she had gentle eyes. She usually smiled to us, and her smile was very cute and comfortable.

 

  One day, when we were drawing a picture for decollations of a ceremony, I was upset because I was not good at drawing. I failed to draw many times, so I decided to give up painting well. I finished my picture quickly, went to Ms. Y to submit it and said,

“Teacher, I finished. Can I go outside to play?”

As soon as she looked my picture, she must have noticed that I had given up doing my best. She asked,

  “What’s the matter with you? Your picture looks like a mistake. You feel bad?”

“No, I am ok. I am just bad at drawing. I cannot paint good pictures!”

I looked down on the floor and was about to cry. But she said, in warm voice,

  “Taka, I know you well. You are never bad at drawing. Show me your hands. You have long fingers. You can draw a good picture, try again.”

 

She also gave me some advice for pictures. So I got a confidence and tried again.

 

   I considered the idea of my picture well, and finally came up with a good idea and started to paint. While I was painting, I could really fulfill my curiosity and noticed that I liked drawing. After this episode, my picture was selected as an excellent work and exhibited in the art museum in our town for a short time.

 

   Like this, she helped us a lot. In my opinion, encouraging is an essential skill of teachers because children will learn and notice a lot of things like my episode when they are trying by themselves.

 

  Ms. Y was really good at encouraging students. She sometimes scolded and sometimes consoled students. She also could give us proper advice.

 

  That’s why I think she is the greatest teacher I have ever met.

 

 

 

Imagination

  Someone said, "Children had great creativity and imagination, and sometimes they cause miracle."
  I think that believing in miracles is similar to having imagination. They can encourage us to be creative. Do you remember some miracles you experienced in your childhood? The child in the poem below has one memory of a miacle.


Magic Jack

On Christmas Day,

my parents bought me a purple duck
with polka-dotted feathers                                         
and a yellow bill.

 

When I first saw it,
I didn’t like it because
it’s skin looked
like a poison snake.

 

I took a bath,
It looked in my eyes
and suddenly moved it's bill.
“Hi, I am Jack. Please let me take a bath with you. ”

 

On touching the bath,
Jack screamed with joy.
“I have longed for this!”
If he could move his wings, he would flutter happily.

 

“Why are you named Jack?”

“I was not named. I chose Jack myself
because I respect Christ . And look outside,
you can see many works of Jack Frost!”

 

I spent many hours talking with Jack
in the bath
He was familiar with everything like
a professor wearing glasses.

 

Just before going to sleep,
I said ”Good night, let’s talk tomorrow, again.”
He smiled to me and said,
“See you.”

 

The next morning, as soon as I woke up,
I went to the bath to see Jack.
But I couldn’t find him.
My parents didn’t remember they had given a duck toy to me.

 

Did I have a dream?
I looked outside with a gray cloudy mind.
And then, I saw, in the garden.
Many works of Jack Frost
The color of a purple poison snake.

                                                                 Works of Jack Frost

Tournament of Table Tennis!! -part 1-

 

 

 

  On the first day of the Yale program, I saw the basement of our dormitory with my heart hammering because there was a table-tennis table. I have liked playing table tennis since my childhood, but I didn’t have too much opportunity to play table tennis in Japan. Now I can enjoy playing table tennis every day!!

  I have played table tennis a lot with my friends, especially Edward, who is from France and is my neighbor here. Fortunately, almost all of my friends like playing table tennis, so it was not so difficult to find partners.

  On July 24th, the Yale students organized a tournament of table tennis, so I signed up it with Edward to win the championship.

The tournament was held in Trumbull College basement and the game style was doubles. We went there with great confidence; we were young guys who were not afraid of anything.

 

 

However, in the first match, we got very nervous because we were told that we had only one set, so were not allowed to make a mistake. The opponents were two boys who were from Latin America countries and they played well. What is worse, we made many errors because of nervousness, so the score became 10-10 and the game went into deuce. Finally we restored calmness and my serve finished the game at last. This first game was very difficult and severe especially for our frame of mind.

   In the second match, we met a team of two girls. This game was easier to win than the first game, so we developed self-confidence.

   Third game came and this game was the semi-final match. The opponents were a tall boy and an Italian girl who can play tennis. They played well, especially theItalian girl. She could control a ball and aimed at the places which we couldn’t reach. So we decided to shoot at the tall boy and cause him to make mistakes. Finally we won.

 

Tournament of Table Tennis!! -part 2-

  The final match came. The opponents were a Chinese boy and a Chinese girl. In the practice time, they looked extremely good at playing table tennis. They must have played table tennis quite often in China.

 

  The game started. At first, we were surprised by his serve. He made a ball spin and move randomly. “Impossible to return!!” Edward shouted. I also tried to return, but failed. So we almost gave up returning his serve and instead focused on our serves and returning the girl’s serve.

  Our point, their point, their point again, our point, their point…. The game proceeded like this. Even though we didn’t succeed in returning his serve at all, we managed to catch up with them. The score became 19-20 (this match was a 21 point match) and it was my service turn. I was concentrated on my serve, shot a sharp one and the Chinese girl failed to return. I got it!! I did a high-five with Edward, and the game went into deuce. But then we noticed that next service was the Chinese boy’s turn….

 

  “Oh, my God.” Edward shouted again. We didn’t have a choice, so we had to return his scary serve.   

His serve came spinning like a roaring devil sent to kill us. Edward made the ball spin strongly; the ball flew in the air and bounced on the edge of the opponent’s court. Miracle return!! I did a high-five with Edward again. The score became 21-20 and his serve again. At that crucial time, Edward also succeeded in returning and Chinese girl failed. We won the game and the championship!

 

 I and Edward hugged and admired each other. Our bodies were very hot like gladiators finishing their fight. We won honor and some prizes, a magcup with the Yale mark and a giftcard. I had been looking forward to getting the magcup, so I was so lucky. The tournament finished.

This is my unforgettable memory in the Yale.

 

Sepaktakraw!!

 

 

 
  If you travel to South East Asian countries, especially Thailand and Cambodia, you will be surprised by seeing strange scenes on the street. On the street, some people paly, kicking a ball up in the air. Is it a soccer ball? No. The ball is smaller than a soccer ball. The ball is a sepaktakraw ball.

  Sepaktakraw is a sport like volleyball but using feet instead of hands. In this article, I will introduce it.

Sepaktakraw was born in Thailand about 500 years ago. You can get the more details about the history in the following website

http://www.sepaktakraw.org/about-istaf/sepaktakraw-heritage/#.U8ki-nmKDmQ

  So it is very popular in South East Asia, but it is not popular in other regions including Japan. Actually, I had never seen anyone playing sepaktakraw before I saw that in my university.

  The court of sepaktakraw is as large as the badminton court.

In matches, each team consists of 3 players, the striker, the server and the tosser. The striker is the player who usually jumps, kicks a ball in the air and gets a point. The server is the player who serves the ball. The tosser is the player who mainly tosses a ball in order to enable the striker to kick a ball. In matches, every player has their own role in the 3 roles above, and they do not change roles. For example, I am the server, so I always serve a ball in the game.

 

  Players of each team can touch a ball by three times in their turn and only one player is also allowed to touch a ball twice or three times unlike volleyball.

  If your team drops a ball on the ground or put a ball out, you will lose a point. It is same as volleyball.

  For your better comprehension, I will use some movielinkes below. So please watch the proffessional sepaktakraw players and feel excitement!!

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O6AMGLmjbuM&feature=player_detailpage

https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=e7BLkVDQ-hM

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VhPaDckh4rw&feature=player_detailpage

 

 

My House

 My house is in a quiet residential street of Tokyo. If you walk on the street in spring, you can find a big cherry blossom tree with many white pretty flowers in front of a house. That house is ours. 

  My house is not so big, but it has three floors. On the third floor, we have an attic room like a hiding place, but now the room is occupied by many toys which were used in my childhood. 

 

  On the second floor, we have a living room and two bedrooms, which belong to  my sister and me. Next to the living room, there is also a kitchen which is filled with the smells and sounds of cooking before the meal. They always make me excited because I like eating dishes in our house. 

  In the center of the living room, in front of the television, we have a long white sofa covered with 

leather. This sofa is often occupied by someone, especially my mother. In the night, after she comes back from her workplace and eats dinner, her time begins. She sits on the sofa, turns on television and watches TV dramas eating her favorite dessert, such as ice creams in summer. Behind her, my father sits on a chair beside a square dining table and reads a newspaper while eating dinner. This is the ordinary scene of our family on the weekday nights, and it brings me comfort.

 I think our house is an almost typical Japanese city house, but only the cherry blossom tree in front of our house is characteristic. This tree was planted when we moved there 15 years ago. In the beginning, the tree was as tall as me, when I  was a first grade student in my elementary school, but the tree is getting bigger and bigger faster than me, and now it is about five meters high.

  Every spring, It has many white graceful flowers as if it celebrates the beginning of a new term. Congratulations, you're starting school! It also lets people walking on the street enjoy watching the lovely flowers. 

 Every summer, it has many green big leaves and gives us a comfortable shade.
 Every autumn, it changes leaves from green to brilliant orange, yellow and red.
 Every winter, it loses every leaf and gives us the task to clean the street. 

 In every season, the tree lets us enjoy it in different ways. We live together. It can be said that a cherry blossom tree is a member of our family.

 

My observation in New Haven

 

Assignment: choose a public place around yale campus and describe what you see

 

 

   I went to the Green and sat on a chair near the big crossroad, crossed by Temple Street

and Chapel Streets. I open my black leather notebook binding printed with a symbol of the

Yale University.

 

  

   There are many cars - yellow, white, black, silver and gold cars passed by me emitting exhaust gases. So, actually, the smell is bad and they run, making loud noise as though they were angry with something. Here is like Times Square in New York.

 

  In front of me, there was a big church. The church had a sharp tower and stood overwhelming me, but I found how beautiful three huge glass windows on the front of the church are. 

  I was surrounded by trees reflecting sunshine and splashed with light green.

Oh, it was a sunny day!! I sat under the strong sunshine of summer without sunglasses and hat.

 

 

  Beside me, many people were also passing. Many parents walked with their children. 

They really seemed to enjoy their time with children away from working.

   Suddenly an old man with white beard approached, showed me an old shirt  and asked 

 “Do you like this?”

 “NO thanks.”

   He walked away from me, but I was frightened, so I continued to observe him because I afraid he would get angry and attack me from behind  like a crazy murderer. 

  After that, I was sometimes called by some strangers, so the bench in the park was not a so 

comfortable place for me. 

  When I left there, I found “Subway” and “Dunkin Donuts” across the street. But both were 

very quiet because it was too early for lunch. They are a contrast to the road.

The builder of ships

Assignment:

 Go to the Yale Art Gallery, find a work of art that speaks to you then tell its story.

   “Storm is coming. Hurry up men!!!”
The owner of the ship, who is wearing a neat black jacket and black hat, shouts to the builders. “Richard, make others hurry up!” he yields again to a leader of the builders, Richard Columbus..

“Sure, sir”, Richard answered and quickly ordered other builders and carried some ropes by himself. Richard Columbus is 45 years old now. He started to work as a ship builder when he was 20 years old. In this place, the western coast of America, he is the oldest and the most sophisticated builder, so the owner appointed him to be a leader of the builders and Richard worked very well as a leader. Other builders also consider him to be a good leader because he is not only familiar with the ship building, but also generous and gentle. He always listens to the opinions of others well and helped them a lot whenever they asked him for some help.

However, in private life, he is not so happy. His parents died when Richard was 3 years old, so he had to work in childhood to survive. He is still alone because he has no family. But the only thing he is proud of is his parents’ story. He heard from his relatives that his parents came from Italy, his father was a doctor and his mother was a nurse, and they were great because they helped a lot of poor people. So, he loves and respects them extremely.

The construction of this ship is very important for him because this ship will go to Italy, his parents’ hometown. He asked the owner to take him to there and the owner accepted his demand. Richard is looking forward to visiting Italy. It is his only dream. This ship is very special to him, so he worked harder for the ship.

 The storm came at midnight. It is stronger than he expected. From his experience, he notices that this storm can destroy the ship. He feels uneasy. He goes outside to see the ship. The ship is still there unharmed, so he feels relief. But then he hears a nasty noise. One of the supports is leaning and it is about to fall down. He gets upset and shouts “Don’t break the ship. Don’t break my dream.” He rushes to the ship.

 In the morning, when the storm has passed away, the owner and some builders discover the ship and Richard Columbus. The ship is not broken, and he stands holding and supporting one supporter. However, he is wet and cold and is dead. 

 After the building was finished, the owner takes Richard’s body to Italy by the ship. And the owner finds his parents’ hometown and buried Richard there to let him realize his dream.

Scavenger hunt in New Haven

Assignment:
 Tell the story of your group's scavenger hunt.





I don't think our team is a rule-follower. This scavenger hunt is not only a competition for our team, but an opportunity for us to fulfill our curiosity. So we kind of left the tasks behind and started our own adventure.

But still, the map really helps a lot. We found the Beinecke Library first and when we stepped into the library, we were so impressed by the scene in front of us. There are thousands of ancient books, from floor to the ceiling, protected in the huge glass shell. And the marble in the window is unique, and the sunlight shines on the marble and creates a beautiful color, like a piece of abstract art. We asked a tour guide if she can tell us about the thickness of the marble. But she was working and couldn’t answer our question. So we turned to the security guard sitting in front of the door and she was very warm and told us all about it. And she gave us a sample of the marble to hold in hand and feel it. It’s heavy, cold and refined. We were so moved by the beauty of the library, so we took a lot of photos and also got some post cards of it.

Still talking about the amazing library, we found something even more exciting – the Commons Dining Hall. The dining hall was completely Hogwarts style, antique wooden tables and chairs, the dark-red walls made with thick bricks, old-fashioned admirable chandelier, everything was too elegant to be true. We took a lot of pictures and almost forgot about our task of “interviewing” a server. But another team rushed to the dining hall and went straight to the kitchen to find a server. And that reminded us of our task, so we got the recipe and left quickly.

            We went to the Old Campus, found "Shining Foot" and Phelps Gate and then we went to the Yale Art Gallery. There was a lot of remarkable modern art and we all found our favorites. We posed and took funny pictures of each other in front of them. And we laughed so loud that the security told us to be quiet. So we got in the enormous elevator, still giggling and left the Gallery.

            Time ran out, but we did not finish as many tasks as other teams. But the result of the competition really did not matter. What did matter is that each place we went to, we were exploring and discovering, feeding our curiosity and we really had a great time.  

Weekend!!

4^th of July is the special day in the United States. It is the Independence Day. 238 years ago, in 1776, The Unanimous Declaration of the thirteen United States of America was published on that day.

 So, on 4^th of July, we had no class as well as many students in America and had some special events. In the morning, we watched a film about Independence Day, from which I could learn the importance of the day for Americans. I was also surprised by the fact that many children had gotten injured and died because of fireworks for the ceremony in the past.

 After the film, the Yale staffs took us to a lake, and we had a barbeque there. But, it was really a buffet rather than barbeque for me because I just picked up some foods, such as hamburgers. I never grilled meats. It was raining that day. If it had not been raining, I would have gone swimming in the lake.

 

  On Sunday. July 6th, I decided to do something interesting without thinking about homework. In the morning, I went to a church because I am so interested in Christianity though I am not a Christian. The church which I went to is located near the old campus. The blue and pink windows(stained-glass windows) painted with Christ were beautiful. I experienced the solemn ritual with graceful hymns.

 

 After lunch, I went to the beach near the Morse College with my friends. That was the first time for me to see the Atlantic Ocean. The water in the sea was cold for me, so I could not swim for a long time, but I enjoyed sleeping on the beach and walking along the coast.

 It was a great weekend because I could experience things I had never done!!!

 

 

Living in the Yale University

Throughout my life in New Haven, I have had three impressions to Yale.

 First, I was surprised by noticing how vast the Yale University is. In Japan, the most universities, including my university, consist of only some buildings. So, the estate is not so large. However, the Yale University itself can be said to be one town.

Second, I noticed local people in New Haven are very kind to foreigners. For a couple of days after this program started, I often lost my way, but the local people helped me a lot every time I asked them for some help. One time, to my surprise, a man took me and my friend to my destination. I think we Japanese have to learn this culture for the Tokyo Olympics in 2020.

Third, I was surprised by how noisy it was at the night. New Haven is an infamous city where many crimes are caused, so there is much noise, such as a siren of a patrol car and an explosive sound. So it is difficult to sleep opening the windows!! And my room has no air conditioner. This bothered me, but now I succeeded in adapting myself to the new environment and enjoy living in New Haven.

Gooooooall!!

"Gooooooal!!"

The teammates cheered happily and rushed to the youngest boy as soon as he got the goal. They all slapped his shoulder in congratulation and lifted him tinto the air. The boy could not believe what he had done, but he was extremely proud of himself. That boy was me.

In 2002, I was a third grade student in my elementary school. At that time, I joined a soccer club association and played soccer.

On our team, all third graders and up could go to the training camp once a year, so I also joined the camp in that year. And that was the first time for me to stay for more than three days away from my parents. It was too long for me, so I felt uneasy before I left.

The training in the camp started. But I still felt uneasy, and I was missing home on the first day.

Our soccer team traditionally had a special competition during the camp, called “the Meat Cup”. The winning team in the competition could eat the highest quality meats in the grilled meat party after the competition, so all members were eager to win!! It was very exciting!!

However, it just increased my uneasiness. I had no confidence of playing well because I was the youngest boy and I was missing home.

The competition started. As I played, I could gradually feel relaxed thanks to my teammates’ supports. Finally, on the right side of the court,  I received a ball from my teammate, carried it forward quickly and swung my right leg strongly. The ball stuck in  the top of the goal. My goal led our team to win the championship.

In the award ceremony, to my surprise, I was selected as MVP. Strangely, my goal was the only goal in the competition. I was given some prizes, such as a certificate, a key holder and a sport towel, and we could enjoy eating great meats. I will  never forget how delicious they were.