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Asahikawa American English Conversation School

Snowman Japan Web Log

for January 2008

NOTE: The OBJECTIVE of this BLOG is to help my students with their study of English.

AND

For all of you, out there, around the world to;

SEE HOKKAIDO

2008 January 29 Tuesday thru January 31 Thursday.

Wow! What a trip. I just came back from a time slip experience. A certain guy and his family who are coming to Hokkaido this year, are about to make their big move. A leap of LOVE. Love for themselves and everyone around them. Welcome to Hokkaido. I know that you will love it here. I speak from experience. Experience is the best teacher, and I am experienced. But only to a certain extent. By the way, THE VIEW FROM THE TOP, looks something like the photo, above/left. This is APOI DAKE　アポイ岳, not too far from Cape Erimo 襟裳岬, in the summer time. Even during the winter, the amount of snow that stays on the ground, in this area, is very little as compared to Asahikawa and other inland areas. In fact, there is so little snow on the ground, that people can hike up to this place without using snowshoes or skis. Click on the photo at left, and scroll through the many photos, to see it for yourself. The really interesting thing about Apoi Dake, is that it is only about 810 meters tall, but the view you get from the top is equal to that of the many 2000 meter class of mountain peaks in Hokkaido. Being located at the very southern tip of the Hidaka Mountain Range, it is the biggest boy in the neighborhood, overlooking the Pacific Ocean. A relatively short climb, can put you on top of the world. The people who live in this area, use it as a walking course, on a regular basis. The next time I go to this area, I'm going to the top, with my big alto flute. It will be in July or August of this year. The nearest train station to here, is SamaNi 様似駅. However, I will be going in my HOTEL NOAH. Operations center on wheels. Come on sunshine. I am just itching for a long drive. Maybe I'm coming down with spring fever, a month or two early. An UP feeling of optimism.

2008 January 28 Monday.

A bit warmer during daytime because the sunshine has overpowered the clouds. Snow Country is magical when the snow crystals shine at their brightest white, with all colors of the rainbow, thrown in for good measure. The daytime air is crisp and clear, and has a sort of OZONE smell about it. Very refreshing. When everything around you is covered by snow (frozen water crystals), not only is it beautiful to look at, but it is also a source of unlimited energy in the fact that it is stable in its vibrations. Water is the reason for life, on this planet. No big mystery there. But, what if the single life of an animal or plant, of any type, was merely a balloon of mostly water, jumping up out of the cosmic soup, for what seems like a very long time, only to drop back down again into the ocean of universal knowledge, in order to remix with the source, and then once again, when the snowball effect has reached its critical mass, JUMP UP AGAIN for yet another round of LIFE in the SUN. Billons and billions and billions and billions (RIP Carl Sagan) of plants and animals in endless varieties, do NOW and have throughout recorded history, lived on this planet, the third rock from the SUN. WE are MOTHER EARTH. THE mother of all mothers, when it comes to animated mass, in our world. In yesterday's BLOG, i posted my version of THE EARTH MANDALA. If you look right into the center of that image, you can see a protruding point of blue and white light. THAT is the focus of today's image. THE ONE LIFE that all plants and animals have, ON THIS TIME AROUND. There will be more. More and more. There have been others. Many many others. In the PAST. But not really. TIME is synchronicity. Everything is happing ALL AT ONCE, and there is nothing that YOU NOR I, can do about it, BUT to tune in, or IGNORE IT. Can you really ignore IT? If you are reading this blog right now in water balloon form, you already know that the answer is no. Look around you. Outside of the MEGALOPOLIS, would be my choice. A splash in the pond, a drop in the ocean. We are all one. Flush your toilet, and see it for yourself. This XIT, is nothing new. Always has been, always will be. It just IS.

2008 January 23 Wednesday thru January 27 Sunday.

Winter in Hokkaido, is not going away anytime soon. I already knew that before I moved here. I'm not complaining. I am merely stating the obvious facts, of current weather conditions on the ground, within the Kamikawa Basin 上川盆地. Brrrrrr. IT BE cold out there. That is why I am staying mostly indoors. Where IT is comfy, cozy and warm. Plus we have food, clean drinking water, room heaters and water heaters. Chairs to sit in, Tatami mats to sleep upon. Warm room in Snow Country. Log Cabin in the hills, wood fire in the Old Hot Stove. Fresh air and clean water. The basic essentials of life. Both plant and animal. What else do you really need? A LIFE! A life of purpose and forward learning. Lifelong Learning is my BAG. I don't know XIT. But I do know that I am on the right path to further learning. One outrageous theory that I would like to lay upon your minds tonight, is the CONCEPT that the very EARTH itself is a LIVING, BREATHING ORGANISM, that is the SOURCE of all the physical water bag bodies, that are PLANT and ANIMAL LIFE FORMS. The illustration that you can see above/left, is my IMAGE of the EARTH MANDALA. The planet we live on. Within the ATMOSPHERE of the planet body, plants and animals, give birth, and receive death in return. NOT death, but a REBIRTH. THAT IS the cycle of LIFE. The very same pattern from which we all came, AND towards which we are all going. ONLY to come back, YET again. Choose your color, any color that you like. ALL 4 YOU

2008 January 22 Tuesday.

This is my MANDALA. The one which I made just a few moments ago, on an inspiration from www.charleshamel.com It has been a very long time since I have thought about this universal art form. My very earliest memory of these types of patterns, were from the Native American peoples, who live in the North American Southwest. I am talking about the 4 corners region of the USA which is comprised of Utah, Arizona, New Mexico and Colorado. In that region of the world, the various indigenous peoples, Navaho, Hopi, Zuni and others, have traditionally made elaborate SAND PAINTINGS, that only last for a few moments, after taking hours upon hours to create. They all know a BASIC LAW of the COSMOS. It is NOT the destination, IT IS the journey along the path, that gets THERE. And then, MOVES ON TO the NEXT destination. IT is ALWAYS on the path, IT is sometimes at REST, but only for a moment. IT is sometimes formed as a dream, and IT is sometimes formed while awake, but IT is ALWAYS MOVING FORWARD. Crash against a wall. Stop. Stand back, two steps. Step forward three steps and,.... Break Thru!!! MOVE FORWARD. By the way, the INTENTION behind this Mandala which I just made for THAT purpose, was created with the IMAGE of a family of 4 people, in mind. A mother, father, and two children. That is how my family was. Nowadays, there is just me and my younger sister in that DNA lane to nowhere. I know a lot of other families who adhere to this SAME basic pattern. It is a very STRONG and STABLE 4 way, combination. It works in all seasons. The FOUR seasons, maybe EIGHT if you count all of the in between days. Do I see a vision, of a coloring book for CHILDREN, and creative adults in the making here? Anything is possible. Just USE your brain to explore IT. And, let's MEET AGAIN.

2008 January 18 Friday thru January 21 Monday.

The freezing temperatures continue, both day and night. I wonder how these swans manage to stay alive. Apparently they have a very warm down coat to wear. I wonder where they got it? They all have the same white color, and the design is also very similar. I know! They all walked into a clothing store along the river bank, and got one for free! Yeah, that's it. It think the deer are having a harder time of it, right now. They can't fly. Walking through deep snow is not easy, and very energy consuming. There isn't much food underfoot. Many of them resort to eating the bark off of trees. They have no other choice. When late March and early April roll around, the deer will be gathering in the lower lands, to feed upon any new green sprouts that will appear. The plants that survive that, may live long enough to flower, and then go to seed. The cycle goes on, no matter who, or what, is there when it happens. Humans must stay inside, to stay warm. Brrrrrrrrrrr

2008 January 17 Thursday.

Were we talking about cold? Look at what came with this evening's Hokkaido Newspaper. Minus 33.3 degrees C, in Etanbetsu village 江丹別, which is about a 90 minute bicycle ride from where I live. During the summer, this place is a wonderful area, for mountain biking on dirt roads, back country. There is also the Etanbetsu Dam along the way, which today looks more like a skating rink. The photo you can see above/left is of the river! These rather unusual but totally natural ice formations, are called Frost Flowers 霜の花. According to the short article, this phenomena occurs, when the air above a river suddenly gets much colder, and the steam rising off of the river water, on a clear and sunny day, gets quickly frozen as it rises up into the air. I'm not making this up. Look at the photo and see it for yourself. I wonder how the ducks feel about this. No place to land, close to shore. The fish are swimming down below and couldn't care less. I am sitting in a warm room, and writing this blog. Put some more wood on the fire, please.

2008 January 13 Sunday thru January 16 Wednesday.

Above/left, is another beautiful photograph from the Rambling on My Hokkaido website. It really captures the weather conditions at this time of the year. What you are looking at is a FROZEN WATERFALL! This one is located in SoUnKyo 層雲峡 where there are also, many Hot Spring Resort Hotels. This place is only about a 90 minute drive from where I live. The name of this waterfall is; Shooting Star Waterfall 流星の滝. This photograph was taken on January 25, 2004 at 11:32 by 空犬. I can assure you, that if you were to drive up to SoUnKyo tomorrow morning at about this same time, you would see exactly, the same thing. Even way down here, at about only some 147 meters above sea level in the city of Asahikawa, the night time temperatures can get down to more than -15 degrees C, at night. That is PAINFULLY COLD. It makes your exposed skin hurt! Breathing itself can become painful, if you don't cover up your mouth and nose with some sort of mask or muffler (thick scarf.) This explains why there are so many more skiers and snowboarders on the slopes during the daytime hours, than at night. Even though the night time ski lift tickets are much cheaper. You have to dress yourself appropriately, in order to stay warm enough, to move. Hokkaido is a beautiful contrast of extremes. A vibrant island, mostly unaffected by war and hate. This island has many different faces, according to the seasons. If you have never lived in Snow Country, you have no idea of what I am talking about, but once you experience the season of BIG SNOW for yourself, you might even grow into it, and discover a whole new world. A world where the secrets of the earth, are frozen in time. That place being ANTARCTICA. Not Hokkaido, NOT even close. But frozen, none the less. Water has MEMORY. ICE has PERMANENT memory. It you really want to study the origins of this planet we call EARTH, you need to drill deep into the ICE LAYER of ANTARCTICA. After drilling STRAIGHT DOWN for about 4 kilometers, you will discover something amazing. A LAKE!!!! A SEA??? A GROTTO??? An OCEAN??? IT IS a large body of water, under the "continent" of ANTARCTICA. Yes, my friends,.... There really IS a MESSAGE IN WATER. A message for the ages, and, a message for NOW!

2008 January 12 Saturday.

		Today is the last day for DonDo Yaki どんど焼き at the Kamikawa Shrine 上川神社 which is only a few kilometers away from my home sweet home. This is the custom where people from all over the city of Asahikawa, bring the various New Year Decorations that they had bought and placed around their homes and businesses, since about 2 or 3 weeks ago. Ikuko and I come here every year as well. What is the true meaning of this common custom? I don't know all of the details, but actually being there and doing it, I would have to say; The contrast between HOT and COLD can never get more comfortably approachable, than during this event. While the ashes are piling up, and the paper decorations continue to burn, the obsessive heat and the cold all around you, really give a clear focus into what this world is all about. Brother Sun, Sister Moon. Bipole Alignment in the 5D world. Human Beings did not create fire, they only discovered it. However, after its discovery the POWER of fire was put to work for many purposes. It heats our homes today, and cooks our food as well. Earth, Wind, Fire, Sky, SUN. 　　Just another day in paradise.

2008 January 7 Monday thru January 11 Friday.

Back to school for me and most of my students. The public schools are still on winter holiday until the middle of next week, so some of my students didn't come to class this week. In fact, during my last week of classes just before winter vacation started, I told my students that if they didn't want to come to my classroom during this week, that was OK with me. These kids need some free time to relax and learn things on their own, from time to time. As a result, I had more free time during this week than I usually do. So, I used the time to seriously get into a book, that I first bought about 2 years ago. The title of the book is "SAMS Teach Yourself Dreamweaver MX Application Development in 21 days." It is a rather large book of 714 pages, each page packed full of useful information. This website that you are looking at now, was created using Microsoft FrontPage 2002. In order to make it, I had to read another very long book entitled; "FrontPage 2002 Developer's Guide." Unfortunately for me, Microsoft has discontinued making FrontPage, and has changed over to making another newer software called "SharePoint". This means that web server support for FrontPage websites will gradually become less and less as the years go by. So, I am switching over to Macromedia (Now Adobe) Dreamweaver, Fireworks, Flash and FreeHand, to make a completely new website that will (hopefully) be more professional looking, easier to use, and have much more interactivity with the users, who visit my website. I want it to become more of an eLearning oriented website, and have interesting and enjoyable English Lessons available 24/7 for anyone who wants to use my new website for studying English at home. This will require that I spend a lot of time learning how to use the new software, and creating a brand new look and feel for the website. Wish me luck. I have to do it ALL by myself. I need this new challenge to keep my mind hyper-busy and to have that feeling every morning when I get up, that I have a lot of things that must be done NOW. NOT because someone else told me that I must do this, but because I told myself that I WANT to do it. I never ever want to lose my curiosity for learning something new. That is my most extreme pleasure in life, always learning something new. I mean, what else is there? Oh! By the way,.... As you can see from the photo above/left, it has been snowing every day for the past two weeks, and the weather forecast in the Hokkaido Newspaper says, it will continue do so, for the foreseeable future. It is absolutely beautiful, and very cold. No insects during this time of the year! And no, walking along the river banks playing my alto recorder, either. It's the season to hunker down inside, take a lot of hot baths, and read read read. I still have a WHOLE LOT TO LEARN, and I suspect that you do also. If learning is fun, life is a TRUE pleasure. If you are spending most of your time CONSUMING mindless entertainment, which stimulates your ephemeral pleasure centers, for just that moment, you will awake each morning with an EMPTY feeling INSIDE, and run back to that source of fantasy pleasure to get more and more of it. However, you can never get enough of it, because it does not fill up the hole in your soul. The hole that DEMANDS real learning, real knowledge, real wisdom, in order to be totally satisfied and at PEACE with YOURSELF. Total Happiness with Peace of Mind. To illustrate this point, I have a TRUE STORY to tell you all, that I just heard from one of my students today. The student who told me this story, is a 4th year student at Asahikawa Medical College, and has been to America before, traveling around as a back packer for about one month. Therefore, he speaks English quite well. During our lesson today, he told me that he and his family went to Kyoto during winter vacation, to visit his grandfather and grandmother who live there. When I asked him how his grandparents were getting along, he said; "My grandfather is 93 years old, and he is still alert and cheerful. However, my grandmother who is 85 years old is forgetful, and she has sudden and extreme mood swings. One moment she is happy, and the next moment she is angry. One moment she is eating lunch, and the next moment she can't remember if she eat lunch, or not." I asked my student; "Why do you think your grandmother and grandfather have turned out so differently?" He said, and very insightfully; "My grandmother worries a lot 心配性." He instinctively knew the real reason why his grandmother had become this way. SHE SPENT MOST OF HER LIFE WITH NEGATIVE THOUGHTS running through her mind. She literally THOUGHT HERSELF into her present senile dementia situation. I pray to GOD that this never happens to me. Thoughts ARE things. No joke. If you worry a lot, you are NOT doing yourself any favors. You are literally killing yourself from within. STOP IT! If the main source of your worries is the repayment of a loan or loans of whatever type, then you need to STOP IT. STOP TAKING LOANS and instead, PAY IT FORWARD. IF you have food, clothing, shelter and NO LOANS,..... What do you have to worry about? Have you ever been HOMELESS and not by your own choice? I have. It sucks. AND it will never happen again. That, I KNOW FOR CERTAIN. Because I have promised myself, never to LOOK BACK AGAIN. Always Forward. Pay IT Forward. The big bonus to DOING LIFE this way, is that you get AT LEAST 10 times MORE COMING BACK to you, than you gave previously with your own, time and effort, by paying IT forward. Do you see what I am talking about, NOW? Here! This, is another big secret. Giving is FREE, and Receiving is ABUNDANT. LOVE is positive. GREED is negative. You don't need a PhD to see the writing on the wall, do you.

2008 January 6 Sunday.

Well, that was nice. A two week winter vacation with plenty of time to make more and more observations, as we walk along THE PATH. One of the things that I stumbled upon while I was using the web as an information resource , was the good old Fibonacci Ratio. I haven't thought about this for many years. What a slacker, I have been. This is the KEY. THE GOLDEN MEAN. The stuff of Mother Nature. If you are like me, and have forgotten the true significance of what this ratio of 1:1.618 is really all about, put the key words into your favorite search engine, while looking for any and all media. You will find some amazing stuff. We are talking about the formula for the common singularity, that is the ONENESS of EVERYTHING. Everything from a huge spiral galaxy, to your very DNA. No Kidding. This rhythm and ratio is the driving force of ALL that IS. The various shapes of flowers. The spiral shape of a ram's horns. The curvature of a wave as it breaks near the shoreline. The very proportions of the human body, and all of the sub portions. You can see IT in sunflowers and mountain ranges. Snail shells, and whirlpools. Isn't IT obvious? One and One makes Two. One and Two makes Three. Just like a family TREE. Back to Basics? Yeah, this is the boarding area. Climb on aboard. Happening NOW. Happening FOREVER. As surely as the SUN will RISE tomorrow morning at a very CERTAIN time. JST.

2008 January 1 Tuesday.

The dawn of another new year. Have you made any New Year Resolutions? I have, but only one. And that is to just keep on, keeping on, and get better at doing it every day. I guess you could say that it is a Daily Resolution. Above/left, is my design for this year's NenGaJo. Some of you may have received one in your mail box this morning. For those of you who live in the USA, it's still in transit from here to there. As you can tell, I designed and produced all of the graphics myself with FreeHand and Fireworks MX. Aren't PCs fun!?!?! This is another one of the things which I will keep on keeping on. There are so many others as well,..... I guess the main thing is to just keep your curiosity about life, and always want to learn something new. That's what keeps it interesting for me. Even though the BIOvehicle grows older every moment of every day, the mind can grow larger and younger during that same time, if only you choose to use your mind to explore new knowledge. A new hobby might be a good place to start. There are sooooooooooooo many choices. What to do?