2019/02/26 The click-clack mountain Part t

Once upon a time, there lived an old man and his wife. A bad raccoon dog always ate the vegetables in their field. One day, the old man caught the raccoon dog. He tied up the raccoon dog with a rope and brought it home. But the raccoon dog killed the old man’s wife while he was away. The old man was very sad and talked about it to his rabbit friend. The rabbit decided to do something about it. He asked the raccoon dog to gather firewood with him.

The two of them gathered a lot of firewood and tied it on their backs. The raccoon dog started walking in front of the rabbit. While they were walking beside a river, the raccoon dog heard a sound.

He said, Mr. Rabbit, do you hear that click-clack sound? What is it?

The rabbit said, I don't know. Maybe it's the click-clack bird of the Click-Clack Mountain singing.

But it was actually the sound of the rabbit using two stones to start a fire.

After a while, the firewood on the raccoon dog’s back started burning.

The raccoon dog asked, Mr. Rabbit, do you smell something burning?

The rabbit answered, That’s the smell of the click-clack bird.

Then, all the firewood on the raccoon dog’s back really started to burn.

Ouch. The raccoon dog ran and jumped into the river, but he had a bad burn on his back.

The next day, the rabbit was making some miso pasete at home.

Then, the raccoon dog came and said, I had a really bad day yesterday.

The rabbit said, Yes, you did. How is your back? I have some good medicine for burns. And he put some miso on the raccoon dog’s back. But the miso had hot peppers in it. The raccoon dog ran home crying, Aw. Aw. It hurts.

A few days later, the rabbit was building a boat out of wood on the beach. The raccoon dog stopped to watch. The rabbit said, I’m going out to sea to catch some fish. Would you like to come with me? The raccoon dog said, Of course I'll come with you.

The rabbit said, My boat is small, so why don't you build one, too? You can dig in the ground and make a boat out of mud.

The raccoon dog worked hard making a boat out of mud. Then, the two of them went out to sea in their boats.

After a while, the raccoon dog’s boat started to break apart.

He cried, Oh, no. But it was too late. He started to go down into the sea with his mud boat. The rabbit said, you'll never hurt anyone again.

The raccoon dog went down to the bottom of the sea and never came up again.

2019/02/25 A&B @ Hiroshima

Thank you, everyone.

I hope you enjoyed our performance. Remember, we are A and B.

I’m Ben. Today, Akito and I are in Hiroshima. There are many tourists here.

Akito, where should we go next? Maybe we can go to Miyajima. It's a World Heritage Site.

Yeah.

Or we can go to see a baseball game. I hear that the team here is really popular.

Actually, there is a place I want to visit.

Where's that?

Umm, somewhere nearby.

Akito looks serious. He starts walking, and I follow him. Soon we come to a place with a small stone monument.

What's this?

This monument is for the people killed or injured by the atomic bomb.

I thought the memorial monument was that arch in the middle of Heiwa Park.

Well, there are many other monuments thoroughout Hiroshima city. This one is for the girl’s school that my grandma went to.

Your grandmother?

Oh, didn’t I tell you? I’m from Hiroshima.

Really? I didn’t know that.

When I was a child, I came here with my grandma every year on August 6. It is said that nearly 700 people from school died. That was more than any other school.

That’s so sad.

There are pictures of three girls carved into the stone monument.

The girl in the middle is holding the box with E=mc squared wittten on it. Why?

E=mc squared is a formula that was used to create nuclear energy. The formula is taken from Albert Einstein’s theory of relativity. Every year, my grandma prayed in front of this monument. She cried every time.

Does your grandmother still live in Hiroshima?

She died five years ago.

I’m sorry to hear that.

When I was thinking about becoming a street performer, only my grandma told me to follow my dream. Everyone else told me to work at a company. Grandma said, Akito, if you can make people smile, there will be more peace in the world. I know it's not that simple, but when things get difficult, I remember her words.

Akito, why didn’t you tell me about this sooner? We could have come here on August six.

The date isn't so important,

What do you mean?

August six was a terrible day, but we should think about it on other days, too. That’s what my grandma told me.

Ah, I see. Are you going to go visit her grave soon?

I’m planning on going tomorrow.

May I go with you?

Okay, but it won't be so interesting.

That’s okay. I want to pray for her and say hello.

Thanks.

Hey, it's getting dark.

I think we should start looking for a place to stay tonight.

Why don't we stay at my house tonight?

That would be great. Oh, you should call your parents so they can prepare a big dinner for us.

Don't worry, Ben. I already call them.

2019/02/22 Red candles and the mermaid E3

The greedy merchant from the south heard about the beautiful mermaid girl. He went to the old couple’s house one day and said,

Will you sell me your mermaid? I will pay you a lot of money.

Sell her? Don't say something so stupid.

She is a gift from the gods. We can't sell her. If we do, the gods will punish us.

The old couple refused, but the merchant came back many times.

Don't you know that mermaids are bad luck? If you keep her, I’m sure something bad will happen.

The old couple started to believe the merchant’s story about bad luck. And they would get a lot of money. Their greed won. So they promised the merchant that they would sell him their mermaid.

The merchant happily said,

I will soon come back for the girl.

The mermaid girl was shocked to hear this. The shy and kind girl was afraid. She didn’t want to go so far away from home to a place where it was so hot. She cried and cried and said to the old couple, I will work harder. Please don't sell me and make me go to a place I don't know.

The old couple’s hearts were as cold as stone. They would not listen to the mermaid girl at all. The girl went into her room and close the door.

She stayed inside and painted candles all day long.

One night when the moon was bright. The mermaid girl sat alone listening to the soung of the waves. She was scared and sad about her future. Then, from the waves, she thought she heard something calling to her. She went and looked out the window, but there was only the blue, blue sea with the monnlight shining brightly across the surface.

The mermaid girl sat down and started painting again. Just then, there were noises from outside. The merchant had come. He had come with a cart. On the cart, there was a square box with iron bars. The merchant had carried tigers, lions and panthers in his box before. He thought of the mermaid as the same. She was an animal of the sea.

The mermaid did not know of this. If she did, she would have been very surprised. She was still paiting candles. Then, the old couples came into the room.

It's time. Go.

The mermaid girl didn’t have time to finish her pictures, so she painted the candles all in red. She left behind a fer few red candles as memories of her sadness.

That night was calm and quiet. The old couple locked the door and went to sleep. Then, around midnight, someone knocked on the door. The old couple heard it and wondered who it could be.

Who's there?

2019/02/21 Dominican Republic

Hi! I am the Dominican Republic, and my capital city is Santo Domingo. My population is about 11 million, and my official language is Spanish. I am about the size of Kyusyu and Kochi Prefecture put together.

Do you know where I am? There is a big Caribbean island between Cuba and Puerto Rico called Hispaniola Island. It's a really interesting island because there are two countries on it. The western side is Haiti. And I am on the eastern side of it. By the way, there is an island nearby that is called Dominica, but that is a different contry. We have similar names, but we are not the same country, so be careful.

Christpher Columbus came here in 1492. There was gold here, so he came back again. A lot of other people came here because of the gold, too. Hundreds of years later, we still produce gold.

When you think of my county, you may think of baseball. Baseball is very popular in my country, and children and adults play or watch the sport. You can watch them play baseball in towns while listening to merengue. Why did your eyes get so big right now? Oh, I see. You thought it was the sweets, meringue. I’m tolking about the music that started in my country.

Meringue is a fast type of music. The way men and women dance around in circles looked similar to mixing egg whites to make the meringue sweets. That is why the dance is named meringue.

Another interesting thing about me is you can see thousands of humpback whales, or zatokujira, every year during the winter. The best months are from January to March. The whales come to the northeastern part of my country to become couples and give birth to babies.

There is a special area that protects the whales and other creatures of the sea. The male whale sing and make big jumps in the deep sea near the protected area to find a partner. Then, the female whales give birth and take care of their babies in the gentle and warm waters. You can enjoy diving with the whales here. If you are interested, try looking up two places called Samana Bay and Silver Bank.

You aren’t interested in whales? No problem. There are many other things to see here. There are 55 caves known as the Pomier Caves. People drew pictures on the cave walls 2000 years ago. You can go inside five of the caves. Remember to bring a jacket because it's cold in the caves.

People and even whales dance in my county. I hope you will come here and enjoy dancing with us.

2019/02/20 On my birthday

Hey, you. What are you doing?

Oh, the copy machine is broken. I’m waiting for the secretary to fix it.

You should learn how to fix it.

Well, I won't be using a copy machine in the future. Someone will make copies for me.

Huh? Oh. You are Yamada-san. Your father is the president of Yamada Trading Company.

That’s right.

I see. You'll be the president someday, so you won't need to use the copy machine. I'll take care of this.

Thank you.

Argh. How long do I have to work here? Dad’s company is an important cliant of this company. Dad should ask me to work at his company. And today is my birthday. I think I'll leave early so I can cerebrate with my girlfriend.

Hey, Yusuke. Wait.

Tomoki?

I saw you. Why was your boss making copies for you? It's your job.

He said he would do it for me.

You made him say that.

Tomoki and I joined the company around the same time. He is always telling me to work harder. He's too perfect.

Why don't you stop reminding people that your father is the president of a large company?

I never remind people. I just tell them.

If you tell your boss, it will be hard for him to tell you what to do. You're here to learn, right?

I don't need to learn anything at this company. I’m going to be the president of my own company anyway, so I don't have to work hard.

Well, no one wants a leader that doesn't work hard.

Oh, don't tell me what to do.

Hey, Tomoki. Happy Birthday.

Oh, thank you.

You're coming to dinner tonight, right?

Actually, I might have some extra work to do.

What? It's your birthday. How much work do you have? We can all help, so you can finish early. You always help us by doing extra work, so we want to help you.

Oh, uh, thank you.

Huh? This must be a joke. It's Tomoki’s birthday too?

Yusuke, do you want to come, too?

No. I have plans.

Happy Birthday, Tomoki.

Wow. What a surprise. Thanks, everyone.

Thanks to you, our last project was a big success. You might become the president in the future.

Oh, you are just joking.

Huh? Everyone seems to like Tomoki. It's my birthday, too, but no one is wishing me a happy birthday.

Excuse me.

Dad? What are you doing here?

Oh, hello, son. I heard about a really good worker here, and I’m here to give him a job.

Oh, finally. I can work at your company?

Not you, son. Oh, there he is. You're Tomoki, right? May I speak with you?