Guitar

When I play the guitar at a music bar, I borrow their guitar. Lately, I noticed its sound is not as good as mine. It would be nice to play my own guitar.  But it's too much trouble to bring my own guitar there. Besides, it's dangerous to carry a large guitar by bicycle. 

So I started looking for a smaller guitar. There are many kinds of pretty small guitars, and I would love to have one of them, but it's been only half a year since I started practicing the guitar, and I already bought a guitar. I should focus on learning the basic skills rather than purchasing another guitar. 

Player quality matters a lot more than guitar quality. 

Space Project

There seems to be water on the south side of the Moon. 

People in the space development industry are digging holes on the Moon to find out how much ice exists seeking the possibility for humans to live there.

America is the main country in this field, but a Japanese company is also engaged in this with the technology of separating H2O into H and O. 

I can imagine this kind of exploration is exciting, but I'm not sure if it's a good idea to conquer another planet. Why expand the contamination to the universe?

Watching a space shuttle blowing up in the air, people who made the shuttle were overjoyed because the launch was successful as far as they were concerned. Blowing up the shuttle in the middle of the launch is one of the risks. So it's not failure.   To me, they looked like crazy people, wasting a crazy amount of money.

銚子の滝

This is the most wonderful waterfall I've seen in Ehime. Its basin is deep and wide enough to enjoy swimming (See the second pic).  

Driving up on a narrow mountain road, we didn't see anyone. 

I didn't bring my swimwear, but it was too wonderful a water pool just to watch, so I swam in my underwear.  No one came while we were there as I figured.

The most enjoyable moment of the 2024 summer

Departure

A young chorus team guy is finally moving to Tokyo this weekend. He found a new job and a place to live which is a soundproofed room. He is in the securities industry and can make over a million yen more at his new job, and he has his folks and friends in Tokyo, so there are no worries about his survival. He will try to make a living with music in the future, but he will be alright anyway.  I'm sure he will meet many music friends and have wonderful experiences.  I'm happy for him. 

Last night, six of us got together to celebrate his departure over dinner.  I sometimes say things like, "I'm sorry for young guys because the world has gotten crazy," but last night, I honestly felt that it's so wonderful to be young no matter what era or circumstances they are in. 

Talking to your body parts

A friend wrote in her journal that her gallbladder polyps shrunk so that she could avoid the surgery to remove her gallbladder for now. I'm happy for her. 

Her polyps' size is down to 7mm from 13mm, which is unlikely/rare to happen medicinally. 

The doctor strongly recommended surgery to remove the gallbladder before it turned into cancer when she saw him the last time because the doctor believes there is a good chance that polyps change to cancer when its size is over 10mm. 

I wonder if benign tumors could turn into cancer?  Benign is benign regardless of its size, isn't it? 

Plus, if the doctor was right when he said that polyps could change to cancer, why wait till it grew over 10mm? 

I also wonder why they can't remove only polyps instead of removing the whole organ gallbladder? 

Being afraid of losing her gallbladder, my friend kept talking to her polyps, "Listen, you can stay there, but if you grow too big, they're gonna chop you out together with the whole gallbladder.  So stay smaller than 10mm."  She successfully controlled her body and avoided losing her gallbladder.  Science is not everything. 

Yet, my questions remain unanswered as above.

I would check into it now if I was in her position.

Sleeping watching the stars

I always set the air-con temperature to 28 degrees, so it's not too low, but I feel cold and tired when I wake up. Yesterday a friend mentioned that she sleeps setting the timer on the air-con for two hours.

Lately, keeping the air-con on all night is recommended, so that's what I've been doing, but maybe it's not a good idea. 

It's still hot, but you can feel a nice breeze in the evening, and it's comfortable early in the morning. I'm a night person but I wake up in the middle of the night, so I know. 

Last night I slept with a fan last night to see how it goes. 

I woke up a little after four am, and it was hot, so I stepped out on the balcony,  lay down there looking up at the stars, and fell asleep. Oh, it felt so good!  When I woke up, it was about 6 am, and the stars were gone, comfortably cool.   I'm gonna do it again tonight. I love it.

Family

At a music bar that I went to last night, a friend was with her sister who came home over the Obon holiday. 

My friend is the oldest of four daughters, and her sister is the youngest; nine years younger. 

Since their mother was sickly back then, my friend was like a mom-big sister to the youngest; attended school events as a parent-like big sister, and so on. 

Now my friend is around 60 and has no children like myself. 

It must be such a joy to have her little sister welcome home for the holiday. 

I did not want to bother them, but they kindly insisted on sharing the table and I had a good time with them.

So appreciated.

Over the Obon holiday, people enjoy a reunion with their families and folks. The whole country is filled with happiness, smiles, and laughter. 

How lovely!　

縁

I cut ties with two groups of people in these ten years, and these are the only people in my life with whom I ended the relationship unpleasantly. It's been years, so it has become less important to me, yet I still care somewhere in my heart. 

There was an occasion to see one of those two groups of people the other day, and I hoped to exchange a warm smile, which could have brightened up my day, but it was not like that at all, and I figured I should just let it go. I just did not have 縁 with those people. That's the simplest and nicest way to accept what happened and how people behaved, and forget. 

お盆

立秋 has passed, so technically it's fall, though it will take another month or longer to feel like fall. 

Yesterday morning, our young monk came to recite a sutra briefly.　

He became a monk when he married the old monk's daughter. 

Marriage often changes a woman's life, but his marriage did not change his wife's life much.

Instead, he changed his life dramatically. 

He is a savior to the old monk's family. 

The old monk is happy having her daughter and three grandsons around, plus his young monk. 

The young monk's sutra is very short and he does not talk much, which is fine with me. 

I don't see the significance of this kind of ritual, but I'd be happy if Mother were happy with it. 

Mother said that she felt like お盆 was nicely done. 

They Won!

China beat Japan in the women's team match at ping-pong. 

They are the best.

It was a straight victory, yet Japan put them in a tight spot several times. 

Both team players deserve the best praise and respect for their wonderful performances. 

It's great to win, but one side has to lose in a match.

Win or lose, paying respect to the opponent is truly important. 

Besides, Japan won the silver medal. They Won! 

All the ping-pong matches are over and I thank the universe that I can return to my normal life. 

It's nice to sleep at night.