the Beginning of Autumn

立秋のあとが暑い

立秋とは秋の始めの事ですが、立秋を過ぎてもまだまだ暑い日が続きます。それどころか、その後に最高気温が記録される事が多いくらいです。毎年、８月８日ごろに立秋を迎えますが、この日以降の暑さを残暑と呼ぶのが正しいと言われています。しかし、体感的にはどこか違和感を感じます。でもこの頃になると、海水浴場では大きな波のうねりがあらわれたり電気クラゲに刺される人が増えたり、公園では秋の花の萩や桔梗が咲き乱れたりしていますので、何となくもう秋かなと感じます。やっぱり太陽の運行は性格なんですね。

the Beginning of Autumn 

Rissyu means the beginning of autumn but even after this day it continues to be hot. In fact, after Rissyu the highest temperature of the year is often recorded. The day is around August 8 every year and it is said the heat after this day is formally called zansyo(Lingering heat) . But when we say what we feel, it is a little bit different. Around this time of the year there appears a big wave near the swimming beach and more and more people are stung by electric jellyfish. In the park autumn flowers such as Japanese bellflowers are beginning to bloom. So I somehow feel autumn has already com. The movement of the sun is more accurate, don't you think so?

Bon Dance and Yukata

盆踊り・浴衣姿

盆踊りの中でも特に有名な者は、徳島の阿波踊りなどですが全国各地に各種の盆踊りがあります。外国人観光客の間でも盆踊りは人気があり、まためずらしがられて、踊りの中に飛び入りする外人さんもいるほどです。

各種の盆踊りは、人々が円を描きながら踊るものと更新しながら踊るものとに二大別されるそうです。いずれにしても、浴衣姿がとてもよく似合います。浴衣を機内と、様になりませんし、盆踊りらしく見えないから不思議です。このため、盆踊り用の特別な浴衣を持ってくる人もいますし、大勢の人がそろいの浴衣をきることもあります。外国の人たちにも浴衣はよく似合いますよ。

Bon Dance and Yukata

There are many kinds of bon dances all over the country but Awa-odori in Tokusima Prefecture is especially famous among them. It is so popular among foreign tourists that some of them even join the people who are dancing. Maybe it seems curious to them.

A variety of bon dances are grouped into two distinct types. In one type people dance in a circle and in the other people parade dancing and move forward. In either case, people look nice in yukata. It is strange that if people don't wear yukata, they don't look nice and it doesn't look like a typical bon dancing. So some people have special yukata for a bon dancing. In some cases, a lot of people wear the same yukata in a group. I am sure foreign people look nice in yukata.

Urabon

盂蘭盆

盂蘭盆を略して盆とかお盆といっています。この日は、祖先の冥福をいのり、飢えに苦しんでいる人たちに食べ物を施す日として昔からの伝統行事になっています。

ですから、各種のごちそうを、まず祖先の霊に供えて、その後にごちそう鵜を欲しい人たちや野獣や野鳥にまで自由時分け与えるのが昔からの習わしなのです。でも、ゆたかになった現代では、ごちそうをもらってかえる人がすくなくなったので、お寺の墓前にごちそうを供える人は少なくなりました。食べ物を持参する事を禁止するお寺も増えています。

お盆参りや僧侶の檀家まわりなどが、いまでも行われています。地方によってお盆の日がちがいますが、一般に７月１５日や８月１５比に行うところが多いようです。

Urabon 

We call "Urabon" "Bon" or "Oo-bon" for short. It has been an old traditional event. On this day we pray that our ancestors' souls may rest in peace and give food and drink to people who are hungry.

 That is why we first offer a variety of dishes to the spirit of our ancestors and after that give them to people who want them or even to wild animals or birds. This custom has been practiced for a long time. But today, richer than before, fewer people want to bring back those dishes so fewer people offer dishes in front of their tombs at temple. More and more temples even ask their visitors not to bring food.

Even today, people visit family cemeteries and priests visit their supporters. Generally in most districts the event is held on July 15 or August 15, but in others it is held on other days.S

20110519

My Experiences
While in high school, I travelled overseas to see foreign culture for the first time. That is when I started to interest in architectures. Impressed with the beautyful building appearance and townscape, So I majored department of architecture in college. And I joined real estate agent to be based in Tohoku region right after graduation. Working for the company for a year, I obtained important management and design skill stage by stage. My major responsibilities were customer enhancement and asset liquidation project, sales team management, and making new product development .

My initial job was a sales rep to solicit various types of people to accept our real estate. Not only ordinary people, Those included  government and municipal officespublic agencies, hotels, bars, restaurants, and self-employed shops and so forth. I called on dozens of people every day and night (because bars were open at night!) for two years. Attaining top sales in my 6 month, I learned the importance of initiative and tenacity. In this way, I acquired basic sales skills during this period.

My next job was a sales team leader managing a group of 4 reps for half year. In this position, I found that doing and having others do were too different things. Of course, the sales knowhow I had gained in the previous experience helped me actually guide them on the job. But, the more important thing was bringing maximum results as a team, which I learned by trial and error. In this manner, I learned valuable leadership skills during this period.

My last job was a product developer and designer to build mobile phone with other firms. After a year in sales, I changed my job. In the following two years, I successfully developed with several new product . This was a great opportunity to learn how a global company operated from a productive viewpoint. As a result, I developed practical development & design skills during this period.

20110521

Steve Jobs Speech Script_03

This was the closest I've been to facing death, and I hope it's the closest I get for a few more decades. Having lived through it, I can now say this to you with a bit more certainty than when death was a useful but purely intellectual concept. No one wants to die, even people who want to go to Heaven don't want to die to get there, and yet, death is the destination we all share. No one has ever escaped it. And that is as it should be, because death is very likely the single best invention of life. It's life's change agent; it clears out the old to make way for the new. right now, the new is you. But someday, not too long from now, you will gradually become the old and be cleared away. Sorry to be so dramatic, but it's quite true. Your time is limited, so don't waste it living someone else's life. Don't be trapped by dogma, which is living with the results of other people's thinking. Don't let the noise of others' opinions drown out your own inner voice, heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary.

When I was young, there was an amazing publication called The Whole Earth Catalogue, which was one of the bibles of my generation. It was created by a fellow named Stuart Brand not far from here in Menlo Park, and he brought it to life with his poetic touch. This was in the late Sixties, before personal computers and desktop publishing, so it was all made with typewriters, scissors, and Polaroid cameras. it was sort of like Google in paperback form thirty-five years before Google came along. I was idealistic, overflowing with neat tools and great notions. Stuart and his team put out several issues of the The Whole Earth Catalogue, and then when it had run its course, they put out a final issue. It was the mid-Seventies and I was your age. On the back cover of their final issue was a photograph of an early morning country road, the kind you might find yourself hitchhiking on if you were so adventurous. Beneath were the words, "Stay hungry, stay foolish." It was their farewell message as they signed off. "Stay hungry, stay foolish." And I have always wished that for myself, and now, as you graduate to begin anew, I wish that for you. Stay hungry, stay foolish.

Thank you all, very much.

20110520

Steve Jobs Speech Script_03_01

My third story is about death. When I was 17 I read a quote that went something like "If you live each day as if it was your last, someday you'll most certainly be right." It made an impression on me, and since then, for the past 33 years, I have looked in the mirror every morning and asked myself, "If today were the last day of my life, would I want to do what I am about to do today?" And whenever the answer has been "no" for too many days in a row, I know I need to change something. Remembering that I'll be dead soon is the most important thing I've ever encountered to help me make the big choices in life, because almost everything--all external expectations, all pride, all fear of embarrassment or failure--these things just fall away in the face of death, leaving only what is truly important. Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose. You are already naked. There is no reason not to follow your heart.

About a year ago, I was diagnosed with cancer. I had a scan at 7:30 in the morning and it clearly showed a tumor on my pancreas. I didn't even know what a pancreas was. The doctors told me this was almost certainly a type of cancer that is incurable, and that I should expect to live no longer than three to six months. My doctor advised me to go home and get my affairs in order, which is doctors' code for "prepare to die." It means to try and tell your kids everything you thought you'd have the next ten years to tell them, in just a few months. It means to make sure that everything is buttoned up so that it will be as easy as possible for your family. It means to say your goodbyes.

I lived with that diagnosis all day. Later that evening I had a biopsy where they stuck an endoscope down my throat, through my stomach into my intestines, put a needle into my pancreas and got a few cells from the tumor. I was sedated but my wife, who was there, told me that when they viewed the cells under a microscope, the doctor started crying, because it turned out to be a very rare form of pancreatic cancer that is curable with surgery. I had the surgery and, thankfully, I am fine now.

20110519

Steve jobs speech script02_02

In a remarkable turn of events, Apple bought NeXT and I returned to Apple and the technology we developed at NeXT is at the heart of Apple's current renaissance, and Lorene and I have a wonderful family together.

I'm pretty sure none of this would have happened if I hadn't been fired from Apple. It was awful-tasting medicine but I guess the patient needed it. Sometimes life's going to hit you in the head with a brick. Don't lose faith. I'm convinced that the only thing that kept me going was that I loved what I did. You've got to find what you love, and that is as true for work as it is for your lovers. Your work is going to fill a large part of your life, and the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work, and the only way to do great work is to love what you do. If you haven't found it yet, keep looking, and don't settle. As with all matters of the heart, you'll know when you find it, and like any great relationship it just gets better and better as the years roll on. So keep looking. Don't settle.