Time flies...

今週、塾の先生が亡くなった。
原因は癌。中学のときからお世話になっていた人で、勉強だけでなく人生や考え方などいろいろなことで影響された人。最近はあまり会わなかったが、年に何回かは今でも会いにいっていた。

先生は決して良い先生とは言えない。タバコ超吸うし、お酒も超飲むし、いいかげんだし、やさしくないし。。でも人間としては素晴らしい人で、なぜかみんな惹かれてしまう。だから先生の周りにはいつも人がいたし、塾やめてもみんなしょっちゅう遊びに来ていた。私はもう10年以上の付き合い。先生とはいろいろあったなぁ～。ムカついたこともあったし、もう嫌！と思うこともあったけど、私たちのことを真剣に考えてくれてるから嫌いにはなれなかった。倒れてからも塾だけは続けたいと決してやめなかった。生徒といること、塾が生きがいらしい。

そして先生のお通夜にいってきた。たくさんの人が来ていた。5年ぶりに会う人や、遠くに行った人なども大勢いて、先生のお通夜というよりは塾の同窓会みたいだった。私が教えてもらっていた先生や私が教えていた生徒もいて、うれしかった。これも先生のおかげだね。先生がみんなを引き合わせてくれたみたい。

先生はきっと幸せだったと思う。もちろんやり残したことはあるたくさんあるだろうが、自分の思うように、好きなことばっかりやってたし、そして何よりも最後に多くの人に見送られたから。その人がどれだけ周囲から好かれていたかはお葬式で分かると思う。本当に大切なひとのお葬式には参加するだろうから。先生のところには多くの人が訪れていた。

最初は先生がもうこの世にいないこと実感がわかなかった。そんなにしょっちゅう会っていたわけじゃないし。けど、帰る前にもう一度先生に会いに行ったとき、じっと先生の顔を眺めているとどんどん悲しくなってきた。もうあのうるさい声が聞けないんだ、困ったとき相談しにいけないんだと思うと。前会ったのは去年の10月。お見舞いに何度かいったが、もう話せなくて会話はできなかった。そして元気なときに、もっと前に会いにいっとけばよかったとすごく後悔した。その後悔がだんだんと大きくなって涙が出てきた。

その時、私が数年前に教えていた生徒が隣にやってきた。そして私が「もっとたくさん会いにいっとけばよかった」と言ったら「僕もそう思う」と。そして「これからおばあちゃんとかおじいちゃんにもっと会いにいったほうがいいですよ。おばあちゃんたちのためじゃなくて自分のために。後悔しないよう、自分のために会いに行くんですよ。」と。その通りだと思った。

ということで、今日おばあちゃん家に行ってきました！最近は体がどんどん弱くなっていって、あまり元気がないから心配。私すごくおばあちゃんとおじいちゃん大好きだから。私が会いに行くといつもすごく喜んでくれる。これからは本当にできるだけ会いに行こう、そう決めました☆

なんかちょっと暗くなっちゃったね。すみません。。m(._.)m

Sorry to those of you who can't read JP. But I'll write a little bit about it.

One sad thing happend to me this week; my teacher died. I've known him for more than 10 years. He was my teacher when I was in junior high and since then, he taught me so many things, not just studies but also about life and advised me when I had problems.

He's not the best teacher cause he smokes a lot, drink a lot, not nice, do what he wants....but he was a great great person. He had the character that attracts people and he influenced many people including me. So even though he's like that, there were always people around him.

I think he passed away happily. Many many people came to say goodbye to him. I think you can tell how much that person was loved from the number of people who came to the funeral. First, I didn't realize that he's dead because I didn't see him often recently but when I lookedk at his face, tears started to fall. When I thought I'll never hear him yelling at me or I can't ask his advice anymore, tears came out. I regretted so much that I should've seen him more often and talked to him more.

Then one person who I used to teach years ago came next to me and said, "you should see your grand parents as much as you can. Not for your grand parents but for yourself. You should see them for yourself, so that you won't regret." He's right.

So today, I went to see my grand parents! My grandma has problem with her legs so not very well so I'm worried about her...:( I like my grand parents so much that I don't know what I'm gonna do if they are gone... don't wanna think about it. I'm gonna go and see them as much as I can from now on.

Anyway, sorry it's a little sad story. I just wanna say that you should see your grandma, grandpa when they're healthy and spend time with them as much as you can! And also your parents. If you can't meet them, call them and talk to them. Time flies so fast, you know...

Great great people I met in Spain

Dear friends I met in Spain,

Thank you so so much for making my trip wonderful! I had a great great time with awesome people!
For those of you who were on the tour, I really enjoyed travelling with you all. It was my first time travelling alone so I was a bit nervous but everyone was friendly and fun to hang out. I'm so happy to meet you cool people! I miss those days we went party-ing and we all felt sick the next day from drinking too much. Many people (including me) said we're not gonna drink that much but we kept drinking the next day... haha, that was fun. Thanks to our wonderful tour guide and bus driver, we saw many cities and experienced many things. My favorite city was Seville and Lisbon. I also enjoyed the Fado dinner. Which was your favorite??
Anyway, we are all spread out in different countries but that means we have friends all over the world! How cool is that? Hope to see you guys somewhere again in the future!

Till then, Adios amigos!!!























for more pics, see
http://spaces.msn.com/mayumayu1222/

お花見☆ Hanami!!

さっそく今週末、会社の人たちとお花見をした。同期は80人くらい集まり、先輩社員も15人くらいか来てくれた。会社の人たちとお花見とか社会人になったなぁ～って実感した。桜は満開☆桃の花も満開で、超きれいだった☆お花見をしてるとき、そしてそれを心から美しいと思えるとき、日本人でよかったなぁって思う。もちろんどこの国の人でも花はきれいだと思うだろうが、日本人の桜に対する想いはただ単に花の外見を美しいと思うだけでなく、咲き方や散り方、日々の変化、お花見の雰囲気、昔を思い出したり（私だけ？）など人それぞれに感じ方が違うと思う。桜っていいなぁ。。
そしてその後はビジネス系同期だけで飲み会！こっちもまた60人くらいいたかなぁ。まだしゃべったことない人と話すこともでき、楽しかった☆これから一緒に頑張っていく仲間、それぞれ何か光るものを持っているはずだし、まだそれぞれの本当の姿知らないと思うから、はやく仲良くなりたいな。

This weekend I went to Hanami with my company's co-workers and other staff. There were about 100 people total. Hanami is Japanese traditional way of enjoying cherry blossoms. We go to a park to see cherry blossoms and usually eat & drink under the tree. There are many food booth around too. The main purpose is to enjoy the beautiful flowers but most are there to have fun drinking with their friends, haha. I am very glad to be Japanese when I enjoy cherry blossoms from bottom of my heart. Of course, any people from all over the world will enjoy the beauty of flowers but I think Japanese feelings towards cherry blossoms are different. Not only the beauty of how it looks but we also enjoy the process of the daily change. From the bloom till when it falls. I love the part that when petals falls like snowflakes because of the wind. and I also like when it is about to bloom. Not the full bloom. I can feel that tiny cute buds are trying hard to bloom. It reminds me that spring is coming and our new year is starting. (in Japan, school starts in April) It makes me happy and exciting.
Those of you who are planning to come to Japan someday, you should come in April!!! It's the best season!!

First week at my new job!

Yes!! so my first week at my new job finished. I was kinda nervous at the Ceremony cause it was my first day. It was mainly a speech from our CEO and few other executives. I was looking at the CEO thinking "oh, he's the one who's always in business magazines or newspapers". My first 2 weeks are basic training. Mostly lectures about the company's goal, plan, strategy, history, accounting, environment, and many other group work. I'm in training and not really "work" so still don't get the image working in this company but so far, I thought it really is Japanese company. What I mean is that it is very traditional Japanese company, Japanese organization. Those of you who know what Japanese management system is like, it really is like that. Harmony, goupism, organization, corporate family, royalty... I'm not gonna tell you what we did in details but very very different from America. strange... My company is one of the big company in Japan so I knew it would be very Japanese, but I was shocked. I don't know if I can fit in this system but certainly it's interesting and there are a lot to learn.
I will know which department I will be placed at next week! So nervous....

就職第一週目が終わった。新しいことだらけの一週間だったなぁ。とりあえず、入社式はドキドキだった。300人以上の新入社員。初めて会う同期もがほとんどだし、社長も始めて見た。あれがいつも雑誌や新聞に出てる人か～と思いながら見てた（笑　最初の2週間は新入社員研修。会社の経営方針や経営理念、目標、歴史とその他の基本的なビジネスひ必要な知識についてやった。まだ本当に働いてるわけじゃないから、仕事してる感覚がないけど、とりあえず感じたことは、私は本当に日本の会社に入ったんだなぁって思った。とても日本的な大企業に。同じ日本でも外資とは全然違うだろう。詳しいことは言わないが、研修を受けてとても驚いた。日本的とは知っていたが、実際に身をもって感じるとちょっと正直ちょっと怖かった。私は小さい頃外国で育ったから、外国的な考えも多く、だからかもしれないけど。う～ん、私がこの日本的組織にはまるかどうかはわからないが、日本的組織・会社を知ることは私の将来にとてもプラスになると思う。せっかくのチャンス、いろんなことを見て、体験して、勉強して吸収しよう。
来週部署発表。とっても緊張＆不安。。希望通りなりますように！！

Madrid

This is the capital of Spain! Yes, it was big but not as big as I thought. It has lots of shoppings, bars, clubs. The picture left is the Plaza Mayor. It is similar to the one in Venece except there's no pigeons. That's good. Surrounded by many nice bars and restaurants but seemed like it was only for tourists.





Royal Palace

















Reina Sofia National Art Museum






Prado Museum; it is one of the biggest muesums in Europe. I was here for about 5 hours! It was very tiring but I enjoyed it. Many works of El Greco, Velazques and Goya.

Salamanca

Salamanca is a city of University. It has the country's best Univ. for learning Spanish. I liked here a lot. Nice to just chill, walk around and see the city. I went into this one church which it had old & new catedral together. The old part of the catedral (built in 12 centries) was so beautiful. It was there just as it was. I've been to many catedrals but this is one of my top 3.

The night light was very beautiful!

Lisbon

I really liked Lisbon. Very safe and everyone speak English!
I was surprised. Because in Spain very few people speak English so it was difficult to communicate. but here, I had no problem:) yeah, but I should try to speak Spanish when I'm in Spain. The view from San Jorge Castle was very nice.

Monument to the discoveries/ Tower of Belem

Torremolinos (Costa Del Sol)

Torremolinos is one of the city in Costa Del Sol where it's known as a resort beach. Unfortunately, it was cold and rained when we were there...:( Our first week was such a beautiful weather but once we got here, clouds showed up. Oh well, that's alright.
We partied crazy though!!! Most of our tour members went out to a club but later at night, we split up and few of us went to a different club. We met some local people there and they took us to a club where lots of local people go. OMG, we were so drunk... but it was sooooo fun!!! It was a crazy night, right? Greg, Brooke, Nadia and Sarah. Oh, I don't wanna think about how sick we were the next day... I had a terrible terrible headache and everyone looked like ...shit. haha. Here are some of our drunk photos!












Oh, yeah. one bad thing happend to me here. I had my money stolen... and I think I know who it is. My mom advised me "don't trust nice & friendly people." before I left to Spain. yeah, she's my mom. She was right. A lot of my friends say to me too. "Mayu, you trust or think people nice too easily" and yes, this was the result. I don't know why but I tend to think that if people were kind, they are nice, good people.... I know, that's dangerous. but luckly, it was only my cash that was stolen. I had my purse, credit card, passport etc. Money is just money, thank god I was safe. Don't trust kind people too easily!!

Granada

Granada; it was once the capital of Islam dynastay in the 13c and it still had the atmosphere of that time. I really like the old part of the city. White houses with flowers, small streets, painted tiles... I was surprised that people drive cars through this narrow path! if one person stands in the street, a car has to go very slowly and hope not to hit anything!

Alhanbra Palace; this was huge palace with impressive carving on the wall. It is hand made. you'll be surprised if you see this closely. I heard people did this for 30 years all day except when eating and sleeping. Can you imagine how patient antient people were?

Finally Graduation!!!!

Guess what, I finally got the graduation certificate!!! Yeah!!!! I am so happy now:) I knew I could graduate but still if you haven't got the evidence, I'm sure you all will be a little worried. At least I was. Plus, I didn't attend the graduation ceremony (because I was in Spain... I know, sorry mom & dad) and if, IF I couldn't graduate because of some kind of accident or something, I can't do anything because I was in Spain!! If I had failed, then I have to think about my next future, which I will probably apply for the Univ again for one more term to graduate and I can't do all these paper work if I'm in Spain! And if I failed, I will have to cancel my job which is really nice and that will definately ruin my life! I didn't show this fear outside, but inside I was scared. I am relieved now!