Today, I would like to post about a Japanese man who had a very interesting life in Edo period. His name is Manjiro Nakahama, also known as John Manjiro. He encountered so many difficulties but he could overcome every difficulty. The story of his life is at the forefront of the kids attention in U.S. because his life give them courage and hope. I will introduce his life a little bit in my blog.
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| John Manjiro |
He spend a boyhood as fishermen in Tosa (Kochi), Japan. One day, he went to fishing with 4 fellows but their ship is caught in a typhoon. Their small boat was adrift on the Pacific Ocean.
The boat drifted to a deserted island. John and his fellows drink rainwater, eat bird eggs and survived several months.
Fortunately, the American whaling ship has been stopped to the desert island to get some water. The American sailors rescued them at that time.
Instead of going to Japan, the whaling ship headed to Hawaii because it was in seclusion in Japan at the time. Manjiro learned English while he was helping the work on board the ship.
The captain and sailors liked Manjiro's hard work. 3 people except Manjiro got off the ship in Hawaii, Manjiro remained in the whaling ship.
The whaling ship got back to a port of the United States mainland with Manjiro. Manjiro went to the school in the U.S. as adopted son of the captain.
He went to a college and he studied a lot. He became an excellent human resources as a whaling ship engineer and technician.
He had a peaceful years to live as an whalers in the United States.
However, he got his second disaster.
He had an american girlfriend. He was thinking to get married with her but she had died of illness while he was out to deep-sea fishing...
Manjiro became homesick and he decided to go back to Japan. But he didn't have enough money...
His life was not so easy but he was very positive and looked forward all the time. What is happened to the rest of his life? Well, if you want to know the rest of his life and want to have a positive life like him, you must read this book. >>>Heart of a Samurai
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The Nobel Prize in Literature 2013 was awarded to Alice Munro "master of the contemporary short story". Congratulations! She is a Canadian author. I didn't know about her so I want to read her novel. "The Moons of Jupiter", "The View from Castle Rock", her novels sound very interesting for me.
"Harukists" (big fans of Haruki Murakami) must be a disappointment. I saw a Japanese news on TV about them. There was a Harukists cafe in Japan. They were waiting the announcement of the prize in from of the internet. Absolutely, he is a great novelist too. So maybe, he can win next year! I look forward to it.
Kazuo Inamori has founded and led to global success two giant corporations, Kyocera and KDDI. Also he helped Japan Airlines in bankruptcy in 2010. He excellently could bring Japan Airlines back from the grave.
He has his own philosophy and faith. That is a kind of very easy things to do but people forget or don't believe it. He tells us what the life is, why we are existing, what we should do for our life.
"The right things are right."
When you were a kid, your parents and your teachers told you like "don't do the bad things and don't lie". But when we became an adult, we forget the simple phrase and we just don't believe it. If we are the super honest, we might get the damage from the people who lie to you. We think like that. Of course we don't want to get the damage, so sometimes we are against to the right things. For example, this is a kind of small thing but we park a car on the street but the spot is not a right spot to park. We know we may not do that but we do.
"The thoughts will become reality."
The author of "Think and Grow Rich", Napoleon Hill, the author of "The secret", Rhonda Byrne, they said the same things. Also Kazuo Inamori had a same experience in his life. If we think hard about something that we want to do, it will become reality. I actually agree with this. Our current life made by our thinking. If we want to do something, we think about it and we just do it. Our dreams come true.
"After you."
It is an altruistic behavior. If you do a nice things to the other people, they will be a happy and be grateful to you and they will try to do a nice things to you. We can not live alone. We need the people's help. Think about the people and be nice to the people, the people will be a happy and you will be a happy.
Kazuo Inamori tells us those kind of things from his actual experiences. I hope you can get and read this book to have love and peace.
A Compass to Fulfillment: Passion and Spirituality in Life and Business
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Did you know that the gene is not much different between human and chimpanzee? It is only 1.2% different! But the looks and almost everything are different between human and chimpanzee. Because some of the genes of human are ON but those genes are OFF in chimpanzee. The switching of genes makes the different.
And there are good genes and bad genes. If we can turn ON the good genes, we can have a wonderful life. How can we turn ON the good genes? One of the way is the "laugh", Kazuo Murakami says. And also if you think everything negatively, you might turn ON the bad genes like you might have the cancer. The book is very interesting. I didn't know we can control our genes. Please read his book and turn ON and control your nice genes and have a wonderful life!
You can buy his book from Amazon!
The Divine Code of Life: Awaken Your Genes and Discover Hidden Talents
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Haruki Murakami's new book "Koishikute (Ten selected love stories)"is now in Japan. The picture is from a japanese news paper. I have not read this book yet but it says he selected 9 love stories of the novelists like Maile Meloy, David Kranes, Tobias Wolff and Lauren Groff etc. And his own new love story is in the book! Of course this is a japanese book but I just wanted introduce his new book to all.
Thank you so much!
Parasite Eve is a Japanese science fiction novel by Hideaki Sena, first published in 1996 in Japan. I usually don't want to read and watch the horror stuff but I don't know why I read this book because I like science.
Parasite Eve was adapted into a film, manga and video games. When Hideaki Sena was a graduated student in Tohoku Univversity, he wrote this novel.
Mitochondria are the energy factories of biological cells. It has own independent genome againt human genome. It has been in the cells over hundred million years. It try to occupy the human being to take up initiative. It was so thrilling and scary story but very interesting. I want to introduce more books by Hideaki Sena.
Here is the book that you can buy from Amazon!
Parasite Eve
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