Miho's favorites

https://www.flickr.com/photos/sarairachel/6647350979 Inspiring story about Buddha , " Hearing that Buddha was enlightened , a man traveled far to see him. But this man was full of hatred.  When he found the Buddha, he swore at him, cursed him, and called him names day and night.  The Buddha continued to meditate quietly with a warm smile on his face. After several days, the man grew tired, as he hadn't broken down the Buddha at all. Finally, one morning the Buddha called the man to him. The Buddha said, " Let me ask you a question.  If a man brings me a gift and I refuse to accept it, to whom does the gift belong ? " The man thought for a minute and said, " To the one who gave it." The Buddha smiled and nodded.   Then he said, " Then if you come to me with the gift of hatred and I refuse to accept it, to whom does the hatred belong ? " The man gasped, " To me." After that, the man became a follow

I really don't remember when and where I first heard this song   "The end of the world by Skeeter Davis" , but I surely knew this song.  While we were watching oldies music on TV, suddenly my old tapes came to my mind which were tapes that were recorded by my friend who was 10 years older than me, when I was around 22 years old.  Fortunately I was keeping the tape until now and soon I found it and the song we have been repeatedly listening to is that song.  When I checked about the song and the singer, it was a big hit in 1963 !  Which happens to be the year when we were born.  We feel this song is like an ocean of emotion, super touching.  There are other singers who also sang the song but we both felt the original singer Skeeter Davis 's singing has the deepest emotion and is very touching.  Honestly, I wasn't listening to the lyrics until recently, I was touched by the melody of this music, because I felt it's so beautiful.  and her sin

Recently we've been into oldies music, especially from 1940s to 1980s music ! Around midnight here, there is an oldies music station on TV and Ray has been enjoying watching it almost every night.  And since a few days ago, some of the music I heard from it has been spinning in my head,  and one of them is Saturday night by Bay City Rollers which was a huge hit in 1976 !   Bay City Rollers - Saturday Night ('76)      It's so great to easily be able to watch an old generation's music and the musicians singing live !    And I appreciate modern high technology which allows this. The Bay City Rollers were a Scottish pop music band who were often wearing checkered design with 1/8 length wide pants on the stage.  They all looked cool and adult at that time but when I watched it now,  I felt they all look so cute and young with young voices.  I only knew 1976 to 1978's members.  Ray ( my husband ) had heard this music on the radio a few

At the Bear Farm, Noboribetsu, Hokkaido in Japan on September,1994 I can't believe it's already past 20 years since then ! All the bears that were in the farm looked very friendly and some of them were waving to everyone !                              Bear Farm, in Noboribetsu, Hokkaido This was one of the most hilarious moments in my life.  It was a big surprise to me to see such friendly bears.   They wanted to get food, so we threw some snacks to them. They were catching the snacks we threw to them, perfectly ! Hokkaido is my favorite place in Japan.    There are so many great places to look around in Hokkaido.                                                   In Otaru, Hokkaido

It was my husband's day off today, so we went to a crepe store called " Café Marcel ". Actually there is another Cafe which has crepes we were interested in and we wanted to go to that place but they were closed so we went to Café Marcel which also has many 5 star reviews. I haven't eaten crepes since I was still living in Japan, and almost forgot about it but after seeing some figure skaters who were in Japan for an ice show were tweeting and showing a photo of them with crepes, which looked so yummy. So I was craving for crepes since then. Café Marcel is located in University area where there are many students. We have never been to this particular area before.  We discovered this area seems pretty safe to walk around, a University students walking area.  We found there are many pretty shops to look around. There was no other customer in the store, maybe because it was business day around 3 PM,

When I was a teenager, I imagined that becoming famous from one's career =  success = happiness.   Like getting appearances on TV,  your posters are everywhere, top idol star, musician, actor/actress, model, comedian, sports player, etc.. everything which belongs with entertainment. There was a time I thought it looked cool to be famous from career success, getting spotlight, but I was only seeing it from one side. Then I started hearing many rumors about celebrities, the behind the scenes, people gossiping about how this or that celebrity could get that successful position, etc.. I've heard that to be successful in that world, you will need to do something you don't want to which is not related to your work. and learned that there are some people who can - with no problem - do anything to get to the position they want, by thinking like it's a business. But I found I'm not the person who can do something I don't want to by ignoring my inn

  I've been looking forward to seeing this movie about Freddie Mercury . http://www.theguardian.com/film/2013/oct/21/ben-whishaw-freddie-mercury-biopic The following is a quote from Queen guitarist, Dr.Brian May in that article, "We're very protective [of Freddie] and we're known for not hiding away from the truth. There's not going to be any pretense about this. It's going to be something very true – as true as we can make it – but also respectful to Freddie as a performer and as a man." I really love the friendship between Brian May and Roger Taylor and John Deacon to Freddie Mercury.  They are so sweet to make Freddie's movie. While many famous people are more of  "Look at me, " type , and many bands have band members who are more concerned about how much attention they themselves will get, these three decided to make a movie about Queen's biography focusing mainly on their band-mate Freddie. It's a very