A Celebration

This year, my grandfather will be 80, and my great-grand uncle (my grandmother’s uncle) will be 90. So, we had a party to celebrate them. In Japan, 80th birthday is called “San-ju (仐寿)” and 90th birthday is called “Sotsu-ju (卆寿)”. Because, the Chinese character “仐” is consist of “八”(eight) and “十”(ten), and “卆” is consist of “九”(nine) and “十”(ten).

Forty-four relatives joined the party on May 4th. The party had begun, we were taken a picture by professional photographer. The photographer was very funny. He amused us with tricks. So, most of us smile in the picture. At the party, we compliment for my grandfather and great-grand uncle and gave them bouquet. They looked very happy.

Some families came from Fukuoka, Miyazaki, Saga and Tokyo. They came to the party by car, bus or train. The day of celebration was middle of the “Golden Week” holidays. My grand uncle who lives in Fukuoka called the next day and said “It took four hours from Kumamoto to Fukuoka by bus. We were delayed by the heavy traffic of highway.”

Anyway, the party was great success. Everybody enjoyed it, of course so did I. We had a very good time.


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Book review # 5 "Badger's Parting Gifts"

There was an old badger. He was loved by other animals. He knew almost everything. He was so old the he thought he must soon die. One night, he had a strange yet wonderful dream like none he had ever had before. The dream was like this: He was in front of the very long tunnel. He felt that his legs became strong and he could run! Actually, he could not walk without a walking stick.

The next morning his friends found he was dead. Everyone was very sad.

Winter came and the snow covered the countryside, but it did not conceal the sadness that the badger’s friends felt. The animals often gathered together and talked about him. Each animal had a good memory with him. A mole learned from him how to cut out a chain of the moles from a piece of folded paper. A flog became an excellent skater thanks to him. A fox could knot his tie and a rabbit got his special recipe for gingerbread.

The memories are the badger’s parting gifts.

Feelings
It is a heart-worming story. The death of our close friends or family makes us so sad. But, we must get over our sorrow because, the dead people dose not want us to be unhappy. The badger did not want either. The badger was not afraid of death but he worried about his friends. He thought they would fell very sad when he died.

He wrote a letter on the even of his death. It said “Gone down the Long Tunnel. Bye Bye, Badger”. I think that it is very simple but filled with love.

I stated the above a sentence, we must get over our sorrow. We have the power that we can do it. I believe.


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