Rachel's Writing

Astraea is the goddess who taught humans what justice is, but they have been competing, fighting and killing each other. The goddess was so angry and sad that she ran away to heaven, and continued to watch us from the sky. It is said Virgo people are so strict and stoic to both others and themselves that they are striving to forge the ideal, because they hate corruption of sense of justice. Libra people tend to consider and confuse what justice, beauty and truth are, so they always contemplate like scale swings.  They like to gather many kinds of knowledge and information, because they understand it is so difficult to make decisions that everyone agrees with. Libra season starts with Spring Equinox Day, after Virgo season is ended, and Scorpio season begins after Libra season on the 24th of October. The model of Scorpio killed the Greek hero Orion, who was so tall and strong but arrogant, with his poison needle. Goddess Hera gave honor to the scorpion and he became the constellatio...

Cancer season starts the day of summer solstice, which usually comes on the 21st or 22nd of June.  In the Northern hemisphere, the Sun reaches its highest position in the sky and daytime becomes the longest in the year. As I showed in the previous article, Zeus, the god of the highest position in Greek mythology, has a lot of children born from human women. Heracles was one of them, and Zeus made a plan for his wife goddess Hera to breastfeed Heracles while she was asleep, because Zeus would like to give him the power of a god. 　 Heracles sucked Hera's breast so strongly, even though he was a baby, that she awoke. Hera was surprised and shook him off, the Milky Way was created by her breastmilk spreading into the night sky. She got angry and continued to hate him forever. Heracles had grown to be the strongest hero in Greece, and started the adventures that are called the Twelve Labours of Heracles. The models of Cancer and Leo are concerned with these episodes. When Heracles slaye...

In the ancient western calendar, the new year begins with Spring Equinox Day, and Aries season starts this day. Equinox Day is the day when the Sun passes on the equator from the point of view of the earth.  This occurs twice each year, around 20 March and 23 September, and daytime and nighttime are of approximately equal duration all over the planet.  In this meaning, people of Aries were born at the beginning of the year. It is said Aries people are so competitive that they are always eager to win the first position. The model of Aries is the big, beautiful male sheep with golden wool who was owned by Zeus in Greek mythology. That’s why Aries people tend to be gorgeous and charismatic, and look like stars or artists. After Aries season, Taurus begins around 20th April, depending on the year. In Greek myth, Zeus loved Europa who was the princess of the human kingdom, and he approached her transforming into a white ox not to be suspicious. Zeus invited her to ride on him, and ...

 There are many dramas in Greek mythology, and they have not only attracted so many people from around the world, but also influenced them. No one would deny that Greek culture is the origin of European culture. In myths, the world began with the birth of Gaia, who is the goddess of the Earth, and gave birth to many gods and goddesses. One of her children, Uranus the god of the sky, became her husband and they ruled the world. She continued to deliver many divinities, but Uranus expelled their children who were judged as monsters by him. Gaia got angry with Uranus, and ordered her son, Cronus, the god of time (the word “clock” is from his name), to get revenge on his father. Cronus took the throne and married his sister Rhea, the goddess of plants. They became the parents of many gods and goddesses including Zeus the god almighty, who is in the highest position on Mount Olympus, the kingdom of gods. Ancient people in Greece believed that there were high-ranked gods and goddesses on...

 Crazy Rich Asians is a 2018 American romantic comedy film. I watched this movie on board my first business flight to Vietnam, when I worked in Malaysia. As I couldn’t catch each line of the drama, I didn’t understand the details of the story, but I understand it now because I watched it with Japanese subtitles yesterday. The drama starts with the meaningful words of Napoleon Bonaparte, “Let China sleep, for when she wakes, she will shake the world.”  In 1995, London, an Asian lady who looked to be rich and proud came to an authentic hotel with her family, and said to a clerk that she had a reservation for their suite room, but a hotel employee refused their staying. As she had called to her husband, the owner of this hotel came out from the elevator and invited them to the suite room, and he told his staff that he had sold this hotel to her family who were plutocrats in Singapore. The hotel men, who were white people, were surprised and embarrassed. After about two decades, h...

 The Communist Party of Vietnam (CPV) has governed the whole of Vietnam since they won the war against the USA. But the government adopted a capitalist economy because CPV had decided the new policy called Renovation (“Doi Moi” in Vietnamese) in 1984. They have opened their market and invited foreign companies and their money, and stably have been developing little by little. Especially, their economy has been growing at over 7%, increasing every term over these past several years. It is the highest rate of growth among ASEAN countries, and it also has attracted investments from foreigners. As wages have been increasing, Vietnamese could pay more money for various things. Investors are expecting they will be not only good laborers, but also consumers supporting the big market in Vietnam.  Japan made more investments than any other country in Vietnam in 2017 and 2018, but it was outstripped by South Korea in 2019, because Samsung Electronics had built big factories in Vietnam. ...

 In February 2017, one of the members of Toyonaka-city council, Makoto Kimura, sued the Japanese Government, because they had rejected his requirement of information disclosure. That’s because Kimura wondered if the state-owned land in Toyonaka had been discounted illegally to Moritomo Gakuen. Moritomo Gakuen was a private school corporation in Osaka, Japan, which was operated by Yasunori Kagoike.  Asahi Shinbun reported that Kagoike and his wife had a strong connection with Akie Abe, who is the wife of former Prime Minister, Shinzo Abe. Additionally, their kindergarten has educated children about Japanese nationalism that connects to the worship of Imperialism.    This political scandal was reported widely, and most Japanese were shocked to watch the video in which preschoolers worshipped Meiji Emperor with recitation, which had been forced upon children in elementary schools before 1945. Moritomo Gakuen was planning to establish the elementary school that educates ...

 I watched the movie “ The Mule ”, which was directed by Clint Eastwood and he played the main character, Earl Stone. A ‘Mule’ is a hybrid animal between a donkey and horse, and they are used to carry heavy burdens, so it also means a person who traffics drugs in American slang. Earl was a successful horticultural farmer, and he had been so busy traveling for business that his family estranged him.  Especially, not attending his daughter’s wedding ceremony decisively broke their relationship. 12 years later, Earl’s business failed because he couldn’t follow the trend of the Internet.  When his grandchild got married, his family kicked him out of the party. One of the attendees of the party greeted him to introduce a job, which was just to drive from Texas to Illinois with some baggage by someone’s direction. Earl undertook this job without any doubt. He enjoyed this job because he used to drive across the whole country for his business even though he was over 80. However,...

 I watched the documentary series The Food that built America via Amazon Prime Video, which was broadcast on the History Channel in the US. I picked the topic about cereal makers from this series before, and I’d like to mention chocolate companies as well. Milton Hershey apprenticed a confectioner instead of studying at a school because he was from a poor family. He learned the craft of creating confections, and started a caramel company that had grown so big that he sold it for $1 million. Hershey spent all of his money to establish the chocolate company and the town in Pennsylvania, where his workers live. He had would like to provide milk chocolate to all people in the country even though it cost too much to manufacture it in this era. He succeeded in developing the special process to sell “Hershey's Milk Chocolate Bar” for a reasonable price in 1900. Hershey’s provided milk chocolate to other confectionery companies including Mars, Incorporated, which produces “Milky Way”. Will...

 I watched the documentary series The Food that built America via Amazon Prime Video, which was broadcast on the history channel in the US. I was surprised and impressed there were many dramas of founders who had started up their food companies and brands like Heinz, Coca Cola, Hershey, etc. They have been changing American society since the end of the 19th century and converted the world industry.  I picked the topic about cereal makers from this series. John Harvey Kellogg was a famous medical doctor, who ran a sanitarium in Battle Creek, Michigan. His sanitarium was so popular that people gathered from around the world to practice the unique health methods of Dr. Kellogg. One of his methods was eating cereal that was baked thinly with a dough mixture of wheat, oats and corn for breakfast. His brother, Will Keith Kellogg managed the kitchen and the cereal recipes. Will proposed that Dr. Kellogg commercialize the cereal, but his brother didn’t allow it. However, a patient of...

 The famous scenario writer Hashida Sugako, who had written so many Japanese TV dramas over 50 years, died at 95 last month.  One of her representative works is “ Oshin ”, which was broadcast on NHK, Japan Broadcasting Corporation from 1984 to 85. Oshin, the main character of this drama was born in Yamagata, the northern part of Japan, in 1901.  As her family consisted of poor tenant farmers with many children, Oshin began to work as a babysitter when she was 7. Firstly she had suffered abuse from the supervisor in the house of her employer.  She escaped after a long enduring. Secondly she worked for the family of a rice trader. Her employer favored Oshin because of her persistence, humbleness and cleverness. She was educated by the proprietress, and grew up as a clever young woman. Oshin left Yamagata for Tokyo at age 16 to become a Japanese traditional hairdresser. That's because it was said this profession allowed women in this era to gain economical independence....

 Do you know about Reiki? The Oxford English Dictionary says Reiki is “a method of making sick people well again based on the idea that energy can be directed into a person’s body by touch”. It is one of the methods of Alternative medicine, which is generally from traditional medical practice, has been kept in each region or ethnic group, for example, Herbal Therapy or Acupuncture technique in China, Ayurveda in India.   Their theories are based on their religions or philosophies, and they aren’t tested scientifically or biologically. That’s why they have been said to be pseudoscientific by modern societies. However traditional medicine is reevaluated because there are many cases in which they work well even though they don’t have scientific evidence. It has been called Alternative medicine or holistic medicine, which means it can be used in conjunction with modern medicine to complement human wellbeing. There isn’t any evidence for why Reiki works as well, but there are over ...

  I have been learning Spanish since last November from teachers in Venezuela. As there is a serious economic and social crisis, a friend of mine who worked there has planned a project to provide jobs to his friends in Venezuela. His plan is to introduce Venezuelans who can teach Spanish to Japanese. The advantages for both Venezuelans and Japanese are that they can earn foreign money by teaching Spanish, and we can learn it at a bargain. How did the crisis in Venezuela happen? Venezuela gained independence in 1811, but the political situation hasn’t been stable until now. Conflicts and coups have been instigated again and again, and the gap between the rich and poor is huge even though Venezuela produces petroleum. Hugo Chávez, who was popular among the poor, became the president of Venezuela in 1999.  He was influenced by socialism, and provided free medical service, free housing and free education. He also appealed to Anti-Americanism and Anti-Neoliberalism. It caused the r...

 I watched the movie The Danish Girl , which is based on the biography of the first person who had undergone sex reassignment surgery in the world.  At the beginning of the 20th century, there was a couple of painters, Mr and Mrs Wegener in Copenhagen, Denmark. Einar Wegener was good at landscapes, and gaining fame as one of most talented artists in Denmark, but his wife, Gerda, didn’t achieve success behind Einar. One day, Gerda asked Einar to be the foot model in place of the female model because she didn’t come on time. When Einar wore lady’s stockings and shoes, and put the dress on his chest, he felt someone awaken inside himself. Gerda also proposed him to pretend to be a woman and join a party together. Einar wore a dress, wig, and makeup, and finally he became a beautiful woman. He was named Lili, and she got attention from guys there. Einar believed he is a woman inside, and began to change from a man to a woman since then. Gerda was confused by her husband’s change, ...

 It is continued from this column. What has happened in Myanmar? After the armed forces of Myanmar instigated a coup on February 1st, the situation is getting worse day by day. The military has killed over 600 people by the end of March at least. People really hate the military because they suffered for over 50 years. The military has been the privileged class in Myanmar, especially in the military junta. They monopolize the power not only politically but also economically. People couldn’t hold gatherings freely or criticize the government, and have endured poverty. That’s why people have been expecting NLD (The National League for Democracy) and Aung San Suu Kyi to democratize Myanmar.   However, the military had modified the constitution to keep their power in the Diet, and they continued to have a strong influence after NLD won the election in 2015. The military runs the national companies as well. NLD won again in 2020, but the military denied the result and instigated a c...

  Each cuisine has a cultural and regional background. Singaporean food represents the history and culture as well, and it is very similar to Malaysian cuisine. That’s because Singapore is located at the top of the Malay Peninsula, and it had been a part of Malaysia before gaining independence in 1965. There are mainly three types of food in Singapore because of ethnic groups. As it is developing as the head quarter of South East Asia nowadays, people are gathering from various regions all over the world.  There are also many kinds of restaurants and cuisine: European, American, Middle Eastern, Japanese, etc. This article introduces representative Singaporean food: Chinese, Malay, and Indian. The Chinese Singaporean cuisine has two types, one is Fujian, and the other is Cantonese.  Fujian noodles are popular among the local people, and it is made of stir-fried noodles with vegetables and meat. Chili Crab is another dish representative of Singaporean cuisine, but it is not...