I worked as a volunteer at the marathon event held in Ibusuki City, Kagoshima.
My duty was transporting runners from Kagoshima-Chūō station to the marathon site and picking up runners who could not finish the race.
In Kagoshima, I stopped by a very beautiful Starbucks (it was hard to believe that the place is an actual Starbucks.)
The view of Sakurajima from it was exceptionally beautiful.
My friend gave birth to her second child the other day.
Her baby was born with a disability, and when I heard that the baby was in the hospital, I felt terrible.
She was being brave, but I didn’t know what to say. In my professional field, I have never dealt with babies with disability before, and it was my first time to have a friend who is facing such a situation. As her friend, I just couldn’t find the right words to tell her.
My life has been filled with ups and downs.
I know you and you will be able to get through this.
I was at the lecture given by a doctor who has experience working in the US as a cardiologist and now works in Japan.
There were three pieces of advicegiven at the end of the presentation which wereespecially striking to me.
Future career holds big significance when you can only live once. You should invest money and time to collect information and spend enough time to make your choice.
Let people around you know what you want to be, and they may give you advice.
You can’t have all three of Money/Honor/Family. You need to give up one of them.
In June, I volunteered at “Karma Kitchen-Tokyo”, an experimental restaurant running “pay-it-forward” system.
My role there was to serve food and explain the Karma Kitchen concept.
Karma Kitchen started back in San Francisco in 2007 (Currently temporarily closed). It is a restaurant based upon a pay-it-forward system which connects people’s kindness. It allows people to dine with the money someone paid before.
‘Karma Kitchen Tokyo’ started in 2011. It opens occasionally throughout the year. When I volunteered, it was their 23rdtime.
At Karma Kitchen, their system allows you (customer) to eat without any cost. If you decide to pay, the money will be used for the next customer. You can also pay for your meal by other means such as singing or performing magic tricks.
Karma Kitchen has a philosophy which is ‘You can quit at any time; Don’t push yourself too hard; and Do what you can do.’ There is no target or goal. I think that’s why they’ve been able to continue the great work for such a long time.
Have you ever heard of ‘Global Teacher Prize’ known as Nobel Prize for education?
https://www.globalteacherprize.org/
There was a debriefing session on June 2, and I also participated.
This year, there were 30,000 applicants from 100 countries. One of the 10 finalists was a Japanese teacher.
His name is Mr. Masakazu Shoto, an English teacher at an elementary school in Kyoto. He is the third Japanese finalist for the Global Teacher Prize in its history
Mr. Shoto mentioned the following three points as common points of becoming a finalist for the Global teacher prize.
1. The first point is ‘reproducibility’. It should not be the kind of education that can be realized by only one teacher, but an education that anyone can do anywhere.
2. The second point is that the effects and achievements of the students educated by the teacher are clearly visible.
3. The third is that the teacher’s education has an impact on the community he belongs to. He also emphasized that the award has been given to teachers in rural areas, not just to teachers in urban schools. Note, the Japanese teachers who became finalists are from Tokyo, Maibara ,and Kyoto.
It was also common to all three that they are English teachers. In addition, they all applied for the global teacher prize with no recommendation but their own.
I thought, “It is a global award, so it has to be mandatory to be able to speak English.” However, this year’s 10 finalists had two teachers who could not speak English. These teachers were from Brazil and Argentina.
Hearing those, I was surprised because it was so different from what I thought.
Last year, I recommended a teacher I deeply respect, but unfortunately, she didn’t get a place. I was really disappointed, but now I think I had a different idea about the prize. I thought a superstar teacher would win the prize which doesn’t seem to be the case.
Mr. Shoto was interviewed by media from 100 countries at the award ceremony. But 2 countries didn’t come to cover the news. It was Japan and Korea… he said that it might be related to their core education policy which is to raise the deviation value for the examination.