Hello, everyone!

Flying from Kansai Airport to Kuala Lumpur, to Kuching, to Miri, and finally to Bario, it was quite a long travel. Planes got smaller as we transit, and the plane from Miri to Bario was twin engine Otter which felt quite full with 14 people on board. We heard about the bad weather but we were blessed with great sunshine without turbulences. » MORE

This month Pangaea Ring writer is Gary, from the Universiti Malaysia Sarawak. He helped us a lot to open Bario in this January and he is keen to enhance interaction among children not only internationally but also locally, within Malaysia. » MORE

Today we carried out activities via Webcam link between Mie University and the University of Malaysia, Sarawak! With 25 kids in Mie and 35 kids in Malaysia! In total 56 kids participated.

We did "Nazoren" this time as well and both Japan and Malaysia were really excited. Nazoren is a guessing game where you guess the answer based on 5 hints.

We used the "Language Grid Project"'s Language Grid Toolbox's machine translation system, but from now on since we'll also be working with Wikipedia, we'll be able to translate Malay. The kids tried their hardest discussing hints, so their friends in the other country would be able to guess the answer with fewer hints and were checking whether it would get across properly to the other group.
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Hello, everyone!

Pangaea Activities have begun this year, early January, in Kyoto at the Kyoto International School(KIS for short). This new Pangaea village will have children with diversified backgrounds, families from foreign countries, or Japanese families who came back from living in foreign countries. Pangaea will be held as a part of after-school activities weekly. There are also many unique nicknames for everyone to get to know, out of which the most interesting is Miso (means bean paste in Japanese) who will be one of the FL. Miso is an American who is a teacher at the KIS's Kindergarten, and because I myself was the same, I sensed a closeness to her. She is a person full of energy and has plenty of humour. It looks like the Pangaea Activities will be very lively. » MORE

How do you do.

I am Toshihide Yoshioka. I have been a technology volunteer for Pangaea since April 2008. I am based in Kyoto and everyone calls me 'Yoshio'. It's nice meeting with you all (on-line) I first learned about Pangaea from Kadoppe, a senior at my college. One day, it happened that we went out drinking with some of my friends and Kadoppe told us in detail about his own research. He mentioned the Pangaea during his talk about his research. I got so excited about hearing about the Pangaea activities and conveyed my wishes to Kadoppe that I would definitely love to join and take part in the activities my own, thinking that there would not be so many opportunities for me to deal with such a big theme as the world peace. Kadoppe encouraged me to do my best and then introduced me to Toshi. I was then enrolled in the Pangaea activities.
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I went to the Long-awaited Barrio in Malaysia, the second base. I explained PANGAEA to everybody and held the first activity. It took an hour from the first base of Kuching City to the second base, and, if by air propeller boat, it would take about 1.5 hours to the inland. If it was the small plane, the checking of weight was very severe and even the body weight was to be measured.
Located in the high mountain, the way to Barrio is difficult. It is such an interior jungle that not many people from outside came until recently. The people at this altitude were known for the tenement buildings, called Holy longhouse. Children in Barrio highlands hadn't received education in school because of high altitude until now. Even the nearest neighborhood, it took children 15 days’ walking from where they lived. Therefore, they had to live in the boarding school. It was easy to imagine how lonely these children were, living in school away from their parents, at such elementary or middle school age.
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A happy new year!

It's been bloody freezing recently in Kyoto. No snow yet, but when I return to my home after work, I always feel frozen and immediately turn on the oil heater which I bought in the last year. It's a bit costly but I cannot stop turning on it. This Christmas, people seem to experience tightfisted mood due to the cut off of bonus in Japan. We, Pangaea, originally haven't got any bonus so no impact by this situation. Is it good or poor? However, the financial report of Pangaea ends in the black a little bit in this September which is the first time from its foundation. Although it's been still financially agonizing, Prof. Ema, the one of the board members, somewhat praised us.
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Well, I introduce Mr. Ando Yasutoshi a.k.a Andu as a Pangaea ring writer for this month. He was participating in the research project at Sweden's Karolinska Institute. He's already appeared in this series but he again writes about what he felt during away from Japan.
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It's been decided that we will launch Pangaea in January at the Kyoto International School, Kyoto. Starting in mid-January. We will be holding events once a week, until now we've not had 4 events in one month, but if this goes well we are thinking perhaps of afterwards trying after school activities at other schools. Furthermore, at the end of January we are launching a 2nd base in Malaysia at Bario. Bario is a place in the unexplored highlands in Sarawak, Borneo. It said on the T.V. that it has been recently discovered that 1500 orangutans live near there. However, since the 1st location in Malaysia, Unimas, started the project 10 years ago, it seems that they have been able to connect to the internet. It's certainly thanks to Unimas thinking being involved with Pangaea is a really great thing, that this Bario project has been carried out. » MORE

Hello, everyone!

We would be in end-of-year rush when you get this letter. In November, it was demanding but fruitful time for me. We conducted the webcam activity between Seoul and Kyoto and I gave a presentation at Beppu-wan conference on agricultural support utilizing Youth Mediated Communication Model (YMC Model) for developing countries, gave a lecture at the reunion event of UCLA. Then I participated activity in Tokyo as a facilitator.
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