Hello Everybody!

"Atsui desune" (Very hot, isn't it?), has become a common greeting here in Japan lately. Here in Kyoto, the daily temperature hits over 35 degree (centigrade). My apartment has two air conditioners, but they suddenly broke last Saturday at the beginning of a 3 day holiday. So I couldn't get hold of the managment company until Tuesday, and I tried to bear it. My apartment is located on the top floor of a 5 story building, and it is a corner room. Yes, it sounds nice, except for in the summer. All the heat from the flat roof and walls really boil the unit. On Tuesday, I felt sick with headache and my body temperature was high, the doctor warned me not to sleep or stay in the unit until the air conditioners were fixed, then gave me an IV shot to rehydrate me... So until Friday, I ended up commuting from my Mom's house in Osaka. I hear that not just Japan, but many countries are having an extremely hot summer. I hope everyone is taking good care of their health drinking water and avoiding the heat. I think Bario was a heaven, as the morning and evening temperatures were lower than 20 degree.

Tokyo operation is now run by YoyoPan Club.

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I would like to introduce a Pangaea ring writer for this month, Kenkichi Shimooka known as Woophin who is one of the Pangaea volunters. He originally started to engage in Pangaea as an FL at Kyoto and now is actively engaging in the Tokyo activity as a Yoyopan member.

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Terima kasih. ("Thank you" in Malay.)

I am writing this News Letter as I just left Bario a couple of hours ago, after 5 days in the village. This was my second trip to Bario, and longest stay. The place we stayed this time was located near Bario community hall, where we were going to have the first webcam activity connecting with Kyoto University. The owner of the house we stayed in, we called him Uncle Shep, is a great carpenter in Bario. He built his house with trees from the jungle all by himself in 18 months. Carvings shown on the walls are very lovely. His wife cooks amazing local food with wild boars and antelopes which they caught right by this lodgings with their dogs. Of course it is not a heavenly bed or bath tub, but the beauty of Bario is right in front of my bedroom. Early mornings and late evenings, there are low clouds approaching Bario from surrounding mountains. On some evenings, you see lightning in the clouds in the distance which give very magical views. Time feels much slower, but this may be the natural sense of time.

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I will now introduce Mr. Hong who volunteers as the technical leader in Korea. He is the Pangaea Ring Writer for this month. He came over to the Kyoto Office this May to take the technical training and now actively engages as the technical leader for Pangaea Activity.

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The first Webcam Activities were performed between Kyoto university and Malaysia Bario today. Bario got in touch with Kyoto by use of a satellite circuit at the activity site in the interior of the Malaysian Borneo island.
A rehearsal took place the day before, so we already knew that the Internet connection was unstable and it failed several times during the activity. But the children understood the net situation of Bario, and remained focused and concentrated on the screen.

There were 2 items on the Menu, "koetsuna" and "Nazoren".
When we played "koetsuna" everyone yelled " Pangaea! "
After that, we played "Nazoren" which was more relaxed and everyone enjoyed. "Nazoren" is the association game in which Machine translation is used. While the teams were thinking, the activity was enjoyed.
Nazoren put it into effect the use of a system of Machine translation in Language Grid Toolbox of "Language Grid Project".



I was surprised this time.
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Hello Everybody!

This month started with Golden Week in Japan, which is the longest holiday. I visited Vietnam and met people whom I hope will work on our new project. I have spoken at two universities, Meiji Gakuin University and Kyoto University of Art and Design. One was with 300 students, taking a course about being a social entrepreneur, and the other was with a dozen students who are studying a children's art program. I was asked to speak about Pangaea, and I enjoyed doing so very much. Kyoto University of Art and Design is located near Kyoto University, near our regular activity location. I would very much like to see these art major students join as facilitators, and also hope to recruit some design volunteers to renew our Pictons, pictogram designs.

We had a trainee from Seoul last month, Mr. Hong. I wrote in last months newsletter about Mr. Hong. It was his first visit to Japan,
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I introduce Prof. Norazila Abd Aziz at University Malaysia Sarawak. She participates in the activity held at University Malaysia Sarawak as the researcher.
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Hello Everybody!

The month of April was a bit different this year, as we had a mix of very cold and hot weather. The difference in temperature was about 18 degrees centigrade in one day. Despite such weather, we still enjoyed beautiful cherry blossoms, which Kyoto is very famous for. I am pleased to report to you this month that we have successfully started Pangaea Activity at Mapo Youth Culture Center (MYCC), in Seoul, Korea in mid April. With our great partner, Seoul UNESCO MIZY Center's Sophia, we were ready for this exciting occasion. I was quite surprised to see

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I introduce Ms. Saeko Tezuka, as known as Saechi, as a Pangaea writer for this month. I met her when I enrolled in MIT Media Lab. She started to actively engage in Pangaea as a facilitator from last year.

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Yesterday we did the first activity of Pangaea in a youth center which had just opened in March in Mapo, Seoul. We expected 25 people, but 80 people gathered there.
Sophia from MIZY center acted as FL, and she was joined by 7 newly trained people. We had a great fun in the activity.
Especially Sophia's leadership was very successful in circle time. When I saw that the circle time was carried on with everyone communication with each other, I realized that Pangaea had been developing apart from the headquarters in Japan.
There were several children who were interested in learning Japanese. They spoke to us "Hello (Konnichiwa)" in Japanese. On a map which 5th grade student loved(='I Love Map'), a book was drawn and some Japanese characters (A, I, U, E, O etc.) were written on it.
On a fist day, as always, a new FL feels exhausted after an activity because they get so exited and haven’t gotten used to it, but it is a satisfactory tiredness.