2010-03-04T02:36:38Z Our Future is in the Hands of Children tag:www.pangaean.org,2010:/blog/english/4 Movable Type Copyright (c) 2010, kumakinoko 2010-03-04T02:36:38Z 2010-03-04T02:25:51Z tag:www.pangaean.org,2010:/blog/english/4.742 2010-03-04T02:25:51Z

Hello, everyone! Flying from Kansai Airport to Kuala Lumpur, to Kuching, t...

kumakinoko http://www.pangaean.org/ info@pangaean.org 3. Newsletter 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. ]]>
I probably won't be able to reach school if I have to walk 15 days. So many children stay in school dormitories and go home on weekend if travel is not so long, on semester ends if schools are fairly far, on year end if schools are very far. It is bit unimaginable for Japanese to have children in boarding school when children are so young, but there are no options as a school in Kelabit is very very limited.

e-Bario project started with the great mission almost 10 years ago with UNIMAS (Universiti Malaysia Sarawak) and COERI(Centre of Excellence for Rural Informatics) passion. As they started Pangaea last Feb. 09, they and TTC (Telecommunication Technology Committee) had minds to start Pangaea in this remote village. I was quite worried about bumpy roads with mud and bugs before I left Japan, but compared to Cambodia trip in '02 which put us in the 4 wheel vehicle for more than 6 hours on very bumpy roads, it was a piece of cake. Also very dusty road which the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Kenya took us near Kisumu, with greens of lands and Bario rice harvesting season, air seemed very nice.

Bario children probably wondered that what Pangaea is, and seeing projectors, and computers, videos of Pangaea clips, they looked and seemed to get very curious. Facilitators consisted of teachers at Bario school, gate securitiesy, gardeners, PTAs, and all sorts. They enjoyed training so much and at the end, they all broke into laughs as people introduced by Tako Introduction. They did wonderful work as Fs as we had our kick-off activity. I have to mention that F called Anis, who I think was PTA was amazingly talented artist! His Pangaea house was very nice as he knows how to use crayons. Children knew that there is something going on as they saw adults drawing something and all seemed very happy on the day before kick-off. Seventeen boys and girls got together and please check Pangaea blog for a photo.
PangaeaBlog:February 01, 2010 Starting Bario!

Well, then after Bario, we traveled back to Kuching and run two facilitator training sessions, and that put Malaysia facilitators this year to be over fifty people. Students seem to get interested in Pangaea, and they all come with very enthusiastic eyes. What a reward! Then on Saturday, we connected UNIMAS and Mie University for webcam. Children participated in UNIMAS were 32 as they wanted to have 40, but I had to ask them to make 32 as Mie will have 24 or 25. So it did ended up the largest number of children participated in webcam for one session. I was MC for both sides, and boy! It was a tough day at work. We used Toolbox (Machine translation) of language grid as tools for webcam menu, and 100% of Malaysia participants said "Yes! We like Toolbox and like to use." So I guess children are more open to new technologies than many adults.

Well, I think I am going bit too long, and say good bye for now!

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.


Yumi


]]> 2010-03-04T02:24:29Z 2010-03-04T02:17:18Z tag:www.pangaean.org,2010:/blog/english/4.741 2010-03-04T02:17:18Z

This month Pangaea Ring writer is Gary, from the Universiti Malaysia Saraw...

kumakinoko http://www.pangaean.org/ info@pangaean.org 3. Newsletter 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. ]]>
My name is Gary Loh Chee Wyai and I am the IT Project Manager for COERI, UNIMAS. I guess I am the one who running around with Dr Fitri at the beginning to get the local school children to participate in this program. This is how my first encounter with Pangaea activities.

The day when my Director, Assoc. Professor Dr. Alvin told me that we will going to run this program at UNIMAS, I knew it will be an interesting program as we do not have any encounter working with local school children before. What I know is going to the remote places(deep jungle) in Sarawak and Sabah planting Telecentre for the remote communities! It is a new experience for me to work with Pangaea where I can work together with the staff from different faculties and also our own faculty's staffs.

Besides that, working with Yumi and Toshi also open my eyes in learning how to be very details in getting things done, which both of them are extremely details! The idea of peace engineering really can happen in Pangaea. I can see from the children who came and joint the Pangaea activities become friendlier among each other besides getting to know friends from Japan, Austria, Kenya and South Korea.

Now we are trying to run Pangaea in our remote places where we had planted our telecentres. The first is Bario where Yumi and Toshi are so fearful of getting there at the beginning. I hope after the first trip, both of them are getting more excited to travel to our remote sites. I hope there will be more to learn and happiness to share by bringing Pangaea to all these places as we are not only bridging the digital divide gap between urban and rural children but bringing peace and harmony to the rest of the country.

Let us not give up in giving hope and touching lives for peace and harmony. Be a volunteer for Pangaea!


Gary Loh Chee Wyai
Centre of Excellence for Rural Informatics
Faculty of Computer Science and Information Technology
Universiti Malaysia Sarawak

http://www.unimas.my


]]> 2010-02-12T08:54:23Z 2010-02-06T13:47:37Z tag:www.pangaean.org,2010:/blog/english/4.738 2010-02-06T13:47:37Z

Today we carried out activities via Webcam link between Mie University and...

kumakinoko http://www.pangaean.org/ info@pangaean.org 1. Activity Report 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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In the results of the pre-activity survey done by the children in Mie, 76% of kids said their feelings in regard to Malaysia were "OK", but in contrast on the post activity survey 76% of the kids said they "love" or "like" Malaysia and the majority of the children's feelings towards Malaysia changed to friendly feelings.

With comments like "I learnt that they are fun and interesting people", "I learnt that it is similar to Japan" and "I felt for the first time that even if the words are different you can still connect [with people]" showing what a fun and fulfilling day it was.

I received comments from the facilitators about what fun they had, as well as issues and plans for improvement from their own point of view. The children, as well as the staff, felt that they were able to understand each other and that once again their connection is deepening. I think that is also because of PANGAEA carrying out regular activities through out the years.

I want to continue creating a special place where even more kids and staff can feel a "bond" and ask for everyone's continued warm support and encouragement.

Takekazu Hanada a.k.a Hana-pooh
Chief Administrative Officer

]]> 2010-02-08T02:14:49Z 2010-02-04T02:07:20Z tag:www.pangaean.org,2010:/blog/english/4.732 2010-02-04T02:07:20Z

Hello, everyone! Pangaea Activities have begun this year, early January, i...

kumakinoko http://www.pangaean.org/ info@pangaean.org 3. Newsletter 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.]]> Malaysia's second base for the Pangaea activities will be up and running on the 30th of January in Bario.

Sophia, the FL from Seoul, came and visited Japan on the night before I departed for Malaysia, and we could meet up because she was coming to Kyoto. To be honest, I wanted to take her around and show her a lot of places, but due to need to be up and depart from Kyoto at about 7am the next day, we ended up having our meeting while eating dinner.

Also, on February 6th the first Pangaea base in Malaysia, UNIMAS, will be connecting with Mie University via the Webcam. We will be executing the menu with the use of the Language Grid. The menu is called Nazoren, however this time it will be coordinated with Wikipedia.
I'm looking forward to it!

So I am off and I will be careful and be back soon.


Yumi


]]> 2010-02-08T02:06:23Z 2010-02-04T02:00:02Z tag:www.pangaean.org,2010:/blog/english/4.731 2010-02-04T02:00:02Z

How do you do. I am Toshihide Yoshioka. I have been a technology volunte...

kumakinoko http://www.pangaean.org/ info@pangaean.org 3. Newsletter 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 also joined internship at Pangaea. What I was assigned to do as an intern was to learn programming and in the end, to create the page for 'voting'. This site will allow the children to draw the picture of places where they are interested in going to and upload the drawings on the site so that the other children can vote for those places. These pictures were drawn by the children in Kyoto and Korea (Seoul), I was truly happy when the site was completed in the end with the support and guidance by Toshi. I felt it a special experience that I was able to provide the children from different countries with the 'place' on line where they were able to associate with each other.

I have recently been involved in the Pangaea activities as a technical leader at the activities held in Kyoto, doing some administrative work in the management office, as well as participating at the activities held every Monday at Kyoto International school as a technical staff. I especially enjoy spending my time at Kyoto International School, the new environment for me, where the children and the facilitators all speak in English. I find it very exciting. I am on the stage of trying to get myself used to speaking in English but I am very much inspired and I hope to improve my English ability myself to be able to people overseas.

I see who I am now and who I was before participating in the Pangaea activities totally different. I have been able to meet with so many new people, learn so many new things gaining valuable experiences through Pangaea. I am looking forward to continuing taking part in the Pangaea activities as much as I can.
Thank you!


Doshisha University Graduate School of Engineering
Information and Computer Science

Toshihide Yoshioka


]]> 2010-02-05T12:37:12Z 2010-02-01T12:23:37Z tag:www.pangaean.org,2010:/blog/english/4.725 2010-02-01T12:23:37Z

I went to the Long-awaited Barrio in Malaysia, the second base. I explaine...

yumi yumi@pangaean.org 8. General 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.
]]> However, compared with the seven hours in Cambodia before establishing PANGAEA, the situation was much better. Compared with the muddy roads that Kenya's Minister of Foreign Affairs had taken us traversed, the air here was pretty fresh. So I was already satisfied. We took a house of a school’s teacher’s as a base. They suggested me that I should take some instant noodle, because of the poor quality of local food, but the local food was no longer the problem at the moment. And the only problem was bathing. Since there was no bathhouse, the showers were in the washroom. There was merely cold water, rather than hot water, because of the high altitude, which made us easy to get cold. That was also the reason why I had not taken a bath for 4 days. Fortunately, I had some dry-clean shampoo with me.

Teachers were popular in Barrio, but, as for children, teachers were awe-inspiring. I was afraid whether children were willing to take part in this activity. However, in the training process, the atmosphere got harmonious gradually after the teachers’ self-introduction in children's capacity. Therefore, many villagers joined in this training, such as the tribal old lady, the old man who were adept at drawing and lived 3 kilometers away, the doorkeeper, and so on. It was just like in Osaka, everyone was happy because the presence of the old lady selling Takoyaki. And this happy atmosphere laid the foundation for the successful training in the second day.

However there is a problem. Although it is said that the locals have no problem with English, from the perspective that facilitator translated my English into something of Malay, there are still some people who are poor in English or even know nothing about English, so I have to use the on-line translation software “Toolbox” by Language Grid. Additionally a few days ago it didn’t detect the network links, so the network connection has remained the state of disconnection. Now I try to reconnect once and fortunately the connection is successful. By using Toolbox I can translate English into Malay more and more smoothly.
Everybody sees the translation and knows what to do next more and more clearly, so the progress is more and more smooth. Whether PANGAEA, or Toolbox, is everyone's wisdom. Through ICT I can feel children’s excitement because of more communication with more children in the future. I want to deliver children's smile, who were happily waving goodbye to us when we left the village, to all the people supporting for this program.

Yumi

]]> 2010-01-07T04:28:27Z 2010-01-06T04:22:32Z tag:www.pangaean.org,2010:/blog/english/4.716 2010-01-06T04:22:32Z

A happy new year! It's been bloody freezing recently in Kyoto. No snow ye...

kumakinoko http://www.pangaean.org/ info@pangaean.org 3. Newsletter
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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Other than above, in December, we were mainly preparing for newly starting two sites. Pangaea activity will start at Kyoto International School from the middle of January. And also at Bario, in the jungle area of Malaysia! Since we hadn't any idea about how to prepare for the trip to there, we interviewed people having experiences going there. The answers were... no shower (of course bath neither) / hot water can be obtained if I make it (perhaps I need to boil by a pot) / we must have mosquito coils (I have to have two of insect deterrent with battery) / sleeping bags can be got by option (what does it mean by 'option'?!) / the mosquito net will be prepared if we hope (please do!!) The most terrified information was that to get on the mini plane to near there we have to measure not only luggage but also our body weight! (I've started to try to loose weight immediately after I'd heard this information but it might be too late...) Then talked to Toshi that 'we and our luggage will be measured nearly equal to four of Malaysian, won't we?' and he plainly said 'it's gonna be five I guess.' Oh NO! I just remembered Prof.
Ishida had told us 'Is Pangaea Kawaguchi expedition?'

To support these new activity sites, the e-training system will be activated in its operation. I've been not good at moth and butterfly from my childhood. My mother has been like this and I was imprinted by mom since she always screamed out to escape from moth or butterfly. My younger brother too. So I am tremendously anxious and frightened by it since I've been told by Gary from UNIMAS that the scale of a huge moth is so heavy! Surprisingly, Gary had been clung by leeches when he brought equipments going through mountain or bog. I think moth or butterfly are better than leeches... anyways, marbled Japanese blood should be delicious for them so I will beware enough. We will depart from 26 of this month.

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.

Have a great new year!
Please keep on watching what will be going on in Pangaea this year as well!


Yumi


]]> 2010-01-07T01:47:25Z 2010-01-06T01:06:27Z tag:www.pangaean.org,2010:/blog/english/4.715 2010-01-06T01:06:27Z

Well, I introduce Mr. Ando Yasutoshi a.k.a Andu as a Pangaea ring writer...

kumakinoko http://www.pangaean.org/ info@pangaean.org 3. Newsletter 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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I'm Andu. My full name is Yasutoshi Ando and I am a Tokyo-based volunteer for Pangaea. This is my second time to post my message on the Pangaea ring. I am currently in Sweden, as a researcher at the Karolinska Institute. This institute appoints the laureates for the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medecine and is a very active institute. It is my first time to experience a long-time stay overseas and I would like to write about my thoughts living here in Sweden.

As there is no direct flight to Sweden from Japan, I came here through Austria. I had never been to Austria before, yet, I somehow felt congenial about Austria from the beginning. I presume that is because Austria is one of the countries Pangaea has its branch. I was, therefore looking forward to my travel and I felt excited when I landed the airport in Austria. At that moment, I felt the importance of 'the sense of affinity' when you meet with people from other countries. The children who participate in Pangaea activities communicate with and interact with their friends overseas through PangaeaNet on a daily basis, therefore, I believe they know what it is like to hold the 'sense of affinity' toward each other. This 'feeling of affinity and the sense of knowing' the other will eliminate the wars and bring peace to the world.

I also realized the importance of picture letters since I have come to Sweden. assume many people think of the picture letters as the tool for the children only. (I used to think that way myself.) Having come here, I realized that they were not. In Sweden, the official national language is Swedish and everything is written in Swedish at the stations and the supermarkets etc. (Almost everyone speaks fluent English here, though.) As a non-Swedish speaker, I do not understand any of the writings. One time, I was trying to buy some frozen food at a supermarket, and wanted to learn how to prepare the food and so I looked the bottom of the box. I saw a picture of a microwave and the number '6'. I read and understood the instruction as 'please microwave this dish for 6 min.' There was also a picture figured like a human being drawn on the box. First, I used my own imagination to read this picture would mean that this food was suitable for a single person. Being so curious, I asked the clerk at the supermarket. Then I learned that the picture of the human being meant that the food did not contain much chemical seasoning. It meant that the food was health conscious frozen food. "How could I know?" I just murmured myself however I also realized my misunderstanding could have brought about a serious issue if it were the medicine.

The number of people who visit Japan from overseas has been increasing. Picture letters could convey the message in a more direct and powerful way compared with the letters as people do not have to read pictures. I do hope that more attention will be paid to the picture letters and that they will be used more in our daily lives.


Yasushi Ando


]]> 2009-12-17T23:59:33Z 2009-12-07T23:57:48Z tag:www.pangaean.org,2009:/blog/english/4.708 2009-12-07T23:57:48Z

It's been decided that we will launch Pangaea in January at the Kyoto Inter...

yumi yumi@pangaean.org 8. General 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. I'm scared of taking a bath with a bucket and hearing bugs scrabble about. Although there are a lot of people at NPOs that like those kind of things, I'm actually scared of insects. As I was born and raised in places like Osaka with neon lights in the centre making even night-time bright, I'm equally bad at the pitch dark as I am with bugs. Taking lots of mosquito coils and insect repellent so far I've been to Kenya and Cambodia. As this time local people will be managing things after the launch and introductions, we will be doing remote support via VisualScenario, which we've used up till now, and a multilingual community site using a language grid to enable us to understand situations, (somehow, Ishida-sensei tried really hard and talked to Google, and the number of languages available dramatically increased, there is even Malay now. Awesome!). If this goes well, we will be bringing this to show at Unesco Headquarters in the summer. Staring at my hands, working here, up till now has been 5 years. Well, got to fly! 2009-12-22T07:57:23Z 2009-12-02T01:55:14Z tag:www.pangaean.org,2009:/blog/english/4.702 2009-12-02T01:55:14Z

Hello, everyone! We would be in end-of-year rush when you get this letter....

kumakinoko http://www.pangaean.org/ info@pangaean.org 3. Newsletter 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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This time, we had the game called 'Nazoren' a word association game, utilizing Toolbox (Language Grid)which applies a language communication infrastructure. In the end of the activity, children were very excited to exchange so many questions beyond language difference using Toolbox. According to Sophia, our Korean facilitator leader, the mental distance between children in Seoul and Kyoto were observed to get shortened. Before starting the activity, there was a youth in Korea having not so positive impression towards Japanese. However, as Japanese teammates made effort to answer the difficult questions correctly in the word association game, a child was surprised for it and the impression towards Japanese had been changing positively.

Mizy center in Korea is actively and voluntarily engaging in developing the second activity location in Korea to deploy more Pangaea locations. We've already shared the same mission. Although they have a lot to do other than Pangaea, their motivation towards achieving mission makes them keen. At the reunion event of UCLA, Dr. Kiyoshi Kurokawa, the president of the alumni group, told us 'let's get started to do what we can do.' For Pangaea, we will open two new locations in January.

By the way, I talked about my mom in the last month and actually she had the emergency surgery after the incident in Guam. Fortunately, now she recovered and came to see what was going on in the Pangaea activity for the first time. She said 'I finally understood what you were doing' and I thought I strongly need to improve my explanation skill since I've already, of course, told her what I've been doing! Well, is there anyone who hasn't seen the activity? Then I recommend you to visit the webcam activity between Mie and Malaysia held in 6th February 2010 as the first time of your visit. Please do contact our office if you are interested!

Now, I introduce Mr. Taisei Tanaka, CEO of Geisha Tokyo Entertainment Inc, as a Pangaea Ring writer for this month. He has been supporting Pangaea from it's foundation as a corporate member.

See you next month!


Yumi

]]> 2009-12-02T02:04:44Z 2009-12-02T01:49:03Z tag:www.pangaean.org,2009:/blog/english/4.701 2009-12-02T01:49:03Z

Now, I introduce Mr. Taisei Tanaka, CEO of Geisha Tokyo Entertainment Inc,...

kumakinoko http://www.pangaean.org/ info@pangaean.org 3. Newsletter Now, I introduce Mr. Taisei Tanaka, CEO of Geisha Tokyo Entertainment Inc, as a Pangaea Ring writer for this month. He has been supporting Pangaea from it's foundation as a corporate member.
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How are you? My name is Taisei Tanaka.

Currently, I run a business enterprise called Geisha Tokyo Entertainment Inc. We develop and distribute to the public entertaining events that use technology.

My encounter with Pangaea goes back to when I had a reunion with Toshi, the Vice President of Pangaea.

Toshi and I went to the same university and we have been friends since then. We even planned setting up a company together while in college. After we graduated though, I drifted apart from keeping in touch with him because I got so busy trying to get used to the new environment that I was put in. One day, Toshi e-mailed me and we had dinner together. Toshi seemed to be doing great and his sparkling smile was just the same as before. After catching up and talking about the old school days for a while, Toshi all of a sudden asked me this question out of the blue. (Toshi is like that, all the time)
'So, Taisei, are you for the World Peace?' Well, I was not as mischievous as answering 'no' to this question. After answering 'yes' to Toshi, the only choice I had was to become a Pangaean.

Toshi, then, passionately shared with me the concept of Pangaea and told me about their activities and invited me for one of the Pangaea workshops which was coming up on the same weekend. So, I went out to check it out. I was expecting to see the workshop being held at a cool and fancy looking office (or a studio) because after all, Toshi was such an 'intellectual elite' and Pangaea had partner institutions and companies that were international and quite well known. Surprisingly enough though, the workshop was being held at an ordinary public junior high school and it looked truly their own making.

To be frank, sometimes I cannot but feel something cheesy about "NPOs" and "activities for the world peace." However, I was deeply touched by meeting with the Pangaea staffers who were working so hard to make what they were doing count for the good cause. Most of all, junior high school students who were participating with the workshop seemed having a great time. On that day, Toshi introduced me to Yumi, the president of Pangaea, and I started getting involved with Pangaea by attending the Pangaea hosted events from time to time.

The more deeply I get involved with Pangaea, the more deeply I am impressed by Pangaeas activities. Here are three examples of why I find Pangaea so amazing.


No. 1
Pangaea has a sublime and distinguished concept of its own. I do believe in its concept that the children will not have to have conflicts or wars against each other when they become adults if they are friends since their childhood no matter which ethnic group they belong to.


No. 2
Pangaea is not about arguing for the ideology of peace only. I believe Pangaea is well supported by its technology developed based on its concept, as well as the strategy.


No. 3
It is truly amazing to see Yumi, Toshi and all the Pangaea staff who are working literally "day and night" toward their sublime goal of World Peace. The Term "World Peace" may sometimes sound abstract, but the Pangaea staffers work and efforts are concrete and down to earth.

I have been leading a very hectic life running a small venture capital myself and I am afraid I have not been able to be involved with Pangaea as much as I wish at the moment. I am, however, hoping to continue to take part in Pangaea activities and be able to make contribution to Pangaea, no matter how small it may be, by doing what I can do at my end.

Those of you who are 'for' the World Peace, let us work together hand in hand for Pangaea!


Taisei Tanaka
President and CEO
Geisha Tokyo Entertainment Inc.


]]> 2009-11-25T01:53:23Z 2009-11-14T14:26:15Z tag:www.pangaean.org,2009:/blog/english/4.698 2009-11-14T14:26:15Z

Today we carried out activities via Webcam with Kyoto University and Korea...

kumakinoko http://www.pangaean.org/ info@pangaean.org 1. Activity Report Today we carried out activities via Webcam with Kyoto University and Korea!
A total of 32 kids and 20 local volunteer staff participated.

"Nazoren", which we tried for the first time previously, was well received by both Japan and Korea. Nazoren is a word association game where you guess the answer from 5 hints.
It's a very simple game, using the "Language Grid Project" Language Grid Toolbox's machine translation system we can check whether each other are being understood and enter hints and answers in the chat.
"Passport", "baseball" etc. the groups tried their hardest to think which hints would convey this. One team answered "Pangaea" with the first hint "friendship".
Yumi was deeply moved, saying that "I want to give them bonus points". ("Friend" was the answer to the second hint "Best friend").
In the second half we asked each other questions we wanted to know by machine translation chat.
On the post-event survey there were comments like, "I learned a lot about Japan", "Korea seems fun, I want to visit" and "I want to meet and play in person", telling of a fun day.


Volunteer Guts gave the comment, saying that "For the first time in ages I felt happy".
]]> Furthermore, he said that one of the kids that drew an angry mark next to the Korean flag on the pre-event questionnaire, on the post event questionnaire put an "&" between Korea and Japan's flags.
I'm glad that after only 3 hours of activities the kids' feelings can change.
Kadoppe, who has participated 10 times up to now as Technical leader, said that today was the most fun Webcam activity so far. The network was disconnected twice but without anyone being made to feel it, he got us through without incident with calm handling. Kadoppe, participating in this year's prize for attendance, feels a close connection to the kids' development.
Hearing this after the activities, I became tearful. Returning to the office, chatting with Toshi who had participated in Korea, I cried.


Actually, today was the first time that even Pangaea has had an event in 4 different locations on the same day. (Japan – Kyoto, Mie, Korea and Malaysia)
Mie University's FL Spike, in co-operation with Mie's staff carried out the activities very well. I heard that he arranged things while speaking so that it would become an activity the kids could concentrate on and enjoy. He is incredibly reliable.

Pangaea is progressing everyday with the support of the kids and all of the staff.
I am very happy that I am able to be involved in these activities.

Takekazu Hanada a.k.a Hana-pooh
Chief Administrative Officer

]]> 2009-11-04T02:59:12Z 2009-11-04T02:56:36Z tag:www.pangaean.org,2009:/blog/english/4.693 2009-11-04T02:56:36Z

Hello, everyone! We are recently enjoying the clear autumn sky in Kansai, ...

kumakinoko http://www.pangaean.org/ info@pangaean.org 3. Newsletter Hello, everyone!

We are recently enjoying the clear autumn sky in Kansai, the Japanese western part where Kyoto is located in. The last month, very before starting the meeting, I caught the phone call from Guam where my mom was staying for the vacation and it said my mom slipped and fell down at the entrance of a shopping mall and she seemed injured and was transported to the hospital! I was extremely frightened at that time and immediately headed off to Guam from Aoyama, Tokyo, via Kyoto to get the passport from Hana-pooh. After 12 hours passed, I got to the hospital around 2 am. When I met her, she said 'I had too much fun and I was punished.' Fortunately, she spent just one day for treatment in the hospital but unfortunately it cost more than 400,000 Japanese Yen (almost USD 4,000)! That's a painful experience. Extra loads of work had to be put on staffs due to my absense from office.
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On 24th of October, Pangaea holds activities in Kyoto and Malaysia. We will get four sites doing activities on 14 November; Webcam activity for Kyoto & Korea and Local activities in Mie and Malaysia. Currently, Greeting Panels are being in the process of production by children. Seoul friends write messages in the Japanese 'Hiragana' to Japanese friends. Everyone also works for Calendar of the next year. The last year's one has been getting good reputation and those who bought it are using them favorably. If you are interested, we accept your order as many as you like for value (not free of charge though). I strongly recommend you to have it, for instance, as season's greetings to your friends or colleagues. In fact, my mom who bothered Pangaea members by causing trouble ordered 10 of those Calendars.

Well, it's time to introduce Su Yeon Choi as the Pangaea Ring writer for this month. She has been participating in Pangaea for two years and she works for FL nowadays. She wrote about what she was feeling during activities as the FL honestly.

So see you next month!


Yumi

]]> 2009-11-04T02:56:17Z 2009-11-04T02:51:51Z tag:www.pangaean.org,2009:/blog/english/4.692 2009-11-04T02:51:51Z

Well, it's time to introduce Su Yeon Choi as the Pangaea Ring writer for t...

kumakinoko http://www.pangaean.org/ info@pangaean.org 3. Newsletter Well, it's time to introduce Su Yeon Choi as the Pangaea Ring writer for this month. She has been participating in Pangaea for two years and she works for FL nowadays. She wrote about what she was feeling during activities as the FL honestly.
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With the request of Sophia Ji-hye Yoon of the MIZY Center, I played a role as a facilitator leader (FL) on October 10, 2009. I always get nervous even though this activity was my third time as a FL. I made large and small mistakes, but I could finish well the activity with the help of other facilitators and Sophia.

As a FL, I have to manage a lot of things throughout the program, so I don't have enough chance to interact directly with children. Besides children who I should take care, there are also other tasks that I should observe overall activity. However, it would help me to understand children's characteristics more.

Korean facilitators had discussed last month the issue that children are shy for showing their works during last circle time. So, we organized more group activities this time and fortunately, children presented more actively than before. I think group activities gave less pressure to children than individual work on their presentation. Many Korean children tend to hesitate and have difficulties during presentation in front of lots people alone. If we relieve the burden that children could feel, then the circle time would be more interesting.

I am pleased to hear that the MIZY Center has struggled to open the 2nd Pangaea Project site next year in Seoul. At that time, I hope many facilitators to complete the Pangaea Facilitator Leader Training Program, and then they could participate to offer far better various programs to children as facilitator leaders. I would ask all facilitators to participate continuously and to be always concerned about Pangaea.

Thank you.


Su Yeon Choi (Sue)

Korean Facilitator, MIZY Center

]]> 2009-10-02T07:26:55Z 2009-10-02T07:22:02Z tag:www.pangaean.org,2009:/blog/english/4.683 2009-10-02T07:22:02Z

Hello everyone, this is Toshi. This time, I am writing this on behalf of Y...

kumakinoko http://www.pangaean.org/ info@pangaean.org 3. Newsletter Hello everyone, this is Toshi.
This time, I am writing this on behalf of Yumi.

Having finished the summer vacation in school, we have cheerfully resumed Pangaea activities in each location. But still, we are strongly concerning H1N1 flu. We have been carefully judging implementation of the activity considering its influence. For instance, at the Tokyo activity held few weeks ago, its ensured that we made sure its situation with the school just before starting the activity and body temperature check for all the participants both children and staff. Also, we prepared alcohol antiseptic for hand sterilization at each activity site. In fact, this kind of antiseptic makes big sales in Japan and hardly left in the pharmacy. So this time, I run for three times of pharmacy-hopping to get it. Actually, the cheaper one was sold out and we could only get expensive one. Such a shame... ;-(

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And now, I introduce Dr. Yuji Inoue, the president and CEO of Telecommunication Technology Committee (TTC), as the Pangaea Ring writer for this month. He keenly gave the significant lecture at our seminar in August and guided the way to go for the future of Japan, in turn, Asia entirely.


Toshiyuki TAKASAKI,
Vice President and Chief Technology Officer

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