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About the Author

Yoshi

Invitation to “Story Dinner with Music”: Hosted by Bookworm Foundation and Takaaki Shirai

Date / time: October 10th, 2020 (Sat.), 21:00-22:00 (Japanese standard time)
Venue: Online (It will be livestreamed on Youtube and Yoshimi’s Facebook page)
Ticket fee: free (donation with PayPal and through bank accounts will be highly appreciated)

Caution: You may want to prepare some snacks witha cup of tea / coffee, because you may feel extremely hungry after listening!!

Photo: Takaaki with his violin and Yoshimi in front of a bookshelf

Hello, it’s Yoshimi here.
i hope you are doing well in this interesting time.
As you may know, I have organised several online events for Japanese-speaking audience with my friends here in Japan, and this time we will do the English version of it.
My friend Takaaki will play violin,
and I will read some short stories in Braille for you.

To mark our first-ever English event, I’ve picked my lifelong favourite topic as the theme: FOOD!!
If you know me in any way, you know that I love eating as much as reading!
So I’ve decided to serve you a three-course dinner, comprised of some stories and music.

Photo: A white, square plate, containing rice, grilled pork and sausage with vegetables, and small salads

There will be:
◦ An appetiser
◦ A main course, AND of course,
◦ a dessert!

But the detailed menu will be kept as a surprise on that day.

? About Mr. Takaaki Shirai
Takaaki is a professional violinist, who happens to be blind, and also happens to be my classmate from high school!
Here, you can listen to “A whole New World,” covered by Takaaki.

? About Bookworm Foundation
I set up Bookworm Foundation (formerly known as Always Reading Caravan) back in 2010.
We have three main projects:
1. Library with mobile library activities located in Phrao, Chiang Mai in northern Thailand.
Here is a video, capturing one of our mobile library activities at a local temple.
2. Early childhood literacy centres for hill tribe children near Phrao.
Take a look at atmosphere of both Sunshine Kids Center and Little Smiles Center.
3. Noon Noon Books (production of universal design picture books for children with and without disabilities)
Check out our introduction to Noon Noon Books to see what it is about.
Please feel free to visit our website here.

Photo: Our staff Jiew and a child holding a strainer to wash tapioca pearls
Atmosphere of our Saturday cooking time at Rang Mai Library

? Call for Support
Thanks to the strong team in Phrao, Bookworm has been able to continue working throughout lockdown period in Thailand.
But most work related to fundraising had to be stopped because we have been heavily depending on personal fundraising where I would go and meet potential donors in person.
To keep Bookworm up and running, we really need your support now.
Every Yen, Euros, and dollars count.
During the event, you will be able to chip in using “online busking” function.
But if you rather want to concentrate on “the dinner,” you can always donate through PayPal before and after the event.
Or, you could also transfer your donation to our bank accounts in Thailand and Japan.

? PayPal
アークどこでも本読み隊
(This is name of our organisation in japanese)
E-mail: yoshimi.in.kochi@gmail.com

? Bank account in Thailand
Bank name: Kasikorn Bank
Branch: Central Festival
Account No: Savings Account 043-8-15111-7
Account Holder: Bookworm Foundation
SWIFT CODE: KASITHBK
Address: 99,99/1-2 Central Floor 3, Road Superhighway Chiangmai-Lumpang, T. Faham, Muang, Chiangmai 50000 Thailand
Tel: +66 53-807-605

? Bank account in Japan
Bank name: Mizuho Bank
Branch: Takadanobaba
Account No: Savings Account 1954538
Account Holder: あーくどこでも本読み隊

? Bank account in England (Account of Ms. Moeno Kiuchi, one of the performers)
Bank name: HSBC
Sort code: 40-10-00
Account number: 45053196
Account holder: M KIUCHI

? Bank account in Germany (account of Mr. Peter Beck, one of Bookworm supporters)
Bank name: Spardabank Baden-Württemberg
IBAN: DE24600908000000146357
BIC: GENODEF1S02
Account holder: Peter Beck

? Contact us!
Please feel free to get in touch with me!
E-mail: yoshimi.horiuchi@gmail.com
WhatsApp / Facetime: +66 83 542 7283
Twitter: YoshimiARC
Line ID: YoshimiARC

Please come and join us on October 10th! I assure you that your heart and mind will be filled with yummy imaginations,!

Invitation for Online Event: Travel Around the World with Bookworms in the Nest Ft. Takaaki Shirai

Traveling time: July 11th, 2020 (Sat.), 15:00-16:00 (Japanese standard time)
Meeting point: Online (It will be livestreamed in our Youtube channel and Yoshimi’s Facebook page)
Things you need to bring: Yourself, ready to sit back, relax, and enjoy!
Ticket fee: free (donation with PayPal and through bank accounts will be highly appreciated)

Takaaki with his violin and Yoshimi in front of a bookshelf

Hello, it’s Yoshimi here.
As many of you know, I am sort of stuck in Japan since the end of March.
About a month ago, as I was playing around in the world of social media, I ran into livestreaming of my high school classmate, who now is a professional violinist.

And…
here we are!
We decided to put together a mini concert.
He will play violin,
and I will read short stories and folk tales from Braille books.
We will take you around the world with music and stories.
This time, the session will be in japanese language, but hope you can enjoy the violin and the whole atmosphere.

Takaaki will be in his home studio in Tokyo,
and I will be reading from my bedroom in Kochi.
Sometime during the event, we will also call in our colleagues in Rang Mai Library in Phrao, Chiang Mai.

Places that we plan to visit

    Japan
    China
    The UK
    And a few other countries

Here, you can listen to “A whole New World,” covered by Takaaki.

About Bookworm Foundation
I set up Bookworm Foundation (formerly known as Always Reading Caravan) back in 2010.
We have three main projects:
1. Library with mobile library activities located in Phrao, Chiang Mai in northern Thailand.
2. Early childhood literacy centres for hill tribe children near Phrao.
3. Noon Noon Books (production of universal design picture books for children with and without disabilities)
Please feel free to visit our website here.

Call for Support
Thanks to the strong team in Phrao, Bookworm has been able to continue working throughout lockdown period in Thailand.
But most work related to fundraising had to be stopped because we have been heavily depending on personal fundraising where I would go and meet potential donors in person.
To keep Bookworm up and running, we really need your support now.
Every Yen, Euros, and dollars count.
During the event, you will be able to chip in using “busking” function.
But if you rather want to concentrate on the virtual world travel, you can always donate through PayPal before and after the event.
Or, you could also transfer your donation to our bank accounts in Thailand and Japan.

PayPal
アークどこでも本読み隊
(This is name of our organisation in japanese)
E-mail: yoshimi.in.kochi@gmail.com

Bank account in Thailand
Bank name: Kasikorn Bank
Branch: Central Festival
Account No: Savings Account 043-8-15111-7
Account Holder: Bookworm Foundation
SWIFT CODE: KASITHBK
Address: 99,99/1-2 Central Floor 3, Road Superhighway Chiangmai-Lumpang, T. Faham, Muang, Chiangmai 50000 Thailand
Tel: +66 53-807-605

Bank account in Japan
Bank name: Mizuho Bank
Branch: Takadanobaba
Account No: Savings Account 1954538
Account Holder: あーくどこでも本読み隊

Contact us!
Please feel free to get in touch with me!
E-mail: yoshimi.horiuchi@gmail.com
WhatsApp / Facetime: +66 83 542 7283
Twitter: YoshimiARC
Line ID: YoshimiARC

Please come and give us moral support!

Call for Volunteers: Noon Noon Books Project Coordinator

Volunteers get together to make touch-and-feel parts

Background Information
Bookworm Foundation (BWF) is a non-governmental and not-for-profit organization to promote the joy of reading and learning among children and adults with and without disabilities in Thailand. Our missions are:
◦ Promote reading for pleasure,
• ◦ Provide equal reading opportunities for children from various background, and
◦ Utilize books as bridge between vulnerable groups and mainstream society.

Since 2018, we have started a new project based around Bangkok area called Noon Noon Books (หนังสือนูนนูน). Through this project, we aim to produce universal design picture books that can be enjoyed by children with and without disabilities. The book is fully illustrated and lots of touch-and-feel features hand-crafted by volunteers. The text will be written in large print as well as Braille. For more details, please watch our introductory video.

You can also listen to the audiobook version of the book.

A page from our first book

Job description for volunteers
As the volunteer project coordinator, we would like you to dedicate 3 working days per week (roughly 20-25 hours). It’s a mixture of home-based work and on-site work such as meeting with volunteers and purchasing material. The main tasks of the volunteer project coordinator include:
◦ Co-ordinating with multiple groups of volunteers in Bangkok to create touch-and-feel features of the book,
◦ Searching and purchasing materials necessary for book production,
◦ Documenting the tasks related to the project in spreadsheet and other format, and
◦ Meeting project-related individuals / organizations such as donors and volunteers as representative of Bookworm Foundation.

Every week they get toegether to make bumpy parts

• As a volunteer project coordinator for Noon Noon Books, you are expected to:
• ◦ Have good communication skills in English. (Japanese and Thai skills will be highly appreciated as well)
◦ Be a prompt communicator (quick response to e-mails and other forms of communications is the key for this position)
• ◦ Have experience and enjoy working with simple documentation work, such as spreadsheet and word processor.
• ◦ Have good interpersonal skills both face-to-face and in e-mail and social media interaction.
• ◦ Have good problem-solving skills and constructive and positive mind-set.

Duration:
You can start working as soon as possible, and we would like you to stay with us at least half a year.

Toekn of appreciation:
We will provide you with 8000 baht per month as token of appreciation.

Another page from our book: “Treasure”

If you are interested, please send an email with your CV at
volunteer@alwaysreadingcaravan.org
or call for inquiry at Ms. Yoshimi Horiuchi in either Thai, English, or Japanese at
083-542-7283
Thank you for reading, and we are looking forward to hearing from you!

One Step Forward!!

Caption: Foundation Registration Certificate in Thai

Yes, finally!
We are officially registered as Bookworm Foundation (มูลนิธิหนอนหนังสือ) in Phrao!
Yeaaaaay!!!

Now, next steps…

1. English name:
We may have to rethink our name, Bookworm Foundation, because there is a organization called The Bookworm Foundation in the US.
Why didn’t I Google for the English name and double check in the first place? Why? Why?
I have no idea… I want to kick myself…
Anyway, we need to think of cool, simple, unique, easy-to-remember, short, and lovely name (if it exists!). Ho ho ho…

2. Logo:
Our old logo was this:

Photo caption: Logo with two worms reading a bok on top a bus

And latest draft of our new logo is this:

Photo caption: Logo with an open book, and coming from that a globe composed of different items

I thought this is final, but I just received very constructive yet critical feedback.
So… no, this cannot be final yet.
We will discuss again in the meeting.

3. Financial duties of foundation:
Now that we are a registered foundation, we have more legal obligations.
We need to find someone who can make financial report, help us with tax document etc.
This person must be experienced, living not too far from Phrao, helpful, affordable, and approachable… Hmmmm… who can this be?

So, at the moment, I don’t feel like raise my hands in celebration and dance around the library.
Tons more to be done…
Still, we must stay optimistic, right?
At least I can say that we are definitely one big step closer to well-structured organization in my dream picture 🙂

Hello, Spirit of the Land

“Hello, gods and spirits of this land, my name is Yoshimi Horiuchi.
We will renovate this house to be used as a community library.
I will try my best to utilize this place for the entire community, so please protect us…”

Yes, I greeted out loud.

The village monk told us that if we wanted our activity to flow smoothly, we need to start renovating this month.

Yoshimi with ax

So for the first time in my life, I held an ax in my hand and tare off a part of a door.
Indeed, we REALLY are going to move into a new location!

I Believe I Can Fly, and I Did!

Yoshi in free fall

This is not a metaphor. I really flew, though it was just for 5 minutes. Let me tell you my seemingly once-in-a-lifetime experience of sky diving! I want to share how you feel when you jump from 3000 meters above without sight.

When I told my friends that I was doing sky diving for fund raising for my friend organization CYDA, supporting teenagers from hill tribe communities in Chiang Mai, most of them were horrified. But no worries, I didn’t jump alone. I did tandem, which means that I was strapped to an experienced professional sky diver throughout. We were group of four, and all of us except for Alex, a volunteer from London, had never done it before.

So last Saturday, after four hours of waiting at Thai Sky Adventures in Pattaya, we were assigned a partner each. My partner was Johan, a friendly guy probably from northern Europe. He was so great–explaining me every step and even letting me practice postures during the dive while we were still on the ground.

Climbing onto the planeBut this did not prevent me from getting scared to death as we climbed onto the small airplane. It was running at 80 km per hour only, but I felt as if I was in a unstoppable jet.

 

 

Praying for protectionI was asking my late grandpa and dad to protect me from wherever they are.
As we reached the height of 3000 meters (9000 feet), things happened quite quickly. First, another fund raising challenger Alex jumped out with his partner. My stomach felt strange when I felt the rush of air from the exit as they jumped.

About to jumpFinally, it was my turn. First I was almost sitting on the lap of Johan with my legs outstretched as if I were a child going on a slider with the parent. Then Johan moved in the same posture to the exit. For a few seconds, my feet was dangling from the exit, like I was sitting on a comfy bench. Then as I was leaning against his chest, Johan gave me the count of three, rocking his body slightly to give me the rhythm. Then, we were out!!

Free fall from the back

Free fall in the cloudsWe fell and fell and fell. No chance to scream. The free fall lasted 30 seconds, which felt so so long! We were on our stomach, and I was told to hold onto the harness on my chest, and my feet tacked behind me. Johan told me to imagine as if I become a big banana, but the air pressure was so much that I didn’t know banana or mango. It was like fighting against a enormous wall of wind.

Frog position from the sideThen he gave me taps on the shoulder, then I had to push my elbows out and palms down, as if I were a frog. This is to keep balance, I guess. It was not easy, but somehow I managed.

 

 

Close-up frog positionSuddenly I felt a big tag upwards as Johan pulled our parachute open. I cannot even remember if I felt going up or down, but it was so dramatic that I had to scream. Then suddenly, everything became quiet, as we slowed down significantly.

 

Parachute about to openMy friends told me that at that point, we were still on our stomach, but I felt as if I were standing. I didn’t even feel that we were going down, so I had to ask Johan.

 

 

Slowly descendingThen he showed me how to make a turn by pulling the string of the parachute, and this was so cool! As I pulled the left string, I would feel the left turn, and suddenly a strong sensation as if I was flying upwards towards the right. Later he told me that this is due to the gravity. I really felt like we were flying even though I felt a bit dizzy afterwards. As we were descending slowly, Johan told me that we were flying through the clouds, and that he could see the reservoir and trees below.

This was the best partThe touch down was very soft. I just had to pull my legs up for 10 seconds or so, and Johan let us land from our butt. There was no pain, shock, nothing.

 

 

Touch down!After all, the scariest part was the plane rising up to the jumping point. I’m proud of my team–Alex the volunteer, Frank and Pet (high school boys from hill tribe at CYDA), and myself–for not chickening out. I am very thankful to all of you who made contributions for our challenge 🙂 If you’d like, the fund raising website is still open and we would appreciate any contribution for CYDA.

Would I do this again? Yeah, maybe, a bit later. But I must say that at the moment, I am ever so grateful for my solid ground.

 

Hello Again, ICU!

When I graduated from International Christian University (ICU) in 2007, I never thought that I will be introduced in their clip to be shown to potential students and their parents. I still miss their campus in Mitaka, Tokyo, filled with green and beautiful nature, and even wild animals like tanuki 🙂 Oh, how many times I got lost in that huge campus?

Mr. Sato from Public Relations Office at ICU, and Tim and Bret who were in charge of filming really put their energy to collect good footage for the clip throughout the past 2 days. My colleagues at Bai Mon Library in Suphanburi were amazed at the level of details and sense of professionalism. The children at the library were happy to be in the camera as usual!

I’m half-scared, half-excited to see the end result in about a month. Thank you Sato-san and everyone for coming all the way!

Chilling Out at a Stake House (!) in Phrao

As our 3rd anniversary at Rang Mai Library was very successful, we decided to treat ourselves a bit over lunch. I was so surprised when someone suggested to go to a stake house nearby!! And I tell you, it was really close to our library–litearlly just around the corner.

And, here is what we had–P’Cha, Tuu, and Bhum had fried fish, and I had pork stake. We shared a tuna salad, 2 plates of French fries, and “honey toast”.

The taste? Hmmm… tasted like stake in Phrao. Those you have come to Phrao may know what I mean by this. If you are curious, come and visit!

I’m sorry I didn’t take the photo of honey toast. My colleagues said it’s too pathetic… Hahaha…

One good thing was the price. For all these food, we paid a bit over 500 baht. Good deal for sure. But we think we will go to a somtam place near high school next time :p

When a Polish, An Italian, and a Japanese Have Dinner Together…

This morning, I woke a bit earlier than usual, not only to enjoy the crisp morning of early winter in Phrao, but also to say goodbye to Anna and Andrea, a couple who has just started on a journey around the world.
There seem to be more and more of those globe-trotters who quit the job and go for around-the-world trip, but their mission is a bit unique.
Anna from Poland and Andrea from Italy want to travel from country to country, looking for “changemakers”.
We spent about a week together, getting to know each other, and talking about everything from history of pasta in Italy to the ideal system in the society.
For instance, it was so interesting as we talked about the second world war at a restaurant at a corner in town.
Even though I live in a tiny town in the middle of nowhere, I get to meet so many fascinating people like them!?
How nice to run a grassroot organization, right?

Later, they will write about what I do with ARC team in Italian, Polish, and English!
Anna has written a bit about her experience with us here in her blog.

Anna, Andrea, it was so great to have you around!
Please stay safe and healthy, and may there be always kind people around you two during your long journey.
I look forward to meeting you in near future somewhere on this planet.

Packing Night

Tomorrow, I am off to Bangkok, then on Saturday, move to Bali, Indonesia for about a week to participate in a conference.
I am excited as I will be meeting my friends and colleagues.
It’s just that it would have been perfect without the hustle of packing.

As I travel long distance at least 2-3 times a month, packing is nothing new for my daily life.
But it doesn’t make me love it, unfortunately…
All the cables for dozens of gadgets I use, money in different currency, clothes of all occasions…
Thinking about all of that makes me sleepy already.
Where is my little fairy?
Even my cat ran away…