Mont St. Michel Commercials

Mont St Michel is on tv probably more than Ave Maria, and has been for a long time if you watch the following Toyota ad from 1985.  It`s worth the watch for the car name alone btw.

 

This one is from 2007 and is for a GPS system.

 

 

Another Ave Maria Commercial

Every few months an ad comes on tv that uses Ave Maria as a soundtrack.  This time it’s for cosmetics maker Pola

see commercial here

It is the one at the top of the page.

Homeless

I took this photo on my cellphone while walking through JR Shimbashi station in Tokyo last week.  This is far from the first time I`ve seen homeless here but it is the first time I decided to try and take a picture.  There were four men, three sitting along the wall just like this guy and one old man who was laying in the middle of a very busy staircase!  I was going to take a photo of him but when I walked back he was sitting against the wall at the edge of the stairs so I guess someone asked him to move.

One thing that is very different from homeless here compared to any other country I can think of is they don’t bother anyone here.  They don’t ask for money, they don’t do anything to passersby.  In fact many homeless try to do what work they can such as collecting cans and papers for recycling and the small amount of money they can get from that.

There is so much I could write on this subject, and plenty that others have already written but if you would actually like to do something to help the homeless there are ways to do that too.  The first and easiest way is to pray for them that they may get what they need physically and spiritually.  Secondly donate your time and/or groceries to one of the groups that hand out food for example. This weekend on  Saturday and Sunday June 6th & 7th St Ignatius parish is accepting grocery donations for making onigiri but also accepts volunteers to prepare the onigiri and hand it out as well.  If you`re interested click on June 6th on the calendar here for more info.

Second Harvest Japan is Japan`s first food bank and works to help a wide range of people.

Here is a short ad from them.  I had heard on a tv show that while Japan has half the population of the U.S it wastes throws out twice the amount of food the U.S does.

Antichrist in Japan?

A very short video I caught recently.  Its not often I see this license plate number so I had to capture it.  Which begs the question when the real Antichrist comes someday would he use the number of the beast on his license plate or would that be too obvious?

iBible

This is a funny video that has been mentioned on other blogs lately but I thought I would post it here as well.

Imagine

The first release of a national (US) media campaign launched by CatholicVote.com titled “Life: Imagine the Potential”  Well worth the 41 seconds it takes to watch.

The second release of CatholicVote.org’s national new media campaign “Life: Imagine the Potential.”  Very Impressive.  I was guessing right to the end.

Cardinal Nguyen Van Thuan

Imprisoned under the Communists for thirteen years, nine of which were in solitary confinement, this Cardinal who passed away in 2002 is now on the road to beatification.  Wikipedia article here with a good selection of links.

There is also a documentary about him and you can see a preview here

and the first five minutes here however I am unable to find a complete video of it so far.

Sanctus in Japanese

I know its not perfect, the audio quality could be better and so on but here it is the first of many videos I plan on putting up.

The words are as follows.

Kansha no sanka (the name in Japanese)

Sei naru kana,

sei naru kana,

sei naru kana bangun no Kami naru Shu,

Shu no eiko wa tenchi ni mitsu.

Ten no ito tataki tokoro ni hozanna.

Homu-beki kana, Shu no na ni yoritekitaru mono.

Ten no ito tataki tokoro ni hozanna

Lilies of the Field

This is a 1963 movie starring Sidney Poitier a role which he won best actor for at the Academy Awards.   The movie is a heartwarming story about 5 immigrant nuns from Eastern Europe praying for years for a miracle to happen … and then Sidney Poitier appears to be sent to them to help them build their dream … a chapel in the desert.

Since I am in Japan and its not likely the local video store has this to rent I found it on youtube click here to watch.  It is in nine parts so it is a bit annoying to have to keep switching pages after each video, and it isn’t dvd quality but inspite of all that I suggest taking the time to watch.  If you still aren’t sure at least watch the first ten minutes which I have posted below.