Volunteer Work

　　I started to write this blog in November 2005, so 9 years have passed since then. As I've hardly any opportunity to write English in my everyday life, I've kept it to, dare I say, improve my English skill. Writing in English is way more difficult than reading for me.
　　The merit of using English is to be read by numerous people around the world. Some of them have replied to my blog or directly sent me e-mails. It was great fun to receive messages from people outside of Japan. After all, they made me choose a wide variety of topics. The theme concerning my Lions Club is a topic that acts as a magnet for reactions by members of other overseas Lions Clubs.
　　The pictures show today's volunteer work of the Matsuyama Chuo Lions Club, which entailed cleaning the grounds of Jodoji Temple, one of the 88 temples in the course of Shikoku Pilgrimage. The cold winter is off-season for the pilgrimage, but some groups of pilgrims visited the temple just after we had finished cleaning.


(Vocabulary)
I feel the Japanese have a sophisticated, dare I say more civilized, manner of communicating than where I'm from. 日本人は、洗練された、あえて言うと私の故郷よりももっと上品な意思疎通の手段を持っていると感じているの。
dare I say it … あえて言わせてもらうと
entail  (必然的に) …を含む, 伴う, 付随させる
What would the work entail? その工事にはどんなことが付随するか．
entail doing sth  The journey will entail changing train twice. その旅では列車の乗り換えが2回ある．