Prejudice

Yesterday, I had a dinner with my high-school friends. After that we went to cafe. I ordered a chocolate parfait,but othrs ordered sesame ones. I had never tried it because the sesame sauce looks like squid ink and I thought sesame is for healthy food, not sweet. Though, when I tried my friend's sesame ice, I loved it and thought that it was better than mine!!

There are other food that I don't try even though I've never eaten such as Herring or "Kyuuri no kyuuchan" Maybe I have to try them in the near future. Perhaps I'll like them.

Finally!

I finally got a temporally driving license, so now I can practice driving on normal streets, not course in a driving school. There are lots of bicycles whose drivers are totally careless about other pedestrians, cars or traffic rules, so at first I was very scared to drive. Though, since I know that another break is also placed for an instructor, I could rely on it and enjoy driving!

Appearance or taste itself?

Do you like fruits? If you go to supermarkets or grocery shops, you can find from very cheap to expensive fruits. If you go to department shop, you can find expensive and very beautiful fruits. Though, have not you been disappointed the taste?

It might be because you have eaten junk food, and you can not taste food any more. Or the problem might be in the food themselves.

Mishael Hoffman who used to work as a salesman for additive trading firm insists the cause of tasteless is what we eat. He mention his opinion in detail here.

The other opinion was written by Scotto Polisky who has experience that he discovered two type of fruits. One is beautiful appearance and expensive, but tasteless, and the other is tasty and cheap but not good appearance.

We can not decide which is correct, but we should try not to eat junk food so much, and be deceived by only looking.

Driving school

I, these days, go to a driving school in Kyobashi. I had thought that it was easy to get a diver's licence, because in Australia all you have to do to get a driver's licence is just to answer twenty questions for a test. It cost only twenty dollars. There is no driving school there. If you pass the test, you can get a temporary licence, and it last for half year. During the time, you have to drive with a person who has had a driver's licence for more than a year, and if you didn't have any accidents for the half year, you can get a true-driver's licence.

However, here in Japan, we have to pay around three hundred thousand yen for going to driving school, and in addition when we take tests we have to pay exam fees again! If you fail it,of course you must pay extra money!

To get a temporary driver's license, you have to attend ten classes and drive a car for twelve hours at least. I have driven a car for more than fifteen hours so far,though I still don't think I can take a test for temporary driver's licence.

I strongly regret that I tried to get a driver licence in Japan.

Ameria,not Iran, is the problem!

Today's article is about America. Firstly read this article.


The point of this author is Americans do not have to be in Middle East any more, and if America does not allow having nuclear weapons, they also should not have it.


The reason why American went to Saudi Arabia is to stop the invasion of Iraq to Kuwait. This war started in 1990, and almost twenty years has passed since the end of the war. However Americans are still in Muslim's holy places. This made Al-Qaeda upset and it caused 911 Terrorist attacks. After two months of the 911, Americans attacked Afghanistan as revenge. In addition, George.W.Bush blamed Iran, Iraq and North Korea as "axis of evil", because they have nuclear weapons, in spite of the fact America, Britain and France also have one. He started Iraq War in 2003, however they finally could not find any nuclear weapons.


The thinkable reason of this outbreak of war is if America made Iraq democracy or pro-American, other Middle East countries will be same. This is the way called “domino effect” However there is also an intrigue which is since America has big businesses of weapon, they wanted to consume it.

New rule

A new law forcing that every foreign tourist to Japan except only children under 16, diplomats and special statues is fingerprinted and photographed has been operated from November 20.


Japanese immigration think this will prevent from international terrorist activities.


However, there are lots of people who feel this is offended. For example, Kevin Rafferty who wrote this article says this is a discrimination against foreigners. He insists the terrorist are not only from abroad, such as Aum Shinrikyou and in addition, finger prints and photographs are mainly used for identification, not for finding blacklisted people.


Other foreigners also say this is invasion of privacy or the terrorist lists are full of mistakes.


Although, there are some positive foreigners who think the new rule prevents the re-entry to Japan of deported and other aliens banned from entry and by using the tool for identification, we can learn biometric system world widely.

minority groups face the worst discrimination?

Today's two articles discuss the problem of discrimination in Japan, but these articles are slightly different.


First of all, please read this one.
There are a lot of opinions about discrimination, for example Japanese way of thinking about Chinese and Korean or attitude toward Buraku, descendants of a feudal outcast class, and handicapped people. However they insist that American people are treated well in Japan and they are not sure why so.


Secondly,please read the response of that, This author from U.S.A says that the discrimination depends on the place, because in spite of the fact that he is from U.S.A, he has been discriminated such as by being thrown rocks.


I really feel sorry that these terrible things still happen in Japan.We have to work together to solve this problem by educating. However, what I feel very sad is these victims think that every Japanese people hate Chinese, Korean or other foreigners. I want them to understand that there are so many people in Japan, so probably there are some people who hate or look down on foreigners,but on the other hand there must be also sort of people who welcome them.

Talking about handicapped people, I know that they have difficulties in getting a job and I sympathize with them. Although,the difficulty they have is not only finding a job, but also they are hard to work compared with healty people, because some parts of their body is out of control. In addition, if company hire the handicapped people, they will have responsibility to take care of them,so they are not wiling to employ handicapped people. That is why the government give subsidy to them, but I hope their life will be better int he near future.

Finally,talking about Buraku, I actually do not know how they are discriminated in detail, but I probably guess that they can not get a job as easy as other people. I have no particular solution of it,but if we keep teaching that Buraku people are also same people and we have no reason to distinguish them to children, this discrimination will be gone.

Messy room

It is getting colder and colder these days, so I wanted to change my room,
like packing T-shirt in a box and take it away to attic,unpack sweater or coat,,,,


But while I was doing that I sometimes find interesting books or albums and look it,,,,,,when I look at the watch, I realize it is already in mid-night or tree or four hours passed without doing any task.


I even think now that I probably make a big mess in my house,in spite of the fact that I actually try to clean up my house.


If a thief come into my house, I am quite sure that he will be very surprised how messy my house is and escape!

Response

"Don't judge marines fast"

This letter seems he made a bit fool of Japan, because he wonders if U.S military leave Japan, who will protect Japan from the fear of North Korea or China, so he hopes not to give strict punishments to four Navies. It might be true that U.S military contribute lots of things to Japan, but it definitely does not related with this rape accident. He has to respect the victimised girl's mind. His response sounds like U.S can do whatever they want to in Japan including rape or crime because they protect Japan. However it is just their job. Nobody thinks that people who can not protect even a girl are able to protect a country. They should be judged very harshly, probably stricter than normal people

Why I took IES course

The reason I chose Kansai-Gaidai and IES is strongly related with my friend who is now sophomore at this University and in IES. I met her when I was a junior-high school student, and since then we have been always together. We belonged to a same club, we went to a same high school and a same cram school and even now we have a same part-time job.


After I graduated from high-school, I did not go to University directly. A year when I did not go to either a high-school or a University, I always wondered what I had to or could do. To make worse, I had not studied history or classis-Japanese for long time, the universities which I could take entrance examinations were only Kyoto-Gaidai or Kansai-Gaidai, then the friend of mine recommended me to come to Kansai-Gaidai and take IES course.


At first, I was not so willing to come to Kansai-Gaidai, but the course approving both of Universities degrees, Kansai-Gaidai and University in abroad, just for four years was very fascinating for me. However I guessed this course is quite popular, so it must be difficult to be a candidate. That is why I decided to take IES course and study English harder than other student.


By the way, the above picture is my language school friends. (QCE) They are from Switzerland, France, German, Czech Republic, Brazil, Korea and so on. Japanese student was only me, so I could not speak Japanese at all surely.

party! party!

Yesterday, I met some of my high-school friends. We have not met each other for around one and half year. I was a bit nervous when I met them even though there are some girls who I keep meeting around per once a month.


They have been a little bit changed. I think they've got mature. Some of them who go to junior college already got their full-time job and some of them decided to study abroad. When we were high-school students, we wore same uniform and just went to school to read comics behind a desk in a class and to have a chat or do something very stupid. We had never thought about future carefully,but each of my friend do their best to make a their dream come true, now.I'm really proud of them.


But,,,,,, what I regret now is the restaurant which we went didn't have the bottomless dishes and drinking course. It could be horrible if over 10 girls go to pub. (everybody ate and drunk too much) Maybe,I should have invited some boys....

NINTENDO DS

Last weekend,I finally bought Nintendo DS!!!
I ususaaly don't play game,but Nintendo looks so easy to play,so I bought it with EIGOZUKE.(Even though I know that I have a lot of English H.W)

I play it for just 5 or 10 minutes a day,but it's fun! Espesially,when I counldn't get good score in listenning test in Scotto class. Compared with IES,surely Nintendo is by far easier,so it gaves me confidence.If somebody lose motivation to study English,I do recommend EIGOZUKE.

Next time, I want to buy KANKEN. I haven't wrote KANZI for ages,I guess....
If I have to write some Kanzi,I probably need my mobile phone which gives me correct Kanzi all the time.

Loanwords

These days, there are lots of loanwords, such as EAKONN(air conditioner),FUlAWA- ARENNZIMENNTO(flower arrangement) and so on. To distinguish which words are Japanese or not, we had 2 kinds of letters. Hiragana and Katakana. When we use Hiragana, the words are pure Japanese, but when we use Katakana, the words are from other countries. In addition, we, Japanese people, originally write sentence only vertically, though nowadays we write horizontally like Western people do , and　when we use Katakana, we do not write vertically. Young people are used to using loanwords or write horizontally, but most of old people are not. That is why I had thought we have should create new Japanese words instead of using loanword for old people.


However after reading the article, my opinion was a little bit changed. The reason is I remembered that Kanji was also loanwords from China, but Kanji became the essential part of Japanese now. In addition, people say that if we did not accept Kanji, we would not have accepted European culture easily like we did, so using loanwords might help to share the different culture and internationalize all over the world. That is how my opinion was changed after I read this article.


The technology is developing very rapidly everywhere, and so it is good to share the skill to all over the world. Besides, if every people spoke the same language or similar language in terms of using loanwords more and more, it would be very easy to communicate.

Summer vacation in 2007

I went back to Australia at the end of July and I came back to Japan few weeks ago. While I was staying Australia,what I usually did was just relax.Most of my friends are student or have their children,so they were quite busy. This was a bit different from when I lived there. We used to have BBQ or take a trip almost all day. I felt a little bit sad that everything is changing,but at least I guess my parents must have been happy. I always go out for some reason,hang around with my friends, go for drink and so on, though in this summer vacation I spent a lot of time with my family.



The most memorable event was what my family and one of my best friend went to Fraser Island. It took around 6 hours to go there from where we live,Brisbane. We borrowed 4WD and drove and drove and drove..... Fraser Island is registered as a World Heritage Site. It is the biggest Island made by only sand. I have been there once,but my family and my friend have never been there. I told them that there were nothing but sand,though they were crazy to go there so we went. However,as I told them there were nothing on the Island. There was no super market or alcohol shop, and we even could not get a cell phone signal. All we could do was explore the Island and lie on the beach. The sunset and night view was amazingly beautiful,since there wan no shopping center or anything,there were no light and this let the view more romantic. Also,we walked around tropical forest. The sing of bird or cold temperature was really comfortable. The centre of the forest, there was a lake called Mackenzie.This is quite big,and the color change by the angle of the sun or depth of the lake. I believe that there was no more beautiful lake than this lake. My mother was nearly crying when she saw the lake,because it was extraordinaly beautiful.




After this trip,we were hooked on the Island trip.That's why we visited a lot of Island most of weekend. Morton Island, Hamilton Island..... This time we could not swim on the Fraser Island,because of shark,or I could not walk by my self because of the dog ,called dingo which eat people, but I loved it. I hope I can go to Fraser Island in the near future.




The date I had to leave Australia came much sooner than I expected.Even though I had the greatest time with my family and friends and there is no more anything what I wanted something else,to say good bye to them was very hard for me. Of course,there are other important friends in Japan as well,but (or I can say "so") I always have mixed mind. I hope I can do my best in 2nd semester not to regret my decision to come to this University.

4 days left

The summer vacation is just around the corner!
I can't think of other things.

This semester was really long and much harder than I'd expected.
I'd heard Unis in Japan are very easy to graduate, so Uni students hardly study.
I completely believed that, and I decided to have part-time jobs and live in Osaka instead of living near by Gai-Dai.

These were totally wrong choice. I still regret that I didn't live near by Gai-Dai. Actually,it takes around 1.5 hours from my home to Uni by extraordinary crowded trains.

I wish I were a rich girl like Paris, I don't care if I become stupid any more.
I need a car and a driver on my own. and a housekeeper!!!!!!

MY PLAN

I finally bought an air ticket to Australia 2 weeks ago.
Since then, I had had only 105yen in my wallet.
However,yesterday was my pay-off day so I'm very happy now!!
I am going to go to supermarket today :-)
(Probably, today's dinner will be big!)

In 2 weeks, I have to take tests of 4 subjects, and last test date is 27th.
After taking the test, I'm going to work as usual,and next day I'll leave Japan!

I'm worried whether I have time to pack my stuff and clean up my house.
I'll be quite busy.

However, I try not to have too many plan while I stay in Australia.
All I do is just relax!! I hope we don't have extraordinary too much home work.

Muscular Pain

I have had heavy muscular pain for quite long time. Some of you guys guess because of Billy's boot camp, but it's not.　Billy is very popular these days,and one of my friends are doing it, so actually I'm a bit interested in it. Although, I am really lazy at my home,that's I can't do such a hard exercise. At my home,I always think how I don't have to move as less as possible. Needless to say,my home is so messy. These days I can't invite my friends.


The true reason of muscular pain is the end of June I went to dance. When I was a high-school student, I learned ballet and I go to a studio every day. I really love dancing but after graduating from high school, I quited and I hadn't danced for a whole year.

It was fun to dance,so I wish I can go to the studio at least per a month after summer vacation.


By the way, the vacation is just around the corner!!!!!!!Just in 3weeks! I can't wait!

My friend birthday

On Friday,my best friend became 20-year-old. I met her when I was a junior high school student,then we went to same high school and same private school and still now same university. In addition, we have same part time job. Weekday we work in a cram school as teachers.
After we finished working on Friday, we went out to have a late dinner as usual just apparently. Actually I prepared for her birthday party, but I didn't tell her anything about it. I wanted surprise her.
I baked a cake and bought a perfume for a present.
When we went to the restaurant which I booked in advance was a really small bar,so there were no any customer but us and bartenders were pretty friendly. That's why we celebrated her birthday together. It was fabulous time,indeed.

LIFE

Today I would like to discuss unwanted baby. It is really hard to talk about these sort of complex things,because as a human being I do hesitate to admit that there are some unwanted babies. I want to say that there is no any unwanted baby,children or adults. However I also know that it is hard to raise a baby. It takes a lot of time and money,thus every mother has to give up many stuff. It could be her job or hobby and for her it might be irreplaceable. I know that as a woman. If I was pregnant now,I would have been in the biggest trouble. The reason is I am not capable to raise a child because of time or economics,but the baby is only one in this world,it must be the most precious.

As one of information,I want you to read this letter
This author mentioned that never the less there is a baby hatch or not,there are some people who abandoned their infant. This letter is quite persuadable,because the author used an authority that she worked in a hospital for very long time. Ordinal people whose job do not related with medical things like me are tend to believe doctors or nurse when we discuss or have trouble about medical things.

As another information,I will give this letter.
This author also agree to have a baby hatch. She introduced a real accident as an authority which an young couple had a baby but they do not have any people who can help them or they can rely on so all they could do was only to abandon their an infant in a temple. Unfortunately,at this time there wan no baby hatch.Although,the temple did not have any facility to keep an infant safely,so the infant died. It is truly a shocking news.

In my opinion,even though I understood about above two letter's opinion I do not want to admit the baby hatch. I sympathize that couples who had a baby but can't raise an infant. However,people who can be pregnant or make a baby must be old enough to be responsible. If they had do abandon their child,I think they had to tell their personal information for the baby. If I were the abandoned baby,I would want to know who my parents are when I became an adult.

Thinking about all of things,I suggest that the country establish more place where people who have trouble about their baby can counsel. It is not late that the parents decide to abandon their child or not after counseling. There is danger that the parents can not think about anything properly and abandon their child in panic. Probably if they talk over their trouble with professional counselor,they can calm down and decide what they will do properly. Even after the counseling,the parents is still going to abandon the child ,they hand the baby over and give some information about themselves.It might help the baby in the future.

MY favorite food

Today,I'm going to tell you about my favorite food. I don't have anything I can't eat but mushroom,in fact.

First of all,I'll tell you about my breakfast. I definitely eat pancake on weekend even if I am very busy. I like the pancake which I made. Some cafe have quite good pancake but mine is better for me:-) The above photo is the lovely pancake I made before.

Second thing is lunch. I usually make my lunch everyday to cut my expense,but it's pretty easy.Just sand an egg,ham,lettuce and tomato between breads and wash an apple.That's it. It's not enough for me all the time,so this time I'll introduce my dream sandwiches.

In the afternoon,I'm always starving,so I go to cafe. Let me tell you some of my favorite cafe. To begin with:colonial cafe Actually,I'm working here:-) However,I don't work so much,so I'm sure that you can't find me. Secondly:Hard Rock Cafe I often go to this cafe in Honmachi. Sometimes there are some cool live,but the singers are not good,it could be just noisy,so be careful. I don't recommend this cafe when you want to have a chat with friends.(and this cafe is a bit expensive)

Last thing is dinner. I always have some stuff I must to do,so I go home quite late. That's why I make easy dinner by myself almost everyday,but I love going out for dinner with my friends and have some chat. I really like restaurants which is like old men's favorite,such as very local IZAKAYA. I also like TOHOUKENNBUNNROKU, TORIKIZOKU or something like chain restaurants,but I really prefer somewhere like lurking place. Sorry,but I can't tell which IZAKAYAs are good. The reason is if I advertise it and become famous,it won't be my favorite one.

My link

Today I would like to introduce Eric Clapton. Since my father loves music in 1980s,he always listens Clapton's songs or Beatles. I also like a kind of music rather than these day's song.

First of all, please visit this site which is able to read in English and Japanese.

Next,read the lyric of TEARS IN HEAVEN Did you feel something?
This song was written when he lost his son. It is really sad,but when I listen this song,I feel I have to be strong and my energy will back again.

I am very happy if you become being interested in Eric Clapton.

The beautiful days

I went to Noosa beach with my friend 2 nights and 3 days few month ago. It was really lovely trip.

We woke up very early morning to take a walk along the beach. In the early morning,we could see many kind of fish. Then,we did shopping or climbed a mountain and luckily we could see a wild koala,but he was not so cute actually.

After having lunch,we swam in the sea and ate a big ice cream. Since both of us love the beach, we spent all the time there.

It was fabulous to see sun-set or plenty of stars without worrying about time or anything!

this is last week's blog

Did you do something special on last Sunday,Mother's Day? All I did last weekend was just working in exclusive Japanese restaurant in a hotel. Usually, most of restaurants will be crowded from Friday night to Sunday,though because of cereblation day ,the day before yesterday was much busier than usual Sunday! I was exhausted.

Mother's day in 2006,all of my family went out for brunch which was open-cafe along the beautiful river. We would go there for just a cup of cappccino but that day I begged my parents to go there for break fast,even though I knew that day was not Children's day. It was really peaceful time to have a chat with song of birds and fresh air. Since our family have very good relationship,we used to go somewhere,dinner or beach every weekend.

When I saw some family in the restaurant I work on last Sunday,I missed my parents a bit. I hadn't missed my parents at all,so I was surprised myself! At that moment I decided to call my mom at night,but when I came home it was mid-night and I couldn't so I wondered to sent some little present for her,though I had no idea what she wants but that I go to see my parents in summer vacation! That's why, from now on I will cut my expense and make my money! I can't wait to visit!

CM

Today,I want to explain what kind of commercial is effective,so let me pick my most recommendable commercial for example. This commercial advertise a credit card company "VISA". The main actress is Arisa Mizuki, a Japanese famous actress.

Go to this site and just take a look.
http://www.cmjapan.com/


What is this CM like?
First,there is a convention that lots of people from all over the world are attending,then they ordered something to eat. It seems lunch or dinner for every attendance. However,at this moment they have trouble in paying money,because they have different currency. Surely,they want to pay by their own currency. That's why,they had a big argument. During this bother,Arisa Mizuki appeared with VISA card which is able to use all over the world with no trouble of currency and she solved this problem. This is the end of this CM.

Why is this so interesting?
Needless to say,because of Arisa Mizuki. She is really popular for all generation in Japan. In addition it's a bit funny when the attendance have an argument.


Is this logical?
Yes,it's true that there aren't much detail information but this CM emphasize that this card is available to use everywhere. It will be a good reason why you should choose VISA card from plenty of credit cards.

Is this authoritative?
Using Arisa mizuki who is one of famous actress can be said that this is authoritative.

Which part is emotional?
I can't be sure but I guess that the part when Arisa Mizuki solves the big mess looks cool!
Probably,many people will want to do cool action like her.

Conclusion
When we want to persuade something,logic,authority and emotion is necessary. This commercial has every part of those things. Thus,I thought this commercial was good.

20 question.

1,Where are you from?

Osaka

2,When is your birthday?

9th-March 1988

3,What is your boodtype?

　　　　Maybe,A.　not sure.

4,What is your star sign?

Pisces

5,Do you have a part-time job?

Hopefully,from next Monday.

6,What kind of music do you like?

Every genre.

7,What kind of movie do you like?

It depends.

8,Have you been abroad?

Yes.

9,Have you taken an ambulance?

No

10,Whish do you like better,cooking on your own or eating out?

Both.

11,Have you been to Hirakata park?

No.

12,Which song do you like best?

　　　　　　I can't choose! Sorry.

13, Do you have a driver' license of a car?

No,and I don't need it. Because most of my friends have it.

14,What would you want to be if you could be born again?

me.

15,What would you do if the earth should perish tomorrow?

cry? There's nothing I can do!

16,Have you ever ridden on an elephant?

Never.

17,Have you ever gathered a snake aroud your neck?

Out of questions.

18,What are you afraid of the most?

earthquake.

19,How long can you stop bleathing?

10seconds,at least.

20,Which historical people would you want to meet?

HIMIKO,but,I'll cange if I have to study classic Japanese to talk to her.

INTRODUCE BY MYSELF

Hello.Today,I'm going to introduce about myself. I was born in Osaka 9th-March(Please,remember that. :) It's same date as REMIOROMENN's song title.)
Until,I became 18 year-old,I grew up in only Osaka. That's why I have very strong dialect,and love commedy and Takoyaki :)

After graduating from high-school,my family moved to Australia for my father's business.
At first,it was dreadful,because my mother and I couldn't speak English at all,even though my mother graduated from Kansaigaidai and she's been to Hawaii to study English for long time.
However my father had no trouble in living in Englih country,it made us study English.
I always don't want to loose anything (at least with my parents) At this moment,I'd studied English for 6years,so my reading or writing skill was OK. The problem was speaking.
Actually,I couldn't say even "Hello" last year.

What I did to improve my speaking ability was going to pub with non-Japanese speaker.I thought talking to Native English speaker was quite difficult,so I would go out with Swiss,German,Taiwan,Brazilian friends.

I'm not still satisfied with my English ability,but my common sense or knowledge of Japan is
lack! Therefore I decided to come back to Japan by myself and to come to this Uni.

Now,my dream is studying lots of things about Japan and then going to study abroad!and,I absolutely I will!