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working in Japan, or overseas?

2006-01-25T07:58:00.000-08:00

today, I went to the seminer about studying abroad and job hunting after that.

as I am almost going to Australia in a 2weeks,
I am very curious about this kind of topic.
I will back end of November, in this year,
so I wanted to be ready for job hunting in any ways
through this orientation.

what I want to do in the future is to get a job that I can use
my English skills.

a few months ago, I have been thinking that if I want to get a job,
in such categoreis,
then I would like to go outside of Japan and get a job at international companies.

however, one of the senior said today
that it is up to people.
it is nessesary to think about how I would like to use English skills
towards the new job.
it is not only the way to be English teachers or fights attendants
that people can use English fluently.

i think it is right!!

last year, I went to a kind of job hunting orientation
with my friend,
and at first, I had been thinking of getting a job at the airport,
that is the best way to use own English very well.

however , those two expereinces made my mind change
and I became to think that there are many ways that I can use English.
moreover, almost all companies are wanting English skills
to comunicate with other countires.

if I get a job,
I want to get a job at Japanese company, in Japan.
then if there are some international office at the companies,
then I can move to there if I can.

so, I would like to choose to work in Japan,
then use some lectures or seminars chances, and maybe someday,
I will reach other countires to spread Japanese ideas.

Online shopping

2006-01-25T07:48:00.000-08:00

these days, there are many people who do online shopping.

I have not done the online shopping so far.

what I have done is just booking musical tickets
as there are no ways insted of calling.

One of my friends usually do online shopping,
or get her favored clothes from shopping cites celling discounted ones,
or even at the online auction.

Even though it seems it is so easy to do this kind of shopping
as there is no need to go out by taking troubles,
I am against this idea.

it is becasue I really want to buy something by watching
or checking the items by myself.
Especially for clothes,
If the clothes that got at the auctions, and does not fit,
that is wates of money, seriously!

to avoid from those kind of troubles, I would rather choose to go out
and buy myself.

however, these days,
as there are no store I am looing for around my house,
I probably finally may use online system.

well see, how it will works.

but I am a litte bit nervous, for the case when any troubles
may happen among this contacts.
purchasing

Australia

2006-01-19T08:14:00.000-08:00

I am actually going to Australia as an exchange student from next month, Februaly.
I'm so excited that it will be my first time to visit the south part of the earth, and also first Australia visiting.

now what I am doing for this is that filling apprication forms for university and accomodation.
it is so complicated!!!
but as I am leaving on Feb, 8th, so that means I am leaving Japan for Australia in about 20 days!

I went to see a doctor to see my health condition.
this examining will be needed to get visa.
what was a little bit troublesome for me was that the hospitals were
already decided by government for this Australian visa.
fortunately, there was the hospital very close from my house!
I could reach there in 15 min. by bicycle.

when I was searching about filghts,
there was another problems.

if I want to bring something to eat from Japan,
there are many things which I have to inform
when I enter Australia at the airport

they say Australia is very strict about environment,
so they are trying to prevent from people bringing in to the country
with any harmful things for environment.

I used to take Environment Ecology class,
there were lots of stories about Australian Environment.

as I am interested in the subject,
I think I should think of the issues without feeling troublesome,
and contribute to it!

Advertising

2006-01-19T08:03:00.000-08:00

For the English class' final papaer, I am writing about consumarism,
and focusing on advertising at the same time for this topic.

What I strongly believe is that as advertisement exist anywhere,
they have been affecting in some ways to make us feel like buying those things
on the advertisement.

the one of the article said that we have been watching some kinds of advertisement
about 3000 times in a day approximetely.
that is a lot.

but it is easy to believe because when I am going out,
on the public transportation, the top of buildings, magazines, even in the displays we usually see befor the movies start, there are advertisement.

advertisement gives us good images of those products very well,
it can say that for the huge poster of brand bags or clothes.
people want to be just like that even though it is obviously difficult to make the wish come true.

but the good image make people to buy those stuff, so that the people can
get close to the wounderful images with the products.

advertising has very strong power to attract.

Comming Age

2006-01-16T09:15:00.000-08:00

I had a comming age ceremony the other day.

In Japan, to be 20, it means that people are now accepted as adults.
Maybe in US, it is 21... I guess.

the ceremonies are held in each person's home towns, so
they are able to meet their friends from Elementary school, Junior High, or high school,
after a few years since they started working or entered university and so on.

It is good opportunity to meet own old friends again there.

as I went to private junior and senior high school,
I could meet friends from elementary school after about a decade!!
some of them are hard to recognize as they have changed so much.
but it was so happy and great to see them again.
hopefully, they still remenbered me. that was nice.

at the ceremonoy, girls wear kimonos which are very expensive but cute and beautiful,
while guys wear old style kimono(called hakama)
or, nice suits.

usually after the ceremony, people go out with their friends till the nights
so that they can drink together with their other friends from same schools.

well, even though it is so fast to pass the time on that day,
it was so fun!!!

as I have past the ceremony,
now I have to have more self contorlling skill and confidence of it
because I am now adult. I have to deal with everything by myself.

why male authors work are well read than female's???

2006-01-15T18:52:00.000-08:00

there was a result that many students are tend to read more male writers' book or articles than female's.

this was appered when I was in the English class.
I usually do not care about the writers' gender that much.
but this survey in the class was a little bit interesting.

I think the number of male authors are bigger than female natually, or
because of women's llate start of getting education.
In fact, there are many male writers in the Japanese litarature history.
I learned a lot about them when I was in high school.
Students had to also memorize the names of those writers.

Also there is a possibility that accepting every womoman right in the society was very slow.
I guess the situation was not as good as today.

Moreover, men have had more opportunity to experience several things than women,
in physically. because some of those experiences are too dangerous to have for women.
the obvious example is the war.
thanks to the experience at the warplace, men can write about it.
to tell the truth, some of male authors have written about the war by their own experiences.

therefore, because of less or late education and experiences have something to do with
the question,
why manyl people have read more men works than women works.

Need English Education in Elementary School?

2005-12-07T20:54:00.000-08:00

there was a debate about the topic, that whether elementary school should accept English Education or not, as crucial subjects.

I was the affarmtive side.
so I say Yes.

because now English has been spoken almost all over the world.
that is so great that if I speak English, I can travel around the world.
Even more, I can do business in large scale.

the children's brains are very easy to learn new things when they are young.
they say that when kid's are around 13, it is the best time to start new things,
or keep study somthing interested in to be expert about it.

So, I do believe that the earlier, the better. for English Education.

moreover, In most Europe countries, Trilingual is now very common.
they learn their first languate, then English is for the second, then third one is for
business or something that might be useful when they work in the future.

my friend in Italy speaks Italian, French, and English.
another friend in Germany Speaks German, French, and English.

I think the difficult part of English learning, like Grammar can be taught in Junior high,
so kids in elementary school can start learning from communication skill; speaking.

Languane is the skill that pepople use in whole their lives, so
it will be so useful for them if they can speak many lanuages to communicate with others.

Matsushita's trouble among heaters.

2005-12-07T19:59:00.000-08:00

Recently, there has been a news among Matsushita Company, one of the biggest elecricity company in Japan>

It was said that the old type of theri heater have been causing trouble these days.

they say that the heater produce CO1 and make people suffer from it.

some of people have died of the effect, that what I heard a few weeks ago.
the problem is the pipe connecting the parts of heaters.

Even though they replaces the parts into new ones, the issue has not been solved yet.

I really hope this problem will be solved as soon as possible
as there will be a lot of opportunity to use heaters from this season.
And I aslo expect that not Matsushita products users, but also
other products users might be concerned about the problems.

Because of the issue, Matsushita's finance condition and brand image went into
bad situation.

for users and comapny's better future,
this problem should be solved.

The terror of new bird flu

2005-12-07T07:21:00.000-08:00

It has been said that there will be a new type of bird flu in the future, therefore people are now researching and studying about the flu before it will change the form and become spreadalbe person by person.

the bird flu was the disease only for birds, like chikens.
What we had to do was just keep the birds away from people, and just excute them,
in case it affects us.

however, there is now a worry that it may be change the form and
it will pass by between humans.

I am not sure what will happen if I catch the illness, but I do not wanna be caught.

So, I really believe that the earlier research is better as a great measure.

On December 7th, there was a meeting in Asia about the flu.
China said that it is very terrible flu that spread even outside of China.
Japan was not in this meeting, though.

I really hope this issue will be moderate recent situation and bad-expected future,
so that everyone can live with feeling at ease.

I have no idea what will happen with me if I got this flu!!

Warm Biz!

2005-11-24T06:34:00.000-08:00

Almost it is end of November and we are going to start December in about a week.

It is so fast that almost whole 2005 is over!
I cannot believe it.

As there was an idea of cool biz this summer,
there is warm biz, on the other side.

both of ideas' main goal is reduce the amount of using energy.

I think it is good idea.
if each person starts doing that even in a small amount,
then the total saved energy amount will be bigger than most people have expected,
I hope.

last year, actually I did not use air conditioner or gas stove at all at home.
in stead of using such things,
I was wearing warm clothes(3-4 rayers) in room, i guess in fact.

by doing so, there was no need of using stuff to warm the room.

to tell the truth, I do not like using air conditioner or stoves very much,
because it dries my throat and give me cough a lot,
then I often tend to catch cold....though it is just my own probrem.

well, anyway, by using less heaters and putting on layers of clothing,
it saves energy and alos lose possibility of catching cold(only for myself, though).

Reducing Smoking Habits

2005-11-11T08:32:00.000-08:00

When I picked a news papaer this morning, the sentence just came into my eyes.

"Insurance can be used for remedy against smoking habits"

also, when i was watching TV,
they said that even doctors point out that patients should
stop smoking for their health before it gets worse.
However, the percentage, that doctors gives advice or ways to reduce or stop smoking,
was very small.

I think more doctores should give advide to the patients, so that they may be able to
try to stop smorking.

Today, there are gums that decrease the feeling of smoking.

I think it is good idea that insurance can be effective to change smoking habit,
for everyone's better health.
maybe more people start to try stop smoking by going to take lectures or
cures by doctors at hospitals.

however, it is still not sure that by only the government allowed to do that,
people are surely going to reduce the number of smorking.

I think there shoudl be more effective ways to reduce the number of smoking.
Doctors might be able to work on that.

Contribution by Bill Gates

2005-10-31T07:52:00.000-08:00

as you know, there were huge earth quake the other day around Sumatra Islands, Indonesia.
then, a number of supports by supply or money was needed.

they say that the famouse billionaire, Bill Gates has been supporting those area by donating huge amout of money for helping survivers and injured people.

also, he has been donating his money for provision against AIDS.

the amount of money he paid for those were just like an international organization.
that was really surprising to me when I heard about that.

In addition, Bill Gates said the other day that he will donate his money ,
about thirty billion yen(about hundred million and five thousand pound)
for provision against Malaria, the disease caused by mosquitos ususally.

it was said that this was such an unexpected amount of money so far for epidemic.

I think even the world is kind of depression situation right now,
but thanks to those people, like Bill Gates,
I really hope that bad conditions of the modern world will be improved.

I have no idea who are the other people supporting or donating money or something,
to contribute to help society now.....

well, I will look for that.

Atomic Bombs

2005-10-24T08:03:00.000-07:00

In the English class, there were some of assignments to read about atomic bomb,
and also I did a kind of debate in the class on the same topic.

Japan has been known as a country where atomic bombs were dropped.

I have heard someday that it was kind of testing to see how the bombs would work
when those exploded.
if it is true, it is so horrible to drop them just for testing!!
but there was a infromation that America had a test in (New?)Mexico before droping them on Japan... then why they had to drop them with knowing the result???

after those bombs were dropped, the world war ended. therefore, some people said that
America did it not to punish, but to end the war.

but I don't really believe it, as I was concerened how terrible result japan had received at that time.

after getting rid of the hard time after the war, now japan has become a country to
expess NO-WAR in the world.

even though it was hard and painful for Japan to be dropped atomic bombs,
I would like Japan to make use of such an experience to stop wars in the future,
and lead the world peace.

Typhoon season !

2005-10-18T07:01:00.000-07:00

this year, there have been so many typhoons that past over Japan's Honshu Island,
even it past only a half of this year though.
that was enough.

then, according to the wearther forcast,
there will be another typhoon coming closer to Japan.

well, this one will not go through Honshu Island, and move to the north east
by passing the Pacific Ocean. However, this is strong one
and I am really concerned about the small island around Hatijyou-jima area.

Also, I am always feel sorry for people who live in Okinawa because their island is
in the route of typhoon everytime.

what the horrible things that typhoon will couse are injured or lost people.
also it will corrapse lots of residences and buildings.
those facts always make me think how so strong the nature power is.

i expect that after the typhoon,
we may be able to get to Autumn fininally.

Earthquake at Pakistan

2005-10-18T06:34:00.000-07:00

On October 8th, there was huge earthquake in Pakistan.

I was really surprized at hearing the news from one of my friends by email,
after I finished working, because there is a friend who is now in Islamabad,
working as a temporary staff like intern, at the MInistry of Foreign Affairs from this September.

He said Pakistan( Islamabad) had got so much damage, but this is becasue
there were no expectation of having such happning there,
so people were now in confused situation. they are lack of food and other supplies.

well, he said he did not get any injure at all.

now the Ministry of Foreign Affairs are busy dealing with the after care,
inviting family related to the incident and so on.

what we can do in Japan is only listening or reading about this progress of after care
and people's movement on TV, or News papers.

these days, I saw some volunteer group was doing donation campaign near the station.
I would like to do donation.

may be those 2 choices are what I can do now.

I really hope that the difficult condition in Pakistan will be improved by many people's supports,
even though little by little.

Photojournalism

2005-10-07T07:43:00.000-07:00

thesedays, there were some lectures about kind of history and journalism in the English class.

Last year, I had to make a presentaion of [～ism]

thereofore, I chose [photojournalism] then.
it was because taking photos is one of my hobbies and also I have little interest in
journalism or mass media.

because of those background, it was little bit understandable lectures for me
even though it was difficult to read the article.

photos have great impacts that affect people's mind in some ways.
the aspects that were shown on the pictures are changable, like a human's face
only by changing the way of taking photos, like angles.

I think this is what makes photos interesitng or attractive.

photojournalists is aslo playing an important rolls for people who live in
very deep warsite, because if there is no photojournalists,
who can tell the real aspects of those ???
who can remain the moments???

well, if I have any chance to do research about it again,
I would like to do that.

After Aichi EXPO・・・・

2005-09-27T10:23:00.000-07:00

finallly, last weekend, Aichi Expo was ended.
It is so pitty that I could not go there finally before it ends. it is so sad.

the other day, when i was watching the news , there was a topic about the EXPO
on a newspaper so people were talking about that.

they say that all stuffs that was used to build such a huge EXPO have to be taken away
in a few weeks so that they can build new park there.

Aslo, as we know, there were many people from all over the world to hold something at
the event.
those people have to leave as soon as possible because of visa and so on.

therefore, the ornaments and other kinds of stuffs will be on the auction
for people who have big interests on them.

I think that is a good idea because those materials won't be just throw away, and
passed to someone who really like them.

However, it is so sad that it took so long time to prepare the EXPO,
but it was now trying to be clear up so easily!

Donating at stores

2005-09-22T08:49:00.000-07:00

Everytime we go to buy something, we may see small boxes to donate for
poor counyry or nationgs near the cash corner.

at the store where I do part-time job, we do have that box too!

it is so rare to see that people are donating to the box with some coins
while I am watching, however, when the charge was so small amount
like about 1-50 yen when I gave that back to customers,
sometimes they do donation with that !!

everytime I see the moment, I say to them thanks just because I thought so.
I know that they did that not for our shop but for the donating program by some kinds of organization. but I was glad to see that people are contributing such activities even they are
small actions.

so, next time, if I got small amount of charge,
I will try to do that like they did at our shop.

when all those small amount of money are gatherd all together, it makes great power to
help others.

that is amazing!

I am back!!

2005-08-29T09:17:00.000-07:00

I have not been writng this blog so far....
well, I felt like writng something right now, so I am back!!

This summer, I did not use air conditioner at all!!
what I used to cool down is the fan only! can you believe it?

well, since I have been moving around lots of places in Japan during this summer,
there was shorter time to stay at home than being at outside.

I hope it saved erectricity and also environment even a little bit.

Lack of Petroleum !!!

2005-07-11T06:16:00.000-07:00

Because of the shortage of petroleum( oil),
many companies are having difficulities to produce containers
made of foam plystyrene.

This evening, when I was watching News on TV, it is said that
a lot of natto (fermented soybeans) companies are hard to manage because
there is little materials to make containers and cannot put natto in it!!
(see the photo !!)

But this problem is not only for those companies.

it there is little petroleum, then more and more other companies
that produce something by using petroleum will be in trouble.

can you image how many things were created by petroleum???
like clear file folder we use at schools, a part of celler phones' bodies,
pet bottles, and so on.

I think what we can do to save the Petroleum is recycling so that
we can reuse them again even a little bit!!

also, the price of oil for vehicles rises recently.
therefore many people worry about their use of cars.

well, we are lacking of all kinds of resources... :-(

Rain rain rain.....

2005-07-10T08:59:00.000-07:00

These days, we have lots of rain almost everyday.

thanks for the weather, we may not be able to worry about lack of water
for this summer! that's nice.

When I was going to part-time job, it was not raining when I left the parking spot of
bicycles, but a few seconds later, it started raining!
although I had a small portable unbrella, I did not try to use it
becasue I was in hurry and I thought it would be better
that just keep going till the shop I work hurriedly.

However, it was so hard, therefore I got soaked.

I wonder when this rain season will be over.
I heard that it will be in the end around July 19th, acording to the weather forcasts.

Do You Know about Bicology???

2005-07-05T08:24:00.000-07:00

Have you ever heard the word, "Bicology"?

This word is consisted of two words, " Bicycle" and "Ecology".

Therefore, Bicology is an idea that suggests us to ride on our bicycles rather than vehicles,
and enjoy the nature around us by cycling. Also, this will lead to
reduce air pollution because no bicycles make greenhouse gases, such as CO2.

It was raised in America, in 1972, but as the movement was so aggressive,
bicology was extincted from society in a few years.

But since 1972, people in other area( sorry not sure...but may be Japan?)
started encouraging to make a society that everyone can use bicycles safely and efficiently.

As we know, cycling can be a good exercize, and like I said in above,
bicycles are nice figure for environment and human beings.

I love riding on my bicycle and I have a plan to buy very nice bicyle
(made by PEUGEOT, a famous car company)in the future
if I could afford....

Then, I will be able to have fun more than before!

★Candle nights for million people★

2005-06-30T10:43:00.000-07:00

when I went to a drug store to get only sun screen , the casher put that
in a huge plastic bag that would be able to hold more than 3-4 stuff in it
...before I say no thanks... too bad.

anyway, I would like to introduce a wonderful event that was held in Japan the other day.

it is called "Candle nights for million people"(100mannninn-no candle nights, in japanese)
this was started only three years ago. I heard it from friends in my volunteer group.

this event is held on end of June and December. And this event's purpose is
encourage us to turn off all the lights in our houses from 8-10pm
and spend a few hours with warm, relaxed candle night.
this event is also connected to saving erectricity, so it is very nice for ecology.
isn't it cool???

there are many beautiful pictures of candles that were taken on that day
in many places in Japan on this site!!!

→http://www.candle-night.org/2005summer/home.html
it is japanese web-page. you may be able to see it if you click the black part that says "Enter"!!

Save the Plastic Shopping Bags!

2005-06-23T08:52:00.000-07:00

The other day, when I was watching TV, it said
that we will have to pay to get plastic shopping bags at the
super markets and grocery stores sonner or later.

near my house, there is a store that I have to pay 5-yen for one plastic bag.
also, when I go shopping at other super markets, they have stamp cards
that they give me marks if I bring own plastic bags or say that I don't need
them to put the things that I got in the new bags.
if the stamps fullfilled all the spaces in the card, then I will be able to get
100-yen discount at the store!!

I think that is a good idea because it is very easy thing that everyone can follow.
everytime I go shopping, I usually say "no-bags"
especially if the things I got are very small.
Don't you think that it is wasting of plastic bags when you got only a small gum
or a drink in a PET bottle?

if there is a small extra space in our bags, we can put such things in our bags!

Study Aborad Fair!!

2005-06-21T19:41:00.000-07:00

Last Sunday, on June 19, I hold a study abroad fair in my volunteer group.

As you know, I have belonged to the volunteer group to support such study aborad programs
and exchange students who stay in Japan.

there were about 20 high school students and some of their mothers.
I was so glad that it seems like successful fair even it was the first time we hold.

it was good opportunity to remember my experience of study abroad.
Returnees( people who experienced study aborad) gave lots of advices and comments
of their lives in overseas.
i think many students go to Canada this year. others are to Ireland,
England and USA this summer.

there will be students who go to south part of the earth, like AUS or NZ in winter.

I hope this fair encouraged the students very well, and I really hope theri success!

more and more high school students try to study aborad in their youth these days.
that is interesting!

Climate Changes a lot today!

2005-06-10T08:47:00.000-07:00

Today was so humid and hot! I could feel the rain season and early summer.

It was really interesting to learn about Climate Change(Global warming) in this
class today, as I learned just the same thing in my other environment class.

Because of global warming, many problems are caused.
what I really care about is that some of islands are already in trouble of sinking!
I watched the video about Tsubaru, one of the small countries,
consisted with atolls(coral islands) near Australia.

They are now asked by the government that they had better move to the New Zealand or Australia sooner or later.
there are moments that sea water comes up from the ground of islands, like when it is high tide.
because islands are made up of corals, sea water comes up directly.
everywhere is just like flood!

Some of citizens prefer to move to NZ or AUS for the better, and get jobs and live there safely.
But Others are opposite.
They do not want to leave the place where they were grown up
and many original cultures still exist.
However, the number of people who can move to these countries are still limited.
it is said that 70 people in a year, and government decide
who can move by drawing lots.(lottery) Therefore, this opportunity is not assured.
People are just to wait after apply forms.

That is so difficult to solve....I wonder what else does government can do for them...
before all islands sink in the sea.

Urbanizing

2005-06-06T06:42:00.000-07:00

In neighborhood, there used to be many free lands.
I used to go there and play or catch insects when I was a child.

The other day, a new italian restarurant opened along the street.
this was built on the land where was a free land a few months ago.
Except for the restaurant, more and more buildings, or shopping centers
are built around here.
I know that will be very convenient for us,
but I sometimes feel a little bit busy and uncomfotable
as I thought the area around my house was urbanizing.

Many cars, people, noise, and so on.

So, I cannot be glad at my home town becoming more useful place than before
from bottom of my heart.
it is very complilcated situation.

Friends

2005-05-31T08:50:00.000-07:00

Today, I had a tea ceremony club.

Actually, until last Wednesday, there was an American student in our club and he was doing practice just like us.
He was so neat and nice person. moreover, his Japanese was brilliant!!
He could understand almost every word we said and learned easiest way of serving tea very quickly.

We got a massage from him in the club room.
the letter was written all in Japanese.

" it was so nice to spend time here in Kansai gaidai, and in our club.
There were some difficult things to understand and accept because some of things
I experienced or saw were very different from what he expected before.
Also, what I really focuse on is the relationships with many people.
It took so long time to get used to everyone as our lanaguages or cultures are very different.
I could feel finally a true member of our club a few days before going back.
that was pitty.
However, thanks for everything."

I could feel the lots of effort for wirting this letter in japanese.
I will just miss him for a while.

it is so nice that we can became friends across the countires only by speaking same languages.

there is no borderline to be friends.

Money among food and expense

2005-05-31T08:27:00.000-07:00

Hello,

Recentry, we are learning about problems among Food in Global issues' class.

We cannot live without food, and something to eat are every where in our society,
so, I am interested in this problem though it is sometimes hard to understand what were
said in the text.

I have a part-time job ususally after school or weekends, from twice to fourth in a week,
and I do pay almost everything by myself except for commuter's ticket to get to school.

therefore, everytime I pay my money for something, like lunch, clothes, sweets, drinks, cell-phone, I did not think anything about my habit of using money.

Sometimes, I buy something to drink or snacks just becaus I want to eat at that time.

Moreover, today, I went to eat ice cream after club activity with my friends because of same reasons.

Most of us are more rich than other developing countries' people,
so it is very easy to get any food just paying a little amount money.
However, in other poor countries, such amount of money, like 300yen, is so expensive.

I sometimes use too much money not only for such food but also clothes or other things that I thought I needed,
but today, I thought that I should be little bit more careful and cautious when I use my money.
Sometimes, around the days before payday, I say that I have little money to manage,
but I think I can avoid this situation by decreasing those extra expense.

I need to stop and think before pay for something.

Global Warming

2005-05-19T08:15:00.000-07:00

Hello,
Yesterday, I had an Ecology class and learned about global warming.

as we know, the issue is caused by a very huge amount of carbon dioxide.
Aslo, methane and flon gass are the cause of global warming.
these objects are called as "green house gas" in general.

at first, I thought that the green house gas is only causing such a problem,
so, if we could remove this from the earth, the problem will be solved.

However, this gas is actually needed for keep the earth's temparature in a confortable level
that all living things can stay in the earth.
the green house gas has an ability to controll the tempareture of our world.

that was the most interesting evidence I learned during the class.

as there is too much green house gas, the global warming is motivated.
What can we do to reduce the gas???
I have heard that a lot of Carbon dioxide is released when we are using lots of electricity.

therefore, I guess I will try to sleep early because I use the electricity too much in the night.
For example, the room lights, personal computers, CD/MD players, and so on....

I hope I can carry out this idea even a little bit.

Then, mail from Italy!

2005-05-04T08:20:00.000-07:00

Finally I got a mail from Italy!!
It was to glad to hear from her.
But I haven't writtene back the last mail yet! oh, no....

She is in Belgium now as an exchange student and studying History, economics, Politics....that kind of stuffs. She speaks French very well.
What always make me envy people in Europ is that they can across their countries easily only by car, train, or airplanes. Europ countries are connected on the same continent. As we know, Japanese people always have to pay lots of money and take long time and get to other countries mostly. that Italian friend often travel around Europ, like France, Austlia and so on. I wish I can do that.
Moreover, when I visited Rome, Italy last Summer by my self to see the Italian and German friends, I was really shocked about the discount system.
when we went to colosseum, peple from EU countries had to pay only about 10 Euro, while I, Like other countires' nations were 14 Euro!!! Everyone got discount, but only I couldn't.
I really hoped to pretend as an European from EU countries...

However, the ID card and my looks oviously show that I am truly a Japanese.
Too bad

Mail from Germany

2005-04-22T06:15:00.000-07:00

The other day, I got a mail from a friend who lives in Germany. I was very happy as I have not been heard from her for a long time.

I became friends with her when I was in US as an exchange student.
Also, I have friend from Italy. Although there were other friends like from Spain, Thailand and so on while I was in US, but there are only these two contacts now.

Last summer, I ,the German girl, and the Italian girl met finally after three years in Rome, Italy!! I went to Rome all by myself and that was my first experience to go abroad by myself.
It was very exciting trip I had never had!

By having such friends in other countries, that situation always make me think something if there were any news or articles about Germany or Italy in daily lives. I think this is good opportunity for me because I can have some kind of interests in globas issues for the reason, that I have friends overseas. If I didn't have any such friends, then I would have less interests for the issues now.

Well, I haven't written back her yet, so I have to do that right away!

My recent activity

2005-04-14T08:54:00.000-07:00

Hello!!

Tuesday and Wednesday, I went to my Tea Ceremony club. I haven't been going there since last semester, so I was excited to go back there again from April. Also, I wanted to see my friends from the club and talk a lot!
Unfortunately, I completely forgot how to serve teas and all kinds of know-how. Oh, No!
How could I forget that? What was the effort I made during last semester....too bad.
I was little bit sad, but I gotta get the memory back again in a few weeks anyway before the small festival that is coming in mid June. I do my best.

Then, I have been doing volunteer thing since January, 2004.
What am I doing?
I am woking for high school students who are hoping or actually going to study abroad , and exchange students who is now staying in Japan, under a certain company that is mainly working for high school students' study abroad. At orientations, I will be a group leader, and also I do presentation about what I learned while studying abroad and what makes me today from the experience.
I have been in US for a year as an exchange student by the company's program.
So it is kind of return for the company.
The people who is in the volunteer group had also studied aborad like me. They went to UK, AUS, CAN, or IRE. We gahtered to do something for those high school students and also for our selves to understand and remember our experiences.
this volunteer work make me think lots of things and I really love it!
May be some of IES-Bs read a booklet of this.

well, I just wanted to know what I am doing these days.

what are my goals for IES this semester?

2005-04-11T18:01:00.000-07:00

there are some goals for IES this semester.
First, I just would like to get used to use English as last year because I haven't use English that much since then. Also, I will concentrate to the class and use English when I speak or write notes as much as I can. that may help me to accomplish the first goal. I am still in a mood of Spring Vacation a little bit. too bad.
I am interested in studying about Global Issues as the issues are always exist next to us. I would like to focus on especially among Envionment problem because I am taking a class about Environment this year. I hope that class will help to study and understand the problems in English.
Although IES sometimes gives me hard times like homeworks and understandings, but I will do my best and I wanna get used to use more English as one of tools for studying.
I have two expeirence of studying English in US and CAN so far, but after I fishished IES, I wanna try to get a chance to study abroad again for my future. I want to see how I can use the experience in IES.
Well, see.

Mai

My first blog

2005-04-11T17:42:00.000-07:00

Hello, this is my first blog.