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Portfolios for Writing IV

Posted: January 12th, 2010, 10:10am PST

///// Beginning of template: Copy from "End ..." (below) to here. /////
Student ID: 06172
Portfolio for Writing IV, Section 1A
(See: Note 1, below)
0.0. OVERVIEWReviews, Posts, Words, and More(See: Note 2, below.)

1.0. ESSAYS(See: Note 3, below.)

Please complete this table with data gathered from essays on your blog. See the Key (below) for definitions of the symbols in row one, and complete columns four through nine with numerical values (0, 1, 2, 3, ...).

1.1. Showcase	Short titles with links to blog posts	Dates yyyy.mm.dd	¶	W	C	L	P	M
2-01a (2009.10.07)	Favorite place(s)	Tuesday, October 13, 2009	7	376	5	0	0	0
2-01b (2009.10.21)	Favorite Places	Wednesday, October 21, 2009	7	425	0	0	0	0
(2-01c)
2-02a (2009.11.04)	Up with Fashion!!!	Thursday, October 29, 2009	6	417	5	4	0	0
2-02b (2009.11.18)	Up with Fashion!!!	Wednesday, November 11, 2009	7	518	0	4	0	0
(2-02c)
2-03a (2009.12.02)	Language Learning History	Wednesday, December 2, 2009	7	822	3	0	0	0
2-03b (2009.12.18/22)	Language learning wasn't done in a day!	Wednesday, December 16, 2009	9	1025	2	0	0	0
(2-03c)
Totals	---	---	43	3583	13	8	0	0

Key:
¶: number of paragraphs five (5) or more sentences in length
W: number of words
C: number of comments
L: number of links
P: number of photos or other graphics
M: number of other media included in post

1.2. Most Improved Essay(See: Note 4, below.)

Selection and Assessment: Which of the three essays that you've written and revised this semester shows the most improvement? What did you do to improve it? Remember that complete answers are better than short answers, focus on your writing (accuracy, appropriacy, content and organization, rather than graphics or other media), and explain at least two major improvements.

My most improved essay is Language learning wasn't done in a day! There are two reasons. One is that this is the longest essay I wrote in this class and I wrote carefully tying up the paragraphs. The other reason is that I made the title spoofing a saying "Rome wasn't built in a day."

2.0. COMMENTS

Showcase	Short titles of posts with links	Dates of comments yyyy.mm.dd	Numbers of words in comments	Qualities of comments**
2.1. Your first comment on your instructor's blog*	Social Media and Social Networking Explained	Wed Oct 14, 10:21:00 AM JST	39	I wrote a geeral opinion so I think it in ok.
2.2. Your best comment on a classmate's blog*	Essay 2-2a	2009年11月4日9:48	14	I showed my sympathy to her thought and asked a question so I think the comment is good!
2.3. Best comment by a classmate on your blog*	Essay2-03-language-learning-history	Wednesday, December 2, 2009	41	Her comment was thankful because I could know that I gave her a new knowledge!
2.4. Most comments on:	Short titles of posts with link	Dates of posts yyyy.mm.dd	Total number of words in comments	Qualities of comments**
2.4.1. Any one of your essays*	Essay 2-02a: Up with Fashion!!! Website Review Draft	THURSDAY, OCTOBER 29, 2009	113	I could know everybody who made comments liked the website I recommended. Therefore these comments were useful and thankful for me.
2.4.1.1. When did you respond to those comments?	---	NOVEMBER 4, 2009 10:30 AM	---	---
2.4.1.2. How did you respond to those comments?	---	---	45	First, I showed my appreciation to all the commenters and then responded to each one. I think this comment was pretty communicative!
2.4.2. Any of your other posts*	Don't limit yourself!!!	FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 25, 2009 SEPTEMBER 29, 2009 10:40 PM	48	I could know that I could cheer her up with my idea so the comment made me happy.
2.4.2.1. When did you respond to those comments?	---	SEPTEMBER 30, 2009 12:03 PM	---	---
2.4.2.2. How did you respond to those comments?	---	---	42	I showed my sympathy to her feeling and commented in a positive atitude. Therefore the comment was meaningful.

----------
* Current semester comments on essays and other posts
** Please list the most important qualities of comments on each type of blog post. That is, explain briefly what makes comments good.

2.5. Recent comments displayDoes your blog display recent comments from blog visitors in a prominent location, for example, in a sidebar, header, or footer widget? Where, or why not? Please explain.

...My blog displays recent comments in the second top of sidebar.

2.6. Additional reflections on comments

... Through giving comments, I had chance to read other classmates' blogs and how they enjoy their collage lives.
... About receiving comments, I could know that I had readers for my blog and I blogged thinking of the readers. I added a lot of pictures to make my blog more interesting.

3.0. BOOK REVIEWS

3.1. Showcase	Short titles with links	Dates: yyyy.mm.dd	Words	Comments
Example:	Vampire Killer	2007.05.16	39	1
BR 2-01	Voting	THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 3, 2009	329	1
BR 2-02	THE BEGINNINGS OF DEMOCRACY	THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 10, 2009	275	0
BR 2-03	Democracy in Action	TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 15, 2009	196	0
BR 2-04	Taxation	SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 27, 2009	176	0
BR 2-05	GARBAGE	SATURDAY, OCTOBER 3, 2009	168	0
BR 2-06	One Woman's Choice	TUESDAY, OCTOBER 13, 2009	416	0
BR 2-07	PEACEKEEPERS	WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 21, 2009	448	0
BR 2-08	Love Actually	SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 14, 2009	254	0
BR 2-09	Insect Study Butterflies	FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 20, 2009	270	0
BR 2-10	Oliver Twist	SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 22, 2009	388	0
BR 2-11	Sense and Sensibility	MONDAY, NOVEMBER 23, 2009	439	0
BR 2-12	A Christmas Carol	TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 24, 2009	400	0
BR 2-13	The Happy Prince	TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 24, 2009	600	0
BR 2-14	FOOD AND DRINK IN BRITAIN	SATURDAY, DECEMBER 26, 2009	275	0
BR 2-15	Leonardo da Vinci	SATURDAY, DECEMBER 26, 2009	251	0
BR 2-16	American Life	MONDAY, JANUARY 4, 2010	139	0
BR 2-17	Commerce	THURSDAY, JANUARY 7, 2010	291	0
BR 2-18	BR2-18 The History of the English Language	SATURDAY, JANUARY 9, 2010	160	0


---	---	Totals:	5475	0

Note: Please calculate and list book review Totals for words and comments without including those from the example (above).

3.2. Best Book ReviewSelection and Assessment: Which of those book reviews do you feel is the best that you've written this semester, and why? Remember that a complete answer is better than a short answer, focus on your writing, and give at least two reasons to support your assessment.

My best book review is BR2-01 Voting. That's because when I wrote this book review, there held a big election nationwide. I wanted associate my book review with current affairs in Japan and I could that.

4.0. BLOG LAYOUT, LABELING, LINKING, AND MEDIA

Showcase	Yes	No
4.1. Does your blog display an archive?	0
4.1.1. Does the archive display the titles of posts?	0
4.1.2. Is the archive organized by month?	0
4.1.3. Is the archive at or near the top of the sidebar?	0
4.2. Does your blog display a cloud or list of labels in the sidebar?	0
4.2.1. Do your labels include these required labels (typed accurately):	---	---
"books" (plural) AND "reviews" (plural)	0
"essays" (plural) AND "portfolios" (plural, without "proto-")	0
"quickposts" (plural, with no space between quick and posts)	0
"links" (plural) AND "media" (plural)	0
"movies" (plural) AND "websites" (plural)	0
"brainstorms" (or "brainstorming"), "essay prep.," AND "free-writing" (or "free-writes")	0
4.2.2. Does your sidebar display other labels?	0
How many other labels have you attached to three (3) or more posts? 9 other labels attached to three or more posts	---	---
Which labels, and to how many posts each? Please list those labels instead of www, xxx, yyy..., and list numbers of posts instead of n, m, o... (in parentheses), below. LABELS books (29) brainstorms (2) cooking (1) drafts (1) education (1) essay prep. (5) essays (12) fashion (2) favorites (4) food (15) free-writing (1) health (1) languages (2) links (7) lists (1) movies (3) music (1) my favorites (14) my memories (5) my murmurs (30) my summer 2009 (10) outlines (2) portfolios (1) quickposts (4) recipe (1) relaxation (1) reviews (32) revisions (6) university (4) videos (2) websites (3) writing (2)	---	---
4.3. Links and media	---	---
4.3.1. Do your blog posts this semester include photos or other graphics?	0
Does your blog profile include a photo or graphic representation?	0
How many of your blog posts this semester include photos or other graphics? 29 posts including photos or other graphics	---	---
4.3.2. Does your blog include posts with multiple links?	0
How many of your posts this semester include three (3) or more links? 7 posts including three or more links (including this portfolio!)	---	---
4.3.3. Does your blog include other media?	0
How many of your blog posts this semester include other media? 4 posts including other media	---	---
What kind(-s) of media have you included in posts this semester? Please list the kinds here: ... Speech(Youtube) ... Animation(Youtube) ... Home Video(Youtube) ... Map(Google)	---	---
What media content that you originally produced, if any, do your blog posts for this semester contain? Please list and explain each item briefly, and add short links and dates (yyyy.mm.dd) for reference. ... (short link, date) ... (short link, date) ... (short link, date)	---	---

4.4. Overall presentationWhat have you done to enhance the overall presentation and readability of your blog? List and explain the three most important content, display, formatting, layout, or other presentation changes that you have made on your blog this semester.

... I changed color and size of some words which I wanted to emphasis.
... I attached links and pictures to my posts as much as I can.
... I tried not to write too many sentences in one paragraph except essays and book reviews so that readers can read them less stressfully to their eyes.

5.0. ADDITIONAL REFLECTIONS ON YOUR BLOG AND YOUR WRITING FOR ITPlease feel free to include reflections on both class work and homework, as well as on the content of this portfolio (proto-portfolios, showcases, selections, and reflections).

... All the class activities in this class were useful for me. Especially how to prepare for essay such as brainstorming and making a mind map using a Mac software.
Using Mac in the class, I got used to it and can enjoy using it now. It was troublesome at first though since I had never used it. I learned how to use it not only writing English in the class. I'm sure the skill is useful for me in various situations in the future.

6.0. ADVICE AND SUGGESTIONS FOR YOURSELF, YOUR PEERS, AND YOUR SUCCESSORS

... To. successors, Writing a post constantly is troublesome for the first few months for everybody but you'll used to it for sure. Find interesting things in your daily life, take pictures, post them from your cell phone with a short note, and add more words later.(Ask your teacher how to do it.) Doing so you'll enjoy blogging soon!
... To. Peers, Keep blogging even after finishing this class. It's going to be a good present for yourself in the future!
... To. myself, As I suggested to my peers, keep blogging!

____________________
Notes:

This portfolio template derives from Writing Studio Blog templates for Writing IIIc and Writing IVc (2007-08), Writing III, §§1a & 1c, Writing IV: Portfolio, §§1a & 1c (2008-09), and the July 7, 2009, Portfolio for Writing III.
Please use the same code in section 0.0 that you used to embed your proto-portfolios (PPFs) in the footer of your blog, which you should already have revised to display your 2nd (fall) semester PPF first.
The essays section (1.0. Essays, above) derived from Proto-Portfolio 2-02 (2008).
The essay selection and explanation item (§1.2, above) differsfrom that in the July 7, 2009, Portfolio for Writing III. Please read the new item carefully before making a selection.

____________________
License:
This portfolio template is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.
Please attribute to "the Writing Studio Blog, 2010.01.05" (with link, but without quotation marks).

///// End of template: Copy from here to "Beginning ..." (above) /////

The Last day of my trip to America

Posted: January 9th, 2010, 7:49pm PST

Time fried so fast! 10 days had been past since I took my first step to America!! The last event was a shopping at Manhattan Village. It's a shopping mall near our hotel.

Y and I took a bus to the mall. It was my first experience to take a bus in America so I was a bit nervous. We didn't know that we had to pay the fare when we get on and limped to pay that.

We maneged to pay the fare somehow. There were some people on the bus but it was very silent so that we couldn't talk anything while we were on it. I didn't like the atmosphere but luckily it only took about 10 min to get there.

I were not that hungry that I had frozen yogurt:)

On the way back, we decided to walk to the hotel since we found out that it was quite close and it was still in the afternoon. We dropped by a supermarket and got our "Last Supper". Because my friend Y was going to stay in the U.S. for her study and I was going to head to LAX to go back to Japan that night. We both so poor that we couldn't go to a nice restaurant though :l

After supper and relaxing for a while I said good bye to Y and headed to LAX to take a flight at 1:00 am.

This is the end of my trip to America last summer! Also end of my blogging for one of my classes of my collage!

Thank you for reading my posts!!

[269 words][15129 words in total]

BR2-18 The History of the English Language

Posted: January 9th, 2010, 7:36pm PST

In present days, countless people study English as a foreign language all over the world. That's because English is one of the most powerful languages. Sometime last year, a friend of mine, whose mother tongue is English, told me that I couldn't talk rings around him because my mother tongue is Japanese. I was a little shocked to hear that but his words motivated me to study English. It's not enough that you can translate your Japanese into English, I think. You have to be able to think like English native speakers, because the way they think is quite different from the one of Japanese people. therefore, you should know how English language was created and the background of English native speakers; such as their religions, cultures, and habits. This book introduces you a brief history of English language with simple English. I think it's a part of the necessary knowledge for English learners. Read it and improve your English!
[160 words][14860 words in total][140 words to go]

The 9th day of my trip to America : San Clemente, Orange county

Posted: January 9th, 2010, 6:25pm PST

August 10th, Monday

We left my friend's house in the morning and headed to her sis's town San Clemente in Orange county. Talking about Orange County, "The OC" came up in my mind. Do you know the TV Drama? It's a story about rich high school girls, boys, their family, and a poor boy. If you want to know more about it check the website. →The OC

We were planning on meeting my friend's sis and her family at a beach, so we headed to the beach in SC.

On the way to the beach, we stopped by SUBWAY and bought sandwiches:) I had SUBWAY sandwiches for the first time in my life on the trip, and I had come to be hooked on it! I wish if we had one in Kumamoto. I would go there everyday!

Lunch at the beach was extremely delicious!!

There was a railway on the beach along the coastline!! While we were there, a train came through! (forgot to take a picture:( too bad:( )

After enjoying the beach, I took a walk up to a hill beside the beach. There were many condos up the hill. They must be expensive! I felt like I was dreaming a dream:) Everything was just gorgeous!

We met my friend's sis, her daughter, and her son. Then headed to their house.
We had supper at a restaurant. The dishes they served were a mixture of Mexican and Japanese food such as teriyaki chicken, rice, and taco salad. I'm sad that I don't remember the name. My friend's sis said that the restaurant was popular among surfers! After that, we went to a pier for a work.

Since I had too much at the restaurant, taking a walk on the pier was very comfortable. We went to a chocolate shop and cold stone creamery after that though :P

I've never thought that I could go to OC! It became a wonderful day :D thank you Nay-san!!!!![329 words][14700 words in total][300 words to go]

The 10th day of mt trip to America: Staying at a hotel near LAX

Posted: January 7th, 2010, 12:42am PST

After waking up in the morning, we said good bye to my friend's sis and her family. My friend and her daughters drove us to our hotel in LA. And when we arrived at our hotel, we had to say good bye! I cried because we were not sure when we can see each other next and I thought we might not have chance to meet each other in person again :( I was veeeeeeery sad!

But the hotel made us happy again after they left. The room was filled with humor! Look at the picture below. It's on the desk. It's spoofing the phrase "I'm all yours." I fell in love with the goofy bear in a moment!!

This is my room key. It says " Can I open doors, or what." What a comfy and adorable bear you are!

This is our do-not-disturb door sign. I wish I could sleep there until spring!

This is one of the complimentary goods provided by the hotel.

It might be hard to read but it's shampoo. It says " Conditioning Shampoo is rich in nature's honey and essential ingredients for radiant fur.(Or in your case, hair.)" HaHaHa Love it!

We arrived there in the early afternoon so we went out to buy some sandwich to SUBWAY:)

I took a picture of night view through the window of our room.

The hotel was comfy enough so if I have chance, I want to stay there again! There are 2 travelodges near LAX and the other one is in a kinda dangerous area. When you make reservation, make sure to do it at LAX south travelodge El Segundo.

PS. I felt like writing about the hotel and skipped about the 9th day of the trip. I'll update it sometime soon!
[297 words][14371 words in total][629 words to go]

BR2-17 Commerce oxford bookworms 3

Posted: January 7th, 2010, 11:11pm PST

Have you ever taken part in the world of commerce? It may sound serious for you but almost all of us are unconsciously participating in the commerce world. Only by turning on TV, listening to music, listening to the radio, taking a bus, buying and eating food, talking on the phone..... You are deeply into the commerce world! This book introduces you the beginning of commerce.

Now, let me tell you a little bit of what I learned about commerce from this book. Before human being created money, people couldn't buy and sell things but had traded what they made such as food, clothes, and daily necessities. One of the big disadvantages of trading things was that people had to decide what to get by trading at the time they trade. They had not enough time to consider what to get.

The book says that there already were metal coins thousands of years ago. Money enabled people to buy things from the third parson and made a bigger flow of commerce. Some of the earliest coins were made of gold and silver. There were, however, some unique coins existed at the time. The heaviest and biggest coins were made of stone by Yap people. Some of them were about four meters across. How did they carry them? How come did they make their money huge?

I'm interested in stock holding recently and want to learn how to invest money! However I'm not good at numbers so I should start reviewing math textbooks for high school students I think. Now I regret that why I didn't study hard at high school :( But I believe that nothing is too late to start. When you want to do something that's the time!
[291 words][14074 words in total][926 words]

BR2-16 American Life

Posted: January 4th, 2010, 11:04pm PST

Have you ever been to America? As for me, I've been to America twice and the days I spent there were amazing. However, I've stayed there only 33days in total amd I just experienced wonderful things about America whthin the 33 days. Well then, do I know real American life? The answer is no! I totally enjoyed the stay because I was just a visiter. I didn't have to warry about the things which American people did. Do you want to live in America? If so, you have to learn its history, system of government, economy, geography, culture, and so forth. This book tells you what the real american life is like, including some of these with coloerful pictures and illustrations. After you read this book, you will be able to get a genaral idea of American real life.
[139 words][13783 words in total][1217 words to go]

The 8th day of my trip to America:

Posted: December 26th, 2009, 1:01am PST

August 9th, Sunday

My American big bro was off from his hard work on the day. He cooked us American Style BBQ for lunch. While we were waiting for the lunch to be ready, I enjoyed playing in the pool in backyard with my American sis, her daughters, and my company Y of this trip.

He broiled sermon and beef pates with special seasoning using his proud BBQ grill!

I enjoyed luxurious jacuzzi under the comfortably sunny weather!
Finally bro's special BBQ preperation was done! Can't wait anymore!

big sis prepared pasta and "edamame"!!!! They call it edamame in English too! What a surprise!! They didn't know that it was from Japan though.

Ta-da!!!!!!! Here is my humburger! This was the best humburger ever in my life!!! I miss it a lot!

We had a relaxing day on the day:) Big sis decided to take us to her big sis's house in Orange County the next day so we finished packing at night and went to bed early. Big bro had to leave for work early in the morning the next day so we said good bye to him before go to bed. To be continued.....
[196 words][13644 words in total][1356 words to go]

BR2-15 Leonardo da Vinci

Posted: December 26th, 2009, 11:03pm PST

Speaking of Leonardo da Vinci, his great painting Monna Lisa comes up in my mind first. Tons of people know that he was one of the greatest painters. I am also one of them. When I saw his work Monna Lisa for the first time, I don't exactly remember when it was though, I couldn't help feeling frightened. That's because the woman on his painting was so realistic and her smile was eerie as if seeing into my mind. I mean his works are very powerful and the works amuse all the people who saw his work for the first time. Then, how many people know about his life? If you know nothing about his life but only his paintings, I recommend you to read this book.

In this book, you can learn about his life and works with breif English. Futhermore, it introduces reproductions of most of his famous works and Internet links to recommended websites.

In the end, let me introduce some of my favorite paintings of him.

Look at these two pictures. The left one is " the Virgin of the Rocks" in the Louvre Musium and the right one is "the Virgin of the Rocks" in London the National Garally. The Louvre one is said to be original. In the movie "da Vinci code", one of the characters explains that da Vinci put some messages in the painting. They look almost same but there are some differences. Can you find the differences? Check the answer on Wikipedia.

[251 words][13448 words in total][1552 words to go]

BR2-14 FOOD AND DRINK IN BRITAIN

Posted: December 26th, 2009, 10:35pm PST

When it comes to food and drink in Britain, What comes up in your mind? As for me, I imagine a lot of things such as scorns, short bread, chocolate fudge, fish and chips, and afternoon tea. This book introduce us a lot of things about food and drink in Britain. What's your favorite British food? I especially like short bread. It's sooooOOOooo yummy! Have you ever tried authentic ones? You can enjoy authentic short bread here in Kumamoto. Did you know that? In Myotaiji on Route 3 near Kokai-shotenngai, there is a British sweet shop called Tomi's short bread house. The owner is a Japanese lady Yuki-san who lived in London and Paris for years. She learned confectionery production at a famous confectionery school "Le Cordon Bleu" in London. She worked at some famous hotels as a pâtissière in London and Paris. It would be a waste not to try her wonderful confectioneries! Visit her shop or you can also order them through the Internet. Visit her web site. I'm sure you'll get hooked on her amazing sweets;)I want to introduce one more person who is a very famous chef Jamie Oliver not only in Britain but also all over the world. He became famous as an idol chef with his TV program "Naked Chef". You can rent it on DVDs at TUTAYA. He's cute in the program! He's not literally naked tough ;p I've heard some people say that British food is not tasty but It's not true for sure! They just weren't lucky and didn't have chance to get to know of delicious food in Britain. British food is yummy for sure!![275 words][13197words in total][1803words to go]

Secret Santa

Posted: December 26th, 2009, 6:45pm PST

I played Secret Santa with my friends for Chiristmas!

Have you ever played it? Do you know what the Secret Santa is? Now let me explain what it is for those who don't know about it:)

Secret Santa is a gift giving game, played by groups of friends/colleagues. Everyone gives and recieves ONE present.

HOW TO PLAY

First Step

Put everyone's name in a box by the fixed date. (Each person put his/her name himself/herself.)

Second Step

After the fixed date, everyone who put their name into the box, can take a name out. This is who you are buying a present for. Don't change even if you are not friends with the person. That's more fun!

Third Step

Buy a present for the person spend no more than fixed price. It can be anything! The important thing is useing your imagination!

Forth Step

Wrap the present up and write who it is for but not don't write your name!

Fifth Step

Place your present under the fixed Christmas tree!

Sixth Step

Open the presents at a party! Then find out who your Secret Santa is!

I got a nice scarf from my Secret Santa! Thank you my cute Santa!
[200 words][12922 words in total][2o78 words to go]

A Christmas Present from a German Angel

Posted: December 21st, 2009, 3:27am PST

When I came back home from school, I found a package in my mailbox! It was from a good friend of mine who went back to Germany this past November:)

[30 words]

Did you know that....

Posted: December 21st, 2009, 12:35am PST

Koalas sleep 19 hours a day!? Wow, I want to be a koala. If I were a Koala I would live in Australia!! And take a nap on the heart reef!!

Do you know what the heart reef is????

It is a small coral reef located in the middle of a coral reef community called “Reef World” in the offing of Hamilton Island. The island is in the Great Barrier Reef in Queensland, Australia. There are 17 islands in the area and Hamilton Island is one of the most popular tourist points of all the islands thanks to Heart Reef. Heart Reef is a very small coral reef and nobody can land on it. It is very famous among tourists but it is only a fraction of Reef World. The only way to access it is by small aircraft. The sea around the reef is incredibly clear and there are a lot of beautiful tropical fish such as clownfish known as “Nemo”.

I wish I could take a nap on it!!!! It must be comfortable:):):)
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Essay 2-03b Language learning wasn't done in a day!

Posted: December 16th, 2009, 9:08pm PST

When human beings appeared in the history of the Earth, they had no language. Along the course of evolution, as civilization progresses, mankind produced languages and improved them to enrich our civilization. At present, using languages is necessary to communicate with others. We can’t live without communicating with people using languages. Therefore, learning languages is very important in our lives. Like others, I’ve learned languages in my entire life.

When I was born I spoke no language. I made no sounds other than crying and laughing. Crying and laughing was the only sounds which I made to covey my feeling. Now, I speak Japanese as my mother tongue and English as a foreign language. I acquired two languages over the twenty plus years since I was born, and I’m still on the way to the goal of learning English. For the next ten years, at least, I'm sure I will be keeping studying English.

Why I’m sure of that is I've heard people say that learning additional languages is life-long endeavor. There is no end for language learning since languages keep changing. Of course I will no longer be a student anymore in 10 years; I’ll probably be using my English skill as an English teacher and have been studying at an English conversation school to improve my English skill for my students and myself. Besides English, I’ll have been learning French, Korean, and Chinese. As for French, I’ve studied it for two years and I want to improve it. It would be a waste not to learn it more deeply, since French, like English, is widely spoken all over the world. As for Korean and Chinese, I’ve never studied them and I know almost nothing about them, but I think learning languages spoken in neighbor countries is as important for us as for Europeans.

Now I want to write about my Japanese language learning experience, as learning my mother tongue, going back to the time when I was born. As I explained, I spoke no language when I was a baby. Crying and laughing was the only sounds I could made to covey my feelings. Though I couldn’t speak any languages, I had already started my Japanese language learning on listening at that time. I actually started listening Japanese language when I was still in my mother’s womb. I don’t think I was motivated to learn languages at that time, but I miraculously memorized a lot of words and expressions, as do other babies, from my parents, older sister, friends, relatives and neighbors. I also memorized a lot of words and phrases from music and TV. My parents especially talked to me a lot and read many books for me. By entering kindergarten, I’d also practiced speaking, making numerous mistakes without feeling the least bit ashamed.

When I was a kindergartener, I learned how to read and write two of the three Japanese syllabaries Hiragana and Katakana. At that time, I started reading books and learning more Japanese by myself. By the time I entered elementary school, I could speak Japanese fluently enough to communicate with others. When I was in elementary school, I learned many Chinese characters, other one of three Japanese syllabaies, every year. By the time I graduated from elementary school, I’d learned over one thousand of them. Including combinations, I knew countless. When I was a fourth grader, I encountered alphabet for the first time in my life. I learned Roman letters and how to write my name using them. After that, however, I had no chance to study English until I entered junior high school. Until the time I finished elementary school, I’d studied only one language. When I entered junior high school, I started learning a new language, English other than Japanese. Learning English was different from learning my mother tongue, Japanese. I started studying English by studying letters, which are alphabet, and grammar whereas I’d started learning Japanese with its sounds. That is, I started learning my second language by reading rather than learning mother tongue by listening. I kept learning English until I graduated from high school. At that time, I rarely studied speaking except when an ALT, an assistant language teacher which was a native speaker of English, visited once in a while.

At last, let me write about my present language learning. It’s my forth year at KGU now and I’ve studied English as my major. I studied French as well as a third language for the last two years. I also studied Japanese to enhance my powers of expression in my first year at college, which was one year ago. My focus on learning English is speaking and writing now, whereas my focus was mainly reading and listening at jr. high and high school. I mean, I study productive skills now while I studied passive skills at the first stage of English learning. I’ve spent a lot of time studying English in class at college. Besides that, I've also used my free time for studying English. As for improving listening skill, I think you can't catch English spoken faster speed than you can speak so I’ve practiced speaking English as fast as I can. The focus was how fast I could speak so I tried not to think of the meaning while I read aloud. I often recorded my reading using an mp3 player and compared my reading to the sound source such as CDs attached to textbooks, movies, songs, and TV dramas. By doing this, I could improve my listening skill. To enhance my speaking skill, I’ve tried to spend my free time with exchange students of KGU. I often visited English lounge and their dorm and go for dinner, drink, and sightseeing. Regarding reading and writing, I studied with textbooks for TOEIC and TOEFL.

Looking back on my language learning history and envisioning my future language-learning plan at the same time, I again realized that language learning requires a lot of time. When you learn a language, it’s important to take a long-term view and look back on what you’ve done. Doing so frequently will accomplish your goal on language learning.
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Sasanoha

Posted: December 14th, 2009, 12:59am PST

The other day, a friend of mine introduced me a ramen restaurant "Sasanoha" in downtown. I had chance to go to downtown last Sat with my another friend so we gave it a try to the restaurant:)

I ordered tantan-men :D

and my friend ordered chashu-men :>

After we left the restaurant, we passed through the NTT besides Kotsu center bus terminal. They'd set up the Christmas decoration!! It was amazing!!!

[71 words]

The 7th day of my trip to America: Thank You Dinner

Posted: December 5th, 2009, 1:04am PST

On the 7th day in America on my trip this summer, my company Y and I cooked curry and rice for our American friends. That's because when I told them that we wanted to visit America this summer in March, they offered us to stay at their house for about 1 week. They are always nice to us so we wanted to cook some Japanese food. I chose curry and rice for thank you dinner( actually it's supper;p) I took curry paste from Japan.

Last time I stayed at their house, I cooked some Chirashi-zusi and Tamago-yaki. But thay didn't like Chirashi-zusi. I was a little warried if they would like curry. Fortunately, they seemed to like it because they ate them all!! They especially liked Japanese rice.(I took pre-cooked rice from Japan.) That's because rice in America is not sticky at all and texture is not that good like Japanese rice. Viva Japanese rice!

After the dinner my friend D made a special cake for us:D

They call it brown cake as I recall(I don't remember exactly;

We played some games after eating the cake and went to bed:)

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The 6th day of my trip to America: American Chinese food

Posted: December 5th, 2009, 12:29am PST

I haven' t written about my trip to America this summer for a long time! I've written to the 6th day in America so far right?

After we came back to my friend's house from Las Vegas, it was in the afternoon, we relaxed for a while. We were too tired to cook supper so my friend got some take-out-food from a Chinese restaurant Panda express. I love this restaurant's food!

We had some orange chicken, fried rice, broccoli beef, mixed veggies and white rice.
I love the orange chicken soooooo much. I miss it!

I was so starving that I forgot to take pictures of them;( So I searched for some photos on the Internet and...... how lucky I am!! I found out that there are 2 branches in Japan!!!! One is in Kanagawa and the other is in Kobe!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I wanna try when I have chance to visit either of them:)
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Essay2-03 Language Learning History

Posted: December 1st, 2009, 1:17pm PST

When the history of human beings started, we had no language. Along the course of evolution, we produced languages and had improved them to enrich our civilization (or as civilization progresses). At the present day, using languages is necessary to communicate with others. We can’t live without communicating with people using languages. Therefore, learning languages is very important in our lives. Like others, I’ve learned languages so far in my life.

When I was born, however, I spoke no language but just had been crying and laughing. Crying and laughing was the only sounds which I made to covey my feeling. Now, I speak Japanese as my mother tongue and English as a foreign language. I acquired two languages within over twenty years since I was born and I’m still on the way to the goal of English learning. In ten years, I'm sure I will be keeping studying English.

Why I’m sure of it is that I've heard some people saying that learning foreign languages is lifetime study. There is no end for language learning since languages keep changing. Of course I won’t be a student anymore in 10 years and I’ll be supposed to be working as an English teacher at the time using my English skill. Thus, I will have been studying at an English conversation school to improve my English skill for my students and myself. Besides English, I’ll have been learning French Korean, Chinese. As for French, I’ve studied it for two years and I want to improve it. It would be a waste not to learn it more deeply since French is widely spoken all over the world as well as English. As for Korean and Chinese, I’ve never learned it and I know almost nothing about it but I think learning neighbor countries’ languages is important like Europeans do.

Now I want to write my Japanese language learning experience as my mother tongue going back to the time when I was born. As I stated, I spoke no language but just had been crying and laughing when I was a baby. Crying and laughing was the only sounds which I made to covey my feeling. I couldn’t speak but I had already started my Japanese language learning on listening skill at that time. I actually started it when I was still in my mother’s womb. I don’t think I had motivation to learn languages at that time but I miraculously memorized a lot of words and expressions, as other babies, from my parents, older sister, friends, relatives and neighbors. I also memorized them through music and TV. My parents especially talked to me a lot and read many books for me. By entering kindergarten, I’d also practiced speaking skill making numerous mistakes without the least shame. At kindergarten, I learned how to read and write Hiragana and Katakana. At that time, I started reading books and learning more Japanese by myself. By the time I entered elementary school, I could speak Japanese fluently enough to communicate with others. When I was in elementary school, I learned many Chinese characters every year. By graduating from elementary school, I’d learned over one thousand of them. When including combinations, they are countless. When I was a fourth grader, I encountered alphabet for the first time in my life. I learned Roman letters and how to write my name with it. After that, however, I had no chance to learn English until I entered Junior high school. Until I finished elementary school, I learned only one language. When I entered junior high school, I started learning new language English besides Japanese. Learning English took different process from learning mother tongue Japanese. I started learning English with letters, which are Alphabet, and grammar whereas I started learning Japanese with its sounds. That is I started learning second language with reading whereas I started learning mother tongue with listening. I kept learning English until I graduated from high school. During the time I rarely learned speaking except ALT’s visit once in a while.

Well then, let me write about my present. It’s my forth year at KGU now and I study English as my major. I studied French as well as my third language for last two years. I also studied Japanese to enhance my powers of expression in my first year at college. My focus on learning English is speaking and writing now whereas the focus was mainly reading and listening at Jr. High and High school. I mean I study productive skills now whereas I studied passive skills at the first stage of English learning.

Looking back on my language learning history and foreseeing my future language learning plan at the same time, I reassured that language learning requires a lot of time. When you learn language, it’s important to take a long-term view and look back on what you’ve done to accomplish your goal on language learning.

[821 words]

Luv it!

Posted: November 28th, 2009, 10:36pm PST

I found this animation by chance on the Internet. I was moved by the story which portrays pure love. If you are the mouse, can you eat your loved one?????

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Getting up early is never easy!

Posted: November 24th, 2009, 9:48am PST

I have a first-period class four days a week but I often oversleep and am late :( It's so hard to get up early enough to be on time. That's because I can't have a good sleep:( When I get up every morning, I feel already tired even though the day has just begun. How come?? Does anybody know how to get a good sleep?? [64 words][10197 words in total][4803 words to go]

BR2-13 The Happy Prince

Posted: November 24th, 2009, 7:46pm PST

The story is about volunteer spirits and a friendship between a prince and a swallow. The Happy Prince is a statue stands on a tall column high above a city. He is very much admired by the citizen of the town because before he died he was a good prince. Furthermore, the statue is decorated with some beautiful jewels and gold.

One day, a swallow flies over the city on the way to Egypt. He decides to have a rest between the feet of the statue. He prepares to go to sleep. But just as he is putting his head under his wing, a large drop of water falls on him. He thinks it started to rain. But there is no single cloud in the sky. Then another drop falls on him. He looks up and see the statue weeping. He gets filled with pity because the statue looks so beautiful in the moonlight. He asks the statue why he is weeping. The statue says ‘After his death, his courtiers have set him up there so high that he can see all the ugliness and all the misery of his city. And though his heart is made of lead yet he cannot choose but weep.’

The prince asks the swallow to bring his ruby to a poor family out of his sword hilt. The swallow is reluctant because he wants to fly to Egypt soon. But he feels sorry for the prince. He accommodates his request. The swallow is supposed to leave the city the next day. But the prince requests him to bring another jewel to a poor person. The swallow fulfills his request again. Everyday, the prince requests the swallow to bring his jewels and gold to poor people. At first, the swallow is reluctant but as he doing so again and again, the swallow becomes enjoying carrying out the prince’s requests.

After the prince gives all his jewels and gold, the swallow decides to stay with the statue as long as he can. Winter comes and the swallow dies. The next morning, the mayor finds the statue no longer beautiful and pulls down and melts it. But the lead heart of the statue doesn’t melt. The mayor throws it away on a dust-heap where the dead swallow is also lying. Then angels appear and bring them to God because they are the most precious things in the city. Then the swallow and the prince live happily in God’s garden of Paradise forever.

My first encounter of this story was about one year ago in a lecture meeting of the principal of the school for the deaf in Kumamoto. I had to attend the meeting to get a teaching certificate. The principal quoted The Happy Prince in his speech. I was so moved by his speech so I chose this book for the book review this time. In his speech, he told us that he wasn’t supposed to be a principal of the school as he wasn’t professional on the field of child welfare. But he was requested to be the principal so he accomplished his job with a volunteer spirit like the swallow in The happy prince. Now he enjoys his job. He has devoted himself to his job. I think to be a teacher at a public school, you must have a swallow spirit. Because teachers can’t choose students and have to be able to educate any students even if they are very bad. It’s not easy to have a volunteer spirit, but I’ll try to be able to think like the principal and the swallow.
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BR2-12 A Christmas Carol

Posted: November 23rd, 2009, 10:03am PST

When I choose a story book for book review, I try to choose one which is written by a famous author. I studied British Literature at university last year, so I chose this book. I expected a happy story from the title, but the story was about a cross and mean old man and the story was filled with dark atmosphere. I think it’s because Dickens was very poor when he was a child. I suppose he wanted readers to learn a lesson about money and kindness through the book.

The story begins with a visit of a long-dead partner to the main character Ebenezer Scrooge on the Christmas Eve night. The partner, Jacob Marley, is cross and mean like Scrooge. Their interests are only their business and money. They don’t have any kindness to other people at all. So after Marley died, he has had to travel endlessly as a spirit through the world with chains which he made for himself in his lifetime because he didn’t help other people in his lifetime. He has no peace and no rest, and he can’t stay anywhere for long. Marley doesn’t want Scrooge to spend the same afterlife. For the reason, he comes to warn Scrooge to change his attitude toward other people. Marley tells Scrooge that three spirits would visit Scrooge on the night. He doesn’t believe it and goes to sleep.

The first spirit visits him and the spirit shows Scrooge’s Christmas past. The spirit shows how nice the people around him are and how he began to show an unhealthy interest in money and lost his dearest because of it.

The second spirit shows other people’s present Christmas. They all, including Scrooge’s clerk, are very poor but nobody complains their poverty. They thank god just being alive.

The third spirit shows his Christmas future. It is an old man’s death. Scrooge doesn’t make sure who dies but he knows it was him. Almost all people aren’t sorry for him because of his crossness and meanness. But his clerk and his family are very sad and cries for him even though Scrooge was mean to the clerk.

I think when you want to change yourself, it’s good to look back on your past, see what’s happening around you now and predict your future if you stay the same. I suppose money equals greedness. If you have too much greedness your life will be destroyed by yourself.
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BR2-11 Sense and sensibility

Posted: November 23rd, 2009, 11:38pm PST

This story was written by Jane Austen who is one of the great female authors in 19C. I like her novel “Pride and Prejudice” very much and I’ve wanted to read her other novels for a long time. So I chose this book for my first book review. In her novel she portrayed the society which she actually lived.

This is a story about two sisters whose names are Elinor and Marianne. They lived in a middle-class society in England. The story begins with their father’s death. At that time, the money and the properties which inherit from father was very important. But they couldn’t inherit any money or properties from their father. Because their mother was the second wife of him and their father’s will was to give all the money and properties to their step-brother. So they had to find a suitable husband to keep living in a same condition as they’ve lived.

Elinor and Marianne were getting along very well with each other. However their characters and their tastes to men were completely different. Elinor was calm and sensible person and she liked a man who was just as same as her. It took her a little while to fall in love with a man, Edward, who is her sister-in-law’s brother. She didn’t show her feeling so much to the others. On the other hand, Marianne was passionate and demonstrative. She liked a man who was handsome and young. She fell in love with a man, Willoughby, at the first sight. It was easy for others to know her feeling. Before she meets him, she met a man, Colonel, who was in his 30s. Colonel became liking her but she didn’t. It was because he was not attractive to her. He was too calm and old to her.

They believed that they could get married to the men but it’s reported that both of them would get married to other women. It was interesting to see that they act different when they were deserted. Elinor hid her sadness. Marianne became so emotional.
At the end, Elinor get married to Edward as she desired and Marianne get married to Colonel. She found out that Colonel is superior to Willoughby as a human being even though he is older and not handsome. The story ends with happiness.

I enjoyed the story very much. It was similar to “pride and prejudice”. Both stories are featured two sisters. The author, Jane Austen, based her novels on the real society around her. And she had an older sister like the heroines. I think Elinor and Marianne were her sister and herself.
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BR2-10 Oliver Twist Penguin Readers

Posted: November 21st, 2009, 11:02am PST

The story is about a boy named Oliver Twist. He was born at a workhouse. After giving birth Oliver, his mother died. She was a stranger there. Nobody knew where she was from so Oliver had nowhere to go and worked at the workhouse like a slave. He was sent a coffin shop for work because he asked more meal. He ran away to London because of a mean owner’s wife and a senior servant.

On the way to London, he met thieves and they brought over Oliver. They let Oliver commit a theft but he was arrested. He was released because he was just watching what the other thieves do. He was given protection from a man who was stolen his handkerchief from the thieves. The man, Mr. Brownlow, was a gentleman so Oliver got a better life.

But it didn’t last long. The thieves got Oliver back. They tried to make him burgle a house. But when he entered the house he was shot. The other thieves tried to carry him but they abandoned Oliver on the field. He walked to the nearest house for help with all his rest power. The house was the one which Oliver tried to burgle. The ladies, Mrs. Maylie and Mrs. Rose, at the house knew that but they took care of Oliver well. He got a better life again.

But a strange man appeared in front of him and tried to get Oliver back to the thieves. Actually, the stranger named Monks was Oliver’s half brother and he came to kill Oliver because he didn’t want to give the half of their father’s inheritance.

With Mr. Brownlow and Two Ladies help, Oliver got the inheritance and lived happily with Mr. Brownlow as his son ever after.

The best part was that Mr. Brownlow and the two ladies help Oliver for nothing. And I realized that kids can be bad if adults raise them in a bad way and it’s not kids fault to be bad. Kids believe that it’s right whatever adults do. Or they are too weak to oppose adults. Kids have rights to live happily. I’m worried if there are children like ones in the story in poor countries in the real world. If there are, we have to think of the way to save children.
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Experience is more important than anything else!

Posted: November 21st, 2009, 10:11pm PST

When I was in college, I stayed with a family in America for three weeks. This summer I visited them again and I remember some episodes of my first stay. I had amazing time with my family there.

For the first few days, I was very nervous and my host mother told me to call her and her husband “mom and dad”, even though they were too young for me to call them so, so that I could relax as if I was at my home. She also hugged me a lot. It was rather uncomfortable for me to hug at first but now I have gotten used to it and I like hugging very much.

On the first Sunday, they took me to a church and we went to an electric appliances store to look for a fridge. We checked some huge fridges there. I felt as if I was a part of the family.

On the way back home, we stopped by “Target” a kind of discount store and bought some food, green tea and ice cream for supper. The green tea sold in America contained sugar and I was so surprised when I drank it for the first time.

After dinner, we had the ice cream. To my surprise, it contained cookie dough in it. I’ve never had cookie dough in ice cream in Japan and I don’t think we eat cookie dough in Japan. That’s because it is said that if you eat cookie dough you get a stomach ache in Japan. The ice cream was actually delicious and I didn’t get a stomach ache at all. I felt culture difference many times in America and it was really interesting.

Almost every night, I spent my time with my three host sisters. The third one often read me picture books. She was only 4 years old at that time and she couldn’t read letters yet. Therefore, she always made up her original stories looking at pictures and at the end of every page, she finished the story with the sentence “I don’t know why.” It was so pretty and I liked her original stories very much.

I spent my days like this doing ordinary things in America. It might be boring for others but it was really wonderful experience for me because I could be a part of the family. I treasure my experience with them in America.
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Bagels

Posted: November 21st, 2009, 9:22pm PST

I’m not good at cooking that much but I like baking bagels. Do you like bagels? Then, try this recipe. It’s amazingly easy!

First of all, get 250g of flour, 3g of dry yeast, 5g of salt, 10g of olive oil and 160cc of 50 degrees c water.

Second, mix the ingredients except the honey and pat them well until the surface becomes smooth.

Third, put the dough into a container, cover with wrap and wait until it becomes 2 or 3 times bigger.

Then divide the dough into 4 pieces and form them into circle and make a hole in the middle with your finger.

After that, set them aside for 20 min. During those 20 min, boil a pot of water and add 1 tablespoon of honey into the pot. At the same time, preheat the oven to 190 degrees c.

After the 20 min, boil the ring shaped dough for one minute and turn them over and boil them one more minute.

Finally, bake them in the oven for 15 minutes.

Isn’t it easy?

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BR2-09 Insect Study Butterflies

Posted: November 20th, 2009, 11:47pm PST

Do you know Lafcadio Hearn? He is known to Japanese people as Koizumi Yakumo as well. According to Wikipedia, Hearn was the first Westerner who offered the West first glimpses into Japanese aesthetics through his depth, originality, sincerity and charm of his writings. His first encounter with Japan and its culture was in 1890 when he was 40 years old. He must have felt Japanese aesthetics using all of his sense without Japanese language at first since it seems that he had never studied Japanese before he came to Japan for the first time. You can know how he felt about Japanese culture through his works.

Looking at his work Insect Studies Butterflies, which was published in 1904, you can know his idea of what butterflies symbolize in Japanese culture. He had been in Japan for 14 years at that time. He wrote that butterflies represent female beauty. I totally agree with the idea that butterflies symbolize female beauty in Japanese culture. That’s because I’ve seen lots of butterfly-design accessories and clothes for women in shops.

Furthermore, He says that the souls of both living and dead people may wander about in the form of butterflies. I didn’t know the idea that butterflies represent the souls of people. I’ve known that fireballs symbolize souls of dead people in a lot of Japanese horror stories though. Although, both butterflies and fireballs represent souls of people, butterflies represent romantic element and fireballs represent scary element.

Reading Hearn’s biography and one of his works, I got to know that he was fascinated by spirituality of Japanese people which was different from Westerners’ one.
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Ramen = one orchid!

Posted: November 17th, 2009, 10:15am PST

I went to a ramen restaurant, called ichiran which means one orchid in English, with my friends. At the restaurant, you can customise your ramen such as thickness of the soup, hardness of the noodle, and ingredients such as pork, leek and garlic.

In The picture above is my ramen. It was delicious :D

[53 words]

Kurokawa onsen

Posted: November 14th, 2009, 11:56pm PST

Kurokawa onsen is a national famous hotspring village in Aso, Kumamoto. You can make a one day trip from Kumamoto city. The village consists of 28 Japanese style inns.There is a special ticket called "Onsen Tegata" made of wood at 1200yen. You can visit three inns in kurokawa onsen village and enjoy their various bathes with the ticket. If you don't like public bath, you can take a private bath called " Kashikiriburo" at some inns at extra cost.

This is one of my favorites. Outside bath(mixed) by a river at a Japanese style inn called Okunoyu.

After onsen, enjoy boiled eggs boiled with hotspring water:) It's only 100yen!!!

I also like a cave bath(mixed) at Shinmeikan.

Don't miss Tofu icecream at a restaurant in front of Kurokawa Infomation center;)

Here is the official website of Kurokawa onsen→Japanese Korean
(They don't have English version:( Sorry)

You can get there by Kyushu Sankoh Bus.

Time table of the bus to Kurokawa onsen

1st bus(Kujyu 1 goh) 8:40(Koutsu center)→10:57(Kurokawa onsen) 2000yen
2nd bus(Kujyu 3 goh) 9:50(Koutsu center)→12:07(Kurokawa onsen) 2000yen
3rd bus(Aso 1 goh) 10:10(Koutsu center)→14:51(Kurukawa onsen) 4550yen
4th bus(Kujyu 5 goh) 14:30(Koutsu center)→16:47(Kurokawa onsen) 2000yen

The 3rd bus incudes a sightseeing tour with lunch at the crater of Mt. Aso.

Time table of the bus to come back to Kumamoto city
1st bus(Kujyu 2 goh) 10:38(Kurokawa onsen)→12:55(Koutsu center) 2000yen
2nd bus(Aso 2 goh) 11:18(Kurokawa onsen)→15:56(Koutsu center) 4550yen
3rd bus(Kujyu 4 goh) 16:48(Kurokawa onsen)→19:05(Koutsu center) 2000yen
4th bus(Kujyu 6 goh) 17:58(Kurokawa onsen)→20:15(Koutsu center) 2000yen

The 2nd bus includes a sightseeing tour with lunch at the crater of Mt. Aso.

Rservation in advance is required.
Kyushu Sankoh Bus 096-354-4845(8:00~19:00)

Do you wanna know more about Kumamoto?

Visit the websites below

Manyou Kmamoto
Kumamoto International Convention and Tourism Bureau

[313 words]

BR2-08 Love Actually

Posted: November 13th, 2009, 3:02pm PST

When you are asked "what is the biggest event in winter?", what pops up in your mind?
Of course Christmas, right?

The book I chose for my 8th book review this semester is a book version of one of my favorite movies Love actually. This is a christmas story. When it comes to movies, you might think of Hollywood movies but this movie is British movie. Therefore you can get to know British Christmas from this story.

There appear 19 main characters and nine loves(young love, love at politics, love at work, love rocks on, American style love, unspoken love, lifetime love, awkward love, and love as a second language)are illustrated in this story.

My favorite is unspoken love. This love is about a couple Juliet and Peter and their friend Mark's story. They are in a king of triangle relationship but only Mark knows it. He doesn't want to notice Juliet and Peter about it because they have just got married. He tries to finish his love to Juliet but she notices his feeling toward her. It's a sad story but I empathize with him. I was afraid of loving somebody because I didn't want to be broken my heart. However, after reading this story, I realized that Love actually is all around and don't have to be afraid of a broken heart. Loving somebody is far better than not loving somebody to prevent yourself from a broken heart. So just keep loving somebody all the time untill you find your real love.

[254 words]

A brief explanation of Martin Luther King Junior

Posted: November 11th, 2009, 2:57am PST

46years ago, a black man in the picture made a speech in front of hundreds of thousands of people. It was August 28, 1963. There was held a big demonstration “March on Washington” in front of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington DC, the capital of America, on the day.

The black man, Martin Luther King Junior, repeated “I have a dream.” many times in his over-15min-long speech. Therefore people recognize his speech as “I have a dream.” His dream was to end segregation and discrimination. Long time ago, black people were brought to the U.S. from Africa as slaves but they were not slaves anymore as of 1963. However, segregation and discrimination against black people were accepted at that time.

For example, black people, who were also called colored, are not allowed to drink water from water tanks for white people. Not only water tanks but also schools, restrooms, pools and even transportation such as buses were separated by race.

Martin Luther King Junior also known as “Reverend King” stood up to protest in 1955 when a black woman was arrested as she didn’t give up her seat to a white man on the bus since he had experienced similar discrimination when he was a high school student. Since then, Rev. King devoted his life to seek freedom and equality for black people under Gandhi’s nonviolent philosophy.

In1964, Rev. King got Nobel Peace Prize to honor his enormous contribution. Four years later, he was assassinated. He was 39 at that point in time. However, his will is still alive in many people’s hearts and the current American president Obama is one of them.
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Essay 2-02b: Up with Fashion!!! Website Review Revision

Posted: November 10th, 2009, 9:52am PST

Clothing is a good way to express what kind of person you are. You might wear formal clothes like suits and dresses in a formal situation such as workplaces and ceremonies like weddings. You might deck out when they go to school, on a date and some special occasions. Also, you might deck out when they start a sport newly. Whatever the case, outfits are your　spokespersons. However there is always a trend in fashion and it changes seasonally and yearly. You always have to keep an eye on the trend if you are fashion-conscious.

In this essay, I want to introduce one of my favorite websites about fashion. I like a fashion magazine Glamour. I want to buy it monthly but it’s quite expensive to do that in Japan, so I searched for its website on the Internet and read it for free. The content are not exactly the same but you can get fresh information from the website. The website actually has more information than the magazine does and it’s more convenient for access to previous content.

There are two kinds of Glamour websites in English. One is BritishGlamour and the other is American Glamour. The British website consists mainly of eight areas which are beauty, celebrity, hair, fashion, love, health and lifestyle, our playlists, and dos and don’ts. American website also consists of eight areas which are fashion, beauty, love and life, health and fitness, shopping, horoscopes, video and “in the magazine”. They are slightly different from each other. You can not only get knowledge about fashion but also about various things such as What food is good to eat for maintaining your health, how to keep good relationships with your partner and friends, and how to handle your household budgets. I like most of them but I like “dos and don’ts” the best of all.

On the American “dos and don’ts” pages, you can check some ordinary women’s fashion. Some are fabulous and some are terrible. You can even vote on whether each fashion you think is do or don’t. Other viewers’ votes also appear on the page so you have chance to compare your fashion sense against the other viewers'. They are good pages to browse to find out what people on streets wear and you can know real fashion trends in the U.S.

On British “dos and don’ts” pages, the focus is on celebrities in the U.K. and U.S. You might be surprised to hear that British people are interested in American celebrities but it's true. When you click either “do icon” or “don’t icon” above the each picture, the percentage of how many people agree with you appears.

As for me, I think I have a standard fashion sense since a lot of people agree with my votes most of the time. Though I think you don't have to have the same fashion sense with others because fashion represents who you are.

I like both Glamour websites. I’m sure you’ll get some new ideas about fashion, beauty, health, and lifestyle. Seeing is believing, so I would like you to check the websites.

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Let's go to Thailand and Laos at once!!

Posted: November 10th, 2009, 11:38pm PST

Do you like eating food a lot?
Do you like Green curry??
Do you like Thai food???
Do you like Laos food????
Do you like All you can eat restaurant?????

Then gotta go to Sincum(not sure the spelling)!!!!

Sincum is a Thai and Laos food restaurant.
It's quite close to KGU. About 5 min by bicycle:)
At Lunch time, you can have all you can eat lunch:P
You can eat as much as you want from 10 kinds of dishes and 2 kinds of desserts!!!
They even serve you free coffee to finish up with your lunch:)

Here is the link and map!!!!!

より大きな地図でシンカム Thai and Laos food restaurant (All you can eat lunch from 11:30 to 14:30) closed Monday を表示

Direction
1. Go out of KGU and turn left. go straight and take the 5th right.

2. Go straight(You'll pass beside the city library)until you hit an intersection and turn left.

3.Take the 3rd right. (You'll see a hospital "Tenjin Naika" on the opposite side of the road.)

4. Go straight about 50m and you'll see the restaurant on your right!

5. Enjoy the all you can eat lunch!!

It's only 1100yen!
Open from 11:30~14:30 and closed on Monday.

Easy to get there so u can't miss it:)

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Do you have a dream?

Posted: November 4th, 2009, 2:17am PST

Do you have a dream? What kind of dream do you have?

46 years ago, a man who had a big dream made a speech in front of hundreds of thousands of people. I had chance to watch his speech in one of my classes at school. His voice is so confortable and his speech skill is wonderful. His speach reminded me that how word of mouth are powerful.

So let power of words ring from our blogs!
Let power of words ring from classrooms!!
Let power of words ring from KGU!!!
Let power of words ring from Kumamoto!!!!
Let power of words ring from Kyushu!!!!!
Let power of words ring from Japan!!!!!!

Blogging is one of the greatest communication tools!!!!!!!
Tell your dream to the world from your blog!!!!!!!!
So what's your dream?

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Essay 2-02a Website Review Draft

Posted: October 28th, 2009, 10:15am PDT

Clothing is one of the good ways to express what kind of person you are. You might wear formal clothes like suits and dresses in a formal situation such as workplaces and ceremonies like weddings. Some might deck out when they go to school, on a date and some special occasions. Also, people might deck out when they start a sport newly. Whatever the case, outfits are your　spokespersons. However there is always a trend in fashion and it changes seasonally and yearly. You always have to keep an eye on the trend if you are fashion-conscious.

In this essay, I want to introduce one of my favorite websites about fashion. I like a fashion magazine “Glamour” and I want to buy it monthly. However it’s quite expensive to do that in Japan so I searched the website on the Internet and read it for free. The contents are not exactly same but you can get fresh information from the website. The website actually has more information than the magazine and it’s more convenient to access previous contents.

There are two kinds of Glamour websites in English. One is British Glamour and the other is American Glamour. British website mainly consists of eight areas which are beauty, celebrity, hair, fashion, love, health and lifestyle, our playlists, and dos and don’ts. American website also consists of eight areas which are fashion, beauty, love and life, health and fitness, shopping, horoscopes, video and “in the magazine”. They are slightly deferent from each other. You can not only get knowledge about fashion but also about various things. I like most of them but I like “dos and don’ts” the best of all.

On American “dos and don’ts” pages, you can check some ordinary women’s fashion. Some are fabulous and some are terrible. You can even vote on each fashion whether you think it do or don’t. Other viewers’ votes also appear so you have chance to check your fashion sense. They are good pages to know what people on streets wear and you can know real fashion trends in the U.S.

On British “dos and don’ts” pages, the focus is on celebrities in the U.K. and U.S. When you click either “do icon” or “don’t icon” above the each picture, the percentage of how many people agree with you appears.

I like both Glamours. I’m sure you’ll get some new ideas about fashion, health, lifestyle, and so forth. Seeing is believing so I would like you to check the websites.

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A list of blogs which I might review

Posted: October 27th, 2009, 10:31am PDT

Poupee Girl
This is a social networking website which was created by a Japanese woman. Poupee Girl is attracting a lot of fashion-consious girls/women in Japan as well as the girls/women out side of Japan.
Glamour This is a website of one of my favorite Magazines in English. In Japan this magazine is expensive so I read it on the Internet for free XD

Essay 2-01 Favorite Places revision

Posted: October 20th, 2009, 10:48am PDT

For me, favorite places means where I can relax and be the real me. In life, there are many situations in which you feel stress and may have to consider carefully acting right as a social person. However, once you come to your favorite place, you can be just as you are. There are many places I like and I want to introduce some of them in this essay.   

I like watching movies because I can learn something from every movie. However, I don't like crowded movie theater so Movie Theater at night is one of my favorite places. I especially like Cineplex in Oe and TOHO cinemas in Hamasen, because they have caramel popcorn and comfortable seats covered with velvet. I like the combination of watching movies and eating caramel popcorn best. I often go to see movies with my sister. We are regular Harry Potter watchers. So I'll go watch the last two movies with my sister for sure.   

When I go to TOHO cinemas in Youme town Hamasen, I go to Tully's coffee without fail. I always order espresso swircle, and relax on a comfortable sofa there with nice music.   

One of the other favorite places is on the local bus. I used to go to school by bus before, and I liked taking a bus at the end of the day after studying at school for hours. I especially liked sitting on the back seat listening to music with my mp3 player. The seat was not that comfortable, but the swing, which the bus made, was really comfortable as like as a cradle.  

 I don't spend my time outdoors much but I like going to Lake Ezu. There is a cafe called "Boat House" which serves delicious hamburgers. Watching the sunset during eating a hamburger with my friends, especially in summer, is a lovely moment.   

When I am with my friends, I like to go somewhere where we can get excited. I particularly like going out to karaoke. Therefore karaoke boxes are my favorite places as well. I like to sing Ayaka's songs. I also like to take part in home parties. That's because I cannot only chat with my friends but also I can meet new people. So I also like my friends’ houses.

I'll stop here since I have many more places I like and the list of my favorite places would go on forever. In any cases, to me, favorite places mean anywhere I can relax and be just as I am.

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BR2-07 PEACEKEEPERS

Posted: October 20th, 2009, 1:08am PDT

I'm sure that all the people around the world wish for peace. However, human beings have kept fighting in numerous wars for more than 4000 years. It can be said that history of human beings consists of the countless wars. Still now, A lot of people are suffering from wars all over the world. It seems that it's almost impossible to stop all the wars. This is really a sad fact but we don't just wait with folded arms to finish the wars. There are peacekeepers, who belong to United Nations Peacekeeping Operations, to try to keep the world peace. They mainly have two tasks.

One of them is observer mission and the other is peacekeeping. On observer missions, they operate hubs for observing cease-fires, become go-between, patrol in the cease-fire areas, and research. On peacekeeping missions, they conduct intelligence activities, implement anti-guerrilla strategies, buck up foreign diplomacy, carry out humanitarian aids, restore infrastructure, and other things.

As for Japan, Japan Self-Defense Forces have joined quite a few missions as a part of the multinational Allied Forces and it has been a controversial issue in Japan. That's because some people think the activity conflicts with the Constitution of Japan " article 9".

Here is the article from wikipedia.
"ARTICLE 9. Aspiring sincerely to an international peace based on justice and order, the Japanese people forever renounce war as a sovereign right of the nation and the threat or use of force as means of settling international disputes. (2) To accomplish the aim of the preceding paragraph, land, sea, and air forces, as well as other war potential, will never be maintained. The right of belligerency of the state will not be recognized."

Why the article is controversial is that the article can be interpreted its meaning not only one way but in some ways depending on each person. There are mainly 4 interpretations. First one is renouncing all the acts of war and military potential including the right to defend ourselves. Second one is renouncing all the acts of war and military potential except the right to defend ourselves. third one is accepting all the acts of war and military potential as long as it's to defend ourselves. Last one is Accepting the right to individual self-defense but renouncing the right to collective self-defense.

In my opinion, "war" will never become a thing of the past as long as we keep arms. However, at the same time, I feel we can't protect ourselves without arms. I can't come up with the other ways to protect ourselves when a country try to attack Japan with arms. However, in any case, we should stop depending on arms to keep peace.
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The 5th and 6th day in America: Vegas!!!!!!!!!!!

Posted: October 19th, 2009, 12:56am PDT

The 5th day in CA, it was my host mom's birthday. We were planning on cerebrating her birthday in Las Vegas, which was about 5 hours away from her house, and made a reservation at a luxurious hotel in advance.

There was nothing but mountains, desserts, roads and railroads on the way to Vegas.

My host dad drove all the way for about 5 hours! Thanks!!

As it got closer, we found our hotel ahead!

Looks nice!

And a fancy castle!! My host sister, who is eight years old, kept saying " I want to stay at the castle!" with sparkling eyes until we got to our hotel.

Oh! We arrived at New York??????

No!! It's a hotel called "New York New York".

Next we got to Monaco!!!!

Then Egypt XD!

Finally, we arrived at our gorgeous hotel "The Mandalay Bay":)

We stayed a room on the 61st floor!! I'd never been up such high so I was soooo excited!!!!
We went up in an elevator to the 61st floor and it took only about 10 seconds or so.

And when we opened the door of our room ............

I'll update the photos of our room later!!

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Autumn has come!!

Posted: October 14th, 2009, 4:04pm PDT

How do you usually feel the new season's arrival? On TV?? At the supermarket??? At the park????

As for me this autumn, It's my college KGU !!!

When I went out of the back entrance of KGU yesterday, I felt that Autumn has come:)

Can you guess why????

That's because of this↓

Fantastic scent of orange osmanthus!!

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BR2-06 One Woman's Choice

Posted: October 13th, 2009, 10:12pm PDT

In every person's life, there is time when you have to make a life-changing decision. Life, I think, is repetition of making decisions. Every decision affects your life. As for me, I'm indecisive even on small things. I've wanted to know how people make decisions. Therefore, I chose the book called One Woman's Choice for the 6th book review in this semester.

This book is about the life of a Tanzanian woman, Flora Salonik. She lives in a small village of Kijungu on the Maasai Steppe. She’s married to a man of the Dorobo people, who live without electricity or almost any modern conveniences, and two children. She seems to live happily with her family but sometimes she dreams of one thing. She has wanted to return to her hometown which is one of the busiest cities in Tanzania. She had a university education there and is able to speak four languages. Many years has passed since she left her hometown Arusha. She never had a chance to visit there since it takes four days on foot to Arusha and she has her new life in Kijungu. There is no transportation between the two towns. One day, she decides to go visit her mother in her hometown for the first time after she moved to Kijungu. She is still not sure whether or not she moves back to Arusha. When she arrives there, she visits all the places she used to know and considers where she spends rest of her life. Whichever she chooses, she will lose either one. She thinks really hard and finally she makes her decision. She decides to spend rest of her life in Kijungu with her husband and children. She realizes that her home is not Arusha anymore but Kijungu.

In Japan, it’s not that difficult to visit your old home since we have good transportation. Therefore, it might be difficult to understand Flora’s situation. If I were in her shoes, I would choose civilized place Arusha. I can’t imagine the life without electricity or modern conveniences. However, I, kind of, understand her feeling. Her story reminds me of a saying “There is no place like home.” Where you feel secure is your home and it can be changed because everywhere changes as time goes by. Her old home is certainly no exception. Nobody knows what decision is right so making decisions not to regret later and believing yourself are important.

Reference

Waring, R. (2009).One Woman's Choice. Boston: Heinle Cengage Learning.

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3c Rough draft

Posted: October 12th, 2009, 11:02am PDT

For me, favorite places means where I can relax and be real me. In life, there are many situations in which you feel stress and have to consider well to act right. However. once you come to your favorite place, you can be just as you are. There are many places I like and I want to introduce some of them in this essay.

I like watching movies because I can learn something from every movie. However, I don't like crowded movie theater so movie theater at night is my favorite place. I especially like cineplex in Oe and TOHO cinemas in Hamasen because they have comfortable seats covered with velvet and caramel pop corn. The combination of watching movies and eating caramel pop corn is the best for me. I often go to see movies with my sister. We are regular Harry potter watchers. I'll go watch the last 2 movies with my sister for sure.

When I go to TOHO cinemas in Youme town Hamasen, I go to Tally's coffee without fail. I always order espresso swircle and relax on a comfortable sofa there with nice music.

Other favorite place is on the local bus. I used to go to school by bus before and I liked taking a bus at the end of the day after studying at school for hours. I especially liked sitting on the back seat listening to music. The seat was not that comfortable but the swing which the bus made was really comfortable like a cradle.

I don't spend my time outdoors much but I like going to Lake Ezu. There is a cafe called "Boat House" which serves delicious hamburgers. Watching sunset eating a hamburger with my friends is a lovely moment.

When I am with my friends, I like to go somewhere where we can get excited. I particularly like going to Karaoke. I like to sing Ayaka's songs. I also like to take part in home parties. That's because I can meet new people not only I can chat with my friends.

I'll stop here since I have many more places I like and it continues forever. In any cases, to me, favorite places mean somewhere I can relax and be just as I am.

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4th day in America:One of my favorite places in America XD

Posted: October 10th, 2009, 2:09am PDT

On the 4th day in CA, my friend took me to one of my favorite places!!

I was sooOOOOOooooo excited on the way! XD

Ta-dah!!!!!!!

It's TARGET!!!!!!!!

I love to shop here!!!

There sold variety of products such as clothes, meds, stationery, cosmetics, toys, food, CDs, DVDs, and appliance. So just looking around is enjoyable enough XD It takes more than 2 hours to check all the sections!

We found huge wall clocks!!! You can guess how big they are comparing to my friend's hand on the right in the photo!!!

On the way back home, we saw beautiful sunset in the car:) Before I went to America, I was busy studying and I had no time to feel the nature in Japan. But I could reassure how nature is beautiful on this trip. I think we need to have time to feel nature in daily life even if you are busy so that we can live our life more happily:)

After we get back home, my friend baked corn bread and made stew for supper! I had corn bread for the first time. It was sweet and yummy;)
The right one in the photo is spray-on-type margarine called "I can't believe it's not butter"!! I like the name:)

This stew remind me of my last stay here. During the stay this time, my friend always tried to recreate what we did during my last stay FOR ME. Thanks!!

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3b Favorite Place(s): Outline

Posted: October 6th, 2009, 10:58am PDT

1. Movie theater   sofa, pop corn, my sister, comfortable, velvet
2. On the local bus  swing, music, sofa, comfortable, velvet

3. Tally's coffee  coffee, music, comfortable, my sister
4. Lake Ezu (cafe boat house)  lake, water, sunset, food, friends
5. Karaoke noisy, friends, alcohol, music, my sister,
6. Home party friends, music, alcohol, wine, food, sofa,

3a Favorite Place(s): Brainstorm

Posted: October 6th, 2009, 10:43am PDT

comfortablesofamusic alcoholwinemoviepop cornwarmfriendscoffeelakewatersunsetfoodnoisypinkswingbusbooksmy sistervelvet
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The 3rd and 4th day of my trip to America

Posted: October 3rd, 2009, 11:44pm PDT

On the third day in the morning, I had American breakfast. You can't miss cereals of course and leftover from the last night; I had salad for my first meal in America as I did last time. One serve was huge and I could never eat all the one serve of salad at restaurants during the stay there!!!! The right one in the first photo is my host sis' breakfast. I forgot the name but it's a kind of porridge and the taste was good!

In the morning I spent my time by pool side with my host family except dad since he had had left for work early in the morning. He leaves home very early in the morning everyday and gets to downtown, LA. It takes about 2 hours to commute to work each way. It must be so hard!!

I also played with host family's dogs, Zonny and Loco

In the afternoon, We went to a frozen yogurt shop called "nubi yogurt" You can choose frozen yogurt from over 15 flavors and add some seasonal fruits and 21 toppings.
The shops are only in California so if you have chance to go to CA, please try it! I chose cheese cake frozen yogurt with captain crunch and cookie dough:)

Before you choose frozen yogurt, you can taste all the flavors!! What a nice system!!

One more thing which remained me of my last stay was the green tea called "Arizona". My host mom prepared this for me as she did last time. I was so happy to see it again. Because I don't have chance to have it in Japan even though it's green tea and I can have green tea as much as I want in Japan. That's because it contains honey and ginseng. Ginseng means Korean carrots!! Did they mix up Korea and Japan?????

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BR2-05 GARBAGE

Posted: October 3rd, 2009, 10:59pm PDT

According to this book, garbage for landfill comes from people's home the most, followed by Businesses and Building sites, in Australia. Australian people have been making an effort to reduce the amount of garbage by recycling, using their own bags instead of plastic bags. In my town Kumamoto, using our own bag campaign has started at grocery stores. If you want a plastic bag you have to buy it at the cashier. Furthermore, from October, citizens can only use predetermined garbage bags when we throw away garbage. Quite a few people doubt if we can reduce garbage by doing this attempt but I have a positive thought about it. I don't think that it reflects to the amount of garbage so soon but I'm sure that it's going to be a good chance to make citizens be aware of the garbage problem. I think the first step to reduce garbage is trying not to buy unnecessary things. So before you buy something, think whether you really need it. [168 words][2677 words in total][12323 words to go]

Suggestions for blogging from my classmates

Posted: September 29th, 2009, 10:48am PDT

I'm taking the first session of Writing IV this semester now. I don't like taking a class on first period;(

Anyway, now we are working on finding good suggestions for this class from classmates' posts of Portfolio for Writing III. I found five good suggestions! Here are the suggestions below.
First one is from Uno's blog named UNO! She suggested that we include media more on our blogs because including media is a good way to make blogs more interesting!(Uno, July 20th 2009 )
Second one is from Yukari's blog named Yukari's new blog. She wrote that she should make her blog more organized for visitors to find the contents easily. (Yukari, July 8th 2009)
Third one is from YURIBOOOH's blog named YURIBOOOOOH HOUSE. She suggested that we make more comments on each other's blogs. (YURIBOOOH, July 17th 2009)
Next one is panda's suggestion. In her post, she suggested that we should be more careful
about spelling error.(panda, July 15th 2009)
The last suggestion is from Yuusuke. He suggested that we enjoy blogging. I totally agree with his opinion!(Yuusuke, July 20th 2009)
I'll keep in mind these suggestions when I make a post this semester!! Thank you Uno, Yukari, YURIBOOOH, panda and Yuusuke!!!!![202 words][2509 words in total][ 12491words to go]

BR2-04 Taxation

Posted: September 26th, 2009, 1:57am PDT

This book tells you a brief overview of taxation. As for taxation, it is always one of the cotroversal isuues of Japan's government. The money collected by government as taxes shoud be originally used for citizens' benefit such as education, defence, emergency services and transportation. However, Quite a few amount of the money has used for wasteful things such as welfeare provisions of postal life insurance, joint public-private venture, construction on dams, road maintenance and improvement and someting like that. Bureaucrats made a lot of facilities without thinking of long term vision. I yearn for drastic change on using taxpayers' money.

In Japan's new ruling party's manifesto, Democratic party promises citizens that they will show the uses of all the money including taxpayers' money. Furthermore, They promise that they use the money mainly on high school education, parenting, pention and medical care. I hope they fulfill all the manifesto but I don't think all the manifesto comes off. I want them to prioritize what they have to do and fulfill the manifesto as much as possible.
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Don't limit yourself!!!

Posted: September 24th, 2009, 1:32am PDT

Don't limit yourself!!!

I love this phrase very much and I always keep in mind it. It was given to me from one of my teachers of English several years ago. At that time, I had no confidence about myself and was thinking that I had no talent at anything and I can not do anything. BUT it was not right. If you believe in yourself and keep trying, you can achieve what you have been thinking that you can not achieve. So do not limit yourself and just keep trying!!
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I found a cute video on youtube!!

Posted: September 23rd, 2009, 7:33pm PDT

The cutest massager ever!! check the video!!!

The SECOND 2nd day of my trip to America

Posted: September 14th, 2009, 2:04am PDT

This post is the continuation of a fore going post entitled "The second day of my trip to America"

Our plane left Taiwan at 16:40 on August 3rd and we spent about 12 hours on the plane. About One hour later the take-off, our first in-flight meal was served. There were two selections which were "something( I don't remember well but as I remember it was beef) with rice" or "chicken with mashed potatoes" and I selected chicken with mashed potatoes since I knew that they didn't use sticky rice for in-flight meal and the rice served was dry and tasted terrible. (If you take a cheap flight of foreign-affiliated companies, I recommend you not to choose rice!!!!)

During the flight, I made really good friends with individual monitor in front of me because I had nothing else to do!!!! She entertained me with all her might and main;)

After 12 hour flight, we finally arrived at Los Angeles International airport!! We left Taiwan at 16:40 on the 3rd and arrived America at 14:05 on the 3rd!!!!! I felt soooo wired but tried to ignore that feeling not to get a jet lag.

At the baggage claim, first problem occurred........ I finished immigration examination earlier than my friend so I walked to the baggage claim, which was in front of the immigration section(only about 5 meters away), and got our baggages and waited for her. I saw her being examined at one of the boothes so I went in front of the booth and.......lol she disappeared!!!!! How can she miss me in such a small area! I waited for her a while. I felt it a long time. I asked one of the workers there if somebody was taken to a room for further investigation but he wasn't sure. What I could was just waiting so I waited at the baggage claim. While I was waiting, One of the workers talked to me. He was nice and tried to make me relax. I enjoyed chatting with him. In time, She showed up and I was so relieved:) She said that she got a wrong disembarkation card on the airplane(It was not her fault) and had to fill out a correct form going back to the last of the waiting line.

We were supposed to meet up with my friends, which was my host family when I came to America last time four years ago, at the airport but I realized that we didn't plan where in the airport to meet arrrrrrrgh lol How come could I forget it lol

Luckily my host mom gave me her cell phone number so I headed to a pay phone, picked up the phone, dropped a quarter into the slot and......arrrrrrrrgh out of range????? What can I do???
I tried to search for them at the nearest exit once again and.........There they were!!!!!! My host mom and I gave a big hug each other! I almost cried because I still couldn't believe that I could see them again in person!!!

I introduced my company to them and left LAX for their town about 2 hours away from LA. On the way home, we stopped by at a restaurant. It was the same one which we went on the first night of my last stay!!!

After dinner, we finally arrived home!!! Everything was same and it reminded me of my last stay there!!! We all were so tired that we went to bed early that night.

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BR2-03 Democracy in Action

Posted: September 14th, 2009, 1:08am PDT

As we know, in countries with a democratic system of government, Every single person has chance to have a say. Then how can we have a say? This book introduces you some ways to have a say.

One easy way is to write a letter to a newspaper or to a politician. There is a section called "Letters to the editor" on newspapers and some letters from readers are published in the newspapers. Writing an e-mail is also simple and convenient.

More powerful ways are conducting political opinion polls and holding protests. One individual say might not be able to change politicians' minds but when the people who have same opinion get together, their say becomes powerful.

Not only individuals but also companies and organisations have their say by lobbying and putting pressure using media or stopping contributing funds to political parties.

Even though Japan is a democratic country, It seems that Japanese people, including me, don't convey their say to government in a positive manner. I think that's because a lot of people aren't interested in politics and don't know it very well. I'm one of them and I should study about Japan's politics more.

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2nd day of my trip to America

Posted: September 12th, 2009, 2:43pm PDT

This post is the continuation of a foregoing post. Check the post with the title "The first day of my trip to America" before reading this post.

I got up at around six, which was very early for me, with drowsy eyes on the day and had a light complimentary breakfast at the hotel. Then my friend and I left the hotel and headed to Fukuoka International airport.

It was my first time to go through boarding procedures for International flight by myself and I was a little bit nervous but everything went well! That was a load off my mind!

We flew to Taiwan first and waited for our flight to Los Angels for about five hours there. There were four terminals connected with each other by long skybridges so we walked through the whole building for exercise preparing for the twelve hour flight to LAX. We almost bought bags, cosmetics and some other things but could manage to resist it since our trip had just started.

Snapping out of it, we had lunch at a comfortable restaurant.

We stayed at the restaurant for 2 hours or so but we still had quite plenty of time to kill so we decided to take a walk again and we found a sacred space.↓

This space, which was called prayer room, was separated into three rooms and they were for Muslims, Buddhists and Christians. Does every international airport have this kind of space? Why these three religions was chosen?? Anybody know???

After 5 hour adventure at the airport, out plane took off safely carrying us with plenty of hopes and expectations.

[271 words][total 1226 words][13774 words to go]

Motsu Nabe restaurant in Fukuoka

Posted: September 12th, 2009, 1:37am PDT

Here are some photos of Motsu Nabe restaurant which I went with my friends from KGU the night before the first day of my trip to America. One of them took us to the restaurant! It was his sisters recommendation. The food was reasonable and delicious even though the restaurant looked luxurious!!! That's too bad that I don't remember the name and place of the restaurant X(

↑ We ordered Miso-based Motsu Nabe with extra motsu and leeks

↑ A close up shot of the Motsu Nabe

Can you guess what room it is??? It's a restroom!! Sooooo gorgeous

This is a corridor to the restroom from the entrance lobby!!! What a luxurious way to use space!!!

This is a small gallery space in the corridor!! The wall clocks and the chair must be expensive!!!

[145 words][total 959 words]

BR2-02 THE BEGINNINGS OF DEMOCRACY

Posted: September 9th, 2009, 1:10am PDT

This book, which consists of 4 chapters, glossary and index, tells you the definition and the history of democracy in simple English. We embrace Democracy in Japan but I don't know the detail of the system well. I chose this book for the second book review in fall semester since I want to know more about the system and am interested in learning Social study in English.

According to this book, a true democracy means giving every person in a community the right to vote on every issue. However, this is not practical for Japan's government because it would take too long to make decisions on every Japan's issue. Instead of voting every issue, people of Japan vote for choosing representatives and they make decisions on every issue on behalf of public. This form is called representative democracy and it's embraced in countries such as USA, United Kingdom, Canada, Australia and New Zealand.

It is said that democracy was first embraced in Greece about 2600 years ago. The word democracy comes from two Greek words "demos" and "kratein". In English, demos means "the people" and kratein means "to rule" and democracy means "rule by the people".

Then, are the representatives of Japanese community really reflecting citizen's wish when they make decisions on every issue? Do they really listen to people's voice? I can not help thinking that the representatives are just pretending to listen to people's voice to win the next election. Therefore, I think, they put up shortsighted policies such as Postal Service Privatization and Revision of Workers Dispatch Law.

In any case, I strongly hope that Japanese economic condition gets better very soon.
[275 words][total 814 words]

1st day of my Trip to America

Posted: September 8th, 2009, 1:00am PDT

Last month from 3rd to 14th, I made a trip to America to visit my friends in CA. They were my host family when I participated in a home stay program about 4 years ago and I longed to visit them again since I came back to Japan. I visited them with one of my close friends from KGU.

We flied from Fukuoka International airport to LAX via Taiwan on 3rd. We used China airline this time. Our fright was 10:10 so we stayed at a business hotel near Hakata station the night before. I liked the hotel because it was cheap and comfortable enough. It was actually better than I expected! our room had enough space for opening 2 suitcases at a time.

Another friend from KGU came to see us off (actually see my friend off since she is going to study in TX for 10 month as an exchange student from KGU) and he took us to a luxurious Motsu-Nabe restaurant. (I will upload some photos later!!) On the way to the restaurant, we got lost a little but it was enjoyable!!

After that we went to Starbucks and had a nice chat over coffees. It was very chilaxing night:)
[210 words][total 539 words]

BR2-01 Voting

Posted: September 2nd, 2009, 1:03am PDT

Last Sunday, new Japan's ruling party was born by the vote of the people of Japan. We can say that the result is logical. The defeated party, the Liberal Democratic Party, has taken control of Japan's politics for almost a half century but I doubt if they have purely carried out politics for the benefit of the nation. I don't think the new ruling party, the Democratic Party of Japan, can turn the economic around drastically. I think the result is the voice of people of Japan and the voice doesn't mean that they strongly support DPJ but they can't trust LDP anymore. Whatever the case, voting has strong power. I wonder what voting is all about. I don't know the origin and history of voting at all. I chose this book to learn more about voting.

According to this book, the history of voting started over 2000 years ago in Greece. The Greeks voted for the candidates who they wanted to govern their city. The citizen, however, voted for the candidates who they didn't want to govern their city sometimes. The elected ones had to leave the city.

Today, Voting is done with computers in some countries whereas it is done by writing on paper and counted by human hands in Japan. The countries where all adult citizen have right to vote for choosing their leader is called democracies and Japan is one of the countries. People can vote without others knowing who they voted for and the system is called secret ballot.

I have a right to vote and I went voting. I am not going to tell on this blog who and which party I voted though. I actually didn't want to vote any one and any party. That is because All the parties' manifestos are unrealistic. I wonder how they bring them off and where all the money to achieve them comes from. I strongly hope the new ruling party carries out better politics.
[329 words]

Summer Pleasure

Posted: July 14th, 2009, 10:59am PDT

The other day, I got Baskin Robbins' gift tickets. So I went to Youme town Hamasen and had some ice cream there yesterday!! I chose new flavor called "TEA & SCORES".

Check out their website http://www.31ice.co.jp/

Summer Pleasure

Posted: July 14th, 2009, 10:59am PDT

The other day, I got Baskin Robbins' gift tickets. So I went to Youme town Hamasen and had some ice cream there yesterday!! I chose new flavor called "TEA & SCORES".

Check out their website http://www.31ice.co.jp/

Portfolio for Writing III

Posted: July 13th, 2009, 4:01pm PDT

Student ID: 06172

Portfolio for Writing III, Section 1A

(See: Note 1, below)

0.0. Overview Reviews, Posts, Words, and More

(See: Note 2, below.)

1.0. Essays

(See: Note 3, below.)

Please complete this table with data gathered from essays on your blog. See the Key (below) for definitions of the symbols in row one, and complete columns four through nine with numerical values (0, 1, 2, 3, ...).

1.1. Showcase	Short titles with links to blog posts	Dates yyyy.mm.dd	¶	W	C	L	P	M
1-01a (2009.04.08)	Self-Introduction	2009.04.08	5	408	4	0	0	0
1-01b (2009.04.20)	Self-Itroduction revision	2009.04.15	6	523	2	0	0	0
(1-01c)
1-02a (2009.06.01)	Univ.Life	2009.05.29	6	354	3	0	0	0
1-02b (2009.07.06)	What on earth is the BEST uiversity life???	2009.06.24	6	593	2	0	0	0
(1-02c)
1-03a (2009.06.29)	Prof. Aimation	2009.06.27	6	576	0	0	0	0
1-03b (2009.07.13)	Professor Animation Film Revision	2009.07.08	6	581	0	0	0	0
Totals	---	---	35	3035	11	0	0	0

Key:

¶: number of paragraphs five (5) or more sentences in length

W: number of words

C: number of comments

L: number of links

P: number of photos or other graphics
M: number of other media included in post

1.2. Best Essay

Selection and Assessment: Which of those six assigned essays do you feel is the best that you've written this semester, and why? Remember that a complete answer is better than a short answer, focus on your writing, and give at least two reasons to support your assessment.

My best essay this semester is "What on earth is the BEST university life". Because when I revised this essay, Mr. B taught me and other students how to write essays and I wrote this revision with new skill. Furthermore, I tried to write as much details as I can.

2.0. Comments

Showcase	Titles of posts with links	Dates of comments yyyy.mm.dd	Numbers of words in comments	Qualities of comments**
2.1. Your first comment on your instructor's blog*
2.2. Your best comment on a classmate's blog*	Writing placement essay for writing3	2009.04.14	38	friendly and witty
2.3. Best comment by a classmate on your blog*	Essay1-02b: What on earth is the BEST	2009.06.24	46	warm and friendly
2.4. Most comments on:	Titles of posts with link	Dates of posts yyyy.mm.dd	Total number of words in comments	Qualities of comments**
2.4.1. Any one of your essays*	Delicious and CHEAP "Izakaya" Ever !	2009.04.24	86	friendly including valuable information
2.4.1.1. When did you respond to those comments?	---	2009.04.25	---	---
2.4.1.2. How did you respond to those comments?	---	---	121	friendly and witty
2.4.2. Any of your other posts*	Essey1-01a: Self-Introduction	2009.04.15	47	warm and friendly
2.4.2.1. When did you respond to those comments?	---	2009.04.15	---	---
2.4.2.2. How did you respond to those comments?	---	---	113	friendly including some advise

2.5. Recent comments display

Does your blog display recent comments from blog visitors in a prominent location, for example, in a sidebar, header, or footer widget? Where, or why not? Please explain.

My blog displays recent comments from visitors in the second top of sidebar.

2.6. Additional reflections on comments

3.0. Book Reviews

3.1. Showcase	Short titles with links	Dates: yyyy.mm.dd	Words	Comments
Example:	Vampire Killer	2007.05.16	39	1
BR 1-01	CALIFORNIA Oxford bookworms2	2009.04.08	375	0
BR 1-02	ENGLAND Oxford bookworms1	2009.04.20	536	2
BR 1-03	NEW YORK OXFORD BOOKWORMS1	2009.04.26	519	0
BR 1-04	The Giving Tree Shel Silverstein	2009.05.19	638	0
BR 1-05	Mother Teresa Penguin readers1	2009.05.19	531	0
BR 1-06	GANDHI Penguin Readers2	2009.05.24	672	0
BR 1-07	NELSON MANDELA	2009.05.28	523	0
BR 1-08	the MOSTER at the end of this book	2009.06.22	193	0
BR 1-09	GUCCI BUSINESS I FASHION	2009.06.24	262	0
BR 1-10	Audrey Hepburn	2009.06.27	277	0
BR 1-11	DIANA, PRICESS OF WALES	2009.06.29	215	0
BR 1-12	Martin Ruther King	2009.07.06	336	0








---	---	Totals:	5077	2

Note: Please calculate and list book review Totals for words and comments without including those from the example (above).

3.2. Best Book Review

Selection and Assessment: Which of those book reviews do you feel is the best that you've written this semester, and why? Remember that a complete answer is better than a short answer, focus on your writing, and give at least two reasons to support your assessment.

My best book review this semester is BR1-09:GUCCI BUISNESS IN FASHION. In this review, I could write about my new idea for success which I learned reading this book. Furthermore, I read this book having some questions. Thus, I gave myself a reason for reading this book. These are why I chose this review for my best essay this semester.

4.0. Blog Layout, Labeling, Linking, & Media

Showcase	Yes	No
4.1. Does your blog display an archive?	O
4.1.1. Does the archive display the titles of posts?	O
4.1.2. Is the archive organized by month?	O
4.1.3. Is the archive at or near the top of the sidebar?	O
4.2. Does your blog have labels displayed in sidebar?	O
5.2.1. Do your labels include these required labels (typed accurately):	---	---
"books" (plural) AND "reviews" (plural)	O
"essays" (plural) AND "portfolios" (plural, without "proto-")	O
"quickposts" (plural, with no space between quick and posts)	O
"links" (plural) AND "media" (plural)		O
"movies" (plural) AND "websites" (plural)	O
"brainstorms" (or "brainstorming"), "essay prep.," AND "free-writing" (or "free-writes")	O
4.2.2. Does your sidebar display other labels?	O
How many other labels have you attached to three (3) or more posts? _3_ other labels attached to three or more posts	---	---
Which labels, and to how many posts each? Please list those labels instead of www, xxx, yyy..., and list numbers of posts instead of n, m, o... (in parentheses), below. Labels books (13) Braistorming (1) essay prep (2) essays (6) food (4) free-writing (1) health (1) lists (1) movies (3) my favorites (9) my memories (2) my murmurs (14) outlines (1) quickposts (3) reviews (15) rivisions (3) university (4) writing (2)	---	---
4.3. Links & media	---	---
4.3.1. Does your blog include photos or other graphics?	O
Does your blog profile include a photo or graphic representation?	O
How many of your blog posts this semester include photos or other graphics? _25_ posts including photos or other graphics	---	---
4.3.2. Does your blog include posts with multiple links?	O
How many of your posts this semester include three (3) or more links? _1_ posts including three or more links (including this portfolio!)	---	---
4.3.3. Does your blog include other media?		O
How many of your blog posts this semester include other media? _0_ posts including other media	---	---
What kind(-s) of media have you included in posts this semester? Please list the kinds here: ... ... ...	---	---
What media content that you originally produced, if any, do your blog posts for this semester contain? Please list and explain each item briefly, and add short links and dates (yyyy.mm.dd) for reference. ... (short link, date) ... (short link, date) ... (short link, date)	---	---

4.4. Overall presentation

What have you done to enhance the overall presentation of your blog? List and explain the three most important content, display, formatting, layout, or other presentation changes that you have made on your blog this semester.

I tried to put interesting titles to fascinate visiters.
I carefully chose easy-to-read colors for letters such as title of each post and body.
I added some useful gagets.

5.0. Additional reflections on your blog and your writing for it

Please feel free to include reflections on both class work and homework, as well as on the content of this portfolio (proto-portfolios, showcases, and reflections).

When Mr.B introduced some new pc operations, he sometimes didn't tell us how to do those or showed how to do those on the sub monitor while we were doing other avtivity. I think other students got confused because they were not sure what to do.
In this class, we used Mac. I got to know how to use Mac. I think it was a good opportunity for Windows users.
This class' focus is writing and our goal is enhancing our writing skill but I don't feel my writing skill got improved. I wanted to be checked my writings more.

6.0. Advice and suggestions for yourself, your peers, and your successors

When your teacher starts explaing something, listen to him very carefully and if you are not sure what to do ask directly to your teacher or assistants not your friends sitting near you. Doing so you can get accurate information.Furthermore, you can enhance your speaking skill!!
At the beginning of the semester, I recommend you to set a word total goal each month. Then you won't upset at the end of the semester.
I recommend you to uproad photo's from your cell phone when you hit something interesting. You can add a comment later.

____________________
Notes:

This portfolio template derives from the templates for Writing IIIc and Writing IVc portfolios (2007-08), and Writing III, §§1a & 1c and Writing IV: Portfolio, §§1a & 1c portfolios (2008-09).
Please use the same code in section 0.0 that you used to embed your proto-portfolios (PPFs) in the footer of your blog, which you should already have revised to display your 1st (spring) semester PPF first.
The essays section (1.0. Essays, above) derived from Proto-Portfolio 2-02 (2008).

____________________
License:

This portfolio template is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License. Please attribute to "the Writing Studio Blog" (without quotation marks).

Essays1-3b: Professor Animation

Posted: July 7th, 2009, 11:08am PDT

I have seen many products of Lilo and Stich at shopping areas but I've never seen the animation. I had been thinking that it was about a little girl's life in nature with her cute pet, but actually it was a kind of science fiction animation. The first part of the movie portrays how Stich get to Earth and meets Lilo. Therefore, I thought watching animated movies was just for enjoyment to kids. After watching the movie, I realized that adults can also enjoy this movie. They might enjoy Hawaiian people's life, culture and music.

Why I think adults can also enjoy an animation is because one of the main themes of this movie, I think, is guardianship. The main character Lilo and her sister lost their parents and they lived alone. Lilo's sister had tried hard to bring up Lilo but she couldn't earn much money and they were poor. Lilo couldn't get along with her classmates at school because she couldn't afford to own toy's like them. Furthermore, Lilo was unique and her classmates sometimes make fun of her so she often fought against them. Lilo couldn't make any friends and she thought it was because she doesn't have parents and she was poor. Can only parents fulfill guardianship? Isn't Lilo's sister enough to fulfill guardianship?

The other day on TV, I watched a documentary about a single mother who had three boys. The mother didn't work, and got financial support from Japan's government. People may think that she should work. I thought so at first too. However, she actually COULD NOT work because she worked very hard before, not only bringing up her kids, and she got depression. The point is bringing up children costs a lot of money and power. Single guardians need support from the government certainly. However, in this movie, a government official comes to check their life and try to take Lilo away. I doubt if it's really good for kids. At least government shouldn't do that to single guardians who try hard to bring up their children. I think all they need is support(not only financially).

One more interesting aspect of this movie is that you can see some Hawaiian culture in this movie. At school, Lilo practices a Hawaiian dance "Hula". The music for dancing fula is so merry and the costume for fula is colorful. They wear costumes made by leaves and leis made with flowers. Watching fula is so relaxing and I like it very much. I want to try it when I have chance.

When I was in elementary school, I danced a Japanese traditional dance called Ushibuka Haiya Bushi with my classmates. This is one of the famous traditional dances in my prefecture. It's so powerful and energetic unlike fula. However I enjoyed dancing it a lot, and I got power from that. I think all kind of dance is enjoyable. I still remember that I practiced hard with my classmates. Children develop their friendship through practicing something hard together.

Although, I thought I couldn't find any deep theme from animatied films, actually I learned a lot from Lilo and Stich. I came to think that animated films are enjoyable for both children and adults. I think sometimes you should try something which you are not interested in. I'm sure you can find something new and important in it. I suppose having a narrow taste means having narrow ideas and widen your world is important in your life.
[581 words]

BR1-12　Martin Luther KING

Posted: July 6th, 2009, 8:33pm PDT

"I have a dream."

This is a part of speech made by a black man, Martin Luther King, in the summer of 1963. His speech moved a lot of people all over the world. the sentence sounds normal. I have a dream too and having a dream is not a special thing. However his dream was not the same kind of mine. His dream was not only for himself. His dream was for all the black people. He wanted America to be a peace country where blacks and whites would be equal and live together. We can say that he is definitely one of the great people. He was one of the great people who was influenced by Gandhi.

He was born on January 15th in Atlanta, Georgia and racial segregation was always beside him. At that time, black people did not have the same right as white people in South of America. When black people ride on a bus, they have to sit in the back. Black people couldn't eat at most restaurants. Black people went to different school from white people.

He always wanted to break the color barrier and After he get married to a woman from the South in 1953, he worked to end segregation with his wife for the rest of his life. He worked in the belief of non-violence. It was originally Gandhi's idea. His movement changed some laws about color segregation. Above all, "The march on Washington" was a big one. In this protest, he made the famous speech in front of the statue of Abraham Lincoln. He became famous worldwide and he won the Nobel Prize for his civil rights work in 1964. Since then a lot of black people fought to end the segregation.

I'm sure it was not easy to change a big society if you are a minority. However, Martin Ruther King pulled off the extraordinary thing with the belief of no-violence. I learned that having a firm belief is important to achieve something difficult.
[336words][9684words]

BR1-11:DIANA, PRINCESS OF WALES

Posted: June 29th, 2009, 8:14pm PDT

When I heard about Diana's death, I was very surprised because she was too young to die. It was a car accident. Millions of people went to London to mourn for her. Diana was loved by many people. A lot of people all over the world remember her even though it has been over 1o years. That was not only because she was beautiful and clever.　This book tells you what she has done and why she was loved by many people worldwide.

Diana loved helping children. She worked with many charities to help children in hospital. She didn’t only give money but also Love. That was what she really wanted to give to children in hospital. She sat and talked with ill kids at their bedside and listened to them. She also hugged them and tried to make them happy. She also visited AIDS patients in the AIDS hospital. She wasn’t afraid and took patients’ hands. Diana also helped many other charities such as the one for landmine eradication. She was always ordinary and people liked that.

Helping people might be just her job but she was willing to do her job. I think that’s why she was loved by many people. Giving your whole heart to what you do, I think, is important.
[215words][9563words]

Essay1-3a : Prof. Animation

Posted: June 27th, 2009, 11:08pm PDT

I have seen many products of Lilo and Stich at shopping areas but I've never seen the animation. I have been thinking that it was about a little girl's life in nature with her cute pet but actually it was a kind of science fiction animation. The first part of the movie portrays how Stich get to the Earth and meets Lilo. Therefore, I thought the movie was just for enjoyment for kids to see movies. After watching movies, I realized that adults can also enjoy this movie.

Why I think adults can also enjoy an animation is because one of the main themes of this movie, I think, is guardianship. The main character Lilo and her sister lost their parents and they lived alone. Lilo's sister had tried hard to bring up Lilo but she couldn't earn much money and they were poor. Lilo couldn't get along with her classmates at school because she couldn't afford to own toy's like them. Furthermore, Lilo was unique and her classmates sometimes make fun of her so she often fought against them. Lilo couldn't make any friends and she thought it was because she doesn't have parents and she was poor. Can only parents fulfill guardianship? Isn't Lilo's sister enough to fulfill guardianship?

The other day, on TV, I watched a documentary about a single mother who had three boys. The mother didn't work and got financial support from Japan's government. People may think that she should work. I thought so at first too. However, she actually COULD NOT work because she worked very hard before, not only bringing up her kids, and she got depression. The point is bringing up children costs a lot of money and power. Single guardians need a support from the government for sure. However, in this movie, a government official comes to check their life and try to take Lilo away. I doubt if it's really good for kids. At least government shouldn't do that to single guardians who try hard to bring up their children. I think all they need is support(not only financially).

One more interesting aspect of this movie, I think, is that you can see some Hawaiian culture in this movie. At school, Lilo practices a Hawaiian dance "Hula". The music for dancing fula is so merry and the costume for fula is colorful. They wear costumes made by leaves and leis made with flowers. Watching fula is so relaxing and I like it very much. I want to try it if I have chance.

When I was in elementary school, I danced a Japanese traditional dance called "Ushibuka haiya bushi" with my classmate. This is one of the famous traditional dance in my prefecture. It's so powerful and energetic unlike fula. However I enjoyed dancing it a lot and I got power from that. I think any kind of dance is enjoyable. I still remember that I practiced hard with my classmates. Children grow friendship through practicing something hard together.

I thought I couldn't find any deep theme from animation films but actually I learned a lot from Lilo and Stich. I came to think that animation films are enjoyable both children and adults. I think sometimes you should try something which you are not interested in. I'm sure you can find something new and important in it. I suppose having a narrow taste means having narrow ideas and widen your world is important in your life.
[576words][9348words]

BR1-10: Audrey Hepburn

Posted: June 26th, 2009, 1:10pm PDT

I'm sure Audrey Hepburn is known to many people worldwide. I think she's also one of the great people all over the world. She was a very famous actress and acted very well in many famous movies but it's not only the reason why she is one of the great people.

As you know, she acted in very famous movies such as "Roman Holiday"" Breakfast at Tiffany's" and "My Fair Lady" . In her 50's, her life as a movie star changed. She came to think of doing something more important with her life. She came up with an idea of helping poor and hungry children. That was because she was poor and hungry in her early years. She started to work for United Nations and visited Africa, which was the poorest and most dangerous countries in the world. She visited sick kids in imperfectly-equipped dirty old hospitals. She spent her time in towns with no water. She also appeared on TV and let people know about her work.When she came back from Africa in 1992, she was very sick and it got worse. The next year on January 20, she passed away.

All the tome when I read a book about a great person, I talk to myself if I can do the same thing if I were in the great person's shoes. I could never answer the question. Of course I want to help poor people but actually it's not easy. I don't underestimate myself because I don't help poor people. I think just thinking about it is enough and it affects people's life. I love reading great people's books and recommend it to everybody.
[277words][8772words]

BR1-09:GUCCI BUISNESS IN FASHION

Posted: June 23rd, 2009, 3:06pm PDT

A lot of women all over the world are into fashion all through the ages. How about you? Do you like owning expensive fashionable things such as clothes, bags, jewelry and accessories? As for me, I'm not crazy about it that much. However, I'm interested in how come fashion enamors women. Through one of the famous labels Gucci , I want to try to find out the reason.

The label GUCCI was made by an Italian man Guccio Gucci. His first store was not for women but horses. He and his wife made and sold luggage and leather products for horses. Their store was small and he was not rich at the beginning. One day, he got an idea. He made handbags using the designs of the leather products for horses. The GG logo was from a stirrup and the green/red/green lines were from horse's saddle. The bags caught the attention of people because they were unique and utilitarian. By 1939, Gucci company became national famous. Guccio Gucci died in 1953 but his five sons took over his company. Gucci continued getting bigger and finally it became worldwide in the 1970s. Since then They've worked hard to be in fashion, even though fashion is always changing, and they are still in fashion today.

I think there are 2 big reasons why fashion enamor women all over the world. The first reason is that the products are strong and utilitarian not only fashionable and the another one is that they always develop their products. High quality and Development. That's the key to success!
[262words]

Essay1-02b: What on earth is the BEST university life???

Posted: June 23rd, 2009, 10:48am PDT

There are many kinds of university lives. Even only in KGU, There are many different kinds. Some people put much faith in club activities, which sometimes means having a party downtown almost once every week or more, and others put much faith in studying hard and get some qualifications. There are also many people who work at part time hard and earn money for realizing their dreams or leisure. Anyway, one thing that I can say for sure is all the students enjoy their own university lives.

First of all, let me explain my university life. I'm one of the students who enjoy university life at KGU. I come to KGU by car every day. My schedule is almost full every day. Besides taking classes, I work part time at English Lounge and e-campus center. I have a lot of things to do but I'm enjoying each activity here at KGU. Almost every day, I visit English Lounge. There, I can have opportunity to meet and talk to exchange students from various countries and learn about outside of Japan. Also, I can meet Japanese students who are studying English hard. I like talking to students who are motivated to study English. Like this, I'm spending busy days at KGU but I feel I'm making the most of my university life. Therefore, I'm satisfied with my university life.

Next, I want to write about my friends' university lives. Luckily, I made a lot of friends here at KGU even though I'm a transfer student. Most of my friends are majoring English and they are eager to improve their English. Therefore the main thing in their life seems English. They always try to soak themselves into international environment. At lunch time and when they have free time, they visit English Lounge as I do. They often visit exchange students' dorm after university and have fun time with people from various parts of the world.

Now I would like to tell you what the English Lounge is for the people who don't know about it. English lounge is a room for the people who want to have opportunity to speak English and meet people from various countries. It's open everyday except Saturday and Sunday. Every period, there are same exchange students and Japanese students. You only have to come in and enjoy chatting with them. Not only chatting but also you ca enjoy playing darts and soccer table over chatting with them. If you are not confident with your English, you can ask for help to other Japanese students. You may feel uncomfortable for the first few visits but never mind. You'll get used to it for sure.

Finally, I'll explain other students life at KGU. There are many people who belong to a club, which we call "circle" in Japanese, and devote their university life to the clubs. Of course they also do other activities but they spend most of their life with the members of their clubs. They travel together, have parties together, have lunch together and some other activities. They make forever friends there. They learn many things through hanging out together.

As I have just explained, there are variety of university lives and all of the students enjoy their own life at university. There is no best life and each student's life is great. It depends on you whether or not you can make your university life great. I think it is important to act not to regret. It is better to regret what you did than regret what you did not.

Individual essay outlines

Posted: June 22nd, 2009, 11:55pm PDT

Lilo and Stitch

Theme1 from movie
Cultual identities

Theme1 in real life
Japanese identity

Theme2 from movie
Customs and traditions (dance hula)

Theme2 in real life
Japanese Customs and traditions (dance)

BR1-08 the MONSTER at the end of this book

Posted: June 22nd, 2009, 11:18pm PDT

I like collecting Picture books written in English. This book is one of my favorite picture books. In this book, only one character Grover,which is from Sesame Street, appears. This book makes you feel as if you are talking to Grover for real. When I have children in future, I want read this book to them.

The story begins with Grover's greeting. Then he realises that this book's title is "the MONSTER at the end of this book". He gets surprised and frightened. He asks you not to turn any pages anymore in a whispering voice so that he doesn't have to meet the MONSTER on the last page. When you turn each page he reacts funny and try to stop you turn the next page. It makes you want to turn the next page.

And at the end.........What do you think will happen??

I'll leave the last page for you!

This book is addictive and make me feel like reading it again and again. Until I read this book, Elmo was my favorite in Sesame Street but now I love Grover the best. Read this book and enjoy a chat with Grover!

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Wonderful 15 days at Tenmei JH

Posted: June 20th, 2009, 10:36pm PDT

I had a teaching practice at Tenmei junior high school for 3 weeks this month. This is one of the biggest events in my uni life. Before the practice starts, I was really nervous but I enjoyed it very much! It was really hard physically and mentally-demanding but spending time with kids was so much fun. My trainer teacher was a great person. She was always busy but she was always very nice to me. I think I was really lucky to be assigned to Tenmei junior high school.

It was really hard to teach kids English in an easy-to-understand manner. One of the difficulties is that there are defferent level kids in one class.

On the last day, students gave me flowers, message boards, and a picture.

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Essay_1.02a: Univ. Life

Posted: May 29th, 2009, 10:24pm PDT

There are many kinds of university lives. Even only in KGU, There are many different kinds. Some people put much faith in club activities, which sometimes means having a party downtown almost once every week or more, and others put much faith in studying hard and get some qualifications. There are also many people who work at part time hard and earn money for realizing their dreams or leisure. Anyway, one thing that I can say for sure is all the students enjoy their own university lives.

First of all, let me explain my university life. I'm one of the students who enjoy university life at KGU. I come to KGU by car every day. My schedule is almost full every day. Besides taking classes, I work part time at English Lounge and e-campus center. I have a lot of things to do but I'm enjoying each activity here at KGU. Almost every day, I visit English Lounge. There, I can have opportunity to meet and talk to exchange students from various countries and learn about outside of Japan. Also, I can meet Japanese students who are studying English hard. I like talking to students who are motivated to study English. Like this, I'm spending busy days at KGU but I feel I'm making the most of my university life. Therefore, I'm satisfied with my university life.

Next, I want to write about my friends' university lives. Luckily, I made a lot of friends here at KGU even though I'm a transfer student. Most of my friends are majoring English and they are eager to improve their English. Therefore the main thing in their life seems English. They always try to soak themselves into international environment. At lunch time and when they have free time, they visit English Lounge as I do. They often visit exchange students' dorm after university and have fun time with people from various parts of the world.

Finally, I'll explain other students life at KGU. There are many people who belong to a club, which we call "circle" in Japanese, and devote their university life to the clubs. Of course they also do other activities but they spend most of their life with the members of their clubs. They travel together, have parties together, have lunch together and some other activities. They make forever friends there. They learn many things through hanging out together.

As I have just explained, there are variety of university lives and all of the students enjoy their own life at university. There is no best life and each student's life is great. It depends on you whether or not you can make your university life great. I think it is important to act not to regret. It is better to regret what you did than regret what you did not.
[470words][7912words]

BR1-07 NELSON MANDELA

Posted: May 28th, 2009, 11:18pm PDT

For the book review last time, I read a biography of Gandhi. Gandhi influenced many great people. Now I'm trying to know about great people so I went to the library and looked for great people's books. This time, I found Nelson Mandela's biography. He was one of the great people who were influenced by Gandhi. I thought his book is perfect for my next book review. That's why I chose this book.

Nelson Mandela was born on July 18th, 1918 in South Africa. He spent a happy childhood with his mother, sisters and father. His father had three other wives. Nelson lived with his father for one week every month. Nelson's father died when he was an early teenager. However, he luckily got good education. When he was 21 years old, he entered an university at Fort Hare. He studied law, politics and English there. After spending three years there, some things happened to him and he run away to Johannesburg. He finished his study at an university there. The next year, he started studying law at Witwatersrand University. He was the only black student there. At the same time, he had to work at a law office and the ANC(African National Congress). Five years later, he quit university. He couldn't finish his study there. He got married to Evelyn Mase on the second year at the university. He had 2 sons and one daughter at that time. He worked very hard and he didn't have time to spend with his children. In 1950, the government made six apartheid laws. ANC leaders organized protest and he was one of the readers. Their protest was not violent but the government got angry and arrested Nelson and other protesters. In 1952, he opened the first law office owned by black lawyers in South Africa. Two years later, he and his friends started a new organization "the Congress of the people" for blacks, Indians and coloured people. They worked for getting the same laws for coloured people as white people. Since then, he made some protests and arrested several times. He was spent about 28 years in prison because of making protests. The life in prison was terrible. In August 1989, the president resigned and F. W. de Klerk became the next president. It was the beginning of the end of apartheid in SA. On February 11th 1990, at last, Nelson freed. He was 71 years old at the time. He visited Europe and North America. He met many world readers there and asked for help and support. The next year, he became the president of ANC. Nelson and de klerk got the Nobel Peace Prize for their achievements at the end of 1993.

Nalson Mandela lived for poor people as Mother Teresa and Gandhi did. How come could they put their hearts and soul into helping poor people. What is the difference between the great people and normal people who live for themselves(including me). Nelson spent more than one third of his life in prison. How could he stay strong? I hope the world become peaceful so that we don't need such great people.
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University life:Activities that students do unlike I do

Posted: May 26th, 2009, 11:26am PDT

Studying math
Living alone
Belonging to a club
Coming to school by bus, bicycle
Eating lunch in cafeteria
Skipping classes

Living alone

Posted: May 26th, 2009, 10:18am PDT

I live with my family and I want to live alone. So I’m jealous my friends who live alone near KGU. There are many good aspects to live alone. First, you can stay up late as much as you want. Second, you can come back home late as much as you want. Third, you can have a party at your flat anytime you want. However, at the same time, you have to be responsible and independent. Futhermore, I don't want to feel lonely and I need somebody when I feel lonely, dpressed and sad. So, at all, I enjoy living with my family.
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Bread plus Milk plus Banana plus Peanut Butter equals........

Posted: May 25th, 2009, 8:45pm PDT

Yummyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy(>v

This afternoon, One of my friends from America made me a sandwich! Can you imagine the combination of banana and peanut butter??? That's America!! Try once and you can taste America!!!
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I went to America???

Posted: May 25th, 2009, 8:43pm PDT

Look at this picture!

These are American pretzels, bagels, muffins, canned chili beans and soft cookies!! I bought them at Costco, an American wholesale supermarket, in Fukuoka! I've wanted to go there but I didn't have a membership so I had no chance to go there. However, one of my friend got a membership so I asked him to take me and my other friends there. (Thanks for driving such a long time D! I can't thank you enough!!) I really enjoyed shopping there!

I also got huge amount of tomatoes!

Big one's were from Kumamoto and the another small ones called cocktail tomatoes are from Canada.

Can't miss them!!

These are Bonne Maman's Tarteletts! 9peaces × 4boxes!
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BR1-06 GANDHI Penguin Readers2

Posted: May 24th, 2009, 11:17pm PDT

There are many great people all over the world. I know a lot of great people but I actually don't know what they have done and why they are famous. I just memorized their names for tests at school. I think it is good to know what the great people achieved because you can learn lessons from them. Last time I chose Mother Teresa and I chose Gandhi this time.

Mahandes Karamchand Gandhi was born in 1869 in Porbandar, the west India. He was born in a Hindus family. When he was young he was not religious and made some mistakes. He stole his brothers money, listened to his friends bad ideas, ate meat even though it was prohibited among Hindus and so on. He spent an ordinary life as a lot of young people did. In 1882, His parents found him a wife Kasturbai. He was only 13 years old but getting married early was normal among Hindus. When he was 18 years old, He went to London alone to study law. After studying in London for 3 years, he became a lawyer and returned to India.

When he was 29 years old, he got a first job in South Africa. Again he left his family in India and moved to South Africa. There, he experienced strong color discrimination and he was called "colored" like other Indians. Ghandi was supposed to stay there only for 1 year but he decided to stay there and fight against the discrimination for Indians lived there. He stayed there for the next 20 years. In the third year there he brought his family to South Africa. In 1907, he was caught in prison. It might be strange but he was willing to go to prison. It was a nonviolent protest. His nonviolent protest was reported in the Indian newspapers. This protest worked and Indians got more rights in South Africa. But it was not enough. He started to think about independence of India.

He came back to India with his wife in 1915. He arrived there wearing simple, white Indian clothes unlike other Indian leaders. He didn't know India very well, even though it was his country, since he had lived in other countries for about 25 years. What he did first was visiting a lot of places in India and meeting many ordinary people. He traveled by train, of course sat in third class, like ordinary Indian people. At that time India was a class society. There were mainly four classes which are holy men, soldiers, farmers and Untouchables. He worked hard for poor people to make five things come true. His wishes were to keep peace between Hindus and Muslimes, get the same right for Untouchables as for other Hindus, let Indian wear Indian clothes, give women the same rights as for men, and let India become independent from British rule.

In another 26 years, The situation lasted bad and after ninety years of the British Empire, India finally won Independence on August 15, 1947. Then, Gandhi's concern sifted to the Hindu-Muslim problem. His work never ended. He stopped some violence stopping eating. He announced to public that he would eat again when the violence stops. The violence slowly stopped. On January 30, 1948, the world was all shook up with the sad news. Gandhi was shot by a poor Hindu man with a gun. Since his death, a lot of great people such as Martin Luther king, Nelson Mandela and the Dalai Lama studied his life. They used Gandhi's ideas to get their countries independence. Gandhi's ideas are still followed by many people now. He didn't win every fight and made mistakes but his truth still shines for many people in present days.

Like Mother Teresa, Gandhi seemed to be a religious person. They both lived for poor people doing things which no one had done. They sacrificed their whole life. I felt a great power of religions. I think great people have some common sense. I want to acquire the sense.
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Guess What!!　

Posted: May 23rd, 2009, 10:06pm PDT

Look at these pictures! Can you guess who she is????????

She is Ms. IKKO!!!!!
I could see her talk show in front of PARCO downtown by chance! How lucky!!

I like her because she is always cheerful and a positive thinker!!
She was born as a boy but now she lives as a woman. She made an effort to be recognized by her family and people around her. I am sure it was very hard but she did it!! She is such a great person!

At the end of the short talk show, She gave the audience a message. That is.....

Always have positive thoughts!!!

Of course she said "Dondake~" at the end of the show!!
thank you for the great talk Ms. IKKO!!!
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Brook on the road!!!

Posted: May 22nd, 2009, 6:47pm PDT

This is a picture I took in my car on my way home. It was pouring. when I was just about to pass the fire department I found a brook on the road!!!!! I do not like to drive in the heavy rain;(
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Free Writing +Health+

Posted: May 19th, 2009, 10:19am PDT

Do you live healthy? As for me, I always try to live healthy. There are a lot of tips to live healthy. Thanks to the Internet, just imputing a keyword or just clicking a link, you can get a lot of information to be healthy. However, It’s really hard to swing into action. Easier said than done. Now I want to talk about what I do to be healthy.

I try to eat breakfast every day, I sleep a lot and do yoga every night. After doing yoga, I can relax and sleep well. I recommend you to do yoga before you sleep.
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BR1-05 Mother Teresa penguin readers1

Posted: May 19th, 2009, 12:53am PDT

I saw a world famous nun, mother Teresa, on TV the other day. I am sure everybody knows her. However, how many people know what she had done in her life as a nun? Tell the truth, I was one of the people who did not know what she had done exactly. Luckily, I could find a book about her at my uni's library and now I know about her a little more. Here is the summary of the book below.

Her original name was not Teresa but Agnes Gonxha. She was born on 26 August 1910. She had a sister and a brother. Her parents were originally from Albania but they lived in Skopje, Serbia. Her father did well at his work so they were quite rich. However, When Agnes (Teresa) was eight years old, her father suddenly passed away. After her father's death, her mother worked hard. She earned quite a lot of money and was good to poor neighbors. That was because she was a Christian, a Catholic, and she was very religious. So Agnes prayed to God every evening with her mother and siblings. They also want to church every week. Agnes heard about missionaries in India and poor African countries. She wanted to live for God but she did not know how. For five years, she looked for answer and finally she found out. She decided to live only for God and became a nun in India. At that time, she was 18 years old. She changed her name to "Teresa" before arriving to India. She learned English only within 2 years and she started to teach children at a nuns' school. Teresa did not have holidays and she had to work form early in the morning till late at night. However she was happy because she could work for God. She was the first nun who went out into the street of Calcutta and worked for poor people lived in slums. She dressed in the blue and white sari which poor people usually wear and started to teach children on the street. She stayed by poor dying people's side on the street so that they do not feel lonely at their death. People in Calcutta started to help her and after 20 years, her charity spreaded in 23 places in India. In 1969, BBC, a British TV station, broadcasted a programme about Mother Teresa. After that, a lot of people sent her letters and donated money. She suddenly became famous all over the world. In 1979, she got the Nobel Peace Prize. She died in September 1997.

What a great person she is! I think nobody can do as she had done. I can't imagine myself going out into slum alone and go near to poor people who are dying. I can't dedicate my life to God. I live for myself. I feel a little ashamed. There is a couple who help homeless people in kumamoto in my acquaintance. They go serve food to homeless people once a month. I think they are wonderful. It is never too late to start helping people in need. I want to think what I can and start something.
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What are qualities of good essays?

Posted: May 19th, 2009, 11:45pm PDT

I think good essays consist of three parts which are itroduction, body and conclusion. In essays, you have to entertain readers. For academic essays, the readers are mainly professors. You also have to make a point and focus on one topic. If you put to much topics in one essay, readers can get confused.
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Essay1-02 University Life

Posted: May 19th, 2009, 11:30pm PDT

I am enjoying my university life very much. It is my second year at KGU but I am senior. That is because I transfered from a small English college. I never dreamed of going to university so after graduated from the college I got a job and worked for two years. After working two years, I decided to go to university. KGU had a good transfer system so I decided to enter KGU. One year has passed since I entered KGU and thanks to KGU, I could achieve a lot of my goals. KGU provided me a lot of chances. I had to take many classes and it was really hard to catch up with other same graders. However, I enjoyed every moment of my university life last year.

Now I want to write about my university life this semester. This semester, I am taking 12 classes. I also work at "English Lounge" twice a week. I can meet and talk to a variety of people there and I was influenced by them. Furthermore, I started working as an assistant for 10 hours a week at e-campus center in the 14th building of KGU. Therefore my schedule is almost full on weekdays. It's hard but I feel I'm making the most of my university life. On weekends, I forget my study and hang out with my friends so that I can release my stress. I also stay home and relax. Next month, I am going to a junior high school for 3 weeks on teaching training. It might be tough but I'm looking forward to it.

At last, I want to talk about my favorite places at KGU. I like the library, bakery, book store Maruzen, LL room, English Lounge and e-campus center. I especially like the library and bakery. At the library I can read a variety of books and I never get bored spending time there. Not only reading books, I also can use PC and Internet, watch DVDs and listening to CDs. At bakery I can buy delicious bread and chat with my friends.

I love my university life very much.
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Have u ever seen...?

Posted: May 18th, 2009, 4:42pm PDT

Have you ever seen cactus flowers?? This is my mom's cactus! She got it over 10 years ago! When she got it, it was only about 5cm long but now it is about 15cm long or more!! Every year, it blows bright and beautiful flowers! How lovely! I love cactus flowers!!
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BR-4 The Giving Tree Shel Silverstein

Posted: May 18th, 2009, 11:17am PDT

I'm taking teaching profession course at university to get an English teaching licence at junior high school and high school. I'll have a teaching training at a junior high school in Kumomoto city for 3 weeks next month. During my training at a junior high school, I also have to teach ethics besides English. I think "The Giving Tree" is a good book to let students learn "sensitivity". There is a Japanese version translated by a Japanese man but I want students to feel as I felt so I read Original English version and translated it.

There appear only two characters in this story. They are a little boy and a big apple tree. The boy loved the tree and he would come to the tree to play with her every day. He loved climbing up her trunk, swinging from her branches, eating apples, playing hide-and-go-seek and sleeping in her shade. The tree was very happy.

But time went by and as the boy grew older. He got a girl friend and the tree were often alone.

One day the boy visited the tree and the tree asked him to play together but he refused the offer. Instead of that, he asked her to give him some money to buy things. She told him to take her apple and sell them. Then he took all her apples. The tree was happy.

The boy didn't show up in front of her for a long time.

Then one day, the boy came back. He seemed to be in his 30's. The tree shook with joy and asked him to play together. However, he refused the offer again and told her that he wanted to buy a house. He asked her to give him a house. She told him to cut off her branches and build a house. So the boy cut off all her branches and carried them away. The tree was still happy.

The boy didn't show up in front of her for a long time again.

When he came back, the tree could hardly speak because she was so happy. The boy seemed to be in his 40's. Again she asked him to play together but he refused the offer. He asked her to give him a boat to take him far away from there. So the tree told him to cut down her trunk and made a boat. The boy cut down her trunk, made a boat and sailed away. This time, the tree was not happy anymore.

Again, the boy didn't show up for a long time. And when he came back, the tree told him that she didn't have anything left to give him. She said sorry many times.

Then the boy, who seemed to be in his 70's, said that he didn't need anything anymore but a quiet place to sit and rest. Listening to him, the tree straightened herself up as much as she could and told him that an old stump is good for sitting and resting. She told him to came and sit down on her. So the boy sit down on her and rest.

The tree was happy.

I think the relationship between tree and the boy is like a mother and a son. In this story, even though the boy get older the tree still calls him "boy". For any parents children will be children forever. It's natural to have periods of rebelliousness when you become a teenager so I want kids to have the periods. However, I think the shorter the period the more kids can have good relationship with their parents. I want junior high school students to realize how their parents feel when they are on the periods reading this book. When I get children in the future, I want to read this book to them.
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Writing I and II

Posted: May 12th, 2009, 11:07am PDT

Last year, I took Writing I and II. I mainly learned how to write essay in the class. My teacher Mr. K gave students projects, writing homework, every week. We wrote essays about variety of topics throughout the year. I learned that essays generally have to be consisted of three parts. The first one is “introduction”, second one is body and the last one is “conclusion".
[66words]

Description of My Treasure

Posted: May 12th, 2009, 12:59am PDT

I treasure a lot of things and it is really hard to write down all of them. I want to write about some of them in this essay.

At first, I want to write about my precious memories. My memories are the most important treasures to me. I remember both good and bad experiences as good memories. It might be strange to treasure bad experiences but I learned many things through the bad experiences. Every moment of my life is very important.

In my life so far, I have experienced many things and met a lot of people. I am sure I could not have done many things without the people. Therefore I also treasure the people I have met so far. The person most influenced me is my teacher, Mr.Okada, from elementary school. He was my crass room teacher when I was a 6th grader. He always listened to us and told us many things which other teachers did not. Every year on the 30th of December, my classmates from his class and I visit his house and have a reunion party. From 2007, we also started to get together on one of the days of the Golden Week. This year we got together at one of the classmate's house on May 2nd and had a BBQ party. It was a lot of fun. Everyone went back to each house saying "See you on December 30th at Mr.Okada's house!" I treasure the moment saying it and my precious classmates.

Of course I also treasure something material such as my car "Nissan March", My new PC "VAIO", my photos filled with good memories, my cell phone, presents from my friends, family and my students.

I have owned "Nissan March" for a long time. It is my first car and quite old but I do not want to buy new one. My lovely car still works fine so I want to ride it until it broke down.

Last November my old PC "NEC Lavie L" suddenly broke down. I was so sad because I have used it for about 6 years. It costed very much to fix it and I needed PC immediately for doing assignments so I had to say goodbye to my dear Lavie L. I went to Yamada denki and fell in love with VAIO and bought one. Now, I can not live without my genius VAIO.

I have taken many pictures in my life. All of the photos are precious and I especially treasure the photos of my trip to LA, America. I experienced a lot of things which I can not do here in Japan. I still remember the exciting moments when I see the photos.

I have so many treasures and if I write everything here, it will last forever so I'll stop this essay here. As I have explained,I treasure many things.
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It's beeeeen a loooong time w(ﾟoﾟ)w

Posted: May 10th, 2009, 2:59am PDT

It was just three days before my golden week started...

I got a phone call at around midnight. I glanced at my cell phone somewhat suspiciously because I don't get any call around midnight usually. My cell phone was displaying a dear name! I answered the phone and heard a dear voice. It was a friend of mine F-kun from college. His voice reminded me of my college life.

To me, he was like my younger brother. I haven't kept in touch with him for a long time and I've been worried about him since I've heard he quit his job. We talked only a little on the phone and made a plan to have dinner in the next evening. He said that he was gonna bring our common friend T-kun from college so I invited our other common friend Y-chan from college.

The next evening, F and T were supposed to arrive at nine. I met up Y at around seven. We were starving so we decided to have dinner at a Mexican restaurant called Praza del sol(I'm not sure if the spelling is correct or not coz it's Spanish)before meeting F and T. We shared three hard shell tacos and guacamole. I forgot to take some pics for this blog coz we were starving!!
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We love "Gyoza-Pan" ❤

Posted: April 26th, 2009, 10:11pm PDT

There is a bakery at my uni KGU and my friends and I love it. At the beginning of this semester, one of my friends found a new bread there. It's called "Gyoza-Pan" which means "Dumpling Bread" in English. She didn't buy it when she saw it for the first time and since then we didn't have chance to see it at the bakery. I longed to eat it since then and AT LAST I saw it there. I grabbed it with a tong and went straight to the cashier. Here is my spoil!

The other side...

...and inside

The white bread was chewy and yummy and the filling was exactly dumpling:>!!
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BR-3　NEW YORK　OXFORD BOOKWORMS1

Posted: April 26th, 2009, 10:05pm PDT

New York is said to be the most exciting city in the world. What do you imagine when you hear “New York”? As for me, I imagine very high buildings called skyscrapers and yellow cabs with Asian drivers. I’ve seen a lot of movies and TV dramas which location is New York. I know present NY but I don’t know much about its history. I want to learn about NY’s history from this book.

The beginning of NY is date back to about four hundred years. At that time, Algonquin Native Americans lived there. One day, A British man called Henry Hudson came up a river, which is now called Hudson River, to Manhattan in 1609. 17 years later, a Dutchman, Peter Minuit came to Manhattan and bought the land for about 24 dollars from the Native Americans. Only 24 dollars! I guess, at that time, it was worth far more than today’s 24 dollars. He made a community in a little town called New Amsterdam. Over 500 people came and lived there by 1647. A Dutchman, Peter Stuyvesant, governed the town at that time but the British deprived the town and changed the name to New York. In 1776, Independence war happened and the people of North America beat the British in 1783. New country the United States of America was born and George Washington became the first president of the country. By 1790, about 33,000 people lived in New York. Moreover, millions more people started to come to live in New York from all over the world. Variety of peoples such as German, Irish, Italian, Polish, Czechoslovakian, Russian, African, and Chinese immigrated to New York. Many of these “New Americans” involved in building the first skyscrapers and bridges. Each people made each community and there are still Chinatown and Little Italy in NY today. To be a new American, people had to land to Ellis Island first. All the people had immigration examinations there. At the end of this book, you can see a map of NY so you can check each place’s location.

Nowadays, a lot of people visit NY from all over the world. This book gives you some advises when you visit NY. Please remember: don’t carry a lot of money with you, don’t travel on the subway alone at night, stay with the crowds late at night, Go into the nearest hotel or shop if you suddenly feel afraid and something like these. I’ve never been to NY and I want to visit there for sure. I’ll keep in mind the caution.

I didn’t know that the Native Americans lived NY first and Dutch bought the land from Native Americans. I didn’t even know that Dutch involved NY’s History that much. It was so surprising that a Dutchman bought the land for about 24 dollars. Also, I didn’t know there was Little Italy. If I have a chance to visit NY I want to visit there and have some Americanized Italian food (Or Can I have authentic Italian there?). Anyway, I enjoyed reading this book and my imaginary NY trip through it.
[518words][3236words]

Delicious and CHEAP "Izakaya" Ever !

Posted: April 23rd, 2009, 1:04am PDT

I went to a nice and cheap Japanese restaurant called "ISHIHARA" tonight. They serve cheap and delicious dishes and drinks. Most of the dishes and drinks are 380 yen!!!!!

To start with, We ordered our drinks. I had to drive back home so I couldn't drink any alcohol so I ordered Grape fruit juice which is my favorite. The next to the juice in the picture above is "Tukidashi" which means Starter or appetizer is English I guess. "Tukidashi" is served automatically to all customers and charged. At some Japanese restaurants, not-so-delicious tukidashi is served but here ISHIHARA they serve super delicious tukidashi. Today's tukidashi was cold grated lotus root dumpling with dried bonito shavings.

For the first dish, we ordered pork and mushrooms warm salad. I was starving so I almost forgot to take a picture but holding my horses, I managed to take one photo!! Good job myself!!

After that, we orderd my favorite dish fried tomatos and hot grated lotus root dumpling. When you have one bite, the dumpling disappears in your mouth coz it's so soft! You don't even need your teeth!!!

Next, we ordered baked "seseri",which is a part of chicken, and yam. They are seasoned with only salt and pepper but dainty!

I went there with two of my friends to have farewell party coz one of them will move to Tokyo next Monday!! Soooo sad:( But She is on her way to a bright future! I'm happy for her moving to Tokyo coz She's gonna get married to her friend from junior high school. I'm sure she will come back to Kumamoto at least once or twice a year so I didn't say good bye to her.
[283words][2718words]

BR-02 ENGLAND Oxford Bookworms1

Posted: April 20th, 2009, 12:46am PDT

Do you know whether or not “England” equals to “Igirisu” in Japanese? Last semester I took British affair class. Until then I didn't know that England is not equals to Igirisu. Actually, England is a part of Igirisu. I wasn't interested in England since I've mainly studied American English so far. After taking the class, I came to be interested in Igirisu which is United Kingdom, aka UK, in English. It's officially called “The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland”. I still don't know about UK much. I want to learn some more about UK reading this book.

There are mainly 6 topics in this book. The topics are “Beautiful England”, “Who are the English?”, “Places to visit”, “Going out”, “Sports and events” and “Come and visit”. The most interesting topic in this book is “Going out”.

In this section, you can learn about “Cinema and Theatre”, “Clubs and Music”, “Eating and Drinking”, “Clothes” and “Shopping”. When you want to go to see a movie, you can visit IMAX theaters which have big screens or multi-screen complexes which have four or five small cinemas. Mr. Bean and James Bond 007 are famous worldwide. Shakespeare, one of the most famous writers, was born in Stratford-upon-Avon. His house is still there so you can visit his house. Next to the River Avon is the Royal Shakespeare Theatre and you can see his play there. Kenneth Branagh, an English actor and film director, made Shakespeare’s play into movies. There are famous theaters in the west end of London. If you go there in the afternoon, you can get cheaper tickets. I recommend you to go there in the afternoon.

Clubbing weekend is one of the entertainments for young people. “Cream” in Liverpool and “Ministry of Sound” in London are famous and popular. England produced some world’s greatest pop stars such as the Beatles, the Rolling Stones, David Bowie, Queen, Phil Collins, the Spice Girls and Oasis. All of them are famous in Japan.

Speaking of English food, “English Breakfast” and “Fish and Chips” are famous. There are eggs, bacon, sausages, tomatoes, mushrooms, black pudding and fried bread in English Breakfast. Black pudding is a kind of sausage which is filled with pig or cattle’s blood, bread, meat, fat, sweet potato, oatmeal and barley. Chips are deep fried potato strips which are called french fries in America.

I knew most of the things in this book and I learned some new things such as Shakespeare’s house and black pudding. Black pudding is a little bit wired to me but I want to try once. I can hardly imagine the taste. Every country has their unique food. Natto for Japanese, Rotten tofu for China, and something like these. I think we can understand other peoples culture by eating their original dishes. It’s often said that England’s food are not delicious. Although, you can never know if the food is delicious or not until you try it yourself. I want to know more about England’s food and I want to try it. I want to make sure myself if it’s delicious or not. Also, there are some historical sites to look around so I want to visit the sites someday.
[536words][2435words]

I can't believe it's not yogurt!!!

Posted: April 19th, 2009, 8:50pm PDT

What do you think is the white thing in the picture? It looks like yogurt but actually it's not yogurt! Can you believe that??? This is called "Kefir". Have you ever heard of it? It's originally from Caucasus, Russia. It's considered to be healthier than yogurt since it contains yeast. It's fermented so it's like Natto for Japanese, Kefir tastes much better than Natto tough:P. Of course I like Natto too:)

It's really hard to find "live" Kefir(I'm not sure if this expression is correct or not) but you can get powder one(the left one in the above picture) here in Japan. My sister always get the powder one so I don't know where you can buy it in Kumamoto.

Here is the procedure to make Kefir. You only need Kefir powder and a carton of milk.
First, put Kefir powder into a carton of milk. Then leave it somewhere warm(I recommend by an elecrlic pot or a rice cooker)and wait for a few days. That's it!!
It's said that Kefir is sour but with this powder you can make sour-free one. You don't need any suger or jam to sweeten it like yogurt!!

[194words][1899words]

Essay1 Self-introduction revision

Posted: April 14th, 2009, 2:10pm PDT

To. My host family,

Hello!! Nice to write you. My name is Takako. Thank you for being my host family. I’ll stay with you for six weeks this coming summer. Before arriving there, I want you to know about me so let me introduce myself in this letter.

First of all, I’ll write about my basic information. I live in Kumamoto Japan. I’m 152 cm tall so I’m short here I Japan. People may think I’m a child there! I have dark-brow eyes, black hair and pale orange skin. A photo attached to this letter is a picture of me. I go to KG University and I’ll be senior this coming April. I’m majoring in English and studying pedagogy to get a teaching license. I want to work at a junior high school or high school as an English teacher after graduating.

Next, I’ll tell you the things I like. I like listening to music, watching movies and TV, cooking and doing yoga. As for music, I often listen to Japanese and American pops. Corinne Bailey Rae, KT Tunstall, Stacie Orrico, The Ting Tings, Sheryl Crow, Cristina Aguilera ad many other American musicians’ songs are in my music player now. As for movies, my favorites are Ever After, Legally Blonde, Pirates of the Carribean, The Devil Wears Prada and other American movies. I can’t write down all of my favorites. They are too many. As for TV programs, I like watching Japanese and American dramas. Recently, a friend of mine introduced me to “Dexter” and I’m hooked on it. I also like Lost, Gray’s Anatomy, The L Word and other TV dramas. There are many American TV dramas at video rental shops in Japan so I can watch many American dramas in Japan. They are few years late though.

As for cooking, I’m into baking bagels right now. I found an easy recipe on the Internet. It’s really easy and quick. I’ll bake some during my stay there! Also, I like cooking curry. It’s very spicy! Do you like spicy food? If you like it I’ll cook it for you! As for yoga, I’ve just started recently. I have stiff muscles and I can’t pose properly yet but it’s enjoyable.

Have you ever had any Japanese food? What Japanese cuisine do you know and like? I'm sure Sushi is famous there, right? Do you like Sushi? If you like it, let's have a Sushi party!!! On a special occasion my family and I have do-it-yourself Sushi rolls Party!!! It's a lot of fun:) Also, "Natto" is other famous Japanese food. It's fermented soybeans. Have you ever heard of it? It's stinky and smelly so many people don't like it but it's healthy!! I want you to try once.

These are the things I like. Now you getting to know about me? I want to know about you too! Please write me back! If you have any questions about Japan, and me feel free to ask me any time. If we get to know more in advance, we can enjoy more together in America! I hope to hear from you soon.

Sincerely yours

Takako

(523words)

Spring Break1-1♪♪Trip to Fukuoka and Saga

Posted: April 8th, 2009, 1:19am PDT

On the first day of my spring break, I went on bus tour to Fukuoka and Saga with my sister! We got up at about 6 and got on the tour bus at Kotsu center bus terminal at 8 o'clock in the morning. I took many tests until just before the break and I've stayed up late to study for the tests for about two weeks so it was really hard for me to get up that early:S.

First of all, we headed to Hakata, Fukuoka. We visited a Sweets shop called "Chocolate Shop". When I saw our itinerary for the first time, I thought that our tour guide forgot to put the shop's name on it but actually "Chocolate shop" is the name of the shop!! How cute❤♪ I think this name is simple and unique! I bought lots of chocolate and sweets there!!

After that we went to Tosu outlet mall in Saga!! Shopping there was our main event on this tour so I was very excited on the way!! I checked the floor map on the bus and thought really hard to shop within only 4 hours effectively. When I finished that, I had a cream puff which I bought at Chocolate shop! It was sooooo yummy!!

To be continued....

Maaaaaac!

Posted: April 7th, 2009, 2:45pm PDT

I took the first session of Writing 3 today and I used Mac in the class for the first time in my life! I'm used to Windows so it was a little bit hard for me to use it but after a while I found myself enjoying using Mac. I'm getting used to it! I've heard some Windows users saying that Mac is not comfortable to use for them but It seems that there is no problem for me! It's often said that "There is nothing like seeing for oneself." If you've never tried Mac, you should try once. Thanks for e-campus center, KGU students can use Mac anytime whenever it's open! How nice and convenient!

BR-01 CALIFORNIA Oxford bookworms2

Posted: April 7th, 2009, 2:18pm PDT

For the first essay of this class, I chose a book about California. I've stayed inland LA, CA about 4 years ago and I've wanted to know more about CA. That's way I chose this book to begin with the book review assignment this semester.

This book is consisted of 9 chapters which are "The golden gate bridge" "The Gold Rush" "San Francisco" "Parks" "Highway1" "Los Angeles" "The Desert” ”San Diego" and "California". There are also some exercises at the end of this book so you can check how well you understand the contents of this book. It's written in brief British English and each page has colorful pictures so you can easily imagine California's old and present days. In chapter 4, you can learn about California's world famous parks. There are mainly four famous parks; Humboldt Redwoods Park, Yosemite National Park, Sequoia National Park and Kings Canyon National Park. They are so surprising that Hmbolt Redwoods Park is a twenty year-old forest and Yosemite National Park covers more than 1,600 years square kilometers of the Sierra Nevada Mountains. In the north of Yosemite, there is a famous lake called "Tahoe" which is 35 kilometers long and 19 kilometers across. There are a lot of private spaces around the lake so you can't access these areas but there are also some public parks there so any visitors can enjoy spending time around the lake. Another beautiful nature you can enjoy in CA is the deserts. In the east of Los Angeles, there spreads a big desert called "Mojave Desert". If you visit there between March and May, you can see hundreds of poppies blooming there. Also, it's not so hot in May so May is the best time to visit there all the year around. There are more enjoyable places for tourists in CA such as beaches and hill city San Francisco.

After reading this book, I realized that people might think of entertainments such as Hollywood, Disneyland, Universal studio, beautiful beaches and other amusements when they imagine CA but the most beautiful aspect of CA, I think, the nature. I’m planning on visiting CA again to meet my host family sometime soon. I want to visit some places which are introduced in this book. (375words)

Essey1 Self-Introduction

Posted: April 7th, 2009, 2:12pm PDT

Self-Introduction

To. My host family,

Hello!! Nice to write you. My name is Takako. Thank you for being my host family. I’ll stay wit you for six weeks this coming summer. Before arriving there, I want you to know about me so let me introduce myself I this letter.

First f all, I’ll write about my basic information. I’m 29 year-old woman living in Kumamoto Japan. I’m 152 cm tall so I’m short here I Japan. People may think I’m a child there! I have dark-brow eyes, black hair and pale orange skin. A photo attached to this letter is a picture of me. I go to KG University and I’ll be senior this coming April. I’m majoring in English ad studying pedagogy to get a teaching license. I want to work at a junior high school or high school as an English teacher after graduating.

Next, I’ll tell you the things I like. I like listening to music, watching movies and TV, cooking and doing yoga. As for music, I often listen to Japanese and American pops. Corinne Bailey Rae, KT Tunstall, Stacie Orrico, The Ting Tings, Sheryl Crow, Cristina Aguilera ad may other American musicians’ songs are in my music player now. As for movies, my favorites are Ever After, Legally Blonde, Pirates of the Carribean, The Devil Wears and other American movies. I can’t write down all of my favorites. They are too many. As for TV programs, I like watching Japanese and American dramas. Recently, a friend of mine introduced me to “Dexter” and I’m hooked on it. I also like Lost, Gray’s Anatomy, The L Word and other TV dramas. There are many American TV dramas at video rental shops in Japan so I can watch many American dramas in Japan. They are few years late though.

As for cooking, I’m into baking bagels right now I found an easy recipe ion the Internet. It’s really easy and quick. I’ll bake some during my stay there! Also, I like cooking curry. It’s very spicy! Do you like spicy food? If you like it I’ll cook it for you! As for yoga, I’ve just started recently. I have stiff muscles and I can’t pose properly yet but It’s enjoyable.

These are the things I like. Now you getting to know about me? I want to know about you too! Please write me back! I hope to hear from you soon.

Sincerely yours

Takako

(408words)

Yum Yum ABASHI's curry, rice and naan ♪

Posted: April 6th, 2009, 8:47pm PDT

I want to YouMe Town Hamasen yeaterday afternoon and had lunch at ABASHI. I like this restaurant's curry very much and I sometimes go to YouMe Town Hamasen only for the curry. You can choose your favorite curry from the wide variety. Here is a photo of my curry　below♪

I went there with my sister this time. Here is a photo of my sis's curry.

We both had red curry. They also serve green, white, yellow and black curry! They are not that spicy but they surve curry with special chilli powder so you can adjust the hot flavor.
After we got full, we shopped around the mall and enjoyed shopping♪ 　

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