Kazutaka's Blogs

Why students choose more books by male writers?

2006-01-10T18:48:00.000-08:00

I think the reason why students read more books written by male authors is men are thought to be better writers than women. Most book that students read for or in classes are academic ones. I think especially in academic world men tend to be trusted or authorized than women. For example, generally speaking, people tend to trust theories or lectures by male professors than women professors. I think when people choose academic books, they think books written by men are better than ones by women. So, when students or teachers choose books for classes, they are more likely to choose books written by male authors.

Lord Of War

2006-01-10T04:55:00.000-08:00

As i wrote before, i wanted to see a film "Lord Of War". So, i went to see it this winter break. i wanted to see it just because it seemed good movie. Leading actor is a famous and the preview made me interested. Actually, I didn't expect so much. But when the movie was over, i found it is a so great movie. It was about a American weapon dealer. He is said to be the most successful dealer in the movie and sell tons of arms, not only guns, but also even tanks or helicopters. What made me surprised is that the main character is created based on 5 actual weapon dealers and many events have really happened. There were many shocking scenes in the movie, it tells many shocking facts and all of them are true. I think i heard about somethings that are related to events in the movie. But when i heard it, they were not so shocking. Actually, they are very shocking facts, but seeing visually and listening the facts at the same time made me more shocked. Every information this movie presents us are very important and those that people should know. I was never bored or tired with this movie even a minute. I thought this is the movie that people should see. So, I strongly recommend to see this film.

Japanese movie supply companies don't treat serious movies well because Japanese people don't see movies like that and just ignore them and ignore what is happening in the world, like none of supply company tried to show "Hotel Rwand" till some people asked to do it. So, there aren't so many movie theaters that show this film in Japan. But i think this is so great movie, so i want people to see this film.

Merry Xmas!!

2005-12-22T00:08:00.000-08:00

it's been snowing today. it snowed a lot. it's very rare that it snows so much in December. i'm so happy that i could see so much snow. i always will be excited when it's snow since i cannot see it's snowing so often in Japan. i had fun with my friends when i was a kid and snowed. i don't have fun with friends now when it snows any more, but it's still great when it snows.
because it snowed a lot, there have been so many problems exerywhere. there are traffic jam everywhere in highways, trains stopped and so on. i have to go to Kansai airport today. but i seems i cannot use a bus to get there. so i have to use train but this is first time using trains to get to airport, so i'm kinda nervous about that. one more concern is that the bridge to the airport can be closed because of wind. i hope it won't be closed because i cannot go to airport. anyway, i hope i will be able to get to the airport and my plane gonna fly right on time.

Enjoy Xmas and New Near!! i'll see you next year.

I'm Free!!

2005-12-18T08:50:00.000-08:00

i have just finished a final paper for Peter's class and short essay for Darren's class. Which means i have done almost of assignments that i have to do this year. i don't know what is wainting in last two days of this year, but i guess nothing will happen. i still have to do a final paper for Darren's class, but it is due in next year and it might not be so hard one since i can choose historical topic. i think i should choose a book for the paper as soon as possible. anyway, there won't be any more works that i have to do this year. so, i can enjoy my free xmas and new year holiday. i got a big plan and some small plans this winter break. i don't tell the big plan yet. as my small plans, i will go to see movies at least two, King Cong and a movie about a weapon dealer. i want to see "男たちの大和"(Otokotachi-no-Yamato, Men's Yamato). it about sodiers who tried to go to Okinawa with the biggest Japanese battleship, Yamato, during WWII. it might be interesting movie and i wanna really see it, but i don't have money to see three movies. it is too expensive to see movies in Japan. anyway, i will enjoy this coming winter break. i will sprend half part of the break on the big plan, and spend lest of break on small plans and par time job.

Congratulations!!

2005-12-09T04:53:00.000-08:00

it's so great that everybody in b class who applied for two-one-one and dual degree programs has passed. i passed both of them. i'm so happy with that, but, actually, it's kinda nightmare. i cannot decide which i should choose. my friends say it's such an extravagant worry. but, for me, it's so difficult to decide. both of them have merits and demerits. i wanna study history abroad. if i choose two-one-one, i can take classed whatever i want to study and concentrate on the subject that i want study the most. on the other hand, if i choose dual degree program, i can get degree. but there aren't so many cources forcusing on a topic that i'm interested the most. i want to go to graduate school after finishing Gaidai. i heard that what i need to go to graduate school is recommendations of some professors. i will be able to them even if i choose two-one-one. but what i also heard is that if i had a B.A. of an university in the U.S., it would be better to go to graduate school. i'm thining of working to get money to go to graduate school in Japan. i think it would be easier to get a job in Japan, if i had a B.A. of a university in the U.S. but i'm not sure of finishing B.A. program in the U.S. successfully. becasue it's gonna be far harder than doing same thing in Japan. So i cannot decide which one i should choose. Please give me advise!! i have to choose till monday.

Religious Rapist

2005-12-09T04:38:00.000-08:00

today, i got really angry when i saw a news about a rape ciriminal. he was a prienst and arrested because he raped some small girls who went to the church. the way he raped the girls was that he scared the girls saying that they would go to hell if they refused him. i have completely no idea why he could say this. he is a priest. he should have not used religious words to commit crime. i don't believe a god. but, he just insulted and betrayed the god which he believes and swear to work for the god. moreover, the hearts of the victims would have be injured so deeply. they don't expect a man who they called "father" do such a terrible thing. they won't be able to believe in the god anymore because the horrible criminal used the name of god to rape them. what is more, they said the maximum sentense the judge can charge him with is only 20 years of imprisonment under the present law. i think it is too light. he has raped innocent and pure girls. their hearts won't be able to be fixed forever. they might even unnable to trust men. he has done such a terrible crime. he is the worst in worst. i think government must change the law and impose far heavier sentense on the man(actually, i don't even want to call him "a man").

Getting Colder

2005-12-07T07:31:00.000-08:00

It's getting colder and colder in these days. There are many people who got cold in Gaidai. What I was surprised is that it snowed yesterday in my hometown. My hometown is colder than other cities, like Osaka, but it is pretty rare to snow at the begging of December. Usually, the time when it snows first is the end of December in my hometown.
Many people say they don't like winter since it is cold. But, i personally like winter. Because i don't think cold weather is so hard to me. Of course, i'm not saying i like cold weather, but i sometimes feel good when it is very cold and no wind outside. i feel very cold air by my face on such days and it sometimes very good to me. another reason is that it snows in winter. i always be excited when it snows, even if it didn't sheet. and if it snows, i can ski. i don't ski so well, but it is so exciting to ski. i always feel like going to ski when winter comes.

UN fired a woman!!

2005-12-06T02:42:00.000-08:00

I found a pretty interesting news on internet. According to the news, UN will fire its female stuff for doing sexual harassment and having favorites. I was very surprised with this news. In Japan, there many laws or rules relating to secual harassment. But all of them are for women. There are no laws or rules of sexual harassment for men. Men will be arrested, if they say some words that women think they are offensive or feel uncomfortable. But whatever women say to men, they won't be arrested or charged with sexual harassment. Also, there are "Ladies' only train" in almost ever line. Of course, it was made to protect women from sexual harassment in trains. I know it's good idea, but when I see "Ladies only cars" that is not so crowded while other cars are full and I'm crammed, I always think it's unfair. I always wonder why I have to stand in a car crammed with stinky fat selfish salary people people while women are on a car which not many people are there and they all look comfortable. Anyway, I think the decision the UN made is great and Japan should think about what they have done recently. There must be some men who are suffering from women's sexual harassment.

Hayabusa

2005-11-23T05:42:00.000-08:00

In these day, there are news of a Japanese probe, Hayabusa. It is trying to get a piece of rock from a small planet, Itokawa. Accoding to news, Hayabusa tried to land Itokawa on 20th, but JAXA thought the try failed and ordered Hayabusa to get away from Itokawa. However, today, they found Hayabusa landed on Itokawa on 20th for about 30 minutes and it may get sand of Itokawa accidentally. It is the first time making a probe land on and take off a small planet!! It is so exciting to me. Moreover, JAXA says they will make Hayabusa land on Itokawa and try to get a piece of rock again. If it successed, it is the second time getting a piece of rock of a planet since America's getting a piece of moon.

It is always exciting for me to hear about human beings' success or tries in spase, such as international space center. I don't know how they will use the piece of rock from Itokawa and whether it is beneficial or not, if they could get one. Anyway, it is great if they could get a piece of rock. They can make the world think Japan is a successful country in field of researchning space. They may think Japan is not successful country right now because Japan have failed to launch space ships many times and wasted much money. Actually, I thought Japan cannot be succesful country. But, it has changed. I think Japan is a successful country and can be more successful. Japan have so great skill and good at making sophisticated things, and it will benefit Japanese exploitation of space. I think I won't be able to go to space, but I hope that the world which people go to space easily and live other planets, such as Star Wars, would come in the future.

Movies

2005-11-22T07:21:00.000-08:00

My father, recently, often watch movies at night. All of the movies are pretty old and they are black and white. I don't know most of actors and some actors who i know are very old now. Although, i see only part of them, but i found interesting things. Japanese popular old movies and American ones have things in common.

Stories of old Japanes movies are about famous Samurai, such as Musashi or Jubei. And many of them are series of those famous samurai. Also, American old movies are about cowboys such as Wyatt Earp. And they have more than two stories of Wyatt Earp as far as i remember. Both Japanese and American old such movies have almost basecally same stories. Heros fight for justice with their men or alone, kill bad guys with guns or swords and end with happy ending. Heros are always very strong and very talented people. They have some difficulties or obstacles, but they overcome them and get rid of bad guys. At the end of the movies, Heros leave town or place where they fought and go somewhere. Those stories are very simple, but they are interesting and good to me. I can see those movies without thinking anything.

On the other hand, modern movies are different. Many of them have complicated stories and very sophisticated. Sometimes it makes movies bad. They have complicated stories and end up with unclear ending. it sometimes make me think what the endings mean, but in many time, i feel frustrated. i sometimes think after the ending" is this movie really ended? What is the conclusion of this movie?" So, i think old movies are good, though many people think they are boring or something. they are new to me because i'm not in the generation which people grown up with those movies. they have good stories, though the endings are predictable. they show what justice is directly to us. So, it is good to see old movies some times. By the way, i want to see the Seven Samurai since i haven't seen it though it is famous around the world. i saw American version of Seven Samurai, but i think i should see original one.

Dinasaur Exhibition 2005

2005-11-12T06:12:00.000-08:00

Last frisay, i went to dinasaur exhibition 2005 in Nagai, Osaka with my friend. I looked forward to going because they said there are some things that is shown in public for the first time in the world or Japan. The most attractive was the real fossil of T-rex, Sue, and a replica of whole fossils of Sue. Sue was a pretty big and its bones were so huge. Its face was very scary and each teeth were bigger than my fingers. There are many other fake fossils of dianaurs, but Sue was the bigget one. Actually, the place where exhibition is held is not so big, so there aren't so many things. It was kinda sad to me. I wanted to see more fossils and replicas. There seemed to be only dinasaurs that relates to the theory of evolution from dinasaur to birds. So there were not so huge dinasaurs and famous dinasaurs.

I found a pretty interesting theory of T-rex. As we saw in Jurassic Park, people think T-rex ran so fast, faster than cars. Even if people who didn't see Jurassic Park, they might at least think T-rex ran fast because it looks like ran fast. But according to the theory, T-rex didn't run. It says T-rex didn't have enough musle to run and balance when they run. It says even if T-rex could run, it was far slower than we think. It is very interesting that many things change thanks to research of researchers and latest technologies. I wish I could change theories of history or find new things by resarching in the future since there are lots of that is unknown or unsure in the world. It is always an exciting thing finding new facts that I didn't know before.

Anyway, because i was not satisfied with the exhibition, I want to go abroad and visit far bigger museums.

Festival 3

2005-11-05T06:27:00.000-08:00

It was day three of Gaidai Festival. I didn't go today because I didn't need to go and help Oshiruko shop. So I went to Diamond City for the first time, though I always pass near that by train almost everyday. It is a mall. There are not so many mall in Japan and it was my first time going to real mall. So I was kinda excited. We are studying about an American mall in class. Diamond city is like miniature of American malls that I read in an article. There are some kinds of shops and restaurants. Also, one entertaining thing and an amusement arcade are in the mall. I read malls are fun place, but I didn't think Diamond city is so fun. To tell the truth, there are some good shops, like toysarous, amusement arcade and rare shops. A shop which sells soap is pretty fun to see. There are many kinds of soaps and names of soaps are funny too. The most fun thing was toysarous. There are many intersting things, such as mask of Darth Vader and swords which sound weird. The most attractive things are figures of Star Wards. I like Star Wars and my most favorite character is clone troopers. There are some kinds of clone troopers and they are not so expensive. So I wanted to buy one, but I refrained myself buying it because I don't have much money recently.

Those shops were good, but other are not good. There are many shops especially for women. I don't need to see them, I don't even want to see them and I'm not intersted in them. So, although there are some shops that interest me, but most of other shops are not interesting to me. The mall itself is kinda intersting to me, but I think it's because it was my first time.

I think a mall is good place, if there are many shops that attract most people. And I will like a mall, if there are many shops that I like.

Festival 2

2005-11-04T06:47:00.000-08:00

I went to Gaidai festival today as well. I has to go to Gaidai till 10:00 because I needed to plactice Aikido for show in the afternoon. We never had placticed until today. My group was consisted of five people. We were thinking of doing complicated skills first. But we realzed we didn't have time to do them and they didn't look like good. So we decided to changed what we were going to do. We changed them this week and we didn't have time. So we placticed the skills today for the first time. Actually, it was not so difficult to plactice them today since four of us who were thrown away needed to do just one skill. So we didn't have so many problems doing them. However, because four of us just did one skill, show of our group was quite short and I didn't see what others in my group did. I don't know why I should appear in the show though I just did one skill and just was throwed away.

Before doing the show, I could see the show of cheer leading club. It was great. I went to see that last year, but it was far better than last year. They were so cool and some of them were rolling in the air. Senses of proportions of people who were on the tops of towers were amazing. What was more is that everybody was smiling though some of them were on pretty dangerous position. I see some menbers of cheer leading club in trains and they always look like tired and feeling uncomfortable, so I wondered where are those smiles come from.

Festival 1

2005-11-04T06:30:00.000-08:00

It was a day of festival in Gaidai. Our circle run a small Oshiruko(Sweet red bean soup with rice cakes) shop. Because it was a bit cool today, we could sell many Oshiruko. Oshiruko with ice cream was the most selling one. It is very good to eat hot Oshiruko with ice cream. It is kinda new idea to eat Oshiruko with ice cream, so people might be curious about that. So they tried it and they seem to be enjoying it. I ate Oshiruko with ice cream and it was pretty good.

Also, I went to see comedy show. Actually, the first duo was not funny at all. They were just moving weird and it seemed to be elementary students' show. But, other three duos were very funny. One thing that I was irritated was some audiences asked comedians to do what they wanted them to do and it paused the show. What is worse, one of commedians sounded me irritated. Although what commedians asked to do was funny, it paused the shows and it made the shows itself less funny.

Party

2005-10-30T04:43:00.000-08:00

After finishing the interview, we, some of IESb and e students, went to eat lunch(?). Though some of us knew each other and I knew almost all of e students already, most of them didn't know each other. We had a great time then. Everyone could talk with unknow guys and be friends with them. It is always great and exciting to get new frineds.

And then, many of b students went home or another party, but rest of us went to a bar and drunk. It was pretty fun too. Towa, an a and e girls joined us and it made arounsed the party more. All of us enjoyed the foods, drinks and of course, chat. I think we could be good frineds in the end.

I was a bit sad that not so many people could come. Only total 14 people came, even though there are 44 people in b and e class. We could be freinds with only some of each classed. I and some of e boys talked about that after many had gone home and decided to have more parties to get more friends. Since there are few opportunities to become frineds with students in other classes in Gaidai, I think we should have this kind of party and make more friends. So, I want other people who did not come last Sat next time.

Interview

2005-10-21T19:03:00.000-07:00

I had an interview for selection of studying abroad proglam. Before the interview I was so nervous and very uneasy. But I was so glad that all interviewers are very friendly and kind. At the beginning, questions were not so difficult and I could answer them; however, after I talked about atomic bomb, they asked me about the reasons why some people do terrorism. It was quite difficult question and the answer didn't come up with me immediately. Though I could answer that somehow, I don't think I could give good answer and I got so upset. Fortunately, I could answer other questions and finish the interview somehow. I was also very surprised that one of interviewer said he has "5 dan"(pretty high rank) in Aikido.

Surprised

2005-10-20T00:09:00.000-07:00

It takes so long, about two hours, to go back to my house from Gaidai. Because I only have lisence of scuba diving, I can't drive both car and motercycle. So I use trains to go home everyday.

Since I use trains every single day, I'm so tired with using train. But a kind of interesting thing happened yesterday on my way home. Nose railway is the last line that I used to go home and it runs between trees(not always). Because there is a forest, many animals are living there and sometimes they go in the rails. Finally, the worst thing happened yesterday. My train stopped suddenly and some people thought it reached the station, but there wasn't station outside. There were just many trees around the train. Everybody thought it's weird. Then, the driver told us that the train had just run over a deer. It took around thirty minutes to fix the train because the damage was big. Finally, the driver somehow fixed the train and I could go home.

It's very sad that a deer was ran over by a train and dead. I'm so sorry about that. But I could experience a rare happening and it broke my boredom.

Happy Anniversary

2005-10-08T07:07:00.000-07:00

I attended the event that cerebrates 30th anniversary and opening of new Dojo(the place people practice Martial Arts) of Aikido Kansai area head office. Because it was a big event of Aikido, many important people came and there were expensive food at the party after the ceremony. Probably, because many people are old, there were only Sushi, Soba(those are good for health) and alcohol. Though i couldn't eat so much, Sushi and Soba was pretty good. I guess those were made in good restaurant and very expensive. Also, alcohol which a western guy who lives in Japan and Vietnam brought was good as well.

But, those are not all about the ceremony. The greatest things were that the son of person who created our Aikido school and the strongest master came from Tokyo and we could see Enbu(opportunities that we can see other guys do skills of Martial Arts) of the head person in Kansai area head office. Also, many masters from many areas came to Osaka. I was so glad to see them. Maybe, I will never have opportunity to see them at the same time. Of course, Enbus of them were so great and i could see some skills i have never seen. But the most impressive thing was that i realized all of masters(except for the head person of Kasai area. He looks always angry) were smiling and looked very kind. Then i realize that this is that the creator of Shinshin Toitsu Aikido always wants to tell us, "to live always with positive Ki(i'm not gonna explain Ki since it is very difficult idea and even Japanese people don't believe it till they experience it). I couldn't imagine the life always with positive "Ki", but finally i could imagine the live vaguely. I thought masters were very strict and scary, and i was afraid of seeing them; however their all words and actions were positive and broad-minded. Therefore, i could know a bit that how it would be with positive Ki today.

About my Friend

2005-10-07T07:31:00.000-07:00

Recently, i talked with my friend from U.S. in Japanese garden in Gaidai. He came to Japan in this August and joined Aikido circle. When we met first, he asked me how many years i'm practicing Aikido, why i began Aikido and so on. I thought those were just casual questions and meant nothing. But when we talked in Japanese garden, he talked me why he began Aikido. I was so surprised with his reason and at the same time i was so happy to hear that. Because his reason of beginning Aikido was so great and deep one, and i was kind of ashamed with my cheap one. According to him, he started Aikido to train his "heart" since it's so important and necessary to him. And he told me about his thought of spirit of Aikido and it was very profound. I thought many Western people don't care about spiritual strength and rely on power until then. But i was so pleased to hear that and know that there are people who understand one of Japanese hearts and respect it.

Babies

2005-09-28T18:46:00.000-07:00

Last weekend, my friend's brother got a new baby. I haven't seen her yet, but I have seen some photos of her sister and she was pretty cute. I think Western babies are cuter than Asian babies, though, of course, Asian babies are cute. I don't know why I think so, but I just think they are so cute. And my Japanese friends agree with me. What I thought interesting is that Western people say Asian babies are cuter, on the other hand. I think cultural difference is one of the reasons, but it's not all. So, I sometimes wonder why this happens. How do you think of this?

Final Blog

2005-07-17T21:24:00.000-07:00

This is my last blog for this semester. i will probably write some blogs next semester because blogging is a kind of fun thing and there are always so many issues on the earth.

this semester was very veneficial for me. i could learn many kinds of global issues and be interested in what happeing around the world. if i didn't learn about poverty in this class, i wouldn't buy white band and sigh the long walk to justice campaign. especially, since i could learn about environment, i came to think i should learn eco-tourism when i study abroad stronger than before. furthermore, this my thought enable me to decide what kind of job i want to get in my future, though i didn't have any idea about that before. and i hope others also interested in global issues and think they can do for those problems. i don't want them to forget about global issues at the same time this semester ends. and i want to keep what i learned through this semester in my head and try to do what i can do for them.

finally, i'd like to say thank you so much for letting me study global issues to Scott. if i didn't study those, i were one of people who don't care about what happening in the world. and i hope i can see you again in calgary.

The Long Walk to Justice

2005-07-12T03:43:00.000-07:00

today(7/12), i went to "Toward Record". i rarely buy CDs and don't want to pay so much money for CDs, so i didn't go there to get CDs. actually, i went there to get "white" wrist band. this band is a band of a campaign called The Long Walk to Justice. it is world wide campaign to reduce poverty in the world. and many famous people are encouraging people to be involved with the campaign. it is becoming very poplular in Japan because many famous musicians do concerts as one activity of it and many mass media report those concerts. additionally, as i meantioned it before in my blog, hollywood stars flip every single three seconds to let people know that children die every three seconds in the world.

according to website(http://www.hottokenai.jp/ Japanese cite), white is symbol of the campaign, so they say we can wear even white string or bandage. but i recommend you guys to buy the same white band as mine because they say 30% of price is to produce the band, 40% is to transport it and 30% is to reduse poverty. so you can help to reduce poverty by just buying the band. furthermore, though the bands are made in chinese, someone from the campaign office went to the factory and see workers are treated well there. and they are bought to Japan by fare trade.

i heard there are some other kinds of campaigns that sell wrist band to get money to do some good activities in America and they are very popular. The Long Walk to Justice is very popular in Japan especially among young people. unfortunately(or fortunately), there were few bands left in Tower Record, maybe because many people are interested in the campaign. i think it's still good, even if people buy them because they think it's cool. since it still will benefit to help poverty. but i strongly disagree and think horrible thing to sell similar to just get money. unfortunately, there are some companies that sell bands similar to those kinds of campaign bands and try to get money just for them. i'm very sad about that and think those kinds of companies are sucks. so i want you guys to be careful of what is that band for and try not to buy FAKE and EVIL bands.

this band is on sale today, but there are not so many bands left. maybe they are sold out in Tower Record. but i found some in Kinokuniya and you can buy them in other book stores and online. also, i and saki bought extra bands so i can sell some. price of band is 300yen, by the way. also, please sign the declaration.

check out these cits, they motivate you far better than i do; http://backup.live8live.com/ and Japanese cite above to know about white band
http://www.one.org/

"Planetmates"

2005-07-06T08:46:00.001-07:00

As it gets hotter, animals come to be active. maybe in Canada, it's good season for all creatures to do things because it might not too hot and too cold. maybe elks, mooses,deers are visiting towns in Alverta and chacing pity tourists today as well. and of course, dagerous animals have become active.
i heard that someone was attacked a bear and dead by that in Alverta(maybe near canmore and banff). but people did nothing about the accident, though a person was killed. that might be because people thought he/she did something bad that made the bear angry or upset. because bears rarely attack human.
i guess if people in Japan hear this, they will be surprised. if this kind of accidents happen in japan, people do completely opposite thing. once someone is killed by animals, like bears, hunters and police will be called immediately and they will capture/kill the animal.and if bears eat food that people grow for human, bears will be captured and sometimes killed or turtured. i completely diagree with that. and i'm so ANGRY with that. bears don't attack people so often unlike the image which people have toward bears. the reason why they attack people is that people make them angry, upset or think their children will be hurt. and the reason why some animals attack human is human invaded their territories. also, the reason why bears some down to villages and eat people's food is that they can't find, get food and are hungry. it's becaue human deprive their houses(forests) without permission and paying money for the lands. people try to get permissions and pay money, when they ask for lands. it's NEVER fair to deprive homes and food from animals and kill/turture them just because they eat food. they have RIGHTs to eat food that is in their forests. people who destroy forests where animals live and build houses and farms for human will say they bought the land, but it's wrong. the creature that live forests for a long time is not human, but animal. so forests are animals'. human should not deprive them from animals only for human. namely, the ones who should be responsible for the accidents are not animals, but human. human just make causes and affected by them. animals do nothing bad. they just try to live and hold their species.
in these days, some people who were eaten their food by bears realize the truth and plant tree that will have nuts that bears eat. but there are still so many people who think animals are lower than human and human can have a RIGHT to controll animals. but it's completely WRONG. animals are living. they breathe the same air as we breathe. they live in the same planet as ours. human have best brains. but all animals have better abilities that we can't have forever. we can't fly like birds. we can't run as fast as dogs, leopards, horses... we can't swim as well as fishes, whales, dolphins... we can't climb trees as well as monkeys, squirrels... we are not as strong as bears, gorillas, lions... they all have better capacities than us. we can't live without them.though my blog has become so long, what i want to say is that we should RESPECT animals and try to live together because we are all "planetmates"

Cost of Oil

2005-06-22T08:43:00.000-07:00

i red a interestion article about recent costs of oil in Japan. in our class, the cost of gasoline in Japan haven't gone up so high. but according to the article, high costs of oil really affects to our lives. it says that in 100 yen shops, there are no A4 files because producers can't get enough stuff due to high cost of oil. A4 files are very imprtatn goods to us. most of us use that kind of files for many classes and we can't store handouts from Scott, Peter and other teachers and can't hand in our research portfolio for Peter's class(><). anyway, it affects us very closely. Moreover, prastic bags of shops are getting smaller to save oil and money.

this is very bad news for us, but i think this is good news as well. because this situation will make many people think about energy. if the energy crisis affects us directly, many people would start to care about energy and try to do what they can do to save energy. and coop Kobe(a kind of widespread super market) which don't give bags, but sells them since ten years ago, have saved 0.9 billion bags which equals to 106 thousand cans of oil(a can=200L oil). This is huge amount of oil and if all super markets, convenience stores, department stores, etc start to sell bags, we can save far more amount of oil.

North Korea

2005-06-22T08:10:00.000-07:00

the situation in North Korea is unstable recently. High class politician of North Korea said they have made nuclear weapon and an article says North Korea imported metals to make hundreds of machines. They make nuclear weapon by this kind of machine and it also says North Korea can make tens of nuclear weapons a year by these machines. It is so scary. Now that North Korea invented a missile that can aim whole Japanese land. this means they can attack Japan whenever they want.

moreover, of course, the U.S. thinks this situation affects them as well. so as a reaction, they have sent 15 F-117 Stealth combat planes to U.S. military base in Korea and some B-2 Stealth bomber to the base in Guam. Accroding to an article, they can attack nuclear weapon base of North Korea without being found. but they also say those planes can't attack many places at the same time. Moreover, if they make mistakes, North Korea can attack the capital of Korea with more than half million missiles and bullets and a million people will die in first 24 hours. what is more terrible is that if the U.S. Air Force attack bases of North Korea in underground with special nuclear bomb, the polluted air will reach to Japan.

this situation is horrible. it is not what happening in other countries, but it is what really affects us. many people would die and one of them could be one of us, if the situation went worse. i went to Hiroshima and Nagasaki as school trips and went museum of atomic bomb. what i saw there were so terrible. i hope there weren't that kind of exteremely dangerous weapons. and Japan should speak out more about the dagerousness of them as only one country which experienced attack of the Atomic bomb.

United Nation

2005-06-12T03:56:00.000-07:00

i saw a speech of the Minister of Foreign Affairs on TV. he said a really good thing. According to him permanent member of the Security need to include Japan because Japan don't have nuclear weapon. i completely agree with his opinion. all of present permanent member of the Security have nuclear weapons. this situation is not good at all because nations which have such dangerous weapon should not lead United Nation. United Nation was made not to let horrible wars, like world War II, happenand keep the world peace, but those countries with nuclear weapons can't lead such organization. what they should do is not order other countries not to have nuclear weapons and make wars break out, but throw nuclear weapons away and be good example of other countries. if Japan could be one of those members, Japan can be an good example. Because Japan don't/won't have nuclear weapons and one of a few countries that will never do war and have military. if such country could lead such imprtant organization, it can have good effects on other countries.

Energy

2005-06-08T08:06:00.000-07:00

we learnd about energy and Scott said oil is cheaper than water. also,Scott said American people have cars and always use cars. also he said they use cars usually because the price of oil is so cheap.

i was so surprised to realize that oil is cheaper than water. i think it's so strange because oil is limited and decrease as we use , but the amount of water is much bigger than oil and 70% of the earch is water. i can't understand why the weird situation is happening.

Also, today i saw a news proglam which told about General Mortors, the one of biggest car company. according to the news, there was no American car in Motor show for eco-cars and GM decide to fire more than 25,000 workers and close some factories because they can't make as much money as they used to make. the reason is that foreign countries companies, especially Japanese, are selling far more cars in the U.S. some of the reasons are that Japanse cars are cheaper and better. but i think there is another reason why Japanse cars are bought by so many American people. it is that Japanese cars consume less oil than many American cars, so people can save money and it will have good effect on use of oil in the U.S. Moreover, i think many American come to think of environment because GM(or Ford) decided to buy technique to make cars that are good for environment, like hybrid, and GM is afraid of being late for making cars that are good for environment. i think this means American people are more interested in that kind of cars because GM is making cars mainly for Americanm. so this means GM is making that kind of cars for American and American want that kind of car.

The Interpreter

2005-06-01T08:00:00.000-07:00

Today i went to see "The Interpreter". It is so good movie and i enjoyed it. The story is so nice and acters, Sean Penn and Nicole Kidman, are so good. There are some serious and thrilling scenes. I really recommend you to see that.

Actually, i'm not recommending you to see that movie just because it is good movie. i'm recommending the movie also because the story includes a global issue. Although the story, character and events are fiction, a character and happening are made based on real person and event. First of all, the president of imaginary country immitates the president of Zimbabwe. he leaded people there and enabled the country to be independent from the U.K. and he was welcomed by other countries as great person. but after being independent from the U.K., the situation of Zimbabwe didn't change and some people came to complain about that and him. therefore, he began to oppress people who oppose him and his policy.

Secondly, what happens in the imaginary country is the same thing happens in Rwanda and Congo. In those two countries, there are conflicts among some tribes and government and many innocent people are killed. the same thing are happening in the fake country(sorry but i can't tell details). therefore, i recommend you to see the movie because you can learn about the events happening in Africa easily.

Furthermore, before showing the movie, they show a commercial message that many famous acters and singers flip their finger every single three seconds. the three second mean that a child dies in every three seconds because of extreme poverty and the message recommend people to do something to help poor people.

lastly, the director made the movie with hoping world peace. so this movie will help you with thinking about global issue and peace. and, again, it's really great movie.

Cookies

2005-05-24T06:47:00.000-07:00

when we shared Scott's cookies in class, i thought our behaviors and thoughts represent ones of people around the world. For example, when Scott asked us how should we share the cookies, Michika said her opinion(i don't remember what it was)and "if i can, i want to have two cookies". What she said shows exactly thoughts of people. we want to have extra foods or sometimes as many as possoble, if we could, though a cookie for each is enough and fair.
i(North America) and maybe Europe group felt guilty about the situation and thought i should give some of my cookies, because i had 6 cookies. but i didn't give them any cookies then. because other groups except for Afrika were far away from me and i didn't think throwing foods is not good idea, and walking to their places to give was kind of tiresome. moreover, even if i gave some of my cookies, i'm sure i would not give all of my cookies because i wanted to have extra and save at least one for the future, for example i thought i would be hungry after 4th period. these thoughts also represent the behavior of people in developed countries. i guess people in these countries feel guilty and sorry about the situation, but most of them are not doing anything because of many reasons, such as money.
therefore, we became typical examples of what most people in the world think. even though there are enough food to feed everybody, people who can have more than enough tend to extra food, so people who are hungry can't have enough.

Copy Rights

2005-05-20T04:38:00.000-07:00

i got a MP3 player recently and it is pretty good. it is light and small. moreover, i don't need to bring discs with me when i go out. all what i need to do, instead of bringing discs, is just copy songs from CDs to my computer and put them into the MP3 player. it's so easy and takes less time than copying them to MDs. however, when i was copying i remenbered cites where people songs, movies games and so on. people can get them for free!! many people are happy with those webcites.

but i don't think those webcites are good, rather i think they are evil cites. the reason why i think those are bad is that people can get things for free. of cource getting those things for free is so nice, but it's illegal activity. and doing those activities mean that they are so disrespectful to the people who worked hard to make them. they worked so hard and spent for a long time to make those things and make people feel happy or excited and so on. people should get money from the people who enjoy their works. but those webcites unable those people to get money. i think it's so unfair for people who made those stuffs. again they worked hard and spent for a long time to make them and of course they needed money to make them, so it's the matter of course that people who owe to those works.

some people might say it costs too much to get them. but i don't think so. people who get them from webcites at least have computer and it means they are rich. and they can get them cheaply from TSUTAYA or other shops that lend them. and some people insist that they can watch movies before those shops start to lend them. i want to ask them "why do u need to watch them so early?" good movies are good movies forever. they don't become bad movies even though they are old. if they really want to movies as early as possible, why don't they go to movie cinema? they can watch them for 1,000 yen, if they go to watch them on first day of each month, and they can watch sitting on comfortable seats and with huge screen. it's much better than watching with their PCs.

Copy Rights problems might not be a global issue, but it's the problem that people around the world have to work together to solve.

Insects Are Disappearing

2005-05-15T06:54:00.000-07:00

Last Thursday, when i was talking with people belong to the same circle, i found that a moth was flying. i said people that a moth was flying so fast. some girls ran away from the moth immediately. when i and a girl from the same hometown as me saw that, i said "you don't run away from insects because you are from countryside" and she answered "yeah, i was watching frogs eating moths on window". and we talked about that people live in cities are often afraid of insects and buy beatles.

i couldn't believe that people buy beatles because we could get beatle even in the small part near my house. however, while we were talking about that, i remembered that people were selling beatle when a festival was held in my hometown and some people bought them. i couldn't believe that, but i realized that i don't see beatles recently at all and see butterflies and other insects, that i caught when i was a child, so often because houses increased in my hometown and decreased places where many insects were living.

this situation is so sad to me. i think many children are so pity because they don't know that catching insects is so fun and think beatles are things that they buy. they might even don't know where insects gather when they eat dinner. Furthermore, they don't have any forests where they play near their houses. i think we shouldn't get rid of forests where children learn many things from nature.

No Effects From Human Beings

2005-05-03T07:29:00.000-07:00

Today, i saw a TV proglam about the situatin in Miyake island, where eruption happened five years ago (maybe five years). People live in there and forced to leave there because of the eruption have come back there recently. They are still ordered to always carry gas mask.

the main industory in Miyake island is leisure industory. Before the eruption, many people went to Miyake island for fishing, diving, and so on. After the eruption, they cared about that tourists don't come to there because the effects of the eruption is so serious and tourists have to carry gas masks as well.

However, there is very good news for people in Miyake island. when the crew of news proglam went into the sea around Miyake island, they found that the sea has changed in five years. There are much more fishes in the sea than that five years ago. Fishermen who went to Miyake island commented that they can get fishes easier than five years ago. when they dived into the sea, there actually are so many fiches. and most of them are so big. Furtheremore, they found shellfishes they were tought to have become extinct many years ago. they are so big as well.

this news is so surprising. many creatures has grown up so well and increaced while there are not any human beings. it's sad. because creatures grows much better without us. At the end of the proglam, the commentaitor said"proberbly, the natural enemy of them is human beings" i think he is right, because we are destroying and hurting nature only for us and many people still don't care that many speceis are being extinct by human beings. and the activity to save nature is too slow and they are still thinking mainly about human beings.

JR Accident

2005-04-25T03:48:00.000-07:00

Today there was an terrible accident in JR Fukuchiyama line. The line is that i use every to go to school. i heard there are still some people in the train and rescuers are still trying to rescue them. so i had to use another line to get back home. it takes longer and i will need to use that line tomorrow.

but the bad thing is not only that. i was so scared after checking the train schedule, because the train had accident was the train comes next to the train i got on today. i mean i got on the train that left the station on 8:53 and the train had accident left that on 9:08. there are no express between 8:53 and 9:08. what is worse, i planed to get on the very train had accident, because i wanted to go to lavatry when i reach Kawanishi Ikeda station, the station i use, so i decided to go there and get the next train, the train had accident, but it was crowded and i didn't want to wait even a few times. so i didn't go and get on the earlier train.

literally, it scared me to death. if i waited and got on later train, i couldn't write this blog. because i always get on first or second car and the cars bumped into the building were first and second train. actually, i don't have particular religion, but today i felt like thanking God. moreover i want to say thank you to the guys in the lavatory.

lastly, i'm very sorry about all of people and their familise who are wounded and left by the accident.

Welcoming Freshmen Day

2005-04-24T01:51:00.000-07:00

i'm sorry but i not gonna write about global issues today.

Today was a day of welcoming freshmen in gaidai. there were many people and each clubs was recruiting freshmen to their circle.

as people do on every day of festival, there were Enbusai, it's a kind of show martial arts clubs show results of there training. as you can see on my profile, i belong to Aikido circle, so i participates Enbusai. we showed our skill on Tatami, because they are soft and we hardly got wounded on them. but unfortunately, Tatami made almost all of us get wounded. it's because it was so good and hot day today. Tatami were heaten by the sun and the temperature was pretty high, so it was so hard to keep standing on Tatami. and a guy in my cirlcle burned his foot. his burn was terrible, but i guess people in Karate circle are worse, because they were keep standing there long time.

their breaking blocks and ices were so cool, by the way. i think we did good job.

AK-47

2005-04-17T01:00:00.000-07:00

when we were discussing about global issues in the class,a group said weapon is one of global issues. Scott asked them which weapons and they said nuclear weapon. truely, i think nuclear weapons are global issues, but i think they are not the biggest ones. nuclear weapons can kill so many people at the same time, but because of that, they will think very carefully before using them and they are not used after many countries got them. in these days, they say a terrorists group are trying to get nuclear weapons and will use that if they get them. but i don't think they are the biggest problem.

i mentioned the articles about AK-47 before.when i read them, i thought they were far more dangerous than nuclear weapons. AK-47 is a rifle that is used by only one person and they can't kill so many people at the same time. but they are very tough guns and don't need so difficult maintainance, so they are made in many countries. it is said that there are hundreds of milions of AK-47 in the world. they are so cheap. in Iraq, they can buy them fot 40 dollar. so many terrorists or civilians can buy them and they are using them to kill people every day, like terrorism in Iraq, mass killing in Africa, and so on. according to a reserch, more than hundred million people have been killed by AK-47. it's much more than the people who killed by atomic bomb in Hiroshima and Nagasaki. and of cource, AK-47 are killing people right now.

the dangerousness of nuclear weapons and mines are well known and it's good to make efforts to reduse nuclear weapons and mines. but i think more people should know about AK-47 and it's effects and try to reduse them.

What is my goal for IES this semester part 2

2005-04-11T18:36:00.000-07:00

It's lucky to me that Scott is going to teach us global issues because i've been interested in global issues since i had read the articles about the effects of AK-47 in Africa and South America. And also, my family loves nature,so i'm very interested in Environmental issues.Furtheremore,i want to know more about global issues that i don't know yet.

What is my goal for IES this semester

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

First of all, I want to make my English skill be better. This goal sounds likevery normal but I really want to study abroad next year. to aplly for Two One One proglam, i need more than 550 in TOEFL and i haven't reached it. And I want to talk more with my foreign friends. Now i only can talk about easy things but i want to talk about more difficult topics with them. And what is worse, many of them come to speak Japanese fluently, so in these day, i tend to talk with them in Japanese. That's so bad. Because of that, my English speaking skill is getting worse. so i think i must talk with them in English.
it's so lucky to me that Scott is going to teach us global issues.

My First Blog

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

Hello,this is my first blog.