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This is Aya Kawai. She is 21 years old. Her
faculty is Science and she studies biology.
Her hometown is Sapporo in Hokkaido. She
likes doing Kenpo Karate or Kung fu. She
has a father, a mother, a sister and a grandmother.
She lives with a goldfish, too.
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Living Barefoot |
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I’m for living barefoot for three reasons.
First, it is good for our health. Feet have
many therapeutic points, known as ”tsubo”
in Japanese. They are pressed and pushed
when we walk without shoes, which makes our
body tough and healthy. Secondly, we feel
relaxed and comfortable by walking barefoot
in nature, touching the soil, plants, flowers.
We can feel nature with our skin. Lastly,
we can enjoy some games by going barefoot.
Grab at small things with your toes, carry
them and throw them away with your feet,
and you can get a sense of jolliness you
can’t get from doing it by hand. So, I want
to go barefoot and live a healthy life, too.
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Life in Antarctica |
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I wouldn’t like to live in Antarctica. One of the reasons is the weather. Antarctica is the coldest and windiest place
on earth. Cold or windy weather makes me inactive. Comfortable weather is important to live
happily. The food is also another reason. People living in Antarctica can’t always
eat fresh vegetables and meat. They can’t get balanced nutrition. The third reason is transportation. Antarctica has no subways, no trains, maybe
no buses. They travel around the continent by plane
or skidoos or cars. It is not convenient for the people who live
there.
However even though I don’t want to live
there, they have a good lifestyle
which we
must try to imitate. It is recycling. McMurdo recycles 70% of their garbage and
people there don’t dispose of
their garbage. That protects not only the environment of
Antarctica but also that of the
world. We have to follow them to save the Earth. And we must thank the scientists living in Antarctica. They research the rise of the sea level,
climate changes and other things. They predict the future of the Earth and
help taking good measures to
meet those situations. Owing to those things, our surroundings will
surely turn in a good direction.
Even if someone gave me a lot of money to
live in Antarctica, I would turn
down the
offer and not go there. And yet don’t forget that I thank and respect
the scientists there.
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My travel experience |
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| Last year, in spring, I went to Korea with
my family to celebrate my entering
university.
It was my first trip abroad.
Korea
has many good tasting foods,
so I looked
forward to eating them. To my
surprise, the
roads in Korea were very wide.
For example,
one road has four lanes in each
way. This
road was made so it could be
used as a runway
in the war. I noticed the cars
have priority
over people. In fact, a woman
on our tour
came near to being hit by a car.
Moreover,
Korea has many skyscrapers. I
hadn’t thought
that Korea had had many such
buildings before
I went to there. To our disappointment,
the
cultural buildings, temples and
statues were
under reconstruction for the
World cup. We
couldn’t see some of the famous
buildings.
However, I was satisfied with
this trip,
because I ate various foods,
such as “bibinba”, ”kimuchi”, ”purukogi”. They are very popular in Japan. I’m
very happy to know what they
really taste
like in Korea. I want to go there
once more,
eat other foods and see other
famous buildings. |
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I hope... |
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I hope the plaintiffs will win their lawsuit.
They are definitely victims and
it is the
people who break the rules, not
they, who
are to blame. They did neither
cause troubles
in the onsens, nor cause the
onsens’ financial
damages. As with the damages
the onsens got,
the onsens were also responsible
for them.
The world is going toward international society. Now, a lot of foreigners come to Japan, and
are eager to know Japanese culture. For the foreigners who didn’t know how to
use onsens, they should have
not only made
pamphlets, but also explained
the way of
using onsens orally. Not giving
oral explanation
was professional negligence.
The most important
thing is that the plaintiffs
didn’t do anything
wrong. It is unreasonable that
they were
rejected only because they are
foreigners. How do you feel if you are prevented from
going into the shop because you
are a Japanese
when you go abroad? You should
think the
feeling of the victims. It is still more unreasonable that some place
refuses the people who hadn’t
been Japanese
but got Japanese nationality.
I want to ask
the onsens whether they refuse
even Akebono
or Konishiki. If you discriminate
someone
by his or her appearance, or
races it clearly
offends The International Convention on the Elimination
of All Forms of Racial Discrimination. The law is a champion of justice and saves
weak people. I believe Japanese law and Japanese judges
are fair to foreigners.
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Volunteers for children |
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| Older people can do many things for children.
First, they can make good use of their experiences of bringing
up their own children. If they
help parents
who work by looking after their
children
as a baby-sitter, it will have
a good effect
on the children: they reduce
the loneliness
of the children, and broaden
their horizons
by spending time talking together.
They can
take care of children in their
house instead
of going to someone’s house.
Secondly, I recommend that they make presents
for children such as wooden toys,
knitting
or something else of their own
making. This
produces at least two good results
for them.
One thing is that they can see
the pleasure
on the children’s faces; the
other is that
making something by using hands
prevents
their minds from becoming weak.
They can
also hold cooking classes to
pass on the
traditional tastes not only to
the young
but also to the middle-aged.
In another way, elderly people in advanced
countries can help children in developing
countries who can’t get enough food or education
by donating a little money per month. They
can play a role as foster parents from a
distance. They can know how children are
going by receiving letters. Older people
have lots of knowledge, so they had better
make the most of it for the children of the
next generation.
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