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This is Haruna Shirai. She is twenty years
old. She majors in biology. Her hobby is
listening to music. She likes all kinds of
music except for rock. She is from Yokohama
in Kanagawa. There are four people in her
family: her father, mother, brother and herself.
by Aya Kawai |
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Is Barefoot good or bad? |
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| I think that barefoot is wonderful! It’s
comfortable to walk with no shoes. When I
take off my shoes, I always feel as though
I have been released. And if I could do without
shoes all the time, I would be much more
healthy. I know a kindergarten which makes
children go barefoot for their health. When
first I found out about people who always
live in bare feet, I was surprised. That
is because no person walks without shoes
in Japan. Why? I think the reason based in
Japanese customs. Japanese take off their
shoes in the house, so they don’t feel the
necessity of bare feet outdoor. I anticipate this custom will never disappear.
Therefore I guess I can not live without
shoes. |
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Life in Antarctica |
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I think that life in Antarctica is not so
bad as everyone thinks. If I
were a scientist
and had a subject which required
investigation
in Antarctica, I would go there.
There are
three reasons why I think so.
First, I usually
want to do something other people
don’t
do. I had had interest in high
mountains,
vast steppes, the bottom of the sea and the polar
regions. Few people live in such a place. I wish I
were one of them. Secondly, I
can endure
the cold. My hometown is Yokohama
which is
warm and calm. But I am not contented. So I came to Sapporo which
is cool. I like snow very much.
Finally,
when I looked at the sites about
life in
Antarctica, I thought they could
live without
inconvenience. Of course, there
are many
differences between our life
and their’s.
But there are many institutions
in Antarctica.
I was surprised to know there
are fire stations
in there. So, I think that life in Antarctica is not so bad.
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In Nara-park |
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| When I was a student, I went to Nara for
a school trip. Nara is a very old city where
are many important temples and historic spots
and it is a World Heritage city. By the way,
there is also a big park called ‘Nara-koen’
and there are many deer living there. They
walk freely in the park. In there, ‘Shika-senbei
’is sold for tourists. ‘Shika-senbei’
is deer feed. Tourists give it to the
deer. This can be seen wherever you
go in Nara-koen. I brought some food and
gave it to a deer. After a while, I looked
around and was very surprised. I was surrounded
by deer, deer and more deer! Maybe there
were about 20 of them. They were after the
Shika-senbei I took. Then they grabbed my
clothes. Involuntarily, I tossed away the
Shika-senbei and run out of there. My clothes
were stretched and I was sticky with their
spittle. It was my horror experience. |
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The Result of Lawsuit |
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This problem is very serious and important.
I hope the plaintiffs win, but unfortuately
I think that they will lose this case.
The settlement about this problem was suggested
in May 31. But both plaintiffs and defendant
didn’t accept that settlement. This settlement
was prepared by the chief justice. The plaintiffs
says , “I was disappointed about this, because
I knew that chief justice understand absolutely
nothing about this problem.” When I read
the summary of the settlement, I thought
so, too.
I think the plaintiffs are at a disadvantage.
In Japan, a decision of the court depends
on the chief justice. If the lawsuit goes
on in the present fashion, the result will
be that the plaintiffs case will be dismissed.
But only the defendant and the chief justice
are wrong. The view of the chief justice
is typical of many Japanese. But this view
is out-of-date. We Japanese must receive
all sorts of people.
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What we can do? |
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After she gave up acting, Audrey Hepburn
devoted her life to saving children
who need
help. She played various roles
in the world.
I wish I could act like her in
my old age.
But I think I can’t devote my
life like
Audrey did. It cannot be carried
out without
preparedness. And I think the
things older
people can do is limited. Old
people are
not strong enough to do everything.
So starting with a smaller thing is okay.
The center of activity is fund-raising.
There
are many ways of fund-raising.
For example,
you can contribute to Unicef
on its website,
or in a collection box on a street
corner,
and so on. I think when I grow
older, I can
have more free time than now.
Then, probably
I could have a collection box
myself and
fund-raising could also be collected.
For the moment, this is all I can think of.
If I search, there will be no
doubt various
other methods. I want to find
out those methods
before becoming an old woman.
And I want
to cooperate in making the world
of which
Audrey Hepburn dreamed.
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