This is Maiko Yamamoto. She is 20 years old. She belongs to the faculty of education and her research interest is developmental psychology. Her hobby is listening to music. She comes from Shiriuchi in Hokkaido. She has a father, a mother and a sister who is 31 years old. She does not have any pets.

   By Kotaro Fukada

I think living without shoes is not so good for two reasons.　First, living without shoes is likely to hurt our feet when walking in towns. Of course that makes our feet more strong and feel comfortable, but living in towns or cities without wearing shoes is too dangerous. We walk on concreted streets much more than we do in nature. Concreted streets become very hot for our feet in summer, and are so stony that they shock our feet. We can manage to avoid them but it is very inconvenient. Shoes were made to make our usual activities safe and convenient, and help us fit into our cultural environment, so wearing no shoes does not fit our lives.

              Secondly, it is said that shoes cause many diseases, such as hallux valgus, but not all of them do so. It is unfitting shoes for our feet that have bad influences upon our health. Shoes that fit properly do not do so. On the contrary they protect our feet and make our activities brisk. I think that the most important thing is not wearing no shoes, but choosing and wearing fit shoes for our feet. Therefore I am against wearing going barefoot.

              I am interested in living in Antarctica. I think it nice for several reasons.

              We tend to think that there are few people and only laboratories, but in fact, there are many people and various facilities, such as a chapel, bars, a shop and a fire station. Most of the people are probably researchers, but their community is nearly an ordinary town. Their usual lives seem not to differ from ours. Of course, the climate of Antarctica is so severe that we cannot live simply. But they contrive on their clothes, buildings and so on. Japanese say “Sumeba Miyako.” It means that, wherever we live, there are many good points and we can perceive them, so we feel it is the best place where we are, and we can live anywhere. Actually Antarctica, in spite of its very severe climate, attracts many people and they manage to live there.

              So, what attracts to so many people? I think it the grandeur of nature. Antarctica is a frontier continent covered in ice, where there are big crevasses and cliffs. In such a severe climate, many kinds of animals are able to live wonderfully, strongly accommodating themselves to it. Not only is Antarctica full of valuable geological and biological research material, but also, I think, it makes us realize the greatness of nature and the earth, and how we are small but ones of irreplaceable lives. However, human have destroyed the nature. It is said that destruction of the ozone and melting glaciers by the greenhouse effect have appeared in Antarctica. I think that it can be an opportunity that we consider how the earth and we should be. There are a few places like Antarctica in those respects.

              Therefore I want to visit to Antarctica someday, and I think that it would be nice to try to live there.

              When I found out about the news that foreigners had been refused entry to some onsens in Japan because they were foreigners, I wondered about it and felt very sad. Can’t people really understand and accept each other? I want to think so. The attitudes of the onsens were unreasonable and worm-eaten in spite of today’s egalitarianism and internationalism.

              I think the words that refer especially to “races”, such as “American”, “Japanese” and “gaijin” (the word that Japanese tend to call foreigners), are empty. Of course I do not deny these words exist. I think that any words were created because they were needed, so without them we would not be able to envisage various peoples and it would be very inconvenient. Moreover, neglecting the differences between races is also unreasonable and doesn’t fit with the ideals of egalitarianism and internationalism. I don’t want to deny the differences between races and the words that show that.

All I want to say is we should not believe the words to be absolute. I think they were created to separate ambient things so we could envisage them more easily. As such, they show only a little parts of things. Talking about race in this cases, some of the claimants are of Japanese nationality, but are of foreign blood and have foreign appearances. Therefore they were treated as foreigner, and not allowed to enter the onsen. But Chinese were admitted because they look like Japanese in spite of their nationality.

Besides that, the onsen owners said foreigners do not follow Japanese manners as the reason for the refusal. But not all foreigners do not have bad manners and not all Japanese always do the right thing. It is nonsense to judge whether they can follow Japanese manners or not by whether they are Japanese. Life community may affect customs, so there may be more resemblances than differences in activities and thoughts between people in the same country or region. However that is not all. There is also a lot in common between different nationalities and many differences among same races. Thinking so, I started to wonder what exactly the word “race” is. It can be defined in various ways but we cannot find the only absolute definition. It is a very ambiguous concept. Nevertheless, when we see foreigners we tend to be too conscious that “they are gaijin”. I think we should make more efforts to understand other people without being swayed too much by ambiguous words and concepts . We are all the same human beings, but unique individuals.

              I would like to introduce a curry restaurant “JACK IN THE BOX.” It is next to Sapporo Higashi police station, Higashi-1-chome Kita-16-jo. You can get there easily by subway. Kita-13-jo-Higashi station (Toho line) is near there. Its main menu is Sri Lankan curry. Every evening, some cars are parked on the front road while people have dinner. The atmosphere in the store is nice too. Every day, you can hear exotic accordion music there. Sometimes a man (maybe a waiter of the restaurant) plays the accordion sitting on the bench in front of the restaurant. I feel it is very refreshing and tasteful. It is one of my favorite restaurants.

              When I was 16 years old, I went to Okinawa with my mother for a memorial service for my dead uncle. I went two times before then, but I had not see the sights of Okinawa. Therefore I was going to do that then. However it takes 9 hours to arrive to my grandparents’ house from my house in Hokkaido. I tend to get carsick and I was not in such good condition when I got there, so I soon became sick. Nine hours was too long for me then! I threw up five times before getting to my grandparents’ house. Finally I fell into dehydration and I was given an intravenous drip in hospital. After all I had to recuperate at my grandparents’ home while staying in Okinawa. I still have not see the sights of Okinawa yet.

              There are many volunteer activities all over the world, and many people volunteer internationally. Many famous people go to developing countries, and that is often shown on TV. I think it is an important role of famous people to do volunteer work, for the public that have difficulties to volunteer on a large scale. When stars do such work, many media focus on them and we tend to be interested in that. Actually, we know more about activities of stars, such as Kuroyanagi Testuko and Sugi Ryotaro, than about that of the unknowns who work overseas. Of course, the activities that such normal people do should be admired like the ‘stars’. What I think is that stars can use their famousness for activities. The news about their activities can often encourage us to do something to help. Not all of us can do like them, but we can notice that there are something even if it is very little.