Are Yuu happy ? of course YES!!

IES is OVER!!

2006-01-25T23:05:00.000-08:00

I can’t believe that IES is over!! Can you believe that?! I thought at the beginning of IESb, it seemed like never end because everyday I had a lots of work and they were like nightmare for me. But…. Just over…I’m really sad. Won’t we be never in the same class together? Won’t we study social science or literature together? Really? How fast time flows….
I wanna say thank you here to everyone. Because of you guys, I could get over many hardships. I can’t imagine if you were not my classmates and if you were not here. I really appreciate you so much!!!! We are together forever!!

Assignment of Darren’s class

2006-01-10T20:46:00.000-08:00

Why people prefer books written by men to books written by women is, I think, that in the past women had less opportunity to get education than men and women were not allowed to publish their writing or they were even not allowed to write something. Because of that, women tended to be no smarter than men, so this old relic may stay still now and it makes people prefer men’s books. Genre is also big point. There are lots of categories of book like fiction, nonfiction, science fiction, history, action, love, etc. Men often write science fiction, action and history or mystery while women tend to write about love or other kinds of story. In terms of category, men write more than women. Basically I think old relic is a big key.

Coming of Age Day

2006-01-10T19:59:00.000-08:00

On January 9th, I went to Coming of Age ceremony and met a lot of old friends. It was really enjoyable. Most of girls wore Hurisode and beautiful white fur, so they looked so beautiful, perhaps more beautiful than usual . Most of boys wore black suits, not Hakama, so it’s kind of boring. But what made me surprised was that boy has dramatically changed, I mean they were really childish when they were junior high school students, but now they looked like kind of adult!? Especially the boys who were shorter than me become taller. On the other hand, girls has not so changed.
I can believe that I’m already adult, 20 years old!! May I be adult?! There is complicated feeling in my mind, which is I’m happy to be an adult but I don’t wanna be adult yet…..umm difficult. Anyway that’s the way every one should pass! Now that I became an adult, I will act like adult!

The First Stay☆

2006-01-09T06:33:00.000-08:00

On January 5th to 6th my friends (Saki, Towa, Miki, Midori) came to stay my house. This was the first stay for us. We ate soymilk nabe, which was also the first time for me, but it tasted pretty good!! After eating, we still continued eating chocolates, snacks and bread though we were extremely full….. maybe we must have got fat a little …
We sat up late at that night because we confessed one individual secret with each other (not so surprising, just tiny things) which excited us so much!! I hope we can spend such fun time someday again.

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!

2006-01-03T06:29:00.001-08:00

Happy New Year, everyone!! New Year has come! How are you doing? On that day, I visited my grandmother’s house and saw my relatives. After eating and drinking, we went playing boring. It was pretty enjoyable!! Next day, I went to Tennoji and Umeda for bargain and bought a lot of things. I am really satisfied with them, but I am kind of regretting of it…because I spent all the money I got including OTOSHIDAMA….but I am satisfied☆ Anyway this is the last chance for me that I can go bargain, so it should not be bad. I miss I can't go bargain next year(-_-;)

New Year's Eve

2006-01-02T05:35:00.000-08:00

I had a part-time job today even though it is New Year’s Eve, so I am a little bit tired. Anyway I was really looking forward to this day because I can eat delicious OSECH foods. I can’t come to this day without OSECH!! It was pretty nice.
This year was a great year, I think, because it was decided that I could go studying abroad and had great teachers. Also my English ability somewhat improved maybe… I think. I would be in NY next year and spend New Year’s Day there, which means I can not eat OSECH, soooooooo sad!! Not only this thing, but also I am lonely next year….Anyway, I hope next year will be great as well as this year!

Winter Vacation

2005-12-21T07:12:00.000-08:00

Hey, finally winter vacation has come!! We have had really hard time this weed writing 2 papers at the same time, haven't we? But we were finally released. I have a lot of plan during this vacation like party, part-time job, training camp of synchronized swimming and a coming-of-age ceremony. Im gonna wear my mother's kimono which is kinda old. But it is so crassic that it might be good because it's a little bit different from othres, normal kimono. I m really looking forward to wearing it☆　BUT, before planing fun things, I have to do homework....

I made it ☆

2005-12-03T22:58:00.000-08:00

Hey listen! I passed the exam of dual degree program! I can’t believe that! but I’m really happy with it now. It was a long way to come here…but finally …I passed! This is all thanks for you, Bs and teachers!
However the hard time is waiting for me, which is departure course. I know how hard it is because I have seen my friends working hard and sometimes getting in trouble. It was so terrible! So I have to get over it to go studying abroad.
There are still a few people who have interview for 2 1 1 program. Now that they came to this final stage, whatever the cost, I want them to pass. GOOD LUCK on your interview and prepare well for it!

Interview

2005-11-30T06:46:00.000-08:00

Today, I had interview for 2 years dual degree program. I have heard that this is so hard because the inerviewes are so mean! Since I heard this rumour, I prepared well for this but I was still pretty nervous. As the interview got started, Saki was critically attacked by the interviewes,which made me extremely nervous! but Saki did a really good job.
I was waiting my turn, yet I was not so asked about my subject or my motivation for this program. I wonder why I was not?? The interviewes were not interested in me??? I have no idea.. anyway the result is gonna be announced this Friday, I can't do nothing but wait!! I hope I, Kazu and Saki all pass!

YOMAWARI SENSEI

2005-11-26T15:06:00.000-08:00

Today, I went to see a lecture of YOMAWARI SENSEI, a Japanese teacher who is traveling around Japan by lecturing people how wonderful to live. He used to be a high school teacher but since he got doubtful about what teacher should be, he retired his job. Now he is doing corrective training by working around Japanese down town like Namba or Shibuya at midnight. He has never scolded children even if they are wrong, which is his motto. According to his lecture, he has slept about 2 or 3 hours a day for 14 years because he has been doing it and busy sending a large number of emails back to children around Japan who are suffering. One thing I couldn’t believe is that those children are not his real children, but he is always thinking about them without sleeping time. I wonder how I can act like this, no, I can’t!! At the same time, I thought there are a lot of teachers who give up teaching children how to live successfully, not just English or math. So if teachers like YOMAWARI SENSEI increased, Japan would get better than now, and recent children could have hope for the future….

Gaidai Festival

2005-11-04T03:50:00.000-08:00

I went to Gaidai festival with Saki, Rina, Towa and Midori today. There were lots of fun! IESbs ran a small junk food stand last year and we were quite busy, so we relaxed and enjoyed this year. What I was really excited today is Michika's dance!! I used to dance until I became a university sutudent,so when I was watching her dancing, a good old memory rushed into my mind and wanted to do it again! Mai's tea ceremony was also great because current Japanese are fogetting old japanese traditions and there are few people who can do Sado and Kado. I miss that I can't go to next Gaidai Festival since I will be studying abroad....

WE ALL PASSED!!

2005-10-31T20:28:00.000-08:00

Finally we IESbs all passed the test for studying abroad and got a full scholarship! The day we all expected to come finally came! Now I am looking back my harsh memory when I was a first year student as IESb… it was really nightmare.. but my effort paid off anyways. I'm thinking to apply to 2 years-degree program since if I graduate from university, I will have an opportunity to work at a company in the US earning a littele money. Don't you think it's cool? This is called "practical training" for only people who are not native American and graduate from Ameican university. So I wanna use this opportunity before I really start working. But before doing it, I have to pass the next test...

Japanese Interview

2005-10-28T18:58:00.000-07:00

I had Japanese interview today! This is the final test for studying abroad program, so I was really nervous….. As I thought, it was more severe than English interview and teachers were not friendly at all or even they seemed evil enemies! Although interview itself was not so difficult, the atmosphere of the room was too bad. I thought I made it maybe. The final result will be announced next Monday, so I hope I pass and have good start to prepare for the degree program.

English Interview

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

I had an English interview today and I think I have well done it because interviewer made me relax and they seemed friendly. At first I was really nervous although had not been so when I was waiting on the chair. One of my friends was before me and after his interview, he said “it was quite difficult, they asked me about technology and asbestos!!” then suddenly I got nervous…. too bad!! However, the interview was not as difficult as I thought, I mean they asked about those, of course, but I could manage well! The result will be announced on next Wednesday, so I hope I pass this test and go next.

Working as a volunteer!

2005-10-21T06:09:00.000-07:00

Finally I have finished volunteer work at a welfare facility in Hirakata. I had been working for taking care of elderly people for a week as a volunteer and I think that I got lots of great experiences in my life! At first I didn’t feel like doing this job because it seemed boring and hard. However once I did it, I came to like it! I can’t believe myself to like this job and think I try to keep this job as a volunteer. I’m not sure if I can continue because I’m gonna be busy… but I hope I can! This opportunity completely changed my mind, how I see elderly people and how I treat them. Now the world is becoming the aging society. Since we are sure to live this world in the future, so we need experiencing this kind of volunteer work at least once.

My problem...

2005-10-15T18:56:00.000-07:00

Hi, Bs! How are you? Lately I am very depressed and I’m not in the mood for studying or perhaps anything…I don’t know why. Maybe lots of things are happening around me every day. And am I wrong? but I think everyone seems not energetic lately, too. There is little homework and papers compared to last semester though, why are we like this??
That’s because we had test for studying abroad and it is still continuing? Or we have less homework than before? I guess if this situation continues, we may go wrong way….that’s too bad!! Cheer up! Bs! We all must be great! and can do anything! There are about 4 months left until IES finishes, so let’s do our best till then.

Animal Rights

2005-10-07T06:31:00.000-07:00

Last Thursday, we learned the reality of animal rights in the lab and we saw a lot of pictures of animals being killed and used grotesquely for experiment. I have known that animals, especially rats, have been used for the tests of chemical reaction or something for preventing dangerous harm on human beings, but I never knew that other animals such as dogs, cats or even monkeys have been under such experiments now. The pictures of them were so terrible that I can’t explain in my words. Thanks for those animals, however, we can use chemical products or eat genetic foods safely. I know animals for experiment are essential and it is impossible to quite the animal tests… I might contradict myself…but I am really sorry for those who are used for human’s safety. In fact, no one can disagree with animal tests because there must be nobody who hasn’t used products under the animal tests…so difficult to solve….

New semester has started!!

2005-09-27T21:36:00.000-07:00

I am away from this blog lately, but it does not mean I had completely forgotten it. Anyway we have a new teacher, Darren this new semester and I'm looking forward to learning lots of things that Scott did not teach us. 1 and harf years have passed since IES has started...how fast time flows !! I can not believe that im here now and able to do writing , reading and a lot of things with few trobles. You know this is the last semster(I'm sad....) I wll do my best as I have been doign so far so that I won't regret anything!!

Thank you, SCOTT♪

2005-07-18T16:45:00.000-07:00

Finally the day we have to say GOOD BYE to Scott has come.....I can't believe that this day has come really faster than I was thinking. I learned so many things from you that I can't tell all and all things have become benefitiable for me . I'm sure that those things will help me a lot through my English life. I hope you will get "PhD" of social science and become the best awesome teacher in the world!! Thank you for everything, Scoot! I could really enjoy your class, so please teach other students like you thought us. And NEVER foget us!

Good News and Bad News at The Same Time!!

2005-07-08T19:56:00.000-07:00

Finally the place where Olympic Games in 2012 will be held has just been decided!! That is London, UK. I am glad to hear that because my fellows of synchronized swimming will taka part in it (I’m sure!) and I can see go to London to see them! However sad news has happened at the same time (>_<) The terrorism has happened again…. Why!? People were happy for Olympic news though, why this is like recently?? I am really sorry for them who died and were injured of this terrorism. I hope this won’t become the spark that touches off the war and the 2012 Olympic Games will be held peacefully. Also I hope synchronized swimming won’t disappear from it FOREVER like baseball or softball (-_-;)

AIDS problem

2005-07-02T23:11:00.000-07:00

There is a global problem people concern seriously now. That is HIV problem. When I was reading a news paper in the morning, I remembered I had learned about AIDS problem in global issue class. According to UNAIDS, the main cause in Asia is that addicted people use unsanitary injection when they use drug, and they have sex, which infects people with AIDS. Also it is estimated that there is 10,000 people with AIDS in Japan. The main cause in Japan seems people have sex with anyone and the age when people have sex is gradually getting younger. I wonder why there are lots of Japanese who have AIDS although Japan is a developed country and good in education about it. I really worry about it because the solution of this disease is not found yet, so people have no choice but death… Japanese prime minister, Koizumi reported to donate $500 million for this problem! I think this is good news for the world (but I wonder where such money is in economically bad Japan….). We should learn more about AIDS and try to stop spreading it any more at least in Japan.

Global Warming

2005-06-25T21:15:00.000-07:00

I found an unbelievable article on the internet. According to the article, at least 125 people died of dehydration and sunstroke in India. It is also said that such people will amount to 300 if including unreported people. In India, its temperature is over 50℃which is almost twice as high as that of Japan in May!! No way! Of course this is because of global warming. However, even if temperature is too high, people in developed nations won’t die because they have lots of way to avoid from heat and hotness like air conditioning or other electrical device. But these people in poor countries have few machines for cooling or even they don’t have their own shelter, so they can nothing by themselves!! I wonder if temperature in the world keeps increasing, what will become of those people and the earth? Probably we will have died before the temperature of the earth become so high that we can’t live, but if we don’t take some actions now, our offspring won’t be able to live. This problem should be solved not only for us today but also for our people in the future…

Hankyu is great now !

2005-06-18T17:18:00.000-07:00

Good news for my fellows?? Yesterday, I went to Hnkyu Department Store for sale! (I had a lot of homework, though….)You know it’s gonna be remodeled, so everything is unbelievably cheap. I bought some clothes for this summer and I’m thinking to go next weekend, because there seemed to be still more things I want. Hankyu Department Store is going to be a huge building with the 41 floor and the 2nd basement, which will be biggest compound building in Kansai area if it is complete. Anyway, I really recommend you guys to go once, partly because you should finish Peter’s assignment next week (I hope….)! You will get lots of things with less money that usual. I promise it 's profitable for you !(^^)!

Economic recession causes using of oil to disappear?

2005-06-10T06:56:00.000-07:00

When I was reading Yomiuri News Paper, I found what we are just learning, which is about tendency not to use oil. I really didn’t know that the price of oil has stayed high recently and it might cause people to decrease using oil. OPEC seems to try to keep its price stable, but it is still getting high. Why they are doing so is that increasing price of oil may cause economic recession, which also causes low demand of oil by developed countries. Also mainly countries that export oil are developing countries, so they are simply afraid of losing their job. As we have learned, new renewable energy is now being created and it is less polluting to environment. I think it sounds better using new energy that present oil. I expect the day may come soon that the use of new energy will be replaced instead of using oil…….

I'm so sorry......

2005-06-05T03:09:00.000-07:00

Today the competition of synchronized swimming, called Kansai Sensyuken, was held in Namihaya Dome in Kadoma city. This was a last competition for my team because next game is gonna be held, dividing groups according to ages. I really regretted for my lack of teaching ability. It was really last, but I couldn’t make my students cheer up themselves and couldn’t get high score. It might be partly because I was so tired and lacking of energy that I couldn’t do, but it’s just excuse! I sincerely apologize to them for my fault...but try hard and do your best for next competition!! I hope you will win a prize and be good competitor...

My friend has gone…..

2005-05-30T03:56:00.000-07:00

Today my speaking partner left Japan and has gone back to America. I had a lot of valuable experience with him and he gave me a lot of fun. When I first met him, I wondered if we became good friends because he looked very earnest unlike me. As a matter of fact, I took much time to open up with him, but he was really smart and hones, so I was always comfortable to meet him. Now I miss him and maybe either do Saki and Towa, but we promised to visit his house someday. I m looking forward to it! Eyal, thank you so much for a lot of wonderful experiences and I hope we will meet in near future!

What will become of China....??

2005-05-27T06:39:00.000-07:00

I found serious article writing about China on the internet news. It says that unemployment between 15~29 year-old people has risen to 9% which means 6% of people have no job so far as a whole. This is because the education of China is not well-balanced. It means in urban area, people take higher education, but on the other hand people in rural area take low level education. As we learned, there is divergence 　of education level between the poor and the rich. Even though the rate of unemployment of people who graduated from university is 5%, people who graduated from high school and technical college are 30% and 37%. Also 38% of people who got a job don’t have a stable contract with company. The reason is due to the low level education. A kind of the same problems is in Japan as well. However, Japan is, I think, well-balanced in education, so situation is a bit different. We are so lucky to have been born in Japan because there is better education than China, but to get a job, we have also to consider our future so that we never lose our job.

How can I do on my conflict….

2005-05-22T01:45:00.000-07:00

I am now in the big conflict that if I keep teaching synchronized swimming as a main coach. The head coach of my club suggested to select the head coaches of each team again for the next competition. I had been a head coach during this spring vacation and worried about my students at any time. As routine, I do it only during vacation, but once school starts, I have no time to care of them and go teaching. That’s my big problem! I wanna keep it but I am really busy everything, so how can I manage?? The time that I have to prepare for study abroad will come very soon and I will be more busy than now. I was told that if I couldn’t keep coaching, you would become a sub-coach. As a matter of fact, I know I can’t but my boss says to me to keep, but I can’t, but…….What should I do!? Tell me please…..

A Japanese man was restrained agoin!!

2005-05-11T18:36:00.000-07:00

I watched the news in this morning about that a Japanese man was restrained again in Iraq. I was surprised at that news and wondered why this man joined French army group as a special unit of foreigner and went to Iraq because, I think, he must know many people including Japanese have been restrained by a terrorist group. Moreover according to the rumor, he didn’t come back to Japan for the funeral of his mother and his younger brother has not seen him about for ten years. There are a lot of mysteries there…anyway I feel sorry for his younger brother rather than him since I saw his brother apologizing with tears in the TV show although he did nothing wrong. It appears that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs has not found any information and that of French too. I hope this man is alive and released as soon as possible.

When will the relationship beween Japan and China be made up?

2005-04-22T05:18:00.000-07:00

I think China is really persistent even though Japan is sincerly apologizing to war crimes victims for having kidnapped chinese women and raped them. This fact truly is more than Japan can't atone forever, but it goes nowhere unless China perceive the Japan's honestness. Im not gonna say that Japan have supported China and sent money or aided foods as compensation for this crime, but China also should not forget it. One of my worry is if Olymppic Game which is supposed to be held in 2008 in Beijing will take place, because my friends were selected as japan national team members of synchronized swimming. There may be a boycotto so that Japanese athleates save themselves. I hope Chinese people will understand Japan and we will make good relationship as soon as possible!

I found it out!!

2005-04-19T23:13:00.000-07:00

Today I found out why divergence of economic was born between poor countries and rich countries. There are basic strategies for growing economical level. people can make more profits by allowing them to sell and buy products freely than making strict rules. It's may be too late,but if poor countries have such a system in the past, they might be rather rich than now...is there　any way to solve this situatio?? I thnik difficlt because it's too late! it will take a long time to change poor countries rich....

I'm afraid of coming homework !!

2005-04-14T03:55:00.000-07:00

I'm almost going to finish this first week. I wonder I am so tired because class started suddenly and get up in the early morning everyday...sleepy. Have you already realized that our teachers haven't given so much homework yet?? I'm glad to be like that really but at the same time, I'm afraid of sudden much homework. I can't imagine how much homework are gonna be given to us from now and it's terrible to think about that..anyway that's the way it goes. Today I learned a lot about developping countries as well as developped countries, one of the big Globall Issues.I have never noticed that there are so many developping countries all over the world, opposingly I thought that most of countries such as China or Brazil are developped countries. There is a big mistake!! but that's unbilievable. In today's class I wondered that there are some connections between developping countries and natural resources.Why?? There are a lot of natural resources in developping countries, but I can't explain how they are connected, I just found it!!
I am looking foward to meet Globa Issues in class and thinking about it ,also if possible it might be so much fun to find some solutions by our selves.

what are your goals for IES this semester?

2005-04-11T18:02:00.000-07:00

That is to develop my reading and writing skills to get a quarification for studying abroad next year !! During spring vacation, I hardly read English books or listen any thing about English although I decreared "I'm sure I study hard everyday , I promise" I'm now really regretting myself. now that new year started, i decided to try to work hard really. I really wnat to go abroad and learn new things in english especially about educational things, so i f I can, I would like to get 2,1,1 program or program for educating English teacher. I expect this semester a lot of new things I heve never studied last semester.

my first blog

2005-04-11T17:43:00.000-07:00

hellow!! this is my first blog.