SNOW

I spent the New Year holiday in my hometown. But, we had so heavy snow in New Year's Day, and we couldn't go out. Cars couldn't move because of snow. Now, I already have come back to Osaka. I can use bicycle and walk without rubber boots. HahaJ

HAKONE EKIDEN

Happy New Year!!!! How did you spend during winter vacation? Did you have funny days? I watch "HAKONE EKIDEN" (1/2-1/3) every year. "HAKONE EKIDEN" is a long-distance relay road race which University students in Kanto can run. There is a preliminary game and only 10 University's teams can pass. Total 20 University's teams can run in the "HAKONE EKIDEN". The other 10 University's teams are decided at a last "HANONE EKIDEN", so top 10 of a last HAKONE EKIDEN can run. I move by HAKONE EKIDEN every year, and of course, this yare too. I cheered Komazawa University this time, and the team came second. But, all teams impressed me. This year, Toyo University's team won, and last year, the team won for the first time. It is splendid achievement and it needs very very very big effort. I respect Kashiwabara who is member of Toyo University's team and runs an uphill road in the race. I think the course is hardest, but he said "I surely won!" before the race and he said "I enjoyed running" after the race. He has a lot of confidence because of his effort. Everyone in the race had various feeling, chagrin, pleasure and so on. Of course, in winner team, there are students who couldn't run. But, there are strong trust, teamwork and same goal, so they have precious experience. They are just about same old with me. I want to involve in something like them.

Hello^^Do you like hamburger? What kinds of hamburgers do you like? Last week, I went to "Wendy's" for the first time in my life. Have you ever gone there? I didn't know that "Wendy's" is chain hamburger store, so when I saw the name "Wendy's" in Osaka, I thought it was private hamburger store. Ha-haJ Anyway, I ate "Creamy Mushroom Chicken Sand" and "Chile Cheese Fry" the day. "Chile Cheese Fry" is so delicious because it is not just potato fry but there are Chile sauce and melting cheese on potato fry. Have you ever eaten it? If not, you should go "Wendy's" and eat it soon.

Today, I searched about "Wendy's" to introduce it to everyone, but then I saw big news about "Wendy's". "Wendy's" around Japan will close up shop by December, 31 of this year because the contract of franchise with American Wendy's/Arby's Group, Inc will expire. Have you already known it? I was very shocked at it. The first day I went "Wendy's" will the last day. So, you should go there in this year, or you won't eat Wendy's hamburger.

Essay~Necessary Change of Japanese~

Necessary Change of Japanese

Nowadays, our language Japanese is changing as time goes on and circumstance changes. In America, people changed the words longer times ago than Japanese did. For example, "fireman" changed to "firefighter", "policeman" changed to "police officer", and so on. And the words are called "political correctness", changing phrases to prevent. Now in Japan we also start to take a hard look at our words as in the Japanese word 看護婦(kanngofu) changed to看護師(kanngoshi).

Now, we Japanese often use 看護婦(kangofu) to point a nurse, and the word imply female nurse and the kanji “婦” particularly means woman. But now, the correct word is 看護師(kangoshi) to point nurse, and the kanji “師” contains the meaning of woman and man. So, 看護師(kangoshi) means both male and female nurse. In 2002 a law about nurse was revised, and the name was changed as the revision. It was to remove sex discrimination, and it was inevitable for present day. However most Japanese is used to use 看護婦(kanngofu), so it will take more time to spread the new word. There are many other changed words in Japan, because a lot of words aren't appropriate as time goes by. You know肌色 (hadairo) is famous color in Japan, and the color represent general Japanese skin color, light orange color. The kanji "肌" means skin and the kanji "色" means color. But now it is also not the name肌色 (hadairo). Now, the new name is うすだいだい(usudaidai). "うす" means light and "だいだい" means orange color, so the new ward represents the color directly without comparing the color with skin's color. In the old day, the name 肌色(hadairo) has no problem to describe the color, because there are almost Japanese and Asian in Japan, so most people has similar color of skin, of course, the color is light orange. But now, there are so many peoples who have different color of skin in Japan as globalization goes on. And the background of changing the word is discrimination of skin colors in thought. 肌色(hadairo) suggests that light orange color is good color as Japanese, but others color is not good color. Therefore, the name 肌色 (hadairo) doesn’t suit current trends, and it is needed to change.

When I was elementally school student, the word 父兄(fukei) which means parents was used, for example, 父兄参観(fukeisannkan) which means that parents come to watch their child's class. But the kanji "父"means father and the kanji"兄" means brother, and 父兄(fukei) does not contain the meening of woman. A long time ago, men had stronger right than woman, so many words don’t represent female. But now, those words have died and new words like 保護者(hogosha) are used in Japan. 保護者(hogosya) is equal to “parent”, “curator” or “custodian” in English. And, 保護者(hogosya) means father or mother or grandmother or grandfather or etc, so it represents the person who take care the child. Of course 父兄参観(hukeisannkan) changed to 保護者参観(hogosha sannkan). The later contains woman, so it was considered gender free. On the other hand, 障害者(syogaisya ) which is disabled person in English is changing to 障がい者(syogaisya). The kanji "害(gai)" is bad word which means harm and damage, so the new word doesn’t contain the kanji,害(gai) and use hiragana, がい(gai).

Thus, Japanese change to suit current trends. Nowadays people tend to dislike the words, which contain the meaning of discrimination, and that shows us the spread of thought of equalization. Most important tihng is not changing words but changing mind of discrimination.

KOTATSU ~again~

Hello, everyone. Did you see my picture? Yes, I got my KOTATSU at last!!!! Now, I spend comfortable life with my kotatsu. Well, do you know why the kotatsu can be set in my narrow room? I excluded a little furniture, and put new kotatu.

By the way, recently I do online shopping. It is so useful for us and very easy to use. Of course, I bought my kotatsu by online shopping. It is so convenience because I don't have to go far furniture shop and we can use it whenever we are free. And we can choice from so many kinds. It's fun. If we use online shop well, we can get what we want more cheaply. I want to buy OTORIYOSE sweets on the internet. We can get sweets which are sold in limited place or shop by online shopping. So I just wait to come it to my house Jhaha

When I set a kotatsu, I changed place of my furniture and mood of my room to suit winter. My room's color became more dark than summer. Well, I moved my bed and shelf by myself. I enjoyed the change, and now, I make Christmas mood in my room. So I want to cute Christmas tree like Mami's!! I'm enjoying my life in Hirakata. Did you come to want to live alone in Hirakata??? It will be so fun for you too.

November 13, I met my high school friends, Tnaka and Chihoko, and stayed her house in Minou and went to Kyoto together next the day. We belonged to the same club and met everyday in High schooldays, and now we are three live in Osaka!! It's our fateJ. They are the same University student and have the same campus, so only I frequently can't meet them. We talked about each schooldays and spent nice time. Well, I went to Kyoto with chihoko in November 14. Then, we couldn't see colored leaves in Kyoto because the day was too early to see them. Maybe, it was good time last week or now. Did you go to see them? I'll introduce a way to enjoy Kyoto.

Kyoto has so many food store, café, sweets store, especially now we have many delicious foods, and we have reasonable way to enjoy them. Kyoto city has many buses to go around Kyoto city. Do you know Kyoto city bus card limited one day? It is 500 yen. If we use the bus one time, its cost is 220 yen. But, in a case of using the card, we can ride city buses again and again in a day. If we use the card, we can go so many places where we want to go all day long. I and Chihoko used the card and went to many shops and ate a lot of sweets and foods. We can enjoy Kyoto more and more, if we use the tool. So, please try it. Well, I went to Ryoanji (龍安寺). I had never seen it without schoolbook of Japanese history. It is very beautiful place, isn't

it? We went there at night, and saw fantastic scene. We can get relax there. Please go there too.

differences

Hello everyone. Now, I have a speaking partner, who is from Australia. Her name is Ashley, and she speaks Japanese very well. Sometimes, I and she and her friends talk together in Japanese and English. I have studied English so hard to understand their words in talk since I had foreign friends. So, now I enjoy my school life. Today, I’ll talk about differences which I found in life with them.

Please look at the picture. The other day, she gave me some Australian present, for her parents came to Japan, and they brought them from Australia. Do you know “Tim Tam?” I heard that it’s famous confectionery in Australia. And you know, the stuffed animals are koala and sheep. I was so happy to receive the present by her. I felt smell of Australia from them, and they have differences from Japanese. “Tim Tam” may be too sweet for Japanese. Please eat it if you want to know the taste. Let’s ask it for NaokoJ One day, I talked about anything with Ashley and her friend. In conversation, we found differences of nuance of words. First, we Japanese students use 'elementally school', but Ashley and my friend who is from UK use “primary school”. They sad “ ‘primary’ is correcter because 'primary' occurred earlier than 'elementally'. Is it right, Josh? Second, the other day, Ashley’s Japanese friend sad to her, “今日、病院に行ってくるね。(Today, I'll go to hospital.)” which mean she had cold. Then, Ashley was so surprised at the words. Do you know why she was surprised? She associated '病院(hospital)' with big injury, so she thought that her friend had had a traffic accident or a gig accident. Japanese often use 'hospital', but Australian and British don't use it easily. They say "go to the doctor/ see the doctor. It's so interesting, isn't it? It is important for us to enjoy studying, so 'the speaking partner system' in this University is one of good ways.