Loooooooooooooooooooooong time no see! :-D How're you doing?

Recently, I often feel time flies indeed!! My departure is coming... Wow! I'm looking forward to studying in England, but I'm also worried about my new life. I wonder if I can survive in the new world^-^;

Yesterday, I went to Nanba with my friends. I went to the English Pub for the first time♪ One of our friends(he's English) will go back to England soon, so we had a farewell party. But actually, we'll go to the same university, so I can see him again :-) Anyway, we had fish&chips and pizza and drank☆　I had a good time!

I have to begin to pack my things, but I have to study for the test>_<

I need much time, no test!! hehe ;-9

Hello, everyone! Classes started again! Did you enjoy winter vacation? I enjoyed it :-)
Especially, this winter, I had a big event. It was Coming of Age Ceremony! I went to the celemony in my hometown yesterday. I was looking forward to attending the celemony, but yesterday was a really busy day. I woke up before 4 am because I had to go to a beauty salon at 4:30! (I didn't feel I had slept...) We had the celemony in the morning, and I met many old friends there! We enjoyed chatting and taking many photos. I had a really good time :-9
After the celemony, we had a post-party party, but I had classes from today (1st period～), so I couldn't attend it (>_<) What a pity! Eventually, I left Yamaguchi and reached Osaka yesterday evening. I was very tired...

By the way, there are some young people who drink or behave badly at the celemony every year. (not my hometown, though) When I hear such news, I'm disappointed at them and ashamed of them. I think they just want people to pay attention, but they are adults now! They're too childish! We should not trouble others, I think.

How was your Coming of Age Ceremony?

Hello, guys! Today, at last, I went to HIRAKATA PARK with Yoko.W :-) We have talked about HIRAPAR since we were freshmen, so we were looking forward to visiting there.
To our surprise, there were lots of people (beyond expectation!) there. There are many attractions, and we tried almost all of them. The wooden coaster was speedy and thrilling! There is another thrilling attraction. It is like free fall, and it was fun!
In winter, we can enjoy ice skating, too. We haven't skated for a long time, so it was scary a little. But we didn't slip on the ice! Maybe we are good skaters, Hahaha ;-9

After we enjoyed HIRAPAR until evening, we ate yakiniku and did mini year-end party! Although we drank a glass of chuhai, we got drunk (because we got wearied with playing :-) Anyway, I had a really good time! We realized that HIRAPAR was a good unknown spot.
Everyone! HIRAPAR is funnier than you expect, I think. So I recommend you to visit there!

Bye-bye

Hi, there! I finally finished my last report of study of moral education on Friday. Phew ;-)
Yesterday, I went to Kyoto with Maya. We went out together after a long separation, so I was happy☆　We went to a sundry goods store, ate delicious lunch and crepe, did shopping and enjoyed chatting and so on. I could refresh and I had a good time!

Talking of the report↑, we wrote about the importance of life. The topic was; If you would teach junior high school students the importance of life, how would you teach? Hum...the importance of life is a very important thing, but it is also very difficult. I wrote it somehow, but today, I want to talk about a little different thing.
Recently, elementary schools do not teach students "death", so some children do not understand death well. Surprisingly, a girl said "I want to see her and apolpgize to her directly" after she killed a girl. Of course she cannot see a dead person, but she said so. It is because she does not understand that the girl died. When I heard this from a teacher, I was very surprised and shocked. I think we should teach children "death" in not a complicated way.
In Japan, there are many people who commit suicide. Actually, I heard that a girl committed suicide last year. We were not acquaintances, but I had known the girl. She was younger than me. I don't know the reason well, but I wanted her to reconsider before doing such a thing...
We have lots of worries or troubles as long as we are alive, but we have to overcome them, I think. Also, we should not forget that there are many many people who cannot live even if they want to live in the world. For example, in Africa, many children have died every day. It is very sad that there are people who kill oneself though they can live.

Oh, my topic is too serious. I'm sorry if I darkened you.

Hi! Recently, it's not so cold, is it? I cannot believe it's December now! (I don't like the cold, but I want to see snow in winter!) Maybe global warming is more serious than we expected...

By the way, I went to a school for handicapped children this Tuesday and Wednesday as a volunteer work. There are students from 6 to 18 years old. I took charge of the second grader class. There are 4 boys in the class, and we played with them, studied, and ate lunch and so on. At first, I didn't know they were handicapped children because they were very active and they ran around. But the home-room teacher told us that they could not express their feelings or communicate with others well. I heard that they were autistic. The autism is a mental illness that affects children and prevents them from communicating with others.
I had known about autism because I have helped therapy for an autistic child more than 1 year as a part-time job. However, I realized that the symptom was different, depending on the individual.

While we did some activities together, we didn't have much conversation, but they understood what we said well. Gradually, they became friendly to us and I was attached to them. So I was sad when the volunteer work finished, but I could learn many things through this experience.
The last day, one of the teachers asked us "What do you think what handicap is?" To tell the truth, I was puzzled about this question. It's a very difficult question, isn't it?

Anyway, this experience made me think about various things (I cannot express well, though).
But it is necessary for us to know about handicapped people first, I think...

Bonjour! I'm studying French now because I have a French test on Monday. But! French is very difficult for me :-( Although I've studied French more than 1 year, my French is not progressing. I have to study harder...

Just now, I imagined a strange thing. "If we were forced to speak French (or other languages) suddenly, what would happen?" I mean, we are forbidden to speak Japanese. If it happens, I'm confused, and I'm not sure I can adapt myself to the new circumstances. Can you imagine Japanese disappears from Japan, and people speak language which is not familiar to us? At the present day, it is hard to imagine that, but in the past, such a thing really happened.
A long time ago, Japan dominated Korea, and Korean was taken away from Korean people. They were forced to learn Japanese and speak Japanese. Japan forced even children to study Japanese at schools. I think such a policy is really cruel because I felt everything such as Korean culture, history etc was denied. In addition, Japan treated Korean people as slaves. They must have been sad, angry, and they had hard time for a long time.

Now, the relationship between Japan and Korea is becoming better, but there are still many problems and some people hate Japan. We cannot change the past, so it is difficult to understand and accept each other. However, I believe we won't repeat what we did, and other countries which did similar things think so, too. I hope not only Japan and Korea but also other countries can be real friends someday...

Hi, there! I enjoyed our energy poster presentation yesterday! Every poster was creative and easy to understand. I learned many kinds of energy sources and found that the way of producing energy was similar.

Yoko.W and I took charge of BIOMASS. I'll review it. Biomass is plant and animal wastes used to provide fuel or energy. We can also use wood, rubbish, animal manure, seaweed, corn stalks etc. as biomass. All of them are waste materials but we don't waste them! It's good, isn't it?
Through the research, I found that one of them, sugar cane was very useful. Sugar cane can be changed into alcohol, and also can be burned to produce power in the same way as coal. (of course we can get juice and sugar from sugar cane, too!) In California, 60 million bone dry tons of biomass is produced each year. They are not used completely, but if all of it was used, it could make close to 2,000 megawatts of electricity for California's growing population and economy. That's enough energy to make electricity for about two million homes!
Talking of good points of biomass, there are some good points, but I liked certain point especially. It was "plants take in CO2 and produce O2." It means photosynthesis. I think plants are wonderful. Good job! :-) Although there are some bad points too, the use of biomass is environmentally friendly, and biomass is recycled and reused, so it's renewable!

There are many renewable energy sources, so every country (←if possible) should use them which is good for the environment, and not be dangerous, I think.