Biohazard 3

Hello,everyone!

Recently I havent watched movies for a long,but I watched "Biohazard 3" this week.

It was not better than I had expected.Because the story was not so rich in content. (I think when it comes to horror movies and action movies,sometimes it happens.As a matter of fact I dont watch horror movie or action movies so much,so I cant say anythin bout it tho.)

Only I was surprised at was "zombi" got stronger!lol In Biohazard 1,2 they couldnt ran or I think they walked sooooo slowly.But now they can ran(really really rapidly lol).

Well anyway,I dont like horror movie basically,so its not helpful opinion for ppl who like these movies.So just watch it ;]

P.S

Recently I found really good songs!I will introduce you guys later.But

New Found Glory

Michelle Branch

Death Cab For Cutie

They are awesome!If you get interested in them,plz listen :]

Kiyomizu dera at night!

This weekend I went to 清水寺 "Kiyomizu dera". From 15th of November to 9th of December(this sunday),we can enter Kiyomizu dera at night.

It was really awesome.Of course its also nice to go to kiyomizu dera at noon,we can enjoy the beautiful view,since now the leaves is turning red.But going to kiyomizu dera at night is especially cool!Since we cant enter there always.(The day we can enter there is decided.) And as you can see in the photo,the temple illuminated by few lights were really mysterious.

I suggest you guys should go! :] Its really awesome.Though there are tonz of ppl,but its worth going!

Here the information about it→＊

Recently...

I always went to karaoke with my friends( Maybe twice a week lol) and learned lots of good songs. So today Im gonna introduce some of my recent favorite songs.

1. A thousand Miles　
By Vanessa Carlton
Its really beautiful song. I like her voice.

2.Im like a lawyer with the way Im always trying to get you off(Me&You)
By Fall Out Boy
I know this title is sooooo long,(Titles of Most of their songs are so long somehow...lol) But this
song is awesome, not so heavy punk, so that you can listen to it also when you feel down.But
the problem is you cant sing this song at karaoke....X[ By the way this PV is really impressive!
Plz watch it!

3.Underneath your clothes
By Shakira
I knew the song when my friend sang this at karaoke.The lyric of this song is awesome.

4.So sick
By Ne-Yo
Actually I dont listen "R&B songs" so much.But when I heard this song(Again I knew the song
at karaoke lol) I was fallin love with this song!LoL really impressive lyric!


So these are some my recent favorite songs!If you hav free time,plz listen!

Alone at a time of danger

In this article, “Alone at a time of danger”, Peter Sidell criticizes the attitude of Japanese citizens toward affairs. To persuade his opinion of us he used two examples, the first one is “The murder of a young woman in Kawaguchi City, Saitama” and the second is “The affair of a raped young woman in Osaka”.

In the first example he questions two points.
1. Why did the neighbors do nothing to help the woman even though they heard her
screaming and a loud banging?
2. Why a coworker took two days to find the woman’s body even though he was
afraid that he has lost contact with her for a few days. Shouldn’t he have
　 reported to the police or checked if she was ok soon?

In the second example he questions a point.
Why did the affair happen even though all passengers on the train where the
woman and the man were looked on what happened?

By questioning these points, he blames the attitude of Japanese citizens toward affairs, saying “Is it too "troublesome" or "inconvenient" for people to help each other?”, and blames that Japanese society makes a point of just “the group” rather than “individual life”.

The responce to the article by Kevin Rafferty

Now foreigners can enter Japan if they have a particular passport, but from Nov 20th, every foreigner has to be fingerprinted and photographed to enter Japan, which was adopted by Japanese justice ministry.

There are two reasons for the scheme from Japanese view of point, to prevent international terrorist activities, and to prevent the re-entry to Japan of deported and other aliens banned from entry.

Against this scheme some, especially foreigners, say it’s discriminatory and neglect of privacy against foreigners.

From foreigners it looks discriminatory, since they have to take this audit without reserve (There are few exceptions though.). But it’s not discriminatory from Japanese. By carrying out this scheme we can get more relief toward foreigners. Who can let unknown person enter your house without checking? It doesn’t mean denying the people, but we have to check to know if the person is safe enough to enter your house.

This is the responce to the article,"Not so welcome to Japan any longer" by Kevin Rafferty.

Today’ s article is about “Which minority groups face the worst discrimination in Japan? ”. In this article there are 6 people who are talking about discrimination in Japan. The groups of people which the 6 people think are discriminated in Japan are Chinese, Koreans, Black people, Handicapped people and “Burakumin”.

To this article, Mike Dewood wrote response. In this response he said he actually experienced to be discriminated in Japan.

I think actually discrimination happens because of our “preoccupation”. Usually people who discriminate against some groups or people don’t know about them so much. For example “Chinese” and “Korea”, we often hear they don’t have good impression about Japanese on TV. Actually I didn’t have good impression toward them because I heard such things on TV so many times, I think not a few people don’t have good impression toward them because of the same reason. But in most cases they have never talked to Chinese or Korean actually. As I told before, I didn’t have good impression toward them, but recently I had a chance to talk to Koreans and after talking to them I don’t feel that way any more.

I feel really sorry after reading “Ebb and flow of discrimination”, maybe the people who left in the post of Mike Dewood and who spit in his face just look at one side of “American” and don’t know about “himself” actually. I hope people won’t judge each other from just one side and these things will never happen again.

Responce to 3 articles

To the article,"Four marines investigated for rape" two people reply.

The first people, Manuel Sandval, complains about this article by emphasizing the importance of American military and blames the girl who was raped based on his experiences (You can see it from the word, " I know what type of people work in these places". Though he didn't say why He knew it,so this could be really vague key to believe what he said.

The second people, Kevin Egan, disagrees with Sandoval,especially his prejudice against women .Also He distinguishes the matter from "military", and said "if wrongdoing is suspected it needs to be investigated no matter how respected the person who comitted the crime are.


First four marines who are suspected of gangraping a woman should be ,of course, investigated. Manuel Sandoval disagrees to investigate them,but they should be.

It doesn't matter whether American military is necessary for Japan or not at this point, and also it doesn't matter whether the woman is just a pedistrian or a girl working at a bar as Kevin Egan said in his article. The problem is that woman was raped, and she reported about it to the police, it means rape happened without agreement between the girl and four marines. Maybe she should be blamed too, she might have acted behavior to let them think they can have a sex with her. But if she has filed a complaint, it means she didn't agree to have a sex with them, and it means "rape", which is absolutely a crime, and the one who made the crime should be investigated and punished no matter how respected the one is. It is the problem about humanity.

Why I am in IES

I appreciate that I have to write “Why I am in IES”, because it reminds me of why I came to this college.

These days I always hang out with someone and go somewhere and because of this, I have little time to study, as a result I have to cut off my sleeping time to study. I know after all it was all my faults, but I sometimes thought “why should I study so much?? I don’t care if I will be kicked off from IES anymore.” forgetting why I came to this college all the way from Hokkaido. Recently it was more important for me to have a fun “now” than studying for the future.

Actually having fun now is important, since we can’t go back to old times. We should have fun now. But I found I should think about the future as well. Because future is a result of what I’m doing now. I have some bad experiences because I thought about “now” too much without thinking about what’s going to be in the future. Even though I have such experiences, I almost made the same mistake and broke my future dream! But this assignment gave me chance to think about what I should do from now again.

Okay, so why am I in IES? It’s because I want to study abroad successfully. I want to learn about education system of other countries. For the plan I want to study abroad to see and experience actual education of other countries and I thought it was good chance to be in IES to succeed studying abroad. That’s why I am in IES.

This week

This weekend was fun.I went to karaoke with Yuri and Hitomi last friday.It has been long time since we went to karaoke last time.

Since we were so tired because of exam,homework and lacking of sleeping(lol) when we met at around 1 am,we all looked so tired and sleepy.But we sang songs(most of time we talked though....) After finishing karaoke, we went back home and had a good sleep!It has been long time since I slept for more than 5 hours last time.(Recently I slept only for 3 or 4 hours everyday.)

By the way recently I seldom cook by myself...lol I know it is not good for my health,but I dont have any time for cooking.(Actually I have,but I wanna use these time for sleeping...lol) So if you guys know some recipes which I can cook easily,please tell me!I will do my best to cook this week!

Thank you for reading!

Nara

Last Monday(08/10/2007) I went to Nara with my friends. Since I have never been to Nara before,it was really good experience!

We went to see "Toudai ji" and lots of temples in Nara.In "Toudai ji" there were lots of forigners much more that Japanese.We wanted to hang out with deer,but since we didnt buy cookie for feeding them,they ignored us.

We enjoyed sightseeing in Nara at first,but at the end we were so exhausted that on the way to home all of us fell in asleep, and we forgot to get off the station we were supposed to get off.

** This picture is from "Toudai ji" **

Responce to the article by Tomoko Otake

After reading this article, I realized there were so many “gairaigo” in Japan, some of whose meaning I don’t understand. Somehow we, Japanese are attracted by things from other countries, especially western, say fashion, singers, models and languages, and want to use them and want to know about them more. Of course it isn’t particular only for Japan. It’s typical for lots of people to be attracted by other countries’ things. For example there are lots of people who are attracted by Japanese things and sometimes they wear shirts with kanji on. It’s kind of same situation as what the author is talking about in this article. However these tendency seems to be much more powerful in Japan. For example lots of young girls in Japan want to look like celebrities in other countries, lots of Japanese like western music or western movies and as this article said, lots of “gairaigo” are used in daily life or even official places. It’s because of, as the author said, Japanese people's long-standing sense of inferiority regarding all things Western.
The problem about this is that we use these words without knowing the meaning of the words and we use these words just to show off or not to miss the trend. It means we use these words without translating it into Japanese. If we will continue to use these kind of ways to use words, we won’t use “Japanese” itself and finally we may lose “Japanese”, our own language in the future.

Summer vacation in Hokkaido

During this summer vacation I came back to Hokkaido,my home town, and met lots of my friends in Hokkaido.I had a lot of fun but especially it was really fun to go to an amusement park with my best friends.The amusement park's name is "Rusutsu" which is the beggest amusement park in Hokkaido.
As a matter of fact Im not good at riding roller coasters.However since it cost too much for me to go to Rusutsu,I tried rinding as many roller coasters and something like that as I could,though there were few roller coasters I couldn't ride....
Since it was so hot there,we ate two ice creams and rode lots of roller coasters over and over again!
After leaving there,my frined who moved to Aomori for college came to my house and stayed all night.Since we haven't met for a long,we talked about each other's school,love story and new life without a break and we went to bed at 8am,woke up at 3pm.After waking up,we went to McDonald without make-up(Since we were so tired and hungry...) and talked about the same topics as we did the last night for 2 hours.After I parted from my friend,I went back home and soon went to bed again.It was really fun.I miss my friends over there.

Gion maturi in Kyoto

Yesterday(16/7/2007) I went to Gion maturi in Kyoto with Yuri and Hitomi. It was the first time I have ever been to Gion maturi,but I have often heard this festival was really famous,so I have wanted to go to see it for a long!

It was awesome!The scale of this festival was much larger that thoes of Hokkaido!Moreover there were lots of people!

We went to "Yasaka jinjya" and this is the picutre of the temple!

Icecream

Thesedays I eat ice cream everyday because of hot temperature.lol

So today I will introduce two ice cream which I love!

First is "Mcflurry"!Last friday the new flaver,"stroberry&oreo", was released!You can eat it in Kansaigaidai.It is really delicious!

Second is "31 ice cream".It's a little expensive,but worth eating!"31 ice cream" is near hirakata station,so If you have a chance,please try to eat it!Thr below picture is "31 ice cream"!

I finally go back to Hokkaido!

Yesterday(2/7/2007) the date for the exams of this school were published!!I have exams on 23 th and 26 th of July.So after that I will go back to Hokkaido soooooooooooooon!
The day when I will go back to Hokkaido is on 29th of July!
Because of that Im so excited,and yesterday I called lots of my friends in Hokkaido and we promised that we will held a party!I cant wait!

But of course I know I have to study for exam before that...X[ But okay!I will do my best!

Today(30/6/2007) Im staying in Hitomi's house(Now Im writing this blog in her house lol) with Mituko and Yuri.

I intended to go to her house around 8p.m.But because of the lacking of my sleep(These days I rarely slept...)I overslept and Yuri came to my house to wake me up around 11pm!(Im so sorry,Yuri!!!!!!!I know my room was mess and smelled...bad?LoL)

After arriving at her house we talked,but all of us fell in sleep soon....and I was taken picture of me by Hitomi while I was sleeping.(Maybe you can see it in Hitomi's blog)

But anyway It was really fun!Please invite me again,Hitomi!Next time I wont oversleep!!!LoL

Living alone is awesome!

Thesedays I find living alone is really awesome.
I often invite my friends to my house,or am invited to my friends' house thesedays.I seldom did it when I lived in Hokkaido,because there were my parents in house but living alone makes it possible!So it was really interesting for me!
However bad things for that are I have to clean my room thoroughly before my friends come,have to clean my room after my friends come back to their home and my time for sleeping become less and less because of that.So lately I often feel sleepy.

But for me it's worth reducing my time for sleeping!!!!

Baby hatch

Today I want to talk about the issue of "Baby hatch".

"Baby hatch" is a facility that if parents cant take care of thier babies(in Japan babies who are put into the baby hatch should be newborn babies.),they put thier babies into it,so that these babies will be saved and given medical care.

I guess most of you may know,there are lots of opinions about the baby post.Some people disagree to it,and others agree to it.As examples,There are two letters about the topic.
Letter One (This author disagrees to the baby hatch.)
Letter Two (This author agrees to the baby hatch.)





About letter One:In this letter,he says "I now work with developmentally disabled adults..."As you can see,in this statement,not only does he just give his opinions to the reader but also he gives his experience and says even if there are no facilities like baby hatch,the abandoned babies can live and overcome thier sad experience.And also he talks about 3-year-old child who was taken to the baby hatch. In this statement he gives us the example which actually happened to the baby hatch and says the baby hatch might help some parents to abandon their children more easily.


About letter Two:This author uses the fatual information to make her point. For example she talks about a baby who was abandoned by a junior high school student and her boyfriend and died.She says if there had been a facility like the baby hatch,the baby might be alive now.




I agree to letter two.


Because Baby hatch can actually save abandoned babies.There excists the issue that lots of babies have abandoned thesedays,and thesedays I often hear that parents abandoned their babies.If there are no facilities like baby hatch,these babies are obviously doomed to die.But if there is,then it might save them.It can increase the percentage of these babies' survival rate,no matter how small.

Summer Sonic

Today I wanna talk about summer sonic.It's the big concert where lots of foreign singers perform and which is held in Japan a year.Have you ever been to the concert? This year, Avril Lavigne comes to this concert.I guess some of you like her!And also some bands I like comes for the concert(For example sum41,Fall Out Boy)!I do want to go,but the ticket is so expensive for me,so I can't go this year...but I hope I can next year!If you get interested in the concert,check this site!There are lots of informations about summer sonic 2007!Though Im not sure if there are still tickets left...



This is the movie of summer sonic!

*Click the red words and you can check informations of them! X]

My favorite music!!!

Today I wanna introduce you my favorite songs or singers!

"Sugarcult"
I love them so much(though most of you don't know,and they are not popular so much among the exchange students in this school...lol) My favorite song of them is "HIATIS"♥If you get interested in them,check this site! You can listen to some of their songs in this site!

"Goo Goo Dolls"
I like their old songs!They are not popular so much now,but they was!(By the way Avril seems to respect them.)And this August they will come to japan for summer sonic 07 in Osaka!!You can get some information in this site

I hav more singers I wanna introduce to you,but If I write all of them,I will write a book in this blog,so I won't lol I would be glad,if you like them!

Snow pic!

Thses days the temperature in Osaka is getting hotter and hotter. (at least for me!I don't know others feel hot!)And by the way today the temperature stands at 27℃ here in Osaka.27℃ is the temperature of just midsummer in Hokkaido!I'm afraid of how much the temperature rises in Osaka in high summer.(Maybe I should go back to Hokkaido as soon as the summer vacation starts!)

Anyway because of that I miss snow!After moving to Osaka I haven't seen snow here!And I heard that this year there was no snow in Osaka!(Is it right??)How can you guys endure without snow!?!?!?!?!?!?LoL Where on earth can lovers go to on christmas without snow!?(You know, the scene in which couples is standing in the snow on christmas is common!I'm not sure though...lol)

Well....by the way this picture is present for you guys who live in Osaka!lol I took it,when I traveled in Hokkaido with my friends as a graduation trip(...graduation trip?Is it correct Englidsh?LoL)

The first time I was late for school in this college!

Today I woke up,and found that it was 8 a.m!!!
Actually I wake up at 6 a.m weekday....But today I woke up at 8 a.m,when the dollagon ball starts(LoL)!So I had to skip breakfast and hurried to the French lesson!....I want to say so,but as a matter of fact I gave up hurring and watched the dollagon ball and after it finished,I went to school lol (But I did skip breakfast.It was the first time I have ever skipped breakfast!)
Well I had decided not to be late for school in this college.That's because when I was a high school student,I was always late for school.But I did.....
okay I will never be late for school anymore!...Maybe....lol

An analysis of Commercial for Pepsi♥

In today's entry,I want to talk about the following television commercial,which you can sometimes see on Japanese TV.

Take a moment and watch it!



Target Audience

This commercial's target audience are maybe people who like cola,who like Erika Sawajiri and who go on a diet or take care of thier own Figure and who can understand japanese.


Authority

The Authority of this commercial,which attract the people watching it to want to buy the good, is of course "Erika sawajiri".She is popular actress among young people.So lots of young people are attracted by her.But also "Pepsi" itself is the authority of the commercial. Because Pepsi is one of the most famous cola brands.
There are lots of cola brands,(Most famous cola brands are pepsi and coca cola.) but she said she chose "pepsi" in this commercial.It might attract people who like cola but who don't hav any favorite cola brand.(But it might have opposite effect for the people who don't like her...)

Emotion

This cola is non-calorie,as you can see.And Erika Sawajiri is not fat,but has good proportion.(I guess most of people agree with me.) The audience who take care of thier proportion might think "I can drink this cola,because the woman drinking it has such good proportion!It must not interfere with my diet." Thus the fact that this cola is non-caloorie and that she drinks it may give the audience the sense of relief.

Logic/information

This commercial gives us information,such as non-calorie,delicious and the good's package(shape). And at the end of this commercial,they said "This cola makes you refresh." But the amount of information in this commercial is not enough I think...though I know it's difficult to put much information in drinks' commercials.

Evaluation

I think it works,but they should give us,the audience,more information.And moreover It has a fault,it means whether the commercial can attract lots of people or not depends on which actor or actress the company chooses as a performer.If the performer is the person whom most people don't like,the commercial may not attract lots of people.

Finally,on a scale of 1-10,I would rate this commercial 5.

Because I think it's not substantial commercial.It means this commercial has a little information about the cola,and it seems to me that this commercial is mostly supported by the actress,"Erika Sawajiri".It means if the performer in this commerical weren't a famous actor or actress,I guess this commercial might not attract the audience so much.

20 questions with me♥

(This is an interview conducted on May 1, 2007. The interviewer was Shiori Hiraki)

1. What is your nickname?

Mari

2.What is your hobby?

Listening to western music,Watching movies,Hanging out with friends,Talking

3.What is your birthday?

12/04/1988

4.What do you usually do on the weekend?

go shopping or stay home,listening to music!

5.What is your favorite sport?

Badminton,Soccer(only for watching though..)

6.Have you ever been to a foreign country?

No,I haven't.But I would love to someday!

7.Can you speak another language?

Well....French a little...say Bonjour or something like that!lol

8.How many people are there in your family?

3!

9.Why did you come to this school?

Because there are lots of chances to study abrord in this school!

10.Do you have a driver's license?

No.

11.Have you ever done a part-time job?

Yes,I have.I worked at seven-eleven.

12.Have you ever met a famous TV talent?

Avril Lavigne(not personally,but in her concert...)

13.Do you have a boyfriend/girlfriend?

No. lol

14.What is your dream?

Studying abrord.

15.What are you talented at?

umm...............................nothing...LoL

16.How tall are you?

158cm

17.What prefecture are you from?

Hokkaido.

18.Are you left handed or right handed?

Right handed.

19.What was your biggest trouble you had in your life so far?

Well......dropped "pocket picacyu(I don't know it's correct spelling..)" into public lavatory...lol Finally I flushed the toilet with "pocket picacyu" left in there.

20.Do you like animals?what do you like?

Yes.I like "mini-buta" like " Babe"♥

First blog!

Hi!Im Mari,an IES A student.
I lived in Hokkaido but about 3 weeks ago I moved to Osaka for this college.Liveing alone is really really exciting for me!Because I can do anything I want!LoL

Anyway recently I began school at Kansaigaidai and my new school life is awesome!Though I have to do lots of assignment...But okay!I will do my best!!

See ya!