Reminder

Whenever I hear "Sotsugyo syashin," I remember my high school life. What is "Sotsugyo Shasin"? It is a song that is sung by Yumi Matutoya who is a famous singer in Japan. "Sotsugyo syasin" means year book. The words said one day, a woman opened year book, and she remembered  her school life. I like this song. Every year, my high school's brass band played that song in graduation ceremony. Therefore, whenever I hear that tune, I remember my high school life. The graduation  ceremony usually take place in gymnasium, so I remember first my club that is basket ball, and next I remember my class teacher. I really enjoyed high school life, so whenever I hear that song, I feel good. I hope that I get a song here in carbondale like "sotsugyo shasin."

Alone Time is Important

I like to spend time with my friends. For example, I like to study with friends. When I feel that don't want to study anymore, but my friend study hard. After I watch it, I reconsider about dropping study, and I can study again with motivation. It is good for me. However, I like alone time too, especially alone trip. Because when I travel alone, I can get confidence. After the trip, I feel that I can do anything. I think confidence is very important for us. Because if you don't have confidence, you can't do anything by yourself. Therefore, alone time is important.

My Dream…

I hope that I can get success in my job and marry someone before my grandparents will die. Three years ago, one of my grandfathers died due to cancer. I could not believe because he was fine. I was very sad. I was eager to show him my job, my wedding and my children. But now, I could never show him these things. Now I have one grandfather and two grandmothers. They are over 75 years old, and by luck they are fine. My grandparents always care about me, and they are pleased whenever I get good luck. I can know a lot of love from them, and I love them. Therefore, I really want to show them my happiness, so I hope they will live long and of couse with health.

Holiday of culture

We have a holiday on November 3, it is called Bunkano-hi. It means the day of culture. That day is not similar to hallween. People do not wear any costume and children do not do "trick or treat." But we hold many event in any places especially local gym or hall. We can watch some performances, pictures, and so on. All of works are related with japanese traditional culture. And most of junior high and high school take place cultural festival around this day. This festival is one of two tops which is event students like. Another event is sports festivel. The active students like belong to sports club like sports festivel. In contrast, the quiet students like belong to not sport club like cultulal festival. Students play a famous drama, dance, make booth of food, put a their works on some walls, and so on. Many people who are their family and live in near from their school come the school to watch their play and works. Like that, people can meet culture in around the holiday of culture.

Japanese style party

When I went to the bar at first time in the U.S, I was very surprised because most of girls in the bar did sexy dance. It is common to meet your boyfriend/girlfriend in bar here, but in my country it is not common. Do you know "Gokon"? I think it is the most common chance to make boyfriend/girlfriend. A group of male and a group of female meet in Gokon and have diner together, after that they go to karaoke or borling. They do not each other except one of boys and girls who hold the Gokon. I think it is a kind of party. For example, if I hold Gokon here, I ask one of my guyfriends let's hold Gokon. And we decied when and where we take place that. After that, I gather female members around four or five. And one of my guyfriends also gathers his male friends four or five. And then we meet and have diner with some games. If you took part in that, and you would find person you like, you can exchange email adress and telephone number each other. And after Gokon you can hangout just with him/her. Eventualy, you will real date with him/her, in other words, you can get boyfriend/girlfriend. If you have plan to come to Japan, Why don't you take part in Gokon?

I got my boyfriend in Gokon, and our relationship is still good:-)

My First Term Break!!

This time was my first term break for me, so I went Chicago with my friends. It was first trip for Chicago and I was very excited. I had a lot of experiences there. I ate many delicious dishes, for example stuffed Pizza and cheesecake. But my best experience is second day.
I went to Chicago outlet with Yasu. It is far from downtown (it takes about 1hour and half), I know that but we went to there after lunch. We left downtown at 3, and arrived Aurora station that is the nearest station from Chicago outlet at 5. And we could left there at 5:30, and We could get Chicago outlet at 6. We were enjoy shopping until 9, and then we decided to come back to downtown. Therefore we try to call taxi, and we got it, and he said that "I will go there until 10 to 15minutes", so we waited for him. But he didn't come for 30minites!! We were so nerves because if we hadn't gotten that taxi, we would have came back our hostel. We wanted to take train at 10:20, but we couldn't take that train because our taxi didn't come on time. Finally our taxi came there at 10:25, and we could come back Aurora station at 10:40. The last time of train from Aurora to Chicago downtown is 11:20. We waited train about 30minites, and we got it. We arrived at downtown at 12:20. Too late!! Moreover we had to come back our hostel. It is far from downtown (it takes 1hour by train). We took a train and arrived Loyola station that is the nearest station from our hostel. But we didn't know how to get our hostel, so I asked campus policeman. Then he took us to our hostel, so we could come back our hostel at 2am.
I learned that before I go to trip, I have to make plan.

Summary: Finland bewildered by deadly school shootings

In "Finland bewildered by deadly school shootings," by Marius Turula, it explains why school shootings happened in Finland. There are some reasons. First, police said that the people who did the massacres probably contacted each other before they did school shooting. Second, there is deep-rooted hunting traditions in Finland, so anyone who needs to have his/her own gun can buy guns, even young men. Third, Jouko Lonnqvist said that it has become a problem that depression is a mental illness, not only for middle-aged people but also for the young. Finally, Jerzy Sarnecki said that people who did school shootings are influenced by people who had done the same things; they watched these affairs through the media.

http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5gmPkjy3Rc56YqQQ1LYm_OfXgW5VwD93DDESG0

Dreams: Making Them Work for Us

Good dreams give us a good mood. However bad dreams give us a bad mood. Therefor it is important to stop nightmares and change them to positive dreams.
There are two dream therapies to change nightmares to good dreams. According to Milton Kramer, it is important to keep a journal or diary, to review our day, to remind ourselves, to remember our dream, to remember words or pictures from the dream, and to try sleeping later. According ti Cartwright, it is important to recognize your nightmare, to identify, to stop any bad dream, and to change the negative part of the dream.
We have to know ways of changing nightmares to positive dreams to make our feeling good.

Lucid Dreaming☆

In "Lucid Dreaming", by Pamela Hartmann, Lucid dreaming means that you can control yourown dreams; it has existed since 1902, and if you want to be a Lucid Dreamer, there is a way of training. Oliver Fow found "Lucid Dreaming" in 1902, and reacentry Patricia Garfield said that "Lucid Dreaming" gives us conscious. If you want to be Lucid, you should practice MILD, which is a technique of thinking about your dream before you wake up. Then you should recall it gradually, like ABCD order, and write down the dream.

compare culture of colors

Each culture has color associations. For example, in Europe purple is associated with death, but in the U.S. purple is associated with fantasy like king & queen. The U.S. and Japan have similar associations of color. For example, �”stop sign” is red here and in Japan, too. “Traffic signal” has three colors. Green means you can go; yellow means you should take care, and red means you should stop here and in Japan, too. Like that, there are many similar association of color between the U.S. and Japan. However some things are different in the U.S. and Japan.

First, in the U.S. postal boxes color is blue, but in Japan it colors is red. Why are postal boxes red in Japan? Because people can find that easily, postal boxes’ color has become red in Japan. At the beginning of appearance of postal boxes, its color was black, but it is hard to find that in the night, so postal boxes’ color changed from black to red in Japan.
Second, when someone dies, people use black in funerals in the U.S., but in Japan people use black and white. Why do Japanese people use black and white in funerals? There is because in Japan white expresses death. However, since the culture of Western Europe came, people have used these colors in funerals. Therefore people use black and white in funerals in Japan.

Third, when someone is married, people use white in weddings in the U.S., but in Japan people use white and red. Why do Japanese people use white and red in weddings? Because red expresses birth and white expresses death, so Japanese people regard these colors as good colors. Therefore people use red and white in weddings in Japan.

By to contrasting cultures, you can discover new things in your own culture.

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