Increasing Percentage of Students Who Found Work

Declining birthrate, that is the Japan is facing now, affects education system negatively, that’s we learned in Darren’s class. Nevertheless, the percentage of university students who are graduating this spring who found work has improved 3.1 point from last year and became 77.4 percent. Also the percentage of high school students has increased 5.1 point. Not only those percentages but the number of people who wish to work, that had reduced for 15 years, has increased this year. The quality of education system might be becoming lower, but if the number of job applicants would continue to improve, they might study harder to get better jobs and the effects on society might be able to remain.

Selling Off of Osaka Dome

In recent years Osaka City is suffering for deficit. The third sector of Osaka City that runs Osaka Dome, Osaka City Dome, is also not an exception and has decided to sell it to a third party. The bid will be started in a month with the lowest bid price, 10 billion yen. 2 big companies have already inquired about it. Osaka Dome is the home ground of the baseball team, Orix Buffaloes, and also many concerts are held in it. I think nobody is sure which company or organization can run Osaka Dome the best but hope they will keep the dome very entertaining for everyone like now.

Into the Woods!

Today we saw a DVD called “Into the Woods ~~ (I don’t know the exact title)” that mixes various fairy tales that was filmed playing in the theater. Various characters such as Little Red Riding Hood and Cinderella were singing “Into the woods♪” that I could not forget for a while. Since I love musicals, I really enjoyed the DVD that composed most of lines from songs. I’ve seen some musicals by Gekidanshiki such as Cats and the Beauty and the Beast then have a dream of watching a musical in Broadway one day. The schools that students of degree program are going were announced today and Yuu is going to Albany University in NY. Yes! I thought a chance is coming and someone is saying I should go! If I have enough money, I’ll visit Yuu during her staying there cause I’ll miss her, and go to see a musical before coming back to Japan! One of my dream will come true in a few years?

Why more men writers than women?

A few days ago we discussed why many of bs came up with more men writers than women writers, after reading “In Search of a Room of One’s Own” written by Virginia Woolf. Why do women have less room in literature? There are less women writers or men are better writers? Maybe so, maybe not. I’m not sure about it. But there have been less opportunities for me to learn works written by women in school than by men. Especially in Japanese classes from elementary school to high school, there were always more works by men in the texts thus naturally teachers chose to use men’s works in class. But I think this situation is changing as the status of women is becoming more equal to men. Women in the past were often driven to spending hard time as men regarded them as inferior. But they aren’t today. So teachers of Japanese might be going to take women’s works for class as much as men’s in the future.

What Do Pigeons Carry?

I’m researching about “Carrier Pigeons” with Tomoko for Media class. Carrier pigeons used to be around as important messengers especially in battlefields. Though radio was already used during WWI, sometimes the lines was damaged or some locations did not allow for radio use, so carrier pigeons often helped people communicate each other. Eventually they carried thousands of messages that saved thousands of lives during WWI and WWII. Today carrier pigeons are never common but a shocking event happened a few months ago. A carrier pigeon brought a love letter from a girl in Israel to her boyfriend in Lebanon. It caused a big trouble to the Lebanese. They were scared suspecting the pigeon might be carrying a bird flu virus. I am sorry that fear of bird flu influences even such communication in a peaceful couple.

Are You Artistic?

In the last class of Peter, we learned a little about art. He explained the meanings of some famous works and the connection with literature. Some of bs seemed to have no interest in them, but I found it really interesting. Because I gave a presentation about Cubism last year in Allison’s class and the works we learned on Friday were painted around the same age as Cubism. I’m not artistic and can’t tell good from bad, but learning the hidden meanings or the details behind, or only imagining the world in works, I think it’ll be enjoyable. I can’t tell Peter but I personally wanted to learn works of art more rather than difficult works of literature.

Familiar With Murder?

I checked the today’s news on Internet and found 2 injury cases. One case is that a man and a woman were stabbed in the platform of Sinjyuku station, and the another is that a 12-year-old boy was slashed in a park in Nagano. I was relieved to read that all the man, the woman, and the boy got light injuries, but realized it can never be a relief. All three happened to be targeted at random and surely got injured though injuries were not heavy. Such injury cases or murder cases became too familiar for me and don’t give me a shock any more. I think it’s not only for me but for everyone. It’s a kind of sensory paralysis and we can no longer feel real fear sensitively. But we have to realize the necessity of early change of this situation so that we can live safely in this country…

Japanese Literature

I think I need a rest today, so let me talk about not social science. As many of bs know, I’m taking Japanese literature class in CIE. A disadvantage of this class is that I have to read many books, but an advantage is that I can read most of them in Japanese. Every book I’ve read for this class was that I had never read before. So it’s a good opportunity to read various Japanese books as Japanese. Here’s the books I recommend: Oe Kenzaburo’s “A Quiet Life(静かな生活),” Enchi Fumiko’s “Masks(女面),” and Tsushima Yuko’s “An Embrace(don't know what the Japanese title is)”. I’m not sure you’ll like them because each of you has their own taste, but reading books in Japanese will refresh our minds and relieve stress. I think many of bs look really tired lately from school and other tough stuff. I’m sorry for not having enough ability to deal with other’s problems, so hope everyone can find a good way to feel better…

Air Gun in Japan

The affairs of air gun shooting have come out one after another recently and have frightened people in Japan. I have been proud of Japan’s safety because the Firearm Control Law has guaranteed security since early times that prohibits the procession and use of guns. But the fact’s revealed that we are not in the safe country any more. People can easily get the parts of gun on Internet and remodel by themselves to the guns that can hurt and kill others. Before others jump on the bandwagon, we have to crack down on the remodeled air gun. It’s necessary to strengthen the law or maybe reform it in order not to increase victims immediately.