yasu's blog

Big Fish Writing Assignment

2009-05-03T20:26:00.000-07:00

Tim Burton is also famous in my country, so I have seen some of his movies. I think that he is good at making fantasy ones.
There are differences between the book and the movie. The person who has the magical glass eye is an old lady in the book, but she is a witch in the movie. The witch is unreal in the real world. I think that this change is good, because Edward’s stories are fantastic; therefore, this change makes his story more fantastic.

In the movie, Edward fell in love with Sandra at the circus, and it took three years to figure out who she was. When he visited her, he gave a lot of daffodils to her. In the book, Edward fell in love with her, and he could not talk to her for a long time, and asked her to go out. I think that this change is also good, because the movie is more romantic than the book.
There is a circus in only the movie, and it makes the movie gorgeous. The movie is for the vision, so Tim Burton wanted to make people who watch Big Fish enjoy his fantastic world, so I think this change is good.

The strange village in the movie is different from the one in the book. People in the book are somber, and the dog is fierce. They lost their fingers because of the dog. People in the movie look like that they enjoy their lives. They wear white clothes and dance. If Tim Burton had not changed this scene, it would be weird. I think that he wanted to make parts of Edward’s stories gorgeous and parts of the real world serious. He wanted to emphasize the gaps.

My Major

2009-04-23T13:51:00.000-07:00

I will write about my major, and I think this topic is good for me to remember my original intention. My major is English. I started to learn English when I was at junior high school. I have liked it since then. I wanted to learn it more, so I took English course at senior high school. When I was a sophomore, I stayed in Canada for one month to learn English. My host mother and I talked about my future, and she said to me,"If you like English, it is good for you to be an English teacher." I had not thought about my future seriously, and I just though I wanted to get a job related to English. After I talked with her, I started to think about my future seriously. I liked my homeroom teacher, and she was my English teacher. She always thought about students and was popular among them. Her English skills were also great. I thought I wanted to be like her. Because I liked both English and children, I decided to be an English teacher in the future. I determined that Before I became junior. I wanted to learn academic English and teaching skills at university, so I took an examination for Kansai Gaidai. Some experience and people inspired me, so I chose English as my major. I learned not only English but also other subjects, like human rights, environmental issue, law, Chinese, French, and so on. Because I am senior now, I will graduate from university next March. I will go back to Japan next month, but I will take classes from September. I will just heve half a year left to be a university student. I want to enjoy my university life and study harder to keep my English skills.

Strange things I ate

2009-04-19T09:09:00.000-07:00

What is the strangest food for me? I think Thai curry and pineapples in Subuta are strange food for me. I cannot choose which is the strangest. First, I will write about Thai curry. When I went to Thai Taste, I ate it. It was my first time to eat it. Japan also has curry and rice, and it is my favorite food. Therefore, I was excited when I ordered curry there. However, the appearance was different. It looked like India one. Japanese one has carrots, potatoes, and meat in it, but Thai one has some vegetables, tofu, and herbs. The taste was completely different. It was much worse than I had expected. It tasted like strange soup, and I thought it was not curry. Although the taste was not good, t was good for me because I could try curry of other country. Second, pineapples in Subuta are also strange for me. Subuta is Chinese food, and it is fried pork and vegetables seasoned vinegar, sugar, and soy sauce. When I was an elementary school student, I ate pineapples in Subuta for school lunch. They were very strange, because they were hot even though they are fruits; therefore, I thought they should not have been hot. I could not accept them at all. I will never try them again.

Cherish People Around You

2009-04-12T12:51:00.000-07:00

If I have my words on my gravestone, I will choose "Cherish people around you." I broke up with my boyfriend last night, and I really felt depressed. My friends took care of me. All of them said to me, "You have me." I felt sad and lonely after I broke up with my boyfriend, so this word encouraged me. I called my family this morning. I talked with my mother, father, and younger sister. They were very surprised because I cried. They really worried about me, so I explained to them what happend to me. They said, "We are waiting for you at home. We know you are very sad now, but you will be fine. You should think why you came to America, and do your best." I had not talked with them for a long time, so calling them was good for my feeling. They always take sides with me. I lost my love, but I could realized how important people around me are for me. I have family and friends in Japan, and they are waiting for me there. I also have friends here in America. All of them help me when I have some problems. They also make me have fun. I think anyone cannot live without people around him or her. I want to cherish people around me forever. Therefore, I want to choose "Cherish people around you" for my gravestone.

OTAKU

2009-04-04T17:18:00.001-07:00

There are many Stereotype people in Japan, and I will write about Otaku. Most of them are in Akihabara, Tokyo. Otaku are people who are enthusiastic about anime, comics, video games, computers, trains, pop idols and so on. They spend a lot of time on them. Therefore, they have a lot of knowledge about them. Most of them are single men, but some of them are women. They do not care about their appearance, so they wear unfashionable clothes and backpacks. I will introduce characteristics of some kinds of them. Anime Otaku like watching anime, and they have their favorite characters. Because they like collect goods related anime, such as dolls, they often go to Akihabara to get them. They also like anime songs, so they sing only them when they go to karaoke. Some of them fall in love with their favorite characters, so they are not interested in women in real world. Trains Otaku likes trains, and they take pictures of them and collect miniature trains. They can memorize all kinds of trains and announcement on trains. Pop idols Otaku go to their favorite pop idols’ concerts many times and also buy goods, such as photographic collections, DVDs, posters. They can dance and sing all songs of their favorite pop idols’. Public opinion about Otaku is not good because suspects are sometimes Otaku. People think they are not good at communicating with others face to face; for example, there is the website named “2 channel”, and they use it to communicate with other Otaku. However, I cannot say all of them are bad. I think most of them are good. There are many Otaku in Japan, so they are one of our country’s cultures.

The national flag of Japan

2009-03-29T12:38:00.000-07:00

Japanese flag is called Nisshoki, and this flag has long history. It is white and has a red circle which represents the sun. It was important for our religion long time ago; in addition, Shotoku Taishi, who was a sun of the Emperor, stated Japan was the country of sunrise. In general, the color of the sun was yellow or gold. However, it was red for Japanese. This idea was not original, and they said that it came from China in the Heian period. White and red are our traditional colors. White means holy and innocence, and red means humanity and vitality. This flag was put up as a bringer of good luck in the Edo period. On February 27, 1870, it was qualified as a national flag, so the association of the flag provided that Japanese people put up the flag on this day. In 1945, GHQ prohibited Japan from using it, so we just used another one during that time. The freedom of display was permitted in 1949. After the Second World War, there were people who argued if Nisshoki was worthy to be the national flag of Japan. On the other hand, the other people argued that it was stated Nisshoki was the national flag of Japan in the law. In the late 1990’s, many problems related to display of Nisshoki occurred at school ceremonies. Unfortunately, a principal committed suicide because of this problem. In fact, there were many opponents of Nisshoki and the national anthem. To solve this problem, the law of them was promulgated in 1999. Nisshoki formally became the national flag of Japan. I could learn about Japanese flag through this assignment.

My precious thing

2008-11-30T21:49:00.000-08:00

My precious thing is a photo album with pictures and messages. My friends made it for me before I came here. Of course, I brought it here. They and I have known each other through the seminar since last spring, but we are good friends. Although we just spent short time together, we have a lot of precious memories. We played bowling, had a party, enjoyed talking, and studied together. They wrote about that on a photo album, so it reminds me of our memories whenever I see it. We have the same dream, and I really respect them because they make efforts for their dreams. When I miss them, I see this album. When I go back to Japan, I will go to see them to make new precious memories.

Alone time

2008-11-16T22:53:00.000-08:00

Alone time is not strange to me because I really need it. I like to be with someone. For example, my family, friends, and boyfriend. I can have a lot of fun because of them, so I like the time to spend with them. However, I need the time to spend by myself because I like to read books and to listen to music. When I was in my country, I liked to read books or to study at STAR BUCKS alone. I also need the time to think about something. I have to think about my future because I am a junior in university. Actually, I feel stress if I do not have the time to spend by myself. It can make me relax, so it is an important part of my life.

My dream

2008-11-09T18:11:00.000-08:00

My dream is to be an English teacher in my country. When I was a high school student, I thought about my future. Because I like children and English, I decided to be an English teacher. I wanted to gain experience to teach English, so I used to teach English to children as part-time job at juku. If my dream comes true, I want to make a lot of children feel that English is an interesting subject. However, I have a fear about my dream. It is hard to be an English teacher in my country because the exam is very difficult. I have to take the exam next July. I hope I will improve my English skill at CESL, but I have to study other subjects. Actually, I have little time. I really want to be an English teacher in the future, so I will do my best.

Halloween

2008-11-02T15:00:00.000-08:00

In our culture, we have a holiday called "Bunka no hi" on November 3. It means "Culture day" in English, and the purpose of this holiday is loving freedom, peace, and culture. We don't do something special on the day. We just enjoy the holiday with friends or family. However, there is a ceremony for presentation of cultural insignia at the Imperial Palace.
We have a holiday which is a little similar to Halloween in the middle of August. It is called "Obon," and this holiday is for dead people. We usually visit our ancestors' grave to clean it and put something which they liked on it. In Kyoto, people make big letters with fire on the mountain to take spirits of dead people to the other world. It is one of the traditional events in Japan.
In Japan, Halloween is getting popular lately. People start to sell something for Halloween (candies, costumes, cakes, or stuffs for Halloween party) as Halloween is coming. Because my university in Japan has a lot of international students, we can have a party at school.
I was happy because I could really enjoy Halloween here in America. It was my first time to curve a pumpkin, so I was very excited. I also bought a costume for Halloween, and I wore it to go to the bar with my friends on Friday. There were so many people in unique costumes that it was a wonderful sight for me. I thought I could not see people like them in Japan!!! The bar was filled with excitement. I will never forget such an exciting experience!!!!

My love

2008-10-27T13:55:00.000-07:00

I have a boyfriend. I met him two months ago, and we were classmates. We were just friends at first. We were so shy, so we couldn't talk to each other. Because our class had a potlatch at our teacher's house in September, we were both attracted to each other then. We were always kidding each other, so we were called KIDS by our classmates. We studied together for final exam in the library after school. After TOEFL exam, we went to Chinese restaurant with our classmates. After that, we confirmed our feelings at the movie theater. Fortunately, we could be couple.

Days in Chicago

2008-10-15T15:51:00.000-07:00

I traveled in Chicago with my friends on October 9 to 12. After arriving there, we went to Chicago art museum because we could enter for free only on Thursday. I was very excited that I could see Vincent van Gogh's works there. On the second day, we went to downtown to eat Chicago Pizza. It was very large, but we really enjoyed. After that, we went to outlet which was very far from downtown to buy clothes. After shopping, we tried to call the taxi company to go back to the train station. Because our English skill was not good, we asked a woman to call the taxi company for us. On the third day, we went to Mitsuwa to eat Japanese food. We could also buy Japanese books and snack. After that, we went shopping on downtown. On the last day, we went to China town by subway. We enjoyed chinese food and saw Chicago marathon. We had a good time in Chicago.

Hi!

2008-09-18T11:13:00.000-07:00

I'm Yasu.
Welcome to my blog!!!

I'm Japanese, but I stay in Carbondale, U.S. to learn English.
I really enjoy my life.

Yesterday was my birthday, so my friends hold my birthday party!!
I had a wonderful time with them.