My favorite food

I love eating food. The reason why I want to visit to a lot of countries are meeting all sorts of people and watching a lot of unique things such as ruins. However, I also want to try all sorts of food all over the world. The thing I like the United States is that we can eat a lot of countries' food. I tried some countries' food which I had never tried in Japan.

One of my favorite food is Thai food. I have been to some Thai restaurants in Thai Town in here with friends. It is very tasty! I have never been to Thai. But I would like to go there someday to eat Thai food.

And I also like Chinese food. I have been to China a few times. In China, we can eat tasty Chinese food cheap. Every time I went to China, I ate too much and resulted putting on weight. But I think that it is all right not to care about weight during travelling because they are the food which I can eat only now.

But, after all my most favorite food is Japanese food. When I was in Japan, I did not like Japanese food so much. However, since I came to the United State, I was getting to like it more and more. I think that is because I was eating it almost everyday in Japan. In the same way as people usually would not realize the importance of the person if he/she always stays by them, they would not realize that Japaneses food is great if they eat it everyday. I just might miss it, though. Japanese food is getting popular all over the world. I did not know that it is so popular since I came to the United State. I think it is healthy and tasty. I heard that most of people do not know Japanese food about ten years ago. In the last ten years, the number of Japanese restaurants, especially sushi restaurants are increasing. I think it is a good thing for everyone to know Japan and I am very happy. However, maybe because they became too popular, I sometimes can find imitated Japanese food. They sell them as Japaneses food, but they are not real Japanese food. Of course it happens for all countries' food.

I have a lot of kinds of food which I want to try to eat. I have a favorite phrase. "You live to eat? Or you eat to live?" I, myself, might live to eat.

Japan we see from abroad

I came to the United States from Japan the end of March two years ago. Since I came here, I became to like Japan more. I became interested in Japan more. Of course, I found the parts I do not like in Japan. Including that, I think Japan is a good country.

When foreigners, I mean people who are not Japanese, think of Japan, what do they imagine first? I guess, it is sushi. I was very surprised that there are many sushi restaurants. Even in Japan, I do not think I can find so many sushi restaurants. It might be because the place where I live is kind of countryside. However, every sushi restaurants have the same qualities as sushi restaurants in Japan. It might be difficult to find really good sushi restaurants. I found sushi restaurants whose owner is Korean or Chinese. That happens because it is much easier to become a sushi chef than becoming a sushi chef in Japan. I have a friend who is a sushi chef. He train himself to become a sushi chef in Japan. He said that his master never let him touch fishes for the first five years. He just had to clean in a restaurant, prepare for cooking and odd jobs. And after his master allowed him to touch them, finally he could begin to learn sushi.

And I was also surprised that teriyaki is very popular here. Actually teriyaki is not so popular in Japan. But here, if they think of Japanese food, they imagine teriyaki such as teriyaki chiken, teriyaki beef and so on. It is very funny and interesting for me. I do not know how teriyaki was introduced to the United States. But I think that teriyaki is going to get more popular.

Japan is an island country. That is why, it was hard to convey foreign information from abroad. They used to close the country. I think Japan is still an isolate country. Of course, nowadays it is said that we live in an international age. Even so, I feel that Japanese people's thinking is isolate a little bit. Therefore, we should go abroad at least once and learn how big the world is.

Every countries have both good and bad points. We should build on the strengths and remedy the defects by comparing with other countries.

My favorite event in Japan

We have a lot of events in Japan. My favorite event is the Festival of the Vega and Altair on July seventh. It is not the national holiday. Originally, it was a Chinese event and introduced into Japan in the Nara era.

There is a legend in China. In ancient China, there were the emperors of Gods and the Lord of Heaven. A Lord of Heaven has a daughter named "Orihime". She was making cloth which decorate clothes for Gods and houses very hard from morning till night everyday. Her father looked for her groom. He found a guy named "Hikoboshi". He was a very hard worker and taking care of cows on the shore of the Milky Way from morning till night. Orihime and Hikoboshi fell in love together. And they had forgotten their jobs and were doing nothing but play together everyday. Her father gave them a warning to work. However, they did not have no mind to work and after a while the Gods' clothes were worn to tatters and cows became dying. Her father got angry so much and had divided the Milky Way into the west and east. Because she could not meet him, she spent in tears everyday. Her father said to her,"if you work hard, I can allow you to meet together only once a year." Both of them worked hard everyday. And then, on July seventh, a magpie appeared and built a bridge over the Milky Way. Finally, they two could meet together. Since then, they can meet together only once a year on July seventh.

We can see the Milky Way in the sky on July seventh. Actually, the Milky Way is the crowd of stars and the day which we can see the Milky Way is not only July seventh. But I do not care about the truth. I like this romantic story. In Japan, people write their wishes on a strip of paper called "tanzaku" and bind them on bamboo grass. The number of people who do that is decreasing, I think. But when I was in Japan, I liked to write my wish on tanzaku and bind it to tree or something. I did not care about bamboo. If it is rainy or cloudy and we can not see the Milky Way on July seventh, I feel sad a little bit.

Traveling in the world

I love traveling. One of my dreams is traveling all over the world. I have traveled to some countries such as The Philippines, England, China, and Korea. I have very good memories for each country.

The Philippines is the first country which I traveled abroad first. My mother's friend held a wedding there and all my family members went there. At that time I was six years old. So actually I do not remember that very well. However I remember that I had great time there and felt the world is very big.

The second country which I traveled abroad is China. For this trip, all my family members and my grandfather, grandmother, and aunt traveled there together. I was surprised that everything is cheap in China. I bought some stuffs and ate a lot of delicious food. We went down a river on the ship. It was very fun. And actually my oldest sister used to study abroad in China. During she was there, I went to China several times. Every time I visited there, I had eaten too much. I love Chinese food and everything is very cheap.

I went to England with my schoolmates. In my high school, every year they invite people who want to travel abroad. I joined it and stay with host family for two weeks. We went to school on weekday. We studied English in the class and joined activities we want to join in the afternoon. On weekend we traveled to the cities such as London and Oxford. I stayed with my host mother, her ex-husband, her son, daughter, and Italian students as my roommate. Actually I did not know that my host mother was divorced from her husband until before the last day I stayed there. It surprised me very much. It is also kind of a culture shock because it hardly happens that the couple stay together after their divorce in Japan. She said that she has her boyfriend and her ex-husband also has his girlfriend. I thought it is very cool to enjoy themselves no matter how old they get.

And I went to Korea with my mother, sister, and grandmother. My mother loves Korean drama. She wanted to go to Korea. We used a tour to travel there. It was very fun. But actually it was very cold even so it was already March. But we had good Korean food and bought some Korean foods and goods.

I have many countries I want to visit. I want to visit to historical places such as ruins, eat all sorts of food and meet all sorts of people all over the world. It is very fun and interesting to learn new things and meet new people.

Manma mia

I love musicals. I like performing musicals, and also watching them. My favorite musical in musicals I have ever seen is "Mamma Mia". I watched this show in Las Vegas. This musical used with hit songs for ABBA. They are pop group which were active from 1973 to 1982. It was wonderful. I was very impressed and somehow I cried at the end.

The story is set in a small island on the Aegean. The leading character, Sophie is just twenty years old. Her mother, Donna runs a small hotel. Sophi is going to marry soon. Her only concern is that because she was brought up by just her mother, she can not walk with her father at her wedding ceremony. One day, she read her mother's diary in secret and found out about her mother's old boy friends, Sam, Bill and Harry. And she got to know that her father is one of them. She sent them letters of invitation in secret to her mother.

Her wedding ceremony is drawing near, and Donna invites her old friends to her daughter's wedding. The night before the wedding, they arrived at Donna's hotel. Because they met together after a long interval, they got very excited. On the other hand, three guys who were invited by Sophie in secret also arrived at Donna's hotel. They was under the impression that they got invitations from Donna. Sophie told them that she actually sent letters of invitation and Donna does not know they come to the wedding. Donna met three guys after an interval of twenty one years. She went into a panic and run into her friends. And their story starts.

The reason why I was moved so much might be that I watched it in Las Vegas. Of course, I was impressed by the story. But more than anything else, I was impressed by wonderfulness of the musicals. The songs they sang, the dance and their acting in the musical, everything is great. They sang the songs and danced many times as an encore. I watched some musicals in Los Angeles. They do not call for an encore there. In Los Angeles when they finish their performance, the musical is over. Las Vegas is the world of entertainment. I could get the intention that they wanted to entertain us.

I have many musicals that I have never watched. I want to watch those musicals.

Worst day of my life

I think that the worst days of my life is days in the spring two years ago. It was when I came to the United State first from Japan. When I got to the United State, I had a bad cold. I could not stop coughing. In addition to being in bad health, I suffered from jet lag. The time difference between Japan and Los Angeles is seventeen hours. I also got tired with the mental side. I did not have any friends at first. I also could not speak English very well. Because of those stress, I had a poor appetite. At the first day when I came to the United State, I could have just an apple.

Until I decided the room I can live in, I stayed at hostel for two weeks. And yet, I could not go out from there. I was very scared to go out and talk to people. I had three days until the school started. I did not have anything to do and did not know what to do.

I did not think that it was home sickness at that time. When I came to think of it now, I think that I perfectly got homesick. However, I did not think that I wanted to go back to Japan. I told myself many times " I have to do my best. My parents sent me here. I must not let them down."

Those days were the worst days for me. Even though, I learned a lot of things from that. I was realized the importance of family and friends again. When I told myself that I have to do my best and strained my mind, my family and a lot of friends in Japan sent a lot of mails and letters to me to cheer me up. I read them and the strain I had been under was relieved. And always tears almost spilled my eyes.

I have learned a lot of things since I came to the United State. I was also helped by a lot of people many times. When I got depressed, they stayed by me and listened to me. I appreciate them a lot. They are important existences for me. Even so I have a lot of bad experiences, I got a lot of good and important things. I really think it was good that I came to the United State.

Favorite famous person

My favorite famous person is Audrey Hepburn. She was active in the movies.

She was born in Brussels which is the capital of Belgium.When she was five years old, she entered in a boarding school in London. And when she was ten years old, she emigrated to Holland. During the Second World War, she engaged in the Resistance for anti-Nazis. She was the same age as Anne Frank. After the war, she got to know Anne Frank and she was very pained by that. Afterward, she got an offer of a part of Anne for a movie of "the Diary of Anne Frank". However, she declined it because she was afraid that she might remember her bitter past. She learned ballet in London and lived some countries in Europe. For that, she has a wide knowledge of English, French, Dutch, Spanish, and Italian.

Before her Hollywood debut, she played supporting roles in movies and on the stage in Europe. And she played the sister of the leading part in the movie of "First Love". When she visited to France for shooting movies, she was picked out by Collette who is a writer and visited to the same place as her for the Broadway stage play of "Gigi". She was picked out for the leading role of Gigi. And she got the role of Ann princess for movies of "Roman Holiday". She made her debut in the screen in America. For that movie, she became famous at a bound. And she also won an Academy Best Actress Award. After that, she appeared in some movies. She retired as an actress after she appeared in the movie of "Always" in 1989.

In her last years, she was active as a goodwill ambassador to UNICEF and went to India, Somalia and so on to work for poor people. She passed away because of colon cancer on January 20th, 1993. Even so more than ten years have passed since she passed away, she was loved by a lot of people all over the world. The reason why I like her is, of course, she is a good actress who has very attractive aura. And one more reason is that I like her way of living. She had very strong convictions and lived on the way what she wanted. I want to be a strong and beautiful lady like her.

The history of one American holiday

Thanksgiving Day is one of national holidays in the United State. It is the forth Thursday on November in America. On Thanksgiving Day, the family and relative meet together in one place. They enjoy to watch the football and parade by relay and eat the standard food for Thanksgiving Day such as roasted turkey, mashed potato, cranberry sauce, squash and pumpkin pie.

The origin of Thanksgiving Day goes back to the twenty century. After Columbus arrived at the Continent of America, the countries of the Europe called the Continent of America "the New World" and carried out a colonial project at there. At that time, in England which a storm of the religious reformation blew hard, the separatist Puritan escaped from oppression by the state church and fled to the Netherlands. However, because they got distressed by the hardships of life, they decided to go to the Continent of America to live as they like on the basis of their believes. They are called Pilgrim Fathers, and they arrived at the State of Massachusetts in America from England with the Mayflower in the winter of 1920 and developed the Plymouth Colony. It was the first colony in New England.

Thanksgiving Day is generally believed that it is from the event which commemorates the first harvest for the Pilgrim Fathers. Because the winter in 1620 when the Pilgrim Fathers arrived at Plymouth is very severe, a lot of people died. However, some of them could survive with the North American aborigines Wampanoag's, who settled in their neighborhood, help. On the next fall in 1621, because the Pilgrim Fathers especially had a good harvest, they invited Wampanoag to dinner. They thanked for a great blessing and had dinner together. That is actually believed the beginning of the Thanksgiving Day.

However, England settlers and Wampanoag also have the tradition which celebrate a harvest in fall. That is why, this year's event was specially not assessed at Thanksgiving Day. Thanksgiving which was first celebrated at Plymouth Colony in 1623 is a religious event rather than a dinner party. They worshipped in a church and gave thanks to God.

Apart from the truth of this history for Thanksgiving Day, it is very important to be thankful to the food we can get. And I think that it is also good thing that the family and relative meet together and have dinner together.

Shold baseball be televised?

Should baseball be televised? My answer for this question is yes, of course. I like to watch a baseball game but I can't go to a baseball field to watch a game so many times. I know that It is much more fun and exciting to watch a live baseball game in the field than watching a game on TV. I have been to a baseball field a few times. When I went there first, I did not know about baseball at all. Even so, I had got very excited under the influence of the excited people around me. I could enjoy myself very much. But it is difficult to go and watch a baseball game every time for most of people. Of course, it does cost money to go and watch games. And the people of today are very busy because of their jobs and schools and so on. They don't have time to go to a field and enjoy a game. That's why, most of people don't go to a baseball field and like to watch games on TV. People also can watch a game which is playing in a faraway field from their places if the game is televised.

However, some of people don't like it that baseball is televised. Actually I can understand their feeling well. In Japan, it often happens that the baseball game is extended and the broadcast for the game is also extended. At the result, some of shows start late and sometimes they are even carried over to next week. I, myself, have been disappointed many times that I couldn't watch my favorite shows although I was looking forward that. At the case like that, I have thought that the baseball game need not be televised.

But, basically I think that baseball games should be televised. I mean that for not only baseball, every sports games should be televised. It is very fun to watch sports. But as mentioned above, it's sometimes very difficult to go and watch a live sports game.

Some sports might be boring for some people. And if we have a big tournament or something for sports, we will can't watch many shows. That might be disagreeable for some people. Even so, I'm sure that watching a sports game will benefit people's lives.

Online learning - advantages and disadvantages

I have never tried the online learning, so I don't know what it is exactly. But I think it is just the way to learn something with Internet.

The advantages for it is that we don't need to go to the school for learning something. We can learn that anywhere if we have computer which is connected to Internet. It is good for people who can not go out easily. There are a lot of people who need someone help to go out. The online learning helps them learn something a lot.

And the online learning is also good for people who is very busy. When we are busy, we feel that it's like a waste that we even have to take time to go to somewhere. They can save their time with online learning. One of my friends used to use the online learning for learning English. That is the program by the English school which she went to. She could use that program anytime in all day at home. All she had to do was just turning on her computer.

On the other hand, if they use online learning, it will decrease contact with people. They might meet people with computer but they won't talk to people face to face. I heard that the number of people who become a stay-at-home is recently increasing in Japan. They, of course, don't go to school. And they will choose to learn things with computer. They don't like to get out of their rooms and meet anyone. They even find friends with online network. But I think if they use a computer for learning things, they don't need to get out of their rooms. It means that they will become to have no chances to meet people more.

I think that it's very important to meet people and talk to people face to face. Of course, it's possible to talk to people and see their faces with computer. But we can not know their true feeling with it. I feel that the more popular the machines like computer become, the more difficult the communication between people is. Some of people can be in communication with people only with computer. I think that the online learning is very convenient. But we have to use that well.

Describe a treasured object

It is difficult to say the only one treasure for me. I have a lot of very important objects. Basically, I'm no good at throwing something. I mean, I always ends up keeping an object when I think this is needed or not. I feel that everything has a lot of memories. I know that I do not need that any more but I feel as if I will need it some day. That never happen, though. My sister says to me "you can keep your memory in your heart. That is enough." I know it is true but I can not, for the life of me, throw that away.

But if I have to say the only one treasure, it is the letter from my friend. I might have to say my old friend. I do not know where he is now and what he is doing now. He was my friend when I was an elementary school student. I feel that we always quarreled. But it was fun for me. After we went to junior high school, we hardly talked each other. I do not know that reason, though. And then we went to different high school. Since then, I have never met him.

The letter he gave me is not written about special things. It is written about just normal things. I can say he wrote very silly things. The reason why that letter is very important for me is not the text of that letter. It is because that is very important memory. You might say "Memory, again!?" But this memory is very special for me. He might be my first love if I think of it now. I still have the letter from him in my wallet. I might can not meet him again but I won't forget him.

I think that we have some things we can get only in our childhood. We experience a lot of things at the first time in the life in our childhood. Of caurse, We can not go back to childhood. The memories in our childhood are very special because we can not feel things which we felt when we were children.

I got troubled a lot and have a lot of bad memories and of caurse, a lot of good memories too. Including those, I do not want to forget all of memories in my childhood.

Poem - copy, paste, explain

A Friend's Greeting

I'd like to be the sort of friend that
you have been to me;
I'd like to be the help that
you've been always glad to be;

I'd like to mean as much to you
each minute of the day
As you have meant, old friend of mine,
to me along the way.

I'd like to do the big things and
the splendid things for you,
To brush the gray from out your skies
and leave them only blue;

I'd like to say the kindly things that
I so oft have heard,
And feel that I could rouse your soul
the way that mine you've stirred.

I'd like to give you back the joy
that you have given me,
Yet that were wishing you a need
I hope will never be;

I'd like to make you feel as rich as I,
who travel on
Undaunted in the darkest hours

with you to lean upon.

I'm wishing at this time that

I could but repay
A portion of the gladness that
you've strewn along my way;

And could I have one wish this year,
this only would it be:
I'd like to be the sort of friend
that you have been to me.

- Edgar A Guest -

This is the poem I found in a site. I like it because I sympathized with it very much. I like the last phrase, "I'd like to be the sort of friend that you have been to me." He said the same thing in the first place. After he said it first, he told what sort of friend he want to be. Then, he repeated this phrase. I like this way of writing too.

After I left Japan and came to the United State, I realized the importance of friends again. I was helped by a lot of friends many times. When I came here first, I didn't have any friends here. I couldn't even speak English well. At the case like that, I got a lot of mails from friends in Japan. I couldn't stop crying and thought I have to do my best. And I got a lot of friends here. They also helped and encouraged me a lot. Friends are irreplaceable asset to me. As they helped me, I want to help them. As they make me happy, I want to make them happy. I'd like to be the sort of friend that they have been to me.

Things I do not miss about my country

It's very difficult to say about things I do not miss about my country. I miss a lot of things about my country. But even so, I know some bad things in Japan. I found a lot of bad and good things about Japan since I came to the Unites States.

First of all, I think Japan is very unsociable country because Japan is a island country. And also people in Japan are unsociable. Most of them are very scared of talking with a stranger. Especially when they have to use English like languages which isn't Japanese, they suddenly stop talking. It's not because they can't speak English. Of cause, they can't speak English as same way as native speakers. However, they ought to know at least some words. When my friend came here, I took her to a restaurant. I told her to order by herself because she came all the way over here. I thought she should try to speak English at least a little. I taught her how can we order in English. But she adamantly said "I can't, I cannot". I don't know why she wouldn't try. I guess she is afraid of making a mistake or something.

They don't want to get involved in strangers. I heard they don't even want to sit just next to a person in train and bus. I don't like the thing of that sort in Japan. That's why I like the greeting here. People in here always exchange greetings with a person who meet at the first time. That is very comfortable for me.

Secondly, I also don't like Japanese education. It seems that we don't have many choices for subjects. Of cause, we do have a few choices but it's not enough at all. When I was a high school student, we had to choose chemistry or biology. I prefer chemistry so I wanted to learn it. However, very few people chose chemistry. At the result, we couldn't have a choice to learn chemistry. All of us have to learn biology. My teacher told me that when we take a exam for entering university, it is going to be easier to take biology tests than taking chemistry tests. I didn't want to learn something for just going to university.

Our English education is also just for going to university. We learn English at least for six years. However, most of us are very afraid of speaking English and they always say "I can't speak English". We just focus on grammar in English class. We really don't have any chances for speaking English. In general, we can't say that people who do well in English class can speak English well. I think we should need some changes for that.

Every countries have both good things and bad things. It's very natural but we should know both of them. After that we also need to learn from other countries and try to change to good way.

Interview a family member

I had a interview with my sister. She just came to the United States three days ago.

*How do you like the United States?

It was the first time to come to the United States for me. I wanted to come here for a long time. I'm very happy to come here. I came here just three days ago, so I don't know about the United States very much. I guess I like here.

*What do you want to do here?

Of course, first of all I want to study English. I also want to go to all sorts of places and meet all sorts of people. Oh, and one more thing, I want to try to ride a horse. I'd like to go to school for riding horses and know how to ride a horse. It's very difficult and expensive to ride a horse in Japan. I really want to do that! And I want to try a lot of things which I can't try or is difficult to do in Japan.

*You went to a lot of countries, right? What is your favorite country among countries you have ever been to? And what country do you want to go to next?

I don't know... I like every countries, actually. Each of them has a lot of good things.

I want to go to England next. Though I've been to a lot of countries in Asia, I've never been to Europe. I want to have good tea there. And I want to go to Stonehenge. I like history and going to remains. I've visited to a lot of remains in Asia. All of them are very mysterious and interesting for me. I want to visit more ruins in a lot of countries.

*You studied abroad in China for seven years, right? Do you like China? Is it easy to live for you in China?

Yeah, of course I like China and I think it's easy to live there. It's kind of dangerous in some places, though. More than anything, everything is very cheap there. But I prefer to live in Japan, actually. Japan is the best, I think.

********************************************************************************

Yeah, I also think Japan is the best to live. I want to go back to Japan.

Thank you very much for your cooperation. Enjoy yourself in the United States.

A brush with authority [police, parent...]

When I was young, I sometimes fought with my parents. I mean, I was scolded by them. I couldn't talk back to them very much. It made me irritated and I always took it out on things. Even crying in front of them was mortifying for me. I always put up with that and cried in secret. I also thought that I didn't do wrong at all. I sometimes asked to myself why they were so mad. Though I never asked them that, I sometimes took an attitude like "whatever...". Of cause, I knew that it made them be mad more. But it was the only resistance that I could do at that time. And my resistance were always in vain, as they started to scold me more as expected. At the same time, I always thought that I wanted to be an adult instantly, I knew that it was impossible though. I used to think that adults always take children's free and I can be free when I become an adult. I know that it is not true now but I believed that seriously at that time.
A clash between adults and children is very difficult problem. Adults scold children for upbringing and, children dislike that and think that they want to do whatever they want to do. We can't say which is right sweepingly. For adults they have their own opinions and for children they also have their own opinions. I think when we are children, it might be difficult to understand adults' opinions. Actually I, myself, couldn't understand adults' say and feeling when I was young. Now I feel as if I have became to understand that little by little. Though I won't say that all of what I was said by adults is right, I can say that some of those were right.

When we have an argument with somebody, it might be very difficult to listen to what the person we are fighting with is saying. I think that we usually think our opinion is right and end up putting forward a counterargument. Indeed, that might be true. It, however, won't help our argument solve. We sometimes need to listen to and accept what he/she is saying. I'm sure that it helps the relation between us and him/her become better.

How the Santa Clarita Valley came into being and it is changing.

The Santa Clarita is the fourth largest city in Los Angeles country. It was formed by incorporation on December 15, 1987. The original City Council included Mayor Howard "Buck" McKeon, Mayor Pro-tem Jan Heidt and Councilmembers Jo Anne Darcy, Carl Boyer and Dennis Koontz.
In 1989, the City moved into its new City Hall building on Valencia Boulevard where the City government headquarters remain today.

Since incorporation, Santa Clarita has won annual awards for its strong fiscal management and investments. The City's growth in sales tax revenue, outside grant funding and a "good business budget" have helped to keep Santa Clarita a strong city.

Santa Clarita opened its first new park in 1989 in Canyon Country. The 17-acre Canyon Country park was the first of many new facilities and amenities built by the City. Others include Begonias Lane Park, Creekview Park, Circle J Ranch Park, Central Park, Pamplico Park, the Newhall Community Center, the Santa Clarita Sports Complex, including a skate park, activities center, gymnasium and aquatics center, 14 miles of off-street trails, three Metrolink stations, new landscaped medians, new roads, and more.
Since incorporation, the City has increased recreational opportunities by more than 400%. A variety of low-cost classes, sports programs, special events and lessons are offered quarterly through the SEASONS booklet which is mailed to every household. Some of these include: the annual Cowboy Poetry and Music Festival, River Rally, Arbor Day, Marathon and half Marathon events, Concerts in the Parks, Emergency Expo, and the 4th of July fireworks show.
The city oversees a variety of high quality programs and services for residents. Some of these include: free graffiti removal service, free pothole service, free park mobile service, free used oil pickup, free sidewalk repair, free parenting programs, free street tree care and planting, free skate park use, free one stop career center services and more.
Santa Clarita's most famous attraction is the Six Flags Magic Mountain amusement park. It's located just outside the city limits in unincorporated Los Angeles County. I've been there once. It is just crazy... Most of attractions are very scary roller coasters. Actually I like riding roller coasters. But it was too much for me. Once is enough, I think. It was very crowded at the day, though.

The Santa Clarita is very new city. I'm very sure that it will grow more and more. I look forward how it's going to change and be.

An investigation of $100 laptop - can it work?

$100 laptop, I have never met quite so cheap laptop. But even if it existed, I would never bought it. It might work barely but I'm very sure that it is very very slow. It is going to make me irritated very much. There is every possibility to break down soon even if I could turn on the power. There is also some possibility that I can't even turn on the power. It's very awful, if it happen. A $100 laptop is very cheap but actually, we can say that it might be very expensive. Even if I paid $100 and got a laptop, if it didn't work and I couldn't use it at all, it's going to come to much the same thing as throwing $100 away. If I were in that place, I'm sure that I will use $100 for another things than such an useless laptop.

In general, a personal computer is very expensive but it was much more expensive before. It was a thing which we couldn't buy easily. Now it's getting cheaper and cheaper. A computer got to be very necessary for us now. It is not too much to say that we can't live without a computer. I, myself use a computer every day. If my computer breaks down, I'm going to get into a lot of trouble.

A lot of new personal computers with new technology and function are developing year by year. As a consequence, the number of old personal computers, I mean those which were new model before, is also getting increasing. A new model now is going to be an old model three years later. Stores have to discount a little bit on them. Unless they do that, old computers will be unsold. That's why, the decrease of price for personal computers is happening, I think. And when I came to the United States, I was surprised that a personal computer in the United Stated is cheaper than one in Japan. I don't know why but I guess that because everything is expensive in Japan. Anyway It's kind of difficult to buy a computer with less than a hundred thousand yen [about $850] in Japan. But here I think that we can buy one if we aren't fussy about that. The price of computers is decreasing certainly. The day which we can meet $100 laptop might come someday.

Why fast food is so popular in the United States

When I was in Japan, I hardly ate fast food. One of reasons is that I don't like fast food very much but more than anything else, the main reason is that there aren't so many fast food restaurants around my home. But in United States, there are too many fast food restaurants. It was one of what surprised me when I came here first. We can find them in airports, schools and even hospitals, like everywhere we go to.
In general, it's said that fast food is not healthy. Yes, of cause it is true. Though most of people know this is true, they love eating fast food. I think the reason is that they are cheap and, I guess, they think that they are delicious. And it's also very easy to get them. Even when they are very busy, they don't need to wait to get them for a long time. Moreover, If they use drive-through, they don't even need to get out of the car.

I, personally, can't believe we eat fast food for dinner. I've heard that they also eat fast food like pizza and hamburger for school lunch in the United States. My sister has eaten school lunch in the United State. She ordered hamburger at that time. Then She told me that there was only a hamburg steak inside. Just hamburg! There was no vegetable like lettuce. I think it's too crazy. We need to have a balanced diet. Especially we have to have vegitables. I couldn't stand that if my every dinner and school lunch were fast food. For people in the United State, however, it's usual, because that is what they have done since they were children and everyone is doing that. And what suprised me most is that there are very long lines for buying fast food even after midnight. I can't understand why they have to eat fast food that late.
The food is very important for us and it's also very important to eat good balanced food for being healthy. Especially for children, keeping eating unhealthy food has a lot of influences for their health. I'm very sure that if children keep eating fast food, they are going to be sick in the future. Fast food is too popular in the United State now. This is very serious problem, I think. We have to think seriously about this problem and solve that.

Analysis of a movie I have seen resently

I saw the movie called of "Tokyo tower". It's a Japanese movie. It was released on January 15th, 2005 in Japan. It's very romantic love story. This movie was made with a novel which has the same name, "Tokyo tower" as a base. The novel was written by a female writer called of Kaori Ekuni. Some of her novel is also used as a base for some movies.

The basic story of this movie is love story for a couple which has an age difference of 20 years between them. Their name are Shiori and Toru. She is 41 years old and he is 21 years old. Indeed, she is married and he is her friend's son.

What I felt at first after seeing this movie is that everything is very beautiful. The picture, music and words... everything is beautiful. Especially, the words amazed me. It is not too much to say that every words main couple said is beautiful. The movie's catch phrase is "The love is not one which does, but one which falls in". It's beautiful, isn't it? They used Norah Jones' music for this movie. That is beautiful. Of cause, the main actress is also beautiful! But I'm just wondering whether it's all right that the movie about adultery is very beautiful.

Actually, there are arguments both for and against this movie. However beautiful this movie may be, this is about adultery. Indeed they have a big age difference between them. Shiori's husband said to Toru,"when you become 40 years old, Shiori is going to be 60 years old. When you are 50 years old, she is going to be 70 years old. But even so, you can still love her!?" It's hard words for Toru, but it's true.

In the end, she decided to get divorced from her husband and live with him, Toru. I don't know whether they can become happy or not. At the last scene, she said to him,"Even if your mind change tomorrow, I love you..." It might be an unrealistic end, but I think it's all right because this is a movie. Movies are usually unrealistic.

What I felt from this movie is it's great to love someone deeply like this. I also think that is very painful..., but I myself want to love someone deeply like this. It's very difficult to find that person, someone special. My friends sometimes say, "You dream too much. It happens in only dramas and movies." But I believe I will meet that person some day.

Life of an average citizen in my contry

I was born in Japan. The economy has grown there. According to that, the life of people is getting rich. I was born and bred in the place called Okayama prefecture. As a consequence, I don't know the life of people who live in a city such as Tokyo.
In Japan, most of adults have their own work. I sometimes hear that Japanese work too much. I think it's true. Some of workers work overtime, at home after coming home and even on weekend. It doesn't mean they like working at all. They just have to do. Some people work for their family and others work for themselves. As a result, some of them are suffered from stress. In reality, people who die because of stress are increasing.
And most of children can go to school and study. Going to junior high school at least is compulsory education. It is said that there has been a decline in the levels of academic attainment in Japan. But I think they are studying a lot.173 Some of them go to cram and others study under a tutor. It also doesn't mean they like studying. They are suffered from stress in the same way as adults. A few years ago, our government adopted a new policy called "education free of pressure". They changed some parts in textbooks and decreased school hours. But in my opinion, it's totally meaningless. They cut important things we have to learn in textbooks. And we've had to take extra lectures on weekend because they decreased school hours. We had to study to pass a exam for entering to university anyway. Nothing changed, after all.
Also it's said most of children aren't interested in politics. It's true but it's not only for children. It's true that the voting rate for electing is decreasing. I often hear that it's said "Nothing change, whoever may be chosen". It might be true. But we shouldn't think the only politicians built up our country. Actually I, however, can understand why they say so. A lot of politicians did something dishonest and were arrested. That makes us feel difficult to trust them.
Japan is one of the developed countries now. Our lives has changed a lot in recent years. We got riches and can live in comfort. I feel that the more convenient their lives become, the more they want convenience. We can live with important people for us such as family and do whatever we want to do. We shouldn't forget these are great things.