Pinkification

UK moms protest over pink girl's toys because they think pink toys create a person who prefers beauty to intelligence.

There are a lot of kinds of toys for boys at a toy shop. On the contrary, the kind of toys for girls is limited. I think it is a discrimination between boys and girls. Boys can get many skills by playing with their toys, but almost all girls only have toys such as dolls and they can learn nothing from them. Therefore, a toy shop should have more diverse toys for girls. However, I don't think a shop should have less pink toys. That is because I think even if girls were covered with pink when they are little, they would choose color that they like as they grow up. Pink would not affects on little girls' lives. Colors are not that important in their lives, so they wouldn't make less importance in their brains even if they were covered with pink.

In addition, I disagree with the idea that pink represents beauty so much. Although there is a fact that having pink goods looks cute, other colors can also make girls look cute. Girls do not always have to look beautiful and pink doesn't always make them look beautiful. I think it might be a prejudice that girls better have toys which are pink and that the color "pink" is supposed to cover not boys, but girls.

With the reasons I gave above, I strongly believe that there is no point in protesting against pink.

amazing

One of my friends told me to watch this video and I was very surprised to watch this. So I would like to recommend all of you to watch this too.

In this video, a 15-year-old girl came from Philippine to the US to sing. I assumed I would not be surprised to listen her singing because I thought she was just a child and therefore, she wouldn't be able to sing as well as other great singers. However, her voice was not like the one I had expected to hear. Her voice and her passion to sing moved me and I was very impressed.

I think her ability to sing very well is her genius. No matter how hard other people practice to sing like her, they wouldn't be able to sing as well as they can impress listeners.

Body Image

As the fact that the report of BBC news showed us, I think many women think they are overweight. However, I also think most women who think themselves overweight are actually not overweight, but skinny.

I think the media image of "ideal" men and "skinny" women in Japan is ok, because I agree with the image of them which most Japanese have. I think as long as women are not too skinny or overweight, they look great. So I don't think the media should promote models of different shapes, sizes, and images. Now, all models in magazines and media are beautiful because they are considered as "skinny" women. And almost all women who see them through the media try to imitate their fashion and even their shapes. If the shapes of models were changed into more natural ones, all women would be satisfied with their shapes even it they were overweight. Then, I think the level of beauty of Japanese women will go down. Therefore, all women who want to look good would better try to reach the goal they have.

The problem is that many young girls who are very very skinny care too much about how they look and they think they are overweight. One of my friends used to say " I'm fat, so I shouldn't eat lunch today." every day. However, she was actually very skinny and cute. No matter how many times I told her that she didn't have to be on a diet, she kept saying the words as usual. Since she didn't eat very much, she had a bad effect on her mental and physical health. Then, she started complainning about everything. Thinking yourself too fat will make you confused and unhealthy. I think trying hard to get a perfect body is one of the way to look great, but trying too hard and making yourself uncomfortable physically and mentally is a wrong thing to do.

People have a different images how they look, therefore, I think they should try to get shapes and looks they want. However, I don't think they should always think they should be skinny and try too hard. Being natural is the best, but I know being prettier makes women happy. I hope all women can control themselves not to make them unhealthy. There are many ways to lose weight, so people should choose a right way and be healthy and beautiful.

illumination

This post is gonna be a diary. On the 14th, I went to Roppongi to see an illumination which has just been started to light up with my friend from junior high school.I will write about what I did on that day.

As soon as my friend and I got to Roppongi, we decided to go eat and went to a burger restaurant. We ate Sasebo burger which was very delicious. My friend and I were talking about our lives. Then, we felt that two ladies sitting next to us were just listening to our conversation. It was so funny but also we were uncomfortable to be listened all the time while we were there, so we left.

After the dinner, we went to Tokyo midtown where the illumination was. We were surprised at the scenery. It was very beautiful. Here is a picture I took.



After that, we were walking around and found ourselves in Tokyo Tower. We walked to the Tokyo Tower from the Roppongi area. It should have been a little bit far away, but she and I enjoyed talking and didn't think it was too far to walk.

I sometimes like to walk a lot. There is almost no chance to walk a lot in my every day life. So when I walked a lot with my friend on that day, I felt my stress was gone and I was refreshed. It must be a good way to walk a lot to get your stress away. I recommend you all to see the illumination in Tokyo midtown before it gets too cold to be outside. It is beautiful and you can see the illumination and the Tokyo tower at the same place!

Social Networking

In today's class, we discussed social networking. Many people today are familiar with social networking sites. There are several purposes to use these sites. Some people use them for communicating with other people, while others use them for their satisfaction.

As for me, I used to have Myspace and now have facebook and mixi. I don't write something on these sites very much, but I always log in and see what is going on with all my friends. Mostly, I open facebook in order to contact my friends in other countries, who I can only contact with through facebook. I have been to some countries and made friends. Then whenever I couldn't exchange address or phone number with my new friends, I looked for them on facebook or they looked for me so that we can keep in touch with each other. It is hard to contact with someone who is in another country, however through facebook, I can contact with him or her easily.Furthermore, sometimes I don't feel like telling my number or address when I meet new people because I don't know them very much. However, telling them to look for me on facebook instead of telling them my number is more safety.On facebook, I can share pictures with my friends and I can feel like my friends in other countries actually don't live in different countries. I don't feel too far away from them, so It is a good point for me to use facebook.

The problem is that I am to addicted to opening facebook. I know there is nothing to do other than seeing other people's posts and writing about myself, but I cannot stop watching it. I never notice till midnight that I was watching facebook for a few hours.I think I need to delete my account some day so that I can come back to my real life.

I used to have Myspace when I was high school student. So there has been always social networking sites in my life since then. There are some good points and bad points in using social networking sites. And I think some new sites which are more useful will be created one day. Then many people will get an account for a new site later.

Is waching TV good for little children?

A few weeks ago, I brought an article in and the title was "TV will never spoil my children". As I read the article, I realized that it has been argued whether watching TV is good for children or not in Australia.

In my opinion, TV is not always bad for children because they can get a lot of knowledge through TV and the knowledge might benefit them in their life. I have learned about language acquisiton in another class. Watching TV is never a good way to acquire language for little children because they have to communicate with people who speak the language better than them to acquire language fully, but they can still learn a lot of ways to use the language through watching TV.

On the other hand, I also think watching TV is sometimes bad for children. That is because children cannot get how to communicate with other people through watching TV. Although they can learn language through watching some academic programs, they will never know how to interact with people. Also, when they are watching TV, they don't speak with their family and concentrate on watching the screen of TV. It would be a bad point.

So I actually don't know watching TV is better for them or bad for them because there are some good points and bad points. At least, what I can say is that spending most of the time in a day watching TV is not good for children. I think this issue will be argured for a long time in the world.

My favorite movie

I like watching movie. So whenever I have enough time to watch movie, I always go to Tsutaya and rent DVDs. In this blog, I will introduce my favorite movie I just found a few weeks ago. The title is "What happens in Vegas".

"What happens in Vegas" is romance and comedy movie. Summarizing the story, a woman and a man met in Vegas. She was just dumped by her boyfriend and he was just fired from the boss of the company where he was working. So they didn't know each other till they met, but they could talk about what happened to each other. Then, they got to enjoy talking. They played all night in Vegas, got so drunk, and got married. However, they didn't like each other. She woke up to find a ring in her left hand and tried to get divorced with him,but at the time, he won a $3,000,000 dollar at a Casino. So they had a trial to get all of money by himself or by herself. In order to win a suit, they had to live together as a married couple for 6 months. They really had difficulty in living together. They fought many times, but the way they fight make me laugh very much.

In conclusion, they got divorced and she insisted that she didn't want any money because he did something bad for her. After she left his room, he found her picture, looked for her, and found her. They realized that they liked each other so much. So the ending was happy. I like all the movies which have happy ending.

I really enjoy watching this movie. Even if I watch it again and again, I never get tired of watching it. I recommend all of you reading this blog to watch this movie so that you can be happy when you are sad or feel depressed. As another reason why I like this movie is that this movie reminds me of all the fun times I had with my friend in Vegas. I have been to Vegas in March and had fun! All people in Vegas looked having fun all day long. Everything surprised me. For example, I stayed at Venetian and it was really nice and luxurious. I felt as if I was a super star when I was in Vegas, because the service in hotel was great and all people staying at the hotel was treated nicely.
In some scenes in this movie, I see some buildings and a fountain in Vegas. It makes me happy. When I watch this movie, not only do I enjoy the story, but also I enjoy thinking about the time when I visited the US.

What is my dog in my house for?

I have a dog named Choco in my house. Her pedigree is beagle. She came to my house when I was 9 years old. She was named for what she looked like; she had mixed color hair which are brown, dark brown and white. It looks like chocolate. The first few years after she came, all of my family looked after her nicely. However, we have got tired of taking care of her. So we came not to care about her.

Through thinking about animals in the class a few weeks ago, I got to think of her as an important member of my family. Although I don't see her very much because I don't live in my hometown now, I would care if she was not home when I get back to my hometown. It had been a long time since I went for a walk with my dog. The last time I went back home in May, I went for a walk with her and realized that she has got older. She used to run fast and I didn't like to walk with my dog because I was always pulled. However, she couldn't walk for a long time without taking a rest in May. It was better for me to walk slowly, but I became sad at the same time. I remembered the all memories that I had with her and imagined the life without her in the future. It must be a sad imagination, but I couldn't help thinking about it.

When I went for a walk with her, I also felt that my mind was connected to her mind. I used to think telling my dog my feeling or what I want was impossible. However, every time I called her name, she came to me happily. And she always looked at my eyes. So I thought she knew how I felt. Now I think she is my precious family and the next time I see her, I want to play with her a lot.

As I finally realized how important taking care of the pet was, I think many people haven't realized it yet. So I want a lot of people to take care of pets without getting tired of it. A Pet belong to family as long as people have him or her.

Surprising

One of my friends told me to watch this video. The first time I watched this video, I was very surprised at his voice. Now I always laugh every time I watch this. I'm sure all of you enjoy this!

This song is "Part of your World". I think most of people have listened to this song when you were a child on TV or at the Disneyland.

Beyonce

This is a video of Beyonce singing "If I were a boy". As I wrote about this song before, I like this song.

Traffic Wardens Get Video Cameras

We can see CCTV cameras wherever we go in Japan now. There are good points and also bad points in having CCTV cameras everywhere except for private places.

I think it is good to have CCTV cameras to prevent crime and find a criminal if someone commits crime. I can always feel protected when I see CCTV cameras. At places where don't have any CCTV camera I feel a little bit danger. Having CCTV cameras enable a watchman to realize that something happens or will happen to see a suspected person in camera, and then he can send for the police. Even if an incident had already happened, police could know what had caused it or who had done it. So even after an incident police still can reach after the truth. Furthermore, because of CCTV cameras, some people who is planning to commit crime may give up committing.

On the contrary, I also have the opposite idea. Although CCTV cameras are set to keep watching us, I'm afraid of that our privacy are invaded. Keeping being watched all the time makes me nervous and I don't feel comfortable. Even when I am at home, I sometimes suspect something and wonder whether CCTV cameras are set only in public or not. Now the technology is high in Japan, so I think it is possible for someone to set cameras somewhere we cannot notice and cameras keep watching us. When I see cameras on the street, I wonder if those cameras had been really set by government. That might be exaggerated, but I don't know how much effective for us to have CCTV cameras.

I conclusion, though I have two ideas to agree and disagree with having CCTV cameras. I prefer having CCTV cameras watch us. CCTV cameras can protect us more or less. I just have to believe that cameras around me keep watching us to protect us.

MUSIC REVIEW

One of my favorite singers is Beyonce. She is 27 years old and from the United States. She was a member of the group called "Destiny's child", which was dispersed and she is a solo singer now. She is noted for her beautiful voice and attractive looks. She is also an actress and is in the movie called " Dream Girls"and so on. She used to sing songs which could be always listened to at clubs. But she started singing a ballad as well as dance music. That is why a lot of people of a wide age group got to like her music.

The genre of her songs is R&B. She dances very well and her dance is modern. Her songs are so rhythmical that can make listeners feel like dancing. Most songs are sung with electric sound. Her voice is so powerful and clear. She always sings a song with enthusiasm, so she looks like she is a real heroine in a story of her songs. The way she sings fascinates a lot of people when they listen to her songs.

Most of all, I like the rhythm of her songs. Her songs are sometimes fast and high but sometimes slow and gentle. I don't really understand everything what she says in her songs because of my difficulties in listening to music in English. But once I see lyrics, I get to like her songs more and more. Some of her songs are in women's point of view. I feel the same way as the lyrics she sings. Especially, I like "If I were a boy". This song is about a girl and a boy. In this song, she imagines what she would do if she was a boy. The girl in this song wants a boy to know how she feels and hurts. And she is telling that if she was a boy, she would care about a girl much more than the boy she already knew does. This song conveys how dissatisfied she is with love with the boy. And then the girl in this song gave up believing him. I understand how she feels and when I listen to this song, I also become sad, but get power from this song as well.

I can be happy and feel comfortable at the same time when I listen to her songs. I think most musician keeps singing their songs the same way all the time, and it will result in that makes me think all of their music sounds the same. However, Beyonce has some kinds of music so that I will never be tired of listening to her songs.

The issue of veils

Schools Could be Allowed to Ban Veils


Muslim people have a religion that doesn't allow women to show their skin. So Muslim women have to cover their skin with veils. However, the government British has decided to ban veils.

There are several opinions about this decision. Some Muslim people are happy with this decision because they think they look the same with other people and the difference between them and other societies will be nothing. But other Muslim people feel bad to be banned veils because they think banning veils is kind of discrimination. One of Muslim students said that although they look different to other people, inside they are all the same. I agree a little bit with this opinion, but I strongly agree with the opposite opinion. People who are not Muslim can not see Muslim women's face, so they do not know how they react and how they look like. Not knowing how they react would be hard for other people to communicate with them. At school, if teachers don't know how students react, it is hard to evaluate them. Seeing each other's face is important when we communicate. I would be scared if I couldn't see a person's face who I talked to.
Now, there are a lot of crimes around the world, so wearing veils can make us think that people who covering their faces with veils are suspected and that it is easier for Muslim people to commit a crime. So showing our faces is important now.


In my opinion, if there was a Muslim student at school in Japan, she would have to obey the rule of school and would not be allowed to wear veils. That is because the rule in Japan is so strict about how students look like. Students are not allowed to wear something on their head in class. No matter what religion people belong to, people have to obey the rule in the region where they are. The problem is that we have to attach importance to human rights and religions. Banning veils must be segregation. If school vanned veils, some Muslim students would be withdrawn from school. Even though it is better for people who are not belong to Muslim religion that Muslim women don't veil, Muslim would be hurt that their religion is discriminated.



I think Muslim people need to know how important to see people's face and show their faces. There is no good point in hiding their faces. It is hard for other people to trust Muslim people until they show their faces.

Introduction

My name is Maiko. I'm in the third year. I'm taking English Literature as my major.



I am from Ibaraki prefecture. It is more than 2 hours away from here by car. I like there but I like Tokyo as well, because I get to go to a lot of places, could meet a lot of people here. Living in Ibaraki is so different from living in Tokyo. For example,every time when I go out, I need to drive a car instead of taking a train. There are a lot of places to go around to kill time or hang out with my friends in Tokyo, but Ibaraki has much less places to go. The best reason why I like Ibaraki is that I can relax in Ibaraki. That is because it is where I was born, where I grew up, got to see my precious friends and also because of the environment there. There are river near my house and it only takes 10 minutes to go to beach by car. No one cares about me even if I walk in my pajamas with my dog around my house. People living there are more friendly than people in Tokyo and living their own ways.


My hobbies are body boarding, going shopping, relaxing at home and listening to music such as R&B and House music. As for body boarding, I just started, but I'm getting into it. I got to know about it when I went to Guam last summer. I used to go shopping very much before, but now I don't have a part-time job, so I can't go shopping as many times as before. And I got to think saving money is more important for me than spending all of money for clothes and other things. Because if I save money, I can travel abroad whenever I have time. Every weekend I like to stay at my house and sleep as long as I want. I used to go out everyday, but now it is so easy for me to get tired every time I go out. So just staying at my house and watching movies is the best way to spend weekends. I sometimes ask my friends in America and Australia what music is out and popular in their countries. I prefer listening to music from other countries to that from Japan.



I like travelling abroad. Wherever I go, I prefer being near the ocean. I used to like getting tanned, but now I care about my skin. I have been to Australia last year, I stayed there about for 3 weeks. I went to the beach almost everyday. The beach was much clearer than the one in Japan. I really liked the beach in Australia. I realized that it was so hard to stay in another country with different language.


I would like to learn about a lot of themes in " Media English" class.

PLAGIARISM

University students sometimes plagiarize. They treat their school work, such as papers and assignments, as easy work that they can just copy from the Internet.　It is the problem which now a lot of Universities are faced with. Using the Internet to research an essay must be so much easier than that students write their own essay by themselves. However, they still have to do their homework by themselves with their efforts. Students sometimes think of both their homework and plagiarism as frivolous things. That is, they think even if they cheated, faculties would never detect that students cheated. Students who often cheat on their homework would not acquire any skill such as reading skill, writing skill and creating skill with their original ideas while they go to the university for four years. If they keep cheating, they end up lacking in originality and creativity.