Blog #4: Swilling Soda

 Hi! I'm Yu! Today, I'll introduce you the news article which I'm interested in.

 On May 30th, New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg announced that he planed to introduce the prohibition of swilling soda to deal with a fatness problem in NY. This prohibition will restrict the sales of drinks which contain sugar such as soda, ice tea, sportsdrink in restaurants to 16 ounces.

 However, beverage industry started a campaign against it on the street and the media. The American Beverage Association(ABA) takes the initiative in this campaign. This industry made New York Stake withdraw the introduction of soda tax in 2010. They insist on the freedom of choice of drinks. In addition, they think that drinks contain sugar are aimed at and  low-income consumers will suffer heavy losses directly for this prohibition.

 To be sure, fatness causes many diseases. It will increase the amount of medical bill and the expense will fall on the country and autonomies. However I doubt whether this goverment intervention has a effect on fatness problem. Although they people can't drink soda too much at restaurants but they can buy soda at supermarkets and drink at home. I think that his prohibition can't keep the number of overweight people.

Anyway, it is getting hotter and hotter and you will get to want to drink soda. But, be careful not to drink soda too much to keep weight!

See you next time!

Yu

Blog #4: Raw liver

Hello everyone! Today, let me introduce a sad news.
On July 1, Japanese government officially forbid any restaurants to sell the "raw liver" and a lot of people went to Yakiniku-shop to eat it the day before. 

It all started with the food poisoning-case happened at the Yakiniku restaurant "Yakiniku Shuka Ebisu" last April. Some boys eating these were dead of O-111 virus contained in them. After this harsh case, since last October, every restaurants which treated raw meat dishes had to boil  meats used for such dishes in the water more than 60 degree Celsius at least 1 minute, if they are ordered. Also they had to cut and boil such meats by using cleaned equipment. However since yesterday, Health, Labour and Welfare Ministry forbade to sell raw livers because they can contain some viruses like O-157 virus which can make people die at the worst, and especially in summer such viruses can be expected to increase.

But this decision can give some restaurant bad incentives. Some analysts, in this case, some restaurants will provide a raw liver by changing its name from "Liver sasimi" to just "Liver" because consumers will want raw liver more by forbidding.. Especially the restaurant which has big connection with local consumers will not be able to ignore their wants for providing a raw liver so  it can provide a raw liver as a liver for boiled, in order to keep its customer.

I agree with its decision but I think Japanse government should have decide a certain rimit for forbidding a raw liver. If it decided to forbid to provide them "FOR 3 MONTHS", consumer wouldn't likely to eat them. One reason many Japanese people disagree with this order is that the goverment has not decided to forbid it whether forever or not.

Anyway, I rearly eat raw meats in a Yakiniku restaurant so it doesn't matter for me!
Please be carefull if you eat something raw in summer.
See you!

Keiichi.

Blog #3: Saori Yuki

Hi everybody! This is Makiko and I’m going to introduce my favorite singer today. She made a great hit recently so I’m sure some of you probably know her already…,

Saori Yuki.

She’s a 63-year-old Japanese singer.

Her career is so long but she has been acclaimed again recently. Not only in Japan, but also in Europe and U.S., because of the collaboration with a famous American jazz band “Pink Martini.”
This collaboration album, “1969,” was in the top jazz charts in the U.S.. She and Pink Martini held a lot of concerts all over the world after the worldwide hit of their album.

In this album, she sings traditional Japanese songs to standard jazz or bossa nova songs both arranged with a beautiful jazz rhythm. Remarkable and interesting thing is that she sings in Japanese! I think that is one of the reasons why it has made a huge hit. The sound of Japanese could be very new and surprising for foreign people. Of course, her voice is really amazing. I think it is mature, feminine and independent.

This is my most favorite song. I like the video as well. Check it out!

I have recommended this song to one of my German friend who is learning Japanese!

I was not a big jazz fan, but I liked it so much. So even if you were not interested in jazz music at all, please, just listen to it first. If you liked it and needed more information, check Saori Yuki's Official Blog!

I hope you'll like it.

Blog #3: My Birthday!

Hey guys, I'm Sayuri.

It was my birthday today so i went to Tokyo Disney Land with my boy friend. Though the forecast said it would be rainy, it was a perfect day to go out! You can find it by this photo which I took.

I've been fan of Disney since I was child. When I was a little girl, my parents took me there many times. I can't count how many times I've visited there!! As you know, Tokyo Disney Land always makes us happy and gives us dreams. Why?

In my opinion, the key word is "thoroughgoing" which means it does anythinng completely. And more, there are 3 factors which support their "thoroughgoing".

First; "attractions". There are many attractions and every thing is really real compared with other theme parks. So we feel like we are in a Disney story.

Second; "shows". There are a lot of shows in Tokyo Disney Land and it attract all of us from children to senior peoples. The shows change every season. Today, the theme was "easter". 

And last one; "casts". The casts are really trained so they are cheerful and kind. And they always smille. Recently we learned UNIQULO's employees. Disney's policy is similar with it. We need the human service. And both almost achieve it and success in their buissiness world.

Anyway, I felt really happy in Tokyo Disney Land and really want to go threre again! Why don't we go there?

Sayuri :)

Blog #3: My Spring Vacation in HI

Hi! I'm Takuya. I'm gonna write about my spring vacation in Hawaii!

Last March, I stayed in Hawaii for a month to go to a language school. I joined in the English lesson of ELS Language Center in Hawaii Pacific University which is one of Hawaiian private universities. There were so many foreign students,  especially Asian at there but Japanese were fewer than I expected, so it was a really good situation for me to study English and I could make a lot of friends. Plus, I stayed in a residence that is a type of dorms and some of my friends also stayed in there, so we spent a month together not only in classes, but also in free times. Every weekends, we always went to a beach for surfing, BBQ, or other activities so we had a really enjoyable time.

My class was also enjoyable. I had a lot of homeworks in the school almost everyday. Besides, sometimes I had to prepare for a presentation in my class so I had to study hard but I could enjoy my class because of my classmates. They are foreigners so they have various types of cultures, ideas, and religeons. When we had a discussion in our class, I knew about them and they were quite interesting for me because most of them were informations witch I've never heard. Thus, I could study with curiousness and pleasure to know my classmates' ideas or cultures.

I could have a really nice experience in Hawaii, and I could make many friends. I'm still keeping touch with them on Facebook or Line but I miss them. I hope my friends and I will be able to meet again in someday!

Blog#2: My favorite book

Hi everyone. I'm Keiichi.

Today, let me intorduce my favorite book.
A week ago, I found the book "Aiteni [Tsutawaru] Hanasikata" at BOOKOFF. This book is written by Ikegami Akira, who is an famouse and popular journarist in Japan. He also has his own TV shows. In this book he mentioned how to tell someone what you think exactlly, mainly based on his experience in NHK. I'll pick up his two ideas in the book.

Firstly, I caught such a phrase: "You put the most important thing on the first line or say it at first." This words come from his experience of the newscaster at NHK. When TV stations make a news, they try to make "the read", which is the sentence mentioned at the beginnig of the news and has the most influence and important information. In order to bring people in the news, they put the most important thing at the biginning. On the other hand, not so important information, for example references and previous cases, are put at the bottom of the news because news are always a live program, and TV producers reduce the news from underneath if the time ticks down. Thus he said such a thing.

Next, I also found "use no conjunction as much as possible". He said most unconfident people tend to use much conjunction like "because", "so", "thus". He also said they don't marshal or brush up their idea so force to connect different ideas by using such conjunctions. In his view, I am probably such a person. The person who has clear opinions or ideas can make anyone understand because they set a certain sentence in a certain place.

My post is not enough to tell his book, but it is easy to read and understand, and the contents are all usuful in university lecture. If you want to read it, go to BOOKOFF or a bookstore! You can lend it at our university libraly but I still have the book so you will be able to lend it in next week.
See you guys!

Blog #2: Trip to Thailand

Hi! I'm Yu.
Today, I'm going to talk about my trip. I took a trip to Thailand with my friends in last March. There are many temples which differ from Japanese temples in shape in Thailand. Here are some pictures of these temples.



I had some Thai baht when I came back to Japan, so I went to exchenger in Japan. However, there was scribble which was written by ball-point pen  in a 1000 baht bill which is worth more than 2000 yen, and shopper declined to exchange it! So if you exchange foreign currency for Japanese yen, you should check that there is no scribble in both sides of bills!
Like this, we can get various experiences when we go abroad.

I want you to tell me about foreign country you recommend!

See you next time!