Blog #8 My Sister`s Keeper

Hi again, everyone :) It`s my last blog so I want to write about an impressive movie which I watched recently. It is "My Sister`s Keeper". Have you heard of it? You can watch it in Chuo-to (6th floor).

Before I watched it, I thought it would be too merodramatic. But it wasn`t, more than merodramatic.

I want to talk about the story a bit but don`t tell you precisely and its crimax...haha
There was a happy-looking family in one town. There were two sisters in the film. The older one has heavy sick. The younger sister was "made" to be born to help the older sister. So she was often "used" for the older sister in medical scene, like being injected. Because of these hard time, she often had infection when she was younger. She got angry about her parents, especially at her mother, and hired a lawyer and went to court. She claimed that her parents ruined her life and hurt her so much.

But actually there was another reason in her mind.
She was really worried about her older sister. Their mother did never lose the older sister. So she "used" the younger sister to cure the heavy illness. The younger sister didn`t mind to be used but didn`t make older sister feel bad in her mind. So she didn`t want her mother to "make" the older sister live long. She knew how hard time the older sister had and wanted her to feel ease. So she was always ready for her sister`s death.
That`s why she went to court and tried to make her mother stop hard treatment for her older sister.

Ooh, I can`t tell you anymore :) You should watch it soon!! And let me know if you know some nice movies :)

Thank you everyone for a year!! It was really my pleasure to take film study class with you :) I hope to keep in touch with all of you :)

Asami

Blog #7 The idea of Christmas

 Happy New Year everyone! I`m so sorry I missed two blogs :( So I`m writing them now and will post my comment to your blogs soon!

 In last month, I got lots of presents and cards from my pen friends in all over the world. And of course, I talked about how to spend Christmas day with each of them. In these conversation, every one asked me whether we celebrate Christmas in Japan or not.

 I think it was a difficult question for Japanese people. One reason is that Christmas isn`t a holiday in Japan. Dec.25th is originally normal day here, not like European countries. The other reason is that most Japanese people aren`t Christian. So I didn`t know whether I could say to them that we "celebrate" Christmas.

 But you know, Christmas surely exists in Japan,too. But I think it`s for some fun like exchanging presents and eating gorgeous dinner.

 The most interesting thing I found out from my pen friends is that Christmas is a celebration and a holiday which should be spent with family for them. In Japan Christmas is a "day" for couple... haha
 My Italian friend told me that she definitely goes to church on Christmas day because of religious reason. For her, Christmas is surely "celebration" rather than something fun.

 What do you think in your opinion? If you foreign friends ask you this question, how do you answer?

Asami Okumura 

#8 The music festival "Countdown Japan 11-12"

    A happy new year, everyone !!

    The new year has already started!! What are you doing this year? I want to talk with many people and to try everything this year!! Talk a lot with me and tell me everything you know!!
    On New Year's Eve, I went to the music festival "Countdown Japan 11-12" in Makuhari Messe. Many Japanese bands I like played there. One handred fourteen thousand people had come for 4 days. I went there on only the latest day, but I danced all night and it was very fantastic! I danced a long time, so I felt nauseated. No sooner had this new year come than I vomited hahaha! I, however, kept dancing after that, because it was so happy that I couldn't stand dancing.
    I watched the bands, "Group Damashi-", "Zainichi Fank", "Capsule", "Urbangarde", "Your Song Is Good", and "Elephant Kashimashi". Do you know the bands? If you are interested in them, you should watch the music videos on Youtube.
    After the festival, I went to a public bath at 4 a.m. and I worked at The Meiji Shrine from 8 a.m. to 7 p.m.! The schedule was hard and I was exhausted. I slept till noon on the next day. I sold written fortunes then and many foreign people asked me the meaning in English. I felt that studying English was very important in the modern life!!
   What were you doing on New Year's Eve and the beginning of the new year?

Hoh,

Blog#8 real steel

A happy new year! I watched “real steel” in January 1, 2012. I could watch it with ¥1,000, because everyone can watch movie with 1,000 in every first day. This movie is first one which I watched in 2012. Actually I wanted to watch “real steel” more early, but in the last December, I was too busy to go to a movie theater. I was glad to watch it before it finishes.

I think the story is very simple. The main characters fight the robot which is picked up from garbage, but I would like to tell the outline with a little more details.

The main character, Charlie, is a robot trainer who was a boxer but as the time is gone, robots fight instead of human boxer in order to show more violent fight. He was very lazy, and separate with his wife. One day his wife died, and he had to take care of his son, Max, who had lived with his mother before. At first, Charlie tried to ask the relatives, and they wanted Max. However, after Charlie considered his problem about money lack, he succeeded to sell Max after summer vacation. Max was very interested in robot fight, and he went the game with his father. One day they found a very old robot. Charlie tried to sell it, but Max disagreed to sell it. When they fight a game with the robot, they understood the possibility of strength. They won games successively, and at last they fight the strongest robot in the world with the old robot.   

I like this movie. First interesting point is the cool robots. The scenes where robots fight are very powerful, and made me excited. The robot which remodeled in Japan came on, and it looks very funny.    

Second interesting point is love between father and son. At first Charlie tried to sell Max, but as they were fighting games cooperating each other, they were bonding their mind each other. 

I recommend this movie if you have not watch it yet.

I want to watch many movie in 2012!

Motoki  

Blog #6 Something important which we can notice after illness

Long time no see, everyone!
I`m really sorry I couldn`t write any blog recently :( Actually I`m suffering from hair-loss and took blood test at doctor office. And I may have collagen disease...So I have to visit bigger hospital on next Tuesday. I`ll try to catch up with you as much as possible!!!

I don`t have any news to tell you sadly so I`m writing now what I felt after I got illness.
As we are young, it may be natural for all of us to be healthy. Being heavy sick must be rare for young people. I was also thinking that being healthy is very natural for me. But after I started suffering from hair-loss, I noticed something important. Being healthy everytime isn`t natural at all. So we must appreciate everything which compose us. I was very depressed at first. But I think I`ve stronger a bit after I noticed that :)

Have you had any illness except cold? If you have, how did you feel then? or did you learn something from illness?

Asami

Blog#7 inter college negotiation competition

 I joined “negotiation and laws seminar,” and in December, 3 and 4, our seminar joined Inter College Negotiation Competition. The purpose of this competition is that students get negotiation skill which is useful in business scenes through imaginary problem. This competition was 10^th anniversary, and 19 universities including 上海交通大学 and Australia team joined it. Therefore, it seems that this year was bigger than before.

     In Inter College Negotiation Competition, on the first day, we tried the arbitration problem. On the second day, we tried the negotiation problem. There are 2 types of teams, Japanese team and English team. I joined English team. The problems are here.

     I would like to explain the summary of problems. In the arbitration, there are 2 disputes and each dispute has 2 issues. In the first dispute, Red corporation contracted Blue corporation in order to develop the system in a factory. However, some problems happened. Therefore, the launch day was delayed by the problems. Also, Red corporation bought “Blue tester” from Blue, but the ability was not good as Red expected.

     In the second dispute, Blue and Red made contract with Brown corporation to develop the lithium-ion battery satisfying Brown. However, Red and Blue failed to supply the lithium-ion battery due to failing to procure electrolyte. Therefore, Red and Blue couldn’t get profit and cost for developing the batteries was wasteful. In both disputes, Red and Blue sued each other for asking the other party to compensate damage.              

     In the second day, we tried the negotiation problem. In this problem, Red and Blue was trying to make the join company to get the contract with a nation for developing the water management system.

Our seminar took a long time in order to prepare this competition, but we could not win a prize. However, I could get a good experience. Therefore, I want to make the most of this experience for next year competition.

Motoki 

#7 Thinking about the Japanese pension plan

    As every Japanese knows, Japanese must have paid some money for the pension once a month since they become 20 years old. If he has paid that, he gets the right to get the disability pension. If a breadwinner has paid that and dies, his family can receive the pension for a bereaved family. Then, when he has already paid that for 25 years, he get the right to get the old-age pension. The system should become a relief for us to live.
However, it is an anxiety about our life and future now, because there is no positive proof that we can receive the old-age pension. The pension which the old people receive is what we paid. The birthrate in Japan is seriously dwindling. Though business is so slow, the money we have to pay goes up every year. Somehow, the finance of the system is hard now and we feel the crisis over collapsing the system.
   Should we, the students pay that? I became 20 years old this year and I also worried about and was so interested in the system, so I studied about that. The Social Insurance Agency insists on the advantage in the system but I couldn't get any positive proof that it can last soundly. However, I pay the pention now because I persuaded myself that it was for expressing my gratitude to those who brought up me  (I think those are all old people.) and it's not for my old age. To tell the truth, the money (it is 14660 yen once a month now.) is heavy for me. You may think that we should pay that because we may have a chance to receive the disability pension. Yes, we may get a terrible accident or sick, but we also has insured and paid the social insurance premium. The disability pension isn't so important, isn't it?
What do you think about the pension plan?

Hoh