Tuesday Writing Class (3T)

     Hello, everyone. As you know, there are a lot of incidents related to bullying around the world. A few years ago, the fact that some teachers had been hard on one of their colleges in Kobe was broadcasted, and many people were surprised and angry. As we grew up, we learned that it is bad to bully someone in terms of moral. However, I don't think that the number of bullying in schools or offices decreased for the last decade.      Why human bully others? Today, I'll introduce two answers to the question in below paragraph.      First reason is that those who bully someone are suffering from the idea that they are inferior to others in many points, and they want to think that they are excellent for humankind. By bullying, people can show their strength (of course, it is false strength), and they can make friends or subordinates of them. We human are social animal, so when we can feel that we are members of people, we also feel sense of saf...

     Hello, everyone!       Do you like eating? These days, it has been difficult for us to eat outside because of COVID-19 virus, but I like eating very much. Today, I will introduce the series of gourmet drama named "Kodoku no Gourmet (Solitary Gourmet)."     "Kodoku no Gourmet" was originally manga which had been serialized in a monthly magazine from 1994 to 1996. Goro, the hero of this manga, is an ordinal business person who make contracts with other people. What strange characteristic he has is that he is particular about eating: for example, he always think what he should eat first.      In drama series which have been made irregularly since 2012, Yutaka Matsushige performed Goro. Mr. Matsushige's performance and explanation about food stimulate our appetite very much. The restaurants and cheap restaurants which were picked up in the drama exists actually, so at the end of the one episode, the author of "Kodoku no Gourme...

     Hello, everyone. When I was a high school student, my teacher of music class often recommended us that we watch operas and musicals like 'Les Miserables.' As a matter of fact, I did not think that musical is good, for I could not understand why people suddenly started to sing songs😅! Thus, I had not watched operas and musicals for a long time (Now, I like to watch musical because I know about it more than ever).      However, these days, I knew that opera and musical are not the same things. Today, I will introduce differences between them in below paragraphs.     First, there are differences in terms of the proportion of music. In opera, songs are the most important, so opera singers never dance by themselves. If authors want to use dance in opera, they should hire those who only dance. On the other hand, in musical, an actor have to sing, perform and dance. This is because audience expect not only music but also story and acting.  ...

     Hello, everyone! Did you enjoy the last winter vacation? I do hope that you had a good time during the New Year. Today, I will write about the origin of Otoshidama  (お年玉).    　Why Japanese adults give their money to children on the New Year's Day? It is said that this custom had been related to "Year God(Toshigami-sama,歳神さま in Japanese)," who had been worshiped in each family during the New Years holidays. People worshiped Toshigami-sama because they believed that the God brought abundant grains to people. Also, people thought that they could be health and make a lot of grains during the year if they gave rice cakes, which were made for the God, to their family or servants.      Japanese people thought that the rice cakes were sacred things. Therefore, it is said that people called the rice cakes "rice cakes like gems( 玉( Tama ) のような餅)." Also, some people called "the soul of Year God (歳( Toshi )神様の魂( Tama shii))," so the rice cakes becam...

     One movie that I really liked was called 'Eien no zero (Eternal zero).' It was made in Japan, and Okada Junichi and Miura Haruma were the main stars of the movie. Yamazaki Takashi directed it. The movie won Japanese Academy Award as the Best Movie in 2015.     In the beginning, Kentaro Saeki (Miura Haruma) were looking for his job, but he could not pass job interviews. Then, his sister, who are working as a free writer, told him about her job related to their true grandfather. In fact, the grandfather who sometimes met them were not their relative originally. Kentaro had interested in her job, so he decided to help his sister and interview their grandfather's colleges. Almost all of them were solders during World War Ⅱ.      At middle point, Kentaro and his sister were disappointed because evaluation about their grandfather were not good. However, suddenly, they met a man who had respected Kyuzo Miyabe. After they met the man, they came to ch...

    Hello, everyone! Today, I'll talk about an interesting experiment about animal behavior.       Do you think that animals understand the concept of fairness? If you want to know whether they are knowing it or not, what will you do? I will write one answer about it, but of course it is not only one answer, so if you have any interesting ideas, please tell me on comments!     First, examinees are two capuchin monkeys, and they are divided into two rooms which have transparent walls. Thus, they can look each other every time. At the rooms, two capuchin monkeys should do an easy task: they should give a rock which are handed in them to a researcher who are standing in front of the two rooms. If one capuchin monkey complete a task, it will get a chip of cucumber. On the other hand, if the other capuchin monkey do the same task, it will get grapes.      The monkeys prefer grapes to cucumber, so they are under unfairness situation. ...

     Hello, everyone. Today, I will introduce "Virtual Santa."      When I was an elementary school student, I often joined Christmas parties which were held in friends' house. At that time, participants exchanged their present to the others' present. These are good memory for me... But what about today's children? Due to COVID-19 virus, they cannot meet their friends or Santa, especially, foreign children cannot.      To solve the problem which children cannot meet friends or Santa, "Virtual Santa" has been invented by a British company! We can meet virtual Santa at Santa HQ, a homepage managed by the company.      At Santa HQ, children can meet Santa dance and sing with him, and discuss arts and music using video conference every day. Santa performers are drilled to be able to use modern gadget like zoom, so they can talk with children smoothly. It costs 30 ponds (about 4,000 yen) to talk with Santa, but considering the cost ...

    Hello, everyone! Today, I'll talk about 'Face surveillance,' which is technology to monitor our life by recognizing our face. I learned about this technology in TED talks 'What you need to know about face surveillance.' The speaker was Kade Crockford.     In this podcast, she talked about what privacy is and why she thinks that face surveillance is dangerous for our privacy. She explained that privacy is not opposed to safety, but it is guarantor of safety: thus, what privacy it is is not dangerous, but it is dangerous for us to be known our privacy by someone.      In terms of this idea, Ms. Crockford dislike the idea that governments should monitor every one, every day by face surveillance. Encryption (to protect your smart phone or computer by some software or your own means) protect our safety because privacy also will be protected, but the new technology does not. It can be used to arrest criminals because of its massive information, but also ...

     Hello, everyone! Today, I'll introduce 'Freetown', a city which is located in Sierra Leone. I knew this city in TED daily talks. The speaker was Yvonne Aki-Sawyerr, who has been the mayor of the city since 2018.           She talked about her plan to plant a million trees on her city in next two years . Can you imagine why has she been planning such project?... The reason why she wants to plant so many trees comes from her own experience. As a matter of fact, she had been not interested in such environmental movement at all before December 2015. 2015 was the last year of the Ebola outbreak, so she could notice what happened to environment in Freetown after the outbreak.     She noticed that a lot of lush forest which had been in Freetown were disappeared because of climate change and deforestation to make people's houses. Also, there is a massive landslide in August 2017 in her city. She took it all in (it means that she under...

     Hello, everyone! Today, I'll introduce Virgin Hyperloop's interesting vehicle, which was introduced in a pod cast.     These days (about a half of month ago), Virgin Hyperloop, a vehicle with new technology, run on the 500 meters of test track placing two passengers for the first time in human history. It covers 500 meters in 15 seconds , so in theory, it can run 1,000 kilometers in about 4 minutes ! Surprisingly, this velocity is just a fraction of the company's aim to achieve.     Virgin Hyperloop is not only company to make new vehicle, but to conduct the test which included people is worth noticing because they could verify that people can ride without any obstacle. The vehicle can eliminate fraction between vehicle and rail. Therefore, it is similar to linear motor car which are under construction in Japan.      As well as other new vehicle aim to dodge traffic obstacle, Virgin Hyperloop also is developed to help people to move...

     Hello, everyone! Today, I'll talk about food made in space. I listened to a pod cast 'Food made in space.' As you know, plants require natural light and nutrition to grow up, but these days, NASA and other corporations have been trying to grow up plants using LED light instead of natural light.      In this pod cast, the woman said that LED light is enough light to grow up plants. Also, researchers experiment that what effects appear on plants by changing wavelength of LED light. So far, they found that plants' feature would be changed depending on wavelength. They also success in growing plants which can absorb all range of wavelength, and the plants look black because they do not reflect all lights. Such plants are very efficient because they can use all light they receive for photosynthesis.      However, to grow plants in space is more difficult than to do without natural light because of microgravity .  Plants' roots grow...

 Hello, everyone!      Today, I'll talk about 2020's most expensive cities to live in. Most expensive cities means the city which prices are high. Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) compiled a list of such cities by researching the cost of 138 items in 130 cities.        Can you expect what cities are in the top of the list? This year, because of COVID-19 virus, there are a lot of change in the ranking. Hongkong, Paris, and  Zurich are occupied top three, on the other hand, Singapore slipped 4th position. Also, Osaka and Tel aviv share 5th position. I think that the fact that Tokyo is less expensive to live in than Osaka is very surprising because Tokyo seems more developed than Osaka in my image.      However, to be contained in this list means not only the city is developed but also there are some problems in suppling product and currency exchange.   For example, Teheran's prices are increasing because of USA's ...

 Hello, everyone! Today, I will talk about " Time bender. " This is a new term which was made by Grace Pacie, an author of ' Late! A Timebender's Guide to Why We Are Late and How We Can Change. '      "Time bender" does not stand for a person who can bend time but describes a person who are always late. I think that you may have met such person at least once. If you are punctual, sometimes you may be irritate at such attitude. However, Pacie insists that time benders actually does not want to be late, but they cannot estimate exactly how many times something to do takes. It is said that they always estimate it approximately four fifth times as long as it really requires.     Also,  some time benders always late because they try to do a lot of things before meeting time. They think that to arrive at meeting place early and wait for a few minuets are waste of time.  Because of this feature, time benders can be more productive than ordinal people on ...

     Today, I listened to "Melting ice sheet: Is it too late?" In this pod cast, the man and the woman talked about melting ice sheet of Green land and the Arctic and whether it's too late for human beings to strive to stop global warming.       Michalea King, a glaciologist, explained that usually, the amount of melting ice sheet and the amount of newly frozen ice was in balance, so we do not have to worry about melting ice sheet. In other words, "the amount of ice being drained from the glaciers was equal to what we are gaining on the surface via snow every year."(This is a citation from her words.)       However, recently, the glaciers have been melting faster than ever, and the balance was destroyed. She said that the situation which we are now facing is the tipping point. In fact, 500 gigatons of ice are now melting into the ocean every year, and the amount of newly frozen ice is less than that. Gigatons stands for a billion to...

       Hello, everyone! Today, I will talk about conspiracy theories. Do you know the term? Conspiracy theory claims that a incident seems like accident or very easy to solve it at first look but actually, there is a leader like government, other famous organization or celebrities who conducted criminals. For example, the idea that Bill Gates wants to control people by microchips, so he made vaccines for COVID-19 virus is conspiracy theory. The theories aren't based on any evidence, so you should not believe it.      In the podcast which I listened to, how to talk with a person who believes such theories is mentioned. First of all, you should not deny his/her ideas. They believe it truly, so if they are said 'you are wrong!' by someone, they cannot accept and maybe think that someone is also trying to hide the truth. It is very dangerous to stimulate their mind.      Thus, when you start to persuade them to think rationally, it is better...

     Hello, everyone! Today, I will introduce a podcast which I listened to. The title is Volocopter: A German drone taxi. Have you ever known the term, "Volocopter"? I know this word for the first time in the podcast. I will explain it in following paragraphs.     Volocopter is a new word which is made by a German company. It has 18 rotors and can fly like drones! It is under developing now, but the plan which it drive ordinal people was announced by the developer, and reservation of test drives for only 1000 people has already started. It will cost you 355 dollars  (about 38,000 yen) to ride it for only 15 minutes. Also, this vehicle can take only one person at the same time. Thus.... I think that it has not been practical yet, but Volocopter plan is very interesting and like science fiction! I hope that technology related to the vehicle will be improved more.       Also, this project has not been get a certification by any institut...

     Hello, everyone! This time, I'll talk about what tiredness is and how to recover from it. These days, some of you may be very busy to do homework or study for tests.... but can you take a rest? When you don't have a fever, but feel listless, you are tired.      In the first place, the definition of tiredness is that 'a physical decline with annoyance which come from excessive physical or mental activity, or diseases' (I cite this definition from following HP.). In the other words, to become not to use your muscle well because of using it too much and that your brain cannot work well by stress. Also, they are physical signs which tell you that "Take a rest as soon as possible!" These signs tell you your emergency related to maintaining your life, so you have to be relax and recover from such a situation when you feel tired.      Then, what can we do to get rid of tiredness efficiently? The answer to this question is very simple:   ...

       Hello, everyone! Today, I'll talk about 'meats.' In previous blog, I said that vegetarian foods in Buddhism may do good your health. However, to eat a lot of vegetables is not enough, and it is also important to eat meats. Thus, I'll explain what merits eating meats is in following paragraphs.     First, animal protein make muscle and born in our body. You may have learned it in home economics class; what is called 'Yellow food.' If you want to get great muscle and healthy body, you have to eat meats to get protein. Muscle also help you to burn fat.     Second, meats help us to live longer. Do you know the average of life expectancy in Edo period? It is said that it was about 45~50 years old. It is from 1960s that Japan became to such a longevity. During 1960s, we Japanese got to eat many kinds of food from Europe and North America  because limitation of import was abolished. The food included meats and eggs, and they help us to live h...

     Hello, everyone! Today, I'll introduce a podcast which I watched. The title is 'Could humans live in underwater city?'     In this podcast, whether we human try to live in the sea and what problems are of living in underwater are explained. First of all, there is a project to live under the sea, and Japanese team is leading it. One of the member of the project team said that it is our purpose to solve environmental problems like lack of natural resources. At seabed, there are a lot of resources, for example, oil and shale gas. He insist that if we can use the resources, we will not have to suffer from shortage of it on the ground.      However, there is mainly one big physiological problems when we live in underwater city. First problem is that we have to worry about the bends, a disease caused by the differences of atmospheric pressure between on the ground and under the sea. Because of the bends, even ex-military person could live in underw...

     Hello, everyone. Today, I will introduce Vegetarian food in Buddhism. It is called '精進料理' in Japan, and it is eaten mainly in temples. As you can know from its English name, such cuisine doesn't include any meal. But also, it is different from ordinal vegetarian food in terms of origin. I will explain the origin and idea in following paragraphs.       There are three reasons why people in temples eat Vegetarian food. The first reason is that Buddhists think that we human should not kill every animals if we do not have to do so. In Buddhism, killing animals for eating is useless. The second reason is that Buddhists think that we should not have earthly desires (煩悩 in Japanese). They believe that if we take luxurious meal, we will have earthly desires and want to eat more luxurious cuisine than what we ate. The third reason is that Buddhists believe that we can enlightenment and be Buddha by eating simple meal.      However, at the or...