nanikana travel: November 2006

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Thursday, November 30, 2006

How was your holiday??

We had 1 week holiday in November. How did you spend your holiday? Was it fun? I heard many people went to travel abroad. Actually, I went to Korea for four days with my friend, so I will introduce my trip.

During our trip, we had a lot of free time. First, I went to famous beauty-treatment clinic. Korea is famous for “Akasuri” and ”massage.” I had never been to beauty-treatment clinic but it was great!! I felt happy. I want to go clinic in Japan. Next, I went to the famous shopping place. There are a lot of roadside stand. For example, food, cloth, accessories and scarf. We ate “toppogi,” it is famous Korean food and I bought earrings. Next day, I went to traditional castle or temple. The scale was very big and beautiful. These castles had crashed by Japan in 1910 because Japan occupied Korea. However, these castles were reconstructed by Korean. In addition, November was good season for trees because leaves changes its colors. The scenery similar to Japan and it was great. That night, we went to the biggest shopping spot in Korea. That town was beautiful because of illumination. In Korea, people go shopping in night time, so even 10pm, the town was bustling and many people was walking. On the contrary, day time was inactive.

Korea is the nearest country from Japan but the culture and the street is different from Japan. Korean food is very spicy but it is delicious. My trip was great, I could spend good time. In spring vacation, you should go to Korea!!!

Posted by kWiDe at 4:52 AM | Permalink | Comments

Sunday, November 19, 2006

Mt. Fuji

Mt. Fuji is a very famous mountain in Japan. So, I’m going to introduce some stories about Mt. Fuji!!
1: A cap cloud on the top of Mt. Fuji is a sign that it will rain. The possibility that will be true is very high indeed. Almost, we can guess that it will rain after we find it. Many people use this idea practically.

2: It is an auspicious sign if you can dream of Mt. Fuji when you have your first dream of the year. This story comes originally from an pun, Fuji and Buji(無事) in Japanese. Buji means safe. So, it hopes that we can live safe and peaceful.

3: The water at Mt. Fuji is a miracle drug for agelessness and deathlessness. The water is really delicious and clear. Also, it is said that Fuji(富士) comes originally from Fusi(不死). The word means deathlessness. Mt. Fuji is really beautiful and loved by many people. If you haven’t seen it, you should go to see it!!　

Posted by kWiDe at 9:00 PM | Permalink | Comments

Thursday, November 16, 2006

“What is International Communication?”

Do you think Japanese are well known all over the world? I went to Canada for 8 months to study English last year. I didn’t care about my nationality because my goal in Canada was just to learn English and to make lots of friends.

However, I felt shame myself in Canada as soon as I arrived there. Whenever I meet people for the first time, they asked me “where are you from? Are you from Japan?? That is so cool!! ”That is what people responded me.
One day, I was asked what your religion is. Then I could not answer anything and I stayed quietly because I had no idea about my religion and then the person said to me “Are you sure? You should know about your own culture.”

I felt sad, shame, foolish myself at the time. To be honest, I didn’t expect at all.

Religion is a part of life for many Canadian so it was natural to be asked like that question. I was so disrespectful to my own country because I don’t know anything about it. I also did not have any identity as Japanese. I thought again and again what means studying English? If I can speak English, is everything okay? No!!! Speaking English is just only a tool as communication. Real communication is to respond partner’s question and to say own opinion. I think that is real international communication.

Japan is getting popular in the filed of anime and healthy Japanese foods. Japanese politics also made a big change today. I have to be sensitive what is happening own countries politics, customs and entertainment. If you want to learn abroad, I would recommend you to prepare for answering question especially politics and religion and to have identity who you are.

Posted by kWiDe at 4:44 PM | Permalink | Comments

Wednesday, November 08, 2006

Fascinating Yamagata

Hello! I want to introduce about Yamagata. There are many wonderful places where we can visit and enjoy. Do you know this scenery? I tell you about Zao at first. This lake’s name is ‘Okama’. It was made by explosion of volcano many years ago and very famous sightseeing spot in Japan. Many people visit there to see it. This lake has very beautiful colors of water and can change colors by weather.

As there is a volcano, Zao is also famous to hot spring. Zao hot spring town is full of smelling of sulfur. Some people do not like this smelling but it is nice for people who like hot springs. It is effective for beautiful skin, tiredness and so on.
Zao has one more famous thing, it is... skiing!! Zao is one of the largest ski resort in Japan. Of course, snow board is also O.K. Maybe almost people can not play there perfectly only a day, they need more days to play enough. I recommend here to play winter sports.

That’s all introducing about Zao. Next, I introduce Yonezawa. Yonezawa is base place of Uesugi family. It is a very famous family of military commander in Sengoku period. The first reader was Uesugi Kensin. He is a rival of Takeda Singen and very his army was really strong. There is his stone monument where was put his dead body in Uesugi shrine. Uesugi shrine has a lot of things about Uesugi family. And near the Uesugi shrine, there is a museum of history of Uesugi. It is good for you to learn about them and people who like Uesugi or history should go there. This museum will tell you much nice information for you. It includes armors of famous people’s. Here is really exciting point!!

On the other hand, Yonezawa is famous for ‘Yonezawa Beef’. It is high quality and very wonderful tastes. However it is expensive, so, we can not eat them easily. Let’s save the money and eat them! Yonezawa is also wonderful spot. I recommend you to go there, too. I finish introducing about Yamagata. There are a lot of other nice places in Yamagata and you can search more about there. I am happy if you have interests for Yamagata.

Posted by kWiDe at 4:51 PM | Permalink | Comments

Tuesday, November 07, 2006

You can have a cottage in Hawaii!!

As you know, Hawaii is very popular among Japanese people. If you go to Hawaii, you can meet Japanese people everywhere such as at shopping mall, streets and stores and of course at the beach. So, now some company are taking action to people who love Hawaii. There’re many hotels in Honolulu, the state capital of Hawaii, and a new types of hotel will be built soon. This hotel is different from conventional one, it is a “Time Share” hotel. I’ll explain something about this system.

In KoOlina, the west coast of Oahu, there’s “Time Share” hotels which are kept by Marriott group. I’ll talk about this hotel’s “Time Share” systems and there’re a lot of profits.

Firstly, basically, you can use the hotel during a week in a year. There’re two ways of renting the hotel. One is you can rent same week every year, another is you make a reservation and you rent. But you need to reserve at least a year before.

Secondly, you can have a possessive right. It means you can exploit the hotel as a property and hand over to your child. So your family can use the hotel forever. Thirdly, you can stay any Marriott hotels in the world by utilizing point exchange system, also you can swap for a plane ticket.

These are part of the “Time Share” system of Marriott group hotel at KoOlina. I think the system is different from each hotel and there’re some conditions to become an owner, especially about money.

Lastly, while I introduced three benefits of “Time Share”, the best benefits for me is that at a maximum eight people can stay in a large room and the beach is in front of the hotel. You can swim whenever you want!!

Posted by kWiDe at 10:35 PM | Permalink | Comments

Trip to London

In February, in this year, I was tripped to London with my friends. Before Ideparted from Japan, I was very excited. I think London is a very beautifulcountry. I like a row of houses along the street in London. I want to see it. Ithought “My dream has come true.” However, the time of flight was too long, so I was very tired before arrived in London. When I was arrived at Heathrow Airport,London was night time. London was very cold.Next day, I did a sight seeing in London. First, I went to Big Ben. I wanted to seeit very much, because this building appears in story of “Peter Pan”. I like thisstory very much.Secondly, I went to Buckingham Palace. It was very magnificence and big. I took apicture with guardsman. I thought they were very scary, because they did not smile.

Next day, I went to Kingscross station. This station appears in Harry Potter’s films. It seems as if I am in the film of Harry Potter. I was exciting very much.
I could spend beneficial time in London. This is my precious memories. I recommendto trip to London, because there are many historical buildings, so I can learn alot of things.Also, I think it is important to know another culture. Because trip is broaden our horizons.

Posted by kWiDe at 10:14 PM | Permalink | Comments

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