Blog#4: Kyoto -Kinkaku-ji and Kiyomizu-temple (Mizuki Yanagisawa)

Hello. This is Mizuki Yanagisawa again and again. Sorry for posting many articles at once.

I want introduce Kyoto to you this time. I visited here in last winter with my friends and this summer with my family. As you already know, Kyoto is the city renowned for old buildings, temples, shrines or festivals. Today, I would like to focus on two temples. One is called Kinkaku-ji, and the other one is called Kiyomizu-dera (Kiyomizu-temple).

First, I want to introduce Kinkaku-ji to you. I think you probably have been to Kinkaku- ji as a school trip when you are child; therefore you might know pretty much about there already. Kinkaku-ji is a Buddhist temple and is built by Yoshimitsu Asikaga in 1395. When I first visited here with my friends, we were surprised by how glitter it is. There is a park around this temple and you can consult the divine oracle (which means to get an omikuji) at there. I got “Daikichi” or the best luck for omikuji!

Secondly, I want to introduce Kiyomizu-dera. Kiyomizu-dera (or Kiyomizu temple) is first founded by Iemitsu Tokugawa in 1633. Since this temple is located at the top of the mountain, it is known for a beautiful landscape and scenery. At here, with my family, I prayed to god for a food fortune.

Blog#3: My City (Mizuki Yanagisawa)

Hello. This is Mizuki Yanagisawa again. This time, please let me introduce my city. My city where I live in is called “Kawagoe”. I hope you have heard this name at least once. Kawagoe is a small city in Saitama and known for “Ko-edo”（小江戸） which means “small EDO”. As it is called small EDO, the townscape of Kawagoe is very old and traditional. The place is also known for Japanese traditional snack shops that are “Dagashi-ya” (駄菓子屋) where your mother and father have probably visited at least once. Once any adult steps foot in one of these stores, they must feel like a child again.

If you visit Kawagoe, you must visit the area where many Japanese old buildings stand altogether. These buildings or houses are built more than 100 years ago and made in Japanese traditional way. Moreover, you should visit “Kita-in temple” if you are interested in temples. “Kita-in temple” is a nationwide renowned temple which is first built by mentor “Jikakudaishi” in 830. It is said that this temple is most famous temple in Saitama Prefecture.

Furthermore, if you come to Kawagoe, you should go shopping at “Clare mall” where many shops, stores and restaurants gathered. Every time I visit here, there are enormous numbers of people. From what I have researched, the population of this area is 33,000 per year. You would be able to enjoy shopping for new clothes, foods and souvenirs at here.

Blog#1: Bifidus (Mizuki Yanagisawa)

Hello. This is Mizuki Yanagisawa. Today I want to introduce you a yogurt, which name is Bifidus yogurt (ビヒダス). This is produced by Morinaga. It costs only 210 yen so I think it is quite affordable. I eat this yogurt every morning since it has only 65kcal and it makes me healthy. Personally, I think this Bifidus is much creamier than other yogurts, so my mother and I always buy this at a supermarket. Since it is unsweetened and plain yogurt, you can enjoy various flavors with it such as: jam, honey, syrup… etc. Moreover, I strongly suggest you to make a smoothie with this. To make a smoothie, you just need to put Bifidus, ice and your favorite jam in a mixer together and mix all of them. You will be able to make a wonderful smoothie in a minute!

Biog#5: Debate About Tourism(Misaki Yoshida)

Hi, this is Misaki Yoshida. Last Friday, we debated about tourism. Our topic was ”tourism helps people in tourist community.” It was an interesting topic for me, because my mother and grandmother run a small travel agency of their own, and I often go to travel with them. I’m going to reflect on this debate with 3 points.

1.       First, we separated into 2 groups which are agree team and disagree team. I was in disagree team with Hiroshi. We had 4 strong points about our opinion, so I am going to introduce. First points that Hiroshi said was environment problem. Hiroshi gave 2 examples with a picture, Antarctica and Mt. Fuji. In Antarctica, precious environment and materials of study are hurt by tourists. Mt. Fuji is especially in trouble with garbage pollution, so it had some troubles until becoming a world heritage. Second points that I said was privacy problem. I gave an example about Biei city in Hokkaido with pictures. Biei is famous for a sevenstar tree which is the origin of name of sevenstar cigarette, so many tourists come here. Though this tree is planted in private field, many bad tourists trespass and give damage to crops. We pointed out that tourism has possibility to invade private in tourist community. Third point which Hiroshi said was traffic problem. When transport facilities are made, these are certainly made by hacked into environment. These destroys environment, but transport facilities are necessary for tourism. Hiroshi also mentioned to traffic jam, and gave an example of Kamakura. This problem always annoys people in tourist community. Last point that I said was the destruction of nature. Tourism sometimes causes the destruction of nature. I gave 2 examples, Okinawa and Hawaii. We pointed out that tourists should know that they can destroy environment easier, but its regeneration is very difficult and necessary to much time. (254 words)

2.    I’m going to introduce the best point made by the agree team. They said that tourism creates employment. For example, waitress in restaurants, staff in hotels and souvenir shops. Also, they introduced that women in tourist community in developing country can get jobs and their positions are improving. Moreover, they said that tourism makes economy active. When I thought opinions of agreement. I also thought of same things, so I completely agree, and I couldn’t retort at all. We talked about tourist community in developed country, but they talked about developing community, so we debated at different position. However, when I thought about tourist community in developing country, I couldn't help agreeing.(113 words)

3.    It was my first experience to debate in English. We didn’t know which team I belonged to until the day, so I searched many things, such as the facts, data and examples. Thanks to that, I could share my opinions with Hiroshi smoothly before debating. I learned that Preparations in advance is really important and make my opinions stronger. Also, I think that time management is important. I couldn’t it well, because I spent much time in response, so I couldn’t say my opinions to the end. In contrast, agree team was good at time management. They always could response and say new points in time. I learned that pictures and concrete examples were very effective and made our points stronger. These are persuasive. I also learned that big voice and body languages were effective for giving good impression. I really enjoyed this debate, and it was a great experience for me.(153 words)  

 

Blog #5: Debate about tourism (Momoko)

     Hello. This is Momoko Watanabe.  Today, I'm going to reflect about our debate which topic is "tourism helps people in tourist communities."
First, I'm going to explain my role in the debate and the points I made.  I was belong to the disagree team and made two points.  The first point is that tourism is unstable because depending on weather, season and fashion.  Rainy weather keeps tourist away. Cool summer damages resort town heavily because people can't earn money enough only during summer.  The second point is that natural resources are destroyed by tourism.  Some tourists dump trash on the road.  For a long time, it disturbed Mt. Fuji registering the world heritage.  Also, in Yakushima, many people stepped on roots of trees, so some trees died.  (105 words)
Second, I'm going to introduce the best point made by agree team.  I think best point is that tourism have good effect on economy and support the life of people in tourist communities. If people visit tourist communities, they eat foods, stay hotel, and buy souvenirs there using their money ,and it leads to increase employment of tourism communities.  In addition, I was not able to argue that tourism raises status of women.  In some place, women are of low social standings which can't be hired, however they can earn money by tourism, for instance, making souvenirs and managing restaurants.  (100 words)
Finally, I'm going to explain what I learned from this debate experience. I accepted opinions which example supported smoothly.  I felt examples made points stronger. Also, it was difficult to reply opposite points, so I should have considered topic more deeply in advance.  Therefore, I learned that preparation is very important.  Also, I found that debate needs composure and appeal what I want to say.  I was very nervous, so it took all the energy I have just to tell my opinion and I couldn't speak in an orderly fashion.  As a result, I think my opinion was hard to understand for opposite team.  It is a foundation, but I ought to improve this.  (114 words)

#5 Debate About Tourism (Mizuki)

Hello everyone, this is Mizuki Yanagisawa. Today I want to introduce you about our debate in order to remember what was going on and what were the strong point, and the weak point at the debate. The topic we discussed was "Tourism helps people in tourist communities".

First of all, I want to tell you about my role in the debate and the points I had made. As there are three different roles, such as agree team, disagree team and a judge, I played a role of being in agree team. In the debate I made four points that support our idea: about affording people’s job, development of tourist area’s economy, improvement of infrastructure and tourist’s benefits (culture, etc). I and my partner, Yui, already had made the script so what we had to do before the debate starts was just to mix and unite our main opinions. It was quite smooth since we have already made up our point precisely. (114words)

Secondly, I want to tell you the best point made by the opposing team. Through all their four points, they mainly focused on environmental problem in tourism community. The point I was especially impressed was that they show a personal example or experience. For example, one of the speakers talked about her mother’s experience that she is a tour conductor and knows much about environmental problem on these areas. Moreover, the other speaker showed me the poster which depicted how Mountain Fuji was polluted by the tourists. As they showed their personal experience and specific example like Mt.Fuji I felt much familiar to this topic and I think it is very good way to assert one’s opinion. (117words)

Finally, I have learned a lot from this debate experience. There are two points that I want to pick up. First point is that, in our debate, we did not talk about the same situation. I mean, the disagree team was talking about the tourism concern in developed countries such as Japan or U.S. However, we, as the agree team, were talking about developing countries such as Thai or Singapore. Therefore, we had have discussed about which country should be focused on so we could discuss about just one country or just one situation. Another point is that I learned is that any posters or personal experiences can make the point (or opinion) much stronger. Even though I was an opponent of the disagree team, I could easily understand their opinion and what is going on at the tourism community right now. Overall, I really enjoyed discussing and debating about this topic and I think it was great experience for me. (161words)

Blog #5: Debate about tourism (Yurina)

 Hello.This is Yurina Mori. I'm going to reflect about our debate. The topic is "Tourism helps people in tourist communities".
 First of all, I'm going to explain my role. We were divided into three groups, agree, disagree and the judge. My role was agree, so I told disagree team about good points of tourism. We discussed good and bad thing alternately and listened the opinion of another team. When I listened opposite opinion, I took notes to refute it. I said my opinion after I admit another side. I sometimes glanced at a paper of the time which made by the judge and I thought what I said next. Because there were two persons of my agree group, we showed our opinion each other to tell it smoothly.(108words)
 Secondly, I introduce the best point made by the disagree team. I think the best is problem of cheap labor. The opposing team said that because of increase of emigrant by tourism, cheap labor like Chinese also increase. That is to say, Japanese can't get a job easily. I think this is a big problem because finding a job is tending diffucult in Japan now. If the cheap labor will be  used many companies, young Japanese won't get a job and increase the unemployed. I think that more a lot of Japanese than forein people should be employed to revitalize economy in our country.(104words)
 At last, I explain what I learned from this experience. I felt agree team was a little difficult for me because I thought disagree team was easy to say a lot of kinds of opinions. But, I noticed that I could understand almost what opposing team say. I learned importance of thinking also another side's opinion from this debate. If I can know what the opponent think, I'm able to refute and admit the opinion easily. And I knew that it is important to listen to companion's opinion because I knew the problems which I didn't find out. So when I debate next time, I want to think two side's opinion and show our finding results as preparation.(118words)

Blog#5: Debate about tourism(Nao Murakami)

Hello, this is Nao Murakami. I'm going to introduce about the debate which we had. The topic for the debate is "Tourism helps people in tourist communities". I'm going to introduce this debate with three points.
First, my role in the debate. There were three different roles, agree, disagree and the judge. I was a judge in my group, so I had to listen carefully to each side and take notes. Then at the end of the debate, I prepare the final result and tell the reasons of decision I made to my group members. The judge also had to be the timer, so I prepared a paper with the words "2 minutes left", "1 minute left" and "30 seconds left" and put up these paper each time with saying the remaining time to make the debate going smooth.  (103words)
Second, good points of each groups. For agree group, I would say the best point was that tourism have good effect on the tourist community's economy. It sounds very common idea, but their idea was very strong to me. They said that tourist community can earn money from tourists, and also it makes the rate of employment in this community higher. Next, for the best points for disagree group, I would say that the tourism depends on various prerequisites. For instance, seasons, weather and peace and order and if the community is out of these prerequisites, tourist do not come to the community. I mentioned only one good points for each group, but there were more good points. (118 words)

At last, what I learned from this debate. I was the judge, so I could not tell my idea or think about how to reply to the other group, but I could listen to both idea equally and find the good points but also bad points. I learned that the tourism can be a very big problem. If the tourism disappears from the tourist community, it would get the serious damage in economy, but sometimes tourists causes the problem. For example destroying nature and pickpocket. So, we have to think how can we make the tourism safe. Also, in this debate, some people spoke with big voice and try to tell their idea as hard as they can, so even if their idea was very common, it sounds very strong. However, some people spoke with very low voice and ended up very early, so the idea sounds very weak. Of course the idea have to be firm and strong, but also the person who debate has to tell the idea as hard as they can. From the debate I learned that we have to be more confident when we speak our idea in debate, but also in class or our free talk. (202 words)