The American Family (Journal #14)

My host family does not have children, so I do not have information about their attitudes toward their elders and toward others in authority, but I can say some information about the children in Japan, so I give you some of them. In Japan, some people give their children the strict discipline. They make their children take an examination for an elementary school. I think it is not good for children because they are just kids when they are kindergartners. They need to play with their friends and family. They need freedom. It is said that people’s personalities are made until they become 5 years old. That’s why I think they need freedom. They have to see and feel many things in that time to create good imaginations. Too much education can take away their originality and individualism. I feel that Japanese are easy to be prepossessed with formulary things. American seem feel freer to raise their children than Japanese. Americans make a point of originality, but Japanese make much of cooperation with others. I prefer the American one. To have strong individuality is a great thing.

My Favourite Holiday Spot (Journal #13)

My house is located in Fullerton, CA in America. Near the Down Town Fullerton, at the Nutwood Avenue. My house has a big yard, and I like spend a holiday at there. There is a big tree, so I have a nice shade under it. On Sunday, basically it is the day to do homework and read books, so I carry the chair under the tree and spend a half of day in there. I can see some plants like the tree of Tomato, Cucumber, Red Pepper. Sometime, the dog in our house runs around the yard, and barks cheerfully. I can hear the chirp of birds, and feel comfortable air. The yard in my house is my favorite holiday spot.

Journal #12 - Free descriptive journal

I can see the people’s happy smiles and hear cheerful conversations. Waiters are courteous and merry. It makes me happy. I can smell nice, Italian foods, and Cheese cake! I am in The Cheese Cake Factory now. The waiter asks us the order with a big, nice smile. We ordered lunch pasta sets and their great original cheese cakes. As soon as take our order, he brings the breads, my favorite is the brown sugar one, so we talks about weekdays with it. There are many people at busy time, but everybody seems happy because waiters are really nice to customers. About fifteen minutes later, he brings our pastas. During eating it, we can not talk because we are absorbed in our pastas. It is fantastic!! I like the pasta of dried tomatoes with white cream sauce. After finishing it, he brings our cheese cake. Their very white cheese cake with whip cream is really nice. Because it is from The Cheese Cake Factory! They are professional of cheese cakes. It makes always a deep impression on us. We hum happily during we eat it. We go out there with big smile with cheesecakes for next day….

(Journal # 11)

My favorite season is the summer. I like the glared sun, strong sunshines, the screaming of cicadas, the song of bell ringing cricket, the crowded beach, fireworks, fresh smell of greenery, the atmosphere of the summer night, the sound of wind bell. They make me excited though I do not why. It is said that our birth month relate with our favorite. My birth month is September, so in my case, it is true. I have some bittersweet memories of loves in Summer. To go to the fireworks wearing Yukata, Japanese traditional costume for summer, with boyfriend is very fun and romantic for me. I also like eating soumen (Japanese noodle) with hearing the sound of wind bell. It is one of my favorite scenes of summer. My mother likes bell rings, so in summer, we have some of them around the house. It makes me comfortable and relax. My family like have a dinner at balcony in summer. At night, it is cool and we can see the night view from there, so we like it. Interestingly, the summer makes me more positive, sociable, optimistic person. So I have a fewer problems in Summer than in Winter. To keep being happy is my slogan, so I feel the best in summer!

A Discription (Journal #10)

I think the person who has most influenced me is my mother. She is a good natured, expansive, funny, broad-mineded, peaceful, tolerant person. Especially, she is very generous toward everything. To be tolerant always is not so easy. I have never seen her very angry. When she get angry very much, she goes to her room. After she coming back to us, she is usual her. My father is sometimes quick-tempered (thought I like him), and I think I cannot marry him because I am not so tolerant as her. For example, he changes his mind easily when he get angry. One time we went to the famous Italian restaurant, but they made a mistake for making a reservation. As it turned out, we could not eat their food that night. He was so angry and near picking a fight with them. At this time, she said ''Look! That Japanese restaurant is also famous. I have seen it in a magazine, and it seems not so busy.'' How peaceful was she! My father became good mood, and said, ''Oh really? I like Japanese better than Itarian actually.'' She knows that to be nice is always better than to be oppose, even it is difficult. To try to be nice when I am angry is the thing I learned from her. It is a very important thing to live with people.
I respect her very much and want to be like her.

I was really happy on my birthday!!! (Jounal#9)

It was my birthday on 15 September. On 14th Sep,I was with Azusa, my Japanese friend, we were at her house. We planned to go to the concert under the stars at the scool, but she said that she had to go to her classmate's house to give the text books at first. So we went to her house. When I opened the door, there were many my friends. I was so surprised because there was also my best friend in Riverside! Azusa invited her as a suprising for me. And they prepared birthday cake, foods and birthday presents for me. I was really really happy. I love my friends so much!! After that, another my friends took me to Hollywood and Long beach to see night view. It was awsome! And on my birthday,I went to the cheesecake factory with Cynthia and Azusa. Cynthia made a resavation for me because I have wanted to go there vey much. The food was so nice and waiters singed the birthday song for me! I was so happy. Then, we went to L.A. and The Glove,the big shopping mall, and had fun very much. I was so happy for everything!!! Thank you very much my great friends!!!!!!!!

A Tragedy (Journal#8)

When it happened, I was at my house with mom. We cooked the dinner together. We always watch the news when we cook dinner. So we could not undertand what happened at the first because we focused on the cook. I thought somebody changed the channel of TV because it looked the movie. But it was not. We stoped cooking and watched the news carefully. Every channel were about it. We discussed something and prayed that everybody was safe. It was like a nightmare.

A Passing (Journal#7)

When I was a high scool student, my grand father died because of a trafic accident. He was so important to me. He was so kind and tolerant to everything, so I respected him very much. He taught me many things like cooking, growing vegetables, calligraphy. Especially, he was good at cooking very much, so All of family loved his cooking. It was the day I learned how to cook his special curry, when I cut the vegetables, he went to his field to water his crops. After that, he never came back the house again. It was the first time I experience that I lost somebody important me. I could not do anything even crying because I could not understand what happened. I did not want to know what happened, so I thought it was a nightmare. I wanted to think it was a bad dream. I cried at the first time when I saw the video recorder which I and him went to the zoo. He liked Okinawa very much, so we went to there to bury some his ashes. At that time I realized his death at the first time. It was a half year lator. The death of somebody important person was so sad and difficult to understand. But it can tell us some very important things like how precious the life is and love.

Journal #6

In my opinion, fundamentally there is no right age to get married. I think it is the best to get married when we find a dream marriage partner. The most important thing is our partner because we can not change them so easily. However, too early or too late is problem. Because we need a lot of thing for marriage such like money, responsibility, strength, endurance, and consideration. If people got married too early, the ability to have responsibility, and solve problems might be not enough. Opposite to this, if it is too late, we could have a difficulty of bringing their children up. For I think that we are required a big force when we have children. As a conclusion, the right timing is after people become to be able to stand on their own feets, and also as long as they have a power to their children.

Journal #5

Although it has past only a month since I came to the US, I have some changes to my sense of value. First, I became to say hello to people when eyes fitted somebody. It is an uncommon thing in Japan. We speak to only our friends. Yet American people always say hello to someone whom they meet at the bus stop, in the elevator, on the train, everywhere! They are very friendly. I like the American style because it makes me happy. Second, Americans know what they want to do, and do it. Most of students in university do not know what they want to do. So most of them study not so much, usually they spend their time to work to get pocket money, have fun more than study. So sometime it is said that university life is like a summer vacation of our lives. Opposite to this, I feel that students in US have strong aims of their future because when I ask them their dream, they usually can tell me clear ideas. They plan to make their interests their job. It is wonderful. I was so impressed and realized that it was very important thing for university students because we have to get our job soon. I would like to consider about my future seriously and find my dream in here. Because in my opinion, the happiest people are those whose work interests them.

Journal #4 A Narrative

Since I entered the university, I have lived by myself near the school. It had a big effect on my life. I think I became to try to stand on my own feet. Because when I lived with my family, my mother did all the houseworks for us, so I did not know how difficult it was. Now, I can cook, wash, clean and kill cockroaches. The last thing was the most difficult thing for me because cockroaches are one of the things I really hate from the day I saw flying cockroach!
One day, I found a cockroach under the desk. I screamed even there was only me in my room. I thought that I could not kill it because I do not want to approach it. But unfortunately it was mid night, so I had no choice except to kill it by myself. Its quick movement made me so scared. I had butterfulies in my stomack. I went to the convieient store and bought an insecticide. The feeling that I had to solve the problem by my self mmade me strong. It took a long time to kill it, but finally I succeed. After the day, I became stronger and be able to do everything by myself.