Friday, October 30, 2009

Halloween ~trick or treat?~

Happy Halloween!


Halloween is one of my favorite celebration in a year. At Chapel School on Friday I saw many children wearing pretty costumes as a witch, a ghost, a monster, a skeleton, a devile and so on. They were very cute and looked having fun. When I was in Japan, I had never seen such a pleasant sight during Halloween as we don't ordinally celebrate it. So, I love to see people with such costumes and to feel Halloween's mood.

On Friday during my English class, each student made a poetry. As I remembered elementary students were celebrating Halloween, I decided to compose a poetry about it.


Trick or Treat? Just a second. I give you a story instead of a candy. It is a story related to Halloween. Let me see. Then, listen.

Ghost appeared, in front of a lady. As she screamed, a men came. With a gun he said, "Freeze!" to ghost, likely thief. But ghost approached, so he pulled the trigger.

Ghost wasn't thief. A Japanese boy was dead. As he was beginner of English, he couldn't get what "freeze" meant. The DEATH instead of a CANDY...sad story........

Halloween is a fantasic and a pleasant festival for everyone. However, it reminds me a sad accident every year when this season comes. The poetry above which I made during my English class with Ms. Feitosa describes about the accident happened during Halloween. Because of a misunderstanding as a thief by a man, a high school student boy who came the U.S to learn English was shot unfortunately. As it was Halloween, he just visited their house to receive candies. His name was Hattori. People told he was a very nice boy and was really having fun with the different culture of the U.S from his nation. I can't stop thinking if he could have understood the word that the man said to him or if men could have noticed that he wore costume of ghost for Halloween. If it happened, he hedn't been taken his life.

Language is a great invention of human beings to communicate with the others, but not at all people can speak the same language, of course. Such as the accident above, a lack of language skill might be a big conflict to understand each other and to deal with a complicated situation. In my case, I actually have some problems to go to outside as I'm not good at speaking Portuguese. I had once followed by a strange guy, who looked like a hippie, while walking in a park. Even though it was better not to ignore him to avoid making him mad, I couldn't say anything to that hippie as I couldn't totally understand what he said. Good thing, he didn't have a gun. So, I escaped as a result. However, I really hoped if I could understand. As there is a possibility that he just asked me the way to go somewhere, he might think I, Japanese, was impolite. It is difficult to be a fluent speaker, but I want to learn English and Portuguese more to be good at both of them.

Saturday, October 24, 2009

Artistic Lunch

Can you believe that the all objects in the picture following are food?
I think you see the pretty teddy bears staring at each other in the flower garden. They are made of rice, ham, and vegetables.


In Japan it's common to bring lunch to have it at school as schools don't ordinally provide meals for schoolchildren at public expense or school don't have a system to give lunch for students. So, students or their mothers are certainly required to make meals every school day. In fact, my mother always packs lunches for my two younger brothers and my younger sister, who study at Japanese school in Sao Paulo. She is very busy to make them in the morning.

Normally, we use lunch box to bring. Despite the small size of the box and the short time to cook, many students and mothers fill it with an elaborate dish, fabulously.



Very cute, isn't it? Do you know the character called "Sponge Bob"? A mother who has a daughter going to a kinder garden made it. Recently it's very popular to fill lunch box with beautiful food, which is decorated. Such as Sponge Bob, many people use characters to make an artistic meal.

1, Kitty

This character is called "Hello Kitty" in Japan.

2, Wedding Kitty



Oh my god! She is wearing a beautiful dress. Can you believe that you are able to eat all of things in the picture (except lunch box, of course)?

3. Flog



It's a famous animation character. I forget his name, but I remember he is an alien of flog coming from the other planet. He is cute, though.

4, Girls



Can you see a keyboard of piano??
Girls love meals like these in Japan. I was used to, too. Hahah

5, Christmas



Christmas tree with colourful ornaments...very beautiful!

6, Halloween



I think the light one is quite artistic. You know, the black part is sea weed, which we use to make rolled sushi.

7, Snow White and Seven Dwarft



Yeah, the face drawn on the rice is exactly Snow White's face!

8, Winnie-the-Pooh

I love this character! He is so pretty.

9, Pokemon

Do you know Pikachu which is one of Pocket Monster? Oh my god, I can't believe we can eat above! Especially, lunch in the right picture.

10, Barbapapa

I think everyone knows these characters.

11, Birthday

Can you see that it says "Happy Birthday" and there is a cake made of rice?

12, Penguin

Small penguins are made of a sausage. I really want to eat them. kkk

13, Lion

So pretty, isn't it? He is made of eggs.

14, Mice

I know these are characters of a famous book for children. This is the picture of the book's cover.

15, Dinosaur

Such lunches often make little boys very happy.

16, A girl wearing Kimono, Japanese traditional cloth

How fabulous it is!!

17, Doragon Ball

Do you know him? I think this animtion became a movie in the U.S.A.

18, An actor in Japan

(←real)

Oh yeah...it may be similar, I think.

19, Cowboy

It looks like a real person!

20, ??

Can you see? The object in the picture is an eye! I remember it's a famous monster in an animation. Oh my god! Can you eat?

Well...it's not something that make us eager to eat. Actually, the cook who made this lunch said that she made it for fun! And a man in the picture is her husband who looks like a Japanese comedian. Hahah

Saturday, October 17, 2009

School Uniform

Have you ever worn a school uniform? Around the world uniforms are worn in many schools. They might make uniforms to show society that they maintain discipline or to make people think that they want to enter the school because the uniform is great. (When I was in Japan, my friend entered a private school because the uniform of this school was very cute, indeed.) In our Chapel School children wear uniforms, too. I guess Most girls in teenage dream to have a school uniform. In my home country, Japan, it is really normal to wear an uniform at school. Recently, school uniform is considered as a part of fashion. People around our age always think about how to coordinate their uniform well even boys. So, uniform in Japan is very fasionable and modern now.



UK, India, Korea, Australia, Hong Kong, and Japan are the countries which most schools in that area have a uniform. Of course, their uniforms are different and the types of them vary from school to school.

In my home country, Japan, uniform is rich in variety.

1. Simple


Yeah, it is really simple...a white tie and a black skirt.

2. Sailor



This type of uniform is very famous in Japan. Most girls love to wear these uniforms. Mari in 10th grade, a Japanese girl, and I were used to wear such uniform when we were in Japan. It is called "Sailor uniform," we normally wear at school, though.

3. Blazer



It is also a popular design of uniform in Japan. We wear a T-shirt inside of jacket, a ribbon (or a tie), and a skirt which has a pattern of check.


This is a blazer for boys.

4. Uniform for children in a kindergarden

So cute, isn't it??

5. Winter



They look warm...nice couple!

6. Summer



They look cool...! The last picture (the right one) is......of cource, I'm kidding. Hahah
But on the internet who introduced this school uniform type of bikini said that it could be a uniform at school. Oh my god...!

7. Missionary



This uniform is for the students who is going to a missionary school. This school is only for girls.

Most middle schools and high schools require us to wear uniforms. Students have to wear everyday. Certainly they cannot wear whichever they want. However, it is a fact that people like to wear uniforms because they don't need to choose which they wear when they are lazy and most school uniforms are cute.



As it is really common to wear school uniform, some magazines introduce uniforms which are fashionable and how to coordinate them.


This is a magazine called "Seventeen." In the U.S there is also "Seventeen," but it is different.


The models present how to coordinate well and how to wear to make people think that they are good style and thin.


And, there is a fashion show for school uniform! It's wonderful!

There are many stores which sell school uniforms around Japan.



Girls love to go uniform stores.

In such shops, there are many kinds of ribbon.



My friends in Japan love to collect these ribbons. Hahah

There are many people who wore a uniform to have even though it is a cloth to wear at school.

1. Cosplay



She is pretending to be a character in an animation.



2. Boys...??



Oh nooo.....! Did you notice? Both people in the picture are men! During the school festival or something interesting, there are often some boys who wore girl's uniform, in fact.