My Hometown Gunma

Gunma is a great place to visit. First, there is a lot of natural beauty. For example, there are four mountains around Gunma such as Mt. Haruna, Mt. Akagi, Mt. Asama and Mt. Myogi. They are covered with snow in the winter, and on Haruna Lake, you can enjoy the fireworks in the summer. The Tone River is one of the most beautiful scenic areas. The Tone River is very beautiful and a place of healing. It is very good to have a picnic there, and you can enjoy the cycle of seasons whenever you visit. Second, there are many famous places such as Kusatsu hot springs and Shorinzan. Kusatsu is known in all parts of the country for Yubatake, which is a fountainhead of Kusatsu hot springs. Shorinzan is famous for daruma dolls. Daruma is believed to bring good luck. Darumaichi is one of the famous festivals in Gunma, and is held every year. In Darumaichi, you can buy the traditional darumas and enjoy walking on the street because there are many shops. Finally, Gunma is known for cabbage and green onions. Tsumagoi Cabbage is especially famous on all parts of the Japan, and Shimonita Welsh onion is very sweet, so you can eat fresh cabbage and sweet Welsh onion. Therefore, you can enjoy sightseeing and food whenever you want if you travel to Gunma.

My Hometown

Higashiosaka is a great place for children. First, it is surrounded by nature. The town sits at the foot of Mt. Ikoma, and there are many beautiful ponds and public parks, so children can go outside to play. For exmaple, they enjoy fishing, hide-and-seek and ball games. Second, they have a lot of learning opportunities. There are many ancient tombs and historic shrines in the area, so they can study history when they visit them in the history class. When I was an elementary school student, I took a tour of historic anient tombs in class. I learn about how did people build them, and why did they make them. Also, in the rice field, they can learn about rice planting. It is good for them to study where the rice come from and how they grow. And in the nurcing home, they can interact with elderly people. In fact, when my younger brother was a kindergartner, he went to a nurcing home, and dug sweet-potatoes with the residents. Finally, we have good schools in Higashiosaka. The elementary school is the biggest school in the city, so children make a lot of friends. Threre are a big gymnasium and a huge play ground. The junior high school has many kinds of clubs. For exmaple, you can belong to a PC club, a soccer ball club, an art club or many others. Both schools have security guards, so children can study and play safety. I think Higashiosaka is a splendid city for kids.

Halloween

It was Halloween party today. Everybosy wore costumes at the party. I think it's really interesting event. Last weekend, I was invited to the host family's dinner, so I told my host father about the party. He told me that some schools in the U.S. cannot have the party at school. Because of religions. He told me that the religion which came from Russia doesn't like Halloween and people who believev in the religion think Halloween is rediculous, so schools that have students from Russia cannot have a party any more. I thought that most American schools have a party . I think Halloween is fun and interesting culture. However, sometimes people have too much fun on the day. I saw the house which is decorated for Halloween. Something was wired. I saw the house really carefully again, then I saw the doll which doesn't have head and which is bloody. And the door of the house had blood spray. It made me sick. It was too grotesque for me. I thought that it's not good infuluence for kids. I think it's not usual for me even if it is the day of Halloween, but it's natural for Americans. In Japan, Japanese people hardly have a Halloween party, but recently, some people have a Halloween party. Iread some news about Halloween parties in Japan on the internet. I heard that some train lines restrained because of the party. It's interesting. I've never thought that Japanese people hold Halloween party in Japan. Because I've never been to Halloween party in Japan. It was really interesting experience.

CIRCUS

I went to a circus at the Spokane Arena. I had been there before. The first time was when I went to a hockey game. So I was very happy to go there again. There were some characters like a lion and a cat outside the arena. They were so cute, so I took a picture with them. Before the circus began, I waited patiently. We had time to buy some popcorn and doughnuts. They were very delicious. I like to eat snacks when I go to amusement parks. It was so exciting!!

The circus started, and I had my eyes fixed on the show because the show was so exciting and amusing!! I especially liked the animal performance. Bear rode a motorbike. so, it was a very cute performance. There were some people who held a demonstration against using animals in circus outside. When I saw them, I was very sad and sympathetic with them. But I like circus with cute animals. I was excited about the bike riding in a big circle. It looked so dangerous!! I thought it might crash over. so I screamed!! But the auto show made me even more excited!! I was very happy to experience an American circus.

HOME STAY

I went to homestay on March 21st to 23rd. It was my first visit with an American family. My host family, Tom and Kathy, picked us up at 5:30. We went to a restaurant to eat pizza. My roommate and I ate chicken pizza. It was very delicious. Then we went to their home. It was very big, clean and beautiful!!! I was very happy. The next day, we went to Costco to buy many things. My roommate and I bought ingredients for Okonomiyaki. After shopping, we ate "tacos." It was very good. After that, we went back home. We cooked Okonomiyaki, miso soup and rice balls. I found Japanese rice in Costco. Our cooking took for a long time. We made them wait. I'm so sorry. But they were very kind. They permitted us. They said to us, "Wonderful!! It is delicious." when they ate the food. We were very glad to hear that. I thought that cooking is very fun! Then we watched the movie, "ENCHANTED" I wanted to watch the movie, so I was very happy. It was very interesting story. We ate a coffee cake while watching the movie. It tasted very good!! But I thought that I ate too much. I was full!! Then we soaked in the Jacuzzi because they have one. It was very confortable. I could sleep soundly. On the next day, we had a party for Easter. Their Family, cousin and friends came to their house. I ate a lot of delicious foods. After that, their grandchildren looked for eggs we hid. They looked very happy. I really enjoyed my homestay. I thought I could have a wonderful experience, and could meet a very nice host family. I love my host family very much!!!

Masumi's life

While Masumi was a junior high school student, she could enjoy scool life with her friends. She belonged to a tea ceremony club with her friends. She could eat sweetened and jellied bean paste of a blue berry flavor. It was very rare, because it was handmade by her teacher. When she was in junior high school, she also liked to study Japanese, so she could get ascore of 96 on the test. It was her best score, and she loved her friends, so her best memory of junior high school was a school excursion. She went to Kyoto and Nara, and she had a great time. Still now, she and her friends are thick as thieves. She loved her junior high schol.

New Year's Day

New Year's Day is a Japanese tradition. We celeblate beginning of the year, and we hope for happiness in that year. We have many things to do on New Year's day. First, we eat "Osechi" and "Ozoni".Osechi is food in the box. Osechi has many meanings. It means to bring happiness.Ozoni is a rice cake and vagetables in soup. Next,we pay a visit to a shrine. We draw a fortune slip there. Then we play with toys. Toys are tops,battledore,cardgame,kite,and so on. Finally we have a "Otoshidama".Otoshidama is money from our parents and relatives.