National Birds in Japan and New Zealand -Speech-

I’m going to talk about birds in Japan and New Zealand. The national bird in Japan is a pheasant. You can watch this bird in all over Japan. A male is 80 centimeters long and a female is 60 centimeters long. It’s hard for pheasants to fly, but they can run very fast. The reason to be chosen as the national bird is that pheasants can be hunted easily and the meat is good. On the other hand, the national bird in New Zealand is a kiwi. The distribution area is on this graph. The size is like a chicken. They also can’t fly. Because a male kiwi makes a nest, in other words, they make houses, the New Zealander calls the husband who helps with housework “Kiwi husband”.

Birds in New Zealand

Tomtit
The Tomtit is a small (13cm, 11g) bird with large head and a short bill. This bird has curiosity to strangers. So they approach strangers by flying or walking. In almost all cases, these birds are male.

Fantail
The fantails are a small bodied (11.5-21 cm long) birds with long tails; in some species the tail is longer than the body and in most the tail is longer than the wing. When you walk in a forest, this bird appears suddenly and flies around you to show off. You may feel dreamy when watching this bird’s flying.

Rifleman
The Rifleman is New Zealand's smallest endemic bird with fully grown adults reaching around 8 cm. This bird doesn’t often approach people, but you can watch it comparatively closely.

Bellbird
The bellbird is found throughout both the main islands of New Zealand apart from the north of the North Island. This bird sings like a bell in a church. So the bird has this name.

New Zealand Pigeon
The New Zealand Native Wood Pigeon (Hemiphaga novaeseelandiae) or Kereru is a large bird at 18 inches (51 cm), It is the largest bird in New Zealand. This bird is a little bigger than usual pigeons. Therefore, it’s often eaten in the past.

Presentation Speech ―La Tomatina―

I’m going to talk about some attention of participating in La Tomatina. Participants must not bring dangerous objects, tear T-shirts, you must crush tomatoes lightly before throwing, be careful of trucks carrying tomatoes, and be punctual. The place where La Tomatina is held is Bunol in Spain. Bunol is in the east of Spain. From Narita in Japan, you can fly to Valencia Airport. And from there, you can go to Bunol by train. Let’s go to Spain and enjoy La Tomatina to get rid of your stress! That’s all. Thank you for listening to our presentation. Do you have any questions?

La Tomatina

My group is researching about La Tomatina which is a famous festival in Spain. La Tomatina is the festival that people throw tomatoes each other. It’s held on the last Wednesday of August every year in Bunol of Spain. Around the day of this festival, people from all over the world go to Bunol and the small city Bunol is filled by tourists. In 2007, about 30000 people enjoyed La Tomatina.

In an eve, people drink and dance together. There aren’t any tomatoes yet. In the morning of the festival, participants go to Pueblo Square to eat sweet rolls. Some people already can smell tomatoes. At 9 or 10 o’clock, a winner is decides by the competition that people climb the pole and catch uncured ham on the top. Because throwing tomatoes can’t start until someone gets the uncured ham, this competition is very important. At around 11, throwing tomatoes starts. Participants say “To Ma Te” and throw tomatoes each other. At 1 pm, a tomato battle finishes. At the same time, the city staffs come and wash around Bunol by a powerful water hose. Two hours later, the city is the same as before.

The origin of La Tomatina is a fight of young men in 1945. One of them took a tomato from a greengrocer’s shop and threw it to the other one. On the same day of the next year, the same member gathered with tomatoes. The tomato battle was prohibited same times, but it’s a famous festival in the world now. Participants have to follow these five rules.
1. No dangerous substance
2. Not tear T-shirts
3. Crush tomatoes lightly before throw
4. Be careful for trucks carrying tomatoes
5. Be punctual

Let’s go to Spain and enjoy La Tomatina!

My Favorite Movies

My favorite movie is The Wedding Planner. I have watched this movie for uncountable times! This is a love story. Mary (Jennifer Lopez) is a top wedding planner in San Francisco, and she works so hard that she can’t fall in love. Her father is worried about her and introduce Massimo(Justin Chambers) to her. But she doesn’t show any interest. One day, Mary succeeds in getting a job of Fran’s wedding who is a daughter of the president of a big company. She is very happy and calls her coworker, however, a big garbage car runs down on the street toward her. Then Steve(Matthew McConaughey) helps her and saves her life. It is a fateful encounter! After the accident, Mary and Steve have a romantic date. But few days later, Mary becomes to know that Steve is a groom of Fran. She is very shocked and criticizes him for an inhuman person. Then her father recommends Mary to marry Massimo. Massimo proposes her and she accepts. On the wedding day of Steve and Fran, Mary goes to a city hall to marry Massimo. On the other hand, Steve notices that who he actually loves is Mary not Fran. He apologizes to Fran and rushes to a city hall to stop Mary’s wedding. But there are her family, friends and Massimo without Mary. They quit getting married and Mary goes somewhere. Steve runs around looking for her and finally finds her in the park. The park is a place of their first date. They stare faces each other and kisses.

I love this story and Jennifer Lopez. This movie can represent beauty and brightness of her. Matthew McConaughey is also cool. Some people hate this movie, but I recommend　you this movie The Wedding Planner with lots of confidence. If you want to be happy, you should watch The Wedding Planner.

During summer vacation, I went to Midland Square to watch Sex and the City with my friends. I like this drama series and have watched all stories. I like Sarah Jessica Parker! In this movie, Sarah and other three ladies performs women who are thirties or fourties. Both men and women can be exciting when watch the movie. I can’t tell you details of the story of this movie because it is showing now, but I recommend this movie strongly. If you haven't seen this movie, let's go to the movie theater!

My Memories of Summer Vacation 2008

I went to a tea party at my teacher’s house of the tea ceremony club. I got up very early in the morning, set my hairstyle with a lot of spray, and went to my friend Ayaka’s house. In her house, Naoko and I wore yukata while Ayaka went to a beauty salon. My yukata is black and an obi is pink! Do you think it is cute? Because Naoko’s obi was very complicated, we took the trouble to finish her wearing yukata. After that, we joined other my friends at the station and went to the teacher’s house. It was a second time for me to visit there. The house was very wonderful! It had a beautiful Japanese yard and a tea-ceremony room. I made powdered green tea for guests. I felt nervous, but it was a valuable experience. After the tea party, we went out to eat eel. Surprisingly, it was a full-course dinner! I can’t guess a price of the dinner, but it must be very expensive. Of course, our kind teacher treated us. We listened to the teacher’s great talk, and I cried. The tears rolled down my face because the story was very moving. She said, “People have to do things for others voluntary.” I think so too. I thought I wanted to be a kind, strong, and clever woman like her in the future. When I back home, I remembered the day and became lonely. The more pleasant time I spent in the daytime, the sadder I feel in my house at night. I will try to practice the tea ceremony very hard and want to be a graceful Japanese woman!

A week later, I went back to my hometown. My hometown is Tahara City in the south of Aichi Prefecture. I stayed there for three weeks. I set off fireworks with my family or friends at the beach five times. I also enjoyed a barbecue. Because Tahara has a beautiful beach and mountains, you can enjoy playing without high-tech things like a game center, karaoke, and so on. If you want to enjoy a country life, please tell me and let’s go to my hometown! Because all members of my family and friends are very kind, they’ll welcome to you. I like my family very much. I also like my friends in Tahara. I spent a lot of time with them. My family and I went to shopping and bought clothes for autumn wear. My friends and I hold a party and talked many things about the old days all through night. In addition to these things, I drove a car many times. I drove my mother’s car to go to a supermarket, bakery shop, bookstore, café, and etc. I like driving while listening to music or talking with someone. Because I live in Nisshin City by myself and I go to a supermarket by bicycle now, it’s hard to carry purchases. So I like going shopping by car since I can buy things as much as I want. I had a very good time in Tahara. I want to go back there soon.

After I came back to Nisshin, I worked very hard at a laundry. Because a laundry didn’t have a lot of work in summer, I went to the laundry and talked with regular customers. I have to save money to go to Australia to study English and experience Australian life during spring vacation! Let’s work and study!!
Word Count 581

Diet & Exercise

Trans fat
Trans fat is very bad for health. It causes serious problems in your body. For example, heart disease and dementia. Trans fat is included in margarine and shortening. It is also included in processed food which has margarine and shortening, for example, bread, cakes, doughnuts, cookies, and crackers. You should refrain from eating these snacks, fast food, and mayonnaise. If you interested in this topic, let’s check it out!

Metabolic syndrome
Metabolic syndrome becomes news these days. It is caused by eating too much meat, deep-fried food, and so on. Some people may drink Diet Coca Cola not to become fat. But American researchers found that Diet Coca Cola has a risk of metabolic syndrome. If you interested in this news, please click here!

Japanese healthy food “Natto”
Japanese food is said to be very healthy. Especially, natto is good for health. Here are some benefits of natto and how to cook natto.

Tennis ―Wimbledon―
Do you like tennis? Did you watch Wimbledon Tennis 2008? The final game was very exciting! Watching professional tennis games is interesting, but playing tennis is also interesting! If you play tennis, you can make your waist thinner. You can watch highlights of Wimbledon in NHK official site. Let’s check it out!
If you are interested in playing tennis or you like, let's go to a tennis court with me!

Laughter

Do you like writing pictures while singing? This site has many kinds of them. Especially, I think a picture of a cook is interesting. Because it’s difficult to write pictures while singing, people usually write funny pictures. Let’s try and have fun!

Performance of banquet
・Hara-Odori(Stomach dance) 　It’s usually danced in banquets. Office workers do this when they want to make their boss laugh.
・Dojo-Sukui It’s a dance by imitating catching loaches. People usually do this when they get drunk. It’s very interesting to see this performance.

This site is about how laughter works inside the body. Laughter can soften pain and has an effect to cure sick. If you want to know about the relationship between laughter and the body in detail, please click here!

I have a lot of favorite entertainers! I introduce you some of these. Their performances will make you very happy. Please check it out!
・Fruit Punch
・Joiman　
・Naitsu
・Hnnya