I went to Seta in Shiga-ken to see Yoko Ono's peace exhibition. I asked Yoko.W how to get there, as Yoko is from Shiga. It took about 2 hours and a half to get there. I liked Seta city, as roads are wide, traffic is not busy, and scenery is beautiful! The Shiga Museum is in a park called Culture Zone, and the museum is near Ryukoku University. One of my high school friends goes to Ryukoku University there, so I was surprised to know that she goes to such a far uni from her house in Matsubara city everyday! Since there are a lot of trees and beautiful scenery, I could see lots of beautiful leaves changing colour! Wow, I could enjoy koyo without planning to do so, as many people do for Kyoto lately. My favourite leaves' colour is very red. I found a tree which has lots of unique red leaves. It was sooo beautiful, even terribly beautiful, so I took its photo by my keitai. I can show u the photo on Monday if ya want^^. Well, to enter the exhibition, it was 800yen for college students, but guess what! I forgot KGU's student card... BUT! the reception ladies said that I could write my name and Uni's name on the sheet, so that I could enter as a college student! Inside the exhibition, there were a lot of Yoko Ono's works and information of her life. I did not know that before Yoko Ono got married Jhon Lennon(spelling?), she left her family to elope with a Japanese man! Did you know that?? I think it said that the man was a composer or somethin'... I am not sure. Did you know that Yoko Ono went to Gakushu-in?! Gakushu-in is a school only for some elites. Children in Japan's emperor family go to Gakushu-in. I was impressed by some of her messages or works, but you know, I am not an art person, so honestly, I often felt 'this is art, really? how? hmmm...' Still, I found great works which meant important messages. For example, there was a chess set on the long table with lot of chairs. What is so unique about the chess set is that everything, each chess' piece, the table, chairs, chess boad, everything there was just all white. The title of this work was like ' Play in Trust'. Can you guess what message it includes? At the exit, there was a tree. People write their own feeling on the small card, and tie the card to the tree. It is like Tanabata tree. It said, when the exhibition is finished, all the cards will be sent to Yoko Ono! Isn't this great?? I was excited when I imagined that Yoko Ono will read my card! After I walked all around the exhibition, I got to write ' I'm still thinking. Is peace really possible? By Yuri Chaya, Japan'. I wanted to write what I have learned in Scott's class, and what I felt for each topic, and told her our blog's address, and told her to click my page especially, but the card was too small for all these writings, so I thought short words were better. I hope that Yoko Ono will feel something special to my card. I bought some post cards and a book of this exhibition, so please tell me when you want to see them. I saw much more works to tell you, but it would take hours to blog, so please just ask me what the eles were like! SO! I did not have enough time to study for the test... He-lp! Somebody-! Oh, and please someone give Yuka chocolate! She is terribly busy, and needs chocolate terribly, she said on her blog!!

Wow, as Haruna said, directions to creat a new post is in Japanese! Why is it? What happened to blog? I want to change all the directions in English! Scott received a comment from anonymous. Is it from the world? Hummm... I also received a comment from Shinya who is in Scott's English 2 class. Actually, I commented to all the people in Scott's English 2 class. Reading others' blogs is very interesting. I want to read Jenet's class' blogs too! I was surprised that Yoko.M received a comment from American person, but it is in Japanese with a lot of difficult kanji!! When will I receive a comment from the world?? Humm... wait and see...

Beaujolais Nouveau! I had Beaujolais Nouveau at dinner yesterday. Hum, it was so so. I watched some news programs on tv that this year's Beaujolais Nouveau finally arrive in Japan. I thought that Beaujolais Nouveau has nothing to do with my life, but last Friday, my father came home from his work with a bottle of Beaujolais Nouveau! Funny-shaped wine glass came with the bottle. I put the bottle in a refrigerator, as I had heard that wine should be kept cool, and when I came home from baito yesterday, I had Beaujolais Nouveau for the first time. Meals were doria with melted cheese, salad and soup, so they were very good to have wine with. Well, when you drink wine, you have to pour it slowly into a strange-shaped glass, observe the colour, shake the glass slowly so that wine touches air well which makes wine delicious, try the fragrance of grapes, drink a drop, and savour the taste?! HUH! Why cannot we enjoy drinking without saying and or so!!? What a haughty! Just drink it! Enjoy it! I do not like hearing those high-class' status or have-to-be. They make it difficult for me to enjoy. In fact, I prefer white wine to red Beaujolais Nouveau!! LOL! Anyhoo, I heard that Japan is the country which inported wine the most in the world. I think that because Japan does not produce its wine very much by itself while other countries have their own wine. Well, my city has its own wine, 'Kawachi-wine' though... I want to drink Beaujolais Nouveau at today's dinner too, but the meal is gonna be kimuchi-nabe, so maybe I won't. What is ya poison, everyone? Do you know any good spirits? My host father drinks a glass of red wine, as it is good for health, he says. He also loves guinness-beer, the Irish black beer. He also gave my father Jameson when he came to visit me in Osaka. One of my uncles makes some liquor by his own ways. He makes lots of fruits' liquor like strawberry's, lemons', pears', peaches', apples' etc. He also gives me lots of big jars of ume-shu(Japanese apricots' liquor). When I see bottles of ume-liquor at shops, there are a few ume in one bottle, but my uncle's original ume-liquor have lots of ume in each jar, so I can eat lots of those nice taste's ume too^^! Hummm... it seems that I have to think for a while which of those nice liquor I should have for dinner today. Salud!

I love Nagisa Arakaki!! He is a very good-looking baseball player, and he is very very handsome! I want to marry him. I think I will meet him someday somewhere in the future, and marry him! Arakaki-kun is now 24 years old. He is from Okinawa. I have been a big fan of him since he was a high school baseball player in Koshien Baseball Stadium. He entered university in Kyushu, and then became a pro-baseball pitcher in Daiei Hawks. Now, he is one of the greatest pitchers in Japan. He was in the All-Star game this year. There is a more great thing, and that is about the Japan-USA baseball game which is held right now in Japan. Arakaki-kun is selected to be in Japan's team, and two days ago, he pitched a game! I was glad that he was finally in a game, and I could watch his pitching on TV. First part of the game, he did not really do well, but as the game went, his pitching was getting better and better, and he did a imortant job for Japan's team. This Japan-USA baseball game is held every year after baseball season is over in Japan. It is usualy in November. I think this game is very good because oh, there are many reasons. 1, many kids can enjoy such an exciting baseball games, and kids can know many new baseball players of both countries, and those kids have dreams. I watched the game on TV, and found kids were so excited to see everything in the stadium, and they shouted out some players names to get the attention. 2, baseball players themselves can communicate each other, and can get interesting information. Some Japanese players said that they asked USA players how their training were like, what they eat before their pitching game's day, how long their training usually is, and many other things. Players found a lot of interesting difference between their trainings and even the way of thinking, and I think it is a very good thing for both of them. Acutually, it is a good practice for me to listen to their interviews. Sometimes I can laugh before the transrater tells what the player said^^! Japan have won 2 games so far. Let's say Go Japan! There are many players from a lot of different places, and it is interesting to listen to their English, but! The greatest player is Arakaki-kun! Do not miss him^^! Go Japan!

I have started a new baito, so I had to make an account of post office. My mother has already made my account of post office which she manages for my life since I was born, so the account that I made today is the second one of post office's. Today, a post office person explained me that if I have more than 1 account at post office, I have to set a contribution system. I did not know what it was at all, so I asked the post office person to tell me what it was. Then he explained that if I set the system, tiny amount money from my account will be sent to NPO to help children around the world every April. I thought it is a good system, and I needed to make the second account anyway, so I made my second account. I do not know the code of my account that my mother manages, so it is for saving, and the one I made today is for...spending! , oh well, but I want to save as much as possible... I set the system, so post office person gave me a money box which is shaped like mailpost & a memo pad which is pretty. I think that it is very useful if people have account at post office because post offices are everywhere even in very country side. People say that it is useful to have account of a big company, but in fact, some country sides do not have even big company's bank, but post offices are available in those areas too, and also KGU has post offices' account machines, so it is even more useful for me, but it also means that I have more chances to spend money... Oh no!

Last Sunday, November 7th, I took an English test which is organized by the United Nations. I tried level C, but it was a bit too easy for me, so it was less fun. I should have tried level B instead. Anyhoo, after the test, I went to McDonalds, and tried the new hamburger, 'Tomato-Mcgrand'. I was so hangry, so I was very excited to try the new one for the first time. It was big & delicious, but I thought that if the hamburger does not have a tomato, it would be better. (LOL!) I usually have a look at the sheet on a tray when I eat at McDonalds. On that day, I read the sheet on my tray, and I knew that McDonalds did a charity! I had not known that McDonalds did any charities, so I was glad to find it out. You may think that I always blog about charities, and maybe you are tired of it. Well, here, I am going to talk about charities! hehehe... I was thinking whether Yuka would blog about this, but she has not done yet, so let me tell U guys. November 20th is the world children's day, so this McDonalds' charity is for children. When children have diseases or sth, and they have to stay hospital which is far from their own house, parents have a difficult situation both economicaly & emotionaly. McDonalds has built homes in Tokyo & Sendai for those familys to stay. This McDonalds' charity home is called "Donald McDonalds House". In 2005, McDonalds will build 2 more those Donald McDonalds House in Kochi & Osaka too! Money from this charity goes to help those Houses. When you donate 100yen, McDonalds person will give you a hand-printed sticker. Then you write a message or anything you like on the hand-shaped sticker. Then, you can paste it somewhere in the McDonalds shop or hand it to shop persons there. I wanted to keep the sticker by myself, so I wrote a short massage on it, and paste it on my portfolio. I can show you it if you want to have a look at it. The sticker is very pretty! The 100yen I donated will go to the foundation of the 'Donald McDonalds House'. This charity is to the world's children's day, November 20th, so if you go to McDonalds by then, just have a look at the sheet on ya tray. Next time when I go to McDonalds, I want to try 'Mcgrand' hamburger! It looks very delicious^^. Did anyone try that? Tell me how it was!

Thank you, Steven for lending the interesting book. Oh, I am sorry if I mistake the spelling of your name, as one of my host brothers' name is same as yours, but the spelling is Stephen. His grandparents are Irish. Anyway I want to introduce this book to everyone!

I think someone in our class have already bloged about this book before. Do you know the book "If the World Were a Village" by David J. Smith? This book gives readers a lot of interesting facts of the world, but it says "what if we imagined the whole population of the world as a village of just 100 people ?" Have you ever heard? This book is very famous, and so I knew about it, and I wanted to read English one. This one that I have now is especially for children with lots of pictures. I have a lot of fun reading this book, as I was surprised at each fact, and the pictures are pretty. Its topics are Nationalities, Languages, Ages, Religions, Food, Air and water, Schooling and literacy, Money and possessions, Electricity, The village in the past & The village in the future. I will introduce some info. that I am interested in especially from each topic.

Nationalities... Do you remember that we learned 10 countries which have the most biggest population in Scott's class? The same info list is on this book! Conglratulations! There are 2 Japanese people! Guess what, 21 are from China! Hmmm, a lot!
Languages... I am glad to know that I can talk with 16 people, as 9 people speak English, and 7 people speak Espanol. Well, my Espanol is terrible though... Well! I can greet! at least! There are languages that I have even never heard. To say "hello", some people say "Zdrazvoodyeh" or "Selamat pagi" in this village. What languages are they?? Does anyone know? I do not know about them at all! Well, I want to be able to speak Espanol well! I really enjoy learning Espanol, but its class is sometimes too tiring and tough... Oh! I have not done my hmk for Espanol class yet!! ahaaaa... I wonder how I can get it over.
Ages... It seems just perfect. 90 young people live with 10 old people. People can live for 63 years. Now you think "then why Japan is suffering from aging society so much? and why are children in Africa dying even before they become 5 years old?" right? I think this book shows the gap exactly. I am 20 years old now, so I am one of 16 people in this village.
Religions... I had thought that some people might feel that Japanese people are strange because they do not follow any religion, but I was surprised to read that 15 people are non-religious in the village. I have thought that when the world have a discussion or a big debate, Japanese people's opinions are sort of key or could be important because it could have no effects of religious thoughts. If the topics are related to religious thoughts, non-religious people's opinions could be fair. Hmmm... does it make sense? I am confused.
Food... As we have learned, there is a sad fact of gap. I am one of 24 people who can have enough to eat. Guess what, there are 189 chickens in the village where there are just 100 people! that much chickens...
Air and water... I had read terrible facts. 25 people spend hours just to get safe water, and girls and women do that work. 32 peopple breathe unhealthy air because of pollution. I have nothing to say. It is just too sad.
Schooling and literacy... There is 1 teacher for 31 students. 17 cannot read at all, and as we know, girls have less chances of education. I remembered the book "Burned Alive" by Souad. Souad is from a village where girls should always look down as if they count their steps because if someone sees gilrs look at men, it is considered as a big disgrace, and the girls can be killed by their own family because Because! Can you believe it? I cannot! Family does not hope for girls, girls have no education, so no knowledge, so the girls believe that they are as same as animals which they look after. Girls have to get water for their family while their brothers go to school. What do you think about this fact? See? I cannot even belive that this IS a fact.
Money and possessions... The average coat of neccessities in the village is about $5,000 per year, but 20 people have $9,000 for each every year, and 20 people have less than $1 for each a DAY! This was just shocking to me. Charity! We can do charities. Let's go charities!
Electricity... 24 people do not have electricity while 7 people have computers. I have a computer in my house, so I am one of those 7. I hope that everyone can have computers so that everyone can read our blogs!
The village in the past... It shows that it took 3,000 years while the population of the village doubled 5 times with pictures. Each picture shows each year, and the picture of the village is becoming bigger and bigger. In the picture of 1,000B.C.E., there are just 1 person, 1 goat and 1 house, but the picture of 2002 is a big city!
The village in the future... Wow, a lot of people's pictures are on this page. It is so crowded, and I cannot see empty space. It says in 2250, there will be 3,200 people in the village!! Too many!! but it also says that this prediction is quite flexible, as we do not really know what will happen in the future, well we cannot! but it is obvious that right now population is growing that much rapidly, as we learned.

The author, David J. Smith is a teacher, and he suggests some good ways to teach children those facts. for example, we'd better show a world map when we teach the village, so that children can imagine well.

Shelagh Armstrong does the illustrations of this book. I really liked all the pictures of this book. Each one looks pretty and easy to see. Shelagh Armstrong lives in Toronto! Wow, Canada has many talented people!

I want to let many kids be interested in all those issues. I will try my younger brother first, as he is quite good at geography! It helps him understand well. I will return this borrowed book to Steven on Monday, so if you, mates want to have a look, tell me after Rogar's class on Monday.

I do not really know how to begin to introduce this person to you. Have you ever heard this name, Mizuko Tokunaga? She is a professor at Nagasaki University, and she often visit Africa to work for people who are infected with AIDS. I watched a tv program of her, and knew about her.
Ms. Tokunaga wanted to work in developing countries since she was young, and started working as a midwife in Zaire since she was 23 years old. Since 1993, she has worked as a nurse in Central African Republic.
In Central African Republic, people one fifth of its population are infected with HIV. There are a lot of children who lost parents because of AIDS. In the villages which has a one-husband& many-wives system, HIV spread rapidly. Ms. Tokunaga and her coworkers visit those villages to teach people contraceptives. People cannot read words, so Ms. Tokunaga has to teach contraceptives to people by speaking. In many cases, people in those villages forget what Ms. Tokunaga taught about a month later, so she has to keep visiting those many villages one after another which seems endless work.
If some men know that his wives or girlfriends are infected with HIV, they left them, so young mothers (like 15 years old) work as prostitutes to earn money to raise their children, so that more girls are infected with HIV, but it is difficult to find a reason to stop them because actually, they have to earn that much money.
Many people are becoming weaker and weaker because they cannot get medicine, but Ms. Tokunaga said, even if people can get medicine, those people still die because they cannot take the medicine correctly. Before I watched this program, I thought getting medicine is a solution for diseases, so I hoped that sick people could have medicines, but it is not enough. Local hospitals like one where Ms. Tokunaga works do not have medicine. Only national hospital has the medicine for HIV, but the amount of medicine is only for 2 months.
Instructors for careful directions to take medicine are essential, but Central African Republic national project team tried to spread the medicine without thinking of the instructors, so Ms. Tokunaga decided not to perticipate the project, which also means that the villages that Ms. Tokunaga takes care of cannot receive the medicine. People in those villages asked Ms. Tokunaga questions like why they cannot receive the medicine. Ms. Tokunaga explained that she cannot do anything without responsibilities. She explained that the people can still live without the medicine, and she and her coworkers keep taking care of them. Then people understood her.
Actually, people there are very cheerful and friendly, and they often dance together. People call Ms. Tokunaga "Madam Japon",and respect her a lot. Ms. Tokunaga said their cheerfulness is a help for her. She also said that when people hear "working for poor people", it sounds very "giving things without any rewards", but in fact she is given lots of things to learn from the people there.
When Ms. Tokunaga has off from university, that is August, September, February and March, she goes to Central African Republic every time, and come back to Japan to work, but now she is thinking if she lives in CAR or not. She said it does not matter wherever she will be soil in, but if she becomes sick, people in CAR worry her,and it will be trouble to them, so she also thinks weather she should stays in Japan or not. She cried when she said so.

As I said before, I went to the charity of old clothes in Namba today. I imagined a very large area and crowds, but there was a counter and two girls in the area like booth. The booth was painted red, and looked cute. When I went there with my old clothes, the two girls welcomed me & my friends, Yo-chan & Shimio-san. I saw a lot of clothes at the back in the booth that some people had already handed before I went. We could draw for prizes, but my ticket said "Hazure". I drew a blank. Then the girls gave us presents as thanks^^. The presents were "Breath-Care" which you take after you eat jiaozi(gyoza), yakiniku and sth garlic. It is expensive actually, so I was glad to receive it^^. Next to the counter, there was a charity box to correct money to send the clothes to Africa, so I put 10yen in it too. I hope some one in Africa will like & enjoy my clothes. It will be very nice that if I go to some countries in Africa in the future, and see people wearing my clothes! Maybe, I cannot help any people just by sending some old clothes, but I do not think it is the same as just saying "I should do sth" either. I will keep looking for charities that I can participate in, and spread the information to you all^^.

In Namba, there had to be another charity of Yoshimoto comedians for Nigata earthquake, but when I went the comedy theater, there was not the charity group there. I went to a book shop Junkudo to look for a book that I wanted to read for the report in Human Class, and the comedy theater is just in front of the Junkudo, so I would put 10yen there again, but unfortunately, there was no charity then. I wonder if they already finish or not. Let me know if you hear sth 'bout it.

I went to Haagen-Dazs with Yo-chan & Shimio-san after a long time, and enjoyed our ice cream very much! Haagen-Dazs' ice cream is very expensive, so I cannot go there often, but today I ordered strawberry-mille-feuille one(600yen)^^! Though I wonder if I had 600yen, maybe I would go to my neighbor-supermarket, and then buy 5 ice cream instead of a very expensive Haagen-Dazs one, the mille-feuille one was very delicious & delicious! Do you guys ever go to Haagen-Dazs? If you find new or very delicious flavor, please let me know! Have a nice ice cream^^.