2013年1月19日土曜日

Should smoking in public places be banned in Japan?

 
     Every year in Japan, 350 billion cigarettes are consumed by 30 million smokers. That means an average smoker smokes around 11667 cigarettes annually, 31 cigarettes daily. Now the question is where do they smoke those 31 cigarettes? Living in Japan for a few years now, I see that most smokers smoke in public places. In my opinion, smoking should be banned in public places, especially in Japan. First of all, smoking in public places will be physically bad for your health and the people near you. According to the experiment of Dr. Hirotsugu Ueshima, a member of the Department of Health Science, out of 9638 that smoke, 807 people died because of strokes. There is also the chance of getting lung cancer. Actually, 90% of men who get lung cancer are smokers. Side stream smoke is also a big problem. The other people who get lung cancer are victims of side stream smoke. By inhaling venomous smoke from cigarettes indirectly, you receive the chance of getting lung cancer. Secondly, smoking has a bad influence over the environment. The smell emitted from the burning cigarette will irritate non-smokers young to old. Smoking also sets a bad example over the children. Smokers make children think that smoking is “cool”. Third, smoking causes many incidents. The bad smokers might “accidentally” start a fire by littering there tobacco. Also, many sculptures displayed in the public places are damaged by burned cigarettes. For these three reasons, I feel that smoking in public places should be banned in Japan.  





2013年1月7日月曜日

Memories of Christmas Abroad


    Christmas is a cherishable, jolly time filled with presents that you long wished for, delicious Christmas dinners, and last but not least wacky parties. Today, I want to write about one Christmas day that I still remember vividly.

     During Christmas time when I was 6 years old, my family and I decided to go on a vacation to either Disneyland located in Anaheim, California or Legoland which was located in Carlsbad, California. I was very excited and pumped up when I heard this, but at that time, I was frightened by the life sized characters that were roaming around Disneyland, so I decided to go to Legoland. When I was 6 years old I craved for Lego, and made buildings on my own during my spare time. I also loved the product Bionicles made by Lego so I was interested in what kind of attractions there were featuring Bionicles.

    The day had come for my family to go to Legoland. It took 7 to 8 hours from my house to Legoland, so I woke up at about 6 am to get ready. Many people might think that a 6 year old waking up on 6 am is insane but, as you may know, you wake up incredibly fast when you are very excited. On the first day, we went to Legoland we arrived at 4 pm so we decided to rest at the nearest hotel. On the next day, we went to Legoland. Legoland California is actually a pretty recent amusement park, opened on 1999 so there were pretty few rides but the attractions there were amazing. I loved the life sized Bionicle figures and Darth Vader from the Star Wars series. Next to the Darth Vader figure there was a sign that this figure was actually made out of 100% small Lego pieces, so I didn’t have the guts to touch it because I was afraid that the figure was going to break. Unluckily, there were no Bionicle rides or attractions other than the Bionicle figures but I was satisfied with the figures because my parents bought me the newest Bionicle toy. There was also another interesting ride that I still remember which was like a water cruise that took you to many famous places around the world. However those famous places are all minimized into a 1/20 scale and were all made by Legos. The scenery of San Francisco is very beautiful. It vividly shows the beautiful sceneries of the Golden Gate Bridge and the buildings located in Pier 39. There were also sceneries from Washington DC. When I heard that it took 6 people 60 hours to make the Washington Monument I was very surprised. After having a lot of fun we went back to our hotel and rested there for another night. On the next day, we went to go adventuring Legoland again. I still remember taking a picture of me in a cell of a prison which was also made out of Legos. After playing another day at Legoland, we went back home where I opened my Christmas presents waiting for me under the Christmas tree.

      That was one of my memories of Christmas when I lived overseas. Personally, it was the best Christmas vacation that I had ever taken.