Beautiful and Moving

I went to Kyoto, Toufukuji, to see the colored leaves. They were very beautiful and I took some pictures. I felt refreshed.

You should see them for a change.

I'm sure you can spend a good time.

After seeing them, I went to theater to watch "Koizora" and it moved me to tears.

I had a good time on that day.

About the article of the Japan Times

In the article, Vegans have a long way to go yet, the writer mentioned about the vegetarian food and vegans in Japan. Recently, they are increasing but still few so they are sometimes misunderstood in Japan.

The writer has lived in Japan for almost 10 years and he has taught students all over Japan, and he wrote the students' reaction that they did when they met the people who are vegetarianism. He also used generalizations to make his article credible. He talked how in fashion the vegetarianism is now which is rare and misunderstood. It is not known so well to everyone so the writer is telling us about it by describing the students' air. He wrote the names of countries and he is telling that the vegetarianism has boom in those countries, it means that he is giving us the example of other countries. He is a vegetarian so he hopes that the vegetarianism will be booming in Japan. These are his authorities and he is trying to persuade the readers. In the last paragraph, you can see there are only a few vegetarian restaurants and vegans, so by writing the sentence, he is showing the fewness of them.

Counterterrorism

The article, "Not so welcome to Japan any longer" is about the new procedure, which will be started from November 20, in entering Japan. It obliges foreigners to be fingerprinted and photograph when they enter or reenter Japan. Only children under 16, diplomats and special-status and permanent residents can escape it.

Fingerprinting and photographing are not good policy because they are taken as a discrimination against foreigners, and they do not assure that terrorists come into Japan. They target almost everyone. However, anyone cannot recognize who is a terrorist, and we do not have their fingerprints and photographs. Therefore, the percentage that the terrorists are arrested is really low. Taking the policy of fingerprinting and photographing means that Japan sees foreigners as terrorists and it is a discrimination against them. It is also an invasion of privacy. So its effects are doubtful and many people will point out the policy.

Response to the Japan Times

In the first letter, there were 4 kinds of answers and some of 6 people said they heard from someone or someone told them about it. Therefore, they might have wrong information or misunderstanding. They did not see the discrimination that they answered but they believe what other people said. However, others used the authority like giving an example. They have seen such discrimination as they answered so their opinions are more reliable and more persuasive than former people who I mentioned.

The writer of response to the first letter said it depends on where you live which minority groups face the worst discrimination. He lives in Nagasaki and he wrote about his experiences of being discriminated so there was much information in his letter. I think the behavior some Japanese people did to him was really bad and is not allowed. However, I do not think Japanese people hate Americans because more and more Americans come to Japan and I have never seen such situations. Some old Japanese people might have prejudice but such people are few. If he thinks many Japanese people hate Americans, he should use a generalization to tell that Japanese people do such things like he mentioned in his letter not only toward him.

What is the most important in his letter is discrimination does not depend on places. Some Japanese handicapped people are actually discriminated even in Japan, that is, place does not matter. The discrimination can be happen everywhere all over the world.