Opinion Piece

           From this year, SFC has started dividing the school year into two semesters from three terms. The number of times and the seasons when exams are held have changed, with some other adjustments in the school calendar, but I do not find my school life improving, and personally prefer the older system with three terms.

           With the two semester system, the final exams are held right after the summer vacation. This might seem convenient because there is longer time to prepare for the exams. However, we tend to be more occupied with clubs during summer, and of course, enormous amount of assignments prevents us from doing test preparation. The exams are held in approximately two weeks after the school resumption, so there is not much time left after the summer vacation to study. As a result, we cannot spend our precious holiday spending time with our friends and families as much as we were able to until last year. This is my first reason why I do not approve of the new school system.

           The second reason why I prefer the old system is that there is less time to work on the Bunkasai project. This year, many classes had to be in a hurry in order to complete their class projects because there was not enough time to work on them. Bunkasai preparation weeks started on the first day of the second semester. Furthermore, because of the final exams at the end of September, we cannot spend time discussing on Bunkasai before the preparation week. With only one month to prepare, the contents of a project would necessarily be limited, or else its quality would be low. Because a Bunkasai is a big annual event, I want to spend a fair amount of time working on it.

           The last reason why I believe the two-semester system is inefficient because of the exams becoming less frequent, resulting in the exam coverage getting broader. Mid-term exam and end-of-term exam is each held twice, with four exams in one school year. Some subjects, which have only one session a week, only have two exams in one school year, without the mid-terms. Until last year, there were five exams in a year and some subjects even had a test right after the summer vacation, adding up to six exams a year in total, with at least three in each subjects. This may sound like a tough schedule, but the exams had less coverage, making it easy for us to study. Simply calculating, six exams turned into four exams means that the exam coverage got 1.5 times broader.

           To sum up, the two semester system is not bringing much advantage to our school lives. We have a hard time studying for final exams during summer vacations which are meant to somewhat take away our mind from school works, less time of Bunkasai preparation, and more exam coverage to study in each exams. I wish the school would resume to the old three terms system.

A Beginner's Guide to the Bunkasai

           A Bunkasai, also called a school festival, is an event typical in Japanese junior-high and high schools. As this is an event occurring only once a year, students put a lot of effort in organizing their Bunkasai.

              One of the aims of a Bunkasai is to introduce the school to many people. The Bunkasai is generally held in November at most schools, and lasts for two days over the weekend. In most cases, anyone is welcome to visit the school during a Bunkasai. Students’ friends and families come, and students invite their old friends to the current school. A Bunkasai is also a great chance for younger children who are planning to attend the school in the future, because the school’s atmosphere can be experienced. In Japan, where many children enter private schools, it is common for elementary school students to visit a Bunkasai as an investigation of the school beforehand. For this reason, schools hold information sessions simultaneously with the Bunkasai. In the information session, teachers and students talk about the school and answers questions from people desiring to enter the school. A Bunkasai is one of the precious chances for schools to be exhibited to people outside of the school community, and this is why a Bunkasai is usually held for two days over the weekend.

Another aim for holding a Bunkasai is for students to present what they want to the general public. Each class or group plans their own project, and works on decorations. A great amount of time is spent on preparations, and its quality and creativity varies by class. Some classes present an exhibition of what they have learned throughout the year, others make fun attractions or plays for visitors to enjoy, and so on. Food booths can also be seen in many schools, selling Yakisoba, Okonomi-yaki, Tako-yaki, etc. In SFC, food booths are not allowed, but the cooking club opens a café in which they sell cakes and other sweets they have made.

Some clubs have performances. There are none in SFC, but some school’s sports clubs invite other schools for an exhibition match. Cultural clubs, such as Karuta or Sadou club, do demonstrations for people to watch, and the brass band or string orchestra club performs in concerts. In SFC, the dance club also does a performance, which is very lively.

In conclusion, a Bunkasai is a big annual event for promoting the school and for students to present what they have created. If you ever had a chance to visit a school’s Bunkasai, I hope you will enjoy it.

Book Review

"The Wizard of Earthsea" by Ursula K. Le Guin

 

Everyone has their own story of the past and Ged, one of the greatest sorcerers in Earthsea’s history, is not an exception. The Wizard of Earthsea, the first book of The Tales from Earthsea series, is about Ged’s early years, when he was still an obscure young wizard.

On the island of Gont, one boy was found to be unprecedentedly talented in magic. His name is Ged. He is taught under Ogion, the Mage of Re Albi, but he is unsatisfied and decides to go to the school of Roke. Ged’s gift in magic excels even at the school of wizards, but because his desire to learn he fails to notice the most important rule for wizards to keep in mind.  One day, Ged, highly offended by his rival, and uses the forbidden curse to summon the dead spirit. However, the spell had an unexpected side effect. In compensation for breaking the rule of magic, Ged is chased down by a ferocious “shadow”.

“The world is balance, in Equilibrium. A wizard’s power of Changing and of Summoning can shake the balance of the world. It is most perilous.” (p. 48)

For Ged whom ignored the Equilibrium of the world, are there no other ways but to continue fleeing from the “shadow”?

Graduating from the school of Roke, Ged enlarges his experience. After carrying out his task to negotiate with a dragon to leave from a human island, Ged finally makes up his mind to face the “shadow”. Through his journey, Ged finds his own answer of what he must do.

This is a story of one young wizard trying to right the wrong he had done, and reinstate the balance of the dead and alive.

Before I read this book, I was expecting this to be similar to other fantasy stories such as Harry Potter series. However as I went on reading this book, I noticed that in Ged’s world, magic should not be used casually, and is not at all akin to any other books I have read so far. The world of Earthsea is constructed carefully to the details. The aspect of this world, that sacrifice would occur if you act impetuously, can be the same in our world. Everything you do, everything that exists that may seem beneficial for you, might not truly be so. Consider carefully before you act, is what I think the lesson this book is trying to express.

Le Guin has also created elaborate settings of the characters, which took part in making the story more enjoyable. In The Wizard of Earthsea, Ged’s mental conflict is described in detailed, and you can see how Ged has mentally grown up throughout the book.

I hope you find delight in reading The Wizard of Earthsea as I did.

The Advantages and Disadvantages of Having a Summer Vacation

              Summer vacation is one of the most exciting events students are waiting for. As the end of school gets closer, students start making plans of how to spend their summer vacation. As far as I know, all schools have summer vacation, and there must be some reasons for that.

              The biggest advantage of having summer vacation is that the students can be freed from the daily 6-hour lessons. Every day, students are under great pressure to complete homeworks, prepare for tests and quizzes, and so on. Needless to say, this situation is extremely tiring, and it is natural for students to demand for some break. Periodic vacation gives impulse to students’ school days, and stops students from getting bored of school life. This must be a good reason for students to be given seven weeks of vacation.

Furthermore, students, unbound from academics, are able to concentrate more on club activities. Because most sports have seasons in summer, it is convenient that schools are off during summer. This way the students can practice more before the matches. Especially in schools like SFC, where the students do not have to worry about university entrance exams, many students are engrossed in clubs and find satisfaction in practicing. Summer vacation can also help students to switch over from studying to club activities.

Apart from club activities which I have already mentioned, summer vacation can give a great chance of experiencing something rare. Going on a trip with one’s family could be one example. Released from stressful school work, students can enjoy and make good memories during their summer vacation. In Japan, many people tend to go back to their hometown and visit their relatives during summer vacation. Meeting one’s relations is quite important in terms of having an opportunity to communicate with many people. Or perhaps some students may go traveling to somewhere far away. These experiences become good refreshments for students who are always driven by schoolwork.

              Now that I have written about the advantages of having summer vacation, I would like to discuss some disadvantages. Summer vacation can disturb some student’s daily routines. Without school, there is no need for students to wake up early in the morning. Therefore, they tend to stay up late and wake up late. As the students continue to live like that, it gradually becomes a habit, which cannot be fixed easily.

              Another disadvantage of summer vacation is that the students have to manage a massive amount of homework. Even during summer vacation, the school does not allow its students to completely get away from the school work. If there was no summer vacation, the students would be having less work per day. Because of summer vacation, students have to catch up with the corresponding amount of work for the lost lessons.

              There are both advantages and disadvantages in having a summer vacation. However, I think summer vacation is essential for giving students some rest from the daily academics and the advantages exceed the disadvantages. I hope summer vacation does not become abolished.

How to be a Successful Japanese Archery Club Member

 Any one can become a successful Japanese Archery player by following this advice.  Most importantly, you must practice hard.  Try to participate in free-time practice as much as possible.  You also need to turn to your seniors and coaches for coaching when you are stuck, but do not forget to be polite.  After practice, write down the advice you were given in your "Shakei Notebook".  Finally, take good care of your bow, arrows, and other instruments so that they are not worn out or broken.  If they are, fix them or replace them with new equipment.  Now, you will be able to become a successful Japanese Archery club member and have many good memories.

Antananarivo - a short travel guide

You will have a unique experience in Antananarivo, the capital city of Madagascar.


              Located in the center of Madagascar, an earthly paradise for animals and plants, Antananarivo is very remarkable and worth visiting.

              The remains of the ancient Merina Kingdom at Rovan’i Manjakamiadana will take you back to the medieval period. The palace is built on top of the highest hill in Antananarivo, and the view from there is just magnificent. Roofs made of red bricks fill the steep-sided hills, and you can never see this sight anywhere else.




jumping Sifaka

 

Madagascar is famous for its interesting biodiversity. Seperated from other continents more than 120 million years ago, animals and plants have evolved in unique ways. For those of you who do not have time to visit private preserves, Tsymbazaza Zoo is a perfect fit have a look at them. You can meet the "well-known but unknown" lemur Aye-aye, cheerful jumping Sifaka, and many other species endemic to Madagascar.




Lac Anosy surrounded by Jacaranda trees



Surrounded by the great Jacaranda trees, Lac Anosy is worth a look especially in summer when Jacaranda trees blossom. The scenery is somewhat similar to a Japanese lakeside with cherry blossoms, and it is equal or beyond in its beauty.

If you want to buy a souvenir of your visit to this country, go to Analakely Market and the Independence Avenue. Shining gems; rose and violet crystals, rubies, emeralds, sapphires, and even fossils of Ammonites are displayed, and they are sold at affordable prices. You can also have your own stamps handmade by a craftsman of Independence Avenue.

If you visit Antananarivo, in the middle of the secluded island Madagascar, your experience there would be so extraordinary and fascinating that you will surely want to go there again.

How Would Life be Different Without the Internet?

Today, our lives are completely dependent on the Internet. I cannot imagine life without using the Internet. However, the world was working properly ten years ago, when the Internet was not popularized yet. It is generally said that popularization of the Internet has contributed to our lives becoming better, but is it true? How would our lives be without the use of the Internet?

Convenience is one of the greatest features of using the Internet. The Internet shows its real ability when using it to research something. Instead of going to libraries, looking for books, and flipping pages of a book with a pile of books in front of you, all you need to do is type keywords on research engine and press the enter key. It takes no time, and it is easy to gain information from various media.

Anyone can communicate with people far away through the Internet. One example is Facebook, a social networking service. A person is able to connect with people he/she has met online, and become “friends”. It is an easy way to expand your network all over the world.

Furthermore, using the Internet can reduce the amount of paper consumed. Sending e-mails instead of writing letters is one example. Nowadays it has become possible to read books online and some authors are publishing their works on the Internet instead of books. As radical deforestation is mentioned as one of the most serious environmental problems, one can contribute to the protection of environment by saving paper.

However, there are some disadvantages of using the Internet. As I have already mentioned, the Internet is very convenient when researching information. To put it on the other way around, one does not need to think deeply in order to do a research, and it is resulting in preventing people to deliberate their original thoughts. Some people even copy the exact same words from another person’s work. This is called plagiarism and this action is illegal, but there are too many cases to arrest them all.

In the third paragraph, I had talked about the Internet as means of communication. However there are limits to what the Internet can do. Because there is no real-life communication in the Internet, people often find it easy to say horrible things to criticize others. It is hard to find out who had contributed such things, and it sometimes develops into a serious harassment such as bullying.

How much time do you spend every day using the Internet? The Internet is addictive and most of the time sitting in front of the computer could be simply a waste of time. If there was time for using the Internet, it could be more meaningful to spend that time for reading books.

Without the Internet, our life would undeniably become less convenient. However, the Internet is preventing us from having original thoughts, talking to someone face to face, and spending free time more productively. Deprived of using the Internet, perhaps we could learn to enrich our life and notice what is truly important in our life.

The Difference Between My School in Madagascar and in Japan

              For two years and six months, I was a student of the American School of Antananarivo, which is called ASA in short. There, I made many friends and I met wonderful teachers. My classmates welcomed me although I was not able to speak English at all and taught me many things about the school. Thanks to them I was soon acclimatized to the style in ASA, but there were many differences compared to the elementary school I used to go when I was in Japan.

              First of all, there was no “homeroom”. The students had to move classes for each subject whereas in Japan, students stay in their homeroom and wait for the teachers to come. On the very first day I came to ASA, I was very confused because all of my classmates suddenly started to go out of the classroom and move somewhere else with their pencil cases. Some classmates came to me and said something, but I could not understand what they were trying to tell me, so I decided to follow them. Immediately after, I found out that they were heading to the math class. Furthermore, there was no cleaning time as I had had at my school in Japan. At first it felt strange not to clean the classrooms but I gradually got used to it, and I felt weird when I cleaned my homeroom after three years of having an easy life.

              Secondly, lunch time was very different from Japan in ASA. In Japan, students eat school meals, or Kyushoku, in classrooms. However in ASA, students were free to eat wherever they wanted. I had fun choosing where to sit for eating my lunch every day, but it was hard to find a place when it was raining. My favorite lunch time place was the table next to a small pond near the science room buildings. On days when it was not raining, I went there with my friends, ate lunch with them, and chatted. It was not rare to exchange lunches with a friend, and my friends loved the sushi made by my mother.

              Lastly, the difference of the grading system surprised me. When I first received my report card, I was shocked to find it so unlike the ones I got in Japan. Each assignment was graded with the percentage written clearly, and the final grade was basically the average scores of all the assignments. Effort grades were also very new to me at the time. In Japan, report cards, called “Ayumi” (meaning “steps”) are handed to students at the end of each semester. Grades are written inside Ayumi but they are very abstract, and there are only two categories: Very Good or Good. As I was used to those report cards, I was astonished at seeing my grades given strictly for the first time in my life. However, I liked this system better because by showing grades for each assignment definitely, I was motivated to put efforts and work hard on them.

              At first I found it hard to adjust to the ways at ASA because there were many differences between ASA and my old school in Japan. I had to move classrooms for every period, eat lunch outside (though I liked this), and the grades were given quite severely. However, on reflection, I think it was a great experience and I am glad that I was lucky to be able to go to ASA.