Blog #10： My thought about the merit of iPad2

Masashi Yamada

    On January 2, I bought iPad2!! I'm surprised at the convenience of this device for some points, applications, map, schedule, and more! Someone said that Steve Jobs changed our daily life by his "Apple" products, and I think this phrase is true through my experience.

    In my case, I got three merits for buying iPad2.


(Ⅰ)Weight

    The first is to decrease the weight of my belongings when going to university. Last year, I brought my note PC, which weight is 1.9K, for my activity. But this year my labor is going to moderate for iPad2, which weight is 601g! It is welcome for me.

(Ⅱ)Easier for my activity

    I belonged to the organization of the international cooperation. During this activity, we must use IT device because we want to speed up for more effectively. For this point, iPad2 is easier to use than note PC because of simple style.

(Ⅲ)Knowledge about newest IT situation

    Before buying iPad2, I have no knowledge of "app", and I sometimes heard that application for martphone will become the major industry. If this situation will come true, we should learn the knowledge. After doing it, I got some knowledge about "app" by using some of them, Dropbox, Evernote, and so on.

    Some people say there are some demerits by using digital device. I agree with it, but everything has the two things. It is important to pull their merit, and press down them.

Blog #10 ; New Year's Day !!

Kako Furukawa

Do you know about Japanese "New Year's Day" ? There are a lot of traditions about it.
Let me explain some of them.
First,  at the beginning of New Year's Day, there are pines at the gate of houses.
 Japanese people say this pines "Kadomatu".  We decorated our gate with pine branches.
And, do you know the origin?
The old days, Japanese people believed that gods dwelt at the treetops.
So, they decorated pines to receive gods.

Second, have you ever played battledore and shuttlecock?
We often say it "Hanetuki". Old days, people made these battledores with
the wish which girls grew well. So, girl's faces were often drew on battledores.

Third, we often eat rice gruel containing the seven spring herbs
on the seventh day of the New Year. We call it "nanakusagayu"
Why do we eat this rice gruel?
The New Year's dishes sit heavy on our stomachs.
So, we can eat healthy herbs and rest our stomachs.

Fourth,  do you do "kagamibiraki" on the eleventh of January?
It is the custom of cutting and eating a large, round rice cake,
which had been offered to the gods.
In Japan, "kagami" means peaceful, and "biraki" means successful.
With eating hard food, we can make our teeth tough.

Finally, I would like to explain "dondoyaki".
It's like a formality and hold at shrines on fifteenth of January.
this time, we finish the New Year's vacation.
And, we often burn used pine branches or battledores, or rice cakes.
It is said that we don't have fires if we do the formality.

Considering the traditions mentions above,
Japanese may pray to gods for our happiness every New Year's Day.

Happy New Year !!