That's My Phone Ringing, Not the School Bell!

By Jun WATANABE

Mobile phones are very popular. You can see people using their phones everywhere like on the train and while they are walking. Some people even say that they can not live without their phone. I wondered about how student feel about their mobile phones in this school so I carried out a survey about their phones among the international course 1st grade students. I got 47 answers.

Almost all of them have their own mobile phone. It means having a mobile phone is common even for teenagers. And half of them had a mobile phone since when they were in the junior high school. I think it is normal to have a mobile phone because some of my friends had mobile phones when they were junior high school students.

A few students said they had a mobile phone since they were elementary school students. It's amazing. I guess it isn't a good idea because elementary school students are too young to have a mobile phone.

Half of the students pay between 5,000 to 10,000 yen each month on mobile phone bills. I think that's average. But some of them pay over 10,000 yen each month. That's unbelievable. I pay about 10,000 yen and I thought it is expensive.

Some students said they use their mobile phone during class and the reason is to use the e-mail. So, they use mobile phone without proper reason. I think having a mobile phone is not bad but we shouldn't use it during class even though classes are boring. Using a phone isn't respectful to the teachers and it can sometimes disturb other students if mobile phones ring.

School Gamers

by Hirohito HOSOE & Osamu HIOKI

Over the summer vacation we played about five hours of video games a day. We have about 54 different types of games so the fun is never ending. Our parents told us to study but we didn't. We just played games. We wanted to know if other students were the same so we did a survey among high school and junior high school students.

Over 80% of students have their own game machines. The most popular machine is the PS2, Playstation 2. The next popular machine is the PS, regular Playstation and Nintendo 64.

Most students started playing games when they were in elementary school.

RPG, role playing game software such as 'Final Fantasy', are the most popular among students. Next, students enjoy action games such as 'Smash Brother' and then simulation games such as 'Medal of Honor'.

Most students play video games between 1 hour and 3 hours everyday. In one month students spend about 3,000 yen on games.

We were surprised that some junior high school students had over 100 games each.

We also feel that even though we got into our universities, we probably should have studied more.

School Festival Review

School Festival Review

By Junpei NISHIKAWA

On October 1st, we had our school festival, the theme was "Global peace". We had performances on stage, each class made an exhibition and refreshment and food stands. At this school, it is traditional for third graders to cook food.

We carried out a survey to find out the students’ opinions about this school festival. There were two questions in this survey. First, we asked: “which
refreshment or food stand was the best?”

43% of students answered: "Yakitori." This store was our class stand. When we read it, we were so happy. I want to thank the students who liked our yakitori.

30% of students answered: "Yakisoba." I was satisfied with this answer because it was delicious.

15% of students answered: "Deep fried chicken." Sadly, we didn’t have a chance to eat this food but some students wrote: "It was so good."

7% of students answered "Japanese noodles." This stand was organized and run by the mothers of students. We couldn't eat this food either. Maybe they made a delicious Japanese noodles.

5% of students said they liked the rice cakes.

The next question was: "What was the most impressive event in the school festival?" Most of students answered: "I was excited by the performance by Hungry Days." Hungry Days is a professional band, unfortunately I didn’t see them. I am sure it was exciting.

What Students Did Over the Summer

By Junpei NISHIKAWA and Masayuki NAGAYA

Summer vacations are long and Masayuki and I wondered what students at NIHS did over their summer vacation. We carried out a school survey to find out.

Our first question was "What did you do in the summer vacation?" 108 students answered: "I went out with my friends." So, most students were not alone. It looks like everyone has good friends at this school.

Some of students said: "I went to the Nagashima amusement park." I’ve been to there once and I thought that is the best theme park in Japan.

49 students said that they studied at home. What diligent students! I didn’t think many students would study over the summer vacation, but the students who answered, studied very hard. They’ll definitely get better grades after the summer vacation.

81 students said they went on a trip somewhere. Some of them answered: "I went to Okinawa." When I read that I was envious because I didn’t go anywhere. I wish I could go abroad over the summer vacation. China or Canada would be nice. Anyway, many students went somewhere. They must have had a good time.

68 students answered: "I had a part-time job." Some of them wrote: "I worked everyday." They are hardworking and probably earned a lot of money.

46 students stayed at home all the time. They had no plans. Some of them said they just played video games. I hope they will have a better summer vacation next year.

We also asked the students: "What is your best memory from your summer vacation?"
One student answered: "I went to Disneyland with my family." I went there too. It was a wonderful memory for me as well.

So, most of students had a pleasant summer vacation and made many happy memories.