Santa Claus Was Attacked

By Masamoto Yokoi

Santa Claus、a nice grandpa who gives presents to children every Christmas, was attacked today, December 23rd, at 5:30 a.m. The Iceland police said, “We got a report at 5:30 a.m. and the informer said that Santa Clause had been attacked by a hunter. Every available patrol car and emergency helicopter rushed to the scene. However, it was too late. Santa Claus had already died. A bullet piereced his heart and also his reindeers were killed and all his presents were stolen by the hunter. His body was found at ice mountain 20 km from his house. The informer was also killed by the hunter, and the hunter ran away somewhere. We started to search for the criminal immediately. This event is a big problem for Christian families and the children who are waiting for presents from Santa Claus. We must tell this event to the next generation. The Iceland gov-ernment has already started meeting to decide on the next Santa Claus.

The Purpose of Chip and Dale

By Yumi Sakurai

We are Chip 'n' Dale! We are popular cartoon characters of Disney. We wonder how many people know about us. Let us introduce ourselves to you.
The first thing is that we are cute, twin chipmunks. We resemble each other but there's a little difference. Chip has a black nose and Dale has a red nose and gapped teeth. Chip is wiser than Dale. According to Disney, Chip is the logical schemer and Dale is the dumb schemer. Our names are a pun on the name 'Chippendale’ which is a furniture maker.
We have many friends. They are Gadget Hackwrench, Monterey Jack and Zipper the Fly. We also have rivals. They are Pluto, Donald Duck, Fat Cat, Professer Norton Nimnul and Aldren Klordane.
We first appeared in the cartoon Private Pluto in 1943. We did not get our names until 1947 in the cartoon Chip 'n' Dale where we antagonize Donald Duck. Now we are often voiced by Tress MacNeille. Chip's Japanese voice is by Roko Takizawa, while Dale's is done by Minoru Inaba.

English Teacher's View of Japan

By Kosuke Nemoto and Nozomi Amano

We were interested in Japan and the Japanese from the foreigner's point of view so we did an investigation. Using a questionnaire, we asked native speakers among the NIHS teachers.

Here are the questions we asked:

1. What's the first Japanese word you learned?
2. What's your impression of Japanese people?
3. What's your favorite culture of Japan?
4. Which place in Japan do you like best?
5. What is the difference between Japanese and people from your country?
6. What's your favorite Japanese food?
7. Where do you often go shopping in Japan?
8. What's your favorite TV show in Japan?
9. What do you think about Japanese students compared to you country’s students?
10. Why did you choose to work in Japan?
11. What is your favorite word in Japanese?

Chris, from the UK, first learned "Konnichiwa" in a book about traveling in Japan. His favorite word in Japanese is "Isogashi" because this word is so useful in many situations. He often goes shopping in Osu because there are many good quality, casual clothes. His favorite place in Japan is Nagano. He enjoys skiing and climbing mountains there.
Petra, from New Zealand, thought that Japanese were very friendly and helpful when she first came here. She studied Japanese in college, so that encouraged her to decide to work in Japan.
Thomas, from the U.S.A., likes Unagi (eel). Actually we found that other countries' people don't often eat them. He also likes the japanese word "level-up". It isn't correct English (it is made in Japan), but it sounds good. He said he liked to watch the Docchi-No-Ryori-Show and Trivia-no-Izumi, famous Japanese T.V. programs. But both finished, so he felt so sad.
Valerie, from the U.S.A., thought that Japanese people were very sincere and honest. Her favorite part of Japanese culture is taking shoes off.
The most interesting thing was the difference between Japan and their country’s students and school's system. Thomas said that Japanese students were so quiet when they were taking classes. But in constrast, they were very noisy the rest of the time. He wanted them to be more in the middle during class. Petra also had a negative opinion of the Japanese school system. In her opinion, Japan doesn't have consequences. It means that even if they do bad things, the teacher does not give them something as a punishment. I agree with her.
We had a good time in Journalism together and were good partners with each other. We had a lot of contact with native speakers. This interview was very interesting. We want to know more about Japan in a second interview. But, we understood the attraction of Japanese by the interview. For example, "Ganbatte"or ‘Otsukare-sama" are such useful words. From now on we would like to learn more about Japanese culture.

Prize Winner!

The following article was written by Yuria Miyazaki from grade 2 of the junior high school. She was awarded a special prize in a national student essay competition organized by the Obunsha publishing company. Well done Yuria.

My Memory in London

by Yuria MIYAZAKI

I went to London from 19th April to 25th for our school trip. It was a very long flight. It took about 12 hours. So I was tired when I arrived in London, I went to our hotel first. The Hilton Kensington Hotel was very big. Then I ate dinner. It was very nice. But I ate three times on the airplane so I was not hungry. I could not eat very much.
On April 20th I went to Stonehenge in the morning. I saw many stones. It was very big. After that, I went to a sandwich shop called G.C. and ate pizza for lunch. It was good. I went to Bath University in the afternoon. It was very big. Then I went to the Bath University cafeteria. I ate pizza, potatoes and yoghurt for dinner. It was nice. I like pizza very much.
On April 21st, I went to Windsor Castle by bus. The day was Queen Elizabeth the Second’s birthday. There were a lot of people around the castle. I ate sandwiches for lunch at the park. There were many little bugs. I did not like bugs. After that, I went to Eaton school. It was an old school. I watched a video about the school in Japanese. Then I ate fish and chips for dinner. It is a traditional British food. There were a lot of fish and chips on the plate. First I ate a lot of chips so I became full. I could not eat as much fish.
On April 22nd I went to Buckingham Palace. I watched the changing of the guards ceremony. Though it is held every day, many people were watching it. Then I went to Westminster Abbey so I had no time to have lunch. Soon after I went to Harrods and I bought a teddy bear there. Also I had no time to have dinner. I went back to our hotel. At night I ate a cup of noodles in my room. I was very hungry, so it was very good for me. It was a busy day.
On April 23rd I went to the London Bridge and took a photographs. It was beautiful. After that I went to Starbucks. I ate chicken and tomato sandwiches. They were not nice because the bread was dry. I went to Hamleys in the afternoon.
It is a big toy store. There was a strange man that was wearing a yellow swimcap, yellow clothes and holding a horn. He was walking and making soap bubbles in the store. I was very surprised. But he was a shopman. I played with plastics balloons. It was very fun. I bought colored plastic balloons. Then I went to a restaurant and ate pizza for dinner. It was very nice. I love pizza very much.
On April 24th I went to the British Museum. I saw a little of the inside and went out quickly. Later I ate tuna and cheese sandwiches for lunch. They were good. Then I went back to our hotel.
On my way back to Japan, I slept on the airplane as soon as I ate dinner. When I woke up, my friends were eating breakfast. We would soon arrive in Japan. So I quickly watched a Harry Potter movie. I regret that I did not wake up earlier. I had a very good time in London.