Japan: Towards free education and a more practical teacher training

Only one month since the elections in Japan, and already many influential proposals brought up..

Among those particularly of (my) interest:
1. free-of-charge high school education in Japan by April 2010
2. extending practical teacher training from current 2-4 weeks to 1 year

Was surprised to know that up till now to-be teachers only had one month of practical training; that's really short! Making school fees FOC all of a sudden is, well, great news, but one has to wonder how the government's going to pay the schools, or whether they're going to implement that proposal after all. Let's wait and see..



> Schools for foreigners, technical colleges included in DPJ's free high school lesson plan - Mainichi Japan, Oct 14, 2009
> Teacher training to be extended to 6 years under DPJ plans - Mainichi Japan, Oct15, 2009

Why do some people fight?

*BTW, it's Mahatma Gandhi's birthday today :) I'm not actually clear on what kind of person he is (I know he did a controvesial yet peaceful demonstration back in India); I'll have to read up about that :)

Indeed, mutual understanding is a difficult thing. Just imagine how the world can be a much better, more peaceful place without all the misunderstandings.

-From Brunei Times
ONCE there were two boys who were great friends and determined to remain that way forever. When they grew up and got married, they built their houses facing one another. There was a small path that formed a border between their farms.

One day, a trickster from the village decided to play a trick on them. He dressed himself in a two-colour coat that was divided down the middle. So, one side of the coat was red, and the other side was blue. The trickster wore this coat and walked along the narrow path between the houses of the two friends. They were each working opposite each other in their fields. The trickster made enough noise as he passed them to make sure that each of them would look up and see him passing.

At the end of the day, one friend said to the other,
"Wasn't that a beautiful red coat that man was wearing today?"
"No", the other replied. "It was a blue coat."
They started arguing heatedly and eventually began to beat each other.

Just then, the trickster returned and faced the two men, who were punching and kicking each other and shouting, "Our friendship is OVER!" The trickster showed them his coat. He laughed at their silly fight. The two friends stopped fighting and screamed at the trickster saying, "We have lived side by side like brothers all our lives. Now you have started a war between us."

"Don't blame me for the battle," replied the trickster.
"I did not make you fight. Both of you are wrong, and both of you are right. Yes, what each one saw was true. You are fighting because you only looked at my coat from your own point of view."

I can imagine several international conflicts arising from such misunderstandings *sigh* Do I personally know someone who have had fights due to something similar? I hope not :)

Peace and understanding everyone :)

「空気人形」 - a movie

Oh come on..
Look past the maid uniform, and ignore the nuance behind the term "空気人形" will you? ;p

Seems like an interesting movie; of course there's the sad romantic plot, but I'm more interested on how they're going to portray a world with life-like dolls replacing people and the other characters in the story. Maybe something worthwhile for people who like 'people-observation' (like myself).


And yeah, Odagiri Jyo's in the movie too eheh :D