The Geography of New Zealand and Japan

GEOGRAPHY



I am going to describe the longest river, the highest mountain, the largest lake in both countries.

There are a lot of rivers in Japan and New Zealand. In Japan, the longest river is Shinano River, and its length is 367km. And the longest river in New Zealand is Waikato River, and its length is 425km. This “Waikato” means “quick water” in Maori language.

Taupo Lake which is the most largest lake in New Zealand is on the way of this river. This lake was made by a eruption, and is a caldera lake. On the other side, the largest lake in Japan is Biwa Lake. The area of this lake is 616km², and the area of Biwa Lake is 670 km². Around the Taupo Lake, volcanoes are active still now, and there are some springs and geothermal plants. In this lake, Anguilla Japonica (unagi) and trout (masu) live in.

The highest mountain in New Zealand is Mt.Cook. This mountain is called “Aoraki” in Maori. This means “bank of cloud.” The height of this mountain is 3,754m. And as you know, the highest mountain in Japan is Mt.Fuji. Its height is 3,776m. If you want to access to the Mt.Cook, you can only use a long-distance bus, and it operates only one time a day. I think that geographies of both countries look alike a little.

The festival

HALLOWEEN




We have a culture of Halloween in the world. It is a festival held in Autumn, 10/31. A lot of people enjoy it, and celebrate.

This day is a eve of “All Saints’ Day (Hallowmans)”, so it has been called “Halloween”.(Hallows eve → Halloween)

Halloween festival is very famous all over the world, and children look forward to it every year. In this day, people (especially children) dress up as various characters; witch, ghost, bat, black cat, Dracula, and so on, because they try to get rid of the demons who is wandering around the houses. In the past, people believed that it is not good spirit which have come back to the earth.

In Halloween, children dress up, and visit the other houses to get some sweets. They say “Trick or Treat! (it means they’ll trick if adults do not treat some sweets for them…). And children have a “Jack-o-lantern”, the lantern which is made of a pumpkin because it’s effective in calling good spirits, and in get rid of bad one.

A lot of countries hold this festival, but the origin is Ireland. In celtic countries (especially Ireland), a festival was held several thousand years ago. In Middle Ages, it became to the Christ festival which celebrate all the saints.It was regarded as a most important day a year in religion.

My favorite movie

GREEN MILE

Do you know "Green Mile"? I love this movie from the past. I would like to recommend you this movie. First, I am going to explain about this movie easily. This movie's starring is Tom Hanks. He is a famous American actor, and now, 52 year old. This movie is fiction, and the original of it was a novel. This movie was on the air in 1999.

I am going to talk about this movie's story. In 1935, there is a man who serves as the guard in the condemned ward, Paul Edgecombe (Thomas Hanks), and he has a chronic ailment. He met a man "John Coffey" in the prison. John Coffey has a miracle power which cure anything; heart, diseases, injury... just by touching the person. John was arrested because he raped and killed the girl sisters, but it is not certain that he really did it.

One day, John so touched Paul that Paul's chronic ailment was cured. Paul realized that John has certain power, and took him to friend's house. Paul's friend has a wife, Melinda, but she has a brain cancer. Paul planned that he have John meet Melinda, and have he cure her cancer. This plan was succeeded. But John absorbed her sickness to inside his body, so his face turned to blue. John met a little gray rat, Mr.Gingles in this prison. He saved it too. They would be good friends.

One day, John blew his wickedness that he had to Parcy who is a bad guard. At the end, John would be excused capital punishment. Paul could not help him, and cried. At the last scene, Paul has lived yet, because he accepted John's miracle power when he was cured chronic ailment by John. He will continue to live with Mr.Gingles.

I was impressed by this movie because of the love between Paul and John. Paul has realized that John did not kill the girls sister, and he tried to help him. His hope was not accomplished, but John was happy, I think. And Steven Spielberg cried bitterly just by watching this movie's preview. So I would like to have you watch it if you have not do yet.

Diet & Exercise

Diet
I would like to talk about diet. There are a lot of women who want to lose their weight and to be thin, however, this modern trend is very dangerous. Because they tend not to eat meals to accomplish it, and get irritated more and more. The person who has a fat constitution feels that he or she has a debt to pay, and can't enjoy own life. So, what should we do for our health? First of all, we have to take meals neatly, because if we do not it, it is not healthy diet. Second, We should have some moderate exercises regularly. Some exercises provide us fantastic effects, and can keep us more healthy. Finally, I guess that it would be better if we take fixed amount of water everyday, because water can clean our body and get off some waste matters out of the body.



Exercise
As you see, I suggested that moderate exercise is good to our health, so I would like to introduce some great exercises for you. I believe that swimming is one of the best ways to diet, because it is aerobics. Aerobics means "Yu-sanso Undo" in Japanese. Aerobics provides us various benefits. For example, we can consume glucidic and fat in the inside our body with oxygen, and can prevent lifestyle diseases like the diabetic. So, we should have some movements regularly.

My Favorite Artists

There are a lot of fantastic artists in the world, and I like Avril Lavigne especially. She is one of my favorite artists, so I would like to recommend you her and her great songs. First, I like her voice. She has a small body, however, her voice is very powerful and beautiful. And the music that she produces is always attractive for me. I especially like some ballade songs of hers. Here are some wonderful songs, so please listen them if you like !

Complicated
When You're Gone
MY HAPPY ENDING
Innocence
I'm With You

How do you think of her songs? I am glad if you like them !

By the way, what do you think about Hikaru Utada? She is also a great singer who actives in the world. She is from America, and her mother "Keiko Fuji" is singer, too. I think that her songs are a little difficult to sing, however, they are always popular among the younger. Here are some cool songs of hers.

Prisoner Of Love
COLORS
Keep tryin'

About Laughter

Laughing is good to our health because it will stimulate various organs in the body, and the body will work well. I recommend you the Japanese CG animation “The World of Golden Eggs.” I was recommended “The World of Golden Eggs” by my friends recently. Here are the official site of it and the recommendation movies.

Official site

Recommendation movies:

Rebecca's Homework
Michelle the tutor
Turkey's Hill Police 24hours
Bodybuilding Club


This animation is made in Japan, but there are a lot of foreigner characters in this animation, and at bottom of the screen, there are some telops written in English. Characters in this animation speak Japanese, so it’s funny that the gap between the language which they speak and the feature of them. In this animation, radio actors speak their dialogs before completing animation, and according to dialogs they spoke, animation will be made by producer.

We can laugh everyday every time, because there are a lot of funny things in the world.
I think that laughter is the very thing what helps the world.