Thank you for your feedback and comments. I didn’t know about the info that Tokyo is the leafiest city in the world! Thank you for sharing this interest fact, too.
Teacher Ellie_P Thank you for kind words as aleways. Tokyo is a city with a lot of skyscrapers, so I didn't know there was much greenery. As I go to Tokyo for work, I get the impression that there are a lot of buildings because I visit to the office. Looking at the Tokyo Metropolitan Government website, I found that they are developing the Tokyo Green Biz Project. They say they aim to create an environment where people can coexist with greenery, even in the metropolitan city. Next time I go to Tokyo, I'll pay attention to the greening of Tokyo. Thank you for corrections that are helpful to me. Best regards, 5971mak
Teacher Ellie_P Thank you for kind words as always. I meant "outlook" in appearance. I also try to look younger. There are now drugs available that stop balding, so I am taking them. Thanks to the medicine, my hair is still full and healthy even with mildly mixed gray hair. In addition, regular exercise gives me energetic and powerful atmosphere. So doing exercise is essential to make me active. As for cosmetics, I also apply skin care lotion to my face to slow down the aging of my skin. I don't think that I take plastic surgery, but I want to delay aging to maintain youthfulness. Thank you for corrections that are useful to me. Best regards, 5971mak
Teacher Ellie_P Thank you for kind words as always. Yes, smartphones are very convenient because they make users access the intenet and download a variety of information at a glance. Once users understand the usefulness, it is difficult for them to have daily life without the gadgets. I also enjoy using my Android in daily life. Thank you for corrections that are helpful to me. Best regards, 5971mak
My husband doesn't use sunscreen. He says it's too much trouble.
Teacher Ellie_P Thank you for kind words as always. I understand that "ebook" is preferred. The ability to read is important, but teaching children how important it is is difficult. Smartphones are so convenient that children can easily find answers. I also repeatedly tried to encourage my children to read, but they don't like it. Currently, there are no critical thinking classes in school education in Japan. If we increase the number of lessons in which children engage in critical thinking while reading books, children may become more likely to read books. Thank you for corrections that are useful to me. Best regards, 5971mak
Rakuten is a Japanese company which sells various goods online.
Teacher Ellie_P Thank you for kind words as always. "Furusato Nouzei"( donation to local communities in English) is a system where one can make donations to municipalities of your choice. And on the next year, the government will reduce the donation amount from their tax. So, technically speaking, you are paying your taxes in the form of a donation in advance. As long as the amount reaches the limit of individual deduction, every Japanese worker can do "Furusato Nouzei" in Japan. Take for example, let's assume that you make 4,000,000 yen per annum, which is the average annual salary in Japan. Ignoring any other exemptions, the amount of tax that a person live would have to pay is around 250,000 yen for that year. On this case, they can do "Furusato Nouzei" with about 100,000 yen at maximum. Why the Japanese government implement this generous deduction despite reduction of the tax revenue ? It is because that the government has failed in activating local economy in rural areas due to aging society with low birth rate. Even though the government has invested a lot of money in the countryside before, the business did not succeed. In that case, the government decided that while the government lowers tax, the donors would be able to revitalize the countryside. The donors reduce taxes and receive thank-you gifts from the local government they donated to as a return. The government hoped that Rural municipalities should develop more and more local products to receive more donations, revitalizing their own community in countryside. As aresult, this system can bring win-win relationship between taxpayers and obsoleting countryside communities by gulvanizing local economy. Thank you for corrections that are helpful to me. Best regards, 5971mak
I don't know very well, but maybe the bigger the donation the better the gifts.
Thank you for your feedback and suggestions to improve my sentences!
In Japan, whale meat is sometimes sold, but I never buy it.
No, I rarely throw away food because that is a waste.
I'm sorry, I forgot to write that I heat the egg mixture on the stove. I make it every day when my daughter needs box lunch.
Teacher Ellie_P Thank you for kind words as always. I understand that the expression 'more apt to' means 'more likely'. By the way, I think that the internet has changed circumstances of employees. Before the internet become common, it is difficult for workers to claim their requests and hope without joining labor unions. Once they join labor unions to make your point, subsequently the unions ask them to collaborate expanding the activities of the unions. Many young people feel constrained by the demands of the unions. So workers often avoided union activities. However, as the internet come to real, they can show their opinions and upload their videos on the web. Now, people can freely tell to others what they desire under the anonymity. As a result, people seemed to change their thoughts that they give priority for family responsibility. Thank you for corrections that are helpful to me. Best regards, 5971mak
Teacher Ellie_P Thank you for kind words as always. Since I started reading books, I have learned to be more thoughtful about things. Books teach me things about the world that I don't know. It is not easy for me to learn about the unfamiliar world I don't know. Reading novels allows me to experience a variety of worlds I am unfamiliar with. Take for example "A town where I'm the only one missing" (Boku Dakega Inai Machi in Japanese). This novel is the story of a protagonist who has the power to return to the past. He returns to the past to avoid the tragedy that befalls him and those around him, and it is a mystery in which he fights the tragedy at the fatal risk of his life. The main character is a 10-year-old elementary school boy. A tragedy occurred when his classmate Kayo was murdered. Kayo was abused by her mother and was beaten every day again and again. Noticing this, her homeroom teacher had Kayo take sleeping pills and put her in a freezer to euthanize her in order to save her from suffering. Realizing that something tragic happened to Kayo, the boy went back in time and risked his life to jump into the crisis to realize what happened and save Kayo. Thanks to his help, the teacher's attempts to euthanize her failed many times. The homeroom teacher questioned: Why does the euthanasia fail? Subsequently when he realized that the boy was saving her life. Consequently, the teacher allured the boy to have a cup of coffee with sleeping pills, and put sleeping boy in the passenger seat of a car, and sank the car into a lake. He should have just been killed. By chance, there was a passerby whose car was sinking into the lake rescued him. However, he was a kind of brain dead with deep coma and his doctors declared that he would never come to. However, his mother did not believe doctors' words, and she patiently cared for him alone at her home for the eight years(The mother doesn't get married.) Her mother talked to him every day, played his favorite music, and continued to massage his body every day. This novel is also a novel about the power of love. Love allows you to overcome any difficulties or hardships. This book emphasizes the importance of fighting against fate and the desire to save those you love at all costs. Miraculously, he woke up and remembered what happened before he became deep coma, and reveals who will really be judged. And his homeroom teacher was finally arrested. Non-fiction story actually doesn't go well like this novel. Although some people have commented that the story is too good to be true, the message this book conveys is still powerful. I think that the author of this novel want to convey the power of love that can give individuals the strength to overcome any suffering or hardship. I also believe so. I like Martin Luther's famous quote: "Even if tomorrow the world were to end, today I would plant an apple tree." Thank you for corrections that are useful to me. Best regards, 5971mak
