My best memory of CESL is that I could make international friends. First, I used to think that we cannot share funny things or feeilngs with international people because I had never talked with international people when I was in Japan, and we grow up in different culture. But now, here in America, I could make friends with not only Ameri
cans, but also international people. I can share feeling about hard CESL schedule, delicious food, funny movie, and sadness of partings. Also, when I was sad because of the many partings, international friends were very niced to me. Some of them said, "Do not cry." or "We can meet again." It was amazing for me because it was the first time to make "real" friends with not Japanese but International people. In addition, I could have a good dream in the
future thanks to the internatonal friends. I became that want to visit Korea, Taiwan, Saudi arabia, and China because many my friends introduced good spots in their own country, and I can meet them again if I go there. It is my dream that I'm going to visit them alone after go back to Japan. To sum up, it was my memorable experience to made friends with people who is from all over the world.
Do you know the Japanese flag? Red circle in white square, it is very simple, but has a long history and complicated problems. First,the flag has a name and a meaning. Long time ago, in 5 century, Japan was called "sunrise country", so the red means the sun, and white and red are considered auspicious colors. The flag is called "Hinomaru" which means "a circle sun" in Japanese. Then, Hinomaru has a long history. After Japan opened a country to foreign relations, Japan and America concluded the Treaty of mity and Commerce Between the United States and Japan in 1898. Then, Japan needed a flag for it, and Hinomaru is used on a large scale. In heian era, Genji fought against Heike, and Genji won. Genji had the hinomaru flag, but Heike had a flag that a white dot in red square, so if Heike won at that time, the color of the japanese flag may be opposite. When Japan invaded Asian countries in world war 2, hinomaru was used as a symbol, and recentry hinomaru was legislated as a symbol flag of Japan in 1999. Yet, there are some argue that people should agree with this flag or not. People agree with it because it is used for a long time, and investigator reporte
d that more than half of Japanese citizens recognized hinomaru as a Japanese flag. In addition, it is the impressive moment that olympic athletes get first prizes with Hinomaru. In contrast, some people disagree with the flag because it remains them the tragedy of the world war 2, and it was the symbol of a Japanese emperor. Also, it causes some problems in educational situations; for example, some teachers did't respect hinomaru in school ceremonies and they were punished. Also, some group of theachers decided to behave unrespectful in school celemony. In conclusion, hinomaru has some sad histories and difficult problem. I think people need to respect hinomaru even though it was used in world war 2, but people should not punished the teacher who reject to respect to the flag because it againsts a democracy. People have to teach the history about hinomaru not only in schools but also in families and social communities. 
