Nakamura International
CourseClass of 2016
Thesis Projects

Table of Contents
Introduction ……………………………………………………………………... 2

Comparing the Japanese Meal to the American Mealby Sae Okai ….………………………………………………………….……… 3

The Biggest Event in Canada
by Saki Hattori ……………………………………………………………….... 13

Canadian Traditional Symbols
by Mai Miyamoto ……………………….………………………….………..… 22

Charities of New Zealandby Ruka Yoshida…………………………………………………………….… 34

1

Introduction
The Nakamura International Course students, class of 2016, have studied
abroad for 12 months in English speaking countries during their 2nd year of high school
and completed a thesis project. The students first chose a topic and conducted
research about their topic at libraries or on the internet. Then, while the students werestudying abroad, they conducted more research in local libraries and carried out face toface interviews with at least 4 people about their research topic to learn more about
their topics in their host country. The students have studied their research andinterviews and have written a thesis paper and given a thesis presentation about what
they have learned from these experiences. Enclosed are the thesis essays written byeach student.

Nakamura International Course Class of 2016
Sae Okai
Saki Hattori
Mai Miyamoto
Ruka Yoshida

2Sae Okai – Portland, Oregon

Comparing the Japanese Meal to the American
Meal

Sae OkaiFebruary 16, 2016
Nakamura High School
Nakamura International Course Thesis Paper

3Introduction
What thoughts do you have when you think about the American meal? Don’t
you think it is unhealthier than the Japanese meal? Do you not really have any bad
thoughts about both meals when you think about the meals in America and Japan? I
researched about the stereotypes of meals in America and Japan. People say
Americans are unhealthier than Japanese, it is sometimes true, but it’s not completely
right.

Background
The reason why I chose this topic is that I have been interested in this topic
since I was a small child. I heard that American meals are unhealthier than Japanese
meals are, but recently, for the first time I experienced everyday American meals. I wasin the U.S. for almost a year studying abroad during my second year of high school. I
felt American meals included more fat than Japanese meals do. Also, I felt like there
was so much meat, cereals which are like snacks (which means they are not made forhealth), and fruit. In my home in Japan, I eat salads, lots of vegetables, especially whensteamed, rice, tofu, natto, and a bit of meat or fish. Before I went to the U.S. I did
believe the stereotypes of American meals, so I wasn’t shocked about the U.S. meals
very much, but it took time to get used to them.

4

In 2013, the average American man’s height was 177.6cm, and weight was
88.3kg. For women, the average height was 163.2cm, and weight was 74.7kg. In Japan,
the average man’s height and weight was 170.7cm and 64kg, and for women was
158cm and 53kg (“Japan and America in numbers”). This tells you that Americans are
literally bigger than Japanese. You might wonder why, because in the US, 23 percent ofpeople don’t eat breakfast (“American office life in numbers”), and since 31,000,000
children eat lunch that their schools provide (“America is an obese country”). People
who consider the lunch might not be health professionals, so they don’t know what theyshould give to kids and what is good for them. They give them “fast food” which is a
type of food with lower prices and larger amounts. For example, fast food can include
pizza, hotdogs, and hamburgers.
Speaking of these foods, they are usually considered junk food, and stereotypesof American food. We Japanese people may think that Americans always eat thesefoods, intake more fat than Japanese do, and eat what they want instead of eating to behealthy. On the other hand, the stereotypes of the Japanese meal are healthy. For
instance, they include vegetables, rice, miso soup, fish, and sushi.
Additionally, there are other non-stereotypical diets such as the gluten free andvegan diets. Before I went to the U.S., I didn’t know what they are about. A person
following a gluten free diet cannot eat any gluten, which is found in wheat foods such as5

bread. A person following a vegan diet doesn’t eat any animals or anything made fromanimals, such as cheese. According to my interviews, people who are gluten free do eat
rice a lot because rice doesn’t include gluten, and they think rice is healthier than bread.
They eat cottage cheese, yogurt, or similar foods for breakfast, and for vegans, they eat
vegetables, nuts and fruit. Vegan people also eat rice because rice isn’t made from any
animals. Thus, this can show how rice is popular for all because it is healthy and it
includes nothing bad.

Main Arguments

First of all, I’m going to tell you about dinner in the U.S. and in Japan. Bothcountries think dinner is the biggest meal in a day so they eat a lot. Usually in Japan,
people eat rice and some dishes as the other meals, and each dinner of each day looks
kind of similar. The reason why these look similar is it is the “washoku meal”. In the
typical “washoku meal”, the side dishes are cooked vegetables, tofu and fish or meat.
The meal is made with consideration of what nutrition is necessary for a meal. However,
the meal in Japan is changing. The stereotypes of the Japanese meal used to becorrect in the past. People don’t eat vegetables and fish as much these days because

6these became more expensive, and agriculture is becoming less popular and people
working in agriculture are decreasing. In the U.S., they eat so many different types ofmeals for dinner. The reason why they eat so many different types of meals is that there
are a lot of nationalities in the U.S. From researching, what they eat for dinner depends
on what religion or nationality they are. For instance, they have Indian curry, Mexican
tacos, and a lot of Asian restaurants and fast food places. Also, there are few or no side
dishes for dinner. They usually cook one big main dish. I suppose the reason why they
do this is because making only one big dish is easier than making many side dishes. As
a conclusion, more side dishes that include vegetables can make people healthier, andJapanese people consider more health through eating or preparing side dishes than
American people generally.
Second of all, besides Vegans, they don’t eat many vegetables during eachmeal in the U.S. Their kids often don’t like them, and people think they don’t make themfeel full. However, they eat fruit instead of eating vegetables so that children can intake
vitamins or what they need easily because it tastes good. Fruit has good nutrition, suchas fiber, and vitamins. It sounds like it may not matter to not have vegetables; however,fruit contains a lot of sugar, while vegetables do not. Japanese, although vegetables are
becoming more expensive, still eat a lot in a day. They think vegetables also make themfeel full, like meat or fish. Fruit is more expensive than vegetables in Japan, butvegetables are more expensive than fruit in the U.S. This could be one of the reasons
why they intake different types of produce.

7Third of all, I’m going to talk to you about snacks that high school teenagers(people I observed who are around 17) like and often eat. Some teenagers eat gold fish,
potato chips, pretzels, and gummies. I didn’t see them eating chocolates as often as I
expected. People in Japan became to intake more sugar than in the past because somany sweets stores have arrived in Japan. In addition, although not a main reason,
Japanese people are curious about food, especially food from foreign countries,
therefore they eat many types of sweets and intake more fat. They like to have gummy
candies like Kazyu gummy, chocolates like Kinokonoyama, cookies like Country Maum,and salty snacks like Jagarico, and Kakinotane which are potato sticks and ricecrackers. They are easy to eat, they don’t make our hands dirty, and they are not big so
we can bring them anywhere. Salty snacks usually have fewer calories than sweet
snacks like chocolates. For instance, in Kakinotane, one pack has less than 50 calories,
Pure Gummy has 170 calories, and two Country Maum cookies have 100 calories.
People in the U.S. like to eat Skittles which are a kind of candy, Goldfish which arecrackers, Swedish Fish which are gummies, pretzels, dry fruit, and other candies. A
pack of Goldfish has 170 calories, Skittles has 220 calories, and Swedish Fish has more
8

than 800 calories. It seems that American snacks contain more calories than Japanesesnacks do. In my experience, it was true. American snacks use so much sugar and thesnacks tasted really sugary. In addition, during high school class, American students areallowed to eat snacks or have a drink. I guess how often and what snacks they eat
might change how healthy they are. Eating in class is not always good for health.
However, Americans also eat dry fruit. Though dry fruit has a lot of sugar, it also has
fiber too. So dry fruit can be good for health. It is not common to eat dry fruit in Japanbecause we don’t eat fruit for snacks, especially because fruit is more expensive inJapan so we can’ t eat them as often as Americans do. There are a lot of choices ofsnacks in the U.S. including healthy snacks such as dry fruit. However, most of thesnacks in the U.S. contain higher calories than the other ones such as when comparing
the Swedish Fish to the Japanese Pure Gummy.

Fourth of all, I’m going to discuss about beverages in the U.S. and Japan. The
size of the cups is much bigger than the Japanese ones. It is no exaggeration to say,the medium size for Americans is bigger than the large size for Japan. The large size inJapan is 20oz, and the medium size in the U.S. is 21oz. It was really shocking. Many of
my friends in America drink carbonated drinks regularly. I asked one of my friends about
what she usually drinks, and she answered that she drinks sweet drinks from Dutch
9bros, which is a coffee chain like a Starbucks, almost everyday because they taste good
and are easy to buy. I couldn't find any milk tea, green tea, juice such as grape juice, orapple juice which is popular in Japan. From my experience I found that there are morekinds of beverages in Japanese restaurants than in the U.S., and they are healthier than
the typical U.S. restaurant beverage. However, the beverages at the store in the U.S.
might be healthier than the beverages at the store in Japan because they don't havemilk tea or something that includes a lot of sugar.

Conclusion
People say Americans are unhealthier than Japanese; it's sometimes true, but
it's not completely right. In general, Japanese people might be healthier but there are alarge amount of people who care about healthy meals in America. There are a lot of
people who don't like the typical American meal and vice versa. Recently, so many
restaurants from foreign countries have arrived in Japan, and many Japanese people,
especially young people, are deviating from the Japanese typical meal nowadays. They
have started eating more fat and eating fewer vegetables and fish. Japan will lose theirpride of health and I'm afraid that in the future there will be a lot of people who’s badhealth is hidden now but will develop obesity. In America, more people have started
caring about health. Some people have started going to the gym, eating less fat, andeating more vegetables. I think the American diet will become more like Japan’s.
Stereotypes of both countries meals will change even more someday.

10References“アメリカは肥満大国。食事の裏に隠された驚愕の事実とは [America is an obese country.
The hidden surprise behind meals]”. Life Care Magazine. Life Care Magazine, March
3, 2015. January 2015. URL: http://lifecaremag.com/post-1747-1747“朝食からアフター5 まで、アメリカのオフィスライフを数字で紹介 [From the morning until
after 5, introduction of the American office life in numbers]”. Livedoor News. Line
Corporation, March 29, 2013. January 2016. URL:
http://news.livedoor.com/article/detail/7544607/“これはわかりやすい！数字で見る日本人とアメリカ人の違い 10 パターン [This is easy tounderstand! The difference between Japan and America in numbers]”. Madame Riri.
Madame Riri, April 4, 2013. January 2015. URL:
http://www.madameriri.com/2013/04/04

11

Saki Hattori – Vancouver, Canada

12The Biggest Eventin Canada
Saki Hattori
February 16, 2016
Nakamura High School
Nakamura International Course
Thesis Paper Project13

Introduction
Thanksgiving Day is the biggest Canadian event that most of peoplecelebrate no matter what their religions are. As you can see in the data, 38.7% of
people in Canada are Roman Catholic, and 28.5% of people are other Christian(“2011 National Household Survey”). Also, Islam is the second largest religion in
Canada, practiced by 3.2% of the population (“2011 National Household Survey”).
They have several religions on their own, but on Thanksgiving Day, everyone
celebrates together.
Religion in Canada
Roman Catholicism
Other ChristianNon-religious
Islam(“2011 National Household Survey”)

Background

The reason why I am interested in this topic is because each country has
different holidays, and it is very interesting to find the differences between mycountry and other countries’ holidays, and to get to know about their countries. I
think it is good for everyone to experience a new country’s holiday that they havenever experienced in their own country or that their own countries do not have, andfind something new from them. My country, Japan, does not have Thanksgiving Day
so it was a rare experience that I could spend my first Thanksgiving Day with myhost family in Canada, and I will tell about my experience. Also, I have interviewed
some people who are both young and old and would like to compare the differences14

in their opinions about Thanksgiving Day.

Refugees fleeing the civil war in the United States brought the custom of anannual Thanksgiving festival to Canada (“Thanksgiving Day in Canada”).
Thanksgiving Day has been officially celebrated as an annual holiday in Canada
since 6 November, 1879, when Parliament declared a national day of Thanksgiving(“Thanks Giving Day”, Canadian Encyclopedia). The history of Thanksgiving Day in
Canada goes back to an English explorer, Martin Frobisher who had been trying tofind a northern passage to the Orient. He did not succeed, but he established asettlement in North America. In the year 1578, he held a formal ceremony, in what
is now called Newfoundland, to give thanks for surviving the long journey. This isconsidered the first Canadian Thanksgiving. The American who remained faithful
to the government in England moved to Canada, and spread the Thanksgiving
celebration to other parts of the country (Marlatt).
Thanksgiving Day is really popular in Canada. It is an official holiday soschools are off, and all work is off as well. Towns are decorated for Thanksgiving
Day. For instance, when Thanksgiving Day is near, towns are decorated with manyfliers of Thanksgiving with festive pictures on them. Japan does not haveThanksgiving Day because we are generally not Catholic so that was my first time15

to celebrate Thanksgiving Day in Canada, and I really enjoyed it.
For Thanksgiving in Canada, they usually eat turkey, stuffing, potatoes, andpumpkin pie. Those foods are basic foods on Thanksgiving Day.

Stuffing is made from bread. In the stuffing making process, they put the breadpieces and some vegetables inside the turkey, and bake it. It is really tasty. Turkey
is baked like the picture above. Turkey has a big bone called a wish bone which is ina V shape. Two people hold that bone together, one side for each, and wish whatever
they want. As soon as they decide on a wish, they pull the bone in a different
direction from each other to crack it. The person who gets the bigger piece when
they crack it will have their wish come true. I played this game, and I got bigger thepiece. I will not tell anyone what my wish was, but I hope my wish comes true oneday. I found that game to be really interesting because that game can help make16

people have fun. It does not matter if they are old or young, all people can have funwith that game. Also, it was really nice to get to know about their traditional gameof Thanksgiving because I had never heard about or seen that game before. Afterdinner, they have a special desert that they do not eat on a normal day. The cakes
which they eat on Thanksgiving Day are usually homemade.
I interviewed four people to get opinions about Thanksgiving. I interviewed
two young girls, one teacher, and one senior lady. That way, I could see thedifferences of thinking between the youth and senior people. My questions were
“What do you do on Thanksgiving Day?”, “What do you eat on that day?”, and “Whatis your opinion of Thanksgiving Day?”, which is asking about whether they thinkthat people should celebrate this holiday or not. I heard a lot of interesting opinions
through the interviews.
Main Arguments
There are a lot of Catholic people in Canada, but there are many people whoare not Catholic as well. It is because many immigrants come to Canada from Asia
or other places, and they already have a religion or their own beliefs. Therefore,
some of them are Catholic, but most of them still keep practicing their religion eventhough they migrated to Canada where the primal religion is Catholicism. Although
their religion or original country does not have Thanksgiving Day, they celebrate
this holiday as Canadian citizens.
As you know, Thanksgiving Day is related to Catholicism because it
originally means thanks to God for keeping all the crops growing well, but it does
not matter whether they are Catholic or not to celebrate it. I think in Canada, every
traditional event is related to the Christian religion and church. In Japan, mostpeople are Buddhist even though we do not care much about our religions. For
example, we are not Catholic, but we celebrate Halloween, Christmas, Easter andother Catholic holidays although we might not celebrate it in the traditional way of
their original countries. I have been wondering why this happens since I have had
17religion class in Canada. I went to a Catholic school, and I often had mass at school.
Also, my host family was Christian so I have been to church with them sometimes. I
found that the Christian religion is a very strong religion and blessed. Therefore,
when people who are Catholic celebrate holidays, every event has some strong
opinion or thought. On Easter, Christian people have a long mass. It is over twohours. Also, I had a long mass at the school as well. I found that they celebrate each
event in different ways as Japanese people do.
Through the interviews, I found that Thanksgiving Day in Canada sounds
like New Year’s Day in Japan, but some points are far from New Year’s Day. On thatday, the families meet each other and have dinner and lunch together. I heard it isreally fun and comfortable because everyone spends time with their family. Thispart of the holiday is similar to New Year’s Day in Japan.

The different point is that in Canada, they have a long weekend around
Thanksgiving Day. I thought this is interesting because Canada has many events,
for instance Family Day, Easter, Halloween, Christmas and so on, and for each
event, Canadian people have long holidays. In Japan, we usually do not have a longweekend for every holiday. We just have celebrations on the one holiday day so thisis a difference between Canada and Japan. Also, in Japan, we usually spend New
Year time with families, but on Thanksgiving Day, they spend their time with theirfriends as well.

18

Canadian opinions about Thanksgiving Day are mostly positive, such as they
can relax with their family and they can eat a lot of delicious food. Those reasonsare all true from my experience. I found that they treat the time that they spend
with their families really importantly. However, there is only one negative aspect, as
one of my interviewees said, “even though all the foods are really good, we get fat
because of the food”. I laughed very hard when I heard this reason because I found
it is the truth.
Young people mostly think that Thanksgiving Day is really fun with time torelax, a lot of tasty foods to eat, and no school. However, senior people think thatthey have to prey for God to thank him. I think they found that Thanksgiving Day
is really fun as well like younger people, but they would like to practice theirreligious beliefs and traditions. Young people seem to just say that Thanksgiving
Day is a fun holiday, but senior people seem to say that even though they enjoy thisholiday, they also never forget what Thanksgiving means in terms of religion. There
are differences between the young and senior people in their opinions andexperiences.
Conclusion
As I have mentioned above, Thanks Giving Day is celebrated by most
Canadian citizens no matter what their nationalities are. All the events in every
single country are beautiful and traditional, and people should celebrate every
event that is very important for them with their families or friends. Spending timewith your loved ones can make you really comfortable and happy.

19

References“History and Origin of Canadian Thanksgiving”. The Holiday Portal. Twilight
Bridge, 2011. Web. January 2016.
URL: http://www.twilightbridge.com/hobbies/festivals/thanksgiving/canada/
Marlatt, Craig. “Thanksigivng”. Canada Info. Marlat Craig, December 13, 2015.
Web. January 2016. URL:
http://www.craigmarlatt.com/canada/symbols_facts&lists/thanksgiving.html
Olson, Nathan. Canada A Question and Answer Book. Minnesota: Capstone Press,2007. Print.
Schemenauer, Elma. Welcome to Canada. Mankato: Child’s World, 2009. Print.
“Thanksgiving Day in Canada”. Time and Date. Time and Date, 2016. Web.
January 2016. URL: http://www.timeanddate.com/holidays/canada/thanksgivingday
Williams, Brian. Countries of the World Canada. Des Moines: National Geographic
Children’s Books, 2010. Print.
“2011 National household survey: Immigration, Place of Birth, Citizenship, Ethnic
Origin, Visible Minorities, Language and Religion”. Statistics Canada.
Government of Canada, May 8, 2014. Web. February 2016.
URL: http://www.statcan.gc.ca/daily-quotidien/130508/dq130508b-eng.htm?HPA

20

Mai Miyamoto – Vancouver, Canada

21

Canadian Traditional Symbols

5E Mai Miyamoto

February 16, 2016

Nakamura Junior and Senior Girl’s High School

Nakamura International Course Thesis Paper/Project22

Ⅰ. Introduction
I have noticed that ice hockey is loved by many people around the world. Of
course, mostly it is popular in Canada. I still remember when I saw some people
from different countries such as my friends and teachers enjoying it and watching ita few times. I have studied abroad in Canada during my 2 nd year of high school andhave seen many people playing hockey on the road. They just used sticks and asmall ball. I had a lot of opportunities to see Canadian people playing hockey and I
sometimes participated in their hockey games. Through my observations,interviews, and research, I found that hockey is known as one of the Canadiansymbols and there are many suitable conditions for hockey in Canada. Also there isa profound history about hockey and Canadians.

Ⅱ Background research
Hockey was a very interesting sport for me, so I enjoyed interviewing people
and finding out some information which I did not know. I definitely had heard thathockey is one of the most popular and famous sports in Canada and played by many
Canadians, and the facts show it as well. In, 2012, 86,897 girls under 18 years old
and 537,251 boys under 18 years old registered for hockey, and 12,239,000 of
Canadians 15 years old and older play hockey (“Canada’s Game”). Also the cost ofhockey sticks imported to Canada in 2011 was $2.74 million, mostly from China(“Canada’s Game”). In fact, the cost of ice skates imported into Canada in 2011 was$51 million, and 64 per cent was from China (“Canada’s Game”). In this way, a lot of23money is spent on skates and hockey sticks in Canada.

(from “Canada’s Game”)
Hockey has its roots in Lacrosse, a game devised by Canada’s aboriginal
population. The game is derived from field hockey that was played in Europe andbrought over with the settler’s lacrosse. Some people point out that the rules forhockey are very closely aligned with those of Lacrosse. People who I interviewed
knew more hockey players than I expected. They often go watch the leagues ofhockey because it is very fun and they can watch some popular and famous players
playing the game.

24

Tim Horton is known as one of the popular players in Canada. He has beencalled the strongest man to ever play in the National Hockey League (NHL) whichis the best hockey league in Canada. He was a tough, reliable, defenseman who
helped the Toronto Maple Leafs win four Stanley Cups in the 1960’s. He played in
1,446 regular season games, scoring 115 goals and 403 assists for a total of 518
points (“Tim Hortons Biographies”). Also, the donut chain Tim Horton’s with theLeafs still bears his name. Sadly, Tim did not live to witness the chain's great
success. He was traveling back to Buffalo from a game at Maple Leaf Gardens when
he was killed in an automobile accident on February 21, 1974. The Buffalo Sabres
retired his Number 2 sweater as a tribute to his memory. At the time of Tim's death,
there were 40 Tim Horton’s restaurants. Tim Horton’s is now the most popular andfamous donut coffee shop in Canada.
In addition, what is a representative sport in Japan? Japanese people may

25say that soccer and baseball in Japan are known by many people in the world. For
example, Canadian people who I interviewed knew that Nadeshiko Japan has
contributed to the Japanese sports fame. They won the World Cup in 2011. It was
the glory of Japan and many people knew that Japan is strong in soccer, so soccer isknown to everyone as one of the symbols of Japanese sports.

On the other hand, what is the feature of Japanese sports? As we know,
sports are mostly always influenced by victory or defeat. Japanese sports areespecially a kind of a struggle for victory. For example, I was very surprised as I
was playing soccer in P.E. Most of my classmates asked me for help to score because
I had experienced soccer for 5 years and people seemed to think that I can playsoccer better than them. Actually, Canadian people pursued the scores and wanted

26

to win the game as well. However, I thought some Chinese people were notinterested in victory or defeat. As I have explained, Japanese and Canadian tend toparticipate in sports actively with the goal towards victory.

In
this way, Japanese tend to be conscious of victory and each of them strive to playmuch harder than each other but also as team mates. But I learned that Japanesepeople are also somewhat cautious. It may depend on the Japanese sport and how to
win the game. On the other hand, Canadians tend to play actively and mostly are
not careful of anything. But there is a similar goal that both countries are consciousof victory and defeat. Simultaneously, it is important and essential for us to play
and get to know sports because sports connect people from all over the world, suchas in the Olympics.

Ⅲ

My interviews
In order to learn more about hockey in Canada while studying abroad, Iinterviewed my host family, friends and teachers. My friends were not only27

Canadian. My Korean and Chinese friends also knew and understood how to playhockey as it is valuable in Canada. The following were my interview questions:
1. What kinds of Canadian sports do you know?
2. Why do you think hockey is popular in Canada?
3. Do you play hockey? Why?
4. How do you feel while playing hockey?
5. When do you play hockey?
6. Who do you play hockey with?
7. Where do you play hockey?
8. How do you play hockey?
9. How often do you play hockey?
10. How long is the game?
11. What hockey equipment do you know?
12. Do you know how much the equipment is?
13. Who do you think are the most famous and popular players in Canada?
14. Do you know some history of hockey?
15. Do you have any final comments that could be useful for my research?

Ⅳ

Main Arguments
I discovered that hockey is representative of popular sports in Canada. First,

there are surely many expressions of hockey such as T-shirts and various goods witha hockey player’s or hockey team’s name. I also have once seen a clothing shop in

28

which there was a poster of hockey players wearing the store’s clothes. I was
surprised to learn that this was for improving sales and making a nice atmospherein the shop. In addition, I have seen T-shirts, gloves and other clothing in almost
every mall in Vancouver. When I went to Vancouver for summer school, I saw
Canadians were wearing T-shirts which expressed hockey in Vancouver.
Also I am interested in the fact that hockey is being played by women. I
heard a little about it from my teacher who is an English and International Support
Teacher. I am interested in that women also play hockey such as in big leagues likethe Olympics. Today they play on the NHL, but before women joined, hockey wasplayed by the mostly men. In this way, women have contributed to Canada throughhockey. It was really interesting for me.
Women have played hockey since a long time ago. It was unbelievable for me
to get to know about this because I had thought that hockey was played by only men.
I looked up one story in a book called She Shoots, She Scores by Laura Robinson.
Actually, women have played hockey since the game began on the frozen lakes andponds more than a century ago in the late 19th century and the early part of the 20th
century. After women playing hockey became familiar to many Canadian people,
women began playing organized hockey in places such as Kingston, Ottawa, Regina,
Victoria, and Quebec City in Canada.
Third, during my interview questions, people often mentioned popular
players such as Wayne Gretzky and Tim Horton. Both played in many factories. In
fact, they had a big influence on hockey in Canada. All Canadians tend to know both29

of them. It is no exaggeration to say that they brought the good points of hockey to
Canada and affected Canadians.
Finally, I discovered why hockey is popular in Canada. All of the people who
answered my questions were very interested in hockey. My host family was very
interested in hockey and often watched hockey games on TV and also went to thestadium to watch hockey games during long breaks such as winter vacation. The
best reason for hockey’s popularity is that Canada has long winters and cold
temperatures every year, and lots of ice rinks close by and there is so much space inCanada. 2,486 hockey arenas are used to play hockey (“Canada’s Game”). My
teacher said that she has played on a pond which was frozen. Canadian people often
play hockey at the end of the weekend and during breaks. Hockey has evolved andadapted to the temperatures and winter in Canada. They think about playing
hockey as one of the fun cold weather activities and amusements.

Ⅳ

Conclusion
In my conclusion, Canadians had to think about how to enjoy themselves in

the cold weather. In Canada, hockey is known as one of the Canadian symbols. I
think that it is used as an expression of Canadian culture, with many Canadianhockey goods everywhere. There are a lot of reasons that hockey is very popular andthrough my interviews and research while studying abroad, I definitely could learn
many interesting facts and perspectives about hockey. They just need to prepare
some sticks and a small ball which called a puck because there was already snow

30and ice on the ground due of the weather in Canada. They could discover their
joyful game. Also I could learn about some of the different and same aspects ofJapanese and Canadian sports. I learned that sports are connected with everybody
and every place in the world through this project. Throughout Canadian history
connecting to today, all Canadians love hockey and it is played by many Canadianpeople. All of the information was interesting for me to learn and get to know.

31

References“Canada’s game, not it’s most popular”. CBC News. CBC/Radio-Canada,
September 20, 2013. Web. January 2015. URL:
www.cbc.ca/news2/interactives/sports-junior

Robinson, Laura. She Shoots, She Scores. Toronto: Thompson Educational
Publishing, 1997. Print.

“Tim Hortons Biographies”. Tim Hortons. Tim Hortons, 2016. Web. February
2015. URL: http://www.timhortons.com/ca/en/about/bio_timhorton.php

32

Ruka Yoshida – Auckland, New Zealand33

Charities of New Zealand

Ruka YoshidaFebruary 16, 2016
Nakamura High School
Nakamura International Course Thesis Paper

34

Introduction
Have you tried to volunteer in your country? Recently, some high school students
experience volunteering.

For instance, they volunteer to talk to old people and help at

kindergartens. Actually, I did volunteer work in New Zealand before when I studied abroad there
for 11 months. My school was a regular school and nursing school at the same time, sosometimes I went to the nursing school to help old people. When I was in Japan, I had neverbeen to a nursing home. I went in New Zealand for the first time and I had to talk in English so it
was quite hard for me. I want to write down what is different between my country to New
Zealand about charities and what New Zealanders think about their country’s charities.

BackgroundI want to work at a charity organisation, for example JICA. Do you know thatorganisation? The formal name is Japan International Cooperation Agency. When I was a
primary school student, my home room teacher invited staff of JICA to my school and heard
their story. I admired them. One day, when I became a junior high school student, my primaryschool’s home room teacher became a staff member of JICA. I was so surprised and I envied her.
After this, I decided that I want to be a staff member of an international charity. So my motherhelps me try to know about a lot of charity work. For example, my mother and I went to Sri
Lanka because JICA is doing some charity work there. It was so much fun. I always want to35

absorb a lot of information about that.
Therefore, I chose this topic. I am interested in New Zealander’s opinions about charity work.
First, I researched about this topic and interviewed people in New Zealand. My teacher
informed to me about some New Zealand charity websites, it was very useful to me because New
Zealanders wrote about charity on their blogs. Also, I asked questions to some people while
studying abroad in New Zealand about their country’s charity and their thinking.
My younger sister in my host family joined a charity. I saw her hand bill about charity
work in New Zealand. Since my host sister needed help doing this work, I helped her instead of
my host parents. It was Christmas charity work. She had a lot of toys but she did not need all ofthem, so we chose some toys in our house, and sent them to children in need in developing
countries. Sometimes I could not understand about it so I asked her home room teacher and I got
some more information from the other hand bills she gave to me.
New Zealand has a lot of opportunities to volunteer at Christmas. Mainly I was interested
in the Christmas box and Christmas dinner charities.
Christmas BOX
If you have many toys that you do not use anymore, you can give these to children ofdeveloping countries. You need to prepare a special box, and put toys in it. Also, you canseparate the toys for boys or girls. This charity work is done in both New Zealand and Australia.

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Christmas DinnerSome organisations give food to people in need such as the homeless and provides achance to eat dinner together at Christmas. The Christmas dinner is provided for free.

(“Where can you find free Christmas toys”)

Many companies give toys to children of poor. So every year, they gather a lot of toys.
This story above is about a charity in the U.S. In my opinion this is a very good charity. Of late,
the number of low income families has increased. I think that children should experience somefun, especially during Christmas. This charity work encourages this experience for children.

Types of Charities in New ZealandNow, the number of charities in New Zealand is 27,360. Their income is $16,656
million (“Charities by Sector”).

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―Accommodation / housing : 484charities, 1.8%
―Arts / culture / heritage: 2,456 charities, 9.0%
―Care / protection of animals: 246 charities, 0.9%
―Community development: 2,040 charities, 7.5%
―Economic development: 151 charities, 0.6 %―Education / training / research: 5,870 charities, 21.5%―Emergency / disaster relief: 692 charities, 2.5%
―Employment: 44 charities, 0.2%
―Environment / conservation: 750 charities, 2.7%
―Fund-raising: 997 charities, 3.6%
―Health: 1,908 charities, 7.0%
―International activities: 78 charities, 0.3%
―Marae on reservation land: 263 charities, 1.0%
―Other: 1920 charities, 7.0%
―People with disabilities: 883 charties, 3.2%
―Promotion of volunteering: 78 charities, 0.3%
―Religious activities: 4,791 charities, 17.5%―Social services: 1,918 charities, 7.0%
―Sport / recreation: 1,793 charities, 6.6%

My interviews
I interviewed 7 people: my social studies teacher, ESOL teacher, Korean friend, New
Zealander friend, host parents and my older host sister. My social study teacher is a New
Zealander, but my ESOL teacher is from the U.S.A. My host mother from India and host father is39

from English. So I could obtain many differences in thinking about charities.

I had 15 questions about my topic:
1. What do you know about charity work, how do you know about it?
2. What kind of charity work do you know?
3. Do you want to join charity work, and why?
4. If you joined or will join charity work, when did you or will you join it?
5. Have you ever donated any money to charity organizations?
6. Where did you give money to?
7. What charity work is the most popular in New Zealand?
8. What does charity work mean to you?
9. Do you think charity work is important, and why?
10. What is the most important thing in doing charity work?
11. What can we do for example when big earthquake occurs for charity?
12. What can you do to save many people?
13. Why do people do charity work abroad?
14. What makes you happy, when you give something to someone?
15. Can you tell me your opinion about charity work abroad?

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Main Arguments
My topic is a really big one. I think you may know about charities. In New Zealand, highschool students have to go and do some work of virtue. However, I think Japanese students do
not do that; this is a difference between New Zealand and Japan. Also, some New Zealander
parents join charities with their children. For example, they join a Christmas charity. Children
choose their toys and send them to developing countries’ children. Those toys will become the
new children’s toys. New Zealand’s charity work is prosperous at Christmas.
All people who live in New Zealand said they want to join a charity when they retire or
graduate. They are feeling very busy while working or in school, and they do not want to be too
tired so they want to wait before joining. Some students answered differently; one thought thatpeople must take part in volunteer anytime. I think it is important but I do not understand her
thinking. Since volunteer work is philanthropy, people do not have to do it if they do not want to.
Yet, I was confused when I heard that opinion because I often feel that I must help someone. In
my view, if a big earth quake occurs in some country, we should donate money, and if somechildren in developing countries need help, we should give something to them. However, if I
want to help all people who need help all the time, I have to admit that I won’t make any money
if I work very hard. I think we cannot help everyone all over the world. If so, why do we dosome charity work? To relieve tension? For self-satisfaction? I am not sure of the answer to thisbut I know I want to help some people. And my teacher said that I have to have an unchanging
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belief. When I heard that, my question disappeared because I could know that this question does
not need to have one answer. Or rather, that answer will be different for everyone; I have my own
response, and you have another one.
Everyone who does charity truly wants to help a lot of people. I am not an exception.
Once in a while, some people may plot to try to make money from them, but those are rare.
Almost all people do not think such a thing. If there are two people and a big disaster occurs, oneof the them has a lot of money, and donates while the other person goes and does charity work intheir place. Which do you think has contributed? I am sure that I can get a lot of answers about
this question, because both people have helped. People who are rich can donate a lot of money
and after the disaster, people who live in the area can buy a lot of things they need. Also, people
who go and do charity work there can also help a lot of people who have been to the disaster. So
both people are doing charity work and they are both helpful. It is a different form of assistance.

Conclusion
After I wrote this essay, I could understand little be about why people help people. I
experienced the Great East Japan earthquake. It brought really big and terrible damages to Japan.
We were affected by the damage; for instance, a Tsunami hit the coast of Japan. Then, a lot of
people all of the world donated money and some people even came to Japan and helped
distribute something to eat and drink, and so on. I did not live in the hardest hit location, yet this42

fact really impressed us. I discovered the importance of support then. I think that Japanesepeople are going to try to help other people if some country has big earthquake. Then it will be
our turn to help.

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References“Charities by Sector”. Charities Services. Government of New Zealand, 2016. Web. January
2016. URL: https://charities.govt.nz/view-data/“Charity Information”. New Zealand Greetings. New Zealand Greetings Limited, 2016. Web.
January 2016. URL: https://www.newzealandgreetings.co.nz/charity.asp“Volunteer”. UNICEF New Zealand. UNICEF, 2016. Web. January 2016. URL:

https://www.unicef.org.nz/“Where can you find free Christmas toys for low income families?”. Ask. Ask.com, 2016. Web.
January 2016. URL: http://www.ask.com/holidays-celebrations/can-christmas-toys-low-income-families-fef2b1e934f0ba52

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