CROSSROADS Language Studio’s Newsletter, January 2008
Car Pools – from Kenji in A1
Record-high crude oil prices greatly influence
Japanese society. Domestic car sales have been
declining and people are trying to choose a methodof public transportation.
“Car Sharing” is one of the solutions to save living
costs. The sales media says, “If you live in a city, youdon’t need to own a car”.
Car sharing is a system in which a group of people
use shared cars instead of having their own cars.
This system allows members to use a car at low costwhen they need it. And it can help to improve theurban environment and to reduce traffic problems
such as traffic jams, air pollution caused by car
exhaust, lack of parking spaces and of course, globalwarming.
It has become very popular, particularly inEuropean, American and these days, Japanesecities.
When you want to reserve a car, you justaccess a company by phone or Internet, 24hours-a-day to best meet your needs, and use
the vehicle for a few hours, or a week. You pay
per trip, and don’t have to worry about repairs,
insuranceormonthly
parkingcosts.
Customers in Japan include not only men, butalso housewives. Actually, housewives use thecars mainly for driving their husbands
between home and the train station, taking
kids to kindergarten, or shopping at thesupermarket. In some areas where getting aparking space is really difficult, using theserental cars instead of owning a car has become
extremely popular.

My Dream – from Ayuko in S(B)1On October 11th, I read an article saying that
Yoko Ono’s peace monument, the “Imagine PeaceTower”, had been erected in Iceland. The newspaper
said “Imagine Peace” is written in 24 languages on
the pedestal. Yoko intends to send peace light fromthe northernmost country in the world and cover theworld with it. Yoko Ono and John Lennon hoped tobuild the peace monument as their life work fromthe 1960s. It lights up from October 9th (JohnLennon’s birthday) to December 8th (the day of John
Lennon’s death), and on New Year’s Eve every year.
At night, when I was watching TV, I heard thatover 20,000 people have been killed in the Iraq war
and that over 30,000 people have killed themselvesin Japan. I was shocked at that. We have a peaceconstitution and we don’t go to war, but many people
have killed themselves.
My dream is to have a happy and peaceful world.
When I retired, I decided to do something for apeaceful and happy world as my life’s work. It isdifficult for me to build a peace monument like Yoko,
but perhaps I can do something to help curb global
warming, create a peaceful world (as we have apeace constitution), and increase happiness for theyoung and old. The old are worried about littlepension, high tax, and high medical expenses, while
the young have few good jobs. Some even live inInternet cafes.
At the least, I can vote for a person who works forthese things, and I can pray for a peaceful world.

NET LESSONS: Are you too busy to come toCROSSROADS?.... Try our lessons on the Internet!
It’s CROSSROADS in your home or office! You get
CROSSROADS’ great teachers, teaching programs,
even classmates, on-line! Call for details: 089 9217595

NET SITE OF THE MONTH:
For information on the Imagine Peace Tower go here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Imagine_Peace_Tower
NET NOTEBOOK: Don’t forget to take a look at
the Internet activity notebook in our open-house.
You’ll find games, news and English learning sites.

Joshua Says: Many of you have already noticed that we have a new teacher
coming to join us in March. Owen is British and has had lots of experience ingeneral performance as well as in theater. He is also a qualified teacher andshould be able to bring his experiences to bear in our classrooms. I am looking
forward to some interesting performance nights from his future students!

Junko Says: December this year will mark the 25th year since we established
Crossroads in Matsuyama. 25 years! Can you believe it?! We want to build up ourschool to be even better and, so, we are going to have campaigns during the year tomark this occasion. This will be the best time for your friends to start English, socheck with me in the office and keep your eyes on the school notice board for details!

Michael Says: I went for a walk at Dogo during the Coming of Age festival on the 14th. It waswonderful to see all the beautiful kimonos and visit the shrines. I also got to hear a group ofwomen play songs on drums, which was fantastic. Before I left, the mayor of Matsuyama andother politicians came out and gave a brief speech. During this, the people crowded around andlistened, still and silent. However, when the speech was finished, the speakers began throwing
mochi cakes to the audience – and everyone went crazy!! What a change of personality!!

Iain Says: The future is NOW! Every day I go online I notice that we are slowly

moving into an age of amazing technology. Just this past week Macintosh unveiled thethinnest notebook computer ever. It can fit comfortably in an envelope! I also saw thatfor about 20,000 yen you can buy a laser keyboard. It is a small box about the size of an
mp3 player and it projects an image of a keyboard onto the table. You can type on thatimage and it can actually be used as the keyboard for your computer!

Sheri Says: W h e n i s t h e w e a t h e r g o i n g t o w a r m u p ? I n m yapartment, it often feels like Japan is colder than Canada. It’strue! Heaters and hot carpets are fine, but nothing beats the heatfrom a good old fashioned wood stove!

Greg Says: Hello everyone!! I hope you all had an enjoyable new year and are backinto the swing of daily life. I spent the last month over in Australia and the weather
was great during the day however it rained nearly every night. It always surprises
me when I return back to Australia for Christmas because I feel like a tourist. But itis always good to catch up with family and friends and drink the local beer and eat
the not to be missed Aussie B-B-Q. Good luck in 2008 and stick with your resolutions.

Lead Articles for ourNewsletter!

The new format for our newsletter relies
on you, our students, to come forth witharticles for the front page. We will edit
them and the best ones will appear on thecover page every month. Short articles,long articles, any subject, all are welcome.
So, come on! Ask your teachers fordetails, and let’s see how interesting our
newsletter can really get!!
Welcome to Canada, the land of snow. Winter is here! My partner and I have bought ahouse in the woods. The best thing about it is the peacefulness. We cannot hear cars, orplanes, or sirens. What do we hear? Simply the cracking sound of the ice melting in themorning sun. The sound of the river running its course. At night, we hear a beaver
chewing on a tree. It's not a big house, but it's just perfect for us.
We have a woodstove and use a minimum of electricity. The heat iswarm and soothing. I hope you all had a merry Xmas and a happy
new year!
Pic’s: view from the right door...view from the left door!
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Fax: (089) 921-7319
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