How is the relationship between human and animals? Is there a pecking order? In Valley Fiesta, one man showed a performance with an owl and a monkey on the stage. When I saw it, I thought that human seems to have higher position than animals. The owl or monkey looked to me like one of tools for people’s amusement. At a zoo, animals are shut in cages or are limited spaces and showed to humans. It’s also for people’s amusement. The animals can’t live as wild animals. They have lived at a zoo since they were born so they don’t know wild life but they have rights for freedom. If we were in these animals situation, we would insist on our freedom. However animals can’t speak like human. The animals like the owl or monkey which I saw are taught to perform in one-way by human. They can’t refuse it. Also humans kill animals easily, sometimes as hunting play. It is a big felony if humans kill humans, of course killing intentionally our pets is a crime, but we kill wild animals for our safety. Humans think that animals are under humans and the first is human’s life and the second is animals’. We often think about our rights in life. At the same time we should think about animals and the way of coexistence with animals.
The Southwest trip was absolutely amazing because I leaned the culture of the area a lot. I spent 7 days in the southwest and I impressed by people who live there and by their culture. These things were totally different from Japan and the people there preserved their traditions carefully. I talk to a lot of Americans and I saw wonderful nature during the trip. There are three absolutely wonderfu and amazing places that I enjoyed. First, I went to a lot of museums and all of them were very interesting. I especially liked The Museum of International Folk Art. The museum has more than 130,000 objects from more than 100 countries! My favorite object was a smiling skeleton doll. This object’s theme was Day of The Dead. When I saw it, I remembered COCO which is a Pixar movie. I also liked The Georgia O’Keeffe Museum. Georgia O’Keeffe was an American artist and she painted a lot of flowers and nature. I think her paintings are brimming with kindness ...