We discussed marriage in conversation class. I was a discussion leader so I researched marriage. I was surprised that it is only Japan, Korea, and Taiwan to have a family registry system. Family registry is an official paper on which our name and family relationships are written. I think a family registry is like a box of a family. When a man and a woman get married to each other, their names are taken from each family’s registry and put on a new family registry. When they have a baby, the baby is put in the family registry. I think it shows Japanese value. Japanese think that group is important. Family is a group and a family registry shows they belong to the same group. We are in the same box. If children marry, they get out of their parents’ box and make new boxes. I had a interest in common-law marriage. Common-law marriage is not legal marriage so common-law couples have problems. I wondered why they don’t get married legally and I also thought that why people get marriage. If we just want to live together with a partner whom we love, we can live together freely. I think it is better to marry because being married is to be considered to be a couple legally. We can get some support from a government or law because we are a legal couple. On the other hand, common-law couples have a reason they chose not to get married or they have a reason they can’t marry each other. Being married is not always the best for us. Common-law marriage is one of the choices to be happy. Through this topic I felt we can see Japanese culture or value in family registry system. Also, I thought marriage is a big event in our whole lives and may change our lives completely. My dream is having my family with my husband in the future, but I noticed there are many choices to be happy.
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 ...