This New Year began unhappily in Japan and New Zealand. An earthquake measuring 5.3 on the Richter scale struck near New Zealand's Christchurch city on Saturday . A strong earthquake with a preliminary magnitude of 7.0 struck under the sea several hundred miles south of Japan on Sunday, shaking buildings in the capital. According to official information, there was no danger of a tsunami. In a New Year message, Emperor Akihito said: “Our country is now going through difficult times because of the earthquake and other factors. But I hope that the people’s hearts will always be with the afflicted, and that everyone will persevere and work together to build a brighter tomorrow.”
Why such sad news at the very beginning of the year? no unhappy thoughts, guys! Enjoy your holidays! get as much from them as you can! (because your next ones will be only in JULY!!!!) So, be happy! Let's make our life a bit more positive. At least before our classes begin))
Their philosophy is completely different. They are taught to live in a community, to cooperate and to collaborate. It is not a country of individuals like the US. You know, we were told by our teacher of national economics that their sense of collectivity and respect towards nature manifests itself even in the name of their companies - while American companies are called after individual founders (McDonald's, Ford), Japanese companies are called after the names of several families of the founders (Mitsubishi) or after some geographical names (Isuzu, Olympus). May be that's why when such natural disasters happen, they don't make a fuss, but regard it just as a part of their life and collaborate in order to reconstruct and rebuilt what was damaged.
It never fails to amaze me that Japan is a very strong-knit society. The population of the country numbers over 127 million people (June, 8th, 2011). The population of our country is about 144 million people, but our level of unity is much less.
