1. How is your daily life affected by Buddhism? What do you do and why do you do it?

Our manners and culture are based on Budism but people of today don't realize that those are come from Buddhism. For example we say " Itadakimasu" with put our hand together before we eat. We were trained by our parents to do that since we were little but I think we never think about the meaning of word "Itadakimasu". I found it out when I grown up.
Japanese has many language which is not translatable in to English or other language. For example "Tadaima" , "Olaeronasai" , "itttekimasu"and "Ittterattsyai". Those phrases have thankful meaning and I like these phrases.


2. The next class will be about Islam. Check the newspapers for the next 2 weeks and find articles about Islam. How are they talked about? Do you feel negative or positive about Islam because of these articles?

I was really surprise with the number of Islam issue which most of them are talking about terror in Middle East. Here is one. On 24th of May, there were car explosion in Shiah area. The bomb was set in the car in market. The issue tells at least 25 people are deid and 60 people are injured and 2 buildings are collapsed. Recentally Shiah militaman killed Sunni in succession. May 22th 2007 YomiuriShinnbun http://www.yomiuri.co.jp/world/news/20070522i212.htm

Frankly , I feel nagative about Islam. I was trying to find an article of Islam which is not about terror but I coundn't find it out. I am sure they have news other than terror but unfortunately
the media don't feature at all.