Akiko Masuda 

I'm a female college student. I'm majoring English, but I think it's not professional. There is three members in my family and an dog. I live in Shizuoka prefecture. My hobby is looking at nature, and playing with my dog. Sometimes I read books. I'm interesting in mysteries and historical stories.

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Japanese Culture: Traditional Architecture

I'll explain about Japanese traditional architecture in the temples and the shrines. One famous architecture is gojyuu-no-tou. It means “a tower with five floors”. But those buildings are built without any nails. Can you believe that? Recent architecture can't build without nails. Ancient architects and artisans had excellent skills, I suppose. Now there are few persons who can build without nails; only a few artisan who rebuild traditional architecture, especially in Nara and Kyoto (Nara and Kyoto has a lot of Gojyuu-no-tou). According to their words, "Gojyuu-no-tou leans to one side during construction. But at the end there is no inclination because of the weight of the other side. It is something like a living creature." This story, it is very interesting for me. Maybe more stories are included in Japanese traditional architecture. Don't you think that is interesting for students who study world architecture?

I'll explain about animals and plants in Madagascar. Madagascar is an island. Prehistoric Madagascar was part of Africa continent, but it parted from the continent. So there are many rare animals and plants in Madagascar because they evolve on their own. I will introduce 8 creatures.

• First, Sifaka (Lemur) is kind of monkey. They were filmed for a camera's film commercial. They usually live in trees. But now the forest is being destroyed little by little, so they sometimes walk on the ground. They are designated as protected animals.
• Second, there are many kind of chameleon. It is said that we can see almost all the kinds of chameleon in Madagascar. There are more than ten thousand species.
• Third, Madagascar frog has colorful body. 
• Fourth, tortoise has flashlight design on their shell. They are protected by World Wildlife W. They eats cactus with full of spines. 
• Fifth, it is said that a giant uplled out the baobab and turned it upside down in the soil. The figure seems very strange. Baobab appeared in The Star Prince by Saint-Exupe'ry. Three kinds of Baobab are found in Madagascar, and there are eight kinds of it in the world. 
• Sixth, moths are almost all primary colors. The pink is a very clear and beautiful color, and that scene is like the Japanese plant, Waremokou.
• Seventh, mongoose is thought as savage animal but in fact, they are cowardly animals. The Mongoose in Madagascar is domesticated by humans and they don't know to fear humans because of the isolated island. There is no enemy of the mongoose.
• Eighth, Aye-aye are found in the Africa continent, Madagascar and Australia, especially warm regions.

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