Dear Friends,

One of the islands called "Futagami Jima(Futagami Island)" in our town was once introduced in the National Geographic Magazine on May issue of 1972. The title of this article was "Living in a Japanese Village," and it appealed changes of people's lifestyle in a rural community to the world during the high-growth economy of Japan in the 70s. Reaching to the year 2000, I still find the same and continuing changes in my neighborhood. "What we can do? Are we to change our lives and town because everything and everybody is changing too?" So I started to look at the history of our own and things make our community so special. And I decided to ask for some help from a person who is in his constant challenge of adapting to all the changes happening in the town. That is my father.

This is a project I want to share with you and find out who we really are and where we are going beyond the year 2000 from the sight of an Islander in Japan.

Yours,

Chiharu Toshinari

Student of King's English School KUMANODAI Class