In the June 6 article "Mount Fuji: heritage site or garbage dump?" the pictures, which showed the beauty of Mount Fuji as well as the rubbish scattered about the area, made me want to read the article.

Until I read this article I didn't know how serious the problem of garbage was at Mount Fuji. I find it very surprising that some garbage has been buried in the area for 20 or 30 years.

According to the article, these problems have been caused by decades of industrialization in a nation with one of the highest population densities on Earth.

However, no matter what reasons are given, we ought not to dump garbage in such a beautiful place. Wherever we live, we have to pay money to throw away garbage.

The article also wrote about the Fujisan Club. I'm afraid I didn't know much about this club and its work.

I really admire what the Fujisan Club is doing.

The article shows how important it is to make sure we keep our environment clean, and how important it is to stop people from dumping garbage illegally.

We have to realize Mount Fuji is a precious place, and is something very unique to Japan.

As the article says education is the key.

I believe Mount Fuji is a real symbol of national pride, and I think we have to keep it clean, and leave it to children and grandchildren. I hope that Mount Fuji will one day be a World Heritage site.

My favorite section of the Weekly is Science because it provides a wide variety of informative and interesting facts. It provides information on unusual phenomena like marine life that evolved under Antarctica and the life of manta rays, and also environmental studies that play an important role in preventing endangered species from becoming extinct.

I was also encouraged by the enthusiasm and knowledge displayed by Bindi Irwin, "The Jungle Girl." I am sure her TV program will be well received and will inspire young people to achieve goals meaningful to them.

The article "Ireland no paradise for Roma Gypsies" in the July 14 issue of the Weekly was very interesting. My daughter had a short stay in Ireland a few years ago. She told me she saw a lot of Indian-looking people begging there. Now I realize they were probably Gypsies. I feel for them as they are ill-treated in many countries.

Interesting article on Nova in your July 7 issue. I was just wondering, which "expert" wrote the article. Some of the points of advice seemed a little unusual and directed at English schools in general rather than the main chain schools.

Also, in the tips on choosing an English school section, the writer suggests: "Ask the teacher questions in Japanese." Why is this necessary if you have good staff support in place?

I was surprised to learn in the article "Aso Mining's POW labor: the evidence" in the June 23 issue that a company in Japan abused war prisoners. I had no idea because very few other newspapers reported the news.

The Japan Times Weekly: Aug. 4, 2007
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