1. Education

Education is important in every country, but in Japan it is even more important. There is one main reason for it. It is the Japanese attitude to jobs. In Britain, for example, many people want to try more than one job in their lives. You can try lots of things until you find the right job. In Japan it is different. Most jobs are for life, people usually stay with the same company from the time they leave school or university until they retire. So the children must do well at school to get a good job when they leave, because after that it’s too late.

_{They have to work hard. The hard work starts at twelve when they leave primary school and move to junior high school, where the atmosphere is different from primary school. It is less relaxed and more competitive. There are about forty pupils in each class, and discipline is quite strict. The teacher talks and the children listen and take notes. They don’t ask questions. It’s considered rude to question a teacher. The children go to school on Saturdays too. They also go to special extra schools in the evening so they are really busy most of the time. They don’t have much holiday. They go back to school because that’s when they have club activities – sports clubs, English clubs. Japanese children don’t have time to be bored, so they love school.}

3. _LVIV

Lviv, the regional centre of the western part of Ukraine, is situated in the picturesque foothills of the Carpathian Mountains that form a natural division between the Buh and the Dnister rivers.

Lviv is an ancient town. We find the earliest records of its existence in the Halitsky-Volynsky Chronicle of 1256. The city was founded by King Danylo Halytsky, a wise ruler and a shrewd politician, who was an outstanding figure of ancient Rus. King Danylo built the castle-fortress on the High Castle and named it after his son Leo. Thanks to its favourable position on one of the busiest trade routes connecting the Baltic and the Black seas, Lviv soon became an important commercial centre. It has always been a tempting prize for foreign invaders. The city played a great role in defending the western borders of the country. In its long history it has survived forty fires and thirty wars.

In 1387 the western territories of Ukraine together with Lviv were captured by Polish feudal lords and the Polish occupation lasted till 1772 when Lviv came under the rule of the Austro-Hungarian Empire.

In 1918 Lviv was in the hands of the working people and on the 1^st of November, 1918 the West Ukrainian People's Republic was proclaimed in our city. But in a few months the city again came under the rule of the Polish lords. In 1939 the Soviet Army came to Lviv.

The Polish nobility and other invaders were unable to destroy the national culture of the Ukrainian people and a lot of people remained true to their native language.

Lviv is a city of longstanding cultural traditions. Many famous writers, artists, public and political figures such as M. Shashkevitch, I. Franko, S. Tudor and many others lived and worked here at different times.

Lviv is also called "the city of students". There are 17 higher educational establishments and 40 technical schools and colleges here. The Ivan Franko State University and Lviv Polytechnical University are the city's oldest institutions of higher learning.

Lviv is a cradle of book printing in Ukraine. Ivan Fedorov, the founder of book printing in Russia, lived and worked in Lviv for many years.

Lviv is a city of theatres and museums. There are two drama theatres, the Opera House, the Young Spectators' Theatre and the Puppet Theatre.

Lviv's museums are real treasure. One can find much of interest in the local Historical Museum, State Museum of Ethnography and Crafts or in the Museum of Ukrainian Art Lviv Art Gallery is one of the best in the country. Canvases of Rubens, Titian, Goya, Ukrainian and Russian artists are exhibited here.

Tourists from many countries come to our city for sightseeing. Among the sights are the High Castle, Rynok Square, chapels of the Three Prelates, of the Kampians, of the Saint George's, the Armenian and the Latin Catholic Cathedrals, Saint Nicolas and other churches.

Lviv is almost submerged in the green of its parks, the best of which are the Stryyskyy, the Bohdan Khmelnitskyy and the Ivan Franko parks.