Theodore Dreiserʼs Twelve Men, published in 1919, is considered to be twelve biographical sketches of individuals whom he had personally known. They all had major influences on Dreiser, both as a man and a writer. “A Doer of the Word”, the second sketch of Twelve Men, has been a critically-acclaimed short story. In “A Doer of the Word”, Dreiser himself appears and plays an important role as the interviewer who goes to meet Charlie Potter, the main character of the sketch. This paper attempts to evaluate “A Doer of the Word” by revealing some of its characteristics.

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This paper analyzes the relationship between the voices used in “moe anime” and the uncanny valley phenomenon, as well as explaining the magical realismembedded in moe anime. The voices used in moe anime have the following three characteristics: （A）they are voiced by adult women rather than children; （B） they are produced by imitating little girls'voices, which are considered to be cute by many; and （C） they are clearly exaggerated caricatures. This research argues that these voice characteristics play a crucial role in the acceptance and enjoyment of these types of anime characters, and thus, they are able to escape the uncanny valley phenomenon. Moe anime is characterized by the use of words that are rarely uttered in the day-today sociocultural context of the real world. The words used in moe anime would actually place the characters in an unpopular social group（e.g., weird girls and nerds） if they were living in the real world and time. However, moe anime characters are considered to be ordinary persons within their own ctional world. Furthermore, this paper points out that the sociocultural reality created within moe anime works is characterized by an unbiased attitude toward those in the minority subgroup, thereby characterizing an approach that is similar to the magical realism found in Latin American novels.

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Henry Thoreau was one of the American transcendentalist thinkers of the nineteenth century. He is known for being a naturalist who closely observed facts in nature and described them as they were. On the other hand, he also used the idealistic notions of “sphere music” and “celestial music,” both of which conjure up heaven and the stars, in his writings. He depicted various environmental sounds produced on the earth as sphere music mainly in the early phase of his career, and then later in his career divine sounds from heaven that were evocative of the creation of life as celestial music. While he maintained his orientation toward an idealistic way of thinking, he strengthened his inclination to closely observe facts along with his preference for the notion of celestial music.

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The author conducted research on the general outline, usage situation, facility features, and maintenance history of public libraries that have been constructed as part of facility complexes in private commercial facilities in various city centers since 2007. There have been many instances of libraries less than 1,000m² in size, but there have also been some instances where large libraries of over 4,000m² have been set up on an upper floor of commercial facilities. One distinguishing feature of such libraries is that they are built in locations with businesses that they are expected to be compatible with, such as supermarkets and bookstores. There have been many instances in which the construction of libraries has been carried out by utilizing empty space due to the closure or scalingdown of existing large-scale commercial facilities, particularly in suburban cities. Local governments hope that these public libraries will then become the core feature in such commercial business facilities and be able to attract more customers.

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This article investigates the present situation and issues surrounding Japanese high school trips abroad and examines the possible factors behind the growing number being taken especially to Taiwan in recent years. Generally speaking, the number of high school trips abroad is influenced by world affairs and has been increasing little by little. Although the number of schools taking school trips abroad is largest in the highly-populated Kanto and Kinki regions, the Kyushu region has a high percentage of schools taking such trips due to its location. A large number of these school trips are taken to China, South Korea, Hawaii, Guam, Australia, Singapore, and Malaysia. However, the percentages for China and South Korea have decreased since 2012 due to the deteriorating image of both countries in Japan. On the other hand, the percentage for Taiwan has been increasing by about that same amount. Reasons for this include not only that Taiwan as a destination satisfies the requirements of Japanese high schools but also that the image of Taiwan in Japan is improving. However, one issue that still needs to be addressed is Taiwan not being used enough as learning material.

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In the midst of systematic reforms of child care education in Japan, the expertise of nursery teachers is being readdressed. This paper focuses on the formation of child care and education environments utilizing nursery teacher expertise. After first describing the place of picture book environments in actual nursery sites, their current state and challenges were elucidated through the results of a questionnaire given to Early Childhood Care and Education Department university students. It is asserted that picture book environments should be placed not only in the domain of language, but in other domains as well based on the goals and content of each. Further research in child care and education environments is needed to accomplish this.

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In Meiji Era Japan, how was Western music received by the general public? In order to get a grasp of the general picture and come as close to the truth as possible, a comprehensive investigation of articles relating to Western music in local city newspapers was conducted. Articles, announcements of instruments, and musical scores as well as announcements with illustrations of musical instruments and performers drawn in them (medicine, watches, etc.) from the Kyushu Nichinichi Shimbun (which was launched in 1888) were investigated, They were then listed chronologically by period.

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