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by Lily Gillespie Canadians know her as Anne of Green Gables, but to the young Japanese women who flock to the Island with the excuse of improving their English language skills, she is Anne of Red Hair. In Japan, said Kieko Asano, who arrived on the Island June 6 as a Study Abroad Canada student, the Anne books are put out in sequence: Anne of Red Hair 1, Anne of Red Hair 2, and so on, and like girls all across Canada, pre-adolescents in Japan fall for the spunky orphan and dream of the places her creator describes, so lovingly and so vividly, in her books. "Lucy Maud Montgomery is very famous writer in Japan," Asano said. "Japanese female‹ adult, child‹ like romance and the beautiful place like P.E.I. P.E.I. very fantastic place, fantastic country. So many female people dream of going to P.E.I. Very safe. Clean air. Canada is safety country, but America is dangerous because many, many people have guns. But Canada safety country, very much nature, very beautiful country." Kieko, whose name in Japanese means 'respect,' is no dreamy adolescent; she celebrated her 32nd birthday on the Island and has spent 13 years in the nursing profession. Next August, she and her fiancé, Udo, an elementary school teacher, will marry and she will resumé her career. Toyohashi, the city where she grew up (which she said is the same size as Charlottetown), is 550 km west of Toyko. She worked as a clinic nurse and in a small hospital in Nagoya, another small city not far from home, where she lived on her own for several years. Asano was a seasoned traveller when she arrived on the Island, having made two trips to Australia and one to Italy, two years ago. The six-month stay in P.E.I. to study English was a decision she made in November, 1998. "My parents and boyfriend said, 'Good idea,'" she said. English language skills will be useful in her work. In Japan, profiency in the English language has become more and more important in terms of opportunities for work, in almost any profession. In hospitals, she explained, most doctors use English on patient charts. "So, of course, nurse have to read English," she said. Asano's English improved a great deal during her Island stay, with a breakthrough in September when, she said, she began thinking in English. In Japanese schools, students begin studying English in junior high, continuing their language studies throughout high school. Asano continued studying English in nursing school and, while she worked as a nurse, she attended English language night classes two evenings a week. According to Asano, spending six months in P.E.I. was a dream come true. When she arrived on the Island in June she attended the Study Abroad Canada school at Park Corner. While attending the Park Corner school, she lived on a dairy farm with a Kensington family. At the beginning of July she moved to Charlottetown and began attending classes at the main Study Abroad school on Kent Street. During a week-long break from school at the end of August she flew to Newfoundland where she spent five nights, then finished out the week in Halifax. Taking a slightly extended break over the Thanksgiving weekend, Asano and two classmates travelled by bus to Moncton to catch a train to Montreal, spending time in Ottawa and Quebec City on the same trip. When asked to name a favourite among the Canadian locales she'd experienced during her six-month stay, Asano's response was immediate: "Oh, of course, P.E.I.!" Some of the things Asano enjoyed during her Island sojourn are things Canadians tend to take for granted. Halloween, for example, and Remembrance Day and the days leading up to Christmas, which is not a holiday in Japan. She said she was intrigued by the tradition of children leaving milk and cookies for Santa on Christmas Eve and by the concept of the tooth fairy. In Japan she recalled that when she and her brother lost their baby teeth their mother would, depending on whether it was a top or bottom tooth, toss it down into the basement or up onto the roof (a top tooth went into the basement so the new one would grow straight towards it, and vice versa for bottom ones). The biggest difference between life in Canada and Japan, Asano said, is the greater importance placed on the individual in Canada, as opposed to the group. "In my case in the hospital we have 16 nurse, same ward," she said. "If my opinion different from another nurse, I have to change to fit, I have to be same opinion."
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