March 4: Toyo-no-kuni Multimedia Academy in Hiji
 by Mie
 I attended "Toyo-no-kuni Multimedia Academy in Hiji" conference sponsored by Oita prefecture held at Hiji town hall.
　　　

HyperNetwork Society Research help the conference. Mr. Shimizu (right) accepts the attendants and Mr. Fujino is setting personal computers in the room.
 Mr. Kato, the chief of Information Promotion section of Oita prefecture Office, makes an opening speech. At the backmost is today's lecturer Mr. You Itoh from Yamanashi university. Since I have met him before when I was invited to Suwa city as a lecturer, I was glad to see him again here in Oita.
 Mr. Itoh lectured about the recent trend of the Internet world in the theme of "Near-future of CATV using digital technology." He introduced the mechanism how to apply CATV technology to the Internet. It is said that here in Oita, a CATV system will be connected to the web in this autumn. He predicts that in the year of 2,000, a large scale change may take place in Japanese web system.
After the intermission, Mr. Masatoshi Miyata, president of "3S management Systems in Kushiro, made a presentation titled "Local Community Boosting through the web" in a clear voice. He appealed "We should exchange opinion through the web in order to boost local communities, We also have frequent off-line meetings to do something what we can do without fearing a failure. People must have two or three faces." I was delighted to hear the same argument as what we are always discussing in our COARA.
 Many people who are interested in the Internet and make use of it attended the lecture meeting. Mr. Takeuchi, a member of COARA, came all the way from Hita city as well. As it is Thursday today, we will have a Multimedia Cafe COARA in the evening. I proposed him to join it. He agreed and dropped at my house before going to COARA office.
　　　
Today, we had unexpected visitors: Mr. Micael J. Marcus, Sc.D. and his wife Dr. Gail H. Marcus. Mr. Marcus is staying in Ministry of Posts and Telecommunication for study and Mrs. Mrs. Marcus is teaching Nuclear Policy in Tokyo Institute of Technology. The wonderful couple are interested in Japanese sake. We had a small party at a pub nearby. We got into swing in talking about the difference of the Internet circumstances and businesses through the web.
As night goes on, we returned home. Mr. Takeuchi stays in my home tonight. We enjoyed pleasant chatting again. I hope Mr. Takeuchi will come and stay again with his wife.


Mie　Home