Sports collaborate with fashion

Recently, bicycle riding in Japan is becoming popular. Regardless of age, from people in their twenties to people in their nineties, the number of people who ride bicycles are increasing. If we go to Shinsaibashi or Umeda, which are places where fashionable people gather, we'll see many people riding nice bicycles and wearing nice outfits. The interesting aspect of these bicycles is that they are not cheap or ordinary ones, like the "mama-chari" bicycles. These bikes are very expensive priced (from 1 thousand to 2 thousand dollars).

How did such expensive bicycles become so popular? There are several factors for their popularity. First, these kinds of nice bicycles have become the trendy for fashion. Many fashion magazines insert snapshots which show fashionable people with a bicycle found in the town (like the picture above). At first, the bicycle boom was small; it was limited to fashion shop staff.However, the number of magazines dedicated to these fashionable bikes increased. This encouraged young peole to ride bicycles. When I went to shinsaibashi the last time, one week ago, it was congested with bicycle traffic and a lot of bicycles were parked in the vicinity.

Because of this boom, the number of people riding bicycles has increased rapidly. This fad may be temporary, but if it continues, and I hope it will, it would be good start in endouraging people to do more sports. Collaboration with fashion is really good idea to tempt youth to start sports.

This is the home page about how bicycles would be goot sport!

http://www.smile0yen.net/dietbicycle.htm

The first and seconpicture shows Shinsaibashi town! These picture came from

http://www.sportsoasis.co.jp/img/blog/img11232950375.jpg

Politics on shopping

Politics is every where in daily life when people gather and decide to make some type of thing together. For example when we choose the place we hang out, we need politics, or when we choose what we order in Izakaya, we need politics (espetially among Japanese). and unexpectedly, when we go shopping with friend, we need politics.

Many Japanese youth, especially girls, like to go shopping alone because going shopping together needs compromise and patience. Japanese girls relly like fashion, and they have their own particular style. ( Japanese girl' fashion genres are pretty varied and each girl cultivates their own style by mixing these genres.) So when they go to shopping, the shops they want to go and amount of time they want to spend in these shops are each different. Outfits in Japan are expensive, so girls think, " I want to choose carefully". But if we go shopping with friends, we have to stop at shops the other girl wants to go, and I'm not interested in that. Often, it would be an uncomfortable or annoying time.

To avoid this situation, girls talk and know what they want to go, and make solutions. For example, some girls choose to go together even if they knows it's annoying, because they also know going togather has some benefits. Also, others choose to spread out when they arrive at shopping destination. They plan what time and where they'll meet up. Or others choose to go completely alone even if shops or area they want to go are same.

The way they choose to take are different, but to get the solution, thet have to talk and find solution which is good for both of them.

This is the perfect manual for the organizer of drinking party. Organizer need political technique to suceed.http://www.hotpepper.jp/doc/bounenkai/kanji/page_03.htm

The second picture came from here !http://asajihara.air-nifty.com/photos/hibis27/mu2img_0703.html

The third picture came from here! http://www.350days.com/archives/003423.php

Surprising international students

Before I took classes at CIE, I didn't have any particular experiences with international students. For me, they had seemed to be all the same "gaijin" and not any thing more. I didn't know what they think or how they live. But this time, because I took four classes at CIE with international students, I was gifted with several chances to know them. During this semester, I was really surprised many times by them. Today, I'll talk about the 2 best surprising things that I experienced at CIE.

What I was surprised the best is their attitudes for class. What they did in classes was really incredible for me. For example, in one class, a female American student sitting in front of me was eating "kakino-tane", which is Japanese snack made by rice, during the whole class. It was so noisy and I wanted the teacher to stop her from eating, but not even the teacher including other students too cared about her and let her eat. After class, I asked an American friend that is it OK to eat something in class, and she said that's no problem. I was so surprised ! If we do in a Japanese class, the teacher would surely say "get out of here" and the grade for the class will be bad.

The second surprising thing about international student is their way how to plan hanging out. If it is among Japanese people, we plan the time we'll meet and the place we'll go in advance, at least one day before.However, international students are different. They plan where they will go some days before, but concrete timeschedule or some other particularity are planned some hours before going . At first, I was confused and thought this plan won't be carried out because they don't tell me anything about it. Now, I realized that it's their way and although it is still confusing, I'm getting used to it. Also, I found this casual planning is very comfortable for me because I don't feel I'm restrained.

Through this semester, I have experienced a lot of culture shocks, but I guess Internatinal students have also had shock on Japanese culture. the culture shocks that I have experienced are not always bad. There were some which Japanese should take in.

this is the article about Japanese impression wrriten by Alan J. Wiren

http://www.japanvisitor.com/index.php?cID=359&pID=1443&pName=culture-shock

the picture above is the typical class of Japanese university. Usually, in classes in Japan, no one can bring snacks or drinks in classes. This picture came from here ! http://kaitokudo.jp/04present/p1_10.html