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

Has youth's thinking about marrige life changed?

Recently, in Japan, the idea of ジェンダー (Gender) is changing. Some decades ago, it was widely believed that woman were inferior to men, and woman couldn't express their own opinions, especially to their husband. Also, few woman worked with men , and even if they did, their status in the workplace was really low. However, today, woman's status has become more equal, and many families share housework .

So, what do today's youth think about marrige style? Has their thinking changed into a more equal relationship? I interviewed my friend about his idea for marrige life. He wished to remain anonymous. His name is "M". He is 24 years old.

Question; Do you want to get married in the future?

M; Yes, I really want to. I'm yearning for marrige. If I don't get married, I'd be afraid of the pressure from my family and society standards. Also, I want to have children, but to be a single father is too hard for me.

Q; What kind of woman do you want to marry?

M; I have many conditions. I want my wife to have long hair and be humble, like typical old Japanese wife. Also, I want a woman who is good at housework, cooking and household money matters, and who likes children. And I want her to respect me.

Q; Oh, you really have many conditions. You'll never get married. Next, how do you want your married life to be?

M; I want to have 2~5 children. I want my wife do all the housework. I'll help a little, like push the washer buttton, but mainly housework should be done by the wife. I don't want her to have a full-time job. Just part-time job is O.K, but not full time. I want her to concentrate on housework and raising children. My dream is that when I wake up, my break fast is already prepared.

Q; O.K, what do you think about woman's role and men's role in married life?

M; Men's role is to work hard and earn money. Woman's role is to do housework and raise children. I think these roles are really the natural way for human beings because women and men are genetically more capable of doing these respective things. (Excitingly) Now, it is said that sharing housework is the symbol of equality, but, I think people misunderstand "equality". What man are good at and what women are good at are essentially different. So, I believe equal society means that women and men do their own respective roles.

I appreciate him telling me his honest thinking. His idea for married life is really close to the typical Japanese married life. His idea is just one of millions among youth, but I'm sure many Japanese guys would agree with his idea.

The picture of father and baby came from here!

http://plaza.rakuten.co.jp/syufugyou

The picture of housework (second one) came from here-!

http://www.apa-meido.com/faq.html

The first picture is my original photo, she is my grand mother. She is a typical Japanese wife. She buttered her husband up. Also, she is really modest.

Link

This site shows women's thinking for marrige.

http://www.macromill.com/r_data/20060803marry/index.html

How religion influences on Japanese people

If we ask Japanese people that what kinds of religion do you believe, many people would say " I have no particular religion". And as native Japanese, I also agree that our daily lifes are far from religious one, because we celebrate Christmas and saint valentine's day and also we do "Hichigosan" or "Hatumoude".( Hichigosan is a the ritual of sinto and we celebrate children who become the age of 3,5,and 7 years old. And Hatumoude means to go to temple or shrine on new years day and pray fortune for new year.)

However, fundamental parts of Japanese people are still based on Japanese religion; sinto. As the examples of this, I want to suggest three things; Shrines in town, Legend, and Children's stories.

First, when we walk in town, we often find shrines. Some shrines have small playgrounds, like picture above, and some haven't, but shrines are in everywhere in Japan even in big cities. And I'm sure that many Japanese people, especially people from rural district, have played in shrines when they were kid. For kids, precincts, which is playgrounds of shrines, or pounds in shrines are playground even if they doesn't have swing or slide. As they haunt shrines more and more, they are consciously or unconsciously getting what is shrine, why there are shrines and what is "kami" by feeling solemn atmosphere, and being familiar with the idea of Shinto.

Second, legends that parents often tell to their children make children be close to religion. The famous legend, the story of gods of rice is often told to children. The story is that in every each grain of rice, there are seven rice gods, and if we leave even a grain of rice on a rice bowl, rice gods'll curse us. ( The number of god is different depending on region, but in my home town, the number was 7.) This story tells children the basic idea of religion, which is that everything we do is watched by kami.

Finally, Japanese children's stories are often related to kami. In kindergarten or preschool, kids read many such stories and naturally get the idea of religion. In my case, the most impressive one was "kumono-ito"( the string of spider). It is totally story of god and I remember I felt really scary to do bad things.

Like these example, even if we get old and our lifes are not related to religion, religious childhood experiences stay in our mind even when we get adult. And I believe Japanese fundamental parts are still religious.

If you wan to know the story of kumono-ito, click here!

http://www.ntv.co.jp/sekaju/student/20060520/01_0101.html

Are Japanese being Western?

When we look at magazines, especially fashion magazines, and even though they are selled only in Japan, often Models are Western or half Western. For example, almost all fashion models of Men's non-no, which is one of the majour men's fashion magazines in Japan, are Western or Western mixed and they show up many pages. Same as girl's fashion magazines. Look at picture above. This is the picture of girl's fashion magazine names "mini". Most models of mini are half - Western. Japanese young people look at them and refer to their fashion.

But why publishers use weatern models?

Why not Japanese?

(Of course there are many Japanese models, but western models are incresing recently.) Japanese figure and western figure are really different. And also, face and hair are different. But why Japanese young people imitate them or refer to their fashion?

Also, when we look at young adult girl's fashion magazines, like "ViVi', we'll find makeup pages teaching " how to be western face" or " how to be craggy face". They teach how to show our noses taller and eyes bigger and more clear.

These examples of mogazine models and make up show the fact that " Japanese wants to be Western". I'm sure that these thinking came from "akogare"(= means yearning) for western countries or cultures. Now, the westernization in Japan is too big to write in this my tiny blog, but the big part of the root of westernization is Akogare.

this is 'VIVI's page! http://www.joseishi.net/vivi/

this is men's non-no's page!

http://mensnonno.shueisha.co.jp/home.html

Daido Moriyama, his work about Osaka

In 1938, Daido Moriyama was born in OSAKA. After the experience of free graphic desiner, he became assistant to photographer TAKESHI Iwamiya. In 1964, he became independent. In 1972, he published photographic collection named 「写真よさようなら」, and it shocked the photograph world, but after this, he stoped taking photo temporarily. In 1982 he came back to the world of photograph. Then he published a lot of fresh works one after another, for example "Daido-Hysteric"etc.

Firstly, to do this bog, I used Mr.Moriyama's book, named "Osaka plus"and my writting 'll be based on this book. Osaka plus is a photographic collection of Osaka people and town. Pictures in Osaka plus are all balck and white. His picture shows daily life in Osaka including people's beautiful points and dirty points, without any decoration.

This Osaka puls represents real Osaka very well. He photographed many kinds of people, for example, young hostess ladies,homeless people, young ladies, couples,and so on. For instance, Osaka is very famous for homeless people,and the number of homeless people is the most in Japan. Osaka plus has many homeless pictures which are same as what we see on street. I guess he photographed homeless people because homeless people are one of big part of Osaka. Also, he took many photos of sex industry, but he makes fun of them. Through these pictures, I could see how Mr. Moriyama think aboput people.

Osaka plus seems to haven't any particular theme, and it just looks like taking photo at random.

I think this is his successful point because thanks to no theme, he can take photo from many aspects, and many kinds of people. Some times we can see more Osaka when there is no themes.

As my personal opinion to Mr.Moriyama's work, it was really good to chose Osaka. I think Osaka is the place where we can see more human nature than like Tokyo.When we look Osaka plus, we might feel that Mr.Moriyama likes Osaka people.Mr. Moriyama took picture of some parts of people that we can't hate. I'm sure he likes Osaka town and people!

My information came from...http://www.bbb-inc.co.jp/daido/about.html　and

大阪 plus (2007, published by 月曜社, written by Daido Moriyama）