Blog Entry 7-Halloween for Japan

Halloween, for some people, it provides an excuse to become a character, person, ghost, something that they have secretly admired. For others, it's the day to store up yearly amount of candies and chocolate for free. I guess Halloween has more meanings to some people than some others.
In Japan, where the Halloween as a festival is quite a recent influx along with other western influences, some choose to go with the flow and some remain the way they have always been OR actually still enjoy the festival as a spectator.
Anyway at school, it was Halloween! Thanks to the majority of Americans, (let's not forget that Halloween is only mainly celebrated in North America!!) we all got to enjoy looking at interesting outfits and taking heaps of pictures of them. I heard some complaints from the people who dressed-up, about how tiring it was to be a model for the entire day for Japanese picture takers, but what do you expect?! You (and myself of course) always take pictures of them, let them take pictures of you too!!

p.s I added some pics that I took that day, since Halloween is foreign for me too, i enjoyed being a spectator just like some other Japanese did!!

Blog Entry 6- re-presentation of reality

Another blog entry plus mid term exam for this week!! In other words, I had no pictures taken for my blog, until tonight!

While I was having dinner in the dining area in SH 4 this evening, a bunch of SH 4 residents and a group of people from school including a photographer came in for photo shooting. Those students being picutred volunteered to this event apparently prior to the actual time of occurrence so they were prepared for the photos (not necessarily as in their appearance only). The photographer and two other people started to direct the students (or shall i call them models?!) and arrange the setting the way they have pictured already in their mind or maybe even drawn out.
For me, it was a surprise but a good entertainment! And all of sudden I could remember (more clearly than in class today!) some parts of the reading material, esp where pro-filimic and filmic were defined- representing the reality and re-presentation of reality. Definitely how professional photography is operated in reality to record the reality can be seen as re-presentation of reality with the selection and pre-arrangement conducted by the photographer. However just as Cassie who was sitting beside me mentioned, which left me feeling skeptical about this concept of portraying reality through images, wouldn't it be more true and realistic if they came in unannounced and unnoticed and take pictures of our unpretentious normal daily life?

p.s the second pic of the coke-bottle and a cup that were borrowed and used by the picture takers for a few mins
and the owner of these props, cassie is just for the sake of our REALity of studying 一所懸命 for the mid-terms!

Blog Entry 5- 運動会

In Japan, Sept and Oct are not just the months of cool weather and colourful scenery, but they also mean months of strengthening their bodies throughout atheletic carnivals. Elementary schools get into an atheletic mode as soon as the summer vacation is over and kids start preparing for different events that will be shown to their parents and visitors. As well as youngsters, some residential regions get together and have such atheletic carnival for all the residents in order to instigate harmony within the neighberhood on top of the physical benefit. The pictures I was able to take were from the regional atheletic carnival that were held at an elementary school nearby the seminar houses of KG (I do not remember the name of the school, sorry!)

The most interesting thing to this festival that seems quite ordinary to those who would imagine running, huddling, jumping
and etc, is that they go beyond these basic atheletic events! Of course, the relay running was the highlight of the carnival, which was at the end of the whole day of carnival. However from 9am, they had something for everyone (even for me!) to have a good time all together. Some ran, some popped ballons with their bottom and some threw little bean-filled balls into a basket. People were divided into 5 teams according to the area they live in and each participated in various events with a team spirit and cheered (almost yelled!) for their own team to put more and more effort, regardless of the age, sex or nationality (in my case). At the end of the carnival, I realized how many new local people from elementary school kids (asking me in doubt if I was really a foreigner) to housewives I've gotten to know a little and how absorbed I was in their culture!

Blog Essay- a piece of naked truth of the naked sign language lessons?

http://visualanthropologyofjapan.blogspot.com/2007_08_01_archive.html
(I cannot link this site for some odd reason!!)
This world that I happen to live in, seems to be getting more and more impossible and not appearing interesting enough to some, unless there is a beautifully naked woman on the scene, serving a dish of sushi in a popular japanese restaurant (check out this news http://cbs2chicago.com/topstories/local_story_308175057.html) or in this case, giving a sign language lesson!
My first response to the post, 'Naked Sign Language News in Japan', created by Prof. Steven Fedorowicz was rather a sense of surprise than disgust at the fact that nudity is in fact everywhere, even in a society that is relatively considered as a minority. When I say this, let me clarify that my surprise of this naked sign language lessons was not due to any kind of expectation as to the nudity in a minority group like deaf people is not acceptable or a way out of the ordinary. The nudity is an unusual concept for any other groups within the society. Surely there are many aesthetic views to the nudity and of course, pornography. It can be definitely seen as deaf people taking an interesting angle towards their means of communication in a form of nude. Furthermore if such a lesson is a result of their (deaf people) effort to insinuate into the society that this minority group of people are, in fact, no less than any other healthy people who would portray themselves in or expose freely to the nudity. However I found it quite dubious whether it is an effective way to attract people's attention on the deaf society. I guess this matter lies on the question, who the target audience is that this naked sign language lesson aimed to be presented to. Followed by, there is a bunch of questions waiting to be answered if it was aimed for non-deaf people,supposedly wanting to learn the sign language or perhaps just interested in some pornographical effect. Why on earth would they choose this particular method to pursue their goal? No doubt there are a lot of other effective sources in a case to study the language and surely there will be more than plenty of pornography out there on the internet! In this aspect, the purpose of this particualr concept of teaching the sign language is too vague and somewhat strange to say these lessons are effective in order to bring people's awareness into the deaf society.

Blog Entry 4- varieties of indulgence

I was looking through a bunch of old pics that i've taken during the summer and this one, taken at the Kansai International Airport at a small exhibition of some sort caught my attention, recalling my moment of amazement at my friend's collection of all the different kitkats in Japan. So far I've seen (and tasted some!) mattcha, strawberry, banana, kiwi, orange, lemon, azuki, cherry, melon and tsukimidango (special edition for the full moon day) flavour kitkats in Japan. I was once again surprised to see this kind of varieties of flavours in a lot of other products, esp confectionaries.

Another interesting point that I noticed is the uniqueness of these items. Take a look at these Prez or go to supermarket and search for the unusual flavour snacks. (Oh, btw I think supermarket is a very good place to kengaku suru as well as to shop!)

I don't think I will ever find snacks such as tarako flavour prez or kurogoma (black sesame) flavour ice-cream (you can try this at kg cafeteria!) anywhere in the world, but in Japan! Well I guess this is definitely another factor out of many that I will be missing Japan very much after I go back home!! So let's enjoy while we are here, right?!

Blog Entry 4- the Apartment Residents

Regarding the fact that Japan is not such a large country, before coming to Japan, I somehow imagined a lot of tall apartment buildings at residential districts like the ones in Korea where it is so common to live in a 15 or more storeys apartment. However the reality was that, even if the houses are typically せまい, it is more likely that people live in a two or three storeys houses rather than apartments!! Anyway this was another case of a collusion of cultural assumptions that I've formed in past.

Another interesting thing about apartments in Japan is that they are called マンション!!
It is no wonder how we, 外国人, cannot hide the mixed expression of surprise and admiration when we first hear Japanese casually mention the mansion as just another form of a living place. Doesn't this country (I'm sure any other countries in this big big world do too!) offers something interesting and funny everyday for us, foreigners!!

Blog Entry 3- Keita

This little boy, named Keita is the most energetic and cheerful one, racing around the small church building and dashing into people randomly. Sometimes he gets a little too high, ending up hitting his sister or little brother and throwing things around, but in general, he's got the sweetest smile and a caring heart.

With three shorter fingers he kindly posed a big V for me.
Thanks to Keita!