In this time, I will recommend you some movies in this season.
They are 恋のロンドン狂詩曲, マリーアントワネットに別れを告げて, もう一人のシェイクスピア.
Please look at these trailers.
The first movie, is the love commedy. In this novie, a little bit strange situation is happening between three couples.
The second movie, one girl is the heroine. She always serves for Marie Antoinette. She loves her. But when the revolution in France was happened, her fate got fall down...
The third movie, it is another historical mystery of William Shakespeare. In this movie, the story is based on the theory that Shakespeare is not a real great writer. Actually, one noble man wrote these novels and dramas as if he were Shekespeare.
These movies seem interesting, don't they?
I want you to see one of them.
During this winter vacation, let's go to the movie theater and see the movie!
Written by So
At a university in Pennsylvania, Vijay Kumar and his team are studying on robots. In this video, he has brought a sample of a flying quadroter. What is fascinating about this robot, is that it could fly through the air freely with just four small roters. Also, because of the light body, the robot could fly very fast. The amazing thing is that, the lab members programmed the robot to dodge obstacles automatically. By this program, it is able to control multiple robots to do different things at a time. At the end of the video, the team showed the robots play different instruments at once and make music. If this robot becomes useful, it will definitely be a great invention.
Hi!
This is Natsumi.
I watched The voices of China's workers.
In this speech, the woman journalist, Leslie searched for young Chinese girls who are working in the factory. They are forced to work in severe condition, but they don't complain about it. It is because they have a passion to work and earn money. In thier factories, they make a piece parts of iPad, or PC, and so on. She thinnks that the benefit of globalization we embrace is supported by these workers and we should consider it always. Globalization calls a lot of guilts to us in that point, and it changes these workers'lives, jobs,and marriages. Because of our demads and the benefit of globalization, they have to work in bad situation, and have to move from one factory to another factory. It can be said that it is a globalization.
What do you think about the benefits of globalization and the faults of globalization through this speech?
I'll introduce the Japanese movie maestro, Miyazaki Hayao.
He graduated from Gakushuin University in1963. After that, he worked as an animator, though he actually wanted to be a comics artist. However, when he watched "The Snow Queen", he was impressed and decided to be a grest animator. His first derecting work was "未来少年コナン".I've never heard it.
In 1984, he created his first animation film, "風の谷のナウシカ”. I think most of people have watched this movie.
Since then, he made many animation films, such as "もののけ姫", "魔女の宅急便" and "千と千尋の神隠し". They are really interesting, but my favorite Ghibli animation is "となりのトトロ"!! As you know, this movie is fascinating, especially the last scene.
By the way, do you know there is a rule in the title of his movie? It is that there are a letter "の" in every title, like "天空の城ラピュタ" and "崖の上のポニョ".
Please tell me your favorite Ghibli animation film.
I watched "I listen to color" by Neil Harbisson. The speaker can't recognize color. To solve this problem, he invented a machine, which changes the colors into sounds. Thanks to the device, his world has become colorful. Because he can listen to color, he can also watch musics or speeches. Now, his invention is officially regarded as a part of his body. In his profile photo of the passport, he is taken with the machine. He says we can improve our knowledge if we extend our senses, because the knowledge comes from the senses.
This summer, I had became an English teacher for just a month and this became my first payed job. The job itself was first for my mother(she teaches English to students nearby), but unfortunately she already had too much students. So, she asked me if I would like to do some money-making.
Teaching English being more difficult than learning English by yourself is now a pretty common idea. But, it was far harder than I thought. Just teaching what is written inside the workbook may not be such a hard job, but having to answer questions which were not expected was something different. There were always surprising things happening every class. It chilled my spine the time when my student told me that he had homework which was due in three days. But, it wasn't all that bad. When I had felt that I had done a good lesson, I felt a strong satisfaction. I even began enjoying thinking about those unexpected questions too.
At first, I didn't think that this short time job would be so interesting. But, it had been a time of many new experiences. I thought it would be nice to do it again.
During my summer vacation, I have watched a few movies. I am going to introduce one I thought especially interesting, Moliere(2007).
Moliere is now known as one of the greatest play writers in history. But , of course he didn't had any fame from the beginning. He first was just a novice actor, acting inside bars. One day, he was arrested and put into jail, but breaks out and disappears. There are no details about what he has been doing during his disappearance. The plot of the movie imagines this blank time.
There are some times in the history where we don't have enough data to know exactly and that is where imagination comes in. The writer of Moliere imagined that Moliere had had an experience which helped him to make plays that made the people laugh so much. To show this, the movie starts with Moliere having a hard time thinking of ideas, then he remembers his experience his past with a rich family and a lovely wife; the main part of the movie. After his long flashback, the audience see a stage which Moliere has written and that it had scenes from the flashback. By making a play inside the movie, we are made to think that the experience Moriere had was historically real and that it really was the purpose he made the play. Movies which have truth and imagination both combined has an effect to make the audience lose the boundary of them and I thought this was really good at it.
Last Sunday, October 7th, I went to Tokyo Economic University to join a event of the K.U.E.L (Kanto University ESS League). This time, the theme of our discussion was "LOVE". Love is not only the love between men and women, but also the love of family or friends. So, it is difficult theme to discuss.
I was in the team No.1, and this is the photo of my teammates.
The man in purple was our leader. He is very kind and dependable. Most of them are older than me, but they are all friendly. The woman standing behind me and I are freshmen. In fact, we had another member whose name is Ai-Ling. She is from Taiwan and studying in Gakushuin Women's College.
We discussed "LOVE" about three hours. It was difficult for me, but it was also interesting. After the discussion, I found most of us have similar opinion about the love. When we discuss other topic, such as money, we have totally different ideas, I think. On the other hand, we don't have totally different ideas about love.
Through this event, I learned many interesting things, like this. Have you ever thought about "LOVE"?
Hello! This is Natsumi. It is sad that summer vacation will end. I hope you enjoyed your summer vacation.
In this time, I will introduce you the great ballet dancer, Vasav Nijinsky. The reason I will show you about him is because I had an opportunity to know him through my favorite musical revue company. Do you know him? He is famous in the ballet field. He is called as a legendary dancer. Though he performed only ten yeas, but his name is knwon to many people eventoday. Unfortunately, there is no his record of video. So, please look at this website. And look at this photo.
As this follows, he had a sacred power of dancing. I read the book written by his wife, which is about her mmemory during her time falling love eahc other. In this book,there are also some memorable scenes or anecdote about Nijinsky. It is said that many people who saw his performance said ' He seemed to be flating in the air at in a split second ' .He danced on the stage only tenyears, but thanks to his great power of dancing and jumping, he is famous until now after aboutn60 years sine he died. I think he is a heaven-sentperson or a born dancer. Because of an encounter with him and me, I begun to be interested in ballet which I had not been interested in before. He gave me new favorite thing. now, I want to know about his unique relationship, for instance, between Nijinsky and Diaghilev.
I am happy if you are interested in ballet even if it is a little.
Hello! This is Koichi. I spend a good time with my family in Hakodate, Hokkaido. I think this is a good place. Today, I'm going to introduce my home town to you.
Hakodate is one of the most historic towns. That's why there are many old stuffs.
All of them really exist in Hakodate. These pictures are like foreign countries, aren't they? Hakodate used to have a port which was allowed to trade with other countries, so Hakodate is influenced by this history.
Hakodate is also a beautiful town. I'll show you some pictures.
The first one is very famous. The night view is known as one of the most beautiful night views in the world. It is said that this night view deserves a million dollars. I think it is true. The second one shows slope. Hakodate has many slopes. The slope in this picture is the best one of them. I think almost every people in Hakodate know where it is. Although this is a picture taken during summer, this slope is also wonderful in winter.
Hakodate has many delicious food. I really suggest you should go to asaichi if you visit Hakodate. Asaichi is like Tsukiji in Tokyo. You can eat seafood.
Because asaichi is next to Hakodate Station, it is easy to visit there.
As I've explained, Hakodate is very fascinating city. If you have never visited here, you should come as soon as possible! If you have visited here before, you should come again!!
Hello! This is Natsumi. Are you enjoying your summer vacation? For me this summer is very important and priceless because it is for the first vacation since I entered the university.
By the way, I will introduse you about my favorite sport in this time. It is Shorinji Kempo(少林寺拳法） Do you know this?
Look at this website. And look at this video.
What images about images about Shorinji Kempo do you have? It looks strong or cool, isn't it?
Shorinji Kempo was born in Japan by Doshn So. Many people think its root is at China, but it is wrong. This word, 'Shorinji'sounds like it was born in China. Shorinji Kempo was born in 1947. It was hard and dark time for Japan because Japan surrendered unconditionally after World War Ⅱ. Moreover, many people lost dream of hope. My.So saw these bad situation and thoght that many great people should be created through ShorinjiKempo. Thus Shorinji Kempo wan born. The main purpose of shorinji Kempo is to build Utopia through creating people.
ShorinjinKempo has six characteristics; 拳禅一如, 力愛不二, 守主攻従, 不殺活人, 剛柔一体, 組手主体.
拳禅一如 means that '拳', which is body and '禅', is spirit, is in the one. It ia often considered that body and spirit are separated, but in ShorinjinKempo, body and spirit are the one. Shorinji Kempo is a training to acquire 拳禅一如.
力愛不二 means that in order that everyone live comfortably, it is need not only love and mercy but also reason and power.
守主攻従 shows that technoques of Shorinji Kempo start with being attacked and then we are on the defensive to attack later. This idea is based on we are not allowed to attck without being attacked.
不殺活人 means that Shorinji Kempo is not used for killing someone. It should be used for saving myself and help the other. Techniques of Shorinji Kempo makes people loss aggressive action through attack vital parts in human's body.
剛柔一体 consists with 剛 and 柔. 剛 means tsuki, 柔 means waza. This phrase can be said in another way; lips and teeth. If we have only lips, we cannot chew hard food, conversely, if we have only teeth, we cannot keep away from spilling from mouth. In that case, 剛 and 柔 cannot be separated and interacted with each other.
組手主体 means that Shorinji Kempo should be done by two persons. By doing this, we can improve my tsuki and waza.
Shorinji Kempo is very deep and has a beautiful spirit, I think. If you are interested in Shorinji Kempo, please contact with me! I will take you to a dojo in this university. There are some Shorinji Kempo club members doing training.
From September 10th, I will be housing my friend from America at my apartment in Japan for him to learn Japanese from scratch in less than a year.
I have been studying applied linguistics with a focus on cognitive science and education for the past two years, all for the purpose of successfully teaching my friend Japanese. In fact, after this, I really have no intrinsic use for my knowledge on applied linguistics. In addition, I have been saving over 2000000 yen so that I can manage all of his fees while he is here. He, like most students attending an American college, which your supposed to spend your life paying off the loans to, is financially overwhelmed, to the point he works overtime every other day while attending every single class (rather it's only Japanese students that don't) and managing to get passing scores on classes that are many times more difficult than Japanese courses.
The only precursor to this is that he has all hiragana and katakana memorized before he comes here. After that, I believe there is a great chance that he will acquire native Japanese within his less-than-a-year stay. The point is, he will learn like a baby and make mistakes like a baby, without focusing on the act of learning Japanese. He will be strictly prohibited from using English throughout his stay. He will acquire a native sense of grammar through comprehensive input from immersion, and I will be tuning his pronunciation beyond his lack of sound recognition skills. I believe he will need two months to maneuver in-house vocabulary, during which he will be provided an environment where every concrete example item in the house would be labeled with kanji and hiragana accordingly. He will converse using those concrete examples with me as I give him error feedback without any metacognitive explanation of grammar, so that he acquires Japanese as a language and not a set of consciously memorized rules in relation to English. After the critical period of two months, he will expand his vocabulary using a variety of resources he finds entertainment in, such as anime, manga, video games, and travel. This is not simply to have fun, but to avoid becoming conscious of the act of learning Japanese and to avoid the affect filter from blocking acquisition at the unconscious level. He will achieve complete coordinate bilingualism, and perhaps show a post-mature development in Piagetian formal operation.
I will be taking notes in excruciating detail throughout his stay, and he will be keeping a daily Japanese journal that I will have no direct influence on until the end of his stay. Together, we will create another case study that may add to the current research on second language acquisition. I primarily want to prove how much a waste of time the current English curriculum of Japan is, and that second language acquisition is not as difficult as most people think it is. Moreover, I want to stress that "grammar-based syllabuses" (especially as enforced in Japan) are not a short-cut method provided by education, but rather a red-herring procedure that results in inter-interlanguage.
Note, Japanese L1→English L2 acquisition is cognitively very different in nature from English L1→Japanese L2 acquisition. In fact, the latter is much easier than the former, for a variety of reasons ranging from vowel recognition to visual coherence. Nevertheless, I have much to say about the sins of ignorance found not only in the English curriculum, but the Japanese education system as a whole. I hope that our experiment will prove the various inefficiencies of the current system, and I hope you all will become the witnesses of the actuality of second language acquisition.
The Legend of Guskou Budori (2012)
Yes, as the (2012) implies, this is actually the second film adaptation of the 50-page folktale-like short story by Miyazawa Kenji, done by the staff that made the animation film for The Legend of the Galactic Railroad. Funny, I didn't realize they both started with "Legend" in English.
This was originally intended to be released in 2009, but due to problems including bankruptcy, this project was in hibernation mode until the Japanese government began to fund its production about a year ago. Despite the difficulties, the production met a fulfilling completion.
The animation staff is well known for using feline imagery of the supposedly human characters, in order to emphasize the avant-garde aspect of the fantasy genre to which these stories would fall under. It is not about the cat, but more so about not using humans, that makes this separation from human reality possible.
Like most avant-garde or surreal fantasy fiction, the story and concept are very difficult to follow, in a vector that is completely different from piecing together the puzzle of a mystery. You really have to think outside the box in order to catch the connections between the dream-like series of events that the director attempts to convey. I believe the director did a quintessential job in delineating the abstract concepts of his interpretation of the folktale.
By that, I mean the original short story is, not exactly inconclusive, but very open to liberal interpretation. It is only a 50-page story after all, and the texts within that short span seem to have little direct or linear connections with each other, much like excerpts of frames from discontinuous takes. On top of that, the director used his author's license to change the ending of the story to a more diabolical yet satisfying conclusion. Unlike most adaptations that drastically alter the story, this one is more than acceptable, so I would recommend you watch this even if you like the original. It will give you a deeper understanding of Japanese literature.
Unfortunately, I can only go about giving roundabout explanations to avoid spoilers. If this has caught your attention, the movie has been airing since July 7th. I watched this at Cinema Sunshine Ikebukuro. The screen for this movie is small there, so I would suggest you get 3rd-row seats for the best viewing experience.
The Wolf Children Ame and Yuki
This is the newest anime movie by the rising director Mamoru Hosoda, who has become famous for Summer Wars and The Girl Who Leapt Through Time. The character design is by Yoshiyuki Sadamoto, who is well known for the Evangelion series. This anime film had its world premiere at Paris, a month prior to the initial airing in Japan. This anime film was probably the film I was looking forward to most this year.
The most significant part of this anime is the natural scenery. All of the settings illustrated actually exist in Japan, and the mountains are located in Kamiichi Village of Toyama Prefecture. With a combination of photographic image rendering and cg-assisted free drawing, the nature is rematerialized within the anime exactly as it would be in the real world. The raindrops gathering on the lotus leaves, the children sliding down the snowy mountainside, the wolf howling with the sunrise backing the mountain summit, the animals thriving in the forest... These scenes undoubtedly leave a lasting impression on the viewer.
Generic spoiler in white. Highlight it to read.
Perhaps it was because of my very high expectations, but to be blunt, I didn't think this film was all that great. The director makes an ambitious attempt to convey family love in the style of an oriental folktale through the narration of the daughter, as shown in the trailer.
First, the story is very unbalanced, with many inequalities between the directing emphasis of the son and the daughter. The son's story is much more extraordinary, much more intense in terms of expression, much more impressive than the daughter as a whole. Moreover, the daughter's story seems very half-done, given that her story ends with no input on her communication with other humans thereafter.
There is also a conflict between the given flow of events and the moral motif. At one point, she seems to have blended with the farmers in the vicinity, but they don't come out at all after the mother realizes it. There were many parts they could have played, but conclusively speaking, it was always the mother fighting everything on her own.
Rather, probably the greatest factor is that the mother, who is the only human in the family, seems to have been the most supernatural in terms of what she is forced to overcome. In fact, it would be safe to say that this is one of those inscrutable Japanese folktales with an illogical and matter-of-fact ending. There is absolutely no depiction of family bonds whatsoever, and is simply just a mother working an unrealistic load for many years without physically or mentally breaking down, only to have her children leave her breaking the family apart. I mean look at all the work she has done. No normal human female would be able to do anything so much without dying from overworking and stress. She must be half goddess to be stronger than the father who died pitifully and went to the town dump from failing to catch a bird and falling into the river. The mother may be satisfied with the ending, but it's not exactly a satisfying ending for us, much like the kinds of endings you would get from Japanese folktales. All-in-all, Summer Wars was much better, much more amazing in story development. However, I still wish to look forward to Hosoda director's future films, because many find much potential in his works, including this one.
I watched this movie at Shinjuku Wald 9, but it's airing pretty much everywhere. Because of the vast scenery, I highly recommend getting tickets for a screen the size of at least theater 9 at Shinjku Wald 9. I would also like some feedback from people who have watched it. Feel free to comment here after reading the above spoiler.
There is one major August anime movie coming up, and that's Code Geass: Akito, the Forgotten Country. This is not a third season, but rather a 3-chapter side story that occurs in between seasons 1 and 2 of the TV series. Code Geass is one of the top ten animes in the world and is most certainly a major hit in Japan as well. Although C2 and Lelouch aren't in the fray this time, it'll no doubt be something interesting to look out for.
10 years since their last adventure, Agent J and Agent K are back. Again, it is the danger of the planet Earth, but this time Agent J has to go back in the past and save his partner's life too. Agent J partners with the younger Agent K to stop an evil alien from destroying the past and the future.
As I wrote above, it has been quite a while since I saw the last series, and this was the first time I saw it on screen. First of all, I want to say that the aliens are pretty grotesque, so be careful. Seeing them on a giant screen could get on your nerves. But of course, people get used to it.
When talking about the MIB, people imagine the Will Smith and Tommy Lee Jones tag. But in this film, Agent J moves along mostly with the younger version of K acted by Josh Brolin. I thought that this was quite an adventure for the series, but when I actually saw it, my bothers were gone. Josh Brolin made an awesome image of the young version of K-not just the looks, but the atmosphere too. People who were looking forward to Tommy Lee Jones' acting may feel unsatisfied, but I myself forgot that the K I was watching was a different person.
This is totally my opinion, but I think the comedy is a pretty much important thing in the MIB series. In that point, I wasn't satisfied enough. Maybe since K's life was in danger, J was more serious about the case, which chose the tension of the whole story. But, the plot itself was good, and the ending was somewhat touching(I was caught off guard). The 3 is a turning point in a series-in a good meaning or a bad one. I don't know what the staff is thinking about the MIB, but since the silence was once broken, it is a little shame if this was the ending.
Today, all the Japanese is always hurried by something what. Everyday, we are doing something neatly. It is good to do that certainly. But now, people are too be strict about time to be calm. They are irritated when trains are delayed, meeting has been moving not in time, and etc. These facts causes people to get annoyed. Because of them, there are some bad news.
Look at this article. Not only young people like this boy but also adults have been involved happenings, like this.
Don't you think they are a little bit strange or childish? I want to drop away these sad happenings forever.
I started to think the reason why people get annoyed or irritated, but I managed to find only one answer. It is because we get irritated that we are controlled regularly by time and time is managed by clock. It is important to counts time correctly, but if we are becoming the slave of time, the situation will be bad. I think this present society is becoming the slave of time. Many people are worried about time, or speed. From now on, this situation will be continued. But I hope someday will come that everybody don't have to worry about time.
Yup, you read that right. I don't mean the life-size Gundam standing in Odaiba; I mean an actual operational bipedal mobile suit military unit.
For those of you who don't know Gundam, you can start by reading the wiki. The Gundam series is the epitomy of mecha anime, a franchise that was started by the animation company Sunrise back in 1979. The franchise was well-received due to the plastic model sales instigated by Bandai Entertainment, and is currently still on-going with the newest TV series Gundam AGE, an HD remaster of Gundam SEED, and the newest movie series Gundam Unicorn.
The development of a real Gundam is known to have been under consideration since 2007, when SciencePortal.jp, a website run by the Japanese Science and Technology Agency predicted the development costs to be around ￥79,521,000,000. Masaaki Taira, member of the Liberal Democratic Party, has been enthusiastically discussing this possibility for a year with various professors and party members, and had a talk with Hideki Niwa, another party member, and Harutoshi Fukui, author of Gundam Unicorn during a 1-hour slot within the 12 hour nicolive live-stream broadcast held on June 28th.
Although much of the live-stream was saturated with otaku talk on mecha anime, which included not only Gundam, but also Patlabor and Appleseed XIII, there was some fruitful talk on the realization of the Gundam development project. The project would be funded mostly by the military departments of Japan, which are currently basically rendered defunct by the presence of U.S. dominance. Although the Gundam would be developed as a military unit by name, its actual practicality would lie more in the application of its technology to other daily-life appliances. A bipedal military unit would not have any place in the army this day in age, given that nothing stronger than nuclear weaponry is virtually necessary anymore (though ironically, there is one Gundam series that implements Gundam as the next strongest unit used to circumvent the ban on the use of nuclear weaponry). Moreover, the current project does not hold a levitation function, and therefore focuses more on the ability of a transportation device to "step over" grounds of radically volatile altitudes. In addition to its application to daily transportation, an actual Gundam would be best utilized as a tourist attraction, as the current Odaiba Gundam has proven. Taira claims that being able to see a Gundam in action would mean everything to tourists around the world. There also was some discussion on creating a donation bank for the realization of Gundam, but it has not been put into effect yet.
I believe that the realization of Gundam can only be made possible by Japan, where the eccentric fever of the franchise lies. Due to poor education, declining social standards, and rusty government policies, Japan has been seceding from most, if not all, of the current fronts on modern innovation and therefore has been continually losing ground as a first-world country. This realization of Gundam would bring international attention to Japan once more, along with financial support that Japan is in dire need of. Thoughts? The actual live broadcast (one hour) can be watched in Japanese from that nicolive link on the source list.
After we finish our tests, summer vacation comes! In this blog, I'll introduce my plan during the summer vacation.
First, I'm going to go to Nagano Prefecture with my club members. We stay there for 5 days. During this stay, we hold debate in English. I think it is hard, but this experience helps my English skills improve.
Of course, we will have other events, such as fireworks and suika-wari. Most Japanese people enjoy them every summer. If you don't know them, please watch videos below.
I believe this stay is fun!!
Next, I'm going back to my home in Hakodete, Hokkaido. Hakodate isn't as hot as Tokyo, so I'm looking for going. I think it is good to study or read books. I hope my I could finish all assignments in Hakodate. Also, I want to see one of the most beautiful night views in Japan. Have you ever seen this sight? If you have never seen it, I recommend you to see at least once.
So far, these are plans during my summer vacation. Do you have any plans during your summer vacation? If you do, could you tell me what your plan is.
Anyway, we MUST go through tests before the summer vacation:-(
Hello! This is Natsumi.
As you know, there are many crimes everyday. On the other hand, there are some false crimes. In Japan, gropers are major as false crimes. In my opinion as an woman, I hate gropers. I don't want them to grope on the purpose of sexual meaning. But, I know I don't have to dislike men meaninglessly and I have to hear their's opinions. So, I tried to search about the case of people who was arrested as a groper by mistake. Look at this article.
I looked for articles about the opinions of victims of groper through the Internet, but I couldn't find good resources. There are many sources about false crimes or the way in avoiding being arrested by mistakes. This result shows that many men worried about being arrested as gropers by mistakes.
As one way to come to existence of groper, some railway companies have trains which is allowed to ride only for women.But, these trains for women have been controversial since that plan had been practiced. There are agreement and disagreement about this action. I will tell you about them.
Agreement: Many women feels relief for this train and it makes groper not to do wrong thing.
Disagreement; Men think it is one of race discrimination. It is also natural that other trains are more crowded than a special train. Many people think it not so good and irritating.
Problems surrounding groper and women are becoming more complicated like all above. And recently, there are many people are more interested in false crimes, especially in groper. Then let's look at this movie.
Through this article and movie, I want to hear your opinion at the sides of both men and women.
To be honest, I was never really interested in crime, gangsters, or murder of any sort, both in fiction and non-fiction. I have studied these topics in class, and have watched/read a few fictional works that focused on these topics as well, but they never really struck me deeply, probably because I was looking more into the unlimited realms of the universe rather than the confines of human society and human life. However, I have always questioned the absolute property of morals and ethics as defined under civil conduct. I would like to focus on the topic of murder, by first starting with the obvious and then investigating the deeper roots of what exactly murder is, and why it is not permitted in society.
I'm not very knowledgeable in law, and law is certainly not something that can readily be understood within a few weeks of shallow research, so I will just borrow a few words from wikipedia. Murder, under American jurisdiction, is defined as the unlawful killing of a human by another human with malice aforethought. Murder is the more severe version of manslaughter, which lacks intention or malice aforethought, and both murder and manslaughter are the major forms of homicide. Satsujin-zai, under Japanese jurisdiction, is defined as the classification of penalty consisting of the killing of a human by another human with the intention to cause death. It is interesting to note here that America is one of the few countries that do not consider euthanasia as murder, while Japan follows majority by declaring it illegal. Also, suicide used to be considered unenforced felony in the United States, but was removed from the classification of crime completely by the 1990s, while in Japan, suicide has been treated as a silent/unwritten illegality that results in no punishment.
There are your definitions. Now, I would like to address the determinist interpretation of murder. I find that from time to time, critical thinkers tend to use determinism as a means of rejecting the idea that punishment for murder is justifiable, and I would like to go about explaining whether that is true or not. Determinists take the following stance. Neither law nor social standards, nor biological human intuition even, are absolute entities that reach a universal consensus. As a matter of fact, humans are seldom ever intuitively against the idea of murder, because killing is a necessary competition within animal nature. What is the objective truth value then in declaring murder as an evil? There is none. Murder is just the name of a particular event that happens when certain situations and circumstances are met. In the universal flow of time, humans are powerless in decision-making, and the whole concept of responsibility and causality become defunct given that human individuals are not granted the power of free will. (Note, this is not an argument about whether free will exists or not, which would spark a whole other topic, but just an explanation of the determinist view. It is nearly impossible to support free will, however, and only one realistic method exists.) Hence, some determinists would claim that law and society are unjust in punishing an event that does not involve any form of responsibility nor goes against human nature.
The greatest flaw in this argument is that the idea of determinism is only being used in a part of the explanation when determinism has to be used for the entire explanation for the argument to pull through. In the case that murder and human nature are subject to determinism, law and society must be subjected under determinism as well. The complete determinist explanation would be that all phenomena are results of determinism, meaning the fact that humans feel the necessity to punish murder is not a matter of responsibility or justification, but just another inevitable entity. Therefore, determinism can never be used to declare that punishing murder is wrong, nor can it be used to describe any phenomenon under an objective right-wrong scale.
However, determinism brings up a significant point; murder is not wrong. It is very true that law and society are not absolute entities. Moreover, as the American law states, law only punishes "unlawful" killings, meaning law does not deny the idea of killing in every respect. The idea of murder exists as a major entity because humans are prone to committing it, easily pictured by the prevalence of warfare. The point I am trying to get across here, is that when you see some major criminal of mass murder, do not just end your thoughts thinking what a bad person he/she is or how sad it was for the people involved. Criminals are humans, much like we all are, and we all have a chance of standing in his/her position. Right or wrong only comes into play within the realms of civil conduct. Think about how that criminal was raised or developed to become a criminal, and blame not only the criminal but the environment. I believe that kind of critical thinking is what is necessary for the overall progress of civil ethics and morals.
Crime movies have been a major genre in movie history. But, why has the people allow these type of movies to become such a giant field? There has always been protests about violent pictures, like video games and comics. We sometimes hear about crimes that were affected by scenes from games and comics, but hardly from movies. The country with the biggest gun problem creates the most movies with gun-fights.
So, how are crime movies accepted by the crowd? The way is how to show the crime as an act of justice, or to get the audience to feel sympathy to the character. For example, evenge is a famous factor which is used from the past (The Outfit(1973), Ocean's Thirteen(2007)).In a recent movie I saw, 3 Days had a motive to save someone. All of these factors are used to change the criminal into a hero. However, a pursuit of heroism does not only mean good. First, such heroism may dissolve the character's feeling of sin. As movies become more entertaining, such conflicts become postponed, or not shown at all. And another, is that the movie loses the crime as the main point and becomes more of an action movie-the good guys beating up the bad guys.
There are many gangs in Japan now. They've committed crimes, and a lot of people have been killed or hurted by them. For example, a kabuki actor, Ichikawa Ebizo was hurted by a gang.Because of this injury, he was not able to appear on stages for a while.
These days, some celebrities in Japan have relationships with them. After Japanese comedian, Shimada Shinsuke, these relationships have been regarded as bad habit. Since this news was reported, the Metropolitan Police has tried to arrest gangs as many as possible. To achieve their goal, they made a regulation. This is a campaign poster below.
What do you think about this regulation? Do you think this regulation works?
I think it doesn't mean. It is sure that this has power to save the actives of gangs, but it is not enough. If we really want to decrease tha number of gangs, we should make a law. However, I think gangs' rights also should be respected, because they are people. This is the difficult point. It is true that gangs have caused many problems, but can we stop their activity completely?
According to Jeff Sneider, a journalist for Variety. News, "Japanese advertising agency Dentsu and Hayakawa Publishing Corp. have entered into a live-action feature rights deal for Japanese sci-fi novels that have attracted the interest of 'Transformers' producer Don Murphy and 'Shoot 'Em Up' helmer Michael Davis."
Don Murphy is primarily known as an American film producer for his science fiction films, such as the "Transformers" trilogy. "Transformers", "Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen", and "Transformers: Dark of the Moon" will be aired on WOWOW Cinema (charged), starting at 15:45, June 16. (I will get a chance to watch these then for the first time.)
Transformers Trailer
Michael Davis is primarily known as a screenwriter, and has written/directed "Shoot 'Em Up" (2007), which was produced in collaboration with Murphy.
Shoot 'Em Up Trailer
Tow Ubukata （冲方丁） is a renowned Japanese sci-fi author, who has given birth to works such as "Tenchi Meisatsu" （天地明察, probably best translated as "Eureka"） and "Out of Control". Some novels, such as "Fafner of the Azure" （蒼穹のファフナー）, have become hit anime adaptations. Davis is now considering a film adaptation of "Mardock Scramble" which has an on-going anime film trilogy, the third of which will premiere September 29 this year.
Mardock Scramble The First: Compression Trailer
Issui Ogawa （小川一水） is also another renowned Japanese sci-fi author with award winning works such as "Little Star" and "the Demon that King Arisuma Loved" （アリスマ王の愛した魔物）. Murphy plans to adapt "The King of Time-Sand" （時砂の王）.
Japanese on-lookers have mixed feelings about Hollywood film adaptations. Most do not deny the excellence in Japanese writers achieving global attention, especially concerning science fiction and fantasy literature, which are clearly neglected in Japanese society. However, Hollywood adaptations inevitably warp the Japanese style of conveying ideas, and many would argue that the works would be better represented in anime media. For instance, "Mardock Scramble" has an intense casino scene where the main characters play roulettes and cards in order to strategically rake in cash. Japanese people have the impression that this entire casino scene may be morphed into a flashy gun-battle scene, which would ruin the originality of the sequence of events. However, no adaptation can readily do justice to the original novel, so then others may argue that there is no problem as long as the adaptation is acknowledged by the original author, and the author is credited within the staff roll.
What are your ideas on Hollywood film adaptations of Japanese literature?
Hi! This is Natsumi Akita. Many people may know that news, I want to share opinions in religon with you.
In December 31st 2011, Makoto Hirata presented himself at the police station. And, Naoko Kikuchi also arrested in July 3. Please look at this movie.
It is a movie of Aum Shinrikyo. What do you think about this movie?
That recent surprising happenings seems to make Sarin gas attack on the Tokyo subway being solved. Sarin incident happened in 1995. In this case, 13 people were killed and many people got serious injuries. Even now, injured people are still suffering from damage in both physical and psychological. Not only in Japan but all over the world, there are so many incidents caused by differences in religion, for example, 9.11 and 2011 Norway attacks. 9.11 was caused by Taliban, and Norway attacks was caused by Anders Behring Breivik, who hates Muslim.
If you want to know it more, please click here. This website shows about 9.11.
I think it is very sorrow that many innocent people are killed by intolerance in religon. I think religon should be extinct because religion cause injury accidents. On the other hand, I know that humans cannot live without relying on someone like Gods. I can't say that believing in Gods is good or bad. It is difficult to prevent from happening. I want you to think about incidents caused by some religion groups.
"Time is money". This is probably one of the
most famous phraseｓ in the world, meaning that time is as valuable as money. In the movie "Time", time is really dealed with like money. But different from our world, losing money means losing your life on the spot.
In this movie, people stop growing at the age of 25. But that doesn't mean they're immortal, after reaching the age, a digital timer on their wrists go off, ticking away what amount of life they have left. If you don't want to die, you need to get time in some way. Time substitutes for money in this world, for example, you work in a factory and earn a few hours, if you want a cup of coffee, you pay a few seconds. All the time, you could see the length of your life changing. The more time you earn, the more you can live. Same thing as money, there are poor people-who never has more than a day left when they wake up-and rich people-who has lived more than a hundred years and is assured to live more-. This story is about a man, Will, who has lived in the slums all his life, but accidently got a hundred years from a man from the city. Suddenly becoming immortal, Will leaves for the city, but getting stalked for the hundred years.
What makes this movie different from others, is that the audience could know exactly how close the character is close to death. Extremely, just walking slowly will reduce life. If the clock turns to 0, it is lierally time out for the character. In the first part of the movie, a lovely young lady dies, falling down all of a sudden, as if she were a toy which ran out of batteries, a shocking scene which would stick to the audience during the whole movie.
Since losing money means losing your life, events that has money to do in them-like gambling or robbing-means much heavier than normal. It is a serious problem for the characters, but to the audience, it is even more exciting. Here, Will's character works strongly to the situation. He is just a man who lived in the slums, no fighting abilities or special techniques, but just guts. Will's life risking bets gives a real shudder to the audience. But in opposite, the action scenes did not really match the movie. It looked as if they were forced to move violently. Since such an interesting setting, I think it would of been better if they put more focus on the fights of the brain. Like I wrote above, just showing the ticking away timer makes a very tense atmosphere, a much stronger one then sticking guns against each other. I really loved the idea, and it was a movie I'd like to watch if there were a 2.
The official preview of "Time". Coming to rent soon.
In December 2011, Japanese Prime Minister, Noda Yoshihiko, decided to raise consumption tax to 8% from April 2014 and to 10% from October 2015. After this decision, some of the people opposed this plan.
In this blog, I'll see this problem from two different views.
(ⅰ) Advantages of Raising Consumption Tax
There are two advantages of raising consumption tax. First one is government can tax all Japanese nation. Second one is this tax is fair for all people. Let me explain one by one. First, government can tax all Japanese nation, because everyone purchases something almost everyday. That means you pay not only for the cost price but also consumption tax. Second, this tax is fair for everyone, because this tax is proportioned to the money people spend. Shortly, more and more people use their money, more and more the government get consumption tax.
(ⅱ) Disadvantage of Raising Consumption Tax
There is one disadvantage of raising consumption tax. That is Japanese business condition could be dull. If consumption tax is raised, most of all Japanese nation (especially people who don't have much money) try to save their money, because all products are more expensive than ever. That means less money circulate through the market. This bad circulation could cause the depression.
Next, I'll show you some data about consumption tax. These data are based on the website of Ministry of Finance. The consumption tax is about 11.0% of all taxes.
Then, I'll show you another data. See the graph below.
Compared with other developed countries, Japanese consumption tax is one of the lowest rates. EU countries' consumption tax rates are very high this is because this is the duty of this union.
Lastly, I'd like to give you my opinion. I believe Japanese Government should raise consumption tax, because Japanese Government requiring lots of money to solve some problems, such as pension system and social welfare. It is sure that some people disagree with this plan, but this is the time when we should raise consumption tax.
How do you think about this problem? Do you agree with raising consumption tax?
This is data about consumption tax.
Today I would like to talk about an activity I have been enjoying and practicing for about 4 months now :Yoga. The gym I go to in Ikebukuro offers regular yoga lessons and I have been going at least twice a week in order to stay in shape.
It is also for me a way to relax and add some spirituality to my life...
Tokyo,being quite a hectic and stressful city at times,I had to disconnect from the crowd and find some time to spend in a much more calm environment.
I like to practice “relaxed”,also called “restorative” yoga the most.Unlike power yoga,
or other more intense forms of yoga,it allows the muscles to rest after a long day but also makes them more flexible and tone up the shape of the body.
Here are a few easy poses I would like to introduce you to and you can do in the comfort of your own home:
-the seated and twist (shown below) is a basic yoga pose which helps stretching the muscles from the thighs and arms. It is also a good exercise to do before going for a jog .
-The downward facing dog: I really like this pose, though its a little harder than it looks when you do it for the first time.It strenghtened the spine and stretches the calves.
-The cobra: I do this pose to work my abs inner muscles.the key is to open the chest,keep your hands flat on the mat ,feet together.
-the low lunge: streteches every muscle of the body,strengthens the arm muscles,overall a great pose if you are trying to walk with more grace and balance.
Once you have mastered the basics move,you can add a few more challenging poses to your..”repertoire”.
For me,yoga is one of the few sports which helped me sculpt my body the way I wanted it to be.
Even though this sport can be practised by everyone,I would especially recommend yoga to girls and women wanting have a more feminine shape.What is great about yoga is that unlike common muscle training which tends to "bulk up" the body ,yoga helps elongate the thighs and still enables you to build inner muscles.
The first time I tried,it did hurt but gradually,after weeks of practice and always adding new moves,my body became used to the pain.I also pair relaxed yoga with pilates or/and jogging after a yoga session to add some cardio to my workout: It is a great way to burn fat and have a leaner and toned body (which is,I have to say one of my main motivations when working out )
I hope it made some of you want to try yoga, and for those of you who already are yoga aficionados,it would be great to have a chat in order to see which poses work for you and why :D
Hope all of you have a great week,
I would also like to apologize for the blog post delay ,
There are many movies which uses time warp as a theme, so much, that time warping may well be called a classic. But I'm pretty sure that there has never been a time warp using a bathtub for the time machine. Thermae Romae has done this, grabbing many interests just from the trailer.
As expected, the movie was a great comedy. Viewing the movie as a time slip, it was the good old "if a man from the past comes to our time". But, the movie does not show the familiar "man from the past being overwhelmed by the future city" or anything like it at all. This is because the Roman who came from the past, only cares about Japanese bathtubs. He is dead serious, trying to understand the mechanism of our bathtubs, but to us who are watching, each of his actions are just funny. This situation, and Abe Hiroshi`s sincere acting(his body is very muscular, like a Roman) created an endless laugh in the theatre.
But, there were some disappointing points, especially the climax. A contrast to the comedy of the first half, it was mostly serious. To the audience who were being excited, to what hilarious thing the Roman was going to do next, the last half may have lowered their tension. Though, thinking this movie's story from a manga which is not finished, I think there is a need to admit that it was a clean ending.
