U.S.A where the MLB and base ball were created-No.7

Masakazu Kimura

     Since I decided my topic for blog as “MLB”, I just introduced about MLB and some famous teams in MLB. However, I want to introduce my favorite Japanese player who challenged to MLB and succeed. The person who I want to introduce is Hideki Matsui (松井秀樹).

    

     He is very famous baseball player in Japan and all Japanese has to know who he is. Some foreign people who are curious to MLB or Japanese baseball league know about him. He is Japanese baseball player who used to play in Tokyo Giants (東京ジャイアンツ) and moved to New York Yankees which is the most famous team in MLB. Because he was Japanese power batter and hit a lot of HR, he was called “Gozila コジラ” from MLB fans.

     He was born in 1974 and started playing baseball when he was 6 years old. By having big and strong physique, he was put in over 3^rd grade team when he was 1^st grade. Matsui is saying “I obtain power and became strong batter by practicing hard and eating meat every day ”. Other than baseball, he played Sumou(相撲), Zyudo(柔道), and Piano as well. When he played baseball in Koushien(甲子園), he hit huge HR which the ball flew high and hit the back screen of Koushien stadium. The manager of Giants was watching his play and decided to offer to Tokyo Giants. When he just became professional baseball player, he could not remain good score, so he practiced as hard as he can, more than anyone else. Thus, his play became better and better and finally in 2000 when he was 26 years old, he received brilliant awards like “home run king”, “top RBI (Run Batted In) hitter”, “top OBP (On Base percentage) leader”, “Season MVP”, “Japan series MVP”, and “Golden Glove Award”. His score was 42 HR, 108 RBI. He was satisfied with his score in Japan, so he decided to challenge to MLB in 2003, when he was 29 years old. He was lucky that he could transfer to NYY and he became the first Japanese man entered to NYY. His score was not excellent at first, but by overcoming his weak point with his team mate, he became much stronger batter. He remained his achievement in NYY and in 2009, he hit 3 HR and marked 8 points in World Series, so he became the MVP of World Series.

    

     However, his condition went worse and he moved to Los Angeles Angels (ALL) in 2010. He was 36 years old at that time. He remained good score, but because he could satisfied with his score, he decided to move to another team Oakland Athletics.

     

     In 2012 December 28, he opened a press interview in hotel located in NYC and declared to finish his baseball life. He was 38 years old. Matsui said “I played as hard as I can and tried my best for 10 years. My goal was always to show my real power to everyone including my fans. However, I cannot remain good score anymore and I don’t feel I can achieve my goal anymore. I want to go back to Japan and continue playing baseball, but I want to finish my baseball life in U.S.A. Thank you for supporting me until now, especially my fans and family and my former teacher 長嶋茂雄”. He was crying when he declared retirement and all his fans cried also when they heard this new. I also felt sadness. Matsui, because you put hard efforts to baseball, we got energy from you. Thank you very much and nice job! お疲れ様.

    

The Rules of Basketball-Jake

         For my last blog of this semester, I would like to focus on the rules of basketball for those of you do not know about the basketball. Many people think that the rule of basketball is really difficult. However, it is not difficult if you just read my blog post.

         The basketball rules have been changed over time. However, the important principles remain the same. The team that has the ball is the offense and the opposing team is the defense. The offense has to get the ball through the opposing team’s basket as much as possible and the defense has to stop them from getting the ball into their basket. The offense positions the players to take a shot, that is, throw the ball through the hoop. In the defense positions players block these shots. The dimensions of the basketball court and other equipment vary based on the level of play.

         There are 5 players each playing on the court. Though the team can have more than five players, only five of them are allowed on court at a time. Reserve players basketball can enter the game through a process called substitution.

         There are five positions on a traditional basketball team: point guard, shooting guard, power forward, small forward, and centre. Traditionally, home teams wear light colored jerseys with their mascot name, while the visiting teams wear dark colored jerseys displaying the name of the city or college.

         The ball can be thrown or passed in any direction, but once ball has crossed mid-court, it cannot be passed behind the mid-court line unless touched by a defensive player first. Defensive players can block a shot while it is on its upward path to the basket. A player must dribble or pass the ball and not run with it. The ball can be held in hands or the arms of the player.

         The player cannot use his body to hold the ball or to block the ball from getting to a player or going in the net. A player can be thrown out of a game for intent to injure. After five fouls in a quarter a team is in the penalty and the fouled team can shoot two free throws. A player cannot touch the rim when the ball has been shot and is on its way into the basket.

         If a player does not throw the ball within five seconds, the ball is turned over to the other team. A player who is in-bounds must pass, shoot or dribble within five seconds or he will lose possession of the ball. Separate timekeepers monitor the game clock and check substitute players into a game. A scorekeeper keeps the statistics of a game, such as the score, individual statistics and fouls. More importantly, Offense players can possess the ball within 24 seconds once they got a ball to offense. Basketball games are divided into 4 quarter and every quarter include 12 minute to play.

The duration between the first-second and third-fourth periods is about 130 seconds. The halftime break is 15 minutes between the two halves. The team with the most points at the end of the game wins.

If a game is tied, it goes into overtime, which continues until one team has more points at the end of a five-minute overtime period. The player foul limit is 6. The fifth foul per period is a bonus free throw. Five players, three defensive and two offensives are permitted on the free throw lane. There are 6 full and 120 second per half timeouts both in a televised and non-televised game

        This is much about the basketball game. Many of you will not have an interest on basketball. But I want to tell many of you that basketball is not just a game that we are just watching. It is something that we can learn the cultures all over the world. In my opinion, I honestly learned lots of cultures and made lots of friends through this basketball especially when I was in Singapore. I was in school basketball team and I learned something that I did not expect at all which is friend. I hope you can have more interest in basketball or any other sports to learn something new that you have never experienced in your life.

lesson of the day

“Your degree is empty when you have learn nothing” 
-Stan Tan-

Euthanasia: The Alternate Solution

Written by Timothy See Wen Hao

*This post was deleted by someone but luckily I retrieved this copy from the cache.

In my previous post, I have discussed the possible implications that might arise from the legalisation of euthanasia in general and the difficulties in determining who should be allowed to be euthanised. It is important for us to fully understand the negative impacts of allowing people to opt for euthanasia but like many other issues, there are tangible benefits and positive outcomes of it.


Palliative care is a popular form of healthcare where patients, both with curable diseases and terminal illnesses, are provided a form of relieve and prevention from suffering. It covers a large spectrum of care, namely physical, emotional, social and spiritual aid that is crucial for patients suffering from an illness. It is not a treatment for the illness itself and the goal is to improve the quality of life for the patient during the course of the illness until full recovery or the death of the patient. This is not to be confused with hospice care where patients are those with terminal illnesses and generally have less than 6 months to live. However, hospice care similarly aims to improve the quality of life of the patients.


Many have argued that with the wide availability of hospice and palliative care, euthanasia is not required at all and that it is very much an inferior choice. I do not seek to argue that one is better than the other as I fully agree they palliative care is a very important and crucial component of treatment for a patient suffering from a severe illness, terminal or not. However, I do want to bring forth the possible cost savings and reduction in emotional trauma to both the patient and the people around him/her with euthanasia.


Euthanasia allows the patient to determine and choose the moment he/she wishes to seek an end to life and the suffering he/she is undergoing. With a foreseeable end, it allows the patient to in a sense, have control over his life instead of having it end abruptly on a undetermined estimation of date and time. It allows the patient to die in a tranquil setting in the company of family and friends, properly with dignity instead of through suffering and pain of the illness. It offers a setting where a the patient and his loved ones can bid farewell instead of the uncertainty of the patient's death.[1] In this case, it will be extremely cruel to deny the patient an opportunity to make a proper closure to his/her life, both for the sake of the patient and his/her family's interest.


Engaging in palliative care can be financially taxing on the patient's family and the nation's healthcare resource. In 2009, Medicare in the United States chalked up US$55 billion in healthcare bills for terminally ill patients in their last 2 months of life.[2] On top of that, an article on CNN stated that "the out-of-pocket expenses for Medicare recipients during the five years before their death averaged about $39,000 for individuals, $51,000 for couples, and up to $66,000 for people with long-term illnesses...".[3] It is undeniable that palliative care and end-of-life healthcare costs are heavy on the state and individuals. Despite such heavy expenditure on trying to improve the quality of life of those who are terminally ill, the tangible benefits are minimal at best for most of the patients. I am not arguing that they are a burden to the society but we must take into consideration that many of these patients have questioned whether it is better off for everyone should they have the option of physician-assisted suicide. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to see that the USD$3000 of PAS is a cheaper option as compared to palliative care.



[1] What is the Great Benefit of Legalizing Euthanasia or Physician-Assisted Suicide?, Ezekiel J. Emanuel. Ethics, Vol. 109, No.3, pp. 629-642. April 1999. The University of Chicago Press.
[2] The cost of keeping the terminally ill alive, Richard Meyer. kevidMD.com. Retrieved from http://www.kevinmd.com/blog/2010/12/cost-keeping-terminally-ill-alive.html
[3] Cutting the high cost of end-of-life care, Penelope Wang. CNNmoney. Retrieved from http://money.cnn.com/2012/12/11/pf/end-of-life-care-duplicate-2.moneymag/index.html

Transportations in Korea

      Transportation in Korea

Merely over a century before, people would use horses as an important method of transportation. After the 19th century, there have been developed the car, the train, and the airplane. Each one has different proposes.

Vehicles are divided into three parts. One is a private car, another is a bus and the other is a taxi. It has been common that almost every family has a car. It also has become a must-have item to live in a modern life. We use cars to go to work, shop, and travel. Sometimes, people use cars to attract girls.

Recently, the oil price has been soared. So many people start not to use their own cars to commute to work and travel around. People start to use the public transportation which is cheaper and more convenient than the cars. Many people ride buses and subways to go to school and work in almost every country and use trains to go travel.  

The taxi is usually used by a single person. Therefore the expense is more expensive than other transportation  As it does not have the fixed route to follow, it can go anywhere passengers want to go. So people who are in a hurry use cabs a lot.

Another the good point of the taxi is that we can call a taxi company and reserve a taxi. It is different from other transportation  People should go designated stations to take them. But people can hail a taxi in any places. 사진) 

However, in Korea, there are many bad points that cabs drivers sometimes refuse for passengers to get in.

The taxi drivers don’t want the passengers who will go nearby or non-busy places.

For foreigners who especially don’t know the way well, they can become victims of ripping off the taxi fare. Taxi drivers can go around to the destination and charge them higher price.

Buses are used as a non-individual transportation so the fare is cheaper.

The bad point is that it does not go short cut. Since it has the designated route to follow, it takes time to go somewhere. Even though there are many different bus routes, there is a place where a bus still does not go. So people are at the pains of taking the public transportation. They should walk or ride a bicycle to transfer other transportation.

In a rush hour, it might be too difficult to get on the bus at once.

If a person misses the crowded bus, due to the bus intervals, the next bus is also packed with people. I had experienced not to take a bus for about 30 minutes.

Each transportation has advantages and disadvantages. It could be chosen after considering the situation. I recommend not taking a taxi in a rush hour in Korea. It is much more convenient to use buses and subways.

Car and movie

Car and movie

Many people like to watch  movies. And in the movie many cars are shown. By this, many cars became popular after shown up in the single movie. In mission impossible series, 007 series, transformer series and cars (animation) each movie has a main car in that story.

Usually in the action movie, it is hard to find without the car action scene. Therefore in most action movie, the main characters usually have their own special car. And those cars are became hot issue when it shows up. Sometimes car companies are having a competition to sponsor their car in the movie.

. And it has close relation between car and advertising.

In the movie, such as 007, it is also popular about the car with special weapons. In that movie, the BMW, Jaguar, Aston Martin, Lotus and many other cars were shown. Some people watch the 007 series movie to see new car with unbelievable weapons.

.

Even in the animation movie, the car is the main character. In the movie which name is The Car, the story is about the race and friendship. In that movie we can recognize there are different characters with different car companies. In Car2,

In this movie, a company with high fame gets high rank character in the movie. But it does not mean by main character. In one scene, the UK was a background. As you know, the queen and prince has high authority in real world. So the Rolls-Royce car was a queen and Bentley was a prince in the movie. As I mentioned previous blog, the Rolls-Royce and Bentley is one of the most famous and luxury car brand in the world. Also those companies are UK company

In ironman1 and 2 Stark, who is the main character, ride the Audi showed their super car, which is known as R8. And not only in ironman series had Audi R8 also showed up in the transformer. Sadly, it has shown only few scenes and it was killed…… (I felt so sad since that car was my favorite car) The transformer is one of the famous action movies in the world. The main characters which is auto bots are based on the cars. By that movie, the Camarro which is made by Chevrolet company, it became very popular sports car after the movie. 

Thus when people even watch a movie, the car has important role in the movie.

image searched in Google.

Hate Crime

 

Satona Kato

 

“I pushed a Muslim off the train tracks because I hate Hindus and Muslims ever since 2001 when they put down the twin towers I’ve been beating them up.”

 

This is what woman who was charged with murder as a crime in a fatal subway push said to police. In December 27, 2012, a 31 years-old woman pushed a man onto the tracks of an elevated subway station in U.S. and the man was crushed by an oncoming train. The woman, Erika Menendez, selected her victim because she believed him to be a Muslim or a Hindu. Officials said she conflated the Muslim and Hindu faiths. She probably decided the target by appearance.

Such kinds of crime are called hate crime. Hate crime is not occurred only about religion. Hate crimes occur when a perpetrator targets a victim because he or she is the member of a certain social group, include race, religion, disability, ethnicity, and gender. We can divide this crime. Some of these crimes are caused by hatred from perpetrator’s experience and memories. And others are caused by hatred from perpetrator’s mind that wants to bully weak people. The case I wrote at the first part is the former. The memory of 9.11 gave her the strong hatred toward Muslim people. These cases are difficult to avoid because it is difficult to reduce one’s hatred by explain or discussion. There are little people who can keep calm and think carefully when their family or friends are killed. These pains in hearts sometime cause cruel incidents. What we can do for reducing these incidents is education through experience. We should teach strongly we must not identify people by social group, and such aggressive action lead opponent’s hostility and repeat of same tragedy when people were children through the experience. And also the knowledge helps to stop attack to innocent people. But it is question whether education can overcome the pains in hearts or not. At least, the education at present time could not do so.

 About the latter case, we can also say that the important thing is education. These cases are caused all over the world. Many people have experienced aggression, hostility, and verbal abuse because of their disability or gender. The more people in majority became not to do discriminate minority people, the less these cases are caused.

The most important thing to avoid all hate crime is to know that our hate crime lead next hate crime and that vicious circle become never ends. The teachings, “If we experience sad incident, we should avoid that another people experience same thing.”, “we must not bully minority people.” above all “We must not kill people.” ,are common things. We should have learned such thing from childhood. But the incidents are not stopped. We cannot ignore that innocent people are killed by hatred. Did the perpetrator have the place they can say own opinion? Were there person who can stop perpetrator’s behavior? We should continue to find the way to eliminate hate crime.

 

 

References

 

MARC, S. (２０１２, １２ ２９).

Woman is charged with murder as a hate crime in a fatal subway push. Retrieved from http://www.nytimes.com/2012/12/30/nyregion/woman-is-held-in-death-of-man-pushed-onto-subway-tracks-in-queens.html?_r=0

Analysis of Lolita Fashion through the Movie "Kamikaze Girls"

Although the title is kamikaze, this movie does not relate anything with the World War II. On the contrary, the story is about the main character, Momoko, who wishes to live in the world which was filled with lace, pink colours and the music of Johann Strauss. During the movie, she kept saying “I wish I was born in Rococo period”. For her, wearing this kind of clothes is only exit from her monotonous daily life.

Not only In addition to Momoko, there are more people who are crazy about this stuff. We call them as ‘lolita fashion lovers’. So-called Lolita fashion includes doll-like appearances, frilly dresses. Many accessories such as tiaras, ribbon bonnets and parasols which help them to appeal their grace are considered necessities for Lolita girls. This style obviously became popular fashion in Japanese subculture. One store which specialized on this industry recorded $13.4 million of the revenue only in one year (Yukari Iwatani, and Thomas Lisa). 

Now the question is that how this fashion attracted so many Japanese. Since Japan is well known for their harmony-loving culture, this phenomenon seems to be irrational. If we look at it into the big picture, it will all make sense.

One remarkable characteristic of Lolita girls is that they refuse to be mature. In the movie, Momoko was offered job from top fashion designer, but she declined the offer. Working means she has to be grown up. She is the typical NEET. Whole Japanese society is suffered from this new trend, NEET (Not in Employment, Education or Training).

Unlike their parents who devoted lives to the work, the NEET in Japan even does not have willing to find a job. They are ‘post-bubble’ generation. Because they saw how their parents lives changed from the ‘bubble era’ when Japan enjoyed the economy boom to endless recession. From this experience, they became skeptical to keep the same path as their parents’. Although the reaction between NEET and Momoko is slightly different, their hidden desire – prolonging the adolescence period - is same. Wearing a replica of Victorian children dress certainly gives a big relief to them.

Contrary to its’ analysis, the concept of clothes is just lively and vivacious. They do not care about how the other people look at them. They do, because they like it. What is wrong to be different? They simply overcome all the ponderous criticism with smile.

“People often choose to be unhappy to be a ‘normal’. I would rather choose which may seem to be weird but happy one” (Kamikaze Girls).

  

Works Cited

Yukari Iwatani, kane, and Thomas Lisa. "Japan's Latest Fashion Has Women Playing Princess for a Day." Wall Street Journal 20 11 2008, n. pag. Print.

Kamikaze Girls. Dir. Testuya Nakashima. Perf. Anna Tsuchiya. 2004. DVD.

The Okinawan Language

The Okinawan Language

           

            Okinawa language is very different from the Japanese language and probably only a hand full of people can understand what they are trying to say. When Okinawa people say, “How are you?” they say “ウブクンジャナシィーミシェービーティ” (ubukunnjansyemisyebeetee.) There is many more Okinawa dialect that Japanese would have any clue to figure out what it means. It is less than 200 years that Okinawa had become a part of Japan. Okinawa was previously classified as the Ryuku Island, a completely different country. This might be the reason for Okinawa having a totally different language. Then one question comes up to mind, if one country joins another (such as Okinawa joining Japan) would their language be classified as a part of the new country or would their language still is classified as a different language? Is Okinawa dialect part of Japanese language or is it totally a new language?

Is Okinawa dialect part of Japanese? Or is it not?

Examples of Okinawa dialect:

Good Morning

おはようございます (ohiyogozaimasu)

ウゥキンシェービティー (ukinnsyebitee)

Excuse me

すみません　（sumimasen)

ユシリヤビタン (yuushiriyabitan)

Thank you very much

ありがとうございます (arigatougozaimasu)

ニフェーデービル (nifedebiru)