Kingdom of Spain; Kingdom of Festivals Shoko Miyagishi

Festival is an event that makes every people happy and enjoyable by participating. It usually occurs annually, which each of them is different and unique depending on countries. Kingdom of Spain, located on Iberian Peninsula, is a country known for festival kingdom. Fiesta, means festival in Spanish, is not only very popular among people in Spain, but also famous and popular among the people across the world. In the first blog, I would talk about one of Spain’s festival. Of many celebrations that exist in Spain, Las Fallas is one of the festivals that is well-known and thus a traditional events commenced and organized annually during March by the cooperation of people of Valencia and the Valencia Community.

In English, Las Fallas means fire. The name of the festival is very simple since they use fire to celebrate the event. Las Fallas, or fire festival, takes place in Valencia. Valencia is one of the prefectures of Spain and the name of the celebration derived from Valencian language. This even is a celebration of commemorating Saint Joseph, a father of Jesus Christ. Las fallas continues for 5 days (Spain Travel Guide). During these days, people gather for parties and enjoy throwing fireworks.

Nitos is the huge monument or puppet used at this festival. It is indispensable items in the Las Fallas. The nitos are creates according to the theme. The group is formed of variety of artisans, sculptures, and painters who contribute large amount of time constructing this huge puppet. Las Fallas is composed of three processions, which are historical, religious, and comedic processions (Euro Residents). Each procession is very outstanding that catch people’s eyes.

The festival begins from 8:00 am every morning with brass bands marching downs streets. At 2:00 pm, fireworks with decorations are displayed to the observers. After ten days, the event called L’Ofrena floral takes place. In this event, each monument, known as fallas, receives an offering of flowers to Saint Mary (Wikipedia, 2012).

La Crema is probably the most famous event happens in the festival of Las Fallas. What happens is that on March 19^th, all fallas are burnt with fire in the midnight. The name comes from the word “crema” which means to burn down or burning. La Crema is the climax of the celebration and is the end of Las Fallas. The fireman in the last douse water to houses that were placed near where fallas were burnt to make sure fire does not spread to houses (Wikipedia, 2012).

The history of Las Fallas is still not certain. There are many other suppositions however; the most convincing fact is that it began during the Middle Ages. It was first started by the artisans who burnt disposable woods or leftovers to celebrate the coming of the spring season. As the time changed people started to combine the celebration of coming spring and commemoration of Saint Joseph (Why Go Spain). The festival plays important role for people in the Spain, particularly people in Valencia, as it is indispensable episode of their life.

"Las Fallas." Spain Travel Guide. N.p., n.d. Web. 13 June 2012.

<http://www.spanish-fiestas.com/festivals/las-fallas/>.　　

"LAS FALLAS." LAS FALLAS. N.p., n.d. Web. 13 June 2012.

<http://www.euroresidentes.com/Fiestas/fallas.htm>.

"Festival in Valencia: Las Fallas." WhyGo Spain. N.p., n.d. Web. 13 June 2012.<http://www.spaintravelguide.com/festival-in-valencia-las-fallas.html>.

Less is alot More? Maybe. Jasmine

Let’s see… What is Spatial Design? Spatial design is the design of human environment, anywhere and everywhere we live in. It incorporates the aspects of interior design, architecture, urban design, landscape design, as well as public art. Well, the list goes on.

Traditionally, when designers deal with spaces, they stick to their field of specialty. That is, if you are an interior designer, there is no means for you to care about what the exterior façade looks like. Spatial design is a relatively new discipline that gives designers more rooms to explore the cross boundaries of traditional design discipline as mentioned. [1]

In the design world, every single designer has got his or her own design philosophy, or rather, his or her own design principle. E.g. Japanese are known to be simple yet sophisticated (generally when it comes to spatial design). Why is it so? Looking into their rich history of their architecture forms and culture, it is not difficult to relate how Japanese architects and designers develop their own principles. Take for example the Zen garden and Ikebana. Both are in their simplest form of presentation and yet produce breathtaking results.

In another words, Less is More.

Lets look into 2 very young architects' work. They are really outstanding in the current design world. 

This is a stand-alone cafe designed by Tanijiri Makoto, named Cafe la Miell located at Niihama, Ehime. The whole design form is so simple that it can easily be identified as a landmark. It is just an enlarged triangular-shaped cafe, yet it has its own impact.

However design is never simple. There is always a reason why the orientation is in this placing instead of the other way round.

Since the cafe needed parking, the wall facing the car is completely opaque, yet, as customer turn the corner, the cafe's dominant concrete components part allow light to flood into the seat area. From the inside, the dialogue between the heavy concrete and the open glass create a pleasant setting to enjoy a coffee. [2]  

 Image taken from official website of Suppose design office

Such design may be simple, but it is absolutely not boring. This form of design reflects deeply on what does it mean by less is more.  

Ever wonder about living in such an "opened space"? This is a house designed by Fujimoto Sou, a home for two + a dog. Imagine the house to be like a...hmmm... cabbage? With 3 layers of shells nesting between one another. The outermost shell covers the entire premise, creating a semi-secluded garden. [3]

Second shell encloses a space interconnected to the outermost shell. You can always enjoy your garden while having afternoon tea on your dining table.

Image taken from Archdaily

Last but not least, the third layer is definitely the interior space where the owners build their lives in.

Design rationale from the architect:
That is why life in this house resembles to living among the clouds. A distinct boundary is nowhere to be found, except for a gradual change in the domain. One might say that an ideal architecture is an outdoor space that feels like the indoors and an indoor space that feels like the outdoors. In a nested structure, the inside is invariably the outside, and vice versa. My intention was to make an architecture that is not about space nor about form, but simply about expressing the riches of what are `between` houses and streets. [4]

While not all designers adopt the same design principle due to their background and culture. But we do see the how it greatly influent their creativity into approaching design. Less is more

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[1] Spatial Design (n.d.). In Wikipedia. Retrieved June 12, 2012, from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spatial_design

[2] Cafe la miel (n.d.). In Hidden Treasure Magazine. Retrieved June 12, 2012, from http://www.hiddentreasuresmag.com/index.php/architecture/1210-architecture-cafe-la-miel-japan
[3] House N/Sou Fujimoto (2011, September 14). In Archdaily. Retrieved June, 12, 2012, from http://www.archdaily.com/7484/house-n-sou-fujimoto/
[4]Ibid.

“Home-Grown Terrorism” - the issue facing international society By Yukako

By Yukako Ikeoze

I’ll share curious news happening in the international society in this blog. This time is to be home-grown terrorisms. Have you guys heard of this kind of terrorisms before? When I knew about this issue for the first time, I did feel so curious to start researching more about this.

What is home-grown terrorism? It is the terrorisms done in a certain country by the own countrymen. Offenders terrorize in their home countries where they have grown up. They, who are citizens or residences of Western countries, are terrorizing not as a group but as an individual by being inspired the idea of sword. In detail, there are three categories in home-grown terrorists which are immigrants and visitors, the second or third generation members from the Muslim community and converting to Islam. Though they have no formal connections with any terrorist groups in many cases, they get brainwashed easily to attack their homelands because of the great temptations and recruitments by using the extremist videos and materials on website. As we know, website is being very common in our lives and easy to get information. Using this trend of the social network, terrorist organizations are widely spreading their ideas such as on Facebook or Youtube. More strategically, targeting younger generations, they themselves make hip-hop songs or videos calling to join al Shabaab, a terrorist group in Somalia which has connections with al-Qaeda. Those activities are known as cyber-jihad. Thus, there are ways or resources to support for acts of terrorisms more than we know.

Here are cases regarded as home grown terrorisms. On November 2009, the serious home-grown terrorism was occurred in the U.S. An American psychiatrist called Major Nidal Malik Hasan, a son of Palestine immigrants, killed 12 people as well as 31 wounded at the army base in Texas. Also about three years ago, as many as twenty young Somali Americans in the U.S. disappeared suddenly. The young Somali Americans went back to Somalia, their father land, and learned how to use weapons in war-torn Somalia. As staying there, they were greatly attempted and brainwashed to be home-grown terrorists.

Recalling the 9/11 and the death of Osama bin Laden, the fear of the terrorisms were thought to be gotten rid of from people’s minds in the U.S. They might have felt relieved because of the end of the period, terrorism. However it still seems to me that people have to pay attention carefully to terrorisms even after 9/11 and the death of the al Qaeda leader Osama Bin Laden since there is high risk of influences being homegrown terrorisms. That means that terrorism still remains in the international society and will be increasing in the future, according to the analysis done by Alley Pregulman and Emily Burke from the CSIS (Center for Strategic and International Studies) saying “On the basis of current trends, in the coming years the homegrown movement will likely grow in size and scope while experiencing an overall shift in its composition.” 

Although what I wrote here is only part of the information about home-grown terrorisms, I am quite surprised at the facts that the society is still in tension because of the “home-grown” terrorists. This problem should not be ignored to stabilize the safety in the international society.

Work cited

Kimberley L. Thachuk, Marion E. “Spike” Bowman, and Courtney Richardson. (2008). The homegrown terrorism the threat within. Retrieved from http://www.ndu.edu/CTNSP/docUploaded/DTP%2048%20Home%20Grown%20Terrorism.pdf

Stragetic and international studies, Retrieved from http://csis.org/files/publication/120425_Pregulman_AQAMCaseStudy7_web.pdf

 McNabb, D. (n.d.). Terror suspect due in court in st. paul on friday. Retrieved from http://internationalextraditionblog.com/2011/08/11/terror-suspect-due-in-court-in-st-paul-on-friday/

Joshua , P. (2010). Homegrown terrorism reflects the changing tactics of al-qaeda. Retrieved from http://www.theepochtimes.com/n2/united-states/homegrown-terrorism-reflects-the-changing-tactics-of-al-qaeda-31520.html

The Image taken from http://www.google.co.jp/imgres?um=1&hl=ja&rlz=1C1_____jaJP486JP487&biw=1517&bih=674&tbm=isch&tbnid=zG4j0Mw6a1tJ3M:&imgrefurl=http://breakthematrix.com/latest/as-obama-moves-against-homegrown-terrorists-it%25E2%2580%2599s-time-to-read-the-fine-print/&docid=wEeQ6y0GCV919M&imgurl=http://breakthematrix.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/05/terr.jpg&w=300&h=225&ei=f6_cT9DlE6atiAfc38m7Cg&zoom=1&iact=hc&vpx=1242&vpy=327&dur=465&hovh=146&hovw=200&tx=166&ty=55&sig=100802066155305500798&page=1&tbnh=141&tbnw=193&start=0&ndsp=20&ved=1t:429,r:12,s:0,i:104

Was globalization necessary for Japan? by Nachika

Japan, a past introvert country, has changed very much after the sudden interaction from outside world. Amazingly, it is now one of the leading country in trading and technology；there isn’t any glimpse of the past Japan now. By viewing the history, we can observe how Japan has changed and what sort of effect it had received. However, adaptation of new trends from outside worlds lead to Japan lose very much of its national tradition. With many of their traditions lost, can we still consider the globalization of Japan a positive effect?

Japan, in the past, have cut out foreign affairs due to an assumption that influences from outside world will cause corruption to their country. However, Meiji Restoration was a turning point of Japan’s modernization. After the arrival of Perry, Japan was shocked with how much they were behind with technology. Finally at 1870, the leaders of Japan had decided to catch up with the west; the beginning of the modernization of Japan. It began with simple improvement such as: building railroads, land reforming, and improving conditions of the roads. The biggest improvement was seen in the field of education. The government will send many students abroad for education and hire thousands of English speakers to teach at schools of Japan. After this restoration, many got the chance to gaining education at school.

The contractions with the outside world gave both positive and negative effects. By having connections with the outside world, it gave Japan an improvement in language, new influences in culture, and adaptation of new religion however; it took away much uniqueness from Japan.

English, a widely spoken language in the world, is very well used in Japan today. Language is one of the biggest effects Japan has received from connecting with the outside world. Also, as well as the language, many foreigners are living today at Japan; having foreigners at Japan was unimaginable. Having diversity of people at Japan can be classified as one of the significance which the modernization had led to.

On the other hand the biggest lost which Japan had been culture and nationalism. In the present day we would hardly see people wearing Kimono (Japan’s national clothing) or have Chon mage (Japan’s traditional haircut.) The reason is definitely due to the influence of west. As Japan adapted new tradition, it took over national traditions and in the modern day of Japan we can only see several that are still being practice.

              Through observation, I thought the globalization of Japan was very positive. By opening the door to the outside world, Japan was possible to gain new technology. If the interference with the outside world was slower than now, then the massive power which Japan possesses right now would not be present. Majority of the items we use in our daily life and even the people around us will be completely different therefore, I can conclude that globalization have given a great impact in a positive way.

Accepting new ideas offered Japan to lose many traits however, the changes which Japan went through were essential. I believe the globalization of Japan with the outside world was indeed important.  

Nachika Fujimoto

Introduction to Baton Twirling - Mizuki

Introduction to Baton Twirling           

                                                                                                                         Mizuki Kuwahara

             Baton twirling is a sport, involving dance with sticks that have two rods on the both ends. Although I quit the baton team in University, I still love baton twirling and I eager to tell and show everyone to what baton twirling is!

  

       (Brief History) The origin of Baton Twirling comes from traditional dance in East Europe and Asia, which was danced with knifes, rifles, torches and sticks to twirl and toss. I think you have seen the dancer who has stick with fire on the both ends and that is a kind of origin of baton twirling. Also, army marches and marching bands, they use rifles or fake rifles which have shape of rifle but made from plastics, and there is no place to put bullet in. In Marching Band there is a conductor, who has a long stick and moves it up and down to conduct the music and there are many color guards and flags that the members of the marching band throw it with the accompaniment to the music. These kinds of things effect to the invention of the baton twirling.

(Parts of a Baton) Baton consists from three parts: shaft, which is metal stick part, and ball and tip which are both end have these rubber weight. There is many length of shaft, we usually use baton which is same length as arm. Therefore we can enjoy baton twirling from little children to adults and change our baton to longer one when we grown up. Ball is little heavier than tip and this little difference in weight makes baton to twirl well when we throw it and keeps in good looks when we twirling it.

(Associations) Each countries have own associations in the country, however there are big two associations: World Baton Twirling Federation (WBTF) which was established in 1977 because of the increasing of the number of baton twirler population, and World Twirling Association (WTA) that conduct World Baton Championships and International Cup. In 1980, the first World Championship was held in Seattle, Washington, and nowadays usually it is held in once in a year in August. The members of WBTF are: “Australia, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, Catalonia, Croatia, England, France, Germany, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Netherlands, Norway, Scotland, Seychelles, Slovenia, South Africa, Sweden, Switzerland and the United States”(Wikipedia). Members of the WTA are: “Australia Belgium, Bulgaria, Canada, Croatia, Czech Republic, England, France, Germany, Holland, Ireland, Italy, Norway, Romania, Russia, Scotland, Slovenia, Spain, Estonia, Japan Slovenia and South Africa” (Wikipedia). I was surprised because there are no Korea and China and Asian country is just Japan and some African countries are involved in. These shows baton twirling is still not a major sport in the world, I guess.

(Style) Do you think baton twirling is just for girls and women? No, it is not true. As same as ballet dancer, gymnastics, and figure skating, there are boys and men baton twirlers. Majer C. W. Booth is an American man and first person who spread baton twirling is. He went many countries, performed there and spread baton twirling. However the WWII began therefore men had to go to army and women twirler population was increased. There are many kinds of competitive events in baton twirling. Solo freestyles or compulsory with one baton, Two baton, Three baton, Team and Pair. Each event performance is about three and half minute inside the 25m×15m (for team) area and it sounds like easy to keep dancing that long. However actually it is really use muscles and moves a lot, so it is said baton twirler use same power during the performance as when we run 800m with the speed as fast as the we can.

Next post will be about “Baton Twirling and Me”.

Resources: Wikipedia, Baton twirling　 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baton_twirling

           ウィズバトンネット、バトンとは？　http://www.wis-baton.net/baton.html

Fashion in Japan by Kunika

Fashion, it is the popular and the latest style of clothing, hairs, make-ups or decoration. This style differs in every countries, ages or people. There are lots of fashion magazines that have been published for different generations, sexes in each countries or style of clothing. In the following blogs, I would like to introduce the styles of clothing or make-ups in each country and how people in each nations dress. For this first blog, I would like to introduce fashion in Japan from my point of view.

Sherbet Colour  that are the example on this picture below; light blue, light pink, light yellow, light orange, light purple is trend in this year spring and summer in Japan. These are lighter than Pastel Colour, and this colour seems like warmer and it is suitable for spring and summer. Moreover, because we had huge earthquake, tsunami and nuclear disaster in Tohoku Japan on March 11^th, in order to encourage Japan and wish for its happiness, the Sherbet Colour was introduced. After its introduced, many brands sold Sherbet Coloured products such as clothes, accessories, shoes, bags or even stationaries. Also, people get nails done with Sherbet Colour as you can see from the picture below. In addition, The light colours that are close to white is psychologically considered to help people to be active and happy. Therefore Sherbet Colour became this year spring and summer trend in Japan.

 

                                        

I think fashion in Japan always get some impacts by other countries. For example, there are a lot of brands in foreign countries such as H&M, Forever 21, Abercrombie and Fitch, Hollister or ZARA came and opened shops in Japan. Because of that, Japanese people tend to like to wear simple clothes that people in western countries wear. There are many men from different ages (from teenage boys to 40 or 50 years old men) who are wearing Abercrombie and Fitch’s T-shirts or Polo shirts in Kyoto. Also, for women, H&M, ZARA and Forever 21 became popular in Japan. The shops of H&M and ZARA in Osaka or Kyoto are always crowded.

Giving another example, there are magazines that feature some celebrities from foreign countries in these days. One magazine picked up the fashion model from Australia, Miranda Kerr who is on the commercial of a beverage, Lipton. The Magazine introduced her style of clothing, and according to the magazine, Her style of clothing is very simple but fashionable. In the picture on the left side, she is just wearing black skinny pants and white shirt, really simple but somehow she looks stylish. According to the magazine, by doing buttons of the white shirt all the way up, and tacking the white shirt into the black pants, it look more formal like an adult woman. Also, by adding accessories like bags and sunglasses in left side picture, it will be more fashionable but not just simple. Furthermore, in my point of view, she is wearing the pants which lengths are both at the length of ankle, and it makes legs seem like longer. Also, in the picture, she wears clothes with only black and white colour, and matches with sunglasses and bag, which makes look more formal such as an adult woman.

This is some of the trends and styled introduced in magazines and fashion shows in Japan. I like these sherbet colours and style like Miranda Kerr. How about you? Do you like these? Do you boys like girls wearing these sherbet colours or the style of Miranda kerr? Do you girls like this colours and style?

References

http://trendy.nikkeibp.co.jp/article/column/20120229/1039858/?ST=life&P=2

http://matome.naver.jp/odai/2133162349439595301/2133168964042260303

http://oxforddictionaries.com/definition/trend?q=trend

“BRENDA”

Observation of Japan’s Craftsmanship through ‘poppoya’ by Young Ah Kim

Winter in Hokkaido can be very harsh. Wind is whipping everything and blowing fiercely. There is anything nothing but snow. The young of this small town already have gone to the cities to find a job. The only thing that remains here is the train which is the only means connected to the outside of the world. And there is one man on the platform. 

    This movie is about ‘Oto’ who is working in the train station. He works everyday even when his daughter as well as his wife was dead. During the funeral of his wife, someone blamed him and said, ‘Don’t you feel sad? Then can you even pretend to be, at least? Any tears?’. He could not answer at first easily, but soon he took his hat off and said, “I’m poppoya. Poppoyas never cry.” 

    Poppoya, the title of this movie, means railroad man. Oto spent whole his life on the train. He rejects the comfortable life, such as the invitation from his friend who has already quit this job and transferred to resort service. His friend thinks Oto is being inflexible. Whether his friend complains or not, he works without saying anything.

Japan’s craftsmanship is well known in the world. It is hard to find that three generations do the same job in the world except in Japan. Where does this spirit come from? The scholars said, After Meiji period, there is no demand for Samurais. As the war was over, no one needed them anymore.[1] Therefore they needed to find another way in order to survive. It was learning new skills, being an artisan or craftsman of paodeCastella(カステラ), sponge cake. Among hundreds of thousands of Samurais, competition was very fierce wanting to be selected as a successor. So they had no choice but to work very hard.

Also, Japan’s traditional values’ of the job can be described as ‘ant’[2]. Even though the work is hard, they work for tomorrow and their family. You might wonder about Oto’s act why he did not leave the platform even his wife was sick. To give him an excuse, we should understand that he was also one of the people from ‘Dankai’ generation who are only engaged in their work and not really allowed to express their emotion. However, he shows love for his family indirectly by doing his best at work. When Oto went to his wife’s grave, his friend asked him to move persistently. His friend finally gave up when he found the Oto’s name next to his wife’s on the grave. Oto looked at his friend and said, “I will work until the end on this land where my wife ended her life.”

The movie finishes with showing the end of Oto’s life. His cold body was found at the platform. Some guessed that he was shoveling snow as he always did. Someone might regard his life as meaningless. Yes, the job of train driver might not be a really high standard job from the perspective of the society. However, I am sure he had a good life. Not only him, but also the one who has proud of his job and exert oneself to the utmost every time, even it seems to be unworthy and insignificant, I strongly believe they made the basement of the present of Japan.





 

[3]

Title : Poppoya,　鉄道員（ぽっぽや）(1999)

Director : Yasuo Furuhata

Cast : Ken Takakura, Ryoko Hirosue

Music Department : Ryuichi Sakamoto

This movie acquired thirteen awards including director of the year from the 23^rd of the Japan Academy Prize in 2000.[4]

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[1]　Craftsmanship in the world (n.d.). Retrieved June 15, 2012, from　http://kin.naver.com/qna/detail.nhn?d1id=6&dirId=6130203&docId=137209874&qb=7J2867O4IOyepeyduOygleyLoA==&enc=utf8&section=kin&rank=1&search_sort=0&spq=0&pid=g9rApF5Y7vssstzvKu8ssc--432266&sid=T9ripiXQ2k8AABzDDdk

[2] Kim, G. (2007). 일본 대학생의  직업의식에  관한  연구, [Research: Perspectives of Jobs by Japanese University Students], p.817

[3] Image taken from http://www.amazon.co.jp/%E9%89%84%E9%81%93%E5%93%A1-%E3%81%BD%E3%81%A3%E3%81%BD%E3%82%84-DVD-%E9%99%8D%E6%97%97%E5%BA%B7%E7%94%B7/dp/B00005Q8DM

[4] The 23^rd of winner list of Japan Academy Prize(n.d.). Retrieved June 15, 2012. From http://www.japan-academy-prize.jp/prizes/?t=23