Japanese Homeless People

I was very surprised to hear how Mr. Sato felt to be homeless and how he looked on the bright side. In the video, Mr. Sato showed his house in a park (which was made with cardboard boxes and stuff) but he said that he had his own pleasure. If I didn't have a home or money that I can spend, I think I would never be able to say its a pleasure to be homeless, but I guess I just never thought the way Mr. Sato does. It said that some people actually choose to be homeless to live free from pressure and if they can become happy by being homeless then I guess we need to understand their style of living.

Logorama

I saw logos that I always saw when I was in America. It was quite funny that the logos were fighting and arguing. The earthquake destroyed the whole city in the end, and everything was basically gone. This I think simply means that the logos and companies fight over for profits too much and in the end, they end up disappearing because they all fight over for customers and money. It sends the message that it is best not to fight over profits, otherwise everything will be destroyed.

japanese fashion

In this short film, it only mentioned Goth and Lolita fashion, so I thought that maybe foreign people who saw this film might think that all young people in Harajuku or Akibahara wear those kinda clothes but thats actually not true. :(
Well, I myself dont like those fashion, but I think it is good to introduce them as one of our culture.

Logorama

Logorama... not "Legorama" right? lol

Well, I enjoyed watching this film because it was much easier to understand than the short films we usually watch that has no words in it, and because it was funny. I thought that the world in this film represents our world today, with all those logos and advertisements everywhere. I think logos are very important since we recognize many companies w/ their logos, but like how some people said there are too much these days.

transgender

Say that you see a beautiful girl ahead and you go up to her and say hi. However she speaks in a low manly voice saying "What do you want?"..... how do you guys feel..... Well, I think the world should perish if I endcounter this situation. I know that there is nothing I can do to people who are transgender, but I think it is important to clarify whether the person is a guy or a girl clearly.

japanese homeless

This film actually changed my point of view towards homeless people in Japan. I always thought that homeless people were all living like miserably, sadly, but I found out that that was not always true. The man that were introduced in this film, seemed living happily with his brand thing. Actually, I know well of the park in Shibuya that that man was living, but now, that park has been gone and all of the homeless people who were living there are not there anymore. I wonder where that brand homeless man is...

goth loli costumes

goth-loli is one of the revolutionary combinations. It has gothic and lolita combined together. However it is goth-loli because a cute little girl wear gothic clothe. An old woman wearing gothic clothe and calls herself gothloli is not one, she is just gothic. It is fun to cosplay (I don't cosplay) for some people, so all of you guys reading this post, try cosplaying!!

Japanese homeless

Every morning I see the homeless sleeping near my gir...I meant my friend's house. I know that they are not going to do anything to her, but it always scares me. They sometimes talk to her, so I think homelss are bad for children's education and they are one of the terrors if taken the wrong way.

The Japanese homeless

The Japanese homeless person with luxury accessories was not the homeless people I usually come across on my way to and from school. As Dr Armstrong said, we the Japanese pass by them ignoring them. They are also very poor. I often see a homeless person sitting on the ground in the Machida station when I am on my way to school. However, The one whom we watched in the movie is different. He likes to put on luxury accessories and some luxury clothing. Although many homeless people seem negative, this man, as far as I am concerned, looks very positive.

Japanese fashion

The show only mentioned gothic lolitas and cosplay, so whoever watched that video may think that all Japanese people dress like that. I know it's good to have their own fashion sense but somtimes I feel that peopl should care more about what other people think. I'm not against these types of fashion though, I find it unique and interesting!

Trans Thailand

I knew Thailand had many transgendered people so I was surprised some places were still being stereotypical about it. It's good that people are speaking up and trying to get rid of any unjustified prejudice. Without anyone to voice their opinions, no body would be able to get the freedom and the rights they deserve.

Japanese Homeless People

As long as they're happy, I'm fine with it. A few weeks ago, my friends and I went to a park in Shinjuku to hang out and there were a crowd of homeless people! Like literally there were about 50 homeless people walking around! They didn't seem miserable at all, in fact, they seemed happy and looked like they were enjoying themselves. I found that hard to believe. Also in the video, the guy had a ton of brand items which he could have sold to find shelter but I guess he just likes being homeless!

homeless people

After watching this video and listening to Dr. Armstrong's point of view, I rethought about homeless people. In fact, when I found homeless people, I felt a little weird and tried not to watch them as if they didn't exist there. Maybe almost people are like me, have been thought they aren't ordinary and ignored them. But not all homeless people may be unordinary. There may be each reason why they became homeless. Moreover, the thought that homeless is the free way to live and just another life style convinced me. I've never seen it from that viewpoint. But I think that homeless people also have the rights to live under the normal standard of living like us, so Japanese government should arrange good environment for them to find any jobs and live in their home.

logorama

I really enjoyed watching this short film since there were many logos I knew.
Well, I noticed that the world I live is filled with logos, and without them, maybe we would know nothing. Logos are really important to our life, I felt.
The sad thing is that the character of McDonalds were acting a bad man. I like McDonalds especially like right now, all size, all kind of carbonated drink are 100yen and I really like those drinks :P

during summer vacation, my junior and senior highschool days' friends will come to my house. about 7 people will come and they say that they will stay in my house. I don't know how 8 people can sleep only in one room:( However, i haven't met with these members for about three months, so i have a lot of things that i want to talk with them!:)
now i have to study for the test...

Japanese Homeless people

I find it hard to believe that homeless people anywhere enjoy being homeless. I don't think its correct to say that Japanese homeless people choose to be homeless. They are usually homeless because they ran in to bad luck of one kind or another and if they were given a choice to live in a house, i'm sure they would take it. Who could possibly want to live in a park or on the street? Japanese homeless people are often people who ran out of the nessesary energy to survive in `normal' society. They are people who grew tired of trying to work and make ends meet.

Cosplay and Homeless people

Cosplay
Recently, japan is famous for anime, otaku and also cosplay. people enjoy cosplaying in Harajuku and Akiba, no matter how old they are. Japanese image has changed, but Otaku culture and cosplay culture is good chance for foreign people to take interest in Japan. so I think it is good.

Homeless people
There are a lot of homeless people in Shibuya. I often avoid homeless people, so I never thought them like this movie. but actually they may be cool.

Homeless

Just like Mr.Armstrong said,I also think that the homeless people are cool.
They are living by reusing the waste and the things that are extra in this society.
One of my friend in my highschool actually lived with the homeless for 2 weeks using his summer vacation.
At first, he said that he had a struggle looking in the garbage and getting looked at by people, but he said that once he got used to it, the homeless life is totally free, and also said that there are some hints in their life to solve the global warming.

logorama

This video was very interesting because it used a lots of logo I have seen in daily life.
But it was too difficult to me to understand why Ronald Macdonald was the roll for the viilain, and why the NorthFace was the earth when it was collpasing.
This is my prediction but maybe the author put Ronald as a villian since Macdonald foods are said to be bad for our health, and there are some social opppose against Macdonald.
But I'm not quite sure.
The only think I got from the video is that there is a strong message hidden in the video.

To Yuri

It's great that your friend is coming to see you!!!**
(Congrats to your friend for being accepted by a famous college :) )

As Eureka said, if you can't decide, i think it is good to chose yes side.

I understand that this is not an easy decision, but you may well regret anything for not even trying.. well, at least I did regret many things from the past...

I'm happy to listen to anything you want to talk to me <3

Japanese homeless people

Before watching the film, i was thinking of homeless people as not clean and don't (can't) care about their looks.
However, i guess my idea was wrong.
Mr.Saito had his style: wears a brand watch, had a nice suit for special purposes.

I agree with Kent!!
I guess every homeless people has their story of becoming a homeless and i believe many of them have themselves.
We should throw away our stereo type.

To Megumi & about brass band

Thanks for commenting on my blog :)
Although the practice is hard, I had so much fun performing for Parents' Weekend yesterday!!♪
I played saxonphone and cymbals.
I just started to practice cymbals few weeks ago and am having hard time...
However, I willl keep working on it for a competition in summer#
I guess I'm gonna be a MACHO by the end of the summer!! lol

Trans Thailand.

This video was about a man who got himself transgendered into a proper lady. Just because one comes from some unique background does never mean he is socially lower than others. I myself have a mate who comes from such background. He is quite fun to be around. He has not yet got himself transgendered since he himself has some kind of concerns. Therefore they should never be underestimated just because of their unique background.

Japan Anime Culture, Cosplay and Fashion.

In the video, "Lolita" and "Goth" are explained they are Japanese fashion influenced by Japanese anime. I personally do not like those kinds of fashion but it may be fascinating to some people.

Homeless People in Japan.

There are so many homeless people here in Japan and people tend to ignore them. However, I do not think it is a good way to deal with social issues. For example, take Mr Saito from the video we watched in class. Though he has been homeless ever since he lost his steel factory firm, he is not one of those crazy dirty homeless people. Just because one is homeless does not necessarily mean he is miserable. I believe people should never underestimate them just because they are homeless, for they neither even hurt nor bother other people.

Videos

People who was sheathed in lolita clothes in that video and the homeless(i cannot remember his name)seemed to be really happy. I think it is important for people to enjoy their lives. We should not look at those kind of people through prejudices eyes.

To Yuri Watanabe

I wish you all the best !
If you are not able to make up your mind. you better choose the yes side.

uni

My friend who currently lives in the US is visiting Japan this week. She got accepted to a really famous University in America and she's going to be a freshman at that Uni in september.

Her life in the US sounded really fun and i envy her. Im kind of thinking about studying abroad but i can't totally get myself into it. I want to brush up my english but i also don't want to miss out on AGU life. Im still thinking...

image of Asia

All kinds of people, homeless, transgendered Christel and those who love to wear Lolita clothes appeared confident to me. They believe what they do is right thing. I agree with them and I do not have any prejudice against them provided that what they do help them establish their identities.

Thanks to prevalence of Japanese comic books, many Japanese people try to wear lolita clothes followed by foreign people. In this tough economy, many foreign people come to Japan (yes, foreign people think it is fascinating), so it obviously helps our economy.

For Christel. this gender issue has been controversial all over the world. Some countries accepted, but some people still think it is not right. I hope everyone, regardless of gender, will have same opportunities in the future.

three videos for this week

*Goth & Lolita Fashion

I think that Japanese people are unique and have a interesting taste of fashion. It's a good thing to have your own way of wearing clothes. Although I'm just worried that some foreign people think that all Japanese dress this way :P

*Homeless
Not having a house to go home to is a sad thing but the man in the video seemed to enjoy it...i don't understand :P

*Transsexual
Transsexual people are different from gay and lesbian people. People should be accepted for who they are.

Logorama

I really enjoyed the video and really liked the animation. I liked the way they represented characters and locations with brand images and logos and how they linked perfectly with eachother.

Summery

I like the new wallpaper by the way :) It's very summery. woohoo.

Uh-Oh

I haven't been commenting on the blog for a few weeks and this isn't good.. I better start catching up :/

Jogging.

Yesterday I went jogging with my dog Henry. It was the first time in ages since I last went jogging with him. It was quite fun. Will write on those three vids we watched in class sometime today!

To Narumi

How was your practice today?
You seem to be busy but also you seem to enjoy playing the saxophone!
but practing until 9pm is tough!

I am dying too:(
I also have so many homeworks and tests.
well, I cannot wait summer holiday!

videos

last week i watched 3 videos about asian countries in the class. and I will talk about that.
Lolita fashion
Honestly I do not like Lolita fashion or something like that because I do not think these are cute. On the other hand I think expressing themselves by wearinng these Lolita clithes are good for them.
Homeless
I felt sorry to him but I thought he was strong person. If I were him, losing job and home, I would not be able to live like him. He seems to enjoy his life to me. This is good! but still I decided to work hard so as to have my home.
Christal
Nowadays I think gey people have been accepted in all over the world. I see more and more gey people on TV. I think this is good tendency since everyone should be what they really want to be.

Message to All IE3 Students

Thank you, Anna. I mentioned it to the Tuesday class but not to you Friday guys: no media report is expected for next week! You guys have done so well and have really achieved the format goals we needed for this second book report. See you in class.

However, do blog on!

Mr. Armstrong

i have a question.
do we have to do a media report for next week? and if we were, would the topic be media?

Recently...

I've been very busy for last 2weeks.
The brass band club has practice almost everyday until 9pm!!
Also, because the school is almost over, i have many reports to hand in.
I am sure the situation is same to everybody, but＊ i am dying：(

Logorama

The instant I was presented with the film, I found there must be much meaning intended to be conveyed to us the audience. Everything in the film was with its mark on itself, which also means that our lives are surrounded by so many companies, all of which have their own marks by which to identify them.

McDonald's appeared the strongest. That indicates that the company is seen increasingly more and more often anywhere in the world. True, its power is very great. It is evading any culture.

But too much commercialisation leads to disruption. What we deserve to take as Mother Nature's reaction to too heavy commercialisation by human beings is the anger of Mother Nature, as we cannot do without borrowing wisdom of Mother Nature. Newer and newer technologies are being invented at the cost of green environments. At the end of the film, every logo was sunk under the sea water, which surely warns the companies of over-commercialisation.

Logorama

This video clip was very shocking at first because it made me think about life without no media at all. That is impossible!! After taking some time to think, I found it quite interesting.
The person who made this film made McDonald a very bad person. That's probably because McDonalds has become a very large existence to the world. Whereever you go, there's always McDonalds. However I feel sorry for the McDonald comapany because it's a bit one-sided.

Music

I love listening to music and music has become a great part of my life. I just can't think of a life without music!!
It's a late post but let me take some sentences about TED. I thought that it was funny that there are two types of listening. One was Reductive listening which was for men, and the other is expansive listening. It was very interesting and I learnt a lot. The consciousness when speaking to man-man and man-women is different. That was shocking!!

Genpatsu

After the Genpatsu exploded, things were chaos and I thought that it would take some time to recover. However, it was completely wrong! People from the exploded places were so positive thinking and so hard working that in fact, I was the one who got encouraged.
Talking about Genpatsu, genpatsu-kun came back to my mind again. The Japanese version was so easy to watch because it was speaking in a very kind way. However, the American one was way too serious and it made me feel a bit bad. By changing the narration, it differs completely but one thing I found out was that countries from the world are taking this isue very seriously.

Yesterday

Yesterday, we did questionary in Asakusa. Even if I've lived in Tokyo since I was born, it was the first time to go Sensoji. yesterday was sooo hot, but it was fun :)

Legorama

I enjoyed this video so much. It was really interesting,
and I like the idea to use all the logo as characters.
I like the pringle's and HARIBO.
What was interesting in this video was that Ronald McDonald
was used as an evil character.

Note to Naoki

Naoki: Place the author biographical info in the evaluation/literary analysis section, either as a paragraph or incorporated together with other research.

earthquake

Earthquake in Aomori prefecture? It's terrible...

I hope I can write the references in the right way :-)

Ugh Hoooootttt.

It's getting more and more humid day by day and the humidity makes me melt...
Nice layout by the way.

Logorama

This video was very interesting. I enjoyed this video very much.
The main character, Donald acts with cruelty in thit video. I was amazed at what he was doing.

I will have a test in spanish class tomorrow. I have to study for that.

A question to Mr, Armstrong

Sir, I have got a problem in writing a book report that I have not even recognised until now, which is in what part I can place the author's biography. I am thinking of showing the author's biography in order to detail the time when he lived. In the previous book report, I remember placing it "independently" of any other part, such as the Summary part or Analysing 7 Literary Terms part. I wonder if I can put it the same way as I did previously. Or should I put it not independently but in either of the parts, the Summary part, Evaluation one and Analysing 7 Literary Terms one?

Replies to Book Report Questions

Anna: Your teacher is right. Technically, the references should be single spaced. The MLA style format is so much for most students to absorb and I have seen it both ways so I try to make it easy for you guys by just giving you the general rule rather than the exception . . . In other words, yes, everything but the references should be double-spaced but I won't be so strict about it.

Anna and Ryo: you guys ask the great questions that are on everyone's minds! For detailed info on how to use either direct (exact words with quotation marks and reference citation) or indirect (someone's distinct point of view or unique bit of information, put in your own words, with reference citation) quotations, see pages 127-129 in your IE Core and IE Writing text. If you can support your ideas by properly quoting from the book or other sources in your book report, that will certainly add to the credibility of your literary analysis.

another Question

i have another question and it's about how to write the references.
on monday in our writing class, our teacher told us that references should never be double spaced.

ao my question is, should everything except the references be double spaced?

Logorama

since i'm worn out by the heat and can't concentrate, i decided to write about the short video we watched last friday in class, Logorama.

before watching it, i couldn't quite understand what "a world nothing but media" meant, but when i watched it i thought "ahhhhh..". lol it was a world with logos. EVERYTHING! even the people!!
everyone has already said, but Ronald McDonald was a really bad guy in this video!
wherever you go, you see McDonalds in our world and they just take over the whole industry. the ruin culture, and i think that's why Donald was a bad guy in that video.
i don't really know what the earthquake meant.. what did everyone else think about that?

Question on the book report.

i'm working on my book report in the aoyama campus right now and i have a question.
if i heard correctly, in our second book report, we are supposed to use quotes from the book, am i right? and "how" is my question. how many are we supposed to use? and do they have to be direct quotes or indirect quotes??

Logorama

This movie was sooo funny!! There were a lot of logos and when I found them, I thought, "oh! I've seen this!". It was interesting.
What I was impressed the best is Macdonald. He was a criminal in the video. He was really scary and kind of crazy!! I think what this video want to imply through such situation is that Macdonald is big company, so there are many other companies which are critical of it.
Big earthquake occured in the video. I think it means that companies have to compete with other companies forever. Economy involving them will not calm down forever.

Quotes

It seems that I have forgotten to take notes on how to use quotations...
What do you do when you take a quote from a website or another book besides your "book"?

Logorama

I felt like Logorama was a video that showed the rivalries between companies. Some logos are more well-known than others, but every logo wants to be number one.
Logos selling similar things were trying to kill each other off and in the end, no one got to be the top logo because of the earthquake that ruined everything.

Logorama

That movie was very, very funny. I recognized all sorts of logos and companies. There was a logo for “Yoshinoya” as well, did you find it?

I believe the movie is mostly about the competition between the industries and how strong they are. For example, Ronald was extremely tough compared to other folks, and some of the company that does not rely on gas is in the space. Well, that`s what I think… I think Ronald is the strongest character in both strength and recognizing power. Hahaha

By the way, have you ever played the "Free Rice" game on the right?
You can give your vocabulary power on the test… I almost got 20 questions correct in a row but it stopped me at 19…. Try beating me while you give future to the hungry campers :p

Logorama

Like Yuri said, I thought that this video was great!! I loved it especially because they had lots of irony in it. When I saw the movie, I was amazed on how the numbers of logo that I knew in the video and I thought that the world is full of logos. I liked the Donald. He seems like a good guy but in the movie, he is SO bad!! lol it was really funny. I like eating Haribos and so I thought that the little boy was very cute :)

:)

I met AGU student who is living next to my apartment for the first time.
I have long wanted to meet her since I moved to my apartment but I did not have any courage to visit her room.
And today, when I opened the door, she also opened the door at the same time!
What a coincidence!
We walked to the school together.

Logorama

The video was... interesting! I thought it was a creative way of expression and I found it very humorous.
In the world of logos, Ronald Macdonald was a criminal, which was a symbol of critcism against McDonalds and its unhealthy fast food.
What did everyone make of the earthquake?

Logorama

I enjoyed watching it. I love those characters, especially Donald.
I also liked the setting of this video. This is exactly what I imagine as USA.
I really felt like going there!

I also became hungry everytime I saw logos of some snack or fast food companies. I think this is good for making people want to buy those things!

Books about my book

Good evening.
I finished reading my book at last and I have been having trouble finding books about my book and Neil Gaiman, its author.
Does anyone know where I can find some books besides at the school library?

sleepy

Mr. Armstrong, I am so sorry for not attending 4th period the other day. I will soon check Lagorama ASAP and write about it on the blog.
Well, I am now working on the persuasion essay I have to hand it in tomorrow. :(
I did it! I actually finished writing it, but... left my script somewhere today...sigh
so, have to write it again from the begining! well, almost finishing. try my best.
see ya guys tomorrow

To Mika and Jun.N

To Mika

Wow (・o・)!!
A barbecue sounds so much fun!
I haven't had one of those for a centuries!

I went to a baseball game today!
My favorite player hit a homerun and Im so happy right now!
Im glad we both had a good weekend (^^)
see you at school!

To Jun Nakagawa

We all have bad luck sometimes!
You better get rest now!
Be on time tomorrow!!

I had a barbecue today:) It is a nice day for a barbecue. I enjoyed it.
I have to write about logorama. I will blog on later.

Result

So I've been awake for over 24 hours now and have to go to work in 3 hours.

I lost at the darts tournament and lost ¥20000 on the slots. Sometimes I hate my life!!!

Logorama

Anyone who wants to see Logorama again---for purposes of incisive commentary----can view it here: http://vimeo.com/10149605 . Enjoy and blog on!

Also, note the Wikipedia entry: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Logorama

Logorama

I thought this was the best animation we have watched so far in class
It was GREAT!

the animation was all so cute and there were some logo's that i haven't seen for a long time.So it was really 'natukashi'　for me.
I'd love to watch again! maybe i would:)

good morning..?

hello :)
i haven't been posting much as i did before, so i decided to in the middle of the night at 2am! haha

noticed that the design has changed again! but i liked the other one better since i hate the rainy season!!
rain rain go away, come again another day ♬

Logorama.

There are a number of different meanings in the film and, from my perspective, it was about advertising. I am not quite sure why it had to turn into an anime, however that is just some idea the film director came up with, I guess...? Well, I think it was easier to make it into an anime rather than a "proper movie". Therefore it has come out quite fun to watch as well.

oh, I like the new layout, by the way!

My weekend

It's 3:21am right now and I'm working. I've been up for 21 hours now and I'm not happy. On saturday I have work from 19:00-5:00 and then a darts tournament starting from 10 in the morning on Sunday. After that I have work from 21:00- 5:00. It is a very very tough weekend..........

The weather

The weahther has recently been bad. It is always rainy or cloudy. I wonder when it gets sunny. Well, as I have heard that it has just got into the rainy season, this unstable weather will continue for a while.

What I have come to realise since I moved here

I would like to write about what I have come to realise. I really hate being packed into the train crowded with so many people. Whilst I am being packed into them, I often wonder if city people have got used to this. It is also possible that someone sitting or standing just next to you is a person who was a criminal and has just been allowed to walk out of the prison after accomplishing the punishment imposed upon his commitment of murder.

good morning

Yesterday, I fell into a deep sleep before I prepare to go to bed. lol Maybe I was tired :( University is much harder than I had expected though everyone say so! I want to get enough time to finish everything to do!!
Well, book report is quite hard to write for me, but I'll do my best :)!! I want to make the report better than the first one. So first I have to finish reading my book!!!

See you later!**

book report

how are you guys doing with your book report?
fortunately, I have finished reading my book which had more than 400 pages! yapeee!
when I first read it, I thought this book isn't going to be interesting because it was a bit hard for me to read, but gradually I found it this book was amazing and couldn't stop reading it. If somebody is interested in the book I read, I'll lend you it. It really is awesome.
the books title is "Maximum Ride" by James Patterson.
Well, gotta start writing my report cause the due is next week! aaand the first book report was horrible (sorry Mr.Armstrong) so have to write them properly this time. ahhh
well well, bye for now and see you guys tomorrow!

The City of Ember

Dr. Armstrong:

I actually read most of The City of Ember, and I realized that it is definitely not like the book I read last time. Ender’s Game was completely science fiction with the aliens and the war in space. However, The City of Ember talked about how the city that the characters live in is starting to corrupt and trying to find ways to help the city to last longer. The book focuses more on human relationship and the environment in which the characters live in. So in my opinion, the book I read before and the book I am reading now, are completely different types of books.

Yet again, If you still think that from what I explained is similar to the first book I read, then I will actually start reading To Kill a Mockingbird and write a report on that.

time

kinda really tired... IE3 listening is going to start in few minutes.
oh and I have tuns of things to do but really don't have any time. I wish I could buy "time" by money. :/
school, part time job, club.. really enjoying my campus life, but wish I had more time to do things just for myself. Well, having fun though!

listening

IE listening is about to begin. But I'm already really really tired. The other class was kind of boring. 1 more hour and 30 minutes and I'm freeeeeee!!! Yahoo!!!

:-(

My cold isn't getting better... Today I was supposed to go to my dance practice, but I couldn't. I hope I can go tommorow!

To yukina
How did the test go? Did you do well? I'm studying Spanish as well and trying really hard to keep up with my class!lol I've realized how difficult it is to learn a new language and at the same time find it very interesting:) I think it's best to ask Jun Kikuchi if there's any trouble in studying something. He seems to be a wonderful tutor:) lol

To Megumi
Its great to hear that you've met your friends from high school:0
I always wanted to go to 新大久保:)

to yukina

I agree with you. Learning new language is so difficult.
I take Spanish, too and I also had a speach test today.
I made a mistake. I wish I could speak Spanish well.

Korea Town

I went to Korea town in Shinokubo with my high school friends.
That was really fun! I have not met them for 3 months so I was really exited when I saw them. I ate so many Korean food. I liked Hottoku, ホットク the best.
I want to see them again as soon as possible!
I also want to go there with IE members! lol

To Mitsu

Mitsu: At this point, yes, of course, read The City of Embers. But, it is a disappointment because the idea is for students to challenge two different kinds of books for the book reports. That was why I steered you to To Kill a Mockingbird, a well-written classic that spearheaded a social movement . . .

2nd book report

Mr. Armstrong, I was able to get a copy of "To Kill a Mockingbird." But the thing is that I don't really enjoy reading it..... Like I asked before, may I go for "The City of Ember" instead? I know that it might be similar to the book I read last time, but I like this book more than the mockingbird....

spanish

i have the spanish test tomorrow, oh today :( recently, i really thought learning new language was so difficult. i cannot remember even few vocabulary. also i'm confused about grammar.
how can i remember these things easily?

Books

Hey, how's everyone doing with their books? :)

the clod

Im not sure about the concept but here's what i thought.


I thought this video wanted to show the saying 二度あることは三度ある(i don't know how to say it in English.)



In this video, the small clod kept doing the same thing over and over.


But it never learned to avoid it even though there was much more space which appeared at the end of the video.


When we are stuck with something or having a hard time, we need to look around us and try to find a way to get out.

thank you

To Narumi and Aiko

Thanks for worrying(; _;)!!
My voice is so wierd:P
I better go see a doctor...

but I'll be going to school tomorrow, hopping not to give anyone this cold(><)!

to yuri

Heyyyy, are you okay??
I had a sore throat all through last week too and really suggest you go see a doctor...before it gets worse. Hope you get well soon('o')

To Jun K

I agree with your opinion about learning a new language.
From my experience, I can say that being in a place where the language is used is very helpful; so I do think that doing speaking and listening is very effective. However, after experiencing Juken, I do think that doing grammar is also very important. Knowing grammer made me feel much comfortable using English. I think grammar and structure are still complexing, but interesting to learn :)

To yuri

Are you ok??
It sounds like you have been very busy..><

I got sore throat last week too, but since I went to a doctor early, I am ok now.
I suggest you to go to a doctor if possible and get some medicine.

Well, don't work too hard..I guess.
Tell me if I can do anything for you :)

Replies

Anna: Lord of the Flies is fine. Another possibility---very interesting structure and great story--- is Charley (Also called Flowers for Algernon).

Ryo: No videos to comment on this week. It's your choice of comments, questions, observations, or words of wisdom!

Blog on!

eeep!

only two weeks till our second book report!! need to read read READ!!!!

Mr. Armstrong

can i go for "Lord of the Flies"?

Mirage

The robot in this story was really atrange!! I felt a little scared.
In this story, he was so thirsty. He had been looking for water desperately and found it. However, there were a fish in it. Though he finally helped it putting it into his water tank, he almost deserted it instead of getting water for himself. I thought it implies human instinct. Water is the most essential resource for human beings. It may represent that we even sacrifice others in order to gain something we really need.
Though I have never experienced that I almost die because of thirst, I would do the same thing like the robot if I couldn't drink water for a long time.

Well

I have totally forgotten to post to this blog recently.
I would like to post the things that are happnening to me now.

Well since the beginning of June, I started to make money as a tutor.
I teach a 2nd grader in the junior high, and teach mainly Math and English.
Through it, I felt what Mr.Armstrong said,"Teaching is learning".
Specially, in English.
Japanese junior high school English puts a lot of time on grammar.
To teach them,I've got to learn the grammar better than before.
Well,,, to be honest, I don't think doing too much grammar is very effecitive in learning a new language.
I think speaking and listening is the most effective way to remember them.

Well, this is my opinion, but I've got to follow the Japanese style though.

Clod

This clip was very interesting for me.
Nothing so special was said in the video,but I think that is resembling the bag loop of the global warming.
For the main character, there was no exit, but I hope us human will have the chance to get through this complicated situation.

(><)

I got sick again :(
My throat aches really badly!

I get sick once a month recently... and i think it's because of my non-balanced diet.

Since I have club and circle activities after school I only get to eat dinner at home, twice a week. It's really unhealthy and non-balanced. I'll try to eat more vegetables and take in more vitamin for my health :)

TED

It was interesting video.
First, it said that there are two types of listening. Reductive listenig and expansive listening. Many men do the former one and many women do the latter one. I could be convinced this definition well because girls love chatting!! They would continue chatting forever until they were stopped!!
Second, NIHD was also interesting. I was surprised that one in six American teenagers have this disorder. Maybe, I don't have it. But I like listening to music using ipod and turn up the volume especially on the train, so I think I often do what is bad for my ear health. The video said that the sound of Wind, Water and Bird is good for our ear, so now, Iwant to go the place where there are a lot of nature!!

huh?

Just got home from my part time job...
Anyways, what are we supposed to write about this week on the blog? I think I missed it or there wasn't any mentioning of it...

This Weekend.

This weekend, I'm just going to take a lot of rest...!

Varmints

It was a bit hard for me to readthe directors point of view.
In the clip, a little animal(varmint?) was studying the nature. However the nature was suddenly destroyed and all the flowers died. The place became very polluted and when the animal came back to the nature it was only a small part. I think it was trying to tell that air pollution has become a very serious issue. So to tell the audience about the seriousness the director took this type of way. I also think that it is saying that this is all everyones fault and that you must act fast.

The Clod

It was very interesting to watch this clip because I thought that it was trying to say something about repeating. Maybe it's about the deforestation continuing or maybe it was about the global warming. It made me think about the environment very deeply.

Mirage

As everyone says, when I watched it, I thought that it was such a strange film. A robot gets paralysed when the water inside it reduces. I wonder if that means that the robot in Mirage cannot live without water any more than we human beings can live without it.

TED

I would like to refer to this film I watched about sound and listening.

First of all, I knew that there is a hearing disorder called NIHD. As I often listen to music with sound loud. But so far, I have never had any kind of trouble as it was shown in the film.

It is a good idea to listen to the sounds of nature, those which are produced by Mother Nature. They ease us. As I have been beset by many harmful and irritating sounds since I came here, I will just listen to natural sounds of nature when I go back to my hometown.

TED.

As soon as he mentioned NIHD, I thought it was about me. Since I am in a band and we play some loud music. To prevent from getting that kind of hearing disorder, I thought I should pay more attention to some peaceful sounds. I write songs on my own with my acoustic guitar and she pretty much creates incredible sounds and I guarantee those sounds help my ears get better!

Mirage.

So the robot is a symbol of a human.
He seemed a little bit too lonely deep in the ocean.
The more he walks the more he consumes his water of the body, which I think implies some sort of life.

Mirage

i personally didn't like the animation of this video. it was scary..

the robot was a symbol of human. it used up water very quickly. which i thought it indicated that we humans use our important resources excessively just like the robot used his water very quickly.
the meaning of the tree and fish in a weird location and the robot taking it was that we try to take land, resources from places that are not supposed to. the moon or "territorial" airspace is a good example. it isn't for us humans to take, but still, we try to have it all to ourselves.

i did't get the part where the robot put the fish in his water tank though... maybe it means that we should reconsider about using all those resources? i don't know.. :/

TED

it was interesting to know that there are two types of listening. reductive listening, which is usually common with men. and expansive listening, which women are said to do. i am a women, but i think i'm more of a reductive listening person! hahaha

i don't think i have NIHD, but i call myself "selectively deaf"! lol
but how would you know if you have NIHD..?
in the video, they mentioned ways to prevent from getting NIHD. and one of them (and supposed to be one of the best ways) was the WWB. Wind Water Birds. they said these sounds create harmony and peace and that protects your ears from getting NIHD. i found a iphone app which has all these nature, peaceful sounds and it might be a good idea to download that!

my sound environment isn't the best. these's a train track right next to our flat, so i guess that's constantly effecting my ears.

Figure skating is fun.... but sometimes dangerous.

Many of the Friday class know that I am in the figure skating club, and I always advertise to get more people in it. Well, I want to tell all of people who actually read my post how awesome skating is, but this time, I want to say the dangers of it. Well, 2weeks ago I was trying to do a trick during the practice, but I failed so badly and fell, ending up actully puncturing a hole in my leg.... It actully did not hurt as much as it looked, but I had to get stitches and the stitches still hurt.... Also last week, there were two girls in the club who actually got injured trying to do a trick called "spiral" (it's the one when the skater lifts one of their leg to the back and bend their upper body down... it looks like a T from the side) and they both fell at the same time. I heard that they were holding hands while doing it or helping one of the girl hold the leg, and one of the girl hurt her knee and the other girl had to get stiches on her chin..... I mean it's a girl's face..... I felt so bad for her..... But at the same time I wanted to cry about the difference on how the teammates reacted between them and myself... Everybody was so worried and they all got tissue papers to try to stop the bleeding, and ice to cool the legs... On the other hand, when I got injured, none of the teammates cared and they all said that the injuries heal fast if you spit on it..... The difference between girls and boys..... ummm discrimination? sigh.... I wish I was born as a girl.....

Anyway!! Figure skating may sound dangerous, but it is fun!!!! Those who are interested in it and want to join or try out the club, just tell me!! We got 11 new members this year, and 4 of them are boys!!! So, boys who are looking for club activities, don't be shy and join!! Girls too, please join!! Most of the new members are still new to this and they are complete noobs, even I am a noob!! FIGURE SKATING IS FUNNNNNN!!!!!!!

The class activities

Well, I was not really in the class last Friday, so I have no idea what to write on Ted and Mirage...... I guess I can't get any credits on this I guess... sigh... sigh....sigh....sigh.....
I will try not to miss the class ever again..... I won't be able to keep up with all of you!!

TED

It was a very interesting talk. I love music and I'm always listening to music when I'm on the train to school and wherever I go. It was surprising to know that we're experiencing dislocation between what we see and what we hear, and that it leads to schizophonia.
Oh, and another thing I was surprised about was that when I took my earphones and put them on my lap while the music was playing, I could hear it all the way! And I thought, that must be damaging my ears so bad..

TED

This clip was really interesting to me since I love listening to music especially loudly, so I'm afraid maybe I have that hearing disorder called NIHD.
It was also interesting to know that there are two patterns(?) of listening which are, reductive listening (for men) and expansive listening (for women).
To protect my ears, maybe I should listen to more sounds of Wind, Water and Birds inspite of loud musics.
Oh, and I liked the phrase "silence is always beautiful". :)

Ryo

I noticed the frogs :-) They are very cute! Though, I don't like real frogs... When I was living in Ibaraki there were bunch of them croaking all night long. Sometimes when I was walking in my garden, they jumped against me. yuck

cold

I have a bad cold since Tuesday. I even had a fever today, so I couldn't go to school :-( But now it's getting better! Yahoo!
By the way, tommorow is my birthday :-) I wanna eat cake lol

The Varmints

This video was sad and gloomy. The varmint was living in its own world for a while but then the antagonists come into the scene and destroy its home. It's what humans are doing right now. Humans are destroying habitats of many different animals for their own selfish reasons. Factories are ruining oceans, and polluting the atmosphere. This sort of focused more on the fact that varmints (animals) have emotional feelings and are affected as equally as much as anything else. Humans tend to think that animals are lower than them in terms of the animal kingdoms. Though that is wrong, even humans will not be able to live without the help of other organisms and vice versa. I think this video is telling us that humans are being too selfish and is required to think more about others. They need to stop destroying every open space, and natural habitats for their own selfish reasons.
In the end we see the varmint go into this huge jellyfish like thing, I guess it resembles peace and harmony and what is considered 'ideal'. It's probably an environmentalists wishes and hopes of having an undestroyed world once again.

Nuclear Boy

I thought Genpatsu-kun was better. Only because Nuclear Boy had this realistic image of an actual human child. The narrators' tone of voice sort of disturbed me as well so I sort of really didn't like this video (lol).
If this is aimed towards little kids I think it'll frighten them rather than entertain/teach them. Though it is pretty amazing that foreigners would go through so much trouble to explain the situation going on in Japan to its own people.

The clod

Sorry for posting these so late, but it's better late than never right?

The clod, actually, sorta creeped me out. I don't know, the drawing? and the sounds I guess? But I think it was indicating the fact that some smaller things are being destroyed in order to create bigger and "better" things in its place. Though it may be similar to "Varmints", I think it's telling us how humans are destroying natural habitats and empty spaces to build factories and other buildings that did not exist a few years ago.

TED

It was an interesting video clip to watch, I like those kinds of studies.
Especially from this resent experience.
Few weeks before I watched the clip, person who was sitting beside me in the train told me that your music is too loud. Since then, I slowly stopped listening to the music when I go somewhere. Then I have noticed that I might not have been hearing well. It also reminded me the people in Fahrenheit451, they had their ear phones loud too!
I think I would give it a break before I go mindless, and for my ear`s sake...

Animal Farm

Lika: Animal Farm is a great book. It is briefer but deeper, with a lot of historical/political metaphor. Go for it. Blog on!

Vermints

It is difficult to imagine what this video want to express.
In the video, a cute character lived peacefully in the beautiful nature. But this nature were all collapsed and no flowers and no plants exist. The world changed to the dusky world with many debris. Finally, though the character could go back to the beautiful place, it was the space included in the dusky world. It surprised me. I think that it expresses the earth is absolutely polluted. We tend to forget that the environment around us is getting worse than before. For example, global warming and air pollution. They are hard to directly see for us. But it is true that we destroy natute and pollute the earth by ourselves. I think this is the message this video tries to say to us.

more fishies!!

So many things to feed before making a blog entry lol

For my first book report I read The Devil Wears Prada, and now I'm thinking of reading Animal Farm for the next because a friend told me that it is pretty interesting.
But I was wondering if it's too short for a book report since it's only about 100 pages.
What do you think Mr. Armstrong? Should I go for it or not?

TED

Listening to this lecture, it was pretty scary to know that head phones can damage ones ears so much. When I listen to music I put the music quite loud so I'm slightly worried... But the thing is that if your on a train you have to turn the music up because of the sound coming from the train.
Nowadays it seems like we are always surrounded by music. I sometimes go to "pachinko" and when I come out my ears are always pretty much buzzing. Tokyo is a very nice city but in some places it seems to loud.

Neverwhere

Ryo: Check Yurindo at Queen's Tower in Yokohama. Otherwise, I have a copy of Dracula . . .

Frogs

Did everyone know about the frog that you can feed on the right side of the page?

Circles◎

For the first book report, I read The War of the Worlds. In the book, the main character mentions that the Martians, using superior technology, did not use the wheel. Now that I think of it, the author was using this as a sign to notify that the Martians were not peaceful.

Mirage

To be perfectly honest, the animation was not for me...lol
Anyways, the robot, which was a symbol of humans, had a very weak structure which I presume it represented the weakness the human race. Yet at the end, the robot cut open the balloon? and realized what he had done to the fish. I guessed this meant that humans, though they are weak, have the power to realize the feelings of others. After that, he saves the fish and they both end up in an endless body of water (most likely the ocean). This was a symbol of peace and harmony which can be obtained by the thoughts for others.

TED

In the lecture, there was a mentioning of a hearing disorder called NIHD. I myself may be one of those that have NIHD since I'm in a rock band and I was using cheap earphones...
And the day before we watched the lecture, I found this application on my i-phone called "Sea". It's basically the sound of waves just playing, but I remember the WWB's (Wind, Water, Birds) which are called harmonious.
So now, I'm trying my best to protect my hearing by doing the 7 things that were suggested. I'm also thinking of buying earplugs to protect my ears during my band practices.

TED

TED stands for 'Technology Entertainment Design'.

This is what my music teacher at my highschool said one day"People these days constantly listen to music on earphones and headphones. Some people already have ear disorder because of that and we do not know what kind of futher more damage it could cause in the future because there are no precedents"

This made me scared of listening to music on earphones...but i still do lol :)

Mirage

This animation was very interesting!
The robot actually looked like a real human being.
I thought it also looked like the robot in the movie 'I,Robot'

In this animation I realized that the robot is a symbol of human.
Although I'm not really sure what the water was a symbol of...
I thought that it was not a symbol at all.
It maybe representing the water itself.
I think that it's trying to tell us how important water is to us.
70 or 75percent of our body is made of water and we can not live without it!

Mirage

This video was difficult for me to understand.
I think the productor of this video wants to say that people cannnot live without water, so we should not use too much water. We should protect the grobal environment so that we can live comfortably.

Mirage

In Mirage, the robert was a symbol of human. The robert was a little bit too strange and scary looking. We are 70 percent made from water and we cannot survive without water. Water is really important for us. Without water, there is no life on Earth. Water gives power to our lives. In Mirage, the robert was really thirsty and needed water to survive. Since the title is mirage, maybe the robert was just dreaming that there is water. There wasn't really water there. Just like the oasis that you would see in the desert. I didn't get the ending though. The robert was floating in a place like the ocean. Was he relaxing or was he dead? I have no idea, but this made me realize the importance of water.

TED

What I've learned is that one out of six teenagers these days have NIHD (noise induced hearing disorder) . That is too much people around the world. Also, a lot of people get "schizophonia" which happens when your brain is split from the reality. This happens to many people listening to music with loud sounds. Every morning, I see many people listening to music with large sounds on the train. It is irritating people around and it is not good for you. I think we should all avoid listening to music with loud sounds.

Mirage

I looked up Mirage on the Internet and it mentioned something about the "highway mirage". Highway mirage is when you see a pool of water on the road on hot sunny days. The water is not real but the shallow angle from the sky is reflected on the road and it makes us think as if the water is really there. This can be said to the movie we saw in class as the main character ( the robot ) sees water which later ,I thought that by the title ,meant that he was only dreaming when he saw it. It was weird though because the robot was in the sea surrounded by water and I wondered why the setting was not in some dry place such as deserts where water stands out more. I didnt understand what the whole process with the fish was about ( does anyone have an idea??) but may be what the movie was trying to say was that water is very precious and we should value it more. I thought that the fragile design of the robot really expressed that idea.

TED

I don't quite remember what TED stands for ( Technology, Entertainment ...???) but I thought that the lecture was very interesting by the way the man spoke because he sometimes made jokes. I agreed that men speak "reductive" and women speak more "expansive". I definetly thought that I was on the expansive side. As he said that 25% of Europeans are devastated by sounds, I wondered what my room would sound like when I was in silence. So, I went home and listened to the sound and surprisingly, as I had all my electronic devices turned off and my windows shut, I heard a complete silence. I felt a little lonely but I actually liked the calmness. Silence might be important ,as we dont really have much time to listen to it, but I think that listening to the WWB ( wind, water, birds) sounds are important as well.

otaku

I found these videos about otaku culture very funny!
I was surprised (and kinda shocked at the same time) when we found out that the guy teaches at tokyo university haha

My favorite was the one he was explaining moe.
"Pink fuzzy feeling "... i love it!!lol


I thought tsundere wasn't right but he is a funny guy and i hope he continues to make videos about otaku culture and spread it around the world!haha

The Clod & Varmints

I've slept way too much today...maybe about 15 hours? I even forgot to eat my dinner! My throat hurts badly so I needed to get a lot of rest.
I'm so sorry to post about The Clod and Varmints late. It should have been posted last week! I was too lazy.
To be honest, I didn't get neither of it. I know that both of them should be telling us something about the environment, but even knowing that fact, I really didn't understand it.
The Clod: I think the small clod was representing the humans and the big clod was representing something like the disaster. Humans face many disaster and recover from it, but they will continue to face another disaster again and again. I think they were trying to tell the continuous cycle of things that happen in your life time. I really liked the art style.
Varmints: I don't exactly know what this was trying to tell, but I think it was telling us to think about the nature more. I thought it was really similar to WALL-E. I liked the main character. A Fox? It was so cute. It reminded me of my pet back in my hometown.

oh! the background has changed again! very summery, i like it!!! ;D

football club

As almost all of you guys know, I'm working as a manager at football club of AGU and having a really tough time. lol
Well, today was actually a day-off almost for the first time since we have club every Wed, Sat and Sun, so yesterday after club, me and all of the freshmans went to Machida and had fun and then stayed all night at ones house.
We really had fun but staying up all night makes me very tired. :(
Kenny, who maybe the other IE3 class members know and having a good relationship with him (lol) was like crazy and it was hard for us to let him calm down, though he slept really fast.
We all went back home in the morning getting on the first train and today, I was sleeping till like 3 o'clock doing nothing! Maybe tonoght I won't be able to sleep. Oh and I have to work on my homeworks and stuff. orz
Hope you guys had a fun weekend! And Kent, I regret not going to your live. Well I really wanted to, but had no energy left to go. Hope you did well!

the varmints

Like almost everybody said, I also really didn't get what this film really wanted to tell us.
Well, first of all, maybe it tells us how important and precsious nature is.
The bit nice looking varmint, seems to love nature and protects them, but suddently nature were being destroyed, and the other varmints living in the same environment, seemed very tired and scary. And then the jellyfish thing appears and helped the varmint? Well, to tell the truth, I didn't catch what that jellyfish thing was. Was that our future? Or just a kinda fantasy?
What I might know is that this film maybe wanted to tell us how important nature is, otherwise you will get sick or something like that.

the clod

This film was really short but was really interesting.
What I thought is, the big clod represents the every day conflicts/disasters, and the little clod represents us, humans.
We have conflicts like everyday, but some how we overcome them. Like now, actually we are trying to overcome from the big disaster happened in 3.11.
At the end of the film, it seemed like the little clod will be eaten up and escape from it like, endlessly. That means, we live with conflicts/disasters everyday, but overcome it and that's our life.

nuclear boy

When, I first watched this film, I got a different impression to the Genpatsu kun. This one, seemed more seriously than the one made in Japan. The tone of the narater was a bit low, and it seemed that the word "poo" in America, is not that a funny/atractive to little kids than in Japan.
Which I thought is better is the one made in Japan. Well, the "nuclear boy" can explain the matter more seriously to kids, but "Genpatsu kun" might be easier for kids to understand.

Live.

I had a live with my band today. It went all fine in the end and I really appreciate those who came all the way to see us. Hope they enjoyed our live.

wow!! new design!!
I like it :D

2min of silence

sitting in my room, doing nothing for 2min., I heard many thigs:
a chirp by a bird
a wind-bell ringing
cars and bikes passing the road near my house
sound of my computer making
plane probably passing the sky near my house
I did not imagine that there are that many sounds.
Also, I noticed that i am usig energy even though I'm not using them...

I don't usually listen to music while walking, so I hear many interesting sounds ^^
I suggest you to stop listening to music on the way to school and listen to the nature one day*
I guess you can fnd something new :)

To kmori

Holes is fine. Go for it!

The Clod

In that video, a small clod awoke to find a big disaster approaching his place. So, he tried to save his house by removing it to a safe place. But the house was much heavier than he had expected. And finally, he fell a prey to the disaster. So I suppose the video wanted to tell us that we should just think about our lives and run away quickly before a disaster strikes. By the way it seems to me that my opinion has nothing to do with the environment. (orz...)

Book Report

For my second book, I had plan to read the book Holes, but I heard it was not a good book to wirte a book report on. Is it ok for me to do book report on this or do you want me to change it?

The clod

We saw a nother animation last friday which I thought it was very interesting. If you ask me what it was about, it was really difficult thing for me to understand, but I do belive it had something to do with our daily lives that we face every day. We face many problems day after day, but somehow manage to overcome those conflicts. So I think that's what it was trying to tell us.

Varmints

Okay to tell the truth, I really didn't get this story but I'll try my best.

There were two types of animals that were in this video; the cute ones, and the gray-ish ones.
Like everyone said, the cute one is most likely the main character. Both animals represent human, but they end up in a different place at the end.
The cute varmints loved nature and valued it. However, those gray and sad looking varmints came and they started destroying the environment by constructing huge buildings and factories that emit black smoke in the clean air.

I thought that the gray varmints represent people who don't cherish the environment, and the kind varmints represent people who do.

I didn't understand what those jellyfish looking things were, but I thought that it was a place where only the varmints who took good care of the environment gets to go. Meanwhile, the earth eventually gets dirtier and polluted so all the gray varmints start to die.

So, I thought that this video is probably predicting that we should do things to save the earth or else we will end up like the gray varmints.

The Clod

Although this clip was really short, I found it very interesting.
I'm not sure but I thought that the big clod represents the many conflicts that happen in our daily lives. (not just natural disasters like earthquakes or tsunami, but also like the little fights between your mom.)
And us humans are the little clod that gets eaten up by the big clod, and becomes free again. I thought that what it means is that we have some sort of conflict going on every day, but somehow we overcome it.
At the end, the line of the big clod seemed endless, which probably means that there will always be another catastrophe waiting for us. But that's just how life goes so I guessed this video is about the life cycle of us human.

Nuclear Boy

first of all, I thought that Genpatsu-kun is better than Nuclear Boy because Nuclear Boy seemed harder for little kids to get the idea of nuclear weapons (not that using the word "unchi" makes it easier lol)
like some people mentioned, I thought that the way the narrator spoke was a big difference. The Japanese version spoke like a child's father, while the narration for Nuclear Boy was more like a news reporter.
also, the animation for Genpatsu-kun was more charming.

A Mis-hearing

Narumi: You said- For boys(men), listening is something they do together.- listening "with"



For girls(women), listening is something one side listen to the other side.-listening"for"

You may have mis-heard. It's the opposite: Julian Treasure said that men tend to do "reductive" listening, listening "for" some key words, whereas women tend to do "expansive"listening, sharing listening and talking "with" each other.

I turned TV off and tried to listen to the silence this morning.
What I heard was the sound of car and plane since I live near military base I guess. Both of them were too noisy for me, especially air plane's noise.
I wish I could live in a bit more silent place.
But if there were no sound, I would feel lonly because I am living alone and I do not have any company to talk with.
I think I like the sound rather than the quiet.

The Clod

I liked this animation. The characters were so cute.
I think a small black one represents people and a big black one represents kind of crisis which people face. For example, it might be some disasters like earthquake or the big country which colonize the weak country. It means people are involved in such crisis, their house and all. In this animation, though a small one could escape from a big one, there were still soooo long line of the big ones. I think it represents that people continue to face any crises forever and try to recover again and again.

Nuclear Boy

When I compared Nuclear boy and Genpatsu-kun, I prefered Genpatsu-kun to Nuclear boy. Though the content was almost same, I felt the tone of the narration in Nuclear boy was low. So Genpatsu-kun may be sounded milder than Nuclear boy. But what I thought is that we can keep this serious problem in our mind if we watch Nuclear boy not Genpatsu-kun, because the former tells us how serious this problem is by its low tone. I think it tells us what must truly be told by this video better than Genpatsu-kun.

mirage

the symbol of the robot stands for humans since we cannot live if there were no water just like the robot of this video.
I have heard that humans body is made of 70% of water. (I do not wheather it is true or not though)
however we are polluting water now because we think it will not gone forever. I think we should realize the importance of water and this video made me think so!

Ted

What I found very interesting is that a word, "listening" means very different between boys and girls.
For boys(men), listening is something they do together.- listening "with"
For girls(women), listening is something one side listen to the other side.-listening"for"
Almost everytime when I watch a show talking about marrige, I hear women are dissatisfied with their husband not listening to their stories. Well, because women and men take "listening" differently, I think it will remain to be a difficult problem.
About sound, I am not happy of people who listen to music so loud in trains.
One day, there was a guy on a train who was listening to music as if he does not have his headphone on. Fortunately, a guy who sat next to me told the guy to turn the volume down, however, I think people should take the sound effect more seriously.
I am planning to write about silence next time :)

Varmints

It was a difficult clip to exam... Here is what I thought about it.
I think it is the extream image of what human races has walked and what might happen.

Varmints represent humans, at first, they had nothing and very curious with anything that happened around them, and had respect to it as well. As time goes by, the black varmints builds a mass of buildings and the gray ground sniffs the life out of the tree, this represents that what we have used, what we have dissolved as we advance our technology. From that, the air becomes very dirty and slowly poisons the black varmints dies from it. The plant that varmint was holding preciously is the heart to love nature, and the the jellyfish like creature represents nature, I guess. It protected the varmints from pollution.

Therefore, I think this is a clip that tried to convince us to admire nature more, and come back to the life that things are much more simple.

The Clod

We saw this movie last Friday. A tiny black square thing was swallowed by a huge square thing. Mr Armstrong hinted that this movie has something to do with Russia and Czech Slovakia. Then, I pondered. I see, Russia has ruled over Czech Slovakia even since before it was Soviet. I wondered if the tiny thing represents Czech Slovakia and the huge one represents Russia, which,however, does not have anything to do with environments.

I finally think that the Clod represents the natural course of environment and life where anything,whether it is a tiny organism or a huge animal, lives.

In some way, the Clod might also hint at the cruel fact of nature that those that are weak are to continue to be sacrificed for those that are strong.

media report

Goodmorning everyone.
When I woke up, I found my computer is broken. So I have lost most of the data. I have to do my media report AGAIN, NOW. How irritating! Hopefully, I still have time until class.
I hope everyone has a good day, while it isn't foe me....

The nuclear boy

The substance was same with "Genpatsu-kun" but the mood of this animation

gave different impression.

Genpatsu-kun had more amiability, and I thought that Genpatsu-kun will do

better to make kids relieved.

Plus, nuclear boy looked dirtier and darker than Genpatsu-kun.

Maybe it's because of its picture and the narration.

Varmints

I didn't get this film.

In the beginning scene, I understood that it is trying to tell about the environment.

I thought that the weird building(?) represents human being and the main character and

the plants represents the whole nature.

However, I was really confused with the jelly fish thing. I didn't understand what

was going on in the last part.

It was difficult for me.

The clod

I thought that the small clod represents people and the larger one

represents disaster, such as earthquake, typhoon, tsunami and so on.

People always rebuild their house and other buildings again and again

even it's destroyed by the catastrophe.

And I loved the design of these characters in this film. It was cute.

The Clod

The house represents the earth, the small clod represents human beings, and the big clod represents some sort of catastrophe. The whole story is about our life cycle. When we think we are living normally, there are catastrophes we have to overcome. And then we somehow overcome it, but then we realize that there are more and more catastrophes that come after it. It is an endless cycle. This is just a simple sign that says that there are hard times, but we all some how live it and go through it. If you take this negatively, it means that we live in an extremely dangerous world and there is no way to get out of it except for death.

Varmints

The weird animal looking things are us human beings. They live in the world just like ours and they used to live normally just like us. But then the disaster destroyed the nature and made the animals suffer from disease. In the end, the jellyfish looking thing just took all the animals and let them live inside of it. The jellyfish thing was cleaning up the world as well. So what this movie was trying to say was that the world today needs to be destroyed once, and let it heal on its own while we live in someplace safe.

Mr.Armstrong

oh!!! now i get it!!!
the small clod represents the people in Czechoslovakia and the big clod represents the Soviet union!! ahhhh!!!!
thank you!

Nuclear Boy

I liked the Genpatsukun more because Genpatsukun looked cuter than the nuclear boy. The name Nuclear boy itself soundedextremely dangerous as well. Not only that, Nuclear boy was really yellow…. I mean racism?.... I think I am over thinking too much… Well, I think that the copies cannot defeat the original. And also, I was surprised that the poop part did not change that much, I always thought that only Japanese laugh at the poop jokes.

Otaku

Mirage

This film was a kind which I've never seen in my life. I thought it was....weird. I didn't like it very much.

Mirage- an optical illusion caused by atmospheric conditions.

To explain what I think each simbol stands for:
Robot: human→ emotional creature
fish: life→ for our weakness
water: food→ power for lives

The face of the robot was scary..
and his body design..lol

I'm not sure, but the message might be something about environment again.
Saying that we cannot live without water and that's why we have to use it with a great gratitude; and also save it!!

Otaku words

I think this was a very good attempt to introduce the Japanese culture which isn't really known to people of the world. I can't rally be proud of this otaku thing because I thinks it's pretty embarassing. I'm not really sure of the otaku words introduced because I have absolutely no interest in the otaku culture.....
I'm sorry I can't really comment on this video.

Genpatsu-kun

In some ways I thought genpatsu-kun was a really Japanese kind of video. This is because I remember watching kids tv when I was young and it had lots of songs containing things about toilets. Children know that the toilet isn't a clean place so I thought it was a very good idea to associate with nuclear radiation. Another good point is that it doesn't scare the children that much but rather tells the children what's happening in a very calm way.

Books and Videos

Hisae: At Paradise Gate is the right length and sounds charming. If you ever want to know more about an English book, a good place to go is the US Amazon site: http://www.amazon.com/At-Paradise-Gate-Jane-Smiley/dp/0684852233.

Anna: Re: The Clod. Pre-Cold War Russia was a big oppressive communist country "swallowing up" little countries and stifling individual freedom. Czechoslavakia was a small, helpless Eastern European country being run over by bigger powers. The average people in Soviet bloc countries weren't asking for so much, just to run their own country, to to live in their little house, work, and have a happy life. See any parallels now?

Mr. Armstrong and anyone!

Good evening! I went to Mandai library to find a book for my next book report and borrowed 'At Paradise Gate' written by Jane Smiley. I don't know about this book and this author at all, but I just got interested in it. Do you know this book? and do you think it's OK that I choose this book for my book report?

and if anyone have read this book or know about this book, please tell me. Is it interesting story?

Varmints

a lot of the others have said it, but i'm going to say the same thing anyway.
this video was hard to understand!! haha

you know that there were two types of the creatures, one type was the cute one like the main character, and the other type was those gray, filthy, rat kind of things, and i thought the rat-looking ones were representing us human beings. the cute-looking varmints, they are also human beings, but i think they represent those who are trying to make a difference in clearing the environment.

i don't exactly know what the jellyfish thing is supposed to represent, but i suppose they meant something like "hope". maybe some new technology that won't have much effect on the environment? like solar energy and wind power? i'm not sure.. but i think it meant something good!

with our modern technology, the environment is being destroyed. the rat-looking varmints were exactly doing the same thing as we do today. when things improve and become more convenient, there are so many things we risk losing at the same time and the environment is a good example. and i think that's their message they want to tell us.

The Clod

the big clod i think represented the earth (environment) itself. No matter what happens, it keeps on moving and spinning in space. endless.
and the small clod represented us, human beings. We inhabit wherever we go to. No matter how harsh the environment is, we find a way, somehow, to live.

Mr.Armstrong said that "keep in mind that this video was made in Czechoslovakia and they were once ruled by Russia" but i don't get the connection of that and this video...
did anyone understand that part?? because if you did, i'd love to know!

Otaku

In this video, five Japanese words which are especially used in Akihabara were introduced. It was so funny! Icouldn't help laughing! I thought the explanation about them is mostly correct.
They explained Otaku is a person who is obsessive about something and spend everyday on it. It is completely the meaning of Otaku I suppose. What I thought was funny is the explanation of Moe. They said that we actually say "mo-eh" and it is pink fuzzy warm feeling!<33 It is easy to imagine! Burriko was also interesting. They said that burriko girls is faking her cuteness and especially old women do so. But I have a little different idea. I think more young girls tend to do burriko than old women because they want to gain popularity among boys!! They may know the gestures and the way to speak which boys feel charming. Though such girls may not be liked by girls:)! lol

Varmints

Loved the music first of all...
Anyways, this video clip really made me think hard on it. The conflict is the varmints v.s. the city. The city stands for artificial technology that pollutes/destroys the environment and the varmints stands for those who try to protect the environment. The jellyfish like object, I'm not sure what they were, stand for some sort of punishment to the people who weren't taking care of the environment. At the end, the jellyfishes took away the varmints from the city and they were all vital and happy again.

The Clod

I thought it was a pretty hard clip, yet it had a deep meaning in it.
The little clod stands for mankind and his house stands for the environment. The big clod stands for the problems created by mankind. The big clod was approaching the little clod and even though the little clod realizes the danger and tries to run with the house, he fails to escape and gets eaten along with the house. He ends up in the stomach and found in to be not bad. (He liked it even more with his house.) After that, he gets disposed from the "other side" and is safe outside again. At the end, he realizes that another big clod was approaching and that it was endless.
The humans realize the problems going on with the environment, but they cannot do anything about it. It somehow might go though, but as there was an endless line of big clods, there is an endless line of problems involving the environment that keep coming up.

Please ask me questions if you didn't get my explanation...