sevenster-nana

big fish

2009-05-04T13:21:00.000-07:00

I read the book Big fish, and I watched the movie Big fish, so first, I want to tell how different the book is from the movie. And second, I want to give my idea why the director changed the movie. Then, I will judge whether that was good or not.

First, I found many different points, but I will show you some of them. First is the story of Edward and Karl. Karl is such a giant man. He grew up so fast, so his mother could not take care of him, and she left her house. When he noticed that his mother was gone, he was very hungry. But he could not make meals by himself, so he ate all corn, apples, and a dozen dogs in his town. People became so angry. Then Edward visited his place to become a sacrifice, but Karl didn’t eat him. According to the book, after that, Karl became a farmer with the people. But, in the movie, Karl left the Ashland with Edward, and he found the job in a circus. Second is the story of Edward winning Sandra. According to the book, Edward fell in love with her in the town of Auburn, but he didn’t approach her for a long time. But one day when he saw a scene that she talked and laughed with a man who is from Ashland, Edward decided to talk to her, and asked her for a date. The approach succeeded, and they did date. One day they went to a mountain to drive. When they kissed, Don Price who loves Sandra, came to their car. And Edward and Don did fight to get Sandra. Finally, Edward won the battle and Edward and Sandra married. On the other hand, according to the movie, he met Sandra at the circus, and he fell in love at first sight. But he had no idea who she was, so he worked in the circus for three years to figure out who she was. After that, finally he got information about her. Therefore he left the circus to meet her and propose to her. However, unfortunately when he was able to meet her, she was already engaged to Don Price, who came from Ashland. Edward was depressed, but he never gave up trying to marry Sandra. And one day he bought a lot of daffodils. She was coming to love him, but at the same time, Don showed up in front of them, and he started to beat Edward up. In the fight, Edward didn’t fight back with him, so Edward lost the fight. However, finally Sandra chose Edward as a husband.

Second, I will talk about my idea what are reasons the director changed the movie. I believe the director want to connect between story and story. In the book, most of stories are independent, but in the movie, the story is connected. And I believe the movie version is more romantic than the book. In the movie, Edward worked in a circus for three years to get information about her, but in the book he didn’t do anything and just watched her for a long time.

Third, I want to judge this movie. I think this movie is good. It is much easier to understand the whole story than the book. And it is more romantic.

Gyaru vs middle age women

2009-04-26T15:10:00.001-07:00

Recently women have a stronger right than past. Especially, I believe that teenager women and middle age women have powerful opinions. Do you know gyaru? They are Japanese female teenagers who wear hot fashion. In general, their behavior is bad. They sit in front of convenience store that is 24 hors stores. And they hang out until midnight. Even police ask them “Don’t do that,” they never change their style, and argue them. They don’t have responsibility for their life, and they don’t care what are they watched by people. So they can do anything what they want to do. In the meantime, middle age women are also vigorous. In general, when they get disadvantage, they do very strong argument. For example, in the restaurant, if they got someone’s hair or something wrong things in their dishes, they argue waitress or waiter. “It is too rude, and I don’t want to pay for this dish. You should give us something advantage.” They are lost to shame, and they don’t feel scare anything. Therefore, if gyaru and middle age women fight, which will win? I think middle age women are stronger than Gyaru because they have mare knowledge than Gyaru. However, if men take part in this battle, they will help Gyaru because they like young women. Therefore, middle age women will become little weak. But they are really strong I believe because they have big network. If they will strike, Japanese society would stop. And people who help gyaru would apologize them. So I can say middle age woman is stronger than Gyaru.

Unique food!!!

2009-04-20T13:12:00.000-07:00

The strangest food for me is ant with covered chocolate!!!! I ate it here in Carbondale, (same time as Anna, in last term’s EAP2 core class.) First, when I saw it, I thought that it was weird.L But when I ate it, and the taste was totally white chocolate.J Some of my classmate ate worms, and they said, “It is delicious” and “Give me more.” I could believe it because ant was also delicious. But I didn’t eat the worm’s one because the looks was so weird. Why we ate these insects in core class? The reason is that we were learning environmental problems this time. And we learned that insects have a lot of proteins, so we ate insects. However, I may not buy these eatable insects because there are many food that have proteins and visual is so nice in grocery store. I’m glad to come here because I can try much kind of international foods. I love to challenge everything. So I tried a lot of food that I cannot try in Japan. Most of them I liked, but I cannot eat goat curry that is from Jamaica. When I went to Miami, my host family made it. They made a lot of Jamaican foods, and most of them I liked, but I cannot goat curry because its smell makes me sick. However, I’m glad to eat goat because I cannot eat it in Japan. I will leave here soon, so before I leave here, I want to try many unique foods. Also, before I come back to Japan, I will go to Mexico, so I want to try unique Mexican food.

My life was priceless...

2009-04-12T09:35:00.000-07:00

If I would die tomorrow, I want to write in my epitaph "My life was priceless."Although some people think that we can buy experience with money such as sightseeing, but I think that experience is wealth of life, and we can not buy experience with money such as making friends. Terefore, if there is a person who has a lot of experiences, he or she has great wealth. In my case, I had a lot of experiences till today. The biggest experience is coming to America. Thanks to this studying abroad, I can get many adventures. I want to introduce some experiences. First, I could eat American foods that I can not eat in Japan. I live in Neely, so I can eat American foods every day. Even I'm tired of these foods, I enjoy eating that. Second, I could get on a plane by my self and I could go many places by my self. Before I came here, I had never book and get on a plane by my self. But after I came here, I went to Miami and Spain by my self. I can gat confidence because of these experiences. Third, I could meet many people, and I could be friend with them who come from all over the world. Before I came here, I had never talked to other countries' people except American. But since I came here, I could talk to Chinese, Korean, Saudi Arabian, Taiwanese, and so on, and I could learn many different cultures. So I can say I had a lot of experiences and I was very happy. I really apreciate my parents because If my parents didn't allow that I go abroad, I can't have these experiences. So I want to tell thanks to my parents. I beilve that my perents' hapiness is my hapiness, so I want to write in my epitaph "My life was priceless." This phrase includes these means that "I was very satisfied my life," "I was glad to born," and "I apreciated my parents."

Gosurori

2009-04-05T11:31:00.000-07:00

I will introduce "Gothloli" that people who wear "Gothloli" fashion. What is "Gothloli" fashion? It is mixed "Gothic and Lolita" fashion. "Gothic fashion" is a clothing style that is influenced by medieval Europe. People who wear "Gothic fashion" like black color, so they use it a lot. For example, they wear black clothing, dye their hair dark, use black eye shadow. The style stands for devil, vampire, and death. On the other hand, "Lolita fashion" is a clothing style that is influenced by Rococo era that is 18th century in France. People who wear "Lolita fashion" like pink, white, and frill; therfore, they look like little girls. The style stands for lovely, pure, and virgin. People who wear "Gothlolli fashion" like black and frill, so they wear balck dress with frill. The style is influenced by not only "Gothic" and "Lolite", but also visual kei that is a kind of band who wear fancy clothing and making up. Most of them are young women. They are not admitted by most people like Otaku. Thus they can't go to school or work with the fashion. Most of "Gothloli" people wear that just for fun. If you visit Japan, you can meet them especialy in Tokyo and Osaka. Recently foreigners pay attention to the fashion, so many foreigners visit Japan to get the clothing. In Japan Expo at Paris, the "Gothloli fashion" are introduced, and the fashion are imported from Japan. I'm glad to be accept Japanese cultuer in foreign countries.

Flag of Japan

2009-03-29T11:20:00.000-07:00

There were two flags which are known as a national flag in Jpan. One is called ''Nisssyo-ki'', ohter is called ''Kyokujitsuki''. ''Kyokujituki'' is more common among foreigners and they may think that ''Kyokujitsuki'' is flag of Japan, but it is wrong. On August 13, 1999, Japanese govorment established a law about flag of Japan. Accoding to the law, the flag of Japan is ''Nissyo-ki''. This flag's base color is white, and at the center there is a red circle which indicate sun. The size is two units length by three units width (2:3). The size of red circle's diameter is three by five length (3:5). ''Kyokujitsuki'' also have a sun as a symbol. But strictly speaking, the sun incidents rising sun. Moreover, ''Kyokujituki'' used to use in Japanese navy, and now it is used by "self-defence forces". So "Nissyo-ki" and "Kyokujistuki" have different means for Japanese people.
"Nissyo-ki" has a long history from before 7th century. Japanese people have admired the sun as a god or thing that have a mystic force; therefor, Japanese peple put the sun as a symbol in flag. But untill 1999, they didn't enact the flag of Japan because of background of WWⅡ. After WWⅡ, GHQ who are American occupided Japan, and they enjoin flying a Japanese flag, so many years Japanese goverment didn't enact a national flag. However, since 1990's there were a lot of problems about ''Nissyo-ki''. One of problems is death of president of high school. Some teachers againsted flying the flag, so the president killed by himself. After the incient, Japanese govorment established a law of flag to avoid the incident again.

Reminder

2008-12-01T14:03:00.000-08:00

Whenever I hear "Sotsugyo syashin," I remember my high school life. What is "Sotsugyo Shasin"? It is a song that is sung by Yumi Matutoya who is a famous singer in Japan. "Sotsugyo syasin" means year book. The words said one day, a woman opened year book, and she remembered her school life. I like this song. Every year, my high school's brass band played that song in graduation ceremony. Therefore, whenever I hear that tune, I remember my high school life. The graduation ceremony usually take place in gymnasium, so I remember first my club that is basket ball, and next I remember my class teacher. I really enjoyed high school life, so whenever I hear that song, I feel good. I hope that I get a song here in carbondale like "sotsugyo shasin."

Alone Time is Important

2008-11-17T14:32:00.000-08:00

I like to spend time with my friends. For example, I like to study with friends. When I feel that don't want to study anymore, but my friend study hard. After I watch it, I reconsider about dropping study, and I can study again with motivation. It is good for me. However, I like alone time too, especially alone trip. Because when I travel alone, I can get confidence. After the trip, I feel that I can do anything. I think confidence is very important for us. Because if you don't have confidence, you can't do anything by yourself. Therefore, alone time is important.

My Dream…

2008-11-09T21:36:00.000-08:00

I hope that I can get success in my job and marry someone before my grandparents will die. Three years ago, one of my grandfathers died due to cancer. I could not believe because he was fine. I was very sad. I was eager to show him my job, my wedding and my children. But now, I could never show him these things. Now I have one grandfather and two grandmothers. They are over 75 years old, and by luck they are fine. My grandparents always care about me, and they are pleased whenever I get good luck. I can know a lot of love from them, and I love them. Therefore, I really want to show them my happiness, so I hope they will live long and of couse with health.

Holiday of culture

2008-11-01T14:22:00.000-07:00

We have a holiday on November 3, it is called Bunkano-hi. It means the day of culture. That day is not similar to hallween. People do not wear any costume and children do not do "trick or treat." But we hold many event in any places especially local gym or hall. We can watch some performances, pictures, and so on. All of works are related with japanese traditional culture. And most of junior high and high school take place cultural festival around this day. This festival is one of two tops which is event students like. Another event is sports festivel. The active students like belong to sports club like sports festivel. In contrast, the quiet students like belong to not sport club like cultulal festival. Students play a famous drama, dance, make booth of food, put a their works on some walls, and so on. Many people who are their family and live in near from their school come the school to watch their play and works. Like that, people can meet culture in around the holiday of culture.

Japanese style party

2008-10-26T11:20:00.000-07:00

When I went to the bar at first time in the U.S, I was very surprised because most of girls in the bar did sexy dance. It is common to meet your boyfriend/girlfriend in bar here, but in my country it is not common. Do you know "Gokon"? I think it is the most common chance to make boyfriend/girlfriend. A group of male and a group of female meet in Gokon and have diner together, after that they go to karaoke or borling. They do not each other except one of boys and girls who hold the Gokon. I think it is a kind of party. For example, if I hold Gokon here, I ask one of my guyfriends let's hold Gokon. And we decied when and where we take place that. After that, I gather female members around four or five. And one of my guyfriends also gathers his male friends four or five. And then we meet and have diner with some games. If you took part in that, and you would find person you like, you can exchange email adress and telephone number each other. And after Gokon you can hangout just with him/her. Eventualy, you will real date with him/her, in other words, you can get boyfriend/girlfriend. If you have plan to come to Japan, Why don't you take part in Gokon?

I got my boyfriend in Gokon, and our relationship is still good:-)

My First Term Break!!

2008-10-16T09:00:00.000-07:00

This time was my first term break for me, so I went Chicago with my friends. It was first trip for Chicago and I was very excited. I had a lot of experiences there. I ate many delicious dishes, for example stuffed Pizza and cheesecake. But my best experience is second day.
I went to Chicago outlet with Yasu. It is far from downtown (it takes about 1hour and half), I know that but we went to there after lunch. We left downtown at 3, and arrived Aurora station that is the nearest station from Chicago outlet at 5. And we could left there at 5:30, and We could get Chicago outlet at 6. We were enjoy shopping until 9, and then we decided to come back to downtown. Therefore we try to call taxi, and we got it, and he said that "I will go there until 10 to 15minutes", so we waited for him. But he didn't come for 30minites!! We were so nerves because if we hadn't gotten that taxi, we would have came back our hostel. We wanted to take train at 10:20, but we couldn't take that train because our taxi didn't come on time. Finally our taxi came there at 10:25, and we could come back Aurora station at 10:40. The last time of train from Aurora to Chicago downtown is 11:20. We waited train about 30minites, and we got it. We arrived at downtown at 12:20. Too late!! Moreover we had to come back our hostel. It is far from downtown (it takes 1hour by train). We took a train and arrived Loyola station that is the nearest station from our hostel. But we didn't know how to get our hostel, so I asked campus policeman. Then he took us to our hostel, so we could come back our hostel at 2am.
I learned that before I go to trip, I have to make plan.

Summary: Finland bewildered by deadly school shootings

2008-10-06T08:16:00.000-07:00

In "Finland bewildered by deadly school shootings," by Marius Turula, it explains why school shootings happened in Finland. There are some reasons. First, police said that the people who did the massacres probably contacted each other before they did school shooting. Second, there is deep-rooted hunting traditions in Finland, so anyone who needs to have his/her own gun can buy guns, even young men. Third, Jouko Lonnqvist said that it has become a problem that depression is a mental illness, not only for middle-aged people but also for the young. Finally, Jerzy Sarnecki said that people who did school shootings are influenced by people who had done the same things; they watched these affairs through the media.

http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5gmPkjy3Rc56YqQQ1LYm_OfXgW5VwD93DDESG0

Dreams: Making Them Work for Us

2008-10-02T07:43:00.000-07:00

Good dreams give us a good mood. However bad dreams give us a bad mood. Therefor it is important to stop nightmares and change them to positive dreams.
There are two dream therapies to change nightmares to good dreams. According to Milton Kramer, it is important to keep a journal or diary, to review our day, to remind ourselves, to remember our dream, to remember words or pictures from the dream, and to try sleeping later. According ti Cartwright, it is important to recognize your nightmare, to identify, to stop any bad dream, and to change the negative part of the dream.
We have to know ways of changing nightmares to positive dreams to make our feeling good.

Lucid Dreaming☆

2008-09-22T15:03:00.000-07:00

In "Lucid Dreaming", by Pamela Hartmann, Lucid dreaming means that you can control yourown dreams; it has existed since 1902, and if you want to be a Lucid Dreamer, there is a way of training. Oliver Fow found "Lucid Dreaming" in 1902, and reacentry Patricia Garfield said that "Lucid Dreaming" gives us conscious. If you want to be Lucid, you should practice MILD, which is a technique of thinking about your dream before you wake up. Then you should recall it gradually, like ABCD order, and write down the dream.

compare culture of colors

2008-09-11T08:31:00.000-07:00

Each culture has color associations. For example, in Europe purple is associated with death, but in the U.S. purple is associated with fantasy like king & queen. The U.S. and Japan have similar associations of color. For example, �”stop sign” is red here and in Japan, too. “Traffic signal” has three colors. Green means you can go; yellow means you should take care, and red means you should stop here and in Japan, too. Like that, there are many similar association of color between the U.S. and Japan. However some things are different in the U.S. and Japan.

First, in the U.S. postal boxes color is blue, but in Japan it colors is red. Why are postal boxes red in Japan? Because people can find that easily, postal boxes’ color has become red in Japan. At the beginning of appearance of postal boxes, its color was black, but it is hard to find that in the night, so postal boxes’ color changed from black to red in Japan.
Second, when someone dies, people use black in funerals in the U.S., but in Japan people use black and white. Why do Japanese people use black and white in funerals? There is because in Japan white expresses death. However, since the culture of Western Europe came, people have used these colors in funerals. Therefore people use black and white in funerals in Japan.

Third, when someone is married, people use white in weddings in the U.S., but in Japan people use white and red. Why do Japanese people use white and red in weddings? Because red expresses birth and white expresses death, so Japanese people regard these colors as good colors. Therefore people use red and white in weddings in Japan.

By to contrasting cultures, you can discover new things in your own culture.

2008-08-28T07:26:00.000-07:00