Real Shin-Chan's

Is this what parents want children to copy?

What if you children say that to you?

ｌThat's who he really is.

Novita's Influence

I always enjoy watching Draemon. A lot of adventure, friendship, and team work, the anime is very exciting and meaningful to watch. Nobita is one of the two main characters, who is so unlucky, weak and lazy that his descendants had to send the family robot back in time to help him out. The robot's name is Draemon. Nobita always jumps on to Draemon and asks the robot for help even though the problems are caused by himself.
Nobita's lazy and dependent acts discourage child viewers to work hard in school and take responsibility on things they have to work on. Before growing to be mature, children should be taught to work on their problems before asking their parents or teachers for their helps. The ironic factor is that many Draemon fans say that they like Novita's charming and kind character. I think Novita is charming in the ways how he acts or talks, but we should judge his laziness and too much dependence on Draemon from the critical viewpoint.

Drug Booms Will be Taken Away

The earthquake took more than 10,000 precious lives. What can we learn from the incredible disaster? Being grateful that we are living. Now, many Japanese celebrities, who did not know how to use their money and wasted for buying drugs, must find the right way to spend their money.

Ichiro Suzuki, a Japanese MLB star player, donated $1.25 million to Japan quake relief. Ichiro is one of the most successful Japanese, and his action of donating that much money saved many Japanese lives. On the other hand, there is an ex-idol, who was caught by the Japanese government the last week. She ran away to Philippine after finding the cocaine from her apartment.

Celebrities have money, but not everyone is like Ichiro, who knows how to spend money. These people, who are using their lots of extra money for drugs, should think and ask themselves for a second. Which way is better? Buying drugs or helping others??       

The Earthquake Chases Away All The Teachers

A few days ago, I talked to relatives over the Skype to hear how they were doing in Japan. My cousin goes to the Temple University at Tokyo, the public university system of Pennsylvania. All classes are instructed in English by English spoken professors like other colleges in the US.

My cousin told me that he had had two weeks with no school even though it was during the semester. He told me that the reason why they had no school for the whole two weeks was because all the teachers from other countries went back to there home countries. Even though the safety of nuclear explosion was announced, but they were already scared of experiencing other life risking natural disaster. The Temple University at Tokyo finally started after replacing all the professors, who left Japan, with Japanese licensed professors. 

That was the big loss for the school to lose all the English spoken teachers because that was the value of the school, which was to speak ONLY English during the classes. The Temple University at Tokyo is owned by the state of Pennsylvania, so I hope that the state will send other American teachers. The Earthquake took too many things from Japan. Now, we work as a nation!

The Message Driven By Who?

 I had a chance to see the art exhibition in the Visual Arts Building in the UTD campus, and I disagreed with one of the arts exhibited, Jesus killing Native Americans with machine guns and other modern weapons.

I soon realized that Jesus did not literally mean himself, but the Christian immigrants from Europe, who came to America in the past and killed so many Native Americans to gain dominance over the land. It was so ironic that Jesus as a savior became a destroyer in the painting. Even though the painting symbolized the tragedy of Native Americans in the past, I disagree that Jesus was an accurate representation of the European immigrants, who had destroyed the Indians’ communities. I thought the painting was the representation of what other people think who Jesus would be to teach his members to kill. Wrong! These immigrants never followed and practiced Jesus’ direction of living for the sake of others and saving the world, but rather destroyed them; therefore, the immigrants with the cross on their chests were not the representation of Jesus.

“Ghost in the Shell”

                Ghost in the Shell, an animated film, reflects women’s identities and their relationship with men in society. The story of the film describes the battles of the Japanese National Public Commission known as Section 9 against criminals and illegal associations. Motoko Kusanagi, a main character of the film, is built as a cyborg soldier, which gains a superhuman power. Kusanagi’s exceptional physical strength helps Section 9 capture and execute criminals. In Ghost in the Shell, Mamoru Oshii, the director of the film, stresses the limitations of women’s physical strengths in the battle field through describing Kusanagi.  

            Oshii illustrates that women’s belief and desire of having equal power with men’s can be denied especially in the battle field. Kusanagi appears as a female cyborg, which body is structured as a female and constructed with machines in inside of its body. The characterization of Kusanagi as a female cyborg becomes the crucial point, which explains the limitations that women have.

Throughout the decades, women have gained their rights and power in the fields of academic, politics, media, and business. If someone says “you cannot do this because you are a woman” without giving explanations and examples of what make the one think that way, the one will create enemies oppose against the comment. Oshii shows that women can become powerful enough to fight and beat the enemies only if they become a cyborg.  Kusanagi plays a significant role to explain the limitation of women’s physical strengths in the battle field.

Today, women have become powerful and influential in society. For example, Condoleezza Rice became one of the most distinguished secretaries in the U.S. Rice’s outstanding performances in academics and politics have demonstrated the power and capabilities of women. But is she capable to carry a heavy weapon and run in the battle ground? Are there any female war heroes in the U.S. history? If you say, “women are less than men,” you will be in a big trouble opposed by society, unless you particularly point out “women are less than men in terms of their physical strengths.” Oshii proves that the limitations that women have in their body functions comparing to men’s in Ghost in the Shell.

Musical Porn

                Why are music videos exciting to watch? Male viewers may find something attracting other than singings in music videos. That iss the purpose of music videos. Kenneth Burke in his movie, Dreamworld, clarifies that music videos present sexuality for selling their products.  In Dreamworld, Burke says that the primary role of females in music videos is to arouse male veiwers’ sexual desire by exposing their bodies. He creates incongruity and challenges the tragic frame of music videos’ gender narrative through his strategies of story telling, constructing femininity, and demonstrating the roles of female artists.

                Burke presents the technique of story telling to demonstrate the incongruity of music videos’ gender narrative. He tells that “the presence of sexualized female bodies are so prevalent” in music videos. A male musician in the Dreamworld says that all the music videos are all about women. In music videos, the musician’s comment implies that women play more important roles than the main male musicians do in music videos.  Women appear to get an attention of male viewers by presenting their exposed bodies. Burke discusses, “Women are also shown as simply hanging around male artists, their only function being to dram in male viewers into the fantasy created by the producers and directors of music videos.” He says that many music videos make women’s figures more bizarre than only wearing bikinis, such as coating them with silver or gold. The point may tell that females with bikinis in music videos have become so normal that videos need to present their bodies in different way other than just wearing bikinis. Music videos use women’s bodies to get attention from male viewers, and also the videos include their bodies to identify the genre and the story of music videos present.

                Burke’s Dreamworld challenges the tragic frame of music videos’ gender narrative through presenting the strategy of constructing femininity.  Burke says that the most important elements of women in music videos are sexuality.  He tells that the scenes of music videos, which show a number of women, surrounding a man, are one of the most enduring techniques in music videos. He tells that the scenes of a man surrounded by many women show that the understanding of femininity is always defined by the powerful men. The movie illustrates that females in music videos are sexually motivated that if males are absent, females need the substitutions of males to satisfy their sexual desires. And also, they are so dependent on men that if men are absent, women become depressed easily. Females are presented almost like sexual monsters in music videos. Females often appear to be in a pool, wearing bikinis and drinking, in many scenes of music videos. They invite males in the pool. Burke says, “Music videos tell the women’s wet bodies are one of the cornerstones of adolescent male sexual fantasy.” He also tells that music videos do not only present women’s sexual relationship with men, but also the videos show their relationships with same sex. Music videos construct females as sexual characters, who arouse males’ sexual desires.

                Burke demonstrates the roles of female artists in music videos. He says that female artists have to present themselves as primarily sexual beings, such as showing pornographic images of them, to get males’ attentions in music videos. These female artists slip off their cloth to expose their bodies, and cameras zoom in on the parts of their, especially focusing on the bottom. Burke says there seems to be no escape for female artists from music videos’ producers to make pornographic images of them. He discusses, “The price of female entry into what is considered the mainstream of the culture is to accept the vision of the pornographic imaginations that the only things of value about women are their bodies and sexuality and their willingness and desire to enact male fantasies.” His statements imply that female artists are required to appear like porn actress in music videos, and that is more significant than singing.

                Burke tells that music videos present females as the subjects to tempt males into the dream world and objects to satisfy the males’ sexual desires. Females’ bodies are products to make music videos popular. But the images of females presented in the videos let males think that females always desire to have sex and obey to males’ sexual demands; however, females in the real world are different. We need to consider music videos as musical porn rather than just music so that we can distinguish that the females in videos are different from the females in the real world.

Wendy's Is Coming Back to Japan!

Japan is excited for Wendy's return after it closed down in 2009. The title of an article reads, "The Taste of Wendy's Is Coming Back!" When I saw the title, I realized that fast foods are still considered fancy, fashionable foods in Japan like how Americans think about Sushi. In Japan, fast foods, such as McDonald's, Burger King, and Wendy's are called "junk food." If you ask Japanese, especially, young people, about their favorite foods, you will hear that a lot of people say "junk food." Junk means anything that is regarded as worthless, meaningless, or contemptible. In other word, it means "trash." Without knowing what junk means, young Japanese often say, "Hey, let's go get some junk foods!" They think junk is cool word because it sounds English! That explains enough why they love to say "junk foods" are my favorite. 


What about the taste? "Junk food" may taste like "junk" in America because we eat fast foods as many times as to make us feel sick. But in Japan, people mainly eat Japanese foods, which are not hamburgers and french fries. Therefore, going to one of a few Americanized fast food restaurants in their neighbor once a month is an exciting moment. People in Japan are not yet sick of the tastes of grease, cheap American cheese, and ketchup. They are still big funs of the "Junk Foods." If you are thinking of running food business in Japan, you should name it "King of Junk Food," so that people will like the name and come to the restaurant. 

Britney Spears In The Music Video

One of the Britney Spear's music videos, "Hold It Against Me," brings her messages and claims that the roles of women in the society should not be controlled by the men's dominated society. In the music video, she appears and dances in the front and center of all other male dances behind her on the stage. The scene appeals that women are no longer pushed on the side and just see how men are doing, but now is the time for women to stand in the center and lead the world. In the fighting scene against the other woman in the video, she becomes an aggressive, masculine woman, who changes the image of women as being objective and passive to men.   

Brittney Spears sends her own beliefs and principles of women's roles in society in the music video, "Hold It Against Me."

That's How Much We Know

 

That's a popular Japanese comedy show, called No Laughing High School. If participants laugh during the show, they receive a punishment, striking their butts with a Kendou Stick as many times as they are found laughing by the judges. Many funny events are organized and happened to make the participants laugh during the show, and the funniest session that they laughed the most was the presentation of a Japanese man's English. The man sounds hilarious and sounds like typical Japanese, who took English classes in middle school and high school, but didn't learned any English.

Shouldn't Dragon Ball Z Be PG-13?

I've read an interesting article, Dragon Ball Z: For Adults, Not Children, discussing that many Japanese animes are not appropriate for children. The article explains that the American cartoons "exist primarily for family-friendly entertainment." Disney is the major entertainment company that makes a lot of cartoons in America, and its most cartoons are made appropriately without sexual and violence scenes and curse language. On the other hand, Dragon Ball Z contains so many violent scnens, swear words, and a few sexual contents.  I have been a big fun of Dragon Ball Z since I was a six-year-old and never listened to my parents' advice not to watch the anime until I became over thirteen. Now, I remember that I punched on my friend's stomach in elementary school after watching the scene, which Goku punched his enemy's stomach and beat it, and got suspended for three days in school.

Children should let their parents' know and have their permissions to watch some violent animes like Dragon Ball Z.






 

Taste of Other Countries In Fast Food

There are many original menus in McDonald's in different countries. For example, the McDonald's in India does not serve any beef burgers because the Hindu people do not eat beef. Instead, they use lamb or chicken meat to make hamburgers. When I go to Korea, I always eat Burgogi Burger because I can have the tasty burger only in Korean McDonald's.

Japan is the biggest countries, which create its original McDonald's menus, such as Deep Fried Shrimp Burgers, Teriyaki Burgers, Deep Fried Mashed Potato Burger, and so on. The most creative and sensational burger in Japan is Sweet Red Bean Burger in Japanese Wendy's as you see the image of the burger in the image above. I'm sure it's the first sweet hamburger ever in the history of the fast food restaurants'. I've never tried, but I will, surely, try it when I go back to Japan. The Red Bean Burger sounds nasty especially if you never tried Taiyaki, a fish shaped pancake with sweeten red bean paste inside.  

  

If you have tried Taiyaki before and liked the taste, you can imagine that the Red Bean Burger tastes like Taiyaki, but don't think that it's like a Cheeseburger. I think the burger will taste better than you would expect. If you ever go to Japan, you may want to try it. 

We shouldn't underestimate fast food restaurants because they have original menus that you can only have them in each countries with very low price. As soon as you arrive in the Narita Airport, you may want to go to McDonald's and order a Teriyaki burger instead of going to Sushi restaurants, which we have in the US.

Hopefully, McDonald's in the US have include some menus from other countries, so that we can experience the taste of other countries.

The Super Extra Large Zaru Soba For Only $6.

Most of my American friends say that anything in Japan is tiny. I'm small like the average Japanese adult's size, but I ate 75 pieces of sushi when I went to the rotating sushi bar in my hometown in Japan. Now, many restaurants in Japan started "Dekamori," which means "super extra large" in English, on their menus to satisfy people's stomachs. The great things about the "Dekamori" service is that you pay only extra one or two dollars and can get more than double amount of a dish you choose.

If you are really hungry for Japanese food, I suggest you go to Japan and order these "Dekamori" dishes. The tastes are always better in the restaurant in Japan than the Japanese restaurants in America.

There Are11 Domestic Airlines Worse Than Air Tran

In the beginning of this year, I had the tragic experience in the Atlanta Airport. On the way back from NY, I had to stay in Atlanta for three nights because of the flight's cancellations in the icy weather. Because I didn't have enough money to sleep in the hotel, I slept on the bench in the airports for three nights. I thought I was experiencing little bit of the "Terminal."
Missing my classes, spending almost $100 for the meals in the expensive airport restaurants, no shower, and sleeping on the bench, I felt the "Terminal" was like a hell. One thing surprised me was that the Air Tran did give a free meal ticket for only one meal to their customers, who got stuck in the Air Port for a few days. In Japan, if the flights are canceled for any reason, the airlines pay enough money for their customers to eat and sleep in hotels and sometimes let them upgrade to the business class. 
I've used Air Tran many times when I go to other states because it's often the cheapest. Anytime I use the airline, the company make customers wait until the seats are filled even though it's already past the departure time. I though I didn't care the service or quality of airlines as long as it's cheap, but Air Tran is too bad for me to say, "Air Tran isn't bad." I thought Air Tran was the worst domestic airlines without any doubt, but Air Tran was not in the 11 worst domestic airlines according to the website, The Huffington Post.
I became scared to know how worse these 11 airlines are than Air Tran. How bad is American Eagle, the worst domestic airline?    

What's Wrong With The 35 Percent?

Taco Bell company was sued that its "seasoned ground beef" contain only 35 percent of beef. They sue the company to labeling "beef" to the taco meat, which contain 35 percent beef, and 65 percent of water, wheat oats, soy lecithin, maltodrextrin, anti-dusting agent and modified corn starch. They also sue for the company not to show these ingredients, to which some consumers might be allergic.

I disagree that Taco Bell mislabel their products because they never said that's "100 percent pure beef." Haven't you heard or seen the "100 percent beef" in the TV commercials or signs or labels on the freeway many times? The emphasis of the "100 percent beef" imply that other beef with no "100 percent" is mixed with something else. So, as long as Taco Bel doesn't lie to label "100 percent beef" if it's only "35," they shouldn't be sued of mislabeling.
Perhaps, Taco Bell might need to explain what is in the beef more clearly because some people may find that they are allergy to some of the ingredients.
I shouldn't expect too much from the tasty 79 cents taco.

The Virus Throughout The World

If I'm given the freedom of speech, I have to say they are the origin of the today's collapsed society. Even though the "F" words are running around in my head when I think of the band, not to become like them, I shouldn't express my honest feeling toward these gentle men with any curse words.
I think it was not only their faults to appear in the media but it was also the media's fault to allow them to appear in the media.
They could say curse words or anything they felt in their home, but they must have carefully thought of what to say and when to say because they were influential to society once they were in the media.
I'm sorry for those who are following the band about what I write here. Maybe, I should listen to their music to see if I like their songs. But what they have said through the media will never change their negative images in society unless they deeply apologize to society.

Everyday Is Halloween For Us

How many people thought that the girls in the image are wearing costumes for Halloween? The girls are high school students in Japan and their make ups and clothes are the popular styles called "Kogyaru Fashion." The girls who appear with the fashion are called Kogyaru. They daily wear the school uniform and make up like that in school and everywhere they go. Many female high school students especially in the Tokyo area follow the "Kogyaru Fashion" and group together with other "Kogyarus."
I have a couple of class mates from middles school, who used to be very quiet and started wearing the fashion after entering high school. I've seen significant changes of the devoted students, such as missing most of classes, smoking in school, drinking, and cursing at teachers. Anytime they commit something bad, they are always doing it with a bunch of friends.
Many students, who became Kogyaru, had some kinds of problems in their past, such as family issues and relationship problems with their friends. They join the Kogyaru group because they are welcomed to join in the  group. Also, the make up completely change their faces and make them feel stronger and protected by covering shields of the intense make up on their weak, delicate characters. Therefore, the make up does not only change their looks but also change their personalities.
For Kogyarus, Halloween does not change any different from the other days because they are always wearing Halloween costumes.

"Yes Pants Day"

"No Pants Day" is the exposed and liberated event, which the participants of the event take off their pants in public. I don't even know if I should call it an annual event, but the truth is that the "No Pants Subway Ride" has been a well-known annual event in the subway in NYC since 2002. The purpose of the event is to bring laughter to people. If anybody ask what happens to their pants, they simply say, "I forgot." Yeah, everyone forgets things. Haahaahaa.
I don't like that the way how they catch people's attention. The no pants in public would mystify people to judge what's right and wrong. I really hate that the pioneer of the event came up only with this stupid idea to make people laugh, and I really hate that people like it.
Hopefully, it will not be escalated and go beyond the borderline of "Being Naked Day."
Ladies and Gentlemen, don't take the-seemed-to-be-funny stuff for granted. The "No Pants Day" make the already-immoral society even much worse.
Have a nice pants!

The Animated Power

Japanese Anime have huge impacts on children in Japan and other countries. Many Japanese Anime are shown without any age restrictions; however, if you watch these anime with asking, “What impact does Anime have on children’s attitudes and behaviors,” you may discover how influential some Japanese anime are to Children. Famous Japanese anime, such as Princess Mononoke and Crayon Shin-chan, have influenced the ways in which children think, act, and speak.     

            Princess Mononoke by Hayao Miyazaki, the film director, gives the wrong image of God to Children. The high qualities of graphics and creative stories of the animated film interests not only children but also young and matured people. In the last scene of the story, Shishigami, the God of life and death, becomes infuriated because of the destructions of the nature by humans and tries to terminate the invaders. The attack on the humans and mysterious appearance of the Shishigami scared many viewers. I watched the film when I was thirteen.  While most adult viewers would reflect that the God in the film was different from the God they believed in, most child viewers would misunderstand that the Shishigami was the example of God like I did. The example tells that children are not capable of criticizing Anime, and therefore, they can understand only the direct meanings what characters say and act in Anime but do not understand the twisted or indirect meanings of the languages and actions.  

            Crayon Shin-chan, a comedy anime, contains inappropriate languages and actions of Shin-chan, the main character in the anime, that influence children’s attitudes and behaviors. Shin-chan’s charming look and unusually low voice for a five-year-old child caught viewers’ attentions and the anime became a sensational TV show that all the Japanese children imitated the ways in which the main character behaved and spoke. Shin-chan, who is only in kindergarten, often shows his favorite dance “Mr. Elephant” which he becomes naked the lower half of the body and shakes his back. The dance became popular among Japanese boys in elementary school and kindergarten to imitate with taking off their underwear in their house and even in front of other classmates in school.

            Shin-chan’s disrespectful acts toward his mother have caused the attitude problem of children in their families. Shin-chan often makes fun of his mother, Misae, by saying that “Misae’s fart is stinkiest in the world,” or “Misae’s butt is bigger than an elephant’s.” Many children used these phrases to their own mother.

            Japanese Anime is powerful and dangerous tool to lead children in the wrong way. Child viewers may require parental guidance to watch, Princess Mononoke, to teach them that the story described in the film is different from the real world. Crayon Shin-chan should be restricted to 18 and over for children to grow properly and moralistically. Adults have to be aware of what would influence children because they are the important figures for the future society.