Movie Review 2

If you notice this post, can you post your moview review as the "comment" under this post?
Thank you.



Throne of Blood (1957)
Director: Akira Kurosawa

November 1st (Thursday)
5:00-6:50pm at McEniry

One of the most celebrated screen adaptations of Shakespeare into film, Akira Kurosawa’s Throne of Blood re-imagines Macbeth in feudal Japan. Starring Kurosawa’s longtime collaborator Toshiro Mifune and the legendary Isuzu Yamada as his ruthless wife, the film tells of a valiant warrior’s savage rise to power and his ignominious fall. With Throne of Blood, Kurosawa fuses one of Shakespeare’s greatest tragedies with the formal elements of Japanese Noh theater to make a Macbeth that is all his own classic tale of ambition and duplicity set against a ghostly landscape of fog and inescapable doom.

pictures from 10/25 class

Tokugawa, Ieyasu
























Amakusa, Shiro

























Tokugawa, Tsunayoshi












Mito, Mitsukuni



























Matthew Perry

























Tokugawa, Yoshinobu (before Perry)

























Tokugawa, Yoshinobu (after Perry)
























Sakamoto, Ryoma

























Saigo, Takamori

asking you a favor 2

could anyone transcribe this 53 second clip for me???
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QjfAzECuDSA
sorry&thank you, i'll buy you a coffee.

ask you a favor

hi,
id like to ask you a favor.
can you tell me about the American music scene since i don't know music very much?
what song by whom or what band were the most popular/well-known songs for each decades since 1970?
i appreciate a lot and lot if you could fill in as many blank as you can and comment or email me (s_shoji@hotmail.com) as soon as possible if you are not too busy.
this is some kind of research.
thank you very very very very very much.

1970s
song by male white: "_______(song title)" by "_______(musician)"
song by female white: "_______(song title)" by "_______(musician)"
song by male african american: "_______(song title)" by "_______(musician)"
song by female african american: "_______(song title)" by "_______(musician)"

1980s
song by male white: "_______(song title)" by "_______(musician)"
song by female white: "_______(song title)" by "_______(musician)"
song by male african american: "_______(song title)" by "_______(musician)"
song by female african american: "_______(song title)" by "_______(musician)"

1990s
song by male white: "_______(song title)" by "_______(musician)"
song by female white: "_______(song title)" by "_______(musician)"
song by male african american: "_______(song title)" by "_______(musician)"
song by female african american: "_______(song title)" by "_______(musician)"

2000s
song by male white: "_______(song title)" by "_______(musician)"
song by female white: "_______(song title)" by "_______(musician)"
song by male african american: "_______(song title)" by "_______(musician)"
song by female african american: "_______(song title)" by "_______(musician)"

coffee

i just went take a flu shot coz teachers can take it for free, which is good.
then i stopped by ritazza and got a coffee. i am tired but i have some papers to write (*i'm taking a linguistics class coz teachers can take a class every semester for free). i need caffeine. i drink 3 or 4 cups of coffees everyday. im going to write a paper about "standard english." i suck in speaking english, and how could i write about "standard english"? i have no idea. maybe i just write "I don't know standard Enlgish." that's it. sorry i always complain.
by the way in japan we rarely see decaffeined coffee. you have to have caffeine if you want a coffee. also, i like the american bookstores that have cafe in them. that is a great system. we don't have that system in japan. (*maybe japan does now. i left japan 7 years ago, so i might be wrong.)
but japan has internet/manga(comic boooks) cafe, where you come into a private booth. the places have tons of comic books and a computer in every booth. you can just read the comic books or do internet in the booth. drinks are free and you can order foods using the phone set in the booth. if you go there you will see many students and businessmen killing time. another great thing about the internet/manga cafe for me is you can smoke there in the booth.
by the way i heard some rumor that UNCC is going to restrict the place where you can smoke on campus... like you can smoke only 10 or 30 feet away from any building or something like that... is it the time for me to quit smoking finally????

bath

the day before yesterday i didn't take show at night and i was gonna take it next morning.
next morning, i had a appointment for golfing in the morning, so i was gonna take shower before that, but i was so tired that i went golf anyway and i thought i can take shower after that.
golf took longer than i expected and i came back home at 3:45. but i had an appointment for a student's makeup test at 4, so i went to school without taking shower.
his makeup test took so long and i had an appointment for tutoring japanese for an american guy at 6:30, so i went there.
i felt myself sooo dirty. it's very unusual to not take shower (or bate) more than 24 hours in japan.
in the japanese-tutoring time i talked with the american guy and he said he and his wife are going to japan for a trip this week. and he said they are going to go to hot spring in japan.
he knows japan (he has lived there for 2 years), so he will be ok, but his wife might be troubled when she bath coz this is her first trip to japan. i guess she will feel ashamed when she take off all clothes in the public hot spring.

if you go to hot spring in japan, pay money first (or buy a ticket at the vending machine), then go to changing room, take off all clothes (don't worry everybody's naked), put the clothes in the coin locker, bring a small towel into the public bathing room,
sit down on a small plastic chair in front of a faucet and wash yourself with the towel first, then bath in the big tub.
also, it's better to hide your front with a towel in the bathing room, like the standing guy in the picture.







another thing to tell you is that, probably, the japanese people would talk about you when you are there, like "oh, that an american! wow, big!"
if you hear those rude japanese people, look at them and say "nan desu ka? (what did you say?)" in japanese, then they will be quiet.

Great Works from calligraphy class

Extra Credit Work

I want some of you to ask you to work on something for the extra point.

Can anybody make the transcript of some DVD/VCR?

There are 4 DVD/VCR to be transcribed, so I guess I need 4 people.

1. "The Meiji Transformation" (DVD, 30min): have to be transcribed by October 31st
*this transcription will be used in our class this semester in November.
2. "Community Relations in Japanese Schools" (VCR, 60min): have to be transcribed by the end of this year
3. "Facts about the Islands: The Northern Territories" (VCR, 35min): have to be transcribed by the end of this year
*this video is the one which we used this semester.
4. "Hiroshima: City of Peace" (VCR, 30min): have to be transcribed by the end of this year
*this video is the one which we used this semester.

Probably it takes about 5 hours to transcribe 30-min-long movie.
If you do any one of the movie, I can give you 1% extra point on your total grade for this class.

Please think about that. Thank you.

pictures from Oct 11th class

Kamakura Period
Minamoto no Yoritomo













Minamoto no Yoshitsune













Musashibo benkei













Yoshitsune and Benkei










Hojo Masako













Genghis Khan and Khubilai Khan















Muromachi Period
Francisco de Xavier














Azuchi Momoyama Period
Oda, Nobunaga










Toyotomi, Hideyoshi













Tokugawa, Ieyasu










Sen no Rikyu

Fall Break

Fall break is over now.
I hope you had a good break.
My last day of the break was the suffer from the hangover.
In Japanese colleges, they don't have a fall break.
They have a summer break, winter break, and long spring break.
April to July: 1st semester
July to September: summer break
September to December: 2nd semester
December to January: winter break
January to February: 3rd semester
February to April: spring break

I heard someone say Americans have the stereotype that the Japanese students are very studious, is that true?
I think generally American college students study more than the Japanese college students.
In Japan's classroom, half of the students are sleeping or textmessaging with the cell phone. Also, they don't have as many tests, quizzes, papers or presentations as Americans do.
Also, many teachers don't check the attendance, so they skip the class a lot.
One time I attened only the first day of the semester and the final test day, and I got B. I was lazy.

On the other hand, the class code is sometimes more strict in Japan, like most of them don't know what "makeup test" is coz they don't have that. If he/she missed the test or quiz, his/her grade on the test is 0.
Since I became a teacher in America, I have been always not sure what kind of excuse is good for accepting the makeup test. I have had many many various excuses for missing the tests, like
"I broke up with my girlfriend, so I don't have the strength to go to school. Can I take the test next week?"
"My cat died, so I can' t take the test today. Can I take the test tomorrow?"
Are they saying these excuse seriously? or are these funny?

JAPN studying abroad information panel

Study Abroad in Japan Info Panel

Panelists:
Matthew Cothran (Gakushuin University in Tokyo)
John Holbert, Hunter Johnson, Kristy Jones (Oita University in Kyushu region)
Zack Freedman (Obirin University in Tokyo)
Chikako Mori, Fumie Kato (Nagoya University of Foreign Studies in Chubu region)
Karl Doskocil (general info of Japan)

Date and time: Friday Oct 12, 4:00-6:00pm
Venue: COED 065
Each panelist:
1. gives a short description of his/her experience in Japan as the international students.
2. shows his/her pictures taken in Japan.
3. answers questions.

pictures from Oct 4th class

1. Jomon Period
Cord-marked (=”Jomon”) pottery vessels













Pit houses










Clay Jomon figurines (Dogu)














2. Yayoi Period
Yayoi Pottery













3. Kofun Period
Front-squared and rear round tomb mound












Haniwa















4. Asuka Period
Prince Shotoku (on 1000 yen bill)







Horyuji temple










5. Nara Period
Daibutsu (big Buddha statue) in Todaiji temple












Kukai (Kobo Daishi)

Ichiro

Ichiro in the Seattle Mariners didn't get the leading hitter in this season. He was the second place of the league.
He was such a amazing batter when he was in Japan.
The highest batting average in the Japanese baseball history is .320 by an American, Leron Lee, who played in Lotte Orions. Second average is .31918 by Wakamatsu, and Third is .31915 by Harimoto.
But Ichiro's total batting average for his career in Japan was .353, which is incredible.




Also, if you like baseball, you know Barry Bonds made a home run record this year, right?
But a player who played in Japan, Oh, Sadaharu made 868 home run in the 1950s-1980s, which is far more than Bonds's record. Of course the level of the American baseball is higher than Japan's, and the baseball stadium in Japan are mostly smaller than America's, so some people says Oh's record is not as great as Americans'. But still Oh's record is amazing considering the games per year is fewer in Japan.
By the way Oh is originally Taiwanese, and many good players in Japanese baseball history are from Taiwan and Korea.

Oh was the manager of the Japan's national team in the World Baseball Classic tournament that was held last year, and his team won the first championship.
The American referee in the tournament was soooo unfair. I was mad. They should judge fairly as the referees from the No.1 baseball country.
Why the referees are all Americans? Why the tournament was held by America's major league? I think the tournament should be held by some international Baseball organization.

I am not trying to blame America, so no offense please.

I was just reading the sports news on the internet, and just thought of writing something on the blog.
Reading news and going to bed is the things I usually do at night, so... Oyasumi (good night).

Tutor wanted

a japanese family want a tutor for 15-year-old and 16-year-old studnets.
they want you to help thier homework in the american shools, so you have to be a native english speaker (*a BEAUTIFUL english speaker is preferable).
twice a week, 1.5 hours for each day.
$20/hour + gas
in Ballantyne area (about 30 min drive from UNCC)

please let me know if you are interested.

take a camera away

i want to give this camera away coz i recently bought a degital camera.
*this camera is a normal camera. this is not a degital camera.
if you could take this away, a japanese food is coming together! (eaten best by 6/29/2006)

International Festival

last saturday was the international festival.
did you stop by the japan booth?
if you missed it, you should come next year.
the festival is on the last saturday of september every year.

here are the pictures of the japan-booth.

what japanese movie is good?

hi, this is shoji.
as some of you know we japanese program shows two japanese movies every semester.
we are talking what movie is good to show next semester.
if you know any good japanese movie, please tell me. (if you have the dvd of the movie and let us use, we appreciate it!)