What do you think about "konkatsu"? (Yuki, Naoko)

Konkatsu is a Japanese word which explains the activities that lead to marriage, such as going to omiai. In Japan, decrease in population and increase in number of unmarried people have been serious social issues and some believe that konkatsu will help these problems be solved. Yuki and Naoko have researched how the word, konkatsu, was made, old and new styles of omiai, and data that relate to konkatsu, through this assignment.

           The word konkatsu, a coinage for kekkon katsudou, were made by a Japanese sociologist, Masahiro Yamada, liken to the word shukatsu, an abbreviation for shushoku katsudou (job hunting), and it was first used in a weekly magazine called AERA for November 5^th in 2007. Later on, Yamada publishes “Konkatsu” Jidai with Momoko Shirakawa in 2008 which made the word konkatsu popular among Japanese people. The word has now become common sense and there are many TV programs and dramas that choose konkatsu as their theme. For example, a TV program called “Mote mote nineteen-nine”, which two famous comedians act as MC, helps people hold a huge omiai (marriage interview).

They first gather women who want to get married and then take them to countryside to hold a huge omiai Party with men who live there. In addition to that, a drama called Konkatsu! is about a men who lost his job but does not want to become the heir after his father’s job and make a lie that there is a woman who he wants to get married with. To make the lie come true, he starts konkatsu.

In Edo-era, most of the people find their partner through omiai because they did not have opportunity to meet their opposite sex in their daily life. The traditional omiai is held only for two people, man and woman. It is held by a third person called sewanin and it could be their family or even their neighbors. It usually takes place in restaurant in luxury hotel or café. Even though this kind of omiai still exists, the style has changed since konkatsu boom has spread all around Japan. The new style of omiai does not acquire a sewanin but for instead, a konkatsu company would introduce you a partner. In addition, some people hold omiai at family restaurant, which is much more casual than traditional way. Furthermore, most common omiai style is not for two people anymore, and it is for a group of people who want to get married. It is called omiai party or konkatsu party.

According to the article of “Konkatsu Style”, 60 percent of people who are not married and do not have a date are not doing konkatsu. This means rest of the 40 percent is actually working for finding their future partner. The most popular konkatsu website, “Match.com”, has a member of more than 1 million people. Out of these people, the website states that about 45-50% of them succeeded in finding partners that match perfectly for them. This percentage is calculated by diving the number of people who tried konkatsu by number of people who have succeeded(トライ数÷達成数＝達成率). However, people who come to the konkatsu party with friends and do not have any aim or particular purpose, the percentage turns out to be much lower.

To join the konkatsu activities through internet, you need to pay membership fees each month. The cost differs depend on which website you register. Some websites cost more than 4,000yen and some cost only 1,000yen; there are ones that do not take any fees from the members! However, the ones that cost more have higher rates than those that are cheaper. For example, “Match.com”, the website we mentioned in the previous paragraph, has a membership fee of 2,466yen per month (expensive compared to others), but its rate is five out of five. People who belong to this site seem to be very satisfied. On the other hand, the website called “Ai-Cupid” does not call for any fees, but the rate is quite low and it is two out of five.

We have taken a survey to students in universities to find out the impressions of konkatsu they have. The survey goes like this:

1.    What do you think of konkatsu?

a.    とても良いと思う

b.    良いと思う

c.     どちらでもない

d.    あまり良くないと思う

e.     全く良いと思わない

f.     聞いたことがない

g.    Others

2.    Would you like to do konkatsu in the future if needed?

(Yes / No)

3.    If no, why?

a.    Doesn’t seem to be successful (成功しなさそう)

b.    Might get deceived (だまされそう)

c.     Don’t want to go that far to get married (そこまでして結婚しなくてもいい)

d.    Want to marry for love (恋愛結婚がいい)

e.     Not interested in marriage (結婚自体に興味がない)

f.     Others

21 students (8 boys and 13 girls) have helped answering the survey. Most of them did not have bad impressions on konkatsu and no one picked (e) for the first question. This means they, at least, think konkatsu is not a bad method for finding the partners. Out of 21 students, 9 people answered that they would (prefer) to do konkatsu in the future if needed. We were surprised that almost half of them are positive for being part of the konkatsu members. Those of who answered “no” to the second question explained their reasons by choosing the most fitted choices. The reason most people chose was (d); they want to marry for love.

In conclusion, konkatsu are helping Japanese society from continuing the increase of number of unmarried people. Since the percentage of single people who do not marry for their lifetime has grown so much bigger in the last 10 years, the Japanese are trying to cheer them up to support the lonesome society. When the word first came up to the society, there were some people who think that konkatsu is too greedy and ashamed of doing it; however, as it gets popular, people began to think this as a great method of getting a chance of marriage. 

Yuki Shirai, Naoko Iwanaga

Herbivorous boys and Anti-marriage boys (Yuma Yamada and Tomohiko Ebashi)

What do you think about a man who does not choose to get married in Japan? This trend has been continuing since several years ago from now. Some social scientists have determined a man who is not able to get married to be called “herbivorous boys” (alternatively, they are called “Soushoku-Kei-Danshi” in Japan), which means a man who does not have a courage in having a relationship with girls. On the contrary, we define the man who is not afraid of getting married. For those who choose to stay as a bachelor, we sometimes call them “Anti-marriage Boys”. In this post, we would like to discuss about definitions of each type of men who do not marry, and compare and contrast each type of men. Also we would like to inform you of survey results through our research.

 

              First, “herbivorous boys” are men who are not encouraged to have relationship with women. This is because men’s inactive attitude toward action and personality is similar to herbivore animals’ images. Herbivore animals have a peaceful image in the wild, where flesh-eating animals live. This image could be fitted to today’s images of boys. For example, they tend to avoid concerning about love and fighting with other boys in order to make relationship with girls. On the other hand, there are men who are totally afraid of women, or have no interest in them at all. It is sometimes said that hormones in the body is being collapsed by modern disease, but they may be uninterested in women because of their unreliability. Some may even think that love is not necessary unless if you are planning to marry in the future.

The main reason of herbivorous boys’ increase is because of social changes in the recent years. In Japan, for past 20 years, national economy has been declining and not wealthier than the age of bubble economy in 1980’s in Japan. Therefore, people couldn’t make and spend money easier than that age, and do not use money for partner such as birthday party, Christmas present, and in other events. However, people still have an image that having a relationship with women would require a large amount of money, so people do not take action in making relationships with women because of economic problem. Due to this national problem, boys tend to think of the usage of money even more carefully than before. Many boys are now looking for a partner who has the similar value in spending. In our survey, we have researched on the values which teenage girls seek on boys.

In our survey, we have asked questions on images of the men in present/former age, and researched on the differences between two ages. We had the answerers to choose from multiple selections. In other questions, we asked whether if men are: active/passive in making relationships, childish/adult, good at/bad at domestic works, cool/cute, and brave/timid. After we got results from 19 teenage girls, we tallied them up. We first got a result that men in present age are not very dependable economically. On the contrary, we got a result that men who lived in former age were imaged a lot dependable than those of present age. From this result, we can suspect that a man in present age is unreliable economically, and undependable for women.

 

Secondly, we found out that the appearance of “herbivorous boys” is, as boys choose not to have a relationship with a girl, could be seen as a social change for women. In our present society, woman has a right to work in company with the same authority as men. It becomes a major change in the image in terms of gender. Women could work outside just like men do; on the contrary, men are not forced to work outside anymore instead of working domestically. Moreover, this social change has shifted the roles of men and women. Women in present have shifted the role of men, who are looking for a way in making a relationship with woman. However, men in present have shifted the women’s position, which only required them to wait patiently for men’s approaches.

In our survey, we got a result that fifteen percent of girls answered that men in present age are passive when it comes to constructing a relationship. On the contrary, another fifteen percent of girls said that women in present are very active in constructing a relationship.

Therefore, social change has shifted relationship between men and women. On the other hand, those who choose not to marry have an anxiety in marrying a woman who has a different value of life. Through our survey, we have found out that although there are more than twice girl who want to marry, boys tend to avoid marrying a girl. Boys feel that going out with a girl he love, but marrying her would be a difficult thing to consider, in terms of houseworks. In our survey, we got a result that about fifty percent of girls voted on “former girls were better at domestic works than present age”, and no one has voted on the fact that “present girls are better at domestic works than former age”.

 

In conclusion, we found out that there are various definitions to “soushoku-kei-danshi” and “anti-marriage boys”. All of the boys have a right to choose whether it he want to marry or not, but it is a fact that Japan is always facing a low-birth and high-aging problem. We cannot neglect this huge problem, but we cannot force them to marry a woman. Since the world is gradually becoming tolerant to anyone, the number of homosexual people would rapidly expand, which is a good social movement from the old idea of sexism. Although Japan is said to be a sexism country even now, but it is sure that the women are gaining an equal power as men. Now, some women even have a power over men workers. As the rights of men and women become more equal, the definition of masculinity is becoming more and more unbalanced. Traditional Japanese family composed under a stubborn father, but now men are losing their goal in building a relationship with women. Gender equalization was a revolutionary event, but it has done negatively in some ways from men’s point of view.

Blog #9 : Slang and language change

1. Summary of the lecture

    Slang was used only among specific groups. By doing this, they wanted to prevent understanding of others. However, slang is becoming popular and is also used among well educated people today. Nowadays, it is said that it is fun to use slang.

2. Examples of Japanese slang

(1) スマホ

     This is an abbreviation of smart phone. Many young people use this word. The meaning of this word is a mobile phone which has various functions like computers and works very quickly. Because many people thought that the mobile phone was very clever, the mobile phone was named smart phone.

(2) 草食男子　（そうしょくだんし）

      The meaning of this word is a boy who is extremely shy. This word is often used among boys who have almost no courage to talk to girls. The origin of this word is that such boys are seen too pessimistic like herbivorous animals.

(3) 婚活　(こんかつ)

     This word means activity to find a marrige partner. Someone who has some problems to find a partner use this word. Nowadays, there are many men and women who get married late in lives. It is difficult for them to find partners. Therefore, they need to do some activities so that they can get married. That is why the word was named "Konkatsu".

3. My opinion

    I think the reason why slang is used instead of proper words is that it is easier to use slang than proper words. Also, we can enjoy ourselves if we talk for a long time by using slang. The pronunciation of slang sounds fun. However, I fear a little that people will forget the importance of proper Japanese words in the future.

Blog #9: Slang and Language Change

Language change constantly and slang is what the Unit 1 focused on. Slang is used by everyone and it gives people distinct identity, sense of belonging, and status. It is still considered taboo, but  most people use it quite freely nowadays.

1. テンパる

Meaning: to panic

The slang originally comes form mah-jong word　聴牌（てんぱい）る meaning 'a state where you can finish with one more card'. It was only used by mah-jong players but it began to also mean 'being completely prepared' and 'being completely full', but then it began to hold a worse meaning 'to be up to the chin'. The slang is used by young boys and girls nowadays.

2. おこ

Meaning: angry

The slang's original word is 怒る（おこる） and shorten to おこ which is very simple. The slang is used among young people, often girls, on Twitter.

3. 高まる

Meaning: getting excited

The slang is a way to say you are getting excited but by not saying your　feeling is getting excited(気持ちが)高まる.

In my point of view, using slang words shows that you know the latest slang words which gives young people status and not excluded.

Naoko Iwanaga

Blog #9: Slang and Language Change (Unit 1)

12-011-052 Tomohiko Ebashi
1. Summary of the lecture
 We cannot stop language change from happening, as long as we keep on using them. Slang words were used to be considered taboo, but now the situation is different. Along with the development of new technologies such as Internet, the usage of slang words has rapidly expanded, and people of any age can enjoy its convenience in their daily lives. The usage of slang words was often associated with the uneducated people, but now it is being studied seriously by the linguists.

2. Three Japanese Slang
* Uzai(ウザい): A word that expresses that someone or something is annoying you in a certain way. This word had been originally used by some teenage girls who like to act cool, but now this word is becoming unisex.

*Maji(マジ): A word to express that you are serious in a certain way. It can be used in a question form to ask whether the speaker is serious or not. This is no longer a teenage word, but is very popular among many age-groups.

*Yabai(ヤバい): A word to express either a person is extraordinary in a certain way, or something is beyond your expectation. This word used to be popular only among the young generation, but now it is used by many people of other generations.

3. Why do people choose to use these slang instead of using proper words?
  We usually use "uzai", whenever you want the listener to sympathize in your feeling of annoyance. On the other hand, we like to use "maji-de?" whenever the speaker says something shocking. This word is almighty, when you are wondering how to respond in someone's comment. "Yabai" is another almighty word, when you have difficulty in describing an object or a person. All of these three words are very useful for Japanese people, since we always have to "ku-uki wo yomu (= read the atmosphere)", tacitly. Usage of these words is one way to avoid breaking the ambiance of the conversation. In other words, we often use ambiguous words instead of using proper words with a definite meaning.

Blog #9 Unit 1: Slang and Language Change

Hello, this is Yuma.

1． This lecture talking about slang in any languages. In this lecture, slang is informal language and used in overall world. The function of slang is prevents understanding outside of the group and gives distinct identity.

2． ガラケー＝Galapagos Cellphone= Japanese cellphone

The word of “Galapagos” means Galapagos Islands, which famous for the animals that evolved in original way because it is isolated by other lands.  Galapagos Cellphone represents Japanese cellphone evolved in original way than other countries’ cellphone such as “ワンセグ”, “赤外線通信”, and “電子マネー”.

メアド= Mail address

      The word of”メアド” is abbreviated the word of mail address which combined of each word’s first and second letters. The first letter of “メ” is abbreviated “mail” and the second and third letter of “アド” is abbreviated “address”.

カラオケ=空オーケストラ= Karaoke

      The word of “カラオケ” is abbreviated Japanese slang of “空オーケストラ” means “singing without playing instruments”.

3． I think these Japanese slangs are represents involved the group of young people. They think share the slang as commonsense of youth is determine they are not like older people, because people think young people could keep up with the trend like slang. On the other hand, people have an image of older people as couldn’t keep up with any trends. This is a reason why people use slangs in Japan.

Blog #8 the theme of my summer report

    I'm Yusuke. This summer, I concentrated on writing a report of labor law. The theme was "Problems about dispatched workers in Japan". Although it was a short report, the theme was a little complecated. But it was meaningful to research this theme. I would like to write the outline of dispatched workers. Dispatched workers are kind of nonpermanent employees that are often seen everywhere recently. The point at issue of dispatched workers is what should be done so that the dispatched workers can work under better conditions of employment. The concepts of dispatched workers are devided into two categories. One is about dispatched workers who are employed regularly by  temporary agencies,  regularly dispatched to somewhere and get relativery stable wages. The other is about those who are registering themselves with temporary agengies and are easily dismissed. If dispatched workers were employed like this way, their income would become unstable. This is one of the big problems about dispatched workers . However, it is allowed at present to employ dispatched workers like this way. Therefore, the law about dispatched workers must be improved to solve the problems.

Blog #7 Meeting with my old friends

    I' m Yusuke. This summer, I didn't go traveling anywhere because I was busy. But one day on a weekend, I met one of my good old friends when I was a junior high school student. I haven't met him for more than two years. We went to the Fiorentina in Hotel Mets. We ate lunch for the first time there together. He were surprized at the delicious meal in Fiorentina. The au hors d'oeuvre was buffet style so we ate a lot until we felt full. Because he has really taken to Fiorentina, we will go there together again somtime if we both have time. Also, we chatted about various things each other. One of the topic is daily lives of my old friend today. He graduated university in March this year and has been working as a company employee. He entered the university one year earlier than I and studies business administration. He told me that he is satisfied with the job he has because he could take summer vacation for two weeks and his place of work is near his home. However, he also said that he is often very busy. Every time he goes working, he has to work overtime and it is not till 8 or 9 o'clock that he can eat dinner. He usually doesn't feel like doing something on weekends. He warned me to prepare myself that I will have to be extremely busy when I start to work. To hear about the daily lives  of may old friend, I realized again that it is important to study English and laws and to do what I want to do in the last five months of my student life at Gakushuin university.

 

 

Blog #6 my favorite brand

I’m Yusuke. My favorite brand is Adidas. It is a company that mainly produces sport goods. The origin of this company comes from Germany.

The brief history is as follows. After World War Ⅰ, one German, Adolf Dassler started to produce sport shoes on his own. In 1924, his brother Rudolf began to cooperate with him. Then, they started venture. In 1936, Summer Olympics were held and the shoes of brothers were sold out rapidly. Their business expanded after that. However, Adolf and Rudolf split up in 1947 because Rudolf wanted to establish a new company named Puma. From that on, Adolf named the old company Adidas. Finally, Adidas and Puma became rivals. The two brothers never reconciled after that. In 1948, Puma produced many kinds of sport shoes. They were more popular than those of Adidas. Therefore, goods of Adidas couldn’t be sold for several periods. In 1987, Adolf’s son Horst, the successor of him died. Then, Adidas was absorbed by the French Industry Tapie. But Tapie went bankruptcy in 1994. After that, Adidas got independent again. It began to produce many kinds of sportswear, sport shoes and so on and they are bought by many people all over the world. Nowadays Adidas also produces daily goods. For example, my rucksack is from Adidas which I bring to university.

Yusuke

Blog #8: Chiba

Hello, this is Yuki Shirai.

Another place I went during this summer vacation is Kamogawa, Chiba. It was extremely hot, but was very fun. I went to "Ichihara Zou-no Kuni" (市原ぞうの国), which is a place where you can touch and play around with animals. At first I wasn't really interested in touching animals since it was very hot and I thought they smell... However, they were super cute and adorable! I saw horse, elephant, lesser panda, capybara, and many other. My favorite was capybara. They were so slow and were eating leaf the whole time. They didn't move even when I touched from the back.

I wanted to take pictures of other animals too, but I was too excited that I forgot about taking them. Dinner we had at the hotel was very good too :) It was a viking type and I was able to eat several types of food such as Chinese, Japanese, Italian. I should have taken pictures of dinner too.

Blog #8: My second visit to Milano

Hello, this is Naoko.

During my stay in Italy, I visited Milan with my mother. Milan is well known for Duomo, the fourth largest cathedral in the world. It was my second time visiting Milan. When I visited there for the first time with my family, it was snowing that we couldn't get on the top of Duomo. So, my mother and I went to Milan for revenge.

We bought tickets at the Turin station and left for Milan. The weather was great and we managed to get on the top of Duomo :) After that, we walked around and found a funny tailor. Here is the picture of it.

It's called SuperdryStore 極度乾燥（しなさい）! My mother and I laughed when we first saw tailor's name XD

We ate lunch there and went to Intel fan club shop to find uniform of Nagatomo, a great Japanese soccer player who belongs to Intel soccer team.

Here is the picture of his uniform with his autograph! I was really happy to see his uniform because I love soccer<3 I bought Intel's uniform and we headed home to Turin. It was a nice trip :)

Blog #7: Izu

Hi, this is Yuki Shirai.

This summer, I could not go anywhere far from Tokyo since I was working most of the time. However, I went to Izu with my best friend and had so much fun there! We stayed there for two days. On the first day, we went to "Cactus Park" (シャボテン公園). There we saw many animals such as monkeys, bambi, flamingo, and so on. And of course there were many types of cactuses since the park is named "Shaboten" park. This picture is the cactus which I liked the best. The flowers around look very cute<3

Next day, we took a cableway at a place called "Oh-muro yama" (大室山). I'm afraid of heights so I couldn't take pictures of how high the mountain was, but I was able to take a photo of Mt. Fuji. I was very touched when I saw Mt. Fuji, because it was the first I saw it so closely.

Although it was only for a short time, I had so much fun with my friend :) I wish I could go there again when I have time and money.

Blog #7: Cruciani

Hello everyone, this is Naoko.

I visited my parents in Turin, Italy, during this summer vacation and stayed there for about a month. When I arrived in Turin, my mother gave me a white bracelet which looks very cute and she told me that the bracelet is popular in Italy. As she told me, I saw many people wearing this bracelet and it seemed to be in fashion. So, I thought I'd like to tell everyone about the bracelet by writing about it on this blog.

The bracelet is called "Cruciani". There are 28 different colors and there are different designs. Four-leaf clover is one of the most popular designs. Here is the spell of the design, "A wish for every-leaf a four-leaf clover for every wish. The first being reputation. the second wealth, the third health and the fourth true love".

The bracelet can be worn with any kind of clothes. In addition to that, they don't cost a lot (about 1,000 yen each) in spite of the high quality and its cuteness <3 Moreover, it is people's trend to wear two or more bracelet, so when I found a shop of Cruciani, I bought another bracelet for myself. I bought many Cruciani for my friends in Japan for souvenir.

If you are interested, please check it out!

Blog #8: Visiting Shanghai as an exchange student

Hi, I'm Tomohiko Ebashi.

I was in Shanghai during August from 4th to 25th, as an official exchange student of  Global Campus Asia 2012 program hosted by Gakushuin University. We took China Eastern Airlines to Pu-dong International Airport, and stayed at a hotel near Fudan University, where we took our Chinese lessons. It was located at a fairly nice environment beside an avenue with trees. I went there with a experience of studying Chinese for only 2 months, so I was very worried if I can keep up with other intermediate students from other countries. However, the lesson was set at a level for students who have been learning the language for 5 month, I was able to follow along.

 

It was such a precious experience to be able to communicate with local Chinese people, in terms of political prejudice. China and Japan is now in a severe relationship mainly because of  Senkaku Islands, so I was afraid if the Chinese people attack us physically or verbally. However, they never said anything bad to us; they were rather interested in Japanese cultures, and we all had a good time communicating with them. I will not believe in media anymore, in terms of international relationship.
Also, I strongly recommend this exchange program for anyone who are interested in studying abroad, especially in Asia.

Blog #7: Enjoying the spiritual air of Nikko

Hello, I'm Tomohiko Ebashi.

Just after the summer vacation started, my whole family went over to experience the famous Kinugawa hot spring in Nikko for the first time. I was so excited to see all the historical sites in the area, which were mostly related to Tokugawa dynasty of Edo period.

On July 29th, we headed over to Kinugawa-onsen station by an express train called "Tobu Spacia"(the picture on the left). After a long journey, we finally got to the destination, and had the local Japanese noodle, "nira-soba" with tofu-like "yuba" as topping. Then, w went to a peaceful themepark called "Tobu World Square" to see all the well-made miniatures.  (the picture on the left is the miniature of Narita International Airport! Isn't it realistic??)

 Next day, we went to one of the most spiritual places in Japan : Nikko Tosho-gu Shrine. This place is well known as a "power-spot", since it is said that this shrine was made specially for Ieyasu Tokugawa as his mausoleum. Of course, I saw the tomb itself, but I also saw the famous "san-saru (three wise monkeys)", which symbolizes three keys to smartness. Going around every single site was such a exhausting mission, but all in all, it was such a wonderful experience to learn more about Japanese history. We finished the trip with a refreshing cup of Nikko's 100% natural "kaki-goh-ri (scraped ice)".

If you are interested in learning more about Japanese history, or just interested in cold treats, Nikko is the place where I strongly recommend you to check it out.

Blog #8 Trip dunring the summer

Hello, this is Yuma. Today, I would like to talk about summer vacation's memory in this year. On September 5th, I went to Kanagawa prefecture with my friends looking for Japanese traditional castle and hot springs.I departed at Mejiro station at 12:00. I used Shonan Shinjuku to go in Odawara, which is famous for Odawara castle. We didn't get in the castle because it needs ticket for pay. However, outside of the castle was beautiful of white wall, and the castle's gate was great.

The above picture is Odawara castle's dungeon(本丸）. The left side of picture is frontside of the castle and right side is backside of the castle.

This is a waterfall nearby a hot spring. The right side of the picture has same water of the waterfall. This water gives the power of longer life who drinks the water. I had this water and I felt the taste is totally diffetrent than general other waters!





Also I got to Hakone nearby Odawara. There is a lot of hot springs and delicious foods. My friends planned that we would like to walk at the place of the hot springs because we had likely to walk to find any famous places. However, We took the place of hot springs at two hours long, so we have tired that the hot spring was great and comfortable. After that, we we took a bus to back to the Hakone station and we had some ice creams. We get back Shinjuku station at 19:00. The daytrip was a bit of tired, but it makes me lot of fun and greatest memory in the summer!

Blog #7 Fireworks festival in summer

Hello, this is Yuma Yamada. I would like to talk about a fireworks festival in August 10th at Jingu Stadium, Shinjuku. This festival purpose for charity event of the earthquake in March 11, 2011. This event started at 19:30 and end at 20:30. I went this event with friends. Actually, this festival's fireworks need Jingu stadium tickets to watch fireworks clearly, but I watched without ticket and watched at Meiji Park because the ticket price is much higher.

Here is the picture of the fireworks, but this park has a bit covered a tree leaves and not see clearly.
However, I haven't watched a fireworks long time, so I really enjoyed this festival and the fireworks!

Blog #6: My favorite brand

Hello, this is Yuki Shirai!

It's finally summer, and now that we are starting to enjoy our long break, I would like to introduce a brand which is perfect for hot season. That is Tapioca Express.

Tapioca Express first opened in 1999 in Los Angeles. The company was loved by many people, and it expanded to Northern America and also to Canada. The main product of this store is drinks. It has more than one hundred kinds of original drinks, such as milk tea, coffee, and yogurt frost. My favorite is honeydew milk tea with boba :) Tapioca Express not only sells drinks but also lunch food and snacks. There are variety of them that taste very good but I recommend crispy chickens. It tastes a bit hot and spicy, but I don't hear any person who hates this ;)

However, Tapioca Express is only in America and Canada so you cannot taste them in Japan. Since we have a long summer break, if anyone have chance to visit America or Canada, I strongly recommend to visit here!

Blog #6: My favorite brand

Hi, this is Naoko Iwanaga.

It's been really hot these days, hasn't it? I love summer because we can enjoy eating many kinds of ice cream! I'd like to introduce you all my favorite ice cream brand, Baskin-Robbins, which often called 31 (thirty-one) in Japan.

Here are the links to their HP in English and Japanese.

Baskin and Robbins are the founder of this brand. They met each other during the Second World War on a tropical island. They made ice cream using different kinds of fruits they could get on the island and this was the beginning of its history.

In 1945, they opened their first store in California and they succeeded managing their buisiness. Their ice cream made many people happy and they felt great happiness too. Then they established the brand, Baskin-Robbins, hoping that they can share happiness with more other people.

They principle "We make people happy" as their policy.

I love their ice creams because they've got many flavors of ice creams and they are all very yummy! :P I'd recommend you to try them. I'm sure you'll love it! <3

Blog#6: My favorite brand

Hello, I'm Tomohiko Ebashi. Today, I would like to introduce the brand that I personally like: Nintendo. This company is perhaps one of the most famous brand in the video-game industry, but only a portion of people knows its history.

Nintendo Corporation was founded in 1889 by a businessman, Fusajiro Yamauchi, as a maker of hana-fuda (a traditional Japanese card game). Three years later, the company started producing the first playing cards in Japan, which led to their success of producing the plastic type in 1953. After all the success, the company was renamed "Nintendo co." from the original "Maru-fuku co."
The world-famous "Family-Computer" and "Gameboy" both came out in the 80's, which created huge excitement among people. Nintendo's gaming system still attracts many people with recent consoles that are sophisticated and fresh.

The reason why I like this company is mainly because they are doing a very strategic management. If I take Wii for example, it is concentrated on the simplicity of the softwares in order to attract the customers of any age groups. On the other hand, there is one company which failed in competing with the console, due to concentrating on high quality softwares with a sharp graphic. Therefore, Nintendo runs its business with a wide point of view, which attracts customers of any age groups who purchase the product as leisure, not as a serious hobby.

By the way, I was so surprised when Nintendo announced about a new console coming out in end of the year! Have you ever heard of Wii-U??

For more informations, you can go to this site (Nintendo official web-site)
If you are interested in Wii-U, check out this link. It's very futuristic!

Blog#6 About my favorite brand

Hello, this is Yuma Yamada. I would like to introduce my favorite brand, “CONVERSE.”  This company mainly sells shoes. aAso it sells clothes, bags, and watches. 

The company was founded by Marquis Mills Converse at Massachusetts in 1908. He manufactured rubber shoes for people working in rainy and snowy conditions.  After 1917, the company provides sports shoes and become popular. I like this company because shoe design is cool and well designed; also it is not much higher price than other brands. I usually use this company’s clothes, shoes, and bags.

Here is the link of this company.

English: http://www.converse.com/

Japanese: http://www.converse.co.jp/

Blog #5

Today I read an article about the crisis in Greece. The new coalition government in the Greece won the approval of all MPs of the three parties that want to keep Euro. However, it will be difficult to keep this situation because the crisis is serious.

This is the URL of the site: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-18765108

                                                                                                                                         Yusuke

Blog#5 Baby panda was born in Ueno Zoo

Hello, this is Yuma Yamada. I would like to talk about a news that a panda in Ueno Zoo called "Shin Shin" had her new panda baby in Ueno Zoo in July 5th. It is a first time in the Zoo that born naturally, not artificial born. Here is the article.

 Also here is the movie of the baby was born in cage.

I saw the news in morning and I was amazed, because I never experienced of panda's born during my life! I have one concerned about if Shin Shin neglect her baby, she's baby would grow by people in the zoo. I hope Shin Shin would take care of her baby.

From this article, Shin Shin's baby can be seen in a year half later. So I would like to go the zoo if I have a chance after the baby can see in the zoo!

Blog#5: Jetstar's first flight from Narita

Good evening. This is Tomohiko Ebashi, and I would like to talk about a big news in the airline industry. We have been hearing a lot of news about LCCs (Low-Cost Carriers) lately, but there are not so many companies in operation as yet. Today, there was a news that one of the Japanese LCC companies, Jetstar, has succeeded in making its first flight from Narita International Airport (Tokyo) to New Chitose Airport (Hokkaido). This company's operation was a second one in the LCC industry, following the Peach Aviations Ltd. Another rival airline, AirAsia Japan.co, is now planning to start its operation from August.
All of the LCC companies are doing their best in keeping the cost affordable to many people, but since they are hiring many new pilots in such a short period of time, there are still some safety issues left. Toward this issue, the Jetstar President comments, "We will go all out to let customers enjoy pleasant flights while placing top priority on safety".
In my opinion, keeping the airfare low would be a  great news for all of those who want to spend their pastime away from home, but I am sure that this system would become a massive pressure for the airline staff who will be working under a harsh environment. I can only hope that the tragedy similar to the highway bus accident will not occur under such a stressful atmosphere.

The article and the pictures are from here.

Blog #4: Olympic in Japan?

Hi, this is Naoko. Today, I found an interesting article about importance of Japan standing as a candidate of host country for the Olympic which will be held in 2020. Here is the article. I'm sorry that I couldn't find as English version.

The author is demanding that we have to become a host country once more to win the competition between developed countries. However, I do not want our country to become a host country. The point I'd like to point out is that if the Olympic was held in Japan, a huge number of people will visit here to watch games. It sounds like a great thing. However, problems will be caused by those visitors.

First, I'm concerned about transportation. In Japan, many people use transportation, especially in highly populated cities like Tokyo. If many visitors come to Japan, transportation in Japan won't be able to handle such a huge number of passengers. If they demand that we should be the host country in 2020, they should come up with a ideal to solve this problem.

Second, if the Olympic was going to be held in Japan, electricity will be needed. Japan is now facing a time to save electricity and there is no spare of it. In addition, Japanese people are curious about danger of using nuclear power plant. We first need to come up with an alternative way to produce electricity.

These are my opinions. How about you? What do you think about Japan standing as a candidate of a host country?

Blog #4: Liver sashimi

Hello! This is Yuki Shirai.

Do you like going to "yakiniku" restaurant? I love "yakiniku", and I often go with my friends. We usually order ox tongue, roast, rib, liver sashimi, etc. However, the Japanese government banned selling raw liver from this month! It is because of food poisoning. More than 100 people came down with symptoms of food poisoning after eating liver sashimi.

After the government has made an announcement of prohibitting liver sashimi, number of people went to "yakiniku" restaurant to enjoy the last taste of liver sashimi. Many of them said it is sad they cannot eat liver sashimi at "yakiniku" anymore.

You can read news article about this topic here. I'm sorry it's in Japanese! ：/

I cannot eat raw liver anyways, so it doesn't really make me sad, but my friends say they were so shocked when they saw the news of prohibitting liver sashimi.

Blog#3 : 100 yen shop

    There is a shop in Mejiro where I like to go. It is the one hundred yen shop near the Kentucky. If I want to buy something such as looseleaf, pens and so on, I go to that shop. In the shop, there are many good thing that  I can buy at the price 100 yen. It is more reasonable than in other shops for daily goods. If you had time, I would recommend you to go there sometime.

                                                                                                                                    Yusuke
   

Blog#2: Trip in United States

Hello, this is Yuma. I would like to talk about the trip when I was in the United States. When I was in senior grade, I got trip to Washington D.C. with friends. So I introduce two famous places at Washington D.C.

First place is the White House. It is the place, not to mention, where the president work. There is many people to see the House, also lots of guards were keep watching the people.The picture is took from my ipod touch.

 Second place is the Jefferson Memorial. It is the place of a presidential memorial that United States third president Thomas Jefferson. Outside of the building has very huge polls in front of the building. I thought it is like Roman buildings. Then inside of the building has a bronze statue of Thomas Jefferson. Also inside of the wall carved the words that Declaration of Independence.

I had a precious experience in Washington D.C that many historical and interesting buildings.

Blog #2: My favorite application

Hi, this is Naoko. Today, I’d like to recommend everyone one of my favorite iPhone applications. It is called My365.

My365 is a perfect application for people who LOVE taking photos (like me!). This application is used for uploading and sharing photos you took with other users. People who use this application upload the best photo they took on that day to share with other people. If you keep uploading pictures every day, your calendar would become full of lovely pictures you uploaded.

Other than calendar, there are news feed, list of popular pictures and notification. News feed is a list of pictures your friends uploaded. By clicking this button, you can check pictures that were uploaded by your friends and you can post comments.

Next to the news feed button, there is a button for a list of pictures that are popular among all My365 users. In addition to that, it also gives a list of popular user names so that people can become friends with them.

Notification will inform you if your friends have commented or pressed 'like' button of your uploaded photos. Moreover, if anyone wants to become friends with you, it gives you a request and you can choose whether you would confirm it or not.

It's been one month since I started using this application and I'm still having fun checking other users' pictures. In addition to that, you have to keep uploading to fill your calendar with pictures. In other words, you actually have to FIND SOMETHING interesting everyday which might sound bothering, but it's quite fun looking for something special every day.

The application is for FREE! If you are interested, download it, and give it a try. I'm sure you will like it :)