Scandal Capriccio

I have no idea about political things. However, I want to introduce one article of analysing Japanese politics. This article, by Newsweek: Scandalmania, was really interesting for me, I think it was the best I have recently read.

Unfortunately, the article was written in Japanese, so I am going to summarize it. It divided into four parts. First part was explained about a difference of political scandal between Japan and the other developing countries, and was depicted Japanese history of scandal in the political world. Next and thirdly, a idea introduced to explain about why our politicians are losing the job due to happen only one scandal. Finally, the author picked an example to reinforce his opinion. It was the case of Suzuki Muneo, who lost the status as a politician due to politics-and-money scandal.

Most interesting part for me was the explanation why scandals are directly connected with dismissing the politicians who caused the scandals. The author picked two reasons for that. First, we, Japanese people, are less likely to look at a good result than a scandal. Second, we expect that the politicians are clean which means no sextual, no money, and no violate scandals. Of course, clean persons are wonderful, but, unfortunately, we have some problems as usual, not excepting the politicians. Recently our country keeps to discussing scandals by the politicians, even though we have a lot of problem, such as the exchange rates, the territorial disputes, pention problems and so on. I agree with his idea that we should see the performance and ignore a smaller problem. And, we should focus on more important problems.

I hope this piece of music will end quickly. This is because I am tedious to listen to the news. Next music would be a great concerto, I hope!

I cannot imagine it before I see it



Air Multiplier by Dyson.com

 Today I went to Fry's for the first time with D, my host's friend. There were a lot of interesting products. What I was most interesting in the products was an electric fan by Dyson. It is a very fashionable shape, and looks like a magnifying glass. My surprising point was that Air Multiplier, the product's name, has no blades. It is amazing for me. What do you think about it? It because I thought a fan always had blades before I had seen Air Multiplier.

I just want to say "Innovation is super!" By an innovation, we are sometimes noticed or recognized somethings about which we have never thought. Today my host father was also surprised at Kindle, though I don't have it and I am wondering whether I buy it or not so far. The reason why surprised was a speed that he bought a book online and then Kindle got it immediately! We don't need to wait for a cashier in the bookstore. Hmm...unbelievable!

Superhero

I went to a Japanese festival two days ago. In the festival, I joined a seminar of Taiko, Japanese drum. It was so much fun, but so much tough. When finishing the seminar  for two hours, I was very tired. The reason was that playing Taiko was like sports, I mean it uses whole bunch of body. Through the seminar, it reminded me of Group harmony, which is often pointed out as a characteristic of Japanese culture. All participants, I think there were 14 that includes some children, beat drums together along a pattern. For that, we sang a song and danced, which is Ainu's, native Japanese. I thought the reason for doing so was to enhance harmony as a group. Some people would come up with a question why Japanese people like group harmony. I have an interesting example of group harmony. And in the following, I will introduce the example and also show a difference between single and group in the business world.

Firstly, I just want to say this example is not my original. I found it a textbook of sociology. Anyway, my example is a difference between Japanese and American Superheroes. For instance, Japanese hero is Pokemon, Ultraman, Dragon Ball and so on. A point in common among there story is that a hero works as a team, taking risks to save one another from danger. On other hand, American superhero generally works alone such as Superman, Spider-Man, Hulk et cetera. In addition, I have an evidence that Japanese people prefer Japanese heroes. According to Japanese Wikipedia, , a series of films about Pokemon that is one of Japanese animation was gross and audiences in Japan more than a series of Spider-Man. However, it is not correct in terms of gross, according to Motion Picture Producers Association of Japan, Inc. (n.e.). These evidences are not perfectly supporting the idea. And I know my evidences have a piece of bias. Pokemon takes it for granted that Japanese people prefer Pokemon to Spider-Man because Pokemon is from Japan. But, Harry Potter was more likely to be success than Pokemon and Spider-Man all over the world and also in Japan, even though Harry Potter's author is from Britain. In my opinion, the reason why Harry Potter was accepted in Japan was the story is similar to the stories of Japanese animation, from a point of view that a hero works as a team but not alone, such as Toaru Majutsu no Index. Thus, though the idea that people prefer group harmony in Japan may be still only a hypothesis, these example seems to me to show Japanese people like group harmony and working as a team.

Finally, I will introduce a real superhero. It is creators who create comic books. I read a serious journal, "Superman or The Fantastic Four? Knowledge Combination and Experience in Innovation teams" by Taylor and Greve (2006). This is not only interesting title, but this contents are also interesting. In a comic book industry, genre experience, which stands for diversity of backgrounds as the number of genres in which creators had worked over the year, hold by a single individual promotes innovation, while genre experience in a team does not. Some people still discuss which working by single or teams is better. It seems to depend on the situations and what kind of background people have, according to the thesis.

Which superhero is your favorite? Superman? Or Japanese hero?

Shy is not Shine

Recently I have worried about shyness. In fact, I am shy. In some case, shyness is a good thing, especially in terms of a good listener. On other hand, shyness has a bad aspect. Maybe many people would be taught a tip by parents. I quote it from The Fine Art of Small Talk:

• Good things come to those who wait.
• Silence is golden.
• Wait to be properly introduced.
• Don't talk to strangers.

These might be useful for us when we were children. But, as the author pointed out, now, as adults, these lesson are not useful for us, and sometimes good things come to those who wait and waiting to be properly introduced are not good things for us. The Upside of Irrationality gives us a good example for this. A professor who was smart, funny and more or less good-looking couldn't find his partner. It was because he was not outgoing and concentrated on working, even though he had an opportunity to meet women like dinner parties. (However, according to the book, he did meet his mate.)

Therefore, we often lose a good opportunity due to be shy and introvert. Hey, shyness is not golden!

The following opinion is based on just my case, but I suspect many people have the same trouble as me.

Now I study abroad in the U.S.. However, my English skills except reading skills haven't improved so much. One of the reasons for that is that I am shy. Generally speaking, to master a language, we need to have a lot of talking to the others. Of course, reading and writing help us mastering a language, but human being actually had a speaking word before making characters. In addition, as a baby, we acquired a lot of words by listening to our mother and father's talks or having a conversation to them. In other words, what I want to say is talking is important for us to improve English skills, and also other languages. So, I guess socialized people master a language more quickly than shy people.

Two days ago, I had a discussion socializing and shyness with my host mom. She thought socializing is one of the skills. I agree with the idea. And we also talked about why shy parents' children sometimes become shy. In fact, my parents are both shy. Her idea about why shy takes over was that parents who are not socializing can't teach their children how to be socializing because they have no idea. I think so, of course, though shy is also a part of personality. The above-mentoned author, Debra Fine, overcame her shyness, according to The Fine Art of Small Talk. So, I try to learn socializing!   

Love Thy Neighbor

I'm in NY!
It is a so attractive city. It has a lot of great museums, buildings, shops, parks, foods and musicals.

By kyokke tanaka

Also, I feel that it is very convenient which means easy to find and to go the places. NY city reminds me of a paper of differentiation and agglomeration, Baum and Haveman (1997). In this paper, to use the data of Manhattan hotel industry, both the strategies are using at the same time or either only. Especially, I was interested in being parametrized a variable of agglomeration because  of being based on using a measure as St. and Ave. in NY. St. is a road across east to west, and Ave. is a road across north to south. To use the hotels' address shows how far each of them is located. This stands for how Manhattan is accurately arranged in terms of urban planning. If we lost a way, we could find where we are to look at a traffic sigh and, of course, to listen to a police officer, New-Yorker, or hotel clerks. They are very friendly, kind, and useful. However, fortunately I think we hardly lose a way!

By kyokke tanaka

So, NY is a kind city for travelers!! It is because not only people are very nice, but the city themselves is great!

Very Very good Piece of a day

Unfortunately, it was not good weather today, actually rainy. However, I had a good experience to make a berry pie. It was very fun!

First, my host mom, L who lives together, and I went to pick blackberries in the morning. It was a lot of fun, even though we got thorns on the branches of blackberry's trees, ouch. Meanwhile, host mom and I suddenly tried to freeze in order to surprise L. But, I think we didn't do well. Anyway, maybe I have never been to pick blackberries. I think in Japan a blackberry is less popular than a blueberry and a strawberry. So, I really enjoyed picking them.

After the picking, we made a berry pie at home. Making a pie is also the first experience for me, so I was a little nervous. But, it was no problem to cook the pie because my host mom helped me a lot.  The process of cooking referred allrecipes.com. But, making crusts referred another recipe. However, unfortunately, this is a secret between host mom and me..

The result was that it smells good and looks good. And... also tastes good! You want to eat this one! I'm sorry we don't have enough to give it to somebody.

Nest time, I will try to make a tart! So, could you wait by the time?

Thanks, J and L!!