1. Do you judge people according to what they wear? Why?
Yes, sometimes I judge people according to what they wear. But I don’t judge if they are nice, smart, or rich from their clothes. I judge their clothes because it helps me understand a little about what kind of person they are, what color the person likes, what kind of design the person prefers, or something like that. From the color or design people wear, we can usually assume many things about the person, but it’s not always right. So I can judge you from your clothes, but I want to talk with you to know why you prefer the color or design of your clothes!
2. Do you think Japanese society puts an importance on clothing when judging other people from another country?
I don’t think so. In my opinion, Japanese people care about only their own clothes, or maybe only care about what clothes Japanese people wear. Japanese people sometimes care about their own clothes too much, so when they judge other people who come from another country, I don’t think they care about other people’s clothes. It’s because Japanese people usually know that some people from other countries don’t care about their clothes as much as Japanese people care about theirs. So I don’t think Japanese society puts an importance on clothing when judging other people from another country.
3. What colors are you wearing now? Do they reflect your mood?
Right now, I am wearing pink. I am not sure this pink reflects my mood today or not because I only hurriedly picked this when I woke up this morning. :o)In my opinion, the colors people choose usually reflect their mood. It’s because everyone has their own favorite colors, and they choose them by themselves. Also, colors have special powers to make us happy or calm. Maybe that’s why sometimes we feel like “Oh I want to wear something red today!”, “I don’t want to wear green today… ”, or something like that. I think we are always considering the color of our clothes when we choose our clothes in order to reflect our mood, and also our clothes’ colors are considering our mood when choosing us. ;o)
Next week we will discuss friends, please prepare by answering the following questions
1. What are some subjects that you will never discuss with a friend?
It’s interesting question. I think it depends on how close we are. I guess I would never discuss weight with friends because Japanese girls particularly hate the topic. We talk about dieting, but we never talk about exactly how much we weigh, like “How much do you weigh now?” It’s always a top secret topic.
But yea, I think it really depends on how close we are because I am a girl, and all girls in the world love talking, as you know.
2. Do you have different friends for different parts of your life? If so, how are they different to you? Do you talk about different things? Go to different places? Give me some examples.
Yes, I think so. I hope I understood this question.
But, I will not choose friends for different parts of my life. I want to let people do whatever they want. For example, I have some friends who like going out at night, like to drink or dance, and they always ask me to go with them. I will go out with them because they want me to go with them and because I want to go out with them too. However one of another my friends, she doesn't like drinking, so she never asks me to drink with her. She loves to go on walks, so she always asks me if I want to go for a walk together. I will go because she wants me to with her, and because I want to go with her, too. I talk with her about drinking, so it's not any secret, even though she doesn't like drinking.
So, I prefer to accommodate myself to my friends rather than to choose friends for myself (or different parts of my life).
2007年11月9日金曜日
Death and Funerals
1. Do you have any international friends or a host family? If so, how would you express your condolences to them if a family member died? If not, then how would you express condolences to an American host family if their Grandmother died?
Yes, I have international friends and a host family in the US.
I have no idea how to express my condolences to my friends or to my host family if a family member died because cultures are completely different in the world. For me, words are unable to do anything. I know people can say “sorry” if someone died, but I don’t feel I could express my condolences to them because I am not a native English speaker. When something sad happens to me, I usually cry, so I guess I would cry (not on purpose), and I would give them hugs to express my condolences. It’s the best thing I could do for them.
a. Have you ever been to a foreign funeral?
Fortunately, no, I haven’t. So I will talk about what my friend did for me. When someone in my family died, my best friend was by my side. She is American, not Japanese. I got the bad news from a phone call, so it was just her and me in the room. I couldn’t bear to hear the bad news on the phone, and kept crying. She can speak Japanese very well, but she didn’t say anything in Japanese or anything like what a Japanese person would usually say to express her condolences to me. She hugged me the entire time I cried, and talked to me about death in English. The things she did for me helped and supported me a lot. I could feel her condolences for me.
The language of Clothes (preparation for next week’s topic)
a. Why are Japanese designer label crazy? Why is what you wear so important?
I have no idea about why are Japanese people are crazy about designer labels. Maybe it's because Japanese people like being fashionable??
Why is what I wear so important? In my opinion, clothes are a way of expressing our own personality or individuality, like what kind of person I am. Think about what suit you would wear for an interview. Would you wear a suit someone else picked, or would you wear a suit you chose yourself? Would you pick your favorite design or would you just pick something that you have? Also, some people care about how expensive the clothes are too. Wouldn't you choose a suit that makes you feel confident, just the same way you would wear cute clothes when you want to look nice? So maybe by being particular about designer labels, one can make themselves feel more confident about their selves. So we can also say that Japanese people care about clothes a lot because everybody does care about designer labels. haha
b. What does “Don’t judge a book by it’s cover.” mean to you?
If you ask me, “Don’t judge a book by it’s cover.” means don’t decide whether you like something or hate something just by looking at its appearance. For example, we shouldn’t decide if a girl is rich, just because she has a Louis Vuitton bag, or we shouldn’t say he is poor just because he is skinny. Something like that???
Yes, I have international friends and a host family in the US.
I have no idea how to express my condolences to my friends or to my host family if a family member died because cultures are completely different in the world. For me, words are unable to do anything. I know people can say “sorry” if someone died, but I don’t feel I could express my condolences to them because I am not a native English speaker. When something sad happens to me, I usually cry, so I guess I would cry (not on purpose), and I would give them hugs to express my condolences. It’s the best thing I could do for them.
a. Have you ever been to a foreign funeral?
Fortunately, no, I haven’t. So I will talk about what my friend did for me. When someone in my family died, my best friend was by my side. She is American, not Japanese. I got the bad news from a phone call, so it was just her and me in the room. I couldn’t bear to hear the bad news on the phone, and kept crying. She can speak Japanese very well, but she didn’t say anything in Japanese or anything like what a Japanese person would usually say to express her condolences to me. She hugged me the entire time I cried, and talked to me about death in English. The things she did for me helped and supported me a lot. I could feel her condolences for me.
The language of Clothes (preparation for next week’s topic)
a. Why are Japanese designer label crazy? Why is what you wear so important?
I have no idea about why are Japanese people are crazy about designer labels. Maybe it's because Japanese people like being fashionable??
Why is what I wear so important? In my opinion, clothes are a way of expressing our own personality or individuality, like what kind of person I am. Think about what suit you would wear for an interview. Would you wear a suit someone else picked, or would you wear a suit you chose yourself? Would you pick your favorite design or would you just pick something that you have? Also, some people care about how expensive the clothes are too. Wouldn't you choose a suit that makes you feel confident, just the same way you would wear cute clothes when you want to look nice? So maybe by being particular about designer labels, one can make themselves feel more confident about their selves. So we can also say that Japanese people care about clothes a lot because everybody does care about designer labels. haha
b. What does “Don’t judge a book by it’s cover.” mean to you?
If you ask me, “Don’t judge a book by it’s cover.” means don’t decide whether you like something or hate something just by looking at its appearance. For example, we shouldn’t decide if a girl is rich, just because she has a Louis Vuitton bag, or we shouldn’t say he is poor just because he is skinny. Something like that???
Wrapping
1. Reflecting about today's class
Today we discussed the Japanese concept of "wrapping". Do you agree with the web site's description? What do you do that can be called "wrapping"? Give examples and reasons for your actions.
I disagree with the opinion of the website we looked at in our class. I thought it was unfortunate that everyone laughed when we were looking at the web site, especially the part about Kimonos and construction sites. If you ask me, I wouldn’t say we’re “wrapping” ourselves with Kimonos, and that people are “wrapping” buildings just because we love “wrapping” something. I know it looks like “wrapping”, but all of these actions have reasons why people are wrapping something. For example, people wrap buildings when we build them because they want to protect citizens from hazards and the noise from the construction. Japanese people wrap something like rope around shrine entrances because they distinguishing the separation of God’s world and the outside world. For me, Tatemae and Enryo ( to refrain, to hesitate) are totally different.
2. Reparation for the next class "Death and Funerals" Answer these questions in your blog.
a. Where do you go when you die?
I believe I will be born again as a new living being, which I haven’t become yet, like a flower, an animal, or a human when I die. I believe everyone and everything was born to learn something they don’t know yet, so I am alive now to learn something as a woman. In Buddhism, people say they will go to heaven or hell when they die. If people did something not good, like crime then they have to go to hell be punished for it. I don’t know what is considered “not good”, but it is said that the great king of the Buddhist Hades (in Japanese he is called 閻魔 Enma ) is in front of the entrance of the hell to judge and give them punishments for what they did when they were alive. Therefore, I think that is why many people say to kids “If you do that again, the great king of the Buddhist Hades in hell will take your tongue away!” when kids did something bad (especially, when kids lie because they can’t speak or lie anymore without their tongues).
b. Explain why do Japanese have death memorial services 1 month, 1 year, 3 years, 7 years, etc. after a person's death?
I think it’s because of the influence from Confucianism in China. I am not sure about that, but I have heard something like that. There is 冥界 (Myoukai) on the way to go to hell. There are about 10 kings (including 閻魔 Enma) in the hell, and all of them judge people after die every 7 days, like 初七日(7 days later), 十四日(14 days later), 二十一日(21 days later), 二十八日(28 days later), 三十五日(35 days later), 四十二日(42 days later), 四十九日(49 days later)…. Plus after that there are 3 more additional judges. That is 一回忌(first year), 三回忌(3 years later), 七回忌(7 years later). So people are judged 10 times and 3 more times from each kings of Myoukai to lighten their sin as much as possible before going to hell. They might change direction from going to hell and being judged to being born again. It called 十三仏信仰in Japanese. (I am not sure how to read it in Japanese because words of Buddhism have sometimes different reading). So I guess that is the reason why Japanese people have death memorial services 1 month, 1 year, 3 years, 7 years, etc. after a person's death.
Today we discussed the Japanese concept of "wrapping". Do you agree with the web site's description? What do you do that can be called "wrapping"? Give examples and reasons for your actions.
I disagree with the opinion of the website we looked at in our class. I thought it was unfortunate that everyone laughed when we were looking at the web site, especially the part about Kimonos and construction sites. If you ask me, I wouldn’t say we’re “wrapping” ourselves with Kimonos, and that people are “wrapping” buildings just because we love “wrapping” something. I know it looks like “wrapping”, but all of these actions have reasons why people are wrapping something. For example, people wrap buildings when we build them because they want to protect citizens from hazards and the noise from the construction. Japanese people wrap something like rope around shrine entrances because they distinguishing the separation of God’s world and the outside world. For me, Tatemae and Enryo ( to refrain, to hesitate) are totally different.
2. Reparation for the next class "Death and Funerals" Answer these questions in your blog.
a. Where do you go when you die?
I believe I will be born again as a new living being, which I haven’t become yet, like a flower, an animal, or a human when I die. I believe everyone and everything was born to learn something they don’t know yet, so I am alive now to learn something as a woman. In Buddhism, people say they will go to heaven or hell when they die. If people did something not good, like crime then they have to go to hell be punished for it. I don’t know what is considered “not good”, but it is said that the great king of the Buddhist Hades (in Japanese he is called 閻魔 Enma ) is in front of the entrance of the hell to judge and give them punishments for what they did when they were alive. Therefore, I think that is why many people say to kids “If you do that again, the great king of the Buddhist Hades in hell will take your tongue away!” when kids did something bad (especially, when kids lie because they can’t speak or lie anymore without their tongues).
b. Explain why do Japanese have death memorial services 1 month, 1 year, 3 years, 7 years, etc. after a person's death?
I think it’s because of the influence from Confucianism in China. I am not sure about that, but I have heard something like that. There is 冥界 (Myoukai) on the way to go to hell. There are about 10 kings (including 閻魔 Enma) in the hell, and all of them judge people after die every 7 days, like 初七日(7 days later), 十四日(14 days later), 二十一日(21 days later), 二十八日(28 days later), 三十五日(35 days later), 四十二日(42 days later), 四十九日(49 days later)…. Plus after that there are 3 more additional judges. That is 一回忌(first year), 三回忌(3 years later), 七回忌(7 years later). So people are judged 10 times and 3 more times from each kings of Myoukai to lighten their sin as much as possible before going to hell. They might change direction from going to hell and being judged to being born again. It called 十三仏信仰in Japanese. (I am not sure how to read it in Japanese because words of Buddhism have sometimes different reading). So I guess that is the reason why Japanese people have death memorial services 1 month, 1 year, 3 years, 7 years, etc. after a person's death.
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