St.Patrick's Day

Dèsolè! (Sorry, in French) St.Patrick's Day is over one month ago... But I hope you enjoy this article and all pictures!!

Do you know what day March 17th is? If you live in the U.S.or IRELAND, you can never forget! If you live in Japan, it is no wonder if you don't know. The day is...St. Patrick's Day! St. Patrick was a patron saint of Ireland in 5 A.D. Traditionally, it is a Christian feast day for celebrating the saint's death. But it has become a modern secular holiday to celebrate Ireland wearing something green which is a color of Ireland's flag!!
In the U.S., there have been many immigrants from Ireland. Since 1766 (Such a long time ago!!), New York City has admitted the immigrants to have the St. Patrick's Day parade. Since then...not only the Irish, but also many people have celebrated the day nationwide! It could be worldwide...because I remember I saw their parade at Omotesandou in Tokyo four years ago!!

My hubby and I went to Chicago that day to see the parade and the event of dyeing the Chicago River!! It is famous for being dyed green. We arrived at the riverside ten minutes before the event, but it was already full of many people!
At 10:45, a few jet boats appeared, and released green dye!! It was sooooo fascinating!!! I took lots of pictures!!! I've heard the green dye was made from vegetables to minimize environmental damage. But I am not sure if it is true! The green is very bright green! It looks artificial,doesn't it? Anyway, the color would keep for a week.

After the event, we took a rest at a cafe until the parade began. However, this day, the ordinary people also were wearing green!!! Look! the lady in the third picture dyed her hair green!! It made sense... Originally, it was said, "If you do not wear green color that day, you will be pinched!" I WAS wearing a green blouse and green cardigan. But it was so cold (it was snowing!!) in Chicago, so I wore a white coat over green clothes. However, we could buy any green goods there, like green accessories or sweaters! There were several booths selling green goods. They were so popular!!

From noon, the parade began. Also, it was SO crowded that I couldn't see the parade exactly. I just strecthed my arm higher to get some pictures. I think the pictures were great taken despite my not seeing well!! There were many kids, marching bands, cheer leaders participating in the parade. Even candidates for the mayor of Chicago!? (I'm not exactly sure, but I suppose so) I see, it is a good opportunity to campaigh something!!

While I was watching the parade, I envied the Irish. In many countries, many people were celebrating Ireland wearing the country's color, green!! Also, Saint Patrick should be such a great guy! His name has been well known all over the world!!
However, after I came home, I heard Saint Patrick is not Irish. He was from England! When he was 16 years old, he was taken to Ireland by a group of Irish raiders who were attacking his father's estate! Feeling lonely and afraid, he decided to spread Christianity in that country. ....Oh, my goddness!! St. Patrick's Day is the biggest day in Ireland, but he was a FOREIGHER like me!? I'm not ambitious enough to dream of having " Keiko's Day" celebrated in the U.S... But it is worth learning his persistence and perseverance!!

On the next (2008) St. Patrick's Day, I'm not sure I will be in the U.S. or Japan. But I am sure I will be wearing something green that day!!

My Condolences

The rampage was almost two weeks ago, but it has still made us tremble. At Virginia Technology University, one student shot about 225 bullets and killed 33 people including him. I feel sorrowful that it happened, and coincidentally, the guy was from Asia.

I have many friends who are from South Korea. Most of them are really working hard. Even though they are older that I, even though they have small children, they always study hard to be professionals, or follow their dreams. I am sure they will be successful because of their persistence. Is their perseverance a South Korean nature? I have always been impressed.

However, because just one mad kid made such a terrible mistake, many South Korean people feel great shame. It is interesting to me that many media called him "a kid" even though he was 23 years old. Because he was a student? Because his action was too self-conscious? I think both of them could be reasons.

All countries have such WEIRD or STRANGE people. This criminal is Korean because is just... a coincidence or damon's work!

However, the fact is that" he is an immigrant" makes the incident complicated.

I learned two things from this rampage.

One, I realized the U.S's diversity again. I hope this incident doesn't cause any discrimination against South Korean or Asian. So far, I don't feel it in my town. But there always are people who want to make other people "biased," so we should be careful.

Two, the cultural gap about the thinking of "safety" between Japan and America.

Here, in the United States, they can get GUNS easily. (we, temporally residents can't.) It is harde to get hunter guns because of preventing extinction of some animals. However...HE got a gun from a store, and the other one on line just because he is a U.S. citizen!! Here, "to protect themselves" is one of the important HUMAN RIGHTS.

I don't know how to say for the victims' families... It is such an unbeliebable rampage... I just say my deep condolences to them, and pray not to have this kind of terrible incident, anymore.

Nowadays Japanese Situations

Hahaha... Sorry, it's been more than a month since I published my script about Japan last time! March and April are HECTOC months, right? Anyway, finally, this part is the last part of my presentation at Purdue!!

From now on, I will talk about Japanese political & social issues. This is the Japanese prime minister, Shinzo Abe. Before he became the prime minister, the Japanese leader was he. Junichiro Koizumi. Mr. Koizumi was really unique, impressive. Mr. Abe didn’t make much of an impression all over the world. However, he followed most of Mr. Koizumi’s policies. I picked three controversial issues the prime minister Abe is facing.

First, the military. Basically, Japan does’nt have a military. But we have the Self-Defense Forces. After the defeat of the World WarⅡ, we enacted the constitution which prohibited having any military establishment under the occupation of the U.S. Therefore, when America needed the Japanese Self-Defense Forces to go to Iraq, they helped to build water supplies or schools. They weren’t in combat. However, Shinzo Abe wants to change the constitution, and have “military” force in Japan. Of course, many people have been afraid that Japan can be involved with wars.

Second, the problem of the aging society and declining birthrate. Japan has the No. 1 life expectancy in the world. That is 82 years old. Just for the record, the United States has 77 years. Because of healthy food and advanced medical care, the life expectancy has been getting longer. However, the Japanese birthrate has been decreasing. It is said if the birthrate is 2.0, the population wouldn’t change. The 2.0 birthrate means the average number of delivering children among women who are from 15-49 years old. America’s birthrate is 2.0. Very good balance. On the other hand, the Japanese birthrate is 1.2. Very low. I am one who hasn’t delivered a child yet…So, it’s a very awkward topic to me…However, it is said the reasons of the declining birthrate are the high cost of raising children and the shortage of nurseries. Nowadays, prime minister Shinzo Abe has been trying to solve this problem.

Third, the reformation of education. Shinzo Abe has been most focused on. He said, to make Japan better, we need to give good education to young people. Especially, he wants to teach patriotism to children more and more. However…think about a movie, Letters from Iwo Jima. In that movie, Japanese soldiers committed suicide before they were defeated by the Americans, saying, “Hooray for the Great Japanese Empire!” or “Hooray for the great Japanese Emperor!” I was wondering if people all over the world might think “Wow! The Japanese people are crazy!” while I was watching the movie. However, it was a true story. They were told to do it by nationalism during the war. They believed it was morally right. Mr. Abe is the first Japanese prime minister who was born after World WarⅡ. Therefore, his patriotism might be different from the nationalism during the World War. However, his insistence on teaching patriotism and changing the “no-war” constitution has reminded many Japanese of the terrble war experience.

Last December, I visited one of my American friend’s house in Milwaukee. I met her father-in-law. He was 80 years old. I introduced myself, “Hello. I am Keiko, I am from Japan.” He said, “Oh, Japan! I went there in 1941!” Then, I remembered… It was December 7th, exactly the day of the Japanese Attack on Pearl Harbor! I was embarrassed, but…now I am thinking about it. We had a sad history in the war, but now I am here in class with all of you in the United States, and you are going to learn about Japan. In the movie, Letters from Iwo Jima, when Japanese soldiers read one American soldier’s mother’s letter, they knew the same feelings we had. I believe this “Global Awareness” class helps to broaden your global views a lot. Also, if some of you get interested in any part of my presentation, like Manga, fashion, or Geisya, anything! and if some of you think “ I want to visit Japan!” I am really happy. Thank you for your attention.

...This is the end of my second big presentation. Now, do you remember my objetcives of the lecture? I wrote them in the "Discover Japan" article. Have I fulfilled my objectives? Did I make them excited? Did I make them feel "Wow! I want to go to Japan!!" The answer is... actually, I was not sure. As a presentation, I think it was good. The professor said, "It was perfect. I don't want to change anything of what you did." I appreciated he said so! However, the students' reactions were like "monotone." They did not seem to be so enthusiastic about learing Japan... Maybe it made sense because they didn't take the class to listen to about "Japan." It was just a part of the class. Sometimes I felt they might have been bored, so I cut some parts, for example some parts of the Karaoke and baseball. I prepared the Japanese introductory presentation as MY level, so I introdued many secular or worldly things, but some studensts asked me very SERIOUS questions like economics or education. I thought it is better to prepare more topics that I can talk, and if I feel they may be bored, I can show them what kinds of topics I prepared, and let them pick some of them which THEY are interested in. It sounds VERY advanced, but I will try it if I have one more chance.

Anyway, some students came to me after the class, and they said my lecture was very interesting, so it was OK! Oh, one girl asked me "Where did you get your boots? I have never seen such a cute pair!!" I am sure she thought "Wow! I want to go to Japan!"because my answer was, " Of course, in JAPAN!!!"