Reaction Paper #1

Reaction Paper #1

            Well, I think it's safe to say that Japanese culture certainly isnt how I thought it was.  Going into Asian Studies 150, I thought I had a pretty good idea of what life was like in Japan, but what I knew just grazed the tip of the iceberg.  What perhaps surprised me the most was the way that both children and adolescents were both raised.

            I was shocked at the video we watched in class when we got a look at a preschool/kindergarten class in Japan.  I thought it was insane that the institution allowed both boys and girls to run around outside shirtless to play in temperatures close to freezing.  This in my opinion is a bit of an extreme way to "toughen up" the youngsters.  The children can get very sick from such exposure and it was evident that there were quite a few children who were uncomfortable with the situation they were put in.  If they wanted to toughen up kids or instill discipline I dont understand why they can't just have them play sports or something or learn not to be a sore loser if they don't win a board game for instance.

            Another situation we discussed was Ikuji, which are the childrearing practices in Japan.  As opposed to here in America, Japanese families focus on teaching their kids good and bad by reasoning or by playing with their emotions.  For example, when I was a tot I used to throw everything that I picked up, which would sometimes result in breaking something fragile.  My mom would yell at me and hit me on the hand which would both scare me and cause me pain.  Not wanting to experience either again, I slowly but surely stopped throwing things.  On the other hand, if a child was to do that in Japan, he would be told not to do that because he hurt the broken item's feelings, rather than just tell him not to do it because it is wrong.  Even though the American way is more extreme, I believe it gets the point across better to the child.

            The last thing I remember in particular about raising kids has to do with girls in the process of becoming Geisha.  These girls are required to move into a Geisha training center and to break all connections to family for an extended period of time.  This is around age 15-16, which I feel is an age where parental guidance is key to the development of a young adult.  On the other hand, Japanese school girls get to do travel Japan's cities, have technology, and wear whatever they'd like.  Quite different upbringings for teenage girls.

                     What is your opinion of how children are brought up in Japan and in the United States?

Sumo Wrestling

Dan Breen

Takamiya Sensei

AS150

Sumo Wrestling

            When people in the United States think of a sumo wrestler, they often think of an overweight, unathletic, bowling ball of a human being who just pushes another person out of a small arena for a living.  However, they fail to realize how much determination, sacrifice, and dedication these athletes put in in order to become great at their sport. 

            Around the age of fifteen, boys in Japan serious about becoming sumo wrestlers enter one of the fifty-four stables located around Japan in order to begin their training.  Besides housing the trainees, the stables also house hairdressers, ushers, referees, the oyakata (a retired sumo wrestler who leads the training) and the okamisan (the wife of the oyakata).  The main job of the latter two people is to pass on the traditions, teachings, and disciplines of sumo wrestling to the newcomers. 

            There are six different ranks a sumo wrestler can be.  Starting from the lowest, the ranks are jonokuchi, jonidan, sandanme, makushita, juryo, and makuuchi.  Wrestlers only receive a small allowance per match until they reach the rank of juryo, in which they receive a significant pay boost.  Once a wrestler becomes a sekitori, they are allowed to wear keshomawashi before matches, which is a long apron-like cloth that goes down to about their ankles.  They may also choose the color mawashi they get to wear during fights, rather than always having to wear black in the lower ranks.  As sekitori, they are granted people who basically take care of any needs that the wrestler has, such as forming his top bun, which is supposed to represent a leaf from a ginkgo tree. 

            A regular day of training starts at 5 A.M. in the stables.  They start by doing ritual stomping, or shiko, in order to improve their leg strength.  Afterwards, the lowest ranked wrestlers start practicing first.  The wrestlers may also practice teppo, which teaches them to move their hands and feet in rhythm, or matawari, which involves the wrestler to open his legs 180 degrees on the ground and have his stomach pushed against the floor.  This develops excellent leg flexibility which is key if you want to be a good sumo.  Wrestlers then begin to engage in moshiai, which are practice matches.  The winner keeps going until he loses.  The wrestlers eat twice a day, once at 11 A.M. and once at 6 P.M.  Both meals consist of chanko, which is a food with a lot of carbs, protein, and calories.  The wrestlers eat mostly chanko stews, sashimi, deep fried food, and hamburger steaks.  After these hearty meals, the sumo will often take naps in order to further assist their desire to become bigger.

            Do you think you could live the life of a sumo wrestler?

All About Me

Hey my name is Dan Breen and I am a sophomore at Gettysburg College majoring in Health Sciences.  I am a center on the school's football team.  When I am not doing things for school, I enjoy playing a variety of instruments and watching my favorite football team, the New York Jets, on television.  I hope by taking Asian Studies 150 I will get a better understanding of Japan's economy.

Nintendo Origins

Dan Breen

Takamiya Sensei

9/10/12

Nintendo

            Today, the Japanese company Nintendo is quite possibly the most well-known video game manufacturer in the world.  However, Nintendo wasn’t always the multi-billion dollar industry it is today.  Nintendo, meaning “leave luck to heaven”, was founded as a playing card company by Fusajiro Yamauchi in 1889.  They manufactured Hanafuda cards, which were all handmade from normal paper.  As demand increased for these cards, the company hired many workers in order to meet the public’s desire for these cards.  Years later Nintendo began manufacturing their cards out of plastic, which was the first time anybody in the industry tried that method.  These more durable cards were a huge hit and raised Nintendo’s profits dramatically.  In 1956, new owner Hiroshi Yamauchi visited the United States in order to obtain new marketing ideas.  He visited the United States Playing Card Company (known as possibly the best card manufacturer in the world), and to his surprise, their headquarters was actually a very small company.  This was perhaps the turning point for Nintendo, since Yamauchi realized that the playing card business could only expand to be so big and that he could not get his company to where he wanted it to be by selling cards alone.

            By 1963 Nintendo began trying out other methods to make money besides selling cards.  It set up a taxi company, a food company that specialized in the selling of instant rice, a vacuum cleaner company, and even a chain of love hotels!  However, these endeavors were all unsuccessful, so unsuccessful in fact that within a year Nintendo’s stock dropped from 900 yen to only 60 yen.  Fortunately, just before Nintendo was going to shut down, Yamauchi created the “Ultra-Hand”, which was basically an extendable scissor-designed contraption that could grab objects from far away.  It was created just in time for the Christmas season, and over a million units were sold, which in turn saved the company.  Following the ultra-hand Nintendo created the ten billion barrel puzzle (similar to the rubix cube), a baseball pitching machine, and a love tester.  All of the devices helped to raise the overall profit of the company. In 1977, Nintendo will make the best move it ever made: the hiring of Shigeru Miyamoto.

            By 1975, Miyamoto spearheaded the creation of games such as EVR Race, Radar Scope, and the game that perhaps launched Nintendo’s career selling video games, Donkey Kong.  Months later, Mario Bros. would be created for arcade machines in addition to their first hand-held game, Mr. Game and Watch.  During this time, small video game companies began illegally creating video games that would work inside Nintendo video game systems such as the NES (Nintendo Entertainment System).  These games were so horrible, that people began to stop buying Nintendo merchandise completely, once again causing their stock to plummet.  To fix this, Nintendo began to use a special “Seal of Quality” in order to distinguish their games from phonies.  Nintendo also began to use a chip called the 10NES to only allow Nintendo’s games to be played on their systems. 

            Today, Nintendo is one of the top three video game industries in the world, competing against Sony (Playstation) and Microsoft (Xbox).  Their newest devices include the Wii, the 3DS and soon to come out, the WiiU. 
              Do you think Nintendo will ever have to adapt what it sells again in order to compete with the economy?