Sexuality -the fifth assignment-

In this Chapter, White describes the difference between the U.S. and Japan in terms of the message about sex. She claims that people in the U.S. use "mixed" messages when they talk about sex while those which Japan people use are more "compartmentalized". Although it took me some time to understand this idea of "compartmentalizing" for I've never thought that way before, it does seem reasonable and somewhat accurate description of the way Japanese people consider sex.

I personally think the way White describes the prostitution by Japanese teens is a bit exaggerated. But still, the phrase in the book: "It's fun, and we haven't done anything harmful to others" (the one White refers to a fifteen-year-old girl taken in by the police for prostitution), doesn't sound so unfamiliar as one of the excuses which many teenagers make. Since Japanese tend to think and judge things related to sex in a compartmentalized way, these teenagers claim that it should be okay to do prostitution as long as they have a specific reason to do so and they won't trouble others. (Well, it is clear that the "specific" reason here is to earn pocket money though...)

In a way, I think the message about sex should be compartmentalized like we do in Japan because I don't think it is proper to make a politician resign his position because of his sexual scandal, which may happen in the American society for people have the mixed ideas about sex. However, it is also true that I think if we exaggerate compartmentalized idea too much like some teenagers do above, that would be dangerous too. While compartmentalizing things is practical and realistic, it can disregard the moral sense in some cases. It's not that we need to judge which one is good and which one is bad. I think what is important is to keep the balance. Therefore, if we are going to keep usding compartmentalized messages about sex, we should be careful not to use the idea as an excuse of one's bad conduct.

Friendship -the fourth assignment-

Among what is written in the Chapter 6 and what we talked in class discussion, the topic of "ijime" (bullying) seemed most interesting since it is a huge problem in Japan at this moment. In this year, some junior high and senior high students killed themselves leaving letters in which they confessed that they had been suffering from bullying at schools. The news shocked us terribly; you could see the news in every news papers and TV news.

I think that we can consider ijime as a result of distorted friendship in a way and some ideas can be found in the Chapter 6 for it is talking about friendship. For example, White points out how some Japanese teenagers consider their personalities bright(akarui) or dark（kurai). Although she doesn't mentions bullying particularly related to this topic, even this kind of tendency could provoke kids into bullying someone. The kurai kids tend to be a target of bullying for their quiet or not outgoing nature, and in that case, bullying get really serious since these kids often do not have many friends as White claims in the book.

Although I'm not sure if the kids in the news were actually kurai kids at schools or not, I think not having sincere friends might have been one of the major factors in this tragedy indeed. Even if one is suffering from bullying, the situation doesn't get too serious if he has someone who cares about him whether it is his parent, teacher or friend. However, since more parents has come to pay less attention to their kids and teachers are often interested only in students' academic scores, friends at schools tend to be the only hopes for the kids who is bullied.

So, I think it is important for kids to have as many friends as they can. Those friends don't necessarily need to be "best friends", they just need to have different personalities and ways of thinking so that in case bullying happens, one can escape to another group or friend instead of hanging out with the kids who are bullying you. Since it is common for Japanese kids to form one group with limited friends and they always hang out with the group, it is often difficult for one to ask for help when bullying happens inside the group. He would have no one to talk to and nowhere to escape. In order to avoid these kind of cases, Japanese teenagers should take part in many activities and get to know with many people so that they will have more friends who are reliable in case.

Materialism -the third essay assignment-

In this Chapter, White introduces the ways the marketing industry shapes trends by influencing teenagers to buy products.
One of the powerful tools of shaping trends is obviously magazines. Many teenagers learn trends by reading magazines and indeed, there are hundreds of fashion magazines in Japan. You'll see so many kinds of magazines in book stores that you might be surprised. Moreover, each magazine has a totally different style from others.

This is mainly because people have too many different styles and preferences in Japanese fashion and each group needs a "textbook" representing the style. It can be said that there is no magazine which covers all of the styles, so as long as it is about fashion, a girly girl and a girl with used clothes never read the same magazine. Their styles are just too different and since poeple prefer "detailed" information about fashion, it is almost impossible to write an article which sastisfies both girly ones and grunge-style fans.

As I wrote above, magazines in Japan look kind of like "textbooks" because they have all specific, detailed information of how to be fashionable. The fashion icons(TV stars, models, sometimes some of the magazine's own readers) are like teachers; the readers copy the way the ir icon dresses and buy the same dress she wears on the magazine's cover. There are pages of how-to articles too, about from how to do the latest make-up to how to get a boyfriend. These how-to articles are often really in details: for example, if it is about a make-up, they explain it step by step with many pictures. So these are manuals for the readers. If you feel like buying one of the hand bags recomended in the magazine, there are even a list of the shops with telephone numbers and maps.

Editors of magazines have created more methods to influence their readers effectively above these, but I think too many people are influenced by what they read. They copy the style in magazines almost as it is, adding no sense of their own. Then, everyone on a street look alike with the same dress and the same hair style. In a way, this situation shows that the marketing has succeeded and is good for the business. However, people seem to be losing uniqueness and it is boring even if their styles are fashionable in theory. I think we need to find a way to take only the information that is necessary for us and stop copying everything in magazines.

school -the second essay asignment-

In Chapter3, White describes how Japanese junior-high and senior-high schools get more and more intense in terms of studying. In order to get in high-level universities, most of Japanese students go to cram schools and spend great amount of time studying. Not only their own parents, but also their teachers put great pressure on them.
As White claims in the book, if one wants to get in a high-level university, it is really important how he spends his high school days: he should concentrate on studying and start the preparation earlier. So, in order to spend the "best" high school days, he'd better be careful to decide which high school he goes. Levels, policies, curriculums differ very much depending on schools and it is said that in many cases, it is your high school that pushes you up to the university you want to go.

Therefore, these days, kids and their parents are very serious about choosing their high schools and competition between high schools is getting increasingly severe.
I think people used to prefer schools with a long history and sort of a "brand name"(popularlity, in other words) and those were the ones considered the best high schools.
However, the situaition is changing. What people care about most is the number of the students who get in high-level universities in the school. If their grads tend to have good grades, even new and unfamous schools can be the popular ones.
This competiton between high schools may have some advantages(for example, many schools started plan their curriculum seriously and creatively), but it is also true that it is complicating the whole "examination ordeal"(zyuken-sensou) thing.

Several weeks ago, the media revealed that some high schools in Japan didn't teach some subjects such as world history and geography, because they wanted to spend more time for other subjects which their students would need for the big examnination.
As a result, many seniror students had found out that they were short of credits to graduate high schools although there are only 4months left. (until the entrance exam, less than 3months)

I think one of the causes of this shocking news can be found in the comepetiton between high schools. These high schools concentrated on the track record so much that they even chose to ignore the government's policy.
If its students don't have good grades, less kids apply to the school and its management might go into a poor shape. For every high school, this cometition is a big issue and at least for now, it seems difficult to avoid.

Family -the first essay assignment-

What I found interesting on the topic of Family in the book is how family relationships are different in U.S. and in Japan.

For example, White claims that in the U.S., relationships between fathers and daughters are closer while Japanese daughters tend to prefer spending time with their mothers.

I personally think this idea is pretty accurate because when I was in the U.S., I was so surprised by how my host sister talks all the time with my host father about anything. Although I think I rather spend more time talking with my father compared to many of my friends in Japan, the relationship between my host sister and father seemed to be much more closer than that.
Then however, surprisingly, I actually came to feel comfortable chatting with my host father as time passed. I told him about some stuffs that I don't even tell my own father back in Japan.

So why are the relationships between Japanese daughters and fathers less close than ones in the U.S.?

Considering my experience, I think this is because in Japanese family, fathers tend to be kept busy with their jobs so much that they don't even have enough time hanging out with their daughters.
I did spend much time with my host family in the U.S. since it was him who took me to the school driving every morning and he came home earlier than my host mother in the evening.
As many girls love "chatting" and tend to build close relationships or friendships through "chatting", I assume fathers and daughters also need some amount of time that they can have a little chat in order to have close relationships.

I think family relationships are just something really easy to be affected by the family's lifestyles both in Japan and in the U.S.

nice to meet you!

hey guys! my name is Ryoko Ichimura and i'm 19-years-old girl from tokyo.
here's few things about me...

bithday : 1987/06/30
family : parents, two younger brothers
school : freshman at SILS
hobby : watching movies, shopping, drawing
job : part-time job at Starbucks in Shibuya
etc. : i was an exchange student to AZ, the U.S.(2004-2005) with the organization callled AFS,
and now i'm helping out the programs as a volunteer staff.

i'm excited to be in this cool project!!
i hope i can get to know w/ many of you through this class:-)