Japan Group Study

So, I’m finally writing my final blog post. This month has gone by in a flash and I’m truly missing Japan so much already. To be honest, I wasn’t sure what to expect when I first decided to take this program, but I am so glad I did. I was able to gain so much confidence in not only my Japanese, but in hesitation to try new things. I met so many people along the way and learned a lot about Japanese culture by living alongside Japanese students and seeing Japanese people in their everyday life. Although because this program was a lot of studying and classes, I didn’t explore as much as Tokyo as I would’ve liked to, I still experienced so much in this short period and met so many amazing people. It was only a month, but Japan had started to feel like another home for me. Even during my homestay, I felt part of the family because Japanese people know how to make you feel at home even when you’re so far away from it. Since my research topic was Japanese pop culture and I already had such ...

I can not believe that here we are at the end of the month already. I had no idea that this spring program was going to be this impactful on myself and also this fun. I am very happy that I was given the opportunity to have this experience. And to be able to experience with this wonderful group of students, teachers and new friends. I was able to learn a lot in and outside of the classroom. I am now able to better understand Japanese culture and daily society. Along with some of Japan's rich and interesting history. Importantly, to myself, I was able to improve my Japanese language skills. Especially my speaking and listening skills. After completing this program I feel way more comfortable when speaking Japanese. This is definitely because of the immersion aspect of this program. Having a Japanese roommate and conversation partner really helped my everyday conversation speech and let me communicate with all the residents in the I-house. When going out to restaurants or karaoke ...

Well here we are, the final blog post to end off the 2019 Japanese Spring Study Abroad Program. It has been a very fun and eventful trip this spring. I’m so honoured I got to experience the beautiful culture that was Japan, alongside many good friends, classmates, and wonderful teachers. I have learned a lot throughout this trip and have grown tremendously as a parson because of it. The experience of an entirely new culture was one that had to get some getting used to, but was definitely worth the wait for. Japan is a beautiful place filled with wonderful people, and I think that, that location and the people residing within it were able to teach me new ideas of adaptation, communication, improvisation, and of course reflection. This trip was one of the best experiences I have had in my youth. I learned a lot about Japanese customs, society, and even more about the language. Although I still have trouble speaking out in public to some Japanese people, I have seen my conv...

So far, I have been settling into Japan quite well. I will say that balancing shortened school work whilst also trying to travel everywhere is not exactly ideal, and I find myself forgetting most of the assignments due in class or just generally running behind. Our newest hurdle to overcome being, the final presentation we have to end off this term (and the test a couple days after it as well). My topic is about comparing the Canadian national animal of the beaver with one of Japan’s more famous animals. Japan does not technically have a national animal so I had to settle for one most local would recognise  or know form hearing the name. With that I picked the Japanese snow monkey. I had never known about this animal before my stay here but now that I have had the time to research everything about it, It’s got to be said that I’m in love with these monkeys and all the cute photos I keep finding of them. I started to talk about the whereabouts of where each animal lives. Beaver’s ...

I have found a fair number of interesting things and discovered some technologies I did not know existed since my last post. I have again travelled to Akihabara among other places and made yet new discoveries. For example, an arcade piano rhythm game that can sense how far your hand is from the keyboard in order to accommodate an extra dimension of movement into the game. This is interesting to me because, in the past I solely believed and found that Japan pursued the advancement of technology as a side effect of their collectivism in that it helped the greater good. A game like this however, while very fun and interesting, is not helping the greater good in any way and would be quite the costly feat of engineering to accomplish. Why then does such a game exist? The answer is in profits, particularly among hikikomori or NEETs as they are more commonly known as. Any arcade I have gone to in the Tokyo area and particularly in the more otaku type places like Akihabara have been filled w...

In my research, I looked into anime/manga culture and how it began to thrive in Japan.  Before, I had visited Akihabara, which was the hotspot for all anime/manga and otaku culture. Since the past 3 weeks of being here, I was able to visit various places and find anime/manga in lots of different places such as convivence stores, train stations, and around Tokyo. Beforehand, I had not visited Ikebukuro. But, in doing so, I found that it is fairly similar to Akihabara and has a vast amount of anime/manga shops that cater to the otaku culture. However, there are some differences between Ikebukuro and Akihabara. Akihabara is the largest anime/manga hotspot in Tokyo in addition to catering to the more male fans. However, Ikebukuro has a lot of anime/manga as well, but while not being as large it also caters more to females. For example, in Akihabara you may find tons of anime girls or ‘bishoujo’ that are catered towards a more male audience. But in Ikebukuro, there will be a lot of ‘...

Blog Post 3: Hey everyone! Lachlan here to once again talk about my research on Ukiyo-e prints and other experiences in Japan, and more specifically in Tokyo. Since last time I have had time to experience some Ukiyo-e prints in the Tokyo National Museum. Unfortunately with the Japanese presentations and other university-related work I have not been able to see all I had planned to see. Although I have been able to see some street art that I believe has been expanded from the Ukiyo-e style from exploring various places in Tokyo. To understand why Ukiyo-e had an interesting and unique style you had to understand how it was made. Ukiyo-e is made much like a multi-layered stamp. Pieces of wood are carved with the desired outline, ink is then applied to that wood and a piece of paper is pressed onto these wooden pieces to create an outline. This process is then repeated multiple times with different colours and wood blocks until the desired piece is created. Hence, why Ukiyo-e is r...

Since the last post, I’ve done some research by going to Akihabara and seeing the different technologies there and also seeing how people in general interact with technology and what differences exist between Japanese technology and western technology. What I’ve mostly found is that the Japanese people have a very different view of technology in that they are more accepting of new technology and focus more on what the technology can do rather than what it does do. This is a very important distinction to make because western culture focusses a lot on what technology does and is very conservative in terms of exploring what the technology can do. Japan however, being a collectivist society, tries to see what can be done in order to better the community and not just in terms of technology but with everything they do. For example, in the dorms here, there exists a collective understanding that everyone is required to help clean up and beyond that, the people are happy to help. This mindset ...

Today, I’ll discuss some of my own findings and semi-research of my research topic. After exploring different areas of Japan and such, I have already witnessed influence of Japanese pop culture all around. For example, I visited Akihabara which is the main source of pop culture in regards to anime/manga culture. Akihabara started as a district that sold mainly computers and electronics as they began to boom into ‘otaku’ culture. Now, it is filled with not only electronics and miscellaneous goods, but also tons of anime merchandise and maid cafes that cater to ‘otaku’. There are literally floors of shops with so many goods that it’ll literally take hours to search every single shop. You’ll even see girls dressed up as maids often communicating with those passing by to hand out pamphlets to advertise their café. Noticeably, there was plenty of foreigners because this is a hot spot for tourists who visit Japan and enjoy anime/manga. But I didn’t only notice it in Akihabara; there is an ...

Blog Post 2: Hello everybody, Lachlan here to talk about my current research findings on my individual topic of Japanese art. Since my topic is quite broad I am narrowing it down even more so I am able to do more specific and in-depth research. Japanese art has a long history that dates back to the period known as the Jōmon period (10 500 BCE - 300 BCE). Japanese art covers many styles and forms from pottery, sculptures, paintings, calligraphy, origami, and ceramics. Some of the earliest Japanese art being ancient pottery from the original settlers of Japan, the Jōmon people. I am going to focus more on the paintings and their history and their change. Starting with paintings popular paintings from the Edo period such as ukiyo-e also known as woodblock prints and then finishing with the current contemporary modern art. Although I have not been able to observe Japanese traditional art in museums yet, I have noticed the use of traditional art for tourism. Things such as “The Gre...

I have made a good amount of progress on my research for group 5’s project. Since last time I was able to give my rough draft to sensei to see if I was at all on the right track with my topic of festivals. We both agreed that since the general topic is too broad my sub topic is a very big topic as well. Individual group members are expected to have at least 10 slides per topic and I didn’t want to go overboard with my original plan of almost 20. With this I started to make a rough draft of what I wanted my topics to include without putting in too much information to the point where I would go over time (sensei also wants us students to talk a little bit slower for the Senshu University students so they can follow along with the English presentation). Within my outline I picked out a few festivals that I thought would be okay to add into my topic without covering as much as possible. I started off my research by looking through the history and meaning behind the word matsuri. After givi...

For my topic, I will be exploring the evolution of technology in Japan. I am going to start with the gaming culture in Japan and their influence on the modern development of technology including the impact of technologies such as VR on people’s attitudes towards technology. From there, I will go on to explore other technologies both common and niche and how Japan influences these technologies on a global scale. Included in this section will be Japanese values and how they impact the Japanese people’s attitude towards technology and what drives them to be such a leader in the development of technology. After this, I will explore how these values impacted the Japanese after exiting from isolation during the industrial revolution and how the Japanese managed to completely catch up to and then surpass the rest of the world so quickly despite starting so far behind. Finally, I will be exploring technology during ancient Japan when it was developed as a necessity of war and how it shifted ov...

My name is Josh Brauner and I am going into my 5 th year of studies. My major is bioinformatics which is under the medicine bachelor and essentially combines health science, computer science, and statistics. I am also pursuing a minor in Japanese. I have several reasons for wanting to do a minor in Japanese and subsequently doing the group study program to Japan. The first of these reasons is personal. I have always wanted to learn another language and Japanese culture has fascinated me for a long time. I have been watching anime for over 10 years now and that is where my initial interest in Japan came from. In 2014, I got to visit Japan for 10 days as a school trip and got to experience what the culture was like first hand. What fascinated me most was how the Japanese seamlessly mix the old traditional Japan with modern Japan. During my travels, we visited many temples which somehow seemed to be perfectly normal despite being in the middle of busy urban areas, a sight that is far le...

For my research I want to discuss the start of ‘pop culture’ and how it came to be. Pop cultural involves modern entertainment and mass media such as (in Japan) anime, manga, music, kawaii-culture, and otaku life. First, I would discuss manga and how it evolved into anime. The start of manga and the one known as the ‘father of manga’ is none other than Tezuka Osamu. He was seen as the Japanese equivalent to Walt Disney because of his major inspiration to animation today. Tezuka Osamu created classics such as Astro Boy, Kimba the White Lion, ect. After Astro boy, this began the start and craze for anime in Japan. From here we can discuss how much of an influence Tezuka Osamu really was on the start of manga and anime. This would then bring us to the start of anime and animation companies branching out into making studios of their own for the sole purpose of creating anime. One of the most major contributors to the animation industry in Japan was Hayao Miyazaki. In discussing the influ...

Hello! My name is Theresa MacGillivray and I’m a 2 nd year at Calgary University. Although I am from Canada (Prince Edward Island) I grew up in North Carolina in the United States and lived there for most of my life. My personal hobbies include playing video games, using my computer, and watching various shows on Netflix or anime. My favorite manga to read is Ao no Exorcist and my current favorite console to play is the switch as I love Nintendo games very much!   I’ve always been interested in Japanese culture and language since I was young. While it was mainly influenced by Japanese anime (such as Inuyasha, Naruto, Bleach, ect.) I’ve always been interested in the language itself. My major is Japanese and I have a strong interest in becoming a Japanese to English localizer/translator. I am very excited for this program because I have never traveled outside of North America and I hope it’ll be a very fulfilling trip to meet new people and learn new things about myself and ...

Self Introduction: For those of you who do not know me or would like to know more about me. My name is Lachlan, I am twenty years old and a second-year student at the University of Calgary. My major is Computer Science with a focus of computer and human interaction and my minor in Japanese. When I graduate I would like to work in the game business doing game design. I would also like to live somewhere cold so that I am able to ski in the winter. I currently live with my mom, dad, and sister. I was born in Perth, Australia and the rest of my family was born in Sydney. I moved to Calgary when I was around five years old for my father's work. Ever since we have lived in Calgary. I am currently working as a ski coach at Nakiska during the winter. I love skiing and have been racing for twelve years and been coaching for two years. Because of this I am very used to the winter and really enjoy the winter season. If you would ever like to go skiing with me let me know! In gen...

Lachlan’s Personal Research Topic: Group five’s overarching topic is the research of Japan’s culture. This study was initially broken into three different main areas for us, them being Japanese traditional culture, modern culture, and pop culture. Of these topics, each group member chose a subtopic that covered multiple or one of these main areas. I chose the more general subtopic of art. What I am personally focusing on is not just the literal aspects of art, like paintings and drawings, but also the other branches of art. For example being performances (Movies and TV), architecture, music, and literature. I plan to start by looking at art and its historical development from the past to modern times. Looking as far back to the early Japan period of Japan. To do so I will find various modern and historical Japanese artists and observe their unique works. Specifically, I would like to talk about the change from traditional art to the more modern art brought about by the wa...

Hello I’m Rhea Cochrane a third year at the University of Calgary. In spring 2019 I will be participating in a Japanese language group study with 20 or so other students. A few things about me that would be nice to know is that I’m very much an introvert. I like to take time to myself to read or stay on my computer. Though I’m not very good at it I also like to play video games and I often play with my PSVita, or even my Xbox-one. I also greatly enjoy board games/ card games and going out to board game cafes with my friends. I don’t have any pets because my little brother is allergic, but I do enjoy cats and wish to have one of my own someday. I don’t do many sports activities nowadays, but when I was younger I enjoyed tennis, swimming, dance and netball. I’m going to University of Calgary for a  multidisciplinary major in Communication and Culture as well as a Japanese and English minor. I wish to go back into school after I finish my degree next year for a teaching degree for ...

For my section of the group project I will be going in depth about the traditional celebrations. These include holidays and festivals like the firework festival or events like sakura viewing. I’m interested to see what locals were able to do at these festivals and what they meant in their time. Transitioning into what they mean in today's Japanese society, from a modern cultural perspective, and how 21st century values have changed the traditional practice for better or worse. I also wanted to see the traditional clothing for these festivals like kimonos or yukatas and if they are still used just as much in today's society as they were back then. Also looking at the meaning of the patterns on the traditional wear and what they mean metaphorically. Most of these events took place on or around religious or spiritual grounds. I want to find out the significance to why they are practiced there, and if the traditional practices still hold true in current eras. Some questions I tho...

Group 5 started to divide up the different cultures. We found common topics that might fit under the three broader initial topics of Traditional Culture, Modern Culture, and Pop Culture. With this, we tried to find and discuss some of the more interesting subtopics that could have intriguing information to present to the class. Some of the more interesting sub-genres that we came up with were: fashion, art, music, anime/ manga, shrine/ temples, architecture, gaming, and technology amongst others. We found the idea of a timeline and comparison through the different ages to be a good starting point for formatting our presentation. From the more classical periods like Asuka and Edo to the modern day civilization of the 21st century. From then we tried to figure out who wanted to focus on what topic. Lachlan is going to start the presentation with Japanese art and art history. He plans to look into both the literal aspects of art, like paintings and drawings, but also focus on outward bra...