Nebuta Matsuri - Giants Floats at Japanese festival

Hi guys! Today I'd like to introduce an awesome Japanese festival in Aomori!



At first, please watch this video! It’s
recorded by a foreign visitor and it shows how beautiful and powerful the
festival is well!

I guess you got brief ideas of Nebuta
Masturi^^

If you go to this festival, you can see a
parade of many enormous lantern floats!

Especially, they are extremely beautiful at
night!

Additionally
the floats can be up to nine maters wide and five maters tall, which depict gods,
historical or mythical figures from both Japanese and Chinese culture, kabuki
actors, and characters from the popular NHK Taiga Drama historical TV series.

Most importantly, you can feel the summer
has come when you hear the beat of taiko drum in Nebuta Matsuri! So please come
and feel that “real Aomori summer in this August!

Cheers,

Michiko

References;

“japan-guide.com  Nebuta Masturi”

http://www.japan-guide.com/e/e3755.html

(Last access 22/05/2014)

  

Special Holiday in Japan:)

All Japanese cerebrate little boys by raising the object formed like Carp on May 3rd.  The day called children's day.

However Japanese cerebrate only boys, though it is Children's Day. I wonder why girls are not included the children's day!

 

 

When the day comes, we eat chirashizusi. The chirashizushi is included vinegared rice topped or mixed withslices of  fish, mushroom, egg, sweetened mashed fish, seasoned nori, and vegetable.

In addition, we display Japanese doll called KABUTO.

The meaning of displaying KABUTO is hope that  becoming strong boy.

Japan don't have a special holiday like a Ramadan in Isram, however I think this Children's Day is one of the special holiday in Japan!

My loving music!!!

This video is music video(MV) that my love k-pop group EXO. This MV and music are big hit in Asia now. The choreographer is Tony Testa who made famous dance such as "This is it" of Michael Jackson. So the performance is really powerful and beautiful. Of course all member are really nice guy! The title of this music is "OVERDOSE" which means poisoning. I'm definitely OVERDOSE or poisning in EXO. I hope you guys enjoy this video!!

If you have found some difficulties in your life, you MUST cheack it out!!!

At first, please listen to this misic without thinking about any anxieties.



This is a song by Avril  Lavigne who is a world wel known singer .

Before I went to New  Zealand, one of my respectable seniors gave me a CD which contained this song.



I have no interests or curiosities  about English  songs, however this song made me changed dramatically.



I was really encouraged to "Keep Holding On" in NZ by this lirics even though it was very hard and

challenging to study abroad.



I'm pretty sure that you might be cheered up if you have faced your difficulties.

Also,  I would like to share this great song with you guys if you have no challenging problems

in your life now!

Any way, it's really really nice song, so I strongly recommend you listen;））

Enjoy!





Cheers,

Michiko Nara

You're doing it wrong!

If you're trying to post a video to the blog, don't just post the link. Click "share" then "embed" and then copy the text that gets exposed. Come to the blog post you're writing and paste it, like this: 

This is from one of my favorite movies, "The Blues Brothers".

My loving music!!!

This video is music video(MV) that my love k-pop group EXO. This MV and music are big hit in Asia now. The choreographer is Tony Testa who made famous dance such as "This is it" of Michael Jackson. So the performance is really powerful and beautiful. Of course all member are really nice guy! The title of this music is "OVERDOSE" which means poisoning. I'm definitely OVERDOSE or poisning in EXO. I hope you guys enjoy this video!!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=TI0DGvqKZTI

laugh laugh laugh!!!

Hello, everyone. Actually, I did not know what kind of movies should I put into my blog. But I chose this one which is my favore movie! This movie make me happy! If I have something bad, I can forget it if I watch it. So, please feel happiness!:D http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9xH0xorgUoI

My major, "International politics": Michiko Nara

Heya guys! What have u been up to?

Today I would like to introduce about my major, "International politics "

Recently I'm making my plan about graduation thesis, and it makes me realize "what my majar truly is "

 

Normally international politics is a study about learning relationship between countries in the world, and it is also one part of study, how countries decide their politics in the real world. However me and other seminar students take various topics as our discussion topics, such as cultural differences, religion, or ethnic problems.

I’m thinking about taking “how Japanese subculture effect on Japanese diplomacy in terns of soft power” as my graduation thesis now, but I haven’t completely decided it yet. I will think about my proposition again and again.

 

This is my brief explanation on my major, and thank you for reading this blog!

 

Cheers,

Michiko Nara

What's my major?

I'd like to talk about my major:) My faculty is medicine and I major in nursing. So I want to be a nurse after graduation.

First, many specialize class start from first year in university in faculty of medicine. I think this is difference between other faculty. In addition, we are always very tired especially when we are first year because the building of medicine is a little far from main campus. So we couldn't eat lunch with relax. Anyway the university life of student in medicine at first year is really busy:-(  haha

Next, student in nursing has practice in hospital from second year. It's really important experience for people who want to work in hospital. But to take the practice, we have to pass some exam. So we need to study about medicine and nursing for taking  practice everyday.

I'm second year now, so I don't know everything about nurse. However I wanna work hard in my major and graduate nicely:D

How's your faculty?
Bye--

What I'm majoring

I'm in the facul ty of Education and major in English Education.
There are some typical classes in English department.

Firstly, we study various methods and approaches for teaching English. For example, communicative approach is the way to teach English through the communication, not writing down or reading. That approach is focusing on the sounds; Listening and Speaking.

Secondly, Literature and English Grammer.Former one is almost translating the literature and we study various English expressions and the meaningful words.Latter one, English grammar is analyzing the English structure.We focus on that structure and study why sentences made of these words orders.

What is/was your majors?
I hope to hear that!

My hometown

What is your characteristic of your hometown?
I'm gonna introduce my secondary hometown, Misawa in Aomori.
Misawa city is located in the east side of Aomori prefecture.
There is American Airforce Base in Misawa, and that's why, some events related to that base are popular.Let me tell you 2events.

First event is called American Day, held in May every years.There are a lot of shops that sell the famous product and foods of each states. Visiting the shops there will make you feel as if you were really visiting those states. I believe you can enjoy having the foods that we don't have ordinary.

Second event is Air show, held in September. The famous airplane, blueimpuls and thunder bird entertains many people got together from all over Japan. Air Base is specially opened to ordinary people, so you can walk around the base and enjoy it.

Those two events are the main characteristics in Misawa city.
If you have any chance, why don't you visit Misawa?

Self Introduction

Hi.

I'm Lay, studying English education in Hirosaki University.
Let me introduce myself.

I was born in the city located in the east side of Aomori prefecture, so I speak not Tsugaru-ben but Nambu-ben that has typical phrase, DASUKE in the end of the sentence, instead of DAHANDE spoken by people in Tsugaru area. Why don't you listen to Nambu people speaking when you have chance to visit there. You do realize that you are stepping into Nambu area. I hope you'll like it.

My favorites are Drums and Vehicles. It seems there is no relation between those two thing, but I think 1 common point there; Sounds. Drum has various kind of sounds, for example, brilliant sound of cymbals, heavy sound of bass drum, and so on. I think people can enjoy listening to those sound and won't be tired of doing so. Vehicle has its original sounds and characteristics,too and I like it very much.

That's all for my introduction today.
I hope some of you have similar thoughts.
Thank you.

My hometown

Hello guys! Now I want to share with you about my loving hometown. My hometown is Towada city which is famous for Lake Towada. There are many beautiful places to visit. The view has changed by 4 seasons. It is really beatiful. But it takes a hour from my house to Lake Towada. Actually I have just ones time visited there. When I was a child, I got on board a ship with my family. You can enjoy getting a ship if you want.


And also, resent years The modern art musium in Towada is popular. It is in center of the city and many people visit there. I visited there last summer with my friend. It was very attractive and interesting.

When you visit in Towada, I recommend you visitng these nice places. Please come and enjoy!

Thank you!

My loving town Itayanagi:)

My hometown is Itayanagi town. I have lived in Itayanagi since I was born. I love my hometown because this town has a lot of attractiveness.

Firstly, Itayanagi is very famous for apple producing place. Actually, my grand parents are apple farmer, so I can eat apple almost all the year around. As you look around Itayanagi,  you can see a lot of apple field. So people call Itayanagi, " Town of Apple s, Itayanagi". Because of this, Itayanagi has strange regulation called "Regulation of taking a bite out of apple". In Japanese, りんご丸かじり条例. This has started since 2002. I think it's really fanny, but this connects our "Health". Apples are good for our health and biting apples also can build our jaw up. So most of Itayanagi citizen love apples, of course me too. 

Secondly, Itayanagi has beautiful  scenery. I'd like to introduce about apple flower. Most of people think apples are yammy  fruit, of course it's true. However apple flower is really beautiful and cute. I want many people to know apple flower's beauty. I think the beauty can be better than cherry blossom. I like seeing apple flower, but the flower drop soon. So I recommend strongly to see apple flower in Itayanagi on this  May!
Finally, I like people in this town. I think Itayanagi is great town that connection of people is really strong.

That's all:D
Thank you--

My sweet home town HIROSAKI

Hey guys, how have you been? I really feel like spring is coming!  That makes me so happy ;D  

 Today I would like to introduce my sweet home town “Hirosaki”, which is famous for the best place for Ohana-mi!

Ohana-mi (in English; cherry blossoms viewing) is a Japanese traditional event in spring, and many Japanese people go to parks to see beautiful cherry blossoms.

I would like to say you SHOULD go to Hirosaki park in spring! (especially during late April to early May.)It’s a must!;D You will be super surprised at the view of Hirosaki park!

This is a picture of Hirosaki park ;)

 

 

There are 2600 cherry blossom trees and you can see it everywhere in the park!

And you can see adorable “Mt. Iwaki”, which is called “Tsugaru-Fuji” in Aomori prefecture, with some cherry blossoms as well.

  In Hirosaki, not only spring but also other seasons you can enjoy some festivals such as Neputa-festival, Winter festival, and so on.

  Please come to Hirosaki and I hope you will enjoy so much!

 

Thank you,

 

 

Michiko Nara

 

 

 

 

 



My name is Michiko Nara ;))

Hey guys! How r u?

Really sorry for my late messages...! I had some troubles and I couldn`t upload this self introduction on this site. 

However, finalley I could make it thanks to Prof.Philips yesterday! So  I`d like to introduce myself ;D

 

My name is Michiko Nara and I`m senior in Hirosaki uni this year.

I was born in Hirosaki  and I`m native of Tsugaru direct<3

 

I went to study abroad to New Zealand last year, from Feb. to Dec. When I arrived there, I had no idea to understand what kiwi people were saying.(they spoke English pretty fast!!!! ) Even though it was really difficult for me to take a bus at first, gradually I got used to NZ life. New Zealand is famous for its variety of the countries of immigrants, therefore there were many people who were kind-hearted and hospitable. I could meet this kind of people a lot and I could understand how much I didn`t know even about my country, Japan. Need less to say, it was truly precious time in my entire life.

 

My hobbies are making sweets, cooking, listening to music (English songs, Korean songs, Chinese songs…), singing at karaoke, and eating sweets:))

I like riding motorbike as well, and I go to uni via it.

Recently, I prefer learning Chinese so far! I`m studying it hard now in order to communicate with my lovely Chinese friends who I met in NZ,  ;) It`s pretty difficult though, so interesting!

I really love English as well in terms of its pronunciation. It sounds me like music some time, and I want to speak it fluently.

I`m really looking forward to studying with you guys and learning how to write down good academic essays from Prof. Philips!

 

Thank you for your reading my introduction, see you all in the class on Friday:)

Cheers,

Michiko Nara

 

 

My introduction!!

Hi, guys! My name is Rena Tsushima. I'm second year at Hirosaki university now. I've been living in Aomori prefecture since I was born, so I'm a native speaker of TSUGARUBEN.

I'm studying nursing at the university. So I'd like to be a nurse after graduation. In addition, I've wanted to work in the poor contry like the Africa since I was in the junior high school. Because of this, my dream is to hep peoplle who can't take medical care.

My hobby is watching Korean TV programs and listening to Korean music. Because of this hobby, I can understand and speak little Korean language. Also I'm interested in languages. I had been studying Chinese for a year during my first year at the university. I like interacting with foreign students, too.

I went to New Zealand to study for a month. New Zealand was really beautiful country and I had quite good experience. However one month was really short time. If it's possible, I'd like to study abroad for a year, especially at my love country South Korea:-)

Thank you and nice to meet you:D 

Introduce about myself

  Hi. My name is Tsuzura Kikuchi. I would like to introduce about myself. I was born in Towada city which is beautiful city. It is quiet famous for Lake Towada. Most of people visit Lake Towada in season of colored leaves, because it is really beautiful.
   I am interested in foreign language and sports. I love learning interesting language especially Finnish. It is known that Finnish is difficult and not similar to other European language. However I gess it is easy to pronounce for Japanese. That why when japanese speak Finnish, we are praised by native people. If you are interesed in it, I recommend you! And also I love playing sports. I play basketball and soccer. I am a member of futsal circle in my university. Nowadays it is quiet popular that girls play soccer. I have played it for 4 years, I have started when I was a high school student. My favorite soccer player is Honda. Because he is stoic and strong.
  In conclusion, I have a thing which I want to try this year. It is I want to try a new language and a new sport which I have never tyied.


Thank you!

Free Topic

Hello,everyone!

I read many books last year.
So I talk about my favorite books.
I like Kotaro Isaka.
He is a novelist in japan.
Many of his works are made into a movie.
His stories have alot of characters.
Each person is involved each other gradually.
Therefore,critics say his stories are Sculptured group plays.
In his work,I like 「Accuracy of Death」,「Mariabeetle」,「a pleyer」.
If you have a chance,please, read them.

Free Topic: Differences between the U.S. & Japan

Hello, everyone! SORRY I'm late to post. Actually, I have to write many articles about movies, vacations etc.... But I have nothing to write about them :D

People often discuss the differences between the U.S. & Japan. They say that it is the food, languages or something. Surely, they are clear examples of differences. Both of them are totally different. However, how can we explain the characteristics of both nations' people? I think the differences are in the robots. We can know their characteristics by seeing their robots.

First, watch these video and compare them.


The first one is the "ASIMO" of Honda in Japan. He can walk around and avoid human (he recognize the difference between objects and human)! And it looks cute :) The second video shows the robots of Boston Dynamics. Boston Dynamics is famous for its "Big Dog." Its form is unrefined and machanical, however, they have great performances for transferring.

Considering both robots' concepts, I guess that Japaneses think the robots as the partners of human beings. The developers of Japan are seeking the dream in the robots. On the other hands, Americans think the practical use while they make the robots. In addition,I think that American developers think the practical use as the 1st priority in the field of not only robots but also other things. Take the Internet, for example, the U.S. tends to think the technology as a part of militarily technologies.

Ryunosuke

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