Final Blog (Kazu)

          Happy New Year Everyone! This is Kazu. I am now in the middle of job hunting process and I am having busy days recently. However, since this would be my final blog, I would like to talk about interesting, yet random topic, which is about "Hot Dogs".

 

            Hot dogs, as you have all eaten it at least once in your lifetime, have several interesting origins in its name.  In America, 60 hot dogs are eaten per person according to the data I have found on the internet, which shows how much hot dogs are famous and are considered to be one of the most popular fast food in the world.

First, I would like to talk about what hot dogs are made of. It’s simple and you all know it; sausage, buns, ketchup, mustard, and vegetables if preferred. The interesting thing about hot dogs is that when German sausages were introduced, they were made out of only pork meat. However, as sausages were introduced into the United States, sausages were made of pork, chicken, turkey, and even a mixture of these. And for your information, hot dogs are usually around 400kcal and seem good for a diet, but it is only going to make you fat because it has almost no nutrition.

Secondly, the history of hot dogs is pretty interesting as well. Hot dogs were first known as “Frankfurters” because sausages were made and brought throughout the world from Frankfurt, Germany. Sausages started to be called as “dogs” from the nineteenth century. Moreover, hot dogs were brought into the United States by a German immigrant in the 1860’s.

 

Additionally, hot dogs have several ideas and stories on the origin of the name “hot dogs”. First idea of its origin comes from the comic written by a comic artist T. A. Dolgan. In the comic, he did not know how to spell “Dachshund”, therefore, he instead wrote “hot dog” humorously. Second idea of its origin comes from the dog hunting. At that time period, dog hunting was famous so people used to say dog’s meat is mixed in the sausages.

Lastly, there are differences in the indication of the meaning in “hot dogs”. In the United States, “~dogs” usually refer to the sausages, while in Japan, “~dogs” usually refer to the buns that sandwiches something.

 

I hope you all enjoyed my random blog. Have a great year!

 

 

Hanoi Report (Ryuko Saito)

Hanoi is the capital of Socialist Republic of Viet Nam, where I went from 1st to 4th November, 2013 in the overseas study tour of archival science. 

First of all, let me introduce general information about Viet Nam[i]; it has an area of 331,689 square kilometers like 0.88 times that of Japan, and a population of about 89.7 million including 6.45 million in Hanoi in 2012. As it is told a multiethnic country, Kinh (Vietnam's) dominates about 86 percent of them and the rest is divided into 53 ethnic minorities. The lowest average monthly income is about 200 million dong, in Japanese yen, about 7,270 yen in 2012. 

The official language is Vietnamese, but young people eagerly study English now. Public officers need to speak not only English but also French, because the official documents from mid-19th to the mid-20th were written in French under the reign of France. On the other hand, the foreign language education was mainly Russian since 1954 Geneva Agreements, up to 1975 the end of the Vietnam War[ii]. 

(1)    Memorial exhibition for 400 years between France and Vietnam in National 1^st Archives                                  

 

 (2)　Opera House, a symbol of France reign

Works Cited

[i] Ministry of Foreign Affairs HP, “Socialist Republic of Viet Nam”  http://www.mofa.go.jp/mofaj/area/vietnam/data.html#01 Web 5 Jun, 2014
[ii] Kiyoshi Haida “Viet Nam Language Education Policy” p.15

 http://www.tufs.ac.jp/common/fs/ilr/EU_kaken/_userdata//haida1.pdf Web 5 Jun, 2014

       When we visited Vietnam National University, Hanoi in the morning on 2nd November, the dean of the university delivered the opening address, which was so impressive as to hear that it was important for them to develop the deep and warm relationship with Japan. They would like to exchange through talking on matters of mutual interest in the perspective on politics, economy, culture, defense and well-being. He said young generation held a longing to Japan to have a great interest especially in Japanese products of Toyota and Honda, and also Japanese foods such as Sushi. I think what he meant at heart is political point of view as well as economic one through academic exchange. They are now in the face of the menace to China bordering not only with the northern mountainous area but also in East China Sea.

        After the greeting time, we had time to announce academic presentations each other. Those contents are skipped here.

(3) Vietnam National University, Hanoi 

        As you can see Prime Minister Abe visited Vietnam as the first country of his ASEAN visit in January 2013, he was very conscious of the relationship with Vietnam. Japanese investment cases are growing up.[iii] I looked at a bridge across the vast width "Red River" flowing from China, which was under construction to put a cable-suspended bridge. Tour guide said it was a yen-loan-financed project and Taisei Corporation was directly involved. Also the highway connecting the airport with Hanoi city was completed in Japanese ODA (Official Development Assistance). The total amount was 202.9 billion yen in 2012.[iv] In the industrial park along with the highway to the airport, I saw several signboards of Japanese company’s assembly factories such as Panasonic, Honda, Cannon and Toshiba.

Works Cited

[iii] JETRO “Recent investment environment and trends of Japanese companies in Vietnam, 2013” p.9 http://www.jetro.go.jp/world/seminar/86/material_86.pdf Web 6 Jun, 2014
 [iv] Same as #3 p.13
          There are a large number of bike-riders on the road. Passenger car is not popular yet. Being on the back of partner's bike is common. I often saw a bike riding with wife and a child in the back, in addition, putting an additional child to stand at the front of the rider on the bike. Three or four-seat biker is punished, if traffic accident is happened. There is few traffic signal and crossing. If we go across the street, we must lift a hand walking across slowly. Drivers and riders must stop to let a walker cross. I had an experience with such a dangerous Vietnam traffic rule. 

    https://drive.google.com/?authuser=0#my-drive 

       There are a lot of young people. The average age of Vietnam is 28 years old. They were born in the late 1980s since Doimoi deal[v]. Vietnam has so full of young labor forces that they will be expected to achieve the economic development near future. Recently, a newspaper reports that some of them will be invited as technical trainees to Japan[vi]. Generally speaking, Vietnamese have flexibility, seriousness and hand dexterity. They can make wonderful crafts. Though the contrast between rich and poor is found and the general standard of living is still lower than another ASEAN countries’,[vii] they look like to fill with energy. I would like to continue to have an interest in Vietnam in the future.

(4) Young people gathering in Kongzimiao (the Temple of Confucius

(5) Turtle hand-knitted. Pulling the tail, the measure comes out.

Works Cited

[v] In socialist countries, the economy is thought to shift from government to the people

[vi] Kensetsunews.com  “Training / Taisei Corporation starts training Vietnamese skills of Engineering in 2014”  http://www.kensetsunews.com/?p=23069  web7 Jun, 2014

[vii] Same as #3 p.25

Hakone Ekiden (Minori Nagata)

Happy new year, everyone!

I would like to write about Japanese traditional event at the beginning of January. It is Hakone Ekiden. Ekiden means a long-distance relay road race and every runner has to run more than 20 km on average in Hakone. Male university students have the qualification to run there, which has been obtained by excellent universities. These universities have an Ekiden team of at least 14 fast runners who run 1km within 2 minutes and 50 seconds. 

This event originated in 1920 and commemorated 90th race this year. It has a long history and has generated innumerable touching dramas. 

This year, Toyo University won its fourth title with the second best time in the history of the race.

Many pairs of brothers ran the race, including twin brothers. There were four pairs of twin brothers and several pairs of brothers this year. The twin pair of Toyo University are very famous as they both are really fast. The twin mostly contributed to the victory. 

But, Ekiden recently has tended to be faster and faster than ever. As a result, it has become harder for many other universities to keep up with strong teams such as Toyo University.

Japanese Food Tradition (Marino Mori)

Happy New Year!!
In Japan, we celebrate New Year with beautiful and traditional Japanese food, surrounding the table with family. This custom is very important for Japanese since the food we enjoy is very special, and each food has a meaning to celebrate the New Year. In short, the coming year won’t start without eating this special meal. However, this tradition is recently disappearing in our country because of the young generations’ loss of interest in traditional culture. I am one of the young people who tend to forget the precious cultures in Japan. Thus, I would like to remind some of the Japanese traditional food cultures through this essay. In this blog, I am going to write about three values that Japanese traditional food have; 1. Value the atmosphere when enjoying the food with family 2. Value the beautiful and delicate looks of the food 3. Value the dishes and plates they put the food in.
First, like Thanksgiving Day in America and Christmas in Europe, New Year in Japan is an important day to enjoy the food with family. Before we eat the warm and delicious food, Japanese families put their hands together and say “Happy New Year!” to hope our new coming year will also be continued to be happy. Furthermore, not only in the New Years, but also in every day meals are important for Japanese family. For example, we say ‘ Itadakimasu’ ‘Gochisousama’ before we start eating the food. They are typical greetings to thank for the sacrifices and bless of the nature, and to show the happiness with eating meal with family. Hence, Japanese traditional foods make the importance of eating family together.
Second, Japanese traditionally value the appearance in foods. For instance, Japanese traditional foods include basic four colors: white for rice, brown for fish, orange or yellow and green for vegetables. These colors make the appearance more beautiful and appetitive. Also, including these ingredients are said to be balanced and healthy style of food. Furthermore, some Japanese restaurants also offer ‘seasons’ in the food. In autumn, for example, they put coloring leaves to show the autumn harvest and beautiful nature in the meal.
Finally, Japanese food cannot be completely enjoyed without choosing the right dishes. Japanese traditional foods are relatively simple, so the dishes also need to be simple but a little decorative and colorful. The most popular dishes are lacquered dishes, which are usually colored in black or red. Deep and shiny lacquer gives the food more sacred and brilliant impression on people.
Last year of December, ‘Japanese traditional food culture’ was registered as a World intangible cultural heritage by the UNESCO. This news made an opportunity for Japanese to think about the values of traditional cultures remaining in our country. Government has founded a committee which focuses on promoting Japanese cultures throughout the country and the world. While the technology is rapidly developing and make people forget to calm down ad look back the old cultures, this movement will definitely be a positive impact on our traditional culture. We also need to develop new technology to make our life convenient, but at the same time, cultures remaining in our country represent our traditional spirits of Japan. We cannot ignore these spirits and should be cherished from all the generation.

 

 

                                                        New Year Dishes

New Year special foods

The comeback of a succer ball from 3.11 tsunami (Ryuko Saito)

        

      My example is a literal comeback, not a cultural comeback.

 Boy’s ball drifted in the Pacific after 3.11 Tsunami was made a comeback to him.

It drifted to Alaska seashore after 3.11 Tsunami. The owner, a junior high school boy, said "happy" on 22th Apr, 2012. The soccer ball was found in the U.S. Alaska away from 5 thousands kilometers or more. The owner was Misaki Murakami, a high school boy who lives in Rikuzentakata in Iwate Prefecture.

The ball was found at the coast of Middleton Island in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of Alaska. Apparently, it was the first case to return to the owner what was washed away by the tsunami.

         There was written "From Osabe elementary school 3^rd grade, Mar, 2005"
         on the ball and lined up the names "Yuki", "Akinori" and "Shunsuke" as
         their words of good wishes. When Misaki transferred to another
         elementary school at the time, it was the full-hearted gift from
         classmates. He said he lost all of his belongings by the tsunami, but he was very surprised and pleased to meet his memorial soccer ball again. 

I was very impressed by the news and warm-hearted communication
over the Pacific.

     https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HauuJqli0bY

Blog#4: The Comeback of a Tradition 'Kouji' Marino Mori

              I will introduce the Kouji, the material used for cooking as one of the examples of products came back in Japan. Kouji is a traditional material used for making the taste of the meal more rich and tender. It is white colored and thick liquid made of fermented flour. Recently, ‘Shiokouji’( kouji with salt) is popular among house wives, to use fish and meat making it tenderer. Shiokouji were shelved on the supermarkets, and many recipes were published in Japan. Even ‘Shiokouji restaurants’ and lunch menus were made when this boom came. The peak of this trend was in 2012, and enen though the popularity is getting steady, it is still popular for the cooking material.

              I consider that this trend has come on the background of changing food cultures in Japan. Currently, Japan is filled with fast food restaurants and oily meals imported from the Western culture. According to that situation, Japanese people’s health got worse than the previous times. Many diseases such as health-related diseases are now in concern among all generations in Japan. Therefore, in order to tackle these health issues, people in Japan started to seek the forgotten traditional food culture. As a result, healthyKouji attracted many people’s attention, because it uses few flavoring, and it became a boom around the country.

              I think this trend will give a positive impact on Japanese health issues. Once people in Japan found out that traditional food culture is healthy and delicious, their health concerns will increase, which means that more sound people may increase in our society. Since the medical fees cost much in Japan, it is one of the solutions to lower the costs for the medication. Besides, as the food culture in Japan has now more attention among Japanese after the Japanese food culture has registered in the World Heritage,   I assume that more traditional healthy foods will revive in our society.

              In conclusion, while many western style foods are still popular among Japanese people, booms of healthy traditional foods such as Shiokouji may have an influence to change the people’s eating habits.

 

 

  Koji　　　　　　　　Koji Cafe　　　

 

Blog #4: The comeback of a tradition ―YU-TAMPO (Minori Nagata)

Hi, this is Minori.

I would like to introduce YU-TAMPO, a hot water bottle. It has been traditionally used to warm our feet in bed during winter. It became old-fashioned and stale several decades ago, but around 2007 it has become in fashion again, due to the rise in fuel expenses.
We use YU-TAMPO by filling it with hot water and wrap it with a blanket or thick cloth. It is very convenient because we can make use of the warm water in it to wash our face in the morning. The warmth is mild and there is no worry about fire. Since it has become in fashion again in 2007, many types of YU-TAMPO has been for sale. there are ones made of ceramic, metal, rubber, jerry, etc.
Using YU-TAMPO is very comfortable and economical. Keeping your feet warm and your head cool is healthy and gives you sound sleep. If you try to keep your room warm with air conditioning, your blood  will go to your head; it might make you catch cold because of dry air. If you use YU-TAMPO, however, you will feel more comfortable with your feet warm and therefore sleep well. It is also very economical; you only have to heat water. It is also eco-friendly. Owing to the rise of crude oil in 2007, people have become very conscious of fuel expenses. That's one of the reasons a number of people have begun using YU-TAMPO since 2007. As far as I'm concerned, the use of YU-TAMPO is finally very rational. in this ecological-conscious age, it is a great means of heating, even when you are awake.

The two photos of YU-TAMPO are below.