School in Japan

 

足利学校 - あしかががっこう (Ashikaga gakkou) is the oldest school in Japan. Unfortunately, they don't all look this cool anymore. Or even function the way Ashikaga Gakkou did. Ashikaga gakkou was really a school for the scholarly elite priests, not exactly free and public education for all, but a good start nonetheless.

Most school buildings in use today were built in the 1950’s and 60’s following the second world war. They all pretty much follow the same set of blueprints:

If you’ve seen one school, you’ve pretty much seen them all.

In the Meiji era, Japan had some major education reforms, to start modeling their system after the (now defunct) Prussian system. This included everything from how the grades were divided to uniforms. High school boys’ high-collared ‘gakuran’ jackets with the brass buttons are modeled after Prussian military school uniforms.

Besides the public schools, there are exorbitantly priced private schools in Japan as well. Every school, private or public, must abide by the national standards set forth by the Ministry of Education.

Students go through the exact same number of years of school that students do in the U.S., the only difference lies in the division between the levels of school. There are even pre-school and kindergarten programs available in most places.

Here's a look at how schooling in the U.S. is divided up vs. Japan:

grade

1st

2nd

3rd

4th

5th

6th

7th

8th

9th

10th

11th

12th

Japan

しょうがっこう

ちゅう がっこう

こうこう

United States

Elementary school

Middle school

High school

たとえば　（ For example):
In the U.S., you might be a こうこう　いち　ねんせい
but in Japan, you would be a ちゅうがっこう　さん　ねんせい

Lastly, the names of the major divisions of school are pretty simple to remember.

小学校, shougakkou, elementary school, with the character 小 (shou) meaning “small”

中学校, chugakkou, middle school, with the character　中 (chuu) meaning “middle” or “center”

高校, koukou, high school, with the character 高 (kou) meaning “high” or “tall”

and even 大学, daigaku, university, with 大 (dai) meaning “big.”

I guess you are in the big school when you go to university ^_^

kimono culture

With the influx of western culture and fashion, traditional Japanese clothing seemed doomed to become a thing of the past. However, kimono are still being manufactured and worn to this very day. Before the Meiji period, kimono functioned as everyday wear, but nowadays people wear kimono on occasions that require formal dress, such as weddings, graduations, and funerals.

 

Kimono are also worn on certain holidays. Children are dressed in kimono for shichi-go-san festival. Young women who will become 20 years old in the coming year wear ornate furisode (振袖, a special long-sleeved kimono) for coming-of-age festival in January.

I wore this vintage kimono at a tea ceremony lesson. Kimono are still worn for traditional events like tea ceremony, hanami (花見, flower viewing), or a gagaku (雅楽, court music) performance. If you attend a traditional cultural event, you will definitely see women (and sometimes men) wearing kimono.

There is a thriving kimono culture that exists in Japan. Vintage kimono can often be found at local flea markets for extremely reasonable prices. Sometimes they have small flaws or stains, but more often than not they are entirely wearable.

A fairly recent trend has re-styled vintage kimono with modern accessories to to give the wearer a retro kind of look. These kimono are often brightly colored (like the one I’m wearing in the photos) or are woven with strong geometric patterns.

If you’d like to get your own kimono, you can always go and find mountains of cheap used kimono at local flea markets like Kobo-san in Kyoto or the tenmangu market in Kiryu. Sometimes you can even find shops that buy and sell recycled kimono like Usagi-ya in Ashikaga.

What do you think about non-Japanese wearing kimono? Do you think it looks ridiculous? Would you like to try wearing kimono? Tell me what you think!

茶の湯

I’ve been reading up on Chanoyu, or Sado, or Tea Ceremony, or The Way of Tea, or whatever you like to call it. One of my coworkers took me to her ochakai lesson with her mother and for the first time EVER I got to wear kimono! It was so exciting, and probably also very good for my posture. The obi is very tight and stiff, but not completely restricting, but the most difficult thing, I found, was standing up and sitting down without letting the undergarment show. I felt a little awkward, but I’m sure if I could practice all the time, I could easily get used to it. However, putting on a kimono by oneself is no easy task. I have a kimono, but I unfortunately do not have all of the appropriate underthings…yet. Don’t you love the tabi (socks)? They remind me of Ninja Turtle feet. Hee.

 

Also, I’ve been to ochakai before, but this was a lesson, and not an actual tea-meet. It was way more relaxed than the real thing, which made me feel a lot more comfortable and about 75% less awkward and foreign! You can learn so much about Zen philosophy from tea ceremony, and Japanese culture as well. If you want to learn more about the way of tea, I’d recommend reading “The Book of Tea” by Kakuzo Okakura. It’s all about the aesthetics and philosophy that are the tea ceremony itself. The book also includes the history of tea ceremony and talks about its earliest forms. The book also has a few anecdotes about the most influential tea master, Sen-no Rikyu, who broke apart his tea bowl and committed ritual suicide after performing his final tea ceremony.

“[tea ceremony] is an attempt to accomplish something possible in this impossible thing we know as life.”

– Tenshin Okakura, The Book of Tea

New 判子!

As many of you know, I kind of dabble around in sumi every once in a while. As a goodbye present to one of my schools last year, I gave them one of my paintings. One of my former co-workers remembered that this was one of my hobbies, and on his recent trip to China with his family, he had a gorgeous new stone hanko (判子) made for me! It came in a pretty gold box lined in yellow silk with a brand-new pot of shu-niku (朱肉). The stamp is a gorgeous burnt-orange stone and the shu-niku is even the good kind that smells like cheap lipstick! He dropped it off this weekend. It was great catching up, and now I can’t wait to paint something so I can use my new stamp!

I’ve had my own personal seal since I carved my first one for sumi-e class back at Kansai Gaidai. There are a few different types of seals, but the ones I use are for artistic purposes only. These types of seals originally came to Japan from China (like basically everything else…) and are also used in Korea as well. Essentially, they are the equivalent to the western signature, or ‘John Hancock,’ if you will.

The first kind of seal is called a 実印 (jitsu-in). A jitsu-in is officially registered, and is used for legal-type-things.. such as business contracts, marriage certificates, deeds to property, etc. As well as having to be totally unique, a jitsu-in must also abide by any number of stringent regulations that have been set by the local governing body. Many people keep them in vaults or other secret places, as the possibilities for identity theft would be endless. To have an officially registered inkan, you must apply at a local municipal office for a 印鑑登録証明書 or “certificate of seal registration.”

A 銀行印 (ginko-in) is used specifically for banking. Every bank has their own rules and regulations on how big your bank seal can be, but for the most part they contain a person’s full name. For foreigners, however, anything goes, apparently. My bank told me I could register either my signature or a ginko-in with them, but I decided to register a signature, since I figured it was way more secure than registering my stamp. I do have a stamp that would be a great ginko-in, and I do use it to receive parcels or mail which is the next type of seal I’ll explain, but I would never use it as a signature for banking. Yikes. Just seems like a bad idea to me.

A 認印 (mitome-in) is a kind of moderately formal seal for signing deliveries, work memos, bill payments, and not-so-high-profile functions. They aren’t really stored as carefully as ginko-in or jitsu-in, as they are used quite often. If any of you work in a Japanese school like I do, you probably see them laying around on people’s desks. According to wikipedia, the size is totally based on your seniority in relation to the other people who will be seeing your stamp. So if you are a new guy at the company, your stamp is going to have to be smaller than your bosses’.

Here’s what my equivalent of a mitome-in looks like. It comes in a small box with its own ink pad in it, and has my first name, 舞莉実都 in a crazy font. I actually had this made thinking I was going to use it like a bank seal, but ultimately decided against it. I use it instead of signing for packages or other mail. Other than that, it’s not like my fingerprints or a signature.

The last type of seal (and the kind I personally use the most) is called 雅号印 (gago-in), which roughly translates to ‘pen name.’ They are used by artists to sign AND decorate their work. As my sumi-e sensei would say, the stamp is the ‘spot of red’ that is absolutely necessary in the completion of one’s painting. They are mostly used for calligraphy and sumi-e, but appear in other media as well. The shape and size of gago-in can be totally freeform, as opposed to the strict legal and social guidelines that govern the other types of seals. More often than not, they are handmade by the artist. You can even get your own do-it-yourself hanko kit at a craft shop if you’d like to make one yourself! I made my own for sumi-e class back at Gaidai. I picked up the stone at a craft store and used a paperclip to carve my design. Which looks like this when stamped on a painting: When I carved this, I didn’t write 莉 with the top ‘grass’ radical but instead wrote 利 I guess it was an honest mistake. It was really difficult carving the negative space around the backwards characters (you have to make them as a mirror image on the stamp itself, otherwise it will stamp out backwards on your paper) that I was preoccupied with getting the ‘look’ right rather than the accuracy of the kanji.

Left: my hand-made gago-in for sumi-e class at Gaidai. Right: my mitome-in w/ case and ink pad.

Here’s the impression of my new hanko!

It doesn’t have the 都 that I used in my other two stamps, but it was a gift, so I’m not complaining! So, while it isn’t an official seal by any means, I will use it for paintings!

お茶会

I went to an ocha-kai today in Kiryu! I’d never been to a tea ceremony before, so I was really happy to have the chance to go! There are so many small details in a tea ceremony, like the color, shape and design of the serving vessels, the type of sweets that you’re served, even the way the tokonoma is outfitted with a scroll and a piece of ikebana, that it’s almost overwhelming to a beginner. I’m serious! It’s hard to take in all of this stuff on the first time!!  It was a really cool experience though, and I would really like to go to one again, now that I know a little more about it.
On a separate note, I felt severely underdressed. I SHOULD have worn my yukata, but I am unfortunately not able to put it on (in a decent manner) by myself. Had I known this was a yukata-appropriate occasion, I would have worn it.

      

It would have matched really well with all the purple hydrangeas and irises, too. Bummer. One day I’ll get to wear it! One day!!!

¡Dios mio!

Chili bean shiba needs to work on his accent! Also… the English annotations are a little off. Here’s the English one with jelly bean shiba:

Jelly bean shiba needs to work on his plurals and posessives.

Tora bean shiba is my personal favorite because he speaks Kansai-ben! I love how the lady flips out at him.

 

MAMESHIBA ♥ !!!

Japan – The Strange Country (video)

Japan - The Strange Country (Japanese ver.) from Kenichi on Vimeo.

Found this today. Great design & provocative message. Personally, I think the reason so many people are killing themselves is because they work too much and aren’t having enough sex. That’s just my opinion, though. I’m no sociologist.

Here is a link to the English version.

何時もいやな質問

I was thinking about this the other day after one of my friends asked me question #5. I mean, she’s my friend and all, but I still felt a little weird talking about it with her. This is a list of the 10 most annoying questions that people in Japan (and not just Japanese people, either!) absolutely looove to ask me. Nine times out of ten, they succeed in making me feel extremely uncomfortable. Now you can, too! With the aid of this helpful list!

10. Can I practice my English with you? If I know you, sure, I’d be happy to speak English with you and help you out, after all you ARE my friend. Man, I WISH my students or people I actually know asked me this rather than weirdos on the train. If I don’t know you… I really really don’t want to practice with you. Sorry. That will only give you more opportunity to ask me weird questions like the following:

9. Can you use chopsticks? Ok, this one I can kind of understand, since in the U.S. we mostly use forks, spoons and knives. However, someone needs to tell Japan that chopsticks are not an eating utensil exclusive to this country.

8. Are you French? Of course, no offense to the French, but I have been asked this more than once! On the street! In the airport! Waiting for the train! On my way to class! Way to assume that every blonde white girl is French. Racial profiling at its finest!

7. Can you eat Japanese food? This is part of the reason I wanted to move to Japan in the first place.　I LOOOVE Japanese food! Can YOU eat a hamburger? Of COURSE I can eat Japanese food, silly! I can even eat natto, but I won’t necessarily like it.

6. What is your blood type? Ok. I have some pretty politically sensitive reasons (if you want to know, ask me about it sometime) for not wanting to answer this question outside of a hospital or blood drive. I want no part in this Japanese blood type horoscope nonsense. It infuriates me that people perpetuate such ridiculousness without knowing where it comes from. Outside of that, I actually don’t even know my blood type (which I probably should know, in case of an emergency).

5. Do you take baths? What most people DON’T mean by asking this question is “do you clean yourself?” but RATHER “do you take a Japanese-style bath?” I still, however, really detest this question. Especially with coworkers. I really don’t feel like discussing my bathing habits with you or with anyone for that matter. Oh and just FYI, I DON’T sit around in someone else’s previously enjoyed bathwater, thank you very much. I know it’s the culture, but that is gross. I will take my morning shower, thank you.

4. How much do you weigh? Jeez. This is like the number one thing you should NEVER ask ANYONE, ANYWHERE, AT ANY TIME. The only people that ever ask me are creepy guys and my students. I usually just tell them that the system of weights in the U.S. (pounds) is different from Japan (kilos), so they wouldn’t understand the number anyway.

3. Are you married? I can understand the immigration office or the company I work for asking me this for tax purposes, but really, does everyone in freaking Ashikaga need to know whether or not I’m married or single? My students have asked me this question every other day for the past 10 months. It’s starting to get old.

2. Do you have a boyfriend? This is the usual follow-up to “Are you married?” I was actually poised this question during my BOE interview when I first came to work here. I was shocked that they had the nerve to ask me, and kind of did it jokingly… which was even more off-putting. Whether or not I have a boyfriend is my PRIVATE business.

1. Where do you live? I have been to some events with lots of people that I don’t know asking me this question. Maybe it’s because they have nothing else to ask me. Maybe they are just trying to be polite and start up a conversation. Maybe it’s because they plan to show up at my doorstep unexpectedly with a box of cookies. Maybe it’s because they want to stalk me, break into my apartment, cut me up into little pieces and bury me in a bathtub full of sand. I have no idea. Nevertheless. If you are a complete stranger and want a surefire way to make me feel uncomfortable in a public place, just ask me where I live.

日本語

I suppose that since I’ve studied Japanese for quite some time now, I often get tired of the extremely patronizing “you’re so good at Japanese!” after I’ve only uttered something like “good morning” or “nice to meet you.” Not long after these remarks, many people go on to say “Japanese is so difficult.” This, according to Greg Smits, is somewhat a source of national identity for people. It's like a little taste of Japanese nationalism. He says in his online text that:

“Indeed, for many in Japan this alleged difficulty is a mild source of pride in one's national identity (e.g., "Yes, I speak a very difficult language--how impressive"). According to linguists, however, it does not make any sense to say that a particular language is "difficult" in absolute terms. If that were really the case, then children in some parts of the world would master the stages of language acquisition significantly faster or slower than children in other places. If, for example Japanese is really an unusually "difficult" language in absolute terms, Japanese children would learn to speak at a slower pace than children in places where an "easy" language is spoken. In fact, however, children all around the world acquire language in the same sequence of states, and, on average, at the same speed.”

Personally, I think it has to do a lot with 日本人論 ("theories of Japanese cultural or racial uniqueness", as my dictionary defines it), which is a topic for another time and place. Smits even covers the truths behinds the myths of this “alleged difficulty”:

“Much of the talk in Japan about the alleged "difficulty" of Japanese is actually not about the language itself but about the writing system used to represent the language. Writing is not language² but a system for representing language in a durable medium. Unlike the case of languages, which are all about equally "difficult," at least in terms of the speed children acquire mastery of them, there is wide variation in the efficiency of writing systems. As it is written today, Japanese employs a relatively inefficient writing system (as does English, with its inconsistent, often illogical spelling). Though a simple alphabetic script could handle Japanese quite well, owing to the early contact with China, the first Japanese exposure to writing was Chinese characters. Unfortunately, Chinese characters are not well suited for writing Japanese.”

I took a class from Dr. Smits while I was studying at Penn State. I’m pretty sure that he got sick of the constant “日本語上手ですね!” after simple words and phrases after all of the living/traveling in Japan that he did. I’m pretty sure that’s what motivated a lot of this commentary on language that appears in his textbooks. Anyway, even if it’s not, it’s exactly the same as I feel about it.

I guess what I’m trying to say here is don’t try and patronize me with your insincere “tatemae” flattery. It gets really old.

If you want to read more stuff by Dr. Greg Smits, you can read his online textbooks (which I have found to make for some really good reading) and his book “Visions of Ryuku” is available on Amazon. The entrance to the site is at http://www.east-asian-history.net

Culture Aftershock

'Culture' is an amorphous term. It can apply in many different situations and can mean basically anything you want it to. The concept of culture can be associated with tangible things, like works of literature, music, film, or art, but can also be tied to the intangible, like gestures and spoken language. How any one aspect of 'culture' is attributed to one group of people or another has to do with many things, such as geographical location, dietary habits, mode of dress, sounds created in a language, and so on. These attributes are what make a culture unique. After having lived in Japan, the stark and pronounced differences between Japanese culture and my own have led to some fundamental attribution errors, or just plainly, culture shock. A person can experience any different level of culture shock within a period of transition from one culture to another. It's not an unusual thing to experience, but how you deal with it at the present and afterward is critical. Despite having been a Japanese major and studied Japanese language and culture many years before ever coming here for the first time, I still experienced culture shock to some degree. Even now, after having lived in Japan for a meaningful period of time, I still experience small bouts of culture shock every now and again. At the present time I would like to review my experiences with a kind of informed, retrospective tone and share them with you.

sticking out like a sore thumb

It's a curse and a blessing. I know that I will just never get used to it. Sometimes it's nice to be noticed, but at the same time it's nice to have privacy, especially when it comes to the location of your domicile, or where you do your normal everyday things like grocery shopping.
It's just something you take for granted in a place like the U.S., where everyone is different, and unless it's Jennifer Aniston or George Clooney, most people really couldn't give a rat's behind about where you live or what you buy. I guess there are always exceptions, you know, like stalkers and other types who can't resist invading your privacy and harassing you.
I guess when it comes to my daily life here, I could go for a little anonymity sometimes.
For example, one of the faculty at one of my schools (we'll call her x-sensei) likes to keep her eyes peeled for me around town. Not only this, but x-sensei likes to inform me every week that she saw me doing this or that with person A or person B. She then interrogates me. "Where were you going?" "What were you doing?" "Who was that?" "Was that your boyfriend?" I honestly think that she is trying to be friendly and strike up a conversation, but this constant haranguing becomes tiresome every week.
Also, x-sensei fails to realize that just because she has seen a white girl running about town doesn't necessarily mean it was me. There are other ALTs living in the area, too.
Some of my close Japanese friends have confided that a lot of people are just super curious about me because I look so different from everyone else (i.e. not Asian).
There's an added layer of curiosity due to the fact that I am a foreign woman. Let's remember here people, that women's lib. was not very big in Japan. To be フェミニスト (feminist) is to be associated with all the negative historical aspects of being コミュニスト (communist). Which is a very strange association, I know. It has a lot to do with the fact that in Japanese, the words have a similar pronunciation. Despite this fact, life as a single young foreign woman in Japan is a significantly different experience than being a single young foreign man.
People will whistle at you on the street. They will flirt with you. You will get hit on by men who are at least twice your age. People will try to drunkenly grab at you. If you encounter any kind of sexual misconduct and report it, you have a 90% chance that nothing at all will be done to solve your problem. 90% of the time you will be at fault for being "so cute" or just plain foreign.

It is best to know your surroundings, have your wits about you, and to not allow any kind of vulnerability occur.
I'm always paranoid that someone is following me. When you stick out like a sore thumb it's easy to get this way. I proceed with extra caution so that people do not follow me home.
There have been some unfortunate incidents in the past with some other foreign women working here. When I lived here two years ago, a British woman who was teaching English in Tokyo was murdered. Her killer is still at large. Supposedly he was last spotted in the Phillipines, but I don't believe any of that B.S.

It's OK to be curious. However, staring and gossiping is just plain rude. Curiosity can turn into obsession... which can be dangerous.
Am I afraid of living in Japan? A country with one of the lowest crime rates (well... we can dispute this in another post) in the world? Maybe the fact that I'm so far away from familiar setting is what makes me uncomfortable. In theory I shouldn't be afraid, but man, when people are watching your every move its hard not to get wierded out.

Sometimes I like to stare back or if I'm having a particularly bad day, I flip them the bird. Or I'll ask just as uncomfortable questions.

How about you? Have you guys had bad experiences? Do tell!

pshhh... you don't need to read kanji...

koizumi
Uploaded by gariisenab - Discover videos of people, family and friends.

Koizumi says, "you don't need to be able to read kanji to be the prime minister of Japan!" which is a joke aimed at current PM Aso, who has made some mistakes while reading kanji...

Learn to bow.

I've lived in Japan before, and with a Japanese family, to boot. So, sometimes I feel like I have a little more insight than the average bear. I started thinking about some of the most important things for people to take into consideration during their trip to Japan and I made a list:

Learn to bow and say excuse me. - I think that すみません is my most uttered Japanese word. As far as bowing, it will start to become a habit. You will bow while talking on the phone, and you will bow if someone lets you cross the street & there is no walk signal. Even a slight nod is a sign of 'I respect you' and it puts people at ease.

Learn some Japanese. - Even a few words go a long way. People really appreciate it when you try, and it makes a lot of Japanese people who don't speak English feel so much more comfortable with you. And don't just prattle off the titles of your favorite manga/anime in Japanese. Learn to ask where things are, get directions, how to count money, and what the server suggests on the menu (お勧めは何でしょうか？）

Eat the food. - Yeah. I know. Japanese food can be really weird sometimes (natto, umeboshi, uni, basashi, just to name a few) but trust me, despite looking super strange, you might just find something you really like. At least you can say that you've tried it. Plus, it is really polite to finish your plate, double points for that!

Don't question everything so much - sometimes it's just best to accept things for the way they are and deal.

If you go to a shrine or a temple, be sure to take photos in appropriate places - yeah. Sometimes people get really offended if you take pictures at religious venues. If you NEED a photo, try to be discreet, ok? Unless of course everyone else is taking pictures, too.

What may seem strange to you, might not seem strange to someone who's lived in Japan their whole life. - Example: the Japanese variation on English. There was a Hair salon not far from my host family's house, but instead of saying Hair Salon on the storefront, it said "HEAR SALON." They caught wise when they saw the gaijin standing outside and laughing. They actually changed the sign in the next couple of days. How's that for saving face?!

Sort your trash - just do it. It's good for the planet and your neighbors won't hate you.

Bring something to read that is written in your native language - sometimes listening and reading to Japanese all day makes me really tired... and I need some English time.

Go to Hiroshima. Visit the museum and the monuments. Be respectful.

Get to know the town where you're living - you never know there might just be something really awesome about it that you never knew. Hirakata, where I used to live, was famous for its yearly chrysanthemum festival. Two stops up on the train line was a shrine to Thomas A. Edison!!

Take the Shinkansen somewhere at least once - Especially if you're living on a student budget, shinkansen tix can be kind of expensive. I love the bullet train, I wish they had them in the United States.

Start walking and biking - unless you've got a car, you are going to need to kick up your walking/biking skills a notch. Japan is all about those two modes of transport!

Watch SOME Japanese TV - come on, even if you don't understand it, its just ridiculous and entertaining. The commericals are great, too.

Don't get upset if they don't have your size - Man, I really wanted so many adorable Japanese clothes, but they never had the sizes to fit my gigantic American frame. I found some cool accessories to wear w/ my American digs, but don't fret, while you may feel that you look dumpy and gross compared to the super-amazingly-put-together-outfits of Japanese women, some of them secretly envy the comfort of your chuck taylors and inexpensive jeans.

Make sure you have enough cash - Yeah.. lots of places DO take visa, and some even take Amex, but in a lot of little towns and out-of-the-way shops/restaurants they only deal in cash. Postal Service ATMs are super convenient.

Don't let the culture shock get you down - yeah, I've been denied service at restaurants and turned away when I needed to do important things like get a cell phone, but don't let it get you down. It's not that they don't like you... it's kind of an irrational fear of someone so different, and not being able to help you properly, ne?

thoughts on Japan + environment

Living in a Japanese home made me all too aware of the conservation that occurs in everyday life. I quickly came to learn that due to a severe lack of natural resources, including natural gas, oil and land, there is a consistent and constant effort made by most people (at least where I was living), to conserve. There are separate collection days for recyclable and non-recyclable wastes. Monday, paper and food wastes, Tuesday, PET bottles and metal cans/items, Wednesday, a sound truck rattles through the neighborhood and picks up old appliances. Recycling bins are on every street corner, next to every vending machine, and in every train station. Even the Keihan Railway, which runs between Osaka and Kyoto, has its ticket stubs recycled into toilet paper that is used in all of the Keihan station restroom facilities.
Use of bicycles and public transportation are the norm rather than the exception in the densely populated suburbs. Combined with the rising cost of gas, the equivalent of roughly seven to eight dollars a gallon (while I was living there), and the obscenely expensive fees associated with obtaining a drivers license as well as owning and maintaining a vehicle, members from all levels of society use the highly convenient and wide network of passenger railways. In addition, stringent carbon dioxide emissions restrictions have made Japan one of the world’s leaders in the development of low-emission vehicles with high fuel economies. Being a signatory and the host of the 1997 Kyoto Protocol, Japan has made giant steps under its treaty obligations to reduce climate change.
As a culturally and historically significant country, Japan will persist in being influential in the global political realm and economy. It is my belief that a deep-seeded appreciation and attitude toward nature that exists in traditional art, religion and culture has given Japan a backdrop for making such radical and progressive changes in environmental protection and conservation in recent years. This cultural influence has significantly attributed to the country’s progressive environmental legislation and great leaps in the development of environmentally friendly technologies in its private industries. Japan, because of its lack of natural resources and technological and innovative wealth, will not only be seen as a country on the forefront of drastically altering the way the world uses valuable natural resources, but also as a more sustainable and environmentally friendly nation.
Or. Maybe this whole big thing I just wrote is just a whole big piece of crap that came from propaganda I've read/been influenced by?

Oh, and if you haven't heard about the Steelers... well... even if you aren't a huge football fan (and maybe I'm just biased because I'm from Pittsburgh) the super bowl was truly an incredible thing to watch.