Japan

              by Cristina Costa

Introduction

Kazuo Ishiguron is the writer of the short story you are reading. But what do you really know about him?  And especially about his country, culture, traditions or customs? Most times we read books but don’t even really think about the people who write them. We usually only focus on the book and on the story that is presented there. Haven’t you ever felt curious about knowing more about a book’s author, his/her work, his/her country, etc.?  Most times knowing about the author also help understanding his/her writings.  Let’s pursue a quest on Japan and gather relevant information, shall we?

Task

As we are collaborating with a group of students from Japan, it would be great if you could also study a little bit about their country and culture and in the end present us with a small presentation about this project, so that we will be all more knowledgeable about this Asian country.

Process

Step 1

Form groups of 3 students and decide on the topic you want to study about. Each group will be assigned one role. One group will be the history experts, another one the Samurai experts, another one the Culture and Tradition experts, another one the Geisha experts and the other the Kimono experts.

After deciding about the topic, the group should report their choice to the teacher

Step 2

As a group go through the resource links provided below and brainstorm about some ideas you might get about your role in the task and discuss them with the rest of the group.

Step 3

As a group collect information and transform what you gathered during your quest into a webpage, a wiki, a ppt presentation or a blog. After deciding about your presentation format, the group should report it to the teacher.

Step 4

The experts will additionally have to put together a small photostory about their topic, which should include pictures and sentences illustrating it.

Step 5

All the compiled information will be used and formatted to create your final presentation, which will be delivered to class. The link of the presentations will then be sent to the Japanese group of students within an email written by the members of the groups 

Resources

Japanese History Experts

http://www.japan-guide.com/e/e641.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Japan

http://www.stockton.edu/~gilmorew/consorti/1ceasia.htm

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japan

 

Japanese Armed Forces Experts

http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/world/japan/index.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japan_Self-Defense_Forces

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japan_Ground_Self-Defense_Force

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japan_Maritime_Self-Defense_Force

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japan_Air_Self-Defense_Force

http://www.combinedfleet.com/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Imperial_Japanese_Navy

 

Japanese Culture and Tradition Experts

http://www.japaneselifestyle.com.au/culture/culture.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Culture_of_Japan

http://www.amphi.com/~psteffen/fmf/culture.htm

http://www.japan-guide.com/e/e638.html

http://www.jcch.com/jt.htm

http://ksd111.org/king/japan1.htm

http://www.worldweddingtraditions.com/locations/asian_traditions/japanese_traditions.html

http://pictures.nicolas.delerue.org/japan/best_traditions.php

http://www.asij.ac.jp/elementary/japan/jp_holi.html

 

Geisha Experts

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geisha

http://marian.creighton.edu/~marian-w/academics/english/japan/geisha/geisha.html

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/shared/spl/hi/picture_gallery/04/asia_pac_geisha/html/1.stm

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Memoirs_of_a_Geisha

 

Kimono experts.

http://www.reconstructinghistory.com/japanese/briefhistory.html

http://www.japaneselifestyle.com.au/culture/culture.html

http://www.japanesekimono.com/

http://www.japaneselifestyle.com.au/fashion/kimono.html

http://www.japan-guide.com/e/e2101.html

http://web-japan.org/kidsweb/virtual/kimono/history.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kimono

Evaluation

Your grade will based on the following criteria:

Conclusion

Congratulations!

You have done a wonderful job by researching about Japan: Thank you all for transporting us through this enigmatic country. I hope you have also learned a lot from this e-Japanese experience. Knowing about other cultures and studying about foreign countries can be very enriching.

And now that you have deepen your knowledge about Japan, are you willing to visit it?

How important is it to have some previous knowledge about places you have never been before and intend to visit or move into? Will that have some impact on the people while there? Will they grow more sensitive and understanding of another culture?

I really hope so. The purpose of this task was to get you closer to a reality that seemed so far from ours…but in fact it is only one click away!   

Credits & References

Images and graphics Microsoft Office - Clip Art and Media