Class#4 Islam HOMEWORK(May 7)

1. How do you greet people in yourlife? Is it different for different people? Why?

I usually greet people with both words and action, and I greet in the different way for different people. For my family, I greet in the casual way, and I usually say "Ohayou" as soon as I get up, so I sometimes say it to my parents still closing my eyes!! For my friends, I usuallu say "Ohayou" regardless the time, for example, we greet saying "Ohayou" even though it is in the afternoon. I always think it is strange, but I often use this expression. For my teachers and other superiors, I always greet in the polite way aodding and saying "Ohayougozaimasu". I think Japanese people use different expressions to greet for different people, and it is natural in the society. On the other hand, in English, the expressions of greeting is not different very much, of course there are some expressions, for example "Good morning." and "Hi.". I think the difference is that we can say "Hi." to our teacher, but we can't say "Ohayou" to our teacher. It is important to greet in the proper way for people and situations, and smiling is necessary when we greet everyone!!

2. Do you touch people when you talk to them? Why? Or Why not?

I sometimes touch people, but it depends on person. I touch only close friends or boyfriend. Touching people is one of the expressions of communication and love, but I think we Japanese rarely hug people! When I stayed in England, my host mother often hugged me when we greet. I was happy then, and I felt it was natural, but in Japan, I don't hag my mother. I hug my mother when something goes well or her birthday, but it is the case of rare!! I think there are a lot of types of greeting in the world. I think it is interesting to follow the greeting customs unique to the land.

HOMEWORK (April 23) Buddism

1. I thought my daily life isn't affected by Buddism, but actually, I follow some customs of Buddism unconsciously. First of all, I say "Itadakimasu." nodding and joining my hands together when I have meals. It seems to be the custom of Buddism. Next, my mother would often said to me "Don't leave rice." It means God inhabits in rice, so if we leave rice, we lose fortune. I think this saying might come from the traditional Japanese thought"mottainai" which in English, "What a waste!" Therefore I rarely leave rice even if I leave my side dish because I remember my mother's words. (Although I usually completely enjoy both rice and side dishes!)
Finally, I found from the lecture given by Priest Mr. Tsutsui Ebun that we use a lot of words related to Buddism, for example, "Gaman"and "Akirameru", but I was very surprised that these words essentially have different meaning from what I thought.
Almost all Japanese don't have particular religion, but Buddism surely takes root in our daily life.

2. I found an article about Islam from Asahi newspaper on May17, page7. It said that the top of the security organization who is the member of Moderate group's house was attacked by members of the fringe group. The topic about Jerusalem and Palestine, that is to say about the conflict of religion and also the conflict between the thoughts of groups, is too difficult for me, but I found some adjectives used to describe Islam. I think the words "terrorism", "groups (having different thoughts), "conflict", "attack" and "exile", etc. I found that most of the words which express Islam seems to be nagative. I don't well understand these problems yet, so I have to know more.

Hellow, Ms.Meiki, Lolf and everyone!! I'm really looking forward to taking this CCC Class as well as last semester.

HOMEWORK (April 15) What is CCC?
I learned in CCC class last semester that there are so many cultural differences between countries all over the world. They are very interesting!! I found that it is important to understand and admit their own culture, religeon and custom. In addition, it must be interesting to share some of them. Therefore we need to know our own culture well so that we can tell its appeal to the world.

I found an interesting article from Asahi newspaper (May 14, page 7) for this homework. Its headline says "How about soy sause with meat?" The large soy sause company Kikkoman came to 50years since they advanced to the American market. They appealed goodness of soy sause at the event to introduce Japanese food culture held in Washington on May 12. Kikkomanis the pioneer in the field of Japanese manufacturer which provides soy sause for the supermarket in America. Soy sause is gradually taking root, and now 60% of American family keep it in their fridge as well as mayonnaise and mustard. Kikkoman aims to increase the sale more taking this occasion.

I think soy sause and meat are symbolic of Japan and America, and this topic shows the fusion of both countries. It's just the cross culture situation. I think cross culture understanding is actually easy. Both soy sause and meat are familiar to us, so we can get to know , understand and enjoy other culture from these well-known things naturally.