Jake's Kawaii Blog

  I watched a very interesting video from Japanese news about a group from Toho High School that set out to create a story. This story is about a boy named Oka-chan, and how he lived through the bombing in Japan in World War II. The story is based off of a real story and person, who the group met with and discussed with. The story has art done by the students, and the message is very moving, promoting the message that diplomacy and communication is key to preventing something like this from ever happening again. The group also wished to be able to communicate their story with other countries, so they created English translations in the book. The group also went to present for some younger elementary students, but it seems they weren't able to fully grasp the concept. Overall, this group's work was very impressive and inspiring, in their hopes of continuing to promote the message learned from war.

I watched a news video about facility dogs in Japan. In this video, the focus was on Ivy, a Labrador Retriever born in America, and trained to work with children in hospitals. Ivy works to bring comfort at children's hospitals, as well as help children with physical therapy. I have never before considered how a dog may be used to help children with physical therapy through play, but I could see how effective that may be. Overall, I thought this story was very interesting and cute, and shows how powerful animals can be in certain facilities. I think it is definitely worth a watch.

  The presentation given by Dr. Keita Moore on Monday, March 30 was very interesting. The presentation was about laws regarding play and public spaces that are designated for play in Japanese history, especially focusing on the 1970s and the introduction of arcade games, specifically Space Invaders. While the idea of play being incorporated in a non-gambling way was prominent with the introduction of Sigma's Medal Games, police had started to gain interest in these places due to concerns over delinquency. This culminated in the introduction of Invader Houses, cafe like areas that had Space Invaders, and while there was no real incentive to continue playing, the desire to gain high scores was incentive enough. With ideas of childhood and how teens should be spending their time, the conflict between police and these arcade venues was a critical point of discussion in the late 20th Century. Overall, I thought the ideas presented were very interesting, and the sociological and politica...