The story opens with a young man and a young woman walking through the rain. The girl, Masako, is crying incessantly. The boy, Akio, has recently broken off their relationship while they were having tea. Akio had pursued the relationship only in order to break up with her. Once he did so, however, Masako began…
Tag: Japan
The Eleventh Hour and Sick Around the World: Studies on the U.S. Healthcare system
What did I learn from the novel and the PBS videos? Both the novel and the documentary film has been full of relevant information for me. I learnt different things from the two different media. The novel The Eleventh Hour is a unique mélange of fact and fiction. That it presents details pertaining to the…
Heaven and Earth (Ten To Chi To) by Haruki Kadokawa
The film in question is a Japanese period film released in 1990. The main theme of the film is war and its impact on warriors and common people. For a student of history, the film presents a fairly accurate presentation of costumes, art and architecture of 16th century Japan. Watching the film was like going…
Special Qualities of Japanese Woodblock Prints
Woodblock prints are an integral part of Japanese art and culture in the centuries gone past. In many ways, the techniques of craft and reproduction that were pioneered and mastered by the Japanese were more advanced than what their European contemporaries were able to achieve. Although woodblock prints were in circulation as early as the…
Toyota: Origins, Evolution and Prospects
The story of Japanese car manufacturing company Toyota is one of the enduring successes in the history of manufacturing industry. From a small, obscure entity in 1947, it has now risen to the second spot in terms of global sales. Over the past 30 years, Toyota Motor Corp. has not only been the envy of…
Media and police response to football hooliganism have tended to be disproportionate to the nature and extent of the phenomenon
Football Hooliganism has been given plenty of attention in all forms of the media. One of the reasons why it has garnered such coverage is because it is apolitical and suits all political parties to condemn it. Furthermore, the violence and vitriol involved in acts of hooliganism are material that are easy to sell. In…
Is the rape simulator video game good or bad for democracy?
Throughout human history violent forms of entertainment have existed alongside refined ones. In Ancient Rome, for example, when modern mediums of entertainment such as Television, video games, etc did not exist, gladiator fights were a popular pass-time. This prompted Saint Augustine to note that not only did people liked violence as passive spectators, but it…
The relationship between rising affluence and reduction in waste emissions
Rising affluence has been associated with a reduction in the production of waste emissions within the UK. However, the waste emissions associated with the total consumption in the UK have risen. Can both these statements can be true? There is little doubt that contemporary industrial society is increasingly becoming more consumerist. The story of the…
The growth of Asian arts in Europe and America
The infiltration of pieces of Asian art into the museums and art houses of Europe and America goes back a long way. In spite of the obvious cultural differences between the hemispheric East and West, the exchange of artefacts across the divide is as old as international commerce. Asian art has not only found patronage…
The importance of the Battle of Midway to the outcome of war in the Pacific theatre
The Battle of Midway remains one of the pivotal events of World War II, precipitating the beginning of the end of Japanese ascendancy in the Asia Pacific region. The military confrontation between the United States of America and the Japanese Empire escalated in the early months of 1942, as strategic territories located in and around…