Hitori Date

I thought that with the Holiday's right around the corner, this article was perfect for all the people who are in the forever alone club, like myself. haha The article focuses on a Japanese blogger and freelance photographer, Keisuke Jinushi, that takes pictures with his "girlfriend", but in reality it is him! He says he started doing this because he would see the happy couples in cafes and he wanted those happy relationships too. To dull the sharp pain of loneliness, Keisuke takes a hitori ( one man) date photo. Its a good article to read if you want a laugh, but you have to admit this guy is pretty clever ! 

Here is the link:

http://edition.cnn.com/2013/12/04/travel/japan-one-man-date-photo/index.html?hpt=ias_c2

Final Exam Questions

I personally don't care how many questions the final has on it, as long as we get 400 extra points for writing our names.... as far as the content of questions here are some ideas:

1. How WWII had a significant impact and in what ways the relationship with US changed good and/or bad

2. I liked John's question on colonialism....

i'm drawing some serious blanks right now, but I think if we were able to narrow down some of the questions we discussed in class and the ones on the blog posts we can come up with some good stuff.... or just not have a final? that'd be fun, we could watch Mulan instead....

Midterm Questions

For the religion question, I thought that the one we came up with in class was good. I liked that we focused on the main regions we studied the origin, migration, and cultural aspects.

For the agricultural question, I feel like it might be smart to include the same information that we did for religion. For this question it could include origin, how it migrated, who it migrated with, how it affected the culture and of course how monsoons played a role.

I just think that by keeping a similar format for the questions will help us with more structured answers. :) or you could just give us all A's and call it a day...hahaha

Chinese tourism law

I found an article on CNN.com about a new tourism law in China.  The law enforced is that Chinese travelers are mandated to read a booklet on proper traveling etiquette. The article states that these booklets, approximately 64 pages, are mainly for domestic travelers but they also have them for 'outland' travelers. The article showed the dramatic increase in Chinese travelers, and this law was issued as a way to project "a good image of Chinese tourists".  Personally, I think that it's great to enforce a travelers etiquette booklet and this shouldn't be exclusive to China. While I personally don't need to be reminded to say 'please' or 'thank you' but it would be nice to know the customs of different countries when traveling so you don't accidently offend anyone.

Here is the link, give it a read it's pretty interesting.

http://edition.cnn.com/2013/10/03/travel/new-china-tourism-law/index.html?hpt=ias_c1

iPhone release in China

I read this article on the New York Times website first, but I forgot to save the url and lost it. The first article I read was a little more informative but it is very similar to the link below. The article is on the iPhone release in China and how the new iPhone 5c is the cheaper option to the iPhone 5s. The rates that we as Californians pay for a phone is expensive, but its not going to break the bank. Sadly, this isn't true for China. In the article the iPhone 5c was priced at 5,000 yuan ( $817). I read that and almost fainted! Maybe I am more shocked because I'm not aware of the average cost living in China, but it still  (to me at least) is too damn high!



http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-iphone-china-20130913,0,3709025.story

Chemical Spill in China

I heard about this last week sometime, so I was glad that I was able to find an article about it. Thousands of fish, according to the article approximately  220,000lbs worth, and some 16,000 pigs  were contaminated by a chemical spill in the Fuhe River. The Hubei Shuanghuan Science and Technology Stock Co, was identified as the source of contaminating the river with ammonia.

When I was informed about this article I was told that the pollution in the water was likely to spread, but it seems as if the contamination has been confined. It's sad to know that so many of the fisherman will be affected due to poor clean up of harmful chemicals.  This is definitely something I am going to further explore.


http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-china-23961854