my encounters with the geishas and ninjas

During this year's christmas party of my law firm, Sapalo Velez Bundang Bulilan law offices, our team presented a Japanese musical production number. Basically, it involved the icons of Japan: the geishas, samurais, ninjas, anime and even Sadako of "The Ring" series.

While preparing for the production number, i reminisced my personal encounters with the real Geishas of Kyoto, Japan in July 2008.

We took the Shinkansen, or bullet train in local lingo, from Tokyo to a station near Kyoto. The Shinkansen is a network of high-speed railway lines in Japan The Shinkansen network boasts not only high speed -up to 300 kilometers per hour-, but also high frequency. the Shinkansen network is the key to comfortable and speedy travel throughout Japan

Kyoto is one of the best places to visit in Japan. About 20% of Japan’s National Treasures and 14% of Important Cultural Properties exist in the city proper. The UNESCO World Heritage Site Historic Monuments of Ancient Kyoto (Kyoto, Uji and Otsu Cities) includes 17 locations in Kyoto, Uji in Kyoto Prefecture and Ōtsu in Shiga Prefecture.

Luck was likewise on our side since we came in close contacts with the Geisha’s of Gion which is Kyoto’s most famous geisha district. We strolled along Hanami-koji, a street lined by beautiful old buildings, teahouses and restaurants.Geisha are dressed in a kimono, and their faces are made up very pale. Initially, they refused to have their photos taken with us. So we have to be discreet in geting our photos. We even went to the bridge where the the Chiyo met the Chairman, from the novel Memoirs of a Geisha.

Geisha or Geiko, on the other hand, are traditional, female Japanese entertainers, whose skills include performing various Japanese arts, such as classical music and dance. In the performance of a geisha in one of the theatres, it reminded of the film “Memoir of A Geisha” There remains some confusion, even within Japan, about the nature of the geisha profession. 

Geisha are frequently depicted as expensive prostitutes in Western popular culture. Geisha are entertainers, their purpose being to entertain their customer, be it by reciting verse, playing musical instruments, or engaging in light conversation. Geisha engagements may include flirting with men and playful innuendos; however, clients know that nothing more can be expected. In a social style that is uniquely Japanese, men are amused by the illusion of that which is never to be. Geisha do not engage in paid sex with clients.

On the other hand, in the Japanese history, a Ninja was someone specially trained in a variety of unorthodox arts of war. The methods used by ninja included assassination, espionage, and a variety of martial arts.Their exact origins are still unknown. Their roles may have included sabotage, espionage, scouting and assassination missions as a way to destabilize and cause social chaos in enemy territory or against an opposing ruler, perhaps in the service of their feudal rulers (daimyo, shogun), or an underground ninja organization waging guerilla warfare. 

Here is the musical video we made as part of our xmas presentation..

Close encounters with the Geishas

 During this year's christmas party of my law firm, Sapalo Velez Bundang Bulilan law offices, our team presented a Japanese musical production number. Basically, it involved the icons of Japan: the geishas, samurais, ninjas, anime and even Sadako of "The Ring" series. 

While preparing for the production number, i reminisced my personal encounters with the real Geishas of Kyoto, Japan in July 2008.

We  took the Shinkansen, or bullet train in local lingo, from Tokyo to a station near Kyoto. The Shinkansen  is a network of high-speed railway lines in Japan The Shinkansen network boasts not only high speed -up to 300 kilometers per hour-, but also high frequency. the Shinkansen network is the key to comfortable and speedy travel throughout

Japan

Kyoto is one of the best places to visit in Japan. About 20% of Japan’s National Treasures and 14% of Important Cultural Properties exist in the city proper. The UNESCO World Heritage Site Historic Monuments of Ancient Kyoto (Kyoto, Uji and Otsu Cities) includes 17 locations in Kyoto, Uji in Kyoto Prefecture and Ōtsu in Shiga Prefecture.

Luck was likewise on our side since we came in close contacts with the Geisha’s of Gion which is Kyoto’s most famous geisha district. We strolled along Hanami-koji, a street lined by beautiful old buildings, teahouses and restaurants.Geisha are dressed in a kimono, and their faces are made up very pale. Initially, they refused to have their photos taken with us. So we have to be discreet in geting our photos. We even went to the bridge where the the Chiyo met the Chairman, from the novel Memoirs of a Geisha. 

Geisha or Geiko, on the other hand, are traditional, female Japanese entertainers, whose skills include performing various Japanese arts, such as classical music and dance. In the performance of  a geisha in one of the  theatres, it reminded of the film “Memoir of A Geisha” There remains some confusion, even within Japan, about the nature of the geisha profession. Geisha are frequently depicted as expensive prostitutes in Western popular culture. Geisha are entertainers, their purpose being to entertain their customer, be it by reciting verse, playing musical instruments, or engaging in light conversation. Geisha engagements may include flirting with men and playful innuendos; however, clients know that nothing more can be expected. In a social style that is uniquely Japanese, men are amused by the illusion of that which is never to be. Geisha do not engage in paid sex with clients. 

On the other hand, in the Japanese history, a Ninja was someone specially trained in a variety of unorthodox arts of war. The methods used by ninja included assassination, espionage, and a variety of martial arts.Their exact origins are still unknown. Their roles may have included sabotage, espionage, scouting and assassination missions as a way to destabilize and cause social chaos in enemy territory or against an opposing ruler, perhaps in the service of their feudal rulers (daimyo, shogun), or an underground ninja organization waging guerilla warfare.

       

Violence In Cartoons

Recently, a trend  in facebook intensified wherein profile pictures were changed to cartoon characters to support violence against children. But what if these cartoons are the ones that provoke violence among children? will they serve the purpose of the FB campaign?

An example of a violent cartoon is “South Park.” The famous scene in every episode is that Kenny, a small in size and shy character on the show, dies in every episode. The ways that he dies vary in every episode and some are more brutal than others, and the famous line after he died is usually something along the lines of ‘“Oh my god, they killed Kenny. You bastards!”

High levels of violence in cartoons can make children more aggressive, researchers claimed .They found that animated shows aimed at youngsters often have more brutality than programmes broadcast for general audiences.Children copied and identified with fantasy characters just as much as they would with screen actors.The study also found that youngsters tended to mimic the negative behaviour they saw on TV such as rumour-spreading, gossiping and eye-rolling.

They recorded 26 acts of aggression an hour compared with just five in shows aimed at general audiences and nine in programmes deemed unsuitable for under-14s.'Results indicated that there are higher levels of physical aggression in children's programmes than in programmes for general audiences,' the study said.

It added that the TV industry distinguished between animated violence and non-animated violence and appeared to rate the former as less harmful.

'There is ample evidence that animated, sanitised and fantasy violence has an effect on children,' the study's authors said. 'Research on the effects of violent video games, which are all animated, indicates that they have the same effects on children's aggressive thoughts, feelings and behaviours that violent TV shows have demonstrated. In fact, even cartoonish children's games increase aggression. Labelling certain types of media violence as "fantasy" violence is misleading and may actually serve to increase children's access to harmful violent content by reducing parental concern.'

The study, by academics at Iowa State University and published in the Journal of Applied Developmental Psychology, also found that children copied at school the verbal aggression they had seen on TV. It said: 'In addition, the effects of televised physical aggression were extensive, such that exposure to televised physical aggression was associated with a variety of negative behaviours .' This anti-social behaviour included verbal and physical aggression and excluding others from friendship groups.

Gradually, they begin to act and reciprocate as the cartoons on the television would. They begin to perceive the real world as the cartoon character’s world and enact accordingly. The stunts done are imagined to be real and performed by kids in real life. The underlined fact here is not the kid’s ignorance in differentiating between the real and the artificial but his perception of the real. At an age, when personalities, choices, tastes begin to get developed in kids, the cartoons have a deep effect on them

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1159766/Cartoon-violence-makes-children-aggressive.html#ixzz17PTN5adj  
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Violence_in_cartoons
http://www.youthkiawaaz.com/2010/12/effect-of-cartoon-on-children/