Blog#7: 2020 World(Momoko Watanabe)

Hello, this is Momoko Watanabe.  In this winter vacation, I went to Imperial Theater to watch a wonderful live performance, Johnnys' 2020 World.

Today, I'd like to introduce contents of the stage.  Members of three idol groups, Sexy Zone and ABC-Z  and Hey!Say!JUMP play main roles. Also, Many boys called Johnnys' Jr. appear on the stage.  This is a two-acts play.  Act 1 is divided 12 parts(months) and actors represent beautiful Japanese culture and history of tragedies which civilization brought by dance, song, acrobat and flying.  In January part,  a lot of boys play Japanese drums and samisens　vigorously.  In February part, members of ABC-Z dance with huge Japanese sensus(扇子） and show acrobatic techniques.  In March part,  boys wear pink clothes which motif is Japanese kimono and represent a shower of falling cherry blossom petals.  In April part, they reproduce sinking Titanic which happened in April of 1912 singing "My Heart will Go On." In May part, they reproduce an explosion of an airship, Hindenburg which occurred in May of 1937.  In June and July parts,  they are in military uniforms and march in a quick way.  It represent war.  In August, September and October parts, imaging Tokyo Olympic of 2020, gorgeous show develop.  In November part, one of the member of Sexy Zone, Kento Nakajima　acts 10 character of Shakespeare's works alone, for example, Macbeth, Hamlet, Romeo, Claudia and Puck. He changes cloths in an instant and during playing a role of fairly Puck, he bungee-jumps right above a seats for the audiences.  In December part, they reproduce Macbeth's climax scene, a duel of Macbeth between Malcolm on the stage using water. They perform a splendid sword fight.  In Act 2, they go to space to find phantom 13 month.
Please click here.
 I was impressed by gorgeous set and direction.  Also, the best part of this stage is actor's performance.  Their act, song, and dance made me excited!  In particular, their flyings are very dynamic.  This live performance include 23 sorts of flying!  We can learn history and Shakespeare by this performance, so you will enjoy it too.  I guess this show will be held next year again, please go and see it yourself!

Blog#7: Light Goes On(Misaki Yoshida)

   Hi, this is Misaki Yoshida. I watched an amazing video on TV program, which is called 奇跡体験！アンビリバボー, so I would like to introduce it to you! First, please watch this video.
 

 

 

   This video is really amazing, isn’t it? Also, it is so beautiful and fantastic! I’m sure that you thought it was created by CG, but this video doesn’t use CG at all. It is called light painting. This video is created by Darren Pearson, who is an illustrator. To my surprise, this video is created by many individual photographs like making animation. In other words, it took incredibly long time. He uses a long-exposure camera and a flash pen. He has to draw illustration with the flash pen as fast as he can, because if he moves slowly, he will appear on the photograph. Maybe you have an experience which you draw something with fireworks and take a picture of it . At that time, I think you move your arm very fast. The way of creating light painting is same as that. He uses very long-exposure camera, so he can write complicated illustration. My explanation is poor, so please watch this video which shows how to make light painting.
 

 

 

  He writes illustrations in darkness  with the flash pen, so he can’t see anything he writes, but he writes complicated these easily. It is really incredible! Also, it was really hard work to create make this video, because he had to take uncountable photographs as moving little by little. He took total 724 photographs, and it took one year!

  He created an commercial of Reebok, so please watch this too. it is also amazing!!

 

 

 

   This is his homepage which has his other wonderful photographs.

 

 

Blog#7: The Snoopy Exhibition (Yurina Mori)

 Hello, this is Yurina Mori. I would like to tell you about my one of the best memory during winter vacation.

 I went to the Snoopy Exhibition at Roppongi with my friend last month. Do you know this exhibition held? There were so many pictures written by Charles.M.Schulz who made Snoopy and backgrounds of him. Those pictures came from Charles.M.Schulz Museum at the city of Santa Rosa in California, United States. Because we had got the tickets before, we could enter there smoothly. A staff who was standing the entrance stamped my hand with the astronaut's snoopy. It was very cute! (I'm sorry this stamp is too light to watch.)


 We could know history of Snoopy through Schulz's background there. For example, the model of snoopy was his pet dog and the model of Charlie Brown was his friend in the school. He collected data and wrote part of comic by himself. He had been writing comic strips for about half of century without almost taking a rest. We watched so many original pictures of him. I felt these had philosophical messages in funny story. (Please click this picture, and you can look this bigger.)

 At last, we stopped by two souvenir shops. There were many kinds of goods, for instance, tea cups, notebooks, accessories and so on. I bought pins of Charlie Brown by Capsule toys. The souvenir which I was surprised was the original posters painted by Schulz were selled only 1,500 yen! We could buy very cute Snoopy goods cheaply.

 I had a great time there because I loved Snoopy! Although this exhibition was over, I want you to go watching and know about Snoopy if the exhibition like this will be held. You will be relax by Snoopy's cuteness!

Blog#7: The saxophone (Mizuki Yanagisawa)

Hello, this is Mizuki Yanagisawa. Today, I want to introduce a fantastic music instrument, which is called the saxophone.

From my experience, I can say that the saxophone is my best friend. It is because I have played it for around 8 years. I was in the wind orchestra club when I was in middle school and high school, and played saxophone almost every day. Playing the saxophone is very fun and made me relax or sometimes excited. However, how many people know the saxophone? Do you know what form is? Do you know what color is? Do you know what sounds like? Although it is very popular instrument in Jazz music, perhaps some people have never seen or heard it.

The saxophone is the woodwind music instrument which form is like a big curved straw. Usually, it is coated with gold lacquer or silver lacquer, just like this: 

Moreover, the saxophone has a variety of its sounds. In the wind orchestra, it sounds very soft, and in Jazz band or big band it sounds brightly which is almost like a brass instrument such as trumpet or trombone. Therefore, it is sometimes called “almighty” or “all-powerful” music instrument. In both Jazz band and woodwind orchestra, the saxophone plays a role in a “hero” any other instruments due to its flexibility.

Furthermore, did you know that the saxophone is not included in the orchestra instruments? It is because the saxophone was firstly made in 1840 which is quite new comparing to other orchestra instruments such as violin, viola, or contrabass. However, instead of being included in orchestra instruments, it is the main instrument in Jazz or wind ensemble as I have already said in above.

Finally, I want to introduce the music of saxophone. Here is the song of saxophone quartet （四重奏）. 

As you watch it, you will notice that there are four types of saxophone: soprano sax, alto sax, tenor sax and baritone sax. These four are different in their sound and how high their sounds are. The harmony of these different sounds will make you fascinated and excited. I hope you will enjoy this song. Additionally, if you are interested in the saxophone, I strongly recommend you to go to the concert and listen to the real sound of the saxophone!

Thank you for reading, and please enjoy your new year holiday.

Blog#7: American Football!! (Nao Murakami)

   Hello, this is Nao Murakami. Today I would like to introduce you about American Football. Have you ever heard of or watch it? It is a kind of sports which is famous and popular in America. The reason I am introducing it is I belong to the American Football club at Gakushuin university as a manager and want more people to know about it and enjoy it.
   First of all, I am going tell you some rules. American Football consists series of downs. Players have their specific position, and try to get points by runs, passes, punts or field goal kicks. When we get points by runs or passes, which is called "touch down", we can get 6 points and another chance for getting point which is called "try for point". At first, it may sounds difficult because there are more rules, but once you understand them, it is really fun to watch games. Also, this sport is very dangerous because players tackle to an against team. In most games, there are some injured players, so most team has their team doctor or trainers, and sometimes there is an ambulance during the game. However, the games are very exciting and fun to watch.
    Second, I am going to tell you about our team at Gakushuin university. The name of the team is GENERALS. Our team is in a division 2 now. There are 36 players, 11 managers, 7 trainers and 5 analyzing staffs. We practice 5 days in a week, Wednesday to Sunday after school. It is little hard but I am really enjoying it. Our target is to remote to division 1.

This is the Promotion Video for Generals. I hope you will enjoy watching it.

 

To sum up, American Football is very exciting sport to watch and play. If you interested in it, please go to see the game! Also, there are many videos on youtube, so if you do not have enough time to go out to see the game, watch it on youtube!  I put one game here.

 

Thank you for reading my blog, and hope you enjoyed it!

Blog#6 Why eyes of the rabbit are red? (Momoko Watanabe)

Hello.  This is Momoko Watanabe.  Today, I'm going to introduce the story, Why eyes of the rabbit are red?, which is told by Ayana Sakai.

There are two main characters. A rabbit which has antlers. Then a deer which has no antlers.  The rabbit had made a boast of his antlers to other animals all the time.  One day, the rabbit met the deer and talked proudly of his antlers as usual. Since the deer has no antlers, he was envious of the rabbit's antlers.  He praised it and asked the rabbit to borrow it. The rabbit was glad of compliments on his antlers, so handed it to the deer.  The deer received and gazed at it, came to want it more and more.   He praised it again and asked the rabbit whether he may put it on his head.  The rabbit became in good temper and granted the deer's request.  The deer put the rabbit's antlers on his head and ran to a riverbank.  He looked at his reflection in the river in fascination and said to rabbit that the antlers suited himself　the best.  Then the deer with the rabbit's antlers crossed a river and ran into forests.  The rabbit tried to chase him, but he couldn't cross the river because he couldn't swim.  Since then, every day the rabbit looked for the deer　while crying, however he could not find the deer.  He cried so much that his eyes became red.
I like this story because this teaches us that if we are arrogant, we will get hurt.

Blog#6: The Mixed-Up Chameleon (Yurina Mori)

 Hi, this is Yurina Mori. I'm going to introduce a recorded story, "The Mixed-Up Chameleon". This is a picture book for children. The story is told by Eric Carle.

 A small green chameleon is the main character of this story. It can turn its body's color by around view. And there are many kinds of animals which have various characteristics in a zoo.

 The chameleon can turn body's color, like I wrote before. For example, it turn brownish when it moves onto brown tree and it turn reddish when it sits on red flower and so on. Amazingly, it can also turn the color by weather and hunger. When it feels cold and hungry, it turn gray. Also, when it feels warm or it eats something, it turns sparkling green. One day, the chameleon saw a zoo which had a lot of animals. It thought how small, slow and weak it is because it has never seen so beautiful animals. It wished that it wanted to be big and white like a polar bear. Just then, its dreams came true. Its body changed big and white! Then, it started getting good points of various animals gradually. Finally, it was a chameleon which mixed-up characteristics of many animals. It was very happy. But, it noticed that it couldn't catch the fly as usual. It wished it could be itsself, its dreams came true again and it could catch the fly.

 I like this story because I think this story tells us it is important to notice each good points of us. We  feel other people have a lot of strong points, but we must have each very great points. So I think we should find only one characteristic!