Cocoons to Butterflies, is not only about helping our children reach their potential, it is about every one of us. It is about finding a way to make our dream develop into butterflies and fly. It is about finding our true potential, it's about life. Please join me in this journey through the unexpected, the wonderful and the mysterious that leads us to our true potential, our own butterflies.
On Saturday me and the girls went to the 2012 Japan Society J-Cation. I must say it was an amazing event! The place was breathtaking, it had tons of fun activities and great yummy food.
We participated on workshops, a Game Show and even sang a little bit of Karaoke. I must say that the Japan Society did an amazing job. And on May 5/6 they will be having an Open House that we are sure to come by again. If you are in the NYC area, please check them out.
Every once in a while I will use a Social Mom's Writing Prompt in my Blog, especially if it has a topic I am interested about or if it's something that I would want to write about to begin with.
I was never one to dream about traveling, except when I was in High School, I was fascinated by Italy and always dreamed I would have my honeymoon there, yet it never happened. After that I discarded the whole idea of traveling up until a few months ago.
As I thought about ways to help out the world and teach my children about philanthropy I realized I wanted to travel the world helping out in different charities all over the world. Take one year to travel the world volunteering with my whole family. We would help the world as we get to experience different cultures, different languages and environments and write about my experiences. I still have a way to go before my dreams become a reality. I have to get a passport for my family, somehow we've managed our whole lives to be without one. We also have to research charities that take volunteers that even children can do. Ideally I would like to be able to stay with a host family in every country so that I could be exposed even more to the culture and the language. So far I have quite a few friends all over the world that hopefully won't mind to let us crash with them for a few weeks.
The places I would like to travel to include International and Local places, and here it is:
Locally:
*California
*Hawaii
Canada
International (Over Seas)
*Italy
*France
*Greece
*China
*Japan
*Australia
*Spain
*Egypt
All the locations with a (*) in them are places where I have a friend living in that country, whether it be a real in-person friend, or an online friend that is close enough that I wouldn't feel awkward asking them if we could stay with them. I just need to find a Canadian friend. Any Volunteers?
So this is my last day dedicated to Japan, and now looking back on it I should have left the best for last, but I mixed it all over the place. Right now I hear Lucky Star in the background and wonder how long will it take for me to understand what they are saying. It is inevitable to learn a few words by being exposed to a different language everyday as I am with my daughter watching Anime every day in Japanese, and that's the same way how I have learned to identify a few Yiddish words by working with Orthodox people.
Well today I am going to talk about Melon Soda. We first discovered it a few months ago when Yucheng came and brought us a bottle. The first thing we liked about ti was the bottle. It comes in a fun glass bottle with a marble stopper at the top. You have to push the marble into the soda, hold for five seconds and enjoy the fizzy goodness of this refreshing drink.
It also comes in a metal bottle, similar to a can but with the shape of a bottle:
It is so refreshing and awesome you can't stop drinking it. We have fallen in love with this drink, and there are several other flavors that we haven't yet tried.So if you ever happen to be in a store that sell these, please give it a try, you won't be sorry!
And the last thing I will say about Japanese people is that they are kind. I've been reading in the news how the Japanese have been able to deal with this horrible event in their lives and they have continued to be generous and helpful and they are always willing to share with others in need. It says a lot about someone who is willing to share the little that they may have.
I hope you have enjoyed our Japanese week here in Cocoons2Butterflies, we will continue tomorrow with our regular schedule. For those of you who don't know yet, we have a schedule that follows this template most days. Sundays is Picture of the Week, Monday is Health/Beauty, Tuesday is Household, Wednesday is a Random Topic, Thursdays is about Parenting, Fridays is Relationships/Marriage and Saturdays are about the SELF.
So I let you go now with another link to a website with information on how to help Japan. This is a list of events in NYC made by Mari Mori.
Tanks for reading! :D
The Japanese are also known for their technology. They are amazing in creating things that no one has thought of, or at least they do it before anyone else can.
One of the things that they have created is Self Heating Clothing. They saw a problem with how to keep warm in winter without having to wear bulky clothes and they came up with this fabric that absorbs the heat generated by the body and traps it so that you stay warm without having to wear bulky or thick clothes.
The fabric is called Heat Tech and it's created with Japan technology. And not only that, the people of UNIQLO are now selling their Dry Lux clothes for women that they claims it's like air conditioned clothes that keep you cool in the summer and Silky Dry clothes for men which claims to keep you dry and it neutralizes odors in clothes. I must say I have never seen anything like that and I can't wait to try these clothes.
But clothes are not the only thing that Japanese excel at in their technology, they have also created Humanoid Robots that look a lot like people and they talk and move like us. They created some for the fashion industry and recently they made some to be able to act as the body of Vocaloids and sing with the software.
Japan is one of the leading nations in the fields of scientific research, technology, machinery and medical research. Some of it's most famous technological companies include the well known Fuji and Sony, Panasonic, Canon, Fujitsu, Hitachi, Sharp, NEC, Epson, Toshiba and Toyota, Honda, Nissan, Mazda, Mitsubishi, Nintendo, and Subaru.
And then it takes us to cars. Japan is home to six of the world's fifteen largest automobile manufacturers in the world. And Japan's more important technological contributions are found in the fields of electronics, machinery, robotics, optics, chemicals, semiconductors and metals.
I don't think that any other country excels in so many technological fields so that's' why today's Japanese quality of the day is Technology.
What do you think about the humanoids that they have created? What is the technological invention that you are most grateful for?
Today I am going to reach out to children all over the world and give you a link to an organization that is working along with the Bezos Family Foundation that will donate $200,000 if they receive 100,000 paper origami cranes. The website for Paper Cranes for Japan is working with children and adults all over the world for this cause. They will even send you pre-paid postage labels for boxes of over 50 cranes so you can mail it to them. Check it out and help. Thanks!
Today I continue with Japan week, as we all know Japan is going through a very difficult time right now and I am dedicating this week to all the things I love about Japan. Because I am a firm believer of the Law of Attraction and how good thoughts when they come with good emotions tend to attract good things. The opposite is also true so I always try my best to eradicate from my mind bad thoughts especially if they come with bad emotions.
I want to send good thoughts and good vibrations to Japan, because I want them to recover from this as soon as possible and I want the best for them so I'm dedicating today to Japan's amazing sense of humor.
If you go and do a search for Japanese Pranks or Japanese Game Shows you will find tons of videos. What is so special of Japanese Pranks and Game Shows is that many times they can be very extreme. Things that you would never imagine someone to be willing to do. They are very unique.
I have a hard time explaining as there are many different kinds but I am going to share with you a few videos so you can see what I mean.
This is a video of some pranks that are made by large crowds of people, it is very funny to see how a single man can be walking down an alley when a HUGE crowd of people come running his way. Most people see the crowd and scream away freaking out! It's Hilarious!
The next video is a compilation of various random pranks. It's very funny how in the beginning they have like a stuffed animal that roars. People come close to it and they scream in fear when they hear the roar. Also there are other ones with a fake Snow avalanche and people think this huge snow ball is going to crush them and it's just a very light weight huge white ball
They also have some hilarious Game Shows. There is even a show called I Survived A Japanese Game Show where they get some Americans to go to Japan and compete in these over the top Game Shows. What I love about Japanese Game Shows is that they are not afraid get out there, do crazy stunts, get dirty and have people laugh at them. You can tell that it is something that will never be seen in American Game Shows that are not kid related. I guess Japanese game shows can be similar to the Children Game shows like Double Dare back in the day, with lots of Physical Challenges. So tell me what do you like about Japan? I love so many things about Japan and I encourage you to find the amazing of this wonderful country and share it with the world and please donate what you can to help our Japanese brothers because we are all family in this world. You can go to Japan Society to find ways to help.
Following on yesterday's theme on Anime and Manga, I want to talk about an AMAZING man who is Brilliant in his Animated movies. In our household all of us are fans, he is in our own opinion THE BEST Japanese film director and animator of anime feature films.
His filmography is very extensive but we are most familiar with the films he has made with Studio Ghibli
Our favorites are My Neighbor Totoro, Kiki's Delivery Service, Spirited Away and Ponyo.
My Neighbor Totoro is about 2 girls who just moved into the country with their professor father and their mother is sick in the hospital. While the girls try to adjust to their new surroundings they befriend a wood Spirit called Totoro. We love how spirited the girls are and how it incorporates nature into the story. The two little girls in the story resemble my own daughters not only in age, but also in personality.
Kiki's Delivery Service is about a 13 year old witch that as tradition dictates she had to go live on his own and try to find her best skill and settle into a new town. She struggles to find herself when she sees that she can help the town by doing deliveries to towns people in her flying broom. Kiki is a very lovable girl, and she has this adorable cat that goes with her everywhere.
Spirited Away is about a little girl that is on her way to move to a new house with her parents when they get detained and end up going into this world of spirits and monsters. Chihiro's parents turn into pigs and it's her job to restore them to their natural forms and save them but first she will have to live and work in this mysterious world before she can return back home.
Ponyo is the latest movie to be released in the USA and I'm sure many of you have seen it or at least heard from it. It is about a little magical goldfish who falls in love with a little boy and she wants to become a human girl to be with him. It is another take on the story of the little mermaid, except these are small 5 y/o children and the movie deals with the environment and the pollution in the ocean and the effects of humans and how their actions sometimes takes away the balance of nature.
Also from Studio Ghibli, yet created by Hiroyuki Morita is the movie The Cat Returns, about a girl who saves a cat and ends up going into the cat world where they try to force her into marrying the Cat Prince.
What I love about all these movies is that they incorporate topics like coming of age, being accepted, the earth, nature, adjusting to difficult situations, being strong, brave, doing good things for others, etc. They all have a "moraleja" or a lesson to learn.
Have you seen any of these movies? Are there any others that you like? Please share with us. And don't forget to donate to Japan. Today's link goes to The Japan Society in NYC, you can donate through them by buying tickets to their concert for Japan on April 9,2011 in NYC
Most of have certainly grown up with Anime, at least I did. In Puerto Rico when I was a little girl we used to watch many animated cartoons from Japan, like Candy Candy, Mazinger Z, Dragon Ball Z among others. Every generation has at least one Anime that they remember growing up with.
Now my children, especially Gaby is growing up with Anime and Manga as well. Manga is the Japanese Comic Books and Anime is the animated cartoon. My cousin/sister Karla is also a big fan of Anime and Manga. She is currently living in Germany as her husband is stationed in the Army there. We were talking the other day and she told me that her daily routine includes reading some stories in Manga.com My husband and I when we were teenagers and dating we would also watch a lot of these Japanese Animations and would go to Japanese activities where animation was the main theme.
Today I would like to share with you my daughter's two favorite Anime cartoon series. Pani Poni Dash and Lucky Star. I must say that my daughter discovered these through Yucheng and she can spend hours on end watching these videos, and she has even learned a little bit of Japanese as a result. She likes to see the videos in Japanese with English subtitles and sometimes they have Romaji and English Subtitles which is great for learning the correct pronunciation of the Japanese words.
Gaby can sing the intro and ending songs of these shows flawlessly, it impresses me so much. She will also get some catch phrases from the show and say them over and over and over...
Pani Poni Dash! is a show about a ten year old teacher of a High School Class. It is very funny and the characters are very cute.
Then Lucky Star is about a group of girls that are friends and enjoy Anime and video games.
Well, here are my daughter's two obsessions at the moment, hope you enjoy them. And Anime and Manga are other reasons why we Love Japan so much, and as promised here's a link to another webpage you can go to if you'd like to contribute to helping Japan get the things they need at this very difficult time.
So what do you love about Japan? Did you grow up watching Anime? What series do you remember? Please share!
About 5 months ago, my daughter started hanging out with a neighbor friend, he has become part of the family in a short while and even though he is Chinese, he is in love with many things of Japan. My daughter Gaby has been in love with China and Japan since she was 4 after we took her to see Canal Street in NYC. Ever since she started hanging out with Yucheng her love for Japan has grown exponentially so this week will be all about the things that my kids love about Japan and things that I too have learned to Love.
Today I will dedicate it to Vocaloids. Vocaloid is a computer program that you can use to create music, it is a singing synthesizer application that will create the voice for your song and sing it for you with one of the Vocaloid voices. They also came up with Vocaloid 2 which includes a lot more voices and it became particularly more famous in Japan with the release of Hatsune Miku
Yucheng, Gaby and even Elsie have fallen in love with Hatsune Miku, they make drawings of her, sing her songs, even I have a Hatsune Miku background on my computer and my phone. My 10 y/o is so obsessed by it that I can punish her by not allowing her to listen to any Vocaloid music for a few hours and she freaks out!!
I would like to share with you some samples of what Hatsune Miku is, and how she looks and how she sounds like. If you go to YouTube and type Hatsune Miku you'll find hundreds of Fan Videos and even videos of her LIVE Concert in Tokyo in 2010. You might wonder how is it possible to have a LIVE concert with a fictional character, well the Japanese people are so amazing that they were able to create a way to make a holographic image of Hatsune Miku and have her sing on stage with a live band.
And Hatsune Miku is not the only one to sing in this concert you can also see Rin & Len the twin Vocaloids singing in this video.
My daughter is so in love with this that she has listened to the songs so much that she is able to sing the songs in Japanese flawlessly!
There are a lot of different Vocaloids and in this picture you can see a few of them
We love Vocaloids in our household and we love Japan for creating them. I encourage you to search on youtube for some more sample songs. I will leave you with another one of my favorite songs
Had you heard of the Vocaloids before? What do you think of them? Which one is your favorite?
Well, like I said before, this week is all about Japan, and every day along with including one of the things I love about Japan I am also including a website you can go to if you want to help out to raise money for Japan. Today's website is Etsy Japan Relief, where many artists have created things to sell for which the proceeds will be directly donated toward Japan Relief. Please check it out!
I absolutely love the picture so much that I want to share it with you.
This picture is the beginning of Japanese week. I would like to honor Japanese culture and I will talk about all the things that we love about Japan as well as share with you a few of our favorite videos and songs that come from Japan.
I believe that in the midst of disaster the community of Japan has shown to be one of great big hearts and great sense of community and we should learn from them.
I also believe that when there's a disaster we must speak of the good things for the good things and good thoughts tend to multiply and that's what we should desire to gain.
Many Blessings to our fellow brothers from Japan.
And if you'd like to help I will give you each day different organizations where you can contribute to Japan.
Today's website is from Mercy Corps go to their link and help out. Thanks!
