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.
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
