I know that I said that I would try to put picture of everything that happend during the homestay up in this article, but I will have to attempt it later. Over Golden Week I went to stay with a host family on a Home Stay Program sponsored by the ECIS center at Meidai (nagoya university). We were not told anything about our homestay family before we arrived (I wish I would have known so I could have brought gifts). But I was assigned to a very young family. It was very fun. I had a great time. I understand alot more about Japanese people than I did before. The Iwai family has 2 sons (one is 3 and the other is 1). I know that their 3 year old son is very smart. When my Japanese was not enough to communicate they were usually able to speak English. They were very kind. We went to a famous old temple where the Mikado used to live more than a 1000 years ago (Mikado means Emporer). Now the Mikado visits the Temple for one day out of the year. The place was very nice(kirei). There were extremely huge trees. I have seen large trees in my life, but I have never seen trees that large. I had forgotten about my birthday (which in Japan falls on the National Holiday-Kodomo no Hi-AKA childrens day, although it is ment only for boys I think). They gave me a little birthday party (which doubled as their younger sons birthday party, since his birthday is about a week after my own) and we had a delicous cake. They gave me some nice gifts and bought me an O-mamori at the temple(O-mamori is like at equivallent of an ammulet in English, the one that I received is suppose to bring me diligence in my studies and other things). They even gave me a gift for my youngest sister. Later, I will come back to this article and post pictures (or maybe in a seperate article). Normally I go to the convenience store around the corner for breakfast, lunch and dinner, but I actually got to eat real Japanese food (instead of a bento-box lunch). It was delicous. Unfortunately, the homestay only lasted for 3 days. I would have felt like a burden if I stayed much longer, I think. But I had a lot of fun and I learned a lot of things that I did not know (some things were surprising). There was a Bar-B-Q on one of the days were I got to meet some of their friends. Their son was fun to play with and they were interested to listen to things about Texas (I wish my Japanese was better to tell them more historical stories-other than there are a lot of Cowboys in Texas). I really enjoyed it. I wish to do it again someday. I will have to post the pictures soon to show you what I am talking about.
Now, I want to talk about Stephen Colbert from the Colbert Report. So, anyways, I saw that he made front page news around the country at the Annual Republican get together thing (I do not know what it is called). It seems that he really struck a nerve of the President when he got up infront of everybody (all the political leaders) and made fun of him in the same comedy style that he uses on his show (according to alot of people). The whole thing is on C-spans website under the video section (or one could go to www.comedycentral.com, then click on the Clobert Report link under videos and there is a link to it on that page). Unfortunately, I can not view it on these computers, so I do not know what occured. Now, I am a huge fan of The Daily Show with Jon Stewart and, in the past, one could have called me a fan of Stephen Colbert, but now I am also a huge fan of Stephen Colbert. What kind of person would get up in front of probably the most powerful person in the world (in front of all the political leaders, and the world for that matter) and make fun of him. I wish I could see it. At the moment, Stephen Colbert is one of the most search names on the internet (according to the yahoo website). There is a certain award that Stephen Colbert awards on his show (which I will not mention because of the name). I think that nobody deserves that award more than himself.
Now, lets go back to Cowboys. Japanese people know what cowboys are and that they are in Texas, but they usually do not know where Texas is. I think that being from Texas works out in my favor. Now if I could just speak Japanese well enough to tell then more about Texas and its history I would be in much better shape (I cannot really think of to many states that are more famous than Texas). I was joking with my Brazillian friends that other day, telling them that everybody in Texas has a gun. Of course, in many places people are not aloud to own guns (but knives are okay). So actually here, ofcourse the joke when on for a while, it is a very funny joke-which is almost true I think. My father sent me a map of Texas so I was able to teach my friends here about the state that I come from (they atleast act interested). I have to tell them about the Texas accent (ie Howdy, yall, wanna, gonna, out yander, nothin, certain phrases, etc...). I remember when I went to California they laughed at my Texas accent. But I also remember that when I said something like, there is a tank on my grandfathers land, they thought I was refering to a military tank and not a pond (they have no idea that the word tank means pond/lake). So I assumed that it was wrong (that it was just Texas talk), but in my electronic dictionary the other day, I found out that it is correct. It says that a Tank can refure to an pond or a lake. This has nothing to do with anything (note that -nothin to do with anything- is Texan talk), but I just wanted to say it.
Actually, I understand a lot more about myself since I have come here. I have met people from all over the world and the only thing that seperates us from being the same is our beliefs and the way we are raised. Everybody here is just like any other person that I have met in the States (since my keyboard is messed up I cannot make the puctuations-or even the spellings-that I want to, I hope it is still understandable). After meeting them, I find is hard to believe that the world has so many problems.
My Japanese teacher is coming to Japan from Texas on the 18th. So I will be going to Tokyo to visit her for a short time I think. That should make an interesting story for my blog (I will definitely take pictures for my blog). One more thing that I found out about Japan is that the sun is harsher here than in Texas. Not that it feels harsher, it feels about the same, but after standing in the sun for about 20 minutes in Texas my skin just gets darker. After standing in the sun for 20 minutes in Japan my skin gets sunburnt. So, if you are planning on coming to Japan were sun screen.
That is all for now I think (pictures will be up soon).
Now I will post the quote of the month and famous physics of the week and famous physics of the day (along with the famous physicist of the weak and day I will string together some of their famous quotes.
Quote of the Month is by the Nobel Prize winning physicist Marie Curie. She is so famous she really needs no introduction. She does however, get more credit than she deserves sometimes. She practically controlled all the supply of radioactive material in the day. It is interesting that in order for scientists to do their experiments they had to send detailed plans to Mrs. Curie so that she could determine if they were actually worth sending the radioactive sample to. But, if the experiment was worthy, she would send them a small amount of radioactive material that they needed and then try to do the experiment herself (or rather using her graduate students) before the orgional physicist who came up with the idea could do it. However, in order to do this, she had to use more radioactive material. Back in the day, they were not aware of the danger of the radioactive material. So, even though many of the stolen experiments she had her graduate students do were worth the Nobel Prize, her students did not live to receive them (so they went the the origional creater of the experiment after all)-just a little note in physics history.
The Quote: "You cannot hope to build a better world without improving the individuals. To that end, each of us must work for our own improvement and, at the same time, share a general responsibility for all humanity, our particular duty being to aid those to whom we think we can be most useful."
Physics of the week is another one of my favorite, Neils Bohr. I think he really upset the great Dr. A.E. in an arguement about quantum physics (but Einstien was wrong). Dr. Bohr does not fit the profile of the average physics (which is an oxymoron in itself). He was even illiterate (his wife wrote his papers)-another little note in physics history. Now here is a strand of liberated quotes by one of the greatest, most influential people to ever shape science:
"We are all agreed that your theory is crazy. The question which divides us is whether it is crazy enough to have a chance of being correct. My own feeling is that it is not crazy enough."
"There are some things so serious you have to laugh at them. "
"The opposite of a correct statement is a false statement. But the opposite of a profound truth may well be another profound truth."
"Prediction is very difficult, especially if it's about the future."
"No, no, you're not thinking; you're just being logical."
(I think that this is where Dr. Bohr started to really upset the great Dr. A.E. in there arguement, one of the quotes from that meeting that has gone down in physics history)"How wonderful that we have met with a paradox. Now we have some hope of making progress."
"One never notices what has been done; one can only see what remains to be done."
The physics of the day is the brilliant Dr. Richard Feynman. From the very beginning of his life he was obviously a physicist. Many interesting stories have I herd about his childhood. He was a nice guy at one time I herd. He married a lady who was terminally ill and after she died he changed (or so I am told). I have all these stories about Feynman that I could tell you. But, you should just know that he was brilliant. He is one of the few names that will always stick out from the beginning of physics history (read the quotes and you will understand why I put it that way).
"Philosophers say a great deal about what is absolutely necessary for science, and it is always, so far as one can see, rather naive, and probably wrong."
"We are at the very beginning of time for the human race. It is not unreasonable that we grapple with problems. But there are tens of thousands of years in the future. Our responsibility is to do what we can, learn what we can, improve the solutions, and pass them on."
"Physicists like to think that all you have to do is say, these are the conditions, now what happens next?"
"I was born not knowing and have had only a little time to change that here and there."
"Poets say science takes away from the beauty of the stars - mere globs of gas atoms. I, too, can see the stars on a desert night, and feel them. But do I see less or more?"
That's all I have for now. Talk to you later.
