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4/24/2007 Eco-furoshiki for everyone!VIP visitors to Japan, be excited!! After you visit the Prime Minister's Office, you will receive an eco-friendly furoshiki, made from recycled plastic bottles!! ...If they know what a furoshiki IS in the first place. You see, furoshiki can differ from the size of a slightly bigger bandana, to a full-on table cloth. So, depending on how big the the eco-friendly furoshiki is, we might be able to see President Bush trying to wear it on it head  On the serious note, A furoshiki is "a type of traditional Japanese wrapping cloth that were frequently used to transport clothes, gifts, or other goods" by Wikipedia's definition. And apparently the eco-friendly furoshiki that Thai Prime Minister Surayud Chulanont and to Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao already got, comes with a written explanation on its origin and how it's used. Which is all good, don't get me wrong, but couldn’t they have thought up of something a little more 'global'? Heck, only a handful of Japanese even USE a furoshiki! Environmentally friendly yeah maybe, but a BAG works just as well! So the furoshiki is made from recycled plastic bottles, but if the people who get it just take it home and then throws it away, that recycling was just a waist of time now huh? I'm not against on recycling, and I'm not against gifts, but I am against the Japanese government being so wrapped up (no pun intended) in its own tradition that they don't see the impact they have by giving these gifts! (Which is close to none, may I add) Here is the News Article. Interesting though, is that I couldn't find anything about this "Foreign VIPs to get eco-furoshiki" in Japanese. Maybe I didn't look hard enough or maybe I did and didn't find anything. Who knows, who cares, I just think it's a silly idea. P.S. This is the first time I’ve written about something that I saw in the newspaper!! I can't believe myself!  6/27/2006 The Spider's ThreadRyunosuke Akutagawa, a famous Japanese poet and writer, once wrote a story called "The Spider's Thread".
Long story short, Buddha gives a man called Kandata a chance to leave Hell by sending a single spider's thread down so Kandata could clime it. However, while Kandata climes the thread, other people follow and kandata tells them to get off HIS thread. Suddenly the thread breaks, and Kandata falls back to the pits of Hell. (Here is the whole story translated if you are interested)
This is a famous short story that many Children read in Elementary school (myself as well), so when I saw on the news that someone actually suspended himself on a spider's thread, I thought that it was some kind of hoax.
However, it is not so.
We all know the feeling when we walk into a spider's web, of even jest a thread of it, and that once it sticks to you, it's hard to get it off. Spider's thread is one of the most durable threads in nature, and apperently dosen't melt in heat around 300 to 400 centigrade. However, the thickness one thread is 1/10 of a human's hair, so one thread alone cannnot hold a human's body. What Professor Shigeyoshi Oosaki (the person who conducted this expiriment, and also is fasinated by spider's) did was, he took 100 spider's and took 3 months to get nineteen-thousand strings of spider thread to make 10cm length and 5mm thick spider rope. He then useda hammock and attached it to the spider's rope and, apperently, was able to sit in the hammock for a couple of minutes in it. In theory, the rope would have been able to suspend up to 600kg! (Professor Oosaki weighs 65kg)
However, more that this being a increadible discovery (it was said it is possible in theory, only nobody had botherd to actually try it out), it was more of a dream come true. I see that this idea of doing something that fasinated you as a child, like suspending your own weight by a spider's thread, is what motivates people to try things out. In Japan at least, many of the people who are creating the humanoide robots do it on the soul purpose of "I want to make Astro Boy"
I guess many Japanese are romanticist by nature (myself included)
 Everday StuffI'm one day late to say this, but Happy Birthday to Dark Psalm! I just noticed that your Birthday is on the same day as my Grand mother.
 I'm also been watching the world cup, and today is Italy vs. Australia! And... DEAR GOD THE AUSSIE GOALIE IS HUGE!!! |
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