Lesson 2: Reading Assignments

1. 
   My group discussed chapter 1. First question was “If foreigners came to Japan, what we will do for them as Japanese?” Some members said “We should give them a chance to experience Japanese traditional culture. For example, eating Japanese food with a chopstick, wearing kimono and watching festival called matsuri.” Second question was “What did you receive services called omotenashi in Japanese recently?” We considered for some minutes. However, we could give few examples. Then we concluded that Japanese people tend to think those services are ordinary things because we often get them so it was difficult to find them.
   
   My group discussed chapter 2. The question was “What is usual way of shimbashira except for examples written in the textbook？” Shimbashira is a pillar used to five-story pagodas and Skytree. It acts as a counterweight to control vibration and protects building from it. That’s why we thought that it can be applied to other things. We were able to come up with some ideas like when building statue called daibutsu, usual house and electrical tower. We could understand the wonderful way that fused traditional Japanese technology and modern technic helped our usual life.

2.
Japan has a worldwide reputation for its high-quality technology. With Japanese world-famous companies developing their businesses overseas and producing in local factories. People around the world enjoy the benefits of Japanese technological products. “Compact” and “perfectionist craftsmanship” are keys of the reason why Japanese technology keeps strength. Japan has a long tradition of putting things in a compact and now it becomes the standard all over the world. Manufacturing compact products requires a high level of craftsmanship to produce the parts precisely. With its perfectionist craftsmanship and capacity to create amazingly compact things, Japanese technology will keep making essential contributions to people around the world.