Sometimes lessons don't work. These past few postings are an example. I thought that Queen's "Bohemian Rhapsody" would serve as a great segue into "Teo Torriate" and that you would be able to very simply translate the Japanese into English. I also hoped to spark your interest in Japanese culture. It didn't work as smoothly as I hoped, but I'd still like for you to practice utilizing language translators, and to hold onto the Japanese imagery that the music playing and the photos displayed here portray.

Some of you, especially those who have seen the film The Last Samurai, may be familiar with bushido, the way of the warrior. Bushido was the strict code of the Samurai that required honor, devotion and loyalty to the death. The Samurai protected the emperor and provincial Japan for more than 700 years. In the coming week we will read two short stories. One, "Patriotism" by Yukio Mishima reflects bushido and the samurai, and the other "A Family Supper" by Kazuo Ishiguro, about a modern Japanese family still under bushido's contraints. (You see, there's a whole Japanese theme going on.)


This is Fugu, blowfish, the last meal you'll ever take for granted. Please click on the fish to read Ishiguro's "A Family Supper." To more fully interpret the story, answer these questions in your journal: What does Kikuko stamping out the cigarette in her father's garden say about her? Why does Ishiguro include the part where the father states that the gun boats or his model ship could have been better glued? Why does he mention that he would have liked to have used the "ultimate weapon" in the war. Why doesn't the father give him a straight answer when the narrator asks him what they're eating? Is there more to the father's life than work? What is the implied ending to the story? (Just X out of the disconcerting pop up that opens with "A Family Supper.") We will discuss this story on Thursday.