pre-2011 web resources

[Anonymous]

Website: http://www.international.ucla.edu/asia/

Summary of website:
The Asia Institute is a consortium of UCLA's Asia focused
research center and programs, including two U.S.
Department of Education designated National
Resource Centers.

What I liked about the website:

[clay dube]

Students in San Jose State web design and art courses have built a number of online exhibitions you may find useful.

Heian Japan
http://gallery.sjsu.edu/heian/index.html

Chinese and European Ceramics
http://gallery.sjsu.edu/ceramics/

Chinese Tomb Treasures
Flash/non-FLash options
http://oldworld.sjsu.edu/asiangate/chinesetombs/index.htm

Beyond these, the site offers a WorldArt Web Kiosk with annotated images available for non-profit educational use (credit SJSU!). Here's the link to the Asia collection:

http://worldart.sjsu.edu/IT_10$2155*160902[Edit by="Clay Dube on Nov 13, 6:54:08 AM"][/Edit]

[Anonymous]

Humantrafficking.org

This main purpose of the web site is to give information on the trafficking of women and children for slave labor and sex. The site gives mostly facts and figures on the problem, focusing on asia. The problem is huge and almost seems overwhelming in scope, due mainly to poverty.

Th site is informative but sticks mostly to facts and figures, and this was the only downside for me. I was searching for something a little more personal, which would give the point of view and experience from the victims side. But the biggest upside was all the different referals to other links.

[clay dube]

Hi Folks,
When sharing web resources, please help us by putting a descriptive label in the subject line. Examples:

Japanese Woodblock Print Web Resource

Indian Cinema Web Reource

Thanks -- this small touch helps readers a great deal.

[clay dube]

The Japan Playwrights Association and the Japan Foundation have put together a web database with synopses of 100 modern Japanese dramas. The dramas date from the 1930s to the present.

http://www.jpan.org/100/e/index.html

You can access the list by just browsing or via the author and title indices. Information provided includes:
author profile
when was it first performed
the number of acts/scenes
the number of roles (and info on how many are male or female roles)
synopsis

For those able to read Japanese, simply clicking on a link takes you to a Japanese version of the same entry.

[clay dube]

The University of Michigan's Center for Japanese Studies has long published some of the best works on Japan and has performed a terrific service by making out of print classics on Japan available. And now many of these CJS publications are available online.

http://websvcs.itcs.umich.edu/cjs/publications/electronic.php

These include:

Michigan Classics Online (e.g., Donald Ritchie's 1971 Japanese Cinema: Film Style and National Character)

CJS Faculty Series (e.g., Motion Pictures Reprint Series)

Out of Print Books Online (e.g., Studies in Japanese Culture)

[Anonymous]

http://www.shirofan.com/english.html

This web site offers fantastic photographs of Japanese castles and traditional homes. The notations, however, are not available on the English version of the site, only the Japanese version. So, unless you read Japanese, you won't really know what you are looking at. The basic information is included, such as which castle or style house you are viewing, but most of the photographs are details and would require information in the form of a notation in order to understand and explain them properly.

The photographer, Yasuyuki Oka, has requested that none of the photographs be reproduced. I am not sure if that means that you could not download them for use in an educational powerpoint presentation, or link them to your website. I suppose you would have to contact the photographer to find out. I'm not sure how one would do that, however, considering there is no e-mail address given on the English site.

Despite these minor flaws in usability, this site is a must see. The photographs are absolutely stunning and will most certainly make you want to visit these Japanese attractions on your own!

Here is an example of some of the photographs.

" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">http://www.shirofan.com/shiro/tyugoku/kooriyama/thumbnails/180-8042_IMG_psd.gif " target="_blank" rel="nofollow">http://www.shirofan.com/shiro/toukai/inuyama/thumbnails/192-9285_IMG_psd.gif " target="_blank" rel="nofollow">http://www.shirofan.com/shiro/toukai/inuyama/thumbnails/192-9260_IMG_psd.gif " target="_blank" rel="nofollow">http://www.shirofan.com/shiro/toukai/inuyama/thumbnails/191-9180_IMG_psd.gif " target="_blank" rel="nofollow">http://www.shirofan.com/shiro/toukai/inuyama/thumbnails/191-9199_IMG_psd.gif " target="_blank" rel="nofollow">http://www.shirofan.com/shiro/toukai/inuyama/thumbnails/192-9203_IMG_psd.gif " target="_blank" rel="nofollow">http://www.shirofan.com/shiro/shikoku/kouchi/i_kouchi.gif " target="_blank" rel="nofollow">http://www.shirofan.com/shiro/tyugoku/okayama/i_okayama2.gif

[Anonymous]

http://www.yoroi.co.jp/english/english/product-1.html

This site is the home of Marutake Sangyo CO, LTD, a company that recreates traditional Samurai Armor and Arms for movies, television, and museums. The English version of their site does not give a lot of information concerning their products, but does provide an interesting timeline of the movies/television series they have created costumes for as well as documentation of who or what organization received their donated or restored Samurai armor.

While this site is not entirely useful educationally, it does provide photographs of the armor worn by many famous Samurai warriors. These photographs could be useful in explaining traditional warrior armor as well as introducing a particular Samurai warrior.

What is coolest about this site is that if you had a lot of money to burn you could purchase your own fitted version of any one of their replica armor. Too bad I don't have a couple thousand sitting around. It sure would be a great way to start off a unit on the Samurai! Heck, maybe I could get them to donate a suit or two; ha!

Anyway, here are some examples of what you will find on this page.

" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">http://www.yoroi.co.jp/english/english/e-img/p1/s9.jpg Oda Nobunga " target="_blank" rel="nofollow">http://www.yoroi.co.jp/english/english/e-img/p1/s18.jpg Fukushshima Masanori[Edit by="mmoody on Dec 30, 1:29:30 AM"][/Edit]

[Anonymous]

http://www.shinkendo.com/kabuto.html

Here is an interesting article about sword testing. It gives an historical outline of sword and armor testing in Japan, while simultaneously documenting information regarding warriors, shogun, types of weapons, and swordsmiths. The interesting twist to the article is that the swordsmith to forge the winning gash against a helmet is a self-taught American.

The information in this article reads awkwardly at points and many references to warriors and events are confusing. However, for someone who is both interested in history and weaponry, this article would be a facinating read.

There are also some exciting pictures of the helmet/sword testing process.

" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">http://www.shinkendo.com/images/helmvid2.jpg

[Anonymous]

http://www.nic-nagoya.or.jp/english/fstep_e/fstepfre.htm

This website offers everyday information for foreigners living in Nagoya. From information on traditional customs followed in a Japanese home to transportation, from medical care to garbage disposal and recycling, this website offers user-friendly, pracitcal information for anyone living overseas.

In the classroom this website could be a great way for students to compare elements of everyday living. Students can get a feel for what makes living in Japan similar to and different from living in the United States.

A possible project would be for students to choose a particular focus of the website and give a presentation to the class in which they draw direct comparisons between life in Japan and life in the United States.

While the information on this site is certainly geared toward an older audiance, considering the emphasis on health care, immigration services and apartment information, high school age students are familiar enough with these topics having witnessed family members dealing with them that they can forge an adequate understanding of the cultural similarities and differences.

[Anonymous]

http://www.e-budokai.com/articles/weapons.htm

This site holds a wealth of easily read and understood information about historical Samurai events and weaponry. While thorough, it is easily accessible by low-level readers. The accompaniment of pictures adds to this website's approachableness (if that is even a word). Certainly, this is a site that I would want to use with my DRW classes. I imagine the boys specifically would become instantly interested in learning about the history of these weapons.

As well, this website could prove of use in my unit project, where my students will be documenting the historical and cultural accuracy of samurai video games. This could be a resourceful site for preliminary research and crosschecking the presentation and use of weapons.

I found of particular interest the excerpt on the Shakuhachi, which describes this flute as one of the most potent samurai weapons.

[Anonymous]

I'm pretty sure someone has already found this site and listed it on this forum but it is totally worth repeating again and again and again especially if you teach ancient civilization.
It is so fitting for 6th grade teachers/students.
Here is the url:

http://members.aol.com/donnandlee/index.html#Top

It is one stop page for quick ideas and even lesson plans.
It is comprehensive and exhausive!
I have used this site numerous times for ideas and even used some of the lesson.
Also, this site also has an interesting section that pertains to our class, Asia Pacific Americans.
Here is a following url:

http://members.aol.com/MrDonnGeo/Asian.html#Top

Like I said, it has lots of information here.
She also has a site for language arts that is pretty interesting.
Well, happy findings...

lc

[Anonymous]

Since finding the Living in Nagoya web site, I have discovered a great resource through a link that Professor Dube provided in the Teaching Asian Languages thread. Following the link for the Japanese consolate in Los Angeles, I hoped to find what was titled a brief overview of Japan. That portion of the site did not work. However, what did work was a link to Web Japan.

http://www.web-jpn.org/index.html

From this site I clicked the link to Regions and Cities near the bottom of the page.

http://web-jpn.org/region/index.html

This allowed me to locate quite easily in fact, web pages of countless Japanese cities. These pages offered everything from city maps to tourist information to historical and cultural landmarks to everyday living information. I quickly navigated through and found great information about the cities the study tour is covering, as well as many major cities or regions I have come across while researching for my web page and unit plan.

From the individual city web pages I was able to find fantastic photographs for my project as well as the answers to one of my overarching questions: How has the Samurai influenced modern day Japan?

As far as I'm concerned, this is a great resource!

[Anonymous]

This site offers a wealth of information for anyone intending on visiting Japan, including how to apply for a visa. As well as having travel information, this site has fantastic links for educators. From historical information about Japanese/American relations to educational opportunities such as Fulbright scholarships. The site also includes information about cultural workshops and exhibitions in Los Angeles.

A must visit site!

[Anonymous]

http://www.sengokudaimyo.com/

The author of this site has clearly put in a lot of work! However, I wish he would finish it!

He has a fantastic page on traditional Japanese dress where he catalogues and describes in great detail the various types of clothing. He promises to describe how one might construct these types of clothing on their own, which is his purpose for creating this page, yet the links to those pages do not work. Imagine the frustration when, having read through all the various elements of traditional men's dress I could not learn how to construct my own!

While this does come across as fantastically sarcastic, I am being, in acutuality, quite serious. As part of my unit project on samurai, I wanted to have my students participate in a live play samurai game, which the author of this site also wrote. As part of this game, the students would act out certain culturally significant rituals of behavior, battles, etc. To do this as creatively and authentically as possible, I wanted my students to be able to recreate dress similar to that worn by samurai during different periods of Japanese history.

Despite my frustration with this aspect of the website, it has a wealth of information, much of which is quite unique and as well, user-friendly. It also has an interesting approach to teaching Japanese and an online directory of Japanese armor.

Be sure to check it out!

[Author]

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