MONDAY, AUGUST 29, 2005:  
AN INTRODUCTION TO THE COURSE

Distribution of Course Materials  
An Introduction to the Course and the Course Web Site  
Attitude Survey and Journal Assignments
VIDEO: Densha Otoko, episode one

READING (distributed in class):

An Introduction to Densha Otoko (2005), a Japanese Television Comedy Drama

INTERNET DISCUSSIONS ONE (IMAGES AND IMPRESSIONS) AND TWO (NEWS AND RESOURCES) OPEN

WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 31, 2005:
IMAGES, ATTITUDES AND PORTRAITS OF JAPAN

VIDEO: Portraits of Japan (excerpts) 

ATTITUDE SURVEY DUE
ASSUMPTIONS AND EXPECTATIONS EMAIL DUE  

READING (all reading assignments to be completed BEFORE class meets):

"Introduction" and "The Image Industry" in Donald Richie, The Image Factory: Fads and Fashions in Japan (hereafter IMAGES), pages 7 - 31

MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 5, 2005
HOLIDAY (LABOR DAY) - NO SCHEDULED CLASS

WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 7, 2005:
COMING TO TERMS WITH JAPAN

DISCUSSION: Making Common Sense of Japan -- Questions of Interpretation and Categories of Meaning

READING:

"Fashion's Tongues" and "Kosupure" in IMAGES, pages 32 - 52, 137 - 150

ARTICLES from Contemporary Japan in Historical Perspective materials on electronic reserve in the CSU Main Library (To access these articles, from the course web site, click on the underlined word "ARTICLE" above. All articles listed as assigned for a single date are located in the same electronic reserve file.):

• "Rewriting the Book on How to Deal with Japan" (Business Week, August 7, 1989: 1 page)
• "Book Excerpt: The Enigma of Japanese Power" (Fortune, May 8, 1989: 4 pages)
• "Tokyo: The Hard Life" (7he Atlantic, March 1989: 5 pages)
• "Life in a Box: Japanese Question Fruits of Success" (The New York Times, January 2, 1994: 3 pages)
• "Guns: One Nation Bars, The Other Requires" " (The New York Times, March 10, 1997: 2 pages)
• Japan Bashing: More Than Racism" (Christian Social Action, May 1992: 4 pages)

INTERNET WEB SITE:

"How the World Sees Japan", Time Asia (vol 157, no 17), April 30, 2001.

JOURNAL ASSIGNMENT ONE DUE

INTERNET DISCUSSIONS THREE (TERMINOLOGY / CHRONOLOGY / GEOGRAPHY) ) OPEN

MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 12, 2005:
OSAKA 2001 - JAPAN IN THE NEW MILLENIUM

OSAKA 2001, TOKYO STORY and TOKYO DAZE recount impressions of major contemporary Japanese cities as directly experienced by the course instructor during visits in 2001 and 2003; the first of these takes the form of a web exercise to be completed and submitted to the instructor while the latter two are essentially illustrated diary entries and essays, portions of an on-going set of family journal web pages. Taken together, they serve to provide a visual impression of Japanese urban life during the opening decade of the new millenium for anyone unfamiliar with contemporary Japan. Other illustrated Travel Reports from earlier visits since 1999 and as part of the instructor's recent sabbatical spent at the Japan Center for Michigan Universities in Hikone are also accessible for those interested in further exploration.

Students might be interested in comparing the above set of images with those accumulated by John W. Bennett, an anthropoligist whose professional career began at Ohio State University. OSU now houses a profusely illustrated web site, OCCUPIED JAPAN: A PHOTO WEBSITE, detailing his experiences in Japan between 1949 and 1951.

OSAKA 2001 SURVEY DUE
QUIZ ONE (PERSPECTIVES) DUE  

WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 14, 2005:
JAPAN'S PHYSICAL AND HISTORICAL GEOGRAPHY

DISCUSSION: The Cultural Influences of GeographyLECTURE: The Historical Periodization of Japan's Past  

DISCUSSION: The Uses of the Past in the Present

VISUAL LITERACY WEB EXERCISE DUE

INTERNET DISCUSSION ONE CLOSED

READING:

"'Emperor of Japan': A Scholar Pieces Together a Life of the Enigmatic Meiji," The New York Times, August 18, 2002.

ARTICLE: "In Search of the Premodern" and "Discovering Japan's Premodern Heritage" (Japan Echo, Volume XV, Number 4, 1988: 10 pages)