Monday, January 31, 2011

日本針治療 Japanese Acupuncture

Hehe a joke! From the Nutty Professor 1 Featuring Eddie Murphy
"Still Hungry?"... "Yep" ... " ... Maybe you should try Jenny Craig!"
But really, acupuncture has been awesome for me.

日本針治療

 先学期、日本伝統的な医学について発表しましたが、今日は日本の針治療について発表させていただきます。

 針治療は日本で、一つの伝統的な中国からの医学療法です。針治療で大切な哲学は経線と気と言う生き躍動ということです。「線」との字はヒントになって、経線は電車の線路みたいに体にいくつかあって、経線はその気の線路であって、「気」はその経線に流れて、体の全部の臓器まで流れます。伝統中国医学では、気は流れないようになったら、病気になるとの考え方があります。針治療の医者の所に訪ねたら、医者はその気が経線のどこに流れないようになったかを探すのは目的になります。医者は経線でどこかのつぼ流れなくなったかを分かるようになって、針をその点でさして、気はまたスムーズに流れれて、病状がなくなります。気の動きだけではなく、動く気の本質も大切です。

 次に中国とにほん の針治療を比較しようと思っています。二つの違いがあります。まず、日本の針は中国のより細いです。二つ目の違いは、日本の針治療は中国のより利用する針の数は日本の方でう少ないです。でも、中国でも日本でも針治療の診断方法は同じです。西洋医学と同じように、医者は患者に病状のことを聞きます。それから、舌の様子から体の具合を分かることができます。また、診断の間医者は患者の手首を6点で指して、感じた6点の脈拍から体の臓器での気の様子が分かります。大切な臓器は胃と肝臓と肺臓と腎臓で、血も大切です。

 診断がを終えてから、医者はどのような問題が起こったのかを説明できます。西洋医学しか経験のない人には、中国医学の考え方を分かるのは難しいかもしれません。診断で「胃の陰不足」と「脾臓の気不足」などです。

 診断が終わったら、針治療を楽しめます。西洋医学で針は普通にいやのものですが、針治療のはあまり痛くないです。この針治療を受け始めたら、週に一回行って、医者とわずか相談して、針をさしながら40分静かな温和な音楽を聞いて治療を受けます。誰でもわからないからだの問題が起こった時にでも、ストレスがたまった時にでも、針治療をお勧めします。面白い体験ですから、今度受け手見てください。

 でわ、質問のある方をどうぞ。

Getting Somewhere

So, getting a little restless about wondering what to do after graduation (which is pretty much after this term, since I probably don't have to take any classes in spring term) I've found some more ESL job search sites:

ESL PANDA
http://www.eslpanda.com
world-wide, a lot of Chinese companies but some Japanese, Korean, South America, pretty global

JAPAN JOBS-Japan English Teacher.com
http://www.japanenglishteacher.com/

HOKKAIDO JOBS (information from this one comes at a price... for those whose hearts are set on Hokkaido I suppose)

KYOTO JOBS

HOKKAIDO JOBS

and another one. Will post the link later.

I got a bite from the school in Toyohashi (Dream location!). Unfortunately it sounds like they want someone from March, and I'm not technically graduated until June. I have to follow up with the honors college and see if there's anyway of making my honors college colloquia count for a university social sciences class. Ridiculous that there should even be a question, but what can you do. I don't even know if they could swing me a visa quickly enough, although there are 90 day traveler's visas. Renewable if you leave the country... although there is the problem of working and having a bank account if you don't have a work visa? I'll have to look into this some more. Maybe they can keep my CV in the case that they have an opening at a later date.

At least it shows that I'm capable of landing a job.

Sunday, January 30, 2011

桃山時代と江戸時代焼き物の違い


If anyone has the capacity to offer any suggestions, I'd appreciate it ;) Haha this stuff is darn hard to write about in a foreign language. Anyway, it's all about the differences between Momoyama and Edo period ceramics in Japan and what was coming out of the big kilns of the eras.

江戸的に見れる


桃山的に見れる


  桃山時代と江戸時代の焼き物は本当に違うと見えます。 桃山時代の焼き物だと、日本国内の影響が強いです。江戸時代だと、その一方、中国からの美的感賞と見られます。

 桃山時代での大切な千利休と織部のたしなんだことは窯元に強い影響を与えました。千利休だとそれは侘び茶というでした。それは焼き物でも見ることができる。利休は黒楽茶碗のことが好きでした。その黒楽茶陶具は簡素でしたが、江戸時代の焼き物に対して、そのほど完璧ではありませんでした。利休のことなら、茶碗はそのように端がゆがんでいなかったのが(一方、織部だとゆがんでいるのが好みました)桃山のことは大ぶりで、人々の買った上品は花生、茶道具のことでした。侘びであっても、あまり微妙でわありませんでした。

 江戸時代になったら、中国の影響が強くなりました。唐物はずっと流行っていましたからのではないかと思います。多彩ではなくても、釉ぐすりの色が濃くなってきました。ひびの入っていることもなくなりました。微妙的な、瀟洒的なものが流行になりました。それで、江戸時代の焼き物は食事のためのことでありました。

Saturday, January 29, 2011

Coming Up

Well... this weekend has been fun so far but I'm still having gut woes since taking that probiotic. Then again, seems like a lot of people in my Korean class were complaining of gut things keeping them from doing homework... so there's the chance that I caught something. But my fire drill: magnesium, taurine, 5-htp is in place to cope with the creepy crawlies I get when my digestion isn't absorbing the nutrients I need to mentally function. So far so good. Didn't make it to ballet today :( BUT the rest is good for me :-D

Max made a ballet barre so I can catch up at home

The Hayao Miyazaki Marathon that I was looking forward to this week happened after all. I watched both Ponyo (Gakke no Ue no Ponyo) and Spirited Away (Sen to Chihiro no Kamikakushi)

Coming up:

-Are cows really fed plastic hay?

-How to make an affordable ballet barre at home

-Writings on Japanese acupuncture (in Japanese) 日本針治療について(日本語で)

-Norwegian Wood response (the Haruki Murakami novel... it will become the subject of my research project to be finished by the end of the term... only 6 weeks left until that point! Crap!)

-Pictures of Eugene's Spencer's Butte

-Some belated holiday pictures

Friday, January 28, 2011

On Probiotics

So, the medical world: "conventional" and "alternative" alike is all abuzz about Probiotics... and the idea of replenishing intenstinal flora to combat the assaults on our systems of the mix of yeast, sugar, and refined flours resulting in what is an overgrowth of candida (everyone's favorite YEAST infections) and a lack of friendly bacteria for most people.

Scary, I know. ;) Oh the horror.

Both my primary care MD, naturopaths, and my acupuncturists recommend probiotics but the fact of the matter is that they can be painful for us whose systems are out of whack (and also, the way they are cultured among them are different and people, depending on sensitivities and allergies, will have different reactions to different strains.) There are herxheimer reactions (worsening of symptoms occurring when positive changes are happening), as well as just having general side affects. Looks like probiotics produce side effects for me.

Having a healthy balance of flora in the gut can help with these conditions: (and yet, for most, is not the silver bullet answer)
-allergies (of all kinds)
-fatigue
-IBS
-leaky gut and nutrient absorbtion

So I don't know if the discomfort I'm in is because of some good vs. evil bacteria/fungi in the gut or if probiotics are a no-no for me.

It's gonna be a while until I try taking one again.

Kichwa's House


So my mom got Kichwa a snuggle hut for Christmas. He's been scared of it since then but seems the house is a little chilly today and he decided to take the plunge and SNUGGLE.

Lovebirds tend to like to snuggle in little dark places. He was using a nest box for a while but I moved him back in my room to free up a place in the living room. Cutie Patootie.

Thursday, January 27, 2011

My Year of Meats

My Year of Meats, Ruth L. Ozeki

I'm a big fan of real food and anywhere the sick system is called out for it's dirty deeds. Thus, I quite enjoy muckraking exposes like Fast Food Nation. For me it doesn't really stop at food, but the general lack of concern for safety in consumer goods and new technologies.

Regardless, I wrote a paper about this in Japanese this year and how cool is this that a Japanese-american (in NY? Okay.... ) is writing books like this. I saw it at the Marche cafe today and when this intense term is over and I have time to myself, i would love to read through it and her other stuff.

Until then, at least I get to enjoy reading Haruki Murakami's Norwegian Wood for the first time.

Acupuncture was a success today. You don't know how wound up you are until suddenly you're un-wound. Although I guess I'm more sensitive than most... but I'm working hard on that.

Peace out and see you soon.