Post on 09-Mar-2016
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Underground Nagoya :
The Street Musicians of
Ozone
By Junro
Nagoya is not all about
shopping and hanging out:
you will be amazed with all
the hidden talent in this
Nagoya. I present to you
the street musicians of
Ozone station, Nagoya:
It is 9PM. Only a sprinkle
of people still hanging
around the station. Two
young men‟s mellow voices
pour out into the streets.
One of the men‟s names is
Shuhei Fujita, a full-time
musician. He was once in a
band but quit because of
irreconcilable differences
with the other members of
his band. So instead, he
took on singing on the
streets from about three
years ago. He had another
job in the beginning, but
after several gigs on the
streets, he was determined
to dedicate his life to music.
Now, he does little gigs live
houses, as well as street
performances five, six
times a week. His first time
on the streets was fright-
ening, he said, but after he
was able to stop some peo-
ple mid-walk with his voice
during his first perform-
ance, his joy for singing
overpowered his fear.
I met my second musician
in front of a closed store
shutter. Yoshihiro Makino
was surrounded by several
businessmen and college
students deeply engrossed
in his sweet acoustic tunes.
Ending the song with ap-
plause, I quickly went up to
him. He was a 23-year-old
part-time musician, a vet-
eran street performer since
he graduated from high
school. “All my songs are
original,” he said. “There's
about 100 songs inputted in
my head”. After his next
song, a man came up to Ma-
kino and handed him a bento
-box filled with sushi. “I
heard you singing, and you
caught my heart,” the man
said passionately. “Here,
have some of this. Good
luck.”
I, then, felt the signifi-
cance of these people to
this city. We spend each
day shutting ourselves off
from the strangers around
us. The city is a lonely place,
but street musicians recon-
nect people and leave them
feeling warm and happy.
They are full of passion with
gentle, lovable souls. They
create a cozy, comfortable
atmosphere anywhere, any-
Chief Editors
K. De-Zoysa
N. Iwata
Writers
J. Shibata
A. Clark.
I. Choi
C. Ekanayake
S. Isomura
Lay-out Editor
M. Ando
Supervisor
Ms. President
Student Publications
Date
Volume 1, Issue
NIS Dolphin Wave Inside this issue:
Underground
Nagoya:
The Street
Musicians of
Ozone
1-2
Black Swan
When Ballet
Meets Psychosis
2
Trout Pouts =
Modern Beauty?
2
Dolphins Show
Spirit! 3
Yakuza on the
Move 3-4
NIS Soccer
Tournament:
History in the
Making
4
Shuhei Fujita smiling for
the camera
Yoshihiro Makino sings in
the street of Ozone
NIS Dolphin Wave Page 2
time with their music. This is why
these people are appreciated and
welcomed in Nagoya. There may be
times when you are stressed from all
the socializing and studying. When
you do, before you start speed dialing
TELL, go out to the streets of Ozone
or Kanayama. I assure you that the
positivity these musicians project is
so great that they will have your
cheered up in no time. It is the
beauty of music.
and Nina‟s internal psychological con-
flict of being haunted by a doppel-
ganger within herself becomes appar-
ent. If you are into horror movies,
then you give this film a try: in one
scene, Nina has a brawl out with her
hallucination and ends up stabbing
herself as the White Swan. However,
since the movie is rated R, make sure
you have parental supervision if you
are under age. The realistic human
interactions and the visual represen-
tation of the protagonist‟s paranoia
are sure to keep you hooked on this
new psychological drama.
Black Swan: When Ballet Meets Psychosis By Shusaku
Lipo, Botox, rhinoplasties and
boob jobs. Among celebrities, cos-
metic surgery is like a rite of passage.
Apparently, to attain modern feminine
ideal beauty, undergoing the knife is a
must - or so Hollywood advertises. No
wonder women are seldom satisfied
with their looks: I've never come
across a real-life Barbie doll before
(only impersonators with pieces of
plastic wedged in bizarre places). Not
to judge women artificial bee-stung
lips, but why plasticize for the sake
of visually pleasing men (at least while
the plastic lasts)? Why purposely put
yourself at risk of looking like the
infamous Cat Woman (no, not the su-
per hero, but the living example of
surgery disasters)? Plastic surgeons
are only human: no surgery is 100%
risk-free. Even under the pressure to
look beautiful, disfiguring your face
isn't the way to go about your make-
over. Whatever deep rooted insecu-
rity isn't magically going to vanish
with a flick of the knife. Hollywood's
superficiality (appearance-wise) is
sabotaging the idea of inner beauty.
Television shows like The Swan where
"ugly" women would undergo extreme
makeovers, including multiple plastic
surgeries for the sake of self-
containment and a self-confidence
booster are truly disgusting. They
capitalize on how vulnerable these
women feel in face of the glamorized
vision of beauty demanded by the
fashion industry. Angelina Jolie may
be deified as the goddess of full,
luscious lips, but she's au natural,
unlike Jennifer Aniston. No Brad Pitt
is worth injecting your lips with colla-
gen. Nor any other form of plastic
surgery for that matter. Thinking
about stapling your stomach into the
size of an egg? Three days of cardio
per week should do the trick. Thinking
about getting breast implants for
your sweet seventeen? Replace with
daily body massages. Plastic surgery
is not the only viable option. The
whole concept of cosmetic surgery is
on the false premise that outward
beauty with soccer balls for breasts
and a baboon butt for lips will guaran-
tee a drastically improved quality of
life. If I were a guy, I'd be on cloud
nine to be kissed by any chick with a
soul. Remember: once you go plastic,
there is no going back.
Trout Pouts = Modern Beauty By Noriko
“Black Swan”, directed by Darren
Aronofsky, is a twisted psychological
thriller said to leave the audience
feeling sick with emotion. The film
revolves around a production of Swan
Lake by a famous ballet company. Nina
Sayers (played by Natalie Portman)
must compete with other actors i to
get the leading act. However, as the
story progresses, Nina becomes para-
noid of losing the main role to Lily
(played by Mila Kunis), Nina‟s under-
study. The film gradually begins to
show Nina‟s delusion and strong visual
hallucinations as the story progresses
Meet the
Socially Awkward Penguin
NIS Dolphin Wave Page 3
Dolphins Show Spirit! By Inhye
Last week, dolphins competed
each other for their spirit. To win
the spirit bowl, each class worked
very hard to show unity as well as
their NIS spirit.
The story started on Monday.
The hallway was filled with 4
classes 4 styles, with students en-
joying their class twin day.
Tuesday was also a blast. We had
doctors, flight attendants and tour
guides studying math with Mr. Ryan
while K-pop stars and the dentist
sitting in Mr. Prosek‟s class reading
books.
Wednesday was also a sight!
Bunch of nerds were sitting around
in the cafeteria gossiping about
Shakespeare books while the
„popular‟ ones hung around in the
hallway chattering away their break
time on fashion trends.
Oh and Thursday. We cannot em-
phasize enough how spirited this
day was! Everybody was excited for
his or her victory in the spirit bowl
and the class themes were extraor-
dinary. The juniors were dressed up
as Crayolas while the sophomore
class had identical 80‟s shirt each
with numbers.
As for the spirit bowl, the jun-
iors and the sophomores were very
close in number of points they
earned; however the sophomores
finally won through their glorious
victory. Thanks to the HSSC for an
awesome week! I wonder who the
next champions would be!
Looking Back at the Spirit Week...
Yakuza on the Move By Aubrey
Most of us here at NIS live in a
bubble. We think we are in no appar-
ent danger. But, according to Japa-
nese news stations, more Yakuza
groups are moving their headquarters
to downtown Nagoya.
Who are the Yakuza?
The Yakuza are organized crime gangs
in Japan. The Yakuza isn‟t a secret
society, they are open and people
know of their presence. But, the po-
lice are hesitant to interfere. Many
Yakuza run red-light districts, pa-
chinko chains, night-clubs and more.
They blackmail companies and
threaten stockholders to establish
footholds. Not everything they do is
shady. They also infiltrate companies
legally and are present in normal, eve-
ryday businesses.
Volume 1, Issue Page 4
NIS Soccer Tournament
History in the Making
By Chethaka
Each year the Dolphins lose tal-
ented soccer players able to could
finish the job easily, and this year
was no different. Among the six
teams that came down to Nagoya,
NIS was clearly the one of the bet-
ter teams in terms of talent and pas-
sion for soccer. And MC Perry. After
a long-fought knockout round, they
were the only teams able to make it
to the finals.
NIS is known for its short, crisp
passes with its players dominating
their opponent‟s defense line by main-
taining
constant
posses-
sion of
the ball.
On the
other
hand, MC
Perry
plays a different style of soccer:
they deliver killer passes from long
distances to force the offensive play-
ers chase
after the
ball, and
thus tire
them
out. Both
teams
struggled
to play
their style of soccer under the pres-
sure. NIS had some great opportuni-
ties to score goals towards the end of
the first half; however, the offense
were denied goals by the MC Perry
keeper.
That‟s when MC Perry began deliv-
ering long passes to break through
the NIS defense line. But they could-
n‟t get past our keeper.
The game ended as a draw, and it
went down to penalties. The tension
mounted on our players as they felt
the pressure to win the tournament
for the fifth year in a row. As a soc-
cer player myself, I know from ex-
perience that penalty shots are more
about the ability to overcome your
personal fear against failure than how
good of a soccer player you are...NIS
lost against MC Perry, mentally. We
always have next year to regain our
title. Make NIS proud, guys.
Being a Yakuza member is serious
business. Members swear their alle-
giance to their superiors and usually
abandon their family, adopting their
fellow Yakuza members as their new
family.
How do you recognize them?
Most members have distinctive full
body tattoos. A few are also missing
or have prosthetic fingers because, if
subordinates offend or disobey their
leaders, they must cut off their fin-
ger as a form of penance. Members
often wear high-necked long-sleeved
shirts to mask their tattoos. Some-
times they wear sunglasses with col-
orful suits. They even walk in a special
way, taking longer strides, to dis-
creetly advertise their identity.
The Yakuza headquartered in Na-
goya is called the Kodo-kai and claims
to have 4,000 followers. The Kodo-kai
is the ruling party of the Yamaguchi-
gumi that has 40,000 followers. Ac-
cording to japansubculture.com, “They
are the most violent and belligerent
of all the remaining factions.”
Rumors are always circulating. One
blogger claims that there was a
“foreigner that was stabbed to death
in Nagoya over road rage with some
Yakuza a year ago.” A video on You-
Tube shows a “brothel owner kid-
napped by Yakuza members disguising
themselves [as] construction workers
in Nagoya.” But who knows if these
rumors and accusations are true.
Countless unsolved murders in Japan
seem to point to the Yakuza but no
one, not even the police, knows the
truth.
What should you do?
The best thing to do is to avoid any-
one who you suspect of being a Yakuza
member. Fortunately they won‟t
bother you unless they have a good
reason to. Although many claim that
Yakuza groups are in fact migrating to
Nagoya, nothing is certain. Whether
or not it is true, it is best to keep
your distance.
Meet
the
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