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No. ymi_trans1a04 | |
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The Deai Students and Transportation
Activity 4 : A Trip to Japan |
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| Date: | Country: | Author(copyright): | Themes: |
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| 2003/1 | Canada | Yazawa
Michiko 矢澤理子 Alberta Learning (Ministry of Learning, Alberta) |
Transportation Nature and the Environment |
| Overview: | |||
| Students search the Internet on travel-related themes and present their findings to the class. | |||
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are some suggestions for student research projects using the Internet: |
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Investigate
Matsuo Basho and his travels. Introduce some of his haiku to the class. Website for learning about Basho: http://www.big.or.jp/~loupe/links/ehisto/ebasho.shtml English translations of Basho's haiku: http://www.geocities.com/Tokyo/Island/5022/basho.html http://www.uoregon.edu/~kohl/basho/life.html Places Basho visited (Oku no hosomichi [The Narrow Road to the Deep Interior]): http://kazekobo.cool.ne.jp/abasyou.htm |
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Study
the literary genre of Japanese travelogues (Tosa Nikki [The Tosa
Diary], Oku no hosomichi [The Narrow Road to the Deep Interior], etc.)
and present a comparison with works from your own culture. |
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Investigate
and give a presentation on the ukiyoe artist Ando (Utagawa) Hiroshige's
Tokaido gojusantsugi [The Fifty-Three Stations of the Tokaido]. Websites for learning about Hiroshige: http://www.ibiblio.org/wm/paint/auth/hiroshige/ http://www.csse.monash.edu.au/~jwb/ukiyoe/hiroshige.html http://www.artgallery.sbc.edu/ukiyoe/hiroshige.html Websites about Tokaido gojusantsugi [The Fifty-Three Stations of the Tokaido]: http://users.exis.net/~jnc/nontech/prints/53stations.html http://www.bk.mufg.jp/minasama/kakawari/gallery/nihonbashi.html Websites offering commentary on ukiyoe woodblock prints: http://www.jnto.go.jp/eng/indepth/history/experience/n.html http://www.geocities.com/Tokyo/Pagoda/1787/ukiyoe.html#whatukiyoe |
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Refer
to the following websites to see how the scenes depicted by Ando (Utagawa)
Hiroshige in Tokaido gojusantsugi [The Fifty-Three Stations of the Tokaido]
(1833) compare with what those sites look like today. Compare the huge
transformation of the scenery in Japan over the past 150-plus years with
the situation in your own country. Consider what we have gained and/or
lost due to the changes in scenery. A trip for one along the Tokaido (a comparison of present-day photos with Hiroshige's ukiyoe): http://japan-city.com/toukai/ An inspection of the realism and exaggeration in Hiroshige's prints (a comparison with photos from the Meiji era onward): http://www.page.sannet.ne.jp/rokano28/koukan/syasin.htm |
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Read
part of the Meiji-era Englishwoman Isabella Bird's account of her
travels in Japan's interior, Unbeaten Tracks in Japan (1880), and ・ Infer what has changed over the past 100-plus years. Students should be instructed to differentiate between objective facts offered by the author and her subjectively influenced observations while reading. ・ Compare the author's first letter (describing Yokohama) with Mizushima Yu's description of Yokohama. Students can also investigate the boats, rickshaws, and other transportation systems of the day that appear in her letter. ・ Learn about and give a presentation on the life and works of this woman traveler. ・ Focusing on excerpts from the author's travelogues in the United States and Canada (The Englishwoman in America (1856) and A Lady's Life in the Rocky Mountains (1879)), 1) consider the extent to which her observations are reasonable (whether they are free from bias), and 2) discuss what changes have occurred in your own country in the past 100-plus years. |
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Learn
about past forms of transportation in Japan (ox-drawn cart, palanquin,
rickshaw, etc.) and compare them with the forms of transportation
available in your own culture at the time. A palanquin from Tokaido gojusantsugi [The Fifty-Three Stations of the Tokaido]: http://www.bk.mufg.jp/minasama/kakawari/gallery/nihonbashi.html An ox-drawn cart ("Picture Scroll of the Heiji Monogatari," Tokyo National Museum): http://www.tnm.go.jp/jp/servlet/Con?&pageId=E16&processId=02&col_id=A9976&ref=2& Q1=&Q2=&Q3=&Q4=11______4171_&Q5=&F1=&F2= A rickshaw (tourist photo from the Meiji era, from the George Eastman House collection): http://www.geh.org/ar/strip55/htmlsrc2/m198610250002_ful.html#topofimage |
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Research
general transportation information for Japan and compare it with
that for your own country. http://www.transport-pf.or.jp/english/index.html |
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Using
a metropolitan route map of Japan, have students consider the
complexity of the public transit network in Japan and the extremely efficient
manner of its management. Tokyo Transportation Bureau: http://www.kotsu.metro.tokyo.jp/english/images/pdf/rosen_e.pdf Osaka Transportation Bureau: http://www.kotsu.city.osaka.jp/english/index.html |
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Investigate
and give a presentation on railway information for Japan. Railway photos: http://www.mlit.go.jp/tetudo/nandemo/13_04.html |
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Learn
about the advent of railways in Japan by referring to the website
below. Compare things like when the first train line was laid and what
Japan's most sophisticated train is (the bullet train) with the
situation in your own country. http://www.jrtr.net/history/index_history.html |
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Get
information about the Japanese bullet train from the following websites
and present it to the class. http://web-japan.org/kidsweb/techno/shinkansen/index.html |
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Compare
and contrast the fastest trains in the world (the Japanese bullet train,
the TGV, etc.) http://www.jrtr.net/photostory/index_photostory.html |
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Observe
the reactions (curiosity, amusing blunders, etc.) of people who come
in contact with a different culture for the first time in the Yaemon
monogatari [The Story of Yaemon] on the Transportation Museum's
website. Imagine and discuss what kind of reactions you would have if
you came
in contact with a foreign civilization. http://www.kouhaku.or.jp/ |
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Look
at the English websites for Japanese automakers, and 1) Research information on the newest products. 2) Research companies' efforts to deal with environmental issues. 3) Compare the information garnered in 1) and 2) with that for automakers in your own country. Honda: |
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