Poster

In science class we made a poster about asteroid mining. I included the advantages and disadvantages of asteroid mining and some facts about asteroid mining.

I think I did well in this poster because my layout was clear and my writing and words were scientific words and they were easy to understand. I made good reasons of advantages and disadvantages about asteroid mining. My design was pretty good and sources were typed down in the right way using EasyBib.

If I would do my poster again, I would make my poster colorful so it will stand out and the audience will get interested in it. Or maybe, just highlight or make the important parts bold.

In our music class, the people from the band came to join us with koto class. One of our Koto teacher, Mr. Patterson, played a Japanese Koto song called Rokudan. Rokudan was written by Yatsuhashi Kengyo. We were asked to write a blog post about what makes Rokudan sound Japanese. This below is a video of a Koto player playing Rokudan while she explains the techniques.

When I listened to Mr. Patterson playing Rokudan, I felt this piece was a slow paced song, but the rhythm was hard to keep. Because it’s a slow paced song, there are blank spaces where you need to keep track when you are playing. Slow paced songs makes me think of Japanese music because usually, Japanese traditional songs are slow paced. If you think of the National Anthem of Japan, it is really slow paced and it sounds bitter.

In this piece, you use different hand techniques. The techniques are called ato oshis (after press), shans, sha shas, and kororin. The ato oshi, also known as after press, is when you press on the strings after you play so that the sound goes up naturally. This is creative because the sound comes after so it is like a background sound which makes the audience interested. Shans are when you strike or play two notes at the same time with your middle or index finger. In Rokudan, the tuning and the sound blends really nicely so shans are useful. Sha shas are when you play shans two times. You alternate middle finger and index finger. So, you do the shan with your index finger first and then again with your middle finger. It is much easier if you alternate your fingers. Finally, Kororin. In Japanese Kororin means to roll. In Rokudan Kororin is when you play a note and leave a little gap and play two notes with only little gaps. So it has the image of rolling the strings. This video below explains about the techniques above.

In our PE class, we have started our fitness unit again. Today we were asked to write few goals about our composition of fitness such as speed, power, accuracy, and others.

I think I need to improve on my speed and power. I chose speed because when you are faster and quicker than anybody on the court, your height won’t matter. If speed is defintely something a point guards need for basketball. For baseball, I need to put in more power for pitching. I have some bad habits where I try to throw the ball with only the power of my upper body. I need to use my power of my legs and gravity to throw a heavier and faster ball to the catcher.

On April 11th, our Koto teachers, Mr. Patterson and Ms. Miyama did a presentation about Japanese Music with Mr. Patterson’s friend, Mr. Huebner. They talked about how different Japanese music was to Western music and played who pieces together. The Koto was played by Mr. Patterson and Ms. Miyama, Shakuhachi played by Mr. Huebner, and Shamisen played by Mr. Patterson.

Out of 3 instruments, Koto, Shamisen, and the Shakuhachi, my favorite instrument was the Shakuhachi. First of all, I didn’t know what was Shakuhachi until I saw the instrument itself so it was completely new to me which hooked me up. I was really amazed how there were more than 5 types of Shakuhachis there were. Some were long, short, and they sounded all differently. For example the Koto has less types so it  might mean that you can’t express the sounds in different ways as much as the Shakuhachi. At the same time, the Shakuhachi only has 5 finger holes while the Koto has 13 strings. But Mr. Huebner told us how to change  the sounds using blowing techniques and the placing of the lips. He demonstrated how the sound changed without using his fingers, but just using his lips and air. I learned that the closer the mouthpiece is to your mouth, the deeper the sound will be. The farther away it is played, the higher the pitch will be. These sound changes can be also done in Koto by doing a press. One of the cool features that the Shakuhachi has is that the sound sounds like the wind. So it can express the music well according to the genre.

Out of all the pieces they played, my favorite song was the Kaze No Uta. This song really matched to the Shakuhachi because it expressed the different types of wind and the tone of the wind. Some parts were played strongly and some were soft. The range of strong and soft were big so the dynamics were great. By listening to this piece, I learned that the Shakuhachi can be rhythmical.

 To me, Japanese music sounds like the feelings are expressed in sound. The change of the tone is the changes of the feeling of a person or a living animal. For example when the music is played soft, it means that the person is calm and relaxed. But when the music is played loudly and strongly, the person is mad or in a bad situation. Japanese music lets me imagine what the story is. Japanese music always has a background to it.

Out of my 2 speeches, I liked this speech about my superstar Kobe Bryant. There were topics that we had to choose from which were My Neighbourhood, The Best Day of My Life, Fashion, Holidays, and Celebrities. And I chose celebrities and chose to talk about Kobe Bryant. Here is the video of my speech about Kobe Bryant.

7B Drama: Given Topic Speeches from YIS Arts on Vimeo.

This was my best speech because I was much calmer than the other speech about basketball. I had it prepared more than the other speech and I was ready for it. I also didn’t speak too fast and I talked in a decent pace so that the audience can understand. I also looked into the camera most of the time so I had good eye contact than the other speech. My volume was louder, but I should speak louder.

I should improve on my facial expressions and gestures. Throughout the whole speech, there was no facial expression or a change of expression. My face was plane which made the audience bored. It seems to look like I wasn’t having fun too. I had no hand gestures. Overall I had almost no movement and gesture. There was nothing special about my posture too. Also I had my notes on my iPod, not on a palm card so I didn’t have any notes to look at while talking.

I also thought Eddie‘s speech was nice because he was confident and didn’t have any problems or stops. He had a loud voice and it was very clear to the audience what he was saying. His gestures was good and done at the right timing. His pace was perfect for the audience. It makes the audience glued to the speech.

7B Drama: Given Topic Speeches from YIS Arts on Vimeo.

In Drama class, we did a 1 minute speech about any topic. My topic was basketball because it was something I know well about and it was my passion. Below is the video.

7B Drama: 1 Min Speeches from YIS Arts on Vimeo.

Reflection:

I think I did good but I noticed that my voice needs to be louder because I couldn’t hear much. I did a good job on my pauses and pace during the whole speech because I didn’t speak fast. My voice was clear and easy to understand because of the pronunciation. I also noticed that I kept moving as I was talking because I was nervous. I could improve on emphasis and keeping the audience’s attention for the whole speech.

In our science class, we have been studying chemicals, such as elements (from the periodic table) and compounds. We are learning about how to tell the difference between a physical change and a chemical change by looking at the change of properties. We were asked to make a poster about an element and I chose silicon.

Silicon

What are you proud about your poster?

I think I explained about silicon well because my layout was balanced out well. I had 2 pictures to balance out the words and pictures. If it was just  words, it would be a little boring for the reader. I highlighted the important words with red because the reader will instantly understand. Overall I think my poster was well explained.

What would you do differently if you did this again?

If I have a chance to do this again, maybe I would put the sources typed. I hand wrote the sources which looks left out and unbalanced. I would make my poster stand out more by putting more colors and more 3D things.

Hi. This Saturday we had the end of season tournament held in BST, British School in Tokyo. There were 8 teams in total which were, St. Maur, St. Marys, AOBA, CAJ, BST, ASIJ, and us, YIS. We only had 2 games versing St. Maur and St. Marys. This is a little recap of our games.

The first game, we played against St. Maur. We have beaten them 2 times in the season so we knew that they won’t let us win 3 times and we knew that it will be an intense game. The game started at 8:30 am. Our 1st and 2nd quarter was awful. I can say that it was our worst quarter of the season. But then in the 2nd half, we started running fastbreaks and kept our tight defense. We had our 3rd win from them. I bet they were frustrated.

The last game the 2nd game (only 2 games in total) we played against St. Mary. We had a great 1st half, they gradually started to hit the 3s as so as close shots. I learned that our rebouding must be stronger and much more aggressive. BUT then, it was the 4th quarter and 3 seconds left. I dribbled through the defenders and shot is from half court and BOOM! It went in!! Half court buzzer shot!!! I was amazed too. I think it was good that I made the shot because everybody had a smile on their face even we lost…

Fadeaway

Kobe just like old times!!

Mi Familia

Me llamo Taro Shishikura y tengo 13 años. En mi familia somos cuatro, mi madre, padre, y  mayor hermana. Mi madre se llama Shinobu Shishikura y mi padre se llama Yoshimoto Shishikura. Mi mayor hermana se llama Maria y tiene 16 años. Nosotros vivimos en Japon. Yo tengo pero negro y me gusta practicar o jugar baloncesto. Yo soy un estudiante de Internacional de Yokohama.

Mi mayor hermano es baja y tengo pero negro. Ella juga baloncesto y fútbol. Ella le gusta fútbol mas que baloncesto pero ella es mejor en baloncesto. Mi madre tengo pero negro y es artistica. Ella le gustan leer libros y escuchar músicas. Mi padre juga baloncesto y béisbol de vez en cuando con mi mayor hermano y yo. También el es muy inteligente y atletico.

Mi padre’s madre y padre o mis abuelos viven en Japon. Ellos tienen pero negro y les gustan comer. Mi abuela es muy artistico y le gusta dibujar. Ella dibuja en fines de semana. Mi abuelo es organizado y inteligente. El le gusta mirar la televisión tan como comer. Mi madre’s madre o mis abuela también viven en Japon. Mi abuelo allá lejos. Mi abuela es muy energético  Mi madre’s mayor hermano, Tetsu vive en Camboya con Polin. Ellos tienen el gato. Tetsu le gusta jugar fútbol tan como los gatos. Polin es muy simpatica porque ella compra comidas para mi familia. Mi familia tenemos dos gatos. Ellos son muy perezosos. Ellos les gusta comer y dormir.

Me gusta mucho mi familia y mis amigos.