issei takehara

The Dragon Ball series is a deeply philosophical work. It illustrates the interrelations among the individuals whose actions are dictated by the lust for power. This desire for power manifests itself in the quest for the Dragon Balls, which are said to grant wishes of anyone who has collected all seven of them. The Dragon Ball series, then, is a process of a power struggle narrated from the viewpoint of Son Goku and his journey involving the actors trying to achieve absolute power. In this sense, everyone fends for himself and everyone collects the Dragon Balls for one’s own gain. Dragon Ball Z is loved timelessly for the reasons we do not often realize. I argue in this chapter that Dragon Ball Z keeps captivating our mind because the anime is grounded in the serious philosophical argument about human nature. I will also attempt to explain the philosophy, the nature of the soul, politics and intrigue involved in Dragon Ball Z.

The story of SAO centers around one such player, Kirito, who was among the lucky ones to be able to get a copy of which only 10,000 were released in its first sale. In the world of SAO, there is no physical pain or hunger – they can run around and fight with the monsters without physical exhaustion or use of actual money. All the weapons as well as the equipment are purchased with the money they earn by defeating the monsters and their strength comes from the experience they have had by fighting with the enemies. In every respect, SAO provided the players with the reality they could only dream of. There is no wonder, then, when Kirito speaks to himself that, although it is a virtual world, he feels more alive than he does in the real world.  What happens, however, when something goes wrong? In the world where every gamer’s dream comes true, what could possibly go wrong?

This paper explores the possibility (or what I am certain) of the real story Sword Art Online is trying to get at, a medical philosophy.

At the end of 2019, an infectious disease named COVID-19, a severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began to spread from Wuhan, China. The epicenter of this outbreak soon moved from Asia to Europe, then onto the North America. On March 11 th , 2020, World Health Organization announced it as a pandemic by the alarming levels of spread and severity. 1 The current status of its confirmed cases is 7,751,747 with the total death toll of 429,062 and still rising with 188 countries and regions affected. 2 Amidst the acceleration of globalization, each country has taken drastic measures to shut down the borders and put restrictions on travellers. Domestically as well, countries took decisive measures to ensure the public health. The approaches taken by each country differed from country to country. The International consensus is that it is best to social distance and wear masks whenever you are with other people, reducing the risks of transmission of the virus. One of the most problematic features of this disease is that its incubation period is about 14 days and some who carry the virus may not show any symptoms, thus unknowingly infecting others. This was of a great concern to

Enryō Inoue (井上円了) 1858-1919 was a philosopher and a pioneer of occult studies in early modernity in Japan. His views on occult, or Yōkai, was unique in that he categorized anything supernatural or superstitious as well as natural things that are simply unexplained as Yōkai. His aim in occult studies, or henceforth Yōkai studies, was to explain away the unexplained by means of reason and rationality. He divided the category of Yōkai into four segments: 1) that which cannot be explained with the present method of scientific reasoning, 2) that which can be explained as a natural phenomenon, 3) that which occurs psychologically and therefore a creation of mind due to fear or misunderstanding or prejudice, and lastly 4) that which is made up by people. He published a 8-volume book on these Yokai phenomena that exists in the world, and below is a small section he wrote on the generation and corruption of the soul as well as the status of the soul.

Social ethics in Japan, particularly in the field of sexism/feminism, has long been neglected in Japan (at least since the early 90's) - this paper is a critique of now rapidly growing women only singer group called AKB48, which is dedicated to undoing feminism and which I see as an ultimate embodiment of 'enlightened sexism'

Can zombies run? This is one of the many questions that one may come across when watching any zombie films. For, on the one hand, if their flesh is rotten, rapid motion would be impossible, but on the other hand, if their flesh is not rotten, most of the depictions about zombies in films would prove to be unreal. However, that zombies do exist is not in dispute but only whether they are really like the ones portrayed in films is. For zombies we see in films have their origin in the Haitian religion of Vodoun rituals. This essay will focus on the nature of zombies and how they operate and for what purpose in relation to the Vodoun religion. The aim of this essay is also to get rid of the common misconceptions with regard to zombies due to popular films, question accuracies and answer some of the obvious problems in the depiction of zombies in popular culture. Above all, this essay will deal with the essence of zombies and how they come about according to the Haitian religion. In the course of exposition, I will first speak and discuss about less rigorous myths yet firmly believed folk notions of zombies, and then I will compare and discuss about the results of Wade Davis’ extensive field research on the folk notions as well as on the ethnobiological origins of zombies. I will also raise some of the interesting philosophical implications as I deal with these issues.

Hi, my name is Issei Takehara. I have noticed that many people have seen my (then-)course description of my Japanese lessons. While the lessons have not substantially changed, I am much better at explaining things in the way you would not see anywhere online or in textbooks (so I was told by many of my students), if you are serious about learning Japanese, I would be very pleased to help you learn Japanese. I currently live in Osaka, Japan.

While it is obvious to the native Japanese speakers and some non-Native Japanese speakers, the names of the characters in Dragon Ball series can be both entertaining and, more importantly, informative about some of the dynamics of the interplays among the characters in the series. I have laid out some of the most important names of the characters and their meanings with respect to the races they belong to so that some of the categorical differences among them will be made obvious below. Further, this will certainly elucidate some of the underlining sharp distinctions existing that necessarily separate the characteristic traits of each character from one another. My analytic introduction will follow as the names are explained. 1: The Saiyan Race and Earthlings The name Vegeta comes from vegetables; Nappa means leaf vegetables in Japanese; Raditz comes from radish 1. Here, you can also see the hierarchically arranged ranks of each character, Vegeta being the whole category of vegetables. Goku's Saiyan name is Kakarrot, which comes from carrot, signifying weakness in the vegetable kingdom compared to Vegeta and Nappa, for instance. Also, Goku's father, Bardock means burdock, again just as carrots, suggesting that these vegetables are rooted in the soil, i.e. the earth. Although Bardock never came to Earth, the root vegetable theme in the family seems to foreshadow the eventual arrival of Goku on the planet. Another Saiyan who only appears in movies is Broly, which is derived from 1 Latin name is Raphanus raphanistrum broccolis. His power is said to have been so strong that he became the basis for the legendary Super Saiyan. Incidentally, the race Saiyan in Japanese is pronounced Saiya-jin, where the word "Saiya" is a phonetic rearrangement of the work yasai, which means vegetables in English, and "jin" just means a person or a race belonging to. The names of the Earthlings are most often derived from food of Chinese origin-this has probably a lot to do with the Dragon Ball episodes when Goku was still a child. Different from Dragon Ball Z, the original ideas prevalent in Dragon Ball are taken a lot from the Chinese mythology and literature. Since it will be too long a list to name everyone from the first Dragon Ball series, I will only list some of the important ones that also appear in Dragon Ball Z. As you will see, since many of the original characters from Dragon Ball continue into the plot of Dragon Ball Z, oftentimes the theme of the names borrowing from food category run through early into Dragon Ball Z. The name Goku comes from the classic Chinese literature, Journey to the West, and its main character's name is Son Goku (or in Chinese, Sun Wukong, meaning Monkey King). Aligning with the Chinese theme, Oolong and Pu'ar (or Puar or Pu-erh) are from Chinese tea of the same names. Yamcha means in English Dim-Sum. Chiaotzu means dumplings and Tien Shinhan comes from Tenshin-don, which is a Japanese arranged Chinese dish that does not exist in China, but the inspiration for the dish may perhaps come from a Tianjin city in China. Kurillin comes from kuri in Japanese, which means chestnuts. This also explains his daughter in the very late in Dragon Ball Z is named Māron, which means chestnuts in French. Gohan means rice in Japanese.

This is just a rough draft of what I teach online with great success. I have updated some of the information (added or rearranged so they can be more informative). For those who wish to teach Japanese, I hope to present what my teaching order in terms of grammar is and for those who are learning Japanese, I hope this gives you a more clear and concise idea of what my class looks like.

This is an appendix to a chapter in a book I am thinking of contributing to. So here, there is no specific abstract since this is more of an analysis of names that are given to these characters that are obvious to Japanese people but not necessarily to foreigners, since some of them are culturally rooted. If there is a thesis to this, this is an attempt to clarify and explain consistency in the Dragon Ball Z series what each character signifies and how they are carefully organized in naming them. My argument would be that the political hierarchy is embedded in the names of those characters in the series.