GEISHA"S
One of Japan’s oldest and still existing cultures are the Geisha’s. Geisha’s are traditional Japanese artist-entertainers. They are employed for their skills in traditional Japanese musical instruments, dancing and singing, sea ceremonies and literature. This tradition evolved from the Taikomochi culture where males acted as a court jester. In the 1700’s women began to entertain as well.
By the 1780’s, there were more females than males. Soon, male Geisha’s died out almost completely. During the 18th and 19th century’s geisha’s was very common source of entertainment, although their numbers are dwindling. Depending on the season they wear traditional kimonos; they paint their face all white and their lips a vivid red color. Eyebrows are lined in red and black.
To become a Geisha, a girl undergoes a training around the time she turns 16. She moves into a Geisha house and goes through various “stages” of training. First, she is a shikomi, then a minarai. As she progresses, she becomes a maiko and then a Geisha. All of this work takes years to complete; a girl who wants to go through all of this must have a lot of dedication. They have to learn how to dance and speak, entertain a room full of customers. Although in some cases some of these girls did't really have a choice to become a Geisha. Most of them began at a very young age; Geisha houses sometimes bought girls from poor families and took care of them and trained them. Often the young ones began as a maid, then became assistants to senior Geisha's.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xag1_5wFkxQ
TEA CEREMONY!
It is a choreographic ritual of preparing and serving Japanese green tea, called Matcha. All of your attention has to be focused on tea preparation. The whole point in the tea ceremony isn’t just about drink the tea; the point is that the person doing the ceremony for you is coming from their heart. The host of the ceremony always considers the guests with every movement and gesture. Even the placement of the tea utensils is considered from the guest’s point of view.
All of this began when the Chinese had first brought the tea seed in Japan during the Tang dynasty, 618-907, when relation and cultural exchanges between the two countries. Since then it’s been used in many celebrations and other famous ceremonies. During that Nara period ( Japan 710-794) tea plants that were grown were mostly consumed by priests and noble me as medicine. Eventually tea had gone from medicine to a regular beverage by the end of the Tang dynasty in China. The tea ceremony is actually very simple. But each step of the preparation has fixed movement, and utensils have to be placed at pre-decided location on the tatami mat. It is drinking and serving tea with a lot of spiritual depth and a deep silence and serenity. The tea ceremony is most a time for peace and relaxation; and every time there is an elder it is most likely gauranteed that the ceremony will be prepared for them first, they will also get the first tea cup seeing as they are the oldest and have the most life experience.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4FfUbnaXecg
THAILAND!
Thailand is a country that’s hurting from their continuous corruption in politics and their lack of education. These things are essential to a countries development, and while this is lacking in the country it also effects things like economy, making many families suffer poverty. Things to improve the countries’ current issue would be to develop a plan to educate their people, whether this is using foreign teachers, or people to teach their current ones.
While corruption is a huge factor that is hindering the development and solution to improve the lives of Thailand; If you ask anyone on the street this is one of the most spoken about considering it was a major confliction in their past as well. Finding the solution to corruption will ultimately solve many issues that they have such as poverty that affects many people in their country.
Thailand has however made some improvements over the years such as trying to support health care and other things that affect people of Thailand however it is far from being stable.
