equivalent exchange

If you wanted something in life you must be willing to pay the price, that’s what I believe.
“Humankind cannot gain anything without first giving something in return. To obtain, something of equal value must be lost. That is Alchemy's First Law of Equivalent Exchange”.
I’ve been saying that for years. When I was young, I thought that that was the general principle for everything. That Nothing comes free.
After growing up, I found that equivalent exchange still applies but not to every aspect of the world. Some people can go there whole life without doing anything and get everything they want, but isn’t it because there family payed the price by working to making that possible. On the other hand, people that are born into poverty try to pay the price to get out of that life but some just can’t climb out of the hole of poverty. If the world revolved around equivalent exchange, then why can’t those people get ahead? How about when little kids are getting killed during a war, they didn’t pay any price for that they had no chance of buying out death.
I think that equivalent exchange still applies in this world. If you want to be rich then you must be willing to work hard and make it happen, or if you want a successful business then you must be willing to put the effort into creating that dream. Equivalent exchange even determines the little things. For example, a little while back I was hoping for a great weekend. I didn’t have to work nor did my brother, and that weekend went perfect, nothing went wrong it was fun and we did everything I was hoping we could do. But doesn’t that come at a cost too? Well it did come at a price the following weekend when I had to work every day and so did my brother, also on top of that I was super sick to. That weekend was horrible. Isn’t that considered equivalent exchange?
How about the people that spend thousands of dollars and many years of their life going to college, don’t they do that to be able to get the job they always wanted inst that equivalent exchange. You can also think of money as equivalent exchange because aren’t you giving up money that you earned to buy things.
Now I don’t believe in God or any religion for that matter, nothing against the people who do but I don’t. I believe in equivalent exchange. I think many people believe in this Law but many don’t know that it was the general principle behind all alchemy in the time when alchemy was practiced. Many people don’t believe alchemy is possible, and that’s fine because the first law of equivalent exchange is still widely believed, and when I was growing up just like many other kids my parents taught me that you must work hard for what you want. You must be able to pay the price.
In those days, I really believed that equivalent exchange was the world's one, and only, truth. But the world isn't perfect, and the law is incomplete. Equivalent Exchange does not encompass everything that goes on, but I still chose to believe in its principle: that all things do come at a price, that there's an end and a way, that the pain we work through did have a reward, and that anyone who's determined and willing will get something of value in return.

Why some can’t read

The point of school is to educate children for their future, so why is there is a ridiculous amount of high school graduates that can’t even read. Well there are a few things people seem to think is the problem. People think some of the major influences are the parents or the school or just the child themselves.
It might be the parents fault for not pushing there kids to do well in the classes. The parents just don’t care about there kids education and that affects the kids. The children don’t have motivation to do there home work, they want to do fun things and I don’t blame them. That’s where the parents come in and they need to push the kid to do well. Statistics say parents who read to there kids, when the child is young, will help the kid be a better reader in later life. Things like that help the child and make sure he or she reads when they are older.
Another cause of the child being illiterate is the schools just want to pass the kid just to get him threw the classes and get him out. And I have seen it even in my school. They don’t care about the kid they just want to move on and that’s unacceptable. Its there job to educate the children and when they don’t do that the kid loses his ability to succeed at life.
The last reason is the kids themselves, the kid just does not care about his life and thinks “I don’t need to read it’s stupid”. That motivation is just the thing to make sure the kid won’t be a good reader. So if one or all these things are the cause then the effect would be the child might not be able to read very well or at all.

after high school

After High School
What do I do after high school? This is what I had to answer my senior year in high school. It had to be a good answer to because it would stick with me my entire life; and at that time I had not thought seriously about it. I had to really think what my choices were, what would influence my decision.
I had not thought about what to do after high school until my senior year. So I had to decide and fast. If I just get a job, where would I work? Would it be good enough to support me? Unless I go to collage, and if I do that what do I go for? All these things I had to consider. I spend many nights staring at my ceiling contemplating this huge decision.
When I was thinking about this decision I would always come to the question. What would be a fun job? Because I want a job I like, not a job that I hate and never want to go to. So I took my teacher advice he told me to pick a job that has to do with something I like, and I chose computers. I already loved computers and when I took his class he furthered my love of them. He taught me things that most people don’t even know about computers.
So I decided I will go to college and I will enroll in a class that will teach me more about computers. This fall I will be a student at Western Wisconsin Technical College, and I will be in the program I.T network specialist, a perfect class to hone my computer skills. It’s supposed to be a hard class, but I think it will be more interesting then hard.
I had to make a decision that would affect my life, and I had to get a good answer in a short amount of time. The hardest choice in my life (so far) has been solved I will go to college, and I will hopefully get a really good job. I can thank my teacher, and my family for encouraging me, but most of all I thank my love for computers for this experience.

Apollo

My first blog I wrote I was bummed because I had to right about the usual thing. Something that everyone probably writes about, well I’m going to do it again and this one’s about the coolest dog ever
Apollo is my sisters’ dog; he is half yellow lab and half English setter. He is white with brown spots. Apollo is so funny to watch when he comes to my house because he gets so exited that he can’t stop running around. The whole time he is at my house he does not lay down because he is always playing with something (ether a person, other dogs or just anything he thinks is fun). When Apollo sees someone he runs up to them and jumps at you because he wants to play. Apollo will run around and around for no good reason and he will run so fast that when he takes a turn he will wipe out and everyone will laugh, but that does not stop him he will keep on going like his life depends on it. As time goes on he will get tired and lie down and not move a muscle like he is dead, but not long after he will be chasing something or playing with the other dogs like a crazed hyper kid. I hate to see Apollo leave because it’s so fun to have him at my house and I love to play with that dog. When I hear Apollo is coming I get excited because I know I will have an enjoyable afternoon. Even when I go see him at there house he get so exited that there is a visitor that he cant stop shacking and his tail wags for like the first half hour your there. And he will just randomly come up and start to play with you, no matter what you are doing, he wants you to play with him now and you can’t refuse because he makes that face at you that dogs do so well. And I will put pictures to show you just how cool he really is.

Are you happy?

Recently I was asked if I was happy. And I had to think about it. I told that person I would get back to them with an answer later. Well I think that I am happy even though I will never be able to do what I always wanted in life. I know when I am done with school I will get a job and raise a family like everyone else in this world and that’s what I am suppose to do, and that’s fine but that’s not what I wish to do in life. Now this is something I have never told anyone my whole life, and the reason for that is because I am afraid of what people will say. But I wanted to say it for a while now. And it really doesn’t matter because I will never be able to carry out my dream. Ok enough stalling my dream, the thing I want to do in life is I wanted to be a ronin back in the time of feudal Japan. That kind of freedom is impossible in this period of time. Now for the people who don’t know what ronin are they are master-less samurai with no home, no job, they just travel the land searching for someone to rival there own strength and to master there fight skills. . And I know when people read this they are going to groan or sigh because this is something I have been writing about for like 5 blogs so far. Well they have all been leading up to this. The whole reason I wrote about feudal Japan is because I love that time period, and when I was told I have to write one of these things a week I figured I may as well write about something I like to write about, because if I don’t what’s the point. Anyways the reason I wanted to be a ronin is because of the freedom. Ronin just traveled the land looking for other strong warriors, and that’s what I want to do. I want to travel the land not being tied down by jobs or a family or anything thing to worry about. I want to just travel the land and get in adventures. But there is no such freedom in this world anymore. Everyone is expected to get a job and raise a family. Well I don’t want to conform to what the world expects of me. But no matter how I fight it, I have to be what is expected because if I don’t I could not succeed in this life. The path of the ronin is a path of blood and a path of fighting and I would gladly trade that for this boring life, I want to be free to do what I want, when I want, where I want, and how I want. I love samurai and I want to be a great sword fighter, why because I love swords if you gave me a choice between guns and swords I would choose the sword. When a person picks up a sword they must be skilled in using it or you will fall in a duel. Anyone can kill with a gun, but when you use a sword you must be skilled in the art of sword fighting. Maybe that’s why I want to be in that time, where to be able tolive how u want, to be able to fight you must be able to beat your opponent skill. Don’t get me wrong I love my life and I will live it to the fullest. But if I could choose I would want to be in that kind of situation. And I am not picking to be a ronin so I can go and kill people that’s not why I am picking it because ronin are free they can do what ever they want, and I love the whole concept of traveling the land for strong opponents to fight. So I am not complaining about my life I am just stating what I want to do with my life and I can never do that because of the time I live in. but I will live my life and I will still have tons of fun and enjoy every moment of my life, but I will still have this burning desire to be a sword master, and I wish I could train in being a sword master but in this day in age sword fighting is almost completely dead. So this will be my dream that I can not fulfill. But when I meet this person again I will answer yes I am happy, but I want to be something I can never be.

the baslilsk

Now I know what you’re thinking what does this title have to do with this story well if you don’t know what a basilisk, is it’s a lizard that eats the eggs of birds and such and lays its own and when that eggs hatch the babies devour the mother bird. And I chose this name because of the Iga leader kind of doing the same thing. Well won’t ruin the story anymore enjoy.

Out of the use of ninjas there developed two main clans, the Iga of Mie prefecture and the Koga of Shiga prefecture.
The Koga and Iga inhabited the same mountain range, in two valleys divided by a mountain. Being completely isolated from military and Samurai, they lived as farmers and they helped the locals with medicines, and farming.
Most of the Koga and Iga were descendents from other Warriors that settled in the region. Other Iga and Koga groups consisted of wandering Ronin, who were master-less Samurai. And even thought they lived in the same valley and studied the same arts they were enemies and they hated each other. They would often go to war with each other to prove who the better clan was.
For a while there was a stalemate and nether attacked, but the mood was still bad between them, after a while they started to talk to each other and some even became friends with each other. Most of the people in the clans still hated there rivals though and they did not like the new friendly mood.
There were even stories told where the next leader of the Koga would marry the next leader of the Iga to unify the two warring clans. But the some of the people of the clans did not like this idea, and would not agree to this unifying proclamation.
Even thought the 2 were going to marry for there clans they still loved each other and wanted there people stop the war, but before that could happen there was betrayal. One of the head leaders of the Iga hated the idea of the two clans joining, he thought that the Koga were vile creatures and would stop at nothing to keep them from joining the ranks of the Iga clan. So in the cover of darkness the Iga ninja attacked its own clan killing many and staged the whole thing on the Koga which they knew nothing about the attack. Of course the Iga were furious that they Koga would attack them and break the treaty so they set out to confront the Koga. Once they got to the Koga village they approached the leader and asked him of the attack, of course the leader knew nothing of the attack on the Iga village. The Iga were angry because they thought he was lying so they raged war and started killing the Koga ninja, and so the war raged on and the to clans had many battles and many died,
Even though the two clans were constantly at war they were still the greatest ninja’s in the country. And the shoguns knew this and constantly enlisted there help in their campaigns. Once the warring states ended they ninja’s had to use anymore so they started teaching people the ways of the ninja passing there knowledge down to there students and kids. Even thought there were tons of ninja clans the two main clans koga and iga are still known today for there story of to lovers tore apart by there warring clans. Movies and shows tell this story and it’s a great story even more so because it’s true. The greatest ninja clan’s have rivals too. And they didn’t bother with a code or honor they were there to win and to prove there skills, and they would stop at nothing to complete there mission.

ninja's part 3

Continuing with the last blog about ninja tools and weapons this one is more about combact weapons
Ninja would also use various fight weapons too like the bow staff, they would use thins long staff because it kept the enemies at a distance, Also the kusarigama which I wrote about before. Swords of course where the main weapon still. Scythes were also used but not very often because of there sizes. Sai’s where also used because of there 3 prongs they could catch incoming swords in them and quickly twist the sword disarming the enemy. Yomi’s were used just like the bow keeping them at a distance and with the sharp edge making it an affective killing weapon.
Shurikens have many designs and there to many to count, and they range from stars to spikes to crosses, in modern days the Shuriken looks wild and amazing but the ninja used simple shapes because they were disposable and he could not get them back, they also had to me small because they carried a lot of them.
A weapon people don’t relate to ninjas or don’t even know are the knuckle dusters. knuckle dusters are what commonly called wolverine claws because they are the same thing as the comic character has. But the ninja actually used them because it left there hands open to grab the sword when they blocked it with the claws. Or even some ninja’s used other weapons with the knuckle dusters. Like a tanto (short sword) or Shurikens something small.
But possible the main weapon for the ninja was the blow dart which enabled them to kill enemies from affair while staying hidden. The blow gun was small and easily concealable. The blow gun also was used as a breathing aperatice when the ninja was under water. The ninja would wait under water for hours using the blowgun as a breather and then there target come into view they would nail him in the throat with a dart. Ninjas were so accurate with that blow gun they would hit the target in the jugular causing massive bleeding or with a poison dart, causing death even faster. They had to be accurate because samurai wore full body armor and the dart would not have enough penetration to get threw it so they would have to get them where their skin was venerable, and sometimes the only spot was the face.
Another tool to the ninja was not what they used but what they wore they would be in a costume to sneak by guards unnoticed during the day. But in the night they would be in full black garb. And ninjas did not wear a lot of body armor so fighting was usually avoided.
But the most important tool for all ninja’s was the knowledge they had to survive. They knew about nature and how to adapt to it. They knew about chemicals for making poisons and smoke bombs. They knew how to sneak when to move when to avoid battle. They knew how to adapt to there surroundings and how to change a plan based to the situation.

ninja part 2

Well my last blog entry was about the ninja and there was so much information that I could not fit it all in one blog entry so I split it up and this is the second part and this one is all about the tools that the ninja used. And not all the tools that ninja used where weapons they had tools for climbing, and making distractions. No this will be a pretty big list but it is buy no means all that the ninja used I don’t think anybody knows them all. And I am sure there are many times of each.
Tools used for infiltration and espionage and assassinations. Ropes and grappling hooks were common, and were tied to the belt a collapsible ladder also sometimes used. Spiked or hooked climbing gear worn on the hands and feet also doubled as weapons and the ninja would use the claws on his hands to block sword strikes and would make for an effective countering move. Others include chisels, hammers, drills, picks and so others like that to carve into a wall to make foot holes.
The kunai was a heavy pointed tool that kind of looks masonry trowel. Although it is often portrayed as a weapon, the kunai was primarily used for gouging holes in walls. Knives and small saws were also used to create holes in buildings, where they served as a foothold or a passage of entry, like the hammers drills and so one from above.
Although shorter swords and daggers were used, the katana was probably the ninja's weapon of choice like the samurai, and was most of the time carried on the back unlike on the hip like the samurai. The katana had several uses beyond normal combat like the sword could also be laid against the wall, where the ninja could use the sword guard (tsuba) to gain a higher foothold. While straight swords were used before the invention of the katana, the straight ninjatō was used.
An array of darts, spikes, knives, and sharp, star-shaped discs were known collectively as shuriken. They were an important part of the arsenal, where they could be thrown to mostly cause a distraction so the ninja had an opening. Bows were used for sharpshooting, ninja bows were intentionally made smaller than the traditional yumi (longbow) so they can be carried and shoot while remaining stealthy. The kusarigama or the chain and sickle were also used by the ninja. This weapon consisted of a weight on one end of a chain, and a sickle or a (kama) on the other. The weight was swung to injure or disable an opponent, and the sickle used to kill at close range.
When explosives were introduced in Japan hand-held bombs and grenades were adopted by the ninja to cause a distraction or to injure a group of people, they were also useful in starting fires. Soft-cased bombs were designed to release smoke or poison gas, along with fragmentation explosives packed with iron or pottery shrapnel to cause massive damage. Later the ninja adopted this into eggs, they would make a hole in an egg empty it all out and packed the empty shell with various things the most common was glass, and they would use these egg (black eggs) in a fight, they would smash the egg in the eyes of there opponent and they glass would grind in there eyes causing massive damage to there eyes and making easy for the ninja to escape or to execute a killing blow. Things like the black egg just go to show the creative minds of the ninja making weapons and tools to make there job easier and more effective. The ninja had to use weapons multiple ways because he could not carry to many things because then he would be weighed down. There are many miscellaneous arms that were associated with the ninja. Some examples include, caltrops, cane swords (shikomizue), land mines, blowguns, and poisoned darts. Poison was a very valuable tools to the ninja they could kill elite samurai with one little poison dart shot into his neck. They also would use it for assassinations, where they would put it in food or in a drink and then be gone before the target died.
Once again I ran too long so my next blog will finish where this one left off

ninjas of the night part 1

For my last blog I talked about the masters of the blade, the samurai well now for this blog I will talk about the opposite the Shinobi (shadow warriors),or more known as the ninja. I love the ninja because they were very skilled at not being detected they used unconventional weapons to defeat the clearly superior fighters the samurai.
The ninja were stealth soldiers and mercenaries hired mostly by various people, and their roles were those of espionage and sabotage, although assassinations were also done by ninjas. In battle, the ninja could also be used to cause confusion amongst the enemy.
Espionage was the chief role of the ninja. With the aid of disguises and stealth, the ninja gathered information on the enemy, such as the terrain, building specifications, as well as obtaining passwords and communications.
Arson was the primary form of sabotage practiced by the ninja, who targeted castles and camps. They would set fires to slow down the enemy, or to make the enemy paranoid. Ninja would also use fire to get away from the enemy if they were spotted they would start a fire to divert the attention of the soldiers while they escaped.
A variety of countermeasures were taken to prevent the activities of the ninja. Precautions were often taken against ninja infiltrations, such as concealed weapons, or Buildings were constructed with traps and trip wires attached to alarm bells.
Japanese castles were designed to be difficult to navigate, with winding routes leading to the inner compound. Blind spots and holes in walls provided constant surveillance things like is nightingale floors, which rested on metal hinges that were designed to squeak loudly when walked over. Grounds were covered with gravel provided early notice of unwanted intruders, and segregated buildings allowed fires to be better contained things like these were all built to help against the ninja.
Disguises were a huge part of the ninja and they trained hard in making the disguises believable. They would disguise themselves like monks, traveling musician or merchants and even ronin to travel safely from one place to another so they would not arouse suspicion. So in order to make it believe able they would often learn medicines or a musical instrument to make the disguises more believable
The skills required of the ninja have come to be known in modern times as ninjutsu, ninjutsu covered espionage and survival skills along with combat skills.
Training of ninjas began in the mid-15th century, when certain families started to focus on covert warfare, including espionage and assassination. Like the samurai, ninja were born into the profession, where traditions were kept, and passed down through the family. Ninjas trained from childhood just like samurai. They would study survival and scouting techniques, as well as teachings in poisons and explosives. Physical training was also important, which involved long runs, climbing, stealth methods of walking and stealth swimming. Also they need medical training, so if they ever got hurt while on a mission.
The ninja did not always work alone. Teamwork was a very important skill for the ninja, in order to scale a wall for example, a group of ninja may carry each other on their backs, or provide a human platform to assist an individual in reaching greater heights.
Supernatural powers were often associated with the ninja. Some legends include flight, invisibility, shape shifting, and the ability to "split" into multiple bodies, and more have stemmed the ninja ability to distract someone.
The ninja had trained had in the ability not seem invisible. They would avoid combat when ever possible so they would not raise alarm. But when needed the ninja trained in many types of combat and in many types weaponry. they carried an array of tools and weapons which I will cover in my next blog because there are so many of them. But they had to train in many weapons incase they needed to use a weapon that they did not carry or if the situation ever happened where they needed to uses them.
The two biggest ninja clans were the Koga and the Iga and where villages devoted to the training of ninjas first appeared, because of the remoteness and inaccessibility of the surrounding mountains which also had a role in the ninja's secretive training
A distinction between the ninja from these areas, and the commoners or samurai acting as ninja, the Iga and Kōga clans produced professional ninja, specifically trained for their roles. These professional ninja were actively hired by shoguns for there wars complain. I will talk more about these to clans in a later blog because there lots on information on them and this blog is just a quick over view.

the way of the sword

Well for this blog I am going to expand on my last one because I never really explained why I like that period of time. So for this one I will be doing just that, and the main reason I like that time period is my two favorite warriors were in that time frame. And they were the sword masters the samurai and the shadow warriors the ninja.
The Samurai is the term for the military nobility of Japan. And they were noble to there leaders. They were fierce warriors. The samurai followed a set of written rules called the Bushidō. Samurai teachings can still be found today in the martial art of Kendō, meaning the way of the sword. Bushido was not only their sword technique It was how they lived there life. It was considered cowardly to run from a battle no matter what the circumstances, it was more important to die a despicable death. So the samurai would fight to the death and they would do anything for their master (shogun).
Samurai were bound by a code of honor and were expected to set an example for those below them. A notable part of their code is seppuku, which allowed a disgraced samurai to regain his honor by passing into death. Committing seppuku, (ritualized suicide through disembowelment), they would pull out a tanto or a dagger and stab them self’s in the gut from the right side and move to the left slicing the stomach all the way across. Then from there they would cut up and then cut all the way right, and they would do this all in one cutting motion (the tanto had to remain in the stomach the whole time). In this manner of killing them self’s they thought they would gain there respect back and be able to rest in piece in the afterlife. The other ritual seppuku was they would do the same thing but when they made they last slice they would have there closest friend cut threw their neck. And the true way of doing that was they would cut the head off but they would leave a little skin so the head would not fall and roll onto the floor and disgrace not only the samurai committing seppuku but the samurai’s friend. No on the battle field if the samurai was wounded instead of bleeding to death they would commit seppuku to regain if honor of losing. What they would do on the battle field is they would just do a single stab into the stomach. If they could not do it them self they would sometimes have a comrade of the person who beat him in battle to stab him once more to end his life. If a shogun was displeased by a samurai or if the shogun died while under the protection of samurai he would ether command them to commit seppuku or if he died they would do it them self because they let their master die.
The samurai used various weapons, but the katana is the main weapon that was used by most. Bushido teaches that the katana is the samurai's soul and sometimes a samurai is entirely dependent on the weapon for fighting. They believe that the katana was so precious that they often gave them names and considered them as part of the living. When a male child would reach the age of thirteen, a ceremony was held and the child was given his first diasho (A katana and a Wakizashi(a smaller version of a katana used for combat in buildings personal protection) together are called a daishō), armor, and a adult name, and became a samurai. The wakizashi itself was a samurai's "honor weapon" and purportedly never left the samurai's side. He would sleep with it under his pillow and it would be taken with him when he entered a house and had to leave his main weapons outside all buildings had this rule.
The samurai were also stressed to have skill with a yumi or longbow, being able to shoot a yumi from horseback was also a great skilled samurai needed.
the yari (spear) was also a big weapon used along with the naginata Staff weapons were also used like bo staff’s or the Kanabo which is a club coated in steel studs, some called it the shield breaker. In later periods, the samurai started using rifles for a deadly weapon. But the main weapon threw out the samurai existence was the katana.
When the child was 13 he began the teachings of bushido by a mature samurai and they would grow a bond called Shudō. The child was the mature samurai’s apprentice and the child would follow him where ever the master went. Along the way the master would teach him bushido. He would also teach him how to fight how to live on his own, how to cook, and most important why to fight and when to fight.
So what I am trying to say is the samurai were fearless warriors that had great wisdom, not only in weapons and fighting but in life. They would not sneak up on people or attack with stealth. They would fight like a man and if he lost. Lots of samurai wanted in life was to fight a great battle they would roam the land looking for the strongest warrior they could and fight him to the death to prove that he was the best and no one could match his skills. That’s what I love about the samurai. They did not care about anything but being a master in combat. Some samurai did not even have a master they were called ronin. Those where the men that would travel around with not home or bonds, they would just wander form place to place in search of something be it a strong warrior or something more personal.
I and going to stop there but I could keep going and who knows maybe next week I will keep with this subject. if not then I will be moving on to why I love the ninja. So keep on reading

ALL HAIL FEUDAL JAPAN!!

Well this is my 5th blog, isn’t that awesome. Not really but I thought I might celebrate this special occasion, with a special topic. When I was trying to think so something special to do I keep thinking of none special things, until I thought what are something that means a lot to me. So my topic for this blog is my favorite time in history.
My favorite time in history is feudal Japan. Now for those who don’t know what this time line was about I will elaborate, but before I explain why I love this time period. First I read a lot of history books and most are on this time period. So I will give you a quick over view of the time. Warning this might be very boring and seem like a history lesson to some people.
The feudal period of Japanese history ruled by powerful military warlords called the shogun and this time period ran from the 12th to the 19th century. This time is usually divided into periods following the reigning family of the shogun.
The Kamakura period, 1185 to 1333, is the first period that marks the governance of the Kamakura shogunate and the transition to the Japanese medieval era, a nearly 700-year period in which the emperor, and central government were left intact but were mainly for ceremonial functions. All military, matters were controlled by the bushi or as most people know them samurai. And the person who controlled the samurai was the shogunate they belonged to. The Kamakura period ended in 1333 with the destruction of the shogunate and the short reestablishment of imperial rule.
In 1467 the period known as the Sengoku period, or the Warring States period reestablished the shogun rule, and was a time of intense warfare, and marks the first contacts with the West, with the arrival of Portuguese In 1543. Firearms were introduced by Portuguese and would bring the major innovation to combat ranks of samurai. And change the warfare in Japan forever
The Azuchi-Momoyama period runs from 1568 to 1600. It marked the reunification of the country under a single ruler,
During the Edo period, also called the pre-modern era, the ruling of the country was shared by over two hundred rulers. The Tokugawa clan, was the most powerful, with their headquarters at Edo. (Present-day Tokyo).
The shogunate made a number of laws, like they placed the samurai class above the commoners like the farmers and merchants. They made laws limiting hair style, clothing, and to enforce these laws they would hold five responsible for the acts of each individual. To prevent rebelling,
During the 17th century, the shogunate thought that the traders and missionaries were actually forerunners of a military conquest by Europeans. This led to a revolt by persecuted peasants and Christians in 1637 where 30,000 Christians and peasants faced a massive samurai army of more than 100,000. The rebellion was crushed at a high cost to the shogun's army.
Then Meiji Restoration Renewed contact with the West The shogun resigned and soon after the Boshin War, the emperor was restored to power. The Meiji Restoration made many changes like the feudal system was abolished, the military was modernized, and many Western ideas helped rebuild the county into a unified and modern country.
Sorry for it being so long and boring but you need to know this stuff for next weeks where I tell you why I love this time period. Once again sorry for the history lesson but I got into this and could not stop. I even left things out to cut down on length if you ever get bored look this up and give it a good read.

ALL HAIL JAPAN!!

For my third blog post I thought I would follow up on one of the topics in my first post and that topic is Japan and how it is very…very different from other countries. Now when I mean different I mean things in there culture not like weather of anything like that. I will be focusing on some of the funny and weird things about Japan so don’t think after reading this that Japan is a horrible place, its not. If you can’t tell from my last post you will after this one I love Japan.
They are considered one of the smartest countries, and most technology comes from Japan companies like Sony and Bandai are from. Also if you like games, most of them come from Japan. If you like anime (which I will be talking about later one) guess where is all comes from, that’s right Japan. The following things I found out when reading things on Japan, and I just had to laugh because they are so funny, or they are interesting in some way.
We will start out with music obviously there music in Japanese but the most listened genre is techno by far. They still have like new wave and metal but more people listen to techno over there then anywhere else I’m sure. And I have some of their techno and it’s awesome but most people in U.S don’t listen to techno much. Also just like guitar hero over here the Japanese have DDR which id Dance Dance revolution that’s been a huge hit over there they play that more then guitar hero. They even have huge monitors on the side of the arcade buildings showing the 2 people dancing, and you never guess what kind of music is on DDR that’s right techno.
One of my favorite things is the cartoons over there or what they call anime. It’s always funny to here the replies from people when you talk about anime, they always say things like or there just cartoons there meant for kids. it is not all meant for kids. There are some with really good mature stories that adults can watch. They very from very violent actions to drama’s to romance’s you name it you can probably find an anime about it. My personal favorite is probably Hellsing ultimate or code geass. There are so many anime’s you could easily get lost in all the stories. Compare anime’s to American cartoons and anime is a lot better. Some of them you can get so lost in the story when it ends you just keep thinking how awesome the show was. I have to get anime though or I could talk type forever.

one thing i read recently is that japan's poulation is rapidly decresing. i thought that would be on of the last countries to have that problem. i wanted to know more but so far i have not heard anything new.
A bad but funny thing about Japan is has some kind perverted things at least compared to other countries, what other country lets you buy used panties from vending machines. Yeah I am not lying they have vending machines that dispense used panties with the picture of who was wearing them on the front of the package…. Pretty screwed up huh? Well it gets worse did you know the legal age for sex in Japan 13 yeah 13 years old, that’s pretty nasty. Also it is perfectly legal there to be a prostitute if you’re married as long as the spouse agrees. I have read stories where the wife does not have a job she is prostitute and have regular clients, and when the interviewer asked the husband what he thought the man replied. “I don’t care because I know she just loves me plus the extra money is great.” All you can say is wow. I don’t know if all couples do it but its legal there , that’s was kind of weird to me. And the last thing I am going to say on this subject is there is a place in Japan where the city metro station travels above ground and snakes threw building, no big deal right well guess what monument sits straddling the rails that’s right a anime school girl I will post the picture below but be warned that it is real and its very weird. If you don’t want to see it then doesn’t look at the pictures with this post. I was thinking about not putting this subject into this blog because it’s not very appropriate for a college blog but you can’t talk about Japan with out knowing some of these things and I will probably be talking about Japan a lot in my upcoming blogs my next blog will be about Japan too maybe ever a 3rd who knows, I don’t… or do I. Plus it’s kind of funny, and interesting what normal life consists of in other countries. I could easily do another post about this so I might some time. I will some time in my life go to Japan, maybe when I get out of college you never know.

Vegas part 2

My last blog entry was about the time I went to Vegas and I don’t think I hit all the key issues so this is Vegas part 2. In the first blog I wrote about most of the main subjects but I forgot one of my favorite things was we rode the bus to the Hard Rock café and as soon as you step threw the door they have band memorabilia for… I could not even name all the bands. They had a wax set up of a Kiss stage, which was really cool. They had tons of guitars from countless bands. They even had the robe that jimi Hendrix wore, (my favorite thing in that store).
Another interesting place was the M&M store I thought it would suck but they had walls covered in every type of M&M you can think of. It was a store that was three stories tall. Three stories tall holy crap that’s a lot of M&M’s. At the very top of the store they had the Nascar M&M car.

One of the nights we were they we went to go see the show called “tournament or the kings” and that was awesome you got a huge leg of chicken a potato, things that they ate in the renaissance, and they show was awesome. They had cool sword fights. I know they weren’t real sword fights but the chorography was really good. It was way better then I thought it was going to be. They had really cool jousting matches too, defiantly something to check out if you ever go to Vegas.
We took the bus down to the end of the strip to sight see and they had this huge screen lowered over a few of the buildings and they had things playing on them. We only got to see one but it was cool the screen was huge ……. Plus the video we got to watch had a lot of half naked ladies dancing, so that made it better. While we were walking back we saw a man spray painting really cool pictures and it took him like a minute and a half to do one it was really cool spay paint was flying everywhere and he was doing precise paintings too.

The last night we were they most of use just pulled an all nighter and slept on the plane. The plane ride there was horrible because I got sick and it was really loud, but the ride back I did not even know I was on a plane I slept threw it all once I closed my eyes they were just doing pre-flight checks and before I knew it we had landed back in Wisconsin. Best plane ride ever did not even know I was on it. So in the end Vegas was really fun got to see things I never seen before…… like hookers and I got to see the huge casinos you see all the time on T.V all the time. If I did not mention it before we stayed in the Excalibur. So I got to stay in a huge castle pretty cool. If I had to pick my favorite thing from Vegas it would have to be the moment that they played ecstasy of gold from the good, the bad, and the ugly at the Bellagio water show…… simply epic.
Vegas was cool, but would I go back….. I don’t know it was really expensive and I kind of saw everything, maybe in like 20 years when something’s change. My next trip is going to be somewhere else….. Don’t know when but I want to see other places. My ideal place to go would be Japan that would be awesome.

Vegas

For my next blog I was going to write about something very close to me but I figured it was not quite appropriate for a college blog, hopefully i might get to post it later on. So I will conform to the normal topics so I know I will not stir up any controversy. So I will write about when I went to Vegas.

I went to Vegas last year, and I went with my whole family so I had someone to hang out with while I was stuck in the hotel room, because I could not gamble or drink, but there was only a few times that I was stuck in the room. Every day we went to see the tourist things like the big aquarium, and the huge fountains that play to music. All the casinos were huge and just amazing, however I did not get to go in them all but I went into a couple and they were massive. We went in the middle of july so it was crazy hot. Some of the days reached over 100 degrees it was horrible walking out side. A cool thing I noticed thought was that all the shops had little water mist above your head to cool you down, plus they had the huge barn fans going with people standing in the way every second.

When looking at the map of the strip it looks like an easy stroll, well it’s not. It took forever and it was like walking in a desert because it was so hot and there were so many cars, and they did not help with the heat. Pretty much everybody in my family got sun burnt somewhere on their bodies. It was a good thing that all the buildings had air conditioning. The whole time we were in Vegas there was little sleep most of us stayed up till the early hours in the morning. Also there was a lot of fast food because that’s what was in our casino.

One thing I did not like was I figured because we were in Vegas there would be little to no kids but they were everywhere. I know that I was underage but I am talking about little kids like under 15. That’s one thing that I hated about the trip they were everywhere. It’s a good thing that when we went to the pool I saw one of my favorite signs it said “adults only”. Best sign ever. They even had a game room for kids in our casino. That’s just stupid the whole reason to go to Vegas is to get away from the kids. Our reason was my parents wanted to get their wedding vows renewed for their anniversary after 30 years. So we went to one of those cheesy Vegas churches. Probably my favorite thing was the fountains that flowed to the music because they played ecstasy of gold form the good the bad and the ugly and it was so epic. The only thing that sucked about that situation was my brother missed it because he went to go find a bathroom and he loves that movie probably more than I do so he would have thought it was amazing too.

The trip also was first time for a few things one I actually saw a hooker and that was one of my goals in Vegas was to spot a one. It was also the first time I ever rode on a plane and honesty I did not like it, it was really loud and I got sick when we first landed, but what was really cool was taking a Hummer-limo from the airport to the motel. Another first was big city air, it was filled with pollution so it took some getting used to, and after an hour or so I did not notice it any more. It was probably a onetime experience for the whole family, and I will never forget it. there is more to talk about so i will have a part to sometime.

The little things

This whole blog is dedicated the greatest person ever …..Me

Where do I start, I am 18, just started college little over a week ago. I work part time at Kwik Trip in Stoddard. I have one brother and one sister. My sister is actually getting married in like a year, So that’s pretty cool. I just got out of high school last May so I have went from one school to another school right away, and I am going to college for I.T network specialist. Yeah computers I know I am a geek. I am also single… at the moment, ladies. I read a lot, and my choice of books is mostly historical books things that really happened, I find them interesting. I was born in Stoddard Wisconsin and that’s where I live today,

I don’t remember much of my childhood just scrambled bits and pieces. I went to school at Stoddard elementary and when I was done there I went to Desoto high school which is the closest high school to where I lived. I have never lived anywhere else but I have gone on trips for those who think I have never left the state. Well I have. Last year I went to Vegas with the family and that was pretty cool except I could not drink…. At the bar or gamble which sucked. I go pretty much every summer to Minnesota or to North Dakota to see some of the family.

My interests are I love movies, I have seen so many its impossible to count. And I know a lot about movies too. Another interest is I am a huge gamer I love games I play them on the little free time I get, and when I say I am a gamer I mean I am not a casual gamer I am a hardcore gamer there is a difference. I also love hanging out with my friends. It seems like I can never have enough time to do stuff with my friends. The whole college and work thing really cut into my gaming and friend time. But that’s what happens when you grow older and have to do these things. For my music choices I have a real weird choice I love rock and I like oldies, and even some rare things. I even have dipped into Japanese music. And probably my favorite thing besides rock is techno. Nothing beats cranking that up and having a good old fashion rave.

While I am on the topic of Japanese music I have to confess I love the Japanese culture they are so interesting. It’s fun to here all the weird things that are over there, and I wish I could speak Japanese. Some of those things will blow your mind on what normal over there. If you ever want to know these things I will be glad to tell you if you ask, or maybe I will do another blog on those things we will have to see. Another one of my weird hobbies is learning about weapons. I love to read about weird weapons. I have read countless things on swords, axes, maces, things of that nature. To tell the truth I have many swords and (weird weapons because I collect them)that cake my walls in my room. I will post some pictures on this blog and if you want to see the rest let me know I will show you some time. Well that’s it for this blog see my next one…… if you dare.