Underground Nagoya :

The Street Musicians of

Ozone

By Junro

Nagoya is not all about

shopping and hanging out:

you will be amazed with all

the hidden talent in this

Nagoya. I present to you

the street musicians of

Ozone station, Nagoya:

It is 9PM. Only a sprinkle

of people still hanging

around the station. Two

young men‟s mellow voices

pour out into the streets.

One of the men‟s names is

Shuhei Fujita, a full-time

musician. He was once in a

band but quit because of

irreconcilable differences

with the other members of

his band. So instead, he

took on singing on the

streets from about three

years ago. He had another

job in the beginning, but

after several gigs on the

streets, he was determined

to dedicate his life to music.

Now, he does little gigs live

houses, as well as street

performances five, six

times a week. His first time

on the streets was fright-

ening, he said, but after he

was able to stop some peo-

ple mid-walk with his voice

during his first perform-

ance, his joy for singing

overpowered his fear.

I met my second musician

in front of a closed store

shutter. Yoshihiro Makino

was surrounded by several

businessmen and college

students deeply engrossed

in his sweet acoustic tunes.

Ending the song with ap-

plause, I quickly went up to

him. He was a 23-year-old

part-time musician, a vet-

eran street performer since

he graduated from high

school. “All my songs are

original,” he said. “There's

about 100 songs inputted in

my head”. After his next

song, a man came up to Ma-

kino and handed him a bento

-box filled with sushi. “I

heard you singing, and you

caught my heart,” the man

said passionately. “Here,

have some of this. Good

luck.”

I, then, felt the signifi-

cance of these people to

this city. We spend each

day shutting ourselves off

from the strangers around

us. The city is a lonely place,

but street musicians recon-

nect people and leave them

feeling warm and happy.

They are full of passion with

gentle, lovable souls. They

create a cozy, comfortable

atmosphere anywhere, any-

Chief Editors

K. De-Zoysa

N. Iwata

Writers

J. Shibata

A. Clark.

I. Choi

C. Ekanayake

S. Isomura

Lay-out Editor

M. Ando

Supervisor

Ms. President

Student Publications

Date

Volume 1, Issue

NIS Dolphin Wave Inside this issue:

Underground

Nagoya:

The Street

Musicians of

Ozone

1-2

Black Swan

When Ballet

Meets Psychosis

2

Trout Pouts =

Modern Beauty?

2

Dolphins Show

Spirit! 3

Yakuza on the

Move 3-4

NIS Soccer

Tournament:

History in the

Making

4

Shuhei Fujita smiling for

the camera

Yoshihiro Makino sings in

the street of Ozone

NIS Dolphin Wave Page 2

time with their music. This is why

these people are appreciated and

welcomed in Nagoya. There may be

times when you are stressed from all

the socializing and studying. When

you do, before you start speed dialing

TELL, go out to the streets of Ozone

or Kanayama. I assure you that the

positivity these musicians project is

so great that they will have your

cheered up in no time. It is the

beauty of music.

and Nina‟s internal psychological con-

flict of being haunted by a doppel-

ganger within herself becomes appar-

ent. If you are into horror movies,

then you give this film a try: in one

scene, Nina has a brawl out with her

hallucination and ends up stabbing

herself as the White Swan. However,

since the movie is rated R, make sure

you have parental supervision if you

are under age. The realistic human

interactions and the visual represen-

tation of the protagonist‟s paranoia

are sure to keep you hooked on this

new psychological drama.

Black Swan: When Ballet Meets Psychosis By Shusaku

Lipo, Botox, rhinoplasties and

boob jobs. Among celebrities, cos-

metic surgery is like a rite of passage.

Apparently, to attain modern feminine

ideal beauty, undergoing the knife is a

must - or so Hollywood advertises. No

wonder women are seldom satisfied

with their looks: I've never come

across a real-life Barbie doll before

(only impersonators with pieces of

plastic wedged in bizarre places). Not

to judge women artificial bee-stung

lips, but why plasticize for the sake

of visually pleasing men (at least while

the plastic lasts)? Why purposely put

yourself at risk of looking like the

infamous Cat Woman (no, not the su-

per hero, but the living example of

surgery disasters)? Plastic surgeons

are only human: no surgery is 100%

risk-free. Even under the pressure to

look beautiful, disfiguring your face

isn't the way to go about your make-

over. Whatever deep rooted insecu-

rity isn't magically going to vanish

with a flick of the knife. Hollywood's

superficiality (appearance-wise) is

sabotaging the idea of inner beauty.

Television shows like The Swan where

"ugly" women would undergo extreme

makeovers, including multiple plastic

surgeries for the sake of self-

containment and a self-confidence

booster are truly disgusting. They

capitalize on how vulnerable these

women feel in face of the glamorized

vision of beauty demanded by the

fashion industry. Angelina Jolie may

be deified as the goddess of full,

luscious lips, but she's au natural,

unlike Jennifer Aniston. No Brad Pitt

is worth injecting your lips with colla-

gen. Nor any other form of plastic

surgery for that matter. Thinking

about stapling your stomach into the

size of an egg? Three days of cardio

per week should do the trick. Thinking

about getting breast implants for

your sweet seventeen? Replace with

daily body massages. Plastic surgery

is not the only viable option. The

whole concept of cosmetic surgery is

on the false premise that outward

beauty with soccer balls for breasts

and a baboon butt for lips will guaran-

tee a drastically improved quality of

life. If I were a guy, I'd be on cloud

nine to be kissed by any chick with a

soul. Remember: once you go plastic,

there is no going back.

Trout Pouts = Modern Beauty By Noriko

“Black Swan”, directed by Darren

Aronofsky, is a twisted psychological

thriller said to leave the audience

feeling sick with emotion. The film

revolves around a production of Swan

Lake by a famous ballet company. Nina

Sayers (played by Natalie Portman)

must compete with other actors i to

get the leading act. However, as the

story progresses, Nina becomes para-

noid of losing the main role to Lily

(played by Mila Kunis), Nina‟s under-

study. The film gradually begins to

show Nina‟s delusion and strong visual

hallucinations as the story progresses

Meet the

Socially Awkward Penguin

NIS Dolphin Wave Page 3

Dolphins Show Spirit! By Inhye

Last week, dolphins competed

each other for their spirit. To win

the spirit bowl, each class worked

very hard to show unity as well as

their NIS spirit.

The story started on Monday.

The hallway was filled with 4

classes 4 styles, with students en-

joying their class twin day.

Tuesday was also a blast. We had

doctors, flight attendants and tour

guides studying math with Mr. Ryan

while K-pop stars and the dentist

sitting in Mr. Prosek‟s class reading

books.

Wednesday was also a sight!

Bunch of nerds were sitting around

in the cafeteria gossiping about

Shakespeare books while the

„popular‟ ones hung around in the

hallway chattering away their break

time on fashion trends.

Oh and Thursday. We cannot em-

phasize enough how spirited this

day was! Everybody was excited for

his or her victory in the spirit bowl

and the class themes were extraor-

dinary. The juniors were dressed up

as Crayolas while the sophomore

class had identical 80‟s shirt each

with numbers.

As for the spirit bowl, the jun-

iors and the sophomores were very

close in number of points they

earned; however the sophomores

finally won through their glorious

victory. Thanks to the HSSC for an

awesome week! I wonder who the

next champions would be!

Looking Back at the Spirit Week...

Yakuza on the Move By Aubrey

Most of us here at NIS live in a

bubble. We think we are in no appar-

ent danger. But, according to Japa-

nese news stations, more Yakuza

groups are moving their headquarters

to downtown Nagoya.

Who are the Yakuza?

The Yakuza are organized crime gangs

in Japan. The Yakuza isn‟t a secret

society, they are open and people

know of their presence. But, the po-

lice are hesitant to interfere. Many

Yakuza run red-light districts, pa-

chinko chains, night-clubs and more.

They blackmail companies and

threaten stockholders to establish

footholds. Not everything they do is

shady. They also infiltrate companies

legally and are present in normal, eve-

ryday businesses.

Volume 1, Issue Page 4

NIS Soccer Tournament

History in the Making

By Chethaka

Each year the Dolphins lose tal-

ented soccer players able to could

finish the job easily, and this year

was no different. Among the six

teams that came down to Nagoya,

NIS was clearly the one of the bet-

ter teams in terms of talent and pas-

sion for soccer. And MC Perry. After

a long-fought knockout round, they

were the only teams able to make it

to the finals.

NIS is known for its short, crisp

passes with its players dominating

their opponent‟s defense line by main-

taining

constant

posses-

sion of

the ball.

On the

other

hand, MC

Perry

plays a different style of soccer:

they deliver killer passes from long

distances to force the offensive play-

ers chase

after the

ball, and

thus tire

them

out. Both

teams

struggled

to play

their style of soccer under the pres-

sure. NIS had some great opportuni-

ties to score goals towards the end of

the first half; however, the offense

were denied goals by the MC Perry

keeper.

That‟s when MC Perry began deliv-

ering long passes to break through

the NIS defense line. But they could-

n‟t get past our keeper.

The game ended as a draw, and it

went down to penalties. The tension

mounted on our players as they felt

the pressure to win the tournament

for the fifth year in a row. As a soc-

cer player myself, I know from ex-

perience that penalty shots are more

about the ability to overcome your

personal fear against failure than how

good of a soccer player you are...NIS

lost against MC Perry, mentally. We

always have next year to regain our

title. Make NIS proud, guys.

Being a Yakuza member is serious

business. Members swear their alle-

giance to their superiors and usually

abandon their family, adopting their

fellow Yakuza members as their new

family.

How do you recognize them?

Most members have distinctive full

body tattoos. A few are also missing

or have prosthetic fingers because, if

subordinates offend or disobey their

leaders, they must cut off their fin-

ger as a form of penance. Members

often wear high-necked long-sleeved

shirts to mask their tattoos. Some-

times they wear sunglasses with col-

orful suits. They even walk in a special

way, taking longer strides, to dis-

creetly advertise their identity.

The Yakuza headquartered in Na-

goya is called the Kodo-kai and claims

to have 4,000 followers. The Kodo-kai

is the ruling party of the Yamaguchi-

gumi that has 40,000 followers. Ac-

cording to japansubculture.com, “They

are the most violent and belligerent

of all the remaining factions.”

Rumors are always circulating. One

blogger claims that there was a

“foreigner that was stabbed to death

in Nagoya over road rage with some

Yakuza a year ago.” A video on You-

Tube shows a “brothel owner kid-

napped by Yakuza members disguising

themselves [as] construction workers

in Nagoya.” But who knows if these

rumors and accusations are true.

Countless unsolved murders in Japan

seem to point to the Yakuza but no

one, not even the police, knows the

truth.

What should you do?

The best thing to do is to avoid any-

one who you suspect of being a Yakuza

member. Fortunately they won‟t

bother you unless they have a good

reason to. Although many claim that

Yakuza groups are in fact migrating to

Nagoya, nothing is certain. Whether

or not it is true, it is best to keep

your distance.

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