Corey 11/17-11/18

Hi Ms. Separ! I'm supposed to be blogging tonight, so I might as well. Tuesday we started on Japan and it's relationship with Western Europe. We were given a packet with pictures and a set of lines next to it. The first picture was titled "The Edo Period (aka The Pax Tokugawa)." Ms. Separ gave a lecture on how the Pax Tokugawa happened. The Shogun family Tokugawa unifies Japan when daimyos were fighting each other for power. The second picture was a pyrimid with three layers: Samurai, Farmers, and Craftspeople and Traders. We learned about the social classes and really began to notice that the traders were at the at the bottom of the pyrimid while in most of the time traders were at least higher in social class than farmers (well at least that's what I noticed). Then we saw a reading about a trip that the daimyos take, and it was to stay at the shogun's palace for some time. The small reading showed three things: a securing of power for the shogun over daimyos (daimyos lost wealth going on trip, and money could bring you power), movements and trading was always monitered, and that there was trade, but they did cancel it. The fourth and fifth picture was the same, but it was an eyewitness account from a native Japanese person watching Europeans showing off a rifle or musket. The account never said "Europeans" though, he/she used the terms "barbarian" and "strange" to describe them. Ms. Separ went on about the fact that Japan stopped trading around 1620 because Japan was losing it's prized heritage due to European influence. The best example was the sixth picture, a map full of crosses. The map showed the alarming rate Chirstianity became popular at. Christanity was a big factor why trade stopped with the Japanese and Western Europe. When trade was disallowed, the first thing the Japanese government did was decapitate all of the Christians. also, any big trading or any influence of foregin ideas was punishable by death. That was it for Tuesday. Wensday was simply review of this and a discussion of averages and how we can get 5 points on a quiz by spending 8 dollars. NEXT TO BLOG IS THE INFAMOUS, THE SPECTACULAR, THE AMAZING TYLER MEHLMAN!!!!! not really...


PS---By the way on Wednesday we did do readings that discussed the degree to which Japan was isolated. AND it is not spending 8 dollars, it is donating 8 dollars!
Ms. Separ