The Basics

The Basics

Connecting the mountain

with popular culture

Everyone likes Ninja!

Todays Speaking ExercisesBasics Pairs (Global)Basics Pairs (Local)Try to do bothTake your timeClick (touch) on Finish Quiz Button

Geological

Artistic

Sacred

Cultural

People often like to discuss the basicsHow did Mount Fuji get that way?Whats going to happen?How does it relate to other Japanese things?

Mount Fuji (old Fuji) has been active at least 100,000 yearsNearby activity (Komitake) goes back about 700,000 yearsProbably something before thatVolcanic activity in the area for millions of years

Young Fuji is covering everything

Young Fuji is about 11,000 years old

Very young

700,000 years ago

Older Fuji on top of Komitake

Then younger Fuji on top of everything

Lets get this into perspectiveWhats really happening here?

Space

The Final Frontier (Maybe)

Space is big

Really big

How big?You think its a long way from the university to FamilymartSpace is not like thatWere talking about a REALLY LONG WAY!

Space goes on forever

Literally forever!!

Unimaginable

Earth is basically a big ball

flying around in space!

Scary

Were flying around the Sun

The Sun is a star

Stars are huge balls of burning gas

The Sun is about 150 million kilometers away!

You dont want to get too close!

150,000,000 kilometersOne hundred and fifty million kilometersYou think its a long way from your apartment to TsurubunkadaigakumaeekiThe distance to the Sun is different

And we orbit the Sun

Once a year!

In December, were over here!

In June were over there!

But what does over here and over there mean in Space?

You dont need a spaceship

We are flying at about

30 kilometers per second!!

But the Sun (in fact the whole solar system) is traveling around the Milky Way at a speed of 220 kilometers per second!

Furthest rocket flight from Earth?

About 400,000 kilometers

So spaceship flights .. have only gone .. very tiny distances.

The center of the Earth

About 6,300 kilometers down

Nobody has ever been down there

We HAVE drilled down some way

But only about 12 kilometers

Only 12 kilometers out of 6,300 kilometers

Why stop at 12 kilometers?

It gets really, really, really, hot!

Either way you look

Up or down

Fire

We walk around on the crust

The crust is cool

So we can walk around on it

The Mantle is HOT!

500 to 900 near the crust!

4000 near the core!

Thats hot!If you think your room gets hot in July with no air conditioner under the ground is different!

Everything melts down there!

Harder near the surface

But everything melts!

Except right in the center

Pressure is so great, it cannot melt!

The outer shell is broken into different parts

Tectonic Plates

Like a soccer ball

Plates are like panels

Except these plates move around

Pull away from each other

Pushing

Forcing one under

Magma rises up

Melted (or semi-melted) rock

Lava is magma that comes out of the ground

What happens where plates meet?

Lots of earthquakes

And volcanoes

So if you live near these plates

You have a problem!

Places with more than one plate

Have an even bigger problem

Especially as the plates TEND to move!

Pushing plates under

Forcing magma up

Pushing up magma

Sometimes pulling away

But often pushing

Forcing one under

Magma rises up

Earthquakes and volcanoes

Subduction zones

Obduction and subduction

Ring of Fire

Mount FujiTriple JunctionThe Amurian Plate (west)The Okhotsk Plate (east)Philippine Sea Plate

Western JapanEastern JapanIzu Peninsula

Okhotsk Plate

Amurian Plate

Philippine Plate

Eurasian Plate

Lincoln Cathedral 800 years old

Gloucester Cathedral 1400 years old

Of course! No problem in Britain

Nothing moving

Okhotsk Plate

Amurian Plate

Philippine Plate

Major volcanoes in Japan

Over 100 ACTIVE volcanoes!

10% of the worlds active volcanoes!

Compare with California

About 20% of the worlds earthquakes in Japan!!

Lots of earthquakes and volcanoes

Nankai earthquakes

Happen every 100 years or so

Could happen again any time

What if theres a huge one

in Tokyo Bay?

Try not to think about it.

But if youre in Odaiba

and you hear the siren...

Run!

How about the basics of culture?

Another conversation point

Very very Japanese

Ninja were military specialists

spies etc.

Sengoku Period ()1467 - 1603

Everyone fighting everyone else!

Ended with unification under the Tokugawa Shogunate

Start of the Edo Period

During the warring period, new ways of fighting developed

New weapons

Social upheaval

The old Samurai values were not enough

Mountain areas were the best

training grounds for Ninja

Mie and Shiga Prefectures most famous

Training in villages

running to the mountains when necessary

Takeda Shingen: legendary ruler

Takeda Shingen: legendary ruler

Kai Province ()

Roughly equivalent to Yamanashi

Takeda Shingen made great use of Ninja

As scouts

As arsonists

As spies

As terrorists

Masters of disguise

So the mountains

were a place of retreat

Holy people

Training the mind

Enlightenment

But also training the body

They sometimes had to be ready to fight

Extreme physical rigor

A path to power

Extreme mental rigor

Mental and physical discipline

Not just Japan, of course

Mystical ideas trickled back to the Samurai class

Villages near mountain retreats

Mountains as places of military and spiritual training

Magical powers

Honor? Or survival?