{
    "results": {
        "page": [
            {
                "pageNumber": "1",
                "paragraph": [
                    {
                        "data": "Heart of Japan "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Collection of Essays from "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "the Annual Japan Center Essay Competition "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "(2005-2015) "
                    }
                ]
            },
            {
                "pageNumber": "2",
                "paragraph": [
                    {
                        "data": "© The Japan Center at Stony Brook 2016 "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "The Japan Center at Stony Brook "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Stony Brook University "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Stony Brook, NY 11794-5343 "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "stonybrook.edu/japancenter japan_center@stonybrook.edu "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "* The authors of the essays in this collection granted their copyrights to the Japan Center at Stony Brook. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Printed by: "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Century Direct "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "15 Enter Lane "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Islandia,NY 11749 "
                    }
                ]
            },
            {
                "pageNumber": "3",
                "paragraph": [
                    {
                        "data": "Contents "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Forward Preface "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "iv v "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Acknowledgments Key Personnel "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "viii Selected Essays "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "1 vi "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Memorable Moments "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "People Epilogue "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "105 117 "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "140 iii "
                    }
                ]
            },
            {
                "pageNumber": "4",
                "paragraph": [
                    {
                        "data": "Foreword "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "I extend my warmest congratulations and "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "gratitude to the Japan Center at Stony Brook "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "University for publishing this wonderful "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "compilation of the selected essays from its 10 "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "years of Essay Competitions. Through their "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "participation, students had been given the "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "opportunity to explore their interest in Japan, "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "which can now be shared with readers far and "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "wide. I hope many will find these essays a joy "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "to read, as I have. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "With sincere appreciation, "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Reiichiro Takahashi "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Ambassador and Consul General of Japan in New York "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "I would like to offer my appreciation to the "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Japan Center at Stony Brook University and "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "all of the students involved with this "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "wonderful program. As a global company and "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "proud sponsor of the essay competition, Canon "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "has been delighted to engage with so many "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "young people who have expressed how Japan "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "has positively influenced their life in one way "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "or another. We recognize the enormous "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "importance of uniting cultures and opening the "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "minds of those who are the future of our "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "world. Congratulations to all of the students! "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Sincerely, Joe Adachi "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Chairman & CEO, Canon U.S.A., Inc. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "iv "
                    }
                ]
            },
            {
                "pageNumber": "5",
                "paragraph": [
                    {
                        "data": "Preface "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "The Japan Center at Stony Brook (JCSB) was established in 2003 to promote education and research "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "in the study of Japan, Japanese culture and society, and the lives of both Japanese and Japanese-American "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "people. JCSB Essay Competition is the first annual outreach program we conceptualized for high school "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "and college students. Our objective was to offer them an opportunity to reflect themselves deeply, focus on "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "some aspect of Japan, creatively connect it to their own lives, and write an original essay. The proposal was "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "submitted to Canon U.S.A. in September 2004 and received renewable annual sponsorship starting in 2005, "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "when the JCSB Essay Competition was officially launched. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "The first honorary judges were Mr. Kinya Uchida and Dr. Shirley Kenny, who were the President "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "& C.E.O. of Canon U.S.A. and the President of Stony Brook University, at that time, respectively. Their "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "roles were succeeded by Mr. Joe Adachi, Chairman & C.E.O., Canon U.S.A., Dr. Mark Aronoff, Vice "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Provost, Stony Brook University, Ambassador Shinichi Nishimiya, Ambassador Shigeyuki Hiroki, "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Ambassador Sumio Kusaka, and Ambassador Reiichiro Takahashi, Consuls General of Japan in New "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "York. JCSB’s essay competition is open to everyone regardless of their experience of learning Japanese "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "or visiting Japan. The theme is also wide-open as long as there is a connection between the author and "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "some aspect of Japan. We have received 1,992 essays from 169 schools over the ten years. Each year, "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "we discovered new perspectives, new concepts, and new ways of expression through this competition. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "This collection includes all award winning essays and selected Honorable Mention essays from the "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "first ten competitions. It is JCSB’s sincere hope that these essays can help many people widen their "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "horizon, learn about different values and viewpoints, appreciate diversity, cultivate international "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "friendship, and become global citizens who can make the world a better place to be. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "The Japan Center at Stony Brook "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "June 17, 2016 "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "v "
                    }
                ]
            },
            {
                "pageNumber": "6",
                "paragraph": [
                    {
                        "data": "Acknowledgments "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "No words can express our appreciation to Canon U.S.A. and the Consulate General of Japan in "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "New York for their generous support and warm encouragement. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "We are absolutely indebted to the late Mr. Kinya Uchida, who was the President and C.E.O. of "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Canon U.S.A. when we submitted our proposal back in 2004. Without his kindness, understanding, and "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "trust in our capacity and mission, this essay competition would not have been a reality. This led us to "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "institute the Uchida Memorial Award in 2013. This essay competition could not have continued until now "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "without the support of Mr. Joe Adachi, Chairman and C.E.O. of Canon U.S.A. His willingness to "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "encourage younger generations to broaden their horizons through this competition has been invaluable to "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "us. Mr. Uchida and Mr. Adachi also served as an honorary judge for this competition. We also appreciate "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "many senior administrators at Canon U.S.A., Mr. Dennis Amorosano, Mr. Richard Booth, Mr. Lee Farrell, "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Mr. Yukiaki Hashimoto, Mr. Mason Olds, Mr. William Reed, Mr. James Sharp, Mr. Toshio Tachibana, Ms. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Ana Tavares, and Mr. Joe Warren, for presenting awards and for offering warm encouragement to the "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "award winners. Kindest assistance offered by Ms. Debra Epstein, Ms. Elissa LiVecchi, Ms. Mindy Miller- "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Roesch, Ms. Emily Reynolds, Ms. Dawn Shields, and Mr. MikeVirgintino has been very valuable for us as "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "well. We appreciate Ambassador Shigeyuki Hiroki, Ambassador Sumio Kusaka, Ambassador "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Shinichiro Nishimiya, Ambassador Motoatsu Sakurai, and Ambassador Reiichiro Takahashi, for offering "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "the Consul General of Japan Special Award for each and every annual competition. We also appreciate "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "them for serving as Honorary Judges starting with the 2010-2011 competition and for recognizing our top "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "winners at their official residence starting with the 2011-2012 competition. The special recognition at the "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Ambassador’s residence with a formal luncheon created a once-in-a-lifetime precious memory for all "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "invitees. Similarly, we are grateful to the Directors of Japan Information Center at the Consulate General of "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Japan, namely, Mr. Koichi Ai, Mr. Fumio Iwai, Mr. Yasuhisa Kawamura, Mr. Jiro Okuyama, and Mr. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Akira Sugiyama, for presenting awards and for offering warm encouragement to the award winners. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Thoughtful assistance provided by many consuls, including Ms. Noriko Iida, Mr. Toshihiro Kaneko, Ms. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Kumi Matsumoto, Ms. Kanako Nozawa, and Mr. Hisashi Takashima, is very much appreciated as well. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "This program received support from many people at Stony Brook University. Dr. Shirley Kenny, "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "the former President of Stony Brook University, read all award-winning essays, as an Honorary Judge, and "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "congratulated their authors in person at every award ceremony until she retired. This tradition was "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "continued by top administrators of Stony Brook University, Dr. Mark Aronoff, Ambassador Harsh Bhasin, "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Dr. Nancy Goroff, and Dr. James Staros. Special appreciation goes to the members of the Professional "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Education Program (PEP), in particular Mr. Charles Backfish, Ms. Patricia Dixon, Dr. Dorit Kaufman, and "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Ms. Lauren Kaushansky for their encouragement, assistance, and promotion of the competition through "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "their networks. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "The contributions of the friends and members of the Japan Center at Stony Brook (JCSB) also "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "deserve acknowledgement. The generous financial support from many people, in particular from Mrs. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Toshiko Uchida, has been extremely helpful in enriching the program. Dr. Iwao Ojima and Ms. Yoko Ojima "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "have been contributing to numerous crucial aspects of the operation and continuation of the program. Dr. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Eriko Sato has been serving as the Organizing Committee Chair, overseeing all aspects of the operation. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Dr. Sachiko Murata has been serving as the Chief Judge, guiding the two levels of screening. Our second- "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "screening judges have been Stony Brook University’s faculty members: Ambassador Harsh Bhasin, Dr. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Mary Diaz, Dr. Clifford Huffman, Dr. Richard Larson, Dr. Janis Mimura, Ms. Eva Nagase, Dr. Sheldon "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Reaven, Dr. Gregory Ruff, and Dr. Eriko Sato. Among them, our special appreciation goes to Dr. Clifford "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Huffman, who served for this function in every single competition thus far. Our initial screening judges are "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "current or former educators in relevant fields, former JET (Japan Exchange Teaching Program) "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "participants, and/or selected members of the Japan Center: Ms. Carolyn Brooks, Dr. Marlene DuBois, Ms. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Jessica Fareri, Ms. MaryAnn Hannon, Ms. Melissa Rose Kavanah, Dr. Chiyoko Lord, Ms. Patricia "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Marinaccio, Ms. Joan Miyazaki, Ms. Eva Nagase, Dr. Francesca Nakagawa, Ms. Chikako Nakamura, Mr. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "vi "
                    }
                ]
            },
            {
                "pageNumber": "7",
                "paragraph": [
                    {
                        "data": "Shingo Omori, Dr. Atsuko Oyama, Ms. Mitsuko Post, Mr. Gerard Senese, Dr. Eriko Sato, and Ms. H. Mae "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Sprouse. The evaluation and input provided by the judges in both groups have been most valuable. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Furthermore, their warm interactions with each awardee in person during the post-ceremony reception has "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "been truly meaningful for this program. The professional music performance and the raffle during the "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "reception have been arranged by Ms. Yoko Ojima and Ms. Roxanne Brockner, respectively. The assistance "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "provided by the intern students coordinated by Ms. Eva Nagase and Dr. Eriko Sato for the entire program is "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "also acknowledged. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Last but not least, we appreciate the teachers and administrators who encouraged their students to "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "participate in this competition. They have broadened their students’ horizons greatly. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "vii "
                    }
                ]
            },
            {
                "pageNumber": "8",
                "paragraph": [
                    {
                        "data": "JCSB Key Personnel "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Iwao Ojima "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "JCSB President "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Yoko Ojima "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Board Member in Charge "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Eriko Sato "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Organizing Committee Chair "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Sachiko Murata "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Chief Judge "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "viii "
                    }
                ]
            },
            {
                "pageNumber": "9",
                "paragraph": [
                    {
                        "data": "Selected Essays "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "1 "
                    }
                ]
            },
            {
                "pageNumber": "10",
                "paragraph": [
                    {
                        "data": "Selected Essays "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "from First Competition "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "(2005-2006) 2 "
                    }
                ]
            },
            {
                "pageNumber": "11",
                "paragraph": [
                    {
                        "data": "My Japan "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Nora Micheva (Ward Melville High School) "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Imagine that amidst your normal life, you are teleported to a butterfly’s world. You live in harmony "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "with the butterflies and you forget you were different. Years after you have left, you doubt if you were a "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "butterfly, or it was just a dream. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "My two year butterfly dream started in the heart of the ancient city of Kyoto, Japan, where we moved "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "from Bulgaria. As a mathematician my father obtained a research position in Kyoto University. Thus, not "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "knowing the language or culture, I found myself in the fourth grade of a public Japanese elementary school. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "I could never imagine that in only two years Japan would become a part of me. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Pictures and sounds fill my mind when I think of my Japan. The bright red “torii” of Yoshida Jinja, "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "and the emblematic entrance of Kyoto University “Kyodai seimon mae” surround our traditional Japanese "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "house. I hear the cicadas’ cry and the university students, practicing their musical instruments late in the "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "summer nights. I see my school, and hear my classmates’ voices calling every morning at our door “No-ora "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "chan!” I feel their quick touches of my long hair, “Are you real?” I remember the cherry blossoms of the "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Philosopher’s Path and the autumn leaves in the old Emperor Palace’s garden. Reading and writing kanji "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "and kana came hand in hand with learning to ride ichirinsha (unicycle), and taking calligraphy lessons that "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "made me appreciate the hard work, persistence and humility needed to create anything beautiful. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Japan is also in the many friendships we remember fondly. There is one person, however, that made "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "an indelible impression on me - Chie. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "I first met her on a warm sunny day in Kyoto. My father’s watch broke and we looked for a place to "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "repair it. Skipping on the stone turtles in the sparkling waters of Kamogawa we crossed the river near "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Demachi Yanagi station and found a watch repair shop in a very old Kyoto house. There was a genuine "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "enthusiasm and cheerfulness in the voice and body language of the girl behind the counter. Her smile lit the "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "dark and narrow shop. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "She wanted to improve her English, so my father invited her to take lessons with my mother, who is "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "an English teacher. In the following two years we would see Chie every week, and not once did the smile "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "leave her face. She was always happy and didn’t look like she had a worry in the world. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Chie was an artist. For her paintings she used an ancient Kyoto tie dying technique called rozome. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "This is an extremely intricate and slow process of layering acid dyes and wax on silk which has been sized "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "with a soybean ground. Although traditionally rozome was used to make kimonos, Chie used it for her "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "contemporary compositions. I remember Chie’s works in the Kyoto National Museum - enormous panels of "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "cloth paintings hanging from the ceiling and situated at different depths of the exhibition space, creating a "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "whole composition. It wasn’t only its beauty that impressed me so much. I wondered how such a small "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "woman could create such large (literally) works of art. I often listened to Chie explain to my mother that "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "because her room at home was so small she used both the walls and the floor simultaneously to dye, wax "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "and wash the fabric. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Soon after we met Chie, her father got sick of cancer and after a year passed away. Her mother took "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "care of her bedridden younger sister who was born paralyzed, and never talked or moved on her own. I "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "knew that, but was not even remotely prepared for what we saw visiting Chie’s house. Her sister was lying "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "surrounded by machines. Her whole body was twisted and small, but her face was beautiful with an angelic "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "white skin. It was both the prettiest and scariest sight in my life. Suddenly Chie’s sister reminded me of the "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "roses Chie painted in her compositions – transparent flowers in full bloom that dazzled you with their "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "beauty, but reminded you of the transience of life. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Chie’s grace and strength in the face of tragedy symbolize the Japanese woman in my eyes. She set an "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "example for me and made me want to be a better person. I often long for my butterfly world and hope to "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "return some day. As for the future, I’d like to share my Japan with other people and help them see the "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "beauty of Japanese culture. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "3 "
                    }
                ]
            },
            {
                "pageNumber": "12",
                "paragraph": [
                    {
                        "data": "Cycling to Satori "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Michael Cohen (The Fieldston High School) "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "In an attempt to discover America, I discovered Japan. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Last summer, I embarked on a cross-country bicycle trip from Savannah, Georgia to the Santa Monica "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Pier. Although I had been captivated by a class I had recently taken about Japan, Japanese culture was just "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "about the last thing I expected to find in the 3100 miles from sea to shining sea. But this bicycle trip was "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "truly a life-changing experience, teaching me volumes about the connection between body and mind; the "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "fruits of discipline and sustained effort; the cleansing effect of an ascetic monastic lifestyle; the truth that "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "exists just below everyday fixations; the broad view of a fluid mind and the profound capabilities of mental "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "detachment. Thus, I discovered Zen Buddhism. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "As the school year wound down and my trip approached, I bought a durable touring bike and started "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "to prepare. The training regimen that I received in the mail was as specific as it was intense: a minimum of "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "four 50-mile rides loaded with 35 pounds of gear. This proved to be an impossible task. On the Sunday "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "afternoons that I had designated for training, I set out determined, only to return feeling unsuccessful and "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "frustrated. The truth is that I drove myself crazy on the bike. My cadence was inconsistent, my restless "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "mind wandered anywhere from my last math test to my upcoming dinner. My eyes were glued to my "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "odometer, and I quickly grew tired and preoccupied. Thirty miles seemed daunting. My dad warned that if I "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "did not improve, he would need to pick me up somewhere in Alabama. He was probably right. Excuses "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "mounted, time flew, and the trip began. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "After dipping our rear wheels in the Atlantic, we headed west through Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Arkansas, and found ourselves on the seemingly endless plains of Oklahoma. It was 4:30 a.m., not yet light, "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "and we were gliding through the monotony of the Oklahoma Panhandle. Then it hit me. I awoke from a sort "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "of meditative state that had become second nature to me, a profound rhythm in which my legs seemed to "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "move by themselves and my fluid mind floated through complete emptiness. I looked at the biker in front "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "of me, his wheel only six inches from mine; and the biker in front of him, equally close and compact. I "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "vividly recalled how the Zen monks walked around the Nanzenji Temple in Kyoto: marching in a tight line "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "to show discipline and concentration. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "The similarities to Zen Buddhism did not end there. My biking rhythm lasted nearly all day; "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "the zazen (seated meditation) and kinhin (walking meditation) of practicing Zen monks occupy much of "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "their waking hours. When I first learned about zazen and kinhin, they seemed painfully pointless and "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "abstract. Suddenly I understood. When committed to a task so great that it requires complete focus and "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "dedication, there is simply no room for everyday concerns. Mundane thoughts pollute the mind and "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "undermine one's discipline. Only after achieving an empty mind can one devote one's complete self to a "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "given task. In the Zen Buddhists' case, that task is reaching satori (enlightenment); in my case that task was "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "reaching the Pacific Ocean. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "I realized why I had been unsuccessful on my training rides. Like the zazen and kinhin of Zen monks, "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "the profound rhythm and detachment that propelled me across the country is not a state that is easily "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "accessible. It takes enormous discipline and practice to free the mind and approach one’s true potential. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Attempting to become a cyclist on Sunday afternoons is just as ludicrous as a Zen Buddhist trying to "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "achieve satori over the weekend. It simply cannot be done. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "While cycling across the country, I awoke at four a.m. every day, peddled 80 to 100 miles (eight to ten "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "hours), climbed off the bicycle, ate, (and ached) and fell asleep. I reaped the benefits of drastic discipline "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "and depravation. I experienced the power in the simple, almost ascetic existence of the Zen monks and "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "warriors. Through extreme bicycling, I exalted in the beauty and truth of Zen. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "According to legend, when Ikkyu (distinguished Japanese Zen monk) reached satori, his teacher awarded "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "him a certificate. Ikkyu burned the certificate, claiming that the value was not in reaching enlightenment, "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "but in what he will do with his enlightenment. I echo that sentiment. Reaching the Pacific was a triumph, "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "but it was only a momentary triumph. Finding power in the discipline and mental fluidity of Zen is a "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "lifelong gift. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "4 "
                    }
                ]
            },
            {
                "pageNumber": "13",
                "paragraph": [
                    {
                        "data": "Japan and Me "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Amita Jain (Syosset High School) "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "I was contentedly crunching away on my fourth piece of chocolate Pocky when suddenly the taste in "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "my mouth wasn’t so yummy anymore. It was all but nauseating. I had just entered the first exhibit in the "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Nagasaki Peace Museum to be greeted with videos and pictures lining the walls of grotesque mutilated "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "bodies, each limb out struck at odd angles, each face twisted with agony. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "After four hours of stomach-twisting and heart-wrenching episodes like those, I told my Okaasan that "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "I needed to leave. She understood and let me find the way out. While my stomach was settling, I sat in the "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "museum lobby and watched paper cranes flutter overhead. It was a Japanese belief that making a thousand "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "paper cranes would grant a wish. And what was above me, were not a thousand paper cranes, but tens and "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "tens of thousands of them. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "It struck me then how absurd the whole idea was. Honestly, folding paper was going to grant peace in "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "the world? It was going to bring happiness to the wretched and miserable? I scoffed at the ridiculousness "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "naiveté of it all. My Okaasan softly sat down next to me and took my hand. It wasn’t really the act of "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "origami or the wish itself, she said. It was the hope that each wish was carried by. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "It is appalling that a misfortune of any magnitude be ignored in the face of another. For me, and really "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "for everybody, no tragedy, no matter how small, should go unnoticed, whether it is one child going hungry, "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "or an entire country dying of AIDS. The only difference is the availability of people willing to help. That "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "void is where I want to step in. I want to be a person who can put a smile back on a tear-streaked face. I "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "want to be a person who can feel somebody else’s pain and make it go away. I want to be a person who can "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "make somebody else’s life a little more bearable. I want to be a person who cares. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Ideally, I would like to use my language skills, my science abilities, and my commitment to "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "participating in positive change as a physician. More importantly, however, I believe that exhibiting "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "compassion and simply being available to help can make the necessary difference in people’s lives. While I "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "may not change the world, and can’t reverse the horrors of Nagasaki, each patient that I effectively treat, "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "every conversation that allows a patient to feel respected, and every opportunity to give back to our global "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "community is, for me, a lovingly executed fold in my own peace crane. In that, I think I can hear a soft "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "flutter of hope. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "5 "
                    }
                ]
            },
            {
                "pageNumber": "14",
                "paragraph": [
                    {
                        "data": "Rebuilding a Nation, Rebuilding a Life: An "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Inspirational story of Japanese Language, "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "History and Culture "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Robert Donnelly (Stony Brook University) "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "“The most glorious moments in your life are not the so-called days of success, but rather those days "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "when out of dejection and despair, you feel rise in you a challenge to life, and the promise of future "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "accomplishments.” Gustave Flaubert "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Ever since my childhood, I always remember having an image of beauty come to mind whenever I "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "heard the word Japan. It may be that when I was in grade school studying the various countries and cultures "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "of the world the first pictures that were introduced to me were not of the busy, crowded filled streets of "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "downtown Tokyo or Osaka, but of a serene, meticulously sculpted garden, or a beautifully sewn field of tea. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "These were the pictures that appeared in my books as a child, and the images that I took with me as we "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "quickly moved on to the next chapter and area of the globe. So without ever really having noticed at the "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "time, I had been introduced to one of the most profound aspects of this country in such a way so that it had "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "stayed with me through my young adult years where I was finally able to realize what I had learned. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "I made the decision to pursue a career in the field of classical music when I was coming closer to "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "graduating high school, however, that seed had been planted in me since I received my first recording of "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Beethoven from my father when I was only ten. Of course I had no conception of what I was listening to at "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "the time, I only knew that it was beautiful and it made me feel something every time I heard it. Thinking "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "about it today, the experience of hearing that music was similar to that of seeing my first images of Japan. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Being only a small child, I was unable to reflect on what I was hearing or seeing, but I remember it being "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "powerful enough to grab my interest and hold a place somewhere inside of me, where it was going to be "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "used and more importantly needed some years later in my life. My study of music continued on, where I "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "used the talent that was given to me and was able to have great success as a classical trumpet player. I had "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "enjoyed accomplishments in the field that I could not have realized were possible when I was that ten-year "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "old boy with his first horn and recording. I entered college and began my study with wonderful "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "professionals who immediately began to shape my talent and ability for me into a form that would be ready "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "to be used in the professional orchestras, where my dreams could truly be realized. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "With an encouraging introduction to the path that I had waited to be on for years, I had hope that I "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "could actually succeed, until one day in late spring when news was given to me that had changed my life "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "from then on. As a young twenty-year old I was diagnosed with cancer of the thyroid and was told that I "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "would have to have a major operation to prevent what had been found from worsening and possibly "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "threatening my life. I received a serious operation to my neck; a vital part of the support system needed for "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "professional trumpet playing, and as a result was unable to play again for years after my ordeal. Sadly, I "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "slowly found myself falling away from music. The loss of something that I had worked years to achieve "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "brought me to a reality that was just unacceptable for me and so coming to terms with it was one of the "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "hardest things I have ever had to do. However, eventually I was able to begin examining ways within "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "myself and with others about how I would be able to continue on a path in which I knew I could be happy, "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "and through this found an unexpected interest in linguistics that I had not known was there before. I began "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "studying languages and continued with Japanese. The study of the language eventually lead me to study the "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "country, its people, culture and values. I began to rediscover the beauty that had made such an impression "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "on me as a child along with an aspect of its people that I found to be my greatest motivation. The Japanese "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "conception of professionalism and perfectionism is I believe on a different scale than the rest of the world. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Japan’s people have not only proven this set of values culturally and historically, they have applied it to a "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "level that enables them to succeed in every aspect of their endeavor. The constant strive for this perfection "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "has seen Japan become a leader in various pursuits ranging all the way from the arts to technology, and "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "seeing how deeply the commitment to this idea is so ingrained in the people, it is hard not to draw "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "inspiration from listening to their stories. In particular I was introduced to a program called Project X: The "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Challengers, which is a popular documentary-style program shown in Japan. Each episode is a story of a "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "single person or a group of people who are faced with seemingly insurmountable difficulty, yet through "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "6 "
                    }
                ]
            },
            {
                "pageNumber": "15",
                "paragraph": [
                    {
                        "data": "their will, desire, and passion, along with this ingrained conception of perfection are able to achieve some "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "of the greatest goals ever seen, not only in Japan’s history but the entire world’s. As my knowledge of the "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "language grew, I was able to understand more deeply the stories of these people and began to see how I "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "could bring these stories into my own life and use them as tools in achieving what I had lost. In one "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "particular episode, I remember watching a man who was struck with a terrible sickness. I watched as he "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "went through experiences similar to my own, but throughout his ordeal had somehow been able to keep site "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "of his goals, which were to regain his health and status thus making his focus, and resolve even stronger. I "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "began to realize that it was in this, where a special characteristic of the people of Japan existed. For a long "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "period in my life I was not able to do what not only this man, but the groups of men and women I was "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "watching each week were able to do. Regardless of the amount of hardships or setbacks they had, they used "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "what life had given them to propel them forward, not hold them down. This side of the culture I feel is also "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "related to the history of the country itself. After Japan’s defeat in World War II, the country which had once "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "been on the verge of complete supremacy and domination had been diminished to a mere trace of its former "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "form. It had seen a tremendous rise to power and fame and then a sudden loss of everything it had "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "accomplished all within a relatively short span of time. The impact that Japan had felt, as a nation was "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "undoubtedly a tremendous one, and maybe on a smaller scale within my own life resembled my own "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "feelings of devastation. However, through my relationship with the history of Japan and the perspective "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "from which I was experiencing it, there came something that had not come along before, a desire and hope "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "to continue in my life and finally on some level become free of what had been holding me back. I had "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "imagined that Japan, its people, and the people that were given the responsibility of rebuilding it might "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "have felt this way also. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Just as Japan had done, I found the strength to bury what had happened to me in the past and once "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "again continue on a course toward my goals as a musician. As I began the impossible climb, paths appeared "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "before me that were once covered in complete darkness and doubt. I began to remake myself with a new "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "outlook, and have been fortunate enough to be accepted into a professional trumpet studio once again, sit "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "and play in orchestras being surrounded with the beauty of the music I once loved, and graduate with my "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "degree in music. I hope that we all will be able to see these aspects of Japan, and if ever need be apply them "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "to our own lives on whatever level necessary. They are indeed beautiful, and I am ever grateful for my "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "relationship with them. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "7 "
                    }
                ]
            },
            {
                "pageNumber": "16",
                "paragraph": [
                    {
                        "data": "Japan: A Granddaughter’s Perspective "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Kaitlyn Ferris (Mount Sinai High School) "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "One might wonder how topics as different as Japan and Katie Ferris are related. I am an Irish "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "American high school student who has never been close to the country of Japan in my life; however, just "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "because I have never set foot on the island nation doesn’t mean that Japan has not influenced my life. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "During the cold snowy days of November, 1954, my Grandfather, Richard Sherwood Hackett, "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "witnessed the birth of his first daughter, my mother Lee Ferris, at the Great Lakes Naval Hospital near "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Waukegan, Illinois. Shortly after experiencing this overwhelming joy with his wife, Richard boarded a "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "naval ship that brought him half way around the world to the island nation of Japan. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "My Grandfather joined the Navy soon after he had graduated from high school. He was stationed in "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Japan as a medic during the Korean Conflict. Japan was his “stepping stone” to the gruesome war that was "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "raging in Korea. Thankfully for my family’s sake my Grandfather never made it to the front lines; for that "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "matter he never even made it to Korea!! The armistice was signed before his unit was transported to Korea. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Even though he did not play an active role in the Korean Conflict, my Grandfather has told me that his "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "military duty in Japan changed his outlook on his own life and how he valued human life in general. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "My Grandfather arrived in Japan after the treaty ending World War II had been signed in 1952. It was "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "a time of rebuilding for the country. He was stationed in a small village called Gotemba. His camp, North "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Camp, was one of three camps located near Mount Fuji. As a medic his primary duty was to hold sick call "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "every morning. All military personnel who needed medical attention reported to sick call for treatment. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Once sick call was complete, that left quite a bit of free time for my Grandfather and his buddies to explore "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "the country. There my Grandfather and his buddies came upon a couple of orphanages. Children who had "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "been left alone after the war were being cared for in these institutions. The orphanages were always low on "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "supplies; my Grandfather and his buddies gathered the leftover food from the mess hall and brought it to "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "the orphanages. They collected staples like cereal, powdered milk and canned goods. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "My Grandfather is by no means a war hero. He freely talks about how he hated his cold weather "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "training in the California Mountains. He even admits that he was sea sick on the long trip from California "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "to Japan. However, he was a hero to those orphans who depended on his generosity for food. I have also "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "learned that there are life lessons hidden within his “war stories.” My Grandfather said that taking care of "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "those orphans he barely knew, while he left his wife and baby daughter behind, made him realize how truly "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "lucky he was. He told me that I am blessed with a good home and a loving family for support. I understand "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "that people all over the world would envy my situation. His example also has shown me that it is the duty "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "of the strong to help the weak even if our cultural differences are deep. I hope that I can live up to his "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "example. The most important thing that my Grandfather learned in Japan was hope. He found it incredible that "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "the orphans who had lost so much were so hopeful and happy. Like most children, they played games, "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "laughed and sang songs. They welcomed the sailors and marines with unconditional acceptance. My "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Grandfather witnessed the aftermath of World War II in the eyes of those orphans. And what he saw was "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "hope for a brighter future. He has tried to live his life that way—in a hopeful, optimistic manner. By "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "association I have learned to do the same. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "My Grandfather has no medals or citations to commemorate his duty in Japan. He has only the marks "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "on his soul that have helped to make him the person he is today. His positive influence on the lives of his "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "children and grandchildren is his reward. The history books may recount events differently, but the country "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "of Japan has influenced me because it was the place where many of my Grandfather’s personal qualities "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "were strengthened. I am the person I am today because of his influence. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "8 "
                    }
                ]
            },
            {
                "pageNumber": "17",
                "paragraph": [
                    {
                        "data": "Search for the Essential Japan "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Jerry Blackman (The Cooper Union School of Art) "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "I had many preconceptions about Japan before actually going there. My ideas were derived from the "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "pop-culture images, and the general stereotyping that circulates around all cultures. I was looking forward "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "to seeing such Japan standards as the overly polite and awkward businessman who takes off his shoes to "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "eat, or the crazy hair-do, space-outfit wearing freak of Harajuku. Surely I would encounter slews of Manga "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "comic books, video games, and even robots walking the streets. Next to the traditional tea shop would be "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "the futuristic teleportation device of some sort. I was expecting Japan to be a land of excess, of spirituality, "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "and of the future: the singular anomaly that stood apart from the rest of the world. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Naturally my expectations were not met. They couldn’t have been just by their nature of being "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "idealized. Yes, I saw businessmen without shoes and kids with green hair, but these cultural signifiers were "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "never able to become fully transcendent and exist as essentially as their archetypal, American imposed "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "counter parts. Somehow, the images of my imagination exoticised and projected Japan to a state more "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "interesting than the real Sumo wrestler on the train, or lonely crane in the river could describe. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "I had not given up completely on the realizing of my fantasies for Japan though, so I embarked on a "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "search mission. If archetypes and essentialist ideas function in the realm of images, I’d create as best I "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "could the Japan I was looking for. With a digital camera always holstered to my hip, I was hyper aware and "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "fanatic. Literally minutes were spent in framing shots and finding the perfect composition between the "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "rectangle of the viewfinder and the pink leaves of the Sakura tree beyond it. Not once looking up from the "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "LCD screen, I would wait for that clear a line of sight amongst the crowds of people so I could possess the "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "lie of the quiet temple garden. I would climb, crawl, jump, and even balance to take advantage of, what I "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "thought was, the most beautiful shot to date. Sometimes getting the perfect picture involved maneuvering "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "into painful positions over bridges or fences, and I even believed that of my waving finger in the water "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "could beckon at least one Coi fish next to the patch of blossoming Lotus flowers. By the end of my stay, I "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "had been to over forty gardens and even developed a reflex where the sound of running water would trigger "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "my arm to jerk downwards, and my fingers to grab at the Velcro of my camera case. I was trying to recreate "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "every Japanese postcard and calendar I had ever seen, investing almost religiously to the archetypal "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "sentiment of that perfect blossom, hanging in all its solemn Japanese glory, over the pond. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "In an obsessive-compulsive manner I went down the list of everything I thought to be Japanese, and "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "made a foreign culture into my own personal scavenger hunt. Nothing was sacred: praying monks on "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "bridges: *snap*, schoolgirls on the train: *snap*, little old woman holding an umbrella: *snap*, Sumo "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "wrestlers, Geisha, Businessmen: *snap*, *snap*, *snap*. It carried on like this for more time than I care to "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "remember. I found that the more essentially I could capture a situation, and the more I could remove it from its "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "reality and make it a commonality, something I had seen before, the better I thought the shot. I was indeed "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "attempting to dissolve the reality around me, and redefine it in terms to match my preconceptions. But these "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "idealizations proved in fact impossible to meet. Though a photo might look perfect, there was always "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "something that irked me. My Geisha-by-the-Water shot, for example, has a sky that is a little bit too "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "overcast to transcend itself, apart from the fact that she actually just a tourist in costume. My Osaka- "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Nightlife picture appears chaotic and exciting at first, but after a moment of inspection, the rather "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "rudimentary geography of the street is exposed, and the streetlights all fall back into their simple "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "geometrical orientation. I thought I had found the essential Temple Garden shot, but the otherwise perfect "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "harmony of the tea house, bridge, and waterfall was interrupted by the electric grate buried in the sand, and "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "the six spotlights surrounding the pond, undoubtedly connected to it. I wasn’t frustrated though: I think I "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "had some awareness that I was engaging with artifice, and couldn’t let my heart mistake the photograph of "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "an experience for a real one. Collecting the archetypes in this clinical manner became an experience in "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "itself, and part of my genuine understanding of Japan. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "9 "
                    }
                ]
            },
            {
                "pageNumber": "18",
                "paragraph": [
                    {
                        "data": "My failure to capture the archetypes indicated that perhaps they didn’t really exist, and this was "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "further confirmed when my Japanese acquaintances would laugh about me being more Japanese than they, "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "and taking interest in cultural rites which they were indifferent to. I’d ask people if they would like to check "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "out this or that temple, this festival or that festival, but the Japanese kids I spoke to weren’t interested. I "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "equated this with my own New York indifference to the Statue of Liberty, or Empire State Building for "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "example, and realized that perhaps they and I weren’t all that dissimilar. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "I started doing Zazen meditation, not as an engagement with another cliché, but because I thought that "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "it would be a genuine eye-opening experience, and too good to pass up. It also occurred to me that while in "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Japan I should attempt to learn as much about the things that were surrounding me as I could, so I picked "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "up several of D. T. Suzuki’s books on Zen Buddhism, plus some others on Japanese gardens. Zen, as far as "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "I could understand, promoted dissolution of the self which was really the antithesis to American thinking, "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "and an extremely foreign and dangerous concept for me to consider. I noticed its prevalence within "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Japanese daily life. The people did seem extremely similar to one another, but not in a bad way, just less "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "egocentric. Even the arts of Japan are not a testimony to personal achievement, but to nature, and the subtle "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "beauties of the world without. After reading these books, I learned a new way to appreciate the Zen garden, "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "the Ikibana display, or even the Haiku. I came to realize Japan as a place whose people are historically and "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "culturally concentrated on their Island, and who define reality through it. Indeed, all the Japanese "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "involvements with nature are in some ways more involved with the nature of Japan specifically. I had never "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "seen a place whose language, culture, people, and land were so intertwined and involved with each other. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Though not Japanese, I could still understand the benefit of selflessness, and the beauty of such a concept. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "To truthfully invest in it would mean the shattering of all my previous ideas of structure in my life, and "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "making a valiant and honest effort to not find happiness per-se, but the non-duality between happiness and "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "suffering, and the non-duality between myself and the world. Zen doctrine states that everything is one and "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "nothing simultaneously. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "In practicing Zen, and reading its literature, my eyes became wide open. I began to remember the "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "inconsistencies between different people, and through that, was liberated of stereotypical thinking. I "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "remember having previously thought that being an American would automatically make me a romantic "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "with Japanese women. The three girls that I remember from Japan actually gave testimony to a dynamic "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "much less general than that. Firstly there was Midori who called me “kiza” or “pompous” when I tried to "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "kiss her on our first date, but later became my friend after I apologized. Then there was that passionate "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "stranger I met one night at a club within Kyoto’s city center who I fell deeply in love for a second before I "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "lost her to the night. Thirdly there was the charming Moeko, who I met at school, and actually still speak to. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Not a “girlfriend” per-se, but a companion at times, and very pleasant company, though all too familiar with "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "the same cat and mouse game I was used to from back home. How can I qualify any of these girls as "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "signifying a Japanese cultural consistency, and not specifically a “Midori”, “Kyoto Stranger”, or “Moeko” "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "one? Everyone I met was different in their own way. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "The deeper I investigated the Japanese cultural idea that I had had in America, the more that idea "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "became realized as generality that harbors much nuance. Surely some sweeping ideas can be made about "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Japan, and I have some photos or memories of people to prove them, but within those front-running labels, "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "more elusive truths are revealed, and “Japan” really becomes a place of diversity, not unlike America, and "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "perhaps even like every other place in this world. Stereotypes are derived from vague truths, but in reality, "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "as Moeko succinctly put it in her very last words to me, “life is unexpected, desyoo!” "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "10 "
                    }
                ]
            },
            {
                "pageNumber": "19",
                "paragraph": [
                    {
                        "data": "Selected Essays "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "from Second Competition "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "(2006-2007) 11 "
                    }
                ]
            },
            {
                "pageNumber": "20",
                "paragraph": [
                    {
                        "data": "Japan and Me "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Molly Baum (Longwood High School) "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "When examining the numerous Japanese philosophies, one particular principle bares greater "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "significance than the rest. The Japanese people believe in Gaman- a value system that praises self-sacrifice, "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "selflessness, and especially, forbearance. The idea of forbearance resonates strongly with me because of the "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "relationship between forbearance, courage, and emotional endurance. Throughout my life, I have "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "encountered numerous obstacles and seemingly impassable challenges. I have overcome such hurdles only "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "after discovering an indomitable sense of hope within myself and among my parents. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "I was born with arms that end slightly below my elbows, and a spinal cord that lacks certain lower "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "nerves. Most doctors told my parents that due to my spinal condition, I would not be able to walk. Despite "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "the immediate devastation they felt due to my lack of hands, they focused on the prevalent issue- ensuring "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "the functionality of my legs. After numerous grim prognoses, my parents found a doctor with a more "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "promising prediction. Before I was a year old, the doctor fitted my legs with braces spanning from the "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "bottoms of my feet to just below my kneecaps. As time progressed, my parents’ perseverance in finding a "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "solution proved worthwhile. Gradually, I began to walk with the leg braces. During my first two years of "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "walking, I encountered issues with maintaining balance, but my parents persisted in finding an occupational "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "therapist that helped me to correct this problem. When I reached an age of comprehension, my parents "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "recounted to me this first of many struggles. At that point, I realized that my parents never had and never "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "would stop believing in my abilities. This thought surfaces whenever I want to give up on myself. My "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "mother and father taught me the forbearance and determination that I use whenever life seems impossible. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "I had adjusted to my lack of hands within the first two years of my life, but the less visible medical "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "issues that followed became increasingly difficult to confront. From the age of three years old, I "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "encountered a barrage of invasive medical tests, medications, and painful surgeries. From the frightening "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "days that approached an operation to the following month of recovery, I unknowingly committed myself to "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "the Gaman philosophy of forbearance. I despised every minute of the fear and the pain, but I knew that my "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "experiences would increase my emotional endurance and contribute to my character. Due to the support of "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "my parents and the courage I have acquired, I can triumph over every new obstacle with greater strength "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "and the wisdom that accompanies experience. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "In August of 2007, I will begin my freshman year of college. Although the prospect of independence "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "and liberation is exciting, I acknowledge that the new environment and lifestyle will be the greatest trial of "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "my character. College will be frightening and challenging, and its stress combined with the stress of my "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "physical obstacles will be overwhelming and will sometimes seem insurmountable. However, my parents’ "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "reassurance, their ceaseless faith in my capabilities, and my own perseverance will enable me to adjust to "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "the changes. Eventually, I will thrive on what was once an obstacle. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "While many philosophic ideals seem esoteric and irrelevant to the modern world, the beliefs included "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "in Gaman are more than relevant to my life. Gaman’s principles of forbearance and character-building have "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "become essential components of my values. They have enabled me to overcome countless difficulties and "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "setbacks. Each day may bring a more menacing obstacle, but with Gaman as the foundation of my ideals, I "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "know that there is no limit to what I can accomplish through determination. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "12 "
                    }
                ]
            },
            {
                "pageNumber": "21",
                "paragraph": [
                    {
                        "data": "A Gamble in Japan "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Joan Kim (Syosset High School) "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "When I was younger I used to despise Japan. I thought it was Japan who taken away my grandfather, "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "leaving my dad without a father and my grandmother without a husband. In 1948, the war had separated "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "my grandfather while he was on a business trip in Japan, forcing him to settle there temporarily and then "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "permanently. During those years, my grandfather, thinking his wife and child had died, married a Japanese "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "woman and had another son. He began a few businesses and was very successful. Eventually he came to "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "understand that his wife and child in Korea were still alive and living in America. He began to send money "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "to help support my grandmother and father. One day, my parents and I went to visit him in Japan. Forty "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "years had passed since my father had met his father. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "I remember my dad lifting me out of a car, whispering in my ear, “Joan, don’t forget what I told you. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Remember to bow politely.” My parents, luggage in one hand and my hands in the other, walked towards "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "the building with whimsical designs on the windows. Rolling the front door to the right, my jaw dropped at "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "the sight of hundreds of strange machines. I had never seen anything like it, except it reminded me of a "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "room in Las Vegas that I was not allowed to enter. My mother, fluent in Japanese, called out someone’s "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "name and flipping back to Korean, said: “We’re here!” After a moment, we heard the sound of creaking "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "wood and a clatter of pots; then an elderly couple appeared at the bottom of the stairs. These strangers were "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "my grandparents. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Starting from scratch, my grandfather had started a casino business and at one point in time, owned "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "over three buildings in Japan’s most industrious cities. “Pachinko,” said my grandfather, as he beckoned me "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "to come and sit in front of one of the machines. Ignoring my parents’ protests that I was too young to "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "gamble, my grandfather took out a coin for me to insert into an opening. As soon as the coin hit the bottom, "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "the machine sprang to life and began to show images of a singing mermaid. After a minute or two, the "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "machine spit out two silver marbles, and that was my first introduction to Japan’s most popular pinball "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "machine. Tired of the crowded and polluted cities, my grandfather had moved to the countryside of Nagano. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Customers interested in pachinko were scarce, but strangely, my grandfather continued to open his doors "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "every morning to his small business. The building was surrounded by rice patties and somewhere, there "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "must have been a bean field because my step grandmother always brought in a basketful of cooked string "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "beans. To this day, I cannot forget the way these furry pods popped out sweet beans into my mouth. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "These memories are vague, yet they stay with me. As I got older and began to learn about the culture "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "and history of Japan, I realized that it was the war, not the country or the people that I disliked. I realized "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "that, in a way, Japan had saved my grandfather and provided him with great success, even allowing my "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "family to be financially supported after immigrating to America from Korea. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Many things have changed since I left Japan in 1995. My grandfather’s buildings had become "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "bankrupt and were sold for very cheap prices. Recently, he passed away, leaving his Japanese wife and son "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "in Japan, and another elderly Korean wife in America who still remembered what he wore on their first "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "date. Seeing that generation fade away, I dearly wished that I were older and more successful. I wanted to "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "help my step-grandmother and my sick uncle, but I did not know how…That is, until I learned about a "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Japanese language course at my high school. Dropping four years of honors Spanish courses, I enrolled in "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Japanese Level 1 as a senior at Syosset High school. Sad that I did not find out about this course any "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "sooner, I am faithfully studying my hiragana, katakana and ru, and u-verbs and plan to continue in college. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "I only hope for the day that I am able to meet my Japanese family again and tell them how much I waited "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "for this day to come in fluent Japanese. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "13 "
                    }
                ]
            },
            {
                "pageNumber": "22",
                "paragraph": [
                    {
                        "data": "Foggy Homestay "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Melida Maldonado (Marble Hill School for International Studies) "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "While walking out of the Hokkaido subway, lugging my oversized suitcase, I was unaware of what I "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "would see around the next corner. Being in a new country, Japan, gave me the motivation to try as many "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "new things as possible. However, I was hesitant about the host family stay. After hearing home stay horror "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "stories from past students, not only was I apprehensive, but I was dreading the next ten days of my "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Japanese home stay. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "As I stood with my luggage staring in awe at the anxious crowd of host families, I eventually located "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "the family holding up the sign that read “Melida.” When I approached them, I was so overwhelmed that I "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "tried to greet my host mother with a hug. Unfortunately, my unannounced hug startled her, because in "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Japanese culture, touching strangers is not customary. Considering that I was in a foreign country, I was "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "aware that I would make mistakes. However, the awkward and embarrassing moment of my host mother "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "backing away from my hug only increased my pessimism about the home stay. My biggest fear, other than "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "committing any further mistakes, was enduring awkward silences between me and the family. I knew the "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "language well enough to get by, but I was limited to the things I knew how to say. This caused us to resort "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "to sign language for things we did not know how to express. The language barrier seemed like it was going "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "to be an issue for the rest of my stay. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "It was not until the day my host father took me to JR Tower, the tallest building in Sapporo, that I "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "started to appreciate my host family. As I was looking at the foggy mountains in the distance, I asked my "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "host father for the Japanese word for “fog,” just out of curiosity. He replied, “kiri” and then asked for the "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "English word. After listening to the English word, he stood thinking and then it was as if a light bulb "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "clicked on in his mind. He realized the meaning of the English words in his car, “fog light.” Soon after, he "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "excitedly told his wife and some friends about his discovery. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "At the time, I could not believe the enthusiasm he had for learning such a small word. However, "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "throughout my days in Japan, we both demonstrated this same level of excitement when we had "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "conversations where neither of us knew what the other was saying, but we learned a new word or phrase. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Finding different ways to communicate and get our message across helped clear up the fog I had endured at "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "the beginning of my experience. I realized that as much as I love learning the mechanics of languages, that "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "was not the only way I was going to convey an emotional connection. There is so much more to learning "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "languages than just memorization of words and grammar patterns. It is how one uses their skills to clarify "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "misunderstandings between different cultures in order to help others. Knowing that I helped my host father "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "understand English words expanded my love for languages. My will to teach and learn in Japan, even "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "though I made mistakes along the way, granted us both a cross-cultural education. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "When the end of my home stay grew near, I realized how much I had underestimated my experience. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Even though I was raised bi-lingual, I had been afraid of living in a home where communication would be a "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "challenge. However, in those ten days, I became determined to incorporate my affinity for the Japanese "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "language into my future career and think before I throw myself into any other person’s arms as a greeting. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Holding back tears, I packed my bags on the last day, reluctant to say goodbye to the family I had "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "been so hesitant to meet. As I made my way to the train station, my host mother slipped her hand into mine "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "for support. Before I boarded my train, she embraced me with the biggest hug— surprising for a person "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "who originally stepped away from my hug. Right there and then, I knew that being part of this family was a "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "risk worth taking. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "14 "
                    }
                ]
            },
            {
                "pageNumber": "23",
                "paragraph": [
                    {
                        "data": "Make Believe: Finding Fantasy in Reality in "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Old Japan "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Heather Highfield (Stony Brook University) "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Often, when I was a child, I would finish reading some fantasy-fiction novel and lament that this "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "world was a terribly boring place. Everything was ruled by logic and science; phenomena which once were "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "considered supernatural were now known to have set formulae and reasonable explanations. It always "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "seemed as if everything that could be invented or discovered had already been. Nothing was left to the "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "imagination. Even mysterious creatures like those living on the bottom of the ocean had been found and "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "made into documentaries. Raised with this very practical mindset, I found that I could never really be "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "astounded by anything; even as I felt silly wishing for some fantasy world like the kind I had read about, I "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "wanted to be able to wonder at something, to honestly feel that perhaps magic was possible. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Even as I grew up and went to college, that small childish part of me never really changed. I had a "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "casual academic interest in fairy tales; It wasn’t that I found them believable, but I enjoyed the way logic "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "and reason took a back seat to novelty, and anything could happen. The world in those stories was wild and "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "uncharted; to live there must be frightening and exhilarating. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "When I began taking Japanese language and history classes, I inevitably became curious about what "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "sort of monster and fairy stories such an ancient country had produced. What I found was an incredibly rich "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "lore full of fantastical creatures and dark forests, of warriors trained by mysterious mountain goblins, of "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "spirit gods and demons who became beautiful women by night. I also found many wonderful examples in "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "the animated movies of Hayao Miyazaki, which I quickly came to love. His movies, though mostly created "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "for children, depicted precisely the world I wished I could believe in. One features a shadowy, bustling "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Japanese bath-house town full of mysterious Japanese deities like radish and river spirits. Another, “My "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Neighbor Totoro,” features a giant, furry forest-god-type creature called Totoro who protects the woods and "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "whom only children can see. This one, by far my favorite, depicts a world which is not dangerous, but "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "which is dark and wild and exciting; the forest is deep, untouched and infinitely explorable; a sense of real "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "childlike wonder is possible. In such an environment, even those who cannot see Totoro can nonetheless "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "truly believe he exists. As I learned more about bright, fast-paced modern Japan, my imagination also grew, "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "and I wondered whether these tales still had any place in the national psyche or if that dark and mysterious "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "world still existed within the popular gleaming, technology-saturated vision of Japan. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "I kept this in my mind when I applied to study as an exchange student in Japan. I chose a program in "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Kyoto over one in Tokyo or Chiba, passing up the urban life for a more traditional experience. At first, I "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "took every opportunity to visit temples, go for long walks and explore countryside as well as city. But after "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "a few months, having seen a little of everything, I had regressed to my usual state of sitting in the computer "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "room all afternoon when I should be using my time more wisely. As time passed, I did of course travel to "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "many places and see a lot of Japan, but my experience was also becoming more and more like everyday "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "life: that small sense of wonder and newness that everything held when I first arrived was disappearing. I "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "had seen a great deal of Japan, but there was still one side of it I had not found. I desperately wanted to see "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "the side of Japan that inspired those fairy tales, but I began to doubt whether that world still existed at all. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "One night in the middle of July, just a month before I was scheduled to come home, my boyfriend, "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Hiroshi, suddenly announced over dinner that he knew the perfect place to go see fireflies, and that we "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "should go there at once. Ever practical, I pointed out that we should probably go another day, as it was "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "already almost 9 and the train up to the mountains would stop running soon. Also, I observed, it might be a "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "good idea to finish our meal first in any case. But he would not be deterred by logic nor reason. And so, "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "fifteen minutes later, still hungry, I found myself standing outside the tiny, remote Kibune train station, "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "staring out into the unbroken darkness of what I came to realize was the road we would be taking. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "I turned to the solitary vending machine and bought some milk tea in a heavy steel can, not so much "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "for drinking as for defense against wayward bears. Or monkeys. Or radish spirits. I had taken this road "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "during the daytime, and it was not remotely threatening; but now, it seemed as though anything could "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "happen. Out of bravery or carelessness, we resolved not to turn back and set out down the deserted, "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "winding road toward the next street lamp, far in the distance. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "15 "
                    }
                ]
            },
            {
                "pageNumber": "24",
                "paragraph": [
                    {
                        "data": "We stumbled along through the night arm in arm, neither sure of who was clinging to whom. The "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "bluish, flickering streetlights were separated by intimidating stretches of total blackness; the next light was "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "always just out of sight. The road wound gently uphill through hills that towered high overhead on both "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "sides; somewhere to the right was a river, though we knew that only by the sound of water running over the "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "rocks somewhere below. At length the hills and trees gave way to a string of weathered, ancient Japanese "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "houses and inns lit by low, rust-colored streetlights. Even at this relatively early hour, all of the windows "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "were dark; the houses seemed to lean sleepily against each other. I briefly considered what I would do if "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "one were to suddenly stir; I tried to walk more quietly. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "As the houses grew more sparse and we plunged once more into darkness, I asked Hiroshi how soon "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "we would get where we were going. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "“We’re there,” he said. “Look up.” "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "I looked up. For a long moment, there was nothing to see - just blackness and the soft rush of an "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "invisible river. But then, suddenly, they were there: first one, then four, then seven, then fifty; the lazy, "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "floating green lights seemed to pour in from nowhere as my eyes found something on which to focus. First "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "one, then sixty, then two hundred, drifting up in wide, sweeping arcs down along the river, then up to the "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "trees, then up over the barely-visible hills. First one, then, suddenly, a thousand. We watched the fireflies "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "glide silently over the river and rise into the sky, wordlessly, as though they would flee at the slightest "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "disturbance. I don’t know how long we stood there, frozen. If I stared just a little bit longer, I was sure I’d "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "see some ancient, mythical creature rise out of the forest with them and into the moonless sky. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "“Oh no.” Hiroshi flipped open his cell phone. I looked into the light for an instant and recoiled, "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "blind. “We have to hurry. Is it okay if we leave now?” "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "But there was no point in asking. I looked up over the river, but the hills, the water, the fireflies were "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "gone. They had fled after all; the spell was broken. We set off running down the way we had come, "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "pounding footsteps swallowed in the streetlights’ wake. The houses did not stir; there were no assailing "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "bears; the mountain goblins let us pass. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "We reached the lonely train platform with just enough time to turn and look back down the road we "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "had taken. We stepped onto the train; the doors closed. There was a second; we breathed. It was when I "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "finally sat down, exhausted, that I realized I had found exactly what it was I had come here to experience. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "At that moment, I could believe that if there were a bus stop along that road, I had only to wait and I’d meet "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Totoro there. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Feeling not at all silly, I drank my tea. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "16 "
                    }
                ]
            },
            {
                "pageNumber": "25",
                "paragraph": [
                    {
                        "data": "Selected Essays "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "from Third Competition "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "(2007-2008) 17 "
                    }
                ]
            },
            {
                "pageNumber": "26",
                "paragraph": [
                    {
                        "data": "His Greatest Wish "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Samantha Dupler (South Side High School) "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "The colors and sounds were everywhere, vermillion archways stretching over speckled pavement, the "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "foreign shouts of vendors over the music of street performers, paper lanterns hanging from above "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "merchants’ huts. This, in a nutshell, was the street of Nakamise-dori on a certain spring day. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "It was my fourth day in Tokyo of a two week trip to Japan, and so far, I had found the entire country’s "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "culture juxtaposed within itself, a fascinating and sometimes dizzying blend of old meets new, a mix of "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "kimono-clad women and gelled-hair business men, both types different, yet the same, in the sense that they "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "could all call Japan their home. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "With these heavy thoughts resting on my mind, I made my way through the crowded shopping street, "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "past the doll shops and fan stalls, through the crowds of bargain hungry shoppers. At last, I found myself at "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "the end of the street, standing before a statue of Buddha, smooth and glowing bronze from where thousands "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "of hands had rubbed it for luck. The air here was quiet, the people possessed a serene disposition, and the "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "loudest sound was that of the rustling of paper scraps, each scrawled with a wish tied to a small tree, in "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "hopes that they may come true. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "I stood before the statue, taking it all in, when I noticed a small table nearby, where an old Japanese "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "man sat folding paper. I wandered over to the table. It looked like a type of cultural station, designed for "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "visitors to indulge in the Japanese art of origami. On the table, there were stacks and strips of brightly "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "colored paper, and laminated, yet battered, instruction sheets in both English and Japanese on how to create "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "paper cranes. So I sat down at the table and tried to make one of my own. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "The cranes were much harder to make than they appeared, and in a matter of minutes, I had "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "accidentally decimated at least six sheets of paper. The old man at the table noticed my arduous attempts, "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "and came over to me with a smile. “No, no,” he said gently in English. “Like this.” He picked up the paper "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "and folded it with ease, and soon held a small red crane in his wrinkled hands. The old man set the crane on "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "the table and looked proudly at it. “Thank you,” I said with a smile. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "His smile stretched farther when he heard my voice, and he gathered up more paper. “Ah, American?” "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "he asked excitedly. “Yes,” I said. “I’m from New York.” I studied the crane on the table as the old man "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "continued to fold more. Picking the bird off the table, I turned it over in my hands, admiring the delicate "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "folds. “Like this,” said the old man, taking the crane back. He pulled the tail gently, and the wings "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "elongated gracefully, the crane’s paper neck extending just so. He then set the crane back down on the "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "table, waiting for my reaction. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "I leaned over across the table, to where a rainbow of paper strips lay stacked. I then smoothed the strip "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "out and began folding it over and around itself, forming a little pentagon. The old man watching with "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "amazement, I pinched the corners of the shape, puffing out its sides to form a tiny star. “For you,” I said, "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "and placed the star on the table. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "The old man’s smile became so large, it almost seemed to split his face in two. “A star!” he exclaimed. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "“An American star!” He got up and began showing my star to each and every person at the table. In the "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "distance, the wish trees whispered. I smiled at the old man, and began to get up from the table, but he came "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "back to my seat with a few parting words. “Tell your American friends; visit Japan, visit here,” he said, "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "hope etched into the lines on his face and buried deep in the soul of his voice. “Spread my culture,” he said, "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "holding my crumpled star. “For I fear it is fading fast.” "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "I nodded, and picked up the crane off the table, cradling it in my fingers. He nodded back to me "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "quickly, and then walked back over to the other side of the table, to help others with their cranes. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "I turned away from the table, and made my way back to Nakamise-dori, the paper wish trees swishing "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "like a thousand matches striking, each lighting a fire of hope and passion. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "18 "
                    }
                ]
            },
            {
                "pageNumber": "27",
                "paragraph": [
                    {
                        "data": "Initiation with a Washcloth "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Mari Iwahara (The Dalton School) "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "“Ittekimasu!” I called back to my mother as I hurried out the doors and into the small streets. I "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "readjusted my white button-up blouse, navy pleated skirt, white socks and Nike sneakers, specifically "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "picked out to imitate the basic Japanese middle school uniforms. This was the first day of my fifth grade "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "taiken-nyuugaku, a two-week school experience at a middle school in Kanazawa, Japan. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "The inside of my matching navy backpack consisted of a notebook, pencil case, tissues, "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "handkerchief, and washcloth. My mother had hand-sewn the washcloth, telling me that I would need it for "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "souji no jikan, “clean-up time”, during school. “Clean-up time” sounded like a preschool activity and I "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "wasn’t sure what to make of it, but since the cloth was clearly listed on the supplies list, I didn’t bother "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "questioning it. The handkerchief and tissues were to be with me at all times for sanitary means. I was also "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "given a pair of brand-new shoes that I was supposed to change into once I got to school. “You need two "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "pairs of shoes,” instructed my mother the night before. “One for indoors and one for outdoors. That keeps "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "the dirt from getting inside the school.” "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Once I got to school and changed into my indoor pair, I saw exactly what she meant. There wasn’t "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "a single piece of trash on the floor or a single spot on the wall, and every child was changing into his or her "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "clean pair of shoes, making sure not to dirty the wooden floors. The whole environment was unbelievably "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "clean, a complete shift from the careless, chaotic school hallways back in New York City. As I walked "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "down the hallways to find my classroom, there were posters on the walls that reminded the students to "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "“keep the school clean”, “clean up after your own mess”, and “respect the environment”. No wonder this "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "place was so clean. There was no graffiti smeared on the posters. Even as I sat through classes and moved "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "from classroom to classroom, the neatness of the school was impressive. “The janitors must be excellent "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "here,” I casually thought. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "The surprising truth was that there weren’t any janitors taking care of the place. I learned this the "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "period after lunch, when suddenly, lively music started playing from the intercoms. All at once, as if on cue, "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "the children got up and scattered. Confused at first, it quickly occurred to me that this was souji no jikan. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Numerous brooms and mops emerged from the closets, children carried water-filled buckets, desks and "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "chairs were moved around, and trash was taken out with factory-like efficiency. Some girls invited me to "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "clean the hallway with them. “Mari-chan, come help us wipe the floors clean,” they said. “You do have a "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "washcloth with you, right?” I saw that all students had their own washcloths, each hand-sewn by their "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "mothers from old clothes or towels. I had never used a broom, mopped bathroom floors, taken out school "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "trash, or raced down a hallway on all fours while pushing a washcloth with my hands to scrub the floor. I "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "managed to accomplish all of that during these two weeks at school. “Clean-up time” was more like chore- "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "time, but I noticed how nobody objected and everyone did their part. There were set rules, reminders, and "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "jobs, and everybody cooperated. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Six years later, I realize that this applies not only to schools but to Japanese society in general. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Even the busiest city streets, train stations, and parks are spotless because of the country’s successful waste "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "management and recycling systems, enabling the nation to rank as one of the top “green” nations in the "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "world. Sanitation is an important priority in the lives of the Japanese, deriving from the old Japanese ideal "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "of respecting and being a part of nature, preserving it for the people’s enjoyment during all seasons of the "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "year. Another component that creates this success is the cooperation and full commitment of the people "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "who are educated early as students to develop a sense of social responsibility. Those two weeks were the "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "only times that I went to a school in Japan and I have not used a washcloth since, but the importance of "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "souji no jikan still leaves a profound impression on me. Their tradition of cleanliness, sense of cooperation, "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "and respect for nature are exemplary of the spirit of Japan. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": ". 19 "
                    }
                ]
            },
            {
                "pageNumber": "28",
                "paragraph": [
                    {
                        "data": "Hidemi-san "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Elizabeth Morgan (Bronx High School of Science) "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "My connection to Japan is direct. It is visceral and practically umbilical. Once a week since I was five "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "years old, I have sat hip to hip with my piano teacher, Hidemi Kitajima. Hidemi is a mentor to me, and my "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "personal ambassador of Japanese culture. As Commodore Perry exposed Japan to Western Culture, Hidemi "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "has enlightened me with Eastern thought and culture. I have been raised exposed to her Eastern ideals, "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "which value perfection through hard work and practice. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Hidemi describes herself as upholding old fashion Japanese values. These ideas stem from an ancient "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "tradition of living with a highly structured society that emphasizes respect, honor, and discipline. The code "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "of the samurai, the bushido, stresses the following virtues: rectitude, courage, benevolence, respect, honor, "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "loyalty, honesty, filial piety, and wisdom. Hidemi is aware of how she behaves in society, and prefers to "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "deal formally with those that she feels deserve respect either because of age, social standing, or "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "accomplishments. Though she has adopted contemporary American fashion, she rejects more informal "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "manners of young Japanese as well as American youths who have no respect for tradition. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Hidemi’s teaching techniques incorporate the Japanese belief in a resilient mental strength. When I "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "played my first recital at the age of five, Hidemi made a list of things to do to prepare me for the "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "performance. The list included no sugar for one week before the performance, eat plenty of fish, get "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "sufficient sleep, and remain focused from first strike until the last note is played. Steeped in these "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "principles, her Japanese rigor demands focused practice. This technique is similar to the principles of "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "martial arts. This Japanese practice of fitness and self-defense encompasses meditation, mental discipline "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "and character development. It also encourages self-confidence. By applying Japanese elements of martial "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "arts to my music, I am able to master the complexities of Schubert. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "In middle school, Hidemi wanted to share her culture with me; she took me to lunch at a Japanese "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "restaurant that offers the highest example of Japanese cuisine. The restaurant was decorated with traditional "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Japanese art and artifacts. She pointed out the rice parchment lamps (washi), and lacquered (urushi) plates, "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "and described the process of how these items are made. Though simple shapes and patterns, these "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "adornments impressed me by their beautiful subtleties and perfect constructs. The fineness and beauty of "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "these crafts are the part of the Japanese culture embodied in Hidemi. She is not of the high-tech Japan "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "which produces complex equipment and leads the world in technological production for cutting edge audio- "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "video equipment, cameras, automobiles, and robotics. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "While discussing Japanese architecture, Hidemi related how she brings tourists to the flashy Golden "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Temple (Kinkaku-ji). Visitors are immediately impressed by the top two stories of this pavilion which are "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "covered in pure gold leaf. But in contrast, Hidemi describes that the spiritual beauty of the Silver Pavilion "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "(Ginkaku-ji) is often lost to Western visitors. This Zen Buddhist sanctuary is not constructed of silver, but "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "the elements blend to make a peaceful and harmonious whole, it is a place for rest and solitude, far "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "removed from the hustle and bustle of New York City life. Behind the temple is a magnificent two part "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "garden made of rocks and sand. The temple stresses the importance the Japanese put on peace and "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "harmony. I think Hidemi’s nature is similar in beauty to that of the Silver Pavilion; it is a bit like a Japanese "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "secret. But someday I would like to experience both pavilions in person. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Embodied in Hidemi is the ideal of total health in body, spirit and mind. She is well versed in "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "traditional Japanese exercise and massage. Hidemi has helped my mother with her arthritis by teaching her "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Tai Kyoku Ken. Her exercises stress slow movements executed in a harmonious way to maintain joint "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "flexibility. If my fingers are cold, she will rub them to increase circulation, focusing on specific pressure "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "points. She has learned these healing techniques from her grandmother and shares them with me. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Hidemi is an international concert pianist. Her piano playing reveals aspects of her Japanese culture as "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "well as what she has adopted of American culture. Japan reminds me of my petite, talented and wonderful "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "piano teacher. Her Japanese spirit fills our home whenever she comes. She is a true blend of traditional "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Japanese virtues as well as contemporary style. I am fortunate to have had the benefit of her instruction and "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "this special cultural exposure. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "20 "
                    }
                ]
            },
            {
                "pageNumber": "29",
                "paragraph": [
                    {
                        "data": "Becoming the Universe: Zen in Japanese "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Culture Lauren Phillips (Stony Brook University) "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Japan is a country often characterized in two distinct ways: mythical and seeped with tradition or a "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "high-speed technological powerhouse. It is therefore difficult sometimes to see a common feature between "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Japan of old and modern day Japan; however, the spirit of Japan is still alive and thriving. This spirit is "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "found within the philosophy of Zen from the Zen Buddhism religion of Japan. While not all the citizens "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "identify themselves as Zen Buddhists, this philosophy is still present throughout their lives. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "The spirit of Japan is actually one from a surprising origin. It was not originally from Japan, but was "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "rather introduced to Japan by Chinese Zen Buddhist monks. Even though the philosophy is not purely "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Japanese bred, the people of Japan have taken the concept and formed it into their own, uniquely Japanese "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "philosophy. Zen is the practice which gives one the discipline to destroy self, or more simply put, to destroy "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "any desires, in order to create empty self. Once a person has reached empty self, he or she is enlightened "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "and becomes a Buddha. In order to reach this state, one must practice sabi and wabi. Sabi essentially means "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "loneliness, though not in the sense of how westerners interpret the word. In this case, loneliness is time by "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "oneself wherein one reflects upon oneself and anything that individual can think of is not the person and "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "therefore must be destroyed in order to reach enlightenment. This refers to thoughts such as fame and the "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "desire for fame must be destroyed; otherwise, the attachment to this goal would prevent one from achieving "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "empty self. Wabi deals with an appreciation of poverty. In this ideal one is not dependent on worldly things "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "and wants for nothing, for anything one could want, one already has. This concept of Zen Buddhism "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "instructs one to appreciate what is around oneself. The concept of Zen may sound a little intangible, and "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "may initially seem that to have no application outside of someone studiously practicing Zen Buddhism; "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "however, this is not at all true. Within Japan, the concept of Zen has infiltrated every part of the culture. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "The presence of Zen is most obvious in the arts of Japan. While growing up I would wonder about the "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Japanese style of art. Since I was thinking in a European influenced mind set, I was unable to truly grasp "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "what the art of Japan was expressing. I knew it was beautiful, but the truth it conveyed always eluded me, "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "and instead settled on the corners of my mind, just out of reach of understanding. When other countries, "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "particularly those of the west, create a piece of pottery they glorify it if it is perfect. The piece must be "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "perfectly glazed, and perfectly crafted with no change in thickness and possessing a uniform shape. In "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "opposition, the great artisans of Japan often will purposely make an imperfection in the pottery, such as "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "inconsistent thickness or a deliberate mistake in shape, for when a piece has rustic unpretentiousness or "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "antiquated imperfections it is said to contain sabi and is therefore a true piece of artwork. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "The concept of art also differs with paintings between western countries and Japan. Unlike the "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "paintings of western countries, which cover the entire canvas in paint, the Japanese employ a one corner "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "style of painting. Only one corner of the canvas actually has paint on it while the rest remains clean. If one "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "discards this empty space when viewing the painting, one misses the entire point of the painting itself. The "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "blank void in this case represents the abyss which encompasses the universe. Though a bird on a branch "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "may be painted in the corner and nothing else is painted, the world still exists beyond that bird. This world "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "beyond the single subject of the painting is the universe itself, making the blank area of canvas just as "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "important as the painted subject. This minimalist style to art is also present in the traditional Japanese "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "poetry of haiku. Many westerners are incapable of understanding the significance of haikus when they are "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "initially introduced to them, and I must admit that I, too, was confused by the style. With only seventeen "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "syllables used, it would seem as though nothing of great importance could possibly be expressed. However, "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "haikus are not saturated with description in order to leave room for the unknown, for without the unknown "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "no art exists, just as with the one corner paintings. In truth, the haikus in their short meter express "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "something of the utmost importance; it is an expression of temporary enlightenment wherein one sees into "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "the life of things. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "While studying haiku this past fall, I was struck with a shocking realization. The moment of "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "temporary enlightenment, the Zen utterance, I had experienced once before. When I was fifteen, my mother "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "would still drive me occasionally to my high school. One day as I walked from the parking lot towards the "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "building, something shimmering caught my attention. It was spring then and as it often does it had rained "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "21 "
                    }
                ]
            },
            {
                "pageNumber": "30",
                "paragraph": [
                    {
                        "data": "lightly the night before. As I glanced up to see what was glistening I spotted a spider’s web masterfully "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "created, nestled delicately against the pink new petals of the crab apple tree. As the morning sun shined "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "down on the tree, it made the rain droplets that hung to the spider’s web and that laid on the petals sparkle "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "in an almost ethereal way. In that moment, everything in the world became beautiful to me because the "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "glistening spider’s web was everything. I felt as though nothing outside that single damp spider’s web "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "mattered and nothing existed outside of it, not even myself, because everything that existed was already "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "within that one spider’s web. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "The moment was achingly brief, but it was real and even the memory of it, though I am sure the scene "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "I recall is faded in comparison, still has the power to make my heart clench at how insignificant humans are "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "when a common spider’s web can humble us. It was not until years later I understood what had happened in "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "that moment. Without knowledge of it or any training in Buddhism, I had somehow experienced the Zen "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Buddhism mystery of becoming-being and being-becoming. This mystery exemplifies the Zen Buddhism "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "philosophy that all is one and one is all, wherein the universe is the all and a single entity is the one, and "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "whether that one was the sparkling spider’s web or whether it was me, does not matter at all, for the "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "spider’s web was me and I was the spider’s web in that one moment. This mystery is implied in several "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "places within haikus as well as other Japanese art forms. I don’t know if I will ever feel that sort of sincere "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "peace again, I can only hope that one day something seemingly insignificant will catch my attention once "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "more and become the universe in my eye. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "22 "
                    }
                ]
            },
            {
                "pageNumber": "31",
                "paragraph": [
                    {
                        "data": "The Coexistence of Order and Spontaneity "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Lisa Kawamoto (Columbia University) "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "For as long as I can remember, I have reveled in the beauty in the small details that often go "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "unnoticed. From the insects scurrying beneath the rocks in my back yard with their flawlessly shiny backs "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "to a well-chosen word in poetry, the quiet splendor in details has irresistibly attracted me. The hyphen in "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "“Japanese-American,” the adjective that describes me most fundamentally, is the smallest element in this "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "phrase—yet because it binds my two halves together, it is crucial. This hyphen has been the source of both "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "difficulty and satisfaction in coming to terms with myself. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "When I entered Kenkō’s world through his Essays in Idleness, I felt the yearnings of a man who "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "struggled with seemingly contradictory sentiments. Idealizing a life spent in isolated introspection in “A "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Person Who Complains of Having Nothing to Do” while decrying the behavior of “rustic boors” in “Are "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "We to Look at Cherry Blossoms Only in Full Bloom?”, at times, Kenkō seemed to vacillate from valuing "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "individuality to clinging to conventional attitudes about propriety (835, 838). Perhaps my attention to detail "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "was what made me uneasy when Kenkō’s arguments seemed to be at odds with each other across his "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "essays. Yet after multiple readings, Kenkō began to provide me with an organized framework within which "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "he allowed his thoughts and my thoughts alike to wander. Rebelling against the conventionally negative "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "association with tsurezure, or idleness, Kenkō defended idleness (Shirane 820). For Kenkō, idleness was an "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "opportunity for one to muse without the delusions of society and without becoming “captured by the filth of "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "the outside world” (835). "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "I began to appreciate what had seemed like contradictions in Essays in Idleness as the reflections of a "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "thinker who embraced imperfection. In “A Proper Dwelling,” Kenkō argues that “A house which multitudes "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "of workmen have polished with every care…and even the grasses and trees of the garden have been trained "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "unnaturally, is ugly to look at and most depressing” (825). Kenkō is repulsed by the artificial air that results "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "when one devotes too much energy to “perfecting” a house. Instead, Kenkō’s ideal home is one in which "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "things are allowed to scatter and looks as though it is “lived in” (825). In my mind, Kenkō’s essays start to "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "become these ideal homes of their own—single essays are devoted to one broad topic, but within this "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "framework, Kenkō allows his thoughts to meander. As with writers before him, the anxiety surrounding the "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "impermanence of life can be glimpsed, but Kenkō also expresses his enjoyment of everyday life. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Though it is a medieval work, Essays in Idleness was surprisingly fresh and spoke deeply to me. To "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "me, Kenkō struggled to reconcile his conflicting desires to be accepted as a member of society and to be "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "true to his true desires, ultimately abandoning this human impulse to reconcile and organize. “In the U.S., I "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "feel Japanese. In Japan, I feel American,” I remember saying in my elementary and middle school years. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Every two or three years, I would spend the summer at my grandparents’ home in Iwate Prefecture and eye- "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "opening as the experience was, I would inevitably long for the “American freedom for individuality.” Once "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "I was back in my mostly white town, I was frustrated that no one understood how alienating it was to "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "immediately be viewed not as merely a girl but an Asian girl. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Quite simplistically, I grew to characterize the Japanese mindset as stiflingly focused on conformity. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Individuals were put into the Japanese education system and test-takers were churned out; for good "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "measure, the work atmosphere would stamp out the remaining traces of creative thought, I believed. In my "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "mind, the American mindset—parading the triumph of the individual—was no better alternative. How was "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "I supposed to trumpet my attributes in a crowd of everyone doing exactly the same? "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Now, I define myself as an intermediary. I struggle to make sense of the world around me while "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "granting myself the room to unleash the world within me. I believe that there are fundamental human "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "characteristics that transcend nationality and other obvious descriptions such as race, gender, sexual "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "orientation, and creed. I also believe that in each individual lives a world of ideas that—try as he or she "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "might—cannot all be accepted or even transmitted to another. I believe in this struggle of truths, and I "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "imagine that I can act as an intermediary between my own desires to belong and to be individual. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "I am an intermediary in the more literal sense as well. I began to translate texts in Japanese to English "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "as an intern at an information services company this summer, and my fascination with translation has only "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "grown. Translation seems at the same time to be an abstruse process and a transmittance of content. The "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "23 "
                    }
                ]
            },
            {
                "pageNumber": "32",
                "paragraph": [
                    {
                        "data": "reality lies between, in the poetic quality that can lie in prose about logistics, in the spark of a mental "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "connection bridging two cultures, in the immaculate conveyance of meaning and nuance. I hope to continue "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "to see the value hidden in hyphens and the beauty of gaining truths, like Kenkō, from struggle. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Bibliography Kenkō. Essays in Idleness. Translated by Donald Keene. Traditional Japanese Literature. Edited by Haruo "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Shirane. New York: Columbia UP, 2007. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Shirane, Haruo. “Essays in Idleness.” In Traditional Japanese Literature, edited by Haruo Shirane, 820-822. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "New York: Columbia UP, 2007. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "24 "
                    }
                ]
            },
            {
                "pageNumber": "33",
                "paragraph": [
                    {
                        "data": "Selected Essays "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "from Fourth Competition "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "(2008-2009) 25 "
                    }
                ]
            },
            {
                "pageNumber": "34",
                "paragraph": [
                    {
                        "data": "Close My Eyes and Count to Ten "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Juliet deButts (Columbia Grammar and Preparatory School) "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "The first time I ever heard the word “Japan,” I was six. I was in first grade, and along with the "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "planetary system and basic grammar, we were being taught to count in foreign languages. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Ichi, ni, san, shi, go, roku, shichi, hachi, kyu, ju. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "I didn’t think much more about Japan—about the country, about the language. I knew there was "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Japanese food, I knew there was a Japan, but I was nonchalant about the entire business. My mother did tell "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "me stories about it, but she told me stories about other places too—about Thailand, and Hawaii, and "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "London and Paris—so I never attached particular importance to the stories of the Japanese doctors that "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "came to study with my grandfather and who wouldn’t let anyone else pay for dinner, of their daughters who "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "visited but spoke very little English and were married in my grandmother’s wedding dress, of an aunt who "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "worked as a Japanese aerobics teacher for an entire summer without learning to say more than “inhale, "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "exhale,” and how to count to ten. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Ichi, ni, san, shi, go, roku, shichi, hachi, kyu, ju. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "As I grew older, my limited store of knowledge expanded to children’s books set in Tokigawa-era "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Japan, to “kimono” and “katana,” “karate” and “karaoke,” and the fact that I loved Japanese food. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "In seventh grade I walked into my first Japanese class, interested but nervous. It was the first day of "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "school, a new classroom, a new building, a new teacher and a new language, but the first thing we learned "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "was to count to ten—and I recognized the numbers. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Ichi, ni, san, shi, go, roku, shichi, hachi, kyu, ju. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "I was fascinated by the way the characters curved and fell apart and came together again, by hiragana "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "and katakana and kanji and calligraphy. I devoured words that I’d never heard before, held them up and "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "weighed them by the scale of words I already knew. I rarely found them wanting—all the words and "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "patterns I learned, simple and basic, somehow matched the numbers I’d been carrying around in my head "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "for years: the smooth sounds and the slanted black lines in my notes and my textbook. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Ichi, ni, san, shi, go, roku, shichi, hachi, kyu, ju. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Japanese was fascinating and endlessly new—I was enthralled by every tidbit I learned. Manga, "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "anime, chopsticks, radicals, Chinese influences, rice farming, mountains, hot-springs, snow monkeys, "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "octopus muffins, obon festivals: I couldn’t get enough of it. So I stuck with Japanese, even after the sounds "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "stopped making quite so much sense, even after I needed to study harder and longer. Though the words I "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "learned and the characters I drew (over and over and over again on tracing paper, desperate to get them just "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "right) and the sounds I shaped with a reluctant tongue grew more and more complicated, farther and farther "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "away from the simple basics that had enchanted me as a child, I kept going, and I could hear an echo of "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "counting to ten. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Ichi, ni, san, shi, go, roku, shichi, hachi, kyu, ju. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "It seemed that the more Japanese I learned, the less I knew. There are female samurai, of a kind—the "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "ama, who dive for pearls in icy waters, and follow a different code of honor from the men who lived and "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "died by the sword—and there’s a shortage of men to work modern Japanese farms, and the newest "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "publishing sensation in Japan is the cell-phone novel. Everything I learned only reinforced my earlier "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "impressions of a country and a culture that had grace bred into its very bones; a place that effortlessly and "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "elegantly mingled the old and the new, the traditional and the innovative. It was a country of "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "contradictions—in everything from its geography to its history to its politics. The more I learned, the less I "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "knew; the less I knew, the more I wanted to discover. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "I watched Miyazaki movies, and loved them—always in Japanese, with English subtitles, because the "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "dubbed versions didn’t sound right—and I struggled through a few manga in Japanese before surrendering "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "and reading them in English. I still study, I still listen and read and ask innumerable questions, and I still "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "count, when I'm bored or tired or angry, and the numbers are still as soothing as they ever have been, and "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "they are still, for me, the essence of Japan. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Ichi, ni, san, shi, go, roku, shichi, hachi, kyu, ju. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "26 "
                    }
                ]
            },
            {
                "pageNumber": "35",
                "paragraph": [
                    {
                        "data": "Respect for the Pigeons "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Jessica Joseph (Bronx High School of Science) "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "My next door neighbor was afraid for the pigeons. He had heard the stories we exchanged and the "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "plans we made as my friends and I lazed around on my porch on a dull summer day. Someone had "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "mentioned the luck of a pigeon feather, someone else had complained about the birds themselves, and I had "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "brought both thoughts together in an idea that promised to be fun; ambushing the birds on my roof for a "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "few laughs and luck. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Mr. Ikeda had been close by, listening to our sleepy voices and hazy musings. He was always outside "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "with his faithful straw broom, keeping his slice of cement spotless. My younger brother and I secretly "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "mocked him. A modest Asian man thinking that he would be able to keep his area free from the debris that "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "plagued the rest of the Bronx was laughable. He however, did not find it as absurd and was perpetually "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "shuffling around with his broom. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "On that muggy day he overheard our plan. I remember Mr. Ikeda walking the few feet over to my "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "house, politely pardoning himself as he navigated the mesh of teenage limbs to get to the front door. He "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "rang the doorbell and left the broom outside when my father invited him in. I was puzzled, thinking that he "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "had never spoken to us before, so what would make him do so now? "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "A few minutes later, my father told my friends to go back home and ordered me to come in. In the "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "living room was Mr. Ikeda, sipping tea. My father began to explain that Mr. Ikeda was concerned. It "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "seemed that the neighborhood kids were bent on terrorizing the pigeons. Mr. Ikeda was afraid for them, "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "worried that we would hurt them if we went to their territory on the roof. I explained that he was "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "overreacting. After all, they were only pigeons, and we only wanted their feathers. As long as we didn’t hurt "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "them, what was the problem? "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Mr. Ikeda shook his head and explained that we should respect the birds, their feathers, and everything "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "around us. He explained his belief that we do not own the world around us, that we are not above it in any "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "way, that we do not control it whatsoever. We are merely a part of it. We are participants and observers but "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "never, ever owners of nature. He believed in the Golden Rule of treating others as we wish to be treated. He "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "applied it not only to the people around him, but also to the things he interacted with. I can distinctly hear "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "him telling me that “everything has a soul.” Mr. Ikeda saw my raising my eyebrows and repeated himself. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "“Everything has a soul, even this pot of sugar.” He was motioning to the sugar on the table. My father "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "nodded and said that he would keep me from harming the pigeons, and then gently let Mr. Ikeda out of our "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "house. I sat still on my couch, thinking about the idea that everything has a soul. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Mr. Ikeda left and my dad went back to his laptop. I went to the kitchen to make myself some tea, "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "keeping this idea in my mind all the while. I pretended that everything I touched, from the teacup to the "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "teabag, to the sugar and the milk, had a soul. I was slow in my preparations, taking time and care with "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "every step of the simple recipe. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "My tea was ready and I began to drink it slowly. Something about this cup of tea was different, "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "something about it was better. The change was dim and elusive, but it was there. In my hands I held "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "physical proof of the benefits of reverence. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "The concept of respect that saturates Japanese culture was delivered to me through Mr. Ikeda. With his "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "concern for birds and meticulous care for his property, he exemplified the respect that our world needs to "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "survive. This extensive application of the Golden Rule by the Japanese inspires me to be a better person. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Beginning with that cup of tea, I started to have greater respect for the things and people around me. I "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "began to communicate Mr. Ikeda’s beliefs through my daily actions. Though small, my actions with the "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "inanimate souls around me may affect the actions of the human souls around me, as Mr. Ikeda affected me. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "27 "
                    }
                ]
            },
            {
                "pageNumber": "36",
                "paragraph": [
                    {
                        "data": "Sakura "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Christina Rombola (Longwood High School) "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Ever since I was twelve years old I was mesmerized by music. When I was in seventh grade, I started "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "attending voice lessons. My teacher’s name was Mrs. Beckers. She was a six foot tall German opera singer "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "with stocky shoulders, a soft smile and an angelic soprano voice. We typically studied music by classical "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "composers and explored literature in the romantic languages. However last May, Mrs. Beckers introduced "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "me to something radically different than I was accustomed to. She handed me a copy of a Japanese "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "folksong titled “Sakura.” Surprisingly, my native-born German teacher properly taught me the "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "pronunciation and meaning of every word. Together we sang the folksong even though I was unaware of "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "the symbolism it entailed. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Mrs. Beckers was incredibly inspired by this artistic representation of eastern culture. It was strange to "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "see a German woman be so knowledgeable of and fascinated by a culture completely opposite of her own. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "She explained that the title of the song, “Sakura”, meant cherry blossom in Japanese. The song was about "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "the celebration of blooming Japanese cherry blossoms. She continued to tell me that the Japanese people "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "believe the flower is a symbol of the transience of life because the delicate petals fall only days after they "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "bloom. Japanese people are not afraid of death. Instead, they value life and live every day by the morals "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "they were raised upon. The cherry blossom is also a symbol of the samurai. The samurai were a group of "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "fierce warriors who lived by the Bushido code. This code of conduct encompassed the importance of duty "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "and loyalty, justice and morality, sincerity, courtesy, compassion, heroic courage and honor. They also lived "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "by the value of gaman, or the belief in forbearance and self-sacrifice. Although they may not have wanted "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "to go to battle, they did because they were committed to serving their people. Even though the samurai "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "class diminished in Japan, the people still live by a similar conduct. As time passed, I realized why Mrs. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Beckers was so enthralled by Japanese culture. It was because she encompassed everything that the cherry "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "blossom, gaman and the Bushido Code stood for. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "After four years of study with Mrs. Becker, she informed me that she was diagnosed with cancer. I "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "was devastated that my longtime friend was struck by a disorder that crippled her by the minute. However, "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "when she relayed the news, she said it with a smile and told me not to worry. She explained she was not "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "afraid of the road ahead of her and that our lessons were to continue as usual. Although I was distraught, "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Mrs. Beckers seemed completely comfortable with her tragic fate. I did not understand why this terrible "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "thing happened to such a wonderful person. She had compassion for every person that crossed her path, and "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "went out of her way to help others. Mrs. Beckers believed in her students’ capabilities and pushed them to "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "achieve their highest dreams. She spoke with a sincere voice, and was never disloyal to anybody. Mrs. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Beckers epitomized the Bushido Code. She loved her life, her students and music so much, that she was "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "okay with the startling news. This woman was not afraid of death, but mesmerized by life. She enjoyed her "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "life so much that her sickness was inconsequential. Mrs. Beckers continued to teach music until she could "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "no longer play the piano. Although she was weak and feeble, Mrs. Becker believed in gaman and put her "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "suffering aside to teach young people beautiful music. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "The cherry blossom symbolizes the evanescent nature of life. Japanese people never walk by a cherry "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "blossom tree without stopping because they know that the flowers may be gone the next day. Both Mrs. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Beckers and the Japanese people believe in valuing everything, even if it only exists momentarily. Life, like "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "the cherry blossom, is not eternal. Every individual follows the course of life until their inevitable fall. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Therefore, we must pass time with something that we love unconditionally. Mrs. Beckers found her passion "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "of teaching music. However, like Mrs. Beckers, the Japanese believe more in the whole rather than the "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "individual. Although it is important to live life to personal standards, it is also important to have a positive "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "effect on surrounding others. I admire Mrs. Beckers for her love of life, her altruistic nature and her "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "remarkable impact on young people. Although my friend was a product of the western world, she conveyed "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "everything Japanese culture stood for. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "28 "
                    }
                ]
            },
            {
                "pageNumber": "37",
                "paragraph": [
                    {
                        "data": "The Precious Crane "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Alessandra Faith Ansbach (Lynbrook High School) "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "In the year it seemed a life would come crashing to an end, I was acquainted with the ancient Japanese "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "art of origami. My sister, Nina, was in the hospital, suffering from seizures that medicine wasn’t adequately "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "controlling. New medicines were being tried. Mom had to be with her through this painful process. I was at "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "home, 29.3 miles away yearning for both of them. I remember being so scared it was all I could do to show "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "that I was strong for my Dad and Nana. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Knowing that I would either burst into screams or sobs I had to find something to ease my mind. I "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "took out an old origami book my mom had presented to me as a surprise one day. I never really considered "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "origami, because I couldn’t fold the special papers correctly at the time. I began to separate all the paper "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "that came inside the book; along with the paper mom had bought me. My bed was covered in different size "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "papers. The papers surrounded me on my bed, some folded and some not. I cautiously chose one of the "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "multicolored sheets and began to fold. I ended up with a very uneven crane. I looked down at it, disgusted "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "and threw it at the door. I folded again and again until finally I came up with a beautiful bird perched in my "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "hands. Delighted with what I had accomplished, I started to create more and more until I had a whole chain "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "of cranes. I looked through the rest of the book and made almost all of the designs that were depicted. I was "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "delighted with my work. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "My father appeared then and told me it was time to visit my sister and mom. I gathered up all of my "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "creations and put them in a bag. When we arrived at my sister’s room I walked slowly inside, afraid of what "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "I would see. My sister was sitting up in bed watching television and mom was sitting in the chair eating "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "lunch. My mom burst into tears when she spotted me. I ran over and gave her a huge hug. I said not to cry "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "and that I had presents. I emptied the entire contents of my sack onto Nina’s bed. Each of them picked up a "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "crane and asked what it was. I demonstrated by picking one up and teaching them how to move its wings. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Mom could barely form words she was so astonished. She asked me if I had made them all and I "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "could only nod. She hugged me and said that I was amazing. All of a sudden the waterfalls broke free and I "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "hid my face in her shirt. “Please mommy, come home tonight.” "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "“I would if I could, Sweetheart; but I have to stay here and make sure Nina’s okay. I promise you, I "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "will sleep with a crane next to me every night and think of you every day.” As I pulled away from her "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "embrace I saw there were tears streaking her face too. I gave her a final squeeze and gave my sister one too. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Then, dad took my hand and led me out of the room. I stole a final glance back and saw Nina admiring the "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "baby blue crane I had made especially for her. I left the hospital with a smile on my face knowing I had "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "made her happy. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "A month later my sister came home happy and lively again. The first thing she said when she walked "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "in the room was “Look! I still have my crane!” She opened her hand and handed me the precious blue "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "crane. It was a little worn from all the times she had made it fly. She also handed me a bunch of cards from "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "the kids at the hospital thanking me for the gifts of cranes and animals. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "The crane is truly a sacred bird in Japan and in my eyes. The Japanese believe by folding a thousand "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "cranes a wish will be granted. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "My wish came true without folding a thousand. Sharing my love of origami with my sister and the "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "hospitalized children made many wishes come true, for a lot of those children went home shortly after "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "receiving the crane. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "I continue to this day in sharing my love of origami with the people around me. I give the gift of a "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "crane and the tale of its legend knowing that wishes do come true. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "29 "
                    }
                ]
            },
            {
                "pageNumber": "38",
                "paragraph": [
                    {
                        "data": "The essence of life through Japanese culture "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Sandy Hernandez (Stony Brook University) "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "The essence and beauty of life are two elements that are exceptionally difficult to grasp. For my entire "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "young adult life, I have been seeking a way of life, or a set of values, that would provide me with the "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "insight and perseverance necessary for success and peace of mind. I believe that the Japanese people have "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "been able to capture this elusive essence of life though their well-structured culture. Japanese culture is "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "founded on the three main religions of Japan; Zen Buddhism, Confucianism, and Shintoism, which work "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "together in harmony to provide the skeleton that holds up Japanese society together. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Before going into the impact Japanese culture has had on me, I would like to speak about the "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "aspect of Japan that first caught my attention; its language. The Japanese language has held my interest "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "captive since my high school years when I was introduced to it by watching Japanese animation (anime). I "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "was originally attracted by its simple and elegant rhythmic style, and by its beautifully structured writing "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "styles; Hiragana, Katakana, and Kanji. Upon entering college, I immediately enrolled in a Japanese "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "language course, from which my appreciation for Japanese grew even more. Although I acknowledge that I "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "lack the proficiency of a native speaker, I am able to see clear fundamental differences between the "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Japanese language and Western languages such as English and Spanish. These fundamental differences "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "stem from the difference between Western and Eastern cultures and beliefs. More specifically, the Japanese "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "culture values the simplicity and the concepts of intuitive thinking (as opposed to logical thinking). These "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "two ideals can be seen in Japanese colloquial dialogue and in the sentence syntax that provides the reader "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "with the information necessary to deliver the intended message, while simultaneously using as few words "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "as possible to avoid redundancy. These attributes in the Japanese language cannot be attributed to pure "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "coincidence because they can be explained by the cultural beliefs and ideals held in Japan. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Zen Buddhism is a school of Buddhism that is centered on the idea of achieving satori "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "(enlightenment) through zazen (quiet meditation). Buddhism provides a way of life that detaches us from "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "our egos and from the rest of the world, thus, allowing us to carry on with daily activities without over- "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "analyzing our actions. This notion of the intuitive mind ties in with the concept of Mushin no Shin (“mind "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "of no mind”), which advices us not to think about our actions in an analytical way, but rather to act "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "intuitively in order to lose the duality between us and the rest of the world. The idea of Mushin no Shin has "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "been critical in my pursuit of knowledge wherever I seek it, whether it be in the sciences or life itself, "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "because it allows me to reach the underlying truth of things, no matter how painful the truth may be. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Although I acknowledge that I have not mastered the skill of detachment, I feel that adopting that "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "sort of mentality has allowed me to attain the insight and intuition necessary to excel in my engineering "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "courses. Practicing these ideals has allowed me to avoid stressing over minor details in tasks delegated to "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "me in school and at work, thus, allowing me to focus on the fundamentals of the task at hand. Essentially, "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "one has to become one with the task to avoid duality, clear one’s mind, and to react naturally to one’s "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "surroundings. This concept of detachment and loss of duality can be seen with the samurai, who have to go "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "beyond the level of skillfulness to truly master the art of the samurai. Avoiding duality and becoming one "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "with his opponent allows the samurai to clear his mind and to act only on instinct. This “intuitive mind” "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "approach has helped me improve several areas of my life, including my academic success, my physical "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "fitness, and relationship with others. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Another element of Zen Buddhism that has provided me with crucial insight into how view life is "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "the idea that only by humbling ourselves can we continue to grow in any type of discipline. Humbling "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "ourselves is an important step in gaining more knowledge, insight, and experience because we need to "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "empty our tea cup in order to allow our teachers to pour more tea into it. I am able to apply this principle in "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "my practice of Shotokan Karate because no matter how strong and skillful I become, I know that I can still "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "learn much more from my Sensei. Alternatively, by holding on to our egos and our accomplishments, we "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "limit ourselves from growing further because our tea cup is essentially filled to the top and our teachers "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "cannot provide us with more tea. The concept of reverence to our superiors has helped me acknowledge the "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "fact that humbling myself can help me improve in any area of my life. Once we let go of our egos, we also "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "lose the fear of failure, in effect, allowing us to knock down the barriers that often impede us from "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "achieving our maximum potential. This way of thinking connects to the way the samurai viewed their lives; "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "30 "
                    }
                ]
            },
            {
                "pageNumber": "39",
                "paragraph": [
                    {
                        "data": "they needed to be ready to die at any moment (i.e. accept that death might come), and at the same time they "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "needed continue fighting to protect others. The resolve to continue to hone my skills, no matter how skillful "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "I become and without the fear of failing, is the source of my academic success and my peace of mind. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Another aspect of Japanese culture that has made a great impression in my view of life is the "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "importance of kokoro (heart and soul). After having read the influential Japanese novel Kokoro, by "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Natsume Soseki, I have learned that no one can see within the true heart of another person. Therefore, one "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "should follow the feelings and intentions that lie deep within one’s heart regardless of the opinions of "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "others. Confucianism teaches us that a big person follows their heart. In the past, I was reluctant to try out "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "new and foreign activities because people around me discouraged me from initiating them, claiming that "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "they were too difficult and impractical. However, in my heart, I felt that practicing these activities would "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "build my character and would bring enjoyment to me. Such activities included studying Japanese, and "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "practicing Shotokan Karate, among others. However, it was not until I was introduced to the fundamentals "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "of Japanese culture and way of viewing life that I realized that I needed to follow my heart, and that my "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "actions and ideals should not be mandated by the opinions of others, but instead by what I consider "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "important. I have gained great inspiration from the way the Japanese people appreciate nature and all things "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "that are beautiful and simple. The ideas of wabi (poverty) and sabi (loneliness) come together with the "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Japanese respect toward nature because one must learn to humble oneself in order to become one with "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "nature. Things in nature are much more beautiful than manmade materials because things in nature possess "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "the element of simplicity. Simplicity in art and in nature is seen as beautiful in Japanese culture because it "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "allows for a more intimate and intuitive connection as compared to intricate art pieces that tend to remove "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "the sense of wonder and awe that goes hand in hand with simplicity. Simplicity is also seen in Japanese "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "literature through the elegant and powerful messages written in haikus. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "The tea ceremony is a way in which Japanese people practice harmony with nature because this "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "ceremony exemplifies four key elements; harmony, reverence, purity, and tranquility. Harmony with nature "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "and others plays a crucial role in providing us with the peace of mind that helps us detach from ourselves "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "and others and become one with nature. As mentioned before, reverence and mindfulness are essential for "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "maintaining our motivation high in order to propel us to achieve greater levels of skill and intuition. The "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "purity and tranquility of the mind and soul is essential for the mastering of Mushin no Shin and harmony "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "with nature because only through quiet meditation can we achieve detachment from our egos. I am able to "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "use these principles of the tea ceremony when performing in many areas of my life, such as when playing "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "the ancient board game of Go. When playing Go, one must be able to clear one’s mind to think critically in "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "crucial moments. Tranquility and patience also play significant roles in playing Go because one must build "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "insight into subsequent moves by the opponent. This insight only comes through practice and discipline. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "I believe that learning about Japanese culture has helped me become a more disciplined and "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "focused person in all aspects of my life. Regardless of my current success, I acknowledge that I need to "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "continue improving and humbling myself with the same resolve and zeal in order to attain higher levels of "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "achievement. These higher levels of achievement include becoming a successful professional engineer, and "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "continuing to improve my proficiency in the Japanese language. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "31 "
                    }
                ]
            },
            {
                "pageNumber": "40",
                "paragraph": [
                    {
                        "data": "Stillness of the Lake: Embracing Bushido and "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Finding Clarity "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Stephen Lanuto Jr. (City University of New York/City College of New York) "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "“In any case, as human beings, it is essential for each of us to cultivate and polish our individual "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "path.” – Musashi Miyamoto1 "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "There are so many things any person could be drawn to when they think of Japan: the beauty of the "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "cherry blossoms in full bloom, the Shinto and Buddhist temples that permeate across the spanning "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "landscapes, even the neon lights and intense rush of Tokyo night life. For me, it was the image of the "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "samurai that made Japan the focus of my passion; the Samurai were great warriors who lived by the code of "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Bushido, principles that guided them on the battlefield and nourished their minds, bodies and spirits. The "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Samurai image provided me with a beacon to help me find my way toward a regained sense of clarity and "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "the burning spirit to work diligently as I pursue my goals. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "In my youth, I endured several hardships, including a battle with Leukemia; as I grew into my teens, I "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "found coping with the pain of those events too much to do on my own and felt hopelessly lost; emotionally "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "as well as spiritually. For a time, I trudged through a state of perpetual blindness; my heart weighed down "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "with sorrow, frustration, resentment and a deep seeded longing to find a piece of serenity, however small, to "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "call my own. It was when I began to read of the Way of the Samurai and read Yoshikawa Eiji’s Musashi "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "that I became more interested in the legendary samurai warrior and the code of Bushido. Even in the face of "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "adversity, battling against one opponent or one hundred opponents, knowing that their death could be one "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "breath away; Samurai faced death with stillness, like the untouched surface of a lake. Musashi Miyamoto "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "was famous for fighting over sixty duels in his lifetime and after retiring from dueling, he became a poet, "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "painter, calligrapher, writer, and even a gardener and carpenter. Here was a man who faced death on "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "numerous occasions and was still able to create great and beautiful things. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Studying Bushido further, there were principles and ideals that resonated, giving me a renewed sense "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "of strength and hope. It was not enough that a samurai become one with his sword but he also must view all "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "things with clarity and honesty “You cannot judge whether one is good or evil by noting whether he is "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "prosperous or not. Rise and fall is a matter of the Way of Heaven. Good and evil is the Way of Man.”2. To "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "see a person beyond how much wealth they possess, is a skill that can steer one from making ill-conceived "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "misapprehensions and can even protect one from danger. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "In the Hagakure, or The Book of the Samurai, there is an adage that states “The essentials of speaking "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "are in not speaking at all. If you think that you can finish something without speaking, finish it without "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "saying a single word.”3. Each of us have had personal experiences such as this in form or another; how "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "often do we meet people in our lives who do nothing but talk about the things they will do yet end up doing "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "nothing? Whatever the task may be, simply doing the task is what gains results. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "In the same vein of propriety of speech, the Ideals of the Samurai states “One should not tell a lie, no "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "matter to whom he is speaking or how little is said…If one tells a lie, it will become a habit, and in the end "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "he will be forsaken by others.”4 This is a well-conceived example of the Samurai’s mind; to focus on the "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "task at hand and to be aware of the possible end result, both negative and positive. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "“Although there are a hundred kinds of stances, they all exist for the same purpose: to defeat the "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "opponent.”5 These words are attributed to Munenori Yagyu, a supposed rival of Musashi Miyamoto; while "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "written in a martial context, it has a beauty that comes from the ability to transcend its original intention. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Just as there are one hundred stances to defeat an opponent, there are one hundred ways to complete any "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "given task, the point is to complete the task. One could also find that while only one way is needed to "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "defeat an opponent, whose to say that one cannot choose a stance that is best suited to claim victory. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Furthermore, using the same stance or method continuously leads to predictability and laziness. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Throughout my life, I have encountered a consistent stream of inconsistency when it comes to how a "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "person interacts with their family, friends, co-workers and even lovers; each individual has their own ideas "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "of what constitutes friendship and honesty. Within the Samurai code I found ethics that remain "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "uncompromising and at times they did not sit well with people who were once close to me, but my "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "32 "
                    }
                ]
            },
            {
                "pageNumber": "41",
                "paragraph": [
                    {
                        "data": "conscience remains clear. One such principle comes from the samurai Ryoshun Imagawa “It is forbidden to "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "have contempt for wise retainers and prefer flatters, and to have one’s actions be influenced by these "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "conditions.”6. Those who are true to you will tell you what needs to be heard, not what makes you happy at "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "the moment; when any person can tell you what you want to hear, you are in compromised position. Such "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "an ideal is not meant for the faint-hearted, one must be disciplined enough to accept the assessment given, "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "whether in favor or not in favor of what we want to hear; this must also extend to every person we come "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "across, not just master and retainer. Honesty and sincerity are hallmarks not only of the Samurai, but of "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "other Asian cultures as well, to speak honestly and sincerely is a sign that one cares. Honesty, perseverance, "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "discipline, and loyalty are intertwined virtues that the Samurai embrace and yet are dismissed by the "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "popularized image of the Tate and the act of Seppuku. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Now, one could argue that these texts and my vision of the Samurai are highly idealized and for all "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "intents and purposes that could be true but why should it matter? The fact is, is that all works that deal with "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "human interaction, from both the east and the west, is highly idealized, no treatise ever created can deal "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "with every personality on an individual basis. When it comes to Bushido, however, it demands the very best "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "of the person: physically, spiritually, mentally and socially, and it will not except anything less; we live in a "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "age and society where any kind of decision is made on a whim: judging a person on their appearance, "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "getting married, having an affair, fathering children irresponsibly, neglecting the duties we are responsible "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "for, even making friendships and getting involved in romances for immediate gratification. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "It would be great if people could take such principles into their heart and make better decisions, to not "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "cheat on a spouse because things are not rosy, to not bring a child into the world and leave it uncared for, "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "and to not let “I don’t feel like it” be the response to every request, a cyclical mantra. However, I do "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "recognize that not everyone is built with strong constitutions and are either unable or unwilling to remove "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "their egos from any given situation; but such a code of ethics can also strengthen the areas where a person "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "is deficient. For the Samurai, this clarity is often attributed to the incorporation of Zen Buddhism into their "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "lives, taking Buddhism into one’s heart is not a requirement, any strong instillment of faith can produce the "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "same effect; the essential foundation of Bushido is a careful fusing of martial training and spiritual "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "development. There are no Samurai in this world as we know them, they do not fight for their Daimyo and die in the "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "name of their lords. All we have are films, pictures and books of how the Samurai supposedly lived. But I "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "believe the Samurai spirit is eternal, though it changes and goes by different names in different languages "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "and yet its essence remains unaltered; like the ripples on the surface of a lake, each ripple is different but "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "beneath the ripples, the still waters are the same. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "If a person could do these things in one lifetime: show loyalty and devotion to their friends and loved "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "ones, endure hardship and pain with perseverance and courage, perform their duties well, pursue self- "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "improvement through honest critique and serve others with care; then when they come to the end of their "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "lives, they would have lived closest to the way of the Samurai and are worthy of remembrance and honor. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "That is the life I aspire to achieve and when my time in this world is at its end, I will have no shame when I "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "leave. Notes: "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "1. Musashi, Miyamoto, The Book of Five Rings; Boston, Shambhala, 2000, p.13 "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "2. Tsunetomo,Yamamoto,. Stone, Justin (Editor), Bushido The Way of the Samurai; Garden City Park, NY, "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Square One Publishers, 2002, p.29 "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "3. Tsunetomo, Yamamoto, Wilson, William Scott (Translator), Hagakure The Book of the Samurai, New "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "York, Kodansha International, 1983, p.162 "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "4. Wilson, William Scott, Ideals of the Samurai: Writings of Japanese Warriors, Santa Clarita CA, Ohara "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Publications Inc, 1982, p.78-79 "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "5. Yagyu, Munenori, The Life-Giving Sword: Secret Teachings from the House of the Shogun, New York, "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Kodansha International, 2003, p.97 "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "6. Wilson, William Scott, Ideals of the Samurai, p.60 "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "33 "
                    }
                ]
            },
            {
                "pageNumber": "42",
                "paragraph": [
                    {
                        "data": "Bibliography: "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Musashi, Miyamoto, Cleary, Thomas (Editor), The Book of Five Rings, Boston, Shambhala Publications, "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "2000 Tsunetomo,Yamamoto,. Stone, Justin (Editor), Bushido The Way of the Samurai; Garden City Park, NY, "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Square One Publishers, 2002 "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Tsunetomo, Yamamoto, Wilson, William Scott (Translator), Hagakure The Book of the Samurai, New York, "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Kodansha International, 1983 "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Wilson, William Scott, Ideals of the Samurai: Writings of Japanese Warriors, Santa Clarita CA, Ohara "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Publications Inc, 1982 "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Yagyu, Munenori, The Life-Giving Sword: Secret Teachings from the House of the Shogun, New York, "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Kodansha International, 2003 "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "34 "
                    }
                ]
            },
            {
                "pageNumber": "43",
                "paragraph": [
                    {
                        "data": "The Star Festival "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Shelby Lin (Ward Melville High School) "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "My mother lived only the first years of her life in Japan before her parents moved to Hawaii, and she "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "and her brothers spent their childhood in the United States. Years later, when their children had children of "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "their own, my grandparents moved back to the same wooden house in Tokyo that they had built decades "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "before. They had gone to sell that house but months became years, and they never left. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "We visited them there two summers ago. It was my first time in Japan and the breath of culture and "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "heritage we encountered shocked me. We arrived the week of Tanabata, the Japanese star festival, and the "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "sidewalks of their Sugamo neighborhood were adorned with colored strips of paper and folded cranes. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "My grandmother met us at Tokyo International Airport and as we walked along crowded sidewalks she "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "explained the meaning behind the tanzaku that hung from bamboo stalks. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "“You write wishes on the backs of the paper, then hang them on the trees,” she said, laughing a little "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "as I stopped to read one before realizing it was written in beautiful little characters I could not understand. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "My grandmother had always been healthy for her age, but it had been a couple of years since I had last seen "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "her and I’d not noticed before how slowly we had to walk for her to keep up. I was taller than her now as "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "well, by a combination of my growth and her rounded back. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "“Wishes?” I asked, fingering them and wishing I could know what these people hoped for. We passed "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "modern apartments and tiny white houses set along straight narrow streets in precise lines. The feeling was "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "so orderly that when we came upon their house it was a shock. The lawn was an overgrown mess of grass "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "and bushes, adding a wild feeling to the beautiful wooden house. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "My grandfather, eighty years old at the time, was sitting outside on a wooden stool when we arrived. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "I could barely remember the last time I had seen him, which was about a decade before. He leaned over a "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "cane when he walked, and spent much of his time gazing off in silence. My mother treated him like a "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "fragile object and we followed his example. I wasn’t sure what to say to him then, though I wish now that I "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "had asked him what his Tanabata wish was. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "We spent ten days in Japan, during which I spent each day with my grandparents and saw more of the "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "half of my heritage that I had been missing. I felt regret in my chest each time I heard Japanese being "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "spoken, but most especially when it came from my mother’s mouth. She’d never tried to teach it to us and "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "after that visit I wished she had. Japan was so different, so exciting and beautiful, that I decided that I "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "would return in the future. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "That day in Tokyo, I looked at those tanzaku slips and wished that I could read them and write my "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "own in those beautiful little characters. I began taking Japanese lessons the month after we came home. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "The next year, my grandfather passed away in his house with my grandmother seated beside him. She "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "moved to California to live with one of her sons, and their house in Tokyo eventually burned down, but I "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "have the feeling that a part of her still lives there. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "I still plan to live in Japan one day, hopefully for a year after college to teach English or work as an "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "interpreter. Japan, the homeland of my mother and my ancestors, represents an unknown part of who I am, "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "a part that I will one day explore. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "35 "
                    }
                ]
            },
            {
                "pageNumber": "44",
                "paragraph": [
                    {
                        "data": "Selected Essays "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "from Fifth Competition "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "(2009-2010) 36 "
                    }
                ]
            },
            {
                "pageNumber": "45",
                "paragraph": [
                    {
                        "data": "A World Apart "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Gen Ishikawa (Syosset High School) "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "I can clearly remember before every trip that my family and I have made to Japan, that I would always "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "dread the 15 hour plane ride from New York to Narita International Airport that awaited me. Ever since my "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "grandparents had become too elderly to travel to the States, my family and I had decided to travel to Japan "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "instead. My parents believed that a trip to Japan would be beneficial in that it would make my grandparents "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "lives a bit easier, and I would also be able to “catch up” on my Japanese heritage. This was because; my "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "parents are strict about preserving my identity as a Japanese individual. Although I did consider myself "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "American, I believed without doubt that I knew about Japanese culture equally as well. I reassured my "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "parents, “Mom, dad, I know enough about Japanese culture, I mean come on, I am Japanese! What could I "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "possibly not know?” But, when they began to question me about simple Japanese values, beliefs, and "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "culture, I had not a single clue. This put me on the same level as the kids that I despised who believed that "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Japan was nothing more than sushi and Sony electronics. I was disappointed in my hypocritical self, and at "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "that point, I began to develop a desire to learn more about Japanese culture. I viewed going to Japan as an "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "opportunity. An opportunity that allowed me to realize the “culture shock” between my life in America, and "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "a life in Japan. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "The second I set foot in Japan, I realized that I was in a place world apart from America. We lived in "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Kami-Itabashi, Tokyo, a town right outside of Ikebukuro, Tokyo. The most noticeable difference that stood "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "out most to me at first was the environment. There was no grass to be seen for miles, vending machines that "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "dispensed cigarettes, and game centers on nearly every single block. I soon realized that I was getting "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "strange looks from people, as if they were ostracizing me from Japan, and placing me as a “gaijin” or an "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "outsider. My parents then explained to me that what you wear in public is a very important aspect of life in "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Japan. I asked, “What’s wrong about shorts and a t-shirt?” but as I looked around, despite the fact that it "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "was nearly 100 degrees outside, there was not a single person wearing shorts. Rather, everyone was well "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "over dressed in jeans and suits. I could not get myself to comprehend this as in America; it is socially "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "acceptable to do so. I could not believe that this was the case in Japan, and I finally began to acquire a taste "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "of how different the culture in Japan was from what I knew. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "However, the culture shocks that impacted me the most were the ones that dealt with human relations. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "An experience that I will never forget was when I was walking the streets of Shinjuku, and I realized that "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "there was not a single piece of litter to be seen on the streets. When I accidentally dropped a hi-chew "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "wrapper, someone around me picked it up for me! I was truly astonished as this was something that would "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "never happen in New York, something unimaginable. However, what allowed this to happen was the "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Japanese belief in respecting the individuals around you. I further realized the extent of this virtue when my "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "parents explained to me that you couldn’t cause a raucous within your household as your neighbor’s house "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "is within a few feet. A loud disturbance within your household would be likely cause a disturbance for your "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "neighbor as well, which would be a selfish act. Japanese people live their day-to-day lives thinking not only "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "about themselves, but for others as well. A virtue that does not exist as strongly in America as it does in "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Japan. Thinking about others, or placing them before you is an important virtue that should be embraced "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "not only in Japan but throughout the entire world as well. With this in mind, I was able to bring it back to "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "America where I began a new life. A life that is “a world apart”, different from my previous, where all that "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "used to matter to me was myself. Not only have my trips to Japan allowed me to gain a better "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "understanding of my culture, but the virtues that I did not realize before have helped me to become better as "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "a person. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "37 "
                    }
                ]
            },
            {
                "pageNumber": "46",
                "paragraph": [
                    {
                        "data": "Journey to a Japanese Family "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Ethan Hamilton (Horace Mann High School) "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "I may not remember any other “firsts,” those landmark accomplishments parents keep track of. But I "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "do remember one – my first favorite book. It was “Grandfather’s Journey” by Allen Say. Maybe it was the "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "beautiful illustrations, or maybe it was that my own beloved Grandpa always added in some personal "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "anecdotes, but this autobiographical story was the beginning of my own parallel journey to Japan. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Almost everything in my room has relevance to Japan. From the reproductions of Ukiyoe prints or the "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Japanese style Buddha to the Domo-kun piggybank, I’ve assembled artifacts of Japanese culture through "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "careful purchases. Suddenly I sip my Oi-Ocha and snap back to the present. I was lost in my own little "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Japan again. While other kids dream of becoming rock or sports stars, my own fantasies center on "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "connecting with a culture that I believe epitomizes both aesthetic and spiritual beauty. In addition to reading "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "that first story about Japan to me, my Grandfather introduced me to his own Japanese treasures. Grandpa "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "shared his books about Hokusai and Hiroshige and later read to me about the Showa, Edo and Meiji "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "periods. Perhaps my favorite among his treasures was his teapot collection, which somehow survived my "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "enthusiastic handling. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "My Grandfather, however, couldn’t have grown up further from Japan. A first generation Jewish kid "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "from the Bronx, he enlisted in the army as soon as he was old enough after WWII broke out. Never having "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "been out of New York, he was shipped overseas once his training was complete. By the time he arrived in "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Japan, the war was finally over. Grandpa was astonished not only by the hideous devastation resulting from "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "the war but also, by complete culture shock. He explained how being in Japan changed the way he looked "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "at everything. So much so in fact, that he came to feel more at home abroad than he had back in NY. He "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "illustrated his stories with gifts – a ceramic Buddha he’d fallen in love with and bought with his soldier’s "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "salary. A cinnabar box upon which my fingers have traced and retraced the carved cherry blossoms. I came "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "to understand why Grandpa had selected “Grandfather’s Journey” for me. It was striking how it was almost "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "the inverse of Grandpa’s own journey. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "We continued to explore Japan as much as possible from home. This bond between us never felt "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "complete without an actual trip to our spiritual homeland. I’d been studying Japanese in school and had "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "completed my Bar-Mitzvah into adulthood. Grandpa began to plan meticulously and we debated our "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "itinerary passionately. Should we focus on Tokyo and be thorough or spread our precious days across the "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "country thereby having only a brief visit in each place? Because Grandpa and I both had medical problems "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "– and because neither of us ever did anything lightly – we settled on an intensive visit to Tokyo. From our "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "first lunch at a noisy noodle shop (soba for me, udon for Grandpa) to the shrine of the 47 Ronin, there was "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "nothing that appealed to only one of us. Together we drew fortunes at Asakusa and Grandpa, remembering "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "a long-ago visit, showed me how to light an incense offering. It was certainly the trip of a lifetime and "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "perhaps you can tell by now that it ended very sadly. Despite great effort, Grandpa’s heart, always "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "brimming with love, could last no longer. I made the trip home alone. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Thus it was with mixed emotion that I signed up for a homestay in suburban Tokyo last summer. Once "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "the Nakahamas picked me up, it was easy to fall in with the rhythms of their lives. At last I had two "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "brothers and between visiting Hiroaki’s school, playing PS2 for hours, or just joining in with the family’s "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Sunday barbecue, I had much to distract me from my bittersweet memories. One weekend, the Nakahamas "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "planned a journey to Kamakura and along the way, we enjoyed eating at a decades-old family-run noodle "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "house. Unlike the lunchtime restaurant Grandpa had taken me to in Tokyo, it was a quiet place where we "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "sat at tables instead of at a counter. In a way, I now feel as though I have my own family in Japan. Still, "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "however, I dream of making another journey when my Japanese is fluent and my brothers and I can laugh "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "at my awkwardness when we first met. Above all, as I strive to accomplish this goal, I will always try to "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "make Grandpa proud. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Bibliography: Say, Allen. Grandfather’s Journey. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1993. Print. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "38 "
                    }
                ]
            },
            {
                "pageNumber": "47",
                "paragraph": [
                    {
                        "data": "What Japan means to me "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Sarah Lam (Bronx High School of Science) "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Japan. This is the one word that would ring like a bell in my head. At a very young age, I had admired "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Japanese artwork – mainly animation and manga. The artwork was beyond what I had ever seen in my life. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "The drawings differed for different animation and manga. The eyes, hairstyle, and clothing- the style of "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "each artwork varied. At this moment, my life revolved around Japan. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "I remembered the first time I saw Japanese artwork was during my 2nd year in grade school. At this "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "time, I had no friends, no companions; all I had were bullies, people who disliked me just from my very "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "presence. I remembered how no one would help me, how the teachers believed that these “bullies” would "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "never do such a thing, and how many people who saw my suffering stood idle, done nothing but watched. I "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "could not dare tell my family of such a situation, did not want them to worry, did not want them to be sad, "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "and most importantly, I did not want to see their disappointed faces. It was here and then that I was "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "introduced to animation and manga by my one and only brother. While watching these animations and "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "reading these manga, it shocked me to read and watched of such a plot. I laughed, cried, rejoiced, and even "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "had bitter resentment towards different scenes that were portrayed. I thought, “How very amusing. I wish I "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "can draw like that. Even if I can’t draw, I want to try to write a story similar to this”. During the time I "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "faced harassment and felt that maybe it would have been better if I wasn’t here, if I wasn’t alive, then "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "maybe everyone else would be happy, it was Japan that rejuvenated me. It made me realize that life was "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "harsh and that nothing can always be the way you want it to be. Just like Koyama Mitsuki, a character in "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "“Full moon o sagashiteru”, although her lover and both her parents deceased, and although she had a tumor, "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "she struggled to the very last minute to continue living. It told me that life is very precious and that you "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "can’t give up so easily. It told me to “Live. Strive for the people who love you and don’t you ever give up”. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Japanese artwork acted as remedy to my suffering by allowing me to be “me”. It gave me courage to face "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "my problems head on. It told me “ganbatte” which means “do your best” in Japanese. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Soon after, I learned about Japanese food, the language, and their history. The more I studied, the "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "more in love I was in with Japan. It fascinated me when I learned that the very drawings I fell in love with "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "was based off of Western aspects. It thrilled me to know that Japan was such a flexible country. They bend "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "to various religions, and countries. I had a teacher who once told me that Japan was a great country. They "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "adapted to different situations that allowed the Japanese to prosper. During the world war, Japan faced a "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "terrible crisis which was the possibility of being overrun. The Japanese prevented this from occurring by "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "taking in other countries beneficial aspects. They took Britain’s navy skills, and took Germany’s military "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "system which allowed the Germans to have a superior military. What surprised me even more was the "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Japanese language. Hiragana, katakana, and kanji – many characters were based off of Chinese letters. I "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "tried not to get confused between Chinese and Japanese but it acted like a tongue-twister. The more I "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "thought, the more confused I got but I couldn’t get enough of it. I wanted to know more, learn more about "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Japan and how it became the way it is today. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Studying Japanese history encouraged me to try visiting Japan at least once. Recently I found a "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "scholarship program that allowed high school students to travel to Japan and live with a host family during "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "the summer to experience Japan firsthand. I was thrilled to go however all my efforts were put aside and "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "labeled void by my parents. However I haven’t given up hope yet. I still study Japanese language, and "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "continue learning about their religion and history. If I get a little tired, a little angry, or a little upset, I listen "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "to Japanese music, watch Japanese animation or read manga to sooth myself. If I feel like I giving up, I tell "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "myself the magic word – ganbatte. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "39 "
                    }
                ]
            },
            {
                "pageNumber": "48",
                "paragraph": [
                    {
                        "data": "Shotokan: A Way of Life "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Elizabeth D Kaufman (Stony Brook University) "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "“What, are you too afraid to look at me or something?” That was the question she posed as the others "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "once again ganged up to watch. I never knew why I couldn’t. It was just a fact. I couldn’t look people in the "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "eye. Then, she hit me. Every day of elementary school was the same. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "I never knew for sure, until recently, why I just couldn’t fit in as a child. The other kids dubbed me the "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "class freak. I played alone. I couldn’t make friends. I didn’t understand jokes and I just didn’t “get” what "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "other people were talking about. I could hear things the other kids couldn’t. Not voices- things like light "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "bulbs and television sets buzzing, along with high pitched tones. That drove me nuts. More than anything "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "else, it drove me crazy how I couldn’t look most people in the eye. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "The school, during my early years in the education system, thought I might be a little “slow.” After "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "getting past the second grade, however, they changed their mind and decided I was very intelligent. No "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "matter how smart they felt I was and no matter how many awards I received or what talents I had, the other "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "children wanted nothing to do with me. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Years inevitably passed and, while my peers opinions of me weren’t as big an issue, I still felt "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "misplaced and bullied. Pokémon became a means of escape from the world I seemed to be bound to. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Arriving in America, in 1998, Pokémon, a Japanese cartoon, card gaming and video gaming series, took the "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "country by storm. Cards, toys, a television show and a plethora of accessories stocked toy stores. Drawn to "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "the animation, distinct from American cartoons, I was curious about the mannerisms of the characters, but "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "most of all by bowing. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "I saved money from working around the neighborhood and earned enough to buy the cards, a game "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "boy and a Pokémon game. The main character, Ash, didn’t fit in with the others, but had the same goals. It "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "just took him longer to reach them. This was a prominent theme in many other anime (Japanese Animation) "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "shows that I have come to watch. The more I watched anime, the more I felt connected with characters that "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "were just as clumsy and out of place as I was. More than that, however, anime I watched sparked my "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "curiosity about other aspects of Japanese culture. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Everything from food to manners intrigued me. How the Japanese could live in such tiny apartments "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "in order to share space with others was difficult for me to grasp, looking around me in America. It baffled "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "me (and still does) that Americans complain if they touch other people on public transportation or if they "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "cannot sit, and how we bump into others upon exit, not apologizing, while the Japanese shout “sumimasen "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "(sorry!)!” and bow as they wiggle their way out of an over packed train car. I couldn’t get enough "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "information. I suppose that my thirst for knowledge inspired me to take up the martial arts. Partly because of the "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "desire to defend myself against the bullies I faced and partly because of its mystery. Movies like The Karate "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Kid promoted martial arts as a means of turning one’s life around. Also, the moves were “cool.” But above "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "all, bowing still intrigued me. I couldn’t figure out why people bowed to one another or what the true "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "history of it was. I decided I wanted to learn for myself. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "It was a hot Las Vegas afternoon when I stepped foot into what would become my dojo. The windows "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "facing west, I was blinded by the setting desert sun. When my vision was restored, I found myself in a very "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "simple, open setting. Immediate to the entrance were chairs, couches, a coffee table with some Shotokan "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "magazines and pamphlets written in the mysterious characters I knew to be of the Japanese language. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Bamboo plants were nestled between the L-shaped couches. Black furniture made of wood and white "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "surroundings set the tone. Traditional Japanese lantern-shaped light fixtures enveloped the area as the sun "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "sunk lower. It was peaceful. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "For a moment, I lost myself. It was refreshing listening to the trickling of the small fountain next to "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "the tall bamboo plant that I missed upon entering. The door jingled as it was opened and the students began "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "to arrive. Sensei appeared from the back and introduced himself with a bow. Clumsily, I bowed back. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "40 "
                    }
                ]
            },
            {
                "pageNumber": "49",
                "paragraph": [
                    {
                        "data": "“Do you know what a bow is?” I stared at him. “A proper bow,” he continued, “is showing respect. It "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "is also showing the other person that you trust them. You look down when bowing, back straight. You look "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "the person in the eye during Kumite (sparring). Respect must be shown at all times. Do you understand?” "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "His voice grew louder upon reaching those last words. Suddenly, out of nowhere, all the students yelled "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "“Osu!” and bowed perfectly, looking down. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "It became clear to my why the characters bowed in anime. Unlike the characters in the anime, though, "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "while I could learn to bow, I didn’t progress as quickly in karate. Sensei asked me to come before class and "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "stay until after class. We didn’t practice kicking bags or punching. Without knowing it, sensei gave me "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "tools to control the things that hindered me outside the dojo. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Meditation was one of those tools. Something as simple as breathing, he taught me, could be the "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "foundation for everything else one did. In and out. No thoughts. In and out. Clear head. I learned to use this "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "skill before kumite, before performing kata (forms), while getting frustrated in school and when I felt I was "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "about to lose my cool anywhere outside the dojo. Over time, I was impressed- meditation, done both in the "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "morning and evening, really did help get my thoughts under control. I felt better. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "I was soon looking at karate as more than just an Olympic sport. It was true that I did enjoy being a "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "national competitor after a few years of practice, but I couldn’t have become that if I didn’t live karate as a "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "lifestyle. Sensei taught us about Japan and the people who lived there. We would go as a group to Japanese "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "restaurants and learned about Japanese food. We would live treating all people as beings that were equal to "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "ourselves. I came to learn some of his teachings as elements of Buddhism, which I later studied in college. I "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "began to live life in this manner; helping others became important. So did reducing the complications in my "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "life. Feeling inspired, I began to participate in helping my community and “being the bigger person” as they "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "say in America. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Slowly, but surely, I was beginning to gain confidence. I became stronger not only physically, but "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "mentally. For someone who was a complete outcast, this was greatly beneficial. Most importantly, my "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "sensei taught me the skill that truly changed my life forever- sensei taught me how to look people in the "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "eye. Why this is such a big deal to me can be hard for others to understand. Until recently, I had no way to "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "describe my difficulties. I felt uncomfortable looking people in the eye and being around them. I panicked "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "when things got slightly tense. I had no hand eye coordination and did not enjoy daily life. I hid from the "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "world. The word I was looking for was “Asperger’s.” While I was diagnosed with everything else under the "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "sun, Asperger’s Syndrome, a form of autism, is now something that a doctor says we should explore. They "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "don’t have a cure, but they have a name. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "My sensei made me look at people in the eye for periods of time. He had told me he “just knew” I "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "needed the help. Doing those drills while taking hits made me more uncomfortable than anything I had ever "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "done, including getting knocked out, but I couldn’t be more grateful. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "I have chosen to study psychology and Asian American Studies, along with Japanese these past four "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "years. Though I’m not sure where I’m headed, I’ve enjoyed taking psychology courses, learning about "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "myself, and studying Japanese culture, which I fell in love with. Since karate and studying ways of "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Japanese life has helped me so greatly, I intend on giving back to my community. I would love very much "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "to found a karate program for autistic children. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Regardless of what I do, the skills I have gained have made me who I am today. I can meditate when "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "my senses are overwhelmed, have self-control and have the confidence that I can learn to overcome "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "anything. I believe this to be the result of my training and the confidence I developed by living that life. I "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "truly love Japanese aesthetics. I am confident karate and the Japanese spirit within it changed who I am for "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "good. So confident, I can look you in the eye and say so. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "41 "
                    }
                ]
            },
            {
                "pageNumber": "50",
                "paragraph": [
                    {
                        "data": "Selected Essays "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "from Sixth Competition "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "(2010-2011) 42 "
                    }
                ]
            },
            {
                "pageNumber": "51",
                "paragraph": [
                    {
                        "data": "Imagine All the People "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Jessica Goldman (North Shore Hebrew Academy) "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "It doesn’t look like a tree, I thought as I stared through the thick museum glass at the black ashy "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "figure. Once upon a time, this tree stood tall and dignified; it withstood wind and storms. But this tree "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "became a symbol of unspeakable violence. The war destroyed the innocent tree, along with the rest of the "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "city of Nagasaki. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "I walked down the hallway of the Atomic Bomb Museum in Nagasaki, Japan to find a room full of "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "televisions. I sat down and watched a woman share her first-hand testimony of August 9 th , 1945. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "“We couldn’t just leave all the bodies there,” the woman spoke. “It was a pile of corpses down the "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "street, so my mother and I piled them up to cremate them. Just as we were about to light the match,” terror "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "brimmed in her pupils, “one man in the pile started yelling as hard as he could: don’t burn me! I’m still "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "alive.” 1 "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "I trembled in my 16 year-old spoiled American body. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "I learned about the atomic bomb in ninth grade. I learned that the United States invented it. I learned "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "that Truman dropped it. I even learned about the political motives; however, I never learned about the "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "personal stories of ruined lives or extent of human suffering. “A few days after the bombing,” the survivor "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "continued, “my mother found something on the floor in the kitchen.” Streams of tears ran down her cheeks "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "as well as my own, “It was my brother’s skull, just sitting there in the kitchen.” 2 While listening to her "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "harrowing story, it paralleled in my mind to the other mass killing that I’ve been taught about throughout "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "my life— the Holocaust. Raised in a Jewish home, my grandparents have constantly told me about the pain "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "of growing up in Eastern Europe in the 1940s. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "A couple of weeks after my trip to Japan, I met a man named Makoto Otsuka. Just the sight of him "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "was unusual: a Japanese man wearing a yarmulke and speaking fluent Hebrew. He told me about his trip to "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Amsterdam many years ago where he coincidentally met Anne Frank’s father, Otto Frank, who opened his "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "eyes to the tragic genocide. Before that moment Otsuka knew virtually nothing of the Holocaust or the six "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "million Jewish people who had perished. From that day on, Otsuka dedicated his existence to the "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "commemoration of the Holocaust. He opened the first and only Holocaust Education Center in Japan. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "While speaking with him, I realized the sensitivity he had for the Holocaust as a result of his own difficult "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "life growing up in Japan during World War II. Each of these catastrophes was a result of unconscionable "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "hatred. Mr. Otsuka passionately challenges this attitude with his philosophy of tolerance, “Just as you can "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "hate for no reason, you can love for no reason.” 3 "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "While it is my responsibility to remember the atrocities of the Holocaust and uphold the legacy of my "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "people, it is equally important for me to educate myself and connect to the histories and suffering of those "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "people around the world with whom I do not share an ancestral connection. As a global citizen, there is no "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "bond stronger than the human connection. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "I remember walking outside of the museum in Nagasaki. I was incredibly moved by a display of "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "thousands of paper cranes, a symbol of longevity and peace in Japanese culture inspired by a twelve year- "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "old girl named Sadako Sasaki. Sadako developed leukemia as a result of the radiation from the atomic "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "bombing. While sick, her goal was to create 1000 paper cranes because there is a Japanese saying that one "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "who folds 1000 cranes is granted a wish. Sadako only lived to fold 644 paper cranes. 4 However, Sadako’s "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "legacy lives on through displays of paper cranes throughout Japan. There is even a peace park with a statue "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "of Sadako in Seattle, Washington. Paper cranes threaded on long strings are draped over the memorial. 5 "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Outside the museum, ground zero was surrounded with beautiful, vibrant trees. They stood tall in the "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "face of combat. The trees grew back after the devastation, I thought, but the lives that were taken by the "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "hands of war will be tragically lost forever. I continued walking only to discover a plaque etched with the "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "lyrics of a John Lennon song, “Imagine all the people, living life in peace.” "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "I can imagine it. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "John Lennon imagined it. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "43 "
                    }
                ]
            },
            {
                "pageNumber": "52",
                "paragraph": [
                    {
                        "data": "Sadako Sasaki imagined it. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Makoto Otsuka imagines it. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "And it is a beautiful wish. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Notes: 1. “Narratives of A-bomb Experience.” Video Room. Nagasaki Atomic Bomb Museum. 20 Sep 2010. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "2. Ibid. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "3. Otsuka, Makato. Personal Interview. 8 Nov 2010. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "4. “United Nations: On the wings of paper cranes, UN staffers aim to spread message of peace.” M2 "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Presswire 9 August 2010 ProQuest Newsstand, ProQuest. Web. 30 Dec. 2010. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "5. “Peace Park.” Seattle Park and Recreation Web. 30 Dec 2010. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "<http://www.seattle.gov/parks/park_detail.asp?ID=4029>. Bibliography "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "“About the Holocaust Education Center.” Holocaust Education Center, Japan. 2007. Web. 30 Dec 2010. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "<http://www.urban.ne.jp/home/hecjpn/indexENGLISH.html>. “Narratives of A-bomb Experience.” Video Room. Nagasaki Atomic Bomb Museum. 20 Sep 2010. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Otsuka, Makato. Personal Interview. 8 Nov 2010. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "“Peace Park.” Seattle Park and Recreation Web. 30 Dec 2010. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "<http://www.seattle.gov/parks/park_detail.asp?ID=4029>. “United Nations: On the wings of paper cranes, UN staffers aim to spread message of peace.” M2 "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Presswire 9 August 2010 ProQuest Newsstand, ProQuest. Web. 30 Dec. 2010. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "44 "
                    }
                ]
            },
            {
                "pageNumber": "53",
                "paragraph": [
                    {
                        "data": "Japan--An Own World of Peace "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Spencer Kirsch (Lynbrook Senior High School) "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "After crawling into the teahouse with the twenty-five other students from my introductory Japanese "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "class, I was respectfully asked to sit on the ground, with my knees on the floor, hands on my thighs, and to "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "wait for the grandmaster to serve me the usucha, or Japanese tea. With a bow, I was first in line to receive "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "the rather bland-looking liquid served in a ceramic bowl. As soon as I took my first gulp, I had the urge to "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "push the bowl away and say “no thank you.” However, as the grandmaster of the ceremony treated me with "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "the upmost respect, I felt obligated to act in the same manner and drank it willingly. An enlightening smile "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "took life on the grandmaster’s face when he saw me accept his gift. The chado, or tea ceremony, is just one "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "way the Japanese people emphasize their way of life, often characterized by four general principles; kei "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "(respect), wa (harmony), sei (purity) and jaku (tranquility). Although I do not carry any Japanese descent, I, "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "like the people of Japan, have been taught to incorporate these same ideas while communicating with "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "others. The grandmaster’s smile that resulted from everyone finishing his or her tea revealed the importance "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "of respect in the Japanese culture. Kei (respect) relies on the notion that it is achieved through sincere "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "thoughts and gentle words. Though all are equal in the tearoom (represented by every person, no matter "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "rank or wealth, crawling through the doorway), the practice of bowing and the ritual of turning the utensils "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "help to foster respect and minimize potential for conflict. The hospitality of the grandmaster and the caring "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "of the guests for one another aids in promoting this principle. Wa (harmony) corresponds to the harmony "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "between people and also refers to the relationship people have with nature. Greeted with a beautiful garden "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "directly after crawling into the teahouse, one is expected to feel a special connection with and appreciation "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "for all nature that exists in the world. Sei (purity) represents orderliness and cleanliness, both spiritually and "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "physically. The host of the ceremony cleans all utensils and the tearoom itself before they are used, also "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "cleaning his spirit. Through calm insight, it is thought that the true reality and purity is only perceived in a "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "life where everything is “clean” and “in order.” Lastly, jaku (tranquility) is identifiable with one’s "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "enlightenment, bliss, innocence, and a state of total calmness. These four characteristics that I experienced "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "in the tearoom are ones that I constantly try to display to others through my daily actions. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "In today’s world, violence and crime is undeniably present, and continues to exist. Through events as "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "small as robberies or as large as world wars, people often choose to promote characteristics that are directly "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "opposed to the four characteristics included in the Japanese way of tea. In only a dream can one imagine a "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "world in which respect, harmony, purity and tranquility exist in all people and take precedent over the will "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "to do evil. Personally, I live by the four principles of the Japanese people by doing my part to put a smile on "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "others’ faces. I am the co-founder of Pink Ribbon Teens, a charitable initiative that provides free in-home "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "babysitting/tutoring services to families experiencing illness. By providing safe and compassionate care for "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "their children, parents who are ill have an opportunity to rest or recuperate. For those parents who have "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "children with special needs, my initiative allows them to focus their attention on that child while their other "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "children are being cared for. Through this service, I am able to bring harmony to children whose lives are "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "otherwise disrupted. Stress for these families is replaced by a new sense of calmness. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "To most of us, the rituals the Japanese people practice to show their beliefs may actually be thought of "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "as “out of the box.” For instance, believing that the way they set their utensils on a table contains a "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "respectful meaning in spirit may seem unusual to those of us from different cultures. However, it is perhaps "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "that very sense of ritual and belief that if followed by others, would lead to a world that is less violent. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Perhaps we should ask this question to ourselves; Would one rather live in a world with people whose "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "thoughts are out of the ordinary or would one prefer a world filled with chaos and a lack of respect? "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "45 "
                    }
                ]
            },
            {
                "pageNumber": "54",
                "paragraph": [
                    {
                        "data": "R.E.S.P.E.C.T-- Find out What It Means to Me "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Aya Terki (East Meadow High School) "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "“Ki wo tsukenasai!”, my mother warned, as I ran out of my grandparents’ apartment to the bookstore "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "down the block. I heard a clerk welcome me from the back of the store: “Irashaimase!”. I grabbed my "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "favorite Japanese book that I waited for months to get my hands on and dashed to the cash register. “That "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "will be 700 yen please”, said the cashier with a smile. I quickly pulled out seven 100-yen coins from my "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "jacket pocket and went to drop them into the cashier’s hand. Her smile faded and her eyes widened as she "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "gasped. Out of nowhere, she pulled out a small, rectangular tray and held it under my hand, apologizing "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "profusely. I remembered watching my mother place her money in a similar tray, so I assumed I was to do "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "the same thing. The cashier counted the money, gave me the receipt with my book and bowed multiple "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "times, embarrassed. I bowed back, and rushed back to the apartment. A bit confused, I told my okaasan "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "what happened in the bookstore and asked her why the cashier was so apologetic. She explained to me that "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "when purchasing an item in a Japanese store, the money or credit card should be placed in the tray that is "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "provided. It is a sign of respect, and it symbolizes that the item is worthy of being handled with care. Being "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "raised in America, such a way of handling money seemed silly to me. I was used to seeing crumbled up "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "dollar bills with mustaches drawn on President Washington’s face. I was accustomed to seeing pennies on "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "supermarket floors, or dimes glued on to subway seats. Such disrespect towards one’s surroundings is "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "frowned upon in the Japanese culture. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Respect for the environment is another quality that is emphasized in Japanese culture. Streets, subway "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "cars, train stations and even public toilets are clean and garbage cans are easily accessible in busy areas. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "During a recent trip to Japan, I went to Tokyo DisneyLand with my family. A young child in front of me "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "was eating a piece of candy and dropped her wrapper. Immediately, another guest at the park picked up the "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "wrapper, and threw it away into a nearby garbage can. Witnessing that took me back to my studies in a "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Japanese elementary school. Every day, we had “osouji no jikan,” or clean up time, and we rotated shifts to "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "clean the floors of the classroom, wipe desks and clean the bathroom. By doing so at a young age, we "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "learned to take responsibility not only for our own actions, but for others’ as well. It was an important "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "lesson for me to learn because back at home, I selfishly depended on custodians or sanitation workers to "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "pick up my garbage later. Being put into their shoes helped me realize that I should at least be accountable "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "for my own things, and I think many Japanese students also realize that and apply it in their daily lives. For "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "example, many public bathrooms do not provide paper towels because it has become customary to carry "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "around a handkerchief. Also, a popular movement called “My Hashi” makes it trendy to carry around your "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "personal pair of chopsticks. This is in place of using disposable wooden chopsticks called waribashi. These "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "trends encourage all kinds of people to participate in a team effort to be more eco-friendly in order to help "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "out and give back to the environment. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Though respect is a universal concept, why is it applied differently in other cultures? It seems as if in "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "American culture, respect is something we only give to people. In Japanese tradition, respecting others is "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "something that is shizen, or natural, but in addition to another form of respect: Respect with their "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "surroundings. Right now, the entire globe is facing an environmental crisis due to overuse of our natural "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "resources and the tremendous amount of pollution. We use things and then throw them away mindlessly, "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "without thinking of the consequences. Through my experiences in Japan, I’ve made a conscious effort to be "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "more eco-friendly myself. I use a reusable bag for grocery shopping, and I use a handkerchief instead of "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "paper towels. If we all learn to respect and appreciate our surroundings like the Japanese, I believe it will be "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "easier to help preserve our planet and keep it healthy to sustain future generations. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "46 "
                    }
                ]
            },
            {
                "pageNumber": "55",
                "paragraph": [
                    {
                        "data": "Doumo Arigatou Mr. Roboto "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Eric Andrew Engoron (Stony Brook University) "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "It isn’t easy living independently when you have a physical disability rendering you unable to walk. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Tasks as easy as making your bed become impossibly difficult. You are unable to reach things in high "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "places, or even change light bulbs. It is unfeasible to take showers without the proper equipment at your "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "disposal, and even to use the bathroom if the proper facilities aren’t available to you. Taking these "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "unworkable tasks into consideration, I had always wondered how I could manage life independently. I "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "would lay awake at night, thinking of ways I could manage my daily routine without the help of my family, "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "and the problem was, I could not come up with anything. I began to think I was destined to live at home "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "forever; I could never live independently. However, that thought could not be further from the truth. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "A few months after my realization, I was still feeling down in the dumps; the world never seemed less "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "handicapped friendly than it did to me then. Around that same time, I made a new friend in school. His "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "name was Taisei Chiba, and he was an exchange student from Tokyo, Japan that had just moved to the "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "United States because his dad’s job was relocated. He understood written English very well, but his "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "listening comprehension was less than serviceable. Every day afterschool, I would sit with him and help "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "him with his listening and speaking, while I conversely learned a plethora of Japanese. Culturally, he was "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "very different than most of the people I had to deal with in my school. He was respectful, kind, and most of "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "all, he did not think of me as “that disabled kid,” as everyone else did. He chalked it up to the fact that I "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "was not different from anyone else, but I chalked it up to the respectful aspect of the Japanese culture that is "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "not stressed in America. Along with restoring my faith in my peers, and the people around me, Taisei also "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "helped me more than he could ever realize, he helped restore my hope in becoming independent. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "One snowy winter Monday, when Taisei and I met afterschool, he asked me to help him understand an "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "article that used complex English that he never learned while in Japan. Upon reading the introduction, I "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "could tell that the article was about a bipedal robot that was being developed in Japan named ASIMO. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "However, as I read more and more of the article, I started to fall in love with the driving force behind "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "ASIMO’s development, artificial intelligence. The article that Taisei gave to me talked about the "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "possibilities of integrating ASIMO in the home to help families go throughout their daily lives without "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "having to do quite as many chores. After I helped Taisei comprehend the article, and we went our separate "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "ways, I spent hours and hours in my room on my computer researching artificial intelligence and robotics; "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "particularly robots that originate in Japan. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "That night, I stumbled upon an article that changed my life’s goal forever. The article, by Dennis "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Normile spoke of Japan’s former Prime Minster Abe’s Innovation 25 plan, which stated that by 2025, "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "robotics would be integrated into many Japanese households to make life easier for humans (Normile 186). "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "As Abe stated in his speech, “…such an innovation will set the Japanese society ahead for years to come,” "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "(Abe). Prime Minster Abe’s innovation made my hopes of living independently rise exponentially. If Abe’s "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "innovation succeeds, I would be able to live on my own with the help of the robots that would be integrated "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "into my household. These robots would be able to make my bed, change light bulbs for me, reach things in "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "high places, and even do my laundry, if I was lucky enough! Life would be ideal for me to be independent. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "During that night, and many nights to come, I sat on my computer and researched robots being developed "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "that would one day make me self-ruling. The robot with the most articles written about it was ASIMO, the "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "robot that Taisei introduced to me during that afterschool session. ASIMO is Honda’s brainchild; it is the "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "most advanced bipedal robot developed thus far. According to ASIMO’s chief engineer Masato Hirose, "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "ASIMO is designed “to improve living in human society without modifying the human living space,” "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "(Hirose and Ogawa 11). Such a robot sounded ideal to me. ASIMO would be able to operate in an "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "unmodified house, and would help me with my daily routine. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Day in and day out I would bring Taisei Japanese articles about robotics to translate for me, and the "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "help I was giving him soon became mutual, as I learned from him as well. While ASIMO sounded like the "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "perfect robot for me to have in my household, there was another robot that I researched that truly made my "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "jaw drop. Its name was the Hyper Assistive Limb-5 (HAL-5). The HAL-5, developed by Japanese company "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Cyberdyne, is designed to help the disabled and the elderly walk. It is an exoskeleton robot that you wear to "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "amplify the strength in your muscles by five allowing you to be more stable while walking (Cyberdyne "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "47 "
                    }
                ]
            },
            {
                "pageNumber": "56",
                "paragraph": [
                    {
                        "data": "Mission Statement). The first thought in my mind after reading about the HAL-5 was, “If I wear this, I "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "could walk and be just as able-bodied as everyone else. My weak muscles would no longer be a problem, "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "and I would finally be stable enough to walk. My life would be perfect.” However, as of now, the HAL-5 is "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "still in the testing stages, and is not yet safe for commercial use. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "The more and more I began to research these robots and the companies making them, I noticed one "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "common thread between all of them. I noticed that all of the chief engineers designing, building, and "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "coding these robots were not disabled. While it is important that these robots are being developed in Japan, "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "I would have thought it would be common sense to have a disabled person’s input on the technology being "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "built to assist them. This common thread is what started me down my current path, the path that will allow "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "me to live my life to the fullest. I know what it is like to have your life changed by a disability, to not be "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "able to do most simple tasks on your own, and most of all what the physically disabled need help with the "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "most in order to be independent. I want to be part of the team that produces these robots; I want to create "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "the robots that will allow millions of disabled people live successful and independent lives without being "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "hindered by their disability. I want to help disabled people level the playing field. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "At first, even my dad was unsure if I could live independently, he thought I depended on him too "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "much to be successful. We often got into heated debates as to whether or not it would be plausible. It used "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "to be the case that I would be defeated in these debates, and not know how to answer his questions, but now "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "armed with my new knowledge of Japanese robots, I could finally fight back. “Well son, how would do "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "simple things such as clean, make your bed or even change light bulbs?” I responded, “Dad that’s ASIMO’s "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "job.” He then proceeded to ask me about cooking to which I responded with the Motoman SDA10, a robot "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "that is designed to be a personal chef (Daly). With robots by my side, I could finally convince my dad it "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "will be plausible for me to live alone. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "The language barrier was the only problem standing in my way of reaching my newfound goal. All "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "the robots that would help me live an unhindered life are being developed by Japanese companies. I needed "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "to learn Japanese in order to be truly successful. Thus, I began asking Taisei for help, and while I was "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "helping him with English, he was helping me more and more with my Japanese, and gradually I began to "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "fall in love with the beauty of the language and the complexity of the Kanji. Now, I am a Computer Science "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "major and Japanese minor at Stony Brook University ready to program robots in Japan that will help the "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "disabled live normal lives. If it weren’t for Taisei and the Japanese companies developing things such as the "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "SDA10, ASIMO, and the HAL-5, I would be destined to feed off my family. However, now the world is my "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "oyster, and it is only appropriate that I quote the band the Styx and say, “Doumo Arigatou Mr. Robotto,” "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Thank you Mr. Robot, for allowing me to live freely. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Bibliography Abe, Shinzo, “Innovation 25.” 26 Feb 2007. Web. 1 Dec 2010. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Daly, Ian. “Just Like Mombot Used to Make.” New York Times. New York Times. 23 Feb 2010. Web. 1 "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Dec 2010. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Hirose, Masato and Kenichi Ogawa. “Honda Humanoid Robots Development.” Philosophical Transactions "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Of The Royal Society A 365 (2007): 11-19. Print. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Normile, Dennis. “Japan Picks Up the Innovation Mantra.” Science 316 (2007): 128. Print. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "48 "
                    }
                ]
            },
            {
                "pageNumber": "57",
                "paragraph": [
                    {
                        "data": "Finding Japan on an Island "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Manami Ogami (Stony Brook University) "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "“No culture can live if it attempts to be exclusive”- Mahatma Gandhi. Those words proved to be true "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "when looking back at my transition from Kyoto, Japan to Honolulu, Hawaii. Looking back at my "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "childhood, my memories are filled with what most would consider typical memories. However, there is a "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "distinct difference between most children and myself because at the age of four I was forced to leave my "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "home in Japan and embark upon a new life in Hawaii. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "As my seat vibrated from the roaring engine, my mother fumbled with the clasp of my seat belt, the "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "belt clenching tightly into my stomach. Gazing out the window, my home became smaller and smaller as "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "the plane gained height, leaving behind my friends, family, home, pets, and quite essentially my life. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Landing in Honolulu, Hawaii, tourists clamored to baggage claim excitingly chattering about the "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "beauty of the islands. In a matter of hours, I had lost everything I had known. I was forced to reside in a "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "place where Japan was identified with three things; Hello Kitty, Sony, and chicken teriyaki. When most "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "imagine residing in Hawaii they envision pristine beaches that line the land of Hula dancers and surfers. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "However, there is a distinct difference between starting a life in Hawaii and a vacation to Hawaii- and this "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "was no vacation. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "My dad had to remain in Japan due to his work, so it was only my mom, my cat and myself who "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "moved to Hawaii. So there we were, with no job, no car, hiding away my cat in a no-pets one-bedroom "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "apartment. Not an ideal situation compared to my home in Japan that held my toys, books, and of course "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "my father. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Fortunately, my mother found a job and I was soon placed in pre-school. Aside from dance classes, "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "this was the first time I ever attended any type of school. Unfortunately, I felt unrelatable to my peers, "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "unable to communicate any of my interests or feelings. The other children whispered about me in hush "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "tones, fearing the unknown. After all, what do you do with a girl that seemed to be mute? My teachers "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "faced much difficulty, trying to communicate through elaborate gestures and hand movements. I felt "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "frustrated at the fact that I was unable to communicate even the simplest of tasks such as “Can I go to the "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "bathroom?” It worsened as we delved deeper into the curriculum. While other children began to read, I was "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "learning to speak. How could I be expected to read a language that I didn’t even understand? When I was "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "given assignments, I was more than capable of doing the work; I just simply could not understand the "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "directions. My instructors recommended ELS classes, but as we were already bombarded with pre-school "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "fees, we were unable to afford any other activities. As a child I envied those who could keep up with school "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "effortlessly. I felt as though I was cheated by being moved to a foreign land where everything was more "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "difficult for me. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Something I didn’t initially realize when I first moved to Hawaii was that I wasn’t just leaving my "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "friends/family behind but also the mundane everyday things such as television, books, games, and "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "conversations that most of us take for granted. Hello Kitty was now replaced on the screen with a purple "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "dinosaur that spoke in a foreign tongue. Books were written in strange scriptures that seemed to represent "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "stories I have never heard before. Where were the tales of Momotaro (the peach boy) or Urashima taro? "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Everything I had grown accustomed to disappear within a single plane ride, and I felt very lost in such an "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "unfamiliar land. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "One day as my mother was reading the Hawaii Hochi, a local Japanese newspaper, she noticed an ad "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "for an upcoming Bon dance. Bon Dance, a Buddhist festival that commemorates the deceased, is a "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "cherished Japanese tradition. Thinking it would be fun, we decided to go. Dawning my yukata (a summer "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "kimono), I arrived and was shocked. Japanese stores lined the street, with almost everyone speaking "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Japanese, as the aroma of yakitori filled the air. As I tried to scoop goldfish, eat yakisoba, and danced "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "around the yagura, I momentarily felt as though I was back home. I found kids who spoke Japanese and "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "shared similar interests of Japanese anime and played games such as Shogi. It was as if I found a little part "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "of Japan on this island. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Soon after I found other Japanese activities I could partake in right here on the island. Both my great- "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "grandmother and grandmother were both tea masters in Japan; therefore I started to take tea ceremony "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "49 "
                    }
                ]
            },
            {
                "pageNumber": "58",
                "paragraph": [
                    {
                        "data": "lessons in Hawaii. I learned how to sit on my knees, bow after receiving the drink, turn the cup clock-wise "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "twice, and the delicate stirring motion of the kabuki brush when making the tea. I was trained in the "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "mannerism of drinking tea and all that goes along with it. My teacher taught five others and myself how to "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "respect the tea and the tearoom. Respect is crucial in Japan (often shown in the form of a curt bow) and it "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "was stressed that we must show respect to our sensei, the tatami room, and all those who attended the "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "ceremony. Although I did not reach the mastery level, I still learned many skills that I find vital for "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "children of that age, such as respect, discipline, and mindfulness. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Despite not being in Japan, when I was seven I still celebrated my shichi-go-san. Originating from the "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Heian period, Shichi-go-san, is viewed as the rite of passage for children in Japan. As the obi held up my "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "traditional kimono, I visited a nearby Japanese shrine in Hawaii. After, we ate at a Japanese restaurant "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "where we indulged in some appetizing Japanese cuisine. I found comfort in the fact that I had the "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "opportunity to engage in Japanese traditions in my new home. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Soon after, I befriended Maria, a girl at my pre-school who spoke not only English but Japanese and "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Spanish as well. She became a friend, translator, and the ultimate confidant. Maria had the best of both "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "worlds, knowing both Japanese and American culture. She introduced me to many American phenomena, "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "ranging from Doritos to Clifford the Big Red Dog. I became more open-minded towards new cultural "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "aspects, and started to educate my family on the “American Way”. I began to merge both cultures and "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "started to experiment with various social phenomena. I had always prided myself with my Japanese "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "heritage but I didn’t want my pride to become ignorance towards other cultures. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "One of those “American” customs I had to be accustomed to sitting cross-legged at school. My "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "teachers taught us to “crisscross applesauce” our legs and sit still. One day I was sitting in this position "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "when my visiting grandmother from Japan walked in. Appalled at the sight of seeing her granddaughter "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "sitting in such a distasteful manner; she said I was bringing “shame” if I were to sit like this in front of "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "company. Calling it “agura (o) kaku”, she explained it was something that only men do, and that ladies "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "must sit properly on their knees. It was interesting that my grandmother reprimanded me for something that "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "my teachers taught. Something that in Japanese culture was considered a disgrace was encouraged to "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "American children. However, what I came to realize was that it was more comfortable to sit cross-legged. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "After all, if you are relaxing in your own home, why must you force yourself to sit in an uncomfortable "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "position? I found a fault within my own culture and realized that another is more practical. As important as "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "it is to cherish your own culture, exploring other cultures is also crucial if you want to be educated and "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "open-minded. Today, I have incorporated a nice blend of both American and Japanese culture into my lifestyle. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "For example, on New Year’s, we always spend New Year’s Eve the traditional American way, by going to "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "the count down and playing with sparklers. However, on New Year’s Day we celebrate in traditional "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Japanese fashion with my grandmother cooking the traditional osechi cuisine alongside the ozouni soup. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Afterwards we go to the shrine, purify our hands, ring the bell twice, clap our hands, and pray for another "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "good year. Even on daily activities, I have found a nice balance of both cultures. I speak Japanese at home "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "but speak English when I am at school. I eat Japanese food when I’m home, but when I eat out with my "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "friends I typically dine at an American diner. In the dining room we have a dining room table but in the "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "living room we have the kotatsu table. I have found that regardless of where I reside, I can still keep my "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "heritage alive if I continue to partake and cherish my Japanese culture. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "50 "
                    }
                ]
            },
            {
                "pageNumber": "59",
                "paragraph": [
                    {
                        "data": "Selected Essays "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "from Seventh Competition "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "(2011-2012) 51 "
                    }
                ]
            },
            {
                "pageNumber": "60",
                "paragraph": [
                    {
                        "data": "Obaachan’s Sword "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Yumiko Siev (Valley Stream Central High School) "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "When I was younger I was convinced that my grandmother was a samurai. Imagine a five year-old "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "little girl exploring her grandmother’s house, discovering a sword in a small closet no one really used. It "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "was inside a smooth case with Japanese calligraphy etched into it, and beautiful pink cherry blossoms on "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "the handle. I remember seriously thinking about opening it, but then my grandmother called my name and a "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "current of panic flowed through me. The sound of my grandmother’s voice sparked an epiphany, and "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "everything I knew about my grandmother came together in my mind. She was undeniably a samurai. How "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "could I not have seen this before? It suddenly made sense: all the mail that came to Obaachan’s house was "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "addressed to Yasuko, when I heard everyone call her June; this was the reason that she needed a double "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "identity. And the reason she woke up before the sun rose was because a curtain of darkness was necessary "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "to practice her samurai sword techniques. On a later date, when I tried to show the sword to my sister, it "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "was gone. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "It wasn’t until years later that I asked my grandmother about the sword I found. It turned out that it "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "wasn’t a samurai’s sword, but a soldier’s sword. That soldier was a Japanese lieutenant during World War "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Two. After the war was over and the Japanese surrendered, many of the soldiers had gone into a cave on a "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "small island to take their own lives to preserve their honor. From the time of the samurai, soldiers believed "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "that they should die before they surrendered, or bring shame to their country. Before they could commit "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "suicide an American General gave a speech on the importance and value of life, where he convinced them "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "to continue living. These men returned to Japan, leaving their weapons behind in the cave as one of the "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "conditions of the surrender. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "An American soldier had found the sword among other weapons in that cave, and brought it back with "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "him to America. Years passed and that American soldier’s son became best friends with my father. After "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "getting to know my grandmother, who frequently visits her family in Japan, he asked her if she could return "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "the sword to the soldier. He proceeded to explain that he tried to return it in the past, but the people he "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "entrusted with the sword never followed through with their promises. He also knew something about how "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "the Japanese soldiers revered their swords, and had always intended to give it back someday. My "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "grandmother agreed to return the sword the next time she went to Japan. The Japanese soldier had his name "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "and address written on a piece of wood attached to the sword. My grandmother wrote to him explaining the "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "story of how his sword was with her, in America, and would return it on her next visit to Japan. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "When my Grandmother arrived at Narita Air Port in Chiba, the Japanese soldier, now an old man, and "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "some police officers were there. She handed him the box with the sword in it, “As soon as he touched the "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "sword tears began to come from his eyes,” Obaachan told me. He tried to give her money for the return of "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "this prized possession, but Obaachan refused. After they talked for a while she did agree to accept a locally "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "made Kokeshi doll as a token of their meeting. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Back in America Obaachan told the American soldier about its delivery of the sword and the owner’s "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "reaction, this soldier too, felt a peace in his mind he had been waiting years to feel. “In Japan, when "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "someone has a sword, it is their spirit; they live with their sword and they die with their sword,” she "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "explained. She had returned to the Japanese soldier, a part of his life. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Now that I’m older I found out that Obaachan isn’t a samurai, but something even better. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "52 "
                    }
                ]
            },
            {
                "pageNumber": "61",
                "paragraph": [
                    {
                        "data": "I Am Mizuho "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Mizuho Yoshimune (Bronx High School of Science) "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "When I was four I wished that my name was Michelle. When I was five I wished that my name was "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Amanda. I still recall sitting in my kindergarten class, drawing stick figures of my family and me. I vividly "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "remember labeling the drawings with childish scrawls of “Mom” and “Dad,” but I would rarely write "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "“Mizuho” underneath the drawing of myself in green crayon. In each drawing, I would be someone else, "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "such as Lisa or Hannah. As a child, I did not understand why I was not given a “normal” name, even "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "though I was born in the U.S. Oh, how I wished I could be more American! "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "In elementary school, I would listen with veiled jealousy as my classmates went around in a circle "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "saying their names. Inwardly, I would cringe when I heard the teacher say, “Oh, this is a hard one…Mee- "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "zoo…ho?” Though I didn’t blame him, I would sit rigidly until the five seconds passed at a painfully slow "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "pace. Interestingly, it never occurred to me to ask my parents why they named me Mizuho, or what it "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "meant. Looking back today, I will always be grateful to my sixth grade English teacher, who assigned a "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "project on how we got our name. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "In my quest to unravel the mystery behind my name, my twelve-year-old self ran into the kitchen with "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "a notebook and a pen, shouting, “Mom! Mom! MOM! What does “Mizuho” mean?” My mom, who was "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "preparing dinner, gave a light laugh at my semi-frenzied state and began the tale… "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "“So, for starters, ‘Mizuho’ originates from Japan’s oldest chronicle, Kojiki. Do you know what Kojiki "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "is?” I shook my head. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "“Well, it is similar to Greek mythology; it’s a collection of myths about the Japanese Kami, or gods. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "In the Kojiki it calls Japan, ‘Mizuho no kuni.’ ‘Mizuho’ means “rich rice crops,” and ‘kuni’ means “land” or "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "“country,” so ‘Mizuho no kuni’ represents a land blessed with prosperous rice. Do you remember how I told "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "you many times to never leave behind a valuable grain of rice in your bowl?” She mildly scolded me, but "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "soon returned to her jovial persona. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "“It’s all because of the amount of hard work needed to harvest the rice crop. It has to be tended to all "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "year round and harvested carefully. Because of this, rice is the national symbol of hard work, perseverance, "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "and success…” "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "What was meant to be a simple creative project turned into an epiphany. Instead of sounding like six "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "random letters thrown together, it was now a three-syllable name that carried so much cultural and personal "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "significance for my parents and the people of their homeland. I began to truly love my name, and how the "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "syllables would naturally roll off of my tongue. My confidence grew, as did my silent pride in that my "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "parents did not simply browse through a book of common baby names. It has served as a reminder that I do "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "not have to be like everyone else in order to feel confident and that I belong somewhere, since being named "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "‘Mizuho’ has brought me one step closer to the culture that exists an ocean away. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "This all happened six years ago, in 2006. Today, in my last year in high school, I have found that I "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "have changed in many aspects, such as my perspectives on certain issues, my interests, and especially, my "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "future plans and goals. However, despite all the changes I am just as eager as I was in sixth grade, to gain "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "more insight and to experience more of the beautiful Japanese culture. At school, I often help students who "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "are taking Japanese with reading, writing, and speaking, while teaching them about some of the exciting "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "cultural events (Oshoogatsu is my favorite). At home, my parents have regularly incorporated Japanese "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "traditions and values to our daily lives, which have taught me the importance of balancing two cultures at "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "once without letting go of either one. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "In September, I will be going to college, where I look forward to further learning about the Japanese "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "language and culture by studying abroad in Japan. As a Japanese-American born and raised in the U.S., and "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "never having attended a Saturday Japanese school, studying Japanese in Japan while experiencing the "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "culture first-hand will be an invaluable opportunity. Since taking the first big step of discovering the "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "meaning of ‘Mizuho,’ it has opened many doors of curiosity and possibilities for me to further explore the "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "unique culture of Japan. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "53 "
                    }
                ]
            },
            {
                "pageNumber": "62",
                "paragraph": [
                    {
                        "data": "A Sacrifice That Should Not Be Forgotten "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Duke Atalay (Ward Melville High School) "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "I awoke to the familiar sounds of radio hosts as my alarm clock went off at 6:30 AM. A leading song "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "on the Billboard Top 100 began to play as I slowly opened my eyes, wearily turned off the alarm, and "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "stumbled out of bed. My daily routine in preparation for school ensued as follows; I ate my breakfast, "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "brushed my teeth, got dressed, and took the bus to school. March 11 th , 2011 began just like any other day. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "As the bell rang, I entered my biology classroom and took my seat. The teacher stood up from her "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "desk and spoke with anticipation. “Did anyone hear about the earthquake in Japan?” A few students "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "responded and the teacher continued. “I heard it was an 8.9! Can you imagine?!” The class uniformly "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "thought in silence as we tried to imagine such a natural disaster striking New York, and immediately "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "returned back to work. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "The school day ended and I returned home where I discovered my dad watching CNN stories about "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "the disaster in Japan. I saw headlines of a tsunami striking the north east of Japan. I stood there astonished "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "by the footage of the colossal wave peeling buildings into the ocean’s abyss, as if they were leaves being "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "carried off by a faint wind. Japanese civilians were huddled above the enveloping sea, stoically watching "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "despite the omnipresent quality of their grief. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Headlines that a meltdown had occurred at a nuclear power plant in Fukushima due to the tsunami "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "began to emerge. There were reports about nuclear plant workers who stayed behind at the plant in order to "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "prevent a broader nuclear catastrophe. Pictures of men breathing through respirators in full body white suits "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "walking into the reactors started to appear on the screen. The men, in the middle of a radioactive zone "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "where death seemed imminent, were pumping seawater on exposed nuclear fuel in order to prevent a full "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "meltdown that would spread radiation to the whole nation. These men were heroes, risking their own lives "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "in order to ensure the wellbeing of their family members and loved ones. I could not help but compare "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "these brave individuals to the firefighters that sacrificed their lives by entering the World Trade Center on "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "9/11. All of these men were able to muster up the courage that few men are able to do, to boldly overcome "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "fear’s perpetual grasp and venture out into the most dangerous of circumstances. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "When taught about Japan during the times of the Tokugawa Shogunate, the valiant samurai and their "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "deep devotion to the Bushido were integral parts of the lesson. We learned that the Bushido was the moral "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "template composed of seven virtues that the samurai lived by. The one that is most cogent, according to the "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "author Inazo Nitobe, is Rectitude (46). It is described by him as follows: “Rectitude is one’s power to "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "decide upon a course of conduct in accordance with reason, without wavering; to die when to die is right, "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "to strike when to strike is right” (Nitobe 46). These words were the inspiration and essence of the bravest of "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "samurai, who fought for their masters no matter how bleak the battles may have seemed. They knew that if "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "there was any moment to leave this world, it would be on the battlefield, the most glorified testament of "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "their sacrifice and devotion. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "As I watched these brave, unnamed heroes enter the nuclear power plant, the virtue of Rectitude "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "echoed in my head. These heroes knew that this was the right thing to do, to put the welfare of their nation "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "above their own health and safety. I have always prided myself on my values of choosing the path of virtue "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "because I believe that the emotional satisfaction you receive in the end is paramount. These Japanese "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "workers were able to confront the most crippling of fears because they knew that this would be their "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "moment of Rectitude, their moment to light their eternal shine. We often look to famous names of valiant "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "war heroes or prominent political heroes for inspiration, but we often forget about the men and women who "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "do what is right for the advancement of the world around them instead of for self-pride. The Japanese "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "workers at Fukushima remind us what chivalry really means in a world constantly obsessed with making a "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "legacy, and should inspire even the most weary of people to take the path of sanctity despite the demons "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "that stand in their way. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Works Cited: "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Nitobe, Inazo. \"Rectitude or Justice.\" Bushido: The Soul of Japan. Tokyo: Kodansha International Ltd., "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "2002. 46. Print. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "54 "
                    }
                ]
            },
            {
                "pageNumber": "63",
                "paragraph": [
                    {
                        "data": "To Biwa Lake "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Daniel Xu (Princeton University) "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Summer was nearing the end of its stay in Kyoto, and so was I. From where I sat at a table in the "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "second-floor kitchen of the Kyoto Sangyo University International House I could see the verdant willow "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "branches through the glass balcony door that somebody had forgotten to close, allowing the cacophonous "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "chirping of the cicadas resting on those branches to waft in on the simmering August air: tsuku-tsuku-boshi, "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "tsuku-tsuku-boshi! I smiled as I remembered my disbelief when my co-worker at the lab had described to "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "me the sound made by the cicadas that emerged after the end of the rainy season. “You’ll see,” she had told "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "me, “You’ll see! They sound just like that.” And she had been right. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "I finished my morning tea and washed the mug out in the sink, placing it underneath the sign that "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "brightly reminded all residents to respect the health and well-being of the dorm community by cleaning up "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "after themselves. I had grown used to the communal sort of lifestyle in the International House, and it gave "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "me an odd sort of feeling to think that in a week’s time I would be gone from there forever. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "In the stairwell, on the way back to my room, I ran into two other residents of the I-House, Henri the "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "German and Pae the Korean. They had knapsacks on their backs and full bottles of water stuffed into the "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "pockets of their shorts, and looked to all the world as if they were about to embark on some sort of "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "expedition. “Daniel,” Henri said, grabbing me by the shoulders. “Want to come with us on a fantastic adventure? "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "We are going to Biwa Lake in Shiga prefecture, maybe forty kilos away. Only a three-hour bike ride—both "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "ways!” I guess it was a testament to how little thought goes into my decision-making process that I agreed "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "to come along. And so I hurried downstairs to the overpriced vending machine in the lobby and purchased "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "two chilled bottles of water for the equivalent of five American dollars. Within moments they were jostling "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "around in the wicker basket between my handlebars as I pedaled alongside Henri and Pae north toward "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Shiga prefecture. The tires on my bicycle were slightly flat, so I had to pedal just a little bit harder than my "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "companions to ride at the same pace. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "As a child, my introduction to the land of the rising sun had not been through the conventional "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "cultural vehicles of Hello Kitty or Dragon Ball but rather through weekends spent with my father and "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "brother watching patriotic Chinese World War II dramas in which the portrayal of the Japanese were "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "resigned almost universally to the role of the relentless enemy. And so as an eight-year old I harbored a "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "slightly irrational and misguided dislike for anything Japanese, and naively equated the entire nation of "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Japan with the one-dimensional villains I observed on television locked in gory combat with Chinese "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "resistance. I look ahead at Pae, who is pedaling a few feet in front of me, joking with Henri about "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "something, and wonder if his childhood experience with Japan had been of a similar nature—after all, "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Korea had also been an enemy of Japan during the war. I wondered what had brought him later in life to "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "choose to study in Japan. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "For me it was a number of things. Even as an eight-year-old, my initial impressions of Japan "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "evaporated almost immediately when I was introduced arguably the cleverest diplomatic tool ever "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "conceived, the Nintendo Gameboy Color. How could the nation that had put Pokemon into my pocket be "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "anything but a benevolent presence on the Earth? And as I got older, experiences like learning to play the "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "game of I-go, reading introspective Japanese haiku in school, and the afternoons spent quietly folding "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "origami with the Japanese lady whose son took his piano lessons before mine further taught me to "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "appreciate the subtlety and beauty of Japanese culture. I was interested enough to study a year of "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "introductory Japanese during my freshman year at university, and I fell in love with that small sampling of "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "the Japanese world, and decided I must spend a summer in Japan to see the rest of it for myself. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Part of it also had to do with my parents. Having completed their graduate school studies in Japan "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "during the 80’s, they often told me about their experiences, and in fact it was actually one of their former "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "professors who had offered me an internship working under him during the summer. Before I left my "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "parents gave me some parting advice. “Especially observe the Japanese work ethic,” my mother had said. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "“Everyone gives their absolute best effort to any job they do, no matter how large or small. It’s a "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "philosophy of hard work shared by everyone in Japan. And it wouldn’t hurt to have you learn some of those "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "55 "
                    }
                ]
            },
            {
                "pageNumber": "64",
                "paragraph": [
                    {
                        "data": "Japanese manners, either,” she added as an afterthought. “They have wonderful manners in Japan!” "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "And indeed I had found this to be true everywhere I had been in Kyoto that summer. As we pulled in "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "to a Family Mart to buy fresh bottles of water, I noticed the way the young shopkeepers scurried to restock "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "shelves, mind the cash register, and re-arrange inventory, all while bowing politely and calling out greetings "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "and farewells to customers in clear, bright voices. It definitely wasn’t something I saw very much of back "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "home, if at all. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Pae checked his map and informed us that for the next hour or so we’d be winding our way up a "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "mountain. “After round the top, we’ll be able to see the lake!” he said cheerfully. After two hours of "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "pedaling my legs felt like something like jelly. The oppressive Kansai sun hung lower in the sky than it had "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "when we set out, but still beat mercilessly down on the exposed parts of our flesh. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "The quaint Japanese architecture of the surrounding villages whizzed by sometimes swiftly, "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "sometimes ploddingly as we followed the ups and downs of the curving mountain road. Somewhere nearby "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "I knew the historic Buddhist temples of Hiei Mountain hid in the deep recesses of the forest, but if we were "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "to make it to the lake in time I knew we would not be able to spare the effort to go visit, at least this time. I "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "remember finally being able to see the clear, crystal blue of the lake through over the top of a hill and "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "excitedly pointing it out to my companions, who whooped and laughed as we followed the road down the "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "mountain, our three-hour journey culminating in a triumphant arrival on the shores of the massive "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "freshwater lake. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "It seemed we’d only set our bikes down on the rocks and laid down on the shore for a brief moment "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "before Henri noted that the sun was setting and we’d better get going soon if we were to make it back to the "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "city before dark. I couldn’t believe it—we’d just gotten here!—but sure enough, the sun had continued its "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "inexorable daily march across the sky, and it was precariously advanced in its journey. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "I sat up, gazing out over the expansive blue water, listening to the sloshing waves and the cawing "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "crows high above. And of course there were the omnipresent cicadas in the brush all around, tsuku-tsuku- "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "boshi, tsuku-tsuku-boshi. It was utterly tranquil in its own unique way. To leave so soon seemed a "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "tragedy—and to leave Japan, I mused, an even greater one. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "I sighed, retrieving my bicycle and preparing to set off with the others back home—first to my dorm "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "room at the I-House, and in a week’s time on a flight back to America. Before I went I cast one more glance "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "over the rapidly darkening waters, resplendent in the way the setting sun was reflected upon the rippling "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "surface. I promised myself that someday I’d be back to Japan, this magical land where an incredibly deep and "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "multi-faceted culture had arisen amidst scenes of such absolute beauty and tranquility. Until I have the "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "opportunity to go back, I will remember forever what I saw as a young man staying in Kyoto—the "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "incredible, genuine politeness of the Japanese people, the gorgeous scenery, the beautiful culture, and of "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "course, the incessant chirping of the cicadas in the summertime. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "56 "
                    }
                ]
            },
            {
                "pageNumber": "65",
                "paragraph": [
                    {
                        "data": "Self-Discovery through Japanese Harmony "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Shariful Syed (Stony Brook University) "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "I yearned to study in Japan. I was drawn to their concept of “harmony”. Known as ‘wa,’ it was the "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "name of the country upon its creation. Because Japan can be said to be a nation built upon ’wa,’ I wanted to "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "gain a real sense of how harmony influences Japan’s way of life so as to enrich my own. However, at the "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "same time I still had to prepare myself for trying to gain acceptance to medical school. Neither goal could "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "be compromised; despite the common wisdom being that if one wishes to pursue the field of medicine they "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "must focus on pursuing extensive lab research and science courses, I felt that the experiences I would have "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "in Japan would facilitate my growth as a person and understanding of harmony. I wasn’t willing to give up "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "a chance to live in another country, totally removed from my normal way of life, and see how my response "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "reveals things about my nature that I may not have ever known. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "In Japan, one of my immediate impressions was that I felt a strong sense of community and "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "connection that undeniably seemed harmonious. Japanese society seems to emphasize the value of shared "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "experience and group activities as vital in formation of social bonds. Attending the 60,000-population "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Waseda University, I felt humbled and recognized that there is a distinct world outside of myself. I had to "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "discover my place. After some research and exploration, I soon found an activity that gave me a sense of "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "belonging. For a few months I led a weekly group discussion with Japanese students. It was a fantastic "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "opportunity to discuss topics like societal pressures and social norms that Japanese were reserved about. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Japanese often discourage voicing criticism. As the group leader, I encouraged the members to voice their "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "opinions about any issue they desired. Having such an open atmosphere generated an air of trust and "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "comfort between all of us. The process of creating strong bonds among people is a big part of what brings "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "me happiness. As I found my place, I was grateful to be part of the group. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "During the course of my studies in Japan, I read a major work of Fukuzawa Yukichi. I consider his "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "text, An Outline of a Theory of Civilization and Enlightenment to be the book that has influenced my "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "attitude the most. What impacted me on a deep level was his idea that, civilization is the attainment of "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "BOTH material wellbeing and the elevation of the human spirit. I am someone that believes in the "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "importance of introspection, and the reason I think I value it so much is that I believe that it is a tool that "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "can facilitate the ‘elevation of the human spirit’ or at least my own spirit. The achievement of gaining an "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "acceptance to medical school, I consider, to only have been possible because of my will power and focus. A "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "big part of how I maintain a strong mental disposition is by a kind of meditation that I do outside while "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "burning incense. To me it feels like a sort of mental cleansing, I clear my mind of all extraneous thoughts to "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "the point where I am not thinking of anything. I then slowly start to think of life at the moment and what "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "has been going on and consider the biggest weights on my mind. Branching out I find myself consistently "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "needing to do this to not prevent myself from getting too far away from harmony. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "When I think of some of my behavior patterns, the two things that quickly come to mind are a "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "metaphor from Ruth Benedict and a practice associated with Zen Buddhism. When presenting an "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "interpretation of Japanese society and culture, Ruth Benedict, in Chrysanthemum and the Sword, put forth "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "the idea that a self-conception that Japanese have is that they view their human spirit as something akin to a "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "brilliantly luster sword. She described that while we have the ability to shine brightly we can also quickly "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "become rusted and dull and if gone unchecked we may lose all semblance of our former selves. In the same "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "way I think I need to make a consistent mental effort to maintain a stable peace in my own spirit throughout "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "the trials and tough decisions I face in life. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "The other Japanese parallel associated with Zen Buddhism is the practice of Koan. How I relate the "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Koan to my own internal efforts is that just as the Koan requires one to take a very close look at themselves "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "and make distinctions and connection between their behavior, ways of thinking, perceptual set and see how "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "they have been affected by their personal experiences can then start to get some understanding of their core "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "nature. That is how I think introspection has functioned to facilitate my development into a very curious "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "and questioning person. I find that it is compatible with medicine because it is the task of a doctor to "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "understand the underlying mechanisms causing certain appearance of symptoms and illnesses. For the "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "same reason, I believe that this will help me become an exceptional skilled physician. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "A meaningful experience I had in Japan occurred when I was volunteering at a local medical center. I "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "57 "
                    }
                ]
            },
            {
                "pageNumber": "66",
                "paragraph": [
                    {
                        "data": "met an elderly patient that was receiving help. I was assigned to sit by him. I just sat with him, listened to "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "his stories, and kept him company. Even though I couldn't understand most of the things he was saying, I "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "could hear in his voice an air of sadness and loss, the transparent look in his eye made me feel the sense of "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "the void he was feeling internally. Slowly I put together the pieces, he had lost his wife in an accident, and "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "was now did not have much reason to live. I don't know how long it was, but I stayed with him, and tried to "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "show him my understanding and desire to support him. By sharing feelings and being empathetic I think is "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "one of the most meaningful ways to make strong connections with others, and this idea that I came to hold "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "in Japan is one that I carry with me always. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "But nothing could have prepared me for what happened next. In the middle of my exchange program "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "in Japan, I was immersed in the March 11, 2011 earthquake. In those dangerous moments, I willed myself "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "to keep steady. Walking around the streets of Shinjuku I was struck by the level of calm that was "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "maintained by the people. Going out to the local food stores I was very surprised to see stores were mostly "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "cleared of all pertinent food supplies, a clear indicator that people were getting ready for the worst. To me it "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "was a display of maintaining composure and doing the most within one’s ability to make best of a troubling "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "situation. It really instilled in me a similar feeling as I no longer felt any extravagant fear and just accepted "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "things for what they were and wanting to not allow it to negatively affect me. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "On the night before my flight back to the U.S., I reflected on all these experiences and had the "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "conscious realization that I was leaving with a different flow of thought. I grew to discover that all of my "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "life experiences – from my time in Japan to my family life to my college studies – have shaped what I "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "define to be harmony and its key importance in leading a fulfilling life. I feel that I have a clearer "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "perception of myself and moreover, I see harmony as the foundation for the life I want to build as a doctor "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "and a human being. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Work Cited: "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Benedict, Ruth. Chrysanthemum and the Sword: Patterns of Japanese Culture. Boston: Houghton Mifflin "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Company, 1989. Print. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Yukichi Fukuzawa, David Dilworth. An Outline of a Theory of Civlization. New York: Columbia "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "University Press, 2009. Print. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "58 "
                    }
                ]
            },
            {
                "pageNumber": "67",
                "paragraph": [
                    {
                        "data": "Thank You "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Emma Alexandra Berniczky (Stuyvesant High School) "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "“Pull down your shirt!” “Don’t sit like that!” “Don’t put your bag on the floor!” The rules of etiquette "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "my mother would constantly reprimand me for breaking were absolutely interminable. She said she hoped I "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "would come back from Japan more graceful than I had left, but I assured her I would not. In fact, I had no "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "intention of changing, but I question whether I actually changed, or just grew up. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "At my first meeting with the principal of my “host” high school, instead of waiting for everyone to "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "be served first, I chugged down the iced green tea a second after it was placed in front of me. I realized as "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "soon as I put the cup down that I had already made a terrible first impression. Without realizing it, that was "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "the moment I took my first step toward fulfilling my mother’s wish. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "The perfectionism I met with in Japan hit me like a speeding shinkansen train. Although I was "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "amazed at first, I soon became aggravated at the amount of time I saw people dedicate to the most mundane "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "tasks. The cleaner and more organized everything was, the dirtier and messier I felt. Almost as if I had a "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "King Midas touch gone awry! I tried to follow the unsaid-but-set-in-stone rules I observed from other "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "people, but only because I did not want to be ostracized or criticized. I was doing it only as a show for "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "everyone else. After six weeks, I did become much more graceful, but I still could not understand the "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "purpose of it all. I felt it was ridiculous to ask, so I continued imitating people, remotely satisfied at the way "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "I was able to conform and fit in with all my classmates at school. After I came back home, I kept up some "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "habits but they seemed out of place away from Japan. It was not until I visited a Zen Monastery in New "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "York that I understood what my mother had wanted me to learn, and what Japan had tried to teach. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "I was telling one of the young Japanese priestesses there the story about how I was leaving a fancy "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "traditional restaurant with my host family, and instead of taking out my shoes from the cubby and gingerly "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "placing them on the floor like everyone else did, I dropped the shoes down from waist level. Every single "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "family member turned around and gasped at the huge slap they made as they hit the floor. After she "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "finished laughing, she explained to me that Westerners think of shoes as inanimate objects, not worth any "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "respect. But a Japanese person respects them by handling them with care and thinking “Thank you shoes, "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "for supporting me as I walk.” They value the time and labor used to make the objects; because after all, "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "where would we be without the fruit of other peoples’ labor? Even though hardly anything is handmade in "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "the 21 st century anymore, this mentality still exists in Japan today. The same attitude is applied to eating: "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "saying “Thank you for this food” and bowing before and after eating a meal seemed incredibly tedious to "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "me at first, before I realized that I was not saying “Thank You” to my rice just because it was rice, but for "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "the energy and nutrition it provided me every day, not to mention its’ excellent taste! Although I had trouble "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "remembering to do this in Japan, I found it much easier to do in America because it was no longer a phrase "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "I needed to repeat six times a day, but a mindset that affected everything I did. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Perhaps what the rest of the world sees as excessive nitpicking and abnormal perfection manifested "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "in countless unsaid rules, the Japanese people simply see as a way of life that accords the proper respect to "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "everything. Instead of waiting until you lose something to truly appreciate its value, why not appreciate it "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "while you have it? I learned that it is possible not only to value other objects and people, but also yourself. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "By being in good physical and mental shape and by being graceful, you show your gratitude and respect to "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "your body for all it allows you to do. Thank you Japan, for teaching me how to say “Thank You.” "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "59 "
                    }
                ]
            },
            {
                "pageNumber": "68",
                "paragraph": [
                    {
                        "data": "Brooklyn Bonsai "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Jake Reiben (Brooklyn Friends School) "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "The day my mother stepped out on what little we have of a deck in the midst of Brooklyn to find that "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "the one bonsai tree her son purchased but months ago had now multiplied into twenty others was the day I "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "had to answer a hard question: why I had such an obsession with dwarf trees. In what was a reserved "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "manner for a Catholic Italian, my mother fled my deck and its suffocating plants, burst into my room and "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "demanded an answer. At this point, Japan and its culture came to my mind. I asked myself: “Would students "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "in Japan be persecuted for their interest in bonsai?” I then recalled that my Japanese-American friend had "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "laughed at me when I had told her I had a bonsai tree collection. In her opinion, the art of bonsai was "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "reserved only for elderly Japanese men. My friend’s opinion aside, my mother had asked a good question, "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "for I had never been able to create a coherent explanation as to why I had become fascinated with the "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "ancient Japanese art of bonsai. I decided to embark on a quest to prove to my mom that I had not gone off "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "the deep end, but also to clarify for myself why the Japanese art of bonsai seduced me. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Probing the depths of my mind while staring at the trees in which I had invested so much time and "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "money helped me create an answer. I began with putting the sensation I felt while working on bonsai trees "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "into words. This feeling reminded me of the same sensation a rock climber experiences as he safely and "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "quickly ascends a mountain while avoiding the distraction of irrelevant thoughts. Similarly, in the case of "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "re-potting a bonsai tree, the vulnerable bare rooted state of the tree demands that I must concentrate and act "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "decisively to pot the tree securely. Although the mountain climber analogy was a bit of a stretch, I had "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "figured out that I enjoyed the Zen-like state I achieved while working on my bonsai trees. Nonetheless, I "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "still felt that my answer was incomplete; I had yet to convey how the principles of the Japanese art of "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "bonsai applied to my everyday life. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "So great is the patience and dedication required to grow and style bonsai that it made me a more "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "accepting person. In bonsai, a tree must slowly be sculpted and styled as not to cause its demise. After "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "killing several trees from making hasty decisions, I learned that I had to slow down and respect them. With "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "this acquired patience, I began to pace myself and properly do my homework, for the practice of bonsai had "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "drilled into me that impulsive actions often resulted in the death of my artistic creations. Furthermore, "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "bonsai helped me embrace the idea that individuals must adapt to sudden changes. This is due to the fact "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "that branches often die in bonsai, yet the tree does not become utterly worthless. Deadwood or “jin” can be "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "sculpted to create a dramatic contrast between the living and dead parts of the tree. I became inspired by "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "this expansive approach as what could have been an unfortunate turn of events can be transformed into a "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "deeper aesthetic experience. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "After much deliberation I had finally achieved an answer to my mother’s question. Working with "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "nature in the depths of metropolitan Brooklyn, usually bare of but a patch of grass, was truly reviving. Rock "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "climbing was the only other way that fed my addiction to experience a Zen-like state. My mother and I both "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "know that it is difficult to find a mountain in Brooklyn. Thanks to this Japanese art, I have become more "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "patient and accepting of change; I know there are always options. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "60 "
                    }
                ]
            },
            {
                "pageNumber": "69",
                "paragraph": [
                    {
                        "data": "Mottainai –Learn to Respect What You Have "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Natsuko Sato (Arlington High School) "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "“Gochisou sama deshita!” Full and content, I started to leave the table, but Grandmother tapped my "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "shoulder and stopped me. Examining my bowls, she told me that I was not yet finished with my meal. I "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "looked at her questioningly, confused about what she meant for I had eaten everything—or at least that was "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "what I thought. Grandmother pointed to my rice bowl and said, “There is still some left.” Peering in, I "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "realized there were still some grains of rice stuck to my bowl. “Mottainai,” she said, which means, “what a "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "waste.” She told me that I must finish every last grain of rice, or else I will go blind from wasting such a "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "precious gift. I must admit, I was taken aback. Having grown up in the United States, I was used to the "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "other children in my class throwing away food without any hesitation once they were full. It never occurred "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "to me that in other cultures, even the last bits of rice could be considered something of such value. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Later on, this occurrence made me reminisce about a conversation I once had with my grandfather. I "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "remembered the time when he explained to me the significance of the character, “rice.” He told me that if "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "the three parts to the character were to be taken apart and rearranged, it would create the number eighty- "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "eight. It symbolizes the number of days it takes for the rice to grow to maturity: from the day when the rice "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "is planted to when it is ready for harvesting. Being a rice cultivator himself, my grandfather knew how "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "much time and effort had to be put into growing them. This memory made me truly understand why "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Grandmother said “mottainai;” it would have been like throwing away the hard work that the planters put "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "into growing the rice for us. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "The Japanese concept of “mottainai” is based on the idea that nothing should be put to waste and that "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "one must appreciate both physical resources and intangible objects, such as talent and time. This idea is "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "already starting to impact the world in many areas. A prime example of its global impact can be seen in the "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Kenyan environmentalist and winner of the Nobel Peace Prize, Wangari Maathai. Upon visiting Japan, she "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "was impressed by the Japanese’s commitment to the conservation of materials and reduction of waste, and "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "she was inspired to make a difference in her own country. By incorporating the “mottainai” ideal, Maathai "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "began persuading people to shift from using thin, weak plastic bags to thicker, reusable ones in order to "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "reduce the amount of garbage. Another instance where the Japanese’s “mottainai” concept impacted the "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "world was in the 2011 Tohoku catastrophe. The nuclear disaster had resulted in the destruction of a major "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "electricity source in Japan, and countless homes throughout the country were left without electricity. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Planned power outages were deemed necessary, and citizens were requested to conserve electricity to "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "compensate for the shortage. Numerous people acted immediately and showed their willingness to "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "cooperate for the cause. Even in the summer, when temperatures rose to be over a hundred degrees "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Fahrenheit on some days, the Japanese continued to work hard to conserve electricity to the best of their "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "abilities. Some went to public libraries to stay cool since they thought that turning on their air conditioner "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "just for themselves was “mottainai.” Others took smaller actions, such as turning the lights off when no one "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "was in the room. The Japanese proverb, “chiri mo tsumoreba, yama to naru,” which means when small "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "things come together it can make a huge difference in the end, excellently describes how the Japanese "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "cooperated to overcome their hardships. The small acts of conservation that the Japanese undertook to "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "minimize the things they viewed as “mottainai” resulted in the commendable accomplishment of "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "overcoming the mountainous impediment. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Currently, I am a member of my school’s science research team and our primary focus is to promote "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "eco-friendly activities in our community. My experience with Japan’s “mottainai” culture has helped me "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "realize that besides reducing, reusing, and recycling, respecting our environment and appreciating the "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "things we have is also essential in making our world a healthier place and to preserve its beauties. I plan to "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "continue advocating awareness about how everyone can make a difference to save our world by "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "encouraging others to look to the Japanese example of their “mottainai” mentality and be thankful for even "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "the smallest gifts in life. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Bibliography: “Wangari Maathai’s Other Initiatives.” The Green Belt Movement. The Green Belt "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Movement International. Web. 02 Jan. 2012. <http://www.greenbeltmovement.org/w.php?id=40>. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "“What We Do.” MOTTAINAI. MOTTAINAI. Web. 02 Jan. 2012. <http://mottainai.info/english/what.html>. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "61 "
                    }
                ]
            },
            {
                "pageNumber": "70",
                "paragraph": [
                    {
                        "data": "Bowing to Shomen "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Kelsey Weymouth-Little (Ward Melville High School) "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "As I enter the dojo, the door shuts behind me, and I run to sit in line with everyone else. We close our "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "eyes, cup our hands against our belts, and breathe. The purple and brown belt students to my right are my "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "senpais, my seniors. They are closest to shomen, the wall of the dojo to which all Karate students are "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "required to pay respect. When we bow to shomen, when we even glance at it, we are reminded of who we "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "are, where we are, the tradition we are carrying on. Shomen keeps us from forgetting ourselves. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "“No,” Sensei says, opening his eyes while we breathe. “Don’t sit like that. Don’t slump your "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "shoulders, don’t arch your back, don’t bend your neck. The slightest mistake ruins everything.” "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "I remember reading the New York Times article about the Japanese workers at the Fukushima Daiichi "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "nuclear plant, struggling to prevent a meltdown, 3 and I know Sensei is right. If those workers had made "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "even the smallest mistake, millions of people might have died. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Sensei claps, and we all place our palms on our thighs. We turn slightly to our right and bow to "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "shomen, then to Sensei, then to each other. Then we stand, and Sensei begins assigning people to lead the "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "warm ups. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "“Now who can lead jumps? Who touches their toes every time? Alright,” he says to Susan, “you can "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "do it. You’re the only one who does it right.” "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "“Teach these people how to do Karate,” he tells Senpai David. “They don’t know.” "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "What don’t we know? We definitely don’t know proper technique. I make mistakes every day; so does "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "everyone else. But then I think of the New York Times again, of the reports on conditions in Japan after the "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "earthquake. When the Japanese waited to get into the few open stores, nobody pushed. 1 When the Japanese "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "passed by the abandoned stores, nobody stole. And even before the earthquake, one op-ed writer recalled, "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "when the Japanese children played musical chairs, when they were told to shove each other aside to claim a "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "seat for themselves, nobody knew what to do. 2 My life has been spent jostling for the best spot on the lunch "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "line, illegally downloading music when I can get away with it, and playing a lot of musical chairs. Behind "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "every punch and kick, there’s an entire culture that I have yet to understand. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Sensei steps out of the dojo, leaving Senpai Ryan in charge. The flow of the class continues the same "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "as it had when Sensei was in the room, yet everything is different. The dojo is not just a place and, when "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Sensei, the crux of the entire structure, steps out, the dojo itself changes. Now its walls are less rigid, its "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "structure less ordered; everyone still practices but a murmur of conversation undercuts the exhales and "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "strikes. I know that, when Sensei returns, the conversation will cease and the walls will become as sturdy as "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "they were before, but how did they start? Are they made of water that, a long time ago, was frozen all at "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "once? Are they made of bricks that were laboriously laid on top of each other, one by one? Or have the "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "walls been here for so long that nobody can even remember how they were first formed? If these walls "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "were in Japan, I imagine that they would keep standing no matter who walked in or out, because they "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "would have an entire culture to lean on. But here, Sensei spends a lot of time holding them up with both "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "hands. Crash! The screen covering the back door collapses, hitting the wall on its way down. Senpai David, "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "standing next to it, grabs it before it strikes the ground. At that moment, Sensei walks in. “I could see that "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "was going to happen from outside,” he says. “You guys are slow.” "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "We all return to our practice, working as hard as we can, not even contemplating getting distracted. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Sensei corrects our mistakes, and even smiles when watching some of the younger students practice. He no "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "longer seems as burdened by the weight of the walls. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Class is almost over. We run to sit and bow, first to each other, then to Sensei, and then to shomen. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Then we stand and line up to bow to Sensei and shake his hand before we leave. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "As I depart, I feel guilty for bowing out of the Japanese way of life after just an hour. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "62 "
                    }
                ]
            },
            {
                "pageNumber": "71",
                "paragraph": [
                    {
                        "data": "Bibliography "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "1 Fackler, Martin, and Mark McDonald. “Japan Pushes to Rescue Survivors as Quake Toll Rises.” The New "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "York Times. N.p., 12 Mar. 2011. Web. 12 Dec. 2011. <http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/13/world/asia/ "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "13japan.html?pagewanted=all>. 2 "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Kristof, Nicholas D. “The Japanese Could Teach Us a Thing or Two.” Editorial. The New York Times. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "N.p., 19 Mar. 2011. Web. 10 Dec. 2011. <http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/20/opinion/ "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "20kristof.html>. 3 "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Tabuchi, Hiroko, and Matthew L. Wald. “Japanese Scramble to Avert Meltdowns as Nuclear Crisis "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Deepens After Quake.” The New York Times. N.p., 12 Mar. 2011. Web. 12 Dec. 2011. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "<http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/13/world/asia/13nuclear.html?pagewanted=all>. 63 "
                    }
                ]
            },
            {
                "pageNumber": "72",
                "paragraph": [
                    {
                        "data": "Selected Essays "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "from Eighth Competition "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "(2012-2013) 64 "
                    }
                ]
            },
            {
                "pageNumber": "73",
                "paragraph": [
                    {
                        "data": "No Stroll in the Park "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Madison Jaye LoFaso (Huntington High School) "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "As I climb the wide path I feel the small stones beneath my feet, and notice a large boulder to my "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "right. I hear birds. I see a pond in the distance. Okay, so I get it. This is nature. But upon entering the John "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "P. Humes Japanese Stroll Garden, I couldn’t help but think of all the places I’d rather be on a Saturday "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "morning. Why my parents dragged me here I’ll never know. I know better though. Don’t make a big deal "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "out of it, and maybe I’ll get out of here before the day is over. So I suggest we take this path to the right. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Looks like a short cut. Before I can take another step, a tall quirky-looking man approaches us and "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "introduces himself as our guide. Really? We need a guide to walk through a park? I am corrected. This is "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "not a park. It’s a Japanese garden, and apparently everything here is placed deliberately to create a "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "“symbolic path to enlightenment.” "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "We begin our journey by walking through ornate bronze gates. Large Japanese maples dance in the "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "wind. Around them lie small Japanese painted ferns. Everywhere, as if surrounded, I hear the sounds of "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "running water and talkative birds. After the guide explains where these plants are usually found, we "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "continue on to a small footbridge that crosses a narrow stream, fed from a vast pond. The path takes many "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "twists and turns, and around each bend is something new and surprising. This tactic, called hide and reveal, "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "is a common part of Japanese gardens. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "From our guide – his name is Marshall – I learn that earliest recorded mention of Japanese gardens "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "was nearly two thousand years ago! Apparently there are many different styles of Japanese gardens, and "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "each serves a unique purpose. Some are designed to promote religious meditation, while others are meant "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "as a simple escape from everyday life. There are Rock Gardens, which as the name implies, are made up "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "entirely of rocks of all sizes. Tea Gardens surround tea houses, with a long relaxing stroll leading to the "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "front door. Pond Gardens invite boaters to tour the garden from its central point in the Pond. Elements like "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "sand and statues are commonly used. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "According to the brochure in my hand, the John P. Humes Japanese Stroll Garden was built in 1960, "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "after Ambassador Humes and his wife returned from Kyoto, Japan. This garden is four acres large and "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "features a small tea house, bamboo groves, a wisteria arbor, a display hut for bonsai and ikebana plants, and "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "a cascading waterfall. I pass a large tree and as the path takes a sharp turn, I suddenly hear music, which "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "pulls my attention from the brochure. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "There before me is revealed a magnificent waterfall and lush pond. As I approach the pond I see "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "dozens of colorful koi fish. My attention turns to one that is jet black and darts around the others, stealing "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "their food. I later learn that his nickname is Hoover, like the vacuum cleaner! The air around me is crisp "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "and clean, and the notes of a shakuhachi flute can be heard from the Tea House. As I look to my left, I see "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "our tour guide beginning to meditate. I am truly intrigued and I ask if we can join him. So we sit on the "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "grass and quietly listen to all the sounds around us. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "I unexpectedly hear a buzzing sound which pulls me back to reality. It’s my phone. As I dismiss the "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "call, I realize that I have been strolling this garden for over two hours…and I hadn’t checked my phone "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "once! We make our way back to the entrance and Marshall wishes us all a good day. My parents and I "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "quietly make our way back to the car. I think back on the day and I am captivated by the designer’s careful "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "attention to every detail. I am particularly amazed by the bonsai trees, which are miniature versions of large "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "trees found in nature. Such care and love is required to create them. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "On the drive home it hits me; a feeling of regret for my behavior toward my parents at the start of the "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "day. What if they relented and let me stay home? I would never have learned that aspects of the Japanese "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "culture could have such an emotional affect on me. I only hope that someday I can travel to Japan and visit "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "some authentic Japanese gardens. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Bibliography \"Japanese Garden.\" Wikipedia. Wikipedia Foundation, 11 2012. Web. 5 Dec 2012. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_garden \"John P. Humes Japanese Stroll Garden.\" The Garden Conservancy. The Garden Conservancy. Web. 5 Dec "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "65 "
                    }
                ]
            },
            {
                "pageNumber": "74",
                "paragraph": [
                    {
                        "data": "2012. <http://www.gardenconservancy.org/garden- "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "preservation/gardenpreservationservices/preservation-projects/john-p-humes-japanese-stroll- garden?view=standardlayout&title=61>. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Makela, Lee. \"The Japanese Garden in its Cultural Context.\" Beyond Stone and Moss. Lee A. Makela, 30 "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "2001. Web. 5 Dec 2012. <http://academic.csuohio.edu/makelaa/lectures/gardens/>. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Shea, Barbara. \" Taking the Path of Enlightenment.\" Locust Valley. Simple Living, Inc., 07 2001. Web. 5 "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Dec 2012. <http://www.locustvalley.com/News/newsday 10-7-1 humes garden.html>. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Yang, Linda. \" An Eye To The East More Americans Are Taking Cues From Oriental Masters In Their "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Garden Designs.\" SunSentinel.com. Sun Sentinel, 25 1988. Web. 5 Dec 2012. <http://articles.sun- "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "sentinel.com/1988-11-25/features/8803080843_1_japanese-garden-design-japanese-culture-landscape- architect>. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "66 "
                    }
                ]
            },
            {
                "pageNumber": "75",
                "paragraph": [
                    {
                        "data": "A Song in My Heart "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Ravi Jain (Syosset High School) "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "During my early adolescent years, reading, music, and theatre provided a welcome escape from the "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "reality of my undeveloped social skills, self-perceived unsightliness, and unsuccessful attempts to fit in "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "with my classmates. Fortunately, works of fiction in various media afforded me the opportunity to "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "empathize with the emotions and experiences of the characters I encountered. I read voraciously and "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "broadened my appreciation for music and theatre arts. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Obeying the Broadway billboards that decreed, “All must visit the land of Oz,” I saw Wicked: The "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Untold Story of the Witches of Oz. Wicked sings the story of a college student struggling to fit into an "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "intolerant world where appearance matters more than intelligence or courage. Its lyrics became a source of "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "inspiration for me. While I did not possess Elphaba’s animal activism, magical powers, or green skin, I "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "understood her sadness and could hum her loneliness. Wicked encouraged me to look past my puberty- "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "induced handicaps and focus on traits of which I could be proud. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Fast forward to the summer of 2012. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "I was awarded a scholarship from the Center for Global Partnership to be an exchange student in "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Nagoya, Japan for six weeks. Without much embellishment, my parents dropped me off at JFK Airport with "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "cash, my host family’s address and phone number, and instructions to “learn something.” Fourteen hours "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "later, I landed in Tokyo; excited, exhausted, and unable to speak the language, I was helpless. I was reliving "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "my adolescence—I soon realized I was more like Elphaba than ever before. (I even had a different skin "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "color.) I felt I was the Wicked Witch of the Western Hemisphere who came to Japan to propagate fast food "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "and bad manners. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "“Watashi no namae wa Ravi desu,” I said, hesitantly introducing my name to my Japanese host "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "mother after meeting her for the first time. She giggled at my poor pronunciation and then embraced me as "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "a son for a month and a half. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Over the next few weeks, thanks to my host family, electronic dictionaries, and intermittent language "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "study, I had “learned something.” I later became comfortable enough to even sing karaoke for the first time, "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "to the horror of professionals everywhere. As I grew intimate with my new friends and family, I began to "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "admire the Japanese even more for their unparalleled politeness. At school, I learned to play table tennis "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "from the true pros – Japanese high school boys. At home, I learned to cook from my host mother, and spent "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "the last night of my stay preparing what my host family claimed was an extraordinarily sumptuous feast "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "(even if they hadn’t liked it.) And of course, everywhere I went, I kept improving my Japanese. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Though I predictably acquired a profound understanding of Japanese culture, I somehow learned as "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "much about myself, especially after my host brother introduced me to his cousin during a weekend stay in "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Kyoto. Kanako had vacationed extensively during college, but felt her travels were incomplete without a "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "visit to the Big Apple. We discussed my favorite weekend activities in the city, and when I mentioned "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "theatre, she confided she had dreamed of walking down Broadway for as long as she could remember. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Kanako had seen the Japanese version of Wicked and fallen in love with the tenderness of its raw "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "passion. However, she knew that for an authentic experience she would have to watch it in English. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Blushing, I inadvertently told her I had memorized the songs, and she delightedly suggested we sing them "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "together. The idea was laughable. I spoke little to no Japanese, and, while Kanako’s English was decent, she "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "did not know the English lyrics. But when she started humming the tune, I hesitantly joined in with the "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "English words, and she followed in Japanese. It worked. We had produced a brilliant duet, yet we hadn’t "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "even sung in the same tongue. Our mutual passion for Wicked transcended all barriers – language, gender, "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "race. I found myself in Japan. Somehow though, I was more proud of having found a friend. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "67 "
                    }
                ]
            },
            {
                "pageNumber": "76",
                "paragraph": [
                    {
                        "data": "Spirit of Self Sacrifice "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Emily Linko (Hauppauge High School) "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "When I was in eighth grade, I moaned and groaned along with the rest of my classmates as I was "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "assigned yet another research project; this one having to do with World War Two. After pondering over "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "possible research topics, I decided to look into something I had heard about many times before yet never "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "truly understood; the kamikaze. Sure, I’d heard the word used as a figure of speech, or even as a cocktail "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "drink, and I had a general grasp on what the kamikaze were, but what I had never been able to comprehend "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "was why. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Finally, after weeks of scouring the internet and library, I thought I had it figured out. The kamikazes, "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "the Special Attack Unit, were the last efforts of Japan towards the end of the war as signs of its defeat "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "approached on the horizon. War is war; the loss of life is always inevitable, and this method seemed to be "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "an efficient way to make the most of each death. The kamikaze provided higher chances of destroying a "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "target than conventional methods, and a blow to an enemy outweighed the cost of an aircraft and a pilot. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "From a military standpoint, the refusal of a duty such as that would have been a great dishonor. Finally, I "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "understood. Or, at least, I thought I did. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "The next year, in my history class, we started from the beginning, looking at how civilizations evolved "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "and changed, and how different factors shaped their cultures into what we recognize today. We learned "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "about Japan’s geography, its culture, its emperors, its wars. Then one day we learned about the Mongols, "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "and our class listened with rapt attention as our teacher told us the story of the island they weren’t able to "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "conquer, and the sudden typhoon that had destroyed their fleet. “The Japanese people called this typhoon "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "the kamikaze, meaning “divine wind”; they believed it was sent by the gods, the kami, to protect them”. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "And with that one sentence, I realized that I had not, in fact, understood, not in the least. The kamikaze, I "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "suddenly realized, were motivated by much more than a sense of duty toward their superiors. They were "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "spurred by the honor and loyalty that had been deeply ingrained in their culture for centuries, positioned to "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "protect the island as the next “divine wind”. And then, I was sure, I understood. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "The earthquake in Japan had hit in 2011, and people were hearing about it in phases; first the "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "emergency response, then the short-term fixes, then the inevitably daunting long-term cleanup. Along the "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "way stories trickled in of the kindness and bravery of people there and from all around the world. The one "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "that hit me the hardest was the tale of a group of elderly citizens who volunteered to help clean up the "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "nuclear waste. They elicited a mixed response; some people finding them inspirational and others feeling "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "they should enjoy their retirements in peace. When asked about their motives, the citizens replied that they "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "didn’t have long left to live anyway, so they should take the risk of contracting a disease from the radiation "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "instead of the younger citizens, who still have their whole lives laid out in front of them. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "I was floored. At their ages, most would want to settle down and take a well-earned rest, letting the "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "younger and more able bodied members of the population take care of new problems. But these people "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "were willing to go out and put their lives and health on the line for others, others that most of them had "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "probably never met. That was when it became clear to me; making such a tremendous sacrifice is about "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "much more than just duty or honor; it’s about loving your country and the people in it with every fiber of "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "your being. It’s about wanting to protect it and its citizens in any way possible, be it piloting a plane or "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "trudging through toxic waste. And I realized, I had never really understood. Maybe I still don’t. But maybe "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "someday, I can figure out what runs through the minds of those who will willingly give up everything for "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "duty, for honor, and for love of their country. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Bibliography Dillow, Clay. \"Japanese Elderly Offer to Take Over Fukushima Nuclear Cleanup.\" "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Popular Science. Popular Science, 31 May 2011. Web. Dec. 2012. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "<http://www.popsci.com/science/article/2011-05/japanese-pensioners-lobby-take-over-fukushima- nuclear-cleanup>. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Stearns, Peter N. World Civilizations: The Global Experience. 4th ed. New York: Pearson Longman, 2004. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Print. 68 "
                    }
                ]
            },
            {
                "pageNumber": "77",
                "paragraph": [
                    {
                        "data": "Understanding Impermanence "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Melissa Rose Kavanah (Stony Brook University) "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "The cherry tree is a favorite subject of Japanese art and poetry. Its blossoms, while extraordinarily "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "beautiful, can also seem tragic; the delicate flowers bloom for a short while, a period of perhaps two weeks "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "at most, before they fall from the tree. The flowers burst open, blossom like fireworks, and fade as quickly. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "How sad, one might think, that these blossoms should be so beautiful for such a short time, only to fall to "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "the ground and decompose. One scarcely has time to fall in love with its beauty before the blossom is gone, "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "and only the memory remains, like the afterimage of a firework in the sky. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "I was not always able to accept the notion of impermanence being a beautiful thing. Shortly before I "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "turned seventeen, my friend Ava passed away. Her death was sudden and unexpected, blindsiding friends "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "and family alike in the way that only meningitis knows how. Being a headstrong teenager, I was furious at "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "and terrified by the idea that things could just disappear. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "I had lived my life up to that point secure in the notion that if I could only gather the things I loved "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "towards myself, if I could only hold on to everything at once, I would be perfectly content. To have "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "someone I loved torn away so swiftly, then, was shocking. When I came to terms with the fact that her loss "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "was real, I felt compelled to re-examine my world view. I discovered a sort of vanity in the idea that I could "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "bend the world to my will, using only the force of my own passions. I realized that I cannot and should not "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "expect things to be permanent just because I would like them to be, and I began to try to accept that "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "realization. To the Zen practitioner, cherry blossoms and fireworks are beautiful in part due to their similarity to "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "the human experience. People shape their happiness around temporary things, from material objects, to "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "relationships, to simply being alive. Buddha teaches that suffering occurs when those things, which have "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "always been temporary, are inevitably torn from the people who cherish them, much in the same way that "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "cherry blossoms inevitably fade. To avoid suffering, Buddhists strive to eschew attachments. While it may "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "seem that this would lead to a life without appreciation for joy and beauty, quite the opposite occurs; "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "practitioners of Zen Buddhism become adept at perceiving a particular sort of beauty, the beauty of "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "impermanence. Cherry blossoms are emblematic of this quality; they fade quickly, but they are no less "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "beautiful for their transience. In fact, their beauty is intensified by the brevity of their existence; one must "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "appreciate them deeply and immediately, fully experiencing the moment, in order to appreciate them at all. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "By understanding cherry blossoms, one can come to understand the limitations and joys of one’s own "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "existence; when one accepts that all things in this world are fleeting, the beauty of impermanence itself is "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "what remains. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "It has taken me some time to develop a new way of seeing the world, and I am still fine-tuning my "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "model. I have begun to see the wisdom in eschewing attachments, although I am still very attached to many "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "things. I have developed a deep respect for Buddhist thought, and have begun to try to incorporate some of "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "its principles into my life. Throughout this process, I have come to find the cherry blossom to be a very "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "appealing symbol. Its ability to embody the essence of Zen makes the flower of the cherry tree so well- "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "beloved in Japanese culture. To truly appreciate the fleeting blossoms, one must detach oneself from the "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "concept of the past and the future. To truly appreciate the world around me, I will have to accept that it is "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "not eternal, and that it may even be illusory. That does not leave the world without beauty; it just means that "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "I will have to change the way I appreciate beautiful things. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "I think that I have come to understand something important through Ava’s death. Ava was more of a "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "burning firework than a gentle cherry blossom, but her beautiful existence was temporary, and so is mine. If "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "I cling desperately to concepts, experiences, or people, the anguish will only be worse when they inevitably "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "fade. Instead, I should will my passions quiet, and appreciate the pure, fleeting beauty in cherry blossoms, "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "and fireworks, and the lives of those around me, for however long they last. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "69 "
                    }
                ]
            },
            {
                "pageNumber": "78",
                "paragraph": [
                    {
                        "data": "Wabi-Sabi: Nothing Is Perfect, Even Gardens "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Have Weeds "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Ali Gilani Syed (Stony Brook University) "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "No one is ever comfortable derailing oneself, but I must. You see, in the past, I was not someone you "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "would want as a friend. I was self-centered. Self-interested. Self-absorbed. Self-seeking. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Throughout adolescence, I had a hard time maintaining friendships. I was often consumed in studying "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "and looking for tasks to ‘pad’ my resume. In short, I was a perfectionist geared toward financial success. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "In school, I was not motivated by curiosity, but a good GPA. Conversations with friends mainly "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "pertained to grades. I would find myself stressed with assignments, consumed by due dates, and struggling "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "in relationships with family, friends, and myself. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Change was needed, yet I least expected it to arrive at a trivial dinner. During my freshman year, my "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "friend Pavel casually invited me over. He introduced me to his Japanese step-mother, Sonya. When I "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "mentioned my dad was from Delhi, India, she inquired about the Lodhi Gardens. My response, “How did "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "you know about that?” was enough for her to discuss her love of gardens. Describing herself as a naturalist, "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "she insisted I tag along with Pavel to visit her workplace, the Brooklyn Botanical Gardens. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "With Pavel, I went to the site and Sonya gave us a tour through the collection of gardens. However, "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "one site mesmerized me: the Japanese Hill-and-Pond Garden. With its splendor and simplicity, the red torii "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "(traditional Japanese gate) stood in glistening water. The edges of the lake were green in reflection from the "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "surrounding foliage. The pink cherry-blossoms ushered a sense of aesthetic comfort. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "The garden was centered on a pond with a small island in the center. Around the pond, clusters of "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Japanese iris flowers, violet in color. Most captivating was the waterfall; a thunderous splash of water over "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "the rocks creating a soothing, relaxing façade. It all seemed wonderfully placed. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "The entire garden was a provision of awe. A miniature paradise. An idealized landscape; a wonderful "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "equilibrium between order and nature, a balance between pleasure and simplicity. Never had I seen nature "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "so organized and formal. My first exposure to Japanese culture- a nihon-teien, a Japanese Garden. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Sensing my delight, Pavel invited me to more retreats. At first, I was reluctant, but my inner curiosity "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "gave in. Over two months’ time, I partook in activities I never did in two decades: kayaking, mountain-bike "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "riding, canoeing, hiking, rock-climbing, and more. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Gradually, I realized nature provided a serene venue where I could remove my cloak of tension and "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "anxiety. I could satisfy my youthful longings for privacy and tranquility and absorb the curative power of "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "art and nature. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "It was at this point in my life, I learned about wabi-sabi, a Japanese philosophy of seeing beauty in "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "life’s imperfections. Sonya described wabi-sabi as something that concentrated on the acceptance of "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "impermanence and imperfection in life. Wabi-sabi taught that in life, “nothing lasts, nothing is finished, and "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "nothing is perfect” (Powell 2005). So why not enjoy it? "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "In nature, I could sense wabi-sabi everywhere. Everything had its flaws, yet nature was still beautiful. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "The rough bark of the trees. The asymmetry of the rocks. The decaying color of leaves. Unrefined and "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "crude, yet stunning. My retreats became liberation from the mundane. The lens of wabi-sabi showed I "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "could live life with my senses and absorb life rather than be consumed by it. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "When my grandmother was battling breast cancer, I used the appeal of sakura-blossoms to acquaint "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "her with Japan, a place she never visited. Amidst the Cherry-Blossom trees at the Sakura-Matsuri Festival, "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "we were drinking sakurayu. There were no worries about grades or assignments, just happiness that my "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Nanijan (Hindi/Urdu: Grandmother) was there. Unfortunately, my grandmother would leave me, but my "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "new-found outlook of life assisted me in accepting my loss. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "To me, wabi-sabi meant there was one rule: learning to be content with life. Let life runs its course. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Flaws exist, tragedies happen. Grow from them. Accept them. When you try to do something "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "70 "
                    }
                ]
            },
            {
                "pageNumber": "79",
                "paragraph": [
                    {
                        "data": "perfect or attempt to make something perfect, it just doesn’t work. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Some parts of the ‘old-me’ still remain, as I can’t instantly shed the previous eighteen years of my life. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "But, I will definitely learn and improve over time. As Sonya once told me, even “the most beautiful "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Japanese garden has weeds”. I realize that there is so much to see in this world. In this short time period I "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "call life, I am both a Gaijin (outsider) and a Yujin (friend). But above all, I am a Ningen (human) who "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "appreciates beauty in imperfection. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Works Cited "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Powell, Richard R. Wabi Sabi Simple. Avon, MA: Adams Media, 2005. Print. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Bibliography Fujisawa, Chikao. Zen and Shinto; the Story of Japanese Philosophy. Westport, CT: Greenwood, 1971. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Print. Juniper, Andrew. Wabi Sabi: The Japanese Art of Impermanence. Boston: Tuttle Pub., 2003. Print. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Kamachi, Noriko. Culture and Customs of Japan. Westport, CT: Greenwood, 1999. Print. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Mansfield, Stephen, and Donald Richie. Japanese Stone Gardens: Origins, Meaning, Form. Tokyo: Tuttle "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Pub., 2009. Print. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Tames, Richard. A Traveller's History of Japan. New York: Interlink, 1993. Print. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "71 "
                    }
                ]
            },
            {
                "pageNumber": "80",
                "paragraph": [
                    {
                        "data": "Putting Things into Perspective: Lessons from "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "the Far East "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Charles Beers (Huntington High School) "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "It has been approximately four weeks since Hurricane Sandy struck Long Island and plunged our "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "region into an unforgettable period of darkness and misery. While many have attempted to put those dark "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "days behind them, it is impossible to truly forget the effects the storm had on everyday life. Almost all of "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Long Island went without heat and electricity for about two weeks, during which temperatures reached "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "seasonal lows and tempers rose to new heights. I remember how each night I desperately hoped for the "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "power to return, and how I was disappointed for more than a week. It was a miserable experience without "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "electricity and heat and most days saw me and my family trying to stay warm and waiting for night to "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "come. That feeling of helplessness and anger at the LIPA officials will always resonate throughout my life "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "and I initially thought that all of Long Island had faced the true epitome of pain, especially the residents of "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Long Beach, who experienced the worst of the storm. Most of its residents had to relocate in order to have "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "a roof over their heads and a place to sleep, as some of their houses and schools were completely "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "demolished by the powerful storms. 1 Because of all the tragedies across the island, kids were eager to "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "return to their schools and try to return to normalcy, using their education as a cloak to all the grief "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "occurring around them. I remember waiting eagerly for the daily message from our superintendent, hoping "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "that each report would contain the message that the high school would reopen. For me, going back to "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "school was the only way to move on from the crisis. Thankfully for me and my friends, the high school was "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "waiting for us after the storm, and I could finally reunite with friends who I’d lost contact with over the "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "course of those dreadful two weeks. However, as I was later reminded, kids around the world aren’t always "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "that fortunate. Even when I thought I’d been through the worst two weeks of my life, it only took a "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "reminder of the 2011 Japanese tsunami to bring me back down to earth and make me grateful for all the "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "things that I hadn’t lost in the hurricane. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Last year, a 9.0-magnitude earthquake struck the Japanese nation. As seen by previous disasters, this "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "underwater seismic activity results in tsunamis that cause massive destruction to coastal cities and towns "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "through colossal waves. These waves are virtually unstoppable forces of nature, capable of demolishing "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "anything in their path. While the Japanese citizens have taken a multitude of safety precautions to counter "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "these waves, nothing could have prepared them for what they saw in 2011. Over 10,000 Japanese citizens "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "were killed from the disasters that ensued and millions lost their homes and even their cities from the "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "damages. However, unlike Hurricane Sandy in our neck of the woods, children and parents across Japan "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "had nowhere to turn after the tsunami has finally subsided. According to interviews, many Japanese "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "schools, such as Togura Elementary School, had children in them when the waves appeared on the horizon, "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "some of them even exceeding the heights that the officials were originally anticipating. When the tsunami "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "hit, children and teachers had to run for their lives in order to reach an area high enough to avoid the deadly "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "waves. The aftermath, though, was even more heart-wrenching to imagine. The same township where the "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Togura Elementary School resided was completely leveled, some reporters even stating that the town “now "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "barely has any marks of human existence.” 2 In short, nothing was saved from destruction, and the helpless "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "children who suffered through this ordeal had nowhere to go and nothing to come back to. Trying to "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "imagine these horrific events unfold was difficult for me to do and evoked newfound levels of grief inside "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "me, as well as an equal amount of guilt. While I was worrying about when electricity would return to my "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "house, children across the seas were worrying where they would live and go to school. Reflecting on their "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "catastrophe should serve as a lesson for all Hurricane Sandy victims. Be grateful for the luxuries you have, "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "such as friends and a school where you can be safe from harm, and when you feel like you have gone "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "through the worst of times, always remember the Japanese tsunami survivors, the men and woman who "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "continue to persevere in spite of having the weight of the world on their shoulders. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Notes 1. Rifilato, Anthony. “It Takes More Than a Hurricane.” LI Herald.com (2012): 4. Web. 25 Nov 2012. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "<http://www.liherald.com/stories/Two-weeks-after-the-storm-Long-Beach-students-return-to- classes,44481?page=1&content_source=>. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "2. Laje, Diego. “Stopped time: Japan tsunami hits school.” CNN World (2011): n.pag. CNN. Com. Web. 25 Nov "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "2012. <http://www.cnn.com/2011/WORLD/asiapcf/03/17/japan.quake.school.minamisanriku/index.html>. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "72 "
                    }
                ]
            },
            {
                "pageNumber": "81",
                "paragraph": [
                    {
                        "data": "The Tea Ceremony "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Lewin Kim (Horace Mann School) "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Steam rises in the air as the tea flows from the pot into my ceramic bowl. The smell is faint, yet "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "familiar. I’m conscious of the green and red flowers painted on the white surface of the bowl. As my fingers "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "wrap around it, I kneel on a cushioned mat, balanced and calm. Sensei, in her emerald kimono that seems "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "to change shape with each graceful movement, watches me. I take a sip, feeling the green tea’s warmth "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "travel through my body, down my arms, and to my fingers. Sensei offers me a bowl of sugar candy, "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "explaining that it serves as a spiritual balance to the bitterness of the tea. We both stand and bow as a sign "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "of appreciation and respect. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "While this scene could have taken place in any teahouse in Kyoto, the ceremony transpired at the "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Horace Mann School in the Bronx on Japan Day. Although I was born in the U.S. and have no ancestral ties "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "to the Japanese, this tea ceremony reminds me of what I value about their culture. My upbringing was "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "shaped by years of watching Japanese films such as Princess Mononoke and picking up groceries from the "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Mitsuwa Marketplace. In school, I chose to study Japanese as my foreign language. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "My parents took my family on a trip to Japan so I could see with my own eyes the beauty of the "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "country. I was stunned by the bright and colorful lights of Tokyo at night. Exploring the Japanese "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "countryside was equally impressive and was where I tasted the unrivaled softness of Kobe beef for the first "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "time. It was also the first time I bathed in an onsen, a Japanese hot spring, which rejuvenated me both "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "physically and mentally. What struck me was the level of inventiveness in Japan. While most people think "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "of Tokyo Tower or other typical tourist attractions when they think of Japan, I was inspired by the newer, "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "creative buildings such as Joypolis, a huge indoor amusement park that was built to look inconspicuous in "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "the heart of Tokyo’s offices and towers. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "After my memorable trip, I wanted to continue my cultural ties to Japan while living in the states. As a "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "high school freshman, I joined East Wind West Wind, a school club that promotes a better understanding "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "and awareness between Eastern and Western cultures so I could share my knowledge and experience with "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "others. I realized that Japan, despite being one of the smaller countries of the world, is a leader in creativity, "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "ingenuity and hope. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Even as Americans, we can benefit from embracing Japanese culture because it is a culture of learning "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "and teaching. Japan’s traditional folk tales and stories emphasize the strength of family and dreams. Today, "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "its movies carry valuable lessons: Hayao Miyazaki’s imaginative films Ponyo and My Neighbor Totoro "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "touch upon the importance of friendship and reciprocation to others, and appreciation for nature. It is "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "important to the Japanese to pass on their ancient traditions. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "The tea ceremony gives me the opportunity to share my knowledge of Japanese culture with others "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "who are unfamiliar with it. After the ceremony ended, one of my friends passed by and asked me what was "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "happening. I explained the spiritual significance of the ceremony and encouraged him to try it. I led him "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "to my sensei, and as my friend kneeled on the cushion, I introduced them. As I started walking to my next "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "class, I caught a glimpse of my friend carefully raising his bowl of tea, while a harp softly played Gagaku, "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "the traditional music of Japan, the sound bouncing off of every string with a light pluck. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "73 "
                    }
                ]
            },
            {
                "pageNumber": "82",
                "paragraph": [
                    {
                        "data": "The Flower of Fire "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Natsuko Sato (Arlington High School) "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "The hot, stuffy air of summer mingled with the distinct smell of tako yaki and yaki soba coming from "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "the shops, and the music from the bon-odori played softly in the background. I was at the matsuri—the "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Japanese traditional festival that was held every summer in my town. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "The matsuri was almost over, and I relocated to the hillside to settle down to see the fireworks. Sitting "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "down amongst hundreds of other people who were also there to see them, I gazed up at the dark starry sky, "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "feeling my anticipation grow with each passing moment. I was ready for the magic to begin. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Huuuuuuu. Don! Suddenly, with a booming sound, the first of the fireworks was shot into the sky. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "The crowd around me clapped and cheered loudly—the wait was finally over. One after another, the "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "fireworks shot up and burst out stunning streams of lights. The extravaganza culminated in a grand finale as "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "dozens of fireworks of all different colors, sizes, and designs simultaneously shot up, brightly illuminating "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "the night sky. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Throughout the entirety of the hanabi show, I was simply awestruck; awestruck at the magnificence of "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "the scene and the sheer scale of it all that no words could possibly fully articulate my amazement. My eyes "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "were simply glued to the spectacle unfolding before me and my heart was fully enraptured by those flowers "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "that bloomed in the cobalt blue sky. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "In Japanese, “hana” means flower and “bi” means fire. Loud, extravagant, and admired by hundreds "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "of people, those flowers of fire are the symbols of Japanese summer. They are what move the Japanese’s "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "hearts and bring them excitement. Moreover, they represent the skill, artistry, craftsmanship, and hard work "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "of the hanabi makers themselves. Like flowers, these hanabi beautifully captivate the viewers and create "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "picturesque scenes in the night sky. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "But the Japanese appreciation of hanabi is not solely based on its extravagance and the exhilaration "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "that it brings. This brings me to my second story: "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "As much as I loved matsuri and the beautiful hanabi shows during the summertime, they were "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "obviously not regular occurrences. So instead, I would often beg my grandmother bring me to the "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "convenience store to buy a pack of house fireworks. And of course, being a typical, grand-child-loving "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "grandmother, she would happily bring me to the store and buy me a nice pack of miniature hanabi. In the "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "pack were various types of fun-looking fireworks, from simple handheld ones to more thrilling “rocket” "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "ones, which came in cute colored wrapping and designs. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Upon returning home, I would anxiously wait for the sun to set. And as soon as it did, I would grab "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "the hanabi pack, call out to my family to come light them with me, and head outside. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "“Don't point the tip of the hanabi at others!” my father warned me every time, “You don't want to light "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "people on fire.” "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "“I know,” I always replied, “but they’re just so pretty that I get temped to twirl them around!” "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "In any case, all of these hanabi sessions at my house concluded with the lighting of the senko "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "hanabi—the sparklers. They were by far the most simple and frail-looking hanabi in the entire package. I "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "took a strand of the senko hanabi and held it in my hand, dangling it down vertically to light the end of it "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "with a candle. As the end quickly shriveled up into a ball of fire, I crouched down and tried to hold my "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "hand as still as possible. I silently gazed at the ignited ball, which soon began spurting out branches of "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "delicate sparks that progressed into more powerful and energetic sparks. I was quickly mesmerized by its "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "beauty, but continued to concentrate on keeping my hand still. But before long, the sparks died down and "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "the ball of fire quietly burned out. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Unlike those fireworks at the hanabi show, these flowers of fire are quiet, simple, and mainly only "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "admired by the person holding them. But they are also beautiful in their own way. From them, the Japanese "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "enjoy the sense of wabi-sabi, the concept of appreciating the ephemerality and imperfections of objects. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "The burning out senko hanabi evokes a sense of sadness, but allows the viewer to appreciate its brief but "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "considerable magnificence. Some even say that the senko hanabi represents human life—frail, ephemeral, "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "74 "
                    }
                ]
            },
            {
                "pageNumber": "83",
                "paragraph": [
                    {
                        "data": "and imperfect, yet quite beautiful. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Both types of the Japanese flowers of fire continue to bloom and glimmer beautifully in my heart "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "today. 75 "
                    }
                ]
            },
            {
                "pageNumber": "84",
                "paragraph": [
                    {
                        "data": "And In a Place So Different, We Are All The "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Same Kate Snider (Herricks High School) "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "“I was in love with the place, in my mind.” -Sufjan Stevens, Chicago "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "I tiptoed around upstairs, old wooden floorboards moaning under the weight of my body. When I "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "reached my destination, my hands softly nudged the door open as I slipped inside and immediately became "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "entranced with the musty scent of age, history, and the storage of time. My eyes scanned the length of the "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "walls, taking in the remnants of 82 years of life. In the far left corner resided a deep brown bookcase, only "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "decipherable by scarce patches of wood that breathed through the clutter. I started over to the bookcase, "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "taking care not to knock over piles of loosely stacked cardboard boxes. My fingers grazed the buffet of "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "memorabilia, feasting on the grand array of literature, clothing, dishes, and antiques. There were carved, "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "wooden chopsticks, piles of books filled with poetry, recipes, and tales. A glass case highlighting a "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "beautifully painted porcelain doll dressed in silk garments stood alone, an air of elegance to her every "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "detail. These relics, these little moments snatched from space, now sat as reminders of a distant time. And "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "even in a place so different than where they once resided, these items seemed to blend right in. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "My Grandpa, born and raised in Brooklyn during the 1930s, has traveled to Japan thirteen times. It "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "must have been a strange sight: a young wide-eyed business man from America weaving in and out of "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "swarming Tokyo commuters, or singing loudly in broken Japanese for the entire karaoke house to hear. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "After his first visit, my grandpa was enamored with the culture. From the moment he stepped off the plane "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "and into Tokyo International Airport, every cell in his body became electrified. And after returning home to "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "his wife and three children, my grandpa longed for the day he would return. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "There was much to love about Japan; however it was not the beauty, the food, nor the language that "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "lured my Grandfather back countless times. Instead, it was the kindness and honesty that was sewn into the "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "fabric of the culture. Etiquette was different in Japan, and unlike America, violence and deceit were rare "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "disgraceful acts. Vendors and shops would leave display tables full of merchandise outside, certain that "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "nothing would be stolen. Waiters and waitresses did not expect tips, as working hard was merely an act of "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "civil service. Men with hunched backs due to years of bowing were not uncommon, lending as walking "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "representations of genuine respect. This overwhelmingly widespread innate trait of kindness was nothing "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Grandpa had experienced before. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "As a child, Grandpa would tell me story after story about his life, usually centered around both mine "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "and his favorite topic: Japan. As a treat, he would welcome me into a what we called \"the junk room\", due "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "to the amount of relics crammed into a tiny space - a space dedicated to the preservation of his memories "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "and heartbreaking passion. He'd let me browse and rummage through the shelves and boxes of old Japanese "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "keepsakes, taking the time to explain the origin of every minuscule item. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Grandpa learned a lot from his time spent in Japan, and in turn I did as well. High up in an building, "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Grandpa sat in a tiny bar and spoke to men who poured drinks as they poured stories of brothers and fathers "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "killed in the attacks on Pearl Harbor, the very same attacks that spilt American blood. Yet these men knew "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "grief, these men knew loss, these men were just the same. Grandpa, a WWII veteran himself, listened and "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "understood that even oceans away we were all inherently similar. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Growing up around a man who was molded by the ideals of Japanese culture heavily affected the "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "person I was slowly becoming, and the person I am still growing to be. I learned that a kind and gentle "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "heart can fill a person with warmth, and that generosity is better than selfishness. I learned that "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "classification only leads to separation, and that war does not discriminate. But most of all, I learned that as "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "time passes and each generation brings new ideas to the table, the roots of culture still tie us together. As "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Japan is changing due to technology and westernization, the foundation of trust and respect remains the "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "same. As I continue to wander through life, I will carry the lessons brought home from Japan by my "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Grandfather and store them here, in my own home. Just like the old antiques in Grandpas house I once "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "adored, these lessons will now reside in a place so different from where they were taken, and yet seamlessly "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "blend right in. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "76 "
                    }
                ]
            },
            {
                "pageNumber": "85",
                "paragraph": [
                    {
                        "data": "Selected Essays "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "from Ninth Competition "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "(2013-2014) 77 "
                    }
                ]
            },
            {
                "pageNumber": "86",
                "paragraph": [
                    {
                        "data": "A Little Respect Goes a Long Way "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "By Stephanie Lin (Stuyvesant High School) "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "It’s intimidating, walking into a new school. You meet new people and make new friends, but it’s a "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "whole different atmosphere. Especially, if it’s high school. It’s all made worse by the fact that you’re also "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "taking a new language. For me, I was nervous, but at the same time, really excited by the prospect of "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "learning Japanese. It seemed like such an elegant language, with its complicated stroke order and many "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "different pronunciations. As I walked into my Japanese classroom, I was greeted by a graceful woman in a "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "cardigan with her hair slicked back into a ponytail. “Hajimemashite,” she said as she bowed. I looked "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "around nervously, hoping that the other pairs of eyes that were staring at me from the desks in the "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "classroom could help, but they all returned with blank stares. I blushed, gave a quick bow, and ran to sit "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "down in a seat. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "It was later on that I learned that it was completely natural, what she did. It was a standard in Japan "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "for people to bow when meeting one another. It symbolized respect. We were taught how to bow properly, "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "and “Kiritsu, Rei, Ohayou Gozaimasu!” became part of everyday class. At first, it felt unnatural, but it "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "gradually became a routine I was proud to participate in. It was different from our New York lifestyle, "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "where people bump into you and walk away without apologizing. As I continued learning Japanese, I also "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "learned more and more about their culture. Respect is such a big part of their lifestyle. Whether it’s bowing "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "or taking off shoes before entering a building, it all goes back to respect. Punctuality is important, "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "prolonged eye contact is rude, nodding is imperative; my head swirled with all the formalities and customs "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "of their culture. But at the same time, it was remarkable. The culture puts so much emphasis on respect and "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "responsibility; it wasn’t shocking to find out that their crime rate is lower than the crime rate in all other "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "developed countries. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "It really put things in perspective. How had I treated my mother that morning? It probably involved "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "yelling at her and complaining. In retrospect, I was ashamed. How could I have treated my own mother that "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "way? My mother, who moved from Taiwan just to give us a better life. My mother, who sacrificed "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "everything for my sister and me. I would do everything to make sure I treated her better from then on. I "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "would do everything to make sure I treated everyone better. I would come to school with a smile on my "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "face. I would respect my teachers. I would respect my family and friends. New Yorkers might be a little "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "rude, but if Japanese people could live with such an emphasis on respect, I could try it as well. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "As I became immersed in the language during class, I also tried to incorporate more and more of their "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "customs into my life. Nodding is natural; it shows that you are paying attention to the speaker. I started to "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "listen to my friends and family more, instead of talking about myself. I took modesty and being humble "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "more seriously, as it is a polite response to a compliment in Japanese culture. Respecting personal space "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "became a must if I did not know a person well. Politeness and respect are very important to others, but in "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "the end, it is important to learn how to treat people nicely for your own benefit. I became happier, I felt that "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "my relationships with people became better, and ultimately, I felt more satisfied with life. It was amazing. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Every day as I say, “Kiritsu, Rei, Sayounara, mata ashita,” to my sensei, a wave of gratitude washes over "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "me. She introduced me to such an incredible lifestyle and culture. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "As it is, a little respect here and there goes a long way. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Works Cited "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "“Japan - Cultural Etiquette - E Diplomat.” Japan - Cultural Etiquette - E Diplomat. EDiplomat, n.d. Web. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "01 Jan. 2014. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "“Social Conventions.” Japanese Manners & Cultural Norms. Inside Japan Tours, n.d. Web. 01 Jan. 2014. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "78 "
                    }
                ]
            },
            {
                "pageNumber": "87",
                "paragraph": [
                    {
                        "data": "Effortless Grace: A Hero in Two Hemispheres "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Charles Beers (Huntington High School) "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "There are a few moments in a baseball game that can’t be described as anything less than perfect: the "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "crack of the bat to hit that game-winning home run in the bottom of the ninth; the last-minute dive by a "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "runner to safely avoid the tag of a catcher at home plate. But perhaps the greatest and rarest of all of these is "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "robbing a batter of a homerun. Players have made their fortunes scaling outfield walls and taking long fly "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "balls away from the outfield bleachers with spectacular grace. If there was ever a player that had mastered "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "this sacred art of fielding, it was Ichiro. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Ichiro Suzuki was a name I frequently heard throughout my Little League career. As I sat in my "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "dugout eagerly anticipating my next at-bat, I occasionally got pieces of advice from my coach. “Hit it like "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Ichiro.” Ichiro has never been known for his power. His speed, however, made any connection between ball "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "and bat a threat to the opposing team. A routine ground-ball to the pitcher’s mound could turn into a single "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "in the blink of an eye. No matter how bleak the outlook seemed, Ichiro had determination I had never seen "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "before and will likely never see again. His probable Hall of Fame career has featured some incredible "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "statistics: 10 dominant years with 200 or more hits which was deemed impossible by baseball experts "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "around the globe (www.baseball-reference.com) and 2001 Most Valuable Player award in his first year in "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "the Major Leagues. Every time I struck out in Little League, I always remembered how Ichiro would "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "always bounce back. With his perseverance in mind, I never gave up. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "It was impossible to describe my excitement in 2012, when the front page of the newspaper "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "announced that Ichiro was becoming a Yankee. To me, it was a match made in heaven: one of my favorite "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "players on my favorite team. Ichiro was much more than simple statistics and awards. He served as a "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "symbol of perseverance and hope to both the United States and his home country of Japan. In 2011, Suzuki "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "donated 100 million yen to the Japanese Red Cross in order to aid earthquake relief efforts, motivating the "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Mariners to donate profits from the first six home games (sports.espn.go.com). Additionally, when Ichiro "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "was traded to the Yankees, he signed his equipment and donated the proceeds to 26 different charities "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "across New York (kenthimmel.blogspot.com). I realized then that one of baseball’s greatest players was "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "also one of the world’s greatest international heroes. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Ichiro settled in well with the Yankees in 2012, leading the team to the postseason with his stellar "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "performance at the plate. However, my story with Ichiro didn’t end there. During the summer of 2013, I "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "was offered a chance to interview relief pitcher David Robertson for Newsday and explore Yankee Stadium "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "as a reporter. Words cannot describe my energy as I sprinted to the ballpark, took my stadium pass to the "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "stadium, and followed my guide through the maze of hallways that held endless secrets. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "After hours of exploration, it was finally time to step onto the field. The entire team was out for "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "batting practice. Up at bat was none other than Ichiro himself, looking as confident as ever as he scattered "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "hits all over the ballpark. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "I watched with bated breath as he walked back towards the dugout where I was sitting and looked me "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "in the eye with a smile on his face. He didn’t speak English well and he had never seen me before, but the "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "way he shook my hand and welcomed me into this unfamiliar place said enough. That same day, Ichiro hit "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "a monstrous home run that helped the Yankees win the game, and is a moment in my life I will never forget. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Ichiro’s kindness and compassion are inspiring. He is a symbol of Japan in more ways than one. He is "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "tranquil and patient at the plate, using precision and grace in every at-bat. His generosity has transcended "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "his native country and he has become the embodiment of international charity. Most of all, Ichiro is the "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "embodiment of perseverance, never giving up on or off the field. For this reason, Ichiro is an inspiration "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "and I try to emulate his effortless grace. When assignments seem insurmountable, when exams keep piling "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "up, and when I feel like caving in to the pressure, I think of #31 dashing to make the seemingly impossible "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "catch, and keep my eye on the ball. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "79 "
                    }
                ]
            },
            {
                "pageNumber": "88",
                "paragraph": [
                    {
                        "data": "Sources Cited "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "“Ichiro Suzuki Statistics and History - Baseball-Reference.com.” Baseball-Reference.com. N.p., n.d. Web. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "02 Jan. 2014. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "“Report: Ichiro Suzuki Donates 100M yen.” ESPN.com. N.p., 19 Mar. 2011. Web. 02 Jan. 2014. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Thimmel, Ken. \"Ichiro Suzuki Gets Traded To The NY Yankees. Money Raised for Charity.” Ken Thimmel "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Blog: Ichiro Suzuki Gets Traded To The NY Yankees. Money Raised for Charity. N.p., 24 July 2012. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Web. 03 Jan. 2014. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "80 "
                    }
                ]
            },
            {
                "pageNumber": "89",
                "paragraph": [
                    {
                        "data": "The Rain of Flowers "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Fangrui Tong (Ward Melville High School) "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "It was there that I stood, only one person in a vast world of many, but for that one moment I could "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "pretend that it was only me. A subtle breeze, warm and comforting blew past and on it rode a flurry of pink, "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "delicate and soft. A single petal gently caressed my cheek and as quickly as it had come, it was gone, going "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "back to join the wind in its graceful dance. The springy grass underneath my bare feet wriggled between "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "my toes, valiantly defying gravity in its attempts to grow and rise. The taste of the late March air was fresh "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "on the tip of my tongue, but an incessant beeping sounded from somewhere, muffled at first but growing in "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "a dreadful clarity with each passing moment. My eyes flickered open and my fingers blindly reached out in "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "the winter cold to turn off the alarm as I sighed, wanting to return to that wonderful place. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "But unfortunately I had never really been there to begin with. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "In all my past decade and a half years of existing on this planet there had always been two things that "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "fascinated me to no ends, a calming existence in my hectic world- rain and flowers. I still remember the day "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "these two seemingly ordinary works of nature had combined in this glorious mess of wondrous delight. I "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "had been on a field trip to a botanical garden, sometime around when I was seven or eight. Everyone had "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "decided that we would play tag in this marvelous house of intricately intertwined branches. However, while "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "everyone else was running around in the vain hopes of avoiding whoever was it, I was static, gaping, "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "staring at the orchard that lay before my eyes; an orchard of cherry blossom trees. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "It was really a fantastic sight to see. With each gentle breath of a wind, the branches shook, quivering, "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "releasing tiny streams of petals to float loftily in the air and eventually settling onto the ground, but not "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "before giving a spectacular performance. It seemed as though some sort of enchanting music was playing, "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "for they swayed in time to a beat, fluttering and floating and coming to a gentle rest. The dark chocolate "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "brown of the tree trunks was almost masked and hidden by the plumes of descending blossoms, and indeed "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "it looked as though each flower was a single soldier in a vast army of pink raindrops. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "It was raining flowers, and I was in bliss. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "“The sakura are blooming.” "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "I turned around, startled out of my trance. It was the tour guide. He went on to explain that sakura "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "meant cherry blossom in Japanese; how every year the trees would bloom, decorated with the pink flowers, "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "and a week after they’d nearly all be gone. Hanami, he said, was a Japanese custom where the people "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "would enjoy the beauty of the flowers while everything was still alive. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "And it was since then that I became fascinated with such an idea. That for one week every year "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "something so magical could happen and as quickly as it had come, it would be gone. I would visit Japan "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "everyday through my computer screen and simply stand there with all the falling petals. It was truly my "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "happy place. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "It was also since then that I kept having the same recurring dream of being able to stand in Japan "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "among all that beauty, among the rain of flowers, and I still hope that someday my dream will be realized. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "81 "
                    }
                ]
            },
            {
                "pageNumber": "90",
                "paragraph": [
                    {
                        "data": "Awake "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Iman Esmailzada (Farmingdale State College) "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "No matter how mundane events in your life may seem, you may step back years later and realize that "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "those were moments you are never going to forget, for they shaped you in ways you wouldn’t have "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "understood at the time. We have photographs for the bigger moments: birthdays, family trips. But my most "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "vivid memories don’t have snapshots to go along with them; they live in my mind, raw with feeling. My "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "childhood experience with Japanese culture was one of those memories. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Memories are emotional waves that live on in my mind, bright with color and vibrating feelings. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Jumping on the trampoline in our yard made me feel awake, full of life. I would jump as hard as I could "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "until my knees would give out and my enormous brown hair covered my eyes, my mouth erupting laughter "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "until my belly hurt. Writing left me in a dream; my stories and journal entries let me be anywhere, with "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "anyone, doing anything I wanted. Playing the violin with my peers during lessons in school left me "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "frustrated. I could never master Mary Had A Little Lamb. I played my own version of the rhyme and was "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "asked to leave for disrupting the lesson. My mother moving away left me feeling numb. An unexpected "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "divorce filled my home with a sudden deafening silence. I didn’t want to jump or run or write anymore. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Staying numb is a safe feeling. Neither high nor low, I could stay in that place and be content. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "But one day, while spending the weekend with my mother, I was given bachi drumsticks. I was told to "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "bang out a sound on an enormous Taiko drum for fun. I hit the skin of the drum hard, felt the bachi vibrate "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "back into my hand, into my skinny arms. The sound was enormous, full, and powerful. I made my own "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "rhythm and was lost in the noise. My eyes were wide. I felt alive. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "My sister, mother and I learned how to play Taiko together from family friends who showed us the art "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "of Japanese drumming. We each had our own bachi drumsticks, long thick pieces of wood, rounded at the "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "top. My mother’s friend, who was Japanese, gave us special shoes made of cloth and rubber to wear while "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "we drummed. We learned different songs, how to stand during each song, how to perform, what to say and "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "chant together. We yelled, we laughed, we learned together, and our arms were sore after practice together. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "We helped make drums, with hide and water, stretching it over the barrel in the basement of my mother’s "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "friend’s house: our very own sensei. We were nervous before performances, made mistakes, got red in the "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "face, blossomed under the applause of a crowd, and felt giddy with energy. I was told to make my own solo "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "that the group incorporated into a song. We were all a part of the music, and with that, together in our "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "creation of something beautiful. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Taiko gave me an outlet. The drumming was a physical and emotional release of pent up energy. I was "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "told to beat on a drum hard, and make a bigger sound, louder, stronger, fill the room, follow the beat, get "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "lost in it. With the beat of six other drums thumping away, never were you too loud. I could drown out my "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "own thoughts or worries, all while creating a beautiful, powerful song next to my family and my new "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "friends. Taiko gave me an outlet of physical energy that helped me feel alive again emotionally. As a child, "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "I thought I was merely tagging along with my mother and her friends, participating in something new and "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "fun. I never realized how much Taiko did for me. Now I remember how special it felt to do something with "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "my mother. All together we drummed, supported one another, creating new things, like a big mismatched "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "family. My memories of Taiko drumming are so engrained in me because of how I felt in it and because of "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "what it meant to my family. It was time with my mother and sister. It was empowering. It was beautiful. It "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "was special. It was something we needed and something that made us closer. Japanese drumming was a "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "deep breath in, a pause, and with wide eyes, an explosion of sound that kept my heart beating fast, my "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "emotions flowing, and my family close. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "82 "
                    }
                ]
            },
            {
                "pageNumber": "91",
                "paragraph": [
                    {
                        "data": "Instructions for the Tenzo "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Kyle Tulod (Stony Brook University) "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "The Tenzo is a senior monk in a Zen Buddhist monastery charged with cultivating the physical and "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "spiritual well being of fellow practitioners by preparing the meals with meticulous and meditative care "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "(‘Instructions,’ 53). This is a paraphrase of a question I posed early in the course of study of Buddhism in "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Japan: I understand that the Tenzo is not to waste a single grain of rice. Having read some Buddhist texts, I "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "can guess the scripture explaining why what I am about to say is not the Buddha-Way. But I must ask: if the "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Tenzo had the means to save and multiply all the grains of rice to feed all hungry mouths, how and why "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "should that temptation be resisted? "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "There is a long pause before the reply comes, in which Sensei seems to wish a Kyosaku were handy. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "This is the ‘stick of encouragement,’ a wooden implement used in a gesture of non-punishing striking to "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "wake monks from attachments such as sentimentality, logical thinking, and egoism (‘Kyosaku’). In "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "retrospect, all three were deeply embedded in my question. So, if I am to understand Sensei’s answer, I "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "need to understand the assumptions of Western thought that lead to my attachments. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "My wish, “to feed all hungry mouths,” arises from my sentimentality. However, Shinran, founder of "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Pureland Buddhism, points to, “the [Vimalakirti] Sutra [which] states: ‘The lotus does not grow in the solid "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "ground of lofty plateaus, but in the muddy ponds of lowland marshes.’” In Pureland orthodoxy, Shinran is "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "emphasizing the all-encompassing power of Amida Buddha’s Primal Vow to grasp all persons entrusting to "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "her compassion without regard to their past faults, and only based on their presence of mind here and now "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "(Shinran, 76). Yet there is a hard lesson here too for the secular western humanitarianist examining "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Shinran’s philosophy: benevolence is easily distorted into sentimentality, if an attachment to the transitory "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "state of the world leads to instant gratification rather than the highest good. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "My hypothesis of a, “means to save and multiply all the grains of rice,” arises from my logical "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "thinking. The Western scientific method is prone to imply that for all problems there exist physical causes "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "for which solutions can be engineered. Yet, “An ancient Buddha said, ‘A painting of a rice-cake does not "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "satisfy hunger (‘Painted,’ 134).’” Zen master Dogen interprets this on one level by recognizing the spiritual "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "needs of humanity beyond mere physical hunger. However, his inner meaning points to painted "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "manifestations of rice-cakes which, while illusory phenomenal forms, encode the truth of reality: such that "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "the true rice-cake is the great taste that drives spiritual hunger (‘Painted,’ 136-7). This has tremendous "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "consequences for the problem of rice shortage, because it suggests the “problem” may merely be a "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "symptom underlined by a deeper problem, and subverts the assumption that rationality and science are the "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "solution. My presumption, “if the Tenzo had [this] means…,” arises from my egoism. To assume all problems "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "have solutions in a progression in utopianism places no limitation on human agency to control society and "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "the universe. The role of the ego self as an illusion is at the very heart of Buddhist enlightenment and "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "cannot be neatly summarized. However, a self-explanatory passage from the “Regulations for Zen "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Monasteries” intended for the Tenzo and also pertinent to rice shortage helpfully instructs: “Just think about "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "how best to serve the assembly, and do not worry about limitations. If you have unlimited mind, you will "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "have limitless happiness (‘Instructions,’ 61).” "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "But back to the beginning: Sensei sees in my earnest yet tactless question my obvious ignorance of "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "any of these subtleties. Finally, Sensei decides to gently encourage me, asking, “Where does this idea come "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "from?” I hesitate. Sensing that Sensei seems not to want my baggage from the West, I set it aside, admitting, "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "“It comes from me, apparently.” "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Sensei’s reply, striking for its novelty, would soon become as familiar as a chant, and just as melodic. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "The first syllable is a staccato, brief and sudden as if sharing in my epiphany; the second syllable is slightly "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "prolonged, as if savoring the moment: “That’s right.” Then, as if I were not already sufficiently startled, "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Sensei suddenly cocks her head forward and, widening her stare, challenges me, “And are you Buddha?” "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "83 "
                    }
                ]
            },
            {
                "pageNumber": "92",
                "paragraph": [
                    {
                        "data": "“I don’t know… it… yet…” I am at a loss, with no other recourse but to cite whatever little I thought I "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "knew about Buddhism up to this point. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Sensei smiles, nods faintly, and our study continues. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Bibliography Kazuaki Tanahashi, Ed. Moon in a Dewdrop: Writings of Zen Master Dogen. Trans. Ed Brown and Kazuaki "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Tanahashi. New York: North Point Press, 1985. Print. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Dogen, Eihei. “Instructions for the Tenzo.” Tanahashi 53-66. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Dogen, Eihei. “Painting of a Rice-cake.” Tanahashi 134-139. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "\"Kyosaku: Stick of Compassion.\" sarasotazen.org. Sarasota Zen Center. 05 Jan. 2014. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "<http://www.sarasotazen.org/kyosaku/>. Shinran. “The Hymns of the Two Gateways of Entrance and Emergence, I.” The Essential Shinran: A "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Buddhist Path of True Entrusting. Trans. Hirota, Dennis, et al. Alfred Bloom, Ed. World Wisdom, 2007. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Kindle. 84 "
                    }
                ]
            },
            {
                "pageNumber": "93",
                "paragraph": [
                    {
                        "data": "My 20-Minute Inheritance "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Monique Bloomfield (Binghamton University) "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "I was already used to having feet slightly bigger than desired for woman, but my weight gain became "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "an additional burden. While the other girls in my study abroad group showed off their dresses and shoes "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "that they bought in Shibuya and Harajuku, all I had managed to buy where t-shirts; stockings after scouring "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "several stores. The Japanese size of LL struck me with fear and embarrassment, as I left several stores "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "empty-handed. My bags were full of cute omamori or good luck charms but when it came to finding "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "something to wear, maybe that wasn’t a part of Japan that was meant for me. So naturally, when some "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "friendly obaasan at my host school gave me a chance to wear a kimono, my first thought was if it would "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "even fit me. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "I was nervous about making an awkward visage out of the beautiful garment, the only thing that had "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "captured my eye when I combed through glossy depictions of Japan in 6 th grade. As beautiful as the grassy "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "fields littered with delicate cherry blossoms were, nothing gripped me like those flowing layers of cloth. I "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "had never seen anything quite like the one-size-fits-all garment that managed to remain era-appropriate: I "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "saw them elegantly wrapped around the waists of not only geisha and maiko but everyday women as well. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "The kimono was not just something that was out of style like hairstyles from the 80’s or hand-me- "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "downs given away when it no longer fits. It was a living and breathing symbol of its own, lending to the "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "ever-expanding mecca of what it means to be Japanese. It has meant so many different things to different "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "people: it was an attire during the day, and a blanket at night; a way to show allegiance; to show social class "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "or marital status. It was a canvas upon which talented artists could showcase their legacy with the sense of "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "pride that I admired about Japanese work ethic. The time it took to choose and put together the right obi "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "and kimono was an art in itself, showing the Japanese values of patience and harmony. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "So much of the kimono wearer’s identity is shown without words, avoiding the directness I had to "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "tone down once I arrived to Japan. My concern was whether a foreigner like me, who preferred jeans over "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "dresses, would do such elegance justice. The three obaasan, looking flawlessly in-synch with the kimono "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "they were wearing, were not concerned with my body type as they fussed over my furisode. As they "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "consulted with each other too quickly in Japanese for my brain to comprehend, I felt a rush as I pushed my "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "arms through the pastel green silk kimono, its long sleeves brushing against my ankles. The bright orange "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "obi hugged my waist, much like one of the hoodies I was fond of. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Even though my steps had to be reduced dramatically and I resorted to tipping over like a teapot to "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "pick things up from the floor, I did not want to take it off. I was amazed at how well it represented me from "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "not only a physical level, but a spiritual level as well. The fabric welcomed me, embracing my body "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "perfectly to serve its purpose. I was without race or size, only concerned with care of what I could see "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "myself calling my kimono. Just as quickly, it was removed from me, ready to become owned by another. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "I wish I had known enough Japanese to ask the obaasan about how many hands had passed through "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "this beautiful silk. How many young unmarried women, since that is who furisode were for, had worn this? "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Whose grandmother? Whose aunt? All I could muster was a very heartfelt, “Arigatou gozaimazu”. I am "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "forever thankful for that 20-minute inheritance that truly felt like my own. There was no need to change "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "myself for the kimono because size or background did not matter. I felt a sense of belonging that no "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "clothing store could match, in a traditional garment I would never have the chance or reason to wear again "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "of all things. Perhaps the reason why the kimono continues to live on despite its decline is because of the "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "impression that stays with you. It was one and at the same time many when it needed to be. To me, it was "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "the part of Japan that I was looking for, beyond the justification of tags. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Bibliography “Kimono.” Wikipedia . Wikipedia Foundation, 01 2014. Web. 7 Jan 2014. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kimono#Furisode> 85 "
                    }
                ]
            },
            {
                "pageNumber": "94",
                "paragraph": [
                    {
                        "data": "Procrastination and Me "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Shaikat Islam (Stuyvesant High School) "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Without any regard for anything going around me, I sit on my plush desk chair and I begin my cycle. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "The snow white screen of my monitor surges a temporary relief into my body as I begin to browse. I click. I "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "check my email. I watch some YouTube videos. I watch more. More. I check my email again. I go on "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Facebook. I wait. Then, the relief absconds, leaving behind an undesirable: agitation. I look around for "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "the source of this restlessness- out of nowhere; my schoolbag suddenly makes it into my line of sight. Oh. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "At this time, I try to make a decision: “Now or later?” but before I reach a sound conclusion, temptation "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "and lethargy redirect my attention towards the screen. The cycle repeats, and the ability to work is "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "superseded by the thirst of entertainment. As a high school student carrying the weight of his future, I dared "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "not say the word- p-p-pro- procrastin- procrastination. Out of all students, me, a Stuyvesant student, "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "procrastinating? Without even knowing it, I had been conditioned; conditioned for procrastination. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Although I try not to admit it, procrastination has become my dogma, my disease: my fault. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Unfortunately, this disease also affects 70% of American students, according to the American Psychological "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Association, and students are not exclusive to it: from 1978 to 2007, 27% of the American public thought "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "of themselves as chronic procrastinators, while in 1978, it was a meager 5%. I chuckled to myself- "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "America, the country with the greatest GDP, a nation of procrastination. Insomnia and schoolwork don’t’ go "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "hand in hand, but they burned a lot of my time, so I began doing what I did best: browsing. I searched the "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Internet for ways to mediate my procrastinating, and in the process gained lots of information on "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "procrastination, and found methods, which to no avail, could not help me. Then, I found something new, "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "something fresh: kaizen. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Kaizen means “improvement,” but has evolved to be translated as “continuously improving”. The "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "term “kaizen” began in Japanese business after WW2, where the economy of Japan lay in shock, after "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "having surrendered to the Allies. The ideas that would serve as a base for kaizen came from a joint "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "operation between Emperor Hirohito and allied occupation forces. The head of this operation was W. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Edwards Deming, a statistician whose work granted him an award from Emperor Hirohito and inspired the "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "creation of the Deming Prizes by the Union of Japanese Science and Engineering (JUSE). I began to relish "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "in these facts: Deming must have created something awe inspiring; something that worked. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Kaizen has since evolved greatly from post-war Japan, with Toyota changing it to implement it in "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "their factories, but its key characteristics: standardization, waste reduction, and problem solving, still stand, "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "along with its most unique characteristic: variability. Kaizen can be implemented in corporations, by "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "individual people, in life therapy, and even health care systems. A NY Times article shows how the Seattle "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Children’s Hospital transformed from being unreliable and a place where “nurses…would stockpile stuff” "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "in a makeshift manner to a simplified area where supplies where stocked efficiently. Variability also exists "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "in time lapse. Contrasting from a New Year’s Resolution, kaizen can work with both short term and long- "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "term goals, in lieu of one long-term goal. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Kaizen has many forms, as stated before, but much of the modern kaizen comes from the evolution of "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Toyota’s kaizen system. This is why kaizen, when used personally, may remind someone of an automated "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "factory. Nonetheless, the key characteristics still remain: Problem solving- Take on the smallest problems "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "first, creating initiative to solve bigger problems later. Waste Reduction- Organize your thoughts effectively "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "and error proof your day. By error proofing, I mean finishing a problem and thinking of ways it could’ve "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "been solved even faster. By organizing, you also reduce waste, which increases productivity by allowing "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "more work to be done in a short time. Standardize and Automate- Man takes on machine! Make your tasks "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "automatic and standard, as if in a factory. As you practice, this becomes easier, and there you have it. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Japan has always been self-improving. Its post economy after WW2 had skyrocketed like a miracle, "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "and more recently, Japan showed incredible progress after the Tōhoku disaster. Japan serves as a model for "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "anyone, showing that self-improvement, even in the worst of times is still possible. As we go into the New "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Year, add kaizen to your resolution. I know I will, maybe later. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "86 "
                    }
                ]
            },
            {
                "pageNumber": "95",
                "paragraph": [
                    {
                        "data": "Works Cited "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Borenstein, Seth. “Study Is a Put Off: Scientists Research Why Procrastination Is Getting Worse - "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "USATODAY.com.” Study Is a Put Off: Scientists Research Why Procrastination Is Getting Worse. N.p., "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "12 Jan. 2007. Web. <http://usatoday30.usatoday.com/tech/science/2007-01-12-procrastination- "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "study_x.htm>. “Kaizen.” Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, 12 Nov. 2013. Web. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kaizen>. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Knezevic, Milana. “Procrastination: A Student's Worst Enemy?” Theguardian.com. Guardian News and "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Media, 09 May 2012. Web. <http://www.theguardian.com/education/mortarboard/2012/may/09/students- "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "procrastinating-exams>. Poretsky, Solomon. “What Does Kaizen Mean When Applied to Its Use in a Business?” Work. The "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Houston Chronicle, n.d. Web. <http://work.chron.com/kaizen-mean-applied-its-use-business-5789.html>. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Trapani, Gina. “Practice Your Personal Kaizen.” Lifehacker. N.p., 12 Oct. 2006. Web. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "<http://lifehacker.com/207029/practice-your-personal-kaizen>. Weed, Julie. \"Factory Efficiency Comes to the Hospital.” The New York Times. N.p., 10 July 2010. Web. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "<http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/11/business/11seattle.html>. 87 "
                    }
                ]
            },
            {
                "pageNumber": "96",
                "paragraph": [
                    {
                        "data": "To Love, To Live Japan "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Erich Makarov (Staten Island Technical High School) "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "I had never been enchanted with a culture before. That is, until I stumbled upon a simple, yet "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "absolutely beautiful, piece of music. The piece was Koto Funk by Minoru Muraoka. Utilizing almost every "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "traditional Japanese instrument, the Shakuhachi master created more than a euphonic beat: he captured my "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "heart. I listened to the vast array of sounds, the combinations of low and high, new and old, soft and "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "booming, surrounded by an aura of complete tranquility, enveloped in emotions and desires I could not yet "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "comprehend. This was my first touch of Japan. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "With every new piece of Japanese music I listened to, no consumed, my desire to uncover the full "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "culture that lay behind these masterpieces became ever keener. Beginning with Japan’s history, I learned of "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "the great wars which engulfed the three islands, and the intermittent peace which fathered the beauty I was "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "falling in love with. I studied in great detail the wars of the Taira and Minamoto clans, the cunning and "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "brilliance of Oda Nobunaga, and the betrayal and insatiable desire of Ieyasu Tokugawa. I delved in delicate "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "poetry and yamato-e drawings of the peaceful Fujiwara period, the ukiyo (floating worlds) of the Edo "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "period, the westernization of Japan after the Meiji Restoration, and the revival of the 1960s that only a "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "people as industrious and dedicated as the Japanese could ever bring about. Nothing was quite as dramatic, "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "suspenseful, and motivational as the history of such a small group of islands off the coast of Asia. I was "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "intrigued, I wanted to know everything. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "I gazed at a paper filled with hundreds of characters. By now I had learned the hiragana and katakana "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "systems of writing, but before me lay the greatest obstacle: kanji. I knew very well that this was not an easy "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "journey, but language was my bridge to the unobstructed beauty of Japan. I needed to cross it as quickly as "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "I could to enjoy the treasures that waited me on the other side. Many nights, I ploughed through the rows "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "and columns of characters, connecting images with words, sharpening my pronunciation, and practicing the "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "subtle strokes which produced these miniscule symbols – symbols which alone radiated with history and "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "aestheticism. To continue with such a difficult endeavor, I needed motivation, and what better motivation is "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "there than food. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "“Kyō wa niwatori no kara age o junbi shimasu” (today we will be preparing chicken karaage) said "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "the grinning lady on my computer screen. My hands were washed, the chicken lay in front of me, and the "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "other ingredients were neatly positioned around the table. I was ready. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "One hour later. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Flour was everywhere, speckles of oil covered the stove, all the plates were smothered in soy sauce, "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "but my prize was radiating in the pan. There they were, golden brown, sizzling in the heat, twenty pieces of "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "delicious chicken karaage. I stood smiling at my creation, until my mother came down and saw the "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "condition I left the kitchen in. True, it looked like a tornado had just passed, but I couldn’t care less. I had "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "done it: I made my first Japanese meal. That was only the beginning. In the next months I created a vast "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "array of Japanese dishes. I did not cook simply for the enjoyment of the meal. No, cooking was something "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "else: it was a way to discover Japan that no other medium could provide. Aromas, precise hand motions, the "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "calming music of the shakuhachi playing in the background – united, these factors brought a culture to life. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "I was no longer studying the history, or observing the customs, I was living them. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "As I sit today, writing this essay on a cold, rainy December morning, I cannot help but picture the "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "people of Tokyo gathered in the night, celebrating the Chichibu festival. How I would love to see those "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "magnificent fireworks, and the splendid Chichibu floats, decorated in shining lanterns. How I would love to "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "transport to Sekigahara, and witness one of the greatest battles in the history of the world. What I would do "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "to see the hills dotted with the rosy blossoms of the sakura. What I would give to meet the hundreds of "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "valorous men who built the nation of Japan, who created this unique world. People tell me I cannot do it, "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "but they are wrong. I can do it. I do it every day. Even as I am telling you of my dreams, I am living them. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "88 "
                    }
                ]
            },
            {
                "pageNumber": "97",
                "paragraph": [
                    {
                        "data": "The Training of a Professional "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Anju Okamura (Elwood John Glenn High School) "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "In America, there are variety of types of restaurants you can go to for food. There is Italian, Chinese, "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Mexican, Korean, American, and Japanese restaurants spread all over. Now, you can have food from a "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "different country right in your own town without traveling on a airplane to go to the country but sometimes "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "at the restaurant you are eating at, the chef cooking for you may not originate from the country of the "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "restaurant. For example many Japanese restaurants on Long Island have a Korean or Chinese chef. The "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "training they have experienced in America is very different from how a Japanese chef in Japan would train. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "My father owns a Japanese restaurant here on Long Island and the way he trained is very distant from the "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "training of someone outside of Japan. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "My father was born in Japan and his bloodline is all Japanese. He started studying to be a sushi chef "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "when he was only 15 years old and did not attend school during his training because in Japan, when you "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "enter high school, you are not made to go. He was very determined to be a chef. During the first three years "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "of training, he was only permitted to make deliveries and clean around the restaurant. He was not allowed "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "to be in contact with any ingredients including fish. In the morning, around five A.M., he would visit the "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "fish market with his mentor and examine the fish that was taken out of the ocean that morning. My father "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "would study the fish and determine which of the fish would have the best taste and freshness. After these "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "three years of just cleaning and studying without touching, he was finally allowed to make the rice and "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "prepare small fish and clams. In Japanese the meaning of sushi is vinegary rice. This is the correct type of "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "rice made for sushi. The mentors of sushi in Japan would not teach their apprentices how to make sushi. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "The apprentices would have to steal the mentor’s techniques by watching them carefully. My father was "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "able to steal his mentor’s way of making sushi rice and made it. After another two years of this, his mentor "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "finally allowed him to make sushi rolls. Many people may think making sushi rolls is easy but really it is "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "not because you need to know the correct amount of rice and how to cut the ingredients that goes into the "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "rolls. My father was able to quickly move on the make “nigiri” sushi which is the sushi with the fish on top "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "of the rice. In the beginning of his overall trainings, there were six others going in to training. Throughout "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "the training, many left because of the hard, long training that continued for over 7 years. In the end, my "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "father was the only chef that stayed for his full training. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "In contrast to the Japanese training, in America, many of the people who learn to become sushi chefs, "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "come in contact with fish on their first week. Their training is only about 2 years at the most and they are "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "allowed to stand in the sushi bar on their first week of training. Chefs in Japan are able to tell the difference "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "between fresh fish and old fish and are able to estimate the price of a fish just by looking at it. In America, "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "the apprentices are taught how to make sushi by their mentors instead of them stealing the techniques by "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "watching their mentors carefully. Learning how to cut fish is very difficult because with a wrong way of "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "cutting, the flavor of the fish is not able to come out at its fullest and the taste will be affected. The way of "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "cutting also affects the texture of the fish which is very important when eating sushi. Many Japanese "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "restaurants in America adjust to American customers by making rolls such as crunchy spicy tuna rolls or a "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Philadelphia roll which do not exist in Japan. Many of the rolls at Japanese restaurants in America were "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "invented here because they do not include fish so people who do not like fish are able to have sushi too. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "There are many differences in the Japanese and American sushi restaurants and their chefs. This is the "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "reason why restaurants in places outside of their original country have different dishes than they would "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "have in the original country. Professional chefs of Japan are able to do a variety of things. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "89 "
                    }
                ]
            },
            {
                "pageNumber": "98",
                "paragraph": [
                    {
                        "data": "Life’s Beautiful Tragedy "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Daniella Schoen (Huntington High School) "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "It was a beautiful April day. The sun was shining, and there was a slight breeze. I can remember it as "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "if it were yesterday. Walking hand in hand with my dad as we meandered around the National Cherry "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Blossom Festival in Washington DC. I can remember the sense of pure happiness I felt as we strolled along "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "the path, with big beautiful bright pink and white flowery trees as they draped over us. There were people "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "everywhere, and not one person I saw did not have a smile on their face. Children laughing, birds chirping, "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "music playing and people picnicking beneath the breathtaking trees. The whole scenery was breathtaking. It "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "wasn't until the encounter my dad and I had that I truly understood what exactly the festival was about and "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "why it was such a big deal. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "My dad and I were just parading along, admiring everything around us, until we met this wise old "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "man who forever changed my life. He kindly approached us and introduced himself as Akito. Before I "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "knew it he began explaining to me the significance of the day. He explained to me that the beautiful trees "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "were known as a Cherry Blossoms and that they were the national flower of his country Japan. He then "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "began to unfold the truth about the flower and what made it so special to him and his country. He began "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "\"For hundreds of years, the Japanese culture has looked at the cherry blossom as a representation of life. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "But first you must understand one thing before you can truly fathom what exactly I mean.\" To be honest, "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "when he first started by saying “For hundreds of years.” I immediately thought that he was going to give "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "me mini lesson on Japan's history and I started to lose interest. I think he sensed what I was feeling because "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "he quickly assured me before he continued that I would learn a life lesson and he would not bore me. He "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "then continued by first explaining to me that the cherry blossom trees only bloom for a short time each "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "year. Before I knew it he reached up and picked a flower off the tree and placed it behind my ear. “You "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "see?” he questioned. “Look around you, all the happiness among the air and how beautiful it looks.” I took "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "a second and glanced all around me. He was right. He continued, “The cherry blossom represents how "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "fragile life is and how the beauty of it. Just like the tree, life is overwhelmingly beautiful but tragically "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "short. So each year when the tree blossoms it’s a reminder of how precious life truly is.” I just stood there "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "for a while, soaking in what he said. His last and final words to us were, \"Just remember how short life is "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "and to appreciate the beautiful aspects of it.\" I reached out, hugged him and thanked him for what he had "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "shared with me. I could tell he wasn’t expecting that reaction from me, he was pleased and after I let him "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "go, he smiled and was on his merry way. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Akito truly touched my heart and reminded me how thankful I was for everything I had and everyone "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "in my life. After he left, my dad leaned over and whispered to me that the cherry blossoms were his favorite "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "tree. He told me that I reminded him of the tree because I was just as beautiful as the flowers. I spent the "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "rest of that day with my dad walking around, treasuring every second with him. I was so jubilant, that I was "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "able to spend such an exquisite day with my dad, it was an experience I will never forget. Akito taught me "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "to not take life for granted. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "A few years passed and I was once again reminded of the cherry blossom tree. But in this case it was "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "unfortunate. My dad had passed away. All I could think about was how he now reminded me of the tree. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "The time I shared with my dad was beautiful and I cherish every moment I ever had with him but Akito was "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "right. Life is tragically short. Little did I know the long lasting effect Japanese culture would have on me. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Between the life lesson Akito taught me and my dad passing on, I truly appreciate the cherry blossom tree "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "and everything it represents. Which is why the cherry blossom is and will forever be my favorite tree. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "90 "
                    }
                ]
            },
            {
                "pageNumber": "99",
                "paragraph": [
                    {
                        "data": "Tokyo Kareem "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Qire Snowden (West Babylon High School) "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "My Godfather Kareem used to live in Japan for a few years. He taught English at a Junior High "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "School and said it was one of the best experiences of his life. Once a week he would also teach at an "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "elementary school. I asked him what he taught the students, and he shared most of his lessons with me. I "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "knew it would be a blessing to adapt to the Japanese language and wondered if I could learn those same "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "words. Knowing it would take some time to remember most of the language, Kareem would spend hours "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "with me teaching me about Japanese. He would not only teach me the language but also tell me a lot about "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "the culture of Japan and what it was like living there. He told me that Japan culture was diverse from other "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "places and was widely known for its traditional arts. Along with teaching, Kareem also loved the music he "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "had discovered while staying in Japan. Kareem lived in Chiba-ken, which is like the New Jersey of Tokyo, "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "but he would hang out in Tokyo often. This is where Kareem got his nickname “Tokyo Kareem”. He would "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "go to Hip Hop and R&B clubs and make friends with the Japanese people that also enjoyed Hip Hop and "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "R&B music. Kareem went on to meet one of his greatest friends today, Masayuki. He met Masayuki at a "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Hip Hop club named “Harlem” which is ironic because Kareem’s birth place was Harlem, New York. It "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "made me wonder how Kareem and Masayuki had become friends. He told me that they had a common "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "interest in music. I was introduced to Masayuki at Kareem’s wedding where he would later on share with "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "me some of his experiences in Japan. I had no idea that Japanese people listened to the same music as I like "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "to listen to. This is when I realized that Japanese arts & culture are often represented in Urban/Black arts & "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "culture and vice versa. Masayuki happened to be a producer who also enjoyed listening to Hip Hop and "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "R&B. Using music as their common denominator, Masayuki and Kareem used the song lyrics to teach each "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "other English and Japan respectively. Kareem said that he was amazed and inspired by Masayuki’s "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "dedication and commitment to learning the meanings and that motivated him to study Japanese harder. My "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Godfather Kareem told me that he incorporated the Japanese work ethic and dedication to his studies. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "When he returned to New York, he continued to study Japanese and started his first business coordinating "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "tours and translations. Masayuki and several of his Japanese friends came to New York to visit as tourist "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "and when people would see Kareem speaking Japanese to them, they simply called him “Tokyo Kareem”. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Then, he realized that people were asking his friends from Japan about their clothing because they "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "appreciated their style. The Japanese brands like Evisu, A Bathing Ape and UNIQLO became just as "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "popular in Urban/Black culture as the Urban/Black music is over in Japan. There appears to be traces of "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Japanese culture in many elements of Urban/Black arts, from fashion to music. Kareem inspired me by "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "showing me that you could learn more than one language and how important it is to understand other "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "cultures. 91 "
                    }
                ]
            },
            {
                "pageNumber": "100",
                "paragraph": [
                    {
                        "data": "Getting to Know My True Self "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Jeanette Wetherell (Stony Brook University) "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "A professor I had began her Japanese Buddhism class by asking the question “What is the self?” As "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "we went around the room sharing what we thought, I heard things like “student,” “mother,” “daughter,” "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "“son” and “friend.” Some said their name and listed characteristics, while others just shrugged their "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "shoulders. I personally thought; “I am a yoga teacher and student.” I said this because I was so proud of "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "that recent accomplishment and because yoga was something that defined me at the time. Little did I know, "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "my professor was eluding to something much greater than the color of our skin, or the characteristics we "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "define ourselves by. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "As a child, one of the most profound memories I have is sitting with my mother, in a space we "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "dedicated to meditation, holding our “energy” stones, devoid of dialogue, just meditating. We did this for so "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "many years. However, as I grew older, I lost this sacred practice. I became preoccupied with my friends, "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "how I dressed, what my hair looked like and following the latest trends in order to fit in. Like so many of "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "us, I became consumed with the phenomenal world we live in. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "I found yoga when I was 17. I started this journey as a way to deal with the never-ending pain I "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "suffered from due to an autoimmune condition. Stretching and strengthening my body was a form of "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "healing. My yogic asanas began to flourish. Before I knew it, I was able to stand on my head, balance on "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "my forearms and twist myself into positions others can’t even dream of. Yoga was my favorite form of "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "exercise, and I would even go as far as to say that yoga saved my life. However, something was missing "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "and I felt an emptiness because of it. That something was meditation. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "During my yoga teacher training, meditation was introduced marginally, but there is only so much that "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "practiced in 200 hours. So, I was encouraged to pursue meditation on my own. I was given all the tools, and "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "told exactly what to do: “Find a comfortable seat, sit up straight, breath in this manner, quiet the mind and "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "it will come.” All this valuable information was given to me, yet I still could not quiet my mind. Until I "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "studied Buddhism. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Throughout the semester of Japanese Buddhism, we studied Zen and Pure Land Buddhism. We "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "learned concepts such as Zazen, Nembutsu, Tariki and Shinjin and heard stories of Buddhist monks "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "reaching enlightenment. The concepts, beliefs and traditions of Japanese Buddhism struck my interest. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Something about this religious practice intrigued me unlike anything else I have ever studied "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "It wasn’t until the end of the course that I understood the intention of my professors’ question. She "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "didn’t want to know about our favorite foods, the music we listened to or even what religion we practiced. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Her intention was to deepen our understanding of our true self. Nothing is permanent, so there is no "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "purpose in being attached to anything I have. I am not the job I do or the car I drive. The body I inhabit is a "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "part of the phenomenal world, but I exist otherwise. What I truly am is something I have only experienced "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "glimpses of in my savasana after a 60-minute asana practice. My true self was something that I did not have "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "access to. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "While yoga introduced the impermanence of this life to me, the study of Japanese Buddhism "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "solidified it. Because of this realization, I began to meditate. At first, for just five minutes every few days. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Then, for twenty minutes here and there, until it became a part of my daily life. The benefits I have gained "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "are immeasurable. I see things in a new light. I understand this existence in a profound way. While I do not "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "know if I will attain enlightenment in this lifetime or any future life, meditation has brought me closer to "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "understanding my true self. I do not pretend to be a Buddhist or to understand all there is to know about "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Japanese Buddhism, however, I cannot deny the impact it has had on my life. Buddhism is the reason I am "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "beginning to understand what I truly am and what my purpose is. I consider this the greatest gift. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "My yoga teachers were right when they told me “It will come, if you practice” I just needed to find "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "the motivation. This life-changing course on Japanese Buddhism was my motivation. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "92 "
                    }
                ]
            },
            {
                "pageNumber": "101",
                "paragraph": [
                    {
                        "data": "Selected Essays "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "from Tenth Competition "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "(2014-2015) 93 "
                    }
                ]
            },
            {
                "pageNumber": "102",
                "paragraph": [
                    {
                        "data": "Fly With Me "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Arianna Vetrano (Eleanor Roosevelt High School) "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Step 1. Lay your square sheet of paper on the table. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "“Dekita!” My mother’s voice jumped with excitement. There, floating on the palm of her hand "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "perched a delicately crafted paper crane. My brother and I, with our eyes aglow, pondered on how three "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "minutes ago that geometric object was none other than a flat piece of paper. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "“But how, mama?” "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "She chuckled, “Here, we’ll do it together. Don’t worry, you’re both young and it takes patience and "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "practice. I was around your age when obaachan first taught me as her mom taught her.” "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "As my mother promised, with years of dedication, I became just as good at doing origami as her. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "The Japanese art of folding paper to craft beautiful representations of life remains a symbolic part of my "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "cultural heritage and is what keeps my inner child alive. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "In our living room can be found a wooden side table which would be fit for a beautiful glass vase or a "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "collection of picture frames. Instead, there lay a colorful variety of origami that my brother and I have "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "crafted over the years. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Step 2. Fold sheet into a triangle and repeat once more. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Two summers ago I became a junior counselor at Downtown Day Camp, located in lower Manhattan. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Initially, I was concerned about how I would transform into a good counselor after many years of being a "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "good camper. With the roles reversed children would now be looking up to me for guidance. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Step 3. Stick your index finger into the pocket and open it up. Repeat on both sides to form a square. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "I pulled up a seat next to Alice who was coloring vigorously with a stubby Jazzyberry-Jam Crayola "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Crayon. As I reached for a blank paper in the center of the table and laid it in front of myself, I felt her "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "seven-year-old eyes peer up at me. I smiled and with a soft, encouraging voice said, “How would you like "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "to learn how to make a paper crane?” She nodded timidly but with an affirming smile. I picked up a "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "second sheet of paper and slowly slid it in front of Alice. “We’ll take it step-by-step,” I reassured her. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Step 4. Don’t forget to make the creases! Lift up the flap and join the middle pieces to create a point. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Repeat on both sides. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "She folded her paper ever so carefully as if she were threading a needle. Her eyes rarely looked up, for "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "they were busy shifting back and forth from her paper to mine. After the very last fold, Alice broke her "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "concentration and beamed; she had made her very first origami crane, and she had made it alongside me. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Other children flocked to our table, mesmerized by our creations. So, I taught them how to make cranes as "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "well, with Alice eagerly participating. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Step 5. Fold the four corners of the diamond in and then fold the flaps over like a page in a book. Lift "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "both wings up, up, up as far as they can go! "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Making origami cranes became a regular activity in group 2AB. As each day passed, I saw "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "improvement; the creases became sharper and the birds more defined. Naturally, however, memorizing the "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "steps remained a stumbling block for the children and I would find myself hovering nearby in case of a "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "folding emergency. Until one morning, at drop off, Alice came running to me bursting with excitement. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "“Arianna look!” She exclaimed as she held out a finished crane in the palm of her hand. “I made it "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "myself!” Her mother, having now caught up, laughed and added, “she’s been making them all night. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "she’s even tried teaching me origami!” "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "In fact, "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "It later dawned on me that I did have an impact on the young campers by passing down skills, values, "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "and Japanese culture, just as my mother had done with me. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "94 "
                    }
                ]
            },
            {
                "pageNumber": "103",
                "paragraph": [
                    {
                        "data": "The origami collection on the wooden side table grew twice as large that summer with every paper "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "crane I received from my campers. Each day, the uniquely colored and patiently folded cranes remind me "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "of the little hearts that I touched. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Step 6. Fold down the wings and beak. “Dekita!” an origami crane! "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "95 "
                    }
                ]
            },
            {
                "pageNumber": "104",
                "paragraph": [
                    {
                        "data": "Tea For Me, and Tea For You "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Monica Bederman (The Brearley School) "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "As we hang up our coats in the closet, I can already imagine myself doing something embarrassing— "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "spilling the tea, for instance, or knocking into a piece of furniture as I try to stand up. I’ve been practicing "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "sitting in seiza style for a week, and still haven’t mastered the fine art of not letting my legs go numb. I also "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "may have forgotten how to form honorific verbs—and on second thought, perhaps I should have dressed "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "more casually, for I’d misinterpreted Haruka’s “no jeans” warning as a request for formal wear. I try to cast "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "my nervous thoughts away; the day I have dreamed of since the beginning of high school has come at last "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "in my eleventh-grade year. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Although I had begun to study Japanese in eighth grade, I only developed an interest in the tea "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "ceremony a year later, after I read The Elegance of the Hedgehog by Muriel Barbery. The novel’s main "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "character, a concierge named Renée, uses tea as a way of reconciling herself with the chaotic, somewhat "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "absurd world around her. She explains that “when tea becomes ritual, it takes its place at the heart of our "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "ability to see greatness in small things”. Soon after, I read Okakura Kakuzo’s The Book of Tea, which "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Renée cites. The Book of Tea, written in 1906 for an English-speaking audience, outlines the influences of "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Taoism, Zen Buddhism, and what Okakura refers to as “Teaism” on the Japanese culture. Okakura explains "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Teaism as “a cult founded on the adoration of the beautiful among the sordid facts of everyday existence”, "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "but makes it clear that aesthetics are not its sole preoccupation. Teaism makes all of its followers, rich and "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "poor alike, “aristocrats in taste”, and permeates every aspect of human existence, from hygiene to "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "economics to morality. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Okakura had given me a lovely introduction to the history and philosophy of tea. Yet as I stand on "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "the unfamiliar carpet in my white socks, it isn’t his lovely prose that runs through my mind, but rather a "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "fear of inadvertently breaking an important etiquette rule, of destroying the fragile harmony of the room’s "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "atmosphere with a clumsy move, or of failing to attain the proper state of selflessness and spiritual "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "enlightenment. Haruka’s teacher, Mitani-sensei, produces three small folding stools seemingly out of nowhere; she "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "explains that they are seiza stools that remove pressure from the sitters’ feet. “So we can cheat a little,” she "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "says with a twinkle in her eye. Haruka and I giggle. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "As expected, I stop feeling my legs about fifteen minutes into the ceremony. I don’t know what to say "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "after bowing, or what part of the tea bowl to drink from, but Mitani-sensei explains every step gently and "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "patiently, and I feel grateful that I can follow her lead. The silence that fills the small room has a sort of "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "refinement about it, and the warm, bitter tea a calming aroma. As I sit and admire the tea bowl, my mind "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "begins to wander. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "I remember having met Haruka only a few months ago, when I was assigned to give her family a tour "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "of my school. I learned that she was originally from Tokyo, but had been living in Manhattan for five years. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "She grew very excited when she found out that I was studying Japanese, and we discovered many shared "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "interests—international cuisine, fashion, comedy, manga, and, of course, tea. Overall, the tour was a "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "delight; yet at the time, I hadn’t thought that we would meet again and become close friends. Usually, I "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "only receive a short thank-you email from the prospective applicant; I was surprised and quite moved "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "when, a few days after the tour, Haruka suggested over email that we attend a tea ceremony together. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "After exchanging phone numbers, we began to text regularly in Japanese and in English. I knew since the "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "beginning that she would always correct my language errors with sincerity and humor, but never judge me "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "for them—and she knew the same was true for me. Okakura characterizes Teaism as “a worship of the "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Imperfect… [and] a tender attempt to accomplish something possible in this impossible thing we know as "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "life”. I close my eyes, take a sip of tea, and wonder if friendship can be defined similarly. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "A year later—when Haruka has moved back to Tokyo, and we still talk nearly every day despite the "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "time difference—I think it can… "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Bibliography Barbery, Muriel. The Elegance of the Hedgehog. New York: Europa Editions, 2008. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Okakura, Kakuzo. The Book of Tea. Vermont: Tuttle Publishing, 1956. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "96 "
                    }
                ]
            },
            {
                "pageNumber": "105",
                "paragraph": [
                    {
                        "data": "Two Fateful Days "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Dillon Wu (Stuyvesant High School) "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "On August 6, 1945 the first atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima. 80,000 people died in the "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "immediacy of the impact and 110,000 died from the fallout. Three days later, a second atomic bomb was "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "dropped on Nagasaki and 45,000 more people died. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "I had learned about World War II from previous history classes. My teachers had all lectured about the "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "bombing of Pearl Harbor, about Japanese internment camps, the political structure at the time, and the "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "battles fought. We had also learned about the Manhattan Project, about Little Boy, the bomb dropped on "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Hiroshima, and Fat Man, the bomb dropped on Nagasaki. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "However, to me, all this information never amounted to anything more than apathy. I learned and "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "memorized facts about the war, but in the end, they were just that: facts. I believed that history happened "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "and it could not have happened any other way. I believed that the atomic bombs dropped on Hiroshima and "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Nagasaki was justified because they put a speedy end to the war. I never thought about the people who "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "were affected because I didn’t consider them to be people; they were history. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "It was in Japanese class when my sensei showed the movie Barefoot Gen that I realized what the "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "atomic bomb really was, what it truly meant. The movie started out nice and slow, with a portrait of Gen’s "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "life with his family. Although he was impoverished and hungry, he was a happy child; he had a little brother "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "who was also his best friend and a family that cared for him. The lack of food in the family was evident, but "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "still, he and his family were able to pull through with hard work and they were relatively happy. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "The moment the bomb dropped in the movie, when the clock froze at 8:15:45 and there was nothing "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "but a harsh whistle, was the moment I realized what the atomic bomb was. I watched a young girl holding a "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "red balloon melt. I watched her face twist in fear and her body burn away until there was nothing left but an "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "unrecognizable corpse. I watched the old man and the young woman and the baby shrivel up and all I heard "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "was the sound of the movie but it felt like it was the sound of people screaming. I was horrified; I didn’t "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "want to watch it. I wanted to turn away and pretend like it never happened, but at the same time, I couldn’t "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "stop looking. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "I realized afterward that the most horrible part was that what I had seen was just a movie. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "After watching Barefoot Gen, I decided to do some research on my own and found that the movie was "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "based off the manga, which was drawn by Keiji Nakazawa. Nakazawa-sensei is a hibakusha, which is the "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "name given to the surviving victims of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Even after the war, the hibakusha "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "suffered: people like Nakazawa-sensei were discriminated against and harassed. He told, in an interview, of "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "a girl who hung herself because of the discrimination and abuse she faced. Many victims also suffered from "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "diseases like leukemia and other forms of cancer, while physical growth defects, mental disabilities, and "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "malformation plagued young children and children who had not been born yet. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "However, I also learned that peace movements and anti-nuclear movements arose as well. The "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park, for example, was built in honor of the victims and is a manifestation of "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "people’s desire for world peace. Moreover, there were people like Sadako who brought about hope and "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "change by folding 1,000 cranes and giving it to other bomb victims. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Watching Barefoot Gen and learning about the bombing changed me. I am no longer apathetic about "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "the effects of war. I believe that now, more than ever, should be a time for demilitarization and peace. Death "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "like those shown in the movie should be a thing of the past. Nobody should ever have to experience "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "something so horrifying. Nobody should ever have to watch their family die before their very eyes. I "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "believe that as people, we should set out to make sure that there is no third Hiroshima or Nagasaki. They "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "are the moments in history which we must always remember, but never repeat. The people that died in "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Hiroshima and Nagasaki on those two fateful days must serve not only as a reminder of the war, but more "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "importantly as beacons of hope that may guide our choices in the future. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "97 "
                    }
                ]
            },
            {
                "pageNumber": "106",
                "paragraph": [
                    {
                        "data": "Cup Half Full "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Nicola Shannon (Stony Brook University) "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "I hate dropping cups. A sudden fumble and frantic air-grabbing is followed by a menacing crack or "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "crash as solid hits solid. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "My teeth unclenched in relief that my white cup had not shattered on the kitchen floor. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "“At least you’re not using one of those pretty ones.” My friend gestured at the selection of decorative "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "mugs in the cabinet, painted with arrogant-looking birds perched on flowery trees. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "“Hm…yeah…” I retrieved my cup and examined it. It was smooth, but I could feel shy grains in the clay under the "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "white glaze. It was not perfectly round but it had no harsh angles either, and no handle. The finish was just "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "shiny enough to reflect a bit of light. On the bottom, almost undetectable, was a trace of a fingerprint left in "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "the clay that was exposed where some of the glaze had chipped. The elegant lines that the cup made in "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "space and the weight that it had in my hands it were both confident and purposeful, but not aggressive. It "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "was pretty. It was beautiful. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "My cup had been one of many displayed in a pottery shop in Mashiko, a town in the Tochigi "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Prefecture of Japan that is known for creating pottery. This shop was slightly outside of the main streets, "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "next to a small barn where the owner worked and lived. The tiny man in a smock greeted my father and me "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "when we entered. In my thirteen-year-old eyes he looked old and wise, but looking back, he was probably "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "no older than 40. I scrutinized the contents of the display case, perplexed as to what the artistic point of "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "these white cups and bowls were. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "The man seemed to read my mind. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "“Nice. Simple. Natural,” he said. “Not too big, not too loud. Shibui.” "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Shibui is the adjective for shibusa, or shibumi. It took me a while to grasp this term, but from what I "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "have gathered, it refers to an undisruptive beauty. Subtly is often a key element of something that is shibui, "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "but its simplicity is relative, depending on how deeply one observes it. Shibui objects and people have "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "quality and meaning that can be found hidden behind small details that are often overlooked. The "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "importance in shibusa is found by reaching inward to explore what something is, as opposed to loudly "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "shouting the importance and trying to turn something into something it is not. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "I now realize how foreign a concept shibusa has been in my life and the lives of so many people "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "around me. We grow up being pushed to win, stand out and waste no time as we climb to the highest "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "position possible. But the small, wonderful parts of life that occur intuitively, both inside of us and out, are "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "often ignored. We rush past opportunities that could be explored as we search for a title, an endpoint or "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "recognition. Even as young as 13, I stood angrily at my middle school graduation, knowing how much "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "work I had put into having the second best grades in the class, and knowing there was no award for that. I "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "have seen medical students in college living to become doctors, miserable if they could not get the grades "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "they needed. Yet I have also sat next to a family member in a hospital room as people who had become "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "doctors rushed in and out, checking numbers and levels, without even looking at their patient’s face. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Shibusa does not mean laziness. Effort and success are ingredients of a great life. Yet, people often "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "grasp for objects and experiences to haphazardly paste onto themselves without stopping to do something "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "wholeheartedly, to really sink their teeth into something, even if it is some small detail—just for them. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "I am okay with never being President of the United States or a chief surgeon. No matter what "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "profession or stage of life I am in, I will live with proud modesty and with senses open to detail. Even if no "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "one is handing me an award or a title or a raise, I will strive to never eat anything without tasting it fully, "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "never listen to music without hearing it thoroughly, never forget that the simplest and slightest of actions "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "can and should be appreciated. My shibui white cup is sincere, straightforward and, to most people in the "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "world, nothing special. But the potter’s fingerprint has left a permanent impression on the way I see the "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "world. I have not dropped a cup since. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "98 "
                    }
                ]
            },
            {
                "pageNumber": "107",
                "paragraph": [
                    {
                        "data": "Am I Caught Between Two Worlds? "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Rina Inaba (Stony Brook University) "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "One of the toughest challenges I have faced in my life was figuring out which culture I belong to. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Growing up in a predominantly white neighborhood, I experienced minimal cultural diversity. I was "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "ashamed to speak Japanese in front of my friends because I was afraid I would be looked at differently. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "This made me feel like I had to choose one culture to identify myself with. Being born and raised in "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "America with my first language being English, my parents were concerned that I would lose touch with my "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Japanese culture. As a first generation Japanese- American, my parents believed that it was important for "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "me to be able to speak and write Japanese; therefore, they enrolled me in Japanese Weekend School when I "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "was five years old. While my friends were hanging out or sleeping in, I was spending my Saturdays from "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "8:30 to 3:30 at Japanese School from kindergarten to my senior year of high school, a total of ten years, "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "learning math, history, science, and Japanese customs and traditions. I resented the idea of me having to "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "attend school on a weekend. Although I was given the opportunity to quit after the eighth grade, my "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "perseverance and unwillingness to quit enabled me to embrace the importance of Japanese customs and "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "traditions. Having the opportunity to attend both Japanese and American schools, it did not take a long time for "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "me to realize how different Japanese culture was compared to American culture. In American school, I was "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "used to having custodians, teachers being in charge of all the classwork and attendance, and the "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "professional yet somewhat casual relationship between teacher and student. My experience at the Japanese "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Weekend School was very different in terms of the values that were promoted and the relationships formed "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "with my teachers. One of the most interesting differences I noticed were the dynamic interactions that "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "occurred during lunch. In American school, my parents would typically make a sandwich; in Japanese "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "school, lunch normally consisted of a formal bento. As opposed to American school where there are "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "custodians, we were in charge of cleaning up at the end of the day at Japanese school. In Japanese school, "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "we also had tōbans, where students were assigned to a specific duty each week. For example, as nichoku "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "tōban, I would be responsible for taking attendance, creating a to-do-list of the day, and summarizing what "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "occurred in class at the end of the school day. At first it was difficult to see the purpose of tōbans; I later "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "realized it gave me a sense of responsibility and unity with my fellow Japanese classmates. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "One of the first things I noticed was how most teachers at Japanese school emphasized the strict "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "educational relationship rather than the more casual and approachable relationship with American teachers. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Coming from an American school that focused on class participation and interactions, I was always "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "encouraged to ask a questions and state my own opinion. However, in Japanese School I noticed this sense "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "of superiority and inferiority dynamic (referred to as senpai- kōhai), an essential element of Japanese "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "culture. I noticed the commonality for a lower classman to show respect to an upper classman by speaking "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "more formally and following the senpai’s orders while in turn the senpai serving as a mentor by protecting "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "and guiding the kōhai. These morals and traditions are aspects I would not have been able to understand "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "from simply reading a book or watching a movie; rather, they require first hand experiences to fully "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "immerse in Japanese culture. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Rather than viewing Japanese School as a Saturday wasted, I now see it as an opportunity that my "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "parents gave me to embrace my Japanese heritage as an American citizen. Being able to attend both "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "American and Japanese schools have helped me answer the question with which my essay is titled. I did not "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "have to choose which culture I belonged to, rather I have learned to exist outside both bounds, and at the "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "same time thrive in each. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "99 "
                    }
                ]
            },
            {
                "pageNumber": "108",
                "paragraph": [
                    {
                        "data": "Beauty Is in the Eye of the Beholder "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Irene Chen (Townsend Harris High School) "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "It starts on a spring day, sitting in the computer room. The only sounds audible are the whirring of "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "computer fans and the voice of our teacher. 32 pairs of eyes wander the room, looking for a respite from the "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "school work. In a brief moment of focus, I hear the teacher talking about words that are unique to certain "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "languages and my interest is piqued. 31 pairs of eyes now wander the room as my attentions shifts to my "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "computer screen. I'm browsing through a list of words that are unique to other cultures when I'm drawn to "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "one word: komorebi. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Komorebi is the Japanese word for the sunlight that filters through the leaves of trees. I'm immediately "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "drawn in by the picturesque vision of sunlit rays falling on green leaves. But my second thought comes in "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "the form of a question: this word seems so exceedingly specific and unique. Why create a word just to "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "describe this relatively uneventful and common occurrence? Well, I found my answer a few months later. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "It is the summer of 2014 and my family is at the Japanese Tea Garden in San Francisco. The moment I "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "enter the garden, I'm greeted with an array of multicolored bushes, shrubs, and leaves that border a pond, "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "tinged with green. Light grey rocks speckled with white and red are scattered in a seemingly random, yet "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "unexpectedly pleasing formation. As I walk through the garden, I'm astounded by the order and beauty "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "around me. I see koi boasting beautiful colors, reminiscent of fire dancing along their delicate fins. Trees "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "with branches marked off with the light feather touches of a green leaf. Clear ponds dotted with lily pads "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "and the lightest of pinks found in the petals of a lotus flower. I come across an arched drum bridge that "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "crosses a thin river, stone statues of cranes frozen in place in ponds, bright red pagodas, stepping stone "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "paths, a small zen garden, and a traditional tea house in the heart of the garden. Needless to say, I’m "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "amazed. You see, I previously thought of gardens as fields of flowers or small, personalized patches of land "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "for families to use recreationally. However, completely submerged in the experience, I found that the "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "meaning of a garden went far beyond America’s backyards, geared towards practicality. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "A major part of Japanese culture involves an appreciation for nature and a pursuit of simplistic beauty. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "That's not to say that countless other cultures don’t value nature and simplicity, but this is the first time I've "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "witnessed such a pure devotion in applying those principles and melding them together to create such a "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "garden that is there for the purpose of eliciting a sense of peace, serenity, and contentment. And that is the "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "answer to my question. The whole reason why komorebi exists as a word is because Japanese culture is "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "rooted in minimalism. There doesn't need to be a special occasion to acknowledge beauty. Rather, it is "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "finding the extraordinary in the ordinary and looking at it from a new perspective every day that makes life "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "so much more enjoyable. Instead of constantly seeking happiness, you learn to incorporate happiness into "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "your everyday life. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "So here I am, standing in the middle of a Japanese tea garden and breathing in the crisp summer air. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "First I look at the floor. Then I look around me. Finally, I look up at the trees to see a collage of colors: "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "greens, yellows, and reds. I see the way the leaves sway in the breeze, the way sunlight shines through "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "holes in the canopy while contrasting against the silhouette of leaves for a holistic embodiment of beauty in "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "the mundane. I mean, I see this every day, but I'm suddenly looking through a new lens. Just like how the "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "sunlight hits a barricade of leaves and illuminates it from behind, unveiling a whole network of "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "interconnected veins from where I stand, I now see this display from a completely new point of view. And "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "you know what? Sometimes, you do need another perspective to let beauty reveal itself where it was once "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "hidden. 100 "
                    }
                ]
            },
            {
                "pageNumber": "109",
                "paragraph": [
                    {
                        "data": "Saying Sayonara "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Charles Beers (Huntington High School) "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "I've never been great with good-byes and I hate the awkward moments leading up to them. The queasy "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "feeling in my stomach, combined with the golf ball-sized lump in my throat and the inevitable welling of "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "tears, foreshadows the inescapable words. Yes, I am a mush, and although I’ll never master this skill, I "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "realized this past summer I’ll need to learn. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "A group of friends and I were sitting at our usual table in Kashi, the local Japanese restaurant where "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "we had forged our friendship. I remember every sight and smell vividly. There was the steam of the grill "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "that cast a warmth into the air and a sizzle to our hearts. There was the roar of conversation, dancing back "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "and forth from Japanese to English like a perfectly synchronized couple in the midst of a serenade. Best of "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "all was the indescribable taste of that first pork gyoza mixed with a steaming bowl of miso soup. It should "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "have been heaven, but this perfect painting of a Japanese dinner had a dark smear that lingered in the corner "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "of the canvas: it was a farewell dinner for Ben. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Ben was a senior, and one of my closest friends. We and a few other friends from art class forged a "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "friendship over Japanese cuisine and movies over the past three years. You could imagine that strange "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "feeling that crept up on me when he sent me a text saying he was leaving for Chicago in a matter of days "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "and could we have one last group dinner at Kashi. I was excited that he had gotten into his dream school, "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "but disappointed that he would be moving so far away in so little time. So while the rest of the group "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "scarfed down Angry Dragon Bento boxes, I was lost in thought about the future. Would this be the last time "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "I saw Ben? What about me? What would happen when I had to leave my friends behind for college next "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "year? After we were stuffed with Japanese delicacies and had bid our waitress sayonara, we drove back to "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Ben's. Ben had told us several times that he had seen one of the greatest movies ever made: an old animated "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "movie titled Spirited Away, by Hayao Miyazaki. When the movie started to play, I tried my hardest to take "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "my mind off the inevitable of the evening. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "In the first five minutes I realized something important: it was WEIRD. While the opening seemed "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "relatable, a little girl feeling anxious about heading off to a new school, things quickly took a very strange "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "turn. The parents transformed into pigs, animals and mystical creatures started talking, and the girl, "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Chichiro, was forced to work in a bath house while trying to figure out a way to free her parents. I was "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "awestruck. What was I watching? But the more I watched, the more I became glued to the screen. The "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "colors were bright and beautiful, and I was eager to explore the fictional, nonsensical world. There were "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "funny moments, dark moments, weird moments, and even moments where characters questioned their own "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "identities. But the tone continued to be upbeat, and I became hooked on the spirited fantasy; I didn't want it "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "to end. Then, as all things must, Chichiro left the magical world, said good-bye to her new friends, and "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "returned to reality with her parents driving to her new school. It was over. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "When Ben drove us home, I was lost in thought at the strange, addictive fantasy I has just seen. I felt "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "like Chichiro, embracing reality and facing the inevitable change that came with it, which is when I realized "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "the true message of the movie. I got out of the car, gave Ben a big hug and wished him luck at school, and "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "watched him drive off into the distance. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "As I mentioned, I’m not good at good-byes, and that was one of the hardest. Leaving places and "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "people I’ve grown so attached to is inevitable as I now prepare to leave for college and discover new roads "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "to travel. However, I'll always remember the message of Spirited Away: make the most of the time you "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "have now. There are interesting new faces to see, places to visit, and memories to make. Chichiro and Ben "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "taught me that. One day I'll return to that fantasy world again, laughing alongside Ben as we devour spring "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "rolls or revisit Miyasaki’s masterpiece. But for now, “Ima o tanoshime.” "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "101 "
                    }
                ]
            },
            {
                "pageNumber": "110",
                "paragraph": [
                    {
                        "data": "Examining the Pacific War in the Context of "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Japanese and American Culture "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Brian Brew (Herricks High School) "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "My grandfather enlisted not long after his eighteenth birthday. As it was 1944, he reckoned he had a "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "choice: join the Navy and serve America in relative safety, or risk being drafted as a soldier or a marine. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Upon finishing boot camp, he was assigned to the transport ship Riverside and served as a radar man for "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "the duration of the Pacific War. He carried a prejudice within him for the rest of his life after the conflict – a "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "prejudice against the Japanese people. His intolerance was neither blatant racism nor contempt. It was "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "rather a form of distrust, mixed with an omnipresent resentment. Any item with a “Made in Japan” tag was "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "only to be bought as a last resort. Owning a Japanese car? Unthinkable. Whereas my generation knows "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Japan for its history and vibrant culture, his found it difficult to look past Pearl Harbor and the kamikazes. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "American culture in the war years hardly helped improve people’s perceptions of Japan. Emperor "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Hirohito, who is remembered today as a soft-spoken, good-hearted man, was portrayed as a buck-toothed "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "monkey. And sadly, men of my grandfather’s ilk, who merely refrained from buying Japanese and cast the "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "occasional suspicious glance, were the minority. Japanese Americans, even those born stateside and their "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "families, were the victims of bitter racism during and after the war. Internment camps and signs reading "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "“Japs Keep Moving” were the norm of the time. During the Second World War, Americans – civilian and "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "soldier alike – hardly understood that the determination of Japanese soldiers stemmed from centuries of "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "culture and tradition. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "American GIs saw the banzai charges and suicidal fervor of their foes as a disturbing brand of "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "fanaticism. They had next to no knowledge whatsoever about the principles of Japanese society that "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "motivated their actions. First and foremost, of course, are the codes that stemmed from centuries of samurai "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "traditions. Bushido, the well-known Japanese equivalent of western chivalry, is prominent among these "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "codes. Bushido places emphasis upon justice, honor, and loyalty. In addition to Bushido, the ancient "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Japanese religion of Shintoism played a role in motivating the empire’s soldiers in the war. Among the "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "principal beliefs of the faith is that the emperor is a divine figure to be obeyed without hesitation. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Shintoism, which served the Japanese military establishment in the early years of the war, served to help "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "the allies in the end: after the attacks on civilians in Hiroshima and Nagasaki, to say nothing of the threat "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "posed to Tokyo, Emperor Hirohito refused to allow his people to suffer further from the horrors of war. A "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "coup against him failed, and a recorded message from the emperor was delivered to Japan’s people and its "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "troops via radio for the first time in history. It was in part through Shintoism, which stirred countless "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Japanese soldiers to fight hopeless battles for their emperor and their country, that the warriors laid down "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "their arms and peace talks with the United States began. The military regime perverted the practices of "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Japanese culture, such as loyalty to the emperor and ritual suicide for the sake of honor, to suit their own "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "purposes, just as terrorists in today’s world distort peaceful teachings to justify their own atrocious agendas. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "My grandfather spent time in Japan after the war’s end, in the early months of the occupation. But he "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "didn’t just spend time there. He was, according to the tale, among the first Americans to lay eyes upon the "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "smoldering ruin of Hiroshima in the summer of 1945. He felt no joy, nor pride, nor patriotism at the event. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "He was simply horrified. And that, I think, helped keep his bias against the Japanese people from "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "ballooning into hatred, and kept him from instilling that bias in his children. A surgeon in his later years, he "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "developed a motto that he instilled in his three daughters and three sons, the youngest of whom is my "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "father: when you cut into someone, we’re all the same. American and Japanese leaders seem to have "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "grasped this fundamental fact. In the long decades since the war, the old foes have become good friends. It "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "gives one a definite feeling of hope. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "102 "
                    }
                ]
            },
            {
                "pageNumber": "111",
                "paragraph": [
                    {
                        "data": "Nana Korobi, Ya Oki "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Seung Hye Yang (Queens High School for the Sciences at York College) "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "“Nana korobi, ya oki” means “Fall down seven times, get up eight” in Japanese. It took me a long "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "while before I fully understood what that meant. Growing up as the firstborn daughter of a very traditional "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "East Asian family was a heavy burden to carry, because anything less than perfect was absolutely "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "unacceptable. I was raised to believe that my self-worth was defined by the straight A’s I was expected to "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "bring home, by the pride I brought to my parents. I was raised to be exemplary. And for a while, I thought I "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "was. That all changed in 8 th grade. I was at the highest point of my life, or so I thought. I had the best "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "grades in my class, and I would always show up on the top honor rolls in school. I was the daughter all the "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "other Asian parents wanted their children to be. My parents bragged to their peers about my every "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "accomplishment. Teachers would constantly remind me that I was set up for a bright future. I thought this "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "was it. I thought I was happy. But deep down inside, I knew I wasn’t. There was always the nagging feeling "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "that something was missing- and the realization came all at once. I was completely empty inside. I had "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "nothing but the so-called “honor” I valued so much. Who was I? If you took away my grades and my "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "manners, I had absolutely nothing. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "This realization hit me like a brick, and around the same time, my grades began to fall drastically. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "For me, a girl who knew how to do nothing but study, it was a difficult time. I lost the respect of my "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "parents, who felt the need to remind me every day how disappointed they were in me. I was disappointed in "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "me. It was all too much at once, and it was terrifying how I couldn’t get back up again. I’d never "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "experienced failure before in my life, and now I was one. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "What saved me was my 8 th grade exit project. We were told to depict a certain part of World War II, "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "in any kind of media. I chose to make a comic book about the bombing of Hiroshima. I loved history, but I "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "always unconsciously drifted away from the whole picture, opting only to focus on the winners’ point of "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "view. However, for the first time in my life, I chose to focus on the history of the losing side, to see just "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "how things went down for them. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "I was absolutely horrified. I went in knowing Hiroshima and Nagasaki were the only two places in "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "history to be attacked with the atomic bomb, but I never knew the terrifying effects of the nuclear energy "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "that came with it. Studying the bombing of Hiroshima opened my eyes to a new world. I was forced to look "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "at images I would have otherwise never stomached, to read the graphic accounts of firsthand witnesses, to "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "feel the despair that surely rose over the city as it smoldered and burned. I read about how the innocent "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "civilians in direct contact with the bomb’s initial radius either died immediately, or died shortly from "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "throwing their burning bodies into contaminated water. I read about how the people near the bomb were "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "blinded by the light, and how people in the future were afflicted by the after-effects of the radiation that "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "followed. I was utterly in shock, and found myself wondering just how this city looked like today. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Naturally, it came as a complete shock when I saw that today, Hiroshima is a beautiful, modern city "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "with skyscrapers and highways. I learned that after the bombing, the people of Japan and the world worked "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "together to rebuild the destroyed city. In that moment, I knew the most important thing I learned from the "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "project was that you could always bounce back. Failure is inevitable, but it is merely a setback. It’s okay to "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "stumble and fall, you’re human. Hiroshima went from a thriving city to nothing, to a thriving city once "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "more. The people never gave up on Hiroshima, and it returned to its former glory in a matter of decades. I "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "saw Hiroshima in me. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Nana korobi, ya oki. I can feel myself falling again. I’ve fallen countless times since then. It may be "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "the seventh time, or the hundredth time, I’ve lost count. But it doesn’t really matter. I’ve learned to get back "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "up. Bibliography "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "“Bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.” History.com History.com. Staff. 2009. Web. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "http://www.history.com/topics/world-war-ii/bombing-of-hiroshima-and-nagasaki 103 "
                    }
                ]
            },
            {
                "pageNumber": "112",
                "paragraph": {
                    "data": "104 "
                }
            },
            {
                "pageNumber": "113",
                "paragraph": [
                    {
                        "data": "Memorable Moments "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "105 "
                    }
                ]
            },
            {
                "pageNumber": "114",
                "paragraph": [
                    {
                        "data": "Award Ceremonies "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "106 "
                    }
                ]
            },
            {
                "pageNumber": "115",
                "paragraph": {
                    "data": "107 "
                }
            },
            {
                "pageNumber": "116",
                "paragraph": {
                    "data": "108 "
                }
            },
            {
                "pageNumber": "117",
                "paragraph": [
                    {
                        "data": "Reception "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "109 "
                    }
                ]
            },
            {
                "pageNumber": "118",
                "paragraph": {
                    "data": "110 "
                }
            },
            {
                "pageNumber": "119",
                "paragraph": {
                    "data": "111 "
                }
            },
            {
                "pageNumber": "120",
                "paragraph": [
                    {
                        "data": "Performances "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "112 "
                    }
                ]
            },
            {
                "pageNumber": "121",
                "paragraph": [
                    {
                        "data": "Raffle "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "113 "
                    }
                ]
            },
            {
                "pageNumber": "122",
                "paragraph": [
                    {
                        "data": "At Ambassador's Residence "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Ambassador & Mrs. Reiichiro Takahashi "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Ambassador & Mrs. Sumio Kusaka "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "(May 23, 2015) "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "(May 24, 2014) "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Ambassador & Mrs. Shigeyuki Hiroki "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Ambassador & Mrs. Shigeyuki Hiroki "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "(May 25, 2013) "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "(May 12, 2012) "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "114 "
                    }
                ]
            },
            {
                "pageNumber": "123",
                "paragraph": [
                    {
                        "data": "In Memory of "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "The late Mr. Kinya Uchida "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Mr. Uchida’s warm support was instrumental in launching the JCSB Essay Competition "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "sponsored by Canon U.S.A. in 2005, to which JCSB is deeply grateful. The JCSB "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "instituted Uchida Memorial Award in honor of the late Mr. Uchida in 2013. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "115 "
                    }
                ]
            },
            {
                "pageNumber": "124",
                "paragraph": {
                    "data": "116 "
                }
            },
            {
                "pageNumber": "125",
                "paragraph": [
                    {
                        "data": "People "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "117 "
                    }
                ]
            },
            {
                "pageNumber": "126",
                "paragraph": [
                    {
                        "data": "First Competition (2005-2006) "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Winners High School Division Best Essay Award "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "1st Place: Nora Micheva (Ward Melville High School) "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "2nd Place: Michael Cohen (The Fieldston School High School) "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "3rd Place: Amita Jain (Syosset High School) "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "College Division Best Essay Award "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Robert Donnelly (Stony Brook University) "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Consul General of Japan Special Award "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Nora Micheva (Ward Melville High School) "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Honorable Mention "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Kaitlyn Ann Ferris (Mount Sinai High School) "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Jerry Michael Blackman (the Cooper Union School of Art) "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Finalists Kimani Calnek (United Nations International School) "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Michael Chow (Syosset High School) "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "118 "
                    }
                ]
            },
            {
                "pageNumber": "127",
                "paragraph": [
                    {
                        "data": "Joanna Goodman (Stony Brook University) "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Shunna Ide (Northport High School) "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Ji Kim (Syosset High School) "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Jenna Kon (Northport High school) "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Kellie Murphy (Earl L. Vandermeulen High School) "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Jordenne Nash (Stony Brook University) "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Benjamin Pierce (Paul D. Schreiber High School) "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Lauren Sharan (Cold Spring Harbor High School) "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Jason Sim (Half Hollow Hills High School West) "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Victoria Wong (Lynbrook High School) "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Dan Xue (John Bowne HS) "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "119 "
                    }
                ]
            },
            {
                "pageNumber": "128",
                "paragraph": [
                    {
                        "data": "Second Competition (2006-2007) "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Winners High School Division Best Essay Award "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "1st Place: Molly Baum (Longwood High School) "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "2nd Place: Joan Kim (Syosset High School) "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "3rd Place: Melida Maldonado (Marble Hill School for International Studies) "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "College Division Best Essay Award "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Heather Highfield (Stony Brook University) "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Consul General of Japan Special Award "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Molly Baum (Longwood High School) "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Honorable Mention "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Pratima Bhattacharyya (Bronx High School of Science) "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Stephanie Miceli (Floral Park Memorial High School) "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Ruthie Nachmany (Hunter College High School) "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Finalists Briana Codispoti (Longwood High School) "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "120 "
                    }
                ]
            },
            {
                "pageNumber": "129",
                "paragraph": [
                    {
                        "data": "Sarah Flood (Longwood High School) "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Justin Walsh (Deer Park High School) "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Allycia Barbera (Islip High School) "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Alice Hung (Townsend Harris High School) "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Alice Kai (Townsend Harris High School) "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Samantha Rubinstein (Longwood High School) "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Jen Klock (Longwood High School) "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Richard Edele (Townsend Harris High School) "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Ashley Graham (Deer Park High School) "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Semi-Finalists Lawrence Brenner (Stony Brook University) "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Jonathan Stimmer (Hunter College) "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "121 "
                    }
                ]
            },
            {
                "pageNumber": "130",
                "paragraph": [
                    {
                        "data": "Third Competition (2007-2008) "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Winners High School Division Best Essay Award "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "1st Place: Samantha Dupler (South Side High School) "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "2nd Place: Mari Iwahara (The Dalton School) "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "3rd Place: Elizabeth Morgan (Bronx High School of Science) "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "College Division Best Essay Award "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Lauren Phillips (Stony Brook University) "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Consul General of Japan Special Award "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Samantha Dupler (South Side High School) "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Honorable Mention "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Caresse Rose Correa (Longwood Senior High School) "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Matthew Auster (Columbia Prep School) "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Omena Ejekpokpo (Aquinas High School) "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Lisa Kawamoto (Columbia University, Columbia College) "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "122 "
                    }
                ]
            },
            {
                "pageNumber": "131",
                "paragraph": [
                    {
                        "data": "Finalists "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Michael Behan (Bronx High School of Science) "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Caitlin Etri (Huntington High School) "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "William Fechter (Longwood Senior High School) "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "George Hull (Hunter College) "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Allison Kade (Columbia University) "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Ashleigh McDougall (Longwood Senior High School) "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Samantha Palmer (Longwood Senior High School) "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Tracy Soto (Stony Brook University) "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Ashley Thompson (Queens Gateway to the Health Sciences Secondary School) "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Iris Yu (Shoreham-Wading River High School) "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "123 "
                    }
                ]
            },
            {
                "pageNumber": "132",
                "paragraph": [
                    {
                        "data": "Fourth Competition (2008-2009) "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Winners High School Division Best Essay Award "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "1st Place: Juliet deButts (Columbia Grammar and Preparatory School) "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "2nd Place: Jessica Joseph (Bronx High School of Science) "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "3rd Place: Christina Rombola (Longwood High School) "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Special Award: Alessandra Ansbach (Lynbrook High School) "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "College Division Best Essay Award "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Special Award (A): Sandy Hernandez (Stony Brook University) "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Special Award (B): Stephen Lanuto Jr. (City University of New York / City College of New York) "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Consul General of Japan Special Award "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Juliet deButts (Columbia Grammar and Preparatory School) "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Honorable Mention "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Skyla Budd (Plainview Old-Bethpage JFK High School) "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "124 "
                    }
                ]
            },
            {
                "pageNumber": "133",
                "paragraph": [
                    {
                        "data": "Ashley Jones (Longwood High School) "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Shelby Lin (Ward Melville High School) "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Ashley Schreck (Longwood High School) "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Frances Shi (Hunter College High School) "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Finalists Priom Ahmed (Bronx High School of Science) "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Peter Battifarano (West Babylon High School) "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Nicole Goodwin (The City College of New York) "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Wonmin Lee (Stuyvesant High School) "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Melissa Lohmann (Barnard College of Columbia University) "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Justine Perez (Norman Thomas High School) "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Hatsumi Faith Yoshida (Preston High School) "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "125 "
                    }
                ]
            },
            {
                "pageNumber": "134",
                "paragraph": [
                    {
                        "data": "Fifth Competition (2009-2010) "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Winners High School Division Best Essay Award "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "1st Place: Gen Ishikawa (Syosset High School) "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "2nd Place: Ethan Hamilton (Horace Mann High School) "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "3rd Place: Sarah Lam (Bronx High School of Science) "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "College Division Best Essay Award "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Elizabeth D Kaufman (Stony Brook University) "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Consul General of Japan Special Award "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Gen Ishikawa (Syosset High School) "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Honorable Mention "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Giovanna Braganza (Sewanhska High School) "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Yanling Fang (Lower East Side Preparatory High School) "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Sandy Patricia Guerrero (Longwood Senior High School) "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "126 "
                    }
                ]
            },
            {
                "pageNumber": "135",
                "paragraph": [
                    {
                        "data": "Kathleen Rivera (CUNY Hunter College) "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Stephanie Song (Fiorello H. LaGuardia High School of Music & Art and Performing Arts) "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Leighton Suen (Staten Island Technical High School) "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Finalists Kimika Berger (Kings Park High School) "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Kevin Chen (Ward Melville High School) "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Jinnie Lee (Lehman College) "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Lauren Yoder (NYC Lab High School) "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Krystle Rodriguez (Hunter College) "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Mary Rossillo (Longwood Senior High School) "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Davanie Singhroy (Sewanhaka High School) "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Peter Vey (Hunter College) "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Sophia Washburn (The Berkeley Carroll School) "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "127 "
                    }
                ]
            },
            {
                "pageNumber": "136",
                "paragraph": [
                    {
                        "data": "Sixth Competition (2010-2011) "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Winners High School Division Best Essay Award "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "1st Place: Jessica Goldman (North Shore Hebrew Academy) "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "2nd Place: Spencer Kirsch (Lynbrook Senior High School) "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "3rd Place: Aya Terki (East Meadow High School) "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "College Division Best Essay Award "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Special Award A: Eric Andrew Engoron (Stony Brook University) "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Special Award B: Manami Ogami (Stony Brook University) "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Consul General of Japan Special Award "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Jessica Goldman (North Shore Hebrew Academy) "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Honorable Mention "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Megan Yuan (Staten Island Technical High School) "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Paul Hart (Bronx High School of Science) "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "128 "
                    }
                ]
            },
            {
                "pageNumber": "137",
                "paragraph": [
                    {
                        "data": "Finalists "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Azequay Rice (Frederick Douglass Academy I) "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Dakota Blackman (Fiorello H. LaGuardia High School) "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Joyce Yoo (Townsend Harris High School) "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Elizabeth Whitcher (Huntington High School) "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Alex Wallach (Townsend Harris High School) "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "EmaadKhwaja (Huntington High School) "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Anqi Wei (Brooklyn Technical High School) "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "129 "
                    }
                ]
            },
            {
                "pageNumber": "138",
                "paragraph": [
                    {
                        "data": "Seventh Competition (2011-2012) "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Winners High School Division Best Essay Award "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "1st Place: Yumiko Siev (Valley Stream Central High School) "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "2nd Place: Mizuho Yoshimune (Bronx High School of Science) "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "3rd Place: Duke Atalay (Ward Melville High School) "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "College Division Best Essay Award "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Special Award A: Daniel Xu (Princeton University) "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Special Award B: Shariful Syed (Stony Brook University) "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Consul General of Japan Special Award "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Yumiko Siev (Valley Stream Central High School) "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Honorable Mention "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Emma Berniczky (Stuyvesant High School) "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Pauline Ceraulo (Trinity School) "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "130 "
                    }
                ]
            },
            {
                "pageNumber": "139",
                "paragraph": [
                    {
                        "data": "Jake Reiben (Brooklyn Friends School) "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Natsuko Sato (Arlington High School) "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Kaitlyn Shin (Jericho High School) "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Kelsey Weymouth-Little (Ward Melville High School) "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Finalists Jasmine Jang (Syosset High School) "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Catherine Koumas (Huntington High School) "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Steven Menelly (Garden City High School) "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "HusnainKaukab Mushtaq (Oceanside High School) "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Semifinalists Mitchell Abrams (Fiorello H. LaGuardia High school of Music & Art and Performing Arts) "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Begina Armstrong (A. Philip Randolph Campus High School) "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Rohit Bachani (W. T. Clarke High School) "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Monisha Dadlani (Fiorello H. LaGuardia High school of Music & Art and Performing Arts) "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Justin Daane Engelsher (Huntington High School) "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Bonnie Kaprat (Wellington C. Mepham High School) "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Emily Rose Kass (Smithtown High School West) "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Doyun Kim (Townsend Harris High School) "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Julia Y. Lee (Trinity School) "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Brian Murphy (SewanhakaHigh School) "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Gianna Ortiz (The Mary Louis Academy) "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Aya Terki (East Meadow High School) "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Ashley Wong (Syosset Senior High School) "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Amanda Yan (Townsend Harris High School) "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Marissa Young (Hebrew Academy of Nassau County) "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "131 "
                    }
                ]
            },
            {
                "pageNumber": "140",
                "paragraph": [
                    {
                        "data": "Eighth Competition (2012-2013) "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Winners High School Division Best Essay Award "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "1st Place: Madison LoFaso (Huntington High School) "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "2nd Place: Ravi Jain (Syosset High School) "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "3rd Place: Emily Linko (Hauppauge High School) "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "College Division Best Essay Award "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Melissa Kavanah (Stony Brook University) "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Uchida Memorial Award "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Ali Syed (Stony Brook University) "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Consul General of Japan Special Award "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Madison LoFaso (Huntington High School) "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "132 "
                    }
                ]
            },
            {
                "pageNumber": "141",
                "paragraph": [
                    {
                        "data": "Merit Award "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Charles Beers (Huntington High School) "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Lewin Kim (Horace Mann School) "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Natsuko Sato (Arlington High School) "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Kate Snider (Herricks High School) "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Finalists Thomas Abdelmalak (Valley Stream Central HS) "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Santiago Alzate (Huntington HS) "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Jenny Chan (Benjamin N. Cardozo HS) "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Kaitlin Dayton (Huntington HS) "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Arman Nasim (W.T. Clarke HS) "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Tanu Rani (Benjamin N. Cardozo HS) "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "John Reilly (Huntington HS) "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Rivka Schuster (Manhattan High School for Girls) "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Yumiko Siev (Valley Stream Central HS) "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Semi-Finalists Hakeem Donovan Jamal Abdella (Frederick Douglass Academy) "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Jesse Chang (Stony Brook University) "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Kyle Gallagher (Stony Brook University) "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Brittany Lopez (Morris Academy for Collaborative Studies) "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Sydney Kahn (Lynbrook Senior HS) "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Christopher Kuhner (Saint John the Baptist Diocesan HS) "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Hanna Murphy (Huntington HS) "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Caitlin Rieger (Garden City HSl) "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Daniella Schoen (Huntington HS) "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Adam Lee Struhl (Syosset HS) "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "133 "
                    }
                ]
            },
            {
                "pageNumber": "142",
                "paragraph": [
                    {
                        "data": "Ninth Competition (2013-2014) "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Winners High School Division Best Essay Award "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "1st Place: Stephanie Lin (Stuyvesant High School) "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "2nd Place: Charles Beers (Huntington High School) "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "3rd Place: Fangrui Tong (Ward Melville High School) "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "College Division Best Essay Award "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Iman Esmailzada (Farmingdale State College) "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Kyle Tulod (Stony Brook University) "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Uchida Memorial Award "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Monique Bloomfield (Binghamton University) "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Consul General of Japan Special Award "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Stephanie Lin (Stuyvesant High School) "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Merit Award "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Shaikat Islam (Stuyvesant High School) "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "134 "
                    }
                ]
            },
            {
                "pageNumber": "143",
                "paragraph": [
                    {
                        "data": "Erich Makarov (Staten Island Technical High School) "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Anju Okamura (Elwood John Glenn High School) "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Daniella Schoen (Huntington High School) "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Qire Snowden (West Babylon High School) "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Jeanette Wetherell (Stony Brook University) "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Finalists Sheryl Chen (Staten Island Technical High School) "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Mindy Feng (Millennium High School) "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Joice Im (Townsend Harris High School) "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Parina Kaewkrajang (Townsend Harris High School) "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Valerie Kehoe (Smithtown High School West) "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Hyun Sue Kim (Stuyvesant High School) "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Hilary Lee (Townsend Harris High School) "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Lily Lin (The Cooper Union) "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Semi-Finalists Monisha Afrooz (Townsend Harris High School) "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Corinne Banning (Stony Brook University) "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Michaela Carnesi (Huntington High School) "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Eleanna Cerda (Marble Hill School For International Studies) "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Elizabeth Corrao (Huntington High School) "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Grace Curran (Huntington High School) "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Hayley Drace (Huntington High School) "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Francis Foo (Staten Island Technical High School) "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Prathana Gurung (Long Island City High School) "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Tabashshum Islam (Stony Brook University) "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Kioma James (High School of Language and Diplomacy) "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Anjali Kapur (Huntington High School) "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Alex Lamy (Valley Stream Central High School) "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Bliss Amanda LoScalzo (Huntington High School) "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Emma Lou (Stuyvesant High School) "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Ivan Miketic (Townsend Harris High School) "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Miranda Nykolyn (Huntington High School) "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Jan Pazhayampallil (Townsend Harris High School) "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Alexander Robateau (Valley Stream Central High School) "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Isabella Scarpati (Huntington High School) "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Romaan Sheikh (Bay Shore High School) "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Ryan Smith (Garden City High School) "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Donnie Stewart (Huntington High School) "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Rhode Elise St Jacques (Medgar Evers College) "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Michael Towson (Lynbrook High school) "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Casey Woo (The Mary Louis Academy) "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Susan Wu (Stuyvesant High School) "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Brenda Yue (Townsend Harris High School. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "135 "
                    }
                ]
            },
            {
                "pageNumber": "144",
                "paragraph": [
                    {
                        "data": "Tenth Competition (2014-2015) "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Winners High School Division Best Essay Award "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "1st Place: Arianna Vetrano (Eleanor Roosevelt High School) "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "2nd Place: Monica Bederman (The Brearley School) "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "3rd Place: Dillon Wu (Stuyvesant High School) "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "College Division Best Essay Award "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Nicola Shannon (Stony Brook University) "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Rina Inaba (Stony Brook University) "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Uchida Memorial Award "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Irene Chen (Townsend Harris High School) "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Consul General of Japan Special Award "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Irene Chen (Townsend Harris High School) "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "136 "
                    }
                ]
            },
            {
                "pageNumber": "145",
                "paragraph": [
                    {
                        "data": "Merit Award "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Charles Beers (Huntington High School) "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Brian Brew (Herricks High School) "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Seung Hye Yang (Queens HS for the Sciences at York College) "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Semi-Finalists Renny Cho (Staten Island Technical High School) "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Kathy Chu (WT Clarke High School) "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Julia Engle (Huntington High School) "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Mehnaz Hassan (Suny-Old Westbury) "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Tiara Hess (Stony Brook University) "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Crystal Huang (WT Clarke High School) "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Joice Im (Townsend Harris High School) "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Tabashshum Islam (Stony Brook University) "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Erin Kim (Hunter College High School) "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Adrian Kloskowski (Stuyvesant High School) "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Coral Kopetz (Stony Brook University) "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Veronika Koziel (Syosset High School) "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Veronica Lee (Queens High School for the Sciences) "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Zachary Marcone (Kings Park High School) "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Julia Menges (Northport High School) "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Howie Miller (Garden City High School) "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Pauline Okuda Ceraulo (New York University) "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Gabrielle Rich (The Brearley School) "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Ana Segarceanu (Oceanside High School) "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Alisa Su (Stuyvesant High School) "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Michellica Seecharran (Bard High School Early College Queens) "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Nanase Shirokawa (Hunter College High School) "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Stina Trollback (Fiorello H LaGuardia High School of Music and Art and Performing Arts) "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Carolyn Wilson (New Hyde Park Memorial High School) "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Sally Xie (Townsend Harris High School) "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "137 "
                    }
                ]
            },
            {
                "pageNumber": "146",
                "paragraph": [
                    {
                        "data": "Judges "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Mary Diaz "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Department of Asian and Asian American Studies "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Clifford Huffman "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Department of English "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Eva Nagase "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Department of Asian and Asian American Studies "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Sheldon Reaven "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Department of Technology & Society "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "138 "
                    }
                ]
            },
            {
                "pageNumber": "147",
                "paragraph": [
                    {
                        "data": "Committee Members "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Roxanne Brockner "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Joan Miyazaki "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Mitsuko Post "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Carolyn Brooks "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Marlene Dubois "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Francesca Nakagawa Chikako Nakamura "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Gerard Senese "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "H. Mae Sprouse "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "139 MaryAnn Hannon "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Patricia Marinaccio "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Shingo Omori "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Atsuko Oyama "
                    }
                ]
            },
            {
                "pageNumber": "148",
                "paragraph": [
                    {
                        "data": "Epilogue "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "The editorial team has been filled with pure excitement and joy throughout the process of "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "publishing Heart of Japan. It not only commemorates the 10-year anniversary of the Japan Center Essay "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Competition, but also helps us share the vibrant unique essays with a much wider audience. Nonetheless, "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "the editing process of this collection involved numerous time-consuming tasks. Seemingly simple tasks "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "such as selecting a title and a cover design required multiple trials and thought processes. We came up with "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "many possible titles including Thoughts on Japan, Perspectives, Horizon, Visions, Connections, and "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Friendship. However, we eventually chose Heart of Japan. It is somewhat vague, but is inclusive enough "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "to warmly represent a variety of thoughts young authors developed in connection with Japan. Similarly, we "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "were offered with several ready-made professionally designed book covers featuring cherry blossoms. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Although aesthetically pleasing, none of them emotionally appealed to us. Eventually, we decided to take "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "photos of cherry blossoms by ourselves in front of the Charles B. Wang Center. It indeed made perfect "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "sense because the Wang Center is the very place where the authors of the essays in this collection were "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "formally recognized, year after year, during cherry blossom season. Nevertheless, arriving at our final "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "cover photo was not an easy task. We did shoots on different days, at different times, from different angles "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "and with different compositions while watching the weather forecast and the cherry blossoms’ development "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "literally every day. Such determined efforts were obviously the reflection of our passion toward this essay "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "competition and indeed represent our heart toward the young authors of the essays included in this "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "collection. This essay competition has been the highlight of the Japan Center’s outreach efforts since its "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "inauguration in 2005. Our aim is to encourage young American authors to think outside the box and find a "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "connection to Japan, a culturally distinct country. Although we evaluated essays based on a set rubric, "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "originality was ultimately what we were looking for. The essays submitted during these first 10 years "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "remain in our memory. We still talk about the very first award-winning essay written by Nora Micheva, "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "who discovered the transience of life through the hardships of her artist friend in Kyoto. Some authors "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "shared how they achieved their goals by adopting Japanese concepts. Michael Cohen completed his long "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "bicycle trip across the country, adopting the spirit of Zen. Molly Baum overcame physical difficulties due "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "to her handicap, adopting the spirit of gaman (endurance). Some authors sent an impactful message through "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "their essays. Jessica Goldman was determined to condemn discrimination and hatred, inspired by an "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "encounter with a Japanese man who spoke with Anne Frank’s father decades ago. Duke Ataley and Emily "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Linko showed their respect to the brave unnamed rescue workers in Fukushima, who put the welfare of "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "their nation above their own health, after a 9.0-magnitude earthquake struck Japan in 2011. Charles Beers "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "encouraged the victims of Hurricane Sandy to learn from the experience of those earthquake victims in "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Japan. Some Japanese American authors revealed their family stories. Yumiko Siev shared the heroic role "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "her grandmother played in helping an aged former American soldier return a sword to its Japanese owner, "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "decades after their armies fought during World War II. Shelby Lin proved the emotional impact of not "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "knowing one’s heritage language, stating, “I felt regret in my chest each time I heard Japanese being "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "spoken, but most especially when it came from my mother’s mouth.” "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "We believe that writing is undoubtedly the pathway to developing ideas and sharing them with a "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "wider audience. We also believe that the juxtaposition of different cultures and values can produce positive "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "energy through the process of writing. The authors of the essays in this collection validated these "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "convictions. Their young spirit, genuine emotion and fresh ideas deeply touched our hearts and will also "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "continue to do so for the future readers of this collection. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "I would like to express my heartfelt appreciation to the editorial team members, Dr. Iwao Ojima, "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Ms. Yoko Ojima, and Ms. Patricia Marinaccio. Special thanks go to Ms. Yvette Vetro, a student of Japanese "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "at Stony Brook University, for taking the photo of cherry blossoms for the cover of this book with Ms. Yoko "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Ojima and me. The assistance provided by Ms. Kanako Nozawa at the Consulate General of Japan in New "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "York and Ms. Dawn Shields at Canon U.S.A. for this publication was also very much appreciated. "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Eriko Sato "
                    },
                    {
                        "data": "Editor-in-Chief 140 "
                    }
                ]
            }
        ]
    }
}