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Our first stop today is in Tokyo, Japan. We're also going to visit two parts of Tokyo which
reflect upon its popular aspects.
Japan's pop culture today has many aspects that include fashion, cinema, and anime. Japan
has developed this pop culture through a history of fashion emulating, manga from the 10th
century, and Japanese animation from the early 1900s.
In the fashion world, Japanese have adopted trends from all over the world. This is called
street fashion; a mixture of different adopted fashions. During festival and events the Japanese
also wear yukatas, or kimonos which can be seen as a more older generation of fashion.
In the western part of Tokyo lies Shibuya, a city busy with the younger generations for
entertainment. A popular aspect of Japanese cinema culture are "kaijus," or giant monsters.
Famous monster movies such as Godzilla has made its debut around the world and is known
to many today. These kaiju films were extremely popular in 1960s through 1970s and maybe even
today. Even the US has taken its chances with Kaiju films such as Cloverfield or Pacific
Rim, which were very successful.
Next, we will look at one of the largest cities in the United States; Chicago, Illinois. Chicago
is a super city with sky scrapers, world famous architectures such as the formally named Sears
Tower, now Willis Tower. However, what makes Chicago extremely unique is the vast bridge
system that the city has. The Chicago River is fifteen miles long, with over 180 bridges.
Dearborn Street was the first automobile bridge in Chicago. However, there were so many ships
trying to get through the river it greatly restricted the types of boats that could travel
in Chicago. Therefore, the bridge was torn down. The first swing bridge was completed
on Rush street. In 1832, Kindsey Street was an old rickety bridge that people were only
able to cross on foot.On November 3rd, 1863, the bridge tragically collapsed because of
a cattle crossing. It was too much weight. Therefore, the bridge buckled. Today Chicago
has 43 moveable bridges, 20 alone are alone in Chicago.What's interesting about the demographics
of Chicago is the central Chicago, in the heartland, is 80% White. However when you
go to the North its 80% Hispanic. The bridges act as a divide.
Our next stop is Israel. The official state of Israel is a parliamentary democracy in
the Middle East, on the Southeastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea.
Its population is about eight million twelve thousand four hundred. Israel has two official
languages; Hebrew and Arabic. Hebrew is the primary language of the state and is spoken
by the majority of the population and is the world's oldest living language.
Hebrew had ceased to be an everyday spoken language by around 200 CE, and survived into
the medieval period only as the language of Jewish liturgy and rabbinic literature. Then,
in the 19th century, it was revived as a spoken and literary language, and, according to Ethnologue,
is now the language of 9 million people worldwide.
The revival of the Hebrew language was a process that took place in Europe and Palestine toward
the end of the 19th century and into the 20th century, through which the language's usage
changed from the sacred language of Judaism to a spoken and written language used for
daily life in Israel.
Our next stop is Mecca, the holy city. A Holy city is a term applied to cities which centralize
their history or faith to specific religion. Mecca is a city located inland from Jeddah
in a narrow valley.
With the strong belief in Islam, it is said that Muhammad was born here and the first
revelation of the Quran occurred. It is regarded as the holiest city of Islam. Many embark
on a Hajj or Umrah, or a pilgrimage to Mecca. Every healthy, adult Muslim that has the financial
opportunities to travel to Mecca must perform the pilgrimage at least once in a lifetime
The Hajj is held in the twelfth Muslim lunar month of Dhu al-Hijjah. On arrival, they centralize
around the Kaaba or the Sacred House. The Kaaba is the most sacred mosque in Saudi Arabia.
Wherever Muslims are around the world, they are expected to face the Kaaba,
even when outside of Mecca.