Noriko: Japanese Flight Attendant


Book Description

Noriko is a gorgeous, shy Japanese flight attendant: waifishly thin, with long, black hair, and a perfectly cute face. She badly needs a man to love her. She'd looked for boyfriends in her English conversation club and her yoga class, but she hasn't been able to find a man to give her the love she craves. Meanwhile, despite her long work hours as a flight attendant, she's having trouble paying off her father's Yakuza debts. Before boarding a flight from Tokyo to San Francisco, Noriko receives a mysterious business card from a trenchcoated stranger. The business card has a phone number in San Francisco, along with an unusual offer. In San Francisco, Noriko finds a matchmaker, an all-knowing cat, and a night of hot, searing passion with a billionaire.




Style Shifting in Japanese


Book Description

This innovative and interdisciplinary book on style shifting in Japanese brings together a wide range of perspectives and methodologies—including discourse analysis, sociolinguistics, cognitive linguistics, and functional linguistics—to look at a variety of types of style shifting in both spoken and written Japanese discourse. Though diverse in approach, the contributions all reflect the belief that language use is inextricably linked to both context and language structure in mutually constitutive relationships. Topics covered include shifting between "polite" and "plain" styles, the emergence of a "semi-polite" style, speakers' strategic use of gendered styles or regional dialects, shifting between different deictic expressions, and prosodic shifting. This careful and detailed examination advances our understanding of the complex phenomenon of style shifting not only in Japanese, but also more generally, and will be of interest to researchers and students in fields such as linguistics, linguistic anthropology, communication studies, and second language acquisition and teaching.




Advances in Human Factors, Business Management and Society


Book Description

This book presents practical approaches for facilitating the achievement of excellence in the management and leadership of organizational resources. It shows how the principles of creating shared value can be applied to ensure faster learning, training, business development, and social renewal. In particular, it presents novel methods and tools for tackling the complexity of management and learning in both business organizations and society. Discussing ontologies, intelligent management systems, methods for creating knowledge and value added, it offers novel insights into time management and operations optimization, as well as advanced methods for evaluating customers’ satisfaction and conscious experience. Based on two conferences, the AHFE 2018 International Conference on Human Factors, Business Management and Society, and the AHFE 2018 International Conference on Human Factors in Management and Leadership, held on July 21–25, 2018, in Orlando, Florida, USA, the book provides both researchers and professionals with new tools and inspiring ideas for achieving excellence in various business activities. Chapter “Convolutional Gravitational Models for Economic Exchanges: Mathematical Extensions for Dynamic Processes and Knowledge Flows” is available open access under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License via link.springer.com.




The Silk Weavers of Kyoto


Book Description

The makers of obi, the elegant and costly sash worn over kimono in Japan, belong to an endangered species. These families of manufacturers, weavers, and other craftspeople centered in the Nishijin weaving district of Kyoto have practiced their demanding craft for generations. In recent decades, however, as a result of declining markets for kimono, they find their livelihood and pride harder to sustain. This book is a poignant exploration of a vanishing world. Tamara Hareven integrates historical research with intensive life history interviews to reveal the relationships among family, work, and community in this highly specialized occupation. Hareven uses her knowledge of textile workers' lives in the United States and Western Europe to show how striking similarities in weavers' experiences transcend cultural differences. These very rich personal testimonies, taken over a decade and a half, provide insight into how these men and women have juggled family and work roles and coped with insecurities. Readers can learn firsthand how weavers perceive their craft and how they interpret their lives and view the world around them. With rare immediacy, The Silk Weavers of Kyoto captures a way of life that is rapidly disappearing.




Advances in Social and Occupational Ergonomics


Book Description

This book reports on cutting-edge research on social and occupational ergonomics, presenting innovative contributions to the optimization of sociotechnical management systems related to organizational, policy, and logistical issues. It discusses timely topics related to communication, crew resource management, work design, participatory design, as well as teamwork, community ergonomics, cooperative work, and warning systems, and explores new work paradigms, organizational cultures, virtual organizations, telework, and quality management. The book also describes pioneering infrastructures implemented for different purposes such as urban, health, and enterprise, and examines the changing role of automated systems, offering innovative solutions that address the needs of particular populations. Based on the AHFE 2019 International Conference on Social and Occupational Ergonomics, held on July 24-28, 2019, Washington D.C, USA, the book provides readers with a comprehensive overview of the current challenges in both organizational and occupational ergonomics, highlighting key connections between them and underlining the importance of emotional factors in influencing human performance.




Japan Guide


Book Description

With the Winter 1998 Olympics in Nagano coming up, Japan is already a travel hot spot. "Japan Guide" includes listings for great hotels, restaurants, tickets, venues, and much more. Readers will discover the people, culture, and history that make Japan an exciting place to visit. Festivals and holidays are detailed, and there are sections in each chapter on shopping for both traditional and modern goods, from pottery and silk to exquisite lacquerware.




Social and Occupational Ergonomics


Book Description

Proceedings of the 15th International Conference on Applied Human Factors and Ergonomics and the Affiliated Conferences, Nice, France, 24-27 July 2024.







Applied Psychology Readings


Book Description

This book is a compilation of the best papers presented at the 2017 edition of the Singapore Conference of Applied Psychology (SCAP), an event held annually in Singapore. Discussing the latest innovations, trends, concerns, practical challenges encountered and the solutions adopted in the field of applied psychology, it is a valuable resource for academics, researchers and practitioners wishing to keep themselves up to date with the state of the art in the field.




Japanese Demon Lore


Book Description

Oni, ubiquitous supernatural figures in Japanese literature, lore, art, and religion, usually appear as demons or ogres. Characteristically threatening, monstrous creatures with ugly features and fearful habits, including cannibalism, they also can be harbingers of prosperity, beautiful and sexual, and especially in modern contexts, even cute and lovable. There has been much ambiguity in their character and identity over their long history. Usually male, their female manifestations convey distinctivly gendered social and cultural meanings. Oni appear frequently in various arts and media, from Noh theater and picture scrolls to modern fiction and political propaganda, They remain common figures in popular Japanese anime, manga, and film and are becoming embedded in American and international popular culture through such media. Noriko Reiderýs book is the first in English devoted to oni. Reider fully examines their cultural history, multifaceted roles, and complex significance as "others" to the Japanese.