Ureshiku narimashita! (I became happy.)
The weekly update. Why always Wednesdays? I don't really know. Guess that it's a timing thing.
Got a letter from my mother yesterday, along with some articles and a crossword puzzle, and have been reading the news online. On the one hand, hooray hooray Stephen Colbert is my hero. On the other hand, what's up with all the school shootings in America? People are crazy.
But on to nicer things, like my life. So interesting, I know.
Thursday, Katie sat in on my cinema class. We watched "Hotel Venus" -- a Japanese film, filmed in Russia, with dialogue in Korean. It was amazing. (New favorite film!)
Friday...um. Dang, but it's hard to keep track of the days. Friday, Friday...I can't remember. Maybe nothing.
Saturday, this girl Denise (from New Zealand) came to stay at my host house. She was an old acquaintance of the Teradas, and spoke Japanese fluently. She was nice enough, but not overly friendly, alas. She and I accompanied Okaa-san to Aeon Mall, where I bought a sweet jacket. It's sort of maroon, with kanji on the back. According to Okaa-san and Denise, the kanji reads as "deshi," which means student or disciple. Okaa-san made some joke about it being related to the Japanese mob, which may in fact be true -- this was the kid's size jacket, and the adult one said "boss." That just makes it more awesome, in my view.
That night we had a lively dinner. Tomoki was present for once, with Eriko (his girlfriend). She played me and Denise some American rap to see if we recognized it, which devolved into a musical discussion thing. In the end, Hitoshi was interested in the amount of my music, which led to my installing Soulseek on the family computer and teaching him how to use it. Hitoshi was super excited and grateful after successfully downloading music by Green Day and the Red Hot Chili Peppers, and in a fit of good cheer handed me four Japanese CDs to "listen to." My favorite is the album by Southern All Stars -- the song "Mr. Black Jack" is pretty awesome.
Sunday, Okaa-san and I wandered to Nanba and Shinsaibashi for more shopping adventures. Bought a yukata! Pretty pretty. Ate at Okaa-san's favorite takoyaki restaraunt, almost encountered a parade, and headed home.
Me, standing next to a famous clown thing, on the most famous avenue in Osaka. The camera's settings were wonky, so it's kinda dark.
A famous fish thing, on the same famous avenue. I fixed the camera.
Where Okaa-san and I got takoyaki. The name was "Akai Oni" -- Red Ogre.
On Monday, we returned to Shinsaibashi with Katie. (That's right -- three day weekend equals three days of shopping. Welcome to Japan.) We ate more takoyaki, bought lots of presents, and wandered on to Den Den Town, where I bought an amazing English-Japanese kanji tool and dictionary thing for my Nintendo DS, and a fantastic CD/DVD set by the band Pierrot. I heart Kirito. (The lead singer.)
Me and Katie, with our ingenious soda and takoyaki cups. Possibly the best photo I've got of us in Japan.
By the by, everyone in Japan does the peace sign for photos. We are immersed in the culture! I've even taken to covering my mouth when I laugh.
To end the day, we hung out at Hirakata-koen, ate gyoza, went home.
Oh, and before we left that morning, Okaa-san showed me and Katie how to properly put on a yukata, tying the obi and everything. Whether we'll remember is questionable.
Katiekay, in a yukata that Okaa-san provided.
Yesterday, school. Had a nice chat with a girl from Alabama in theatre class. She said that I "sounded like the South." It made me smile -- and think of how my dad will be Matlock in about fifteen years. I swear, they have the same speech style, the same facial expressions and mannerisms...too cute.
We divided into groups to discuss the play that had been our homework, only to discover that our entire group -- all seven people -- had failed to read it. HAHAHA. Through skimming the play and a little academic improvisation, we faked it well enough when we convened for full-class discussion. Go us! (Tomorrow we go to see this play performed in real-time...better read it tonight, I guess.)
Today, got approached at Kayashima station by a total stranger. I had my headphones in, but quickly whipped them off to hear what she was saying. She asked where I was going (to Gotenyama), whether it was for school (yes, Kansai Gaidai), where I had come from (America)...essentially, we ended up sitting on the train together and having a twenty minute conversation. (In Japanese...she spoke no English.) I was really pleased. Also, I really think that my comprehension is improving a lot. YESSS.
Other than that, it's just been class. I desperately want to bring Professor Tracy home with me...everything he says is absolutely fascinating.
Okay, Japanese television is always crazy. The commercials, especially -- but we can't get into that. It would take hours. What I will get into is "So-n-so (couldn't read the kanji) vs. SMAP."
To properly appreciate this, you must understand the SMAP phenomenon. "What is a SMAP?" you're probably thinking. SMAP is a hugely insanely popular boy band, though I don't know that they're actually producing music anymore. Japanophiles, anyone know? But that doesn't do justice to the reality of SMAP. They've been around at least ten years, first as popstars, and then on to dominate television and film. Not a day goes by where I don't see at least one of them on TV, and this is ten years later. Even "Hotel Venus," the art film that we just watched in my cinema class, was starring one of the SMAP boys. Shingo is my personal favorite, but there's another quite cute one...Tsuyoshi? I can't quite recall.
ANYWAYS. So-n-so vs. SMAP was a special that I watched with my family the other night, from maybe five years ago. From what I could tell, Tsuyoshi was being threatened or blackmailed by one of the workers on their pop tour. So the band pulls all of these crazy Mission Impossible antics, with fake arguments and staff manipulation and riding on top of elevators instead of inside them. As their plan reaches it's goal, I'm thinking, "Oh, great, they're gonna get the bad guy! What are they gonna do?" The answer, when it came, was shocking. No, really, I was astonished.
SMAP essentially bumrushes the bad guy, slips a noose around his neck, and yank until he's dead, setting it up to look like a suicide. That's right...
SMAP MURDERED A MAN.
I couldn't believe it. Turns out the "So-n-so" is Japan's version of Columbo, a super famous and eccentric detective character who comes in and solves the crime, arresting SMAP and ending their musical career.
WHAT. Totally crazed. It was a bizarre show, indeed.
My second (and briefer) show report is from a special we watched last night. It was about a boy named Haruka with (I guess) some sort of hormone issue, who looked and spoke just like a girl. As such, he also dressed and acted like one, leading to family and romantic drama. Interesting enough in any event, especially with the weird issues that arose between he and the guy he liked (who thought that Haruka was a girl), but the reality was even more surprising.
Again, I was following along as best I could with my assumptions. "Okay, I see, they've got this girl pretending to be a guy with a hormone thing, and during the surprise-he's-a-boy scene they had a stand in for when they showed his flat chest." WRONG. Turns out that the actor actually WAS a boy. IMPOSSIBLE! TOTALLY IMPOSSIBLE! He must have that hormone deficiency in real life, because there is no way that he could look and speak like that otherwise. Le shock.
Here's some oldies that I didn't put up yet.
Okaa-san dressing Katie up in her old wedding kimono.
Me and Katie. Sadly, it was not a cute-Anna day.
And now I get dressed up! I look like I'm about to kill someone.
Okaa-san and I.
Juli and Thomas, modeling for me.
This giant guy that I danced with at swing dance, but whose name I don't know, holding Marlene and someone else.
Well, I suppose that's all for now...but there's always more to come.
p.s. props to this kid Patrick from my Japanese class, who burned me a copy of the new Decemberists CD. You are my current favorite, sirrah!
Got a letter from my mother yesterday, along with some articles and a crossword puzzle, and have been reading the news online. On the one hand, hooray hooray Stephen Colbert is my hero. On the other hand, what's up with all the school shootings in America? People are crazy.
But on to nicer things, like my life. So interesting, I know.
Thursday, Katie sat in on my cinema class. We watched "Hotel Venus" -- a Japanese film, filmed in Russia, with dialogue in Korean. It was amazing. (New favorite film!)
Friday...um. Dang, but it's hard to keep track of the days. Friday, Friday...I can't remember. Maybe nothing.
Saturday, this girl Denise (from New Zealand) came to stay at my host house. She was an old acquaintance of the Teradas, and spoke Japanese fluently. She was nice enough, but not overly friendly, alas. She and I accompanied Okaa-san to Aeon Mall, where I bought a sweet jacket. It's sort of maroon, with kanji on the back. According to Okaa-san and Denise, the kanji reads as "deshi," which means student or disciple. Okaa-san made some joke about it being related to the Japanese mob, which may in fact be true -- this was the kid's size jacket, and the adult one said "boss." That just makes it more awesome, in my view.
That night we had a lively dinner. Tomoki was present for once, with Eriko (his girlfriend). She played me and Denise some American rap to see if we recognized it, which devolved into a musical discussion thing. In the end, Hitoshi was interested in the amount of my music, which led to my installing Soulseek on the family computer and teaching him how to use it. Hitoshi was super excited and grateful after successfully downloading music by Green Day and the Red Hot Chili Peppers, and in a fit of good cheer handed me four Japanese CDs to "listen to." My favorite is the album by Southern All Stars -- the song "Mr. Black Jack" is pretty awesome.
Sunday, Okaa-san and I wandered to Nanba and Shinsaibashi for more shopping adventures. Bought a yukata! Pretty pretty. Ate at Okaa-san's favorite takoyaki restaraunt, almost encountered a parade, and headed home.
Me, standing next to a famous clown thing, on the most famous avenue in Osaka. The camera's settings were wonky, so it's kinda dark.
A famous fish thing, on the same famous avenue. I fixed the camera.
Where Okaa-san and I got takoyaki. The name was "Akai Oni" -- Red Ogre.
On Monday, we returned to Shinsaibashi with Katie. (That's right -- three day weekend equals three days of shopping. Welcome to Japan.) We ate more takoyaki, bought lots of presents, and wandered on to Den Den Town, where I bought an amazing English-Japanese kanji tool and dictionary thing for my Nintendo DS, and a fantastic CD/DVD set by the band Pierrot. I heart Kirito. (The lead singer.)
Me and Katie, with our ingenious soda and takoyaki cups. Possibly the best photo I've got of us in Japan.
By the by, everyone in Japan does the peace sign for photos. We are immersed in the culture! I've even taken to covering my mouth when I laugh.
To end the day, we hung out at Hirakata-koen, ate gyoza, went home.
Oh, and before we left that morning, Okaa-san showed me and Katie how to properly put on a yukata, tying the obi and everything. Whether we'll remember is questionable.
Katiekay, in a yukata that Okaa-san provided.
Yesterday, school. Had a nice chat with a girl from Alabama in theatre class. She said that I "sounded like the South." It made me smile -- and think of how my dad will be Matlock in about fifteen years. I swear, they have the same speech style, the same facial expressions and mannerisms...too cute.
We divided into groups to discuss the play that had been our homework, only to discover that our entire group -- all seven people -- had failed to read it. HAHAHA. Through skimming the play and a little academic improvisation, we faked it well enough when we convened for full-class discussion. Go us! (Tomorrow we go to see this play performed in real-time...better read it tonight, I guess.)
Today, got approached at Kayashima station by a total stranger. I had my headphones in, but quickly whipped them off to hear what she was saying. She asked where I was going (to Gotenyama), whether it was for school (yes, Kansai Gaidai), where I had come from (America)...essentially, we ended up sitting on the train together and having a twenty minute conversation. (In Japanese...she spoke no English.) I was really pleased. Also, I really think that my comprehension is improving a lot. YESSS.
Other than that, it's just been class. I desperately want to bring Professor Tracy home with me...everything he says is absolutely fascinating.
Okay, Japanese television is always crazy. The commercials, especially -- but we can't get into that. It would take hours. What I will get into is "So-n-so (couldn't read the kanji) vs. SMAP."
To properly appreciate this, you must understand the SMAP phenomenon. "What is a SMAP?" you're probably thinking. SMAP is a hugely insanely popular boy band, though I don't know that they're actually producing music anymore. Japanophiles, anyone know? But that doesn't do justice to the reality of SMAP. They've been around at least ten years, first as popstars, and then on to dominate television and film. Not a day goes by where I don't see at least one of them on TV, and this is ten years later. Even "Hotel Venus," the art film that we just watched in my cinema class, was starring one of the SMAP boys. Shingo is my personal favorite, but there's another quite cute one...Tsuyoshi? I can't quite recall.
ANYWAYS. So-n-so vs. SMAP was a special that I watched with my family the other night, from maybe five years ago. From what I could tell, Tsuyoshi was being threatened or blackmailed by one of the workers on their pop tour. So the band pulls all of these crazy Mission Impossible antics, with fake arguments and staff manipulation and riding on top of elevators instead of inside them. As their plan reaches it's goal, I'm thinking, "Oh, great, they're gonna get the bad guy! What are they gonna do?" The answer, when it came, was shocking. No, really, I was astonished.
SMAP essentially bumrushes the bad guy, slips a noose around his neck, and yank until he's dead, setting it up to look like a suicide. That's right...
SMAP MURDERED A MAN.
I couldn't believe it. Turns out the "So-n-so" is Japan's version of Columbo, a super famous and eccentric detective character who comes in and solves the crime, arresting SMAP and ending their musical career.
WHAT. Totally crazed. It was a bizarre show, indeed.
My second (and briefer) show report is from a special we watched last night. It was about a boy named Haruka with (I guess) some sort of hormone issue, who looked and spoke just like a girl. As such, he also dressed and acted like one, leading to family and romantic drama. Interesting enough in any event, especially with the weird issues that arose between he and the guy he liked (who thought that Haruka was a girl), but the reality was even more surprising.
Again, I was following along as best I could with my assumptions. "Okay, I see, they've got this girl pretending to be a guy with a hormone thing, and during the surprise-he's-a-boy scene they had a stand in for when they showed his flat chest." WRONG. Turns out that the actor actually WAS a boy. IMPOSSIBLE! TOTALLY IMPOSSIBLE! He must have that hormone deficiency in real life, because there is no way that he could look and speak like that otherwise. Le shock.
Here's some oldies that I didn't put up yet.
Okaa-san dressing Katie up in her old wedding kimono.
Me and Katie. Sadly, it was not a cute-Anna day.
And now I get dressed up! I look like I'm about to kill someone.
Okaa-san and I.
Juli and Thomas, modeling for me.
This giant guy that I danced with at swing dance, but whose name I don't know, holding Marlene and someone else.
Well, I suppose that's all for now...but there's always more to come.
p.s. props to this kid Patrick from my Japanese class, who burned me a copy of the new Decemberists CD. You are my current favorite, sirrah!