Personal; Photos; Culture; Religion; Wa
This entry is about me. No, really.
I'm very interested in other cultures and languages. I like learning about daily life and customs in other countries. On my journal alone, I talk to people from all over the world, who all speak about ten different languages. It's fascinating to learn so much about what is normal for other families and places, how much is different and how much is the same. Yeah, I'd be an anthropologist if I had the grades. I don't.
Many people on this site seem to be interested in Japanese culture, which is very flattering. So I decided, after the epic event that was my last series of entries, I would take a break and just say shit about myself for a while. I hope you all find it informative and/or entertaining; I've really enjoyed reading all of your entries!
The following photos are mainly just some interesting things I've selected that I encounter almost every day. My family is highly eccentric, and as bizarre as I like to think we all are, please keep in mind that all Japanese families are just like this, and we are actually completely normal. Maybe.
These are the accessories that I wear most often.
The necklace on the upper right is a black cord with a fish charm. Last year, my mother took our entire family out and selected a charm for each of us that would represent ourselves. For me she chose a fish, since I am always swimming into trouble. The black beads are a replacement; I had a very nice pair of beads fashioned to look like a monk, but I wore them so much that they broke. I like to wear them when I pretend to be a member of Kagrra, try to mix a traditional look into my style. The pale-coloured bracelet I have had since I was six years old. I won them in a goldfish game at a festival. I don't wear them as often, but I keep them wrapped around the torso of one of my action figures to make it look cool. The material they are resting on is my futon. It is covered with insects and their names, which are a favourite thing of mine.
I use this on my hair. It is a hair styling wax, and it makes me cool and oshare, ok? No, not really. But when I want change my hairstyle from "slow-witted young Japanese schoolboy" to "anything else", I use this. Often, I apply other products to help me to fail my attempt at looking like a rock star much quicker, but at the moment I am out of almost everything. I need to take a shopping trip.
This is the instruction card that came with it. I hope one day to be as cool as that guy.
This is my bobblehead panda. His head bounces around when you flick it. His name is 硝子のパンダ. He lives on my windowsill. One day, I found outside a perfect acorn. I collected it and set it on my windowsill, but I had to leave it there since the panda obviously needed it. Now he looks like a tanuki. His new name is 'Tanuki Panda'.
I am very interested in the video game series Dynasty Warriors. I play it almost every day. I now know much about the Han and Three Kingdoms era of Chinese history. For my birthday, my mother bought me a book set of Romance of the Three Kingdoms, with illustrations and the original Chinese written as well in case I someday learn to read it. This poem is written by one of my favourite warlords, Cao Cao. It is about the sacred turtle. The poem is about how, no matter how great or small you are, eventually you will die, and during your time on Earth, you must accomplish all that you can so as to live on in the next world. The message is very important to me, and also Cao Cao is just awesome.
I guess I've really been talking about China more than I've been talking about Japan.
This is one of my mothers' books. Apparently, this company will re-print for you a book you seek if it is extremely rare or out of print. My mother has an entire cabinet full of these reprints. This one happens to be about how to bind and banish a demon in accordance with folk Shinto.
I don't read books like that. I read books like this:
Do you know how to gaslight a person? I do.
This is from an artbook about demons in ukiyo-e. It is by Tsukioka Yoshitoshi. It depicts the famous Heian period general Taira no Kiyomori. In it, he is experiencing a nightmare in which demons surround him and beckon him to hell. Both Kiyomori and Yoshitoshi are popular subjects of conversation in my house.
This is my snack. It is a bowl of kimchi, a traditional Korean dish of spicy fermented vegetables. It is an acquired taste, I'm just now getting used to it. But it's very good for me, and often I will crave a spicy meal. Yes, I do use children's chopsticks with pandas on them.
I'm not going to lie; this is my favourite food in the world. Ever. It is called Freschetta PizzAmore, with two types of pepperoni. It is the best tasting pizza in the world! It comes in its own little cooking plate, and is pre-sliced, so it comes out exactly with take-out pizza style taste every time. I absolutely love American food, the more processed, the better. I eat this entire pizza every week while I watch pro wrestling. I am a big fan of this type of American food and entertainment. Most of my friends in Japan are interested in it as well, though I haven't met many people in America who share my passion for preservatives and wrestling.
But Americans really like fatty non-natural foods, don't they? So many are terrified and picky and make up illnesses and rules about food that do not need to be there. You won't get worms if you eat raw fish and eggs. I eat raw fish, uncooked eggs, pizzas, and fatty snacks every day, and I have no aversion to walnuts! (It is a popular tale of a tapeworm who was born to a human and became a lord. He was given a banquet where he was soon suspected of being a tapeworm. The hosts gave him a drink with walnuts mixed in, and out of politeness, he was obligated to toast them. Unable to drink it- since walnuts are known to help in expelling tapeworms- the lord revealed that he was in fact a tapeworm and ran away.)
I could use a thorough cleansing after that story, couldn't you?
Kinoki motherfucking detox foot pads.
I love infomercials. I watch them every day all the time. You know how they have some menial everyday task to be completed, and there will be this person in black and white, using whatever common method to accomplish it by throwing it around, dropping things, and even mortally wounding themselves because they don't even know how to wash their car without breaking a rib or handle cutting a piece of paper with REGULAR scissors? Then they get the product, and everything becomes colour again and the world is wonderful and the music plays and the children run in nodding encouragingly and... well, you get the idea. I live for those. I watch QVC like it's MTV.
Well, these things are supposed to thoroughly cleanse your body based on ancient Japanese secret. Here is the commercial. It features a Chinese Japanese girl in a cheap bathrobe fine kimono pulling a piece of tape off of her foot. The announcer, who is here to tell us all about Kuhnoki Kinoki Cleansing Detox Foot Pads, is standing in the middle of the most painfully sterotypical Japanese scene ever. And they work "in the way that a tree pulls impurities to its roots!" Uh, no, you guys fucking copied a Japanese foot pad with a similar name, except for OH WAIT IT IS JUST TO REMOVE SWEAT NOT FAKE PUT BLACK STUFF ON ITSELF SO YOU THINK YOU ARE GETTING HEALTHY SOMEHOW.
No, but we have tons of these in Japan as well. Even more, if the truth must be told. We view health and medicine in Japan much differently. Instead of attempting to invent new illnesses and taking tons of pills to combat diseases we will never get, we have a lot of superstitions and fanciful ideas on how to combat sickness. In big cities especially, we are very careful not to spread around germs and viruses as best we can. If these do not work, we go to the doctor, and he makes us better. It's his job. I am always confused when I go to the doctor in America, because I never know what I am supposed to be doing or saying, and it becomes very awkward. I am coming in to tell you what's wrong with me, and you are supposed to give me something to fix it, not ask me if I have been drinking more peroxide than normal lately. In Japan, when it comes to basic care and health we are usually quite practical.
But we eat this detox and instant-cure shit right up.
In America, you have something called "snake oil", which is pretty much a euphemism for any nonsensical product pandered to the impulse buyers and the stupid. It is actually a very successful market in Japan. Snake oil.
Moving on...
Like all people from Asia, I have a dragon ball.
Japan is a very advanced country. We as a people are striving to find a happy medium between technology and the future, and simplicity in the past. To preserve our culture and the beauty of this world is a very important thing in Shinto, something that has been taught to me since the day I was born. But this doesn't mean that I don't go absolutely fucking insane when someone mentions a word like "mech" or "gundam". For example, my mother raises dogs, but I much prefer to have this robotic panda for a pet.
Here is a video of ちびロボ in action.
Yeah.
Well, I think that pretty much covers it. I hope you all find me informative and entertaining, or at the very least, a complete loser who is entertaining. Thanks a lot for sharing in the circus-like realm of my existence. Please keep posting entries about what it's like to grow up where you are, I like to read them. Until next time!
I'm very interested in other cultures and languages. I like learning about daily life and customs in other countries. On my journal alone, I talk to people from all over the world, who all speak about ten different languages. It's fascinating to learn so much about what is normal for other families and places, how much is different and how much is the same. Yeah, I'd be an anthropologist if I had the grades. I don't.
Many people on this site seem to be interested in Japanese culture, which is very flattering. So I decided, after the epic event that was my last series of entries, I would take a break and just say shit about myself for a while. I hope you all find it informative and/or entertaining; I've really enjoyed reading all of your entries!
The following photos are mainly just some interesting things I've selected that I encounter almost every day. My family is highly eccentric, and as bizarre as I like to think we all are, please keep in mind that all Japanese families are just like this, and we are actually completely normal. Maybe.
These are the accessories that I wear most often.
The necklace on the upper right is a black cord with a fish charm. Last year, my mother took our entire family out and selected a charm for each of us that would represent ourselves. For me she chose a fish, since I am always swimming into trouble. The black beads are a replacement; I had a very nice pair of beads fashioned to look like a monk, but I wore them so much that they broke. I like to wear them when I pretend to be a member of Kagrra, try to mix a traditional look into my style. The pale-coloured bracelet I have had since I was six years old. I won them in a goldfish game at a festival. I don't wear them as often, but I keep them wrapped around the torso of one of my action figures to make it look cool. The material they are resting on is my futon. It is covered with insects and their names, which are a favourite thing of mine.
I use this on my hair. It is a hair styling wax, and it makes me cool and oshare, ok? No, not really. But when I want change my hairstyle from "slow-witted young Japanese schoolboy" to "anything else", I use this. Often, I apply other products to help me to fail my attempt at looking like a rock star much quicker, but at the moment I am out of almost everything. I need to take a shopping trip.
This is the instruction card that came with it. I hope one day to be as cool as that guy.
This is my bobblehead panda. His head bounces around when you flick it. His name is 硝子のパンダ. He lives on my windowsill. One day, I found outside a perfect acorn. I collected it and set it on my windowsill, but I had to leave it there since the panda obviously needed it. Now he looks like a tanuki. His new name is 'Tanuki Panda'.
I am very interested in the video game series Dynasty Warriors. I play it almost every day. I now know much about the Han and Three Kingdoms era of Chinese history. For my birthday, my mother bought me a book set of Romance of the Three Kingdoms, with illustrations and the original Chinese written as well in case I someday learn to read it. This poem is written by one of my favourite warlords, Cao Cao. It is about the sacred turtle. The poem is about how, no matter how great or small you are, eventually you will die, and during your time on Earth, you must accomplish all that you can so as to live on in the next world. The message is very important to me, and also Cao Cao is just awesome.
I guess I've really been talking about China more than I've been talking about Japan.
This is one of my mothers' books. Apparently, this company will re-print for you a book you seek if it is extremely rare or out of print. My mother has an entire cabinet full of these reprints. This one happens to be about how to bind and banish a demon in accordance with folk Shinto.
I don't read books like that. I read books like this:
Do you know how to gaslight a person? I do.
This is from an artbook about demons in ukiyo-e. It is by Tsukioka Yoshitoshi. It depicts the famous Heian period general Taira no Kiyomori. In it, he is experiencing a nightmare in which demons surround him and beckon him to hell. Both Kiyomori and Yoshitoshi are popular subjects of conversation in my house.
This is my snack. It is a bowl of kimchi, a traditional Korean dish of spicy fermented vegetables. It is an acquired taste, I'm just now getting used to it. But it's very good for me, and often I will crave a spicy meal. Yes, I do use children's chopsticks with pandas on them.
I'm not going to lie; this is my favourite food in the world. Ever. It is called Freschetta PizzAmore, with two types of pepperoni. It is the best tasting pizza in the world! It comes in its own little cooking plate, and is pre-sliced, so it comes out exactly with take-out pizza style taste every time. I absolutely love American food, the more processed, the better. I eat this entire pizza every week while I watch pro wrestling. I am a big fan of this type of American food and entertainment. Most of my friends in Japan are interested in it as well, though I haven't met many people in America who share my passion for preservatives and wrestling.
But Americans really like fatty non-natural foods, don't they? So many are terrified and picky and make up illnesses and rules about food that do not need to be there. You won't get worms if you eat raw fish and eggs. I eat raw fish, uncooked eggs, pizzas, and fatty snacks every day, and I have no aversion to walnuts! (It is a popular tale of a tapeworm who was born to a human and became a lord. He was given a banquet where he was soon suspected of being a tapeworm. The hosts gave him a drink with walnuts mixed in, and out of politeness, he was obligated to toast them. Unable to drink it- since walnuts are known to help in expelling tapeworms- the lord revealed that he was in fact a tapeworm and ran away.)
I could use a thorough cleansing after that story, couldn't you?
Kinoki motherfucking detox foot pads.
I love infomercials. I watch them every day all the time. You know how they have some menial everyday task to be completed, and there will be this person in black and white, using whatever common method to accomplish it by throwing it around, dropping things, and even mortally wounding themselves because they don't even know how to wash their car without breaking a rib or handle cutting a piece of paper with REGULAR scissors? Then they get the product, and everything becomes colour again and the world is wonderful and the music plays and the children run in nodding encouragingly and... well, you get the idea. I live for those. I watch QVC like it's MTV.
Well, these things are supposed to thoroughly cleanse your body based on ancient Japanese secret. Here is the commercial. It features a Chinese Japanese girl in a cheap bathrobe fine kimono pulling a piece of tape off of her foot. The announcer, who is here to tell us all about Kuhnoki Kinoki Cleansing Detox Foot Pads, is standing in the middle of the most painfully sterotypical Japanese scene ever. And they work "in the way that a tree pulls impurities to its roots!" Uh, no, you guys fucking copied a Japanese foot pad with a similar name, except for OH WAIT IT IS JUST TO REMOVE SWEAT NOT FAKE PUT BLACK STUFF ON ITSELF SO YOU THINK YOU ARE GETTING HEALTHY SOMEHOW.
No, but we have tons of these in Japan as well. Even more, if the truth must be told. We view health and medicine in Japan much differently. Instead of attempting to invent new illnesses and taking tons of pills to combat diseases we will never get, we have a lot of superstitions and fanciful ideas on how to combat sickness. In big cities especially, we are very careful not to spread around germs and viruses as best we can. If these do not work, we go to the doctor, and he makes us better. It's his job. I am always confused when I go to the doctor in America, because I never know what I am supposed to be doing or saying, and it becomes very awkward. I am coming in to tell you what's wrong with me, and you are supposed to give me something to fix it, not ask me if I have been drinking more peroxide than normal lately. In Japan, when it comes to basic care and health we are usually quite practical.
But we eat this detox and instant-cure shit right up.
In America, you have something called "snake oil", which is pretty much a euphemism for any nonsensical product pandered to the impulse buyers and the stupid. It is actually a very successful market in Japan. Snake oil.
Moving on...
Like all people from Asia, I have a dragon ball.
Japan is a very advanced country. We as a people are striving to find a happy medium between technology and the future, and simplicity in the past. To preserve our culture and the beauty of this world is a very important thing in Shinto, something that has been taught to me since the day I was born. But this doesn't mean that I don't go absolutely fucking insane when someone mentions a word like "mech" or "gundam". For example, my mother raises dogs, but I much prefer to have this robotic panda for a pet.
Here is a video of ちびロボ in action.
Click to view
Yeah.
Well, I think that pretty much covers it. I hope you all find me informative and entertaining, or at the very least, a complete loser who is entertaining. Thanks a lot for sharing in the circus-like realm of my existence. Please keep posting entries about what it's like to grow up where you are, I like to read them. Until next time!