Continental shift
And so passes another year.
For those who celebrate it, Happy New Year!
---
I've always managed to distract myself from homesickness or general melancholia by burying myself in a familiar fantasy instead (like Arashi! In a warped way, it's almost as if as long as I have Arashi, I have a piece of home). The way I see it, even if every familiar material thing is taken from me, it's harder to take away a familiar state of mind.
Escapism works wonderfully well when you're a child, but I'm beginning to wonder how much longer it'll hold up.
Aaand this sounds a lot more morose than it actually is.
---
On a random note:
Call me mad, but whenever I stand on the platform waiting for the train to arrive, my imagination tends to get the better of me and suddenly the black rat-infested tracks open up a whole tiny Tekkon-Kinkreet-MirrorMask-esque world below and I can practically see a wonderfully odd little assortment of characters in a playground of rooftops and spires.
In that instant as the train arrives, that scene with Kurono and Kato on the tracks flashes in my mind and then I have to restrain myself from lemming-like tendencies as the current of trainswept air hurtles past.
It's always a little disappointing when I'm jerked back to reality by the travellers streaming out of doors and the salmon rush of people behind me trying to stream in.
Note to self: try to draw this some day.
---
Because nepheliads asked and I'm a sucker for these.
From "Yoshirei's Koi Memo" over here.
(Yoshirei writes Nino's MORE articles)
Of Buddhists and the elderly.
2011.02.01
It's already February. A lot of things were settled in January, so it looks like a bright year ahead.
Speaking of which, I had a weird dream yesterday.
Since I was refurnishing my room, I bought a new desk.
My room's fairly spacious so the desk was quite a large one.
But the desk was actually a washing machine!!
It was a desk that doubled as a washing machine.
So there I was, sitting at the desk writing my article.
But since the washing machine was shaking as it operated, I couldn't write! Of course you wouldn't be able to write!! I berated myself.
It was a pointless dream.
There's a clumsy part of me that longs to be efficient; a part that would be glad to being able to do anything efficiently.
But what's in the past can't be undone.
That's what the pointless dream made me think.
Now then. There are things I have to announce.
More to the point, there are several.
Firstly, the MORE web series; Yoshirei-senpai's Romance Supplement!
And a way to enjoy GANTZ a hundredfold.
Containing impressions of the movie, we have the GANTZ VISUAL BOOK (already 100,000 copies!!), which also touches on a NinoMatsu interview in the MORE magazine.
[GANTZ VISUAL BOOK - ￥1,470 - Rakuten]
Speaking of MORE, there's also 'It'.
[MORE 2011.03 - ￥690 - Amazon.co.jp]
This month it's also very characteristically Nino.
Even from the first time we met, I found Ninomiya-kun's mindset very Buddhist. More specifically, like my favourite, the Theravada school of thought.
Of course, it's not that he formally subscribes to that belief or has read the books or anything; it's just his natural disposition and mindset and experiences that reminded me of it.
But what's really deep and interesting about it is that he makes me think, are you actually Siddhartha!? (as written by Hermann Hesse).
Also, for this month's issue of 'It', Nino compares himself to the elderly. As he says, "I'm often told I'm like an old man", which certainly does seem to be the case.
From my point of view, what's fantastic about the elderly is that having lived and experienced so much, they've achieved a certain maturity and gone through every sort of loneliness and so there's a part of them that gradually, indulgently returns to the innocence of childhood.
Ninomiya-kun seems in touch with that Buddhist sentiment and is also both child-like and elderly in that respect. When you meet him face to face.
In the article, I never explicitly state that (there isn't any need to), but that's the viewpoint from which I wrote this month's article.
So by all means, please do take a look at it if you can.
Ah, Siddhartha. Makes me want to read that again.
For the record, I'm not of any particular faith myself. But I do like Buddhism.
[Siddhartha by Hesse - ￥380 - Amazon.co.jp]
---
Yoshirei aptly sums up my sentiments. I've actually thought of Nino as being very Buddhist too prior to reading this. And I do think that Nino has aspects of age about him, not in a 'doddery old man' sense but in his maturity. All of Arashi are mature given the wealth of experience they've had, but it seems particularly prominent in Nino. He just has that little-boy mischief and playfulness oddly combined with that 'I've seen a lot in my time and this is how the world works' sense of age.
But Nino just seems to lack (or maybe not 'lack' per se but at least 'shows a diminished sense of') aspiration or drive that would be more characteristic of someone in their 20s/30s. Like the very young who don't seriously think of these things, or the very old who no longer really think of these things, Nino just seems to have a 'I just want things to continue going as they are - I'll take change as it comes but won't actively seek to change anything myself' mindset.
Or maybe I just confuse Buddhism with a mix of the innocence of the very young and the serenity of the very old.
Just my two cents'. What do you think?
---
Erm yeah, feel free to pimp this entry wherever. Translations are in vain unless shared, after all =P
I apologise for comment-replying fail (which will likely continue
) but if you have anything short you desperately want translated from Japanese, toss it my way and we'll see how it goes.
For those who celebrate it, Happy New Year!
---
I've always managed to distract myself from homesickness or general melancholia by burying myself in a familiar fantasy instead (like Arashi! In a warped way, it's almost as if as long as I have Arashi, I have a piece of home). The way I see it, even if every familiar material thing is taken from me, it's harder to take away a familiar state of mind.
Escapism works wonderfully well when you're a child, but I'm beginning to wonder how much longer it'll hold up.
Aaand this sounds a lot more morose than it actually is.
---
On a random note:
Call me mad, but whenever I stand on the platform waiting for the train to arrive, my imagination tends to get the better of me and suddenly the black rat-infested tracks open up a whole tiny Tekkon-Kinkreet-MirrorMask-esque world below and I can practically see a wonderfully odd little assortment of characters in a playground of rooftops and spires.
In that instant as the train arrives, that scene with Kurono and Kato on the tracks flashes in my mind and then I have to restrain myself from lemming-like tendencies as the current of trainswept air hurtles past.
It's always a little disappointing when I'm jerked back to reality by the travellers streaming out of doors and the salmon rush of people behind me trying to stream in.
Note to self: try to draw this some day.
---
Because nepheliads asked and I'm a sucker for these.
From "Yoshirei's Koi Memo" over here.
(Yoshirei writes Nino's MORE articles)
Of Buddhists and the elderly.
2011.02.01
It's already February. A lot of things were settled in January, so it looks like a bright year ahead.
Speaking of which, I had a weird dream yesterday.
Since I was refurnishing my room, I bought a new desk.
My room's fairly spacious so the desk was quite a large one.
But the desk was actually a washing machine!!
It was a desk that doubled as a washing machine.
So there I was, sitting at the desk writing my article.
But since the washing machine was shaking as it operated, I couldn't write! Of course you wouldn't be able to write!! I berated myself.
It was a pointless dream.
There's a clumsy part of me that longs to be efficient; a part that would be glad to being able to do anything efficiently.
But what's in the past can't be undone.
That's what the pointless dream made me think.
Now then. There are things I have to announce.
More to the point, there are several.
Firstly, the MORE web series; Yoshirei-senpai's Romance Supplement!
And a way to enjoy GANTZ a hundredfold.
Containing impressions of the movie, we have the GANTZ VISUAL BOOK (already 100,000 copies!!), which also touches on a NinoMatsu interview in the MORE magazine.
[GANTZ VISUAL BOOK - ￥1,470 - Rakuten]
Speaking of MORE, there's also 'It'.
[MORE 2011.03 - ￥690 - Amazon.co.jp]
This month it's also very characteristically Nino.
Even from the first time we met, I found Ninomiya-kun's mindset very Buddhist. More specifically, like my favourite, the Theravada school of thought.
Of course, it's not that he formally subscribes to that belief or has read the books or anything; it's just his natural disposition and mindset and experiences that reminded me of it.
But what's really deep and interesting about it is that he makes me think, are you actually Siddhartha!? (as written by Hermann Hesse).
Also, for this month's issue of 'It', Nino compares himself to the elderly. As he says, "I'm often told I'm like an old man", which certainly does seem to be the case.
From my point of view, what's fantastic about the elderly is that having lived and experienced so much, they've achieved a certain maturity and gone through every sort of loneliness and so there's a part of them that gradually, indulgently returns to the innocence of childhood.
Ninomiya-kun seems in touch with that Buddhist sentiment and is also both child-like and elderly in that respect. When you meet him face to face.
In the article, I never explicitly state that (there isn't any need to), but that's the viewpoint from which I wrote this month's article.
So by all means, please do take a look at it if you can.
Ah, Siddhartha. Makes me want to read that again.
For the record, I'm not of any particular faith myself. But I do like Buddhism.
[Siddhartha by Hesse - ￥380 - Amazon.co.jp]
---
Yoshirei aptly sums up my sentiments. I've actually thought of Nino as being very Buddhist too prior to reading this. And I do think that Nino has aspects of age about him, not in a 'doddery old man' sense but in his maturity. All of Arashi are mature given the wealth of experience they've had, but it seems particularly prominent in Nino. He just has that little-boy mischief and playfulness oddly combined with that 'I've seen a lot in my time and this is how the world works' sense of age.
But Nino just seems to lack (or maybe not 'lack' per se but at least 'shows a diminished sense of') aspiration or drive that would be more characteristic of someone in their 20s/30s. Like the very young who don't seriously think of these things, or the very old who no longer really think of these things, Nino just seems to have a 'I just want things to continue going as they are - I'll take change as it comes but won't actively seek to change anything myself' mindset.
Or maybe I just confuse Buddhism with a mix of the innocence of the very young and the serenity of the very old.
Just my two cents'. What do you think?
---
Erm yeah, feel free to pimp this entry wherever. Translations are in vain unless shared, after all =P
I apologise for comment-replying fail (which will likely continue
) but if you have anything short you desperately want translated from Japanese, toss it my way and we'll see how it goes.