Momohiro

Tags

Momotaro

This probably amuses me more than it should.

The final assignment before finals that I gave the students was to research any world mythology and share one story or episode from it. My plan had been to put the best speeches on display, but alas, too few students seem to understand the concept of using folders/clear files to not let papers get raggedy, and that of writing neatly. So I hit upon the idea of having them turn their speeches into illustrated mini-books. Ever since an ALT used mini-books made from a single piece of paper in their presentation at one of the ALT meetings I had been looking for a project to use these in.

I made three sample mini-books using the stories we had read in class together, namely that of Orion and the Scorpion, Echo the Nymph, and a modified version of Momotarou. I called it “Momohiro.” >o<;

When giving students writing assignments, if you don’t explicitly say “Don’t use Momotarou!” you will get several Momotarous, often with no variation on the most well-known version. I actually needed an easy story to demonstrate how to divide text into paragraphs, so I choose Momotarou since then understanding the words themselves wouldn’t get in the way of understanding how paragraphs are used to create flow. But I just can’t bring myself to tell that story as it is. I’ve heard it and read it ten trillion times. When I had to write that story in the Japanese class I go to here, I made Momotarou talk like a Sengoku era warlord. This time I figured I could at least change the details.

Of the different suffixes for boys’ names (e.g. tarou, hiko, suke, etc) I like the ring of “hiro” the best. Hence, “Momohiro.” Ahahaha…

Without further ado, here are photos of the sample book. My camera’s been acting up lately so it looks like the paper is canvas what with those lines, but it’s just a regular sheet of A3 paper. Enjoy!

☆

The Hefty Hideaway

Tags

online shopping, plus size clothes, plus size shopping, Rakuten

My English Club has been obsessed with dancing lately. It started when they said they wanted to learn a simple dance, and I suggested “The Cupid Shuffle” and “The Cha Cha Slide” because it just doesn’t get any easier than dancing to songs that give you directions. They learned these and remixed the Cupid Shuffle quite a bit. They then taught these dances to junior high school students at this year’s Open Campus.

After that came the Halloween party. When the club captain was told that throwing pies at people was out of the question, she turned to me once again for a dance. Of course I suggested the “Thriller” dance, and the club members had a blast “dancing with Michael.”

Now that that’s done, they turned to the next thing: preparing for the next culture festival. Since they want to sing and dance, they figured they’d start practicing early. This time, the inspiration is the 2007 movie Hairspray. Specifically, the song “Welcome to the 60s.”

As this scene takes place in what would now be called a “plus size” store, Mr. Pinky’s Hefty Hideaway, I found myself explaining what “hefty” and “hideaway” meant, and why the store in the movie is called that. I told them that even when I was a growing up department stores tended to put their plus size sections in the back, far from the main entrance, and that there were few shops that sold larger clothes. But even as I said that, I wondered if the club members were getting the impression that now shopping for larger sizes was easy and that being fat wasn’t frowned upon by a lot of people.

Interestingly, this all was going on around the same time I was discovering more of the “big size” specialty shops on Rakuten. The Japanese Amazon is completely useless for plus size clothes, but Rakuten’s specialty shops are well organized and often have detailed sizing AND dimension info per garment in centimeters, not made up vanity sizes that mean who the hell knows what. The only bad thing about these online shops are the models.

Is this really a “big size” specialty shop?

Fashion-wise, the above shop, Gold Japan, is my favorite. A bit pricier than the shop Queen which I had mostly been using before, but the quality of the garments is also higher, so I think it’s worth it. But these models, I think, don’t look like they would be considered “big” even by Japanese standards. Well, some of them seem taller than average, but otherwise too little for the clothes they’re selling. (That is to say, the garments often aren’t even offered in the smaller size the model must be.) It doesn’t bother me that there aren’t plus size brick & mortar shops in Japan; there isn’t a big enough market here for such stores. (No pun intended.) But it is a little disappointing that even online plus size specialty shops use only thin models. Not only because it feels like a slap in the face, but also because then it becomes harder to know if the garment will look the same way on me as it does on the model.

Great piece, but what if you’ve got more sand in your hourglass than the model?

I’ve gotten pretty good at picking the right size by measuring myself, measuring garments I already have that fit me well, and taking into account what fit the garment is supposed to have (e.g., if it’s something that’s meant to be worn big as was extremely popular here back in 2009-2010, I actually order it one size smaller than usual as wearing baggy clothes usually isn’t flattering on a bigger body). But as with the shirt above, it’s harder to tell. If the top of the black part of the shirt ends up at the bust line it can be a good look, but if it’s in the center of the breasts you end up with button nipples.

Sometimes in the shop Queen I’ll find clothing modeled by a woman who looks to be just a wee bit bigger than what’s considered fashionable in Japan–but her face is always cropped out. From what I can see of her face I think it’s the same woman in all the shots where the face is obscured.

Mystery Model

I assume this was done with the model’s permission, if not by specific request. Given the pressure to be thin, especially in Japan, I wouldn’t be surprised if bigger women would be ashamed to publicly model plus size clothes. Then again, who knows, maybe plus size Japanese women prefer to shop with thin models.

From Ashley Stewart’s site, for the sake of comparison. It’s not so hard to sell plus size clothing with plus size models, is it?

おまけ!

An article I came across and the inappropriate ad to the right. *Headkotatsu*

FAIL Mercedes Benz, FAIL

Really Quick Update

Tags

Spain, YELLOW FRIED CHICKENz

I’m still here yo. Ahahaha…

Well, just what happened? I had meant to add photos of my ehoumaki and the corner I faced as I ate it, but never got around to it. There was just so much going on, and now that classes are over (for me, not for the students), I just wanna relax. I’ve been bumpin’ YELLOW FRIED CHICKENz’s first album, playing Star Ocean: The Last Hope, and buying omiyage.

I’m going to Spain next week. @_@

That came outta nowhere, huh? Ahahaha…it’s actually been in the works since…mmm…maybe last June or July? I’d been scheming with my mother’s Spanish penpal of 30 years until I could see my mother in person in December. Once we decided on dates within my spring break (since now my mother’s retired and so is her penpal), it was just a matter of buying the tickets. I bought my tickets shortly after returning to Japan.

And now I have less than a week before I fly over Asia and Europe. I’m going to have pretty long layovers in Seoul and Paris. I hope I can remember something of my 7 years of French! J’ai oublié tout!

Watch, I’m going to accidentally speak in Japanese or some weird chimera of Japanese and French in Paris! It might even come out in Spain too, since I don’t even hear Spanish very often over here, much less speak it. >o<;

Ahem, anyway, I’ve bought most of the omiyage I want to take from Japan, and figure I’ll round these gifts out with some sweets from Korea and/or France.

A pretty different school will greet me upon my return. One of the teachers from my old school will transfer to my current school! @_@ I was so surprised. That, and the whole new English curriculum requirements…it might be a wild year.

Well, I’ll have GACKT and his YELLOW FRIED CHICKENz to get me through. ^o^ Enjoy a song from them. It starts off a little bit…uh…well, let’s just say that when he mentions an accelerator, brake, and shaft, he’s probably not talking about car parts. ^o^;;;  The song is 「恋愛Driver~Fooさんの歌」(“Ren’ai Driver ~Foo-san no Uta~” which would mean something like “Romance Driver ~Mr. Foo’s Song~”). I don’t know who Foo-san is, and apparently, neither does anyone else. I Googled 「Fooさんは誰」(“who is Foo-san”) and found that no one seems to know just who he is. *Shrugs*

Oh well. HEADBANG!!! >_<\m/

Long Legs

Tags

anime, fashion illustration, illustration, legs, manga

I stand at just 5’6″ (167 cm) so I never thought of myself as having long legs. But it’s something I get told here in Japan, not for being tall, but because my legs are long relative to my torso. Many Japanese have a longer torso relative to their legs. Now, when I first started paying attention to this ratio after being told that I had long legs, I thought, how funny, considering one of the few things that nearly all anime have in common is that the characters have ludicrously lengthy limbs on par with the 9.5 heads high human figures of fashion illustration. Of course, anime and manga are not real life, so I can put it down fantasy. But I was a bit surprised by the nearly universal reaction to this illustration:

I drew this for a lesson on shopping. I didn't have enough time to fix the skewed perspective caused by drawing on a flat surface.

「足長っ！」

“What long legs!”

I thought, “Is it really that different from what you see in anime? Isn’t that normal for this type of drawing?” @_@ Out loud, however, I just laughed and said, “It’s a habit I developed because I first learned how to draw humans from a fashion illustration book.” (Which is true, BTW.)

After the fashion illustration book, the biggest influence on my drawing style was Sailor Moon. There go them long legs again!

After Sailor Moon, Ayami Kojima's illustrations in Castlevania: Symphony of the Night made me consider seriously studying art.

Our half-vampire half-human friend there stands about 8.25 heads high in this illustration (counting to his heel, not the heel of his boots–which I’ve always wanted a pair of! >o<;), still with longer legs relative to his torso than the average person has in real life, Western or otherwise.

Well, I will say that, especially on the girl in my illustration, the legs are not so much “too long” as they are “too big.” Drawing the lower half of the body too large is a tendency I have that is exacerbated by lack of a proper slanted drawing surface, and lack of time to fix the mistake when I see it.

Culture as Excuse

And with that festive title,

HAPPY NEW YEAR! *Confetti* あけましておめでとうございま〜す！

Well, I got back to Japan on the night of Sunday the 7th. My vacation felt way too short. There were so many things I wanted to pick up or photograph to use in future classes, and I just didn’t get around to it. Didn’t get my hair cut either. But, I did get to see friends and family, eat pizza, tacos, and pastel de tres leches. And choco-flan. And–

lemme stop.

^o^; It was bad enough I was smelling people’s bentou as tacos al pastor. I need to get my mind back on my favorite Japanese food.

Tonkotsu ramen. Yudofu. Beni-imo flavored anything. Matcha Milk. Matcha Ice Cream.  Matcha Cheesecake Set.

From Kyo Hayashiya in JR Hakata City.

*Slaps self back to reality*

So, what am I thinking about in the New Year other than green tea?

Actually, this has been on my mind for a while. What made me ponder it again was something that happened with some friends who were visiting me at home. We had ordered pizza so I had gone to the kitchen to make sure we had enough plates and such. Meanwhile, my brother and 4 friends had started playing Tekken Tag Tournament. When I got back, I sat down. The loser of each round would pass the controller. It seemed like they had decided a play order, so I figured I’d just sit back and join in at the end of the rotation. But no one passed the controller to me, and since I knew I wouldn’t be able to do much anyway, I just sat back and watched and talked. Eventually, someone realized I wasn’t playing and asked me if I wanted to. I said that I could, and when someone asked me, “Why didn’t you say anything?” I said, “No one passed me the controller.” The response to that?

“You’re so Asian!!!”

@_@

Okay, so the whole “Asians are submissive” stereotype is at play here, even though I think it’s odd for someone to think that Asians would be like that among friends in an environment as familiar as someone’s house. What struck me on a personal level was how a behavior I’ve ALWAYS had — staying in the background in social situations — was suddenly perceived as the result of my living in Japan. I can’t even say I’m a wallflower, cuz I wouldn’t even go to the dance! But no one said I was Asian in high school.

This reminded me of how I was never, ever, eeeeeever told that I spoke English with an accent until I went to college, where for the first time the majority of my classmates were white, and only after they found out I hadn’t been born in the States.

I think people accept things as simple personality quirks until they think they have something to blame it on.

From the standpoint of the individual whose traits are in question, I do think culture can be and is often used as a shield for fear, or as a Get Out of Jail Free card. Maybe it’s wishful thinking, but I seriously hope that my students aren’t really suffering from a crippling shyness that prevents them from speaking out in class (as teachers would have me believe) and that they’re just using the national excuse not to speak.

Another example: I hate going to parties, but I don’t mind hosting them. Given my background in AmeriCorps, I could tell you that it’s because I love my fellow man so much, nothing gives me greater pleasure than to serve. 思いやりの心 and all that. But it’d be a big fat lie. The simple fact is, once a social gathering becomes something more than 2 people talking, I feel immense pressure to have to be entertaining. To exude charisma, animal magnetism, which I have none of. But if I’m the hostess, I can let the guests entertain themselves, while I hustle about getting food and drink, making sure everyone is comfortable, without actually having to hold a conversation, without having to be ignored or interrupted mid-sentence (something I hate, hate, hate, hate, haaaaaaate). In short, it’s easier to fulfill the role of Caring Hostess than of Personable Human Being. Well, if only I were judged as a Human Being, which would mean as a Man, it would be easier. But that’s a rant for another day.

Hm, before my train of thought becomes even more difficult to follow, I’ma just stop. >o<; I’ll try to be more Happy Fun Times in the next post. Maybe. Ahahaha…

For kicks, here’s a photo I took early Christmas Eve morning. (And now I’ve got Cyndi Lauper in my head.)

Forgot to resize the photo before uploading. Ahhhh...don't feel like it now. >o<;

☆

よいお年を!

It’s 4 o’clock in the morning on December 31st, Detroit time. I’m not jet lagged, I think it was the green tea from Osushi in Canton that kept me awake. That, and watching disc 1 of 4 of La Antorcha Encendida in one sitting with my mother and brother.

Why do they always make the dark haired sister the hypocrite slut? Sheez.

Ahem, anyway, I came home for Christmas a little over a week ago. I’ve been enjoying relaxing, shopping, seeing friends and family, and lazying around with the cats and my unicorn Pillow Pets. ^o^; I wanted to make a sort of “look back” at 2011 post, but I don’t think I have enough witty things to say for such a task. Maybe later I’ll just post a bunch of random pictures.

Well, have a Happy New Year, O Reader! よいお年を!

Random Life Stuff, Vol. 97

Tags

Ayami Kojima, Castlevania, Santa Lilio Sangre, Transitions

It’s Obon season! Or rather, it was Obon season when I started writing the draft of this post, LOL. During that time, the only people at work were the ones who were stingy with their nenkyuu or had to be on “day watch.” Some days it was just me and the kyoutou-sensei at school, with a teacher strolling in every now and then as if to pick up something forgotten. I still have several days before I have to introduce myself to the students at my new school, so this is the perfect time to sit down to chronicle all the Random Stuff that has happened in my Life recently.

On with the show!

Glasses, 変身！I’ve been wearing Transitions lenses, the photochromic lenses that automatically turn dark when struck by UV rays, for over 10 years. Unfortunately for Transitions lovers living in Japan, they’re not well known here. Most people react with a surprising degree of disbelief when I tell them such glasses exist. Luckily, there is one store in Fukuoka Prefecture that sells them: Megane no Yonezawa in Tenjin. If you’re desperate for Transitions in Japan, here’s the store finder page (Japanese only): Transitions Shop List

This time, I went with a brown tint instead of my usual black. The lenses do go darker, but I guess there wasn't that much UV bouncing around when I took this photo. The frames are "Geometry 1004" by Glass Garden. ♡

Time Waits On All Men? Look at the sticker with the bananas. The piggy one is funny too.

Click for a larger view!

A familiar face One of the things I don’t like about now having to take the train to work is that I’m tempted every day to go to the chain bakery Train d’Or, one of which is set up in all bigger JR Kyuushuu stations. Now, when I was at my old school, I used to stop by the local bakery on my way home on Wednesdays, before going to Japanese class. I liked their “pizza” and their butter rolls, but everything else had a weird flavor, as of cheap vegetable oil, so it wasn’t a challenge for a bread fanatic like me to get something there just once a week. But Train d’Or, with their decadent lightly grilled cheese sandwich? My, oh my…

Anyway, I was so happy to see a tortuga there!

カメちゃん!

“Tortuga” means “turtle” in Spanish and is a common type of pan dulce (sweet bread). Basically, someone took a semita (known as “concha” outside of Honduras and “melon pan” in Japan) and put legs, a head, and a tail on it. This bread was labeled “kame-chan,” “kame” meaning “turtle.” As my brother pointed out when I emailed him this photo, the tortugas made in Hispanic bakeries don’t usually have faces painted on them.

Does throwing yourself through it count as defenestration? I did take three days off during the Obon season, and used the time most effectively to advance in Castlevania: Lords of Shadow, which I hadn’t had a chance to play in like 2 months. I noticed a pattern: there’s many levels where you get to the final boss/scene by busting through a window.

Why does Gabriel hate windows so much?! (Insert Windows joke here)

Unfortunately, my enthusiasm for this game has cooled somewhat. Sir Patrick Stewart is still the bee’s knees as Zobek, but, even though I’ve advanced to Chapter IX, the music is still as exciting as watching wallpaper peel. I don’t understand how this soundtrack actually won an award.

Now for some art geekery Nearly 13 years since gaining international acclaim as the illustrator and character designer of Castlevania: Symphony of the Night, Ayami Kojima’s work was finally compiled into an art book. Santa Lilio Sangre -緋いユリ- (“Akai Yuri,” the whole title ends up meaning something like “Holy Blood Lily ~Crimson Lily~”) was released last December by Asuka Shinsha. I stumbled upon it online somehow, and ordered it within minutes of learning about it. ^_^; The photos in this English-language review are much better than the ones I can take, so I’ll post only a few of her less frequently highlighted works, those for novels and magazines.

The book's dust jacket, as shown on the publisher's website. When I realized that I had waited literally half my life for this, I felt both old and young.

Originally from 「巨人を挑んだ男たち」("The Men Who Challenged the Giants").

Originally from 「黎明に叛くもの」which translates to something like "The Ones Who Rebelled at Dawn", on the left, and 「異・戦国誌」and 「竜虎伝」on the right. (Not sure how to translate that. "Unusual Warring States Period Magazine" and "Legend of Naga"?) At least, thanks to Fuurin Kazan, I can recognize Sanada Yukimura's six-coin crest.

Originally from 「士方歳三の鬼謀」("Hijikata Toshizou's Devilish Scheme"? -- left) and 「維新の嵐・幕末志士伝」("Storm of the Restoration - Legend of the Patriots at the Bakufu Period's End" - right).

See? Not everything Kojima draws involves guts, insects, and/or pretty boys! ^o^

Speaking of scary things I really didn’t get on the fedora bandwagon until GACKT’s strange/adorable indecision about what to do with his hat in the music video for “EVER” made it absolutely necessary to have one, and I found the wicked Griffin Hat at Hard Rock Café (it has the specific location name on the other side, of course).

One evening, during one of the GACKT FESTAs that I’m wont to throw, my three friends and I decided to go out for dinner. Since we were gonna do karaoke afterwards, I grabbed my fedora, and one friend provided hats for the other two. So there we were, four foreign women walking down the street in fedoras. Man, it’s been a while since I’ve seen people cross the street so fast! >o< We weren’t even wearing zoot suits for cryin’ out loud…

We lined them up at the restaurant, and decided that the wearer of the grey hat was the Doña.

Older Brother Memorization I’ve never been a big fan of flashcards, but I decided that downloading Anki, the digital flashcard program, for quick kanji review wouldn’t hurt. Now, because “Anki” sounds like “Aniki,” and the default Anki icon is butt ugly, I had to change it to a picture of Aniki. That is, GACKT during the YFC lives. XDD

Now, I always want to click on it. XD

Change of Theme? I’m getting a bit tired of my black-gray-white-red blog theme. I think I’ll go back to something that lets me use a header photo. Hmm…

☆

次回！My Old School Costs More Than My New School?

Chirp Chirp Chirp

Oh dear…it’s all his fault.

I’ve joined Twitter  just to be able to quickly say something to GACKT if the need to do so ever strikes me. ^o^;;;;;;;

(Why couldn’t he just join Facebook like everyone else? ^_^;)

While I was thinking about how I don’t see what the point of Twitter is if you’re already on Facebook, I thought of something: “wouldn’t this be a great way to have fresh content appear on Lucky Hill more quickly?” There are many times when small things happen, things too small to deserve their own blog post, but interesting enough to be worth mentioning. So far, I’ve dealt with these bits of life by compiling them into posts known as “Random Life Stuff.” The problem with these is that I still take a good while to write them, and this blog ends up with updates only once a week, but often much less frequently than that. So, what with Twitter’s 140 character limit, I’ve no excuse for not saying something to the blogosphere at the *very least* once a week! ^o^

Also, I figured, some people might not feel comfortable leaving a comment on a blog, since they’d have to input their email address, but with Twitter, since (I think) you don’t see other people’s email addresses, just their usernames, it would be an easy way to speak up for someone who just dropped by and had a question but felt uncomfortable leaving their email address with a stranger. Well, that’s my theory anyway.

So, you’ll now find my Twitter feed in the sidebar under the heading “Birdsong.” Enjoy~

Random Life Stuff, Vol. 91

I just noticed that I tend to pick odd numbers to indicate the “volume” of these RLS posts, hmm…

Anyway, on to the small tidbits that make up my existence when I’m not involved in more picturesque undertakings.

Yeah, those are chopsticks on top of my tortillas. What?

Sizzlin’ Fajitas If I’m in the mood for good burgers, there’s only one place I can count on: a diner called Son House. The owner had gone to the States several years ago before opening his restaurant to study burgers, the quintessential American food. Well, I think that’s what he went to do. It’s been a while since we talked about this and my Japanese wasn’t as good back then, ahaha.

Ahem, anyway, these are definitely the best burgers around. But, Son House also serves some Mexican foods (Tex-Mex, to be exact), such as quesadillas, tacos, and chimichangas. There’s also Taco Rice, which is the inside of a Tex-Mex taco set on rice. ^o^; It may not be authentic, but if it tastes good, that’s what really matters, right?

However, the owner, with input from the local Hispanic community (which consists of, as far as I know, 4 people) has added something incredible to his menu: beans and rice! *Victory Fanfare* These can be ordered as a side dish. Also, if you make any of the Mexican food items a “dinner set,” you’ll get the beans & rice, guacamole, soup, and a salad. The other new items are burritos and the Sizzlin’ Fajitas platter. I got it a few days ago as a dinner set. Unfortunately, I’m not in the habit of carrying my camera around when I go eat out, so this photo taken with my iPod will have to suffice. (Note: the onion rings in the top left corner of the photo aren’t part of this set.)

Oh yeah…I finally got myself an iPod a little while ago! It was my present to myself for passing N2 of the JLPT back in December. (Though I would’ve gotten it if I had failed too. ^o^;) I didn’t get it sooner because I was worried about having to send more money home to cover medical expenses for my cat, but once I got word that what I had left back in December had sufficed, I went ahead and splurged on a 64GB iPod Touch. The first thing I did was load my iTunes Library into it, then I put a Japanese-English Dictionary app in, and last I set Sephiroth as the wallpaper and badda bing!

I changed its name from "Tome of Phat Beats" to "Tome of the Rhapsode."

I actually found this case with the help of some Brass Band students that I ran into at the mall. (Chibi GACKT strap not included.)

I’m impressed as hell with its internet capabilities, too. Even websites without mobile versions load relatively quickly.  I also love having sort-of access to Google Maps on the go. I can look up a location while I’m at home, but when I leave, even if I’m not online anymore, I can still see the map and make sure I’m going to the right place. Unlike:

Japan = Jakarta The other day I received a piece of mail from a cousin in the States that, before reaching me, ended up in Jakarta. ^_^; I don’t know where in the line the screw-up happened, but given that my cousin posted it on April 21st and I got it May 9th, it seems to have been redirected pretty quickly. Well, Jakarta’s not that far from here; I assume that they would’ve just sent it directly my way rather than sending it back to the States.

♪Where in the World is the Mail My Family Sends Me?

Gaming Again I finally sat down to play Castlevania: Lords of Shadow, which I picked up in my last visit to the States. As someone who was introduced to the franchise through Symphony of the Night, I did worry that I wouldn’t like it, given that it’s a reboot that bears not the work of neither composer Michiru Yamane nor illustrator Ayami Kojima. But so far…I’m really feelin’ it! Especially after the linear mess that was FFXIII, the freedom to roam of LoS is refreshing. Granted, it’s not as free form as SotN or even Curse of Darkness, but I still get the sensation that I’m exploring. There’s also the wonderful, fantastic, ultrasuperspecialawesome voice work of none other than Sir Patrick Stewart as the game’s narrator, Zobek.

Oh.

My.

GOD.

This is the first time I’ve played a game whose voiced narration didn’t feel like tiresome exposition. I enjoy just hearing this man speak. @_@ It’s crazy.

*Ahem* So far, the only unsatisfying thing about LoS is the music, but I’m hoping that will change as I progress further into the game. After all, I’m barely on Chapter 2 of 13.

The game was published by Konami, but developed by MercurySteam, a game developer in Spain. Wonder if they need anyone who speaks Spanish and Japanese? *_*

Art Imitates Life I’m currently reading the manga Bakuman, which is the story of two young boys who dream of becoming mangaka (comic book artists). It’s made by the same team as Death Note, artist Takeshi Obata and writer Tsugumi Ohba, and is available in the States as a Shonen Jump release. The anime version is currently airing on NHK, but I prefer to just read the manga.

At the beginning, there’s many scenes that take place in school, and I wonder, “how would I interpret these scenes if I had read this before working in a Japanese school?” I probably would’ve been confused over the following scene, which takes place when the characters are 3rd year chuugakusei, the equivalent of American high school freshmen (translation mine, as I don’t have the English release of this manga):

Moritaka (the main character) (narration): And then, a nightmare – no, happiness came.
Teacher: So, this will be the seating arrangement for second term.
Boy: Why do we have to put our desks together?! And with girls at that?!
Teacher: Because this is how it was when I was in middle school!
Boy 2: That’s no reason!
Teacher: I want you to reverse Class 2’s bad reputation of the boys and girls not getting along.
Student: We’re just gonna end up getting along even worse!
Student: Yeah!
Teacher: Students who gripe are going to get a mark on their student file.
Student: Awful…

Putting boys next to girls is like putting two north poles next to each other.

Moritaka (narration): Even without looking, I could tell that Shuujin [=Akihito], who ended up in the very back again, was trying desperately to stifle his laughter.
Moritaka (narration): Just having Azuki next to me, the air, the scenery – no, the whole world – changed completely. It was true happiness, but…
Moritaka & Azuki (thinking): What if my stomach growls in class?

…

Okay, so I understand if Moritaka and Azuki feel uncomfortable, they actually like each other and have made a rather unconventional promise. Akihito’s too damn cool to care about the change (he’s the top student in class – and he’s gonna give up a secure future to be a mangaka!). But what’s everyone else’s excuse for acting like the teacher just asked them to donate a lung to the person they hate most in the world?

At my school, in some homerooms, it’s not too bad; the kids will grumble and reluctantly work with a partner of the opposite sex. But in others, they’ll straight out refuse to work with their partner, and will either scowl at the floor, scowl at me, or work with a nearby student of the same sex. I don’t understand what could cause such a strong aversion to the opposite sex at their age. I really don’t. The Japanese teachers tell me, “they’re shy,” and I say, “but why that much?” They tell me, “they don’t want their friends to think they like someone,” and all I can say is “practicing a textbook English conversation with someone means you like them?” and remain mind-boggled.

But then stuff like this happens The other day, during rehearsal for English play, one of the kids was running the stereo, talking to his friend, and I was sitting nearby, importing the soundtrack unto my computer to modify it for them. The following happened:

Boy 1: On the internet I saw this song, ‘Find You,’ but instead it said ‘F*** You.’ ‘I wanna f*** youuuu!’ Ahahahaha!
Me: ?! What did you just say?
Boy 1: Oh! Nothing.
Me: … …
Boy 1: So anyway… ‘I need to f*** youuuu!’ Hahaha!
Boy 2: Aha…
Me: *Sternly says Boy 1’s name*
Boy 1: Sorry!
Boy 2: Maybe you shouldn’t say that in front of Eli…
Me: *Mental Facepalm*

While I suppose it’s possible some smart aleck really did take the Camp Rock song “Find You” and turn it into “F*** You,” I wonder if what the kid saw was actually the explicit version of Akon’s “I Wanna Love You.” ^_^;

Speaking of Rap Music Today a student asked me what “lollipop” meant. I told her, then asked, “Where did you hear it?” She said, “In a song,” and I immediately wondered if it was Lil Wayne’s “Lollipop,” which isn’t about candy at all. I was relieved when she said it was a song by K-pop group 2ne1 (pronounced “twenty-one,” but standing for something like 21st century New Evolution – I saw it on an infotainment show, ahaha), but now that I see the video for said song, I can’t help but wonder if they’re not thinking about lollipops in at least a similar, if not as explicit, way as Lil Wayne was. ^_^;

One thing’s for sure: for 21st century folk, they sure dress like they came out the 1980s.

☆

次回！Behind the Music

Random Life Stuff, Vol. 87

So I’ve been away from the blog for a bit.  It’s been a busy time between work, working out, a bit of hanging out, and worrying about my kitty cat, whom my family informed me has been diagnosed with hyperthyroidism. T_T

So this weekend I decided to stay home, supposedly to straighten out my apartment. I’ve got a pile of washed laundry that I don’t feel like folding staring at me, a mess of art supplies scattered about, and a head of Fukuoka Lettuce that I’ll try my best to eat before it wilts.  I’ve a lot to get done before the NHK Taiga drama Gou-hime starts in 3.5 hours.  So let’s get caught up with yet another RLS post!

よし！*Cracks knuckles*

New theme Do you like the new blog theme? I don’t like that it doesn’t let me have a header image, but otherwise I think it’s nice and edgy and charcoaly, plus I like how bold the name is.  This is LUCKY ☆ HILL in case you didn’t notice. ^o^

Breaking a habit I’ve known for a while that it’s unnecessary to leave two spaces between sentences in this age of computers, but as someone who learned how to type on a typewriter and has been typing since elementary school, it’s a really hard habit to break. There’s something satisfying about hitting the space bar twice after a period. 困ります。

Slap me thrice and call me Henry Such a tag can only mean one thing: I’ve passed the Japanese Language Proficiency Test! @o@ Only N2, and I didn’t do terribly well on Vocabulary/Grammar.

合格 ^o^/♡+@o@

Which makes me think that there should be an Emoticon Proficiency Test…

AHEM, anyway, luckily at the training seminar I went to recently, the publisher Bojiinsha was there selling various books with a 10% discount, so I had picked up some books for both N2 and N1. I’m currently doing the kanji book for N2. I know how to read most of them, but I can’t write the ones I didn’t learn when I was in college, so I’m focusing on that. I know some people are of the opinion that being able to write kanji is unnecessary since we hardly ever write by hand anymore, but it helps me remember kanji a heck of a lot better than flashcards. It also helps my motivation that I’ve found a good use for some particular concert merchandise.

How could you not want to study some 国語 after that?

I actually thoroughly enjoy writing by hand in general. Guess that makes we a weirdo.

I want to thank Professor Happy Land and Professor Increasing Rice Fields for helping me reach this milestone. And while it probably sounds cheesy, I do strongly believe that were it not for the fateful email that put me on the path of GACKT fandom, I wouldn’t have studied on my own as much as I did.

Speaking of using music as a motivator Finals at my school ended last week, which means right now, at least as far as Oral Communication class is concerned, we’re not doing anything that will affect students’ grades. Which means, in turn, that many kids are more disinterested than ever in what us ALTs have to say. ^o^;

I passed out a survey to see what they had liked, didn’t like, and wanted to do for the remaining classes. Unsurprisingly, they liked games and music, didn’t like the textbook nor the test, and wanted to watch movies and listen to music. I left the lesson using movies up to my co-ALT, a film buff himself, and spent a couple of sleepless nights wracking my brains picking music videos and deciding what to do with them. In the end, this is what ended up happening, but it was a little different in each class:

I introduced the lesson by explaining that I love to study Japanese from music, and showed them my own 歌詞ノート or Lyrics Notebook. In this notebook, I simply write down a song’s lyrics, leaving space to the side. In that space, I write down the words I don’t know and their English translation. Then, I’m ready to sing in karaoke! The repetition and melody of songs makes it easy to remember words, I told them, so I hoped that they would likewise find music they really liked in English and make their own Lyrics Notebooks. To get them started, I handed out the lyrics to the songs whose videos we’d be watching. I tried to pick a variety of genres so that hopefully everyone would like at least one song in the bunch. The videos were as follows.

MJ’s “Beat It“ We just watched it and enjoyed it, then…

Weird Al’s “Eat It“ I gave them the lyrics, but with blanks. We watched it twice, the second time stopping to fill in the missing words.  So far, 2 out of 3 homerooms LOLed during most of it.

Ciara’s “Like A Boy“ Never fails to elicit a 「すげぇ！」(“awesome!”) when she does that lean back on her ankles thing.  When I explained what the song was about, one of the more lively students said, 「深い！」(“that’s deep!”). ^o^

Willow’s “Whip My Hair“ They seemed to like it up to the point where Willow comes out with her boombox/paint, but then they seemed downright traumatized. Too much personal expression maybe? ^_^; This video will probably get cut.

*NSYNC’s “Bye Bye Bye“ Because I figured these kids, who like Justin Beiber and Disney movies, would love the cheesiness of *NSYNC. But I gotta say, I love the car chase in this vid.

U2’s “Elevation“ Several homerooms are big on movies, so I figured this would be great for them, and it’s an awesome vid in general.

Then, we had them vote on which song they liked the best, then tried to sing part of it.  It was easy with “Beat It,” but “Like A Boy” was harder, mostly just because it was the class of Kids Who Are Allergic To Speaking English that picked it. ^_^;

But Art Course was different The Art Course kids also answered that they wanted to do music and movies, but about half of them also said they wanted to draw or do something related to comics.  I took this chance to do something I’ve been wanting to do ever since I saw an art student blog about it: you draw a picture in the shape of your initials that contains items/characters whose names also start with those letters.

I had planned to give them 25 minutes to draw, but since it took me 25 minutes just to do the “E” in my sample drawing (including the time it took to decide what to put in the drawing), I figured I should give them 30 minutes.  On the one hand, doing it in English might be hard for them, but on the other, they can draw a heck of a lot faster than I can, so I figured 30 minutes would be enough time.  Also, I didn’t want to give them too much time, because not every student in Art Course is a drawing or painting major; indeed there are some who don’t draw all that well.

While they drew, I played various songs and wrote their title and artist on the board so that if there was a melody that caught their fancy they could look it up later.  I made sure to play “Bachata en Fukuoka” for them. ^o^ Myself and the JTE were probably the only ones in the room who understood it. (This particular JTE speaks a fair amount of Spanish.)

My sample Initial Drawing. There are 11 items for E, and 7 for V. Can you catch 'em all?!

After the 30 minutes were up, I had the students trade drawings and try to list all the items in their classmates’ drawings. Originally I had thought to give a prize to whoever could list the most items, but since people had drawn different numbers of things, and it was the last class, I decided to just give everybody chocolate. My sleep-deprived self, however, forgot that the bag of chocolate I’d taken only had 25 pieces, and there are almost 40 kids. FAIL So I just said, “please come to the shokuinshitsu if you didn’t get chocolate.” ^_^;;;

Calligraphy! There were actually a few kids in each homeroom who had more participation points than they needed to reach 100% on the final, so I decided to give them my usual present: calligraphic nameplates/bookmarks.  I’ll post a picture of some once I make more, as I’ve already given out the ones I’d done. I also told Art Course that if they were interested in learning how to do it, I could show them. I’m thinking it’d be nice to have a couple of one-shot workshops about it, but I have to find an art store that even sells penholders and nibs. You can find some nibs in the form of G-pens, but a C nib? The lady at the local art store looked at me like I was crazy when I described it, asking, “where can you buy such a thing?” >o<

The Andy Warhols of the Future? And speaking of art, the effervescent Year 1 Class 5 (whom I will miss T_T) have a very interesting picture in their homeroom.  Every month, the health club puts out a newsletter that includes an interview with one of the teachers, and a picture of said person.  Several months ago, they interviewed me. A couple of months after that, they interviewed the homeroom teacher of 1-5. So one day, my co-ALT says to me as we’re in their class, “I don’t know what’s with that picture of you and Y-sensei.” He points it out to me and I see it: a picture consisting of about 16 pictures from the health newsletter arranged in a 4 x 4 grid, all of them of their teacher save for the one in the lower right corner: me. ^_^; I busted out laughing and tried to explain Andy Warhol to the kids who were wondering what I found so funny.

I’ll stop procrastinating now And go do some laundry. Till next time, O Reader!

☆

次回！Seriously! I’ma translate that song one of these days!