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Alien (Gaijin)

There have been, and are, several reasons for this site.  But I think ultimately the reason I created and still write in this site is to help me work out stuff by writing, and I just so happen to do it publicly sometimes.  I need to do that now.  So, here we go. If I were to give a word to how I have felt throughout my entire life, I think I would use the word “isolation”.  The Japanese word “gaijin” really does encompass in many ways how I feel… Read More »Alien (Gaijin)

Morning Musume

I have been feeling a little ill today. I think maybe all of the stress and depression from the last few days have been getting to me. Or I’m just sick. I dunno. So I watched a few old episodes of Morning Musume variety shows. I’ve told the story before of how I started with my journey of learning Japanese – I saw their “English lesson”, saw all of the neat characters scrolling across the screen, and told myself I’d learn what they meant. Several years later, I largely have… Read More »Morning Musume

Jealousy

I think in this world we have a kind of mental illness – or at least a misunderstanding about how it works to be a human. We find ourselves wanting to be something, and rather than trying to understand why it is we want to be that thing in the first pace, we just immediately try to become it, thinking that’ll make us happy. Honestly, I suspect most of the time it won’t, especially when it’s something that’s not fully (or even a little bit, in some cases) achievable. This… Read More »Jealousy

I do not Love Suzuka Nakamoto

I am something of a fan of Babymetal I do enjoy their music, even though I’m not usually a fan of metal. I think I’ve written about this before, so I won’t go into further detail One thing I have notice (and I may be doing a little bit of this myself, unwittingly; forgive me) is that Youtube reaction channels seem to take off whenever they do a Babymetal reaction. There is this horde of fans that follow people around and give channels probably one or two thousand subscribers almost… Read More »I do not Love Suzuka Nakamoto

Kawaii Aidoru

YouTube is an incredible distraction throughout most of the issues that have been going on in the world, and in my country. One thing I’ve been watching is Babymetal reactions.  It’s quite amusing to see someone reacting for the first time – “Well, this is a band with… three girls?  And they’re Asian?  Korean maybe?  Well, I have no idea what to expect…”  “SOMEONE GIVE THOSE GIRLS SOME CHOCOLATE”  Anyway, I find it amusing. There’s this one guy, NeonReaperGaming, who has been really going down the foxhole – to the point where… Read More »Kawaii Aidoru

Why J-Pop?

I was actually trained as a classical pianist. Yes, it’s true.  I went to college and everything.  I learned how to either play or appreciate much of the repertoire – in point of fact, if I put my mind to it, there are piano concertos that are not out of my reach.  I am very, very familiar with many very complex pieces, even if I can’t play them yet, and I find composers such as Rachmaninoff to be quite sublime – even if the lay person might hear it as… Read More »Why J-Pop?

AKB48

In my ever widening exploration of Japanese popular culture, I have run into a few groups in the style of Morning Musume.  AKB48 and its sisters, etc. One thing I particularly liked about Morning Musume was, in its golden days, the way the girls all seemed like sisters.  I realize that a lot of this could have been scripted, but I don’t think all of it was.  They were a small group, I think thirteen or fifteen at most, and they worked closely together.  As girls cycled in and out,… Read More »AKB48