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otaku

The Three Japanese Cultures

Hi!  It’s been a while since I posted here, so I have a lot to say.  Truth be told, I don’t really think I’m fond of the blogging method of expressing myself, but I haven’t come up with anything better yet.  I’m working on it, though!  First, an update. The Lily project (https://lovelylilylives.com, in case you didn’t know) is almost a year old now!  In that time, the story has progressed from a sweet but confused girl who didn’t know who she was, to a sweet but confused girl who… Read More »The Three Japanese Cultures

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)

Otaku Introspection

I’ve been doing a lot of thinking, lately.  Big news, right?  I mean, I never do that!  Usually I just careen…  ah well.  Sarcasm is lost in this medium. Anyway, I’ve been thinking.  I sure do care far too much about how I’m perceived in some ways, don’t I?  And mostly, even how I’m perceived by myself. So look at what I’ve been doing lately.  I’ve been learning and studying Japanese.  I’ve opened two blogs about Japan and Japanese, and one of them is specifically oriented towards otaku (though it has barely… Read More »Otaku Introspection

Am I Otaku?

Am I Otaku or even weeaboo? This is a question I’m asking myself more and more lately.  I mean, I guess I fit some of the definitions.  I like JPop – enough so that I’m maintaining an entire website about it, and other pop culture things.  I’m familiar enough with different idols to have a semi-intelligent conversation about them (can you ever have a truly intelligent conversation about a Japanese idol?). I even have some anime figures sitting on my dresser, and some of them I can’t post to Facebook… Read More »Am I Otaku?

Announcing Texihabara…

After my post yesterday, I decided to do something different that wasn’t related to blogging or angst. I got the “not related to blogging” part done. I ate some food, played on my phone and the computer, and just basically had about as restful a day as I’m capable of. This morning I think I figured out what to do. So here is the direction of this blog moving forward. As for this blog, it will continue in the same direction it has been. A personal blog with a Japanese… Read More »Announcing Texihabara…

Japanese Culture: The Seduction of Exoticism

Over the past few years, My thoughts on Japanese culture have taken a very definite arc. I started out with a general sense of admiration, but then decided that I wanted to learn more about their language and culture. I immersed myself into learning as much as I could about it. Unlike some “Otaku” or “Weeaboo”, I always kept a sense of balance about it, but there was always this kind of undefined yearning that I couldn’t quite place. I’ve never been to Japan, but for some reason, many things… Read More »Japanese Culture: The Seduction of Exoticism

Normalcy

In the cult I grew up in, throughout my childhood, there were some very strict expectations about how one was to behave. One was always to behave in an “upright” manner – to be honest, the ideas of tatemae and honne are not really all that foreign to me, as I lived that as a child. One was to be “in the world, but not of it”. Practically, this meant we had our own set of traditions. For example, we would celebrate a somewhat bastardized version of the Jewish Holy… Read More »Normalcy

Tips and Tricks for Japanese Learners

Over the past ouple of years, I’ve learned a few things about Japanese that are not obvious to people just starting out in Japanese. Let me try to summarize them here. Maybe I’ve said some of these before, but I’ll just repeat here if so, I guess it bears repeating. Okurigana Okurigana are those hiragana characters on the end of Japanese words. Here’s the tip: An English speaker is going to be tempted to look at a kanji and think that it is a word. In many cases, it is… Read More »Tips and Tricks for Japanese Learners

Sometimes I’m Wrong

I like to say that I’m never really wrong – as my decisions and opinions are nearly always right based upon the information I have. But sometimes I don’t have enough information, so as I get more information, my opinions can change. That kind of makes my previous ones wrong. I don’t really mind all that much because I did my best with what I have, but it still requires some acknowledgement. I had the opportunity to ask my sensei last night about the whole “brother/sister” thing, and I have… Read More »Sometimes I’m Wrong

Idols

My first real introduction to Japan and Japanese was through idol culture.  Morning Musume, to be precise.  So it’s no surprise that I’m unusually knowledgeable about the subject.  I can name quite a few idols from Morning Musume, AKB48, Sakura Gakuin, and a few others besides.  And those that I can’t name, I might be able to recognize. I know about the scandals of both Sashihara Rino and Minegishi Minami, and how they resolved.  I know why those scandals occurred in the first place, and I understand some of the cultural… Read More »Idols