Farewell to Archery, Saturday Hijinks, and Various Japanese Stuff + Possible Work
So I have 2 hours left of work and have absolutely nothing left to do, so I figure I will take this opportunity to update my journal.
Anyway, last Wednesday I paid probably my last visit to the Seishinkan where I studied Japanese archery for over a year. Practices are on Tuesday and Thursday so nobody I knew was there, but I still felt very nostalgic as I walked up to the changing room to clean out my locker, and took my last look at the shooting range. It happened to be one of the coldest days we've had since Spring finally came, and I felt a bit sad as I said my final farewell to the manager in his little office before starting on the long cold walk along the riverbank to the bus stop.
The fact that I'm leaving this city is starting to finally hit me, slowly but surely. It's particularly bittersweet because this is the time when Asahikawa is at its best, warm and friendly in both its weather and its people, and I suddenly find myself free to ride on my bike to all manner of distant places. In the dead of winter at -20 degrees Fahrenheit, even the short walk from my office to my apartment seemed unbearably long. Now the air is fresh, the flowers are in bloom, and I can't tell you how liberating it feels to finally be wearing t-shirts and shorts outside. Indeed, these feelings of sadness at leaving are rudely mixed with feelings of homesickenss, as this is when Asahikawa most resembles my home back in California. It's been 6 years since I moved away to live in colder climates, and I miss my old home more than I care to admit. Depending on my decisions over the next few months, I may get a chance to live there once again, or I perhaps I will close the door on life in the Golden State forever.
Still, it's not all doom and gloom. Saturday was spent with several of the other JET's in Asahikawa, munching on yakiniku for 3 hours and then doing karaoke for another 2. As usual we did the all-you-can-drink option and as usual I never touched any alcohol, but I made up for it by ordering glass after glass of float drinks and then just eating the ice cream XD. Song-wise I gave Kimi Shinitamou Koto Nakare by May'n a try for the first time and whipped out a few Tamaki Nami songs, before finally going for the main event with Ye in a painful but hilarious attempt to sing "Wuthering Heights" by Kate Bush. The real difficulty is attempting to mimic her bizarre voice, as well as attempting to do so without bursting into laughter every few seconds (I failed on both counts).
Sunday I hung out in my apartment all day to avoid the rain, and spent most of my time watching the exceedingly crappy anime that I nonetheless can't get enough of, Cardliver Kakeru. Let's go over this: The art is bad, the music is bad, the characters within it are somehow horrifyingly unaware of fundamental things about their world, and just recently the creators decided that the card battle based plot, which made Yu-Gi-Oh's look like Shakespeare, wasn't good enough so they... well basically grafted a Pokemon-esque plot onto the original plot, producing this unholy hybrid. And yet there are really good seiyuu on board, and somehow the show is endearing in the midst of its utter suck. Matsuno Taiki's character Tohru is delightfully twisted as a well-meaning but exceedingly egotistical rich boy who succeeds in insulting everyone around him while attempting to praise their working class lifestyles. Always good Fumiko Orikasa plays the strong-willed and arguably most talented member of the 3-person team Ai, leaving the stereotype-laden and dumb-as-a-doornail main character Kakeru to be played by Ishikawa Shizuka, who actually succeeds in making him more annoying than he already is. Suzuki Masami is alright as their team's little mascot, the talking dog-monster Pedal, but it is a bit ridiculous to have a puppy with a high voice frequently refer to himself as "ore-sama." I'm sorry Suzuki, but you definitely don't have an ore-sama voice.
Following that, I actually decided to turn to more quality entertainment. One of the friends I made on Mixi is an aspiring author, and he sent me the first chapter of the novel he's writing. It was really good stuff! I had planned on going to bed early last night, but in the end I stayed up until past 11:00pm because I was so interested in what was going to happen. As I was reading, too, I suddenly got the crazy idea in my head that I could totally translate this into English for him. And if I could do that, who says I couldn't do it for other amateur writers and manga-ka who might be interested in reaching a broader audience. Now I'm sure there are plenty of amateur writers and artists in Japan who couldn't care less about whether anybody outside of Japan ever hears about their work, but I bet there are a sizable number who might be interested in breaking into the global market but are unable to because they haven't been signed on by a major publisher willing to arrange for a major localization. Perhaps I could make some sort of business out of this. Of course I know next to nothing about running my own business and absolutely nothing about doing so in Japan. I don't even know if my visa covers it or not. Still, it might be something to consider if everything else falls through. It sounds fun too!
Anyway, there was one more thing I wanted to mention in this post but it's too long already so I'll save that for some other time. There's a chance I'll have no work to do tomorrow too, after all XD.
Anyway, last Wednesday I paid probably my last visit to the Seishinkan where I studied Japanese archery for over a year. Practices are on Tuesday and Thursday so nobody I knew was there, but I still felt very nostalgic as I walked up to the changing room to clean out my locker, and took my last look at the shooting range. It happened to be one of the coldest days we've had since Spring finally came, and I felt a bit sad as I said my final farewell to the manager in his little office before starting on the long cold walk along the riverbank to the bus stop.
The fact that I'm leaving this city is starting to finally hit me, slowly but surely. It's particularly bittersweet because this is the time when Asahikawa is at its best, warm and friendly in both its weather and its people, and I suddenly find myself free to ride on my bike to all manner of distant places. In the dead of winter at -20 degrees Fahrenheit, even the short walk from my office to my apartment seemed unbearably long. Now the air is fresh, the flowers are in bloom, and I can't tell you how liberating it feels to finally be wearing t-shirts and shorts outside. Indeed, these feelings of sadness at leaving are rudely mixed with feelings of homesickenss, as this is when Asahikawa most resembles my home back in California. It's been 6 years since I moved away to live in colder climates, and I miss my old home more than I care to admit. Depending on my decisions over the next few months, I may get a chance to live there once again, or I perhaps I will close the door on life in the Golden State forever.
Still, it's not all doom and gloom. Saturday was spent with several of the other JET's in Asahikawa, munching on yakiniku for 3 hours and then doing karaoke for another 2. As usual we did the all-you-can-drink option and as usual I never touched any alcohol, but I made up for it by ordering glass after glass of float drinks and then just eating the ice cream XD. Song-wise I gave Kimi Shinitamou Koto Nakare by May'n a try for the first time and whipped out a few Tamaki Nami songs, before finally going for the main event with Ye in a painful but hilarious attempt to sing "Wuthering Heights" by Kate Bush. The real difficulty is attempting to mimic her bizarre voice, as well as attempting to do so without bursting into laughter every few seconds (I failed on both counts).
Sunday I hung out in my apartment all day to avoid the rain, and spent most of my time watching the exceedingly crappy anime that I nonetheless can't get enough of, Cardliver Kakeru. Let's go over this: The art is bad, the music is bad, the characters within it are somehow horrifyingly unaware of fundamental things about their world, and just recently the creators decided that the card battle based plot, which made Yu-Gi-Oh's look like Shakespeare, wasn't good enough so they... well basically grafted a Pokemon-esque plot onto the original plot, producing this unholy hybrid. And yet there are really good seiyuu on board, and somehow the show is endearing in the midst of its utter suck. Matsuno Taiki's character Tohru is delightfully twisted as a well-meaning but exceedingly egotistical rich boy who succeeds in insulting everyone around him while attempting to praise their working class lifestyles. Always good Fumiko Orikasa plays the strong-willed and arguably most talented member of the 3-person team Ai, leaving the stereotype-laden and dumb-as-a-doornail main character Kakeru to be played by Ishikawa Shizuka, who actually succeeds in making him more annoying than he already is. Suzuki Masami is alright as their team's little mascot, the talking dog-monster Pedal, but it is a bit ridiculous to have a puppy with a high voice frequently refer to himself as "ore-sama." I'm sorry Suzuki, but you definitely don't have an ore-sama voice.
Following that, I actually decided to turn to more quality entertainment. One of the friends I made on Mixi is an aspiring author, and he sent me the first chapter of the novel he's writing. It was really good stuff! I had planned on going to bed early last night, but in the end I stayed up until past 11:00pm because I was so interested in what was going to happen. As I was reading, too, I suddenly got the crazy idea in my head that I could totally translate this into English for him. And if I could do that, who says I couldn't do it for other amateur writers and manga-ka who might be interested in reaching a broader audience. Now I'm sure there are plenty of amateur writers and artists in Japan who couldn't care less about whether anybody outside of Japan ever hears about their work, but I bet there are a sizable number who might be interested in breaking into the global market but are unable to because they haven't been signed on by a major publisher willing to arrange for a major localization. Perhaps I could make some sort of business out of this. Of course I know next to nothing about running my own business and absolutely nothing about doing so in Japan. I don't even know if my visa covers it or not. Still, it might be something to consider if everything else falls through. It sounds fun too!
Anyway, there was one more thing I wanted to mention in this post but it's too long already so I'll save that for some other time. There's a chance I'll have no work to do tomorrow too, after all XD.