The term's winding down

First of all, I have today's Frann quote, from my literature and sexuality class. She's one of my favourite English professors, seriously, super badass.

"There are a lot of men who have sex with other men, but don't identify as homosexual. And not all of them are well-known ministers and senators."

In other news, I got my job as a writing center consultant next term. I felt good about the interview, and I'm way more qualified than half the losers who already work there (it's not arrogance if it's true), so I wasn't all that surprised to be sent the contract. But it's still good news, even though it's only $8.45 an hour and I'm only guaranteed four hours a week. But $130-ish a month isn't bad for marginally interesting part-time work - I'll be able to keep food in my apartment and go out for Indian occasionally. And that's what really matters.

Oh man, now I want paneer. Why did I think of Indian food?

I'm all thrown off this week because half my classes are missing. Choir is done, since we had our last concert on Sunday and Christine doesn't make us have rehearsal for the last week, and I don't have Japanese again till Monday (where we'll be watching a currently unspecified Japanese film), so I only have my afternoon classes. I slept till eleven today, it was great. I do have this lame presentation to do in my Shakespeare class tomorrow, but judging by how bad most of the presentations yesterday were, I'm not too stressed. I'm just going to show a couple of clips from the 1993 film of Much Ado About Nothing, talk about how those clips demonstrate the use of background characters to give the film the play's sense of being about gossip, and call it good. I have to submit a 2-3 page double-spaced write-up explaining the presentation, but that won't take long to write.

And I'm almost done with Foucault! I stand by what I've said about everyone needing to read History of Sexuality, but that doesn't mean I'm not overdosing on the damn thing. I've read it twice in a month, for two different classes. I'm getting to the point where if someone says "you know that part where he talks about power coming from below?" I can say "oh yeah, it's from the first couple of pages of Method, chapter two of part four." And that's kind of sad.

That example, by the way? Actually happened in class yesterday.

Current school things aside, I've come up with a goal for my summer Japanese studies. I am going to learn all 1,945 practical kanji. I know about a sixth of them currently, there are websites that lay them out by grade level, and I'm just going to start at the first grade kanji and work forward, skipping over the ones I already know.

I will be able to read Japanese by fall, just watch me.

Just a little daunting

I don't know if y'all know this, but in Japan there is a government-created list of all the kanji one must know to read the newspaper (you can get it as a wall scroll and everything). The list is comprised of the 1,945 kanji students learn in elementary and junior high school. Everything not on that list, and therefore not considered a 'practical' kanji, must be accompanied by phonetic readings. In order to pass the JLPT at Level 1 (the highest level), one must know an additional 90 or so kanji that are not considered practical. Because you have to know all sorts of ridiculousness to pass that stupid test. I could, at this point, breeze through the JLPT at Level 4, and probably get through Level 3. I don't know enough kanji to get any farther, even though technically I've studied enough hours to qualify for the Level 2 exam.

Japanese is hardcore.

Anyway, the point of this little mini-lecture about how many kanji one needs to know to be considered literate in Japanese is that, well, I want to be literate in Japanese. In fact, I'm starting to consider applying for the graduate program in international relations at TIU (you know, that one school I spent four months at and blogged about... yeah, that one) after I graduate. Actually, I'd be applying in the winter after I graduate, because the Japanese school year starts in March, so I'd be chilling in Seattle for a few months first. Anyway, despite TIU being international and all that, there is exactly one American attending the university as a regular student (I know this because I've met her, and she has a web comic¹), which means getting in as a 白人² from アメリカ will be a challenge. If I were Chinese or South Korean? 構わない³ Coming at it as an American is a little more difficult.

And, you know, I'll need to be fluent in Japanese.

That's kind of the big problem, actually. I can figure out the practicalities. I'm smart and capable, I've been to Japan, and I know people in Kawagoe who could help me out. But if my Japanese isn't strong enough, it won't matter because I couldn't get through the program anyway.

Then there's that thing about me probably not having a Japanese class next year (thanks, bio 110), which means I'll have to continue studying on my own.

You know what this means? It's time for me to practice some serious self-discipline and spend the next year and a half or so learning as much Japanese as I possibly can while living in the States and finishing an English degree. I have textbooks (four of them, actually), I have dictionaries, I have a kanji study book and I have the internet. I also have a host family in Japan who I need to write to more frequently, anyway.

But, as the title says: a little daunting.

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¹ Gai-Gin.com
² はくじん: hakujin: white person
³ かまわない: kamawanai: no problem

Genderfunk!

So, after missing it two years running, due to the appalling lack of advertising, I finally made it to Genderfunk. Genderfunk, for non-Willamette people, is the drag dance the gay people club puts on every spring. Of course, the blazer that fits me really well, my nice dude shirt and my hot hat are all up in Washington, because I totally forgot Genderfunk existed, but a quick Value Village run filled in. I found a blazer that fits pretty well and a new hot hat. So this brings my blazer count up to three (one of them is from my Macys days, though, and barely counts) and my fedora count up to two. Fortunately, they aren't the same, so I can mix it up a little.

Anyway, I bound my chest and all that, wore jeans and a t-shirt under the blazer to keep it chill, and was glad I have a pair of Converse because all the other shoes I have in Salem are girly. I ended up going sort of andro, rather than super masculine, and it worked out pretty well, I think. I felt like I needed a cigarette holder, even though I don't smoke. It would have looked awesome.

The crowning achievement of the night, though, was getting Yasu, a TIUA guy, to come with us. We dressed him up in some clothes of Annie's, my legwarmers to cover up his hairy legs, a necklace, some make-up and a blonde wig of Ellie's. The result? Well, check this out. Buff bicep aside, this outfit that we threw together in about 10 minutes came out pretty damn feminine. This kid's crazy, I love him. He's loud and outrageous and he sang to me on my birthday (complete with air mic) and drinks our wine and threw himself into this like it was the most amazing thing he'd done all semester. We dubbed him Yuuki, because his real name is Yasuyuki, so it's pretty close and easy to remember.

Annie ended up looking kind of like an ax murderer, but that's okay. She borrowed Alex's cape and darkened her eyes and used some mascara to make a goatee. Alex wore Annie's yukata (sort of a casual kimono) and Josh showed off his amazing legs with thigh-high stockings. Nikki wore a black jacket and slicked back her hair, but didn't bind her chest, so she just looked like a masculine chick. But that worked, too.

Since I promised to put Annie's picture in my blog, please direct your attention to my wife rocking ax murderer chic. In the hallway outside our room in WISH.

We tried to bind her chest, but she doesn't have a sports bra and the only ace bandage I had after binding mine was 3-inch, which ended up slipping. But her shirt was loose, she's not big-busted and the cape covered everything up well enough, even after the binding had stopped being effective. She pretty much spent the evening being a sulky count, but I hold to my eccentric ax murderer theory. It's more fun.

Anyway, prep stuff aside, at the party there was dancing to a 90s-heavy playlist (seriously, I felt like I was 12 again or something listening to it), attacking people with balloons, chilling and generally having an awesome time with people who aren't afraid to dress like the opposite gender. So it was way more fun than the usual dance, where people are worried about looking stupid.

There was also a drag competition, which I participated in. I didn't win, but rightly so because the girl who DID win the king half owned everyone. No, seriously, check this out (complete with the winner's crown). She's in my Japanese class and said that Genderfunk is a chance to take advantage of the fact that she can kind of look like a guy normally. She and I were two of the three people with fedoras. Someone somewhere has a picture of us looking badass as a trio. But that someone is not me, so I can't share it. A TIUA guy won for the queens, mostly because he shoved two balloons up under his tanktop to make huge fake breasts. It was so ridiculous, and he played it up so well, that everyone loved it.

I grabbed a different TIUA guy in a short skirt and escorted him around the circle when I went out. I tilted my hat very gentlemanly and showed off my lady friend. It was pretty funny because I caught him off-guard when I snagged him. I actually went around at one point with another girl in my Japanese class to the four TIUA queens and said "ne, nee-chan-tachi, dansu shinai ka?" (hey, sisters, wanna dance? (basically)). They all did a double-take because they weren't expecting tough guy Japanese from two American chicks dressed in drag. Then they said yes, while cracking up.

And then, at the end of the night, I got a pretty pimpin' picture. With my Japanese ladiez.

Yeah, pretty epic. This was at the end of the night, around midnight and a little before I left. The guy with his eyes closed is usually this tough rocker dude with a leather jacket and combat boots, who sits on the front porch of WISH smoking cigarettes at eleven o'clock at night.

So, in conclusion, Genderfunk? Awesome. A+ will go again.

Two posts in a week WHAT

See, my high school friend Ashalyn (she comments on my blog sometimes and keeps a pretty great blog of her own) made me feel like a slacker because she blogs way more than I do... without a computer. I mean, come on, that's just sad. I have a computer that I use all the time and I can't get out more than three or four posts a month? Lame. So I'm actually reminding myself to post those things I think when sitting in class bored out of my skull.

And, you know, more obscure Japanese music, because I can't let the cultural education slip. I promised Dai-chan, and you will get Dai-chan, but first I have to share another Iceman song - Mr. D. - for a couple of reasons. First, because I love it. Second, because the music, lyrics and vocals are all Kenichi. Third, because it's full of engrish. As a general rule of thumb, the more random English you find in an Iceman song, the greater the likelihood that it was written by Kenichi Ito. The man's a high school dropout who speaks virtually no English, but he uses it all the time in his music. I opted out of giving you the official PV in favour of another live.



If you thought you heard words like tomato juice, booby trap dance, lucky, ok and romantic... you did. If you didn't hear them, that's because, as stated, his English sucks.

And now, for something a little newer and a little different, some Asakura Daisuke. It's another live clip (I like live clips, okay?), from his 2005 Quantum Mechanics Rainbow tours. Dai-chan's solo stuff has a different sound than his stuff with Iceman, and the Quantum Mechanics Rainbow album series is pretty much awesome. It's seven albums spawned by some bizarre, simultaneous love of math and colour. Anyway, I am sharing a live of Orange Tea Time, which is cute, silly, based on Alice in Wonderland, and shows off just how gay this man is. I love him.



Okay, music stuff aside, my only other news of note is that I got the housing I wanted! Yes, Annie and I will be sharing one of the two-bedroom apartments in Haseldorf. This means that I will not only have my own bedroom, but a private bathroom, a living room and a kitchen. And, best yet, it's on the first floor, which means moving in will be easy.

The one downside is that the colour scheme in this apartment is pretty awful, but we are allowed to paint, so if the red and white kitchen gets to me, I'll be covering it up with something better. And that will be that.

Yeah, so boring blog post is boring, but I don't actually have anything more interesting to talk about. I'm reading Foucault's The History of Sexuality Volume I, which is pretty awesome, but I haven't finished yet, so I don't want to give opinions. It's difficult, Foucault is not transparent, but Markowitz (philosophy professor) says that, were she to put together a list of the five most influential books of the twentieth century, History of Sexuality would be on there. And, so far, I'm gonna have to agree.

So, to close this up with a public service announcement: The History of Sexuality Volume I is only 159 pages. So you should go read it.

ｋｉｓｓ ｓｈｉｎｉｎｇ ひとみ に くちずけて。。。

That's the first line of the chorus of a song called Shining Collection (by a band called Iceman), for the record. I didn't just make it up. If you've never heard of Iceman (I'd be surprised if you HAD, honestly), and you like music with a lot of synthesizers, check them out. Or, better yet, ask me about them because they're not even all that popular in Japan, let alone abroad, and you probably won't find much. They also broke up, like, seven years ago. But I found a video of a live of Shining Collection on youtube for you (the quality's kind of crap, sorry), because I can't really describe them. Kenichi Ito's got the crazy red hair, Daisuke Asakura's the blonde, and I don't really care about Rin, the singer, so whatever. It's all about K.Ito and DA.



See, this is why y'all should keep up with my blog. Exposure to Japanese culture beyond Sailor Moon and Hamasaki Ayumi. I've been spamming you with Takarazuka, now you get some semi-obscure synthesizer pop. Next time, I'll share some of DA's independent work, from the Quantum Mechanics Rainbow series (no, for real, that's what it's called), because I know I can find video online. That man is ridiculous. And so, so gay. I love him.

This is actually a Japan-centric entry (pretend that's special) in general, because I'm starting to consider what I want to do post-graduation and, roughly four months after my return to the States, I know that it's gotta involve going back to Japan. I'm starting to really miss it. Culture shock has been long since dealt with, at this point it's just a sort of longing. I've been saying JET, or KET, or Interac (but not Aeon, because they suck), but I'm starting to consider applying for Bekka. Bekka's a really intensive one-year Japanese language program, offered at various universities and intended to prep foreigners for passing Japanese university entrance exams. Do I want to go to a Japanese university? Maybe, maybe not. If I did, I'd want it to be TIU because I want to go back to Saitama-ken. But, regardless, a language program intended to help me pass the exams (which are terrifying) will definitely result in fluency. And that's my ultimate goal here.

That aside, my classes for next term have been chosen. It'll be a really easy semester: 100-level math, 100-level biology, and a 400-level English. If Fujiwara-sensei will give me the ok, I will also take 400-level Japanese, but the bio, which I need to graduate, conflicts two days a week, so she needs to assess the needs of the Japanese Studies majors before deciding if I can take the class or not. I'm really nervous about the possibility of not having Japanese, because it'll be so hard to progress while living in America without any sort of class. I'll study on my own, yeah, but I'll lose so much.

Right now, I'm just not thinking about it, because fretting over something out of my control is pointless. If I don't get into the class, I don't get into the class. I'll find a way to get back to Japan and finish learning to speak this language one way or another, even if I have to take a year off from studying properly.

And I am, as we speak, ignoring my philosophy reading. So I'll wrap this up by telling anyone who doesn't know yet to look up amazonfail. Just type it into google, you'll get the whole story fast enough. Short version: amazon.com stripped the sales rankings of most GLBT novels, thus all but removing them from search results. People are hella pissed. I'm laughing at the Amazon execs who are now forced to do massive damage control to try to save face.

All I can say is, well done, guys, way to get yourself bad press. I don't know what you thought you were going to achieve, but it definitely backfired.

ETA: I forgot to mention, in the flood of randomness, but I also spent my weekend at Sakuracon in Seattle. It's a big anime convention, delightfully dorky, and (when I wasn't being scarred for life by people showing off way more than they ever should, or being subjected to the Rick Roll song for the millionth time) a lot of fun. I can pretty much sum it all up with this picture, featuring me (dressed as Reno from FFVII), my sister (with her plastic jewelery) and Phillip (being... himself). Taken myspace style, while sitting in the back of open-mic karaoke (where we could rate performances without the performers noticing), for extra fun.

Seriously, that's... pretty much it, right there. The best photos from this con were taken like this, while chilling late at night and mocking bad singing. Good times, good times.