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.