Day 255 - 12th of May

11:08pm　セミナーハウス

天気：晴れ

Well, once again I did not get my field report completed however, I did get my sakubun rewrite done, and got started on my oral for tomorrow; so that was something. Today’s weather was better than yesterday’s, although there was a bit of a chill in the air; go away winter… After getting ready this morning, I found Carly at the front entrance. She needed internet to get in contact with her parents, so asked if she could borrow my laptop for today. I didn’t see anything wrong with it, so handed it over and then went on my way to uni; I needed to quickly get something to eat for breakfast before class. Today was in fact our last Speaking class, and after receiving the last of the review sheets, and a last few words from everyone we were done. It really was a wonderful class, and I will miss Saigo Sensei; he was a great teacher. We’ll, I’ll still be able to see him a couple more times, that next being my oral exam tomorrow. I worked on that in the break, and got most of my thoughts down. I’m talking about how I think parents should raise their kids, and I have to speak for 3-4 minutes, while sensei interjecting with questions every now and then. I’m not too worried about it, as I have a pretty good understanding of the grammar, and it’s a topic that I enjoy talking about; in English at least. I’ll just have to write down a few vocab words (we get up to 10) and I’ll be sweet.

In Reading and Writing today, we got our sakubun back, and I got exactly the same as last time; lots of little mistakes again. The rest of the class was spent finishing reading the story and grammar patterns. I went straight from there upstairs, and crashed the Monsters class (for the last time). Today, Rose and Tori were drawing Pokémon all over the board, since they would be learning about it in class today; wish I brought my camera. Far from Pokémon, today in class we talked about third genders, transsexuals, and gender identity disorder that is, after Professor Hester finally got the computer to talk to the projector. This was my last Onna to Otoko class, and it certainly didn’t disappoint. Probably the most interesting thing I learnt was that, a transsexual in Japan can get their official sex changed if they are over 20, not married, have no minor children and, get this, have no reproductive organs and genitals that resemble those of the other sex. So basically, you have to go the whole way; there’s no middle ground. We ended the lesson with the course evaluation, and then I made my way back down to the lounge.

I told Carly she could meet me back at the dorms, and then went grocery shopping; I was sorely in need of supplies. Getting back, I had enough time to make lunch before Carly arrived; we sat in the lounge and talked for a while. Then I got onto my sakubun, getting it finished in about an hour. I spent the rest of the afternoon on the report, and end up altering quite a bit of it; it’s because I care too much. At 7, I went up to eat, and found out that leftover okonomiyaki doesn’t taste all that bad. We watched a quiz show on TV; the one where they have to jump rope while answering questions. I was soon back downstairs, only to go back to the kitchen once more to make Carly’s dinner; Mac and Cheese. It’s annoying that guests aren’t allowed in the kitchen but, can’t be helped. While I was working on my report, Carly was trying to get her phone to work; international roaming didn’t want to cooperate for some reason. She was on the phone with a techie for almost an hour, but she thinks it’s all good now; I hope so. Finally, 10 came around and it was time for Carly to leave. Silly girl hadn’t brought a jacket so I lent her my jumper; she did bring her slippers today though, so that’s an improvement. I’m going to get some sleep now, so I can spend plenty of time in the morning preparing for my oral. After that, I’ll have a little bit of time to study before the Religion quiz…

Day 250 - 7th of May

10:12pm　カラオケ　－　牧野

天気：雨天

I’m at karaoke now. Ash, Rachel and I were bummed out about the fact that there was no free time the other day, so we decided to come again tonight! However, I haven’t been here as long as they have. I just came from 王将 (Osho – “King”), a gyoza place right next to Midori; there’s one near Hirakata station too, but we opted for this one since it is closer by bike…

10:21pm　カラオケ　

Just sang; Yay, I feel good… So yeah, I went with Chelsea, Rebecca, Brett, Liz and Julie to Osho and it was amazing. Since it is a gyoza place, of course I had to get some and it was delicious ~ 餃子 (gyoza) is basically a Chinese dumpling that consists of a meat and/or vegetable filling that is wrapped in thin dough; it resembles ravioli. I also tried the チャーハン (chahan), Chinese fried rice, which was equally yummy. We got there at about a quarter to 9, so spent a good hour sitting and talking, which was great. Also great, was how cheap my meal was; I got to finish off Liz’s and Julie’s meals as well. As for the rest of my day, well… It was raining quite heavily up until about 5 or so this evening; not fun. In Reading and Writing today, we read part of the story in chapter 6, called むかし夕日の公園で (Mukashi yuuhi no koen de – “Once upon a time at the park of the setting sun”). It’s really well written, full of description, so it actually feels like we’re reading a real Japanese story.

It’s actually turning out to be really scary. This kid, who’s in a park surrounded by tall buildings at sunset (so it’s quite dark already) all alone, is thrusting his arm deep into to sandpit in the corner of the park, trying to gauge how deep it is. He’s arm is submerged up to his shoulder, and his fingers have just hit something. He can’t quite grab onto it, but what feels like women’s hair is starting to twine around his fingers… and that’s as far as we’ve gotten; so much suspense right now!!! After that, I went to my speaking class and dived straight into my presentation, and that went pretty well, although I did go overtime; we all did. And this time we really knew about it because Saigo Sensei brought in a time, and it beeped rather obnoxiously after 5 minutes; he was on the ball though, and was quick to silence it. That done, I went over to the club room and practiced Miyabi with Maarika and Mori Sempai until about 1, when I had to get to class; I ate some onigiri in the lounge before-hand.

In Gender and Sexuality, most of the lesson was taken up watching “Shinjuku Boys”, which was a documentary about Onabe, working in a club in Shijuku. Onabe are women who identify more strongly as men, and display hetero-normative masculine behaviour; the male equivalent is Okama. You could say they are transgender, and a few were taking hormone treatments; gender re-assignment surgery was illegal in Japan at the time. The doco cented around three “women”, who worked at this particular club where Onabe dress up as men (and act like men) and serve women; presumably straight women. It get’s stranger… two of them were in a relationship, one with a girl who identifies herself as straight and sees “him” as a guy, just with a penis, and the other one is with a drag queen who had had his genitals removed; that was a very interesting case. The third was more of a play “boy” (it serious didn’t take me long to refer to this person as a he), who reminded me of the guys in the host club in the other doco we watched; basically playing on women. I found the whole think fascinating. We also got our review sheet for the quiz next week, and the final take home exam criteria sheet; that was just depressing. Somehow, I’m going to squeeze everything in.

After class, I went to the club room once more, and after a bit more practice, we got set up in the club hall on the first floor, in preparation for the all the culture club presentations. This went from 5 till 6:30, and there were some great performances; I wish I had brought my video camera. Before we performed, two guys played an amazing piece on acoustic guitar and after us was the chorus club. They sang Angela Aki’s “Tegami”, which made me mega happy; it’s one of my favourite songs to sing at karaoke. It made me miss high school choir a lot though. It was nice to see that there were two international students in the club (both guys), which was great considering there were only two other guys. I would have been right there to support them, had I not joined the koto club. But then I think, “been there, done that”, and I’m glad I’m trying something new. Our performance went quite well, and I think that’s the biggest crowd I’ve performed in front of; at least 30 people. I’m really happy with the progress I’m made, and when I look back, I really have come far from my humble beginnings playing Sakura sakura. Maybe, I’ll be able to pick up the koto again someday. The event ended with the dance club, and we got to see ballroom, tango, salsa and contemporary; the cotemporary performance was definitely the best. By that time, it was 6:30 and after packing up, I had to rush home in order to make it in time for the meeting at 7; well, I didn’t have to rush that much.

I had time enough to get back to my room, and talk to Hugo about the night bus. He recommended a site to me that was really comprehensive, and we found a bus from Hirakatashi to Tokyo, which is wonderful. I’m going to have a lot of luggage, and I’m not going to want to lug it too far. So, I have to book that very soon. The meeting, our last meeting, was over in about half an hour, and afterwards Yuji approached me about the farewell party a.k.a. “Academic Party” (I love Yuji so much, xD), and asked if I would make my Milo biscuits for everyone again; I guess they really were a hit. Since I would receive money to pay for the ingredients, I was more than happy to oblige. Also, I get to play the koto for it; that’ll definitely be my last time. I’m going to try and play Miyabi; I’ll have to fust the first and second koto parts so it doesn’t sound too empty. So, that’s something else to look forward to. After that, we were pretty much off, as so as everyone was ready. Since Julie didn’t have a bike, she rode on the back of mine; I was a bit wobbly at first, but soon got used to it. Suddenly, I’m feeling very tired. I’m going to have a good sleep in tomorrow, and the get my sakubun done; hopefully…

Day 241 - 28th of April

8:54pm　カラオケ　－　枚方市

天気：晴れ

I’m at Karaoke with Brett, Katie, Liz, Sam, Priscilla, Chelsea, Julie, Rebecca and Rachel; we’ve been here since about 7. Today was a warm, sunny day, and even walking to the bus stop this evening was pleasant…I woke up at about 7 this morning, and made scrambled eggs for breakfast; I didn’t want to buy anymore milk for cereal since I’ll be going away tomorrow. I got to uni a little early, and took a final look at my vocab list before going into the test. Well, I think I did really well on everything except for the listening; even Saigo Sensei said it was difficult. Oh well, hopefully the other sections will bring up my mark. After that, I went to Katie and Sarah’s class to watch their skit; I couldn’t miss it for the world. I hadn’t realised until now, but their Sensei is my Sensei from last semester; Miyauchi. He remembered me, and was happy for me to stay and watch; he even gave me the slips of paper to comment on. As for their skit, it was absolute chaos in the best way possible. They basically condensed all three LOTR’s movies into 10 minutes, switching between about 10 different characters between them in fast succession; it was well done. Then they had a plethora of stuffed animals portraying the orcs, the Balrog, and Shelob; it was hilarious. I stuck around and watched the other two skits, but Katie and Sarah’s was definitely the most entertaining.

After that, I had a little bit of time to revise for the vocab quiz in Reading and Writing. Well, it wasn’t my best, but it wasn’t terrible either; last one too. We spent the rest of the lesson going over the grammar points. Then we had to complete the course evaluation for the class; I took this one to the office too. After that, it was time for Gender and Sexuality. Today we talked about the gay identity in Japan, before looking at a representation of lesbians in Japan with the animation, “Plicachan”. It was a clever, funny, and cute film, but also brought up serious issues about the way lesbians are viewed in Japan; it was really very interesting. And that was that, I was home-free; well, after picking up some bread for lunch. After lunch, I talked with my family for a good two hours, and then I got my blog up to date, before making dinner; it was about 6:30 by then. I had to hurry up, since we would be going to karaoke by bus at 7:50. I made, and then wolfed down a huge okonomiyaki, and then showered and dressed. Hugo is leaving for Tokyo tonight, so I wished him a good trip, and then went to meet the others… I don’t know how late I’m going to stay tonight, since I’ve got to get going for Hikone in the morning; I’ll see how I go…

Day 236 - 23rd of April

天気：曇り

While threatening clouds dominated the sky throughout the day, it never did actually rain; it was still cold and windy though… Waking up this morning, I got ready, and then had a little bit more time to study for my test; not that I really needed it. I rode to uni with Rachel, and then got to class with plenty of time to spare. The test turned out to be pretty easy; I remembered all the kanji and grammar patterns. That done, I went to Speaking, and we spent half the lesson going over the pick-up lines people had come up with yesterday; some of them were quite funny. We quickly went over the grammar patterns (which again were from level 3), before watching an animated short in Japanese; it was interesting, to say the least. After that, I was free to go home for a little while. After picking up some groceries, I had lunch, and then did some reading. Getting back to uni, I met with Ash and Katie, who were on their way to USJ this afternoon; making the most of their season passes. I was soon in Gender and Sexuality, and after short discussion about host and hostess clubs, we went onto our final topic; sexuality and gender minorities. Today, we discussed homosexuality. It was interesting to contemplate homosexual as a sexual activity, and homosexual as an identity, because they are different things. There are many examples of what is called “institutionalised homosexuality”, activities or behaviours that do not reflect sexual preferences or lifestyle, but are simply parts of the norms of the institution or society.

Throughout Japanese history, there have been numerous examples of age-structured practices of men-loving-men, from Buddhist institutions to the warrior class. These acts were done in order to strengthen the relationship between priest and acolyte, subordinate and commander. Kabuki and the urban class also have a long tradition of homosexual practices. During the Edo period, homosexuality was banned for just 8 years, and the fact that no other effort has been made since to restrict male/male sex indicates that Japan doesn’t have an elaborate, punitive view of certain sexual acts, unlike other countries where religious beliefs come into play. Another interesting thing to note is the shift between homosexuality as behaviour to homosexual as a person (the medical model), which brought about new terminology in Japan. The word 同性愛 (douseiai – lit. “same sex love”) came about in the early 20^th century, when the occurrence of female/female sex was identified in many girl’s boarding schools; before this, there had been no context for putting men and women in the same category. The funny thing is, the word for heterosexuality 異性愛 (iseiai – lit. “unusual sex love”) was derived from the homosexual term. And that was me done for the day; the weekend upon us once more.

Getting back home, I tried to do my homework but failed, and a look at my Alice in Wonderland ticket stub, lead to a chain reaction that resulted in me having a huge chuck-out. I went through all my draws and tidied them, got rid of all the bits of paper, magazines, flyers and the like that I really didn’t need, dusted my shelves and started getting the books and merchandise I had collected boxed up, and then vacuumed the floor; it was quite invigorating actually. It about two hours, but I was really happy that I was able to start getting things sorted out for going home; I probably threw away about 10kgs worth of paper and plastic. Of course, I kept the important things, like the pamphlets and tickets from places I’ve been, and some nice wrapping paper; I can handle lugging that home. Afterwards, I managed to get my homework done, and then I went up to make dinner; it was about 6:30, and the kitchen was empty. I was well into cooking my chicken pasta dish before Rachel and Sarah arrived. Sitting down, we ate while watching Doraemon on TV, and at about 7:30, Julie came in asking if we were still up for watching ゲド戦記 (Gedo senki – i.e. Tales from Earthsea), directed by Goro Miyazaki; son of Studio Ghibli’s Hayou Miyazaki. While I hadn’t particularly liked it the first time I’d seen it, I was willing to give it another go, so Julie, Rachel, Chelsea and I all went up to Julie’s room and squished up on her futon, in front of the laptop.

Honestly, I enjoyed the movie a lot more this time around and I think it might have had something to do with the fact that we watched it in Japanese; poor dubbing can see the downfall of any good movie. However, in comparison to other Ghibli films, it’s definitely not up there for me. This was the first time I’d seen it in Japanese, and something that confused me was the use of a female voice actor for the main antagonist, Lord Cob. In the English version, the character (which is male, although I suppose it is a little ambiguous) had a creepy man’s voice, but in the Japanese version, it was a clearly a women’s persona; not a womanly-man. So that was a little strange, especially considering it had been produced in Japanese first. After the movie, we lounged around for a little while and then, since Chelsea was hungry, we decided to go to Fresco to pick up some food; it was already past 10:30 at night. In the hallway, I bumped into Katie and she had candy canes to give us. Going to her room, I asked the two about their day at USJ, and they said they had a wonderful time, and got a chance to go on the new ride, which was amazing; I kinda wish I’d gone. Then I received the candy canes from Katie (which were left over from Christmas), and a Hetalia pin from Ash; I have to go collect more now! I went to the kitchen, and handed a bunch of the candy canes out, and then got rugged up for our outing. We ended up riding to Fresco, and I couldn’t help buying an ice cream while I was there; everyone else was. Chelsea got some gyoza and fresh yakitori so she was very satisfied when we returned home to eat. It was about 11:30 when we gathered together once more, but in the kitchen this time, since Jazz was going to bed. To end the night, we ended up watching Aladdin, and I enjoyed watching Rachel mouthing the script throughout the entire movie; it’s clearly her favourite Disney movie…