Rocking in Hakata

So…I generally haven’t read manga up until now. Why? Well, I am not even close to literate in Japanese and am wary about what part of the store I’m standing in. After all, in video shops, you end up hip deep in porn as you travel along the friendly family animations wall. It’s not entirely ridiculous to be overcautious. Also, the only manga that I’d had any exposure to was the wildly frilly for-girls type stuff or the robot stuff. What an incredible mistake! At long last, I’ve tried one, and found that I dig it. It’s called ダーリンは外国人, or My Darling is a Foreigner. (And, interestingly enough, the second book in the series addresses foreigners’ misconceptions about manga. Ha ha. Irony.)

The first book is all about the dating life of Saori Oguri and Tony Laszlo. Saori is obviously a Japanese woman. Tony is an American of Hungarian heritage. Also, he’s a freaking genius. Ok, maybe that’s overstating it, but he is quite gifted when it comes to linguistics. Anyway, the first book in the series (orange cover) follows the adventures that these two have when the move in with one another and start life together. The Japanese is pretty easy to follow, in my opinion. That makes it a quick read. It’s under 200 pages, and if my average is anything to go by, you can kill it off easily in 2 sittings. I tend to read between 80 and 100 pages at a time, anyway. (This holds true for the second book -yellow cover- as well, especially because it includes furigana to aid foreign readers, but not for the third - green cover. The third one deals with pregnancy and childbirth, and thus has loads of words that I’m completely unfamiliar with, so it requires more extensive use of the dictionary…)

Anyway, some really goofy stuff is brought up in their relationship, but there are more thoughtful and meaningful moments too. An example of lightheartedness might be the anecdote where Saori desires to be called by some sort of pet name. The movies she was watching featured romantic nicknames between loved ones, so she wanted one. Tony’s sort of apathetic to the whole thing and apparently doesn’t want to create one from obligation, so he doesn’t. Saori, undeterred, decides that if he won’t call her by a pet name, she’ll call him by one. She decides on “my wolf,” to Tony’s dismay. Tony later nicknames her after a tree, I think, to her dismay. They really enjoy teasing one another. An example of a more serious note would be the search for an apartment to share. When it is learned that Tony is a foreign man, loads of places turn them away. Saori notes that that was the first time in her life that she’d ever truly experienced discrimination. (But they don’t get preachy about it. They note the problem and basically encourage change without getting melodramatic. I really appreciate that.)

The second book deals with married life. It involves more cultural interaction, and similarly touches on ridiculous things and problematic things. I already mentioned that it launches into a castigation of foreign misunderstanding of manga. I cop to that, but apologize, and have changed my ways. Other fun items include an overstep by Saori’s mom, who calls Tony 「あなた」 at one point (and later asks to be called 「お母ちゃん」, which is also shot down). That drives Saori up the wall. She’s bothered by how close Tony and her mom have become. (Tony’s mother in law even tends to side with him in arguments with Saori…ha ha ha.) It’s a funny territorial issue. In this series, Tony always has little mini-essays interspersed with the types of short giggle-worthy frames that I’ve given you a glimpse of here. It’s pretty easy to follow, and tends to bookend the themed sections of each release.

I liked the first book so much that I went to a store and bought the other two immediately. I also picked up this book - 「ダーリンの頭ン中」 (Inside Darling’s Head). It’s apparently his thoughts on the study of language. I’ll be reading that one next, as soon as I’ve finished the third book (”with baby”). (Wow. As I am writing this, another teacher here walked over and handed me another one! 「母に習えばウマウマごはん」 - a sort of manga / cookbook from the same author? Cool!)

Anyway, I’d really love to know what your impressions are about the series if you’ve read it. Also, I’m unsure about where to go from here, so if you’ve got any suggestions for me, please drop them in the comments!

Bonus: Translations of the frames I included here.　(You can click on them for bigger versions, by the way. Just not on the book covers themselves.)

1. アルパカ　トニー
Alpaca Tony

2. バレバレ 冷蔵庫にお茶を取りに行くときのトニー　
冷蔵庫にチョコアイスを取りに行くときのトニー
Busted! This is Tony going to the refrigerator for some tea. This is Tony going to the refrigerator for some chocolate ice cream.

3. 気づいて！ 電車の中で…　ガタン　ゴトン　「あっボクと同じケータイ！」　ぐっ　気づいてー　ブンブン　「あぁ…」　「満足…」　ハッ　「このあとどうすればいいのか…！！」　ナンパと思われたかも！？　「忙しく作業する　フリをするのだっ」　あー忙しい忙しい　「社交的なのか　シャイなのか」
Please notice! On a train… chugga-chugga chugga-chugga “Hey, she’s got the same cell phone I do!” Oof Notiiice… woosh-woosh* “Aaah.” “Satisfaction…” CRUD! “What do I do now?” She might have thought I was hitting on her!? “Pretend to be busy… Withdraw from the situation…” Cruuud….busy busy busy. “Is he sociable or shy, which is it?”

* I actually think this is more like a fluttering noise. Kind of like a hummingbird’s half buzz-half hum- half drone-half flapping sound. Yes, it is a mathematically complex sound with 4 halves. Got a problem with that?

4. ざんげ　姉と電話していて　うん　うん　「それで？」「それでね…」　「そのときに　あ～ん　あ～ん」　「あっかのこ泣きだした？」 「よーし　負けないぞーっ　あ～ん　あ～ん　う～わ～ん」　ちょっ…ちょっと…　あ～ん　会えば　「おいでー　私がホントのお母さんだよー」といって洗脳しようとします…　すいません…　友だちの子どもにもやります…　ほんとすいません…
Confession -on the phone with my older sister- mm hmm mm hmm “And?” “Well…” “Then- WAaaAaa” “Ooh, Kanoko’s crying?” “Ok, I’m not going to lose to her. WaaAAaA WAAaaAAa AAAhhhaaaWaaaaaaAAa” He-hey*… -if we get to meet- “Come here, I’m your real mother…” I try to brainwash her by saying stuff like this. Sorry. I do it to my friends’ kids too. Really sorry.

*- Kind of like, “Whoa. Hello? What’s the big idea?”

Also - apparently Debito doesn’t like Tony much. I don’t know the guy in real life, but I quite like the fanciful character in the manga. And I don’t always agree with Debito anyway. But it’s curious, anyhow. Dunno if it’s a turf issue or legitimate. Oh well. (I’ll just go on with my current idealistic appreciation of everybody, believing that they’re all nice people until they prove otherwise to me. It’s all my poor little brain can handle.)

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I’ve done it! I’ve joined Lang-8. I couldn’t help it. Everybody has been raving about it, so I thought, you know - I should give this a try. I wrote my first entry this afternoon about an interesting animate / inanimate verb problem that was discussed earlier at Victory Manual. Within 2 hours I had 2 revisions completed for me, with easy-to-follow markup. I can see who changed what and everything. In short: this site’s hype is well deserved. This seems like it has great potential as a learning tool. I went ahead and corrected 2 or 3 other people’s entries in English to embrace the spirit of the site. Anyway, I wanted to welcome you to join and be my friend. Also, I’ll be adding a small banner on the left side for the site. Cool stuff. I kinda wish I’d joined earlier. Ha ha.

UPDATE: Doh! I’d be a fool not to point you to Koichi’s post about how to use Lang-8, and also his video review of the site. (If you look at the Lang-8 questionnaire right now, loads of people are mentioning these posts. Nicely done, sir.)

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I was minding my own business doing some English vocabulary review in the teacher’s room yesterday afternoon. Just before 5th period began, one of our math teachers runs in and asks me if I speak German. I wish I did. But I don’t. I told him so, and shrugged, as if to say “hey, it was worth a shot asking.” He then threw an apron at me. This is usually reserved for the home economics teacher, so I was confused. Why am I doing mathematics in German while wearing an apron? Well, it turns out that part of the job-hunt program here brought four fellows from a Matsuyama patissierie. The lead confectioner was a wonderfully kind bearded German man. He spoke no English (Japanese either), and I spoke no German. But we got along quite well.

I went and participated with the ebbing and flowing pool of students. They all have responsibilities to take care of, and the lesson spanned 2 periods. Some were there the whole time; some only for the first half, some only for the second. I watched the German gentleman sculpt some animals from marzipan. Then he had us all split into groups and try it. I successfully made a marzipan rose and a marzipan pig. I even decorated the eyes with white chocolate (and normal brown for the irises). Then, we went back to the front of the room where we learned how to use a piping bag made from wax paper to write in frosting. Again, we split into groups and tried writing - at first on a silpat non-stick sheet, and then on an actual cookie. I wrote in English and Japanese, using block letters, cursive script, kana and kanji. It was good fun.

Lastly, they announced that my supervisor’s birthday is tomorrow. So they brought out 3 larger cookies and asked us to use what we’d learned to write her some birthday wishes. All in all, it was a really nice surprise at the end of an otherwise incredibly boring day.

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I recently came across the first posters for the annual Imabari Onmaku Festival. It looks like they hired a real graphic designer this time around - the poster really makes me want to go! (Unfortunately, I will be unable to do so. Just like last year, I’ll be at the Nametoko English Camp. What is up with the scheduling? Sigh.) Anyway, here’s a translation of the explanation for this year’s theme and poster from the Onmaku website.

〜テーマ〜
「POWER」

街頭ポスターには欠かせない、人を引きつける魅力『力強さ・美しさ』をコンセプトに制作しました。

テーマにあげた「POWER」を一目でイメージでき、祭りの臨場感を感じてもらうことを念頭に、全体の基本色を情熱の赤とし、おんまくの最後を飾る大玉花火をバックに、伝統芸能・ダンスバリサイ・木山音頭の個々のエネルギーが満ちあふれる様を、ポスターの主役であるPOWERみなぎる少女の躍動感を合わせて表現しました。

このポスターから、市民の強く熱い気持ちを感じてもらえれば幸いです。
(onmaku.jp)

-Theme-
“POWER”

Don’t miss the new posters in the street, which pull people in with the attractive “striking and beautiful” concept we came up with.

With your own eyes, you can easily envision the meaning of the theme “POWER” and recognize the festive feeling in the air. The color scheme is based heavily on a passionate red. We’ve chosen the final fireworks volley of the Onmaku festival as a background, over which we layered images of traditional cultural performances, the Dance Barisai*, and people overflowing with the energy of the Kiyama workmen’s songs. The leading lady on the poster is a girl bursting with POWER, whom we’ve presented in the midst of exemplary lively movement.

If, from this poster, you can experience the strong, warm feelings of the townspeople, we are quite pleased.

* “Bari” is probably from “Imabari.” It’s used frequently here. (The radio station is Baribari FM, for instance.) Put together with “sai” probably makes it akin to “Imabari Dance Festival” in shorthand.

Apparently, I’m not the only one who noticed the posters, either. Here’s a Japanese fellow in the area, who blogs in English about it. If you’re up for it, why not leave him a comment or message of encouragement? It’s always nice to build others up. Here’s a quote from his entry.

The fireworks of Imabari “ONMAKU Festival” are famous, and, in the program, many sightseers come from each place.

ONMAKU means “as hard as possible” “intensely” “very hard”.

The fireworks of ONMAKU hark back to the musical of a very beautiful night sky.

Surely the scene of the force and the fascination will make you who came feel happy.

I also snagged the video introduction to the festival from the official site. I re-encoded it as a flash video, for your convenience, and have uploaded it here. You can watch it below. Sorry, the quality is limited by the source video, and the entire thing is in Japanese. But it’s great practice, and fairly easy to understand everyone who speaks. (Ok, maybe minus the old guy at times. Maybe.)

Is anybody going to Onmaku this year? Take pictures and videos for me! I need to experience it vicariously at least. Sigh.

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[Comic #281 from XKCD, by Randall Munroe]
***

I recently had a package shipped from America to my apartment here. I received a tracking number for it via email. Normally, this makes me happy, because I can see the estimated delivery date - and sometimes even the time. This time, however, I was seriously let down. Web tracking is only helpful if it is updated as close to real-time as possible. The United States Postal Service needs to figure that out. I started tracking my package on its sojourn over the vast Pacific Ocean. According to the tracking, things were progressing well - but I started to get antsy at how much time was being consumed by the checkpoints. It was only when the package arrived at my house that the problem revealed itself. The tracking system was nearly 48 hours behind in updates! Hello! What is the point of a tracking system that will tell me I got something TWO DAYS after I get it? You’d think that I’d…you know…have caught on by then.

Long story short: web tracking sucks!

Bonus - I once sent 2 postcards from my university post office. One was sent to my hometown, located within state about 300 miles or so away. The other was sent to Skien, Norway. Guess which one got there first. Yes. The Norwegian post office should be proud. Or, again, the USPS should be ashamed. I can’t believe we subsidize this stuff.

Bonus #2 - the IRS needs to get on the ball, too. I received my Economic Stimulus Act of 2008 check in the mail about a week ago, out of the blue. Today, I got a notice that I should receive a check in the mail within 6 weeks of receiving the letter. Brilliant. Bureaucracy at work. (Also - sorry to all the people I inadvertently stole my “stimulus” check from. Since I earn less than $70,000 USD I am fully tax exempt so far as the IRS is concerned. That means I got some of YOUR money back. I appreciate it though. What to buy, what to buy…)

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