Christmas came and went on a sofa with a lot of NBA.
(Read: I went to my relatives' place and spent Christmas on the sofa reading books, and for various reasons there was a lot of NBA on TV)
I finally finished Unbroken Arrow : Sentou Yousei Yukikaze. If Good Luck was that mind.blown. experience Unbroken Arrow was OMFG MY MIND WAS BLOWN SO HARD I CAN'T FIND MY FACE. *cue Hollywood blockbuster explosion scene*
It was fantastic.
And I also read the 'understanding Sumo' book which made me want to see sumo even more. I want to put my new knowledge to use.
It was freakking fantastic.
But it doesn't feel very end-of-the-year, probably because I'm not with family at the moment.
In Japan, Christmas is generally considered the party with friends/a 'couple' thing, since there really isn't that religious resonance as much as in North America. It's an excuse to party.
The family gathering event is the new years (well, starting from new year's eve, or even earlier, depending on your schedule).
So basically, it's the flip side of North America. From what I understand, new years' here is when you get spectacularly drunk and can't leave parties early, and Christmas is the traditional family gathering with a lot of turkey.
Not that there isn't a lot of partying on new years' in Japan (there is), but most involve countdown concerts, or going to temples or shrines for hatsumoude (the first visit of the year). And anyway, partying is most often amongst family. It's kind of an obligatory thing to visit family at the new year's, like Christmas family visits in North America.
With my family, it was mostly just laying around in the living room watching the countdown on TV, then I'd stay awake reading my book while everyone went to sleep.
So, what I mean is family interaction really determines that end-of-year feeling.
Though I don't have that this year (staying in Toronto), it's balanced out by how excited I am to start reading Nuribotoke no Utage: Utage no Shimatsu in a few days.
2013年12月28日土曜日
2013年12月21日土曜日
Books I Got
EEEEEEEEEEEEEEE MY CHRISTMAS PRESENTS ARE HERE
MERRY (early) CHRISTMAS TO MEEEEEEEEEEEEEE
So I ended up ordering the sumo book and the Natsuhiko Kyougoku novel, along with several shonen manga because why the heck not.
This week was rather weird, with souvenirs, sushi, Frozen, fire alarm at 8:30 am, pancakes, and a girl complimenting my boots at the mall.
Anyway I am off to read ALL THE BOOKS (ok ok the Hyakki Yakou book #7 I will wait for another week and a half but everything else is fair game).
2013年12月12日木曜日
Books I Want
For the last 6 years I've had my own lonely (but hella fun) tradition of starting on a book from Kyougoku Natsuhiko's Hyakki Yakou series on new year's eve and finishing it on new year's (or at least within that week).
As I've mentioned before, it's a seriously thick book, by Japanese bunko standards. It's a long read. Plus, they're rather terrifying in that Japanese horror genre way, so it's not the nicest thing to read in the dead of night. But it's still a great read, every year. It's that once-a-year treat filled with mystery and intriguing characters and a whole lotta murder.
I'm thinking of buying several books from amazon Japan this year, including Hyakki Yakou book #7 Nuribotoke no Utage: Utage no Shimatsu, for this coming new year's eve.
Other books I'm thinking of ordering are an explanation/commentary book on the rules of Sumo (because duh, sumo), and a novel by Tomihiko Morimi (Uchouten Kazoku). Of course I also want the bunko version of Kaoru Takamura's Haruko Jouka (the hardcover is at home but I what the hell I want them all)...
As per my wishlist, I'm mostly a fiction reader with the occasional thing for non-fiction. I take the bookworm thing from my father's side of the family (which, I admit, I don't know very much about - neither do I about my mother's side, but that's another story).
But I think I'm the only one in the family that actively reads novels and fiction books regularly. Or at least overtly. Or use them as a way to avoid conversation during awkward family reunions during new year's.
Anyway the point is, I really really want to get a hold of the Hyakki Yakou book for this year. I've been slowly going through Unbroken Arrow: Sentou Yousei Yukikaze in my spare time, but it's winter, and that means I'm starting to crave the horror-mystery novel-fueled sleepless new year's eve.
Oh dear, that makes me realize how this year is almost over. Holy cheesecakes.
As I've mentioned before, it's a seriously thick book, by Japanese bunko standards. It's a long read. Plus, they're rather terrifying in that Japanese horror genre way, so it's not the nicest thing to read in the dead of night. But it's still a great read, every year. It's that once-a-year treat filled with mystery and intriguing characters and a whole lotta murder.
I'm thinking of buying several books from amazon Japan this year, including Hyakki Yakou book #7 Nuribotoke no Utage: Utage no Shimatsu, for this coming new year's eve.
Other books I'm thinking of ordering are an explanation/commentary book on the rules of Sumo (because duh, sumo), and a novel by Tomihiko Morimi (Uchouten Kazoku). Of course I also want the bunko version of Kaoru Takamura's Haruko Jouka (the hardcover is at home but I what the hell I want them all)...
As per my wishlist, I'm mostly a fiction reader with the occasional thing for non-fiction. I take the bookworm thing from my father's side of the family (which, I admit, I don't know very much about - neither do I about my mother's side, but that's another story).
But I think I'm the only one in the family that actively reads novels and fiction books regularly. Or at least overtly. Or use them as a way to avoid conversation during awkward family reunions during new year's.
Anyway the point is, I really really want to get a hold of the Hyakki Yakou book for this year. I've been slowly going through Unbroken Arrow: Sentou Yousei Yukikaze in my spare time, but it's winter, and that means I'm starting to crave the horror-mystery novel-fueled sleepless new year's eve.
Oh dear, that makes me realize how this year is almost over. Holy cheesecakes.
2013年12月6日金曜日
Old Art, or Lack Thereof
I lost the photos of my high school art project. All I have left are one or two edited pictures. I didn't expect myself to be this bummed about it.
(I even fished out my old computer to see if I had any photos in there - but all I got was a busted back.)
As much as I am fully aware of the extent of my artistic talent (which is abysmal), I must say I quite like art and drawing. High school was a highly disturbing time of self-awareness, and I vented a lot of it out through the IB visual art program. (It was then that I realized I pretty much suck at art, but might be good at research.)
I did what I wanted -to various levels of success- and was able to justify what I wanted. It was a good feeling.
Thinking back about my projects, it's surprising that what I'm interested in really hasn't changed since then. The theme/topics I chose were very... haphazard and not uniform, but they were all reflections of my areas of interest and therefore in a coherent list, in my head.
(Flowers, manga/comics, the aestheticism movement in Japanese literature, eyes, selfhood and identity, Japanese culture (from youkai to smoking to whales... I developed an irrational sense of fear towards whales because I researched about them and stared at photos for too long) etc.)
I threw out a majority of the actual art pieces when I finished school, but I did keep my work book. All of a sudden I want to revisit it, see how my brain processed things back then. Also for the information because a lot of them are relevant to some of my more recent stuff.
...I never expected that rainy, lonely visit to the Salt and Tobacco Museum in Shibuya to be of interest to me 7 years in the future.
(I even fished out my old computer to see if I had any photos in there - but all I got was a busted back.)
As much as I am fully aware of the extent of my artistic talent (which is abysmal), I must say I quite like art and drawing. High school was a highly disturbing time of self-awareness, and I vented a lot of it out through the IB visual art program. (It was then that I realized I pretty much suck at art, but might be good at research.)
I did what I wanted -to various levels of success- and was able to justify what I wanted. It was a good feeling.
Thinking back about my projects, it's surprising that what I'm interested in really hasn't changed since then. The theme/topics I chose were very... haphazard and not uniform, but they were all reflections of my areas of interest and therefore in a coherent list, in my head.
(Flowers, manga/comics, the aestheticism movement in Japanese literature, eyes, selfhood and identity, Japanese culture (from youkai to smoking to whales... I developed an irrational sense of fear towards whales because I researched about them and stared at photos for too long) etc.)
I threw out a majority of the actual art pieces when I finished school, but I did keep my work book. All of a sudden I want to revisit it, see how my brain processed things back then. Also for the information because a lot of them are relevant to some of my more recent stuff.
...I never expected that rainy, lonely visit to the Salt and Tobacco Museum in Shibuya to be of interest to me 7 years in the future.
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