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.
Hello there,
返信削除Ironically I found your blog by doing a search for "Unbroken Arrow" on Google and this was one of the results.
I'm a huge fan of the Yukikaze novels. In fact, I am the person who rewrote the entire Yukikaze page on TvTropes so that it would more accurately reflect the differences between the anime, manga, and novels:
http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Franchise/SentouYouseiYukikaze
I was actually wondering if you would be open to me asking you some questions about Unbroken Arrow. Unfortunately, being an American, it has been three years since Good Luck was released in the U.S. and there is still no word from Haika Soru on whether this will ever get translated into English, and I am dying to know a few things about the story. Though, honestly, I am holding out hope that Tom Cruise's Yukikaze movie will create enough interest in translating Unbroken Arrow.
My email address is m.chandra@inbox.com. If you wouldn't mind, would you be okay with sending me yours to talk? Thank you very much.