Another successful weekend...
Aug. 11th, 2003 01:42 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
akujunkan...of drinking, sleeping, and slumming concluded.
Did some more scouting of my town, ran across two huge Buddhist statues at twilight. Backlit by the setting sun and Futagami mountain, they were awe inspiring. The sight sent chills down my spine in a way Christian monuments have never been able to do. I understood what people mean when they talk about being able to feel how sacred a place is.
Chilled with a very diverse group on Saturday, including two kids from Scotland (luv that accent), a kid from Northern Ireland, and another kid from the Chicago area. Knew that I would like all of these people after perusing their record collections and finding that they all had peerless taste in good, hard-to-hear-about music.
Was a little put off, however by one quote: "I feel guilty about liking David Gray because his music is so accessible. People who aren't cool enough to have heard of Belle and Sebastian listen to him. People who listen to Britney Spears listen to him."
I was like, wow. It was my first experience meeting an actual alternakid/music snob (as opposed to the more usual geeks who like obscure stuff but don't cop an attitude about it).
For those who are interested in such things, I have no completed all my entries to the SSFQF. A comprehensive list of story titles follows: Last Words, Songfic, Snape Discourages His Suitor, and Devil's Kiss. The second and fourth are rather explicit, the remaining two are G-rated. They can be found on the Fest website.
I was thinking about all the Nanzan crew who are back in Japan this year: myself,![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
amasugiru, Negi, Happa no Freddie, Owen, Triston, Rambin-san, Rouleau-san, Jorge, Clarke, Margie; the Nanzan crew planning to visit Luke-the-asshole, Adria; the Nanzan crew who stayed on for another year, Shu and Jon; and the Nanzan crew who tried JET but didn't make it - Ashley-girl-san. Why is it that Japan, for as much as it might piss you off, is able to get its claws into you something fierce? Basically, the above list is comprised of sixteen people who spent a year in Japan, went home to graduate, and then began immediately scheming as to how to get back into the country.
For as much as the crowds, the xenophobia, the staring, and the stick-up-the-ass adhesion to protocol annoy the hell out of me (and others), why are we so desperate to get back over?
I think it has to do with small pleasures:
Milk tea, which I can never get to taste right when I try making it at home,
Jidouhanbaiki every two steps,
The yellow strip down the sidewalk,
The running man crosswalks,
The school uniforms,
The amusing idiocy of J-Pop,
The surreality of Japanese TV/Shi-emu,
The crowds,
The o-tera and jinja dotting the landscape,
The bowing and keigo,
Conbini,
Nomihodai/tabehodai,
Izukaya,
and on and on and on.
You just can't get that shit in the States.
Did some more scouting of my town, ran across two huge Buddhist statues at twilight. Backlit by the setting sun and Futagami mountain, they were awe inspiring. The sight sent chills down my spine in a way Christian monuments have never been able to do. I understood what people mean when they talk about being able to feel how sacred a place is.
Chilled with a very diverse group on Saturday, including two kids from Scotland (luv that accent), a kid from Northern Ireland, and another kid from the Chicago area. Knew that I would like all of these people after perusing their record collections and finding that they all had peerless taste in good, hard-to-hear-about music.
Was a little put off, however by one quote: "I feel guilty about liking David Gray because his music is so accessible. People who aren't cool enough to have heard of Belle and Sebastian listen to him. People who listen to Britney Spears listen to him."
I was like, wow. It was my first experience meeting an actual alternakid/music snob (as opposed to the more usual geeks who like obscure stuff but don't cop an attitude about it).
For those who are interested in such things, I have no completed all my entries to the SSFQF. A comprehensive list of story titles follows: Last Words, Songfic, Snape Discourages His Suitor, and Devil's Kiss. The second and fourth are rather explicit, the remaining two are G-rated. They can be found on the Fest website.
I was thinking about all the Nanzan crew who are back in Japan this year: myself,
amasugiru, Negi, Happa no Freddie, Owen, Triston, Rambin-san, Rouleau-san, Jorge, Clarke, Margie; the Nanzan crew planning to visit Luke-the-asshole, Adria; the Nanzan crew who stayed on for another year, Shu and Jon; and the Nanzan crew who tried JET but didn't make it - Ashley-girl-san. Why is it that Japan, for as much as it might piss you off, is able to get its claws into you something fierce? Basically, the above list is comprised of sixteen people who spent a year in Japan, went home to graduate, and then began immediately scheming as to how to get back into the country. For as much as the crowds, the xenophobia, the staring, and the stick-up-the-ass adhesion to protocol annoy the hell out of me (and others), why are we so desperate to get back over?
I think it has to do with small pleasures:
Milk tea, which I can never get to taste right when I try making it at home,
Jidouhanbaiki every two steps,
The yellow strip down the sidewalk,
The running man crosswalks,
The school uniforms,
The amusing idiocy of J-Pop,
The surreality of Japanese TV/Shi-emu,
The crowds,
The o-tera and jinja dotting the landscape,
The bowing and keigo,
Conbini,
Nomihodai/tabehodai,
Izukaya,
and on and on and on.
You just can't get that shit in the States.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
Blah blah blah
on 2003-08-10 10:51 pm (UTC)Actually I think I am closer to 2hrs away... simply because my ass has to ride the local for a good while to get to Yagi.
Yeah, I don't know where the hell my hard off went ;) God, its too easy. I think it might be better, in my case, to ride into Osaka for a Book Off because I am scard to see the poor selection the Kashiba-shi branch has.
Do you have a number I can contact you at yet? I am just trying to figure out how we can work this out. I don't mind going in for a day... unless you want to spend the night... lord knows where.
Re: Blah blah blah
on 2003-08-12 02:33 am (UTC)Not only do we have BookOff, but we also have two BookOff knockoffs - Book Market and Book Geo. Both cop BookOff's colors, but have shitty selections.
Don't know how our BookOff is, cause I haven't been there yet.
As for Nagoya, I don't know if I can get off early this Friday, as that's the day I teach at the handicapped school. I'll let you know tomorrow or Thursday. As for staying overnight in Nagoya - I'm up for it. And remember, Royal Hosts and karaoke rooms are cheap overnight spots.
PS
on 2003-08-10 11:17 pm (UTC)Which leads me to ask: Where are Tristan and Happa residing? And how did Tokyo orientation go?
Re: PS
on 2003-08-12 02:34 am (UTC)Triston, lucky bastard is in Kagoshima, on Kyushu.
Man, Happa no. That takes me back. Die, you dumb little leaf.
no subject
on 2003-08-11 01:54 am (UTC)*glomps*
*g*
Wheeeeeee!
on 2003-08-12 02:37 am (UTC)Ohmygod, so I wrote this slash story, and Nny came up and glomped me, and I was like, "Wheeeeeeee!"
< / gonads and strife >
Seriously, thanks for the glompies. And I'm so sorry to hear about your grandmother:-( Sometimes it's worse when you don't feel like you think you should...