Anki:
JLPT Vocabulary Deck: 950 cards learned, reps completed.
Heisig Deck: 1200 cards learned, reps completed.
Smart.fm:
Japanese Core 2000 Step 10: Review complete. Return 08/16/2010.
Intermediate Japanese Step 1: Review complete, learned 22 new cards. Return 08/12/2010.
Anki:
JLPT Vocabulary Deck: 900 cards learned, reps completed.
Heisig Deck: 1150 cards learned, reps completed.
Smart.fm:
Japanese Core 2000 Step 9: Review complete. Return 08/12/2010.
Japanese Core 2000 Step 10: Review complete. Return 08/12/2010.
Intermediate Japanese Step 1: Review complete, learned 25 new cards. Return 08/11/2010.
Anki:
JLPT Vocabulary Deck: 850 cards learned, reps completed.
Heisig Deck: 1100 cards learned, reps completed.
Smart.fm:
Japanese Core 2000 Step 10: Review complete. Return 08/11/2010.
Intermediate Japanese Step 1: Review complete, learned 28 new cards. Return 08/10/2010.
Anki:
JLPT Vocabulary Deck: 800 cards learned, reps completed.
Heisig Deck: 1050 cards learned, reps completed.
Smart.fm:
Japanese Core 2000 Step 4: Review complete. Return 08/25/2010.
Japanese Core 2000 Step 10: Review complete. Return 08/09/2010.
Intermediate Japanese Step 1: Reviewed 32/70, learned 10 new cards. Return 08/09/2010.
Anki:
JLPT Vocabulary Deck: 750 cards learned, reps completed.
Heisig Deck: 1000 cards learned, reps completed.
Smart.fm:
Japanese Core 2000 Step 3: Review complete. Return 09/16/2010.
Japanese Core 2000 Step 9: Review complete. Return 08/11/2010.
Japanese Core 2000 Step 10: Review complete. Return 08/08/2010.
Intermediate Japanese Step 1: Review complete, learned 29 new cards. Return 08/08/2010.
Anki:
JLPT Vocabulary Deck: 716 cards learned, reps completed.
Heisig Deck: 950 cards learned, reps completed.
Smart.fm:
Japanese Core 2000 Step 9: Review complete. Return 08/08/2010.
Japanese Core 2000 Step 10: Review complete. Return 08/07/2010.
Intermediate Japanese Step 1: Review complete, learned 58 new cards. Return 08/07/2010.
Anki:
JLPT Vocabulary Deck: 691 cards learned, reps completed.
Heisig Deck: 900 cards learned, reps completed.
Smart.fm
Japanese Core 2000 Step 10: Review complete. Return 08/06/2010.
Intermediate Japanese Step 1: Learned 50 new cards. Return 08/06/2010.
So, all one of you that follow this blog (hi Cat!) have put up with many restarts of it over the past few years. My hope has always been to keep a blog about my studies in Japan/Japanese without being overly snooty and occasionally falling into talking about my interest in lolita fashion and my dire love of shoujo manga, but anyone who’s read through my livejournal know I’m prone to long ramblings about the current state of my life in between summaries of events in life. And then, of course, there’s the occasional drunk out of my mind post, and who doesn’t regret those? In short, although I’ve typically managed to keep this blog on topic, there have always occasionally popped up these posts that I simply regret and are, instead of being about Japan-related things, largely selfish rants better suited to my lj. You can see a glimmer of this in yesterday’s post toward the end when I wonder where all the untranslated manga has gone. Indeed, this post is even a bit of what I’m talking about!
Then, of course, there are the month-long gaps where I don’t post at all, and thus, when I finally return to this blog, I always feel that my only option is to start over. The prior incarnation of this blog included translations and short postings I wrote for my graduate course work, but although these fall under the purview of “related to Japan,” they don’t feel as if they’re in the spirit of what I wanted to do here originally. Yes, I’d like to talk about my research, but there’s always the worry that posting a translation of a 説話 (setsuwa) will somehow infringe on a copyright somewhere in the world, and, to be quite frank, the stuff I write for my postings is extremely dry. I mean, in serious consideration, about as familiar with Derrida as the average person wants to be is this youtube video courtesy of xtranormal:
And so, I’ve restarted and I’ve come back to this again. This is at least partly because I’ve lost touch with my lj somewhat in the past few months, but also, as is evident, at least partly because I’m trying to keep track of the 50 billion flashcards I run through everyday. I still don’t really know what you’ll see here, but I’m hoping that tracking my progress will keep me motivated to post more interesting things than “I studied all my flash cards todays!”
Anki:
JLPT Vocabulary Deck: 666 cards learned, reps completed.
Heisig Deck: 865 cards learned, reps incomplete for today.
Smart.fm:
Japanese Core 2000 Step 3: Review complete. Return 08/07/2010.
Japanese Core 2000 Step 4: Review complete. Return 08/09/2010.
Japanese Core 2000 Step 5: Review complete. Return 08/26/2010.
Japanese Core 2000 Step 6: Review complete. Return 08/26/2010.
Japanese Core 2000 Step 7: Review complete. Return 08/13/2010.
Japanese Core 2000 Step 8: Review complete. Return 08/13/2010.
Japanese Core 2000 Step 9: Review complete. Return 08/06/2010.
Japanese Core 2000 Step 10: Review complete. Return 08/05/2010.
So, because I’m a nerd, I was at Otakon this past weekend. First, a few outfit snaps:
The skirt is h.naoto, specifically gouk, and the headband and the socks are Innocent World. Everything else is off brand.
The left is how my outfit started on day 2, with the right being the rather elaborated upon end result. The dress is Victorian Maiden, and everything else is simply off brand. By the end of the day, I had also purchased a mini top hat of surprising quality from Rakuen – I don’t recommend this shop for their clothes. They have some quality items, but overall, they are cheap looking. That said, I wholly endorse this top hat! The corset is exquisitely made by the brand, Timeless Trends. The photos don’t do it justice, but they were easily selling the highest quality corsets at the con, and I would recommend their corsets to anyone. The steel boning is amazing, and the corset itself feels extremely sturdy. I’m in love with it, and I never thought I would buy one!
As a kind of aside, unrelated to anything otaku or Japanese studies, I was always a little unclear as to why corsets play such a large role in fetish wear. Now being a proud owner and having worn one until I felt light-headed, I can say I thoroughly understand its place in bondage. More specifically, it restricts the submissive not only in movement, but in breath, and if you, as a dominant, do the tying yourself, it is probably extremely sexy.
But, moving right along.
Oh, I am the most awkward. The skirt is Bodyline, the socks and headband are, again, Innocent World, and the tank top is h.naoto Blood. Everything else is, of course, off brand. I really liked the put-together look I managed with this outfit, although I personally think the outfit falls apart fairly quickly without the suit jacket to tie it together. That said, I tend to favor cleaner lines than most Japanese punk allows for – specifically, the deconstructed h.naoto lines – which probably explains why I always end up wearing this jacket when I put together a punk outfit.
Anyway, that’s a summary of my three days. Now, a few notes on my activities! First, on Friday, I was privileged enough to hear a concert by the Yoshida Brothers. I personally feel that they’re advertised as rock stars in an effort to bring the shamisen to a younger, more international crowd. However, as I listened to their concert, it seemed clear that they are not revolutionaries so much as youthful – if that makes sense. Yes, their music includes more modern elements, but in the end, it is the traditional plucked notes that will bring the listener back for seconds.
I also went to a panel called 10 Animes You’ve Never Heard Of That You Must See run by Anime World Order. The list can be seen here. Memorable ones definitely included Blazing Transfer Student (a hilarious parody of the transfer student trope by Gainax), and Flying Phantom Ship (in which God has a spaceship and speaks in a hilariously annoying voice) [edit] one of the AWO members kindly commented and brought to my attention that I meant Crystal Triangle instead of Flying Phantom Ship!. However, most memorable for everyone was undoubtedly Suntory’s Penguin’s Memory: A Tale of Happiness. If you search for it, TV Tropes will give you a quick summary, but oh my god, it was hilarious. And terrible. And hilarious. But oh so terrible. If you like watching adorable animated penguins beating the crap out of each other and having PTSD, this is the movie for you. As AWO notes, it’s very difficult to find, almost like Suntory tried to erase it’s existence but if you ever get the chance to view a few clips, I highly recommend joining me in eroding away at our already limited humanity.
One last thing I wanted to mention – the Dealer’s Room. Now, over the years, it’s gotten to be a big convention. I remember the days we were under 10,000 in attendance, and I’m sure there are people that remember the days before we were even 1,000. So, of course, the Dealer’s Room has gotten HUGE. This isn’t a problem, really, except that I always looked forward to coming to Otakon and buying a ton of untranslated manga that I would take home and spend hours puzzling through with my paper dictionary. Maybe this is a case of “Damn kids, get off my lawn!” but this year the only manga in Japanese that I saw was at the Kinokuniya stand, and even then, they were only selling Sailor Moon re-releases, and Hetalia. Seriously? Is there no demand for any other untranslated manga? Has release and translation in English become so good that we no longer have to put in the effort to understand another culture?
I suppose what troubles me the most is just the lack of effort, which really lends this rant to the “I remember when my subs were 12th generation VHS,” but is there really no desire in our current generation of otaku to read Japanese? It’s a stark contrast to the prevailing opinion that only anime in Japanese with subtitles is worth watching, and quite frankly, it baffles me.
Other than that minor hiccup, another good year! Back for more next year, if I’m in the country.
