I haven’t done one of these in a while because it’s hard to get used to the “train of consciousness” type of writing. In fact, I won’t really do that. I’ll break this up into little sections and make it easier to read that way.

Mouretsu Uchuu Kaizoku (Bodacious Space Pirates)

I still find this to be a really good show. The best part is very much the interaction between girls, and now there’s a princess who looks like Sailor Moon wearing a middle school fuku to attract attention. She’s quite adorable, really. Being a crazy-good hacker adds to her charm, but she really wasn’t prepared to be borrowing Captain Marika’s pirate outfit (with a pleated skirt) in Episode 9.

Anyway, this show has teased certain things but we know that things will get a lot more “serious” in episodes to come. The pace is rather Goldilocks: not too frantic and not too slow. Of course some may disagree on that. The show also has a memory, like about Chiaki’s weakness for parfaits. (Then again, why would any self-respecting girl resist…?)

Boku wa Tomodachi ga Sukunai

I made a little review of this on this blog, but just to reiterate: I liked this show more than I expected, but actually, what drew me in was a really zany Monster Hunter spoof, since I have played many of those games. As usual, I’m not quite the game fanatic some of my friends are, but still, it was interesting. Anyway, the show rose above cheap comedy and became more complex comedy with a lot of laughs, cheap and otherwise. It’s hard for me to watch a show about ordinary people in comedies, somehow. This bunch of weirdos makes it somehow pleasantly tolerable.

Food and Fashion

I’ve been expanding my reading material lately. One is a food blog called Just Hungry; the other is a fashion site called Tokyo Fashion. Both are about Japan’s food and fashion, of course. I have to say, my hardest translation jobs – at least, before finding broader, more thorough Japanese sources – were always: a) food; b) songs; c) songs about food, in ascending order of gratuitous work. (Mahoromatic manga, I mean you.)

Petty Japan Politician Griping

There’s a lot not to like about the political situation in Japan. Recently we saw the sitting Prime Minister declare that no one bears individual responsibility for the Fukushima disaster. First, when everyone’s responsible, no one is. Second, the very idea that a single person should be a scapegoat for a powerful earthquake and subsequent tsunami is patently ridiculous. I know that’s not exactly what was being talked about, but really, it’s close enough.

I’m still not happy about finding out that all the (mostly) spent fuel rods stored in those reactor housings were there because environmentalists sabotaged every effort to find/ build a better place for them, greatly raising the possibility that if there was a disaster, it could get ridiculously out of hand.

There’s also the constant denial that they can do without any nuclear power at all and still have a reliable and functional economy. I appreciate the faith of the anti-nuclear crowd, but unless they’re willing to go back to an agrarian society with dirt-poor peasants, they need energy. Energy that doesn’t cost them internal organs would be good. This whole mess with Iran isn’t helping them at all, but if they don’t cooperate in shunning at least 20% of the oil they import from Iran, the United States has essentially promised to destroy their banks’ ability to do business with America and its ‘real’ allies. Not pleasant.

Gundam AGE

I shunned this show for a long time. Now that there’s a 2nd arc running, I can tolerate the apparently obligatory references to the first Gundam and the heretical idea that the “friend on the other side of the warring nations” would actually spare the protagonist’s life. Well, he did, or we wouldn’t have much of a show left.

Right now, this show is more than tolerable. I’m not looking a gift horse in the mouth, people. I’ll see where it goes.

Aquarion EVOL

This show has to be some of the funniest stuff around right now… for a mecha show… oriented towards guys. Actually, I’m assuming it is; there’s certainly pretty boys stuck in there for show for someone. At any rate, the show isn’t afraid to get ridiculous… in a good way.

Armitage III

It’s only taken me over a decade to see this Original Video Animation (4 episodes). Well, at least the ending wasn’t complete suck. Better for the characters, but like was intended, it sure makes you wonder what side was right, whether any of the struggles really mattered… but, they mattered to the characters, so maybe that’s what counts. Anyway, not a bad show in the slightest, for as long as it lasted anyway.

Brave10

I didn’t gravitate to this right away. I watched episode 8 (or was that 7? I can’t remember) then found a little of the manga to read to understand the basics of where this all came from, then watched episode 9 where a major plot point is dropped, and no, spoiling wouldn’t be a good thing here. I half-suspected the twist but I had no idea why anyone would go that route. Guess I’ll see. This is the kind of show that could have been a lot more annoying but doesn’t really feel that way.

Unemployment Blues

I’m still stuck between jobs. Somehow I need to build contacts all over again and get some translation or tutoring work to fill a gap before my future job comes into being. It’s coming, things are just too darn slow. Establishing a company isn’t easy, apparently. I’m helping my father prepare for production where and how I can, but the gap is still really annoying for everyone involved. Even so, I love languages, so I’m going to have to do something about it. – J

So why do I like Japan? （なぜ、日本を大好きですか)

It’s not complicated. Japan is a land of beautiful nature (美しい大自然), rich culture (豊か文化), an interesting history (面白い歴史),  a resilient people (頼もしい人), and, in spite of a great deal of conformity (「出る釘は打たれる」のくせに、) there is a huge amount of creativity that emerges from Japan. (莫大な創作力がある).

One of the true reasons, and unfortunately, the one that I can least share, is that the intricacy of the Japanese language allows Japanese people to reveal a great deal about what they think and feel to others, with as much vagueness or specificity as they prefer. The language is truly a window into the soul.

That’s my reasons in a very short list.

So a friend of mine showed me this post about “I hate Japan some more.” The writer lives in Japan and teaches classes there. He has found a new reason to hate Japan, and I do not care for it or him. If you hate what you’re doing, who’s forcing you to do it? No one forces me to like Japan. I do it because I care, because I prefer to be motivated by positive emotions instead of negative ones, and because I am not a jerk.

Part of this guy’s rant is that he doesn’t see the point of getting kids to identify goals for later in life. “Let kids be kids.” No, let kids be students. Without goals it’s hard to motivate yourself to do something truly difficult, like learn Japanese right after leaving high school and sticking with it through thick and thin for years. As for America not being concerned about scores and grades… ever heard of No Child Left Behind?

As for Japan being restricted and constrained, yes, it is. Real life isn’t 100% like anime. Why would it be? Anime is fantasy. People wouldn’t fantasize about freedom of action if there weren’t constraints. Deal. We exist in the real world, and we should have what fun in it that we can while not forgetting that it is real. – J

そこまで！ (That’s far enough!)

Normally, I wouldn’t deign to be defending the Japanese people against their own government, but even I have my limits. Just how many elected ministers will go down in flames insulting their own disaster victims? This is ridiculous.

Here’s the latest example at the Daily Telegraph. Now look, I have some small sympathy for his calling someone who didn’t take shelter with tsunami warnings blaring “idiots,” but that’s not the sort of thing that people want to hear from their elected leaders.  Let the idiots rest in peace. Deliberately jabbing the eyes of the living with needles is not just bad politics; it’s terrible for the country.

I will not list the numerous examples of other ministers being idiots themselves in their insulting or mocking disaster victims, or saying things like they’re not sure anyone does have a right to a radiation-free life. (Keep in mind, I’m a nuclear power moderate here, but downplaying the legitimate concerns of ordinary people is in extraordinarily poor taste.)

More to the point, this minister replaced a predecessor who had to step down a mere three months ago for being a jackass to the governor of tsunami-battered Miyagi prefecture. Supposedly the minister berated the governor for being late (I have no idea if he was or not) and refused to even shake the man’s hand.

Notice the American-style apology at the end of the article. That’s one piece of Western culture that should never have migrated eastward.

Reaching the point where I can show people some of what I’ve been working on has come slower than I expected, but I can talk about a bit of it. Mainly, I had been helping a group of Japanese people translate a webcomic about life in the area affected by the Fukushima nuclear plant incident. The author has two kids (daughters, 8 and 11 years old) and has the sort of massive concerns you would expect a person to have.

When the highly abnormal becomes normal, someone desperate for normality might find the situation somewhat mad. I think that’s what the comic reflects. It’s all about normal people and their very natural concerns. As such, I find it all very poignant and something the world should see (in English etc.) as soon as possible.

It’s not quite all set up for unveiling to the West, but the Japanese version (the “Fukushima Radiation Diary”) will be getting bounced around Comiket, Japan’s world-famous self-published comics convention. (This is more accurate than the term doujinshi, which literally means “Story with the Same Characters,” i.e. fan fiction. Clearly, the above webcomic is about events all too real! But it is not carried by any publisher yet.)  Believe me, I’ll let everyone know when this is all ready for the West. People just want their i’s dotted and t’s crossed first.

Aside from that, I’ve been doing the heavy lifting translating, for subtitling, a press conference. I won’t say what yet because a) this’ll be done very soon now, b) I’m not sure how public it should be so I won’t run my mouth. (^^;) Let me tell you, it is a lot easier going by text, or text and ear, than by ear alone. It’s heaven compared. I’m a good translator, but I’m certainly not trained as an interpreter.

If I do more of it, I’ll get better, but some large part of me hopes not ^^;

Aside from that, I’ve just been doing odds and ends helping a startup company, well, start up, but it hasn’t been at a fast pace for a little bit of time. The bigwigs are meeting to change that. Sounds good to me. Being busy is good, if it’s about making money at least. – J

The biggest dilemma for a blog like this is trying to say something useful without trying to come off as an absolute authority, which seems to be the cause of most flame wars. I know a few things about a few things, but some people are like, if you don’t know everything, just shut up. I can’t live like that.

Blogging has to be a mix of fact and personal opinion. Otherwise, the content would belong in an encyclopedia. So a blog must be a personal act.

One thing I try to be careful about is to not blog in a way that is political. There are simple reasons for this which hardly require explanation. It’s just best left avoided.

Anyway, I’ve tried to do blog posts here that are from a fairly objective standpoint, providing a fairly neutral stance, trying to shed some light on matters relating to Japan’s culture. But, this is still a blog. After spending some time meditating (or more to the point, procrastinating) about what to write here, I think I shall write more that is my opinion… so long as it is clearly marked as such, and not presented as fact.

Lo and behold, Sensei’s Corner has been born.

Now, I’m not a very active teacher, though I’d like to do more to change that. I’m actually between jobs. I’m going to be the webmaster of a startup corporation that has heavy family involvement. It’s a good project. It just hasn’t finished starting up just yet. That’s life. I’m trying to do things in the meantime.

I write this as an explanation for why I’m not spending all of my time doing things that would prevent me from blogging a single word. Put simply, I do not live a perfect life, with a perfect income and perfect happiness. I’m working to deal with it. If anyone wants to complain about it, I will note your complaint and then move on with living life.

Even so, well, not everything I’ve done has exactly been a waste.

A couple of mornings ago, I heard from a former student from one on one tutoring I did over Skype. This was a way back, like, last year. Once he dropped off the grid, he was working his rear off to help get the money to go to Japan and enroll at a language school, which is where he is now. He only regained internet access about, oh, five days ago.

So, I told him not to feel any concern about my having been dropped like a hot potato. (I’m kidding.) I’m just another guy here. I just had a natural interest in if everything had worked out. Well, he wants to study at university in Japan, so this is a stepping stone in that direction.

I asked him if my lessons had prepared the groundwork for him. He said, yes; in particular, my lessons on Japanese particles were serving him very well. This made the “Sensei” in me very happy.

You see, it is the nature of language courses and language schools that everyone is working on a tight schedule. This is the same for language instruction to native speakers in high school. Once you reach a certain point, instruction in basic grammar and spelling and vocabulary stops. Your mistakes may get flagged and marked, but we get past “correction” to the point of simply punishing those who didn’t learn 100% what they ought to have at a lower level. These students fail upwards, and are the kinds who are cranked out of school without functional literacy. Many more simply come out with bad English, which is another thing I’d like to address more and more – just not on this blog.

With Japanese, particles are a core feature of the Japanese language, starting with “Watashi wa Jeremiah desu”. Yet it took me years as a translator, and some frustration as a tutor, to truly understand the particles and the roles they play to the point of being able to smoothly and reliably instruct others in it.

Not to dwell on the fine details but, I’ve read explanations that portray “Watashi ga” as if WATASHI was in ALL CAPS, and “Watashi wa” as if Watashi is in regular writing. This is badly astray. I mean, in some sense, there’s a point, but this is way, way off from the grammatical roles of “wa” and “ga” and will lead the unsuspecting student to a frustrating lack of full comprehension of short, basic sentences.

Suffice to say that this makes effective learning harder.

So, knowing that this young man was benefiting from my particle lessons gave me a sense of relief, because I know from past discussions with him about his research into language schools, and independent research, that language schools will not teach this thoroughly or properly. In other words, if you come in not knowing it, you’ll be bouncing into walls unnecessarily for a long time, and brute forcing the problem is a lot harder than just understandings the “shinjitsu” (objective truth).

So yes, the Sensei in me is happy. He’ll be benefiting from what I taught him for literally years to come.

Moving On

Anyway, aside from telling that story, the point of this was to tell anyone interested that I’m going to be doing more classical blogging. That is, I’ll write in the first person, give opinions, present more of my mind to you, the readers, and hope that this entertains thee.

As I said, I’m in between jobs, and I never really managed to find a business for teaching Japanese in the locale where I live (and where I will work in the family business as fate would have it), so I’m not doing this for money. I’m just trying to keep it clean, speak my mind as much as public decency permits, and have a little fun with it, and try to make sure you have a little fun with it.

We’ll see how it goes. – J