It’s been a while since I’ve been writing in this blog, but it’s not really because of anything bad. Actually, a number of minor and major problems have been fixed so I feel like I have the luxury of blogging a little more. Part of it is health related, and I’ll keep details private, but it is good to be on the right path when it comes to health. So, I’m more 元気 (genki) in the physical health sense.

Yesterday a power outage zapped my Windows XP profile’s user settings. I was a bit worried, but after taking a large chunk of the day doing long-overdue defragging and optimizing of my boot drive (my C: drive), it’s in far better shape now. Then, a reboot successfully brought back the old settings. I guess Windows realized it needed to take a step back. In the meantime, I fixed a huge ton of registry errors with the help of a free trial of an AVG-related program. I really can’t complain about the results so far.

Actually, most of what’s been killing my blogging time is practicing writing fiction. I wanted to get back to the level I was at before I began learning Japanese some fifteen years ago (!). Or maybe it’s 16, it’s hard to recall the exact date. Anyway, I had no prospect of finding a book agent. Frankly, I still don’t. But that’s not the point here: I’m older, wiser, and have a lot more experience to draw on.

The most challenging thing right now has nothing to do with skill. Due to a rather… embarrassingly extreme amount of experience with running role-playing games for close friends, I am accustomed to a lot of character creation and development, and I have always had a knack for dialogue and writing action. It’s setting up the scenarios in a way that satisfies my amateur anthropologist mind and having a plot worth pushing that holds a lot back… and well, time. Writing sucks up a lot of time, you see.

Having said that, I’m at the point where, if I had a clear plot to work with, I could crank out mini-novels in no time at all. My typing speed is ridiculously fast compared to a lot of people, and mostly, it’s about having ideas and flow. But since plot matters, it’s not as if I want to be a fast food writer, either.

In terms of anime, I’ve caught up on some things a little, but I’ve been enjoying things other than anime where I can for quite some time. Mainly, I’ve been getting really impressed at the fundamental beauty and meticulous story crafting for Guilty Crown, one of this season’s greats that looks every bit as good as a feature film should. Animation has come a long way, though my understanding is, right around where I watched the last episode, there is a switch from computer graphics animation to more cel-based animation for the mecha.

I will say this: today’s anime can come up with some truly spectacular background shots. This has CG assistance too, apparently, but it’s not really the same; when things aren’t in motion like a giant robot, you get to appreciate all the subtleties of the extremely detailed and high resolution art involved. The vibrancy is just incredible. People in centuries past had famous painters; I have my high-res backgrounds of vast flower gardens and bodies of water. My human experience has been enriched.

Now, I will say this: I don’t necessarily want to talk just about Japan stuff here. It’s just that I can’t really walk ten feet without bumping into something related to it. While waiting for my father’s business to finish setting up for manufacturing (and for me to play secretary/ customer support/ online marketing demon), I’ve been toying with the Japanese version of the RPG Tales of the Abyss, which has some of the most incredible character development for a main character ever seen or even heard of. Of course explaining it would spoil, but the bottom line is this: I am so glad I play these games in Japanese. The voice actor casting is often what you might call, well… absolutely perfect for a given character’s personality, and this game emphasizes the characters, the personalities, and it always comes back to clinging to hope for a better future.

Another anime I caught up on is “Boku wa Tomodachi ga Sukinai“. The hiragana shortened version comes off as “はがない” , which is confusing because that’s not “ha”, it’s “wa” as pronounced. Anyway, “I have few friends” is one translation suggested to me. It’s based on novels, where some of the best stuff comes from (largely due to the extremely intricate plotting and dialogue; hey, if you don’t have artists cranking out every cell, your dialogue had better be good). It’s also notable for an “anime blonde” girl who is, well… let’s just say she is popular with the masses.

But really, I’ve been distracted by the writing and other issues. I don’t want to idly rant too much about the writing stuff (and the background research I’ve been doing) to any great degree, but I just wanted to let people know the broad outline. – 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

This post is part of a blog series on Brazen being sponsored by Entrustet. As a member of Brazen Careerist, I was asked to make a post about what I want my legacy to be. Here is my answer.

While it may be somewhat premature for a young blog like this to be involved in a discussion about legacy, this blog, which has undergone a couple of early revisions and refinements in its “vision,” now has a clear focus. That focus is Japanese culture.

The national culture of a relatively tightly knit, economically advanced, culturally robust nation is something with a great deal of facets.

In modern times, there is certainly anime and manga, which were my original routes to Japanese cultural knowledge. There is also modern fashion and school culture. For me, there is also the Japanese language itself, which is, for me, a clearer window into Japanese society. Through knowledge of the language, I am much closer to understanding the culture as Japanese people experience it.

In times past, Japan underwent radical societal and cultural changes, followed by long stretches of slower change, making Japanese history divisible into periods. We have the legacy of the samurai and the warring states period, the era of prolonged civil war; we have the Meiji Restoration, which dragged Japan into the modern era, where it came to thrive beyond the reformers’ wildest imaginations before breaking against the shoals of conflict in World War II. This brought Japan into the form it is known by today.

The chief legacy of this blog is to be a witness to events past and present. Insofar as culture is concerned, modern popular culture combines the old (samurai) with the new (schoolgirls) in entertainment without so much as a conscience. Western culture influences Japan greatly, but Japanese culture influences the West as well. You cannot spit two feet and not hit a Naruto fanboy these days, after all. Then there is Pokemon. In times past, there was Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, full of Japanese cultural ideas intertwined with… mutant turtles, New York, and pizzas. Truly a modern combination!

Really, though, the idea behind this blog was to take my past as a translator, my present as a writer and blogger, and my hoped-for future as a more extensive teacher of the Japanese language, and give people a reason to care about Japan. After all, language is merely a bridge, or as I said, a window into another culture.

Culture is a reason to care. It is a source of inspiration that gives us the motivation to look beyond the shallow and embrace a more rewarding and more fulfilling depth that brings us closer to a richer, more vibrant life. You don’t need to be Japanese for this; I certainly am not. I simply bring Japan to me, and embrace some very nice parts of it with my heart.

So, I want the legacy of this blog to be, at once, entertainment and food for the mind, and showing people greater depth and a vibrant array of stimuli to inspire a hunger for deeper knowledge. That knowledge – in snippets, anecdotes, stories, features, and so forth – deepens the enjoyment that readers can derive from Japanese culture.

Thus, when I think in terms of legacy, I don’t think in terms of Google cached blog posts or readership numbers (though those are nice) or even money (which is also nice), but in terms of etching something invisible, but real, in the hearts of the readers. I want my legacy to be carried on, and improved upon, long after I log off.