|
|
Saturday, October 20th, 2007
|
|
|
Tonight was pretty frikkin beautiful. Do i have to describe the night? Is it surprising if the night was mundane, in that the frikkin beautiful is happening all the time? What about all of the questions?
Sometimes i love other people so much.
|
|
Comments: Read 1 or Add Your Own.
|
|
Sunday, August 12th, 2007
|
|
|
Hello everyone! And i mean Stephen and grace. I saw the pictures from kym's bday party, and you guys are looking mighty fine.
This month began with a children:s horror dance performance, where i was a tree/human and a person who carries a really heavy thing. I put on the white butoh-dancer makeup for the first time and angels wept. It was a fun experience and i levelled up on my japanese skill bar. Although there were plenty of hilarious mistakes.
"Akie, I just completely took off your bag!"
"um... ok" thinking: "she probably got my bag wet?"
Then i taught children japanese a lot. Me and 5 thirteen-year old boys decided that, if travelling in large enough numbers and with a battle strategy, the patagonian toothfish could take down any animal on the planet. even a sperm whale.
Then i went to a dance audition where the guy hated me but they accepted me anyway? the interview was fun.
people: "so, in january, we are going to rehearse five days a week for 6 hours a day."
me: "in january, we are going to rehearse 5 days a week for 6 hours a day???"
people: "yes"
me: "that wasn't in the flyer."
ppl: "is that okay with your job and everything?"
me: "i dont have a job."
ppl: "ok?"
me: "ok"
oh boy oh boy! i need to email them to ask about cultural visas!!!!
But really, i am now on vacation. This is the obon season, so everybody gets a week off of work. Yulie and i are in tokyo, and a manga cafe. Thats like 12 bucks for free drinks, shower, comics, internet, and a little cushiony cubicle to sleep in FUCK YEAH.
Here are pictures.
nevermind, i dont know how to put up pictures.
OH!!!! I will be in SC between sept 11 and oct 15th! My dad will turn 70 and adam will get older too and lots of rolicking and dance and music will happen, but i need others to help me carry the torch please tell me if you have any gaping free holes in your schedule at that time!!!!!
|
|
Comments: Read 5 or Add Your Own.
|
|
Thursday, January 18th, 2007
|
|
|
Nobody posts to livejournal anymore!! Well, i am your savior. As is Mika Nakashima, but i will get to that later.
I am actually only posting because i am waiting for season 6 of degrassi to load on my computer. It's the end of the day, my belly is full, and i wanted to watch something really funny. Not arrested development, couldn't find any mr. show ... oh, yes, degrassi. And, believe me, the belly laughs happen even in the opening sequence (ahaha, emma's a slut! and look at that other girl sling her hair!! ohhohoho.) and it only gets better - when emma's boyfriend runs and hugs her - out of the prison gate - but problems will arise when he finds out about the THREESOME that she was in earlier that year! Maybe the kid in the wheelchair will say something profound. IT's this hilarious soap opera/ saturday morning special/ unbelievable mess of bad acting and too much hair product.
At the place where you rent movies in japan, you can also rent music cd's!!! 5 cd's for ten dollars!!! BURN BURN BURN BURN.
Tracy came and it was so fun and she has inspired me for life. I now live by the phrase "What would Tracy do?" and have set up a prayer alter to a clump of her found hair that i keep in the corner. That's a joke. Maybe my sense of humor has gone bad or something ...
Probably. The funniest event of this week was when Sun-Yon informed me that she is so skinny because she always poops right after she eats.
This is a horrible post. If anything, it will encourage others to post LESS. i fail.
But i promised about mika nakashima. On her cd cover is a picture of her with a crown of thorns, referring to jesus christ i guess. she is supposed to be like a punk rock queen in the picture. Does portraying oneself as christ have any history in punk rock imagery? im wondering where they got that idea from.
|
|
Comments: Read 6 or Add Your Own.
|
|
Wednesday, December 20th, 2006
|
|
|
Im pissy, and grace is at a dinner party, so i will vent towards you,livejournal!
Now, dont get me wrong. Today started out cool. I had a three hour dance class, and during the break i took pictures with the girls, and they taught me the words for a girl that is flat chested "pecha pa" or who has curves "guraamaa" and then acted it out for the camera. they are very excited about me going to seattle tommorrow, but more excited that i get to see my "kareshi" (boyfriend). there were a million questions like "when did you fall in love?" "when did you kiss?" and then they told me that i have a boyfriend and they dont because i have boobs. But i told them i was a buttface and have no idea how i have a boyfriend. ahh, japanese.
Ohhh, JAPANESE! I couldn't speak at all today. And anytime i heard japanese it gave me a headache. On wednesdays,my tutor will give me extra class time and ride the home with me. This is awesome, and im glad we are friends, but that means class goes on and on and on, b/c i am trying to talk in japanese. so, by the time i got home, my headache was like "OH MY GOD,STOP THE JAPANESE"
and then i had to go to the cell phone shop to talk to them about my cell phone bill. You know, i dont want to go through the whole situation. but i will give you the highlights.
1. i got my cell phone bill, but my student discount was not on it, so it was twice as expensive as it should have been.
2. i talked to the girl at the store about it, but she said "wow, i don't understand why they didn't give you the discount, but i can send the fax now so that they will give you the discount next month"
3. i said "what about the two months that i should've gotten the student discount, but i will be charged full price?"
4. she said "i don't know"
5. i said "really? i dont think this is fair"
6. she said "remember when you first came in and we talked about newzealand and studying abroad?" and lookedlike she was going to cry
7. a college-aged boy said "i speak both languages, can i help?"
8. i said "sure." but as we rehashed the situation, i learned nothing new, and the situation was just as i thought.
9. in the end, i actually apologized for being a "trouble" and said, ok. That's $40, people! I sleep in the cold every night for $40! Oh god, bullshit!
Than k you, i have shared the pain. I am getting on a plane tommorrow, but i am too wrapped up in the events of today, with girls pointing at my crotch and touching noses with me and bad phone bills and botched japanese convbersations that i am a little out of it.
Pony up is a really good band.
Im going to seattle tommorrow!
|
|
Comments: Read 6 or Add Your Own.
|
|
Sunday, December 10th, 2006
|
| Time: | 1:41 am. |
| Mood: |  moody. |
|
|
Waking up with a bad haircut is much akin to waking up with a hangover.
|
|
Comments: Read 2 or Add Your Own.
|
|
Tuesday, December 5th, 2006
|
|
|
|
do you ever have those nights that are like "i WILL finish this bag of fried green beans!!!!!"???
|
|
Comments: Read 2 or Add Your Own.
|
|
Saturday, December 2nd, 2006
|
|
|
After a week of me cursing the world and feeling sick and hating life ... there is today. It's a saturday, and i have to wake up at 6 am AGAIN to do a dance presentation at my school. I didn't know the choreography, but the teacher assured me that i could learn it "the hour before the performance." Grrrreat. And sometimes all the little things agitate me, like when i am told that we are supposed to be there at 9am, but i get an email on my phone at 7:30 am that is like "Keichan, did you know we are meeting at 8:30am?"
I started a long letter to joseph campbell the other day, and i was finishing it on the train ride to the presentation. I thanked him for something he told me last night, because i asked him a question in a previous letter and he gave me a little answer while i was practicing the choreography. I asked himto come to the presentation, and i promised that if he did, i would do the movements consciously and yet without thought at the same time. He came. Sometimes i slipped up and thought an extraneous thought, but mostly not. It was good. The teacher asked me how i felt about it before the presentation, and i said something in japanese that means "i'm troubled," and during he said "good job caitlin" and afterwards he gave me a nice arm pat.
He also explained modern dance fully to the audience, which i appreciated. However, while explaining the difference between caucasian bodies and japanese bodies, he was like "its b/c white people were cowboys and we were bent over in the rice field!" Uhhh.... what?
Afterwards, we all went out to lunch and i had yakisoba and a green tea ice cream float. I mostly talked to yuri, and we had a "slow" conversation. But it was nice. She is 21, yet she feels much older than the 19-yr-old energetic freshman, which i can understand. She plays dice role-playing games with her friends, and they record their games and publish it in magazines in which they draw pictures of the characters. She says that she doesn't really fit in well with everyone and doesn't have many friends. I couldn't guess, because she is usually smiling and saying something in a playfully wry way. Unlike most other girls her age who shriek words in a high-pitched giggle pace, she speaks in a low tone. She's beautiful. On the way home, i was trying to talk to yuko on the train about a dance piece. She started using words that i totally couldn't understand, and our conversation reached a standstill. These two middle aged women standing next to us stated what yuko said in perfect english. "She is saying that the japanese mind is square, that it is diligent and honest, and so the body moves differently." I have no idea what that means, but it was nice anyways.
This should have gone in my notebook instead, so sorry! But sharing is carying,so here you go.
|
|
Comments: Read 3 or Add Your Own.
|
|
Tuesday, November 28th, 2006
|
|
|
A PAPER?!? What the fuck? My scholarship has already dwindled to folded together pages filled with ink scratches and subject-verb disagreements. I sit here wondering how to write a 3 - 5 page paper.
"OK, in these two museums, its interesting to ask 'how does one create static meanings (museum presentation) about topics with dynamic categorizations and many different meanings? I'll talk about structuralism (how people make meaning through contrasts) and how these museums present people as cultures frozen in a moment, as occupying multiple roles at any given time,too, OK! I got this!"
Pause
"Wait, i just did all that, and now i have to write it up?"
Why can't thinking it be enough? Wasn't it da vinci who waslike "i don't need to finish this work of art, because it is already finished in my head"? Can i just say that instead of turning it in?
It's times like these that i do not think i am cut out for more serious phd-riffic academia, at least on performance studies. Sure, i love dance, but maybe i love it because it continuously brings up issues that i care about. Thoughtful dances ALWAYS bring up things like community or consumerism or humanity or war or COOL SHIT. Wouldn't i rather be making the cool shit happen, like working for a NPO that helps build communities or organizing other options besides big business, instead of being 45-yrs-old and writing about the implications of this dance group, through history, in its socio-political context. YEAH. FUCK DANCE. I mean, don't, i like it. You know what i mean.
I've just been secretly depressed, and so i will share with my best friend, live journal. Secret depression is where you've been having a lot of fun but there is still something on the inside that you shove deeper in with each hearty laugh. I know you ALL know what i am talking about.
|
|
Comments: Read 3 or Add Your Own.
|
|
Thursday, November 23rd, 2006
|
|
|
|
I just watched one of the most amazing dance performances i have ever seen. The past sentence does nothing for it. Life will never be/look the same.
|
|
Comments: Read 1 or Add Your Own.
|
|
Wednesday, November 22nd, 2006
|
|
|
|
Finishing a story (which you have read before) and having your eyes fill with tears (which has never happened at the conclusion of this story before).
|
|
Comments: Read 1 or Add Your Own.
|
|
Monday, November 13th, 2006
|
|
|
So i was going to the library and ran into sun-yon and ancha. They were like "oh,kei-chan!" and we had another of our very loud and confusing japanese conversations. It was like "what are you doing, what are you doing, studying? what class do you have now? what did you do over the weekend? oh,you went there, i live near there! there is this thing there on sundays! we should go together sometime" and during this back and forth exchanged, Ancha suddenly stopped and said:
"Wow, your eyes are so big!"
And then she stared at my face without blinking, and let her face drift really close to mine. There was this moment when her face was like half an inch from mine, and she was still staring at my eyes, and she saying something like "pretty!"
Maybe you had to be there, but that moment made my day.
|
|
Comments: Add Your Own.
|
|
Wednesday, November 8th, 2006
|
|
|
Living in a foreign country is like being in a long-format improv: Just say yes and hope that an intelligible story forms along the way.
Today started with the three-hour ballet class. An hour into class, the teacher says something that i cant understand and everyone scurries into the next room. They explain to me that there is a special chapel hour for their "Christo" (Christian) studies: they have to listen to a speaker and write a report on it. Yuri is like "Keitorin, Iku?" And normally, if anyone ever asks me if i am going to anything i am always like "YES" and follow them wherever they go like a little lost puppy.
However, i am not too happy that these girls have to study christianity mandatorily as a major subject. That blows. I dont like the idea of all-girls schools formed in the 19th century, in general- the idea implies that men are too sex-crazed and women are too docile and stupid for them to be schooled together (or else babies would explode out of them or something). It also implies that men and women are fit to study different subjects - men math and science, women the arts and feminine things. Besides, i would rather roll around on the dance studio floor for an hour.
So, i go to roll around, and its kind of awkward, because its just me and the drummer, Kyoushi, in there. He's one of those japanese boys you would imagine, with the styled hair and shirt unbuttoned down his chest with a cross necklace and trendy pants. He says he likes hard rock, yet has "i love avril" stickers on his drum kit. As i stretch and do a headstand, hes practicing piano. He starts singing in a hushed voice that isnt really enunciating whatever japanese lyrics there are. I found a little patch of sun to stretch and move around in.
Then the pianist comes in and is like "Keitorin, i, uh, am going to go to a tea ceremony and i think it would be good for you to come with me. we have an hour,so we can make it back in time for class." the pianist speaks a belgian-english and never listens. I don't like him. "Ok, sure, i'll put some clothes on," i say.
the tea ceremony is held in a small japanese style building. As we enter, the lady motions for me to take off my scarf. I take it off and toss it on top of the shelf for shoes in the alcove.
"Don't toss your muffler," the tea ceremony lady scolds. "Fold it nicely and place it in the corner."
Oh god, tea ceremony. Get ready for some wabisabi! So zen.
Wow, beautiful flower arrangement. mmm,nice ceramic. bow, bow. Hmm, this is delicious adzuki and mochi soup. (and it was friggin awesome). MY look at this bowl (oh god,my feet have fallen asleep from sitting like this) Uh, and what do i do now? turn the tea bowl? ok. (my legs are throbbing but i know its impolite for my feet to face a different direction so i am stuck). oh, we have to go, class.
And then learning my professor's choreography. I think i have figured out his dance compositional method. He looks at everyone and thinks "what is the most ridiculous thing i can think of them to do?" and then we do it. Yatta!
That only covered THREE HOURS OF MY DAY. Im sure you can imagine the rest. More japanese stuff.
(Side note: After watching a lot of japanese tv and looking at boys on the train and pretending they are jared, i have deduced that it is fashionable for boys in japan to pluck their eyebrows. We all knew they spent a good amount of time on their hair, but eyebrow hair removal? That's some SERIOUS SHIT)
|
|
Comments: Read 4 or Add Your Own.
|
|
Thursday, November 2nd, 2006
|
|
|
I like it when the mailman comes. I like it even better when the mother's milk guy came to my door, and he woke me up, and started telling me about the mother's milk products in a polite register, and i said something like : "excuse me, i just woke up and japanese is hard" in japanese. But when you say things in japanese,you are never really sure what they imply. Anyways, so he gave me the samples and they were like yogurt drinks for women. The most i understood about them was:
"This one is for when you are on your period" ::: samples guy rubs his belly :::
I am in love with the japanese girls in my dance class. They are the cutest and most talented girls ever. That's this whole month for me, scrambling to learn colloquial phrases to say to them, b/c we don't learn that stuff in class, and they speak a weird dialect in the kansai area.
Instead of "nani shite imasuka?" like they teach in class, you say "nani shiton?" to ask "what are you doing?" and stuff like that. And say funny things like "you lie!" "this is hard" "i looove you" and etc. But that's pretty much all i can say.
I dont have anything specific to say here, im just too lazy to go take a shower.
Japan has a new prime minister who seems conservative.
The fashion here is cool.
The population is declining due to a low birth rate.
The universities here are usually towards learning a specific thing, like schools in germany, where only a few schools in japan follow the liberal arts model that we have in the states. My school is a liberal arts school,founded about 150 years ago by christian missionaries. Its a private school for rich girls on a mountain.
Hip hop dancing is very popular, seems to be the latest thing. Studios are everywhere. Japanese people seem very good at the subtle movement, rigor, and playfulness of hip hop. And they love presentation, which hip hop dancing is all about,that certain demeanor and attitude.
Japan'smilitary is a hot topic right now - about whether they should revise article 9 of their constitution which prohibits them from having an army. However, a lot of money has been spent on the military,and koizumi got crap for sending troops to iraq. I think the new PM, Abe, is all about beefing up the military (i think). However, many people in japan remember what war is like and want to keep japan's image as the post ww2 peaceful country.
MY school's tuition is expensive, and it seems like everyone either wants to deal with english or be a flight attendent when she graduates.
Japanese food is amazing. My favorite thing to do is grocery shop for dinner. im learning to love natto.
Japan,only recently, has taken to recognizing halloween heavily in a commercial way, but japanese people do not have activities they do for the holiday, although many corporations/businesses are trying to introduce the concepts of trickortreating and dressing up so that they can make more money.
|
|
Comments: Read 9 or Add Your Own.
|
|
Saturday, October 28th, 2006
|
|
|
|
What should I be when I grow up? What should I do next year? Who wants to live with me when I get home?
|
|
Comments: Read 6 or Add Your Own.
|
|
Monday, September 18th, 2006
|
|
|
|
tonight, my host mother left at around 8 pm to pick up her husband. so, me and her two daughter were left in the room together. They don`t speak english, and i have ran out of questions to ask them (like what are your hobbies and your favorite foods) so, erina (7 years old) starts hitting her older sister mina (9 years old) with pillows. After using all of the pillows in the room, she goes to the bathroom and comes back with towlels. They throw a towel on my head, and somehow the game evolves into what i like to call `zombie house` i have the towel draped over my head and slowly walk after them zombie style while they run around shrieking like banshees. When they are finally cornered, with no where to go, i put the towel on their head. They run back to me and put the towel back on my head, and the game starts anew. I do not know how mr and ms aoki felt, though, when they came home to find theiur children running around screaming and me making strange noises with one of their towels draped over my head.
|
|
Comments: Read 3 or Add Your Own.
|
|
Wednesday, September 13th, 2006
|
|
|
There are so many japanese people.
I had me a good cry on the airplane, and so i was ready to be here. I can't believe these people are giving me so much money. Today was the first day of orientation, and they sat us down and gave us the obligatory "this is our organization and our mission statement."
Except, i totally dig their mission statement: Lessening conflict through cross-cultural understanding. Aww, you guys!
And i got all of my money from this deceased professor who left his entire estate to the fulbright commission.
Um, so japan is really amazing. (Right now i am in tokyo, around the ginza area, which is pretty cool). I cannot explain it, you just have to come here.
|
|
Comments: Read 5 or Add Your Own.
|
|
Friday, September 8th, 2006
|
|
|
Seattle, i will miss you and the people in it so much. Seattle and kobe are sister cities,so why can't they live in the same house?
Because they just can't.
|
|
Comments: Add Your Own.
|
|
|
"The G-spot is named after Ernst Grafenbergts discoverer who first put forth information regarding this area."
pfft. a man "discovered" the g-spot. whatever.
|
|
Comments: Read 2 or Add Your Own.
|
|
Friday, September 1st, 2006
|
|
|
SERIOUSLY.
Like yesterday i was in ballet class and thinking about how velocity dance center in seattle is the coolest dance establishment ever, and how much i love it. Then the ballet teacher starts making he-man references at the barre.
"THE POWER OF GRAYSKULL IS IN YOUR LEG!
THE POWER OF GRAYSKULL IS ON YOUR PELVIS!
What's up with he-man? He had a rather feminine haircut for such a macho guy."
Oh my,i am in serious love with you, ballet mistress kara o' toole. Would it be weird if i sent them all flowers or something?
Also, i'm going to japan in ten days! And everything is falling into place - it's like aweek of orientation and a week of homestay and then finding an apartment - and another fulbrighter will be roommates with me. I learned this about my homestay:
"By the way, I just talked with Mrs. Aoki, your host mother. She said the Aoki family is planning to take you to Kyoto on Sunday, September 17th, and an afternoon party with Mrs. Aoki's friend on Wednesday, September 20th. Therefore, you can go to the apartment hunting on September 18 and 19th."
What? I get to go to kyoto AND afternoon party!
I just hope i can keep it together. Like be calm and confident and open and not feel strange or want to hide. And I'm pretty reluctant about leaving Seattle,but how can i not leave seattle,right? I have to leave one cool place to go to another cool place. Because peoplewill pay me to be in one coolplace,but not theother. Free dance class vs. costly dance class. It's funny that that directs my life now.
|
|
Comments: Read 1 or Add Your Own.
|
|
|
![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small}
okayoats's journal
happy.
crazy.
crushed.
frustrated.
productive.
sleepy.
lazy.
triumphant.