Japanese calligraphy

Slowly catching up on things I wanted to share...

Here's a draft of my project for the traditional calligraphy class I've been taking, once a week on Tuesday afternoons after the usual schoolday.  Its challenging because I have the handwriting of a gorilla, but I'm gradually figuring out how to use the traditional brushes with the dexterity of a gorilla who has advanced to second grade.

The final project is writing out a traditional poem within 20 characters.  The poem I chose was honestly pretty random - they're nonsensical to me in the classic Chinese anyway, and I forget the deadline until right before class, so I chose one of the first things to pop up on a quick google search.

Each page is read from the right, top down, and then the pages are arranged similarly.  It will eventually all be one vertical piece of paper.  Orange marks are corrections on the forms, although big orange swirlies are a sign that that character is passable.

The original 7th century Chinese written out in a more clear order...
千山鳥飛絶
萬径人蹤滅
孤舟蓑笠翁
独釣寒江雪

In contemporary Japanese...
見渡す限りの山々には、鳥の飛ぶ姿も見えず、
雪の積もったどの小道にも、人の足跡は見られない。
蓑笠をつけた老人が、小舟を川に浮かべて、
雪の降る寒江で、独り釣り糸を垂れている。

I'll make a better translation of this at some point, but the idea is...
Looking out on an endless expanse of mountains, so vast that the forms of birds and traveler's footprints on the snowy road disappear, an old man with his catch of lionfish pushes his tiny boat into a river as his lonely fishing line dangles on the snowy path.

Its too bad that this particular stage of the draft I'm sharing is the only time I've ever received a correction on the character 翁, meaning venerable old man.  Despite my lack of talent at most other characters--do you have any idea how hard it is to write the two strokes of 人 properly?!--somehow 翁 is my specialty.  As such, I proposed I new poem for my project that would better utilize my talents.

翁翁翁翁翁
翁翁翁翁翁
翁翁翁翁翁
翁翁翁翁翁

Somehow the instructor was unimpressed with my composition.

Saint Young Men

This is in no way representative of Japanese pop culture, but its among one of the lolsiest examples I've encountered recently.

There's a manga 「聖おにいさん」officially translated as "Saint Young Men", but I prefer my own translation "Holy Bros".  The story answers the question "What Would Jesus (and Buddha) Do?" -- They would get an apartment in Tokyo and bro out.

I don't believe it's sold in the states, and I imagine it would only be met with protests and lawsuits.  "Jesus can't enjoy cosplaying as a samurai!"  "The interpretation of Jesus as an impulse buyer of knicknacks while Buddha stingily manages their household expenses is a subjugation of the Christian faith!" "How DARE you write a scene where Jesus goes to the convenience store and is mistaken for Johnny Depp!" Considering the state of religious extremists convinced they are the victims in America, I can't imagine it would go over well.

That said, I enjoy it thoroughly.  To better describe the sacrilege humor, allow me to translate one particular scene from the first book.

「Jesus and Buddha are attending a street festival and are looking at stalls selling snack foods」
Jesus: Wow, there's really a ton of stalls here!
(Looking at a cotton candy machine)
Jesus: Ooh, what's this? It's like a cloud! Hey Mister, is this, food?
Shop owner: Its sweet!
Jesus: One please!
(Meanwhile, Buddha finds snowcones)
Buddha: Wow, and this one is like snow!  So this is what festival food is like.
Shop owner: Try it!
Buddha: I'll take it!
(Close up on Buddha eating happily)
Buddha: It's just like a dream.  This is great, huh Jesus?  You're always staring at the clouds beneath your feet in heaven and saying how fluffy and delicious they look.
(Panel expands to reveal Jesus face deep into his cotton candy.  Sound effect: STICKY)
Buddha: Huh?  What's... is it... sticky?
Jesus, aside: It's not fluffy like a cloud at all...
(Painstakingly pulling it off his face and out of his hair)
Jesus: It's so long since I've felt this betrayed.
Jesus: This is like, Judas level.  The most disappointed I've been since Judas.
Jesus, aside: And it shrank... just like how puppies shrink when they get wet...
Buddha: Cheer up!  Even that time with Judas you came back after three days!

And then of course in the next scene they re-encounter their Yakuza friend, who in a hilarious case of mistaken identities thinks Jesus is a high level gangster.  Classic mix-up!

Side panels often contain little fun facts about the characters, such as
"Buddha prefers soy sauce on his sunny-side up eggs.  Sometimes he even wants to add a little red pepper."
"Jesus prefers worcestershire sauce.  But since coming to Japan he's started liking it with soy sauce, too."

A lot of it is kinda inane except for the fact that its Jesus and Buddha broing out.  But, its validating that I can read it now and appreciate the slightly twisted sense of humor - previously started it at the end of Senior year, at which I could comprehend it, but not enough that the sarcastic humor was actually enjoyable.  So go me!  And now I'm looking forward to getting the next three books in the series.

Personality changes

Some personality changes have been creeping up on me since moving to Japan.  A couple I noticed within the first few months.  I used to not care about small dogs, but now I'm secretly obsessed with long-haired dachsunds. (they don't walk, they just flow!)  I used to have an active dislike for babies but now I want all the half-asian babies to be mine.  I have growing preference for girls who are tiny and overly cute (as in the pop sensation AKB48, which makes me feel ooky inside because they're mostly of legal age but their appeal is looking and acting like high school girls.)  Please reference also one of my roommates, Teru-chan, who is older than me but tiny and adorable.  I often remind her to study hard for her high-school entrance exams.

All of these changes are innocuous enough, and not that surprising given the abundance of small and cute in Japan.  (Although my fascination with AKB48--unabashedly one of the most over-produced, fake, devoid of talent pop creations out there--is disturbing in its own right.)

A couple bigger things, though...  I had said for years I would never never never want to live in Tokyo.  Ever.  Too big, too impersonal, too much rush hour.  But now I'm having to take back a couple of those "never"s.

I started thinking about it first for the work commute - I'm probably looking at a 40 minute door-to-door commute (at best) once I start in September.  Its honestly not that bad considering I currently do close to an hour each way to school, but its not something I would want to keep up forever.  (This coming from the Spokane boy who used to think driving fifteen minutes to the valley was unfathomably far.  Distance perception has honestly been one of the biggest changes.)

But beyond that, I'm suddenly discovering there's a lot of stuff to do in Tokyo.  In the past couple of weeks I've suddenly been going out much more than I did during first semester (when I didn't have enough money to buy blankets for my new apartment, haha).  Part of it is that I have money not only to buy blankets but also enough to go out.  Part of it has a lot to do with me now knowing more people outside of the foreign student bubble, and in turn part of that is a recent break-through in my own language ability.  It's only recently that I've felt I've reached a casual fluency (very different than the academic and specialized fluency we study in school) that actually allows me to express some degree of my authentic personality.  Eli is no longer so quite so polite and taciturn, and as a result Eli has a lot more fun.

Something I really struggled with was the language limitation - my arguments in class were previously limited by my clumsy ability to string words together, resulting in a lot of half-developed reasoning and generalizations.  I had been aware of that for a while, but I was becoming more and more aware of how that same limitation also stunted my reasoning, not to mention my social and emotional expression.  (This is probably why I got so addicted to facebook recently, as my one chance to unleash a perfectly crafted status update that casually wields humor and insight.)  But now, I'm getting closer and closer to a point where I actually sound like me in Japanese.

And somehow that sense of self affects my sense of place: My idea of Tokyo is now very different from my previous image, an impersonal dichotomy of depressed Japanese salarymen commuting to work and ignorant, spoiled foreigners clubbing in Roppongi.  As I'm getting past more of my personal barriers, it looks like a lot more places and opportunities are opening up.
 

Anyway.  More important than anything else I have otherwise discussed here: I ate a pudding the size of my head.  Please play this song for inspiration while gazing upon my photos and thinking glorious thoughts of pudding.

PURI PURI!  PURI PURI!

Preparing to extract the pudding into a pie dish.

Pudding brings joy to everyone!

Obligatory photos of puddingy goodness