Reicheru's Blog

This year so far…

I have already failed in my blogging attempts, but I blame the fact that my boyfriend has been hogging my laptop to catch up to the 569 chapters of the One Piece manga online. That and I have had a lot of homework.

I have so far read 3 books, but have yet to write the reviews for them. I will probably end up reading most of the English language novels in the ICU library, since they are so expensive to buy here in Japan. I want to go home and dive into the library there. My goal is to expand my reading tastes, since I only ever seem to read popular stuff or stuff translated from Japanese. Just gonna go in and pick a random book. 
In the meantime, I picked 9 books from the ICU library, some of which I had heard of, and others that I just thought would be something new for me to try. I read Angela Carter’s “The Bloody Chamber” which was a collection of short stories and thought it was pretty good. Then I read Jean Webster’s “Daddy Longlegs” because the name sounded vaguely familiar. I found out after that it was a musical and had been several movies, but having never watched any of them, my reading was not spoiled by expectations and it was a very good read. Then I started on “Inspector Imanishi Investigates” which goes by another name in Japan, but was translated into English. It was a gripping read – I shall have to look for more Japanese crime novels because the ones I have read have been amazing. Japanese horror and Japanese crime are so good
Each book I have read has been better than the last. I am sceptical about the next one I am going to read. I got a series out – an apparently famous series but I have never heard of it. The first is called “Dragonflight”, then the next is “Dragonquest”, then “The White Dragon” and they are part of a huge catalogue of sci-fi/fantasy books by Anne McCaffrey. Part of me thinks they will not be my thing, but I like dragons and fantasy and stuff so am willing to give them a chance. I also got ‘Dune’ by Frank Herbert. I know my mam is working her way through a giant combined tome of the Dune series. I have seen bits of the movie but always thought it wasn’t my thing. Figured I may as well give sci-fi a chance. I also have a book of short stories by H.P Lovecraft, since he is meant to be a good writer, and a random book I found called ‘The Golden Notebook’ by Doris Lessing, which sounds ok.
Really, I should have wrote all this in my reading blog, but whatever.

So I had the intention of doing a readathon last weekend, but after I got in from the library, Ben and I headed off to Musashisakai to grab some food. We got gyoza from the North side of the station and I found a load of books to put on my “must buy before leaving Japan” list. Including an amusing-looking series called ” My Darling is a Foreigner”. I also saw the manga version of Twilight, but the less said about that, the better.
As well as collecting all 12 volumes of Sailor Moon (plus the 2 short stories volumes I already bought) and all 20 special edition volumes of Hana Yori Dango, any new volumes of Bakuman, anything by Arina Tanemura and more of NANA, I want to start collecting Moyashimon – which is probably one of the most underrated anime series. I am curious about how the manga progresses and I am sure my Japanese could do with learning some technical, scientific terms. I mean, the word for bacteria can be easily slipped into everyday conversation!
Not to mention the light novels I am interested in and the fact they all seem to be 7 + books in length.
And the Kanji Kentei books.. and any other Japanese language study aides.
I seriously need to go apply for a work permit so I can earn the money to afford not only the books, but the cost of shipping them all back to the UK.
Though the more Japanese language books I own, the better my chances of doing well next year. If I study.

Anyways, after the Musashisakai trip, we went back and I began reading, but I have been plagued by headaches and stomach cramps, so concentrating on reading was hard. Took me a while to get through the relatively short “The Bloody Chamber” but to be honest it was also the pacing of the book. Some short stories were not as interesting as others… but I digress. That is something for the book reviews on my writing blog.

On the Saturday we stayed in, due to me feeling a bit blergh (to put it technically). I read, completed the second draft of my sakubun, and got a call from my landlady inviting me and Ben on a tour of the Jindaiji Temple and Ookuni Shrine on Sunday.

We jumped at the chance, and met up with her after she and her friends got back from church at midday. We met them in the dining hall of ICU and chatted for an hour as they ate lunch. We were lazy and had a late breakfast so weren’t that hungry. I used my poor Japanese, Ben was a bit bewildered. My landlady has broken English but is so very sweet I love her Enrish. She can write it down really well though. All her notes make perfect sense.
Luckily her friend (whose name I have forgotten) speaks English very well, having lived in the UK for a few years, even if it was 30 years ago.
She drove us to the shrine and temple in her hybrid car and we tried some dango and took lots of pictures, then at the shrine we got our fortunes for the year ahead. Both Ben and I got “big luck” which was fortunate

Nana promised to show us around more places before Ben leaves.

She told us that there is a multi-screen cinema in Fuchu (where the shrine is). Which led Ben and I to our excursion on Tuesday afternoon.

We finally went to see Avatar. After finding out that the cinema in Fuchu had 3D, we decided to see what the fuss was about.
I did my research and found out how to get there, how long it would take, how much it would cost and when the buses would come. We arrived and got a little lost but eventually found the cinema. It was huge and maze-like, but reminded me a bit of work back home. It was modern and nostalgic, with a smell of slightly burning popcorn. Though their popcorn smelled more of honey or maple syrup than of burnt sugar. Which is wierd, but there is a difference! We bought out tickets for the English language 3D screening at 2.20pm, and the girl was kind enough to let Ben have a student ticket even though he’d foolishly left his student ID back in the UK, thinking it would be invalid here.
Then we checked out the snacks and spent 850yen on a “triple set” consisting of a medium Coca Cola, a medium popcorn (choice of salted or caramel – I went for caramel) and a hot dog (plain or chilli – Ben went for plain.) I miss having staff discount on cinema snacks

We headed off to the screen (screen 2) and outside there was a staff member standing at a table of fancy-looking 3D glasses. They were all laid out in neat rows, all clean, smudge free and ready for use. We got out pairs after having our tickets torn, and went in.
The screen was huge and futuristic looking. Blue squares of lights on the soundproof walls  gave the place an eerie, space-age type glow. The seats were plush and it was allocated seating. We had chosen the centre and got J 9 and 10, which was slightly to the left of the screen. The snacks we had been given came in a nice tray which Ben figured slotted nicely into the cup holder, so the popcorn would hang in between us. Not that he would eat any since he hates popcorn, and especially sweet popcorn. I figure we need trays like that back home.

So we chatted for a bit, then a staff member stoof at the front explaining the rules and how we should turn phones off etc, and thanking us for choosing their cinema. (Toho Cinema, Fuchu, since I neglected to mention it).
Then the ads came on, and it would appear Japanese cinema ads are quite surreal. From the weird cartoon characters discussing how to recieve emails from the cinema to your mobile phone, to the helium-voiced fox and rabbit who got caught messing on and being silly by the stupidly long-necked giraffe teacher, then the anti-piracy add with the dancing camera-headed man… they were odd to say the least.

The trailers were cool, though all in Japanese and pretty much all Japanese-made films with the exception of Alice in Wonderland (Japanese dubbed Johnny Depp does not sound as nice as real Johnny Depp) and Coraline (which is getting a 3D release over here, and I am tempted to go see it since Empire Sunderland didn’t have a 3D screen at the it was released back home.) Coraline was renemaed “Coraline and the Button Witch” or something like that, since the Japanese like to have detailed titles – Disney Pixar’s ‘Up’ became “Uncle.. something’s something balloon” – though I don’t remember the exact words.

Anyway, Avatar was awesome. Characterisation has improved dramatically from when he made Titanic, and James Cameron seems to be getting bettr and better. Though I loved the film, found it full of good strong female rolemodels and less pantomime villainary than Titanic (which despite its many flaws, is still one of my favourite films) and I liked the music, since it basically sounded like Titanic but tribal instead of Celtic (James Horner FTW!) I came away feeling quite worried. I had heard there would be sequels and as good as Avatar is, it will be totally ruined by the cash-cow sequel machine. I say just leave it be, then move on and make new, more awesome films. Like the proposed film about the Hiroshima and Nagasaki atomic bombings. That would be interesting, emotional and educational.
Also Avatards have me worried. They are not yet at the level of unreasonable obsessiveness and violence as the Twitards, but give them time. The film is only a few months old.

Anyway, I had an exam the next day, which I am sure I passed, though I doubt I got more than the 90.2% I got on my previous exam. There is always next time though.

Well, I have finished writing up the neat copy of the script for my speech on idioms that I have to give tomorrow morning, (well technically this morning) but as it is nearly 2.30pm I really should head off to bed. If my crampy tummy will let me sleep anyway.

I shall try and update again tomorrow. I plan on stealing the laptop off Ben and spending the time blogging, reviewing and writing fanfiction. If I don’t get given a load of homework.
I’m also hoping Ben and I can meet up with my Soul Run friends and go karaoke-ing in Kichijouji on Saturday night.