j-bands & karaoke

It's hard trying to stay motivated about learning a language I hear everyday, and where the fear of needing to make the most of your time in a country while you can dissipates after realising you've been in the country for almost two years, and will be staying for another year.  Moreso when you find out your employer doesn't have the money to let you do the interpreting/translating course you really wanted to do in your third year.

But one thing that I've tried to do at least is learn a couple of Japanese songs for the inevitable times I go to karaoke with a Japanese person. Which actually turns out to be ridiculously hard. It essentially involves learning lyrics that you don't actually completely understand and sound like complete gibberish, which makes it hard to remember. On top of that, when those songs are performed at karaoke, the lyrics may be written in kanji, or non-phonetic Chinese characters, meaning that even if you do recognise a character like 歌, you might not know if it's supposed to be said as "uta" or "ka" if you don't know the whole word. Because of that, I'm usually sticking to really simple, slowish songs. I did try once to tackle Japanese rap, but I like to pretend that never really happened.

I'm also becoming quite aware that the natural consequence of being surrounded by a culture with a second language is not having much, if any, awareness of the pop-culture, and what's cool and what's not. It's kinda like how we might know differences in nuance between words like icky and disgusting, but for anyone who's learning English, might not get the difference. It feels like it's the same with me and Japanese music. I can hear the melodies and tunes to songs, but I can't quite tell what music is cool and my-age-appropriate or not. I now have a much better understanding of my angsty, ragey boys at school who feel that Avril Lavigne is the epitome of hardcore rock.

So that's why I'm conflicted about whether I should be learning songs by this Japanese band called EXILE (that's right, it's spelt in all capitals, so I think it's normally shouted in Japanese in the middle of a regular sentence).  Think Backstreet Boys, if this was the 90's and they didn't try to do a failed reunion thing. They are a boy band, so as you can imagine, are emblazoned on pencil cases and lots of teenager paraphernalia, but unlike boy bands back home, are actually liked by guys here too.

One thing I do appreciate about them is that they make no pretenses about the fact that not all of them can sing. Out of the 7-group "band", only two are singers, while the others are "performers", meaning they do ridiculous boy band dances for all their ballady songs and don't even hold mikes and pretend to sing, or even try to hide the fact that they're not a real band. I kinda like them even more now actually, since they amalgamated with this other boyband and there are now 14 members. Still, with only the two of them that actually sing. It makes watching their music videos on youtube much more exciting.



I don't quite see it, but some students were trying to tell me that I looked like one of the singers in the group. Not completely buying it, but I like the idea that I look like someone just so I have a potential idea for a halloween costume. Maybe I should give up my dream of having my own Japanese posse and just start wearing all white and get 12 other guys to follow me around and do well-practiced dances around me instead.

the retarded sweet potato cousin

Holidays are meant to be fun. Obviously, it's a time to relax and take a break from your regular life. AND, for me, one other important thing:

Marimokkori.

As sad as it is, part of the reason I get so excited about travelling in Japan is discovering new Marimokkori from a different part of Japan. So, counting down the days to my trip to Okinawa in April, I was pumped to see what new well-endowed green dude phone-strap was waiting for me. Sure, there isn't a Marimokkori in every single prefecture in Japan, but I was heading to Okinawa, one of the more famous places in Japan. There was bound to be like a dozen different ones available, right?

Unfortunately, searching the numerous tourist souvenir shops along Kokusai Doori resulted in nothing but this:



Beni-imokkori aka Sweet Potato dude. Apparently, the people of Okinawa had conspired to remove the semi-famed green character for this substandard, local one. Sure, Marimokkori's namesake, the Marimo, or moss ball, was nowhere to be found in Okinawa, but that hasn't stopped him from being found everywhere else in Japan! Why did they decide to replace him with his lame cousin? Who, might I add, is a lot less gifted than his more popular cousin.

So sure, I had an awesome, unforgettable time in Okinawa, but I left Okinawa a little disappointed. Fingers crossed that my friend's search for the beloved green dude went a little more successful than mine!