¡Sarah!

I'm getting a little tired of the people who write on my Facebook just to say "I miss you! When are you coming back?," completely ignore my attempts to start an actual conversation with them, and then write the exact same thing on my Facebook a couple months later. Is that better or worse than the people who promised to send me care packages and snail mail letters and then never so much as e-mail me? Is it impossible to keep friendships going over long distance? Lately my hope in that idea has taken a mighty hit ...

In other news, my neighbour M loves technology and uses it for everything he can, including studying. And so long as he's not trying to give me unasked-for advice (which luckily has mostly stopped since I snapped at him the last time he did it ... oops), this is totally fine. I mean, I really don't care how you study or whatever. But the other day he had a need to write several words in hiragana, and he had to keep looking the hiragana up on his phone in order to be able to do so. After seeing someone who's studied Japanese for two years struggle to remember how to write hiragana, I think I'll be sticking to my mostly pen-and-paper study routine ...

In better news, I very much enjoyed the first long weekend of this year's Golden Week. I worked quite a bit on my writing, which I haven't done at all since February and then September before that. One thing I've noticed here is that my mood when I've been writing is always vastly better than my mood when I haven't been writing. So why don't I do it more often?!? Seriously, I think I need to start making time for it not because of any goals towards being published or whatever but just because it seems to keep me happier.

In other news, the other day in junior high we were at my least favourite page in the textbook, where an American character talks about Japanese spring traditions for like two full paragraphs and then throws in a "In America, we paint Easter eggs" at the end. Pretty weak attempt at cultural exchange there, you guys. Luckily my JTE has started asking more of me and so I got to do a short presentation about Easter. Well to be honest I didn't do a super fantastic job, but I did pass around an empty bag of Mini-Eggs to be all "This is my favourite Easter candy~" and then all of the kids decided to smell it which was the highlight of my week. xD I accidentally left it on my desk at school when I left on Thursday so here's hoping my entire work area now smells like chocolate-y goodness lol lol lol~~

So here's another petty whine for an LJ that has become little more than petty whines: I hate when someone finds out that I am a Disney fan and they immediately assume that I am an idiot. I can't recall having quite this problem at home, but for some reason revealing my Disney fandom to other ALTs has so far only produced two reactions: the "omg I love Disney too!!" reaction, or the "omg you're awful" reaction. My neighbour M took the latter, and attempted to lecture me on how problematic certain Disney films are.

Dude.

If you want to talk about problematic Disney, I would love to do so. I could talk about problematic Disney all day. If you want, you can take a look through my collection of books and academic articles about the many gender- and- class- and- race-related problems in Disney films and parks. This is an endless topic that I am well aware of and have been reading and talking about for at least seven years.

So you don't have to start with a "You know, Disney doesn't portray its female characters very well." Because believe me. I know. It is also unnecessary to bring up Jasmine's unrealistic thinness like you think it's going to shatter my worldview and convince me to swear off Disney forever. Dude, I could talk for like an hour about the problems with Jasmine. This is stuff I have thought about a fair bit.

"Well there are race issues in Aladdin, too." Yes, I agree. Proceed. "Jafar is the villain and he has the most Middle Eastern accent of the whole cast!"

Uh ... by "Middle Eastern" do you mean "British"?

Have you actually seen this movie recently or are you just basing your entire argument off of things other people have said?

Okay well I don't know where this entry is actually going but I guess my frustrations are a mix of:
Why do people hear "I'm a Disney fan" and understand that to mean "I like Disney movies because I don't see any problems with them"?
Why do people hear "I'm a Disney fan" and understand that to mean "I like Disney movies but I don't know anything about them"?
Why do people think they can or should attempt to remedy these made-up problems by throwing out random things that are oft-quoted but a) not actually true, or b) only like 2% of the whole story?

It's like - guys! I am a Disney fan. It is pretty much my always and forever One True Fandom. I say this secure in the knowledge that a large number of Disney films and parks have parts that are hugely problematic. I also happen to know a fair bit about these films and parks and the problems they contain. If you want to talk about these problems I am absolutely always happy to do so. But that happiness fades pretty rapidly when I realize you don't actually remember the movie you are trying to argue against.

Basically: don't assume I don't know what I'm talking about when it's actually you who don't know what you're talking about!!!

In conclusion I am sick of people trying to tell me that movies like Anastasia and Road to El Dorado are Disney and then arguing with me when I correct them. Guys, would you like me to recite for you the entire Disney animated canon? No, I don't think you would.

Had a pretty busy, sort of interesting week, so I'll try to write an actual ~Sarah's life~ post this weekend. But now I am just going to update you on my spontaneously made goal of reading thirty books this year.

1. Troy by Adèle Geras
A Trojan War book I did not care for say what!! You can read all my complaints over at the nerdiest blog I will ever have. You may or may not be surprised to know it has now received over 1,000 hits, although I suspect at least 70% of them were people looking for a copy-and-pasteable essay on the Odyssey.

2. にんぎょのいちごゼリー (Ningyo no Ichigo Zerii or The Mermaid's Strawberry Jelly) by Sueyoshi Akiko
It is kind of ridiculous how I have been studying Japanese for such a long time but still get really intimidated whenever I step into a bookstore here. I mean it actually really frustrates me because at home I LOVE wandering around bookstores. So I have decided to start reading a lot more non-textbook Japanese, and towards this goal I got a couple kids' books out of the town library. This one is aimed at pretty young kids (even the katakana has furigana) and is about a mermaid who makes strawberry jelly. So I mean it was cute, and easy reading practice, but really that's all I have to say about it. :3

3. きのうの夜、おとうさんがおそく帰った、そのわけは．．．(Kinou no Yoru, Otousan ga Osoku Kaetta, Sono Wake wa ... or Dad Got Home Late Last Night Because ...) by Ichikawa Nobuko
This book is aimed at slightly older kids, and I actually liked it a lot. It's written in a more spoken language style, where what you're reading is the story the father tells his son to explain why he got home late the night before. There are four stories and they're all pretty fantastical, but that's why I liked them! I also enjoyed how there were certain lines that were repeated in each story. Overall this book was super cute.

Now I am reading 2140　サープラス・アンナの日記 (2140 Surplus Anna no Nikki or 2140: Surplus Anna's Diary), which is the translation of a book called The Declaration. I borrowed it just because I liked the cover but actually I'm really enjoying reading it. It's aimed at about a fourth grade reading level but it's much longer than the above two books and even though I am only having to look up one word every couple of pages I am definitely going to have to put in some hours of reading this weekend if I want to finish it before it's due back. :d Hopefully I will start reading faster soon~

4. The Prestige by Christopher Priest
SUPER VAGUE COMMENTS WRITTEN IN AN ATTEMPT NOT TO SPOIL ANYONE: I've seen the movie twice, and liked it enough to want to read the book, but at the same time I kept putting it off because I thought the book wouldn't be that enjoyable if you already know all the secrets that get revealed at the end. Well I was totally wrong. Most of the book is set in the 1800s, like the movie, but it also includes a few chapters about the main characters' descendents. I'm not entirely sure why they would still be interested in the feud between the two magicians, and as a result it took me a bit to get into their chapters, but the ending was totally worth it. OH MAN the ending was soooooooooo creepy from one character's point of view and soooooooooooooooo heartwrenching from another's. I seriously feel like it is going to give me nightmares forever, but I mean IN A GOOD WAY. And it was pretty significantly different from the ending of the movie. Actually, overall I was really surprised how different the book is from the movie; the general plot and characters and themes are the same, but they frequently take different paths. What I felt was the biggest reveal in the movie is kind of just dropped into conversation in the book, haha. And it was really cool to see the book doing things that the movie wouldn't be able to do, simply because it's a different medium. Waugh you guys it was so good, I'm afraid to start another book now because I will be disappointed if I fail to choose one that keeps me engrossed for hours every night even when it's totally creeping me out. xD

APOLOGIES FRIENDS FOR THIS IS A ~*~FANGIRL ENTRY~*~
(I also apologize for the terrible writing in it. Unfortunately I really want to get this posted before I go home for Christmas and as such I don't have time to make it coherent! >xD )

So for the past two months I have basically been nine years old again, in that I suspect there are artists other than Michael Jackson on my iPod but I sure haven't heard them in a while. I totally blame being in Japan, where for the bulk of October you could go see Captain EO, the MJ costumes exhibit and the show Thriller Live all in one day. (Also, four fifths of the original Jackson 5 were here last week - and also felt the longest earthquake we've had since I got here - but for some reason both concerts they held were in the middle of the work week?? Someone tell me whether or not I'm bummed that I had to miss them, I can't decide.)

ANYWAY since I keep missing things when they are first announced I didn't see Thriller Live until the end of November. I had absolutely no idea what to expect but in the end I saw it twice because it was TOTALLY AMAZING. Click the cut for super awesome ramblings~~~

( Get the point? Good. Let's dance. )

I am really getting tired of having to be the one to break it to people that their chances of seeing the Northern Lights during their week in Toronto are pretty slim. :(

Also I am already on my second cold of the season. ;_; I feel like I am sick enough to justify taking tomorrow off ... but I only go to this school once a week and I took a sick day from it less than a month ago ... augh ;_; ;_; I can't believe I had perfect attendance for over a year and have now completely destroyed that.

So near the end of October I had a pretty awesome fangirl weekend in Tokyo that started with a French performance of Gérard Presgurvic's musical Roméo et Juliette. ( fangirl fangirl fangirl )

Uhhhh anyway. When I got off the train to go to the musical, Shibuya Station was plastered with posters advertising a museum exhibit of Michael Jackson music video and concert outfits that I have no idea how I didn't hear about before!! ( fangirl fangirl fangirl )

so you know the glove that is in this icon

I totally saw it yesterday

IN REAL LIFE

unnecessarily long LJ entry about my amazing fangirl weekend to come when I actually have a moment of free time~

So between kindergarten sports day and hanging out with a fellow Iwate ALT who I like quite a bit but never get to see and a random trip to the beach and conveyor belt sushi and taking a picture of my neighbour posing between a Nazi and a nun, I had a most seriously awesome weekend, but I think my favourite part of it was when we realized that we were on our way to see a performance of The Sound of Music, we had an extra ticket ... and we knew where the nearest ALT lived.

So we went up to his house and knocked on his door and had a conversation that basically went like this:

Us: "Hey, you haven't met any of us but we're fellow JETs and we knew your predecessor. We have an extra ticket for The Sound of Music and we'll totally give you a ride. Do you want to come?"

Him: "Uh ... Sure!! :D"

Man, I dunno, I just got a huge kick out of doing that and I feel like I am not likely to ever again be in a situation where I can just randomly go up to the house of someone I've never met and invite them to something and have them accept and have it all turn out awesome. It made me really happy. x) Somehow I feel like my best and most lasting memories of my time on the JET Program are going to be the totally ridiculous ones that I never would have expected at all.

So I know that I have complained a lot about my situation here, and I'm sure I will complain again, but this weekend I went down to Saitama to watch the Yukio Ninagawa production of "Troilus and Cressida" that I was freaking out about a few months ago, and

it

was

amazing.

I don't really have the time tonight to write about it in extreme detail (especially as I am sure that once I start I WILL NEVER STOP), but rest assured that I will do so!!! But you guys, you guys. I am so, so grateful right now that I am here and was able to go to this play. I mean, Ninagawa seems to be directing Shakespeare and Greek tragedy and other plays pretty much constantly, so I was confident I would be able to go see something by him, but how completely amazing a coincidence is it that my time on JET managed to line up with the summer he directed a play I have been pining for years to see. And clearly I am saying this as a total fangirl of basically everything to do with this production, but -- you guys. It was amazing.

ANYWAY you will definitely hear more about this (as well as the production of "Macbeth" that I saw in Harajuku!) before the week is out; I just wanted to whip up a super happy and positive post while I still felt this way. xD

So I was telling my mom about a "What have you done since JET?" thread I was reading where it seemed that the people who had planned what they were going to do went home and did great and the people who hadn't planned a thing went home and got stuck for years in a mess of reverse culture shock and jobs they didn't even like.

Me: "But I think I'll be okay because I'll be busy going back to school."

Mom: "Maybe ... or maybe you'll just sit at home forever, too scared to go out into a world where people don't bow all the time."

Well ... I'm glad she's preparing for the worst?

Man I can tell you right now that when I go home the culture shock is going to be heinous. OH WELL no point worrying about that until thirteen months from now!!

P.S. The online classes are going amazingly, everyone is super nice~. I'm going all out and doing private lessons (twice a week) and ~supplementing~ them with group lessons (when I feel like it) so here's hoping it doesn't take too long before I feel like I'm improving. Also KANKEN IN TWO WEEKS aaaaaauggggggggh~ I've been studying the 200 fourth grade kanji since January so I'm feeling pretty confident about passing, but since I got a perfect score last time I feel like I gotta try to get as close as possible this time! ~~PRESSURE~~