2014-07-31

「コスパ」とは

コスパ:noun. abbreviation of "cost performance"; essentially, how much bang you're getting for your buck.

昨日は、とても消費が高い日でした。何故なら、久しぶりに、「楽しみ」の買い物をしたから。

読みたかった本。探してた服。大切な人への贈り物。ちょっとした「贅沢」でした。

こんな「消費」は、大好きです。

(ついでに、ローションと乳液のサンプルも貰いました。へっへっへ。)

ちょっと値段が高くても、自分が選んだ、自分の幸せへの投資なら、イイじゃないですか。

I love the warm feeling of spending money for all the right reasons—mostly for others, and then sometimes, those little indulgences for the self. :)

(これはポーラ化粧品の宣伝ではありません。)

2014-07-29

Being Thin in Japan (or Not)

Fried-chicken-on-a-skewer keeps me coming back to 7-Eleven...

I might complain about many things in Japan, but I do love its ubiquity of convenience stores. I can buy silly shit like this and also print stuff while I'm at it.

But one of the many things that make me uncomfortable about Japan is the REAL LIFE body sizes surrounding me. Clearly "body image" is not a problem unique to Japan; unrealistic standards of beauty for women and men, "fat talk", etc. in the United States are a problem, too.

But, but. The other day when I went to my health exam for my new job, it was indicated that, by the faulty standards of BMI, I was categorized as "Underweight".

But, but. I see young men walking around town, with hips and legs that are smaller and skinnier than mine. And correspondingly tiny women whose skinny legs teetering on high heels make me wonder how women in Japan bear children (which is not something I need to think about).

But, but......

2014-07-25

how much

愛は不思議だ。
素直でいれば、信じられない位深い、深い感情が見つかる。


私の好きな歌に、こんな歌詞がある。

「ねぇ こんなに笑えた事 
生まれて 初めてだよ。
きっと 私はね
この日の為に 間違いだらけの 道を
歩いてきたんだ ずっと。」


太平洋は大きいけど、前に進めば、いつかたどり着く。
夜の空は暗いけど、月はたった一つしかない。


次に会える日を、待っています。
その日まで、元気でいて下さい。


Just imagine—how deeply you can love the right one.

2014-07-24

日本の謎 / Mysteries in Japan #5: 身分証明書 / ID

It's a little past 9 PM at this Starbucks here, and the joint is, as they would say, jumpin'. It's like, geez people, don't you have anywhere else to be??

I have an excuse, because I don't have Internet at my apartment, and I need, as Kusanagi Motoko would say, to get connected to the Net. And I have discovered that the reason I have to be at a Starbucks at 9:11 PM on a Thursday night is because Japan has a pretty screwed up subject identification system.

I won't complain about the mind-numbing process of getting myself transferred into this city at the local ward office. I know I have it pretty good as a Japanese citizen, even having to wait around, explain to the officer about living overseas, clarify why I'm not contributing to the national pension system, or be dismayed by the persistent racism and patriarchy of the Japanese koseki (family registry) system.

But it does make me sad when I have to consider handing over my passport just to get Internet set up, or when I can't get a library card without a "government-issued" ID. I mean, really—haven't you people ever heard of MIGRATION??

2014-07-14

A Yard With Fruit Trees, a Family of Hawks, and a Goldfish Pond

When we were freshmen in high school, our literature teacher asked us to write a story describing an incident in which we had done something we later regretted. I wrote about how I killed one of the goldfish in our backyard pond by holding it out of the water for too long. That's right: Even as a child, I was a terrible person.

The pond now has a completely new group of goldfish swimming in it. The peach trees are gone, but we still have our navel orange trees. The pump is as fake as always, but now we at least have wooden boards to protect the goldfish from preying birds (like our very own hawk family) and evil children like me.

See you later, little pond. I'm off to a new city to try my hand at doing what I've received six years' worth of training to do. I may be back earlier than I expect, but when I do, it'll be to create another yard somewhere new, full of dreams and fruits and birds and love. Maybe by then the baby hawks would be all grown up too.

2014-07-09

Beautiful but Tragic Movie, or, How Love Makes Us Vulnerable

I am notoriously bad at guessing the endings of movies. (Maybe that's why I really like spoilers—thank goodness for Wikipedia. (This, of course, is totally unlike what my sister does when she says she's "read" a book after she reads its Wikipedia plot summary.)) But with La migliore offerta (2013), written and directed by Giuseppe Tornatore—man, that one really pissed (and threw) me off.

It wasn't so much the fact that I couldn't guess the ending of the movie (I'm used to that), but like...really, the messed-up-ness of it all. It was this moment of (very) slowly realizing (shut up) what had happened...and I was like, OH FUCK SHIT. That...didn't just...what???

To make matters worse, the poor protagonist of the movie was played by Geoffrey Rush, of whom I'm a big fan. I liked him in Shine (though I didn't care much for the movie) and absolutely loved him in Quills (in which he portrays a very likable Marquis de Sade). Rush's Virgil Oldman (the film is heavy with symbolism) is a man who fears women in the flesh—until he becomes entangled with a mysterious heiress. Before we can say "Sold!" (he's an auctioneer) he is head over heels for this beautiful (but confusingly annoying) woman.

If the number of parentheses I've used so far doesn't cue you in to just how worked up I am about this...I can only tell you that I just feel so bad for our good friend Virgil. Because the simple truth is this: He loved that woman in ways he didn't even know were possible. He accepted all of her flaws, laid bare all of his own vulnerabilities, and whispered to her in that moment, only—"I will never abandon you".

There was so much tenderness in the way he touched her face. In the way he wanted to make sure she was OK, that she was eating well, that she was given flowers on her birthday. There was longing in the way he talked with her on the phone. So much love in the way he put his arms around her. And he knew, he had faith, that she felt the same way.

Dammit, Tornatore. I had Cinema Paradiso on my list of films to watch (if only for Ennio Morricone's score), but I may just change my mind. Give me my happy endings, and I'll give you a satisfied viewer in return.


[Oh, wait...I just read the plot summary of Cinema Paradiso on Wikipedia. That one stays on the list.]

2014-07-06

I Don't Recommend This Book, but

In the third year of my Ph.D. program I stopped buying books. I'd imagine I had a really good rationale behind that decision, but I just can't remember it at this very moment.

Anyway, while ABD I mainly read books that I borrowed from either the library or people I knew. (Or I made my eyeballs bleed by reading electronic versions. ::sigh::) As evidenced by my post about Jeanette Winterson's Lighthousekeeping, this "no book buying" trend continues.

Of course, summertime means family time, and family time means my sister lending me books. And we all know my sister only reads books with covers that are mostly pink.

Her latest loan is Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me? (And Other Concerns) by Mindy Kaling. I admit, I've never seen a single episode of the U.S. version of The Office. (Chillax—I do own the British version.) I've also never seen a single episode of The Mindy Project. I have, however, read Kaling's essay "Types of Women in Romantic Comedies Who Are Not Real". I find many things in her book to be funny; I just don't care for her writing. Maybe I would like the jokes on her show, just not how they're told.

In other words, I wouldn't necessarily recommend this book to people (unless, of course, their sisters were lending it to them). But there were a few bits in it that really struck me.
  1. Stress is not a legitimate topic of conversation. Kaling describes this sentiment as having come from growing up a child of immigrant professionals, where her parents (doctor and architect) worked and commuted long hours while making sure their kids had at least one parent at home at all times. Sure, there are many things about class and race to dissect here, but I kind of agree with her sentiment: we're all busy in our own ways, and we're all stressed out to a certain extent at different times. And maybe that's why you don't get to sit there complaining like your stress somehow excuses you from doing your part so that other people can get through their day too.
  2. It's nice when a guy gets a little jealous now and then. OK, the heteronormative assumption is a bit disturbing in this book, but I'm going to ride its wave: I would freak out if my partner were as jealous as I am, because I am an insanely jealous person. But maybe that's why I kind of appreciate it when my partner does get jealous—I think like, "Hey, maybe he likes me and thinks I'm cool enough that he'd be upset if someone else made a pass at me". What a confidence booster that can be.
  3. Adults should date adults. I'm paraphrasing here, because what she (really) implies is "Women should date men (not boys)". But whatever. I do, nonetheless, appreciate the things she says about what men do, which include: knowing what they want, making concrete plans, making reservations, going in for a kiss without giving "some long preamble about how they're thinking of kissing you". Essentially she gives points to people who aren't afraid of commitment—not necessarily to a romantic relationship, but to life in general: where they live and what they do to make a living. After all, if those are the types of commitments one person in the relationship is making, then it would probably make for a good balance for the other person to be making similar commitments as well.  
Next I'm reading a couple of books that I'm borrowing from my mum, which means they're in Japanese and probably about nutrition or finding happiness or whatever. But it's cool, because it's summertime—which means lots of time for non-reserach-related reading.