Day Eleven

I know, I know, I've neglected this blog for the past week. My apologies. Ever since school started, I've been busy trying to catch up on homework, cursing my language abilities, and/or feeling dejected about why I'm even here. Usually a combination of all three. That's one of the difficult things about learning a language. You feel so incompetent and frustrated that you cannot express yourself in a way that you are used to. In some ways its a really great challenge since it forces you to really clarify what exactly you want to say, and you realize just how much you take for granted the kind of shortcuts and imprecisions that you can usually get away with when speaking in your native tongue. I appreciate all that, but it's still damn frustrating and anxiety-inducing, and can make a person go mad. I got three hours of sleep trying to catch up on school work last night, and I still didn't manage to finish all that I had to!

So far the classmates are ok. It's only the first week so it's hard to say for certain, but everyone seems pretty chill, though I STILL don't understand why everyone likes Haruki Murakami. Seriously, Japan has a long and varied literary history, and to have it reduced to him seems kinda ridiculous. Anyway, his new book 1Q84 is evidently a literary sensation over here, selling out in all the bookstores and such. It's supposed to be some spin off of Orwell's 1984. (Q, or "kyuu", in Japanese means 9.) This does nothing to make me think any higher of him. We're currently reading an article about literary translation in class, and the author uses the work Murakami as an example. I guess Murakami translates American literature on the side, such as "Catcher in the Rye", and the works of Raymond Carver, F. Scott Fitzgerald, etc. The white American canon, wow how impressive. *snore*

Anyway, speaking of translation, I have yet to embark on the translation project, but I did take steps today to start. I actually printed out a couple pages that I want to work on this week. Ok, so I still need to find the discipline to actually sit down and work on it, but I figure that will come. All in good time.

Oh here's funny anecdote, sorta. So whenever we learn new grammar patterns, we have homework in which we have to write sample sentences to show we understand the usages. Now, I usually take these sentence-writing exercises as an opportunity to amuse myself by writing something silly or morbid or whatever. Well, today we actually went around the room and read our sentences aloud to everyone in class! Everyone was reading sentences about the weather or studying Japanese or going to see a movie, etc. And there I was saying things like, "Because capitalism enslaves everybody, I couldn't help but cry" and "Since humans really aren't very interesting, it's best to die and come back in another form." Fortunately, I think everyone was just tuning each other out, since we all share a collective anxiety about reading/speaking in class.

Anyhow, enough talk of school!!! If you couldn't tell by the tone of this post, I'm feeling a bit better about my time here. Still a bit homesick and still missing easy access to vegan food, but I remember now why I love being in Japan. Music shopping here is fantastic!! I have a hard time controlling myself, as I mentioned in my last blog post.

Some of the goodies that I got recently:
The Cure's "Faith" (possibly my favorite Cure album) Japanese vinyl edition for 6 bucks!
Amebix "The Power Remains" on vinyl with gatefold sleeve (8 bucks!)
For a little taste of home, check out these 7 inches that I found, both under 10 bucks:



Also finding some great Japanese stuff. These two records are long out of print:
Zeni Geva "Maximum Love & Fuck"
Envy "Angels Curse Whispered in the Edge of Despair"


Of course I can't wait to get home and listen to these "treasures" (as Go calls them). Speaking of my crazy roommate, he told me he couldn't make it to Japan this summer cuz he is having too much fun record shopping in LA and has spent so much of his money on vinyl that he realistically cannot afford to come to Japan right now. Haha. I'm sure he's enjoying my absence and has set up permanent camp in the living room in front of the turntable.

I also saw a poster for this upcoming show in Tokyo:


Fuck yeah, a doom metal fest!!

Also, vegan anarcho-crust band Battle of Disarm have been playing a series of shows this year, with one scheduled this coming weekend. I'm not exactly sure where it's gonna take place. I guess I have to email them for info...in my horrible Japanese. *sigh* (Brock, if you're reading this, hopefully they'll play a show while you're here in Japan!)

For those of you in the States, specifically in California, the amazing tattoo artist Shige, who is also based out of Yokohama, just released a new book on through San Jose's State of Grace/Horitaka's publishing company. Shige is on a book tour and will be at Canvas LA on June 27. You folks in LA should go and check it out! Shige's work is incredible and I'm sure it will be an amazing event. I wish I was gonna be there!! I'm very tempted to pay the $250 for the new book!! (It's "research" right??!) I've been trying to get on Shige's waiting list but it's 3 years long, and he only comes to the US like once a year. I was planning on visiting his shop while I was here in Yokohama, but he's over in California right now. Oh the irony.

Finally, in case you were wondering, I'm still cooking a lot at home since the idea of going to a Japanese restaurant and trying to explain being vegan is still too daunting a task to overcome. But I found out that there's a vegan restaurant over by Yokohama station which I might try this weekend.



Next time I'll try to post more pics from Yokohama. I haven't been carrying my camera around lately cuz we're in the midst of rainy season and it's been pouring everyday. (Hot, humid and wet, yuck!) Today's the first day in the past week that's it's been sunny.

Ok, time to hit the books....