Short Post

So today is truly going to be a short post because I have a final paper to work on as well as dance performances tonight. Hopefully a post on that before I leave.

Yes, this is about leaving. I will be going home on the 24th of December. Ten days from now, I will be in the car with my parents, sister, Lizzie's boyfriend, and my wonderful boyfriend Chao~. Hopefully, we would be heading somewhere to eat. I will probably be so hungry once I get off the plane. Before landing in New Jersey, I will land in Detroit, but Detroit scares me so food in New Jersey~ (still scary, but less scary than Detroit).

It kind of hit me today that this is it. The final home stretch. The last days. The end of my study abroad adventure. It seems so weird that I will no longer be in a country where I can only get by using basic grammar and not understanding what people are telling me. I will no longer be looked at just for being a foreigner. I will no longer be denied the free samples that are being handed out.

But... I will no longer get to eat with some amazing people I became friends with while over here. I will no longer get to go to the lobby and see many people from around the world chilling out. I will no longer get to go from building to building by using those niffy walkways. I will no longer get to talk to some people face-to-face.

As you can see, there are positives and negatives to the end of it all. Scary and not so scary moments. What if I forget something? What do I do with some of the things I got? Do I have enough room in my suitcase? Will it go over the 50kg limit?! All of these are running through my head and probably running through everyone else's at one point or another.

I will miss this place, the people, the scenery, the atmosphere. But, I missing my family and boyfriend and would like to go back to them. I promise you, Japan, I will come back to visit once again. And all the memories I had at AIU and all the things I have seen these past four months, I will treasure it all~

I love you, AIU and all the AIU students I became friends with! I will miss you! ♥

Some of the wonderful people I will miss
Credit: Ayumu "Yuzu" Sato

Manga Research

So, I am trying my best to release more and more blog posts... but it's getting pretty difficult due to the last Japan trip I am planning with friends (Hokkaido!), homework, quizzes, and research papers. The last one is really killing me. :/ I have two due really soon. Luckily, I am almost finished with the one. :D And that one is basically the one I am going to describe here in this short-ish post.

As I had mentioned before, I am taking a course at AIU called Manga Mania. As my research project, I was originally going to a research project on the start of Conventions and why they became so popular... but let's just say, there is not that many reliable sources available on the topic, so basically, it's not a common thing to look into. What a shame.

Hence, why I switched over to my new topic: World War II depicted in anime and manga. I chose to examine the following: Mein Kampf (manga and the actual book), Adolf (manga), Momotaro's Attack on America (anime), Barefoot Gen (manga), and Grave of the Fireflies (anime).

Mein Kampf was created by a series called "Manga de Dokuha" or "Learn with Manga." This series include controversial books like Adolf Hitler's Mein Kampf and Karl Marx's Das Capital as well as Ryūnosuke Akutagawa Rashomon, F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gasby, Miguel de Cervantes' Don Quixote, Confucius' Analects, etc. So you can see that there many great pieces of literature being produced by this company to further the knowledge of the readers or to give them a basic understanding presented in a fun, new way. I think it is a great idea that this company is doing this, because I probably would never have been able to pick up one of these and get a grasp on what is going on at all times. I don't necessarily like manga, but it definitely helped my understanding of Mein Kampf reading the manga first and putting the pieces of so that is what's going on in this paragraph. It was really helpful. I highly recommend Manga de Dokuha.
http://manga.animea.net/mein-kampf-chapter-1-page-1.html

Adolf - a story about three people named Adolf and a Japanese reporter named Toge Sohei. This was a great story that ended with me almost in tears. As you read along with the tales, you get to know the characters and know why they are acting a certain way. You know what's going on in their minds. All the characters are flawed, the "hero" is not actually a hero. Toge Sohei is probably one of the most righteous men in the series, but he did rape a woman who betrayed him. Adolf Kaufmann, a half-German half-Japanese, was so against the idea of Nazism and what they stood for. As a child, his best friend was a Jewish boy living in Japan. He unfortunately was sent to the Hitler Youth Group where he was tormented by his classmates for not being full Aryan to the point where he rejects his Japanese side. He even kills his best friend's father in training and also rapes a woman - a Jewish woman he tried saving because he loved her (she ended up getting engaged to the best friend who Kaufmann sent her to in order to be protected by the friend's family). Speaking of the best/ex-best friend, his name is also Adolf. Adolf Kamil, as mentioned before, was a Jewish boy living in Japan. As he grew up, he hated the Nazis more and more. He joined a anti-nazi group and later a group to help the Israeli's protect their land. Though he is presented as a "good guy" for a majority of the series, he does end up killing Adolf Kaufmann in a gun fight after killing Kaufmann's wife and young daughter. And Adolf Hitler has his crazy side showing for a good portion of the parts that he is in, but does reveal a sweet side in front of his lover Eva and when he first meets Kaufmann in AHS. This series, as you can tell, has adult themes: murder, violence, raping, etc, but don't let that scare you. This is a mystery tale of characters who all intertwine with one another in strange ways. I actually enjoyed reading this manga (hence the long paragraph dedicated to it). I promise you guys that I will not go on a killing spree or be influenced by the teachings within my research.
http://www.mangahere.com/manga/adolf/v01/c001/

Momotaro's Attack on America - this was a cute film that we watched in my Anime Addicts Manga Mania course. It was created along with the bombing of Pearl Harbor. It was a child's propaganda film so all the Japanese characters with the exception of Momotaro were animals - bunnies, puppies, birds. The Americans were drunk, fat, lazy Blutos-lookalikes (from Popeye). It was shown that the Japanese were basically "bullying" the Americans rather than "killing" them as no deaths were presented in the film.

From 1:00 to 1:40-ish?

Barefoot Gen - I read the first three chapters of Barefoot Gen about four or five times now. I love the story and the development of the characters. The story takes place a few days before the atomic bomb was dropped. It breaks your heart so many times. It follows the tale of a young boy, about 8 years old or younger, and his sturggles during the war. It is loosely based off of the author's own tale of the bombing and living through it. One of my favorite quotes from Barefoot Gen is "The atomic bomb had a hell of dying… and a hell of living… the painful tears of the survivors fell throughout the land." To me, this is one of the most realistic manga that I have seen that deals with the after effect. It does get graphic and does make you want to cry. Believe me. I wish I could express how this tale is so wonderful. Below is the first part of the anime. It is the same as the manga version (maybe a few details here and there but nothing major has changed, I think?)


Grave of the Fireflies - if you want to cry, watch this film. Like seriously. This movie will make you cry. I don't care if you are a macho man who does nothing but work out, take part of scary motorcycle gang, and/or a beard that devours his face, you WILL cry at this film. It is such a touching and emotional film that just gets you! I don't want to spoil it so... you should watch it!!








And this has very little to do with my project, but I thought it was funny.

3rd Annual Japanese Traditional Dance Performance

On the 23rd of November, one of the clubs I had joined put on their annual show. This was the 3rd year that they were doing a show, but it was very professionally orchestrated. We had to be at the Multi-Purpose Hall at 10 in the morning even though the show wasn't until 15:00/3:00 pm. So what did we do in that huge hour slot? Obviously, hair and makeup and getting dressed. Remember, all the members of the Japanese Traditional Dance club are women. We needed all that time to get ready. Seriously. And the result was beautiful, if I do say so myself.

The makeup from the side

All the gaijin

Kasumi and me in full makeup
How did you get your hair like that? Well, I had people help me do my hair because it was too difficult to attempt myself. What they did was separate my "bangs" from the rest of the hair. Next, they inserted a black puff ball behind the separated bangs. This puff ball was a black netting material that dolls from the '80s(?) might have had. The girl then pulled my bangs back over the puff and created that front bump. She then hid the puff by readjusting my hair on the sides of my "bangs" to cover the puff ball even more so. Next is the fun hair. They had put a bun on top of my head. That was seriously the highest bun I even had in my life. It was cray cray how they had it so high! Anyway, no hair was suppose to be down or out of line with the group. So they had to fix my bun on top a few times to get it even. To hide any strings of hair or hairs that were sticking out, they used hair gel as well as hairspray. Two of my worse enemies! After gelling and spraying my hair, they proceeded to add more fake hair to make my bun even bigger. Luckily, they had my hair color fake hair available.

The bumps/buns

The bun with fake hair

With accessories
And what about that makeup? The makeup was pretty cool, ne? Well, here is how that was done. I don't know exactly what everything was so bear with me. First, we were wearing our yukata (pictured below) and had to reveal our shoulders to the makeup artist. She then put this really, really, really cold foundation on our skin. Then hit us... with a makeup sponge, to spread the foundation around. Then, she hit us with a white powder sponge-y thing. Like in the old movies were they would powder their faces, like that thing. She put that all over our revealed back/shoulder areas, top of our chests, neck (front and back), and face. She got some of the powder in some people's hair. We then went to the next station which put more of the white stuff (I think?) on our faces. She then darkened our eyebrows using a eyebrow pencil. After that, she added the red eye liner thingy. She didn't put the red lips on us until after we ate our lunch. The red eye liner and lips were the same exact thing. They were very difficult to get off in the shower. In fact, the eye liner did not come off of me until after I had showered. I have no idea what that stuff is, but it is seriously legit long lasting makeup.

Seriously, look at all that. Everything together (makeup-wise) took about 15 give or take minutes. Makeup is serious business~
At exactly, 3pm or 15:00 as the rest of the world writes it, we had begun our show. We were all nervous, standing behind the walls of the stage. As the announcer was doing her thing of welcoming the audience, giving them the respectful requests (turn off your phones kind of deal), and introducing each dance piece, all the members of the dance club were practicing before going on stage. Obviously, we were all nervous to perform, but also every excited. ^^

(Sorry no video of the performance. I do have a copy of the whole dance performance so if you would like to see it or watch it again or something, let me know~ ^^)

At the very end of the show, all the dancers were to go to the main entrance so that way all the audience members could come and talk to us and talk pictures. It made me really happy to be able to see all my friends there and my Japanese professor. I was truly touched by their showing up and cheering us on. Because I am not the best at describing what I am feeling, I knew in my heart that they could tell how much I appreciated their coming. Thank you, guys~! <3

On that note, when I saw my professor, it reminded me of something we had discussed in my education course back home at Ursinus College. Though it is not the same case, it has the same feeling. In the course, my professor told the class of a student from my college that was student teaching at a nearby high school. One of her students absolutely disliked her for no reason. He would argue with her and constantly cause trouble. However, she did everything in her power to not let his rudeness disrupt the flow of the classroom. During the time she was student teaching at the school, she made sure to clear any time she could to go to her students' drama club productions, any games they had, or activities they did. This included the students that showed their dislike for her, especially that one boy. Seeing the teacher to put in the effort to cheer him on at his basketball games and to congratulate him and his fellow teammates after the games made the students like her even more as a teacher. Afterwards, this student would stand up for the teacher whenever someone else had tried to argue with her. Seeing teachers do stuff like this - going to see your basketball game, your drama club production, or your dance performances - is a really special feeling. You get a sense that the teacher is truly interested in seeing you do well in something you are passionate about. Though it makes me nervous seeing some of my Ursinus teachers at Tour of Asia, afterwards, I feel more appreciation for making time to come out and supporting their students. If you are like me and want to be a teacher or want to work with children/teens, please keep this in mind: Whenever you can, show your students you care about them by supporting them in their other activities. It makes the students feel happy and it may even do the same for you.

Tokyo - Day 1

Because there are too many parts to the Tokyo trip, I am going to split them up here based on day (and maybe location).

Getting to Tokyo from Akita was... interesting to say the least. Around 7:30-ish on November 8th, a Thursday night, Heather and I got onto the bus to Wada Station (the train station) to go to Tokyo. First we had to go from AIU to Wada Station, Wada Station to Akita Station, Akita Station to Akita Station parking lot, then get onto the night bus (more about that) to arrive at Shinjuku, Shinjuku Station to Musashi Sakai Station, Musashi Sakai Station to ICU (International Christian University - the college Grace is studying at) bus, ICU bus to ICU, ICU to Grace's apartment. It was a long and confusing trip, it is was fun and worth it.

Heather and I sitting in the bus going from AIU to Wada Station

The INFAMOUS night bus

Don't be fooled by the looks of the chairs; they look comfy, but regardless of how well of a sleeper you are, night buses can over power that. Take it from me. The chairs are like the cake. IT'S A LIE!!!

A very sleepy Kelly before the bus started moving

At Shinjuku station, we ran into Petr (our friend from the Czech Republic). He also arrived on night bus, but not the same one as us.

Heather waiting at ICU... the following pictures are all from ICU

After we arrived to ICU, we waited for Grace to come pick us up. It was really nice seeing her once again and being able to hang out with her. For those of you who don't know, Grace was my roommate at my home college last year (2011-2012). Both of us decided to study abroad in Japan but at separate schools, so I miss her terribly. This was a nice reunion for us. ♥ When she took us back to her place, she had to run bike to her class as quickly as she can because she was showing us around the apartment first. She cooked rice for us in advanced, knowing we'd be hungry. She was a wonderful hostess! ♥ Heather and I had to register for classes back at UC while we were there. Once we registered for classes, we hung out for a bit then went out with Grace to HARD OFF, which is a used items store. On the way there, we saw some famous apartment buildings which I actually learned about in my class the semester prior to coming here! It was crazy because I recognized them instantly!

These buildings are called Reversible Destiny by an architecture named Shusaku Arakawa.

View of the Mikata sky from HARD OFF
After going to HARD OFF, we went to a Family Restaurant and had yummy foods and all you can drink soda. I, of course, love the Melon Soda here, so that was my choice of soda. But the all you can drink wasn't just for soda, it applied to juice and teas and iced teas as well, but I don't drink any of that. I did try the orange juice, but it was so watered down! It was like 10% orange juice 90% water. So gross!

After the Family Restaurant, we went back to Grace's apartment to chill out a bit before calling it a night and falling asleep on the futons she laid out.


TO BE CONTINUED...

JUKEBOX: The Greatest Hits of AIU

This took place on October 7th and 8th of the year 2012. School festivals are a huge thing in Japan. When I imagine a school festival, I would imagine the school selling different types of food and have some type of entertainment. Thinking of UC's festivals, the clubs don't normally sell food or do anything. It's usually a group or an individual doing something - like drawing on the sidewalk with chalk. It's nothing big. I used to imagine having a school festival like the one in GREASE (the movie), where there were booths and a carnival house and singing and dancing with people knowing the choreography already. I always wanted to partake in a festival like that. And AIU allowed me a chance to do something similar to that. (There was no spinny house thingy or randomly breaking out into song where everyone knew the lyrics to, but whatevs)

in case you don't know what I am referencing... remix!
In most of my blogs, I try to have it in the order that it would appear in so it would be like, this happened then this happened follow by this. But this time, I think I will group it, because it was a long time ago and I should have had this done shortly afterwards~ Stupid midterms and whatnot:/ Also, I am not going to say much, I think. But that could change as I am uploading photos.

Group 1: Stalls and such

They slid noodles down that and you have to catch it with your chopsticks. I did not do it, but Mim gave me some of hers.

I actually don't know what they were selling here. Every time I walked past it, it was closed? Not a good marketing strategy if you ask me?

Christine and I representing the Taiwan food stand~!!! ^_^ (truth be told, I did no actual work except stand there for this picture and distract the lovely ladies from working~)


Group 2: Decorations
Each area had it's own special theme to it; each theme is based on a musical genre. In order of how I am uploading the pictures: JAZZ (common room between B and C building), HIP-HOP (the hallway going to C building), and COUNTRY (in front of the cafeteria). They did have POP and some other one, but I did not go into those areas~ ^^;;

The bartender and I are homies

I tried copying all the poses of the following pictures, but I did not get pictures of it~ I'm too gangsta for pictures (plus I failed at a few of them ^^;;

ONE-san~!! ♥

Hey, these kids look pretty cool~ oh, wait, that's the OUTSIDERZ~!!

I wanted to do this, but there was little kids around it each time I walked by it so I felt like they would think I was weird or too old~ :(

Group 3: FOODZ

Delicious crepes made by Marie~ ♥

Apple muffins from the Scandinavia Cafe~

Anpan fish pancake

Delicious doughnut pastries made by my Japanese Traditional Dance members~ ^0^ they also gave me green tea~

Banana and chocolate with whip cream from the Tennis Club~!
Group 4: THE OUTSIDERZ
In case you didn't know, the OUTSIDERZ is part of a dance crew that my friend Jessica had created. When we went to the first meeting of the dance club, they basically told us that they were not going to let people join immediately because all the groups were practicing for the (this) festival. Well, we wanted to dance and dance as soon as possible. So why not form our own group? :D The OUTSIDERZ are made up of 11 people representing 9 different countries and all with different backgrounds in dance. However, for the AIU festival, only 4 of us had performed to kind of spread the word about the OUTSIDERZ. The four people were Jessica, Kin, Marie, and myself. We did a routine to Janet Jackson's Feedback (song below). It was all choreographed by us with lots of freestyle in it. Sadly, I cannot find any video recordings of it. :/ I had a wonderful time with you guys~! Thank you for making this festival a great memory for me ♥

Kin (Hong Kong) introducing Marie (France), Jessica (USA), and myself (USA)

Always all smiles :D

One of our choreographed sections

Marie and I are kurmping it freestlye~! ;D
Group 5: IAC BOOTH
One of the clubs that I had joined, IAC (Intercultural Affairs Committee) promotes interaction between the international students and the Japanese students. For the festival, we set up a classroom"booth" dedicated to serving the children and younger generations. Because all of this was happening in October, we made our theme HALLOWEEN!!!!! Below are pictures of our booth/classrooms.

Yushi and Sara working the Ring Toss Booth

Naoki "working" the costume dress-up booth

Where the children got their photos taken

If you look in the back, there are two different games you could play: Pin the limb onto the corresponding body (either the Zombie or Frankenstein) or Pin the Face onto the Pumpkin

The booth I was working at... Musical Candy Walk! I would count to three then clap my hands, all the children would go around into a circle until I clapped my hands again. When they stopped, they would look down at the picture they were standing on and if that picture was called or the picture closest to them, they get to win a pize: a small bag of candy! :D
Group 6: Things to Do...
When you aren't working the booths or eating, that is. In the front lawn across from the Cafeteria area/Komachi and Multi-Purpose Hall was a stage that held many performances. There was dance performances from the Dance Club, a fashion show that my friends participated in, dance performances from the EAP (mandatory class for the freshies to learn/improve English), and a "famous" Japanese singer from Akita prefecture named Sugawara Suyuri. Besides the main stage on the front lawn, in the Multi-Purpose Hall, there was a kimono fashion show as well. A few of my friends participated in that and got to wear beautiful kimonos around for the festival. So jealous!! In one of the booths, they performed a Hawaiian dance which then followed them teaching us the choreography for the dance. It was so much fun!!! There was also bands playing and the A Capella group singing in Student Hall as well. They were really good!!

A Capella group

Fashion show that Ellen participated in using Danie as a model

EAP performance

EAP performance

EAP performance

EAP performances

EAP performances

Two guys singing... they were good! And teh one sounded a bit like Daesung form Big Bang

Hawaiian dance performance. My Japanese Traditional Dance sempai is the one with the side pony-tail

Me learning the Hawaiian dance~

Piraya participated in the kimono fashion show as well... and Mim is in casual wear~ :p

Sugawara Suyuri. I don't think she performed this song, but it was featured in Final Fantasy so maybe someone might know it?

I forgot to mention that there was also a Kanto demostration, didn't I? Oops~ Well, our Kanto team is pretty cool. This is basically what the Kanto thingy is (see video below) The video however is not from the same festival year however; if you looked at the date on the video, it's from two years ago.

Group 7: Night time
So, the festival started about 9~10 in the morning on both days, I think and ended late at night. We got to see a bonfire and get free hot cocoa (which was kind of gross tasting if you ask me), paper lanterns were let loose into the sky (but only a certain distance because they were still held down by a string and people holding said string), fireworks, a video presentation, and fun with friends. Oh, and there was the Kanto demostration, but since I put that in the one above, I thought it would be repetitive if I put it here...

Bonfire

Paper lanterns

AIU looked so beautiful at nighttime ♥

I would like to apologize for how long it took to actually post this. I would work on it on my freetime, but then I would get distracted with facebook, tumblr, youtube, and you know actual real life friends. I have a lot of posts in my queue waiting for me to post them. Soon, I will be caught up again. Just give me time. I promise there will be quite a few posts within a short time being posted one right after the other. I wanted to post things according to timeline, but that's not happening. I am going to post now until I catch up based on how close it is to being finished so please forgive me for my jumping from time to time.

Hope you all enjoyed reading and looking at all the pictures. If you want to see more, they are all available on my facebook page under the "JUKEBOX" folder in the pictures page. Thanks, guys! ^_^ Also, some of the pictures do not belong to me. I looked at/downloaded quite a bit of photos from others (like all the OUTSIDERZ ones plus 3 others). I am going to go through everyone's photos again and then figure out who each photo that I took belonged to. I will credit when I find yours. So I apologize now for posting without having everything credited properly like my other posts.