Something touched my foot – living with bugs in Japan.

Yesterday evening I was taking out some trash to our main trash can on our balcony while talking to my mom on the phone, as I was about to step back in something big was fluttering on one of my bare feet, I opened the door and trying kicking away to make sure it didn’t follow me back inside while uttering “ew ew ew!”.

Based on the huge size and dark color, I am pretty sure I was fighting off a cicada, the loud “menace” of the Japanese summer.

My mom noted that she would have freaked out, while my thoughts went back to earlier in the day where I was trying to get a weird bug out of my daughter’s kindergarten bag.

“You get used to it” I noted while making a mental note to keep the balcony door closed for the night.

I used to have overwhelming bug phobias while living in North Europe, so saying I sometimes have a tough time during the warm months in Japan, is an understatement. The very warm and humid climate of Japan makes it a perfect breeding ground for bugs – everything from annoying cicadas, cockroaches, spiders the size of my hands, huge hornets and dangerous centipedes. Huge spiders and cockroaches was actually one of the main reasons why we moved out of our rented house and chose to live in an apartment, which has kept my encounters with the creepy crawlies to a minimum.

We still have a major problem with the small flies. They attack our garbage and quickly follow you inside. They are everywhere! This season I have already spent close to 2000yen (20 dollars) on products to battle these pests, both products to take on the garbage can and products to keep them out of the house. Nothing really helps this season. This morning, the trash can was alive. I mean alive. From now on, I’m gonna tie every minor trash bag before throwing it in the bigger one.

The summer of Japan is extremely hot and humid, it keeps you sweaty and if you are a bug phobic like me, this season will keep you on your toes. The bugs are everywhere. Cicadas are noisy and drop dead everywhere, literally drop dead down from trees and even the sky, sometimes landing on you. They are so loud that sometimes I look around the apartment to make sure one haven’t snuck inside. Last year, while digging with my daughters in the sandbox I came across a cicada mass grave and that surely made me think twice before I start digging areas close to any trees.

Last summer was also the time that I swore to my husband that I wouldn’t be sleeping in our bedroom unless he found the huge cockroach that got away from him in there. Thankfully, that critter decided to show up after the lights got turned off and things got a big quiet.

Have you ever encountered huntsman spiders before? You will, if you visit my father-in-law outside of the winter season, which is why I unfortunately refuses to visit that house, outside of the months of November-January.

It’s not like you “might” run into one in any other season. You will. It’s guaranteed. A few years ago we were there in October. Big mistake. I saw on average five a day. FIVE!

Huntsman spiders are the size of a small hand, they are fast and for some reason, the ones I’ve come across, likes to walk on the floor. Maybe they just enjoy seeing your reaction to almost stepping on them and freaking out.

Japanese do have a thing with bugs. Kid songs about bugs, lots of books about bugs, they love to catch bugs in the summer time and let’s not forget that Pokemon was based on the idea of bug collecting.

Although I am getting better at dealing with bugs, more in the sense of not panicking when seeing a small spider anymore, I still hate critters and the fact that most of them are huge here doesn’t help. The only positive thing is that I’ve gotten close to immune to insects I might encounter in North Europe. Compared to what I deal with on a daily basis, it takes a lot more to freak me out. Though all in all, I would prefer that all bugs would kindly stay out of my home and since I do not touch them, I would really appreciate if they stopped touching me.

Starting Over

It’s been three years since my last blog post.

There’s been ups and downs, new experiences, new challenges, new defeats and new accomplishments.

There’s been laughter, there’s been tears and there’s been anger.

Simply put, life happened.

Lately I felt like starting writing a blog again and today is the day. I updated the design to reflect on the fact that time obviously have passed. I got older, my husband got older and more importantly, my girls got older.

We still live here in Japan, I’ve worked in several companies since, seen the seasons pass by, seen even more aspects of life in Japan and I hope to share some of these experiences, both new and old through this blog.

I’ve deleted some older posts, in hopes of getting this whole thing a bit more streamlined. I bring you life experiences as a foreigner in a different country, as a mother, as a wife and I also hope to talk about various topics related to Japan, Japanese society and Japanese culture.

Who am I now?

I’m 29 years old, I’ve been married to a Japanese for more than 8 years, we have twin girls aged 4 and we live in a suburb to Osaka city. I’m currently unemployed, after quitting my previous job where I and my colleagueI’m 29 years old, I’ve been married to a Japanese for more than 8 years, we have twin girls aged 4 and we live in a suburb to Osaka city. I’m currently unemployed, after quitting my previous job where I and my colleagues experienced power harassment which gave me severe stress. I hope to go back to working from October.

The reason for the cut pictures is not because of me trying to hide any identities, since I have also previously shared pictures, I just found it more aesthetically pleasing. A full family picture will be posted on my about page.

Goku Day -Reminiscing about my childhood hero

Today it’s May 9th – 5/9, which is pronounced Go/kuu in Japanese, which then became the official Goku day here in Japan.

My blog has been inactive for some time and I’ve debated about what to actually do with it, but I’ve decided to give it one more try. I hope to make at least one entry a week and I’m happy for continued traffic to this blog despite its’ dormant status.

So who is everyone’s childhood hero? Mine is without a doubt Son Goku of the famous series Dragon Ball. It’s strange because I’ve never really been interested in anime or manga, not before and not now. I’m living proof that it’s possible to live in Japan without having any knowledge about this worldwide popular phenomenon.

There’s only one exception… Dragon Ball. To be more precise: Dragon Ball Z.

It was the first manga I ever saw in my home country Denmark back in the 90’s and start of the 2000’s. The whole idea of manga was so foreign to me I even read the two first volumes of the serious backwards. My stepbrother was reading the books and it quickly sparked an interest within me big enough to go and get all the volumes released so far, though I must admit I wasn’t hooked before The main character, Goku, became an adult in the arch called Dragon Ball Z.

I loved the serious and read the books several times. All the girls around me couldn’t care less about the guys with big muscles fighting each other, so I got accepted into the the group of boys, which is a big thing when you’re 10 years old. We would talk about DBZ, practice Kamehamehas and anticipate the next book.

We watched the anime on a German channel without being able to understand what was said, but we were still mesmerized and filled with excitement thinking about the next episode. Son Goku and Son Goten were my favorite characters. In my naive childhood years, Goku was the perfect Hero – the perfect guy. I didn’t see any flaws in his actions, when he came swooping in saving the day, even sacrificing his life to save others. In contrast, I saw Vegeta as an annoying jerk and I couldn’t understand his popularity.

During the years I’ve rewatched Dragon Ball z several times, especially the Cell and Buu saga – the Buu saga being my favorite. A few years ago I stumbled upon “Dragon Ball Abridged” by team four star on youtube and it’s one of the most hilarious things I’ve ever seen. Binge watching their amazing episodes again and again, got me through the darkest days of my pregnancy and once again reminded me about how much I still love Dragon ball Z more than 15 years down the road. Dragon Ball Abridged even made me realize who my true favorite character of the show is, Vegeta. I loved every minute of him on the screen and made me rethink my opinion about him in the original show as well. He’s without a doubt the character showing the most growth throughout the series, going from being a villain to a hero. I’m proud to say that I’m a Vegeta fan now, I carry my awesome Vegeta bag with pride and I’m still searching for the perfect Vegeta strap for my phone.

That being said, Goku is the Hero of my Childhood. He was kind, heroic, positive and strong, for a 10 year old girl without a proper father figure, he was my ideal man. I desperately wanted a father like him.

Of course, the adult me now realize how rose colored my glasses were back then and I now see Goku as the naive, irresponsible and often selfish character for what he is, but he’s still a Hero. A naive and irresponsible hero, just waiting for his next challenge. He’s great at seeing the good in people, making enemies his allies and protecting the earth – therefore a true hero in my book. Do I want to be married to him? Hell no. In that regard, I think Bulma is onto something.

Happy 30th Anniversary to Dragon Ball! Happy Goku day! I’ll be waiting for the next episode of Dragon Ball Super.

Please follow me on instagram if you like cute baby pictures or random pictures from my life in Japan. I upload pictures almost daily. My account name is: milaya2109

 

Rants of a twin mom #1 – socially accepted mean comments

As a mother you’re automatically under the watchful eyes of the society around you.

People will praise you, people will criticize you, people will agree with you and people will try to convince you that their way is the correct way – because… let’s face it becoming a parent doesn’t come with a license and when you have twins you’re just scrambling to get by.

As a twin mother you can expect to listen to less nice comments, personal questions, annoying statements and overall ignorance when it comes to twins and twin pregnancy. That’s why I decided to make a series on my blog called “Rants of a twin mom”

To be honest, I’ve never wished for twins and I never considered myself eligible for having them either, but when I did end up becoming pregnant with identical twins I was surprised about the “honesty” I met from people, both from friends, but also from people on the street. I kept wondering when it got socially accepted to pity a twin mother, which is the topic for my first rant: socially accepted mean comments.

Random stranger: Wow, you’re big, you must be due any minute.

Me: No, I’m actually only 7 months pregnant. I’m carrying twins, so I’m a bit bigger than average.

Random stranger: Twins?! Oh my! I’m glad it isn’t me.

How many twin mothers have gotten similar comments? I’m a member of several twin communities so I can answer: A LOT!

And I also know most twin mothers want to say this as well: “Yes, I’m happy they’re mine and not yours too”.

People would never ask a pregnant woman about the gender of her baby and say “oh, a boy? I’m glad it isn’t me”. That would be considered rude and distasteful, but when it comes to twins it’s suddenly accepted? Aren’t twins human beings as well?

I understand that for a lot of people, twins are a scary thought, but it’s like people forgot the fact that people doesn’t choose to become pregnant with twins. Some people are prepared for the possibility if they have undergone IVF or hormonal treatment, but for the average person, ending up pregnant with twins is out of our hands. Especially the chance of conceiving identical twins is 1 in 285, so people’s surprise is expected, but personally I think the negative comments are out of place.

We don’t need comments such as, “Oh, glad it’s not me”, “It’s going to be very hard”, *You’ll have your hands full”, “the first year will be awful” and etc.

We all know that having a baby is hard work, so most of us can imagine that two won’t be like a spa weekend, but making twin parents feel like we’re raising undesired children is out of place. Are the negative comments supposed to be funny and make us laugh? Let me tell you, most twin parents do not think it’s amusing.

It’s not like we can change our minds or try to give our babies to someone else. What are the negative comments even meant for?

Most people are surprised, chocked and often scared when they hear that they’re expecting twins, so people should actually be supportive and make it sound like twins are the best thing ever (because they are). When people give birth to a healthy baby, it’s a joyous occasion, which causes for celebration, it should be the same when two healthy babies are born – especially since twin pregnancies are more risky and stressful.

In the end, most twin parents get over the initial shock, we get over the sleepless nights and days filled with cries and we feel blessed. We got two babies instead of one, we get to experience something not everyone is able to experience and we believe that we have given our children the best gift, a friend for life.

So people’s pity is not just unwanted, it’s unneeded. We’re glad they’re ours and not yours.

Outings with twins – in Japan. Are they boys?

This is how most outings with twins look like.

The picture is taken in Himeji Zoo last week when we went to see the cherry blossoms at Himeji castle. Just making it from the car to the castle took quite some time, due to not only the fact that the site was booming with tourists (both Japanese and foreign), but also because a good amount of these people wanted to say hello to the girls.

I don’t mind people’s curiosity or them wanting to chat for a bit. The girls actually seem to make the Japanese overcome their fear of talking to foreigners, of course they do often show great signs of relief when it turns out I do speak Japanese.

The attention does get a bit more complicated when people just decide to stop and stare and thus block passage ways, both for me and others. It still amazes me, how two simple twin girls can make such an amount of people stand in awe, hovering their jaws close to the ground. It’s just twins, not sextuplets.

I also have to come to terms with the fact that no matter how I dress the girls, people will always ask if at least one of them is a boy. No matter how much pink they wear, how frilly their dresses are or how much flower pattern they have on their shirts, for some reason people assume they’re boys. I simply don’t get it.

I know babies are hard to tell on their face alone, but shouldn’t their gender being hinted by their pink clothes? When we went to see cherry blossoms, Yurina was wearing a pink dress and Miharu was wearing a white dress and people actually asked if Miharu was a boy, since her dress was white… even it was blue, would you make a boy wear a dress?!

Let’s not forget the fact that their stroller is quite pink.

People seem quite obsessed with the whole idea of boy/girl twins and even when I tell them that they’re identical twins, people still ask if one of them is a boy.

I also know there’s quite a lot of people from Danish pregnancy communities who would hate taking their babies to Japan. Those kind of people who can’t stand the thought of people talking to their babies without permission or even worse – touching them. If I’m talking the girls farther away from home than the supermarket, I must expect at least one of two old ladies will touch their feet or hands.

I don’t really mind, the old Japanese ladies loves the girls and if the girls can bring them smiles they can touch their feet all they want, or at least until one of the girls starts crying and scare them off. I just find it interesting, being from a from a culture which is very strict with how you act with strangers’ babies and suddenly living in Japan where apparently having a cute baby is an invitation to let people touch them.

I do think the girls enjoy the attention. Not that they understand why people look at them, but the attention brings extra people who can do funny faces, entertain them and make them laugh. A good day for a baby.

The planned pregnancy that I didn’t expect.

How my pregnancy was far from how I imagined it would be, how I was given 50% chance of success and why I’m glad it’s over.

Let the worries begin.

When my university graduation came closer, my husband and I thought it was a good time to start trying to have a baby. I would graduate around June 2014, I thought it would be good to be pregnant around that time, I just wanted to avoid suddenly going into labour during my finals, so I wanted to make sure that the baby’s due date was not during those early summer months.

I also had to consider the fact that my husband and I were still long distance, him working in Japan and me studying in Denmark, meaning hitting the right fertile timing would be a bit harder than for the average couple.

We started trying in December 2013, when my period came as usual a few weeks later I was devastated, even though I knew that it was normal not getting pregnant after the first try. Due to the distance, our next try was February 2014 and this time I tried to not listen to any symptoms or putting my expectations to high.

I started feeling extremely dizzy, when laying down, my bed seemed to spin around, I was seeing black spots and I started feeling sick and nauseated and when I tested a few days after my expected period, the test was positive. I was over the moon.

The next weeks were spent with feeling sick and tired. I was exhausted. I could sleep 16 hours a day and still feel sleep deprived. I spend too much time online reading stories of miscarriages, so I was a nervous wreck, expecting to see blood every time I went to the bathroom. When I was around 8 weeks along and did see blood on the toilet paper, I decided to pay for an early scan to calm my nerves.

I kept telling my mother that my pregnancy wasn’t “normal”, even though it was my first time. Something felt off. So when the staff at the scan clinic got ready to scan me I was expecting the worst, but nothing had prepared me for what I would hear next.

“Here’s the first one, let’s see if I can find the second”.

The second?! What was she on about?!.

I was baffled. The scan revealed, not one, but two babies. I was in total shock. I never considered the possibility of twins.

One baby was already measuring smaller than the other, which worried me to no end. More worries. I was especially worried about the fact that they were identical twins, meaning they shared a placenta and a quick search online gave me several horror stories about TTTS (Twin to twin transfusion), which means that the twins have an unequal share of blood, one twin, the donor, gets too little blood and the other twin, recipient, gets too much, which can cause, brain damage, heart defects and death. 10-30% of identical twins fall victim of TTTS, which is also means that you get scanned every 2 weeks from 12 weeks gestation.

When I was scanned around 12 weeks, there were still two babies in there wriggling around. There was still a size difference between the two and the small twin had a cyst on its’ cord, which worried the hospital staff. They convinced me to get a sample from the placenta to check for any chromosomal issues.

It took a week before the hospital finally contacted me with the results. Two babies with normal chromosomes and even better, they were girls.

Fifty percent chance of success.

My biggest dream of having girl(s), would be coming true. I was relieved and happy. I had never seen myself as the mother of boys. My mind was running on glitter, big dresses and Disney princesses.

I started having regular scans every two weeks. My little girl, twin B, kept measuring small, but no signs of TTTS and her flow was normal. When I was 16 weeks along, a doctor wanted to discuss my options. My husband was in Japan and I was alone in the room. The doctor told me that she feared something was wrong with my smaller twin and combining the risks of TTTS, she would only give me 50% of having a successful pregnancy.

I was stunned.

The doctor continued to tell me to consider getting an abortion before it was too late and she didn’t see me carrying my girls past week 32. I told her that neither my husband nor I would consider getting an abortion, especially now where everything looked fine.

On the way home I cried.

Two days later I felt my girls move for the first time.

I graduated from university and moved in with my mother, waiting to move to Japan after my pregnancy. Due to the move, I changed hospitals and I was looking forward to a second opinion.

The new hospital was more positive and they were happy with the sizes of my girls. As long as the small twin followed her own curve there should be no reason to panic.

The two weeks between my scan I was a nervous wreck. Constantly worried about the girls’ movement and of any signs of TTTS, some nights I would start crying due to being exhausted from my constant worries, but all scans told me the girls were doing well.

My husband and I decided on two names for the girls. The big girl would be Yurina (友利奈), her first character being “friend”, I imagined a strong and kind girl, who would have a lot of friends. The little girl would be Miharu (美晴), written as beautiful, clear sky, she was small, but, beautiful.

When I was 29 weeks along, my little girl fell off her own chart and wasn’t growing properly. She went down to minus 34% below average, my bigger girl was around 12% below average, so the hospital decided to give me steroid injections to mature the lungs of my girls, if I were to have an emergency c-section.

The final stretch.

The extra scans showed that the flow of the small twin was normal, so they wanted her to stay in as long as possible. During my next scans she started to grow faster and faster and like a miracle she started to catch up to her sister and suddenly there was only an estimated 100 gram difference on them.

I got past 32 weeks and saw it as my own personal victory.

When I was 35 weeks along, the hospital detected protein in my urine, my blood pressure was high and a blood test showed that I was developing preeclampsia. I was then hospitalized.

My kidneys were no longer functioning correctly and my blood plates were decreasing, so the remaining days of my pregnancy we spent in the hospital, getting blood tests several times a day. The good thing was that I got to hear the heart beats of my girls every day, but they started to move less and less. I knew that they were getting big and had a lack of space, but it still worried me. I kept telling the hospital staff that I was worried about their movement and I had nightmares of stillbirth. The pregnancy had taken its’ toll on me, both physically and mentally.

I was getting huge, even walking became painful and I couldn’t sleep at night, but the 8 months of worries was the worst part. My sanity was wearing thin and I wanted it to be over. The hospital wanted to deliver them at 38 weeks, but I wanted them out sooner. A midwife listened to my worries and consulted a doctor for me, he agreed that they would deliver them at 37 weeks. I got the news when I was 36 weeks and 4 days along, so only 3 more days. I couldn’t sleep that same night. Something kept me up. The next day my preeclampsia got worse and they told me that I would deliver that same day. 7 hours later my girls were delivered by c-section, (they were in breech), and they came out screaming and healthy.

When my first girl, Yurina, came out the sound of her crying brought tears to my eyes. It was like I had run a marathon for 8 months and I finally reached goal. I was relieved. Then Miharu was born, emotions I had never felt before was fighting within me and I was just crying.

Today my girls are 5 months old, they are healthy and perfect. They bring me joy and sleepless nights. They’re something I didn’t expect, but they brought me everything I needed.

Thoughts on moving to Japan [Part 1] – Money, work and childcare.

I had no idea which picture I should use for this post, because when searching “Japan” on image searches, so many different kind of pictures shows up. The beautiful ones of nature or historic places, the pictures of busy city lights and skyscrapers or the goofy ones of everything weird in Japan. Japan is so many thing and I’m still not sure, after all this time, what Japan actually is to me. Most of all I would like to see it as a beautiful country, with stunning sceneries and friendly people and there’s no doubt that this is a part of Japan, but there’s also so many other things – some positive, others… not so much.

After all these years traveling between Denmark and Japan and been in a Japanese marriage, I do feel like I’ve seen a lot of sides of Japan, some I would have liked to leave out, but it’s still a country, still a place with more than 100 million people, so you are to come across both positives and negatives. Just like everything else in life.

This blog will probably both be filled with the fun moments, but also the struggles I will face when I begin my life in Japan. I’ve known for 4 years that I would move to Japan in the year of 2014 and on the way there’s been many doubts if this was the right choice. I love my own country, with our high taxes, high quality in life, free schools, doctors and hospitals and a government which is ready to catch you if you fall down. It’s a lot to leave behind. Going to Japan I’ll enter a life with more uncertainty, lower taxes, but medical and education bills, almost no economical security net if get lost somewhere along the way and not to mention lower salary and close to non-existent childcare service. A country with lower equality of the sexes and where women often have to choose between family or career – because trying to juggle both will mostly just leave you stressed out. Even though women do have to chance to work on the same terms as men, they will also have to face the extreme over time schedules, the possibility of being transferred far away and close to no holidays.

The husband is often also taxed a lot higher if his wife earns a full time salary, and that tax money often equals a good amount of the wife’s salary, which just makes it seem like she’s working for free. Why even bother? The childcare service for children under 3-4 years of age is also extremely limited, have long waiting list and will take a big bite of your possible salary.

I will probably stay at home the first few years with our future children. Not because I in any way believe it’s a woman’s place, but because I feel it’s the best course to take in Japan. I could find a full time job, get pregnant, take leave, pay big bucks for a nursery, then I want a second child and it’ll probably be even more complicated to take a leave again and once again pay a lot of money for someone to look after my child. It’s not impossible – far from, but I don’t really have any career dreams. I think I would like to be a teacher or something, but if I have to chance I feel like I want to take things slowly and therefore have one or two kids before searching for work. I think I want to do some work from home – I have some business plans I want to elaborate in a later post.

My husband and I do think about our future economy a lot. It is kind of embarrassing to say as a soon-to-be university graduate, that I have no career goals. I have a lot of goals and dreams when it comes to children and family life, but none for any future jobs. Does that make me sound old-fashioned? For me, I think I find these dreams acceptable, because they are my own, not any social norms or society told to. I guess somewhere, women of the modern world started to feel bad about wanting to focus more on family, house and childrearing, rather than career, because women for decades have fought for the right to leave their houses and seen equal to men. I did take an education – I went 4 years to university and got almost only A and Bs. I speak several languages, I have strong opinions and I know what I want to in life – and… it’s not a stressful job.

Look at me talking about women’s rights and such, this what not what I was going for in this post, I guess as a women we’re brought up to not only believe that we can do everything – but also believing that we should.

I think the only reason why I know that I will find a job in a near future is not because of financial reasons, well maybe a little, but also because being home everyday would bore me to death. I’m not a native English speaker, which puts a few bumps on the path to become an English teacher in Japan, but I guess it’s not impossible. At least I speak Japanese, unlike many other foreign English teachers.

So I think I will end this post now, since there’s a lot of other things I have been thinking about, but I’ll safe that for a later post. Who want to read too long blog posts anyway?

I will move to Japan around the middle of September this year. It still seems far away, but considering how fast the past 4 years have flown by, 7-8 months is nothing and there is a lot to prepare.

J-pop talk: Ieiri Leo [家入レオ]

So, it’s been forever since I updated this blog. I have several ideas for new posts, especially I wish to make a series of “things foreigners wished more Japanese people knew”, where I’ll write about some annoying stereotypes foreigners experience in Japan – but also overall some misconceptions many Japanese people have about certain things in the international world.

Today, I just felt like sharing some music, since I realized that I’ve not, yet introduced one of my newer favorite artists – Ieiri Leo.

I feel in love with this girl a few months back, when I was looking for new music. I often look for new music and when I listen to new artists they often feel bland. I was actually thinking how I missed being completely captured by a voice or a song, when I pressed play on one of Ieiri Leo’s songs – Message. I had only listened 20 seconds when I knew that she was the girl I was looking for. Especially after YUI went hiatus and later dropped her solo career, I’ve mostly only been all about Abe Mao – who I have earlier introduced here. Ieiri Leo has the type of voice and songs I love the most – a little similar to YUI and Abe Mao. She has also been trained at the same school as YUI – which might explain the slight similarities in style.

Wonderful pop songs, which are not too cheesy or repetitive. I sometimes like cheesy pop songs to dance around to, when that’s the case I listen to AKB48 or other idols.

When I just want to listen to music, which I feel reach me on another level, I listen to Abe Mao, YUI, Nishino Kana and now Ieiri Leo.

Ieiri Leo is a young girl, born in 1994 and is now 19 years old. Like pretty much all my favorite artists and idols – (and people) she is born in the island of Kyuushu (Fukuouka prefecture). Apparently I’m drawn to Kyuushu people. YUI (Fukuouka), Abe Mao (Oita), Kashiwagi Yuki (Kagoshima) and now Ieiri Leo. Even my husband is from Kyuushu.

She debuted in 2012 with the song: Sabrina.

Next she released “Shine”, which is one of her most famous songs.

Which has nice lyrics that reminds people that you will fall down many times in life, but as long as we keep on shinning, we can climb even the “tallest walls”

By international standards, Ieiri doesn’t have a perfect voice, but in Japanese standards, it’s good. I don’t really seek the perfect, beautiful voices – that would also make it hard for me to love Japanese music in general. I actually find a lot of perfect voice to be a little boring, wheres people like Ieiri, Abe Mao and YUI has a lot of personality in their voices. A uniqueness, which I love.
After hearing Ieiri’s songs and loving them all, I hurried to buy her album and singles while there still were limited editions left to start my new collection. That’s the same I did with Abe Mao some time after her debut, which is why I own all limited edition CDs she’s made. Same reason why I have the first indies singles by AKB48, which at that time were cheap and only had very few copies – since I used to be a fan.

Ever since her debut, Ieiri has managed get the attention of many in the music world and she has won several awards, including best new artist.
All her singles have been in the top 10 of the Oricon charts.
The newest single by Ieiri, released last month, is “Taiyou no Megami” (Goddess of the sun) Got 7th on the charts and it’s another beautiful song.

Her next single will be released in the end of January.

With this, I want to wish everyone a merry Christmas and happy holidays.

Aaa the ”Cuteness” [Japan Loving Foreign Girls]

 

So I have been wondering something for quite some time – what is it about Japan that makes some non-Japanese young women act like little girls?

If you have an interest in Japan (or general knowledge about Japan) I’m pretty sure you know the type of girls I’m talking about. Maybe you’re even part of the group yourself, then maybe you can enlighten me.

I’m talking about the type of girls who loves Japan (often manga and anime) who then tries to take cuteness to a annoying level. A quick search on youtube will give you several videos with non-Japanese girls who should be in the age of evident maturity, who speaks Japanese with high pitched voices stretching out words like “desu”, “ne” and “etto” way too much and through around “victory signs” like they get paid by the amount. Sometimes these people are even by a popular term referred to as “weeaboos” – I do not like to use this term though.

Is this a rant entry? You might call it that, but I also think I’m generally confused about the whole thing.

I often get comments and messages on youtube from Japanese people telling me how nice to hear a foreigner using “natural” Japanese. That I don’t try to act Japanese and that I don’t overuse “ne” and other filler words. For people to actually take the time to write these comments and messages just shows that the “cute girls” are definitely getting known – and they’re increasing.

So what is the whole cuteness about? Do these girls actually try to act their image of Japanese girls or are they trying to bring their favorite anime and manga characters to life.

I think many blog entries about the difference about “real Japan” vs “manga lovers image of Japan” can be written, but with these girls I just feel generally confused. To be honest I’ve never myself met any Japanese girl act like some of these Japan loving non-Japanese girls, so should I just assume that it’s the anime talking?

I also sometime believe the more “cute” this girls act, the less the chance is that they’ve actually ever been to Japan. Visiting Japan often tend to be an awakening to these girls that the Japanese they try so hard to speak is actually neither the common way of speaking in Japan – nor is it actually wanted. I seriously doubt many Japanese would take grown up girls who says things like “Konnichiwaaaa Love-chan desuuuu YAY” seriously.

I am aware that in the recent years Japan has been associated with various kinds of “cuteness”, but is it really necessary to take it to that next level?

If it is the anime talking, I’m in no way telling people to stop acting like this if brings them joy. For my sake knock yourself with all the cute voices, pig tails and stretched out words. All I hope is that these girls keep this fact in mind: it’s not real.

I myself have no interest in anime and manga, but I never try to burst any bubbles, I often just try to tell people who have a general interest in Japan not to use manga and anime as their only sources. This concerns both the language learning and also when it comes to understanding the Japanese society. I’ve seen so many anime-loving people getting culture shocks in Japan, when they realize that anime is FAR from everything in Japan. Suddenly they had to realize that the common Japanese person didn’t know their favorite anime or manga and that they actually couldn’t care less. Also learning just Japanese from anime should also be taken with a grain of salt. One of my female class mates (I’m a Japanese major) kept talking like a guy (using words only males use) and say things like “show me your panties” during the first year, because that’s how they spoke in her favorite animes.

To all the “cute girls”, if you have fun – then rock on, but if you ever find yourself in the actual country of Japan, please have a “mature” back-up character to take over, unless you only tend to hang out in Akihabara and Harajuku. Or else you might find yourself more alienated than regular foreigners.

Accessory and Bags [Stone Market & Shimamura]

So it’s time for me to return to Europe tomorrow, since I unfortunately can’t keep skipping classes at university and my husband also has to return to work (he works at a ship for 35 days at the time), so I had one last shopping spree here in Japan, which was accessories and bags. The earrings and necklace is bought at a shop called “Stone market” which specializes in birth stones and all those kind of things, but they also sell cute, glittery accessory – perfect for the girly girls , like me. I wasn’t before I took the picture that I realized that I ended up buying a lot of flowers and butterflies – a “heat of the [shopping] moment”- problem, I guess. The above accessories ended up costing around 4300 yen (around 45 USD – so not the cheapest).

The last part of the shopping trip took place at the chain store, Shimamura, where I bought two bags, a shirt and lots of leg warmers, over knee socks and leggings. Everything for a very reasonable price. The two bags costs around 1000 yen each, so the two bags ended up costing around 20 USD – not a bad deal. The leg warmers and such costed around 3-4 USD pr. pair.

I hope everyone had a nice weekend.