Happy Birthday to... me?
Current Sounds: Utada Hikaru - Final Distance
Currently Feeling: Lost in the past, drifting in the future.
So, today's my birthday? I guess it is. What does this mean? Well, your guess is as good as mine. I've now been around for one additional year since the last time this occured. Maybe I'm even wiser, but that remains to be seen. I don't really put much into my birthday, so I don't have much to say about it. Now that I've crossed into the land of "20" and will begin to tally my years with a new decade marker, you hit a sort of artifically-imposed need to evaluate your life and to critically analyze why you seem to be going nowhere. Or.. at least that's what I'm doing.
That's not to say that I'm not necessarily going anywhere. The problem is that I have no clue where I'm going, which leaves me with the feeling that I'm simply not going at all. Life has a way of solving problems on its own anyway, whether you like it or not. It's something that's just going to happen. Once you reach a path in life, you have choices to make. If you don't make a decision, you'll eventually get pushed onto one path or another. It's progress. But I'd kinda appreciate to know where it is that I'm going. Or maybe even have one of those cool "plans for the future" most of my classmates seem to have. You know, the dream job at the dream place with the dream spouse in your dream condo. My plans are a little less epic. They consist of a dedicated "I'm going to school next semester.. and the one after that. Then I'll keep going after that, too. Someday, I'll graduate." Once that's met? Well, I haven't exactly worked that out yet, but I have it narrowed down to either "homeless in Japan" or "translational work.. maybe English teaching".
And to think, I wanted to be an astronaut when I was a child. Before that, President. Before that.. a pirate (I'm actually kinda serious. I liked pirates). But I would've been a 'good' pirate. Arrrg.
Let's get off that introspective binge for a bit, shall we?
I'm now in the beautiful, yet incredibly cold, Washington state and will be here for one more week. It's quite nice here. Homey, comfortable, and quiet. A bit too quiet, by my usual standards (I prefer big cities and am used to some level of constant activity that my mind blanks out), but nice all the same.
Yesterday, I went to see "Memoirs of a Geisha" (nihon de, namae wa [Sayuri] da), a movie based off of Arthur Golden's (?) novel of the same name. I think it was done fairly well, as a companion to the book to provide visual cues to the story you read. However, I can imagine those that haven't read the book would be confused in more than a few scenes, since they either gloss over something, take it out, or change it completely. That said, if you did read the book, you're liable to be annoyed at the creative changes that were made. So, the movie works best for someone who's casually watching it and doesn't need everything to be completely explained. Better yet, and my greatest annoyance, they decided to cast what seems to have been at least half of the main cast with Chinese actors/actresses! Including the main character!
No matter what the western director may think, Chinese and Japanese are not "the same", and I'm not simply referring to the languages. I can usually tell, often just by looking, if someone is Japanese or Chinese. Maybe with one eye closed, squinting, and from 30 feet away you could just say that it's the same thing, but.. it's not. But still, we spend the entire movie following these characters, and also listening to them talking. Native Chinese and Japanese speakers also tend to speak English differently. The sound is subtle (but not always), but you can pick out the differences if you listen enough. There's also an odd problem presented in that the characters are all supposedly native Japanese, live in Japan, and speak Japanese throughout the entire movie. At the end, they introduce an American who talks to them. Since they change nothing, you have no idea what language the characters are speaking and when.
In the end, the movie wasn't bad. I enjoyed watching it anyway, even if some of the elements were annoying. I'm also hoping to see "Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire" before I leave.
Other than that, haven't been up to much. Christmas went by okay. Rather nice and subdued, actually. Got some nice clothing and a few games that have been keeping me entertained through all the travelling. New Years.. no plans, but that's not out of the norm for me anyway. I will be up past midnight, but I do that everynight anyway.
Besides playing games, I'm also rereading through my Japanese textbooks in the hopes of picking up on some stuff I've probably forgotten. When I get back to town, I hope to meet up with some people and hopefully practice a bit before going back to class in mid-January.
I'm actually writing this late at night on the floor of the room I'm staying in, so I think I'll go to bed, post this in the morning, and call it a day. I'll write again sometime soon, probably before I head back to AZ.
Jason on 12.30.05 @ 09:12 AM JST [link]
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