My Most Recent Absence

Hello all,

I apologize for my recent absence, my dear readers. The past few months, since approximately September, I have been rather busy. I have been selling, donating, and reducing the amount of possessions I own in order to move successfully. I have reduced myself to the size of about ten to twelve large boxes and made the biggest sacrifice of all--I left almost all of my books back home.
 Now I am sure you are all questioning where I have moved to, or where I have moved from, and why. I moved from Minnesota because I was stuck in a rut and not making any personal progress and growing a little bit bitterer every day to no avail. I hated working retail in the Mall of America for selfish, rude customers who treated me like an eyelash in their eye. I wanted something better, I deserved to treat myself better. I have two degrees and my youth; there was no reason to trap myself in two dead-end jobs.

I know, I know, I mentioned going to graduate school and I decided to put it on hold for this move. And to be completely honest, I couldn't afford it. The GRE, the applications, moving alone would have killed my budget and finances more than moving ever could have. Thankfully I was able tag-along with a friend to get my stuff shipped for free and get free housing for a while (and free groceries while I started my new life).  So, I moved to Hawaii. I wanted to get closer to Japan and be in a possible environment, outside of a college/university setting to practice Japanese and meet more Japanese people. My friends and exes applauded me for the move, at least the ones that I told have.I have been in Hawaii all of five days now, and I feel so relaxed. I am jobless and that makes me anxious and restless because I still have to send money back home to pay off one impatient and overly dramatic relative before the end of the month, and repay a second one before the end of the year.

I am also a little lonely (especially with their constant and chronic pda/not so subtle leaving the room to get a room), so I think I will start looking for a Japanese boyfriend for both companionship and language assistance (if he can speak it). I don't know how or where to start looking for love in such a new place, especially since I don't have a job and the couple I am living with have been.... making up for lost time while I have no house key of my own... I don't always want to rely on someone to let me in the house or to take me to work either, so I am definitely going to have to figure out this busing situation and get a key one way or another. I am just thankful that they are so gracious to let me stay with them while I get situated in my, hopefully, new home state.

Well, I think that is all I have for the night, so I will definitely update within this week with something more relevant to the theme of this blog. Thank you for following and have a good night~!

Donations List

Lauren's Donation List!

This is a list of media I donated to the Anime Club (later renamed Anime Society) at my university. My friends Katelyn and Cass took some, which is fine because most of it was purchased at my local library's book sale and was a general donation for the club to do whatever they please with it. I wanted a list of the titles so if I ever want to replace or reread or pick up reading where I left off, I will have access to this information. But.... since I am posting it here, I obviously wanted to share my tastes in manga with you all. I generally stick to action/adventure and anything mythical/magical.

I know that a lot of the general tastes in popularity vastly differ between America and Japan and I think that it is important because supposedly these popular ones in America are very popular in Japan. Yet when I talk to my otaku friends or go to kinokuniya/manga-ya in Osaka, I see other manga being promoted instead. For example, one piece was kinda "eh" in America when it first arrived and died out in popularity after some time. Then it became uber popular in Japan/stayed popular? and when it hit the lists in America again, the fandom skyrocketed, unlike the first time. I don't have the specifics to speak clearly on this, though I am sure someone has kept Wikipedia up to date on all of One Piece's history.

Manga

Alice 19th - Vol. 1

Bleach - Vol. 12

Bring It On! -Vol. 2

Cheeky Angel - Vol. 3

Clamp School Detectives - Vol. 3

Dazzle - Vol. 1

Devil May Cry

Et Cetera - Vol. 1

Fruits Basket - Vol. 10

Fushigi Yuugi - Vol. 7,8,13 (two copies)

Full Moon - Vol. 2

Guru Guru Pon Chan - Vol. 2

Harlequin Pink : Idol Dreams

Harlequin Violet : Response

Hana Kimi - Vol. 7,9,12

Hellsing - Vol. 7

Her Majesty's Dog - Vol. 1

Kekkaishi - Vol. 1 

Love Hina

Mermaid Saga - Vol. 1

Metropolis

Nana - Vol. 1

Naruto - Vol. 4

Neck and Neck - Vol. 1

Neon Genesis Evangelion - Vol. 8

No Need for Tenshi

One Piece - Vol. 2,7

Orphen - Vol. 1

Othello - Vol. 2,3

Pastel Vol. 8

Platinum Garden - Vol. 3

Ral Grad - Vol. 1

Return of Lum (The)

Sgt Frog - Vol. 7

Sokora Refugees - Vol. 1

Tokyo Mew Mew - Vol. 1

World of Narue (The) - Vol. 1

XxXHoLiC - Vol. 1

Video

Plastic Little – VHS

Neon Genesis Evangelion - Genesis 0:1 - VHS

National Geographic Video - Living Treasure of Japan - VHS

Martian Successor Nadesico Volume One – VHS

Goku Midnight Eye – VHS

Ghost in the Shell - "Special Edition"

Fushigi Yugi - The Quest for Shinzaho - Ep. 34-36

Stuff Kate and I took:

ParaKiss 3&4

Wish vol 1

Hot gimmick 2

The wallflower 1 and 4

XXXHoLiC  vol 5

INVU vol. 2

Royal Palace Goong

Thank you!!

Anime Detour 2014 & The Onion

So this past weekend was Anime Detour 2014 and I didn't take very many pictures... I honestly only took six of cosplay. It was a very mellow weekend and had typical convention drama within our group and the hotel overall. My ex took his new girlfriend there and I ran into them both during the rave. It was really startling since neither of them really knew how to just bounce around like a maniac in typical convention style and had an argument over their expectations of each other.

Overall there weren't as many cosplayers as last year, but more of those who did but more effort into their outfits. I was really impressed with two of them because of how much time it really took them to make it. I have no idea what their outfits are from, however I thought they were mighty impressive. Also I deeply apologize for the low quality of my pictures since they are not clear and I couldn't tell what they would look like coming from my phone and onto my computer.

(These top four pictures were taken by me, the rest were all taken by my friend.) 

Me & Some Friends at the Rave

Rave Buddy as Mario with Backpack Luigi

Starting with Friday, my friends and hotel roommates arrived at the DoubleTree Hotel in Bloomington around noon. We quickly got our badges and picked up the belongings of three others that were staying with us. Then my friend, Sandy, and I drove in the over-packed car to the Days Inn  a few blocks away and unpacked the entire car. We left the jackets in the trunk just in case people got cold and wanted to wear them, although nobody ended up wearing their jackets. Then we lazed around the room and three of the other six bused over on the shuttle between the two hotels and lazed with us. We five had stayed up the entire night in preparation and anticipation.

Then we returned to the DoubleTree and socialized the rest of the day until it was time to get ready for the Rave. Since Greg Ayres is unable to DJ the first night, the substitute was blasting some pretty awesome beats. However, being tipsy and keeping track of my drunk friend made dancing near impossible. We ended up losing her cat ears headband and consoling her a number of times when she cried about numerous events. She ended up walking back to the hotel room alone and we all ran into her and had pizza before crashing hard around 4am. We'd all had a long and busy day that started at 5am.

Corsets are a Huge Seller at Detour

Saturday arrived and we woke up early to eat breakfast at the Days Inn before 9am. We were disappointed because they didn't have an elaborate Sunday Brunch so we didn't really eat much. Then we all got ready and returned to the hotel after my friend dealt with her broken laptop. It was an accident, but still... shit happens at conventions. I wandered around mostly and tried on a corset. I mostly wandered around with the friends I ran into and sat in on a game of "Foxes and Fools" for a while. Then I caught the shuttle back and chatted with my friend's little sister a while about our generally uneventful days and what we should eat for dinner since we didn't have lunch of breakfast. Her cousin and brother called us to see where we were and joined us in deciding what to eat. Then after eating we all scattered and went to various events until later to prepare for the rave again. This time my friend was less upset and we had a crazy fun time running around the hotel tipsy. We made new friends, danced with old friends, one of which felt us both up casually while we all danced with and on each other. It was a pleasant evening until we ran into a mutual acquaintance who was in distress. He ended up walking home with us and slept on the edge of one of the beds. This time he was actually quiet compared to the last time we all partied together.

Lego Transformer

Sunday we were all very wiped out, so we pretty much only went to panels that gave prizes as motivation to stay awake to the closing ceremony. We went to anime bingo, the werewolf game, The Great Debate, and other anime themed games. We wanted to make the most of the last day and spent a good portion of the day in the dealer's room blowing the last of our savings on rare items and creations that we could afford. I personally bought my little brother a keychain, and a glasses lens cleaning cloth. I also bought phone charms, devil horns, cat ears, and a couple of posters for myself. I didn't have much money so I tried to make the most of it. I also bought a ton of Japanese candy and some vending machine bottled tea because I missed the nostalgic taste.

"The Nightmare Before Christmas"

One thing that I deeply regret about Anime Detour was not cosplaying. I really wanted to cosplay, however I felt really fat and unattractive so I didn't try to make an outfit. I know I actually have a very nice figure, but it was a bit discouraging because I wanted to do Miyuki Ayukawa from Basquash, but I didn't want to show my midriff with a pudgy gut.

 Below are many pictures my friends took of cosplayers that did really good jobs. I think that they tried really hard to put effort into what they made and showed a dedication to the characters likenesses. I hope you like this brief blog update of what I spent my weekend doing. I'm sure there is more that I could have written or done, so if you have any comments or questions, please let me know.

Thank you for reading~!

 

PS: Here is a hilarious article put out by the satirical newspaper, The Onion. Please enjoy~

Various Post Topics to Come

So this post is going to be filled with topics I will (hopefully) return to at a later date. I'm going to post a lot of links because at the very least it will give you all an opportunity to check them out yourselves even if I'm unable to return to them immediately. Thank you in advance for understanding that I've had such a busy schedule and haven't been posting on a regular basis still.

The first thing that I'm going to post a link to is Doshisha University. One of my Japanese friends was recommending this university to me for grad school after we discussed my "Little Red Riding Hood" paper. He didn't go to college himself, but he wanted to recommend it to me because he thought that it had a program similar to what we had been discussing. This university, among others, is one of many that I'm considering for grad school because of the difficulty of my subject area of interest.

Then, another Japanese friend recommended that I read METI, the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry of Japan. She said that it was a great place to read up on current financial affairs of Japan and Japan's interactions with other countries. She recommended this website to me because she had read that Japan was trying to export anime and manga, and more, overseas to help boost exports and the decrease in trade. The reason I posted this here is because I think it is important to focus on what Japan is doing and why this is important. There is an increase of anime culture in other countries and this influence needs to be studied and watched closely to see its effects currently and where it could lead to for both the the importer country and Japan as the exporter. Not to mention how it will influence pop culture for both parties.

I also learned about "Rasen" or Spiral in the same conversation with this same friend. She and I had been discussing movie preferences with another and she mentioned how "Rasen" was a terrifying movie to her and she why she avoided horror films. I really want to watch this film because of the other stories this author had written.

We three had also discussed "Jojo's Bizarre Adventure" and how her son had converted her to a fan of it. We both like Jyotaro the most. She also spoke of a "Jojo's Bizarre Adventure" Store and that it was influenced by the manga. I really want to visit this place and to learn more about it. From the way she had described it, it was really cool!

While I was talking with my Japanese friend and another, an "American Dad" episode was playing on my TV in the background. This episode stopped me in my tracks because it was playing a Japanese song. I had to immediately Youtube it because I didn't know why the creators had used this song. I think it should be highlighted that this song is definitely new, as it is Perfume's "Monochrome Effect."

This song is just one of many that are sneaking or stumbling into American Pop culture and becoming treasured pieces, too incorporated to ever be separated. 

When I looked up this video, I found on the sidebar of suggestions a movie clip from the film "Funky Forest." This film has a surprising number of reviews on Youtube  and doesn't seem to have any direct connection to the above film. In fact, I don't even know why it was suggested with this video, but now I must watch it and commentate on my findings.

I think that is it for now, as I should probably head to bed now.
Thank you for reading.

Maia Does Japan, Again!: Blog

So my friend Maia is about to head out to Japan in a number of weeks to start her new, amazingly awesome post-graduation life. She has successfully become apart of JET, going abroad to teach English I think. She's going to be in Hiroshima ken and I can't wait to see her pictures. Her old blog of when she was in Japan is This, but now I get to follow her Here. I am so excited for her. I hope I'm able to visit her while she's abroad.

Well I'm bringing her up because partly because she is she going overseas soon, but also because she and I were talking about great opportunities to get back to Japan. I've already done study abroad and I'm trying to figure out what I want to do. I was considering becoming a Fulbright Scholar, but I'm a little wary since I have been in Japan for ten months consecutively and am not sure whether that will hinder or help me in getting back there. We spoke of me maybe becoming a CIR (coordinator for International Relations) through JET or any other program, since there are so many opportunities out there. Maia said that CIRs essentially just help out around offices with English and stuff. One of our old peers from our college is doing that and he's loving it. Of course, we acknowledged that probably nothing in the world could have probably kept him from Japan in the first place and that he is thankfully having a great time there.

Then Maia brought up Interac which starts accepting applications in October/November. She said that it is for teaching English, which isn't really my cup of tea, but always a great opportunity. I will definitely look into this anyways because then I can really weigh out my opportunities. So there will probably be a post in the upcoming future about Interac along with all other programs I can find.

I can't wait to meet up with her once more before she goes back abroad because I know we won't talk as much while she's away. I hope she's able to stay out there more if she wants to too because I'm know she's an exceptional person to have around.

Thanks for Reading!