Hello neighbor. You've come to the journal formerly known as ella_w. Most of what's in this journal is posted under friends lock for no particular reason. Perhaps I just like clicking the button. I tend to ramble on dorkily about things like Harry Potter, soul bonding tennis, gay ninjas, Oscar Wilde, my dependence on caffeine, literary characters with Daddy Issues, and various and sundry stupid Japanese shit, along with whatever my other obsessions of the moment are. Oh, and sometimes I talk about my real life. If any of this sounds appealing feel free to friend me. Just drop a comment here so I know who the hell all these people who apparently find me interesting are.

Also, I write/draw/laugh at my own jokes at shitbox_project which is far more hilarious and interesting than this journal will ever be. You should go friend it. Ferdinand the albino peacock owl compels you to.

Hey guys, you know what I just learned from the news? Tim Geithner is apparently destroying capitalism by not bailing out every bank ever, and then letting them do whatever the hell they want with the bailout money. Because while being able to keep your business afloat without billions in help from the government is not a requirement in private, capitalist industry, anything even hinting at nationalization of the banks is for dirty, dirty commies.

The more you know.

...

idk, I clearly need to sleep. This is what not technically having anything due tomorrow and stupidly watching the first episode of a four episode massive west wing cliff hanger story arc does to you. I was watching msnbc clips while waiting for season five, episode two to load more. I don't know why I did that. Seriously. Is the entire 24-hour news industry absolutely psychotic? Because I have never seen more self-obsessed, self-congratulatory, heads in their asses commentary on the media and the economy than what's said in the first clip here.

This guy is actually proud of himself for apologizing on air about giving ridiculously wrong investment advice on his show. They ask him how he feels about possibly leading people to lose their life's savings by following his bad investment advice, and his response is basically "I'm a pretty awesome guy for apologizing about being wrong, aren't I?!" And I swear the way they have the table set up there is specifically designed for optimal circle-jerk capabilities.

bah. you should probably just ignore all that. I'm in the weird, haven't slept in forever place at the moment, where political rants on lj seems like a really nice idea.

http://community.livejournal.com/arashi_on/1322794.html

Ah ha ha what?

I got bored while watching, like, the 20th hour of inauguration coverage of the day. (No, I can't just turn it off. I need to see the Obama's dance to the same song for the 10th time, all right? Need to.)

Anyway, abbers44 gave me part of KAT-TUN's January 2009 interview to translate, and while this took way longer than it should have (Kept getting distracted by hopey inauguration stuff and the msnbc people making fun of Obama saying the same thing at every ball he went to) here's the bit where all of KAT-TUN is asked a question. Possibly coming soon Nakamaru's question and the little snippets they have next to pictures of teeny tiny 2002-era KAT-TUN.

Disclaimer: I'm translating because I want to practice my Japanese, not because I'm anywhere near fluent. AKA if you see any problems in here, or even just things you think could be translated better, please tell me! I'm using this to help my Japanese, and could definitely use any and all advice.




Q: In 2009, what is KAT-TUN’s goal?

[Work hard while finding a dream (laugh)]

Kamenashi: Of course, we definitely want to do a live! And then, the truth is I'm doing a lot individually, but I wonder, wouldn’t it be good if I could go do proper six-person activities?

Tanaka: Probably, but up until now we haven't changed, have we?

Ueda: (To Akanishi) Do you have anything?

Kamenashi: Him? He's totally unreliable! Twenty-five years old (laugh)

Akanishi: I'll find a goal!

Ueda: Do your best while you're looking for a goal!

Akanishi: Yeah. A goal is that kind of thing.

Tanaka: Well, anyway, I think I work my hardest on whatever thing is in front of me.

Taguchi: Every year, we have such high spirits, we don't change anything, right?

Kamenashi: Yeah. Up until now, we've always had a lot of things done for us, so like, how are we going to shift direction, right?

Nakamaru: Yeah. We haven't had anything new, right?

Tanaka: Honestly, I haven't changed from my 17 year old self.

Akanishi: Well then, let's become responsible adults! (laugh)

Tanaka: Our 2009 goal is "to become adults!" (laugh)

Taguchi: or rather, just satisfactory adults for our age, right?

Akanishi: Practically speaking, while focusing on reality, let's steadily keep working on it.

Tanaka: We need to get "real."

Four people: Amazing!!*

Nakamaru: No, but, that sentence is good, but when I think about it, it's cold. (bitter smile)



*they said 「うまい！！」in response to Koki, which I really wanted to translate as “that was so deep!” but abbers44 told me "you can't have kat-tun going 'that's so deep'" It literally means something along the lines of "skillful" or "wise."


ETA: Nakamaru's question finished as well. This actually comes before the previous question. Also, Ueda is an insane person.

---

Q. At college, what do you find interesting to study?

[Of course, ecology is essential]

Nakamaru: Lately, ecology is showing up everywhere, but I was taught about real time data. They had a thing called [地域地球環境論]*......

Kamenashi: However, it's a bit weird to talk about ecology after all this time.

Tanaka: Mankind should have taken noticed before now, right?

Nakamaru: That's right. The truth is, they've been talking about this for fifty years.

Tanaka: After half a century has passed, the whiteness of the north pole is being destroyed, right.......

Ueda: Speaking of, it seems like natto is saving the world!

Five people: What???

Ueda: When you reduce natto** once, then put the natto ukin*** back and dry it out, they say you can use the stuff you end up with. They say if you spread it on the ground, it will lower the ground temperature. Ultimately, you can also grow food more cheaply.

Kamenashi: It can protect against the greenhouse effect?

Ueda: Yes, that.

Five people: Ahh

Taguchi: despite that, there really isn't the feeling that Nakamaru-kun is a student, is there.

Tanaka: Well, that's because you never see him looking like he's studying. Eh, if Nakamaru would wear a school uniform to work, I think people would go “ahh, he's a student,” but... (laugh)

Kamenashi: He's been going to school for forever, so we want him to finally graduate.

Taguchi: But in college it totally seems like you would have to study a wide number of things.

Ueda: Doesn't Akanishi help you study English?

Akanishi: Yeah, yeah.

Taguchi: Have you gotten so you can speak it?

Nakamaru: It feels like I'll be able to soon, doesn't it? (laugh) But English is a compulsory subject, so you're required to do it. But it's completely impossible without someone else, isn't it. So I have a good one nearby. (laugh)

Akanishi: Oi! You! Who are you calling a "good one!" (laugh)


*I spent so long looking up the kanji in this thing, and still couldn’t figure out what it is. So I’m going with bizarre long scientific name for the win. A recent google search revealed this which contains that entire name! So if anyone feels like digging through that and figuring out what he's talking about, be my guest. ^_^
**Natto is a insanely gross and apparently very good for you, much loved by Japanese people because they apparently have no taste buds sort of… slimy soybean thing. Not that I’m biased at all.
***The dictionary gave me bacillus subtilis natto as a translation. I AM ASSUMING THIS IS SOME BIZARRE TYPE OF NATTO

ETA2: Ah ha ha, the following is not in the article. It's me, being stupid, because they spent so long talking about ~saving the environment~ the Japanese literally translates to "a not convenient truth"

In conclusion, watch out for KAT-TUN's next concert tour, KAT-TUN: 便利じゃない実. I hear Jin, Nakamaru, and Al Gore will be rapping together all in English!

Happy Obama Day~ I've had the news on in the background constantly today, so I probably know a bit more than is strictly necessary about who all was wandering around DC, how many porta-potties they had, what michelle obama was wearing, etc. etc. but that's okay. Obama is a pretty classy guy and I'm pretty happy he's the president now.

Similarly, I've been trying really hard not to spend the day being happy Bush is gone, because one of the best things about this election was that I got to vote for someone, instead of against Bush. It's... sort of working. :P There were definitely a few thoughts of "woo! no more Bush!" when the cameras kept panning over to him during the section of the inaugural address where Obama was basically saying "all that stupid stuff Bush did in terms of foreign policy? Yeah, we're not doing that" while Bush was sitting a hundred feet away, smiling like he didn't understand who Obama was comparing himself too. (Possibly, I should be a better person, because that may have been my favorite part of the address... >_>) But generally I've just been enjoying the history and pageantry and all the happy people all over the news. Tomorrow we can worry about the Great Depression 2.0 and fixing all of the other problems we're buried in. It was just nice seeing everyone being so happy all over the place today.

:D

Also, have you all checked out the new white house website? It's pretty snazzy Also, our president has a blog~ Do you think he'd friend me on eljay if I asked nicely?

Also also, I'd been meaning to do this all month, and somehow it's now the 20th and I haven't done any at all, but I want to start trying to translate stuff (Japanese to English) as an attempt to get more practical work on my Japanese. SO! If there's anything you have or happen to find that you want translated! Movies might be a bit hard (aka could take ten thousand years for me to do well) but short movie clips and definitely magazine articles or other written material! Send me links or scans or whatever, and I'll try my best.

I told Abbey I'd take pictures of the planner I got while in Japan, and since I rediscovered where I put my camera (note to self, oh my god clean up room. It has been two weeks your suitcase should not still be sitting around :|||) here they are!



( sorry for the bizarre lighting. This doesn't work well either with flash or without it. :| )
On a final note, this was also in the batch of pictures I uploaded. :D Remind me to actually post Japan pictures and stories soon. For now, though, Ebisu Garden Place in Tokyo. Kelly and Vicki were so confused why I was dragging them here, until they realized we actually had to wait our turn to take pictures here of us pretending to be Domyouji. The other people included two girls and their dates, two chinese girls (I think) and a little old grandma and grandpa. Such a wonderful happy let's-pretend-to-be-matsujun feeling to the whole thing. alksdfj

So my kansai gaidai sempai (ah ha ha, it's true!) Jero is currently a famous popstar in Japan. Um, it's complicated. I'll let wiki explain.

(Also, and interesting Washington Post article. The "university in Osaka" they mention is actually halfway between Osaka and Kyoto and is the one yours truly went to. No news yet on my Enka record deal.)

Anyway, randomly reading through Jero-blog posts (I am procrastinating so much right now....) and apparently he posted on election day about Obama's win. A) what a bizarre decision to make, being an African American Japanese pop star and trying to decide if you should post about Obama in Japanese on your official blog. B) It's actually really adorable, so I'm posting here.

皆さん、本日は大変嬉しい日でございます。
本日、アメリカの大統領選挙で、オバマ氏が勝ちました。
オバマ氏はアメリカの初黒人大統領になります。
アメリカ人として、そして黒人として本当に嬉しいです。
オバマ氏がいつもおっしゃる「変革」が、オバマ氏のおかげできっと来ると思います。期待してます。
僕のお祖父さんがいつかこの日が来るとずっと思っていたが、残念ながら間に合いませんでした。天国からきっと微笑んでます。

今年なんと、初黒人演歌歌手、そして初黒人アメリカ大統領が現れました。
嬉しい限りでございます（笑）。
これからも、応援宜しくお願い致します。

Everyone, it's an incredibly happy day in Japan.
Japan, in the American presidential election, Mr. Obama won.
Mr. Obama will become America's first black president.
As an American, and then as a black person, I am truly glad.
I think that, thanks to Mr. Obama, the "change" he always talks about will surely come. I'm hoping and anticipating it.
My grandfather always thought this day would come, but unfortunately it did not come in time. I'm certain he is smiling from heaven.

Like how this year, I'm the first black enka singer, and then a black American president appeared. (laugh)
From here on out, please keep supporting me.

Also, the comments are fantastic, but I think this is my favorite.

( This is the cutest thing ever )

So what would you all say if I told you I, in a fit of panic about the future, have decided that maybe I should convince myself to go to law school and become a lawyer?

alksdj

I'm... being a little weird these days. In the freaked out sense. It's sort of awkward and difficult. But honest opinions people. As much as it seems like some sketchy important real life decisions version of the livejournal meme, Ellen would make a good lawyer some day! Yes or no?

Happy New Year!

Sitting in the Narita Airport right now. I leave for home in... three hours. I almost cried in the lawsons here (THERE'S A LAWSONS HERE I WAS SO HAPPY. THEY'RE ALWAYS RIGHT WHERE YOU NEED THEM THE MOST!) when I was buying curry and karaage and suddenly One Love came on.

New Years Resolution, head home with a sense of purpose and a fight-o attitude. Keep up with all the friends I made this semester, go home and enjoy the ones I left behind, and try not to cry over stupid things that remind me of Japan. At least not too much.

ato de, ne

As a belated birthday present to Ohno, and my f-list ^_^ I thought I'd post a translation of Nino's Nikki from yesterday, aka Ohno's birthday. Nino, the little dork, is so greato.

( その４１７ )

So now that masterful bit of translation is over, (so hard, I know, it really taxed my Japanese skills) I will not mention reading that entry last night about ten times in a row and giggling like a school girl at the cute little hearts.


I've been failing at vocab quizzes this week, but am very blah about it. asdfk I've generally failed at being a student this semester, which I'm justifying by saying it's worth it to have more host family/speaking partner/exploring Japan time. Last night, instead of studying for the vocab quiz I had today (which I think I only missed one thing on anyway! Go me!) I pulled out my old Genki I book and spent about three hours looking through it with my host mom.

And today we learned Kansai Ben keigo! Which is really delightful. And way, way easier than normal keigo. (Keigo is the uber-polite form of Japanese that you use when talking about someone "higher" than you, and it fucking sucks. :|||) Unfortunately, apparently people not from Kansai will laugh at you if you use Kansai-keigo with them. Suck, Tokyo, suck.

And this weekend I'm going to Arashi Yama with my host family to look at the pretty foliage! Whcih almost makes up for the part where it's Thanksgiving and I have no turkey or stuffing or pumpkin pie or parade or traditional family bocce game on my old high school football field. :( Sigh. Ohno suki yo, ne?

大チャンへ、

お誕生日おめでとうございます！！！　今年は嵐のためにいい年ですね？めちゃくちゃ人気になりましたね？大チャンはずっとずっと大好きだけど、今年ファンのみんあは智くんの愛がありますね？ジャニーズ店で大チャンのうちわはぜんぜんありません！よかった、ね？！

今から頑張ってください。おいしい食べ物をたべて、よくゆっくりしてください！あたしも頑張りますよ！

^_^

( romanji and translation, we'll say it's for Claire-chan's sake. :P )

lol, a not psychotic entry later today, when I don't have class in five minutes. In summation, I LOVE YOU OH-CHAN. HAPPY BIRTHDAY, STUPID-FACE RIIDAA-CHAN.

(And sorry there's probably half a million mistakes in the Japanese. Do not have time to proof read at the moment. >_<)


Also, as my friend Vicki just told me when I informed her it was Ohno's birthday: You know, he'd make a really great boyfriend, because no matter what you cooked him he'd always just say "umai."

man, guys. I am actually crying. That was just a beautiful piece of oration. Here's keeping my fingers crossed Obama can live up to his apparent potential.


Let us resist the temptation to fall back on the same partisanship and pettiness and immaturity that has poisoned our politics for so long. Let us remember that it was a man from this state who first carried the banner of the Republican Party to the White House – a party founded on the values of self-reliance, individual liberty, and national unity. Those are values we all share, and while the Democratic Party has won a great victory tonight, we do so with a measure of humility and determination to heal the divides that have held back our progress. As Lincoln said to a nation far more divided than ours, "We are not enemies, but friends…though passion may have strained it must not break our bonds of affection." And to those Americans whose support I have yet to earn – I may not have won your vote, but I hear your voices, I need your help, and I will be your President too.


Yes, please. That. Let's do that, guys.

I am so buying Beautiful Days as soon as possible, and listening to it on repeat for, like, the next month.

:DDDDDDDD

It's 11:30 in the afternoon here and I'm sitting in the computer lab watching CNN online and reading my f-list and talking to Betsy all at the same time. (It's rather distracting.) I voted a few weeks ago by absentee, which was exciting in that dorky being involved in politics way.

I also had to give a presentation today in spoken Japanese. It was about Nino. yeaaaah.


OMG OMG OMG YOU GUYS OMG THEY ARE CALLING OHIO FOR OBAMA OMG I AM FULL OF JOY

You want to know the real reason I want Obama to win, though? I promised myself a while ago that I could only buy Arashi's new single, Beautiful Days, (which dropped today) if Obama won.

So, you know, fighto Obama-sama. I really, really want that CD. askldfja;sdf


Also, we're going out for election karaoke tonight. Should be hella fun should Obama pull this off. (knock on wood)

/my only election related post in recent memory, which is actually sort of surprising, but there you go.

SO HEY GUYS, AIBA MASAKI IS ON THE BEST WEEK EVER BLOG.

Yeaaaah. That Aiba, the adorably retarded member of Arashi Aiba. asldkfj Like. Bizarre life crossovers ftw, ne?

Okay, so a monkey riding a segway is on the best week ever blog, and Aiba happenes to appear in the corner of the screen a few times, but still.

http://www.bestweekever.tv/2008/10/21/the-end-is-near-monkey-rides-a-segway/#comments

Now I'm really sad I didn't watch that the other night, actually, because it looks like a really funny episode. And, you know, less full of crying with my host mom and sister as Daigo sings goodbye to his baby penguin Pen Pen. True story.

Ahh, sorry I haven't have a real post in forever. I am so, so busy. I keep just... not studying for classes and things which is really bad, but I'm so used to being able to study whenever I feel like it. The very regimented schedule is really hard to get used to.

Anyway, I just posted pictures of Fushimi Inari over on gonnarokuyou. Also, we've started watching Hana Kimi on my laptop when we have time in-between classes. (ah ha, and I just said I have no time to study. In between class time is one of the few friends times I get during the week, though!) Also also, I'm trying to sign up for a mixi, but for some reason I'm having trouble registering my cell phone email address. We suspect the softbank people are holding out on the gaijin, because there's some mysterious password my phone asks for sometimes that none of us have ever heard about before. :|||


I'll talk to you later, hopefully with a proper post, but until then a bizarre restaurant in Kyoto (I think?) that is selling my new favorite food to apparently only young men~

Nino's latest nikki seems to be all in keigo. (this after the one yesterday where talked about how ohnos been dreaming about him） I've decided nino is stalking me so he can use what we're learning at the moment in his blog


Eta: Awwww, sadness. My cell phone smilies seem to not show up here. :|||

oh man figured out how to post from my cell phone I am going to update so much more often now. But proably really short posts because this is really hard to type. Japanese would actually be easier b/c there is t9 for that(>_<)

(There is an emoticon setting on here (^_-)～☆）

あたしのけいたいはメチャメチャすごい～♪ 今日はホストファミリーとHowlを見た 明日は友達とお寺に行くつもりだよ～楽しそうな？


I definitely included smilies in there. I wonder if they'll show up for you. (o^_^o)

aksdfj;alksd

My computer is in the hospital because there is apparently some sort of alien life form trying to break its way out of the bottom casing. I don't even know. Eiji is a fucking bizarre computer, guys. This is worse than the time he thought he had a 20 gig hard drive, which is impossible unless they had installed an ipod instead of a hard drive.

Also, I have either an ear infection, a busted ear drum, or some other random ear problem that is causing me to be nearly deaf in my left ear. It was starting to throb earlier. Whatever it is, it is going to have to wait until a week from tomorrow to get diagnosed/fixed, because I have to drive myself up to Oberlin tomorrow morning at eight to go back to work for the week.

I am working forty hours this week. With nothing to do. And no computer. And fucking deaf in one ear.

Seriously debating the merits of cutting off my own ear right now.

Pro: It might stop feeling like the entire ocean is sitting in the left side of my head.

Con: Lot's of blood. :|

Pro: Lot's of blood very dramatic effect.

This week is going to suck so much.

ETA: THEY ARE TESTING THE FIRE ALARMS AT WORK. THIS IS NOT FUNNY, LIFE.

Also, there are people carrying what must be ten giant boxes of energy bars past me. What is this madness?

askdfj what? Now they are carrying million shoeboxes past. Apparently everyone in this group ets new shoes today? What the hell....

ETA2: Ah, apparently it's the cross country team. That makes sense.

So I promised I would make a j-pop mix to introduce the sparkles and gay to Aries, and here it is! Possibly I am a little ocd about mixes (Maartje understand me. It's just a thing, okay.) But yes, here goes. Feel free to download:



( song list and download )