2001-07-29 - 4:45 p.m.
jaws dropped on the floor
y'all act like you've never seen a white person before
(Incidentally, nothing is less conducive to creative writing than having George W. Bush:s voice in your ear, as I do now from the TV behind me.)
Today we went to Himeiji Castle, a very major and famous castle, and rightly so. The grounds are amazing, as are the structures, although much of them, including the entire main tower, are modern reconstructions (and you really have to be paying attention to figure that out.
There were far fewer Western tourists around than there have been at other spots, and kids really were staring at us. It was the first time I actually heard a kid alert his parents to my presence with a sentence containing the word "gaijin." It was nice to be special. Heh.
After the castle, we had some lunch in the train station. As always, we amused or perhaps just annoyed the locals by carrying on our (usually absurd, though they wouldn:t know one way or another) loud, obnoxious English talking and constant giggling. At the next table, on the side opposite me, were a young man and woman, the man sitting on the side nearest us and sort of facing half-out from the table. I was talking about as much at usual[1], and the guy kept staring at me. I said to my dad, who was sitting across from me, "That guy:s staring at me because I:m a loud, pushy gaijin woman."
My dad, who had to take my word for it, said, "Could be. Makes sense for him to do so."
"...Yeah, but I really think he should be looking at his date instead."
My dad laughed. "That's true. [pause] He's probably saying to his lady friend, 'There, why can:t you be more like her?'"
The mall was full of trendy young ladies of the type my mom hates in America, yet somehow for her the Japanese are inherently preferable to oh-so-hip America... but I digress. Lots of Japanese women of about my age with Capri pants, uncomfortable shoes, and highlighted, frosted, or otherwise Westernized hair.
And you know what?
It made them all look the same.
Today we:re going to have a very quick Japanese grammar lesson. Suppose that you wanted to say that the prime minister of Japan is cute (this is not an unreasonable statement, according to my mom and quite a lot of pubescent Japanese girls who treat him like a teen idol). In English you would say, "Koizumi is handsome." To turn this in to Japanese, we would be discourteous to our verbs (Koizumi handsome is), use the present tense of the adjective (yes, adjectives have present and past tense; Koizumi handsome-being is) and insert the appropriate particle to indicate the subject (Koizumi wa handsome-being is).
Turning to our dictionary (i.e., my little brother), we find the full Japanese sentence, which we worked out on the drive back from the temples yesterday in time for my mom to say it to the cab driver: "Koizumi wa hansomu des." Note that the "u" in the cognate "hansomu" is silent, kind of.
My brother has been practicing his guitar incessantly, mostly Green Day:s "Time Of Your Life (Good Riddance)" and "When I Come Around." Sometimes he gets bored and makes things up. After he bought a book on Quantum Gravity the other night, he sang me a song about it using the Three Basic Green Day Chords. The lyrics go, "Quantum gravity, quantum gravity, quantum gravity, quantum gravity [chord change] quantum gravity, quantum gravity, quantum gravity..." and so on.
Last night while I was trying to read The Man Born To Be King, he played another song on the same pattern, entitled "Pay Attention To Me."
I wish my family wasn:t pissed off so much. It doesn:t take anything to set either of my parents off, but especially my mom. She gets angry faster, but it:s quiet, passive anger, and my dad blows up more loudly when he does get provoked, so it seems like he:s the angry one. My mother relates everything that any of us does to her, with that supreme self-absorption which is only attainable by people who have a really low opinion of themselves (I. Know. Whereof. I. Speak. I have a closet full of this t-shirt).
Whoa. My time is up. Next time, more on the rude, insane, self-centred people I love, plus Ryoan-ji. Take care of yourselves, and each other.
[1] My dad and I have both had sort of an odd experience, which is that people have the following two complaints about us, voiced at different times, of course: Firstly, that we talk way too much, and secondly, that we are always quiet and never say anything.
Admittedly, while others have implied it or let me know subtly, my mom is the only person who actually complains that I talk too much (by pretending to fall asleep), but still.
I believe in yesterday --- I love ya, tomorrow
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