Tokyo Midtown

[Melisande]

glad you enjoyed it M...
i learned the word amai from watching cooking programs...
glad i saw the article, cause i certainly did not know that it has a different meaning when referring to a person rather than a food and i was definitely tempted to use it that way...


your childhood house sounds like a little piece of heaven...
wowee!!!

i have dreams of just chucking everything and going to live in a house like that in the mountains or near the sea and just growing my own food, etc...
can you just see me with my long comme skirt tucked into the waistband as i hoe the garden and harvest my daikon crop...?...ha!
and i could wear silly hats because-
a) no one will see me...
b) technically, i need to wear a hat to protect me from the sun...



*i had to look this up!
makkuro kurosuke AKA susuwatari
.........


and i love those round windows- to view the outdoors, right?...
cutting bits of washi in interesting shapes to repair the shouji is something i have never seen or heard of...
that lends itself to all sorts of possibilities...
before i put the frosting on my windows, i tried to do a patchwork collage of paper on the glass in order to filter the light...
sadly, it was not a successful project, but i'm even more convinced now that it could be really good with the right washi...

runner- is this related to the concept of mono no aware?
not just the fragility of objects but, also, of life itself...?
sakura also comes to mind...
am i understanding this right?

i know nothing of that book Melisande...
i have heard the title here and there, but have never read any sort of japanese literature...not even popular books...
i'll have to do something about that...
thanks for giving me a starting place...

Haha, you as a Japanese farmer, lol!! That is quite a vision! I bet you'd make friends with all the local grannies and grandpas, they'd love you. And they'd give you their antique samuis and teapots

Yeah, good thing you didn't say amai because it's used to express a sense of scoffing superiority, like "oh you're so naive...you think it's that easy? Amai amai. " kind of thing.

Yes mono no aware is exactly that, a sort of poetic melancholy coming from the realization of the transience of life...the transience of all things...ugh I'm getting it already just writing about it . And exactly, sakura is a symbol of that kind of feeling. Actually I wrote a whole paragraph on mono no aware in my last post but erased it because I didn't want to get too off into my own world

Well as I suspected there are pdf versions online for In Praise of Shadows; whichever you find easier to read, as it's the same translation:

http://forums.thefashionspot.com/newreply.php?do=newreply&p=12733769

http://dcrit.sva.edu/wp-content/uploads/2010/10/In-Praise-of-Shadows-Junichiro-Tanizaki.pdf

 

[softgrey]

i'm reading it now!
thanks...


quick question...
is it considered vulgar for women to show their feet in japan?...
he equates it to showing one's buttocks...
......

does that mean sandals are in bad taste?...

or is this just because it's written in 1933?

 

[Melisande]

?!!!

OMG, that is the funniest thing, I don't remember reading that!
It's because it's 1933.

But he's probably talking about bare feet with kimonos.
That's a no-no, even today. Many many rules exist with kimonos.

But with yukata or western clothes, even the most prudish ladies wouldn't think twice about showing their toes !

ETA actually, there is still this culture of women wearing sheer stockings in Japan, even in the summer. I think especially for formal events old-fashioned women would prefer not to show their legs directly. But it just depends on the occasion; for casual summertime clothes it's fine to wear sandals.

 

[softgrey]

haha- ok...
i realize lot has changed since this was written...
*i've seen those asian women with the nude hose and have always wondered WTF?...
even on the hottest days and with open toed toes...
ugh!...no thank you!
...

bare feet with kimono seems so natural and completely luxurious...
it's my natural instinct to wear it like that...
it does feel very sensuous though...
i'll concede that point...


seriously-
one of the main motivations to move to the country is to make friends with all the old grannies and eventually become one of them...


anoo, sumimasen...what do you mean - antique samuis...?
when i look up samui it says 'cold'...as in the weather...
what did i miss?
is it some sort of cold weather wear...
like one of those padded coats?...you know what i mean?...like the one isabel marant copied last season...
what are they called, btw?...
i LOVE those...

random- but, i also love the white rubber boots that all the fishermen and workers seem to wear...


*now there's a look---
comme skirt, puffy coat and white rubber boots...


i figure the locals would probably just think i was some eccentric gaijin, no matter what i do, so i could just go for it and be completely ridiculous...
...

 

[runner]

every japanese would understand the english word sweet. so you can use it to a person, without translation. I believe they will get it.


you are right captain
btw tanizaki believes lacquer ware was made to go with the fragility of light, like flickering candlelight. or even moonlight.


flying like nausica
from today's yomiuri

 

[Melisande]

every japanese would understand the english word sweet. so you can use it to a person, without translation. I believe they will get it.


you are right captain
btw tanizaki believes lacquer ware was made to go with the fragility of light, like flickering candlelight. or even moonlight.


flying like nausica
from today's yomiuri

Candlelight and moonlight
And Nausicaa, my favorite Ghibli film. That's beautiful! (And I'm going to take flying lessons, so timely!)

Softie, Samuis are those indigo work jacket things we were talking about a while back...and yes I know, fishermen boots. Ahahah, YES, I can see that looking very cute actually! You will look too stylish and you will be the sensation of the town.

Actually, I once caused a to-do doing that...Showed up to work on a rainy summer day in those pure black Japanese rubber fishermen's boots under a long wispy gauze skirt and a "boy beater" (whatever they're called), and everyone was like "OMG come look, M is wearing fisherman boots...and makes it looks like Chanel!" (Definitely not Chanel, but I'll admit one of my favorite fun fashion moments )

 

[runner]

nani! flying lessons? that's great but kiotsuketene


maybe these mina perhonen washi stickers come from the shouji repair custom.


minaperhonen
yoshihikoueda

 

[softgrey]

yeah- if i'm honest...i live in that pic you posted, runner...
the one on the left...
it's strikingly similar...

melisande...
what runner said...
kiotsuketene...
...

 

[softgrey]

so- i've read the essay...
need time to digest...but, on the surface -
electricity = bad...
men = beautiful...
women = stick figures...
dirt = good...


i am not touching toilets and/or skin color...
...

frankly- i'm gonna stick with this...
"never sit up front at the ballet... it spoils the illusion."

sometimes it's better not to know...
that is why i have chosen this haphazard way of personal discovery...
certainly i could take some academic path and read what the experts have to say...
i guess i just prefer to find my own path...
"the road less traveled" and that sort of thing...
it may all lead back to the same place...
but isn't the journey the whole point...?

i'll get there my own way...eventually...
...

so- i just discovered that ryuichi sakamoto has a daughter...
and she sings...
...

*melisande- when you recommended sakamoto, i wasn't so keen because i was looking for some more mainstream kind of j-pop at the time...
more like kyary pomyu pomyu...
...

but since i've had time to discover his works further, i must confess to falling in love...
thanks for pointing me that way...
don't think i wasn't paying attention...

...

ps- your "chanel" look sounds parfait!...
i can see it exactement...
fantastique~!


*apologies for any mistakes...
i speak no french...
well- only 'fashion french'...
...

 

[Melisande]

Thank you my dears, I will kiwotsukeru

Runner I agree those photos are beautiful; the one on the right could have been my little sister and I at home; we had a corridor like that on the second storey...ahh natsukashii! I love the tea-room on the left...

Softie I TOTALLY didn't remember all that re Tanizaki...I am SOOO sorry to have made you read such stuff!!.... i hope he wasn't racist or sexist...well of course he was, back in 1933... I just remembered all the beautiful stuff about architecture and crafts and lights and nature, the stuff we were talking about here. Hope it didn't offend you... and yes I agree, you have a great instinct that works for you immensely and people like that shouldn't sully their sharp edge with intellectual explanations and rules.

On the other hand I am so glad you love Sakamoto too... he has a very Romantic sensibility mixed with the pared-down austerity of Japanese aesthetics

If you want quality but kitch J-Pop my only recommendation is the Pizzicato Five, a league of their own! But you probably know them already. All the rest of the stuff can't say much for musically...and Seiko Matsuda always awes me in the way she has elevated and perfected and polished the cult of the cutesy singer-idol to its highest heights over the course of her career. She's a national idol, if not THE national idol.

Aww, thanks for "getting" the fisherman boots look, lol

 

[runner]

as for j-pop, how about kaela kimura?
I like yuki's music too.



forgot to say the stuff on the japanese gardeners' heads is basically a tenugui tied at the back.
it seems that, for them, there is a big difference between tenugui and towel. especially if you work under the style of some traditional gardener, it has to be a tenugui. wearing a towel, you'd be scolded by the boss who finds it sloppy and untidy. they feel tense and get into a professional mode with tenugui.

like one of those padded coats?...you know what i mean?...like the one isabel marant copied last season...
what are they called, btw?...
i LOVE those...

not sure what you mean but it could be hanten, tanzen, dotera?


rakuten

 

[runner]

about samui, there are two samui's. something to wear and something you feel and sense.
in romaji, they look the same. but when spoken, they differ in intonation and when written in kanji and hiragana, they completely differ in appearance.
maybe only a heavy chunky j-e dictionary has in it the definition of samui as clothing.
I didn't realize they are homonymous until you romanized them. that way, they are the two things that are never confused in a normal context.



nausica theme song cover by sakamoto and takako minekawa
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qjJtDbXJ9-o



yuki - joy (live version), from about 10 years ago
this song has a line that is incredibly beautiful (possibly the best line from the 00's popular music, in my opinion).

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kcD2nmutiSA

amazon

 

[softgrey]

but seriously...
how on earth did i ever miss this!?!?!?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gi5un_z6A9M
copycopycopycopycopycopycopycopy....


~~~~~~!!!!





*without a doubt...
one of the most amazing things i have ever seen in my entire life...

 

[Melisande]

but seriously...
how on earth did i ever miss this!?!?!?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gi5un_z6A9M
copycopycopycopycopycopycopycopy....


~~~~~~!!!!





*without a doubt...
one of the most amazing things i have ever seen in my entire life...

Holy cow!!!
Never heard of them...a riot!

A bit different, but have you checked out the YMO? Sakamoto Ryuichi's roots, the Yellow Magic Orchestra! Hyper-cool refined 80's electro-techno-pop...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AyoH2FhWlC8

 

[softgrey]

sore wa tanoshimi dane?

thanks M-
YMO- is something i only just discovered when i started exploring sakamoto...
i had no idea..
it wasn't really imported here...
basically our only music imports in the late 70's/80's were from europe...
the one song that sounds familiar is 'firecracker'...
i think it got some attention here because it basically sounds like what we would think of as electronic japanese traditional music...
with a hint of beethoven, so it's familiar, somehow...
i even found them performing on one of our big sunday dance music shows...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yqoWryBLmNI

i just saw on J-Melo that one of the members of YMO has a new album...
Yukihiro Takahashi...
i didn't know him, but i have to say he has incredible style~!

Yohji and Takahashi...
from at least a year ago- you can see yohji's little akita pup~!
gqjapan.jp

 

[softgrey]

about samui, there are two samui's. something to wear and something you feel and sense.
in romaji, they look the same. but when spoken, they differ in intonation and when written in kanji and hiragana, they completely differ in appearance.
maybe only a heavy chunky j-e dictionary has in it the definition of samui as clothing.
I didn't realize they are homonymous until you romanized them. that way, they are the two things that are never confused in a normal context.



nausica theme song cover by sakamoto and takako minekawa
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qjJtDbXJ9-o



yuki - joy (live version), from about 10 years ago
this song has a line that is incredibly beautiful (possibly the best line from the 00's popular music, in my opinion).

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kcD2nmutiSA

amazon

ahh...thanks for explaining about samui...

YES!- that is the kind of jacket i mean...
i guess it's a hanten...
that is what yohji's new collection makes me think of...a selection of very glamourous and oversized hanten~!


also thanks runner and M for these other music recommendations...
i was exploring Yuki's youtube videos and i could tell that there must be something about the lyrics that was special...
she is very unusual in her way of dress, so i know she must have something interesting to say...
i fear i am losing some of the 'magic' of her performing because i can't really understand what she says...
*runner- will you share your favourite lyric, kudasai...
i'd like to know what it is...


i also saw that Yuki was in a band with Kate Pierson from the B-52's...
NiNa...

M- thanks for giving me credit for knowing so much about japanese things...
but, in truth, i feel like i know almost nothing...
i have finally started to understand the food culture...
and something about the natural landscape and weather and wild life...
and a bit more now about traditional crafts, etc...

so- i'm getting a good understanding about general historical facts...
but- there is so much contemporary stuff that i know zero about...
* i fear that sexism and racism are still quite alive and well in modern day japan......
these are sensitive topics and questions i have been afraid to ask, because i guess i know the answer...
no city that has to have separate cars for women on the trains is a good place for a woman...

i know people are trying to improve things...
but things are still very slow to change...

also- i did not know about idol groups!
this is a strictly foreign thing and i am still not sure i understand completely...
something about them is disturbing...
*probably the fact that most of their fan base is adult men...

is this how the ancient art of the geisha has evolved...?!


i really haven't been able to get a good understanding of sexual mores and that sort of thing...
though i do finally begin to understand how fundamentally different christian-based cultures are from those that are not...
for example- how early do people start having sex?
is sex education taught in japan?
what sort of birth control is available?
are abortions legal in japan?


i remember being slightly taken aback the first time i saw nausicca, because i could see bits of her undies...in a children's cartoon!
*yes- i know it's not really a children's cartoon, but that is how it felt in my stomach at that moment...

so-this makes one confront themselves and question what is and is not acceptable...
and how much is just what we have been taught and how much is what we really feel in our hearts...

for example- manga p*rn...
i think it is pretty common to see japanese men flipping through some of these magazines in a store, right?
well- here, a man will just buy the magazine- there is no chance that he will open it in the store and look at it in public...
but he still buys it and he still looks at it...

so it makes you wonder- is it better to be open about it or to push it into the dark?

(to be honest, i think most women would prefer that men didn't look at it at all...but that's another story...)

and then japanese people are notoriously shy and seem to have trouble making connections/dating...does the voyeurism take the place of human interaction?

there is still an enormously high rate of depression and suicides in japan...
this makes me so sad...


that's why i want to push past these cultural barriers and connect on a human level...
and why i want to learn from actual japanese people what it is like from a personal point of view and not read about some academic studies, etc...

* runner- thanks for the nausicaa song-
i only have seen the film dubbed in english so it's the first time i have heard nausicaa pronounced the way it should be...

 

[runner]

ahh I feel like I saw the roots of funassy in plastics.
now seriously, if I remember rightly, one of your CD's includes a song by the band named love T.K.O. which was one of the plastics' later forms.

hajime tachibana's solo project
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=konVaircdFw

btw, one of the YMO albums was recorded partly in the basement of yohji's house credited as "nishi-azabu studio".
and sakamoto's ex-wife is also musician who sings and plays. she has a famous song about ramen!!




yes, though the lyrics can be translated, sometimes the magic and beauty are not there any more. that's why I didn't put the lyric line. some things are stubbornly vernacular, even if they are just simple. that's where there need to be mutual efforts to learn foreign language and feel in it.
but her singing might still convey something. it happens around 1:58.

on any day when the evergreen tree waves,
please be reminded immediately
of me.

while she may look like a kid by western standards, she is our peer/generation.



sometimes academical or intellectual stuff, sincere one of course, works against "emotional loquacity" which often makes the relation between people and people complicate.
local women who are trying to improve their rights under religious culture circumstances can start to defend what they had been fighting against, when for example an american female reporter, in order to support them, starts to mention how bad it is. things can downstream in the wrong direction that way.
but alright, let's try discussing those topics, mainly based on what had been perceived through our skin.
so, to begin with, nausica's undies, which scene are you referring to ?
although honestly I don't remember nausica's undies, it's a fact that japanese anime often has sexy scenes.

 

[softgrey]

OMG- i saw a whole program on local mascots...
funassy won the top prize...
...so silly...
it's a program called "cool japan"...
is that shown there?

sorry runner-
i did not remember that band title and i just checked all my cd's and cannot find anything by love tko...
my only reference to that is a famous song by that name...teddy pendergrass song...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rV9VuPkIIv4

yeah- i think i get it...
watashi waaaaaaaahhhh...think of me....
it's not just the words...it's the music too...
and there is a little evergreen waving in the corner of the screen behind her...

it's great! sugoi desu ne...
it's so much better to know that...thank you...
without this understanding, i am too distracted by the visuals to get into the song so much...
the whole crowd dancing is very distracting for me...
i don't know if i will ever get used to that completely...
frankly, i want to watch the crowd almost as much as the stage...


hmm-
slightly off topic...
i have been having a very different understanding of evergreens since my japan trip...i saw so many while i was there and now i see that many of japan's mountains are covered with them...the mountains in the snow with all the evergreens make my heart beat faster every time...
they just look like something from a fairy tale to me...
it's so hard to believe the photos i see are not movie sets or paintings...
and i have realized what strong and hearty trees they must be to weather all sorts of conditions, both hot and cold...
and what a huge variety there are, as well...
really cool...
even the bonsai are evergreens...

about nausicaa, i'll gather some pics, but i think that was more of a very short skirt with implied or partial nudity...
the undies might have been totoro...
it's always the very short skirt that ALMOST flies up, but they cut the scene just before it does...so it's titillating and distracting...
you keep waiting for it to blow up and i feel like a couple of times it does and you can see white undies...
whether i can find those exact moments to post here is another matter...
but i will try to find some relevant examples...

also- runner-
i think something you said about yuki is actually relevant to these anime films as well...
maybe they are not as young as they seem to be...
part of what is shocking is that you get the impression that these are all little girls/children...
but maybe nausicaa is actually a bit older and just looks and acts quite young? because i think that would make a difference in my perception...

fyi-
though i understand your point about not wanting to sound negative when positive things are happening, that sounds just a tiny bit like 1984 and double speak where they never said anything negative, as though removing those words would somehow change the facts...

the fact is that i only bring up the issue of sexism because i was confronted with it in a well known and respected work of japanese origin, and just before that, i watched a japanese program on NHK which was a political and business discussion panel about this very topic and the only people who participated were japanese men and women...
the whole entire thing was in japanese...
the women basically said that things are not changing enough because the men are not helping or supporting or cooperating with them to change things...
and that without the support from men, they cannot get policies and issues changed or resolved...

so- i have been trying to give everyone the benefit of the doubt and not to believe anything i hear until i see it for myself, and now i finally heard it directly from the source and not from some outsiders' point of view and i feel like i have some real information and not just some outsiders' interpretation of the surface of the issue...
these are people who are deeply involved with it...
so they know what the truth is...
i wasn't surprised to hear it...and i'm not angry about it...
i'm just disappointed and i just didn't like it...
it makes me feel like i could never permanently live in japan, no matter how much i would want to...
and i don't like that...

 

[softgrey]

these are all youtube- from nausicaa...
and one from totoro...

you may think that i am just really repressed and overreacting...
and it's fine for you to say that if that's what you think...
and please do say what you think...
all i am saying is that this is much sexier than i am used to, maybe even more sexy because it is not super obvious stuff...
i'm not even saying i don't like it...
it's just not what i am used to seeing, so it's quite notable to me...

 

[Melisande]

That's really really interesting.
I was recently talking about this with a French friend and a Japanese friend.
We Japanese were saying that in Japan, it's not AS big a deal to wear super-short skirts as it is here in France, but it's considered extremely overtly sexual to show even a little cleavage...which is nothing here. Japanese women go to great lengths to cover up cleavage, which I personally hate..I like the fresh beauty of open necklines, and it makes me so angry when Japanese women wear these ugly lace camisoles under them, destroying the whole outfit and as if to say their bodies are shameful. I don't wear short skirts, but it's just a personal choice.

In Japan, as you know schoolgirls wear very short skirts, but they also wear these thicker short-shorts over their underwear so it doesn't matter as much if the skirt blows up. Sure, like cleavage, there is a sexual element, but not as much as it would be in the West. That said, that picture of Mei and Satsuki on the bike, I don't think any Japanese would be shocked by that because they're small children, hence seen as inherently non-sexual. And I'm pretty sure Nausicaa is wearing leggings, but yeah the color is ambiguous. TBH I never even noticed that Nausicaa was sexualized, until people (in the US mostly) started pointing it out, and I do agree.

I think it's true that Japanese children's animé tends to portray its female heroines as more sexual, with big breasts and such. Even Nausicaa has big breasts.