English
JapaneseHi! It’s me! Lily!!!
And you get a bonus post!!!
Well, I do actually have something to talk about.
So it’s hot season in Japan now. Everyone’s in their summer clothes – high school students are in their summer uniforms, even salarymen are holding their suit jackets over their arms on the train… The gyarus are, well, being gyarus and consider this a great time to show off their oppai… you know, it’s hot. But it’s alright, there’s AC everywhere, even the trains (mostly) have AC… a lot of walking, but it all works out. The waterpark is just a train ride away, after all.
Cat-girl was kind of an american gyaru, but… way worse, I suppose.
Anyway, I got yelled at by the boss.
Mrs. X was right. It’s awful when the Boss yells at you, and that’s partly because you know he’s only yelling at you because you’re doing something stupid or self destructive. He’s always right, and that makes it worse.
In fact, he almost grounded me from “popping” around.
He was upset because I wasn’t making very many friends here in Japan.
And he’s right! Even in my last post, after I’d been living here for a few months, I just talked about my sisters back in the states, or Yuki, the Aidols, yet. I’ve been going to classes and mostly been keeping to myself, popping back to the States whenever I got a change, hanging out with my beloved sisters… and not spending any time here.
He was right, dang it.
So I told Sabby and everyone that I wasn’t going to pop to the states for a while, at all. I said it was because of the Boss (which most emphatically wasn’t a lie), and decided to start taking the train more, and… and he was right. I mean, popping is always there if I need it, but sometimes it really is about the journey, right?
Yuki introduced me to some of her voice acting friends. She’s really coming at it from an interesting angle… she was a famous idol, and now she’s a voice actor, so it’s like she already came into it with a sense of celebrity. So they mostly accepted her. It’s kind of like being an idol in a sense, the seiyuu (Japanese for voice actor) have the same kinds of otaku and expectations and stuff, but they don’t make a whole lot of money doing what they do. So they have radios (where seiyuu get together and chat about the stuff they do, you know, like Bocchi the Radio), events where they sing the EDs and OPs (Yuki has a big advantage there), and they’re really busy too. But the expectations are different and Yuki seems to be thriving.
But it’s still kind of a lonely business. A lot of Japanese show business does seem to be lonely.
It’s so funny how they accept me into their world, even though I’m not really a part of it. I think they value what I bring to the table. A sense of the divine, maybe? Or just someone who knows their world but has a different calling.
Anyway, she introduced me to her friend Asuka. She’s a cute Japanese woman who’s also a voice actor (she’s actually probably more famous in that world than Yuki), but she’s… a little messed up. She got herself into a few scandals and even though she’s really talented she has a hard time finding work. Yuki kind of took her under her wing (maybe Asuka is a little more popular in the voice actor world but Yuki is more successful all told) and now the three of us go everywhere together. Sometimes the media does articles on us and still calls me “Train onee-chan” (thanks a LOT, sisters!) but she’s a lot of fun. And sometimes… sometimes we make girl- (woman-?) piles and one of us cries and the other two just give us cuddles and headpats until it’s better.
The Boss tells me I do have a calling. It’s not the kind of calling some others with my “gifts” has. There are people out there who need serious healing, the kind that therapy really won’t help. There are people out there who can only flourish when they find relationship with people who have that touch of the divine. My calling is to help heal them. He made it very clear that I’m not supposed to preach or anything like that, though sometimes I need to do what I did with Anathema… I’m just supposed to be there, and I’m just supposed to love.
I kind of like my job, if I’m being honest. It’s so much fun seeing people like Crystal, or Beth, or Anathema (can you believe how that turned out?) or Yuki, or even Asuka… blossoming. When all they needed was someone to love them.
It’s not my love. It’s the Boss’s love. I just get to express it. And then watch them bloom.
You see these idol bonus DVDs where they have slumber parties and everything’s clearly scripted to look like what an otaku would imagine a girl’s slumber party would look like (though thankfully they keep that this side of truly inappropriate)… but it’s not like that, at all. It’s… better. So much better.
Everyone’s doing fine, though. Crystal is spending her summer before college with her band, and they’ve made quite a name for themselves. They’ve got gigs all over Austin, and they even participated in a battle of the bands with a bunch of other bands and ranked pretty high (they didn’t win but got an honorable mention). She’s so happy now. I mean, she has her moments, but she really feels like she’s making something of herself. Diana got an apprenticeship at a very prestigious Mexican restaurant (I’m still not sure how she pulled that off) and she’s spending a few months before college learning from the best chefs. Beth is still working with her mentor (I haven’t talked about that much but she’s learned so much and even got her name on a scientific paper or two, and Britni is JEALOUS). Liz is having lots of fun in SoCal, and she joined the college orchestra as second violinist.
On the Japanese side, Miki and Minami are having a blast in their groups. Miki’s been taking voice lessons and has been working with the other girl in the group who’s the pianist (there’s a third but she isn’t good enough yet) and doing solo concerts. Because she’s Miki and has lots of fans, the otaku are supporting her, but it’s a little different world, so it’s a little better class of otaku. And Minami.. she’s been taking voice lessons too. She’s been learning jazz. She’s got that smooth, clear, powerful voice that just works so well with a jazz band, and she’s been doing concerts all around Japan too. I’ve been to a couple of her concerts, and… she’s got such a captivating voice. When she’s singing… you know how otaku like to do chants and wotagei? They don’t. They just sit there, spellbound, and listen. It’s the most amazing thing. She’s got a pretty solid fanbase, but they don’t respect her because she’s cute. They respect her because her voice is amazing and leaves everyone spellbound.
I mean, when she’s in her idol group, they’ll chant and dance and do whatever. But when she’s solo… they really respect her.
One of her fans even came up to her with tears in his eyes at one of her handshake events, and told her, with as much vulnerability and sincerity as she’s ever seen, that she has truly amazing talent and never to give up because she can bring so much to the world. After she left, people were whispering about how he was a famous conductor, you know, on the level Seiji Ozawa was? She has never, ever forgotten that. I don’t think she ever will. She reached out to him, and now they’re, if not friends, at least talking to each other. They’ve been talking, and I think semi-seriously, about doing a concert together.
And the amazing thing: her agency doesn’t care. As far as they’re concerned, the more famous she is, the more money she can make for them, so they’re just going along with everything. I think even if she violated the “no dating” rule, they’d just ask her nicely to leave the idol group, and then have her put her full effort into jazz. They might anyway. She could be world famous.
Oh, remember Suzuka and Haruka? Well… that turned out funny. Suzuka got married. She’s now a housewife, and happy as can be. She wants to have a couple of kids. She married a salaryman, I met him. He’s pretty nice, and has a stable job that doesn’t ask too much overtime. And Haruka… she’s still in college. I’m not sure what she wants to be, but she’s said something like she wants to be a nurse. It’s funny how many former idols become nurses or go into the medical profession somehow.
David and his girlfriend broke up. That’s not really a surprise, but he didn’t seem too torn up about it. She’s like twelve now, and so is he, and she just said that she wants to “find herself”. That kind of shocked me – from a twelve year old? But then, I can’t think of a better age to try to find yourself, I guess. He just shrugged. “Lots of girls out there, maybe next time I’ll get a Japanese one”. Dare to dream, kiddo. But he is growing up too. He’s still gaming and all that, but he’s at least using Axe body spray. Yeah yeah, but it beats the alternative. Just barely.
Worst part, is Aika’s been a bit flirty with him lately. He might just get his wish.
So… everyone’s doing great. And me… I’m just looking for the next sister to help heal. After all… that’s what I’m here for, right?
Well, off to the konbini. It’s Saturday and Yuki and I (and Asuka too if she can make it) are going to pig out on bentou and ice cream and watch anime. Jack’s coming to Japan next week and I’m really looking forward to that.