animemiz’s scribblings..

From last month to a portion of this month, New York Asian Film Festival 2010 is happening. From my perspective, it is going to be Japan Cuts, which is Japanese movie screenings at Japan Society. Japan Cuts began on July 1, 2010, so there has been non-stop movie viewings at Japan Society now, so far I have seen three movies, and have five more movies to go see. The price for these movies are reasonable, since I am a member, so ticket prices for me are $8 compared to the normal $12 for non-Japan society members.

So far I have seen:

Sawako Decides

Plot- This is a movie about a Japanese office lady who has been in Tokyo for five years, and went through five boyfriends. What happens if she has to go back to her hometown and help her dying father’s factory.

Impressions - I liked this movie, it was a thoughtful one that makes me think about the life of a Japanese woman, how stressed one can be, pessimistic, misunderstood, and beer loving one can also be. This was a underdog succeeding type movie. There were moments in this film that made people around me, laugh out loud… although throwing bones of family members should be a no no. I have seen Mitsushima Hikari last year in Love Exposure, so this movie is a complete different role for her. I also couldn’t recognize Kotaro Shiga, it was first wig seeing him without glasses and with a wig, that I am quite use to from the dramas I have seen of him.. so I did a mental double take.

Confessions

Plot -Based on a book, this is about a teacher who is also a mother, that talks to her middle school students, about the death and murder of her daughter Manami. That and she knows two students in her class was responsible

Impression - I am absolutely riveted by this film. This was a brilliant movie, that had me thinking wow. Bullying, mother complexes, musical, there are so many layers to this dark, and socially deviant movie. Just when you think there would be a cliche part, the movie twists and turns – making this a very enjoyable movie to watch. This is a complete opposite role for what I normally see Takako Matsu. She definitely plays a grieving, yet vengeful mother to the hilt. This movie definitely impacted my feelings for what a brilliant director Nakashima is. Music is also definitely a strong part of this movie, as was the cinematography was just stunning.

Dear Doctor

Plot -How much reliance should there be on a doctor? Then how about an entire village’s welfare? What happens if the doctor, who everyone in the village loves turns out to be a quack?  Then what?

Impressions - This was a pretty dry, yet mellow slice of life human interest movie, on the questions of doctor or patient privacy. I was watching this movie, and at times I felt the movie was a bit long, but it proves to be a good experience. The doctor who is played by Tsurube Shofukutei won an award for this role. There was the appearance of  many other actors/actresses that I have recognized. I recognized Eita, Sasano Takashi, Yachigusa Kaoru, Matsushige Yutaka, and Kagawa Teruyuki.
Hmm. I will be going to see more movies.. so I will be writing snapshot reviews for those as well.

Okay this has been on my mind since the summer, when I did attend this event. I got really hung up about other things, so instead of working on reviews, and my photography class – decided to procrastinate, and here is my idea of procrastination. Plus I worked a bit on updating some titles and tags on my Flickr page, so did that.

For the closing of the summer, there was the Japanese Street fair, which was relatively similar or maybe more commercial than the Mitsuwa Summer Matsuri, that I attended relatively two weeks before this event.

I was there really early, but then left as the place got so crowded, that it was pretty claustrophobic, plus there was the summer heat, and believe me.. you don’t want to be around that. Hinano actually wrote about her opinion on the street fair more on schedule/time-wise, than my late entry.

The first Japanese Street fair was a slight disappointment to me, in some ways – because there weren’t as much space as I would have liked it to be. The Japanese portion of the fair was only one block from 42nd to 43rd, and it was so packed. There was a ticket aspect to paying for food, so that I guess it was food controlling. New York Anime Festival was also there, to pump up the air for tickets, and that it is going to be the next weekend. So there was the maids, and there was the cosplayers.

I saw some people that I hung out more with this summer, and met some people there as well. Got some free samples, spent a short bit of time with Kero, and then spent the rest of the day going off with another friend to go to Duets 48, where I was went to karaoke. Tried to sing, got really nervous, was the day that I got to sing Avenue Q songs, fan girl-ed over a City Hunter song, and then had fun singing Hikki songs with another friend who came in the middle of the karaoke. Because of my learning hirigana over the summer, was happy to be able to read the lyrics of some songs.

Now I need to go and write up my review on the Brooklyn Book Festival, and thus prepare for New York Anime Festival. These days a bit more slower on writing. But for slide show purposes, here are some pictures I took.

All right, the main character of this movie is a puppet, but in a story that reminds me of the father and son interaction in Oshinbo which makes this movie whimsical, cute, and “a shake your head in disbelief” film type. The movie is overly cute, and very Japanese which can make or break it for viewers. While the plot was pure nonsense, the message was something that is what I saw a lot in many works/films, that no matter how superior a person may seem, there is a success somewhere with hard work and passion.

There are also cameos from Tama the Sationa Master Cat in and Karin/Kurin who apparently are famous cats in Japan for cat lovers. The live action actors are actually people who I don’t know much about, but the Taisho’s interest love interest is pretty cute. Oh and here’s another review for the movie.

Here’s a trailer from Youtube.

What a dreadful soggy day. Weather and reality aside.

Okay I found out tonight as my friends and I made a round of bookstore hopping like always, and a sign was posted on Asahiya’s entrance, and it was saying that the store, due to circumstances was closing permanently. Their last day is on October 31, 2009. My friends and I were pretty crushed. One of my friends actually asked if it was a bad dream or not.

I also recently wrote an entry about them as well..

This feels like when they closed their location at Vanderbilt all over again.. no wonder there were having mad sales like mad. Now it would be more final.

They’re not using their point card system or not, rather – they’re not stamping any new marks. They’ll honor the stamps, if you have a full card, and then incomplete cards.. they’ll be counting each stamp as though it was $0.25 a mark.

I am wondering if Asahiya is closing for these reasons – Recession. No Sales. Competition from Kinokuniya nearby. I’ll try and see if I can take any more pictures to place up as a memory situation.

They would be having sales on DVDs/CDs toward the time of when the store is nearly closing. They cleared out a good portion of their anime sections already. My friends have been purchasing Nico dolls, Haruhi Suzumiya, and Lucky Star little figurines. There are some CLAMP in 3-D Wonderland figures available. I see trading cards, jigsaw puzzles at pretty insane prices. Some Evangelion, Bleach, Gurren Laggen accessories are still there… (sighs)

So another Japanese bookstore bites the dust. A long time ago there was four, and now with Asahiya closing, there would only be Bookoff and Kinokuniya left.

Okay this bookstore is tucked away on a side street, so most people would go over to Kino or BookOff, here is Asahiya. It is located on E45th street between 5th and Madison. It use to be located on Vanderbilt and as other people would often say that the selections here wouldn’t be as much as Kino nearby. This place is a complete contrast to Kino, in only selling Japanese mangas, and no English graphic novels. Most of the products are also shrink wrapped, so it protects the products.

The bookstore is only one floor, as you walk into the store, there is a large row of magazines that get updated on a near weekly basics. You can also browse the magazines here, whereas it is shrink wrapped at Kino. The magazines are also more updated than Kino’s. So if you like to browse before you purchase then Asahiya is a place to go.

The cash register as I would place as a point of origin, is in the center of the room, with CDs/DVDs on the right of the room if you look dead straight into the room. The Japanese animation/mangas are in the back of the room to the right end, with a cart of discounted CDs/DVDs nearby. There are stationary products behind the cash register section. Also a Japanese learning section with the store’s few English titles on the left of the register. Toward the back of the room on the left side, before you go into the right end of the room, there is a small set of stairs with a television set.

What makes this place stand out is the point card that this store uses for customer loyalty and points aspect. BookOff did away with the system a while back, so only Asahiya of the three NYC bookstores would keep this style. If you fill up a card, it would be about -$10 discount. Each stamp is worth about $5.

Recently though, there have been a great deal of Japanese anime/stationary sales at this location. I picked up several plushes that were marked down really cheaply. Stationary, CDs, DVDs were also heavily discounted toward the back. A friend of mine picked up so many figures.

This is a bookstore to at least sample on a visit to New York City, it may be considered to be small, but quaint. On Fridays the bookstore cloes at 9pm, so my friends and I usually are at Asahiya until they close, and I have never noticed a PA system, rather their way of signaling closing is to to turn off the lights. Still this is a blog entry on featuring Asahiya, if you want more opinions or reviews, I would point out that there are more opinions of this location at yelp.com.

I have been going to this location since I was in High school. Book Off is located in a tucked away block on East 41th street between 5th Avenue and Madison Street is Book Off, Japan’s largest chain of used Bookstores. This is a place to pick up used books, manga, cds, DVDs and video games. Anything that is sold in a book store is usually sold here, and for a reasonable price as well. The bookstore is also always looking for any of the above that a person has to sell. Dependent on the condition though, the seller of these items to the store will most likely not see as good as a return, unless they go sell it themselves or anyone wants to purchase it from them.

Inside the bookstore there are three levels. No elevators, and is usually a tight squeeze. The basement has Japanese language used books, while the first floor has CDs, DVDs, Video Games, English used books and stationary items. In between the first and second floor is a section on the English books of Japanese culture, novels, or learning tools. The second floor is an small alcove where there is the manga, artbooks, magazines, toys and a small Children section.

Seating is sparse throughout the store, so many people just stand. There are step ladders around the first floor and the basement, so that people can occasionally stand to on it to look for high reaching items, or perhaps sit on it? A popular sitting spot in the bookstore is the stairway that leads to the second floor.

Outside, E41th Street is known to bibilo-lovers as as Library Way, with plaques of literary expressions that commemorate NYPL and Grand Central’s partnership.

Also nearby Book Off, there is also the several more Japanese points of interest. There is the main Cafe Zaiya location, a Japanese small grocery, and a sushi restaurant. I love going to the grocery store, because of the Japanese food items, they also often have the television on showing Japanese food programing that I would never see otherwise. There is a small food location at the grocery store itself, only cash though. Zaiya offers set lunches on Monday to Fridays, and does take cash/credit. I have rarely stepped into the sushi restaurant, so not that much thoughts on it.

Of the four locations, I noticed Zaiya, the grocery store, and Book Off also having free Japanese periodicals available. Included in the Japanese periodicals is the monthly Chopsticks that is the English version highlighting all of the Japanese places of interests, and articles. Oh and Book Off seems to be the only place that has a bulletin board ad space for sale. So for those interested in looking at bulletins, or placing an ad Japanese relevent.. ^_^

Struggles to learn Japanese… well how to read and write is always a desire of mine… so for the countless time… I am once again trying to learn Japanese, this time with the usage of tangocyou or 単語帳. Prior to this attempt, I have attempted with laminating flash cards.. that attempt got stifle…so I am trying once again.. to learn. Let’s just say it is difficult without the structure of an actual class, but I don’t know when am I able to go take the the time to learn a class… I lost my chance in my undergrad, there was speaking involved..but I got overwhelmed that semester and stopped the course…

I have gotten the flash card set from Asahiya for $1.50 so I am trying to pick up my pace with leaning.

Other solutions I have tried is to use an exercise book, that I have used in the past to study Chinese. I am actually lucky I can still find these books. It cost $0.40 from a bookstore I go to in Chinatown at Elizabeth Street.

Armed also with a pencil board… of the hirigana system…I hope to be more proficient in my Japanese language studies.

This is actually a good blog entry, for examples on tips how to make it more useful to study Japanese.  Another blog entry is this one, with mentioning how to structure, the learning of Japanese in a schedule.

If you don’t live near a Japanese bookstore like I do…Jlist or Jbox is a great place to get Japanese studying items.

Recently I finished watching this drama, and while I wasn’t really satisfied with the plot. It was a quick watch though. Compare with my friend Aya, I tend to watch dramas, that are not with JE people as much. Still if you want to read impressions of this drama with more focus on the actresses, you can check out Akiramike’s 2 review posts. I enjoy reading his blog posts, since they focus on dramas I would probably miss watching.

This drama is supposedly similar to Yaoh, but other than that one host that would heal the woman’s heart, make them happy and not care about money aside…. this drama was as different as it could get.  Kohei had lost his job, and hid from his family the secret that he was a successful host in the past before. So without a job, he went back to becoming a host.

Many of the host in the club Rink didn’t like him at all, saying that he was too old. But soon he became the appointed leader of the club from the former leader.  This opens up a lot of worms, and Kohei has to deal with various internal and outside factors that would bring the conclusion in episode 8.

What I liked about this series, was the part where they had the cheering chants, and the theme song. This is also the first time I got to see Sasaki Kuranosuke as a lead in a drama. I see him a lot in supporting roles. I had an easier time watching this drama than I did with Ashita no Kita Yoshio, which had another supporting actor as the male lead.

What I didn’t like was rushed and how bogged down the plot dragged for some parts. I was surprised to see that it was only schedule for 8 episodes, similar to Koshonin. There were parts, though where I wondered if they recycled the same point, and then to see how the ending came about. That was so corny.

Still there are other dramas I would be looking forward to, so this is a brief look back to this series.