"Shan in Japan" today, "Shan in France" tomorrow?

Hmm it's been a little while since I've talked about my impending trip to Japan. Well now. The latest news with that is... for starters, it's looking like my flight (and my mother's--she's coming with and sightseeing a week) will be booked soon, and I also don't believe I will be taking any side trip to the Philippines. So that is slightly disappointing, naturally. But we couldn't figure out a way to do it without spending a fortune. And did you know that flights in Japan are crazy expensive in August (when I'll be returning)? It's a madcap time for travel there.

But there's no way I'll have to wait another twenty years before seeing the Philippines, right? And when I do go I want my mom to be there with me--I think that's the most important thing. For me the whole point of it is to understand my mom's past and the place she lived for like, 27 years. To literally and not-so-literally understand where she comes from, and get some insight into this woman who gave birth to me and has marked me with her fingerprints. Whatever else I could get out of it would be icing on the proverbial cake (acceptable icing: the gorgeous white beach of Boracay).

Second matter of business is housing news: I have four chicas as roommates. Two Japanese girls, a Thai girl, and a French girl. It feels weird to think I am the "American" one. That can't be very exciting for them, having an American thrown into the mix. Nothing exotic about that. But I'm very thrilled to be living with them, and I just know I'm going to bug all of them with questions about languages and cultures. The French girl better watch out too, I have to say, because I've officially chosen Francais as the Next Language I Will Learn. Whenever that will be.

The overwhelming impression I get is that it's a real betchface of a language to learn, which I don't doubt, but I'm also a little bit nuts... so who's to say it wouldn't work out for me? Un deux trois! Even their numbers are fun to say. In German you can describe the weather with "es regnet" or "es ist sonnig", which sounds so boring. But with French your mouth almost spits out the words "il pleut" morosely, pregnant with ennui, as though you were a disaffected youth plucked out of Paris. And then if you utter the words "il fait du soleil!" it's as though you've morphed into Amélie herself, and everything tastes wonderful and nostalgic like champagne at sunset.

You know how I know I need to learn French? The French are responsible for champagne's existence. Done and done.

I wish I had taken up French earlier, but it is never too late for anything. Anyway, studying France/Francais is definitely interesting coming from a German background--as neighbors, they have quite the past, and they both are responsible for so many of the world's great thinkers. But even the Japan-France tie is compelling. You get into things like Japonisme or writings like Madame Chrysanthème, from which inspiration was drawn to create Madama Butterfly. Also very interesting (to moi): the Japanese love crepes. Love 'em. As do I. Really, they are serious dessert and pastry connoisseurs over there; I'm just as excited about trying their stuff as I was in Vienna.

Hello Kitty gets shwasted off this shiat

Oh God, talking about various countries' desserts deserves an entry of its own.

Ooh! I just remembered something. I bought two bottles of some really girly, flower-y sparkling sake called "Hana Awaka." Picked it up, along with some made-in-Okinawa beer, from Mitsuwa marketplace, the Japanese haven in Edgewater, NJ (I love that place. It is my happy place). But really, how could I have forgotten?? I should have brought that to Rutgers last weekend.

There were oodles of alcoholic beverages in really neat bottles. One bottle looked like nothing less than a science experiment ready to go.

But, as usual, I digress...

for people who like staring dramatically out windows

Everyone knows that when your life feels so devoid of intrigue and romance and beauty, one of the best thing you can do is watch a good film. Especially a good period drama. The age we live in, unfortunately, is not one we equate with romance. What hope is there of locking eyes with a stranger in a crowded ballroom? Or writing to your lover off at sea? (okay, the latter scenario, ridden with sadness, is perhaps less appealing). I've complained a thousand times before about how unromantic modern dancing is (although I find "krumping" hilariously awesome, and mention it whenever I can. Also do not get me started on MC Hammer style dancing--Love.) So what we have... well, film, and books--our escape. And imagination.

But music too. Sometimes all you really need is a good movie soundtrack. Often heavy on the classical, the dramatic, the emotion-wrought, they're wonderful for getting introspective about your own life. Turn up the volume and let it sweep you away. As Jackie, longtime roommate, can attest to, I'm a big fan of staring out of windows dramatically. All the better, of course, if you're listening to heart-wrenching soundscapes, especially if it's on a train, watching the world around you speed by. (I heavily romanticize train travel and the age of steam, in general. Because when you are aboard a train, you almost aren't anywhere at all, but you're in a perpetual state of going somewhere. And you yourself don't control where the train goes--it's out of your hands--so you just sit there, turning over this thought and that, awaiting your arrival.)

Anyway, one listening recommendation I can make is from Ang Lee's 2007 film Lust, Caution, which I watched a number of months ago.  There is not only a great soundtrack but ESPIONAGE involved (everyone loves that) and it is based off a story by Eileen Chang. I read her short stories in "Love in a Fallen City" and just adored them, despite how truly pessimistic the woman is about love.

 (I love that during this time women were so astonishingly stylish in their body-hugging cheongsams and painted red lips, while men wore sharp Western suits. Of course, neither look is complete without cigarettes/cigars, glamorous and unhealthy).

Well, here--because wikipedia does such a good job of explaining the allure of Eileen Chang: "She is noted for writings that deal with the tensions between men and women in love, and are considered by some scholars to be among the best Chinese literature of the period. Chang's portrayal of life in 1940s Shanghai and occupied Hong Kong is remarkable in its focus on everyday life and the absence of the political subtext which characterized many other writers of the period."

I can't recommend her work enough. Although, because I am probably an eternal optimist at my core (people might not believe this about me. I do have pessimistic, cynical tendencies, I admit, but it's a shield of sorts), it is no wonder that my favorite story of hers is one that offers a "happy" ending for its characters. I should say, Eileen Chang's version of happy--dubious, transient, and unsettling happiness. Similarly, I love E.M. Forster's A Passage to India for an honors seminar I took freshman year ("Romantic Love, East and West") but I really love A Room with a View, which is considered his one non-pessimistic work. It's like I appreciate and understand the "let's face it, life is brutal and unkind" attitude, but when even the most hardened types can admit there's a flicker of hope and happiness sometimes, well... how can I resist? Talk to me about it again in 30 years, when perhaps life's gotten the better of me, and we'll see if I've changed my mind.

Oh goodness, there are a million digressions in this entry. I just get so excited about this sort of stuff. And I'm glad I can be excited about it, because it lets me know that I picked the right major. Even though I sort of picked "East Asian Studies" haphazardly, not really knowing what it would entail. And even if I'm not really sure what I'll do with this major, or German Studies, either.

So, sidenote #29382: I love something about British imperialism, whether in Hong Kong or, as with Forster's work, in India. Imperialism in general just intrigues me. I guess that explains my love for Out of Africa as well.

Without further ado, from the Lust, Caution soundtrack  by Alexandre Desplat (of course, if you're going to compose glorious soundtracks for films, you should be French).



The film, by the way, is good although rather sexually graphic. But I can save my discussion of Ang Lee films for the future, haha.