Bikkuri Project

I, like many of you, am interested in the topic of JPop in America, but perhaps on a much smaller and more personal level than the debates that fill the h!p blogs now-a-days. I’m not trying to bring the entire h!p troupe to America. I just want some of my friends and family to give Jpop a chance. I want someone who I can talk with about the music I’m interested in, or, failing that, for people not to freak out and get annoyed at me if I try to play it in my own car when I’m driving with them. How to go about this though? My attempts so far have been met with very little success.

My friends know that I like Japanese music. It’s somewhat of a joke among them though. I’ve tried various strategies, from intentionally asking them to listen to something to “accidentally” happening to have a song playing when they come to visit, to even showing pictures of some idols and asking if they think they’re cute. Any serious attempt to get them to listen to something is met with laughter and fond shakes of the head. “Accidentally” playing things is largely ignored. Usually, my friends will admit that the people in the pictures are attractive, but upon learning that they are Jpop singers they immediately lose interest.

My boyfriend despises Japanese music, though he has heard almost none of it. If I try to play a song when he’s around, he will leave the room. If I so much as sing a line from a Japanese song he’ll get angry and say something like, “You know I hate that Japanese crap!” He’s definitely a lost cause as far as making a fan of him, so my goal really is to get him to tolerate at least the most normal-sounding songs in my collection. Since he’s the person I’m with the most, it really bothers me that I can’t listen to the music I like when I’m around him. His main complaints are that ‘it all sounds the same’ and ‘the singing is whiney’. It’s sooo frustrating, because of course we know that it does NOT all sound the same, but it’s hard to get a feel for that when all you’ve heard is a few seconds of a couple of songs that you’ve already made up your mind to hate, right?

My family isn’t much better. My Mom often asks, “are you still listening to that Chinese anime music?” Yes mom, if you mean real, non-animated people singing in Japanese, then yes. Sigh.

Why is it so hard to get people to even give JPop a serious chance? I’ve tried a wide variety of songs on a wide variety of audiences, but no one will take me seriously. All I can think of is to blame the anime. A lot of the Jpop that gets introduced to the US comes via theme songs to animes. Unfortunately, anime holds a major stigma here, with the anime nerds being akin to slime mold on the social hierarchy. I’m not trying to insult people who like anime, and I think It’s a shame they are looked at like that, but please spare the Jpop! It’s really something entirely different. People who are obsessed with anime are looked on as kind of weird in Japan too, but everyone listens to some sort of music, including the cool people. I’m a big believer in trying new things, and to see people blowing off an entire country worth of music due to the negative social connotations of its cartoons kind of infuriates me. I really do believe that if people would give Jpop an honest chance that many of them would find something that they like.

That right there is really the heart of the problem with bringing Jpop to America. It has been labeled ‘uncool’ before it even had a chance here due to the anime that has come before. It’s such a shame, but I’m in the camp that doesn’t believe that h!p or Jpop in general could become popular in America any time soon. It’s not that the actual music would not be appealing to people, or even that the language barrier would stop people from listening (Latin music). Much like your average Japanese person won’t take Morning Musume seriously because they think their fans are weird/gross, the average American won’t take Jpop seriously because they also think its fans are weird/gross. If admitting that you like Morning Musume is going to lump you in with the otaku and you’re not someone who wants to embrace that label, you’re going to be damn sure to steer clear of Morning Musume, right? I’m not an anthropologist or a sociologist, or whatever ologist that this problem would be contemplated by, so I don’t really know how such trends can be turned around or how to change the way one entire culture looks at something. It must be possible. Things do go in and out of style, but what is the driving force behind such change, and how may it be applied to Jpop?

Coming back to my personal dilemma, if I can’t sway the view of an entire culture, do any of you have any tips on how to change the mind of a single person? How can I get my friends/family to give h!p, and Jpop in general, an honest chance? Have any of you had any success in that?

Well, I’ve given in and started a KAT-TUN blog. I don’t want to continue to pollute this, my h!p blog, with Johnnys stuff, but writing about them once has made me want to write more. It’s not going to be a good blog because it’s really just an occasional outlet for my fangirling, so don’t expect to see anything as deep or work-intensive as you might see here. Bikkuri Project is definitely my main focus. Here’s a link in case you’re interested. The first entry is up.

http://celestia-424.livejournal.com/

With God as my witness, I do solemnly swear that there will never be another reference to KAT-TUN in this blog ever again. Thank you for your patience. We’ll be back to our regularly scheduled h!p articles tomorrow. I actually already have one written up, but I don’t want to post twice in a day. Also I’m grumpy because today I locked my keys in my car and had to spend an hour out in the dark freezing my ass off until triple A got there, so you’ll just have to wait. Nya!

There are a lot of embarrassing things about me, so I’ve decided to just put them all out there at once. I know, I know, it’s hard to believe that a college senior who is obsessed with Morning Musume has any dorky/lame tendencies, but sadly, it’s true. Be warned, this entry doesn’t have much to do with Hello Project, but I think I am allowed one personal entry per month or so.

Non-h!p related
-I may have mentioned this before, but I’m in a sorority at my college. Accordingly, I know several dozen cheers, own about 10 sorority sweatshirts (which I wear almost every day when it’s cold), and squeal with excitement whenever I spot my sorority’s symbol or anything in our colors. Man, I feel nauseous just reading that. Any other sorority girls out there who can sympathize with me?

-My second favorite type of music (after J-pop) is broadway musicals. When I’m asked what my favorite song is by people who I don’t know well I have to frantically think to come up with something I can say without them thinking I’m weird

-I’m practically nocturnal, and if given the opportunity I will go to bed around 7 in the morning and wake up around dinner time. I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but I update this blog at all hours of the night.

-I didn’t get my drivers license until I was 17, almost 18. This is because I failed the test the first time by running over the curb of the DMV parking lot when I was coming back from my driving test (automatic disqualification). I waited so long to get it because I was too scared and embarrassed to go back.

-I may have mislead you as to my other JPop interests in an earlier post… I left off kind of a big one, because I wasn’t sure how well it would be received, but as long as I’m doing this post… I have a major fangirly ridiculous crush on Jin from KAT-TUN. I even have all their concert DVDs (and watch them regularly). Ug!! I know it’s so cliche, and as a rule I tend to like the less popular members of a group, but I just can’t help it! Please don’t think less of me, and don’t worry, I have no intention of turning this into a KAT-TUN blog, because I know that it’d just end up being full of stupid gushy praise, and a blog like that isn’t good to anyone but the person who writes it. I’m a bit more objective about my obsession with h!p because I definitely don’t have a crush on any of them.

-I realllly should be doing homework right now, but it’s my last semester of college and i’ve got a bad case of senioritis

And a couple of h!p related confessions

-I don’t like Natsumi Abe, and I have absolutely no good reason for it. I just don’t like her, so I generally don’t write about her at all.

-I recently mentioned to my host family in Japan that I really like Morning Musume in hopes that they will send me Hello Project related gifts. I should feel bad about that, but I really don’t.

Whew. That was cathartic. Please feel free to laugh at my shame.

Please excuse me for writing a personal post. A little while ago charter buses arrived to take all of my students, who have been living here for a year, to the airport where they will board a flight to Japan, likely never to return. Saying goodbye was…hard. Really hard. Sigh.

Right now I’m being a total girl, studying for my last final teary eyed and with Berryz Koubou’s “Bye Bye Matta ne” on repeat. =,(

Hi guys. This is really more of a personal entry, but it does relate to h!p in a very important way, so I’m hoping you will consider helping me out with some advice, because you might be the only people who can understand the situation I’m in right now.

Allow me to explain. I’m a senior in college, and I’m going to graduate with a degree in biology this year. I have plans to take a year off of school after graduation, and after that I’ll be going to graduate school (either for research or pharmacy). During the year I take off, I’m going to have to find a job, ideally something that relates to biology like being a lab assistant. Before that though, I’m going to take a trip to Japan (ahh, the h!p connection is gradually becoming clear, they say). I have lots of people I can stay with in Japan including my amazing host family from the last time I was there, my two very best friends one of whom is doing JET and the other is working for another teaching program, and numerous Japanese friends who have been exchange students at my university (I work as an english tutor for the Japanese exchange students). Considering the cheap and abundant lodging, I plan to stay for about a month, right after I graduate, and then find a job back in the states.

However, there is a major problem with this plan. I graduate in May a few days after the end of Morning Musume’s spring concert tour, and the hello project summer concert tour is bound to not start until around mid July. If I follow my current plan, I will have ZERO chance to see Morning Musume in concert while I’m in Japan. I seriously doubt I could find a temporary job that would allow me to take a whole month off of work once I’ve started, and I do intend to go to Japan for at least a month.

This leads me to considering option number two. The organization that one of my best friends is working for will be hiring again around the time that I would be coming to Japan. With my experience in teaching English to Japanese students, and the recommendation of my friend, he thinks it’s almost guaranteed that I could get a job there. I could stay in Japan for the entire year and still succeed in earning some money for grad. school. I would also be able to catch a whole year’s worth of hello project concerts.

Here is my list good and bad points about this plan.

GOOD-
-this is really my only opportunity to do this kind of thing, at least for a long time. Once I’m in graduate school or trying to start a real career or even a family, odds are slim to none that I’ll be able to run away to Japan. By the time I could, the face of hello project will no doubt have changed drastically, or it might even not exist anymore (cries). Realistically, I may never have a chance like this again, and I might regret it if I don’t take it.
-I love Japan. I really do. Also, I love my best friends who will most likely be living far away from me after they return to America. This is a chance to spend lots of time with them before that happens.
-I’d still be making money
-I won’t be living at home, which would feel kind of like a step backwards after graduating college. This would be a great opportunity for me to develop more independence
-My Japanese would certainly improve
-A WHOLE YEAR’S WORTH OF H!P CONCERTS!!!!

BAD-
-Teaching English in Japan isn’t exactly related to my major, and a biological research job would look much better on a grad school application
-I’d be leaving my boyfriend for a whole year
-Living in a foreign country for a whole year is kind of a scary thought, even if it is Japan
-My parents most definitely would not approve
-Of course, if I were staying for a long time I wouldn’t bum off of my friends for all that time, so I’d have to pay for my own food and lodging, and I wouldn’t be able to save as much money for grad. school
-The primary reason I’d be doing it would be to see hello project concerts, and I thin
k it might be crazy to make such a major decision in my life based on hello project. I might be crazy to even consider that.

Basically, not doing it makes more logical sense and sets me up much better for my future career and financial stability, and it’s less risky, but as ‘they’ say “LIFE IS ONE TIME” and this might be my one time chance to fulfill this dream of mine. One last fling with the selfish and impulsive before I settle down and enter the real world of serious responsibilities.

You’ve got the facts…. now, what do you think I should do? Or, if you were me, what would you do? I’m seriously looking for advice here. My friends who are not into JPop really don’t understand how I’m feeling right now, so I’m turning to you, my readers. You can comment anonymously if you don’t have a livejournal, I don’t mind. Thanks so much!

Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!!!! My friends who are doing JET just sent me the best birthday present ever from Japan! I got not one, not two, but three Morning Musume albums, and an awesome Engrish shirt! The front of the shirt reads: