First day at Robata’s wasn’t too bad. Take out got very busy at one point, but pretty much chill for the most part. It’s awesome to be with Melissa. She’s gotten a lot more quiet and relaxed over the years. But anyway, I think I’ve got the hang of most of it except for closing the sales. I don’t understand that shit at all. I hope I’ll get it down within the next week.
Bah, school tomorrow.
So. My schedule’s pretty full, unfortunately.
Monday:
Swimming 11:10AM-12:30PM
Ethnic Studies 1:10PM-2:30PM
Tuesday:
Biology 9:40AM-11:00AM
3-D Art Fundamentals 11:10AM-2:00PM
Japanese Kanji 6:00PM-6:40PM
Japanese 203 6:40PM-8:30PM
Wednesday:
Swimming 11:10AM-12:30PM
Ethnic Studies 1:10PM-2:30PM
AGS Meeting 3:00PM-4:00PM
Robata’s 4:30PM-10~11PM
Thursday:
Biology 9:40AM-11:00AM
3-D Art Fundamentals 11:10AM-2:00PM
AGS Office Hour 3:00PM-4:00PM
Japanese Kanji 6:00PM-6:40PM
Japanese 203 6:40PM-8:30PM
Friday:
Robata’s 4:30PM-10~11PM
Saturday:
Robata’s 4:30PM-10~11PM
Sunday:
FREE
Oh well. At least it’s not as bad as my schedule last semester. Sorta.
I hate my 3-D Art Fundamentals teacher. Like everything about her. And her class sucks too. The projects are so abstract and not really teaching people to put time and effort into pieces. I just frikkin cut up a CD and she got all excited and the class got all into it. I did say 2-D Art Fundamentals sucked, but at least I painted things that I thought looked cool and it actually did take time and thought to make. Jesus Christ. And I have to do a terminology thing for homework and the vocab words are frikkin subject matter, content, balance, symmetry, and all this basic SHIT. Dear Lord, SEND ME BACK TO AP ART!
My Ethnic Studies class is pretty basic and boring. I just finished reading the assignment and it was an 18 page packet about African stereotypes/racism and human origin from Africa. It wasn’t all that entertaining to read. Oh well. It seems like an easy class and the teacher is amusing.
I need to start making portfolio quality pieces. I only have like, what, 3 or 4 pieces from my AP year that are college quality. Or at least pieces that I wouldn’t mind showing to a college. Everything else would make me so ashamed.
I want to start swimming class now. Well, at least I’ll finally be able to go on Monday.
Tomorrow, I start my job training at Robata’s. I’m kinda nervous because I’m scared of restaurant jobs, but I’m sure I’ll get the hang of it all. And I have no choice, I NEED money. God, I hate this vicious money cycle.
Today, my dad and I went to the mall for some shopping because he had some special coupon thing for Mervyn’s. We first went to Big 5 to buy a swimsuit, swimcap, and goggles for my swimming class. I wanted to try the swimsuit to make sure it fits (because I don’t know my size for anything… It keeps changing depending on brands), but these two stupid giggly girls were in the ONE dressing room for more than half an hour. It got ridiculous and my dad’s impatient, so he got the manager and told him to do something about it. The manager got another person to go and knock on the door and told the girls that the maximum is 3 items and everything else has to be held at the registers or on a separate rack. The girls were holding onto at least 10 items each. Jesus…
Well, after that, I got some work clothes for Robata’s. I’m glad the dress code is rather simple and casual compared to other places. Then we went home to drop off the items and went to San Francisco.
We went to the city to see the Tezuka Osamu exhibit at the Asian Art Museum because it ends sometime in September. Man, the Civic Center in San Francisco is BEAUTIFUL. I love it. The Asian Art Museum is real nice and sophisticated too. The exhibit was pretty awesome, but it was rather confusing because the synopsis wasn’t always at the beginning of each story. And it said that the panels are from right to left, like in Japanese manga fashion, but I’m not sure if the page order was arranged in that way… And there were a TON of mistakes between the manga pages and individual information placards and the manga synopsis. It was rather embarrassing… And they aren’t even little mistakes…
I really should get Buddha and Black Jack… Metamorphosis looks interesting, but hard to understand.
Ah… The master genius of manga, Tezuka Osamu… You people who idolize Akira Toriyama or Naoko Takeuchi for upbringing manga into popular culture, you are so shallow in your thinking and completely uneducated in the history of manga. It goes much further back than that.
Tezuka Osamu is definitely the one and only.
We browsed around the other exhibits. So much influence from Buddhism… My dad was pretty much only interested in the Japanese art exhibits, so he briskly walked past India, Southeastern Asia, China, Tibet, and Korea. There was an interesting scroll in which the museum had put up, despite its great controversy because it depicted a fictitious story about a Japanese empress conquering Korea, which later on, Japanese military officials used as an excuse to invade Korea. It seemed to have greatly insulted Koreans who visited the exhibit, but the museum chose to keep it displayed because to put it away won’t solve anything and rather, we should learn from these pieces of art to make progress in our own society. And I wholeheartedly agree. It’s a piece of art from hundreds of years ago, no matter what, you cannot eradicate the meaning of the piece. But rather than trying to erase it from physical existence, learn from it and move past the bigotry so that we can create a world that isn’t about domination and superiority, but rather about equality and sharing of existences. I wrote that in the comment book that was nearby. I hope people will take it to heart.
The Yoshitoshi woodblock print exhibit was also up and it was so amazing! Wow, I was very impressed and perhaps even inspired by the color schemes. I was never really too fond of the ukiyo-e style of people because it’s so anatomically incorrect (I know it’s a style, but for some reason, it really bothers me) but Yoshitoshi masterfully depicts people in a sort of semi-realistic way. And it’s woodblock printing! Damn, how difficult is that? I don’t know and I kinda don’t want to try.
Dad said the museum is too cold, so he went outside. I wandered into the manga lounge and it was basically where otakus could just chill. There were mangas and beanbag chairs that people could sit and read and Totoro was playing on the screen. I was like, “Ugh, not my kind of thing” but I saw a table for drawing manga and saw a wall of manga drawings. I joined in and drew Black Jack to go with the Tezuka Osamu theme. The boy next to me was trying so hard to draw Sasuke and the middle aged guy next to me was drawing some girl. It had a really childish feel to it. It’s hard to explain… Not to be racist, but over the years, I really can tell the difference between a manga style art made by a Japanese or Korean person and one made by a white, Hispanic, etc person. It’s hard to explain with words what the differences are, but there is a pretty clear difference. Anyway, dad found me and said that we were leaving. I quickly finished my drawing of Black Jack with a signature and my DA and put it in the folder for someone to put it up on the wall if my drawing was good enough.
Then we went to Japantown. Kinokuniya was under renovation, so it was relocated in two places and it was pretty disorganized. All the mangas I want aren’t released until next month, so I had nothing to buy. Then we went to Nijiya and bought groceries. For an early dinner, we went to King of Thai on Clement and had some noodles in soup. Man, that’s what I hate about menus without pictures, I usually end up wanting something in mind, but ordering the wrong thing. I do this a lot with Thai food because I can’t remember the names…
Anyway, when I got home, I played many hours of FFX and did some homework and took a nap and wow, it’s 5AM.
Time for real sleep.
Haha, I actually had something to say in this entry, but I ran out of time to write it. Oh well. Maybe tomorrow.
I thought about deleting my MySpace (because I don’t use it and I hate it) but I got distracted and I read MySpaces and it’s interesting what people list for “People I Want to Meet”. Some people listed out the types of people they hated (two-face, backstabbers, bitches, liars, players, etc), so I assume it’s exactly the opposite of what the title is prompting. Some people list out the type of people they want as their significant other. If it was as easy as listing out the fabulous qualities you want in a person, then the world would probably be less lonely. And no one is perfect. Some people list out people they already have met, which defeats the purpose of the section. No one really lists celebrities or idols. Am I the only one? I dunno. Each celebrity I list out there are not just people I find beautiful or something, but each one of them has a great talent and I admire them greatly for that.
What point was I making? I lost track.
Anyway, uhhh… Hmmm… I feel a bit sad that my close friends don’t read this thing even though I read their blogs. But it’s always been that way, so I should be used to it.
I’m starting a part-time job soon. Finally, some money… And the schedule isn’t too bad. 3 days a week should be tolerable…? Haha, I hope so.
I think sensitivity and consideration are two traits that a lot of people are lacking these days.
I can’t really stand people who need constant attention. I actually need a lot of me time. If I don’t, I get very irritated. It’s weird. Me time is very important. What do I do during time to myself? I don’t know, just chill and think and philosophize. I do a lot of that. But if I don’t have me time… You probably will never notice, but I will get very agitated.
And I really hate people who assume they know me. Or thinks they know me well. Man, I hate that a lot. There’s probably only 2 people in the world who knows me well and I’m one of them.
Tangent thoughts… Damn I’m sleepy.
I love my Japanese class. I’ve missed my classmates so much! God.
Everyone’s pretty much the same as always. I’m so happy that Ji Siu is in the class! :D He said he wasn’t gonna take it when the spring semester was ending, but I told him he should take it. And he did! Woo! And Kiyomi’s in it too. I want to get to know her more. And Alex… Well, he’s the same as always. But he’s talking more. Haha, he’s a hilarious guy. All he thinks about is going home or sleeping. So lazy. Leah’s in my class, fun times. And there’s a new guy named Jun who went to Saturday Japanese school, just like me, but unlike me, is continuing to go there, while I quit in the 3rd grade. XD But he seems like a nice guy. I’m gonna try to get him to socialize with us more cuz he seems so shy and he’s new in the area.
Otherwise, my other classes are pretty boring and rather average. I have to buy the rest of my books tomorrow… Shit.
And in other news, Nicole’s service is on Thursday… I’m gonna go to it. I’m not sure if I should dress formally or something, but right after, I probably have to go straight to school. I don’t know, I might not want to go to school after the service though. It all depends I guess.
I miss Nicole…
Nicole, I wish I had been as close with you as we were in middle school. But unfortunately, as time went on, we grew apart. I’m so sorry I never told you how much you meant to me. But I want to thank you for being my friend and teaching me what it means to have true friends. Thanks to you, I am who I am today.
Nicole Injayan
1987-2007
I am so grateful that we became friends. I’ve always thought that I was so lucky to be friends with someone as talented, smart, sweet, and funny as you ever since the day I met you. I will always remember you and I will always miss you. Even though we were only close friends in middle school, I’ll treasure all of my memories with you because you are one of my most valuable friends.
What the hell. I’ve killed 4 mosquitoes in my room. Are they born from air or something? Where are they coming from?!
Past 5AM and just finished my drawing. I’m quite happy with it. Check it out, it’s in the previous entry along with some romaji and translated lyrics.
Only Human by K (Kei or Kang Yoon-sung)
哀しみの向こう岸に 微笑みがあるというよ
哀しみの向こう岸に 微笑みがあるというよ
たどり着くその先には 何が僕らを待ってる？
逃げるためじゃなく 夢追うために
旅に出たはずさ 遠い夏のあの日
明日さえ見えたなら ため息もないけど
流れに逆らう舟のように
今は 前へ 進め
苦しみの尽きた場所に 幸せが待つというよ
僕はまだ探している 季節はずれの向日葵
こぶし握りしめ 朝日を待てば
赤い爪あとに 涙 キラリ 落ちる
孤独にも慣れたなら 月明かり頼りに
羽根なき翼で飛び立とう
もっと 前へ 進め
雨雲が切れたなら 濡れた道 かがやく
闇だけが教えてくれる
強い 強い 光
強く 前へ 進め
———-
Kanashimi no mukou kishi ni
Hohoemi ga aru toiu yo
Kanashimi no mukou kishi ni
Hohoemi ga aru to iu yo
Tadori tsuku sono saki ni wa
Nani ga bokura wo matteru?
Nigeru tame ja naku yume ou tame ni
Tabi ni deta hazusa tooi natsu no ano hi
Ashita sae mieta nara tame iki mo nai kedo
Nagare ni sakarau fune no you ni
Ima wa mae he susume
Kurushimi no tsukita basho ni
Shiawase ga matsu toiu yo
Boku wa mada sagashite iru
Kisetsu hazure no himawari
Kobushi nigirishime asahi wo mateba
Akai tsume ato ni namida kirari ochiru
Kodoku ni mo nareta nara
Tsuki akari tayori ni
Hane naki tsubasa de tobi tatou
Motto mae he susume
Amagumo ga kireta nara
Nureta michi kagayaku
Yami dake ga oshiete kureru
Tsuyoi tsuyoi hikari
Tsuyoku mae he susume
———-
Beyond the shore of sorrow, they say there is a smile
Beyond the shore of sorrow, they say there is a smile
Following further on from the destination, what is waiting for us?
Instead of running away, it’s for chasing dreams
Supposedly on an adventure for that far summer on that one day
If tomorrow is within vision there should not be a sigh
Like a boat going against the flow
Right now move on forward
Where suffering comes to an end they say happiness is waiting
I am still searching for the out of season sunflower
As you tighten your fist, if you wait for the morning sun
A tear will shine as it falls after the red nail
Even if you become used to the loneliness, depend on the moonlight
With wings of feathers, let’s fly away
Moving on more forward
If the rain clouds break, the damp road will shine
Only teaching me darkness
Strong strong light
Move on forward, strongly
SUKKIRI FRESH!
I think that’s a motto for some drink in Japan.
BUT MAN, I claim it as my own for the moment.
