Sarah’s AnimeAnime, Manga, Plushes, Japan, Everyday Life

My hubby got this book awhile ago and I started reading it. The book is an A to Z of the subculture of cool Japan. I’ve not read thruogh it completley yet but I have found out some interesting stuff in the book and a lot of information that I did’nt know, something very interesting about cosplay and how it’s becoming very popular overseas now.

Also learned what race queens are there’s interviews in the book and I read Ayakawa Yunmao interview she’s a professional cosplayer and a race queen at the weekends, It sounds like a really fun job and It got me thinking that I would’nt mind doing something like that myself because I have such a love for cars you basically have to go to racing events and hold an umbrella over a driver while he is parked. Then as I read on I found out that you have to be a minimum of 170 centimeters and I’m quite small, so I mesured myself out of curiosity and I’m only 157 centimeters so sadly I dont measur up : (

I even came across Danny Choo in the book and he’s comented about the book on the back page saying “you can’t possibly be called an otaku without this book”. Studio gibli is also mentioned in the book.

Me and my hubby been watching Japan season on bbc 4. There’s been some really good shows I really liked the one about a 15 year old girl learning to be a Geisha in Kyoto. There was also a program about fishing in Japan which I found really interesting cause of my love of fishing. I watched Spirited Away which was on last weekend and there is also a program on that I missed but gonna watch the repeat that’s on tonight at 10pm it’s about a former businessman Naoki and his family who are struggling to get by after the economic crash of the early nineties. Here’s some videos for you all.

Me and my hubby bought 2 bonsai tree’s on Sunday. I got a smaller tree and he got a bigger tree that’s 8 years old I’m not sure how old my tree is at a guess I would say 4 or 5 years old. We’ve been reading up on them and they take a lot of looking after. I think that they are really lovely to look at I’ll keep you updated on there progress and post some pictures of them as soon as I get chance.

Here’s a picture of one of the oldest bonsai tree’s

I thought that I would write a post on how i’m learning the japanese language. Well at the minute i’m learning the kanji so far at 179. I also listen to a lot of japanese music and I’ve now started watching anime in japanese with english subtitles. I must admit though I could do better maybe start trying to learn the hiragana I know a little but I would like to know them all I think that it would help a lot because I want to try and learn some easy sentences oh and not to mention the Katakana.

I’m very interested in cooking and my hubby bought me a Japanese cook book for christmas which is in Japanese but it also has an English translation I do understand a little of it but it would be great to read it all. Manga is something I like to read and it’s a goal of mine to be able to understand and read a japanese manga.

I dont think that in a few years I’m going to be fluent in the language I need to put more time in to it and learn lots more else when I get to japan I’ll be lost and wont know what the heck i’m doing I’m sure that my hubby does’nt want to translate everything for me either that would’nt be very fair on him I do think that it is a hard language to learn but I also believe you can achieve anything if you put your mind to it.

My hubby Is doing really well so far (his blog) but I do feel like i’m really behind and I have a lot of catching up to do I need to be doing kanji everyday so I can catch up a little. I’m a very competitive person and when one of are friends started learning the kanji I was doing a lot more to stay ahead but he gave up on it and I slowed down again. I do think that learning it with someone else does give you motavation and that you can help each other when you need it. I’m gonna set myself and easy goal learn 200 kanji by friday.

I’ll keep you posted on how i’m doing

I found this video a while ago and I thuoght that I’d post it. I think it’s hilarious

I have to just say WOW to Sundays show of top gear you might be thinking what an earth has that got to do with a site about anime. Well as you know I like to talk about Japan the place I would one day like to live and after Sundays episode I want it even more. I love Japanese cars and top gear is one of my favourite shows.

If you didn’t see it they went to Japan to do a race and what a race Clarkson was in the new Nissan GT R while Hamster and May were on public transport and Japan has some of the best public transport around it was a very close race I’m not going to say who won for the people who haven’t seen it but boy was it close. I learned a few things about Japan while watching like they seem to have the most happy petrol station attendants in the world and they have very fancy man hole covers.

It also seems they don’t like it when people are on there mobiles on buses and trains I think that’s quite understandable really who likes to be sat next to someone screaming down the phone. I also seen some different food like these baby fish that you can eat as a snack. The places they went through were so breathtaking so much so I thought I’d put up the episode for you all to see enjoy

That is the question I’ve been asking myself, well me my hubby and are friend are going to a japanese festival in september. There’s gonna be all sorts of stuff there’s lots of stalls tradional geisha’s, japanese food stalls, martial arts show, samurai sword demonstration, anime and manga and much more. I’ve never been to an event like this before so it should be really good fun. There having a new event a cosplay competition you have to walk down a catwalk and you get photo’s took aswell you can also win a prize. I’ve never done anything like that in my life though but I’ve allways found it interesting I’d want a really good quality costume though but I read that to enter the competition you have to make your own costume.

I have to say that’s gonna be a hard task for me, i cant even sow. I was gonna buy a cosplay outfit from ebay and there was a website i found that do hand made costumes. I think i’ll have a go making my own i’ve got plenty of time to put one together if it turns out to look too scary to wear I’ll just wait till there’s an event where you dont need to have a costume you’ve made yourself. This video should give me some ideas for what outfit i can make hope you enjoy.