Monday, July 31, 2006

   Behind the Painted Face...
Current Mood: Bouncy
Current Song: Hanauta by Duel Jewel

Uwaaai!! ^^ Hi, everyone, it's soooo nice to be able to get the internet again. ^3^ I was gonna change my theme but I have no idea where all my icons went and the bookmark for where I got all my J-rock wallpapers has dissapeared. -_- Damn computer. Anyhow~, last night I took full advantage of the internet and after posting I went to go visit some geisha sites. :D I found my favorite geisha site ("Immortal Geisha" at immortalgeisha.com) of all time once again, so that made me pretty happy. ^^ I also went to Wikipedia and read up on some geisha stuff (most of it I already knew -_-) but I was able to find an awesome site called "Karyukai" (www.sofieloafy.net/geishamain.htm). It has the complete history of the origins of geisha, the hierachy of the okiya, and even has a kanazashi calendar. I was only able to read a little bit of it, I'm getting read to dig into the miscelaneous part, it has tons of interviews. It even has a link to one of my favorite online stores of all time-Gaijin Geisha. I almost pissed myself when I saw that. XDD I've also read over 70 pages from "Geisha, A Life" and my brother thinks I'm crazy for reading that much after getting it the same day. As you can clearly see, he's not much of a reader, and he doesn't take up books with the same passion as I do. T^T I'm really proud of myself because on the pages there's kanji printed down the side-it's the same kanji over and over again. I wondered what it was (I can only read a few kanji-probably 30 at most and identify maybe 50 -_-) but was able to identify the kanji for "ko" and finally realized that it was "Iwasaki Mineko"-her name!!! I got really happy and started dancing around. ^^; I'm glad that I've been able to finally get some REAL historical information on geisha, not just fiction. I've learned a little bit on geisha-the one that sticks out the most at me is that you can become a geisha once you're out of middle school. I find that midly dissapointing, it gives the geisha less time to perfect the arts-I suppose it is essential for educational purposes but if they were to be trained at an early age but have a tutor as well as go to geisha classes (ease up on the geisha classes-it's a sacrafice, but will still add up in the future) would be extremely benificial, I think. Although it might be stressful to the child, and would give them no choice on what they wanted to be when they grow up. I guess it's a matter of freedom and education, more than anything. When I go to Japan I want to go to an ochaya... I know it'll be expensive, but I want to see geisha/geiko in action. ^^ Afterwards I watched one of my DIRU DVDs with my brother, mainly because he wanted to see "raison d'etre".... oh, dear. -_-


Geiko... they're so pretty. ^^

Ah, dammit. I discovered something last night-if I'm going to live where I want in Japan, I'll have to learn 3 different dialects. I am currently learning Tokyo's dialect, as it is the official dialect for students studying Japanese. I also have to learn Kansai-ben, Kansai's tongue, and I also have to learn Hokkaido's seperate dialect-to which I do not know the name. I've looked in my National Geographic book but haven't found anything so far-does anyone know Hokkaido's dialect? Anyhow, the three places I plan on visiting the most in Japan are Tokyo (of course), Kyoto (where Kyo grew up, the most traditional part of Japan, and Gion Kobu is), and Hokkaido (famous for it's snow fesitavals and history of the Ainu). I plan on living in Kyoto, however, so I suppose that Kansai-ben will come first over Hokkaido's dialect. I'm hooked on learning Japanese-I have no idea why, though. I thirst for knowledge when it comes to it... yesterday the first thing I did whenever I woke up was open my Japanese dictionary and write a few words down. ^^; Dad made fun of me yesterday for looking up "shouji" (the traditional Japanese sliding doors made of paper) at 2 in the morning. XD I can't wait until my school actually does have Japanese language classes-I shall be the top student!!! ^3^

Kya, I'm hungry. I shall be back, my darklings... with ramen. X3
+Momo+
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