It’s been awhile since post #7, and well, there wasn’t a nice part 2 to write in the end. I failed the entry examinations, but I’ve decided to wait another year. Next year will be the last year I’m eligible for the undergraduate scholarship, and if I miss it again, I will continue to study architecture at NUS and seek other opportunities from within the school.
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Disappointment aside, today I look into how my obsession with Japanese musicians has affected my journey.
It began as just another past-time, following artists whose music I thoroughly enjoyed. And grew into an obsession so great I was willing to travel to Hong Kong just to catch a concert. While my senseless pursuit of music idols, CDs, and limited edition merchandise and tour goods has been, well, senseless, this obsession has surprisingly helped me in a few significant ways that I’ve only noticed in retrospect. It mostly revolves around the community I’ve built around me, on and offline.
In my previous social circles, there were only very few who could identify with my strong interest for Japan, its language, and its culture. In the J-Pop music community it’s as if everyone knows everyone else; a positive result of the sad reality that J-Pop is in decline in most of Asia. Since I’ve “entered the scene” back in November 2010, I’ve experimented with countless artists and met fans of various bands and singers. They all shared one thing in common: an almost maniacal obsession for a particular artist. And that passion shows, and carries through to other things that they do. Some of them learn Japanese just so that they can understand the song lyrics better, or translate blog entries from their favourite singers, or even communicate with them on twitter. I’ve even managed to get to know a couple of native Japanese who have been very helpful in guiding me along as I learn Japanese, as well as sharing with me various things I never knew about Japan.
I’ve also found a much more interesting avenue to learn and practice my Japanese, in the form of translating. Whenever I’m free, I head over to the forums to see if there’s anything to translate. Each piece takes me anywhere between 5 minutes and two hours, but regardless of it’s difficulty, I’m always made to use the dictionary. Above that, more than a third of the people I follow on twitter post in Japanese, and being a twitter addict, reading these posts every day has done wonders for my reading (can’t say the same for my conversational skills though, I feel like I only ever make progress during my Japanese classes, and not much at that ;_; )
It’s almost as if theres some way to apply all of my interests and hobbies under the great umbrella that is fandom. I’ve already contributed a few pieces of fan-art, maintaining my graphic design and illustration interest, and I’ve even learnt a few things about site management, social media manipulation and search engine optimisation in attempting to create a fansite for an up and coming artist. Not to mention, there’s always a reason to pick up my guitar and play my favourite songs.
All this will culminate in a personal journey to Japan next year as I wait for uni to start in August (I will be studying Architecture in NUS for at least the first Semester, until I know the results of my MEXT Scholarship attempt for 2013)
Many people have warned me that Japan might not be what I have always imagined it to be, and I completely agree with their concerns. So to make sure I know what I’m doing, I plan to travel across Japan over 3 months, the maximum duration of a single-entry visa, to experience the land of the rising sun myself.
And when I’m there, in between performance venues and hometowns of my favourite musicians, I’m sure I’ll run into a good number of fellow fans whom will connect with me immediately and help me along my journey.
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While I’m at it, here’s a new song from my favourite of favourites that was written for the victims of the Tohoku earthquake and disaster.
Well there’ll be sufficient time next year to prepare for the examinations, so it won’t be a wild shot like before (=
What is your aim in going to Japan for studies though? You seem capable of doing graphic design, making websites etc just fine here. Are you aiming for something in particular?
The more I’ve gotten to know about Japan the more I feel an affinity for that place. I would love to spend a couple of years there just to bask in its atmosphere. Somehow, living in Japan has become sort of a life-long aim for me, nothing else in particular