Marx and Macias on Japanese fashion

Currently listening to:

"Harajuku Requiem: Marxy x Patrick Macias on Tokyo Fashion Past and Present"

W. David Marx and Patrick Macias discussing Japanese fashion.

If you think Harajuku is still the center of Japanese fashion you should listen to this.

Inside the castle

I got caught up in chores yesterday and missed putting up the notice for the new entry I uploaded earlier in the day.

Another one for those interested in the Edo Period.

Ōoku (Great Interior) 大奥

Ôoku

Recently read volume 2 of Ôoku.

This is an alternative history of Edo Period Japan in which a severe disease has hit the country that kills most males during their adolescence. Japan is able to close it's borders before the Europeans find out and a new society grows where women take a dominant role and men are treated with great care. In this Japan the shogun is now a woman.

In the first volume you are introduced to this Japan, in the second it goes back to the early history when the red pox was fairly new. What's fun for me is that many of the characters are from history and the author has done considerable research on the persons and customs of the times.

uchikake

Uchikake, the topic of this week's entry, show up in several anime and manga, however the only time I have seen the term used is in volume 1 of Ōoku, a manga I highly recommend to anyone interested in the Edo Period.

uchikake (woman's over garment) 打掛

Long day

I slept in this morning, about three and half hours more than usual. Good thing I have Mondays off.

From 11:30 until about 5:30 I was at the Cartoon Art Museum helping with shelving. Mainly climbing on a very tall ladder and removing display shelves from high up so we could incorporate them into the stock shelving. I talked my friend Steven Farnum into helping. Things are a bit messy in the store, they will be getting things back in order tomorrow morning. However the Older Teen and Adult Manga section has a better display and the anime section has more space.

While I was in Tokyo there was a significant upgrade to my web hosting provider's servers. I have had to upgrade my FTP program and change my setting for email since I got back. Things are now working fine. During the transition the most recent updates to my web pages went into the bit bucket so i had to re-upload them, easy enough to do. This means that the four entries I uploaded before heading to Tokyo are back online.

I highly recommend intuitiveISP is you are looking for a host for a web site. It is a small operation but they have been very helpful in ways the big guys just have not been.

Their web site is at:
http://www.intuitiveisp.com/

Back from Tokyo

I actually got back on Wednesday from two weeks in Tokyo and spent the last couple of days sleeping, slowly adjusting to time differences by going to bed when I am tired and getting up when I wake up. I don't have to be back at work until Tuesday so I can do this.

I'm still unpacking, doing laundry (6 new t-shirts), adding books and videos to my collection databases (6 more kabuki DVD discs in my collection), I also picked up the Hellhound model kit and a figurine of Kousei Takeda (the tattoo style one) from Crows / Worst. Ono-san gave me the Japanese editions of the first three volumes of Worst and the first of Crows as well as some other cool books. Thanks Ono-san for the gifts and being such a great guide.

I hope to start posting an account of the trip here, to be spread over a few months.

Fightin' and lovin' boys

This week I cover terminology familiar to fans of boys love and yaoi. However many of these terms are also familiar to practitioners of Japanese martial arts.

It seems that terms from martial arts have been adapted to fan terminology in most interesting ways.

The new entries are:

kyō-seme 強攻め

sasoi (inviting posture or stratagem) 誘

seme せめ, 攻め

uke (receiver, blocking, bottom) 受け

By the way there will not be a new entry in the next two weekends, I'll be in Tokyo so my next post will be around the 22nd or 23rd.