Why I prefer Batman to Superman: To Always Aim for the Moon...

The figurine in the middle is actually the figurine of Batgirl (it looks a lot like Batman, though...). I got it when I bought cocacola on my trip to Yamanashi prefecture. At the same time Ogata and Yanagita also bought cocacola, and (unfortunately) they also didn't get Batman (they got Joker and Bat-mobile), that I can't exchange the figurine with them (they know that I like Batman a lot...)
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I think most of my friends have already known that I prefer Batman to Superman, but I think little of them know the reasons behind it. Because I had promised to write about it long time ago, I think I’m gonna write it now.
(Anyway, all that I write here are just my personal opinion - no offense for Superman fans out there...)

So, why do I prefer Batman to Superman?

One: Batman’s costume is cool, while Superman looks (in my opinion) completely like a buffoon. I’m not saying that red and blue combination resembles a hick, but I wish I never have to wear red underwear - moreover if I have to wear it outside my pants (I prefer Spiderman taste of costume on this one...)

Two: There’s still possibility that I can become Batman (although maybe only for one in a googol), while it’s already certain that I’m not Superman. I wasn’t from Krypton (if the planet even ever exists). I’m not faster than a speeding bullet, neither more powerful than a speeding locomotive, and I couldn’t leap tall buildings with a single bound. Unless my parents do it very successfully, I don’t reckon them to hide any spaceship wreck in our basement (one more thing: we don’t even have basement!), and so far I never bumped into girls called Lana and Lois. On the other hands, I still can build bat-cave, fill it with load of super-sophisticated equipment to fight crime, and ask someone to make the costume for me (or just buy a cheap one :-) )... and hey! I’m Batman! (um, actually all of this can only be made real with one extremely important condition: I must be very very very rich - but still possible then...)

Three (getting a little bit serious): Batman teaches us to stick on what we believe is right, and put effort to make it come true. Actually, Bruce Wayne could use all of his fortune to have a calm and peaceful life. Instead, he used some of it to become what he wants to be: Batman. I’m not trying to say that Clark Kent isn’t a good person here - he’s also a good one because he is using his gift (his superpower) for something good. What makes me prefer Bruce in this case is that Bruce doesn’t possess the gift like Clark, but still, he pulled together his effort to make his dream comes true. Not only limited on spending his wealth to get all of those advanced gears, in countless of time he had to put out the best of him to face perils that lied ahead while he’s wearing the costume.

Like Bruce, all of us have our own “Batman” to accomplish. And unfortunately, most of us are not “Clark”, who possesses the gift to make his way less tiring. However, it’s not a reason to just abandon our dream and choose a “safer” dream to be made real. If we really want our “Batman”, it’s never wrong to stand up and make a shot. It’s okay if in the end we fail to reach it, as long as we had already put our best effort on it. Like one of my friends told me before: aim for the moon, if you miss, you’ll be among the stars.

Well, I think I still need to put some more extra effort to fulfill what seems to be a dream for me right now. It might not be easy, but I still can try. Anyway, I’m not Superman, but at least I can still become Batman (if I’m very very very rich... :-) )

"Shall We Dance" or "Shall We ダンス" ?

(The title of the original version is "Shall we ダンス". If you wonder why only the word "dance" that being written in katakana, you better see the Japanese version too...)
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Last Friday, Miya had two free movie tickets for “Shall We Dance?” (starred by Richard Gere and Jennifer Lopez), and she asked me whether I wanted to see it too. I always love to see movie (moreover, when it is free :-) ), so in the next few minutes we had already rushed to Kawasaki to catch the next show.

I won’t talk in details about the movie itself - since some of my friends had already mad at me for telling them some bloopers before. Anyway, to my surprise, the movie was great – it was much better than what I thought before. Well, I wasn’t expecting much from the movie, since I think it just like another romantic drama which only tell you that you may do anything you like in the name of love (you know which movie that I mean :-) ). This movie is different. It simply develops to the direction that I like, and left us (us to give emphasis - not only me!) with a warm splendid ending where (almost) everyone in the movie life happily ever after. And the most important thing, I think you can learn a lot from this movie (I won’t tell about it here, though).

After the show Miya told me that she had been looking forward for this movie since the first time she heard about it. The reason for this was not because it's starred by Richard Gere (well, she did mentioned that Richard Gere was so cool in the movie several times, tough :-) ). She wanted to see it because the movie was originated from Japan. Actually it was started from one japanese best-selling novel (with the same title) which then being brought into wide-screen about 10 years ago. She told me that the Japanese version was also as amusing as the Hollywood one, and she advise me to watch it too if I have time (Anyway, she didn’t told me to read the novel too, because I think she know that even in the most optimistic estimation, my ability to read novel in Japanese still equivalent to a 6 grade elementary school boy - thanks to all those kanji).

Following her advice, I hunted for the movie at Tsutaya (the name of video rental house in Japan) and lucky enough to get my hand on one copy. The movie was indeed entertaining. It flows naturally, and when the Hollywood one give a western impression, this Japanese version really give an eastern impression (what I mean here is that you will think the movie can actually take place in Japan without any scene felt out of place). Since the flows of both movies are more or less the same, it is interesting to see that two different cultures can picture a similar tale - with each culture colored the story by its own characteristic - and still, yield a similar impact to their audiences. Some people might like one of the movie over the other - that's just natural. However, it's not to say that one of the cultures is better than the other. It's just that each culture has its own characteristic that can make things in life look more lively, and each single person views it differently.

Anyway, I’m here not to give you lecture on cultural difference. I just wanna tell you that if you plan to see the movie and have the chance, it is better for you to see both versions. Each has its own flair, and I believe you won’t regret to see both, regardless the fact that those movie have the same story to tell. Trust me, it's worth the dime.

When You Trapped To Do Something You Don’t Like in Japan, Buy Ginger

(This picture has nothing to do with the content. It's a picture of ginger ale, and I put it here because it made from ginger (well, at least its name contains the word "ginger") and I started to drink it here in Japan, specially on party because I don't drink alcohol. Anyway, if you ever play Japanese RPG, you will find it there, and it can restore your hit point or increase your strength during battle - depends on the RPG - this also has nothing to do with the content... :-) )
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Before you actually packing ginger in your bag for your trip to Japan, you better read this first.

I’m keeping one series of riddle about how to put an elephant in a freezer, and it usually works well on a casual talk with new friends, regardless their nationality (i.e. they will laugh on it and keep on asking for the next riddle). I almost think that it is a universal riddle, when I finally found that most of my Japanese friend didn’t laugh much when they heard the riddle. (Well, may be it is because my Japanese still wasn’t good enough when I asked that question :-) ). Anyway, although that riddle doesn’t do the trick, I later found out that wordplay works well on most of my Japanese friends. And lucky me, there are a lot of homophone in Japanese words (the slight difference only on the intonation), that make it easy to do wordplay with them. For example the word hashi can mean both chopstick (箸) and bridge (橋), where ame can mean both rain (雨) and sweets (飴). (The intonations for both words are usually different for each region in Japan. For example, the intonation of hashi that suppose to mean 'bridge' in kansai (関西 - area in Japan where Osaka is located) would mean 'chopstick' in kantou (関東 - area in Japan where Tokyo is located)). And while it is usually hard to intentionally start a joke with those two words, there are other words that can be very useful for icebreaker.

Here are several wordplays that I have found work with my friends here:

しょうがない(shouganai)
The phrase above is equivalent with “there’s nothing else that we can do” in English. It is said when you get trapped into a situation that forced you to do something that you actually don’t want to do. Since shouga (生姜) can also mean ginger, the phrase above can be loosely translated into “there’s no ginger”/”we’re running out of ginger”. And the question now is: what can you do when you running out of ginger? Of course you can just buy ginger! So, when somebody tells you "しょうがない" (there’s nothing else that we can do), you can simply said "生姜買えばいいじゃん？"(Shouga kaeba ii jan? - We can just buy ginger, can’t we?)
("しょうがない" is actually a colloquial phrase. The grammatically correct sentence is "しようがない"(shiyouganai). That ginger trick won’t work on this, however, since shiyou (しよう) sounds a lot like shio (しお - 塩) which means salt, your response can be easily modified into "塩を買えばいいじゃん？"(Shio wo kaeba ii jan? - We can just buy salt, can’t we?)

憑かれる(tsukareru)
This will work when you use email (because the trick is on the kanji). When your friends ask you to go to party together and you are too tired to go, you can simply said that you are tired now (今ちょっと疲れているけど。。。- ima chotto tsukareteiru kedo...). There’s nothing wrong with the answer, however, if you switch the kanji into "今ちょっと憑かれているけど。。。"(both the kanji have the same pronunciation), it won't tell your friends that you are tired. Instead, it will tell them that you are being possessed (by ghost). If your friends have a good sense of humor, they will only laugh on it, however, if they are a serious type of person, I think they will pay you a visit soon with some psychics experienced to do exorcism.

睡眠(suimin)
You can use this for your self-introduction (自己紹介 - jiko shoukai). When you need to mention your hobby, you can just say that your hobby is suimin (私の趣味はすいみんです - watashi no shumi wa suimin desu). While it sounds a lot like swimming (Japanese sometimes using English words in daily conversation), it's actually translated into: My hobby is sleeping.

Caution: Please check whether your friends have some sense of humor or not before using them. There are times when - no matter how hard you try - they just doesn’t work, and you don’t need to push it. Just get back, relax, and try to find some other jokes... :-)