Family & Friends

Well, I'm sorry for not posting up the rest of the "Stories of a Collection" posts (although is anyone actually reading them?) but here's an entirely new post, and not something I've really talked about in the blog either.

By posting this here, I'm assuming that none of my family and friends actually read this blog. Oh sure, I've dropped the occasional hint, plugged my blog, whatever. But no bites. So I'm going to assume it's safe to say whatever I want.

So, what do these people actually think of my J-Idol "obsession"?

Well, let's start with my brother - some of you may know him as Azgaroth over at Hello!Online, I hear he's quite an active poster in the Reina thread. Anyway, I got into Morning Musume back in early 2007, which I've mentioned countless times before, I'm sure. At the time we shared a room, so I would be listening to Happy Summer Wedding, or whatever songs I was addicted to at the time, and he would sit there and complain about how crap it was. This was how things worked between us for several months. But one day, after having visited one of my friends, I returned home to be greeted with an all too familiar sound. Tou-san, kaa-san, arigatou! That sounds familiar indeed. Was I imagining things? Well, I stopped outside my bedroom door, and sure enough, it was coming from inside. Caught red-handed as it were, listening to the very song he had been calling "crap" for the last couple of months. Well, the rest is, as they say, history.

As for my parents... Well, when I first ordered my SEASONZ Photobook, my parents thought I was just wasting money, partly because they didn't actually understand what it was I was buying, but I'm sure if they actually knew, they would have been even more adamant in their "what a waste of money" way of thinking. I'm pretty sure they've kinda grown used to it by now. My mum even helped me make this poster;

That poster, created for me by Rina over at Musume-Central, took 9 A4 pages of glossy photo paper and about 2/3rds of my red ink to print. And my mum helped me stick all the sheets together, awful nice of her, don't you think? She probably doesn't have a clue who they are, but she thinks it turned out quite nicely. I agree. Don't you? Thank you Rina, if you're reading this. It turned out great. I know you were asking about it for weeks until I got around to printing.

My Gran said something interesting to me yesterday. She said that while out shopping she had "seen a jigsaw in the shop with a picture of a Japanese woman on it". I found this interesting because it means people around me assume that just because I like Japanese idols and dramas, that sorta thing, that I'd be interested to know or see anything remotely related to Japan. In some cases this may or may not be true, but what does it say about me when my family just assume that? Oh well.

Also, going back to the Berryz Koubou Photobook, SEASONZ... Which I'll talk about in an upcoming "Stories of a Collection" entry. My aunt said something not long after it arrived. I showed her it, (which she looked through back-to-front. Right-to-left, people!) and she made a strange off-hand comment which was "I can understand Japanese people buying that, but not here." At the time I didn't think much of it to question further, but afterwards I realised what she'd said. What did she mean by that? I fear I'll never know.

As for friends, I tend to just avoid talking about it with them. One friend (known by us all as "Cazi") said said countless times before that "J-Pop all sounds the same". Is he mad? Considering he is a fan of anime, you'd think he'd have a little more respect for the J-Pop genre. Oh well.

And another friend, he hates Japanese idols and the entertainment industry as a whole, for some reason. Claiming that Japan are about 10 years behind in their music? I don't think so. Despite that, he's probably a model example of "Yellow Fever". It's quite sad really.