ひさいしさん

So, I've decided to dedicate this week (or what's left of it) to ひさいしさんのおんがく。This song, called Summer, is another one of his great works of art. It was not written for a Studio Gibli film, but it is still a really good song.

The reason why I really enjoy ひさいしさん's music is because it is instrumental. I enjoy just listening to the notes, and ひさいしさん composes really beautiful music. So with that, I leave you all with this video. じゃまた。

おんがく

So, I couldn't help myself. I decided that since yesterday's post was on enka music, I would make occasional posts about two of my favorite music composers, both of whom happen to be Japanese. このcomposers がだいすきです！

The first composer I'm going to talk about is someone most people know, since I'm sure a great deal of people have heard his music before. He is Joe Hisaishi, or this guy right here ------------------>

Now, I first heard his music in a movie I watched when I was a にねんせい in high school. The movie was Hayao Miyazaki's Howl's Moving Castle, or はうるのうごくしろ. It was the first time I had watched anime.  

As a side note, I had never really been interested in anime until I had watched that movie. It was my first real experience with anime, and I ended up loving it afterwards. It still is my favorite Miyazaki movie to this date, but that's a different story altogether.

For now, I want to talk about the man who composed the music to this movie. The music is inspiring. かっこいです。It is unique, and words cannot begin to describe how great ひさいしさん's work is. I wish I knew more about composing music so that I could compose something as great as ひさいしさん。So, on that note, I leave you with this great piece from the movie. じゃまた

えんか

This post is dedicated to a special style of music that I find kind of cool. This style of music is called えんか, or enka. Now, I'm not quite sure what it is (I've heard very few songs that are classified as enka), but my girlfriend says that it is typically sung by older Japanese women and evokes a sense of loneliness. The video above is an example of enka from Kill Bill.

However, I first realized what this genre was when my girlfriend showed me this video. It is of a black enka singer named Jero. I thought it was interesting because he is the first black enka singer ever. It is very uncommon for young people to sing enka (so I've heard) and I thought it would be something cool to share.

なぜ にほんご (Part 2)

So, because I wrote about why I decided to study Japanese here at Columbia, I've decided to give a better response to why I decided to study Japanese in the first place way back when I started high school.

I was originally interested in Japanese for one reason: my favorite movie was The Last Samurai at the time. I'm not gonna lie, so I'm gonna say that it is still one of my favorite movies today, despite what a lot of people say about it.

Admittedly though, I was also a huge gamer. I loved Nintendo games, I loved Sony (both their electronics and games), and I loved all new technology coming out in the world. I figured since most technology came from Japan, and because I liked Japanese history (mostly because of samurais), as well as everything I mentioned, I decided to learn Japanese. I hope this helps clarify why I wanted (and still want to) study Japanese.

なぜ にほんご？

I'm learning Japanese this year for multiple reasons. The main reason I am learning Japanese is because I once knew how to speak Japanese, although I spoke it very poorly. I studied the language in high school, and although I did eventually end up going to Japan, I spoke it not knowing why certain sentences were structured the way they were, and not retaining very much vocabulary.

Because of this, I ended up forgetting a lot of Japanese. I stopped using it, and forgot the majority of what I learned in high school. However, I still love Japan. I love anime, manga, video games (especially those games made by Japanese companies), and their food. I don't want to forget Japanese because I want to travel to Japan again.

So after 3 years of not speaking Japanese, I decided to take Japanese again. I am very excited to relearn the concepts I only sort of understood when I first learned Japanese. I have not been having a difficult time yet, but I found out that I forgot some of my ひらがな, which was unexpected. However, I am optimistic that this time around, I will learn Japanese well.

はじめまして！

こんにちはみんなさん！
わたしはエスコバルです。コロムビアだがくのさんねんせいです。そしてわたしはせいぶつがくのエンギニアです。

わたしはアメリカじんです。シカゴからきました。

どうぞよるしくおねがいします。