Happy belated

New Year!

Man, have I been out of it or what? How is everyone?

Okay, according to some, this is not very politically correct, but I'm a psuedo-Christian--i.e. a Catholic who hasn't gone to church in ages and has a number of questions about some of the stuff the sisters force fed me in elementary school. Still, my core beliefs are similar enough to consider myself a Christian of sorts, and as a result, I still celebrate Christmas. It is, for me, the season of giving, and hoping for peace for everyone.

So Merry Christmas
to you all

...and just to cover all the bases,
Happy Holidays too!

Peace to all all of you!

Thanks for all the good wishes. Any birthday beyond the half-century mark needs all the happy wishes it can muster. Thanks to those of you who wished me well on FB, too. I am truly grateful.

should i call u Onigiriman or Ray Kanzaki then?
tanjf

On Xanga, I will always be Onigiriman, so please continue to call my Onigiriman.

Sounds like a Street Fighter name.
Street Fightin' Japanese literature professor.  Sounds about right.
Smart_BAd

I agree. It has an edgy sound to it. More street fighter than J-Lit prof, if you ask me.

Happy Birthday to you! But I still like calling you, O-man!
PicsesTiff

Girl, you can call me anything you like, but O-man will do nicely.

The last name doesn't exactly roll off the tongue, but it will do. xD What kanji would you use to write your new last name?
onigiri

There's a critic in every crowd. Personally, I think it sounds rather cool. And for your information, Kanzaki would be written 神崎, but he will be a Japanese American so the kanji is not so important, I think.

today i made onigiri with some college kids for a party. i was a bit worried bc i've never made them before- but they turned out ok... but we argued over how to pronounce the word.. so i come to the expert- the o-man!
jerjonji

I'm glad to hear that you made some tasty rice balls. And just for you, Jerjonji--play this to hear the pronunciation of my namesake and my name.

People may not understand this, but I'm actually pretty particular about how I pronounce my name. "Onigiri" is a Japanese word and so should be pronounced with a Japanese accent. Oh-nee-gi-ri. The "r" in Japanese is a tongue flap of sorts, much like how it is in Spanish, but only one flap. Don't roll it, or you'll sound like a Japanese hoodlum. "Man", on the other hand, is English and should be pronounced with an American accent, much like Spiderman. For me, at least, the name itself has that quintessentially American comic book ring to it. Superman, Batman, Ironman, Onigiriman... Okay, maybe its just in my head...

Now this may be a stretch for you guys--please feel free to disagree--but for me it is the perfect representation of who I am. A Japanese American who values both heritages, is steeped in both cultures but tends to keep the two distinct, if not exactly separate. Like, Onigiriman--both Japanese and American (English), but joined together to make a single identity.

Back to Ray...

Just so we're clear about this: Ray Kanzaki is the name of the main character for anything I will now write. In fact, you can plug his name into any of my old stories, as well. I've felt that using my screen name sounded wierd in some of the stories. It'll be good to use a name that actually sounds like a name instead of the obviously fictitious Onigiriman--although this is preferable to some mixture of alphabets and numbers that represent aspects of my life, but end up looking like words in the game, Jumble. I could have used eastla55bruin, but that would really sound stupid in a story.

So I'm still Onigiriman--or O-man, if you prefer. Ray is just my in-story pseudonym.

Classes have come to an end, and I now have finals to look forward to. One has already been graded, for the most part. The rest is of my exams are scheduled for next week, which means once again I will be grading until Christmas.

Ugh!

But that's life for a teacher... grading, grading, grading.

Not much has been happening as of late, except for school. As the semester winds down, I get busier and busier

Sensei, sensei, can I take a make up quizzes I missed?
--Make up quizzes must be made up within a week.
Oh, sensei, sensei, pweeze, pwetty pweeze?

Sensei, sensei, can I come to your office? I don't understant how to conjugate these sffixes.
--You mean the ones we did at the beginning of the semester? Why didn't you come and see me then?
Well, I thought  understood them then, but... but... (tears well up) as I look over my quizzes, (head droops) I'm not so sure anymore.
--Oh man, DON'T CRY! Anyone who walks by might get the wrong idea!

I tell ya, it never gets easier... But then that is the beauty of this job. Every year I get a new group of students, each different, each bringing their own personalities. It definitely keeps me on my toes and helps me stay young... well, young at heart, anyway. Students I don't even know are starting to open the door for me. Is this a sign of aging? Noooooooooooooooo!

Speaking of which...

I turn half a century plus two today. Every joint in my body tells me that these numbers are not lying. So I've decided to give myself a rebirth. Well, not really a rebirth, but a new name. I've always wanted to see if I could actually write something that people would find intersting--not that this blog is an indicaiton of my talents, or lack thereof. But I thought it would be cool to write some stuff down, perhaps basing it on my own experiences. I would, of course, need a name for the main character--my alter ego, as it were--and I came up with the name Ray Kanzaki. Say it out loud. I think it sounds pretty good.

Before M came to the US, I used to go for a beer or two or five at a local hang out and the bartender there, for whatever reason, started calling me Ray. I'm not really sure why, but I never corrected him. I would just nod my head and say, "hey". In a way, it was fun--I felt like a different person, actually. But I also wondered if maybe I looked like a "Ray". You know how some people have names that seem to fit them perfectly? Well, maybe riceballs kind of look like Rays. Anyway, that's where I got the first inspiration for a character name. The last name just kinda came to me. It's not a common Japanese surname, but not overly obscure like my real name. And besides, it sounds like a real name.

So today, I release the name of my alter ego. It is now officially his birthday, as well. Please, say it out loud with me: Ray Kanzaki.

1:00; 5.13 mi.

Man oh man oh man... no pun intended...

School is almost out! Just one more week. Then I can look forward to grading finals and then doing research over the winter break. Whooppee!

This semester has gone by soooooooooooooo fast, I can't believe it. Did someone speed up the space time continuum and forget to send me the memo? I swear, I thought Halloween was just a couple of weeks ago, and here we are just about to enter December.

Oh well.

On a side note, my schools played each other last night. I mean, there really was no conflict for me. When UCLA was going up and down the court, there was no sense of guilt or remorse whatsoever. Go Bruins!

Now if only some of that basketball success would rub off on the football team. This Saturday is our rivalry game, but I have a baaaaaaaad feeling that we're gonna have our asses handed to us... in not too polite a fashion.

Because it's so frackin' good.

Saturday night, the SciFi channel aired Battlestar Galactica: Razor. This story is supposed to satiate us while we wait for the final season of BSG due sometime in 2008. But it backfired. This story did not satisfy me one iota. All it did was whet my appetite for more, MORE, MORE BSG. The show is so gritty, so on the edge that it is just too cool for TV.

Warning! Mild spoilers ahead: Razor gives us the back story of what happened on the Pegasus under Admiral Cain before it met up with Galactica. The Cylon war starts unexpectedly for the Pegasus with nuclear attacks and Cain turns into a brutal commander as she is driven to seek revenge on the cylons. She will resort to any means to sustain her ship and continue her agenda--shooting a subordinate and stripping civilian ships of necessary items are nothing to Cain.

All this background is provided through the memories/ flashbacks of Cain's former bridge officer Kendra Shaw, who follows in the footsteps of her mentor, making reckless tactical decisions as Lee Adama's new XO on the Pegasus.

This two hour special was great, if you're a BSG fan. An in your face drama about the brutality of war. The actual story was so-so, mostly fleshing out stories that were mentioned in passing in previous seasons. The show also gave a glimpse of the genesis of the human cylons. But it was too brief to mean anything significant now--except one of the humans rescued as part of this cylon experimentation looked like Grace Park. Hmmmm. I wonder if we get a good look at those rescued humans, will we discover the identities of the real cylons amongst the human population?

Speaking of which, I was disappointed that Boomer--Grace Park--hardly appeared at all. But Admiral Cain was pretty hot. She was a memorable character as Ensign Ro, the former Bajoran rebel on ST:TNG, but I never thought of her as hot. But as Admiral Cain. Zowie! Maybe it's the uniform... or maybe her rank--that's her on the very left in the soon-to-be-released DVD covers above (yes, she's a bit airbrushed in that pic.) In any event, I'm glad they made Razor if for no other reason than to give Michelle Forbes one more appearance in uniform.

I'm tired, but I'm cooking... at least part of the meal. I am currently soaking the turkey in brine and I made the cranberry sauce a couple of hours ago. Oh yeah, I also made some Rice Crispie squares for the kids who will be visiting us for dinner.

Anyway, have a good one everyone.

And here I thought I had caught up with all my work

Excuse me while I prepare for next semester, even as I struggle to keep pace with this semester. I will be teaching J-Lit in Translation, as I always do, and am considering adding a few new books, so I will be listing books that I might consider. Just think of this post as me talking to myself. But please feel free to comment on any of the books you have already read, or if you have an suggestions.

The class is a survey course, so the books should be basic and representative of the author, and the authors should be representative of J-Lit. So that should narrow it down to, say, 40 poets and authors? But I only have 15 weeks.

Early Modern

Until recently, I have had students by an Early Modern anthology put out by Columbia University Press. The selection is wide and varied, and the book is relatively inexpensive given its breadth. But I think there might be too much variety. I would rather have more samples of Basho--at least one entire travel journal and maybe even a complete haikai series--and more selections by Saikaku. There is perhaps too much stuff that is not necessary for a survey course. So this year, I've decided to choose just two books and perhaps supplement them with some handouts.

• Basho's Journey: The Literary Prose of Matsuo Basho. Trans. Barnhill, State University of New York Press. #0-7914-6414-8
• Saikaku. Popular fiction. I can't figure out a book yet. Anyone have any suggestions?

Meiji

• Natsume Soseki, Kokoro. Trans. McClellan, Dover Publications. #0486451399
• Akutagawa Ryunosuke, Rashomon and Seventeen Other Stories, Trans. Rubin. Penguin Classics. #0143039849

Mid-20th century

• Tanizaki Jun'ichiro, Seven Tales, which include the novella "Portrait of Shunkin" and other strangely half-misogynistic, half-masochistic stories like "Tattoo", "Aguri" and "Bridge of Dreams". Vintage. #0679761071
• Kawabata Yasunari, Snow Country. "Izu Dancer" OR The Old Capital. Trans. Holman. Shoemaker & Hoard. #1593760329

Post-War

• Enchi Fumiko, The Waiting Years. Trans. Bester. Kodansha International. #477002889X
  Feminist tale... well, feminist for a woman writing in the 1950s. But its about a woman who has been abused all her life--husband cheats on her, even brings his mistress home to live with them--but finally gets her revenge when she... well, I won't spoil it for you.
  
• Mishima Yukio. "The Boy Who Wrote Poetry", Confessions of a Mask. Peter Owen Ltd. #0720610311
  Both of these tell the story of the Mishima everyone seems to forget about, unless you're gay. Confessions is semi-autobiographical, describing Mishima's own struggles to somehow capture masculinity, while realizing that he is unable to deny his attraction to day laborers and a certain classmate in an all boy school.

Post-modern

• Abe Kobo, The Boxman; film Face of Another. I think most people are famliar with Woman in the Dunes, which is okay, I guess, as a reflection of the loss of identity through corporate society. But Abe does a better job of the loss of identity and isolation in the modern world in The Boxman--the main character literally lives in his box--no, no, no, he isn't homeless, he actually wears it 24/7! And The Face of Another deals with a man who loses his face in a chemical (modern) accident, but creates a new one with a newly invented material (modern, again) so he can eventually seduce his wife as a stranger. Admit it. You wanna read both of them now, right?
• Nakagami Kenji, The Cape. Trans. Zimmerman. Stone Bridge Press. #1933330430
  Violent, sexist and representative of Japan's untouchable class, the burakumin.
• Murakami Ryu, 69. Trans. McCarthy. Kodansha Amer Inc, #4770019513.
  I'd rather read Coin Locker Babies, but I think its too long.
• Murakami Haruki, Elephan Vanishes. trans. Rubin. Vintage. #0679750533

This list is pretty threadbare... I will be adding and subtracting from this list so you can just ignore me while I work.

edoption #1045559

• Ihara, Saikaku, 1642-1693.     Five women who loved love. Translated by Wm. Theodore de Bary, with a background essay by Richard Lane, and the 17th-century illus. by Yoshida Hambei.     1956     PZ3 .I235 Fi
• Ihara, Saikaku, 1642-1693.     Great mirror of male love / Ihara Saikaku ; translated, with an introduction, by Paul Gordon Schalow.     1990   PL794.N37 E5 1990
• [ 7 ]     Ihara, Saikaku, 1642-1693.     Life of an amorous man. Translated by Kengi Hamada. Illus. by Masakazu Kuwata.    1964      PZ3.I235 Lg
• [ 9 ]     Ihara, Saikaku, 1642-1693.     Tales of Japanese justice / by Ihara Saikaku ; translated by Thomas M. Kondo, Alfred H. Marks.     1980     DS 21 .A83 no.24
• [ 10 ]     Ihara, Saikaku, 1642-1693.     This scheming world. Translated by Masanori Takatsuka and David C. Stubbs.     GW     1965         PL898.I38 S3
• [ 11 ]     Ihara, Saikaku, 1642-1693.     Worldly mental calculations : an annotated translation of Ihara Saikaku's Seken munezanyo / by Ben Befu. --    1976     PL 794 .S413 1976

I met my third Xangan today, Sunjun. He actually goes to the school where I teach, and probably takes classes from people I know. o-mi-god!  He had dropped by and left me a note quite a while ago--a year ago? Two? I forget. But we finally met. Hope he wasn't too disappointed. If I knew he was coming, I would have wrapped myself in nori seaweed so he'd recognize me right away. As it was, he pretty much recognized me, and I him. He came just before class, so we didn't get a chance to talk much. Not that I'd give him too much advice on which courses to avoid... Of course, I would tell him to NEVER take a literature class from the O-man. He'd be bored out of his head.

Today, Monday, I got a long distance phone call from a former student asking for a letter of recommendation. You know, I thought I would be free from this once they graduated, but ... * sigh * Oh well... I'm pretty strict about writing letters of rec, however. I require that a student had already completed one class with me, three weeks advanced notification, a copy of their transcripts, a copy of the statement of purpose, and a copy of a previous paper--if possible, one that I have already commented on. I have had students accuse me of just making things difficult just so they won't ask me. Indeed, I don't want just any student tramping into my office demanding a letter of recommendation. I have guidelines for eligibility on my website at school and direct all inquiries there, and amazingly enough only half of them end up coming to my office--which is another requirement. Getting a letter of recommendation is a privilege, not a right, so a student should ask politely and properly in my office, not after class as an "oh, by the way." Nor by e-mail. Which is why this student called me from afar--like, what? 9000 miles? How far is Hawaii?

This is not to toot my own horn, but this student told me that her advisor suggested she contact me to get a letter similar to the one I wrote for her to get into grad school. Yes, my letter apparently left an impression. You know, I do things like comment on the students overall ability as reflected in the transcripts. I write about the interests of the student so that it dove-tails with the statement of purpose. I make reference to a paper the student wrote for me, so the reader is impressed by the fact that it was so good that I remembered it months later--although we all know now I had it in my hand when I wrote the letter. You know, I don't just write letters of recommendation. I craft them, tailor them, to the individual student. So how about a little appreciation, dudes...

Of course, it doesn't always work. A few years ago, one student was not even selected to be interviewed to the JET program. How pathetic is that?!? Not even an interview? How odd, I thought. Fortunately, she had a back up plan. I had written another letter for her--actually it was the same letter altered just slightly. So instead of going on the JET program, she went to Cambridge University in England on scholarship to study more Japanese stuff. Go figure. She wasn't good enough for JET, but good enough for Cambridge? If you ask me, JET did her a favor.

Anyway, so when I ask students for these different things for a recommendation, I don't do it for my health--just in case you may be reading this... which, by the way...

Today, Monday, I also found out a student in my Lit class, reads this blog regularly, a student I am just starting to become familiar with--in that teacher-student kind of way, of course. Oh gawd, I thought all the students who read my blog had graduated. Crap. I can't go back to writing what I really think. Hahahahha. just kidding.

I also received a message on my Facebook Wall from another student who recently told me she wouldn't be able to take my Lit class next semester. I told her how sad that made me, and she responded:

Alright, I might be committing academic suicide, but I don't care. I am
taking your class! I will work something out, even if I have to beg the
S**** Center!

Aaaaah, the pressure, the pressure.... Back to grading.

There should be a law, or rule, or somekind of religious commandment that states you must be lazy and do nothing once a week. I've been grading all weekend long--Literary Japanese and J-Lit in Translation midterms. It hasn't been too bad, as I've come to appreciate the benefits of multiple choice questions. Much easier to grade. But I also have essay to grade--a literature class cn't be all multiple choice, true-false and matching, right? Anyway, I think I'll go to sleep for now. Hope some of you have the luxury of a lazy Sunday.

2007.11.11--01:30, 6.58 mi.