I tried out Koizora

After the lecture about cell-phone novel, I tried to find a translation of the Koizora in English or Vietnamese and well, there were several translations other there but I could not find a completely translated edition of the novel.

Here is one of the translations:


http://jiahuishousetsutranslation.blogspot.com/2009/02/koizora-chapter-1-page-1.html


okay, even though I am quite not updated since this novel was published way back to 2005 and the trend of cell-phone novel has already cooled down a lot, I still would like to note down some thoughts on some chapters of the novel.


Koizora was claimed to tell the true story of a high school girl named Mika (who is also the author). What she has gone through tore a lot of readers' hearts. It was a train of misadventures for her: from meeting Hiro, a rebellious boy, to having sex with him, getting bullied by Hiro's ex, getting raped, getting pregnant and then miscarriage. The story ends with the death of Hiro because of serious disease, leaving Mika behind(wikipedia).


What Mika had to go through is unimaginable and it made a lot of people doubtful of the story to be true. Nevertheless, the novel turned out to be a huge success since a movie and a TV drama series were produced right after.



About the novel:
Take a look at this short exert of the translation


For a moment, the one that came up on my mind was
Hiro's face.

I had never met him...
It's just my selfish imagination
Hiro's face.




"...I think there isn't"


Hearing my answer,
without waiting Aya said,


"I am now in love!" 


(taken from http://jiahuishousetsutranslation.blogspot.com/2009/08/koizora-chapter-1-page-10.html)


It is not wrong to say cell-phone novels damage the purity and formality of literature!
The plot is typical, simple. The writing is abrupt and doesn't require strong literature talent (which you would expect from a novel).


The happenings in the story are also told with brief and not deeply developed depictions. Everything happened to Mika was just like the outlines of an essay. The story was written as first-person pronoun, there are a lot of Mika's emotions going on throughout the story, however, nothing goes too developed, nothing can be called deep, thought-provoking here.


This is due to the nature of the cell-phone novels that they are written and often read on cellphones, the wording cannot be too long or complicated. Nevertheless, a kind of literature that even an elementary kid can write (without the content of sex and rape,...) like this, cellphone novels can be a threat.


Also, to me cellphone novel plots are no different from the shojo mangas that i used to read. One is conveyed through words and the other is drawn into pictures. And if i have to say anything about Shojo mangas, It would be they are often misleading stories about high school girls, who never study, only care about appearance and boyfriends. So imagine, the popularity of cellphone novels can develop misleading images as well to the readers. Would parents want their daughters to read stories about prostitutes, about adolescence sex, about rape when they are not mature and mentally grown-up. (cellphone novels come of age - Patrick W Galbraith --- http://www.japantoday.com/category/arts-culture/view/cell-phone-novels-come-of-age) 




In conclusion, even though i would not like to finish the whole story, but there are a lot of elements coming out from Koizora that we need to think about. This is a product of popular culture and it reflexes the inner mind of the culture it stands for. Cellphone novels, though their popularity has cooled down but the study of them is a good source to learn about the development of jpop in Japan. 

Two little holes for the enthusiasts

(source: http://livedoor.blogimg.jp/radiofoundation/imgs/7/7/77657766-s.jpg
http://stat001.ameba.jp/user_images/20090810/07/idlg-g/c0/97/j/o0250035610229996379.jpg)

This is Becky!
If you are a fan of shows in Japan, U'll come across her at least one a day on TV. However, the topic here is not about her though, it's about what she is holding on her hand.

Cellphone, yes!

But don't you see the bunch of dolls and stuffed animals hanging onto the cellphone! The bunch that is 3,4 times bigger than the cellphone itself!

That's so cool, isn't it. I wonder how she could stuff her cellphone into her bag. Does she have a special bag only for her cellphone?
At least she has no trouble finding her cellphone when she needs it!

Even though Becky's cellphone is quite famous for its huge collection of attached straps, Becky is not the only one who adds everything onto her cellphone. A lot of high school girls are pursuing this trend too. Cellphone straps have always been popular in Japan and they are an trendy accessory to make your own cellphone stand out. Therefore on any kind of cellphones (except for Iphone) here, you will probably get 2 small holes to hang the strap. See how Japanese companies try to indulge you with your flashy hobby. Or if you are not interested in straps, seeing two blank holes on your cellphone makes you want to put something into them. For people who already put strap on their cell, you would feel like you want more attached to it. A lot of small, cute little things here in Japan have strap attached to it so that you can put them on your cellphone. It is boring without a strap! And you can totally tell a person's hobby or personality through the things attached to the cellphone.

The gacha gacha for cellphone strap

I personally have 6 straps attached to mine. However after i switched to Iphone, I had trouble finding a place to put my straps on, because Iphone simply DOESNT have strap hole!!!!!

In the J-pop class, teacher and people were talking about strap culture in Japan and an iphone cover with strap hole is only available in Japan. That is true, however, my quest for hunting the cover with strap hole was not that easy.

The number of iphone users compared to the limited number of cover with strap holes made it hard for me to find a nice one. Also the cover came with uninteresting colours, a higher price than ordinary ones and they are made of bad quality plastic. After only 2 weeks of using, I ruined mine.

However, as Iphone is reigning as the most popular smartphone here in Japan (due to its lower payment, compared to other smartphones), I believe, producers will make more diversity of cover with straps in better quality.

Still, Bravo to Japan for always "indulging" us with what we want (but we don't necessarily need). We are always kept in convenience with these kinds of manipulative marketing methods. Keeping people to buy more is the method used everywhere when it comes to business, but here in Japan, things become available in "lightning speed".

How many Expressions can you Show through your email?

Lately, I have been told my cynical face looks like this guy...

That explains why i put him as my profile pics anywhere i can.

(an emoticon from the LINE app for Iphone)

And i was surprised by how much this little rabbit resembled me!!!

I have a mafia-like look Just like him!

Put aside the resemblance between me and him, when it comes to Emoticons, I have always been a heavy user of emoticons when texting mails, I attached icons almost after every sentence that sometimes I was told that I overused them. But that is what Emoticons are for when you want to show the reader how your facial expressions would be like at the moment, isn't it. Compared to a mail of only words and words, you are happier to receive a mail with some cute emoticons inside right, because no one can resist cute things. That's my theory.

For that theory, I am supported by my Japanese cellphones, which are installed with tons of emoticons inside to "enjoy". My old cellphone was a simple one with no outstanding functions but it already got more than 200 emoticons inside to choose from. 

(source:http://www.dfnt.net/t/photo/extra_img3/softbank_emoji.gif_

Something similar to this

For my current Iphone, I love how they even design a special set of Emoticons only for Japanese keyboard. Besides, the keyboard called "Emoticons" already installed for free in Japanese Iphone, when you turn on Japanese keyboard, you will get a set of Made-in-Japan emoticons. They are cute and simple like this: 

I made use of them a lot. And the thing is people here in Japan are frivolous users of Emoticons. Guys and girls all use Emoticons. Emoticons are a tool to decorate your emails to make them look cute and special to the reader. 

Imagine, when you want to say, you failed to get out of your bed because its to cold outside, instead of describing something long and people will forget, use an emoticon like this: 

_|￣|○⇒_|＼○_⇒_/＼○_⇒____○_

Or you want to describe you're about to cry, try something like this:

(இɷஇ )

Everyone can totally get your point!

It's amazing that you will never know the limitation of Emoticons in Japan. They can make anything, any kind of expressions out of some simple strokes. The other day I tried out free Apps on Apple store called 顔文字５０００ and Girl'sデコメ. There are unlimited emoticons and they are constantly being updated. That's freaky but amazing at the same time. Now emails will get flashier and flashier!

A lot of my friends in american are surprised at my gaudy mails and constantly asked me about how to write those emoticons. I advised them about the wonder of Japanese keyboard on Iphone and they started to use the keyboard just for emoticons. Also I am seeing the popularity of Japanese emoticons nowadays on the internet instead of the old america's horizontal emoticons. 

Even though emoticons are helpful, It's common sense to use them with caution. It's fun to decorate mails with them but you dont want to make an Emoticon Chaos like this:

...

Anyway, try them out and see how many expressions you can make!

Everything you need in this little guy!

I am always fascinated by the idea of cellphones in Japan. And I am not talking about smartphones that you can download applications and enjoy! I am talking about the little guy with buttons that looks just like any other cellphones out there in America, Europe,...

But Japanese cellphone has a upperhand in the technology by providing the users with anything they wish for. Imagine on a tiny device of less than 10cm in length, besides calling, texting messages, you get a camera with even higher megapixel than some digital cameras out there, you get a little TV with the basic channels just like on TV, you can replace your credit cards, you suica with you cellphone because this guy will function well just like those cards,  you can access your favourite sites like google, twitter with high-speed internet. Not to mention, all cellphones are 3G and can access global roaming. Basically nothing is impossible with Japanese cellphone. The cellphone market in Japan is like a battle among companies for the latest technology.

It would be hard to imagine, but try to take a look at the basic features of this Lumix guy by Softbank. Softbank is relatively new in the cellphone market compared to other cellphone veterans like Docomo or Au. But it is trying hard to catch up with other rivals in the harsh battle.

(source: http://mb.softbank.jp/mb/product/3G/001p/)

"Mr. Takeshi Natsuno, the developer of i-Mode, an Internet service said :“The most amazing thing about Japan is that even the average person out there will have a superadvanced phone." (Why Japan's Cellphones haven't gone global - Hiroko Tabuchi --- http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/20/technology/20cell.html)

Cellphone in Japan is a culture that is worth taking notice of. If you step on the train in Tokyo, 100% you will see more than 5 people using their cellphones at the same time. It is not a rare scene to see a row of people sitting, all of them are holding onto their cellphones. People in Japan cannot LIVE without a cellphone. They can check their cellphones every 5 mins, can send like more than 100 mails per day, they give their cellphones the best treatments like decoration, protection. They can spend like more than $100 for a month of use. They LOVE cellphones.

(source: http://amanaimages.com/info/infoRF.aspx?SearchKey=28174008871&GroupCD=0&no=)

Japan is always regarded as a country of fast technology development, a land of new inventions. Just by looking at a small side of Japan's technology: the cellphone, we can learn a lot about the popular culture along with the country's consumerism. It is not much to say Japanese are driven by the consumerism culture and this desire to be equipped with the latest is always backed up by companies out there to tempt people to spend more and more.

Old things are constantly being replaced by new things, just like these cellphones. The idea about a portable phone to keep in contact is now obsolete. Cellphone in Japan is now a race of being up-to-date, a tool of being fashionable, a desire of making everything compact, all-in-one and convenient.