my idea of productivity at work: introspection and brainstorming topics for future vlogs / blog posts instead of planning the lesson i’m teaching in an hour. ? if i do run with this and make it a vlog / blog post, it’s going to be a beautiful mess i’m sure.
-※ (continued from here) ….ah, M. i don’t know what to do with you anymore. you’re trying, and i really appreciate that, but… sigh.
…i’d normally limit this to a few whingey tweets on Twitter, but since dad is currently snooping around my social media accounts… might as well be thoroughly whingey on here.
aaahhh, more annoying Japanese TV. despite what i said (in Japanese) while letting off steam livetweeting on Twitter, i know it’s not fair of me to expect anyone, let alone this guy (Jun Soejima, an actor / “talent” btw), to react any certain way or educate the people around him on behalf of other black people in Japan. i really don’t actually expect that or anything else of him, despite my whining, but it does admittedly annoy me when people on Japanese TV just laugh off some really shitty, problematic stuff that people say or do to them, be it re: racial issues, trans issues, or anything else. they’re in a difficult situation and have all kind of things to consider when they react to something, whereas i can huff and puff at the TV saying all the choice words i like without consequence. i get that…. but meh. it was…
the-shynamites: 今月末に閉店しちゃうらしいです ？？？？ マジか？うっわ、やっばい。マジだ… 2週間前に行ってホンマに良かった… (｡ŏ﹏ŏ) so apparently Gossip, the first LGBT cafe in Tokyo which opened its doors in 2010, will be closing August 31st, 2016… the cafe’s owner, Takita-san, has posted a message in Japanese and English on the cafe’s website… ah, this news makes me really sad…. Gossip is where i’d always go when in Tokyo when i wanted to connect with the local LGBT scene without going to Ni Chome, which has always felt much less accessible to me as someone who doesn’t like bars or clubs… Gossip was where i could casually read LGBT books and magazines over cake or falafel, it’s where LGBT gatherings would be hosted… it was the first LGBT place that i went to in Japan. ahhh, i’m sad….. really sad. i’m glad that i went there 2 weeks ago, but wish i had known then that it’d be my last time going…
[ video: a soundless and unfiltered 1 minute compilation from tonight’s 1 hour firework show shot from my apartment window! ] tomorrow marks the end of my one week “summer vacation” and i’m ridiculously bummed about it, but at least it’s ending with a bang. D; tomorrow’s agenda: go see the Ghostbusters movie since it’s finally come out in Japan. or maybe X-Men: Apocalypse? or maybe both. the real agenda is to just not care about the world for a day. wish me luck.
i received some comments on my latest video asking about what some feel to be a binary between cis and trans identities and i was immediately like YESSSSSSSSS and dug up an old post from 2014 where i halfassedly whined about it. why haven’t i less halfassedly whined about it more since then?? anyway, now i’ve typed up this longass rant / PSA / whatever that i’m going to post tomorrow or the day after along with a YouTube video of the same because i feel like both audiences (and they are very different audiences) should see me whinge and… i’m just staring at the post now wondering how much backlash it and the video are going to get me. ugh. ugh. sigh.
content warning: pathologization / medicalization of being trans; non-binary erasure; death mention (below) while i don’t agree with everything in this article (from how things are presented or worded to more factual things), this article is still representative of the sad truth that i’m continually navigating as a non-binary person in Japan. from the way that trans people themselves here actively embrace and rally behind Gender Identity Disorder (GID) not only as a medical condition but as an identity to how pathologized & medicalized literally everything surrounding being trans is here and how that can make things especially difficult for non-binary / Xジェンダー people, even when interacting with people in the trans community which is full of transmedicalism. the blatant non-binary erasure (dare i say enbyphobia) demonstrated by the head of the largest trans / GID organization in this country illustrates that perfectly in this article. “I reject the notion of…
a former coworker (W) and i were in Tokyo today at Sensoji, a major tourist trap in Asakusa that’s in every foreign EVERY guidebook ever. a place that i generally avoid except i was playing tour guide for the day. i was off somewhere snapchatting, as i do, and when i came back to where W was there was a random middle-aged Japanese man excitedly talking to him about where he was from (Colorodo). i’m standing there for a minute or two half listening to their convo while taking random photos, as i also do, when the man realizes that i’m with the guy he’s trying to chat up in broken English. he decides to do the same with me, except… man: ooh, where are you from? me: Las Vegas. man: no, where?? me: Las Vegas…? America…? *confused as people generally know Las Vegas* man: no no, where are you from long…
me: btw, dad kinda sorta found out that i’m non-binary, queer and asexual but i still don’t know exactly how much he even knows or if he even understands what those words mean. and i dont think he knows that you know, but just thought i’d let you know that he kinda sorta knows something in case he comes to you about it. mom: Well he hasn’t said anything. Ok me: if he does mention it to you… let me know? he always talks to you more than he talks to me, so he’ll probably talk to you about it eventually. mom: Maybe. He may think that I will freak out. me: ….to be fair, you did lol… but yeah, he might not come to you because he doesn’t know that you already know. fair enough. but on the off chance that he does, i’d like to know. you dont have to tell me what he says…
