アセクシャル Archives | Queer As Cat

[A]sexuality, Japan[ese], Queer[ness], YouTube[r]

QAC 73 – 【Asexuality In JAPAN】An Interview ♠【アセクシャルって？】日本ｘ英語圏 || #AAW2018

October 26, 2018 / 1 Comment

Happy Asexual Awareness Week! I hope you, reader, are doing well. Last month, I had the pleasure of sitting down with two activists in Japan to shoot this interview about a topic that is pretty dear to me; that is, about the current state of the asexual community in Japan. It goes without saying that everything that’s said in the video is nothing but the experiences and opinions of three people and should NOT be mistaken as being representative of the experiences or opinions of everyone, but at the same time, who better to ask than two of the most active and dedicated people that I know in what is essentially the current hub for ace activity in Japan (Tokyo)? In this 23-minute and 10-question long (bear with me) interview, I sit down with 21 year old YouTuber, ace activist and friend, Nakaken of Seisei Doudou / 性性堂堂, as well…

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Vesper H.

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「やがて君になる」/ “Yagate Kimi ni Naru”: an aro/ace coded, sapphic ‘love story’…?

October 8, 2018 / 3 Comments

cw: non-consensual touch and invasion of personal space this past Friday say the TV premiere of 「やがて君になる」 / “Yagate Kimi ni Naru” (“Bloom Into You”), a new anime based on the on-going manga of the same name by 仲谷鳰 / Nio Nakatani. while those who understand Japanese will benefit from the trailer shown above (and here, have another one), continue reading if you’re able to stomach my rudimentary rendition of the basic premise of the anime and what happened in the first episode that has me clinging to my seat in the hope that this particular series may not be your typical 百合 / yuri (sapphic / lesbian) story, but rather an aro/ace coded, mixed orientation ‘love story’. a story about two girls– one an avid reader of romance manga who struggles with having never once experienced for herself the love she reads about, the other having never experienced attraction…

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Vesper H.

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landscapes and fissures: navigating ace terminology in Japanese & English

June 1, 2018 / 4 Comments

the following post was written for the May 2018 Carnival of Aces on the subject of “Nuance & Complexity“. it may or may not be cleaned up and cross-posted to the YouTube channel Queer As Cat in the future. —— some feel that people in (English-speaking, anglophone) ace communities are “overthinking” things. that the amount of words and identities (also referred to as “microlabels”) which have been coined in such communities is not only “overdoing it,” but even potentially harmful. i’d hope that this would go without saying (but understand that it doesn’t), that i disagree with the former and vehemently reject the latter. regardless of whether i or you or that random person over there petting the stray cat that’s out in the street right now feel such terminology to be useful to us personally, the fact remains that others do and there is immense value in that.

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Vesper H.

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Q&A: “I’ve explained to my mom a couple of times what asexuality and aromanticism are and how they differ…”

August 9, 2017 / No Comments

buffintruda said: I’ve explained to my mom a couple of times what asexuality and aromanticism are and how they differ but she can’t remember. She’s very supportive of me being aroace so I don’t think it’s purposeful. Japanese is her first language so it might be better to explain in Japanese, but I can only speak English. I understand if you’re busy, and this isn’t too important, but if you have the time and energy, could you link a website that fully explains it or write your own explanation? Thank you! hi! sorry for taking so long to respond to your ask. i’ve decided to respond to it publicly because others may find the information in it useful, but i will gladly take the post down if you’d so prefer. just let me know. i don’t know whether your mom will find this easier to understand or not, but this…

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Vesper H.

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Q&A: “I heard that “nonsexual” means non-aro ace and “asexual” means aro ace in Japan.”

July 16, 2017 / 1 Comment

anonymous said: I heard that “nonsexual” means non-aro ace and “asexual” means aro ace in Japan. I’m still confused about general Japanese terms in the ace community. If you don’t mind, could you please explain the most commonly used terms? hi, anon. you heard correctly, “asexual” (Aセクシャル) doesn’t mean what it means in English in Japan.

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Vesper H.

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?Tokyo Rainbow Pride 2017: Parade & Ace Meetup

April 29, 2017 / No Comments

…it’s that time of year again. time for Tokyo Rainbow Pride! since 2014 myself and other aces in Japan (now known as Ace Spec Japan) have come together during Golden Week to raise awareness of asexuality by walking in the annual Tokyo Rainbow Pride Parade, followed by a casual meetup elsewhere in Tokyo. this year will be as awesome as ever and anyone interested in joining us– or even just stopping by to say ‘hi’– is welcome! walking in the parade is optional, of course. date: Sunday, May 7th, 2017 time: [parade] 10:30 ~ 14:00? (parade itself sets off at 12:00) ——- [meetup] 16:00 ~ ??? location: contact me for details even if you can’t make the above times, contact me and i’ll help you find us. i’ll also be around for the Festa on May 6th (Saturday) if anyone wants to meetup then. either way, ハッピープライド！ (photos from Tokyo Rainbow Pride 2016) […

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Vesper H.

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Tokyo Rainbow Pride 2015 (4/26/15)

May 10, 2015 / 1 Comment

my ace friends and i had a great time again this year at TRP! photo notes: the black & white photo is from the “OUT IN JAPAN” photo exhibition by Leslie Kee inside Harajuku GAP, which was also running a #rainbowgap photo booth campaign. the writing on the trans flag says 「色んな性の在り方を認め合おう！」/ “Let’s acknowledge the existence of various sexes/genders!” (in Japanese the same word is used to refer to both sex & gender) the meerkat, its human and its friend on the human’s shoulder deserve to be included for showing up to both last year’s and this year’s TRP in style. and yes, meerkats, among numerous other wild animals, are imported and sold as pets in Japan. i hope you are as outraged about that as i am, even if this meerkat is cute. ;(

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Vesper H.

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Ace & Non-binary Pride @Tokyo Rainbow Pride 2015 (04/26/15)

May 10, 2015 / No Comments

like last year, a handful of us gaijin aces went to Tokyo Rainbow Pride and walked in the parade with Stonewall Japan. this year, i personally decided to raise non-binary / Xジェンダー awareness at the same time. 🙂 also like last year, we started out small with there being only three of us, then we ran into an old friend from last year, becoming four. THEN while lounging around someone on Tumblr messaged me that they were there and had seen us walking in the parade, so we meetup with that person and became five! w00t! we even ran into the-shynamites again this year, but i wasn’t able to get a photo of their awesome ace pride sign. ;( i even ran into the author of the forthcoming, crowd-funded book about Xジェンダー / non-binary people in Japan!! D; the asshat that we ran into later aside, we had a great…

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Vesper H.

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Re: Tokyo Ace Meetup

April 5, 2015 / No Comments

thanks to everyone who came to the Tokyo Ace Meetup! it was our 3rd(?) and most successful meetup yet, i think, and it was really great to meet you all (including those not photo’d above). 🙂 we’re now discussing walking in the Tokyo Pride parade (Sun, April 26th) again this year, so stay tuned for that! if you have an account on AVEN, join in on the discussion! i look forward to meeting you all (and more) again in the future. 🙂 *attempting to post this from a speeding train because i’m going to pass out as soon as i get home*

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Vesper H.

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Tokyo Ace Meetup

April 1, 2015 / No Comments

attn: ace, ace spectrum and otherwise awesome people in central Japan! event: hanami (cherry blossom viewing), tea/coffee and dinner date: Sunday, April 5th 2015 time: 11:45am ~ whenever (8pm maybe?) location: Tokyo; contact me for details note: for hanami, please BYO everything! i’d been putting off announcing this for forever while people got organized, but now it’s gotten late and people still aren’t organized so whatever. a meetup started being organized months ago on AVEN for April 5th, but upon finding out about Stonewall Japan (LGBT for foreigners) and a local Tokyo LGBT group’s hanami party on the same day, we’ve decided to join in on their fun for part of the day. because different people are available at different times, my proposed (rough) itinerary is: 11:45 – meetup @undisclosed station then join up with the Stonewall Japan/Tokyo LGBT group for hanami 14:30 – meetup @undisclosed cafe for chichat over drinks and more…

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Vesper H.

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