#nihongo-lets-go

[nihongo-lets-go]

Lesson　１, Pt. 1　：仮名［かな］

『　Scroll to the bottom for a glossary and resource links！ 』

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A brief summation of Kana 仮名:

Almost every language in human history has a written form. Romance languages and Germanic languages have the Roman alphabet. Ukrainian, Belarusian, Kazakh, and Russian have the Cyrillic alphabet. Korean has 한글. Japanese is, of course, no exception to this.

仮名［かな］are the syllabaries used for the Japanese written language. Each kanji, hiragana, and katakana character represents a word or sound in Japanese. Although each 仮名 has a different purpose, when combined they make up the whole of written Japanese, and are a must-know for everyday life, especially if your goal is to live in , work in, or visit Japan.

From reading menus, to shopping, to navigating transportation, to reading housing and apartment contracts, it is essential to learn the written language in order to fully grasp Japanese as a whole. (Side note: 仮名 can refer to solely hiragana and katakana.)

As stated before, the whole of the Japanese writing system is a combination of two kinds of 仮名:

～ Kanji (lit. “Han characters”), derived from written Chinese

～Hiragana and Katakana (the syllabic kana)

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KANJI

漢字 ［かんじ］ ー The original 仮名, or 真仮名 [まがな］(lit. “true kana”).

汉字 [hànzì] (Chinese characters) that are used to phonetically transcribe Japanese. The most prominent is 万葉仮名［まにょうがな］, from which hiragana and katakana are derived. Although certain 漢字 retain their meaning in 汉字, many more are used in a purely phonetic context, and thus the original meaning does not always hold. (Although, you'll have a great head-start if you're learning to read Mandarin!)

There tens of thousands of 漢字 used today, but the minimum number that learners are encouraged to remember is 2000-2200 (I would actually recommend learning closer to 3000).

『　Six 漢字, and their meanings. Only 1994 more to go!　』

Because the amount to be learned is so extensive, it's often easier to become comfortable reading and writing in hiragana [平仮名] and katakana [片仮名] before moving onto tackling 漢字 en masse. Although, it never hurts to learn a few in the beginning, especially those written for commonly used words!

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HIRAGANA

平仮名［ひらがな］ー The writing system used for native Japanese. It is used to write 送り仮名［おくりがな］, which are kana suffixes following a kanji root (e.g. to inflect nouns and verbs); to write particles; written for emphasis, and for misc. native words with no kanji, or with kanji that is too obscure or formal for writing.

平仮名 is also used to write 振り仮名［ふりがな］, also known as 読み仮名［よみがな］, and rubi ［ルビ ］. 振り仮名 is written above 漢字 to indicate proper pronunciation. Books aimed at children often include 振り仮名 .

平仮名 can be broken up into three sub-categories:

~Chart 1 includes all of the base 平仮名, including the a, i , u, e, o vowels ［あ、い、う、え、お］and the n/ng［ん］consonant.

~Chart 2 includes the dakuten and handakuten characters. Dakuten [ ﾞ] and handakuten [ ﾟ ] are marks that modify the sound of the 平仮名 they are placed after. For example: a dakuten after the character ha [は], changes the sound to ba [ば]. Adding a handakuten after は changes the sound to pa [ぱ].

~Chart 3 is a combination chart that includes 平仮名 , dakuten, handakuten, and 促音 [そくおん] . Sokuon [促音], known more casually as chiisai tsu/chiisai kana [小さいつ | 小さいかな] or chiisana tsu [小さなつ] , are the small 平仮名 that aid in altering the character's sound. For example: take は, ば, and ぱ, and add a smaller version the character ya [や] after them. By doing this, や becomes the sokuon , [ゃ］, turning は, ば, and ぱ into hya［ひゃ］, bya [びゃ] , and pya [ぴゃ] .

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KATAKANA

片仮名［カタカナ］ ー　This writing system has many uses, primarily for foreign loan words ( 外来語［がいらいご］) and onomanopoeia. It is also used for technical and scientific terms; for the names of plants, animals, and minerals, and for Japanese companies.

As with 平仮名, 片仮名 is also used for word emphasis.

Other than the differences in appearances, 片仮名 are functionally identical to 平仮名. There are the base characters, the dakuten/handakuten characters, and the combination characters, all which produce the different sounds of Japanese.

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The Japanese writing system can seem overwhelming at first, especially if your native tongue is part of a completely different linguistic family. Just remember that learning anything new takes time. Practice makes for a practiced person!

To round out this lesson, included below is a glossary of all the words mentioned. If you have any questions, feel free to use that 'Ask Me Anything!' button.

Happy learning!

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LESSON 1 VOCABULARY LIST:

仮名 ー　Kana［かな] , the name for the Japanese writing system. Kana can also refer to only hiragana and katakana.

真仮名 ー Magana [まがな］literally translates into “true kana”. Another term for kanji.

漢字 ー Kanji［かんじ］, the character system based off of the Chinese written characters 汉字 [hànzì］. Kanji is also known as man'yōgana ( まにょうがな [万葉仮名 ] ), the magana writing system that hiragana and katakana descended from.

平仮名 ー Hiragana［ひらがな］, the writing system used for native Japanese.

送り仮名 ー Okurigana［おくりがな］, hiragana suffixes following the kanji stems of written Japanese.

振り仮名 ー Furigana［ふりがな］is small hiragana that is written above kanji to indicate proper pronunciation. Furigana also known as yomigana ( 読み仮名［よみがな］), and rubi ［ルビ ］ .

片仮名 ー Katakana［カタカナ] is the writing system used for foreign loan words, the names of Japanese companies, and much more.

外来語 ー Gairaigo［がいらいご] is the term for foreign names and loan words--essentially any non-native Japanese words.

Dakuten [ ﾞ] and handakuten [ ﾟ ] ー written marks that alter the sound of the hiragana or katakana they are placed after.

小さいつ 、 小さいかな 、小さなつ ―　chiisai tsu, chiisai kana, and chiisana tsu are all terms used for small hiragana that, like dakuten and handakuten, alter a kana character's sound.

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ADDITIONAL RESOURCES:

WIKIPEDIA:

Kana

Hiragana

Katakana

Furigana

Sokuon (chiisai tsu)

OTHER SITES:

Dakuten, Handakuten

Origins of Gairaigo

[my-japanese-corner]

Japanese word of the day

いってらっしゃい (Hiragana)

行ってらっしゃい (Kanji)

pronunciation - itte-rashai

Meaning - have a good day or see you later.

Used with - family members leaving house, colleagues going for work trip, meetings etc.,

If you want to learn a bit more about the history of this word, please read more!

いっしょに日本語をべん��ょうする！がんばってください！

Translation: let's study Japanese together! Let's work hard together!

Romanji: issho ni nihongo o benkyou suru! Gambatte kudasai!

I recently found out that this word which has come to mean have a good day, literally translates to "Go and come back!"

Basically the 行って (pronunciation: itte) means Go (or Journey, you will see this 行 Kanji in almost every sentence where something is leaving, going somewhere for example 行ってきます meaning "I'm going!') and (い) らしゃい (pronunciation: irashai) means come or welcome back

Basically,

行って + (い) らしゃい = Go + come back

Ko-San on Instagram explained it very well. The explanation goes like this -

In ancient Japan since there was no world order, anyone leaving on a work trip, or anything else from the village could die for various reasons. And Japanese people were firm believers of the power of words, this belief is called Kotodama. Therefore, by saying "Go and come back!" they are wishing their loved ones or colleagues a good journey.

[bungeo-ppangie]

17:03 // studying

ღ pairing. nonidol!student!riki x student!gn!reader

ღ contents. romance, fluff again, angst

ღ synopsis. in which you can't help but stress out when you don't understand an architectural theory for a test

﹒⪩⪨﹒scene below cut

you ran your fingers through your hair, letting your hand rest on top of your head for a moment. sighing in frustration, you slammed the textbook closed, walking out of your bedroom. you found riki sitting on the couch, playing games.

grabbing a bottle of water from the kitchen, you decided to return to studying- stalling wasn't going to make you understand the stupid architectural theory of post-structuralism. why the fuck did you choose to major in architecture again?

you ruffled your boyfriend's hair as you passed by him, still gaming on his phone. feeling the soft strands of his hair made you feel ever so slightly better, even though it also tempted you to want to just curl up in his lap and sleep. he looked up at you as he felt your touch, brow creasing in worry as he saw your irritated face.

"yn?" he said to your receding figure as you headed back to the room to study the louvre's design plan. you barely heard him over your turmoiling thoughts, wishing you could restart life and choose to not study architecture at seoul university. in the midst of your annoyed thought-monologue, you didn't even notice riki closing his phone in the middle of a ranking round, normally so important to him that he wouldn't so much as bat an eye if he was called during the game.

you plopped onto your seat again, opening the textbook and staring at the undecipherable gibberish of french architectural theories of building design in the late 17th century. after a good 10 minutes of translating the text back and forth, you had finally used up all of your remaining brain cells, and still had no idea what you were doing.

you felt hot tears threatening to slide down your cheeks, closing your eyes and tilting your head up in a desperate attempt to stop yourself from crying. all you wanted was to rest for a moment, to let yourself breathe instead of feeling your chest tight with tears, your mind clogged with bits and pieces of information you just couldn't piece together. you felt like you were falling apart from the inside, and found yourself wishing, yet again, that you were just having a lazy afternoon, cuddling with riki.

luckily for you, he was standing right in your doorway, watching you struggle for the past few minutes. all he wanted to do was kiss you and tell you that everything was alright, that you didn't need to push yourself so hard. but he knew that if he came at the wrong time, you would just close yourself off from him and make your situation even worse. however, watching you so near tears finally ruined his resolve. he hurried to your side, bending down to lift you out of your seat and into his lap as he sat onto the bed.

"shhh..." he murmured to you, whispering encouragement and comforting words into your ears as you cried into his shoulder, dampening his shirt. in his panic to make you feel better, he even switched to japanese, making you smile a bit at his effort.

"nihongo dekimasen, riki" you said, employing one of the phrases your boyfriend had painstakingly taught you. you were sure you butchered the pronunciation, but it was evidently understandable enough, because you earned a giggle from him.

"but yn-ie, are you okay? is architecture too much pressure? see i told you to do engineering, this isn't good for your health! digestive problems or some shit- i swear i can find it on naver if you give me a moment," he said, switching back to a serious tone. "you can ask me for help if you ever need it, you know."

you laughed, seeing riki so caring and worried for you when he usually teased you for bad grades. not that you didn't like this- you definitely loved him like this- but it was so out of the ordinary that you couldn't hold in a giggle.

"riki-ah, you're only passing your classes because the teacher obviously has a crush on you- she curved your grade up 25 points last test." you pointed out as revenge for being teased for your rare bad grades.

"hey, what has my rizziness got to do with this? i can do well if i really want to, you know." he replied, pouting because of your disbelief at his self-acclaimed amazing studying habits. that is, gaming until 30 minutes before the test, then kissing up to the teacher until the test for a higher curve.

you rolled your eyes at him, but ended up accepting his offer of help. surprisingly, he proved himself to actually be pretty decent at studying, getting the hang of the theory almost immediately and tried teaching it to you("so like fish bread, you have to savor the overall taste and notice the details at the same time- you know, the undertones of red bean, the ridges of the shaped bread...") key word: tried.

however, even though you almost didn't notice the gradual process, having riki around you as you studied released almost all of the stress and pressure from before. instead, you laughed along with him at his weird and completely unrelated comparisons, trying to explain everything you didn't fully understand to you.

what did i do in my past life to ever deserve him, you thought to yourself, smiling at the cheerful boy who would try anything to make you happy.

[82mitsu]

{18Trip} The 18 Questions Corner - Shiramitsu Toi

This is a translation for the 18 questions interview uploaded on the official Youtube channel. I suggest to read this translation alongside it!

Note: P stands for "Player", this series has a voiced male & female character for the player. The interviews are conducted by the male player in this case.

TL note:

Toi calls Ryui by 兄様, pronounced as “Ani-sama”. Now, I try my best to keep all honorifics and nicknames as is but I feel like “Big Bro-sama” did not look good, and I am intent on keeping the older brother aspect. “Ani-sama” I wouldn’t consider an option either due to it being the colloquial name for Animelo Summer Live, and overall can be confusing if your nihongo is not jouzu enough desu. (Neither do I think it looks good, either.) It has been translated to “beloved Big bro” instead.

P: 18 questions for the Tourism Ward Mayors! We look forward to your cooperation!

Toi: I-I’ll be in your care!

What’s your name?

I’m Shiramitsu Toi! 

How old are you?

I’m 21 years old!

Tell us about your occupation!

I’m the owner of Fortuner Teller Angel Eye.

What’s the first thing you do when waking up in the morning?

Saying good morning to my beloved Big bro!

Anything you’re particular about with lunch?

I chew my food thoroughly!

What pops up in your mind when it comes to “evening”?

The evening glow in the sky?

What’s your routine before bed?

Writing in my secret exchange diary. 

Where do you start with washing your body?

Um... my right upper arm!

What’s essential when leaving for a trip?

Um… a change of clothes… I think?  

What do you check before traveling somewhere?

What the local sweets are!

What’s your favorite method of transportation for traveling? 

Because I don’t usually go on these, I’d say the train!

What’s one item you’d bring to a deserted island?

Anything will do as long as I’m with my beloved Big bro!

Please give us some fanservice! 

Be glad mortal, for I shall provide you entertainment… Ehehe, just messing around. 

Who’s someone you’d lean on for support? 

Has to be my beloved Big bro, I’m sure. 

Who would you swap bodies with for a day?

Um…! Evening Squad’s Natsuyaki Chihiro… -san…

What would you want to do as them?

I wanna be like Chii-sama and try to shine like him while dancing…!! Waah I didn’t mean to say that! How embarrassing~!!

Pass on a message to your roommates!

My beloved Big bro, thank you for always being there. Netaro-san, let’s play a new game again sometime!

Tell us from the heart, what’s a “journey” to you? 

Something that broadens your horizons, I think. 

P: Thank you, those were all 18 questions!

Toi: Thank you very much!!

Toi: I'm Shiramitsu Toi and the HAMA’s 15th Ward Mayor together my beloved big bro. Please feel free to drop by Fortune Teller Angel Eye whenever you’d like! 

[inanisomnia]

Hiiiii

Can you do some headcanon chishiya x reader where reader looks really arrogant but in reality is soft and shy?

Thank youuu!!!

lay me gently.

fem! reader x chishiya shuntaro

warning/s: mild profanities, slightly ooc! chishiya, mentions of ... (idk what's the term, someone tell me pls) forceful interactions... ??? WTF

ins.note: i'm currently reading tshoe (the seven husbands of evelyn hugo) that's why im not really active here in tumblr again... but no worries since i alr laid out the plot for entropy of chaos tot i'll upload it soon hehe

also if u enjoyed reading this, kindly let me know by liking or reblogging this post ^^ (only do it if its okay with u <3 ) ily all !!

- okay this is kinda tough but imma try

- we all know how deadly, and dangerous each game is in borderland and that's the beauty of this place – it brings out the human and true motives of each individuals ;

- and chishiya shuntaro, like the observant man he is, noticed you leaning on the beach's columns on the side, your left hand gripping your right elbow – away from all the jumping, drunk, wasted people on the dancefloor.

- you have a phlegmatic expression painted on your face, eyes lazily scanning each people up and down then switching to another individual then scoffing.

- someone randomly approached you, and he instantly recognized its someone that you're not close to since ever since you joined the beach, you never seem to approach anybody, seemingly annoyed at everyone's company.

- surprised, you looked at him up and down, eyebrows knitted together in ... is it confusion or irritation ? he can't seem to decipher what it is.

- you shook your head, and crossed your arms, and straightened your posture, away from him, signifying that you're not interested in whatever the man was saying to you.

- chishiya analyzed you closely ; you strike him as someone arrogant, and boastful – someone who's hyper independent, a woman who is a know-it-all when he first saw you at the beach.

- but are you, really ?

- the man paced a little closer to you, his drunken state visibly irking you as you step back the moment he got closer to you.

- you walked away from the man, eyebrows furrowed in annoyance, but you were grabbed by the wrist.

- chishiya didn't know what took over him, but he just suddenly picked up his pace towards you and wrapped his arms on your shoulder.

- "what seems to be the problem here, princess?" (but ofc in nihongo ++ with his hoarse, alluring voice, faints)

- you seem taken aback but you went along with it, "im sleepy. lets go?"

- wow

- just wow. chishiya was shocked by how your voice sounded so mellow, so soft, so tender - a complete contrast to his husky and gravelly voice.

- upon reaching a desolated hallway, he lets go of you. you thanked him and asked him how could you repay him, but he dismissed it by shaking his head.

- you smiled.

- and bid your goodbye.

- well damn. you were nothing what chishiya has thought.

- you have a tremendously soothing voice, the one that's not overly forced to sound like that, but naturally.

- ever since your encounter with each other, chishiya kept tabs on you every now and then, trying to make sure if you're okay and unhurt – from the games and the people here at the beach.

- sometimes he would go up to you to casually mention tips on how to win games in his own way. he would notice how surprised you would be when someone goes up to you unannounced, and how baffled and quiet you would be when someone tries to strike up a conversation with you.

- but with him, you seem to relax a little, and chishiya doesn't know why he's bothering to befriend you, he doesn't need anyone who'll weigh him down on his plan.

- but you're an exception, plus you're not a burden. you're intriguing and reliable, cunning, yet reserved.

- after a while, you seem to open up to chishiya, and god, he doesn't realize it yet, but he's falling for you, bit by bit. you were far from what he expected of you.

- he adores watching you analyze the world before you, he loves how tender your touch was on his skin, he adores your soft smile, the sound of your laugh.

- little did he know that he was abstractedly memorizing your features - the creases in your eyes whenever you laugh, smile, how your eyes sparkle -

- a part of him unconsciously swore that he'll protect you, and soothe you on all your anxiety-ridden days, hours, just as how you pacify all his inner demons that he himself couldn't understand.

- he just wished that he met you before waking up in this hell.

[seaemberthesecond]

Let me say how much I adore and am in awe of your writing! I find myself going back to your work again and again. With that, what are the chances of you ever returning to write more about Gojo and Megumi because wow did that fic just break my heart in so many good ways.

Thank you!

asdffhdhsjshlsfjdgs I'm SO flattered by this, you have no idea. You've inflated my ego to a dangerous size XD Thank you so much, I'm so incredibly pleased you like my writing <3

That being said, you sent this ask at the right time lmao. If you'd asked me even a week before, I'd have said that while I like jjk, its really not my primary fandom and I got what I needed to out of my system with Baby Mine. BUTTTTT, it's not a week ago and I have been in a jjk kind of mood lately and actually started writing a little bit of a fic even before you sent in this ask. Will it ever be finished? Who knows, but I sure hope so.

And because your incredibly kind words motivated me so much, here's 1k and change of a snippet. I hope you like it!

Warnings: Unbeta'ed and also Gojo's unhinged childhood

Gojo Satoru is a god.

On December 7th 1989, the heavens crack open and he rips his way out of his mother’s womb; his blessed, divine eyes open and blazing.

The world swings off its axis.

When he takes his first breath, the surge of cursed energy is so strong it kills the woman whose body he’s been pulled from and all her midwives. Her name is erased from clan records, her husband’s too – the man’s throat slit before he can lay an eye, much less a finger, on his baby. Before he can despoil that godly flesh with his mortal hands. 

Gods are not begotten. They have no mother and they have no father. He is Gojo Satoru of the Six Eyes and the Limitless. He is Exalted.

He sits alone at an elevated podium during mealtimes, the rest of the clan arrayed below him. They wait for him to begin, even the Clan Head. The servants prostrate themselves when they pass him in the hall, foreheads pressed to the tatami, lips moving in ecstatic prayer. When he is ten, the Clan Head’s children and their families present themselves before him and commit seppuku so he may ascend to his rightful place as heir. Their blood runs red and their cursed energy gutters and goes out, forgive us Rikugan-sama, for trespassing against you.

 He is raised by attendants and elders and tutors – the best of the best of the best. He can mould his cursed energy before he can talk, is taught theoretical mathematics before he loses his first tooth, learns Nihongo and Kugo and Putonghua and English till he can switch between them in his sleep.

But more than anything else, he is taught about jujutsu – about curses and cursed techniques; about the history of their world; about the great clans, of which they are the greatest, and the weaker ones that were exterminated for daring to cross them. Strength, his teachers croon, is the lifeblood of the universe Rikugan-sama. And he will be the strongest. It is destined, they tell him, it is ordained, written in the very stars. He is what they have been waiting for for so long – the first Six Eyes and Limitless user to be born in five hundred years. He will reclaim the glory of days past, remind the Zen’in and the Kamo what it is to quake beneath the might of the Gojo, take their clan to heights greater than any ever imagined.

He is Gojo Satoru, between the heavens and the earth, he alone is the Honoured One. He has no equal –

Except –

The Ten Shadows.

His teachers speak of it with pursed lips and tight voices. They assure him that the prized technique of the Zen’in holds no candle to his majesty in one breath, and in the same, drill him relentlessly on its capabilities. Something about the Ten Shadows worries them, though they try not to show it. Fools. There is no hiding from his eyes.

At night, when they think he is asleep, he sneaks from his room to the library – that grand collection that holds in its recesses all the secret and profane knowledge of the jujutsu world – and seeks what his caretakers don’t want him to know. The Ten Shadows is the anti-thesis of the Six Eyes, he learns – its counterbalance. Through time and space, history and myth, they are tied together. Where one appears, the other follows not long after. They find each other, always.

Where the Six Eyes is a supernova, the Ten Shadows is a black hole.

Where the Six Eyes is the blinding light of all the universe’s knowledge, the Ten Shadows is the dark seething underbelly of which nightmares are made.

Where the Six Eyes can manipulate the very atoms that make up the fabric of existence, the Ten Shadows deals with the absence of matter entirely.

Yin and Yang. Matter and Dark Matter. Equal and opposite forces, that together, balance the world.

He becomes obsessed. He plumbs the depths of the Gojo’s extensive collection for anything even tangentially related to the Ten Shadows – he pores through tomes of history and genealogy, researches the shikigami and their abilities like a boy possessed and comes up with strategy on strategy on how to defeat each one, memorizes the names and biographies of each user of the technique ever recorded, turns them over in his head till he feels like he knows them. And maybe he did. In another life. When he dreams, he dreams of wolves the size of horses with teeth like swords, of snakes large enough to swallow the sun, of the creak of an eight-handled wheel turning turning turning. He wakes, shivering with anticipation, a smile burned across his face.

 Somewhere out there exists his match, the only person who can truly challenge him. Someone the universe has crafted for him specifically. The thought settles the gnawing hunger in his chest that eats at him whenever the wind carries the laughter of the other clan children to the cold and quiet training salles where he spends his days. It soothes the splintering fractals of pain that race along his nerves when it all becomes toomuchtoomuchtoomuch and even candlelight blinds him till he’s throwing up and his head feels like its collapsing in on itself. Soon¸ he reminds himself, soon we’ll find each other. It is destined.

But years go by. There is no news of the Ten Shadows. Not even the wind brings any secrets to their walls.

At first, the elders gather in their dark rooms and hiss in worried whispers about Zen’in plots – they must be hiding him, they argue, raising him in secret to become the ultimate weapon against Gojo supremacy; plans must be hatched, contingincies must be made. No threats to Rikugan-sama’s safety will be borne, they insist in furtive murmurs as they hire spies and assassins and saboteurs. They all return empty-handed.

More seasons pass. Paranoia recedes like the ebbing of the tide. The elders no longer talk in hushed whispers. They no longer feel the need to. Naobito doesn’t have the prescience to pull off a long con, they agree smugly over cups of tea and rice wine, still in their dark rooms. The Gojo have triumphed once again. It is to be expected, of course, victory is their birthright. But still, it is good to be proven right so definitively. The cycle of reincarnation must have broken when the last Rikugan-sama killed their Ten Shadows, one speculates. The Zen’in have been punished by the heavens, another crows. Whatever the reason, one thing is clear: there will be no Ten Shadows to challenge Gojo Satoru. Outside, with his ear pressed to the wall, he listens as they laugh and congratulate themselves. His all-powerful eyes burn and he rubs at them as he slinks back to his room.

He feels scraped clean – hollowed out. There is something that feels strangely like betrayal sitting heavily in his gut, like a cherished promise has been reneged upon. How could you? he thinks, turning over on his side, tears wetting his pillow, blanket clutched tightly to his chest. How could you? I was waiting for you.

He is Gojo Satoru. He alone is the Honoured One. He is unequalled, inimitable, peerless. He is a god.

He grows stronger than his teachers, bats aside curses that kill men thrice his age, masters techniques faster than any of the Six Eyes and Limitless users who came before him. Even measured against them, he is something else – the shining star of the Jujutsu world. A world that will be forever out of balance, tipped too far out of equilibrium by the weight of his power.

Mere weeks after his thirteenth birthday, he wakes with a jolt, gasping. It is the darkest, coldest hour of the night. Something pulls tight at his chest. His attendant shuffles in from the antechamber, asks if he needs anything. He shakes his head and falls back into uneasy slumber.

It is December 22nd 2002.

Gojo Satoru doesn’t know it at the time, but the world just swung back onto its axis.  

[waitmyturtles]

Turtles Catches Up With Old GMMTV: The Bad Buddy Rewatch Edition, Part 0.5 -- The BBS Meta Series Preamble

[What’s going on here? After joining Tumblr and discovering Thai BLs through KinnPorsche in 2022, I began watching GMMTV’s new offerings -- and realized that I had a lot of history to catch up on, to appreciate the more recent works that I was delving into. From tropes to BL frameworks, what we’re watching now hails from somewhere, and I’m learning about Thai BL's history through what I’m calling the Old GMMTV Challenge (OGMMTVC). Starting with recommendations from @absolutebl on their post regarding how GMMTV is correcting for its mistakes with its shows today, I’ve made an expansive list to get me through a condensed history of essential/classic/significant Thai BLs produced by GMMTV and many other BL studios. My watchlist, pasted below, lists what I’ve watched and what’s upcoming, along with the reviews I’ve written so far. Today, I'm preambling a series of posts that I'll be publishing throughout November and December about my OGMMTVC rewatch of Bad Buddy and Our Skyy 2 x Bad Buddy x A Tale of Thousand Stars.]

After nearly a month of rewatching Bad Buddy and Our Skyy 2 x Bad Buddy x A Tale of Thousand Stars -- TWICE, holy shit! -- I'm finally putting pen to paper on a four-part series of BBS meta that I've been looking forward to writing nearly all year.

Before I start the series, I'd like to offer a not-so-quick preamble of how I got here. Before the birth of this Old GMMTV Challenge project, I was flitting and floating, enjoying a dalliance with Thai BLs here and there, while still mostly watching Japanese BLs, my entrée into overall Asian BL content. I started with KinnPorsche in the late summer of 2022, picked up The Eclipse after that on the recommendation of a dear mutual (@the-nihongo-adventure, I hope you're well!), and then picked up A Tale of Thousand Stars in order to prepare for my first live GMMTV fandom experience on Tumblr in early January with Moonlight Chicken.

That was the exact order by which I came to Bad Buddy, which I watched for the first time in January and February of this year, after MLC ended. I was so blown away. I thought I was a drama girlie before Bad Buddy, but it was like Bad Buddy had made me see facets of drama-making that I had never known or appreciated before. The act structure of episode 10 alone just sat me the hell down, let alone the brilliance of the overall story arc vis à vis Pat, Pran, the themes and motifs of intergenerational trauma and filial piety that I related to, down to my bones and bloodstream, and the millions of layers on this show that we could spend a lifetime parsing.

My first piece about Bad Buddy, published in February, is the post on Tumblr that I am the most proud of writing, my first post (as a relatively new Tumblr-ite) that I took days and drafts to work on. In that post, I worked out what I saw as the major theme of intergenerational trauma dominating the story landscape of Bad Buddy, framed in what I interpreted as a reflection of David Hegel's thesis-antithesis-synthesis modality of change in philosophy and art, as most poignantly reflected in Herman Hesse's Siddhartha.

In other words, y'all: I became a BBS girlie, lol.

And, partly in conversation with @miscellar, and partly by way of the just TREMENDOUS, TREMENDOUS amount of meta on Bad Buddy on Tumblr (whew, the MASTERS, @telomeke, @grapejuicegay, @dribs-and-drabbles, @airenyah, @dudeyuri, @dimplesandfierceeyes, oh my gosh, so many many more, I can't list them all!), I came to learn that Bad Buddy was a home to so many other themes, motifs, and references that honestly, my mind was blown.

For me, personally, it was ABL Sensei's original post on the newer landscape of GMMTV BLs answering to Thailand's seminal BLs, as well as @miscellar's post on BL tropes referenced and reshaped in Bad Buddy, that served as the original inspiration for the creation of the Old GMMTV Challenge project.

I needed to watch older Thai BLs to understand the landscape of how this genre was born and how it's changed and developed over time, to truly and deeply understand the impact that Bad Buddy had on me personally and artistically, and how it stands in the echelon of the Thai BL genre today, particularly by way of the influence of BBS's director, the brilliant Aof Noppharnach. I needed to know about the food that fed Bad Buddy to make Bad Buddy what it was as its own seminal drama.

So, after 32 shows and movies watched on the OGMMTVC list, I get to this moment -- my turn, my time, to pound out some BBS meta, knowing what I know now about the history of the Thai BL genre up to 2021-2022.

My four-part series of BBS meta will focus on the following:

Part 1: A look at how previous GMMTV BLs spoke to Bad Buddy in their own development, and to Bad Buddy itself. I'll take a look at the BL tropes that Bad Buddy references and reshapes. I'll touch upon Theory of Love, A Tale of Thousand Stars, Still 2gether, and many more older shows. I'll also take a look at themes in BBS that I didn't touch upon in my first BBS thesis from February 2023.

Part 2: In conjunction with my Big Meta series on themes of pain in Asian dramas, I want to take a look at the themes of pain, trust, and separation (sometimes voluntary, sometimes forced) in some Asian dramas, including Bad Buddy, Still 2gether, A Tale of Thousand Stars, Until We Meet Again, and I Promised You The Moon.

Part 3: I have had the extremely GREAT luck to engage in lengthy discussion about Bad Buddy with a number of Asian Tumblr bloggers, to discuss how we related to BBS as Asians, and what themes we could analyze from our culturally attuned and lived-in perspectives. In this meta, I'll take a look at Asian cultural touchpoints including inherited and intergenerational trauma; competition amongst one's peers; the nature of secret-keeping and what's "acceptable" to explicitly talk about in Asian family systems; and much more. (I may need to split this post into two, we'll see!)

Part 4: I'll offer some thoughts, based off of the Pain, Trust, and Separation Big Meta and the BBS Asian Cultural Touchpoints meta, on Pran leaving for Singapore, and how Thai vs. international audiences may interpret his decision to leave Thailand for two years.

I'm late to the BBS meta game, but there's no time like the present to catch the hell up. I'm happy to celebrate Bad Buddy's two-year anniversary this way, and I'm really excited that the OGMMTVC allows me to do so.

Part 1 drops later this week. Meet me at Wai's bar for a chit-chat -- and thank you for reading along!

(Tagging @dribs-and-drabbles by request! If you'd like to be tagged, please let me know! <3 )

[Here's the complete OGMMTVC watchlist as it stands today. For a more accurate look at what I've watched, please mosey over to this link!

1) The Love of Siam (2007) (movie) (review here) 2) My Bromance (2014) (movie) (review here) 3) Love Sick and Love Sick 2 (2014 and 2015) (review here) 4) Gay OK Bangkok Season 1 (2016) (a non-BL queer series directed by Jojo Tichakorn and written by Aof Noppharnach) (review here) 5) Make It Right (2016) (review here) 6) SOTUS (2016-2017) (review here) 7) Gay OK Bangkok Season 2 (2017) (a non-BL queer series directed by Jojo Tichakorn and written by Aof Noppharnach) (review here) 8) Make It Right 2 (2017) (review here) 9) Together With Me (2017) (review here) 10) SOTUS S/Our Skyy x SOTUS (2017-2018) (review here) 11) Love By Chance (2018) (review here) 12) Kiss Me Again: PeteKao cuts (2018) (no review) 13) He’s Coming To Me (2019) (review here) 14) Dark Blue Kiss (2019) and Our Skyy x Kiss Me Again (2018) (review here) 15) TharnType (2019-2020) (review here) 16) Senior Secret Love: Puppy Honey (OffGun BL cuts) (2016 and 2017) (no review) 17) Theory of Love (2019) (review here) 18) 3 Will Be Free (2019) (a non-BL and an important harbinger of things to come in 2019 and beyond re: Jojo Tichakorn pushing queer content in non-BLs) (review here) 19) Dew the Movie (2019) (review here) 20) Until We Meet Again (2019-2020) (review here) (and notes on my UWMA rewatch here) 21) 2gether (2020) and Still 2gether (2020) (review here) 22) I Told Sunset About You (2020) (review here) 23) YYY (2020, out of chronological order) (review here) 24) Manner of Death (2020-2021) (not a true BL, but a MaxTul queer/gay romance set within a genre-based show that likely influenced Not Me and KinnPorsche) (review here) 25) A Tale of Thousand Stars (2021) (review here) 26) A Tale of Thousand Stars (2021) OGMMTVC Fastest Rewatch Known To Humankind For The Sake Of Rewatching Our Skyy 2 x BBS x ATOTS (re-review here) 27) Lovely Writer (2021) (review here) 28) Last Twilight in Phuket (2021) (the mini-special before IPYTM) (review here) 29) I Promised You the Moon (2021) (review here) 30) Not Me (2021-2022) (review here)

31) Bad Buddy (2021-2022) (thesis here) 32) 55:15 Never Too Late (2021-2022) (not a BL, but a GMMTV drama that features a macro BL storyline about shipper culture and the BL industry) (review here) 33) Bad Buddy (2021-2022) and Our Skyy 2 x BBS x ATOTS (2023) OGMMTVC Rewatch (watching) 34) Secret Crush On You (2022) [watching for Cheewin’s trajectory of studying queer joy from Make It Right (high school), to SCOY (college), to Bed Friend (working adults)] 35) KinnPorsche (2022) (tag here) 36) KinnPorsche (2022) OGMMTVC Fastest Rewatch Known To Humankind For the Sake of Re-Analyzing the KP Cultural Zeitgeist 37) The Eclipse (2022) (tag here) 38) The Eclipse OGMMTVC Rewatch For the Sake of Re-Analyzing an Politics-Focused Show After Not Me 39) GAP (2022-2023) (Thailand’s first GL) 40) My School President (2022-2023) and Our Skyy 2 x My School President (2023) 41) Moonlight Chicken (2023) (tag here) 42) Bed Friend (2023) (tag here) (Cheewin’s latest show, depicting a queer joy journey among working adults) 43) Be My Favorite (2023) (tag here) (I’m including this for BMF’s sophisticated commentary on Krist’s career past as a BL icon) 44) Wedding Plan (2023) (Recommended as an important trajectory in the course of MAME’s work and influence from TharnType) 45) Only Friends (2023) (tag here)]

[kikikokonihongo]

🌳🌞🎶ᕕ(ᐛ)ᕗ🪩٩(ᐛ)و🎶☁🌳

📅Warning: May be 𝒑𝒐𝒔𝒊𝒕𝒊𝒗𝒆-𝒉𝒂𝒃𝒊𝒕-𝒇𝒐𝒓𝒎𝒊𝒏𝒈. Take once every weekday for one month. Continue as necessary.

-📚ー

📌𝐉𝐚𝐧𝐮𝐚𝐫𝐲 𝐉𝐚𝐩𝐚𝐧𝐞𝐬𝐞 𝐖𝐨𝐫𝐝 𝐨𝐟 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐖𝐞𝐞𝐤𝐝𝐚𝐲 𝐰//𝐐𝐔𝐈𝐙𝐁𝐎™ 【習慣づける】 ʀᴇᴀᴅ&ʟɪꜱᴛᴇɴ ʜᴇʀᴇ:

-📝ー

(๑・ω・)[๑･▿･๑](・ω・๑) When forming a positive habit, it's important to keep going even if you don't succeed at first!

🌟七転び八起き 𝚏𝚊𝚕𝚕 𝚍𝚘𝚠𝚗 𝚜𝚎𝚟𝚎𝚗 𝚝𝚒𝚖𝚎𝚜ー 𝚐𝚎𝚝 𝚞𝚙 𝚎𝚒𝚐𝚑𝚝

[nihongo-lets-go]

Lesson 1, Pt. 2: 仮名 - Stroke Order

In part 1 of lesson 1, we were introduced to the Japanese writing system and its many different applications. In this part, we will delve more into 平仮名 and 片仮名 to cover the stroke order of the characters.

Like with any language that has a written system, writing in Japanese takes some practice. Below are charts that show the 平仮名 and 片仮名 stroke orders:

HIRAGANA

平仮名 is a bit more complicated than 片仮名, in the sense that there are more strokes to much of the characters. Hiragana is based on the brush strokes of 漢字, so many 平仮名 characters may already look familiar.

Here are a few words, written in 平仮名. Practice writing them, and remember the stroke order! 1. ひらがな [ hiragana ]

2. かんじ [ kanji ]

3. わたし [ watashi - "I" ]

4. せんせい [ sensei - "teacher" ]

5. こんにちは [ konnichiwa - "good afternoon" ]

6. ありがとう [ arigatou - "thank you" ]

７. おとうさん [ otousan - "father" ]

８. おかあさん [ okaasan - "mother" ]

９. ともだち [ tomodachi - "friend" ]

10. がくせい [ gakusei - "student" ]

KATAKANA

片仮名 has much in common with 平仮名, as its characters are drawn from the same root, 漢字. However, it's clear there are differences in appearance. While 平仮名 has curved lines and loops, 片仮名 has many sharp lines and hooks, and fewer strokes over all. It is arguably the easier of the writing systems to learn.

Like before, here are some words written 片仮名. Give them a go! １．ラメン [ ramen ]

２．トイレ [ toire - " toilet" ]

３．アメリカ [amerika - "America" ]

４．イギリス [ igirisu - "the UK" ]

５．コーヒー [ ko-hi - "coffee" ]

６．ドライバ [ doraiba - "driver" ]

７．デート [ de-to - "date" ]

８．コーラ [ ko-ra - "cola" ]

９．ボールペン [ boorupen - "ball point pen" ]

１０．パン　[ pan - "bread" ]

BONUS PRACTICE

Now that we've looked more closely at the 平仮名 and 片仮名 writing systems, and gotten in some brush stroke practice, let's try a reading comprehension exercise. Below are two crossword puzzles. Using the list of words that were provided above, see how many words you can spot. See if you recognise any bonus words as well!

That will do it for lesson 1, part 2! If you have any additional questions, feel free to click/tap that 'Ask Me Anything' button <3

Have fun practicing!

。

。

。

ADDITIONAL RESOURCES:

Japanese dictionary

jlptsensei katakana word list

FluentU katakana word list

[ikuzeminna]

Hi! How did you learn to read Japanese? If I'm not wrong that you do, is the Japanese depiction of the GW characters' personalities different from their Western depictions?

Hey! Learning how to read Japanese is definitely an adventure in and of itself. For me, I had learned how to read and write hiragana and katakana from the Yoshida Institute’s site long before smartphones existed, along with a few kanji. I would use hiragana for my cheat sheets at school. (Yes, I learned a whole different alphabet just to cheat at history and geography instead of simply studying for my exams like a sensible person, even though I realized it was way more effort. I'm not exactly smart.) I started learning kanji properly years later with the kanji learning app Japanese Kanji Study, which I can't recommend enough, then took a brief language course and then accidentally ended up studying Japanese in college for 1.5 years, which is where I learned all my beginner's grammar (みんなの日本語 anyone?) and, as is totally apt for a beginner, hentaigana.

It’s funny when you can't string five sentences together without issue, but can make out Nobunaga's scribbling, something many natives are incapable of. Great, balanced education you thought up there, folks.

At least I got a laugh out of one Ranma ½ episode where Ranma found Kuno’s journal entry and couldn’t read it because of course that doofus would write it in the most archaic manner possible. 

Anyway, as far as reading aids go, I’m just gonna plug everything I’ve used over the years for anyone interested. The Firefox extension 10ten reader has been a lifesaver, as has been Jisho. When it comes to comprehension, Google translate is dog crap. I’d recommend Papago, which must have been trained specifically on East Asian languages as the results are much better. Not perfect, but better in my experience. Google translate has long incorporated OCR (image to text) so it may be less useful, but I’m very fond of the no-install Capture2Text which can convert manga speech bubbles to text, provided the scans are clean enough to read the kanji.

For grammar, I stuck to Minna No Nihongo. Bought all the books and slowly work through the lessons now.

The most valuable asset though is having a fluent or native speaker you can ask. Nuance is impossible to grasp if no one explains it to you. Even with vocab, you’ll run into plenty of words with the same meaning. Dictionaries often don’t distinguish in those cases. Having someone you can ask makes learning a lot easier.

Now for the Gundam Wing part of your question.

I’m not exactly sure what you mean by Japanese and Western depictions, or rather who you mean. If we’re talking official sub vs. dub then yes, there are a few differences. Heero isn’t perpetually constipated in the original (he actually has a sense of humor!) and Duo is a lot less flirty than his dub version. But it’s nothing grave. Certainly not Seto Kaiba levels of the dub rewriting his character to make him rant about not believing in destiny every time he opens his mouth.

Or Saber Rider being the leader of the Star Sheriffs. wtf I grew up with a lie D:<

Now, if you’re referring to fandom spaces, I am, without a doubt, the wrongest person to ask as I have never seen what the Japanese Wing fandom is up to and have never really been in touch with what the West is doing either. Have I seen fanfics and do I know 1x2 is the most popular ship? Yes. Have I spent 10 minutes looking at a manga panel, trying to figure out what is going on, only to hit the back button as fast as I could once I did? To the detriment of my poor eyes, yes. But when it comes to fandom differences, I think @muwi-translates could give you a proper answer. I can’t really say much as I’m not involved in the fandom in a way that lets me know such things.

I just sit here in my bubble, talking to myself most of the time.

[max1461]

i have been asked by a friend w/o a tumblr acct to relay the following information: coloquially most japanese people express “i can speak japanese” as “nihongo wo dekimasu” (i can do japanese) or sometimes butcher it as “nihongo de OK” (japanese is OK by me) rather than “nihongo wo hanasemasu” (literally i can speak japanese) in bio

or i guess you see “eigo de OK” more often

as in “english is fine if you want to speak english”

Oh, thank you for conveying this!

Yeah, I know about these phrasings. I have it as “nihongo sukoshi hanaseru” (I can speak a little Japanese) instead of “nihongo de OK”, which would definitely be more colloquial, because I want to emphasize that I only speak a little Japanese. Like I think “nihongo de OK” kind of suggests “you can speak to me in Japanese if you don’t know English, etc., Japanese will be fine, I can do Japanese”. Which I’m not sure is true. I mean for some types of conversation sure, but I’m hesitant to put out the impression that someone could like... respond to one of my longposts in Japanese and I’d be able to respond back and not make a fool of myself. You know. For many of my activities on here, my nihongo is not OK!

I suppose I could go with “nihongo sukoshi dekiru”, and perhaps that would be more colloquial and convey the same thing? Idk, any Japanese native speakers please let me know.

[rigelmejo]

Okay my perfectionist tendencies suck ToT.

My new study plan, Chinese: attempting to counteract the perfectiomist urges: listen to Poyun audiobook, do not replay or restart any sections. If I lose the plot then I fucking lose it. As far as I can tell, it has at least as many unique words (roughly) as MoDu, and probably more words I don't know (since I studied from Priest novels so I know more words in them generally). So I figure, I can get practice from Poyun understanding the parts with words I know, practice understanding faster, and maybe pick up some new words. And then when I go back to easier stuff for me, like the Saye audiobook, I will understand more words and more easily/quickly. I got through 2 hours of Poyun so far. How much am I comprehending? HA. Well... tons of words, but for actual sentences I'll follow 90%-98% of a dialogue portion then it switches to description and Ill understand a sentence or phrase, then just isolated words I caught, then a sentence or phrase again, etc. But we'll see if it still results in progress.

Side note, they use a song in this that I remember from Guardian...

I was listening to Saye, but because I knew almost all the words, I kept replaying each chapter, trying to clearly understand Everything, and so I didn't get farther than 1 hour 20 minutes into the audiobook. Since I kept replaying sections. I probably would improve, just extensively listening to Saye. But I couldnt get myself to stop intensively wanting to replay each line, look up the words I didn't know, and so I wasn't getting through very much of the audiobook. I have also been listening to MoDu and Guardian, and having similar issues: i know ENOUGH that i kept replaying sections and chapters and looking up words, to clarify the details i was missing. So i wasnt getting past the first 5 chapters in either audiobook.

My plan with chinese is just... FINISH AN AUDIOBOOK MEJO PLEASE. Stop repeating the same fucking 10 minutes over and over I'm begging...

Japanese: through 5000 sentences in glossika! My plan is to continue in glossika until I'm done with new sentences, then do review for a month. Afterward, listen to Nihongo Con Teppei podcast, and then Yuyu no nihongo podcast. I should know enough words at the end of glossika to get through those podcasts. I imagine they'll reinforce words I learned, fill in some common word gaps that glossika may have, and improve my comprehension speed. After that, I'd like to move to jdrama watching and video games (or at least lets plays). I love the Comprehensible Japanese youtube channel, but I find it so much EASIER to squeeze audio only study into my days. So I'd like to try with podcasts. And, this part of the plan is the same, whenever I feel like improving reading I plan to just use Satori Reader app for 1-4 months and challenge myself to read as much as possible.

[desolateice]

I was fighting so much with the CSS for Umibudo. I had three Okinawan language sources and I think by the time I finished messing with the chapter’s highlight text it broke almost all the links I’d put in the note. So these are the sources I used to attempt writing romanized Okinawan: Useful Okinawan phrases from Omniglot I believe this website has a set number of phrases they try to translate every language into, they don’t fill out all of them because I don’t think they were able to get all of them, but for basics and a quick guide it’s helpful.

Learn Essential Okinawan Language Phrases helpful in your travels! by Nihongo Master This website is somewhat in line with what I learned, how to say thank you and to greet people as well as a few useful phrases. It’s a website more for learning Japanese so a lot of it they compare to Japanese and explain the differences when an opportunity arises.

Rikka,Uchinaa-nkai! ( Let’s go to Okinawa! ) Okinawan Language Textbook for Beginners This is a beautiful resource of self study that one would find at the start of a language class. It teaches you how to introduce yourself, ask where something is, talk about your family (not partners though), ask how much something is and talk about food as well as a few other things. A lot of love went into this. I didn’t use wikipedia but they also have a decent amount of information.

Okinawan, or Uchinaaguchi, is an endangered language. So while I know that the phrases I used might not have been what would’ve been spoke in the 80s because language changes, my conjugations are probably very wrong, and the ways I used words might’ve not been accurate, I still wanted to attempt it. So please forgive all the errors, and I hope these sources can be useful for anyone with an interest in language/ curiosity about Okinawan/Uchinaaguchi or at least interesting.

Karii!

[stella-is-trying-her-best]

the plan for tomorrow is:

finish ch 8 deck

go through ch 8 of genki textbook

redo first chapter of shin nihongo

what keeps me behind is i try to remember everything i've done in the past to move forward. which means i get stuck doing revision for a loong time and boring myself cause i'm not learning anything new to keep myself excited. also before i start a new chapter i try to learn perfectly the new vocabulary, which is the part i enjoy the least so i always stall and let time pass and forget things and then review time comes and i hate this cycle of inconsistency

so

i'll keep trying to learn all the new vocabulary before the chapter, to be able to use it in the exercises without looking constantly at the vocabulary list, and digest it more effectively (does that make sense idk)

but

i'll try reviewing through exercises of the next lessons and not spend a million years studying past vocabulary lists

glhf to me ig lol

[punipunijapan]

Let’s study Japanese Kanji📚 ⁡ 上がる(agaru- go up) 🔺 下がる(sagaru - go down)🔻 ⁡ Do you have any Japanese questions? It is the perfect time to start learning Japanese🇯🇵 Take Japanese lessons online with our professional Japanese teachers \(◕ω◕)/☆ We can teach you Japanese step by step and make the customized lesson for you. You can take a FREE trial lesson here now🌸👉 http://kakehashijapan.com ⁡ #learnjapaneselanguage #studyingjapanese #Japanesevocabulary #nihongo #learnjapanese #studyjapanese #kanjistudy #Japanese #Japanesephrase #learningjapanese #japanesewords #Japaneselearner #japanese #japaneselanguage #japaneselessons #japaneselesson #learnjapanese #japaneseteacher #japaneseclass #japanesephrases #JLPT #japaneselanguage #learningjapanese #日本語 #日本語勉強中 #日本語勉強 #🇯🇵 #jlptn5 #jlptn4 #jlpn3 #jlptn2 #jlptn1 https://www.instagram.com/p/CqHUNqdygAt/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

[bunnymoomie]

This is a spin-off the first fic I made, but this one is short and already complete.

Part 2

The Truth for a Life

Hoping to get some answers, I went to Tokyo. Knowing where my brother used to rent a house, I decided to go there, hoping for some answers. With my small knowledge of Nihongo, I managed to communicate and gather some information from his former landlord and I even went to the school he used to go to, but all of them have the same answers. Confused, I decided to go back to the hotel I booked. It was already midnight, despite the heavy feeling I felt, I raised my head and looked outside the train window.

"Wow! That’s Tokyo tower? So beautiful…”

Lost in the train of thought, I remembered what my brother’s former landlord and professor said to my inquiry.

Landlord: “The last time I saw your brother? It was probably the day he graduated, I do remember him giving me a letter of appreciation; let me get it for you."

Professor: “Did your brother not tell you? My, he’s still rebellious as ever hah? Well, the last time I saw him was……”

“Attention please! This is a boarding route for Train 2024 en route to Asakusa station with intermediate stops at Shibuya station!"

The sudden announcement made me bring back to reality. With a heavy heart, I sighed and get up, after all this is my stop--

"Ha? What on earth? The skies...are...red? Where on earth are the other passengers?!"

*Shck shck shck shck*

"What's that noise?!”

Suddenly the door on my left opens.

"EEEK! Eh? Petals? What--?"

Then, I heard a voice behind me, a voice that clearly doesn't belong to a human being.

"Fuhehe, You'll lOok preTTy lyINg wITH my FloWers FUHEHEHEHE"

My guts are telling me not to turn around, but curiosity took over me...

"So pretty...."

A tall figure took the form of a woman; it seems taller than the train. It wore a white long dress, its eyes were replaced by a bunch of flowers yet the figure still wore a red veil. Its slender figure crouched as its head bumped into the ceiling, its 'eyes' never breaking a contact with me.

"What are you--"

Booom

Before I could finish my sentence, I heard a crash from one of the train compartments. Instinctively, I looked at the direction of the sound.

"Fuhehehe"I heard the figure laugh before feeling its long hands around my face, forcefully making me face---"...."

I couldn't talk, I was wrong the entire time... With its veil lifted I could now fully see its face and a strong smell of iron erupted. The flowers are not flowers... They are flesh shaped like flowers, and the center of each 'flowers' are eyes... The place where the eye should be was replaced by not 'flowers' but a big mouth...

“DID YOUr bROTher Not tELL yoU? My, hE’s stILL RebEllious as EveR hAh? Well, the last time I saw him was YESTERDAY”

Professor: “Did your brother not tell you? My, he’s still rebellious as ever hah? Well, the last time I saw him was yesterday. Well, I have to get going now, have a safe travels lady.”

The creature mimics the voice and what my brother’s former professor said to me, yet stopped without even finishing what the professor truly said. But, how? There was no one there. Could this creature be the professor? There’s no way in knowing the truth, especially with its long fingers harshly wrapped around my neck.“He’s AliVe hE’s, aLIvE but you ARE not” Mockingly said the creature, eyes fully focused on me its tongue licks its lips as if it was already imagining of eating me, surely with no doubt it can eat me whole with its big mouth, long tongue, and jagged teeth. Silently, I accepted my fate.

Never would I have thought I would be able to uncover the ‘truth’ with my life as it cost. Oh how I wished I have Mesmer matches that day, with it; I could erase a memory that day. Huh? Mesmer matches? What’s that? Truly, I don’t remember anything regarding this matches and the diary. There’s no way of learning the truth about myself after all.