サンクスジビングの休み

私は ひこうきで うちに かえりました。私は たくさんのたべものを たべました。ターキー と ハム と ポテト と グリーン と ケーキを たべました。おいしかったです！

そのあっと、しゅくだいをして、とまだちと あって、コンサートに いきました。ミュージック ソウルチャイルドのコンサートで ありました。私は ははと いしょに いきました。たのしかったです！

私 と りょうしんは クリスマスの木を しました。クリスマスの木は おきくて、きれです！

11/21 Listening Session

 Fujii Kaze - Shinunoga E-Wa

I had first came across this song as I was scrolling through TikTok one day. I had never heard this song before then and I was interested after seeing the clip. I looked up the live version above on YouTube and I've been hooked ever since. Fujii Kaze's talent is amazing. His piano skills are impeccable. This is shown in his transition from intense to soft on the piano at the beginning of the video. I can tell he's been playing for years and has found his voice through the piano and plays in a way that is unique to him. I also really love his voice. He sounds like a tenor but his voice can also hit low registers, which he showcases in his verses. He also does some really nice runs in the beginning and throughout the song. I liked his performance so much that I looked into more of his music and now he's one of my favorite artists. Even though some of his songs have some American influence, he stays true to his Japanese culture, not just linguistically, but showcasing traditional Japanese artifacts or expressions in his videos and lyrics. I like the variety and versatility he has as an artist because he combines languages, other cultures, makes different types of music, and even fashion. Definitely recommend checking him out!

I listened to this song with the English subtitles on the first time so when I went back and listened to it again, I wanted to see if I could recognize some words by just hearing them. I recognized あなた, それ, でも, わたしの, and この. When I looked up the Japanese lyrics, I didn't recognize any of the kanji, but I understood the English lyrics he had and the hiragana before and after the kanji.

11/14 Listening Session

RADWIMPS - すずめ (Suzume) ft. 十明 (Toaka)

I had first heard this song when I went to the theaters to see the new One Piece credits. It was the song used to showcase this new anime movie called Suzume No Tojimari. Although I had never heard of the movie or its release, after I heard a clip of this song, I will watch it. I looked it up and listened to the whole song and really loved it. The beat is mostly what attracted me to the song. It's a slow, acoustic kind of song that gets intense in certain moments and it's very emotional. Although it's techno beats layered throughout, the orchestra in the instrumental, and the choir harmonizing in the back, it sounded so beautiful together. From the song's English translation, it seems the person is expressing how they feel about their significant other and how they are upset with the way things are with them, but still wants to be with them. Even though I didn't understand everything they were saying before I found the English lyrics, I could feel the passion and sadness from the song and that says a lot about its quality. 

Me listening to this song:

As for my Japanese learning from this song, I was able to recognize and translate some of the hiragana and kanji that I saw in the lyrics. I translated the title because I knew the hiragana for it. I recognized 中, 人, and 先 in the lyrics which was nice since a lot of the kanji was unfamiliar to me. I recognized their use of その,この, and それ. I also knew もしかしたら means maybe. Despite the song being fast and me not knowing what most of the hiragana and kanji words were, I'm glad I knew what some of them meant and how they were used.

One Piece Film: Red (SPOILER ALERT!)

 

While I was in Chicago this weekend, I went to the movies with a friend to see the One Piece movie in theaters. One Piece is my favorite anime of all time so of course I had to go see it! The movie was confusing at first and I was wondering why Oda decided to do a One Piece musical movie, but then everything started to make sense. There was drama, betrayal, plot twists, psychological thriller moments, new and old character introductions, and awesome fight scenes! The story goes the Straw Hat Pirates go to the island of Elegia to attend a concert by Uta, who is a really famous singer doing her first live concert. It's revealed that Luffy knows Uta because she's Shanks' daughter and she was there when Shanks was in Luffy's hometown. One day, Shanks returned without her, claiming she had left to pursue a career as a singer. As they are reuniting, pirate crews then attempt to kidnap Uta, but she easily subdues them by conjuring whatever she wants through song. Afterwards, Uta tells Luffy that he should stop being a pirate, as she is going to make this concert last forever and create a world with only happiness and peace. When the Straw Hats resist the idea, Uta attacks and traps all of them except Luffy, who is rescued by Trafalgar Law and Bartolomeo. It is revealed through the World Government's informants that Uta posseses the Sing-Sing Fruit, which allows her to send people into a dream world known as the Sing-Sing World by singing to them. They and everyone else who watched the concert are trapped in this world, whose reality is completely controlled by Uta. The Sing-Sing World ceases to exist whenever Uta falls asleep; however, Uta has been consuming a drug called wake-shrooms that keeps her awake at all hours and drastically shortens her lifespan. If Uta were to die, everyone in the Sing-Sing World would be trapped there forever. In the real world, the Marine fleet arrives at Elegia to find the concertgoers all sleeping. Because of the mushrooms, Uta has mere hours left to live and that if she dies, 70% of the world's population would be trapped in the Sing-Sing World. Robin discovers that there is a way to make the worlds converge by summoning Tot Musica, a demonic entity whose existence spans both worlds. If Tot Musica is attacked simultaneously in both worlds, those in the Sing-Sing World will return to reality. Shanks and his crew arrive and fight to stop Uta and the Tot Musica in the real world while Luffy and his crew and allies fight Uta and the Tot Musica in the Sing-Sing World. The Tot Musica is defeated and Uta sings a song to bring everyone back from the Sing-Sing World. I'm not even going to lie, I shed a few tears at the end. The songs, sung by Ado, were sang beautifully, the animation was so crisp, and plot was very well-written. 10/10 would recommend because I know I will be going back to the movie theaters to see it again! I will share my favorite song from the movie with you all!

I definitely recognized a few of the words from the song lyrics and dialogues within the movie. But what stuck out to me was that I was able to recognize the time and hours by listening because when they were counting down Uta's death by the hour and the minutes. I like how this movie came out as we were just starting to learn about hours and minutes because I was able to decipher its difference between counting time, numbers, people, hours, and minutes and their correct approximation markers/particles.