COPENHAGEN, six feet tall and heavily built, gains face through letting TUSK win at arm-wrestling. TUSK, JOHANN, KANYE all do the arrow-tossing thing with first-round success. And LINGLING suddenly shoots to the fore, winning three of five of the sports (they are also Chinese games, it turns out) whereas SHINO is so left-footed (and she is left-handed too) that she can't complete any.
Sports Day was the last of the field-trips and taking place on day 9 of the 15 day program, it set the stage for the final development of things, being a time for people to see the whole. The half-Japanese at the program were noted; the lack of physical talent of the most cultured students offered a counter-thesis for things as they were, giving LINGLING face (and to some degree JOHANN as well); socially evil people clearly not having everything in life including a simple capacity to enjoy things. Some Fulbright girl actually won one of the competitions as well; this narration can't claim to have the complete picture.
KANYE commented that the events as transpired so far showed the essential racism of the Japanese. This remark extended to white Americans as well during lunch drew little support, and the one person who might have been sympathetic, TUSK, for political reasons sided with JOHANN. "You are the Robin, I am the Batman," said KANYE to JOHANN. "Why, because you're black?"
In 1944 and 1945 white and Black Americans had rained bombs down on Japan , setting ablaze paper-maiche cities. In one sense this was the victory of good versus evil, the Christian UK-US over the pagan SS and Japanese. In another it was the victory of materialism over spirit/idealism. Sixty plus years later the Japanese and Germans would win one minor victory over the organized Americans; even the Afro-American would be sent on his way.
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On Friday, ROLLER decided the class needed to get to know each other better. She told the students to meet up for dinner, and JOHANN, AKEMI, KANYE, TUSK, AKEMI's new friend MEDIA-CHAN, ERI, LINGLING all did, whereupon TUSK with an air of superiority offered KANYE the rare opportunity to ask one question to the non-English speaking MEDIA-CHAN. (MEDIA-CHAN and TUSK immediately knew they would never be friends or girlfriend/boyfriend. They belonged to completely different ethos.)
"MEDIA-CHAN, which is cooler, Japan or America ?"
TUSK to MEDIA-CHAN, in Japanese. "Which is cooler, Japan or America ?"
"Does he mean boys or girls?"
"KANYE, she asked, do you mean boys or girls?"
"Both."
"Both."
MEDIA-CHAN responded immediately. "Japanese girls are clearly cooler than American girls because everywhere in the world, people want Japanese girls. Africans, Germans, French, Indians, Chinese-- all these people want Japanese girls. But American boys are clearly cooler than Japanese boys, because many girls in the world want an American boyfriend or husband but no nationality is making raves about Japanese boys."
TUSK translated. "See, it's a sophisticated response!"
MEDIA-CHAN to KANYE: "What do you think about the election of Obama?"
KANYE in English made five points.
"What's the problem?"
"Oh god, you sure said a lot."
"Can you translate it?"
"Give me a second."
TUSK is able to translate two of the five points. Point #1 is "This was an election of a Democrat over a Republican first, and then an election of a black man second." Point #3 is "This is not actually a very important matter." 2, 4, and 5, as expected out of a history major from an elite U.S. university entail extremely politics-specific vocabulary, being minute examinations of the political cliques in America. This three minute conversation stands as record of the limits of TUSK's ability, and an interesting examination of what an English-only American and Japanese-only Japanese find curious about each other.
The evening's discussion was about religion. ROLLER talked about the role of God in her life; offers KANYE a ride home (this is innocent; KANYE tries to sell it as not). ERI forcefully puts forth that the world would be better without religion whatsoever.
Following dinner, TUSK is able to make AKEMI laugh. Everyone goes their separate ways, but JOHANN has AKEMI's phone number, as a purely friendship matter. It is his strength; he is only after (and only mildly so) TABUN; he can be friends with the girls.
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Saturday. TUSK had seen the Canadian tennis player go into the cute but somewhat dumb looking Japanese girl's room. This was disquieting, yet he still felt things hadn't been closed. He left his phone number on the door, which comes into play later that evening. JOHANN with AKEMI called up TUSK and the three met up for drinks; all conversation was honest, except at one point TUSK said to AKEMI, "Teach me love" (ai) and she replied, "No, you teach me love! Only one relationship in your life, seven years, sheesh!" This wasn’t dishonest, per se, any more than ‘Nihao!’said at the first day was dishonest; it was merely misleading.
From the quiet circle of three, the group then expanded with the arrival of COPENHAGEN , who hit upon a table of seven or eight disdainful Korean girls nearby. Then TUSK's phone rang. "Oh it must be ERI," said TUSK and handed the phone to AKEMI. It was not. It was the cute but dumb Japanese girl. AKEMI's heart sank; she politely told the girl the group was busy, please try again later.
TUSK had snared AKEMI by this point. She was a trifle narcissistic, but she knew enough to see that others were not standing still while she had explored the possibility of KANYE. ERI did arrive, to be hit upon by COPENHAGEN. The group of three boys and two girls went to M2, the standard and good nightclub; drunker and drunker, COPENHAGEN hit upon ERI and was accepted; TUSK and AKEMI danced quite close with each other.
There was one matter. "Oh that's so flirtacious," said AKEMI in one in-between dance conversation in response to something TUSK said.
In Japanese: "I just want to be friends. Just friends, promise!" Little finger extended.
The promise was not sealed.
TUSK had wanted AKEMI when he first saw her. He still remembered her first words to him (viz., "You shouldn't lie. Don't lie.) The two would also walk together with MEDIA-CHAN after class and look at the sun together as snow flakes fell down. But he had decided, after AKEMI went after KANYE, that she was unreachable. Now he began to suspect something was up, but his heart was set. There would be nothing but play from him now. AKEMI grabbed TUSK's hand as ERI went off with COPENHAGEN. "Oh no, we musn't interrupt." Everyone went off to their dorm rooms.
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I was twelve years old when the talent scouts came to our village. I had won the local singing contest at nine, and by eleven we had received letters from Seoul. At twelve I left my town and checked in to the AVIS training programme in Seoul. Seoul looked so big.
You can't ever know how hard my childhood has been. There were two hundred of us, all hoping to be the next pop-star. Every year there's a cut of about 20. So by the time we're eighteen and ready to debut in the music industry, we're whittled down to eighty. By age twenty one, it's down to the top 40. Maybe 10 will get a contract. 2 will become big names, sell a million records.
Do you know what happens to the rest of us? We can't try out for Korean university; we've been practicing singing, dancing, physical training for twelve hours a day, six days a week. There are different companies that come to us, offer us to work in bars or cabarets.
I had no choice. I worked every hour of every day since I was seven, training to be a singer. By sixteen, I had put in twenty-thousand hours of instruction in dance and none in history or mathematics. When I suffered a leg injury, my chance to be one of the top singers in Korea disappeared. But I still had thousands of dollars in debts to the record label. So I started working for an elite placement firm, being 'introduced' to CEOs and top government officials.
I lost my virginity at age sixteen to one of the top environment ministers in Korea. You can still see his name in the papers, he's considered to be capable of one day holding his own portfolio. There's no proof o
f this, of course; I couldn't tell my story to the papers even if I wanted, and it doesn't matter anyway, I'm just a farmer's daughter from a small village in the eastern mountains. But I worked off a full tenth of my debt with just that night, and I was able to pay for catch-up academic classes the next two years. Now I can take the APs next year.
I think I deserve a chance at Yale. I know I'm not the smartest at academics but I still put out a small record last year and people say I might be able to break out in a few years. I like hip-hop, R&B; I keep up with all the American artists. I'll sing for you later, I love to sing even if it's not for pay.
It's not really fair, this culture, Korea, Japan. Men just play and women have to clean up the messes.
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At this point in the first chapter, it was necessary only to wrap up some loose ends and point out small details that did not truly effect matters, yet complete the whole picture. For week 2, the task here is a bit harder. We have followed a certain narrowly-defined narrative—and the problem is that so much happened, that actually this week is at once the hardest and the easiest to complete. So much happened, of course, that actually the rest of this chapter can simply be filled with odd little details and minor adventures unrelated to the main action. MEDIA-CHAN, for example, introduces herself as a ‘-CHAN.’ Such behavior only comes from girls
The Flowers of Keiwha Page 10
