#Aya Kamikawa

[yourdailyqueer]

Aya Kamikawa

Gender: Transgender woman

Sexuality: N/A

DOB: 25 January 1968  

Ethnicity: Japanese

Occupation: Politician

Note: First openly transgender person to seek or win elected office in Japan

#Aya Kamikawa #lgbt #lgbt poc #transisbeautiful #trans poc #transgender #trans woman #1968 #japanese #asian #poc #politician #first #popular #popular post #500

[aestheticsilentboy]

Representation is a crucial issue in the LGBTQ+ community. If the entertainment is getting better at engaging and representing the LGBTQ+ community, the political world still has a long way to go.

Born on January 25, 1968, Aya Kamikawa is the first transgender person to be elected in Japan in 2003. She studies at Hosei University and works as a writer. In 2003, she submits her election application papers. She leaves a blank space at the line “sex”. She won a seat in the Setagaya ward assembly, an important district in Tokyo and becomes the first openly transgender person to be elected in Japan, a country where coming-out can be difficult. The government declared that they will consider her as a man but she exploits her will to work as a woman. She works to improve rights and situation for the women, the children, the elderly, the handicapped and the LGBTQ+ people. She is re-elected in 2007, becoming even more popular.

Tomoya Hosoda is the first transgender man elected in Japan, in 2017. Born in 1991, he undergoes surgery in 2015, date when he came out. He studies medicine at Teikyo University and works as a medical technologist in Shizuoka. He is the first transgender man to be elected in a universal suffrage election, to the city council of Iruma in Japan.

#pride month #transgender #lgbt #lgbtq #politic #japan #Tomoya Hosoda #Aya Kamikawa

[crossdreamers]

New documentary on queer and trans lives in Japan

The new documentary Queer Japan, which premieres Dec 11th in virtual theatres and on-demand, features artists, activists, and everyday people from across the spectrum of gender and sexuality in Japan. 

The documentary presents, among others,  drag queen Vivienne Sato, erotic manga artist Gengoroh Tagame, councilwoman Aya Kamikawa (the first transgender elected official in Japan), and nonbinary performance artist Saeborg.

Out Traveler has more!

#trans #transgender #lgbt #lgbtqa #nonbinary #enby #japan #queer #queer japan

[mr-kamiyama]

A Word for Zoomers Who're Told They're "Making Up" Genders and Orientations.

I'm an Xer.

Well, actually I'm in that b.1977-85 throe where no two people can agree what I am. I'm Post Dankai Junior in the old country, but I was too old to be a kid for Pokémon, Harry Potter, I caught Digimon 02 during its premiere US run a rare Saturday the firm I worked at, that normally had Saturday hours, was closed. I met Windows Millennium Edition because a housemate, as back then, I'd realised I wanted to live with company, wanted to upgrade our computer to the newest version of Windows (and I promptly made AMVs using GIFs and lost them to the sands of time all before YouTube even existed) So that gives you an idea of my age.

I came out for the first time in high school. I came out as bi.

In Japan, transness, like here had different words we no longer use, but unlike here, wasn't a secret.

If I'd stayed in Japan just one more year, in '95 politician Kamikawa Aya began advocating on NHK for trans rights.

Maybe I'd've learned that transition *to* male and actual medical treatment like HRT to make that possible existed a whole lot sooner.

But I didn't. And so, I didn't realise it was actually something I could *do* and I wasn't doomed to be stuck until about 2010.

I claimed "bi" in the '90s, and mistook "you're a really cool person and really nice to me when few people are and so I really like you in a platonic sense" +aesthetic attraction for crushes of a romantic and sexual nature.

The SAM model was developed by bi people in the '70s, but where and when I was, there weren't exactly highly visible LGBT centres where I could learn this. So I thought any orientation had to be "x-sexual"

And I only knew about straight, gay/lesbian, and bi.

Which, the term "laaaaaaaabelllls" was coined by biphobic people my age. See, we weren't like people today, who literally can't live because of unfettered crony capitalism. You could get a nice studio on the nice side of town for eight days' work at minimum wage (of course, being POC, you had to find the right realtor), which back then was under four dollars an hour. You could get a 2br/1.5ba rowhouse for about two weeks' worth, which is half a month, but these days, that much work will get you a barely-studio in shoot-you-in-the-face-in-broad-daylight territory.

But we were still plenty suspicious of marketing. So queerphobic Xers went "don't make me acknowledge your filthy non-mono sexuality! What if I told you naming what you are is dehumanising, like labelling a jar of mayo, and you're the product!"

Which is no different that queerphobic Millennials claiming "Queer is a slur uwu call it gay because cisgay and cishet are the only valid IDs uwu Gay has never ever been used as a pejorative uwu"

Which is also bunk because back in the '90s, if one young man did ANYTHING another didn't like, the other one could call it and him "gaaayyy" and that would be a homophobic attack via toxic masculinity on the first young man. Heck, I don't listen to much grunge, though I did at the time, but it's used this way in some Nirvana song. I just can't remember which one.

Anyway, so I claimed bi and spent the next 23 or so years fighting for it even against physical violence to make me claim something in the false straight/gay binary

All along, I thought "the mushy stuff squicks me because I'm a guy (insert ways I justified things before I realised that yes, I actually am male for prior to 2010)" which, yeah, I'm still sorting through the myriad manifestations of toxic masculinity and learning to spot them. What that actually is is romance repulsion.

I'm actually aroace.

To go further, I actually have very strong platonic affection feelings, and "idemromantic" is not necessarily my actual identity, but that, and at least some idea, if even wrong, that the other party was interested, was how I sorted whether I should approach the other person as "friend" or "potential partner" subconsciously.

Plus to further complicate things, I'm sex-favourable ace/cupiosexual, which meant that just hearing limited definitions of things like sex repulsion in aces didn't clue me in. It wasn't until discussing what sexual attraction was with a newly-realised gay first wave Xer last year that I realised I had no idea what that was and had never felt it, and was therefore asexual. Which after the discussion with that guy, I dove into readings by you all on Tumbler first.

And I only realised I'm aromantic last month, though I've been questioning for actually a year this month.

Now, I'd say my aesthetic attraction is definitely bi, and yes, I accept the redefinition made with the info we have now of two or more genders including your own" which *I read* as "but not necessarily all genders, and perceived gender is a factor" whereas pan seems to me like "perceived gender is not a factor in attraction" ??

Now, I still actually don't have an idea about my potential aesthetic feelings towards people who present NB. The men and women I feel it towards tend to have this or that decidedly masculine or feminine traits, and I may never, because people my age are less likely to come out.

Whether orientation or gender, people my age are products of a very binary 20th century. We were really all sorts of shape pegs, but many of us were and still are dodecahedrons and whatnot with choices of only square, circle, and mayyybe triangle holes.

Naturally, the dodecahedrons and the hexagons all tried to jam themselves in circle and square holes, whichever ones it looked like we could maybe wedge into.

This means plenty of us are going around thinking things like "I guess I don't like sex because I'm a woman" or "I guess I don't like the mushy stuff because I'm a man" or "I don't feel female so I guess I'm a man because I'm AMAB and that's all I got" etc.

Those most likely to come out are those with very strong NB/aro/ace feelings WHO BECOME INFORMED. And some may still not, or those with feelings they can't sort, because they've lived so long the previous way, they may at least feel they have too much to lose.

There's also people like me that need a lot of info to realise they were misreading their own feelings due to decades of amatonormative/heteronormative/binarist/toxic masculine brainwashing.

(I still don't like the term "toxic masculine" because I really want a term where we have more room to redefine "masculine" as decidedly masculine but wholly without the toxic stuff that's so married to "manliness," room to reject that stuff and revision manliness, but whatever)

THE REASON OLDER GENERATIONS DON'T HAVE THIS STUFF IS NOT BECAUSE YOU'RE INVENTING IT. IT IS BECAUSE OUR TIME DIDN'T ACKNOWLEDGE IT.

Yes, I think it's funny imaging how lost you'd be trying to use an 8-track player, or a library card catalogue actually made of index cards.

And had I not miscarried in December 2003 and had a sixteen year old, I'd have had them set up the internet TV device I got instead of three hours barely restraining myself from breaking it into pieces just like I was the only one who was able to figure out how to set the VCR clock and VCR+ timers when we got one when I was young. Which my difficulty with this stuff is more like a Boomer than an Xer. Most of my peers are pretty savvy. Sometimes my friends can tele-help me.

And I think new music,which I define as post-Y2K, stinks.

So I'm not hip and new. Plenty about me is just like your parents.

But no, you aren't making this up. And you're informing a lot of us. You're waking us up to how truly diverse humanity is. You're waking some of us up to who we really are.

And as for those of you who have crummy and even Karen parents, two things:

A. The Latino kids took me and the other Asian in in high school. There aren't many Asians in FL. (The "Another Chinese Family" bit on Fresh Off The Boat is so real) There are definitely some crummy Xers out there, and that's been true all along. There was even a right-wing youth org called "young republicans." There were Regean-loving racist queerphobes all along. They made my life miserable in high school, too.

B. There are also others like me that believe in you. That actually need you. You're bringing *back* a diversity that was smothered by colonial Europe. Historical precedent is actually on your side.

Thank you. I mean it. You're doing good, you're legit, and there are a lot of us who believe in you, too.

#nonbinary #gen z #aromanticism #asexuality #queer #gen x #xennial #the name for people in that weird throe the Boomer/X debated throe is Gen Jones they both have names #intergenerational stuff #diversity #long post #i said a word but more like a thesis www

[late-stagechosen]

Muse Meme

Stole from: @twistedstarlitspirits

Tagging: @notsobubbly (well, you two have known each other longer, so provided you haven't already done this)

Name: Ichijouji Ken

Aliases: none he can even stand to be called anymore.

Gender: male (trans)

Age: 21 at blog default

Date of birth: 17 January 1991

Place of birth: funny story, Papa Ichijouji used to develop weapons with Oikawa (per the clipping he kept in his desk in the final arc of 02). Per me, it was a private firm that pretty much sold to any country with an active military (so all international sales) Ken was born in St. Petersburg, which was still legally in the Soviet Union at the time. Japanese citizenship is de sanguis, so there were no citizenship problems, but he was born in a place he's otherwise never been, in a country he doesn't even remember the existence of. His family register always brings up awkward conversation, but at least it can deflect from his deadname being on there.

Hometown: 江戸っ子 www mun is a history nut. Toukyou. Everyone ever knows what Toukyou is, at least.

Spoken languages: Japanese (native) Spanish (conversational), English (conversational, albeit with frequent pausing), Mandarin (fluent, native-level), Hindi (fluent, near-native) (why yes, I did just pick most spoken languages)

Sexual Preference: Um, you mean "orientation"? Pansexual. Otherwise I'm not sure I know what this question means.

Occupation: at default, flunking out of being a full time student at Toukyou University. Due to depression. Same reason makes it hard to hold a job. Eventually, planned: nurse.

Eye Colour: Blue

Hair Colour: Black

Height: 180 cm. Even without regular access to T, this isn't implausible. I once knew a Yamato Japanese cis woman who was about this tall. And Ken has had *some* T. (Yeah, it's hormone dependent as well as inherited traits, specifically hormones during growing years)

Scars: He's got a fair bit from Digital World activities, as well as sports. That one from his first game against Daisuke Did scar thanks to not getting it treated and being deep enough to bleed so long, bit it's pretty faint. He's got newer ones here and there, though.

Burns: Er,well, I think that'd be a type of scar for this purpose

Overweight: no

Underweight: unfortunately

Favourite colour: I don't think all adults have this (I think most all kids do) Ken kinda...he has a lot of trouble connecting to things that make him happy.

Favourite hair colour: This seems like a strange question, because different colours look good with different other colours and face types and so on.

Favourite eye colour: Same

Favourite song: I do have a character for a fic project that has a favourite song, but only because he spent most of his life captive, and so only knows under 20 songs. I kinda can't imagine having a favourite single song otherwise.

Favourite movie: Explained below. Ken's only begun to explore non-instructional media. None yet.

Favourite TV Show: Star Trek. When he was his parents' invisible inconvenience, he stumbled on Enterprise one day. He was since restricted from any media that wasn't educational/instructional, and finally living on his own in college, he hasn't been able to get a TV (though he has been able to get a record player to explore music) Star Trek was the only thing he even had that was something he just genuinely liked once he'd firmly grown out of Anpanman and Gachapin and Mukku. It's a great show, sure, but it's also something that's his thing.

Favourite drink: Can vary by verse. If he associates something with a loved one, it would be that. Otherwise, he's pretty copacetic towards food and drink.

Favourite book: non-fiction, he owns everything trans advocate since1995 and former Congress rep Kamikawa Aya has written to date. Fiction: He did really like the historical tech romp of Mori Hiroshi's "The Strange World of Dr. Kisima"

Passed university: At default, he's got no way left to pass. He's toast. He got to year three, though. Mun dropped out of junior college and considers that pretty good, even had Ken's studies not been at Japan's most elite science school

Had sex: verse dependent. Probably with Daisuke, if I had a Daisuke RPer.

Had sex in public: Nope. Nope, never. Dysphoria, and on top of that, former child celebrity trying to get away from catching notice of tabloids and fans.

Gotten pregnant: could be verse dependant. Planned digimon project, he does at 17, miscarries, which is bad because he and his partners, Daisuke and Miyako,were really looking forward to being parents, even despite their ages. I was a teenager during the teen pregnancy boom in the '90s, and saw parents do horrible things to their kids in a time of need. Deny abortion, toss out on the streets, rehouse with abusive relatives. I work social issues into my play. So sue me.

Kissed a boy: I really just should write my own stuff with an offscreen Daisuke, shouldn't I?

Kissed a girl: well, the project is slated to have Daisuke, Ken, and Miyako as a triad, so I can see Miyako with enough build up.

Gotten tattoos: No

Gotten piercings: Earlobes. He has worn tiny pearl dot earrings in the past.

Been in love: Daisuke

Had a broken heart: Does it have to be romantic? His parents' disregard for him unless he could be a cash cow counts. And also coming home after the Dark Seed's influence was broken and realising how much he hurt his brother.

Virgin: Verse dependent

Cuddler: Yup, and not only romantic. He loves nuzzling Wormmon or being hugged by Osamu.

Kisser: I guess. I mean most people who aren't asexual like that. (Some asexuals also do, it varies. I'm just thinking of five minute kissing scenes in movies being everywhere)

Scared Easily: He's a Chosen Child. Little is scarier than what he's been through. The only things that scare him are potential harm to loved ones. I headcanon that the difficulty in opening the Dark Sea portal was actually really bad physical pain from something something Dark Seed, not fear.

Jealous Easily: If he thinks you've found a new friend or something, he'll be glad you "did better than" him. He has horribly low self-esteem

Trustworthy: In all but actually telling you something is wrong with him. One day, this'll probably wind him hospitalised or permanently physically damaged

Submissive: Fandom, so this probably means sex, but I'm gonna take it outside of that. He doesn't have the confidence to lead anything. Intelligence, yes he could be a great team leader at some kind of academic or sciencey type of work. Sports-wise, he still has the muscle memory of his Dark Seed days. (That being said, the underweight problem hampers his stamina in sports critically) he'd pass rather than take the shot. He could lead, but he just doesn't have the confidence.

Dominant: See above

In Love: Daisuke, willing to also consider Miyako, But that'd be a slow burn

Single: Verse dependent

Siblings: Osamu

Parents: That he really needs to cut off because they're pretty toxic.

Children: I guess this could be verse dependent. None at default

Pets: None. I know some might put Wormmon here, but digimon have the minds of humans, and most are like playmates to their partners in canon. Wormmon in particular canonically comes across as traumatised little brother put into big brother role.

#ask meme #musings #about muse #was not tagged and invited to do this hashtag party crasher

[japanstopbrawler1992]

READ ME

ZERO TOLERANCE FOR RACIST CHASERS/GAY-FOR-STRAIGHT-CONSUMPTION/OOC TRANSPHOBIA/ANY RACISM WHATSOEVER UNLESS SHOWN AS BAD BY NARRATIVE AND CONFINED TO AGREED UPON PLOTTING

I set Savers in its airing year, so Masaru was born in '92. Can take place anytime after episode 49. However, there just won't be any explicit sexual content regardless of when the thread takes place. I also don't auto-ship: I'm here to walk a character through things, so ships will all be more slow-burn. Also, while Masaru's just pan, I'm actually asexual, so don't even expect me to present beyond a textbook understanding of sexual attraction

Masaru's kind of a jerk. My other two muses are generally at least kind unless the other person isn't, but Masaru's kind of abrasive and gleefully violent. If we're playing, I'll probably warn you beforehand, but Masaru may snap at your muse if your muse isn't a little kid. If your muse didn't deserve it, he'll probably apologise at some point, but yeah, this muse is even less like me than 02's Ken (Bleach's Ichigo is my muse most like me)

I'm on mobile. Period. I can't cut threads. I usually just tag "long post." Can't cut threads.

Seen JP ver only. Haven't seen any others, and I have no reason to bother--the original's in my native. Why would I bother with "orange juice bomb"?

Masaru is mixed race here. In a planned project that's a sister project to my Bleach project I already got a bit of stuff up for, Masaru's mum is Japanese and Russian, and related to Junpei of Frontier, and Masaru's dad was Japanese and Afghani. Masaru actually does speak Japanese, Russian, and Persian.

Masaru's also trans here. He never got puberty blockers, but he finally got testosterone at 13. So his voice changed at a pretty normal age. But he does need a binder and all that. (He loved that black tank top he wears after the memory wipe because it was just the right cut to cover the binder while showing off his arm muscles!) He does someday want kids, and Japanese law, like most US states or most places, requires sterilisation to recognise gender change. His papers also say a different first name. Of course, this probably came up with Satuma. Satuma and payroll at DATS probably know all about it. But being trans isn't *as* hard in Japan as the Anglophonic world. Especially thanks to Kamikawa Aya advocating on outlets like NHK radio since '95, which Masaru would be three then.

I toss the epilogue. Don't like the losing their digimon, and Masaru ditching his family he feels so responsible for and his dad he just got back?

Actually, in my project, ep 48 never happens. Suguru is dead, DATS remains, and Sayuri gets BanchouLeomon as her digimon partner.

Oh, another rule--poor spelling and grammar is acceptable if you are not a native speaker. It infuriates me to no end that I'm supposed to be an idiot for being fluent in three just because English is not my first, but native speakers get to run around spelling "bins" "ben's" and congratulating themselves for "kohnichuwa" but I get beaten/decried for actually knowing the language... And also, ,ZERO TOLERANCE for "garnish my human default English with exotic Japanese uwu" See "zero tolerance for chasers and racism"

Totally available to play in Japanese or Spanish, but you must be fluent.

Masaru lives in Tobechou, Yokohama. I went to the Chinatown in Yokohama once with my dad, but I lived in Koube. And we didn't leave Hanshin region all that much. My knowledge of much outside there being a Chinatown in the '80s (obviously still there, as it was the setting for the Savers movie) and big landmarks like Minatomirai is minimal. I also haven't been back to Japan period since '94. My relatives there are all deceased since the '90s, and flights alone are 1,000$, which, until recently, was definitely over a month of rent. Two for a studio, one plus a couple hundred for a 1 or 2LDK, depending. Might even have had 1.5 baths. By the time Savers was airing in Japan, I was able to keep up with Japanese news via now-gone Japanese-language broadcasts in California, as well as the Web, which is also how I saw Savers. But my knowledge of Japanese things may run the risk of being almost 30 years out of date. Or it might be completely current because I still read Asahi News, the most left-leaning paper I can find. Unsure if related to Hanshin region channel 6, but channel 6 was the best when I was there.

The Daimon family didn't move when Masaru came out, but he came out pretty young. It's just difficult to get trans care for minors. That being said, most peers don't know he's trans. They do know he's mixed, though. That being said, it's not like it's *only* him fighting racist bullies. It's only partially that. Like I said, I fully acknowledge he's pretty abrasive. So he's not completely blameless for all the fights. He could easily someday be the kind of parent who gets arrested for punching a rival dad. Violence is not a last resort for him. It's the best resort.

I do multi-para and don't use icons. But I'm not asking for an exact word count match. All I ask is give me stuff to go off of in replies and for Heaven's sake, do *not* format like House of Leaves when you play with me. Format button abuse looks like a visual panic attack, and is just too chaotic for me to read.

I may go spotty on replies with you. I'll still chat with you via the messenger thingy, and I don't play with people I've never spoken to, even if I've started the interaction, because I need to filter for my sanity, so I need to know the people I play with aren't gonna pull racism or something on me, but when my replies slow, it's because I work on-call at a shelter for seriously physically ill people, I'm also disabled myself, and I don't have the ability to put enough energy for the high-quality replies I strive to give in at the moment. I'm stalling because I want to give you my best. If I want to drop a thread, which is admittedly rare, I'll let you know. I won't leave you guessing.

Some h/cs just for fun

Masaru loves metal. The metal I know is 70s prog and 80s glam metal and stuff. I don't really like much music past about '94, and exactly two albums after 2000 (neither are metal)

Masaru has always had the same kind of attention span I have now even though I completely didn't when I was younger. He's running commentary if you watch an movie with him, his biggest problem with school is the whole sitting and passively listening to a lecture part, he thinks he doesn't like reading because others always talk about sitting there and reading for hours on end (if he's older, he may have realised it's OK to read for 20-minute bursts, something I eventually realised, too). He only really learns by doing. That being said, depending on age, he may not have had the chance to *realise* that yet.

He wouldn't become a sumo wrestler, but he totally watches it. Honestly, any fighting sport, and he's there.

He's very Japanese as far as religion. Sort of takes part and believes in a lot of them at the same time, but none are a overly influential part of his life. This is a thing.

Crossovers with any season preceding Savers are pretty easy with this blog considering my project. The project will eventually merge with the Bleach project, toi, so I also have a thing for that. Overall, I welcome crossovers with most animated media. Live action, I'll consider if you don't use icons with me (it ends up looking like Who Framed Roger Rabbit in my head) I don't do any real person stuff beyond, say, having Masaru listen to real bands or know of other public figures.

There is also a flexibility in playing Masaru in other countries. He could visit family in Russia or Afghanistan, he can be sent over from DATS to help with digimon appearances in countries allied with Japan (coughcontroloverjapanliketheuscough) or I totally ship him with Touma, so he could be in whatever that country is (obviously a Germanic nation in Western Europe)

He's definitely leftist, but his tactics aren't really common among the left. Typically, it's the fascists that will throw the first punch. Except Masaru will, as well. Unfortunately, this means he can take *away* from, say, antifa efforts to counter demo anti-Korean rioters.

He looks down on most weapon use, but probably none more so than guns and other weapons that remove the user from the target. To him, anyone who hides safely behind a weapon and makes the fight so one-sided is a coward. To this extent, he thinks war should be done away with and the leaders of the countries should duel instead of America just wiping out thousands of Japanese (WWII) or Afghani (during his lifetime) civilians (well, in that war, it was definitely not the Afghani government's fault, as that was a radical rebel sect powered initially by Regean, but it was most certainly civilian deaths en masse)

Masaru cannot meditate at all. He's also very reactive. To that extent, he's never really done well with martial arts. There's a lot less focus on self-discipline in boxing and wrestling than in Aikido or karate or what have you. He'd probably love the intensity of Krav Maga or CQC. I just don't know if Krav Maga has a self-discipline component. CQC almost certainly doesn't--it's American.

More when I think of it.

#rules #about #about muse

[bellabooks]

“Queer Japan” offers a glimpse into Japan’s LGBTQ community

Queer Japan, a documentary by Graham Kolbeins, premiered at the Rainbow Reel Tokyo Film Festival and is about make its US debut at Outfest Los Angeles. In the documentary, which is a feast for the eyes thanks to some gorgeous cinematography, Kolbeins interviews members of Japan’s LGBTQ community, from queer artists to entrepreneurs to politicians. In Tokyo’s largest gay neighborhood, Ni-chome, we’re introduced to Bar Gold Finger, a gathering place for queer women created by Chiga Owgawa. Since 1991, Chiga has been hosting a women-only party, which is still going strong. (You may have also seen the bar on Gaycation with Ellen Page) Where gay neighborhoods and especially spaces from queer women are struggling around the world, Ni-chome offers a safe and solid space for Tokyo’s lesbian, bi and queer community. The film also explores the experience of trans men, and a club dedicated to them in Ni-chome, called Grammy Tokyo. Grammy and Goldfinger teamed up a few years ago to host a party together. In Japan, just like many other places around the world, businesses that have always catered more to the binary are now trying to figure out how to make room for our ever expanding community. Despite this openness and acceptance, the film also tackles the struggles that the LGBTQ community still faces in terms of discrimination and bullying from peers and politicians. Part of the positive change happening are people like Aya Kamikawa, an openly trans assemblywoman in Tokyo. Aya, who had not been out before, stood in the streets of her district and openly spoke about being trans, and despite some negative attention, she won her election. While you meet lots of interesting folks in Queer Japan, there are some stand outs like Fuyumi Yamamoto. Fuyumi and her husband Makoto are part of LGBTQ community and helped create sign language to more accurately describe and relay issues for deaf and hard of hearing LGBTQ individuals, whether in daily life or in legal situations. As we become a more global community, it’s vital to learn and understand the struggles and triumphs that our LGBTQ siblings experience in places beyond our own communities, and Queer Japan does a wonderful job at opening that door for viewers. Queer Japan will be showing at Outfest Los Angeles this Sunday at 1:30pm. http://dlvr.it/R8fjTz

[orenonahaichigoda]

Shinya Shokudou x Hotel del Luna verse (crafted to compliment @orihimex 's Hotel del Luna verse)

I haven't actually seen Hotel del Luna, and I can't find anything useful on the English or Japanese Web about it. But Ichigo comes in from his own place.

Ichigo, b. 15 July 1980, is a failed med student with PTSD from witnessing his mother's murder. After realising his lack of being able to focus was going to absolutely cause him to fail med school at Toudai, he took what he had in college fund left and opened up a late night donburi place, because he didn't want to be a financial burden to his father, who already doesn't make great profit on his one-man clinic. Sure, there are cheaper places to get donburi, and they're open longer, but they don't heal your soul like Sinya Shokudou, run by a man that would probably take care of everyone in the whole world if he could. So he has good business.

But he keeps getting guests from this alleged hotel one street over. Something is very strange. One day, he decides to try to figure this mystery out...

Ichigo can still see ghosts. Ripping out Ichigo's sixth sense entirely just seems *wrong.*

In fact, Ichigo has given up on all forms of prayer and ancestor worship because he prayed for so long for Masaki to come see him, or at least give him a clear sign she was doing okay in theafterlife. He'd last seen her face with blood coming out everywhere dead in his arms.

Issin said sometimes the dead aren't powerful enough to return to this world, sometimes even at times like O-bon, when the boundary between worlds is the weakest.

Yuzu's sense is the weakest, and she often assumed every cup falling over and rustle of the wind through the curtains was her mum. When it wasn't, Karin would cry angry tears.

Ichigo went almost mute in the week or so following the murder. Even when he was able to speak again (it would take longer for him to be able to look at anyone again. He still blames himself for not being able to save her, and the like the sayings in both Japanese and English, not that he really speaks the latter, he couldn't face anyone) his memories were so scrambled, he could only supply things like "big" [it's likely the killer wasn't as tall and imposing as Ichigo remembers], "male, maybe?" and black gloves that turned out to be suede-like. He now strongly associates both suede and gloves with that night. They are triggers.

The killer was never identified, hence never caught. No discernible motive was established (this may be revisited) The case went cold.

This happened when he was twelve, in 1992. Masaki's birthday and O-Bon (he has no idea what day she died. He can't remember. His dad is afraid to tell him the date. His sisters were too young to really understand "date.") depress him pretty badly.

(As it was a hailstorm--he was being picked up from school mid-morning with an injury-- there were no witnesses at the river bank, except Ichigo)

Ichigo is still trans and mixed race, by the way. Here, as he was born earlier than canon, he still learned trans was a thing you could be from Kamikawa Aya's NHK radio appearances, but he was mid-high school. The transition was much more obvious to his peers. As children will pick for any difference, he dealt with bullying more heavily, but comparable for what he always got for being mixed. Conservative teachers/school admin that probably worshipped former PM Nakasone were no more kind. His grades yo-yoed and bounced around between PTSD brain, teachers marking him wrong when he wasn't for bullying, and bullying from his peers. Being intelligent, his fairly-marked grades from neutral and supportive liberal teachers, as well as his dad's smart call of putting Ichigo's college fund into something like a CD account, meaning he could pay more, and completing tough papers and tests got him into Toukyou University by the skin of his teeth, but his scattered mind made it so that his prospects were none within one year.

Feeling fed up with feeling like a burden, in Spring 1999, he sank what was left of his college fund into a small donburi shop, Shinya Shokudou (Late-Night Diner)

It opens Sunset to Sunrise. He is the only worker there.

Sure, there's more than five dishes available at Denny's. Sure, dishes are generally more varied than your choices being between eel over rice and egg over rice. Sure, service is faster because they have plural employees. Sure, it never is closed.

But if the bar Cheers was "where everybody knows your name," then Shinya Shokudou is "where people care." It's "Situren Restaurant." It's where you go when the comfort of your parents' kitchen isn't an option.

And it may also be one block from a cursed hotel, as Ichigo will find out...

(And he will wonder how he never noticed before, but he still cannot visually distinguish the living from the dead)

In this verse, Chad is still his best friend,ex-boyfriend, and still have a daughter together. Chad has always been supportive of Ichigo,and he of Chad. Chad witnessed Ichigo's transition and struggles, meeting him the first day of seventh grade, Masaki dying toward the end of sixth.

However, they both realised they weren't what each other was looking for in a life partner.

Chad and his spouse live in the same building as Ichigo and their daughter, Yasuko, b. 3 June 1993.

Ichigo has a hard time getting really close to people. Yasuko is an insei at her university. I'm not sure how you call this in English, but she's above a Bachelor's. She is very feminine, and goes to school in skirtsuits. She wants to do her part in making the world greener. Yes, the landlord of the apartment building has been approached many times about converting the complex to a natural, renewable source of energy. They might be a bit at odds.

She can also see ghosts, but she's usually asleep while her dad works. (Her Papi, however, does animal rescue. When Sunset happens earlier in winter, she often dines with him and his spouse)

In this verse, Ichigo wears a lot of plaid flannel. I don't know why, but I can't get the image of almost middle age restaurant owner Ichigo wearing lumberjack-style clothing and an apron over it out of my head.

#about verse

[gotouda]

her faceclaim is japanese politician aya kamikawa so you can see where i am coming from

[khalilhumam]

‘Queer Japan’ documentary introduces Japan's vibrant, multifaceted LGTBQ+ community

New Post has been published on http://khalilhumam.com/queer-japan-documentary-introduces-japans-vibrant-multifaceted-lgtbq-community/

‘Queer Japan’ documentary introduces Japan's vibrant, multifaceted LGTBQ+ community

The documentary celebrates self-love, community and resilience

A few of the interviewees featured in the documentary Queer Japan, including Nogi Sumiko, Atsushi Matsuda, Hiroshi Hasegawa, Gengoroh Tagame, Akira the Hustler, and Tomato Hatakeno. Image courtesy Graham Kolbeins, used with permission.

A documentary that explores the lives of Japan’s multifaceted LGBTQ+ culture has recently been released on streaming platforms. “Queer Japan,” a documentary by Canadian queer filmmaker, writer, and designer Graham Kolbeins, explores the lives artists, activists, trailblazers and just regular folks in Japan's LGBTQ+ culture. “‘Queer Japan’ is about self-love, community, and resilience,” says director Graham Kolbeins in an interview with Global Voices. “It’s about the ambiguous nature of gender and sexuality, and the way language shapes our fluid understandings of these concepts.” The documentary was first screened in July 2019, and was shown at film festivals around the world. “Queer Japan” features interviews with nearly three dozen members of Japan's LGTBQ+ community. The film features a variety of individuals involved in art, activism, nightlife and politics in Japan, including a university instructor, a dentist, a drag queen and the parties she hosts for the LGTBQ+ community, the first openly transgender elected official in Japan Aya Kamikawa, and queer visual artist Nogi Sumiko.

Nogi Sumiko. Image courtesy Graham Kolbeins, used with permission.

“Queer Japan” also includes interviews with Gengoroh Tagame, the well-known gay erotic manga creator who has enjoyed mainstream success in Japan and around the world is also a featured interviewee. “Gengoroh Tagame is not only a master of gay erotic art; he also created a renaissance of gay manga through the magazine he co-founded, G-men [an influential magazine aimed at gay men in Japan],” says Kolbeins. “Tagame's influences and references are eclectic, drawing on everything from the Marquis de Sade to Go Mishima and Tom of Finland.” The documentary also includes another co-founder of G-Men magazine, writer, magazine editor and activist Hiroshi Hasegawa. Ever since Hasegawa was diagnosed as HIV-positive in 1992, he has lobbied for more and better treatment in Japan for the condition. Hasegawa has also played a prominent role in Japan campaigning to reduce the societal stigma who people living with HIV and AIDS.

Hiroshi Hasegawa at Tokyo Rainbow Pride. Image courtesy Graham Kolbeins, used with permission.

Kolbeins says the genesis for what would become the “Queer Japan” documentary dates back to nearly a decade ago and his love of Japanese manga. “I was just a very big fan of the gay manga genre and perplexed as to why no publisher in North America had put out English-language translations of these artists’ work,” says Kolbeins. “At the time, I was writing for art and culture magazines, and decided to try conducting some interviews to spotlight gay manga artists.” While there are no laws prohibiting consensual sexual acts between adults, there are no laws that address and prohibit discrimination against sexual orientation and gender identity in the workplace in Japan, and same-sex marriage has not yet been formally legalized. Kolbeins says he decided to connect with Anne Ishii, a writer and translator, who currently serves as executive director of Asian Arts Initiative in Philadelphia. “We started working together around 2012, when we traveled to Tokyo to work on the anthology we edited together, ‘Massive: Gay Erotic Manga and the Men Who Make It,'” says Kolbeins. “Soon after, we co-founded a fashion and publishing brand called Massive Goods [a fashion brand, publisher, and creative agency representing queer and feminist artists from Japan], continuing our collaborations with queer and feminist artists from Japan.” Based on this work, Kolbeins and Ishii were the recipients of the 2016 Creative Artist Exchange Fellowship from the Japan-United States Friendship Commission (JUSFC), which allowed them to spend three months in Japan interviewing documentary subjects.

Queer Japan movie poster. Image courtesy Graham Kolbeins, used with permission.

“After receiving the JUSFC’s fellowship, we raised the rest of the production budget for the documentary through crowdfunding,” says Kolbeins. “Because of the work Anne and I were doing at Massive, we were able to reach out to a community already interested in many of the film’s themes.” The documentary ultimately took Kolbeins and producers Iida and Anne five years to complete before being released on the film festival circuit in 2019. Kolbeins says “Queer Japan” producer, Hiromi Iida, also played a key role with the documentary by connecting him with Japan's LGTBQ+ community. “I met Hiromi on Twitter, reaching out after watching several short documentaries she had made in Tokyo’s drag scene. Hiromi Ishii introduced Kolbiens to community leaders such as Margarette, who operates iconic bookstore Okamalt and also hosts Department H, which is known as “one of Tokyo's most venerable fetish parties.” Over the past decade, Kolbeins has been able to connect with an LGBTQ+ culture in Japan he describes as “multifaceted, robust and thriving.” “At the same time, members of the Japanese queer community face plenty of legal obstacles, family pressure, and discrimination,” says Kolbeins. It’s a situation that leads many to stay selectively closeted, especially in workplace settings, Kolbeins says. “Visibility and acceptance keep growing year after year, and as you can see in ‘Queer Japan,’ there are plenty of individuals living loud and proud in defiance of societal pressures,” says Kolbeins. “There is a growing spirit of solidarity and collective power in the community.” The documentary is now available to watch in some regions on a variety of online rental streaming services. Kolbeins says there are hopes to release the film in Japanese cinemas in 2021, depending on pandemic conditions. Updates about the film are posted on the documentary's Twitter account, @queerjapan. [youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=utB6igqVJPQ?feature=oembed&w=650&h=366]

Written by Nevin Thompson

[gaywrites]

Last week, Japan made history by becoming the first country to elect an openly trans man to public office. Tomoya Hosoda will now serve as a councillor for the city of Iruma, and he said he wants to focus on helping LGBTQ people and other minority communities, such as elderly and disabled populations.

“Until recently, people have acted as if sexual minorities do not exist. We have many hurdles to overcome, but I hope to live up to everyone’s expectations,” he told Stonewall, an organisation which supports LGBTQ people in Japan.

He added having received many messages of support and gratitude from the LGBTQ community ever since he announced his candidacy.

Mr Hosoda is the second transgender politician elected in Japan after Kamikawa Aya, a transgender woman who was elected as a Tokyo municipal official in 2003.

Good news all around. Congratulations, sir! 

#lgbtq #news #japan #transgender #politics #society #firsts

[wearejapanese]

IRUMA, Japan--In addition to his name and title, the business card of Tomoya Hosoda, a city councilman in a suburb of Tokyo, bears a unique description.

“Born a woman,” it reads.

Hosoda, 25, won his seat on the City Council in conservative-leaning Iruma in March, becoming the first openly transgender male elected to public office in Japan and one of only a handful around the world.

Japan has not experienced the kind of transgender moment that has swept the United States, where the politics of sexual identity have convulsed schools, popular culture and big-time sports in recent years.

The appearance of transgender Japanese television stars may convey the illusion of a culture at ease with gender fluidity. But this is a country where transgender people must be labeled as having a mental disorder in order to legally transition from one sex to the other, and where transgender people can struggle to rent apartments, obtain medical care or hold jobs.

Hosoda thinks that in his small way, he can make an important contribution simply by being public and confident about his identity, particularly for young people who may be confused about their own.

“I wanted to show children in elementary or junior high school that I exist here,” he said in an interview in the Iruma office of the Democratic Party, which Hosoda represents on the council. “I strongly felt that way, and that’s why I entered politics.”

Hosoda benefited from the activism of Japan’s only other transgender politician, Aya Kamikawa, who has sat on the council in Setagaya, a ward of Tokyo, for 14 years.

Kamikawa, a transgender woman, lobbied for a change in Japan’s law to allow transgender people to officially change their gender on the all-important family registry certificate that every Japanese citizen must hold, and that is often needed to rent an apartment or receive medical care or other services.

Under that law, only people who have received a diagnosis of “gender identity disorder” and have undergone sexual reassignment surgery may legally change their gender. Activists say the law makes it difficult for those who are transitioning or do not want surgery to live or work as the gender with which they identify and often leads to discrimination by those who recognize only biological gender.

Read more...

#Japan #Transgender #Asahi Shimbun #News #Iruma #日本 #入間市 #Tomoya Hosoda #Hosoda Tomoya #lgbtq #lgbtqia

[sallymolay]

The Independent writes:

Tomoya Hosoda, 25, won 21 out of 22 seats to become a councillor for the city of Iruma, in the central region of Kanto. Mr Hosoda said he does not just want to fight for LGBTQ rights but also for the rights of the disabled and the elderly, by constructing a system that embraces diversity and helps minorities, Japanese media reports.

“Until recently, people have acted as if sexual minorities do not exist. We have many hurdles to overcome, but I hope to live up to everyone’s expectations”, he told Stonewall, an organisation which supports LGBTQ people in Japan.

He added having received many messages of support and gratitude from the LGBTQ community ever since he announced his candidacy.

Mr Hosoda is the second transgender politician elected in Japan after Kamikawa Aya, a transgender woman who was elected as a Tokyo municipal official in 2003. 

Read the whole story!

#lgbtq #trans #transgender #transgender man #trans man #real live trans adult

[kurosakiichigochouhonnnin]

16. favorite movie

Wow I really don’t get notifications from this blog… wtf it’s my main…

Anyway, there’s a few.

TOP: 何が彼女をそうさせたかWhat Made Her Do It. 1930, Japan, live action/silent.

Once thought lost forever in the constantly denied fire bombings of Japan, a copy turned up, like many thought-lost films, in a Russian storehouse a few years ago. While the reel lost some pieces, the story was known enough that the few missing minutes were filled in with title cards. Sadly, this is the ending so the awesome revenge scene is title cards. But still a great story. Basically, the entire world shits on this poor farm girl her whole life. Over the Top, yet relatable at once.

Tokyo Godfathers. 2003, Japan, animated/colour.

Three homeless people, one a transwoman who is not a punchline, find a baby on Christmas Eve. This was made the same year the first transgender government official was elected in Japan, Kamikawa Aya of Setani.

Rush Hour Trilogy. 1998-2007, USA, live action/colour.

Incredibly notable in the US for being marketed to general audiences despite the protagonists being Asian and Black. Jackie Chan and Chris Tucker are basically Ernie and Bert but action cops. (Ernie and Bert is the only way to say manzai I know in English, sorry)

時をかける少女 The Girl Who Leapt Through Time. 1982, Japan, live action/colour.

A young woman falls in love with a mysterious new boy in her high school she’s known all along…or has she? Pure fluff.

Parent Trap series. 1961-1989, USA, live action/colour.

Identical twins Susan and Sharon meet at summer camp and plan to get their parents back together. Then their kids or kids who want to be theirs get the other twin involved in matchmaking them when they grow up. More fluff.

女優と詩人 The Actress and the Poet. 1935, Japan, live action/black and white (sound)

An early talkie. Absolutely hilarious comedy of one night that resolves the marriage troubles between an actress with a new gig and her down on his luck poet husband. Also they have nosy neighbours.

Machuca. 2004, Chile, live action/colour. The Chilenian military coup of '73 through the eyes of three preteens--rich boy, poor boy, poor girl. Obviously not happy.

[late-stagechosen]

Ken teeters a line that he doesn't talk about.

His parents are pretty narcistic. That type of person is often a first class manipulator.

Ken struggles with a lot of self-hatred and bordering on suicidal ideation, or at least thinking that people are better off without him (digimon included in "people," as we do give personhood to dolphins and apes in real life, and digimon have completely human intelligence. I'm going to make this an issue in my project dealt with in the confines of government agencies like DATS, which arose from the ashes of Hypnos. Of course, war-loving countries like America aren't as benevolent, and the LDP has goals to be less benevolent, too)

Anyway, so y'all probably know that abusive manipulation can look like saying things like "you'd be better off without me around" to rope the abused in further, guilt them out of inflicting any consequences, and make everything about the abuser again.

If there's one thing Ken has on his side, it's self-awareness about his words, actions, and *to an extent* he can sometimes catch a thought and realise it's just depression/trauma/other mental illness talking. It may take a few times having the same conversation to do so, but he's got some therapy behind him by this blog's default age of 21.

But as for the rest, as for Ken's self-hatred, he walks this balance of "trying to save people from him" (pushing them away because he thinks he knows what's good for them better than they do, which isn't right. It doesn't admit the agency of the other person) while not actually voicing these thoughts because most people who do are just out to hurt whoever they say it to. Even though it's genuinely how he feels.

Which...is quite a bind. Because he doesn't say these things he's feeling and let those who love him talk him down from his locked tower of bad feeling. He keeps it bottled up as much as the dam can hold. This is really not good. At all.

So those close to him know something is really wrong--he's clearly so depressed he's not functional a lot of the time. But he kinda comes off as if he's too proud to let people see. And he definitely doesn't have pride. In the end, though, the effect is the same.

This kind of thing, I could call it "hypercorrection," which is a grammatical term. It's when you try to obey some grammar rule so much, you overuse the given structure and get it wrong the other way.

He's hypercorrecting his words and behaviour to the point he's chasing off even the ability to get the support he needs. Because so many people say the things he feels with malintent that he doesn't feel he can let people that far in.

There was a time when he did. While I'm building my own canon for this blog based on threads I have, and Osamu's alive, as well as Ken being trans and having been a child idol with probably very conservative anthropomorphic gender roles for parents, his fame ended in being outed nationwide, not even necessarily intentionally, though there was some definitely intentionally transphobic coverage, but also just by different media outlets having different pieces of the story. Unfortunately, the consequences are all absolutely terrible no matter a particular journalist or talk show host's intent, and it's Ken who has to deal with them.

And I'm positive he's been a laughingstock on many a post-watershed variety show. As much as I love Tamori Club's Soramimi Hour, yeah, they're not exactly the most compassionate or understanding and progressive comedy out there (I would probably have to hand that to a few different American sitcoms like The Mary Tyler Moore Show, Fresh Off the Boat, or Mixed-ish)

He won't have to deal with the level of violence he would in, say, the US, but he would very much be a conservative subject of ridicule.

And I totally see his mother crying because "my daughter is gone uwu" Not yelling, but manipulative crying. That might spur Papa into jumping down Ken's throat, as he does that in canon.

(When Mama found out Ken had hit puberty, as far as this blog is concerned, Mama gave him a "you're becoming the woman you were meant to be (deadname) You're growing up, so maybe we can stop playing pretend." And don't think she hasn't been sat in front of any media covering Kamikawa Aya, who's been a real life trans advocate since '95, and became a Representative of some part of Toukyou or somewhere near there in '03. She has)

But other than that, I'm following canon mostly, and yes, Ken first experienced suicidal ideation at age 11.

But he's so overexposed to things like Mama cries over something Ken does/is, and Papa is spurred to yell at him, and is so hyperaware of how his words could adversely affect people he cares about, that the older he gets, the more he bottles up and pushes people away. Even Wormmon.

(Otherwise, he'd probably be married to Daisuke. I have no trouble believing a Jodo Shinshu Buddhist preacher would sign off on a certificate, and since Ken hasn't had a hysterectomy, he can't change his name and gender on his family register, so he can legally marry Daisuke if Daisuke's cis. Canon ship literally had reverse buildup)

*None of what Ken's doing here is healthy, and I want to stress that.* Ken really needs to find a way to bring up some of these feelings and listen in earnest to the people trying to reach him, as he is sorta doing in my current thread with moving in with Osamu.

And there are healthy ways to discuss this, but it requires skill with words and a lot of delicacy, and I don't really feel that Ken's at a stage where he can do that. I think these feelings are very overwhelming at the default setting, and have been so stuffed down that they're pretty compressed. Like a metal spray can.

Ken definitely has good intentions in that he doesn't want to end up manipulating people, but "best laid plans of mice and men" and all that.

He definitely talks to the therapist, which is good and how he's gained enough insight to be able to sort out his thoughts to the extent he's able, but the therapist can't tell him how Osamu or Daisuke or Wormmon (well, not that the therapist knows Wormmon is anything beyond "someone I'm close to," but) feel. They can conjecture to a extent, but they've never spoken to any of these people. They only have Ken's side of things.

So he really does need to talk about his feelings, but he doesn't possess the skills to do it in a healthy way yet, so...he tries to avoid them.

At least he does talk to the therapist, which is a great first step.

No great conclusion. I just saw a """romantic"""" ship post with Ken being overtly manipulative, and I thought I'd share what I have for him.

#musings #about muse #transphobia #suicide mention #trans muse

[orenonahaichigoda]

About Me, and Some Things to Know About (Being Queer in) Japan

日本語でどうぞ。

とは言っても、より多くの人数が読めるように、以下を英語で書きます。

Se habla Español.

30s/trans male/California.

Grew up in Koube. Left in the early '90s for NYC. (Then left there because Giuliani ruined everything)

WHEN THE TRANS TALK STARTED IN JAPAN:

If I had stayed just a*little bit* longer, I probably would have learned that trans men exist, too, and so does hormone therapy. Activist-polititian Kamikawa Aya took her activism to NHK news spots shortly after I left. My grandparents listened to nothing else. (My dad was either NHK or Yomiuri, and I watched Asahi, the latter two not sure if they're national or only Oosaka-Koube broadcast region, but whatever) I mention this because it would be very easy for Ichigo to learn enough to figure it out before high school. And everyone's grandparents watch NHK, And a lot of parents, too. It's like BBC in Britain. PBS is the closest to an American analogue that exists, but the point is public advocacy for trans people became a thing in 1995, so it's not too hard to imagine someone born in the '80s would have enough information to figure it out early in life. Japan was a couple decades ahead of America on that.

FAIR NOTICE ABOUT MY SPANISH:

I'm mixed Japanese and Italian, I picked up Spanish to communicate with my new friends when I came to America. It's not native or anything, no relatives spoke it, and do expect some mixed words from different dialects.

Si estamos escribiendo en Español y se confunden mis palabras, siempre me puede pedir. Por ejemplo, ya sé que la palabra "la bodega" significa cosas diferentes entre Español Puertorriqueño y Español Mexicano.

PAIRING THREADS:

I'm essentially aroace. That doesn't mean I'm not totally down for *well-thought-out* ships. That's not my sole purpose here, but I do welcome it. Well-thought-out is the qualifier, though. And I don't get anything out of PWP, either. I'm only writing all this because I know a fair amount of RP strays into X rated. Shipping, yes, PWP, no.

ETERNAL DISCLAIMER:

My info about Japan varies, but a lot of it may be out of date. I was kinda cut off after leaving until I came to CA, and now more connected with the Web, but anything I say can carry the risk of being up to a few decades out of date.

BEING TRANS IN THE JAPANESE SPEAKING WORLD:

That being said, I can definitely say that while berserko right-wingers, who tend not to leave Japan, as trump voters tend not to leave the US, might be different, know when writing with me that being trans tends not to be a big deal among Japanese people. Now, IN Japan, yes, you'll have to deal with the right-wing Japanese, and in school, kids will pick on each other for anything--kids will pick for someone not liking the "right" bands, but among more progressive Japanese, like the Shin-Issei that I've been around since coming out, telling someone you're trans is not gonna cause fire to rain down on your head. It's gonna be the conservative/regressive bunch that'll be misgendering and all that. Trans kids will get bullied, there will be some also coming from conservative adults, but it doesn't make sense when writers juxtapose 1980s America on Japan.

HOMOPHOBIA AND "YAOI"/"YURI":

Which reminds me, you all have probably seen a lot of "yaoi." Here's the thing: it's gay fetish for straight consumption. Why do you think one guy is always "manly" and the other's "womanly"? It's a homophobic genre. "Yuri" is used for both that kind of thing and actual stuff by and for lesbians, but it's exactly like all those straight men googling"lesbian porn" on RedTube. To this extent, I'd probably need an extra amount of back and forth for shipping with a male character of a female mun. I'm not gonna rule it out, but I'm gonna be a little picky there. Not so much with any other gender. Most NB people I've met tend to really get this kind of thing, although it's a small number that I've met.

ABSOLUTE RULE:

Also, if you wanna play in Japanese, こうして日本語で書くんだ。*全部を* If you can't do that, write in English or Spanish. I've gotten my face punched in for legit broken English. It's not a "cute aesthetic uwu."

HOMOPHOBIA IN JAPAN:

There's a lot of... homophobia came with Admiral Perry for the most part, and it's...gay is not called evil or anything, but it's also difficult to actually *walk down the street holding hands with another man.* I can't speak on it too much, because I only started dating until after high school when I was already here. It's definitely not Regan's America, but it's also not free of homophobia. Unfortunately, I can't quite say how it is.

OTHER ABSOLUTE RULE:

But I also...it really grates my nerves when I see m/m shipping fic throwing around the word "sin" like it's the best thing ever to call queer people. It's not. It's the worst thing ever.

JAPANESE GEOGRAPHY/"KARAKURA TOWN":

One thing that non-Japanese speaking fans of Bleach always miss is what a town is in Japan. So, let's set this up with one a bit south of where I lived that has "town" in its name. Ninomiya Town is in Central Ward of Koube City, which is in Hyougo Province, which is in Japan. There're more divisions, but those are the ones you need to send a letter. It's kinda like how Compton and Wilmington are both in Los Angeles, as in part of the city. Karakura is an imaginary town in Tokyo. I'd say it's like having an American comic set in a place called Lawndale, except THERE IS ACTUALLY A TOWN CALLED THAT. It's one of L.A.'s suburban nearby towns.

NOT A RULE, BUT SOMETHING I DO ASK:

Some RPers really love to abuse the format buttons. I can't read stuff that looks like House of Leaves. Please don't do that with me, even if you do it with others.

Sum:

My life has not been easy. I've actually outlined two big triggers I run into a lot in this fandom (they send me into a rage): the "garnish human default English with exotic Japanese" (which is also bad writing. Look at Edgar Allan Poe. Murders in the Rue Morgue is really terrible writing in many ways, and random French thrown in is one of them) and the "hot sexy sinful gay." I'm also not sure I can handle running Ichigo through a transphobic scenario. Beyond that, I don't think I really have anything that will get my blood pressure up and you instantly blocked. I urge you to also share yours with me and others you play with.

DON'T PANIC WHEN I DON'T IMMEDIATELY REPLY. IT PROBABLY HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH YOU:

Finally, I work on-call. Sometimes, I have eight days off in a row. Sometimes, I'm heading back from getting groceries, and my boss is asking if I can be in the next city over in seven minutes and work graveyard for the next eight days. When I'm at home, I have no kids, partner, roommate, or even pet goldfish. As long as writer's block stays away, I have no impediments to replying. When I find myself with long stretches of work-sleep-work, I'll be sure you know I'm gonna take time to reply. If I find myself suddenly called in, I won't be able to do it same day. If I'm having trouble proceeding the plot, I'll bounce ideas off you. Generally, you'll know what's up by the next day at latest. So don't freak out if I don't reply pronto. I'm kind of a desk jockey sort of, but in social work with severely physically ill people, so it's not exactly a job I can just be looking at the Web during. Lots of emergencies. I don't approve of goofing off at work anyway, but I do always need to have an ear out. (And I already only have one functioning one!)

"YOU LOOK FAMILIAR":

Blog username means "My name is Ichigo." It was the only thing I could think of that named it for its purpose. I've rp'd before, but that blog was attached to other ones where I drew the ire of trolls, or that shared permissions with people who turned out to be very bad people. I didn't have a whole lot on my rp blog, wasn't terribly active, so I decided to start fresh.

Feel free to ask questions!

#about mun #about rules #about Japan #about setting