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multikhabar-blog · 4 years

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Juju Dhau – The King Yogurt from

Juju Dhau is the famous Nepalese made yogurt found, especially, inside the Kathmandu Valley (Bhaktapur). The word “Dhau” means a sweet yogurt, which is typically prepared by the Newars, an indigenous tribe of Nepal. Juju Dhau literally means “The King Yogurt” in Newari language. Its sweet custard, tastes like yogurt, comes from Bhaktapur, which carries a prime importance during festivals. Originated from Bhaktapur, during ancient Malla era, Juju Dhau is not only reachable in Bhaktapur but you can find them elsewhere inside the habitation of Newar community, for instance Kathmandu Valley and Patan. Being a yogurt, a milk product, Juju Dhau is created by bacterial fermentation, which is a metabolic process that changes sugar into acids, gasses and liquor. It happens in yeast and in microorganisms Juju Dhau is usually prepared from buffalo milk. First of all, buffalo milk is boiled; after the milk is boiled, it is poured into the traditional clay pot which is known as “kataura” or “maato ‘ko’ kataura”. Clay pots must be warm but prior to this process, clay pots are poured into the water to prevent them from absorbing milk from the curd. Here, no sugar is added to bring sweetness but spices like, coconuts, cardamom, etc would create mouth-melting sweetness. These clay pots, then, kept in warm places wrapping them with rice husks. By nature clays are porous, as an advantage, it slowly helps the milk to evaporate, which converts milk into the delicious thick yogurt inside the clay pots. It has been so sweet, rich, and creamy in taste which attributes Bhaktapur a legendary and one of the popular cities of Nepal. Dhau defines “purity” and it has become compulsory to utilize its purity in many parts of festivals and religions in Nepal like Dashain, Tihar, Lohsar, and many other pious festivals.

#TheKing Food Nepal

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runawaykotaro · 5 years

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hi i have a weirdly specific question about the benizakura arc cause im rereading it. irt katsuras "death" do you think gintoki ever ended up, even for a small portion believing kataura did die, or did he always hold faith? its probably a silly question but i keep vacillating between gintoki having strong faith in his friends abilities vs being pragmatic after his fight w nizou that he himself only got out of because of shinpachi so i wanted to know your opinion cause your meta is fun to read

Thank you!! I’m glad that you enjoy reading my meta posts! I really enjoy writing them!

You’ve posed a really interesting question, and one that I’ve been vacillating on for a while. Unfortunately, I don’t really have a definite opinion. I’m inclined to believe, however, that Gintoki believed that Katsura was alive the whole time. My rationale gets kind of long though- so the rest of this post is going to be under a read more.

This comes first from taking Gintoki’s dialogue, parallels to later confrontations in the arc, and shonen genre conventions. First, you have his initial confrontation with Nizou where he tells Nizou “Zura would never be killed by a lame-ass murderer like you.” Then, after being shown Zura’s hair, “Don’t make me repeat myself. Zura would never be killed by a nobody like you.” (admittedly, this was before Gintoki almost died but,) In the manga at least, Gintoki never contradicts this or expresses any doubt about it past this. Second, the way that Zura going missing is mirrored (paralleled? I’m not quite sure what the correct literary term would be lol) later in the arc also suggests that Gintoki believed that Katsura lived. The first moment is when Katsura jumps out of and slashes takasugi- then immediately says ‘I could not rest knowing that I had been killed by a former comrade. Isn’t that true for you as well, Takasugi?’ The second moment is Katsura and Takasugi watching Gintoki battle Nizou on the roof, while Takasugi comments that fighting the benizakura is like fighting a battleship with your bare hands. Neither of those situations DIRECTLY match up with how Nizou claiming that he killed Katsura, but they all convey the Joui 3′s confidence in the others’ abilities to survive. Each of them believes that the others can’t die except in specific circumstances. Because Katsura and Takasugi believe that of Gintoki, and because of the way the narrative hints at their understanding of each other, it implies that Gintoki would hold the same faith in Katsura even faced with the heavy realities of his confrontation with Nizou. You can also say here that Gintoki is familiar with the fact that Zura is “Runaway Kotaro” too (I’m still so glad i got this url) and knows that Zura is the kind of combatant who would play dead or hide, and doesn’t feel the need to engage with an aggressor to the end of the confrontation. That leads into the shounen genre conventions- the protagonists Believes in their Companions, unless something Actually Happened to them, in which case the Protagonist is able to Instantly Distinguish that what the antagonist is saying is True. I’m not sure how to explain it better but basically, metatextually, as the protagonist, Gintoki gets to believe that Katsura is alive as long as Katsura is alive.

Of course, if that was all there was to consider, then it would be a pretty clear cut question to answer. There are significant conflicts with those arguments. For Gintoki’s thoughts, in the manga, he doesn’t comment on Zura’s life status after “Zura would never be killed by a nobody like you,” however, the movie has the conversation with Tetsuko: ‘I can’t help you. I got beaten up, and my friend was killed.’ With this line in mind, Gintoki does seem to think Zura is dead. However, his sincerity when delivering his line is called into question when it’s revealed that he was intending to help Tetsuko all along, he was just trying to shake off Tae. But why say that to her at all? Neither Tae nor Tetsuko know Zura at that point, and saying that to Tetsuko when she’s already torn up about what Benizakura is being used to do just seems pointlessly cruel. So if it wasn’t part of the deception, why say it at all if he didn’t believe it? (There’s just A LOT to discuss with this line, and I feel like its the line that called Gintoki’s belief in Zura’s survival into question the most.) Another piece that could easily be interpreted either way is the panels after Gintoki sees that Katsura is alive:

(First of all, don’t even get me started on that line but) He doesn’t look shocked, which would imply that he believed that Katsura was alive the whole time, however, Gintoki isn’t a very open person, and his expression could ALSO be interpreted as relief, implying that he was worried that Katsura was dead.

There’s also the element of rationality, like you said. Gintoki almost died fighting Nizou- would have died if Shinpachi and the police hadn’t intervened. Nizou also showed him Katsura’s cut off hair, which is solid evidence there was a confrontation that Zura didn’t escape from unscathed. The rationality argument conflicts with the shounen conventions, because the protag usually just Believes what is correct, without regards to pesky things like logic, reason, and the possibility of death in a combat situation. However, Gintama has violated shounen conventions plenty of times before- Gintoki just being who he is stomps all over the idea of what a shounen hero is supposed to be. However, it does tend to stay pretty close to the power of peoples’ bonds- which is why I believe that the protagonist power of Companion Well-being Radar is in play here.

So there are a lot of different factors at play, and while I do believe that Sorachi intended to convey that Gintoki kept faith in Katsura the whole time, there’s a solid argument that that’s not the case. Personally, I change my interpretation every other drabble I write about the benizakura arc, so…? I can’t really give you a definite answer. I think that Gintoki could have been in a possible middle ground. Maybe he believed that Katsura was alive but was worried that he wasn’t? Or he might have been too focused on Tetsuko, Shinpachi, and Kagura to focus on thinking about whether or not Katsura was alive? I don’t really know, but I feel like it’s more likely that Gintoki believed that Katsura was alive for the duration of the benizakura arc.

#Meta #New years cards #Sorry its so long. And late. And goes back and forth so much.#but this is actually a question that has been bugging me for a long time!!!#It was cool to dissect it!!!

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wearejapanese · 5 years

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For any diaspora Nikkei who don’t know what dialect/ language their family spoke, some of these recordings might be kind of fun. The National Institute for Japanese Language and Linguistics made a bunch of field recordings back in the late 60s to early 70s. The above page has samples of both the transcripts and the audio files. The links labeled 本文 are PDFs containing transcripts. The links labeled 音声ファイル are the audio files (some recordings have more than one audio file). Each set of files (1-15) is for a different area. Some of these municipalities no longer exist, and the current name has been provided in parentheses.

Kagoshima, Kagoshima,1965

Miyagi Prefecture, Miyakonojō, 1967

Kagoshima Prefecture, Kawanabe District, Kasasa, Kataura (Minami-satsuma), 1968

Gifu Prefecture, Fuwa District, Tarui, Iwate, 1968

Kochi Prefecture, Kochi, Asakura Yoneda, 1968

Akita Prefecture, Oga, Wakimoto Okura, 1968

Kagoshima Prefecture, Kumage District, Kamiyaku, Miyanoura (Yakushima), 1968

Kochi Prefecture, Hata District, Ōgata (Kurashio), 1968

Ishikawa Prefecture, Hakui District, Shio-machi, Ogichi (Hōdatsushimizu), 1968

Aichi Prefecture, Komaki, Fujishima, 1968

Kyoto, Kyoto, 1969

Okinawa, Sesoko/Shiiku/Sisuko (Motobu/ Mutubu), 1971

Shizuoka Prefecture, Shizuoka, Moto(?)Ōkawa-mura, (Shizuoka, Aoi-ku), 1972

Okinawa, Yaeyama Islands, Hatoma/ Patuma (Taketomi/ Teedun), 1973

Regretfully, this series had no recordings of any Ainu languages nor of more well-known Japanese dialects such as Tsugaru-ben and Saga-ben.

#Japan #languages #dialects #Japanese Language #Okinawan Languages #Saitō #Japanese #Okinawan

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motokootsuki · 3 years

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Motoko Otsuki

1979 Born in Tokyo, Japan

2004 B.A., Tokyo Zokei University, Tokyo, Japan

2007 M.A., Tokyo Zokei University, Tokyo, Japan

●Solo Exhibition●

2021 Motoko Otsuki Exhibition, Kintetsu Department Store Osaka-Uehommachi, Osaka, Japan

2020 Motoko Otsuki Exhibition, Gallery M.A.P., Fukuoka, Japan

2019 One Day, Nihonbashi Mitsukoshi Main Store 6F Art Spot, Tokyo, Japan

2018 Art Fair Tokyo[Art Fair: Solo Exhibition at Takashi Somemiya Gallery booth], Tokyo, Japan

2017 Passing Scenery, Takashi Somemiya Gallery, Tokyo, Japan

2015 Separate Slowly, Takashi Somemiya Gallery, Tokyo, Japan

2013 Things of Go to Faraway, Takashi Somemiya Gallery, Tokyo, Japan

2012 Dimly Seen in the Distance, Takashi Somemiya Gallery, Tokyo, Japan

Move Slowly, Gallery SPEAK FOR, Tokyo, Japan

2011 ablank, HERMAS GALLERY, Tokyo, Japan

2008 Motoko Otsuki innocent bystander, Galerie Sho Contemporary Art, Tokyo, Japan

2006 Motoko Otsuki Oil Painting Exhibition, Cafe FLYING TEAPOT, Tokyo, Japan

2005 Motoko Otsuki Exhibition, Gallery Cafe Lavande, Tokyo, Japan

Everyday Life and Happiness as Usual, Gallery Cafe Lavande, Tokyo, Japan

●Group Exhibition●

2022 Gowanus Open Studio 2022, Sakaki Studio, New York

J-Collabo AAME Awardee Exhibition, OSSAM GALLERY, New York

DECAGON, Mika Bushwick, New York

Destined Encounters, Sho plus 1, Tokyo, Japan

Annual Artists Exhibition, OSSAM GALLERY, New York

Boundaries Of CANON, Tenri Cultural Institute Of New York

Intersection, 3rd ethos, Bushwick, New York

　　　 Eight Japanese Artist, NowHere, Soho, New York

2021 Dystopia/Utopia, NowHere, Soho, New York

2018 100 Arts for Gifts, Sansiao Gallery, Tokyo, Japan

2016 Deco Deco Deco!, Nihonbashi Mitsukoshi Main Store Exhibition Hall, Tokyo, Japan

2015 Spring Show, Takashi Somemiya Gallery, Tokyo, Japan

Hanayama Open Studio, Hanayama Atelier, Tokyo, Japan

2014 Hanayama Open Studio, Hanayama Atelier, Tokyo, Japan

Spring Show, Takashi Somemiya Gallery, Tokyo, Japan

2013 Yadokari Tokyo Project “New Wall”, Walls Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan

2012 JPEG + ROW, Gallery Lara Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan

Depth of Field, HARMAS GALLERY, Tokyo, Japan

2011 Sweets Exhibition, Gallery EKOAN, Tokyo, Japan

Let’s Play at Kataura Junior High School, Kanagawa, Japan

2010 Camaboco Exhibition, Tokyo Zokei University Painting Building, Tokyo, Japan

Weekly Exhibition at a-bout 2 Tatami Mats, Galerie Sho Contemporary Art, Tokyo, Japan

2009 CLARA DESIRE+MASAKO+Motoko Otsuki, Galerie Sho Contemporary Art, Tokyo, Japan

Journey, Relation, Memory, Atelier Hayakawa, Kanagawa, Japan

2008 Something Sweet 4 Girls, Galerie Sho Contemporary Art, Tokyo, Japan

Atelier Exhibition-No Name Yet-, Atelier Hayakawa, Kanagawa, Japan

2007 New Wave Contemporary Artists Exhibition, Galerie Sho Contemporary Art, Tokyo, Japan

a smoky room-The Sky is Unknown, The Room is Unknown, The World is Unknown-,

MONKEY GALLERY, Tokyo, Japan

2006 Listen to the Picture, See the Sound, AXIS Living Theater SCENE, Tokyo, Japan

Strong and Fleeting Connection, Gallery Cafe Lavande, Tokyo, Japan

2004 Post Card 300 People Exhibition, Gallery Tamago no Kobo, Tokyo, Japan

DISCOVERY 2004, Key Gallery, Tokyo, Japan

Sea, Observatory, Bright Sunshine, Art Space Wind, Chiba, Japan

Design Festa, Tokyo Big Sight, Tokyo, Japan

2002 Artistic Apartment Complex, Tokyo Zokei University, Tokyo, Japan

Awards

2006 Tokyo Wonder Seeds, Tokyo Wonder Site, Tokyo, Japan

2007 ART AWARD TOKYO,Marunouchi Gyokou Underground Gallery, Tokyo, Japan

Tokyo Wonder Seeds, Tokyo Wonder Site, Tokyo, Japan

Commission Works

2004 Duck Restaurant “Kamon-ya” Mural, Yurakucho Underpass Street, Tokyo, Japan

2003 Duck Restaurant “Kamon-ya” Mural, Yurakucho Underpass Street, Tokyo, Japan

●Art Fairs●

2018 Art Fair Tokyo, Japan

2015 Art Fair Tokyo, Japan

2014 Art Fair Tokyo, Japan

2013 ULTRA 006, Tokyo, Japan

2012 ULTRA 005, Tokyo, Japan

2009 Art Fair Tokyo, Japan

2008 KIAF, Seoul, Korea

ART OSAKA, Japan

ART@AGNES, Tokyo, Japan

Binding

Song of the Exile, Kiana Davenport, Gentosha

●CD Jacket●

Colors, EXTRUDERS

●Lectures●

2020 Tokyo Zokei University, Tokyo, Japan

2022 Kyusyu Sangyo University, Fukuoka, Japan

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dropintomanga · 6 years

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Complex Age and Its Fashionable Look at Ideals vs. Reality

“Love is a curse. It’s suffocating...and so...comforting.”

For many of us growing up, we have ideas on what we and/or the world should be like. We look at our surroundings, process everything around, and then decide whether to adapt or strive for something better. What we believe based on our experiences becomes a huge part of our identities. While this is a good thing for the self, the world almost always stands ready to go against what you hold to be true. Case in point - look at fandom vs. the real world. Geek culture has become so prominent that it creates ideals and ideology in people on how things should be. Alas, the nature of reality has shown that even fans are not immune to bias.

I want to take another look at Yui Sakama’s Complex Age to highlight how the main character’s ideals become broken over time and how it isn’t such a terrible thing to happen.

As I discussed in an earlier post about the series, Complex Age is about a 26-year-old worker named Nagisa Kataura who cosplays outside of work. She hides her hobby in order to not be judged. However, when she gets into cosplay mode, Nagisa turns into a harsh critic over how the perfect cosplay should be. She obsesses over details that most fans don’t think about. Nagisa will go as far as to criticize whether fans watch the series they cosplay from if they do the wrong poses or say the wrong catchphrases. However, Nagisa has some doubts due to her age as she feels insecure about anyone younger than her that can pull off the same cosplays she does with no problem.

That tension becomes escalated as Nagisa & her friend, Kimiko, meet Aya Kurihara, a new young cosplayer who wishes to learn from Nagisa out of admiration. A cosplay of Nagisa’s from a series called Magical Ururu-chan is a central part of the story. Nagisa cosplays the main character, Ururu, and pulls out all the stops to cosplay her despite her tall height and aging looks. However, Aya is considered to look just like Ururu. She was regarded to have perfect resemblance to Ururu if she cosplayed her. During a cosplay shoot with Aya, Kimiko, and another girl named Shiho where everyone cosplayed Magical Ururu-chan, Nagisa becomes insecure as she considered herself to be the perfect Ururu. Kimiko reassures her that Aya still has a way to go to be a perfect Ururu, as Aya notes that she was only copying Nagisa’s poses without thought about what goes into doing them.

Having ideals is important because it makes us into better people. People need to believe in something in order to take on life without hesitation. Chasing after important goals gives us a reason to live. Reason is what has gotten human society to progress as far as it has. Ideals are the foundation of what makes certain communities stronger than others.

Of course, chasing for ideals can mean chasing for a sense of perfection that can’t be attained. Nagisa gets challenged by her mother and a new boyfriend (later turned ex), both of whom criticized her love of cosplay. They try to tell Nagisa that her hobby isn’t worth it as she gets older. Nagisa fights them off as she proclaims how her cosplay self and her real self are the same. While dealing with how Aya seems to pull off an amazing aura in cosplay, she becomes confronted with another cosplayer, Rui-tasu, who admires her to the point that she becomes a harsh critic like her. Rui sets up Aya to be harassed online on various message boards and Nagisa had to put a stop to it, but not without thinking about how her perfectionist behavior may have hurt cosplayers who didn’t deserve it.

For a hobby like cosplay, perfection appears to be an end goal for many who do it. They want as many fans and social media “likes” as possible to get the attention they feel they deserve. Once cosplayers get the praise, it can become a drug. They want more of it. Positive comments give cosplayers the drive to keep going. For them and also us, it comes down to being treated as never good enough by critics and wanting acceptance of any kind. During high school, Nagisa dreaded the daily routine in her life and wished she could do more. It wasn’t until Kimiko insisted that she start cosplay after bonding over their shared love of otaku hobbies.

Fast forward to later events in Volume 5, where Kimiko decides to quit cosplay after doing it with Nagisa since their high school days. It’s revealed that Kimiko wanted to focus more on photography than cosplay as her main hobby. She later thinks about how she was chasing Nagisa for the longest time as the latter was the better cosplayer. Kimiko wanted the attention Nagisa got. When Kimiko knew that all her efforts were meaningless in the end after taking many cosplay photos of Nagisa over the years, she said to herself that she felt stupid for trying to get to Nagisa’s level in cosplay personification.

It kind of throws a wrench into the whole “hard work beats everything” notion, doesn’t it? Kimiko did everything that cosplayers would do to get better. But what happened? Some studies do mention that while practice at an activity does help someone get past gifted individuals, what also matters is the environment they’re in and whether their cognitive ability is excellent. Both Nagisa and Kimiko went through the same environment, but Nagisa’s ability to process and comprehend her cosplay tactics in an effective manner combined with hard work put her way above Kimiko.

And speaking of environment and genetics helping someone, thanks to the training of Nagisa, Aya became an excellent cosplayer in her own right. A mesmerizing scene happens near the end of the series when Nagisa takes a drunk Aya back home to her place. She sees Aya’s Ururu costume and a colleague puts it on Aya for fun. Nagisa’s Ururu fantasy comes crashing down after seeing Aya in full Ururu cosplay. She then goes home and cuts apart the Ururu costume she made with hesitation. Afterwards, Nagisa notes that it wasn’t as bad as she thought it was going to be.

In the end of the day, what does it take for someone to realize their limits? Complex Age poses the age-old question of how big do you let the gap between ideals and reality grow. You can’t make every dream come true. One answer the series suggests is to figure out what exactly do you love about the hobbies you enjoy. For Nagisa, she found out that the process of making costumes for herself and other people keeps her going. Nagisa starts her own costume-making business as a result. That was her answer in the end.

It perhaps comes down is how much someone values winning above all. Competition does bring out the best between people involved (as we’ve seen in so many manga), but it’s very much more about the self versus others. There’s a mentality that you have to win above everyone else in areas surrounded by those similar to you. It can be effective, but it burns someone else fast if expectations aren’t reached. A better tactic is to be genuinely likable. Nagisa’s efforts to help her friends slowly paid off over time to bring forth further evolution of her dream. This will bear repeating - genuine kindness exists and there should be more of it. Being kind to others is a win-win for everyone.

There was a scene in Volume 4 after Nagisa tells off Rui and she says while thinking about her friends.

“I’m pretty sure...I must have looked like that (Rui telling Nagisa she was worthless to her) to someone. But now...I want to think that I haven’t only ever hurt people. I’m the luckiest of us all.”

Friends will always be more important than ideals because the ones who preach those ideals aren’t exactly your friends. Anyone telling you that they’re truly right about something is trying to sell you something that should be met with some skepticism. I wish more people realized this.

That’s why I enjoyed Complex Age’s look at fandom because all it’s trying to say is to not let any kind of self-absorbing beliefs poison something that’s supposed to be fun for everyone involved. If you’re happy you’re better than a group of people, guess what? It will never get you the kind of love that really makes a positive difference in your life. And no one is truly better than the other in various areas.

Having good friends to take on the complexities of life with you, no matter what age, helps ease the harshness of reality and actually make your reality not so complex.

#Complex Age #manga #psychology of ideals #ideology #psychology #fandom #cosplay #Yui Sakama #psychology of popularity

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