Long time no see...again? ( また。。。久しぶり？)

Good morning, kids. I apologize for the long lack of... well, anything resembling content. After returning from Japan last May, I thought I was rather done with a travel blog.

But after being rejected from my dream job earlier this morning, I had a revelation. If I want to get myself out there in the world, I've got to do something about it myself. The sad fact is, I'm a little over specialized. Sure, a Japanese major is great if I'm destined for professor-dom, but for anything else? Er. Kinda... worthless?

Turns out, companies actually want skills aside from the ability to write twenty page papers on Tokugawa homoerotic literature. Who knew.

So here I am, making this blog something worth while--or rather, something worth reading--in the hopes that I'll attract some attention to myself. A futile attempt, perhaps, but never let it be said that I didn't try.

As you noticed, I've dropped the bilingual act. (Except in the title...) I apologize to all of those who were attracted by this aspect of my blog. I may write Japanese posts in the future, but making every single post bilingual is... how shall we say... a time suck. And quite frankly, if I'm going to make an effort to actually update this thing regularly, I can't very well make it a time suck now can I.

So. Now dawns the new era of my blog, in which I will discuss... well, basically my thoughts and anything and everything Japan-related that comes to my mind! Aren't you all so excited?

Today's topic: 独壇場Beauty, Buck-Tick's new single.



For all of those who don't know: I am a major Buck-Tick fan.

Buck-Tick, founded in 1985, is often heralded (along with X-Japan) as the band that began the Visual Kei movement. That claim is more easily justified if you look at some of their older works. They quite reasonably have evolved beyond that point. In that vein, I, of course, maintain that V-Kei is dead, and all those that persist at it are horrible, horrible musicians who are waaay too late into their selected genre(I'm looking at you, GAZETTE.)

Unlike a number of bands, Buck-Tick has continued going strong since their debut, separating for a short time to do single work, but quickly re-joining to produce more albums as a band. Twenty-five years later, they're still producing excellent music, and Atsushi, for one, is still as aesthetically pleasing as ever. (Feel free to argue, but I think he's the only one. The rest have not aged as well.)

Now why, you ask, have I begun my trek into the music field with Buck-Tick, and not my beloved Dir en grey?

Well, honestly, Buck-Tick just released a single today, and Dir en grey didn't. They released a single in December, and quite frankly, it isn't as catchy. More head-bangy. But I digress.

独壇場Beauty (which roughly translated to Unequaled or Unrivaled Beauty) is a very catchy song, which demonstrates Buck-Tick's current tendency to lean further away from the hard rock genre. I'm uncertain as to whether this is a sticking trend (there weren't many "hard" songs on memento mori) or whether the next single will rival Dir in its heavy bass lines. At the same time, Atsushi has never been a screamer or a growler, so I assume it's fairly safe to say that all of you border-line rock fans will find something to like in Buck-Tick. Give this single a listen; it's a pretty good representation of their more current works. Personally, I think they're only getting better, but it's a matter of opinion, of course.

I promise I'll be more technical in the future, once I figure out what you people want from me.

In other, more personal news... yes, the rejected from the job thing is true, and the depression, she is hitting hard. I have applied for the CIR position with JET as well, and will hear back from them in a couple of weeks, theoretically. If that's also a no-go, I'm looking at English-monkey-town for the next god-knows-how-many-years. And quite frankly, English-monkey-town is pretty expensive to get into. Life, she is tough for us 外人　who want Japanese jobs.

However, I will persevere. Wish me luck, oh readers.

This is Edo, signing off.