00:00
Welcome to Kevin's Hingless Room Podcast!
Hello hello!
Hi.
Hello hello!
So you found a book.
Yes, in your shelf, which is "Anujya no Ni Hana Tabalo" by Daniel Keys.
When I was in high school, I was in the drama club and we did this.
We did this script.
"Anujya no Ni Hana Tabalo"
I think I was the main character, but my Japanese was so terrible that they kicked me out.
And I forgot which character I played.
Maybe Tree?
Maybe Tree!
The one who doesn't have to talk.
But...
Yeah, you were in a drama club.
I was in a drama club doing all these acting and stuff.
Like you were kind of surprised.
Yeah!
That I was in the drama club?
Or...
Like you know this book.
Ah, right right right.
Like I thought you were not...
A non-book reader.
Yeah yeah yeah.
I am not a non-book reader.
Like honestly, I don't know why I entered the drama club.
What?
I mean, I know this book because I was in the drama club.
And that was our next upcoming play.
To do "Anujya no Ni Hana Tabalo".
So it really wasn't my decision there.
It was the group's decision.
And um...
I...
You know...
Like when you're in the drama club, you have to read a lot.
And I'm not a book guy.
Was it English drama club?
No, it was a Japanese drama club.
All in Japanese?
It was all in Japanese.
And I have no idea why I entered that.
Like looking back at it now, like in hindsight, I would never choose a drama club.
Which is so predicated on the Japanese language.
Must be really really difficult for you.
It was fucking difficult.
Like you...
Right. I had to memorize these words, man.
Really?
Memorize them.
Wow.
Because it's a drama club.
During the play, you can't look at your die hard, right?
Sure, but...
But I...
I have no idea why I challenged myself.
Like...
Why I challenged myself so hard.
Like other times, you just came to Japan.
I just came to Japan.
And you...
Like you were a really bad speaker.
I was a really bad speaker.
A Japanese speaker.
And I have no idea why I...
I put myself in a position to challenge myself so hard.
But...
03:01
Like now you really do speak Japanese like Japanese people.
Like it's really so natural.
But I remember when we met the first time.
Yeah.
At the university.
Yeah.
You know, you spoke a little bit...
Weird.
Differently.
Right.
I still had the American vibes in me.
Yeah.
So think about that.
You in high school.
Yeah.
You just came from the United States.
I can't imagine that you act this in Japanese.
Right.
Like the...
So the club would be like, "Okay, the next script is going to be 'Arujan no Tabo'."
And I'll be like, "Okay, I don't know what that is."
But like they printed it out.
Right?
And they give it to me.
And I'll be like, "It's full of kanji that I can't read."
So what I would do is I would go home and put a yomigana on each one.
On every one of these...
Okay, furiganas.
Furiganas that I don't understand.
And not only that, there's like 40% of the words that they're using is not...
I don't know what they mean.
Right?
So like whenever we do like a yomi-awase...
Like I wouldn't understand how to read them because I don't know what they're saying.
Right?
I don't know what they're saying.
I don't know what kind of emotions I should apply.
Why did you enter to that class?
Exactly!
Like in hindsight, I was like, "What the fuck was I thinking to join a drum club with the Japanese language level that I had?"
Like, why are you challenging yourself so much?
You have to put your emotion in your words, which you don't understand at all.
Wow.
I think if I remember correctly, I had the image that an athlete club is very strict.
Japanese athlete club.
Right, extremely strict.
So I think I had it inside me that I didn't want to join that kind of club.
I didn't want to be like, wake up every morning and do asaren.
That I didn't want to do.
So I was like, the sports club were excluded from the list.
And then I remember like, when I was in the United States, we did some sort of a little play in English.
As a fun lesson kind of thing.
We did an English play when I was in the United States.
And I did fairly well.
I was able to act pretty decently.
And I was enjoying it.
So I guess that's how I chose the drum club.
Yeah, I did not take account of the Japanese barriers that would have came.
So I hated it. I did.
06:02
Yeah, I did not enjoy it.
Hopefully none of my members are listening to this podcast right now.
But I did not enjoy them.
But you liked the members, right?
Yeah, I did. I liked the members.
But you didn't like the activities.
The activities itself was just...
I mean, I liked acting.
But the language barrier was so high.
Yeah, I can't imagine that.
It was so high that it became like a really heavy burden for me.
It was just...
It was so much for me to execute.
Of course.
There were so many things to...
There were way too many things that I did not understand.
The acting itself was fun.
Imagining me acting in English.
Yeah.
It was so difficult, right?
We did an improv.
Improv was fun.
Improv, you didn't have to memorize any English.
It was a little conversation.
Right.
You only had to use words that you understood.
So that was easy.
But all these difficult scripts that involved professional words.
Professional way of saying things is professional, right?
It's artwork.
They're not usually a conversation way of saying.
It's more artistic way of saying.
And that was barrier too.
You can't change the language.
You can't change...
Exactly.
You have to say it as if it's written.
As they're written.
So that was difficult too.
Wow.
I shouldn't went with the K-On!
K-On!
I shouldn't went with the musical route.
Yeah.
Then you can sing in English.
Right, right, right.
That's what I should have done.
But of course, every club has ups and downs.
That was the right answer at the moment.
So that's the right answer for me.
Because that's what I chose at that moment in my life.
Maybe that helped your Japanese skills.
Drastically.
Yeah.
I definitely know that it did help drastically.
Renew vocabularies.
I had to read.
When you're doing a yomi awase,
you have to read at a pace that doesn't disturb the flow of the conversation.
So it forced me to read fast.
Which adjusted my brain to the Japanese.
So it was a really good training wheel.
Yeah.
So hard.
Maybe if I entered a musical club,
my Japanese skill wouldn't be as good as they are right now.
09:00
Right.
Right? Maybe.
Yeah.
If you look at it positively.
That was a good choice then.
It was a good choice.
Yeah.
It was tough, but it was a good choice.
Good training maybe.
Yeah.
Mental training.
Wow.
Linguistic training.
Things like that.
So will I do it again?
No.
But was it a good skill?
Yes.
Yes.
Do you remember any other script?
I do.
"Chichi to Kuraseba."
Wow.
Do you know what that is?
Yeah.
It was a topic about the atomic bomb of Hiroshima.
How a girl survived the attack but lost her father,
and how she still can't forget about the father that she lost.
And then, right, that's the story.
And how she overcomes that mental difficulties.
Wow.
And I played the father.
It was a two-person play.
The daughter and the father.
And I played the father.
And I spoke in Hiroshima band.
Really?
And we got into like, "Kentai Kai."
Amazing, right?
There was a "Chiki Tai Kai" and then a "Kentai Kai"
and then like a "Kanto Tai Kai" and then a "Zenkoku Tai Kai."
I won the "Chiki Tai Kai" with that play.
Me doing the father in Hiroshima band.
Hiroshima band!
And two people act, two person act.
But we didn't make it after the "Kentai Kai."
But it was a surprise that we made the "Chiki Tai Kai."
I know you are good at acting, but speaking in Hiroshima band.
It was a hardcore Japanese guy.
It was a "Hiroshima Ben Ojiichan."
It's a heavy hardcore Japanese acting.
It's really really broken type of Japanese.
Yeah.
Wow.
I think it's really hard to understand for like beginner Japanese.
It was...
Wow.
I remember I practiced the Hiroshima band.
It was a sound.
It was basically sound for me.
I didn't understand some of the language that he was saying.
But I remembered the scripts as if they were sounds.
Maybe that led to some difficulties in trying to put out the emotion.
Because I interpreted as a sound,
I did not comprehend completely with the emotions that came along with it.
Therefore, it led to not being able to express them on stage.
Therefore, not as good as a play.
12:00
Compared to the people who did actually understand every lines that the father was saying.
Yeah.
But maybe that helped pronounce correctly.
Yes. Definitely.
Like native Hiroshima.
Definitely.
Wow.
I still have the footage of me acting the father.
Really?
So maybe someday we can watch that.
Let's see that.
There's still at my house.
I sometimes look at it.
When I moved, recently I moved, right?
You know how the cliche act that you do, cliche things that you do when you're moving out.
You open your memory box.
Yeah.
And then you spend three hours consuming.
Yeah, try to clean up but start watching them.
I did the exact same thing.
I found the "Tichinokura Saber" that I did.
I watched it and I was like, wow.
Wow.
I just came to Japan and I was doing this.
Wow.
And I was surprised of my own skills.
Yeah.
The hard work that I put in that play.
I was like, good job, Kevin.
Yeah.
Wow.
So a new story that no one's ever heard, right?
I didn't know about that.
I really want to see that.
Yeah, if you guys want to see it, I'm open for it.
Wow.
Kevin speaking Hiroshima dialect.
Hiroshima dialect.
Wow.
Alright, thanks for listening guys.
Bye bye.
