You can Kigurumi, too!
Just as a follow up to last post. Are you interested in owning a Japanese onesie of your own? It’s pretty easy, just head to the good old internets and search for “kigurumi” or “きぐるみ”. Rakuten (one of Japan’s biggest online retailers, kind of like ebay meets amazon) has tons! And they seem to have a “global” option I never noticed before, so maybe you can even have one shipped to you!
I, myself, have recently acquired a Pikachu one.
My first ever race report: Rora and the Monkey Man
When you learn how to run, you learn a whole lot of other things, too.
I’ve learned about which sneakers to buy. I’ve learned to shut off my brain and listen to my breathing. I learned that my old neighborhood in Fukuoka had at least 8 Indian restaurants. I learned that my new neighborhood has at least 800 cats. I learned the name for two specific vertebrae in my lower spine, the L4 and the L5, and that the nerve that originates between those discs, the sciatic nerve, happens to be the largest and widest nerve in the human body. I learned that when the disc between the L4 and the L5 bulges, it can cause a lot of problems.
And so a year ago I went from learning how to run, to learning how heal myself. I had to stop running for a while.
DON’T CALL IT A COMEBACK?
I’ve gotten better. Last August I started running again, slowly building up my mileage from scratch with C25k. I was never a great runner before I got injured, but I’ve always loved running as a way to clear my head. My goal was to just run 2-3 times a week for 20-30 minutes, at whatever pace, and I made good on that goal for a while.
In December I heard about a race happening in my tiny little town, the Harajo Marathon. All running races in Japan are called marathons, but this was actually a 5k and 10k. A lot of my friends signed up to run the 10k. Feeling confident, I signed up for the 10k, too, and started training. I was regularly running 5k at this point so I was eager for the challenge of a 10k.
And then, like ALL evil villains, the sciatica came back at just the right moment in the plot of my training, about a month before the race. I took a rest for “a couple days” that ended up lasting 3 weeks.
2 days ago I went on a “can I do this?!” run. I ran 5k in the mountains behind my house. It was lonely and cloudy and not pretty, emotionally or physically, but I ran 5k in 38 minutes and wasn’t in pain, nor was I in pain the next day, so I decided to go ahead and do the race.
I can’t for the life of me get this picture to not be upside down. But here is my number! First ever!
I woke up today feeling READY. I woke up today feeling LETS DO THIS. I woke up today convinced for some strange reason (maybe it was the slight, rare bit of sun peeking through a cloud?) that I could even maybe run the whole-damn-10k-thing!
I guess in my heart I knew it was biting off more than I could chew, so I went into it with an escape plan- the course was a loop that repeated twice, so I could always run 5k and call it good.
The pre-race environment was really exciting. I’ve never felt so nervous before running before! But I’ve also never experienced the sinking feeling of watching an entire crowd of people run past you and off into the distance. It was a little crushing! I may joke a lot about being a slowpoke, but I really don’t worry about it much (and I am a pretty big worrywart so that is saying a lot). I know that getting up and just doing it matters most. I’m friends with a lot extremely talented runners and they are the reason why I am just doing it. Their love of running reminds me why I love running. If they weren’t great runners, I wouldn’t even be a runner.
But man, watching everybody run away as I slogged on, that was weird! It wasn’t even something I had anticipated even being an issue- I was too worried about whether I could even run the race to think about other “what if’s”. The whole thing felt like I was in slow motion while everybody else was going at regular speed. It was like a strange dream. Then, suddenly, the dream was over and they were all gone, off into the distance, and I was alone, back to reality, and I felt fine, maybe even relieved. It wasn’t a race anymore, it just felt like I was running for practice, which is what all running should always feel like, anyways. I began to relax.
Except I wasn’t alone.
There was a MONKEY.
There was a monkey in front of me.
A person in a monkey suit, running the race.
Some Japanese people take their hobbies really seriously. They buy the most expensive gear to prove how serious they are. Having a hobby is important. This race was full of these kinds of people. Serious faces, expensive shoes, fancy running outfits.
But some Japanese people also love to have a laugh and be crazy and dress up in funny costumes for events like this. I LOVE this. At the starting line, I saw a couple in matching bear outfits, a gladiator, a reindeer, a man wearing an afro wig, and a person in a full monkey suit.
And the monkey happened to be just so slightly ahead of me the whole race. We were running about the same speed (12 minute miles / 7:30 minute kilometers). But we ran this race basically together. We ran the looooooong, steep hill together. We ran the looooooooong windy seaside path together. We ran through the twisting streets full of sweet people yelling “ganbatte! (try your best!)” and “faito! (…fight!)” and cheering for us even though we were the only ones there. It was lovely.
Having that moneky in front of me was the best thing that could have possibly happened. The monkey kept me from slowing down when I started to feel weak-willed. The monkey reminded me not to take this race too seriously. The monkey kept me smiling to myself the whole time. The monkey helped me decide that I should listen to my body and call it good at 5k.
As we neared the 5k halfway mark, I sped up and passed the monkey. “I don’t need you anymore, monkey!” I thought to myself. And then, right at the sign, not even a step further, I stopped running, rather unceremoniously, veering away from the path into a patch of grass next to an elementary school. No finish line. Just, finished. 38 minutes again, except I didn’t feel dead like I did on Friday. I felt giddy. I even felt like I could have kept going? But I knew that my body was done and I’m proud that I listened to myself. And, hey, now I have a time to beat!
This is my favorite shot of the day. Look at how my camera can’t even handle how fast Mike is running! And the peace sign is so perfectly Justin Beiberish.
I love watching people run. It’s satisfying. I especially love watching people I know run, which I learned today, because it’s the first time I’ve seen my friends run, and they are awesome!
I walked over to the finish line to cheer on everyone on as they finished their 10ks. I caught all except my friend Devin, because he actually finished before I got to the finish line because he ran the 10k in the same 38 minutes it took me to run 5. DAMN! So amazing! I’m so excited for him, he came in 3rd in his age group! All of my friends did a kickass job and I am so proud of them and like, thinking about watching everybody run through the finish line kind of makes me tear up as I write this? Is that crazy? I don’t know? Yes? Okay, fine.
This week in Japanese Music
Do you, as I often do, wonder where has all the good Japanese music gone?
There is years worth of of great music on 8tracks if you’re looking to diversify your taste in Japanese music beyond that same damn AKB48 song on repeat. 8tracks is the only internet radio that works in Japan (that I know of- if there are others, please tell me!) so it has, I think, a lot more Japanese music than maybe Pandora or Spotify or Last.fm, all of which we can’t access. Also, I really like 8tracks because it’s this cute little community where people can express their personalities through the mixes they make in a way that sets it apart from other music streaming sites, I think.
Check out, in particular, this really great mix of New Wave that includes a good bit of Japanese New Wave. And, if you have time, all the other mixes by Geru, and, if you have even more time, this person and this mix and this mix, too.
Also this video isn’t on any of those mixes, I don’t think, but it’s AWESOME.
Mr. Synthesizer
I like to imagine all of the lyrics are saying HE’S GONNA BLIND US WITH SCIENCE
Dolls
I often wonder what my life would have been like as a Japanese kid. I would still have played a super nintendo (err, super famicom) but other than that, what?
Like, what would have been my favorite doll?
The other day I was walking through the mountain behind my house when I came across this terrifying sight, top contender for NOT my favorite doll, past, present or future:
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No hyperbole: this is absolutely the most disturbing thing I’ve ever randomly come across. I couldn’t leave the dolls side without taking photos at every angle possible, but I was holding my breath the entire time and then I, no joke, RAN away and ducked in to the nearest shrine on my way home to shake the heeby jeebies that I was feeling. So glad this is not near my house and I don’t have to see it ever again.
As innocent as they may look, dolls also symbols something more sinister, and then as you get older suddenly you can’t help but notice it all the time. There’s a certain point in your childhood when you decide a doll is scary, and from that point on even the dolls that were formerly not threatening seem different. You want to maim your dolls for fun, perhaps to subconsciously punish them for making you feel uneasy. This is why nobody is fooled by android mannequins and robots: we already wised up as kids.
CREEPY DOLLS, EVERYWHERE
Yesterday I was watching tv with some friends and their kids and a Mell Chan commercial came on. The advertisement made me stop in my tracks. Japan is known for its funny commercials, but this one was avant garde and very stripped down in a way that I’m not used to. The ad was this, and only this: simple twinkley music, shots of the doll whispering ”kawaii… kaaawaaaiiiiii… kaaawaaaiiiiiiii” (cute, cuuuute, cuuuuuuuuuuuuuute) and no other words. Then a quick cut to the Mell Chan logo aaaand, over. I haven’t been able to get it out of my head since, but unfortunately for all of us (I think?) I can’t find it on youtube or the Mell Chan official website.
While Mell Chan isn’t a particularly terrifying doll, she has a look about her that feels very retro, like nobody has bothered to give her an updated look in a good 30 years. I find that kind of thing a little refreshing, but also it gives her this air of having been abandoned. She’s like this little orphan.
Which makes it all the more awesome and appropriate that some person has made a bunch of Quinten Tarantino-esque Mell Chan tribute videos on youtube.
Just, yeah. Perfection. How do you fight creepiness? By giving it an awesome soundtrack. Also, context matters.
90′s JAPAN GIRL LIFE
I don’t have my own tv, so when I’m at someone else’s house I usually can’t tune it out like everyone else does. Especially the commercials. I apply Superbowl logic to every Japanese tv viewing experience. Never ignore the commercials or you will miss the most interesting stuff, which can range from strange foreign celebrity cameos, surprisingly subversive gender role commentary, and, yeah, dolls! Lots of dolls. There is Mell Chan, but she also has a lot of friends (or perhaps rivals?), including Licca Chan, Japan’s answer to Barbie (and who, apparently, is supposed to be half French and half Japanese. Just, you know, doll trivia for ya).
Watching the way another culture promotes something like a doll is fun but also strange. It hits me with a wave of nostalgia for my own childhood, and despite how annoyed I can get over how gendered kids toys are, the tiny arms of my inner child still reach out for the pink, shiny stuff, just like old times.
It’s also addictive. Fortunately for me, there’s youtube.
The first four minutes of this show what it’s like to be a girl growing up in 90′s Japan. Some of these are clearly American toys that were also being marketed in Japan (note how PUPPY SURPRISE gets Japanified at 3:15. Slightly different name, very different jingle) but a lot of the toys are purely Japanese creations (the mushroom and acorn walkie talkies! oh man!). It’s cool that youtube gives us access to this kind of thing.
REAL LIFE DOLLS
Which leads me to Princess Princess. If I were a Japanese girl in the early 90′s, I probably would have wanted all the dolls, but Princess Princess would have been the only band for me. This band is kind of like is Blossom was lead singer of the Go Gos and all of them were Japanese. Or something. Their biggest hit, Diamond, is a PERFECT pop song. This band ruled Japan in their day.
I love this bands style. Look at how she dances! And that hat! And none of them are naked! That’s definitely the best part. I know it’s going to make me sound like an old lady, but goddamn, this video is so refreshing. These are girls acting like girls ought to act. They have autonomy and they are having fun and they don’t seem to care what other people think and there is not a single ounce of fetishism here.
Modern Japanese pop culture struggles a lot with the idea of sex appeal in a way that is unique. Women are infantilized. Pop stars must be sexy, but they can’t act like like grown ladies, they must remain stuck in a perpetual adolescence in a really extreme way.
“Heavy Rotation” by AKB48 is the token example of this kind of thing. It’s also the biggest song in Japan right now. Like “Diamond,” it is an arguably perfect pop song, and it is just as infamous and entrenched in daily life today as “Diamond” was twenty years ago. But watch. And, you don’t have to look hard, because they hit you with it right away, and frequently.
The whole world fetishizes youth, but there is line that AKB48 seems to cross, in that many of the girls in AKB48 are still teenagers. They aren’t young looking adults. They’re kids. And they are as mainstream as it gets. This isn’t something sold in a naughty sex store or on tv after the kids go to bed. AKB48 are the images and songs you see and hear everywhere. Context.
AKB48 does receive its fair share of criticism (and rightly so!) so I know I’m not really shedding light on new territory here, but I can’t help but think about them when I watch Princess Princess.
And I mean, Princess Princess are dolls, too. They were auditioned by a music agency, just like AKB48, just like the Spice Girls, just like a lot of bands. There isn’t anything incredibly authentic about them.
But, there is nothing at all that I can find creepy about them.
On teaching and self-righteousness
I’ve been feeling a particularly happy at my job lately and I came here to write about it when suddenly I remembered (because I actually did, in fact, forget) that angry rant I wrote back in November (oh so angry) that began about a parent who made some insensitive comments about my body and ended with me going off on an unwarranted rant about teaching being a thankless job and how frustrating it is to be a foreigner in Japan.
And, I mean. I can stand by some of what I said in that rant: okay, yes I have a chest and no, I don’t like people talking about it. Yes, teaching CAN be difficult anywhere, not just in Japan. And yes, it can be frustrating to be a foreigner here. But ALSO, for me at least, teaching is usually great, the parents of my students can be lovely, and living in Japan is just boss. 99% of my days here are fantastic and I’m so happy with my job and with the experiences I’ve had. I’m running out of synonyms for “great” but you get the idea, I’m sure of it!
In short, I overreacted. And, worst of all, I never came back here to talk about the good parts of teaching, of which there are plenty.
So without sounding too “appologize-y for my feelings,” because they were feelings that I did feel and I can’t take them back, it’s important to remember that incident happened on a day when I wasn’t feeling particularly great, and my anger prevented me from framing the experience correctly in the bigger picture.
The bigger picture is interesting in what it says about Japan and America.
I come from a place where it is taboo (or at least something we all seem to recognize as “not cool”) to make comments about womens’ bodies, joke or no joke. Some people in Japan don’t have quite the same sensitivity towards this issue. They don’t usually mean anything bad by it, but it’s difficult to understand if you’re from another country. I know people who have had old ladies grab their bums in the onsen or teenage girls tap their breasts at the beach while squealing “what a cute bum/breasts you have!”. People speak and act with a certain frankness in Japan about the human body, including their own. It’s not usually meant as an insult, but, of course, when it’s your body being sized up it’s hard to know or care what their true intentions are. I hear the same thing over and over again (“Japanese ladies have small bums/boobs so of course we pay attention to yours!”) and it’s hard to explain why I don’t think that’s an okay statement to make. I was raised with a very liberal, hippie , feministey “ALL of our bodies are wonderful” attitude, one that I firmly believe. I’ve also dealt with my fare share of trying to accept my own body (ie, the joys of being a teenager with a negative body image) and all of this contributes to why I felt so uncomfortable that day last fall.
So I did another thing that my culture has taught me to do: I bitched about it. Speaking frankly about your feelings is another issue that is quite the opposite in Japan and the West. Westerners (particularly Americans? I mean, this is in essence what our whole government is based on) believe that complaining can lead to positive social change, though on the darker side, it can also lead to endless quarreling. Japanese people tend to hide their thoughts and opinions. I maybe shouldn’t speculate, since I’m not Japanese, but I imagine it’s with the idea that keeping the peace is for the greater good, though it can also keep the status quo of unspoken dissatisfaction. Complaining as we know it (ie, RANTING) doesn’t happen. People will exclaim “ah I’m tired!” or “ah it’s cold!” but there is no elaboration.
I’ve begun to wonder if this is because there is no concept of self-righteousness here. Or, maybe, a very different concept of self-righteousness?
The word in English has (very) negative connotations. I wondered: what does it mean in Japanese?
So with the disclaimer that I’m totally NOT a Japanese scholar and that on a good day I am barely able to read a childrens book, let alone more than a handful of Kanji, I looked up self-righteous in the dictionary to see what I would find. Self-righteous, in Japanese, is “dokuzenteki” or 独善的. The first kanji means “single,” the second means “virtue” and the third means “bulls-eye.” I don’t know how the word is used in the context of a conversation, though. Anybody else out there have any insight?
Cultural differences happen. Getting caught up between it is inevitable and also a common blog topic for a lot of us. Moving on and learning is good.
And making rainbows with little kids is good, too.
Teaching is incredibly rewarding, but you have to make it that way. I’ve tried my best to keep that in mind.
Behind God’s Back
This is how Japan started out: all volcanoey and farmey and rockey and with people living close to the earth, cooperating with the earth. Lots of Japanese people live in cities today and Japan is in many ways defined by what has come out of its cities, but anyone who has been to the inaka knows it’s a whole separate world.
Behind my house is a group of volcanic mountains. One of them, Mt. Fugen, errupted in 1990, killing 43 people and displacing many more. It also erupted in 1792 and caused a “mega tsunami” which killed 15,000 people, which is known as the worst volcanic related disaster in Japanese history.
It’s a very beautiful mountain range and everywhere you go, there it is. There are always clouds touching the top of Mt. Fugen, even when the rest of the sky is clear.
Lately I’ve been trying to walk more often. I usually head down the mountain towards the ocean, but lately I’ve started exploring the road that leads uphill towards the farms and mountains. Some of the roads are wide, like this, but many others are narrow and twisting. Some are dead ends that lead to houses and then I have to awkwardly backtrack and try not to seem like some kind of odd intruder.
They grow rice here, but also tobacco, sesame seeds, and many kinds of vegetables. I imagine the ground is really fertile because of the volcano.
It’s so quiet. Winter in western Japan never becomes completely un-green, nor does it freeze. The temperatures hover just above freezing, but that also means the paper thin walls of your house let in the just above freezing air. It stays warm enough in the greenhouses to grow vegetables and fruit in the winter.
Sometimes (often) you come across a shrine. No matter where you are, you are probably not far from a shrine. In the middle of the city. In the middle of the suburbs. In the middle of a patchwork of farm plots. There will be shrines.
This is looking down from a bridge. There are lots of wide valleys that must be related to the volcano. Any available land becomes terraced into farm plots, no matter how deep into the valley it is.
There is never anybody around. Sometimes I may see a woman or a man, usually old, working in the field. Sometimes a car will drive by. But otherwise, when I come up into the mountain it is utterly quiet and still.
It’s a strange kind of isolation here. I struggled with it, even though I’ve lived in equally rural places before, but I suppose living in a rural place that is halfway across the world from your home is a more potent kind of solitude.
My friend described it as “behind God’s back.” I think that’s spot on.
People always ask me “samishii desu ka?” which means “are you lonely?” and… no! I’m not. I feel like this post is taking a kind of sad tone that I hadn’t intended. These pictures, as well as my experience here in general, has caused me to spend a good deal of time by myself, thinking. It’s a good thing! I spend a lot of time alone but I’ve never been the type of person to mind that.
Another view looking down into a different valley.
I always wonder: how long have these terraces been here? Who set down all of the stones that divide the land so geometrically?
More greenhouses. They grow everything here. In Japan, all food is local. I suspect a super small percentage of my food comes from more than 100km away. Just imagine that.
Graves are also a common sight, even in the middle of farm land. These face the ocean. In Japan, everyone is cremated and families are all kept together in the same plot. All of the graves are clean and well cared for. They look pleasant and happy enough. And when you see a cluster of graves in the middle of flat farmland, the contrast is very striking.
So I crawled behind God’s back to see what I would find there.
I found quiet. I can’t understand it, and it can’t understand me, but I’ve learned to still exist and be myself in that silence. The inaka makes me crawl inside myself. My introverted side feels nourished here. My extroverted side kicked and screamed for a little bit but has calmed down considerably as I’ve learned more Japanese and made friends here. My whole life I’ve wanted to live somewhere like this, “somewhere simple!” I used to say. Isn’t that something we all say? I just wanted to live by the ocean in a small house and have a simple, enjoyable job and a few people to talk to once in a while. And I got just that! Was it as easy as I thought it would be? Not at times, but it’s been just as healthy for me as I knew it would be. Probably more so.
I want to be able to understand silence. I don’t think living here for just six months is enough time to do that, but, it’s been a good lesson.
My trip to the Sasebo Naval Base: tweet by tweet
Sasebo Burger: not on the actual base, but still with plenty of cowboy hats and freedom fries
Yesterday I went on a 3 hour road trip to go to a military base.
To go grocery shopping.
I had a hard time not gawking my head off at everything.
It was my first time on a base. Japan has quite a few and you see military kids around sometimes, especially at the airport (just as an aside, I think all foreigners in Japan are pretty good at telling by sight which of the three basic military/businessman/englishteacher categories we all fall into? Though I try not to stereotype). I’ve always been curious about military bases- what is it like on the inside? And I’ve always been curious about the experience of living in Japan from the perspective of someone in the armed forces. What do they do all day in there? Do they venture out much? Does it feel like just being back at home? I can’t help but find it completely mind boggling that my country has such a presence in other countries, especially a presence that involves closed off compounds and huge battleships and guns and bombs and also thousands of people.
Our host, my friend Kyle’s friend, was kind enough to take a few hours out of his day to sign us on base and take us shopping. And my friend Devin was awesome to drive us up. I’ll be super grateful to all of them every time I crack open a package of turkey or a pop tart or a fancy foreign beer.
If you follow me on twitter you probably noticed that I live tweeted our whole, all too brief time there. Now it’s time to go behind the tweets!
Basically the entire reason we were going was to buy/consume American food. We did eat freedom fries. We also delightfully discovered how cheap the food is on base. Way cheaper than normal American grocery store prices. Maybe 50% cheaper, on average. For instance, a large box of cereal was $1.50. And yes, everything was in dollars, though I kept ignoring the decimal and almost referring to stuff in yen (this cereal is only 150… pennies! Yennies?!)
I was wrong about part of this, as you’ll see later, but his shirt really did say Freedom on it.
This was a legitimate concern and minor panic when we first turned on to the base. Japan drives on the left. Maybe bases play by American rules?!
Also- Wee Britain : Flying Mary Poppins :: Mini America : ???????
On base was a big baseball field where it looked like a game was about to take place? There were a few lone players warming up. Nobody was in the bleachers and it was really cold outside but that didn’t stop a group of girls from setting up camp at the grills. This was one of the first things we saw.
It was the largest and most magnificent ten-gallon cowboy hat I’ve ever seen up close.
This was a real sign. Funny/sad.
Also funny/sad: apparently sometimes they haul out an actual totaled car and put that in front of the DUI sign to really drive the message home.
This was just the cutest aspect of the base, in my opinion: everybody was constantly rolling down their car windows to say hi to everybody else! Small town America!
It was kind of discreetly located in this very normal brick, windowless building. We didn’t have time to go inside. How does Chilis get a deal with the government to even get on their bases? Magic, I think. Do you think there’s a secret passageway from America Chilis to Japan Chilies, like from Hogwarts to Hogsmeade?
Or, at least, the words “pennsylvania avenue” were spraypainted onto a side ramp. Do naval bases have their own presidents who live in mock white houses?
My friend had asked me to buy her some twinkies and there WERE NONE, anywhere. Not at the grocery store, not in the snack aisle at the liquor store. We finally saw a sign for twinkies at this canteen style snack shack and they were SOLD OUT. Support our snacks, troops.
Armed Forces Radio is kind of the best thing ever.
It’s true. A different man in a cowboy hat even came over to yell at us about it.
It was REALLY hard not to stare at everybody. It was probably also hard for them not to stare at us, or at least at Devin’s beard.
It’s true! These colors don’t run. Until you power spray them with water.
Yeah so the soil thing is a common misconception that I was wrong about. And, I admit, I was completely wrong about our host being a naval officer. He is a gym teacher at the base’s elementary school. But really, gym teachers = naval officers in my mind all the time, always, and the reverse is also true.
No better way to watch one of the greatest movies of all time than muted with Armed Forces Radio on in the background. A Justin Bieber song came on at one point during a chase scene, too.
The battleships are huge! Also, I bought four kinds of cheese, five if you count a box of kraft mac n cheese as a type of cheese, which I do. Plus a million ingredients that you will see appearing on the Pudcasts soon. A most successful day. I’m glad I got to check that off my bucket list.
Ring my bell
This has been making the rounds on facebook (my non-Japan-living friends have been posting it too, so I assume it’s gotten somewhat viralish?) and it’s kinda clever but I don’t know, you guys, where has my sense of humor gone? This video is a perfect example of a “wacky Japan thing” I would have found amusing a year ago that I just don’t find funny now, because I, too, am a traumatized pedestrian in this country. I almost get hit by bikes every day. While sidewalk cycling is technically just as illegal here as it is in the States, probably 95% of bicyclists ride on the sidewalk because it’s too dangerous to ride on the narrow streets. All bikes have bells on them, and most bikers are considerate enough to ding when they want to pass pedestrians. See! So it makes sense that when you live in a crowded city with sidewalks full of walking people and biking people, you’d eventually develop a pavlovian response to the dingy bell.
So instead of giggling to myself, now I watch the video and go “yeah, hmm, those people look silly but I’d be doing the same thing.”
Also, understanding Japanese makes parts of this funnier, and other parts less funny. He totally calls those guys gay at 1:22! Not cool. But then the next guy, some random man in a suit, he calls a murderer. Which is a bit silly, ne?
Overall, I give this a “meh” 2 out of 5 stars.
Because it’s almost Christmas, and I always watch this at Christmas time, here is one of my favorite cinematic moments EVER. It’s so… transcendent. I get chills every time Captain Von Trapp walks into the room singing and the children stop singing and then they join in “ooooo”ing. It hits the perfect balance of two themes- the children’s coming of age and the complexity of parent-child relationships. And it something I could watch over and over and I will never not tear up a little bit.
