"Sift civilization to the bottom of your bag of thrills"

Now *this* is weird. Shaku Yumiko is blogging about me over at the Eigo de Shabera Night website...

秋葉原を案内して下さったマシアスさんは、私よりずっと東京や秋葉原に詳しかったですね(^^ゞ秋葉原はテクノロジーとイマジネーションに長けた人が集ま る街っておっしゃっていました。今まで、例えばフィギュアの世界などはあまり理解できなかったんですけど、彼の話を聞いて納得できました。想像力と創造力 が長けた人が集まって、色んなモノを『ソウゾウ』してつくり上げている街。それが東京なんですね。今まで『ＴＯＫＹＯ』は、外国の真似をして無理して背伸 びしている街だと思われているんじゃないかって、劣等感を感じていたんですけど、そうじゃなくて住んでいる私たちがもっと胸を張って、柔軟に好きなことを していったらいいんじゃないかな？

釈由美子

1. I wonder if she really wrote this.
2.  If she did, then chin up hot stuff. Tokyo's not all that bad.
3. It's just the age we live in.

Comments

[Carl Horn]

That's not Yumiko Shaku in that picture, it's Warren Ellis. Well, perhaps it isn't Warren Ellis, but they both blog about you so it doesn't matter.

Is she saying that she's surprised to perceive an "international" culture (i.e., of otaku) is found within Tokyo, or that Tokyo, as a "city of the mind," is found within foreigners internationally?

[Fko-san]

HAHAHA.

[Kazuna]

Hey Carl, long time no see. Knew you from Cal Animage back in the day. Drop me a line. Patrick, I happen to be the guy translating that episode of ESN into English for NHK. I don't know if you've seen the full show yet, but the impression I got was that Shaku's epiphany about Akihabara was her own... she gives a little riff on it later that seems genuine. Anyway, all she's saying here is that based on your explication of Akiba, she realizes that Tokyo's historic inferiority complex about being some kind of knock-off of a Western city (traditionally Manhattan or London, to be precise) is uncalled for. She's saying, "we can be proud of Tokyo on its own merits now". In classic Nihonjinron fashion, of course, it required gaijin validation of the coolness of otakudom to inspire that leap, of course. The more things change...