Study diary

Our second week in Tokyo was very busy and dare I say successful.

It started out a bit slow though with trying to locate our lost gimbal in Yokohama. I called the bus company’s lost and found department, asked at the event venue, emailed the event organisers, and eventually filed a police report.

Then we went back to Tokyo and checked in to an airbnb in Iriya which was very dirty and also loud from traffic. And I figured that in this busy and loud city we do need peace and quiet in the night to recharge our bodies, so I managed to change the reservation and we spent only two nights there.

On Tuesday I met the shota expert Yoshimoto Taimatsu-san over coffee and we discussed our research projects for almost two hours.

On Wednesday we checked out from Iriya and moved to a wonderful airbnb in Ikebukuro – modern, quiet, and with a view. In the afternoon I had coffee with Z-san, a guy S connected with at the event, for about two hours. It was a perfect match and we scheduled a proper interview and shooting for Saturday.

And I bought a new DJI Ronin-SC. They are much more expensive in Japan than in Germany. When I bought it in Germany in July 2019 I paid 359 euro including VAT. Now they are available for 326 euro on Amazon. In Japan, however, the price is 51,000 or 52,000 yen in all shops: At DJI’s own Shinjuku store, at Yodobashi and BIC Camera, and at Japanese Amazon. That equals 420-430 euro. I can’t comprehend why this would be. By buying tax free and paying with a credit card I landed at 44,000 yen = 363 euro in the end, but still. Well, I guess it never feels good to buy something anew because you lost it, and to pay more at that.

Anyway, on Thursday evening I interviewed my new research participant T-san, and afterwards S shot us walking and talking in Ueno park.

On Friday I took two slow trains out of the city to have a very inspiring coffee (again, about two hours) with adult manga scholar Sharon Kinsella, whose research overlaps with mine.

On Saturday I interviewed Z-san while S filmed us. We got such a great rapport that we spent the whole day together, including lunch at Jonathan’s and dinner at Gustos in Akihabara. The connection between the three of us was nothing short of amazing – I have never experienced anything like it in my anthropological endeavour.

And today we went to Yokohama again to interview and shoot O-san, who like Z-san was very articulate and talked at length on the subjects that we had explored with Z-san the day before.

We ended the day with watching today’s footage and about half of that from yesterday, while eating takeout okonomiyaki. It’s so exciting to see the film coming together, or the material for it rather. Finally things started to move. What a lovely feeling to be busy shooting so much! I hardly have time to write here, but this was at least a little update on our second week in Tokyo – we’re now halfway through the trip! And we’ll stay in this airbnb the whole time, so I can and should order some books online.

Our first week in Tokyo began with combating jet lag, practicing gimbal moves in Motomachi park, and trying out picture profiles. I’ve decided to skip HLG3 since HDR editing is too complicated for me at this stage, and probably overkill for an 8-bit camera anyway (as someone more knowledgeable than me commented). We also shot some views from the Tokyo Metropolitan Government building and spent an evening in Yoyogi park.

On Wednesday I met my friend Y, who had finally got the event tickets and the circle participant guide in the mail. Meanwhile, S stayed in the hotel room and experienced his first earthquake, which I unfortunately missed! I also bought coin holders and other stuff for the event at a 100 yen shop – that’s where my research participant and new friend A had recommended me to buy them.

On Thursday I participated in a fieldwork workshop at Sophia University, followed by beers and then dinner with some of the participants. I really enjoyed talking to other anthropology students about our respective projects, and to get a glimpse of PhD student life.

On Friday we went to Yokohama and spent the first evening eating temaki rolls with a family, in their home. Sort of unexpected, I had only met the guy (the family father) for fifteen minutes in a bar in Berlin.

On Saturday we finetuned the autofocus setting of the a7III, located the event venue, and started shooting for real. It was great to be at it again, to work as a team! Felt like we were back in Bahir Dar, where we shot S’s film one and a half year ago.

And so it was Sunday, the event day. The rain poured down so we jumped on a bus that took us the single stop from the hotel to the venue. It was so well organised and we were taken care of really well by the staff. I had been worried about all kinds of things before, so it was great to finally be in and set up my desk!

S sold the first two copies of my doujinshi to other circle participants while I was out shopping from other circles. At 12 sharp the event opened for the public and general participants started to fill the hall. It was obvious that some circles were more popular, with lines starting to form in front of their desks.

I had such a great time. I talked to many shotacons, some of whom commented that my research was “really interesting”. All in all I sold 42 copies and gave away eight. So I’ll have to bring a whole 105 back to Berlin, unless I manage to unload some at doujinshi shops in Akihabara, which will be another chapter of my participant observation. I should have created buzz beforehand on Twitter and the like, as my shota mentor implies:

Almost everyone paid with exact money (200 yen), so my hard work of paying with big bills (in the week leading up to the event) to collect 100 yen coins to use as change had been unnecessary. The coin holders were useful though. I’m still taken by the many happy faces I saw at the event, especially a slightly older man who gave his doujinshi to both me and S (and he cherishes it!).

A very fun surprise was a woman who came up and was very curious about my research. It turned out that she’s one of the academic authorities in my field, and one who I have cited at length in my research proposal. Since our research projects align quite a bit, we’ll meet next week. But first I’ll meet a Japanese scholar. All in all, the event was fantastic for networking, and for showing fellow shotacons what I’m doing. I’m proud to be featured in photos like this:

A sad thing was that we have lost the gimbal. I didn’t even realise it until after the event. Again, this is so unlike me, which just proves how focused on the event I have been – just like when I missed an important meeting when the doujinshi was delivered! My dear DJI Ronin-SC, bought in July 2019 for 359 euro.

Tomorrow we will relocate to Tokyo.

This week was about preparing for Tokyo, but we also managed to do a cold and rainy Rosa Luxemburg guided tour on Tuesday, followed by Indian dinner in Friedenau with S’s friend S.

On Friday morning we started flying to Japan, spent some hours at Helsinki airport, and finally arrived Saturday morning. Even before the jet lag kicked in I managed to have dinner with my research participant A on Saturday night – thereby kicking off this research trip with sashimi, three beers, and two and a half hour of speaking Japanese. Me and S spent half the Sunday with light sightseeing of Akihabara, Harajuku, Yoyogi park and Shibuya, and then just tried to stay awake as long as we could to get into the new sleeping rhythm.

I managed to finish Nash’s text on the plane, but it was very hard to get through and I failed to see what point she actually argued.

Master’s thesis

• Nash, Kate. 2011. “Documentary-for-the-Other: Relationships, Ethics and (Observational) Documentary.” Journal of Mass Media Ethics 26 (3): 224–39.

Articles

• Vice Motherboard: This Man Created Traffic Jams on Google Maps Using a Red Wagon Full of Phones
• BBC: Shrewsbury book collector gifts LGBT ‘legacy’

I spent quite some time this week reading the “mook” マンガを描くために必要な12の掟, or “The 12 rules of drawing manga”. Such a great mook! Obviously aimed at children or young adults, the mook was written in a simple way that made it enjoyable for me to read.

I also read another chapter in the Try N2 book that I bought in October.

About that. It’s so easy for me to stock up on Japanese books when I’m in Japan (because when will you have the chance next?), but a whole different matter to actually put in the time and try to read them. So reading (and enjoying!) the manga rules mook really meant a lot. I bought it not on my last Japan trip, but on the one in October 2017.

More Japanese: I did a slow reading/translation of a shota section in Ero-manga studies, which I managed to buy second hand on my last Japan trip. And I did the same with an extremely detailed web summary (by way of collected tweets) on the etymology of shotacon. This was after the author contacted me and sent me the link – he will be a great resource for me.

In general I’ve corresponded a bit with research participants and friends in Japan this week, yes even a couple of academics in my research area. I booked an airbnb and will continue planning the latter half of our trip – which starts on Friday!

Otherwise I felt a bit weak healthwise this week. Even so I biked to the Transmediale at HKW to watch the talk “Autonomous Pirate Machinery” by Jan Gerber and Sebastian Lütgert (thereby skipping Artistic practices). It sounded interesting but was basically just a redundant demonstration of their website, which I had already checked out anyway. No passion, no showmanship. Just boring and a waste of time, so I left.

On Friday I attended the packed Audimax hall of Technische Universität to watch Judith Butler’s talk “Gender: Whose fantasy?”. As expected, the superstar delivered. Afterwards I had dinner at the vegan restaurant Vaust with my classmates. Pricey but not especially tasty, and super tiny portions – I had to eat again as soon as I came home.

Master’s thesis

Topic

• Nagayama, Kaoru. 2006. Ero manga sutadīzu: “Kairaku sōchi” to shite no manga nyūmon. Tokyo: Īsuto Puresu.
  • 「ショタ、女性作家の台頭」(“Shota and the rise of female authors”), 83–86.
• 玄光社MOOK編集部. 2016. マンガを描くために必要な12の掟. 東京：玄光社。
• Budō’uru Kasuko. 2017. 「ショタコンの語源について（セルフまとめ）」

Method

• Marks, Laura U. 2000. The Skin of the Film: Intercultural Cinema, Embodiment, and the Senses. Durham: Duke University Press.
  • “Introduction”, 1–23.
• Sharma, Aparna. 2018. “Practices of Making as Forms of Knowledge: Creative Practice Research as a Mode of Documentary Making in Northeast India.” In Screen Production Research: Creative Practice as a Mode of Enquiry, edited by Craig Batty and Susan Kerrigan, 161–76. Cham: Palgrave Macmillan.

Japanese

• Try N2
  • Chapter 2.1, 30–37 (grammar points 9–15, no test).

Anime

• 1988: Mashin Eiyuuden Wataru. E17–18.

Lectures

• Jan Gerber & Sebastian Lütgert (Transmediale): “Autonomous Pirate Machinery.”
• Judith Butler (Techniche Universität/Fachgesellschaft Geschlechterstudien): “Gender: Whose fantasy?”

Films

• Los Angeles Plays Itself (Thom Andersen, 2003, 169 min)
• Ronja Rövardotter (Tage Danielsson, 1984, 120 min)
• Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown (Pedro Almodóvar, 1988, 100 min)

I corresponded with some new people relevant to my project, both research participants and a professor interested in my research. Things are falling into place for the Japan trip, although the general unplannedness of it is killing me.

I started reading Ingold’s Making: Anthropology, Archaeology, Art and Architecture, and became quite absorbed in his wondrous thinking. I quite unorthodoxly (for me) jumped to the last chapter which was on lines, then read the introduction to Lines: A Brief History and two random chapters in The Life of Lines. Whatever seemed relevant and interesting. It was more of the latter, maybe, but even so, Ingold’s perspective is so liberating. I remember his “church” text from Space and place back in May 2019, The Temporality of the Landscape, which I often think about. It was probably then that we were recommended Making, or was it in Theory and history? So much to read.

I also started Marks’s The Skin of the Film (recommended by my supervisor), but fail to see the relevance for my project so far. It’s a good complement to Eddo-Lodge though.

I watched The Celluloid Closet with S, it turned out we had both watched it before. I liked what the screenwriter of Rebel Without a Cause, Stewart Stern, said:

People talk about whether that was a homosexual relationship. The intention wasn’t that. But any film is at the same time an expression of a writer, and it’s an offering to an audience to create their own film.

The weekend was spent with two Japanese books which I hope to come back to soon.

In the boring admin parts of life, which I try to minimise, I managed to switch broadband providers. Out of one two-year contract, entering another. Two years. We ordered it together when we moved in together. Broadband subscriptions as milestones in one’s life.

Master’s thesis

Method

• Ingold, Tim. 2013. Making: Anthropology, Archaeology, Art and Architecture. London: Routledge.
  • 1: “Knowing from the inside”, 1–15.
  • 9: “Drawing the line”, 125–41.
• Ingold, Tim. 2007. Lines: A Brief History. London: Routledge.
  • “Introduction”, 1–5.
• Ingold, Tim. 2015. The Life of Lines. London: Routledge.
  • Part III: Humaning
    • 22: “To human is a verb”, 115–19.
    • 23: “Anthropogenesis”, 120–24.
• Pettman, Dominic. 2009. “Grizzly Man: Werner Herzog’s Anthropological Machine”. In Theory and Event 12 (2).
• Marks, Laura U. 2000. The Skin of the Film: Intercultural Cinema, Embodiment, and the Senses. Durham: Duke University Press.
  • “Preface”, xi–ixx.

Japanese

• Try N2
  • Chapter 1, 18–29. (Test 12/17.)

Film

• The Celluloid Closet (Rob Epstein, Jeffrey Friedman, 1995, 107 min)

A bad or let’s say turbulent week, despite delivery of the dōjinshi on Tuesday and the translation on Friday. Maybe I got a bit of PPD. Resistance took a grab at me when I lowered my guard by thinking I had the right to relax. And the delivery made me so excited that I completely forgot about an important meeting, which was extremely embarrassing – this sort of thing never happens to me, which just shows how important the dōjinshi apparently is. We rescheduled for Thursday instead and I was forgiven. And the meeting (an interview which is part of a side job) went great.

On Friday me and S, together with B, saw the show Endangered Species by House of Living Colors as a part of Tanztage at Sophiensaele. S and B were more positive than me. Although I liked the core themes and the monologues, I would have wanted some more “show” in between, to be amazed and impressed. Afterwards we had some drinks at Steinkeller.

Inspired by the show we watched Paris is Burning on Saturday, and I realised that I had never watched it in full before. Vogue balls as a beautiful and heartbreaking way to deal with oppression. I think each time and place needs to find its own innovative ways to fight oppression.

Today I worked a bit and had a late lunch at Kimchi Princess with A and H&H. I also got some ideas for my film and contacted a couple of creators.

Artistic practices

Unit 7: Jonas Staal – New World Summit

• “ARTISTIC OFFICE. Constructing the 7th Berlin Biennale for Contemporary Art” (Lidia Rossner, 2012, 60 min)

Final project

• Okada, Toshio. 2015 (1996). “Introduction to Otakuology.” In Debating Otaku in Contemporary Japan: Historical Perspectives and New Horizons, edited by Patrick W. Galbraith, Thiam Huat Kam, and Björn-Ole Kamm, translated by Keiko Nishimura, 89–101. London: Bloomsbury.
• Tamagawa, Hiroaki. 2012. “Comic Market as Space for Self-Expression in Otaku Culture.” In Fandom Unbound: Otaku Culture in a Connected World, edited by Mizuko Ito, Daisuke Okabe, and Izumi Tsuji, 107–32. New Haven: Yale University Press.
• Galbraith, Patrick W. 2015. “Moe Talk: Affective Communication among Female Fans of Yaoi in Japan.” In Boys Love Manga and Beyond: History, Culture, and Community in Japan, edited by Mark McLelland, Kazumi Nagaike, Katsuhiko Suganuma, and James Welker, 153–68. Jackson: University Press of Mississippi.

Anime

• 1995: Neon Genesis Evangelion. E17–18 (getting great!)

Film

• Paris is Burning (Jennie Livingston, 1990, 71 min)

Show

• House of Living Colors: Endangered Species (Tanztage at Sophiensaele)