少女の夢 (A girl’s dreams)

これは初めての日本語と英語のブログポストです。良くないですけど、読んでください。英語の訳はポストの下にあります。This is my first blog post in Japanese and English. Feel free to read it. The English version is on the bottom of this post.

甘ロリが好きです。なぜなら、可愛いし、パステルカラーが好きだし、モチーフも可愛いのです。今まで、ロリータのブランドの洋服はプリティーさんのCream cookie collection のジャンパスカートと Dramatic Roseのスカートです。けど、プリティさんと他のブランドの洋服を買いたいと思いますが、お金をもらう為に、就職しなければなりません。これは優しくないです。

そのことを待っている間に、ロリータ関係のヘアメイクを勉強してみたいです。例えば、カチューシャを持っています。けど、着方を知らないので、青木美沙子に書かれた「ローリタファッションBook」の考えをしてみたいと思う。そして、マニキュアを使いませんけど、使いたいので、練習します。長い髪が持っているので、色々なヘアアレンジをしてみた方がいいと思います。

ロリータをもっと着たいと思います。でも、生活なロリータになりたくないです。今、ロリータのサークルを所属していて、楽しいです。

自分として、ロリータのために、体型をキープすることが必要と思います。太り過ぎないように、ヨガをしたり、低カロリーダイエットをしたりします。今、ヨガに対して、鶴のポースとか、逆転のポースとか、車輪のポースとか出来ることが目的です。

ロリータの以外の夢、研究者になりたいですが、今こそ、難しいです。それから、頑張ります。

I enjoy wearing Sweet Lolita because it’s cute, I like pastel colours and it uses cute motifs. Up to now, the only brand garments I own are Angelic Pretty’s Cream Cookie Collection jumperskirt and Dramatic Rose skirt. However, I want to buy clothing from other brands as well as from AP. In order to get the money needed to do that, I have to get a job, which is not easy.

While I am waiting for a job, I want to learn more about hair and makeup that is related to Lolita. For example, I have a katyusha but I do not know how to wear it. Because of that, I will try some of the ideas from Misako Aoki’s Lolita Fashion Book. Also, while I do not wear nail polish, I want to try using that too. Because I have long hair, I think it would be good to try various hair styles.

I want to wear Lolita more often but I don’t want to be a lifestyle Lolita. Currently, I am part of my local Lolita group and enjoy it.

As for me, because of Lolita, I think it is necessary for me to keep in shape. In order to avoid gaining weight, I do things such as yoga and watching what I eat. My current goals for yoga are to be able to do inversions, crow pose and full wheel pose.

My dream that is not related to Lolita is to become a researcher. However, it is difficult to do that at this moment but I will try my best.

30 Day Random Challenge Day 2: Search For Something in Japanese

Today, my challenge is to search for something online in Japanese.

I thought of looking for kombucha in Japanese. In English, kombucha refers to fermented tea. For an explanation of it, please look at http://www.foodrenegade.com/kombucha-health-benefits/. It explains kombucha and provides a link on how to make it but keep in mind the health benefits are anecdotal. At first, I thought kombucha (こんぶちゃ) was the same thing in Japanese as in English. However, it refers to seaweed tea. With the help of Wikipedia, I soon realised the correct term is (紅茶キノコ), which literally means "Black tea mushroom". It does make sense because the microbial culture that grows looks like a mushroom.

Above: A jar of kombucha with a glass of it. From the website featured below.

Before I introduce the website that I found, I would like to talk about why I decided to use kombucha as my topic to search for. Ever since I heard about kombucha and its reported health benefits, I wanted to try making a batch but finding a SCOBY (the starter or "mother" culture) is difficult because I don't know anyone who makes kombucha and I haven't been able to find any bottled kombucha for sale.

The Japanese website I found from a search of 紅茶キノコ is here. It first talks about the benefits of fermented food and gives yoghurt as an example. However, it talks about how dairy is full of hormones and other things that are supposedly bad for your health (personally, unless you are lactose intolerant/allergic to dairy etc. I don't see any problems with dairy). It also goes on about how dairy can taste good but it isn't that good for your health. It talks about how kombucha offers similar benefits to yoghurt and gives instructions on how to make kombucha.

It was interesting to see how similar Japanese health food lovers are to Western health food lovers. Nevertheless, it was quite a provoking blog post and made me think about how lucky I am to live in Australia, where the use of hormones in livestock is more or less illegal. It was also interesting to see that it was published in 2011, before kombucha became popular among health food lovers in Australia.

Starting off

One day, you wake up in a strange room. However, the room for some reason, looks like yours. When you come downstairs, your mother begins talking to you in your second language (In my case, Japanese). You think you can manage it at first, but it seems to be more difficult than you thought it would be. Then she starts speaking about a "Saihorn". You look up what it is then you see a picture of a Rhyhorn. Then you make new friends and they too speak the same language your mother was speaking. Now, you've just received your second badge and each day, you are gradually understanding more and more. In time, you will be able to manage the language barrier with the occasional need to look up a word.

In the previous paragraph, I was talking about a challenge I am taking with Pokémon X (which I recently bought). The challenge for me is to complete the game in Japanese. Even though I do not have the Japanese version (Unfortunately, the Nintendo 3DS does not like using games not from its region), you can choose from a list of languages for your game. From the top of my head, there is English, French and Japanese as well as some other languages.

By the way, for anyone living in a country where the national language is/ blogging/reading blogs in a language that is not your mother tongue, what were your experiences at the beginning in terms of the language barrier? Did you formally learn the language beforehand or did you have no knowledge of the language previously?

Speaking of, this relates to my experience of starting to wear Lolita as I have to learn how to create co-ordinates even though you have seen many of them done by others. Also, as in playing Pokémon in Japanese, you start off with a vocabulary/pieces that you think would be sufficient but they end up being a bit insufficient. For example, For my first Lolita outfit, I did not have a petticoat and everything I was wearing was offbrand/handmade. Also, the cutsew I was wearing was too long, in my opinion (Do clothing manufacturers think that all Australians are tall?).

In the future, things will improve. Now, armed with a petticoat (and a slowly improving knowledge of Japanese) as well as more experience, I feel that the next Lolita co-ord will be better (as well as my ability to be immersed in Japanese).