Being a student

Yep...not much happening except school. I thought maybe some of you might be intersted in reading my women's history essay. I like it a lot...though I have realized a few of the problems with the paper. Still...it might be of interest to some as it contains many references to a lot of the classic Japanese Literature we've been reading in my classes.
Here's a brief outline of the texts I've read in both my literature and women's history class along with brief information on their contents:
(the majority of my readings have been excerpts)

Kojiki-Historical Prose...ummm....this was one of the first books of Japan? it is a sort of history/myth lore about the creation o f Japan..though it continues on into actual history of the emperors. Very similar to the Nihon Shoki. I read ecerpts from the first book and book 2. Book two contains the story of Takeru(can't remember his first name). Interesting fellow.
Nihon Shoki-Similar to the Kojiki. According to sources it goes a bit furthur along in actual history than the Nihon Shoki. I like Kojiki better.
Manyoshu- A collection of Waka(court poetry). Organized a little sporatically. Important poets would include Hitomaru...I enjoyed his poems though on the whole its hard to understand the relevance of the majority of the poems. (I've never been good at Poetry).
Nihon Ryoiki-Also called "tales of karmic retribution" and the like in some tranlations. An old heian text that has a lot of Buddhist(sp?) origin...or is it confusianism? In any case all the tales are examples of how people who did the right thing were rewarded. A lot of supernatural in the stories. Intriguing...but also just kind of funny.
Kokinshu-A later collection of poems which epitomizes the Japanese way of organiztion. This means temporally not by date written or author, etc. For instance..the first 6 books are about the seasons...and they are ordered from spring to winter with no regards to when the poems were written or by who. The first 5 books of volume two are all about the process of love which follows a pattern comparable to the seasons(I.e. from first sighting to the death of the romance...because most romance in japanese literature does not end happily)
Konjaku Monogatari-I read two tales from this. The first being "How a Man who was Accompanying His Wife to Tanba Province got Trussed up at Oeyama" which is what th emovie Rashomon is based off of. The second was the story called "Rashomon" which actually had nothing to do with the movie.
Ugetsu Monogatari-I read a few stories from here. A lot of supernatural stuff that is pretty cool. One of the movies Ive watched for cinema is based off of two stories in this book that I didnt read.(the movie is called Ugetsu Monogatari)
Onna Daigaku(Greater learning for Women)-An edo period creation which enforces certain ideas about the place and "destiny" of a woman. Basically get married and serve your husbands family loyally. Literature of the period usually incorporated these ideas and helped to enforce the sense of the fuedal system...does that make sense? Im so bad with words...
Tosa Diary-A diary of a woman travling home from tosa..its actually written by a man who was pretty masterful of court poetry. He manages to write in many different voices....I liked it.
Kagero Diary (The Gossamer Years:Diary of a Noblewoman of Heian Japan)-An actual diary. It's interesting but pretty frustrating because all the woman writes about is her realtionship with the prince(meaning one of many...not the actual emperor or soon to be emperor) and her rleationship kind of sucks. And she is a complainer. And she hardly writes about her kids and only writes about her family when they leave her(vie death and or moving)...and she does manage to write a bit about her rivals...its just..wierd and frustrating...but good notheless.
Taketori Monogatari-The tale of the bamboo cutter and the princess from the moon. Its amazing how many japanese stories, animes, games, etc have references to this tale. The princess' name is Kaguya Hime(yes Jessie and Rae-think sailormoon). It's a pretty good story. I especially like how the princess is pretty cold to all the suitors trying to win her hand...they all fail, including the emperor...Its great! Also..the story at the end about the naming of Mt Fuji is aparently false...but still....interesting.
Five Women who Loved Love- read two stories from this book. More supernatural involvement. One of the ones I read was actually about a man named gengobei who only loves boys until a woman dresses up as a boy and makes him fall in love with her. Its funny and ironic because Gengobei epitomizes the ideal woman of the time wheras the girl is like a man...I liked it. Maybe this is because this story actually ends happily.(i.e. no one is haunted and everyone lives)
The Tales of Ise- A collection of poems and prose which are supposedly the life of Narihira(a big name poet)...actually there's no way they could all be about him but it's more the idealization. He's supposed to be a sort of Japanese Don Juan..maybe...I didn't especially love it.

We are about to start the Tale of Genji in lit...woo. THe majority of these can be found on wikipedia if you want to learn more..its pretty cool.

If you want to read my paper you can download it here:
http://www.sendspace.com/file/sh8s64
this link is only going to work for around a week or two.

Hmmm...
Other than that?
My birthday is coming up. On friday a huge group of people are going to Kareoke to help me celebrate. Im not going to be drinking tho^.^ On saturday Okaasan, manami, one of her friends, andrew and I will be eating a special little meal together of tacos and takoyaki. Hah hah...it makes me laugh.
Anyway...tis all for now!
Much Love!

oh...as soon as I figure out how to write IN japanese on my computer I will be including short tidbits in japanese so I can practice. Okaasan suggested the idea and said she'd check my work.
^.^