The fact that I have only 6,000yen left from my supposed 40,000yen self-declared monthly allowance just hit home today when I realised the scarcity of notes in my bankbook holder. I have stopped using a wallet and been shoving all my notes, receipts, notification of impunctuality (haha, from the train station when the trains are late. I need to collect them when I go to school), point cards and misc other &^*#$%^ in there. I suppose its time to get a proper wallet... hmmm... Burberry might be good... And there you go, the reason why I only have 6,000yen left now. That nasty spurt of over indulgence that started probably once the christmas mood kicked in is starting to be very inconvenient indeed. I know I really can't help the New Year sales and bill payments and gifts and souvenirs and seasonal necessities but I wished I could've pulled the reins on my expenditure a bit better. Yeesh.
It might be the influence from the highly consumeristic nature of the Japanese society, everything they can possibly materialise into a sellable product they have gone ahead to do so and any possible gimmick they can pull out of the hat to make sales better they have executed, I have noticed especially recently, that my spending nature has become increasingly independent of any scarce rational thinking. Bye-bye to 7,000yen at the Jump Festa because I felt I couldn't walk away empty handed and making excuses that I should get souvenirs for other people. Not that I regretted spending on them, but the process of parting with my cash without proper consideration bugs me. 15,000yen on New Year sales shopping, I'd say it again, not that I didn't need the clothes I bought, I kinda like them, but then again you see, I only KINDA liked them and so bought them, not carefully considering the fact I am spending money that I receive by God's good grace.
But I think just to sum the 2 weeks of frivolous spending up, I was granted the opportunity of going to the Ghibli Museum today, because a classmate had mistakenly bought tickets at an unfavourable time and thus generously gave them to a few of us. Before I left the night before, I kind of pondered for a while, what the museum might be like, in terms of importance of holding to their beliefs and inspirations. In other words, I was wondering whether it'd be a place they try to sell themselves to consumers who go to the museum expecting to see a good show, buy tonnes of goods of Totoro and leave without the slightest impression being etched in their hearts about what the studio strongly believes and holds to which translates into their work.
I guess I was rather disappointed to see the hustle and bustle of the crowd, that wasn't very big, thank goodness the tickets separated entry according to time period that limited the numbers inside a little. The general behaviour of the crowd, in my opinion, somewhat lacked basic mannerisms say, not to push or block other people's paths. The big turnout at the Cat bus area meant only for kids with tonnes of parents just scrambling to get their children there. Yes I know Miyazaki meant to include kids when he had this museum in mind, but I just felt that the whole atmosphere was somewhat being (and what the Japanese would say Shouganai (cannot help it)) bastardised. I guess it felt like an idealistic notion in stark contrast to the obvious reality of things.
I left with mixed feelings, probably. On one hand just hating the taste of consumerism in the air but still when one managed to ignore it for a while (rather and highly impossible amidst the crowd) and focus on the surprisingly simple yet pure and honest animations and drawings, one can't help but feel that the essence of Ghibli's good will towards their cause is contained within the very sheets of cels or film joined to run smoothly into a piece of animation that overall never lacks the ability to touch the heart of a person of any age.
It really isn't easy living in Japan, I mean, living a life of integrity. I left with the feeling that to become an animator of such a studio, knowing full well what you're working for, what you want to accomplish and using all means to execute that piece of work in hope that those good intentions might reach through to the people on the other end, you've got to leave behind this materialistic world that skims only the surface for higher planes.
P.S If you got confused at the first para, no, I did not buy a Burberry wallet. I can afford one but no, I didn't buy one and thank goodness at that!
It might be the influence from the highly consumeristic nature of the Japanese society, everything they can possibly materialise into a sellable product they have gone ahead to do so and any possible gimmick they can pull out of the hat to make sales better they have executed, I have noticed especially recently, that my spending nature has become increasingly independent of any scarce rational thinking. Bye-bye to 7,000yen at the Jump Festa because I felt I couldn't walk away empty handed and making excuses that I should get souvenirs for other people. Not that I regretted spending on them, but the process of parting with my cash without proper consideration bugs me. 15,000yen on New Year sales shopping, I'd say it again, not that I didn't need the clothes I bought, I kinda like them, but then again you see, I only KINDA liked them and so bought them, not carefully considering the fact I am spending money that I receive by God's good grace.
But I think just to sum the 2 weeks of frivolous spending up, I was granted the opportunity of going to the Ghibli Museum today, because a classmate had mistakenly bought tickets at an unfavourable time and thus generously gave them to a few of us. Before I left the night before, I kind of pondered for a while, what the museum might be like, in terms of importance of holding to their beliefs and inspirations. In other words, I was wondering whether it'd be a place they try to sell themselves to consumers who go to the museum expecting to see a good show, buy tonnes of goods of Totoro and leave without the slightest impression being etched in their hearts about what the studio strongly believes and holds to which translates into their work.
I guess I was rather disappointed to see the hustle and bustle of the crowd, that wasn't very big, thank goodness the tickets separated entry according to time period that limited the numbers inside a little. The general behaviour of the crowd, in my opinion, somewhat lacked basic mannerisms say, not to push or block other people's paths. The big turnout at the Cat bus area meant only for kids with tonnes of parents just scrambling to get their children there. Yes I know Miyazaki meant to include kids when he had this museum in mind, but I just felt that the whole atmosphere was somewhat being (and what the Japanese would say Shouganai (cannot help it)) bastardised. I guess it felt like an idealistic notion in stark contrast to the obvious reality of things.
I left with mixed feelings, probably. On one hand just hating the taste of consumerism in the air but still when one managed to ignore it for a while (rather and highly impossible amidst the crowd) and focus on the surprisingly simple yet pure and honest animations and drawings, one can't help but feel that the essence of Ghibli's good will towards their cause is contained within the very sheets of cels or film joined to run smoothly into a piece of animation that overall never lacks the ability to touch the heart of a person of any age.
It really isn't easy living in Japan, I mean, living a life of integrity. I left with the feeling that to become an animator of such a studio, knowing full well what you're working for, what you want to accomplish and using all means to execute that piece of work in hope that those good intentions might reach through to the people on the other end, you've got to leave behind this materialistic world that skims only the surface for higher planes.
P.S If you got confused at the first para, no, I did not buy a Burberry wallet. I can afford one but no, I didn't buy one and thank goodness at that!
posted by Chua at 12:12 AM
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