Amelia Barbosa - Readings for 9/30

While dissecting the works of Ao Omae last week, I reflected on the fact that when people feel isolated or alienated, they will find unconventional ways to survive and cope. This week, I noticed that to be a common theme among the assigned stories. 

In Omae’s People Who Talk to Stuffed Animals are Nice, Nanamori and other college students retreat to the university ‘Plushie Club’ as a sanctuary for connection and emotional vulnerability. They talk to stuffed animals as a way to cope with their struggles surrounding traditional gender norms, dating, and therefore find emotional release and connection through the club. 

In Wataya Risa’s I Want to Kick You in the Back, Ninagawa is a high school outcast who copes with feelings of ostracization by conducting a parasocial sanctuary around a fashion model. Specifically, he hides a plastic chest full of her merchandise under his desk. 

In The Hole, the motivation to escape rigid, traditional social roles becomes more physical. Here, Asa quits her unrewarding job and moves to her husband’s rural hometown, where she falls into a deep and hidden hole along the riverbank. I thought that this hole served as a strange physical representation of her newfound isolation as a housewife, almost like a void. 

Lastly, I wanted to touch on Ishikawa’s Hunchback, where Buddha finds solace and connection by using the internet to combat her physical limitations. Online, she creates a digital sanctuary for herself, using writing and anonymous posts to deconstruct ableism in society. 

Across these stories, characters find their sanctuary in ways that don’t exactly fit society’s boxes or rigid standards, but in hidden, “odd” places that offer the comfort and connection they’re looking for. Each author, in various ways, demonstrates that when society doesn’t give you somewhere to fit in, retreating (inward) can become necessary to survive and/or thrive in society.  

9/30/2026 - Jimmy

 "Twelve Twitter Stories"

Very odd short stories, most of them leading to short, bad endings. Like the cooking class heart one, shooting the mother, kissing one that gets lost in the air, but also metaphors and contradicting stories. 

"Hunchback" 

Honestly was a sad story to follow, felt bad for the narrator for her to feel this way because of how much she was crippled it felt like she would do anything to repeat what normal people would do that they hate to do. Like I feel like if she would be happy to be a homeless person that is able to beg on the streets, she would rather that and it makes me feel horrible that I read that story and feel that way. This was especially noticed to me when she would have loved it, to be pregnant but then get an abortion, because that is not what most typical people would like, however she would have loved that to happen to her. 

"I want to kick you in the back " 

Not a bad story read at all. At some parts I was scared since the narrator would put words in my head and talk about things that might happen to her but honestly one of the tamest books so far. She seemed very sad a lonely so far, a somewhat theme going on around through all these books. Kinda sad that her friend left her, in the beginning but she somewhat made a new friend with that lonely boy as well. Oddly obsessive with a magazine model, yes, but I feel somehow, it is tying in with his personal life. Almost like he is buying gifts and waiting to find her to bring her back, almost like she is his mother or sister somehow. 

"People who talked to stuffed animals"

Thought it was odd that they talked to stuffed animals but made more sense as people talked to the animals in order to not be judge to what happens to them. The love dynamic is so odd between the main character and all the others, but all the others love dynamic with other people as well. Dating someone seven years ahead in high school in Japan is quite odd but then again, a room stuffed with 350 plushies itself is weird a whole club dedicated to talking to them. 

"The Hole"

Almost like a regular story, day in the life of a regular housewife that has no job and stays at home with family all day until she fell into a hole. It was almost like it was the most interesting thing she could talk abot at dinner since she does not have much to do anymore at home so when she fell into a hole it was an event she wanted to tell her husband after quitting her job. 

Yasmine Chang Thoughts on 9/30 Readings

 

Twelve Twitter Stories

I really enjoyed the amalgamation of small stories. At first I was confused on how to read them, but I realized that the 12 short paragraphs corresponded to the "Twelve Twitter Stories" mentioned in the title. I liked the message of the last one, which I figured out essentially boiled down to the key message: Life is unsatisfying when you don’t work for it.

I Want to Kick You in the Back

I really enjoyed reading this excerpt. The MC's cynical, wallflower, and self-resigned outlook on life is how I saw the world around me when I was younger, and it was interesting to read her inner thoughts about the people around her. I thought she was quite rude in her mind, however her actions spoke differently.

People Who Talk to Animals Are Nice

I really enjoyed how this excerpt treats love as something Nanamori can't quite feel rather than something he's chasing. He asks Shiraki out mostly because everyone around him seems to be in love, even though he admits his "like" is only a friend kind of like, and he feels guilty for liking Mugito more.

The Hole

I thought it was really intresting how the book showed gender expectations through small, ordinary moments instead of big statements. Asa's coworker assumes she'll be pregnant and "living the dream" as a housewife, and Asa lets her think that, which shows how automatically people read her life as following a gendered narrative. What also struck me was when Sera called her "the bride," and Asa realizes that's who she's become to everyone, with no one calling her by her own name anymore.

Readings 09/30 - Kelley

“Twelve Twitter Stories” confused me because I couldn’t really figure out a coherent theme that tied all the paragraphs together. But maybe this was the point - maybe it suggests that social media and a platform like Twitter is so chaotic with different people’s voices sludging together and information being spread so quickly. The very first paragraph about the thousand tongues could be referring to the concept of people of different languages and cultures all go on social media share their thoughts.

I thought “I Want to Kick You in the Back” felt like a commentary on both loneliness and celebrity culture. Both Hasegawa and Ninagawa are outcasts, but it feels like they both choose to be that way, or at the very least, justify that it’s by choice. While Hasegawa hates being part of a group because she doesn’t want to conform to people or fake being excited about things she doesn’t care about, Ninagawa is too obsessed with Oli-chan to truly care about the outside world. On another note, Ninagawa’s obsession with Oli-chan feels really jarring. The way he asked Hasegawa to draw a map of the store felt creepy.

The discussion of romance in “People Who Talk to Stuffed Animals Are Nice” was really interesting. Nanamori doesn’t feel true romantic feelings for his girlfriend and is mainly only in the relationship because he wants a girlfriend and feels like it’s a rite of passage of some sort. One thing that stood out to me is when Aokawa cried, and Nanamori’s reaction was something along with lines of woah, I didn’t know love was this serious. I think romance might be concept that’s inflated in society, so much so that people crave being in relationships without the actual connection or feelings. So I find it very real that Nanamori likes being in the Plushie Club because there’s no distinction between man or woman and no talk of romance or gossip.

In “The Hole,” I wonder if the black animal she saw was real or just a figment of her imagination. I was also curious about the large presence of cicadas throughout the story. This part about cicadas stood out to me: “They hear other cicadas crying around them and use what they hear to choose a partner. To my human ear, they sounded like a bunch of machines, a spray of emotionless noise. Maybe that’s how we sound to them, too” (31). This quote could suggest that relationships, specifically the narrator’s marriage, feels more like an emotionless contract than a real connection. The hole could be symbolic of how the narrator feels trapped after becoming a housewife, slowly losing her sense of time and identity.

“Hunchback” shocked me with the way it started, but I found it both moving and interesting how the narrator wishes she were able to do rather extreme things like get pregnant and have an abortion in order to feel “normal.” This one made me think a lot. Like the part about book culture being able-bodied was something that I never thought about before. Or like how much of it privilege it is to even be able to breathe normally.

Riya - Thoughts on Readings for September 30th

 For The Hole, I wonder what the black animal represents. The main character seems pretty listless and doesn't assign much of her energy towards any sort of confrontation. She seems to put herself down in comparison to other working women, like her mother in law. (Ex. let's Tomiko do whatever she wants, didn't tell Tomiko about her owing a lot more than she paid, etc.) I wonder if the black animal represents a "monster" leading her to a restricting life (the hole), and if this mirrors the main character conforming to the life/gender role being kind of pushed on her.  

For the Twelve Twitter Stories, I was really confused the first three times reading it. I still do not fully understand what was actually happening.However, it was definitely a distinct style of writing, and it seems that each of the stories do not have much to do with each other plot-wise. The third story seemed lighthearted, as it framed literature as a virus, which was intriguing to think about. Did he mean passion/interest for reading spread, or the book's popularity itself? Or a mix of both (or is there no real distinction). For the eel story I genuinely was lost. 

In I want to kick you in your back, I like the main character. Hasegawa seems kind of forlorn and extremely aware of the silent pressures and feeling alone even when you're with someone.and struggling with those feelings of alienation (craving human connection yet still trying to respect/protect your identity). This guy is weird, and his room and lifestyle, and generally everything about him is unsettling. For some reason, at first glance I thought it was going to be revealed that he was secretly the model Oli. And I wonder if the main character's interaction with the women and the cameraman(?) was kind of racist, or if it was just some kind of really jarring  behavior. The hand feeding the cornflakes scene was really weird, and the way she described their expressions and how they took pictures of her legs seemed very off-putting, as they did not ask, and overall they seemed to be treating her like a spectacle at their amusement. 

In People Who Talk to Stuffed Animals Are Nice, I interpreted the main character to be an asexual or somewhere on the aroace spectrum. He presents high emotional intelligence and sympathy, and is overall a really kind person, always wondering/considering other people's feelings. He also feels things on behalf of others. His relationship with Mugito is something special, as the way he describes her over all the other people in his life has no comparison: it seems like he found his platonic soulmate. He values friendship way more than romantic relationships. Like other main characters in the stories we read for this week, he seems to be an outlier to gender norms found in his immediate/general community (described himself as more feminine or androgynous appearance-wise, and didn't have the same sexual/romantic feelings or experiences like his friend(s) and peers have. His asking out the girl from the club was an attempt at conforming, though his heart is not in it. The club he keeps going to seems to be a safe place where he can escape from some of these social norms. 

In Hunchback, the main character Shaka is a character that seeks normalcy beyond the pains to her organs and social life from her disability. She craves experiences of her able-bodied counterparts. I have noticed she also has many different writing mediums which she expresses herself in, and she is a passionate woman in all of them. She kept mentioning/tweeting about wanting abortions, which reflects how she herself wants to have the ability to choose or have more choices that her curved spine took away from her. It was interesting to see the stark contrast between what she was writing/reading in the beginning to her day to day life. 

Emily Kim 9/30 Readings

Initially I found it difficult to find similarities between the passages in Twelve Twitter Stories. What I was more confused about, however, was the language used throughout. It’s obviously in English, but phrases such as, “a man slathered from head to toe in butter throws himself into the crowd, screaming fry me, fry me,” would be unseen in English literature or conversation. The paragraph about garbled text, “Even if you think you’re reading me, don’t be so sure. I’m totally garbled…I’m garbled beyond all recognition. I’m clearly unreadable,” represented exactly how I felt about the whole text. Every paragraph sounded like a jumble of nonsense, especially with the lack of context. I wonder if the fact it was translated contributed to the confusion, since languages have their own metaphors and expressions that won’t make sense in others. 

In I Want to Kick You in the Back, it feels like the main character avoids light. When she watched the group of girls chatter vibrantly, she saw them “sparkle in the sun’s light,” making her want to “pull all the curtains closed and send the science room into darkness.” Light might represent societal norms, which the main character grapples with throughout the entire story. This might be why she feels connected to Ninagawa, as he also does not conform to societal norms and is associated with dark imagery. I found it interesting that she described Kinuyo’s eyeshadow to be white, which is not a typical eyeshadow color. I think this relates to the light motif, and the fact that Kinuyo uses it to cover herself makes sense since she desperately tries to fit into societal standards. It’s evident that the main character switched perspectives after meeting Oli-chan. She says she used to not care about the opinion of others, but she felt deeply embarrassed and ridiculed when meeting Oli-chan and the foreign man. She specifically mentions their big white shoes, further demonstrating the importance of white in this story.

In People Who Talk to Animals are Nice, Nanamori grapples with his sexual identity for a long time, so I enjoyed the part of the story where he makes a clear realization: “It’s gross how just a man and woman being together is enough to make people assume it’s romantic…I wish they would look at people as people instead of as ‘men’ and ‘women.’” He finally fights back against societal standards saying men and women should get into relationships. It becomes clear the reason he stays in the stuffed animal club: “there was almost no talk of men and women or romance in the club box.” He might also enjoy the plushie club because people can be private about their emotions, as he also navigates his issues on his own. But I still wonder why he does not consider talking to stuffed animals as well. I found Nanamori to be very similar to the main character in Realizing Fun Things Through Water, written by the same author. They both lack romantic desire, and I found water in Realizing Fun Things Through Water to have a similar role as stuffed animals in People Who Talk to Animals are Nice.

In Hunchback, the series of tweets found on pages 10 and 11, such as “In another life, I’d work as a high-class prostitute,” seem as nonsensical as the Twelve Twitter Stories. But as you keep reading, you realize how restrained the main character feels due to her disability, and even the problems of normal people are a privilege to her. This was especially striking in the quote, “Even if I couldn’t give birth, I wanted to get as far as aborting.” The main character is stressing how much she strives to be normal, to even experience the hardships of people without disabilities.

The most intriguing part of The Hole to me, was when Asa saw an undeniable resemblance between Tomiko and Tomiko’s mother-in-law. I related this to Asa and Tomiko’s relationship, since Tomiko is Asa’s mother-in-law. Asa looks up to Tomiko as a role model, especially since Tomiko has a permanent job. Having a job is more appealing to Asa than being a housewife, and this is apparent when she compares her own mother to Tomiko: “My mother was probably ten years younger than Tomiko, but definitely looked older. On some level, I guess I thought this was because my own mother became a full-time housewife when she had me. Tomiko was still working.” Asa was also upset when she was called “the bride.” There is a hierarchy of who can be called “Matsura,” and Asa is at the bottom of that hierarchy, below her husband and Tomiko. The way she describes her town is very stagnant as well, which represents how she feels stuck.

Kaya - 9/30 Readings

Twelve Twitter Stories: These were quite confusing to me, the first half seem to be talking about language or literature in some way, and while the first story is poetic they seem to devolve into siller and siller stories. I’m guessing they might make more sense in Japanese or maybe have some sort of wordplay that doesn’t come through in the English translation. 

I Want to Kick You in the Back: This one was interesting, both characters in the story are outcasts from the social structure of middle school and isolate themselves from connection. Hatsu seems pretty insecure and isolates herself by belittling the people around her, and Ninagawa ignores everyone while obsessing over an idol, which seems to be a common issue in very conservative societies. The scene describing how Hatsu met Oli-chan was really interesting and kind of disturbing. It painted this idol as someone who is completely unattainable and detached from the average person, but still wants something from Hatsu (her youthfulness/innocence?)

People Who Talk to Stuffed Animals are Nice: So far I like this one more than Realizing Fun Things Through Water. Like I Want to Kick You in the Back, it centers around students who are socially awkward and unable to communicate their own feelings in healthy ways, but this time in a university setting. As we learn about Nanamori, we learn about how social groups can often have expectations based on gender and appearances, which have made Nanamori feel like an outcast. It seems like in grade school there is a strong need to mold your sense of self/identity in order to conform, but people are able to find more freedom in college to express themselves. 

Hunchback: This one started craaazy, and I have to say I’m glad the beginning wasn’t the whole story. Ichikawa really leans into using humor to get readers to connect with the story rather than just feel pity for the characters. She is particularly unapologetic in her use of sexual and dark humor, which makes Shaka all the more striking. Shaka’s twitter posts and other thoughts make you think about things you’re likely taking for granted in life. Also, this book mentions the manga Kaiji which was also mentioned in People Who Talk to Stuffed Animals are Nice, but I don’t really know what it’s about. 

The Hole: This story seemed more plain compared to the others we read, but between the cicadas and bugs and the mysterious creature, I wonder if it will lean more into magical realism the more you read it. Asa is forced to uproot her own life for her husband's job, and she doesn’t seem to realize how much of a sacrifice it was for her. Her falling into the hole and the imagery of everything in the town being very very still seems like they might be a representation of how she is falling into/stuck in this new routine as a housewife, and worries about becoming very still like everyone else. Sera is the one who helps her out of the hole, so I wonder if later on they become closer and Sera helps Asa out of this stillness too. Asa also seems to focus very much on the appearances of the other women in her life, potentially pointing to some of her own insecurities. 

9/30 Wenzhuo Fei (Andy)

I Want to Kick You in the Back & People Who Talk to Stuffed Animals Are Nice:

Two readings I found particularly interesting this week were I Want to Kick You in the Back and People Who Talk to Stuffed Animals Are Nice. I like reading light novels set in schools when I was in high school, and these two works brought back that feeling. They especially reminded me of a light novel called Oregairu. Although it is fairly well known among light novel readers, I imagine many people in this class may not have heard of it. Briefly, it follows the school life of Hachiman Hikigaya, an outsider who tends to observe his classmates from the edges of their social circles.

The first half of I Want to Kick You in the Back felt especially familiar to me. It follows a recognizable pattern in stories about outsiders at school: like Hachiman, the Hasegawa stands outside the group and analyzes everyone else's "youth," "friendships," and "riajuu (リア充) (someone with a fulfilling real life)." This kind of protagonist seems particularly common in light novels set in schools. Like Hachiman, Hasegawa's attitude is not "I enjoy being alone" but more like "I would rather be alone than accept a relationship that feels fake." She looks down on Kinuyo for forcing herself to fit into a group she does not seem to enjoy being part of. The difference, though, is that Hachiman intellectualizes his loneliness, while Hasegawa seems to live more directly with the discomfort of being lonely. That discomfort leads to a kind of psychological defense: she reinterprets "the group has excluded me" as "I have rejected the group."

This also reminds me of Oregairu's discussion of "something genuine" (本物, honmono) and "something fake" (偽物, nisemono). In my understanding, a "偽物" relationship is one that can only continue through deception and pretense. Kinuyo, for example, would probably find herself excluded much like Hasegawa if she stopped making herself fit in.

Then there is People Who Talk to Stuffed Animals Are Nice. With its university setting and romantic elements, it feels even closer to the kinds of light novels I used to read. I think this story does a particularly good job of showing that "liking someone," "wanting to date," and "being in a romantic relationship with someone" are not the same thing. Nanamori cares deeply about Mugito and enjoys spending time with her, but these feelings do not automatically lead him to think, "Therefore, I want her to be my girlfriend." He is not even sure whether his feelings for her are what other people call romantic love. With Shiraki, however, the order is reversed: he first develops the desire to have a girlfriend and then considers who might be a suitable person to date.

But does that mean Mugito is his "true love," while his relationship with Shiraki is "fake"? I do not think we can reach that conclusion so quickly. Doing so would seem to force these complicated relationships into yet another set of familiar categories.

Nanamori and Mugito are already very close, but I still cannot confidently say whether their relationship involves romantic love. Why not? What is missing? Sexual attraction, the desire to kiss, the desire to have sex, or some kind of exclusivity? Which of these, if any, is a necessary condition for romantic love? I do not have a definite answer. And even if we interpret Nanamori's feelings as romantic love, his feelings alone do not mean that the two of them are already in a romantic relationship.

For now, I would rather separate romantic love from a romantic relationship. Romantic love is difficult to judge by a single set of criteria, but that does not mean the feelings involved are vague or unreal. Caring about someone, depending on them, feeling comfortable around them, and fearing their loss can all be very concrete experiences. A romantic relationship, meanwhile, involves how two people understand and acknowledge their relationship, along with the many social expectations attached to being a couple. These two aspects can overlap, but they do not necessarily develop at the same time.

This brings me back to Hachiman. He dislikes imposing a ready-made social category on an actual, complicated relationship between two people. This is why he is reluctant to describe his relationship with Yukino Yukinoshita, simply as a romantic relationship. He does not think their particular relationship should be fitted into a conventional, socially defined category and then constrained by expectations about what they should do because they are a couple. In his terms, that would be something "偽物" rather than something "本物."

Returning to Nanamori, I am not sure whether he is thinking along the same lines. He may simply be afraid of losing Mugito, or he may not yet understand his own feelings. I also do not want to claim that he is consciously protecting a "本物" bond with Mugito while acting out a "偽物" relationship with Shiraki. What interests me is that the close relationship he values most has no clear romantic label, while the romantic relationship he has entered does not guarantee the feelings he hopes to experience.

Other:

Honestly, I did not really understand "Twelve Twitter Stories," and I am still unsure how to approach these little stories. "The Hole" made me think about how a woman who leaves the workforce can gradually lose her social identity outside the family and become defined mainly as someone's wife. I am also not sure about "Hunchback," but I think it might include a discussion of how a "normal life" involves more than a social identity, which includes a whole range of freedoms and possibilities that depend on being able-bodied.

I also noticed that Gambling Apocalypse: Kaiji came up more than once in these readings. I vaguely remember reading it in high school, but I am not sure how it connects to these stories. 

09/30/2026 Readings - Keira Muselbeck

     The readings this week conveyed a wide range of emotions in me from bafflement and amusement to sadness and even a sense of discomfort at some of the latter stories. All in all each story had its own distinctive flavor and sense of taste to it.

    The first story Twelve Twitter Stories certainly had a unique vocal flavor to it and while it did give me some tonal whiplash it was an interesting piece that used the character limit of Twitter to tell several unique, creative, and disconnected stories. It was very messy story but I enjoyed it for that messiness. And enjoyed the general weirdness and oddities.

    The second story was an excerpt of I Want to Kick You in the Back which was about a very lonely main character who felt isolated once she entered High School from her former friend. She resonates with me personally as a character because I was often similarly lonely in high school and while her actions were not something I would choose to do I can understand that loneliness however.

The third story was an excerpt from People Who Talk to Stuffed Animals Are Nice which is about a fictional universities Plushie club in which its members talk to stuff animals to vent their problems and concerns. Honestly this sounds very calming to me and like something that would genuinely make me feel better about life.

The next story The Hole was the hardest for me to understand and process but I did pick up a lot of loneliness imagery common in the other stories from this week and left this story with a general sense of pity and unhappiness common with the other main characters.

The las story was The Hunchback which was similar in themes of loneliness and general isolation and portrayed how a disabled individual is often isolated in the world we currently live in.  

9/30 Readings - Brooke

     I thought that Twelve Twitter Stories was a very creative piece, and though I had a fun time reading each of the blurbs (especially the ones that were super out there), I was having a hard time connecting it to a deeper meaning as I was reading. There seemed to be a running theme of literature, language, and story telling in the first portion of the tweets, but that thread definitely got lost with the cooking event and the man covered in butter. Because I was curious, I did a quick google search on Toh Enjoe and found that his educational background was focused in math and physics and that he tended to use computational or physical principles in his writing, which was super interesting to me as a math major. I went back and reread the piece with that in mind, and there seemed to be a few examples where the language almost seems recursive, with the same or similar things being repeated multiple times. The clearest example was in the Japanese language passage, where the repeated words and sentences make it feel like you've looped over and over again when the passage only totals to under 50 words. I also thought that the first passage was maybe used to introduce this type of recursive structure. The visual of something looping through the same thing over and over again with the number of working tongues multiplying over time reminded me a little of how putting multiple recursive calls in a function can get generate an almost overwhelming amount of calls, even for inputs that seem small.

    I Want to Kick You in the Back reminded me quite vividly of what the social structure of middle school and high school felt like and I commend Wataya on being able to convey that so clearly, though I was having a difficult time sympathizing with Hasegawa without having a clear picture of her background. I'm not sure if she's supposed to be likable or relatable, and she would be a somewhat realistic early high schooler for being a little irrational, but it bugged me that she seemed to contradict herself in some ways. She spends the whole lab thinking about how miserable she is because she doesn't have a group, but then intentionally decides to not resolve that issue later because she thinks she's better off being without a group these days. She implies that she cared about other people's opinions in middle school because she was always pleasing people by putting on a fake smile, but then later commends her middle school self by saying she cared less about people's opinions back then. To be fair, she is probably around 15 and this is fairly normal thinking for a young teen, but I just found myself repelled by her constant state of misery over things that seem fairly commonplace.

    Nanamori in People Who Talk to Stuffed Animals Are Nice seemed to be on verge of multiple breakthroughs in regards to his own gender and sexuality and how different identities are perceived, but didn't quite get there by the end of the passage we read. He had some very keen insights, especially when he noted that by asking a girl out, she suddenly now wholly perceives him as the opposite sex, and I liked how his background contributed to his more nuanced thoughts on how people perceive others' genders based on actions and appearances. I found it interesting that despite how much he thought about how others perceive him, he didn't do a lot of extra thinking about how he identifies himself internally. I think perhaps it's because he doesn't quite have the words to describe these things, which is quite common among aroace people and I appreciated the representation here. In particular, Nanamori doesn't investigate why he experiences little to no romantic attraction, and instead sets his focus on acting in a way to conform (by getting a girlfriend), likely because there's no stronger feeling driving him away from what society wants. A lot of aroace-spec people, especially in more conservative areas or time period will live/have lived out their entire life without realizing they don't experience strong romantic attraction because it's very possible to do everything conventionally (go through the motions of dating, marry someone, etc.) without much friction. On a side note, I was quite concerned about Mugito while reading, and was even more concerned that Nanamori didn't seem especially alarmed about her disappearance; I'd like to know what happened with her and why she's ignoring Nanamori's messages.

    Hunchback is probably my favorite of the stories we've seen so far. That was the best opening line I've ever read. I enjoyed Shaka's dark sense of humor and appreciated how honest she was with her less conventional thoughts in her narration, as it really helps you understand her character and perspective better. I've also never thought of the accessibility of books in that light until reading this, and I never realized how in all of my hatred for textbook reading, I took my ability to read physical textbooks for granted. I'd like to read the rest of the story at some point in the future.

    I honestly spent most of my time The Hole was just waiting for something interesting that felt foreshadowed to be revealed—Aki cheating on Asa or getting up to some suspicious activity, Tomiko being inhuman/immortal, the child sneaking around outside taking some kind of action, or the grandpa doing something weirder. I do wish that we got to read a little more of it, because every character except for Asa and her coworker felt off, and I was waiting in suspense for everything to come to a head and begin to make sense; however, nothing related to the foreshadowing ended up getting fully confirmed in this passage except for the fact that there's odd and maybe supernatural things going on in this area. I wonder what the full deal is with Tomiko, Aki, and the grandfather.

        

09/30 Readings Alla

I found Toh Enjoe's Twelve Twitter Stories to be the most confusing out of all of the readings this week. I think it's because of its structure: twelve abrupt stories formatted as Twitter posts. The communication in this piece felt ambiguous, as every passage could be a separate post or a response to someone else's. The themes discussed in the Tweets also seem to be very random, ranging from a story of a man slathered in butter throwing himself into the crowd to a user allegedly being appointed Prime Minister. Because of the lack of context, every passage tells us what allegedly happened. We, as readers, can truly never know whether what we are reading is true. I think the reader's imagination plays a very important role in this story, and maybe that was the author's intention: to shift the "responsibility" of making meaning onto the audience.

In the excerpt of I Want to Kick You in the Back Wataya Risa tells the story of Hasegawa, a high school student struggling to navigate her human relationships. The excerpt tells us about Hasegawa encountering Ninagawa, a male classmate obsessed with a model Oli-chan. Throughout the whole story, we get a glimpse of Hasegawa's life. Once a close friend of hers, Kinuyo, is now in a completely different friend group, and Hasegawa is not a part of it. I found their dialogue to be very interesting. Kinuyo seems to be okay with her friend being excluded from a group activity in class earlier on. And after being pretty much forced to apologize, she doesn't seem to care much. Kinuyo's behavior speaks louder than her words. Yes, she did apologize verbally, but these words can't compare to her earlier actions: she forgot about Hasegawa, or, more like, she stopped caring about her. Even when Kinuyo invited her to join them to play cards together, her gesture seemed more like an attempt to make up for what she did earlier, rather than a genuine act of friendship.

I liked Ao Omae's People Who Talk to Stuffed Animals Are Nice the most. I really liked the protagonist's thoughts on the topics of love, friendship, and relationships in general. Even though, as Nanamori said, he didn't know what it felt like to love someone romantically, I think he did know how to love. This could be a greater discussion about what love essentially is and if it's inherently tied to romance. Nanamori sees himself as someone who doesn't know how to love simply because of his lack of typical romantic attraction. However, his empathy, his sensitivity to the feelings of others, and even his gentleness toward the stuffed animals show that he knows how to care. I found Nanamori's story to question the things society defines love by. The characters who talked to stuffed animals reminded me of a character from one of the previous readings, where the main character found talking to water quite therapeutic. I think such interactions are tied to the desire for empathy and the need of a safe space for emotional vulnerability. One of the biggest fears humans often face is the fear of judgement, and talking to things allows the characters to process their complex emotions.

In Hunchback by Saou Ishikawa, the protagonist, Shaka, suffers from a disease that has severely curved her spine, making her very physically limited. However, her inner world is very active. She writes erotic stories and posts her provocative opinions on social media. Virtually, she has created a completely different identity for herself. No one on social media knows what Shaka is going through in real life. Even though her posts don't get much attention, Shaka's ability to express herself without any barriers matters most to her. This reading connects to my thoughts on Twelve Twitter Stories: it's very hard (and almost impossible sometimes) to truly know the human behind a digital persona. And now, in the age of AI, sometimes it's not even a person writing these posts. On social media, Shaka's identity is reduced to the words in her posts. But in real life, she is going through much more. I found her desire to get an abortion quite concerning. But maybe that was the only way for her to control something within her body? I remember her reminiscing about her days in school, when she was the one with the perfect posture, but now her spine has become curved due to a sickness that was out of her control. Maybe that's why she wants to have an abortion: to regain that sense of control in a world where she has lost control over almost everything else.

I found Hiroko Oyamada's The Hole quite unsettling. In the beginning of the story, Asahi quits her job to move with her husband for his work. She then becomes a housewife, with her days being a blur of cooking, listening to cicadas, waiting for her husband to get back from work, taking occasional naps, and going to the store in the morning. Back in the city, when she used to have a job, she had somewhat of a social circle. Now, her life is defined by the relationships with her husband and his family. I found the fact that she didn't even have a car she could use really weird. It almost felt like her husband's family didn't give her one on purpose, so she wouldn't be able to do almost anything by herself and would have to stay inside. Just like what happened to her when she fell in the hole: she couldn't get out by herself. Maybe the hole was a metaphor for the new life she "fell into": her husband's move was just as unexpected, and so was her lifestyle change. And when she was in the hole, she couldn't get out, just like how it is with her new life: she can't leave this passive housewife life of hers, as if in she had gotten into a trap.

9/30 Readings - Raian S.

    The Twelve Twitter Stories were actually pretty interesting aside from them being incoherent. It’s pretty cool how he was able to fit some of these stories into what I presume is Twitter’s character limit. I Want To Kick You In The Back was also pretty interesting to me as well. Although it was a little confusing at times, I like how Wataya portrayed Hatsu’s alienation, and that kind of shared feeling with Ninagaya. The end portion where she becomes an animal was kind of confusing to me though.

    People Who Talk To Animals Are Nice was a really interesting read to me, so much so that I wanna read the whole thing now. I found Nanamori to be a really interesting and self-aware character. The whole idea of the plushie club is really cool to me too, and I almost wish we had one here. Hunchback was a story I found to be a little unsettling in the beginning, but I liked it in the end. Specifically, it was the smut at the beginning that made me think that maybe I clicked the wrong file, but as we transitioned away from the story it made more sense. 

The Hole was actually a kind of sad story to me. Asa doesn’t really properly feel at place in the roles she finds herself in, from her job, to moving in with her husband, and the role of a wife. The Hole to me symbolizes her life until that point, a role that was shaped for her, yet once she enters it (or falls into it), it suffocates her. 

September 30th Reading Michelle Chae

 "Twelve Twitter Stories"

When reading this story, I was really confused. The stories were quick and didn't have a straight storyline to follow. I did not enjoy reading this story. 

"Hunchback"

I was really confused at first while reading this story. Then, I started to feel bad for the main character when it came out that she was an editor to a story. She really wants to do "normal people stuff" such as having an abortion and getting pregnant. But it is upsetting since in reality she can get pregnant and have an abortion it is just that she feels as if her disability doesn't allow her to do that at all and she has no chance of that happening.

"I want to kick you in the back"

The main character made me curious since it seems like she wants to have genuine connections with people, but end up pushing people away. She didn't want to join her friend while playing cards and got upset when the guy wasn't interested in her romantically.

"Peope who talk to stuff animal are nice"

At first, I thought it was weird that there was a club dedicated to people that talked to stuff animals. But, I realized that it isn't that weird at all. Stuff animals are something that will always listen to you and never judge you. It reminded me of the previous story where the main character was talking to her water and how she could be fully honest to the water than to anyone else.

"The Hole"

It seems like the hole is support to represent the main character's life. She is currently stuck in her life not knowing what to do. She had to leave her old job because her husband's job making them both move. It seems like she ended up falling for a hole that was made perfectly for her even though she didn't do it on purpose. It was like how her life she ended up leaving the job because of her husband and ended up being lost in life due to it.

Amelia Barbosa - Readings for 9/23

    I found this week’s set of assigned stories to be intriguing and quite enthralling. A common theme I noticed was the use of symbolism and surrealism to reveal the true form, consequences, and quiet ‘trap’ of the patriarchy, misogyny, and strict gender norms within society. Between three of my favorite reads this week; Dissecting Misogyny by Aoko Matsuda, Realizing Fun Things Through Water by Ao Omae, and Sea Horse by Hirom Kawakami, I really enjoyed the way in which the authors wrote on the constraints of traditional gender roles and both the physical and mental transformations required to free one’s self of them.

    In Dissecting Misogyny, Matsuda approaches the theme through a very sharp and witty form of satire, treating systemic patriarchy as a physical ‘thing’ that needs to be picked apart piece by piece, in the style of a home-infomercial one would see for a deluxe kitchen knife of some sort. I appreciated that the ‘misogyny’ which is being dissected was described as « dark » and « filthy » with « bones » which are surprisingly flimsy and hollow, as I believe this is a great depiction of the true nature of systemic misogyny, especially the note about the « bones », which conveys that at its core, the patriarchy’s structure and philosophies are weak. I also reflected on the fact that a woman is the one standing there, painstakingly taking this grotesque object apart piece by piece, which left me thinking about how women are the ones seemingly left responsible for dismantling misogyny, just as society makes women out to be responsible for many things, as (most) men won’t step up to help and/or do it themselves. 

    In Realizing Fun Things Through Water, Omae uses the fluid and transformative nature of water to ‘wash away’ rigid gender and domestic roles, particularly those which the main character experiences as she grapples with the idea of marriage, her sexuality and apparent aromanticism, and the disappearance of her sister. Here, the main character rejects society’s norms concerning love and romance, such as the budding expectations of her soon to be mother-in-law, and finds acceptance and true love within her younger sister, who she refuses to let fade from her life. In some way, I believe that she also finds acceptance from her fiancee, as the main character mentions how he dated her anyway, even while knowing their feelings on romance varied from each other, creating a decent and understanding partnership between them. I enjoyed this story as even though the main character struggled enough with her non-norm abiding feelings to the point of only being able to speak of some of them to water, she still actively rejected gender and social norms to some extent, which feels like an accurate depiction of the process of unlearning society’s norms and finding oneself in the world. 

    Finally, in Sea Horse by Hiromi Kawakami, I found the author’s use of magical realism to be deeply fascinating. While it felt a bit of a heavy read at points, I believe those points were necessary, as the story serves as a haunting allegory for how traditional domesticity and norms about gender and marriage can make one feel as if they’re trapped in a cage, stripped of their true essence to the point of submitting to society’s norms, and at the mercy of their husbands. I really appreciated the ending of this story, with the seahorse finding her way back to herself and back home through the empowerment of her youngest daughter. It’s true that younger generations of women who have faced these same struggles have many-a-time pushed back against society’s norms and the patriarchy in pursuit of freedom and knowing who they are in the world. And, in turn, inspiring their mothers who have fallen into the trap of it all to do the same, showing and reminding them that they can.

Parker Mendoza: 9/23 Blog

 Realizing Fun Things Through Water

I liked this story a lot. I wasn't expecting to like it as much as I did because I was really confused about the water upon first reading. A big reason why I liked it so much was one particular symbol in the story. When I first read it, I was a little confused as to why they went to a hedgehog cafe. I know they're a little popular in Japan, but there were so many other options that could've been better like a cat, or a dog, or even a pig, but a hedgehog didn't seem right. Then I remember something I heard in this anime I watched, Evangelion. The hedgehog theory, by Arthur Schopenhauer claims that people desire human connection, but those same connections bring conflict or emotional pain. As a result, people find themselves distant, close enough to get some connection, but guarded enough to avoid getting hurt too often. As Evangelion simply put it: "The closer we become, the more deeply we hurt each other." Hatsuoka herself is a great representation of this theory. She didn't want to get to know Hakozaki because topics like love or men and women made her feel alienated so she only brought up shallow topics. While at first Hakozaki adapted to this, when they eventually get engaged, he hopes to fix her hedgehog theory. The symbolism of water kinda confused me still, was she only able to connect with water for a reason?

Sea Horse

This one honestly haunted me a little. It took me a while to piece together what was actually going on, like I kept thinking okay she's just old, she's just been through a lot of marriages, and then the detail about the first child only living three years and being "half human" made me go back and reread everything. Because wait, if her kids are half human, what does that make her? The husband stuff was rough to sit with. Every single one of them treats her like property, handed off from man to man, and the way it's described so flatly, like her being "fed" for twenty years or chained up for years at a time, made it hit even harder because she barely reacts to any of it. That line about not feeling anything while she's being raped stuck with me. It's not dramatized, it's just stated, and that felt worse somehow. I loved that her name, her real name, only comes from the sea, and her sons don't even get names while her daughter does. That's when I fully clicked into her being a siren, and once I saw it I couldn't unsee it, especially with the way people are just drawn to her and her daughter without explanation. Honestly the part that stayed with me most was the very end. Decades of men caging her, dolling her up right after hurting her, keeping the ocean just out of reach—and then the storm comes, her daughter's already gone into the water, and this time nobody grabs her arm to stop her. She just walks in. I sat there for a second after, not sure if I was supposed to feel happy for her or just sad about everything it took to get there.

Convenience Store Woman

This book unsettled me in a quieter way. I kept waiting for Keiko to have some realization, some moment where she wants more, and it just never comes. I think that's the point, but it still felt strange watching her "absorb" coworkers' voices and clothes like she's assembling a personality from spare parts, and nobody around her notices how odd that is. The Shiraha thing threw me too. For a second I thought it might turn into something almost sweet, two outcasts finding each other, and instead he's just cruel and lazy and uses "society is broken" as an excuse to treat her badly. And she just lets him move in. The ending got me most. She walks back into a random convenience store and has this almost spiritual moment hearing "the voice of the store," and I genuinely couldn't tell if I was supposed to feel relieved for her or sad for her. Like is this her finally being honest about who she is, or proof she's been hollowed out completely? I don't think Murata wants us to know either.

Tomo-Chan's Happiness

This story was so jarring. I felt a little unsettled not gonna lie. I knew something was weird because they referred to her as Tomo-chan instead of the story being in the first person and I thought it was weird they included the honorifics when talking about her. Little did I know, the ending was so random and caught me off guard. I didn't really know what it meant, but I think it was a clear indicator that no matter how much people want to believe that Misawa would be different from the other men in Tomo-Chan's life, it's unrealistic to think there was an exact ending. I did like that her rapist had karma tho, but I guess karma isn't real in this case because that happened to just be a coincidence. Or maybe god was looking out for her. 

Yasmine Thoughts on 9/22 Readings

Realizing Fun Things Through Water - Ao Omae

The MC clearly didn't want to marry Hakozaki, and I thought it was unsatisfying. When she said "okay" to marrying him instead of "yes," it indicated hesitation. I liked her relationship with her sister, and that she found solace with her.

Hiromi Kawakami, Sea Horse

This reading was very enticing. I like how the author hints at how the MC was a siren in the beginning, and throughout the story you get more and more information until her final transformation at the ending. It made me sad to read about how her husbands would abuse her and pass her along and along, but the ending was extremely satisfying.

Sayaka Murata, Convenience Store Woman (excerpts)

I  thought this reading was pretty interesting, especially because of how differently Keiko viewed the world compared to everyone around her. I liked how the convenience store gave her a clear set of rules to follow, and she seemed much more comfortable there than in normal society. 

Aoko Matsuda, Dissecting Misoginy (Monkey 1)

Although the reading was so short, I enjoyed the style of writing the author employed. It was satirical, and I thought the descriptors they used made the dissection extremely grotesque but enticing. Were they cutting up a man's dead body?

Ekuni Kaori, Picnic

This reading made me kind of sad. There was no passion in the MC and Kyoko's relationship, and it seemed like they were only tolerating each other. It was an interesting read, and it was surprising when the author went from describing a beautiful scene involving the grass to slowly revealing that the MC did not really have that much endearment toward his wife.

Tomo-Chans’s Happiness

I wasn't a big fan of this reading — the description of the rape scenes were uncomfortable, and I struggled to find much meaning.

 

9/23 Readings - Jimmy Bui

 "Picnic"

So far, I have liked this story. A retelling of a love story. Okay after reading the whole story, I will say it is kind of odd how the narrator is acting upon his own wife. They have trouble remembering each other, and she cannot really see him. So, the narrator just plops himself onto her? Honestly a weird story I do not fully understand. 

"Tomo-Chan Happiness"

Insane start to a story, honestly never expected it. She seems kind of neurodivergent in a way for which she does not care for many things inside. Like she is empty inside, maybe just her personality. However, she did "predict" bad things coming to the man. A little confused on her parent's affairs, where the husband is tricked because the wife and secretary are lovers? That is what I am getting at... Wow she found her crush and they had a good conversation, he helped her make sure her trip went smooth forward, but God is never there just to help God lays no finger but there is always someone watching over. 

"Dissecting Misogyny"

A story about someone cutting open "Misogyny", its cruel, described very disgustingly. It is very odd characteristics, and honestly very detailed cutting. But if I were to describe cutting into horrible substance or action like misogyny, I can see it like that. 

"Seahorse"

This woman goes through husbands, like a lot and very unfortunate that her first child before her current husband died. Wow she remembers her first husband cheating on her so "vividly". Says "She was passed on" to village chief. Honestly such a sad line to see in a reading. She yearns for the ocean, yet they do not let her go near. But now her current husband lets her go near except the fourth child hates the ocean. Her own name is a mystery of its own, that is why the fourth child's true name is so odd. A lot of abuse from the traveling husband for where he did not like that she went out of her way to swim upstream. The mother cannot explain to the daughter why she had not left earlier, which is a valid question, the mother cannot answer. Now her children have left her in order to go into the ocean, for as land has nothing for them here. She wants to leave the husband, and the husband lets her leave. This is so sad, that the final reason she left abusive and bad husbands was because her children had more power to leave instead. Almost reminds me of like divorced parents after their kids leave for college in a way. 

“Realizing fun things through water”

For this book so far it seems the husband is nice. But rather the narrator is kind of obsessed with water making sure to pray to it thinking atoms and ions listen to us. But it seems like her heart is not in the marriage unfortunately. Water is like her therapy. She doesn't want to move in with her husband because her sister disappeared, paying for the apartment might bring her back. This is honestly such a sad background, but she is too scared to explain this to her own husband, but water is okay. Wow honestly a really good story at the end, telling us the husband’s and her background then miraculously the sister comes back into her life after being missing. 

"Convenience Store Women"

Really long story that is being told. But the narrator loves to spend time as a clerk, she seems to not love any other job than that. Honestly respectable if she was able to move up the chain in command. 18 years as a Convenience store clerk is honestly what happens in Japan with its workers. They are unable to get a better job and stay with the basic job for years and years. Honestly troublesome but she does it for the love of the game. No matter the way or societal reassures from family and friend she loves her job as a clerk. Not willing to give that up. Even though it did get to her, for which she started living with this random old clerk who was known to be a bd person just to get society to pressure her off because she needed a somewhat marriage. As well as almost going into an interview, but she found her interests again. It is nice why she got into being a clerk as well, young and not understanding the norm, in being a clerk helped her fit into society, and she just fell in love.

9/23 Blog Nikhil

 I found the following stories the most interesting to write about: 

Banana Yoshimoto - Tomo-Chan’s Happiness

I found the way Yoshimoto weaves tragedy into “Tomo-Chan’s Happiness” so plainly, without explicitly labelling it as such, enthralling. She expertly inserts tragedies within a flowing story or dialogue, halting the reader and grasping their attention. She, later, explains it through Tomo-chan’s dialogue or experience. In this way, Yoshimoto’s writing tugs at the heartstrings even more than an explicit handling of tragedies would (eg. the mention of Tomo-chan’s mom passing away). Furthermore, oshimoto juxtaposes Tomo-chan’s personality with the personalities of her “perpetrators”. Tomo-chan carries a sense of respect, as shown through her respect of vegetation and food, unlike the man who raped her. In addition, she “had an almost compulsive aversion to taking something that wasn’t rightfully hers.” and never thought or attempted to come between Miwasa and his girlfriend, unlike the secretary’s encroachment on her parents’ relationship. Yoshimoto also subtly hints at the effects of such tragedies on Tomo-chan whilst claiming that Tomo-chan was fine: her unremarkable habits now, her preference to be a homebody. These could point to her reluctance to do something new or explorative since it ended so badly in the past. Her attraction to an older man with a steady girlfriend could imply that she mistrusted younger men because of her past experience. This attraction reminds me of people who suffer traumatic experiences that rewire their brains, causing unusual behaviors. The ending remarks on God and unfortunate experiences is a striking tonal shift from a young woman’s experiences with relationships to a pessimistic, philosophical discussion. The mention of powers that watch over Tomo-chan, which are apparently “not gods” is also very interesting. It could point to spirituality or fate, the human drive to keep living despite tragedy, or even Yoshimoto herself as the author subtly watching over and guiding Tomo-chan’s life.

Realizing Fun Things through Water - Ao Omae 

Ao Omae detailing the main character, Hatsuoka’s, inner monologue about the definition of romance as returning one’s kindness, reluctance to romance and its discussion, hesitating about the wedding, and only being able to tell everything to the water and her sister is really interesting to me. This monologue, in addition to her thoughts about being able to tell her sister everything, her mention of her sister between her experiences with Hakozaki, and her messaging her sister everyday makes me think that she is not able to experience romantic love but her true love lies with her sister. She only really likes Hakozaki because he likes her (“I always just liked whoever liked me”) but even when her sister doesn’t reciprocate and leaves she is ready to “stay and wait” and messages her everyday. 

Omae’s handling of tragedy reminds me of Yoshimoto’s in the way that Omae and Yoshimoto both plainly insert tragic experiences such as her sister disappearing and Hakozaki’s tumor. Hatsuoka is deeply affected by her sister’s disappearance and, it seems to me that, she replaces her sister with this “water” that she tells everything to, pointing to an unusual rewiring of her brain from trauma. The ending was nice and wholesome in this story, somewhat contrasting Yoshimoto’s conclusion of “Tomo-chan’s Happiness”. 

Seahorse - Hiromi Kawakami 

This story confused and interested me. I eventually came to think that the sea was a metaphor for a woman’s freedom and as she passes through abusive or controlling relationships, she misses the freedom she had before. As she has kids and gets deeper into these relationships, it becomes normalized to her and she doesn’t remember the sea/freedom as much. This is implied by lines such as “Having children made it that way. I no longer weep for my beloved ocean. The children being nameless (other than their human names) make me think that the woman doesn’t actually care for them other than as trapping her in these controlling relationships, away from her freedom. Terminology such as “handed over to him” also implies this metaphor of freedom and controlling relationships. 

Nikhil Khemani

Readings for 09/23 - Kelley

 I like the sisterly love depicted in “Realizing Fun Things Through Water,” especially how Hatsuoka considered it a more important part of her life than romance. It seems Hatsuoka never truly had strong feelings for her partner, and that she can never be truly vulnerable around him, which is why she talks to the water. Kimiko, the mother-in-law, is an interesting character to me, because although she seems similar to Hatsuoka - she vents to her, probably because she can’t vent to other people, like her husband - she still enforces the stereotypical marital power dynamic when she encourages Hatsuoka to quit her job after hearing the news about her engagement.

“Sea Horse” was really interesting. I was a bit confused why the protagonist kept staying on land, in the human world, instead of going back to the sea when she was being abused and treated so badly, but I realized it felt a bit like Stockholm syndrome. I also found it interesting how the protagonist was a sea horse instead of a typical mermaid. Did this have anything to do with traditional Japanese folklore? Maybe making her a seahorse makes her more mundane, and less of an alluring, exotic creature that we over-romanticize. Additionally, what stood out to me about this story was that the protagonist didn’t decide to return to the sea until her daughter did. It was her daughter who broke the cycle of trauma and allowed the protagonist to finally decide to let go.

I liked “Dissecting Misogyny” for how deadpan the satire felt. Was interesting to see misogyny in tangible form and how grotesque it was - so much so that the women in the audience in the story faint from seeing the dissection. “Picnic” was a little like “Realizing Fun Thing Through Water” in that it felt like the women in both relationships did not truly like their partners. But “Picnic” was unique in that it had a male narrator, which is the first we’ve seen so far in class. It was slightly disturbing to see how the narrator talks about his wife in this story - he compares calls her a witch, compares her to a bird, a cat, a child, and is embarrassed of his wife’s picnicking hobby.

I found Convenience Store Woman to have an enlightening take on society. It showed how society expects everyone to have solid careers, be married, and start a family, and anyone who strays from that path is branded as strange and receives pity from others. And that to be “cured” is to eliminate parts of your life that people find strange. So how can we truly be ourselves when society places expectations on us for what is right and wrong? I really liked how the convenience store as an identity developed for Furukura throughout the story. In the beginning, Furukura used the convenience store job as a way to feel normal - absorbing speech patterns from her coworkers and maintaining facial expressions for customers. But at the end, the convenience store becomes a part of Furukura’s identity and her way of life. She finds purpose and meaning in the store, and I thought this was a satisfying conclusion.

“Tomo-chan’s Happiness” made me feel the power of resilience. Despite the trauma and abandonment Tomo-chan had been through, the story made it clear she never really felt alone and did not lose hope or belief that the future could work out. The almost bird’s-like eye view at the end about Tomo-chan always being watched over by higher powers stood out to me especially. It made it hit home that in the big picture of things, although “gods” won’t lift a finger to interfere or help, the past stays in the past.

Sept. 23 Readings - Raian S.

  Realizing Fun Things Through Water was a pretty interesting read to me, and it also kind of hit home. Specifically, Hatsuoka’s longing for her sister, and she waited for her all those years. How she would do things for her that she herself wouldn’t understand, but would do anyways because it would make her sister happy. I understood Hatsuoka’s consideration for others over herself, but at the same time it made me wonder how many people were really like that. 

Seahorse was confusing and disheartening at first, but a little hopeful at the end. It’s pretty awful to hear her talk about herself as an object passed around from husband to husband, and for her to actually be treated as such by each of her husbands. How she was restricted from going back home, treated as a spectacle, never to have her true name shared with anyone else.

Dissecting Misogyny was very unique and interesting to me. It’s described as a grotesque, foul-odored, tough, yet weak creature that shocks the audience of women into passing out. Depicting misogyny as a weak-boned yet tough mass of flesh was incredibly fascinating and understandable to me, as misogyny’s rooted in weak justifications towards the belittlement of women, yet is toughly rooted nonetheless. 

Picnic was a read that I didn’t particularly enjoy or hate, rather it felt like the male perspective of other stories we’ve read about relationships. I dislike the main character, mainly because of how he dehumanizes Kyoko. He doesn't really try to fix the problems he complains about, rather he runs away from them. He clearly notices Kyoko’s lack of verbal reciprocation when it comes to things like sex, yet continues to indulge in it, without ever truly asking whether or not Kyoko actually wants it. One particular line stood out to me, where Kyoko “dutifully” accepts the main character’s kiss. 

Tomo-chan’s  happiness was a very optimistic read for me. Tomo, despite all the tragedies she’s suffered, remains hopeful, and finds beauty in the little things that others don’t. 

Convenience Store Woman was a really fun read to me, but was kind of sad to me as well. It was pretty sad to see Furukara being treated as an abnormal throughout the entire book, even annoying when truly abnormal characters like Shiraha would say it as well. She is conditioned into being “normal”, and is made to feel ashamed of herself constantly. In the end, I’m glad she finds joy in convenience store work.

09/23 Readings Alla

In Realizing Fun Things through Water, I found it interesting how the author used the theme of water throughout the whole story. First, when the main character's mother-in-law ordered expensive "hyper-organization" water that she claimed prevented cancer. Then, the main character seemed to emotionally drift apart from her partner, as if it was the water that was making her do so. In the end, when she finally hears back from her sister, the sister says she needs to catch a boat. I don't know if that was intended, but it's definitely really interesting to see how the story repeatedly connects water with movement and change. And overall, it seemed like the main character was drifting on water; she would always choose a path of least resistance: whether it was agreeing to get married or accepting the water from her mother-in-law. 

When I started reading Seahorse, I thought the main character was initially a mermaid. So it was really surprising to find out she was actually a seahorse. Throughout the whole reading I couldn't help but feel this certain sense of tiredness and even despair. The main character would always say: "I was passed on to my next husband." The use of passive voice made me confused: who was the one who "passed her on" to her first husband? How and why was she the one chosen to be "passed on"? Did she ever agree to this? Throughout the whole story the main character was always limited in her freedom. One of the husbands even put her on a chain so she wouldn't come to the ocean. After being passed on so often, she slowly started to physically and mentally lose pieces of who she was. The use of passive voice made it seem like the main character wasn't a human being, but an object to be used.

I actually found Dissecting Misogyny a bit disturbing. But I'm just pretty sensitive when it comes to such explicit descriptions. Matsuda's approach to describing a process so graphic and violent made it look like it was something ordinary, like a moment from one of those TV shops where they try to sell you a set of knives so they try to show how easy it is to use them. The tone that the author used was so casual, as if it was her 1000th time doing the same thing all over again. I think this is the main reason why I found it so disturbing: the feeling of absolute detachment coming from the lady doing this whole tutorial. Or she was so used to this that it's no longer disturbing for her. Maybe Matsuda used this as a metaphor for what it feels like to fight misogyny in today's society: it happens so often that you do it on autopilot. 

I've actually read Convenience Store Woman back in high school, so it was nice to refresh my memory. Keiko is constantly being judged throughout the story. First, it's her friends who seem to have a problem with her relationship status and job choice. Then, it's Shiraha who thinks she should get another job to feed them both. But I think Keiko is doing perfectly fine on her own terms. People around her find it concerning that she is unmarried and has been working at a convenience store for more than 18 years. They think something is wrong simply because Keiko doesn't seem interested in things they consider important. Shiraha, on the other hand, seems to know it all about how Keiko should actually live her life so that he can also be the one benefitting from the change. I didn't really like him. In Russian, I would call him the "couch critic": critiquing everyone for doing everything the wrong way (because only he knows how to do things right) from his couch. For others, Keiko's life is unsuccessful, but what if Keiko is absolutely fine and content with her life as it is? Who actually gets to decide what a successful life looks like?

Ekuni Kaori's Picnic focuses on the psychological distance that can exist between people who are physically together. The married couple seemed quite mentally disconnected from each other, even though they would have picnics with each other often. Kyoko, the wife, even bought an expensive picnic set, which, to me, made the picnics look more like a routine or a performance. The moment I found the most concerning was the fact that Kyoko couldn't remember her husband's name. Instead, she would call him "the dearest." I think she was so mentally alienated from Hiroyuki, but she still tried to create a temporary feeling of connection by hosting these picnics every now and then. The picnic became some sort of mask for the problems in their relationship.

Tomo-chan's Happiness shows a more complicated idea of one's happiness. Throughout the story, we follow Tomo-chan's healing journey from her traumatic experiences in the past. Tomo-chan doesn't completely forget what happened to her, she actually doesn't even try to erase it. Instead, she chooses to keep on going while still carrying her past. She doesn't need to erase a part of her life to continue living. Tomo-chan still allows her to experience something new despite all of the trauma that she has gone through. She lets her heart remain open for the possibility of love, even if it's just a work crush (for now!). My favorite part was probably when the author breaks the fourth wall at the end of the story. Tomo-chan is, in fact, never alone, even when it seems like she only has herself when recovering from trauma. She has some sort of spiritual connection with the world around her. And her memories, some traumatic and some warm, still follow her around. Her inner world is so vast; and the fact that she continues to be so open to life proves that she is never alone. 

Kaya - 9/23 readings

 I started off this week’s readings with Realizing Fun Things Through Water, which I had mixed feelings about. I started off thinking that maybe her sister wasn’t actually real and was instead a metaphor for Hatsuoka being stuck in her old habits and overall not being very confident, so I was kind of surprised at the ending. It made me wonder if the sister had been waiting for Hatsuoka to break through this social barrier, thus why she finally texted back when she learned of her marriage. I also thought the “miracle water” was silly, but most likely worked for Hatsuoka because she was able to let out her emotions and inner thoughts, letting the water “purify” her, which also happens later when she submerges her face in the bath. 

Next I read Sea Horse, which also has imagery using water but in a very different way. This one confused me as at first I was picturing a seahorse (tiny) but then later it became clear that they were referring to a horse of the sea (large white body, long hair, etc.) The themes of this one were also a little confusing to me. In a very literal sense, it depicts the physical and emotional abuse of women in intimate relationships, but I feel like it’s getting at something else. The symbolism of the horses and the sea make me think of freedom, but also danger. I wonder if the woman being passed down from husband to husband is a depiction of generational trauma, with her child returning to the sea being a symbol of the breaking of that cycle. At one point I also thought it might be something about climate change, with the woman representing “mother nature” and the men, our abuse of the planet and unwillingness to let her return to her natural state. 

I loved Convenience Store Woman, I’ll be adding it to my list of full books to read. Furukawa specifically seems to be a woman with autism, but in a broader sense represents women who have no interest in getting married/having kids. To me, she and Shihara seem to be two sides of the same coin. They both have a dissatisfaction with societal norms (you must get married and have kids, you must get a good job and make lots of money) but they express it in completely different ways. Furukawa finds her passion and sticks to it despite what the people around her think (even if she must wear a sort of “mask” around friends and family) while Shihara falls into self-pity and cares very much about how he is perceived. Thus while living together, Shihara tries to drag Furukawa to his level, but is ultimately unsuccessful as she is able to reunite with her passion and take pride in it while Shihara cannot. 

Dissecting Misogyny: A Live Demo! I thought was very very fun. While we know the main character works as a department store demonstrator, the monologue almost makes it feel like some sort of hospital/medical theatre. This theme felt kinda straight forward to me, which is that misogynistic men are only held up by their hatred, and without it are just fragile, empty shells. 

Picnic was interesting, I felt like it had similar themes to previous stories we read where the woman of the story does not value/experience sex in the same way as a man, thus leading to the downfall of the relationship. It seems like the couple in this story was not very close, but through the romantic idea of a picnic, they try to connect a little more, perhaps they think being perceived as a happy couple from those around them will fix their relationship. I also thought it was interesting how the man kinda de-humanized the woman by calling her a “witch,” which I think also leans into the expectation that women must have sex or else be perceived as “other.”

Tomo-Chan’s Happiness had another unexpected ending for me, but I thought it tied everything together really nicely. Tomo-chan to me really embodied resilience, even in moments when she was “alone,” but as the ending suggests she was not exactly alone. She was surrounded by beautiful, little things in the world that we often take for granted, and her ability to notice them helped her through each tragedy she faced (very Shinto). I loved how she treated each person as an individual, with distinct thoughts and goals, thus letting her understand them better than most.