it's the *toot*: March 2010

Otaku Group?

Ever heard of a group of separatists? Or maybe an organization of individualists? Quite impossible right? The brand itself would sound very self contradicting, yet as UP students, an organization in UP Cebu made something out of the ordinary, their organization is made up of people who in the first look seems to be normal, but deep inside them, they are not, for they are “Otakus”. The organization I am meaning is the UP Nichibunken, how they started and what their aim is; they’re the only ones who know. It might be better to check them out and hang out with them, so that’s what I did.
Just like the UP Diliman nihilist circle, one of the most controversial organizations in the Diliman College, the founders of Nichibunken made an organization which is as controversial as the latter. For both of them were into Japanese culture and anime fandom, it came up to their minds to make a group consisting of people who are in the same ground as they are standing, students who can’t help themselves but like anything that came from Japan. That was why, on November 19, 2008, the concept of the proposed organization was laid down. The concepts and rules that the organization is made of was starting to emerge. The founders started gathering members. The people they picked are in to the mode of various levels of “Japanimania”.
But is their organization something useful? Or are they just as the same as the other orgs who come and end after a few semester? Well, even if they somehow claim themselves as otakus, they clearly believe that they are still useful citizens; irony to what otaku really means in japan, for the word means, nerd, isolationist and fandom centered. The negative connotation of the Japanese word is being neutralized by the activities of the group, for they not only are into anime, J Pop, and mangas, but they are also into cultural Japanese festivals and customs. Hence standing to what their full name which is; Zenkindai Tokindai Nihon Shakai ni Okeru Bunka no Kenkyuu Bu, which literally means Society for Japanese Classic and Modern Culture Studies. This means, by their very name, they are not only a bunch of Japanese product addicts, but also socially conscious on how the culture of Japan be of use to the society they are a part of.
Not all weird named organizations are nuisance, that is what people should learn. For even an organization like UP Nichibunken, proves to be useful in the society, maybe we should not judge these kind of groups, for it is not righteous to judge them by their skin, but critique them by their foot steps.

UP Nichibunken LOGO

HON vs DoTA

spooky

Is there something strange going on around your room? Are you sure that you are alone when you’re eyes tell you that you are alone? I say, you could never be, because some things are happening behind your eyes. Spooks happen without you knowing it.I was only about three years in my boarding house. At the first time, the place seemed just as the same as any boarding house there is, and it felt as the same as the first boarding house I was in. It was just a plain, warm room. A room so hot in the evening before I sleep that it takes me hours to take a rest for the night. The room is not big, really is small, but it was cozy, after some time of living in it.But just when I thought everything is just normal, nature proved me wrong, because spooks own room was around a month after I transferred in. It was in the middle of the night when I fell asleep on the living room’s sofa, when suddenly, I felt as if there was a person who sat at the side of the cushioned bed I was lying on. Then, that experience did not end to that, it happened not only once that I felt having another person around the place when no one was really there, for there were moments that footsteps were heard in the middle of the night, but when you look at the place the sound comes from, nothing was there. According to my board mates, it was not only me who experienced it, so as they were, but they just don’t mind it. Mary Anne Magudayao, a board mate of mine shared the same experience when she confessed to me the things she feels around the house. She said, it was not only once that she felt someone looking at her during the times she is alone, it is as if someone is looking at her from the dark corners of the room at night. Also, she stated that there were times when someone knocks on her wall just behind where her head is positioned when she sleeps at night, but to her surprise, no one is there, she never hears a voice. But because she is the longest boarder there is in the house, living for around six years now, she is the one who tells us to just not mind the things that are happening, for she believes, as long as we do not do anything, there will be nothing to happen to us. I believed though, and so I was doing that until now.I know it is not easy to ignore it, because how could you ignore a shadow that passes in front of you, when you knew all along that you are definitely aware that it is only you inside the room? Or hear a scream in your mp3 player playing, but when you rewind it, you can’t hear it anymore? Or the fact that you would see a shadow of someone’s hand in the middle of the night as you go to pee, but when you look back no one is with you? Yes, I know it would be hard, but believe me; it would not be that tough. And once you would be used to these scary stuffs, you won’t find them scary anymore, but entertaining.