You may have seen this already, but I made a post on my journal about Kimura Takuya, the Japanese singer/actor whom it's rumored that Nitta-sensei modeled Katou after. Head on over to take a look and judge for yourself.

I just finished reading a book called Tokyo Vice: an American Reporter on the Police Beat in Japan by Jake Adelstein. It's a fascinating true life story about Adelstein, who was going to college in Japan and managed to get hired as a crime reporter by the Yomiuri Shinbun, one of the biggest newspapers in Japan. The Yomiuri has an English language version, but through a combination of talent and a lot of luck, he got hired to work on the main (Japanese language) paper--unheard of for a gaijin at the time.

Much of the book deals with how Adelstein managed to anger a yakuza boss, who threatened to kill him and his family if he followed through on a damaging article, but I'm mentioning the book here because there's a brief but very interesting and informative chapter about host clubs.

I was reading the historical shoujo manga title Kaze Hikaru (which I mentioned at the end of this post), and in volume 14, p. 85 of the Viz edition, it's stated that the wife of Commander Kondo Isami of the Shinsengumi is "the eldest daughter of a Shimizu house general. She serves as a secretary for the Hitotsubashi house." A footnote explains that the Hitotsubashi house was one the Gosankyo, or three branches of the ruling Tokugawa clan. (The Gosankyo consisted of the Tayasu, Hitotsubashi, and Shimizu branches of the Tokugawa, and were descended from the eighth Tokugawa Shogun, Yoshimune.)

So our beloved Shimizu-san might be descended from a very old and powerful samurai family! Which does not surprise me--she certainly has enough strength and determination to be a samurai woman. Heh heh, a Shimizu ancestor could have been in Fuyu no Semi! ^_^ Kikuchi and Mochimune also have surnames from old samurai clans as well.

In my Kikuchi/Onozuka series, I made Kikuchi's father a retired detective. Recently, in this comment (*swats away Sawa and crossover bunnies. I swear...*) on one of my fics, bronze_ribbons reminded me that Sawa used to be a detective--giving me more plot bunnies to add to the gazillion already clamoring for attention! >_<
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A bit about honorifics in Haru vol. 10&11... In 11, ch. 1 there is a lot of Onozuka-Miyasaka-Iwaki-Katou action, and the use of honorifics says quite a lot about their relationships at this point.
First of all, this made me rethink the relationship between Iwaki and Katou. We have assumed that it is Iwaki who holds back, mainly based on the fact that Katou and he have had a discussion about given names, and when to use them. But if we look at how Iwaki and Katou address each other and how they speak about each other to other people, it is clear that Iwaki's relationship with Katou is more... intimate than we think - he is not holding back. No, it is actually Katou who might be the one who (inadvertently, perhaps) who have set the up barrier which prevents that the family names are put away. It is Katou, after all, who tells Iwaki that he'll reward him by calling him Kyousuke at the Golden anniversary whereas Iwaki wants call Katou Yousuke already at their Silver ann. :D

Here is why: Iwaki always - always - adresses Katou with no honorific. He speaks of him in the same way, thus signaling that their relationship is a deep and intimate one. Katou, on the other hand always uses the respectful -san, both when he speaks with Iwaki, and when he speaks of him. -San is of course a vastly more intimate address than "Mr" - which can in no way be compared to -san. This sets up an invisible barrier - it is one of respect and care, but a barrier nevertheless.

Now, on to Miyasaka and Onozuka. It is obvious that the two fools young men are casual with honorifics. They call each other -kun, and Onozuka makes a small distinction (maybe because he's the brain) and calls Miyasaka Miya-chan as often as -kun. -Chan is of course a loving address, between very good friends, more intimate than -kun. It happens often, especially if they're angry at each other, that the honorifics are dropped. The same goes for the their respectful language when it comes to Katou. Miyasaka and Onozuka also speaks of Katou without the -kun, just as Katou addresses the both of them with or without the -kun added. Katou, on the other hand, is angry when he thinks Onozuka dares call Iwaki Nii-san (in ch 2/36).

It should be noted that honorifics are never used when a worker from one company speaks of a colleague to others. This is a part of the humble language (keigo): one never raises up one's own company by using honorifics added to co-workers' names. I don't think this has anything to do with the three friends here, but it is worth remembering.

On an entirely different note... Mochimune... his name seems to be written with two non-touyou kanji, which means that they are not on the government-approved list of approximately 2,000 kanji that one needs to know to read modern Japanese (I suck at kanji, so I might be wrong here). However, the name Mochimune *is* an old high-ranking bushi (daimyo, shogun, shogunate administrators-all warrior nobles) name from the time that only 20% of the Japanese (namely the noble and the bushi - the samurai) were allowed family names. Might explain his immense arrogance. *loves on him*

I'm working on my current fic, where Miyasaka decides to go off to a nightclub alone after Katou and Onozuka abandon him in favor of their lovers. They had previously been at Lime, which the manga says is located in Ginza, so I was just doing a quick web search on "Ginza" to get ideas, and I found this entry for Lime:

Lime is a popular "aquarium" lounge bar. If you come as a couple and are lucky enough, you might be seated in front of the aquarium, which is 20m long and houses 2,000 tropical fish. If you come with friends, you'll probably be seated in the Southeast Asian-themed area of the bar. In either case, you'd better book ahead.

Pretty cool, huh? I guess that the Lime in Haru probably refers to this club. We haven't seen the aquarium, but since Katou and co. seem to be seated in a private room (in Book 13), it probably wouldn't be visible from where they're sitting.

Also, in case you didn't see the entry on my personal journal, there is a sushi restaurant called Katsuya in Brentwood in Los Angeles.

This is somewhat OT, as it doesn't deal directly with Harudaki, but a recent scandal involving a real-life Japanese pop star shed some interesting light on the geinokai (the Japanese entertainment industry) and the pressures that Japanese celebrities face. So I thought it could serve as a reference for Haru fanfics.

Kusanagi Tsuyoshi, a member of the extremely popular boy band SMAP, was recently arrested for public indecency--basically, he got very drunk, and somehow wound up naked and "whooping noisily" in a public park.

A recent New York Times Magazine had a fashion spread featuring an array of hot Japanese actors:

http://www.nytimes.com/indexes/2008/12/07/style/t/index.html#pageName=01schoerneri

Seems to me that some of us might possibly find this inspirational for the current drabble challenge, ne?

*imagines Katou with Alain Aragaki* Hummanah hummanah... ;-)

My first post! A bit of meta on a Japanese custom; contains spoilers for Book 10.

Very long, very fascinating article by Margaret O'Connell:
http://www.sequentialtart.com/archive/may04/cv_0504_2.shtml

While it doesn't specifically mention Harudaki, it does shed light on something that had been confusing me: why Katou sometimes appears in the color covers/panels with brown hair instead of blond. Apparently the Japanese really perceive colors differently. To quote:

If, to the Japanese, the distinction that Westerners see between pale brown and yellow hair effectively does not exist, then it is literally possible for a manga character to have what we would call brown hair, but still qualify as a blond by Japanese standards.

It also discusses how blond characters = trouble. Heh.

Tangential note: the article has an extensive discussion on the hair colors of the characters in FAKE (which is how I stumbled across it in the first place), and it explains why Diana looks to me like a brunette in the b/w manga but is described as a blonde, and vice versa for Ryo (which has been driving me mildly insane ever since I picked up the series). (It has to do with lines indicating shininess of hair rather than color. I clearly have a lot more to learn when it comes to understanding the visual vocabulary of these things.)

P.S. I was thinking of writing a Bikky-meets-Katou drabble for this week's theme. Who knows...

An interesting tidbit @ retrobabble at livejournal on a key difference between Japanese and Western computer culture.

(Potentially useful if one plans on, say, displaying text msgs between Iwaki and Katou. But I am getting ahead of myself...)

Another excerpt from Little Adventures in Tokyo (1998):
( things the guys could ask Kaneko or Shimizu to pick up, if they wanted... )

…especially for those of us thinking of committing fic or RP with both Tokyo- and Kyoto-based characters. *sidelong glance at my Yoshizumis…*

Iseya is a wonderful old-line tempura shop in one of the few parts of town to escape the ravages of the war. … Isaya's tempura is rough and ready, Edo style, heavy on the soy sauce. It is not served to you piece by piece as in the lofty tempura establishments in the Ginza, but all scrapped together in a savory mess, like a Mexican omelet. It is very filling.

…When Kyoto people complain about the koi (dark) taste of Tokyo food, Iseya's tempura is what they are talking about. Iseya's customers, on the other hand, would find Kyoto-style tempura, the kind served in the Ginza, effete.

- Rick Kennedy, Little Adventures in Tokyo (1998)