Hey, a rare post of me not talking about anything besides Anime and new packages incoming at this time of year... but this one I think should be worth talking about. In view of the next exposure of this unbecoming name (lol) to the world, I shall spend some time here to talk about how, the one time, I had given myself a Japanese name. I sure did not just randomize a name, I promise you, for besides being used for more practical purposes ie. online shopping today, it had its origins, and since I've been interested in the Japanese... Anime subculture I feel like I should talk more about it. So, without further ado and not spoiling more so I can tell a story, let's begin.

THE ORIGIN STORY OF JAPANESE ME

So, about how all this thought of giving myself a name all begin. Back then, I started watching Anime mainly because of "BLEACH", of course... at this point, 20-year-old action series which my middle school friend hooked me in to watch, and after reading a couple of chapters of the manga he brought into school (it's not Japan so it was fine haha we read it on breaks in between lessons anyways), I went ahead to watch the Anime, then still airing the Arrancar Arc, if I wasn't wrong. That was 2007. So firstly, because of being as cool as the characters in the series, you would like to give a name to yourself, but even back then thinking of ideas of zanpakutos and kido and maybe a real cool role for my name... (yes haha) (for future self that is 5 swords supposedly "stolen" from the guy who created them I think Namaiya, over two dozen spells of some are simple level binding spells inspired by tying my shoelaces, and the replacement captain and 4th seat after Urahara betrayed Soul Society) (haha I have been wanting to say that so I'm sorry I AM a BLEACH nerd hehe) but even then I didn't go that far as to give a name to any characters I created or whatever (I'm not Mayuri, man), but BLEACH talk over for now, I didn't want to use any of their names because most of the good guys get trashed anyways inheriting their family name feels like ridicule for me or something like that, maybe not cool enough haha. Whatever the reason though, it was mixed, there wasn't a goal, and I was just only thinking. But THEN, as I continued into the world of Anime still being like, an emo kid at 15 years old (ugh) (haha), I watched another series which changed my decision.

Thus, secondly, came Anime movie series "Kara no Kyoukai" (also known as Garden of Sinners), and if you don't agree with me that the 5th movie is the coolest, and Aozaki Touko - an expert magician fighting against whatever bad guys there are (oh yeah that magician who thought he was God and didn't believe Shiki had super death eyes haha) - being the coolest character in the movie itself not to even say the series (screw you Ryougi Shiki haha), then you can leave now I don't even care. *laughs* And as you can see very soon, that is EXACTLY how I got the first part of the name nailed in the coffin. For modelling an excellent mind of scheming character, I gotta take my family name from the Aozakis, no doubt. (Sorry Urahara Kisuke lol)

Haha what am I saying here lol it's totally true though.

And so, motivated by this family name, I went out to then research properly, a given name that would suit me at first sight. And I chose a fairly common one, but not one I've seen around before in my... limited exposure to Japanese culture even today, "Shouhei", for peace and smooth-sailing, amongst other things that make of me now to be honest. So there you go, put them together just as how the Japanese would have wanted:

You won't need the Japanese spelling I'll show you examples later haha also pronounced as "a-o-za-ki show-hey" just in case you can't read this out lol

WHERE HE APPEARS TODAY

And thus, with the name born, it was left there for many years to come, until I found the first use of this name which came in around end 2013, where I learnt of buying CDs DIRECTLY from Japan's online stores and through forwarding services like the long time running partner of the Klassic Note Review series (lol) Tenso.com, I had to fill in personal particulars, yes hear me out, in Japanese. And so, I didn't have to come up with a fake name or nothing; I already had one ready. And so, I picked up the guts to try the service by signing up and trying to understand the terms and conditions of service on the same level as I normally would on my local online shopping sites which is just skip them all (haha), and I had to use a Japanese shipping address and translate myself a Katakana name, as that is how those sites learn of how to pronounce your name in case if can't be read using purely Hiragana, I would assume.

Today, I use this name seemingly for anything and everything before the forwarding service, because besides that one, I don't have to use my real name and home address, I can just come up with one. Meaningful, none the less, and it wasn't even a joke. This name has indeed represented my identity in Japan, so much so I took pride in using this name. And thus even today I use for any online alias I would have to use, from online services to online profiles, including LINE, Twitter and even recently too, Instagram. Don't try to add me as a friend on Instagram because as written on my profile "I created this account for the purpose of following female voice actresses *Please do not follow me" lmao

WHO KNOWS OF HIM

One would consider the above cases all indirect contact information, because honestly saying, I did not walk out to the streets of Japan and when people ask me who I am I replied "Aozaki Shouhei" haha no no, I did not do that at all. Then again it's probably also because I've never (yet) gone to Japan (the world is burning now so definitely not now) but also because, I've never really used that name for such a purpose, to interact with anything besides you know, creating online shopping accounts haha. So yeah, but I did get my name out for some to know, and so far, I think personally, only Tachibana Haru who I have followed and bought some of her merch back in 2018, yes, Futon-chan should know of my name because being a doujin label, she had to mail all the goods out herself, including - may I show you - writing the recipients' names in ink. Yes, I still have that envelope with her own handwriting haha I'm such a creep it's not even an autograph