Study of Japanese lit
The problem was that I wasn’t thriving in high school. Math got complicated, and no matter how much I prepared for the test, I only had a mediocre result.
Japanese literature agonized me. The subject consisted of contemporary, Japanese classic, and Chinese classic. The exam format was like this: A paragraph of an excerpt from a novel was underlined. Questions asked, such as, “why did the character behave this way?” The answer was to be selected from four options that had already been phrased.
We were told to study at least 3 hours outside of school. I spent 3 hours daily on a commute. I barely had enough time to read novels. Reading for pleasure was a luxury in high school. Also, my penchant for translated foreign novels by female authors did not equip me with empathy with Japanese men who dominated the exams. Even the Lady Murasaki’s Tale of Genji that frequented exams was about a privileged man who slept with various ladies in the court. The encounters were sometimes nonconsensual, and one of his conquests was a child.