Has anyone ever wondered how exactly they came to like foreign music?  Like do you remember that moment?

Because people ask me that all the time and I honestly don't have a good answer.  I don't know why I am attracted to Asian music.

I always say it started with Dragonball Z and my love of anime.  My interests sort of went like manga-->anime-->anime songs-->jrock-->visual kei over the course of middle school to when I went to college.  And that was before my family had internet, so the first L'Arc~en~Ciel album I bought I actually got in store at Borders.

And then of course, I finally had an internet connection, and I became CDJapan's #1 customer.

But I still don't know how to answer that question.  And it like used to really freak people out when I said I listened to Japanese music.  They were like WHAT? WHY?  HOW DO YOU UNDERSTAND IT?  But it's like Miyavi says, I don't need to understand every word to enjoy or get the emotion of a song.  But I don't know WHY I like it, I just do.  

And I used to listen to Alan Jackson.  I was pretty hardcore country back in the day.  I never got into boybands, never liked Backstreet Boys or N'SYNC or any of that stuff.  It was kind of like just one day...I switched.  I very rarely listen to American or any music in English anymore, I haven't for...a looooong time now, like since I was 15 or 16 and I'm 25 now so...loooooong time.  I think the last English album I bought was probably a Green Day album, like that one that was really popular American Idiot or whatever it was. But I traded all my English albums in except for a few HIM cds, some Chumbawamba albums, some albums that I stole from my big bro like Godsmack.  I listen to my ipod in my car and I realized it's got nothing but Asian music on it.  Jrock, Kpop, some Chinese stuff, but nothing American or in English.

 And it's not even that I am super biased towards Asian guys either.  I mean Jensen Ackles is pretty hot.  Chris Hemsworth, omg.  Leonardo DiCaprio, my love since I was 9.  I am really not immune to a hot American guy.

But I think I've been staring at my Asian idols for waaaay too long.  I look at a guy like TOP or Ruki or whatever and I don't even register that they're Asian anymore.  My mom, my family, my friends, they can look at one of my GazettE or Bigbang posters, and even after I have explained over and over and over again, they cannot tell these people apart.  Seven years and my mother still cannot tell which one is Ruki and which one is Uruha.  I swear, people will say to me, "they all look the same." NO, THEY DON'T.  How can you not see that his eyes are completely different from his and his nose is shaped like this and look their lips are completely different!

*sigh* I am so super biased.

And I really can't tell you why.

Well, I was just thinking about the subject...maybe it's one of those the "grass is always greener on the other side" kind of things.  It was different than what the majority of people around me listened to.  But then again, I mean...this has morphed into a 10+ year obsession that has led me to studying Japanese literature and going as far as moving to Japan to teach English in a culture I am in love with.  I personally believe in past lives.  Maybe I was Japanese or Korean at some point (I probably died on the Titanic too which is why I am fascinated with the ship and terrified of the ocean even though I live in Iowa).  

Anyways, I've gotta come up with a better explanation other than, "Well...I used to watch Dragonball and it kinda...went from there?"

(btw, it's like 3am and I am really ing tired, and this is just the stupid I think of when I don't want to go to bed and go to work the next day O_o)