Welcome!  Irasshai!

You have reached the journal of one Laura H. aka Areea aka areea-chan.  This journal is totally dedicated to fangirling with a few non-fangirling things thrown in for good measure.  I mainly blog about mah main JE boy, Toma.  If there's anything you want to know, look around, send me a comment, look at my profile page, or just ask!

Friending Policy: Time for a revision since random people keep adding me without telling me why.

PLEASE COMMENT ON THIS POST TO BE ADDED OR ELSE I WON'T ADD YOU BACK.

I HEAAAAARRRRRTTTT YOU.

Thanks to princess_rei09  for the wallpaper from which I made this header.  Isn't it purty?

B-CHAN: I realized our room is like, fandom central.
ME: Exhibit A *points to various Asian artist posters on walls*
B-CHAN: It's not productive at all.
ME: I know. Last night when we were down in the study room, I kept getting urges to get on the internet which I had to quickly supress.
B-CHAN: That's bad. We're addicted to the internet.
ME: Sigh...yeah...ooh, look a pretty picture of three members of DBSK!
B-CHAN: Oooooh....but, no, really, turning the wireless off on the computer is actually productive.
ME: You don't have immediate access or have to spray yourself with a squirt bottle to stop the habit.
B-CHAN: Fanfiction is my heroine................
ME:..............
B-CHAN: Tourniquet it up.

*based on true conversations*

flumpool. flumpool. flumpool. FLUMPOOLFLUMPOOLFLUMPOOL AHHHHHHHHHKLJDA;OIDWA;IAJNJNALALFUANFANN@

The new PV for "Calling" has finally been released to the net! Well, sort of. At least, someone at Clubbox had it, and now I have it and I am a happy little schizophrenic fangirl. Kazuki knows what's up.



Not only that, but WOWOW aired their entire Budokan performance (which I totally MISSED but it got leaked onto the net and was subsequently ripped from the annals of YouTube) which included live performances of two new songs, "Calling" and "Hydrangea" in which HOMG GENKI SINGS. Mr. I-Always-Keep-My-Hair-In-My-Face-To-Look-Cool Amakawa Genki actually sings. Who knew he could actually sing? Genki is quickly becoming my favorite member, although I love all of them. I have a particular soft spot for Seiji for some reason. He's like a cool older brother who happens to (somewhat creepily) love cats. Both of the new songs are awesome, yet sadly, "Hydrangea" won't be on the new album. Maybe it'll just be one of those songs they do at concerts...sigh...

Speaking of their album, the same day, Red Dracul Scar Tissue will be releasing an album. It's basically a mix of the "What's flumpool!?" album with different titles. Only Tower Records will have it, though...sigh...I may have to bribe Dr. Nemoto to send one to me. She's going back to Japan for a year to write a book. Today during class, she said if any of us happen to make it to Tokyo, contact her, because she'll want to hang out with Americans. Clearly she has been here a long time.

20 DAYS UNTIL "WHAT'S FLUMPOOL!?"

Weird that I'm spazzing over flumpool when TomaPi have practically moved in together. I already spazzed like crazy--there was serious foaming at the mouth and lots of jumping, spinning, twirling and other weird motions--over, well, let's see:

1. Announcement of Toma singing at Pi's concert--THE BIGGEST SPAZZ OF ALL. Thank goodness I was alone at work, because I totally did a Footloose dance when I read everyone's entries.

2. Papparazi pics of said event--At first just the singing and awesome "Yokubou no Rain" performance.

3. Various news clips with a million different camera angles of the performance--Just a bit of the performance, and even though I was dead tired and pissed off, my inner fangirl was jumping with glee.

4. HQ Papparazzi pics, this time with the EPIC HUG--Pi is totally glomping Toma. It looks almost like Toma wants to let go, but Pi just holds him there. It seriously does look like Pi kisses his neck.

5. FANCAM, BOOYAH!!--By this time, we all kind of knew every single detail of the concert, so this was just icing on the OTP cake. SUPER YAY for EPIC HUG and a big HOMGKYAA to the actual performance of "Yokubou no Rain." I was so happy to read the thing about them making the "Ikemen Unit" (confident, aren't we, boys?) and then flailing on their nikkis and being such girls. But seriously, to have Toma and Pi together on the same stage after all these years performing a song they are well known for is just amazing. Both of them looked so happy, and it's like they were a real group equal to KinKi Kids or TakkiTsuba (whom, by the way, will hopefully be getting back together soon).

I cried. We all did.

Not much going on lately, though, or rather, not much of great interest. Honestly, I'm trying to actually pass my classes despite having a cripping case of senioritis as well as applying for a Critical Language Scholarship and trying to create a Japanese Language and Culture Club here on campus. No one wants to do any work, dag nabbit. But I did manage to read an article I printed off for a project/paper/presentation over J-dramas I want to do outside of school when I have free time. This scholarly article was all about (get this) KIMURA TAKUYA, the main JE boy himself. The guy I seriously think is a vampire because he hasn't...really...aged...

The article is called "Male Bonding and Female Pleasure: Refining Masculinity in Japanese Popular Cultural Texts," and it's written by Fabienne Darling-Wolf. Sounds fun, right? I found it on EBSCOhost for free, so if you have access and are interested, I highly recommend it. The article was pretty interesting as she attempted to deconstruct KimuTaku and analyze him. Several things, though. The chick should check her facts or at least give a footnote as to where she discovered this information.

Page 77, second paragraph says, "He can be heard on the radio talking about his consumption of pornography, his masturbating habits, or his favorite sexual positions..."

Really now? Where can I find said clips? Anyone have something where KimuTaku talks about masturbation?

On page 78, she claims that "Johnny Kitagawa, Kimura's manager, is homosexual." Um...correct me if I'm wrong, but we don't have any proof that Johnny is actually gay, right? Sure, there were the allegations, but has anyone or even Johnny himself come right out and said that he's gay?

One more thing. On page 79, she says that shojo manga are "comic books on the theme of boys' romantic involvement with each other..."

....

Uh, did I miss something? Cause I've read plenty of shojo manga where there was no boy love whatsoever. That's shounen ai or even yaoi. Shojo manga is "girl's comics" and while it can sometimes have some shounen ai, that's not usually the main focus.

Ugh...I have to finish my history paper tonight. Off to bury myself in the sand for another week or so.

Ja ne!

OH MY GOD.

*angel chorus*

HAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAALELUJIAH. HAAAAAAAAAAALELUJIAH.

TOMA SANG AT PI'S CONCERT!!!!!!!!!!!!!

AKDNA;DAW;HLIUF.KAJNFLJIAUDJ;omnA>Kdp; m0iqw9[0chqw l9f hyqwlfobqwn; pr[qyr hjahjd;ahda;l

I'm having a major spazz attack right now. Just...no way. NO WAY. OH MY GOD, THIS IS BEYOND AWESOME. THIS IS AWESOME TIMES INFINITY.

There had better be fancams and papparazi pics and then a DVD with this particular performance. I NEED TOMAPI LOVE.

IDWU;FOAWFANF.AJFA

*dies*

Beeeeeeeeeeeeep...........................................

Just because I like looking at Toma first thing:



ME: Okay, let's see...formula for good ratings...
B-CHAN: JE boys.
ME: Declining ratings...
B-CHAN: Chinen.
ME: Ratings have been declining since 2000 due to--
B-CHAN: Chinen.

B-chan and I get up to all kinds of snark when we're just hanging out in the room, both on LJ like the addicts we are. Last night, because of various homework-y things, we were both up pretty late. I was working on my presentation for Sociology of Modern Japan over J-dramas. Yes, indeed, I did my presentation over J-dramas! In PowerPoint form. We have this ongoing joke about the Ohno/Chinen/Nino thing, taken fromjournalist_anon and her cracktastic journal. Nino is going to assassinate Chinen with cupcakes.

Aaaaaanyway, iroirona things have been happening this week, and honestly, it's COLD. I don't want to do any work. Everyone's been this way. We're all stretching ourselves because this semester has been insanely disorganized. I somehow realized that I forgot to put Buzzer Beat on my drama list, and now I don't remember when I finished it. It was before Orthros, but I don't remember if it was before or after Tokyo Story...mm...

First, the show Tokudane! on Fuji TV contacted some people here on LJ (as well as myself) to answer some questions about why JE is popular in America. They tied it to Shingo's upcoming Broadway play "Talk Like Singing." There were a lot of questions about why JE is popular in America and how long it has been popular...honestly, I have no idea. You're talking to someone who had no idea about any of this a mere two years ago. Still, I tried my best and answered, and they used a lot of information from all of us here including some pics some others sent of fan meetups. They even showed a fan meetup of Smappies in New York (first I've heard of them, but then, I'm just starting to delve into SMAP) who had gathered for Shingo's play.

The whole segment was really cool, and I just want to say thanks to Miyakawa Naoki-san for letting all of us participate here on LJ. We actually got to work for Fuji TV for like, two days! Sigh...this makes me happy. Although, I still want to work for Fuji TV in the future. Keep that in mind, Fuji. You can totally use a person who obsesses over finding something so much that she stays up late into the night researching until she finds it. Thus is the life of a fangirl.

Been actually studying Japanese this week (another procrastination method), and, as a result, I discovered another JE fangirl on campus. SERIOUSLY, MAKE YOURSELVES KNOWN. I sat in on Joe-sensei's Japanese 101 class for a quick refresher. He explained the various historical periods in Japan and asked what period we're in right now. Mochiron, it's the Heisei period. This girl in the back answered, and then she said, "I only know that because of my favorite band."

Cut to me swiveling around in my seat. "You like HeySay?" She looked a bit sheepish and replied, "Yeah..." I meant to catch her before she left, but I had to talk to Joe-sensei about writing a recommendation for this government scholarship which I will now proceed to pimp since probably a lot of people out there will be interested in it. First, though, it just shocked me that there would be another person in the entire state of Kentucky who would actually know about JE. Amazing. Not only that, but after my presentation today, a girl from Soc emailed me, and she has actually SEEN dramas. I love how I keep finding random people who love Japanese stuff more than just sushi and anime. B-chan said she found another Miyavi fan who just went to the Dir-en-Grey concert in New York.

CRITICAL LANGUAGE SCHOLARSHIP. The government is offering a fully paid trip to a country of your choice to study what they consider a "critical language" in this day and time. It's for 8 weeks during the summer and open to U.S. residents ONLY (sorry, international peeps) who are currently enrolled in a degree program at a university. Japanese is on the list, but you have to have at least two years of study to be considered. There are other languages, too, where you don't have to have any experience, so I encourage everyone to apply if it sounds good to you. Keep it in mind for the future, too. If you get picked, you get an all-expenses paid trip to a foreign country to study, in-depth, the language and culture. It's intensive and you're expected to be in class for four hours a day and study for another four. The deadline is DECEMBER 18, 2009. SO GET YOUR APPS IN AS SOON AS POSSIBLE.

Where was I? Oh yes, Japan-loving people...makes me want to start a Japanese culture club here on campus so we can congregate en masse.

Fandom? What? Who has time for that?

....

Yamapi broke up with Seira...guess he's really "Loveless" now, huh? Hehehe. Wait, no, he's going out with Keiko? Huh? That's the big news in fandom at the moment. Also, the success of Operation #deadfisheyes. Well done, everyone. I just hope Pi doesn't find out what the title means.

LOL. I LOVE YOU GUYS. I'm in need of new flumpool. I'm going into withdrawal. Pretty soon the nice men in white coats will come to take me to a place where I can "rest" and sit in the corner muttering about Seiji's obsession with cats. The boy really loves his animals. It's cute. XD Ah, but yes, flumpool's Album of Ultimate Awesome aka "What's flumpool!?" comes out December 23, and I'll be getting it December 26, so MERRY CHRISTMAS. Am I alone in being disturbed by the album's cover, though...? It's a little creepy...

So many drama rumors circulating and dramas confirmed. Bloody Monday 2 has been confirmed for January. If TLS takes it up again, good luck to them. I've been enjoying their releases of Samurai High School this season (this show is pure CRACK). I've heard from Various Sources Who Shall Not Be Named that Toma's up for a Spring drama. Whether that happens or not is still up in the air. He'll be done with Ningen promos and not yet doing Hanamizuki promos, but who knows when the Seaside Motel promos will begin? Plus, it's not like he can't do both. Yes, the boy should rest (omg, when the heck is he going to be in New York? Is he? Has he been already? WE NEED PEOPLE TO STALK), but then again, he might get too bored.

I really hope the Gokusen 4 rumor dies soon. A very quick, painful death.

Tomorrow, B-chan and I are embarking an 9-hour journey of Epic Fangirlness in which we will hijack the big screen in the TV room all afternoon while everyone's out watching New Moon *shudder* and watch Liar Game ep 1 (major spazz coming about it soon), My Girl ep 4, Samurai High School ep 1, Hana Yori Dango Final Movie, Tokyo Tower movie (hawt Okada Junichi lovin'), and an episode of Supernatural. It will be awesome, oh yes. It will be awesome.

This entry fails. Oh, by the way, HELLO PEOPLE WHO ADDED ME. I didn't add you back because you didn't tell me why the heck you added me. Those who did, I added you! Seriously, why add without saying why, especially when my entries are public anyway? HELLO THERE, LURKERS!

Ja ne!

From the latest Georgia Nicolson book, Are These My Basoomas I See Before Me?:

"Why can't everyone just speak English? I mean the Americans give it a go, so why can't the rest of the world?"

Whaddaya know, I actually started reading again. What? READING? Preposterous! Absurd! Third exclamation! No one reads anymore with those old-fashioned things printed on PAPER of all things, even though apparently reading from print is better for your eyes. Pish posh!

Ahem.

Neil Gaiman's latest children's book and actually latest book-book Odd and the Frost Giants is a short novella about a small runt of a boy named Odd who lives in an ancient Nordic village. After his father dies, Odd becomes crippled while trying to cut down a tree. At the end of one winter, Spring never comes. Frustrated with everyone in the village, especially his stepfather and stepsiblings, Odd takes his father's best ax and goes to their woodcutting cabin in the woods. While there, he encounters a fox, an eagle, and a bear who don't seem to want to hurt him. In fact, they can talk. They're actually the gods Loki, Thor, and Odin who were turned into animals by a Frost Giant. Together with Odd, they make their way back to Asgard to face the Frost Giant and turn themselves back into gods.

It's odd (no pun intended), but while reading this book, I didn't feel like I was reading a Neil Gaiman story. The Odin in this story isn't similar to the Odin from American Gods, neither Mr. Wednesday or the old guy at the end. Neil really seems to know his Nordic legends, though. Is it true that Loki was actually a frost giant to begin with? Neil's humor permeates the story wonderfully, however. He maintains a nice balance between contemporary humor and what ancient characters would say. There's a lot of humor about Loki turning into a mare and luring a male horse away...you get the picture. It didn't feel like a typical Neil story, whereas The Graveyard Book felt very much like Neil.

Right now I'm in the middle of the last Georgia Nicolson book that I mentioned above. It's sad, really, that there won't be any more hilariousity from Georgia and her bestest pallies. My favorite has always been Rosie because Rosie is insane and has an equally insane boyfriend named Sven. Of course, who can forget Angus, the half-Scottish wildcat and his cross-eyed son Gordy? Georgia has always been one of my favorite characters because she's hilarious and has a crazy life. She's a good person, but very self-absorbed. I'm glad she ended up with...oh, can't spoil it. I'm sad that it's almost over. First Princess Diaries and now Georgia Nicolson. Sigh...

At this rate I'll run out of good book series to read.

No, I refuse to read Twilight. Keep it away from me at all costs if you value your knees.

Before I get to the juicy Toma stuff, I have to mention that B-chan and I decorated our dorm room door for Halloween. She posted pics up at her journal. We both kind of designed it and created it, and we were the ones who suggested a door decorating contest in the first place and WE DIDN'T WIN ANYTHING, DAG NABBIT. Not even a candy bar.

Okay, three, two, one...

*deep breath*

OOOOOOHHHHHMMMMMYYYYYGGGGGOOOOODDDDDDD

Ningen poster--Hanamizuki--promos--my birthday--ditheryspazzyblitheringfoamymouth

Ningen Shikkaku poster is the most awesome of awesome things at this moment. Because it's Toma. JUST TOMA. It's times like these that I shake my fist at the sky and cry, "WHY GOD? WHY DON'T I LIVE IN JAPAN?" If anyone happens to be in Japan or is going to Japan and happens to find these posters available, I WANT ONE PLEASE. You will be duly compensated and a million karma points will go your way.

The film release date is the DAY BEFORE MY BIRTHDAY. How unfair is life? Also, how awesome because there will clearly be tons of promos in February.

In all seriousness for a second, very nice, Toma. I'm interested to see Toma's interpretation of Yozu. To me, Yozu is a complicated character, and it's hard to get a grasp on him. While he says that he doesn't understand humans and is often consumed by his loneliness and depression, he still lives on and continues to manipulate people and play the game. There's a part in the book where he becomes this leader of a revolutionary movement without even trying. He just has fun playing at revolution. If they included this part in the film, I wonder how Toma will handle the dual nature of Yozu who is at once both human and non-human.

Hanamizuki promo, woo! THEY ARE FILMING IN CANADA AND NEW YORK? WHEN? I HAVE FRIENDS IN BOTH PLACES WHO CAN STALK FOR ME. I mean, New York? That's like the closest Toma may ever come to here. Oh, I want to go to New York so badly when it happens. Toma is still...in Tokyo...maybe? He said he'd go to Pi's concert soon, so he has to still be there right? I fully an advantageous pairing and singing together in such concert. Isn't it odd lately how the 4Tops have been mentioning each other? Hmm...curious...

Still been watching dramas and movies. I've become addicted to both Japanese films as well as Samurai High School and Shokojo Seira. I was feeling so crappy the other day (I seriously thought I had swine flu...turns out I just felt bad), and I really wanted Samurai High School episode 4. It was the only thing that could make me feel better. I ended up downloading Clubbox and somehow managed to get the episode even though I don't understand a lick of Korean. It worked after several tries, and I got the episode. I was a very happy little monkey. But that's how addicted I am to that show. I will wait for five hours for it to download and painstakingly search for it in Korean if I have to.

Time to do the major drama recap. Cut for your viewing safety.

*sniffle*

*nose runs*

*coughsputtercoughhackhack...lung*

Oh my god, I'm gonna die of swine flu.

Okay, not really.  But I am getting a cold/allergy thingy that's bugging me.  The weather is being contrary and not deciding if it wants to be on the side of summer or winter.  Whoever said that America does not have individual seasons has never been here.  This is what WKU looks like currently (well, not right now, as it is 4:18 in the morning):

Is that...is that...Rachel?

Anyway, the leaves are all pretty-like and golden-orange-red.  I can only imagine what the drive home looks like.  Half the way home is through a kind of main backroad that takes me past fields--there's some kind of farm where some guy has a small herd of buffalo--and lots of trees and at one point a good-sized lake that is probably almost drained by now because they drain it before it winter every year because...oh, I don't know why.  Old guys still go out there and fish, though.
Enough rambling about the Kentucky countryside.

Remember how I said once you stop posting, it's easy to get into the habit of not posting?  Well, the reverse is true.  Once I started posting, now I can't stop.  But personally, I like my posts to have a point--I've been desperately trying to find critcisms for things other than "it's awesome," but oh, thinking is hard sometimes--and yes, this post does have a point somewhere in here.

This semester, Joe-sensei continued the study session for us people who finished all of the Japanese classes WKU offers (in other words: 2), and it was fun during the summer and even at the beginning of school.  Nowadays, though, I don't feel like it's helping much.  Even though I learn some new words, Joe-sensei still has it structured where we're getting more INPUT than actually giving OUTPUT.  What I mean is that we're still listening most of the time instead of actually talking.  Sure, my listening comprehension isn't perfect.  Far from it.  But I already get tons of input from dramas, movies, and music on a daily basis.  My listening and reading comprehension is way above my speaking and writing abilities.

I don't know how to remedy this.  It feels like there is a wall in me that's preventing me from being the Japanese language learner I could be.  If this wall could just be removed or broken down or climbed over, I feel like suddenly everything would open up.  But what can I do?  It doesn't help that there are awesome Japanese speakers like this girl out there.  She's mostly kidding in this video, by the way.

*falls down*  Sigh...負けた。。。

I've been collecting interesting Japanese resource websites, though (which I should utilize more, I know) like Japanese for the Western Brain, which explains some of the basics of Japanese, even some they don't cover in detail in Japanese classes.  David Hallgren's Japanese Page is pretty good for hiragana and katakana practice, and he has printable sheets that you can use to practice writing.  He even has vocabulary practice for different stuff like the Genki textbook and the JLPT.  Probably the website that has most influenced my Japanese study is All Japanese All the Time, which is a blog/website written by a guy calling himself Khatzumoto.  It's got a lot of great articles about motivation and how to change your thinking as well as methods for practicing Japanese.  His method is a little extreme, and he says to learn kanji before learning anything else.  I even managed to find a link to an online version of volume I of Heisig's Remembering the Kanji.  There are other fun websites out there, too, like Tofugu.com, who also makes videos.  He's constantly pimping EduFire and Lang-8, too, which are good resources if you either want to pay or have time to practice writing.

It's been hard to keep up with Japanese, anyway, due to the workload I've had this semester.  Even though it's been fairly interesting, the amount of writing I've had to do is insane and some of it rather pointless.  But, it did give me an idea to start a Japanese culture club on campus.  All we have right now is RSO (Rising Sun Otaku) which focuses on anime.  They also have an aversion to dramas and occasionally find unfunny things funny.  We need an actual Japanese club for those of us who like more than anime and want to talk about stuff with other Japan lovers, not just random weeaboo (plural like carabou).  I need some suggestions, though.  Like what the heck can we do in our first few meetings?  What do people talk about in Japanese club?

Ah, work is almost over.  Maybe I won't go on a posting frenzy.  But oh, I am so addicted to Samurai High School.  Haruma pulls off the double role so well.

Ja ne!


 

It's Homecoming once again, and everyone's outside playing cornhole--it's a game where you throw corn-filled bags at boards with holes in them...yeah, I have no idea why, either--so I'm inside hanging out watching iCarly.  I still haven't seen that episode where Carly dances with Freddie.  I'm attempting to post more often in shorter posts so they don't kill everyone's flist.

Speaking of Nickelodeon, have you guys seen the previews for that new show about the boyband called "Big Time Rush"?  Is this actually an attempt at bringing back boybands?  Is it weird that I imagine Johnny's boys doing this kind of stuff?  There's a video on YouTube with them doing a photoshoot.  Nice.  They're already doing a bit of fanservice.  Good luck and godspeed to ya, boys.  Let's see how you fare against the ASIAN BOYBANDS OF DOOM.

I gotta pimp this video again.  I know I posted it in my last entry, but I JUST REALLY LOVE THIS SONG.

It's from the movie Jyuryoku Pierrot.  The band is S.R.S, which stands for "Sleeping Raq Sheep."  Why?  I dunno.  What's a sleeping raq?  What does it have to do with sheep?  Who cares?  They're pretty darn awesome.  The movie itself is also really good, as I mentioned before.  Okada Masaki is pretty darn cute.  He's 20 already, so it's okay to think he's cute.  He seems so much older, too.

Along the road in Music Land, this live version of TOKIO's "Cadence" is so great.  It's one of my all-time favorite TOKIO songs.  It's weird, but I never really knew what the words meant until I saw the subs.  The lyrics are brilliant.  "Don't ask me why/For some reason you are dear to me today."  Oh, wow.  I wish they'd release an acoustic version of this song.  It'd be so beautiful in a film.

Last night I finished  Homeless Chuugakusei and Su-ki-da, both of which were good films.  Homeless Chuugakusei stars Koike as a middle school student--this came out just last year, so Koike would have been 21-22 during filming--whose family gets kicked out of their house for unknown reasons, but it appears their father wasn't paying bills.  His older brother and sister come home and his father tells them they just have to keep living.  Then he leaves.  Hiroshi (Koike) decides to go off on his own and ends up living in a nearby playground.  The whole film is about these three siblings trying to just get by and how their mother's death affected them.  I mainly watched it for Koike, but it really made me think about how much I take for granted.  When you don't have something, it makes you appreciate it that much more when you do get it.

Su-ki-da stars Miyazaki Aoi (who is quickly becoming one of my favorite actresses) and Eita as two high school students who are sort of friends.  Eita plays Yosuke, who suddenly quits the baseball team and takes up playing the guitar.  He always plays the same tune by the river after school.  Aoi plays Yuu, a quiet girl who listens to him every day.  At first, they're awkward around each other, but as they spend more time together, they get friendlier.  It's implied that Yosuke is in love with Yuu's older sister, who lost her love some time ago.  The thing about this film is a lot of things are implied and never said.  It's a very quiet film, and there's very little dialogue and lots of long shots and takes.  It's really rather brilliant.  There's an 8-minute long scene comprised of several shorter long takes with Yosuke and Yuu down by the river.  Yosuke asked Yuu to come out there to ask her something, but he loses his nerve, and they just sit there, not saying anything.  It's not boring at all, either.  You're completely drawn in by the silence and wondering what's going to happen because the characters never reveal what they feel or think.  It's as if you're standing there or sitting there with them, watching it all unfold.  I thought the film would end tragically, but it surprisingly didn't.  It's very deliberately paced, but if you don't like slow films, this may not be for you.

Lately, I've just been going through asian_doramas and picking out random movies to watch.  I've really been on a film kick lately.  A lot of people recommended Okuribito, which I have yet to watch, but does anyone else have suggestions?  Old or new, doesn't matter.

Ja ne!

ACADEMY KID #1: So you sit here all night? Doing nothing?

ME: Not always all night.

ACADEMY KID #2: Ya know, I sit there in the doorway and watch when you leave the desk and then totally sneak out.

ACADEMY KID #3: Better not do that, dude, or she'll give you a beatdown.

ME: ......

Once you get used to not writing, it's really easy to get into the habit. I haven't written in...two weeks? Three weeks? A lifetime? At first, nothing happened, but then suddenly there was this fandom explosion of glitter and streamers and a clown, and now I have sooo much to talk about that I don't even remember it all. I haven't even been keeping up with it! I'm sorry, dear friends. I've been lurking like a lurky lurker thing lurking about and barely commenting on anything. I've had so many things to do like papers, presentations, research, and for almost a whole week I worked super-late shifts and couldn't do anything except sleep in my off-time.

I have so much to talk about now. Guess I'll tackle one thing at a time. I'm cutting everything in evil LJ cuts (they hate me), just in case you guys don't want to read a super-long entry about dramas and films and random music n such.

DRAMAS 

FILMS 

MUSIC

Okay, list time since there is just too much fandom stuff going on that I need to address.

1. Hanamizuki announced
--Thanks, Cam! Your detective skills should never be questioned. Thanks to camaronzin and her awesome skills, I knew about Toma's third movie before they even announced it and the exact moment they DID announce it...or is it the moment they announced that they would announce it? Either way, it's happening. Toma gets his first true romantic lead.

I bet someone will die in the film. That's always how these films go.


2. Yamapi's Loveless PV
--I was so mad when I found out Pi was in New York........

Then I realized that I actually had already known through various rumored sources and just forgotten. I kinda like the song...ish? I dunno, it's okay, I guess. I'm not running out to buy the single, though. The PV is gorgeous, but Pi should actually sing more and not just stand around looking all sad and emo while his opera-singer love goes her own way. Poor Pi, he's so unloved...


3. NEWS WINTER PARTY DIAMOND DVD

--WHICH I HAVE NOT GOTTEN YET AND REALLY SHOULD BECAUSE I'VE SEEN THE PV'S AND THEY'RE ALL PRETTY DARN AWESOME!

*falls over*

It was kind of weird watching Ryo-chan's PV for "Code," though, because I've listened to "Code" so many times and had an idea of what it looks like in my head. The PV was pretty good, but I wish they had used more than two colors. Also, did they use the same girl for all of the PV's? Keii-chan's PV for "Love Addiction" looked like it had the same girl. Speaking of which: 



Koyama is not at the top of my list for "JOHNNY'S GUYS I WOULD JUMP WITHOUT QUESTION" (FYI, number 1 is Takki), but after this PV, I'm considering making him part of the Top 5. Good grief, boy, you've been working out. What's with the writhing--yes, WRITHING--about on black sheets with your shirt unbuttoned like that? No, I'm not complaining. I want more of that. All of it.

4. flumpool's NEW ALBUM!!!!!
-- flumpool announced before their Budoukan performance that they would put out a FULL-LENGTH ALBUM at the end of the year with all of their single songs they've put out since Unreal along with some B-sides and plenty of new tracks. The album will be out December 23, just in time for Christmas. Guess who has already preordered the first press? JUST GUESS! XD STARTS WITH AN "L"!

Steph and Jo also went to the awesome Budoukan performance and wrote up their con reports with some pics outside the venue. Gah, I still owe Steph money for con goods! She was kind enough to get me the totebag and t-shirt I requested because they're so awesome-looking. Thank goodness I get paid tomorrow.

5. Shingo's off-Broadway debut
--You know you want to be there, too, because you just KNOW someone from JE will be there to support their sempai or fellow bandmate. Yes, I am hoping for some SMAP love at the preview or one of the shows. Is anyone planning to go? Please write all about it so I can live vicariously through ye.

6. NaNoWriMo
--Nano? What be this Nano thou speakest of? Dost thou have the TIME for stuff like this? I thinkst not.

7. LIAR GAME TEASER TRAILER!!!!
--I can't believe no one has posted this yet, but Nippon Cinema posted the teaser trailer for the Liar Game movie, and all I could do was giggle hysterically like a loon out of sheer joy that I get to experience this once more. Also that Shota regrew his hair (it's even LONGER). 

Looks like the jellyfish overlords are on the move. Soon we will all be bowing down to them as they make us listen to Arashi, who are still trying to take over the world in their own right (got November's Potato today, and Arashi is yet again on the cover and there are six Arashi posters included).

ALL HAIL THE JELLYFISH OVERLORDS.

Ahem, speaking of Arashi, I've been on the outskirts of the Arashi Fandom due NOTHING WHATSOEVER GOING ON in the NEWS Fandom. It really saddens me because NEWS is my favorite Johnny's band, and they just haven't been doing anything as a group. The 24 Hour Terebi performances made me way happier than they should have. Even Keii-chan said in his nikki that it's been awhile since NEWS did anything together as a group. Maybe, just maybe, they'll have a new single at the beginning of the year. If they have one in February, I think I might die from an overdose of happiness and rainbows because it seems like EVERYTHING is going down in February: Ningen Shikkaku...um...crap, now I can't remember.

Oh, look! Ningen Shikkaku teaser trailer!

Really hoping it makes it to some international film festivals now. Maybe even one in the US, which would be beyond awesome. I have a feeling they'll try since another film based on Dazai's work made it to another film festival. And that does not sound like Toma's voice at all. Bravo in advance, man.

Wow, I just got extremely distracted by Gakkou e Ikou V6 10th anniversary special where they made each members' dreams come true for one day. Okada got an onsen trip with the other members in Hokkaido, and this ensued. LOL such dorks. It's like they're on a school field trip! Inocchi always cracks me up. He just cannot be cool. Sakamoto clearly isn't that annoyed. He's laughing along with them.

Last night, I decided to torture myself and watched three tragic love movies in a row.

ROMES has still not been uploaded to d-addicts, so I can't download it and reupload it to ourhour yet. Sorry to those who are waiting for it. If a good version is on clubbox somewhere, can someone get it and send it my way? I've never used clubbox before, because torrents are easier.

Thanks, everyone, for the suggestions of a current Japanese film that I can use for my presentation.  Everyone seems to be in agreement on Okuribito, which I had actually thought about recommending to Dr. Hovet (even though I haven't seen it yet, but it did win an Oscar, dag nabbit).  I'll watch it this week and see.  Only thing is I'll be doing a presentation and paper over this, so I'll probably need some scholarly articles.  Uh, think anything scholarly has been written about it yet?  Will it make me cry?

I need some new music.  I've been listening to a combo of flumpool, X Japan, ELEPHANT KASHIMASHI, B'z, ORANGE RANGE, tacica, and Mr. Children with a bit of Hanson and Tackey mixed in for weeks now.  It's getting kind of old.  GReeeeN is actually coming out with a best album already.  Not just that, but there are FIVE DIFFERENT EDITIONS, each with different stuff (B-chan's reaction: You should get ALL of them).  If the tracklist is correct, I already have all of those songs.  I can live without extra goods.  What I need is a new song.  Ya know, I haven't read anything since I finished Ningen Shikkaku, so I need start reading some more books.  But really, this is a bad time to be in fandom because there are some things out that I really want to buy and, well, 金がない.  Sigh...

Did I mention I no longer live in the park?  We moved back in September.  I kinda miss the park.  Sigh...

Ja ne!

Big news:

My nephew is going to have a little sister!!!

XDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDD

Yep, we found out the other day that my sister-in-law is going to have a girl.  We already knew she was going to have a baby but now what it would be.  Actually, this whole time Mom and I have been saying it feels like it'll be a girl this time.  We were right.  The baby is healthy and a good size.  It's kinda weird because in my family, it was my older brother and me.  Then in my sister-in-law's family, it was her older brother and her.  Now KonKon will have a little sister.  I think he'll be an awesome older brother.  Speaking of KonKon, he'll be 4 years old on Monday.

I'm at el shigoto right now listening to flumpool and contemplating things.  So this going to be a bull session post.  I finished Joan of Arcadia season 2 the other night.  It's a show I could watch over and over.  Pretty much all of the lessons Joan learns are lessons I can apply to my own life.  Stuff about fulfilling your true nature, living up to your potential, and doing things that have good consequences.  I absolutely HATE that it was cancelled after two seasons just when they introduced a new (rather sinister) character.  They should have at least done one more season and had Joan graduate from high school.  Who knows if she ever went to college or got back together with Adam?  Or if Kevin managed to walk again?  Or if Freidman actually got a girlfriend who didn't leave for some crazy reason?

Ah, I miss this show...

I volunteered to upload a drama over at ourhour and got picked for ROMES.  This is kinda good because now I can't skip out on watching it...not that I would anyway...sigh...I'm so tired of school...Anywhosit, please look forward to it.  Since ROMES has already aired, I'm just waiting for a good torrent to come along and catch my eye.  I probably won't be uploading hardsubs since SBK is subbing it, and they probably don't want reuploads after the whole debacle during The Quiz Show Golden.

Today in Japanese Cinema, we got our second big assignment: a presentation over something we haven't fully covered yet in class.  Meaning, we have to choose a current film, classic film, director, actor, subject, yadda yadda that hasn't been entirely covered.  I'm thinking the current film sounds awesome, but honestly, I haven't seen that many current Japanese films.  So I'm asking for advice:

WHAT WOULD BE A GOOD CURRENT JAPANESE FILM TO STUDY IN-DEPTH?

Mind you, we have to take this semi-seriously.  Like I can't show Water Boys without having some kind of explanation of sociology or cultural impact behind it.  I mean, I would love to show Water Boys or LoveCom or Kurosagi (despite having still not seen it yet), but I just have to have reasons for showing clips and explaining stuff about it.

I just realized a lot of the movies on my drama list come from manga, anime, or dramas.

COMING SOON:
--Toma's belated birthday post
--Buzzer Beat music video
--Spring/Summer drama reviews (since they're finally finishing up subs)

Ja ne!
 

Wednesday night, multi-purpose room, watching Maou on the flatscreen that B-chan and I hijacked:

B-CHAN: Ya know something?

ME: What?

B-CHAN: Naruse's younger brother...looks an awful lot like Chinen.

EXAMPLE 1.1

    

You know, he does...

If you were lucky enough to catch the JE Meme of Absolute Disdain awhile back--I never go in for hate memes because it always ends up as a good ol' fashioned fan-lynching, but in this case there were some very funny comments--you might have seen a certain anonymous poster who posted "news releases."  Well, she made a journal!  B-chan and I have been followingjournalist_anon since then because her entire journal (whoever she is) is one big amazingly cracktastic ultimate fanfic of awesome.  She lets no one in JE escape.  I'd call her the Rita Skeeter of the JE fandom.  One of her news stories involves a tumultuous marriage between spacey fisherman Ohno and his child bride Chinen, with interference from class-37 bandit assassin Nino.  Please just go read them.  Anyway, these stories have brought about many jokes on how Nino will eventually assassinate Chinen.

B-chan and I think cupcakes.

If you haven't seen KimuTaku's latest Cup Noodle commercial, well...KimuTaku is a vampire.  He must be.  HE NEVER AGES.  He looks good in eyeliner, though.  Love the chest bump as well.  Not only that, but KimuTaku ranked only #2 in the "Actors That Make a Drama 'Epic'" poll.  Are you serious?  He's the king of epic dramas!  Just look at Million Stars!  Sleeping Forest!  HALF OF HIS BODY OF WORK!  Sigh...I give up.  KimuTaku also PWN'd Josh Hartnett and reportedly lectured Sawajiri Erika.

Again, well done.

I finished Beautiful Life as well.  I'm not sure how it got the highest ratings EVER IN THE HISTORY OF ANYTHING because the overall plot was pretty simple and not a lot really happened.  It wasn't epic, but it was a sweet love story.  The last episode, however, dragged on for ages, and I'm not sure if it was on purpose so you could feel the time drag on along with the characters or if they just threw everything left of the plot into that episode.  I did cry at the end.  The drama didn't rip out my soul like a horcrux or make me bang my fist against the table.  Overall, it was good.  I hope the short winter drama with him, Kame, and Jin turns out to be true.

Yamapi's solo con and new single...about time?  I mean, the boy put out a single TWO YEARS AGO.  It's about time he gets another one and a concert.  I really want Toma to go to one of the concerts.

I think I'm one of the only NEWS fans who actually LIKES the Winter Party Diamond DVD covers.  They're really old school.  I really want the LE of the DVD.  I have no money...

..............................

Speaking of Yamapi, I watched 17 Again last night with Mom, and I came to the conclusion that Zac Efron is the American version of Yamapi.  Seriously, watch this clip of him dancing, and you'll see what I mean.  Why yes, I did think of this clip of Yamapi dancing during the filming of Buzzer Beat.  Speaking of Buzzer Beat, I did finish it...along with Ninkyo Helper and Orthros no Inu, but drama analysis will have to wait until after my evil history and TESL tests this week.  I'm technically still on hiatus *shiftyeyes*

Despite that hiatusususususus, I'm still fandom'ing it up and using nouns as verbs.  I've become really addicted to Hannya lately ever since murderwinks  talked about the upcoming Hannya photobook.  The blackhole that is YouTube has tons of great Hannya videos and performances, especially of their famous Zugudanzunbungun game.  My favorite, however, has to be the "HA" game.  Did anyone else notice their appearance in the last episode of Buzzer Beat?  Or were they there the whole time, and I just didn't notice until the last episode?  If I hadn't been watching Hannya videos like crazy before the last episode, it totally would have gone over my head.  Of course, how I could not watch the video where Toma totally PWNs at the Zugudanzunbungun game.  I watch Hannya videos during study breaks.  The other night while I was up all night writing three papers, Hannya kept me awake.

flumpool

finally

performed

"Frame"

live.

I am this close to hopping a cargo plane to Japan to see their Budoukan performance.  If that video is any indication of how the concert will be, I weep for not being able to go.  I weep.

*sob*

I don't know if I have strength left to talk about anything SERIOUS.  Okay, here's an article I found a few days ago on JapanSoc about Japan's new leading political party, the DPJ, included a lot of female Diet members this year.  Among them are politicians, a woman who appeared in a erotic film, and a woman who contracted hepatitus C from a blood transfusion.  The article talks about how the women are seen as window-dressing for the DPJ and aren't really contributing concrete ideas to the new Diet.  At first I agreed with the article because, at first, it does seem that the DPJ were just trying to increase female interest in politics and get the female vote, but after reading some of the women's statements, it seems like they're really trying to break through this male-oriented political barrier and make some actual change in areas that have personal interest for them.  It'll take some work for everyone, especially for the women to be taken seriously.

What do you guys think?  Does anyone follow politics in Japan?  Especially you guys who actually live in Japan right now.  How do you feel about this sudden influx of women in the Diet?  Do you think they'll actually accomplish some changes while the DPJ is in power?

Work's almost over, and I have not started on this paper for Japanese cinema, and it's already overdue (I know, I know).  Just a few things I need to remind myself of and also talk about:

--Make new foxkeh layout for LJ
--Retag entries
--New drama MV idea: Buzzer Beat (oh yes, I totally found a pimping song for Buzzer Beat that actually will not involve Pi/Keiko)
--The Ultimate Fandom Fanfic...spark your curiosity?
--Toma's birthday post (late, yes, but filled with that wonderful thing called awesome)
--More serious stuff (it's nice to actually talk sometimes instead of flail)
--I applied to upload a drama at ourhour this fall, but whether it'll happen is up to them.  Hey, I'm downloading everything anyway...
--More addictions (Joan of Arcadia!)
--Oh, I don't know.  I miss everyone!

DFTBA

Ja ne!

Oh, if only the hiatus involved lying on a floor with Toma.  This is the first time I've done an official hiatus.  I've always tried to avoid them if possible, because fandom of course equals life, and yes, I worry I have a problem, too.  But due to the ungodly amount of reading as well as several writings and postings I have to do every week, I'm going to take a short hiatus to catch up and then get ahead.

That is, unless everyone wants to read about the theories on how we acquire second languages, Japan's military history, or various analyses of scenes in old Japanese movies.

I also have things I want to redo on this LJ like making the new layout, retagging my entries, getting some things uploaded, and finishing a couple of fics in the works.  I'll still be checking my flist for news and maybe popping up now and then.  Also, continuing to watch dramas and maybe even finish some up.  It's been three weeks since I started Good Luck! and I still haven't finished.  I'm very disappointed in you, Laura...

But first:

Oh, Jin.  Just...Jin.

Jin.

I just...Jin.  *shakes head sadly*  The hate part of our relationship continues.

Knowing my luck, as soon as I go on hiatus, NEWS will come out with a new single, Toma will debut, and there will be an announcement of a TomaPi drama with an accompanying 4-Tops song because guess what, they got back together and will debut as a group just off the coast of Florida on an aircraft carrier followed by a handshake and autograph session upon which Toma will announce he is permanently moving to the US to pursue acting after the drama and...

Okay, that's enough of that.

Thanks, hugs, cookies, sparkles, and a shirtless boy of your choice to everyone for their Fandomversary wishes.  You guys are awesome, and don't forget it.  And DFTBA, also.

Ja ne!

P.S.: Is the purple text really that annoying?  Seriously?  Wouldn't it be weird if I suddenly changed to black?

HAPPY FANDOMVERSARY TO ME
HAPPY FANDOMVERSARY TO ME
HAPPY FANDOMVERSARY TO MEEEE
HAPPY FANDOMVERSARY TO ME

...

And many mooooooooore!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!



Yep, it has officially been two years since my fandom jumping off point.  I think I said this before, but I chose September 18th because it's the first date in my previous journal that I mentioned watching Hana Kimi and seeing Nakatsu's Confession in episode 10 of Hana Kimi.  It was really that moment that put me from thinking Nakatsu was annoying to thinking, "Awww, he's so sweet!  Nakatsu really is cute...hmm..."  *little gears in my head grind into action and have not stopped since*  Yep, it was really that moment that sealed the deal for me.

Okay, so continuing my journey to fandom, I stopped right when I created this journal, right?  Like I said before, I originally created this journal so I'd have a place to spazz over fandom stuff.  The idea was that if I found a really funny video or a picture or something, I could post it and just basically spout a bunch of crazy nonsense ending in many exclamation points.  When I made my first post, I didn't think anyone would actually read.

It was a rough start.  For some reason I thought it would be cool to make my text different colors in each entry and the text was bigger than it is now.  For a long time, I got no comments except for a couple from Meg and Lanee, and then gradually, somehow, people started commenting.  I made a lot of great friends through JE friending memes (I always look for people who love Toma.  If you love Toma, you're automatically my friend. XD)  and just randomly finding each other.

Over time, I decided I really wanted to make this journal about something.  I really hate posting for no particular reason or just posting a meme.  Those rare entries are always f-locked.

So yeah, the rest of fandom happened gradually through watching more dramas, finding music, reading news, reading other people's blogs, and eventually selling my soul to Google Reader.  A lot of things I like today are because of fandom: curry, movies with subtitles, cute things, flumpool, green tea, yadda yadda yadda, and now I'm here.

I just want to say a big thank you to all of my flist and my real life friends for helping me through this crazy maze of general JE and drama fandom as well as not thinking I'm a total freak for liking this stuff.  Yeah, it's kind of a niche fandom compared to more mainstream Japanese fare like anime, but it's a fun fandom with some awesomely crazy people.  I love reading all of your entries and hearing about your lives and your spazzes over things.  We all have things in common, not just our love of fandom.  We may be seperated by states or countries (hopefully not worlds or universes, cause that would be weird...and slightly awesome), but we can all come together on this weird thing called the Internet where our voices can be heard and so many of us feel we can truly express ourselves.  Where we can find friends with similar interests who will understand what we're talking when we go crazy over a shirtless Asian boy or a moment in a drama episode.  Where we can find people at 4:00 am who are still up, lost in the black hole that is YouTube, watching random TV clips from your country of choice.  Where we can read other's stories and learn about other's lives and make the world a little bit closer.

Thanks, guys.  *hugs*

So, what are the plans for today?  First is sleep since I'm at work and was actually LATE because I ignored my alarm.  Although, the new guy didn't seem too upset.  He offered me Skittles when I walked in the door.  Anyway, I'll be spending a good chunk of time re-watching Hana Kimi in honor of the day.  I also want to make cupcakes, but that depends on if I feel like actually going to get cake mix.  I'll probably be Twittering throughout the day (stupid thing is addicting) if anyone's around and maybe feels like re-watching Hana Kimi or chatting.

Also, quick

*POKE*

to TomaPi fanfic writers out there.  Some of us want to read TomaSwindler/Kurosagi fanfics (with plenty of angst), but have no time to write one.  SOMEONE PLEASE WRITE ONE.

*POKES WITH STICK*

Ja ne!

P.S.: Anyone think "Helpless Night" could totally work for an American audience if they translated it to English?  It would seriously get popular, wouldn't it?

QUOTE OF THE WEEK:

The press conference for Sakurai has apparently overshadowed one next door for Ikuta Toma, who formally announced that he just "doesn't f---ing care if he ever f---ing debuts. F---."

Real life. Pfft. Real life. That is why I have not posted except the random thing about flumpool's new song. Twice now the video has been taken down from YouTube. Sigh...I'm going to have to wait for the song to be uploaded, aren't I? Real life has taken over, however, at a most inopportune time. It's only two days until my TWO YEAR FANDOM ANNIVERSARY, and I would really like to spend the day doing something special. Preferably with cake. The plan right now is to somehow acquire cake and spend the time I'm not sleeping embarking on an ULTIMATE HANA KIMI DRAMA MARATHON. Hana Kimi was my first real drama, and so I shall once again embark on the 12-episodes of awesome in celebration.

Now for Part 2 of my Fandom Entry Story.

Before complaining about real life (because who wants to read about that, anyway?), I need to release some fandom steam. What's first? Guess it's time for a LIST, MUAHAHAcoughsputtercough

1. TOMA'S NEW MOVIE--AGAIN! Yeah, I just realized I haven't talked about it yet. Everyone already knows, but who cares?! We need to talk about it some more! Yes, Toma will be in yet another movie called "Seaside Motel" based on the manga Motel. Toma will play a swindling traveling comestics salesman who arrives at a seaside resort where a group of interesting characters have gathered for a night. He falls in love with a girl at the resort named Candy and probably some funny and serious moments ensue.

So this is why we haven't heard much from Toma since he finished Ningen Shikkaku. He's been in Guam, filming this movie. I'm really happy for him, getting a second movie and all. Next year is going to be awesome. Heck, if I do make it to Japan next year and one of his movies is in theatres, I am there.

2. NEWS ANNIVERSARY YAY! NEWS remains my favorite JE band despite their, ahem, lack of a new single BOYS. I understand two of your members have been sick and off filming dramas, one is in a stageplay and looks more and more girly by the day, and the others are off doing something or other. I understand that you've been busy with 24 Hour Television and preparing for that. Your performances were wonderful since you guys didn't lipsync this time. Yes, it has been a time of sempai releases what with SMAP, TOKIO, and V6 all putting out singles. It's also the climax of Arashi mania culminating in one big ungodly tour for the 10th anniversary year. Even KATTUN hasn't been up to much these days.

But dear boys, there are those of us who remain loyal fans of mainly you, as a group. Please, somehow, release some kind of song so we can be appeased. I'm almost going back to American music. That's how bad it is.

3. Koishite Akuma is done. I was...saddened. Who knew that some random junior could actually act? Who knew that a vampire drama would actually be pretty good? The ending made me cry, but it didn't tear out a piece of my soul like a horcrux like SOME dramas I could name, thank you, KimuTaku.

Apart from Koishite Akuma, though, I have not had time to watch any dramas. In fact, I'm taking this opportunity at work to catch up and to download some new episodes. My soul feels lacking something.

4. *Looks over at feed traffic sidebar-thingy*...HOLY CRAP, SOMEONE FROM NASHVILLE? Oh, geez, I hope it's not someone I know.

5. Oh, right, I finally got my mega-awesome super-special fantastic edition of Potato with the TOMAPI CROSSTALK, WURD. It came with four posters, too! Unfortunately, they put Takki/Tsubasa on the same poster as NEWS. The choice is difficult.

6. There are certain fanfics I would like to read involving SwindlingToma/Kurosagi, however, I have too much work to do to find time to write one. So...

*poke*

Those of you out there who feel fine when they write fanfics, there are certain among us, who are not connected to the yakuza and will certainly not cut you *shifty eyes* if you don't write one. No pressure. But it would be nice if they were a bit angsty...mmm....

What was I saying?

7. Going through a week's worth of flist is not fun. I didn't mem anything...

OH, RIGHT, MUST PIMP THIS MEGA AWESOME ENTRY FROM ultraviolet_p1 who did a Top 10 Toru outfits from Majo Saiban entry. Must say I agree on the green jacket a la Maou is his best look. Especially with the orange THINK TWICE t-shirt...dang it, I still want one of those shirts.

8. Kubozuka Yosuke is FINALLY ACTING AGAIN! You may remember him from such dramas as Ikebukuro West Gate Park, Strawberry on the Shortcake, and Laundry as well as movies such as Go! and Ping-Pong. He will be acting alongside Morito Go in the stageplay "Chi wa Tatta Mama Nemutteiru." For several years now he has been a reggae artist, not really acting in much. Apparently, he also attempted suicide a few years ago, but thankfully, he survived and has been reviving his career slowly and steadily. He has such amazing range if you've seen him act, and dag nabbit, he's kinda hot. I really hope he does another drama someday because he's truly one of the most amazing actors I've seen, Japanese or not.

9. Takki's PV for "Hikari Hitotsu" came out. As much as I love Takki and Angsty!Takki and Takki with his shirt halfway buttoned and Takki dressed in black, the PV was...disappointing. The song itself is okay. The song style reminds me a lot of "truth" only with more complicated piano. It also has a kind of ON/OFF feeling to it, too. I felt like Vampire Knight would start playing at any second. The PV, however, was...meh. Sure there were some new shots (very reminiscent of his "Kiseki" PV), but a lot of the footage was taken from Orthros no Inu.

One of my biggest peeves about music videos in general--this mostly applies to fanvids, but in this case applies to the actual PV itself--is having the characters "talking" without any motivation to do so. A lot of the Orthros scenes were of Takki talking. BUT WHY? There were plenty of shots they could have used that didn't involve Takki's mouth moving. Unless there is a reason you have the character's mouth moving or insert some of their dialogue, please DO NOT DO THIS. It just looks silly.

So my classes. It's not that my classes aren't interesting. It just sucks to have them back to back. Japan Sociology is a lot of watching YouTube clips (mental note: WATCH ALL ABOUT LILY CHOU CHOU) and talking about how society is different from American society. Quite different. Yankumi says it's "interesting." Hehe, I really like her. Her mother apparently didn't make cute bentos because she found it pointless. Meanwhile, over at Modern East Asian History, I had to complete a three page paper over the Opium War. Did you know that Macao was the major point of trade between China and foreign countries? We just moved on to Edo Japan today which I've actually already read about for Japanese Cinema (thus I spaced out many times in class today). Which brings me to that class. It's still my most interesting class because not only am I learning about the Meiji Restoration and samurai due to The Last Samurai and Seven Samurai, but I am also learning about the invention of film in Japan. Did you know that the Japanese saw film as an extension of theatre and actually had narrators called "benshi" for films to help the audience understand the plots? Yes, indeed they did.

And now, I feel like I'm about to fall asleep. I'm going to watch either Buzzer Beat or Ninkyo Helper before I get off work. Rose says there may be a campus-wire fire drill this morning. We're all kind of on edge in anticipation of it. Those things are never fun. EVER.

Next post will probably be Thursday or Friday and celebrate the TWO YEAR FANDOM ANNIVERSARY. Hopefully it will be better than this one.
 
Ja ne!

This happened earlier this morning, so a lot of flumpool fans already know about it, but flumpool has just updated their website with the new PV for their new song "Frame" in conjunction with My Navi. In June, a new commercial came out with flumpool performing the music for a new song and Ryuta just "la la la" ing along with the music. Now the song has debuted on the flumpool website in the form of their new PV for the song "フレイム" or "Frame."

I like the song. If listening to it thirty times in a row is any indication of "like." The PV is very similar to other flumpool videos where they perform as if they were in a concert. The song as well as the video reminds me terribly of "Over the Rain," though. Except this PV has these crazy 3-D effects that remind me of a cellphone commercial. This smells like a drama theme song. I'm kind of worried about the reviews for this song ever since I saw that entry on SparkPlugged about how "Over the Rain" is so commercial and different from flumpool's other stuff. Yeah, it is more commercial. But it was a theme song for a drama. Do you want something overly complicated for a drama? We're talking about the general public here.

I do like the song, however reminiscent it is of "Over the Rain." I don't know if this will be a single or maybe just one of those random downloadable songs like "Hana ni Nare" was. I'm really looking forward to a new flumpool CD. A FULL-LENGTH CD THIS TIME, BOYS. Hopefully there will be some news when their Unclose tour finishes.

Speaking of the Unclose tour, I am so jealous of flisters and fellow flumpoolside fansubs membersmurderwinks andmiserabilities  who are going to their Budoukan performance soon. You guys better write full on con reports. Get pictures if you can. Heck, get audio/video if you can. Kidnap Kazuki and Genki if you--Wait, no, kidnapping is bad. I look forward to receiving concert goods. Sigh...someday I shall go. And it shall be awesome. Oh yes, it shall.



Ja ne!

FYI, if you're going to be a ninja, don't be that loud. It was the majority agreement in Japanese Cinema today that the ninja scene in The Last Samurai is the most hilarious scene in the entire film. At the time, I was caught up in the drama and laughing at Katsumoto "acting," but yeah, the whole ninja scene seemed overdone. And Tom Cruise was the only one to notice them? Sure, Ed Zwick, sure. Thursday, we're watching The Seven Samurai, which apparently is over three hours long. Eesh...Has anyone seen it? Is it all it's hyped up to be?

So I'm at work now. It feels like I haven't been here in so long. It's really my only time to be utterly alone and do whatever. Whether it be watching dramas or listening to Tacica like I am right now. Tacica is frikking awesome! I came across this J-music blog called SparkPlugged while searching for flumpool t-shirts. Why they gotta bash flumpool for? True, "Over the Rain" is more commercial than their other stuff, but it's still a good song. In that same post, however, they talked about this band called Tacica and posted a YouTube video with their song "メトロ." It was love at first listen. No one at jpop-uploads seems to have any of their music (such a shame), but I eventually found the album they released this year, "Jacaranda." They have a kind of of garage band-ish sound like in their PV for "Hero." The kind that makes you jump/dance. Recommended for those who like flumpool, Sambomaster, and a touch of ELEPHANT KASHIMASHI around the vocal area.

The drama rumors for winter have been updated to include Code Blue season 2...

AND A DRAMA WITH NAGASE, OKADA JUNICHI, AND SATO RYUTA?!!!

Oh, TBS, have you been reading our blogs? You must have because this an ultimate Dream Team right here. Nagase/Okada Junichi is a fantastic pair, as we have seen in Tiger and Dragon and DxD. They're both two of the best actors in Johnny's, being able to pull off both comedy and drama. They play so well off each other. Their chemistry is undeniable. Why they haven't been paired together more often is beyond me. Then of course, there is the pairing of Nagase/Sato Ryuta. Again, a wonderful pair as we have seen in Ikebukuro West Gate Park, and Utahime. Then, to round out this ultimate OT3, we have the Sato Ryuta/Okada Junichi pairing from Kisarazu Cat's Eye. So if this drama turns out to be true, there will be some hard flailing going on around here. I'll probably die of happiness. No...not until there is a TomaPi drama...*nods*

I really need new t-shirts. I woke up this morning and really didn't care what I looked like but realized that the only two t-shirts I brought with me have old bleach stains on them from my previous job.

This is what a search for "J-rock t-shirts" brings up. This has to rank among the top 10 most awesome shirts I've ever seen. ZOMBIE LOLCATZ! B-chan and I had a short discussion last night about what to do in the case of a zombie apocalypse. We're pretty much screwed, escape-wise, since we're on the 6th floor. Zombies, however, are slow and dim-witted, therefore, we may be able to outrun them. Raptors, however...

Anyway, I totally want this shirt. It's too great to pass up. Now if I could just find a flumpool t-shirt that's less than $30....

Since many of us are on Ningen Shikkaku news watch, I thought this was interesting. Kichitaro Negishi won Best Director at the Montreal Film Festival for his film Villion's Wife, which is based on several short stories by Osamu Dazai. The film features Tsumabuki Satoshi, Hirosue Ryoko, and Matsu Takako (Hero). The trailer looks pretty interesting, so the movie will probably be pretty good. Heck, I'm a fan of anything with Tsumabuki Satoshi. Dazai's works tend to be on the depressing side, though. Ah, well. Many great writers in the world were tortured souls. Many, as a result, turned to the bottle or killed themselves...

Perhaps I should rethink being an author.

Kei-chan has to be the cutest uncle ever. I can't get over that. Haru-kun sounds so adorable! Nieces and nephews are always so cute around that age. I guess I'm biased, though, because of Connor. But can't you just imagine Koyama sitting around his house with Haru, who's blabbering on in baby talk with Koyama doing the same? XD Such a cute image. He could be a pre-school teacher. Ah, Kei-chan, I miss you.

THINGS I NEED TO DO TO THIS JOURNAL:
--Create an actual layout since I now have an idea, and I need to put the $19 I gave for a paid account to good use.
--Go through and retag entries properly.
--Upload WaT's "My Favorite Girl." Despite the willingness to download 2.7GB, that's still way too large for its own good.
--Finish "Wont Go Home Without You" and "Over the Rain"
--Update J-drama song master post

Ja ne!

ME: *shows new Toma scans*  Does Toma still look rapeable?

PERSON 1: ...............lose the hair and we'll talk.

ME:................Okay, then..............

The RENT rant I had just awhile ago has made me nostalgic for my RENT fangirl days.  So now I'm watching the movie.  LOL.  Oh god, Jesse Martin is so great.

So, anyway.

Toma.



Toma.



Toma.



TomaPi!



EDIT: AHHHHHHH OHHH MY GOSSSHHHH!  TOMAPI CROSSTALK!  *runs around in circles*  I MUST GO READ NOW!!!!! anadwandl;uwhdaunajhdbnjdbwludwaIWHOU3QUHLKSANALIUCA

I have mentioned how much I LOVE Toma's arms, right?  And his hands?  There's just something about guys' arms that I love.  Toma's arms happen to be particularly nice.  I cannot wait until my issue of Potato gets here.  Next year, I'm going to try to subscribe to both Potato and WinkUp!  I really miss Ikita Kotoba.  Toma's rambling entries are too cute.  They sound like many of our LJ posts, in fact.  Yeah, don't deny it.  He could be an LJ'er.

Japanese Cinema class is my most interesting class so far.  Thursday we watched The Last Samurai, which is not a Japanese movie (therefore it's not going toward the drama count), but it's not a bad movie.  It's really great watching Ken Watanabe playing a samurai leader.  It's not so great watching Tom Cruise speaking American-ish Japanese.  It's a little painful, actually, after watching dramas and movies.  After the screening, Dr. Hovet said, "Don't you wish you could learn Japanese as fast as Tom Cruise did?"  Sure, Dr. Hovet, sure.

 

The story itself is quite moving, though.  Especially the last half hour.  The movie does romanticize the samurai lifestyle and omitted some things, but it can't be denied that samurai like this group, who were called shishi and served only the emperor, were quite nobel.  They fought for what they believed in.

The Johnny's mini-drama...yeah...so it's like a junior drama, only with debuted Johnny's boys.  And Yoko will be hosting.  This reminds me of PPOI.

Does this mean I won't watch?

Pfft, heck no.

But uh, who's gonna sub this one?  Mehehe.  Will we see a subteam battle from several different ones?

There are already drama rumors for 2010 appearing?  But--bu--I--drama--spring--summer!--fall--no, not yet!  There are still SPRING dramas I haven't finished!  I'm barely keeping up with the summer dramas.  I can't remember what's coming in the fall.  Winter?  What's winter?  Jin and Pi in a drama?  No no no no.  Nay nay.  Not before Toma and Pi get to be in a drama together.  *slaps TV execs*  How cruel will life get before this happens?  And Gokusen 4?  WHEN THEY CLEARLY SAID THERE WOULD BE NO MORE GOKUSEN?  I mean, come on.  That's what the movie is for!  It's the movie FINALE.  It just wouldn't be the same without Nakama Yukie, either.  And to bring back Kame?  I love Kame, but why not bring back some people from the first season?  Bloody Monday season 2 is not that far out there, since it left us with a cliffhanger.  I doubt Sato Takeru will be doing two dramas in one season in which he is a main character, though.

Sato Ryuta at the Japan Wolverine movie premiere.  ROFL.  PLEASE CAST HIM IN THE NEXT MOVIE.  HE SHOULD GET THE PART JUST FOR THIS ALONE.  Sato Ryuta has been one of my favorite Japanese actors for a long time now, and he can play comedy and drama equally well.  He's more adept at comedy, but he's surprisingly good at playing it straight.  If you've seen Utahime (Nagase/Ryuta is one of the best combos EVER), you'll know he plays a serious straight man at the beginning and then abruptly changes to comedy.  It's amazing to watch.  Of course, he was fantastic in ROOKIES.  He didn't earn that award for nothing.

Toma.



I feel kinda bad that I haven't done anything productive with this journal in awhile.  Per request, I ripped the WaT "My Favorite Girl" DVD and converted it to .avi, but it's 2.7GB.  I wouldn't want to download that.  I'm trying to figure out how to make it smaller without losing a lot of quality.  It takes hours and hours to compress a video.  Dang.  Of course you could always PURCHASE the DVD.  Right?

Right?

*crickets*

There's no guarantee someone will sub it, either.  There aren't many subbers in the WaT fandom.  Just a few here and there.  They've very hard to find.  Lately, though, WaT hasn't been doing much.  Koike came out with a new single not long ago and of course, appeared in the Gokusen movie.  Where's Eiji?  I was watching KeyHole TV one random morning at work during the summer, waiting for Majo Saiban to come on, when I saw Eiji on a TV program.  I have no idea what the program was, but it had Eiji trying out some kind of chair.  His hair was still kind of blonde.  I despair of him with blonde hair.  Eiji's doing commercials right now?  Is he?  Is he doing a show?  WHERE ARE YOU, EI-CHAN?

I sincerely hope that Eiji gets a cameo or a guest-shot on Koike's upcoming drama.  It would be so nice to see them act together again in something that actually appears on TV.  Eiji is really a good actor.  He's really good at comedy, even though he doesn't talk a lot in real life.  He has this dry sense of humor that I just love.



And this is why I love Toma.

Ja ne!

HOW?

HOW?

HOW DID I NOT KNOW?



RENT played last month at the Akasaka ACT Theatre in Japan!  WITH FRIKKING ANTHONY RAPP AND ADAM PASCAL!!!!!

GARRRRRRGGGGGG

Tokyograph, you have failed me.

I even had to use a different icon!

Know how I found out?  I was searching for videos from Japanese RENT performances on YouTube (total: 1, and it was Seasons of Love) when I happened to find someone's page totally dedicated to RENT Japan 2009.  Apparently in August.  Which was last month.

DID ANYONE KNOW ABOUT THIS?

It's frikking Anthony Rapp and Adam Pascal for crying out loud!  IN JAPAN!  BEING AWESOME!  Although, not singing in Japanese, which would be even awesomer and possibly hilarious hearing Adam trying to pronounce Japanese.

RENT has to be my favorite musical EVER.  Yeah, yeah, I know it's supposedly a mark of a campy theatre person to love RENT, but dag nabbit if Jonathan Larson didn't write some awesomely complicated music.  Just listen to "Christmas Bells" on the OBC recording and tell me it's not awesome piled on top of awesome.  He truly had style.

Even Yamada Yu went to see it!  I give up.  I'm sad.  This is globally unfair.  It's bad enough I won't get to see Wicked in Nashville in a few weeks, but not even knowing that RENT was in Japan?  WHERE WERE THE NEWS SITES WITH THIS?  Oh, great, they're going to be in San Francisco in October, too.  Right during fall break.  Why couldn't they have done this when I was actually in San Francisco last year during fall break?

This person went to the show.  She loves it.  So did this person, even though the Twitter update is a little back there.

Sigh...

B-chan said something hilarious the other day that made me laugh, but now I can't remember what it is, so I'll just get on with the entry.

HELLO!

Sorry if this entry seems a little loopy, guys, but I'm pulling yet another all-nighter at work, running on not much sleep, had three back-to-back classes today, and did work on my internship at Steel Toe Books. I had a short nap, then woke up and threw together some food before coming to work. Now I'm sitting here giggling to myself about the dumbest things. If I'm going to be tired, I'd rather be this kind of tired instead of emo!tired. 

So, yeah, real life aside because it's too real and I'm in need of some fandom therapy, let's talk about what's been going on.

1. Yamapi and Ryo-chan are sick. Awwww. *gives cold compresses and chicken soup* Take care, boys. I won't even ask for a new single this time. Just take care of yourselves. I'm suprised both of them got sick in the middle of their dramas. They still have stuff to film, so what are they going to do? Push the production schedule back a bit? Film everyone else's bits first and then come back and film the other bits?

By the way, NEWS on 24 Hour Terebi was like balm for my soul. It felt so good seeing them perform together after so long. I guess this will suffice for now instead of a single. Yay for NEWS not lipsyncing!

2. Koike's getting a new drama! It's a romantic comedy about a high school teacher who falls in love with her younger colleague (played by Koike), and...that's pretty much it. It probably will cause trouble somehow. I love dramas like this, but I wish it were an epic romance a la Majo no Jouken instead of a romantic comedy. Can we please get an Eiji cameo this time? I MISS HIM! (Ah, that reminds me, I had a dream earlier where I told someone I thought me and Eiji were related...why would I do that even though that would be awesome?).

3. Toma has two more ACUO commercials that probably everyone has seen already. Eikura Nana now appears with him. That's definitely a combo we haven't seen before. Nana was so cute, too, when asked how it felt to work with Toma. She said it was kind of nerve-wracking working with someone she had been watching on TV since she was little. XD How cute is that? She's such a fangirl.

Toma also has a drama special episode in another season of Yomino Kimyouna Monogatari which are always creepy and strange stories. Wonder what kind of role he'll be playing this time...coughpleasegetridofthetimburtonhaircough...I'm glad Toma's doing something at least. He's been talking about taking a vacation for awhile now, so maybe it will be a possibility?

4. Uh...*checks f-list*...I didn't keep any links this time...okay, while I'm checking, I'll say that I'm in the middle of Good Luck and at episode 5, so it should get more interesting from here on out. I hope. KimuTaku hasn't let me down yet. OH! YES, THAT'S RIGHT. There's a rumor going around that KimuTaku, Kame, and Jin all will be in a drama at the end of the year. Drama or drama special is not stated. Supposedly, the story is about three brothers whose parents died, and so they have to support each other. They all fall in love with the same girl. Sounds like Lunch no Jouu. But hey, if it's epic, I don't mind. It's rumored--ONLY RUMORED--that KimuTaku heard about arguments between Kame and Jin and decided he wanted to work with them and help them out. I'm not sure if I believe that, but it would be nice if KimuTaku just wanted to work with his kouhais, especially since he worked with Kame already.

It's so weird that this rumor surfaced just aschelshock posted this insanely awesome KimuTaku vs. Everyone post where she compares KimuTaku to other Johnny's boys. It's amazing how much he and Hina look alike. But yeah, he looks kinda like Jin, too. I disagree that Jin will be the next KimuTaku. After careful examination, I don't think any JE boy will reach KimuTaku's level. It will be quite awhile, anyway. What am I saying? KimuTaku hasn't quite reached Matchy's level back during his heyday. Or has he? YOU BE THE JUDGE.

5. RANDOM FANDOM!!!
--Crytal Kay and Jin-jin's new song "Helpless Night" is quite addicting. Props to Jin for his better English pronuniciation.
--New subs need to come out soon pleaaaaaase
--TOKIO's new song is AWESOME.

6. Stalking my Traffic Feed the other day, I noticed lurkers from Kentucky and Tennessee. WHY AREN'T YOU SAYING ANYTHING? I have a feeling they were directed here from my Facebook page, which is a little embarrassing since many are RL friends who have no idea about my Secret Fangirl Identity.

7. Sorry for the sucky quality of this entry. I'm at work! Listening to Jin, for crying out loud! I'm not thinking clearly!

Ja ne!