Rin in Japan!

The Great Old Debate

Wed, 23 Dec 2009 07:49:35 GMT

When I was back in Brisbane, the war was against counterfeit Japanese anime DVDs, CDs and products. In Australia anime/manga is a touchy subject where the boundaries and rules surrounding its legalities are very foggy and ignored by the law-keepers as a pure waste of time. It's especially hard when stores selling official merchandise are almost non-existent except for back-alley comic stores, and the Chinese mafia have their own system running. I figured out somewhere along the way that buying fake things = funding Chinese mafia and keeping the really good quality anime DVDs and merchandise from Australian shores. I was often very jealous of fans in America who seemed to have it all in a language they could understand and at a price that they could afford. They were little wars - small victories were gained (Suckanova) at a cost. I hear issues with B*S still continue but hopefully one day their greed will be squashed.

Now since maturing slightly and finding other interests - mostly in Arashi - I have found new battles to be fought. I'm just glad that the people up top are the ones making the stand this time. JE themselves are doing their best to crush those rip off ticket scalpers who are actually fueling the fire between fan club members and international fans. I won't make comments about fake merchandise, as there's so little of it in existence compared to the real merchandise available that it's hardly worth a mention. However, this, is going too far if you ask me. Screening a copyrighted and licensed DVD in a public forum without proper permissions from the DVD creators/distributors? You could do it for free and it would still be illegal, unless of course you're telling me that the country which has a ban on chewing gum will somehow overlook a law which is recognized and punishable internationally. Oh wait, I think I found an answer.

I just...Argh! This isn't swimming in the gray area or bending the rules - this is snapping the rules in half right out in the open in your birthday suit!

As for comments about "Aw but you live in Japan." Lend me an ear and I'll tell you exactly how you can get here too. If you find that too difficult or too expensive maybe you'll shut your bitching trap next time! Grrr! I'm too sick to deal with "innocent" idiocy right now!

PS. Wasn't talking about you F-list. You follow me because you already understand and wanna hear it as it is. And I love you for it. :)

Swine flu attacks!

Mon, 21 Dec 2009 02:12:50 GMT

Now it's my turn to cop it. It was bound to happen, working with a heap of sick kids not from just one school or class, but from every class of three different schools.

Happened really suddenly on Saturday night though. Now it's Monday morning and I've been officially diagnosed with swine flu and by law can't return to teach at primary schools for a certain amount of time. Which means that my last week of work goes out the window. Only had one week left too.

Well I have a heap of meds and some bread. Seems to be the only food I can keep down without coughing it back up. Yes, my body has decided that throwing up normally isn't good enough - I need to go into a coughing rage until the contents of my stomach are up and out. I'm all right for the moment, as long as I control the coughing.

*hugs*. People who are coming near me within the next five days (you know who you are) please, please be very careful! It feels no worse than a normal flu to me but that doesn't mean it's pleasant!

Wish my body would stop going hot and cold!

Earthquake

Fri, 18 Dec 2009 16:04:42 GMT

At 5:45am yesterday morning, I was awoken by severe shaking. It's hard to compare this sudden, violent vibration of the earth below to anything else for those who have never experienced an earthquake first hand. It was Magnitude 3 and it came so suddenly that I was more surprised than scared. Of course I was rather sleep deprived - I still am. I remember waking up to being shaken, sitting up in bed, putting a pillow over my head in case the shaking started again, and finally lying down to go back to sleep.

All throughout yesterday, Shizuoka, the origin of the earthquake yesterday morning, has been shaken up by quakes of Magnitude Lower 5. It's kind of frightening how it was hit so much in the same day.

Easily Affected

Fri, 04 Dec 2009 14:18:05 GMT

I'm not a sad person. Not really. Just very moody and very openly emotional over the tiniest things, but oddly uncaring about other things.

There are some matters I need to get off my chest to anyone willing to listen. They might cause you to retort, they might make you sad, they might make you angry, they might make you laugh, they might make you roll your eyes.

I cried on the final page of the last Harry Potter novel. It was a delayed reaction, about 100 pages too late. I'm not going to spoil it for readers and movie fans, but I will hint at what triggered it for those who know me and what I'm talking about. That boy's full name, and the gravity of its meaning, the loving memory it represents; those two words had me in tears. ;_;

After I finished it, I switched on my comp to update my LJ. The unwatched FNS performance of Ashita no Kioku on my desktop caught my attention. The mood of the song matched my own so I watched it. To all those "fans" out there who say Arashi are just miming it all, please just get out of my fandom. Sho-chan, while not the best singer on the planet, has exactly the same habit as me when singing live or talking into a microphone. You can especially pick it up in performances in fairly enclosed spaces. The "wetness" you hear in his voice (it's in all their voices but most noticeably in Sho's) is a build up of saliva each time he talks or sings slowly. This can be easily edited out with technology and I doubt it's noticeable during fast-paced raps. Also Sho miming his raps? They recorded him rapping and panting and are just playing it back during concerts are they? I admit there are times when they seem almost too perfect but even then I can detect slight differences in the song and the quality of their voices, or the way they use their breathing. Seriously "fans", go to hell if you can't tell the difference.

And as I sit here writing this, thinking of people being blamed without much proof, I am reminded of the conversation I had today with a School B teacher. One child, quite a problem child, has been accused of writing all over another, younger, child's school bag in permanent marker. This is a serious accusation - those bags are not cheap with their nice polished finish. Yet I still can't help but to think that the accused needs more motivation than just "hating that kid ever since kindergarten". The accused is the type to act impulsively, meaning he may have done such a thing if the pen was in sight already - I do agree with the impulsive, unpredictable part. However, I think it would have to have been semi-planned and motivation-driven for the accused to pull the pen out from the depths of the victim's own bag where the victim had probably left it to go play. I don't honestly know the accused very well. He may have done it - I just feel that some crucial piece is missing and until it is found, the boy shouldn't be taking full accusations regardless of the few witnesses.

I think I sympathize both too much and too little at the same time. I don't accept invitations from work colleagues whom I feel get in the way of my working plan (if our plan was the same I would reconsider, but my job currently forces me to work pretty much alone.) I don't even want to share small talk or learn more about people I barely share my life with. Yet on the other hand I can't understand it when people cause others pain, suffering or discomfort, whether on purpose or not. I've never faced the death of a close friend yet I can't understand the need to take or waste life. I think this sympathy began when I broke my leg a year ago in a bicycle accident which I brought upon myself. I caused so many people pain, grief, discomfort, and inconvenience with that one little accident. And I think it's haunted me ever since. I think reality, even the finality of death itself, has been haunting me ever since.

I don't know that any of this made sense. I'm not in a perfectly clear state of mind right now, so I'm sorry if my actions or words are contradicting.

Thank you for reading this far. A listener is what I truly need right now. :) *hugs*

Winter Clean~!

Mon, 23 Nov 2009 15:50:51 GMT

I spent 90% of today cleaning my room! It's much nicer now. I still have way too many things and not enough drawers for them all.

Just thought I'd update!

I'm in such a happy mood with such a clean room!

And I loved watching ZERO and ANS tonight! *bounces around happily* Sho-chan!

BTW Arashi is going to do KOUHAKU! OMG I can't believe it! I'm gonna miss them at the Johnny's Countdown (they're probably arrive with TOKIO) but at the same time, just wow! <3 (Aiba and Hikawa Kiyoshi in the same room is a conversation between a Slowpoke and a Psyduck just waiting to happen! Kidding - they're both adorable baka! xD I really want to see it one day! lol)

O.O quietly Yay! ^///^

Thu, 19 Nov 2009 09:25:44 GMT

I feel so bad for being so happy about the announcement that Ms. Mao Kobayashi (who does News Zero every weeknight, meaning she works with Sho-chan on Monday night) is going out with a kabuki actor and not Sho-chan as many people were rumoring. The media labels her boyfriend as a bit of a play boy though. Please take care, Ms. Kobayashi!

I once called her a "smiling git" and I apologize for that comment. She's a wonderful example of a well-mannered, well-dressed career woman (I find her to be one of the best and most conservatively dressed announcers on TV.) To be honest, I do believe her and Sho-chan would make a very nice couple, but I still can't help myself feeling quite elated that she's not. Okay jealousy is sort of a factor but as I've said before my thoughts on Sho are a mix of yearning and admiration.

I think I was scared that if they were actually dating, they wouldn't tell us about it. I was frightened that they would both keep everyone in the dark even if they got married. (And if they'd done that I would have felt so betrayed.) I think more than anything I'm glad to know a definite answer. To be honest she could have announced she was dating Sho-chan and I think I would have eventually got over the shock. I'd still follow Sho-chan. (Mind you, if she'd suddenly said that they were getting married, I would have been far more shocked and far less unsure of the sudden bombshell.)

Either way, I'm glad that she was kind enough to give a definite answer, even if it's only to say that she's seeing someone who isn't Sho-chan.

Sapporo: Overall inc Concert Semi-report

Wed, 18 Nov 2009 13:21:45 GMT

I'm sorry I didn't get to properly update this. I get away from everything for four days only to have all the shit that gathered on the fan fall kersplat in my face all in one go. But never mind that for now.

On our first day in Sapporo we were a little late out but we did finally make it (after about an hour's walk in the cold - I can seriously walk anywhere in the right frame of mind) to the Historical Village. It was more like a ghost town of replica buildings but it was still utterly fascinating. We were there for three hours, only leaving because it was closing time, but we still didn't to see every building in the place. If you're in Sapporo, I recommend it, as long as you have a whole day to set aside for it.

We went to the Sapporo Factory, which would have been more interesting during the day (to see the brick building from the outside) but it was still very nice. We bought little musical boxes that play a bar from One Love! (Vid coming soon!) Actually Sapporo seemed overjoyed to have Arashi there. Many stores were playing songs from Arashi's brand new Best Of album. We went to Ramen Alley for dinner after watching Arashi live on Music Station! <3 I'm not such a big fan of ramen though, so no comment. The bit of crab in it was rather tasty though.

Saturday was the big day and we hurried off early to get our goods. Unfortunately it was raining and by the time we reached the top of the line and managed to get our hands on some penlights at the very least, we were both quite shivery and wet. (During our wait in line we made all these weird jokes like, Arashi brought the weather with them from Tokyo, or what if they had been named Yuki (Snow), or Kumori (Cloudy) instead? "Kumori, kumori, for dream!") We went back to the hotel to shower and finish our homemade uchiwa (mine says, "NEWS SHO" and "Sakuraba CHU! <3") Then we raced off to the concert.

Of course it was amazing. It was spectacular. It was bright. It was incredible. It was fun! The songs I recall the most are A-RA-SHI (for those see thru outfits,) Kumori nochi Kaisei (for the balloons and Uta no Oniisan - LOVE that costume!,) Everything (for its gorgeous use of visuals on the large screens) and Believe (for the costumes, especially Sho's sleeveless black jacket-cape, and for Sho's live rap.) I also remember Aiba commenting during the MC that Sho's fly was undone, Sho trying to excuse himself from the MC for his solo but being stopped by the members until he was doing funny hand motions, Sho bouncing up and down on stage and in his little car (which he nearly fell off with all his bouncing), Aiba bouncing so you could still see him as the stage was being lowered for their exit, Aiba reaching for Sho's hand only to have Sho not notice, and Aiba and Sho sticking their heads out at the very end before Arashi retreated a final time (Aiba even did a silly pose.)

It was a very complete concert, as they sang every song you would want to hear whether you became a fan ten years ago or ten days ago. Along with the popular hits like Step & Go, Beautiful Days, Happiness, and Love So Sweet, the playlist even included songs like Oh Yeah, Pikanchi Double, Carnival Night Part II, Fight Song, Everything. The final song of the evening was actually My Girl, only a few days after its release! Some fans may have been disappointed at a lack of Yes? No? (which Oh Yeah pretty much made up for anyway), Right Back To You (I was quite sad that this wasn't in there :( Correct me if I'm wrong and I just missed it,) and Tokei Jikake no Umbrella. But overall the song list was quite complete. The set design was incredible with at least six massive screens pushed together and framed in a large Arashi logo. It was very colorful and the visuals were quite appealing - a great reward for those who couldn't see the members properly. There was even water, fire, and fireworks at different times. Moving stage was back! (It didn't appear in Dream A Live last year.) Their float-cars were too, with their individual screens on them. The cameramen loved shoving the cameras right up into Sho's and Nino's faces. xD The costumes were surprisingly normal - kind of hard to see if you're up the back but there was at least one costume set that sparkled wildly and everyone could see it for miles! Plenty of Sakuraiba, Ohmiya, Matsuraiba, and Juntoshi moments for the fans.

One part I remember quite well is the failure of all five microphones at once. It was during the second song of the show. Arashi kept singing despite the failure. No one could hear them over the music so the whole Dome began to sing in their place. It was really magical. <3

It was an awesome concert. I got to see Sho-chan live and pretty close with my binocs. Ah Sho-chan, how pretty you are. I envy you.

Bad things: Okay please forgive me but I felt the solos were a drag compared to the rest of the show. Don't get me wrong - they all did great but the solos all felt like intermissions, except for Ohno's. Ohno was the only one who sang an original song while the other four sang revamped versions of hits from their movies/dramas. Though I must admit, Nino with an electric guitar was great to watch.

Also, the train home. Well it stopped raining but what is usually a ten minute walk turned into us being packed on to a crowded train ONE HOUR AND A HALF after we stepped out of the Dome. It was a nightmare.

The concert was a dream come true, as was the trip to Sapporo (except for maybe the planes, which showed in-flight live video feed from outside the plane during take off and landing Dx - I did fly on a Pokemon one on the way back!) but sadly, with recent events this great weekend feels like it's fast fading back into the realm of dreams...

PS. I currently have Everything stuck in my head. Ever since seeing it live I think I've found a whole new appreciation for this song. I think the PV doesn't do the lyrics justice.

Sapporo: 1st Morning

Fri, 13 Nov 2009 01:53:11 GMT

Must just be the atmosphere, but I'm so happy! (Though the room was so stuffy I had to open the window a fraction last night despite the freezing cold - a fraction was just enough to make it comfortable.) Nice breakfast, nice company!

We're going out today, hopefully to the Historical Village of Hokkaido, The Sapporo Factory, a good ramen shop (maybe in Ramen Alley!), and karaoke! Then we'll come home tonight and make psychotically bright uchiwa while watching Music Station and My Girl!

FINAL THOUGHTS
Today's Final Thoughts thanks to tenjostyle and mirei_22

Sho-chan has done it again! Or will do in an upcoming episode of Himitsu no Arashi-chan! Remember the maid outfit, the one which Sho himself claimed he looked "Maximum Kawaii" in? Well a rival outfit has appeared. It may not quite outdo the maid outfit but it is damn close. Maid Sho, may I introduce Chinese Dress Sho! (And I thought Sho looked good dressed in male Chinese clothes!)

Sho-chan, how come you're so damn pretty!? It's hard to call him the proper, respectful "Sakurai-san" when he's dressed like that!!! (>/////<;) Just....*dies*... then he goes and sits like this! I know I'm being a Maximum Pervert but LOOK! I can imagine my hand wandering up where it shouldn't be and then getting slapped... *______* Better still Aiba's hand could... That'll make for good fic. *dies again*

PS. Someone make me an icon. Pretty please?

Sapporo!

Thu, 12 Nov 2009 11:14:29 GMT

Well, I made it. The hotel is nice! <3 Sapporo itself kind of reminds me of the image of have of countryside America as it comes closer to winter. The trees and bare fields just kind of reminded me of it. Not that I've ever been to America so sorry if I'm offending anyone.

On the trains towards Sapporo I was confused by all the seats facing forwards. I thought surely they must be reserved seats as public seats in Tokyo face the sides of the train. lol

I have two more things to say:

They got him! They arrested the guy who butchered a NOVA teacher over two years ago. He's even had plastic surgery done and looks almost nothing like the original security camera footage from the night she was murdered. I'm so glad he's not at large anymore. My sincerest regards to her family, most especially to Mr. Hawker. I hope they can find some peace at last.

Secondly - a letter.

Dear ANA,

Thank you for the lovely flight. It was far more pleasant and shorter than I expected.

However, I have one complaint.

I chose an aisle seat because I was too frightened to look out the window. I did not appreciate the live video feed from somewhere under the plane, being broadcast on the cabin screens during take off and landing.

*shudders* Still hate flying in planes. I especially hate take off and landing but some reason I've developed this odd habit of falling asleep just as the plane starts to descend. I'm usually then awoken by the wheels on the runway as the plane hits land again.

For some reason I'm fine with helicopters. Must be because they don't go up as high and they don't tilt much on take off and landing.

Okay, gotta go pick up my new Arashi buddy Abby from the airport!

My Girl (Translation)

Sun, 08 Nov 2009 14:29:21 GMT

Love it. Thank you, Arashi. The new song is gorgeous. It's also very deserving of its bittersweet music video. One of my favorite Arashi songs in ages!

My Girl

What can I say so our hearts will better connect
Your tears are hiding behind a forced smile

Doesn't matter how many days pass, if we keep believing
I know our paths will become one

When I feel kindness it leads the way to happiness
As the smiles in our voices grew
I felt like we could move on, little by little

I want my thank yous to softly reach you
Even if we move far apart, to a future filled with memories
If I close my eyes, I see the seasons I spent with you
Joining our memories together, today also brings a small, gentle warmth

Your fingers I held were losing
The warmth which was fast leaving you

You carried everything important on your own
Without even saying the things you wanted to, your hand let go of mine
I still remember it even now

I want to tell you thank you one more time, softly, by your side
I can't go back to yesterday, but I face tomorrow in a kind of prayer
If I reach out, I can open the door to the seasons your left behind

I still want to see you
I know I'll be thinking of you again today

With every second, the day we met is left further behind
But you're still living as always, within my heart

I want my thank yous to softly reach you
Even if we move far apart, to a future filled with memories
If I close my eyes, I see the seasons I spent with you
Joining our memories together, today also brings a small, gentle warmth

It brings a small, gentle warmth

T_T Seriously love this song and its PV, where Arashi decide not to move house after finding a touching letter from their deceased mother.

Look out US: John Cleese is coming to get you!

Sun, 08 Nov 2009 05:54:33 GMT

This is just amusing:

Originally from: About.com's Urban Legends section

December 2004 variant of 'Notice of Revocation of Independence' purportedly authored by former Monty Python member John Cleese.

NOTE: This is one version of a viral joke circulating since November 2000. Though it is attributed on websites and in emails to former Monty Python member John Cleese, he did not actually write it.
John Cleese Letter to USA

To the citizens of the United States of America, in the light of your failure to elect a competent President of the USA and thus to govern yourselves, we hereby give notice of the revocation of your independence, effective today.

Her Sovereign Majesty Queen Elizabeth II will resume monarchical duties over all states, commonwealths and other territories. Except Utah, which she does not fancy. Your new prime minister (The Right Honourable Tony Blair, MP for the 97.85% of you who have until now been unaware that there is a world outside your borders) will appoint a minister for America without the need for further elections. Congress and the Senate will be disbanded. A questionnaire will be circulated next year to determine whether any of you noticed. To aid in the transition to a British Crown Dependency, the following rules are introduced with immediate effect:

1. You should look up revocation in the Oxford English Dictionary. Then look up aluminium. Check the pronunciation guide. You will be amazed at just how wrongly you have been pronouncing it. The letter 'U' will be reinstated in words such as 'favour' and 'neighbour', skipping the letter 'U' is nothing more than laziness on your part. Likewise, you will learn to spell 'doughnut' without skipping half the letters. You will end your love affair with the letter 'Z' (pronounced 'zed' not 'zee') and the suffix ize will be replaced by the suffix ise. You will learn that the suffix 'burgh' is pronounced 'burra' e.g. Edinburgh. You are welcome to respell Pittsburgh as 'Pittsberg' if you can't cope with correct pronunciation.

Generally, you should raise your vocabulary to acceptable levels. Look up vocabulary. Using the same twenty seven words interspersed with filler noises such as "like" and "you know" is an unacceptable and inefficient form of communication. Look up interspersed. There will be no more 'bleeps' in the Jerry Springer show. If you're not old enough to cope with bad language then you shouldn't have chat shows. When you learn to develop your vocabulary then you won't have to use bad language as often.

2. There is no such thing as "US English". We will let Microsoft know on your behalf. The Microsoft spell-checker will be adjusted to take account of the reinstated letter 'u' and the elimination of -ize.

3. You should learn to distinguish the English and Australian accents. It really isn't that hard. English accents are not limited to cockney,upper-class twit or Mancunian (Daphne in Frasier). You will also have to learn how to understand regional accents - Scottish dramas such as Taggart will no longer be broadcast with subtitles. While we're talking about regions, you must learn that there is no such place as Devonshire in England. The name of the county is Devon. If you persist in calling it Devonshire, all American States will become shires e.g. Texasshire, Floridashire, Louisianashire.

4. Hollywood will be required occasionally to cast English actors as the good guys. Hollywood will be required to cast English actors to play English characters. British sit-coms such as Men Behaving Badly or Red Dwarf will not be re-cast and watered down for a wishy-washy American audience who can't cope with the humour of occasional political incorrectness.

5. You should relearn your original national anthem, God Save The Queen but only after fully carrying out task 1. We would not want you to get confused and give up half way through.

6. You should stop playing American football. There is only one kind of football. What you refer to as American football is not a very good game. The 2.15% of you who are aware that there is a world outside your borders may have noticed that no one else plays American football. You will no longer be allowed to play it, and should instead play proper football. Initially, it would be best if you played with the girls. It is a difficult game. Those of you brave enough will, in time, be allowed to play rugby (which is similar to American "football", but does not involve stopping for a rest every twenty seconds or wearing full kevlar body armour like nancies). We are hoping to get together at least a US Rugby sevens side by 2005. You should stop playing baseball. It is not reasonable to host an event called the 'World Series' for a game which is not played outside of America. Since only 2.15% of you are aware that there is a world beyond your borders,your error is understandable. Instead of baseball, you will be allowed to play a girls' game called rounders, which is baseball without fancy team strip, oversized gloves, collector cards or hotdogs.

7. You will no longer be allowed to own or carry guns. You will no longer be allowed to own or carry anything more dangerous in public than a vegetable peeler. Because we don't believe you are sensible enough to handle potentially dangerous items, you will require a permit if you wish to carry a vegetable peeler in public.

8. July 4th is no longer a public holiday. November 2nd will be a new national holiday, but only in England. It will be called Indecisive Day.

9. All American cars are hereby banned. They are crap and it is for your own good. When we show you German cars, you will understand what we mean. All road intersections will be replaced with roundabouts. You will start driving on the left with immediate effect. At the same time,you will go metric with immediate effect and conversion tables. Roundabouts and metrication will help you understand the British sense of humour.

10. You will learn to make real chips. Those things you call French fries are not real chips. Fries aren't even French, they are Belgian though 97.85% of you (including the guy who discovered fries while in Europe) are not aware of a country called Belgium. Those things you insist on calling potato chips are properly called crisps. Real chips are thick cut and fried in animal fat. The traditional accompaniment to chips is beer which should be served warm and flat. Waitresses will be trained to be more aggressive with customers.

11. As a sign of penance 5 grams of sea salt per cup will be added to all tea made within the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, this quantity to be doubled for tea made within the city of Boston itself.

12. The cold tasteless stuff you insist on calling beer is not actually beer at all, it is lager. From November 1st only proper British Bitter will be referred to as beer,and European brews of known and accepted provenance will be referred to as Lager. The substances formerly known as American Beer will henceforth be referred to as Near-Frozen Knat's Urine,with the exception of the product of the American Budweiser company whose product will be referred to as Weak Near-Frozen Knat's Urine. This will allow true Budweiser (as manufactured for the last 1000 years in Pilsen,Czech Republic) to be sold without risk of confusion.

13. From November 10th the UK will harmonise petrol (or Gasoline, as you will be permitted to keep calling it until April 1st 2005) prices with the former USA. The UK will harmonise its prices to those of the former USA and the Former USA will, in return, adopt UK petrol prices (roughly $6/US gallon- get used to it).

14. You will learn to resolve personal issues without using guns, lawyers or therapists. The fact that you need so many lawyers and therapists shows that you're not adult enough to be independent. Guns should only be handled by adults. If you're not adult enough to sort things out without suing someone or speaking to a therapist then you're not grown up enough to handle a gun.

15. Please tell us who killed JFK. It's been driving us crazy.

16. Tax collectors from Her Majesty's Government will be with you shortly to ensure the acquisition of all revenues due (backdated to 1776).

Thank you for your co-operation and have a great day.

John Cleese

Ah don't get too offended everyone. I just thought it was amusing - I deal with "US English" every day in Japan.

Not the best...

Wed, 04 Nov 2009 12:30:31 GMT

Okay it's been two days since this began and I still don't have my voice back properly. It's been four hours since I went to see the doctor about it and my nose still feels like I was stabbed up the nostril. Stupid flu test. Well I don't have the flu. I have a bad head cold. Now I'm taking medication, have a doctor's receipt, and won't be going to school yet again tomorrow.

Dammit. I would go, but I do value my voice and I've been told it'd be better if I didn't. Technically I'm not that sick but I'm meant to be going to School B which has had outbreak after outbreak of influenza. If I go like this, I could get worse. :(

Guess I'll just have to make tomorrow productive.

Things to do (not necessarily in order):

- Clean my room
- Finish fic requests
- Plan Sapporo holiday
- Plan December holiday
- subtitle Yatterman clips
- budget
- write letters
- apply for 7-11 savings account
- make Arashi Top 10: BCP vid

Well...should keep me busy. Let's see how many of these I can get done tomorrow.

PS Want to see the Silent Hill movie for the hell of it, and because I don't wanna play the games...I hate games where I'm being chased...

Arashi are so full of awesome recently!

Mon, 02 Nov 2009 05:23:29 GMT

After watching my hero, Sho-chan, doing his thing last night despite terrible heights and the cold rain, I decided to do my best today at work despite my head cold. I only lasted half the day then I lost my voice and had to go home. There goes half a day's pay.

But there was something waiting for me when I got back!

Oooh a pretty box from the fan club! Wonder what's inside!

Let's take a look!

Oooh! Shiny!

"Dear ARASHI fan club members,

Thank you for always supporting ARASHI. Thanks to your support,
ARASHI will be celebrating their 10th anniversary on November 3.
As a gift of thanks, we have enclosed this specially designed photo case.
Slide in your favorite photos alongside ARASHI. Nothing would please us
more than for this piece to brighten your room and become a part of your life.
We sincerely look forward to your continued support for ARASHI.

A very special day, November 2009
Johnny's Family Club"

Kawaii!!!

Just too cute!

ARASHI!!! ♥♥♥♥♥

Such a pretty red!

Thank you, JFC!

And in part two, there is even more Arashi awesomeness!

By now every Arashi fan here has seen the new AU x Arashi CMs, right? (Personally I think they're running in competition with SMAP. The cool black clothes, the way they're discussing phones, the catchy music - they're exactly the same, but Arashi pulls it off with so much more style and their campaign has so many more goodies to offer.) If you haven't been to the new AU x Arashi site then go check it out now. There are many things to click on and have fun with. And if you have a Japanese AU mobile phone, you can even do stuff like this! (Someone please tell me the name of this catchy tune or at least where the heck I can download it! I love it!)

Arashi in 3D!

Sun, 01 Nov 2009 14:09:08 GMT

The Arashi SP was beyond awesome. I knew how most of the experiments would turn out before they happened but there was so much more to this 3hr Arashi romp!

I don't want to spoil it for anyone but KYAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!

Awesome moments:
- Sho in a red body suit (yes my eyes went directly down - I couldn't help it.)
- Murao-san on helium
- The SWING!
- Arashi live and in 3D!!!!
- Sho-chan making a short black skirt (over tight black pants) look very fashionable on a guy! (I swear only Johnny's can pull that one off!)
- Hatori-san! <3
- The return of something once left behind! <3

It was just too great!

I'm going to fangirl my way into my dreams now! Yaaaay!

Arashi Challenge Week! <3

Sat, 31 Oct 2009 12:57:43 GMT

I'm currently writing my Arashi x Halloween fic! Yes I know I have to get a move on but there are two things I wanna say first!

1) Arashi Challenge Week is so much fun! I'm totally loving seeing Arashi on random CMs, promoting it next NTV's mascot DA BEAR. The only thing I'm a bit hmm about is the replays. D no Arashi rules! Gyakukaiten, A no Arashi, the origami boat and the abandoned places eps totally deserved to return! That said, I'm really sorry but the only good thing about Air Guitar was seeing Arashi in skimpy clothing....oh....Um, ok then someone explain the Zoo ep! It was a funny ep, but I felt there were eps which deserved more attention. And how come there's no Mayonaka no Arashi?

2) Last HnA was HILARIOUS!!!! Skip over the VIP room - it's only worth watching for the horse moment. The second part, Araoke, was HILARIOUS! Basically HNA borrowed a karaoke room, filled it with cameras, made it free for half an hour, and put up posters saying there was a free drink for every Arashi song which gained 80 points! The moment someone started singing an Arashi song, the REAL Arashi would barge in and start singing too! I couldn't stop laughing! Arashi totally abused the Japanese karaoke booth system! LMAO. Actually they kind of cheated so apparently there will be a comeback of this segment! Yaaaaaaay!

Okay back to fic!

<3

PS: "Shimono-sa~n, Shimono-sa~n!" LMAO

Scriptwriting

Sat, 24 Oct 2009 05:02:25 GMT

Friday night was a dream come true!

Ever since my first year at uni I have missed the film and television subjects. Unlike literature writing teachers (it should be called Literature Writing and not Creative Writing), script writers don't whinge about your style of writing. They don't care if your content is genre-based (as in horror, SF, romance) rather than some elaborate weaving of words (Jane Austin style - I'll never forget her two pages on someone taking off their hat.) All script writing teachers care about is 1) how it will look on screen and 2) if they'd want to watch it or not. Everything else is up to YOU! Including the story you want to tell! THAT is CREATIVITY!

On Friday night I had my first class in Creative Scriptwriting at NTV GAKUEN in Tokyo. It was two hours of talking from a person who had been in the industry for over 20 years and who had been teaching the class since it first started 14 years ago. He was so great, I didn't feel the time pass at all!

He went through the things I've been through many times before but in such detail and with such great, simple explanations. He said what not to do, but he also said WHY you'll fail if you do that.

I was once told by a uni teacher, "I love the world you've created, but why don't you write something in real life?" (You have no idea how much that comment hurt me.)

The NTV teacher, Mr. K, said things like, "Don't write Crime/Mystery. Why? Firstly, you have to be someone in the field to get your facts right. Secondly, ever believed any of the motives you see on TV? No, because it's damn hard to find a REAL reason to kill someone."

He also said to write about real experiences you've had. Or if you go the other way, add a real experience or a love story to the story you're working on.

He explained exactly why things don't work in stories, why even if you're writing about a baseball team you can't have nine protagonists, why a "Three BFF" story always needs to end up with one main.

He did tell us not to write SF and Fantasy (well if you look at the industry, only anime do that sort of thing,) but when I asked him if I could write horror/ghost stories, he told me he was very much looking forward to my project! :)

Our project is due for submission in January but it's only 60 pages long. Think I'll be done long before then. I'm more worried about filling out my Japanese resume correctly. I've never done it before. (They gave us resume sheets in case real producers like the work they see and want to turn it into a real drama. If no one bites, they'll shred our resumes about six months after we've finished the course.)

Okay, I'd better get in there and finish my homework! Need to get my resume done and write up my outline for my final project!

Whee, I'm so excited!!!

PS "Oh Yeah" would make a great opening song for a series! <3

Maou vs TQS: The Ratings

Tue, 13 Oct 2009 16:15:45 GMT

Let me say one thing: I loved The Quiz Show because well Sho-chan was in it and he played a character I really loved to watch. The story was okay, gripping but rather repetitive at times. I loved the style, quiz show inside the drama.

MAOU was just brilliant. It was so well re-done that I could just watch it over and over if only I could afford the DVD box. The acting was fantastic, the story had you clinging to your seat, every twist had you sobbing for the BAD GUY...And I'm not really a big Ohno fan.

Both shows are of a similar genre, cover the same shocking themes (TQS showed someone dying on live TV - now that's just wrong when you put that into context,) have strong lead cast members, were both aired at fairly popular time slots, and have a tragic story that really just makes you wanna kick someone's ass while you're blowing your nose.

However, I was quite surprised to see that more people were apparently watching The Quiz Show.

Maou ratings - TQS ratings

Honestly, Maou was a far better show, so any guesses for why the ratings are so high?

I'll give you a hint. Of all the members of Arashi, Sho was voted the No. 1 member that young kids would want as their papa! (Not to mention that all the kids at school seemed to love my "The Quiz Show!" impersonations!) ;)

Voice Play!

Mon, 12 Oct 2009 13:46:32 GMT

I love playing with my voice! I like making silly voices and accents! I'd love to do some voice acting or seiyuu work one day!

Wait...WTF! Sho-chan!? lol

LMAO! <3!

It's a small world (especially when you're famous)

Sat, 10 Oct 2009 02:58:54 GMT

My eyes are bulging after reading this in the Daily Sports Online's entertainment section.

Actor Sho Aikawa (48 - starred in Kisarazu Cat's Eye, Kurosagi, and appeared in the first episode of The Quiz Show) and singer aiko (33 - singles include milk/Nageki no Kiss, Star, and Kabutomushi) were involved in a minor car accident.....whilst driving two different cars. That's right, two of the most famous faces of the modern Japanese entertainment world were somehow at the same intersection, at the exact same time, and somehow made the exact same mistake. For those of you who are thinking "So?", let me put it this way. It would be like Clint Eastwood and Alanis Morissette with two completely different agendas, suddenly getting stuck in the same elevator. You can imagine the shock of the officers on duty in the local police box (apparently three policemen in their 30s) when Aikawa and aiko, both looking quite annoyed, stepped into the police box to announce the accident. (The officers themselves hadn't heard the accident despite it occurring so close to the police box.)

I've always felt that Japanese celebrities really live in a small world (they could pretty much rub shoulders with anyone else in the Japanese geinoukai if they wanted to,) but this is a tad ridiculous.

I hope everything works out well and I'm glad there are no injuries.

Be more careful, celebrity people!

2nd Language

Mon, 05 Oct 2009 15:17:18 GMT

Dear News Zero
(only because you are a major culprit and you are often in my range of vision),

Please stop using expressions such as the following to communicate the hardships of Japanese athletes who choose to train in overseas countries such as America.

"And the training sessions are all in English."

English is not a hardship. It is something the Japanese media have sensationalized and turned into a monster under your school desk, scaring the Japanese people unnecessarily. Thanks to this, almost all Japanese children of any school age will say that they hate English the most at school. Graduates (including their own teachers) will say it gave them nightmares too.

More positive attitudes towards English will feed more positive results.

Regards,

Rin

PS. Thank you for giving me my job, but please stop making it harder on me.

Dear Person Who Shoved All My Laundry On The Dryer,

I forgot, okay? F*** you.

Regards,

Rin.

PS I'll be out of this share house crap by March, I hope!

Dear Readers,

Hope to write a more decent post soon. Please hang on.

Love,

Rin.

PS. I do love you!

Albino Grey Nurse Shark!

Fri, 25 Sep 2009 14:40:51 GMT

Welcome back to Science Friday! Check out this beauty! (Usually, they're this color!)

xD I love sharks!

Penniless and Sharkless

Fri, 25 Sep 2009 11:47:45 GMT

I've been running tight on cash as of recent. Not only am I supposed to be going out on Sunday with cutetakato, but yeah the whole DVD incident (how the hell two of the SAME DAMN DVD came to my door, I will never figure out. Thanks, cutetakato for offering to take it off my hands.)

N-E-way... School B has a budgie now! It's sooooo cute! Scared shitless of all the kids that come bang on its big tall cage. Why do kids get it in their head to smack their hands against cages, pens, and tanks? Bet the kids at Schools A and C wouldn't do it - they take care of their animals! The School B kids forget they have rabbits until the things are on stage for assembly, tug the legs of their turtles which desperately try to escape, and "pretend-fish" with the poor carp. Anyway, the budgie is pretty flighty and nervous but it will sit there and whistle or listen to me chat to it. Hopefully if I chat to it enough, it'll start coming over to chat with me.

Here's a pic of Budgie! Soooooo cute!

Today in an effort to save money and... I don't know....waste time? I decided to walk home from School B. Now, usually a bus (which goes the back way and stops a lot) takes about 30 minutes to get me home. I've caught a taxi once or twice however and they take the direct route, which is only about 10 or 15 minutes. So, 30 minutes or so to walk? Well I must have screwed up somewhere whilst avoiding the infamous Tokyo line train crossings. Got home like two hours later. Yeah, my feet do hurt. At least I saved 210 yen. lol.

On the way, I found a "Marine Fish" shop, which was selling various saltwater species of fish. They had a baby Japanese topeshark which kept poking her nose out of the water and looking at me through the glass! She was the most adorable thing! As much as I want to take care of her, I know I'd just end up killing her if I took her home. Just don't have the resources. *sigh* One day I will have my own, I swear it! In Chiba!

....Maybe I should start with smaller saltwater fish first and work my way up....

Japanese Topeshark (Hemitriakis japanica)

Finally:

a) Sakurap rocks and should be its own genre! (Especially love Believe, Step & Go and Once Again!) BTW technically, anything before Kotoba Yori Taisetsu Na Mono is NOT Sakurap! You can tell the difference in rapping style anyway.
b) My G no Arashi sim mods are coming along! I've almost got the base uniform down pat. Will need to edit it for each member! Then I'll find suitable hairstyles (tempted to make Nino bald but that would be as mean as giving Sho the Kiiroi Namida look). After that, I'll just map their faces onto suitable heads!

Arashi Sims

Tue, 22 Sep 2009 17:45:49 GMT

I stuck Sho's face on the face of my Sim version of Squall Leonhart and it worked pretty damn well. Well, except that Sho's nose is a tad too big.

AN-Y-WAY!

I want to make full Arashi skins. I need clear face-on shots of the boys with little or no shadow, little or no tilting of the head, and little or no smiling (no teeth).

I also need to figure out which costume I could put them in. I really want to dress them up in their G no Arashi outfits but I think those would be too hard to make. I think something like their Dream-A-live/Time pink pants and t-shirt/tank top, would be the best.

Any suggestions, help, photos, ~~Sakuraiba moments~~? Pretty please?

In other news: I bought two new kanji dictionaries - books. One for adults, one simplified. It's to help me remember kanji as I physically look them up. One also has the written stroke order. Good, as it took me two hours just to write three pages of script last night because I couldn't get my kanji right.

Complimenting Strangers

Sat, 19 Sep 2009 09:24:56 GMT

LMAO

Happy 10th Anniversary, Arashi!

Tue, 15 Sep 2009 16:55:48 GMT

I can only say one thing.

Arashi, you've got it all wrong.
嵐さん、勘違いでしょうね。

We're the ones who should be saying...
私たちの方から言うべきです。

Click the pic for my fave Arashi fanvid! Get to know our boys within 5 mins!

Many thanks to Glitterfy.com and theproudpenguin