Category: Fun

  • It’s December Already!!

    Forgive for not posting sooner… I got sick. Is it foreboding of the year to come? After all the dude didn’t fall of the Mikoshi, and the sake was opened not on the count of three. AND, next year is an odd number year… my family always gets screwed some way or the other on odd number years…

    Anyway… at the Matsuri, I saw Daikon-san.

    Daikon-san

    And I thought of Osen, and I laughed… and took the picture. LOL – Then I had lunch, which wasn’t all that good (I think it also did me some wrong), saw the music performances… and stuff, and it was windy, so I got a fever, which did me more wrong. I was kinda screwed yesterday, so I couldn’t even sit in front of the computer… at least not until 10pm, when I began working on the photos.

    I’m okay now, only a sore neck…

  • Yu Aoi Film Discussion – HURA GARU – Hula Girls

    This film discussion doesn’t come until after the Honey & Clover live action movie, but I thought it will be good to post this now since Cinemax Latin America is showing the film this December and January (and perhaps scattered February, check times here).

    This was probably the third film I saw of Yu, I was most impressed with the fact that Asians could move their booties like that… call it my Latin American gene that told me that the Asian gene makes you unfit to dancing. xD

    Here’s the 12-part video on YouTube. Or just wait for it on cable…

    A little about the film:
    (from Wikipedia)
    It’s a 2006 Japanese-award-winning film based on true events of a small coal mining town facing the shut down of the mine, and looking at the loss of +2000 jobs. While all the grownups seemed to be fuzzing about the future of their coal-legacy, a young group of girls see a gleam of hope in the opening of The Hawaiian Center, and hula dancing.

    Genre: Drama, Comedy and dancing!
    Starring: Yasuko Matsuyuki, Etsushi Toyokawa, Yu Aoi, Eri Tokunaga, Shoko Ikezu & Shizuyo Yamazaki
    Duration: 2hrs

    Spoilers ahead, you’ve been warned.

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  • Camouflage – Aoi Yu x Yottsu no Uso – Chapter 1

    Jinseitte Uso Mitai, or Life is like a Lie, is the first 3-episode-chapter of the Yu Aoi WOWOW drama Camouflage (previously known as Aoi Yu x 4 Lies) which aired at the beginning of the year, and it’s already on DVD. Finally saw! WEEEE – I waited… what, 6 months??? And still haven’t finished ‘coz no one is translating, and my translator bailed on me… dunno where he is.

    So I re-watched the three episodes last night, though the 3rd episode only had subs in the story and not on the introductions (in which the director and writer explain a bit), and the ending (where the photographer shows and explains the photos taken), so kinda missed some of the episode.

    Anyway…

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  • Dango San Kyou Dai

    When I watched Memories of Matsuko, there was one scene when Matsuko’s life was already going to the gutters, she was lying on the garbage bags, and she was watching TV. I immediately recognized the song as an Okaasan to Issho song… today I decided to look for it, and found it!

    Okaasan to Issho 1999 song, at first I thought it was a Takoyaki Mambo song, but I was lucky enough to find it on a website listing all the songs. Video and Romaji after the break!
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  • Please, Sample some Bibi Chow

    I know some *coughjulyssacough* tried to sample some Bibi Chow [aka. Zhou Bichang] but couldn’t. I just found out… you can sample all of Bibi’s music (sans download, I think) on her website. But ALAS! If you google Bibi Chow you won’t find her website… so I will make it easy. Bibi’s website is BibiSky.com – call me CRUISE, but I thought that was kinda NOT obvious… but oh well, okay.

    It’s Flash-based, so can’t give you a direct URL to the music, but follow  this:

    1. enter BibiSky.com and wait for it to load.
    2. on the green menu [commonly known as the main navigation], click the first option
    3. you are on bibi’s desk now. there are 4 items on the sub-navigation.
    4. click on the 3rd item of the sub-navigation. this item will open the stereo on bibi’s desk.
    5. the stereo has its own navigation to go through bibi’s music [misc., EP, NOW/WOW + other stuff, and Who Touch my Violin String]
    6. listen away…

    Enjoy,

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  • Yu Aoi Film Discussion – Nanako to Nanao – TV Movie

    I was gonna apologize for not getting the time to write a new review, luckily I found that this reviewed followed next. Yay! xD

    Nanako to Nanao – Ane to Otouto ni Nareru Hi

    I have no idea where to put this since it’s not a film, but it’s also not a series. Sure it is, for some reason, labeled as a TV show or series… but no. It’s a TV movie, people. What is the difference between a film/movie and a TV movie, you say? Well, first it’s medium… then it’s budget and resources. In the end, you can almost always tell the difference between one and the other.

    What’s this TV movie about?
    Well… let’s see~ It’s a 2004 NHK Made-for-TV-Film about a high school girl named Nanako (Yu Aoi), who is often labeled as weird and anti-social due to trust issues with people caused by the betrayal she feels her dad committed. Seven years after his death, Nanako is thrown into the unusual situation to cohabit with her half-brother, Nanao (Yuri Chinen).

    Genre: Drama… kinda cute, but drama.
    Starring: Yu Aoi, Yuri Chinen
    Duration: 1:15hr

    Spoilers ahead, you’ve been warned.

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  • Toda Mafalda by Quino

    Toda Mafalda by QuinoWell, just finished reading Toda Mafalda by Quino, which my mom owned but we never bother to finish reading. I only ever read Mafalda on the single strips that are featured on the newspaper, so it was a fun delight to read it all in one go! ^^

    Some of the strips are far more fun than others, but nonetheless I enjoyed reading the whole thing as a sequence. I love that while going from vignette to vignette, I could picture friends and members of my family being a little Mafalda inside, as well as a little Manolito, a Susanita, little Felipe… we all have a little Mafalda character inside xD

    Though… a big THOUGH – I found the paragraphed text on the history of Mafalda, and other extra info VERY hard to read because of layout, and size of font and amount of info displayed in one page… that’s perhaps the biggest NO in the book. However, doesn’t make it unreadable… if you enjoy Mafalda on your newspaper, you’ll probably enjoy it here as well.

  • MTV: Yu Aoi + Yoko Takahashi

    Found this MTV – inside: Yu Aoi, that they probably aired for the release of Dandelion back in 2007 with photographer Yoko Takahashi (aka. Yoko-san) who photographed Yu on Travel Sand (USA, and a bit of Mexico) and Dandelion (Russia).

    No subs, does anybody know what they are talking throughout all the video? After the break~

    — June 18th 2009 EDIT —

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  • Another Late Music Post

    Late LATE! +1 month. Bad Amy! xD Trully forgive for all the lateness this month, but I’ve gone through a few dozen of albums… from new listenings to re-listening xD From oldies, to not-so-oldies to new music after the break!

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  • The ‘hemma’ project

    My friend YoungDoo (Ydoo for short xD) has a really interesting project going on. I will let her explain herself…

    whenever my friends go on trips to their homes/ home towns/ home countries, i send my camera, Rollei XF 35, with them and have them to save their memories of home/ people to share with me.

    none of the photos of ‘hemma’ project will be taken by me, however, i think the concept really works and i can’t wait to see more of my friends’ homes/ home towns/ home countries through their eyes.

    ^^ ~ Here is the slideshow!