Archives For pricey hobbies

Tartaruga Folding Bike!

September 17, 2008 — 2 Comments

Tartaruga Folding BikeAmy WANTS. xD

You know, ever since I was little, my mom used to say she will win the lottery. I remember she asked me what I would want when she won, and I told her “A bike.” – LOL, Am now 22, and I still haven’t gotten my bike… but I found a pretty nifty choice of bike, if my mom ever decides to win the lottery~~

I was watching Cha no Aji (The Taste of Tea), and fell in love with the bike there. With a little googling about the net, I found what I was looking for~ Tartaruga-ew.com!

Apparently the bike in the film is the Tartaruga Folding Bike v. 1.5 – Priced *only* at ¥139,650 – or just a little bit more than $1300USD (duh!) ~~ But apparently there’s a Tartaruga Folding Bike v. 1.55 ~

hayato-ichihara-personal-photobook

So… Hayato Ichihara also has a Photobook of his own. It came out in 2006 and it features photos by Yoshiaki Sugiyama of a 19-year-old Hayato… there’s even an image reminding us of his debut of All About Lily Chou Chou (in which he shared the screen with Yu Aoi)~~

Well, you can get his Photobook in here:
beNippon.com [minimum shipping $8 I think…]
YesAsia.com [free shipping when reaching $90 for International orders, and cheaper for US, Canada, etc]

The book features 90+ pages of Hayato being silly, included rabbit costume photos (like the one on the cover), making faces with an oba-chan, and even a naked butt…. LOL’

But don’t worry, it’s not only fun and games~~ there’s also some artistic shots of Hayato wearing his traditional Japanese clothing, some with a tux, and some very cool black and white shots. And I will be posting a teasing image… no, it’s not the butt. It’s a really nice shot of Hayato in Japanese outfit running up a stony set of stairs~~~

Hayato Ichihara - Personal Photo Book Scan

As with Yu’s Travel Sand scan, I’ve added some photo and PB credits~~ It’s a wallpaper sized 1680x1050px, there’s also a more ‘squarer’ version of it (fullscreen one sized 1280×1024) if you are interested. Just leave a comment either here or Flickr.

More New Clothing

August 20, 2008 — Leave a comment

*smashes head into wall*

xD I just made a dangerous clothing discovery~~~ damn you YesAsia!!! xD Yes, because they had to spam me with a little print on YesStyle~~ And Amy wants some of those, especially those beanies… I am almost sure now that the search for that knitted beanie/toque/tuque that I’m on can end with GraceHats.com – Word. But NO! I’m not only eyeing those beanies… Amy cannot possibly stop looking there!

Continue Reading…

Almost a month ago, I blogged PRICEY! xD OMG, has it been almost a month already?? A month of pricey-ness~~~ which includes Photobooks. Which includes me buying those photobooks. Yes, those 3 photobooks (except for Travel Sand) are in PROCESSING status on YesAsia.com – And I’m hoping that I don’t get an email saying they can’t find the Rhythmedia Photobook entitled Dandelion, because that one already shows up as OUT OF STOCK. But it wasn’t out of stock when I placed my order, so there you go~~ I also bought Travel Sand from another store, but I won’t post where until I complete my order successfully. xD

Anyway, July 16th is coming soon. That’s the day when Aoi Yu x 4 Lies CAMOUFLAGE weird thingy series comes out. I like weird, and I like artsy fartsy~ and apparently the show wasn’t so popular, but people IT WAS GOOD. But it’s not for the masses… le sigh. Will my Yu sacrifice the artsy for commercial? I don’t want her to stop doing projects like Camouflage just because they don’t sell. So AM wondering… should I buy or should I not?? If there weren’t language and region issues, I would so totally buy. BUT there’s such thing as language and regions… Right now, it’s only being released as a Region 2 DVD (Japan, Asia, etc etc) and there are no subtitles listed. In the day of multi-region DVD players, I could overlook the region… but I can’t overlook the lack of English subtitles.

So if you’re Japanese… or are able to watch the show sans-subs because you know Japanese… AND you liked the series, I suggest buying. I can only hope to either learn Japanese fast enough (ha!), or that a version with English subs comes available soon. Here’s the link to YesAsia.com:

Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4

Pricey Hobbies

June 16, 2008 — 5 Comments

Wah… That’s all I have to react, Wah~~~ hahaha

So because I’m a dork, I usually try to purchase stuff I really quite like listening or watching, or just for the sake of having it. So, for the past week, I have been totally addicted to Yu Aoi material – Films and Shows – so dorky me went “What the heck?” and I visited YesAsia.com to check on DVDs. I watched an episode of Camouflage, which I thought was BIZARRE, but surprisingly good as in “it almost looks like a film” type of show.

The show (also known as Aoi Yu x 4 Lies, or something like that) is told into four 3-episode-chapters (making the number of chapters 12), each chapter directed by a different director, who had no restrains to tell a story centering on the idea of lies.

So I watched it, and thought it was really good, but all episodes are not downloading so I went and looked them up. They’re coming out on DVD (Japan Region, 2) this July 15th, on 4 different sets. However, problem number one! They don’t have English subs. And problema numero dos, each set of 3 episodes is roughly $40USD, making the whole 12 episodes $160USD… roughly, give or take. So my mouth dropped, and profanity came out of it hahaha.

Because of this, I went and searched for Nodame Cantabile (just to check on average prices), which was roughly $240USD for the 11 episodes on the show. LE GASP! My heart broke, my brain cried, and my spirit was broken realizing how broke my bank account would be. Can you imagine?? Buying 3 different Jdrama DVD sets at $240USD each? Lucky, or unlucky for me~~ most of them are not English subtitled. Maybe not knowing Japanese is a perk? LOL’

The good thing is that Amazon.com has some Yu Aoi movie DVDs, but it’s VERY limited… at a reasonable price, but limited. And I doubt they will list Camouflage… le sigh. I might consider buying “Hana and Alice” and “Hula Girls”, though I will be missing Rainbow Song. T_T

As the weird obsessive fan that I am, you might not find my dying for these cups weird. Anyone watching the show must have noticed and over-analyzed the meaning of the cups… so INSTANT LOVE! For those who don’t know, Okaeri Cups or the Welcome Home Cups are heavily featured on one of Japan’s favorite dramas of the season, Last Friends.

Okaeri Cups - Last Friends

And as my preference (and my dad’s) for Juri Ueno, we have a certain preference for Ruka’s blue cup (of course, marked by my swirling hearts). For certain, for otakus of the show who are not ass broke like me. LOL

You can find the cups  at the FujiTV shop Online. Prices on US$ are roughly, $15 USD for the Tall Cups (that belong to Ruka/Michiru/Takeru), and $18 USD for the Latte Cups (that belong to Eri and Ogurin). Pricey! ain’t it??