Ichigo to Yume

だるい。Man, It feels like an inferno outside.
I can feel my skin just soaking up those UV rays just by stepping outside the door.
This is like the hottest day this week.  But, I guess this is just the beginning since it's only July.
But I'm grateful that it's not raining.  I love sunny days. So 我慢します。

Kyoukai (Church) Area at Venus Fort where Ranka Lee = Nakajima Megumi's mini live took place.
It was a pretty busy weekend I had.
It started with bowling after work on Friday.  It's been such a long time since I've been out bowling.  It was so much fun!

On Saturday afternoon, I went to the Ranka Lee = Nakajima Megumi mini live at Venus Fort in Odaiba.  I didn't wanna wake up early just to get seiri-ken so we didn't exactly get the best standing seats in the house.  And since I'm a lot tinier than the male fans, I could barely see Megumi without having to jump over their shoulders and heads.  But at least I could still hear her sing.  She's great live!  She sounds just like she does on the cds.  I'm looking forward to the new single.  Btw, you can hear one of her newest songs on Macross F〇※△。

She also did a short free talk. But it was really hard to hear from where I was standing since we were standing just outside of the kyoukai space where the event was being held and they were playing Mariah Carey at the stores around us.  But I did hear her talking about Pro Wrestling again.  Honestly, I dunno how she got so into it but she's always talking about it on the show, too.

After the show ended, we went to the food court on the 3F.  I had a parfait and really good gyoza and buchi (goma dango aka black sesame balls).  The gyoza and buchi were soooo good.  Speaking of buchi, I wish they had ChowKing in Japan or the US for that matter.

Around evening, we headed to Harajuku for starrbeam's bday party at Yoyogi Kouen. It was getting dark but it was a good idea to have the party at night because I could avoid sunburn.:p We played an interesting game of frisbee where if you ended up throwing the frisbee you had to sing a line from a Tenimyu song.  But we soon ran out of Tenimyu songs that we could remember and started singing Johnny's, Broadway and even famous TV theme songs.  It was kinda hard to see the frisbee in the dark tho so often it seemed as tho the frisbee disappeared into thin air before we noticed where it landed. ^^;

Twas a really fun night and I was so exhausted the next day that I slept half the day in.
But I thought frisbee was a good exercise, I should go play in the park more often.

I'm exhausted!
I was out all day today. I have so much to talk about. Ranka Lee mini live and my friend's birthday in Yoyogi Park and the new Fukutoshin Line.
But now I'm too tired to write anything.  So I'll save it for next entry.
Oyasumi!

How I loathe city taxes!!!  Like wtf〇※△！I have to pay how much until next February?! Are you kidding me?  This is so ridiculous!
I hate this!!  Arghhhhhhh....

   
Today was prolly not the best of days to be in Akiba.  starrbeam and I were in Akiba to get some deals on electronics and we were on our way to Sofmap, when we found ourselves amongst a jiken! There was yellow tape everywhere and crowds of people near the intersection of the street where Sofmap is located. We could see shoes and stuff all over the street and evidence markers as well. 
We thought maybe there had been a car accident.  I called my sister up since she was still at home and told her to look up what happened in the news since there were cameras and reporters everywhere.
Turned out that there was a stabbing spree right before we arrived.  It was pretty scary to hear that and much scarier than the car accident we thought it was.  Actually, according to the news it seems it started out as a car accident. The madman ran into people first and then started stabbing them. Very scary.  A very sad event in Tokyo.

So today was the last day of GW here in Japan.
Despite it being a holiday, I had to wake up early.
Of course, I barely got any sleep the night before.
But somehow, I had energy today!!  ^^

I had such a fun day.
And seeing Kacky (Kakihara Tetsuya) as a fish was icing on the cake.^o^

Before I go, look who I found in town today!

Today...err, yesterday....I spend the afternoon and most of my evening in Odaiba.
Actually I had planned to go to Chiba today.  But after a sudden change in plans, my sis and I decided to go shopping in Odaiba instead.
I loved the Golden Week sales in Odaiba so bought a few things....including some clothes that were on sale for less than 1000 yen. Sweet!
Unfortunately, today was a pretty dreary day in terms of weather.  But, I got some nice shots of a flower field near Venus Fort.
And a really nice Japanese couple volunteered to take a picture of me and my sis in front of it.  It's such a little thing but I really am touched when I encounter random acts of kindness like that.  Japanese people are known for being kind but if you live in the big city long enough or experience the shyness of a lot of Japanese people, any kind gestures like these are rare and greatly appreciated! ^o^
Tho, I have to say that especially recently, I feel like lots of Japanese people have been kind to me or gone out of their way to talk to me (in Japanese mind you) and I'm not even talking about friends here....complete strangers!  It really makes living here all the more nice!

Hikago Day
And along with other Hikaru no Go fans.  I'd like to take a moment to remember May 5th as the day Sai disappeared. And a sad day it was.  I shall never forget that purple-haired go-loving handsome ghost who taught me how fun the game of go can actually be.

Today, I went to Lalaport in Toyosu with wagashiand eien_chiharu.
We were going to go to the one in Chiba but since Toyosu was closer to where we met, we decided to save money and go there. Unfortunately, the one in Toyosu isn't as cool or as big as the one in Chiba. But still, it's a nice place to hang out. Unfortunately, didn't really get a chance to buy anything since I was looking for something within my budget and most things were way out of my range.^^;

We went to a nice American style restaurant after window shopping and afterwards, window shopped some more and ended up at the arcade where my friend gave us a tip on how to play this one coin game without wasting loads of cash.:p

Overall, It was a nice way to spend my Sunday!

BTW, HAPPY BIRTHDAY to CHRIS!! <--My cousin turns 14 today!! Miss you!!

また雨の日だ。
もう～こんな日だと、だるくなる。
ゴロゴロしちゃ寝、ゴロゴロしちゃ寝たりする。
どこに行く気もなくなる。いやだね。

Well at least, I did get to catch up with some anime.
I saw Junjou Romantica 3 which was the beginning of the Egoist arc!  Yay for Nowaki x Hiro!
The whole time when Hiro suggested to become Takahiro's replacement is always a tearjerker for me. T__T
Of course, Usami made a small appearance.  I love when Usami worries about Hiro.
And I love when Hiro gets jealous of Nowaki. Looking forward to next episode, I loved it in the manga.  It made me cry...especially in the drama cd.  I'm almost finished reading the Junai Egoist novel.  About 30 more pages to go.

Amatsuki 2 was great!  I love how they use science in the show.  I wish I was clever enough to think up that kind of stuff on my own.   What an educational series.:p

xxxHOLIC kei 4 Haruka!! Doumeki Haruka!!  I love Haruka and Watanuki together!  I actually started missing Haruka since he hasn't been in the lasted manga chapters.  So it was cool to see him again and relive the moments.  Not too long before we see the really dramatic episodes, ne.  Watanuki!!!

Macross F 3..I can't say I'm hooked on the show like I am say Junjou or Code Geass R2.  But, I definitely enjoy watching it.  It has a lot of action, great seiyuu and I love the music.  I already have Sakamoto Maaya's Triangular on my ipod. 

Monochrome Factor 3.  This is such a silly series.  I love Kengo!  Who knew he had latent powers.  It seems like all of Kengo's friends are gonna end up helping him fight the kokuchi.  So hope this series gets better once all the main charas have joined up.

Today, I met xaevyn in Shinjuku for karaoke.  We had a great time at karaoke.  We know a lot of the same anime songs so we could sing a lot of songs together.  ^o^ I noticed they changed the ranking format at Big Echo.   You can now see the point difference between the first and last rankings and they show the rankings of people based on the actual amount of people who have sang the song instead of just the top 100.

After karaoke, we met my sis and went out for dinner.  On the way to get food, we saw a drama being filmed at a building near the Keio.  It was pretty cool to watch.  The main guy looked like it could've been Tsukamoto Takashi but since I didn't get a chance to see him really up-close, I'm not completely sure it was him or not.  Will have to check the current dramas.

Today, I only had to work for like an hour and I was free for the rest of the day! 
So I headed to Kameido to buy some clothes and on the way home I stopped over at Akiba to check out the digicams.
I ended up picking up the new Gundam 00 DS game.  It came with a free Exia model...I was bit surprised because I thought they were only supposed to come if you reserved the game in advance.  But I guess that store had it as a special addition.
I really enjoy this game.  It reminds of the Wii game I played at TGS last year.  Plus, I like hearing the character voices!!^^  It's great being a meister.

The camera I got was a Canon Ixy.  I went to two different stores and both of the salespeople reccomended it as the best.  Unfortunately, I didn't bring my passport on me so I couldn't get the tax deduction.:/ Oh well.  Now I know wiser.:p

Well I'm off to bed.  I'm so exhausted!

Happy St. Patrick's Day, everyone!
Sadly, I'm not wearing green at the moment. But I do have a green schedule book nearby.
These last few days I've been super busy.  And looks like I'll be pretty busy for the rest of the month!

Fuuma no Kojirou
Last week went to the stage version of the Fuuma no Kojirou drama!  If you thought the guys were hot on the show, they're even hotter in person. 19 ikemen on one stage, oh yeah, what a wonderful idea it was!  Sadly, half of them are killed off by the end of the show so well not much left for a sequel featuring all of them.  But the way the show ended, there's definitely room for a sequel.
I was really amazed by the well choreographed fight scenes!!  The action for the show is amazing.  And Murai totally puts his all into his performance, whether he's singing, acting or running around with a sword on stage.  He's definitely one of the best stage actors I've seen in a long time.  My favorites, the Sakamoto twins were so cute!  I did notice that Kazuya missed his queue during the duet with Naoya tho.:p Don't mind! Don't mind!

Anyways, it was an awesome show!! Can' t wait for the DVD!

After the show, who do we find wandering around Kabuki-cho....
None other than Shirota Jun aka Kurojishi. Most people probably know him as Shirota Yuu's older bro.
He surprised me because from the outside he doesn't look as approachable as Yuu.
But we stopped and talked to him and he was so nice!  He even signed autographs for us and we talked a bit in Spanish, too.
His Spanish was cute.:p  I kinda wonder if he thought we were random foreigners at first because he was surprised when we asked for an autographed and asked if we had seen the show.
We also ran into Kawakubo Takuji who plays Musashi. Now he's a super super super nice guy. He not only answers questions but he also asks questions back and tries to have a real conversation.

Kimeru's Live
Yesterday was Kimeru's live in Shibuya.  After not having been to his lives in about a year, I can say he still has it. 
Unfortunately, it looks like his fanbase has dwindled down a bit.  We were in AX yesterday, and in the past, the place would be packed and it'd be difficult to walk from the front of the room to the back of the room because there'd barely be any space.  But yesterday, there was plenty of room. I was in the back and could spread my arms out if I wanted to.
I'm not to keen with Kime's new style.  To me the eye makeup is unneccessary and besides I didn't become a fan of him because he wore makeup.  I liked the him that I first saw at O-East.  Simple and seemingly Kime-rashii.  But despite the change in style..his music is still the same for me!  He sang alot of his oldies which were quite natsukashii!!  Oh and Rolly was the special guest and anytime he was on stage, my eyes were surprisingly on him.  Rolly is damn cool.
The one change that I could appreciate was the overly done fanservice.  Thank goodness he's toned it down a bit.  I remember the last live that I went to he did it so much it just felt so fake.
All in all, I had a fun time.^O^

Now this week, I'm looking forward to seeing the Sakamoto twins again!!楽しみだ！

These pics have nothing to do with what I did today.  They're from last month just was too lazy to post them till now.
My friends were out in Kabuki-cho and passed a few host clubs.  So couldn't help but take some pics.:p

Today, I pretty much lazed about at home.  I did mean to go out and get stuff done...but I've been really lacking sleep lately.  Really 3-4 hours of sleep a night is not good.  So I took it easy today.  I went out for a walk around 9-ish.  I'm trying to exercise more but I really gotta get out of this lazy mode!! 

Also watched Rh Plus 4, Fuuma no Kojirou 8 and Romantic Princess 11.  I still need to catch up with manga like Naruto, Bleach, KHR, The Bride of the Water God and TRC and xxxHOLIC!! ><

Today, on the way home, My sister and I were sitting next to some joshikousei when one of them shouts out REBORN!!
So I reply yeah!  It's Reborn! And then the high school girls and us enjoy ourselves chatting for the next 15 mins on the local train.  They thought we were high school exchange students at first.:p  They were so nice and talkative.  It was a huge yet pleasant surprise because Japanese people, especially young teenage girls are shy when it comes to talking to foreigners.  And the great thing was they didn't know English, so didn't have to deal with people trying to talk to me in poor English when I'm trying to speak to them in Japanese.  So refreshing. 

It really made my day. ^o^

  Ok, this snow thing is becoming an everyday thing lately.  I like it!  I spent the day in Shinjuku where the snow quickly melted and kept switching between snow and sleet but when I got back home I found this!!  About 2 or 3 inches piled on the ground!!   You could actually walk in the snow without slipping!  It's enough to have a good snow fight, too!  What a nice winter this is becoming!!  Of course, I'm dreading tomorrow, when it all freezes over and becomes a slippery mess.><

Actually, I'm looking forward to tomorrow!  Another seiyuu event to attend!!  This time I'll be sure to write a full report!! ^o^

Today , I went to Shinjuku with wagashi!
It's our first time going to karaoke together so it was cool to hear some new songs!!
And I was happy today because they had ASH LIKE SNOW!!  Unfortunately, they're still missing Mukuro and Hibari's solos.><  Hope that changes next month.

After karaoke I went to Kino and bought a bunch of books to prepare for 1kyuu.  Still not sure I'll take it this year but I wanna start studying as soon as possible.

Then we went out to get some good eats.  And we discussed our love for Obama!  It's so nice to be able to talk about politics with someone else who as interested as I am!  And especially to discuss why BAM BAM should be PREZ!!^O^  I'm hoping all the states that are having primaries and caucuses today will be won by OBAMA! YES WE CAN!

This is a pic of the train tracks in Ikebukuro yesterday.  Today, most of the snow had melted and all that was left was icky black ice.
I hate black ice.  Means I gotta walk slower and more carefully. In other words, time consuming.
Anyhow, I couldn't sleep at all last night.  These days if I don't sleep before 2, I can't seem to sleep at all.><  Somehow, I still had enough energy to get through the first 4 hours of work.  I didn't even really feel sleepy...just sluggish. 

But then, I had school lunch and ate like less than half of it because I didn't really have much of an appetite.  But after I ate, my stomach was hurting like crazy and I felt like I had a fever.  I just felt like crap.  Almost cancelled my Japanese class but I decided to just grin and bear it.  I bought a hazelnut mocha latte drink to keep me awake during class. I guess it worked because I felt a little bit better after having drunk it.  Hopefully I can get enough sleep tonight.

BTW, Tomorrow's Mardi Gras so if you observe Lent, it's your last chance to eat like a pig!  I have to find out what time mass is in at the local Catholic Church in Roppongi Wednesday.  Yeah, I DO feel awkward walking around a mostly atheist country with ashes on my forehead whenever I go to Ash Wednesday mass.  But, it's cool to see other foreign strangers walking around random places with ashes...kinda feels like a connection.

 

Happy Setsubun, everyone!
As you can see I got my beans to keep away the oni!  And a miracle happened today. 
It snowed nearly all day long!  Seriously, thank you for the SNOW!
It's really so beautiful!  It stuck a little bit but quickly melted.  It was more of a slushy snow.
Actually, I was outside about an hour ago and it was still snowing.  Guess I'll be waking up to a lot of black ice.
Gotta be careful tomorrow.

Today, I went to Shinjuku for karaoke.  I've been wanting to go to karaoke for a while so I was really happy.  They have Stephanie's"Friends" aka the Gundam 00 ED2.  But no The Brilliant Green's "Ash Like Snow" aka the 2nd Gundam00 OP yet. Bummer.  I hope they get it soon and keep the PV.  The PV is so awesome!

After karaoke, we headed to Kinokuniya and Tokyu Hands before finally settling for an American dinner at the West Park Cafe in Takashimaya.  They have a good selection of Western food.  I'm impressed.

Now, I'm so exhausted but I gotta prepare my bookbag for tom. and study for my kanji test!!  I didn' t study all weekend!!

OMGosh! The snow is just pouring outside.  I hope it goes on for a while and doesn't melt too quickly.  I wanna be able to walk in it and hear that crunching sound that snow makes! ^o^ I love snow!!