Album: ELLEGARDEN - Pepperoni Quattro, BRING YOUR BOARD!!, My Own Destruction

ELLEGARDEN is a japanese punk/ rock band, kinda similar with Simple Plan, Good Charlotte, Blink182, SUM41 etc. (Note: I don't like punk) Their songs mostly in English (not Engrish), even though I'm not into punk i think their songs' arrangements were cool and somehow there's something different between them and those America's mainstream punk band. (cos they're all Japanese???)

Last week I 'forced' myself to stay at hostel for a week, kononnya to study. However, my main intentions were slightly disturbed by different circumstances, here's what i did for the past week.

- went to Ampang - eat Yong Taofu (a scary experience, ppl mountain ppl sea)
- KLCC twice
- The Curve, Cineplex
- Petaling Street
- Mid Valley (watched The Prestige, nice suspense movie, Hugh Jackman = hot~)
- Japan Foundation Library at Menara Citibank (rented Nodame Cantabile manga, damn funny, the actors really captures the essence of the manga well, esp Ueno Juri, I like her character even more than the real Nodame in manga)
- Bought iced-blended mocha for 3 days consecutively from different coffee outlet. (Tue Coffee Bean, Wed Starbucks, Thurs San Fransisco Coffee, I really should try out something besides mocha =/ )
- spent 300 bucks on books (freaking Japanese dictionary damn expensive!!!)
- having fun travel around with Putra LRT, it's convenient, if not during peak hours hee.
- finished Kunimitsu no Matsuri. (manga)
- picking up my old interest, read WuXia (chinese martial arts) novel =D
- ate RM 6.70 nissin cup noodle. (was surprised that the illustration at the cover was exactly the same as the content, japanese are sure a bunch of honest people)
- finally the main purpose i stayed in the hostel: finished TITAS lol. Stupid university subject (every local Uni student must take this bloody course), something about the Islam and Malay's civilazation, culture bla bla. Lets not go into this.

That equals to minus !@#$%hours of my study time =P Screw it anyway hee.

Now for my drama ranting (gotta put some pics, looks dull =x ), i was watching these 2 jdramas, 14 sai no Haha and Tatta Hitotsu no Koi, bet these are the latest model of mobile phones in Japan:


14 Sai no Haha


Tatta Hitotsu no Koi

Why those phone companies won't 'steal' the designs of these phones???


EDIT: I was watching Music Station just now, and Fergie aka the dancing ho was one of the guest. Apparently the Japanese are more open-minded than the Americans :



Think she's following Jessica Simpson's footsteps, getting more plastic-ish. Luckily this was the 'Oh-snap' version. Nice performance though, she sang it live, unlike someone *cough*mariahcarey*cough* who lip-synched during her last visit.

Album: Mr. Children - I Love U, Shifuku no Oto, Best 1996-2000

Here's what i picked to watch this season, this season we have lots of drama with female leads, so my review might be abit biased lol. As usual, the list will be from the one i liked the most till the least, based on what i saw in the first episode.

14 Sai no Haha / 14-year-old Mother (１４才の母)



Starring Shida Mirai, after her great performance in Jyoou no Kyoushitsu, once again she challeges the limit in japanese drama by acting as a teenager who gets pregnant at the age of 14. Watch it twice with and without subs (the grammar they used is simpler =P), this turned out to be my fave of this season, the opening was fantastic, sung by Mr. Children, really suits the mood of the drama. And I think Mirai chan have a great potential to be best actress of this season, she did a great job and she's only 13 in real life. Wonder what was i doing when i was 13 then =/ She became matured and prettier, i'm sure there's a wonderful career ahead of her. This drama might be the best in this season, or perhaps this year's, can't wait for the next episodes.

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Boku no Aruku Michi / Walk My Way (僕の歩く道)



Ok i admit the first thing this drama reminds me of is the female lead looks like Shibasaki Kou's character in Good Luck!! =X I mean the style, definately not the personality. She does look pretty though. This is another drama about autism, if you like Hikari to Tomo ni by Shinohara Ryoko you might like this as well. Kusanagi Tsuyoshi plays a autistic guy who loves yellow colour and bicycles. I like the setting of this drama which is in a zoo, the guinea pigs were cute~ Female lead is a veterinarian and she knew Teru since small, kinda Forest Gump-ish isn't it??? Wonder how they will turn out in the end......a simple drama which makes you appreciate life and be contented.

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Nodame Cantabile (のだめカンタービレ)



This drama is hilarious, can't help but laughed hysterically at those exagerrated expression made by the actors. The main theme is about a bunch of students in music academy. This is a manga based drama, starring Ueno Juri and Tamaki Hiroshi. One can't even read music notes properly but has a good hearing skill and the other one is the top pianist in the school. Ueno Juri showed her impressive range of acting skills since her breakthrough movie Swing Girls and then the drama Engine, another promising actress who's only 20. The way both leads interact damn funny, and if you like classical music and comedy, then this might be the one. Liked the cast as well, featuring lots of new generation actors with great potential.

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Dr. Koto - Shinryousho 2006 / Dr. Koto's Clinic 2006 (Dr.コトー診療所)



Finally a new drama by Shibasaki Kou. Well not that new actually, just the continuation of the previous drama. Currently this has the higest ratings in Japan, for me, i watched it for the sake of Kou-san so.....plus, it's a medical drama too =P . This time, we have a new nurse, played by Aoi Yu, i was kinda shocked when i saw her name in a recent idol ranking where she got no.3, just behind Kou-san. An unknown name to me. Well she's more active in the movie scene that's why (not really into japanese movie), never seen her in any other drama as well. Not my type haha so kinda dislike her at first =X , no way she's gonna replace Ayaka in the clinic now that she's leaving the island to Tokyo. A slow paced but heart warming drama, with beautiful scenery and.....Shibasaki Kou.

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Ok now i don't know how to rank the leftovers, just watched it for the sake of the cast/ improve my japanese.

Teppan Shoujo Akane!! (鉄板少女アカネ!!)



Another manga turned drama, be prepared for those ridiculous scenes, although it's stupid but funny lol. Seems that Horikita Maki just accept whatever roles given, regardless the content. Well the good side is you can watch her quite often lol, since she's nice to look at, though her acting skills still have to improve, okla hers alot better than some of those in taiwanese dramas. As for this drama, the okonomiyaki sure made me felt hungry. I like food drama as well, watch it for pure entertainment hee.

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Sera Fuku to Kikanju / Sailor Suit and Machine Gun (セーラー服と機関銃)



The title sounded abit weird does it? It's a remake of a movie of 25 years ago. About a girl who suddenly become the leader of a group of gangsters. Watched it purely because of Nagasawa Masami, another promising actress, same age as me =.= No really into Yakuza (japanese gangster) dramas, well and there's Tsutsumi Shinichi in it as well. Thought it won't be that bad haha.....acting wise. Storyline abit weird, Masami san in sailor suit holding machine gun??? I like her acting and her character though. Just the whole yakuza language and actions kinda turns me off. Luckily it's only 7 episodes from what i saw........

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Tatta Hitotsu no Koi / Just One Love (たったひとつの恋)



The female coach =D Use it to avoid 'color-wolf'. Not really wanted to watch this since it's from Johnny's boys, which means 'commercialised' (plus they smoked in the drama most of the time). But the female cast were hard to resist, plus the scriptwriter is Kitagawa Eriko, the one who wrote Long Vacation, Orange Days, Over Time and lots more. From the title you can see clearly it's a love story, about a poor factory worker and a rich jewelery owner's daugther, not really my cup of tea (yea i'm single =/). Goes under 'improve my japanese' category. Actually the dialogue were prety interesting and the way they communicate with each other were realistic and believable to me. Just......

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Kazoku / Family (家族)



This drama more on the 'male' side. It's about a guy who's has to look after his kid, sounds old isn't it? These type of family drama it's a must in every season, maybe different setting and cast that's all. Well it's Takenouchi Yutaka so......the storyline looks promising as well, i just skimmed through it, the cast looks good too.

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So, total 8 of it. Last season i've only watched one haha.....since holiday coming soon and it's my co-co technically lol (for my japanese). Credits to the ones who did the subs (TVBT). Tired now.....next time then tell you guys interesting discoveries between these dramas. For more info, go here.

Album: Holly Brook - Like Blood Like Honey

Bought a new camera on last Friday, i still remember our last camera was a huge-@ss-film-using analog camera, it's been a while. It's a Lumix FX-01, wish it's in black colour though =/ Always thought that Lumix should be in a sexy black, can match my X5L better lol. Did some experiment with it before it leaves France tonight.



My 'working' desk. Looks kinda tidy huh, the Lumix managed to 'hide' those flaws nicely, well if you don't zoom it. Along with dear Sennheiser HD-201 and my akogi (acoustic guitar in Japanese), and other 'rubbish'. The HP lappie is not mine, just wanna see that how's the battle between 2 Kaoru Amane-s will turn out in the camera.

Saturday we went to Carrefour in Subang Jaya. At first we planned to go the one at Sri Petaling, seemed that the queue to enter parking lot kinda long, decided to go other places. It was the same at Subang Jaya as well, outside every possible parking entrance we can see the 'FULL' sign. Sigh, festive season + weekends. Worst combo. After 'pusing' around, managed to squeeze in the parking lot at Subang Parade. Turned out that there's alot of spaces inside. Wonder why on earth they won't allow us to enter......

Here's part of the stuff we bought, i think more than 8 bags of groceries we bought at there...since someone have to go someplace elses. And we had to carry all the way from Carrefour to Subang Parade in the middle of rain. That's what we called 'family outing'.


Actually half of the Nescafe we bought were for me......

Oh yea, the the autumn line-up for j-dramas are out right now, watched 4 so far, kinda promising. Will do review once i watched all the first episodes. Maybe within this weekend.

Have to go to school in an hour. Today i have 2 orals tests, French and Japanese. Didn't prepare anything since i was procrastinating during the whole weekend, really cannot stay in the house during the study week, which lasts for 14 days starting this Friday. Hopefully later the teacher will ask something easier.....something like 'Comment ca va' haha....

Au revoir. (Practising in the last minute lol)

Album: SUEMITSU & THE SUEMITH - 'Man Here Plays Mean Piano'



Just watched 'Unfair' SP. It's a cop/thriller/suspence drama. Starring one of my fave actress, Shinohara Ryoko =D Well after the 'shocking' ending in previous episodes, this SP continues on how Yukihira (Shinohara Ryoko) deals with the incidents happened in the last episode. And there's another bad-ass lurking around at the same time, it somehows connected with the previous case as well. I'm surprised that Eguchi Yosuke was in the cast actually, he's on the good side, for now.



Anyway, as usual, it managed to hold my interest for 2 hours. There were some parts of the storyline which are quite predictable, but with great acting by 2 great leads i was satisfied with it, the ending left a huge opener though. It's for the movie version which will show on next year's March. Can't wait for it, wanted to see how they wrap up the whole thing once and for all. Hope the direction of the movie version more towards the drama side =X There's another SP for Densha Otoko as well, gotta watch it soon.

Bleach, the 2nd most watched anime in Japan changed new OP in episode 98, this time it was from my dear YUI's bwahahahahahhaha (if u know what i mean).



(I don't know who's the person in the screenie) The song is called Rolling Star. The song title kept remind me of Rolling Stones =/ Anyway, a first the song sounded okay, no where near LIFE which was Bleach's ED as well. However, after a few listens the song started to grow on me, i have no idea how many times i played it over and over again lol, good thing i didn't give up on Bleach after 70+ episodes, if not i'll have a long way to catch up before i can see YUI's OP xD Looking forward to the new episodes now =D

Rambling time~ Been practising to do barre chords these days, maybe i can play my first ever learned song smoothly after i gradually pick up the trick. There's a thin line between 'singer' and 'musician', i should find someone who can sing so that i can play this song without ruining it with my voice hoho =X

Someone is off, oversea again......soon. I might wanna do this to that person too someday. Just have to 'find' more money to do so. But then still have to save it for my dual core duo vista lappie haih.

I think i've been quite b!tchy these days haha, refuse to give free ride, pull pranks on people and what not, saying mean stuff bla bla. Normally i'm just a easy going nice person (lol what a bunch of bulldung), but then if you tried to screw up my routine or things i looking forward to do now and then, i can be quite 'not so myself'. People who broke promises even if it's a damn small matter bothers me most, especially it had to do with the 'routine' of mine haha. Ok so call me hard to please, that's why we have a word called trust. Now, who's the real one being unfair?

Album: AI - What's goin' on A.I



Haih, lost to another 'Kaoru Amane'. Such an irony. One starred in the movie version, the other was in the drama version. From what i knew, Sawajiri Erika is now the official female artist who sold the most copies of her debut single in Japan. Though she lip-synched during her one and only TV appearance for the promotion of this single, and her guitar skill is 'comme si comme ca ' (so-so). However, there's one thing she's damn good of, acting. Go watch 'One Litres of Tears' for yourself. If you want me to describe her with one artist, i shall pick Kyoko Fukada with 100 times better acting skills. *Runs away*

Thursday i had a long chat with a person who's brain was 'polluted' since she stepped her foot to a foreign country some time ago. At first the conversation was 'clean' but somehow it started to 'deviate' to the wrong way, in the end we teached each other new 'vocabs'. I had no idea why. The point is, after a while if you still can have a long conversation with your old friends, the feeling was nevertheless great, and you'll glad that you didn't give up on this very person the day you two drifted apart. So, start it by a small message or something =D

Then, i was inspired to watch anime lol, i picked this to watch.



Ergo Proxy (I have no idea what the meaning is). I love animes with cool female lead as well lol don't get it wrong. It kinda looked like BLOOD+ish, or maybe a mild version of Elfen lied, perhaps another Ghost in the Shell. Sorry if i messed up the descriptions =X Only watched episode one so cannot make any judgement yet. So far it's cool, with lots of weird words haha and plenty of unexplained stuff....

While i typing this and listening to AI's latest album, What's goin' on A.I, i was surprised that Rain actually had a duet with her. I think it's better if he sings in Korean, not English haha.....

Gotta go back to hostel in 3 hours. Bought alot of pens and stuff in Czip-Lee on Friday, doing notes will not be the same lmao. Wednesday got French test, i'm sure i'll get 'da pau'-ed（打包）kau kau （夠夠）. *Prays hard*