Thursday, April 23, 2009

again PV

Warning: Spoilers ahead.



Check out YouTube before the video is gone ;)

YUI must have spent quite some time 'touching' all the guitars.

No wonder the Fender Staff said that this PV is a must watch.

Wait, DON'T tell me that they are all Fenders????
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=.=

Marketing gimmick.

I bet these are Sony earphones too.


Cyborg YUI.

So the drummer is SHIHO, though I have no idea how she looks like. The director is the same person who directed My Generation, jam, Laugh away, SUMMER SONG, I'll be.

Time to change another director =x

According to Mezamashi TV, the singing scenes are taken in one shot without NGs.



We see that she got herself a RED pedal now, besides her usual KORG volume pedal (VP-10 or XVP-10). Her guitar skills must have been improved tremendously with that amount of free time during the holidays.

Btw, I have the same guitar strap and same Red Tele. My Tele doesn't make the same sound YUI played in the beginning though *obviously*, and no yui signature on it.

Recently I was listening to this book called Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell, he said that it takes 10,000 hours of practice to reach success.

Since I'm a relatively lazy person, I guess, I'll need more time. Since YUI started playing guitar at around 15 years old, she needs to catch up a lot too.

That's why we love her. She showed us it isn't too late to start anything if we put on hard work and passion. The problem is that, I'm still yet to find something that I'm really passionate about, besides stalking her. I love to play guitar, but I can't imagine myself practising more than 3 hours everyday. I love to learn languages, but I'm no good at any of it. Hmm...

Someone in mixi saw her sitting at the VIP seat at EARTH DAY LIVE!!! 2009, chatting with Bianco nero and stuff. Stereopony performed as well.

I missed the chance to bump into her again.

Tuesday, April 21, 2009

again PV shooting

Check out YUI MOVIE SHOW.

So many lights, guitars.

I saw girl drummer. The usual one or the Stereopony one?

Last Sunday, I went to the final Hanami (Sakura viewing) outing of the music club I'm eyeing on, Hoshizora. Nobody noticed my Chatmonchy shirt, YUI hoodie.


Obviously, no more Sakura. But that's not the main purpose Japanese people have hanami outings. Drinking is more important (besides building relationships).

Basically most of them already know my existence, the awkward part is, I'm not really first year aka new students, and second, third year members already have their own group of friends. I was kinda out of place when I chose to stay when some seniors escorted the first years to the nearby station after the outing. People were talking in groups, I didn't feel like interrupting them having great time among themselves. So I tried to act calm, listening to my audio book ;)

Should have been more active back then. Can I become good friends with them in 3 months? Can I at least find one okay vocal for YL Collaboration 3?

After the hanami, I went back to the dorm and watched FMA episode 3.


Small HD is definitely better than my hand phone TV.

Practise guitar~!!

PS: I've changed my return flight ticket to August 2. YUI, if you are going to appear on the final day of RIJ 2009, I will go crazy.

Saturday, April 18, 2009

My First Debut


That guy in purple played piano and sang Smap's Lion Heart. His voice is really good *envy*

This is me playing Thank you My teens, embarrassing myself in front of pros. All for YUI. Cheers.

Random updates:

- Ayu concert is fun. Wasn't alone.
- Chatmonchy concert is fun too. Wasn't alone too. Yes I got the live audioss.
- Saw GO!GO!7188 girl again =D
- Westerner students in my dorm are crazy. Cross dressing guys and bunny girls. Culture shock.
- Genshiken is so real Japan.
- Amami Yuki is as cool as ever.
- BOOKOFF is LOVE, this week finished two Japanese books~
- First time in gym, after one semester.
- Finally settle all the Japanese subjects in new semester.


YUI, will you be participating ROCK IN JAPAN FES 2009??????

Sunday, April 05, 2009

Sakura watching with a bunch of potential YUI collaborators

This post has something to do with YUI.


Kanda River (神田川), near Waseda.

Happening weekend in Waseda University. New semester, new bunch of students flooding in, and student clubs (circles) are doing all their best to get as many new members as possible.

My main aim in this semester is to jam songs with Japanese, or JPop lovers (no more travelling), and finding people to participate in YL Collabo 3. So for the past few days, I've been checking out activities of different music circles.

My 'scouting' on the first day wasn't really successful though I got to see a bunch of awesome lives. On the second day, I managed to have some interesting conversation with people from this circle called Hoshizora.

Special thanks to Dennis for introducing me ナポ. Her existence makes it easier for me to be more willing to open my mouth.

Besides nomikai (drinking session), Japanese rely on Hanami (Sakura watching) to build up relationship with others. Most of the circles have hanami session, and sometimes the food is free, better than going to Izakaya =D


Marching towards Toyama Park (戸山公園). If interested just join the marching crowd.

I'm bad at initiating conversation in a group, so I played by the gaijin card because I was the only foreigner, and mentioned a bunch of less known Japanese bands. Being able to speak 6 languages and been to all 47 prefectures in Japan do the trick of making people to remember you too, though I don't feel like talking about it all the time. It gets boring after a while. The best is still, dress pretty pretty, which I'm bad at it.

Highlights:

1. I was wearing a GO!GO!7188 T-shirt, this girl approached me and told me that she likes GO!GO! too (trick worked yay), and played their songs in lives before. Being able to play GO!GO! songs even though she started guitar after entering university.

OMG *ashamed*

I still can't play LIFE well =.=
She's going to GO!GO! concert too, same day, and her friend, Chatmonchy, same day as well.

I should have been more active in this circle, went to their activities a couple of times before then stopped =/

2. Okay YUI related talk. This girl called Akane was sitting beside me. Apparently her high school is the same high school YUI did I'll be acoustic version. She was telling me that she saw a bunch of her juniors in that video, since she was in the orchestra previously. I can imagine how bo song (frustrated) she is when watching that, if she graduated later, she might be playing together with YUI. FATE.

3. There was this other guy sitting beside me. He's weird. I was surprised that he said he has been to almost every YUI concert, and he was telling me that he heard YUI's new song in YouTube. I thought I found another YUI stalker and tried to chat with him more but, he's weird.

Conclusion: It is difficult to make friend in one afternoon. It takes time, even though you guys might like the same artist. It's actually hard to talk about ONE artist for more than 10 minutes unless both of you are maniac. Actually we know a lot of stuff but most of the people just don't show it out.

At least I might have the chance to jam songs with them in the future. I think I'm the only who keeps asking for phone numbers, taking pictures, like some desperate woman. I need to work harder on finding potential YL 3 participants, in 2 months.

Or maybe I should dress more kawaii to get attention? Not my style not my style.

Should have been more active in this circle before that =/



Better go and practise guitar and prepare for tomorrow's class bahh.

again lyrics, cover and Full Metal Alchemist

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Misc Rants:

I was shocked when I heard that ayaka is married. YUI's junior, is married.
Cannot imagine if the same thing happens to YUI.

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Album: Yoshii Kazuya - VOLT


Left: Limited Edition, Right: Normal Edition

New layout for YUI-net. What the heck is that logo? I thought YUI should be in capital letters? It looks like some Arabic word instead, maybe it has something to do with Full Metal Alchemist.

Somehow I feel that the layout was done in a hurry, it looks, plain. Well simple is good, and save cost too I suppose.

Anyway, someone will give me the limited edition, and I will buy the normal edition at Tower Records (while waiting for YUI to appear).

Misc links of YUI - again

Lyrics & Music: YUI
Arrangement: HISASHI KONDO

Hisashi Kondo (or Shigezou san) mentioned in his latest diary that YUI played the solo part and SHIHO from Stereopony played the drum part. Interesting combi. Maybe they will do a real collaboration next time?

Lyrics - depyon did a great job translating it again. As usual, deep song.

Tabs - check out ah vun's crazy cover as well.

Full Metal Alchemist Opening (YouTube) - I like how they arrange it to make the lyrics fits the opening, and I need to reread the storyline of FMA...already forget most of it. Come to think of it, I haven't watched any anime ever since I come to Japan.

Check out yuinozoo for the latest info and yupeh's blog for more crazy discoveries.

Friday, April 03, 2009

YUI "again" Tracklist

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Misc Rants:

Kenny Sia is coming to Japan. I wonder why kind of stuff he would write about Japan.

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From YUI-net,

<Normal Edition First Press>
・「Full Metal Alchemist」 Original ワイドキャップ Sticker (Looks something like this)
・「Full Metal Alchemist」 Original 錬成陣 Sticker (Some FMA looking sticker)

<Limited Edition DVD>
・『again』 Music Video
・『I'll be』 YUI × High School Live Video


<<< 店頭でのご予約をオススメします! >>> <- suggesting that pre-order from shops in better.

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again / YUI
Lyrics/Melody YUI
SRCL 7037~38 ¥1,575 (tax in)*初回盤
SRCL 7039   ¥1,223 (tax in)

2009/06/03 (Wed) out
 
■Track List
M-01, again
M-02, Sea
M-03, SUMMER SONG ~YUI Acoustic Version~
M-04, again ~Instrumental~

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Buy Limited Edition if you can afford one CD, buy Normal Edition if you are FMA fan. Buy both if you are YUI fan.

Someone 'leaked' the song, we don't have to wait until SOL airs it anymore.
I wonder if YUI plays the solo part. That would be a great motivation for me to practise more haha, even though the instrumental part of this song is kinda bland.


This picture is to show someone in mixi that I actually have tickets to Ayu concert, I'm 'persuading' her to buy it. No more time >.<

I'm repeating again again and again XD