Showing posts with label Books/Magazines. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Books/Magazines. Show all posts

Wednesday, November 12, 2008

MY SHORT STORIES in Shibuya

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Misc Announcements:

YUI 3rd tour goods orders are closed now.

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My camera doesn't really work at night.

To commemorate the release of MY SHORT STORIES, today after school, I went to Shibuya.

The first billboard I saw when I came out from Shibuya Station was the one above, in Shibuya 109. Check YUI STAFF PHOTO REPORT for more pictures, and translations can be found in YL.

Then I entered nearby Big Camera and checked out some in ear phones (eyeing on Denon AH-C350 now), on my way out, I took three Sony brochures.


Driver Manner Campaign lol. You can hear YUI everywhere in Shibuya, even on the streets.

As I was wondering where the hell is HMV, I saw this long line outside Coach store.



Hmm, sometimes I don't really understand girls. To those who are expecting me to have some changes in terms of appearance (since I'm in Japan, so called fashion world and what not), you guys might be disappointed. I haven't even buy one piece of cloth yet, except the GO!GO! T-shirt. I wonder how am I going to survive in Iwate prefecture (somewhere near Hokkaido) next week.

HMV!



I had a weird feeling when I saw the date on the stuff YUI has written down. 12 November 2008.



So near, yet so far away. She was here today, but......

Well, even if I met her, I can't do anything either. Nowadays I always have such feelings. I wonder if my purpose in Japan is to say good bye to all the great people I met in Japan. The more people I met (besides forgetting names), the more I thought about how am I going to say good bye in 7 months time, and then I got really sad. Gahh.


Outside HMV. Free paper is just beside the screen. See how easy we can actually get it.

After HMV, next Tower Records. The largest YUI billboard mentioned by YUI daisuki! san is just outside Tower Records.



And I realised that being a celebrity, for YUI, seeing yourself everywhere in Shibuya, might not be a good thing. Even though she said that she's happy that she saw those posters in her latest diary entry.



Imagine YUI passes by when you are wandering around Shibuya T.T

I spent quite sometime inside Tower Records. It is better not to go there that often, they placed magazines related to the artist below the CD racks, to tempt us to buy more stuff. I was so tempted to buy School of Lock Days 2 when I read YUI's entry in it.

Apparently her mom cried on that day she left Fukuoka.

And YUI took the wrong train quite often when she first came to Tokyo (for me, none, yet).

YUI went to Tower Records as well, and the staff even wrote something like "YUI visited our shop~!" just to piss us fans. I didn't take any pictures because I saw the no camera sign outside the shop, but I saw someone did take a picture with his mobile phone. YUI daisuki! san took a picture too.

Again, to me, it feels weird when they are a lot of people interested in YUI around you. I went to this guitar club, and apparently most of the members are YUI fans. The most I can say is, YUI! YUI! I LIKE!! *starts to show them my hand phone*

End (unless they read half banana dot com).

After listened to ONE OK ROCK's new album, I'm so gonna go to their concert next year. They placed B-PASS Dec issue below ONE OK ROCK's CD, when I saw the entry on MY SHORT STORIES, I couldn't resist any more and bought the magazine ><

Next stop, Tsutaya. Again, didn't take picture. This picture in YUI STAFF Diary was taken in Tsutaya if I'm not mistaken.

Then I saw this trailer by that Laugh away SUMMER SONG boy. That movie looks interesting. It seems that they trained for three months for this movie.

Btw, this place is in Shibuya too. I walked around Ginza line in Shibuya Station but I still couldn't find this place mentioned by YUI staff =/

Didn't steal much today. Spent 690 yen on B-PASS, and 320 yen on transportation.


B-PASS, the pictures are really nice, even though they are old pictures. HMV, TOWER free paper.

And, I still haven't receive my copy of MY SHORT STORIES.

I miss YUI more after listening to this album, so nostalgic. I'll go see someone else while she's having her holiday =/

Friday, October 10, 2008

YUI Reads: Giniro Natsuo

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Misc YUI Rants:

Yesterday I wanted to record I'll be but I didn't expect that SOL will air the song right after the show starts =.=

I was watching DBSK in YouTube. Aiks. Hotness XD

Luckily lamevil recorded it. Thanks~ =D

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My first ever Haagen-Dazs~

I don't know which Japanese book to read, so I borrowed books that YUI recommended from university library.

YUI mentioned this book by Giniro Natsuo (銀色 夏生), Mitaka kun to Watashi (ミタカくんと私) in DAVINCI magazine, according to YUI Summary. YUI once said that she doesn't really have preference on which genre to read, sometimes her picks are based on illustrations on book covers.

After reading Mitaka kun to Watashi, I think I know why she picked this book. The cover was drawn by Giniro san himself, there are cute illustrations inside this novel as well, on particular scenes.

These illustrations are good for those who have so-so Japanese reading skill like me, and make it an easy read.

Basically this book is about the daily lives of this high school girl called Namiko, between her family and her neighbour, Mitaka kun. It kinda reminds me of my high school days, the time when we could just sit at home all day doing nothing and got all bored, having no idea our future would be, having no goals, and no targets besides getting good grades.

Nothing much happened in this book, actually. But I kinda like it. There is a sequel, which YUI introduced in B-PASS. Hyoutan kara Sora (ひょうたんから空). This sequel is about the family planting gourds together haha. Of all the fruits/plants, GOURD.


I bought Namidairo and LOVE & TRUTH normal edition from Amazon Marketplace for 1 yen each. They are rental CDs though (Shipping is 340 yen each). I can say that I have them, technically.

Anyway it is kinda interesting, when the writer describing the process, how smelly gourds can be and stuff.

Back then when I was reading Japanese books or watching Japanese dramas, I could just imagine how is it like being in Japan, having four season, riding the trains and what not. Now I'm glad that I'm able to experience them, including the bad ones. For example when YUI asking her fans to take care of themselves because it is getting cold, I could feel that she was referring to me as well, because it is getting cold here ><

The scenes in J-dramas couldn't get any more real, narrow roads, small houses, small cars, the buildings...

I can experience all that, thanks to my lecturers, my family, and most important, my scholarship provider =D

If you are looking for Japanese novels which is not so difficult to read, this can be a good one.

For now on I'm gonna spend more time in Waseda University's library, to sleep haha. If I stay in my room, I'm gonna sleep longer so it is better to stay outside.

Saturday, July 05, 2008

YUI has more than one Martin acoustic

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Misc SUMMER SONG News:

SUMMER SONG Limited Edition is currently sold out at HMV, Amazon Japan, YesAsia, Play-Asia, Tower Records, and Sony Music Shop.

Except CD Japan. Grab it fast!

No wonder HMV, Amazon Japan and Play-Asia set this policy on limiting one person to one copy, for YUI's SUMMER SONG Limited Edition. Namie Amuro, ayaka, no limitations.

Since when YUI becomes so famous??

Or maybe Sony reduced the amount of first press. Or they just don't like YUI fans, because we like to buy her CDs.

Special thanks to CCDDSS for bringing up such interesting phenomenon.

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So uchihamel received the latest All Song Score book, together with SUMMER SONG CD. She told me that in the YUI guitars page, it stated that YUI has two Martin acoustics.

I asked her to show me that page, because I don't have the book. Obviously.


We know that YUI has more than five guitars. They are just showing her newer, more expensive ones.

Ooo Martin 1977 D-28 and 2007 HD-28V.

Then uchihamel told me that the guitar pickguard in SUMMER SONG PV is black.

I thought her Martin acoustic should be a D-28, with tortoise pickguard. In All Song Score, they have noted that the D-28 model in the pictures might be different from a 1977 model.

Why black??? Another Martin? Both D-28 1977 and HD-28V's pickguard suppose to be tortoise.

After comparing both D-28 and HD-28V closely, and watching all YUI videos I have with Martin acoustics, I came up with a theory.

Basically both D-28 and HD-28V look almost the same, the more obvious differences are fingerboard inlays and the lines along front body.

Let us solve the mystery of the Martin with black pickguard in SUMMER SONG PV first.


Why black???

If you look closely enough, the pickguard is actually thicker than usual. This screenie below confirms my theory.



Don't ask me why they put a black patch on top of the original pick guard, I wonder why too. Both are Martin D-28 (1977), same guitar. Mystery one solved.

So where is the HD-28V??

Lets check out the latest Mezamashi clip with footages from the 3rd tour in Tokyo.

YUI uses D-28 in Laugh away and CHE.R.RY. Looks closely at the guitar strap holder, it is at the side of heel.



Then in SUMMER SONG, YUI uses another Martin guitar. The guitar strap holder is on the heel/ at the back. That should be the '07 HD-28V, I think.



Or you can look at the guitar nut. 1977 one should be yellow-ish while 2007 model is still very white. Of course, YUI can change it if she wants to.

According to All Song Score, YUI got both guitars around October 2007.

Another Martin. USD 3,899, RM 12,476. Oh My God.

What about the other Martin in YUI LOCKS?!

PS: The purpose of this post is to show that, don't mess with my YUI guitars expert title lol.

PS 2: YUI used Martin D-28 in CDTV.

Monday, October 29, 2007

YUI Reads - Galileo/ Yochimu

Album: GO!GO!7188 - 569 (Go Rock!! Woot!!)

We all know that dear YUI loves to read novels, she just finished Higashino Keigo's Yochimu recently.



I would like to read those books she mentioned if there are Chinese/ English versions available, since reading novels in Japanese can be quite a challenge for me T.T Btw, in B-Pass magazine interview, she said that she reads those bestsellers such as Harry Potter and Da Vinci Code too.

At least me read Harry Potter yay.

Back to Yochimu (foresight dream). Apparently this novel is adapted in one of the latest autumn jdrama, Galileo. Basically Yochimu is the second installment of Detective Galileo series.

According to YUI, she picked this novel because she wanted to have a try on mystery novels, she thought that such genre would be slightly difficult to digest but Yochimu seemed to be quite an easy read.

Even though I have not read the novel, the drama, Galileo seems to be quite entertaining, and pleasant on the eyes as well.



Fukuyama Masaharu (physics professor) + Shibasaki Kou (cop) = Hohohoohohohohoho

Apparently Shibasaki Kou was the producer's 3rd selection, after Takeuchi Yuko and Sawajiri Erika. They said Takeuchi Yuko still has this divorce problem, and Erika is too controversial plus too young to be a cop. In the original novel, Kitamura Kazuki should be the one who investigates. Due to certain reasons, male + female combo seems more interesting than 2 guys combo (two very hot + charismatic guys though). Hence Shibasaki Kou.


(New character instead of the one in novel, acted by Kitamura Kazuki. Someone is too disgusted to eat after some corpse-sighting lol)

Better haha, been waiting for so long. Finally another drama of Fukuyama and Kou (some more together, even better). The guest actors line up looks awesome too, first Karasawa Toshiaki, episode 3 will be Hirosue Ryoko, then Smap's Katori Shingo, woah.

If you want to know more, discussions are going on at D-addicts and Jdrama.

This drama reminds me of the days when I was still a science student. Maybe I should watch English subs since I learned all those terms in English lol. Minus the calculating + posing part whenever Fukuyama figured out the reason scientifically (too cheesy), I really like it, so far. Especially every time Professor Yukawa says: Omoshiroi (interesting).

Theme song, even though it was written by Fukuyama, sung by Shibasaki (and Fukuyama, technically), should have been something more related to the drama imo. Maybe I expected too much haha. The ending credits was nicely done though. Cute.

I'm watching Dream Again, Hataraki Man (Kanno Miho~) too. Iryu 2 and Abarenbo Mama are in the list as well.

Guess I should stop staring in front of computer screen and continue my 'reading', which I am supposed to do at the first place.

Saturday, September 29, 2007

pronto pronto? VOL.09

Album: Oasis - A sides

It's good to have friends in Japan, because you can ask them to 'steal' as many free papers (Japanese English: Newspapers, brochures with a lot of advertisements and delivered for free of charge) as they can for you.



Scans can be found here.

This 'free paper' is currently 'worth' 150 yen (excluding shipping fees) in Yahoo Auction.

According to Reset, I should keep these papers, don't 'sell' it now, to increase it's resale value. Plus dear YUI is the cover girl, should cost more xD

Right now, it's RM 25 per paper (if you wish to 'get' it from me). LOL I'm evil.

Special thanks to Sim for spending 200 yen on a cup of coffee (you can find this 'paper' in some cafe) just to get these 4 papers for me. Sorry ya for making you 'stepped' out from your comfort zone lol.

Next target: VA October issue.

Dear YUI doesn't encourage her fans to buy things from auctions site though *me see nothing, hear nothing*

Till then.

PS: I read that YUI did 2 songs with Tokunaga Hideaki, Sotsugyou shashin (another song by Yuming) and CHE.R.RY (OMG?!).

Sunday, July 01, 2007

No One's Perfect

Album: GReeeeN - あっ、ども。はじめまして。 (Nice debut album by these four dentist-to-be, ai no uta is currently THE big hit)

Last week I went to KLCC twice lol. And Japan Foundation Library (located at Ampang Park). Grabbed these:


(sorry blurry pics, Panasonic Lumix is in America now T.T )

I was not going to buy that Oricon style 6/25 (4 pages of YUI) but after reading it, there goes RM 18.30...Yea you can ask the people there to 'rip off' the plastics and read the content of the magazines available there (manga cannot). That's what we called GOOD customer service =D

Picked this book to be my first Japanese book hee:

Japanese: 乙武 洋匡 - 五体不満足
English: Hirotada Ototake - No One's Perfect

My sensei once recommended this book in the class but back then I ignored it =x This book's target readers are primary school kids (4th year above) so I guess I can understand most of it, plus it has furigana, makes the reading easier. But...still not really used to reading Japanese -_-"" I only used to magazines' writing style and YUI's LOL.

Borrowed Haruki Murakami's Dance Dance Dance too =D Haven't sart reading it yet, the language used looks difficult...

Back to the magazines:



From above: Oricon style 6/25, B-Pass July, R&R Newsmaker July.

All black themed =.= Spot the same outfit?? Speaking of Oricon style, the interview starts with this question:

Q: Did you lose a bit of weight during concerts?
YUI: REALLY? Ureshii na (I'm glad/ happy). I had worked hard during the lives (laughs).

=.= In B-Pass the interviewer 'teased' dear YUI too "Very slender~" because she looked very the slim in skinny pants + black boots xD And YUI replied: Uwah~ Ureshii!! Lol. YUI kinda talked about this weight thing too in YUI Radio #22 but I can't remembered...will listen to it again.

This question in Oricon style caught my attention too:

Q: You don't really go to clubs and have fun right? (rough translation)
YUI: Ah, that, no. If I went there, I think I might 拳動不審 (laughs).

拳動不審 <- I cannot find this word online, help? EDIT: JKDragoon said that it kinda means 'feeling uncomfortable, not used to it.' (apparently it is derived from Chinese =.= Must ask my Chinese major course mates then). Even though you can kinda figure out that dear YUI doesn't look like the type who likes partying, being able to 'confirm' it directly from her made me so happy and ended up buying this magazine lol. *imagining YUI, dancing in the club...* I'm nerdy so I don't go to these places as well =x Yay for another similarity~

In R&R Newsmaker, found 'evidence' that confirmed dear YUI wrote My Generation around last year's December (2006/12) after reading the script.

Met Fanny (YL's moderator) for the first time at KLCC. I'm 'revealing' my thick eyebrows =x


('stole' it from here)

We were looking at this page:


(Free 'Rolling star' wristband from the meeting =D That white thing )

Natsumi: *looks at R&R Newsmaker* She really good at posing for pictures these days.
Teo: Hai lor. (Yalo)

After the meeting, went to Bentley (guitar store) and 'played' Fender Telecaster and Takamine guitars for the first time!! *HAPPY* Next target: Fender Stratocaster and Taylor xD

Listened latest YUI Locks featuring Takeuchi Yuuko. Karen san kinda summarised part of it in her blog. Great episode...Understand acoustic was GREAT!! Plus YUI's Japan-ish French was cute xD "asanuno jyuuban" (08:15 minutes). Yuuko sensei's reply was funny too. They can really make great sisters. YUI never been to foreign countries before (me better...at least went to Singapore before lol), seems like she wants to visit London someday.

Latest YUI Radio was fun too, until YUI's manager said something that changed the atmosphere hee.

PS: I've added a chatbox on the sidebar => Might update some tidbits of dear YUI in that box from time to time. You guys can check it there for latest YUI infos. You can post your comments there too if you want to. I will 'respond' from time to time.

PPS: For those entering local University today, Happy suffering~ bwahahah. Means that my holiday is ending soon T.T

Till then.

Saturday, June 09, 2007

A Hard Day's Night 

Album: The Beatles - 1

I always find that 'Japanised' song titles are funny lol. A Hard Day's Night direct translation: Beatles are coming along Yay! Yay! Yay!

Oh they are referring to the lyrics. Hmm....

Funny that I do know a lot songs by The Beatles lol, I just don't know that they were actually the ones who sang those familiar sounding songs (been ignorant for the past 19 years haha). I like From Me To You, Can't Buy Me Love, Help!, All My Loving the most LOL. You can really 'feel' that a lot of artists are hugely influenced by them. No wonder they say Franz Ferdinand sounds like them.

The Beatles in Chinese - 甲壳虫, that's what they translated in Norwegian Wood, which btw I never heard of that song =x

Show off time, I bought these during my final trip to book fair:



1. THE World is FLAT - Thomas L. Friedman ~RM 34.90 (sponsored by my brother wee~)
2. Sugar High - Onitsuka Chihiro ~RM 14.90 = USD 4.35 LOL
3. Air/Cook/Sky - Yaida Hitomi ~RM 14.90

No joke, both CDs were USD 4.35 each. I really shouldn't spend RM 100+ (7 times more expensive) for one freaking CD just because it is a different version (joking), currency sucks bleh. That's my first Yaiko CD, yea I'm cheap. The world is flat is really something, I should have read it earlier...the fact that I will be replaced someday...translating tools are getting more and more advance.....gah. Must find another way to adapt myself in this flat world now. If I read it earlier I probably couldn't understand all those technical jargons anyway, I was 'ignorant' back then. Now slightly better. Haha.

My aunt finally has YUI's CD in her CD store~ I bought CAN'T BUY MY LOVE from her (under RM 40). 'Finally' I have 2 versions of CBML. Extra info: Every CD sold in Malaysia must have that 'reflecting' looking sticker (you can confirm with the 2 CDs above). Kononnya to prevent privacy.



Above: Japanese Version/ Limited Edition (RM 107 I think)
Below: Overseas Version/ Normal Edition (Taiwan to be exact)

3 times more expensive...btw does it come with Chinese lyrics? Didn't mention about it on the cover.

Back, you can clearly see the blue sticker which stated: FOR SALE IN MALAYSIA ONLY.



The descriptions are kinda wrong, YUI didn't write ALL the songs, maybe they are referring to the lyrics, then yes she wrote all of it =P

Watched Kiki's Delivery Service the other day (while ironing a huge pile of clothes, as usual). YUI kinda said that she likes it before lol. No wonder YUI covered this song. It's the ending theme song. When I first heard it I was like :O You can find certain 'elements' connected with dear YUI in that movie (おっと). OR maybe I analysed too much.

Someone recommended me to watch Laputa next.

Till then, I should re-connect myself with the flattening world.

Au revior.

PS: Happy Birthday Mr.Who is going to America tomorrow.

PPS: I've got all 50 people for the survey, thank you to all the nice people out there for participating it =D Apparently the ratio of half-banana blog readers are:

Male: Female - 66:34 = almost the same as the ratio of YUI fans according to Nikkei Entertainment magazine bwahhahaha (^7^)/~~~

Technically it's not though. Mine 7:3, YUI's 6:4. Bleh.

Since I have more male readers, might consider some 'serious' cam-whoring in the future LOL.

That's not gonna happen, cos...I'm shy.

Tuesday, May 29, 2007

Kinokuniya

Album: Joss Stone - Introducing Joss Stone

I just received my exam results. I got an A- for that crazy assignment!! *Relieved*



After spending 2 hours trying to make my blog more 'presentable' (appealing), 'discovered' that I have to configure the html thing from top to bottom. Lets just remain as the way it is, for now ^^; (my ultimate goal is to make it look like this though) EDIT: I know how to do it now. But I still prefer this haha.

Anyway, to promote the sales of ROCKIN'ON JAPAN mentioned in previous post in Malaysia, here's some guides on how to buy it:

1. If you don't wish to buy it online, the other way is buy it at Kinokuniya. Kinokuniya is located in 4th floor, the floor above TGV cinema. The new Japanese section is actually hidden, you have to go as 'deep' as possible, it is located behind those music related books.

2. Since I 'took' the last copy of it, you have to order from them. Go to the counter and tell them you want to order Magazines (or to be more specific, backorder it). Then they will give you a form like this below:



Fill in your name, phone number (they will either call you or sms you once your order has arrived), quantity, date, and write down the magazine you want, be as precise as possible (date, issue, volume). In this case, ROCKIN' ON JAPAN May 2007 issue. The price depends on the currency rate but normally the price of magazines will not differ that much, means that your copy will be around RM 28.10 (I think).

The order should take less than a month to be arrived. Depends on what you are buying. They will sms you once they have received your copy.

That's all. Happy YUI-ing.

This is what I bought on my trip to KLCC (and book fair) yesterday:



1. LIVE ON MUSIC (音楽に生きる @Kinokuniya) ~RM 34
2. 挪威的森林 - 村上春樹 (Norwegian Wood - Haruki Murakami) ~RM 8.90
3. 即戦力 - 大前研一 (Ohmae Kenichi) ~RM 27.40
4. The Little Prince - Antoine de Saint Exupery ~RM 10
5. Freakonomics - Steven D. Levitt, Stephen J. Dubner ~RM 19.90
6. The Great Collection of Studio Ghibli DVD box set ~RM 35.90 (YUI said that she likes Kiki's delivery service xD )

TOTAL = BROKE T.T
(Note: My selections were based on the price, except number 1 & 3)

I wanna read The World is Flat!! It's over RM 30 =( Maybe I should cut down my expenses on magazines, I can buy it if I skip one issue of B-PASS, which is kinda impossible hee.

Or maybe I should register myself to some blog advertising company =x

Till then.

Sunday, May 27, 2007

Arbeit

Album: Paolo Nutini - These Streets

One of the popular essay title (Chinese) in exams back in primary school was A Lucky/ Bad Day (美好/倒霉的一天). You start to cram in the good/ bad things as many as possible in that 120 words essay. I don't really believe that so many surprising events can happen in one day but what happened yesterday kinda changed my perception towards it, until something else happened.

It's about good luck btw. I received my pay (RM 95 only) after being treated like some cheap labour for 2 days. If you wanna get slim fast, this is one of the more efficient way. I had to reach KTM station around 5 pm so I 'quited' one hour earlier.

However I didn't go to the LRT station asap, went to Kinokuniya instead. I bet you know why. I can't believe that I actually saw 4 magazines I might want to buy siting on the book shelf. Especially ROCKIN' ON JAPAN (Natsumi: Sorry about that lol). That's a first. Normally it's either 1 or 2 of it or none at all. After flipping through the content (comparing which has more YUI), I used more than half what I've earned for the past 2 days and bought 2 magazines.



The one on the left is Nikkei Entertainment.

When I reached home, my mom told me that there's a package for me. !! My CrossRoads Mylar3 has arrived~ That was kinda unexpected.



Sorry about the flashlight. Too lazy to configure it. I was 'over burning' this new little baby for 24 hours. The packaging is kinda ugly but this is what we called affordable entry IEM, with this price it's impossible to buy Shure, Sennheiser or even the ultimate E something.

Continue. I tell you go get yourself a copy of ROCKIN' ON JAPAN now, even you can't read Japanese, as long as you love dear YUI. It roughly contains of 15 pages of pictures + 12 pages of interview, total 20000 of words.



We have pictures of YUI playing piano, and roughly 10 pages of words (took me an hour to finish it) as displayed above. The 'larger' magazine at the back is Nikkei Entertainment.

That's just a preview of it, the content of ROCKIN' ON is soo intense, filled with lots of untold histories, things about YUI might 'shocked' you after you found it out. A lot of Japanese fans cried after reading it. Well for me you know I'm just a JLPT level 3 first year student, can't really FULLY understand it but I can roughly know what's going on. I didn't cried though, again language barrier. But I was really impressed by YUI all over again and made you think again and again before you judge somebody without knowing them. I'll dedicate a few new posts about this magazine soon. Hope by then I can write it in a more serious tone, minimise my errors as little as possible.

The actual interview lasted for 3 hours, YUI talked about herself chronologically since she was born up till the moment before her 20th birthday. The interview was on 25th of March, yea the day she performed her last teen street live.
(NOTE: IT WAS YUI WHO CAME UP THIS STREET LIVE THING)

Today we're going to talk about Nikkei Entertainment. Something light before the big thing. You can skip the whole thing if you don't listen to Jpop. You can still read it though. As usual, don't believe in everything I wrote.



This magazine is really something, no wonder a lot of foreign media using the reports made by this magazine and 'create' some news from it. Especially the one above. So called 4 New Divas (新四大天王). I kinda explained about this here, lets not talk about how bad foreign medias adapted the report. From the report apparently the previous 4 divas were:

Hamasaki Ayumi, Koda Kumi, Otsuka Ai and Utada Hikaru. Because their albums managed to sell more than 500k copies at the moment.

In the past 6 months, another 4 female artists who achieved huge breakthrough will be Ayaka, Ito Yuna, Kimura Kaela, and of course dear YUI. They might be the 4 new generation divas (I used divas because Four Heavenly Kings/ Queens sounds so wrong LOL, I LOVE wikipedia haha)

First they compared 4 of them based on their fan base. Ayaka is balance type, Ito Yuna has more female supporters, Kaela is more appeal towards males. The age for 3 of them will be mostly fans in their 20s, and 30s too but very few in their 10s.

Here's why YUI is so special. Not only she has a lot of fans in 20s, she has a lot young fans too (10s). Maybe it has to do with the wonderful lyrics she wrote which manage to attract younger listeners. They can connect with the meanings/ messages behind it.

The ratio between male and female fans of YUI will be in 6:4. Normally for female artists, male will go for looks more, female artists who are too idol-ish will have less female fans. For YUI, she managed to gain support from a wide range of people, regardless age or gender.

Judging from the voice YUI can have an innocent/ idol-ish sweet voice yet delivers powerful performance at the same time because she has street performing experience. As for looks she can be the rock chick in Rolling star rocking out with her electric, to wearing a dress, dressed in a girly way, singing CHE.R.RY accompanied by her acoustic.

And that might be the reason why she's loved by so many people. Versatility?

Music wise. Look at the chart below:



They divided present female artists to 4 parts. Left is vocalist, right is songwriters. Upper part will be female artists who are more focus on the sound (I don't really get it anyway), below is the ones who are more focus on vocal performance (tell me if you don't understand). And artists were arranged according to the time they debut. Means the ones who debuted earlier will be placed further from the center point.

Hence,

Vocalist + Sound
hitomi
Tommy heavenly6
YUKI
Kimura Kaela
Takahashi Hitomi
Tsuchiya Anna

Vocalist + Voice
UA
Namie Amuro
Kuraki Mai
Hamasaki Ayumi
Koda Kumi
Crystal Kay
Nakashima Mika
Hajime Chitose
Hitoto Yo
Hirahara Ayaka
BoA
Ito Yuna
Salyu

Songwriter + Vocal

Cocco
MISIA
Onitsuka Chihiro
Utada Hikaru
AI
Katou Miliyah
Ayaka
Angela Aki

Songwriter + Sound

BONNIE PINK
aiko
Shiina Ringo
Yaida Hitomi
Otsuka Ai
YUI

You might disagree their categorisation but somehow I think it kinda makes sense. Give me a concrete reason if you disagree (I disagree at certain point to when I first read it, still don't really understand the position of Hikki lol). Lets just say that we can't really categorise these stuff, this is just a guideline.

Then they said that Ayaka is Hikki's type (balance type), Yuna is Koda's type (famous among females), Kaela will be YUKI.

What about YUI? Otsuka Ai.

Calm down. The reason they said so is because both YUI and Otsuka posses both idol and artist's characteristics. YUI towards rock, Otsuka towards pop, even though they might not 'clash' between genres, YUI's biggest rival still might be Otsuka Ai. However YUI has a strong fan base among younger generation, as a rockish singer songwriter, she has her own position in the music industry.


What do you think?? Please don't give me YUI's the best/ hail YUI responses. I'm well aware of that thank you. Even though I was forced to write these analysis back then in school, it was in BM so if my writings are confusing, sorry about that. I still have a long way to go =.= I shall go and read the rest to discover more interesting 'phenomenon'. Ueno Juri and Nagasawa Masami~~~~~

Now I don't really know why I wrote this at the first place. Should be a day in my life but turned out...Anyway about that day, when I thought that I was the luckiest person in the world, my mom asked me to bring her to some place in PJ, in the end I was stuck in traffic jam for 1 whole hour (even morning rush hours are better than this, wonder what happened). Since I drive a manual car, imagine the fun switching gears every 15 seconds.

Guess there's no such thing as my luckiest day after all.

Till then, au revior.

Wednesday, February 14, 2007

Books that 'flied' here

The package I received is getting bigger and bigger.



This is the first time I buy books online. Reason: Wanted to buy YUI's All Songs Score book. Since it is edited by dear YUI so decided to try buying books online instead of relying on Kinokuniya which is famous for being expensive. It is the first time I bought a Guitar magazine too.



My total collections of Japanese magazines, not much but these stuff took away almost 50% of my monthly pocket money T.T That's way I have to eat bread + packet milo every noon. Luckily I can read a little bit of Japanese if not I'll be killed by my mom for spending money on these.....



I'm learning Winter Hot Music now =D This book is a must buy for all YUI-guitarist fans out there.



Thought of showing some more stuff about me since now I have the camera lol. I live in this place during school time. I'll be kicked out from this place soon though. Because I'm not active enough to 'extend' my stay ='( Or should I say, I never bothered to join any of those activities, karma haih.



My desk in the hostel. Notice the amount of bottles there. And yes I don't have a laptop, I can only watch dear YUI from that 2-inch screen every day.



What I drink when I'm out of 'water supply'.



I just cleaned my 'other' desk in my house. It'll become dusty in a few days again for sure....humidity....good for skin, bad for household chores. My mom forbids us to paste things on the wall, so I don't have the habit to stick stuff here and there =/ Have to find a 'table' for the scanner soon, bet it is sick of sitting on the cold floor all the time.



That's all.

*Goes to practice guitar~*

EDIT: Oh half an hour to go to Valentine.....I have spamming project to do that day (^7^)v~~

Tuesday, November 14, 2006

九把刀 - 功夫

专辑:戴佩妮 - iPenny, Just Sing It


一九八六年。

那年,我十三岁,一个不吉利的年纪。
那年,张雨生还没死,王杰正红,方季惟还是军中最佳情人。
他们的歌整天挂在我的房间里。
那年,我遇见了他。
那年,功夫。



会买下这本书,一方面是因为便宜(才10零吉,中国出版有够便宜的),但最主要的是被它的简介给吸引了。这本书讲述一名13岁的小子如何在误打误撞之下练成了一身武功,凭着自己所持着的‘正义’,开始了不归的旅程。想象一下,19世纪了这些东西还存在吗?打的是武侠小说,作者九把刀打破了传统,把现代的价值观,注入这本‘现代武侠小说’中。相当年自己也看了不少金庸和古龙的小说,‘功夫’内所提到的,都会让我有一股冲动想再重新回味这些经典著作。不过作者也颠倒了一般传统武侠小说内的‘专有名词’,所谓的招式,穴道,门派,并不是我们想象中的。这也是作者所厉害之处。

每一本武侠小说都会有个大反派,这也不例外,可是万万没想到‘功夫’内的尽然是那么的可恨,多么的邪恶。看我还是别透漏那么多,否则就失去看这本书的意义了。到最后还真的是差点流下泪,没想到结局竟是如此。难道就这样完了?

看完了之后还意犹未尽,赶快搜索了关于九把刀的一切,期待着续篇的存在。原来这是「都巿恐怖病」系列第五部,看来自己为这次的假期找到了一堆书来消磨时间,除了塞满了硬盘的日美剧之外 xD 。

如果你也是武侠小说的粉丝话,不妨看看这个现代版的,有别一番滋味哦,强力推介。

作者介绍

It's weird for me to type in chinese =/ Yea go read it if you like Wuxia flicks. Gotta dig more titles from this author during my next trip to bookstore. =D Time to watch V for Vendetta now, ciao~