First of all, Happy New Year guys =D

Been receiving few spamming comments here and there ever since I stopped updating this blog.

So here I am~

A few YUI-related updates:

1. I will continue the translation ROCKIN' ON JAPAN interview after May, if no one is doing. Now I have to focus on graduating.

2. I will sell off ALL my YUI stuff, to fund myself for upcoming Europe trip. Now it is open for booking, I will post up relevant information after the thesis madness.

3. I dropped my HDD the other day and I have to say that all my YUI stuff is GONE now. And pictures in Japan. Sad case.

Happy YUI-ing.

Embarking a journey to rediscover myself.


Somewhere near my house, Sept 27, 2009.

Might be, might not be back.

Thanks for the support for all these years.

Happy YUI-ing.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Misc half-banana updates:

Just came back from Singapore few days ago, planning to have a road trip to Hat Yai (Thailand) in the upcoming Raya holiday.

I'm seriously infected by the travel bug after studying in Japan for 11 months.

Extra note: ah Mel still lookin' cute as ever =3

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Brings back all the memories. Total 160,000 participants wow. First day was 40,000 people.

I wonder if Europe has something similar with this *hint hint*

Report, will be on soon. Just to inform that I'm still alive.

One week break ends today, time to get serious on school stuff.

Meanwhile, check out some other collaborations I have made with Japanese students:

YUI - Laugh away



Director + Cinematographer - あかりん (Love her Kansai dialect)
Vocal - チーちゃん (Korean who speaks fantastic English and Japanese)
Guitar, Backup Vocal - じょーじ (he can play Oshio Kotaro)
Guitar, Vocal - Teo

I wonder why I decided to sing most of the song hmm...It was fun though.


YUI - I remember you



Director + Cinematographer - あかりん
Vocal - わかな
Guitar - Teo

I like this video. It was recorded during our final gathering and we decided to perform like 4 hours before the gathering. Rehearsed twice and tadaa~ I couldn't hold F chord properly during the bridge part because I was so used to playing with my red Tele *excuses*

Samick is a sweet guitar brand.


Lastly, thank you for participating YL Collaboration 3, after I have relocate myself I'll come up with the ultimate plan to make sure that our CD and stuff reaches YUI.


PS:I have climbed Mount Fuji as well. It was a super torturing experience.

Album: 9mm Parabellum Bullet - VAMPIRE

For the past two weeks, I had one of the happiest moment in my life.


Final studio practice. Our 'band' technically has 20 members haha.

In one day, I got to play 'Les Paul', 'Fender bass' (the cute blue one above),



And posed with real PRS. Sweet guitar. The guitar strings and the neck are practically stick to each other. Now I understand why people can play barre chords non stop, thanks to such setting.



Out of 5 songs in our band, I participated in three songs:

1. Chatmonchy - Hana no yume (Guitar)
2. flumpool - Over the rain (Bass)
3. YUI - feel my soul (Guitar)

My first ever and final live in Japan *sad*, I'm gonna miss my band (わでぃバンド), regret for not taking group pictures with them, didn't record my own performance =/

But it was very very fun, completely different from usual gatherings in student centre, which would be something like this:



YUI - SUMMER SONG ～YUI Acoustic Version～

Director + Cinematographer - えりちゃん
Piano, Vocal - みさき (second collabo with her)
Guitar, Vocal - りょう (he can play DEPAPEPE)
Guitar - Teo

Basically I was just sitting there and played simple chords haha. This was the day after the newcomers' live, we didn't have much time to do rehearsal. This week somehow I've got to perform 4 YUI songs, luckily I've know how to play all of them before I came to Japan, if not I'm gonna screw up classes big time.

YL Collaboration 3 has been postponed to July 14, I'm still waiting for your entries!!

I can totally understand why YUI wrote songs specifically for live performances now, certain songs are fun when played in lives. I think I got a ticket to ROCK IN JAPAN FES 2009, I already paid for the ticket but I still don't get any confirmation email, weird.

27 days till I'm back to Malaysia.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Misc YUI Rumours:

According to this blog, YUI is having secret lives under the name e.u.Band. Instead of Muta san, drummer is the cool girl we always see in YUI PVs.

They did once on February 20, then recently on June 12, they performed again in some live house. Set list:

1. Laugh away
2. 雨上がりの夜空に (The singer just passed away recently)
3. Rolling star
4. I'll be
5. Love is all
6. again
7. Sea

If YUI performs the same songs in RIJ, the rumours will confirm true, I suppose. I wonder how will I react if I go to some random live house, and the special guest turned out to be someone famous.

In this forum, some speculated that:

E.U.
イーユー
ユーイー
YUI


LOL.

More sources can be found here, here, here. Japanese language knowledge is required.

Btw, the arrangement for Sea are done by Hisashi Kondo and, e.u.Band.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Album: GO!GO!7188 - Antenna

I guess YUI secretly reads this blog, because she decided to appear on the first day (July 31) of Rock In Japan Fes 2009. I'll get to see Perfume (yay) and Chatmonchy (5th time?!) but according to the timetable, I might have to move around and it will be impossible for me to see dear YUI in front rows unless I start queuing on the day before.

Already reserved 1 ticket for the that day and lets hope that I will get it *prays*

I read that some people are wondering how to get concert tickets in Japan in YL forum. First get a person who stays in Japan if you want to get the ticket legally. Personal information are needed to buy tickets in Japan, and buying concert ticket is like getting a lottery, especially for famous artist. You can't select the exact seat you want.

The other day I was featured in YUPI-LOCKS, it took me by surprise wow. GREAT JOB Kikino!! Thank you! Gracias!! I want to go Chile!!!! I think Teo-chan resembles me alot haha, really honoured to be drawn. Thanks again! (Now I really have to send the CD to YUI......)

Then on Friday, I didn't get to see depyon's dance but I took a picture with him in his costume. The next day I went to see JYONGRI.


No signature keyboard.

Apparently it was JYONGRI's first appearance in Waseda, after being a student there for three years. For Waseda students: She likes building 11 (hate you guys). Never seen her around though. She sang 3 songs, including her new single which will be released on August for the very first time, and I think not many of the audience know about her.

Tomorrow studio practice!

So far I have received two entries for our YL 3 collaboration. Keep the entries coming!!

I've been spending most of my time on music club activities, this is what we did the other day:


I was wearing the 3rd tour shirt, for PR purposes. Messed up a little bit here and there but, it was fun =D

If any of you guys are interested, this is how our weekly gathering looks like. Basically you just go up and perform, it is fun, especially collaborating with others. Normally I chose not to sing but recently I am more willing to open my mouth, guess practise does make things better.

Director + Cinematographer - あかりん
Vocal Guitar - まちゃこ (the girl who did the YUKI JOY cover)
Backup vocal - あかねぇ (joined 10 mins before gathering started, yeah she's a pro)
Guitar - Teo

Special thanks to Kate for lending me her video camera.

YUI Lovers, keep working on your covers ya~

That sums up my recent life in Japan, skip classes, music, movie, books, and binge eating on 85% chocolates + blueberries.

PS: Samart, if you are coming here, lets perform Damien Rice in the next gathering lol.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Misc Rants:

I skipped my grammar class just now because I wanted to finish reading Walden by today. What a lousy excuse.

After being a good student for the first half of this semester, I plan to skip more classes now =D

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

HMV store, Shibuya.

I have received quite a few emails asking me to help buying again Limited Edition.

HMV Japan has just restocked the limited edition, please buy from there directly, it will save your time and my time, and money as well. Other stores such as CD Japan and Play-asia are currently out of stock.

If you really want me to buy, I will charge 500 yen for each CD, plus shipping. Yeah it's gonna be expensive, better find some other people who stays in Japan to buy for you instead ;P


PS: Requesting Namidairo acoustic audio from My Short Stories DVD.

Album: Rie fu - URBAN ROMANTIC

Yes I messed up Last Train even though it was the second YUI I learned 2+ years ago.


I discovered this music club thanks to Nahoko, and big thanks to Dennis for introducing her to me. We were wearing RADWIMPS tour T-shirt.

Are you guys still practising your YUI covers?? I have received support from two mods in YL so the official thread for YL 3 will be created on upcoming Monday, I wanted to give you guys something more special this time around. I know, YUI's new single again will be released in two weeks time, really sorry for the long delay.

Don't stop practising!! (I'm referring to myself)

As a warm up YL collaboration 3, here I present our version of Last Train: MediaFire (That's how YUI play the acoustic version in YUI Radio 5, if I didn't mess up the strumming)

I have to apologise for messing up the lyrics, stopped half-way, and not being able to hold Bm chord firmly. Blame my Telecaster for having a thin neck =x Only during the bridge part I finally got used to that Seagull acoustic guitar, same thing happened previously when I performed with Marina as well. Buy a new acoustic?? Haha.

If you guys are wondering how good the Japanese students in the music club are, this YUKI cover is one of them. My jaw literally dropped when I saw the real performance last week.

This is the original song: YUKI - JOY

*Embarrassed* Okay I shall not comparing myself with others, I'm well aware of my guitar skills, not planning to be Ecchan or Yuu san anyway. My job is to drag as many YLs to join this thing =D

Somehow writing this post makes me all fired up. I shouldn't waste any available opportunity to jam with Japanese students here. You guys too, we have a lot of talented artists in YL forum, lets show to YUI and the Japanese how united we are ;)



Borrowed this bass from my dorm mate the other day and tried to mess around with it. Had problem following the tempo, but it was interesting though I can sense that my time is running out >.< Maybe I should put aside my low carb/diet venture?


Try to spot as many processed food as possible in Teo's fridge haha.

I have been spending a lot of time and money buying groceries and cooking, but so far the process has been very enjoyable. It is fun to know the names of those vegetables, spices and stuff, though I still have a lot to learn. Today I tried to make chicken stock from scratch by following this video, it turned out to be some sort of chicken soup, I can just drink it like that lol. That taste reminds of something my mom always make.

Never knew that cooking can be so fun, I used to loathe it, ALOT. There are just so many possibilities in the culinary world, being raised in a multi ethnic country, now surrounded by Japanese cuisine, and the internet is filled with western recipes, it took me quite a while to differentiate between green onion, leek, chives, scallions, as well as spices such as turmeric, bay leaves, paprika, thymes, bla bla bla.

Hmm, I am really a jack of all trades, master of none.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Misc YUI Info/Downloads/Rants:

Hisashi Kondo aka Shigezou san posted a picture of YUI band doing rehearsals of again and Sea in the studio in his latest diary post.

Actually, Hisashi san is a radio host of this show called Satayan, he has to travel to Hokkaido back and forth every week.

On April 12 episode, he actually called dear YUI twice (around 1~2 pm), without informing her beforehand. He seems to know YUI super well, dare to call her around such time. And dear YUI seems to be fine with it, replying in a polite tone, as usual.

Credits to someone in 2ch.

Rants:

That reminds me of when my dorm mates knocked on my door when I was sleeping, to give me some cakes to eat because it was someone's birthday on that day. When I answered the door, they felt very guilty (especially the birthday girl), I wasn't angry at all, if that was the case I won't be answering the door at all. I was in fact quite happy because they still thought of me.

A lot of times, being scolded is way better than being ignored. I didn't accept the cake though, dieting you know.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

When I'm depressed/down/sad/nothing to do, I'll sleep/scratch or pick my face/waste my time doing random surfing, watching shows/eat a bunch of junk food.

Thanks to those scratching, my face is just like the moon's surface, even 10 layers of powder cannot cover them. Now that I'm on diet, I can only nib on 86% dark chocolate or almond. Those are the only 'edible junk food' available in my room now.

I feel that I've been such an @ss lately, ignoring messages/calls, forgetting birthdays, I still haven't send out a bunch of thank you cards, especially to my Japanese boss who treated my lunch in Japan 3 months ago. I didn't send a message or something to my sensei who is leaving my university at all, I didn't call to say thank you to my other sensei and my host family, I didn't send any wishes on mother's day, I didn't......

I will only start contacting people when I'm visiting their place, asking certain favor, wanting something from them, when I'm lonely......

I promised a lot of things but I failed to accomplish them, for this blog it will be ROCKIN' ON JAPAN interview, YL Collabo 3 (still no news from mods), I wanted to launch a YUI fansite but I'm too lazy to figure out how to set up a website, coding, and stuff. I wanted to learn Korean, I wanted to finish my homework earlier, I wanted to...

Yes I'm such a self-centred person. My trip to Akita (秋田) confirmed that. Somehow.

On Friday night I took 11:30 pm night bus from Tokyo station, and reached Akita station on 9:00 am next morning. The last time when I came to Akita was on last year, I only spent a couple of minutes here because of the luggage incident.


The cheapest way to Akita is by night bus. I bought the ticket from discounted ticket shop so each way costs 5900 yen, 600 yen cheaper than buying directly from the bus company.

Base Ball Bear live starts at 6 pm, I had 8 hours to wander around. My first mission, find food. I brought 3 hard boiled eggs, 22 kernels of almonds, and 1 piece of dark chocolate just in case I couldn't find anything to eat.

There are two big supermarkets near Akita station, but I was surprised that no Yoshinoya/Matsuya/Sukiya, there goes my cheap meat sources. For breakfast I had a green salad from Sunkus (the only salad without corn inside and cheap) with 2 hard boiled eggs, plus some almonds.


I had my breakfast nearby this pond.

Then I decided to checkout the venue of the live, Club SWINDLE, which is located 15 mins away from Akita station. I had a hard time looking for it because it is just a small live house located below a hotel. Not your typical Zepp or BLITZ. I couldn't find the exact entrance of the live house so I went inside the hotel and took the elevator to B1 floor.


Snucked a picture of this place.

Afraid that someone might chase me out, I quickly left the place. It is a really small live house. I went to Senshu Park after that, the only touristy place I visited.



They were having some sort of event in the park, I got pretty tired after all the climbing uphill, sat on a bench and started to read Rachel Carson's Silent Spring. Then this lady approached me and asked me to write some appreciation words on a card, to celebrate something. I was kinda puzzled by it but still, I wrote down that I'm glad that I came here, thank you, and my name on the card.

When she asked about my name, I told her that I'm from Malaysia and stuff like that, she took out a book and asked me to close my eyes and flip a page and point my finger on anywhere of the book. It was a book contains a lot of phrases, the one I pointed on sounded something like this: Take off your hat and share with others.

Something like that. She explained that we shouldn't keep everything on ourselves, only through sharing with others, we will gain happiness. People happy, we happy. I began to wonder, maybe I'm getting more and more self-centred these days, I'm a Leo after all. The lady gave me a little book (which I haven't read) and I thanked her before she left.

I tried to walk around the park but it wasn't fun walking alone, plus it was kinda hilly, I didn't feel like wasting my energy climbing here and there, and went to search for food.

After carefully examined every cooked food in two of the supermarkets, nearby restaurants, convenient stores, they were either too expensive or too difficult to figure out the nutrition content because they were not labelled properly. I gave up and ate my remaining hard boiled egg, almonds and that one and only piece of dark chocolate. After 2 weeks of no sweets, it tasted great.


'Camped' here for 2 hours, reading Silent Spring and sleep. You won't find such large space with free chairs and tables in Tokyo.

When I got hungry again, it was around 2:30 pm, another 3 hours to go. I went to Seibu department store's basement floor and bought this drumstick for 210 yen.


3 types of plastic bags + 1 styrofoam plate were used just to wrap this piece of meat nicely.

Now I know where to find food while on low carb diet, depachika =D Normally I don't buy food here because the food is more expensive than bento shops or conbini. Only in depachika they have cooked meat sold separately from rice/pastas, and less preservatives.

There were chairs around so I sat at a corner and ate it with my steel fork. People were eating bread, bento, ice cream, I was the only person poking around my food with fork, as silly it may sounds. Who cares, I got more satiated by eating this instead of bread, dorayaki, or onigiri for the same price.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Then I continued my reading + sleeping process in the depachika. I didn't really care if people snapped a picture of me taking a nap in department store haha. It was 4:30 pm. I didn't care that my phone wasn't receiving any signals (being at the basement) even though I was supposed to meet another Steve from Canada, aka the legendary doubledown11 from Shangri-la Chatmonchy forum.

Steve was the person who introduced me the awesomeness of live houses, even though I got him a #1 ticket for FREENOTE concert, he didn't really enjoyed the live, after spending so much $$$ by paying me to see FREENOTE live for free, plus the transaction + shipping fee, and not to mention another extra ticket. My ticket number was #306, I knew that he has two ~#100 tickets, and he is a very generous person. Before I came to Akita, I was thinking of giving him something for treating me a free live, besides some corny Malaysian key chains, I couldn't think of anything. In the end I gave up the thought of giving him stuff, instead, I thought of treating him a cup of coffee or something if we do meet up.

I'm not really THAT stingy, you know. And secretly, I was hoping that he would give me that #100+ ticket, after showing my 'sincerity' haha.

But then, I didn't receive any calls from him. So I guess he chose to ignore me because I love YUI more, listen to mainstream Jpop, not an active Shangri-la member and sucked away his hard earned $$$. Before going to the live house, I bought another piece of drumstick, told the aunty not to wrap any plastics, and she remembered that I bought the same thing 2 hours ago. Opps.

Then, off to Club SWINDLE~

The moment I reached there, I spotted Steve's back immediately, since he is so tall. It was around 5:20 pm. The live house opens around 5:30 pm. I went to say hi to him, he seems to be in a hurry. Since he had no reason to give me the ticket for free, and I was still in a blur mode after all the napping at the basement, I told him that I couldn't afford to buy off the ticket. And then we went apart. I went to line up at the ~#300 area, wondering why I didn't persuade him to give me the #100+ ticket, in such situation, he could either give me the ticket or throw it away.

I should have been more 'pushy', yet I didn't want to owe him anything more. But then, I was more looking forward to have a small chat with him, since he knows so much on music and live houses in Japan, even though he is not staying in Japan. Guess that I should work harder on approaching 'famous people'.

After reading Steve's live report in Shangri-la forum, I knew that he was going to give me the ticket after all haha. Too bad I was hiding at the back and he couldn't pass me the ticket. Too late >.<

The venue is really small, at first I thought that I might not able to see anything but when Chatmonchy appeared, the crowd started to move forward and I squeezed all the way to the bassist side, in front of the speaker, 4th row I think. Akko was just in front of me. But I couldn't see anything below her shoulder, nor Ecchan's guitars.

This was the first time I saw Chatmonchy, up close. There were couple of times I met eyes with Akko XD Secretly I wished that I was at Ecchan's side though.

Set List (thanks to doubledown11 aka Steve):

01 Hira Hira Hira Himitsu no Tobira
02 Shangri-La (Fun Fun Fun)
03 Kaze Fukeba Koi
04 Somaruyo
05 Sekai ga Owaru
06 Last Love Letter
07 Tobiuo no Butterfly
08 Koi no Kemuri
09 Renai Spirits

I was wearing a jacket with pockets filled with camera, two mp3 players, pedometer, hand phone, it was very difficult for me to jump around with pockets full of stuff =.= My attempt to record this failed during Shangri-La because my mp3 dropped. I didn't continue to record after that.

Live house >>>> Halls. I rather watch DVD then going to big venues, unless I have an expensive binocular. It was great to see that fans were interacting with the artist, when Kumikon and Akko were telling us what they ate, things like Kiritanpo, hata-hata which are famous Akita delicacies, one fan interrupted and asked what Ecchan ate. She replied bananas, of all things. Brought from Aomori.

Then Chatmonchy was saying that even though not many people know about this, they are really close with Base Ball Bear, some people replied: We know we know, Nyaku Nyaku Nannyo right? (I know about it too). We don't get to see fans interrupting MCs in big venues, we have to shout to get noticed.

Maybe because of the night bus, after Chatmonchy, I started to get tired. No more energy to jump. The one thing I don't really like about lives with guests is it takes a lot of time to set up the instruments, I had to stand there do nothing for 30 mins, luckily the background 80s JRock music prevented me from getting crazy.

Shiori san was even more beautiful in real life =O Luckily I was standing at her side *Happy* Been a fan of hers especially after watching Linda Linda Linda, who cares if she can only play so-so bass. I could see Koide's face most of the time, and had to jump to have a peak on Hori-kun and Shohei.

Set List (Thanks to in 小石川殿さん in mixi, he included all the MC too):

01. Dramatic
02. YUME is VISION
03. Gokusaishiki Imagination
04. Heaven's Door Girls (one of my fave in the album)
05. Dakishimetai
06. Labyrinth He No Timing
07. Kamigami LOOKS YOU
08. SAYONARA-NOSTALGIA
09. Yuugata Generation
10. Umi ni naritai
11. LOVE MATHEMATICS
12. CRAZY FOR YOU no Kisetsu
13. ELECTRIC SUMMER

Encore: BBB x Chatmonchy - SUPERCAR's Lucky

I didn't know about SUPERCAR at all before that, but I saw that bassist girl before in MUSIC JAPAN. I was looking at Kumikon and Shiori all the time.

Encore 2: Base Ball Bear - Matsuri no Ato

After watching the PV of Matsuri no Ato, I became a BBB fan. I was kinda happy that Chatmonchy mentioned this song during their MC =D I quickly dashed out from the live house after the song finished because I put my bag in a locker which operates until 9 pm. It was 8:45 pm. It takes 15 mins to go back to the station.



I managed to retrieve my bag back safely. I had another 40 mins before my night bus departs, so I went to Lotteria and ordered a piece of fried chicken for 150 yen, the flour coating definitely made this piece of chicken goes over 10g of net carbs.

That sums up my day in Akita. I don't think I'll come here again any time soon.


Expenses:

Live ticket: 3815 yen
Bus ticket two way from Tokyo: 11800 yen
Salad + dressing: 220 yen
Lunch and Dinner: 570 yen
Locker: 200 yen (cheaper than Tokyo by 100 yen)
Total: 16,605 yen


If you think that I'm lucky, Steve got autographs from BBB and Chatmonchy members.

PS: Three download links are hidden in this post.

This post has nothing to do with YUI.

Two weeks has passed ever since I started this Atkins diet. The results? I lost 3 kgs, getting used to the life without sugar, been drinking nothing but plain water, half of my acne gone (no joke), got a little better at cooking, though I still have a lot to learn, if I want to cook real food.


I love tofu. I cannot afford wild salmon, those are farmed ones.

Tomorrow I got to have a bite on 86% chocolate, almond, and fruits~ But I'm not really that excited about it. I feel that I can live with this current diet, for now. Hmm......

Yesterday I went to RADWIMPS live at Zepp Tokyo with Nahoko, which is nearby Odaiba.



Live houses are wayyy better than those halls with seats. I was jumping and yelling here and there. RADWIMPS has a younger fan base, so most of the fans are more on the crazy side. The vocalist cried halfway during the live, which was totally unexpected.

Tonight I'm going to Akita, somewhere 8 hours away from Tokyo. Tomorrow will be Base Ball Bear concert, with Chatmonchy as guest.

According to this website, JYONGRI is coming to Waseda University to perform. Cool.

I don't have a better looking picture for the Sea YUI mentioned in the song. when I was there, it was cloudy, raining and shitty.


Shingu beach, 22 February 2009

Check out the preview of Sea at YUI-net. Or YouTube.

Shigezou san was 'teaching' someone to play the evil F chord.

Partial Lyrics
Chords

Time to drag a member in my music club to sing this song =D Love it!


Speaking of the music club, I joined their camp thingy last weekend at Chichibu (秩父), Saitama prefecture. Apparently it was my first time staying in a ryokan (Japanese style inn), normally staying in such place in more expensive than hotels, but you'll get to eat traditional Japanese food, and hot spring.

As I'm still on Atkins diet, during the drinking session, I didn't touch any drinks or chips, snacks, junk food. MIRACLE. I just sat there and eavesdropping, learned this thing called Circle of fifths from a senior who played DEPAPEPE and Oshio Kotaro's Savanna. Way more fun than trying to make friends with people who already has their own friends or doesn't give a poop on you.


Guitar is a must have for this music club.

I wore the Singapore YL T-shirt to show how much I love guitar and YUI, telling them I am the 'head' of some international YUI forum lol, and played a couple of YUI songs in front of those first year students (future *victims*). If not no one will know what a YUI maniac we are, even though we are from overseas.

Today I managed to get one first year to drag other first years to sing CHE.R.RY together on next week's gathering, because another YUI fan (guy) said that guys would like to see CHE.R.RY, when she couldn't decide which song to sing lol.

I'll work hard on the barre chords >.<

Oh I have a temporary band now, and I get the chance to play these songs in newcomers live on June 28:

1. YUI - feel my soul (either electric or acoustic)
2. Chatmonchy - Hana no yume (electric guitar)
3. flumpool - Over the rain (bass)

Apparently YUI and Chatmonchy have the most votes among our group, I suggested Hana no yume and they seemed to like it heehee. They encourage members to try out other instruments so I chose bass instead. Hopefully it doesn't take up much practise time because I want to improve my guitar skills more.

Even though I was kinda alone most of the time during the trip, I didn't really mind since I'm going back soon, no more time for random chitchat or trying to fit/squeeze in first year's or second year's group. People like to be in groups, I'll just do my thing and if someone noticed my existence, that'll be a plus.

Wednesday will be RADWIMPS live~

I'm so gonna screw up in my Japanese classes.

Request: Any kind soul willing to send me the Last Train performance video in Yume Chika Live or YUI Radio #5??? Last Train performance only. I have the videos, just that I'm lazy to figure out how to cut it.

YUI-net has updated again, did you guys check out the red button?

According to the latest YUI STAFF DIARY, they are planning to give away YUI again wristband, and Fender picks with YUI sign on it, to celebrate the release of again.




Source: YUI STAFF DIARY

You guys can check out the close up of those prizes at YUI MOVIE SHOW. The picks look so darn cool.

In order to win these stuff, first get a copy of again CD. There's this special post card thingy inserted in the CD. Fill out the form and write down your again story. Something that you have decided to try it out or do it again, and send it to Sony.

The deadline is on June 30, and you'll get your prize around the second half of July, I guess we'll have another new episode of YUI RADIO then =D

So if you guys wanted to let me win this contest, send me your again postcard haha. I'll give you guys my address in Japan hee.


A little bit update on myself:


Playing YUI's I'll be, with Marina san =D Photo by Yukio.

Next week will be Last Train. Maybe I'll get to play with a real band in next month??

Time to get serious in guitar-ing. Play something more 'complex'.

Album: Elephant Kashimashi - Noboreru Taiyou, The Killers - Day & Age

Last weekend, first I met one of my beloved junior in Nagano, then the next day I went to Yamanashi prefecture for free. The scenery in Yamanashi is one of the best!


Finally, I see you, dear Mount Fuji.

According to the tour guide, Mount Fuji is a girl and 60% of her ass is in Shizuoka prefecture and another 40% is in Yamanashi prefecture. If she decides to pay Osaka a visit, it would be impossible because her ass can't even fit whole Osaka.

Right now, everyone in Japan is having Golden Week. Waseda students get 7 days off consecutively. Technically I should have been travelling or going out, instead, I spent most of time going to gym, supermarkets, cooking, listen to podcasts/audiobooks, reading, and surfing the internet.


It only costs 2000 yen per year to use Waseda's gym. Unbelievable. I'm too lazy to learn how to lift weights and do exercise such as burpees, squats and what not, so I run on the treadmill and cycle instead.

I don't why I suddenly have this urge to go on a strict diet regimen, the more I read, the more I wanted to discipline myself. Hence I started Atkins diet, forcing myself to cook every meal, reintroducing pork and chicken into my diet in order to make myself full since I can't eat rice/pasta/bread any more.


My dinner today, I only ate half of them.

In order to keep my daily intake of carbohydrate below 20g (1 banana already has 14 g of carbs), I have to eat more meat than usual. Suddenly my grocery spending has gone up twice as much because I have to eat those whole fresh foods instead of cheap junk food. Well, I'll take it as an experiment, really looking forward to the results. I count all the carbs of the food I ate using FitDay, it has been pretty interesting, so far. Who wouldn't know that carrots have kinda high carb count too =.=

Today should be my 5th day on the induction phase (2 weeks long), I failed it because I ate 86% dark chocolate which is not on the acceptable food list. Aiks have to do all over again.

I can't wait for these two weeks to pass, then I can have some low GI fruits and nuts. Fighting! Been reading all the food labels I can find on my grocery shopping these days. I love grocery shopping.

Anyway, YUI stalking activity is still going on and tomorrow I'll be going to DAI's acoustic free live with another YL, from Canada ;)

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????
.
.
.
.
.



=.=

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.

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.

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??????

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.

This is the loongggg delayed second part of my Tohoku & Hokkaido trip on 24 December 2008. Part 1 is here. This post has something to do with YUI.

Christmas eve. I reached Sapporo (札幌) around 6 in the morning. It was still in complete darkness, and I had 3 hours to kill before meeting up with my friend from Otaru (小樽). Lawson saved me from wandering around Sapporo alone.


I love Lawson.

I camped inside Lawson, brushed teeth, washed face, and charged my phone until the sun rise. While waiting for my friend to come, I decided to go visit Hokkaido University on my own. It is just 10 mins away from Sapporo station.


It took me more than 10 mins to have the courage and asked someone to take this picture of me outside Hokkaido University. Unlike the university tour in Singapore, I don't have any connections in Hokkaido University, so I was just wandering around.

In Sapporo, you can 'clear' all the so called tourist spots in half day. I don't know much about Sapporo, I only wanted to go Hitsuji-ga-oka (Hill of sheep), and the place where YUI did street live.


Me and Sae in front of clock tower. I knew her through mixi and Shiina Ringo. She didn't really want to take photos because she was afraid that her friends might see her doing such tourist-y thing in her home town. Don't be fooled by the picture, this 'famous' clock tower is actually in between two high buildings.

On our way to my hotel, I 'passed by' the place where YUI did her street live while she was on I LOVED YESTERDAY tour thanks to my guide.



Google サンドラッグ 狸小路２丁目店 (SUNDRUG store in Susukino) or 名取川靴店 to find the exact location.

Tanukikouji (狸小路) is a famous shopping arcade near subway Susukino (すすきの) station. Actually you can walk from Sapporo station as well. Btw Susukino is a famous red light district in Sapporo too.





Sapporo is famous for its miso ramen. After checking in my hotel which is located near red light districts (sorry mom), we went to have miso ramen.


Not really my type because the taste was too strong (濃い). I don't really like ramen anyway. Not extra toppings even though it was char siu-less, still costed the same, they really don't know how to please the customer =/

And then we were off to see Hitsuji-ga-oka (羊ヶ丘) mentioned in YUI Diary. We went to Fukuzumi station (福住) and took a bus to there.


BOYS BE AMBITIOUS!! Dr. Koto anyone? I wore like 4 layers on top and 2 bottom, so pardon the fat aunty look.

Actually that was the first time in my life seeing so much snow, and seeing sheeps.


Not a bad place but besides seeing Dr. Clark and sheeps, there's nothing much left.


Those freaking sheeps ignored me completely by showing their @sses.

Next, Sae's home town, Otaru (小樽), which is 30 mins away from Sapporo by train. Love Letter anyone? (never watched it before though)


Go see this river/canal, and you can tell everyone that you've been to Otaru. Someone told me that he likes this place a lot though. It is quite different from Sapporo I must say.

The train to Otaru was included in the Hokkaido & Tohoku pass.

Nobody wants to spend Christmas Eve alone, especially in Japan. Luckily I found out that another bunch of Waseda students were coming here and decided to meet up with them in Otaru. And thanks to Sae, my first ever lone trip wasn't that lonely after all ;)


They only 'group' photo I have. I was checking the phone. From left: US/Canada, Australia/HK, Taiwan/SG, Malaysia. Camerawoman: UK/Japan/Korea. Another US girl was hiding.

It took us a while to meet up each other in Otaru because my guide was lost, in her home town lol. They wanted to have crab buffet (4000 yen) for dinner. Since I'm stingy, I chose to go back to hotel and had food from convenient store. On my way back, I saw this radio station in Sapporo station.


RAD's radio station. Maybe YUI has been here before?

After spending two nights in the train, seeing this bed was a huge relief.


My only 'real accommodation' for this 5 day trip (3675 yen). Come to think of it, in my whole life, I don't really get to stay in such fancy hotels that often.

Fell asleep after having a super long hot shower (I supported Earth Hour yesterday).

End of day 3.

Part 1: Tohoku & Hokkaido Trip Day 1 & 2 - Niigata, Yamagata, Akita, Aomori