Haha. On tonight's show Jin came on for a moment with some food combinations he wanted the hosts (from comedy duo 'Downtown') to try. He said the first one was his original creation and number 2 and 3 were suggestions from staff which he liked.

1. Takuan (pickled daikon) + Raa-yu (Chinese red chilli oil - the kind eaten with gyoza)

I bet some of you remember the episode of Cartoon KAT-TUN, in which Jin forced the other members to try this combination. It didn't go down well then but for some reason Jin won't give up making other people try it.

Jin - "There's something wrong with their [the other KAT-TUN member's] tongues." (When asked why the other members didn't like it)

Matsumoto Hitoshi - "I never want to try that again." (After eating one piece)

2. Ochazuke (a Japanese dish of rice and other ingredients with hot tea poured over it) without tea and with cheese and hot milk poured over it instead.

Jin - "It's like risotto."

Matsumoto - "It's surprisingly good."

3. Cream puff with curry poured over it.

Jin - "I've never tried this before tonight..."

Hamada Masatoshi - "I didn't like it. But the worst combination was number 1..."

Jin - "There's something wrong with actors' tongues too."

Jin's performance of Bandage was slightly better than last week's M-Sute but still not that great. I don't know. He must have been nervous because he seemed to have trouble singing in tune. O_o; He looked really hot with that hat on and liked his hair. It reminded me of his look in LIPS.

EXILE's performance of 'Futatsu no Kuchibiru' was amazing. Can't wait til the single is released at my local CD rental shop.

YamaP's hair looked hot. And Jin's aviator sunnies are sexy. He looked like a total rockstar with his hair pulled back like that.

( In case you don't want to know any more without having seen it yourself. )

Just watched YamaP on HEY! HEY! HEY! MUSIC CHAMP. He performed LOVELESS and omg... when did YamaP become so sexy? He sang really well live. I have this habit of avoiding listening to online versions of songs I want to buy but now that I've heard it and absolutely love it, I'll buy it tomorrow.

A few actors including (actress) Ryo, Toda Erika, Hannya and Aikawa Sho (who played the cop in Kurosagi). I was trying to watch the TV show and check the cranberry muffins I had baking in the oven at the same time so I missed a bit but managed to catch a few facts I didn't know before:

• Toda Erika said that he has a habit of adjusting his fringe (bangs). He also has really smooth skin, like a baby's. Also, if likened to an animal he would be a cat because if he is not interested in something he doesn't pretend to be. She did this great impression of him too!
• Ryo said that his biggest problem is that he's too nice. He's nice to both men and women and is a great listener. She said that girls probably get the wrong idea because he's so nice to them. She said she'd liken him to a lion.
• Hannya (Kanada and Kawashima) said that he has awesome pecs and abs. Also they said that he is a big drinker and doesn't just drink beer and sake, he drinks hard liquor like whiskey and doesn't change a bit.
• Aikawa said that when he drinks alcohol he eats a lot. Maybe even twice as much as Aikawa could eat.
• YamaP said one of his close friends just gave birth and he was the one that set them up (cupid) so they named their kid Tomota, taking the 'Tomo' from Tomohisa. Awww.

At one point, he pulled out his glasses and put them on and all the girls in the audience went mental. He did look smoking hot. Gah, I wish I had balloted for his solo concert now, but I wouldn't have been able to afford going to Yokohama. Argh.

Meanwhile, Akanishi is on next week's episode! OMG. I must watch it.

Now for Tokyo Dogs...

Sports Day

Oh, my arms hurt from entering the 綱引き (tsunahiki - tug of war) event at the PTA sports day yesterday. I'm really glad I went. I got to meet some nice parents; some of which really made the effort to talk to me. They gave me snacks, bought me lunch and even gave me some alcohol-free beer (a real first... it's not so bad actually). We lost the tug of war to Fukuda junior high. Fukuda seem to whip our asses in everything; it is so depressing. Last thing I remember was when they came first overall for the JHS karate tournament.

I did an absolutely pathetic job at 玉入れ (tamaire -  throwing coloured balls into a wicker basket on a stick) and didn't get a single ball in, despite having played basketball all my life. The problem was that when everyone throws a ball up in the air at once, they rebound off each other and nothing goes in. Ok, well that's my lame excuse. Oh, and one of the dads almost stepped on my hand while I was reaching for a ball. Our team only got 18/100 balls in. Hahaha. The highest was 55.

The good news is that the relay went relatively well for me. I wasn't nervous at all for some reason and by the time I passed the baton onto the 6th runner, I had overtaken two people so we were in second place! But then when the baton was handed to the 10th (last) runner, who happened to be the PTA chairman, no less (a small Japanese lady in her late 30s), she fell flat onto her face. We ended up coming 5th or something and I could tell the rest of the team were disappointed but I felt so bad for the Chairman who was quite clearly embarrassed. She wasn't hurt but I think her pride certainly was. I guess most adults aren't used to running so it's easy to fall over in that kind of high-pressure situation.

After the race, so many parents said I was really fast; one even said I was the fastest in the team and even our Principal said I was fast and had the potential to become great at kumite (karate sparring), which made me quite pleased. It is kind of funny because in Australia I was always very average at running (coming like 4th or 5th in a 100m race) but compared to the Japanese, I'm considered fast. Hohoho. I am clearly in the right country.

Anime and TV

As I've mentioned in the past, I don't really follow much anime at all these days (Chibi Maruko-chan and Crayon Shin-chan don't really count because I just watch those whenever they come on TV) but I do watch Naruto Shippuuden as it's released by Taka Fansubs, who are an excellent subbing group. I noticed they were subbing a series called Dragonball Kai, which was up to episode 30 so I figured it was a new series and decided to do a little bit of research... only to discover it's actually a remastered version of Dragonball Z with a new opening and with some voices redone, etc... which made me want to watch it even more because I watched pretty much all of DBZ dubbed back in the day. Watching the Japanese version took some getting used to. I kept thinking... why is Goku's voice so damn high? And Vegita doesn't sound mean enough. But I think a lot of the original humour was lost in dubbing it into English because the Japanese version is funny! Episode 30 is the Namek saga, definitely one of my favourites.

I've come to the realisation that when it comes to drama, I prefer watching raw episodes rather than subbed episodes. Subtitles are often more distracting than useful. Not to mention that subtitles are not beneficial to improving my Japanese as reading subtitles means I don't really listen to the dialogue as closely as I could. Of course, it depends on content of the drama. For example, if there is a lot of technical or complex language, I need subtitles!

Music

It occurred to me recently after going to karaoke with friends in Japan, that I don't listen to non-Japanese music at all these days and don't know any songs made after 2007. It's not that I don't like Western music, it's just that I have no desire to listen to it when I can listen to Japanese music.

My top three songs of the moment:

1. もっと・・・　／西野カナ
2. MY LONELY TOWN ／B’z
3. 僕は君に恋をする／平井堅

All of them are on the Oricon top 20 charts so they're played everywhere. Speaking of B'z, they've been around for so long but why is it I never got interested in them until Buzzer Beat used イチブトゼンブ as an opening song?

I didn't hit for the flumpool special mobile-club members' special concert (Tokyo/Osaka/Nagoya). I balloted for Osaka and wasn't too surprised to receive the rejection email this afternoon. I knew my chances were slim enough and that I was already short on money this month so I was mentally prepared for rejection. Still, it would have been nice...

I still haven't bought the NEWS DVD and am stubbornly refusing to listen to ripped versions online in case I do end up buying it. I went to Tower Records and held it in my hands for about 10 minutes before mustering up all my will power, putting it back on the shelf and walking out. I was proud of myself for having that much self-restraint.

TV

Is anyone watching Samurai High School? I watched the first two episodes and really like it! Somehow, I really like watching drama set at school because now that I actually teach in a Japanese school, I can relate to them more. Shirota Yuu's character is so different from the kind of roles he usually plays and he's really entertaining.

Bakusho Red Theatre was so funny last week. They had a contest to determine who would be the new leader. The comedians contesting for the title were Kano Eiko (defending leader), Yatabe Shun (我が家) and Kanada Satoshi (はんにゃ). The challenge was that they had to run across a pool of water with stepping stones, but some of the stones would sink if stepped on. Once they crossed the pool, they had to run up a slope covered in soap or something to make it really slippery and grab a rope and pull themselves up to the finish. It was SO funny. I laughed so hard, my neighbours probably heard me. I've been trying to find a video of it online to share but to no avail.

Life

I attended the JET Nagasaki Prefecture mid-year conference on Thursday and Friday. It was a lot better than last year's and I actually found it valuable. I realised that lately I've been feeling a bit burned out from teaching and needed some fresh perspective. I'm ready to face another school week starting tomorrow, as I've been entered into the PTA Sports Festival. I'm doing three events; tug-o-war, throwing coloured balls into a basket and a relay. I always get really nervous before a race, so I hope I can stay calm and run the best I can. I've been thinking more and more about life after JET. I am still in two minds about whether I want to go home or stay for another year. I thought I had made up my mind to go home next year in August (after my current contract runs out) but there's a strong part of me that wants to stay in Japan. I told my family that I wasn't going to sign another contract and told some of my friends but I'm just not sure. I only have 10 months left of my life here in Japan if I decide not to re-contract.

I've decided to sit for the Japanese Language Proficiency Test (JLPT) level 1 next year in July. I have been studying Japanese a lot more since I moved back to Japan and am confident that I can pass if I put in the work. If I pass, then I'll have achieved one of the main goals in my coming back to Japan.

Ok, before I completely forget about my experience I thought it was time to post a long overdue report.

I got to Nippon Budokan at 2pm because I was worried that I wouldn't be able to find the place, but it was pretty easy to find. Budokan is in the middle of a park and the nearest subway stop is Kudanshita. The actual Budokan is really cool.

( Report and rambling with photos! )

Contract renewal offers will be given in December and we have until February to decide whether to stay for another year starting in July next year. At this point I am really thinking about going home. To me Japan is a fantasy-world where time stays still, but at home everything is changing. I'm getting older I realise, as it's my 25th birthday in a couple of weeks. I always get kind of sad around my birthday in Japan because I want to be with my family and friends back home.

Anyway, I started going to karate club at school again. Today the vice-captain of the team Deguchi taught me a new kata. He is trained in Goju-ryu (a style of karate that originates from Okinawa) and taught me saifa, one of the easiest kata he knows (upon request). It's pretty bad-ass and Goju-ryu is definitely more masculine than the style I learn, which seems a lot more graceful. At first I found it impossible to remember but after asking him to do the steps with me about 8 times (poor kid), I pretty much have them down. Now it's just about making it look good. I'm going to ask my sensei about it tomorrow but he may not know. I was pretty surprised to talk to Deguchi for the first time after the summer break. He's all grown up! Before the break he was just a little kid, although much more mature compared to his other peers but something has definitely changed. I need to practice really hard so I don't get in the way O_O; Man, those kids make me feel like I'm rubbish at karate. Deguchi learned a new kata after being shown just once - that's how fast they are. Or maybe the better you get at karate and the more kata you do, the easier it is to see patterns in the movements and so it becomes easier to remember? I'm hoping that's the case.

In other news... Buzzer Beat ends next week with a 75 minute finale. I'm really sad that it's ending because it's definitely been my favourite series of the season. I thought Koishite Akuma was my favourite, but the last couple of episodes were a little disappointing. Another ALT Emma even sent me an email saying: "I bet they ran out of budget for that last CG scene." during the final episode but I still cried, haha. I am getting really sensitive in my old age.

EDIT @ 12:16AM

Hang on a second I forgot to mention... what is with HSJ getting their own FC? I joined the Johnny's Jnr. FC just so I could ballot for their concerts a little easier but now it's going to cost another 5000 yen a year. Granted, the Jnr FC only costs 2000 yen a year in blank postcards but still... You&J costs 5000 and includes Kanjani, KAT-TUN AND NEWS. OMG. To join HSJ's FC or not to join?!

The top news of the moment in the staffroom at school, thanks to a report of the morning news show I watch, Mezamashi TV, is that Yamapi has the flu. And apparently, so does Nishikido Ryo! I actually noticed that Yamapi wasn't very genki on 24 hour TV and looked drawn and tired in the most recent episode of Buzzer Beat. I hope he gets well soon! (and it's not just because I don't want Buzzer Beat to go on a break from filming)

Actually everyone seems to make a big deal out of the flu here in Nagasaki because it's supposedly rampant again even though it's summer.  Some kids from another school played badminton against some of the kids from my school and there was a big uproar about flu prevention. I've been marking about 180 3rd grade JHS student diaries and many of them said their goal is not to get sick this year. Our school principal even made a speech at the closing ceremony of term 1 saying he wanted the kids to promise that they'd:

1. study during vacation and keep a regular schedule
2. pursue something they were interested and
3. try not to get sick

But I mean who actually tries to get sick? You never actually expect it unless you run around in the snow naked or something. But even then there people who gargle 3 times a day and wash their hands thoroughly and still manage to get sick.

Anyway right now I'm cho-genki. As in *smacks cheeks* I don't remember feeling this healthy in a long time. I'm not tired all the time even though I have the same amount of sleep (if not less than) I had before.

Ahhh, half an hour more! I only discovered the joys of the timer function on the TV when I moved to Japan and got my shiny LCD. I've got it programmed in so even though my TV is off, it'll switch on just before my show starts. If I'm watching another channel it'll automatically change it to the correct one too. Oh, technology.

.... EEEEEEEEEEEEEE it started! OMGGGGGGGG

EDIT: 10:32pm

Buzzer Beat is so good I drank half a cup of tea before realising the milk was off. =_=; Hahaha. I love the whole 'Love Makes Me Strong' theme. I want to fall in love too...

I also want some pretty Buzzer Beat icons.

This season's drama series are so good, I don't want them to end.

... but they're not great seats. Even though I was at Lawson waiting for the clock to count down to 10am so I could be the first one to get tickets released to the general public, they ended up being stand seats right up the back because all the good seats seem to have already been sold to people during pre-sale.

I'm kind of disappointed, because once you experience a concert up close, you can't go back to the stands. I sound really spoilt now, don't I?

I wanted arena seats. Especially since I'm going to fly all the way to Tokyo from Nagasaki, which at the very least will set me back 25,000 yen for a return ticket.

I am in the process of acquiring an arena C block seat for Budoukan but it'd only be a single seat. I love going to concerts, but going alone isn't as fun as going with a friend. I hope this seat works out though because I'm buying it from a fellow fan who isn't ripping me off - at least I don't think she is.

That's the problem with large venues; even arena seats might not be fantastic but it sure beats a stand seat up the back on the 2nd level. Why is the Budoukan so damn large? : S

But you know what else... the tickets sold out by this evening.

So I brought my Wii back to Yamada Denki this afternoon to get it repaired. They had a whole book full of Nintendo repair slips and said that because of the O-Bon holiday, there was a chance that repairs could be backed up and could take up to a month. :O But I was thinking... do I really have a choice? *sigh* so I am without my Wii for the next month and all I can do is read the booklet of the game I can't play. HA HA HA.

In other news, I got my Macbook successfully hooked up to my Sharp AQUOS LC-20D30 LCD TV with audio, which proved to be no small task.  Getting the picture to display was simple, but getting the audio to work was such a pain in the ass. First I tried using the 3.5mm to RCA but that was no good... because the picture was connected with a Mini DV to HDMI cable, so my TV was expecting audio input from the HDMI slot... so then I got the 3.5mm to 3.5mm cable, found this audio-in jack at the back of my TV, separate to the headphone jack and fiddled with the menu on my TV and got it working! Searching online proved fairly useless as most people said that you'd have to do it via VGA, not HDMI or connect external speakers, which I don't have. Clearly, I'm a technical genius.

Oh, I'm a little sad because I didn't pre-order Arashi's All the BEST 1999 - 2009 LE album and missed out. I was half-expecting there to be a few copies left because this IS Nagasaki and stores never seem to sell out of LE's until about a week after release. IThe release date wasn't supposed to be until tomorrow, but stores often get the stock a day earlier. I guess it goes to show just how amazingly popular Arashi is here. They still have LE copies of 悪魔な恋 / NYC (Themesong to 'Koishite Akuma') and that was released a month ago! Tower Records still had copies of the RE but I just don't buy RE on principal. CDs are already so expensive so you may as well pay 1000 yen more and get one that could be a collector's item one day. I am tempted to go out and buy Kobukuro's new album 'Calling', because I love me some Kobukuro. But I guess it can wait until pay day this Friday.

Ok, so I watched like episode 6 last week and had only previously seen episodes 1&2 (subbed by TimeLessub) so I decided to download the other HD raw episodes to watch on my LCD. Episode 3 was so good! Nakajima Kento's (B.I. Shadow) character Handa Hiroto is so cute when he gives Ruka advice on how to get the girl. Another reason I love this show is because it's filmed in Yokohama, where I used to live. : ) When I see Ruka sitting and looking out to the bay area, I can see all these familiar places I used to visit on a regular basis like 'World Porters' shopping centre and the big ferris wheel. Ruka's brother Shota played by Morimoto Shintaro (Johnny's Jr) is also extremely adorable. Oh, Johnny's boys. You will be the death of me.

Looking forward to episode 7 tomorrow! Exciting times! 

I better get to sleep early tonight because I was a complete zombie at school today. I have a "meeting" from 9-12, then will lug the stupid broken Wii to Yamada Denki for repairs and then head back to my neighbourhood for a doctors appointment, followed by karate practice from 6.30pm-9pm, followed by episode 7 of Koishite Akuma at 10pm. A busy day ahead, but I am really looking forward to it!

On another note, I hooked up my Macbook to my Sharp Aquos LCD via mini-DV to HDMI but can't seem to get the sound to come out of my TV. I bought a headphone jack to audio (red and white) cable, but my LCD seems to be confused because it's been set to HDMI input no sound as it's coming from DV. If anyone on my f-list is technical, do you think a headphone jack to headphone jack will work?

Well, I thought about how broke I've been in Japan despite having lived here for more than a year on a decent salary and realise that I need to prioritise what I want to see while I'm in Japan or I won't have enough money to buy new shoes (which I actually need). I've travelled a fair bit this year, including going to Tokyo, Osaka, Okinawa, Hiroshima and even Korea.

So I've decided that I'd fly to Tokyo to see Arashi (if flailinginlove hits tickets), KAT-TUN (although I already did see them twice now), flumpool (my current favourites) and even NEWS (because I missed the Winter Diamond Party Concert last year because I was going to Singapore) but as much as I like Hey! Say!, the furthest I'd travel to see them is to Fukuoka, which is a 2.5 hour/4000 yen bus ride away. Besides, I am going home to Australia for Christmas this year, because it'd be another year before I got to see my family again and I miss them. The flight to Australia isn't so expensive, but flying back will be pretty steep.

I renewed my membership to You&J (the fan club which includes KAT-TUN, Kanjani8 and NEWS) and I'm hoping there will be many more concerts between now and the same time next year. Come on, NEWS! At least release a new single or something... oh, and I'd really like to see Kanjani8 again, but they only just finished touring so it'll be a while before their next one.

Oh man, I really want to go to this concert on September 13th, but how can I justify the flight up to Tokyo? Not to mention the leave I'll have to take and accommodation for the weekend (I wouldn't want to go for just one day). Plus there's always a chance I'll only be able to hit shitty stand seats because the Dome is so huge.

But Yamada Ryosuke is so pretty. And who knows when they'll be touring again. It might not get the chance to see them again while I'm in Japan.

Argh... I'm torn.

Just watching turned on the TV to see Oshareism with Daito Shunsuke as the special guest. He's actually really funny and cute! I never noticed before because he always plays the bad boy (such as in HanaKimi or in Crows Zero).

He talked about his first love, a girl named Ayaka that he confessed to in elementary school and how she moved after they graduated and he never saw her again. Then the hosts brought her out! He was so shocked and overcome with emotion that his eyes were watering and he couldn't make eye-contact with her. It turns out they even planted a time capsule together, in which he wrote a letter to himself 10 years in the future, which basically talked about what the future Ayaka would be like, a great cook and beautiful. Ayaka actually was married and they brought out her husband and their daughter who was sooo cute. Daito-kun then picked her up and when the hosts asked how if felt to hold the child of his first love, he said he was really happy. ;_;

Oh and also... I'm going to see KAT-TUN again on Wednesday! I got B-block Arena seats and can hardly wait. : ) I'm going to go early and buy loads of concert goods, bwahaha. There goes all my money again.

I'm going to China in September. Well, pretty sure that I'm going except that we haven't paid for the flights yet. I'm a little concerned about going because of the money situation... but I feel as if I can't back out now because I said I'd go with some of the ALTs here. To be perfectly honest, I'm more interested in seeing more of Japan, but they seem to want to go around Asia.

Does anyone else follow Naruto: Shippuuden? I never finished watching the original series but got into Shippuuden when I came to Japan again. It's really addictive; especially the current arc. Last week they did a two hour special Kakashi side-story set 10 years in the past that actually moved me to tears. That's gotta be at least the second time I've cried while watching Naruto! Haha, it's kind of sad. But Kakashi was such a bad-ass even when he was a kid.

Right now the kids in Japan are on Summer vacation until September September 1st. The Nagasaki City ALTs have been given the task of planning the Juunenken, a one-day workshop for teachers in their 10th year of service. The only real guideline we have is that it has to be in English and the teachers must speak English too. For this reason we're to meet at the Citizen's hall every day from 9am-12pm and talk about what we're going to do for the workshop. But since we have a ridiculous amount of time to do it in and the new ALTs haven't arrived in the city yet (four arrive today and will attend from tomorrow), we spend the three hours relaxing and doing activities ranging from studying Japanese to playing cards (our favourite game is called 'asshole') and eating. In the afternoon, we're free to do whatever we want. I can't complain. During the school term my job is actually quite demanding, not because I have to use a lot of brain power, but from the sheer amount of work I have, including but not limited to stuff like marking papers, photocopying and planning class activities. I teach at two elementary schools on top of the other two Junior High Schools and one of them has asked me to translate the Japanese lesson plans into English. The other school had no proper English curriculum in place so before I arrived they had no lesson materials other than flashcards for fruit and vegetables, colours, etc. There's only so much you can do with those. When I got to the school, I immediately noticed how low the level of English ability was compared to my other elementary school. Granted they are an island school but once they go to Junior High some of them might have to go into the city.

Anyway, I recently acquired an oven from an outgoing ALT and decided to test it today. I made chocolate brownies, using a brownie pre-mix and adding butter, eggs, milk, walnuts and chocolate. It came out a little weird... like almost cake-like; not dense enough and quite spongy. My mum's brownie recipe makes these really chewy ones, which are the best! I'll have to buy more ingredients and make them from scratch next time.

On Thursday July 30th, I went to Kyocera Dome in Osaka to watch the final show of the Kanjani8 (関ジャニ∞) 'PUZZLE' tour. Honestly, I was never that interested in Kanjani8 because I hadn't listened to much of their music. But when flailinginlove got tickets and invited me to go with her, I couldn't resist because I'd recently become a Nishikido Ryo (also a member of NEWS) fan after watching him act in the fairly recent drama series Ryusei no Kizuna (Bound by Shooting Stars). She managed to hit Arena seats, which were absolutely amazing as we were literally one metre away from the moving platform that went around the main stage. I was so close to Nishikido Ryo and as he went by on the stage, I felt like we made eye contact. Or it could've been with the girls behind me or next to me, but well... it was pretty amazing. His gaze is even more smouldering in real life!

I sneakily took a photo of the main stage (mobile phone usage was prohibited inside):



This girl sitting in front of me had this ridiculous palm-tree hairstyle which was totally obstructing my vision during some moments, but I was too chicken to say anything *sigh*.

The concert was great! I actually bought their latest album in preparation so I would know some of their songs and not look like a complete idiot.  I was also familiar with the other members names and faces by the end of the concert. One member, Okura Tadayoshi reminded me a lot of Kamenashi Kazuya from KAT-TUN. I'm not sure why but possibly because they both have sharp facial features.

Because it was the last concert in their home city of Osaka, the concert went for more than three hours. They also recorded the concert and are planning to release it on DVD in the future. I feel pretty fortunate because they sang a new song and had the audience sing part of it for an actual recording for release. We couldn't actually buy any concert goods because they had already sold out by the time we got to the stalls... that was kind of a let down.

... but possibly a blessing in disguise because it means I'll have more money for the next KAT-TUN Summer Concert I'm going to in two weeks. I managed to get Arena B block seats for a daytime show in Fukuoka. I'm hoping my seats will be as good as or better than my Kanjani8 seats because if I could see Jin up close, I'd probably cry (like the girl next to me in the Kanjani8 show did when she saw Yasuda Shota go past). Here's hoping!

Thanks flailinginlove! I had a great time. Let's go and see HSJ together next time. We can be old audience members together... ; )

Yesterday I got on the bus and headed off to see flumpool live in Fukuoka. The bus ride from Nagasaki to Fukuoka is a little over two hours. I go there early, so I went shopping and bought a new dress from my favourite boutique Heather. I wish I had the capital to open one in Sydney because I know it would do well. The designs are great, it's reasonably-priced and everything is really well-made.

At 4pm, I went to the venue to buy concert goods and there were so many scalpers asking if I had any spare tickets or if I wanted better seats. They were so dodgy-looking. I bought a sports towel, tour t-shirt and pamphlet. The pamphlet is really well-made. It's really small, about the size of a CD but a bit thicker, but made to look like a magazine. It has interviews, facts and pictures of the band. They are definitely my current favourite!

Anyway after buying the concert goods I had more time to kill before the actual show so I wondered into Mandarake, a kind of otaku superstore. I was actually feeling kind of uncomfortable walking around in there because it was filled with shady-looking geeks. They had one section with retro games, which was pretty cool. I was really surprised to find Nintendo Game & Watch handhelds going for 20,000+ yen a piece... which is crazy since I am pretty sure I have two lying around at home in Sydney, both in working condition. I remember when my mum gave me Super Mario Game & Watch one Christmas. It was probably the start of my love for video games. (My sister got 'brick game', a Tetris imitation)

I was in the middle, 14 rows from the stage, so I was pretty close to the stage and could see their faces clearly. Genki (bass) is so fashionable... all the girls kept screaming 'kakkoii!' (COOL!) from the audience. Ryuta's voice is excellent, even performing live. He even hit all the high notes with ease. I was totally blown away by their performance. It was flawless. The funniest member is probably Kazuki (guitar), he kept cracking jokes and got hit on the head by a large (1m) paper fan by Genki. Before his solo during the encore, a male voice from the audience called out his name and Kazuki was like: "Awww, why is a guy calling my name?" It was so funny because shortly after the same male voice shouted "I love you!". At the end of the concert, Kazuki threw guitar picks into the audience and I CAUGHT ONE. Well, it was really dark so when he threw it, nobody knew where it landed. I heard it hit the ground softly behind me, turned around and there it was! SCORE!!

Oh well, I'd better go. I'm off to watch a baseball game! Fukuoka Softbank Hawks vs. Orix Buffaloes. Gooooo Hawks! Tomorrow I leave for Osaka and Kyoto to meet up with Kara (a friend from Sydney), who is visiting Japan for the first time. I'm really excited to see her. : )

Just thought I'd post a link to my J-adventure ramblings here: nagasakibaby.blogspot.com

Yeah, it's ugly. But I like blogger in the way that it's parent and non computer-savvy people friendly, so I can keep in touch with people back home. Nobody really reads it though... haha.

I'm going to keep LJ going because I have a paid account. I'll probably use it for fandom/geek-related topics such as...

Concerts I'm going to in Japan

Sunday, May 10. 2009 - Aqua Timez in Nagasaki

I only got standing seats for this one, but I'm really excited as it'll be my first concert in Japan.

Friday, May 15. 2009 - KAT-TUN in Tokyo

OMFG. All I can say is 来たぁ! I've been waiting for this ever since I got to Japan (and missed out on the Queen of Pirates Concert). I joined You&J as soon as I got to Japan, balloted for tickets and got a pretty good seat. I need to pick up my copy of the new KT CD. I pre-ordered it but was in Okinawa when it was released. To be honest my obsession with KT isn't as strong as it was when I was still in Australia, but going to the concert will no-doubt renew it.

Monday, July 27. - flumpool in Fukuoka

I only discovered this band after one of their songs 花になれ (Hana ni nare) was played non-stop on TV as part of an AU Lismo commerical (a cell phone network in Japan). Their first album 'Unreal' is one of my favourite albums ever.