Merry Christmas! 圣诞节快乐！Selamat Hari Krismas! Joyeux Noël! メリークリスマス！

Okay, that's "Merry Christmas" in just about all the languages that I can type/ write it in. Lol. And in case that doesn't sufficiently convey my meaning; "Merry Christmas to everyone!"

It doesn't feel very Christmassy this year, I'll admit, what with the state of the world and everything, but I suppose you've got to be happy for the things that you do have.

Next up, Shinjiro's Christmas blogpost! I think he's been excited about Christmas (and the fact that Christmas is on a Sunday, his blog-day, which means he gets to blog about it) for ages, haha.

---

(-(エ)☆)V

2011年12月25日

 

メリクリ〜！！！！！

みんな、どんなクリスマスを過ごしてますかぁ〜？？

俺は、直也くん家で、ひろやんと直也くんの友達とクリスマスパーティー中☆

(He was at Naoya's house having a Christmas party with Maekawa Hiroki and Naoya's friends; so cute, haha!)

一人じゃなくて、よかった（笑）

ってか、最近寒すぎて、朝起きるのがつらいよ〜！！今年東京雪降るかなぁ〜？ちょっと降ってほしいなぁ〜(^O^)

降ったら、雪だるま作りたい（笑）

ってか、もう次のblogの番の時2012やぁ〜！！

早い早い早い〜m(__)m

今年は早かったわ〜！！

来年は色々あるから、楽しみやぁ〜☆

写真は、この前のトークショーの後の握手会の時、実はちょっと早めの、サンタさんになりました（笑）

恥ずかしかった〜！！

(LOL. He was embarrassed that he had to wear the Santa suit...? Hm. Well, whose idea was it then, I wonder... haha.)

 

じゃみんな、良いお年を〜！

今日のMUSIC LOVERSとレコード大賞と紅白歌合戦見てなぁ〜☆

じゃまた来週！！

投稿者:與真司郎

Back in the office; my last day of work for the year!

Last lesson of Intermediate-2 went well last night - I scored highest in class for the test! Yaaaay!!! :D

I suppose 76/100 isn't bad, but I could've gotten about ten marks more if it hadn't been careless mistakes... Sigh. Ooh, but the section with particles! 8 out of 10! Double yay! My percentage for the particles section has never been that high before!

And then, some pictures of the after-party later, at Timbre@OldSchool:

Group photo, left-to-right: Terry, Eugene, Quan Heng (Lim-san, haha), CK, Kai, Trena, Philyn, Germaine, me, and Yamamoto-sensei!

Not everyone's carrying on to Intermediate-3, sadly - only about 6 of us and sensei says that maybe a couple of new students from other Inter-2 classes may join ours. But it's been a really fun 5 months with everyone! After finally taking a make-up lesson with another class 2 weeks ago, I love this class all the more. :D

是非、みんなにまた会いましょう！
木曜日のInt-2は最高でした！

My dose of Shin-chan for the week. XD

---

(* ^)(◎o◎)
2011年12月18日

今日は名古屋に行って、トークショーしてきましたよ〜☆

いやぁ〜今日も話しまくったぁ〜！！
楽しすぎて、時間が過ぎるのが早すぎたぁ〜(^O^)
約束の写真↓




また来年もこういったものをできるように、俺もがんばらないと☆

ってか、もうちょいで、クリスマスやなぁ〜！！
早すぎる〜！！
俺何しようかなぁ〜？
仕事かな〜？
なかったら、友達大勢でパーティーかなぁ〜？！

みんなは誰と過ごすの？？

そんで、クリスマスが終わったら、すぐレコード大賞と紅白歌合戦！！

今から楽しみ〜！！
AAAの良さが一人でも多くの方に伝わるように、パフォーマンスしてくるね〜！！




このケーキの写真は、今日、なぜか急に、ちあきのお父さんとお母さんがトークショーに

遊びにきてくれました〜！（笑）
で、王冠のケーキを俺のために、持ってきてくれて(^O^)
ありがとう、おばちゃんとおっちゃん☆
おいしくいただきました☆
じゃまた来週！！

投稿者:與真司郎

---

Is it just me, or is the number of people who come for his talk shows increasing?? It really does look like that from all these photos he keeps posting. 大人気だよね、真ちゃん。

It's so cute that Chiaki's parents came for his event (since Chiaki's folks do live in Nagoya, after all) and they even bought him a cake! So cute, oba-san, oji-san. Haha.

Kind of reminds me of some of their backstage photos where their families bring or send them food. I remember seeing a photo which had a note saying, "senbei from Shuta's family! Help yourselves!" And there was another one where Naoya mentioned that "Shinjiro's onii-san (older brother) brought super yummy strawberries".

It's almost like their own family members have become part of some huge extended family. Oh, the oodles of warm fuzzy feelings. (^-^)

I just realised that this was my 300th tweet, which was posted yesterday.

"Rainy morning. Don't wanna get out of bed..." is what it says. XD


EDIT (21st May 2012):

Well, an anonymous person left a comment (the same comment posted on three different posts, really) to say that the grammar in this tweet is wrong:

DERU SHITA KUNAI IS WRONG GRAMMAR.

Make sure you do not displayed wrong grammar on the web. It is a disgrace.

Do not boast about being top in class when your grammar is below standard. Which Japanese school are you attending?

you should remove your picture and message from your blog. dont disgrace yourself with poor grammar


Since it's an anonymous comment, I can't reply to it directly. So in case that person decides to actually follow up and see if I do anything about their comment, I've decided to just reply here.

Well, it was a mistake. *shrugs* It happens when you're learning stuff, doesn't it?

I don't think it's a disgrace, actually. Because everybody has to learn somehow, so if anyone wants to laugh at my mistake, I'm fine with it. I was barely through Intermediate-2 classes at the time of this post, so there was still lots more to learn. :)

Also, if you would like to know what school I'm attending, I will tell you, but first, let me say this: do not judge the school by its students. There are plenty of classes with lots of other students, and I don't think I'm any kind of shining example of their academic excellence. Every school has good students and bad students; the teachers can only do the best that they can.

Me "boasting" about being top in class? Well, I scored the highest on a test; who wouldn't be happy about that? But this was a mark of just 76/100, in a class of nine students, myself included. 76% is average, to me. And nine students is really, really few people; any kind of scoring among so few people is not a benchmark for anything. If I could score full marks or something for the JLPT, then that would be something that I'd properly boast about.

I attended Bunka Language Private School (in Singapore, if you're not from here). Their pace is rather fast; not everyone can catch up. I consider myself lucky that I'm one of the few who was able to keep up, and as we went on to higher levels, juggling work, revision, homework and other things I do in my free time, I just barely managed to stay on top of things.

But my classes are over for now; I haven't started Pre-Advanced classes yet, and as of our final test in Intermediate-4, I was placed third in class. I could've scored about 10+ marks more if I'd memorised all the keigo forms, and actually placed first again, but hindsight is 20/20, and it's already over anyway. At least I still had an acceptable mark of 73%.

Thank you, anonymous, for your concern about me being disgraced by my poor grammar, but it's really quite all right. We all need to live and learn from embarrassing mistakes. :)

Because a Sunday is never complete (and it always makes a Monday so much better) without a blogpost from Shinjiro. And I'll even throw in a related tweet. I'm just generous that way, me.

---

Awww. Seems that he's very much a family kinda person. He always gets all excited over anything to do with his sister or his nephew, and now there's his mum too this time, all of them coming to Tokyo. But then again, he does seem quite excited about almost everything he tweets about... the only punctuation marks he ever uses in his tweets seem to be exclamation marks. Well, okay, he does use commas, but at the end of a sentence. He only! ever! uses! exclamation! marks!

Life is probably just that exciting for him, I suppose. Lol.

---

ε=ε=(ノ≧∇≦）ノ
2011年12月11日

みんな寒さには耐えれてますか～？？

暖房嫌いやけど、ついに寒すぎてつけてしまったm(__)m って言っても、ちょっとつけて、すぐ消すけど☆

そして、やっぱりこの季節は乾燥する！！喉も肌も！！手洗いうがいはホンマにちゃんと

やらないと！！

インフルエンザの予防接種はもうしたから、ちょっと安心！！

みんなも風邪だけは、気をつけようぜ～☆

そして、昨日まで実は、母親とお姉と甥っ子が京都から東京に遊びに来てたのです！！
りお（甥っ子）は初東京☆もう癒される～！！
前まで嫌われてたのに、今回でだいぶ仲良くなった！チューもしてくれるようになった～（笑）

写真は、俺が真剣にメールを打っていたところ、りおが膝の上に座りながら、俺のiphoneをいじってるところを、お姉が隠し撮り。
普通すぎてごめんね（笑）
可愛いでしょ？？（笑）

投稿者:與真司郎

---

Ah, his little nephew is so cute.

And his sister takes the best photos. LOL.

It's all over the news today, so if you don't already know that there was a total lunar eclipse last night, what rock do you live under? (Would you like me to flip it over for you and scrape you off the underside? XD)

So, after my event last night, Eunice had her show to run as well, and since hers was scheduled to be over and done with by 9pm, Keldren and Amy decided to hang around and wait for the people on her side, so we could go and have dinner.

While waiting, I go up to the office and start sorting out stuff, since I'm meant to be on leave until Wednesday (but it looks like I'll be making a short trip back to the office tomorrow to carry on sorting out some stuff... sigh). Wai Xin then tells me not one, but two things that I had never heard of:

1. Stage 1 of the Indoor World Archery Championships is being held in Singapore tomorrow (which means today, since this was told to me yesterday; more on that later).
2. There's a total lunar eclipse happening, like, NOW.


So, after Eunice's show was over, we (she, Jun Jie, Amy, Keldren and me) piled into Keldren's car and he drove down to Thomson for our favourite fried rice post-event supper/dinner. :D

While we were on our way there, Amy looked out the window and noticed that "the moon looks weird".

"Yeah," I said, "my friend told me just now that there's a total lunar eclipse happening tonight."

"So cool!"

Which then cues Eunice, Amy and me squishing over to look out the window on Amy's side, and then when the car turns, squishing over to my window, and then squeezing back to Amy's side when the car turns again. Rinse and repeat for the next 10 minutes. Add in a lot of, "It's here, it's here, I see it!" and, "There, there, see it's so small already!" and also, "Hello, moooon!!" (mostly Amy).

During our ride down to Thomson, we saw the moon go from being half-covered, to being mostly blotted out except for a small toenail-like sliver. Then we stood in the carpark where Keldren had parked for half an hour and watched it become fully covered and dark red .

I've seen pictures of blood moons, but it's so cool to finally see it actually happen.

Picture courtesy of Keldren, who had his DSLR with him at the time. :)

---

And now we come to today, and the Indoor World Archery Championships at Marina Bay Sands.

Seriously, no publicity at all. Dumb AAS. If Netball Singapore can splash out on publicity for the Nations Cup by placing ads on buses and stadiums, why couldn't AAS have done just a fraction of the same?! If you want the sport to grow, the first thing is generate an interest in it, no?

And the spectator turnout at the venue was dismal as well; probably because of the $30 admission fee. Because honestly, even if you had heard about the sport and were curious to come see it, if you didn't know anything about the sport and who was shooting, $30 might kill your interest pretty fast, wouldn't it?

Anyway, we arrived about halfway through the individual knockout rounds, and we saw the Bronze medal matches for both recurve and compound, men's and women's. Bit of a shame that Si Lie lost at the men's recurve bronze medal match, but the Singaporean girl (I forgot her name, oops) shooting for the women's compound bronze medal won her match. It was kind of scary to watch her shoot, because she was so skinny, and looking at her, you honestly wouldn't think that she could draw a bow, but she CAN and she's pretty damn stable too.

Women's recurve bronze medal match: a girl from Chinese Taipei against a lady from... oh dear, I can't remember the country. All I remember is that it was a Caucasian lady. Haha. The Chinese Taipei girl was awesome to watch. She started out a little slow on her first end, shooting 8s and a 9, while the other lady had a perfect score, but after that, her opponent faltered and she came back, shooting at least two 10s in every end; the Chinese Taipei girl won in the end.

Finally, the two recurve gold matches. These two matches alone made it totally worth the $30 paid for entry.

Women's recurve gold: two Chinese Taipei girls. So once that other girl had won the bronze medal, Chinese Taipei had secured all three top positions for recurve. Amazing. And even more amazing was that during the gold medal match, both girls were shooting at least two 10s in each end, if not perfect scores. Up till this point, the spectators would usually clap every time a 10 was scored, but 10s became so common in this match that no one really clapped anymore! LOL. They eventually tied and went into a shootout, but that match was awesome.

Men's recurve gold: one guy from Chinese Taipei against a French guy whom I didn't like very much because I found his attitude annoyingly uppity. At this point, the other Chinese Taipei supporters around us suddenly became very vocal and supportive of their teammate (they weren't even this encouraging - some of them weren't even awake - when their female teammate was shooting against the other Caucasian lady... WTH?? -_-), shouting encouragement when he was drawing, and cheering when he scored a good shot.

French guy didn't start off too hot. Chinese Taipei guy was sort of okay. Both guys drew in the first end, but while the Chinese Taipei guy continued to perform well, French guy couldn't keep up and lost every end after that. So Chinese Taipei won both the recurve men's and women's titles.

We scooted off after that, as we weren't too interested in the compound matches, and we were kind of starving. Fred and I hadn't had breakfast or lunch, and Wai Xin and Weiquan hadn't had lunch either. We'd arrived at the competition at about 1.30pm, see, so it was kind of a weird timing in between breakfast and lunch.

So, since we were in MBS, we had TWG for tea! \(^-^)/  Ah, the happiest point of the whole day. o(^▽^)o

Soo... I managed to download Shinjiro's second photobook, the one that was a limited edition thing, and which, according to that interview he gave, apparently has nude shots. (But there aren't that many, really; most of the book seems composed of clothed or just topless shots.)

Thing is, it really is quite tastefully done; I like the pictures (no, it's not just because he's in them; there're some of the Shanghai skyline as well, since that's where the setting of the "story" for the photobook is), but more than that, I love the text that they're paired with. There's a very subtle storyline that goes together with the pictures, and the first-person narration of the text, combined with the lovely photos, is what I really love about this.

There was that Tokyohive article where Shinjiro described the photobook as the story of "a young boy who matures after being trained by an older woman". I was kind of "Umm... what?!?" at that, because really, am I the only one who thinks that sounds more like "young boy corrupted by older woman"...? LOL.

So, was a bit wary of what I'd find in the pictures, although I was curious to see them.
(I'm not posting any of the pictures here. I found them in an online fan community which only grants access to it to its members, so as a matter of courtesy, I'm not reposting.)

What I found was kind of unexpected, but in a good way. I'm not sure about the boy (which is how I'll refer to him from here on, because it honestly doesn't feel like Shinjiro in the book; it's more like he's just modelling for the role) being "trained", but the little bits of text interspersed among the very beautiful pictures make it seem more like the story of  an older woman and a younger man who like each other, but seem to have a strange roundabout way of expressing it. Or not expressing it.

There're pictures of the boy in a dingy kitchen, a just-barely-modest living room, and text which says that he grew up in these kinds of working-class surroundings. And it was here that he came to like a woman, a foreigner.

And that mention of the environment which the boy grew up in kind of reminds me of those lines in E.M. Forster's "A Passage to India", when I was studying it for A Levels. The exact lines escape me, since I last touched the book some 8 years ago, but it ran somewhere along the lines of how beauty could sometimes be found in the most rural, primeval, bare-essential of places, where one would least expect it.

And that seems to be the story of this photobook, to some extent.
(As practice for myself, I translated the text that I could make out from the pictures.)

An older high-society woman from another country, who seems to have found an unexpected love in a younger man of a poorer background, in this new land that she's come to. They don't say it, but there's a chemistry that drives them together, which prompts her to bring him to these high-class hotels with panoramic city views from their windows, and which makes him actually turn up there, dressed in suits which he most probably didn't buy on his own.

「ここで、待っていてもいい？」
"Can I wait for you here?"

彼と出会うずっと前から、男にそうされることを望んでいた。
Before I met him, I'd always wished for a man like this.

It shows in the way that her hands with her dark-red-lacquered nails touch his face, and the way that he smiles at her. But they don't say it openly. And maybe they both just remain as some kind of hope for the other, a kind of hope for a different kind of life.

ぼくもいつか、飛ぶ。
Someday, I will fly.

Someday, maybe he will. And maybe so will she.

Such is the beauty of things that are not said.

Attended make-up lesson for my Intermediate-2 Lesson 7 yesterday, since I won't be able to attend the class on Thursday coz I have to manage an event on that day.

There were only 6 people in the class that I joined. Who were pretty quiet. I love my class so much more now; there're like 10 of us and we're always constantly talking, haha. There was even this one guy (Really, *one* guy. The other five were ladies.) who didn't seem to know anything. I mean, come on, it's Intermediate *TWO* level. Don't waste your money if you can't catch up.

This teacher's (Takatsuka-sensei) way of teaching is quite different from Yamamoto-sensei's; he talks a lot more, and almost all of it in Japanese. Which I found quite fun, since I could still understand most of it, but his own students seemed kinda... lost.

先生の話し方は。。。ちょっとわかり難いかもしれないな、あの生徒たちという。

I learned quite a bit of new vocabulary today though, so I'm happy! :D

And to start the class off, Takatsuka-sensei gave us a tongue twister (I wonder if he does this for every lesson?): 買った赤肩たたき器高かった。(katta aka kata tatakiki takakatta.) Say it three times, as fast as you can! :D

Literal translation: The red shoulder massage machine (or "gadget", if you prefer) that I bought was expensive.

来週山本先生のクラスに帰ります！（＾－＾）

Another stolen blogpost. XD
Shinjiro meets Koike Teppei for a belated birthday dinner. So cute.

---

ヽ(･┏∞┓･)ノ

2011年12月04日

 

こんばんみ〜☆
(I asked my Japanese teacher about this phrase. Apparently, it's not Kansai-ben. It's just someone trying to sound cute. Shinjiro acting cute = oodles of squee-ness. XD)

もう知ってるとは思いますが、紅白歌合戦今年もAAA出場させていただきます！！

ホンマにホンマに応援してくれてる、ファンのみなさんのおかげです(^O^)

120%パフォーマンスするので、みんな見てやぁ〜！！

とにかく今年の目標は、楽しむ☆

ってか、最近寒くなってきたなぁ〜！！いややぁ〜（笑）

でもオシャレできるし、やっぱり冬も好きかも（笑）

今日の晩飯は久しぶりに小池徹平兄さんと、ちゃんこ鍋〜！！誕生日やってくれて、ナイスなワインまでプレゼントしてくれた〜☆さすがやわ！！ありがとう！てっちゃん(^O^)
(Can I just say how absolutely adorable it is that he actually calls Koike Teppei "nii-san"?? Hahaha. And "Te-chan" too!!)

じゃまた来週！！

投稿者:與真司郎

Third day off from work. XD

I could get used to this... waking up only at 9am, reading in bed and only rolling out of bed at 10am, then sitting down at the computer for some writing and more reading with a nice pot of TWG French Earl Grey.... ahh. Lovely.

But all good things must come to an end, sadly. This stretch of leave ends today, so will be back at work tomorrow.

Also, this tweet popped up while I was ironing clothes this afternoon:

 

AAA are going to be on Kouhaku again!! 2nd year in a row!! YAY!!
Can't wait to see their costumes; the ones last year were so pretty, all white (for the white team) and light gold. :)
I hope they perform "Call". I don't really like "Charge&Go" all that much. And full version this time, please! I dunno why they did a short version for "Aitai Riyuu" last year. :(

And after the AAA staff tweet, all the other members posted as well!

All that's needed to complete the collection... is for Nishi to get a Twitter account. Lol.

It's been an awesome year for them, though. Longest tour ever despite the setback caused by the March 11th quake, first-ever anniversary tour, first performance in Vietnam followed by first performance in Korea within the week, and now a second consecutive Kouhaku appearance.

It's crazy how hard they work, but it's amazing that it's all paid off. So happy for them. :)

Stealing another blogpost. I know, it's starting to look like this isn't my blog anymore. LOL. But it is, I swear it is! It's just that I like certain other people's blogposts very much as well, so have felt it necessary to steal theirs and stick it on here. Haha.

Anyway, here we go. Shin-chan's first blogpost and first tweet as a 23-year-old.

Yeah, the date on the tweet says "25th Nov", but it was just after midnight in Japan on 26th Nov when he posted it. Haha. Happy little boy. Okay, well, not so little. Now for the bloggie post:

---

ヾ(゜! ゜)ノ

2011年11月27日

 

今日は、宇野ちゃんとにっしーと三人でJUNON SUPERBOY CONTESTの審査員として、参加させていただきましたぁ〜(^O^)
(Ah, the Junon Superboy Contest. That which spawned the likes of Koike Teppei and Aiba Hiroki. XD)

審査員なんて初めてのことだったので、なんか変な感じでした。でも、俺らの一票で11人の人生が変わると思うと、緊張！楽しませていただきながらも、真剣にやらせていただきました☆

(Shin-chan. You can't possibly be more nervous than the contestants. Lol.)

ホンマに、みんな堂々としてて、全員がちゃんと自分のカラーをもってて、素晴らしいステージでした！

グランプリの佐野岳くん！ホンマにおめでとうございます！！

みんなと仕事できることを願ってます☆

そして、約束してた、この前のトークショーの時の写真をのっけま〜す☆

(There're SO MANY people in these pictures that I almost couldn't FIND Shinjiro in them at first.
トークショーで行きましたの人は多いですねぇ。真ちゃん大人気だよね。 XD)

来てくれたみなさんありがとうございました！！

すげぇ〜盛り上がってくれて、俺もテンションMAXでした！！

みんなホンマにありがとう！！

次は、名古屋！！楽しみ(^O^)

そしてみんなごめん！！追加でblog！！

一昨日の26日、23歳になりましたぁ〜☆

みんな、手紙やBBSやツイッターなど、お祝いコメントありがとね！！

来年は新しいことも始めようかな〜って考え中なので、楽しみにしててください(^O^)

みんな、好きやで〜☆

投稿者:與真司郎

---

真ちゃん、２３歳のお誕生日おめでとう！！　\（＾－＾）/

Stealing Shin-chan's blogpost from last night. His little doggy's so cute.

And I want my Buzz Communication DVD noooooowwww. *whines*

☆(^O^)☆

2011年11月20日

こんばんは〜☆

みなさんCharge&Go!は聴いてくれましたか〜？？
どうですか〜？？

僕はこの曲が大好きなので、みなさんに聴いてもらえるようになって嬉しいなぁ〜(^O^)

PVもいい感じなので、是非チェックしてみてください！！

そして、みなさんのおかげで、また今年もレコード大賞にでれることになりましたぁ〜☆
ホンマにホンマにみんなのおかげです！！
がんばりますので、年末みんな見てやぁ〜！！

写真は、最近一眼レフカメラを買ってしまい、色々とってるんやけど、実家帰った時にお姉と風ちゃんがじゃれてて可愛かったから、撮ってみた！可愛いいやろ〜？（親バカ）（笑）

投稿者:與真司郎

Stealing Naoya's blogpost. For AAA's release event.
I think I missed Nishi's post yesterday. :(

イエーイ！

2011年11月17日

 

はい！どうも！浦田直也です！！！

いよいよ発売になりました。
Charge&Go! それとライブDVD皆様、ゲトってくれたでしょうか？？

７年目一発目のシングル、そして記念すべき３０枚目のシングル！！！

たくさんの方に聞いてもらえたら嬉しいです。

そして今日は久々にラクーアにてリリースイベントしてきたよー。

こりゃまたたくさんの方に来てもらえてマジでマジで嬉しかった！！

皆と近くで１人１人会えて最高に楽しかったよ！

ありがとう。

来年のツアーも発表されたし、今年もあと少し。

かなりの勢いで突っ走っていくから応援よろしくね。
んじゃまたな。

投稿者:浦田直也

The piccie's a little blurry, but I can see Nishi. Probably the next most obvious one apart from Naoya, who's standing in plain view of the camera. Nishi is a bit like... neon signage, all on his own. Batteries included. XD And I spy Shin-chan, hidden behind Naoya, wearing that cute little hat that I like. Which I could swear is a girl's hat, but it doesn't matter, coz he looks so adorable in it. XD

It's been a long, long week.

Events *everyday* since last Sunday, and annoyance after annoyance as certain people don't seem to understand that every building has its rules and protocols. It's like going to someone else's house (and no, I don't mean the house of your best friend/ boyfriend/ girlfriend of ten years); if you want something or want to do something, isn't it commonsense/ common courtesy that you ask first, and ask the right people??

At times like these, I'm always reminded of what I was told during one of my first few lectures in Uni: "Commonsense isn't very common." Sadly. -_-

But! THIS *totally* makes it ALL better. At least for a while.

My Live DVD is on its WAAAAAAAAAYYYY!!!!! YAAAAAAAAAYYYY!!!!  \(^v^)/

And um... happy... double-release day to AAA as well. For both the Charge & Go! single and the 2011 Tour DVD!

Seems like Shin-chan was er... quite happy about it as well. That's totally just my assumption. But it's amusing that he would tweet while (self-professedly) half-drunk.

I suppose it's a bit like drunk-dialling... it's always funny for the people who're watching. XD

Stealing Shin-chan's blogpost off the official AAA blog tonight because its picture is just too adorable and heart-warming for words. :)

(=бmб)
2011年11月13日
(sometimes I really wonder what the "faces" in Shinjiro's blog titles are supposed to be...)

こんばんみ〜！！
(His cute version of "こんばんは" again. I'm not sure if this is just Kansai-ben, though.)

今京都にいますよ〜！！

ちょっと休みをもらいまして、実家に帰省中！！

最近実家に仕事のついでに、ちょっとだけ寄るくらいしかできひんかったから、久々の休日帰省☆

正月も帰れないかもしれないので、家族に会いたくて！！

で、今日は、甥っ子の『りお』を連れて、遊園地に行ってきました！！

りおと手を繋いでたら、お姉が後ろから写真を撮ってたので、それを載せます（笑）

可愛いでしょ？？
(Yes, very cute indeed. Almost every picture of him and his nephew is so cute that I could die. Good job on snapping the pic, onee-san!!  (^-^)b )

じゃまた東京帰って仕事がんばりますか〜(^O^)

投稿者:與真司郎

And also! I remembered seeing this AAA song suddenly earlier today, and decided to have a listen... I've actually never heard it before. My excuse is that it was on the "Daiji na Koto (ダイジナコト)" single, and because I don't buy singles, I never really looked at the tracklisting of that disc. After which, this song, "Sayonara no Yukue (さよならの行方)", was not included in the "Buzz Communication" album which "Daiji na Koto" was on.


File uploaded by: Ayano-Etsuko on 4shared.com

I now love this song for so many reasons.

Firstly, it's a boys-led song - I am a little biased towards the boys; what, you hadn't noticed?? - and I love that each of the boys gets solo lines. The girls' voices sit very prettily on top of the boys' during the chorus; I like how the harmonies for this song have a very full sound.

00:24 - SHINJIRO AND CHIAKI. OMG. My two favourite voices together. Most of AAA's main vocalists tend to the higher register (although Nishi has some serious range), so I like that Shinjiro and Chiaki's voices are a bit different. Their voices somehow have a more... mellow quality than the other members.

Ever since the part of "Deai no Chikara (出逢いの力)" that they sang together in 4th Anniversary, I've been convinced that Shinjiro and Chiaki need a duet. But seeing as Shinjiro isn't a main vocalist, that kinda thing probably won't be Avex's priority for the group. Which is kinda sad. I have no idea if it says anything about the state of J-pop nowadays, what with the inundation of the JE groups, but I find that the husky quality of Shinjiro's voice is something rather unique; a lot of male vocalists in popular groups have similar-sounding mid-to-high range vocals.

01:31 (and 03:17): I'm pretty sure I hear the girls in the background, but this part sounds mainly Naoya-Shinjiro to me. I love this voice-pairing as well. (^-^) I don't know a whole lot about music, but when Naoya and Shinjiro sing together, it always seems to harmonise perfectly. Both voices are still very distinct, yet they just blend at the same time. It's like their voices are naturally a fifth apart or something; it's just so effortless. Shinjiro's lower vocals here add substance to the melody of Naoya's voice and the girls' voices add texture. I so love this.

By this point, I've noticed that the arrangement for this song seems to be thus, with the exception of solo lines: Nishi & Shuta, Naoya & Shinjiro, with the girls on the chorus line... and Hidaka alone for his rap, as seems to be the trend nowadays. I hope he's not getting too left out of the instrumentation; come on, I'm sure that even if he's meant to be the rapper of the group, it doesn't mean he can't sing. Hidaka does sing on their earlier songs.

04:24 - 04:28: Nishi + sustained long, higher notes = Awesomeness.

04:29: Nishi and Naoya, our two male main vocalists showing their stuff. I especially love the way their voices blend at 04:39, just as Hidaka's rap kicks in, very well-placed,.

05:50: Shinjiro on solo. His voice is beautiful on low notes, which is how it starts out here. And then it slowly moves higher; I LOVE the way Shinjiro pitches his voice up at the end. It's like when he sings the last chorus line for "Believe Own Way", but in this song it's even BETTER. The way he does it here gives me goosebumps. In a good kind of way. Something about the quality of his voice somehow gives it more... substance when he does this, as compared to the other guys. For my preferences, Nishi's voice is the next which has that similar kind of full-sounding quality, but it's just really not the same as Shinjiro's.

And if you've actually managed to get through all that gushing about just one song, I congratulate you and thank you for bearing with me. :D

Geek post ahead. Your interesting bit of trivia for the week! :D

I learned from Jiaxin early this morning that apparently, that really bright star near the moon that was visible last night (it still is, tonight, and upon further research, I've found it'll be visible until 12th Nov) is actually Jupiter!

Through the meandering drift of an MSN convo on Monday night, Connor and I somehow got around to discussing the names of the days of the week and how they came by their names. That's how I learned that the days of the week in Latin and Japanese are actually named after the Sun, the Moon, and the first five planets (not including Earth).

Latin-based languages like French (the only Latin-based language that I have any knowledge of) have "inherited" this system of naming the days of the week as well. (Apparently it used to be the same in Chinese too - which explains why Japanese uses the same characters.)

In this system, Thursday is actually Jupiter's day! So I suppose it's fitting that Jupiter is visible tonight. :)

More explanations right this way: Weekday names on Wikipedia.

I'd explain it myself, but I can't seem to string it all together in a way that's not confusing!

I went to poke around at CDJapan today because it sent me an email about some new magazine that has Shinjiro in it.

And I saw that now the Buzz Communication Tour DVD which I ordered finally has a cover image!! So blindingly psychedelically colourful. Lol. So excited, it's gonna be released and shipped next week...!!!

But then I also noticed the tracklisting (which I somehow didn't notice earlier. Stupid girl.).

Why does the tracklisting NOT have any MCs or the Act Corner?!?!! I wanna see Shin-chan playing Tetris and Nishi dressed up as Ruffy from One Piece!! Okay, more of the Shinjiro bit actually, since I don't watch One Piece. But seeing Nishi dressed up as a manga character should be all sorts of fun (as with almost everything that he does).

ARGH. Avex, I hate you.

I shall just cross my fingers and toes and eyes now and pray that there's something hidden in there which is just not listed. Or something. Despite the fact that they've always listed MCs before... argh. HOW CAN IT BE A CONCERT IF THERE ARE NO MCS. How can we have a concert DVD where there's no segment of the members talking all sorts of nonsense about themselves and each other - and anything else at all, really.


But in other news, it's also Urata Naoya's birthday today! Happy birthday-pyon to AAA's lovable leader, lol.

リーダ、お誕生日おめでとう！　\（＾－＾）/

Good (rainy) morning to you too. Hope everyone had a nice long weekend. :)
And hope that those who celebrated the occasion had a good Hari Raya too. :)

I spent most of yesterday reading... and editing and tweaking subtitles for dramas that I'd downloaded. :p I know we're not supposed to edit people's subtitles, but sometimes I can't stand the English phrasing.... ><

I don't make huge overhauls of the entire subtitle file or anything, I just correct spelling or grammatical errors here and there... and if I can actually tell that something doesn't sound right, then I change that line. I think I prefer softsubs for that reason (Softsubs are when the subtitle files are separate from the video file. They can be edited, but you need a subtitle editor to do so.). But I suppose hardsubs (when the subtitles are encoded into the video file) are less troublesome.

And for once in a long while, it was sunny! Was actually kind of hot; I wouldn't have minded cloudy rainy weather for a nice public holiday. :p

I think it's been a long time since I last posted Twitter stuff. Somewhere in the middle of the day yesterday, I was amused by this:

momo09301126 (a Japanese fan):
Shin-chan in "Daiji na Koto" is so cool that it makes me cry. Haha.
("Daiji na Koto" was AAA's 27th single. She's probably referring to the PV for the single.)
Shinjiro:
Haha! Thank you.
Naoya:
He's always so cool that I get nosebleeds.
Shinjiro:
Haha!! Don't lie~!
Naoya:
 Our prince's aura is so dazzling that you have to wear sunglasses when you talk to him.
(So is that supposed to be Naoya's excuse for wearing sunglasses all the time...?)

Naoya-Shinjiro interaction on Twitter never fails to amuse me. And there was this too, from back in August, which I didn't post (but which I saved because it was so cute XD):

Shinjiro:
(Is it) Tomorrow? Today? I have to be awake in about three hours, but I haven't even slept yet! Haha, oh well.
(This was posted at about 2am, Japan time.)
Shinjiro (a few hours later):
I only slept for about 2 hours, but I'm not sleepy at all! Haha, I'm so energetic, me. XD
Naoya:
And now you're just totally knocked out in the car.
Suzuki Ami:
Aww, he's so cuuute.
Naoya:
That's our prince for you.
Shinjiro:
Don't tell everyone!!!

Hmm... Happy Halloween, I suppose? Although we don't really celebrate it here in Singapore, but I think nowadays, shops and businesses are starting to exploit it as a sort of marketing gimmick. Y'know, a lot like Valentine's Day.

And I didn't know that Japanese people are into celebrating Halloween, until now. But I suppose that considering how into American stuff they are, that probably should be surprising.

I "stole" another blogpost off AAA's official blog; Hidaka's this time. :D

トリックオアトリート​！
2011年10月31日

はろー！

ハッピーハロウィーン！！

日高だよー！
いやー、街中…
うっかれてるねぇ～！

まぁピークは週末の昨日今日だった様だけど、ハロウィン当日は今日だからね！

皆、浮かれていこうぜ！
そんな浮かれポンチな今日は、この三人でのお仕事から始まりました。


浮かれ真司郎と、浮かれさこちゃんと！

(So he says, but Shinjiro looks anything but merry or festive... Lol. But then again, Shin-chan kinda... looks like that normally. :p Oh, must he look *so* young and cute and utterly squishable. XD)

だーいぶ浮かれた収録をさせて頂きましたので、僕らの浮かれっぷり、皆さんに見ていただける日を楽しみにしています。

そう言えば昨日のブログで真司郎はかなりの浮かれっぷりを披露していたけれど…

(I forgot to check the blog last night, and I didn't have time to look at it coz I was busy with an event in the daytime, and there is no archive..!! ARGH. I WANNA KNOW WHAT SHIN-CHAN POSTED.)

僕も同じ日にかなり浮かれておりました。


…まさかのドラキュラ被り！これは浮かれてるね！
僕の場合は、この日MCだったので、牙がラップするのに邪魔で、すぐ取ってしまい、何の仮装か分かりづらくなってしまったのだけど…

…そんな所も含めて浮かれてるね！

さて、ドラキュラと言えば美女の血が大好物ですが。
今日の深夜は、美女のラジオに遊びに行ってきます！

文化放送さんの、大島麻衣ちゃんの番組、
「リッスン？」
に、さこちゃんとお邪魔させてもらうのだー！

今日は大島ファミリー大集合と言うことで、普段から仲良くさせてもらってるF.O.HのMIHIROさんとかも一緒で、今からワクワクさんです。

深夜だけど、否、深夜だからこそ！

皆で、うっかれていこう！！
はらっ！

投稿者:日高光啓

It's been a lazy weekend. Which, of course, is the best kind of weekend. :)

Started reading "Wicked", which I bought last weekend when Kinokuniya was having a 20% off for members. Seems pretty funny so far, but now the only problem is that I can't remember a lot of the little details which were in "Wizard of Oz"... which "Wicked" is a prequel of - I read "Wizard of Oz" years ago... I think it was when I had chickenpox when I was 9. Since I was all laid up in bed with nothing to do, I read, and finished the book in a day. Lol.

Also, I finished all ten episodes of "Gaikoukan Kuroda Kousaku" (外交官 黒田康作) yesterday! Or early this morning, rather. XD Came across a few reviews on Thursday while I was off from work, which said that it's a pretty good series, so decided to give it a try. It was airing in Japan early this year (Jan - Mar), but I'd decided to give it a miss because I wasn't too sure if I'd like the subject material much - politics and all that.

Very complicated storyline though. Not so complicated that people get thoroughly lost, but complicated enough that it takes the second-to-last episode and the main character to fill in all the gaps and make the connections clearer for you, and in that moment, the lightbulb just flickers and "ding!" Epiphany. :p

Why do the whole reveal in the second-to-last episode, you might wonder? Wouldn't they save it for the last episode? That's what I thought too, but then you find out that they've saved the last episode for a little more plotting and scheming to round out the whole story with a bittersweet ending. Brilliant, I tell you.

And...! I didn't know this before watching it, but Nishi's in it! I was watching the first episode and still puzzling over the logic and connections, when suddenly, towards the end, Nishi just... walks into the scene. Quite literally. And I was like, "Eh, wait, what, he's in this??"

(Can I just throw in at this point that I wish Shinjiro did more TV dramas instead of movies? XD Not keitai - "mobile phone" in Japanese - dramas though. No more of those, please. Because people outside Japan can't watch them. (T_T) )

Nishi plays a sort of minor character, in the sense that his character doesn't have much screen time, and his actions don't move the plot along very much. However, after the big reveal of the whole plotline in the second-to-last ep, you realise that the part of the story which takes place during the show is pretty much set in motion by the actions of his character. Interestingly done.

And also, in other news, "Zero" has grown by another two pages. Thanks to Naoya-muse and Shinjiro-muse, who have now thrown a twist screwdriver whole bloody toolbox into the storyline.

I DID NOT KNOW THE STORY WAS GOING TO BE LIKE THAT.
What have the two of you DONE...?!?!

*muses run away, giggling*

Oh, I hate all of you.



Well, okay, not really.

Almost forgot that I watched "Midnight in Paris" yesterday too, with Connor.

It's a really fun film; go watch it if you'd like to see something a little offbeat, a little quirky. :) I'd really like to get the DVD for this when it's released. It might not be a timeless classic, but it is - very much like Paris after midnight in the film - a little dose of something "magical". :)

It's best enjoyed if you know (no, I don't mean personally) a few early-twentieth authors and artists who lived in Paris during their careers, because at least that means you won't be completely lost. The film relies quite a bit on the assumption that the famous names that Woody Allen makes use of are famous enough to not require any introduction.

Being able to understand a little French is handy too. Not everything in French is translated in the film, and sometimes even if it is, some things are just lost in translation, y'know? It doesn't have its original feeling or humour.

But all in all, a most enjoyable film - I love the way that Hemingway is unapologetically straightforward and mutinous; I love how the Fitzgeralds are so full of colour and Dali, thanks to that moustache, he barely has to do anything before you feel like laughing. And his obsession with rhinoceroses kept making me think of Eugene Ionesco's "Rhinoceros". Haha. :)

今日は「文化」への将棋レッスンでぇ～す。



面白かったけど、チェスを言ったらあたしは一番下手なんです。。。将棋も。（｜｜－－）

まぁぁ、しょうがない なぁぁ。XD

Morning events on weekends suck. Nobody wants to wake up early on a weekend.... -_-

But! Seeing this made my day all better! Well, marginally. (Fangirling up ahead, but I bet you've already guessed that by now, haven't you?)

Everyone's in autumn-y, winter-ish colours. It makes me wanna curl up somewhere and sleep. Haha.

And Misako looks so pretty!! I love Nishi's jacket. I want a jacket like that. Looks so cool. Nishi and Misako look so pretty that they even distracted me from my normal main focus for a while. LOL.

Whoever dressed them this time, thank you so much; at least now everyone looks fantastic in this picture, and Shinjiro looks so OMG-damn-HOT. XD
(Somehow, I think that if he were wearing eyeliner, he'd look friggin' gorgeous. But that would probably clash with the soft, natural look that everyone else is sporting. Haha.) 

But putting him in skinny jeans probably makes it terribly obvious how thin he is. Which is scary enough already. Can you eat more please. Nishi as well. I think their BMI is the lowest in the whole band; it's like... what, 17 or lower? 0_0

Hidaka's jacket is interesting. The design on it makes it look like knitwear, but... Okay, I actually can't tell from the photo whether or not it's actually knitwear. Haha. But it looks really interesting.

I like that you can see Hidaka's hand on Shinjiro's shoulder as well. Posed shots are nice and all, but I like it when there's interaction (no matter how small) between the members.

Random morning musings: My dream house would be half library, half studio, and all artistic clutter / organised chaos. :)

I want a library with floor-to-ceiling shelves made of dark wood, full of books that are arranged by alphabetical order of authors' names. It needs to have a comfy couch with poofy cushions and a fluffy throw and maybe a rug that I can dig my toes into when I feel like it. :)

And a desk. A desk with one of those old-school reading lamp with a green glass cover and a short pull-chain, and a swivelly roller chair that reclines when I lean backwards to contemplate the sky ceiling. XD

And recently, I've got around to thinking that maybe I'd like the other half to be a studio/ working space, where I can have a workstation for writing and a work area for making notebooks and other things and knick-knacks that I'd like to experiment at making but have never done because I don't have a space suitable for it.

Yeah. "Head up in the clouds" is a good way to start a weekday morning at work.

Thanks to a sudden burst of inspiration (and madness - ne, Shuta-muse? :) ), "Zero" has grown by another three pages and is now 33 pages long.

I still have no idea where it's going. My stories do that; they lead *me* around by the nose even when I'm the one writing them.

For anyone who's curious, "Zero" was inspired by the AAA PV for the song of the same name; when I first saw the PV, my brain wondered, "But what were they doing there?" and ran away with the idea. If you watch the PV, you'll understand what I mean.



And this was from the "split-personality" single too; "MUSIC!!" was the main single, but "ZERO" was the B-side. So you had one video that was full of colour and open spaces and "yay!", while the other one was all about lockdown, grey colours and insanity.

I never knew that Japan and Vietnam were such good friends. They're such good friends with each other that they had a Japan-Vietnam Music Festival over the weekend.

Whyyyy. Isn't Japan good friends with Singapore toooo.

Why we no have Japan-Singapore Music Festival. We have singing people here toooo.

Yes, I'm whining coz AAA performed for it.

The first time that AAA is *not* a quarter-way across the world and they're like, so close yet so far. Oh well. They were all so cute; it was their first time in Vietnam, so they were all excited and everything, posting on their official blog(s) and Twitters and stuff. :)

Nishi's blogpost yesterday is adorable and chock-full of "yay!"-ness, as usual. And of course, because it's a Nishi post, it must be full of camwhorism. But I think that's what makes all his posts have that "yay!" feeling. :p
Some people just have it down to an art; where they just hold up the phone/ camera, point, smile and click, and it actually turns out pretty well-framed even though they didn't even look at it when they snapped it. :p

ただい

まぁ～！！！

楽しかった◎^∇^◎
なんかね、
色んな事が
新鮮ＭＡＸで
移動中、ずーっとシンチャオシンチャオシンチャオ！って現地の方々に、
挨拶しまくってました☆

そして、
記者発表…
いつも緊張します…
けど………
正装するの大好きなんですね♪
女性二人☆
 

二人とも可愛いでしょ？！(^^)♪
正装って身が引き締まるさっねっ☆

そして、
男性陣
 

カイイでしょ？！

そして、ライブ前に
カフェへ………
 

爽やかでしょ？！
 
そしてそして、
ライブをやって、
ライブ後に
会場内の階段前で……


急いで一人でパシャッとね☆

さぁ、帰ってきたら今日は、学園祭のリハーサル☆

ベトナム名残惜しく、みんなでベトナムの話しながら、ライブの話もしながらサクサクと…
でも名残惜しくてボーッと………
いかんいかんと思って、
リハーサル…

さぁ、次は
俺の母国！！！
韓国だ！！(嘘です（笑）)
でも、日本にいる韓国の方に、今も相変わらず、韓国語で話し掛けられます♪
韓国も素敵な交流が出来るように、楽しんできます☆

投稿者:西島隆弘 

Eh..... Do I want to translate it? Hm. I understand it, but I'm lazy to type a translation. I just like all the pretty pictures. Lol.

(I think that's Nishi sprawled on the floor there in the last picture, lol. And I didn't know Chiaki and Shuta dyed their hair blond! :D)

(Side note: I am *amazed* that I can actually just copy and paste the WHOLE blog post off the official site. Woot!)

Watched Lion King this afternoon! With Connor and Jiaxin. :)

It was nice, but to be honest, not a very totally-blown-away kind of experience.

Maybe it was coz we were on the second floor; the stage seemed kinda small from there, but at the same time, it was nice to have a more elevated view of the whole thing. You win some, you lose some. Some things might not have been very visible from the first floor, such as the effect of the water "drying up" in the beginning of the second act. It was very cleverly done; a circular blue cloth with polka dot patterns laid out in the middle of the stage, and the cloth is slowly pulled down a little hole right in the centre.

Scar's acting was awesome; as Jiaxin put it, he *is* terribly "diva", but his characterisation of Scar is so spot on. He was probably the most enjoyable character to watch.

The two children playing Young Simba and Nala; their speaking voices are a little grating, because they're rather high-pitched - can't be helped, they *are* kids, after all. But their singing voices are another thing entirely; they both project really well!

Adult Nala's voice is amazing; personally, I thought that her voice was the best in the whole show. Adult Simba, for being the main protagonist in the whole story, unfortunately doesn't have as powerful a voice. He has a nice enough voice, but it somehow doesn't have the support and substance that Nala's does, and so I never really felt anything during Simba's solos.

The most credit probably has to go to sets and costumes design. The sets are not immensely elaborate, but they do make full use of all the space on the stage, and little things are always popping up in places where you least expect them: steam shooting out of barely visible little holes, inflatable "plants", and a portion of the upstage area which can be elevated in part or in whole.

And the costumes; I love how they've made the costumes and the puppets meld with the human counterparts who have to work them, and Scar and Mufasa's headgear pieces in particular are amazing. In the scene where we first meet Scar, he makes this snide little motion with his head (so it's quite obvious that he's not really all as sorry as he claims to be for missing Simba's presentation), and the headpiece that he's wearing mimics that sideways motion perfectly.

Finally, there are the localised jokes, mostly courtesy of Timon, and some from Zazu. At the end of the scene where Simba and Nala try to lose Zazu so that they can go to the elephant graveyard, Zazu gets up and walks (flies) into the stage left proscenium (there's the accompanying "tonk" sound effect as well :D), and then he goes: "...Nimba..? Sala...? ...Oh look... it's a merlion," before weaving around and exiting stage left.

And for an African meerkat, Timon speaks Chinese pretty well too. At the point where Simba tries to get him to jump over the river, Timon starts doing these exaggerated "warming-up" motions like jumping jacks and jogging on the spot, and then he starts talking - I didn't realise he was speaking in Chinese until I heard the ending part of the line: " 掌声鼓励鼓励！"

Timon even says, "Let it go lah," at some point (I can't remember when, except that it was pretty late in the show) and when the party returns to the Pridelands with Simba, Timon asks:
"This is what we're fighting for?"
Simba: Yes, this is my home.
Timon: Whoa. Talk about needing an HDB upgrade.

The locals in the audience laughed their asses off, but the two families of foreigners with us on the second floor seemed rather lost. Oh well. :D

All in all, an enjoyable performance! Now I'm just waiting to go back there to see Wicked in December. :D