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

Well, would ya look at that. Oricon daily chart for 13th September.

Congratulations all over again, y'all. Debuting at number 1 for 29377 copies on first day sales. If that isn't a great birthday present, I don't know what is. :)

And hey, the Hamasaki Ayumi album which features Naoya is at number 2 too! Double hurrah for Naoya!

And speaking of which, I actually still don't know what the first press bonus that comes together with the CD is. When I ordered it, I think it wasn't decided yet what the first press bonus would be. Hmm. *opens new tab to check CDJapan*
Ooo. B2-size poster. Hmm. Now where on earth am I gonna put it...

I realise I'm waiting on a lot of AAA stuff to arrive at the moment.... my AAABest discs, the 2 magazines that're in the same order, and another magazine that I ordered through the Kinokuniya at Liang Court. I hope everything doesn't arrive while I'm away at F1. Then I'll have to wait to come home before I can see all if it.

Can everything get here by next Wednesday, please? :D

AAA 6歳の誕生日おめでとうございます！　＾－＾

May you all be happy and carry on making music that makes all your fans happy for many more years to come. :)

Shin-chan posted on Twitter at just past midnight (Japan time):
"Thank you, everyone! Thanks to everyone, AAA is 6 years old! Please continue to support us! Also, it's been 8 years since I entered Avex! Time passes so fast! I'm really thankful to so many people!"
8 years, good lord. And he was only what, 14 or 15 at the time. @.@

And from Nishi's blogpost on the official site: photos of the camwhoring king himself with all the other members. Ah, everyone looks so happy. :)

First thing I saw in my Gmail inbox this morning: a notification that my order has been shipped.

Totally made my day. :)

My orders are on the way! Hurrah! :)

September already.

AAA's official website has changed their pictures again. Everything looks so pretty that I've decided that it merits a blogpost. Lol.

Everyone's looking spiffy for anniversary!

Everybody looks so PRETTY. Shuta, don't cover your face like thaaaat.
I wish all the guys got nice proper suits, though. Why does only Nishi get the smart-looking "traditional" suit. Shuta and Naoya look okay, but why couldn't they have given Shinjiro proper pants and long boots...?! That combo always suits him so well.

And Hidaka. I actually wish they'd stop dressing Hidaka like that; giving him funny, shapeless wrap-around or throw-over pieces and three-quarter pants. He'd look so much more amazing in a suit too.

But the girls' dresses are pretty. :) I'm partial to Chiaki most of the time (I prefer her voice over Misako's, and she's so cute coz she's so small! She's like, pocket-sized! XD), but I like Misako's dress more. Maybe it's the ruffles. Gives it an elegant, old-world sort of feeling.

And because I do have my preferences (wahahaha), here we go:

Shin-chaaaan!! Good lord, why are you so pretty.

Shinjiro's looking awesome lately, after he cut his hair short. It makes his face a lot more... open, so he seems a lot cheerier. XD I find it kinda funny how fast his tan wore off, but he still had a slightly bronzed look for a while. There's still some hint of it in this picture... I'm wondering if he only looks fairer coz of the studio lights. He just looks awesome, anyhow.

And he changed his Twitter icon piccie to this photo. Which is just great as well, coz everytime he posts, I get to see this lovely piccie! :D Which is awesome.

I've run out of adjectives, as you can see. This lovely boy has that annoying effect. Lol.


Next, the two that always share a close second (in my book): Nishi and Shuta!



Coz they're both funny and adorable most of the time and I just can't decide who I like more after Shin-chan. Haha. Nishi will probably still behave like a five-year-old occasionally even when he's thirty-five, but his spontaneous-ness makes him so fun to watch. The boy was born to be put in front of a camera and be watched by thousands of people; I don't think anyone doubts that for a second.

And Shuta is probably the funniest in the whole band; by common consensus, he's the "mood-maker", after all. :) And Shuta's dancing skillz iz amazing. Which on its own, is already 'nuff said. :D

And... more goodness from the "CALL/I4U" single, now that some fans are starting upload some of the extra bits on the discs to share with others:
"え～パンダの中に誰が入っているのでしょうか？" ("Who's inside the A-Panda?")
(The A-Panda is AAA's mascot. Each member has their own colour: Nishi - orange; Misako - purple; Naoya - green; Hidaka - yellow; Shinjiro - blue; Shuta - pink; Chiaki - red. They usually sell small versions of these pandas as souvenirs at their concert venues and they're usually only one colour; so if you get a red A-Panda for example, then you've got Chiaki's colour. But the life-sized mascot is multi-coloured, so that's basically the whole band together for you. ^-^)
And they're playing the little kiddy version of "MUSIC!!!" in the background for this video! So cute.


AAA A~Panda [CALL/I4U single extra] by kaaanne

"正解：與　真司郎" ("Correct answer: Atae Shinjiro")

I guessed who it was when the panda turned around to wave at everyone before heading back inside. The *way* that the panda waved fits Shin-chan. Lol.

He looks like he had fun mingling with fans while "incognito", haha! :D
(I bet that after the fans see this, they'll swarm the mascot everytime they see it, thinking it might be one of the members inside. XD)

Teachers' Day!

It feels like so long since I last bought a teacher anything for Teachers' Day; last time must've been in JC. Y'know, when we still got school holidays. Haha.

I can't remember if I ever bought any of my lecturers anything in Uni. Might've been because I didn't really feel like I knew them all that well. By the time 1st September rolled around, school would've only been about what, three weeks in, after all. And for most modules I took, it would've been only the first time I was with that lecturer.

But, anyway! I bought some Royce chocolate for my Japanese teacher, Yamamoto-sensei. And after class, sensei decided to perform his rendition of a Jay Chou song, "简单爱", to thank us for our presents. :D



先生、ハッピ教師の日！＾－＾