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!!!