Well, I've finally just finished the last pages of "The Hobbit".

That's the last book that I'll have finished reading this year. And, of course, I'm ridiculously far away from my goal of one hundred books.

To recount, these are all the books that I've read this year:

1. Wicked, by Gregory Maguire (completed 28th January)
2. Alice in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass (compiled in one book), by Lewis Carroll (completed: 16th January)
3. After the Quake, by Murakami Haruki (completed: 12th February)
4. I Am Number Four, by Pittacus Lore (completed: 16th February)
5. The General in His Labyrinth, by Gabriel Garcia Marquez (completed: 18th April)
6. The Girl Who Leapt Through Time, by Tsutsui Yasutaka (completed: 28th April)
7. Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?, by Philip K. Dick (completed: 19th May)
8. Plainsong, by Hosaka Kazushi (completed: 2nd June)
9. The Grass is Singing, by Doris Lessing (completed: 31st July)
10. The Hunger Games, by Suzanne Collins (completed: 16th June)
11. Catching Fire, by Suzanne Collins (completed: 18th June)
12. Mockingjay, by Suzanne Collins (completed: 23rd June)
13. Flowers for Algernon, by Daniel Keyes (completed: 9th Nov)
14. The Good Terrorist, by Doris Lessing (completed: 12th Dec)
15. The Hobbit, by J.R.R. Tolkien (completed: 31st Dec)

The idea that I've only read 15 books the whole year (in 12 months! 52 weeks! Three hundred and sixty-five days!) is quite depressing to me. But then I kinda console myself with the knowledge that I've actually been doing a LOT more reading on my computer instead - fanfiction and whatnot.

Someone asked me once how much I fanfiction I do read. And then I realised that at almost any one point in time, I have about ten tabs open in my Firefox; ten stories - many of them likely to be multi-chaptered, and not one-shots - all at various stages of reading. And for some reason, while reading, I just *have* to skip back and forth between them. I dunno why, I just click and read through one for a while, then maybe it gets to a lull or something and I read another story for a while, and then maybe I'll jump to something else, or I'll go back to the story that I was reading earlier. I've no idea why I do this, honestly.

And then he asked, "You mean you can keep track of ten different stories at the same time??"

Yes... it isn't that difficult really. And there're my books too, in addition to stuff I read online.
As I've already mentioned before, I read two books at a time: one I keep with me for when I'm out and about, and one stays by the bed at night for bedtime reading.

And actually, if I happen to get a new book or something that I just have to start reading, that might become a third book that I'd be reading at the same time as well.

His mind was just boggled even further. Poor guy.

So, I wonder, does the sum total of all that I've read (in print and in type) amount to about 100 books? I wonder.

But I remember when I used to read a lot more. Books, that is. When I used to be what you'd call "a voracious reader".

When I was in secondary school and JC, I read in bed into the wee hours of the morning - I had to be scolded to put the book down and go to sleep. I read in between class periods, I read during recess sometimes, I read while walking to the bus interchange after school, I read on the bus, I read while walking home.

I used to read so much more. And it all tapered off in uni, when class readings took up all the time, and I just got so tired of reading stuff that was on paper, I think. Reading *books* dropped to a lifetime low when I was in uni.

I miss the me that loved books so much.

Let's see how far we manage to get through one hundred books in the new year. :)

But for now, I have another project to take me through to the new year. More details in my next post! :)

AAA has another new single!

Good grief, their release schedule is crazy. I've thought that all along, but when I really stop to think about it... I think they have a new single every two months or so..?  (0.o)

But yes, Avex has been so nice as to release a preview for the new single, and it seems that they actually performed this new single live for the first time while on tour recently.

This is from the Yokohama Arena performances on 22nd and 23rd September.
This is why I love these people; they show so much happiness in what they do, that it makes them so much fun to watch. (^-^)



「虹」 - the title of the new single is "Niji"; it means, "Rainbow".
Another 7-colour-themed thing. :)
It's a 7-themed year all around for them; 7 people, 7 years, 7 colours, haha.  \(^-^)/

Just because Kamen Rider W's opening song is even more awesome when sung live. :D



I love:

• Kamiki Aya's energy during the song; she makes it even more amazing to listen to. And her voice is so powerful.
• How the lighting is mainly green and purple; the colours of Kamen Rider W's default Cyclone/Joker form.
• How Takuya adds in, "さぁ、お前の罪を数えろ！" at 2:19. Listen to the crowd SCREAM after he says it.
  ("Saa, omae no tsumi wo kazoero!" is Kamen Rider W's catchphrase in the show. It translates to, "Now, count your sins!")

Ooh, look. Another post.

This time, just to update on my reading and the "100 books" goal... which really doesn't look like it'll be fulfilled. Hmm.
Oh well, doesn't mean I have to stop reading. Hahaha.

I have really and truly run out of shelf space. The books are piling up on my room desk now, which I don't really use, since my cousin is using my room, and we all study/work in the upstairs common area, anyway.

My mum remarked to me on Monday:
"Gerri, the books on your table.. reaching the ceiling already, you know."

To which I replied:
"Which is why I keep saying I need more shelf space, what."

But what she's saying is just an exaggeration; they're not reaching the ceiling. They're only halfway there.


Anyway!

The Reading List as of today:
1. Wicked, by Gregory Maguire (completed 28th January)
2. Alice in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass (compiled in one book), by Lewis Carroll (completed: 16th January)
This is listed as book 2, even though it was finished earlier, because Wicked was started first.

3. After the Quake, by Murakami Haruki (completed: 12th February)
4. I Am Number Four, by Pittacus Lore (completed: 16th February)
5. The General in His Labyrinth, by Gabriel Garcia Marquez (completed: 18th April)
6. The Girl Who Leapt Through Time, by Tsutsui Yasutaka (completed: 28th April)
7. Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?, by Philip K. Dick (completed: 19th May, while on the plane back from Japan! :D)
8. Flowers For Algernon, by Daniel Keyes (started: 28th April. Still reading. Oops.)
9. Plainsong, by Hosaka Kazushi (completed: 2nd June)

This book was kind of an impulse buy; I remember walking past the Japanese Literature shelf at Kinokuniya and the cover just catching my eye. The cover really is as plain as it looks in the picture - I'm not sure if there're other covers, but this is the one that I have.

The story inside is no grand masterpiece, but a meandering telling of the just-slightly-short-of-mundane life of our protagonist and the friends who randomly stumble into his life and just... stick there. The protagonist is someone not too different from the average person on the street; someone who did reasonably well in school, landed a respectable job, and lives comfortably enough within his means; with no great destiny, and simply going about his life from day-to-day. But those happenings of his day-to-day life do make for a heartwarming story. :)

Give it a try if you have a day when you have nothing to do, and you have the time for a quiet sit-down. :)


10. The Grass is Singing, by Doris Lessing (completed: 31st July)

To be honest, there isn't anything to *like* about this story. How does one like a story about how a person slowly loses oneself in a sucking downward spiral that hits a new low everytime you think they might've already hit rock-bottom?

But even though that's the way it is, it's still oddly compelling; even though you wonder how the characters can carry on the way they are, how everyone can be so blind as to believe in their racist sentiments, and you know that it does not meet a happy end, you're compelled to finish it. At least, I was. Maybe it's partly morbid fascination, and partly a sort of schadenfreude.

It's not a happy story. But it still is a good one.


11. The Hunger Games, by Suzanne Collins (completed: 16th June)
12. Catching Fire, by Suzanne Collins (completed: 18th June)
13. Mockingjay, by Suzanne Collins (completed: 23rd June)


Yes, it's the Hunger Games trilogy. I decided to jump on the bandwagon and see what everyone was raving about, since my sister came home with the first book, borrowed from one of her friends, and she seemed to go through them pretty quickly. I was a little curious about the series, since the movie was making such a big thing of it, and since my sister was reading through them so fast, I figured they should be pretty easy reading and that I should be able to get through it even faster.

The story is good; exciting and well-paced, with vivid descriptions (of feelings, sensations, scenery, people, injuries and decimated landscapes all alike). It falls into its cliched moments sometimes - ah, young love and all that - but it's very absorbing.


14. The Good Terrorist, by Doris Lessing (started: 6th August)
I picked another Doris Lessing book off the shelf after finishing The Grass is Singing. I think it was the first thing that I saw when I opened my bookcase, haha.

And yeah, Flowers for Algernon still isn't completed yet. Sigh.
Because that's the bedtime-reading book, and I tend to read a lot of other things on my laptop instead at night, into the wee hours of the morning, by the time I actually crawl into bed, I find I don't have any time for actual bedtime reading. If I did stay up any longer to read in bed, I might not be able to wake up for work.

... Then again, I might still wake up; my brain might carry on sleeping, though. :p

And Flowers for Algernon is written in a diary-entry style that I find kinda difficult to stay with... it bores me a little after a while. But, oh well; shall stick with it - have to finish it now that I've started it, anyway - and maybe things will develop more as it goes on.

Yoohoo~!

Okay. I think I have a lot of err... backdated updating to do. Did that sound like an oxymoron to anyone...? "Backdated updating".. huh.

I haven't properly blogged since before I left for Japan in May!

But for now, just to let off some pent-up energy (I'm caffeinated and slightly twitchy :D), let me introduce you to my newest obsession: Kamen Rider W! (Also known/ read as "Kamen Rider Double")

Okay, technically, this was the 2009 Kamen Rider series; it was airing alongside the second half of Shinkenger, after Kamen Rider Decade finished its run. Except... I was only interested in Shinkenger then, and I wasn't particularly drawn to Decade. Inoue Masahiro might have done a far too good job portraying the standoffish protagonist. :p

So I kinda paid no attention to W (Double) as well.

So how the heck have I come around to it only now?

Well, sometime last month, I stumbled across some clips on YouTube; Peacemaker Kurogane actually had a stage play! And, playing Okita Souji - Hamao Kyousuke!

He does a really good job of it too; he generally does good interpretations of characters he plays, really rising to the occasion when he's acting, so it's really funny that in real life, he's just kind of... blur. LOL. But it's somewhat lovable. Haha.

And then, that reminded me of Goseiger (the Sentai series which replaced Shinkenger after it ended), which Hamao acted in, and which I never finished watching... So I thought maybe I'd go finish watching it.

I had the long weekend to burn, after all... Hari Raya holiday on Sunday meant PH-in-lieu on Monday, and then I took Tuesday off. Wahaha.

Now, the thing is, Sentai and Kamen Rider series always air back-to-back, in a one-hour slot, and there's usually a very brief teaser for both shows at the beginning of the hour, showing snippets of that week's episodes and what to expect. Sentai usually runs first in this hourly slot, so in all my Goseiger (and some Shinkenger downloads), there're teasers of the W episodes that aired alongside Goseiger.

And they sounded quite interesting, so I got... tempted. Into watching W. And now I'm just... hooked. Haha.

First thing that drew me in: I'm not a particularly big Kamen Rider fan (apart from watching Masked Rider when I was er... much younger), but I don't think there've been many (or any) Kamen Rider series where the Rider is made up of two people.

Which is why Kamen Rider W (Double) is named the way it is; this series' Rider requires two people to transform to "make" the Rider, and when transformed, there're basically two minds in one body - Hidari (which literally means "left" in Japanese) Shoutarou is the Rider's left side, and Philip - this younger boy who doesn't seem to have much in the way of a personal history - is the right.

Oh, the myriad ways in which this means that things can go wrong... after all, as Philip says, "The two of us are a single detective." I'm sure that means that if either of them were incapacitated somehow, neither would be able to transform. Interesting. XD

During the non-serious and "daily-life" moments of the series so far (I'm only up to episode 14 at the moment), I love the comic timing, and the way that Kiriyama Renn (Shoutarou) and Suda Masaki (Philip) portray their characters just makes the series so FUN. :D

And okay, one of the things I love best so far is really Philip's character.

He reminds me a little of Sheldon from Big Bang Theory; they both don't really care much for other people (apart from a very select few), and are quite absorbed in books and knowledge and research. But although Sheldon is still extremely entertaining in all his intellectual snobbery, Philip, by comparison...

.... is fucking awesome. :D

Sheldon is an eccentric know-it-all, but Philip *could* actually technically know *everything* as long as he wanted to and had the time to look it up.

Because Philip seems to have been born with an ability to access the Earth's memories; which looks a bit like him appearing in a bright white, non-space, filled with thousands upon thousands of bookshelves full of books. I suppose there's a reason why he calls it the "Planetary Bookshelf".
It's also a bit like how I imagine my dream library to be, except with actual walls, made of dark wood, with soft carpets and sofas and muted yellow lighting. XD

At his whim, and using keywords, he looks through all this to find information he needs, and the bookshelves and books basically shuffle around him and disappear if they are deemed redundant in any "search".





I think the above two gifs are from someone's Tumblr... Pretty much the visual representation of Philip's brain doing a Google search.

And the bulldog clips in his hair. Adorkable. Haha. :D

And the opening song! "W-B-X", which stands for "W-Boiled Extreme". Yeah, "Double-Boiled Extreme" sounds kinda silly, but it's a reference to the show. Shoutarou actually runs a private investigation agency, with Philip's help, and likes to think of himself as a real man's man, a "hard-boiled detective". Philip and Akiko (one of the side characters) just think he's "half-boiled" instead. Which gets his goat everytime. XD

Love how it starts with the muted trumpet, giving it a sound that's reminiscent of black-and-white detective films, and I love the way Kamiki Aya and Takuya voices overlay each other in the chorus.


In particular, I like these lines in the chorus:
"W-B-X
2人のBody＆Soul ひとつに (他に無いさOnlyつまり相乗り)
W-B-X
最高のパートナー 出逢う時 奇跡おこる (So we can make it)"

"W-B-X
The bodies and souls of two become one (I will ride with only you and no other)
W-B-X
When I meet the best partner, a miracle will happen (So we can make it)"

LOL at Shinjiro's tweet after their Aomori performance.

Shinjiro, if you carry on with the ｢アップル」 thing, no one is ever going to believe that you don't like doing it. Wahahaha.

Look! A Shinjiro blogpost just coz it's so cute. Hahaha.

And I'm off to Japan on Wednesday!!
Watching AAA in Shimane on Sunday!!

Excited is as excited is. XD

---

(/≧θ≦)/

2012年05月06

初の大分でワンマンライブが無事終了しましたぁ〜！！
最高すぎたぁ〜！！

初めてやったのに、あの盛り上がり！！
やっぱりAAAのファンのみんなは最高です☆
ありがとう！！

次は、鳥取！！   

盛り上がっていくぜ〜☆

写真はメンバーと湯布院に行った時とったものです！！アトムとウルトラマンと変なおじさん（笑）
温泉も入ったし、食べ歩きもしたし、大分を満喫しましたぁ〜！！
ホンマに自然がいっぱいあって、いいとこでした！！久しぶりに地方でゆっくりできたから、最高にいい思い出ができましたぁ〜！
じゃまた来週☆

 

投稿者:與真司郎

---

Can barely wait for work to end today so I can go home and start packing...

今回は日本で、１０日ですよ！Ｏ(≧▽≦)Ｏ

Drizzly Monday morning. And tomorrow's a public holiday too.
Even the roads this morning were pretty clear. Half the world must've taken off today so that they get a long weekend.

Totally no motivation to do any work.  o(_ _)o

But I need to clear a lot of work before I go on leave...

よしゃぁ～ Shall take advantage of the quiet day to get a ton of work done! テンション上がる～

But first! A Shinjiro bloggie post to start the (somewhat-shortened) week! Been a long time since I last copied AAA blogposts, haha.

Oh dear, Shinjiro, say it isn't so. Please, for the love of all that is holy, say that you're not....


...COOKING. (≧∇≦)

---

(-(エ)☆)V

2012年04月29日

 

昨日は山梨行ってきましたよ〜！！

もうどこに行っても、AAAのファンのみんなは盛り上がってくれる☆
最高です☆

明日は初関東ライブ！！
楽しみ〜！！

盛り上がって行きましょう(^O^)

ってか、今日暑かったなぁ〜！！
半袖にシャツ羽織っててんけど、それでもちょっと汗ばんだ！（笑）

でもいいね〜この気温☆
あったかいのっていいね！！

そして、今日は早めに家に帰ったので、料理をしてみました☆卵焼きはちょっと食べちゃったけど（笑）
もちろん教えてもらいながら！
やばい。はまりそう(>_<)楽しい☆

まだまだちょ〜初心者やから、みんな簡単な料理教えてください！！

じゃまた来週

投稿者:與真司郎

---

And after that, Naoya comes to poke a little fun on Twitter...

(AAA fan): Shin-chan, after you published your blogpost, everyone thinks you have a girlfriend now!!
Shinjiro: It does look like that, huh... haha. But it's actually my mum! She's coming for the show tomorrow, so she came over from Kyoto today~!
Naoya: OH MY GOD~! LOL. But I wonder when will I ever be able to meet someone whose cooking is as good as Shin's mama's... Should I just "attack" your mum? Hahaha.
(NAOYA. How can you say such things...??! (O.O) )
Shinjiro: Then, Naoya would be my new father?? Haha. Are you coming to my house again?
Naoya: If you'll allow it? Haha.
Shinjiro: Sure. Haha.
Naoya: Then I'll come over to eat homecooked food after tomorrow's performance!

Ohh, Naoya. Good grief.
I firmly believe that Naoya is sometimes a bad influence. LOL.


One fan even tweeted this to Naoya after he mentioned "attacking" Shinjiro's mum:

(AAA fan): Naoya! You can't go after a married woman!! Lol. Naoya, you've eaten Shin-chan's mum's cooking before?
Naoya: Yeah, I've tried her cooking lots of times! It's so delicious, I think I'm in love. LOL.

... (-_-;;) Exhibit A demonstrates the popular phrase: "The way to a man's heart is through his stomach."


Oh, and this reminds me of this other Twitter conversation that I don't think I ever posted on here:

Naoya: It's done~! (The picture by the side is what Naoya tweeted.)
Shinjiro: Wow... that looks good!! I should seriously start cooking, huh...
Naoya: STOP!! Haha, no way, that's not possible... haha...
Shinjiro: But I've done it before~ (~_~ ;)
Naoya: You're kidding, right?

I almost fell off my chair laughing when I saw this conversation.
Oh, these two are just too much fun. LOL.

Ahh... lazy Saturday afternoon.

Decided to take the time to sit down and finish off "The Girl Who Leapt Through Time", because really, it's just two short stories, and I should've finished it much, much faster. Except that I pretty much sit and read a heck of a lot of stuff online, so when I actually hop into bed with my bedtime reading, I end up not reading much before starting to fall asleep...(-_-;;)

So, book number 6, "The Girl Who Leapt Through Time", by Tsutsui Yasutaka, is finally finished today!

It's two quirky little stories in the same book; if any of you thinks that the title sounds like a film that you might've seen or heard of somewhere before, that mght be because it is. There was an animated film based on the same story, with the same title.

The ending of the main story reminds me a bit of one of Murakami Haruki's short stories though; how the protagonist only remembers vague promises and fleeting feelings every time she smells lavender. And now I can't think of what the title of the Murakami short is. Oh well.

Makes for good light reading. Give it a try. :)


The Reading List as of today:
1. Wicked, by Gregory Maguire (completed 28th January)
2. Alice in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass (compiled in one book), by Lewis Carroll (completed 16th January)
This is listed as book 2, even though it was finished earlier, because Wicked was started first.

3. After the Quake, by Murakami Haruki (completed 12th February)
4. I Am Number Four, by Pittacus Lore (completed 16th February)
5. The General in His Labyrinth, by Gabriel Garcia Marquez (completed 18th April)
6. The Girl Who Leapt Through Time, by Tsutsui Yasutaka (completed 28th April)
7. Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?, by Philip K. Dick (still reading)
8. Flowers For Algernon, by Daniel Keyes (reading; today's new addition!)

Yep, book number 8 is on the list now. :)

Woke up this morning to something awesome. :)

The package with my concert ticket is here, all the way from Japan!

Man, that was fast. I was expecting to receive it on Monday or something.
Thank you, once again, to Connor and Fu Song. :)

And finally, my lovely ticket in all its glory.
(Some details on the ticket have been blurred out in the picture.)

Ah. I think I almost forgot to mention that book number 7 was started yesterday.
The lovely classic, "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?" by Philip K. Dick.

And just in case you're getting confused as to what I've already finished, because of the way that I'm numbering my books:

1. Wicked, by Gregory Maguire (completed 28th January)
2. Alice in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass (compiled in one book), by Lewis Carroll (completed 16th January)
This is listed as book 2, even though it was finished earlier, because Wicked was started first.

3. After the Quake, by Murakami Haruki (completed 12th February)
4. I Am Number Four, by Pittacus Lore (completed 16th February)
5. The General in His Labyrinth, by Gabriel Garcia Marquez (completed 18th April)
6. The Girl Who Leapt Through Time, by Tsutsui Yasutaka (still reading)

It's been a productive day.

Went to apply for my visa to Japan this morning, and I'll be back to pick it up this Friday.

The efficiency of the Japanese Embassy amazes me; it's the second time I've gone to apply for a visa there, and it is completely unlike any other Embassy/ High Commission I've ever been to.

From the time you step in, take a number, sit down to wait, and then hand in all your documents and are told, "That's all, thank you," it's a grand total of about 15 minutes.

 And since that was sorted so quickly, I took the bus back to Holland Village, had brekkie at the Coffee Bean there, and finally finished Marquez's "The General in His Labyrinth".

So that means book number 5 for this year is finally complete! :)

"General Simon Bolivar, “the Liberator” of five South American countries, takes a last melancholy journey down the Magdalena River, revisiting cities along its shores, and reliving the triumphs, passions, and betrayals of his life. Infinitely charming, prodigiously successful in love, war and politics, he still dances with such enthusiasm and skill that his witnesses cannot believe he is ill. Aflame with memories of the power that he commanded and the dream of continental unity that eluded him, he is a moving exemplar of how much can be won—and lost—in a life."

The synopsis makes me feel a little sad, and strangely, it makes me think of our dear Mr Lee Kuan Yew as well. Singaporeans now seem to be divided between the (fading) generation which remembers his glory days and how much he did, and the younger generation who only seem to be champing at a bit which they can only see as restraining.


5. The General in His Labyrinth by Gabriel Garcia Marquez, completed on 18th April 2012.


And finally, the biggest news of all today:

This is my ticket for AAA's 13th May concert in Shimane. Connor helped me ask a friend of his friend (who turns out to be Ben and Gen's mutual friend! It's an awfully small world!), who bought it for me!


This alone has just made my day, week, and entire MONTH. XD

Look what I found today while we were out for lunch at Vivocity!

The bookmark of my dreams!!!

Yes, it does sound rather nerdy - who on Earth has "dream bookmarks"?? Well, Gerri does. :D

If you can't tell what it is just from the picture, it's basically a large rubber-band-ish thing, with a little hand pointing out the exact line where you stopped reading. It's not too tight, so it won't damage book covers and pages by warping, bending or folding them. And its size should be suitable for most QP-sized books. That means Quality Paperback; books that usually around 20 by 13 cm. That's the term that I know it by, but sometimes these sizes are also called "B-format paperbacks".

And Gerri has always wanted to make a bookmark with a sort of slider thingy, which would slide up and down the vertical page marker, so that you'd remember which line you stopped at on the page.

I've thought of making something like that since I was about 9 or 10? But I didn't know how to make sure that it wouldn't be too bulky or anything. And now there's this!

Oh, I am so ridiculously happy. :D

Only thing is that it's $12.90 each (slight ouch); otherwise, I'd have been tempted to get two instead of one; one for my travel reading book, and one for my bedside reading.

Just in case anyone who's reading this is interested, this nifty little thing is by Fred & Friends; click to get to their website! They've got an online catalogue full of tons of other nifty things! :D

Random little game on the AAA@DW community, which can be found here.

It's basically a sentence, split into four different parts, in four .gif format pictures that cycle through different phrases. Hit the "Esc" key to stop the gifs from changing, and voila, you have your random sentence.

And I got:

Strangely, no one else on the comm who's replied to the post seems to have gotten the "Shh. Don't speak" one for the last picture. Haha.

Still up and wide awake, waiting for my hair to dry. Even though I have to be up early tomorrow...

Then I remembered that it's Sunday after all, and Shinjiro should've posted on the official AAA blog by now.

---

(*ノё<*)

2012年03月11日

 

こんばんは〜！！！

今日で、あれから一年がたちました。
人によって、考え方や思いは違うやろうけど、起きたことは、巻き戻せない。
でも、もう一回作り直して、前より素晴らしいものができると思う！！前を向いて、お互い助け合って楽しく生きていこう！！

僕も、いつも家族や友達、メンバーやスタッフ、ファンのみんながそばにいてくれるから、こうやって生きていける☆

毎回毎回思うけど、せっかくこの仕事をしてるなら、一人でも多くの人を幸せにしたい(^O^)

みんながHAPPYな日本になるように、大きなことはできないけど、やっていこうと思います☆

今日も、舞台をいつもと変わらないようにできて、お客さんが笑顔になってくれたことを、心から感謝します！！
そして実は今日なんと、メンバーが全員観に来てくれたんだな！！
来るなって言ったのに、みんな来やがった（笑）

まぁホンマは嬉しいねんけどね(^O^)

そして、夜からみんなで飯を食う！！

こんだけ一緒にいると、ぶっちゃけ、色々あるけど、もう家族みたいやから、何があっても強い絆があるなって最近思う！！

なんやかんや、みんな結構照れ屋やから、普段はありがとう、とか言わないけど、お互い実は思ってる。なんか不思議な関係（笑）

これからも、七人でできるだけ多くの人を幸せにしたいし、何かを伝えていきたいなぁ〜(^O^)

写真は本番あとみんなで☆
ありがとよっ！みんな(^O^)

投稿者:與真司郎

---

I actually think this is quite a thoughtful post - his posts have a tendency to be that way sometimes, but I thought this one was especially nice - so I'm going to make an effort to translate it:

"Good evening!!!

It's already been a year since then, today. (A year ago, to the date, was the Tohoku Earthquake.)

I guess people's ways of thinking and their thoughts have changed because of that, but we can't go back and change things that have already happened.
But I do think we can rebuild, and we can make things even better than before! Let's move forward, and help each other out so that we can all live life to the fullest!

For me, I've been able to live in this way because my family and friends, the other members and our staff, and fans, have always been by my side ☆ 

I think about this each and every time, but since I'm in this line of work, even as an individual, I would like to make many people happy. (^o^)

I think that for us to be a HAPPY Japan, even if we can't do great things, we must all carry on with our lives ☆

Today as well, the play went on as usual; seeing all the guests' smiles, I was really thankful, from the bottom of my heart!! (Shinjiro's currently acting in a stage play, which I think started its run just this week. He's sort of headlining it, together with Maekawa Hiroki.)
And actually, today, all the other members came to watch!!
Even though I told them not to come, they all came, haha...

Well... but I was actually really happy (^o^)

And then at night, we all had dinner together!

Just being like this together, being frank with each other, and many other things, it's just like a family. And no matter what happens, we have our strong bonds with each other; that's what I've thought recently!!

We're all kind of shy, so we don't usually say thank you and things like that, but I think we do think that of each other. It's kind of a strange relationship, haha. (Really, he thinks everyone is shy...?? I thought that was just him in particular. Lol.)

From here on as well, the seven of us want to bring happiness to as many people as we can (^o^)

The picture was taken with everyone after the performance ☆ 
Thanks, everyone! (^o^)"


And then there was this on Naoya's Twitter (which I suppose was taken during dinner):

Ahh, they all look so happy together. I just love these people. (^-^)

 

And from the Twitter conversation that followed the picture...

Naoya: Everyone was gathered together today. ru-ru-ru ♪
Misako: appuru, appuru, ru-ru-ru-ru-ru ♫
(The infamous line which Shinjiro was forced to say during the Aomori performance of their 2009 tour XD)
Shinjiro: That's mine!
(Although I didn't think he'd actually claim it... LOL)
Misako: Ah, it's Yano-senpai!
Naoya: Yano-san ♥

LOL.... So I guess Shinjiro's character in the play must be named Yano... hahahaha....

Ah, so I suppose it's now formally ours.

It kind of makes me think of that old song, "Our House".

"Our house, in the middle of our street,
Our house, in the middle..."

Sooo... AAA's newest single was released this Wednesday.

CDJapan tells me that my orders of the single (yes, multiple; I succumbed and ordered both Type A and Type B because of the different extras that come with each. m(_ _)m) and their 6th Anniversary concert DVD, which was also released on Wednesday, were shipped on Monday.

Yay!!

But... knowing that it'll probably take about a week before I get it... I'm now trying to avoid all the videos that're popping up from all the people who've already got their hands on their copies.

ARGH. Am trying very very hard to not spoil it for myself, since the last time this happened was with the Buzz Communication Tour DVD and I watched almost the whole thing on YouTube before it was even released because someone was so nice as to record it off the WOWOW channel when they played it and I kept going back and rewatching even after I ordered it and... and... well, you get the idea. I spoiled my Buzz Comm DVD. As in, I spoilt the whole... anticipation and waiting to actually receive it to see its beautiful contents.

Although I have since rewatched it a few times and am very happy that I own it, anyway. :D

Okay. So... yes, will um... persist. Do not click on all those YouTube videos, Gerri.

But I shall just post the pretty preview of the main single's PV here. Because pretty people are pretty. o(^v^)o

My weekly dose of squee-ness happiness. Another candid photo of the bandmembers together; fun times, they're all so cute. :)

---

(＠∇＠)

2012年02月19日

今日はSDDと言うイベントに、AAA二年連続で参加させていただきました☆
素晴らしいアーティストのみなさんと、一緒に一つのテーマに向けて、お客さん達に伝え

る！！また、素晴らしい体験ができました☆
飲酒運転がゼロになるように、僕たちもできる限りやっていきたいと思います☆
来てくれたみなさん、ありがとうございました(^O^)
実は大阪って言うこともあり、二日前の夜は実家で過ごせました！
家族に会えて、リラックスできたなぁ〜！
で、昨日は久しぶりに日高と直也君は、いなかったけど、他のメンバーとスタッフさんで飯〜！
色々話したわ（笑）
楽しかった！！
久しぶりの地方はいいね〜！

写真は新幹線なかで☆
珍しいこの4shot（笑）
(Why do you have that strange expression on your face, Shin-chan?! XD)

弁当うまかった〜！
じゃまた来週☆
 

投稿者:與真司郎

---

Ever since he dyed it, I've always wondered when I see it: why, purple, Naoya...??!

Been an unexpectedly busy week so far... -_-

Ah, a house, a house, my er... weekend for a house? Haha. Something like that. Never mind if you don't understand that. :)

A Shuuta blogpost! Just coz I thought it was so nice of them to have a candid photo together while they were eating dinner.

---

飯！

2012年02月18日

今日はなんと大阪入りしています！

それは何故か！

明日はSDDというイベントに参加させて頂きます！

そのリハーサルのため、前乗りしてるっつーわけでございます！


久々のライヴということもあり、入念なリハーサルをやらせて頂きました！

そしてその後、せっかくなのでご飯に！

いわゆるシーメーです！


スタッフさんも含め、飯を食いながら、いろいろ話したのだけど、一番盛り上がったのはメンバー個人個人の私生活について。笑

なかなか改まって人の私生活のことなんて聞かないからすんげー盛り上がった！

『へ〜そんなことしてんだー！』


『え？それ俺なら、私ならこうするのに！』


『それは俺が女だったら付き合えないね！』

などなど、あーでもないこーでもないとくだらない話に華を咲かせていました！

いい飯会だったなー！

本当楽しかったO(≧∇≦)o

ちなみに私生活の話で一番盛り上がったのはしんじろーの話！

あー本当しんじろー最高だったよ！ウケたわ笑笑

何を話したかはご想像にお任せっつーことで！


明日のSDDでのライヴ！カマしてくるぜ！

あ！今日はCDTVの放送日です！


是非チェックしてねー！



投稿者:末吉秀太

---

Seems that Naoya and Hidaka weren't with them at the time though, so I guess the person in the hoodie in the corner is Shinjiro, haha. I thought it was Naoya at first, given his penchant for hoodies.

Done with "I Am Number Four".

Which, unfortunately, did turn out to be about 95% predictable and sort of cliched. And then at the end, I find out that it's actually a series! Not just one book!

Which... just makes me feel like buying the other books coz I just. have. to. know. what. happens. Yes, even if it's rather cliched and a little cringeworthy at best. GAH.

Hmm. Control. There are better books to spend money on.

4. I Am Number Four, completed on 16th February.

Things aren't looking too good for my goal of 100 books if I'm only on book number 5 at the moment. :(
I spend too much time at my laptop, reading stuff that I find online instead.

But, we shall carry on, no sense in giving up; still 10 more months of the year to go! And while Marquez travels around with me, bedtime company shall now be in the form of "The Girl Who Leapt Through Time", by Tsutsui Yasutaka.

I'm not sure where I heard of it, but when I first came across it at Kino, the title made me stop and wonder why it sounded familiar.

And then I bought it. Hahaha.

Nishi's blogpost for today. Which I am not copying and pasting because it has WAY TOO MUCH PICSPAM.

But it's all about the final performance of his stageplay, which he's in together with Fujiwara Tatsuya! I flailed and gawked so much when I first found out. Oh, the meeting of my fandoms; AAA and Fujiwara Tatsuya, the awesomeness.

And the director of the play is the same director who discovered Fujiwara and whom he's worked with for almost all his theatre works, Ninagawa Yukio! Even more awesomeness.

I wonder if I'll ever be able to get a DVD of the recording of the play or something... I've never had the chance to see Fujiwara's acting in a theatre context, not in full. And I don't think something involving Ninagawa Yukio and Fujiwara Tatsuya could ever turn out bad, haha. :D

Just a few photos from Nishi's post, because they're awesome:
Nishi with Fujiwara, and Nishi with a bunch of other castmembers and Fujiwara in the back, haha.


And Nishi with the amazing Ninagawa-san. :)

Misako's blogpost for Valentine's Day. Because I like how she and Chiaki make cookies and cake for the boys every year. It's so adorable. (^-^)

---

バレンタインデー

2012年02月14日

うっかりちゃっかり忘れちゃおうかと思ったけれど、こういう機会にメンバーやスタッフ

さんに日頃の感謝はちゃんと伝えないと、なかなかありがとう言い逃しちゃうからと思って作りました。

(ホワイトデーのことは意識してない、してない、たぶん。。)

愛をこめて今年はソフトチョコクッキーよん☆
どれだけの手間がかかってるのかはご想像にお任せするっ！


みんなにありがとうのメッセージ付きで、女の子らしいラッピングでポイントはたんまりかせいだつもりだけど。。。肝心なお味の方は？？

これまたご想像にお任せします。（笑）

では、メンバーの嬉しそうな笑顔を見てください。


まずはリーダー。
くしゃっとスマイルで嬉しい度ＭＡＸな感じで、こちらも嬉しいょ♪
(Naoya and his purple hair again...)

お次は真司郎。
クールスマイルの裏側に嬉しさが隠れているのだと私は確信しています♪
(I spy... the shirt that Shinjiro wore for their recent CDTV performance of "Sailing", under that shawl. Haha. So I guess these pictures were taken during recording.)

続いて秀太。
メッセージ付きだぁ～とむじゃきにはしゃいでくれたよ♪

続いてニッシー。
(And it looks like Nishi's also covering up his outfit. I find it amusing when they make them hide all their pretty outfits like this, haha.)

えー嬉しくないの？！これもニッシーなりの照れ隠しだと私は確信しています♪
次はね、メンズだけじゃ味気ないでしょ？

ちーさん。

ちーさんお手製のシフォンケーキとクッキーと交換しちゃったぁ)^o^(

交換てテンション上がるよね♪イェーイ！！
(Chiaki made chiffon cake again! ^-^ She looks so cute in this picture too!)

さ。以上、バレンタインデーのAAAメンバーでしたぁ！！


え？

え？

ん？


あぁ。いたかもしれない、もうひとりメンバーが。。

でも名前が思い出せない。

だってさ、そのメンバーの人、挨拶も早々に散々チョコちょーだいって言ってきたくせにね、渡して３秒後にはイスの上に置きっぱなし！！！手作りクッキーつまり、私のたんまりの愛をイスの上に野放しに置き忘れたんだょ！！

もーぉ、マジありえない。日高という名前だっけ？？

マジで。今日からありえない男という名札を付けて歩いて頂きたい。

みなさんもこの笑顔には要注意よ！！気をつけて！！

投稿者:宇野実彩子

---

Ahh.... the fluffiness of it all. o(^-^)o

Well, "After the Quake" is done now.

After reading this collection of short stories, I really do believe that Murakami in small doses might be better. I was on a bit of a Murakami kick early last year, and read three of his novels back-to-back. Rather depressing. Needed a break from Murakami all the way up till now. Even though "Sputnik Sweetheart" was bittersweetly lovely. :)

I find that all the stories in "After the Quake" end in a somewhat ambiguous way - which isn't necessarily a bad thing; it fits the theme of the book, considering that all these stories were supposed to have taken place in the wake of the Kobe earthquake.

They end on a note of "Now where do we go from here?" where the only bright spark might be the empty sensation of relief that at least there are still choices; like disaster victims picking up pieces while being forced to acknowledge that they are lucky even to be doing so.

3. After the Quake by Murakami Haruki, (whom some may know as "Haruki Murakami", but I write names in the way and order that they're meant to be) completed on 12th February 2012.

Book number 5 shall be "The General in his Labyrinth", by Gabriel Garcia Marquez.


I wonder if the way I'm numbering these books seems a bit confusing... you might be wondering, why are you moving on to number 5 after finishing number 3...??

I read two books at a time. One I keep by my bed for nighttime reading, and another I keep in my bag for reading while waiting or when I have nothing else to do while I'm out of the house.

"After the Quake" was a "travelling" book, while number 4, "I Am Number Four", is a bedtime book. That one still isn't completed yet. Hence, the jump from 3 to 5. :)

I wonder if I'll really manage to complete 100 books in this year alone... it seemed a pretty feasible goal at first, but we're already nearly 2 months into the year, and I've only got through 3 and a half books! Sigh. Oh well, I'll just keep at it. No sense in giving up now.

Oh, what have I gotten myself into.

Last week, someone on the AAA@DW comm posted a request to help with the translation of their Buzz Communication Tour DVD.

Because I had happened to refresh the page around the time she posted, I think I was the first person to see her post. And I figured, why not? So I told her I'd try my best to help.

So we're working together now with her subtitle files; she's already timed everything nicely - song lyrics and translations, she's been able to find online, mostly, but it's apparently where the members talk and say random things that she need the translations.

So she's just put in "*translation*" at the timings where she needs them, and I just fill in the blanks.

Most things are okay, but I've just spent most of today - well, scratch that - yesterday trying to translate just ten minutes of it.

The part where the get the audience to participate in a wave for "Winter Lander", and they're dividing up the audience into seven sections; one for each member. That little bit which is barely ten minutes long took me over 5 hours to translate, because they keep talking all over each other...!!!

Oh, the things I agree to.

But I have to admit... this is sort of fun. I sometimes wonder if I like challenges, or if I'm just barely this side of masochistic. :p

Been a tiring, annoying, working weekend. Off from work tomorrow and Tuesday to make up for the loss of my weekend.

Shin-chan and his warm, fluffy loungewear say hello. (^v^)

---

(δ0δ* )

2012年02月05日

こんばんみ〜☆

今日は、朝から、取材をやったり、フィッティングしたりと、充実した一日でした！！

なんか、インフルエンザがだいぶ流行ってるみたいやけど、みんな大丈夫かな？？俺は、今

のところ健康に生きていってます！！

かかってしまった人は、とにかく体を休めて、かかってない人は、つねに予防はしましょう(^O^)

最近、友達やスタッフさんと夢を語ることが多くて、夢をもつって、ホンマに素晴らしいことやなって思う！なんかいきなりやけど（笑）
夢をいっぱいもったら、自然とそれに向けてがんばれるし、ちょっと失敗したって、またそれを過程にがんばれる！
いや〜夢はいっぱい持とう！そして、それが何個も叶うように、人生楽しく生きて行こう☆

(That is some... serious, deep talk there. He does talk about dreams quite often though, now that I think about it.)

ちょっとまじめにblogを書いたところで、最近部屋着にしてる、服とお風呂上がりの寝る前の俺！！この服ちょ〜暖かくて最高やねん（笑）
暖かくして、はやくねよ〜！明日は激早起き！
明日も楽しく生きて行こう〜☆

投稿者:與真司郎

---

On the one hand... it must be awfully cold in Japan for him to be wearing that at home...

On the other... ohmygodit'ssofluffyandIwantsssit. XD

Well, I've finally finished "Wicked"! I'd originally wanted to finish reading it before going with Connor and Jiaxin to watch the musical in December, but sadly, I got distracted by a lot of other reading material during that time and didn't finish it by then. Only got halfway through. Really, quite literally. My bookmark was stuck in the very middle of the book in late Dec.

But anyway, it's finished now!

1. Wicked by Gergory Maguire, completed on 28th January 2012.
(Trivia: Ever wonder how the main protagonist in the book, Elphaba, came by her name? She was named as such for the author of "The Wizard of Oz", Lyman Frank Baum, whose initials are L.F.B.; El-Fa-Ba. ^-^ )

Connor has also since enlightened me that "Wicked" is actually only the first of a series of four books. If nothing else, this provides me with more reading material to hunt down and add to my bookshelf and this list of one hundred books. I really do need more shelves.

Book number 4 for the year shall thus be:

4. I Am Number Four by Pittacus Lore

Fitting, innit? Book number 4, number 4, y'know? :D

I bought it on a bit of a lark, really; I saw my cousin watching the movie on his computer, and it seemed quite a cliched thing, but then I heard that the book was really much better than the movie. So since I had vouchers for Page One which were already over a year old around the middle of last year, I decided to see what was there and I happened to see it.

So, since I had vouchers, I figured I wasn't technically paying for it, and decided to give it a shot. :)

More pretty-boy blogposts with funny faces for titles... I wonder if he's ever reused any "faces" or if he will reuse them, if he hasn't already....

---

└|≧_≦┌|

2012年01月22日

 

今日は、明日の撮影のために、美容室行って、カラーとちょびっとカットもしてきましたよ〜☆

カラーは、ちょっと色が抜けてきてたので、被せに行ってきました！！今回もマットとベージュを基本に色々混ぜてもらって、いい色になりました☆

若干暗くはなったかな！！

カットも結構伸びてたので、スッキリしてもらいました！！

基本あんまりカラーもカットも変わってないけど（笑）

そして、今から友達の誕生会☆

ホンマに誕生日プレゼントって迷うわ〜(>_<)

みんな、プレゼント買う時どうやって決めてる？？

あ〜！難しい（笑）

よし、今から楽しんで、明日に向けて、いつもより早めに寝よう☆

じゃ、bye bye☆

投稿者:與真司郎

---

Good lord. That picture of himself makes him look like a 12-year-old.

But oh, it's so CUTE. *squeee.* XD

Almost forgot to mention that I'd finished "Alice in Wonderland" (and "Through the Looking Glass", included in the same book) tonight. :)

Weiquan says that it's actually a very dark book - I wouldn't be surprised if that were the case; sometimes children's books do have grim themes hidden in all that happy language - but I haven't been reading too much into it. I do find, however, that the prose is very oddly lyrical in some way. It just... flows. I can't think of any other word to describe it, but it does read a bit like a very long poem. Although the meter might be a little odd at times, but the prose really is very flowing and lovely. :)

So:

2. Alice in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll (which, if you didn't know, is really a pseudonym for Charles Lutwidge Dodgson) was completed on 16th January.

Book number 3 for the year shall be:
After the Quake by Murakami Haruki

Shin-chan's newest blogpost. Good grief, this is a wordy one.

---

└|ё_ё┌|

2012年01月15日

 

こんばんは〜☆

もう今年入って三回目のblog！！

はやっ！！

毎回数えてしまう（笑）

(No, Shin-chan, please don't count your blogposts...)

ってか、寒いよ〜！！家も寒すぎて、嫌いな暖房をちょっとつけては、消しての繰り返し！！

でも、できるだけつけたくないから、めっちゃ着込んでる（笑）

(I kind of understand that.... being warm in winter is nice, but heating just makes the room have this muggy sort of feeling that I can't stand.)

みんな、風邪はひいてない？？

俺は今のところvery fine！！（笑）

正月の休みをもらってて、大好きな海外に行ってきました☆

今回はロンドン！！

友達もロンドンにいっぱいいて、色んなところに連れてってもらいました！もちろん、一人でも色々行ったけど☆

それにしても、街も人もみんなオシャレ！いちいちオシャレ（笑）

(Only he would get so excited over the way people on the street are dressed... lol.)

どこで写真を撮っても絵になる！！

(Honestly, I think that's more true about Japan; maybe Kyoto - and that's his hometown!! - specifically. Lol. Must be a case of the grass being greener on the other side.)

ロンドンで、またまた色んな夢ができ、帰ってきました！！

自分にとって、海外にいくことは、勉強でもあるので、色んなことを学んで帰ってきました！

(...and only he would make a holiday sound like some student exchange trip...)

ファッションについても、また燃えてきた（笑）

よし！夢が叶うように、がんばらないと！！

ビンテージショップにもいっぱい行って、服とか買っちゃった〜！！

今日の写真は、俺の一眼レフカメラで撮った、Camdenって言う街と俺！休憩中に友達が撮ってくれた一枚！！

(Holy cow, he was in Camden...??! Damn, I was staying there with my sister when we went to London in Dec 2009.)

写真めっちゃ撮りまくったから、またblogや色んなところで見せるな☆

あと、3月7日に前川紘毅のシングルにfeaturingとして参加することになりました！！作詞もさせていただきました！！

(...!!! Really! Another collaboration with Maekawa Hiroki! And Shin-chan writes song lyrics! (*o*) )

初めてやったけど、ストレートな歌詞なので、曲とともに聞いて、何か感じてもらえたらいいなって思います！！

(Hmm, yeah, I think that straightforward lyrics suit him. Doesn't seem like he'd be the type to write flowery, poetic things.)

PVもロンドンから帰ってきて撮ったよ！お楽しみに！

また詳しいことは後々発表します！

じゃまた来週！

投稿者:與真司郎

---

He just surprises at almost every turn; right about when the fan community seems to be getting excited over Nishi starting his own solo projects like Naoya and Hidaka (I honestly have no idea where that news comes from, though), he comes out of nowhere to announce that he's writing song lyrics. Unbelievable. LOL. But this should be fun.