check me out

on the radio this morning for the Good Morning Garage show--my first turn up solo, since James and I shared the first round 2 weeks ago. No special guests this time, so it was definitely a different atmosphere (aka no swarms of fans crowding around the DJ booth, lol). Just a couple people hanging out in the Tully's. But it was lots of fun, and I guess I did a good enough show ^_^
They took a picture to post on the GMG website.

in cyberland, we only drink... diet coke

Today I went to a press conference for the Japan touring production of Rent. It was extra-special cool cause Adam Pascal and Anthony Rapp--who originated the roles of Roger and Mark, and played them in the movie--were there too!
Originally I was supposed to get to interview one of them, like one-on-one, but there wasn't enough time or something, so I just ended up going to the press conference at the Shibuya HMV. Which actually turned out to be pretty darn fantastic. So first, AP and Anthony came out and performed "What You Own," literally like 5 feet in front of me! The fanboys behind me were screaming their heads off, lol.

They did a little Q&A bit of course, with the two guys plus Yuka Takara who plays Alexi--cause even tho she's not a huge role in the show, she's the only Japanese cast member, so of course they trotted her out, lol. Tho she was absolutely the most adorable thing I've ever seen. A totally cool person.
Then of course they had to bring out the obligatory tarento, which in this case was Yamada Yu who apparently is a "big fan" of the musical. Whether that's true or not, she acted pretty excited--and was actually pretty cute. Tho... my GOD the woman is tall. I mean, granted she was also wearing like 5 inch heels, but still.

Then, even better--the rest of the cast all came out and joined them and they all sang "Seasons of Love"! well, not the whole cast, but basically all the principals--Collins, Mimi, Angel, Benny, plus Gwen Stewart who does the fantastic female solo in the middle of "Seasons" (she's also an original cast member).

It was absolutely incredible, I was sort of tearing up there for a minute even. I would love to go see the show, but I dunno if I can. I mean, it runs through end of August so I could prob swing it, but I don't know of anyone who would go with me. If I could get a press ticket on the other hand... lol.

Oh, and did I mention I'm now on the radio? In addition to the podcast, I'm on the actual radio now! InterFM (76.1) has a morning show, Good Morning Garage, and every Thursday morning at 9:15am, there's sort of a Metropolis corner, where we come in and talk about what's in the mag, events for the weekend, etc. Rather like the Metpod, actually. Will used to do it, but since he's left they needed a replacement. And both James and I volunteered, so we went together last week for the first time, and now we'll be switching off. James took this morning, so I'll be on next week. It's a lot of fun, but I do have to get up about an hour early in the morning to make it on time. Ah, the sacrifices, lol.

Also, check out my bar review in this week's mag. We're not talking Thrash Zone level or anything, but pretty good all the same. (^_^)

Minato Mirai Fireworks Grand Finale

And the finale!
Gotta love japanese fireworks.

Fireworks part 2

Here it gets a little fancier.

This weekend I went to see the fireworks over at Minato Mirai (technically, the Kanagawa Shinbun Fireworks). It's the same ones we saw last year from the balcony at IUC--they had a party for the summer students and we crashed it, got to watch the hanabi from up high. But this year they set off the fireworks over a different place in the harbor so it was on the other side of the building from the balcony.
So this year we had to watch down with the commoners (lol). But I went over with J and his mom, it was her last weekend here, and even from the ground the fireworks were absolutely fantastic. And I took videos!
Here's part 1.



There's two more vids of the fireworks, but they were too long, or something, and wouldn't upload for some reason. So I put them on youtube (lol)

stuff

So in honor of it's been just about forever since I've updated my blog, I decided to change the layout.
No idea if I'll keep it like this, I'm still deciding.

And that is really it, as I am totally wiped and going to sleep.
Work has been heinously, gut-wrenchingly busy lately but I survive, and will update for real soon.

whee!!! (on so many levels)

so totally enjoying the rocking-out of my life atmo. it's been a really great weekend (week?)
First off... this isn't at all set in stone yet so it's possible I'm jinxing the hell out of myself, but it's looking like I might get to do an interview with Narimiya Hiroki!!!!! read: very famous actor, one of the it-guys of the moment, generally considered to be pretty hot--don't judge him solely by the pic in the wiki entry, he usually doesn't look that creepy (altho he does do creepy really well).
I wrote up a kikakusho the other day, and the PR company passed it along to his management, so as long as they don't decide Metropolis is full of shit, I should be hearing some good news by mid-week. Next step--figure out how the hell I'm going to be able to suppress my inner fangirl enough to appear properly professional and journalisty. (>_<)

Then on Thursday, I went over to Roppongi Hills for a press conference for the release of Hip-Hop Abs (from the creators of Core Rhythms and Billy's Boot Camp!) lol. Anyway, it was quite amusing, not least because the promotional tie-up was with Go Hiromi's new single, which he performed at the press conference. (see an old Metropolis article about his career) The man may be a bit plastic surgery for my taste, but there's no denying he looks damn good for 53 years old.


Then yesterday, I grabbed Nermie and made the trek out to Saitama (my first trip to the 'burbs) to see Condors! You might remember them from the Condors/Jealkb "B.L." show that we went to a few weeks ago. Coincidentally, right after we went to see that, Dan decided he'd be doing an Agenda blurb about them. So, as is common, they offered to give us press tickets to go see the show--which Dan didn't want, probably mainly cause he didn't feel like going all the way out to Saitama. So they gave the invite to me, and I managed to get tix for both me and Nermie, cause we'd been wanting to see a Condors show ever since BL.
Anyway, it was fantastic! And only confirmed that Fujita Yoshihiro is officially my favorite member ^_^ You can't tell from the photo here, but his hair is currently blonde with hot-pink streaks. He is a rock star.
AND to top it all off, when we went out to the lobby after, several of the members were actually out there, selling the goods themselves! My boy Fujita was over at the t-shirt stand, cause he creates all of the designs for the group's shirts. So of course I bought one! (Nermie got a towel)

Only to find out--even better--that they were signing the t-shirts too! So of course I got Fujita's signature XD which is a really awesome sig, btw:

Isn't the lil ducky cute? Or...I guess he's meant to be a condor? lol. but now i'm not sure if I can ever wear the shirt. Cause, if I wear it then I'll have to wash it--and the signature might come off! Hmm... I will have to give this one some thought.
But I haven't even gotten to the BEST PART of the story.
I'm standing there waiting as Fujita signs my shirt, when all of a sudden he looks up and is like "You came before too, right?"
I swear to god, the inside of my head just went completely 真っ白. My reaction was so disbelieving he thought maybe he was mistaken and started to be all, "oh..is it your first time" and I'm like no! I just am in complete and total shock that you actually REMEMBERED us! I mean, I know as gaijin we tend to 目立つ rather more than your average japanese person, but they actually saw us in the audience and remembered!!
*floats away on waves of fangirl happy*

so yeah, that was a good day. Nermie and I celebrated by going to her Jiyugaoka darts bar and splitting a bottle of wine and a cheese plate... and then splitting another bottle of wine and staying and chatting with Ken, the bartender, until the trains started running again at 5am. Yeah. Tho I have to admit I started dozing off at the bar around 4:30 (for some reason wine makes me way sleepier than other kinds of alcohol)
With the result that it is now nearly 5pm on a Sunday and I am still in my pajamas, having accomplished nothing more impressive than this blog post and the making of a cup of coffee--in spite of the rather dire laundry situation in which I find myself.

Design Festa

Design Festa is a big art expo event that's held a couple of times a year out at Tokyo Big Sight in Odaiba. (Like Raleigh's Artsplosure, only indoors, and bigger) I'd never been, but Andre was stopping by to talk to a friend of his who had a booth there, so I tagged along.
And it was totally awesome! Lots of clothes and jewelry and all sorts of neat stuff.
There was an outside stage, where a bunch of bands played.

This is a band called Gwarando, and they were actually kind of ridiculously awesome. Apologies for my lack of video-taking finesse (it's kind of shakey and the sound is hard to hear).
Here's a couple more closeups I took of the guys in the band, cause I mean seriously--they rock!

Here's an overview of *one* of the rooms, this was where the other, indoor stage was.

Some live painting, inside a glass box.

And I just thought these were really cool!

more fun stuff

Osaka was SUCH a blast, omg. and yes, i know I've been back for over a week now and am only just writing about it, but whatever. forgive me.

This is a picture of the shrine right by Laura's house, and I think it's just about the coolest thing in the history of ever. The whole area she lives in is awesome--Namba, for those of you who don't know, is code for downtown, where-it's-at Osaka. It really reminded me of Ishikwa/Isezaki area in Yokohama--really old, boro-boro kind of apartments with a fair amount of sketch, but right next to the major nightlife area. I felt right at home! XD And it's right by the Yoshimoto theater, so there's a bunch of お笑い芸人 who hang around there. as laura put it, it's "Yoshimoto by day, yakuza by night." (see what i mean about the ishikawacho similarity? as far as I saw, there was no 船の休憩室, but other than that the similarities were pretty striking. lol.

We also got to go to a concert! such fun. it was with 4 different bands, so they each played 3-4 songs--and Laura-tachi were originally going to get tix cause the main band playing was flumpool--who of course i know from them doing the Bloody Monday theme song, and also cause they're getting really popular (which ps the PV in the above link isn't necessarily their most famous one, but it's my favorite song).

BUT

the OTHER band that was playing at that concert was NICO!! i about freaked when i heard, soooooo cool! hehe. so i got to see them play for the second time. (and i may possibly have just bought tix to see their june show....)

anywho.

in other news... I went to go see the Cotton USA Awards yesterday. Japan loves to give out stupid awards to celebs, like "best jeanist" (person who looks good in jeans), etc and this one is the Mr/Ms Cotton Awards, to the person who is "natural and fresh like cotton." yeah.

anyway, they have a big press conf to announce the winners and this year it was Kuroki Meisa as Miss Cotton and Daigo as Mr Cotton. and as usual, Daigo was all kinds of lol. I mean, I honestly wonder whether he really is that stupid or not, cause some of the things he says... it's like 奇跡的なボケ level, I mean he's got to be doing it on purpose. ...Right?

we were told before going in to 注目 his 素敵な手袋--cause of course the gloves are his thing, but since he's a "rocker" he usually wears black leather ones. but in honor of winning the cotton award, he specially made cotton gloves for the very first time. and he kept going on about how awesome they were, and how he might wear cotton gloves more often after this (i doubt it).

he's a cutie. tho seriously...seriously...a dumb bunny.

Finally, PV! here's the latest Nico PV--they played this song at the concert last week, which made me incredibly happy. not the best quality video, but it's the only one posted so far. song is called Bigfoot. so of course...they have big feet. lol. and i swear they're channeling The Beatles or something at the beginning.

********************
EDIT: sadly the Nico PV has been removed already, so I've replaced it with flumpool's "Hana ni nare." note--not the same as the PV I link to in the text. "Labo" is my favorite song, but the "Hana ni nare" PV is prettier.

it's the weekend!

Not really, it's only Wednesday, but what with the advanced production schedules and the random holidays (not that I'm complaining) I swear I don't know *what* day it is anymore.
today's showa day (or something) so I've got the day off. In honor of that (and of the fact that I've got to do a bar review for 791) I went out last night. It was really fun, went to this sort of school-themed 立ち飲み屋 in Baba and met up with Yalie/former HIF compadre/current IUC-er Charles, and Neal which was cool cause I hadn't seen either of them since we left HIF.
Gotta go back to work Thurs/Fri and it's gonna be busy, but then I get Mon-Wed off for Golden Week, so I'm looking forward to that. I'm taking off Friday night (straight from work) to catch the Shinkansen down to Osaka. Laura lives down there, and Nermie was planning to go visit her over GW, and they invited me to come along. I'm excited. I haven't really been to Osaka ever, with the exception of when Ross and I went after HIF, but even then it was only like 2 days and we spent most of it in Nara. So it doesn't really count as far as I'm concerned.

OK, guess that's it for now. Somehow I have to finish listings and write a bar review tomorrow. *shudders* but it'll get done, I spose, it always does.

it wasn't me!!

upside:
last night I went out to this photo session thing for Drumline Live, which is a stage show along the lines of Blast! or Stomp. Anyway, they're touring Japan and last night was opening night, so of course they had a bunch of J-celebs show up for it. We photogs were all camped out by the entrance so that we could take pics of each of them as they came in, then we got to go up to the balcony and sit and watch the whole show--and take pictures of the show if we wanted!!--and then there was an interview bit after. So it was all super fun, tho I didn't get home until about 11pm. EX. HAU. ST. ED.
でもね、大体こんな感じだったの:

Former sumo wrestler Konishiki and his wife--believe it or not, this is him *after* having lost about 150 pounds. 

Ai Takahashi, current leader of girl super-group Morning Musume. I was seriously shocked to see her in person, I mean she look like she's about twelve years old!

And Nozomi Tsuji, former member of Morning Musume--only she "graduated" from the group when she had to have a shotgun wedding a couple years ago. Yes, that's right, she's married and has a kid. .......

Not-so-up side:
i sort of kind of broke the flash on the office camera. well, i didn't exactly break it and it SO wasn't my fault! see, it's one of those external flashes that attaches to the top of your SLR, and you flip the switch to lock it in place. well, i did that like i always do, and took my pictures, only when i went to unlock it and take the flash off, it was stuck! the lock is broken or something, and now even when you flip it to unlock, nothing happens. and everything still works fine, except for the teensy minor detail that the flash is now permanently attached to the camera.  and they're not sure if there's any way to get it off again, short of breaking the flash and having to buy a new one!
*cries*
i didn't do it, i swear!!!  -_-;;

in other fail news, clearly I'm not the only one who's having a really really bad day of it. *cough* Kusanagi *cough* I kind of thought the SMAP machine was too big for them to punish him in any serious way, but now I'm not so sure. I mean--making the international news?!--this is getting to be waaaay big. I know lots of people (and lots of people I know) are going to be seriously upset about this, esp if it gets him blacklisted or put on hiatus by the Jimusho, but...I mean really...
The man was found in the middle of a public park at 3am, buck naked, drunk out of his mind and reportedly shouting SHINGO!!! at the top of his lungs.
....it's hard not to laugh.

Lastly, finally and forthwith-- hi mom! I finally got my new twins CD in the mail last night!! with accompanying dvd (said dvd containing the PV for their latest single--finally!!)
also, since Yuzu/Aitai got a bit short shrift cause of this (only 3 days) I'm leaving them up too, as the second song in the playlist.

btw

I've added an RSS feed to the Metpod, our weekly podcast where you can hear the radio stylings of yours truly. Trying to figure out how to add a player here instead of just the feed, but you'll have to make do with this for now.

the wack-ness

So remember back last year when I went to go see the Fuma stageplay? (actually, you probably don't, but I did). anyway. it was absolutely hilarious and the most crack-ed out thing I had ever seen. seriously. and i thought at the time that it wasn't possible to make anything more wtf than the Fuma stageplay. ...oh, how naive I was...
This past Saturday! went with Nermie and Laura to go see two performances of this stage show thing featuring Jealkb (you remember them, right?) and Condors--who I had never heard of, but it turns out are this awesome comedy/contemporary dance troupe. Anyway, the show was called B.L.~Ballad of Lip~ and it was over in sunshine city, in Ikebukuro.
It was ridiculously amazing and hilarious and I am entertaining serious doubts about the mental stability of whoever actually came up with it. There was sort of a plot, all about how because of the Lehman shock, the London Visual Arts Academy (jealkb) and the 近藤建築学園 (condors) merged together and made this new department called the ビジュアル土木課, but of course it's a totally random combination, the teacher can't teach, and they're not getting any new students (就職ないから) so the department is going to be dissolved, and the "students" all band together to save it. Anyway, that was ostensibly the plot. and it sort of went like that, only they kept sticking in all these random comedy sketches and dance performances and skits that were absolutely hilarious but had absolutely nothing whatsoever to do with...anything at all, really. The sort of thing that makes your head hurt if you try to hard to understand it, so it's just better not to.
Seriously tho, I was laughing so hard I was practically in tears.

And afterwards... we did purikura! haven't done that in ages... teehee. Me, Nermie, Laura and two of their JAL friends. It was fun times, and they were all going out after, for like drinks and karaoke and stuff, and I really really wanted to go (karaoooookeeeee!) but I'd already made plans to get together with Jason and Felicia over at his place, so I left to go there, which was fun. We ordered in pizza, Jason bought some good Belgian beer, and I supplied Iron Man on blu-ray.

P.S. we also took pics out in front of the BL poster in Sunshine City. got some nice lady to take it for us, as well as got a lot of stares. it's a little blurry cause we had to take it without a flash--the glare from the flash was blanking out Haderu-sama! can't have that ;-P

lastly... PV time! i think this week I shall supply Yuzu's new single, "Aitai." which incidentally is the theme to Nissy's new drama Ghost Friends --which we're subbing. lol. tho by we this time, I don't mean Doremii--or Gekiuma actually--this I'm helping out as a guest trans over at Resie's group, Ikemen. anyway, that's not really the point. the point is, enjoy the PV!

rites of spring

Forget about that flower nonsense--this week, as I was getting my usual Starbucks on the way to work, I ordered my very first iced latte of the year! Now it's official.
seriously, tho, it has been crazy warm and beautiful weather lately. and it's almost golden week... which means vacation days (yay) and also crazy-extra-super-fast-work-so-that-we-can-actually-take-a-vacation days (not so yay). starting next week and for the next three weeks, we're shortening the production schedule by a day every week, with the eventual result that by the time the holidays roll around, we'll be going to print a full three days early. *shudders* i foresee some crazy hectic days ahead. makes me exhausted just thinking about it.
but I've been having some fun, too. on Monday went to interview Nakata Daisuke, professional trampolinist, Olympian and star of Muscle Musical (which is a sort of Cirque de Soleil-esque gymnastics/rhythmic/feats-of-strength type stage show). MM are clients of ours, so Niki-san at work arranged the interview, which'll be a star struck sometime in May. It was a really neat interview, very easy to talk to (Niki was smitten, lol). Even better news, looks like I can score some comp tix to see the show whenever I want! Now, just to find someone to drag along with me...
Then today was the press conference for the new Disney on Ice show that's starting up, so that conf was over in Shibuya (at A-X, right next to the MM theater as well as Boxx where I went to see Dustz show, coincidentally). Of course they brought out Mickey and Minnie, and the obligatory guest tarento was Hirayama Aya, a.k.a. the cute younger editorial girl in Hataraki Man. So that was kind of cool. Will be a Tarento Watch piece in 787, but for the time being see here.
Then I've got another conference tomorrow afternoon, for the opening of the new Uniqlo UT store in Harajuku. *phew* (And I wonder why I'm so busy all the time. actually, I don't wonder, I know)
Oh, and last nite after work I went to the opening of the new Song Bar Street in Akasaka, which is a sort of recreated yokocho style street of bars (i say "street" but it's indoors). sposed to have a sort of nostalgic feel to it. There was a tachinomiya, a new half/owarai bar, an 80s-themed bar, a cool-looking 40s/traditional Japanese bar, plus some others. I wandered around a bit and peeked into several of the places. Couldn't find anyone to go with me, but I didn't mind, and actually ended up exchanging meishi and chatting with several people, so that was cool.

anyway, I should go to bed soon since I have to be like "go! go! go!" all day tomorrow. (thank god it's friday)
PV is Breakerz again, with their new one. It's pretty cool, but I like their old stuff better than what they've put out since leaving indies. oh well, what can ya do.
oh, and speaking of music, Amazon confuses me. I went to order the twins' new album (yes mom, there's more... *evil laugh*) and of course this being japan, there's several versions of the album, some 2-disc with a dvd, some just a cd, varying numbers of songs-- cause (duh) they need to make each person buy as many versions of the album as possible, cause that's the only way you can get all the songs and extras. anywho. i was trying to decide which (one!) i wanted, when lo and behold the CD+DVD version with 13 songs is on sale..... making it actually cheaper than the CD-only version with fewer songs.  @.@  go figure. but hey, i'm not complaining, certainly helped to make the decision-making process easier. lol.

色々

OK, I officially have a new favorite band--and they're not even Japanese! (lol)
so on Tuesday for the podcast recording (www.metropolis.co.jp/podcast for those of you not in the know about where you can hear me every week) we had a special live performance. The band Vinyl Soul, out of L.A., came to our office to perform some songs! You can hear it at the very end of the Wed, Mar 25 podcast. Anyway, they gave us copies of their CD as well, which I have been listening to nonstop. I'm totally dragging some friends with me to go see their concert on Sunday, they're playing at this little cafe over in Okubo, near Shinjuku.

Oh, and I got taken out on a sort of 接待 thing on Tuesday. The good folks over at Iichiko shochu company are trying to market their product to Americans, so they wanted to take some (American) Metropolis staffers out for a  tasting, etc. It was ridiculous. they came to the office for 挨拶 with the sales people and then they took me, Sarah N and Yui (she was like, "I'm a 中途半端なアメリカ人" lol) out to this izakaya in Gaienmae and fed us sashimi, and kara-age and nabe, and then had us drink a bunch of shochu and tell them what we thought of it.
i know, "work is rough," right? lol.

oooh, and last weekend I went to see the Dustz concert. SO much fun! lol. I'm a huge fan of theirs--mostly cause the lead singer is f&%#ing hot, but also because I like the music. and they are definitely 10 times better live, the songs come across much more rock than they do on the CD. Oh, and even better, this concert was officially their last con as an indies band--cause they will be releasing their major debut with Sony/Epic Records in May! Yay! They've (obviously, since they got signed to a major label) got a pretty decent fan base, but I felt kind of sorry for them at the concert. Nermal and I were looking around like, "have any of these people ever been to a concert before...?" Nobody was getting into it, nobody was moving, and all these girls had set their purses and shit all over the floor (hello people, that's what the lockers are for!) so that we could have been practically up against the stage if it hadn't been for all the stuff in the way. whatever. Nermie and I totally rocked out, and they definitely saw us. I mean, obvi the whole being gaijin thing makes us stand out a bit, but it was also cause we were practically the only ones who were really into it. Nermie's decided she has a crush on the drummer, lol (--this was her first Dustz concert, she wasn't really a fan before this, but I dragged her to it so I'd have someone to go with). We're going to join the fan club so we can get better tickets to the concert in June.

Oh, and in other news, I got a pack of cigarettes in the mail the other day. Well, not me, they were addressed to the person who lived in my apt before me, but still (only in Japan). It says "enjoy a special coffee break moment with Cabin"--which, caffeine addict that I am, kind of makes me want to try them...  (breathe, daddy--- I'm only kidding)

PV this week isn't exactly a PV, it's a youtube vid I found of Vinyl Soul performing their song "Could This Be Heaven," which is one of the ones they sang for us the other day.
Enjoy!

本日はこういう事をしてきました

about to go to sleep, but I just had to take a moment to say the following:

whee!  \(^_^)/

Today I got to my first one-on-one professional interview! Well, I did one with the indie film director a couple weeks ago, but we just met at a cafe and it was more like chatting than an interview (which actually I liked better, but)
this time was totally Notting Hill--went to a fancy Tokyo hotel, with K as cameraman (thank god for not having to take photos myself this time--much less nerve-wracking!). and had to call the PR person to have him come down to the lobby and take us up to the suite where the conferences were going on.
we were originally sposed to do the interview at 3pm, but then they called and said that things were going ahead of schedule, and could we possibly come at 2:40 instead, so we came early--and then 結局 ended up having to wait until after 3 anyway.  lol. but that's the way these things go, I guess.
anyway, who was I interviewing, you ask? no one you've ever heard of, but an actress named Mizuno Miki. Who I am actually a big fan of, cause she was in a drama I really like called Hatsu Taiken, which Molly turned me on to back at IUC cause the whole thing takes place in and around Yokohama where we all lived last year. Plus it's a really cute show.
Anyway, I was interviewing her for her new drama that's starting in april, called 空飛ぶタイヤ, about a recall coverup incident with a big auto manufacturer. based on reality, apparently.
it was lots of fun and incredibly nervewracking, cause I'm talking to someone I've actually heard of, and there's like 10 stylists and managers and people just standing there, watching me and listening to the whole thing, and in the midst of it all I'm trying to not sound too stupid with my Japanese, and think of interesting things to say.
I was combination giddy/frustrated when it was over. Kind of had an elated/pained "GAAHHHHHH!!" moment when it was over.  (>_<)

but still, go me!  Y(^.^)d

and now I go to bed.
and I am holding off changing the PV because while I have received my new twins cd, the PV has yet to be posted online anywhere, that I've found. so you're "stuck with the vampires" a little bit longer, mom.

多摩川

So, just thought I'd do a quick post introducing some more of my area, Tamagawa. Of course, Tamagawa is, literally, "Tama-kawa," i.e. Tama River.
We had a random warm weekend a couple weeks ago, and I spent the day out on the grass by the water, reading. It was pretty fantastic.
There's some steps, sort of, that people sit out on.

Across the river is Kanagawa (not Tokyo proper).

It's pretty in the setting sun. ^^













This is the entrance to a little temple nearby.

There's also a park by the station, with some pretty little ponds.

Last but not least, new PV. Since mom was freaked out about the last one, I figure I might as well continue the trend with more of my favorite wtf-inducing band, Acid Black Cherry, with "Jigsaw" ^_^

Sorry...

Lots to write about, not nearly enough time. It's been a while, I know.
And I'm a horrible excuse for a human being blogger.
Let's see... work, work, work, went home for Christmas, work, work...
Magazine redesign... Work, work, work...

JEALKB CONCERT!!!!
So my friend N introduced me to her pet band, Jealkb. They're a visual kei band, but all the members are comedians as their day job--but they got together and decided to form a band, too! Anyway, it's completely crazy, and the concert was such fun. I didn't really know much about them before, but I'm a total fan now! Hehe. This is one of their PVs by the way. Several things.
1. yes, the one guitarist always wears that mask
2. yes, the other guitarist always wears a dress
3. the violinist and the keyboard player can't actually play their instruments, they just pretend
4. incidentally the whole back and forth arm thing the keyboardist does all the time means the man has some decent bicep action going on *wink* (not that you can really see that much in this video).

Ok, time to go to bed, will write more later.
Must recover from my night of headbanging mosh-pit action on Sunday.

...Happy now, Mom?

(Just kidding, I love you)