Waterfall & Wings Version 1

Finally have time (actually not really) to go thru my photos and uwaaah~ The memories that came with them... 旅行が大好きなぁ、やっぱり。特に大好きなタッキーを会いに行く旅行。It may sound mushy to some of you but really, being able to see him gives me the power and motivation to go on with my stinky work and otherwise boorring life. Ahahah, so in all its cheesiness, パワーをくれて、ありがとう、タッキー。Thou i seriously need to find a new job to sustain this annual or should i say, bi-annual sakusen?? Actually i was thinking about it the other day, how to land a new job and still be able to go Japan in November... muzukashii ne~ To quit and still be able to go Japan in Nov means i have to tender in Oct... but that is like 2 months short of my bonus! Mottai nai janai desu ka?? And my stupid company gives out bonus in 2 rounds, year end and Chinese New Year... *checks calendar* Next yr's CNY is in Jan i think... so means the earliest i can hope to leave is Feb?? That will be like another EIGHT MONTHS of torture!!! If i choose to forgo the bonus (which ain't a lot anyway) and quit now... i must get a new job within a month else i will still be on probation by Nov and wouldn't be able to take leave. Then again, I could always do part time until after Nov, but its not going to give me enough money for the trip! Althou my current job doesn't give me that much money anyway... In fact, i earn so much MORE on my previous part-time hourly pay job...

とにかく、困ります。

Guess i can't do anything but stick with it first, unless a suitable good paying job falls in my lap. *Dream on baby* And in case some of you out there think i shouldn't let my life (and job) revolve around Takki so much, i'm not. I have many other issues with this company, working culture and the non-existent welfare. I guess my "Eight Characters" clash with theirs. Maybe this company is really not suitable for a Piscean B+ (read someone who needs to feel appreciated and complains non-stop when something upsets them). And OH MY GOODNESS! I suddenly remembered something... Today marks the 1st year since i've joined this company... 入っちゃってから、一年。-_-;;; *Went off topic again... hurhur~*

Anyway, picked out some photos i took during the trip that i thought were interesting...

Guess what this is? Hahaha~ This building is just next to where we were staying in Tokyo. One night while we were walking back from the station, Syl was exclaiming like "Wow, they have such a huge restaurant here just to sell turtle soup!" and i was like where? where? and she pointed out this building. Actually we passed by it everyday but we never look up to see the signboard. It was only that day when we walked on the opposite side that we noticed it. Anyway, for a moment i was still wondering like "How funny it is to have a laundry shop just outside a restaurant.." and then i realised... BWAHAHAHHAHAHAH~ This building is a PUBLIC BATH HOUSE!!!!! LMAO~~~

You see, the kanji 「亀」 means "turtle" and 「湯」 means "soup" in Chinese, but in Japanese, 「湯」 also means "hot water"! So for Syl, 「亀の湯」 automatically registers as a place selling turtle soup... ahhahahah~ OH MY GOODNESS, the 3 of us were laughing so hard! I can't rem now but did one of us even thought of Kame, as in the Kame from KATTUN?? LOL~~ So Syl was like snapping away at this bathhouse... "Must take this big 'soup restaurant' and show my mum!" she said. Ahahhaha, so corny. And no, i dunno why this bath house is so named. Mebe they put little turtles in the water inside. Hahaha~ Substitutes for rubber duckies?

On our most "touristic" day, where we finally did NOTHING Johnny's/Takki-related. We went for a day trip to Hakone, cos the girls simply have to produce evidence to their mums that THEY REALLY WENT TO JAPAN FOR HOLIDAY and not for concert... plus they really wanted to see Mt. Fuji too, cos last year when we were in Japan, we didn't have time to do much in Tokyo. The 2 times we had a chance to see Mt. Fuji from the shinkansen, we either fell asleep or the obaachan on the other side pulled down the window shutters. -_-;;; It's ok for me, since i've seen it before, but then again i digged the idea of a one-day trip to the countryside. Always fancy the train ride there... ahhaha, watched too much j-dramas kana... Anyway, it was really fun! We bought food onto the train and were chatting and eating on our way there when the other 2 fell asleep one by one... OEI! Mata ka yo... i'm always the only one awake during long train journeys. I had to wake them up when Mt. Fuji first came into sight from our train. We could only see the tip but Syl was snapping away anyway. LOL~ Anyway, don't you think the pic up there captures the essence of things Japanese?? Hahahahha~ Took if from our ship on eto.. Lake Ashi? The weather was really nice, albeit super windy.

Can't rem where i took this from. But basically, we were taking pics of Mt. Fuji like mad! Ahahaha, it's like every 5 steps and "uwwaah, the view is better from here!!" *snap snap snap*... But the mountain looks really grand and visually commanding when u see it. Mebe because we hardly see snow-capped mountains in our tiny island, not even in neighbouring Malaysia i think. Mountains ya, but snow-capped... hmmm... nasasou~ For pple from Canada or Europe, Mt. Fuji must be like *yawn* kana.. Ahahah... Anyway, looking at this particular pic of Mt. Fuji reminds me of Yoshitsune... ahahha...

義経様！！平泉に帰れ！！！

Oh i rem this, ahahahahha, it was sooo funny!! Basically i tink we wasted too much time snapping at Mt. Fuji and before we knew it, we only had about 45 mins left to go through the remaining of our recommended itinerary which usually takes 2 hours!!! But we can't be late for our train back if not we need to buy a new ticket! Yet we were unwilling to give up the last stop cos we were curious about these famous 黒たまご aka "black eggs" which you can only find at this "teahouse" at Owakudani (or Owaku Valley). But OH MY GAWD, the road up to there was upslope all the way!!! So while everyone else takes a slow walk and enjoys the scenery on the way up, there were these THREE MAD GIRLS dashing to the top which get stinkier as you approach for god knows what... Can u imagine??? LMAO~~~ And cos we *really* RAN ALL THE WAY FROM THE STATION, by the time we reached the top, we were all HUFFING and PUFFING like mad, but goodness, the air was full of sulphur!!!! So we were choking on the stinky air while trying to catch our breaths.... LMAO~~~~~

Anyway, Owakudani used to be part of the forest but was burnt by lava from the previous Mt. Fuji eruption hundreds of years or something... The effects remain til today and the ground is still hot and smoking! (thou the mountain was like pretty FAR from where we were... or was it another mountain?) So you can see behind me, burnt forest and rocks, and sulphuric geysers... And yea, we found the black eggs. Apparently the eggs were cooked in the geysers and the chemical content in the water reacted with the eggs to make it black. (We ate the eggs later but eto... taste like normal eggs.. Haha, but each egg supposedly gives you er... 7 yrs of extra life?? Carolyn was cynical thou, she tinks the cholesterol in the yolk will kill us first. Bwahahhaha~~ Chomps into TAMAGO *pun intended* anywayz)

We weren't rewarded with only black eggs for that hell-of-a-dash, thankfully. At the top of the valley, we also discovered the MOST PICTURESQUE PLACE to take Mt. Fuji (with us in it)!!! See how the magnificent mountain looms behind me... Woah~ m(__)m

Anyway, we MANAGED to "see" the place in 45 mins afterall and catch our train back after a REALLY CLOSE CALL. Phew~~~ This time on the return journey (which seemed so much longer than going there), we were all sooo tired that even I fell asleep in a wink.

Conclusion: Hakone makes for a GREAT one-day outing if you don't plan to scale the mountain. But do book a later train for heaven's sake! LMAO~

続けます。I think we went to NHK Studio Park the next day. Wakakka~ Althou this place ain't as fun as Fuji TV, the 義経魂 all around makes up for it!! My goodness, the whole NHK building was just bursting with Yoshitsune essence! Every other poster was Yoshitsune.. wakakakka, and they had this Yoshitsune Corner inside the park where we donned Yoshitsune's costume (actually it's Shanaou's... the deep purple one) to take pictures with a Yoshitsune 看板! Ahahhaha, it's the same that I took with during the travel fair in April. But this time, i could be more crazy. We were all touching his hand while taking the photo to make it seem like we were holding hands!!! LMAO~~~~ We were also given flutes and the red veil to pose... so hazukashii!!! Hahahahha~ Actually, *VERY* hazukashii... we were sooo obviously Takki-fans from the amount of noise/shrieking we were making... the staff must be thinking like "these gaijin... -_-;;;" They ran some video inside too, showing some making of Yoshitsune not shown on TV.

One of the models on display. The infamous Gojo scene!!! Ahh... i wonder if that is the exact costume he wore... 触りたい！！！ The actual screen that the young Ushiwaka doodled on is on display too, so maybe this costume IS the one he wore? They would be able to put it up on display not that he no longer wears it deshou?? Scripts were also on display there, complete with scribblings... but i dun think they were Takki's... one of the directors i think.

Further down the hall, we came to the part where people can observe filming in some of the studios. Unless you have insider information, it is entirely based on luck, who you can see filming, if anyone at all. The day we went, Takki wan't there!!! But Yoritomo and Masako were filming in one of the studios. We couldn't actually see them cos they were blocked by one of the screens but we know they are in there because there is this camera inside that you can control from the outside to look around the studio. So i only saw the tip of Yoritomo's hat. Haaahahah.

It's ok. Seeing them live might provoke my murderous intents.

Then again, considering that the entrance fee is only 200yen, if i live in Tokyo, i might just go every time i'm free just to see if i can catch Takki in action. Fufufufu~

We are not allowed to take pics of the studios but guess what we found?

Yoshitsune Hall of Fame!!!

Every single major character in Yoshitsune wrote something and this is Takki's!!!

"I will show you the spirit of Yoshitsune!" - signed Takki (actually he spelt as Tackey)

Ahahhaa, look at his kiddy handwriting... Look at the way he wrote "源義経". So un-samuraish. BUT WE LOVE YOU ANYWAY! *chuuuuu* =333

Benkei's one was very samuraish thou, I guess people his age all know some sorta calligraphy? You can see roughly see his board on the "Hall of Fame" pic, the second one from the bottom right. Some of the female casts' ones were very funny. They look so serious in the show but drew cartoons on their boards! LMAO~ (Eg. Kiyomori's daughter, Tokuko (?) the one who became Crown Princess/Queen)

Ahahah, that's me on the floor.
This image just came into my mind when i saw the (kawaikunai) FUJI mascot,
whatever its name. So decided to take some crazy pics... fufufu~

Before you know it, it's concert day!! Seriously, i didn't know how this year's concert goods looked prior to my departure. Only saw puny pics of the tee and bag and of course, the infamous Serenade Stick. I dun usually plan ahead what to buy, but i kinda decided that i wun get the posters simply because there's no more wall space in my room!!! For one, i am not someone who buys posters to keep. My room already has like what... 4 Takki/T&T and 1 FF10(which is STILL Takki-related) posters! Where the hell am i going to find space for another one?? But when i arrived at Yokohama Arena and saw the posters for the first time....
OH MY GAWD~~~!!!!!!

I snapped.

The solo Takki poster was sooooooooo.... VISUALLY ARRESTING!!!! *heartmark* The unit one too!!! You know when you see a poster and you JUST HAVE TO GET IT. That was exactly how i felt!!! Last year's Harucon posters were nice, but they didn't scream "Buy me!" like the Dreamboy Osaka one, but this year's posters definitely do!!! But OH MY GOODNESS!!! I was having such a dilemma... I LOVE the Takki one, i could practially imagine myself laying it out on the floor and sprawling on it ala Fukada Kyoko in "Kamisama, Mou Sukoshi Dake"!! Wakakkaka, but then, PRECISELY because they blew up his face soo much, if i put it up, my whole family is going to give me no peace.. and i CANNOT bear to buy it only to lock it up in my wardrobe. Will be quite pointless isnt it? So after a looong time, i finally made up my mind and just get the unit one. And now it's up on my wall, replacing the Tobe one (i'm letting it retire in my closet after 2 yrs of service)... It was soooo heart-wrenching walking away without getting the Takki solo one, but i tell myself, it's for the future good! (which eventually manifests as the Takki Solocon Sakusen Fund. LOL)

So for myself, I bought the bag, the pamplet, Takki uchiwa, unit poster, unit and Takki clear file and live photoset. Not that bad desho?? XDDD As for the Serenade Stick, i was adamant not to buy it... wakakka, NO MATTER what Takki says...

"Highly recommended in Takizawa Rengou by Takizawa-kun!"
To Yvie: This was the pic i wanted to show you...
Did it disappoint? XDDD
What were you thinking? ahahhah~

The 3 of us *REALLY* burst out laughing when we saw this sign!!! ROFLMAO~~~~ The staff were so zurui!! Ahahahhaha! Takki, you are too cute!!!! But luckily i managed to restrain myself... no, i am not going to get that mop! Wakakaka... cos i need to save for your solocon, hon! Car and Syl didn't get it either cos they were getting the Johnny's penlight (which i already have) and they figured they only have 2 hands. XDDD Gomen ne, Takki. But it DID served its purpose for many. There were still many people who bought it when they saw the sign.. ahahha... And i remembered while queuing up, Bee was telling us how she was like O_O when she found out the stick was designed by Takki... cos that means she must buy even though it wasn't nice but she must buy because she must support Takki etc etc... and this staff who was standing next to me was like sniggering away throughout listening to our conversation. LMAO~

Anyway, i miss Takki trips... they are always so full of fun! And getting to meet so many fellow fans from all over the world, waaah... truly international. And there were still so many we didn't get to meet although we were all at the same place at the same time simply because going to T&T concert is a very busy event!!! So much to do, and with no handphones, it was very hard to co-ordinate... I wonder if T&T even realises it.. how HARD we all try to get our butts there to cheer for them. From Singapore, Malaysia, New York, California, China, Hong Kong, Canada, Korea... I wished they will acknowledge the rest of us. It's not just Taiwan and Thailand dakara! >_<

タッキーソロコンを楽しみにしてます！

My self-made uchiwa made in one night.