Waterfall & Wings Version 1

桜が咲き始まった。

2007-03-21T16:23:00.000+08:00

Today is a public holiday in Japan!! It's called 春分の日(shunbun no hi). E-to... Vernal Equinox Day. Erm.. is it some day to celebrate the 1st official day of Spring?? I have no bloody idea. Ano, i'm from the tropics. Don't mind my insensitivity towards seasons. Hahah. I don't think the Japanese do anything special on public holidays too. Not like in Singapore, when it's Deepavali, the Hindus celebrate their New Year, when it's Vesak Day, the Buddhists visit the temple, when it's Christmas Day, people go out and feast etc etc. In Japan, other than New Year's Day, it seems like every other public holiday is just a day where you don't have to go to work. Although i'm positive some of my colleagues went back to office to work today. I'm sure i will see emails dated TODAY tomorrow... So yea, they do not go to beach on 海の日, nor go on hiking trips on 緑の日, and definitely do not hit the gym just cos it is 体育の日. They probably just go dating with their better half, or just sleep in, like me. XD. But i tink i sleep too much. Woke up way past noon and dillied dallied the day away. And then lament about wasting time when the sky turns dark but STILL can't wake up early come the next public holiday/weekend. That's me. でも、何もやることはないもん。それに、睡眠補足のため。そう、言い訳が多いです。

Ooh, I just checked up the word "Equinox". It says it is one of the 2 times in a year (around 20Mar and 22Sep) where the sun is above the equator and day and night are of equal length. Oh really? Does that apply only to the tropics or here as well? I gotta start timing. LOL.

It is still really cold here in Tokyo. It was like ZERO DEGREES a few nights ago... like what the?!? And oh!!! It finally SNOWED earlier this week too!! (Or was it last week??) That morning, i was preparing to go work when i heard the news on TV saying that snow was reported in some other parts of Tokyo (i forgot where) in the early morning but had since stopped. I was like oooh.. finally. They said that this is the latest snowfall ever reported in Tokyo for the last 200 years or so. It's all because of global warming. People, PLS START LOVING OUR EARTH!! So anyway, i left my house for work and when i got off the train station to begin my 15min walk to office, i thought there was something falling from the sky.. Rain?? But the ground wasn't wet with raindrops. And i don't feel any water on my face either. And then i realised. OH MY GOD!!! IT'S SNOWING!!!! Hahaha... i wonder why im so excited. Maybe it's the first time i experienced snow in Tokyo. Demo ne, it's like chou bimyou. Really really LIGHT SNOW. And it wasn't even zero degrees. So i conclude. You don't need zero degrees for snow.

And the sakuras are starting to bloom in Tokyo yo. I haven't seen any with my own eyes, but the news are reporting about it everyday. Like ooh, there's FIVE sakuras in so and so park now. LOL. Are they serious... Maybe i will catch some tsubomi (buds) on my way to work tomorrow. And it's really cool. Cos my name in Japanese *IS* Tsubomi (蕾). And so happened Kobukuro are releasing a song by the very same name today. It's like MY SONG. Actually i've heard the song many times earlier because it is opening song for Fuji TV's drama Tokyo Tower, starring the very shuai Hayami Mokomichi, whom i swear, resembles Zaizai A LOT. It's a drama about a son and his mother. Not a regular love story but still very touching. I didn't watch the series faithfully, only a few epis here and there, and the last epi which just ended on Monday. I was crying so much when Ma-kun (Hayami) was getting all panicky and devastated when his Okan (mother) passed away. Uwaaahh..... Hayami was really good in this one. And he had to speak some Kyushuu dialect for the entire show. Sugoi ne.. though i dunno if it was accurate. Anyway, the theme song kinda grew on me. Well, it's MY SONG, so let me do some free promo. =) Click on the link below to watch Kobukuro perform this song! Their harmonising is really good.

Awwww... it reminds me of the drama. *sniff*

なんかさ、あのドラマを見て、自分も怖くなってきた。
世の人々が避けられないことなのに。
人として、絶対経験することなのに。
でも・・・やっぱ・・・怖い。

「今」を大切にするしかないね。

Takitsuba Clips

2007-03-18T02:05:00.000+08:00

OK, i finally found the time to watch the DVD. And i want to ask stupid AVEX... WHY IS THIS DVD SO EXPENSIVE??? The DVD cover is a mystery, the photo book (or should i call it an insert) is puny (ehh, though i like the centre pic very much) and the off-shots are sooo short!!! I was like O_o?? when it ended. What the *(:&*@D#$CX&$**&(*%^SAG&XDAMExx)U*&*??! (Trying some subconscious marketing here.) Basically, for those of us who have followed them since debut, or before that, there's nothing new that we haven't seen in the DVD. But for those who joined the T&T Family later, it's a good resource to find out about their past works. Hah. Well, it's Evil AVEX. What can we do?? Can JE Inc claim them back already?? The good thing about the DVD is, we now have DVD-quality PVs of their past works.

Anyway, it was chotto natsukashii watching the PVs.

1) Takki - Ki.Se.Ki
Takki was still wearing the cross ring then ne. I miss that ring. Anyway, those were the days when their PVs had some sort of concept. Or storyline. I didn't really like his hairstyle during Hatachi release. It's a bit too short and stiff. But this is one of my favourite songs in the album. Eh? No connection about what i just said? LOL.

2) Tsubasa - Get Down
It's the same set (or at least, it is made to look the same) as Takki's Ki.Se.Ki. But while Takki's set used a lot of water, Tsuba's set is all fire. And it actually took me i think like 2 years before I realised that they mouthed each other's names in the PV. Haha... ok, I'm retarded. XD But this solo Tsuba's PV and Takki's had a lot of contrasting elements, which was pretty cool. And aiyo... Tsuba was so slinky in this PV... esp in that black shirt. Woohoo~~~

3) T&T - True Heart
I actually quite like the harmonising for this song, but i say it's very challenging for them to sing it live. Takki tends to go out of tune at the very last part. But i don't blame him. Why do they always give Takki the high parts anyway?? Is he a soprano?? LOLL. Anyway, if you watch these 3 PVs in this sequence, you will feel a sense of 解放感 when True Heart PV starts playing. Like finally both of them got out of the locked room into the open space. And now that i've re-watched it, it's like wow. How hard is it to find a single tree in the middle of open greenery?? And i was suddenly wondering, WHERE is that chain watch now? And how much it will fetch if it's ever being auctioned?? Then again, most of the T&T fans are probably too poor to bid for it, since we have Evil AVEX sucking so much money out of us. =_=;;;

4) Sotsugyou ~ Sayonara wa Ashita no Tame ni
I can't remember, but was this single released around Mar? The graduation season in Japan? Actually, I prefer "To be or not to be" in this single. How i wished they released a PV for that song too. This PV doesn't have much tsubo for me, but waaah, Takki was like SUPER FAIR in this one. Argghhh... i need to work harder on my 美白 regime. *sweat* And Tsuba's bangs were meticulously curled at the ends. Did Takki said in the OFF SHOTS that their shorts had wires in them?? So that is why they opened up so nicely... naruhodo. (takes notes)

5) Yume Monogatari
I ENVY those fans who could participate in the filming. It's like they are forever immortalised in the same video as T&T. ii naa~ And i noticed there were a couple of guys right in the front next to the stage. I wonder if they were staff who were put there to guide the fans with the furitsuke. Watching this PV alone in my room, i wanted to shout out "Takki!" "Tsubasa!" at the front. LOL... i think my neighbours will think i'm mad.

6) One Day, One Dream
I STILL can't believe they showed the cranes in the PV. Not the bird cranes, but the elevating cranes. Zenzen wakannai... And it's so cold watching this PV... i'm cold enough as it is here. (Did i mention there was finally 初雪 in Tokyo yesterday?? The latest 初雪 since the last last century...) I think this was the first single when Evil AVEX started the evil trading cards thingy?? Was it?? I have a bad memory. Gosh, it reminds me of those YES! Idol cards Days in my primary school era... ちょっと、AVEXさん、聞いてる？もう少しタキツバのことを愛してくれないのかな。

7) Serenade
I'm still confused as to what the title of this song really is. Are we supposed to read the kanji 愛想曲 as Se.re.naa.de? (The kanji pronunciation is actually aisoukyoku) But they never pronounce it this way in the song. They pronounced as se.re.nee. Hmm... Oh well. Anyway, this was the song that got all of us very nervous when they perform it live, cos we worry if they can catch the sticks after 2 spins. Hahaaa... もう、本当に。Takki's hair is a bit flat in this PV but SUPER KANPEKI. Like every freaking strand was in place. And his signature chotto-irritated-intense-stare-look is showcased a lot in this PV. *meltsss* A very regal and oshare PV.

8) Kamen
Classy. Erotic. Precision.
Yeah, my 3 adjectives worth for this PV. It gets me very MOE every time.. the slo-mo removing of each other's masks, the super complicated furitsuke (but of cos, since this song is not for fans to dance along). And Takki's hair is OH SO KANPEKI IN THIS ONE!!! It looks PERFECT from every angle! The front, the side and the back. I love it soooo much!! And it's a beautiful gold colour too!! So kira kira, I LIKE!!!! *rapes screen* And ooohhh.. him and Tsuba in those skinny tie suits. *heart skips a beat* And I LOVE Takki at 4:29 of this PV. He looks SUPER GORGEOUS in that scene!!! OK, he looks gorgeous all the time but that 4:29 part is particularly stunning. I really like the dance chereography of this song, especially the interlude part, though it ain't that obvious from the PV. Then again, no matter how much i LOVE this PV, one cannot watch it 3 times in a row without getting a headache. LOL. The spinning gold stage... and everything is so fast. And the nudie scenes of both of them, still a 謎. Shocks me every time. LOL. And hmm, this song reminds me of the time when i went to find the The Mask Cafe by myself in was it Aoyama?? It was amazing that i actually found it, with the LITTLE clues that i have. I don't think i can find it back again... Let me go dig up the pics i posted before...

The Mask Cafe, specially dressed up for the movie.
And T&T's surprise performance at the movie's premiere was on continuous-repeat.
I'm guessing 90% of those inside the cafe were T&T fans trying hard to act cool
and not kyaah out loud. Haha.

I forgot the name of this drink.
Green latte or something.
Everything was made green to commemorate this movie.
Purposely ordered this so i could hang around the small cafe to watch the video.
Then again, my legs were really aching after 2 hrs of searching...

9) Venus
I don't think i listened to the Chinese, Korean and erm.. Thai? versions more than twice. Haha.. gomen ne, T&T. And when i listen to the Japanese version, sometimes i thought it sounded a bit Thai. Anyway, this is more a concerty song than a good-for-listening song. Then again, this is true with most T&T songs. The PV was maa maa. And i'm guessing the white women who was made to wear that Greek costume must think that Japanese are ridiculously nuts. LOL. It's like, so overly stereotypical. I don't see any Koreans or Thais in this PV. Plus the girl in red cheongsam looks ayashii-ly like a Japanese as well. And i just realised there were funny Chinese words when they shot just the cheongsam girl.

好那这个也送给你...
[OK, i will give you this too]
毕竟付出了两年时间
[Afterall, i spent 2 years...??]

HUH??! O_o?? まったく意味不明です。Did the AVEX stuff took the text from Chinese's blog online?? And it sounds like the girl/guy just had a breakup. LMAO.

10) Ho! Summer
Gee, i really like this PV a lot. It's soooo SUMMERY, you just want to hit the beach! Though i'm not even a beach person. They looked like they were having so much fun shooting this PV!! I'm wondering what those Saipan ojiisan band were really playing when T&T were prancing around in front of them singing Ho! Summer. Hahhaha.....

OFF SHOTS
Anoo... everyone should just watch Channel @ clips instead for the erm.. expanded versions. (Though i STILL DUNNO exactly what channel is this Channel @ on... it don't seem to be something available on regular TV channels!!) And why wasn't any Ho! Summer off shots included??? Hmph. Can't remember, did we get any Channel @ coverage for Ho! Summer at all??

Does this DVD really contain every single PV since their debut? After almost 5 years of forming the unit, they only had TEN PVs?? Hmm... never realised that. But i guess the one million and one clips we have of T&T in non-PV videos made up for it. Teehee.

Yup, so that sums up my review for the DVD. =)
How I wished they made PVs for songs like To Be or not to be (yea, i'm shitsukoi), You & I, Aishitagari, Starry Sky, Diamond!!!!!, Love Spiral, Negai, Mermaid, 12 Gatsu no Hana, Black Butterfly!!!! etc etc.... But noooo.. AVEX is too caught up with AYUMI and Ayumi and ayumi.. whatever. *sulks*

Turning 2n...

2007-03-12T01:35:00.000+08:00

あっという間に、it has already been almost 2 mths since my last post??? Gosh... times surely FLIES. im so sorry for this MIA!! I keep telling myself i need to update i need to update. No wait, it's "i WANT to update". So many times things have happened and i tell myself, i wanna talk about this on my blog, but never got down to it. =/ And by the time i do, either i've lost the motivation to talk about that subject, forgot, or just half asleep by the time i get to Blogger.

Anyway, a friend of mine sent me this email just as i graduate from being a girl in her "100% mid-twenties" recently. *cough* Is that bimyo enough?? I don't know about you guys, but it has been personally rather erm.. intimidating experience?? Hmm, i can't find a better word. Just that when u hit a certain age (i think around 22 for me?), at every birthday, u compare yourself with your peers and start to think about what you have achieved the past year. And whether that is sufficient to justify your age. Eto.. am i making sense?? And of cos, the fears of growing up and aging. I can't believe that i have graduated from university for 3 years already!!! It seemed like yesterday.. and i still don't feel 100% comfy in the Adult World. And there's the pressure of acting your age. But after reading the email my friend sent me, it convinces me that there is no point ACTING one's age. Just BE yourself. Don't worry about certain things just because you are already a certain age. Life is short. We oughta do whatever we want while we still can. You never know what will happen tomorrow. (Hey, i just justify all my concert attendances up there. LOL.)

George Carlin's Views on Aging

Do you realize that the only time in our lives when we like to get old is when we're kids? If you're less than 10 years old, you're so excited about aging that you think in fractions.

"How old are you?" "I'm four and a half!" You're never thirty-six and a half. (This is so true. LOL!) You're four and a half, going on five! That's the key.

You get into your teens, now they can't hold you back. You jump to the next number, or even a few ahead.

"How old are you?" "I'm gonna be 16!" You could be 13, but hey, you're gonna be 16! And then the greatest day of your life . . . you become 21. Even the words sound like a ceremony . YOU BECOME 21. YESSSS!!!

But then you turn 30. Oooohh, what happened there? Makes you sound like bad milk! He TURNED ; we had to throw him out. There's no fun now, you're just a sour-dumpling. What's wrong? What's changed?

You BECOME 21, you TURN 30, then you're PUSHING 40. Whoa! Put on the brakes, it's all slipping away. Before you know it, you REACH 50 and your dreams are gone.
But wait!!! You MAKE it to 60. You didn't think you would!

So you BECOME 21, TURN 30, PUSH 40, REACH 50 and MAKE it to 60.

You've built up so much speed that you HIT 70! After that it's a day-by-day thing; you HIT !

You get into your 80s and every day is a complete cycle; you HIT lunch;
you TURN 4:30; you REACH bedtime And it doesn't end there.
Into the 90s, you start going backwards; "I Was JUST 92."

Then a strange thing happens. If you make it over 100, you become a little
kid again. "I'm 100 and a half!"

May you all make it to a healthy 100 and a half!!

HOW TO STAY YOUNG
1.. Throw out nonessential numbers. This includes age, weight and height.
Let the doctors worry about them. That is why you pay "them".
(But i still can't help worrying about the 3kg i gained since i came here. Haha.)

2. Keep only cheerful friends . The grouches pull you down.
(You hear that people?? Don't give me wrinkles!!)

3. Keep learning. Learn more about the computer, crafts, gardening, whatever. Never let the brain idle. "An idle mind is the devil's workshop." And the devil's name is Alzheimer's.

4. Enjoy the simple things.
(I will.)

5. Laugh often, long and loud. Laugh until you gasp for breath.
(Thinks the weekly dose of Zubari. XD)

6. The tears happen. Endure, grieve, and move on. The only person, who is with us our entire life, is ourselves. Be ALIVE while you are alive.
(THIS SENTENCE has really a great impact. It is so true... Be GOOD to ourselves!!!)

7. Surround yourself with what you love, whether it's family, pets, keepsakes, music, plants, hobbies, whatever. Your home is your refuge.
(Girls, that just justify all our T&T posters, albums, singles, calendars, flyers, photos, uchiwas, penlights, mufflers etc etc etc.. Hahha...)

8. Cherish your health: If it is good, preserve it. If it is unstable,improve it. If it is beyond what you can improve, get help.
(I believe in this 100%. If you or your loved one is not healthy, you do not enjoy ANYTHING. And that is so taxing on the heart.)

9 Don't take guilt trips . Take a trip to the mall, even to the next county; to a foreign country but NOT to where the guilt is.
(Err.. guilt trip tte nani??)

10.Tell the people you love that you love them, at every opportunity.
(That just justifies all the screaming we do at concerts.. ahhaha... But ok, i wun forget... I LOVE MY FAMILY AND FRIENDS!!!! You hear that pple?? Now keep yourself healthy and don't worry me, understand???)

AND ALWAYS REMEMBER:
Life is not measured by the number of breaths we take, but by the moments that take our breath away .
(Applause. *pachi pachi pachi*)

And if you don 't send this to at least 8 people - who cares I do? But do share this with someone. We all need to live life to its fullest each day!!
(And im posting this up here so that everyone who reads my blog gets inspired by this text as much as i do!!)

Got a hundred and one things i wanna blog about but sadly, it's 2+am, i better hit the sack if not be a zombie at work for rest of week... Anyway, Crazy Rainbow gonna be released on 18 April!! Waaah, i swear this T&T Rush is sucking my wallet very dry.. yabee...

初雪

2007-01-21T23:40:00.000+08:00

The weather reports on Yahoo claims that my area will experience wet snow tonight... oooohh... if it's true, then it will be my (and Tokyo's) 初雪 for 2007!! =)))

Actually it already snowed a biiit in Yokohama yesterday morning so what can i say... high chance!!! Though i tink it will snow when im sleeping and everything will be gone by the time i wake up. Urhuhuhhh...

I hope this is the coldest it gets in Tokyo, cos seriously, i can't take it anymore... Though i am hardly outside walking. On weekdays, am usually in my office from 9am-10pm... =_= But the journey home is especially kitsui... brrrr. Bon-chan, i dunno how u can survive with all those snow over at your side.. wahaaaha.. *claps claps*

Anyway, went for my ano... 初ヘアカット of 2007, and also my first in Japan. Seriously, im the kind that gets a bit jittery whenever i need to go salon for a haircut. Not just here, but in Singapore as well. I dunno why.. but i just dun feel erm.. in control? LMAOOO.. So my hair was really getting very thick (as always) and so much 枝毛 (aka split ends), cant stand it anymore... and when i could finally squeeze a Saturday when i din absolutely have to go back to office to clear my work, i got my fren to accompany me to a salon. And she was so nice to help me find one in Ikebukuro and even make the appt for me. LOL.. felt like a star.. or should i say, an inaka-mono?? XDDD But hmm, yappari the service was good. Japanese service are attentive to details. They placed sweets, water, mags and provided a ひざ掛け (a blanket for ur lap). And when they are washing ur hair, they cover ur face with a paper towel/tissue. Prevents water splattering on your face and the awkwardness of where to look. Singapore salons should so adopt this practice.

So anyway, i told the guy that i wanted to thin down the volume and get rid of the split ends but yet, maintain the length as much as possible. Not really looking for a change in hairstyle. (Truth is, i din have time to tink of a new style.) That's when i tink Japanese salons are really conservative... I dun see much difference after my haircut. Hahahaha... he really din dare to chop off much. But then again, my hair is also those kind where u can chop chop chop and the whole floor's FULL of my hair, yet it still looks very thick on the head. THAT MUCH. (but im not complaining) I bet no one's gonna realise i had a haircut when i go back to work tomorrow... aiyaa... did i waste the 5000+yen? *coughsss*

But it led me to think... if Japanese salons are generally this conservative, then mebe we really can stop worrying whenever Takki says that hes gonna get a bassari cut at the salon. LMAAAOOOO..... but still keeping my fingers crossed.

Oei, Hideaki! NO MORE UNDERCUTTING ON THE SIDE YOU HEAR???

Pucchi mohi nanka wo yamete kure yo!
i will take the ~~lion~~ Kyon's mane anyway. *lol*
I just love seeing his bangs from his left and the solo dimple from his right. KYAAH!

Was talking to my sis on MSN just now and she said she "heard" i was gg back to Singapore. im like huh?? what u mean u heard?? im YOUR sis, duhz. I emailed her my schedule last week and msned my bro to pass the info to my mum. But ended up my sis never did check her email and she heard the news from my mum who heard it from my bro. So im like, how come you didn't check your email and back came a most hilarious reply. Pardon the nonsensical grammar. Hahah.. sisters do not use good English with each other. XD But hey, a typical example of Singlish for you guys who aren't Singaporeans. Teehee.

"aiyo... i very busy leh. nw ivan p2 gt so many homework everyday.. n sooo difficult so more... hv u ever seen 2 adults n 1 child do a page of english homework do for 2 hrs?? "

Note: "ivan p2" = Ivan, my nephew, who's in P2, aka Primary 2

HAHAHHAAA......... Sasuga the very kiasu Singapore education system. I told her, the next time she goes to his school for Parent's Meeting, yell at the teachers "You SIAO ah??" *LMAOOOO*

She was saying she and her husband had to bring out their dictionary and thesaurus to help the poor boy do his cloze passage. Hahahhah..... But woah.. apparently P2's cloze passage now comes WITHOUT helping words... Usouuu...... Then again, the standard now is like O_o. I rem seeing my brother's kindergarten's Alphabet Book and it says...

G for Gymnasium???!?????

I dun tink i ever knew this word until like upper primary.... *sweats*

Anyway, at this rate im going, i wonder when i will EVER get to post my concert review. I want to, but i can never find enough time to sit down and write. Memory's slipping anyway... Oh dear. And im not as good at writing as many of the others. But like what Dithers told me, i should do it for myself too. I loved reminscing as i read my past entries and i dun want Kuricon 2006 to go poof into a cloud of smoke in my memory.... Ganbarimasu...

But going to Kuricon renewed my love for T&T. I confess it was stagnant for a while because i was busy with RL and work and stuff.... but am i glad to be back. =)

p/s: OOoohh... it starting to drizzle just as Yahoo Weather predicted... Will the snow follows as well??

初詣

2007-01-08T01:56:00.000+08:00

いやいやいや、今日やっと初詣に行ってきました。
しかも明治神宮。
わざにそっちへ行く予定じゃなかったけど、たまたまあの辺にいてたから、
友達は「じゃ、行こうか」って、行きました。
普通は静かだったけど、今日は成人の日だから、結構混んでました。

・・・
・・・　・・・
あれ？？

タッキーの成人式も明治神宮で行ったよね？？？だよね？？？
ええええ？？？？？？？？
っていうのが、５年前のこの日、タッキーがオナジ場所にいてた？？？
わああああいいいい～～～～～～～
あはは、自分が自分を盛り上げてるなんて・・・（笑）

３つの願意を祈りました。

１．家族のみんなが健康になりますように。
２．タッキーの仕事がうまくできますように。
３．自分が幸せになりますように。

って、急に気づいたら、以上３つの願意は、前とまったく同じもの。
ふんんん～～～

Went to Meiji Shrine today while waiting to get into the Johnny's shop.
Can you believe i was assigned 19:00pm even though i got there at 13:00pm???
So was wondering around the SUPER CROWDED Harajuku with my friend and we decided to go Meiji Shrine, since it was just across the road.

Today, or rather yesterday, was also Japan's Coming-of-Age Day.
So it was quite crowded, with people visiting the shrine for hatsumode and seijin shiki.
And i only realised this while i was typing the above...
Wasn't Takki's seijin shiki also held at Meiji Shrine????
Cos that means i was where he was exactly FIVE YEARS AGO!!!
*moe moe moe*
Ok you over there, stop flipping your eyes...
Fangirls get moe over little things ok. LOL.
And i may be wrong about the place because i seem to be suffering from memory deficiency these days.
老化、老化、老化・・・T-T

So yep, threw the money and made my wishes for this year,
which i just realised, are EXACTLY the same as what i wrote on the ema in 2004 at Todaiji in Nara.

Went around reading the emas and someone wrote about the 復活 of NEWS. LOL.

Finally got into the Johnny's shop after queuing for nearly 30min at 19:30pm in the cold.
With the super strong winds!!!
(which made quite a few kanban topple while we were waiting...)

New photos of Kuricon but ALAMAK, din have any from Black Butterfly!!!
And there was a group of okaasans beside me and one of them was also lamenting... "Toriko wa nai!". LMAO.
But we all kinda noticed they left out solo performances for the pics.
Maybe it's on purpose cos they are saving it for J-Web.
Let's see...

On my way home, saw the message that was flashing inside the JR train.
Some trains were delayed due to "strong winds"??!?
Waahhh....

[EDIT at 1616pm 08 Jan 2007]

~~I hope it doesn't blow away my 2nd washing machine cover. =\~~

Was just doing my laundry and....

MY SECOND WASHING MACHINE COVER GOT BLOWN AWAY BY THE WIND AGAIN!!!!!
WHAT THE *&^&#^&*#%^H#(^FYFV%R%^??!??!?!?!

I already pegged it down yo!!!!
CRAP.
I'm like losing a washing machine cover and 2 pegs every month.... =_=

[End of EDIT]

My new wallpaper

2007-01-04T00:31:00.000+08:00

THANK YOU RIBI!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

For sending me such a FREAKING CLEAR version of the Myojo bed pic... uwaaaahh.... now i have to take deep breaths every time i start up my PC!!! Muahaha.... Thank you Reiko, for sending me a smaller version of it too earlier. THANK YOU SO MUCH GIRLS!!!

Man... the pic is soooo KIREI!!! Replaced it immed with my old one the moment i got it.
Though i like the old one alot too. Heh.

My previous wallpaper from the movie "Sugar & Spice",
which i have yet to watch but i will someday,
cos it stars Tsubasa-lookalike Yuya Yagira and pretty Erika Sawajiri!!!
What a combi!!! LOL~~

My CURRENT wallpaper!!!! Courtesy of Ribi!!
*breathes in deeply*
I love my ~~lappie~~ ~~wallpaper~~ T&T.
*heartsssss*

Takki is like stretching out his hand to take Tsuba's but that boke has his arms folded across his chest. Alamak! *slaps forehead* Princess Tsuba playing hard to get. LOL.

I dunno how you guys do it, but how come when i scan at high resolution, i always end up with a grainy pic?? Yappa i need lessons on this... but ehh... my scanner's back in sunny island.

Week 12 in Japan + random stuff + Zubari SP 070102

2007-01-02T00:30:00.000+08:00

I suddenly really want Takki to star in a movie.

Not necessary THE ONE with Jackie Chan yet. Still paranoid that he will get injured in that collaboration but just a movie made mainly for the Japanese market. Sthg like hmm.. 世界の中心で、愛を叫ぶ or 今、会いにゆきます. You know, a very ochitsuiteru Japanese movie for the general Japanese public. I just felt that most of the (Japanese) people who know him cannot see past his beautiful face and brand him as just another idol. They fail to realise that he is a great actor/artiste and amazingly hardworking person who inspires. That is the feeling i get when i tell people i really like Takki. They must be thinking at the back of their minds that "oh ya, and you will ditch him for another one when a newer cuter idol comes along". Luckily the Japanese Takki fans I know really love him and regard him as their 国宝 (national treasure). They oughta be sooo proud of him and i so envy them for that. So anyway, IF Takki gets to star in a local movie, it will expose him to a more general mass market and not just the Johnny's fans (whom i am sure will storm the movie theatres anyway. lol) and they will then get to see Takki in a different light. ok, this is just SUPER RANDOM thoughts... sorry for making some of you go O_o here. You guys must be wondering what the hell is with all the stuff i just wrote.

I always have random thoughts about things that i want to blog about, but never find the time and concentration to really sit down and put them into words. By the time i do, it's like sooo passe that i dun want to write about it anymore. And also, i am not that gd at expressing things with words and my grammar is halfway out of the window. Gaaah, i wish there is some kind of machine that i can plug into my brain so that whatever I think about will automatically turn into words on paper which i can post here.

So anyway, i think i have lost the odd-number update pattern for good. LOL. Went to really count how many weeks i have been in Japan and yep, 12 weeks. How time flies... It is already 2007. Gaaaahhhhh................................. i've already told many people but i really dread January. i pick Dec over it anytime!!! I dunno. i am not so into a new year. It give me the feeling of having to やり直す (re-do) everything from scratch. Like "mata kayo.." that kinda feeling. And it makes me feel OLD. i like Dec because its a time when i recall all the things that ive been thru for that year, plus the festive mood. I guess that makes me belong to the emotional sect? How about you guys? Do you prefer year end or the beginning of a new year?

I was just watching the 3hr Zubari on TV and oh gosh... Takki looked absolutely ravishing in the white coat thingy with hakama... SO GORGEOUS!!! (Pardon the bad quality screencaps, i took them with my mobile phone)

And it's so funny, cos when Kazuchan came out, the guys were commenting how suteki her kimono was. And she was grumbling that she actually prepared an even more suteki (non-black) one, but the "stupid director" (her exact words. LOL) was like no, no, no, she has to wear a BLACK one. I think it's cos they prepared a white one for Takki so in order not to ruin the colour contrast. Hahhaa... but well, if it's bcos of Takki, i am SURE Kazuchan will relent. But dun you think Takki is really GLOWING up there???? Kudos to the wardrobe team!!!!! But then again, i think Takki always shine in whatever costume. i've ran out of superlatives to describe this guy but im sure you peeps understand what i mean.

The special was 3hrs long, and they had many artistes on the show who consulted Kazuchan for various things. It may be boring for those who doesn't really understand what they are saying. I dun really get it either. One of the artistes is a female idol (or should i say those kind of AV idols??) called Hoshino Aki and i must say she really has very full busts and a very small manga-style cute face. Some of you may at least recognise her face??

And how SHOCKED i was when i found out that... she is turning 30 this year!!!!!!!!!!!!! OH MY GOD!!!!!!! She gives HOPE to me... hahahhaha........... i mean, look at her!!! And you cant see her figure here but she can 100% pass off as a high school girl, but shes almost 30. Uwaaaahhhh..... yappari as the Chinese saying goes, there is no ugly women. Only lazy women. LMAOOO..... i wonder if Takki likes girls like her?? But he once said he likes girls who are somewhat tomboyish in character... or so i recall.

Anyway, i was kinda upset/worried after reading Bonnie and Jenn's post about the stuff that were being said about Takki (and T&T) after their appearance on that figure skating show. (Yes Jenn, i finally cracked that Da Vinci's Code.) Luckily it wasnt any of the skaters (i think) who made those mean remarks if not u bet i will be CURSING that they fall flat on their ~~butt~~ face for every single triple flip attempt. Hmph. Obviously those people don't know nothing about T&T which is why they took Takki's question the OTHER way. Like for heaven's sake, egoistic is the LAST thing we will associate Takki with, and that is after we re-use all the adjectives in the English Language a million times over!!! Mou! Atama ni kitaaa.... In fact, i think he admired Oda and Takahashi's relationship, which is why he drew an analogy between them and themselves.

I was really concerned if Takki is affected by all those malicious remarks (if any got to his ears at all) and was like doing a Takki Genki-sa Check while watching Zubari. Though i have no idea when the recording was done. Well, i just needed to see his egao. He did smile quite a bit but was rather quiet. Then again, I think with Cream Stew around, he never really has much chances to talk. Those 2 are comedian HOSTS for a reason. But there was a really sweet part. I think Kazuchan noticed that Takki was being really REALLY quiet and kinda excluded from the group, so at this part of the show when they stood up to sample some food, Kazuchan specially went over to take Takki's hand. So the 2 of them were sampling food while holding hands. Hahaha... i dunno, i just find it very sweet and very glad that Kazuchan is there to watch over Takki. Thank you very much, Hosoki-sensei. *bows*

Then during a Live mini concert session with one of the guests Keiko (and her hubby Komuro Tetsuya), they "sacked" Teppei and made Takki do the hosting and Takki was like "Muri dayo!!! Iyaayaaa!!!". Hahhaha... but he still did it in the end. XDDDD And he was saying stuff like "Although Keiko-san and Komuro-san are very rabu rabu, me and Kazuchan are also very raburabu de gozaimasu". LOL. He never fails to please the old lady, who stood up to cheer him for this.

And Yoshiki (from now defunct X-Japan and also Tsubasa's idol) was final guest on the show and oh my... Kazuchan was so smitten by him. LOLLL.... she kept touching his hands!! Aiyaa... what can i say, a 60+ obaasan gets all the privileges. (A gd thing about getting old??) Yoshiki seemed really nervous.. hhaha.... For such an experienced musician, he claims he is very kincho at such situations. Think he is really paranoid of all the things that Kazuchan will force him to confess. He was really bibitteru!! So funny to watch. Kazuchan coaxed him to come back to Japan. (He's living in LA now.) Then they touched on the issue of marriage and Kazuchan commented that though it's hard for both of them (Yoshiki & Takki), because they are adored by so many girls, they will eventually find their ideal partner. And Takki's face brightened up and Kazuchan was like "what's with that smirk??". Hahhaa.... Still cant help envying the lucky person who will become Takizawa okusama.

And then the ending was soo funny!!!!! Kazuchan was commenting Yoshiki has a subtle but high sense of fashion. Then asked to have his sunglasses. Yoshiki totally didnt see that coming and was like stumbling away...

Yoshiki: "Eh?... &#&#UE)D#%$#$*()&^ o..UR@(* o oh O-watashi shimasu...demo ato de ii desu ka??"

LMAOOOO..... Get such a kick from seeing a usually very confident rock musician stumbling over his words. Ueda was then commenting... IS IT ALRIGHT TO END THE SHOW WITH A BLACKMAIL????? Hahahhahaha... because i dun tink Yoshiki DARES to refuse Kazuchan's request. Oh man... so funny!!!!

ok, i think it's better i start my Kuricon reviews on a new post for better organisation and easier reading.

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!

2006-12-31T14:50:00.000+08:00

To everyone who keeps up with my posts,

HAVE A FANTABULOUS 2007!!!!

May it be a fulfilling year for all of us!
All the best in health, career, family, love, and erm.. T&T moe meter!!
LMAOOO~~~~~~~

Gyaaahhhh.... i so wish i could be at Tokyo Dome tonight. *wailsssss*
Never mind, i take pride that i am at least in the same CITY as him...
No wait... going my fren's place tonight and i think she's actually staying in Saitama Pref.
*coughsssss*
Ok, never mind. At least i can watch the concert on Fuji TV.
Baaaahhh.

Maa iiya!!! i will see him again soon next year. *heartsssssss*

Still very lovesick as you can see. Hurhurr...
Wintercon reports coming right up!!!
3 days of holidays with no plans... so i think i have lots of time to kyaaah.
Hahhaha....

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!!!!!

タッキー、今夜も翼と精一杯楽しんでね！！
また来年！！！！＊チュー付＊

Week 9+1 in Japan...

2006-12-17T14:28:00.000+08:00

Yea, i failed to update my blog last week and ruined the "odd-numbers" pattern. Does anyone actually know what I am talking about?? LOL. It's a Sunday and weather is sunny in Tokyo. Sunny yet cold. But not freezing. Took out my comforter to sun while there is still precious sunlight. But hey, the sky is turning dark already... =_= i miss the tappuri sunlight back in Singapore. My sunny island. (armed with sunblock lotion and UV-cut brolly of cos)

Woke up early in the morning cos my stomach was churning. Sat inside the toilet for some time. Wanted to puke whatever it is inside that refused to get digested but nothing came out. Forced myself back to sleep. It has been this way since last week. Bloated and uncomfortable. I keep burping... it's irritating. I tot maybe i ate too much that day, but surely one week should solve that?? It better not be food poisoning becos i have yet to figure out where is the nearest clinic. Bleah.

Even though one of the stores having member sale for winter clothes this weekend, i gave up going because too lazy to get out and don't feel well enough to squeeze with the crowd. I bet it will be a losing battle. Plus, i overspent on dinner this week with friends in Tokyo and nomikai with colleagues. It sure is wallet-damaging when you don't drink (while the rest do.. a lot) but they split the bill equally anyway. Hianz... but oh well, guess it's fine since they treat me often too. My colleagues that is. XP

AND T&T WINTERCON STARTS TODAY IN OSAKA!!!

The second show should have started by now. I hope T&T are enjoying themselves. Hisashiburi no concert damon. Ne?? And i will see you guys (and girls) next week. XDD Tanoshimi ni shiteru yo!!! And of cos, our 1st ever NO BORDERS PROJECT HANABI. I think the name (is it official?? Muahha) is so apt!!! T&T would be so proud of us!! Only that... who is getting the raw material aka hanabi??? LMAOOOO.... I imagine all of us finally meeting then staring back at each other with a "now what?" face. Oh my god... that will be hilarious. I havent seen any shops selling hanabi though... doushiyou.... Previously when i came to Japan in summer, it was selling in a lot of places. Like really HUGE bundles of hanabi of all sorts and sizes for 7000+yen!!! Tanoshisou!!!! *Images of BokuMado floods back* And ano.. WHERE are we gonna do this without the residents calling in the keisatsu?? LOL... i actually have no idea if they have any rules with regards to playing hanabi. Because in Singapore, we can only play with those small harmless ones like sparklers. And that's about the only kind of hanabi that's sold openly.

Hmm.. i remember seeing pple play with it beside the river banks and parks. So i guess it's not illegal to play, but pick an open space. I was thinking of the park at Yokohama, called Minato no Mieru Koen or sthg like that. It overlooks the Yokohama Bridge and is really nice!! For those of you who watched Nino's Akimahende drama, it's the park he always goes to when he runs away. LOLL~~~ But we will need to take train to go Yokohama from Shin-Yokohama and then walk a bit. I wonder if we have time. Here in Tokyo, it's absolutely essential to catch the last train because not everyone can just hop onto the cabs and go home!! it's ridiculously EXPENSIVE. Not to mention the additional midnight charge. I think the meter jumps by 120yen at a time after midnight. Osorobeshi... i think if we miss the last train, it's better we hang out at a 24hr family restaurant like Jonathan's and wait for first train!! Less damaging to the already very damaged wallets. Muahhaha.... And then kyah about T&T all night!!! Wakkakakaka.......!!!!!!!!!

Christmas Day by the way, is not a public holiday in Japan. But fret not (im saying this to myself), because i am taking leave on 25Dec so that i can enjoy myself thoroughly on Xmas Eve!!!!! Muahhahahahhahahahaaaaaaaaaaa~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ GIRLS, IKU ZO!!!!

Wanted to upload the pics taken with my camera to my PC this week but bloody hell, i just realised the USB wouldnt transfer from internal memory of phone to PC direct. i need to save the images onto a microSD card in my phone first then the USB cable can transfer the data. Aiyooo... so troublesome... and more $$$. Mou.

And those of you who gave me your Singapore hp numbers because you can auto-roam in Japan, you wanna check with your service provider if you can call to a Japanese number while you are in Japan. Because according to Loracyn, if you are on "pay as you roam" service, you can receive calls in Japan but you cant make outgoing calls to a Japan number. Which is pretty dumb. Not sure what is her service provider... but pls check anyway.

Tsuba has been ganbatteru-ing on his 283 updates these few weeks. And Takki hasn't been updating. At first i thought they are doing it on purpose so that Tsuba can catch up with Takki and they will be on the same volume!! But now Tsuba has overtaken Takki by one. Aahhaha... in any case, i expect them to update tonight after the concert! =D Pls attach a pic!!!!

I saw that T&T on bed together pic (Jan's Myojo) in someone's blog. OH MY GOODNESS!!!! @o@!!!!! i want that pic!!!! Can anyone send me a big enough to be wallpaper version???? i wannnnntttt!!!!!!!

OK, shall go review 2U4U album in next post. Think it is long overdue... and of cos, gotta figure out all the logistics stuff for next week. Where to meet etc... and pack my bag for trip to Taiwan too. Yes.. gg there for business trip and coming back on the day before concert. Oh man.. chou giri giri... my stupid AM kept scaring me, "you are coming back on 23Dec yo". And i just told him plainly, "Jaa, ikanai". And he was saying how can i not consider about priorities... But excuse me, i AM prioritizing!!! LMAOOOOOOO............ Puhlese.... T&T con over Taiwan trip. DO YOU STILL NEED TO ASK???? And then one day i came into office and found someone marked 23Dec on my calendar... "concert". LOLLL!!!!!

Yep, about 75% of my office knows i like Takki now. Including my shachou of course. Ahahha... Can never keep it a secret cos i will always yelp "MY ANATA!!!!" whenever the Amicola or Meiji Choco drink or Complete or Olympus or Zubari ad comes on TV while we are having our bentos during lunch. XDDD

タッキーがいるから、寂しくない！！
大好き！＊チュウー付き＊
クリコン、頑張れ！！
精一杯遊んで！！！★☆

Week 7 in Japan... ???

2006-11-30T23:31:00.000+08:00

I think it is Week 7?? i kinda lost count. Reached here on 8 Oct anyway. Girls, help me count. LOL.

The temp has dropped much since when i first got here. Gawd.. i really hate winter.
And it's not even here full scale yet.
i dunno how some of you survive through the long gloomy winters in your countries.
i suddenly think it's so GREAT to be staying in a tropical country.

No need to pay heater bills, which by the way consumes way more electricity than most other home appliances.

And when u on the heater, u better get a humidifer cos it makes the air dry.
So more money. Bah.

No need to think twice about washing hands or face, because the water is always warm and not icy cold.

No need to spend money on clumsy winter clothings.

Clothes dry warm and fluffy.

Sky turns dark only at 6+++.

Yea, Singapore is hot, but i realised i never really hated it to be that hot.
Thank god we have lotsa of trees, so it's still ok to me.
You girls back home, appreciate the warmth.
Me, i kinda forgotten how it felt to be warmed by sunshine... hurrr... or shld it be brrrr...

Tonikaku... fuyu ga kirai desu.

Anyway, don't mean to be so angst abt the weather for this entry. LOL.
Just couldn'T stop cursing the bloody weather.

Am doing a brief update to inform all u girls who care to drop by here that i am still alive!!!
I know i owe many emails.
I will get to them.
I promise.
But i only get to do that on weekends, so be patient ne.
You are not being ignored, rest assured.

And oh, i learnt sthg by the way.

DO NOT WATCH ZUBARI WHILE EATING SPAGETTI.
I did like 2 weeks ago and the noodles almost SPEWED out of my nosetrils as i choked.
i swear this show is hilarious when u least expects it!!!! Hahhahahaaa....

But i spewed them out of my mouth though. I forgot what it was, but it was so funny!!

And this week's Zubari was funny too!!!
Takki's dorky tactics had Kazuko choking, like really choking... and he had to pat pat her back. LOL.

And oooh, Takki updated Takiren. He is at the salon again.
Tried to scare us saying he is getting another puchi mohi... that boy. Haaa....

Listening to 24 these days to work.
I like Natsu no Kaze!!

And ohhh!!! The other day there was a show on TV and they did some random street poll about which celeb looked the most Wife-loving. And the results...

1. Taiichi (Tokio)
2. Fukuyama Masa nantoka... forgot his name. hahah
3. Takki!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Yea, indeed he will be a wife loving husband.
He always says he will and hopes to be married in his twenties.
Wonder who is the lucky girl.

Muahahhahaaa.............

"Don't break my heart..." (Toni Braxton)

Dakara, Takki ga dai suki!! *chuu*

Week 5 in Japan...

2006-11-15T00:31:00.000+08:00

AND IT IS RELEASE DAY FOR 2WO YOU 4OUR YOU!!!

WOOHOO~~~~

TAKITSUBA GANBARE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

May SOMEONE win Prize A and tell Takitsuba that they have a lot of non-Japanese fans as well!!!!!! XDDDDD

And i FINALLY got the bloody internet up and running in my own apartment! YATTA!!!!
No more expensive internet cafes with too soft seats and dirty ayashii keyboards...
Hohoho... enjoying this fibre optics connection i have.
I seriously dunno.. so am i on broadband or what??
They say its always on, but its not really like cable cos i still need to dial sthg.
Aahh... whatever. As long as it gets me connected.
And its pretty fast.

NOW i feel life in Japan begins.
Hahha... felt so cut off from world without communications.
Imagine, no tv, no phone, no radio.

Oh by the way, bought a cheap 315yen (or was it 525yen??) bathroom radio to listen to Tobase.
Hahhaha... cos realised my mp3 player (bought in japan) and mobile phone radio only have FM but Recommen and Tobase is on AM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Was REALLY puking blood that day when Takki was on the show for what... 3 hrs??
To think i rushed home for it and realised I DO NOT HAVE AM FREQ!!!
Like what the???? Issit just here or what??
I thought all radio receiving things come with BOTH freq...
Even back in Singapore, where theres nothing on AM freq, all radios still come with both AM and FM. Grrr....

Hmm.. i really have a lot of things to blog about but its like already 145am and i gotta wake early tml for work. Dun tink i can wake up early enuff to catch T&T on WS though.
Then again, dunno which WS they will be on and what time.. but i kinda guess it will be six-ish.
Muri muri... cant wake up.
Ok... must go buy a tape and try if the VCR that comes with this tv still works.

Thanks to all those who emailed me!!! i will try and reply some by this weekend.
Somehow, u get very busy when u stay alone, cos need to do alot of hsework!!
Hahha... now im on perpetual shuufu (housewife) mode.

And oh oh oh!!! Wanted to blog about this sometime ago but din have the time...

INSIDER'S INFO ABOUT TAKKI... hurhurhur...

The other day my colleague went for dinner with our big boss and there was another guy there not from our company but in the same industry present. A business associate of our big boss i think. And guess what?? The next day, my colleague came and told me, they were talking about Takki!!!!!! Because that business associate worked in the agency that was engaged to organise Takki's trip to Shanghai and Henan Shaolin Temple!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I was like KYAHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!

(p/s: Both my colleagues and big boss know that i am a big fan of Takki... and they were both saying at the dinner... oh, we have a new girl in office whos a big fan of his.. blah blah blah... CRAP. If only i was there!!!)

So anyway, that guy said that they actually had to shipped boxes of Japanese cup noodles from Japan to China for Takki's entire trip. They were worried that he might not be used to the food in China and because his itinerary there was pretty strenuous and physically demanding (rem.. its Shanghai circus and Shaolin martial arts!!), he cannot afford to have an upset stomach. So our poor boy survived on cup noodles for every meal!! (I think i can understand that the Shaolin diet will be very very VERY different... and food in China tends to be more oily overall, while Japanese food is mild mild mild...) OH MY POOR TAKKI!!! How taihen is that???? DO you guys REMEMBER all the x___x routines he had to do at Shaolin?? Which was soo painful to watch. And all he really had was cup noodles?? Taihen datta ne!!!!! Think the guy was pretty amazed that he managed to pull the entire trip off.

よく頑張ったね、タッキー。
まぁ～これもタッキーらしいですからね。
お体を大切にして、壊さないように頑張って！
ずっと、ずっと応援するから。
もっと近くから。ひひひ～
大好きよ！＊チュウ付き＊

翼も、タッキーと一緒に自分のペースで頑張りましょう！
飛べ、飛べ、天まで飛べ！！！

Week 3 in Japan...

2006-10-28T21:58:00.001+08:00

HEYYYYY PPLE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! =3333

i am still alive!!! XDDD

And i finally got my handphone (with J-Web!!!!!! WOOHOOOO!!! Althou Takki hasnt updated since i got it and Tsuba already did TWICE), my washing machine and my fridge!!

Next is my tv (which i shld be getting from a fren tomorrow) and INTERNET (which i dunno when)!!! Gawd... cant believe they make getting sthg as simple as internet so difficult. Crap.

Anywaayyy....

Plotted to come internet cafe today cos i saw that there's a new drama with Kame and Ayase Haruka (Tatta hitotsu no koi, think thats the name...) at 9pm from those TV mags!! Seems nice so i wanted to catch it. And so i rushed here after shopping ard in Ikebukuro for household stuff (Living alone really puts me on those shufu mode now. LOL) And cos at this internet cafe, each cubicle comes with a tv. then OH the show comes on... but the more i watch, the weirder it is...

Then i realised.

It is already Episiode 3............. BAH!

See?? Thats why a tv is soo essential. There was a fire atthe hospital near my apartment the other day but i totally din know. Only tot it was a bit urusai with all the fire engines sirens. Found out abt it only from my colleague the next day. And earthquakes. Apparently there was one. But i din feel it, nor have a TV to see the news flash of it... so slept thru the night. LOL. Suddenly it seemed hazardous not to have a tv at home.

Hey, anyone care to tell me exactly how do we qualify for the phonecall thing?? im so confused. And its not properly explained in any of those official sites that ive been to... must we preorder??

Oh dear, been sitting here for 2 hrs.. think i better go. Before the bill shocks me to death. I know i owe some pple emails, but pls understand that i cant really reply them until i get my own connection. Which hopefully shld be soon. Pray for me.

Really want to write more but cant... til next time.. you all take care!!!

Miss u girls LOADS!!! =3

Shuduck, i accepted u ler... how u managed to find me?? haha...

Week 1 in Japan...

2006-10-15T16:06:00.000+08:00

FINALLY, i get access to internet. My goodness... have been so cut off from communications!!! No TV, no internet... at work, i cant really use internet freely... so now, im at a internet cafe in Shibuya on the top floor of HMV!! And since its really not cheap, i shall be quick. Basically...

I AM STILL ALIVE!!!!!!!

lol.

How is everyone????? i miss u guys sooo much!! i miss internet.. i miss TV. I am like right here in Japan yet i cant watch Zubari cos i got no bloody TV yet!!! And someone care to tell me exactly what freq is Recommen on?? so that i can at least listen to nama Takki?? im here in Tokyo yet i feel further away from him due to lack of well... communication devices. Sigh....

TRYING to get my internet connection set up but its hella confusing... mine place is supposedly served by optical fibre so gotta check with maker and provider and dunno what rot...

Then tv... erm... trying to get someone to donate me one.

Apartment.. not as small as i tot, and it gets good sunlight! Just received my furniture from Ikea yesterday and spent the entire day building it up!! My god... gave me backache!! But felt somewhat accomplished!! LOL~ So yesterday was actually the FIRST DAY that i slept on a bed since i came here. Been sleeping on the floor before that... using futons and blankets and what now. So now, my room has TWO pieces of furniture... one cabinet thingy and one bed. Hahhaha..... TV come quick!!

And i need a fridge and rice cooker too... $$$$$$!!!!!!

Weather is pretty cold at night...

Need to get my own hp soon... so that i can FINALLY get access to that ELUSIVE J-WEB!!!!

And what is wrong with my tagboard?? Tsk... shant bother fixing it now cos im paying 100yen for every 15min of access here!!!

And Bon-chan, you din manage to find someone to ballot for u?? i wish i can help you but now im quite lost as u can see. Without internet, no form of communication at all... But dun worry. Worse come to worse, theres always the dafuya... hurrr...

Dithers, thank you for your present ne!!! its safely in Japan with me now. =)

Loracyn... i need luncheon meat... hahhahahaa~~~~

okok, i tink i better go and take a look at handphones now. Think i saw an "AU" shop on my way here...

See ya pple!!! Miss you guys and all the rest loadsss!!!!! MUACK!

「ＯＮＥ」の千秋楽

2006-09-29T03:23:00.000+08:00

タッキー、大変お疲れ様でした！！！

My my, how fast Sept flew by. Didn't ONE just started yesterday?? And now it's over!! Anyway i admit i haven't been paying much attention to this recital cos i'm caught up in my preparations, and also, cos i didn't get to go. *sulks* See how much i wrote when *I* went for Enbujo?? I did read fans' reports occassionally but aiya, too lazy to translate and post them up here. Anyway, we know that the pamplet is GORGEOUS, and a bunch of JE boys went to watch it too, including THE IMAI TSUBASA. XDDD Did Takki's mum go as well?? Thought i read it somewhere. Then A LOT of fans reported that they cried at certain scenes... and Takki vowed that he will never ever ever EVER get divorced (the one who can become his wife is HONTOU NI SHIAWASE), and Takki-jiisan, when recounting his life, kept joking about Tsuba-chan, who has had what... 4 divorces?? And had earlier died of shock at Endless Shock! LMAOOO~~~~ Oh man... baka baka baka!! But this is SO Takki-rashii!

During the curtain call, Takki revealed that he only had 2 weeks for rehearsals for ONE and it was quite taihen. But physically-wise, Enbujo was waaaaaaay more demanding. He thought he was gonna die... LOL~ Then he told the audience that by doing this musical, he was able to relive his past 24 years again, and it might sound a bit arrogant but he felt that he had not wasted his life. YEA BOY!!! YOU BET!!! Only 24, but look what he has already achieved!!! WE ARE ALL SO PROUD OF YOU YO!!!! You are really our role model. Thank you sooo much!!! He also said he will like to do ONE again next year if possible. Waaaiiii~~~ Will it be called TWO then?

This recital led to many fans pondering about many issues. And someone mentioned the overall theme of 「悔いのない人生」, that is "A life without regrets". Like woaaah~ it SO complements my previous post!!

YES, Takki!! I am so going to take you advice!!

Oh! Fans reported many cameras at the last show, but they have no idea were they there for the wideshows, or for DVD. So we shall wait and see...

By the way, AVEX updated the official site! And they mentioned that they are in the midst of recording for the new album. Yeaaah~~~~ Seemed that a lot of songs were picked by T&T themselves. XDD I have a feeling the album will most probably be released before their winter concerts. ~~Start saving!~~ Don't stop saving! Yep!! Unit activities coming RIGHT UP!!!

Tsuba-chan is ending his tour soon too!! HOPE ALL GOES WELL!!!! Say... has Takki went to watch it yet?? Probably not desho, since he's busy with ONE almost everyday... but there are still 4 shows left at Nagoya and Hiroshima... TAKKI!!!! While you rest, PLEASE MAKE SURE YOU GET YOUR BUTT THERE TO SUPPORT YOUR AIKATA TOO YOOO!!!!!!! *chuu*

Snuffles is going... 'home'.

2006-09-27T20:46:00.000+08:00

Yea, i guess now is about the time to tell all the people who cares about me enough to check on my blog regularly that come 7 Oct 2006... ... I AM MOVING HOME!! As in like "Home". Like "TakkiLand". (I really want to say 'T&TLand' but somehow, it doesn't look right. XD) In case you are still blur and wondering...

I *am* talking about the country whose PM just became an Abe. XDDD

YES!! I am going to share about... ehh.. one-fifth of an address with my dear Takki!!!!!! LMAO!
Wheeee~~~~~~~~~ *flies around enbujo style*

Contrary to popular belief, no, i am not going there for a prolonged Takki-stalking trip (well, maybe a little). I am actually going for a very RL reason. I am going there ~~get married to Takki~~ to work. Muahahah~~~ It's crazy how things turned out really. Some of you should remember how I used to whine and grumble about being overworked and underpaid in my previous company?? Yet erm... i am actually going back to work for them (but the HQ in Japan this time), even though i found another job which pays (i should say 'paid', cos i already quitted) me waaaaay better and has world-class employee welfare (Digress: Everyone should go work in an American MNC!!!). And yappari, whenever i get associated with my this ex and future employer, the word "kecchi" never fails to come up. =__= The pay is not high at all, and living in one of the world's most expensive cities, if not THE most expensive... i will be going into chou-binbo mode in another 2 weeks. T-T But somehow, i still managed to convince myself to give up the good-paying job and take up this Japan offer cos... it's in Japan!! LOL~ Ok, and i dun mean it just cos Takki is there. It's just something that I've been wanting to do. Kinda regret not going for a long-term exchange program when I was in university. Hence never got the chance to live (should i say survive?) alone. Then of course, I am hoping this job will give me good exposure and experience to *cough* demand for a better pay next time. Hahahah, see? VERY RL. Then of course, it IS Japan. I mean hello, there can't be a better way to justify my 4 years in school spent learning the language!! And i do want to eventually become native-level proficient. (so that the Japanese will STOP thinking that their language is really THAT difficult and unique.. TRY CHINESE!! Or Sanskrit!! LMAO~ But no offence.)

Anyway, it was a pretty hard decision to make. There was the giving up "current" well-paying job thingy, the parents' barrier (who are still not very onz about me going), the not-very-attractive pay package, the bimyou-sa of the job and responsibilities, the anxieties of living alone in a foreign land (with that teeny weeny bit of dough called PAY), the fear of being stopped by hentai ojisans, earthquakes, incomprehensible English, incomprehensible Japanese, freaking COLD winters, super FORMAL office-wear culture, lack of Chinese KTV (lol), onigiri day after day kinda diet, panties burglars etc.

IF... i had never quitted my ex-ex-job, i would be JUMPING at this offer to 'upgrade' to the HQ. Who wouldn't right??? But because i already left, AND found a better paying job (though the work was really MUNDANE), it was a tough decision. But despite so many so many SO MANY 'cons' factors, i finally asked myself ONE question. No, this question did not appear in ano recital. LOL~

Which job will I regret giving up?

And I made up my mind. I remember this tee i bought from Uniqlo when i was in Japan in 2004 for my very first T&T concert and Dreamboy Osaka cum self-organised graduation trip. Let me go find it...

Please excuse my hair over there but the tee says...
"I don't regret a thing I've done. I only regret the things I didn't do."

Although it isn't a 100% perfect match, the point made is still VERY CLOSE. I have regretted doing certain things, but I still think it is WORSE to spend your entire life thinking about "what would have happen if I did it?". Getting a bit confusing here? But I hope you guys get my point. An anecdote about this tee though, i wore it after i went for DB Osaka's senshuuraku alone. I had to buy the ticket from a scalper which was SO FREAKING EXPENSIVE (and for a 3rd floor seat!!!!). But, i felt i just couldn't leave Japan NOT going for the senshuuraku. After watching DB the previous nights and seeing how BLOODY HARD Takki worked to put up the performance for us, it was really emotional but I just couldn't BE in ~~Japan~~ Osaka and NOT go. I needed a closure of sorts as well. It was a loooong 3 week trip to mark the end of my life as a student too. And so, i bought the ticket and went. Yappari, itte yokatta. I woke up the next morning feeling GREAT and TOTALLY NO REGRETS. I was SO GLAD that i wasn't regretting NOT going. SO APT to wear the tee then. LOL~ I can go on and on and on about this Japan 2004 trip but I shall stop here. (By the way, i came home ABSOLUTELY broke and HOPELESSLY lovesick. XD)

Oh dear, my digression is getting too long. So what was i saying? Oh well.. anyway, as opposed to what many people think about me, i am not THAT obsessed with Japan and all things Japanese. I do dislike certain things about them. And i remembered telling myself before that i don't like to live in Japan, cos it's just sooooo crowded!!!! It gives me a headache. And much as i like Japanese food, 2 weeks of ramen and sticky rice later, give me my Hokkien mee!!

But life is short. What the heck. I am going to do it. Yatte mimasuKU!!!

So Shuduck, this is the reason why i've been MIA (blogpost-wise) because i've been busy preparing and packing (which, by the way, is getting nowhere... *coughs*).

To Dithers, thank you for your encouraging words!! *muack*

And thank you to Loracyn too, for accompanying me on my many shopping trips and giving me pragmatic advice. And offering to help bring some of my stuff over. Teehee~

Oh by the way! When i should be busy packing my stuff, i lost concentration (as usual) and went hunting for my new apartment in TakkiLand in Google Earth.

I wonder if i got the place right. Anyway, it's one of the buildings in that cluster.
I just don't know which one... ... yet. ^^
But i think it is white.

So hopefully, i can.. actually no, i *WILL* continue to update this blog as often as i can. So maybe it will not just be a Takki/T&T blog (it isn't meant to be anyway.. but aha, i guess i failed), but can also become some sorta survival reference to people who are moving to Tokyo with minimal dough. That is *IF* i survived myself ne... But hmm, i think it's quite cool to record my life in Japan here. Haha~

So yea, that's it for now. I better go back to packing.

不安ばっかけど、行きま～すっ！！
タッキー、待っててね！！！！

タッキー＆翼、４周年記念日

2006-09-11T02:10:00.000+08:00

Photo credits to Michelle

Takki's Solocon DVD

2006-09-04T00:54:00.000+08:00

Aiya! It's already Sept?? Man!! How time flies. I've been quiet throughout this Ho! Summer Rush.. haha, a bit too lethargic to blog. Cos i know i take a damn long time to write one post admist all those DISTRACTIONS. Have a problem staying focused. My posts always digress majorly. And yappari when i have to wake up at freaking 6am every morning just so that we can work at same time as Japan, it DRAINS me completely with no mood/energy to do anything constructive. So i just watched and watched and laughed and laughed at all the Ho! Summer clips i've got... hahahha~~~ Maybe i will do a consolidated entry on them later. But for now, i thought i will jot down my thoughts and comments about Takki's Solocon DVD!!

YES!! I GOT IT ON 31st AUG!!! Damn fast or what?? Muahhaha, i LOVE EMS. They never give me any problems!! Unlike DHL (recall incident of conspiracy with Media Authority of S'pore over the kidnapping and raping of my DB DVD...) =_=

So anywayzzz, some thoughts/comments about the Solocon DVD... I already finished watching it once. XD

- The front and back covers look like something from 2 separate entities!! So UNMATCHING!!! *kicks Avex* They should have just used the White "HT" logo!!! It's already made!! Dun even need to design a new one!!! But i heard that although Tsuba's dvd cover is that black gothic logo of his, the actual packaging quality was quite bad. Gosh, what's new? =_=

- Despite the unmatch, i was squealing "KAWAIIII" when i saw the back cover with good old Hidezo. Heh! So Takki-rashii...

- YES. Avex really mistyped "Dakedo" as "Dakara"!!!!! OH MY GAWD!!!! KORE WA YURUSENAI!!!!!!!!! How can they commit this kind of mistake???????????!!?!?!? Already the front cover is so bland... with a quarter of it taken up by a Tsuba-wannabe chibikko?? At first when i saw the cover online, i thought both were Takki... just some superimposed effects ya know?? But no.. it's a chibikko. Man! Avex sure put a lot of "thought" into the design of the cover ya?? =__=

- I got the keyholder!!!! Hahhahahahah~~~ Then again, I think eventually, everyone did. LOL~

- There's a photo insert with the DVD. Quite nice!!!! At least im not paying 4000yen+ for just ONE disc.

- Tsubasa nevered appeared in the DVD!!!! Now who said he did?? And did Takki appear in Tsuba concert? Actually i'm confused which shows were the ones being recorded. I THINK it's the 25 Dec's show? And they probably used footage from both shows again. Cos there was this VERY ATTENTION-GRABBING fan with bright orange hair and blue yukata and i saw her (him??) up on the stand (patting Takki's back!!!) when he went one round around the stands in the elevated cart during Dakedo. Then later on in the DVD, at the encore part, i thought i saw her again at the very corner of the arena just next to the stage, somewhere during the 1st encore. I THINK IT'S THE SAME PERSON!! Either that or her doppelganger. LOL~ But i think it's common for them to use footage from 2 different concerts. They did it before for Sugao. And i was sooo confused when Subaru's hair and shirt just suddenly changed. I thought it was another person!! Hahahha~~~

- The assassin thingy is soooo funny!!! LMAOOOO~~~ What the hell does it mean??? and the very last scene of Assassin Takki smiling at Hidezo... OMG~~~ MUAHHAHAHAH!!!!!! SO SILLY!!!!

- During closeups of Takki during.. i think it was Madonna, oooohh myyyyy, i realise Takki has such goooooddd complexion, at least then. =)))

- I loved the way he paused and suddenly waved like a little kid to the screaming fans around him when he was up at the stands!!!

- The part where he took off his blazer, and then put it on again before Get Down was sooo funny!!! AHO! XDDD

- Yappari, it was soooo kirei during "12 gatsu no hana"... when they lit up the entire Yokohama Arena with those blue lights.... so pretty and romantic~~~~~~~~~~ *swoons*

- So funny when Takki went to the oyako seats and was looking for a kid to bring up on stage. ALL THE MOTHERS AND GRANDMOTHERS WERE LITERALLY SHOVING THEIR KIDS AT HIM!!! LOL~~~ All the clueless kids. Poor things. LOLL~~~

- The MC parts were almost all edited out! As expected really. The only part left was when Takki brought a kid up to stage. Even then, it wasnt complete. =___= So yea, those of you who were worrying about the lack of subs, it's really not necessary...

- And because all the MC talks and Venus dance lessons were axed, it seemed like Takki sang from start til end. Watching the DVD, i thought those people who hadn't seen the concert live would probably feel it's boring, cos i did felt a little bored too at some parts. SERIOUSLY, the actual thing is WAAAAAAYYYY MORE HIGH!!! And the fact that the audience sounded quite soft in the DVD, that is soooooo not accurate of the actual situation. WE WERE ALL SCREAMING OUR LUNGS OUT!!! It was REALLY HIGH. I conclude, NO DVD CAN EVER CAPTURE THE ACTUAL MOOD OF A CONCERT. A tad disappointed with the DVD. I think I enjoyed Harucon DVD better. Felt like Avex didn't put much thought into making this, though they took EIGHT months to release it.

Will talk more about the DVD when i watch it again.

Just read from Avex's site that the special good for those who bought both Tsuba and Takki solocon DVDs is a neck piece... that can be joined together with the W (meaning 'double' i think) name strap from the DVDs. Oooh~ omoshiroi na~ i wonder how it looked like.

Takki's recital starts TOMORROW!!!!

Takki, GANBARE!!! q(^-^)p
Looking forward to WS clips of it. Woohoo~~~ AND I WANT THE PAMPLET!!!! ANYONE KNOWS ANYONE WHO'S GOING?!???? T-T

"One! -the history of Tackey-" press conference

2006-08-15T17:54:00.000+08:00

Press conference was held for Takki's recital on 14 Aug at Imperial Hotel in Tokyo. Some points that were made... and some of them were so awww..... i wanna pull him into my arms and give him a TIGHT HUG. =333

- Takki said how even children can have history when they experience deaths in the family or divorces etc. For himself, his parents divorced when he was still really young. Poor thing. He has my empathy. *hugsss* Not sure was it before or after he joined JE though.

- Takki was said to be born on a hospital bench. Apparently by the time his mum reached the hospital, all the delivery rooms happened to be full. So they had no choice but to set up for emergency delivery at the bench. Hmm.. i have no idea if this part is true. Then again, is everything that's gonna be in One true or somewhat true?? Alamak... Don't leave us guessing yo~~

- And as such, he will be shown dying as an old man at a park bench. Anoooo... KURASUGI!!!! CHOTTO MATTE YO!!!! Isn't this recital about the first half of his life (if you can even call it a 'half'. i wish for it to be a 'quarter' really.)??? Why is this part included yo.... my heart can't take it.... noo... *wailsssss*

- Times were hard after the divorce. He was brought up by his mother (not sure about his other 2 siblings) and financial situation wasn't exactly good. His mother used to make gyoza (fried dumplings) with tuna instead of pork cos they didn't have enough money... but Takki was apparently too little to tell the difference then. I think he found this out when he consulted her about his childhood for this recital.

- He took one week to write a report about his life, together with inputs from his mother, before submitting it to Johnny Kitagawa. Woah, to write about one's own life in a mere one week, i say our boy is damn disciplined!! LOL~

- Takki said he couldn't really accept it when his mother remarried and he had to change his surname to "Takizawa". HOLD ON A MINUTE... i THINK i got this part right. So this means that he wasn't named Takizawa when he was born?? That's not his birth name?? Okkkk.... but i kinda canNOT visualise him in any other names cept "Takizawa" now, which gave rise to his nick "Takki". Like hello.. Yamada Hideaki?? Ono Hideaki? Imai Hideaki? (LOL) I mean if not for his surname, the "waterfall" in my blog name would make no sense. *coughss*

- Although it SOUNDS dark, the recital will not be simply sad and gloomy. Takki just wants to let people know what go through children's thoughts when they experience events like divorce. And in this way, sends out a message to lonely children and (single) parents, assuring them that they are not alone in this and thus giving them some courage and light. Erai naa~~ *I* should watch this.. but i can't. *wailsssss*

- Let me repeat. This recital will not be entirely dark. It will show happy moments in Takki's life too. Well, that's life for you. :)

- 1st part of show will be about Takki's history. 2nd part will be about the current man that he is, and showcases the illusions that he learnt during his stint in Vegas (yes Dithers, don't be blur. It's the one with the casinos).

Source: Various online news reports

Chotto heavy-hearted after reading the articles. But i seriously think One will be more akarui than reported. I think the papers just zoomed in on the more newsworthy sad parts about an idol's life. Both him and Johnny did repeatedly said that it will NOT be a sad production. As in, the supposedly sad parts are not included just to provoke tears, but rather, to send a message. Tanoshimi desu ne... though i can't go. *cryssss* Wonder what kind of merchandise they will come up with for this one...

Ranking APPU! ^-^

2006-08-11T00:34:00.000+08:00

Ho! Summer ranked at #3 on first day of release, after Southern All Stars and this rock band called anoo... Ellegarden?? Not sure who they are... at first i thought it was a non-Japanese band but i think they ARE japanese... So yea, chotto zannen dakedo. But ya know, Southern All Stars is kinda HARD to beat. XD And this Ellegarden. Hmmm..... mattaku shiranai~ But they beat this group to clinch #2 spot on second day!!! Yeaaah~~~~~ *dances around with pom poms* Hope the pattern continues!! ^-^

Bonnie-chan, i KNOW how frustrating it is, with the uploads everywhere and all. But oh well, some people just don't care enough. They want every album or movie, but refuse to pay. "What for?" they say, "when it's free for download from internet??" =__= I wish that one day, they will get to experience their hardwork being snatched away from them without recognition too. Be it their precious essays being plagarised by others or computing programs that they spent months on being stolen and put up on internet for FREE downloads. THEN they will know the pain. BLEAH~~~ *stabsss*

ANYONE GOT THEIR SINGLES YET??? I think i might get to touch mine only on Sunday or later, cos i'm going away for the weekend. Aiyaaaa~~ mou~~~

But the furitsuke is so cute!! Muahohohohooo!!! They taught the chorus part in 2ji Pita (some wideshow i haven't heard of before). Loracyn was saying they looked sleepy. A bit ya, but that just-outta-bed-and before-makeup look kinda suited the questions they were asked. About each other's "sugao", literally meaning "face without makeup" or real off-stage personality. Fufufu~~ Opps, im sorry. Hohohoho... lol~ And DESPITE the sleepy getup, they looked very excited to teach the furitsuke after that! Especially Tsuba in his unstyled hair, just grinning away and staring at Takki A LOT. Muahohohohooo~~ And the "patsun patsun" fishy move... LOLL~~~~i love the sounds Takki makes for each moves. Reminds me of Venus dance lessons at his solocon!!! XDDDD

I was thinking recently, if T&T were to hold a unit con this year (i'm 95% sure they will before the year ends cos they never go thru a year without since debut! Right??), it's 99% probability that it will be a winter con. I mean seriously, Tsubacon ends in beginning of Oct. Even if they can pull everything together real fast, still need at least ONE MONTH desho??? So the earliest date will prolly be Nov, which is already winter. SO... how weird is it to sing SUCH A SUMMERY SONG like Ho! Summer for a winter con?? LMAOOO~~~~

OK, just a very lame point being made. XD

The JE Meme to end all JE Memes??

2006-08-05T16:30:00.000+08:00

OK, this one hella looooong meme was sent to me by Reiko-chan a few days ago. I guess i am exempted from anymore such memes once i do this cos seriously... can it get any longer than this??? LOL~ To those who have yet to get it.. try it on your blogs! Hoho~~

001: How old are you? Old enough.
002: Gender? The better species, female that is.
003: Location? Singapore, the sunny island.
004: First JE group exposure? Can't remember but I think SMAP?
005: When you first heard of JE, did you hesitate to fangirl them? Ya, cos i thought i was too mature for such stuff then. HAHAHOOO~~~
006: Well, are you addicted to them now? YES!!! *bad for bank account*
007: Current favorite debuted JE group? Tackey & Tsubasa of cos!!! (Well, realised i used the 'official' name??)
008: Current least favorite debuted JE group? Not really...
009: Favorite Junior? None, and definitely not Yabu.
010: Least favorite Junior? None, but i don't hate Yabu either.
011: Favorite Junior group? Nope, don't really care about them.
012: Least favorite Junior group? Noo!! Gawd, this is repetitive...
013: Who is your favorite debuted Johnny? Choose ONE. I promise not to tell your other "favorites" that you're cheating on them. Ain't it OBVIOUS?? Takki dayonnnn!!! *chuu*
014: Least favorite debuted Johnny? Hmmm... see, even if i don't like one, i don't dislike him either. Bimyou?
015: Do you own JE merchandise? This includes magazines with photoshoots, unofficial merchandise, and ticket stubs you found outside of the concert you couldn't get into. No, i don't own those ticket stubs but yes! HOHOHO...
016: Who comprise your OTP? And both people must be in JE. And I did not say OT3. Or 4. Or 5. Or 8. What the HELL is OTP?? Official Travel Party?? ok, it sounds somewhat bishounen ai... so let's try T&T??
017: Nakajima and Yuuto are. . .A)two different people B)the same person C) Who is Nakajima? D) Who is Yuuto? E) Who are Nakajima AND Yuuto? Dare???!
018: Have you ever had a JE dream? Yes, fortunately.
019: What would you rate that dream? And if you've had more than one, choose your favorite. (G, PG, PG-13, R, NC-17) PG usually, zannen.
020: Which Johnny makes the best boyfriend material? Takki!!!
021: Which Johnny is the biggest wuss? Shiranaai~
022: . . . which Johnny is the next Johnny? You mean who from the boys will take over as the boss after Kitagawa?? Muahohohoho.... but i actually think Takki can make it. He's GREAT as a leader. Hee.
023: Which Johnny is the next big thing? (Think the next Yamapi.) I really don't keep up with the juniors... (To Reiko: It can't be Takki here, cos Takki comes BEFORE Yamap yo! Yamap is his son!! LOL)
024: Takki or Tsubasa? Takki always.
025: Kame or Jin? Kame
026: Shoon or Taiyou? None
027: Ueda or Ryo? Ryo (he's my 'brother'!)
028: Uchi or Kusano? None
029: Jimmy Mackey or Joey Tee? Neither!! LOL
030: . . . what are your thoughts on Joey Tee? Some boy who won some dance competition in LA?? Is he the one??
031: Did you know he has a MySpace? Really?
032: . . . if Jimmy Mackey had a MySpace, would you friend him? Hohohohoho... No!
033: Do you have a MySpace? Nooo... i don't think so.
034: Skinniest? Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm.... i don't know!!
035: Fattest? Erm... the last time i checked, Tsuyo?? But he's a nice guy!! And the weight gain ain't his fault!
036: Nicest boobs chest? Huh?? Not me. LMAO~~
037: Best dancer? Tsubasa kana? But i'm not sooo into dancing.
038: Worst dancer? I don't know.. don't watch enough of everyone to judge.
039: Manliest? Ano... Nagase??
040: Girliest? Eh... Nino?? Haha, actually i don't know.
041: Cutest? Takki yonnnn!!!!
042: Scariest? Kitagawa. LOL.
043: Best singer? I used to really like Tsuyoshi's singing.
044: Worst singer? Ano... Nakai?? XD
045: Smartest? Dunno man...
046: Dumbest? Those silly ones who do things though they are underaged and do them so publicly and get caught. Mou... baka janai?? =_=
047: Favorite PV? I'll shrink the selection down to T&T ones. Ho! Summer!!!!! And NOT cos it's the latest.
048: Least favorite PV? Sotsgyou?
049: Most in need of a haircut? The last time i checked, Tsuyoshi and Subaru!! Gawd, do they share the same hairdresser??
050: Do you watch JDoramas? Loads!!
051: . . . JDoramas without a JE member? Yup!
052: What is your favorite JDorama? There are too many great ones!! From the classics like Majo no Jouken, Kamisama mou sukoshi dake, LV (i hate LG though) to more recent ones like Ichi rittoru no namida (EVERYONE MUST WATCH THIS), BokuMado, Pride, Nobuta, Anego, Water Boys 2 (i can't believe i was soo touched and cried in the end) etc. Hey, almost all of them have a JE member in it. But that's not one of my selection crietria!! It's just The INVASION of JE. Muahohohoho~~
053: What was your first JDorama? Oh gawd.... this is long... erm.. Beach Boys??
054: Did your first JDorama have a JE member? If it's Beach Boys, then the answer is yes and no. Yes, cos Sorimachi WAS a JE boy.. ahhaha, did you guys know that??? And no, cos he WAS.
055: Do you have a favorite JE "actor"? Takki yonnnn!!! (Too affected by Akira speech. LOL)
056: Who is the best JE actor? Takki, seriously.
057: . . . the worst? Quite a few actually... Shan't risk myself to open fire here.
058: If you were a JE costume designer, would you keep up the gaudy, sparkly tradition? Sparkly yes, gaudy no.
059: The song, Kizuna. Better by Kame alone or better in a group. I think solo is better?
060: Did you see DREAM BOY 2004 starring Takizawa Hideaki? Yes!! 4 times!! (I think) And not on DVD! WOOHOO!!!!
061: How about DREAM BOYS 2006? No!! Don't care for it. Hmph.
062: Which JE group has the best concerts? Only ever been to T&T, SMAP and Countdown Concert. So it's definitely T&T!!!!!!!! SO MUCH FUN!!!!!!!!!
063: Word association- mayonnaise cannon Bah?? What am i supposed to answer??
064: Word association- Johnny Takki??
065: Word association- Jin KATTUN???
066: Word association- lipsync Er... Yamap... *runs away*
067: Favorite JE song? Too many!!!
068: Least favorite JE song? Quit a few too, especially those noisy tuneless ones. (To Reiko: Gackt isn't considered JE yo~~)
069: Which JE boy needs plastic surgery next? And for what? Clueless.
070: Which Johnny do you want to bang? HOHOHOHOHO~~~ *Him* of course!! *blushes*
071: Would you bang him if he had crabs? Oh crap.
072: How about Herpes? I'll bring him to the doc first.
073: . . . HIV or AIDs? Yaadaaa~~!!! He can't die before me!!!!!!!!
074: PONY CANYON OR JOHNNY'S ENTERTAINMENT? I dunno who's in Pony Canyon anymore... but JE nonetheless!!
075: . . . why? Cos of Takki and Takki alone. But the relationship between the JE boys are just too interesting. And not just talking about the bishounen ai part.
076: Do you like wFL? No.... not the least.
077: Which did you come in contact with first, PC or JE? I'm thinking only of Pony Canyon in terms of HK, Taiwan artistes actually... you mean WFL is in Pony Canyon?? If talking about Japan, then must be JE.
078: Do you know what a macro is? Yes
079: . . . have you ever made one? Nooo... no way.
080: . . . did it refer to anal sex? Does it?? i'm talking Excel macros. LMAOOO~~~
081: Have you ever had a conversation entirely in caps? I THINK SO!!!
082: . . . more than one at the same time? No
083: Does fangirling tire you? Sometimes.
084: Have you spent more than 5 consecutive hours watching JE stuff? YES!
085: . . . do you find yourself watching your JE downloads? Of course!!!
086: . . . for more than 10 minutes at a time? Definitely.
087: Have you ever gone over the daily 1GB SendSpace limit by just downloading JE? Don't think so... Not from SendSpace.
088: Are you immune to the porno popups of MegaUpload? Yess..
089: Do you know exactly what time to download things so you get the best download rate? Nah. I don't follow their time best time, i follow MY best time. Heh.
090: Does this survey make you feel like an obsessed freak? Not yet.
091: Have you and a friend ever fought over whose favorite Johnny was better? They know better than to do that. Anyway, Takki is kinda erm.. hard to beat. He ain't the best singer, dancer, actor (actually i think he is), but put together everything and his winning personality and humbleness and diligence, he is the amazing TAKIZAWA HIDEAKI. Oh, i'm sorry, what was the question??
092: . . . did you resort to slaps and/or punches and/or hairpulling? Well, maybe if i can execute them with a click of a mouse...
093: Have you been to a JE concert? Fortunately, YES!!! And i enjoyed ALL OF THEM!!! SOOO MUCH FUN!!!!!!!! *Especially* T&T ones.
094: Wanna smuggle me in next time? I can't. They check the bags. XP
095: What do you think of kitty GYM? Huh??
096: What are your feelings on JE wank? Wakaranai yooo...
097: Did you ever see a guy on the street and go "Hey, he would look good in ____'s costume from ____ performance..."? Hell no! My judging is quite critical.
98: . . . did you take his picture, and can I see? I bet I could sell it and pretend he was a Johnny. Hohohoho.... no.
99: Do you read JWebs? Can't!!! *criessss*
100: Whose is your favorite? DUHZ!!! Takki yonnnn!!!!! *heartssssss*
101: What would you do if you saw your favorite JE boy on the street? I will freeze. And then try to thaw fast enough to catch up on him. Get an autograph (addressed with my name!!!) and try to con a two-shot even though it's against the rules, but hey, this 'street' is not necessarily in Japan right?? Then HECK THE RULES!! Muahaha... So next erm... i think i will be in PANIC MODE to do anything smart actually.
102: Has a JE song ever made you cry? Not really i guess... can't rem actually.
103: Which? NA. (Reiko-chan, what's so sad about "kimi no na wo yobitai"??? I always think of Zubari's ending credits when i hear that song. Hohoho~~)
104: What would you like to say to Johnny? Can you employ me as Takki's minder? I'll work for free!!! (Only cos i know Takki is GENEROUS enough to pay for my food. Accommodation? Duhz.. i will be bunking at his place pretending to erm... mop. LOL)
105: And finally, the gayest? Hmmm.... not really. They may LOOK entirely like a girl, but not that 'niang niang qiang'. Not those that i see anyway.

THE END!!!

「Ho! Summer」 PVについて一言。

2006-07-25T23:04:00.000+08:00

KA
WA
II
!!!!!!!!

***KYAAHHHHHHHH***

The puuuuurrrrrFECT T&T Honeymoon!!!!!!!!! LOL~~~
Natsu never looked so fun!!!!! Muahhahahahahhaha!!!!!!!!!!!
完全版のＰＶを超楽しみにしてきたわ！！！

The governor of Saipan (if there's one) should seriously consider signing T&T as Saipan Ambassadors!!! They make the place look so much fun!!!!!!!!!!!!!
And Takki was just grinning and grinning and grinning and grinning and grinning and grinning away!!!!!!!!!! He must be really HAPPY!!! *squishesssss* But someone needs to BAN him from shaving his hair anymore!!! The hair on the right side of his head that is.

Clip credits to Loracyn.

My hisashiburi Saturday out...

2006-07-24T00:52:00.000+08:00

And so, we finally went for our loooooooongggg-awaited KARAOKE!!! XDDDD With Loracyn (who's like, FINALLY available) and Cheryl!!! YEAHHH!!!!! And we went a bit crazy. I was whining that I didn't have time to sing JJ's songs cos we only have 3 hours, and the Japanese and Mandarin songs were on different platforms, so needed to physically get up to press some switch, and of course, we were all growing roots to the sofa so none of us wanted to move. Plus, the Japanese song repertoire we had were already loong enough to cover the 3 hours. So.... we went to another place for solely Mandarin songs after that! Muahhahaha...... More economical actually cos the place that offered Japanese songs was more expensive, so didn't make sense to sing Mandarin songs there, since Mandarin karaoke is more widely available (thus cheaper). We then chanced upon a initially quite ayashii karaoke place in Chinatown while making phone calls to K-box and Party World to find out the rates for karaoke on a Saturday night, which we expected to be expensive. (Thou the $100 package at "The One" still shocked us. Esp when there's only THREE of us to split the bill.) So while every other of those karaoke chains quoted us about $70 for 3 hours, the one at Chinatown was only $48 for 4 hours!!! Ayashii or not, we crashed in. LMAOOO~~~~ And it was really okkk... Thou i kept saying it felt like only the owner's own family members were supporting his business (there were a couple of uncles and one auntie singing at the hall), we found out there was an "upstairs" and OTHER CUSTOMERS. So we weren't the only crazy ones venturing into this strange little karaoke place that made me feel like i'm in Malaysia. Hahhaha~ They only had a few private rooms but heck, we only needed one! Double checked with the staff and he assured me it's $48, all inclusive. Too good to be true!!!! Hahha.... Thou they didn't had some of the ultimate LATEST releases, we could live with it. Just that i was a liiiiiiittle disappointed that i couldn't sing JJ's 只对你说, especially since the song has been in my head the entire week!! x__x But oh well, still got to belt out other JJ and Jay Chou's songs. So overall it was good. Muahahha....

Loracyn and Cheryl, we must do this KARAOKE MARATHON again sometime!!!

So anyway, i said i must show you gals this clip where JJ sang some of the songs he wrote for other singers and how absolutely AWED i was (and so was the audience) when i watched it on tv last year. He did a similar piano segment in his concert too. *swoons* Kun, i totally agree with you. Guys who can play the piano and sing at the same time are REALLY attractive. (Which by the way, TAKKI DID THAT FOR NEGAI TOO IN HATACHI CONCERT!!!! Muahahhahaa~~~~~ Thou it was kinda weird cos he was half nekkid!! Very distracting. LOL~~) Anyway, kudos to youtube technology, if not i may never get to watch this again. Ahahaha....

So anyway, the songs he sang were...
1) 末日之恋 (written for 张智成) <-- Really LOVED his rendition.
2) 我们 (written for Energy)
3) 当你 (written for Cyndi Wang)
4) 爱笑的眼睛 (written for Vivian Hsu) <-- KYAAAH!!! material.

I am ESPECIALLY BLOWN AWAY by the last song he sang. This song is so hard to sing even for a girl and of course I know he lowered the key but STILL!!! He managed to hit the high notes so perfectly!!! OH MAN, HE NEEDS TO RELEASE AN ALBUM WITH ALL THE SONGS HE WROTE FOR OTHER SINGERS!!!!! So anyway, the event was Singapore Hits Award 2005, a yearly music award show based in Singapore. Now HIT THAT PLAY BUTTON!!!

Well, and I thought I better put this up soon too before something happens to Youtube. *touch wood* The song that has been on repeat mode in my head the entire week and yet i failed to sing it at karaoke cos it wasn't available!!!! BUT I REALLY LOVED THIS SONG A LOT. (The audio quality of the clip is kinda "hollow" though. Couldn't find a better one.)

Presenting... (Sa rang hae yo) 只对你说 by JJ Lin Junjie!!!! My 国宝. LOL~
(Song trivia: This song contains 3 languages. Mandarin, English and Korean. XD And hey, i just found out, he not only wrote the melody this time, he wrote the lyrics himself too!!! So talented. *gushes*)

Recently taken to calling him "Beefy-chan" cos he gained so much muscles for his 曹操 album!!! Trying to get used to seeing his cute dimpled face on such a muscular body. Saaaayyy.... doesn't this remind you pple of someone else??? See? I am CONSISTENT. MUAHAHHAHAH~~~~ Gawd, I need to get him to write a song for T&T. That will be puuuurrrFECT!!! XDDDD

Happy Birthday to YVIE / DVD rankings

2006-07-19T21:48:00.000+08:00

OK, i think this one i will be "on time". The next July baby we have... the often MIA Yvie-chan!!!!!

HAPPY 2xTH BIRTHDAY (TOO), YVIE!!!!!!

If you haven't seen that gif up there yet, i'm sure you will be SQUEALING at it... DAMN CUTE OR WHAT?????? HHAHAHHAHAHHA... *I WAS* squealing when i saw it. The person who made this is so damn good at drawing!!! So yea, dun mind a seemingly broody Shanaou gif for a birthday message. (Just realised "broody" also means a woman who wants to have a baby very much... Huh??! LMAO!!) Anyway, something wrong with my template codes so i could never get upsized or bold words to appear anything but black, if you guys noticed. Thus to make up for the lack of colour, and i already used up both T&T birthday icons for Loracyn's birthday post below, so end up using this. Heehee...

So, time really passes so fast!! Didn't I just wished you Happy Birthday not so long ago?? And when did we meet? I rem I was the one who stumbled onto your site from I-forgot-where. At that time, it was still at Blogdrive. Think it has been about 2 years?? Anyway, thanks for being who you are, and being on the "same frequency" as me, or so i think. XD And actually being able to empathise with me on my "job crisis", since you are, or were in the crisis too. Hahhaa... Glad to know we're not alone isn't it? *arm-cuff Loracyn* So, really hope to see you in Takkiland. AND I SAY THIS EVERY YEAR!!! OEI!!! Make sure a SIZEABLE portion of your pay goes to Takki Fund so that this wish will come true one day ok?? Thou i've already sent my most of my wishes by sms earlier in the day, I shall say it again.

All the best in HEALTH (very important), FINANCES (lol), CAREER (if it exists), LOVE LIFE (i dunno who you are thinking), and everything else. What did i miss?? Aiya, LIFE lah, if you know what i mean. Hahahhah~~~~ There you go, 4 more weeks before you are dismissed from MIA Camp and attendance is compulsory at T&T Bubble when that happens. You get me??

So that's for Yvie. For the rest of us, more news to rejoice! I was just surfing around and realise T&T's DVDs topped the daily pre-order dvd charts for both HMV Japan (chart on left) and Tower Japan (chart on right) today!!!! YEAAAHHHH!!!!!!!!

Happy Birthday to LORACYN / Takki updates...

2006-07-16T02:09:00.000+08:00

Ah crap... i'm late. Wanted to post this before midnight on 15 July but my junior from ex-company called and we yakked for over an hour... So i'm a day late. Anyway...

HAPPY 2?TH BIRTHDAY, LORACYN!!!!!!!!!!

Welcome to the Quarter-crisis Club. *dishes out a brand new sparkling membership card* LMAO~~~ No, we didn't eventually go for karaoke without you. So you still do have some fate with karaoke. Quick, think of your song list. XD Anyway, i think this age means a lot to us, or rather, reaching this age. =__= The age where we all start to worry about our life, our career, our health, our family. What have we achieved, where we are going, etc etc. Gawd... yappari being an adult sucks. I am so not ready for it I think. Yvie!!! I am so with you on this one!!! Wish we can stay as a no-responsibility/no-worries young adult forever!!! But oh well.. reality (sucks). Ok, what am i saying??? this is supposed to be a birthday message!!! LOL~~~ *slaps self outta depression* Gomen, gomen!!! Warukatta. So ANYWAY, let's begin a new paragraph. LOL.

Yeah, this is better. So, i wish that in this new year of your life, you will *coughcough* stay healthy. No more post-trip illnesses, buzzing ears, drippy nose, light head, hot forehead, etc etc etc. And I wish that you-know-who will call you up soon for you-know-what so that we can all meet in you-know-where. LMAO. Wakaru desho?? THEN, hope you will finally sort out what to do career-wise and embark on a no-regrets journey. (Not like me, still stumbling around in the dark. x_x) Plus, all the best for your studies as well!! And of cos, continue to be raburabu with ___. (Fill in the blanks as deem fit. LMAOO~~~)

Yup! That's it for now. So when are we going to karaoke???!???? *dying to sing*

Moving on to T&T ne. Yes, all of you who were whining and whining non-stop about the previous T&T Drought, you have no right to complain about the rush now. LOL. I was updating my "Events" column you see on your right and wow, so much to update. Thou i still feel i'm missing some. Hmmm... so, what has happened in the T&T World since my last update??

- Tsubasa's concert tour, which i was so shocked to find out. So out of the blue!!! And so rushed!! My goodness. I imagine all the overseas Tsuba fans going into major panic mode if they hope to see this at all. Good luck to those folks!!! And how naive i was. I texted Loracyn telling her that since Tsubacon ends on 1st Oct, we should be safe until Nov, for unitcon that is. You see, we are all pretty broke people here and trying to gain as much time as we can to save up for Takki... until the bomb dropped on us about...

- Takizawa Recital 2006!!!!! KYAAAHHH!!!!!! NANI SORE??!??!?!??? AND EVEN MORE OUTTA BLUE!!!!! Nothing was mentioned about this at all!! (And Loracyn was asking me in that sms, what the hell is a recital?!? LOL. The truth is, i'm not sure either. The only image i have of a recital is like someone playing a violin alone on stage, or singing alone on stage, on playing the piano alone on stage...) Initially I thought that it would be a simple thing where he will just erm.. stand there and talk and sing. But then again, since when has Johnny ever had an non-extravagant event?? So now that we have more news about it, supposedly it will *not* have water and fire effects (LOL), but have music and dance and *cough* illusion!!! SO WE WERE ALL DUPED! We all thought that his trip to Vegas was for the next Enbujo. But noooo... it was for this. He apparently went to learn magic from this magician called Franz Harary in the day (at some desert!!) and watched shows at night. Oh gawd. So now Takki can add one more thing to his profile. An idol cum actor cum singer cum host cum comedian cum Papa-to-chibi-juniors cum producer cum wrestler-wannabe cum magician??!?? *clap clap clap* I thought it will be like another musical since the venue is like Shimbashi Theatre but Johnny's Net categorise it under "Concerts" and not "Butai". Hmmmmm...... Anyway, i think this will be a great opportunity for fans to learn more about the real Takki ne. He would be portraying about his life as an idol and stuff. You know it really sounds like something a veteran is doing... but 11 years in the industry, i guess he does count as a semi-veteran. Hurrr..... So yes! Am i going or not. Though I am blurdy tempted to, but my bank account is like approaching FLATLINE. After 2 months of unemployment and 2 trips abroad, I guess it's my "retribution". DESPERATELY looking forward to 1st paycheck from new job. *cough cough cough* I think this time is really impossible... ... ... ... ... (Althou Northwest is currently having an amazing promotion at only $399!!! Oooohh, but those crazy taxes... =_=)

- Release of "Ho! Summer" on 9 Aug, also Singapore's National Day. The main song is selected as theme song for a TBS drama called "Gachincho Return Kids". Whatever that means. LOL. Say, this is the first time that their song is used as the main theme when none of them actually stars in the drama ne?? The song is also used as campaign song for this baseball team called Yakult Swallows in Japan. I bet they must be sponsored by Yakult. So they get free Yakult before every match??? I like Yakult better than Vitagen. Hhahahhha... going completely off track. So anyway, they will have a "Dancetime" segment during home matches and they will play the song so that the audience can dance along to it. So I guess they will be taught the moves in advance to do that. By who?? I dunno, but T&T are scheduled to make an appearance at one of the home games, but no one knows which one.

- T&T went to Saipan to shoot the PV for the new single! At first I thought Saipan was somewhere in Thailand... LMAOOOOO~~~~~ But it DOES sound Thai, don't you think so??? But yea, now i found out it's somewhere in Western Pacific Ocean. Wherever that is. XD. So yeaaaaa, a PV consisting of 2 boys engaging in beach play now seems very possible!!! XDDDDD *pops champagne*

- Release of Tsuba's solocon DVD on 16 Aug. Yes, it's about time. And good news for Tsuba fans and whoever else planning on getting it, sale not restricted only to J-web!!!! XDDDD I'm not if this one contains footage where Takki was the guest and went onstage in his dorky kawaii specs. Heee... i wanna see that naa.... And this one contains an original strap.

- Release of Takki's solocon DVD on 30 Aug. FINALLY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! WOOHOO!!!!!!!!! Like hello, his concert was in end Dec, that's almost 6 months ago!!! So we can expect Enbujo DVD to come out from Oct/Nov onwards?? x_x But better late than never, though the song list doesn't seem complete. But shan't complain. And this one contains an original keyholder, which when combined with the one from Tsuba, forms a "W name strap", whatever that is. AIYOOOOO, AVEX WA ZURUI!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! But i really can't afford to buy both DVDs, so byebye name strap san. And also, the keyholder (and i am assuming Tsuba's strap as well) is only included in the first press. I actually emailed CDJapan whether the one they put up on their site is the first press since they mentioned nothing about it on their site and this is the reply I got.

Hi. Thank you for contacting us.

We looked into it, and learned that Avex Trax will provide the key holder
only partially, in limited quantities, for the first pressed copies.

They did not clarify whether they will provide it for 1 out of 2 first
pressed copies, or whether it would be 1 out of 10 first pressed copies.

Of course, we'll provide them in the order customers placed their first
preorders. However, due to the uncertainty, I'm unable to guarantee that
it will be included for your order.

So basically it means, we may not get the strap. Cos it depends on how many copies of the "first press" DVD Avex actually produces and provides to CDJapan. So i guess there's really nothing we poor helpless consumer/fangirls can do but pre-order as soon as we can and be higher up the "waiting list". I think even if we order from Japan's Tower Records or HMV, even though they DO mention about the strap/keyholder in their product descriptions, it's not guaranteed. Well, GOOD LUCK TO EVERYONE!!! *crosses fingers and toes*

- Apparently some private photos taken during Yoshitsune's filming were leaked out to public! It contains like kinen pics of the staff and cast, rehearsal pics, as well as candid shots in the dressing room etc. Don't think there were anything "rated" but there were some that had some of the young female actors (Aya and Ishihara??) without their makeup etc. Basically PRIVATE stuff that had apparently been released to the public by someone on purpose. And there was some virus attached with them too or something. Well, nothing very serious, but i'm sure Takki and the rest wouldn't be too pleased to hear about this. So yes people, be cautious before you click on some link to Takki or anyone else's "Never before seen pictures"!!!

Phew... that was some update.
Minasama, HAVE YOU BRACED YOURSELF FOR THE T&T RUSH?

Post World Cup / Superman

2006-07-11T00:01:00.000+08:00

And so, ITALY won.

=____=

The team that could actually win Oscars as well. And I thought the Italian goalie look a tad like a 'Tiger Lady' *cough*transvestite*cough cough*... I dunno, was it his overly trimmed brows?? (This teaches us a lesson. Do not anyhow trim your brows if you are NOT a bishie.) My friend thought he look like a butcher. Huh??? Is there any link??? Hahhahahhaha..... But anyway, this is not to say he is not good. Thou during the crucial penalties, both goalies were technically useless. None of them touched a single ball. ha ha ha. And both teams made penalties look like chicken feet. Suddenly it made the English look bad. Hmmm.... And oh!! i finally recall who the French goalie looked like. Freddy Kreuger from Elm's Street!!!!!!! (Did i get the spelling right???) Dun u guys think so????????? XDDDD

I SO WANTED FRANCE TO WIN!! The French should have kept it at 1-0 and finished the game in 90 mins so that we can all go back to sleep!! SAVE ASIA FROM PANDA EYES!!! I had went to sleep at 11pm+, aspiring to wake at 2am to catch the game. Clock rang and i was lazing ard a bit when i heard screams from the opposite block. Ehhh???? Forced myself up and flipped on the tv and... 1-0 already??? LMAOO~~~ GREAT!!! i tot. Until Italy scored. ALAMAK~~~ *slaps forehead* And then no more goals... and then dragged on to extra time and penalities. I could almost go straight to work.

And Zidane~~~~ aiyooo... what happened????? What did the Italian say to him to provoke him like that??? I AM SOOOOO BLOODY CURIOUS. Did he insult or curse his family or anything??? That man is usually so calm!! Was so @_@. And the same referee got to give yet another DRAMATIC red card. I can now remember ONE referee's face. Poor guy. I dunno why, but i can't bring myself to blame him at all. But he IS really quite charismatic ne. (actually i want to say sexy... haha!!! yes, even with the balding head. XDDDD) Hahah... i keep looking for him on the pitch. XD Glad that he at least finished his career with a Golden Ball Award.

Zizou-sama, otsukare sama desu!! *bows*

Lotsa things i can go on about World Cup but i shall stop here. But oh, i noticed many sleepyheads on the train to and from work today. Hahahhahaha~~~ The World Cup Effect. Gawd, bring it back to Asia puhleeesseee..... the time difference will wipe out the Asian population at the rate it's going. x_x

Next up, SUPERMAN RETURNS!!!!! Personally, i liked it a lot. I dun recall much of the earlier Superman movies, but then again, it's a bad habit to compare. And the Brandon guy turned out to be much better eye candy than i tot. His 2D images on posters just weren't impressive. But on 3D and moving, ooooohhhhh... what a Superman!!! *drools a bit* I'm never into "beef" but ooh lala!! That bod... wakakkaka~~~ LOL. I conclude there are at least THREE LETTERS you need to be a Superman.

The Letter "S" on the front of your chest.
The W-shaped chin.
The V-shaped bod.

WOOHOO~~~~ And oh, his costume this time really has so much more texture to it. So din look as cheapo as last time. Pretty regal I would say. And i actually quite like that scene where a bad guy fired a bullet into his eye. The smug look he gave. Hahhaha..... kakkoii!!!! And am telling Loracyn now, i think they must have airbrushed every scene cos he looked freaking FLAWLESS AND PORELESS!!!!! Yaya, i know. He's from the highly-evolved race of Kryptonians. Luckily he is if not i will be crying foul. So does that mean humans will one day too, evolved into beings with poreless skin??? GREAT!! we can do away with SK2 then. WAKAKKAKKA~~~~

But ANYWAY, i quite like the plot too. And i must be getting old, but really felt for him and Lois... So sad that they cannot be together. And anyone knows if Superman ages at the same rate as humans???? And why can't he just dump Lex in space????? AND HOW DARE LEX STEP ON HIM AT THAT SPIKEY CONTINENT??!?!!!!!!! Soooooooo heartbroken at that scene... T-T

I had so much to say after watching the movie but i guess it's bad when u dun get down to saying it fast enough. Cos you will FORGET what to say. This is clearly a sign of aging.... *criesssssss* Mebe i will recall later when you guys comment. Tonikaku, the Brandon guy turned out to be a DARN FINE example of a PRETTY AMERICAN BOY (that saves ~~the world~~ America). And watch the movie!! Dun go in expecting a LOTR, cos you will disappoint yourself. Be neutral and you should enjoy it (and drool) as much as i have!!

Oh dear... TAKKI, WHERE ARE YOU?!???????????? *runs off in frantic search*

FINALLY, A NEW SINGLE!!!!!!!!!!!

2006-06-28T01:02:00.000+08:00

PEOPLE!!!! WE HAVE A DATE!!!

FINALLY, there's concrete news of a new T&T single!!! UWAAAAHHH~~~
Taihen mattemashita yooooooo!!!!!!!!!

MARK YOUR CALENDARS!!! The date is 9 August 2006!!!
(Coincidentally also Singapore's birthday... what a joyous day! LOL)

The tentative name of the single is "Ho! サマー!". (Ho! Summer!)
A summer song!!! Hahahha.... tanoshimi!!!
And what happened to Michi??
Maybe it will become the bonus track...
Seems like there will be 3 versions again, like atsuku Venus. (Yikes!)

Version 1 (CD+DVD) 1680yen
- DVD will contain instructions on the furitsuke. (reminds me of Venus)

Version 2 (Limited First Press) 1260yen
- Comes with an original keyholder. (reminds me even more of Venus...)

Version 3 (Regular Press) 1260yen
- Contains bonus track "Michi"!! (I guessed it!!)

Source: Tower Records (Japan)

Mouuuu, this AVEX. Kept us waiting soooooo long... and they never bother to come up with new sales tactic. =___= Keyholders again??! Is that considered as different from the Venus mobile strap? In any case, i nearly lost that one previously so now i am paranoid to use it. It will probably be the same with this keyholder. And I BET THERE WILL BE MORE THAN ONE COLOUR. Knowing how zurui they are.... Gonna have to go thru all the fretting over getting the colours i want again. Gaaaahhhh~~~~~~~ x_X

CDJapan has yet to update their site. Maybe they will later when more details are confirmed. Anyway, "Ho! Summer!"... nanka brings Kinki's "Natsu no Ousama" to mind...

YO! Taiyo no shita de, natsu no kanjirou
Waratte yo, motto motto~

So girls, enuff money in that piggy bank yet? XDDD

End of my LONG VACATION...

2006-06-26T23:52:00.000+08:00

OK, i ended off my long vacation with a "3D2N Oriental Getaway". Hahhah... no no, i didn't fly off for another holiday after Japan and HK. I am not that rich. In fact, my bank account looks pathetic now... 2.5 months of unemployment + 1 Takki pilgrimage + 1 trip to HK sure does some decent damage to one's finances. XD I only went to stay at The Oriental Hotel in Singapore over the weekend with my girlfriends cos i got it free from some lucky draw. 20+ years as a Singapore citizen (nope, i'm not revealing my age. haha) and this is actually the first time i'm staying in a 5-star hotel in my own country. But oh well, it's a great way to end off my LONG VACATION before i return to life as a working OL on supposedly *today*, which didn't quite turn out as planned. =_= Read on...

A picture of my Deluxe Harbourview Room (from Oriental's gallery).
Singapore's night view was not bad!
If the picture was clear enough, you could see the Merlion in the distance. LOL~
But too bad, it was "taking a shower" during our stay there.

The plan was to sing KTV (karaoke) on the 1st night and JJ's concert on the 2nd. But we changed plans when we found out how expensive it was to sing on a Friday night and switched to watching World Cup in our room instead. South Korea vs Switzerland. Of course we were rooting for Korea since we are Asians but well, i must admit the Swiss were a better team. More initiative and way faster. Only logical that they won Korea 2-0. Now i need to find another team to support. LOL~ Shall wait and see who survives to the semis.

Highlight of the 2nd night, JJ Lin Junjie's concert in Singapore. Uwaa~~ i really want to claim this boy as Singapore's 国宝 (national treasure). Although his concert wasn't as HIGH as T&T (I don't expect it to, since JE concerts are a total different league and well, the LEVEL OF COMMITMENT from me is entirely different. Hahahhahah~~~), his vocals were really AMAZING!! O_O!! And he's hella talented as a song writer. He wrote many songs for many famous singers like A*mei, A-do, Vivian Hsu etc. So proud that he is a fella Singaporean. Hahaa~~ His live singing was so amazing and had this unique tone to it. I love it. His songs are always on the list when i go ktv with friends, cos he has a high voice for a guy, which makes it easy for girls to sing. You people who sings Mandarin pop should try! Heheh~ And oh, i just found out his birthday is like 2 days before Takki's, and he has dimples too (thou not solo. LOL). Aiyaaaa, similarities to Takki ne!! I therefore conclude that I am a *consistent* person. Hahahahhah~~~~ But of cos Takki is way stronger in the looks dept. We are talking cute vs World's Most Beautiful Asian Species here. Cannot compare like this. Hahahha~~

But anyway, I want to do my part of free marketing for our fellow talented Singaporean songwriter/singer. Hahaha, hence putting up one of many JJ's songs that I like. The song is called 简简单单 (Jian Jian Dan Dan). For those who are Mandarin-challenged, that means something like "Simplicity". This is one of his own compositions as well. Lyrics by someone else and I particularly agree with the chorus alot. The MV is very cute as well! Click below.

p/s: He was so cute at 01:35!!
How nervous he was when the girl tried to seduce him. LOLLL~
I want to PINCH his cheeks!!!! XDDD

So the chorus translated directly means something like...

只是简简单单的爱过，我还是我
Just to love simply, I am still me
简简单单得伤过，就不算白活
Being hurt simply, at least it is not a life wasted
简简单单的疯过，被梦带走
Simply go crazy, get carried away by dreams
当故事结束以后，心也喜欢一个人寂寞
When the story ends, you will like being alone

OK, I know it makes no sense when translated literally cos the actual meaning and nuance is all lost. Basically I think the song is talking about daring to live life to the fullest. Things are and can be very simple. Don't think or worry too much. Everything good or bad is an experience that adds to the colours of one's life. So go ahead and fall in love (first line), don't worry about getting hurt (second line) because a life without love and hurt is a life wasted. Go all out and pursue your dreams (third line), even if others think you are crazy. At least you've tried so there's no room for regrets. With all these, even when it all ends, at least you got the memories and experiences to recall. Therefore, you wouldn't feel empty and lonely even when alone. That's what I think the last line meant. Great isn't it? I wish I can write lyrics like that one day. But first I need to brush up on my Chinese. Hahahha~~~ But the 3rd line especially, made me realise how glad I am to have made all those crazy trips to Japan to see Takki. So many people tell me I am CRAZY to spend all that money. They will rather save it or use the money to buy something tangible, but I can't say I didn't buy anything. I bought memories. GREAT MEMORIES of every concert and musical that I went to. Stuff that makes me smile when I think about them.

For the record, JJ doesn't only do such slow numbers. His style is full of variety. He sings ballads to raps to R&B. ^^ I think he usually writes the songs but not the lyrics, cos he is actually more of an English speaker. I can only imagine how much convincing he needed to do so that his parents would allow him to pursue a singing career. But I am glad he went all out to pursue his dreams and not let his talents go to waste. Saa, being determined enough to pursue something like music and performing always needs a lot of courage ne! Cos everyone can 发明星梦 but only the really determined and talented ones will make it. For the rest of us, let's belt it out in the bathrooms and ktvs. Hahahahhaa~~~~ JJ, Go!!! q(^^)p Make us proud!

Finally, I want to blog about my *cough* first day of work, which is supposedly today. "Supposedly" because............................. i took MC. =_______=;;;

I CAN'T BELIEVE IT.

Taking MC on first day of work. I'm gonna be remembered for all the wrong reasons. And this is all because of that POTENT chibi bowl of century egg porridge i had the night before which led to an eruption of urticaria, or more commonly known as "hives" for the lumpy welts it caused. THE ITCH WAS DRIVING ME NUTZ!!! And it kept me awake the entire night!!! And cos i didn't sleep much the previous 2 nights during my "Oriental Getaway", I was really drowsy the next morning. But my mum insisted that I must go to work cos it's my first day and kept nagging and nagging. You know those old folks... =_= So I went, cos i thought the welts were kinda flattening out. So all wrapped up in long sleeves and all, I left the house. WRONG MOVE. On the train, itch and sleepiness aside, I suddenly got a headache and everything turned grey. My hearing became muted and I felt like puking, thou there was nothing to puke cos I didn't eat anything since that fateful bowl of porridge the previous night. I thought I was faint!!! AND NO WAY DO I WANT TO FAINT IN A PUBLIC TRAIN ON MY FIRST DAY OF WORK. So i gaman and gaman until my stop. Stumbled out in cold sweat. What was happening?? I reached the lobby of my workplace but I decided it would be worse if I had gone in to "show my very pale face" and then told them, "yappari, i need to take leave". I rather not go in at all. So I called in sick.

GYAAAAAAHH~~~~~~~~ Feel so stupid.

Then went to see a doc near my workplace. So silly. I went all the way to my workplace for that??! Anyway the doc confirmed it's the eggs. Thou i've eaten century eggs before, but prob cos my mum didn't wash them properly this time. x_x Got anti-histamines and some cream. The swelling and itch is mostly gone now, but the doc warned that it may come back. But no way am i missing work again tomorrow. IT WOULD BE RIDICULOUS. Now I only wonder if today will be *paid* leave since I got an MC. And if I can claim back the doc's fees. I AM ALREADY BROKE ENUFF!! And I had to incur such losses before I even started earning... WHAT A DAY!! =_=

Dakara, my advice to you who's reading this. Do not eat "challenging" food the day before an important day. Thou century eggs really aren't (to me). But ya know, just stick to the chicken and fish. SAFE STUFF.

Enbujo Photo Album / "No Borders" and misc...

2006-06-19T00:44:00.000+08:00

OK... some fans have already received the limited edition Enbujo Photo Album (only available thru J-web i think?). I think many people misunderstood and thought it was a photobook, but (thank god) it's not. Hahahah, it's just a photo album. With empty slots for you to keep those oversized Enbujo official pics. As expected, it is already up on Yahoo Auctions. You can see it here. Well, looks simple and classy with the golden words. But hey, it's kinda on a different colour theme from the official white-pink pamplet ne! Maa, betsu ni ii kedo. Anyway, I wouldn't be lusting after this album cos i can only fill it up to 10%. LMAOOOO~~~~ So good for my waller. For ONCE!! XDD

Next is this Relay Diary thing that has been going on. Thanks to Helen who put everything together so it was easy to understand. Anyway, a group of 8 JE guys got together for a meal sometime ago (before Takki left for LAS VEGAS, the gambling place... *looks at Dithers.. LOL*). It was really "multinational", as Shingo said. LOL~

Sato Atsuhiro (now defunct Hikaru Genji)
Koichi (Kinki Kids)
Yamaguchi (Tokio)
Matsujun (Arashi)
Takki (Tackey & Tsubasa) *chuu*
Shingo (Kanjani 8)
Yamap (NEWS/4Tops)
Toma (4Tops)

Amazing desho? Even the 8 of them thought it was amazing that they could get together like this, overcoming the senpai/kouhei barrier. I think it was an impromtu gathering? And it turned out that they could communicate with each other very well despite the difference in seniority, age, character... everything in fact! How about i think the only common thing they have is that they are all from JE? Hahhaha~~~ Interesting ne... One thing i like about JE is that they are really like a family sometimes... ok, am i contradicting myself? Never mind... XDD

So anyway, Shingo started off a Relay Diary thingy on his J-web. Apparently, all 8 of them were quite surprised that they could hit it off so well they decided to give themselves a group name. So Shingo started talking about this meeting they had and their group name and passed the baton on. So it went like...

Shingo -> Matsujun -> Yamap -> Sato Atsuhiro -> Toma -> Takki -> Koichi -> Yamaguchi

So fun desho! And Toma was the one who came up with the group name, called "No Borders". Uwaaa... i think it's really quite fitting. And they even apparently came up with names for each member, going by colour! So there's...

White
Black
Red
Pink
Purple
Blue
Gold
Grey

In the T&T world, OF COS TAKKI IS PINK DESHO???? But then, seems that Yamap is quite associated with pink too... alamak.. father fights with son. LOL~ Anyway, i haven't seen the last entry, Yamaguchi's entry, which will supposedly reveal who is what colour. I dunno has Yamaguchi-kun updated already or not thou.. perhaps not, cos there's nothing about it on the Japanese BBS. They are still polling what colour Takki should be. hahahha... ONE VOTE FOR PINK FROM ME!!! I think it will really be INTERESTING if they actually release something together. How fun will that be??!?? But i can hear SCREAMS from fans of other members of the groups that are not included in this group... Tsuyoshi fans toka, Tsuba fans toka... esp these 2 kana? cos they are 2 man units. But hey, suddenly thought of this... Tsuyoshi should go release something with Tsuba since they are so close!! Oh my god, this is so fun!!! Hahhaha, oh dear im nutz... XDD The unit fans are all gonna come after me...

Anyway, anyone who knows what Yamaguchi wrote, aka the answer to who's what colour, please tell me ne!!! Yoropiku! m(_"_)m

Lastly, just wanted to put up the PV of this song that i've been quite addicted to recently. 七里香 (Qi Li Xiang) by Jay Chou (Zhou Jie Lun). It's not even a new release, I dunno why i only got hooked to it now. Hahahha... But well, if you listen to Mandarin pop, you cannot *not* know Jay Chou... (And the singer K kinda looks like him.) So yea, now i'm always humming this song in my head day in day out.. it's so addictive!!! I LOVE the chorus... it's now my karaoke 必唱曲...

Thou his pronunciation is really SLUR like anything, but i guess this is Jay Chou for you. So point to note, when you sing his songs in karaoke, dun sing too clearly. LOL~~~~ And he always have very difficult lyrics... thanks to his good friend Fang Wen Shan who writes a lot of lyrics for him. They always make me feel that i need to brush up on my Chinese.... =_= But i really DO want to brush up my Chinese. I find it so difficult to speak in pure Chinese without adding in any English and Japanese now. x_x

So anyway, enjoy the song!

Enbujo Part 5 [Final]

2006-06-13T00:24:00.000+08:00

IYOIYO, the final part to my loooooong-winded Enbujo report. Do i have any surviving readers? *looks high and low* XDD So, the last part... SHOULD be short...

Act 3: Tackey World

Gawd, i really hate calling him "Tackey". (No sound from Dithers now. *wags finger* LOL) Only doing now cos i am following exactly what is printed in the official pamplet. =_= It's "TAKKI" dayo! And it should really be "Takki's World" with the 's. Maa, i'm not going to continue picking on the English. LOL~ Anyway, Act 3 was supposed to be about the current and future Takki. To me, it was really SHOWTIME!!!!! fufufu~~~

The act began with a junior coming in from the hanamichi exit juggling a baton. Must be *that* junior again. (Someone get this boy a Cirque Du Soleil application form already.) Mao something?? Urgh... dun ask me. Ask Ariye or Loracyn. lol~ The curtain of sakura petals went up and revealed the band behind with many dancers and juniors around. They then started to introduce the junior groups one by one. The screen behind would flash the name of each group as they came forward to perform a song. First was ABC, then KMF and KMF2 and lastly Yayayah. (Don't ask me what they sang. I don't know the titles. I don't even remember the songs actually. =_=) AND THEN TAKKI APPEARED AGAIN! FROM THE TOP!!!! He made use of all the time when the junior groups were performing (and distracting the audience) to ready himself on the gondola. (By our 2nd show, cos we already knew he would be coming down from the top and since we were on the 1st floor and unobstructed, we were looking up and staring at him climbing onto the gondola and stuff... i was squealing to Sylvia.. "i can see under his coat!!!" LMAO~~~ Thou he got his shirt properly tucked in so i saw nothing else. HAHAHAHHAHAAA!! And we couldn't help waving to him, thus alerting quite a few other people around us and distracted them from the performance going on on stage too. Gomen ne, junior-tachi. Hahahha... SuMAmisen! XDD) When the final group Yayayah was done with their song, they played the opening of Yume Monogatari and the audience started screaming. Soon enough, everyone discovered Takki who was slowly descending from the top in all princely glory.

Takki descending on the gondola.
The return of that mirror-ball costume from Harucon 2004!
Was it the same one?? Maa, it looked similar enough!

AND THEN THE AUDIENCE WENT INTO A FRENZY! Muahahhahhaaaa!! The gondola paused for a while when eye-level with the 2nd floor people. (So on our 1st and 3rd shows when we *were* on the 2nd level, it was frantic waving... muahahha!) It would then lower somemore just above the heads of the audience on the 1st floor and Takki would get down onto the right aisle and walk up to the stage. On our 2nd show, cos we were on the 12th row on 1st floor BY THE AISLE (where the gondola will eventually deposit Takki), we were soooooooo HOPING that he will end up next to us!! But aiiiii, the gondola ended up further in front of us than we thought, around Row 8 i think. But not being immediately NEXT TO HIM has its advantages. Cos Takki does not look at fans right under his nose!!! Let's just say he has "foresight". Hahhaha, so when the gondola came lower and lower just 4 rows in front of us, Takki looked in our direction!!! AND ALL THREE OF US STARTED WAVING TO HIM SIMULTANEOUSLY LIKE YOUNG LITTLE GIRLS! LMAO~~~~ AND I SWEAR, HE SAW US!!!! THERE WAS EYE CONTACT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! *meltssssssss* I think we were squeezing each other's arms to reconfirm the eye contact. LOL~ And his expression... how should i put it.. he didn't smile like ^-^ but the ends of his lips curled up. Like he was amused. AHAHHAHAHHA~~~~ We were kyaahing away~ Takki up close, hontouni kirei dane! So of course the entire theatre was singing and dancing to Yumemo with Takki, though he did say before Act 3 wasn't meant to be a concert. Hahahaha, sorry Takki. Can't help doing the furitsuke! XDDD

So after Yumemo, Takki took off his white cloak to reveal some black-red ensemble (if i didn't rem wrongly.. it's been 2 months!!) and started singing Balance!!!!!!!!!! WAAAAAAAAAAAAH, I LOVE THIS SONG!!!! It reminds me of the hynoptising hip-swaying action.... WOOHOO!!! moe moe moe!!! Though i *THINK* the dance was a little different in Enbujo... there was no hip-swaying. You see, after 2 months, i am not sure if what I remembered was from Enbujo or DB DVD or Shokura!!! Ahaaaa.... sumamisen... but i kinda rem that the dance was a little different. But still, just hearing him sing live to it already bring images of THAT action to mind. Enuff to spew blood from nose.... *splat* XDDD

After a highly energetic Balance, Takki changed into this royal shiny red suit onstage with a matching fedora to perform a acoustic version of Serenade!

He danced a lot in the beginning with a rose before he started singing. Reminded me of Tsubasa and Higashiyama.. hahah.. they're so into this style... which, can i say is inspired from Michael Jackson's Smooth Criminal?? i liked this particular move he did with his hands (in black gloves). Very slick, the way he flipped them. Was trying to learn it... ahhaha~~~ (GIVE US THE ENBUJO DVD ALREADY YO!!!!!!!!!!!!!)

And then, and then... the next song... KYAAAHHHHHHHHHH~~~~~~~~~ I SO DIDN'T EXPECT HIM TO SING IT.... when they played the opening, i nearly flipped... DIAMOND!!!!!!!!!! My His guru-guru legssss!!!!!!!! @_@!!!!!!!!! OOOOOHHHH, HOW I MISSED WATCHING A PERFORMANCE OF DIAMOND LIVE!!!!!!!!!!! *droolssssss enuff to flood* I was sooooooooooo hyped up!!! Hahhahaha!!! Me and Syl were slapping each other's arms and I think Loracyn was all caught up with the biceps??!? Was it here??? Was it here where he took off his blazer and was wearing something sleeveless??!? Shucks, i can't rem what he wore.. ahahha, but I remember after the show, we were talking about this one part in Act 3 and how all of us were gawking at different things!! Loracyn with the biceps, me with the guru guru legs and Syl with Takki's intense expression. WOOHOO~~~~~!!! Though nothing can beat the time when we saw T&T perform it up soooo close to us during Thaicon 2004, it still left me... breathless. XDDDDDDDDDD I love Diamond. Period.

After major heart palpitation with Diamond, the stage went dark and Takki exited. The spotlights came on again with the opening of Kanjani8's Sukiyanen Osaka and Yoko and Okura took centrestage!!! They were both holding the mikestands with the sun? himawari? prop and started speaking in their funny Kansai dialect!! It was Kanjani8's medley time!!! Hahhaha, yappari K8 are such FUN and ENERGETIC people... I was sooooooooo happy cos i really like Sukiyanen Osaka. It's such a genki song!!! And the furitsuke is really cute!!! Catch a past MS performance of it here. I particularly like this one cos it's soo funny and even the usually broody Ryo was bright with smiles!! So anyway, the 2 boys introduced themselves and informed the audience of their new album (F.T.O.) and upcoming concert tour (that was then). Then they started singing the chorus of Sukiyanen and everyone joined along!!! Kyaaah, K8 is sooo endearing it's hard not to like them. Hahhaa~~~ I WAS HAVING SOOOO MUCH FUN DOING THE FURITSUKE!!! After one verse, they stopped to talk a little some more and then started singing the chorus of Oh! ENKA. And then a verse of Sukiyanen again and then the chorus of Osaka Romanesque. Okura started singing then Yoko joined in. It was sooo beautiful~~~ I never heard of this song prior to Enbujo but now i loved it loads!!! Catch a concert rendition of it here! There's another clip of K8's medley on MS here which was similar to what they did, just that instead of Mugendai, they sang Osaka Romanesque. LOL~ Youtube can be so useful sometimes. XDDD They finally ended their medley with the chorus of Sukiyanen again before exiting the stage.

The whole stage was empty and dark except for a giant screen illuminated from behind. Takki appeared and started dancing in between the light and the screen such that his silhouette would be magnified and casted on the screen. Again, this reminds me of MJ's Smooth Criminal.. hehe. Cos MJ did the exact same thing in his concert, which i went many many years ago when he came to Singapore. Takki then came out from behind the screen and danced somemore in front of the spotlights, playing with shadow effects. And then it was the illusion/magic show. Kinda hard to explain but he just played with the usual disappearing acts, first making some dancers disappear, then disappearing himself. Nothing overly fascinating, but then again, this ain't no David Blaine show. Heheh~~ XDD But he did surprised a few by suddenly appearing at the right aisle on the 1st floor just seconds after he apparently just disappeared on stage. (Of course, he had some help from his double.) And it was at this part where he knocked into Loracyn's arm or something?? Cos Loracyn was right by the aisle (followed by me, then Syl) and she said she was leaning out cos the person sitting in front of her was too tall. So when Takki rushed in from the back, he kinda knocked into her or something. This was during our 2nd show of cos. I totally forgot that he would be entering from behind us so was really surprised when he dashed past right next to us. Hahhaa... in fact he ran sooo fast there was a gust of wind!! LOL~~~ Loracyn was just going "oh my god, oh my god!!" (and squeezing my arm). XDDD

Takki stopped just short of the stage and the spotlight shone on him. The opening of Venus started playing!! I think this was where Takki would go sit on the laps or armrests of some of the guests who went to watch Enbujo. Cos the guests usually seat at Row 7 by the aisle if I didn't rem wrongly. Unfortunately, none of the 3 days we went had VIP guests... (only some chibikkos but they were up on the 2nd floor) so Takki would usually just continue up to the stage. On all our shows, he wore the shiny pink blazer but I think he did wear other stuff sometimes as you can see from the screencaps from WS below.

The rest of the cast would appear on stage too and perform Venus with Takki. And it's quite funny cos some of them would appear in their costumes. Look at Yoko in his ojiisan costume (upper screencap) yet dancing to Venus!! And without his shoes!! Hahahahha~~~~ Then they would come to this part in the song where Takki would call the name of someone and that person is supposed to do a mini solo dance to the background music of Venus. On the day Tsubasa was guest, I think he went up on stage to perform Venus with Takki. But when Takki called his name for this part, he was too shy and just stood there. Hahahhaha~~ Maa, Tsubasa dakara, yurushite a.ge.ru. *chuu* After Venus, Takki would exit the stage quietly while the rest of the cast took turns to bow to the audience. So they went from the chibikkos to the senior chibikko groups (ABC, Yayayah etc), then the non-JE actors, and finally Okura and Yoko. And while they were doing all these, the crew was assembling a set behind which consisted of the bridge that was used in the Gojo scene. When everyone was done with their bowing, the opening of Epilogue was played. AND YOU WOULD KNOW THIS IS THE END. T-T The cast would move away from the centre of the stage (and exit??) as the bridge was pushed out a little bit more and Takki slowly appeared on the bridge in a black tux but shielding his face with that bright orange cloth thingy like in the Gojo Bridge scene. He then revealed his face and started singing Epilogue with the cloth draped on his shoulders. It was the perfect epitome of the entity which we have come to call as "Takki Yoshitsune". Seriously. And I think they showed video images of Enbujo rehearsals on the back screen of the stage as well. It was like DB. Gawd, Epilogue is such a PERFECT ending song for anything!! Halfway through the song, Takki removed the orange cloth from his shoulders. It was like, shedding the Yoshitsune part of him. By the end of the song, he was at the bottom of the bridge and ok... my memory fades here. I think he sorta thanked the audience and there would always be a standing ovation. XDD The curtain then came down but of course, everyone knew this was not the end and continued clapping. Then the curtain would go up again and the entire cast would reappear on stage together with Takki. Then i think Takki would start introducing all the cast again one by one (or group by group). And finally, someone else would go "Soshite, Takizawa Hideaki!" and Takki himself would step out. Big applause and lotsa screams of course. As the zachou, he would then lead the entire cast to bow to the audience. First right, then left, then centre. Just like how he did in the DB DVD. VERY KAKKOII. I loved this part. And you just want to clap and clap loudly for him. Sugokatta yo, Takki!

With that, the curtain would finally go down admist loud applause. Except for senshuuraku and maybe on his birthday, I think Takki usually only had one curtain call. And that, ladies and gentlemen, marks the end of Enbujo.

TAKKI, OTSUKARE SAMA DESHITA!!

And to me too. Phew!! *wipes sweat* I finally finished this report like 2 months later!!! Gawd, i sure am a procrastinator!! x__x But luckily, i still made it before they release news of new projects. Haaaa... so now what do we do?? REQUEST FOR ENBUJO DVD PEOPLE!!!!!!!!!!!!

Ijou desu. Yoropiku.

Takki, Tsubasa, Venus!

2006-06-07T00:17:00.000+08:00

Came across this clip when i was surfing around on Youtube and my gawd!!! IT'S SO CUTE!!!! Dunno how come i haven seen it before. The clip I have of T&T appearing on Ya3's show didn't include this. TOTEMO KAWAII!!!! Girls, we need to play this game sometimes too! Muahahahha~~~ I loved how Takki jumped up from his seat and gave Tsubasa a hi-five when Hikaru lost. He was sooo excited like a little boy! LOL~~~ Ka.wa.iiiiiiii~~~~ *pinch pinch pinch*

And i dunno, i think maybe it's the cutting of their t-shirts, but it made both T&T look so HOSOI!!! Esp Tsuba-chan... @_@ Suteki! *heartsssss*

Enbujo Report Part 4

2006-05-29T03:28:00.000+08:00

Omatase shimashita. Oh dear... it's going to be almost 2 months since i watched Enbujo. Look at what a procrastinator i am, especially after HK. And also cos i feel like i should be pumping 101% of my time finding a job. But i got so sick of filling in application forms online... =_= After such a loooooong time lag, my memory of Enbujo is getting faint. Will try to stay accurate. AND WHEN IS THE ENBUJO DVD COMING OUT?????? IF EVER???!?!?!? People, just keep requesting to Avex (if no one else) yo!!! Onegaishimasu!! Collective efforts do make a difference ne! Back to part 4 of the report, which i started before i went HK...

The intermission was pretty long, about 35 min. I guess they needed to give those okyakusama who paid for that exclusive "Takki-ben" (lol) time to enjoy the bento set instead of gulping it down. I mean hello, that thing is 3500yen afterall. Plus I think the crew prob need the time to clear up all the water on the stage after all that crazy thunderstorm! So if I didn't rem wrongly...

Part 1 - Act 1 (approx 1hr 15min)
Intermission (approx 35min)
Part 2 - Act 2 and Act 3 (approx 1hr 25min)

So you can see the remaining 2 acts were really much shorter than the first. Anyway, we made use of the intermission time to gawk at the stage photos that they put up on these panels and racked our brains and tore our hearts out deciding which ones NOT TO BUY. LOL~~~ Soooo expensive i tell ya. 500yen per piece!!! Were SHOCK photos this ex too??? =__= With JE, our money is always flying outta window without control!!! I eventually only bought 4... gaaahh!!! But they were REALLY BIG AND NICE!!!! *swoons* Thou i wouldnt complain if they shrink the pic a little and lower the price to say... 300yen per piece?? XDD LMAO~~ ok, i'll shut up. This ain't no marketplace for bargaining. x_x So back to the stageplay.

Act 2: 義経 (Yoshitsune)

Although this act is supposedly about Yoshitsune, but the storyline was totally different from NHK's Yoshitsune. In fact somewhere in the beginning of this act (or was it at the ending of the previous??), i forgot exactly when, the screen flashed the message which said...

あなたの知らない義経、ここにいる！！
There is a Yoshitsune here that no one knows!!

There's a looooot of talking in this Act, so it was a bit hard for me to comprehend everything they said. But at least the flow of the story, you can somehow figure out. Nantonaku ne. Hurr~~ So because there's a lot of dialogues which i wouldn't go into detail about, i hope Act 2's report will be shorter! Hahhaha~~ *lazy me* (i'm dying to talk about Act 3 dakara!! XD)

The curtain opened with this sugoi bamboo forest set. And Takki came out in his blue Yoshitsune costume (the one he always wore in Yoshitsune when he's not fighting) complete with the eboshi (black hat) from the hanamichi trapdoor. He was holding his sword above his head in this uber-kakkoii pose!!! *gawks* He then walked to the main stage and hacked down a few bamboo trees. He seemed traumatised about something. (Yoshitsune, not Takki) There was a voiceover narrating something but i forgot what. Then another older man's voice came on which told Yoshitsune "Do not hesitate!". (Hmm.. so i think by this point, Yoshitsune already found out that he is a son of Genji.) A small shrine sorta thing started raising up amongst the bamboos and inside, we see an image of a samurai inside, supposed to be Yoshitsune's father, Yoshitomo. Or his ghost at least. I think he told Yoshitsune to accept his destiny as a heir of Genji, and also told him what happened to his mother Tokiwa when he was just a baby. Can't recall if he made him go to Yoritomo though.

The next scene was a flashback scene. It showed the Heike soldiers snatching a still infant Ushiwaka (Yoshitsune's child name) from Tokiwa. I could never see the face of Tokiwa clearly. Eyesight not god in the dark... Damn... next time gotta bring binoculars, though it's always best to see Takki with the naked eye. LMAO~ So anyway, Tokiwa was crying as she shoved her flute into the cloth wrapping Ushiwaka before he was taken away from her to Kurama Temple. (Unlike in the Taiga drama, Tokiwa got to spend time with Ushiwaka until he was about 7 i think.) Main stage turned dark and then...

Takki in red samurai gear 登場!! He came in from the hanamichi exit trailed by Benkei (Okura) and eto.. 3 or 4 other kerai. One of them was Yabu. What a paper thin kerai!! Yabu was so tall and thin! And oh.. say... is this the first time i see Takki live in his samurai gear?? Wakakkaaaa~~ So surreal! Felt like i was *in* the drama! They walked to the main stage where Yoritomo (Yoko) was already there. What a fair Yoritomo.... hahahhahhaha!!! So this was the "reunion" scene... where they never should have met... =_=

Yoshitsune pledged his allegiance to Yoritomo and they talked somemore... Then Yoritomo left and Yoshitsune went to the back of the stage where someone helped him put on his headgear. Ooh lala!! Takki in full Yoshitsune gear!!! And then he went "kakare!!!" (Which means something like "charge!!". Which reminds me of that TBS Chubu special where Takki cooked nabe. The ojiisan host told him to assume the Yoshitsune spirit again for him to see. So Takki was holding this knife and went "KAKARE!!!" as he chopped the cabbage into two. LMAAAOOOOOOOO~~~~~~~~~ HILARIOUSSSSSS!!!!!!!!!!!) Brief battle scene with Heike people. Yoshitsune won of course. And then came the Kozue scene.

The set changed to some sort of a camp area. Suddenly one of the kerai rushed in and informed Yoshitsune that they found someone suspicous hanging around their camp. They brought in this lady in pink all tied-up (whom we later learn is called Kozue). Yoshitsune was initially quite fierce. Their conversation went something like this... NOT word-for-word. *squeezes brain to remember*

Yoshitsune: "Are you a spy from the Heike?!"
Kozue: "..."
Yoshitsune: "Speak!!"
Kozue: "I am from the Heike, but it is not my choice! I mean no harm! Please... let me go!" (Looks up at Yoshitsune as she pleaded with him and then eye contact between the two)
Yoshitsune: "..."
Kozue: "... ..."
Benkei and the rest: (??? expressions on their faces) <-- LMAO
Kozue: "Ano.... is there something wrong with my face?"
Yoshitsune: "Iya...." (walks away slightly embarrassed)

OK, seemed like love at first sight for both. HAHAH~~~ If i'm Kozue, I WOULD BE TOO!!! Like hello!!! My aitei is Takki yo!!! XDDD Yoshitsune then instructed his kerai to escort Kozue back (to wherever) as he went over to Kozue and helped to untie her from the ropes. Just as she was getting up to leave, Yoshitsune suddenly reached out for her right arm. *moe* GRAB MINE! GRAB MINE!! *offers arm shamelessly* He pulled back her sleeve which revealed a wound. Then he took out this piece of white cloth from i dunno where (his waist belt??) and wrapped her wound with it. Then he wished her well and walked away. Kozue asked if they will ever meet again. Yoshitsune replied that if they win the war and peace returns, they will definitely get to meet again. Kozue finally leaves, albeit somewhat reluctant. Fufufu~ AND THEN IT'S THE HILARIOUS AD LIB SCENE. LMAO~~~~

This part would be a little different everyday as Okura Benkei and Yoshitsune Takki thought up of different ways to inject humour into the otherwise serious and tragic Act 2. So there were many scenarios. Most of the time, it would start with Benkei collapsing onto the floor and mimicking Kozue. For eg...

Benkei: "Ah! itai desu!" (in a high pitch voice as he stretched out his arm at Yoshitsune)
Yoshitsune: (ignores Benkei totally by looking away, often sniggering himself. LMAO~)

Benkei would then complain about why his 'tono' (lord) is so bias, gentle only to girls. Hahaha~ Yoshitsune would try to redeem himself. On our later shows, this ad lib scene had progressed to Benkei self-mutilating himself to get Yoshitsune's attention. XDDD

Benkei: (Using his loooong weapon and making a cut on his own arm) "Itai!!" (of course, in a high pitch voice) *Audience laughing away*
Yoshitsune: (-__-;;; expression)
Benkei: "Itai desuuu.... (fished out a white cloth) Are? There is a piece of cloth here... Will there be someone to dress my wound kana~?" (looks endearingly at Yoshitsune)
Yoshitsune: (immediately turned away and exited the stage. LOL~~~~)

Then on the days when there are guests in the audience, they would be the 'enemies' and Yoshitsune would ask Benkei to attack them. (Go down the stage to their seats and pretend to hack off their heads or something. LOL) If it were juniors, Benkei would usually do it.. but if it were seniors, Benkei would be very komaru. LMAAOOO~~~ Takki sure liked to tease Okura! Like for senshuraku, the guests were dai-senpai Matchy and Uekusa (and of cos Hasegawa) and they apparenly sat on the 1st row of second floor. I read this from fans' reports. Can't really remember exactly what happened but it went something like this.

Yoshitsune: "There are enemies on the second floor. Get rid of them!"
Benkei: "But... but they are DAI-senpai... i don't dare to do it..."
Yoshitsune: "What are you talking about? I am your tono yo!! You must listen to me. Go!!"
Benkei: "But.. but.... they are too far away..." (Usu the guests will sit on the 1st floor)
Yoshitsune: "Then shoot them with your arrows!"
Benkei: "Eeehhh~??"

This was not exactly what they said but the flow of the scene was something like this. Benkei then reluctantly (pretended to??) fired a few arrows towards Matchy and the rest. And apprently, the 2 dai-senpais pretended to duck from the arrows!!! I forgot if they eventually did get "shot". LMAO~~~ But it was so funny reading about it. That they actually played along with the cast. XDDD Fans reported that Hasegawa didn't budge though. And complained that he should since his seniors did. Hahhaha.... Oh well. Maybe he didn't expect his grand seniors well into middle age to be so childish all of a sudden. XDD

Usually, the ad lib scene will be ended by Yabu's entrance. He would run in from the hanamichi yelling "Tono, tono, taihen desu!!" and informed Yoshitsune about the impending (Dannoura) war. But on days when Takki and Okura were in a chatty mood and couldn't stop talking, Takki would yell at Yabu. This happened on our last show if i'm not wrong. So hilarious!!!

Yoshitsune: "Urusai! Can't you see we are still talking here? You... wait there!" *all the while sniggering away... XDD*
Yabu (forgot his character's name... Kisanta??): "Eh........" *freezed on stage in a running pose*
(Yoshitsune Takki and Okura Benkei continued to yak somemore on stage as audience laughed at the crazy situation. LOLLL)
Yoshitsune: "OK! We are done... (to Yabu) Now, what is it?"
(Yabu looked a bit confused on what to do next SO HE RAN BACK TO THE HANAMICHI EXIT AND REPEATED HIS LINES AS HE RAN UP TO THE MAIN STAGE. We were all laughing away!!! hahhaha, YABU WAS SO FUNNY!!!! He had to re-do from the start!!! LMAO~~~)

Towards the end of Enbujo, Yabu's arm was injured. I think he injured it at school? So when he came out in this scene, Yoshitsune would ask him about his bandages.

Yoshitsune: "You, what happened to your arm?"
Yabu: "I injured it in physical education class in school..."
Yoshitsune: "And what school is that??"
Yabu: "Samurai Training School..."

ROFLMAO~~~~ And everyone thought Yabu would reveal the name of his own school. It was so funny. So there were many variations to this scene with each show as Yabu's arm became a topic for the ad lib scene. XDD

After this scene, the atmosphere would change back to serious mode, though sometimes everyone on stage was still laughing as they went off to prepare for the battle. (The mood was supposed to change back to serious the moment Yabu came out.) I think by senshuraku, they completed lost it and were laughing and joking away for the longest time. Heheh~~

A brief Dannoura battle scene commenced. Yoshitsune won of course. Then Yoshitsune would find an badly injured woman on one of the ships. This denoted the start of a VERY VERY LOOOOOONNNNNGG SCENE. (Me and Syl timed and it was almost 25min long!!! They just talked and talked and TALKED on that same ship set. x_x) That woman was Tokiwa but of course he didn't know it was his mother until she told him her name. When Tokiwa realised it was her son, she wailed because she was unable to see her own son's face. (She had became blind for some reason.) Yoshitsune then took her hands and put them on his face. *PAUSE* I AM SOOOOOOOOOO ENVIOUS OF THE LADY ACTING AS TOKIWA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I WANT TO TOUCH TAKKI'S FACE THIS WAY TOO!!!!!!!! AND IMAGINE!!! SHE GOT TO DO IT 74 TIMES!!!! AND NOT INCLUDING REHEARSALS. KYAHHHHHH!!!! @_@ *START* So then there was a tearful reunion, though shortlived because Tokiwa was dying. Kozue arrived halfway too and met Yoshitsune again. Both were shocked that they were actually half-siblings. ok... so mild incest here?? Tokiwa soon died and I can't rem but was it because Yoshitsune and Kozue knew they would never meet again so she performed a dance as farewell to him?? (Which was kinda weird as she was dancing next to her erm... mother's dead body. O_o) As she was dancing, arrows came out from nowhere and shot her fatally. Yoshitsune yelled at them (presumably Genji soldiers who were just aiming at anyone who's non-Genji) to stop but it was too late. Kozue collapsed and Yoshitsune held her up in his arms. @____@!!!!!

LUCKY GIRL!!! She gets to look at Takki so closely!!!

They exchanged some last words before Kozue died too. x__x And then Yoshitsune hugged her tightly close to his chest and yelled "Kozue, I loved you!!!!!" (So he could only confessed his forbidden love for her after she died. Note the past tense.) *PAUSE* OH MY GAWD~~~ I WAS EVEN MOREE ENVIOUS OF THIS KOZUE GIRL!!!! NOT ONLY DID SHE GET TO CELEBRATE HER BIRTHDAY ON THE SAME DAY AS TAKKI, SHE GOT TO BE HUGGED SOOOOOOOOO TIGHTLY BY HIM FOR HOW MANY TIMES?!??!?!?!???? AND TO LOOK INTO HIS YASASHII EYES.... (bangs head on wall) KYAAAH~~~~~ *START* (it's really hard to have self-control... hurrr... =_=) After a moment of silence, Yoshitsune finally laid down Kozue and got down from the ship as he lamented the loss of his mother and Kozue. (I think he starts to wonder about his decision of joining Yoritomo's war??) He then exited by the hanamichi trapdoor.

Benkei and Yoritomo appeared and had a brief conversation. They seemed to be arguing about something. Then the scene changed as the latter exited and Benkei joined Yoshitsune (now in white) and the other kerais at what seemed to be their residence. Two officials from the imperial court then arrived with some imperial edict. If i'm not wrong, it is a edict to award Yoshitsune with an imperial post for his efforts in wiping out the Heike. Just as Yoshitsune was about to receive the edict from the officials (hence accepting the title), Yoritomo arrived and claimed that Yoshitsune was a traitor. (This part was similar to the Taiga drama. Yoshi wanted to accept the title because it meant bringing glory to the Genji clan. But Yori took it as treacherous. To him, Yoshi accepting an imperial title would mean he would become directly under the order of the emperor. But he wanted it to be where Yoshi is under him, and he himself is on par with the imperial court, who obviously had differing interests.) Yoshitsune tried to explain but Yoritomo was insistent that he was a traitor and even tore up the edict. Angry that his brother would not trust him, he declared that he would not work for him anymore and started to leave. Yoritomo however, tried to stop him and a fight ensued.

AND THEN THIS HUGE AND AMAZING 2-STOREY STRUCTURE ROSE FROM BELOW THE STAGE. O_O!!! They started fighting but as Yoshitsune's side was outnumbered, his kerai died one by one. T-T (It's like reliving Episode 49!!) Benkei was the last to go. He died standing, as per the legend, and descended slowly via the hanamichi trapdoor. Yoshitsune who had ran up to the upper floor of the structure went a bit berserk seeing his kerai die one by one as he slashed away at Yoritomo's men closing in on him. Somewhere here, Yoshitsune's hair was kinda loosen during the fight and covered his face. As he ran in and out behind the bamboo blinds, he took the opportunity to swap with his double. So Takki ran off as his double continued to fight with his last breathe. Yoritomo then released fire arrows into the structure and set it on fire. AND THEN THE BUILDING STARTED COLLAPSING ADMIST A LOT OF SMOKE. I WAS SO AMAZED BY THE SET!!!! The whole roof kinda collapsed in as "Yoshitsune" laid dead inside. When all the collapsing is done and it became quiet, Yoritomo gave a soliloquy. (Forgot what he said. Prob regretting how things had turned out...) All this while, the audience could see "Yoshitsune", a white figure lying admist the rubble behind Yoritomo. (I actually didn't notice the swap with the double at all in our first show. Thought it was Takki lying there throughout so was surprised when he popped up somewhere else.) A HUGE curtain of sakura petals then came down on the main stage and blocked the rubble. Then MORE sakura petals fell from above onto the empty stage. It was a really pretty and calming scene!! Just many many petals flying all around on the empty stage. (I think there were so much at one point, they were flying into the people at the very front rows. LOL~)

The spotlights then shone on the hanamichi exit where Takki reappeared as Shanaou. (A few gasps from the audience from those who didn't realise the body swap earlier.)

A very pretty Shanaou with that signature 'pained' look. *pats*
In the shows that i went to, the cloth that he was holding was actually
translucent orange and not the one shown in this pic.

With the cloth thingy cover his head, Shanaou walked along the hanamichi to where the trapdoor was and stopped. A voiceover then came on narrating something. (I forgot what but probably summing up Yoshitsune's tragic life.) Shanaou lifted up the cloth and looked up as he slowly turned one round so that everyone on the upper floors could see his face. (Those days where i was sitting on the 2nd floor, it really felt like Takki visually acknowledged everyone up there. When he turned to my direction, i could only think of one word... KIREI~) Finally, he lowered the cloth again to cover his face and glided away real gracefully, exiting from the hanamichi exit. *loud applause* This concluded Act 2 of Enbujo.

And I will save Act 3 for Part 5 of the report because I don't like to end with a '4'. LMAO~~~ This entry is getting too long anyway. Part 5 will be the final one and i promise it will be the shortest of all!! (cos Act 3 *was* the shortest of all...)

"Ikemen" ranking

2006-05-27T03:08:00.000+08:00

This is old news, but in case some of you didn't know, there was this ranking done by Goo in April for "The most ikemen of Johnny's talents" and fufufu~~ TAKKI WAS TOP!!! He actually beat Kimura. They showed the results polled by just the males and females as well, but the combined results were...

1. TAKKI =333
2. Kimura Takuya
3. Okada Junichi

新着情報30件→

goo ランキング

イケメンだと思うジャニーズ事務所所属タレントランキング

1	滝沢秀明
2	木村拓哉
3	岡田准一
4	長瀬智也
5	東山紀之
6	山下智久
7	堂本光一
8	亀梨和也
9	赤西仁
10	松岡昌宏

→もっと見る

Results by male pollers only
1. Kimura Takuya
2. Takki
3. Higashiyama Noriyuki

Results by female pollers only
1. Takki
2. Okada Junichi
3. Kimura Takuya

"Ikemen" is an acronym for "iketeru men", which means men who are good in looks and overall 'package'. It is somewhat more than being just kakkoii.

Takki won Kimura by quite a big margin among the female pollers, which resulted in him topping the overall ranking. Heheh~~~ Omedetou!!! He totally is worthy of such a result. XDDD

I am not sure who the pollers were. Perhaps Goo users. But they also have polls for every other genre as well, not necessary Johnny's related. Eg. "Most interesting Taiga drama", "Favourite korean drama" etc. So can i assume that this poll is open to a more general public than just mainly Johnny's fans?? Hahaha... Anyway, it seemed like each poll is only open for one day for people to cast their votes. Well, i definitely didn't manage to vote for Takki. Neither did most of us i think. Dakara, it makes even more cause for celebration that he won. HAHAHHA~~~

But seriously, you can argue with me that he's not a good dancer, not a good singer, but you cannot deny that he's an IKEMEN!!!! XDDDDDD

Anyway, seems like everyone, including Takki and Tsubasa are lying low these days. Hahaha~ Busy catching up with work, with school, with job hunting (that's ME)... Maa, ganbare ne!!! You never know when the next T&T Rush will come... Am trying to finish my Enbujo Reports too when i get bored from filling in job applications so yes people, there's more!!! Tanoshimi ni shite ne! ^^

Back from HK!

2006-05-18T02:18:00.000+08:00

TADAIMA!!!! I am back from Hong Kong (in time to escape Typhoon "Pearl") and now officially contributing to the unemployment figures of my country. *cough* My friend calls this "a trip to collect (immigration) stamps" cos we went in to HK, outta HK, in to Macau, then back to HK, and out again to Shenzhen and then back again. Hahha~~ So lucky we missed this tyhpoon if not we would have been stuck in the hotel! And like i said.. shopping was FREAKING CHEAP!!!! (Althou the cheap prices will reflect the quality as well.. but STILL CHEAP!)

Will post some photos of my trip later... but hahha, just to let you guys have an idea of how CRAZY CHEAP shopping was... look what i bought! XDDDD I AM SO NOT GOING TO SHOP FOR THE NEXT FEW MONTHS!!!!! *runs away from the Great Singapore Sale*

Mata hiatus!

2006-05-10T01:11:00.000+08:00

Hey people, i'm on hiatus until early next week yo. Going Hong Kong...*coughs* Yea, finally going somewhere OTHER THAN JAPAN. Part 2 to my holiday, after which, i will REALLY BE EATING GRASS if i dun find a job soon. *diess* Wanted to complete my Enbujo report before i leave, demo chotto muri kana. Yappari too much distraction. I'm halfway into Act 2 actually. Jaa, will probably be still using the internet anyway cos i need to check my email... *sigh* Life as a job-hunter. So keep flooding and commenting! Hahahah~~ snuffles is READING dakara ne!! Mitemasu yo~~~ (De... can this still be called a hiatus?? Hahah)

Loracyn: REMEMBER, sms me if there's any groundbreaking news!!!! Onegaishimasu!!
m(_~_)m

Dithers: CALL CALL CALL!!! Dun wait anymore!! It's long overdue... Blast them!! Tag or email me when you finally get it ne!!

Reiko-chan: Thank you for your loooooooonnnnngggggg comments over email. Hahahha... VERY LONG INDEED!!! I kinda skimmed through it already but will read it again properly when I come back. Til then, pls wait for my reply!! Yoropiku!

Yvie: All the best for your new job!!!

Everyone else, I WILL BE BACK!!! LMAO~~

Itte kimaaassuuuuu!!!! =333

*Hops to HK to feel the remnants of Takki's body warmth. LOL*

Enbujo Report Part 3

2006-05-02T02:32:00.000+08:00

WARNING: SUPER LOOOOOONG REPORT AHEAD... You have been warned. XD

After the drum sequence, Takki exited the stage and many juniors and female dancers came on and started dancing. (And oh, this i noticed cos i was staring at Takki all the time. LOL~ I think Loracyn saw it too. When Takki was exiting the stage once, there was this chibi junior running out who kinda blocked him. The chibikko didn't even know he was in the way but Takki just waited patiently for him to move away, even though he had to rush for his costume changes. Yasashikatta ne~~ chuu shite ageru wa! =333) They were trying to depict this simple but happy life in the countryside. Then all of a sudden, enemies (looking real mean) penetrated the village and it became chaos. A group of juniors dressed in white appeared and tried to protect the women and the young. They were the "Byakkotai". This set the stage for the tragedy of 「滝沢隊長と白虎隊」 "Captain Takizawa and the Byakkotai". Omg, this was a really saaaad story. Get ready your Kleenex.

Reference:
The "Byakkotai" (White Tigers Brigade) were made up of a group of young boys (aged 14-16) who studied Bushido from young. The time was at the beginning of the Meiji Restoration, when the Meiji Emperor felt the urgency to modernise and catch up with the West after closing its doors to the outside world for more than 250 years. The government led by the Emperor wanted to abolish the old system of hierarchy, where samurai was top. So there was constant conflict between the new and old world order, fightings between the samurai and the military etc. To cut things short, the story of the Byakkotai is centered around 20 of these boys who committed suicide, only 1 survived because his hand was too injured to complete the procedure. "Engaged in a last-ditch effort to defend their domain, the boys intended to follow their lord to his death when they saw smoke in the distance and mistakenly identified it as a fire destroying Tsurugajou, the daimyo's castle. The war was lost and the castle was eventually destroyed, but the daimyo himself lived well into old age." (Read here for more details. I got quite sucked into this story when i was reading up on Byakkotai myself...) The survivor lived to tell the tragic story of these boys, who are still remembered by Japanese today as an embodiment of the nobility of the samurai spirit. Some also view it as an example of how war wastes the lives of the young.
None of the 19 boys who died were called Takizawa, but coincidentally, their stronghold was called Takizawa Village... Yosh! Loracyn, Syl! Note it down! Our next destination! LOL~

So i assumed the penetrators were the military faction. I can't rem who was acting as their leader (with purple hair) but was it Yoko?? Gomen..... im soo bad with details. But that's cos my eyes followed Takki 101% of the time!!! So anyway, the Byakkotai fought the military and Captain Takki came out somewhere here. He yelled to the boys something like "If you want to become a strong man, fight bravely and protect those you love!!" and joined in the fight. They nearly won but suddenly, there were gunshots!! Reinforcements from the military shot at Takki with their guns from the hanamichi which allowed the leader to escape!!
*MOUUUUU, ATAMA NI KITA YO!!! I WAS SO PISSED!!! HOW DARE YOU SHOOT AT TAKKI??!? MY TAKKI??? KICKS THE MILITARY TO HIGH HEAVEN* Anywaay, it was sad when i noticed that the boys lost to the military only because the latter had guns. Kinda reminded me of the movie "The Last Samurai"... The wheels of modernization ne...

Captain Takizawa after he was shot!
But still looking kakkoii... his look here was very moe~.

Actually in my first show, I didn't realise why Takki was suddenly injured. The gunshots were so loud they kinda startled me but I actually didn't notice the guns. -__- Was seriously STARING at poor injured Takki the whole time to even notice the evil military contingent that were moving in from the hanamichi. x_x I eventually realised it in the later shows and gawd, this scene was really quite scary on top of tragic. The burning Tsurugajo Castle in the background as the military moved in eerily. The ghostly way they marched... *shudders* The whole stage was shrouded in red light and there was the sound of chanting on top of the sad BGM. Mistaken that their castle was really burning and that their lord had been killed, they killed themselves one by one. T-T The last boy was Hikaru (Yayayah) I think and he too, stabbed himself in his stomach but he didn't die immediately. He asked Takki, who was his brother, to grant him the coup de grace. And OH MY GAWWDDDD, THIS SCENE WAS SERIOUSLY SETSUNAI!!!!!!!!!!! Now that i know the story of Byakkotai, thinking about this scene in retrospect makes it EVEN SADDER!!!! Takki struggled to Hikaru's side and pointed his sword at his neck. *i stopped breathing here and i think the audience was in absolute silence* Hikaru looked up at Takki and then Takki suddenly knelt down behind him. It's hard to explain Takki's actions here. Basically, he held Hikaru in his arms as he positioned his sword in front of Hikaru's throat. It was a very VERY YASASHIIIIII action... you gotta see it yourself. I can't explain properly. Finally, Takki took a deep breathe and cut his brother's throat, then laid him down gently. *BAWLSSSSSSSSS* SO SAAAADDDD!!!!!!!!!! He then mourned and lamented their death.

Takki: "Why do young children have to give up their lives like this??!?"

With that, Takki swung his sword and the whole stage went dark except the spotlights on the military behind. (I am not sure if this meant that Takki killed himself too, but that's really insignificant. He was dying from the gunshots anyway... T-T) The chanting grew louder and louder as the eerie military moved forward and the "burning" castle sank into the ground. And then all lights went out.

The scene where Takki killed Hikaru was very sad but I later found out that quite a few fans had the same thought running through our heads admist the grief... we were envious that Hikaru could die in Takki's arms like that and all wished to die the same way... Hurrr, talk about being S. But it was HONTOUNI a very yasashii scene dakara!! The way he cradled Hikaru in his arms... (妄想)

Takki's face then appeared on the stage. Initially I was wondering how they made the face look so 3D. It was obviously not just a video showed on the back screen. Then I realised they had this big white structure in the shape of a face on stage and Takki's image was projected on it from the front by a projector. Talk about precision, if not the face would be distorted. Takki's voiceover was saying something I couldn't really catch (something about humans having many faces) -_- His face then slowly changed as he spoke, and his voice got lower too. The face was changing into something that resembled an (evil?) kabuki character's painted face. Then totally without warning, there was a LOUD SOUND and the face structure on stage was pulled apart. After the first show, i was telling Loracyn and Syl how there was this high school girl in front of me who really JUMPED UP in her seat when the loud sound went off. Haha. And guess what, the SAME loud sound scared-ed me too the next day and I yelped in my seat. Gawd. And it wasn't even my first time. This teaches one never to laugh at people... -__-

Takki then came out on this elevated black platform. I think this was the part where there was supposed to be fire effects. But since they stopped using real fire after the incident, they replaced it with visual effects instead. Hmm, would have loved to see how the original effect looked like. Maa, ii ya! ^-^ He then performed some tricks with this sensu made of small little masks and this box of golden paper thingy. The box is like slim and long and they have this very looooooong piece of thin and shiny golden paper folded backward and forward inside. So there will be two juniors who would appear and hold a piece of black cloth each below Takki on each side, one to catch the cover of the box, and the other to catch the golden paper. Takki would throw out a bit of the golden paper and the rest will fall out by itself, creating this "water effect". I remembered seeing it on one of the WS but can't seem to find that clip anywhere now. Anyway, during our first show, Takki actually didn't manage to do this golden paper trick. I think there were problems with the prop or something but we didn't even realise that something was amiss!! We were only wondering what the 2 juniors were doing, squatting below Takki holding black cloth. LOL~~ It was only on our 2nd show we realised, "Hey! He was supposed to be doing that???" Yappari Takki is very pro ne!! We totally didn't realise anything was wrong. He just reacted impromtu by prolonging the sensu sequence. We could see his face and he didn't even look worried. Sasuga a first-rate entertainer. *thumbs UP*

Takki then got down from the platform and i think this is the beginning of 「ＭＡＳＫ」. He did this very fascinating sequence using a LOT of masks!! It's a liiiittle bit like the art of Face-changing from China. He first put on this ONE mask and then, in sync with the Japanese BGM, he would remove the mask quickly, only to reveal another below!! (Guess it's probably like many many masks stacked in one?? Though it would require some skill to take them off one at a time at such high speed as well.) So of course, the audience would think the mask he's wearing is the last but there would always be another one underneath. I was quite engrossed in this particular sequence actually. Some of the masks looked scary, and some actually looked kakkoii!! Like with a sharp nose and defined jawline etc. Goodness, did they custom-make the masks to reflect the wearer??? LMAO~ And I think he flew over the audience at a certain part during this mask sequence. In the background, there were a lot of dancers dancing with huge pieces of colourful cloth hung from the top on the stage ceiling. So at one point of the sequence, a masked-Takki would run behind these cloth and out again on the other side. He was out of view for like 2 seconds but this was when his double came on. Haha, i guess he finally ran out of masks and need a "refill"! So his double would continue to do the same thing, and this time, he would even do this trick where it seemed like umbrellas appeared from his hands!! Syl said the umbrellas were passed to him by the dancers behind him but i couldn't tell at all! But it must be, because it's muri to hide soooooo many umbrellas in his sleeves!! Normal sized Japanese umbrellas yo!! Not those foldable ones. LOL~ The double would then run behind the cloth again and swap with the real Takki (still-masked). (The body swapping was pretty neat!! i totally didn't realise there was a double at all until my 2nd show...) Then oh, Takki would do this amazing trick then up til now I haven't figure out how he did it. He tilted his head downwards and fiddled with a mask on his face to make it drop. But the amazing thing was, the mask would free-fall to somewhere at his hip level and then float back up to his face!!! O_o?? It couldn't have been wind blowing upwards because there were no trapdoors open. Magnetism...??? Then it better be one hella strong magnet!!! So finally at the end, after many Many Masks, he took the final one to reveal his own face. Very smooth and captivating sequence!!!! *applause*

After 「ＭＡＳＫ」, he removed the cloak he had on. He was wearing some sleeveless black top underneath I think and then he sang a second original song from Enbujo. (Compared with DB, Enbujo had waaaay lesser songs. It was more composed background music. I think this was the only original song that Takki sang other than Inishie??)

After he finished the song, he changed into this haha, what do you call it? He had on this hat that made him look like one of those "dian-xiao-er" (restaurants waiters) in those Chinese wuxia drama... LOL!! Only he obviously wasn't a waiter. XD I don't know who he was acting as when he changed into this costume, maybe some figure from a Japanese folklore i never heard of. So there Takki was, in that "dian-xiao-er" costume and he held a large piece of white cloth which covered him from chest downwards. And then the BGM turned eerie. He would shake the white cloth and "sadakos" will crawl out. LOL~ (Sadako = people with looong hair and covered in white from head to toe. And cos we have no idea what this whole scene was all about, we katteni named it the "Sadako Scene". Hahha~) Gawd, it was quite freakish! The way they crawled really reminded me of Sadako crawling out of that TV in The Ring!! He shook 2 "sadakos" out and then for the last time, he would raise the cloth high enough to cover his face for a split second (and swap quickly with his double) and crawl out himself underneath. The fake Takki in the "xiao-er" costume would show himself for a brief moment but kinda hid his face then walk to the back of the stage. The back screen would show images of Takki walking away, to dupe the audience into thinking that that was really still Takki, though we later found out it was a pre-recorded video. (Note: I'm only writing all these cos i saw Enbujo 3 times and managed to decipher many of the tricks. I didn't realise many of them during my first show. So it's not because the tricks were half-past six. Their coordination was really quite good!!) After "Takki" supposedly left the stage, the 3rd Sadako whose face had been concealed all this while by all that hair revealed his face and it was the real Takki!! He said something (i forgot what) with this anguished expression on his face and then exited the stage too.

And then it was here, *we* got FREAKED OUT. LOL~~~ During our first show, we were on the 2nd floor so we didn't know why there were people on the 1st floor screaming. Hahah, we thought they were actors!! But on our 2nd show, we were down on the 1st floor and yea, we found out why. During this Sadako scene, while everyone's attention was fixed on the main stage, they had even MORE sadakos moving in from the back! So what they did was they held pieces of black hair hung from something like a fishing rod and then swung it around at the audience in front of them as they moved slowly to the stage. So when those people who were so engrossed in that eerie scene on stage suddenly had this hairy thing flying past them or touching their faces, they all yelped in shock. Hahhahaha~ Unfortunately, me and Loracyn were one of the victims. And worst cos Loracyn was sitting by the aisle that Sadako would pass by. She literally clung on to me. Hahhaha! I mean, we KNOW they were actors but it's still freakish!! you never know if they decide to pick you out to scare ya know! Syl was just giving the =_= face when the hair brushed past her face. LOL~~~

So while we were all kept busy by these Sadakos moving in to the stage from all over the place, Takki was already back on stage in this green costume and red wig. Once again, i don't know which story the following scene falls into. I think Takki was supposed to be some snake demon?? There was a monk who came up the stage with all the sadakos and went to confront Takki. And all the sadakos were like swarming around Takki, tugging at his legs and clothes. *kowa..* And before i knew what happened, suddenly there was this big green snake prop that kinda clamped on the monk and they started flying about in the air as the monk struggled to free himself. I forgot what happened to the monk cos Takki started flying around too. LOL! *shift of attention*

So Takki flew round and round and then landed on top of this big urn-like container. A paper shield came down and blocked him from our view. Then they projected a shadow image of a giant snake which ate up this man (who was in the container??) and then everything went up in flames. Ok, for this one, I was totally Yappari, they need to have a "Enbujo Guide for the Utterly Confused". Haaa~~~

Next! A huge group of chibikkos appeared and sang the 「山寺の和尚さん」 "The monk of the mountain temple" while tap-dancing with their Japanese wooden clogs. All I know about this is that it is a children's song. You can see the lyrics and hear a midi of it here. I don't know if this song is all there is to this scene. Maybe it is connected with the previous "snake demon" scene. I mean, it's weird if they wrote it in the program and all they did was to sing the song right??? Aiiiii, wakannai yo~~

So while the chibikkos were singing, staff/cast were busy preparing the stage behind. They spread this huge black sheet on the floor, which we realised later it was to protect the stage from all the water that will be used in the next scene for 「滝の白糸」 "White threads of the Waterfall".
Reference:
"Taki no Shiraito" (White threads of the Waterfall) is an adaption from a novel. Taki no Shiraito is the stage name of this female water magician. The "shiraito" in her name (literally 'white threads') actually refer to the imagery of the waterfall, the water that resembles white threads as they fall over the cliff. She falls in love with a young and poor law student Kin'ya. She decides to support Kin'ya through law school by sending him regular allowance from her earnings through conjuring acts with water. "After some three years, she secures an advance from a wealthy patron that she plans to send Kin'ya as a last installment for his tuition fee. But that night, a Chinese knife-thrower steals the money from her. In despair, Shiraito breaks into her patron's house to recover her losses, and in the panic and confusion murders the man. As luck would have it, Kin'ya's first legal appointment is as prosecuting attorney in the trial for the patron's murder. Shiraito makes a dramatic courtroom confession to the crime, and is sentenced to death. Kin'ya, knowing that she killed for his sake, commits suicide." (Source from here. Too lazy to summarise and it seemed summarised enough. Heh.)

Personally, i think there are too many suicides... Anyway, Takki appeared after the juniors were done with the song and went onto this platform and two female dancers helped him to put on this silverish-purple coat. I think he was acting as the female Taki no Shiraito even though he didn't wear any female wigs. (Because i don't think Kin'ya knew anything about water tricks...) But then again, was he wearing a kimono?? *cannot rem...* I eventually figured out why he had to put on the coat only at the platform cos that coat had water tubes connected to it, which probably led to some secret water compartment in that platform. So Takki did this water transferring trick.

I eventually figured out how he did it but i'm not telling here. Haha~ See?
It pays to watch more than once if not you will be FOREVER scratching your head at home in puzzlement. Muahahhahaa~ *evil laugh*
See a picture of the same water trick performed by the famous Hanayagi Shotaro,
also from the Hanayagi school where Takki learnt his buyo!
Click here

Meanwhile, there was a character creeping up behind him on this bridge. (Is that supposed to be the thief??) Takki then removed his coat and said something before cutting his wrist and supposedly, his blood spurted out and sorta temporarily blinded the bad guy?? (I am totally lost here. So Takki is Kin'ya now?? Because Kin'ya was the one that killed himself. Huh?? ) His blood also stained this screen behind the bridge. Initially I thought it was nothing significant but then by my 3rd show, the image of the blood on the screen seemed to resemble a dragon. (And from fans' reports, during senshuraku, the blood formed the words "Takki" on the screen and the audience laughed. LMAO~~~ What a silly Takki-rashii idea!!) What happened after this was pretty dramatic. Takki jumped over the bridge to this paper screen behind and somehow "clung" onto it. The screen slowly elevated him off the ground for few meters and then he let go and fell. (But of course we didn't get to see him hit the ground cos the props were arranged to obstructed our view.) Well, not to worry. The person who actually fell wasn't Takki. The double had swapped with him somewhere when he was running to the back. XD

So the reason why Takki had to rush off was cos he had to prepare for his *very important* next scene, on top of the fact that that stunt was probably too risky for him to do, since as the zachou, he couldn't afford spraining his leg or arm. Well, the next scene was 「男の花道」 "Man's hanamichi", in other words, THE ONNAGATA SCENE!!! Kitaaa!!!! MATTEMASHITA YO!!!! We could call it the highlight of Act 1. The whole theatre went dark and Mori Mitsuko's voiceover came on again. She talked about Takki's 初挑戦 of challenging the famous and difficult onnagata role in kabuki and asked us to clap loudly for him if we think he was successful in portraying the feminity of it. *doki doki*

Reference:
The onnagata that Takki portrays in Enbujo is "Sagimusume" (White Heron Maiden), a very famous and classic character performed in kabuki and buyo alike. I think i read somewhere that it was first performed 250 years ago??? (Onnagata is essentially a kabuki term, but this character is performed in buyo too. The difference between kabuki and buyo, oh well, is just different dance forms. Not gonna explain here. Seems that "Sagimusume" was originally a kabuki role, but was adopted by Buyo as well? Hence even though females also dance Buyo, this role seems reserved for males. Bimyou desu. But Takki's sensei for this role is a Buyo dancer dakara, not kabuki.) Basically, the story is about a girl who is abandoned by her lover. She goes mad and dies on a snowy winter night, then reincarnates back as a white heron.
I don't think Takki acted out the whole story, it's impossible. He only danced one short segment of it.

A junior came out and sat in the foreground as he played an "er-hu". (I don't know what it's called in English. It's this traditional Chinese 2-string musical instrument.) Then on the huge screen at the back of the stage, they showed an onnagata-Takki in white kimono moving gracefully down this elevated path from the left to the right as sakura petals fell from above. So this part was pre-recorded. But as the path turned in on the right, the real onnagata-Takki appeared!!!! So onnagata Takki had to dance as he moved down the winding path. Someone then passed him a letter. He read the letter and then hurriedly moved to the front of the stage and knelt down at the audience (in a feminine way) and pleaded to whoever in his own voice, "pls let me perform" or something like that. I don't really get it here but i suspect they modify the story a bit to flow better in Enbujo. Anyway, I think the story didn't really matter here. It was his portrayal.

I loved how he danced with the kasa!!
So mesmerizing~~ *_*

Frankly speaking, i felt a bit awkward seeing him dressed up as a woman for this scene on our 1st show. But by our 2nd show, i was observing his every move and it was really IMPRESSIVE. I am definitely no Buyo expert, only learning it as an ECA for 3 years while i was in university. Takki's performance wasn't perfect either. It can't be cos Buyo is an art that takes years to master. But Takki only had like what... 2 months plus to train for this? Plus it wasn't as if he was spending all this time just mastering this. I myself find it sooooo hard to remember the steps of the nagauta dances (as opposed to the more lively matsuri dances), like Fujimusume. NONETHELESS, I think he captured the essence of that role. Seriously, if you couldn't see his face and you didn't know that it was Takki, you really can't tell that it was a him!!! I was staring at all the small little actions that my own Buyo sensei (from the same school as his sensei!!! LMAO~~) used to remind us of constantly and TAKKI REALLY DID THEM!!! @_@!! Was so excited seeing my "schoolmate" in action! LMAO~~ The way he walked with his feet pointing inwards, the way he clasped the umbrella stem, the way he folded his thumb inwards, the way he held his sleeves with only his index finger, uwaaah!!!! Moee~~~ And i especially liked this one part where he peered shyly over the umbrella... WOAAAH~~~~~ No wonder he was afraid he would start calling himself 'atashi' by the time Enbujo is over. HAHAHHAAA~~~~ DEMO, MIGOTO JYA!!!! *pachi pachi pachi*

After "Sagimusume" was 「七変化」 "Seven changes". I liked this part a lot too!!! It was really a series of SUPER-FAST costume changes!! I was sooo fascinated!! LMAO~ The main stage turned around and Okura, Yoko and some other actors were like having a discussion when it got a bit hostile. Seemed like Yoko is some sorta sensei and he challenged Okura to something. Takki then appeared again from the hanamichi in this black kimono (Costume 1) to save Okura. Was like woaaah~~~ Didn't he just go off in his onnagata kimono??

The 3 of us were totally in with him doing this dance.
His intense look, CHOU KAKKEEE!!!!!!! =333

So anyway, he saved Okura by performing a traditional sensu dance. (So i dunno, is Yoko supposed to be a dance sensei?? Someone quick, throw me the "Enbujo Guide for the Utterly Confused"!!!) It was reallly reeeeaaaaalllly GOOD!!!! After that, he peeled off his black kimono with some help from the juniors to reveal a female kimono (Costume 2) underneath and danced a bit of Buyo. (If you look at the picture of him in the black kimono above carefully, you can see the velcro seams along the sleeves.) It was AMAZING to see him dance such a strong otokorashii sensu dance one minute and then suddenly doing a graceful female buyo dance the next!!! Sugokatta~~~~ So he did a bit of Buyo and then went into one of the sets. The BGM then changed to "Here I Am". I LOVE THIS SONG!! There was a double who bought him some time as he changed into Shaolin Takki (Costume 3)!! XDD He did a bit of martial arts and then someone brought in this furry coat and a mask and put it on for him. And he started prancing around. LOL~ I would love to see him do it WITHOUT the disguise of the mask and coat!! Then again, I am not sure but I THINK it is a CAT he is acting as. Kanaa??? I thought it was a fox mask but then, are foxes that furry?? Anyway, this is Costume 4. So off Takki goes pyong pyong pyong around and with some help from his double again (hahah, they are so useful for buying time!), he reappeared as this ojiisan (Costume 5)!! And then, in front of the audience again, he peeled off the ojiisan costume to reveal yet ANOTHER female kimono underneath and some juniors came out and put on a wig for him. Personally, i like this onnagata #3 (Costume 6) best cos the wig made use of his real bangs and he really looked quite pretty!! He danced a bit more Buyo here and then the main curtain came down. *Loud applause* VERY FASCINATING!!! And then of course, he had one more costume change. And this one took a bit more time cos it is for the FAMOUS BUNGEE!!!! (Costume 7) KYAAAHH~~~~~~~

A gondola with 2 of the ABC jrs and 2 female dancers came down from the top and they started to do some stunts on it. Felt really quite scary yo!! The gondola was like moving from side to side. The other 2 ABC boys came down on bungee too on the left side and did some mid-air somersaults. Then the gondola went back up and finally TAKKI APPEARED!!!!! He was wearing this shiny red suit and OH MY GAWD!!! HIS ENTRANCE WAS SOOO SUGEEE!!!! *cold sweat cold sweat* I think he basically just DIVED down from the top so you see him falling at high speed, head downwards!!! IMAGINE IF YOU ARE THE PERSON SITTING DIRECTLY BELOW HIM!!!! You will see Takki dropping at full speed towards you!!!!! (Very Mission Impossible-ish. LOL) Of course the bungee pulled him back, but imagine how scary it was!!!!! It's really a leap of confidence. Takki then went on to do this maji high-speed consecutive somersaults as he moved from the right to the left of the theatre while suspended in the air. I THINK I WAS JUST LIKE O_O THROUGHOUT THE ENTIRE SEQUENCE. HE DID LIKE HOW MANY FLIPS IN ONE SHOW???!?!?!? And on our 2nd show, cos we were on the 1st floor, Takki was like flipping just on top of us!! OH MY GOODNESS!!! I got a bit of a neckache looking up for so long, but IT WAS WORTH IT!!! *gawk* And oh, when Takki was doing all these flips, there was like "Takki Rain" on the 1st floor people. Hahahhahaa~~~ Maybe he poured water on himself before this stunt, or maybe it was pure Hide-juice. But ANYWAY, when the water was like flying off him, all 3 of us and those in front of us, everyone stretched out their cupped hands and tried to collect the "Takki Rain"!!! Hahhahahha, it was SOOOO FUNNY!!! It's not like "ewww...what's that? Sweat??" but everyone instantaneously reacted the exact same way, to collect what may be precious Hide-juice!!!! LMAO~~~ So after many Many MANY COUNTLESS mid-air somersaults later, he descended onto the hanamichi to loud applause and then exited by the hanamichi exit again. I am surprised he could run off in a straight line after all that spinning. MIGOTO JYA, MIGOTO!!! *pachi pachi pachi*

Yabu and some juniors then appeared on the main stage which was some forest with a waterfall setting. (And the waterfall REALLY had water falling from it. @_@!!) That was supposed to be the forest of Kurama (from Yoshitsune). The boys were singing and dancing happily until some bad guys came along. I don't know what they were... bandits??? The boys tried to fight them off and Hikaru got cornered to the hanamichi. The bandits were about to finish him off when Shanaou-Takki saved him in the nick of time!!! He pointed a wooden stick at the bandit's throat as he ascended onto the stage through the hanamichi trapdoor. OH GAWD~~~~ I finally see Shanaou in his white costume again!!!! Though we were missing the ponytail, but his INTENSE LOOK more than made up for everything~~~ KAKKEEKEKEKE~ *meltsssss* So Shanaou fought the bandits but they still took Yabu away somehow. The stage then started raining... heavily!!! Of course they already protected the stage floor with a huge piece of black sheet. But the "rain" was reallly heavy!!! I was like, so amazed. *gawk* The bandits came back for Shanaou he kept fighting them off as he swished and swashed about in the ponds. (YES!!! THERE WERE PONDS AS WELL!!! THE SETS WERE REALLY AMAZING...) OH!! Halfway through, he removed one side of his sleeves off and KYAAAAHHH!!!! HALF A HADAKA TAKKI!!!!! His biceps were really... to die for. *drools* Shanaou finally killed all of bandits after a tough fight. I thought it was soooo dangerous seeing him jump about in that forest setting with all the water!!! Everything looked so slippery!!! So worried that he might slip... Anyway, after he finished off all the bandits, he fell down on the ground himself too and died??? From injuries??? He just laid in the rain motionless. But then Yabu came back as Tengu (so Yabu died??) and there was his voiceover. He thanked Takki for protecting the forests of Kurama and making it safe for the children again. Then he threw this translucent orange kimono thingy at some guys who covered the lifeless Shanaou with it and then carried him away. So erm... Tengu revived Shanaou??? *Pass me the Enbujo Guide already... =_=*

There was another voiceover, something about 3 years later and it was the final 「五条大橋」 "Gojo Bridge" scene! The BGM here was REALLY DRAMATIC. Okura-Benkei entered from the hanamichi (while staff hurriedly recreated the Gojo Bridge on the main stage) as he fought off men and snatched their swords (as per the legend). He already had his 999th sword and was looking forward to his 1000th. He reached the bridge on the main stage and a veiled Shanaou appeared on the other end. Well we all know what happened here. Shanaou defeated Benkei and won his loyalty 'til the end of his life.

Takki-Yoshitsune and Okura-Benkei striking a final pose
before the curtains came down and marked the end of Act 1.
Takki was EXTREMELY kakkoiii with his hair still wet from the previous scene.
The OVERALL Gojo set was also VERY VERY beautiful!!

And so, the curtains came down. *Plenty of applause* And many people rushed out to the toilets the moment Takki was out of sight. LMAO~ You really use the toilet so much more often when the weather is cold ne!! Mendoukusee na! Yep, so i FINALLY finish Act 1... *phew* Oh my goodness, it soooo long!!! Minasama, yoroshiku ne!! Jaa, do remember to comment!!

Enbujo Report Part 2

2006-05-01T18:57:00.000+08:00

This is bad... I don't know HOW to start writing about the stageplay of Enbujo itself. I am mighty CONFUSED about which scene is for which story... *cough* And i am starting to forget details as well (made worse by Takizawa Zachou who ran in and out 30 over times for his Superman-speed costume changes!! x_x) Iyayaaa~~~!!!! PUH-LESE RELEASE THE DVD YO!!!!! So that everyone can understand how GRAND Enbujo really was. BUT WHO DO WE REQUEST TO YO??!??!???? AVEX??? BUT AVEX WASN'T EVEN INVOLVED IN THIS PRODUCTION DESHO???? Gawd. x_x I need to see Enbujo again... *wails* My report is soooo not going to do it justice... pls bear with it. And the high possibility that i will suddenly digress and branch out in every single direction but forward. Nanitozo, yoroshiku onegai moushi agemasuru. (p/s: Gotta get into the Enbujo mode of language now. LOL~)

Oh, we were wondering about this when we were at Enbujo. There were so many jr grps who were roped in to help. And some of them were maji chibi size. In age as well as size. Enbujo is a 2 months affair. Don't they have to go to school???? This i never understand... They can take leave from school for so long?? Cos I don't rem them taking turns to act. Then again, maybe they did but i cannot remember jrs' faces.... gomen nasai... but i rem there were a few REALLY CHIBI ONES. (Ne, ne Loracyn?? Rem the really chibi one that was standing jus in front of us and you were squealing that he's so cute and i was wondering if he felt shy standing there amongst all of us?? Hahaha~~) Was telling Sylvia that Johnny's has now doubled up as Childcare Centre. Johnny's Childcare Centre. JCC... not bad eh? LMAO~

Soooo, let's get on with the report. Shinbashi Theatre is quite small (seats about 1400+). But it has its own restaurant, cafeteria and gift shop inside. And it is really built kabuki-style, complete with the symbolic hanamichi (an extension stage/walkway mostly on the left of the 1st floor that extends all the way to the end with an exit that goes to the backstage. See map here. This is where the word "hanamichi" originates, before it was used to mean "aisle" at every other concert hall. It was said that the walkway was initially built so that people could present flowers to the actors, hence "hana", meaning flower and "michi", meaning "pathway/road". Oooh, i sure wished we could still use it for what it was meant for!!! End of culture lesson. LOL). There's also the special seats with a table where you can have your meal right there, located on the left and right side on the 1st floor. Think there's only about 40 such seats. Then a restaurant staff will squat at one corner during the performance so that erm, customers can call them to top up their teapots during the show?? So people who got those seats for Enbujo, their more expensive ticket price included some exclusive limited Takki bento set to eat during the 35 min interval. And unlimited tea to drink as they enjoy Takki slogging away on stage. Zeitaku desho? If I am not wrong, if you don't have one of those special seats, you can still pay 3500yen for that exclusive set so during the interval, the restaurant reserves a seat for you to take your meal. Poor people like the rest of us can eat onigiri right at our seats (i'm surprised we are allowed to eat inside but then again, Japanese are very public-conscious people so the place is still amazingly spick and span) or try and find a butt space outside at the crowded corridors. LOL~ Anyway, returning to the actual theatre, because it is small, i feel one can see quite well from anywhere, even from the 2nd floor. We sat at the last row (6th row) on the 2nd floor once but we could still see the stage quite clearly. Never went up to the 3rd floor though so I don't know how much of their view is blocked.

Although my Japanese friend thought we were absolutely crazy to watch the same thing 3 times, i realised one NEED to watch it more than once to really get what was happening cos there were sooo many things going on at one time!!

Frankly speaking, after the 1st show, my mind was in a whirl. I was like "Huh? O_o?? What just happened??" and i don't remembered much details nor really get many of the stories. (Maa, even now i still haven't figure out all the stories...) I only remembered I was very blown away by the aMaZiNg and colourful sets, VERY HAPPY to see Takki again since Countdown and very impressed by his Superman-speed costume changes. And him suddenly re-appearing ALL OVER THE PLACE WHEN YOU LEAST EXPECT IT!!! He really is SUPERMAN to be doing this twice a day... I can only imagine how physically and mentally exhausting it was. So yea, was really in a daze after the first show, i tink i didn't even talk much about it with the rest on our way back to our hotel. Enbujo was like another world. I think they really put a lot of thought into the aesthetic sense of it. Hora, even the zachou is soooo beautiful. How i wish i can stay in his castle forever. *daydreams*

OKOK, i *am* going to start talking about the stageplay itself... But pls note that this may not be an accurate account of Enbujo cos my memory is baad... demo ganbaru kara. Jaa, let's see... *rubs palms together* The program for Act 1 as listed in the official pamplet is as follows.

ACT 1: 日本昔ばな史 (Folklores of Japan)
春の踊り (Spring dance)
少年忠臣蔵　四十七士 (Young Chushingura and the 47 samurais)
山寺の和尚さん (The monk of the mountain temple)
滝沢隊長と白虎隊 (Captain Takizawa and the Byakkotai)
ＭＡＳＫ
滝の白糸 (White threads of the Waterfall)
男の花道 (Man's Hanamichi)
七変化 (Seven changes)
五条大橋 (The Gojo Bridge)

Note: The actual show did not entirely follow the order in the program though...

The main curtain was down and draped with a lot of purple cloth at the very beginning. (Catch a glimpse of it here.) The show started with a junior (obviously i dunno who) who came out playing a violin. Then the lights dimmed and a voiceover by Mori Mitsuko comes on. (This woman is really a patron of JE...) She welcomed the audience into Takki's castle etc etc and a couple more juniors in modern clothes came out and danced. One more came out in Japanese clothes from the back of the hanamichi and did a brief traditional sensu (a Japanese foldable fan, not uchiwa) dance. So you get juniors doing both traditional as well as modern dance at once, which is like one of the themes of Enbujo.

When Mori-san finished her speech, the main screen went up and the music got much much louder and this was where I started really feeling that i was in another world. 入り込んだ、タッキーのお城に。Getting very excited!! The main stage lit up and WOAAAHHH~~~~~~ VERY GRAND!! (I dunno was it at this part or later but there were 4 juniors, 2 on each side who descended onto the 1st floor from the top at very fast speed, sniper-style. LOL~ Loracyn can't rem this part at all thou... am i hallucinating??!?) I liked how they used the back wall of the stage as a screen to make the stage look so much deeper. I don't know how they did it but was it really a huge floor-to-ceiling monitor?? Cos the WHOLE WALL was showing some images and there were no shadows cast. This was unlike in DB, where the characters in front will cast shadows on the screen cos they used a projector that was placed in front of the stage. So anyway, many things happening on the stage!! And the back screen showed some background images (I think it was images of a castle gate) that move in sync with the rotating stage so it really seemed like you were changing pespective. ok, i so cannot explain this properly but it was a VERY NEAT EFFECT!!!! Felt kinda like i was in some 4D theatre. Very surreal!! XDD So there were many many people dancing around as this huge cart thingy ascended slowly onto the stage, which i was so sure Takki was in it. I guessed this is the 「春の踊り」 "Spring Dance" part. Very festive indeed!! They slowly moved the cart to the front and it opened up in the centre to reveal this very big portrait of Takki-Yoshitsune!!!! And ALREADY people were shrieking. Anoo, it's a painting! LMAO~ Then they draped this HUGE piece of red cloth over the portrait and I KNEW IT WAS COMING COS I SAW FOOTAGES OF IT ON THE WS. So it was like a one, Two, THREE!! and the red cloth and cart splitted in the centre and TAKKI COMES FLYING OUT AT US!!!!!! WAAKAKKAAKKAKAKKAKAKAKA~~~!!!!!

Note: The huge cart is missing in this screencap cos it was taken from the 1st show after Enbujo reopens. Which meant that the cart was damaged during the fire. They sure improvised a lot to keep the show going. But rather than cancelling the show altogether, i guess it was better to reopen without some of the props first. Takki did say somewhere then that they would perform twice as hard to make up for the missing props. Sugoi zachou dane? *thumbs up* Notice the image of the castle gate at the back? I didn't notice then but i wonder if the plaque at the top of the gate says 「滝沢演舞城」...

The audience went mad and started yelling and clapping. Chou moriagatta! I was kyahing away!! SUGEEE!!!!! Talk about a BIG ENTRANCE. XDD Takki wore this princely whitish suit with a golden cloak (see above) and flew round and round above the people on 1st floor as he sang the opening number "Inishie Night & Day". (Catch a chibi rendition of it by Ya-ya-yah here. The Enbujo version was much longer and way grander of cos. It's Shinbashi Theatre vs Ya-ya-yah show, duhz. To that person who commented on that clip, erm... i will pretend i DIDN'T see it. =_=) This song is very addictive... the tune is always playing in my head!! And i like the fact that they used many Japanese/Asian instruments. Well here when Takki was flying, it was eye-level with the people on the second floor. (Queue to start waving frantically. XD) He landed on the main stage and continued singing and dancing. *pause* His hair was sooo KANPEKI!! And i LOVED the poses he striked to the rhythms of the song!! *start* They had many dancers on stage and the back screen was also showing images of dancers in the same costumes and setting so it really looked like there were a lot of people dancing on the stage! Hahaha, ok, this is a very lame statement. Basically, they made use of the screen to make it look like double the number of people dancing on stage.

Takki just before he moved back and disappeared into the video.
I didn't notice the phoenix motif on his jacket then.
Was too caught up in the grandeur of the opening number i guess. XD

During the part where there was no singing in the song (what's this called... interlude??), Takki walked to the back of the stage and two big boards from each side were brought in so when they passed each other in the centre and blocked our view of Takki, he kinda merged INTO the video shown on the back screen. So it became a video-Takki dancing on stage. The other real people continued to do many things on stage (drums toka, i forgot...) to distract the audience and suddenly the spotlight shone on the extreme right of the 2nd floor (between seat 6 and 7 on the 1st row) and TADA!!!! Takki with one leg perched kakkoii-ly on the railing and ready to fly again, this time in a red cloak. ^^ I saw many people sitting around there trying to grope him... young girls and obaasans alike. LOL My first show i was sitting just about 5m away from him!! KYAAAHHH!!!!!!! *heart attakku* He flung his cloak back (much like Count Dracula... LOL) and leapt off into the air. UWAAHH!!!!!! *MORE SCREAMING FROM AUDIENCE* Kakkeee!!!!! *goes a bit blurry-eyed* So His Highness continued to sing while flying in the air before finally landing on the hanamichi as the song ended. My goodness, the opening number was maji H.I.G.H... *fans self*

So here, Takki would greet the audience. From fans' reports, sometimes while waiting for the jrs who were helping him to remove his wire, he would cheekily whisper to the okyakusama under him, whom i bet are all GAWKING away, "Sugoi desho?" LMAO~~~ Mou, Takki! Enryou shite yo, enryou!! Hahhaha, but maaa, how can you blame him when you see him flashing his SUPER SUNSHINE smile and that SOLO DIMPLE?? *meltssssss* Yurushimasu!! XDD It was also here, Takki had a tendency of stumbling over his words. Hahahhaa!!!! In my 3rd show, he kept stumbling over this particular one phrase, it was so funny!!! Then he went like "Ahh!!! KAMIMASHITA!!! MOU YAMEMASU!" and pretended to stomp away and the audience burst into laughter. Kawaaiiii~~~ XDD I was trying to observe the obaasans in the audience when Takki did stuff like that. And they were always grinning sooo happily like little girls. I'm glad Takki made them feel young again. =D After the greetings and laughings, Takki would become serious (at least he tried) and ask if we knew anything about Japan's "mukashi banashi" ('history/folklores/old stories'). He then invited us to learn more about it from Enbujo and then exited from left side of stage.

The stage darkened and Yabu appeared. He started talking as some chibi jrs played behind him in front of this screen that was showing videos of olden Japan. It was showing stuff like imperial officials in the palace. Suddenly the spotlight shone on Yoko in an ojiisan costume and Yabu went over to talk to him. It was quite funny here. Hahah, yappari once a Kanjani, always a Kanjani ne?? XDD Yabu was asking him something and Yoko went like "Aho!" ("baka" in Kansai dialect). Their conversation went something like this...

Yabu: "Ara! Ojiichan, don't tell me you were from Kansai?"
Yoko: "Didn't you know, 120 years ago, there was a very popular group from Kansai called the Kanjani 8. Maa, most of them are pretty dead by now except for me." (Audience laughed)

Yoko-jiichan started talking about a lot of things, like how children nowadays only know how to play games and Internet and know little about Japan's history. Then they somehow brought up the topic of Shinbashi Theatre and then the scene changes. Yoko removed his ojiichan costume on stage to become himself and said something. In the background, a huge Japanese mansion set appeared from under the stage. Then all the juniors came out one by one carrying a lantern and introduced themselves. They didn't just gave their names but introduced it in quite a funny way. Just some of those that i can rem...

"The one from Music Station is Tamori, my name is Tamamori. (KMF2's) Tamamori Yuta desu."

"I'm Nikaido (same pronunciation as 'Level 2' in Japanese), the one who's taller than 'ikkaido' (meaning 'Level 1'). (KMF2's) Nikaido Takashi desu."

"People always call me kawaii, kawaii so I am called (ABC's) Kawai Fumito." (LOLz)

Well, their introductions were something in the line of this. I think this is the part for the 「少年忠臣蔵　四十七士」 "Young Chushingura and the 47 samurais"...?

Reference:
"Chushingura" is the name given to this real event in the early 18th century where a young lord was sentenced to ritual suicide for an act of disobedience stemming from corruption in the Shogun's court. Masterless and displaced, his followers came together and swore to avenge their master. Realising that their enemy was on high alert and not wanting to fail in their mission, they bade their time, suffering humiliation and poverty for a couple of years, waiting for the chance to prove their loyalty and adherence to the fading virtues of Bushido. They eventually succeeded in their mission and surrendered to the government, who sentenced them to death for their crime of murder. How truly this event displayed the virtues of Bushido is greatly debated by the academics but to most Japanese, it is a tale of bravery and loyalty. You can find out more details about this event here.
Interestingly, when i was reading up on Chushingura, i found this website and nearly laughed my head off. Apparenly TV Asahi made a special series featuring the Chushingura last year and anooo.. the leader of the 47 ronins (masterless samurais) was acted by ~~Benkei~~ Matsudaira Ken! XDDD

Since in Enbujo, the story is about the *young* Chushingura, i supposed their master was erm.. still alive (and they were not going to die anytime soon). Hahha~~ So after all the juniors were done with their self-introductions, the last junior introduced their leader, Takizawa Hideaki!!! And Takki rose from under the trapdoor onto the hanamichi. He then started to address the audience in chou formal Nihongo!! @_@!! At the end he even knelt down and bowed to the audience!! I know it's a Japanese thing but I was still feeling kinda awkward with Takki bowing so formally at me. (More so on the first night when i was sitting directly in the direction he was facing when he knelt down.) Heheh~ gomen ne... *whacks* What am i apologizing for?? =_=

Loracyn was asking me what those words on his coat meant but i didn't know.
Now i think it is some symbolic thing that the Chushingura wears??
Compare with screencap of TV Asahi's Chushingura below.

When Takki was done with his very formal speech, he removed his outer coat and walked to the main stage where they had this 3-sided structure hung full with drums and stuff that made sounds. IT'S ONE OF MY FAVOURITE PARTS!!! (Thou I have no idea if this part is a continuation of the "Chushingura" story... -_-;;;) 2 guys (was Okura one of them??) then helped Takki put on this hmmm... i dunno what to call it, decorative ribbon kinda thingy that helped to pull up his sleeves so that they wouldn't be of a hindrance to him when he performed the drum sequence. It looked sooo cute on him!! Hahhaha~~ Takki then performed this drum sequence within the structure which looked kinda complicated. At first i thought he did it impromptu but on my 2nd and 3rd shows, i realised there *was* a sequence. *whacks self for being stupid* Waaah, THAT many drums, he needed to have a real good memory... Sugokatta!!! And then and then, my FAVOURITE part out of this sequence!!! *squeals* He would move on to this big drum which was almost the height of his shoulders and jump on it and then start drumming it using his feet!!! The drum was really quite high and it was amazing how he leapt so deftly onto it. Uwaaahh~~~ *clapclap*

They needed to have some jrs stabilizing the drum for Takki.
It was soooo enjoyable seeing him jump on that thing!!

From the official stage pics.
See how sweetly he's laughing!! (Sorry for bad scan...)
And how cute that ribbon looked on him. *KYAH*
His top was black in this pic (taken from earlier shows) but by the time i went to watch,
his top had changed to red. (See above.) I like red better. But both cute!! ^^
Some of the Japanese fans on BBS were kinda obsessed with his big toe during this scene.
(Notice he's wearing this Japanese kinda footwear which separates the big toe from the others.)
It got them very moe apparently. Muahahah~~

OK, i think my post is getting too long that Blogger keeps giving me "error" when i try to save. So i shall break up my report here... Part 3 wo tanoshimi ni shite kudasai. And oh, comments please! And complaints and suggestions are welcomed too, if you find my report too loooong and wandering in every single direction.. But whether i will or am able change or not, is another issue. Hurhur~ Thanks! ^^

Enbujo's senshuuraku 25 April 2006 [Edited on 27/04/06]

2006-04-26T02:11:00.000+08:00

タッキー、大変大変お疲れちゃん
「城」は千秋楽までうまくできて、おめでとうございます！
そして、ほかの共演者とスタッフも、大変お疲れ様でした！
タッキーのことを見守って頂いて、ありがとうございます！
とっても素晴らしい舞台でした！

あ・り・が・と・う。
千秋楽に行きたかった・・・タッキーにあったかい拍手してあげたかった・・・
でもいいや。来年再開ですもんね？？^^
進化する「城」を楽しみにしてます！
でね、タッキー。とうとう終わったから、ちゃんと休んでね。
コンサートのことは・・・まぁ、来週から！(笑)
ごゆっくりね！
タッキーの城にいてできて、幸せでした！

Enbujo finished its run without any problems today!!! (or rather, yesterday since it's way past midnight) Special guests were dai-senpai Matchy and Uekusa Katsuhide (Shonentai) and they presented bouquets of flowers to Takki. Takki sang an extra song tonight which made the theatre became like a concert hall because.... he sang Love Spiral!!! LMAO~~~ He sure knows how to pick moriagari songs. ^^ I think there were about 2-3 curtain calls?? Then Takki said he wants to do concerts next. I am assuming it's unit con. Hora, hora kiteru!!!!! GIRLS, START SAVING EVERY SINGLE CENT NOW!!!! (Actually, i don't think i ever stopped saving for Takki. LMAO~~) Matchy said something real nice about Takki which translates to something like this... i hope i dun get it wrong!!

The staff asked me to say something here but Takki already gave such an
excellent address... he properly acknowledged and thanked everyone of the near 300 staff and also the cast members. I think I have got a very good junior.

Thanks to fellow Takki fans on Ray's bbs for the reports! Actually Kaori-san (Yoshitsune's director) also said something very nice about Takki too. Will post about this and more details later! And oh!! How can i forget this...

THEY WILL BE DOING ENBUJO AGAIN NEXT YEAR!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

p/s: Girls, any plans to turn vegetarian now?? LOL~

[Edit]

Hmm, it's weird but how come Blogger no longer lets us change the date and time of the post?? Is it just me and Loracyn where our option bars just disappeared?? Dithers? Bonnie?? Yvie?? Anyway... LOTSA stuff about Enbujo to update, so to save time and prevent myself from "derailing", it will be in point form. LOL~ Supposedly, it will be more "to the point", or so i was taught in school... many years ago.

- Other than Matchy and Uekusa Katsuhide, Hasegawa Jun also went to see the last show. (Ooh, it's kinda like great-grandfathers with great-grandson going together. But say... Hasegawa is about the same batch as Takki desho? Or no wait.. he's Yamap's batch. Jaa, great-grandson is right. XD)
- The announcement that they will do Enbujo again next year, after April (Girls, NOTE DOWN THE DATE!!) was first made by Matchy and not Takki. Hahaha~~ What an eager senpai. ^^ Takki was like "Eeh?? Hontou desu ka?". I think he already heard of the plan but it was only when Matchy made the announcement that it became official. Then on the wideshows, there was this junior standing behind Matchy (i tried to look him up in the pamplet but aiyaa, yappari, the juniors all look the same to me.. LOL So i dunno WHO he is...) whose face went like "ooohhh!!" when the announcement was made. XDD
- Matchy was soooo funny!! He told Takki he has a request after he made the announcement. "Next year, I have no work except for my live concert at the Budokan on 14 Feb... if... if there's a role which can get by without dancing... i will like to participate." Hahahahaa~~~~
- Through Enbujo, Takki not only grew mentally stronger, he grew physically too! His shoulders apparently widen by 5cm (from all the stunts and flying) and they had to redo his costumes THRICE throughout the course of the 2 months!!! O_O Sasuga Takki!!!! But as an eye witness, his BICEPS were also really oohlalah!!! Loracyn was sooo smitten by them and canNOT stop staring... hahha, ask her. XD
- Takki said that when the fire occurred last month, he was very shocked. But as the zachou, he realised he must be strong and hold it together for the rest. The Enbujo crew and cast managed to unite and overcome the crisis, deepening their bond. From the incident, they benefited a lot as well.
- The usual crowd at Shinbashi Theatre previously were people in their 50-60s. But for Enbujo, the age range of the audience stretched from the usual Johnny's fans to people in their 80s!! Kitagawa said that yappari "it was worthwhile to do it in Shinbashi". He wants to "protect Enbujo even for next year". ^^
- Because Enbujo was rich in "Japanese essence", it garnered quite a reputation even with foreigners (who me? LOL) and there are apparently offers from Las Vegas to stage the show there!!!! WOAAAHHHHH~~~~~~~ TAKKI SAIKOU!!!!!! There were also requests to stage the shows in other parts of Japan. *^-^*
- The general tone of the online reports as well as WS was about how Takki and the Enbujo cast and crew managed to survive the fire and bounced back stronger. Ureshii wa~
- Fans were commenting how cute Takki was when he had to coax his fans who kept yelling for him during the curtain call... LOL. I can SO IMAGINE him doing it. It is soooo Takki-rashii!! I love being his wagamama fan. Because he totally LOVES US BACK. Muahahhaha~~~ Yappari he is of GREAT PAPA material. *hugsss*

Takki: Don't worry, we will meet again ne. At the concert. I want to do it ne. But my head is full with Enbujo stuff that I cannot think about anything else yet.
Fans: EhhhHH~~~
Takki: Ok soon, soon! I will do it soon dakara!

KA.WA.II~~~~~ *blushes* And the fact that most of the audience there then were all at least in their twenties or older but Takki took on this tone as if he was talking to young little girls. Hahahha~~~ moe moe jyan!! WHO CAN WITHSTAND TAKKI'S COAXING?!? It was the same during his solocon when he asked us to be patient when Hidezo was delayed due to snowstorm. Oooohhh, yes, Takki. You are forgiven. ^^

Online news: Daily Sports, Nikkan Sports, Sanspo, Yomiuri

VIP attendance @ 24 Apr's Enbujo

2006-04-24T16:31:00.001+08:00

Tsuba-himesama finally makes ~~his~~ her appearance at Enbujo in the afternoon today!!! ^-^ With the Empress Dowager (aka Kazuchan) in tow. LMAO~~~ I seriously YELPED OUT ALOUD when i saw the news on Ray's BBS. I wonder if they planned to go together or was it just a coincidence... Muahaha~ Anyway, Takki must be chou very happy today! (Imagines his nikoniko face... kawaiiii~)

Takki apparently introduced Tsubasa in the beginning and did a Venus sign?? Muahahha... Lucky folks who went for the afternoon show today. Tsuba went up to do Venus with Takki but didn't say much. XDD (Shy kana?) Then, Mori Mitsuko, Ono and Aiba (Arashi) went for the evening show. And during Venus, Higashiyama suddenly appeared on stage to do the Venus furi too?? LMAO~~ The Japanese fans are saying yappari Mori Mitsuko and Higashiyama come as a set. Say, isn't this Higashiyama's 2nd time already? Or maybe he's just personal escort to Mori Mitsuko. XDDD Arararaa, now i wonder, who's left for the senshuuraku? Or mebe it will be like DB Osaka, where there were no special guests and Takki had all the attention. Sore demo ii kedo! ^-^

And there were DVD cams in the theatre today!!!! But no one is sure if they were already recording or just preparing for recording the next day... Gaah!!! PLEASE RELEASE THE DVD!!!! Onegai, onegai, onegai!!!

Enbujo Report Part 1

2006-04-23T18:01:00.000+08:00

Thanks to my bonus (which i think i totally deserved it.. hmph), I was able to go for Enbujo which I had initially thought will be totally MURI. I mean, it is just *THREE MONTHS* after Takki solocon yo... And it is still so cold!!!!!!

でもね、やっぱりね、「滝沢演舞城」を観に行ってよかった！！^^

Living in Takki's castle is so SHIAWASE~~~~ Everything was Takki, Takki, and more Takki!!! And he is the best master anyone can have! (I think Okura from K8 has totally fallen in love with him by now. And of course Yoko, who has been harbouring a crush on Takki??! LOL~) 殿！！一生ついてますからね！！

I realised how DIFFICULT it is to write a report about Enbujo. And I am BAD at writing reports from the start. Cos i always digress MAJORLY. And I am a scatterbrain. Not good with details. And def cannot rem chibi jrs. So if you are here looking for chibi jrs' news, you can leave now. XDD The rest, pls bear with me. m(__)m

Like I said, unlike DB, Enbujo has no one linear plot, but consist of many stories. The Japanese are well-acquainted with these popular folklores (guess you can call them that) since young but as a non-native, most of them are unknown to me. Maa, the one i know best is Yoshitsune but in Enbujo, the section about Yoshitsune was apparently about "a Yoshitsune no one knows". There you go. I know NOTHING about Enbujo then. (Except the showtime??) LMAO~~ I actually have to do a lot or research and reading up to write this report. Gawd~~ if only I was doing this when I was in school. Hahaha~~ So actually, Enbujo was really educational. In fact, they even had school groups going to watch! (Loracyn, i think this is the reason for the "mysterious queues" we see outside the theatre.) Of course, they had to take the 3rd floor seats but IMAGINE GOING FOR A TAKKI MUSICAL FOR YOUR SCHOOL EXCURSION!!!!!! XDDDD What I heard was they only put aside 50% of the seats for FC and the rest was saved for public sales so that more people (non-Johnny's fans) have a chance to watch it. I think usually for JE events, there will only be public sales if any tickets are still left over after FC balloting, which is mostly... none (or damn lousy seats). =_= *the woes of an overseas fan* This trip was entirely for the sole purpose of watching Enbujo which explains why it was so short. T-T Gawd!! The Jimusho should EMPLOY ME ALREADY!! i will be a VERY HARDWORKING T&T reporter. My dream job. I can double up as a translator for Takki when he starts filming with Jackie Chan too!!! Then i will actually ENJOY TOTALLY what i am paid to do. *sigh* ok, side-tracking here...

We managed to secure tickets to 3 shows through the help of my very kind Japanese friend before the trip. Wise move. Because there wasn't a single scalper around after the fire. I wonder why. Anyway, 3 outta 5 nights we were watching Enbujo. We were living in ~~the~~ his castle alright. My Japanese friend kept saying "You are crazy!!" Hahahha~

My precious tickets. And they all look different!! LOL~
I was even checking the serial number behind the Lawson one (with ref to the warning put up on J-net) to make sure it is not a counterfeit! Haha~~

Approaching the Shinbashi Theatre for the first time, felt so surreal.. KYAAH!! Can't believe we made it!!! I can SMELL Takki yo!!! =333 I wonder if Takki is looking at us from that row of black windows...

The front entrance of Shinbashi Theatre and it is actually quite small. Yappari it feels like a building with a long history ne (80+ yrs??), with all the brown bricks. The inside of the building is very new though. I think they just refurnished.

A HUGE Enbujo poster. Uwaaahh, i feel so proud like a mama is of her boy. ^^

There was this konbini run by an obaasan just next to the theatre and she was playing "Venus" single. Hahaha~ And oh!! We found this Enbujo parody on one of the stands nearby as well... LOL~

Tada!! Hahahha! Using the exact same design of the Enbujo poster but instead of the kanji "Takizawa Enbujo", they wrote "Hiraizumi Yoshitsune Ozen" (Ozen or Gozen is a formal way of calling a bento/meal set). Smart! *thumbs up* But you can see that the people have really acknowledged Takki's portrayal of Yoshitsune if not nobody will understand the meaning of this poster desho??? Ureshiiii~~ ^^

Once inside ~~Shinbashi Theatre~~ Takizawa Castle, it was a bustle of activities! People were rushing about to buy the special bento sets, magazines that featured Enbujo, Enbujo merchandise, and squeezing to take a good look at the panels of stage pictures and deciding which ones to get cos they were so expensive!! (500yen PER PIC!!) Then of cos, trying to snap pictures of the Enbujo poster, Amino Collagen stand etc etc... We were a bit lost on Day 1. XDD

The bento set specially created and only available at Enbujo!! It is called 滝こみご飯弁当 (Takki komi gohan bento) loosely translated as "Takki bento set". ("komi" means something like "included") KYAAH!!!! It has Takki (love) in it!! I think he said this is his favourite from the menu? Muahahha... 1500yen each! Pretty luxurious and expensive but how could we miss it?? XDDD Say, i forgot if the Yoshitsune bento set was more expensive... I think there was also a soba set but we didn't try that... Many people were eating their bento set during the 35min intermission but we all waited until we reached our hotel to savour it. Heheh~~ Oishikatta yo!! (Thou the rice turned a bit hard from the cold... XD)

Everyone was trying to snap a shot of the Enbujo posters inside the castle with their keitais or cameras. Silly, cos we were initially trying to hide our cameras in our bags but apparently they do not care. Haha~ 3 baka worrywarts. Been to too many concerts kana?? Similar posters were put up at the Metro Higashi-ginza station near the theatre as well. Gaah, they should just change the name of the station to 滝沢城 for the 2 months. That will be UBER COOL!! Anyway, i WISH i own a Japanese keitai. I was looking at the Japanese snapping away and one of them, HER KEITAI CAMERA CAN ZOOM IN SO MUCH MORE CLEARLY THAN MY DIGI CAM!!! Huh???! =__=

They were selling the Amino Collagen products inside as well! I tried the drink. Heehee~ It was not bad! It has this little bitter aftertaste but is otherwise nomiyasui!! And PINKU ne, yappari suits Takki. ^-^

They were also selling Takki and T&T related stuff like Yoshitsune DVD sets, Venus single, Kanjani8's albums etc. Hmm.. don't rem seeing Satoken DVD... if not I might have snapped... how much is it again??

Anyway, the crowd ne. Mostly females but I have also spotted families (with the dad in tow) as well as mother-daughter gumi!! ^-^ And there were quite a number of okaasan and obaasan figures!! Muahahhaha, 義経効果 kana?? And they don't lose out to us in terms of anticipation and excitement yo! I remembered seeing quite a few VERY HAPPY AND EXCITED OBAASANS when Takki went near them during the performance and they all waved to him like little girls. LOL~~ So heartwarming yo!

Oh dear, i think yappari i will need more than one entry. I have already rambled so much and Takki hasnt't even 登場 yet. Hahahha, gomen gomen! Guess I will post this up first and leave the rest for another post!! お楽しみにしてください！^^

Attendance @ Enbujo

2006-04-21T00:25:00.000+08:00

Before i start writing my report on Enbujo, i realised MANY people have went to watch it! Many people as in JE boys and VIPS from the industry alike. Very happy that so many people went to support Takki, or so I would like to believe that's their motive is anyway. Heheh. Not an exhaustive list but here are the names of some of them whom I am pretty sure went, in no particular order.

- Ken Miyake (V6)
- Domoto Koichi (Kinki)
- Higashiyama Noriyuki
- Kato & Tegoshi (NEWS)
- KATTUN (not sure if Jun and Maru went as well, but the other 4 definitely did)
- Actor Takahashi Hideki and his family (the one who acted as the kind Fujiwara Hidehira in Yoshitsune)
- One of Yoshitsune's director Kaori-san
- Famous scriptwriter Uchidate Makiko
- Minato Koichi (some senior mgmt staff from Fuji TV)
- Famous actor Nakamura Shinjiro from one of the important kabuki clans (I wonder if any from the Hanayagi clan went, the one Takki learnt his Buyo moves from)
- A group from the popular Takarazuka Revue (@_@''' but perhaps to also support one of their own, the girl acting as Kozue, or is it the mum? Haha~ One of them anyway)
- Some very senior mgmt staff from Toho (東宝), this famous movie production house (i am sure most of us will be familiar with this company's logo if you watch enough Japanese movies)
- Cast from Yoshitsune (including Kisanta, Jiro and Shizuka XDD)
- Kanjani8 (not sure who haven't went... but Subaru definitely did XDDD And i am DARN curious what he wrote in his diary to re-ignite the flame in TS fans.. hurhur)
- One whole slew of chibi juniors

I have this impression that i read somewhere that Ueda and Teppei (Cream Stew) already went too. Has Kazu-chan went? What about Mori Mitsuko and Kuronagi Tetsuko, since they both adore Takki so much? OMG, it will be the battle of the 3 obaasans then. LMAO~ Thou im pretty sure Kazu-chan will win hands down. Wonder if Jackie Chan stayed long enough in Japan to watch... Has Yamap went to see his dad?? And TSUBASA-HIMESAMA... Are you saving your grand entrance for the last?? XDDD Wonder if Matsuken Daira will turn up too... or is he too preoccupied with his just (re)married life? XD Has Matchy went? What about the Arashi boys?? I mean hello, Matsujun is a big Takki fan...

You know it's becoming a bit like Takki's examination musical. LOL~ He must be pretty darn stressed. Heard he was very nervous when he found out that Higashiyama was in the audience. Hahah~ But i love the fact that Takki's getting so much support. For being the person he is, he DESERVES all the love and support from them and all of us.

Then there was this reporter from Fuji TV's Mezamashi News who went to watch and she wrote her reviews on her online diary here.

I was invited by my friend to watch Takizawa Hideaki's "Takizawa Enbujo". At first I was wondering will we be very "extra" in the crowd, since most of the fans are young girls. But turned out there were many obaasans as well. The musical, from the moment it started, was full of surprises. The moving images that were used to enhance the visual effects, the magic tricks that got me fixated, the bungee stunts done right above the audience. The whole structure and performance was entirely a new form of entertainment and something that will attract even those who are not interested in period dramas. On the stage, the Johnny's Jrs work very hard for the performance and I began to have motherly thoughts like "from this group, our future idols will be born ne". But Takizawa-san is really sugoi! I realised anew, this person has amazing talents. He lets us be mesmerised by him. And we allow him to mesmerise us totally. The same person doing the feminine moves as well as masculine moves, he executed both brilliantly. I realised keenly that to achieve this, it is not enough just having great stamina but passion as well. (When I see Takizawa-san) on TV, I remember him as someone who has a very endearing smile and cute boy. But the Takizawa-san that I see on stage, he is totally a first-rate entertainer. Hats off to his professionalism. I received much inspiration/stimulus from him!

My Japanese ain't that kanpeki, but this is roughly what she said. To hear this from a non-fan, a non-Johnny's fan... i am sooo proud of Takki. *beams* It's true that Takki is no longer the top idol that he used to be, but you know idols don't last long. And I think he has surpassed that stage and moved on to something better. Let's all continue to support him!!! XDDD

Oh dear, i'm so motherly today. Hahaha~~

Enbujo Sakusen Hiatus

2006-04-13T02:18:00.000+08:00

I will be on hiatus until mid of next week!

早く言わないのが悪いけど、i am flying off to Takkiland to watch Enbujo in a few hours!! XDDD Sou, ima kara "Enbujo Sakusen" wo barechaimasu. I think keeping this trip a secret has been very successful... haha~ I am trying to not even let my dad know! I hope he doesn't come home THIS weekend, so i can sneak away and come back without him even realising. If not, he will start nagging at me again, "Why are you always going Japan??! You should go China, go and learn about history, blah blah blah...". -_- My ma said she wun tell him unless he asked. Yosh.. ahhaha! Even my own brother didn't know til just now! It was so funny telling him. He was just smsing me about getting a new mobile plan subbed under mine...

Bro: "Eh.. if i apply xxx phone plan can put under your name?"
Me: "As long as you pay, i dun care... but i'm going Japan, back only next week. So anything, wait until then. And unless absolutely necessary, dun tell pa i'm going! Hahah......."
Bro: "OMG! When u going? Tml? Then when can you go with me (to sign up for the plan)?"
Me: "I'm leaving in a few hours! Don't tell pa ah! Haha~ I quitted my job ler so now quite free. Can go with you anytime."
Bro: "OMG!!! You quit and neva tell pa? Aiyo..."

# Pardon the Singlish, i'm talking with my own bro! XDD

I just thought my bro's reactions are so hilarious! LMAOOO~~~ Anyway, pls forgive me for not telling about this trip but I have my reasons. I am sure some of you can understand. :) But I will bring everyone's love to Takki and try to write a repo of it when i come back!! Otanoshimi ni shite kudasai!!

To Jam: Waah, ur email was really full of anger. But i can understand, really. *patspats* I am no KATTUN fan but i feel sad for them too. Those pple need to grow up... fast! Sorry i can't reply you before i go, but it's weird you asked if im gg to see Takki.. ahhaha... I AM!! Will reply you when i get back. Hope their concert on 15th will go FINE. And yea, i am officially claiming Kame as my 小不倫対象. You can have Jinjin in the meantime. LOL~ *runs away from Akame fans*

To Dithers and Yvie: Gomen!! No time to reply your emails but will do when i get back! *winks*

To everyone else: I will be your eyes and clap loudly for Takki for you guys!! *chuu* Will also scan him up and down and up again to see how much weight he lost!! That boy needs to eat!! (and call his son and daughter...)

Dewa, dewa, itte kimasu!!!

タッキー！！！
今そっちに行きますよ！
お待ちくだされぇ！

p/s: P-chan's "Colourful" is so addictive... ...

New-found 自由 + 不倫 ALERT + 「亀ちゃん、負けないで！」

2006-04-11T19:21:00.000+08:00

*FINALLY*, i reached the "create new post" page. Gawd!!! i've been meaning to update for the past few days but always got super distracted by other things that by the time i realised "i haven't update!!!", it's already 4am in the morning. -_- Yea, this is super snuffles-rashii. So be prepared for a really loooooooooooooooong post.

Anyway, minasama, *I* have officially quitted my job!!!! YATTA!!!!!!!!!!! Hahhahahhahaha, mou hontouni, i should have quitted a looooooong time ago. It zapped sooo much of my time, my YOUTH, my already non-existent social life, my energy... and i dun feel like im getting reimbursed enough for it. Prospects also is another thing. Iroiro atta yo... but i shall leave it at that. Thou by the end of my stint with them, i really hated going to work everyday, but on my last day, i suddenly felt nanka sabishii. Thou the work itself sucked, i liked my colleagues. (Should i be writing this in past or present tense?? -_- Dakara i can neva become a English sensei.. haha) They were all very nice and let me amaeru to them. And they totally understand my obsession with Takki so it's always no problem when i want to take leave to go Japan to see him. But oh well, all good (and bad) things must come to an end so i shall learn to live with them. Yosh!! q(^-^)p Anyway, they bought me flowers and a fuwafuwa chou~ kawaii pencil case!!

You see how free i am?? Hahaha, i even took out the green filling paper that CDJapan always use to stuff the empty spaces in their boxes as backdrop!! LOL~ (My bedsheets are just too dasai to be shown ne...) So anyway, i dunno, are those flowers geranuim or sthg?? i am super NI.GA.TE with flower names dakara ne. And then that chou fuwafuwa hippo (kana??) with erm... zebra stripes pencil case!! It's damn kawaii!!! Hahhahaha.... i cannot stop touching it!! The opening of the pencil case is its mouth!! Imagine me fishing out pens and ruler from its mouth.. LOL~~ kawaii desho??? Maa, receiving such gifts, i suddenly feel like gg back to school. I always feel that when i received chou kawaii stationery. Demo... yappari school = exams ne.... Ano... can i go back to become a student where there's no exams?? I do dread the working life. I think i am so not cut out for the corporate world. Hurr~~ *Marry me, Takki! Marry me!!* (pls ignore this crazy girl... sumimasen) So anyway, i want to say this to my colleagues...

今まで大変お世話になりました！
また遊びに行きますから、お元気でね！

TSUGI! And so, cos i've been so free these few days (instead of looking for a new job AND FILING MY TAXES!! x_X), i've been either playing FFX or watching doramas. Actually, i haven been playing games these couple days. Cos just when i tot i will IGNORE that stupid chocobo race thingy, i got caught up in another CRAZY time-consuming side quest, ala capturing monsters to attain Auron's legendary weapon. My most apt response to this (where i simply cannot find another non-Singlish alternative) is: WAH LAO EHHHH!!!!!! (but don't worry, this negligence wouldn't last long. i am just lazy now... i still want to fight Omega Weapon!! *rubs hands*)

Yeah, so since i am NOT working and NOT FF-jamming, i have been watching doramas. Finished Gokusen1, Minami no koibito, Nobuta and on Goku2 now. In general, Goku's plots are really predicatable. It's always the students getting misunderstood bcos of their bad image stuff. Then there are people who said Goku1's plot is better? Then doesn't that make Goku2 worse? Cos already i felt Goku1 was chotto boring. But well, the eye candy saves the day! I shall get back to this eye candy later... fufufu~

Minami to me was kinda boring too. For the record i dun hate Fukakyo, i kinda like her actually. And i was so excited to watch this drama when i heard of the unique plot and that Nino's gonna be in it. (i was a bit into Nino long time ago, just a bit.) I kept bugging my fren to download and burn it for me. But then, i let so much time pass before i finally popped the discs into my comp to watch. Hmm... it's an interesting plot but the ending was kinda... left me hanging. They can't leave it like this desho??? -_- Lent it to Loracyn next and she's squealing how sweet the show is now but hmm... i tink BokuMado was sweeter to me. hahahha~~ Maybe i was very tired when i was watching it. I was still serving my 1 month's notice at that time dakara ne.

NOBUTA POWER~~~ 注入！*strikes the pose* LOL~~ This one, hahaha, has a really WEIRD plot!! But you will be addicted to it!! And the eye candy is まじたっぷり！P-chan and Kame dayo!! (hey, that's Takki's son and daughter co-starring. LOL~) i seriously have NO IDEA how the scriptwriters can come up with such a weird story. I mean, what's Kame's obssession with that willow tree in the beginning all about?? Hahah~~ Thou the ending is also kinda 中途半端, i really liked this dorama. It really makes me go like "青春だ～".. Hianz. i missed all the crazy things that we could do when we were young. (Thou i am still doing crazy things now. *cough*) And P-chan and Kame were.... uwaaahhh!! ABSOLUTELY KAWAII IN IT!!! P-chan's Akira character is kinda weird actually. The way he keeps pestering Shuji (Kame's character) and how his hands always flap up and down when hes on the stairs... hahahah~~ And Kame!!! AIYAYAYA!!! MAJI YABAI KEDO, I WAS SO ZAPPED BY HIM IN THE SHOW!!! *不倫 siren sounds* Kame always gave me this "super icy cool" image so when he was so yasashii to Nobuta in the show, i was kyaahing and kyahhing away. Hahhaha... at one pt, i dun even know how i wanted the show to proceed. i was yearning for some raburabu stuff but at the same time, i don't want it to be cos it will make their relationship complicated!! And i dun want to leave out Akira!! Aiyoyoooo~~~ so mebe the ending was left best at that! Demo ne, my affair with Kame didn't end there. So i bugged my junior to lent me Goku2... Yea, i am super YOWAI when it comes to yasashii guys.... *Takki, PLS FORGIVE ME!!*

Goku2's plot... no comments yet cos i am not done with the drama yet but AIYOYOOOOOO, KAME LOOKS DAMN HAWT IN THERE!!!! *不倫 siren sounds* And yea, he acted as the Kame that i imagined him to be. Forever calm and aloof. Jin could be jumping up and down beside him but he will still remain cool. LOL~ Actually i know Kame is not that aloof cos i watch Shokura and he's usually the MC, so he talks a lot. Just the image he gives people ya know. So yea, his character Ryu is SUPER COOL... and i begin to understand why he's voted Number 5 in that Most Beautiful Male Talents poll where Takki topped. (Actually i tink he deserves a better ranking than Gackt...*cough* Gackt is too visual-kei... doesn't look like sthg that exists naturally in the environment.)

Anyway, i tot Nobuta and Goku2 is really like Kame's show. He was the narrator in Nobuta and P-chan's name also appears as "guest appearance" in the credits. And in Goku2, thou im not done with it, it seems like the story kinda revolves ard Kame. Jin is of cos a major challenger. Must be all the Akame's fans fault. Why do i feel dokidoki everytime Jin and Kame gets together in the show?? LMAO~

Dakara, bcos there's not much stuff on Takki nowadays cos he's so busy with Enbujo, i started to look for Nobuta/Shuji&Akira/Yamap/Kame (which usu leads to Akame stuff) clips... *runs away from Takki fans* i started to wonder how come i never noticed Kame earlier. i mean, i went for Osaka DB and KATUN was there, but i basically was only looking at Jin whenever they took the stage. Heck, at that time, i can only recognise Jin in KATTUN. The rest is kinda blur... i know their names but can't really match to the faces. Mebe cos Jin is a huge Takki fan. hehehh~ Anyway, I AM A TAKKI FAN DAKARA!! I rem i was still complaining that the prices of tics were pushed up cos there were too many KATTUN (and K8) fans fighting for them as well! Then during the senshuraku, i was up on the 3rd floor 1st row and Kame came all the way up for Showtime. He was sooooo close to me!! Like only 3 seats away and i believed there was eye contact (also cos im wearing this bright yellow top). At that time, i seriously don't know which of the KATTUN he was, but i rem thinking like "Hey, this guy has nice sharp features", and then it's back to searching the stage for Takki. LOL~~ I think i told this incident to many people and they were all killing me like "IT'S KAME YO!!!!". okok, NOW i know ok? Hahahah.... but hmm... so why didn't i notice Kame before? Looking at so many (old) clips from youtube, i realised Kame changed sooooo much in the past 2 years!! He still looked like a child during Osaka DB (and i DO NOT GO FOR CHIBI JRS. I am no PEDO ok?? XDD) but he suddenly transformed into this mature-looking 美少年 in Goku2 and Nobuta!! *不倫 siren sounds* Could it be bcos of his super trimmed and arched eyebrows?? (btw, he has NICER eyebrows than so many girls i know and myself included!!! i need to EMPLOY his beautician... or if he does it himself, I NEED TO EMPLOY HIM!!) And the hair!! Aiyaya~~ And i think he has perfected his art of intense staring to Takki's level whereby he can zap you with his stare and you'll be petrified. LMAO~~ Kame really has very hynoptising eyes. Demo, maji kakkoii yo!!! *不倫 siren sounds**不倫 siren sounds**不倫 siren sounds* Take it from this oneesan ok?? This child has a bright future in JE. Jin looked super good in Goku2 too and extremely kawaii in Anego. And of cos, being yasashii in that was a super major factor. But then if i have to pick 1 of them now, Kame is the one that sends chills down my spine. His stare is really too powerful... Then, then there is this scene from Goku2 that has me KYAAAHING away again!!! YESH!!! the part when Kame/Ryu cried!!!! Aiyoyoyoooooo.... the visuals were kanpeki!!! The bruises were totally negligible!!

I can't believe it. But I actually found someone else other than Takki who can make it into my list of CG-level Kanpeki Bishounen... The only person who ever makes it there is Takki anyway... And my best (recent) evidence would be the visuals from that AMO CM... See below.

I seriously dunno hooooowwww the actress survived this CM filming with Takki staring at her like that!!!! And LOOK AT TAKKI'S SIDE PROFILE!!! He has one of the MOST GORGEOUS side profile i have ever seen!!! This shot is KANPEKI!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Someone was saying he owns one of the best sets of facial bone structure in the world. Hahaha!!! Can't agree more!!! And look at the beautiful bangs framing his face!! Uwaaaahhhh~~~~ Truly heart-stopping beauty.

I have extremely STRINGENT critieria when it comes to admitting pple into my list ne... How often do you people see me kyahhing about people other than Takki anyway?? Even Jin and P-chan don't make the list yet. Jin still needs to work on finding a kanpeki hairstyle (the one in Anego is close!). We all know he likes to flirt with the camera but to me at least, it is still lacking that PETRIFYING factor. P-chan.. ahhah... he's just tooooo girly cute!! But i tink he's getting there. I saw one of his CM... ganbatte! So toriaezu ne, 亀は合格！See below for evidence...

Kyaaaahh... for some reason, these 2 pictures PETRIFIED me... Kame looked sooooo gorgeous!! Loracyn said his eyes looked a bit like Gackt for the 1st pic... urgh.. but i have to admit there's a teeeny weeeny resemblance. But that's it. I will still pick Kame over Gackt anyday. Hahah~~ And the 2nd one... i swear Takki has a similar picture somewhere out there!!! Hey, even the hairstyle and parting is similar!! But but, dun u people think Kame look chou kirei up there?? And he's crying in the first one!!! Aiyaaaa, my poor baby, come here come here. *hugz* Snuffle's maternal instincts in action. Me cannot stand seeing bishounen cry dakara ne. 耐えられない！！ It just melts my heart... T-T So yeah, Kame is kinda now my 不倫対象. But I WILL ALWAYS BE TAKKI'S NE!!!! *Dithers!!! Quick leash me!!!* Thou it's kinda incestuous cos apparently Jin is also Takki's (illegitimate??? LMAO) son and Kame is Jin's gf so that makes him Takki's daughter-in-law??!?!??!?!? (Some say he *is* Takki's daughter...) Oh my goodness... ahhahahha~~~~~

And speaking of bishounen crying brings me to something else. (You have been warned that this post will be VERY LONG.) I was sooooo upset when i read about the yarakashi incidents that have been happening at KATTUN's concerts. (Yarakashi = disruptive fans who do not follow rules) I mean, i am not a KATTUN fan but they are still Takki's precious juniors so i want all the best for them even though they outshine T&T (in sales at least). Apparently some fans have been real mean to Kame during the concerts. They did really HIDOI things like holding up uchiwas that tell Kame to "go and die", "vanish", "ugly" etc... during KATTUN's concerts!!!!! OH MY GAWD!!! What has the JE world come to??!??!?!??? I have always heard that KATTUN's fans are on the rowdy side (since many of them are still only teenagers) but this is seriously too much!! And apparently during one of the concerts over the weekend, during the MC part where Kame usually leads, Kame just started talking and there was a girl who yelled at him to "shut up!!". Kame was apparently very shocked and some fans reported that from the big screen, his eyes turned reddish and he looked like he was gonna cry. OMFG!!! I WANT TO GO AND SLAP THAT GIRL AND THAT BUNCH OF YARAKASHI FANS!!!!! WHAT THE HELL?!??!?!?!?!?????? I don't know WHO these crazy idiots are. Are they fans of ATTUN or fans from other groups but this is sooo wrong!!! You do NOT diss another member from the same group. Nor is it right to diss another group!!! They must be too rich either!! Paying for the concert ticket only to go and spoil it, or worst, pay for the concert tic of a group they hate!! MANNERS PEOPLE, MANNERS!!!! STOP DOING SUCH CHILDISH THINGS!!! Kame apparently wasn't the only one who got such treatment but he got it the worst. I dunno why. Did he really say sthg wrong on national TV?? But he prob doesnt mean it... i feel sooooo upset for him!!! *heartbreak* It's the same feeling when i heard how sad Takki was when fans turned up to refund their tickets at Shinbashi Theatre. The boys work sooo hard it's only right to appreciate their efforts! If you don't like anyone of them, THEN JUST SHUT UP!!! This is sooooo ULTIMATE RUDE I TELL YA!!! For the next concert, fans said that Kame's eyes were reddish and swollen (prob from crying the night before) and he was extremely quiet. Their usual 40min MC became only 15min. ATTUN has to take over the MC part instead cos Kame wasn't talking. T-T Jin apparently became quite mad with the yarakashi and told them to keep quiet. (I think he told them off on his J-web too later??) And Kame was very nervous and kept apologising when he made mistakes during the singing etc. THIS IS SO UPSETTING YA KNOW... i admit i dunno the details which leads up to such incidents but no matter what, i feel the yarakashi's actions were disgusting. DOWNRIGHT HIDEOUS. They not only hurt Kame and ATTUN but also ruined the concerts for many many genuine fans. I dunno why nobody tried to stop them, because apparently this didn't just happen at ONE concert but kinda started since they performed at Osaka... HUH??? Nani??????? IF I WAS AT A T&T CONCERT AND SOMEONE DARES DO SUCH HIDOI THINGS TO TAKKI OR TSUBASA, I WILL WALK OVER AND GIVE THOSE PEOPLE ONE TIGHT SLAP EACH!!!! THEY CAN THROW ME OUT OF THE CONCERT HALL I DUN CARE (AS LONG AS THOSE IDIOTS COME OUT WITH ME)!! NO ONE SHOULD BE ALLOWED TO INSULT T&T LIKE THAT!!!!!! *SERIOUSLY FURIOUSSSSS* But luckily, most of T&T's fans are well-mannered. Everyone's very united during T&T's concerts. Been there, seen it, felt it. Even the Jr fans will respect the fact that it *IS* T&T's concerts and not Jr con so they will not make too much noise even when their favourite jr is not in sight. This should be the wayyy!!! Respect the artistes, people!!!! I am sure ATTUN will support their little Kame through this and it will make them stronger. There are already several "Support Kame Campaigns" going on it seemed and some people have apparently lodged complaints with the jimusho so they may be checking uchiwas for the remaining concerts? Not sure about the details but i tink the authorities are finally taking some action. *sigh* why did it come to this? I just hope such incidents will not make it more difficult for overseas fans to watch the concerts. Already it is so taihen to acquire tickets, so if they decide to become more kibishii at the door, we are dead!

I read many controversial stuff about Kame and KATTUN and KATTUN and other grps but i shan't say anything here cos i dunno how true they are nor is it apt with my half-past-six KATTUN knowledge. Or any other grps for that matter. I live in the T&T Bubble remember? But anyway, my new 不倫対象, i hope he survives all these. The damage to his feelings has already been done. As the youngest in KATTUN, the stress must be humongous. I hope everyone takes care of him and may he recover to his old self soon! Takki! I know you are busy to the core now but i hope you can give your daughter a call to encourage him ne! He will be glad to hear from you! お願い！

そして、亀ちゃん、負けないでね！
何があったのかよく分からないけど、やっぱり笑顔が亀ちゃんに一番似合う！
もうあいう人を無視にして！
亀ちゃんを愛して支えてるファンがいっぱいいっぱいいるから、あんな人は余分です。
もし亀ちゃんが泣いたら、あんな人たちが勝つんです。
でも、「勝つん」は君たちでしょう？
だから負けないで！！
皆の愛と励ましを力にして、千秋楽までがんばって！
本当のファンなら、最後までついてますから、一人じゃないよ！
私もパワーを貸しますので、亀ちゃん、ファイト！！ o(^^)o

Final Fantasy rants

2006-04-04T01:38:00.000+08:00

Note: People who are not into Final Fantasy (FFX for that matter) should just ignore this entry, cos you prob wun understand what the hell i am ~~talking~~ ranting about. You have been warned.

I think the folks at Squaresoft are not just geniuses, they are sadists as well. For creating such CRAZY SIDE-QUESTS to acquire the legendary weapons!! Like the person who wrote one of the online walkthroughs, I AM ABOUT TO HURL MY ~~BROTHER'S~~ PS2 OUT OF MY WINDOW!!!

THE CHOCOBO RACE IS DRIVING ME NUTZZZ!!!!!!!!!!!!

I H.A.T.E. chocobos now... i hate the BGM that comes on when i'm riding one. i hate their squeak. Dun even tell me they are cute, cos that silly chocobo race to get Tidus's legendary weapon is driving me up the wall!!!! The stupid BLIND birds that keep flying into me and my stupid-hard-to-control chocobo... and the stupid trainer that keeps BLOCKING me and snatching away my balloons i think i will need to race another 1000 times to get a perfect timing of 0:00sec. -__- Gaaahhhh!!!! Iyayaaaaaaaa~~~~~~~ My best time now is still only 10. sthg secs!!!! How loooong will this crazy side quest take????!?!! i wish i can IGNORE this side quest... but why must it be Tidus's weapon of all people??? Baah!!! Bad news is i am a FF perfectionist. I am the kind that must accomplish every single side quest, discover all the secrets and unlock all the legendary weapons. And Tidus is the lead!! How can i let him meet Sin without his ultimate weapon??? Dame, dame, dame. And the worst thing is, my Tidus is so weak. LOL~ Somehow had him wander into Lulu's sphere grid so now my Tidus actually uses (weak) black magic. LMAAOOO~~~ I had to spend one teleport sphere to get him back to his original startpoint when i realised EVEN MY RIKKU IS STRONGER THAN HIM!!! LOL~~~ And it is weird when Tidus starts casting erm.. Blizzara desho??? And to think all the walkthroughs by now states that the strongest characters should be Tidus, Wakka and Auron. Haaa... my Tidus can't even cast Haste. *hides Tidus in embarrassment*

Seriously, Tidus' weapon better be worth all the headache. i swear looking out for birds for too long gets my head spinning. But i got a new fear. Cos i am playing the international version and apparently they jumbled up the order of items in this version (compared to the original). If i only get some Mega-elixir for all this crappp...... *I* will jump out of my window.... only that i live on the second floor. -__-;;;

First it was the butterfly catching game that had my heart palpitating, then it's this crazy ridiculous chocobo race (did i mention i hate chocobos??!). Then someone reminded me of the OTHER crazy side quest... where i have to dodge lightning 200 times at Thunder Plains... GAWD!!! The Squaresoft people are sadist alright. That is where my brother stopped i think. He could NEVER dodge 200 successfully in a row. I see his Tidus jumping around in the plains for DAYS.... hahahhah... (opps, i shouldn't laugh) So up til today, he still has not completed the game. OH MY GOODNESS. i rather be fighting Omega Weapon anytime... why can't they just have intellectual boss fights to acquire items???!! Mou~

Anywaayyyyzzz, a friend sent me a link to this parody video of role playing games, particularly Final Fantasy. It already has more than a million hits and it is sooooooooo funny!!!!! I think those people who plays FF long enough will totally ENJOY it.. ahhahaha!!!! Yvonne!! YOU MUST WATCH!!!! (if you haven't) i laughed and laughed and laughed until i feel like puking, seriously. ROFLMAO~~~ Some people are sooo darn free to do all these, but i really must applaud their efforts. Hahahhaha~~~ They are obviously seasoned gamers and you have to sorta be one too to catch all the parodies. Hahahha~~~ Me, i started laughing like crazy the moment "Circlehard" came out and the brrrruuunnnnggg sound effect.

Dou?? LOL~ Caught the parodies??? It's soooo funny to see real people running so unnaturally in a straight line, one after another.. and how they barged into the person's house to examine his erm... girlfriend's undergarments even thou he told them to get out??? I LOVE THAT!!! Hahahha... in FF, we are forever EXAMINING things (or running off in a totally different direction to complete some crazy side quests) even when we are unwelcomed and there's like urgent missions (with high tension BGM) to be done!! It's like Cid's asking us to "hurry up!! the place is going to blow up!!" but nonono , we run into the worker's quarters to look for treasure chests. Then there's the part when the people run into the wall in the bedroom and keep on running. HAHAHAHHAHAH!!!! HILARIOUS!!!!!!! THAT IS SO CLASSIC!!! Then the part where they show "scenery" before the start of a battle... and oh my gawd, the girl is such a weak healer!! LOL~~~ And when she starts attacking allies when she's confused... hahahhahahah... alamak!!! *laugh until stomachache* And oh, of course... the summoning of the erm... *cough* aeon. BY HANDPHONE!!!! oh my goodnesss...... LMAAOOOOOO~~~~~~~~ Kudos to the team who made this. Imagine if i get my friends to go out with sticks and baseball gear and battle each other in an open field, i think the mental hospital will get us before i get KO the enemy! Hahahhaha~~~

Our boy turns 24!!! =333

2006-03-29T00:14:00.000+08:00

タッキー、お誕生日おめでとうございます！！！

Happy Birthday to you,
Happy Birthday to you,
Happy Birthday to Takki... ... ... ...
HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOUUUUU!!!!!!!!!

*MUACK!!!*

タッキーがいつも笑顔ができますように。
タッキーが健康でありますように。
タッキーが毎日楽しく生きますように。
タッキーが仕事がうまくいきますように。
タッキーがいつも後輩たちに素敵で頼りできる先輩でありますように。
タッキーがいつもファンの皆さんに優しいNUMBER ONEアイドルでありますように。
タッキーがいつもタッキーらしくいますように。
タッキーが永遠に輝きますように。

Takki turns 24 today!!! Uwaaa~~ time really flies!! When i first fell in love with him, he was only 17!! Hikaru no koro ne... natsukashiiiii~ Though it is his birthday today, he will be spending it at the Enbujo. Maa, i'm sure he wouldn't mind. He loves his work too much, that workaholic! LOL~~ I hope the fans sing him a real loud birthday song during Showtime!!! Dish out a huge birthday cake or something. How I wish i am there... to spend his birthday with him. Waaaahhhh!!! moe moe moe moe moe moe!!! XDDD

I wonder what the rest will get him for his birthday. Tsuba toka, Yamap toka, Akame toka, Yoko toka, Kazuchan toka (LOL), his kerai-tachi toka... uwaah!!! Ki ni naru!!! LOL~~~ yesh, i am one meddlesome fan. Heh.

Tonikaku, Takki!!!!!
ENJOY YOUR DAY!!!!!

*flying kisses*

追加公演＠滝沢演舞城 / Poll results ^^

2006-03-26T00:44:00.000+08:00

And so it is announced.

Due to overwhelming demand from fans, the management has decided to replace the 3 shows that were cancelled. They cannot add it at the end of April as the theatre is booked for a kabuki show from 1st May onwards. I think they need the 5 days in between to redo the sets. So the only way they could fit in additional shows is to add in afternoon slots on days when there are supposed to be only evening shows...

12 Apr 1300hr
17 Apr 1300hr
24 Apr 1300hr

I really think Takki is SUPERMAN now. Just look at that week starting April 9th!!!

09 Apr 1200hr / 1700hr
10 Apr - / 1800hr
11 Apr 1300hr / 1800hr
12 Apr 1300hr / 1800hr
13 Apr 1300hr / 1800hr
14 Apr - / 1800hr
15 Apr 1200hr / 1700hr

He basically only has TWO mornings off that week!!! @_@;;;

The overall stats will be 74 shows in 50 days with only 5 days off (not counting 23 Mar)!!!!
I should really stop complaining about my crazy 6-day work shift this week. Mine is NOTHING close to what Takki's doing. And he's doing this for all of us!!! *criesss* I hope he doesn't fall sick!!!! I can only IMAGINE the amount of weight he will lose, or has lost. Remember that time during Dream Boy where he skipped his meals because he was afraid that he will throw up during the performance??? Kawaii sou..... ちゃんと食事をしてね、タッキー！タッキーの健康は何よりです。

We all know how the jimusho likes to overwork a workaholic Takki... this schedule is crazy~ but I know Takki doesn't want to disappoint his fans. So all those people who are supposedly blaming him for the cancelled shows, puhlese, just DISAPPEAR from this world. You cruel cruel people!!!

Anyway, I think the first show after the fire incident went off successfully today. There was no more fire effects. I wonder if everyone clapped for him as best as they could. I WILL!!!!! Zettai! Read this from Ray's BBS, he said this to the audience today.

"There is the legend that Toyotomi Hideyoshi built the Sunomata Ichiya Castle in one day. Similarly, we managed to rebuild Takizawa Enbujo in one day. Takizawa Enbujo will not yield to rain nor wind, and definitely not fire."

They ran visuals of the re-opening performance on some WS show apparently and Takki was seen smiling. His suteki na egao is baaccckkkk!!! お帰り!!! Ureshii~~~ ^^

May the rest of Enbujo continue without a hitch. Ganbare, minna!!!

Moving to another topic, a major communications company ran a poll about "Pretty men" (綺麗な男性) and about 1600 women between 20s to 50s responded. When asked to rank who they think is the prettiest celebrity, this were the results. (Source)

#1 Takizawa Hideaki
#2 Hayami Mokomichi (who acted in Gokusen but i can't rem him at all.. lol~)
#3 Gackt
#4 Koike Teppei (one half of WaT)
#5 Kamenashi Kazuya (the K from KATTUN)

MUahahhahahahhaaaa, mochiron ne!!! i must say i agree with the results, for Number 1 that is. I am not being bias but you canNOT deny the fact that Takki is really utsukushii!!! Even my mum... she keeps mistaking the person on my wallpaper as a girl and kept asking me "who is this girl?".

Tolong lah ma, this "girl" is the same guy who is plastered all over my walls! LOL~

How come Gackt is #3... hmm... no comments. And where is P-chan?? (Dun you think he and Koike belongs to the same category??) He looks totally like a girl!!! So cute!! Always the cute Takki kouhai... hahaha... but yeah, he still loses out to Takki over the utsukushii factor. Cute is not equal to prettiness.

But actually, i don't think pretty is the right word to describe Takki.

Takizawa Hideaki, ladies and gentlemen, is beautiful.

Enbujo updates

2006-03-24T10:08:00.000+08:00

ENBUJO WILL REOPEN ON 25 MAR AS ORIGINALLY PLANNED!!!!!

YEAH~~~~~~

TAKKI GANBARE!!!

[Edit @ 25 Mar 0226hr]
Source: Yomiuri

- Officers from the fire safety dept, police officers and staff from the musical inspected the theatre from 9am to 4+pm today (24 Mar) to determine the cause of the fire and to double-check that it is safe.
- The cause of the fire is believed to be started by some confetti that caught fire from the fireworks used during the performance. This small pieces of confetti fell through the 3cm gap by the ascending/descending stage to Basement 2 below (the performance is on level 1) where stage props are kept and started the fire.
- Fire-proof sheets were used to cover the props in the basement but it was believed that the confetti fell directly in between the sheets. (Oh my goodness... how spot-on can this be?? -_-)
- The management had acquired the necessary approval for the level of fire effects that they had used in the show, so it wasn't a case of negligence.
- Officers review the fire safety procedures with stage staff.
- In order to avoid such incidents from happening again, Kitagawa decided that they will write out the use of fire effects altogether. (Awww..... those who saw the ORIGINAL ACT are lucky!!)
- Takki returned to the theatre at 11am today and recorded an apology message for the fans. The message is broadcasted (repeatedly??) in and outside the theatre for fans who turn up for the refund.
- Takki watched from a monitor somewhere in the theatre with a sad expression as fans turn up to collect their refund outside. T-T
- 800 fans turned up at the theatre today, and not everyone is there for the refund. (Some are just there to show their support i think. *sniff*)
- There were over a 1000 phone enquiries.

Takki updated Takiren yesterday. He apologised for making us worried. And yea, what did he say at the end that made so many people cry??? Mou~~ send me to Japan already yo!! x_x

もういいの。
タッキーのせいじゃないからさ。
そっちはもっともっと辛いでしょう？
そりゃが嫌なの。
タッキーが毎日笑顔をしてほしい。
それは私たちにとって、一番良い癒されること。
頑張ってくれて、ありがとう！

The day after...

2006-03-24T00:06:00.000+08:00

I stepped into office this morning and the first thing my senior told me was...

"Takki kinou taihen deshita yo!!"

*criesss*

I was talking to Loracyn last night when i suddenly recalled, at the time when the fire started in Shinbashi Theatre, i was actually asleep and having a nightmare. Not gonna elaborate on the nightmare but it involves ghostly things. *shudders* i haven had nightmares for years and suddenly... x_x How uncanny. And not just that, i was feeling very frustrated the whole day cos i was searching high and low for my pink Venus hp strap!!! I realised it was missing from my table the day before... but i dunno how long it hasn't been there!!! Was rummaging thru my table and drawers the entire day but just COULD NOT FIND IT!!!! *wailsssss* Was gonna go online and wail about it somemore when Jan dropped me the bomb... gawd.

- Seems like the number of people who got sick during the fire increased to 38. And 5 were sent to hospital for observation. BUT NO MAJOR CASUALTIES. Yeah~
- Takki apparently returned to his dressing room and stayed there until 10+pm.

Guess everyone know by now that Takki put up an apology at Johnny's Web. My poor thing... it's not even his fault. It's just a freak accident.

タッキー、きみのせいじゃないよ。
タッキーもこんなこと発生するのが嫌でしょう？
「滝沢演舞城」の再開へ向かいましょう！
あの時、また滝沢の魅力を見せて！
精一杯拍手してあげるから。
一日も早く、タッキーの素敵な笑顔が戻りますに。
よしっ！！ファイト！！=333

This is the space to watch out tomorrow!!

CLICK HERE.

The management will announce by 11am (Japan Time) whether the show will continue from 25th onwards.

*all fingers and toes crossed*

Fire at Enbujo!!!!!!!!!

2006-03-22T22:10:00.000+08:00

OH MY GAWD!!!!!!!! This canNOT be happening!!! There was a fire at Enbujo today!!!!!

http://www.tv-asahi.co.jp/ann/news/web/index_w1.html?now=20060322210307_56k

I came online for a short while and Jan sent me the most SHOCKING news ever!!!!! Iyayaa!!!! TAKKI DAIJOUBU???!?????? There's not much about it at the moment cos it took place just a few hours ago, but this is what I gathered from the news and fans' reports.

NEWS
- The fire started at about 6.30pm at Shinbashi Theatre on 22 Mar while in the middle of performace.
- They took about 30 min to put out the fire and 1400 people (audience) were evacuated.
- The fire started at basement 2 and the expanse was about 5 m sq.
- The cause of the fire is believed to be the stage equipment but not confirmed yet.
- There were no casualties but 3 people (staff and audience) felt sick maybe from taking in too much smoke and were sent to the hospital. (BIG SIGH OF RELIEF!)
- Of course, the performance was cancelled.... T-T

FANS' REPORTS
- Part 1 of the performance started as usual. But 30 min into the performance, after this particular Japanese umbrella dance, they dropped the curtains and on the lights in the theatre.
- The smell of fire and smoke was more than usual.
- There was an announcement asking the audience to wait due to some equipment fault.
- Within the next 2-3 min, there was another announcement asking the audience to evacuate.
- By then, there were already 10 over fire trucks, ambulances waiting outside.

It wasn't a big fire, but I think because the space is enclosed, it was rather dangerous. The fact that there was no casualties is a HUGE RELIEF. I cannot imagine what will happen if there were... Now everyone is worried about Takki, and whether the show will go on. There is no announcement on the Johnny's web yet. I don't know how much of the stage or props the fire destroyed...

Takki put soooooooooooooooooooooooooo much effort into this. I can only IMAGINE his disappointment now. And the amount of stress he will have as the lead. OH MY GAWD... my poor boy... I HOPE HE IS OK!!!!!

タッキー！！頑張れ！！
何があっても、私たちはずっとずっとついてますからね！！
ファイト！ファイト！

*wipes away tears*

Will update when I find more news... x__x

[Edit @ 22 Mar 1118hr]
- An official announcement from Shinbashi Theatre is out. Both shows tomorrow will be cancelled. They will refund everyone who's holding tickets to 22 and 23 Mar's shows. See here. (24 Mar is originally an off day, so no performances are scheduled on that day.)

This is from a friend who is living in Japan and told me what they reported on news.
- 22 of the staff had minor injuries.
- Apparently the fireworks went off.
- Takki is alright but he did not appear to the media.
- They showed a message from Takki (instead of the management??) who apologised for this unfortunate event, the usual zannen and moshiwakenai stuff.

My friend kept repeating it is not that taihen an event but I can't stop worrying. I can't until he is shown on TV alive and genki.. i don't want just a message flashed on tv...

タッキー、更新してよ！！！

But as if I have access to Takiren.... *kicks*

Final Fantasy / Takki's new CM

2006-03-13T23:44:00.000+08:00

I've not been blogging these few days cos i'm caught up in the world of Final Fantasy... hahah. Yessss, i know i am slooooow, but i *finally* dug out the FFX that has been collecting dust under my TV and started playing it. And yappari, FF series are forever so addictive. I rem i used to play FFVIII into the night until 4am in the living rm and my mum will wake up and yell at me to go sleep. LOL~~ But now i got my own tv in my rm so nobody knows... well, not that obvious anyway. Unless my mum wakes up to go to the loo and hears fighting sounds coming from my room... XDDD

Takki's got a new CM!! Woaaah, so unexpected. Like where the hell he finds time to do all these??? Anyway, it turned out to be this product that i was actually quite interested in when i was flipping thru magazines a couple of weeks ago!!! Never would have guess that Takki will endorse it. Hahahhahah~~~ Sadame da! It's like when i found out he was endorsing FFX. I nearly died of excitement!!! Wakakkakaaaa~~~~ So this new CM is for this range of health foods from Meiji containing collagen, Amino Collagen. I rem i was so interested to try it out.. i'm a sucker for drinks/sweets that are nice to eat and contain health supplements. Maybe cos im getting old...??? x__x *quarter life crisis strikes again* You can see a silhouette of Takki on their website here! I think, even if i had not known in advance that Takki was doing this, had i stumbled onto that page by accident, i will KNOW it is him... dun u guys think the outline is sooooo obvious??? XDDD That spikey do and all.... moee~~~ You can click on a link at the bottom to read a report of the making as well.

It's an office setting and Takki wears a white shirt. At the end, it seems like there is a scene where the OLs will have to sorta squeeze their cheeks against Takki's??? Takki was apparently quite embarassed and the director blurted out "kawaii ne~", which made Takki even more embarassed!! LMAO~~~ But oh man, WHAT A LUCKY BATCH OF PEOPLE THAT THEY FOUND TO ACT AS THE OLs!!!!! Kyaaaaahhh~~~~~~~~~~~ i can only *dream* of having my face next to Takki's.... T-T The report says that Takki's strong acting ability and smiling face was very memorable. Uwaaahhh..... hayaku mitai!!!! BECAUSE I LOVE TAKKI'S EGAO!!!!! *muack* That solo dimple... those ^^ eyes... moeeee~~~~

There are just days when I just feel like running to a mountain top and yell "TAKKI GA DAIDAIDAISUKIIIIiiiiiiiii!!!!!" *squishes Hidezos* Hahhahahha.... don't you guys get that sometimes??!?! XDDDD Today is one of them, cos i was watching a bit of Zubari and oh MAN!!!! This boy is too cute!!!!!!! Kazuchan is such a LUCK BABA!!!!!! ok, this is totally random. LOL~

タッキー！「演舞城」を頑張ってくだぱいっ！
綺麗な汗をみせて！=333

いよいよ「滝沢演舞城」だ～

2006-03-07T00:36:00.000+08:00

愛しいタッキーへ

やっと来ましたね、「演舞城」の開演日。
今までの稽古、大変だったでしょう。
お疲れちゃん！
でも、これからですよね。
滝沢の魅力を皆に見せて！
いつものように、輝いて！
言わなくても、精一杯頑張ってるのが知ってます。
タッキーだからね。
公演は結構長いなんで、体を壊さないように気をつけてください。
たっぷり水分を取って、ご飯もどんどん食べて。
痩せ過ぎちゃだめです。
休演日はあんまりないけど、よく休んで。
とりあえず日本に行けないが、シンガポールから応援してます。
４月の公演は頑張って観に行けるように何とかしてみます。
では、公演はうまくできますように。

p/s:今日、会社の先輩に言われました。「タッキーはね、本当この世界の人間？？信じられない。だって、そんなに美しい人がいるの？」って。聞いたらね、気持良い～～★

TAKIZAWA ENBUJOU STARTS TODAY!!!!

I wish Takki all the best!!! Pls awe the crowd with your performance like you always do!!
Just simply... SHINE.
Although we cannot be there, we will be supporting you from all over the world!! Ne, minna??

キターーー（゜∀゜）ーーーッ！！

2006-03-01T18:04:00.001+08:00

Just as i was spending my lazy afternoon watching a very omoi 「白夜行」, the postman came and brought me my T&T Calendar!!!! Wakakakkakaaaa~~ This is FAST!! I mean, CDJapan is slow if you consider the release date in Japan (22 Feb) but can't blame it since it states from the beginning on its website that their release date is 28 Feb. 28 Feb yo!!! And it reached me today, 1 Mar!!! Wakkakaaaa.... is that fast or what?? Totally wasn't expecting it.

I have read that this year's calendar is quite futsuu, I mean, how do you beat that crazy hilarious calendars from the past 2 years??? LMAO~~~ they were more like activity books than calendars.. LOL. So anyway, i wasn't expecting anything outta blue this time and carefully slit open the box with a penknife and open the box and...

OOOHHH MMMMYYY GAAAWWWWDDD~~~~~~~

_!!!

The picture that you'll see when you first open the box... it...it's... GORGEOUS!!! I was totally unprepared.. LOL~ Opened the left flap nonchalantly at first and sees Tsuba staring at me and was like *gyaaah* then flipped open the other side and there was Takki!!!! Staring out at you in ah ooh-so-flirty way as he lies back on the red sofa... *imagines myself pouncing on him* あっ、やべぇ～妄想しちゃてて・・・wakakakkakaka... *fans self* And the setting was sooo..eto.. royal!! hahahha, the paper quality and background colour setting and everything.... Muahahhaha... THAT pic really left me speechless!! (A different kinda "speechless" than when i saw female Takki *coughsss*) I was a bit disappointed that they did not continue with the T&T Magazine thingy. Is this Photo Collection supposed to be a substitute??? Anyway, the rest of the pictures in the collection were normal... hahahha, kakkoii T&T as always. Haven't really scrutinise them after the initial shock. Oh oh, but that Takki in shower pic... wakakkkaaaaa, Ladies and Gentlemen!!! His abs are baaaccckkk!!! OKAERI!!!! *waves* But i can't help noticing his chikubi, hahahha, not after he complains on Music Fighter that he thinks they are too small. I even flipped back to look at Tsuba's to compare.. I must be crazy!! Hahhahahhah~~~ And hmmm, やっぱりちょっと小さい方だね・・・でもいいや！大きいよりずっと良いやろう？？？LMAO~~~ 小さくて、可愛いし。*blushes*

A weird thought actually, when i first saw Tsuba's pool pics, the centerspread one where he lays on his back and the immediate one on the following page, somehow... somehow his eyes reminded me of Kaneshiro Takeshi... Nandaro ne?? Was it cos of the movie "Perhaps Love" where Kaneshiro had similar pool scenes??

Then, Takki on the Victorian bed... uwaaaaahhh, VERY INVITING INDEED!!! Yes Takki, i will JOIN you there anytime you want me to!! Just order me to! *ruff*

A very decent and high-class photo collection... that is, until the last pics. LMAAAAAOOOOOO, mouuu~~~~ WE KNOW YOU GUYS WILL NEVER SETTLE FOR NORMAL MATURE PICS!!!! Panda Tsuba and Doggy Takkiの登場！！！ Hahahhahahhaha, I DIDN'T FORESEE THIS AS WELL!!!!! For it to come at the end of this otherwise serious photobook!!!!

The calendar itself... ahhh shucks, it's a wall calendar again!!! WHY CAN'T IT BE A DESK CALENDAR??? Then i wun have to worry about spoiling it!!! Grrrr... there's no way i am going to hang it up cos it will simply tear the thing!!! Mou~~~~

Anyway, gotta scrutinise the calendar and photobook somemore later to decide which are my favourites... Hehehhe... but Takki's abs.... oooh-lala! *hearts*

A day of shocks... O_O

2006-02-27T01:39:00.000+08:00

Yabai desu. I can already feel the return of Takki Rush... even before Enbujo starts. Today in particular.. ha!! Shock after shock. Could it be because SHOCK is starting?? LMAO~~ *hits self for crappy crap* I thought it will just be another miserable and mundane Sunday where I have to work. Was bored in office and decided to check my email and there came the shocks, in order. End of boring Sunday. XDD

SHOCK 1. Takki's appearance as a woman in Enbujou will be used on the official poster!!! O_O!!! Mitaaaiii!!! It will apparently be juxtaposed with his normal "male" self in Western clothes. Ok... so female traditional Takki x male modern Takki?? Uwaaah!! Midokoro!! The poster was released to the press on 25th (??) in advance. Sanspo wrote that the 2hour make-up was "breath stopping" beautiful. Err... The make up or Takki?? Hahaha, aiyo i dunno. I just keep thinking of *that* kimono-clad Takki in the calendar... But Takki was pretty 自信満々 about his makeover this time. We shall see... ... I hope I don't get anymore shocks. It will be put up at main Tokyo Metro lines from 1st March onwards!! (Lemme guess, issit because Tokyo Metro is a shareholder of the Shinbashi Theatre?? Or because you need to take the metro to the theatre? LOL~) Oh gawd... kowai kedo, yappari MITAI DESU!!!

SHOCK 2. When I read the name of the person who is coaching him Nihon Buyo 日本舞踊 (traditional Japanese dance) for this musical, MY EYES LITERALLY POPPED OUT AT WORK!!!! I was s q u e a l i n g.... It was serious "breath stopping"!! The person coaching Takki turns out to be one of the heirs to the Hanayagi School, the most prominent school of Japanese dance, Hanayagi Kinnosuke!! Ok, you guys must be like who?? But the name Hanayagi caught my attention cos I was in Nihon Buyo when I was in university!! Then, then... with whatever little breathe I had, I slowly took out my Buyo sensei's namecard from my wallet and KYAAAH!!!! My sensei is a Hanayagi xxx too!!!! (In Japan, once they become certified masters of the art, they adopt the clan's name. This includes other arts like kabuki, ikebana etc.) I am almost positive that my sensei knows Takki's coach cos she's quite a senior herself!! In fact, shes much older than him! OH MY GOODNESS!!! DOES THAT MAKE ME AND TAKKI SCHOOLMATES????!?!?!??? *faintssss* My senior was like egging me to HURRY UP CONTACT MY SENSEI and aisatsu!! Hahhahah, but due to my crappy work schedule, I haven't met her for the past few times she came last year!!! Imagine I suddenly call upon her and ask about her erm.. heritage?? LMAO~~~ Iyayaaa, sensei!!! Oyurushi kudasaimase!!!

SHOCK 3. And can u believe how uncanny it is??? The IMMEDIATE NEXT EMAIL that I read after reading the above report was from my junior in the dance club, the current president informing us that our sensei is arriving in Singapore tonight!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! *chokes* I have no eyeballs left to pop... ... SUDDENLY, i want to talk to her very much... hmm... oh no.. hahah, this is too purposeful!!! shitsurei yatsu na, watashi!! *slaps self* Never used to make an effort to meet her when she was here the previous few times (but sometimes work DID really kill all my social time...) Demoooo.... KYAHH!!!! SENSEI!!!!!!! Never do I expect that being in such a club will give me some bimyou connections to Takki, a Johnny's idol. Winner... Maybe I should go relearn my Fuji Musume dance, the ultra duper loooooonnnnggggg dance where there's practically NO REPEAT of steps. hurhurhur~~~ Talk about the things we do for Takki... XDD

SHOCK 4. Came home from work and surfed around. Read that there's going to be a Zubari 2hr special again on 28th March and guess who is the guest????????????????????

JACKIE CHAN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

O_O;;;

OH MY GOODNESSS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! HE IS APPEARING ON THAT SHOW?????? Now you get a show where BOTH the host AND the guest LOVE TAKKI VERY VERY MUCH!!!! Muahhahahahhaha, MOEEEE!!!!!!!!!!!! I DEFINITELY NEED TO GET THIS EPISODE!!!! I am soooooo curious... what will Hosoki say about Jackie's future???? And and, since the epi is broadcasted 1 day before Takki's birthday, I wonder if they will celebrate for him???? AIYO!!!! MAJOR SHOCKER!!!! Jackie MUST be in Japan to discuss with Kitagawa about the movie!!!!!! I mean, he has no movie releases recently so this must be it!!!! KYaaaahhhh!!!!!!! Oh my gawd oh my gawd!!!!! And oh, does that mean he will go to watch Enbujou too??????? UWAAAHHHH!!! THIS IS TOO EXCITING!!!! Muahahhahah....

SHOCK 5. I thought this was it for the night. Too many shocks. But I just got an sms from Loracyn. PICTURES OF FEMALE TAKKI ARE ALREADY UP AT AUCTIONS!!! And Bonnie put it up on her site too.. Hahhaha, good work Bonnie!! You are just prowling the auctions 24/7 right??? LMAO~~~ I was trying to earlier too but nothing came up except Enbujou tickets!!! But the pictures...

OH . MY . GAWD~~~~~~~

Is that him????????????? That that that... white thing!! I am coughing too hard!!! *COUGHHHH* OH MY HOLY COW!!!!!! I NEED CLEARER VISUALS!!!!! He looks like the lead from "A Chinese Ghost Story"!!! Hahhahahahha, omggggg..... okkkk, it SEEMS better than the calendar kimono girl... demo!!! Gyaaaaahhhh, i cant comment cos its not clear enuff!!! omg omg, they gonna put this up at train stations??? If they put it up at Hankyu, pple are going to think its the new Takarazuka play!!!! Hahhahahha... Aiyoyo!!! he looks... so different!!! I need MORE TIME to digest this look.. wah cowz.... GYAAAAAAHHHHH *screamsssss* (p/s: DID THEY PUT WAVES INTO HIS HAIR????????!?!!!!???) 6 years i know Takki, he never looked soooo different before!!!!!! omg, i cannot think straight... i need to go back and look at Kamen Takki.. LMAOOOO~~~~ Oh dear, come tomorrow, i think there will be TSUNAMI WAVES of female Takki pics running amok on the internet.

That's it man. Enough shocks for one day.
I must go sleep before I turn hysterical...

omg omg omg omg omg..... OMG... OH MY GAWDDDDDDDDDD!!!!!!!!!!!!!

*sleeping with mouth WIDE AGAPE tonight*

「道」

2006-02-23T23:51:00.000+08:00

Kyaaah~~~ Apparently you can already hear T&T's new single "Michi" on the Kawai-juku website here!!!! Just click any of the 4 buttons under the heading "河合塾TVCM" and you can hear the song in the background!! Not the whole song thou, just a small part of it. The Japanese fans are commenting that it sounds V6-ish. Hahahhaaa~~ indeed ne!! I can't tell Takki and Tsuba's voices apart!! Gaaah!!! I need to hear the entire song!!! Is there a date for the single release already?? I bet the Kawai-juku website must be getting waaaay more hits than usual with this CM. LMAO~~ I mean like, who will bother with a juku (cram school) CM when they visit the website??? Prob just look at the course details and skoot! XDD

「１リットルの涙」を見るのが、３リットルの涙が必要だ。

2006-02-15T02:08:00.000+08:00

I never cried this much watching a drama before.

Not for Korean dramas def. "Autumn's Tale" was sad but I don't think I expended that much tears. I didn't cry for "Beautiful Life" nor "Summer Snow". Seriously, they weren't THAT sad. 「魔女の条件」 and 「神様、もう少しだけ」 were very depressing dramas to me but somehow, they weighed more on the heart, not so much the tear ducts. Actually, I am not even a person who cries easily when watching TV.

But 「１リットルの涙」...
(translated as "1 litre of tears")

OH MY GOODNESS. I really think I cried 3 litres. (and on a Valentine's day... x_x)
I used sooo much tissue, my dustbin was half-filled just watching the last 2 epis!!

My office is circulating a few dramas and one of them is "1 litre of tears". And I am not even joking but whoever watched the last few epis all cried buckets and end up with PUFFY EYES at work the next day. It's like a chain effect! My senpai who passed the last 3 epis to me, her eyes were swollen like a goldfish! (which goes to show that we should NOT watch sad dramas if we are working the next day.) My eyes were so sore after I finished the drama and I got a headache at work the next day from crying too much! And not to mention that the beautiful theme song keeps playing in my head... Uwaahh~~ T-T

IT IS SUCH A TOUCHING STORY!!!! And of cos, VERY SAADD!!!!! (And thought-provoking.) And more so because it is based on a true story!! Stories based on true stories or at least real events always tend to hit me more rather than pure fiction. Which explains why Majo and Kamisama bothers me so much. Nishikido Ryo is in this drama, though he wasn't exactly lead. But he was convincing. He's really good in it actually!! *thumbs up* I think I cried everytime he cried... x_x

Basically, the drama is based on the true story of a girl called Kito Aya who developed a horrible disease when she was only 15 and at the prime of her life. The disease is called 脊髄小脳変性症 (sekizui shounou no hensei shou) or spinocerebellum degeneration. The cerebellum in the brain (which controls the activity of the muscles) of those people with this disease contracts over time for an unknown reason. As a result, the person will lose control of his body gradually. And I feel what is so terrible about this disease is that it does not affect the mind. So the patient is entirely aware of the changes in his body, but totally helpless. There is no known cure. Just imagine how scary it is to wake up every morning and realising your body is slowly degenerating!! Being unable to do the simplest things that we take for granted everyday like eating, speaking, writing, walking, pressing the numbers on a phone, bladder control, etc. The story follows Aya (renamed as Ikeuchi Aya in the drama) as she battles the disease emotionally and physically. She keeps a diary as a proof of her existence and to direct her fears and forced herself to keep writing until she could no longer hold a pen. In the end, her diary was published and it helped to give courage to many people, those sick like her and inspired many others. The real Aya passed away at the age of 25 in 1988.

In the drama, the girl acting as Aya is Sawajiri Erika. She looks really sweet and has super long eyelashes!! I L*O*V*E her eyelashes! I am always staring at them when I am not crying. In the first few epis, I thought she looked a lot like Fukada Kyoko but not so much at the end. Her eyes are really pretty and she really did a fabulous job potraying Aya. YOU CANNOT NOT FEEL FOR HER. Ryo acts as her classmate Aso Haruto, who falls for her despite her disease. Ryo does not exist in reality but apparently the real Aya's mother wanted her daughter to have the chance to fall in love with someone (cos she wasn't able to in real life) and requested for Ryo's character to be added in. However, the story is not really about romantic love, but the meaning of living. And family love I guess. I was almost afraid to watch each following episode cos I too was scared like Aya. What will tomorrow bring for her??? She fears going to sleep as she don't want to wake up the next morning to find that her body has degenerated even more. The passing of time to her is scary. I always believe in this and this drama portrays this 100%. Nothing is more important than health.

I took some screencaps, mostly from the final episode. It may spoil some people.

I thought Ryo looks very good in this scene! And he seems to have mastered something that Takki is also great at! Exuding sadness. In fact, this shot reminds me of Takki! Ryo used to look a lot like Takki when he was young, esp the eyes. Anyway, it is soooo tsurai for Haruto (Ryo's character) to see how Aya have to suffer through each passing day and being unable to help. Kurushiiiiii~~~ x_x

OMG, this final scene with Aya and Haruto got me totally BAWLING!!! My tears were flowing out without control!! I was using tissue after tissue!! I NEVER CRIED SO MUCH!!! By the last epi here, Aya uses a character board (cos she can no longer talk) to communicate with people. She tells Haruto to "live". And Haruto was crying so hard!! *Floodgates wide open*

Aya asks Haruto to read her diary and when Haruto came to the last page, he totally broke down. (And I cried again. Heck, I didn't think I stopped crying at all...) There, in Aya's desperate scribble as she struggled holding a pen (at that time when she could still write), she wrote "Arigatou". Initially when she got the disease, she kept apologising to everyone for causing them trouble, but after that she learnt to thank them instead. It was really REALLLLY touching.

Oh my god, this is uber UBER sad too!!! Haruto looks up from the diary and sees Aya falling asleep. And even in her sleep, she was crying!! (see right pic) Thou they were kinda like tears of joy. Because by then she has totally accepted her condition. She was actually smiling as she cried because she dreamt of herself playing basketball. Waaaahhhhhh~~~~ Ayaaaa~~~~~~

Aya's father flipping through the photo album after she passed away and you can see Aya when she was still healthy.

This is the ultimate last scene and it was SOOOOOO touching!!!!! Aya has passed away by then. It's a dreamy scene. She plays basketball in the gym and sees Haruto then smiles. Finally in tengoku, she can do this. *criesssss*

Seriously, this is one hella painful drama to watch, but you cannot stop once you start. Even for people who dislike sad dramas, I strongly recommend this. Because I believe everyone who watches this drama will start to appreciate everything they have and can do. After this drama, I begin to see things differently and be thankful for everything. Thankful that I can walk, thankful that I can sit and type, thankful that I can hear my voice, thankful that I can be with my friends, thankful that I can squeal about Takki, etc.

The soundtrack for this drama is really great! There is the insert song "Konayuki" (meaning powder snow) by Remioromen. Click here for a performance of it on Music Station. They also sing another one called "San gatsu touka" (meaning 9th of March). And then the ending theme, this super melodic song by K (who has an incredible voice) called "Only Human". Uwaaahhhh, just listening to these songs make me wanna cry... ... T-T My favourite of the 3 is Konayuki!!! Makes me think of all the scenes from the drama when I hear it... And the lead singer sure displayed his exceptional lung power in this song.

で、皆さま、悲しいけど、是非、このドラマを見てください。
必ずに何かを学ぶから。

The real Kito Aya, she taught people never to take things for granted.
For her courage, I salute her!

Someone actually uploaded the entire drama with eng subs on youtube.
But before you click on it, prepare your tissue. Loads of it.

Ramblings while i wait for my download to finish...

2006-02-06T01:49:00.000+08:00

It is 1.50am. I should really be sleeping cos i am working tomorrow. But i wanna be here for my downloads. LOL~ Actually i am just paranoid of leaving my comp on overnight. What if it gets DC? But as if i can do anything about it if it does get DC.. cheh. I told my friend i am searching for Yoshitsune Epi 3 (the one where Takki first appeared) to complete my Yoshitsune collection before i burn them into DVDs. Cos the one i currently have, the audio track is terrible. It does not synchronise with the image and Takki's voice went soooo low and out of tune it reminds me of horror movies. And not to say how PERFECTLY APT the timing was. The audio was fine all the way UNTIL THE MOMENT SHANAOU (Takki) EMERGED FROM THE WATER. I wonder if anyone rems that scene. How uncanny is that????? I mean, the audio could have cracked at any part of the show but it chose the exact moment i was sooooo looking forward to. -__- So there I was grabbing my chair and squealing away and then the audio starts cracking up...

O_o!!!

Crrraaaapppp~~~ I HATE SNAZZI!!! Have i already not mentioned that???!?? *waves fist* So anyway, because of this lousy recording of Yoshi #3, i felt like my collection is incomplete. I don't want my first epi of Takki in Yoshitsune to be this lousy crap!! No way!!! NOT THIS EPI!!! But I need to burn this and the other epis out from my HDD soon (it's taking up gigs of space!!) cos i am gonna reformat my comp. So one of my friend was nice enough to help me get it from BT or something, since i cannot get BT to work on mine. And he is transferring the file to me now. And oh oh!!! IT'S DONE!!! Chotto let's take a look.......

Ooooooooooohhhhh, DAMN CLEAR!!!! I can finally SEE and HEAR Shanaou properly now!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Wakakkakakka~~~~ (and with Chinese subtitles, thou not necessary)

OH MAN!! THIS MAKES ME HATE SNAZZI EVEN MORE NOW. x_x I should get a DVD recorder. But then again... there's nothing left to record since Yoshitsune is over. Was doing the last synopsis for Yoshitsune yesterday and felt so sabishii when I finished. Very empty ne. Just like in the show. After Yoshitsune dies, the whole show just feels very empty. 没了灵魂人物，好空虚。Like even the streets sounded quieter. And then it ended with Shanaou in white running through the forest. Exactly the way he looked when he first appeared in Episode 3 from the water... ... Haahh~ Although it has been 2 months since Yoshitsune ended, I still wanna say. Takki/Yoshitsune has come a long way na~.

Taihen otsukare sama deshita!!!

Yoshitsune #49: Towards a new country 新しき国へ (FINAL)

2006-02-05T01:19:00.000+08:00

Yoshitsune informs his kerai that Yoritomo's army has already crossed into Shirakawa Pass, Oushuu's territory. Time is pressing.

Yoshitsune: "To repay Lord Fujiwara's kindness to us and for our dream, we have no choice but to fight!"

In Kamakura, Yoritomo tells Tokimasa to inform their troops in Shirakawa to hold until further instructions. He will have Hiromoto continue to pressurise Yasuhira with letters to surrender "the traitor" Yoshitsune. (Seems like he is not entirely confident of beating the Fujiwara either.) Tokimasa wonders how Yasuhira will react.

Yasuhira is in fact, terrified. Having never fought in a war before, he has no confidence of winning Yoritomo. He is unsure if he should risk the entire Fujiwara empire for Yoshitsune. (Unfortunately, he doesn't see that Yoritomo isn't JUST after Yoshitsune but Fujiwara's empire as well. Yoshitsune is just Yoritomo's excuse. His father failed to enlighten him before he passed away. Being the newly appointed clan leader, this crisis is too much for him to handle...) Yasuhira hesitates to fight against Yoritomo and gets reprimanded by his brothers for his indecisiveness. He leaves the room in a huff. (Hidehira had told his sons before he passed away to take actions immediately the moment Yoritomo crosses Shirakawa. I guess that is the limit as allowing them to get any closer to Hiraizumi will put them at a great disadvantage.)

Kunihira: "What is wrong with him?!"

Yoshitsune feels bad for being the cause of the brothers' arguments and tries to speak up for him.

Yoshitsune: "He just became the 4th Fujiwara leader and is reponsible for the survival of the entire clan. Maybe we should give him more time to adjust to this."

Meanwhile in the capital, Go-Shirakawa receives yet another "request" from Yoritomo for an imperial decree to Fujiwara to surrender Yoshitsune. Tsubone gets irritated with his multiple "requests". (They are more like an order, since Yoritomo knows Go-Shirakawa is afraid of him and will not dare to refuse his request.) Go-Shirakawa realises Yoritomo's target may not really be Yoshitsune and the Fujiwara clan but himself. Yoritomo makes him issue all these decrees to make it obvious that the imperial court is not on Fujiwara and Yoshitsune's side. Thus, they will not be counted upon for help if the imperial family ever needs it. Go-Shirakawa will thus be left to fend on his own if Yoritomo ever decides to attack them.

Utsubo goes to Hiraizumi to look up Yoshitsune. She brings with her a message from Shizuka to him. Shizuka wants to tell Yoshitsune to take care of himself and not give up his life easily. As long as he survives, they will be able to meet again one day.

That night, while preparing for dinner together, Kisanta tries to tell Utsubo his feelings for her but fails. (Silly boy.. haha~)

In Kamakura, Masako questions Yoritomo impatiently.

Masako: "Why are you still not taking actions against Oushuu?? Go-Shirakawa has already passed the imperial decree, there is no reason for us to wait anymore. If we defeat the Fujiwara, Yoshitsune will no longer be a threat to us. I am sure you understand that. I know you are not holding back because you are afraid of Yoshitsune's good warfare. It seems like you are trying to avoid fighting him. What can I say.... at the end of the day, you are a man who rules by sentiments just like Yoshitsune isn't it?"

Yoritomo gets a little irritated with Masako's provocations and leaves, though he realises what she says is partly true. (This Masako is reaaaalllllly evil and URUSAI ONNA DESU!)

Yasuhira receives an ultimatum from Yoritomo and finally decides to fight, not against Yoritomo, but Yoshitsune. Tadahira is terribly disappointed and disapproves of his brother's decision to betray Yoshitsune outright. Yasuhira then tells Kunihira that if any of them chooses to be Yoshitsune's ally, he will take the appropriate actions and there will be no kinship to talk about. Their relationship as brothers will end there and then. Kunihira remains silent.

The next morning, Kunihira visits Yoshitsune and bids him farewell. (Unwilling to fight against both Yasuhira and Yoshitsune, this is the only thing he could do...) He is leaving Hiraizumi. Yoshitsune is shocked.

Kunihira: "This is Yasuhira's decision. Hiraizumi is not the place for me anyway. (As in, because he never totally fits in because he was not born by the official wife of Hidehira.) Will you all like to follow me? There, we will be able to lead peaceful lives."

Yoshitsune thanks Kunihira but rejects his offer. He has promised the dying Hidehira that he will protect Oushuu with his life and thus he will not leave. Expecting such an answer, Kunihira takes his leave but warns him, "Kamakura is not the only enemy". Realising that there are enemies inside Hiraizumi as well, he tells his kerai to prepare for battle immediately.

Meanwhile, Tadahira is assasinated right in his own home under the orders of Yasuhira.

Yoshitsune soons realises that their enemy is Yasuhira. He can escape his attacks by leaving Oushuu but he chooses not to, as he is not going to let Hidehira's empire fall into the hands of Kamakura easily. He decides to fight Yasuhira. Utsubo begs them to leave as it makes no sense to fight. It is just 6 of them versus Yasuhira's huge army. Yoshitsune tells her, as samurais, they do not escape.

Yoshitsune: "Anyway, Yoritomo will not give up until he gets my head. No matter where I escape to, it will not end."

The kerai joke happily that they are used to being outnumbered. From Ichinotani to Yashima to Dannoura, they had always been outnumbered. However, that had not led to defeat. Utsubo is exasperated that the men are still smiling in the face of death. The kerai tell her it doesn't matter because they have already led a fulfilling life following Yoshitsune. Had they not met him, they would have died unknown and alone. But with him, they have lived their lives the best way they can and they have no regrets. (oh my gawd... this scene is so setsunaaaaii... T-T)

Yoshitsune decides to give his dagger (not sure if it is the one given to him by his mother Tokiwa) to Kisanta, which promotes him to the class of a samurai. He wants to give Kisanta a samurai name (like how he gave Kuma the name of Yoshihisa) but Kisanta wants to keep his old name as that is the name he had when he first met Yoshitsune.

Just then, one of Tadahira's men arrives and tells Yoshitsune that Tadahira has been killed by Yasuhira. He warns Yoshitsune that Yasuhira's army is on their way to his place.

Yoshitsune tells Utsubo to leave but she refuses.

Utsubo: "All of you are preparing to die isn't it?"

Yoshitsune tells Utsubo she cannot stay with them because he needs her to take care of Shizuka in the capital and to tell her that he will send for her when he realises his dream of building a new country. Until then, Shizuka must take care of herself.

Yoshitsune: "It is almost dawn. Now go."

Utsubo starts to take her leave in tears.

Benkei: "Utsubo! Actually Kisanta has always..."

Utsubo: "I know. I have always known his feelings for me... ... Kisanta, I will be waiting for you in the capital... ... ... Yoshitsune-sama..."

Yoshitsune: "We will meet again!"

With that, Utsubo leaves. This is the last time she will ever see Yoshitsune and his kerai. (Nyaaaaahhhh, SOOOO SAD!!!!! Even though it has been 2 months since i first watched this episode... it is STILL SOOOOO SAD!!!!!! i tink i will DIE OF HEARTBREAK if i am Utsubo... i will probably be lying on the floor kicking my legs in the air refusing to leave...)

Yoshitsune: "So, once again, please think of this as our final battle and fight with all your heart. I thank all of you for following me until now."

Benkei: "No, we should be the ones thanking you."

Yoshitsune: "Even if our next lives and that after, our relationship as shuju (literally meaning master and loyal servants) will never change. You will remain as my loyal servants." (WAILSSSSSSS~~)

Kerai: "Hai!!"

Yoshitsune: "At that time, we will be able to fulfill our dream of building a new country."

Kerai: "HAAAI!!!"

Dawn breaks.

Yoshitsune: "Come to think of it, this is the first time I see such a beautiful dawn."

(and the LAST!!!!! Ooohhh myyyy gawwwdddd.... setsunai yoooo!!!! setsunai tte ba!!!! DON'T GOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! YOSHITSUNE-SAMA!!!!!!!!!) The men take some time to appreciate their last sunrise.

Yoshitsune: "Well then, let's go!!!"

The battle between Yoshitsune's group of 6 and Yasuhira's large army begins. Even though desperately outnumbered, Yoshitsune's kerai fight bravely until their end without giving up. One by one, they fall... First Yoshihisa, then Kisanta. Benkei drags a dying Kisanta to one corner.
Kisanta: "Benkei, since I am dying, I want to pass the title of being Yoshitsune-sama's eldest kerai to you."

Benkei: "I don't want such a title!!"

Kisanta: "(laughs)... don't act reserved now..."

Benkei: "You will always remain as Kurou Hougan Yoshitsune-sama's eldest kerai!!"

With that, Kisanta dies.

Benkei: "How could you?!! Utsubo said she will be waiting for you in the capital!!"

Laying Kisanta's body now, Benkei rushes back out to fight with the rest. Jiro spots a group of archers taking aim at Yoshitsune and uses his body to block him from the arrows. With his last breath, he swings his sword wildly at the enemy soldiers before collapsing. (It can't be heard but apparently, Jiro was singing that "kimi wo mamorite" song that the kerai always sing together when he was swinging his sword away at the enemies before he died... x_x)

Next to go down is Saburo. He smiles at Yoshitsune and makes a "crab" face (since they always joke that he looks like a crab) before collapsing. Yoshitsune wants to go to Saburo but Benkei drags him away.

There is only Benkei and Yoshitsune left. Benkei brings Yoshitsune into a small hut while he stands guard outside.

Inside the hut, the rising sun casts a shadow on the wall which Yoshitsune sees as Kiyomori's folder screen.

Yoshitsune: "Kiyomori-sama, your dream was unfulfilled too. But our new country, the dream capital has always existed in our hearts."

Sounds of arrows hitting the hut break the silence. The enemy soldiers have caught up. Benkei enters the hut.

Yoshitsune: "My last request."

Benkei: "Hai."

Yoshitsune: "Please block off the attacks." (Literally, he told Benkei to "block the arrows", but his meaning is asking Benkei to protect him from the enemies so that he can... ... he can... *criesss* Well, for a samurai, it is more honourable to kill himself than be killed by his enemies...)

Benkei: "Is this farewell??"

Yoshitsune: "It has been hard on you all this while."

Benkei: "(cries) Not at all!"

More arrows hit the hut.

Yoshitsune: "Go."

Benkei: "My lord, I am most grateful to you. We will definitely meet again one day!"

He bows to Yoshitsune for the last time and leaves to take on the soldiers outside single-handedly. Even when shot by many arrows, he refuses to go down and continues fighting to keep them away from the hut.

Inside the hut, Yoshitsune stares at the folder screen and sees images of his dream. Slowly, he draws out his dagger and puts it to his neck. (I AM TOTALLY NOT BREATHING...)

Yoshitsune: "A new country..."

Yoshitsune cuts his throat. A blinding beam of white light shoots through the roof of the hut and startles everyone. Benkei turns back and sees a vision of a white horse in the sky. He knows his master has left. His duty is done. The soldiers shoot more arrows into Benkei's big body. Yasuhira arrives and finds Yoshitsune's dead body in the hut.

Yasuhira: "Yoshitsune-sama!!! Please forgive me!!"

Benkei's expression changes from a frown to a smile before he passes away, standing. (This is Benkei's famous "tachioujou" 立ち往生, literally meaning dying while standing. It has been adapted into many Japanese kabuki plays and literature. I thought his smile was because he is glad to hear Yasuhira crying for Yoshitsune, as that means he regrets his actions. And also because he managed to fulfill his duty, to protect his beloved master 'til the very end.)

In Kamakura, Yoritomo jerks from his sleep. He feels something amiss. Just then, Masako and Morinaga enter his room.

Masako: "News from Oushuu arrived. Yoshitsune has killed himself in Hiraizumi."

Yoritomo is expressionless and waves them away. He is totally not happy to learn of the news. (THEN WHY DID YOU FORCE HIM UP THIS ROAD???!??!?!?!?!?!??????? *REACHES INTO SCREEN AND SMASHES YORITOMO'S FACE*)

Utsubo returns to the capital in a daze. Everyone learns of Yoshitsune's death from her.

Kichiji and his wife sit in their house and reminisce about Yoshitsune and his kerai.

Kichiji: "I don't think I will ever forget him."

Meanwhile, Utsubo passes Yoshitsune's last message to Shizuka.

Shizuka: "A new country..."

Utsubo: "Until he calls for you to go there, he wants you to take care of yourself."

Shizuka: "Utsubo too. (Please take care of yourself.)"

Utsubo: "Hai... ... At that time, I saw a beam of bright light shooting up towards the sky in the distance. That could be Yoshitsune-sama's death."

Shizuka: "Towards the sky...?"

Utsubo: "No longer held back by anything, he heads to the sky..."

A few days later, Utsubo runs into Karasumaru (who has become blind for some reason), Otoku and Suzaku no Okina. Otoku tells Utsubo she can find Yoshitsune at Kurama if she feels lonely.

Not long after, Yoritomo invades Hiraizumi and detroys the Fujiwara clan easily. (I think Yasuhira set fire to Hiraizumi himself, in order not to let it fall into Yoritomo's hands. After that, he killed himself. One hella high-strung leader.) With that, Yoritomo gains control of the whole country. Masako cannot be any happier.

One day, Yoritomo locks himself in the altar room alone. He thinks of Yoshitsune and cries.

Yoritomo: "Kurou... ... don't hate me."

(Too late you idiot!!! You killed the man that was most faithful to you!!)

Utsubo goes to Kurama alone and walks in the forest. There is a sudden gust of wind and she sees a white figure running through the trees. It is Yoshitsune when he was young, when he was still Shanaou.

Shanaou runs through the forest carefreely.

(Narration by Otoku: From then onwards, I no longer receive news about Yoshitsune-sama. And there is nothing left for me to tell.)

~　完　~

Yoshitsune #48: Death of the Northern King 北の王者の死

2006-01-22T02:40:00.000+08:00

Yoshitsune finally arrives in Hiraizumi with his kerai. (Suddenly Benkei's hair is so long!!) Fujiwara no Hidehira receives them warmly and is very glad that Yoshitsune is back.

Hidehira: "You kept your promise and came back to Hiraizumi."

Hidehira thanks the kerai for protecting Yoshitsune all this time. Yoshitsune presents 2 locks of hair belonging to Sato Tsugunobu and Tadanobu to Hidehira and apologises for failing to bring the two brothers back to Hiraizumi with him. Tsugunobu and Tadanobu's father tell Yoshitsune not to feel sorry about it.

Sato: "For samurais, it is better to die in battles."

(Only that Tadanobu didn't really die in a battle...)

Benkei presents the Buddha figurine that Tadanobu carved when he was still alive. Yoshitsune tells Hidehira they all think it resembles Tsugunobu. Hidehira agrees. (Still don't see any similarity...)

Sato: "Lord Kurou, have my two sons been of use to you?"

Yoshitsune: "Definitely. The brothers have helped me in the best way they could."

Sato: "As their father, there is nothing that makes me more happy than to hear this."

Hidehira invites Yoshitsune to make Hiraizumi his home. Yoshitsune and his kerai return to the house they stayed in before and everyone feels nostalgic. The house is filled with things that Kichiji sent from the capital. Among them, Kiyomori's folder screen. Tadahira (one of Hidehira's sons) asks what it is.

Yoshitsune: "It is the dream country that we are striving for."

Later that day, Yoshitsune has dinner with Hidehira in private. He tells Hidehira the story behind the folder screen.

Yoshitsune: "Kamakura is not the place that I hoped for. I cannot see it as a place where families can live together happily. I can only see it as a samurai country. A place ruled only by the harsh rules of a samurai."

Hidehira learns of Yoshitsune's disappointment with Kamakura. Yoshitsune tells Hidehira he came to Hiraizumi precisely because he believes it is the place where he can build his dream country. He tells Hidehira how they can trade with other countries and make Hiraizumi a prosperous port city. If the country is prosperous, there will be no need for wars and suffering. (Woah, Yoshitsune-sama is talking internationalisation here.) Hidehira is touched to hear Yoshitsune's dream.

Hidehira: "Hiraizumi is different from Kamakura. Why don't you build your dream country here?"

Yoshitsune is touched at Hidehira's invitation. (I LOVE HIDEHIRA-SAMA!! He's soooo fatherly! He totally treats Yoshitsune like his own son.) He and his kerai begin their peaceful life in Hiraizumi, although short-lived.

Meanwhile, Yoritomo sends a request to Go-Shirakawa in the capital, asking him to issue a decree to Hidehira to hand over Yoshitsune. The messengers from the capital with the decree stop over at Kamakura on the way.

Yoritomo: "I will be sending one of my men with you."

Messenger: "Why?"

Yoritomo: "To protect you of course."

(GAAAAHHH!!! Yoritomo is obviously sending his man together with the imperial messengers to spy at Hiraizumi, and to make sure that Go-Shirakawa don't pass any secret messages to Yoshitsune without his knowing... *kicks*)

Kichiji visits Yoshitsune at Hiraizumi and tells him that Shizuka performed a dance for Yoritomo in Kamakura, a dance that tells of her longing for him. He also informs Yoshitsune that Shizuka gave birth to a child in Kamakura just before that. (Which means that she already knew she was pregnant when she separated with Yoshitsune at Yoshino. This is another reason why she insisted on staying behind.)

Yoshitsune: "Is it a boy or a girl?"

Kichiji: "... ...it is a... girl."

Unable to let Yoshitsune know the sad truth, Kichiji lies. However, his strange behaviour gives the lie away and Yoshitsune senses that it must have been a boy. And if it is Yoritomo, he must have killed the baby. (Because Yoritomo has always stressed to Yoshitsune how Kiyomori made the greatest mistake of his life by allowing the sons of his enemies to live. And Kichiji is one lousy liar... If you cry like that, how can anyone not know that something is wrong??!x_x I mean, if the child survived, it should be a joyous thing isn't it??)

Yoshitsune: "Kichiji, you have helped me a lot all this while. I thank you."

After Kichiji leaves, a heartbroken Yoshitsune says a prayer for his dead child in front of the altar, together with Benkei. (Takki's children in his dramas always have such a hard life, if any at all. His child in Majo died before it was born, now this!!!?!!?!??? *wails*)

One month later, the "spy" that Yoritomo sent to Hiraizumi together with the imperial messengers report to Yoritomo that Yoshitsune is indeed in Hiraizumi. Yoritomo decides to come up with a mission to test Hidehira.

He sends a messenger to Hiraizumi and asks Hidehira to send a gift to the imperial court, stopping over at Kamakura on the way. (I am not sure if Yoritomo meant for Hidehira to go personally, or just a representative from Hiraizumi. Probably the latter desho...) Kunihira and Tadahira are fully against it, as this will mean that Hiraizumi is under Kamakura's control. Fujiwara however, agrees to the request. (He is determined to protect Yoshitsune and isn't going to let such a petty thing affect him. Erai!! Sasuga Lord Hidehira!)

That night, Yoshitsune apologises to Hidehira, for having to put his pride down in front of Yoritomo to protect him. Hidehira tells Yoshitsune he has seen this coming the moment he decided to protect him.

Yoshitsune: "It is all because I came here that I set Kamakura after you."

Hidehira: "No. Even if you did not come here, he will come after me eventually. Now that he finally managed to defeat the Heike, he will definitely come after Hiraizumi. Without us, he will have total control. I am acceding to his request this time not just because of you, but also for the sake of the Fujiwara clan. (Kinda like to buy time before he goes all out against Kamakura.) Kurou, I think of you as one of my sons. Therefore I will risk Oushu, Fujiwara and all I have to fight him!"

Yoshitsune is very touched to hear that from Hidehira. (SO AM I!!!!!!!!!!)

Masako and Tokimasa congratulates Yoritomo, hearing that Hidehira is acceding to his request.

Masako: "Now even Lord Hidehira has to bow to you."

Yoritomo thinks otherwise. He knows that Hidehira does not really pledge allegiance to him. He tells Masako and her father that Hidehira, by sending him so many gifts, is indirectly telling him that Hiraizumi is rich and strong in resources. Now is not the time to go against the Fujiwara clan yet.

One night in autumn, Hidehira announces that Yasuhira will be his successor.

Hidehira: "Should anything happen, you will have to protect the Fujiwara..."

Suddenly he collapses to the shock of everyone. Hidehira falls into a subconscious state and his health takes a rapidly downturn. Yasuhira starts to panick and confesses to his brothers that he has no confidence to be Fujiwara's 4th successor yet. His brothers tell him to calm down. They will help him no matter what. (Mou... Yasuhira is such a... -_-)

One and a half month later, Yoshitsune is called to gather in Hidehira's room. Yoshitsune knows the time has come.

A dying Hidehira asks his three sons to assist and support Yoshitsune to protect Hiraizumi from Kamakura. Hiraizumi must not fall into Yoritomo's hands.

Hidehira: "Kurou, please... yoshinani."

(Note: "Yoshinani" means "yoroshiku". I don't know how to translate that to English...)

With that as his last words, Hidehira slips into eternal slumber. He was 66. (And poor Yoshitsune loses a father again, for the third time.... T-T But then again, it is better that Hidehira do not live to see what Yasuhira did to Hiraizumi...)

Yoritomo learns of Hidehira's death and realises the time is ripe. They can now plan to take down the Fujiwara clan and Yoshitsune. He has Go-Shirakawa issue another decree to the Fujiwara clan, to hand over Yoshitsune. Yasuhira and his brothers assure Yoshitsune that they will never hand him over. They will stand by their father's dying wishes and support him.

Yasuhira sends a letter to Yoritomo, telling him that Yoshitsune is not in Hiraizumi. Yoritomo tells from the letter that Yasuhira is weak because he chooses to lie to him rather than oppose him outright. He believe Yasuhira will crumble eventually if he continues to press him. He will make use of Yasuhira's weakness to topple the Fujiwara clan. He starts to pressurise Yasuhira to hand over Yoshitsune via letters.

One day, Hiraizumi receives news that Kamakura has already released a huge army that is heading towards Hiraizumi. Kunihira and Tadahira as well as Yoshitsune agrees that they should lead an army out to fight them instead of waiting in Hiraizumi for them to arrive. Yasuhira however, is paranoid about fighting against Kamakura without any imperial decree (who is sort of like "endorsed" by the imperial family, so fighting them is akin to treachery).

Kunihira: "Forget about the imperial family! It is the survival of Fujiwara Clan that matters the most!"

Tadahira: "What do you think, Lord Kurou?"

Yoshitsune: "The enemy is no longer just after Oushu but the entire country. We must not let him cross into our territory. We have to go out and meet them! Lord Hidehira has shown me much benevolence and as a way to repay this kindness, I will volunteer to lead this army!"

Kunihira and Tadahira second Yoshitsune's decision and declares they will follow him. Yasuhira remains quiet but looks terrified.

Leaving the room, Benkei asks Yoshitsune...

Benkei: "Engaging in a battle will be..."

Yoshitsune: "I know. I will be fighting against my own brother. But that doesn't matter anymore. I have already made up my mind."

(Narration: Yoshitsune and Yoritomo, both in pursuit of their dream country, will engage in their final battle.)

~ End of episode 48 ~

Venus Odaiba Fan Event (17 Jan) / "Venus" release!!! and etc...

2006-01-17T23:29:00.000+08:00

I finally realised why T&T have to hold the Venus Fan Event in Odaiba... call me slow, but because they have a Victorian/Europeean-themed shopping mall in that area called Venus Fort!!

LMAO~~ How can i forget? I used to make it a point to go Odaiba everytime I go Japan. Well, not exactly to go Venus Fort (cos the shops there are expensive and apparently there is a casino there??!) but rather to ride on my FAVOURITE FERRIS WHEEL!!! It is located just next to Venus Fort and this Palette Town place.

The ferris wheel that Hikaru and Michi took in Majo no Jouken, the drama that started everything, for me at least. And I generally like Odaiba too because it's less crowded than central Tokyo.. and so uber romantic!! A perfect dating place! If only I can get Takki as a date... lol~~ Anyway, i totally forgot that the event is today. Funny, if not i would be plotting to go.. Hahahha!! Joudan, joudan!! Muri yo... Already the HK/Macau event gave me so much heartache... 行きたいけど、行けないのがつ・ら・い。Maa ii ya! Toriaezu, we can always depend on fan reports. Hurhurhur~ Just some info in point form...

- The Venus event is held at Venus Fort in Odaiba on 17 Jan and attended by about 500 people. I think the event is on an invitational basis. You have to apply for it. So what... it's in an enclosed area?? If not how can you prevent other pple from going? *shrugs*

- T&T wore the same white suits as in the PV. And everyone can see Takki's new hairstyle!!! Kyaaaaah!! Chou ki ni naru!!! What is it like??? How much did he chop off again??? But fans' comments were all good though... mitai mitai!!! We know his DEFINED jawline and SUPER KANPEKI side profile can carry off ~~ANY~~ MOST STYLES but still... mitai mitai mitai!!!

- They sang Venus once and then invited some fans onstage!!! Then they taught the Venus dance moves to them. Some of them were chibikkos and T&T were very yasashii while teaching them. *heart* Tsubasa was the main instructor and Takki was more like an assistant.. LMAO~ Kawaiiii.. if i can find such kawaii dance instructors, I WILL BE TAKING UP DANCE LESSONS!!! Yes, this coming from a super inflexible snuffles. XDD

- Halfway through the event they had to record an interview for a wideshow. The reporter commented that it is very sugoi that all the fans' dances are already kanpeki even before the single release. Takki replied that it is because "Our fans are all very smart"... Fufufu~ Okage-sama dayo, Takki!! For making the dance lessons during your concert so much fun!! And the way Takki talked of his fans was as if we are all his children. LOL... He said "fan no ko-tachi". *moe*

- Tsubasa said that many salarymen seemed to hear "Venus" as "Bonus". And moreover with the okane (money) sign... ROFLMAOOO~~~~~~ He suggested to the salarymen to dance Venus/Bonus in front of their shacho!! Oh my goodness.. ahhahahahha!!!!! Baka!

- When asked about his foot injury, Tsubasa said he is focusing on his treatment now as well as the rehearsals for Shock. Demo, these 2 are like complete opposites. How can you heal properly while rehearsing for the musical??? KAWAII SOU!!!! 無理しないでね！！

- The stage was supposedly very near to the fans. A lot of them felt like they made eye contact with T&T... Uwaaah... reminds me of the Thai concert!!! KYAAHHH~~~

So yah, that's about it that I read.... Oh, T&T are appearing on Waratte ii tomo tomorrow!! Eh?? Again?? Oh but this time, together!!! XDDD And not just that, they will be on Mezamashi and Zoomin too! Mouuu~~~ i'm so envious of the fans in Japan!!! They get to see T&T from day til night!! But seriously... this Venus rush... i am running out of space in my organiser just noting down what shows they are gonna be on!!! XDDDD

And my friend called me from Japan. She said Venus single already out in stores.. though tomorrow is the official release day. But maaa, this ain't the first time they released early ne. She said that the keitai strap comes with this metallic roundish tag which has "T&T" on it or something. She only saw black and blue. I suspect the missing colour is red or pink, and yappari it is. Only i am not sure is it RED or PINK... And the straps aren't concealed like I thought they would be??? Oh great... now i am suddenly very concerned about the colour i will get... gaaaahhh.... Many of the fans rushed out during lunchtime to get the singles. Hahaha, i would too!! And they were all itching at work cos they wanna go home to watch the DVD and listen to the CD!! Then many of them got very emotional listening to "Kimi no na wo yobitai" because it reminds them of Takki solocon.... OH DEAR... WHY DO I THINK I WILL BE THE SAME??!?!?!?? T-T

Takki apparently updated his Takiren! Vol 201! Sometimes I wish some kind soul will send me what he wrote.. cos i have to guess from fan's reactions. But anyway, seemed like he took a picture of his hair on the salon floor after he had his hair cut?? Hahahha... Mou, the joys of having a camera phone. And he said he sang Venus while soaking in the bathtub. He requested to fans to help promote Venus to friends. Hehehe, NO PROBLEM!! (Thou it is a chotto urusai song... LOL)

And oh.... read something amazing... Apparently Takki went to stay at an onsen hotel in Atami on 3rd Jan with the Yoshitsune crew, which included Nan-chan (Saburo) and Ito-kun (Kisanta). A total of about 20 people! This was revealed on a radio show co-hosted by Nan-chan. Nan-chan said he was shocked they managed to gather so many people. Takki had driven him and some other people to Atami in his car (kakkoiii!!). And if I din hear wrongly, Takki apparently was the one who booked all the rooms and PAID FOR EVERYONE!!!! EHHH??!?!?!?!?!?????? How GENEROUS can this guy get??? He really LOVES to treat people ne??? Like this is a popular onsen resort area and it is the peak new year season!! One person a night will easily cost about 2-30,000JPY and Takki paid for all 20 people???!? @_@!! Nan-chan was saying he was sooo shocked and told Takki "Chotto matte!! Let everyone pay for themselves" but Takki insisted. And it is his nonchalance of offering to pay for everyone at checkout that got Nan-chan and the rest so impressed. Now we all know Takki isn't freaking rich... how underpaid he is compared to all the work he does but he never hesitates to pick up the bill. He said in another mag interview before, thing he will never do. And one of them was, he will never let a girl pay for the bill. KAKKOIII!!! OTOKO-MAE!!! SUGOI!!!!

To hear the talk, go to Wannan Time's website and click on the black rectangular button. Nan-chan started talking about it at 11:00 onwards. You can hear how AMAZED the other host was at Takki's generousity and kakkoii-ness. He just goes "Kakkoii" "Sugeee!!" "Maji de??!".... XDDD
まじだよ。家のタッキーはそんな素敵な子ですよ！^^

I am also very happy to hear that he is taking some time to get some rest. He sooooo deserves it!!!

それでは、「ＶＥＮＵＳ」の発売、おめでとうございます！！！
第一位に行こうぜ！

Atsuku Venus, moete Venus~~~ *heart*