Praise the Lord, I have internet again!!!!!!! After calling number after number trying to get assistance from the internet company, I finally got someone to come to my apartment and take a look at it today. Turns out that I wasn’t just failing at reading the Japanese instruction manual. There was actually something wrong with my modem, but it’s been replaced, and all is well now.
In order to celebrate, a small slew (is there such a thing?) of animated gifs from Morning Musume’s latest concert DVD (Haru Single Daizenshuu). I think that with gif files, less is more on a page, so I’m going to break this up into a bunch of entries with just 4 .gifs each. I’m hoping this will prevent anyone from having seizures while watching all of them do their thing at once.
Maniacal Koharu. Please keep away from animals and small children.
Gaki-san is fierce
yessss
Where does the loop start and end? I’m not telling.
Just to let you know, I’m converting my old livejournal into a journal detailing the non-Jpop related portions of my experience in Japan. I don’t want to clutter my J-pop blogs with that kind of stuff. If you are interested, the link is HERE
Just so ya’ know, I leave for Japan tomorrow, which means you can’t expect any real updates from me for a little while. I haven’t been writing much lately because I’ve been busy preparing, and I don’t plan of getting back to blogging until I’m settled in Japan. Don’t worry! I am not abandoning this blog at all, and I’ll be back just as soon as I have a chance.
Before I go, this just in: Chisato has solo lines in C-ute’s new single!!!!!!!!!!! My prayers have finally been answered. I’ll take this as a good omen for my trip.
I just found out a lot of information about my new job (finally). I’ll be teaching at 2 elementary schools and a Junior High. At the Junior High I’ll be assisting the real teacher, but at the elementary schools, I’m in charge. Like, I’m THE English teacher. OMG! Alone in a classroom full of little Japanese kids. Scary! And you know they hardly speak any English at all… I think I’ll be at each of the elementary schools one day a week and at the Junior High the other 3 days.
My new apartment sounds great too. No more than 5 minutes from the station, grocery store, and my workplace, and it has a balcony and everything. Air-conditioning, internet, washing machine, TV, fully furnished kitchen, bedroom, and bathroom. Nice right? Also, no key deposit, and first month’s rent isn’t due until I get my first paycheck, so looks like I’ll be just fine during my little two week mini-vacation before I move in.
I’m getting so excited I can hardly stand it!!!
~Celestia~
EDIT: I fixed it! I meant to include this clip in the post about the berryz/c-ute concert, but I was having some trouble with the video uploading, but I’ve got it now. Maimi’s “Natsu Doki Lipstick” with both Sakis having a dance off. One of my favorite performances of the concert!
I am officially leaving for Japan in one week. One week!!! I’m having trouble sleeping at night because I’m just too excited. I figured that it would be a good idea to write down some goals for my time there. If I post them here I might be held slightly more accountable, you see.
-Sing Hello Project/Other Japanese songs at Karaoke. No wussing out and singing only American songs!!
-On that same note (lol), try to go to Karaoke as much as possible. It’s fun, and a good bonding experience
-Use Japanese. For reals. No falling back on English unless I absolutely must, and no keeping silent instead of saying something that I want to because I’m not entirely sure I’ve got all the grammar right. (this might be the most difficult goal)
-Never be late for work. Ever. They really don’t like that, and I’ve gotten used to sleeping in over here. That’s gotta stop.
-Save some money. Don’t blow it all on Jpop stuff. (this one pains me, but it must be done)
-Go to as many concerts as possible (has been my stated intention all along. may be at odds with that last one though…)
-Meet up with Yohei, Eri, Marumi, Yuka, Sayaka, and Mayu and other Japanese friends at least once
-Locate and visit a h!p store
-Go to hot springs at least once, soak nakedly and without shame
-Try every new food. Just one bite to see if I like it.
-Find a way to exercise regularly
-Remember to call home once in a while so Mom doesn’t think I’m dead
Likely I will think of more later, but this seems like a good start.
Oh right. If I want people to answer my survey, I guess it’s only fair that I answer it myself. But… since I have two blogs, I’m going to answer it twice. Here’s the h!p version. The JE version will, of course, be in my other blog. Yeah, I’m cheating on my own survey, but I’ll make sure not to tell me so I don’t get mad at myself.
1. You have found a magical J-pop genie who will grant you one J-pop related wish (so no wishing for a million dollars or world peace or anything like that). It can be virtually anything as long as it’s directly related to J-pop, and don’t worry, because this is the nice sort of genie, not the kind who will try to find a loop-hole and screw up your wish. So, what do you wish for??? I had to put the hardest question first, didn’t I? Man I hate myself sometimes. Okay. I wish for Morning Musume’s next single to be a HUGE success and usher in a new era of high popularity for them.
2. Is there any J-pop artist or group who seriously pisses you off? If yes, who, and why? Koharu, Koharu, and especially Kirari. Her voice inspires me to violence, and I don’t think she even knows that there’s anything wrong with it.
3. Who do you think is the sexiest japanese singer out there? In h!p, Sayumi, but only in her photobooks.
4. How about the cutest? Momoko. Everything about her is tiny.
5. Best personality? Risa. She radiates sunbeams everywhere she goes (and Mayuge beams too)
6. If given the opportunity, would you rather date person 3, person 4, or person 5? Assuming I’m interested in girls that way (I’m not), definitely Risa. Momoko’s too young and Sayu’s too high maintenance.
7. You work for a Japanese music magazine, and you have the opportunity to interview your favorite artist or group. What are a couple of the questions you want to ask them? I would ask the Momusu’s what they really plan to do with their lives after they graduate, if they could do it all again, would they? (they got asked that on Utaban but it was anonymous and we haven’t heard from 8th gen), whether or not they would be interested in writing their own songs or having input in their concerts (see creative input post), and what they think is the worst costume that they’ve ever had to wear. Most of that would probably never get published, but I’d still be interested to hear the answers.
8. What’s the best (J-pop) song to listen to when you are really sad? If I’m wanting to wallow in sadness “Bye Bye Mata Ne” by Berryz. If I want to cheer myself up “I wish” or “Ai araba it’s all right”
9. When you’re really happy? “Koko ni Iruzee” while jumping around like crazy and totally belting out the “breaaaaaakthrough” lines. Guess what I did when I found out that I got a job teaching in Japan?
10. Do you often sing along to your favorite songs? Oh yes, but not usually when anyone can hear me. Mostly in the car, which is why I really enjoy long driving trips by myself.
11. How about dance? Occasionally.
12. Artistic integrity question!! If someone offered to pay you for blogging, but they were allowed to censor some of your opinions or veto some of your blogging ideas, would you do it? Honestly, probably not, unless it was a ridiculous sum. Some of the reason I started this blog is that I was sick of forums where if you say anything the least bit uncomplimentary about someone’s favorite little idol you’d get bashed into the ground for being so “negative”. If h!p had any say in it, the only things written about the girls would be completely sterilized for our protection, and I wouldn’t be allowed to do fun things like make fun of their awful costumes.
But first, Morning Musume’s Fall Concert tour has been announced. I plan to go to one of the Saturday Tokyo concerts (either November 1st or 8th), so would anyone be interested in coming with? It looks like I won’t be able to make the h!p Summer Concert due to conflicts with me meeting my supervisor and moving in to my new apartment for work (sigh), so this will be my first Morning Musume concert.
Now on with the surveys. First, Cutie Party’s.
1. What was the first Japanese song that you ever listened to? Okay, wait. I’m not sure about this one, but as far as I can remember, I think it was around when I was in Junior High. The internet was only just coming into wide-spread existence, so the only real access Westerners had to Japanese music was VIA anime theme songs. I had a friend who liked Magic Knights RayEarth, and she got me to watch a couple of episodes, so I think that theme song was the first Japanese song I ever listened to. I don’t even know what it was called. *looks up* Okay, it was called “Unyielding Wish” by Naomi Tamura.
2. Did it inspire you to like that group/singer, or did it turn you away? I liked the song, but I have no idea who Naomi Tamura is, and I didn’t even know her name until now, so it didn’t inspire me to like her, but it wasn’t exactly deterring either. Guess I just didn’t care much.
3. What is the one song that you have been listening to for the longest time? So by that I assume you mean a Jpop song that I still listen to? Probably that SMAP song, Sekai ni Hitotsu Dake no Hana. That would be the first Jpop song to make it onto my playlists. I heard it at Karaoke when I went to Japan after graduating from high school, it got stuck in my head, and I ended up liking it a lot.
4. What group/singer have you liked the longest? Morning Musume.
5. What is the song with the most plays on your itunes/media player? Uhm.. I’m stupid and I don’t know how to figure that out
6. Is that song your favorite? N/A
7. If not, what is? Depends on my mood, but probably “I Wish”
8. Is there any one group that you can listen to all/most of the songs by? If so, who? No way. I’m far too picky for that.
9. What is your favorite agency? Up Front and Johnny’s. I love them both in different ways!
10. What is your favorite group/singer? Morning Musume
Hmm. I think my answers turned out to be kind of boring. Sorry about that. Now the “survey” from Unchained. The challenge is to write about songs that you have the strongest emotional attachment to and explain why. I’ll start early and work my way up. Sorry if it’s cheating, but most of my choices are not Jpop, because most of them are associated with important times in my life, and thus far, the most important times in my life haven’t been strongly associated with Jpop.
You Are My Sunshine- Children’s Song
Yeah, we’re going waaaay back. When I was a baby/toddler, I absolutely could not go to sleep unless one of my parents sat with me in our rocking chair, read me the book “Good Night Moon” and then sang me this song. I must have been such a joy to raise, huh?
I Hope You Dance- Leanne Womak
Let me get one thing straight. I do not like country. At all. This song, however, is a special exception. I was on dance team in high school, and this was one of our competition songs in the fall of my Freshman year. It was a moving and lovely lyrical number, and it felt really really good to dance it (not to mention that we took 1st place!). This song made me fall in love with dancing, and the lyrics are beautiful and inspiring as well.
I hope you never lose your sense of wonder
You get your fill to eat
But always keep that hunger
May you never take one single breath for granted
God forbid love ever leave you empty handed
I hope you still feel small
When you stand by the ocean
Whenever one door closes, I hope one more opens
Promise me you’ll give faith a fighting chance
And when you get the choice to sit it out or dance
I hope you dance
I hope you dance
Ob-La-Di Ob-La-Da (Life Goes On)- The Beatles
The summer after my junior year of high school I went on a trip to Europe with a group from my school. Our bus driver REALLY loved this song, so he’d play it a lot, particularly when we had reached a destination after a long drive, everyone was asleep or mostly asleep, and we needed something to energize us again. By the end of the trip we were all singing along. That trip was a significant time in my life. I met my current boyfriend there, and it also sparked my interest in travel and seeing other cultures.
Ai Araba It’s All Right- Morning Musume
That this song made the list should probably come as no surprise. It’s the first Morning Musume song I ever heard, and the song that was to begin my obsession with them. To this day, it never fails to cheer me up.
Defying Gravity- Wicked
I love musicals, and this is my absolute favorite song to come from a musical. It’s just so powerful. I don’t have an emotional attachment to this song because of a specific emotional memory so much as it stirs strong emotions in me of it’s own right. If you haven’t listened to this song before, I advise you do so. It’s simply amazing. The real song starts about 1 minute in (there’s kind of an introduction)
Out Loud- Dispatch
This song is special to me because of my college sorority. Every winter at recruitment (or rush or whatever you want to call it) on one of the nights we’d have a slide show of pictures of us and the girls who were the best singers would sing a song a’cappella or with a guitar accompaniment. This was the song used both my Freshman and Senior year, and so it represents both the beginning and end of my collegiate sorority experience for me and all the memories and friendships that came along with that. Hearing it makes me want to cry, but in a good way. I don’t have a recording of our girls singing it, but here is the original version.
I don’t want this list to get out of control, so I’m going to cut myself off here. I’d encourage others to write their own answers though. I like to see what kind of music touches people.
Broomhead at True Life Seek has posted a survey for bloggers, and I thought I’d give it a whirl. Seems like a good idea, and I’m sure we could all learn a thing or two from reading people’s responses.
Goals:
Why do you blog? Starting with the big question right off the bat, huh? I’ll just go with the obvious response, and say that it’s because I enjoy it and it gives me personal satisfaction. I think the rest will come out in my answers to the other questions.
What long-term goals do you hope to accomplish, if any at all? Long term? None I suppose. I’d like to make more of a name for myself I guess. Maybe establish some regular readers?
Where does your blog fail to meet your goals? I think things are going along all right. I don’t really blame my blog for any lack of recognition, lol. It’s my own fault really. I should either be writing better, self-promoting more, or both.
If you do have goals, what will accomplishing them do for yourself? Again, just personal satisfaction.
What do you want to gain out of blogging? A creative outlet? Praise from others? Personal satisfaction? Money? Lots of things. I neither expect, nor intend to get any money out of this. Why? Does someone want to give me money, because I’d be happy to accept. =p The other three are all good and important reasons though. Another is that I want the chance to talk about my fandoms with others who will appreciate what I have to say. My friends and family don’t care about Jpop, so a community of fairly anonymous people on the internet is my only way of doing that.
Do you feel that your blog should meet a requirement for amount of entries? Do you feel any particular entry should be a certain length? I do start to feel guilty if I haven’t updated for a while. I’m not sure why, because I’m really not vain enough to believe that people are waiting around for me to update, or that anyone even notices when I don’t. It’s more like I really don’t want this blog to die, and if I get out of the habit of updating regularly, it might happen without my really intending it to. I don’t care too much about length. I try to vary them, because too many long entries makes for tl/dr, but too many short entries and it looks like I’m not even trying.
For any particular entry, what motivates you to start and finish blog posts? Inspiration? That’s a good question. It varies I suppose, recent news events, a performance or song that I want to review, a comment made by another blogger or forum-goer, a picture of a particularly bad costume, or sometimes just a completely random idea that pops into my head that I decide I can build an entry around. I don’t generally partially write posts. When I feel inspired to write or do something I just sit down and do it, even if it takes me hours and keeps me awake far later than I should be staying up. When I try to write when I don’t feel like it, crap results, so it’s best to take advantage of it when I’m in a writing sort of mood. I’ll usually go back and edit later, but the content is all put down in one go.
Do you actively consider long term goals for each individual post? Not really, no.
Subject Material:
What do you blog about? Hello Project here, Johnny’s (mostly KT, and some Arashi) at my other blog, along with very occasional personal stuff, but I try to make that relate to Jpop somehow.
Would you be keep a blog even if it wasn’t about the subjects you tend to cover? Sure. I had a livejournal about my life all through high school and part of college. I like this better though. The world of Jpop is much more interesting than my life tends to be.
Do you write about the material to promote it to others? Sometimes… but I doubt that’s very effective, so if new fans are born thanks to my blog I see that as more of a nice side-effect than a main goal.
Readership:
How much do you care about readership? I care a lot about my readership. If I wanted to write something for nobody to read it, I’d keep a diary. I don’t think there’s much of a point to having a blog if no one is reading it.
Does it satisfy you to know people are reading, even if they don’t comment? Yes. Very much so! =)
What effect does receiving a comment have on you? I’m always glad when people care enough about what I wrote to take the time to comment. It makes me quite happy. Come to think about it… I probably put more stock in comments than I should
Do you write with a particular audience in mind or an unspecified general audience? Why? I write with the assumption that people have a general understanding of the topics I’m blogging about, so I guess that makes it a specific audience.
If you write for a particular audience, is it International Wota? If yes, why? IW readers are usually well-versed in Jpop, so yes, them, but anyone else who is a fan or is interested qualifies too
Community: (The International Wota section)
If International Wota didn’t exist, would you blog? Yes, but I’d probably be actively doing more self-promotion. I don’t like doing that though, so IW saves me a lot of trouble.
When IW covers an entry of yours, are you encouraged to blog more or less? Neither? I don’t think I base how often I write on what IW does.
When IW does not cover an entry, are you encouraged to blog more or less? Again, neither.
How often do you read other blogs? Daily, some days I read more of them than others.
How often do you comment on other blogs? More than never, but less than often.
If another blog covers a topic that you wanted or wished to cover, do you still blog about that specific topic? Why or why not? That depends. If it’s just reporting some news, I don’t really see the point of sharing the same information again. If it’s opinions, I’d write about the topic if I felt like I had something new and different to say about it.
Commitment:
How serious is your attitude towards blogging? Do you consider it just as something to do for fun? It is something I do for fun, but yeah, I take it fairly seriously. I mean, my family and friends and other commitments come first, of course, but it’s up there near the top of my list of favorite hobbies.
How often do you blog? How often would you like to blog? When I first started, almost every day, but I’ve scaled down a bit because that was kind of crazy. Now it’s more like every other day. Lol. I think this is a good pace. We’ll see how much free time I have when I go to Japan and have a (dun dun dun) real job.
What priorities do you or have you put aside in order to blog? Why? Nothing that’s really a priority. I’m not going to cancel plans with friends in order to blog or anything. Maybe I watch TV less? And like I wrote before, sometimes I stay up a bit too late, so if you consider sleep to be a priority…
Do you see yourself blogging in 6 months? Why or why not Yep. I’ll be in Japan, and no doubt have lots of new and interesting Jpop-related experiences to share.
Personal:
Would you say you blog for yourself? Indirectly. It’s more like I blog for the readers, and knowing that they are reading or even enjoying makes me happy.
What is your feeling after posting an entry? Is it relative to the time and effort you put in an entry?Depends on the entry. I invest more in some of them than others. If I think something is really good or interesting, I feel kind of nervous, hoping that others will feel the same. Some entries are much less important to me though. I’m sure there’s a correlation to how much time and effort I put in.
What needs does blogging fulfill? Attention, creativity, and companionship with like-minded individuals
Do you consider yourself a writer? Yes
Do you consider yourself good at writing? Good at blogging? This is an invitation to bragging, but yeah, I do think I’m good at those things. I don’t think I’d write or blog if I thought I sucked at it. It’d be depressing. I’m not saying I’m great at it or that I’m going to become a best-selling novelist (I’m not), but my teachers and professors have always told me that I was a very good writer, and all of them couldn’t be wrong.
How much of your personal life do you share on your blog? If none, why do you leave that out? Some, but mostly only things that also relate to Jpop. I know you’re not coming here to read about how much I hate my physics class or my date with my boyfriend this afternoon. There have been a few exceptions, but I really try to keep them to a minimum. I have a “personal” tag to warn people away who are seriously opposed to reading anything that relates to me.
Another cross-over post. You have been warned. There’s more h!p so it goes here.
I’ve got to admit, I’m kind of brutal with music. When I get a new album or single or whatever, the first thing I do is listen to all of the songs once or twice through and sort them into two categories. Either they go into the NEW section of the “My Music” folder or to the “Other” folder, which is a dumping ground for things I’m not sure I want to get rid of, but I’m not sure I want to keep either. The “My Music” songs in the new folder get listened to regularly until I’m no longer being obsessive about them at which point they are moved to the appropriate permanent folder, sorted by group, where they will still be listened to, but not as often. Songs that go to the “Other” folder are largely forgotten about until something prompts me to dig them up again. When I say I’m brutal about my sorting, I mean it. It’s not uncommon for entire albums to end up in the “other” folder, and even with my favorite groups, it’s rare that more than 3 or so songs on an album make the cut.
That’s not to say that I never change my mind. I will occasionally go back and give albums or songs another chance, just in case, and I usually find some songs that didn’t impress me much on the first listen, but are great on the second. Also, watching a good live performance of a song is often all it takes to change my mind about it. So, out of my more recent diggings through my reject folder, here are some of my “New” discoveries.
Koi Uranai Toori ni wa Naranaiwa- Ongaku Gatas Album I’m ashamed to admit that I kind of blew off the entire 1st Goodsal album when it came out. Something about Gatas and their music style just doesn’t sit right with me. It might have been Mutou Mika, I dunno, but interestingly enough, she’s the one who inspired me to give this song another listen. I noticed that it is the only song on the entire album where she has any sort of solo line (for a grand total of 5 words), and I wanted to hear what her voice sounded like. Not surprisingly, she’s no Ayaya, but surprisingly, I found myself liking the song. Not the best singing (it’s all the eggs), but it’s got a nice melody.
Fight All Night, KT- I was resisting this song for a very long time for a very dumb reason; I think the title is stupid. There are several songs I have excluded from my files over the years because I’m embarrassed to listen to something with such a lame English title (MM’s ‘Nature is Good’ comes to mind). However, on reassessment, I’m forced to admit that the part in the beginning where they kind of computerize a few words of Jin and Kame’s voices is rather cool, and they don’t say “Fight all Night” that often, so I have begrudgingly promoted it to the My Music folder.
Dekiru Onna, MM (c/w to Ai Araba)- B-sides are always at a big disadvantage when it comes to making the list, especially when they are the coupling for a single that I really like. I love Ai Araba so much that almost any coupling track would pale in comparison. So, I brushed off Dekiru Onna as being too slow and kind of strange and forgot about it….until the Sexy8Beat concert. The girls were all sweaty and lethargic, and somehow it was the sexiest performance of a concert with the word “sexy” right in the title! The last line where Rika (Aika in the concert) gets cut off is awesome. This isn’t standard MM, but it’s certainly worth more than one listen. 45 second performance clip! Short for easy viewing.
Rock You- Arashi, TIME album What a deceptive title. There’s nothing “Rock” about this song at all. Without a doubt, it was the live performance from the TIME concert DVD that made me like it. Turns out that while I don’t care for the chorus much, I LOVE the verses. The song starts with the chorus, so I probably stopped paying atention at that point when I first heard it. I really hope that this is an Arashi album track that they’ll be bringing back sometime. Also, I like the little Ohmiya moment in this song. You can see better in the larger version, but I swear, Nino has a certain way of smiling that you only see around Oh-chan. Doesn’t he look downright proud? Anyway, this part of the song is really nice, isn’t it? 30 second clip!
Sayonara Hageshiki Koi, Berryz- It is a mystery to me why this song didn’t make it through the first time around. Did I accidentally skip it or something? I watched the “Welcome Berryz Kyuuden” concert and was like, “What is this song?? It rocks!” You know, it might even be my favorite Berryz album song now. I’ll have to think about that though…
I suppose the lesson here is that it might be worth your time to give songs a second chance. Something that didn’t really grab you at first may end up becoming one of your favorite songs!
Maniacal Koharu. Please keep away from animals and small children.
Gaki-san is fierce
yessss
Where does the loop start and end? I’m not telling.