人生の物語: Just Another Side Story

Treading in Summer Adventure

2011-07-01T14:24:00.000-07:00

*I won't let you die on me!*

Sorry about not updating sooner. I'm actually on Day 5 of my 2011 WA trip. So far, it's been pretty good. I got to hang out with some friends and see what has changed since I was last here *not very much apparently* I got to hang out in Tacoma for a little while with one friend, went to Seattle for sushi with another, and walked around Olympia with another. So, at least I'm keeping myself somewhat busy. I'll be heading up to Canada this weekend *tomorrow morning* because my mom wants to pick up a few things and also visit our family up there. It would be nice if my other bros could come with, but it looks like that won't be happening unfortunately :/

My next major trip is to San Diego for Comic Con in a couple of weeks. I'm really excited for that trip, but now I'm starting to worry. I had all this money set aside specifically for that trip *it covered my hotel and gave me just a little bit of walking around money* However, now I've had to dip into the reserves because my funds have been slowly dwindling. :/ I won't let a repeat of what happened the year before last happen again this year *had the ticket, but no place to stay and pretty much no money* A part of me wonders if i should have just taken summer classes so the aid would help a little, but then I just think about the idea of taking classes during the summer and i quickly dismiss the idea XDD I'll work something out. I will go to CC and that will conclude my summer travels.

I was actually planning on visiting HI in Sept as well before classes start, but my dad recommended I visit another month, since there wouldn't be a lot going on during the time I planned to be there. I may just go during the holidays. i hadn't spent Christmas with my dad in a long, long while so maybe I could go then. I hear it's not that cold during the winter there anyways, so it might be ideal to go haha. I hope to have something worked out.

Anyways, I have plenty of pics of the trip so far, but I figure I'll do a massive pic post when the trip is done and I'll probably stick it on FB *the epicness of the 08 J-Trip warranted pics on this blog, but I haven't had that feel of epicness just yet* So, if you want to check those out, just keep a look out for them towards the end of next week.

Until Next Time!

Death is Not Imminent for this at least

2011-04-22T11:09:00.000-07:00

That's right... I'm back!

So, I know it's been a while since I've posted anything *Sorry* since I've been relatively busy with school *kind of*, working whatever hours work decides to hand me, and essentially doing pretty much everything else except update this site *Awww* However, will this site meet with the same fate as my Xanga? Not anytime soon. See, what I've begun to notice is that this site is essentially a journal of my adventures. Since I've been lacking on those lately, my journal has been a little dead. I would update with stuff on my daily life, but really, there's nothing special about that.

There is good news; This summer should be quite interesting. I've got my WA trip coming up at the end of June, my Comic-Con trip near the end of July, and my hopefully potential HI trip in August. This summer should be interesting and have quite a few posts. Will it be like my 08' trip to Japan? Doubt it. However, you should be hearing a lot more from me.

I do have some reviews on movies to make, but I've seen so many since I last posted, I have no idea where to start. That post is going to take a little bit of time, so I'll see if I can get working on that when I get enough free time. *I could work on it this Sunday, since I don't have class or work, but.... we'll see...*

Anyways, Spring term is finally here and I'm just glad to have Winter term done and over with. I barely made it past 2 of my classes *I won't be making that mistake again... choosing the teachers, I mean*. I had an internship during my last term at an Elementary School as a teacher's aid and I'm continuing that this term as well. It's really the only thing I enjoyed last term *I kind of enjoyed my Communication class actually... enough so to make it one of my minors*. This term, I'm taking classes I'm actually enjoying so far. Two are for my major *Phonetics and Bi and Multilingualism* and one is a class on Greek and Roman Mythology *It's pretty cool so far*. However, I still can't wait till Summer rolls around. I'm still keen on the idea of sleeping and I don't seem to be getting much of it right now *that's mostly my fault though: procrastinating, staying up late for no reason, trying to beat a game, watching a movie, etc.*

Honestly though, I didn't expect this to be a full post and sure enough.... XD Hopefully, I'll have some more updates for you in the following days.

Until Next Time!

Just Enough to Amuse Me

2011-01-13T23:44:00.000-08:00

*Completely unrelated to the post, but still.... it's pretty sweet, yeah?*

Let me start off by saying that I've bid this journal a Happy New Years' for the last 4 years *That's right, check it* and it does feel like time has passed by relatively quickly (partially due to the fact that 2010 was the worst year for posts XD) So now that this news is out of the way...

- I finally live in the same town as the school I attend! After moving 6 times within a 2 year period, I have finally ended up in Davis. I don't mind living here; it's actually a little nice. I get to take the bus to school daily, so I can save that gas for the drive to work -__- and I live close to DT Davis *seriously... I live literally 10 mins away. I could walk there, but then I think "I can just take the bus for free".... yep.*

- Living with entirely new roommates, yet again. They're chill like my last roommate, plus we have a little more in common; we're gamers *Yay! =D*

- Work is still work :/ *Need I explain anymore?*

- This term, I'm taking my usual 4 classes. Since the classes in my major were pretty much all filled up, I was left with a Linguistics class that's less than interesting and 3 filler classes. I've got:

Language, Gender, and Society - meh... I need it, so I suppose I'll put some effort into it
Communication Theories - I considered this as an alternative minor, but I'm not sure yet. This class doesn't do a very good job of holding my attention :/
Intro to Schools: I am actually enjoying the class. Probably because of my desire to be a teacher : P I'm also having fun with my internship at the Elem. School. :)
Intro to Winemaking - Ok... this is the ultimate filler class *even though my professor swears it isn't* It's really interesting to learn about something I know nothing about. I actually started to drink a little bit of wine b/c of this class *You know... on top of the other drinks I have on a weekly basis XD*

Here's to hoping this term turns out to be somewhat interesting!

Aside from that, there's really nothing new. I'll try to have a review up on my next post and we'll see if I can attempt to maintain the journal much better this year.

So, Until Next Time!

明けましておめでとう２０１１！！

2011-01-01T00:00:00.000-08:00

...and another year goes by. What will be in store for this year? Let's sit back, chill for a bit, and find out shall we?

*Also, I have no idea what the pic above actually is. I just thought it looked nice and would fit the theme of the post XDD*

誕生日おめでとう！！

2010-08-26T03:41:00.000-07:00

Can you believe it's been 3 years already?!

So, I'm not going to weigh this entry down with a lot, since I just noticed the date and thought to myself "Wow.... it's been a little over 3 years since I've had this... sweet" XD

Now, with the update! (yes... singular)

- I'm finally moving into a place! ^-^ It's about 30 mins from where I am now, but it's not too bad. Getting to the school won't be so bad, but getting to work will definitely be something. It's not too bad though. It's only about 10 mins longer than when I lived in Dixon : P I'm just counting the days at this point. My roommate seems like a cool chick. I think we'll get along :)

Alright... who's ready for a review?

So, while I was in HI, my bros and I had come across a dilemma; we had the choice to watch The Expendables or Scott Pilgrim. Luckily, I was more than convincing when I propositioned SP. I don't regret it in the least.

For those unfamiliar with Scott Pilgrim, he's a character (and essentially the whole movie from which it is based) from a comic book that has been getting a lot of attention in the recent months. While the comic has just ended in July, it has been something that was running for a few years already. I was able to pick up the comic when I first saw a trailer for the movie. My initial impression was "Oh... a Michael Cera movie.... maybe." Luckily, while looking over the graphic novels at my local Borders, I happened to see the first volume of the series and began reading it. It is, hands down, one of the best graphic novels I have read so far. However, we're not here to discuss that, now are we?

Edgar Wright is one of my favorite directors *mainly b/c of Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz*, so when I heard he was going to be directing this movie, I knew it wasn't going to be all that bad. The actors portray each character very well *yes, yes... even Michael Cera somewhat pulled of Scott*, but I have to say that my favorites were Knives, Julie, Stephen, The Exes and Wallace. They hit their character personalities spot on. Honorable mentions go to Kim, Ramona, and Scott.

Reviewing this movie *like lots of other adaptations* can be a bit tricky, since I happened to read the comic before watching the movie. You have to be able to not only incorporate how well it adapted into the film, but also how the movie stands as it's own, assuming that the viewers have no idea about the backstory to the movie.

I honestly believe this is a good movie. Yes, it did have it's moments of "wait...what?", but overall, it's a great spectacle of action, gaming references, 8-bit music, and *if you're a fan of the franchise already* a great adaptation. Would I change some things if I could? Definitely. Am I happy with it as it already is? You bet.

Judgement: ★★★★½ (Fan and non fans of the franchise will love this movie. While those who are already familiar with the history may want to change some things, it's still a great homage to a great comic... even if it has Michael Cera in the lead XD )

Well, that's all I have for now. Hope you enjoyed my longer than usual review XD

Until Next Time

PS: Yeah... I know there's some MC hate in my review... what of it? XD

10 steps back and 12 steps forward

2010-07-27T00:18:00.000-07:00

*Oh yeah... I love HI now*

In regards to the pic above, if you don't already know, I love Spam and so does HI. I learned from one of my friends who came back from Guam not too long ago that there were some new flavors that are not on the mainland yet. So, since I'm here, I decided to look for them one day. There are 4 new flavors:

- Garlic

- With Cheese

- With Bacon
- Lite w/ 25% less sodium <- Seriously... why?

Needless to say, I had a hay day when I saw 3 out of the 4 cans and promptly made some purchases XD

Anyways, I figured it's time for an update for two reasons:

1. It's been a while and I'm trying to get back into the habit of updating again
2. I'm bored.... and in HI (Hawai'i, if you couldn't figure that out) [Also, it's a bit odd that I'm bored, right?]

Let me explain:

So, I don't have any type of reliable transportation here when my dad goes to work. I have the option of renting a car, moped, or buggy but, of course, there's always an issue with that. For 1) they all involve money, which is the one thing I'm trying to restrict myself on while I'm here. 2) The last time I rode a moped was back in 2006/07. Yeah... It's been a while. 3) The buggy not only looks extremely lame, but it's also a manual shift X#

So, I have to either wait for him to get off work before I can go anywhere or rely on public transportation (which is just not going to happen). However, my days here so far haven't been all that bad. I managed to take a few pictures (nothing nature though... yet) and I went paddle boarding this morning which was also pretty cool. It's been almost 2 years since I've been in any body of water (pool or sea or ocean or river.... you get the idea) so falling off my board for the first time today was quite fun. I look forward to doing more water activites before I bail from the island.

Moving along, I've missed Comic Con again this year. -_______- The tickets for it sold out almost immediately. So unreal. Scott Pilgrim seemed to be one of the main focuses of the convention this year and after reading through the comic, I was seriously slitting my wrists at the idea I missed this opportunity again. Last year it was Dead Space. Now, Scott Pilgrim. *Sigh* I know next year will be just as good, seeing as how all the superhero movies will be coming out Summer 2011, plus some games to look forward to. I've convinced a few of my friends to go to Comic Con next year with me and that will just make it that much more awesome. It'll make the rooms a little cheaper and the whole thing even more fun overall. I'll be buying my tickets when I first find out that they're up for sale. I'm going for the 4-Day pass. Even if I don't spend the whole day of the 4-days within the convention halls, I'm sure there's something to do in SD. I promise to make it your way VML! XD

I'm STILL trying to find a place to move into after a whole year of moving. I'm getting closer to getting a place now, however. I've decided to just settle with living with complete strangers for the upcoming year in Davis. Well, not complete complete. They'll be UCD students, so we'll have something in common. I guess this gives me the opportunity to meet new people at the school and gain new experience as well. I'm going to try to remain optimistic about this...

Now, I know it's been a while, but I'm finally posting up a new review! *audible gasp* I want to try and get into the habit again, since the main reason I put this website up was to make reviews. So, I need to get that going again...

Ok... so, I saw Inception about a week or so back and I must say, it was really good. You could definitely tell it was a Nolan film. It just had this epic feel to it. While the whole premise of the movie is not too complicated to understand, by the time the movie ends, you might be able to pick at so many layers of ideas that encompass this film that you might just give yourself a headache. XD It's a smart movie, but you'll definitely enjoy it. Yes, it's a 2 hr+ movie, but you know what? You don't even realize it, since it's so full of action and stunning visuals. I know exactly what I'm buying on Blu-ray when it comes out :D

(Judgement: ★★★★★ You'll love this movie and you can watch it over and over again to catch what you might have missed the first time around. I hope the Special Features will be just as awesome as the movie was)

That's all I've got for now. I'll try to post some pics of my trip on here, but the best place to find it is on my FB. If you don't know it, well..... I guess you've got a hunt on your hands, don't you?

Until Next Time!

まだ死ないよ

2010-06-28T17:46:00.000-07:00

I've missed you box of manga! ^-^

Sorry for my extended absence. School and moving have limited my writing time so much that I've forgotten that I actually had this blog. XD

Anyways though, I gots me a new cameraz, so expect to see more and better quality pics on here! ^-^

I'm actually not in CA right now, but back in the WA for a week to visit family and friends. So far it's ok, but I remember now one of the reasons why I wanted to leave here *sooooooooooo boring -____- *

I'll be sure to write an update when I finally get situated in my new place *since I'm rooming at one of my friend's parent's house.... again* Hopefully we get the place soon (>_<)

So Until Then!

Where has the time gone?

2010-03-16T22:59:00.000-07:00

*At one point, this was all I did.... and it was pretty awesome*

I know it's been a while since I last posted anything. m(_ _)m Like I've said in the past, not too much goes on with me right now, but I've got a few updates, I guess I could post on here:

I'm now the Photo Lab Specialist at Target! What does that mean, you ask? It means that I get a .25 increase on my paycheck and I still get to work in other areas of the store, like Food Ave, Cart Attendant, Cashier, and Electronics =D
We still live in our temporary apartment, so I've pretty much said "F*k it all" and just decorated my room and stuff. I can definitely spend more time in here now. Seriously, blank walls keep me up at night o_o
I messed up on my scheduling >< I had requested the wrong week off for my trip back up the the WA and now I don't think I can go :/ Maybe if I traded my hours with someone, I could get 4 days off and just head up there then. Time's running out. I need to move fast :P
A few weeks ago, I went hiking through the hills in Vacaville with a couple of friends and I have to admit, it was really fun. I had a pre-hike smoke before I set out and I could have climbed those hills over and over XDD
I'm not sure if I've said this in the past, but I'll go ahead and say it just in case I didn't. A few months ago, our place got broken into and a few of our items were taken. My laptop and portable HD were taken, along with both my roommates laptops, the 360 with some games, and the Wii. :/ That explains part of the reason why I haven't been online as often. *I use to use my laptop in the living room, but now I have to go back to my room if I want to access the interwebs*
With that in mind, I'm working on getting a PS3 and a netbook. I don't know when I'll get them, but hopefully soon. I love my desktop, but it's stuck in one place and I'm usually in several different places :P
I've been having these travelling urges again, so I've started looking up places to travel to. I'm thinking if going to Japan and Oki will be too costly, maybe I can have some fun in Europe. I still have a lot of planning to do, so the trip probably won't happen this year.
Oh... OH! I went on the Comic-Con website and guess what I learned? All the 4 day passes + Thurs - Sat. passes have been sold out o_O I'm sorry, VML. I really thought I would have more time to get the passes. I'll try to think of another excuse to go down there XD

Well, that's all I have for now. I'll try my best to remember to post some movie reviews tomorrow. I've seen quite a few movies and I feel like ripping right into them XD

Until Next Time!

It's time again....

2010-01-01T00:00:00.000-08:00

明けましておめでとう！！！　

＾－＾

It's that time of the year again....

2009-11-26T18:21:00.000-08:00

To everyone and their families and friends:

Happy Turkey Fisting Day!
:D

I'm sorry.... What just happened? Paranormal Activity Movie Review (2009)

2009-10-12T14:16:00.000-07:00

*Did you know this was a movie? I didn't. I kind of regret knowing though...*

So, a few weeks back, I was skimming facebook, per usual, because I was bored. I saw an ad link for a movie that had something to do with a haunting. Naturally, being a ghost fanatic, I was like "Hmmmm.... I may have to check this out" I clicked the link and was directed to a trailer site for a "documentary" about a haunting of a couple in their home. There were a few jumpy scenes, a lot of audience reaction, and the words "Possibly the scariest movie of the year!" Naturally, I was a little skeptical, but decided to think about seeing it. I checked for a listing and discovered that it was only being shown in select theaters. With that in mind, I dropped even bothering to see it.

Then yesterday, as I was getting ready for work, I received a text from a friend of mine inviting me to see the movie with him and a few friends. Apparently, there was a screening in Davis that night after I got off. I agreed to go, with the hopes that it would be a pretty good way to kill some time.

It was.... mixed.

I got home after work, changed, and we headed to the theater. We entered the theater and sat through some trailers. They were all horror- related, which seemed appropriate for the movie and some actually seemed kind of interesting. I may have to attend a few. However, did you know that the 6th, that's right, the 6th SAW movie will be out this Halloween?! I thought that idea died already. :/ I guess I'm just out of date. I stopped after 2, so I don't really care. hahaha

The first sign that this movie was going to be something lame was the intro. I won't spoil it, but if you've seen the BLAIR WITCH PROJECT, it had a similar opening. With that now embedded in my mind, the movie was pretty much ruined. Another thing that kind of ruined the movie was all the college students who wouldn't shut up. I get it; it's a "scary" movie, but you don't have to comment every 10 seconds that sh*ts about to happen.

I will say though, for a low budget movie, it did manage to get a few gasps from me. Maybe 2, I think. The shock value and story setup were pretty good, but if you're like me, then you may have already been ruined by ghost footage on the internet and tv shows. That's what the movie felt like to me. Like a single ghost haunting story. Sorry to say, but I've seen scarier. I don't know what the hype was about, but I think they need to pull back. BWP already did it and I was sort of suckered into that.

*sigh* Damn you hype....

(Judgment: ★★½ of 5: I appreciate the shock factor and the story, but we've seen this already. Watch BWP and you've already seen this movie for the most part. I suggest borrowing it from a friend when it comes out.)

Until Next Time~

A Kind of Old Story for a New Post

2009-10-09T23:41:00.000-07:00

*Damn you, Canada. Just when I was starting to like you too... >:/*

So, there's not too much new here. I moved into an apartment with 2 friends of mine about a month ago, it's been pretty cool ever since. We're still waiting to move into the house, but I guess I'm not rushing too much anymore, since I FINALLY got all my finances in order. *From July up to Sept., I have just been suffering from lack of monies :(*

Anyways, this post is not about what's going on now. It's about something that happened back in June. *Yes, I know... it's really outdated, but around the time this happened, I was getting ready to move my stuff down here to CA, so it kind of slipped my mind.... over and over again XDD*

SO! I will break this story into two parts. What happened when me and my bro went up there and what happened when my mom and I went up there.

Story 1

When I was half way done with moving my stuff down to the CA, I headed back up to WA for a little break and to grab the remainder of stuff I had. During my stay, my brother and I went to Canada for one of my cousin's wedding. I kind of wanted/ kind of didn't want to go, but my bro was a part of the ceremony and it had been a while since I had seen our cousins, so I figure it would be nice to see them again before I leave for a while. Compared to the trip to CA, driving to Canada was sooooooooo easy. 4 hours? BAH!! I'll drive to Canada every weekend XDD *No, not really* Anyways, we get to the border; standard procedure: they ask you a bunch of questions (ege. Why are you coming into the country?/ How long?/ Are you bringing anything?/ etc.) We decide to go ahead and play along, but somewhere in the middle of the questions, things started to get a little odd...

At one point, the guard asked us 3 times where we were going and twice about the reason. We didn't find it suspicious. If anything, we started laughing. I mean, really now. If you're going to ask the same thing 3 times, expect to be mocked. We did say we were bringing in cake for the wedding, but if that's the reason, then they must have something against cake. I don't know if it flew well with the guard or not *I think he might have had sand in his vadge b/c he sent 2 others before us for inspection*, but the next thing we know is that we're being asked for inspection. We went inside the new-ish Border Patrol building and, I have to admit, it looked very nice. The "guards" in the building were very strict, almost never smiling, wearing bullet-proof vests, and carrying guns. While intimidating to some, I thought it was hella funny. I mean, will there really be someone that desperate to get into Canada that the guards suffer the risk of getting shot or having to shoot someone? Seriously now.... XD

Anyways, with the inspections done, one of the guards wanted to interview each of us *basically ask us both 3 questions*, which basically centered around the main question: "Have you ever been arrested?" Kind of offensive. but whatever. It didn't take too long, so we just brushed it off like it was nothing and proceeded to the wedding.

On a fun note, when we left the country, with stuff we shouldn't have, it only took us 20 seconds, when we were at the American border.

Congrats, America. You get a star sticker. XD

Story 2

Ok. So, the next time I went up to Canada was with my mom and her sister. My aunt lives in Canada and came down to visit us in the WA and some relatives in CA. *The first time I went to move my stuff to CA was with her and it wasn't too bad actually; I got to meet some of my relatives and hang out with them* Moving on, we got to the border, went through the whole questions process, and moved on. No inspection. I guess when you're in a car with Asian moms, nothing is suspicious, as opposed to a car with two 20 year olds with cake. XDD

We were only in Canada for 3 or 4 hours before we headed back. When we got to the American border this time though...

We were asked the same questions as last time, but this time, were asked to be inspected. Also, the guard put a sticker on my car that said NCIC on it. At the time, I had no idea what it meant, but I had a feeling that I would have an interesting story to tell when I got back.

We walk into the American Border Patrol office and it was not as impressive as Canada's. In fact, it was the exact same building that we went to the first time we ever went to Canada, back when I was in the 2nd grade. o_O

We stand in line, they ask us to take a seat and we just wait. My mom actually thought the situation was kind of funny, so we just talked about why we might be in there. I joked that it could be from when we brought stuff back that we weren't supposed to and so forth. Like Canada, these guys were pretty strict too. However, I didn't see any bullet proof vests, on anyone. What's up with that? I thought we were a pretty paranoid country, but I may actually have to retract that statement *gasp*

Anyways, we were finally called up and were asked a few questions. Actually, I was asked all the questions. One of which pertained to something my mom had yet to learn....

I'm standing at the counter, the guard has my passport in hand and his eyes are shifting between me and his screen. He calls another guard over and they discuss something privately real quick. He comes back and asks me a few more questions, then asks, "Do you have a tattoo?" At this point, I start to panic. I start to wonder if she knows or not, but of course, she says "I don't think he does" -__________-

Damn.

I let out a small sigh and lift up my left sleeve, revealing my 2 year old tattoo.

Then, I hear laughter. She asks me when I got it. "Did you get it on Oki?" "

Yeah" I lied, wanting the moment to end.

I thought for sure I would get an ear full on the way home, but surprisingly enough, she was ok with it. It was almost like she expected something like this. I guess that's a good thing right?

Anyways, we were asked to sit down again and we started talking about what might be going on. She jokingly hinted that I kind of looked like a criminal, so that could be why. I humored her for a little while, before I was asked into the back room of the station. Now I was starting to get a little concerned. They took my fingerprints and a quick snapshot of me. At one point, there was actually a huddle of officers at the door while I was being processed. They'd look, then look away, and at one point, one of them actually pointed at me and said, "Is that the guy?" to another colleague. :/ After that was done, I was sent back into the waiting room and explained what had happened. She let out a light laugh and said I shouldn't worry. After all, I hadn't done anwything illegal in Canada.... yet. XD

After a few mins, we were called up to the desk again and explained the situation. Apparently, I matched the description of a criminal that had stabbed someone just a few hours ago. However, with no picture of the culprit, all they had was a witness account and description. I initially thought, "Wow.... this is JUST like what happened on my first trip to Japan" XD What really got me was what he said when we got up to the counter for the last time. It went a little something like this: "I have some good news and bad news. The good news is, you're not a criminal. You just match the description of one"

....

I guess that's still somewhat of a positive thing, right? hahahaha

After we left the border, I explained how the situation was similar to what happened in Japan to my mom and she was surprised to hear that story hahaha

*********************************

So, why post this story now? Well, I've been meaning to, but I just didn't bother. I was reminded the other day to do it, so here it is. Hope you guys enjoyed it!

Until Next Time

It's been too quiet in here....

2009-09-04T00:08:00.000-07:00

How's everyone been? Sorry about the long silence. I still have yet to move into a place I could call my own and setup my desktop. :/

I suppose the biggest update is that I got a new job at Target, thanks to Shuu. So, aside from the random times I hang out with anyone, my time is spent at work and working on Dissidia. *If you don't know what it is, you need to click here and have your life changed forever!*

Nothing really too new that I can think of right now, so I'll just leave it at that. Hopefully the next time I out in an entry, I'll have my desktop setup ^-^

Until next time.

In light of current news...

2009-07-09T23:52:00.000-07:00

[No picture to post because I'm on my laptop :/]

So.... How about this for an opening liner:

Well, I've finally gotten all *well, almost all. I still have my box of manga that I left and a fan* of my stuff down here to CA. Now, all I have to worry about is the job and the apartment I'm trying to obtain.

Honestly, I didn't think that this process would be so difficult. Then again, when sh*t tends to happen *get screwed over from your job/ have to make multiple trips to get your stuff/ lack of funds for certain things* then you really can't be too prepared.

I have an interview tomorrow for a potential job. Then on Saturday, I'm heading back to the apartments to work on the lease papers and so forth. I can honestly say that this month is going to be a lot busier than I thought it was going to be.

What's starting to worry me now is Comic Con. I kind of just jumped right into that this year as one of those "in the moment" kind of things. I kind of wish I had planned this out better so that I wouldn't have to worry about it now. I still have the intent to go, but I also realize that it's going to be a lot harder now that I have a "full plate". Let's see what happens.

There are plenty of events that are lined up leading up to the beginning of school, which I am also starting to worry about as well. :/ However, let's just do this one day at a time and see where it goes. I'll try to keep up with the updates as this month progresses.

So, Until Next Time!

0 - 0 - 0

2009-06-21T01:04:00.000-07:00

Well, the time has come...

Today I start moving out. I'll be making two trips between WA and CA instead of opting to rent a truck. Even though there's a lot of driving ahead of me, I'll at least have some money in my pocket. So, to everyone in WA: I'll be back Monday for the rest of my stuff, then I'll be gone for good. To everyone in the CA: Prepare yourself... I'm heading your way... XD

7 - 11 - 13

2009-06-10T00:19:00.000-07:00

*Damn..... I have a lot to do ><*

So, for those of you who haven't figured it out, the title *and the last post* contain a timer. Those who know me at least know what the first number is. :P My co-workers more than likely know what the second number is, and unless I've told you, odds are guessing the third number might be a tad bit difficult. XD Have fun with that!

In other news, I have been trying to finalize all my plans, so that this move can be as smooth as possible.

I have orientation on the 25th *essentially it's an all day thing* and that only gives me a day of rest before had. >_>

The cheapest rental truck I can get *because for some reason, there are no one-way cargo vans* is about $350 ._. That's going to pull extra money that I could use towards rent and stuff :/

I'm trying to get my bro to help me move my stuff down to CA. Essentially, he'll be driving my car and I pay for his plane ticket back. I think it's a fair trade.

I have a list of places to check out when I get down there, but before I do that, I'll be hitting up Santa Cruz with Pat and everyone else. I hear it will be awesome, so.... yeah.... It's definitely something I'm looking forward to. *I need a break from all this thinking ><*

I just learned today that I don't have work on my B-Day! Why is this awesome? Well, this is the first B-Day that I wasn't scheduled to work in 2 years. *I'm not counting the month I went to Japan b/c I was on vacation XD* I have no idea what I'm going to do that day..... Probably sleep or something :/

I made a checklist off all the stuff I'm going to need for the place we eventually find. The list slowly grows by the day, and I'm starting to think that this might be a little more money than what I was expecting. Still, I will keep at it. Eventually, the whole list will be done!

I'm both excited and panicked that I'm finally leaving the WA. I've been saying it for almost 3 years and now it's finally happening. Much like my first solo trip to Japan, I imagine that this will be quite an experience, both good and bad. Still I look forward to it. Hopefully everything works out. :)

Well, that's all I have for now.

So, Until Next Time.

始めましょうか？

2009-05-31T00:21:00.000-07:00

17 - 21 - 23

Are you as stoked as I am?

As the days draw closer and the time winds down

2009-05-17T21:10:00.000-07:00

*No... it won't take that many boxes to move me, but I like to stress the fact that I have a lot of crap XD*

So, I've noticed that it has been somewhat of a deep minute since my last entry, so I'll fill you in with the updates that have occurred between then and now:

- I've established a better timeline of when I'll be making the big move. My current date is the 20th, but I'm willing to push it to the 23rd if need be.

- Along those lines, I've started to become a little more conscious of how I spend my money :P Need to save up to pay for all my expenses. Believe me, there will be quite a bit :/

- Because of that, I keep rethinking my Comic Con trip. At the moment, I've had to cut the trip down to 3 or 4 days in order to have enough money for it. Hopefully, I'll still be able to attend.

- Been practicing my bass a lot more recently since I heard of some pretty awesome news. Been working on new techniques and some covers. As always, I've also been working on random basslines as well. As far as I'm concerned, I can still use plenty more practice. :/

- I spent a whole day watching Eddie Izzard's stand-up specials. He's definitely one of my favorite comedians by far. So, if you're interested in getting into his stuff, here's my list of his best shows, from best to probably not so much:

1. "Glorious"
2. "Dressed to Kill"
3. "Sexie"
4. "Unrepeatable"
5. "Definite Article"
6. "Circle"

Of course, I encourage you to watch any and all if you can. There's always something funny in each show.

Well, that's all the update I can think of at the moment.... yeah.... I think that's about it.

Anyways, Until Next time!

For the Hell of it

2009-04-21T16:46:00.000-07:00

*Guess where I'm going in July*

Because of the, what seems like unending suggestion of a certain friend, I will be attending Comic Con 2009 this year!

While I'll only be their for Friday *may consider Thursday as well, but we'll see*, it will give me a chance to go to probably the biggest comic convention in the US *in my opinion*

Next stop...

This year's theme is: GAMEは、元気です。

I want to go to this one so bad. I've missed most of my chances while I lived in Japan, so one day, I hope to go to this, even if just once. ><

Until Next Time!

A Newer Look

2009-04-16T03:49:00.000-07:00

Well, what do you think? Is this an upgrade or should I revert back to my original background/ wallpaper?

Progressive progress is made

2009-04-12T23:07:00.000-07:00

*Obey the Spam Pizza and all it's Glory!!*

Well, as some of you may have noted... or not, I went on my Super Special Awesome Road Trip to California last week and believe me, it was an interesting one.

- Driving To CA: I had told myself that this trip would take almost half a day to get to my destination, but the actual drive time and realization didn't hit until I was only 184 miles into OR in Albany about 50+ miles from Eugene. After my initial stop in that small town, I was on my way again. Another few hours and I would make my next stop just over the border of CA. The change of scenery was definitely dramatic. It went from giant forest highway to Mountain scenery in about half an hour.

Essentially, Oregon was a giant forest. The state goes something like this:

Portland > Forest > Eugene > Forest > Forest > Medford > Forest till you hit the CA border which is about 2-3hrs away. I admit, it looked awesome. However, it stopped being awesome after the first 3 hours >_o

Driving there, I was going a good.... I would say... 80 to 90mph the whole way. XD There were only like 5 cops I had seen during my whole driving experience, so I'm quite amazed I got away with it.

Another thing I learned is that in Oregon, you don't fill up your own gas tank. Much like Japan, they have people to do that for you. It was definitely a shock, especially when I made a stop at my first gas station there. Awkward indeed, but cool nonetheless.

Another thing that struck me as odd was the border patrol in California. They actually have an inspection stand at the border. o_O And for what? To make sure you don't have any rotten fruits or vegetables. That's it. It's the only question you're asked and nothing else. It was.... different....

- While in CA: I finally made it to Pat's house at about 7:40-ish in the PM. The quick summary of the trip goes something like this:

Drinking and other -> Karaoke -> Bacon and Jam -> Guitar Hero -> Electroma -> Blessthefall -> Gaming -> plus more. Many good times...

My time did feel quite short there, but I think there is a remedy to that... continue reading to see what I mean...

- My Drive Back to the WA: I left at about 8:30 am to make sure that I had enough sleep. *since I went to sleep at 4:30am the night before* The drive actually wasn't that bad going back. I was stuck in traffic for 2 hours though because a truck crashed or something along those lines. No movement in traffic... :/ I took advantage of that by taking a quick nap XD By the time I woke up, the traffic had started to move and in no time, I was moving again. I mad a few stops in OR to take advantage of the no sales tax deal and to just chill before I made it home.

I got home at almost 9:30pm. The drive took a little more than 12 hours this time around, but that was understandable. Interestingly enough, it did not feel as long. Going to seemed to drag on forever, but coming back wasn't too bad. Made me consider taking another road trip down there in the future.

The day after my trip was a mixed bag that turned out to be pretty good.

It started when I got a text from one of my coworkers saying that I was supposed to be at work at 145pm and it was now 215. At first, I thought it was a joke b/c I had requested that day off. Sure enough though, after calling and talking to my manager, I was indeed scheduled to work that day. >__________< Ultimately, I was almost 2 hrs late.

However, my day took an interesting turn towards the end of my shift. I was talking with another associate and we began to wonder when the Fall school year started in CA. So, I went to the Davis website to find out when school started. Turns out, the term begins on Sept. 21st.

After clearing that up, I returned to the main page. As I was about to close out the window, I saw a link that said "Fall 09' Undergraduates Admission Letters". I wasn't expecting anything since I had checked two days before and there was no change. I clicked the link, signed in, and.......

I WAS ACCEPTED!!!!! :DDD

That was probably the best news I had heard all year.

Now, I have to start planning. Where will I live? Where will I work? How much will this all cost? I have till before the end of June to figure all this out. :/ Still, I more than excited about hearing the news!

So, I'll end this post with some scenery pics of my drive through the states.

*It rained from Oly to Portland :/*

*A Mountain!*

*I think this is Mt. Shasta on my way back to the WA*

*I felt a little uneasy filling up at this station... Why? Well...*

*Yep... nothing but desert- like scenery*

*It just seemed like the kind of place where those unsuspecting teens from slasher flicks get killed off XD*

*Sonic, one of my new favorite Fast Food places*

Until Next Time!

As things seem to get better...

2009-04-01T18:52:00.000-07:00

*On the road*

So, it has been a while since my last post, but I think I have enough to talk about in this post

Upped my gaming experience by buying a new TV for my room. I still play my PS2 games on it, but I think I may consider a console upgrade in the near future
Been upgrading my comp for the past month and I'm almost done with that. Got a new HD, RAM, and OS. Now, I just need to work on my upgrading my video card and my computer will be up to date. :)
I got some time off and headed down here to CA for a week to hang out with some friends. It's pretty awesome so far, but that drive was seriously something I wouldn't contemplate doing that again for a long while. Unfortunately, I have to do that again real soon in order to go back >_<
Managed to take a few pics on the way. Not the greatest since I took them while driving. XD I'll be sure to do a better job on the drive back.

I've got a few more days left here before I head back to normal life back in WA :P Have a few things to do the next few days, but I will be sure to update.

Until next time!

Let's Review: Wii Games

2009-03-03T22:50:00.000-08:00

Remember kids... Henomoheji is watching you... and he'll cut your ass if you mess up!

Today, I thought I would go ahead and jump into something a little different.

I made this journal to review stuff, so I figure, "What the hell? Why not get back on track once in a while"

So, in this post, I will review 3 games I recently rented: Ghost Squad, Castlevania: Judgement, & Warioware: Smooth Moves. Wish me luck!

Ghost Squad
Nintendo Wii
11/20/2007

When I was in Japan, I loved going to the arcade and playing all the new shooting games that were there at the time. Ghost Squad just happened to be one of them. Now, I get to play the game from the comfort of my own home without being in Japan or a loud arcade. The main question while I stared at the game on the shelf was, "Do I really want it?" The answer was mixed. Ghost Squad makes it's expected appearance on the Wii and I have to say, the game is not as great as I remember it. Maybe playing with the zapper is not as fun as playing with the actual arcade gun that looked like a rifle. Maybe it's the fact that there are only 3 missions in the game. *Actually, there are more, but you only get 3 stages* It could very well be the less than great voice acting or the aging graphics. Either way, this game is still a fun half hour or so, especially if you play with a friend. For $20, I'd say it was a deal, but a better variety and more selection would be nice. I mean, it's not like they didn't try though. They had a training mode so you could show your friends how much of a better shot you were than them and a variety of unlockable costumes and weapons. Still, you would have to sit through the same 3 levels again, and again, and again to unlock everything.

Judgment: ★★★½☆☆ *Rent* (It's a good game to rent, but don't expect to play it for more than 2 hours top)

Castlevania: Judgment
Nintendo Wii
11/18/2008

To be honest, I really had no idea what the whole Castlevania franchise was about until I did some research on it after playing this game. Personally, I loved reading the back story to the franchise and seeing how everything fell into place. Playing this game, however, was another story. First off, I loved the art for this game ever since I first laid eyes on it. Takeshi Obata has a very distinct drawing style that's difficult to overlook. So, naturally I wanted to try this game out. You get to several modes to play in: Training, Story, Survival, and Castle *which I suppose is story mode, but it isn't?* Anyways, you start off with 2 characters if you play story *Alucard and Simon* and you get like 7 or 8 if you do story. The only way to unlock other characters is as standard as it gets; beat the game with a character, unlock a character. I have no gripes about that. In fact, I actually liked Castle mode. The cut scenes looked cool and the graphics were overall appealing, but the gameplay had little to be desired. Let me tell you what I didn't like too much: how to play. Essentially, you get no instructions on how to play, so when my first fight happened, I didn't do anything expect use my super, jump, and throw things. Apparently, you fight by flailing the Wii-mote around. This was extremely frustrating because when I did shake the remote, he only performed one kind of attack. So, flipping through the book, I had to try and find a way to do anything other than that move. To my surprise, *well, not really* there was nothing. Naturally, I tried to figure it out and could only get so far before my anger and frustration got the better of me. I only played this game for a good hour or so before feeling the urge to destroy the game. Overall, the graphics are nice, the music is awesome, the character selection is meh, and the gameplay is crap.

Judgment: ★★☆☆☆ *Rent* (If you're a hardcore Castlevania fan, you may be able to tolerate this a little longer than me.... but not by much most likely)

Warioware: Smooth Moves
Nintendo Wii
01/15/2007

I don't know why, but I'm always drawn to party type games. Maybe it's my competitive spirit that gets the best of me when I see them. Anyways, this game has been on my radar ever since I first heard it was coming stateside. Of course, those who know me well, know that when I forget something, I can forget it for a long time and then have it spontaneously come back. :P

Moving on, I've really enjoyed the Warioware games that have come out in the past, so naturally I assumed that this game would be just as fun. Well.... it was. I thoroughly enjoyed this game. All the randomness, mixed art, and interactivity just make this something that you'll have a hard time putting down. It's even better when you play with a friend. *Let's face it, you know you can chop wood faster XD* Plus, all the random poses the game teaches you to do with your wii-mote are pretty funny. The tutorials were a bit creepy, but it's a warioware game. What do you expect?! My only gripe is that some of the games are pretty damn hard. But I guess that's what practice is for, right?

Judgment: ★★★★★ *Rent or Buy* (It's fun to play weather you're by yourself or with a friend)

Hope I didn't do too bad on this review. :P and just maybe, you'll see more random review pop up from time to time...

Until next time!

Abingdon Boys School - STRENGTH [PV]

2009-02-15T22:04:00.000-08:00

FINALLY! Another song from TM's band. I had almost forgotten about them until I ran across this song in a music forum. Apparently, it's being used as the new Soul Eater ending *I say "apparently" because I've pretty much stopped watching anime all together, so I'm not really up to date anymore :P*, and I have to admit, it's pretty good. The main thing I love about the song is the classical piano they've mixed in with it. It gives it more attitude and meaning. The only con is the randomness that occasionally just popped out of nowhere and the setting. Other than that, I liked the song and the PV.

Rating = ★★★★½

本当に．．．

2009-02-14T23:34:00.000-08:00

Happy V-Day
:P

... Hope seems further.

2009-02-05T21:17:00.000-08:00

*Wow.... I can't believe it's been 2 years already... something seems seriously wrong...*

On Feb. 2nd, I had officially been working at The Home Depot for two years. The year seemed to end so quickly for me. It's an awesome, yet extremely depressing feeling.

Who would have thought I'd be here that long. I certainly didn't. XD

Even though I get paid way more than I ever thought I would be getting paid as a PT employee, my hours have been horribly dropped to the bare minimum. It really sucks.

I'm still working on saving up money for the Summer and so on.

Since I work pretty much only 3 days a week now, I think I might take a road trip one of these days, just for the hell of it....

Anyways, I'm just waiting for school to end. The quarter is halfway done, which means, I'm halfway done with school. I can't wait to get away from this school. I just want my degree so I can GTHO of here. hahahaha

Aside from that, there really isn't anything new.

So, until next time!

As the Horizon Draws Closer...

2009-01-25T22:37:00.000-08:00

*Is it natural that I have a small panic attacks when I hear about any updates about this...... DEMO FOR 360 TOMORROW!!!!!!1!!1! *

Sorry for the lack of updates the past few days. It's not like I've been busy. I just haven't had any new updates really. : P

- Pre-ordered Resident Evil 5 for the 360 today. It was an awesome moment. Can't wait to get it. Apparently, you get this game cell with the order as well, so I'm really looking forward to that as well.

- School has been a mixed bag of fun. I only have two classes and they're actually pretty easy. Environmental Science doesn't seem too bad and I'm actually enjoying Piano. I have a song that I want to learn how to play, but I think that I have to study a lot more before I'm able to do it. :/ I'm kind of impatient though hahaha.

- Work has been equally "fun". I got a raise *Yay!*, but my hours have been cut down to 20 X# It really sucks.

- In about 6 more days, my 2 year anniversary at the Depot will be here. I have to admit; I'm both ecstatic, but horribly depressed. It's amazing that I've managed to hold a job this long, but I never imagined it would be here. .__.

Aside from that, there's really nothing new. I can't wait till this term is over. I'll be done with school here and hopefully, with this place.

Even though I've somewhat grown attached here, I can't shake the feeling that I was meant to travel. So that's something I plan to do. But, that's a topic for another post..

Until next time!

And so it begins again

2009-01-04T17:33:00.000-08:00

*This giant instrument statue at the Seattle Music Experience. Pretty awesome overall*

Looks like school starts again for me tomorrow.

I decided to cut some corners this term and just take two classes, instead of three.

And to go a little bit more in depth, I've decided to drop Japanese. :/

It's not necessarily a choice I wanted to make, but facing the options in front of me, I decided that this was probably the best route.

Japanese class was ok. For the last two terms, I've just kind of been sitting there and staring at the wall, but it was still ok.

Seeing as how this is my last term at this college, I kind of wanted it to be more laid back and fun. Will I regret dropping this class? Perhaps.

I have not intention of dropping this language of course. I'll still be doing my independent studying. Sometimes I felt like I was learning more by myself than in the class :/

Plus, when I move onto my next college, I intend to take more Japanese classes as well.

I guess that's the first step in for 2009 : P

明けましておめでとう！

2009-01-01T21:38:00.000-08:00

*It actually snowed quite a bit during this vacation*

It's been quite an interesting year. Looking back on it, I thought the year went by pretty quickly actually. This year had as many positives as it did negatives. This year may not have had the biggest changes, but it definitely had a lot of events.

This is technically the last year that I'll be attending SPS
I managed to save enough money to go on my Summer trip back to Japan
Same job, different position. Happy 2 years at the Depot to me. : PA
My CA trip was much shorter this time around, but I'm definitely working on fixing that for next time
My time in the President position at the club I'm in is finally winding down. It's a great relief, but at the same time, a little saddening.

Another year has passed... but I predict that this year will be the year of change for me. I'm hesitant, but looking forward to it. I'm ready to take on anything and everything this year throws at me. I can definitely sense that this year won't be boring... at least for the most part hahaha.

Until Next time.

Happy New Year!

End of the Term Update

2008-12-19T17:26:00.000-08:00

[Insert Random Pic Here]

*Seriously..... do it*

Finally, the term has ended. *Actually, it ended the beginning of this month for me*

After waiting for a few days, my grades were finally posted online. I was surprised and not surprised at the same time. I thought this term was actually quite productive for me, but when the end drew closer, I felt my procrastination during the term slowly start to creep up on me. Ultimately, I got the grades I thought I deserved:

Geology 101: B- *I can never look at a rock the same way again o___o*

Lifetime Wellness: C *If I had actually done my portfolio and finished one of the projects, I would have gotten an A in this class. Damn you procrastination!!*

Japanese IV: A *Ok, I admit, I don't deserve this grade b/c the class was so easy to me. The only hard part was the 5 essays we had to do :/*

Overall, it was a good quarter. The C kind of hurt my GPA a little, but if I can manage at least 2 more A's or B's next term, I'll be good.

Next term, I'll be taking:

Environmental Science *My last science class*
Class Piano I *because I figured it was time for something different*
Japanese V *Just because XD*

I think I can manage a good grade in all those classes, but we'll just have to wait and see. It will be my last term at SPS and I can't wait for it to be over. It's been good, it's been bad, it's been so- so. I just want to be done so I can move on.

Anyways, I'll have a few movie reviews in my next post, so stay tuned for that.

Until next time.

またよ。

１２月おめでとう！

2008-12-02T23:16:00.000-08:00

*The value of the dollar is really going down :(*
Check the rate from Dollars to Yen

Happy December!

So, this week is cram week for me. It means I need to be working on all the projects and tests that are due this week. On top of that, I work till 9pm every night till Friday. :/ It will be quite a challenge.

After this week, I'll only have my Geology test on Friday. Then... no more school for the rest of the month. I'm very much looking forward to it.

Like I stated in my last post, I think, I'm not traveling this Christmas. I guess it's a good and bad thing. It's nice that I get to travel, but every so often, I just need to chill at home. I really hope I don't have to work on Christmas Eve though.

Another thing about December... It's Planning Month!! :D Basically, this means, I'll be working on plans for all vacations this year from this month till June. I'm already working on saving some extra money on the side for Spring/ Summer trips. Oh the places to go...

Anyways, I need to stop stalling and actually start working on my projects. Until next time *most likely next week*

Later!

It's that time already?

2008-11-27T01:20:00.000-08:00

Happy Turkey Day!!!

The Calm before...

2008-11-26T21:30:00.000-08:00

*Downtown Seattle*

So, I imagine it's time for an update, yes?

I'm sorry I haven't posted in a while. It doesn't feel like I've done anything news worthy to post on here. So, I'll just give some minor updates as to what's happened between 10/04 and now:

- Cut back on my gaming and have tried to give myself more time for sleep.

- Spent the day in Seattle with the Japanese club going to random places and seeing a few sites.

- Became a Service Desk Associate *which apparently, is a step up from cashiering?*

- Have tried to save money for future ventures *Still trying*

- Went to a new Sushi kaiten that opened up near my workplace. It's actually pretty good.

- I've got only a few days left before all the deadlines come crashing down on me... :/

It's been a busy quarter, but I'll soon be done with school here. Hopefully, I'll be in another school soon after so I can up and move out. Getting harder to pay the utilities in the house when you're the only sibling who is earning any kind of income :/

As strange as it is to me, this is the first Winter Break where I won't be doing any major traveling. *Last year, PA, the year before, Canada, and so on* I'm actually a little confused as to how I will be spending this holiday.

Anyways, I think that's all I have for now. So, until next time!

藤沢ルーザー PV

2008-10-04T00:26:00.000-07:00

Awesome Ajikan song with classic Ajikan humor.

★★★★★

This and all the other junk

2008-09-17T22:02:00.000-07:00

So, here's a small of update of what's been going on lately, plus a side story of what happened yesterday:

- School starts next week for me. I'm happy that it's finally starting up again, but at the same time, who wants to go to school? XD

The classes I'm taking this term are:

GEOL 101: Intro to Geology *I needed a science class and this was pretty much it :/*

PE 180: Lifetime wellness *Elective credit*

JAPN 221: Japanese 4 *Trying to raise my GPA XD*

Nothing too great or special. :/

- As far as work goes, I kind of got my wish of moving to a different dept. I'm still technically a cashier, but now I work at the service desk. It's a little better, but it still sucks b/c I'm essentially the only one in the store, at times, that knows what to do there. It really sucks when it comes to getting my breaks and lunches on time. :/

Now that we have that out of the way, here's a little story about what happened yesterday:

So, I woke up around 1pm and started gaming around 2 *b/c it's my day off and I have nothing better to do XD* This is pretty much what I've been doing the whole day, so I had no intention of going out. Around 8pm, I got a call from my classmates *I call them that b/c that's exactly what they are; nothing more, nothing less* asking if I wanted to go with them to the beach. I must have been really bored b/c for some reason, I actually agreed. They wanted to meet up around 3am so we could make it to the coast. *From where I am, it's actually pretty damn far to get to the coast + they wanted to see the sunrise ><*

First, I had to drive out my way for an hour to pick them up b/c they couldn't drive. Then, we got lost on the back roads of Olympia. When we finally got on the highway, we had been driving for about 2 hrs already. Driving to the coast took almost 3 hours. There were so many country roads that I seriously thought I was going the wrong way half the time. And don't get me wrong, I like WA's scenery, but when you drive through it once, you've basically seen it all. That's pretty much how I felt as I tried my best not to find a way to kill myself while figuring out where the hell I was going. After many hours, we finally got to the coast. However...

... yeah. That's what WA's beaches basically look like. I really shouldn't have been surprised, but it just felt that this was not worth the 3+ hour drive to get there. It was rainy, cold, foggy and pointless. I was seriously at a loss of words. I was so pissed off, but I felt like I deserved it b/c I just had a feeling that something like this would happen. We stayed there for a total of 20 minutes before I threatened to leave them stranded there.

Then, it was another 3+ hours to get back. In total, I left my house at 4am and came back at 11am. It didn't end there though. I tried to sleep, but could only manage to get 2 hrs. ><

So... I've been awake, essentially for the past 2 days on only 2 hours of sleep...

Just a reminder that something like this is not going to happen again........................soon.

Well, I'm going to try and crash for a little while, so until next time.

秘密結社コドモAとキボウ屋本舗ファン：読んでください

2008-09-07T23:53:00.000-07:00

吐血の方に
ちょこちょこ問い合わせが
来ておるのですが
なんだかアタクシの以前のバンドの
ＣＤ？がまた出るそうですね

えーと
まったく知らないんですけど・・・
他のメンバーさん達は知ってるのかしら？

商売上の理由とか
ま　いろんな世の常って
やつではございましょうが
せめて一声かけて欲しかったすな
過去とは言え
自分達の作品であり血肉ですから
やっぱりなんか憤りーで
悲しいっす

てな訳で
サン分及び吐血の方では
一切関与してませんので
あしからず。

エイジのブログヘ

Basically what the post says is that Eiji and the other members from both his bands *Codomo A and Kibouya Honpo* were unaware that UNDERCODE is re-releasing a "best of" album of the bands. Some may not find this a problem, but it is. It means you're supporting the label they use to be under and not the bands or members. I suppose if you were a die hard fan of UNDERCODE, then it would be acceptable to purchase this, but for me, my money will go else where...

...The new アジカン singles and album that are coming out. Have you preordered them yet? WELL?! HAVE YOU?!?!?! XD

誕生日おめでとう、人生の物語！！

2008-08-29T00:20:00.000-07:00

Happy 1st Birthday, Journal!!

I hope you have many more to come.

Drinks all around! XDD

*Actually, this isn't the exact date, but the month is right XD*

The end of the world scenario

2008-08-27T20:13:00.000-07:00

How the world will end

lul'd so hard when I saw this XD

毎日毎日の憂鬱

2008-08-08T02:13:00.000-07:00

*For those who understand this reference, we all know who the true victor is... ;D*

Well, this is not a picture post. *I'm saving that for Saturday so stay tuned!* Rather, it's just a small update post. *I promise, its not that long.*

I haven't been doing much online because of two things: Work and getting back into gaming.

Work- For the past 2 weeks, I have been working the steady Mon.-Fri. 2pm-10:30 shift. It... sucks... Not because of my time, but b/c I'm always closing at Returns. >< However, after my 4 day weekend *yes, they've decided to finally cut my hours again* I'll be working in a few different places. Still... I work the closing shift... *deep sigh*

Gaming- When I'm not at work, this is what I'm doing. Ever since I started getting back into gaming, it feels like that's what's been taking up most of my time. Hell.... what else is there to do here? I think that this will take up a huge chunk of my "mini holiday".

Anything else that's new with me? No. Simplest answer. Nothing new really. Same old suck as usual. Oh.... OH! There was one thing new.

I bought SPACED the series on DVD finally! Ever since I saw the commercial that they were finally importing it to the US, I had been waiting for it. I think I've watched it numerous times now. XD If you haven't seen it yet, you must! It's that awesome. I think there are still some clips on youtube...

Until next time *most likely Saturday*, Later.

Ok.... Ok.

2008-07-25T00:29:00.000-07:00

Well, I've finally finished. I have updated all of my Japan trip entries.

That's right, people; I finally added the pictures. However, that means, you'll have to dig through the entries if you want to see them.

Have fun with that.

I have many more pics to post, but I've decided to put them in another upcoming entry. It took me 3 hours to do the revamp, so don't expect more pics for another few days.

So, enjoy and until then...

"Let's put a smile on that face"

2008-07-20T00:56:00.000-07:00

*It was so good, I bought this poster and had it framed XD*

If you haven't seen this movie yet... SHAME ON YOU!! I bought my ticket 2 days before the midnight showing and Shuu bought his a week in advance. XD It..... was..... AWESOME! I don't even need to review the movie. It's that good.

The Dark Knight: ★★★★★

So, what the hell are you waiting for people?! Get out there and enjoy this movie!!!

将来の兆し

2008-07-11T23:14:00.000-07:00

Start this post off with some really weird things I've been noticing since I've come back to WA.

- I was driving the other day and I saw, for the first time ever, a Carl's Jr. in WA. It freaked me out a little bit, since there was one other place I had seen it...

- When I got to my destination that same day, I walked by a car that had a license plate holder for In-and-Out Burger. Hmmmm.....

- This morning, I rode the ferry with a friend b/c he had to go to some training in Bremerton. The ride was eerily familiar to something else I had done in the past...

- As I was driving home, I came across a toll booth, which was a first for me actually. Sorry for saying this, but I had no idea that there were toll booths here. XD I took pics while driving XDD But that also reminded me of something that happened earlier this summer during my trip.

I'm not sure about you, but these things are seriously connected and it kind of freaks me out. I sign, perhaps.... but for what.....?

The Story So Far

2008-07-03T09:56:00.000-07:00

It's been about 5 days since I've been back and it's been really lame as I expected.

The day after I got back was spent cleaning and organizing all my stuff. There's so much crap now, I have no idea where to put all of it XD The other part of the day was trying to keep my mind off how depressingly boring my day was, along with the thoughts of work the next day.

On Wed., I had work for the first time in over a month. However, it was a busy day. It was also an 8 hour day. Plus, it was a Returns Day. I was not thrilled. I work Returns all this week and next. Not fun at all. The only plus side is that I have a lot of hours, which means a really nice paycheck. Still...

Thurs., was equally busy. I met up with 2 of my classmates before work to talk and give them some of the stuff I had bought for them. I was supposed to mail out a textbook, but now it seems like I'll have to wait till Sat. or Mon. before I can do it :/

I'm considering moving to another department, so I retain some sanity at this job. I also found out that I was up for the Head Cashier position, but I was taken off b/c I was gone for the month. X### Kind of sucks. Maybe I'll try for another position. If not, then I'll just bail. I still have till the end of the year to figure it out. It's going to be a long busy few months ahead of me. At least there's still time though. Maybe I can put it off till later. XDD

One more thing, since I've been really busy with work, I haven't been able to put up the pictures, so I will try to do that later today after work, or next week, when I have a day off. おまたせしました.

最後の日．．．

2008-06-30T13:34:00.000-07:00

So, the day has finally come. I will be returning to WA in a few hours. I'm excited, but really sad. It's been an awesome few days here in CA, as it always is when I come to visit. Going to miss being around actual friends and not just co-workers and classmates. XP

I'll be going back to work on Wed, so I'll have some time to rest tonight and tomorrow. *not looking forward to it after hearing about all the changes that have occurred ><* I think I'm going to start my job hunt when I get back.

The summer will feel so long now, since I'm going back to doing nothing again :/ All I have to look forward to is school and work, and the latter half isn't in session right now...

I'll be graduating in the Spring of next year as well, so that will really give me free-time till I move onto another school. I haven't figured out where I'm going to transfer to just yet, but I think I might have somewhat of an idea of where I want to go now...

We'll just see where this road will take me...

出発の日．．．

2008-06-26T10:12:00.000-07:00

So, that night of my last Japan trip entry, we tried to just stay awake the whole night in order to make it easier to fall asleep on the plane. It was a little hard seeing as how I was really doing nothing. However, we later decided to go get some food at 吉野家. It was about 4am when we decided to head out. We went to the one down the street by CoCo's b/c it was close and we knew that the place was open 24/7. We went inside and it looked so nice. It was probably the nicest looking 吉野家 I had ever been to ever. XD I bought the 豚キムチ丼 which tasted awesome as usual. It was a fitting end to our Japan trip.

*Yoshinoya [Nicest looking one we've ever been to]*

*4am walk home*

*The road before us*

*Hokka Hokka Tei moped inside place*

After that, we headed back. I tried to stay awake, but ended up falling asleep for a few hours. I woke up to the sound of my J-cell's alarm going off in Shuu's hand. I got up quickly and realized that I had about an hour till checkout. So, I prepared and packed everything and a few mins before 10, we were out and heading to 関西空港. We arrived at the airport around 11:30am and that was it. Check in time was at 1:30pm and we just sat there and waited till the time came. When that time finally rolled around, we checked in our bags, went to the departures area and waited at the gate. It was sooooooooo boring. Our flight was at 5:30pm that day and we were sitting at the gate around 1:50. -______________- About an hour before were scheduled to board a giant group..... no..... a hoard of people just bum rushed our area and occupied every remaining seat that was there. It was sick. They were a tourist group of like middle and high school students. It seriously made me sick to my stomach listening to all their convos. So pointless and mind numbing. -______-

*How I felt sitting there the whole time*

Finally on the plane, I realized I was sitting next to one of the girls that was in the group and I died a little bit on the inside. I tried my best to ignore the convo she had with her friend, but she was just so loud. It annoyed me b/c I couldn't listen to my music till we were at a certain altitude. The flight itself was ok. It wasn't as long as actually going to, to my surprise. The food was awful as usual. Dinner was chicken curry and rice that was clearly made by someone who didn't know what rice really tasted like. Breakfast was fruits and 1/4 of an egg/ cheese sandwich. It was gross.

When we finally landed, I GTFO'd off the plane and met Shuu in the departures area. We were a little worried since we hadn't filled out our customs form and no one seemed to have a pen. Finally, Shuu asked this Japanese guy if we could borrow one and luckily, he had a spare. We'll be sure to carry pens next time XD. We left the airport in CA around 11:50 and this is where I've been since.

Now, I'm at Shuu's house and will be here till Monday night. It's been pretty cool so far. A part of me wants to stay, but another part of me says I want to be sleeping in my own bed as well XDD

Slightly Off Topic

2008-06-25T14:47:00.000-07:00

So a few days ago, I checked my grades and this is what I got:

Chemical Concepts: A *Wow.... A good chem. grade! I'm shocked!*

Japanese III: A *Yeah, this was an easy A for me. Hopefully, the later classes will be a little harder*

Cultural Anthropology: C *I expected something around this. Actually lower, since I knew I wasn't doing so great on the tests. The only A in the class I had ever gotten was on that paper. I think that's what saved me. X/*

Ok..... Back on topic now!

二十：最後の日

2008-06-24T09:48:00.000-07:00

So, today was kind of a mixed bag really.

The day started off as usual. I had gotten up a little early today and was ready to go out and do some stuff. I woke up Shuu and he got up... for a little while. He went back to sleep after 5 mins. XD So, I spent the day planning last minute things to do and so forth. I was looking up お菓子や in the area and found a 沖縄料理レストラン instead. I was also researching how to get some 泡盛 back into the US. I think I'm doing it right, but I guess I'll find out when I get there. :P When Shuu finally woke up for good, I went out to go buy some snacks. since I was a little hungry. I told Shuu about the place when I got back and we decided to check it out.

Amazingly enough, it was just down the street, not even 5 mins away. Once inside, it had a very 沖縄 atmosphere. It was very 懐かしい. After a while, the owners and their daughter started to talk to us, in essentially complete 日本語. I felt really happy when I was there. I could understand a good majority of the owner and the wife's stories and even talked a little bit. You could tell they were from 沖縄 b/c they were willing to talk to us and so forth; something that's really uncommon in food places here in 日本. The owner played the 三線 while the daughter and the wife danced. They tried to get us to dance, but instead I just sat there and moved my hands to the music. XD It was a lot of fun. After a while, the owner handed the 三線 to Shuu and told him to practice, since he had said that he played in the past. We sat around for another hour just talking. We finally decided to up and leave and talk about what had happened. It was really a lot of fun going to the place. I hope to come back again some day.

Later that night, I wanted to run one more errand, called the "manga run". I had to go buy some まんが for some friends, so I decided to go to the BOOK OFF. *One of my favorite places to buy まんが* I had to take the train to 天王寺, though, since there were really no 書店s in the area. Getting there was easy enough, however, I had a hard time figuring out where the exit was that I needed to get to, so I had to walk around a little bit. However, it wasn't too far from where I was, so I got there really quick. After getting the stuff, I headed back . I ran into some English people staying here as well and they were talking about how they were trying to use US money in a store. I died a little on the inside. I tried to avoid them to the best of my ability and luckily I did. I just had to take the stairs instead of the elevator. I swear, when I finally got onto my floor, I could still hear them in the elevator and they were on the 4th floor! *We're on the 8th ><*

That was the extent of my day, I spent most of my time now, just watching TV and packing. I had already pre-packed this morning, so I didn't have a lot to do. Now, I just wait. The flight is in 13 hours. I'm not too excited to be sitting for another 10+ hours, but I don't really have a choice.

We'll be out of here at 10am and heading to 関西空港. From there, we'll just be chilling till it's time to depart. Will write again when I get back to the US.

See you all later!

十八、十九日: 京都とCOMME-CA

2008-06-24T00:02:00.000-07:00

Day 18

Today, we woke up fairly early because we were going to head over to 京都 to meet up with one off Shuu's friends. We headed out around 10:50am and arrived in 京都 around 12:10pm. *We made the mistake of taking the 普通 train, so it took almost an hour* We arrived in 京都駅 and met up with his friend and her friend. We had planned to eat at マクドナルド but the place was packed and I wasn't too into eating there, especially after the メガタマゴ XP Instead, we went over to this place that specialized in making オムライス. It was really, really good. It was the first time I had ever had it. I had a hard time talking to Shuu's friends because of two major things. The biggest one being, I didn't know what to say. As most people know, I'm really... unsure of how to act around new people. *A key reason to why I have a hard time meeting new people* The second was that I was afraid of making mistakes with my 日本語. It's one thing to be able to read and write, but it's another thing to be able to speak. Coupled with my deteriorating knowledge of 日本語 and my fear of making a mistake and making myself look foolish, I kept mostly to myself. *Towards the end of the night I started to feel just a little bit more confident speaking* After we finished eating we headed to do some カラオケ. It was fun, but the lack of indie songs made it a little harder to sing the songs we wanted. None the less, it was fun. Afterwards, we explored the area and went down the main shopping street that kind of reminded me of 竹下通り. After a while, Shuu's friend's friend had to go home so we said good bye and we continued to look around. We went to a 書店 and a guitar store, before ending the night at a KFC. We talked for a little while longer, then decided to head home. When we got to the station we headed to our platforms, took some pictures, and said out final good byes. It was a really fun day. Probably the most we've done while here in Japan. We headed back to 大阪 on the 特別快速 and it only took about half an hour.

Day 19:

I had waken up early with the idea that maybe we would go out again today, but I wasn't sure I wanted to take the chance again. I went out the door around 1pm to go out and shop for some of my friends and coworkers. I went to the COMME CA mall- store thing that was in front of the 大阪駅 and spent a few hours there. I went to the JUMP store in there, along with UNIQLO and the electronic store. It was actually pretty fun. After I had finished with my shopping, I headed back to 谷町. Something that not many people know is that I like being around people. I like to see how people interact with others and to the environment. This whole time I've been here in Japan has been great. Ever since I had taken Sociology, my thoughts about studying people have been magnified. A great place to study in on the 地下鉄. Just the behavior and everything you see is interesting. Anyways, after that, I got back to the apt. To my surprise, Shuu was still sleeping. :/ I contemplated going out again, but I decided against it and hung around till he woke up. Essentially, that was my day.

We have one more day of free time here in Japan. I don't know how it will be spent, but I'll be sure to write about it soon. Until then...

*On a side note, I've noticed that a few of my friends have been saying that I don't seem to be really excited when I talk about being here. Well, for one, I use to live here. I know what to expect, I know what's around me. [This was most common in 東京. In 大阪 it's a little different b/c it's a new place] Second, I've pretty much done what I wanted to do and that was just to get here. I do enjoy being here in 日本, however. Being here instills the idea that I want to keep traveling. I'm going to keep going with my teaching degree and continue to try traveling. I've only seen so much of the world and I want to be able to see all of it. That's my goal and that's what I plan on doing.*

十七：Mini Adventure

2008-06-21T17:55:00.000-07:00

So, my day started like most of my days here; kind of late in the afternoon or beginning of the evening. I woke up early and was contemplating going out early to do some light exploring, but that plan fell through when I figured Shuu would be waking up soon. Many hours later [ XD ] he finally got up. I went out to buy some snacks while he got ready and I kind of regret it. I bought this drink that contained a days worth of vitamins, this purple fruits and vegetable thing, this awkward ice cream candy that was individually packages * that was the appeal*, and 男のビックル, which translates to, I kid you not, "Man Bikkle". Do the research on that one. ;D The vitamin drink was ok. Had a very sour after taste. The purple fruit juice felt like it was burning my inside. The ice cream was..... unique. I put it away for later. XD The ビックル, in my opinion was one of the worst drinks I had that day. I chugged it, which was a stupid thing to do *not listening to Shuu again* and I literally died for like 2 hours. XD

*Man Bikkle*

*A days worth of vitamins*

Though it was getting late, it didn't deter our original plan that had been pushed off several times; we were still going to 心斎橋. I had read up on the place and I was excited/ kind of knowing what to expect, which explains why I wasn't incredibly surprised when I saw everything. It was still fun though. I had an ulterior motive for wanting to go there, but that ended up in failure. I still had fun though. I think I might go back one more time to be a total tourist XDD When we got to the station to go back, there were selling this drink called そば茶. That was just awful. It smelled like cocoa and coffee, but it tasted like tea and coffee and it was very gross. I could barely finish it. I think that drink makes it into the top 5 worst things I've had to drink while ever in Japan. XDD After that, we headed to CoCo's *a curry house that I use to love going to back on Oki* and it was awesome. I missed CoCo's so much. Many great memories of that place. I don't think that will be the last time I eat there before we head back to the US. Then, we headed to LAWSON and bought some ice cream and these ナルト candies that cost like ￥399 and only had 4 pieces of candy in them. XD I don't care. I'm a hardcore fan either way. XD

十六：焼肉や

2008-06-21T02:09:00.000-07:00

So, around 6pm, we finally went out to find somewhere to eat. Since I was tired of choosing the places and constantly regretting it, I decided to let Shuu choose a place this time. We settled on a 焼肉 place just down the street. It seemed pretty cool and was a little fancy. Once inside, it was semi crowded, but still had enough room to accommodate the two of us. We sat down at the bar, that had a grilling plate on it and ordered some food. The prices were a little high, but we were willing to make an exception since this was a cook your own food place hahaha. I think the waitress was new b/c she seemed to be messing up a little bit and just didn't seemed to be very experienced with what she was doing. We got the majority of our food *she missed one bowl of rice I had ordered, but I didn't really care* and got ready to pay. I thought I had calculated everything correctly, but maybe I was off. :/ The final bill came out to be around ￥7,000. Not what I had expected, but that's ok.

We ended buying some food at Family Mart again XD We headed back and watched the Matrix Reloaded in 日本語 and that was it for the day.

Tomorrow's another day...

十四、十五：何もと何か

2008-06-20T01:18:00.000-07:00

Short entry for today :P

Day 14:

Well, nothing really happened today. :/ I had waken up early b/c I thought we might go out and do something. To my horror, the shower didn't have any running hot water. O_O Yeah, it was very short and very cold. XD Anyways, after that, I went to Family Mart to buy some food and snacks for the remainder of the day and the nest few days. Then, I sat around try to think of something to do. Around 4, Shuu finally woke up and the remainder of the day was spent watching TV and planning what to do the next day. We had planned to go to 心斎橋 the following day, so it was just left to what we would do the remainder of that day. We decided to try and find a カラオケ place. We went out and along the way we found this place that had a giant DVD sign on the door. We figured, "Hey... why not?" We went inside and found out that it was nothing but cheap dirty movies *most under $10* and sex toys. It was very lul worthy. I took pics. XDD

*Beware: Don't touch anything. You might catch the AIDS*

*Obviously this place is making business*

*I lul everytime I see this pic*

Just a few seconds down the street, we found the カラオケ place, but it was shady and the building itself was really shady. Plus, it was closed. :/ We ended up just walking about and trying to figure out a place to eat. We settled on this お好み焼き place that was attached to the place we are in. It was pretty good and the CHU-HI's they had were really good. The only downside is that at a お好み焼き place, you make your own on the grill in front of you, which is what we had, but they made it for us and just place it on the grill, while it was heating :/ I was a little disappointed, but it was still pretty good. Afterward, we bought some snacks b/c the food really wasn't enough and headed back for the night.

*If they ever sold this in the US, I would buy cases upon cases of this drink. It's that good*

Day 15:

Well, today, we were supposed to go to 心斎橋 but instead, the day was spent *like most of the days here* just kind of hanging around the apt. Shuu was awake earlier than usual *before me* and was using the computer. I turned on the TV and, low and behold, ラストフレンズ was on. *It's this drama I was watching in Tokyo about some people who have some serious issues* It turns out, they were having a marathon of all the episodes leading up to the final episode that evening. Yeah.... We ended up staying in all day watching the drama and waiting for the finale. XDDD After that was over *around 11pm* we decided to try a カラオケ adventure again. Shuu was a little hesitant b/c the trains shut down at midnight and he was worried that, if this plan failed like the last one, we would end up walking back again. That was a bad thing because the カラオケ place this time was in なんば. It's not that it was far, it was just we didn't know how to get back from there. : P I didn't really care b/c I just wanted to go out and do something. So, after riding the trains for about 15 mins, we arrived in なんば and the カラオケ place *it was called ジャンから* was just about a min from the station. We decided to do the free time, which is pay a set price for however many hours the place has for カラオケ. The free time slot was from 11-6 am and we had just gotten there around 12am. So....

We カラオケ'd till 5am. XD It was definitely an experience. It got really intense towards the end of the night. The songs were getting more hardcore and the screaming was almost non-stop. XDD We finally decided to bail and we headed back to 谷町四丁目 to buy some breakfast and sleep. We went to 7-11, where we got some money for the next few days and bought some instant 沖縄そば. It was very awesome. I stayed up till about 6am and decided to bail for the day.

So, I'm not sure what's planned right now, but I'm still wanting to go to 心斎橋 and 京都, and so forth. So, since it's only about 6pm now, maybe we'll head out and do something. I'll update with our adventures again later. So, until then.... Later!

十一、十二、十三：さよなら東京．．． Pt. 2

2008-06-18T00:59:00.000-07:00

Day 12

This was our final day in 東京 and we had some errands to run before it was too late. We head to 原宿 first. Shuu had to get a T-Shirt for his friend, Yama, and I had to get a ring for Kamil. Before heading down 竹下通り, we ran into one of the foreign guys from the concert. It was a real surprise. It wasn't the last time we would see him that day though. We saw him leaving when we first went in, again when we were coming back down the street to do my errand, and one more time when we were heading to the station. It's been a running joke of mine that he would just show up out of nowhere to surprise us. XD Anyways, we headed to DEATH TRAP ID first, where they were selling the DALI T-shirt that Yama wanted. An unexpected surprise was the ticket to shake hands and have a picture with Dali at one of their lives while we were still Japan. Shuu died a little on the inside. I lul'd. Afterward, I bought a pretty cool looking ring for Kamil. *not as sharp as mine, but it gets the point across* along with some pants chains.

*Entrance to SexPot Revenge.... Gotta love it*

After that was done with, we tried to figure out what else to do that day. We ended up going to a shrine in the area, which was really cool. I bought an お守りfor one of my coworkers and that was it for 原宿.

*Entrance to the Shrine*

*Sake Barrels*

*I think we were supposed to do this first...*

Afterward, we went to 池袋 to go to Ice Cream City in サンシャインシティー. It was a part of this place called Namjatown, which was this mini theme park thing. It was really cool. In Ice Cream City, we mainly went to the cup area, where they had the "unique" flavors. Shuu bought Sugar Cane and Rose flavored ice cream.

*Rose flavored Ice Cream*

I bought Deep Sea Vanilla and Sunflower flavored ice cream.

*Sunflower flavored Ice Cream*

The sunflower was.... different. It was very chewy b/c of the sunflower seeds and tasted like sunflower oil. Next, I ate the Deep Sea Vanilla. It was very, very sweet, which was awesome. However.... the after taste was..... uhmmm.... well, it tasted like salty sea water. You live up to your name Deep Sea Vanilla. Hats off to you.

*First Ice Cream Exhibit*

*Second Ice Cream Exhibit*

*Squid Ice Cream*

*Octopus Ice Cream*

*Indian Curry Ice Cream*

Afterward, we did this spy game, which we failed horribly on, mainly b/c of the ones that had questions. After that, I did this alien thing, which I only half understood. I got 29 out of 40, so I must have been doing something right. XD After getting lost and basically exploring the remainder of the area, we finally met up and GTFO'd. It was a good ending to our trip.

*Relaxation area of the place*

Day 13

I got up around 9am and started to get ready to head out. To my surprise, Shuu was already awake. We got ready, cleaned up a little, said our final good byes and left. It was such a pain trying to get to get to the 新幹線. To my surprise, my backpack was very heavy :/ The CDs and other stuff really weighed it down. We arrived on time *actually early* and waited for our ride. We rode the のぞみ to 新大阪 which took about 2 and a half hours. It was really cool watching the scenery pass by. It also didn't feel like we were going 300 km/hr. We arrived in 新大阪 and transferred over to 大阪駅. Then we took the 地下鉄 to our new hotel, which was only a little further than 目白. When we finally entered our room we were super surprised. IT WAS HUGE!! It was an actual mini apartment. We had separate rooms, a bigger bathroom, a TV/ VCR, and a table! XD We got settled and explored some of the area. Essentially, that was the end of the day.

*My Room*

*Shuu's Room*

*Where the washer should be*

*Not just a toilet...*

*But also a sink!!!*

And so, another day is today. Until next time, Later!

十一、十二、十三：さよなら東京．．． Pt. 1

2008-06-18T00:10:00.000-07:00

Ok, so continuing where I left of in my last entry:

Later that day, we went to the live that Elec was playing at. Shuu, being the usual self he is, slept in... again. He woke up almost an hour till the live started. :/ After getting ready, we made a quick escape and headed towards the live. We considered the advice that Elec had given us about taking another train to get to the live, but after a while, we figured it would be better to take a more well known path.

We moved quickly to the live house as soon as we departed 浦和駅, which was not that far actually. We got our tickets and fliers and moved in. Lucky for us, they had just started as the intro music for them had just ended...

LAVERITE: This is the band that Elec is in. They were pretty awesome. It was hard to imagine them playing without a bassist *Elec* in the past. However, they didn't have a drummer, so it kind of took away from the performance. Elec was doing pretty awesome, acknowledging the audience, smiling. It was pretty awesome. RYOTA, at first, didn't seem too into it at first, but towards the end of the performance, he started to open up. It would have been nice to see some of the energy he had at the end of the act at the beginning as well. 結絵, at first to me, seemed to be pulling a MANA/ KISAKI, where he looked serious most of the time, but, like RYOTA, towards the end of the performance, the energy seemed to show. It would be nice to see more energy from them. Be excited! You have an audience! :) and work on getting that drummer. hahaha ★★★★½

DIZ: This was a VK band. They seemed kind of generic and the singer was just plain creepy to me. The guitarist seemed to be the most unique. He was definitely kind of big. Which stood out, but that didn't detract from how he played. However, the band as whole seemed really generic and THAT is not a good thing. ½☆☆☆☆

OZxBONE: Wow.... just, wow. They were a "Metal/ VK" band. They were kind of poppy, but wow.... were they unique. The vocalist also played guitar so it was definitely a rare sight. The seemed kind of sloppy as far as stage performance *they seemed to kind to run into each other when they switched sides on the stage*, but they weren't that bad. It was definitely an interesting sight. ★★★☆☆

ATOMIC TORNADO: Another "Metal/ VK" band, however, I think they were definitely leaning on the Metal side, look and sound wise. When I first saw the vocalist, I was wondering why he was wearing a poncho. XD Anyways, the first song was ehh.... but the 2nd and 3rd song were actually really good. They did have one downside though; if the vocalist didn't talk in between songs and I was blind, I could have sworn it was an angry chick singing. XDDD ★★★☆☆

DENIAL: They weren't that bad. They looked really young and I wondered why there was the absence of a bassist, while there was a bass on the stage... Anyways, they said it was their last live, so I just stood there and tried to figure out why the bass was so important. It turns out, that the band did have a bassist, but he wasn't there. :/ Still trying to figure it out. Oh well, they did a good set for their last live. Good luck to them wherever they go/ do. ★★★☆☆

uNruSt: A lot of people seemed to be there for them, but they seemed kind of generic/ annoying to me. I really can't remember any of their songs, but I do remember the fact that the vocalist kept looking at me; trying to get me to participate, but I didn't want to. However, he just kept persisting and that was seriously annoying. I couldn't wait till they got off stage. ☆☆☆☆☆

Pack's Hidetora STARGAZER: They were a session band *people from different bands playing together* made up of people I really didn't know about. They did pretty well, which explains why they were last and had the biggest crowd. The did a cover of HYBRID RAINBOW by the pillows and it was really good. If they became an actual band, I might actually give them a listen. ★★★★☆

After the live, we said goodbye to the other foreigners that were there and Elec. It was a pretty good live. Probably one of the better lives I've been to here...

Afterward, we headed for DENNYS, which by the way, is really not that appealing. I had been there on my last trip for breakfast. However, this time, we were there for dinner and it was just not that good. They should just stick to breakfast only. :/ We ended up going back to 椎名町 and just getting something else to eat.

七、八、九、十日：特別スペシャル！

2008-06-14T19:57:00.000-07:00

I've been slacking on my updates, so I really need to try and keep up with Shuu. XD So, let's start!

Day 7:

Today was『裏★海賊盤。』005発売記念イベント Day! We had sort of planned in advance to attend this show, but not really. I think on the 4th day we had reserved some tickets to see this concert. We were originally planning on going to this アングラ系 live in 名古屋, but that fell through after we found out how much it would cost to go there for the day and come back. *I'll give you a hint: It's very, very expensive from where we are :/* So, we hopped on the train and headed over to 高田馬場 to find AREA where the concert was being held. It wasn't that hard to find, nor was it too far from the station. There was a sort of medium sized theater sign that said the name of the live house, so that made it really easy. As we approached the place, we noticed that the entrance was just stairs leading down into the basement and that there was already a line of ladies waiting to get in. We stalled for a few minutes to save ourselves from awkwardness, but eventually gave in and stood in line. When everyone started to whip out there tickets, I knew we were in trouble. We had never really done a reservation before and we had no idea where the tickets came from. So, we ended up letting all the people behind us go in and stay behind to ask some other attendees where to pick up tickets. Apparently, there was a table just down the stairs out of sight where you pick up the tickets. :/ After we got that straightened out, we purchased yet ANOTHER drink fee that we didn't use *I really hate those ><* and headed inside. The live didn't start for another half hour so we stalled. When the time came, the lights dimmed to off and the curtains opened...

DELUHI: I had previously downloaded one of there albums and it was pretty good, so I had sort of an idea of what they sounded like. However, when that were on stage they impressed me quite a bit. Heavy, dark, and I think the guitarist was pretty awesome acting all crazy insane XD. The songs were solid and it was great seeing them live. ★★★★½

カル・ヴァリ: There was just something about them that wasn't right. Everyone seemed to be doing their own thing *look wise*. The bassist was pretty cool, but that was about it. I'd try to explain what they were like, but I just can't seem to remember :/ ★☆☆☆☆

Like Absolute Myself: Uhmmm.... I had a really hard time just remember who the hell this band was XD That should give you a hint as to what I think of them. ½☆☆☆☆

Zip.er: I had heard from Shuu that his friend Yama had told him in advance that there was nothing good that would come from this band. Naturally, I only half listened and decided to give them a shot. Wow.... I was very wrong. As soon as the singer came out on stage I thought "What the hell is Miku from An Cafe doing here?!" Upon a closer look, I noticed it wasn't him. But damn, was it close. One of the guitarist also looked like カノン from the same band. I tuned them out after seeing that. The one thing about them that creeped me out the most was the fact that the bassist kept looking at me. It was really uncomfortable and I was seriously hoping they would finish soon. >< ☆☆☆☆☆

vistlip: Hmmmm.... The guitarist looked pretty cool and they all matched look wise, but there was something about them that didn't sit well with me. Maybe it was the singer's need for everyone to cheer almost every moment he wasn't singing or that their songs seemed to be, for the same of a better word, "generic". I'm not sure what it is, but it's not a good thing... ★☆☆☆☆

愛狂います。: The final band to go on and the highlight of the show. I had been listening to their music for a while, so I was really looking forward to seeing them. They were nothing like the pictures, but that made them no less awesome. The singer was crazy, but that made them interesting to watch. I tried keeping up with all the hand movements, but I fell a little short. Definitely would like to see them again someday. :) ★★★★★

After the concert, we headed over to a CD store and bought the new アジカン mini album. Needless to say, the album was awesome. I think everyone should buy it.... Yes.... BUY IT NOW!!! XD

Day 8

Such a boring day... I woke up around 12 and was just using the internet *trying to catch up on my マンガ/ アニメ* Shuu finally got around to getting ready, but by then, it was late afternoon. :/ So, we went out to eat and being the person that I am, I wanted to try something new. We went to this place called わたみん家. I thought it was a grill place where you cook your own food, but once we went in, we found that it was not like that at all... It was a place that specialized in やきとり, one of my favorite Japanese foods, but it was terribly expensive. So, we got something small, paid the bill, which was kind of high considering what we bought and went down to the AM/PM and Family Mart to buy something else to eat. Afterward, we walked down to 目白 to find a LAWSONS to we could buy some アジカン tickets.............. That didn't happen because they were 完成 with the tickets sales for the venue we wanted to go to.............................................................. I'm still a little mad, but I've chilled out a bit. I bought some マンガ to ease the rage. XD Then, I bought a few bottles and alcohol and headed back. マンガ and 酒. What an awesome combo! XD

Day 9

"Seriously, this lounging around has to stop!" I thought. So, I got up early, got ready, and left a note for Shuu stating that I had gone to the JUMP Shop in 水道橋, which was in 東京ドームシティ *one of my favorite cities here in Tokyo* The way to get there was awful however. I hadn't been there in years and now I had to find a way to get there again. I had Google mapped it the night before, but I had no idea how to buy a ticket for the 丸ノ内線 *which I learned later, that I could have bought a ticket for that stop right at the station I departed from XD* So, instead, I paid the extra fee and ride the 中央線. Once at the station, I made my way into the Tokyo Dome shopping area in the attempt to find the store. There was something going on that day *I think it was a fashion show* but I didn't pay too much attention to it. I made my way to where the store was but.... it wasn't there anymore. O_O There was a map/ note on the door that said they had moved to the other side of the area, but I misread the map and ended up walking around the building. X## After a while of walking, I found out that they had just moved down the street. *Only about 2 mins away actually XD* I don't need to explain how awesome the store was. *If you're a Shounen Jump fan, you will love this store* I had to restrain myself from letting the store rape my wallet again. XDD Once I finished with that, I headed back to 椎名町 and got back to the room. Shuu was awake by then and was online. He saw the bags and immediately asked, "So.... buy any manga?" My response was "Uhhhmmmmmmm........ no" XDDDD Good Day. Later, that evening, we headed out to grab something to eat. I made the mistake of suggesting we try something new. So, we went to McDonalds and bought...... メガタマゴ！I died a little bit on the inside after eating that. It was the first time in years I had eaten at McDonalds, let alone a hamburger. It was..... just awful. We'll never speak of it again.

*The Set [which cost about 600 yen]*

*The sandwich [enough to make even Satan want to vomit]*

*Shuu attempting to stomach the damn thing*

Day 10

We were supposed to meet Elec in 池袋 at 3 that day, so we got ready and headed out around 3pm. *It was one station away XD* We kind of got lost when we got there, but once we remembered where to meet, we found it quickly and in no time we met up. We headed over to Tokyu Hands *this dept. store with A LOT of interesting items* and just chatted as we browsed around. We then headed to Brand X, which was really not that interesting actually. :/ It was like 自主盤 + Flower Records combined. Though they had some rare stuff, it was all still full price. So, we headed to Closet Child 池袋 again. We browsed, talked about bands, and bought some things *my smallest bill at Closet child to date: ￥1,700 * Afterward, we headed to Shakey's Pizza and.... bought Pizza, duh.

*The famous pizza from Elec's page*

XD We must have talked for a good 2 hours while we were there, but it was great. A lot of stories, experiences, etc. It was a really good night. Afterward, we headed back to the station where we went our separate ways. We'll be seeing him again though tomorrow for his concert in 埼玉. It will be fun.... but now comes the problem.... this is our last night in the hotel. We need to find a place to go....

Day 11 (Today)

I woke up this morning to my alarm going off *which I ignored* followed by the phone ringing. I got up and answered the phone and found out that it was the front desk asking when we were heading down to check out. To my surprise, it was 2 minutes till check out. O_O I asked if there was any way we could extend our stay 2 more nights and I was put on hold. Half asleep, confused, and using choppy Japanese, I was really hoping that the guy would be able to extend our stay. Luckily, he did and we didn't have to pay too much *3150 per person for each night* I said thanks and he asked when I would be down to pay. I said I'd be ready in about half an hour and that was that. I sat on the side of the bed half asleep, when Shuu woke up and asked what had happened. I explained the situation and it was pretty awesome. Awesome enough for him to go back to sleep. XD

So, today, we're going to 埼玉 to see Elec play and just hang out there for a little bit. I'll be sure to report on that tonight or tomorrow morning. Until then.... Later!

六日：別に．．．

2008-06-10T09:46:00.000-07:00

So, today was relatively laid back. We really didn't do anything *to be more precise, we didn't go anywhere* We stayed in 椎名町 the whole day. It was spent watching TV, using the internet to find lives and info on some bands, and so forth. We ate at なか卯 again, went to AM PM for some snacks, and the 7-11 we finally found that was like just down the street. The only thing I bought there was green tea, ASAHI beer in a tiny-as-hell can, and green tea alcohol. The last two were just too nasty for me to stomach, so I ended up dumping it. Seemed like a waste. :/ Oh well.

*So nasty...*

*It made this taste better somehow though... o_O*

*Just another reason why I love Japan... and it was right downstairs!*

Tomorrow, we going to another live/ buying the new アジカン mini album that's coming out. I'm looking forward to both very much. Will write again later with an update for that, so..... yeah... Later.

三と四 + Bonus [五]

2008-06-09T20:37:00.000-07:00

*Yummy peach drink with Peach chunks!*

So, I figured it's about time for another over view of what happened on Day 3 and 4

Day 3

The day started usual enough. We woke up around 1pm and were trying to think of things to do. Shuu was looking on a music site to see what concerts we could attend in the future and saw that there was one concert the same day. Being me, I asked "Well, who is it?" Turns out, it was a band called 遺伝子組換こども会 *an アングラ系 band that was really cool to listen to* and ゴールデンボンバー *Not sure what the hell they were XD*. I hadn't heard of either of the bands prior to that day, so I was a little anxious, but not completely ready to go. The live was at 6, so we decided to head out around 3:30 to ensure ourselves that we got to the area just in case we got lost.... again. Sure enough, we did get sort of lost. *We ended up bailing on the train and just walking to the next station* However, we made it there and with one hour left to spare. When we got there, it was very apparent that:

1.) We were the only guys there.

2.) We were the only foreigners.

It was very awkward; especially the wait. That was probably the worst part. However, 6pm came around and it was ready to go inside. We paid for our tickets *2800 yen a piece* got our 配布 *concert CDs* and useless drink tickets, then went inside. The place was very, very small. I think there was only about 50 people there.

Thoughts:

こども会 was really cool to listen to. That day was the first time I had ever heard of them and they were pretty good. The skits that they did were pretty funny as well. The final skit at the end was also really funny. Awkward. But funny. They're one of my top favorite bands now XD ★★★★★

ゴールデンボンバー was..... uhmmm..... yeah. They were something. They had a few good songs, but the thing about them was that only the vocalist and the guitarist did anything. There was a bassist and drummer but they didn't actually do anything but pretend to play the instruments. :/ The bassist, however, had a really cool outfit, so he's forgivable. XD The gag with this band was how the vocalist would kept saying "無料配布" *Free CD* every time the guitarist would finish his "solo" *which was basically handing out mini x-rays of the vocalists broken shoulder, drinking a blended McDonald's meal, having "sex" w/ a blow up doll, drinking pudding/ lemon juice concoction, and drinking a giant pudding thing XD* They were seriously weird. But, they were amusing. So, props to them. ★★★★☆

Day 4

We were supposed to go to the Euphoria concert, but we had found out the day before that I wouldn't have enough money to cover the whole thing. *Shuu had run out of money and I was spotting him till we could find an ATM that would accept international cards* Turns out that same day, I had done some research and found that not only did the inner city Post Offices have ATMs that operated in the weekends, but the 7-11's also had international ATMs. What killed us was the fact that there was one only 5 mins away XD. So, after getting our money, we grabbed something quick to eat and did our Oki thing where we ate in front of the store.

*Normal bottle of orange juice... or is it....?*

*YAY!*

The experience was pretty cool, until a cat decided to invade our space and watch us as we ate. Seriously, it just sat there and watched us. It was very creepy/ annoying. We hurried up and left. Since we finally had money again, and had missed the Euphoria concert, we decided to just go カラオケ in 池袋 Instead, we ended up CD shopping again for another 3+ hours XD

*What I got on the second + first day of CD shopping*

After FINALLY finishing that, we decided to カラオケ. We went to Big Echo, which is the popular カラオケ chain in Japan. We had initially decided to just go for 2 hours, but it ended up being a 4 hour deal XD Short version of the event. *Lots of screaming and lots of water XD*

Some bands we did were:

Ayabie 彩冷える
Dir en Grey *Vulgar and Prior*
Hime Ichigo 姫苺
An Cafe *before they became lame*
D
Phantasmagoria
Enter Shikari
Avenged Sevenfold
Maximum The Hormone

After we finally finished, we went to the counter to pay and found out that we had seriously miscalculated the price for カラオケ. The bill was 9,400 something. *$90 O_O* Simply put, we'll be sticking to the hours we stated from now on and try to keep away from Big Echo. <- We later remembered that the chain itself was really expensive. Later in the evening, we decided to grab something to eat *it was like 2 am now* so we went to なか卯 *The place from the other day* I wasn't all that hungry since I had bought some 弁当 from Family Mart a few hours before. When we got there, I was feeling a little daring decided to try something new. [Note: Whenever I try something new, it almost never goes right. XD] I had seen this program on 納豆 earlier that day was thinking "Hey.... Not a lot of people like this stuff. I wonder why..." I only half regret eating that stuff. It smelled awful and it tasted equally bad.

*It actually looked a lot better before I added the Soy Sauce XDD*

After that experience, I had to buy some candy and something to drink to get the taste out of my mouth. XD

*Mmmmm.... Green Tea Ice Cream*

=BONUS=

*Japanese KFC Teriyaki Chicken Sandwich*

Day 5

Yesterday, we decided to try our luck in finding flower records *This rare CD store that has a lot of 配布 from bands* Getting there wasn't that bad really. In fact, it was really easy to find. The problem wad the store itself, which was the small room, packed with boxes of CD and stuff. It was very, very, very packed. It was hard to move and it just seemed like you shouldn't be touching anything b/c either 1.) it's dirty or 2.) it will collapse on you. XD Apparently, there were a few rarz there, so Shuu bought one thing and I bought another and we left. To make up for the experience, we went to Like an Edison *another CD store, which wasn't all that spectacular* and the last Closet Child in Tokyo. [Note: For those of you who don't know what Closet Child is, it's a CD store that sells a lot of awesome/ rare CDs in Tokyo and has been raping our wallets for the last 3 days XD] After leaving there, with yet another bag of CDs, we headed to a ラーメン place to grab something quick to eat. Shuu got 醤油ラーメン *Soy Sauce Ramen* and I got おもちラーメン *Mochi ramen* After that, we headed back and that was basically it.

And now, we come to today... What will we do now...? Will update again later!

二日：なか卯で！

2008-06-06T21:22:00.000-07:00

So, here's the abridged version of what happened so far:

- I had stayed awake all night after a day of taking tests and working a closing shift. We left he house at 4am b/c I had to pick up one of my friends who just got back from deployment and wanted to go back to Sea-Tac. We were running a little late, so I had to be dropped off first. However, I was just a few seconds too late....

- I missed my initial flight :/ However, I was able to get on another flight and still make it to CA in time. It was an hour later, so I was relatively set. It was kind of awesome going through the checkpoint at the airport since I was the only one wearing chains and rings XD. Not to mention the fact that I got the weirdest look when the checker looked at my passport that I had gotten 2 years before and saw what I looked like now. I lul'd.

- After a 2 hour flight *and my inability to stay awake anymore XD* I finally landed in CA an proceeded to the next gate. There, I met up with Shuu, who was sitting in his little corner at the time waiting for me to show up. After discussing a few things, it was finally time to board and take off.

10 HOURS OR SOMETHING LIKE THAT LATER

- We finally landed in Japan! We went through customs and got the hell out of the airport. First though, we had to get some yen. Apparently, we had to fill out a form to exchange money..... Needless to say, I couldn't stop laughing. XD

*Shuu enjoying himself a nice beverage*

*Oh how I've missed Japanese Vending Machines*

*I missed you the most REAL GOLD*

-Afterward, we got to ride a humid train for a good hour before we got to Tokyo. There, we headed straight for the hotel, which we found was painfully small. It was meant as a place to sleep only. We did a little exploring when we got settle and finally wen to a Family Mart. IT WAS AWESOME. It had been a long, long time since then and I was looking forward to it.

*What we saw when we walked in*

*What we saw when we looked back*

*What we saw when we looked in the bathroom*

*What we saw when we opened the window*

*And when we looked down*

- Then it was time to turn in.... at 9pm..... Yeah.... too early for me.

That's all I'll right for now. I'll what we did yesterday tonight. Heading out the door soon so.... yeah. Later!

一日： Oh yes.... Epic.

2008-06-05T15:34:00.000-07:00

Shuu and I have finally arrived in Japan!

Actually, we arrived here yesterday.... but you get the idea.

The internet in the room is acting up, so I'm at a まんが喫茶店 down the street. I'll keep trying to get the internet up in the room.

*My haven...*

*So.... Awesome...*

So... yeah. That's all I've got for now. I'll write about the first day probably tomorrow, so I can talk about today as well.

So... Later!

Steady Spral

2008-06-01T22:22:00.000-07:00

Japan: Home of yummy snack foods XD

A quick update as to what's going on:

- Got an A- on my 5 hour paper. XD How awesome is that. PROCRASTINATORS RULE!! XDDD

- Shuu's cousin had to bail on the Japan trip b/c he got sick. :/ It really sucks, especially for him since he was ready and everything.

- After panicking upon hearing the news, I quickly had to do some revising to the reservations I had made. In the end, we have to pay $74 dollars more. Not too bad, but not that great :/

- Only two, that's right people; 2! days till the trip. I'm getting more and more anxious to go, but at the same time, I know that I have to start worrying about the tests and Japanese presentation for tomorrow. Needless to say, I'm not looking forward to it, especially the closing shift for the night. :|

- Tuesday, I'll be awake all day and night till I get on the flight going to Japan. Then, sleep I shall do. XD I will be carrying my laptop with me so, I'll be posting updates and so forth when we arrive there.

- Today, I have a lot to do. After school, I have work. Then, I have to do some cleaning to prepare for tomorrow. So much crap to do, but hopefully it will all be worth it. -__-

That's all for now... Go away. XD

ムスタング

2008-05-27T23:31:00.000-07:00

Ajikan's new PV: ムスタング is finally here!!

I have to admit, the song is pretty awesome. But the PV itself, is not too great. :/ I will say this though: It takes a lot of guts to just stand there for that long. XD

ENJOY!!

＋沈黙的な＋

2008-05-26T01:17:00.000-07:00

Yeah.... I didn't know what to think when I saw this either. XD

It has been a little while since an update, so I'll post some new things that have happened.

My Cultural Anthropology paper is finally done!! With that out of the way, all I have are finals. Good and bad thing really. I know I won't have too much of a problem with my first two classes, but my final class may prove otherwise. I have to do an early Japanese presentation and final, I have to do 2 labs and, I think, 2 tests early, including the final, and 2 Cult. Anth. tests. Cultural Anth. worries me the most b/c it seems that I may not be doing that well in the class. If this paper bombs, then that's it for my grade in the class. I'm really hoping for at least a D on it. :/

Shuu also pointed out that some chick had put me on her blogspot as a link. I have no idea how she got to me or even if she knows who I am, but I'm being a little cautious now. I've decided to add a locater on my page to see who checks my profile and to make sure no creepy chicks that I haven't met before add me for no apparent reason except to maybe boost there friend count; in which I reply, if something like that is happening: "F*king grow up already. This isn't MySpace." I'm waiting to see if she responds to my comment.

A little while back ago, a good friend of mine, Shuu, posted on his page that he was reading through my Xanga and was recalling all the memories of Japan that we had. As I read through his post, I couldn't help but remember all the adventures we had and all the stupid crap we did: Tsutaya, Label Finger, Yoshinoya, The Drill, Family Mart, Cape Hedo, The Giant U-Turn, deadly snack foods, radiator problems, the claw, Ajikan, arcades, Jesus, Book Box, GEO, and Karaoke. These all bring up awesome but sad memories of a time when everything seemed to be so care-free. I'm sincerely hoping that this trip to Japan will be another chapter in this adventure of life that will be filled with awesome memories and equally stupid crap. XD

I'm ready for Japan. But do you think Japan is ready for us?

9 more days....

Heaven in the Sound

2008-05-04T00:15:00.000-07:00

*Ellegarden: 1998-2008*

So... It's official. There is only one month left till the trip! I'm steadily growing impatient. Want.... to... go.... NOW!!! XDD I should be worrying about the tests and projects I have to finish early though.... Oh well. Celebrate now, work later XD

In other news, Chasing Starlight is on Indefinite Hiatus as of April 29th. Some might wonder who this band is, or was, and why I would even bring it up. Well, I'm the bassist for the band : P *Bet you didn't know that XD* Despite the fact that I live miles away from the actual band, I was amazingly still in it. :/ However, even though I'm "band-free" for the moment, I'll still be coming up with bass lines for future use. *Yes, I'm still making bass lines. I just need your guitar chords, YOU BASTARD* Hopefully, this hiatus isn't indefinite...

That's really all the news I have for now, so... Later.

P.S. Guys Family Disbanded and new Sadie album June 25th!

永遠に超えて

2008-04-28T15:25:00.000-07:00

*Seems like the US is finally starting to catch up to Japan. XD*

Just a small update for today, since not much is new on my end.

- I'm getting ready for May, which basically means that I need to start on that research project that's due and study up for all the tests I'll have to take in advance. >< Not.... fun...

- I'm starting to reach my breaking point in being a cashier. I'm aiming for the Head Cashier position now *since there is a certain someone that I don't want occupying that position*. If I don't get that, then I'll switch to another dept. If that doesn't work, then I'm fairly prepared to quit. I've had the intention of leaving sometime in August. I'm just not sure if I'm going to yet. I want to work somewhere where there are less idiots. Unfortunately, I live here... -_____-

- For some reason, I've been made President of the Japanese club for the remainder of this term and next year.... Proud? Not really. There's only like 6 people now. Now I have to work on paperwork and find ways to recruit. :/ I'm bored enough as it is, so I'll do it.

- The day draws near and there's still no exact place we'll be staying at while we're in Tokyo this June ><. I added two more places to the list and am just waiting for feedback on them. Hopefully, one of the two new places *or anywhere for that matter* is chosen, so I can proceed with the reservations. Everything else is fairly set.... Well, actually..... I just realized that we haven't chosen a place in Osaka/ Kyoto either..... We're so screwed... XDD

Ok. So, lets have a quick review:

Sweeney Todd: Pretty good movie. I had read up on the play before actually watching the movie and I really enjoyed it. I want the special edition now, so I can see more special features. :) ★★★★★ (Enjoy the music, the blood, and the awkward head landings XD)

I am Legend: Don't remember if I reviewed this movie yet, but if I didn't then there was a reason. It was ok, but it wasn't spectacular. To me at least. I did enjoy watching it for the most part though. ★★★★½ (Definitely good the first time, not so much after that)

Cloverfield DVD: Uhmmm.... It was ok. Looking over it again and watching the special features definitely game me a little more insight to the idea of the movie. Doesn't change my original rating for it though. ★★★★½ (Motion sickness in the comfort of your own home ;D)

That's all I have for now. So, until next time...

Taste of Chaos 2008 General Overview

2008-04-16T21:27:00.000-07:00

*Waiting outside in the rain and cold*

Taste of Chaos came to Seattle on Tues. April 15. It was an awesome day... for the most part.

The day, for me, started at 6am. I had a lack of sleep that night b/c I was thinking of an excuse to get out of work. While I laid half asleep, I had a dream that I had called out already and everything was awesome. Of course, I woke up a few seconds later, looked at my cell, and realized it wasn't true. -____- After gathering up some courage and figuring this was the best time to call *seeing as how I sound sick when I'm half asleep anyways XD* I finally called and got a hold of my store manager. Took me completely off guard because he's usually not the one to answer the phone. After giving my excuse, which sounded kind of nervous b/c of who I was talking to, he gave the ok and I was ready for school.

Afterwards was when the day really started. At 11:30, I was already on my way to pick up Arlden and Shouta *a friend of Arlden's* By 12pm, we were on our way to Seattle. On the way there, I was going about 70-80 mph. Not too smart. I was flagged by a cop and he started to follow. Luckily, I had a trick in mind. *TAKE NOTES HERE!* I had observed a cop pulling someone over after following them for about a quarter or so of a mile. Keeping that in mind, I slowed down to 60 and turned on my cruise control. The cop followed me for a good 10 minutes before he gave up and moved to another lane and ahead. The lesson learned: Cruise control is your best friend XDDD

We got to the city at about 1:00, but spent about half an hour in traffic by the theater where the concert was held. Then, we spent another 15 minutes trying to find a parking space. By the time we were done, it was almost 2. We hurried and got a spot in line and soon afterwards, another one of my classmates showed up right behind us. We waited for a little bit, but it started to rain. :/ Then it got colder. Then it rained some more. Needless to say, the wait sucked. Luckily we were given bags of paper and a sample JRock CD. Plus, free Rockstars, which were ok. * I spilled most of mine trying to find a way to take a picture of the can and showing a poster to one of my friends XD* When it finally got to about 4, the line just broke loose and everyone rushed the door. It left me wondering: "What the hell was the purpose of the line?!" So, after migrating forward, they started to let people in. *Word of reminder: The "Jump the Line" wrist band doesn't do sh*t. Don't bother with it. :/* We all got in at the same time and made our way to the stage area.

We moved to the stage and it was only partially filled. We got fairly close, maybe about 2 rows from the bars. It was good. Here's the list of who played (courtesy of Shuu):

Oregon band with Tragedy in the name
D'espairsRay
Idiot Pilot
MUCC
The Underneath
Blessthefall
Atreyu
Avenged Sevenfold

Bullet for my Valentine didn't play b/c of the bassist's departure. I wanted to hear what they sounded like, but it didn't bother me b/c I didn't know them.

The Oregon band was the first to play. They played ok. The crowd wasn't too enthused, but it was catchy. Their music almost sounded familiar... Easily stated, I wasn't too into it. I was too busy looking at the D'espairsray banner slowly coming down in the background... XD

When D'espairsray took the stage, the crowd went crazy. Apparently, a lot of people at the concert were well aware of who they were, which made it awesome. What made it even awesomer was the fact that ZERO (ba) acknowledged me, not just once, but three times during the bands set! It made them that much cooler to me and made me want to start listening to them again.

Next was IdiotPilot. I can't really say if they were good b/c I was too busy trying to prevent myself from being crushed by the bastards in the crowd. Two of them were wearing Star Trek shirts plus, they were playing the techno effects off of an Apple Mac Book. .... NEXT please.

During IdiotPilot's set, MUCC was setting up there instruments. It helped take my mind off the awkward techno and the people elbowing me in the back. After they finished, MUCC took the stage. I went crazy. Screaming, yelling their names, waving and jumping. XD I wasn't too keen on the song names, but I did recognize Fuzz and Libra. Listening to it live was much better than listening to it on CD. During the songs, however, some chick threatened to elbow me if I didn't keep away from her *which I was confused about b/c she was 2 people away from me* and some guy tried to get me to mosh by kicking me several times. I looked over at him, then just turned back around and continued to listen. I figured "I've waited to see these guys live for a while now; I want to be able to enjoy every minute of it" The crowd, surprisingly enough, liked MUCC over D'espairsray. Or at least it seemed like it. They seemed to be more into it and seemed to know the words to their songs. It was an awesome set.

After they finished, I bailed to go buy some gear and get signatures from D'esray and MUCC. Shouta, who had been close by most of the time *this was our first US concert*, decided to follow b/c he was tired of getting shoved around. We stood in line and talked about the bands and what we thought of the concert so far. We agreed for the most part, so it was good. After buying the stuff, we headed over to the Ernie Ball booth to get D'esray to sign my towel. We shook hands and that was about it. It kind of seemed rushed, so it wasn't that enjoyable. :/

After that, we headed straight for the Rockstar booth to get signatures from MUCC. While we were in line, Arlden came out of the concert fairly pissed off. He was mad the he was all sweaty and had lost his hat. My response was : "Well.... what did you expect from a rock concert?" He was pretty much mad for the remainder of the concert. After finally reaching the booth, I had a small conversation with each of the band members. All were really polite, except for maybe Miya (gt), who looked like he didn't want to be there anymore. When I made it to Yuuke, I wasn't sure what to say *yeah... he's my fav. band member* so, I just asked if I could take his picture. He agreed and I said "thanks" a crap load of times. XD Tatsurou (vo) wanted to practice his English with me, but I wanted to practice my Japanese. It was a very awkward convo. XD

*Yukke*

*Tatsurou*

*Awesomeness that now resides on my wall XD*

After that whole ordeal, we headed back inside, just in time to catch the beginning of Atreyu. Their intro was the speech that Willy Wonka *the original* made when the group was going through the chocolate river tunnel. I was reminded of how much that movie had scarred me. o_o They played a good amount of songs, all really good. I had only heard a few of them before, but I was still really new to them, so I don't have any song names. :/ On the last song *Lip Gloss and Black, I think*, they got help singing the last part of the song from all the vocalists of the bands before them. It was purely awesome.

Finally, Avenged Sevenfold started *after a 15 min wait* They played: (Courtesy of Shuu again XD)

Critical Acclaim
Second Heartbeat
Afterlife
Beast And The Harlot
Scream
Seize The Day
Pantera (Cover w/ crowd member)
Bat Country
Almost Easy
NOFX cover
Gunslinger
Unholy Confessions

En:
A Little Piece Of Heaven

Words can't begin to describe how awesome their set was. This was the first time I had seen them live, so it was definitely a great experience. The crowd was insane. At times, it seemed more like a riot was going to happen than a mosh pit. XD

All in all, this concert was pretty good. We got home around 12:30am and I went to sleep at about 2am. *I couldn't get my ears to stop ringing XD* Today, my arm, neck, and jaw hurts. Plus, I have a major headache ><

Will I go to Taste of Chaos again? Well, I was partially deaf/ blind, dehydrated, starved, out of breath, and had an irregular heartbeat for the rest of the evening and day....

...yes. *Only if good bands are playing* XDDD

Anyways, that's my report. If anyone wants better pics, just ask.

I'll leave it at that. My head is seriously starting to hurt again. ><

Later.

桜コン 2008： 2日とその他

2008-03-30T12:33:00.000-07:00

*Final Event of the day*

After the first days event and looking over the schedule *yes... I did look over the schedule plenty of times* I concluded that there was really not much for me to see at the convention anymore. However, I was some how pulled back into going back to the convention and this is how my day turned out:

I woke up at 5am b/c I had to go to work at 6. I was opening Returns and I was not at all happy at the thought. What made matters worse was the fact that I only slept for an hour before I had to wake up again. Needless to say, I was very sleep deprived. *Especially after I had been trying to break my school insomnia for Spring Break* I didn't realize that the day was going to be much longer than I had planned...
After getting off of work at 2:30, I was asked by one of my classmates who was at the convention to get her some food when I head up there. I tried my best to find a way out of it, but eventually, I gave in. I did, however, say that I would be coming in late b/c I wanted some time to nap before another long drive to Seattle. At this point, certain things I'm over looking *the time and how much gas I had left* would have a great impact on the direction my day was going.
After sleeping for about 2 hours *really not enough time for a good nap*, I got up and headed up to Seattle for the convention. The time is now 5:30pm. As I was driving I looked at my gas gauge and noticed that I was really starting to run low on gas, but my stupid assumptions led me to think that there was a gas station in the city. ><
Most of the skits were actually good. While some were like "..... wtf just happened?", the parts I tolerated most showed at the start of the show. Needless to say, I did have some favorites. The one that I like the most was definitely this one: Watch me!. A Naruto Shippuden parody on the save Sasuke arc *currently showing now* Though it had some funny moments and a lot of fan girl junk I didn't really care about, the overlying message that Naruto bitches about Sasuke too much was what won me over.
After *amazingly enough* sitting through every skit, I figured it was time for me to head home. I didn't want to be in Seattle any longer and I was worrying about how much gas was left in my car. For those who know me, I don't take direction well and tend to get lost very easily. That's exactly what happened when I was trying to find the freeway exit out of the city. Normally, it wouldn't bother me, but I was low on gas and starting to panic a little. *Lesson I learned about cities: There are no gas stations in the city. Only at the city limits and outside of the downtown area* Apparently, I was a little too slow at realizing this and when I finally back tracked to the convention, I found that I had actually pass the Freeway entrance. ><
Finally! I found one. However... why the hell is it running so slow?! Apparently, the station was almost out of gas and was about to hit empty. It took 10 minutes to get to a gallon and a half. *I rounded it up to $6 before I called it quits and left* Luckily for me, my car was pretty good with gas and I made it a little bit more than 40 miles back home. *Yes, I got gas when I got back. A lesson learned about filling the gas tank before long drives XD* Of course, when I got home, I had received another call... [The time is now 11:30pm]
On the other end of the line was one of my co workers *clearly drunk* asking me come hang out with the rest of my co-workers for a bachelor party. At first, I was thinking about not going seeing as how it was really late, but I figured "... eh... what the hell." So I headed, back the way I came, to Tacoma. [Now midnight]
[Entire post opted out b/c of blurry memory and certain things I would like officials not to see XD]

In the end, I got home at 3am. ._____.

Needless to say, I have a light headache and a chest cold again :/

Sakura Con analysis: ★★★★☆

So until next time... またね

Oh... btw... 2 Months!!! XDD

桜コン 2008：１日

2008-03-28T22:54:00.000-07:00

*... Snow... in March...? A sure sign of the end XD*

Well, not much has happened since my last post, but I'll go ahead and enlighten you:

It snowed 3 times since my last post o_O
I bought my plane ticket for Japan ^-^ *and at a much better price*
I went to Sakura Con today. (More details below)

Ok. Well, I decided to go to Sakura Con *yes... it's an anime convention* b/c a certain someone wouldn't leave me alone about it till I said yes to going. In the end, I went. So here's what happened:

- I woke up at 5:30am this morning b/c I was thinking that I would have to wait in a horrifyingly long line in order to get my access badge for the convention *which started at 7am*. I shouldn't have been to surprised at the lack of people I saw that early in the morning. *Very little had come* It wasn't clicking that it was a Friday still XD So, I waited for the rest of the group to show *some of my classmates* since I had arrived earlier than anyone. *Even though I thought I was late XP*

- After everyone arrived, I went to go get my badge and saw where everyone really was. The Registration line was horrifyingly long. However, since I had pre-registered, I just had to jump into the short line, which was less than a minute really.

- Since we had arrived early, there was nothing that was really open, since everyone was still getting set up and it was still the first day. So we waited around till about 11 to really do anything.

Key points:

Spent a good hour in the exhibition hall and the rest of the day just wandering around.
Got to meet Dave from Snafu Comics *he was pretty cool*
Saw some good and kind of eh.. cosplayers
Watched some AMV's *out of pure boredom really*
Saw a first press THE TREND KILLER from Sadie. I wanted it. It was damaged. I was mad.
Wandered around the majority of the time *7am -3pm*

Not sure what else to write, so I'll just post some pics I took.

Exhibition Hall

My failed attempt at taking a picture of an AMV XD

Cool painting

View from the 3rd floor *mmmm... Gameworks... the only decent arcade in this state*

It started snowing.... again. -___-

Awesomest picture of the day. XD

The stuff I bought:

It was a misprint, but nothing seems to be wrong w/ it

Who doesn't like a little Portal fun?

A closer look

Well, that's all I have for now. I may or may not go again to the convention tomorrow b/c of the lack of time I have, so this is basically it for now.

じゃね．．．

心に深いクレーター

2008-03-25T15:35:00.000-07:00

*Painful reminder of my memories*

Well, I'm not sure I have much to post in this entry, so I'll give you just some quick updates as to what's currently going on:

Work has been cutting my hours again. Instead of working 8 hours tomorrow and Thursday, I've been cut down to 4 hours each day. ><>
For those of you who may or may not have known, yes, I am working on buying a plane ticket for a month *almost a month, actually* trip to mainland *Japan*. I plan on getting tickets Friday, so hopefully my next paycheck will be enough to cover it. After that, all I'll have to do is save some money. *Easier said than done unfortunately*
Pat and Derek have been trying to pressure me into moving down to CA to help them provide a bass line for their new band. It's slowly working. No worries though. I'm on my way there. It'll be a few months till I get there though. ;D
On a lighter note, I got financial aid! ^-^ Essentially, I'm paid for for the rest of the time I attend college here, with a little money left over. This will definitely help with trip costs and other misc. costs I'll have till next term. :)

Speaking of school, I finally checked what my grades were for this term.

Here are the results:

- Math in Society: C *This much I expected. DAMN YOU COMPOUND INTEREST! ><*

- Intro to Sociology: B *From an F to a B... It doesn't get much better than that in my book XD*

- Abnormal Psychology: A- *Holy hell.... Wow.... My first A while in college XD*

As for next term:

- Chemical Concepts
- Japanese *Finally*
- Cultural Anthropology

They all seem like a well rounded classes, so I hope they don't suck. :/ That's all I have to say, so..... yeah.

またね。

永遠に憂鬱

2008-03-13T18:07:00.000-07:00

When I'm done procrastinating, I'll consider updating this more often. XDD

FINALLY! This term is at it's end. It was, to my surprise, actually interesting. As some of you may or may not have known, I was dropped from my original schedule *see a few posts back* and had to re-apply for new ones. This was probably a good mistake.

Sociology, despite my lowering grade, was really interesting. Though there was no homework and very little interesting activities, the material was really interesting to read about. What I learned: Don't blame yourself. Blame society. XD
Abnormal Psychology was equally, if not, more fun than Sociology, simply because of all the activities we did. Like the class above, there was no HW and your grade solely relied on tests, participation, and in-class assignments. Still, it was fun to learn about all these things that could be wrong with you. What I learned: I may seriously be f*ked up. ^-^
Math in Society is exactly as it sounds. Math that you use in society. :/ It wasn't very fun, but there were some things that I had previously learned that definitely helped on some tests. Other than that, I felt that this class was a waste of air and time for me. *Which is probably why I skipped every other day. XD* What I learned: Uhmmm..... Compound interest? :|

Next week is finals week and I'm less than thrilled about it. Despite Soc. and Psyc. being interesting classes, the tests are something that you definitely need to study for. *Something I have yet to do* After that, I have a few weeks away from school *but not from work* then more school at the end of the month.

Work has been mixed for me. For some reason, the store decided to hire 7 new cashiers. That makes 17 cashiers in total. There's only about 6 working a day and the new hires are getting all the hours. I'm slowly losing hours and it's not cool. I'm starting to consider my options: 1.) Find more hours in another dept. *something that could happen*; 2.) Find a temp. second job *not easy with school in the way* 3.) most radical: Leave for another job that gives me more hours. <- Not too sure I want to do this yet, seeing as how it's got a good pay and my coworkers are cool to be around. We'll see though. When Spring really gets going, maybe the hours will get better...

Future plans: Well, as you might have heard, Pat and I have been planning a return trip to Japan ever since we moved back here to the US. XD We are starting to get the plans rolling now. Everything seems to be working out so far, with only minor, easy obstacles. We're heading up to the mainland *Japan, for people from Oki* for a good majority of June. Then, I'll be down in CA for the remainder of the month. Hopefully, everything will go according to plan. We've been working out dates, prices, and times for a little while, so we hope things will go smoothly. Definitely working on my Japanese again. Not as easy, as when I first learned it, but with a little review, some or most could come back. :)

Sakura Con is coming up at the end of the month. *If you're wondering why I'm bringing this up, I'll give you a little back story: Going with my Japanese Club. First convention. Just seeing what's there. Nothing else* As I prepare for that, I'm wondering if I should dress up. I was thinking as going as someone killed in Battle Royale. *Lots of cuts, lots of blood XD* Thoughts?

Taste of Chaos is next month as well. It'll be my first concert here in the US, so I'm definitely excited for that. A7X, atreyu, MUCC, and D'espairsRay = Awesomeness. *Plus, my jump the line passes will put me that much closer to MUCC* =D

Ajikan's new album is pure love. Every track is awesome. If you haven't heard of them or haven't heard this album, punch yourself! Then BUY IT AND ENJOY IT'S AWESOMENESS!!! NOW!!!!!

___________________________________________________________

Okay, I'll do some reviews now:

Tekkon Kinkreet: Good movie. Kind of got lost half way through it. Very colorful. Kind of powerful. I think there was a moral, but I couldn't really pick up on it. ★★★★½ (Would be trippier if you were high. XD)

30 Days of Night: It followed the graphic novel pretty well. Seeing as how the actual comic is pretty short, I was pleased with some of the extra stuff they added into the movie. I wasn't to happy with how they changed up some characters and plot *it's supposed to move right into the next novel* but it was tolerable. Kind of happy I didn't watch it in the theaters now. :P ★★★½☆ (I wish they would have followed the story a bit closer for a sequel which, in my opinion, is actually better than the original :P)

The Prestige: A movie about magic that I had been wanting to see for a while, but forgot about. It has a good storyline, good characters and really good plot twists. *I caught the first one, but the last one definitely surprised me* ★★★★½ (Great twist on the world of magic)

Resident Evil: Extinction: I really did not have any high hopes for this movie since I had read up on it before watching it. Aside from the fact that a few key characters are missing without a good reason as to why, the story progresses fairly well and falls into the mold that this series has already made for itself. Nothing surprising. Very disappointing. Plus, there might be a sequel.... again. *sigh* ★★☆☆☆ (God.... not another sequel..... >_<)

Cloverfield: Well, I finally experienced the hype that I had been waiting for *back in Jan.* and it was kind of mixed really. It was good, but it meh at the same time. I say this because the more I reflect on it, the more I realize that I'm forgetting things about the movie. Only things that are sticking are the deaths and the monster *which I suppose is really the only good parts of the movie XD*★★★★½ (Don't sit so close to the screen XDD)
__________________________________________________________

Anyways, that's all I have to say for now. Until next time. じゃまたな．．．

バイトアップデート

2008-02-06T23:57:00.000-08:00

An entire year at the Depot.... Why am I still here?!

I figured I should make a separate post for this since it's of mild relevance to daily life. So, as most may, or may not, have known, Saturday was my one year anniversary for working at the Home Depot. The picture above was the apron I received when I first got hired. Now, I have a new one and plan to burn this one. *Fire is fun.... XD* Anyways, key points of the year:

Longest job I've held so far
Looking back on how much I earned on the job, I'm actually quite freaked out that I spent almost 75% of it over the course of the year. O_o
I should have been fired back in July, but I'm still here.... somehow...
Should have been fired last week for receiving my 11th point <- The final straw *Somehow... still here...*
Pretty sure I've allowed a lot of items leave the store unpaid and given unnecessary markdowns to customers.
Now working towards Head Cashier position *Like a cashier, w/o being a cashier. Make sense?*
Almost single-handedly prevented idiots from approaching me *Stupidity is not tolerable in my domain XD*
Was dubbed "Quietest guy with the coolest hair" XD
Might be here for another year till I graduate from the college and move on to a four year somewhere
Wondering why the hell I've been here, of all places, for an entire year

Anyways, there you have it. An entire year, basically broken down and condensed into senseless bullets on a half thought out post. Enjoy! ^-^

旧ニュース

2008-01-28T08:34:00.000-08:00

Since I don't have any really "new" news, I'll just reflect on some stuff that happened recently.

For the past week, I've had no math class. I think the teacher said his foot was hurting the week before. *Yay! Logic in math really sucks. XP*
I've only been to my first class on time 3 times the past 3 weeks. XD
I got a Wii ^-^ (Mainly for Umbrella Chronicles) *You're the last one now, PS3. XDD*
Still saving up some money for the summer. My hours aren't going to get any better till Spring, so I'm trying to save some funds. *It helps that I'm ahead in my car payments and that the insurance is paid off. I suppose the Wii and my credit card bill could be a setback for now though. :P*
It's finally happened..... again. I got my 11th point at work. >< Only a week away from one year, no less! I hope they don't notice until afterwards. Even then, I hope they don't fire me. :/
I've started to realize that my Japanese is really starting to go down. I was reviewing some papers from my Japanese II and III class and I could barely form half of those sentences. .____. So, to help me try and regain somewhat of a foothold in the language again, I decided to tutor a friend in basic Japanese *Hira, kata, basic kani and sentence structure* Nothing to terrible. It'll help him get some basics down and help me continue to have a solid base. Not to mention it's good practice for teaching. XD
Like I said the bullet before hand, my Japanese is slipping. I may actually have to drop back into III so I can recall and practice what's been lost over the year. :/

On a lighter note, to end this post, it's snowing outside! Which means no class today!! XD

Well, that's all I have to say for now. Until next time. またね...

バイオレット... 解散...

2008-01-16T22:59:00.000-08:00

「ファンの皆様へ」　
いつも応援していただき、本当にありがとうございます。この度、バイオレットから皆様に大切なお知らせがあります。

バイオレットは、2008年2月をもって解散する事となりました。

解散理由として、Vo.螢より昨年11月に「一身上の都合によりバイオレットを脱退したい」との意向を受けメンバー、スタッフでの話し合いを重ねましたが、昨年末に螢との連絡がとれない状況となってしまいました。

結果、「螢、優一、Nagi、seiya、洸の5人でバイオレット」という形での活動ができなくなるのであれば、バイオレットとしての意味がないという理由で「解散」という結論に至りました。

バイオレット最終公演として2008年2月23日（土）高田馬場AREAにて現メンバー（優一、Nagi、seiya、洸）でのワンマンライブを行います。

短い活動期間でしたが、応援を頂きましたファンの皆様、関係者の皆様にメンバー、スタッフ共に感謝を申し上げます。残り少ない時間ですが、最後までバイオレットの応援、ご指導の程よろしくお願い致します。

バイオレット
優一
Nagi
seiya
洸

株式会社タイムリーレコード

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I didn't even get to see them live yet...

T-T

明けましておめでとう！

2008-01-12T23:25:00.000-08:00

*On the East coast*

Ahhh... a new year.....

Doesn't feel like much is new or will change, really. :/

Looking back, this year has gone by fast and very slow, at times:

This was the first real year I had spent in the US.
I got my car towards the end of the year.
I started my first, most current, and longest running job here in the US.
I went to CA for the first time.
I attended school here for the first time since 11th grade.
I got my Oki tattoo *Biggest surprise for a lot of people*
I bought my first CURE magazine at Kinokuniya T-T
I went to the east coast for the first time in 10+ years
I started wearing dark clothes, instead of just black. XD
My manga collection has stayed at the same number since I left Oki, but my CD and DVD collection has grown quite a bit.
I hit the $3,000 mark and held it there for a few weeks. XD
I discovered the glory that is downtown Seattle.
I got a new amp. ^-^
I got to hang out with old friends

Looking at this new year, I can see only a few things that I hope will happen:

I'll visit CA again.
I'll go back to Japan, maybe in the summer.
I'll start to finish up college.... here, I mean.
Get back up to the $3,000 mark. XD
Maybe get promoted at work.
Attempt to get over this procrastination problem. XD
Maybe get another tattoo or a piercing.

And of course, the things I'm looking forward to:

Taste of Chaos *Avenged Sevenfold, Mucc, and D'espairs Ray = Pure awesomeness*
New Ajikan single and album
21st B-day *Oh yes... lot's of alcohol XDD*

As far as resolutions go, I don't have any and have no plans to make them. Why? I was never really able to work on a set goal. If I could get to it, awesome, if not, then it was ok.

I have nothing planned for this year, but hopefully, this year will have plenty planned for me.

Happy New Years!

～冬の憂鬱～

2007-12-23T02:50:00.000-08:00

This is what happened to my ring after extreme gaming. *Yeah, I'm that hardcore XDDD*

Anyways, there is not much new on my end. The end of the term has arrived and I am very happy! ^-^ I checked my grades on the 18th and they were what I was expecting. "B"'s in my ASL and Math class <= Biggest shock there. "C" in my Writ. 102 class. *Mainly due to the fact that I had failed to do one paper. I kind of regret it now* This term boosted my GPA, but only by a little. *After last term, I needed a boost. :/*

On Friday, Arlden *friend of mine since 5th grade* and I went to Seattle to visit Sushiland. Basically, it was a medium sized kaiten 「回転」 somewhere near the center of the city. It was pretty cool really. Essentially, everything was the same as the ones they has back in Japan, but with more workers and not as much to choose from. *at the time, at least* Nonetheless, it was still pretty cool.

Prior to that, we had gone to Gameworks *the only true arcade in this place* and it was ok. Just ok. The only good games there were Taiko no tatsujin 9 「太鼓の達人 9」 and this one assassin shooting game. Other than that, there was nothing special.

Aside from work, which has been cutting my hours since last week, all I've been doing is practicing bass and playing on our new 360. Been playing Orange box and it's pretty awesome. Bass wise, I've just been coming up with random stuff b/c I'm tired of doing covers. Eventually I'll get back into work on some songs, but for now, I'm just experimenting.

December is also the month where I plan for upcoming trips for the upcoming year. I'm not entirely sure yet, but I may head off to Japan this summer. Once again, however, I'm not entirely sure. Might also plan another trip down to CA. I'm working out how much to save and how much might be spent. So far, I'm in the clear, as far as funds go.

Taste of Chaos will be heading to Seattle April 19th and I can't wait. Tickets start going on sale Jan. 5th, so I'll be sure to get mine that day. Ajikan will be releasing a new single in Feb. as well: "Korogaru ishi, kimi ni asa ga furu" 「転がる岩、君に朝が降る」. Much like "After Dark"「アフターダーク」, I will be anticipating this one as well. If you want to see the new cover for the single click here.

Anyways, it's like 4am and I'm finally getting tired XD So, I'll just got to bed. I have to clean tomorrow *Today technically* b/c my bros and I will be heading to the east coast to visit family on my dad's side for the holidays. :/ From what my bros say, it's not that bad, but I'll have to see for myself.

End of Term Update

2007-12-08T12:51:00.000-08:00

Well, the term is ending. Next week is finals. It's not so bad this time around. I took my ASL final on Wed. and it wasn't too bad. If I didn't do good on some parts, then I made up for it in the bonus points area. XD

Now, I just have to rework and finish my final Writ. 102 paper for Monday. *I'm doing it on Video Game Vs. Movie Ratings* I've got six pages done, but from my RD review, those pages need some serious revision. *Not a surprise. I did four of the pages 2 hours before I had to turn it in XDD*

Thought I didn't have to take my math final, but I found out on Thurs. that I have an 86%. *In my book, that is a really good grade* and I needed a 92% or better in order to skip it. So, on Tues., I'll be taking that. It doesn't look so bad. Maybe if I studied, I could get a good grade on a math test for once..... hmmmmm..... ><

*Sorry for the size ><*

Math 108 = Statistics and Probabilities. *I don't know why, but I want to take this class over "The literature of Math"*
Musc 147 = Class Piano I *Way back when, I had no desire to learn the piano, but learned a little bit anyways. Now, I want to try again.*
Chem&105 = Chemical Concepts (or Basic Chemistry I) *It was a miracle I made it through Chemistry in HS and with a B, no less. Now, I'm taking a few steps back and redoing the class, college style*
Psyc&200 = Lifespan Psychology *A class similar to what V.M.L took, but I'm not sure if it's the same. Basically, the psychology of Life and Death. Sounds fun, right?*

Well, that's really all that needs to be said in this entry. Stay tuned for more reviews!

Manga Review: Kurosagi Corpse Delivery Service 1 (黒鷺死体宅配便)

2007-11-22T23:02:00.000-08:00

"Your body is their business! Five young students at a Buddhist university, three guys and two girls, find little call for their job skills in today's Tokyo . . . among the living, that is! But all that stuff in college they were told would never pay off-you know, channeling, dowsing, ESP-gives them a direct line to the dead . . . the dead who are still trapped in their corpses and can't move on to the next reincarnation." (Dark Horse)

It's very, very, very rare that I buy translated manga *the last time I bought some was almost 2 1/2 years ago for Battle Royale*, however, this time was a little different. I'll be frank, I hate most translated manga. *VIZ is at the very top* However, I hadn't heard of Dark Horse translating manga. That was the first thing that caught my attention. The second was the fact that finding a scanlation of this manga was near impossible. Mainly, b/c you have to get on the IRC to download it. *Yeah, I would rather buy it, than spend time on the IRC. Says something, huh?* XD

Anyways, this is a good story. The premise is simple enough: The 4 main students find dead bodies and they fulfill their last wishes. I have to admit, I was a little leery at the idea that there were so many dead bodies hidden all over the place in Japan, but it makes it no less interesting. The story is solid chapter to chapter; focusing on each character and giving them a little bit of depth. The art is ok, since it breaks away from the tradition cute manga genre and the action and violence keeps that generic junk away.

Since I had both the Japanese and American version, I decided to do a little comparing. What I found was a mixed bag of things. Certain things were translated *i.e. bulletin boards and some signs* while others *sound FX and more signs* were left untranslated. It was a fair balance. Text wise was a little different. I compared the first chapters and found a few things that were a bit off. Some text had been changed, but not modified enough to change the storyline and, in one case, a sentence was dropped and replaced with [...]. However, the sentence had little significance, since it basically translates out to "Are you serious?...." Another case was towards the end of the chapter when the father was talking. His entire dialogue was changed from the original version. I'll admit this, though: Even though the speech was changed, it gave it more feeling and made it just a little bit creepier as well. I don't completely approve however.

All in all, this is an awesome manga, whether you buy the original Japanese or the translated American version. Beware, there are slight dialogue changes, but they don't impact the storyline in any way. Just a little heads up, just in case

Rating: ★★★★½

PV Review: Abingdon Boys School's BLADE CHORD

2007-11-21T23:23:00.000-08:00

So, to break the mold of my traditional DVD reviews, I've decided to go ahead and try my hand at reviewing something new. Today, I'll try to review the new ABS's PV, so bare with me. m(_ _)m

ABS (Abingdon Boys School) is definitely in my top 10 favorite bands. So, I wouldn't be much of a fan if I didn't watch their new PV and see what kind of stuff they were up to now. *For those of you who don't know who they are, look them up and you'll find them*

Classic ABS Opening that kind of alludes to something that might be like their Innocent Sorrow PV
*

Uh-Oh.... What's this?
*

Samurai?
*

Shinsengumi?
*

YAY!! A samurai PV!!! :D
*

Using the mic as a weapon = points for creativity
*

Poor Toshi. He's soaked the most by the end of the PV :(
*

Can you feel the intensity?
*

WELL?! CAN YOU?!?!?!
*

Exploding nuts!!
*

PWNED!!!!1!!
*

One of many of TMR's Ninja Style moves
*

Despite the few scenes where it kind of focuses on TMR's cheesy "serious" poses, it was a pretty good video. Mix this in with another awesome product of these guys and you have something you can an enjoy till their next single.

Rating: ★★★★☆ (Awesome effects and great song, but I think TMR was trying a little too hard to be a serious "ninja" in this one. XD)

Random Entry about life

2007-10-29T23:37:00.000-07:00

No..... No reviews in this entry. Just me, typing about how my days have been like. *Which I guess kind of result in the lack of review entries XP*

1. School. I'm trying to keep up, but it's getting harder to do so b/c of work. :/ I'll admit, I'm actually keeping up with math *seeing as how I'm probably the worst at math in my family. XD* so that's a good thing, however, I'm having a hard time finding the time to takes notes for my Writ. 102 class and study sign for my ASL class. >< I need Writ. 102, but I can do w/o ASL. *I'm not too worried though. I think I have a B in both classes right now. :P* Just when I think my day might lighten up....

2. Work. I think I'm finally getting to that point where I don't want to be there anymore, especially since they volunteered me to be the new Returns cashier. *Basically, that means I have to deal with pissed off customers everyday complaining about why I'm the reason their battery is dead* [I'm this close to punching a customer. -________- ] Not to mention, that I work from 2-10:30 almost everyday. So, I have class from 9-11:50, daily, followed by a 25 minute drive home. That leaves me with about an hour and 15 mins to attempt to start my homework. Of course, that leads to my next problem:

3. Procrastination. I'm a hardcore procrastinator. XD I'm almost certain that on my most recent writing paper, I will get a low grade, mainly b/c I waited till the night before *8 hours before class* to work on my rough draft and the morning before to revise for my final draft. As said in Bangerang's (Derek's) journal, I'm almost ceratin that I should be working on some homework right now. XD So, I guess that's what I'll do now........ or maybe in a few minutes when I actually feel like it. XDD

DVD Reviews: 300 (2007), Knocked Up (2007), & A Scanner Darkly (2007)

2007-10-20T17:44:00.000-07:00

300 (2007)

"A retelling of the ancient Battle of Thermopylae in which King Leonidas and 300 Spartans fought to the death against Xerxes and his massive Persian army. Facing insurmountable odds, their valor and sacrifice inspire all of Greece to unite against their Persian enemy, drawing a line in the sand for democracy."

The move is based of Frank Miller's *same guy who made Sin City* graphic novel "300". I have to admit, I was looking forward to this movie coming out b/c the graphics looked stunning from the previews. Of course, being the busy person I am, I had to wait to get it on DVD; which turned out to be a good and bad thing. Let's start off as to why I should have watched in the theater. From the very beginning, it had a very storytelling atmosphere along with great visuals. Compared to when I saw saw it, on my 15 in video game tv, I imagine watching it on a big screen would have been awesome. The story is very straight forward, very easy to follow even if you start watching from the middle. The characters are all solid and the dialog is believable, much like a story should be. Now, here's why it was a good thing I watched it on DVD. It seemed.... maybe to me, short. There wasn't much character development and the story just seemed to move quickly through. Honestly, I wasn't expecting any kind of fighting to begin till maybe toward the end of the movie. However, right from the start, there was fighting. *Maybe not the all out war scene shown in the previews, but more of a foreshadow if things to come.* Personally, I think there was too much hype about this movie. I mean, it was great, but, honestly, it boils down to that important question: Can I watch it again? Sadly, no. Plus, if you buy the regular edition of the dvd, expect the movie and nothing more. Prepare to pay the extra few dollars for the Special Edition, which I imagine would have been awesome

Rating: ★★★★☆ (If you're willing to pay the extra money for the SE, buy it. Otherwise, just rent it.)

Knocked Up (2007)

"Allison Scott. a 24 year old entertainment journalist, is on the fast track to the big time, but an alcohol-fueled hookup with responsibility-shirking slacker Ben Stone finds her professional priorities taking a back seat to having a baby. Now, as overgrown kid Ben attempts to assume the responsibilities of fatherhood, he makes the brave decision to stand by Alison. In order to make things work between the pair, however, there's going to have to be some compromise, and when Allison and Ben decide to take a shot at love, they quickly find that building a relationship from scratch isn't nearly as easy as making a baby"

I didn't know what to expect from this movie. I didn't want to watch in the theater and I didn't want to rent it. However, I couldn't avoid the constant talking of people around me praising the movie. So, I decided to find out what was so great about this movie.

The idea of this movie is so odd, but realistic, that you can't help but feel like it may have happened to someone you know. Pretty hot Allison and stoner bum Ben, have a one night stand that result in Allison getting pregnant. One thing that I noticed was the fact that Ben was a lot more responsible than I thought a stoner would be. XD He knew he had to make things right, from their "first date" and made some attempts to support Allison. That was the only sort of unreal moment of the movie, but everything else basically makes you forget about that little detail. It is considered a romantic comedy, but unlike other movies in this category, it seems to deter from the mold. *Boy or girl meet each other. One has a secret or problem that they believe will stand between their love, drama, secret comes out in the open, the other is accepting and willing to deal with it, followed by a happily ever after* Sound familiar? It should. Almost 50% of RC today fit that mold. This movie, however, seems to break that mold and still fall into that genre. It gives the atmosphere that this is really happening to someone right now. *well, kind of.* It's smart, funny, has plenty of swearing and a few topless/ sex scenes. *Fun for all! XDD* Now, here comes the big question: "It's a Romantic Comedy.... Is it a chick flick?" The answer is no. This movie was made for guys b/c the story seems to be best understandable by guys in their 20's to mid 30's. Most of the jokes in this movie aren't going to be easily understood by girls, but it still has this mood of familiarity shared by both genders. Simply put, don't be ashamed to rent this movie. You're no less of a man if you watch it alone. *Well, maybe you are b/c you are indeed watching it alone. XD*

Rating: ★★★★★ (It's a must see, even if you watch it just once. Solid and relate-able story mixed in with cool Special Features on the Unrated ver. make this movie something to consider buying. )

A Scanner Darkly (2007)

"Set in suburban Orange County, California in a future where America has lost the war on drugs, one reluctant undercover cop is ordered to start spying on his friends. He is launched on a paranoid journey into the absurd, where identities and loyalties are impossible to decode. It is a cautionary tale of drug use based on the novel by Philip K. Dick and his own experiences."

A friend of mine,VML, gave me the recommendation to watch this movie even when I had already planned on watching it in the first place. It appealed to me b/c it was unique, movie wise and story wise. This is one of the trippiest movies I have ever seen. Period. It has a unique storyline with many different messages hidden through out the movie. I had to watch the movie twice to understand what hell was going on and to catch what had missed. The way the movie is presented makes it seem like something out of a comic book. It's kind of refreshing really. The actors also portrayed their characters very well. It kind of seems like a stoner movie, but it's a little more than that. Think Sci-Fi/stoner/psychological thriller combined into one. Understand? If not, don't worry. You weren't meant to. XD The plot and story are kind of hard to follow, but if you're persistent and pay attention, then the plot and message will be clear. To actually tell the story through this entry would be pointless b/c the movie can be viewed on different levels. Either way you look at it, this movie includes 3 main factors: Drugs, paranoia, and twists. *Oh yes, lots of twists.*

Rating: ★★★★★ (I recommend watching it before buying it. It may be too trippy for some. XD)

Something Different

2007-09-11T02:27:00.000-07:00

So, I'm looking through the Power Rangers page on wiki *Yes, I get that bored soemtimes*, when all of a sudden, something about Kamen Rider comes up. I'm not really a fan of the show, but I decided to see what made it similar to PR. As I'm skimming along the page, I see a picture that immediately gets my attention:

Nornally, Kamen Rider wouldn't have caught my attention, but this picture was so awesome, I just couldn't pass it up. I even had it as a wallpaper for a while! Just sharing the Kamen Rider love. XD

* For those of you who don't know who each of the characters are, here's a link to a bigger image that also has the names of all the riders. <- Yeah, this picture was so awesome, that I decided to do the extra research to find out who all of them were. XDDD

DVD REVIEW: Silent Hill (2006)

2007-08-28T16:34:00.000-07:00

For those of you who have played the game, the story is fairly similar. However, for those of you who haven't, I'll give you a quick rundown of what the movie is about:

"Rose Da Silva and her husband, Christopher, awake almost every night to prevent their adopted daughter, Sharon, from sleepwalking towards a cliff. After rescuing her, repeatedly, she screams the same words, before passing out: Silent Hill. Sharon has no memory of any of the incidents and Rose is getting desperate. She decides to take her daughter to the town of Silent Hill, in the hopes that she will finally be saved from her nightly terrors. However, once they reach the outskirts of the town, she is distracted by a "passerby" and loses control of the vehicle, crashing it into the side railing. When Rose awakes, Sharon is no longer in the car. She now faces the dilemma of tracking her daughter down in the destroyed town, known as Silent Hill, while facing hellish demons that appear every time the sun sets in the town."

I will say this: You don't have to be a fan of the series to enjoy *or even understand* this movie. I only played the first game and that did little for me when I tried to understand what was going on in the movie. However, that doesn't mean I didn't enjoy the movie. In fact, I thought it was very good. *Story and Visual- wise* It's not very scary, however, there are a few scenes that are freaky and will keep you on the edge of your seat. The creators decided to remain true to the game, when it comes to the monsters and even the town as well, which is a good thing considering the other video-game-to-movie-adaptations. *Hint Hint House of the Dead, DOA, and Resident Evil ><* The story and a few characters are a little different, but that doesn't detract from the movie at all. For one, they decided to change the main character, Harry in the game, into a female. They also added a few more main villains that made the story a little more intense. The monster had a very creepy feel to them, but they weren't scary *Except maybe Pyramid- head* As I watched the movie, I couldn't help but feel like the the mosters were almost dancing *This was made more apparent in the Nurse scene at the hospital* This takes us to the ending. I must admit... that was quite bloody, but somewhat expected. The ending scene sort of makes sense, but if you don't pay attention to some of the earlier scenes, I can almost guarantee you that you will be lost. *Then again, it still won't make a lot of sense if you paid attention anyways, so don't be sad if you don't get it. You're not alone.* If you're a fan of the game or are just looking for a good thriller to watch, I highly suggest getting this DVD. Aside from the main feature, it has great special features that will help you better understand the concept and idea behind the movie.

Rating: ★★★★★ (Buy it. It will make game and general thriller fans very happy.)

DVD Review: Stranger Than Fiction (2007)

2007-08-27T21:32:00.000-07:00

"Harold Crick is an IRS auditor who follows the droll daily routine, known as his life, to the tick of his watch. Every morning, he wakes up and begins his day the same way he begins everyday for the last many years. Everything is calculated and seemingly perfect in his life. Until one day, a voice begins to narrate his life and foretell his impending doom..."

I rented this movie a while back when I started to get back into the habit of watching movies again. *DevilMan really put me off movies for a long, long while XP*. Anyways, this movie is a "Smart Comedy" but it also has it's moments of "Stupid Comedy" moments. The story is very easy to follow and doesn't require a lot of intelligence to understand and appreciate the humor in this story. However, this movie is not all laughs. There are some dramatic moments as well, which is great, because it balances the movie out. *I don't want to be tired of laughing by the end of the movie* The characters are all portrayed very well and are quite believable *as to be expected by a nearly all start cast* In my opinion, I think this movie showed that Mr. Will Ferrell can portray balance comedy and drama and make the audience believe it. There are some things you need to be advised of, however. Because this is a comedic drama, it may bore you at some points. *I know I was bored during a few scenes* Another thing that may put you off is the ending. Though it's very "Happy Ending"-y, it just comes off as kind of cheesy.

Overall, though, this is a pretty solid movie that has a creative story, interesting characters, and a plot that will keep you guessing how our main character will be snuffed out by the end of the movie.

Rating: ★★★★☆ (Only buy it after renting it, just to see for yourself.)

いっらしゃい～！

2007-08-19T22:02:00.000-07:00

Welcome to "Just Another Side Story". This log was created as a side journal to post my reviews of random things. *mainly movies and music* However, that's not all I plan to post here. There will be just random things I post as well. I reserve most of my "life updates" on my Xanga site. Feel free to check that out if you just want to see what life for me is like. :P Anyways, I will begin posting shortly. I have already created several reviews on movies I have seen and will post each on once a day. *just something to kill time really* Expect more in the future for those who actually read this. So.... yeah. That's really all I have to say. Enjoy!

人生の物語: Just Another Side Story

Treading in Summer Adventure

Death is Not Imminent *for this at least*

Just Enough to Amuse Me

明けましておめでとう２０１１！！

誕生日おめでとう！！

10 steps back and 12 steps forward

まだ死ないよ

Where has the time gone?

It's time again....

It's that time of the year again....

I'm sorry.... What just happened? Paranormal Activity Movie Review (2009)

A Kind of Old Story for a New Post

It's been too quiet in here....

In light of current news...

0 - 0 - 0

7 - 11 - 13

始めましょうか？

As the days draw closer and the time winds down

For the Hell of it

A Newer Look

Progressive progress is made

I WAS ACCEPTED!!!!! :DDD

As things seem to get better...

Let's Review: Wii Games

Abingdon Boys School - STRENGTH [PV]

本当に．．．

... Hope seems further.

As the Horizon Draws Closer...

And so it begins again

明けましておめでとう！

End of the Term Update

１２月おめでとう！

It's that time already?

The Calm before...

藤沢ルーザー PV

This and all the other junk

秘密結社コドモAとキボウ屋本舗ファン：読んでください

誕生日おめでとう、人生の物語！！

The end of the world scenario

毎日毎日の憂鬱

Ok.... Ok.

"Let's put a smile on that face"

将来の兆し

The Story So Far

最後の日．．．

出発の日．．．

Slightly Off Topic

二十：最後の日

十八、十九日: 京都とCOMME-CA

十七：Mini Adventure

十六：焼肉や

十四、十五：何もと何か

十一、十二、十三：さよなら東京．．． Pt. 2

十一、十二、十三：さよなら東京．．． Pt. 1

七、八、九、十日：特別スペシャル！

六日：別に．．．

三と四 + Bonus [五]

二日：なか卯で！

一日： Oh yes.... Epic.

Steady Spral

ムスタング

＋沈黙的な＋

Heaven in the Sound

永遠に超えて

Taste of Chaos 2008 General Overview

桜コン 2008： 2日 と その他

桜コン 2008： １日

心に深いクレーター

永遠に憂鬱

バイトアップデート

旧ニュース

バイオレット... 解散...

明けましておめでとう！

～冬の憂鬱～

End of Term Update

Manga Review: Kurosagi Corpse Delivery Service 1 (黒鷺死体宅配便)

PV Review: Abingdon Boys School's BLADE CHORD

Random Entry about life

DVD Reviews: 300 (2007), Knocked Up (2007), & A Scanner Darkly (2007)

Death is Not Imminent for this at least

桜コン 2008： 2日とその他

桜コン 2008：１日