ひとりの夜もそばにいようぜ　君と僕の歌を歌う

So, today is the last day with the academic staff at MCKL. I guess in the end, things have to come to an end, eventually, anyway.

They've been wonderful. I mean, sure we complain alot at times... but this is one place that there's no office politics and people don't backstab each other or anything. Everyone truly is friends with everyone else.

And it was wonderful meeting and learning from Ms Lim, Mrs Sharma, Mr Ratna, Mrs Chiu, Mrs Dharma, Mr Ganesan. I really enjoyed talking to them very much. And they've all looked out for me and adviced me in one way or another, especially Ms Lim and Mr Ganesan, as well as, Mrs Sharma and Mrs Dharma.... It was really nice talking to Mr Ratna about geology last June and with Mrs Chiu about various things...

It has been really nice working here with them... And I especially enjoy the times when I could talk to them... They've been incredibly nice to me and I pray for God's blessing to be on them and their families....

So.. Thank you Mr Ganesan for always being so kind to me. Thank you Ms Lim for always looking out for me and helping me. Thank you Mrs Sharma and Mr Ratna. Thank you everyone...


∞エダマメ!!! Mugen Edamame!!!!

DUDE!!! THEY ARE SO CUTE!!! I WANT ONE!!!!!!!!



Apparently, it's some kind of fad now in Japan but not that that matters!! It's so cute!!! Isshiki-san posted a pic of his??? on the Tsubaki blog, so i saw it and it was sooooooooo cute!!!!!!! LOOK!!!



DAMN CUTE!!!!

I guess it's called Mugen Edamame coz... it's really mugen huh??? You can pop it forever... hahaha......... (that sounded WRONG)

It's by the same people who made the infinite bubble wrap.... haha!

Sometimes, somedays... not even they suffice....



not even yoshitaro =(


(he's really cute here tho =) )


Been super depressed about life since going to SriKDU for the briefing...... Maybe I have chosen hell over heaven. I just don't feel hopeful AT ALL about what's coming next... I feel as if I'm going there just to survive... There's no drive or excitement at all... I think I'm just........... doubtful.

Been feeling like going back to the States lately... I miss california. I guess I miss the life and the people back in California... a lot. I suppose, at least, if I was back there, even if I wasn't doing anything much with my life, i'll still be there and not here.


Pictures with the Students and the Department.




My Students


Yu Jing


Sheng Yi


Jeff .............. PREGNANT!!!

This one's about Tsuki to Tenohira....

I think, this is the only song that in my life, I've heard almost 1000 times. I'm not exaggerating. Yet, yet... listening to it on my brother's newly bought $2000 music system yesterday, the beauty of the song still touches my heart and almost makes me cry... as if it was my very first time listening to it...

I'm still looking for the best pair of earphone/sound system, to listen to the song. I really want to hear it exactly like how Lunkhead intended it to be listened to. I want to listen to it the most beautiful way possible. I want to listen to it in a way that would faithfully represent the power and beauty and soul that is encapsulated in the song. I want to to listen to the song in a way that I would be able to touch its heart.

I've still not been able to find a sound system good enough for that!!


There have been many songs in my life.... And after listening to Tsuki to Tenohira so much, sometimes part of me, I am abit sick of listening to the song casually.... But..... but..... when I really sit down, quietly, close my eyes and listen...... the song is simply just so..... beautiful.... Really....

I don't know how to describe the song... I don't know how to describe the feeling that I feel when I truly listen to it... except to say that.... it's just this sense of beauty that just captures me... like my heart is being wrapped by a really really beautiful sadness...

It's like his voice just sings within... and the music that flows around... and the silence of his guitar and his voice....

I wrote this in an email to Phooi Wah:

"Actually, you know why I love Tsuki to Tenohira so much? Because when he sings the song, he sings it with meaning, like it's sung from his heart.. With Tsuki to Tenohira, it's not just because the music is beautiful but because... the song has soul. It's like... sure it's in Japanese, and I can't understand anything at all.... But, you know, the feeling from his heart reaches out to me..."


Maybe I am wrong and the song means nothing at all to Odaka-san.... But.... Really... I feel that this song is very different, different from their other songs. It's on a level of its own because of that.... because it's not just music.... it's melody, melody sung and played from the heart to hearts....

And it's this soul i wish to touch and capture and hold in my heart.... but it is this soul that touches, captures and holds my heart everytime I listen to this song, even when I play it for the 1000th time....


Odaka-san has said before that the whole album Tsuki to Tenohira album was made to capture the feeling of 「みんなきっと少しだけ人より幸せになりたいだけ」(Perhaps everyone wants to be a little bit happier than other people)... I wonder what he meant by that......

I really really wish I knew what Tsuki to Tenohira truly means... not just the lyrics translation (thanks to Norika)... but, you know, where does its heart come from? What is the essence that envelopes this song?


I think, to me that is why I've still not got bored of this song... because, I feel... it has life.

SPOILERS AHEAD.

INUYASHA

Sigh.............. sometimes............ i wonder what Takahashi Rumiko is doing.................... I REALLY REALLY REALLY REALLY want Inuyasha to just END!!!! (who else is with me on this?!)....


DIE NARAKU DIE!!!


OH SHIT!!! KAGOME GETS SUCKED INTO A MEIDOU!!!!

anddddddddddddddddddd....


She ends up in high school??? HUH???????? Dude, did she even SIT for the entrance test???? Last I checked she hasn't been home for the past 200 chapters!!!


SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO........ The much anticipated... MUCH MUCH MUCH anticipated DEATH OF NARAKU was................. what the hell?? a prelude to something more????? aaaaaaaaaaaaaa~~~~~~~ wthhhhh~~~~~


Oh... i just want it to end....!!!

Well.... ok, truthfully, I think this sudden twist in the plot is very interesting. DUDE, at least it's more interesting than the 10000 times Naraku almost died but didn't!!! Takahashi should have pulled off something like THIS wayyyyyyyyyy earlier!!!
But anyway.... Kinda getting sick of following this series..... I can't imagine the fans who actually followed this series from the very begining in 1996.

Well overall, I think Inuyasha is still a good series... IFFFFFFFFF takahashi had not put in those 10000 times when naraku almost died but didn't... I mean it REALLY got crap after awhile... If only she had followed through this series with twist and turns in the plots like she had in the begining and continued to make the story more interesting and had more GOOD TWISTS in all the chapters after Chapter 250++, it would have been a good series to bear through the 500+++ chapters.

I mean... c'mon.... you can only bear through the same "inuyasha&co narrowly escapes death... Inuyasha powers up with new technique.... showdown with Naraku... Inuyasha's new technique gets its ass kicked... Naraku escapes death ... inuyasha&co is down and out.. Inuyasha powers up with new technique.... showdown with Naraku... Inuyasha's new new technique kicks ass... Naraku escapes death... inuyasha&co is pissed off... Naraku devices new evil plot... showdown with naraku...Inuyasha's new technique gets its ass kicked... Naraku escapes death ... inuyasha&co is down and out.. Inuyasha powers up with new technique.... showdown with Naraku... Inuyasha's new new technique kicks ass... Naraku escapes death... inuyasha&co is pissed off... Naraku devices new evil plot... showdown with naraku....Inuyasha's new technique gets its ass kicked... Naraku escapes death ... inuyasha&co is down and out.. Inuyasha powers up with new technique.... showdown with Naraku... Inuyasha's new new technique kicks ass... Naraku escapes death... inuyasha&co is pissed off... Naraku devices new evil plot... showdown with naraku....Inuyasha's new technique gets its ass kicked... Naraku escapes death ... inuyasha&co is down and out.. Inuyasha powers up with new technique.... showdown with Naraku... Inuyasha's new new technique kicks ass... Naraku escapes death... inuyasha&co is pissed off... Naraku devices new evil plot... showdown with naraku....."

YEAH... you get the point!


ANYWAY I think this current twist is wonderful, but it should have come wayyyyyyyyy earlier... maybe in chapter 400+, it wouldn't be that bad.....

Anyway.... *sigh* looks like we have to keep reading... I really wonder what's up next... Inuyasha jumped into the meidou after Kagome.... Kagome is back in the present world.... The bone eater's well is gone on both ends (does that mean their world can never ever be connected again???)... Naraku's dead but the jewel that bears a grudge against kagome is not yet destroyed or purified but is drifting somewhere there in the meidou.....

Hmmm... let's see what's up in the next chapter............ I just wanna know what happens to sesshoumaru and rin man!! Who cares about Inuysha and Kagome!! Should have just ended with them not being able to meet each other ever again! END OF STORY! HOORAY!

Let's forage to see if Shounen Sunday announced anything about the end of Inuyasha! muahahaha!


Well that said... I won't disown Inuyasha because it was Inuyasha that first introduced me to the wonderful world of anime/manga/japan/japanese/etc... sooooooo!!! Maybe one LONGGGGGGGGG day I'll sit down and reread everything from the begining..... hahahahaah.... woah... what a task!

I love pearls before swines! I think it's like the best cartoon strip ever! hahahaha

Anyway, thank you everyone who actually comes here ^__^.... I'll try to un-Lunkhead it ;)

君にあいたいよ。




I don't like what I have become... I think... I know... I've forgotten what it means to live, to enjoy myself, to breathe, to try for just once and do what I like, what makes me smile, to live that finest lines that divides a night well spent from a waste of time...

I've forgotten.

It's been so long since I've last done something that I truly know I was living.

It's been so long since I've lived.

It's been so long since I've done something with my time and my life that I can say "It's life well lived, time well spent."

I feel dead these days because I don't think I'm living. I feel dead these days because there's nothing I've done lately that truly makes me feel happy.

I feel like somewhere out there trying to get through day to day, I died.

Maybe I died the moment I got on that plane at LAX and left. Maybe I died that moment between the tears and breath when I said goodbye to Michelle and Luis and bade a life farewell.


You know, I remember that day back in July... After we took that picture with Lunkhead... I remember I was standing there with Tsuyoshi and his friend just looking at the band... And Tsuyoshi said to me, "You can't stand here forever, you know."

And, turning and entering the stairway, where a last glance faded out of view... It was like, the feeling, the picture, of being so close to something you wished for all your life... and hence that moment that you walk away, your worlds starts to drift once again, further and further apart...

I always hated those moments after shows... where you know the damn band is still inside the club.... but you just.... have to leave... It's like... illogical... to have struggled, strived, longed for that moment so much... only to walk away on your own accord... I always found it illogical.

But really.... you can't stay forever, you can't stand ther-- I couldn't just have stood there looking at them forever-- I had to leave.

And I can never justify that moment.

And I wish now, I could be there again.

There where our worlds met.



I don't like to look at the picture I took with Lunkhead though I carry it with me everywhere..... I don't like to look at it because I never like to see that moment in fear of tainting the feeling or creating false memories..... But I do carry it everywhere not out of love or delusion or whatever.... But because... I like to look at it when I need a reminder that there is more to life than this. That perhaps, life can be different... and life can be less ordinary... that life was less ordinary for that one moment in time.... and that's a moment that I want to hold on when I've forgotten how to live... or what it means to be breathing, to be alive...



Think of all the fun you had, the finest line divides a night well spent from a waste of time. And think of all the days you spent alone with just your T.V. set and......"I can barely smile"

Courtesy of Anonymous on 2ch.net and Patches

Inuyasha v56 ch552 “Naraku’s Death” (Naraku no Shi)
犬夜叉 第552話 「奈落の死」

My real wish…? That’s right… I merely… wanted Kikyou’s heart… Kikyou, it looks like… I can’t go the same place you did…

The arrow hits the jewel.

At that time, I… made a wish on the jewel… I made it when Byakuya cut Kagome. When I die… that wish will be granted…

Naraku is annihilated. At that time, a meidou appears behind Kagome.

Great.... so much for the much anticipated death of Naraku =___= Here comes another 400 chapters about Kagome. At least he's dead. I HOPE.

Here's a song. The Brilliant Green - Stand by Me. It was the ending theme to the Japanese series "Tantei Gakuen Q" which I have been watching... Nice ending. Nice song.

Yukan Club (Leisure Club)! 有閑倶楽部! Despite BADDDDDDDDDDDDDDDD reviews from certain trusted Jdrama blog sites, I TOTALLYYYYY enjoyed this film!!!!

Hahahahaha...

First, I think viewers who would not like this film are those that take the series too seriously or those who are looking who look for deeper things in films.

C'mon!!!!!! Watch it for the laughs!! Like you would an anime!! Forget the realism! Forget the plotline even!! I really really really loved this series because it was utterly HILARIOUS!

I totally enjoyed this series! Not only did each episode really made me laugh, I didn't think the storyline or the plot was bad at all even... Actually, it's really like reading a live-action manga. There wasn't much of a plot to follow because the plots are pretty much episodic but it's just hillarious how the gang go around trying to discover and solve each episode's mystery/situation! The characters are utterly hillarious and to me, that's what makes this series really fun to watch.

I would totally recommend it to people who like..... COMEDY. It's not slapstick... it's just.... very..... JAPANESE! hahaha...

AND If you're wondering... NO. I AM NOT A KAT-TUN FAN (I'm a LUNKHEAD FAN YO). BUT YES! I totally love this series!

NOW to the story itself!!!


STORYLINE/CHARACTERS:

Yukan Club series is adapted from the manga of the same name. This series is about 6 rich kids who together formed the Yukan Club to solve mysteries in each episode. The group consists of three guys and three girls. It seems that the characters are quite different from the manga. Also, actually, part of the premise sounds like Ouran Host Club... But I think the adaptation is the other way round... That is, Ouran was adapted from this series.. since Yukan club is actually a series from the 1990s.


The lead character of this series is Miroku (played by Akanishi Jin of the JE group Kat-Tun) who is the son of the police commisioner (a character that appears in every episode too). And well, yeah, he's from Kat-Tun so his character is the typical bad-boy street-smart cool but good-hearted and funny and sensitive type of character (i bet you there is a name for it).



Then there is Seishiro (played by Yokoyuma Yu from the JE group Janjani8) who is the heir to a hospital empire and trained in martial arts. His character is also the typical calculative cunning genius who comes up with solutions for the group in most episodes.



The other male character is Bidou (played by Taguchi Junnosuke of Kat-Tun also) who is half japanese, son of the sweedish ambassador. He is the playboy and femine-male character of the group, but next to Yuri, he's utterly hillarious!!! I like this character and I thought Taguchi-san really played this role very well!!! He is also the TOTAL playboy character in this series.



As for the girls, first, there is Yuri ... I'm not sure if she's the lead female (she's suppose to be the lead character in the manga version).. but anyway, she's the daughter of a world-renowned but down-to-earth president of the Kenbishi Business. She LOVES to eat, can kick ass and hands down is the most hillarious and enthusiastic and crazy character in this whole series!!!!



Then there is Noriko who is the traditional-japanese character of this series. Her father is a famous japanese painter and her mother is from a tradition tea ceremony family. She often spots a kimono!!! And she utterly HATES MEN!!!! (except in episode 6 where she encounters a really really sweet romance with a ruffian boy!! sooo cute~~~!)



Last but not least, there is the stunning beauty of the group, Karen, who is the daugther of a rich jewel dealer. Her aim is to marry into richness!! hahaha..


MY NIJU YEN:

I really really like Yuri!! She's just damn hillarious!!!! I think if the show was just Miroku, Seishiro, Noriko and Karen alone, it would not be a comedy at all... But Yuri and also Bidou REALLY REALLY spice things up and make it damnnnn damnnn funny!!!
I guess I like Yuri the most because she's the least "female". She loveeess to eat, she is CRAZY, she can kick ass and her reactions are just damn funny!!!!!!!!!
She's played by Minami who is half french... and I thought Minami-san did a GREAT job with this character!!!



Episode 4!!!
This episode is about an 80-year-old miser Kino who falls in love with Bidou. She dies and comes to haunt Bidou to bring him to the after life with her.
I love this episode because it's UTTERLY damn hillarious!!!! Especially the first half where Bidou totally laments his situation while the whole group takes the opportunity to laugh at his misery!! hahahaha


Episode 8!!!
This episode is about Miroku's parents. His father has to deal with an exploding flower bomb in his hand sent to him by an angered okama while trying to make it to an appointment with his wife or else his wife will divorce him!! And to top it up he has to deal with a SEVERE CASE of diarrhea!!
I love this episode because the part where the three boys cross dressed as girls is ABSOLUTELY hillarious!!! hahahahaha... Especially Miroku when he sucks it up and grudgingly plays along clinging to his father and calling him "ojichama" then he almost pukes saying it hahahahaha.... Priceless!!!!
(I bet there were like thousands of Kat-Tun fangirls passing out from watching this scene!! hahahaah... Dude, I'd die if I ever see Yoshitaro in such scene... I'll NOT die from thrill but die from UTTER SHOCK!!! Please.... DON'T LET THIS EVER HAPPEN.)


Episode 9:
Yuri episode!!!!! Minami did a great job in this episode!!!
Yuri gets possessed by a ghost that wants revenge against a teacher at the school!
And I LOVEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE the part where a possessed Yuri tries to kill the teacher with a vase and Miroku grabs her and Bidou takes the vase away from her... Then the teacher questions them and Bidou starts an exercise routine dance with the vase!! DAMN FUNNY YO!!!!


But most of all... I really like this episode coz it had alot of Miroku and Yuri scenes!! ^___^ which leads me to the next category...



I think they're really cute together... They are childhood friends (assuming this because their fathers are very close childhood friends), and they hang out with each other outside of the club (this isn't shown but implied). Also in the manga, it seems that they belong to a Rock club together too.

Also, I think like in a majority of the episodes they're usually shown together... They have alot of childish arguments and playful fights with each other (more than with the other characters...), she'd be the one disturbing him the most, they always sit next to each other in classes (all three class scenes), he also usually disturbs her too. Also, sometimes when the scene is focusing on something or someone else, the both of them might be talking with each other or fighting with each other in the background. So, usually little things like that kinda show that they might be closer to each other than they are to the others (of opposite sex) in the club.
Also, besides their fathers being childhood buddies, when Miroku's mom came to visit, she specially bought an eiffel tower cookie/bread gift for her (after that you can see Miroku distrubing Yuri over the bread in the background).

I think they're really cute together!!


This scene from Episode 9 is really cute!!!!! They go "SOU KAAAAA??!!" together... Soooo cute~~~!! of course Miroku was totally insulting her there for her shallowness hahahaha!! so cute~!! hahaha


This scene was from episode 7... It was quite cute because Miroku suddenly realized that Yuri ate his cake and he questions her and she denies it then they start fighting over cake hahaha... so cute...

The starting of Episode two was really cute too... Miroku was playing with a toy helicopter and was ready to shoot a can when Yuri kicked the can away and he screamed "YURI!!! BAKA!!!!" hahahaha damn cute~



This is from episode 7 and it was really cute too!! After Karen leaves to go on her date with the prince, they wave her goodbye and then they start slapping each other's hands!! So cute!! haha


WOO!! YEAH!! Hold her more!! hehehehehe
Ok... this scene is not as cute as the look of the scene hahaha but I love it because he was holding her!!! ^___^;;... Actually she was possesed by a ghost and fighting to get free but he was holding her back... Then his father came along and asked them what they were doing..... then his father laughed and thought they were both dating... hahahaha... so cute~~~!! I WISH THEY WERE!!!


But anyway.... There were no romance really developed in the series (nor in the manga, it seems...) Although, definitely there was some "attraction" thing suggested between Seishiro and Noriko who are also childhood friends. I think the manga also has abit on Miroku and Yuri but barely.


ANYWAY! It was a great series and I really enjoyed every episode!! And it's a good series to rewatch again and again!!! Because it's all just for laughs!!!


CURRENTLY, now, I am watching Tantei Gakuen Q! It's farrrrrrrrrrr from the comedic Yukan Club but it's a good mystery detective series!!

I just realized it but I've actually seen the lead actor for this series, Kamiki Ryunosuke, on some TV variety program when I was in Japan back in December... NO WONDER HE LOOKED SO FAMILIAR!!!!

from: Elaine Loh
to: Tsuyoshi Miki
date: Fri, May 2, 2008 at 6:15 PM
subject:random acts of hopelessness!


Have you ever watched the movie Reality Bites? Winona Ryder, Ethan Hawke and Ben Stiller is in it. I really love that movie. Next to Trainspotting, Reality Bites is my all time favourite.

I really like these quotes...

Lelaina:: I just don't understand why things just can't go back to normal at the end of the half hour like on the Brady Bunch or something.
Troy:: Well, 'cause Mr. Brady died of AIDS. Things don't turn out like that.

Lelaina Pierce: Hey Sammy, what's your goal?
Sammy: My goal is... I'd like a career or something.

Lelaina:: I was really gonna be something by the age of 23.
Troy:: Honey, the only thing you have to be by the age of 23 is yourself.
Lelaina:: I don't know who that is anymore.

Troy Dyer: There's no point to any of this. It's all just a... a random lottery of meaningless tragedy and a series of near escapes.

Lelaina:: Don't just dick around the same coffee house for 5 years! Don't dick around with her or with me! Try for once in your life do something about it! But you know what, you better do it now and you better do it fast because the world doesn't owe you any favors. And whether you know it or not you're on the inside track to loserville USA... just like him.


Been really depressed today.... It's sad but... I don't really know waht I want to do with my life ultimatelty..... I just know that, I wish for my life to be a life less ordinary... But you know, that's so vague...... And I'm afriad these days is that, not that my life is heading nowhere, but that I've put myself on a one way track towards a life ordinary... that........................ I just feel so hopeless about things... so hopeless that once I missed my chance... I'll be stuck here forever....

I was thinking today... If life is a long journey, why does every decision seem so final? One path only leads to the next and you can never have the possibilities of the ones you did not take. It's been a spiral into a life i never meant. I don't know what I want but I know this is not what I meant. If life is a journey and its possibilities so finite, why is it that the decisions you make only leads you to choices that are even more finite. Why is it that this is what my life has become and I just can't seem to see the possibilites of life? Choices you make don't lead you to more chances and possibilities. It just leads you to sets of possibilites that are bound to the previous choices you've made. TIME being the limitor of life as we live in the illusion that life is ours to live.

I'm just so scared because i know this is true... that if i made this choice, it will lead a fixed set of other paths... That the other chances and choices I turned down and all the possibilities those could have led to, I can never turn back to retry or retake... I'm scared, you know... I'm confused..... I know and I thank God I have been offered two different jobs... one with an elementary school and one with a college... I know I'm very blest... But i'm just so confused as to which one I should take... I think BOTH can lead me to my ultimate goal... But I'm really confused... which would be a safer way? Which would be a better way............?

I wish life was simpler......

I wish I wasn't a pessimist!!!

Elaine