Aino Minako-chan

I apparently forgot to mention this, but last month, I was kinda stressed from work and had a day off on Feb. 11th, so I decided to make red velvet cupcakes for Valentine's Day. I'm really not a domestic type, but I'm Virgo enough that things like cleaning and baking relax me. They were slight failures (I don't have a mixer, so the frosting ended up with small lumps of cream cheese that I couldn't quite smooth out, and I didn't put enough food coloring in (liquid food coloring is nearly impossible to find in Japan, so I just added powdered red color until the batter looked vaguely bloody), so I ended up making plain chocolate cupcakes instead of red velvet). Still, they turned out well. (I assume. I made ALMOST enough for everyone in the company, male and female, but I was two cupcakes short, so I rather apologetically informed my fellow translator Horinouchi-san that neither of us were getting cake. She didn't seem to mind, but I was honestly a big upset. lol)

Anyway, today (tomorrow, technically, but it's a Saturday) is White Day, so I ended up getting swag from the guys at the office: a bag of cookies, four small chocolates (from 2 different co-workers), a little box of 4 truffles, a little box of chocolates (which my co-worker hysterically hid in a work envelope in order to hide from prying eyes), and apparently some cake from the guys in the Engineering department. \(^o^)/ Hurray! I am the winner!



(No, actually to be entirely honest, it's pretty embarrassing. I wanted to bake because I was bored and stressed; Valentine's day was really just an excuse and a good way to make sure that I didn't scarf a sheet cake by myself. Next year, I'm pooling my money with the other women to buy chocolates. If I want to bake, I'll make sure to do it on a non-reciprical-gift-giving holiday.)

( ETA under the cut )

I haven't actually made a real post recently, so here's what I've been up to for the past month.

• A group of wonderful folks came to visit Japan. We shopped and went to the Winter Comiket and ate parfaits the size of my head and went to the hot springs in Hakone and wents to the Ghibli museum and had dinner with various members of the anime industry. (It was a very amazing night that involved me trying not to pass out when I discovered that I was having a conversation with a guy who worked on animation for Macross 7 and Animaniacs, and then watched a Sailor Moon director down a series of penis themed novelty drinks. Seriously, it was a weird night.) It was an action-packed, exciting New Year's for me.
  
• Unfortunately, I was sick almost the entire time. I caught a cold, which then refused to go away due to long days, late nights, and too much talking and singing. It eventually progressed into a horrible cough that caused me to pull at least two muscles around my ribs and wake up during the night with my general inability to breath. The cold has basically gone away, but I still have a couple of coughing fits every day that sent me gasping for air. It's not been fun.
  
• Oh, and then there was my migraine a couple days ago, which literally occurred less than a week after we exchanged all of the lights in our office for even brighter, shinier ones. I nearly brought my sunglasses out; it was pretty bad.
  
• Work is slightly stressful in general. I had a busy but manageable schedule, carefully planned out through next Monday. Which is why I nearly had a panic attack when my boss informed me on Wednesday that that we'd be having a mini-training seminar for a new translation server system today, lasting from 10am to 5pm. Seriously, I didn't know whether I wanted to cry or strangle someone. It turned out that we finished around 3pm, but I'm still kinda stressed and behind schedule. T_T
  
• On the plus side, I bought "Civilization Revolutions" for my PS3. It's pretty fun, actually, and I've been having a good time blasting through the games. And although I haven't bought anything yet, I've downloaded a couple of pretty awesome mini-games from the PS3 store. I'll probably end up buying them one day when I get bored; "The Last Guy" is loads of fun when you're in the mood to save the citizens of Tokyo from evil roaming aliens.
  
• Oh, also on the plus side, the latest trailer for "Final Fantasy 13" just came out, and I'm extremely excited about it. I'll definitely be picking up the demo that comes with Advent Children on Blu Ray, so I guess I'll get to see some of it for myself in a few months! Doki doki!!

Well, my family is gone, I'm back from visiting

kinomakoto, and I'm leaving again for Japan in a few days. How to sum up the holidays with my family? Busy, loud, incredibly fun. The kids are great, but they're related to me, so we already know that. ^_^ They seemed to enjoy the presents I got them for Christmas (thank goodness), and I got lots of DVDs and things that I had wanted. Hurray! (I also got some extra LJ time from lenariel... Thank you! *^_^* Want, er, a translation or something?)

New Year's with Mako-chan was fun, especially when we found out that the Senshi Gakuen had been hacked to become a portal site for a prescription drug company. We got it fixed and didn't lose anything, but still, that's bad. (BTW, thanks to everyone who wrote or left a message on LJ. Who knows when we would have noticed if left to our own devices.) Therefore, I have decided to make a few New Year's resolutions after all:

 

1. Update SG.com
   The only thing I've updated recently has been, well, my Tokimeki Memorial page, so this year I vow to update some of my old obsessions, like my V6 and translation pages. And maybe add some more manga reviews. Because everyone deserves to know when I'm horrified by New York, New York.
2. Study Japanese
   Because I want to take the Level 1 proficiency exam this year. Actually, that means the real resolution should be:
3. Don't miss the cut-off date for the exam
   That was technically my problem this year. I think I need to sign up by August.
4. Study vacation language
   Mako-chan and I are pretty much decided to visit Europe next Fall, so I want to study the local language a bit. Just so I can say things like, "Where is the bathroom?" or "Get your hand off of there, you bastard." You know. The important stuff.
5. Continue reading and excersizing
   These are two good habits that I started in 2007, so I really hope to keep it up. Good way to keep both my brain and body fit!

Anyway, hope everyone has a good 2008!!

Vacation is almost here, and I'm so excited!

( Flying Excitement! )

( Family Excitement! )

( Work Excitement! (Part I) )

( Work Excitement! (Part II) )

( Variety Show Excitement! )

( Net Excitement! )

As most of you probably already know, I'm going home in a week, and I am soooo excited. I realize that I'm probably talking about it too much, but not only is my first Xmas at home in 4 years, but it's also the first reunion of our immediate family in, like, ever, so I think I get some slack. ^_^ In celebration(?), here's some news from the past week.

Hard Core Christmas Spirit
On my morning news program, they did a little segment about Christmas decorations in Japan, and how people save on electricity bills and all. One of the methods was using non-light-related decorations, like little balloon-type lawn figures and that sort of stuff. But one of the sample houses they showed? One wall of the house featured a giant picture of Mary holding baby Jesus. I thought it was hysterical. That is seriously hard core Christmas spirit for Japan.

My Niece Rocks (Part 1)
I mentioned previously that Detroit Niece started wearing glasses, and she looks too cute for words. She's an active three-year-old, so I was hoping that she wouldn't be bothered by things on her face. But word is that she LOVES her glasses. See, she doesn't know anyone else with glasses at her preschool. And the only other people she knows are adults. Therefore, she has come to the conclusion that glasses are big girl accessories, and that she is obviously far superior to her peers if she gets to wear glasses and they don't. It's rather hysterical toddler logic, and I absolutely adore her super-positive spin on the situation.

My Niece Rocks (Part 2)
Yet another story about why this niece of mine rocks. They've apparently got a fake Christmas tree at their house, so my niece has never been to a tree farm to get their Xmas tree. Therefore, when she first saw a car with a Christmas tree strapped to the roof, she apparently started shrieking, and told her parents very excitedly, "Look! They have salad on their car!!!" Everyone in the family thinks it's a hoot, and no one can figured out why she called it salad. My own attempt at decoding toddler logic says that A) Trees and plants stand upright and B) The thing on the car was not upright, therefore C) The thing on the car cannot be a tree or plant. But D) It was still green and leafy, ergo E) It must be salad.

My Boss is Cooler Than Your Boss (Part 64)
I've mentioned the awesomeness of my boss and his many hobbies before, but after learning Arabic last year and starting to make his very own Middle Age-esque sheepskin book, he decided that it would be fun to learn Arabic calligraphy. And since he's my boss, he doesn't just go at it half-assed. He's apparently in some sort of correspondance course with a calligraphy master living in Israel. It sounds like this calligraphy master is a good teacher, and my boss doesn't want to let the guy down, so he's started practicing during lunch. I have no idea what anything means, but everything that I've seen is pretty impressive. Seriously, I want to be my boss when I grow up.

Danger: Avoid Death
Some of you might have heard of this, but I read an article about some organization chose the best idiotic warning labels of the year. As someone who ends up translating warning labels many times a year, I can honestly say that some of it is pretty detailed. You can see the winners on the web page here, including the best warning label of the year: Danger: Avoid Death. Now, that's a pretty wacky warning label, but seriously? Visit the web site and check out the picture that goes along with it. That's the actual highlight of the warning. I nearly choked on my lunch when I saw it. Ohhh, you gotta love the American legal system that necessitates this sort of stuff....

I'm currently starting to buckle down for the Christmas season. Long story short, as far as we can tell, all of my sisters and their families have decided to meet at my parents' house for Christmas. Including me and my parents, that means 9 adults and 5 kids (ages 1-4 and 7) under one roof. Which means I need to buy 13 Christmas presents, and that's not counting my dad and one of my brother-in-laws, who both have birthdays. And since everyone is going to actually be there, I can't even duplicate presents this year! ("Look, I got a pair of socks and a tie, too! Now we match!") It's going to be insane, but I'm really really looking forward to it. The entire family hasn't gotten together in, well, ever. It should be awesome. Assuming, of course, that I can figure out what to get everyone. >_< But I've spent the last two weekends wandering around Tokyo, and Sunday afternoon I buckled down and searched every website I could think of, so I'm actually down to another present for my dad, something for my Grandpa, and determinining exactly what I want to get each of the kids.

Dad is tough, as always, and the kids should be pretty easy. The toughest part is that I suddenly thought to myself, "Oh dear god, what if the kids get jealous over each others' presents?" They're just so close in age, and I'm particularly concerned about quiet 4-year-old Calgary neice and forceful 3-year-old Detroit neice. I can totally see Detroit neice liking Calgary neice's toy better, and then stealing it and refusing to let go. Honestly, especially considering their personalities, this is a real concern. (lol) I'm considering getting them the same type of toy. (Like, getting them different types of dolls or something. Disney Princesses are cool, right?) Detroit neice will likely steal Detroit nephew's toy, too, but they live in the same house, so I don't really care about that. ^_^

Grandpa is unfortunately getting tougher and tougher to buy for. His sight is getting pretty bad, so it's harder for him to enjoy TV/movies and nearly impossible for him to enjoy books. Unfortunately, he's a huge techno-phobe, as well, so he refuses to even listen to books on tape. (No, none of us can figure out why.) We keep trying to convince him that he'd love it, and then we could even get him an iPod and load it up with hours of books or interesting podcasts, but he just doesn't want to. Anyway, it's quite unfortunate, because I think he'd actually really enjoy "Letters from Iwojima". See, for decades, the entire family assumed that my Gran and Grandpa wouldn't enjoy modern movies, with their sex and violence and blood and realistic action. And especially, they wouldn't like bloody movies about WWII (which they both served in; Gran apparently hid her pregnancy and served up until the day that her superiors figured her out). Then, for some strange reason, Dad decided to get them "Saving Private Ryan". Everyone thought it was a horrible idea, but as it turns out, both Gran and Grandpa only commented that it was a fun wee movie, and they watched it several times. The family was shocked. Since then, Dad has kept Grandpa's movie collection stocked with any sort of intense drama or heart-pounding action he can find. (Moral of the story is: your grandparents may be harder core than you think.) So I think he'd love Iwojima, if it weren't for the whole, y'know, Japanese with subtitles thing. I assume that there's an English dub, though... Has anyone seen it? Is it any good? Could you actually recommend it for someone who would probably only see a big beige blur on the screen?

Oh, and speaking of shopping fun, everyone needs to see this wonderful blog entry about a JC Penney's catalog from the 1970's. Funniest thing, ever.

• So I mainly just relaxed over my Golden Week holidays. It was extremely relaxing. The only thing I even really did was watch "Spiderman 3" with johnabe. It's like 6 movies smooshed into one! John performed his own personality test on me, asking questions like, "Who's sexier, Tobey Maguire or DJ Ozma? James Franco or DJ Ozma?" and seemed slightly disappointed when I quickly answered "James Franco" every time. But the highlight was when we went to karaoke, and John finished off the 2 hour session with the hit single "Don't You Cry" by Steven Seagal. Yes, THAT Steven Seagal. I couldn't stop laughing the entire time as John power-balladed away.
• An actual outtake from work:
  Yagi-san: Minako-chan, I need you to check a Portugese translation for me.
  Minako & Yagi-san: [laugh hysterically]
  Yagi-san: No, seriously, I need you to check some Portugese.
• Another actual outtake from work:
  We received the paperwork for our annual physical. Along with the paperwork was a little device for our urine sample which is called, I'm not even kidding you, "Pee Pole II".
• As seen in this news article, apparently some Japanese viewers of "Babel" began feeling ill while watching a scene with a strobe light. You may remember back in the day when flashing lights in Pokemon made hundreds of kids sick, or at least you've seen the Simpsons in Japan parody of the situation. And I was among those who laughed at the cartoon, but now I'm really wondering. Because, well, it's really weird that you don't hear about this happening in other countries.
• The preview movie for Crisis Core: FFVII is up at the Square Enix homepage. It makes me cheer because, well, Zack! Zack! However, after watching the preview, I have two major things to say.
  • First of all, a message for young happy Zack: For the love of god, WHY would you join Angel and Sephiroth to look for Genesis!? Just... their names are ANGEL, SEPHIROTH, and GENESIS. You should know that there is no possible way that your mission is going to end with puppy dogs and fairy dust.
  • Second, I'm really curious about how, as a game, the story will proceed. Because, well, we already KNOW what happens to Zack in the end. He gets the crap beaten out of him by Sephiroth, he is made a human test subject in biological experiments, and then he is shot brutally. So what's the final battle like? "Hurray, Sephiroth spears you with his sword! You beat the game!!"

Chanmerry.
Okay, this story starts about a month ago, when I spotted a bottle of Hello Kitty "Chanmerry" in the grocery store. Thinking it would be the perfect way to ring in the new year, I picked up a bottle. At the New Year's Eve party, I cracked open the bottle and was instantly aware of several things:

1. The Chanmerry was neon pink, like the subtle shade of cheap dollar-store bubble bath.
2. The Chanmerry smelled like sugar roses and strawberry Bubble Yum (also coincidentally like the subtle shade of cheap bubble bath).
3. The Chanmerry was kept under EXTREMELY HIGH PRESSURE, causing it to explode over a corner of the quilt covering my kotatsu, a corner of my apartment covered in food, and a corner of my leg. (Here, I ask the gentle reader to remember points 1 and 2 to realize exactly how horrified I was.)

So we split the remaining Chanmerry four ways.

johnabedeclared it to be "Hey, pretty good." kinomakotofollowed up with a less enthusiastic "Not as bad as you'd think." applcheeksremarked in horror that it "tasted exactly like a Hello Kitty store smelled." Guess who I agreed with.

Honey.
On a more delicious note, while wandering around the little town at the beginning of our onsen trip, we happened to pass a little honey shop. Literally, it was just filled with honey. But the kind lady was giving out free samples of their hot honey drink, at which point our American minds switched to "free food!!" mode and we guzzled it down.

Oh my !#$%ing god, it was good.

(Five parts water) + (One part fruit infused honey) = A light, sweet, refreshing drink that defies its simplicity to make your taste buds do a tango

We seriously didn't get it. The store sold fruit-fused honey (lemon, cherry, citrus, raspberry, blueberry), maple honey, and a wide variety of honey-related facial products, but the impact was far greater than you would expect. We left the store with a total of 5 jars, full tummies, and the sneaking suspicion that the secret ingredient was pure, unadulterated crack.

Nails.
While kinomakotospent some extra time shopping, applcheeksand I took some time out to get fancy nail art manicures. In a move that I'm sure those who know us would consider quite shocking considering our personalities, Ringo-chan decided on baby pink nails accented by a puffy, bejeweled flower, while I settled on white roses painted on a color best described as "street-walker red". A shock, truly.

The shellacking of base coat and base color proceeded normally, but when time came for the art, both Ringo-chan and I were shocked. We had previously assumed that Ringo-chan's puffy flower would be a well-glued press-on stone of some sort, while my painted-rose look would be achieved through either a sticker or air-brushed stencil.

As it turns out, we were completely wrong on both counts. Ringo-chan's puffy flower was the result of a tiny wet brush swiped quickly through a white powder in order to instantly form perfectly spherical beads, each of which was carefully pressed onto her nail to become one petal of the flower. And my rose? Nothing more than acrylic paint, a minuscule brush, and one of the steadiest painting hands that I've ever seen.

Ringo-chan and I had just been looking for a fun manicure to make us feel like pretty pretty princesses, but we left with the understanding that we had actually been treated to nail art. It also means that I've likely developed yet another expensive habit.

Natto.
After finishing a dinner meant for a small family, or possibly a large sumo wrestler, Mako-chan, Ringo-chan, and I tried not to pass out at the onsen by watching a mindless variety program on Japanese TV. The show, as it turns out, devoted their entire hour to extolling the virtues of a brand new diet: the natto diet.

According to this program, eating two packs of natto a day (one at breakfast, one at dinner; once a day isn't enough!!) provides your body with a steady stream of concentrated natto essence that allows you to lose weight without making any other changes to your lifestyle. This "find" originated from a study conducted in the States, which if anything, increases the probability of a Real Discovery because, quite frankly, I doubt there are major concerns about the study being influenced by, say, the American Natto Association or Natto Growers of the South. If anything, I think that the study raises one major question:

Which is more difficult? Finding Americans willing to eat natto twice a day? Or finding natto in America?

Long story short, I actually quite like natto and go through frequent bouts of marathon natto consumption (Natto omelettes? Not so tasty, unexpectedly so. Natto ramen? Yum!), so I graciously offered my services as a guinea pig for the natto diet.

But the big surprise came after vacation ended and I went to the supermarket to start my test. Although the supermarket was filled with piles of natto, a sign warned about natto shortages that could possibly make the supply of natto unstable. That's right, Mako-chan, Ringo-chan. The show we watched has sparked nation-wide natto shortages. It makes me laugh, but my natto breakfast is quite delicious, so I'll soldier on. Mmmm, sticky, slimy, fermented beans!!

 

I'm so exhausted, and I wasn't even the one on vacation.

Okay, so for two weeks, my little one-bedroom apartment was home to two girls (kinomakoto and applcheeks), five suitcases, and eventually an overflowing closet-full of treats to bring home. In quick bulletpoint form, here is how we spent the past two weeks:

• My First Comiket, which was almost shockingly uncrowded. Seriously. I should go more often.
• johnabe came over to watch the annual Kouhaku music battle on NHK. The big feature was a hysterically inappropriate performance by DJ Ozma who has, among other things, been banned from even the NHK building.
• Shopping, shopping, shopping! There were some extremely scary crowds, but also awesome deals. I spent surprisingly little money, considering that I ended up with: three small jewelry grab bags, one expensive jewelry grab bag, a sock grab bag, two clothing grab bags (each literally filled with 8-9 pieces of clothing, including jackets, dresses, and one blingy belt), one dress, and one pair of boots. Shopping!
• Eating, eating, eating! Seriously, if I never eat a parfait until Spring, it may be too soon.

But the highlight had to be a trip to Hakone and an amazing overnight stay in a ryokan with onsen. Oh, it was amazing. The room had a view of the gardens and was kept toasty warm; the onsens were just this side of scalding and felt gloriously refreshing, especially when a cool breeze kicked up outside; and then there was Maiko-san. Maiko-san was our own personal maid servant woman, and I wanted to take her home with me. Her entire job appeared to be acting cute and polite and serving food until we thought we were going to burst. Our onsen trip came with dinner and breakfast, each of which was a long, drawn out, multi-multi-MULTI course affair served to us in our rooms so that we barely had to move. At one point in time at dinner, Ringo-chan counted 20 dishes PER PERSON. The breaking point came after Maiko-san delivered the final dish, crammed carefully onto the table between us.

"Call the front desk when you're done," she informed us as we stuffed our faces with yet another piece of fish-product that was carefully formed and then carved into the shape of a flower. "I'll come back up to take away your dishes, and I'll bring up dessert."

....Dessert!?

I managed to hold my laughter until after she left the room. Breakfast was another 8 dishes or so, although I was starved like a starving woman for no reason, so I ended up stealing food from everyone else. Needless to say, I was fast asleep in a diabetic coma for most of the train ride back home.

Now I'm just sad and alone in Japan by myself. I say that, but I'm just too exhausted to go out anywhere. Holy crap, I need a day off. ^_^

Merry Christmas from Japan! I was at work all day, which automatically made it my most depressing Christmas ever. ;^_^ But on Sunday I went out with johnabe and got my nails done and opened presents from my family. The official winner in the "what the..." gift category goes to my Detroit sister and family, who got me "Texas Hold 'Em: The Board Game", which just confused the hell out of me. I mean, I always assumed that all you really needed to play poker was, well, cards, but no! You apparently need... [waving vaguely] other things, too! And now... I have them all, in convenient board game format. Er, goodie!

Tomorrow, I'll be picking up kinomakoto and applcheeks at the airport for two weeks of touristy fun. WAI!

And in other news, the handle just came off of the main office door, which means we can't get out. lol Unfortunately true story. Someone opened the door from the other side, so there are currently four people trying to put the handle back on.

Dude, I love White Day. For those who don't know of this randomly created commercial holiday, it's the equivalent of Valentine's Day. But while V-Day (Feb. 14) is the day where women give chocolates and other gifts to men, White Day (March 14) is the day where men give back to women. (I've also heard that Korea has Black Day on April 14, which is the day where singles get together and bitch about their single-ness. Now THAT sounds like fun.)

Anyway, while I understood giving presents to loved ones or friends or classmates, even, I didn't realize until I entered the workplace that people give presents to co-workers as well. All the guys at the company got bags of chocolates and candy last month, and today, I got a small bag of candy, lavendar bath salts, and a fairly large box of nicely wrapped, upscale chocolate. "Wow," I decided. "I like this holiday."

In America, of course, this would never happen. Can you imagine what would happen if you gave chocolates to your boss on Valentine's Day? There's a real possibility that sexual harrassment suits would be involved. Adults just don't give casual presents to other adults on Valentine's Day. In a way, it reminds me of the platonic Valentine's Days from elementary school. People who went to an American elementary school probably know what I'm talking about... You made little mail boxes, then you bought cheap little cards with pictures of cartoon characters and messages like "You're Berry Special" or "I think you're Smurftastic!!" Experienced teachers would know that you needed to require that students to bring a little card for every student and to require that any candy or treats had to be distributed equally among the whole class. Still, of course, we were elementary students, not morons, and we knew how to discriminate against kids we didn't like. The packages of little cheap cards always had one message that was more vague and bland than the rest (Share Bear says Hi!). And I still fondly remember searching through the chalky heart-shaped candy, looking for the ones with "Sad Sack" printed on the front. (I think they eventually got rid of the "Sad Sack" message, which is quite a shame, really.)

I was thinking of cutting back on desserts, since I'm starting to get dangerously dependent on a regular cake fix. But, dude, free chocolate!

In other news, I replayed "Dirge of Cerebus" to pick off all of the capsuls scattered throughout the game (these allow you to watch the movie scenes without actually playing). I also picked up the 3rd G Report that I was missing so that I could watch the secret Gackt ending. To be entirely honest, as a fan of FFVII and Gackt, I will say that the overall concept of Gackt in this game was highly misjudged. At first, I thought he would have been playing "Random new character who happens to look like exactly like Gackt," and that sounded like fun. Then, it became apparent that he was just playing "Gackt, randomly stuck in the FFVII universe," which was just very weird. But THEN, if I'm understanding the game correctly, he's REALLY playing "Gackt, aka Sephiroth Beta Version." And to be entirely honest, comparing Sephiroth to Gackt is almost insulting. (I mean, it's SEPHIROTH. NO ONE compares to Sephiroth!) I'm just praying that no one is stupid enough to follow the game to it's logical conclusion (based on the Gackt ending), where Vincent fights Gackt for the fate of Midgar. Someone would get laughed at, and it wouldn't be Vince.

Having said that, Square pulled out all the stops for the animation in the secret ending. It's really beautiful. And I think it helps that Gackt normally looks like he stepped out of a video game, so they managed to make animated Gackt look exactly like real Gackt, and exactly like a Square character at the same time. As long as there's no sequal, I'm overall happy with the results.

[Edit] I just got two cookies, too. This is an awesome holiday.

I spent New Year's Eve with johnabe, eating dinner and watching music programs on TV. We started with the annual Kouhaku music battle, and went into the Johnny's countdown special.

Since kinomakoto asked, the white team (men's team) won the Kouhaku. It was the usual mix of pop songs, enka, and random tributes that made no sense whatsoever. (For example, they did a series of famous 80's idol tunes, then ended the montage with SMAP coming on stage while O-Zone's "Dragostea Din Tei" played in the background. I've never seen KimuTaku so confused. SMAP obviously had no idea what the hell was going on, either. The Gorie performance was simple amazing; the entire stage was covered in about 100 cheerleaders in glittery, colorful uniforms, dancing in perfect unison. (Gorie competed for the red (women's) team, btw.) The vocal performances of the night were, as could probably be expected, from Dreams Come True and Porno Graffitti. I got a little bit choked up listened to Miwa-san and Akihito-san. But my personal favorite performance had to go to T.M.Revolution, who showed up in a white furry outfit on top of a crane, belting "White Breath" with Darth Vader and a bunch of Stormtroopers wandering in the background. He sounded great, he looked great, and Darth Vader just made me laugh. "What's with the Star Wars theme!?" I thought to myself. And then I remembered that TMR has multiple Stormtrooper-esque outfits and also has an entire album entitled "The Force". "Oh, right, he's a big fan."

And although John was slightly less than amused, I liked the Johnny's countdown special. 101 Johnny's all on one stage! They just kept on coming out of the woodwork.

John: [watching V6 perform] Wow, I actually know all of these songs. This is all your fault.

Can't get enough Johnny's.

But the true highlight of my New Year's was this morning. Four words for you: New Year's Day Sales. I admittedly went a little nuts buying all sorts of stuff, but the sales were amazing! Plus, basically every store had a grab bag deal going on. You had no idea what you were going to get, but you were guaranteed a huge deal. Probably the smartest move I made was limiting the amount of money that I was carrying with me. I gave myself a set limit and went off for the day at 10:00, with the goal of buying a long skirt, some socks, and maybe some boots or a hat. I came back three hours later with the following:

- A long brown velvet and lace skirt.
- A long tan faux suede-y skirt.
- A black top.
- Two pairs of tights and a pair of socks.
- A white hat.
- White boots.
- Pretty pink bra.
- Rose shaped earrings.
- Jewelry grab bag (filled with a ring, a necklace, a charm bracelet, an extra charm, and a pair of earrings).
- A clothing grab bag (filled with short purple pants [too small, but I figured they would be], a fluffy blue top [too not my style], a jean jacket [tad snug, but works well open], a dark gray tube top [perfect!], and a black shirt [also great!].
- 547 yen.

(lol) Seriously, I had to bring out the calculator to work out if I could afford the underwear AND the boots. Luckily, I didn't have to choose. ^_^

Dude, I really should have bought myself a lotto ticket, because my day turned out to be filled with Christmas luck rather than Christmas cheer. Despite my inspiring plans this weekend, one of my friends arranged a last-minute Christmas party, so it was me and four other girls cooking and baking cakes and playing cards. But the card games... we first played Uno, which I was rather mediocre at. (In my own defense, it was mainly because I kept forgetting to call "Uno". I once forgot three times in one game.) We then played about 9 rounds total of two different card games. I can't remember the name of either game, but they were the same type of strategy/luck games where you tried to get rid of all of your cards first. I won eight of the games and came in a close second in the ninth one. Everyone was shocked, but I swear it was mainly luck. I just kept getting really really good hands.

But what did I do with the rest of my time? "Kingdom Hearts 2", of course!!
( My mainly wordy first impressions that shouldn't be overly spoilery. )

In other news, it's been a while since I had a really incomprehensible translation to proofread, but this latest quick startup guide really needs to be preserved for posterity:

"So the describes in this guide is the most basically functionality."

Wow.

Believe it or not, but this year will be my second Christmas in a row spent in Japan. How does this year compare to last? Well, admittedly slightly worse. I've got a cold and no real plans. When I say "real" plans, I actually mean "plans that involve other people", seeing as Kingdom Hearts II comes out tomorrow. With no work on Friday, that gives me a solid three days to start playing, and I have absolutely no problems with acting like a slug and doing nothing else all weekend long. Hell, I'm planning my grocery shopping today so that I won't have to leave the apartment. It'll just be me, sweatpants, pizza, my warm kotatsu, and my PS2. [thinking] Actually, that sounds like a really good Christmas, doesn't it?

There was a little segment on the morning news that made me think about Japanese Christmas "traditional" foods. The question of the week for the viewers was, "Do you put candles on your Christmas cake or not?" See, when I think of traditional Christmas foods, I think of turkey, eggnog, cookies, gingerbread, fruitcake, stuff like that. In Japan, Christmas food means fried chicken and strawberry cake. As kinomakoto once put it, "Birthday cake for Jesus, I've gotten used to, but fried chicken still makes me giggle." Anyway, the arguments for and against putting candles on your Christmas cake this morning were pretty funny. ("But it creates such a nice mood!" "It's a CHRISTMAS cake, not a BIRTHDAY cake!" "But the candles drip wax all over the place!" "...Wait, that's a good thing?") They showed traditional Christmas cakes from a few countries around Europe, and all of the news announcers seemed surprised that A) many European Christmas cakes tend to be more fruit-bread-y than cake-y, and B) nobody put candles on those suckers. I suppose you could make an argument that you're putting the birthday candles on the cake for Jesus, but then as one of the male new announcers asked, "Who's supposed to blow them out?"

In reality, most people I know don't have cake for Christmas. You'd maybe have it, just in the sense that you want a dessert, but unlike birthdays, it really doesn't have to be cake, does it. Cookies or pies or flambes or whatever work just as well on Christmas. Then again, I'm not really sure how this works for normal, Western, Christian families, since A) my family never celebrated Christmas as a religious holiday since not all of us are Christian, and B) my dad's birthday is December 25th, so we DID always have birthday cake on Christmas. Well, technically, Mom would always get cake for the rest of us and serve my dad fruitcake or Christmas pudding. He's Scottish. He actually LIKES those British Christmas-y cakes. The blacker and tougher and fruitier the better.

But since I actually have lived many years celebrating with both British Christmas cake and birthday cake, I can answer one question for these Japanese news announcers: Never ever try putting candles in British Christmas cake. Only use them for birthday cake. Seriously, my sister and I tried one year, and have you ever tried drilling candles through marzipan? About three birthday candles unraveled as we tried to force them through the top. Then later, we had to bring out carving knifes to slice the damned thing...

Long ramble short, if you need me on Christmas, I'll be the one killing Heartless for munnie, while eating fried chicken in front of her TV. Now that's the life!

I got this off of childdoll's journal. Not surprisingly, she turned out to be nice. Surprisingly, this is what I got...

Dear Santa... Dear Santa, This year I've been busy! In October cloudlessnights and I donated clothes to the needy (11 points). In June I put gum in aquahouse's hair (-12 points). Last Thursday I donated bone marrow to johnabe in a life-saving procedure (300 points). In March I helped kyonomiko see the light (8 points). In February I ruled Canada as a cruel and heartless dictator (-700 points). Overall, I've been naughty (-393 points). For Christmas I deserve a spanking! Sincerely, minakokouchou

Write your letter to Santa! Enter your LJ username:

(T_T) B-but, I saved johnabe!! I totally think that should make up for the whole Canada thing...

Anyway, it's December, which means end-of-the-year music specials all month. Hurray~! It's my favorite time of year in Japan! (^_^) Last night-ish, V6 apparently appeared at a big end-of-the-year concert in South Korea. The morning news had a pretty long segment showing them with their screaming hordes of Korean fans. Tonight, V6 and many many other guests are going to appear in the FNS music special. I still have fond memories of the FNS special from last year, when Destiny's Child was confronted with the horror that is "Matsuken Samba II". The post-performance talk was wonderful:

Host: So, what did you think of this performance?
DC: [forced smiles] Oh, excellent. Truly amazing. There was the dancee and... And the costumes... WOW.
MatsuKen: [seriously] Yes, well I have to thank all of my wonderful dancers. And the costumes, actually, were made by a designer in New York.
Hostess: Wow, so you could all get your OWN copies of these outfits for yourself!!
DC: [abject horror]
Beyonce: [FORCED SMILE] WOW, that would be... WOW.

I couldn't stop laughing. But anyway, poor V6. Korea yesterday, Tokyo today... I almost feel bad that they'll be forced to sing for me on Saturday when I see them in concert. ALMOST.