Aino Minako-chan

Somewhat hysterical news item today (well, hysterical to me, at least): Inocchi and new bride Seto Asaka were apparently coming home from a play, when they happened to notice an old man collapsed and bleeding on the street corner. (They were driving down a busy street at 8:30 at night, so it actually is quite amazing that either of them noticed.) So they pulled over, Inocchi called an ambulance, and the two stayed and talked to the old man until help arrived. The news program this morning even did street interviews and stuff, and everyone seemed to agree that, well, of course Inocchi helped, because he's just a Nice Guy. See how V6 contributes to the community?

In other news, I'm possibly going to have to kill the president of my company. Just so you know. (lol) To back up a bit, during the past year or so, the president has become obsessed with mind maps. I remember using mind maps during creative writing classes as a way to brainstorm, and I quite liked them for those types of creative/free-thinking purposes since my mind has a tendancy to jump from "kangaroo" to "fish" to "salt" rather quickly (seriously, my mind just went there; I swear it makes more sense than it sounds, but it's a long story that involves monkeys and dragons, so I'll save that one for another day), so mind mapping helps me make sense of my random trains of thought. However, despite this tendancy for my mind to wander (or perhaps because of), I like my notes and finalized thoughts to be extremely organized. I like outlines and columns and indents and straight lines, perhaps even organized by different color ink or highlighting. So while messy spiderwebs are okay for disgorging all of my ideas on paper, I can never make any sense of the ideas again unless they're organized in a cleaner form.

Now, my company president adores his mind-maps and takes all of his notes in mind-map format and hands out company plans drawn as mind-maps. (Luckily, he color-codes them; otherwise I probably wouldn't be able to make heads or tails of anything.) He loves his mind-maps so much that he's taken classes to learn how to teach the concept to others, and has said for a while that he wants to do a company-wide mind-mapping seminar because he's convinced that mind-mapping is the most natural form of note-taking available and that everyone is bound to adore mind-mapping as much as he does. (It's kinda like he's been absorbed by an organizational cult. I somewhat fear that we'll be instructed in the proper use of Post-it Notes next. Seriously, he really loves his mind-maps.) So finally, he decided that this upcoming all-company meeting, we'll be learning mind-mapping. Y-yeay?

But wait! The story gets better! First, our all-company meeting was supposed to be last Saturday. About 2 weeks ago, the company president changed it to this Saturday, and finally settled on next Saturday a few days later. But then, on Tuesday morning, he informed us that he went to another mind-mapping seminar over the weekend that lasted ten hours (!!), but all of the participants agreed that it wasn't nearly enough time to fully appreciate the glories of mind-mapping. So the president wondered if maybe we should do it two Saturdays in a row, or perhaps stay somewhere overnight and do mind-mapping the whole weekend long. Yesterday, we got the final decision: Next Saturday, we'll have a one hour all-company meeting, followed by 10 bloody hours of mind-mapping. We will then be forced to stay together at a hotel overnight, so that we can get in another 4 hours of mind-mapping on Sunday morning. You have no idea how horrified I am by this turn of events. Not only does it seem like a horrific waste of time and money, but it reduces our weekend to about 8 hours. Plus, as I've mentioned before, I don't even like mind-mapping (I've tried it! I swear! And in the end, I still like outlines the best!), and mind-mapping in Japanese is sure to be hell. I'm seriously considering faking my own imminent death. Literally the only thing keeping me going is the knowledge that I will finally have a perfect application for my erasable Frixion pens. (lol)

Last night, I went to a dance class at my gym. My gym membership is only for weekday nights, but they offer four different types of dance classes. So although it's been nearly a decade since my last dance class (not counting 6 months of flamenco in the middle), I decided to check out the beginning-intermediate hip-hop dance class. (And technically, I've never taken a hip-hop class. I am neither hip, nor hop, so it seems kinda pointless.) Long story short, I ended up doing quite well (yes! I can still dance and roll my hips better than the average person!), except for the fact that I nearly died because I am so ridiculously NOT in dance shape. LOL It was seriously seriously very sad.

And in completely unrelated news, V6's Inohara Yoshihiko got married to girlfriend Seto Asaka. Awww! You go, Inocchi!

Best t-shirt used in a V6 photo shoot
The t-shirt worn by Inocchi in a group photo shoot found in the 2006 concert pamplet. The shirt reads:

Got a stiffie? Wear a Jiffi! Jiffi deluxe condoms

So on Saturday, I took John to yet another V6 concert. Hurray! V6 just released their Best Album II, which is filled with more recent singles and B-side tracks, so the concert was pretty similar. I actually wasn't caught up on all of the recent B-side tracks, so I got to hear some brand new (to me) songs. Wai!! Two of the solos really stuck out for me: Nagano-kun's solo was "Tsubomi Song", an adorable little song written for him by Inocchi. It was really cute, and Nagano-kun sounded surprisingly good. Go-tsun's solo was "Unlimited", which isn't too odd, but the overall effect shocked me. He sang his solo while dressed in tailored white slacks, wildly-patterned shirt, and patterned tie, all in front of a video of him playing with his doggie. So cute but... it was GO. In TAILORED PANTS. With his shirt TUCKED IN. It was kinda shocking.

Anyway, it was another great concert, and here's a fun tidbit for people. Since there has to be a new stage invention every show (floating stage? revolving stage? moving stage?), this concert featured small movable platforms. If you watch the DVD whenever it comes out, they will likely shoot the footage so that V6 appears to float throught the audience. If you watch the show, however, you quickly realize that the platforms are powered by stagehands in black T-shirts. It's pretty funny, actually. Ah, the magic of Johnny's!

Best controversy in a love sim video game
One of the movies you can see on your date in Tokimeki Memorial Girl's Side: Second Kiss is entitled "Celsius -273.15". When you "watch" the movie, the screen shows an older, angry-looking guy attempting to golf as a big fat guy in a flannel shirt and baseball cap shoves a microphone in his face. The "dialogue" goes something like this:

Guy #1: How you can you possibly be relaxing, playing GOLF, during a time of crisis?
Guy #2: Hey, what are you doing? Get those cameras out of here!
Guy #1: Aren't you ashamed of yourself?

I remind everyone that this is TOKIMEKI MEMORIAL GIRL'S SIDE: SECOND KISS. The target audience is women who want to play a game where your main concern is whether you want to date the serious scholar or the free-spirited artist. This is probably one of the fluffiest, mindless video games I own (although I will fully admit that it's hard to beat "Project V6" for sheer mind-numbing-ness). Who came up with the idea for a Fahrenheit 9/11 parody?

Anyway, I haven't played too much so far (and what does it say about me that I feel vaguely dirty for trying to hook up with the homeroom teacher? "Oh my god! I'm a high schooler; what the hell am I thinking, seducing my teacher like this!?"). But it plays about 90% the same as the original TMGS, so all of my old playing techniques (only rest on weekends! save and reload like crazy! avoid other people like the plague!) seem to be working out pretty well. Sure, it's a silly, repetative game. But you'll never appreciate your love if you aren't working your ass off to seduce your man. (lol)

I've been extremely busy lately doing, well, absolutely nothing. It's basically been a mix of eating, sleeping, working, playing video games, shopping, and watching movies. That's it. Surprisingly, it's been strangely satisfying: busy, but relaxing at the same time. Unfortunately, it's also really quite dull to write about in livejournal. Therefore, I have decided to summarize the past 2 weeks or so in the following manner:

( The Minako-chan Countdown!! )

I'm the worst daughter, ever. I totally forgot my mommy's birthday. And if I forgot my mom's birthday, then I totally forgot my brother-in-laws' birthdays last month. What the hell is wrong with me? (T_T) Anyway, in honor of a long Golden Week vacation for me, I've got another long post today filled with things that make my fangirl heart happy.

Freedom Project
Do you like Cup Noodle? Do you like the anime Akira? Do you like Utada Hikaru? Have you ever wished that Kaneda would sell you Cup Noodle while Utada Hikaru sang to you? Then I've got the ultimate advertising campaign for you: freedom-project.jp!!! Okay, so it's not technically Kaneda, but it is Otomo Katsuhiro, so it ends up being the story of Not-Kaneda as he races his Not-motorcycle to freedom and eats Cup Noodle. I am not ashamed to admit that I'm totally in love with this advertising campaign. It has not convinced me to eat more Cup Noodle (yet), but it did nearly make me walk into a pole in the middle of Shinjuku station when the posters first went up. "Kaneda-kun!" I shrieked. "Cup Noodle!" Seriously, there's a lot of fun stuff at the web site, so check it out.

Tokimeki Memorial Girl's Side 2nd Kiss
I realize this is important information to exactly one person out there (Minako-chan waves to kinomakoto), but there's a sequal to Tokimeki Memorial Girl's Side coming out in August. HURRAY!!!! You have no idea how ecstatically happy this makes me. Check out the web site here. Who should I woo first? Oh, the excitement!!

And finally, for V6 fans, "Hold Up Down"!
( Because every V6 movie needs a frozen Jesus. )

Oh, and since I mentioned it yesterday, has anyone out there played (or started playing) Final Fantasy XII? I'm slowly but surely gaining levels and merrily slashing my way through the game, but I've got a question: Has anyone found any use for Levitega? It's a type of magic that just makes you float a couple inches off the ground. But.... WHY? It was easier with "Float" magic in FFVIII; people literally ran around screaming, "FLOAT!!! USE FLOAT!!!!" So what does Levitega do? No idea.

I'm getting sick, if my intensely sore throat and overall sloth is anything to go by. This is actually Fairly Bad Timing, since I'm also about to start a new project at work where I am not translating a manual, but instead writing it from scratch. And on a very tight schedule, too! H-hurray! My boss is coordinating for me and one of the writers is helping us out with framework. The manager in charge of the project asked us if we had any problems, and our basic response was, "No, not really. I mean, besides the fact that we don't know what the hell we're doing and are doomed to failure, no." We're also gearing up for a massive project this summer, which involves a 4,000 page manual translation. What the hell kind of machine involves a 4,000 page instruction manual!? That sucker better have lots of pictures, because otherwise, I may just have to cry.

I'm also thinking that someone mistyped the Japanese document that I translated. I say this because the document is a safety checklist for electrical equipment, and one items on the list asks if the manual includes a safety warning about flower vases. ...Because your MP3 player will break if shoved into a vase? Or maybe your microwave will develop problems if you start bashing it with a vase? Then again, the checklist also has a check for warnings about candles, so maybe there are massive electronics/vase problems out there that I don't know about.

In good news, V6's movie "Hold Up Down" comes out on DVD today (hurray!) and I got a notice in the mail about ordering tickets for V6's summer concert tour (double hurray!!). Now, if only I had friends who liked V6... I know, I don't have any in Japan. Is that weird, or what? Is there, like, a V6 support group out there or something? So I'll probably be going to the concert alone but, still, V6!!

For those of you who (mysteriously enough) do not keep tabs of all my latest news, today I went to the V6 10th Anniversary concert in Yoyogi with johnabe. He wasn't the ONLY guy there, but he was close, and for that, I am sorry. To put things mildly, it was the BEST CONCERT EVER. I'm going to get ridiculously fangirlish from here on, so I'll place everything behind an lj cut to save you poor sods who friended me.

( Best Concert EVAH. )

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.

Today was a holiday, so I went to an undoukai (sports-festival-ish thingie) with a friend of mine. I was running late, but it turns out that she and her mom were running even later, so it all worked out. I stopped in at Starbucks to warm up while I waited. The young woman sitting next to me was rather... odd, talking to herself the entire time. No, the thing wasn't that she was talking to herself, she was having a full on conversation with herself. A really amusing conversation with herself: "So then I went up to him and asked what... no, of course I didn't he would have freaked out. [pause] Right, just like that one time... [laughing hysterically] Yeah, he'd be exactly like that. So anyway..." Well, as long as she's having fun...

So my friend Fatemeh and I missed the races for women, and the tug-of-war filled up literally at the person before us, so that was rather sad. But then some family friends showed up, and apparently the parents weren't too crazy about accompanying their little girls for the kiddie events. So Fatemeh and I took the girls to play two different events and it ended up being pretty fun. But this thing gave out major prizes for basically everything. Just for showing up, they gave you this really heavy bix that turned out to be a teeth care set. At first it doesn't sound like anything, but this thing included 6 toothbrushes, two different kinds of toothpaste, mouthwash, and teeth whitener. My teeth are going to be shining by the time I'm done with this...

On the way back from the event, I stopped off at Bic Camera, where I reserved "Kingdom Hearts II" (yeay~!) and bought V6's "Musicmind" CD. I haven't listened to the whole CD yet, but Coming Century wins the award for best song title on the album: "Rudery big up". That's... awesome. Deep, I'm sure.

Yup, it's V6's 10th anniversary today. I've only been a fan for half of that time, but I'm still very happy for them. So happy in fact... I updated the V6 Degrees of Separation shrine at the Senshi Gakuen!! Shock! Horror!! Only one warning for you folks before you visit. The name of V6's 10th anniversary single is "Orange". The page... Hm. LOL When I find a theme, I stick to it.

On a (T_T) note for this very happy day, I fell down the stairs at the train station coming home. (lol) It really wasn't nearly as serious as it sounds; there were only 4 stairs and I tripped when I caught the toe of my shoe on the 3rd one. However, my dance training came in handy... I may have tripped, but I didn't lose my balance. I caught the toes of my shoes, so I ended up rolling over to the front of my feet, hit my knees on the second step, and slid on my knees perfectly smoothly until I hit the bottom. I kinda knelt there in shock for a bit, but I wasn't actually hurt; just minor scrapes. Oh, and my feet slid out of my shoes, but luckily(?) they were still attached by the ankle straps. I feel really silly and the front of my right leg still hurts where I lost some skin, but no harm done. Oh, and as I slid gracefully down the stairs on my knees, a kind salaryman reached out and grabbed my arm to make sure I wasn't going to topple over head first. Good deed-ness! So all in all, I'd say it all evened out.

* V6
I just finished watching a mini-V6 segment on Utaban. At one point, they asked if the guys thought that V6 would last for 10 years. Only one answered "Yes": V6's mama Nagano-kun. He said that not only did he think they would last 10 years, he wanted to last 10 years. Everyone had a little quiet moment in touched awe. "Of course", Nagano-kun continued, "I figured the other five would have long quit by now..." (lol) Good old Nagano-kun. Just when you think he's getting sentimental...

* Nakashima Mika & Hyde
I have a...thing against Nakashima Mika. That's putting it mildly. To put it harshly, I despise her singing voice and can't understand why she's so highly over-rated. Yes, she's as skinny as a stick, she looks great on magazine covers, and she's got a very respectable high range. She's also pitchy, and her entire voice appears to come out of her nose. She just plain frustrates me... put some shoes on and stop bobbing, little girl! Hyde, lead singer of L'Arc~en~Ciel, I have mixed feelings about. In general, I either really love L'Arc songs or I think they sound awful; there's no middle ground for me.

Having said that, I am obsessed with the song "Glamorous Sky". The music was written by Hyde, the lyrics were written by manga artist Yazawa Ai, and the song is sung by Nakashima Mika who plays Nana in the hit movie of the same name (based on Yazawa-sensei's mega-hit manga of the same name). But it's honestly an amazing, amazing song. All of these elements that I don't feel particularly strongly about come together for AMAZING results.

* Koda Kumi
I first heard of Koda Kumi through FFX-II, and first came to know her through her version of "Cutey Honey". My first impression of her was "the Japanese Christina Aguilera"... a teeny girl with a big voice who dresses like a slut. To be entirely honest, though, Koda Kumi has grown on me by leaps and bounds, until I can honestly say that I'm a fan. When you hear her talk, you get the impression that she doesn't think about herself as being "sexy" so much as "showmanship-y". (And as a Johnny's fan, I really don't think I can complain. They wear sparkles, and lame, and feathers. And I mean, how else do you explain Tackey's "Ero ero dance"?) One newscaster on TV described her appeal very accurately as stemming from her feminine looks and her tomboy personality. She's got balls, I'll give her that.

* Suzuki Ami
Dear lord help me, but I'm probably going to rent Suzuki Ami's new album. I really don't have anything good to say about her debut days under Komuro Tetsuya. She was... skinny? So when Suzuki Ami suddenly made a comeback this year, I didn't think too much about it... except that she did a very unusual thing doing her down time. Of the few idols I know of who have done comebacks, they spent their "off" time doing something like traveling or living abroad or becoming professional B-rate personalities on TV. But when they asked Suzuki Ami what she did, she replied, "I took voice lessons." And it shows. She's still not a master of vocal gymnastics, but she's much improved and has some extremely catchy songs in her repertoire. Oh, and she's still very skinny.

Congratulations to johnabe. You are cordially invited to a V6 concert on December 10th, 2:30 pm, in Yoyogi. I usually don't make promises, but this time I guarantee, you WILL be the only white guy there. I don't even expect you to hold back your embarrassment if when I start to scream in fangirl-ish glee. Honest.

Life is always interesting. On Saturday, johnabe and I went to the big fireworks festival over Tokyo Bay. We watched it in Odaiba, and the big adventure for me was that I decided to get all dolled up in a full yukata. It was My First Yukata, complete with fake obi, and it still took me about half an hour to get into the damn thing. I somehow managed not to fall apart during the night, and I think this was partially accomplished by adopting a completely Japanese style of walking. I minced for crying out loud, shuffling along in my geta while attempting to keep my obi in one place. I can shuffle quick as a bunny, though, let me tell you that.

In V6 news, the morning news carried an item about their 10th anniversary tour. Hurray! It will start some time in November, and I am absolutely determined to go. [firey flaming eyes] I was also tentatively scheduling a vacation at that time, so I hope they release the tour schedule soon... (Yes, I'm going to plan my vacation around V6. Why do you ask?)

They also showed a quick preview for V6's upcoming movie, "Hold Up Down". (See the HP here.) All the characters look very amusing: Sakamoto-kun and Nagano-kun are supposed to be detectives, but they're dressed like they're in a modern Japanese version of "Miami Vice". Inocchi and Ken-ken are robbers dressed as Santa, and Go-tsun appears to be a deeply religious truck driver (everthing I've seen of him has him clutching his rosary). No, but the funniest has to be Jun-kun. His character was described as a "street musician", but I didn't realize that what they meant by that was "folk musician living on the street who hasn't bathed in at least a few weeks". Just... very odd.

Finally, I thought that I was really loosing it today at work when I started feeling woozy while staring at my computer keyboard. Then the shaking grew stronger, and I was relieved to realize that I had simply caught onto the beginning of a mild, but very very long earthquake. But then as I sat there, watching the potted plant shake, I started feeling incredibly nauseated. Yes, I just got MOTION SICK from an EARTHQUAKE. You can add this onto the list with cars, buses, trains, airplanes, boats, amusement park rides, and motion simulators. I think we've almost confirmed that I get motion sick in every possible moving situation.

[Warning: The following LJ entry is a joint production from "Minako-chan, the Screaming Fangirl" and "Minako-chan, the Musical Whore". Squeals and giggles are likely. Be forewarned.]

( So, last night I went to see Sakamoto-kun in 'The Boy from Oz'. )

Okay, so as I mentioned before, Toni-Cen are all starring in Broadway shows this summer: Inocchi & Nagano in "The Producers", and Sakamoto-kun in "Boy From Oz". "The Producers" sounded like fun, but I was absolutely DYING to see Sakamoto-kun. Unfortunately, by the time I thought, "Hey, I should maybe get tickets before I get all excited," it was sold out. ;_; But then I saw Sakamoto-kun on a quiz show last night (his team won in a mighty comeback the last round... HURRAY~!), and Toni-Cen were on the news this morning, and I decided that I simply HAD to see "Boy From Oz".

So before checking auction web sites online, I decided to check Lawson's Ticket one last time during lunch today, just to double-check that all of the weekend shows were sold out. That's when I realized something: WeekDAY shows include a 12:30 matinee, and a 6:30 night show. Although I normally work until about 7, work technically gets out at 6. The show is being held at Aoyama Theater, which is less than half an hour from my station (including walking times). So I suddenly thought to myself, "My god, I should check the weekday tickets." Low and behold, Minako-chan is now going to "Boy From Oz" next Thursday. Excuse me while I scream.

But first, a quick snippet from an email from my Dad:

I've been dealing on the phone for the last week with Bob Bobson [real name changed to protect the innocent], a young civil servant who is processing my pension application. [...] Anyway, I'll have to walk him through this slowly just like I did about 15 years ago with a young IRS officer who audited me. In that case, she finally asked me if I would mind writing her report. Will be a learning experience for both of us.

Only my dad would write his own audit. ^_^

In other news, I'm getting all rared up for movie fun this summer, so here's some quick rants:

( And now for Movie News! )

I thought about whinging about my migraine on Wednesday, but decided to do a shocking mini-update about V6.

Vehicle
This is somewhat old news, but Nagano-kun got a driver's license for big-rigs. He now has at least three licenses that I know of (the others are normal: car and motocycle). No one knows why he got this license; everyone kept asking him, and he just replied, "It might come in handy, y'know, for a variety show or something." To which everyone responded, "No, no it won't!" But in any case, Nagano-kun seemed VERY excited to be able to drive a giant truck, and if V6 ever explodes, well, now he's got a possible second job.

Valedictory
Inocchi graduated from high school! Hurray! I have no idea when he had the time, but he actually went to school this last year and graduated in 2005. He did extremely well in all of his subjects, too. (Well, except for English, where he barely squeaked by. C'mon, Inocchi! Your sister lives in Nevada! Your nieces are American!!) Anyway, he was asked to give the graduating speech, and broke down just a little bit. Awww!

Visible
Okada-kun's continued acting streak has continued, as "Tiger and Dragon" is now a Friday night drama. It's really good, even though I'm learning far too much about rakugo than can possibly be good for me. But it's really clever and the characters honestly crack me up. I'm still waiting for Okada-kun's movie "Tokyo Tower" to come out on video, since I missed it in theaters, and I've heard vague whisperings that he has another movie coming out in summer. Go Okada-kun!

Vignette
One of my most recent happy purchases has been Inocchi's first every essay collection. He's apparently been writing a semi-regular column in an entertainment magazine for a couple of years now, so they collected some of his essays and published them (with some pictures) in book form. It's really quite interesting to follow Inocchi's somewhat rambling train of thought on a variety of subjects. Some have to do with the actual entertainment business (a typical day on Music Station, how to become a Johnny's Jr, stuff like that), and some just have to do with Inocchi's life (vacationing in Las Vegas with Moriyama Shotaro, his most recent music kicks). More than anything else, it really gets you into Inocchi's mind, which is a somewhat wild place to be.

Vittles
I just moved to Sangubashi, and there's a little ramen joint called "Kookai". It caught my attention not only because of the name, but because there's a giant sign out front showing that it was placed #2 in the VVV6 shoyu ramen ranking. At some point in time, some members of V6 and a random celebrity sat on those seats!! So of course, I had to try out their ramen. And you know what? It was really freaking good shoyu ramen. Good job, V6. Good job.

Veteran
In the biggest V6 news, literally of the year, this year will mark V6's 10th anniversary. Ten years of singing and dancing and flipping and entertaining. Wow. I'll have to do something special for the site, but I don't know what. Maybe I'll, y'know, update. That'll be a shocker...

[Author's note: in an attempt to lay tribute to the amazing "Pillow Book" by Sei Shonagon (a must-read for, well, EVERYONE imho), I present my following Crack Candy list. Note that this does not have anything to do with Crack nor Candy; it is simply a phrase. In other warnings, Minako-chan does not endorse the use of either substance; if you find you child high after reading this entry, I claim no reponsibility.]

This is a list of my current favorite Crack Candy songs that I do not own:

"Ultra Soul" by B'z. Nothing fits the description of a Crack Candy song than "Ultra Soul." It's loud, it's fast paced, it's B'z, which says something right there. You find yourself singing it late at night, thinking of summer and pools and u-ru-tu-ra SOUL! (Yeah~!) One of my favorite songs of the moment. And a special Huzzah and Kudos out to B'z for taking the #1 and #2 spots among the top tax paying singers of the year. Good for you. Way to provide policemen for the nation.

"Jounetsu" by KinKi Kids. Johnny's Entertainment. [shrug] Eh. I never thought I'd been excitedly waiting for a KinKi Kids single to come out, but here I am, the single not yet released, and I've been singing the song and doing their little dance for at least a full week now. "Jou-OU-netsu..."

"Sexy Sexy" by Cascade. This is only one of two songs by Cascade that I've heard, but it's great. I personally think that you can't truly get the full experience of the song without seeing them perform it live. Part of what makes the song is that you start doing lead singer Tama's little "dance" whenever you hear the it. "Yureshite, yureshite, yureshite, yureshite, sexy sexy..." It's one of those songs that, even when you first hear it, you don't think you'll like. It's not until later when you find yourself singing it constantly that you realize what a catchy tune it is.

"Change the World" by V6. Johnny's again. Bite me. I'm not ashamed to say that I really like V6. "Change the World" is cheesy, it's upbeat, it's very pop and just great, and it's also surprisingly well sung. I rather like them, and I almost miss the days when Morita wore his little hat so that he could be the "bad ass" of the group.

"Haruka" by Spitz. A recent song, but I adore it. It's so incredibly beautiful. It's one of those songs that really really touches you, even more surprising as an addition to my Crack Candy list since I don't usually go for those type of songs (seriously). All of my favorite songs are incredibly upbeat... Anyway, I adore Spitz; they're honestly the funniest things you've ever seen on TV. I feel really bad for them, but after 10 years, I think it's about time to get over your nervousness on TV.

"The MiniMoni Theme Song" by MiniMoni. Shut up, Mako-chan. Morning Musume is, if anything else, fun. MiniMoni is kinda annoying, but pretty cute and just hysterical overall. My current favorite song from them is the "MiniMoni Theme Song," solely because the lyrics are really really easy to remember and the song itself can be played with one hand on a synthesizer. "M-I-N-I-M-O-N-I MiniMoni, MiniMoni, MiniMoni desu~!" There, you just learned the entire chorus. Repeat 4 times. You know 99% of the song. Congratulations. See, wasn't that fun? ^_^

That was my entire day, I swear.

First, we were studying some Japanese films in my Pop Culture class: the classic horror and anti-war film Onibaba, the hysterical yakuza film Minbo that got the director stabbed by REAL yakuza, and Okoge. Okoge is a Japanese word that originally referred to the rice that burns and sticks to the pot when you're cooking; in more recent times it refers to women who befriend lots of gay men. I know basically the whole plot of the movie and watched clips of it, but I can't wait to sit down and see it all. It's about a female seiyuu Sayako who befriends Goh and Toshi, a cute little gay couple, and lends them her place to use for "fun" since Toshi's a married salaryman (which gives him like 20 million reasons he doesn't want to get caught) and Goh's now living with his mother who's slowly dropping into insanity. The story is about them and their love and heartache and moving on and all. It's a comedy, and it's damn funny, too. But it's also really touching in spots and really thoughtful in others. For example, Goh has Sayako and all of his gay friends (half of which are drag queen dancers) over for a little party. Goh's mother seems to suddenly realize Sayako's a woman and drags her out of the room to try to get Sayako to marry her son. After the mother leaves, Goh explains that his mother feels that it's her fault he's gay, since she cut herself with a rusty knife while he was in the womb (she thinks she ended up getting some gay bacteria). So Goh and his friends have a big discussion about whether being gay is biological or environmental. Finally Sayako and the mother come back into the room; the mother orders Goh to marry Sayako. One of the men suddenly spurts out, "Goh!? Marrying a WOMAN!?" And then all of the gay men burst out in unstoppable laughter. It was one of the funniest scenes I'd ever seen. But in the end, it's just reeeeally cute and seems to portray gay men pretty well. I mean, sure, Goh's drag queen friends are pretty flaming, but Goh and Toshi themselves, for example, are just your average guys. Kinda good looking, not effeminate, they spend their time doing normal guy things, not adjusting their make-up. They have some other very "normal" seeming guys in the story, too, and even a 70-year-old man who hangs at the club with everyone a lot. And Goh's just damn cute as hell. Goh admits to Sayako in a bar that he likes this guy he sees in another booth; Sayako gets the three of them in a booth together and tries to set them up. But Goh's too shy to say anything, so he just watches the other guy the entire time and goes "Un" every time Sayako directs a question at him. He was soooooo adorable. Literally, every girl in our class went, "Awwwwww~!" at one point in the scene. He was THAT cute. It was also interesting because the girl who did the presentation watched the film with her host family. She said that her host sisters got sent out of the room at the sex scene; the host dad stayed longer sheerly because it seemed polite. But she and her host mom loved the movie; both had hankies out by the end. But the girl who did the presentation said that both the host dad and the daughters didn't understand why the host mom could watch the movie and be interested in gay men. The host mom basically replied that she didn't see what difference it made; it was a cute story. I just thought that was interesting. Seems like that's the way most women in Japan rationalize it... It was also interesting because she said that the host family seemed to think that the way the women were protrayed was the funniest part of the movie. We asked her what her host family thought of the scene of Goh's party, especially where the mother explained her "gay bacteria" theory. Because frankly, all of us were DYING of laughter at her sob story about the "gay bacteria," it was just that absurd. She said they didn't laugh at that part at all. Just thought that was interesting...

SPEAKING of gay men in Japan, got a volume each of Z/ETA and G-Defend in the store today, simply because they're on the list. Of course, it was the most recent volumes of each, giving me Z/ETA 3 and G-Defend 11. Yes, I've given up COMPLETELY on G-Defend. G-Defend's special defense team is made up of twenty million characters, all of which have names and seperate personalities. To give you an idea, Sensei had TWO pages of sketchbook for the characters. Just head shots. 45 heads total. NOT including the main characters. I nearly cried and gave up on the story right away. ;;;^_^ Z/ETA was odd, only because I don't know what's the deal with Hyobu. He and Takayuki are... fighting? Trying kill each other? But last I heard they were partners? I don't get it at all; all I know is that Hyoubu didn't show up until the end of the volume where his new buddy, hot sword-weilding man, attacked Takayuki. And let's just say he didn't look like he was there to say hi. I'm confused. Although Seki-san's character, Takayuki's too-genki-for-his-own-good, cactus loving Washikata Hatsune shows up. He's always super-genki-ultra-happy, and you can tell when he's entering the room when you hear his cry of "Doumo desu~!" PLUS a new character, ultra cute little rich boy shows up, just waiting to be protected from bullies by Takayuki-san. His name: Mushiyanokouji Takamaro. That's a whopping SEVEN kanji in a row. Er, I think I understand the bullying frankly... what a name... The best part had to be the little Dr. PT extra. Dr. PT cracks open a brand new package of expensive tea, serves up two cups, and wanders into his teddy bear room for a date. He politely starts saying hello to all of his bears, telling them each how lovely they look that day, when he sees... IT. ...A STUFFED BUNNY. So shocked is Dr. PT at finding a BUNNY in his teddy bear collection, he faints dead away, spilling tea all over. In a translation of stuffed animal language, you follow the drama of the teddy bears bravely trying to band together to rid themselves of the horrible, evil, newcomer bunny. At the end, Dr. PT comes to himself and rather roughly chucks the bunny into the trash. The end. It was great.

And in the category of people who aren't NECESSARILY gay, but darned should be, watched Gakkou e Ikou again. (NO not hosts V6, that's another story...) The show has their band of six effeminite junior high boys, who's goal is to put on dramas or something (their not effeminite but quirky leader can't dance, the only reason musicals are out). And, technically, one is a girl. But she's hysterical, since she never talks and just sits there looking pissed as hell. V6 loves her. But, of course, no one is loved more than the one who made the creation of this group a reality, the ever cute Makki. I forget his actual name, but Makki is, by far, THE most adorable boy I've ever seen in my life. The V6 guys love him, since they just meet up with him and then get to go off about how kawaii Makki is, while he smiles back at them shyly. He's just toooo adorable and really really sweet (and is, quite frankly, a knockout in drag). This last episode, he decided that he was Makki, and the leader was Satou-buchou, so everyone else needed a nickname, too. He even came up for a cute nickname for the outcast girl of the group, which made her smile. The first time ANYONE'S seen her look anything other than ready to kill. Anyway, the group's task of the episode was to prepare a couple of short scenes from well-known love-type dramas. Makki was SCARY. I mean, he was a pretty good actor, not horrible at least, but the thing was, he always played the girl. And he was GOOD~! I've never seen anything so adorable as Makki was after his schoolgirl character was slapped to the floor (he just turned this big hurt eyes on the camera), and he was simply scary in the second scene as the sexy, good-looking woman. V6 was gaping. Afterwards, they complimented on what a good girl he made. Makki just responded with his cute little happy-but-confused smile. V6 exclaimed he was too cute. I'm sorry, but like Sayako, I've made it my new life's goal to find Makki a good man. I suppose I could find him a good woman if he wanted, but I think he needs a good man (any good woman would be able to break him in two...). In any case, I'm at least getting him a basket full of puppies. That last one's just for me, though. ^_^ Ka-wa-i-i~!

Congratulations to Ishihashi-san and Nakai-san, as their show "Utaban" had their 200th episode on Thursday. WAI~! OMEDETO~! They had nothing but a bunch of interview clips from Utada Hikaru, SMAP, Nakazawa Yuuko, Gotou Maki, PuchiMoni, MiniMoni, Tanpopo, Onizuka Chihiro, 0930, GACKT~!, and Yaen. I was sooooooo happy. The entire thing was funny as hell, from Gotou Maki snorking down bowls of soup so that she can pet an iguana, to Ishihashi-san doing the MiniMoni dance, to Yaen... wel being Yaen. My favorites had to be Utada Hikaru, SMAP, and, of course, GACKT~!. Utada Hikaru's was fascinating, since she has perfect English and is apparently studying at Columbia. O_o She's just amazing; I have so much respect for her. Plus, if that isn't enough reason to like her, her favorite guy is apparently Okada-kun of V6. GO V6~! ^_^ Anyway, as SMAP and V6 are both from the hell that is Johnny's Entertainment, Nakai knew that V6 was recording something on the next stage. So as a good Oniisan, he ran over, fetched Okada, and dragged him back to the set to meet Utada Hikaru. She was simply gaping and couldn't seem to manage a word for the longest time. Nakai-oniisan was sooooooooooo pleased with himself and seemed determined to set the two up. Utada Hikaru was just in shock the whole time, while Okada seemed mainly confused, and didn't seem to believe that he was Utada Hikaru's favorite entertainer. And Nakai-niisan was still soooooo pleased with himself. The SMAP parts were hysterical, mainly SMAP coming onto Utaban in the early days and dishing out dirt on Nakai-leader. I've never laughed so hard; those guys are plain funny. Nakai could barely sit straight when Kimutaku and Shingo started going off about what Nakai was saying the last time he was drunk, and everyone seemed impressed at how long Kimutaku and Goro's staring contest went (it apparently went on even longer than usual). They're just really funny guys. And of course, GACKT~!. It was his infamous appearance on Utaban that had both hosts howling with laughter. They, of course, skipped the part where Gackt talked about Nakai's beautiful smile, but they just did the part about the meat and 4 day cooking, and the spinning piano. I still can't get over the fact that all music shows use scary font for Gackt's parts, but that's okay. I'm so glad to have at least part of that interview on tape, at least. It's just the damned funniest thing I've ever seen in my life, as Gackt goes off and the Utaban boys howl with laughter. WAI~!