This is the coolest place ever. Did you know Sony Aibos are attracted to the colour pink? Neither did I until I met a bunch today who kept following my cerise pink jumper around. ^_________^
This is an Aibo, for anyone who is feeling bemused. ^_____^
....ensconced in which I have mainly been because I have a really big blog entry about Tokyo which I just can't be arsed to type up right now. I wrote in on paper on the plane home. If only there were a magical osmotic process by which I didn't need to type it up. >_<
Anyway, I am home from Tokyo, things happened, Daniel went home, Katy felt sad. Katy still feels sad but isn't hugely inclined to dwell on it at this moment in time because to do so would be marginally less useful than a chocolate teapot.
So anyway, things that won't be covered in my Giant Tokyo Bloggage. I got back to Fukuoka on Monday evening at just coming on to stupid o'clock. At which point I should have crashed, but instead I shared piles of doujinshi procured in Shibuya with Lizzu. Then I crashed. Thank goodness Tuesday was a public holiday here.
Tuesday night, Lizzu and I went out with Akemi, one of Lizzu's Japanese friends I've met a few times before, for dinner and karaoke in Tenjin. Which was awesome, thanks for asking. ^____^ We had spent the entire afternoon rehearsing so that we could torture Akemi with our rendition of Pegasus Fantasy from Saint Seiya. She found it all highly amusing, which I think is the best thing we could hope for, given that the song scans *really weirdly*. o_0 Then later everyone was treated to, yes, the single best song to sing to demonstrate your great reading skills in Japanese, Katy, Neko Mimi Mode. ^_______^ At least by the end of it everyone was laughing and joining in. ^________^ うにゃにゃ!
Skip through a fairly dull week of work, including a rather stressful impromptu Easter lesson I was forced to prepare for with less than a day's notice, to the weekend. Yesterday was absolutely beautiful (as much of the week has been) and since I finished work early, I decided to go to Tenjin. Which I'm glad I did, not least of all because I got cdey goodness in the form of the Appleseed movie soundtrack. ^________^
It's. So. Good. ^_________^ (Yes this requires a new paragraph. Screw you grammar.) You need to hear it so hard. I have been listening to it almost non-stop since I bought it, and am doing so now. ^_____^ One of my terrible musical vices is Trendy Dance Music That Goes at the Same Rate as My Pulse, and Appleseed does that in spades. So much Boom Boom Satellites love. ^_________^ Especially for Underdog, which has the added bonus of being vaguely creepy-sounding MTGatSRaMP. (Mmm, catchy.) So listen to it.
And tonight, Lizzu and I went to Son House, which always makes life better. Then we came home and, at about eight o'clock, decided it was time to play doing the gardening in the dark. And so we did. ^______^ I recommend doing your gardening in the dark. It adds the excellent dimensions of a) not being able to see the majority of the woodlice in our garden b) not knowing what on earth you are pulling up when you get over-enthusiastic with the weeding, as I often do. ^________^
....looking back through the Memepool archives.
I apologize. ^___^
Various things that have happened recently, because I don't think anyone's going to get any more of my list. *cries*
So right, on Sunday the house went to see The Chroni(whut?)cles of Narnia. Now that it's finally showing in Japan. @_@ I have been absolutely desparate to see the film since everyone and their dog back home started telling me how wonderful it was, so I was incredibly pleased to get to the cinema in the end. ^___^ Narnia is to Katy what Lord of the Rings is to most of the people Katy seems to know; one of the defining stories of Being Little. That and Alice in Wonderland, but I somehow don't think we're going to be getting a bitchin' film version of that any time soon. ^__^
But down to the proper squeeage. SQUEEEEEE! ^_________^ It was so good!! Finally a book adaptation that doesn't make you brim with hate. ^______^ The casting was generally excellent, as was the acting, the GREAT HONKING SPECIAL EFFECTS were beautiful (*glomps Aslan and fluffy griffin so hard*) and were the sets. But but but, I have to admit, and it probably doesn't interest anyone but me, I did spend more time gleeing about how well adapted it was more than anything. Adapted from the book and the allegorical point of view, that is.
If you don't know the story the rest of this is a spoiler. However, if you don't know the story, shame on you so hard. It's a freaking classic, man. @_@
spoiler spoiler spoiler etc
Ahh, the scene at the Stone Table made me cry so much. >_< It's just so perfectly filmed, it really is. I haven't properly read or watched The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe for quite a view years, so a lot of this is probably me looking at the story with adult goggles, but it's just fantastic. I sat for the entire five/ten minutes absolutely distraught. Yes because they were killing Aslan, but also because they'd pitched the religious allegory of the scene perfectly. The collected hordes mocking Aslan, then his having his mane shaved being two of the most poignant examples I can think of. >_< I don't blindly think that all the Christian allegory in the film is brilliant or particularly well done (the Lucy and Susan as the Marys scene made me cringe o_0) but that's one very good example.
Anyway, as a piece of family entertainment and as a great piece of stealth religious education (^_~) I love Narnia so much.
In other glee, I have Animal Crossing! YAAAY!! I suspect some people who read this aren't familiar with AC, but it's fantastic, especially the shiny new DS version. I wasted too much of my life playing it on the Gamecube at Daniel's house, and now I have my own happy wireless version! However, now I need friends to play with. So if anyone reading this wants to come and visit my town, they're more than welcome. ^____^
On a sidenote, it amused one of my students far too much when I told her what the game was called in English. The original Japanese name for Animal Crossing is "Doubutsu no Mori", "Animal Forest", which makes a great deal of sense because you live in a forest. Why exactly they changed the translation I don't know, but my student was wetting herself at the translated name being so retarded. ^____^
And the rest of this week will probably involve a lot more Animal Crossing, and then going to Tokyo. And yeah, Daniel going back to America. But at least we're going to have some fun before that. My Tokyo streetmap has already had the location of all the Mandarake stores scrawled onto it, so we know what we're going to be doing.
Anyway, I should be getting ready for work. I haven't heard from anyone back home in ages though, so if any of you lot are reading this, write me some email or something! ^__^
'1. Post a list of up to 20 books/movies/anime/TV shows/video games/etc. that you've had an obsessive fannish love of at some time in your life
2. Have your friends list guess your favourite character from each item.
3. Post in your own journal.'
*scratches head* In a vague order of difficulty...
1. Final Fantasy - Sephiroth - Ivan - Because anything else just isn't tennis. Or mad as a sack of cats, for that matter.
2. Bakuretsu Tenshi - Jo - Ivan - Beautiful, socially disfunctional and handy with a shooter. LOVE.
3. Hellsing - Alucard - Ivan - Seventeen shades of psychopath, but he does love dear Integra in that semi-feline "Look! I killed this for you." way.
4. 24 - Jack Bauer - Ivan - If you don't love Jack, you actually have no human emotion. He's saved the world more times than you've had hot dinners, ladies!
5. Black Books - Bernard - Ivan - There are so many reasons for Bernard love. Perhaps the greatest one being "DON'T YOU DARE USE THE WORD "PARTY" AS A VERB IN THIS SHOP!"
6. The Count of Monte Cristo - The Count - Ivan - But only the version of the Count in my head, who acts like the Count from the book, but looks like the Count from Gankutsuou. ^____^ Stupid Gonzo stripping the Count of his proper motivation...
7. Ghost in the Shell - Motoko - Ivan - Jumps off very tall buildings for fun, has army of Tachikomas, may well have been a dude once. Motoko is the man.
8. Tekken
9. Saint Seiya - Hyoga - Jane - He wears and swan tiara and yet *still* manages to be a doublehard bastard. Awesome. ^____^
10. Egyptian history -Tuthmosis III - Jane -
11. Kingdom Hearts - Riku - Tasha - He's a mini Sephiroth! Glee!
12. Bottle Fairy - Sarara - Ivan - Chibi and psychotic with silver hair! This description could apply to 11. or 12.! ^___^;;;
13. Mermaid Melody Pichi Pichi Pitch
14. An Unfortunate Series of Events - Sunny - Jane - She likes biting things. Nuff said.
15. Little Britain
16. Darkstalkers
17. King of Fighters -K' - Jane - He's a silver-haired clone with a stupid name, sound familiar? ^________^
18. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles *SHAME* - Donatello - Jane - He was the purple one, and the smart one with it. ^____^
19. OS-tandom
20. Zelda
These make me so happy. Please do watch them, even though I am yet to rant furiously to all and sundry about how much I love King of Fighters. And how much she now loves Alba and Soiree. If nothing else, watch the first episode (it's only ten minutes long) to see Alba and Soiree rescuing children and kittens. @_@
Also it features Mai, whom I love. She is, in fact, teh awesome.
(Note/disclaimer etc - You do have to register to watch the ova, but it's free. They just ask for your email, gender, year of birth, connection type and location (pick anywhere, they're just cities in Japan). It's pretty much a doddle to get through, just make sure you uncheck the box at the bottom so you don't get spammed. ^__^)
As we were so informed by the nice man who was teaching Liz and me how to do laquerwork, today is, as well as being Hina Matsuri, is Mimi day because it's 3/3 ("Mi"/"Mi"). That has amused me more than it should all day. ^________^
Anyway, the reason we were doing laquerwork is because we were invited to one of the schools both Liz and I had been teaching at for their graduation ceremony. Which was so sweet I actually do not have words to describe it. We were asked to give a little speech to the leaving students, whereupon we were presented with an absolutely enormous basket full of flowers each (which I'm going to photograph tomorrow because they're beautiful). ^____^ It was so like being one of the guests that turned up at school and got treated like royalty - the two students who presented us with the flowers came up and did a speech for us about how they'd enjoyed their English lessons and how they'd try their best and they hoped we would do the same. ^__^
And then we went to the laquerwork place, at the invitation of the school, and waved goodbye to the parades of childerlings from the school. It was far too much fun hearing them all screeching various versions of "Goodbye! See you!", but also quite sad for obvious reasons. It's just a really nice school; a little bit run down but with as welcoming and energetic kids and staff as I've ever seen. ^__^
I did have to do some proper work in the afternoon, which just dragged on too long, but coming home to poached eggs on toast, Miami Vice and MacGuyver (and, y'know, D and L) made up for that. ^___^