Translations, scans, etc., are public, while fangirling and RL posts may or may not be f-locked. I like meeting new friends, and I'm pretty easy when it comes to friending - leave a comment here telling me who you are and what we have in common, and I'll most likely add you back. If you randomly add me without commenting, I will not add you back.

I know it's only early November, but I'll be busy for the next little while (until the end of November / early December), so I'm getting this post up now. For anyone who wants to exchange Christmas cards this year, PM me your real name and address, and I'll PM you mine. Don't expect anything too fancy from me - I'm no artist and I probably won't have time to make my own Christmas cards. But it's the thought that counts, right?

I'll try, but I probably won't comment on flist. If you do PM me, I will get back to you eventually.

Take care, everyone!

Happy birthday goopawahla! It's really nice knowing you. Hope you have a wonderful day and may your wishes come true.

And since it's the 26th in Japan, happy birthday Ohno-kun! I can't believe you're turning 29. You're the cutest 29-year-old I've ever seen. I'm glad I had the chance to see you in Sapporo, and less than 10-feet away too. You sounded amazing live, and not to mention, very good-looking in person. Wishing you good health and happiness, and may bigger and better things come in the following year. Despite Arashi's rising popularity, may you never change, and forever remain the gentle, caring Ohno-kun I've grown to love. I don't know what the future holds, but you'll always have a special place in my heart.

I've left Japan :( and am on the last leg of my vacation (Hong Kong) before heading home. It's a good way to wind down, since I'm not doing much, just spending time with family and doing some shopping. I look forward to going home since I've been away for more than 2 weeks, but I don't look forward to going back to work. Speaking of which, I'll have to seriously think about what to do about my professional life...

I'll write the report for the 2nd Sapporo con when I get home.

Take care, loves.

Just got back from the concert, and it was awesome! I'm glad I had the chance to see an Arashi concert in Japan.

We got to Sapporo Dome around 4:30pm, and didn't get to our seats until 5:15pm. There was just that much people. I'm glad they didn't check ID, otherwise I would've been screwed.

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Someone posted a fancam of Ohno's Kumorinochi, Kaisei over at arashi_on, and I had it on repeat ever since. Contrary to his other solos, this one's definitely live, at least the 2nd half. His voice is so beautiful, so powerful, and his vibrato is really natural and doesn't sound forced at all. It's not perfect - he was a little flat on the last note, but at least it's live.

Watch it before it gets deleted.



I've been trying to determine how good of a singer he is. He's the best in Arashi (no question about that), and is perhaps one of the best in JE. But is he as good as elite singers like Jacky Cheung and Eason Chan? (Sorry I couldn't think of any North American singers off the top of my head.) I'd say not quite but I'm not sure why. Perhaps his choice of songs don't always showcase his singing abilities, but he definitely has a great voice and the talent. If I have to pick out a flaw in his singing, it's his low notes, which I find to be a bit soft. Sho, on the other hand, is great at singing low notes, and whenever there's an Ohno/Sho duet in a song, I always hear Sho's voice and not Ohno's. But despite that, I love Ohno's voice.

Subs for the latest Sugoroku are out, but MF's acting up and I couldn't download it. Even if it's back up now, I won't be able to watch it until Wednesday. *cries*

That's it for today. I'm heading off to work.

It's 11:45pm here in Toronto. I just got home from work, and I have to go back in for 9am tomorrow morning.

But not until I say this.

Happy 26th birthday, Jun!

You're the reason I got into Arashi. If not for Hanadan, I wouldn't have gotten into fandom. Although you don't get much love from me nowadays, I have to give you credit when it's due. Thank you for loving Arashi, for trying so hard in everything you do although you can't sing to save your life, and for coming up with brilliant ideas (the moving stage was the best thing you came up with).

Have fun at Kokuritsu! I'm so envious of those who are going. I hope to see them in 3 months, if I'm lucky. On that note, do any of you lovelies plan to go to their dome concerts?

I also want to take this opportunity to thank people for new graphics (technically they're not new, I've been using them for a week). Thanks to my sister, sparkles_n15, for the awesome header. I think it goes well with the layout. To kimmyxfleur at okimiyage for the mood theme. Although this means saying goodbye to Ohno, at least I have everyone now. I had to use it after seeing those gifs, plus I can always change it back. And last but not least, to iiantonet, for the semi-friends banner. I love chibi Arashi, but they sometimes make me feel like a pedophile.

I'm going to bed. Goodnight!

First of all, happy birthday swtcamden ! Hope you're feeling better, and may your wishes come true.

I meant to do this meme earlier, but just haven't had the chance to.

Icons chosen by swtcamden 

1. Reply to this post with 'Icons!', and I will pick five of your icons.
2. Make a post (including the meme info) and talk about the icons I chose.
3. Other people can then comment to you and make their own posts.
4. This will create a never-ending cycle of icon glee.

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ただいま！Actually, I got back last night, but was too tired to check in. I had a great time in Montreal, but the drive was very tiring.

We left at around 8am Thursday morning. The drive was quite smooth for the most part; there was a bit of traffic when we approached Highway 400, and when we hit downtown Montreal. It was creepy driving around downtown Montreal, with all the one-way streets and all. We got to the Infotouriste Centre at around 3:30pm and bought our museum passes. After that, we checked into our hotel and by the time we finished, it was 4:30pm. We walked over to Theatre Hall Concordia to pick up our tickets. Luckily the line wasn't too long, and we were done by about 5pm. We originally wanted to buy tickets to the 1st screening of Thirst, but that was sold out, so we ended up seeing only one movie during our stay.

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First of all, happy birthday mabechid ! It's still the 8th here, but it should be the 9th in your country now. Hope all your birthday wishes come true!

My sister and I are driving to Montreal tomorrow and coming back Saturday. The purpose of this trip is to watch Yatterman, the opening film of this year's Fantasia International Film Festival, in Montreal. Back in February, we went to New York to see Sho, but didn't manage to see the movie, and this time we're going to Montreal to see the movie, but not Sho (too bad even Director Miike is not going, the movie will be presented by the 2 producers instead). We'll probably catch it again if it plays at TIFF (that's Toronto, not Tokyo, International Film Festival) in September. The stuff I do for the boys...

We'll be going to museums, and possibly catching another movie, while we're there. I'll post pictures when I get back. Which reminds me, I still haven't finished my London / Paris picspams.

My sister should be bringing her laptop with her, but I probably won't be commenting / replying until I come home. Take care, everyone! 

Day 2 - Bath, Stonehenge, Salisbury Cathedral

We joined a 1-day local tour which took us to those places. We got up bright and early at 6am to get to our pick-up location at the Hilton Euston, a 15-minute walk from our hotel, for 8am. The bus took us to Victoria Station, where we met up with other people going on the same tour. From there we boarded another bus bound for Bath, about 2 hours west of London.

( Picspam under cut )

I haven't had a chance to do this due to work and Japanese class. Pics stolen from my sister's FB.

( Picspam under cut )

Saw this on swtcamden 's LJ.

Rules-
01. Anyone who looks at this entry has to post this meme and their current wallpaper at their LiveJournal.
02. Explain in five sentences why you're using that wallpaper!
03. Don't change your wallpaper before doing this! The point is to see what you had on!

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I'm leaving for London tomorrow morning. It's an 8:50am flight, which means I'll have to get up at 5am! It's not that bad; the worst was getting up at 3:30am to go to Tsukiji Market in Tokyo last year. 

I'll be going with my sister again, and it's our first time going to Europe. We'll be there for 10 days - 5 days in London and 4 days in Paris. We planned everything ourselves, instead of joining a tour, since it'll be more fun that way.  I'm not overly excited yet since it hasn't sunk in; it usually doesn't until I'm actuallly there. 

Since my sister won't be bringing her laptop, I won't have internet access while I'm away. *cries* I'll try to use the hotel internet or go to an internet cafe if I have time, but I probably won't be commenting on the flist. That's one thing I hate about going on vacation - I'll be missing out on Arashi goodies, and checking flist has turned into a ritual I can't do without. I'll be missing their Music Station appearance already, and I have a feeling they'll announce something big while I'm gone.

Anyway, gotta finish packing, and I my sister will take lots of pictures. Hopefully she'll allow me to post them here. 

My sister and I had always wanted an Arashi LED sign made and after doing some research, we realized it's too hard to make it ourselves.  My sister came up with several designs, then found someone who makes them for fan clubs. He was quite good - he even discussed with her which of her designs will work and which ones won't. We would've had it made for last year's Taipei concert had there not been some misunderstandings.

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Apparently my entry is too long since LJ cut it off.  Anyway, here's the rest of it. Sorry for the spam.

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I've been working on the entry on-and-off over the past several months, and somewhere along the way I lost the motivation to finish it. I picked it up again after watching the Kokuritsu DVD, because it reminded me how great Taipei was.

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Taken from anoudegozaruna 

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Or as my sister puts it, it's Arashi on Utaban Day.

As I'm getting older, I don't care much for birthdays anymore. In fact, I'm dreading them as I get closer to the big 3-0. Getting older means more responsibilities, more things to worry about, yet I'm not getting any wiser. I don't have anything special planned, just working the usual morning shift at the pharmacy and dinner with my family.

Since it's March, I'll be getting a lot of goodies which will render me broke. Two items have been shipped and I received one of them already. Like I said to mabechid , I don't like the sexy shots (they're so skanky), but I like most of the candid shots. Can't believe this will be their last calendar:( I know it's their 10th anniversary, but 3 releases in the same month? And 3 versions of the same single? As usual, I couldn't resist and bought all 3 versions. None of this would've happened if my sister didn't force me to watch HYD 2 years ago.

( My birthday wishes a.k.a belated New Year's resolutions )

( Some Yama Pair Love )

Stolen from dvampyrlestat

Rules: It's harder than it looks! Copy to your own note, erase my answers, enter yours, and tag 7 people. Use the first letter of your name to answer each of the following questions. They have to be real . . . nothing made up! If the person before you had the same first initial, you must use different answers. You cannot use any word twice and you can't use your name for the boy/girl name question.

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This is my first (and probably last) time sharing a scan. This one's hard to scan, since the magazine's bigger than my scanner, therefore some of the words were cut off. If anyone wants to translate this article, let me know and I'll rescan it.

 
MF
edit Mar 8: uploaded on MU: page 1 page 2

Credit is nice but not necessary, just don't claim them as your own. And comments are love.

Does this remind you of Yamada Tarou? Except Sho doesn't look like a student; he's totally a sensei!