And then I realized, I'm just slutty.

I need to write this otherwise I never will, well more than my existential post talking about feelings and crap. Alex and Jenny have already written theirs and there are other reports floating... I don't even know what I'm going to write but I feel like I should recap the experience for my own memorial purposes. Now that there are paparazzi pictures out, I am feeling refreshed.

So, let's start at the start.

( Omg so tl;dr it's not even funny. )

On Sunday I lead everyone on a tour of Tokyo, we walked through Nihonbashi and Ginza, went for a little ride on the Yurikamome, stalked around NTV, visited a temple and enjoyed the Tokyo Tower-ed skyline. I'm sorry Jenny that we couldn't go up. :( Or make it to Keio. I didn't think it would be that busy and we made some detours to the agenda. You'll just have to come back another time. Maybe by then, the new Sky Tree will be finished.

Are singing someone else's songs. They're doing part of some hit medley by some other guy (I missed the name but that song sounded familiar) and looking super hot. :D

Jun has some kind of... dirty thing with his hair going on that is really hot. But they went over board on the gel with Sho's. Everyone looks good in their grey jackets but I still prefer the black blazers & jeans.

And they sound really good. I can't say the same thing for Smap, Girl Next Door or Big Bang. :X

I know the boys in Arashi are not musicians, with the exception of Nino and Sho perhaps. As far as I know, none of them have pursued an instrument seriously. Nino can play the guitar but I wouldn't say he's serious about it. I'm fairly confident he taught himself, which there's nothing with that, my brother did and actually so did most of the guitarists I know. Doesn't lessen their skills any but when I think of Nino, that's not what comes to mind. Just, "Oh, he can play guitar." And Sho took piano lessons as a kid but probably stopped at grade 5 or 6 (in the conservatory) maybe? I don't even know, I'm just speculating.

I find it harder to be impressed by people on the guitar than on the piano or the violin. Like my friend Ariel on the violin: she used to play in an orchestra and has been studying violin since she was a kid. I wish I had some video of her playing; it's amazing.

Anyway, my point is that they aren't musicians, they're not singers, they're idols. But tonight, it was the first time I saw them as proper singers. It was the first time I ever heard them harmonize and after ten years, they should be able to do that easily, if not after one. And it was good!

Anyway, as bland and unremarkable as My Girl is, it's growing on me.

I switched to Google Chrome; so far so good but I'm going to have to get my paid account back to get rid of these fugly ads, especially if I'm going to have US politicians stare at me as I write my blog entries.

And now they're doing some kind of Q&A special tonight with Arashi and EXILE. I wonder if I'll learn anything interesting.

And Jun's hair is :/. But what's new? Srsly, just slick it back and rock the Showa style. It would be so much better.

The more I see it, the more I don't mind it.  I figured out what it is: it makes his face/head look bigger when it's short.  It's styled nicely for MSute tonight.  But Nino's is like a throw back to the monstrosity that was the Step & Go era.  And his jacket looks like a bad leisure suit . :/ 

The first time I remember to watch Music Station in a while and I am rewarded. :D  Oooh choreography!

I think I've figured out why I don't get Arashi news first (like you think I would, living in Japan)--I don't stalk 2ch or read any of the newspapers. But that's what LJ is for.

I love best-of albums. This one, I will pay money for. I wonder what kind of extra goodies they will include. The last few releases have come with a DVD. Maybe some kind of mini-documentary? And a concert~ I'm not surprised? Well, after the rumors before, it was bound to happen. Rumors don't just start from nowhere. And it's pretty much the same as was reported before. I'd love to stay in Tokyo for a show, rather than have to travel somewhere. But I can't afford a concert in August with Singapore in the mix. Maybe Tokyo Dome? Yvonne won't be in Nagoya anymore for me to crash but if I had a friend or two (or three) to travel with, that would be fun too. We could find somewhere to crash or just take a bus back to Tokyo afterwards. Since I've been to a show in Nagoya already, I know we could make it on time for the bus back. And it's the last show and if all my years in theatre are anything to go by, the last show is always the best. :) We'll see what happens with ballots.

Is it too early to ask who wants to go with me? LOL Never to soon to start planning, I guess. If the first show is in August, then balloting should be starting soon. It's only 2 months away. I'll probably get the FC announcement in the mail in the next few days. Come on, Johnny. I'm overdue to win something!

Long day of grade 6 today. At least they are an energetic bunch for the most part. Some maybe too energetic... At least the day will go fast. And then I have to go pay all my bills. Good-bye, 80,000 yen.

So, everyone's been getting these things and I am nothing if not a sheep. I think I've said that before. *coughbabyficcough* Anyway, we'll see how this goes. I'm just going to have to get used to the new commands and stuff. I'm still making things pretty. Everyone is going to be confused because I changed my name. Now that I've done it, I don't know if I like it. It's (also) a regular English word now instead of something with a shitton of vowels. Whatever.

Maybe I should take the iniative to make an Arashi fic community before someone else does it and does it wrong. It's something to think about. But there isn't quite the numbers to support it yet. It would be nice to be able to snag Kotobayori for it before anyone else. It would be nice to have something that works already set up when things really start hopping around here.

Ahhh Elle just went home an hour or so ago. It was a nice visit. I think this has been the most cooking I've done in ages. I made daikon stew, carbonara, bruschetta, mushi-pan... I was a regular housewife. On Sunday we went to Asakusa to be a little bit toursity and meet up with Andrew so he could take my speakers to Hawaii. Then we met aeslis and had good fangirl times. I did end up getting buyers guilt after spending ¥4,000 on doujinshi. All the small sized things I got weren't really doujinshi at all. Elle's samurai series was good but very much unfinished. We don't know if there is any other volumes out there, but the last one was written in 2006 so... In any case, we spent 2 hours today hashing out the story from what I garnered from my rough translations and making up an ending. Which means another epic samurai fic coming your way in the maybe-not-so-distant future. It was a huge pain to read... the author was obviously going for a kind of historical feeling by using kanji for everything but it makes it fucking hard to read. Who actually knows what the kanji for なぜ and ここ is anyway? Well, I do now.

What's the rest of the plan for Golden Week? Well, I'm not meeting Sho tomorrow for karaoke after all since he injured himself in a soccer game on the weekend. Andrew and Blake are in Hawaii, Justin probably has tons of dates and I don't know if Ariel even has time off from work. I think I'll just stay in and play Animal Farm Crossing and try and write some of these prompts I got from people.

I want to write.  Prompt me.  I will make a pouty post on my comm.  I went to see if anyone wrote anything for the Anonymeme and I found this: Sho/Shige math!sex.  The nerd in me is regailing even though Math was my worst subject by far. 

I watched the Utaban performance last night.  I really hate how they do filmings and then chop the shit out of them for broadcast.  But Nino's dumbstruck face was priceless.  Holy shit, they need a new choreographer.  I've seen those moves before.  Ohno looked bored and underchallenged as usual and Nino looked like he was doing the Chicken Dance on speed.

Today was another full day.  I'm kind of glad my first class got cancelled but that still meant I had 4.  I come back down from 3rd to change my textbooks and Kameyama-san is waiting for me in the hallway.  "You can speak Chinese, can't you?" she asks me and when I say yes, takes me into the principal's office.  There's a boy and his mom and sister there who is transferring in to our school from China and they want me to talk to him.  They don't really need me there since the mom and sister speak (enough) Japanese but I guess maybe they wanted someone who can speak to them in their own language?  I don't know.  But oh my god, I've forgotten everything.  I couldn't even remember the word "when".  Fuck.  He's 3rd year age, but can't speak, write, read or understand Japanese.  At all.  And they want him to be able to go to high school next year...  I wonder what's going to happen... he said he could speak a bit of English but he's not good (haha as if Japanese kids are good, and especially not our 3rd years this year).  They want him to just communicate anyway he can.  I hope he can make some friends.  This kid Kobayashi's mom is Chinese apparently and there are a couple Mongolian kids but I don't think that's going to help at all.  

He's starting on Thursday and the year just started so he'll have the whole year to get up to speed.  I think he should be fine.  I recommended going to check out the Kashiwa Interantional Relations Association because they've got free Japanese classes for foreigners.  Look how far I've come in a year without any particular studying.  If he studies and is surrounded by it constantly, he should be able to become at least conversational by year end.  He won't have a huge problem with kanji and reading comprehension but it's still worrying.  I just feel really bad that I can't speak Chinese anymore so I'm no help to him.  Well, if he writes it down I can read it and look it up and I will study a bit.  I should let the teachers know to tell him if he needs something... he can ask me.  Even though I won't be able to do much.  Kyoto-sensei contacted the BOE today and asked them to send a helper/tutor who speaks Chinese to help him catch up a few days a week. 

No AAA DVD for me.  Yet.  Went to Tower and Shinseido and neither had any on the shelves.  Whatever.  I'll wait a couple weeks (ie after pay day) and go back.  I'll check Tsutaya's delivery and payment policy; I know Tower charges extra for COD.  What's a couple weeks anyway?  

Thunder is rollin' tonight!  I'm excited for the storm.  Except that means all the sakura will probably die. :(  And lightning!

Rented some movies for the night.  Am in the middle of cooking nikujaga and a new kind of fish to try.  It'll be like 930 by the time my dinner is cooked though.  Boo.

Maybe I'll work on the fic I started before Korea.  Or maybe write Arashi traveling together since the experience is still fresh in my mind.  If they weren't famous, that is.  

Today went by a little too fast. I wanted to take a picture with Otsuka-san because she's a sweetheart and is retiring but I was too caught up in organizing my shit and cleaning out my desk. I wrote her a letter thanking her for taking care of me (I'm so Japanese) and gave her one of the mushi-pan I made last night. They taste better on the second day.

Andrew's been a busy bunny, organizing and co-ordinating our trip. We're going to take a tour to the demilitarized zone on the border of North Korea. Ben wants to go to the gay clubs (because he doesn't do anything else). We'll do a couple palaces and of course, shopping! We're going to meet up on Wednesday night to make an itinerary.

I decided to read je_secrets for kicks. I'm bad, I hotlink.

( God, this is so true. )

That's enough. I kind of want to nap now. It's only 6pm. What am I going to make for dinner?

Calendar just arrived!  I love that the Kuroneko despatch place is one block away.  Literally, he showed up 1 minute after I called.  I'm going to bask in the lovely now!

The pictures are pretty.  I liked last year's shoot better.  It seemed more... fun?  More silly faces and stuff.  Mostly in the cookbook but still.  And there was an interview.  Maybe that was because Kodansha had been doing the JE calendars foreverand this year they went with someone knew after the whole Ohno bonzanza this past summer who hadn't done them before so just started small?  I don't know.  The large calendar is total win.  I don't like the photography though.  Good from afar only; everything is out of focus.  Nino's shot is a little creepy. 

But one thing can be said: the binding doesn't suck!  Maybe they spent more on production costs and forwent (forgoed?) the interview.