Hi - Welcome to my Journal!

Semi-Friend Locked
(I'll come up with a pretty graphic later.... which probably means never)

This journal is mostly for personal purposes, so if you want to get to know me more, or read about my personal life than please comment below saying hello, or how you even found me in the first place. if you're looking for fangirl stuff... I may mention Arashi every now and then (and other things like games, books, anime etc.) but it's not a gaurantee and this blog generally is not for that. If you do want to see things related to Arashi please look over to the links I provide on the left and head over to "My Fangirl Blog". With that being said if you found me because I happened to have translated like.. 2 videos - I am sorry but I don't release my translations for the public.

With all this being said I am still an Arashi fan so if that's why you're adding me please don't be shy! And if you're a fan of anything else I've mentioned all the better :)

Last night I was fortunate enough to be able to go see Ohno’s new movie, Shinobi no Kuni at the Toronto Japanese Film Festival. I really enjoyed it and decided to write a little review about it. There will be MAJOR plot spoilers, so if you don’t want to know anything, don’t read this. If you have read the manga, you’ve already been spoiled xD The movie follows the manga pretty damn well, and any changes made are pretty minor, and are due to missing characters, or just minor location changes.

( Read more... )

And it's back again - my usual welcome to the New Year.

So this time the format is going to be a little bit different - no more memes to guide me, just a solid post looking back on 2014 and what I hope will occur in the next year to come. To start off though, a little review of the games I've played, movies watched etc.

( Prepare for an ugly table )

Sorry the table is kind of messed up but I'm really too lazy to dig through LJ HTML to figure out what is going on with it (apologies). Anyway, on to my reflection of 2014

and now for the actual review of 2014.

( Long, heartfelt, fraught with emotion - 2014: the year of self discovery )

Past Years:
2011
2012
2013
2014

I swear, if the snow is not all gone by April I will drop out of school, fly home, and never return to this insane part of the world where winter is never-ending and Spring apparently does not exist. But in all seriousness, I don't remember it being this bad last year? Although I bet next year I'll say the same thing "I don't remember winter being that long".

( Let's bore you with my life )

Only one month left of school though - shall report back in April to bore you all about all the other anime I'm watching, manga I'm reading, games, and what my plans for the summer will be (aside from my internship and Toronto/New York).

Oh - and I am watching ChocoJun but I find the drama so stupid I really having nothing to say about it. Are we supposed to hate Saeko? Sota is dumb. Chocolate looks yummy. End of story.

And it's back! My annual New Years meme to reflect the past year and welcome the new one!

( So how was 2013? )

So to sum it all up I just want to say that 2013 was a pretty relaxed year. There were no specific moments of awesome or amazement but I did a lot of new things that I'm happy about, and learned a lot from them (still learning!). I feel like 2014 is going to be very much the same in that respect but I can't wait until 2015. If things go my way I'll be back in Japan and hopefully perfecting my Japanese to an almost natural level of fluency.

Past Years:
2011
2012
2013
( recap of stuff I did )

I'm sure everyone has heard of Pride and Prejudice that wonderful book by Jane Austen. I'm not one for romance stories but I did enjoy this book quite a bit - as well as the BBC series from way back when. Then, one day, I stumbled upon this little gem. The Lizzie Bennet Diaries - a modern re-telling of Jane Austen's story in the form a vlog run by none-other than the main character herself, Lizzie Bennet.

Let me just say - this series is A-MA-ZING. So please, if you have not, GO CHECK IT OUT.

I started following around episode 30-something this summer in August and I've been waiting and anticipating the moment Lizzie and Darcy would finally get together and they finally did. The moment when Lizzie kissed Darcy I lost it. Slamming my hands on the table, squealing, I wanted to just scream "YES" but I couldn't because I'm living in a dorm and the walls are like paper. Instead I started hitting my leg, really, freakin hard I was just SO EXCITED I actually had to pause the video because I felt like I was hyper-ventilating. The whole moment of FINALLY. Does anyone know that meme where it's this stick guy and he's just like "NOW KISS". Yeah - that was my thoughts for a lot of the series after Lizzie started shadowing Darcy and Pemberley and then they DID and I was just like YES YES YES YES YES.

God I sound like such a freak don't I? I think this is on par with my reaction with Domyouji kissed Makino in HYD-F during the wedding scene (but that wasn't really due to HYD so much as my MaoJun shipping... but anyway). Haha. But it was just amazing. That intense moment of .. just. Ugh. (I'm coherent right now, really, I am). Their love story. Literally - a modern love story. Finally.

I'm so sad and happy that this series is ending but I am honestly so satisfied with how they did everything. It wasn't perfect - there were definitely things that obviously were played up (the convenience of constantly having people just 'walk in' on Lizzie's videos) but what do you expect?

Seriously - even if you guys AREN'T a fan of P&P this is a pretty sick web-series so ya'll should defs check it out! :D (and.. I don't know why I started speaking in weird slang...)

I had an Arashi dream! Well, really it was only a Juntoshi dream but that's cause I woke up after Ohno's part of the dream and had to go to the washroom. Also this was two days ago so I don't really remember it all that well but this is what I do (still) remember.

My dream was formatted like a variety show - the voice narrator was the lady from MMA but the design of the show (like the words and stuff) were like Shiyagare. So .. from what I "understood" the point of the show was that each member was assigned to help one person throughout the day with whatever they wanted - i feel like it was mostly chores and stuff. Jun was first, but I don't remember what he had to do at all. The only part of the dream i remember is what Ohno had to do.

So Ohno visits this guys house, and the guy is going to go out for a bit (dunno why) so he asks Ohno to help him prepare some food etc. They're sitting at the kotatsu and the camera zooms in to this.. half eaten churro on the ground (it's in the bag but part of it is still sticking out, touching the floor) and we see Ohno and the guy get up and Ohno grabs the churro and takes a bite out of it and we hear the MMA announcer lady going "Ohno-san, sore dekinai yo!" (yeah my dream was in Japanese - like actually). So then we follow Ohno and the guy to.. this other room and he has this shelf set up (like those ones made out of metal bars) and he asks Ohno to make him ... bread sticks and pancakes. I think.

Well anyway the guys leaves and so you have just have Ohno (the dream starts getting really weird here but in my mind it made logical sense). There is this.. burner, or like, those heated pans on the shelf so Ohno starts pouring the batter in to make pancakes except for some reason he doesn't stop and it all over flows and the MMA lady is making her usual hilarious comments (just imagine the things she'd say on MMA) and Ohno just kinda stares and then after a couple seconds starts to freak and he's like "ah, nani kore, nani kore!". Now I don't know where this came from but there is actually this rubber bar-thing surrounding the edges of the shelf (almost like one of those things you put on furniture with sharp edges to protect children) but it's rectangular and sticks out so it's really more like some sort of gutter system that just happens to collect all the batter (even in my mind I was like "what is that?!") and then we watch as Ohno just uses his fingers and starts pushing the batter onto these two square sponges (that fit into this rubber gutter thing) and the sponges just ABSORB EVERYTHING (and in my mind again I'm thinking "oh wow that's so cool, that's what that thing is for!")... and the that's it. I woke up cause I really had to go to the washroom.

So, even though this dream was formatted like a variety show it was like I was "watching the dream" as I would watch any Arashi show. So I was... removed from the dream and my own thoughts popped up every now and then regarding the show and everything was in Japanese.

So yeah. xD I love my dreams so much - they're always so entertaining.

So. I've been hard at work studying and then I decided to take a break and look through my old photos of when I was in Japan and then I sat back and thought about stuff and I realized I've pretty much hit my 5th year anniversary of being an Arashi fan. I don't exactly remember when I got into them, I just know it was somewhere in between February and March Break of 2008. But yeah. 5 years! That's absolutely insane. If you asked me, at the age of 13 - honestly, when I FIRST entered high school, whether I could imagine myself being a fangirl of some Japanese boyband I would've laughed at you so hard tears would be falling out of my ears in rivers.

And then Arashi showed up and I don't even know what happened. 5 years. I went through High School with these guys. Hell. I'm probably going to go through University with them too. That's a weird thought. Since it's 5 years I just want to recap a bit because I'm honestly just so surprised at how long I've loved these guys for. I honestly never would've predicted anything like this happening to me and frankly, considering I got in to them at the age of 13 I think I can give them some credit in how I've turned out today at the age of 18. I mean - I'm not going to lie - I did pretty much go to Japan because of them (and other reasons like anime and what not but I just really wanted to see Arashi - which didn't end up happening but that is besides the point). So I'm rambling but here we go - a recap of my years as an Arashi fangirl

( How I got into Fandom )

so yeah. 5 years. Damn.

K. So last night I actually had the most terrifying nightmare ever - I haven't had nightmares in a very long time and last night I actually woke up feeling like I couldn't breath and trembling. It was pretty scary - it played out like a legitimate horror movie. I can't remember everything now but I still remember the gist of it (like the overall storyline) so I'll just recount it here.

Like I said it was like a horror movie, it starts out all nice and innocent and happy and it seems like nothing could go wrong and then it suddenly did a 180. I don't remember what the "happy" parts of the dream were since the nightmare aspect of it kind of took over :\

What I remember is I'm sitting in the living room of my house (although the house we're in doesn't resemble my house, or really any house I've been too) with my parents and brother and we're all just chilling... and then suddenly my brother gets posessed by this spirit and starts trying to kill us. It's a sporadic thing, so it's like - at first it happens for a short time and we get freaked out but it's OK, but then these "posessions" start getting more serious, and lasting longer. Eventually during these moments he manages to grab one of my dads swords (yes my dad has actual swords) and starts hunting us down. My mom locks him in his room - like literally barricades him in - and we think it's fine so we just wait for him to calm down.

this isn't something mentioned in the dream but it's like.. something I knew in my mind - but apparently this is something that 'runs in the family' and it only happens to the boys. But anyway somehow my brother gets out and he pretty much is only targetting me and so my mom tries to keep him away and my parents shove me out the door and tell me to run out to my grandmothers. Now - the thing is even though the interior of my house isn't the same, for some reason the exterior is (so I'm in the same neighbourhood etc.). My grandma lives next door to me in real life, same in the dream, and so I run out the back door and through a little section of wildlife/forest, tumble down a hill (yes this is what it takes to get to my grandmas house even though she lives next door - imagine the weird neighbourhood I live in :D) and frantically knock on my grandma's door but somehow my brother has managed to totally catch up to me (I'm assuming he kind of killed my parents).

I am literally just FREAKING OUT at this point and then my cousin, or someone opens the door and I manage to close the screen door and lock it JUST as my brother comes and STABS THE SWORD THROUGH THE DOOR (it's covered in blood) and then I slam the actual door and lock it just as my brother tries to stab through the door again. And then the dream kind of half-ends because I kind of started to wake up at this point. Pretty much I just stand in the kitchen of my grandmas house (for some reason I'm completely alone) and there is a large window that can see into the kitchen from the door and I'm pretty much just standing there, holding my breath, waiting for my brother to go away....and then the end. (I wake up, feeling totally terrified)

EXCEPT THE NEXT TIME I CLOSED MY EYES.... I imagined this scene where I'm sleeping at my grandma's house (supposedly safe) and then you see this figure standing by my bed and at first you can't see who it is, but then you see them holding a bloody sword :\ (it literally was like the ending of a horror movie right after you think 'oh the person is safe' and then it's like NOPE SHE ISN'T CLIFFHANGER ENDING). So yeah.

This entire dream was from the 3rd person POV but .. like, the main character of the dream was me (it kinda switched from 1st to 3rd person depending on what was going on.

Seriously though I was honestly SO FREAKIN SCARED. I mean there were more things that happened but I don't remember - these are the key parts. BUT IT WAS SO SCARY. I feel like I'm doing a horrible job explaining it but I was legitimately TERRIFIED when I woke up - I was sweating/trembling, my heart beat was INSANE. I was scared DURING the dream and even after I woke up I was just like "WTFWTFWTF". But anyway - now that this is done and written it will make for a good story to share with my friends :D

So. A Clockwork Orange. I have this odd fascination with violence, gore, and psychological stuff so this book, when I heard about it, sounded right up my alley. It took a while for me to get my hands on though and when I finally did finals came around and reading it was a bit out of the question. Ironically when I made my last LJ post about the winter holidays I ended up finishing the book right after.

( A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess )

Right. I will stop there. Apparently I had more to say on the book than I thought. Well there is my short little review on A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess. The last book I read after that was A Girl with a Dragon Tatoo but I don't think I'll review it. I read it more as an "easy-read" to waste time. Interesting book, feels a bit draggy though in my opinion, did not make me want to pick up the next few books. Although that may also be because I've already read all the wiki summaries after watching the movie back in the summer.