Long Overdue Trip Post! - Day 13: Odaiba/Fuji TV

We met up with Kishiko, Ono-chan and Siti for a trip to Odaiba ~ I didn't get to go  on my last trip, so I decided that I had to fit it in this time, despite the fact that it cost quite a lot and we were running on a tight budget :p It was fun, anyway, because it's my first time in Odaiba as an Arashian, so the kinds of stuff we did/looked at this time were completely different from all my previous trips.

In the evening Salwa and I went on to meet her friend, another Arashian for a quick dinner and trip to Mandarake. The day after would be our last (technically speaking), which we spent in Ikebukuro and Meiji-jingu with Kishiko and Siti. On our actual last day we spent the whole day at Haneda, so this actually concludes our trip. Until next time, I guess? ^^

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Long Overdue Trip Post! - Day 12, Part 3

The best part of the Keikarou trip, for me, was Aiba's mom, of course. She's still really kakkoii, and she talked to us for a bit when we were paying for our food and some of the new phone straps (Salwa and I both got a strap for ourselves, and I got an extra for Illy). We told her that we've been to Keikarou before, separately, and when she asked why we're in Japan this time we told her that it was for Arashi's concert. She asked if it was the Fukuoka con.

US:　Yeah, it was.
HER: Sho-kun's birthday?
US: Yes! We were really lucky to catch that. It was fun.
HER: *gesturing, indicating a miniskirt while grinning* Cosplay?
US: *laughing and nodding* That, too.

I was wondering what she thought of Aiba's cosplay, so I suppose the fact that she seemed so very amused is the answer XD. She asked where we were from, and when we answered, she commented that we must be so unused to the cold, since Malaysia's so hot. They had pictures of Langkawi (with notes scribbled on them) hung in the restaurant, so we suspect that she, or another member of the Aiba family, have vacationed here before!

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Long Overdue Trip Post! - Day 12, Part 2

I ordered the gyoza, and Salwa ordered an omelette and rice, so that we could share. We also ordered the goma-dango because Steph recommended it when I told her we're going to Keikarou. Once we were done with our orders, we (and everyone at the other tables) started taking photos of everything we could, haha.

The gyoza wasn't bad - my favourite would still be Tenkaichi's, but Keikarou's gyoza are huge and satisfying ^^. We saw someone at a nearby table with chilli prawns, which had Salwa salivating, so we ordered that as well. I think I enjoyed the food a lot more this time, compared to my previous trip to Keikarou!

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Long Overdue Trip Post! - Day 12, Part 1

The plan for Monday (23rd January) was a visit to Keikarou!

Salwa and I met at Makuhari-Hongo Station at around 10am (the plan was to meet at 9am, but she was late due to taking the wrong train) - I was coming from Asakusa while Salwa was only just coming back from her host family's place, if I remember it right. Anyway, we wanted to go early because the last time I went with Shida, we arrived at 11am and lined up all noon, just to be told that we had to come back for dinner ^^;

This time the crowd wasn't so bad when we arrived, though, and we ended up being among the first to be let in once they opened for lunch.

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Magazines - anan (Aiba), TV Guide (Sho) & Weekly the Television (Sho)

I've had Aiba's anan (no.1800, 2012.03.28) on reserve at the store since March ^^; I didn't get any magazines in April, but since I was collecting my May and June subscriptions of Liniere, I decided to get the anan as well. Then I passed by the shelves and saw that there's TV Guide (2012 5/12-5/18) and Weekly the Television (2012 no.20, 5/12-5/18) with Sho on the cover, which I immediately picked up and carried with me to the cashier.

Conclusion: the anan is gorgeous, although I would have preferred Aiba's Freecell, which I didn't get because it's much more expensive. Both the TV Guide and Weekly the Television are so pretty! *_*

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Music Station 2012.05.04

Ah, the much anticipated Music Station, in which there would be the first TV performance of "Face Down", plus the song with most votes from fans. I know a lot of fans in the English-speaking world were banking on "Tokei Jikake no Umbrella", and some of them were extremely disappointed, and even angry, that it wasn't chosen.

For me, well - "Tokei Jikake..." really is far from my favourite by them, and I don't really care whether or not it's performed ^^; I understand the feelings of the fans who love that song, though - personally I would really love a performance of "Superfresh", myself, or even "Joy", but I knew that the chances of the majority voting for non-standards would be very slim. I voted for "Superfresh" anyway. And of course, "Love So Sweet" won the poll. Why wouldn't it? It's a favourite among many fans, and non-fans who are voting would be more familiar with the popular songs ^^

Anyway. I wasn't particularly happy or disappointed with the song choice, but I enjoyed their performance thoroughly, because they seemed really happy :D :D And I accidentally deleted my caps of "Love So Sweet", so only "Face Down" caps here... haha.

The "Face Down" performance was... *_*

Is it enough to say I loved it and watched it repeatedly? Because I do, and I did.

  

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Hey Hey Hey 2012.05.07

"Face Down" is definitely my favourite single when compared to what I've heard of "Your Eyes", despite the auto-tune. But the more performances of it I watch, the more in love I am. This particular one just raised my tensionexcitement to the max XD

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Long Overdue Trip Post! - Day 11

(On Day 10, I went to Yokohama and hung out with Kishiko, Iman and Salwa, before going to ONE OK ROCK's Yokohama Final live. So, besides purchasing the Pikanchi box at the end of this post, that day had nothing to do with Arashi fangirling).

Day 11 - Met Steph in Shibuya in the morning, before heading to Yokohama together! It was great because I finally got to meet her in person (one of my favourite fic writers!) and while I love Yokohama, I've never gone there as a fangirl ^^;

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Long Overdue Trip Post! - Day 9

Day 9 (Jan 19th) really wasn't supposed to be about Arashi at all, but instead about the other great love of my life - books. Met up with Ono-chan to see the buildings of some of my favourite publishers, and browse through many, many antiquarian bookstores.

And then, of course, I found out that even when I don't go looking for Arashi, they'll still appear in front of me. In the form of back issues of magazines. I actually found magazines and newspapers from/about their debut, but photos weren't allowed and the mags were too expensive (of course) to buy, so I treated the whole thing like a wonderful museum experience, stared at all the old mags, calendars, chirashis, movie pamphlets, and shop photos in awe (not to mention J-Rock memorabilia! But that's another story to be told in another blog/time), and moved on. These are some of the not-so-valuable items, displayed outside the store -

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Long Overdue Trip Post! - Day 8 (Cont.)

The rest of the pictures from Day 8. I don't know the usefulness of posting these as I posted JFC photos back in 2010, too, I think, but never mind that ^^;

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Long Overdue Trip Post! - Day 6 - 8

The day after the concert Salwa and I left Fukuoka very early in the morning, stopping at Shin-Kobe just around lunch time. In Kobe we met with an old friend of mine, who recently moved there from Osaka. He and his wife took us to lunch and around town, which was really nice of them, and I'm really glad I got to see them, because usually I only go to Tokyo and never get to see my friends who live elsewhere. Anyway, besides picking up lots of Hitachi and AU pamphlets, we didn't see or do anything Arashi-related, but I did find this place that sold unofficial phone straps:

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Long Overdue Trip Post! - Day 5

I don't think I can say anything about this day again, so I'm putting in the entry I wrote on Dreamwidth, with pics I hadn't put in there :D

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Long Overdue Trip Post! - Day 4

The 14th was a really exciting day ^^ - we had agreed to go line up for goods with the four Arashians we met at our hostel, so we left very early in the morning for Fukuoka Yahoo! Dome. The thing was, we thought we were super early; there were literally no one in the streets when we walked out and it was still very dark out, and even the bus only had one or two other passengers in it. But almost every stop had more and more Arashians coming in - people with Arashi totes, phone straps, etc., people dressed up in their ichiban's colours, and all that. We ran up the stairs to the Dome, stopping only to take a picture of it, and noticed that the queue for goods already went halfway around the Dome.

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Long Overdue Trip Post! - Days 0-3

The last time I went to Japan, I used an iPhone, which had a Typepad app. Last January I was using (and still am!) Sony's Xperia Arc, and there's no Typepad app on Android that I could find, so I kind of got lazy about updating. Now it's May... and I think I should post these before the year is over ^^;

The first day isn't really a "day"; Salwa and I arrived very late at night, and even managed to miss the last train to our hostel. The next couple of days were spent meeting friends and randomly walking about, so it wasn't really Arashi-oriented at all, but we did manage to spot some stuff :D

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Arashi no Shukudai-kun #035

Aired On: June 4th, 2007

OMG, I just realised that the last time I did my Shukudai-kun re-watch was in February last year. Since I still kept to my promise of not watching Shukudai-kun out of sequence until I'm done, this means that I haven't actually watched Shukudai-kun since then! (*_*) So I think it's about time I continue (^^;;

The guest for episode #35 is singer/actress Katase Nana. She came to promote her film Kimi ni Shika Kikoenai, which is about a couple who could communicate telepathically. Since it's a slow love story, the conversation started along that theme, but as usual, the subject soon turned into food - as her homework for the audience is to find delicious and unusual yam dishes.

Sho-kun wanted to know what slow love meant, and Aiba helped ^^;

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