2008(1): Music

I feel that 2008 was a year of musical change for me. My taste in Japanese music has become so big that it has completely taken over my previous main genre [Metal]. Although I still listen to some metal from time to time, I'm not exploring new bands as I was a couple of years ago...
Still this year brought me some good new metal bands:
- Battlelore
- Delain
- My Dying Bride [don't know why I didn't have this in my list already]
- Paramore
- Unsun

I've expanded the metal music I already had, so if a band which I already had music from, made a new album, I probably added it to my collection.
This year's new J-Music list:
abingdon boys school, Aikawa Nanase, Amano Tsukiko, Angelique, Antic Cafe, Aragaki Yui, Attack All Round, Aural Vampire, Ayaka,
BeForU, Brilliant Green (the), C-ute, Chara, Chatmonchy, Deathgaze, Fiction Junction YUUKA, Garnet Crow, Girugamesh, Hirahara Ayaka, Hirano Aya, Hora, Ishikawa Chiaki, Kagrra, Kalafina, Ketchup Mania, Kitade Nana, Kosaka Riyu, Lamentglace, Luna Sea, MEG, Mell, melody, Minimoni, Mizuki Nana, Misono, Morning Musume, Nakagawa Shoko, Nakashima Mika, Onmyouza, Otsuka Ai, Perfume, Rentrer en Soi, Saori@Destiny, Shimamiya Eiko, Shimatani Hitomi, Shizukusa Yumi, Terra, Tommy febuary6, Tommy heavenly6, Ueto Aya, Utada Hikaru, Yousei Teikoku, Zwei

I also adapted Eurobeat in my collection. It's great music while doing card games like Spider Solitaire or racing games [Need for Speed]. I think I acutally got this from an racing anime [Initial D].

some things that are not in this list but should be mentioned:
Hamasaki Ayumi, collected all her albums and remix albums.
I've Sound, collected all the I've Sound albums [I've Girls compilation 1-6, Short Circuit 1+2, I've Mania, Master Groove, dirty gift and mixed up]
and a lot of other collections are up to date as well ;)

kanji practice

Ok...
I think I can recognize the first 103 Kanji I'll need for the JLPT4 test next year.
Next thing I'm gonna have to do is memorize how to write them and the stroke order [which will be quite difficult because I'm LEFT HANDED]
Then I need to use them in the words I already know.
after that I'm all set :P

Christmas was the same as usual. Just eat things you normally don't eat... I'm soooo gonna have another cup of hot chocolate tomorrow!!

BIRTHDAY PRESENT!

YEAH!
I finally got my own birthday present by mail today :) [too late because my b-day was last saturday, but better late than never]
A package containing:
Dir en Grey - UROBOROS (ltd.)
High and Mighty Color - BEEEEEEST (ltd.)
Onmyouza - Chimimoryo
Tsuchiya Anna - Nudy Show! (ltd.)
YUI - My Short Stories (ltd.)

As you can see I'm stil a sucker for limited edition cd's :$

Yesterday I had my last lesson for Japanese III and I got my test back [a whooping 96/100!!]
Although the test had some difficult things in it [and things we never got in class], I think I did ok.
Last question was: make a sentence with ほしい　です　[hoshii desu -> want]
And what do the people of Japanese III always want?? -> 　ビール！yes! BEER!
「わたしは　ビールが　ほしい　です。」　is probably the best way to end the test.
Too bad I was with my car so I couldn't have a toast with beer :'(
Hopefully we'll be having some people continue the course...
I'm currently trying to learn some kanji because I want to take the JLPT 4 test in about a year...

My course of alfatraining also ended today and I was actually a bit sad that it was over...
It's good to have some regular events in your week, right?

Oh well, that's about it for now...

RENTRER EN SOI

While on my eternal hunt for more music, I downloaded the new RENTRER EN SOI album [which was actually a 2CD BEST OF] and when I tried to find the japanese titles [because Itunes of course had some random gibberish in it :S ] I saw that they are going to disband!

DAMN!

I wanted to see them live! Well theory I can still fly to Japan for their last concert on december 25, but in reality that's just not gonna happen...
Grrr...
Another band is to be added to the "I wish I could've seen them live" list :(

This is what my nationality chart looks like ATM...
More than 55% Japanese!
Japanization!

It's alive!

*blows some dust off*
god, this is going slow!
l am actually writing this for real!
I bought a pen-tablet today, to practice my Japanese.
l still haven't gotten the hang of it, but I seem to be getting faster with it already
Ok. enough writing for today [I'm soo not used to it anymore :S ]
I wanted this so I could write Kanji on my computer when I don't know which one it is and want to find it. It's one of the things I wanted to have for my Kanji studies [which have begun I guess]. The other one is just a set of good old flashcards on paper.

Not much has happened since the last time I wrote in my blog...
I guess I'm starting my final graduation project on december 22 [this will be my final chance]
I have almost completed my course of Alfatraining [utulizing your alpha waves to relax and to improve your own character]
I have almost completed my Japanese III course [YEAH! Book 1 is finally done! On to book 2 :P ]

I downloaded a pile of albums, anime and drama but nothing seems important enough to mention right here ;)

にほんご３

きょうの　ブログは　にほんごです！
にほんごの　クラスに　きました。
にほんごの　さんきゅうは　はちにん　です。
ごにん　わ　しんじん　です。
なつやすみに　まいにち　べんきょうを　しましたから　たくさん　おぼえてました。
たのしかった　です。　：）

-------------------------

today's blog is japanese!
I went to Japanese class.
Japanese III has 8 people.
5 of them were new (they're from an older group)
Because I studied during summer vacation, I remembered a lot.
I had a good time. :)

Reading this... GOD my Japanese is soooo basic ;'(
At least I'm useful as a walking dictionary [じしょ] because I'm doing words every day :S

Japanese III and Music

A couple of days ago I got a phonecall from my Japanese teacher.
Japanese III is officially cancelled due to lack of interest [5
students -> actually 7] but we're having it privately so it's still
on! :D



Two days later i got the official letter from the Volkuniversiteit, saying it was cancelled :P



So I've been trying to keep my vocabulary up this whole summer and I
think I still remember about 85% of the words [that's good I guess...]



That was everything I wanted to share on this sunday afternoon ;)



OH! no it wasn't :O



Tsuchiya Anna's (new) single "Virgin Cat" was actually labelled R&B [SHOCK!]

re-labeled it to J-Pop ASAP ;)

#2 on the single "Imitation Night" is actually better than "Virgin Cat"



And, as evy-nee-chan said, Olivia's new mini-album "Trinka Trinka" is nice :P

video's

It has been way too long since I last wrote in my blog so here's something I must share with the world :)

I got a mail from hyves today, saying that it's possible to add video's to my profile so other people can see what I like. As an example they put a list of the current top 10 video's from hyves in my mail.

01. Jan Smit - Stilte In De Storm
02. Amy MacDonald - This Is The Life
03. Kate Ryan - Ella Elle L'A
04. Kid Rock - All Summer Long
05. Chris Brown - Forever
06. Jordin Sparks - No Air (Ft. Chris Brown)
07. Nick & Simon - Rosanne
08. Katy Perry - I Kissed A Girl
09. Jan Smit - Als De Morgen Is Gekomen
10. Enrique Iglesias - Can You Hear Me?

My GOD
only number 2 is ok... the rest of them is garbage...
Can somebody tell me which people are happy with this, cause I sure aint!

10 concerts to see in Japan

Just a reminder for myself what I'd like to see if I go to Japan someday...
It has been on my mind to make it a concert holiday, but that would recquire several money-trees and I still haven't found mine :'(

1. Hamasaki Ayumi
2. Tamaki Nami
3. Tsuchiya Anna
4. Takahashi Hitomi
5. YUI
6. High and Mighty Color
7. Gazette
8. D'espairs Ray (again)
9. Mucc [seen 08-10-08]
10. L'arc en Ciel

J-Drama overload

[mood : downward spiral
last song: T.M.Revolution - resonance
last anime: D.Gray-Man #88
last J-drama: Hotman 2 #9]

Actually my Harddisk is almost bursting with J-Drama.... I'm downloading new series constantly and I think I have downloaded 10 new series in the last couple of days. It has been a while since I saw a really really good drama though. Maybe I'll just become a walking database for Japanese entertainment. At least that's something that I'm comfortable doing :)

Hate you...

Neither forgiven nor forgotten but I don't hate you. Although it made me happy that my actions made you think I hated you. You should've known that I'm not capable of really hating someone. Oh well...

Time won't wait

I've been wanting to write an entry in here a lot sooner but for some reason it just didn't happen until now... So what happened to me since my last entry?

1) I had my Japanese test and I scored 49 out of 50 points. Everybody should know that this test was do-able just by looking at my results, ne ;)
Next Japanese class will be in september, so until that time I have to do some self-study and try not to forget too much. So if anyone wants to talk Japanese I'm right here ;)

2) I went to the dutch championships Iaido and Jodo. I didn't compete because I feel that I'm not at a level where I can be proud of myself. So I volunteered since it was organized by the dojo where I train. I saw lots of great techniques so that really gave me a motivation boost :P

3) As usual loads of Anime and J-Drama and some temporary WoW-ing. I just started WoWing on a private server because I don't want to pay every month just to play. A bad thing about this private server is that the majority of people is eastern european. That's not a bad thing usually, but if I get 5 whispers a day in russian it is.

4) I bought myself a metal DDR pad. Those things are really expensive so I better take good care of it... I had a soft mat before but I felt that I needed this. Don't ask why... And as I'm writing this in my bed with a laptop on my lap [it IS a LAPtop after all :D ] I'm thinking not to trip over the damned thing when I get out of bed at 4:45...

5) This weekend, my best friend had his goodbye party. He will be returning to China in 2 weeks. Although I didn't stay long [difficult reasons I won't explain here, because reader might have to do something else after reading this than sleeping], I hope that he had a good time and got to talk to all of his friends

x) just a side-note Ayumi's Euro Mega-Mix [from "LOVEppears" CD2 ] is nice and D'espairs Ray's album "MIRROR" has some really good songs to express yourself in your car when you're not feeling too well.

That's it for now...
I'll try to write down more frequently
Oyasumi Nasai

MORE JAPANESE

[mood : drinking
last song: Ayumi-sama - Mirrorcle World -> amazing mix :P
last anime: Rosaria + Vampire #11
last J-drama: H2 #10]

7 days have past since my last post and I can add 5 complete J-drama's and 2 anime series to the "seen section"
J-drama:

• 1 litre of tears　「１ リトル の なみだ」
• attention please - ROFL
  
• hotelier 「ホタリア」
  
• h2
• My Boss My Hero
  

Anime:

• rental magica 「レンタル マギカ」
  
• rosario + vampire　「ロザリオ＋バンパイア」 - fanservice A+++
  

and that's for 1 week :O
Ok... I know I have too much free time ;)
And no I don't talk Japanese all day long [although it would be better for my Japanese]
I still try to remember Japanese phrases when I'm talking in myself [yes I talk to myself a lot], but I've stopped talking in Japanese to other people who can't understand it.
Imagine that it's time for coffee and you ask "koohii no jikan desu ka"...
The frowns on people's faces says it all... :S
If someone is willing to talk or write in Japanese to me, I'm totally up for that, but I'm not gonna be bothering other people with anymore :D

My test for Japanese II is next Tuesday 「かようびに テストが あります」
I still want to do an introductionary text in Japanese, but it wouldn't be of any use if nobody here can read it... :$

　

DRAMA

Let me say sorry for not writing in here all this time [ not that anyone cares, but still to keep up apearances ;) ]
So what have I been doing all this time?
Well as you'd expect, not much :$
Continued my Japanese lessons in Utrecht, continued my Iaido lessons in Rotterdam, lots of anime and finally some more J-DRAMA!
I seem to be pushing myself to cry in some situations...
After seeing like 15 different J-Drama's I came to to conclusion there are 2 things that will probably make me EMO: injustice and sacrifice.
I guess I already had a feeling about those [remember when aragorn tossed gimmly in LoTR2?]
This time it was a J-Drama called ""たいよう の うた" or song of the sun. The story was about a girl with an incurable disease called XP [where the body does not have any defense against UV rays and exposure to the sun is therefore almost deadly]
Just seeing her condition getting worse through the series just got through to me. Of course it's a scenario thats created by some writer, but there are people with this disease in the world. If you have the time, watch it. If you can't find it or don't want to search for it, give me a message. This was one of the better drama's I've seen so far.

I guess getting through to your emo side is good every once in a while...

at night...

[mood : regular
last song: the Brilliant Green - Ash Like Snow (Gundam 00 ending 2) -> sooooo goood :'(
last anime: Saikano #11
last J-drama: still nothing!]

Finally I'm up to date again with Stargate Atlantis. I've been letting them pile up in order to look at them together. I think I watched 17 eps from this [plus the last ep from last season] in about 4 days.

I always look on TV.com to see if the ep is a "to be continued" one or just a loose ep
I don't like to wait another week [or even more] to see how the story ends...
And now you must be wondering how I can keep up with animes like Bleach and Naruto :P
Let's just say they're tradition and their download days are written deep into my system :)

Anything else?
No... no... I don't think so...
Besides, it's 1AM and I'm typing this on my laptop in bed...
Better go to sleep...

oyasumi nasai

P.S.
CHECK my current favourite song

the urge to...

[mood : regular
last song: Eluveitie's new album "Slania"
last anime: Witch Hunter Robin #23
last J-drama: still nothing!]

*sigh*

You know the feeling you're watching something and you really want to finish it right away?
Well I'm currently at ep #23 of Witch Hunter Robin and I really want to watch the last 3 eps now, but since I have to go to Japanese class tomorrow I guess I'd better go to bed because it's almost 1AM and I have to get up again at 4:45...

New Eluveitie album will be out this friday but I downloaded the promo already :D
It's a nice piece of work it is indeed :)

oyasumi nasai minna-san

Guild Wars WIKI

I've been working on this all day so all 3+ of you people reading this from time to time should take a look at what I've been doing ;)
My user page on Guild Wars WIKI

I also picked up another serie: Terminator - The Sarah Conner Chronicles, which tells the story between Terminator 2 and Terminator 3
And if you haven't noticed, on the right side there has been another anime: Witch Hunter Robin

My mind is empty right now [or rather full with beer]

Mata ne!

Claymore

[mood : amazed
last song: Nightmare - Raison d'Etre (Claymore opening)
last anime: Claymore #26
last J-drama: someone recommend something... ]

I just finished an anime called Claymore [クレイモア if you want to practice japanese ;) ] and OMG it was amazing :O

Here's a summary from anidb:
| Long ago, Youma, shape changing demons, took human form to live in disguise in human towns, feeding on them in secret.

A secret, nameless society has discovered a way of implanting Youma flesh into humans to create hybrids powerful enough to defeat the Youma. A hybrid`s standard abilities include faster healing, limited shape modification, the ability to detect Youma and other hybrids, and
overall enhanced physical prowess allowing them to wield massive claymores, for which they are named: Claymores. For reasons not divulged, only women are selected to be Claymores. They are often chosen for implantation after being the sole survivors of a family attacked by a Youma; this ensures their loyalty and willingness to endure the painful hybridization process.
The society sends Claymores to towns that can afford their fees to kill Youma. The society is often strict and harsh; Claymores who break the rules risk being hunted down by their fellow warriors.

The story of Claymore follows the adventures of the beautiful warrior Claire, who fights demons while struggling to hold on to her own humanity. |

Anyway it had a lot of action and a lot of females fighting with huge swords :)
Don't know when the last time was that I finished an anime within 3 days...

Japanese II!

[mood : psychiatristic
last song: Nanase Aikawa - LIE LIE LIE
last anime: D.Gray-Man #67
last J-drama: it's been a while :$ ]

Today Japanese II finally started again!
Only 10 people out of Japanese I have continued... SHAME ON THE REST OF YOU! :O
Anyway we had a review of the things we learned in Japanese I [try fitting 10 chapters, which took 12x3 hours, into 3 hours :O ]
I don't have to say that it was really exhausting, now do I?
It was good to see some of the people again though :)
We have the greatest class-atmosphere ever :)

See you next week people :P

2007/2008

[mood : historic!
last song: Nami Tamaki - Promise
last anime: Reideen #7
last J-drama: Fukigen Iyana Gene #7]

It has been quite a while since I last post. I'll try to give some nice things to read :)

December 13th was my birthday. Nothing special happened but I got some messages from people so I was happy enough. I didn't get much presents, but I did get some money [that's a normal birthday gift here, I guess]
My parents did want to pay for a part of the Iaito that I still have to order. It should be around 600 euro and it's a non-sharp katana [wouldn't want me losing any limbs or my head, now would we]

I went to eat at a Japanese restaurant with my fellow Japanese-Course students on December 18th and it was really great :) Only thing that wasn't so great was that the train I got on took waaaaaay to long to get me where I wanted to go. But hey, what can you expect of a train in the middle of the night...

On December 20th I bought a new computer. When I told the store clerk I wanted that pc, he asked me if I wanted to fly. Might be because it's a quad core [4 cpu's] and some other nice stuff. I also bought a widescreen with that so I now have a completely new set ready for a couple more years!

Christmas was the same as usual [2 days of eating]. Only nice thing was that my sister and her little daughter came from Spain to spend the winter holidays in Holland.

A few days after Christmas I finally got my package from Hong Kong containing 4 Gundams :D
You have to build them yourself and they're all done now that I'm writing this!

On 31st of December I went to the house of a gaming buddy [or Guild Wars Guildy if you prefer] to celebrate the new year
Lot of drinking and I met most of the active people I game with everyday online :P

If I remember correctly I had 3 things planned for the year 2007:
1) take a beginners course Iaido and see if I like it [DONE]
I'm still doing Iaido and I'm going to continue with it.
2) take the first course of Japanese [DONE]
the second course starts at the end of January and I already enrolled.
3) finish school [FAILED]
somehow everything that is school related fails. I must be a hopeless person...

And now we are in 2008. This year I'll try to
1) finish school
and please let me finish it for crying out loud!
2) go to Graspop and Wacken
It actally was on the to-do list for 2007 but thing went wrong and stuff. Graspop is TRADITION
3) get 30 GW titles
currently at 20 and a bit so it should be possible in 1 year
4) get more Japanese things :P

Yesterday I finally got my callendars!
I bought two because I didn't want to choose. So now my room has the lovely smile of Maki Horikita and the coolness of Naruto. Strange thing was that the package was sent December 5th, so it actually took more than a month to get here.
OSOI NE!

And finally today I received my Japanese CD's that were sent last week [shipment seems to have returned to normal]

Nami Tamaki - Winter Balades [a single... I actually thought she released a Christmas album]
Yui - From me to you [YUI is cool :P ]
Hight and Mighty Color - Singles Collection [I normally don't buy singles collections, but I'm collecting HaMC]

Feel free to comment on everything or scold me for not blogging sooner
I'll try to update more if my reader(s) [do I actually have more than 1?] request it

Time to sleep...
Oyasumi Nasai!