よろしくね！ (Nice to meet you)

In the midst of uni applications and school hectic-ness, I felt a bit grateful due to this particular volunteer activity. For your info, I haven't participated in any volunteer events this quarter mainly because I had to skip them for other needs (TOEFL test, sudden stomachache on Saturday morning, etc).

Basically, the volunteer event this time didn't take place on Saturday unlike usual, instead, it took place three days in a row on weekdays. I could only attend two out of three sessions though. Basically, De Anza students signed up to interact with Japanese students from Kokusai Junior College in Japan who were on some sort of a field trip to US. We were supposed to give them "American experience" and share stories. Seeing that I learned Japanese for two years (I'm never good at it though), I considered this volunteer pretty much as a chance to finally apply what I have learned for two years in high school in real life.

~DAY 1~

I was quite surprised to see all the Kokusai students turned out to be all girls. They were simply outnumbered by DeAnza students, but that didn't reduce the fun. Anyway, after the icebreaker on the first day - Tuesday, February 21, 2012, Kokusai students and De Anza students had one-to-one conversation on the long table.

The icebreaker game - find someone who could provide answers of these given questions!


The Kokusai group was kind enough to give a souvenir to each De Anza volunteer
An authentic chopstick from Japan! I got the pink one luckily xD

I happened to sit across this cute girl named Airi. I managed to greet and introduce her in my super limited Japanese: "Hi, my name is Carissa. Nice to meet you!". She went "Sugoi!" then I continued in Japanese that I learned it back in high school. Sometimes, when she got caught up in explaining a word in English, she turned to Saki, who sat next to her and asked for a translation. かわいいですね：）

Remember when I said De Anza students should give the Japanese students an "American experience", apparently that wasn't what exactly happened in the end, because instead, it happened in a reverse way. Thing is, Airi asked if I liked Japanese music in the first place, and I couldn't help but to keep the conversation flowing. We ended up talking about J-pop musicians that were familiar to me, like Arashi, NEWS, and Hey!Say!JUMP (mostly Johnny's). On talking about Arashi, I told her my bias is Ninomiya Kazunari, especially after I saw him briefly act in Letters from Iwo Jima. Apparently Airi was a big, big, BIG fan of Sho Sakurai of Arashi and Yamada Ryosuke from Hey!Say!JUMP.

We went screaming, spazzing, fan girling or whatever you call it everytime we mentioned any Japanese artists that we both knew. Every after I mentioned names of Japanese artists I knew, Airi would turn to Saki and talk to her in Japanese, possibly telling her that "Hey this girl knows a lot about Japanese music! >///<". I could see Saki's surprise expression that came afterwards.

Maybe she was surprised I would know that MUCH Japanese artists. Even in the end, it turned out Airi and I were the loudest in the room, where everyone else was just having quiet, adequate conversation. Airi and I were just devoured in our own little fangirling realm.

But it wasn't until we reached the climax, where it was later revealed that we BOTH LOVED NISHIKIDO RYO. Holy...

That reminds me how long it's been since I last spazzed about Jpop. After all this time, I have been drowned quite a while in Kpop industry.

In addition, I also mentioned that my roommate, Elda, was a fan of Japanese culture. I told Airi that Elda introduced me a lot to Japanese stuff and contributed to enriching my Japanese vocabularies. Aww...wish she were there...

I got to bump into other Kokusai students and tried to greet them, again, in my poor Japanese (there's nothing wrong to try, is it? ^^"). They were very friendly and welcoming, though at some points, I was a bit intimidated with their regal looks. For instance, I met this particular Japanese student called Ai and I'm telling you she was super stylish and super tall. She was so sweet anyway :). I bumped into a lot more who mostly came from Saitama and Tokyo.

~DAY 2~

More De Anza volunteers participated this time, and the Kokusai students got even more outnumbered. I didn't quite talk a lot that day since my volunteer shift was short, about an hour or so (I had a class to catch earlier), and especially the new De Anza volunteers were given priority to have one-to-one conversation. So I went on to the side of the room and had a friendly chat with my fellow volunteer folks.

The highlight of the day was the presence of my playful Japanese friend from De Anza, Mona. We finally got to sit down for one-to-one conversation even though it was considerably short.

Mona and I shared conversations with Kate, a Korean-Japanese girl. Mona kinda served as a translator for me. From their conversation, I could hear a bit that Kate was surprised to know Mona was a Japanese, despite living in the US. Kate told Mona and I that she and the rest of the Kokusai students just went to LA the other day, where they got to visit Disneyland, Disney's California Adventure, and Universal Studios Hollywood! Kate ecstatically shared her favorite ride of each theme park.

OMG, I was positively jealous with the students at that very second.

Luckily, I still got to greet some of the girls I met yesterday. When I met Airi again, she went: "Oh...(You're the one who likes) Ninomiya Kazunari!", I knew that Airi and other girls I met yesterday still remembered me :)

~DAY 3~

Day 3 wasn't exactly one of the sessions (I missed the actual Day 3 due to History exam), but it was by far the most impressive day out of all Kokusai volunteer days. It took place today, on Friday. I first heard that today's Kokusai meeting was exclusively for De Anza volunteers who came to all 3-days session (because that particular last Kokusai visit day in De Anza would involve lunch and chit chat), while I didn't. But my friend, Channon told me to just come along.

The format of today's meeting was different than any other sessions. Instead of having one-to-one conversation on a long table, the Kokusai students were free to roam around with De Anza students, sitting on the floor, and taking pictures in every corner of the room.

Seeing that Airi, Nozomi, and Haruka did Kpop dance covers previously, they apparently are avid Kpop fans. Airi excitedly scooted over to show Zoey and me videos of particularly Big Bang she keeps in her phone. She told me that her bias in the boyband is T.O.P and we even briefly got to sing 'High High' as performed by T.O.P and G-dragon.

Aside from Kpop, Airi showed me pictures of T.O.P and Chinen Yuri of Hey!Say!JUMP (since I told her before that I loved that boyband). We then briefly danced to Dreams Come True

At one point, I noticed some girls I met on the first day were practicing Kpop dance, like Girls' Generation's Gee and Mr. Taxi. I hesitatingly observed them and complimented their effort. When they figured out I could keep up with the dance's choreography, they instinctively went to their sensei and mentioned something about Girls' Generation to him. The sensei just came to us (the Kokusai girls, Zoey, and me), bringing his laptop over, and guess what he did...

He showed Gee's MV on his very own laptop.

And that was totally unexpected! XD

Yes, so it was revealed that the sensei was a SONE (Girls' Generation's fan), and he even claimed to favor Yoona as his bias of the group lol. That's just amazing! Then he excitedly showed a video of Airi, Haruka, Nozomi as well as other girls who were not on the Kokusai tour performing Gee's dance cover on an event (as well as Ai's drumming skill) to Zoey and me. Zoey and I were instantly mesmerized by the girls' talents! Zoey even took a chance to promote De Anza's very own Kpop dance club :)

The sensei soon encouraged Airi, Haruka, and Nozomi to re-enact the Gee dance they did in the video in front of everyone around the room. Before I knew it, they invited me to join the simple dance cover performance spectated by everyone in the room. I told them I never quite learned Gee's dance in depth, but they kept on encouraging me to join them so I did.

Yeah, I ended up dancing to a Kpop song - Gee - with Japanese girls. The experience was indescribable!

In the latter part of the meeting, we spotted the girls introducing Japanese game involving some sort of hit-and-defend method as you can see in the video below.



Zoey and I put some effort in trying out this game and much to my surprise, Zoey was a quick learner! I got beaten very often. She's so good at this XD


Channon and Kate


Me and Ami!


Saki looks fierce and cool at the same time, doesn't she?


Rock on!

Time flew so fast as we enjoyed our time. The Kokusai students needed to leave for their next destination, Stanford University. We hugged each other when they were just about to take off. They said they would be coming back next year to De Anza and expected to see me, but I would be then transferring to the university :(. "Then find me in Japan!" they said everytime I hugged them. Yes! I'd love to go to Japan and see them by any chance!

It's been such a pleasure to interact with them. The event has become simply more than just volunteer work but a chance to get together with these fantastic Japanese students and gain a priceless experience :)

By the way, the girls are leaving today back to Japan.
よいフライトを*! Wish to see you in another chance!



* : Have a nice flight!

Pictures are credit to:
Ami Matsumoto and Andy Nguyen

Don't pick up the phone

Not really in a story-telling mood on, but I'm just going to tell you what happened last night.
I was supposed to be going home to do my all homework before leaving to SF the next day (today), but turns out, there's always an obstacle heading in this kid's virtuous intention's way *coughs*.

I was "kidnapped" up till past midnight in Kevin and Tony's place. Just in case you don't know what makes me decide to sacrifice some of my late hours to stay there is because we were going to see a horror movie. Plus, Ardy came over all the way from Davis just to hang around here in the Bay Area.

Ardy initiated the idea of horror movie night. So I wouldn't miss the chance, cos when else could we do it? He invited a friend over, Tanuj, to bring the movie. I wasn't really a frontal anti of horror movies. I didn't necessarily manage to run off whenever someone said we were going to watch a horror movie. I love horror movies, only if I get to watch it with bunch of people. The more people see it, the more less frightening it looks. It's thousand times better than having to see it at midnight by yourself *giddy, looks around*

Anyway, One Missed Call was chosen. I was a little disappointed cos I've seen it before, but my expectation heightened when it turned out we were going to see the Japanese version (I saw the American version). So, Kevin, Tony, Aymee, Ardy, Stefan, Khoan (Kevin and Tony's roommate), his girlfriend, and I plopped down to our comfiest positions to get the best view of the screening wall. Yep, the best thing about Kevin and Tony's house is that they have a friggin projector!!!! which is even better than any large TVs.

Well, the movie itself follows about a rumor saying that whenever a person heard his phone ringing a creepy-sounding ringtone and picked it up, he got to receive a voice mailbox indicating a specific time in the future. If he proceeded to hear the voice mailbox, he got to hear his own voice, saying two to three lines followed with (usually) a scream.


The mailbox apparently foretells the death of the phone's owner. The phone's owner would be found dead by the indicated time and would recite the lines as heard from the mailbox, shortly before encountering his death. Nakamura Yumi (Shibasaki Kou) somehow finds herself entangled with the event when she witnessed people around her dying shortly after receiving the horrendous call. When she finds out the death call formed some sort of a chain connection, she knows she was the next in line and thus intended to reverse the curse or whatever caused the whole death call to occur.

The movie never stopped sending chills to me and to almost everyone in the room. The whole tension hasn't risen until the half portion of the movie, but as it was approaching the climax, Shibasaki Kou's convincing act didn't lower the rate of my pounding heart. Although I must say I was a little disappointed by the vague ending, but I didn't blame the movie for that. Japanese movie makers might just prefer to imply the ending rather than explaining it bluntly to audience like the American version does. The actors including Shibasaki and the detective guy themselves delivers great acting in the movie. However, it terms of effect, storyline, and the chilling sensation, Japanese version definitely owns it. Duh.

Along the movie, Tanuj never stopped teasing us scaredy girls by abruptly playing the One Missed Call ringtone in his own phone during the movie. Aymee and I nearly jumped off as a reaction. Moments later, Tanuj played Justin Bieber's Baby in his phone, saying that we might prefer to listen to that instead of the creepy sounding ringtone, since he thought JB's Baby was even much scarier the creepy sounding ringtone from the movie -__-

The movie was done by 1 am and as a result, I needed Ardy and Aymee to take me home. They even walked me to my door to make sure I was back safe, sound, and not paranoid.

Well...since this post mentions a lot about Shibasaki Kou, I guess I wouldn't miss the chance to mention one trivial fact I find about her. I don't know if you guys think the same, hopefully you do. I always knew Shibasaki Kou always reminds me of someone first time I saw her on Orange Days (I give my credit to Elda for introducing this drama to me).

Apparently that other look-a-like person turns out to beeee.....

No other than Victoria or Song Qian of f(x).
Don't ya think? Look at the big eyes and similar hairstyle! Only Shibasaki Kou has fiercer and sharper features.

Pictures credit to:
http://kpopislandrocks.wordpress.com/
http://www.filmfortress.com/one_missed_call_review/
http://fankykat.blogspot.com/2010/03/japanese-horror-movies.html

Let's get 'gila'!

I'm writing this an hour before leaving to SFO.
Just a quick post. Yesterday, Elda, Terry, and Aymee were having quite a lunatic night to celebrate our freedom after final exams. I started off the day by having a dance final exam, which turned out to be unexpected than what my dance partner and I expected to be. We prepared the whole choreography the day before and ended up getting a worthy score! Despite our inability to compose a choreography unlike other groups.

Then, I caught up with Elda and Aymee and together, we had a lunch at Quickly across our school. Anyway, we were going to have a sleepover yesterday and had planned to cook some curry (as suggested by Terry, our dearest friend from Japan).
After the quick shopping, we went to the cinema with the purchased tickets to watch Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1.

For some reasons, we were quite disappointed with the story. Won't spoil it here though.
Anyway, we went straight to my apartment, only to find out that the curry spices we bought for dinner were only for one person per serving. So in other words, we had to do nothing but decided on making an alternative choice of food, which turned out to be soup in two flavors (tomato flavored and salty flavored).
The activity resumed with us taking silly webcams together.

Then we continued the rest of the night by watching Toy Story 3. That was the first time for Terry and Elda (Aymee had returned home) watching the movie. Since Terry is a Japanese and Elda is pretty much into Japanese stuff, so you can imagine the excitement they had when they spotted Totoro in the movie. In the end, the whole Toy Story movie suddenly turned to be "Totoro hunting", as we tried as hard as we could to spot the legendary character of Ghibli studio in any scenes of the movie.



So I guess that's about it. Actually I'm writing this in my bedroom. Somehow I couldn't make it to finish the whole post prior to my departure so I decided to continue the rest here.
My journey home was EPIC! I'd definitely share it here :D

Perfumized!

Hi guys, how are you all doing? Anyway, I'm going home in less than a week
LESS THAN A WEEK!

My heart is constantly flip-flopping. Excited? Of course, but I still have many things to do prior to my departure, such as packing, although I don't really know what to pack aside of unused outfit, really.

Anyway, this week, Elda introduced me to a Japanese girl group called Perfume, consisting of A-chan (the youngest but she's the leader), Kashiyuka, and Nocchi. At first, their style kind of reminds me of typical Korean girl groups Wonder Girls or Kara. One thing you should know though, that Perfume specializes in Electropop instead of normal RnB dance song.
Well, the trio has an eyecatchy dance movements, like the tap dance in Nee PV and the 'walking' dance in Natural ni Koishite, as well as the eccentric video style they have in Fushizen na Girl.

The music style somehow brings me back to the good old days when I was still a huge fan of Jpop.

Check these videos out featuring my most favorite songs of theirs.

Nee (ねぇ)

Fushizen na Girl (不自然なガール)
Perfume - Fushizen na Girl (HQ)

Vezi mai multe video din muzica


Natural ni Koishite (ナチュラルに恋して)

A WEEK BEFORE SCHOOL!!

Just a week before school, but I already purchased all of my textbooks! I've shown you guys my Intermediate Algebra one which is freaking thick!

Lately I got two other textbooks for my English class which are much thicker and cheaper. Good thing, cos it'd be easier to carry them around.

Reminds me that I need to read them before school starts. Previewing, as you can tell.

Anyway, it also came to my realization that I lacked of nice casual clothes for college. Most of my clothes are dominated with white, and that's too monotone.
You wouldn't go to the campus everyday wearing the same color shirt would you?

So I was planning to buy (not shop) for some casual yet colorful shirts and coincidentally, my friends (Patricia and Astha) sort of asked me and Elda to hang out to the nearby shopping mall to just have lunch.
There was an impressive moment during lunch though. Patricia, who's also from Indonesia, happened to randomly asked Astha who comes from India about Hindi culture. We ended up talking about Hindi movies and the culture. Interestingly though, we also learned a bit of Hindi language, stuff like Namaste.

At the same time, the Asian lady happened to sit next to our table turned out to be an Indonesian and had a nice short talk with us. Apparently she comes from Central Java and had a pretty Javanese accent (how I miss hearing that accent). Her American husband suddenly popped out and greeted us with an "Apa kabar?".
It was sooo awkward that there was a short pause before we responded him. Isn't it interesting and surprising at the same time when you discover an American's able to speak your mother language?

After lunch, we moved to another mall located quite far from Cupertino and it's in Milpitas. To get there, we had to take a bus ride to Santa Clara, then switched to riding Light Rail (the so-called monorail you saw in my San Jose post eventually turned out to be referred as Light Rail instead of just monorail).

The second mall we happened to visit had cheaper stores. Elda, Patricia, and Astha were kind enough to help me look for some decent shirts.

On the way back to our apartments in the bus, Elda happened to hear two girls and one boy sitting behind her speaking Japanese. Then one of the girls and the boy got off, and there left the last girl on her own. Suddenly, the next thing I saw was Elda was already having a warm talk with that girl. I even heard some of Japanese words I happened to recognize, like "ima" which means "now" and "iru" which means "there/exist".

Everything seemed to go very fast and that the next thing I remembered, after Patricia (who sat next to me at that moment on the bus) got off, the Japanese girl gestured for me to sit next to her.

Here are some of the memorable quotes I was having with Ai-san (her name)

Me: Anata no namae wa nan desuka? (Trans: What's your name?)
Ai: Ai. (Then she sort of spoke "And you?" in Japanese. Forgot the words)
Me: Carissa. Yoroshiku onegaishimasu! (Trans: Nice to meet you!)

To which she responded with a laughter. She kept complimenting us how our Japanese was good despite of us being beginners (no, ME being a beginner. Elda has learned a lot of Japanese through its dramas. So consider her more as an intermediate).

I tried to recall all Japanese phrases I've learned at high school. But using them to speak with a real Japanese person seems harder than talking with your own teacher.

FYI, this is my first time speaking Japanese to a real Japanese person. You can imagine the whole awkwardness and stuff.

Me: What school do you go to go? Are you a DeAnza student? (I don't know the Japanese words for this. Probably stuff like "Anata no gakko wa nan desuka?)
Ai: No, I go to San Jose State University. (her Japanese accent is soo kawaii!)
Me: Ah... *pauses* sugoi! (Trans: good!)

Ai mentioned that she was really happy to finally meet someone who could speak Japanese, because she hadn't met strangers (non-Japanese) who could. I guess that day was her lucky day? Anyway Elda continued speaking random things in Japanese about dramas and we ended up talking about Arashi (a Japanese boyband) on the rest of our bus ride.

We felt all saddened when we came to our stop and that we had to part. But Elda had asked her email already and Ai said that she was going back to Japan in a week.
Safe trip, Ai!

That day was a bit multicultural-ish. It started with us learning some Hindi words, met a Javanese born lady, and ended with a sweet conversation with a Japanese student. :)

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

Yesterday was a bit exhausting, but it was really worth it since I finally got to find good yet cheap shirts. Not that cheap but at least reasonable (yep, that's exactly the word).

Yet today I hung out with Patricia and this time with some of my other friends like Rebecca, Angie, and Amira. Good thing that today, we got to watch Going the Distance.

That's like one of the not-so anticipated movies for me, but it turned out to be quite hilarious! I can tolerate the cursing, dirty jokes, and whatsoever, but Drew Barrymore looked fantastic there. It's not a surprise anymore that her costar in the movie, Justin Long, IS indeed her real life boyfriend. That's one pretty interesting fact about the movie.

Movie time was over, but sadly there wasn't plenty of thing to see in the mall where the cinema was located, so we decided to go to Santana Row instead to take a look around.

Patricia happened to spot this CHILI restaurant where we munched on our afternoon snacks.

Cheese fries
I'm a fan of french fries but this is my first time trying a cheese-smeared fries.
Cheese is also one of my favorite side dish. So you can imagine...
French fries + cheese = perfection!

Love the jalapenos too.
Anyway I think it's spelled "halapenyos"


Chicken Crisper
You need some sort of thin bread (don't know how to call that in English) to wrap these chickens. Then you eat it the way you eat a hotdog


The side dish. :p


Chocolate Molten for dessert!
A combination of heated chocolate cake and a vanilla ice cream underneath the dome-shaped chocolate.
I luuurrrrveee chocolate so much!
This is probably my most favorite chocolate cake I've ever eaten. Yum yum.

Speaking of chocolate, I'm planning to make some experiments on chocolate later on. Lately I've been into cooking pretty much, mixing random spices, garnishing onions, garlic, pepper, and salt.
But the result's not pretty bad. I used to cook when I was little though, but then I always puked everything that I cooked, so that's why I stopped cooking until I moved to the US, where the situation forced me to resume cooking.

Cooking's been pretty much my current hobby aside of writing these days, and especially after I'm forced to temporarily skip my two favorite hobbies after moving in to the USA: photoshopping (I haven't installed it on my mac yet T_T) and playing violin (just broke its E string and changed it immediately, but considering that I live in an apartment, I can't do that freely. Unless you want a neighbor to actually knock on your door and ask you to shut up).

Anyway, back to cooking. So yeah, so far I've cooked random things without the help of recipe at all. I've been applying "Ratatouille" concept of "Anyone can cook". Maybe next time I'll post some of the food that I got to cook here.

It's been a long post. See you very soon!

SCHOOL STARTS IN A WEEK!!! ARRRGGGHHHH

the parade of good looking japanese boys

I'm currently taking a break from posting about Kpop :D
I'm feeling better today. My belly still aches but not as severe as yesterday. I'm sure you wouldn't want to hear more about me and my stupid stomachache that kept bothering me these two days.

Anyway, I believe I've mentioned that I'm currently on a long holiday (not really, it's actually 2 weeks off school before the classes start on September 20), plenty of time to spend at the bay area. When Elda and I are in the lazy "don't-want-to-spend-money-today" mood, even not strolling in this small town, we would always stick ourselves in front of each computers and tuning on Mysoju.com.

I'm telling you: that place is a paradise.
At least for those who love drama and for those who bother enough to buy the DVD series and prefer to watch'em online.

Good thing I've strolled from one drama to another in a quick pace and happened to spot these beautiful faces of the actors.

Here are some that I found the most handsome:

Mizushima Hiro

Mei-chan no Shitsuji is one of Jdramas that I've been watching these days. He plays as a high-ranked butler, Shibata Rihito, that serves the protagonist named Shinonome Mei. The way Mizushima's character delivers formal sayings or how he gestures are just melting. I also adore his smile, although it may not be as 'killing' as other actors, but still, he's got one sweet smile.
While taking a break of watching Mei-chan no Shitsuji, I switched to watch Tokyo DOGS, another series he participates in. It's quite a surprise how his character there is totally different from the calm butler Shibata Rihito.

Mayama Akihiro
He plays another butler in Mei-chan no Shitsuji called Aoyama, with a lower rank than Rihito's. Frankly I could hardly distinguish Aoyama and Rihito at the first time since they nearly resembled each other, except that Aoyama - since his rank is lower than Rihito's - tends to wear gray outfit instead of black. But until in one episode, where Rihito is seen to have been dueling with Aoyama, I could clearly see how Aoyama looks younger, cute, and fierce at the same time. I decided to spazz more on Aoyama since then though.

Haruma Miura
First spotted him in 14-Sai no Haha where he sort of played the father of the girl he impregnates. I haven't seen much of his character, but so far, he looks like typical of cute guys, not too cute but also looks fierce and serious at the same time (same thing goes to Mayama Akihiro)

Osamu Mukai
I've seen him act in two movies, Mei-chan no Shitsuji and Seigi no Mikata where he plays characters that makes a clear contrast against each other. In Mei-chan no Shitsuji, he plays the butler of Yamada Yu's character and apparently, an antagonist (sort of hate his white hair that doesn't match him obviously). In Seigi no Mikata, his character is simply admirable! Who doesn't adore a clean-cut handsome young working man with a golden heart? The way he handles his ill-natured love interest (again, played by Yamada Yu) cool headedly, his passion towards Yamada's character, towards Yamada's character's younger sister and their families, is just melting, which is why I think Mukai's character is officially the best ideal type of a husband one has ever seen.

Kanata Hongo

Watched him again in Seigi no Mikata, but I've spotted him twice in other projects such as his notable role as Echizen Ryoma. I'm quite surprised that he made his way to Western film industries through his role in 'Silk' where he plays a young servant who encounters his unfortunate faith later on in the story.
Lately I happened to find The Gospellers' new video featuring him. He sort of plays a young member of an orchestra with a specialty in clarinet.

Ryo Nishikido
A member of NEWS! Despite his serious looks, I figured that he could act funny as well along with the other members of NEWS.
Elda showed me this funny variety show featuring the boyband, where the members are asked to reveal their secrets and sometimes how they honestly feel to the other members. I'm quite surprised that Nishikido has a supporting role in Last Friends. His character is rather pathetic since he plays a rude boyfriend who doesn't stop abusing his girlfriend, but in the other side, his character is vulnerable too. Eh OMG, he's got a deadly look. X_X

Junichi Okada

He's got gorgeous eyes! Honestly I don't know much about him but again, Elda 'injected' me with this Jpop virus by showing me a video where Junichi was interviewed and asked what he'd do if he wanted to ask a girl out, but he put on that serious tone and said. "Can I have your phone number?" in a formal and monotone way.

I guess that's a wrap. Have a good day guys :D

Paper Doll

Hey there!! How're you guys doing?

Say konnichiwa to Momoko!
(Momo = peach; Ko = girl)

She's a washi ningyou that I made quite a while ago my Japanese class.
Yes, I tend to name things even if it's a cute inanimated object or artwork

Instead of using the real paper customized for these traditional dolls we used a wrapping paper since we were beginners ourselves, which you can tell from the funny blue patterned obi which contains a picture of wheels.

The making didn't take quite long, around an hour especially if you're capable in hand's speed. All we did were just cutting the wrapping papers into many small squares, with various sizes, and the rest were just another cutting stuff and folding things, and last but not least was painting the doll's face.

Voila, and Momoko's ready to be on display!

when two worlds collide

So yesterday was my first meeting at a manga school in Jakarta since signing up for a photoshop class.

Before getting to the point, there are some things that you should know. You know what manga is, it's a form of comic originated from Japan before beginning to develop worldwide. Since the school itself was established by a Japanese, so you get the picture that everything in the classroom is dominated with all Japanese culture.

The place was peaceful though, with only a few quiet students scribbling their brush pens on a customized paper while the sensei (the Japanese lady that established the school) was explaining in front of the class with a sweet Japanese accent, and when she went out from the classroom for a minute or two, you'd hear her speaking in Japanese with a staff or on the phone.

Other things that complete the Japanese-ish vibe are Japanese songs played continously in the classroom (they even played Arashi songs!! How cool was that?), the Japanese magazines all over the places, with some Japanese-scribbled illustration works displayed in the wall.

Get the picture? Okay.

Anyway, you know that these days I've been really into Korean culture. It's been a while since I've kind of taken a break from listening to Larc en Ciel, NEWS, and Hey! Say! JUMP, apparently hypnotized enough by Kpop. So when I entered the classroom for the first time, I felt that my longing deep down moaned in satisfaction. I was like "Oh I miss these stuffs!".

With all thick Japanese vibe filling the room, I imagined that maybe the staff members and students are still fond of Jpop no matter how Kpop has widely developed. I thought I wouldn't bring up a question whether they like Kpop or not.

But not until...

The other class with whom I shared with was over, right before mine is too. So as the students were stepping out of the classroom, new ones entered - consisting of three teenage girls - and they were unexpectedly louder and noisier than the previous ones, who were effin' quiet. Guess what they were talking about...

(I write according to what I remembered, since I was working at my drawing at that moment)

Girl #1: "...oh yes, I know Dongho! From Ukiss right? He's such a sweetie!"

Girl #2: "Sure he is. Oh do you know Ukiss' song called Bingeul Bingeul? It goes like... *singing the song in Korean*"

My ears - unfamiliar to hear a foreign language spoken in such place - quickly perched up.

The girls entered the classroom and noticed me and my other classmate (of the same class) still working on our artwork. They went up to introduce themselves.

Girl #1: "Do you happen to like Kpop?"

Me: "Yes!" *surprised*

Girl #2: "Really?? What band then?"

Me: "I like all bands but my most favorite one is Super Junior."

*imagine seeing biased girls screaming and yelling when it comes to talking about their favorite artists. yep, that's what happened after that in response to my answer*

Girl #1: *taking a breath after screaming* "I can't believe!! Another ELF!! I met another ELF!" (ELF: Everlasting Friends or a name for Super Junior's fan)

Girl #2: "Which member is your favorite?"

Anyway the third girl is kind of quiet. So she just listened.

Me: "Kyuhyuuun!! *excitedly*"

*Another scene of screaming and jumping in excitement among these girls. I would call this situation as epic*

Girl #2: "Favorite pairing?"

Me: "Um...*I'm not getting used to picking my favorite pairings, but okay*
Kyumin - Kyuhyun and Sungmin (???)"

Girl #1: "Aww...too bad. I prefer Eunhae - Eunhyuk and Donghae - though."

Me: "They're fine too!"

Actually I wanted to mention something more about this Eunhae more and how Eunhyuk used to like Donghae for REAL years ago, but so little time we had since my class was almost over.

Sensei's assistant then came to us and happened to be involved in the conversation.

Sensei's assistant: "Ooh, you like Kpop too? I love Brown Eyed Girls, especially their Abracadabra song and their dances!"

HA! That place was unexpectedly dominated with Kpop fans, eh? Much to my surprise. I thought the girls coming and Sensei's assistant herself would be talking stuff like "Do you listen to Arashi?" or "Do you watch Dorama? Watch this anime? Read this manga?" Well, I didn't expect but I kind of hoped that the talk would at least support the atmosphere of the place. It was a place with strong Japanese vibe. Those kinds of talk would at least support it.

But then these girls just came up and finally, we ended up talking about our interests, which comes from Japan's neighboring country itself, Korea. We talked really loud after that, joined with sensei's hilarious assistant. The Arashi song playing softly in the background was slowly faded with our laughter and our Sorry Sorry singing.

I felt kind of awkward though, but all in all, it was a good moment of unexpectation and surprise.

Meeting Kpop fans is the last thing I thought would happen in that place, but well, a trend is a trend, and it's everywhere. Yes, I've met Kpop fans almost everywhere: in my jazz course, in my violin course, and also in my English course (though a friend of mine in my English course isn't too biased).

Thank goodness, Sensei herself was not at the classroom at that moment. She was outside for a moment or two. I imagine she would be like.

"What are you talking about?" ^^

私は日本と韓国の大衆文化を愛する。^__^
(trans=I love both Japanese and Korean pop culture)