惡作劇之忻

http://www.gtv.com.tw/Program/S051420051001U/index.htm
http://www.ctv.com.tw/event/2005/kiss/

Here's my Cliffnotes version of "It Started with a Kiss"...

Why? (I needed a fun way to procastinate from working on tomarrows class lessons....this seemed to do it)

Enjoy!!!
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Ariel Lin as Yuan Xiangqin 袿湘翴

Yuan Xiangqin is a naive but optimistic high school girl. Ever since she met Jiang Zhishu at the freshman orientation, she couldn't help but fall in love with him. After two years of having a crush towards him, she finally decides to profess her love for him. Rejection! That evening, the new house she recently moved into collapses in a minor earthquake. She and her father are instantly made homeless. Fortunately, her father's old high school friend extends a helping hand and takes both of them into his home. But she'd never imagined that the kind and amicable Uncle Li is the father of Jiang Zhishu. Because of the unexpected turn of events, the two of them begin living their lives under the same roof.





















Joe Cheng as Jiang Zhishu 江直樹

IQ 200 genius! He rejects Yuan's confession since he despises people less smarter than he. His cold-hearted rejection immediately turns her into the biggest joke of the school. He's very smart, clever, calm, and reserved. Yet, Yuan makes him go crazy and then he becomes very short-tempered! She's the total opposite of him and he can't seem to grasp just how silly/dumb she really is. He feels she views life in such an easy way and he be-littles her many times for it.














Jiang is WAY popular with the Ladies and GREAT in sports. Yuan is determined to be by his side at all times, so wherever he goes...she's there in disquise. She'll even join the tennis team to spend more time with him. She trys going on dates to make him jealous, but it doesn't seem to work. Luckily Jiang doesn't date anyone, so Yuan feels at ease. She's just sad he pays her no attention and looks down on her a lot!



















After living under the same roof together - Jiang and Yuan get to share some random, serious, and hilarious times. Yuan begins to love Jiang more and more and little by litte they're getting to know each other better.



















As time goes on...
Jiang's mother remains a constant pain in his side since she's ALWAYS plotting to set Jiang and Yuan up in hopes of a future together. This drives Jiang nuts since he wants to have his own future and own plans - not having a job (since his father is wanting him to take over the family business even though he has plans to become a doctor) AND a wife already picked out for him.

As time goes on though, Yuan starts to win over Zhishu's heart and her silly ways slowly break down his coldness. As much as he doesn't want to admit it, Yuan IS a good match for him and they share some secret kisses.

Yet, the persistant meddeling from his Mother and other people make him step back from openly expressing his love for Yuan. He hurts her instead and trys to make other choices for what he believes is for the good of all!
















To finally go against his parents constant wishes of marrying Yuan, Jiang starts dating a women with the same smarts and looks as himself - Some one who he thinks is perfectly equal. One thing leads to another and they quickly get engaged, even though Jiang is hiding his real feelings.













With her heart broken yet again -Yuan finally comes to the conclusion she needs to give up on Jiang once and for all, so she starts dating Jin -an old high school classmate who has had a crush on her for the longest time. She has a fun/good time with him even though she's still deeply in love with Jiang. Jin eventually proposes to her, but Yuan needs time to think it over.
When Jiang finds out, he literally freezes in fear!



















The tables turn!
After hearing about Yuan's marriage proposal and much personal debate...Jiang finally sees that he cannot let anyone else have her (dispite he's feeling about letting his parents get their way with his future and the fact that he's engaged himself) -he decides to finally openly express his feelings for Yuan and marry her instead! :)
(all coming up in ep. 19)













The End (so far!)

All the episodes haven't aired yet (yayy!)
SO, the marriage is still coming up and plenty more after that.
The Marriage episode (ep.19) should be a crazy/memorable one!
Right now ep. 18 was the last released. Can't wait!!!
TO BE CONTINUED...

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FYI-
The actors height is WAY off!
Joe Cheng who plays Jiang Zhishu 江直樹 is actual 188cm (10 cm TALLER than ME!) while Ariel Lin who plays Yuan Xiangqin 袿湘翴 is only 162cm. So while shotting, she has to stand on boxes to pull of a medium level between the two. Too funny!


















While the actors are wonderful on screen, they can be even funnier off screen.
I've seen some of thier bloopers, and they're crazy!!! (i luv it!)

I'm lucky because I am doing what I like to do.

(自分のやりたいことをやっているのは幸せ。)

The Monk

We took Road 113 from Niigata to Murakami (after getting lost for a bit), but this is the scenic route that goes along the coast. Along the way we say a GIANT Monk, which we just HAD to stop at and take pictures of. After checking it out, we became determined to come back in the Spring and climb all the way to the top (we think/hope that's possible) since it looks like the eyes are cut out for view points. Future Road Trip, yeah!

THE STORY OF THE MONK (as told by Deccy to Shanna and Shanna to I)
A wealthy and sometimes stingy man owned a business across the street from where the Monk now stands. Sometime ago, he had a dream where the Monk (a 17th century Monk who lived in that area in the past) came to him and told him he needed to start spreading his wealth and working better with the people around him otherwise harm would come his way - death. The man took the dream seriously and partnered up with some of the smaller businesses around him and gave lots of his money away. He ended up building the statue of the Monk for others to learn about his dream and the fact to 'help where it is needed'. He's still alive today (maybe, not sure!) - just wanted to throw in a happy ending! :)

There's also a picture of the ocean view with the mountains in the background. Not the best of pictures since I took it while driving on the scary ice, but it can give you a SMALL image of the beauty that is Niigata. I love Niigata!!!!

Murakami Sweetness!!!

The Mayor of Murakami was kind enough to invite all the performers and participants in the play for Curry Lunch before our Saturday night performance. What a wonderful meal it was, I had the spinach chicken curry...Mmmm!!!! It was another deal all together driving to Murakami that day and dealing with the icy/snowy roads (since Japan doesn't even know what a snow PLOW is) and blizzard conditions. Scary Snowy Winds!!! Afterwards many people crashed at the performance hall for an hour or so before getting dressed while I debated about 1 to 2 weeks in PNG - finally decided on ONE WEEK...YEAH!

3rd Play - Murakami

Our 3rd play performance was up north in the ken - Murakami - Kat's, Pam's, and Deccy's hood! The play went well, but went by much quicker since we're all not as nervous anymore. Kinda nice! Didn't really have a proper dressing room this time after being spoiled from the last two places. Here we all had to cram into one long room with changing AND make-up - fun times! Also, I threw in some pics from the view off stage...a little behind the scenes - ENJOY!!!

My New Favorite Drama

My new favorite drama isn't Japanese, nor Korean....it's a Taiwanese drama.

Surprise! Surprise!

It's called
It Started with a Kiss
and it's based on a Japanese Manga-

Itazurana Kiss
(aka "Playful Kiss")

THE STORY: (Like most Asian dramas, it sounds really...hmm how shall I put this...SAPPY, but it's actual a really good story...i think you just get sucked into it and start loving it)

"I don't want it." Kotoko is upset when the boy that she has been in love with for 2 years refused to accept the love letter that she has written for him. This has made her the laughingstock of the school. Everyone has expected such outcome as Naoki from the A-Class would never go out with Kotoko from the F-Class. Not only he is from the A-Class, he is also a genius and a top student in school. With this rejection, Kotoko decides to move on.
Unexpectedly, during a visit from her friends, her house collapses. Her father decides to put her up at his friend's house while the house is being re-built. To her shock, "the friend" that her father has referred to is Naoki's father. Now that they are living under the same roof, Kotoko's feelings for Naoki (which has never gone away anyway...) rekindles...

The story flys by really quickly, the last year of thier high school was only 2 episodes. Now they're half way through college. So far there are 18 episodes out in Tiawan (I'm on 12 currently), but I'm eager to see what happens...since I know they get married in the Manga....I'm curious if the TV show will stay true to it (hopefully!!!)

If your curious or just bored...check it out yourself! Enjoy!

DRAMA:
http://silentregrets.com/
http://d-addicts.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=23607&sid=cdd0ffa9064522e5b0d8ed28accf2e7d

MANGA:
http://www.suki-desu.com/itazuranakiss/index.html

MUSIC: (One of my favorite songs at the moment from the show)
http://rapidshare.de/files/7432021/02-_It_Started_With_A_Kiss_-_Say_You_Love_Me__Jason____Lara_.mp3.html
The show has TONS of other amazing songs!!!

School Life

I love when my students get to draw in class and then I get to grade the papers, such cuteness!
I started work on my English Board at my Base school - Ikarashi. It's coming along, slowly but surely. Next week I plan to add actual photos and maybe a Valentine's Day crossword puzzle students can grab-and-go if they want to learn more English words in their spare time.
As I was putting it up the WHOLE 3rd grade class (all 200+) passed on their way home...so they got a preview. Even had a few students stopping and asking me questions and guessing what the words were I was putting up. I told them to come back and check it soon, so YEAH...they're excited!!!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!!!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MOM!!!!
I hope you have a WONDERFUL birthday!!!
Love you lots!!!
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Happy Birthday Deccy!!!!

Enjoy 24!!!

Sapporo Yuki Matsuri

http://www.snowfes.com/dh/ssf06/

http://www.snowfes.com/english/index.html

Wow, it's coming up quickly. I booked these tickets even BEFORE I went to Thailand, but yeah....i can't wait now. It'll be fun to branch out in Japan and see what's up North (Hokkaido, I mean). I knew/heard about this Snow Festival even BEFORE I came to Japan, so I'm eager to see what it'll be like. There's a fun group of us going - Myself, Beth, Ros, Kristi, and Joel - so we'll have a crazy time. Yeah!

We fly out February 10th and come back on the 12th, nice wknd get away!

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The Sapporo Snow festival is magnificent, and an event not to be missed. It is one of the largest winter events in Japan and is an absolute gem. If you have the opportunity to go to Sapporo at this time of year, make sure you take it. The festival takes place in early February for 7 days (the actual day of the following year's festival is decided immediately after each festival finishes). In 2006 the festival is from February 6th to 12th. In Japanese it is called the
Sapporo Yuki Matsuri.

During the festival literally hundreds of snow and ice sculptures are created in three areas of Sapporo City: These are

Odori Koen - Sapporo's central park & playground which hosts the artistic snow sculptures, the festival launch, and much of the live music and other entertainment. This section is open day and night.

Susukino - the nightlife area which hosts the ice festival, where sculptures are carved using chainsaws and other power tools on the first day of the festival. Open day and night but best viewed after dark.

Makomanai - the grounds of the Japanese Self-Defense Force base of the same name, which always hosts enormous snow sculptures and snow and ice slides for children. Easily accessed via a short train ride on Sapporo's subway, it is usually only open during the day.

The Sapporo Snow Festival began spontaneously - in 1950 a group of 6 local high school students decided to build snow sculptures in Odori Koen. Japan was still recovering from the aftermath of the war (the occupation didn't finish until the Treaty of San Francisco in 1952) and economically times were still fairly tough. Unemployment was particularly high in Sapporo during this period, due to the loss of fisheries, disruption of markets, a low level of public works expenditure, demobilization and a large number of people displaced by the war - some 400,000 from Sakhalin alone.
The activities of the students gained publicity in the local media, and many locals took their enthusiasm to heart and began to feel more optimistic for the future. It took only a couple of years for the festival to become extremely popular in the local area. In 1955 just 5 years after the 6 students took their initiative, the soldiers from the Makomanai base of the newly established Self-Defense Force also began to participate. Initially this was done partly in order to give the men something to do, but it was quickly understood that making the sculptures was proving to be an excellent team work building exercise and a good way to test the leadership, problem solving skills and initiative of junior officers & NCO's.
The involvement of the SDF was probably what secured the festival's long term success, as it was the soldiers who first built the now famous giant statues, and the wonderful snow slides for children and also the theme sculptures which helped the festival grow. Japanese calendars from as early as the mid-1950's began to feature these sculptures, and it was largely due to the giant sculptures and slides built by the Makomanai base personnel that the festival became widely known throughout Japan by media, popular culture and domestic tourism.