This is for you Grace...

Name: 小栗旬
Oguri Shun

Profession: Actor
Date of Birth: December 26th, 1982
Birthplace: Tokyo
Height: 182cm
Weight: 70kg
Star Sign: Capricorn
Blook Type: O

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This is for you Grace, Enjoy! Oguri Shun plays Hanazawa Rui on Hana Yori Dango....Basically he's Grace's man while Jun is mine. (Though I do admit he's pretty kawaii in these photos) :)We'll give Beth one of the other less important F4s. You do know I'm gonna have to post more of Tsukasa now to make up for this Rui stuff :P
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Comment from Grace:

"gracie さんのコメント...
*heart palpitations*I LOVE YOU JO!!!!!!!He is too hot...I can't handle it...*faint*
Tuesday, 22 November, 2005"

My Japanese Pop-Star Crush

Masumoto Jun

松本潤

JPop Group: Arashi (Sings "WISH" for Hana Yori Dango)
Age: 22
Birthday: 30 August 1983
Star Sign: VirgoBlood Type: AHeight: 173 cmWeight: 53 kg

"What greater gift than the love of a cat?" - Charles Dickens

Mallie

(short for Malibu)
Nov. 2001 - Nov. 2005

You always got your nails snagged, but you were the softest kitty I ever knew.

You will be missed dearly!

-*- A cat has absolute emotional honesty: human beings, for one reason or another, may hide their feelings, but a cat does not. - Ernest Hemingway

-*- If animals could speak the dog would be a a blundering outspoken fellow, but the cat would have the rare grace of never saying a word too much. - Mark Twain

-*- The smallest feline is a masterpiece. - Leonardo da Vinci

-*- Cats can be very funny, and have the oddest ways of showing they're glad to see you. Rudimac always peed in our shoes. - W. H. Auden

Japanese Favorites!

My Favorite Japanese song(s) @ the moment:

-"Be my last" By Utada Hikaru
-"Pop Star" By Chemisty

My Favorite Japanese TV show(s) @ the moment:

-Hana Yori Dango "Boys over Flowers" (Ch. 5 TBS Fridays @10pm)

"Tsukushi is a new student at Eitoku Gakuen - an exclusive school attended by rich families' children. Being poor, she is always bullied and sabotaged by her schoolmates. Things become worse when she crosses the path of F4 (a group comprises of the 4 richest guys). And along the way, she makes friend with Rui, a person who has helped her often, and falls in love with him. Shortly after, her head rival, Tsukasa, also reveals that he likes her. This turn-around situation puts Tsukushi in a very difficult position as she doesn't know what to do."

***This show is based on a famous Manga (comic book) here in Japan (like most Japanese shows are), the episodes are actually quite enjoyable. Even though I don't understand much of the Japanese, it's fun to watch with friends and make up our own story lines.

Plus, Jun Matsumoto is in it...Kawaii (Cute!) - He was also in another favorite show on mine: Gokusen!

-Koi Suru Hanikami "Honey Coming" (Ch. 5 TBS Fridays @11pm)

A Japanese dating show, they have two couples meet for the frist time and for the next 24 hours they're to look like a couple in every way. Of course, they're to do cute date stuff...but since the Japanese are so bashful when it comes to PDA - it's reather hilarious and adoable at the same time to watch. But they do set up some AMAZING dates!

-Gokusen (Season 2 finished) http://www.ntv.co.jp/gokusen/

Yamaguchi Kumiko, age 23 and fresh out of college, obtains her first teaching position as a math teacher in Shiroken High School. The school itself has a pretty bad reputation, and to make it worse, Kumiko gets saddled with the most ill-mannered students in the school – class 2-D (3-D in the drama). Slowly, she earns their respect as she helps them with their problems and proves that she really cares for them time and time again. However, Kumiko is harboring a secret: she is from a yakuza (Japanese mafia) family and is heiress to the Ooedo Clan. If anyone were to find out, her dream of being a teacher would be over!

Grocery Treat of the Week

(Top) It's a famous fruit here in Japan called KAKI (if you were to translate it into English, it's be a Persimmon....yeah, I'm not sure what that is either) So - KAKI (kaa-key) it is! It looks like a mixture between a orange and tomato, but you peel it like an apple and the inside looks just like an apple as well (just a little orange
y). It also has no seeds and is kind of sweet. It's not bad, just very interesting since it's SO famous here (you see it everywhere at the grocery stores) and I've never seen/heard/tasted it until today! :) P.s...Ignore my fingernails....i still have one my Halloween Stickers.

(Middle) Lemon Water - my new favorite drink from the Conbini (what we call the MANY convenience stores here). It's just water with a little Lemon, quite tasty! Plus, it's sort of in English...YEAH!

(Last) I think one of the most PRIZED items here in Japan for Gaijins (Aliens to Japan - like me) is CHEESE, eps. this one with CHEDDAR! OMG....cheese is SO impossible to find here(ESP. CHEDDAR), so when they started selling this at the local Shimzu (my grocery store) I buy them out!!! :) There tiny, only about 3 inches long and 2 inches wide and very slim and they cost about 130YEN per package, but I LOVE IT. It's so good!!! When my friends from the country come to the city on the wknds to visit...they freak when they see it and buy tons before going back home. Lucky me living in the city!

Costumes!!!! Happy Halloween 2005

Cute Bartender @ ALife and his back-less suit! Nice!!

Peace!!!

Happy Halloween!!!

Happy Halloween TOKYO STYLE! ;) Last Saturday we had a major murder mystery in Tokyo during the day, so we were running all over the city collecting clues while wearing cat ears, since we were the Niigata Neko (Niigata Cats)!!! At night, we dressed it up and partied late into the night in Rappongi Hills - ALife. Check out some of the other costumes floating around. It was a CRAZY night, but i LOVED every minute!!!

Random Japan I

Picture taken at a little Cafe on "tree" street, I thought it was cool how they were translating Spanish into Japanese. At least that way I can understand it a little more.

View of an Obesan (Grandpa -usually anyone older in Japan is referred to as Obesan (male) or Obasan (female) ) working in this garden one afternoon on my way home from work. I wish I would have gotten a pic of the Obasan, she was cute and wearing her rice hat (like the one you see on Hello Kitty below)

The strawberry and horses was taken on a child playground near my base school Ikarashi, isn't it the cutest thing? The Hello Kitty you see is the officially NIIGATA-KEN kitty, since our prefecture has the BEST RICE in all of Japan (and YES, we boost about that EVERYWHERE) our kitty is a rice farmer, too cute!

The last pic was taking' on our way from Nagano-ken. Just one of the random signs you see all over Japan. I have no idea what it says, but it's still interesting!

2nd Play Practice

Held in a small town/village right before Niitsu. Here the Elephants are working on their costumes, kawaii (cute). Everyone else was either practicing lines, helping crew paint the sets, or working on dance moves. Being one of the wolves myself....we learned the first part to MJ's Thriller - since that's the opening sequence to the play. It looks REALLY awesome so far, i can't wait till Sado Island (our next practice Nov. 12th) There we'll work mostly on make-up, so it should be some good times.

Ikarashi Culture Fesival

Sunday Oct. 23rd was Ikarashi's Culture Festival. It went ALL day, so all the students and teachers had Monday off to rest. Not me though, the joys of being an ALT (not officially a teacher, so I don't get the same perks)

I was interviewed by the 2nd and 3rd graders who were doing a report over different cultures, so that was interesting/fun. These are a few pics of the Koto club (top pic of the girls on stage playing their 13 string Kotos - a very traditional Japanese instrument)
After that, many of the student performed different skits (the dark pic was from the remake of Cinderella, the student is riding in on a white horse (other students) and he ACTUALLY kissed the boy playing Cinderella...too funny!) But over all, it was a fun experience and I'm glad I went. GOOD JOB Ikarashi!!!

Shame - Saturday Nite!!!

This is what happens after play practice in Niigata-shi. We didn't have practice in the city, but the party sure came here. That's why I LOVE being a city girl!!!

I've been checking out my friends Grace's BLOG and she has these GREAT shots of our Fuji trip, so I wanted to share some too. This pic shows just how STEEP Fuji was climbing up. Kawai! (Scary!)

The Next Best Thing!

This would have to be the next best thing to watching the Sun rise LIVE on Fuji and/or video taping it, but isn't it amazing?

Now you can see WHY they call Japan the LAND OF THE RISING SUN. It literally rises/peeks from the clouds and it IS RED.

Enjoy!!!