Tag: english

Movie night: Tekken, Prince of Persia

October 15, 2010
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Last night as my connection was down, i decided to have some offline fun: watch movies. Thus i watched the two seemingly lightest pieces, two game cover movies, Tekken and Prince of Persia (note here, it’s annoying like hell that sites try to serve me content in japanese based on my location). I decided to write just one post about the two movies together, for the simple reason i can sum them up better this way.

Game adaptations, with loads of action, american movie cliches and practically no story (even less than with the games, not to mention the movies’ storylines are just vaguely similar to the games’). That’s all. Great visual effects, easy to watch, quick to forget. Good exactly for the reason i watched them: light but exciting entertainment. I got it.

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After dark, aka. the intermezzo between Okinawa and China

October 15, 2010
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Unrelated, though looking at my financial status my next gig will probably be an Ajikan in november. The point is, after my adventurous trip back to Naha, the next day i woke up in time, packed my stuff, bought a bottle of awamori for souvenir, got on the plane at Naha, Okinawa prefecture and flew back to Osaka. There i changed trains a few times, walked a while, and here i was in my good old room in Hikone, Shiga prefecture, Japan.

But it was not a day of rest. It was already late and my club friends just happened to ask me if i wanted to go to karaoke. Yeah, i wanted to. So i went to karaoke, and i got back home around 4 am. A bit late, considering i was supposed to wake around 6 so that i could catch a train to Osaka to get my visa in time… Obviously it didn’t work out. I didn’t even wake when my alarm went off, so i still didn’t have my chinese visa, even though i was leaving the very next day.

No surprise i was a bit anxious all day, but at least i got a charger for the ipod and a voltage converter so that i could use it at all. I had to wake early again…

Third day

October 13, 2010
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Today was unexpected. I mean, not that the sun rose up, and with it i, but the events later. First, for some mysterious reason i woke up almost an hour before my phone’s alarm went off. Nevermind, at least i had time to do everything i wanted to do, nice slow.

Then it turned out we didn’t have afternoon classes (which would’ve been two english lessons), instead some meeting of non-sports clubs, which included us, the music club too. It was dead boring, and apparently it was not only me who couldn’t get what was going on at all—the fellow japanese looked just as bored as i did. Not to mention it was frickin long. We had to get there at three pm, and it was almost seven by the time i got home. I could’ve spent those hours better, for example practicing… I have six songs to learn (four of which i play the bass, two just vocals) asap, so i won’t have much free time…

Anyway, just before eight our drummer called if i wanted to go karaoke… Sure, why not. Thus i went to karaoke again, after a month or so… It was fun. I more or less am able to sing enough japanese songs to go one western – one japanese. Yeah, i still love karaoke.

Okinawa, day five

October 10, 2010
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After i woke up at Yoshika, i again headed off for the Chiraumi park. The day before i didn’t see any of the water shows or the aquarium, but this day too my first priority was to make it to the beach. I wanted to enjoy it as much as possible in that day, because i had no way to be sure that i’ll have any more good weather. The view was spectacular…

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Okinawa, day seven – hitchhiking adventures

October 10, 2010
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My day before the last at Okinawa was very adventurous. I woke up very early in the morning, packed my stuff and hoped to cross the bridge before it gets closed because of the typhoon. Left a thank-you note on the table and headed out. It started raining as soon as i set foot on the bridge, but i didn’t mind much since i had no illusions about making it back to Naha dry. I just had to get to the bus stop nearby and hope i’d get connections all the way. But it was raining hard, so i decided to give a try for hitchhiking to the nearest bus stop. Luckily enough, soon two surfer guys picked me up, and offered a ride not just to the next stop but all the way to Nago (where i had to change on the way to Motobu). In Nago i walked to the bus station (on the way making my usual ice coffee out of Via and having two onigiri for brunch (which, apparently, is a recognized english word)). This town seemed so… abandoned. I mean, there were people everywhere, but the overall impression was that it’s a dying town.

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Gone for good, aka. Stargate Atlantis

October 7, 2010
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Don’t worry, i wasn’t lost or dead, neither was i abducted, though i did spent most of my free time in the Pegasus galaxy. Anyone familiar with that phrase? Yeah, i’ve been watching Stargate Atlantis. I started it when i was supposed to, at the end of the seventh season of Stargate SG-1. But i didn’t keep up—i know i was supposed to watch it parallel with the last three SG-1 seasons, but i didn’t. At least this way i got more… continuity.

In its five seasons Atlantis had much less space for the predictable episodes that were so typical to SG-1 after a few seasons. Much less, but of course they were still there. The story overall is much simpler, with “just” one race as the great enemy and a few minor powers who mostly only cause trouble. In the five seasons, there was only one clip show episode, somewhere in the last season (thus near the finale), so it’s forgivable.

The characters were well designed and the crossovers with SG-1 made it really feel like a part of the already constructed Stargate world in my head, although there were hardly any episodes in the Milky Way galaxy.

True, significant parts of the story won’t make much sense to someone who haven’t seen SG-1, but the main storyline events will. Now on to Universe.

Vampires in Atlantis

October 4, 2010
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Today i ended up doing practically nothing except for translating the fourth episode of Shiki and watching Stargate Atlantis. And more Stargate Atlantis. Reminds me of the insane streaks i had of SG-1, when i sat down in the morning and watched like two seasons non-stop until late night. I get that feeling again, that oh, just one more, and this is good. For most of the first season, i didn’t feel that… i don’t know if it has something with school starting again, or just the episodes are getting better and better—though of course after watching all ten seasons of SG-1, two of the Stargate movies (don’t feel like watching continuum, somehow these alternate reality stories in Stargate tend to be… lame—except the exceptions) and a season of Atlantis, as of now, i pretty much developed an ability to foretell the story of an episode. From the title, from the first five minutes, from focus of certain characters, after this much often it gets obvious. When it’s yet interesting, that’s when i get glued to the screen for hours. Many hours. Like now.

Starbucks Pike Place roast

October 2, 2010
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Nowadays whenever i went to Starbucks, there were no limited edition coffees on the shelf, so i somewhere hoped i could finally give the rest of the usual blends a try. But when i actually went to buy my next dose of beans, there waited the Pike Place Roast. Though there was an Anniversary blend not so long ago, this one’s related to the roots of Starbucks too. According to the sticker on it, that was where the first Starbucks cafe opened.

The Pike Place roast is unusually mild for a Starbucks limited edition coffee, so when i had my first cup of it, it tasted a bit too light. But just now i made an espresso out of it, an espresso that kicks me off my feet. It’s fantastic. Due to the mild nature of the roast, even in espresso it doesn’t get too stingy–it stays mellow. That reinforces what Starbucks says in their ad: it’s their smoothest blend. I haven’t tasted all their coffees, but chances are it’s true.

It smells smooth and sweet, while the hot steam has a touch of something fresh similar to eucalyptus in it–but that might be only my imagination. If i were into mild coffees, i’d probably love it. This way, i just say it’s a good blend.

Hyakko!

October 2, 2010
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You want light and easy entertainment? Here you get it. Hyakko is the perfect anime if you just want something funny without too much of a deeper meaning. It’s about a bunch of girls at school, their everyday lives, and how they get to know their new classmates at school. There isn’t much of a story—most of the episodes focus on one character, and that’s all. True, occasionally there’s a bitter aftertaste to some scenes, but i think that this level of drama can be passed without disrupting the entertainment much.

Not to mention that as much as i love the character design of Naruto, Kageyama Torako is pretty much the same, just in a girl version. Not necessarily only the hair and eye colours.

I first started watching Hyakko back when it aired, together with Toradora, but it ended up on a “hiatus” the same way too. Then this summer watching Toradora reminded me of the adventures of the Kamizono Academy girls. It was really worth watchin, i totally enjoyed it.

Above pic from アニメ壁紙タウン.

Metallica, Saitama Super Arena, 2010. september 26

October 1, 2010
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Dear AC/DC, you should seriously contact Metallica. Because what they did this sunday, that is what i call a show. Unlike yours. The two opening acts, The Sword and Fear Factory played for the usual “opening band” duration, not too short but not long enough to get fed up with it either.

And then, and then, and then, Metallica came on stage. Although i wasn’t in the standing-moshing crowd, because i could only buy a seat ticket to the opposite end of the arena, it still sends shivers down my spine when i think about it, and i have to say this wasn’t my first metal gig either. Although i think there were problems with the sound during the opening acts, the whole performance of Metallica, the whole show of Metallica, the whole concert Metallica gave, it was, to put it short, perfect. (Except for a bit of the background screen that died midway.) They played great old songs as well as newer hits, and though i didn’t know just like half of the songs (the Great Old Ones—although they didn’t play the Call of the Ktulu), it was fantastic, i didn’t even have time to space out.

Not to mention the feeling of looking down at the pit, for example during the Master of Puppets and seeing four meatgrinder moshpits swirling in the crowd. I so much wanted to be down there.

Do you listen, AC/DC? This is how you do a great show. You should’ve been there, it was epic. They even invited one guy, for whom this was his 100th Metallica show, on stage. Amazing. Now i understand why so many people have been there both days. I wish i was one of them.