The return of Ai Kago

Now, I don't usually give an horse's **** about the personal life of any star, or the inner workings of any group, causing me rather often to miss the release date of new albums and causing me to miss Kaizers Orchestra's new album entirely (it was only available for a week. Stupid band)
Anywho, I suddenly got an impulse to read the Wikipedia entry of Miss Ai Kago, who is formerly one half of the J-pop group W, and I discovered that she has released a solo single under a month ago.


I actually really liked it. She was cute and all when she was in W, but eventually you grow tired of candyfloss, and I love her new grown up look and sound.
She looks like she has gotten through her troubles very well, and even thou it has been rough going for her she seems to be doing well now and that is so nice=D=D (she was kicked out of Hello! project for smoking and being involved with an older man, which I find weird, seeing as the age of sexual consent in Japan is somewhere between 13 and 18 depending on where you reside, I think is was the fact that he was older then her, even thou she was 18, and the legal, at the time)
I also discovered that she has written book, which I will have to buy when I am in Japan=D

I think it's nice that she has gotten her career up and running again, because she actually has talent, and not all the Hello! project girls do.

I do however understand fully her need to rebel, she has been a star, under close watch and curfew since she was admitted into Hello! project at the age of twelwe. She has never had freedom over her life, and the Japanese media is insane, picking on every little thing and digging through pasts over a low threshold. I would go perfectly insane.
You think the Disney girls has it hard? If pictures like the ones of Miley Cyrus would be leaked, not only would their career be destroyed entirely, their entire lives would be ruined and they would be totally shunned. So I understand her. Poor girl...

The long post about the long day

I did a lot of things today. I was at a nice birthday party, and gushed at a cute baby, and was impressed by some nice staffers. I went to the best con I have been at for a very long time, and got my Pocky stolen, and bought a very nice frilly pink and white head-dress with pink bows. And I have been to the very first American non-indie comedy I have liked in years.

Lets start at the beginning shall we?

So my grandmother has her birthday (80-something I think) soon, and we went to celebrate at this fancy hotel restaurant thing, and it was really nice, and my one and only female cousin and her fiancé and their baby was there, and two of my male cousins were there, and my aunt and uncle, and both my grand aunties were there.
I'm not really one for family gatherings, I think they are stressful, but I really enjoyed myself today^^, My family is really nice, and even when they tease/bully me or each other we all know it's just for play, andI like that.
My cousin's baby is really too cute^^, And she is so quiet and well behaved it's almost freaky. I managed to infect with a cold last time I met her, which she is still recovering from, and she still didn't fuss almost at all. I want my babies to be like that. Even thou I know that with many twins in my family I'll probably get two at once, and they will both be fussy. But they will be my babies, and I will love them, so thereXD
Now, I am deathly allergic to peanuts. To the extent that they have to ban them when I fly, I can't go to the theatre, or concerts, or sometimes the movie theatre. I can't eat ice cream when other ice creams or the topping stand has peanuts in them. I can't almost eat chocolate at all. And I can't eat at restaurants were they serve things with peanuts. Or, it's okey if the kitchen is super clean, and the chef is super careful. And they usually are, so that's not the biggest problem. At this restaurant however it was a buffet, and there were mixed nuts with the deserts, and with the air vent and air circulation the dust just goes everywhere, which meant I couldn't even go near the food, what with the dust in the air and all that. These sort of things happen, and it doesn't really bother me all that much, seeing as I am used to it, and I would rather take hunger over death any day, but it did kind of suck. And it's not nice for the other people around.
But the waitresses were super nice, and when I told them they made up a special plate just for me, straight from the kitchen, with no nut-dust. And I got beef and pork and lamb and mushroom and vegetables and gravy, and it was really very tasty. And for desert they cut up fruit for me. I got orange and watermelon and passion fruit and kiwi and pineapple, and it was all very fresh and tasty too.
But seeing as I am a sweet tooth and it all looked delicious and I love mousse fiancé got me some. He scraped of the entire outer layer and I got to eat the dust free middle and it was all very yummy, and a really bad idea. It could have gone very wrong, but I was lucky and only ended up with scratch marks on my arms from the itching.
But it was very nice all of it, and I had a very good time^^,

And then after that me and fiancé went to SoraCon, which is one of three AnimeCons here in Oslo, the other two being AiCon and DesuCon.
We mainly go to take pictures of all the cosplayers, 'cos there isn't much else to see or do. But the cosplayers are all very cute, and they love being photographed^^,
One of the things that made this a good con was that they had (finally) learned from past experiences and moved the cosplay contest outside, in the sun. It was hot, but they gave out cups of water, and they had benches that we could sit on. But there was so much more space, it wasn't cramped in between all stands in some auditorium, and the lighting was nicer, because of the sun. And the backgrounds were so much better than some drab white wall and lots of things going on in the background disturbing your moneyshot.
They kept having technical errors of some sort thou (inside), and they kept throwing us all out when we were shopping, but it didn't really matter.
I bought some Pocky and some Ramune. And I helped some kids who were cussing at the stupid Japanese and their stupid bottles. It's a bit hard to see in this picture, but Ramune is sealed with a glass marble at the top held in place by the pressure in the bottle and you need to push it in. To do this you place the bottle on a smooth hard surface, take the plastic pushy thingy and lean on it. Beware, it has been known to fizzle all over the place^^,
Anywho, I also bought a very cute, pink and white frilly headdress, like lolitas wear. It's super cute, and there will soon be a new profilepic with me wearing it and you all better think I'm adorableXD

As for the movie, I saw Hangover.
First a little note of warning: it's not a movie for your kids, and probably not for your mother either, and you better pray this never happens to youXD
Then for the trailer:

Yeah, in case you didn't realize it's about a bachelor party gone veeeeery wrong. They wakeup in a trashed hotelroom, with no recollection whatsoever of the night before, with a tiger in the bathroom, and a baby in the closet. And the groom is missing.
And it's hillarious. Now I don't normally like American comedies. Especially not big studio ones, I think they are very scripted, and all about making one self and others look stupid, and I don't tolerate things like that very well. Actually makes me a bit agressive. But this one, I laughed till I literally hurt, it was bloody brilliant, not be honest.
They didn't use a horrible lot of slapstick, I could not foresee much at all, and the very very few streotypes that they used were used in a way they made them cool, and not like they were trying to make someone look like fools.
I believed in the main characters (which I very rarely do when it comes to comedies), and even thou they were really stupid and crappy to eachothers at times, I still liked them. They were humans, with human reactions, who did very human mistakes.
Go see it. I mean it. If you liked Zack and Miri Make A Porno, or really if you like Seth Rogan movies you'll love this one.
One thing thou, if you dainty sensibilties, you can see most of the movie just fine, but leave without looking at the pictures during the credits. There are strippers and hookers to put it like that. Jolly fun if you don't have dainty sensibilties thou^^,

Buuuut, it's one in the morning so I think I'll go to bed now^^, Spellcheck later^^,

I have the coolest birth date ever

So. During the Japanese class we started discussing what we were going to do during Easter break, and me being born on April 8th, and this being on Ash Wednesday this year, I told them I was celebrating my birthday. And the Japanese teacher thought this was so cool, which I didn't understand squat of, she asked me about three times if it was for real, and kept saying "sugoi" (cool) and the whole class was very confused. And then she told us that in the Japanese Buddhism tradition 8th of April is Buddha's birthday!
How cool is that? I am born on the same day as Buddha! すごいですね XD


Word of the day:
大仏 - daibutsu - large statue of Buddha

Uma uma?

Listen real closely to this song. 'Cos it sure sounds like "Dansa med oss. Klappa era hander" to me.
That is rightey peeps, the greatly popular Caramelldansen meme is really Sweedish Bubblegum Dance sped up. The meme itself started on 4chan, but the reason I decided to show you through this particular vid is that it's the latest fad i Japan. O.o
If it wasn't for the fact that this thing will be long gone when I get to Japan, I would so totally go around in Tokyo with a ghettoblaster (does those still exsist?) and see how many people I can get to do the Uma Uma danceXD

It's so much fun to find Japanese fads that come from Scandinavia. ^^,
Lets do Licky Licky next=D=D

(Side note: Apparently the phrase "Dansa med oss, klappa era händer" sounds like "Barusamiko-su Yappa irahen de" to the Japanese, which means "There isn't any Balsamic vinegar after all" in Kansaiben (Kansai dialect). The fact that they wave their hands to that seems a bit odd to me, but hey, I did the heartbeat dance to "Oops, I did it again", so I guess I shouldn't speakXP)

Phrase of the day:
バルサミコすやっぱいいらへんで - Barusamiko-su Yappa irahen de - There isn't any Balsamic Vinegar after all

(PS: if you want actual videos of this thing search for Caramalldansen on youtube)

Japanese RnB

Japanese RnB O.o Who would have thunk it? I did not know such a thing existed.
Now, I don't really like RnB, but this song has a gorgeously minimalistic, sleek sound, and I was sold during the first few beats.
Apparently this beautiful, talented little thing has a really tragic story. From what I gather she originally had a duo act with her sister Sachiko, and they seem to have done well. But then her sister died of a brain hemorrhage in the late nineties. Takako (which is her real name) kept on performing, and adopted the name the duo had used for her own.

This song I've provided you with the video of is my favorite among her songs thus far.

I'm just now realizing how little I really know about Japanese music. How on earth could I not realize that there is such a thing as Japanese RnB? Oh well... Now I'll go see what other Japanese genres I'm missing out on^^,

Word of the day:
脳内出血 - nounaishukketsu - brain hemorrhage, brain haemorrhage



Edit:
Their debut single: