一番の誕生日

お誕生日おめでと櫻井翔くん

January 25th was my current favorite of Arashi Sakurai Sho-kun's birthday! Many fans of Arashi that I have met and conversed with online are considered *Jun-batited.* For me, I was Sho-baited. The first time I learned of Arashi was in late 2002 when I watched the Jdrama Kisarazu Cat's Eye. I have been listening to Arashi since then, but wasn't a fangirl. I enjoyed their music, but at that time I was really into Hard Rock and Anime. Arashi was just another one of the many artists in my iTunes. A few years ago I started getting bored of a lot of the music that was being released here in America, so I started listening to my JPop and KPop a lot more. It was then that I became a huge fan of Arashi and started turning into another one of the many fangirls across the world! To celebrate Sho-kun's birthday, I watched Kisarazu Cat's Eye: World Series (the second movie). I would like to thank Sho-kun for introducing me to Arashi. I have become influenced and inspired by the friendship you all share. As for Sho-kun, you have given me motivation to continue. With redefining what it was to be not only an Idol but a Johnny's Idol, you have not only given me the courage, but to people around the world. I will continue to support you in your dramas, news-casting (especially at the Winter Olympics!!), acting, performing,  and any other ventures you decide to go on in your life. I wish you a Happy Birthday. I hope that the next year is wonderful for you and brings you many spectacular things. Thank you, and Happy Birthday Sho-kun! As a treat to all the other fangirls out there, I will share one of the magnificent scans of the January 2010 AnAn that has very revealing shots of Mr. Perfect himself! XD (credits go to jesychan @ livejournal for the scans!)

To continue along the thoughts of being an Arashi fangirl, I have a story! A couple weekends ago I kind of forced/persuaded my Mom, Sister, and Brother to watch the Arashi Around Asia Tour 2008 at the Tokyo Dome. It was absolutely amazing. Last time I watched it, it was on my computer screen, which is nice, but not as nice as on the wonderful LCD TV we have in the living room. I think my sister got bored after a little while, but my Mom actually watched it all. My mom's favorites are Riida and Nino. She loves Riida's voice and thinks Nino is cute! XD I talked to  her about it after it was done. I didn't think that anyone enjoyed it and apologized to my Mom for making her watch something she wasn't really interested in. My Mom pretty much enjoyed the concert more than she thought she would, understands a lot of why I am such a fangirl, and had a lot of the songs stuck in her head for days. For like four days straight I would get text messages that were complaining about having an Arashi song stuck in her head. I find it kind of funny though. She doesn't really know the words, but she knows the melodies and the all the breaks and English words! Since watching the concert she has been asking me almost every day to give her my Arashi songs! It's kind of wonderful that I have made another fan of Arashi! I feel that I have helped the fandom grow. Oh and my Mom also likes Aiba, although she gets tired watching him because he has so much energy. I've shown her bits and pieces of TSD (Tensai Shimura Doubutsuen Variety Show) and so she got to see even more how much energy he has! XD (Picture credit goes to ll13jl @ livejournal!)

생일축하합니다김재중 

The next day, January 26th, is Hero a.k.a. Kim Jaejoong's birthday. He is my favorite from TVXQ/DBSK/Tohoshinki. I am a DBSK fangirl, but I do have to admit that Arashi is number 1 on my list. But anyway, I absolutely adore Hero's voice and lips! XD I'm still pretty new to the KPop fandoms, especially when compared to my time with Arashi, but I have to say I was hooked the first time I heard it. The first Korean band I had heard was Big Bang and it from randomly finding them on Youtube one day. I wiki'ed them and then started checking out other Korean Boy Bands. DBSK was my second. In 2007 I heard about the boy band Super Junior, through the unfortunate car accident, and checked them out. I quickly became a fan and they are my #1 Korean boy band now! But, back to Jaejoong! I would like to thank Jaejoong for bring me many wonderful fangirl squeals and moments, especially when they are shared with Bea and Sami! XD I wish that the next year for you is wonderful and the law suit gets resolved quickly and without breaking up DBSK. I also would like to congratulate you and the rest of the boys on being the most anticipated band of 2010 in Japan! XD Happy Birthday Jaejoong! XD

To continue with Korean fandom, I will share some interesting news. I have been listening a lot to Rain/Bi again lately. I am currently obsessed with his songs "Rainism," "Love Story," and "내여자 (My Lady)" (especially the acoustic version!). Rain is just magnificent and I wish I could have seen him on tour the end of last year. I look forward to what he comes out with next and have watched Full House and A Love to Kill again to get my fix! XD As a treat, I have "내여자" in a YouTube video below! XD

So most of my blog updates are sporadic enough that I have a new chapter of Skip Beat! to rant about, but I still have to wait until February 5th. It's sad and the lack of Skip Beat! on the blog is weird and a little uncomfortable! I'll post a Skip Beat! picture though just for fun!! XD

For my last rant, I haven't really been sleeping well. I go to bed at a normal time (sometime between 10 and 11, but closer to 10 most nights) but can't go to sleep until around midnight or later. It has really started to suck. Last night I was in bed before 11, but I didn't end up falling asleep until after 3am. I'm getting really tired of not being able to sleep. I don't want to take pills though and become dependent on them. So, if anyone has any suggestions please comment and let me know! I would greatly appreciate it!

 So I probably won't update again until the new Skip Beat! chapter, so I hope January ends nicely for everyone and February goes well! I can't believe we're almost done with January in 2010. How time flies!

Ja Mata~

Stasi

Press the Reset, Press Press the Reset

Happy New Year Minna! My first post of 2010!! How exciting. I spent the last night of 2009 dancing at the NDK New Year's Eve Ball! I went with my friends Derek, Erin and Eli and had a blast! I didn't get my cosplay in time, but I had my wig! So I wore that and one of my old prom dresses! I had a lot of fun. The only problem was the next morning. Derek wasn't feeling to well and left early. (I hope you are doing okay. I haven't heard from you and don't know if you got my voicemail.) I got Starbucks for the rest of us, and something felt off. I felt like it was NDK. It was soooo weird seeing the Denver Tech Center so empty. My body was definitely feeling like I had two more days of cosplay and a convention to go to. On the other hand, my mind knew that it was just for New Year's and that it was normal for there not to be hundreds of people milling around at 8:00 in the morning. Oh well. Although, there were some young otaku hanging out where Artist's Alley usually is and it was hilarious to watch them just mill around in the emptiness. It was like they didn't know what to do with themselves without a con. I don't know. It was just really funny!

Anyways, I finally got my My Drama List website up and running. I haven't updated the lists in a while, but I should get a chance to do that here within the next couple of days. It has all the tables on seperate pages, kind of like the spreadsheet I have. The home page has banners to some of my favorite shows and movies, and links to them as well. Yeah, so now that I'm done designing my site, now I just have to update. That means that I have a lot more time at work. I'll find something to do, if at the very least I just end up watching Asian dramas and movies! XD As for other drama-ish news, I have the new blog for my reviews set up. Here is the link: http://thereviewsofanapple.blogspot.com/  I haven't posted anything yet, but I will very soon so keep your eyes open!!

Speaking of creating a new blog, I will get started on creating my blog for when I go to Japan very soon. I'll also set up and special folder in my YouTube specifically for my Japan videos! I'm getting really exctied to go. I have a counter on My Drama List and I have 75 days. I still can't believe I'm actually going. It probably won't feel real until I'm there, or at least sitting at the airport waiting for my flight!

In other news, the new Skip Beat! chapter came out! They are back to the Love Me Department! It was exciting to see the President again because he makes me laugh everytime. It's also nice to have Moko and Kyoko back together again. Oh, and they have a new Love Me member: Amamiya. They were asked about Valentine's Day, and as per the usual Moko and Kyoko, they said something along the lines of "It ruins society." So President has new jobs for them. Kyoko's said dangerous, Moko's said muddy, and Amamiya's said happy. When Amamiya grabbed her's she tried to give it back. I can't wait for Febuary 5th and the new chapter! I want to find out really bad what their new jobs are. Oh, and just a side note, Amamiya fits in really well with Kyoko and Moko, which is a very good thing.

Another fun update, I recently became addicted to Super Junior's Sorry, Sorry...again. It's no wonder it's one the most popular songs right now. I ended up listening to it over and over yesterday at work. Well there are two reasons for that. 1. It's an aboslutely AMAZING song, and 2. I forgot my Ipod at home. I hooked it up to Kuro (my desktop) to sync and woke up late and...well, it was a whole hullabaloo, but the gist is I forgot it and had to listen to SOMETHING yesterday. It's becoming really bad. I can't stand not having music, especially when it's quiet. My radio in my car wouldn't come on yesterday because of the cold so I had my phone out and I was listening to the 5 songs I have on there over and over. I just can't stand it. Before I remembered I had music on my phone, I was singing along with nothing. I guess the gist of this rant, is that music is in my blood. I need to listen to certain songs when I'm in a certain mood. Lately, I've been listening to Super Junior, as always Arashi, and Alana Davis's CD 32 Flavors. It's a really good CD. I'll post a video for 32 flavors . It's such a good song. Oh, I'll also post Sorry, Sorry. I made my Mom listen to it yesterday and she started dancing in my room and agreed that it was a good song. I was a little surprised, but then again it is an AMAZING song! As for the rest of the Super Junior CD Sorry, Sorry. It's really good. My second favorite song off it is Reset. The title of this post is from the chorus of the song. I thought it worked good for both my obsession and for the New Year! (I'll post a video for that song too!) XD

Super Junior - Sorry, Sorry


Alana Davis - 32 Flavors

Super Junior - Reset

Well, I should probably get started working on some paperwork and school classes plans and stuff like that! I just want to say that I wish you all a Happy New Year! Oh, and it's Sakurai Sho month! He turns 29 on January 25th, so at least expect another blog around then, although it'll probably be pretty short!! XD

Mata ne~
Stasi