Morgen onze lieve poediedoedie naar het pension brengen, ik hoop dat ze het daar ook naar haar zin heeft.

Zometeen ga ik kijken of ik nog twee economy comfort stoelen kan regelen, blijkt dat ik dat 3 maanden geleden al had kunnen doen… maar de documentatie bij de klm is zo fucking onduidelijk dat ik dat niet wist. Maar goed, fingers crossed! En met een beetje geluk heeft het vliegtuig een nieuw interieur gekregen met persoonlijke entertainment systemen… want vliegen is zoooooo boring!

Makino Tsukushi is the only poor student at Eitoku Gakuen, the school of the ridiculously rich and privileged that is ruled by Flower 4 or F4, a group of four boys who come from extremely powerful families:
- Domyoji Tsukasa, the leader and heir of the Domyoji World Finance Group;
- Hanazawa Rui, the introverted son of a large company;
- Nishikado Sojiro, a player who is the heir of a tea ceremony school;
- Mimasaka Akira, a madam killer with ties to the underground.

If a student gets on the F4’s bad side, he/she gets a red notice and is bullied and driven out of school. Makino hopes to pass her days quietly– without drawing any attention to herself– but one day, she stands up to Domyoji in defense of her friend. The next day, Makino gets the dreaded red notice. Even though she is harassed, Makino decides to keep going to school. She declares war right back on the F4. Her resolve gets the attention of her crush Hanazawa Rui and oddly enough, rouses romantic feelings in her worst enemy, Domyoji Tsukasa.

You can watch the complete series here:
http://www.dramacrazy.net/japanese-drama/hana-yori-dango/

Here’s Episode 1:

Check out the video:

Thanks to youtube i know know how the train ticketing works. We’re going to get ourselves some suica prepaid tickets to save ourselves from all the hassle. And i found out about where we can use the cash registers.

Now i only have to make a list of all the shit i want to buy. I just need more morning musume goodies, manga, cute characters, figurines, magazines and other useless crap.

So now the only thing left to do is wait…. Wait…. Meh… Waiting sucks!

Here’s the view from the hotel, I booked a room jut like that one.
(tip: use youtube to check out the rooms in a hotel beforehand)

And the scariest of them all:

For the ones who haven’t seen this yet (shame on you!). JoJo in the Stars is a short animation, created by StudioAKA. Set in a dark and desolate nightmarish world, a young boy falls hopelessly in love with a beautiful circus performer. Their love however isn’t meant to last, at least not according to the mean and posessive ring master. JoJo in the Stars is a sad yet beautiful story about true love. Oh and the music is amazing! Jojo in the Stars won Best Animation at the 2004 Clermont-Ferrand International Film Festival.

Here are some other shorts, called Pica Towers, that StudioAKA created for Channel4. They’re set in the same dark and twisted world as JoJo in the Stars.

On august 12th 2009, Morning Musume will release their 40th single: Nanchatte Renai. There will be 4 different versions available, the regular edition, limited edition A (+ DVD), limited edition B (+ DVD) and a special commemorative version that contains another b-side.

Today their new single premiered on a Japanese radio station, of course someone recorded it and here it is for you to listen. It starts off sounding somewhat similar to their 39th single ‘Shouganai Yume Oibito’. But then LinLin and JunJun start rapping and a really uplifting, happy chorus follows. I really like it and I already pre-ordered all 4 versions of the single (^-^).

Stay tuned for the PV (= promotional video aka music video) of the single.

At age 12, Ai Kago auditioned to be in Japanese idol girl group Morning Musume, she passed and became part of the 4th generation of that group in 2000.

In 2004, she graduated from Morning Musume, together with fellow 4th generation member Nozomi Tsuji to form the singing duo W (Double You).

In 2006, photos of the under-age Kago Ai smoking were leaked by the media. As a result, she was immediately suspended for one year by Up-Front Works Agency. In 2007, toward the end of her suspension, she was caught once again smoking and was found to be romantically involved with a 37-year-old man. This resulted in her contract being terminated permanently. After a hiatus that lasted a year, she signed a contract with R&A Promotions Co.,Ltd and resumed her career as an actress and a singer.

Now she has released her first single: No Hesitation.
She still looks incredibly cute and her voice sounds cute as well.

Here’s her Morning Musume audition video, she was 12 back then.

Watch the full video here

In june 2008, Japanese idol girl group Morning Musume visited South Korea to hold a concert there. Here’s a documentary that shows their arrival, rehearsals and more. I’m so jealous of all the people that saw them live, if they ever come to Europe, no matter what country, I’m going to travel there and see them live.

My old school buddy Pepijn started his own game development studio in Antwerp Belgium with a couple of friends, it’s called Sakari Games.

Foreign Legion : Buckets of blood, is their first independent game title. The game is a wave based cartoon shooter. It will be available for rent and purchase on some of the major games portals.

Check it out at www.sakari-indie.com it’s really fun!

Here’s some of their amazing work:

Here are some of Supervixen’s character designs:

Here are some pictures of her:

Oh and she has had one litter, here’s her son. Unfortunately we couldn’t take him home as well, he was also really really cute!

Morning Musume (モーニング娘。) is a japanese girl group, whose act generally revolves around singing and dancing. They are the lead group of Hello! Project, which is managed by producer Tsunku. Currently, they hold the record of having the highest overall single sales (of a female group) on the Japanese Oricon Charts. Musume, in this context, means girl. The group is particularly well-known for its ever fluctuating line-up, with “graduations” and auditions occurring nearly each year.

Back in 1999 I downloaded Morning Musume’s album 3rd Love Paradise from some illegal jpop website (forgot it’s name). At first I thought that Morning Musume was a class full of girls, who happened to be recording music. I didn’t know any of their names, I only remember that I really liked the song Love Machine from that album. I didn’t have a clue that that song was a huuuuge hit in Japan, selling more than 1,6 million copies. But soon I forgot about Morning Musume, because back then there weren’t really any forums that paid attention to them and it was pretty hard to find non-japanese information.

Morning Musume’s 3rd Love Paradise album cover:

In 2003 I joined the jpop.com forums, the community there is long gone, but back then it was brimming with enthousiast Morning Musume fans. I still didn’t know who they were, but my interest was triggered. jpop.com had a ‘members plus’ download section that featured the 5th generation audition (2001) video of Morning Musume. I immediately became a fan of auditonee Ai Takahashi, she was so cute and she was great at singing and dancing.

Here’s a part of the audition video of Ai Takahashi

I was hooked straight away and started looking for Ai Takahashi in all of their videos. It didn’t take long before I knew all the girls by name and face. Then they released their 18th single AS FOR ONE DAY and I immediately loved it. Soon after, Kei Yasuda (2nd generation) graduated from Morning Musume, but 4 new girls were added,  Morning Musume now consisted of 15 girls! It was the biggest girl pop group I had ever seen and I loved it! These girls were so funny and cute, they just made me feel happy.

Morning Musume’s 18th single: AS FOR ONE DAY:

That’s how I became fan, since 2003, lots of girls graduated and new girls were added (it’s in their 8th generation right now). The group has 9 members currently.
5th generation: Ai Takahashi (leader), Risa Niigaki (subleader)
6th generation: Eri Kamei, Sayumi Michishige, Reina Tanaka
7th generation: Koharu Kusumi
8th generation: Aika Mitsui, Qian Lin (chinese), Li Chun (chinese)

This is what Morning Musume looks like right now:

Their 40th single, Nanchatte Renai will be released in august.

Here’s a list of all the girls that are/were in Morning Musume:
(bold is currently in Morning Musume)

1st generation: Yuko Nakazawa, Aya Ishiguro, Kaori Iida, Natsumi Abe, Asuka Fukuda
2nd generation: Kei Yasuda, Mari Yaguchi, Sayaka Ichii
3rd generation: Maki Goto
4th generation: Hitomi Yoshizawa, Rika Ishikawa, Nozomi Tsuji, Ai Kago
5th generation: Ai Takahashi, Asami Konno, Makoto Ogawa, Risa Niigaki
6th generation: Miki Fujimoto, Eri Kamei, Sayumi Michishige, Reina Tanaka
7th generation: Koharu Kusumi
8th generation: Aika Mitsui, Qian Lin (chinese), Li Chun (chinese)