It is dumpage time!!

First, okenakab is amazing (I have a folder created just for your beauties als;k) and has made me icons from the latest CUT magazine with Ohno looking smoking hot and so very pretty. The shadows, the angles, his eyes, his lips, his hands. I salute the photographer. And, thanks to okenakab, I now have new icons, and a pretty new banner.

aatash aatash aatash

CHECK IT OUT. ♥

So, memes. Tagged by mamchan and angelamori I can't believe I forgot, SORRY LOVE (assorted questions) and adfirmatiosg (desktop wallpaper) respectively:


Tagged by mamchan and angelamori

rules:
♥ People who have been tagged must write their answers on their blogs & replace any question that they dislike with a new question formulated by themselves.

♥ Tag 8 people to do this quiz & those who are tagged cannot refuse. These people must state who they were tagged by & cannot tag the person whom they were tagged by. Continue this game by sending it to other people.

o1◢ How has LJ changed your life?
-- Where do I even begin? *LOL* I've done so much with LJ, I feel like. Not just in connecting with lots of awesome folks who share the same interest (or who don't share the same interest anymore but still keep in touch, because you loves are amazing that way), but also in terms of like... writing, roleplaying (CFUD, WILL NEVER FORGET J00), mm... translating? I started translating before LJ I think, for a manga scanlation team, but sharing translations with fandom on LJ allows me to participate in fandom instead of looking at it from the outside, and that made me enjoy translating more and actually decide to make it a career. :D;

o2◢ What do you do before bedtime?
-- Switch the TV on, check LJ, read comments, check flist, maybe translate something.

o3◢ What are you going to have for dinner tonight?
-- I just ate, but I had a yakiniku dinner. It was yummy in my tummy. ♥

o4◢ What is the ONE place you want to go before you die if you had the money and the time? And let's keep it to somewhere on the Earth for now, shall we?
-- Ohno Satoshi's house.

... okay, that's not really a matter of money or time. |D Maybe Alaska. 'cept my brother really wants to go too, so I might be able to bug him into sponsoring me. I'm not always a bad sister, rly.

o5◢ Are you an introvert or extrovert?
-- Introvert. I can be extremely talkative and giggly with friends for hours on end, but once they leave, everything shuts down. Also, when I meet someone new, I really kind of depend on the other person to speak; I'm not the kind to initiate conversations. I can do small talk, sure, but if the other person doesn't make the move to say anything beyond that either, then it'll just be awkward silence all the way. XD;;

o6◢ What do you do in your free time?
-- Translations. Watching TV. Perusing magazines. Teaching myself Hangul. The textbook I bought on Hangul here is retarded. The guy who wrote it is on crack, he's all, "Okay, let's start with the basics," then, "Oooh, you're done with the basics-- BUT WAIT THERE'S MORE. SUCKS TO BE YOU." And it goes on like that for several chapters. It's funny as hell, but also really... retarded. He even included tiny pictures of himself during stupid poses next to the page numbers. Yyyyeah.

o7◢ Do you trust easily?
-- Uhh. Depends. I trust friends pretty easily, I think, 'cause they give me good reason to. Someone I barely know? No.

o8◢ What personal belonging do you have with you everywhere you go?
-- Cellphone, iTouch, lip balm.

o9◢ Is there anything that has made you unhappy these days?
-- One of my dorm mates from Texas being super passive aggressive with me. Long story short, when I come home late at night, despite lifting my leg up a 90 degree angle and tiptoeing to my room, the wooden floors still creak -- and that apparently wakes that dorm mate up. Instead of telling me straight, she put up a notice saying people should walk more quietly at night, and when I asked her how classes were, she told me pointedly, "I can't sleep at night." Whiiich doesn't answer the class question at all, so yeah, she's definitely mad at me. She scares me, to say the least. |D;; Haven't worked up the courage to really talk to her about it yet.

1o◢ What is your best quality?
-- ... I have no idea. Listening when it's needed...? I guess?

11◢ Is being tagged fun?
-- Yep!

12◢ How do you see yourself?
-- Indecisive, excessive worrier on what other people think of me... um. Yeah. idk, what do you think? XD;

13◢ If you could be anyone for one day, who would you be?
-- Kuroki Meisa. That woman is hot. I'd love to strut the streets of Japan in a short one-piece dress and show off them legs.

14◢ What kind of person do you think the person who tagged you is?
-- mamchan: Fun, sweet, huge Nino lover. We should totally talk more!
angelamori: Definitely want to meet up and get to know you more, because you're one of the more genuine and caring people I've met. I don't know how to put it in words, really, but there's this feeling of warmth around you. ... I-It sounds so retarded and sappy when I say it that way, but you really give off the feel like I can depend on you if/when I ever get in trouble. Of course, karaoke buddy, Arashi friend, and hopefully sometime soon, Japan trip buddy. ♥

15◢ Would you rather be single & rich or married but poor?
-- See, I want a family. But I want to be able to support that family. So, single & rich. At least if I'm rich, I can adopt a kid or something.

16◢ How many children do you want to have, if any?
-- 2. A boy and a girl would be perfect.

17◢ What's better to give or to receive?
-- To give. Watching people's reactions are the best.

18◢ If you fall in love with two people simultaneously, who would you pick?
-- I, honestly don't quite understand the question. Who would I want to fall in love with simultaneously? Um... well, I don't exactly love them, but I would totally do Ohno Satoshi and Katou Kazuki so... those two, I guess?

19◢ Would you have 100% safe sex with a stranger for $10,000,000?
-- Uh, no. Unless Ohno counts as a stranger, in which case, you can keep the money.

2o◢ What were your parents going to name you if you'd been born the opposite gender?
-- My parents have an "E" theme going, in that they're trying to have both my brother's and my name start with the letter "E". So if I were a boy, it might've been... um. Ethan? Evan? Eric?

21◢ What's the one thing you would take with you to a deserted island? (Extra from angelamori's tag)
According to the Hanadan movie, my credit card, apparently.

Um. I tag whoever wants to do it. |D;

Tagged by adfirmatiosg,



I forget who made this. *sheepish* But I have the lovely chipmunk for a change! Before this, it was Ohno wearing black, with his shirt open in a very enticing manner. ... yes.

Also, whoever. ^^;

Now, as the lovely nagoya_mewmew requested:


The Johnny expert sensei whom I've brought up a few times actually works at the matches! She never really told me what she does, but I'm assuming ushering work and the like. In any case, she is an awesome, awesome person, because people cancelled their 10,000 yen (~US$100) tickets, so what did she do? She kept them just for me and my friends. For that, I finally trekked down to the Johnny's store to get her a beautiful Nino photograph, as well as a nice box of summer desserts from Nagoya. More on the Nagoya Johnny's store later!

The 10,000 yen seats were nice, kind of smack in the middle. :D We had to enter a small square area with four purple cushions for you to sit on, take our shoes off, and stick them into a little space behind the square area.



A lot of my pictures turned out blurry. *weeps* But this is the best one I got. I was actually more interested in the rituals the sumo wrestlers had to perform, than the actual fights. XD;; But the whole arm out to show they have no weapons, and the stomp on the ground to chase away demon ritual is fun to watch. (That's what they're doing in the photo!) 'cause every sumo does it differently, depending on how high he can raise his leg, and how much he really cares about the ritual I guess. There were lots of foreigner sumo too, which was interesting! There were a few from Bulgaria... one from um. Ukraine? Mongolia, too.

Fighting wise, some sumo charge recklessly, some kind of flail at their opponents, and some play mind games. I like Kotomitsuki, the sumo wrestler from Okazaki City (everyone was cheering for him 'cause, you know, Aichi Prefecture REPRESENT), 'cause he kept faking a start by putting one fist on the ground... and then lifting it up again. *snrk* I think both fighters have to put both fists down before the match can even start. (Correct me if I'm wrong. XD;) He did that fake-out not once, but twice, so I think the sumo on the other side wasn't ready when Kotomitsuki actually charged the third time.

Another thing we learnt is that, winners of a match can earn from 30,000 yen to even 300,000 yen, depending on how many sponsors they have. When a sumo wrestler wins, the referee will hand him a white envelope which contains the money, and the fighter will do a little gesture to indicate his thanks. Amazing.



Tower where they beat the drum to indicate the start and finish of the sumo tournaments. Looks kind of rickety. ^^;;



I was trying to take Kotomitsuki's banner, but the wind was a real bitch. >: Still, I captured the banners, eheh. These banners have the sumo wrestlers' names and origins written on them. According to my sensei, they cost at least 150,000 yen. Just to display your name? Ouch.



Non-sumo related, but I wanted to gush. I love my friends, because despite knowing I'm an idiot, they cater to my idiocy. While we were heading back to JR Nagoya, she told me that she saw a huge Arashi poster, and that I should definitely go see it. Unfortunately, it was taken down, but in SofMap, I found Ohno at the AU section anyway. My friend was so sweet the way she went, "The one I saw was bigger. You would've liked that better." ♥ Big or small, Ohno looks real pretty in there anyway. T^Tb

For sundaecone (and friend?):


I was out all day today, so my feet and back are sore. *weeps* I feel like an old woman. In any case, before meeting my friend to do our geeky museum visits, I dropped by the Johnny's shop first. Directions!

1) Get off Shinsakaemachi Station on the Subway Higashiyama Line
2) Take Exit #1.



This is the map you'll see between exits #1 and #2. You can clearly see "Johnny's shop" in katakana on the left. So helpful. :Db

3) Once you exit, look for a store with an orange canopy across the street. You can't miss it, it's straight ahead from the exit. Cross the street towards that store and keep walking down that road.
4) You should pass a temple called 真柳寺 (Mayanagi'tera) on your right.
5) As you walk further, you'll pass a Lawson on your right, and a Coco Curry House on your left.
6) Keep walking straight, and you should see this coming up:



7) You found it! Puroto building. Now here's the tricky part! There are two doors -- one is a narrow, manual door that looks inaccessible to the public, the other is a pair of automatic glass doors. The automatic glass doors lead to a single store that stands alone, so make sure you go through the narrow, manual door. I went through the automatic glass doors to ask the lady behind the counter if there was an elevator to the Johnny's store, and she laughed so good-naturedly before telling me it's the other door. Oops. XD;
8) Once inside the building, you should see a sign that reads, "Those who wish to access the Nagoya Johnny's Store, please take the staircase." Go up to the second floor. KIRA KIRA SPARKLIES AWAIT YOU.

It's sad. The KAT-TUN section spanned a total of three walls, but there was absolutely no one there. Practically everyone was crowding against the two walls of Arashi. I only bring up KAT-TUN because they have the biggest section in the store, with the most number of photos... t-they just look so much more lonely that way. As I lined up to pay for my photos, all I heard around me was, Ohno-kun so cute, Aiba-chan so funny, MatsuJun so cool, OMG ARASHI IN 24-HRS, WE MUST WATCH IT. Craaazy.


Next are photos from the rest of my trip! Oh man, so, we tried to go to the Robot Museum first, only to find that it was pulled down last November. (UPDATE YOUR WEBSITES, JAPAN.) And then we went to the Tokugawa Art Museum, which was awesome, lots of cool things to see, including Genji Monogatari writing... but it was also HOTTER THAN HELL. The air was so heavy, oh god. The worst part was, after the visit, instead of going back the way we came, my friend and I decided to be smart-asses and followed a couple, thinking they'd walk back to the train station. THEY STOPPED A CAB AND LEFT. We got horrendously lost and probably walked for about half an hour before finding the station. XD;;



Tokugawa Art Museum on the left. Uh. Rustic-looking architecture on the right. W-What.

Don't be fooled by the pretty sky, it was sweltering.



Random nice house next to the museum.

I would've taken pictures in there, but no photography allowed. *l-lol*



Took this because it's an Aiba AU ad, and oh my god, it's the first single Aiba AU ad I've seen on the trains since I got to Japan. Tried to zoom in so I'd only get the ad, but my camera made the zoom-in photo all blurry, so you get to see a reflection of me and my friend in it. Also, an old Japanese guy behind us who's looking at me thinking, "Tsk, young people these days." |D;;

I wanted to do a Maou write-up too, but. I'm done. G-Gonna go curl up in bed, watch TV, and nurse my sore, sore feet. ;;