Here is the new Shiso Pepsi, fully explained if you click through to the photo. I've also heard 'shiso' described as beefsteak plant or perilla.

In other news, I cut my hair. Mostly posting this to reassure achaknimu that although I wish it to be otherwise, I do not look like Brad Crawford. But I do like it. Picture here. (It's filtered to everyone on my flist, but you might have to reload or check your login to view properly.)

On Saturday, I went to the late night showing of Transformers 2 with kuroe and we had beer and popcorn. It was pretty cool, but for bright SFX action, I'll take Speed Racer. ( Transformers 2 Spoilers )
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Sebastian's song ("Yes, My Lord") from the Kuroshitsuji Musical.

Notes:
I welcome any corrections before I post this to kuroshitsuji.
The translation is less literal in some areas, either for effect or to rearrange lines to account for English grammar.
I have no idea how to romanise characters names, so they are exactly as they appear in the musical pamphlet.
I can't check the romanisation against the CD yet, so there won't be 100% accuracy.
...There probably won't be 100% accuracy anyway.
  

Sebastian's Song
"Yes, My Lord."

( Kuromyu / Sebastian's Song / 'Yes, My Lord' / Romaji )

Sebastian's Song
"Yes, My Lord."

( Kuromyu / Sebastian's Song / 'Yes, My Lord' / English translation )

セバスチャン　歌唱曲
「Yes, My Lord.」

( Kuromyu / Sebastian's Song / 'Yes, My Lord' / Japanese )

I went to the opening night of Kuroshitsuji musical and it was amazing. Quick recap of my favourite scenes, major spoilers.

I had the opportunity to meet up with some friends beforehand, so we wandered around Sunshine City, with me in top hat and tails and my friends with various Victorian touches. Eda had kitten hair. I might have some photos to post of everyone later.

At the venue (Sunshine Gekijou), there were no Sebastian bromides for sale. However, each character had two or three costume shots, which was good. Pamphlets were only for sale after the show. They claimed they hadn't arrived yet, but that might have been to avoid spoilers for the special cameo appearances. Said pamphlets also had full lyrics!

( Kuromyu spoilers )

Overall... it was love. Going to have to find a way to see it again.

At Japanese class:

Me: I really want to go to Kyuushuu this summer. I've seen lots of posters within trains stations. It looks really beautiful. It has lots of tradition and culture.
Sensei: Really? What kind of traditions?
Me: Well... it was the setting for an anime and manga that I saw. It has demons and vampires. And shinigami. And lots of cake and doughnuts.
Sensei (laughing): You've given me a lot of clues as to the identity of this anime, but I have no clue which one you're talking about!

Actually, despite the silliness, the Nagasaki arc from Yami no Matsuei really did make that city *feel* amazing. Does anyone have a map of all the areas the shinigami pairs worked in? I know Tsuzuki/Hisoka were Kyuushuu and I'm sure Watari must have been Kansai. Who else? I know it was all listed in a map in the manga, but my volumes are in the UK.

I also want to go to Sendai. You know *mumble mumble* flower-arranging school... Incidentally, All That Weiss has a map of Japan showing every place Weiss has been. Ken had a mission in Kagoshima, an area which comes highly recommended.

先生　「隣の家は隣家（リンカ）と言います。」
僕　「そして、隣のアップルは隣ゴと言います。」

(^^ Sorry, this conversation doesn't work in English at all.)

Going to see Kuroshitsuji musical this week. There is no way it can be bad. No way at all. :P

One ticket to Kuroshitsuji musical for sale. Opening night, THIS THURSDAY, row two. Reply to this post or email me at genkischuldich AT livejournal DOT com.

Going... going... gone! Gone to the friend of the lady in the blue yukata.

Velvet Underworld website has been updated and the new character albums aren't even out yet. Apologies for formatting errors -- I just cut and pasted the Japanese text and filled in the chara/seiyuu names. 1am now and I need to be up at 6am...

■Drama Album
VELVET UNDERWORLD「Fragment story #0 “The Fool”」

A.Y.A: Koyasu Takehito
Ｖ： Shintani Ryouko
Kuro: Suzumura Ken'ichi
Dry: ＫＥＮＮ
Pawn: Toyonaga Toshiyuki
Noi: Maruyama Miki
Garagara: Saiga Mitsuki <-- OH YES
Teiou Sekai (Emperor): Yuuki Hiro <-- THIS IS SO RIGHT

OP: ONE DAY (Short version)
ED: Ai ga Umareta Hi (The Day Love Was Born)

I went to Kanda Matsuri today, so please take a look at my updated Flickr photostream.

Still looking into making a blog, but everything I've planned/tried to write for it has ended up somewhat comedic. Hmm. Don't know whether to run with that or not. Does anyone have any preferences on colour scheme? All too often I go with what I think 'should' be the right colours, instead of what I like. Which is why the Weiss Day icon is pink. :P I like orange/yellow and dark green/silver as colour schemes, btw, but red/white might be more appropriate for a blog about Japan.

I'm thinking of auditioning for a role in a musical by the same company doing Oliver, so wish me luck. And when I say 'wish me luck', I mean wish me luck to have the courage even to send an email asking for an audition. Haha.

Going to see the Peacemaker play tomorrow, so I hope I wake up in time!

It's been a while, hasn't it? Although I haven't posted to Livejournal much, I'm pretty busy at Twitter (as SpamFromJapan). Speaking of which, my Tweet-length (140 characters!) story got accepted by Thaumatrope. Very happy about that.

Been busy in the outside world. Went to the Psydoll CD album launch gig and also saw Der Eisenrost, DESTRUCT SYSTEM, Custom Mummy and Taizo. If you buy the CD, you'll see me listed under 'special thanks'. Coincidentally, Loveless (digital percussion) is dressed as a butler on the cover. Surely these things couldn't be connected...? Will post photos when I'm able. It was a really good night.

And I also went to see X Japan...! I've seen them twice now. Never thought it would be possible. And I got to hear "Endless Rain" and sing along with it, just like the crowd in my live CDs. Full review to follow, I'm sure.

And Dream Live 6...! ( Tiny, tiny spoilers ) Will review properly later.

---

I've also recently joined Flickr (Pattern Interrupt) and I really love the way my photos look in my photo stream. If you're on Flickr too, please add me (ditto for Twitter and...).

Yes, I got a Dreamwidth account (AnotherWorld). Not sure what I'll do with it yet. I also got myself an Insane Journal account ages ago and we all know how well THAT turned out. Add me (assuming you want to!), but don't delete me from your LJ list.

I've been thinking recently about setting up a pro(?) anime and/or Japan blog. Will need to decide if Dreamwidth is good for that or if I'd be better off with Blogger. While I can understand why blogs with their own domain names are considered more prestigious, I'm not sure why the same is considered of Blogger. Any thoughts?

Aims: (1) A new perspective on Japan/anime. (2) Get experience I could use as a platform for writing jobs.

( Help me out? )

I got a new camera on Saturday and went to Kamakura for the yabusame festival today. I haven't time to sort through the photos tonight, but here are the samples. The second one is actually a really good shot, considering the speed of the horse.

Anyway, here they are. My camera just jumped from four megapixels to ten and I'm really impressed by the results.

( Kamakura Festival )

It's been a while and I've slowly been building up a backlog of photographs of random items and cherry blossom. Mainly cherry blossom. There are about forty photos in total. The best ones will load, others are linked and some you won't be able to see unless you are logged in properly. Those are the ones of my birthday party, which we held on April 4th.

Random

( Random photos (13) )

Party

( Birthday party (11) )

Inokashira Park

( Hanami Party (12) )

Saitama Blossom

( Cherry trees at sunset (7) )

I spent a good portion of my day dressed as a bunny butler wandering around Harajuku and handing out chocolate. Why...? Because a little weirdness in life makes everyone happier.

There was a small festival going on, dedicated to the Earth and organic farming. I looked around and found myself at a stall selling genmai mochi (a kind of sticky brown rice). There were two types; one covered in kinako (sweet) and the other with a little miso (savoury?). I ate them both with the lady shouting "Usagi-san is eating OUR genmai mochi!"

Then I ran into a "Free Hug" group. I don't know if this only happens in Japan, but groups of people stand around holding signs saying 'free hugs' and you just... go and hug them! I admire them (and there must be hundreds, since I see them at major stations all the time, but never the same person twice), because they bring a little of that weirdness I mentioned earlier. Anyway, I hugged the first guy, then the second guy, and by the last guy, we were running, jumping and ending with a kind of glomping tackle. See how that weirdness works?

After that, I went to Kichijouji and had an Easter party. Fresh ham, sangria and trifle, followed by Tenimyu-watching.

Anyway, here's a picture of me with one of the Free Hugs people (I've pixellated his face, just in case), just in case you're saying to yourself 'Pics or it didn't happen'. You'll only be able to see it if you're properly logged in and listed as a friend.

Happy Easter!

( Free hugs and bunny butlers! )

Text translation of the Velvet Under World comic Fragment #2 from "Kyarabi". It's 1.30 in the morning, you figure out how accurate it's going to be.

I'm working on a really crappy scanlation of the first part too. With PHOTOGRAPHS of the pages, since I figure it's probably better than nothing. Is it? You tell me.

( Velvet Under World Fragment #2 translation )

---

On page five, there's this piece of information:

All four to be released on May 28th.
"Fragment Person 01 [A.Y.A] Koyasu Takehito" // CD+Animation
Special version: 1890 yen // Regular version: 1260
"Fragment Person 01 [KURO] Suzumura Ken'ichi" // CD+Animation
Special version: 1890 yen // Regular version: 1260
"Fragment Person 01 [DRY] KENN" // CD+Animation
Special version: 1890 yen // Regular version: 1260
"Fragment Person 01 [PAWN] Toyonaga Toshiyuki" // CD+Animation
Special version: 1890 yen // Regular version: 1260

Koyasu Wrote A.Y.A's Song Himself!

Aya and the members of Erinyes feature in this character CD series. In the first group, there are songs from A.Y.A, Kuro, Dry and Pawn. A.Y.A's is from the seiyuu star himself, Koyasu, and is called "ONE DAY". Perhaps the characters' thoughts will be hidden in these songs...?

There Is An Original DVD Included So You Can Enjoy Both Sound And Animation Together!

The special edition contains both songs and an original music clip animation DVD so you can see the characters as soon as possible. Since there are still many mysteries surrounding these characters, you can try to read between the lines using the songs and animation as your guide. Plus, with the regular version, you can still read the prologue comic in colour.

Here are the photos from the Tokyo International Anime Fair. Covers everything from Yatterman, Higashi no Eden, Ai no Kusabi, Kyou Kara Maou, Basara and a ton of other series. I've put everything in chronological order, including commentary. If you want to talk about a photograph from here, please feel free to link to this post. Thanks. :)

 

( Tokyo International Anime Fair photographs )

I went to a local park on Friday, since it was a national holiday, and took some spring photographs. There are twenty-five photos in total under the cut. Pictures from the Tokyo International Anime Fair will follow tomorrow or when I have time. If you want to know my initial impressions though, check out my Twitter account, which was updated throughout the day. :) The main thing is that I saw the new Ai no Kusabi trailer.

( Sakura and spring )

New cast lists now up for Kuroshitsuji Butoukai!

Ciel: Sakamoto Shougo (阪本奨悟)
Sebastian: Matsushita Yuuya (松下優也)

Bald: Koyama Tsuyoshi (小山剛志)
Finnian: Minami Shouta (南　翔太)
Meilin: Igari Atsuko (猪狩敦子)
Grelle Sutcliff: Uehara Takuya (植原卓也)
Lau: Ryuuya (龍　弥)
Undertaker: Izumi Shuuhei (和泉宗兵)

Abberline: Ise Naohiro (伊勢直弘)
Yuuki: Aoyagi Ruito (青柳塁斗)
Kirito: Miyashita Yuuya (宮下雄也(RUN&GUN))
Kai: Oshino Daichi (押野大地)

EPIC, I TELL YOU.

---

Links:

Improv Everywhere's latest misson. The descriptions of the 'art' are spot-on.

Teaser poster for "Where The Wild Things Are". Yes, THAT "Where The Wild Things Are".

Lots of links today.

*The first one is a post on literary agent Nathan Bransford's blog where he invites would-be authors to play fantasy basketball with him this March. Score the highest in his league with your predictions and win either a query letter evaluation or a book from one of his clients.

I've made my picks... I've practiced basketball twice and never watched it, not even on TV. I don't think it's shown on TV in any of the countries I've lived and I wouldn't even have known it was basketball if Nathan hadn't said. But there you go. I've entered anyway.

*Fanart of Sebastian (Kuroshitsuji) linked to by sharona1x2.

*Weiss Kreuz caps by indelicateink.

*Man writes his resignation letter on a cake. Mostly I'm just looking at his outfit though. Love the shirt/waistcoat combination.

*The most unwanted song, scientifically composed. I stopped it about two minutes in, mostly because I have a very short attention span. How did you do?

Poll #1367529
Open to: All, detailed results viewable to: All

How long did you last against the linked song?

Last night was Gothic Bar Heaven, which was pretty good. The line was 2BULLET, PSYDOLL and AKIRA DEATH, plus Taizo's Butou dance. I was too tired to completely enjoy it, but it was fun. Will post photos later. Unfortunately, as a result, my cold has got worse. I feel like death.

Next week is both Walpurgis Night (another club event) and the Tokyo International Anime Fair. Anyone want to go to either? Or both? 26th April, there will be a launch gig for Psydoll's new album too.

It's also my birthday in just over two weeks. Anyone interested in doing anything for it? If so, when are the best days for you?

Thoroughly enjoying Twitter, particularly since I can post through my phone. Need moar people to follow/be followed by though.

Just getting fics together for Weiss Day now. We finally have all of them, which must be a first. I figured I'd post them closer to the Western March 14th, because most people are closer to American time than Japanese time (judging by the time people got them to me on deadline day!).

I really had to post this:

http://eplus.jp/sys/web/s/kuro/index.html

They've updated the Kuromyu website (or what seems to be passing for it) with an actual promo shot of Ciel and Sebastian.

Oh, by the way, I did get a Twitter account, although I've yet to post anything to it. SpamFromJapan.