Well things are pretty quiet around here… Mainly due to the fact that I’m moving, so the past few weeks have been nothing but tremendous administrative fun.

Anyway, I’m not dead, and I look forward to having the opportunity of a fresh start to hopefully commit more to this blog. Stay tuned for more live reports, anime rants, video game thingies and whatnot.

Sorry for the belated, almost picture-less and short post. But I’m getting very tired, and unfortunately Day 5 is a event-heavy one, which means quite a bit of writing. So bear with me here, I’ll try to get “episode 4” done quick snap.

Day 4 [02/05] : A prelude

So, I said something about a “more culure-oriented” day, right ? Well, this was because it was the day when Pascale and I would have the opportunity to attend the 50th anniversary concert given by the Fukuoka University’s mandolin club.

One can ask : “But why ? You’re not particularly known for your passion for mandolin.”, which would be a valid point. But the thing is, I know two members of said mandolin club, which was more than enough of a reason for us to take this chance to try something new. Not to mention one of the two mandolin players had sent me two tickets for the event ! So sweet (and if you ever read this, thank you so much, Erika) !

The Fukuoka Acros, where the concert was taking place. Beautiful with all those plants, and the inside is just as impressive.

And I’m really glad I went. Even though I must admit, not all the pieces played were awesome, much of the concert was very good. It was also a very original experience. At first I thought it would be only – or almost only – mandolins, but it was a whole bunch of them, plus many guitars, and some other instruments (percussions, flutes, contrabasses, …). That made for a very full sound. And at one point, a Japanese singer, Kazuo Zaitsu, came to perform some of song, backed by the orchestra. So, all in all, an impressive and memorable experience. Too bad I couldn’t take pictures inside the concert hall…

But, but, BUT, that’s not all ! After the concert, I was left alone by Pascale to wander through Tenjin while she went to meet her famed boyfriend before they would come and pick me up so we could go to his grandmother’s house in Kumamoto.

Yeah, you left me alone, “bad sister” !

Saying that I was impatient to finally meet “the man” would be an understatement. I didn’t even have the chance to talk with him on Skype like my parens did, so I really only had seen pictures of Takahiro, and of course the description from Pascale. But that wouldn’t do anyone justice, now would it ?

Conclusion : a very cool and natural first contact. We readily went along, and the trip to Kumamoto ended up a very relaxed one, with us going to eat a ramen before leaving Fukuoka. We had fun watching the very scary ramen shop owner, who really didn’t seem like the kindest person…

Kumamoto, here we come !

The end of the evening was spent a Takahiro’s grandmother’s house, among the almost non-english speaking family, and I must say I was really nervous at first. But then, as I discovered that not only could I pick up the general topic of what was being talked about in a satisfying manner, but that they all were very nice people, it was a bit easier. To give you an idea, there was a total of 8 people in the house : Takahiro, his cousin, his aunt, his uncle, his older brother, his mother, Pascale and me. Made me realize I really should take those Japanese classes I’ve meant to for so long…

So I heard I didn’t put enough photographs in my first post ? I’ll try to correct that with this one, then ! (But I want to keep some so that I can still bother everyone when I get back :D)

Day 2 [30/04] : Standing there

Well, seeing how late the previous day ended, we took it easy. And in fact, pretty much the only thing we did was going to the nice nearby supermarket, because Pascale wanted to cook me something.

Hey, don’t laugh! It’s quite tricky to make a “e”.

Something, as in yakisoba (a sort of fried noodles). And it was so good ! She’ll tell you that it was too “liquid”, but I say it tasted very good anyway. And afterwards we spent the evening watching movies, a “serious one”, Die Welle, and a more funny one, 2012. But do not think it was the start of a lazy period, because the following day was quite packed…

Day 3 [01/05] : Look into the air

As we were now well rested, we kicked the day off by going into Tenjin, Fukuoka’s busy retail district. If you like browsing through shops – almost any kind of shop, in fact – it’s those kind of district that you should go to. Everywhere, huge shopping malls that sell everything from the latest clothes to Hello Kitty spoons. It has, of course, a big Tower Records shop too, which is pretty dangerous for yours truly’s wallet…

A rare sight : an empty walkway section in Tenjin !

What’s even better is what you discover when you are guided by someone who had the time to look past all the flashy-looking stores to discover the ones filled with an incredible amount of random… random… stuff. I mean, there’s no other way of describing the ginormous variety of things they sell in Village Vanguard stores. There’s almost no room to move around the store, and you stumble successively on books about coffee, on NES controller-shaped bags, then on halloween costumes or math-rock CDs. It’s crazy…

Lots of massive buildings in Tenjin…

Then, after all the randomness, we went to see some of the landmarks of the Fukuoka cityscape. First on the list was Fukuoka Tower, the tallest building of the city located just next to the beach. We didn’t go all the way up because of the rather expensive admittance fee, but it was already impressive seen from the ground.

If this doesn’t look like vacations, I don’t know what does.

Of course (I was with my sister, after all) we ended up on the beach next. But that shouldn’t make you think it was a totally ordinary one. It’s Japan. So, one section of the beach was occupied by what is called “Marizone”. And not “Mari” as in “Marine”. No no, “Mari” as in “Marry”.

Aaaah, Japan…

Yeah, yeah, that’s right, a fake “European-like” church, and some “lovely” buildings all dedicated for marriage. It’s awfully kitsch, but I guess it’s kinda successful, or at least it attracts enough people to make selling hot-dogs a profitable business.

Just got married ? How about a nice hot-dog ?

You know, maybe the main attraction is in fact that hot-dog shop with its signs, and Marizone is just capitalizing on the crowd it attracts…

Before going back to the International House, we dropped by the Fukuoka Dome, or rather Yahoo! Dome, the baseball stadium of the city. Which is big. And has a dome on top of it, hence the name. There’s a lot of baseball merchandising that’s being selled and bought, and if you want you can shake hands with a lot of stars whose hands are replicated all around the dome. If you get the chance, I suggest checking those out, because some are accompagnied with words that will make your eyes sparkle with renewed ethusiasm.

Thank you Jon, now I know everything is possible !

So, I told you, quite a busy day… Before a quiter, more “cultural” one, who would also see me meet Takahiro, Pascale’s boyfriend, for the very first time. Exciting, isn’t it ?

Don’t nitpick, it’s somewhat dome-shaped.

Ladies and gentlemen, let me FINALLY welcome you to this first episode of my “Japanese Adventures”. I know, I know. It sounds a little pretentious, and it’s more of a relaxing vacation than a full-fledged adventure, but whatever.

So, what have I been up to ?

Day 0 [27-28/04] : Wanderlust

Before one can enjoy life in a far-off country, one first needs to get there. And oh boy, was this travel long… Just to break it down :

5 hours spent waiting in Zaventem Airport;
1 hour to fly to Munich
2 hours waiting in Munich before…
11 hours and a half to get to Narita Airport.

But Narita is still far away from Fukuoka, so you need to add to that more than 6 hours of train… So you can imagine how happy I was to FINALLY meet Pascale… Who didn’t want her photo taken, apparently.

This one looks like a commercial picture

After that long-awaited reunion, we went to the the creepy building I would be staying in for a little more than 2 weeks. And it was really creepy, with the wind making strange noise with the windows, the eerie silence and the slightly run-down appearance of it all…

Okay, now you tell me. WHERE are the zombies ?

But, you need to know that I could have agreed on sleeping anywhere at that point, because I was hungry as hell. Because, you see, I was asleep when they brought the meal in the plane. Then, with all the trains and so forth, I didn’t have the chance to grab anything to eat. So I put down my stuff, and we rushed to the nearest “Joyfull”. Now laugh all you want, but the double “l” is not a misspelling on their part… It’s some kind of 24h/24 semi-fast food that serves all kinds of hamburgers (not in buns like “typical” fast-foods, though), pizzas, and also some japanese dishes. And that double-hamburger with cheese was more than enough to fill me up. Not sure if I was full with joy, though…

Day 1 [29/04] : Past times with good company

The next day was the day my sister took me to what was supposed to be a ginormous electronics store with everything I could ever want in it. I won’t comment on that, but let me say that she was “also surprised, [she] thought there was more in it”. But anyway, that was cool because then we got to eat some Hiroshima-style okonomiyaki. And even if that contained a lot of cabbage, it was still delicious. A little difficult to eat, but it tasted awesome.

This is where the delicious food gets eaten.

The evening of the 29th was something I couldn’t wait for : I was to meet the group of students that came to Louvain-la-Neuve at the end of winter. This year again, seeing them go had been a sad moment, so being able to reunite with at least some of them was something I was really looking forward to.

And what a night it was ! First, we went eating in a restaurant where we had a reserved room, and where we could order as much drinks and food as we wanted to. I’m sorry, I can’t remember what we ate exactly though, there was just too much different plates… Anyway, we moved around quite a bit, changin places so that everyone was able to talk with pretty much everyone, which was really fun.

Afterwards, we went – of course – to an arcade to take some crazy “Purikura” pictures, then off to the karaoke we went ! And seein as we (as in, Pascale and I, because she was falling asleep) left at 3:30 in the morning, you can guess how much fun we had !

And I sang 2 Backstreet Boys songs… Not alone, but still. At least I compensated with Stratovarius and Enter Shikari !

All in all, that was an awesome way to kick off this trip, I was so glad to be able to catch a first glimpse of Pascale’s universe in Fukuoka, and of course to see everyone again ! Now, this will do as a first batch of “news”, because the internet connection is acting up here, so I’ll wait until later tonight when I can upload pictures more easily… Stay tuned for more news almost-live from Fukuoka !

…from this building, in particular.

Let me borrow this song title from THYME in order for me to warn you that I’ll be in Japan for almost a month starting tomorrow.

I should have access to the Internet fairly often, so I’ll try to report back here from time to time, but don’t hold your breath… Me and regular posting, you know…

Anyway, see you as soon as possible !

Webcomics are good stuff. I don’t mean that every webcomic is good, but rather that the general concept is pretty cool. Much like their printed counterparts, these weekly/daily/whateverly short strips are a nice way to start the day with a good laugh or a clever observation.

But, as we all know, the power of the Internet makes everything more awesome, so of course this holds for comics. The trick here is that whatever your center of interest, there’s a comic that will appeal to you. There, let me show you…

You like geeky humour, mathematical/scientific references ? Try XKCD, Abstruse Goose or The Doghouse Diaries;

Or would you rather read stuff about video games ? There’s VGCats or Penny Arcade for you;

And there’s always bizarre stuff like Garfield strips without Garfield.

So that’s good, right ? Well, yes, except no. Most popular or semi-popular have been running since quite a long time. So when someone tells you “Dude, you should totally check xyzwebcomic out, it’s awesome!”, chances are that you’ll have to read several hundreds installements before catching up. And that eats at your free time…

So much, in fact, that sometimes it almost feels like a chore. Because on one end you cannot and don’t want to stop reading, but on the other side you started 5 hours ago, and it’s getting late. But one more strip, right ?

All in all, I now dread it when someones tells me to go read a webcomic. Unfortunately for me though, I’m curious, so I always end up reading anyway. That being said, I’m fortunate enough to have friends with quite good tastes, which leads up to discoveries like the one that happened this year.

And that is A softer world.

My friend Joan mentioned it in an email without further elaborating, but when I checked it out I was immediatly drawn to it. The idea of using photographs is great, and the whole “mood” of the comic is excellent. There’s some dark humour, some sweet stuff, a handful of zombies. And Baby Doom.

I don’t think throwing around words will do the comic any justice, so here are a few of them I especially like, hoping they’ll get you to check out the rest !

Next week, on the 24th and 25th of april, I’m going to do something I’ve been wanting to do for a long time : play on stage in a band.

Now, don’t get me wrong, I already had plenty of occasions to play live with other musicians, but for the most part it was simply getting a few friends together, rehearse a couple times for a particular occasion, and do a quick set. Those weren’t real bands. I must, of course, set what I did on countless occasions with that singing sister of mine. But then again when we’re playing together, we’re a duo, not a fullblown band.

So, I’m really excited ! The band I’m playing in, “Riding on a band with no name”, is a celtic folk band. For now, we’re doing covers of traditional and not-so-traditional material, but we hope to move on to compositions soon(ish). What’s best is that we’ll probably be playing outside, which is perfectly fitting for our type of music. Also, you do not want to have a bagpipe playing in a small room next to you. 🙂

Another thing that makes me love this quartet (for now, we’re planning on adding at least one more member, but she’s in Japan, if you see what I mean…) is that we switch instuments. I play the guitar and on some occasions percussions, we’ve got a harp player that also sometimes helps with percussions, a flutist/bagpipist(?)/guitarist, and a singer. In the future, I may start playing bass or something, and well, not being stuck with only one thing to do feels really refreshing.

If you happen to be in Belgium, not too far from Limal/Profondsart (near Wavre, Walloon Brabant), then come see us ! We play six times over the course of the two days, and you’ll find all the relevant info on this website. Bring your friends, and be ready to clap your hands and sing with us !

Now, all I need to do is convince the members of the post-rock band I’m in to set a date for our first gig…

Hum. So I told you my last post was long overdue ? What about this one then ! But still, I feel the urge to express at least something for the remaining two moments of the 2009 in anime project, so I’m gonna write this post anyway, even if 2009 has now come to pass, and we are already well into 2010.

So let’s get down to it.

At spot number 2, there’s a rewatch. I know, that’s cheating, but in all honesty the hour I spent watching Byousoku 5 Centimeters for the 6th or 7th time at the beginning of winter was just so perfect that I couldn’t pass it up.

First, you have to know that 5 centimeters per second is still my favorite anime of all time. Makoto Shinkai’s movie hit home the first time, and I don’t think any number of rewatches could ever take away its magic. But this winter’s watching session was second only to the first time I saw it.

The conditions were absolutely perfect : no one around, heavy snowfalls outside as the sun was slowly setting, and this warm fuzzy feeling you get at the end of a lazy winter sunday. I was recovering from a cold, and on I just felt like watching “the” masterpiece again.

And once again, it was perfect. Once again, that ending hit me like a punch in the stomach, and left me empty yet happy. I don’t know if I really can explain that special feeling correctly… If you loved the movie, you probably understand, and if you haven’t… What are you still doing here ?

Oh, right, you’re waiting for the big winner ! Well, here it comes…

2009’s #1 moment is one that probably stayed in the mind of many viewers long after the end of a seemingly generic harem/”slice-of-life” anime that aired in the winter of 2008. This was a series based on a visual novel, like many others. But strangely nothing in it beside the title followed the original work. It had a totally different universe, cast, and plot.

This was for the best.

This allowed for some true tears to wet the eyes of many.

The thing that drew me to True Tears was an AMV (Anime Music Video) titled “in watercolours” (found by Pascale, did I mention how awesome she is?). The character designs looked good, the animation too, it seemed sad and tragic, and the AMV was so expertly made that I felt the show would be good.

Then I read a review on Anime Diet titled “The Sum of All Tears” which pretty much sealed the deal.

And boy was I not disappointed.

The whole show was great, and felt quite “emotionnaly authentic”, if that makes any sense. The drama didn’t feel too contrived for the most part, and the characters behaved mostly normally. The show refrain from overusing misunderstandings – well, there are some, but it’s not as over-the-top as it could easily have been – and concludes the love triangle in the most heart-rending way possible.

And if True Tears characters do cry throughout the series, it’s at the end that the anime earns its title. In the end, our main protagonist has to make a choice, and, well, forgive me for quoting the review I was referring to earlier :

What impressed me even more than the choice Shinichiro made–it was the emotionally honest and clear thing to do–was how he expressed it. In a triumph of believability and emotional nuance, especially for romance anime, Shinichiro managed to demonstrate to Noe how his mind can be made up and can still be in such pain at their parting, to the point where he speaks what is perhaps the best line in the whole show: “But when I look at you, my heart wavers.” […] That he is still able to move forward with his choice is a mark of his new maturity. It was beautiful to see how he realized that she can both be an inspiration and important part of his life and still not be his lover. He perfectly expressed this by singing Noe’s song, between sobs, as an ode to his true love Hiromi. If anything, it reminds me of the recent film Once, which also showed how the product of deep love need not be hugs, kisses, and dates; it can also be a song, which lasts even after the man and woman leave each other. Or it can be a picture book about a chicken who wants to fly.

Those words aptly relfect my feelings about the show’s ending. Sure, it was painful, maybe more painful than ef – which is arguably more emotionnally taxing on the whole -, but it felt so right. I really can’t say enough good about True Tears. It’s a shame that such a wonderful show will probably stay obscure, because romances that ring so true are way too hard to come by…

It’s long overdue, but here it is, my first “Dreaming through the noise” post. As I said earlier, I wanted to post some kinds of short reviews, and so here we are, you’re about to read the first of those.

And the first album I want to share with you is Melody Runner, by StartOfTheDay.

StartOfTheDay is a Japanese band that does a strange kind of rock… I think that the best description of their music I have ever read of them was on the late unchained blog (which is now 23ji no ongaku, in case you still didn’t know [also, go read it 🙂 ] ), where StartOfTheDay was described as “Airplane Music”. And honestly, it’s exactly that.

Melody Runner is the most recent album put out by the band, if you exclude their best of. The disc features a collection of that, well, are perfectly suited to that time when you look through the plane’s window to see the sun rising above the clouds in the distance, shedding golden rays of lights on the Earth. Sounds a bit grandiloquent ? Well, maybe it is, but that’s really the best way I can describe how StartOfTheDay’s music makes me feel. And before you ask, no, it doesn’t get stale. The songs do sound different from each other, it’s just that the uplifting factor is strong in almost all of them. But I guess I should let the band speak for themselves, don’t you think ?

The song I chose to pick from the album is called “Whisper”, and is a prime example of what StartOfTheDay does so well. It’s uplifting, epic, yet delicate. For sure, the high-pitched vocals may take some time to get used to, but even if you don’t like them, please take some minutes off what you’re doing, lay back and close your eyes. Then tell me if the music doesn’t prompt you to think of flying or at least something equally stirring.

The first time I heard this song, I thought at first that the intro was okay, very post-rockish in both mood and composition, and seeing how long it is I was prepared for a slow-paced song. But then, those marching drums kicks in, quickly followed by an awesome piano melody. By the time the first words were sung, I was sold, and Whisper has been my top StartOfTheDay track since.

It is really a shame that for now the future of the band is uncertain. They lost two members, and have been silent for months now, which is kinda worrying. I hope that, sometime in the future, we’ll hear again from them and that they’ll continue to bring us their special brand of “Airplane Rock”, because bands that can match the uplifting power of StartOfTheDay’s music are few and far between.

Links : Official Website – MySpace