Blog Award

I'm so bad at these...

I have only gotten a tiny few but I always feel like such a guber when I do... mainly cuz I'm thinking they surely must have ran out of people to give it to and felt sorry for me.. LOL so much for confidence right?

well the very cool Maggie Y awarded me with one so I thought I would pay homage and pay it forward!

First... I must again thank Maggie Y for giving this award to me... My blog is a bit all over the place and times and often I have a hard time staying in my niche but thanks to all my readers who read it anyways!

Two... I must share 7 things about myself

           * I love buying false lashes, but rarely wear them =\
           * I'm afraid of the ocean
           * I eat my pancakes plain with no butter or syrup
           * My favorite thing in my closet :: Burberry Trench Coat
           * I've worn it twice
           * I want to learn how to fly a plane one day
           * I dye my already dark hair black.

Three... I must pass it on to 7 newly discovered blogs that I love

Super Junior 슈퍼주니어

Okay so I shared my love for Girls Generation awhile back and now they are absolutely blowing up...! I guess good, catchy music transcends language barriers! I wanted to share another soooo addicting song by this group called Super Junior, another South Korean Band.  I've never heard of them until surfing youtube but I thought I would share.. I think they are already super popular but I thought I would show them a lil love too!

**largest boy group  in THE WORLD with 13 members! (tho only 10 are currently active)
** the members are :: Leeteuk, Heechul, Han Geng, Yesung, Kang-in, Shindong, Sungmin, Eunhyuk, Donghae, Siwon, Ryeowook, Kiburn, Kyuhyun

Favorite Youtube J Inspired Looks

So I thought I would share some of my favorite youtubers that do some pretty crazy Japanese fashion inspired make up looks... they are simply too artistic and wonderful not share =)


Michelle Phan (Queen Bee of Youtube and super sweet!)

Gothic Lolita Doll **the music in the video is good too!**


Nana ** favorite anime/manga character!**


Anime Eyes


Promise Phan (she does some AMAZING looks, her Jessica Rabbit is my fav)

Lady Gaga Anime Eyes


Bebexo (she is simply too cute not to love!)



Binosusume (very cool hair and gel nails tutorials)





Hope you all enjoy and be sure to subscribe to all these wonderful ladies!

Kiosk Kiosk

So I was watching the Today Show this morning (FYI I love the Today Show) and they had cool gift ideas and one of the sites that they talked about was Kiosk Kiosk which is a really cool site that I thought I would share. 




Basically they travel all over the world and buy basic things from wherever they are and bring it back to the States.  This time around the items they are featuring are from Japan.  Some of the things are pretty neat others are pretty common.  Either way its a cool site that is something a little bit different.






Just kinda different right?

Shibuhara Girls MTV Japan

Click the picture for linkage to show's site =]






Exciting right?

still sickkkk

I'm still here! Just still really sick and yuckeeeyy!  Been surfing the blogosphere tho... GOOD POSTS!

Breakkkk Time :: OVERRRR!

Okay so I just decided to fall off the face of the internet... like literally. So crazy. No youtube-age, or amazon surfing, or even much blog commenting...

whaaa whaaaa

In reality what happened is I moved, now have wonderful renters, took a step back from school and work because I was getting overwhelmed and discovered I'm having a baby! yay! Me and my husband are happy and a little nervous but excited non the less!  During my last pregnancy I had hypermesis which basically means I was sick like ALL THE TIME. no fun. and this pregnancy isnt much different so a lot of my strength has been drained...

But the good news I'm getting back into the swing of things and back to blogging.  I can't begin to tell you all how happy blogging makes me and how many wonderful people I have met and new things I have learned.  A little bit cheesy but I really do love you all! =)

Only in Japan :: Dekotora デコトラ

So when I saw this awhile back I thought this was the coolest most insane subculture of Japan... so unique and distinct I love it!! One day I would like to see some trucks decked out like this since in the States I don't think we have anything that comes close to this...

Dekotora, or decoration trucks, most of these trucks are actually functioning delivery trucks for misc goods... although they don't normally turn on the lights and everything, it sure looks cool when they do!

Red String of Fate 赤い糸

"An invisible red thread connects those who are destined to meet,
regardless of time, place, or circumstance.
The thread may stretch or tangle,
but it will never break."
- an ancient Chinese belief

Japanfest 2010 : Part Two

Here are some awesome moments from Japanfest =)

This was a Japanese daycare/preschool dance presentation... so cute!

:::::::

 

Taiko Drummers... need I say more?

:::::

 

Some traditional dancers teaching the audience a dance

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Japanfest 2010

So I went to Japanfest last weekend and it was soooo much fun =) I'm already looking forward to next year...! So without further ado here are some of the pictures I took..

*** This was where games, and little activities for kids were.. it gotta really crowded walking down this corridor after awhile..

:::a vendor:::

 ::Wedding Kimonos::

 ::: food court area :::

 :::Part of the flower arrangements :::

Japanfest 2010 :: TOmorrow

Yay! Japanfest is finally here! I'm going tomorrow soooo expect pictures & giveaway goodies =)

Model/Hostess :: Satomi Yakuwa

So I have several websites that I normally check out to get my daily Japan fix... one of them is CNNgo... I think its a branch of CNN which focuses on the hot spots of Asia (Hong Kong, Shanghai, Singapore, Bangkok, Mumbai and Tokyo)

One of the features today was about Satomi Yakuwa... who you might ask? Actually Satomi has quite a following according to the article and is not only a senzoku (only models for ONE magazine in particular) but also a working Hostess too!

 

 

Busy girl right? Check out the article and find out more about Miss Satomi and her busy careers!

::: click here :::

Only in Japan :: メイドカフ (Maid Cafe)

HOWEVER... there are rules!!

The rules are pretty straight forward... like not being creepy stalker status for one!

lol, the main one, which I think almost everyone knows and can guess, is not to take pictures of the Maids without asking since they charge... usually if you do decided you want a picture they will decorate it afterwards! cute right??

Girls' Generation/SNSD 少女時代

 So a few months ago I posted about the Korean band Girls Generation and how they would make their debut in Japan in August... while unless you've been living in a box, you'd know they are a HUGE hit!! Yay! This makes me happy for some reason.. I dunno, I like them and I'm glad Japan does too =)

Genie placed 5th in the daily Oricon charts... here is the song! hope you enjoy =)

ドラマ Dorama!

Naughty Kiss a new JDrama which premiered 9/1

So lately I have been wanting to watch some Japanese television dramas' but haven't really a clue where to start, so I did a little research to see what I was in for.

So here is the low down...

• Dorama = Drama
• Japan has four television seasons in which new shows will premiere in: Winter (January–March), Spring (April–June), Summer (July–September), and Autumn or Fall (October–December)
• Evening dramas, typically are like 12 episodes long with a normal season finale type episode (similar to here in the States)
• Dramas are often filmed only a few weeks before they actually air... which I always wonder why they don't do that here...
• The starting time is not always on the hour or half hour.  Because ratings are so important in Japan they normally start a few minutes before or after the hour.  The thinking on this is that once one show ends the viewer will prob be more likely to watch the next show on since they already missed a few minutes of other shows on a different channel... so clever!!!

So now that we got the basics... where do people watch these? 

• CrunchRoll -- downside you gotta pay
• Your local Japanese video store -- funny right? I'm sure these exist though, sadly not really helpful for me
• Mysoju -- this site looks reputable but I really have no clue.. thought I would give it a try
• and I'm sure Youtube if you are willing watch it in annoying under 15 min sections..

Yay! So we are set up to watch some Japanese Doramas! Now we just gotta find some good ones... looking online I think I might try watching My Boss, My Hero [マイボスマイヒロ] or Hana Yori Dango [花より男子])

What do you think? Good starters? Any recommendations??

PEANUT★GANG

I just wanted to mention that lately I have been finding some pretty awesome blogs/youtube users... varying from all sorts of things I think I will start highlighting their awesomeness with you all! so with saying that I wanted to share this awesome dance/hip hop group I have been stalking on YouTube. I love them! They are called Peanuts Gang..

Their profile says they are from Osaka, Japan and by the looks of their videos it looks like they record them in the train/subway stations..

August :: September

So looking back at my blog for the month of August... uh BLAH... I quit my job, got two new ones and started fall semester.....yuck right? it was soo boring! hopefully September will be better... in fact i know it will be!

    


    One thing im totally looking forward to is Japanfest! yay!!! its like the 18th and 19th, and I think I will prob have my first blog giveaway right afterwards since i will hopefully be able to get something worth wanting! so keep your eyes peeled... =)

Youtube :: Geekfest

Japanese Magazines

Sooooo awhile ago I was really wanting a Happie Nuts Magazine... and... one of my fellow bloggers, Tom & Sakie from Exotic Japan, was AMAZING enough to send me one =) yay!!!

sorry for glare...!

well anyways I love this magazine! Its like the perfect mixture of fashion, beauty, and everything girlie.. its like not too girlie like Ageha but still had that feeling of young and flirty. I really love this magazine.. my new favorite...!

Normally I get my magazines from this website, and I thought I would tell you all bout it!

 Royal Quartz is the website I normally use to purchase Japanese magazine in the States.  Since I live in a small town I don't really have access to any Japanese goods stores, so my only other option is online... and though there are plenty of sites that sell Japanese magazines, SHIPPING RATES ARE SOOOOO SCARY... lol. Seriously though, shipping rates kill ya... but Royal Quartz rates are really good considering..

They normally have a good selection of magazines and if they don't have what you are looking for they have a form you can fill out in hopes they might be able to find it for you...

anyways I thought I would share.. do any of you have a favorite site you like to order from? let me know.. maybe I'm missing out on a good thing!

Only in Japan : DUI Passenger Tickets??

 

“Riding as a passenger in a vehicle operated by a person intoxicated: DWI — Maximum jail time of 3 years or a fine of about $4,400 or less. DUI — Maximum jail time of two years or a fine not exceeding about $2,650.”

 

“You don’t have to be drinking to get into trouble

One of the new provisions of Japan’s revised traffic law spells out specific punishment for people who provide alcohol and vehicles to drunken drivers, and those who ride with a driver who they know has been drinking.”

source :: Stars and Strips