I still can't believe it....

Really. I just can't. We got tickets for the Music Bank Kpop Festival in Paris in February! I'll see 2pm, SHINee, Beast and so on live on stage. Oh yeah :)

My friends and me are planing to stay in Paris a little longer to do some sightseeing and visit Disneyland.Luckily the semester at our Uni ends on the 2nd of February, and we can enjoy a little vacation right after we've finished our exams. I just can't wait!!

But right now, the semester has just started. After that disastrous last semester, I didn't choose a lot of classes and so my stresslevel is not that high yet. Let's see how everything is going in about a month. 

I've been meeting up with friends a lot in the past week... and I could show you some really funny (and embarrassing) photos. But I'm not doing it.

Hope I'll be back with a proper post soon :) 

Actually this post should be special because it's post number 300 on this blog, but since I'm a lazy b*tch and Uni starts tomorrow I'll make it really random instead.

Hello there, it's been some days since my last post. And to be honest, I should not be blogging right now but reviewing Japanese like a maniac. But I'm too lazy, and even if I started now, I don't really think it'd make a difference. So... yes :D

I'm back to Hamburg since last Tuesday, and I spent the last days catching up with my friends from University.  I really missed those adorable dorks.

Yesterday we watched the 6 hour "Pride and Prejudice" BBC Series. I hadn't seen it before and I LOVED it. Colin Firth as Mr. Darcy is just....the he always stares at Lizzy..and... I shouldn't even start about that :D




Hm...so what else is there to talk about. I finally watched Ponyo this morning. At the beginning I was really creeped out by Ponyo but ..yeah it was cute. (Of course it's cute, it's Ghibli xD)

I have something to confess. I bought the Garnier BB Cream. I've wanted to BB Cream for quite some time now, because many of my Asia-loving friends told me that it's awesome and kind of made me believe it would cause a Sailor Moon-like transformation xD. I'm not going to do review here, because I would be stupid with no BB-experience to refer to.  It smells kind of nice, the texture is okay, too.... haha omg I'd make a horrible Beauty-Blogger :D However, I didn't think there was THAT much of a difference. My skin is not that bad to beginn with and the cream made it look nicer, but it still didn't look as flawless as Jaejoong's (or any other  K-Popstar). Why Jaejoong? Because the BB Cream scene with Jaejoon in Protect the Boss was kind of burned into my brain. "I only wear BB Cream on special occasions". Anybody seen it? x)

In February there's going to be a Music Bank K-Pop Festival in Paris (2pm, SHINee, Beast and more are coming...ftw). I'm sooooo going to try to get tickets! I could live with not getting tickets for SM Town live in Paris, but 2pm brings this event to a whole different level. I really hope I can go u.u

Enchanted Music

I've loved Patrick Wolf's music for a few years now, and I'm finally going to see/hear him play/sing live in November! So excited! I just bought his 2011 album "Lupercalia" and it's DAEBAK/SUGOI/AWESOME/SE BESCHT. Can't wait for the concert!

What Kpop did to me....

I've been wanting to post this for AGES now :D

Feels a lot like 2007

In early 2007, I watched the first and only Anime (when it comes to stuff like that, I'm more of a Manga Person) that I really really liked a lot: Ouran High School Host Club. I found it romantic, charming and most of all FUNNY. I loved all the charakters, even the female lead. Femals leads ins manga, drama and anime can be really annoying, but Haruhi was just daebak :)



Now, more than 4 years later, there's a live action drama version of Ouran High School Host Club. At first, I was NOT amused at all. Reason: I disliked the cast. My expectations were very high, and so (of course) I felt disappointed....at first!

the live action cast

I mean... Tamaki isn't even blonde...and has the worst hairstyle ever! xD And they were all...so not dreamy enough at first sight. But honestly... how similar can a real human being be to a anime character? Fact is, even though the live action is not as good and as funny the anime, the actors do a good job and the casting decisions weren't bad after all. Yamamoto Yusuke is a really good Tamaki (besides the hairstyle...he just has that dramatic Tamaki-feeling :D) And I think Daito Shunsuke
makes a really good Kyoya!

Another thing I started to be interested in in 2007 was Jpop. Yes, it may seem unbelievable now because I talk about Kpop a lot but... I actually used to be into Johnny's quite a bit! (dun dun dun). The song that got me interested was NewS' "weeek"( sorry I can't find it on youtube). It was a catchy fun song and all the member looked kind of cute in the pv. Even though I soon started to prefer Arashi and Kanjani8 over NewS, I was a little sad when I heard that Yamashita Tomohisa and Nishikido Ryo (I dare say they're the most popular members) decided to leave the group.

yamapi in the middle, ryo on the right

Even though I'm not much of a Johnny fan anymore, I'm not ashamed of liking them before it the thought that the group might fall apart with just 4 members (of originally 9 I think) left pains me a little. They gave me some good laughs and kyas, especially with their tour movies. I used to be a big Yamapi fan... but I think this decision he made is completly Akanishi Jin-like. And let me say one thing: I'm not a Akanishi Jin fan. At least Ryo stays with Kanjani. *rant rant*
Hehe I'm thinking a lot about those 2007 interests of mine these days.... ^^


And since I'm already doing the nerdtalk: I started reading Kuragehime. It's the BESCHT!

And Matsuyama Kenichi has secured his place as my number one favourite Japanese actor forever now that I've seen the movie "Detroit Metal City". It's awesome. If you don't believe it...go and watch it :D

Negishi (on the right), the main character, and his Death Metal Ego "Krauser"

Krauser shaking it in a washroom

やっぱり日本のドラマが一番好きだ！

(I like Japanese drama the best after all)

I've had a lot of free time recently and so I was able to watch a loooot of Asian drama. And, even though I'm crazy about Korean Popculture at the moment,  I think is still like Japanese dramas more than Korean dramas. Before someone out there in the www starts to go crazy ass fangirl on me: no, i don't hate K-Drama. I love it! ... I just prefer J-Drama.

Let's do a little K-Drama vs. J-Drama to explain why (just my opinion):

The Pros of K-Drama:

• male leads and often even male supporting actors that make me salivate all over my keyboard. 
• better kiss scences (especially recently!!!)
• it seem like they have a higher production budget
• better outfits
• When it comes to romance, nothing beats K-Drama. A lot of super cute scences that make me go all "KYA!"  like this one here: 

The Cons of K-Drama:

• too many episodes (often I'm super hyped at the beginning but loose interest around episode 12 or 13)
• sometimes horrible dialogues. people repeat themselves over and over withouth really saying what they want to say.
• normal girls falls for super rich guy in almost every drama (it doesn't matter if it's the son of a chaebol or the son of a guy who got rich by producing drugs in Thailand xD). This pattern is used soooo often that it starts to annoy me...a lot.Of course it's the secret wish of almost every girl...but...you know I just think romance can happen between two normal-income people, too.
• every K-Drama soundtrack seems to include 10292498 standard ballads...and I HATE most ballads. 

The Pros of J-Drama

• wiiiiiiide range of themes and various different approaches to topics. Bullying, domestic violence, ect... there are no taboos.
• not too many episodes and the episodes are not too long...they just end before you can get bored of them
• J-dramas often have a "message" and I'm the kind of cheesy person who loves that :D 
• I think... I've seen a lot more deep and subtle J-dramas than K-dramas. (please don't kill me)
• many Japanese dramas are based on awesome mangas or books and weren't written for TV purposes. In my opinion those dramas tend to have a better story line.
•  wacky Japanese humor forever! 

Good Example: Hana Kimi (the 2007 version). The humor was so completly off, strange and exaggerated that sometimes I just had to burst into laughter. Here some scences from the Special Episode. Unfortunatly I couldn't find my favourite Hana Kimi Scene.

The Cons of J-Drama

• flooded with Johnnys. Don't get me wrong, there are some awesome actors among Johnnys ( like Ikuta Toma or Ninomiya Kazunari), but some of them lack skills a little. (*gets killed by fangirls* 
• often a little exaggerated and over the top.
• J-Dramas have a wide range of topics....yes.... but some of the topics just make me think: What the actual frog? A drama about the transsexual dog of a panteologist who has supernatural powers... I wouldn't be surprised if that existed.
• horrible kiss scences. often the lips just barely touching and the actors look as if it hurts like hell. come on.

And now... you can agree...or not xD.

Reunion, a traumatizing movie and that awkward moment when one of your favourite songs makes you laugh

Yesterday I met my beloved roommates from Tokyo, Alex and Mio, in Frankfurt. We drank bubbletea, talked about good old times (crazy nights out, the dorkiness in our apartment etc..) and had Tsukemen in an nice Japanese restaurant for dinner.

Tsukemen is a Japanese noodledish. The broth is served seperatly and you dip the noodles into it. This picture was taken by Aimi

It was extremely delicious and I had an awesome time like always! Thank you girls!


On friday I watched the Greek movie "Dogtooth" with a friend. The description sounded kind of interesting and a little freaky.... but the movie turned out to be much more shocking than we expected. I've seen a lot of strange movies, because strange movies come in a package with love for Asian cinema...but this surpassed everything I've seen so far. The idea of the movie is awesome. Three siblings are brought up by their parents being isolated from the outside world. They use the most ridiculous tricks to keep the truth from their children and protect the facade they've built over the years. As a result, the three kids (or better: young adults), two girls and a boy, have developed a lot of abnormal behaviour patterns. I'm not saying it'a bad movie, but it's really shocking, full of perversion and some scences might be hard to handle for some people. I don't really recommend to watch this movie...but some of you will probably think about it now. Actually, when people tell me how shocking they found a movie, I'm kind of tempted to watch it. When a friend of mine told me about the shocking scences in Lars von Triers "Antichrist", I really wanted to watch it...and I did xD

Random change of topic: The Japanese version of SHINee's Lucifer was released recently. I was really crazy about the Korean version in 2010. Before I wasn't really thaaaat much of a SHINee Fan, but after the Lucifer Album I went asdfhsakjdfue for them.
So far all of the Japanese PVs SHINee released were remakes of their successful Korean songs. I liked the Japanese versions so far, and was even content with the new one of my beloved song "Juliette". The MVs were really well done, too... but there's one thing I just can't stand about them: Taemin gets like double as much screen time as the other members. It's not that I dislike him... but I think it's a little exaggerated, sorry. The other members are equally talented, but have been kind of pushed in the background. Even some lines Jong or Onew (the members with the best vocals) sang before were transferred to him. That's just wrong somehow.... Besides I cracked up 10 seconds or so after I started watching the  Lucifer pv, because somehow the Japanese lyrics sounded really strange to me at first. Don't know why. After replaying the vid a few times I'm okay with them x)


At the end of this post I want something that eat your kimchi's Martina wrote in their latest post (If you don't know eat your kimchi you should check out their blog and videos!). She's saying what I've been trying to say about Kpop and other music many times before, but in contrast to me she doesn't fail at it:

"We’ve taken a lot of flack from people who live in Korea and HATE kpop. They feel like they can only support everything which is Indie, and any support of a mainstream band is some kind of devil worship. We firmly disagree with this perspective and the snobby attitude towards kpop and anything mainstream. We, too, listen to many crazy Indie bands that are loved by a small groups of elite fans (do we announce that fact as if it’s some proud badge to be worn? No) but we also really love and respect kpop.

How can we come to grips with these two extreme positions regarding music and culture? To us, it’s the talent and passion of the members of the band that matter. Not everyone in the world can play an instrument, or sing, or dance, or write music. If you grow up playing the guitar and you form a rock band in your garage and fail for 10 years and make it in the 11th, we’re happy for you, but does that mean a kpop idol who trained to sing and dance for 10 years is any different? Yes, they have a label supporting them with money to get their names out there, but it doesn’t take away from the fact that kpop idols ARE talented. Opera singers don’t write their own music and are usually discovered only after appearing in many musicals backed by companies, but does that mean they’re not talented because they weren’t found singing Opera in a tiny university bar? Absolutely not. The same goes for many talented singers throughout the decades (even Elvis Presley).

The point of this long rant is that even though we can acknowledge that BEG and other kpop groups have big wig companies backing them, I’m tired of people immediately writing off kpop (and pop in general) because of that fact. I think the deepest irony in this whole situation is the very musician wants to be in the position of popularity that kpop bands have, but once they reach it (by their own means or via a record label) many fans will desert them, saying that they “sold out”. What you want to say is, “I’m jealous my special band no one knew is now know by many people. I’m sad they’re making money and supporting themselves.”

So true!