My Host Family Change and Today's Alice Nine Member: Shou

So, there's more breaking news on the host family issue. I was just alerted that my host family has been switched, but I have to say, I'm much more excited about this new family. They are a five person family, with a mother and father, a grandmother, and two older sons (whatever that means). They also have a small dog, live 5 min. from Shibuya (by train)!! and my room will have a toilet and a bathtub. What's even better is that the dad works at the shrine next door (how awesome is that, honestly), and the mother teaches traditional tea ceremony and calligraphy. I mean could I even ask for cooler people. So, we'll see how that turns out. Hopefully they don't pull a switcheroo on me again, because as it stands, I'll be in a house in downtown Tokyo with an awesome, artsy family.

And now on to our Alice Nine member of the day: Shou. Shou is the vocalist of the band, and just turned 28 last month (though you'd never guess it). His birthday was July 5, 1981 and he was born Kohara Kazumasa, which is an awesome name, if a little long. After Tora, Shou is the tallest member of alice nine, which becomes rapidly apparent everytime he stands centerstage. Shou is a very stylish type of fellow, throwing himself into the pursuit of trendy clothes and shoes, when he's not off somewhere playing his video games (the only truly nerdy crime he commits). In fact, I read somewhere that he even knows how to cut hair, which only furthers his image of a stylish trend-setter. Despite being the band's singer, Shou is also talented on guitar, though he has more or less always preffered the seat of vocalist in his past bands (Lost Age, and Givuss, which he was in with Tora). More than anything, Shou is unfailingly humble and gratefully for all that has been given to him, never failing to thank photographers, managers and the like on his blog at every turn. So concerned is he with the well being of his fans, that he has said he takes personal responsibility for any injury or discomfort felt by anyone going to their concerts (it's a ROCK concert girls, you might get pushed around). For the promotion of their latest single, Hana, Shou's blog featured a five story tall poster of him, and in the caption underneath, he apologized for being the only member featured. Most assuredly, all of the members admire and look up to Shou, though he's always more than happy to share the limelight with anyone that might want it. What Shou brings to the group is the artistic crafting of melody and poetic verses of song particular only to him. At heart, Shou is a very emotional, poetic soul who says he ventures into art galleries when in need of inspiration, and the use of color, light and infinitely difficult imagery bleeds through into their songs, though almost always tinged with feelings of hope (in contrast to some other bands like The Gazette). And so today, I would like to share a song that showcases Shou's artistic nature: the beautiful name.

In Other News...

So, I e-mailed the school in Japan to check up on my housing info, seeing as I haven't had a word from anyone about the family I'm supposed to be staying with. The school e-mailed me back and said that the agency who is in charge of placing me in a homestay said it would be another two weeks, but if they do not do it in that time, Jogakkan College will have an apartment ready and waiting for me. What with my OCD nature, this should be a major nerve-grater, but I'm so beyond caring at this point, that they could put me up in a classroom. Even so, I suppose we'll know my fate in another two weeks.

Also, I just finished watching Oishii Proposal with mom and I can report that it was very cute, if not a bit uncharacteristic for a Japanese drama. To me, it had more of a Korean drama feel in that it was light, there weren't many subplots and it never got too dire. Also, it had the typical Korean scenario of rich boy/poor girl and the annoying rich fiancee with whom a marriage would gaurantee saving said boy's father's company, and without a marriage they will be in the poor house, thus making the boy face the decision of true love vs. practicality. I am a huge fan of Koide Keisuke who is the leading man in this, so of course I did like it. He seemed more believable as a guy in love because of the little actions he did as opposed to the typical love-struck act you get in either K or Jdramas. My only gripe was that the end was a bit lackluster, but what are you going to do. That too smacked of a Kdrama.

And my third point of interest is that I made a video! It's been forever since I put my rusty video editing skills to work, but I was driving down the road the other day, listening to a song and the idea for this vid just popped into my head. If you haven't seen the movie Honey and Clover, I would encourage you to watch it (dramacrazy.net may have it). It's a gorgeous movie that delves deeper than just throwing a love triangle up on the screen, and it's a different feel than the drama version. Also, it has Sakurai Sho and Iseya in it, so it's a win. Anyway, enough rambling. Talk to you cats later!
(Myspace has joined the ranks of all video hosting sites that hate me, so I'm just going to have to put up a download link and you'll just have to believe me that it's worth downloading to at least watch. From now on, I'm just going to start naming my vids 'gobledygook3004_2' to get past the hawks!)
Here's the DL: http://www.megaupload.com/?d=P8ZPZ917

Problem Resolved!

今日は！今日は元気？ How is everyone doing? Still hanging in there? Well I come to report good news on the housing front. The college just e-mailed me back today and have agreed to let me stay with a family for the first semester and in an independent apartment for the second, which then means I get the best of both worlds, and I don't have to choose! So that's exciting. Also, they just got my Certificate of Eligibility from Immigration, and are sending it today, which means I will now be able to apply for my visa. From what I'm told, to a apply for a visa, you have to download a form from the embassy website and you can either mail it in, or you can go do it yourself at the embassy. You must have the form, an ID, a passport and your Certificate I believe. By the way, if anyone ever has a question, feel free to e-mail me with it. I'll be happy to help you out!

In other news, I finally finished Love Shuffle. You know, I will say that it wasn't my very favorite show, but it was quite good. It was goofy and funny, but had a lot of puns that don't translate well. I did like how it ended, though it was a bit different than expected. Really, it was an interesting look at different sorts of love, and what made the show good was its cast. I mean tamaki hiroshi, matsuda shota and Daigo. So it was good. I'd give it probably 3.5/5 stars.

Last thing: the word of the day is Itadakimasu (頂きます). The word, in itself is an honorific way to show the recieving of some thing or some action, but what you should know now is that it is what you must always say before you start eating. Catch you guys later!