2nd and last...

Last Joy...

It's hard for me to be a fan of a certain band/singer and frankly speaking, I ain't no trendy mainstream sucker...I only listen to what I like and not what everybody else does.
The story goes back 6 months ago, during my 6 month blog blackout period when Okamoto-sempai asked me to accompany him to Shimokitazawa Shelter and see this band I forget the name.
Eventually we missed the band because we were taking too much time at Mister Donuts eating our donuts since we didn't know that the band was an opening act for the whole event that night. Since I've paid 20 bucks and missed the band who hardly I know, I'd say we stay there till the end and see what other bands sound like.
So we waited...There were 4 bands playing that night, we missed the 1st one, the 2nd one sounded crapier than the 3rd one...which now leave us with the final band, JOY which I assumed the highlight of the day. As the crowd started to accumulate in the front of the stage, the screaming guitar sounded and so on...and to my suprise, they totally rocked me out, it's one of those love of at first sigh...no, love at first noise. No grumpy sound of Trombone nor Saxaphone and no screeching sound of the irritating techno...It was pure pounding ROCK!!!

- JOY -

A bit on the info, JOY is a 4 piece and from Niigata Prefecture - the place I usually go snowboarding, also well-known for it's Koshihikari variety of rice, which is widely thought of as the highest quality rice in Japan. Guess I need to eat more Koshihikari to be as rock as them.
MCAT on guitar/chorus, ELI on bass/chorus, TDNK2 on guitar/vocal and TD-K on drums/chorus.
For those who wants a taste of JOY's music, check this out...it's one of my fav track called yukuehumei.

See the difference?

Since then, due to the band's gigs mostly concentrated in Niigata, I didn't have the chance to see them performing again until last Friday when I received a shocking email from Okamoto-sempai saying that the band is breaking-up and the last gig in Tokyo was on Sunday at Earthdom in Shin Okubo.
Since Okamoto-sempai could not make it, I went to Earthdom in Shin Okubo by myself. After enduring the cold weather and the suprising long queue, I made it in to Earthdom at last. There were 4 bands playing that night, the third one suck big time.
As for JOY who came out last, although that was my second time watching them live, they were abolutely fabulous!!! too bad it was their last one. Just hope that I will encounter other bands as good or perhaps better than JOY in the future.

Eli-chan chachoiiii....

SKISKI

I have a confession to make, I'm a Friendster 'friendster'...why? Because I log-on to my Friendster account almost every hour of the day. Don't get wrong but for me, Friendster is the only way for me to reach out with Malaysians out there since I'm in an environment where there are no known Malaysians living anywhere near 5km radius from where I live.
It's also fun to check people especially ones with the same age as I am, look thru their profile and compare who got the most hair or bigger beer belly. The other thing I noticed is, it seems very obvious that many of my young 'friends' who in Japan uploaded pictures of them on with rented ski/snowboard gear ready for a nice adventure on the snowy slopes...how cool is that!!!
So my advice as a sempai for the first timers out there, don't get overexcited and have a proper stretching exercise before going down that slope.

For me it's just the beginning of this year's snowboarding season, thanks for the warm winter. So me, Okamoto-sempai, Shino-chan and friends went to Tanbara Ski Park last Saturday.

We are excited...aren't we?

About this season, say goodbye to my old Rossignol board and hello to my new intermediate Salomon STORM. Since I already spent too much this month, plans to get the FLOW bindings probably will be postponed hopefully to next month's budget.

Same characters, different location...

As for our trip to to Tambara Ski Park, although it's one of the nearest ski parks from Tokyo, the weather was great with snow and strong crosswinds, a nice start for the new season. At least 3 more times to go before the end of the season.

Play Beyond

Behold...

Let me get this thing straight...I got myself a PS3...yes, the PS3...hoho...
The coolest thing about it ,I didn't stand in an endless line nor camp outside a game store, I also didn't put in a bid for it in the internet from a price 2, 3 times than it should be...I got just for about 600 dollars for the 60GB console. To add to it, I didn't get myself mobbed, robbed or killed.

...and this ain't no mock ups...

I may say that my days with game consoles was over with my college years and since then I started to concentrate on PC games because they are fast and have better graphics.
But when I have my hands on the SIXAXIS wireless controller, it opens door to the new and wonderful world of next generation game console...I shit you not...
With cool interface, WI-FI capabilities and Hi Vision compatible, which runs superbly on my HD Bravia 40 inch tv, no wonder people dare to kill somebody to get one.

A guy in his thirties hooked on TV games.

My piece of advice, you better change to a new HD tv before thinking of buying PS3 because you won't get the best resolution on a normal tv.
CRT tv? Throw it to the trash pile!!!

Awesome!!!

Akeome...

Welcoming the year of boar.

It's the last day of 2006, and again Mr and Mrs Fujishima invited me again to their house to celebrate the new year.

The last supper of 2006.

This year I celebrated the new year's eve in a Japanese way. We watched PRIDE. while having dinner, of course we had nabe for dinner. After that we watched Kohaku Uta Gassen ("Red vs white singing contest"), you know, one of the country's most-watched television programs. I hate explaining this but...popular singers (and singing groups) split into two teams, women in the red team and men in the white, which then alternate while competing for the audience's heart throughout the evening...bla, bla, bla.
At around 11:30 pm, the final singer (or group) sings, and the audience and a panel of judges are asked to cast their votes to decide which team sang better. The winning team gets a trophy and "the winner's flag"...the white team won this year but frankly speaking, WHO CARES!!!, it's either red or white.

Mr Fujishima is preparing the toshikoshi-soba.

And then it's Toshikoshi-soba time. It's a tradition based on people's association of eating the long noodles with "crossing over from one year to the next," the meaning of toshi-koshi. While the noodles are often eaten plain, or with only chopped scallions, in some localities people top them with tempura...we had it with kakiage tempura.

Me and Mr, Mrs Fujishima.

After we were full with soba, etc. We went for a stroll to the nearest temple to pray for the year's wish. I was quite a long stroll to the temple which later Mr. Fujishima explained that he intentionally circled Setagaya park 2 times because he needed a lot of walking since we had a humongous meal that night.

3am Eternal.

Since it was already 3 in the morning, after I said goodbye to Mr. and Mrs. Fujishima me and Okamoto-sempai walked to Shibuya station. When we arrived, to my suprise, JR line were still running. We took the 4:15am Yamanote line train and I eventually arrived home at 5:15...
Otsukaresamadesu...