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[uisceros]

I finished watching Hachimitsu no Clover. I LOVED IT SOOOO MUCH. It was perfect, EXACTLY what I needed. Apparently I needed a malancholic story about growing up and finding yourself. Takemoto-kun's story really touched me, because while he didn't have ANY real aspirations (whereas I have too many), we both are clueless as to how to live our lives.



I love how the story ended how it began, with Takemoto-kun and Hagu-chan. I also loved how it showed their deep connection to each other (despite Hagu-chan not being in love with Takemoto-kun).

I also really loved how Ayumi-chan and Nomiya-san ended up "together" at the end. He is such an amazing, sweet guy. At first I was totally Ayumi/Mayama all the way, but after Nomiya-san drove from Tottori to Tokyo in ONE NIGHT to comfort her because Mayama was leaving! There is no girl in the WORLD who wouldn't be touched by that!

I still don't like Rika-san though...

Also, in one of the last scenes, Hagu-chan gives Takemoto-kun some sandwiches with some sort of spread, and four leaf clovers in them. I JUST got it that it was honey. Honey and Clover, get it? I didn't... The honey part still doesn't make much sense to me, since it was never mentioned, but four leaf clovers play a big role in the drama. I COULD put on my english-lit symbolism thinking cap and come up with a good explaination (honey is sweet, yet bitter at the same time (or it is to me!), or some sort of comparison to days of happiness, or working hard without appreciation... or the obvious, most honey is clover honey), but meh.



But yeah, it's an AMAZING series, really. I wish it were longer, or had another season! Now I want to watch First Kiss again... I need to watch more jdramas!

So the other day I wrote about the best sesame bean curd EVERRRRR. Tonight I got some yummy vegetable udon from the same place (it was cheap too! The udon and some rice was only like $7!). I like udon. My family doesn't really, they think it's slimy... Incidentally, I'm always amused when I find japanese dishes at a chinese resaturant. Not that it's uncommon, but it still amuses me. My favorite chinese restaurant serves a TON of polynesian dishes...

I started watching the 3rd episode of Love Storm, and hey, Megan Lai appeared! She was REALLY pretty in it too.

I could talk more about how my life is currently intensely stressful right now, but nah. Dramas are more fun.

Sometimes in Honey and Clover, they play the ending song, and the lyrics are shown in romaji. I get all confused, because I'll see a word like "ni", or "wo", and I'll automatically think Mandarin, and translate it as such. Stupid mandarin and japanese, trying to screw with me!

I want to continue watching Bull Fighting, but it's no subbed fully yet...

So I might watch another jdrama. Lisa, should I watch Last Friends, or will it break my heart (*cough* Summer Snow *cough*). Also, you should totally watch Honey and Clover. Toma-kun is so endearingly adorable, I just want to kidnap him (but not in a scary way, in a "OMG you're so cute I love you" kinda way...)


Strike Outs = Already seen
Italic = Currently Watching
Bold = REALLY want to see

Japanese
Hana Yori Dango
Hana Yori Dango 2
Hanazakari no Kimitachi e
Summer Snow
Aishiteiru to Ittekure
Hachimitsu to Clover
Zettai Kareshi
Binbo Danshi
First Kiss
Kimi wa Pet
Golden Bowl
Orange Days
Cat Street
Nobuta wo Produce
Innocent Love (upcoming)

Korean
Goong
Full House
My Girl
Loving You
My Lovely Sam Soon
A Love to Kill
The Legend
The 1st Shop of Coffee Prince
Autumn Love Story

Taiwanese
It Started With a Kiss
They Kiss Again
Devil Beside You
Love Contract
Smiling Pasta
Prince Turns to Frog
Mars
Why Why Love
Marry Me
My Secret Garden
My Secret Garden 2
Honey and Clover
The Rose
Tokyo Juliet
Silence
Summer x Summer
Hanazakarino Kimitachihe
Meteor Garden
Meteor Garden 2
Meteor Rain
Say Yes Enterprise
Brown Sugar Macchiato
Scent of Love
Marmalade Boy
Seventh Grade
Lavender
Lavender 2
Romantic Princess
Bull Fighting
Starry Night
Wish to See You Again
Qi Lin Guan Zhi Lian
Goku Dou High School
Express Boy
Pi Zi Ying Xiong
Fated to Love You
Invincible Shan Bao Mei
Corner with Love
The Outsiders
Hot Shot
Love or Bread (upcoming)
Miss No Good (upcoming)
Hi! Working Girl
Lover of Herb
My Lucky Star
Tian Wai Fei Xian
Ying Ye 3 Jia 1
Angel Lover
Reaching for the Stars
Starry Starry Night
Starlit (upcoming)
The Clue Collector (upcoming)
Engagement for Love
Sweet Relationship
Love Storm

Chinese
Legend of the Condor Heroes 2008
Quietly Falling in Love with You (upcoming)
City of Sky
Love at First Fight
Modern Youth (upcoming)
Tian Wai Fei Xian


ANIME LIST

Sailor Moon
Sailor Moon R
Sailor Moon S
Sailor Moon Super S
Sailor Moon Stars
Hana Yori Dango
Marmalade Boy
Tenku no Escaflowne
Fushigi Yuugi
Inuyasha
Weiß Kreuz
Card Captor Sakura
Kodomo no Omocha



Yay! One more off the list!

EDIT: Oh! I forgot to mention! I finally learned how to hold chopsticks the "right" way (Chinese style). I'm glad I learned the other way first though, because there really was no way I would have been able to even hold the damn things the correct way when I first learned.

Also, I totally ate salad using chopsticks today! And they were japanese style disposable chopsticks, so I got to break them apart! And I didn't mess them up either! Yay me!

Comments

[airplanemusic.livejournal.com]

Last Friends is dramatic and I totally cried at every episode, but it's not heart breaking in the way Summer Snow is.

I still have trouble breaking apart disposable chopsticks..

I've been kind of disappointed in Cat Street. Like, as a drama it's good, but since I read the manga first I'm of course judging it based on the manga. There are supposed to be the two guys, Rei and Kouichi, but Rei was gotten rid of!! Kouichi now has some Rei-like aspects, and they added a random guy, Gouta. (There's a love triangle with Rei and Kouichi, but since the drama is so short, I guess they got rid of that..)

[uisceros.livejournal.com]

Ahhh okay. I'll think it over some more. I'm still watching like, 4 other series too...

Hehehehe!! I probably just got lucky. I'm a klutz in everything else, there's no reason why I should be graceful in chopstick-breakage.

That's why I tend to stay away from manga or books before I watch the screen adaptions... I'm always disappointed in how they present it in video vs. books. Hehehehe a random guy?! In HYD I was disturbed when they made Sakurako into Makiko/Junpei, and like, totally got rid of Kazuya, but at least they didn't add a random dude to it!

[airplanemusic.livejournal.com]

I don't know if this counts as a spoiler, but it has domestic violence, gender identity disorder, and stuff like that. Like, it's not really about romance (thought here is romance); mostly it's just friendship, and the problems that each of them have (though two of the five people are basically ignored..)

I think there's a trick to it! I just...don't know it! And I don't get a lot of practice. If I'm at home I use regular ones, at the Chinese restaurants they have these cylindrical ones that you don't break, and I hardly ever eat Japanese, so... (We have three Japanese places in town: one has 95% Chinese food, the other has like NO non-meat options but I used to eat there sometimes even though it's totally run by Chinese people, and the other is run by Chinese people but the menu is actually Japanese...BUT every single time I've eaten there, it's made me sick. So....never eating there again!)

Yeah, it's usually better to avoid it while watching. But I read Cat Street before I even knew there was going to BE a drama, so.. (I guess I could avoid the drama, hehe. But it IS good!)

I'll just tell you about it, since the drama lineup TOTALLY SPOILS THE END OF THE MANGA ANYWAY...

In the manga, the four main characters are Keito/Kate (ex-actress), Momiji (gothic lolita), Rei (soccer guy), and Kouichi (computer guy). Keito has a crush on a childhood friend, but eventually gets over him and then dates Rei...but he breaks it off because STUFF. And then she ends up with Kouichi in the end. All along, I figured she'd end up with Rei, but I loooooved Kouichi, so I was so sad till they actually got together.
But in the drama, Rei doesn't exist; instead, there's Gouta, who doesn't talk much cause he stutters, so even though he's nice, he's not likely to be a potential love interest. So, they get rid of the love triangle, and make the only potential love interest be Kouichi! So you never go through the "who will she end up with?!" thing!

Since the drama's only six episodes I guess they got rid of that aspect for time, but still.. it's a huge change to completely remove one of the four main characters!!

[uisceros.livejournal.com]

Dude, spoilers don't bother me. I totally already read about it. I know it's not romantical, but Honey and Clover wasn't really either (I mean, there was plenty of angst about it, but there was no actual people getting together). And hey! I'm breaking out of my must-only-watch-romance thing! Yay!)

Yeah, maybe like how there's a trick to breaking a wishbone or something (only comparison I could come up with). I've only ever been to a japanese restaurant once, and that was before I could use chopsticks... so yeah, I've never done it before. Chinese chopsticks are so weirdly different from japanese ones!! They're like, REALLLLY long, and don't have pointed ends. I think it's weird that I totally know the differences between the different types of chopsticks (Koreans use steel ones!). We don't have japanese restaurants either, really. There's not a whole hell of a lot of Japanese people here (they go to the west coast!). I can only think of three offhand (in 3 different towns...)

... yeah... then it's unavoidable, ne?

That's okay! I'd spoil it for myself anyways!

Oh! It sounds good! the d-addicts wiki doesn't really give a ton of info... DUUUUUUUDE!! The guy who plays Gouta is TOTALLY the cute gay boy from Hana Kimi!!!! I'm also ridiculously disturbed by how freaking YOUNG they all are! Twdramas usually have older characters, and older actors (most are in their mid twneties to early thirties). I'll have to read the manga some time... when I can find time to do it!

Wah? SIX EPISODES?! That's ridiculously short. But yeah, I agree, removing a main character is kinda weird!

[airplanemusic.livejournal.com]

Okay then I'll add that there was child molestation too! (For the gender identity disorder thing, they make this big leadup like you don't know what's up with the girl, but DUDE, from the first five minutes you KNOW she's at least a lesbian if not gender disordered, so... Also, she does motocross. In Japan, girls doing motocross = lesbian. That's why Sailor Uranus did motocross!)

I think Chinese ones are easier to use, especially because a lot of the Japanese ones are the lacquered type and those are so slippery!
I totally have some Korean chopsticks! They're hard to use but fun. We have Chinese chopsticks that my dad got in Taiwan (he's gone for business a lot) so we totally have Chinese, Japanese, AND Korean chopsticks! I like using the right ones based on the type of food I'm making!

We have a TON of Japanese exchange students here! But we also have a lot of Koreans and Chinese and Nigeriens and Mexicans. It's funny to me that Arkansas is the most racially diverse place I've lived! (though Conway IS the biggest place I've lived)

OH YEAH!! I thought I knew Gouta from somewhere, but I couldn't remember!

I know!! I don't know why they made it SO short. Normally J-dramas are at least 10 or so episodes!

I think you'd like Cat Street because of Keito/Kate being an ex-actress, and the love triangle-ness! She's funny, because she basically hasn't left the house since she was a kid [she became a shut-in], so she can't read many kanji, and she doesn't "get" sexual jokes/etc.

[uisceros.livejournal.com]

(Ahhhhhhh. Now the whole Haruka motorcycle thing makes sense!)

All of the chopsticks I have are japanese style ones, so I'd probably find those easier to use. BUT the length of the chinese ones is nice. I actually don't like the wooden ones without some sort of coating on them. The texture freaks me out. I WANT TO GO TO TAIWAN TOOOOOOO!!!! Hehehe!! All you need are vietnamese ones, and you're set!

We have a ton of hispanic, and vietnamese/cambodian/indian. Other than that, we're pretty generically white. My workplace has a LOT of Africans though.

Yeah!! He was so cute in Hana Kimi! Awww! Now I want to watch it MORE because he's in it! Only the first two eps have been subbed though. I checked.

I know!! It's weirdly ridiculously short! Even the 10 episode ones seem short to me (I'm used to the 20+ episode twdramas. I've never seen a twdrama shorter than 16 episodes).

I think I'll like it too! I mean, I LOVED HYD. Yay shut-ins! I feel like a shut in most of the time....

[airplanemusic.livejournal.com]

Me too! I haaate the disposable wooden ones. They give me chills (like fingernails on a chalkboard; which doesn't give me chills as bad as holding chalk itself does.. uggh just thinking about it makes me feel icky. Whenever I become a teacher, I'm gonna have to specify that I will NOT teach in a classroom that requires chalk!)
What kind do they use in Taiwan?! Aren't they like super ridiculously long?

Well, only four episodes of Cat Street have aired, so the subs are actually coming out pretty fast! So it should be done being subbed soon.

Me too..! It's funny how we can go to work, and we live with our families, but we still feel like shut-ins.

[uisceros.livejournal.com]

Some of the bamboo ones aren't horrible, but yeah, regular wood ones make me want to die. DUDE!!!! I'm the SAME WAY with chalk! I can't handle it AT ALL. Or unglazed pottery. Or dishes that are clean and dry straight from the dishwasher. I have a lot of texture issues.

I don't know! You think I would, but I don't... next time I watch Taiwanese people eat, I'll let you know.

Ahhhh then that makes sense! I'm so not used to people subbing so fast! Jdramas are WAY ahead of chinese language dramas in that sense.

We're just awesome that way!

[airplanemusic.livejournal.com]

Eeew I hate dishes straight from the dishwasher!! Especially glasses. It's so grossss feeling! (I have no comment on unglazed pottery, cause I haven't felt it in like...ever)

....I totally meant Vietnam, by the way! I'm a winner!

Yeah, Jdramas get subbed FAST if they're popular!

We are!!