Libera me, Domine, de morte æterna, in die illa tremenda

Uh, has anyone watched Koishite Akuma? I meant to watch it ages ago, but it was airing at the same time as Buzzer Beat, and obviously Yamapi won that round. calledinvain had mentioned how ridiculous it was, but OMG I was not prepared for the utter level of badness. IT'S SO BAD, GUYS! I mean, baaaaaad.

That being said, I'm totally going to watch more of it.

Some highlights
- Ruka/Luka/Vampire boy is soooooooo emo. I mean, he wears a black hoodie (to school! *GASP OF INDIGNATION*), steps on pretty flowers, scares dogs, hangs around in the pouring rain (sadly he is no Nagase), makes people on bikes fall over, and sits/stands close to the edges of things (like he's TEMPTING FATE).
- Ruka/Luka/Vampire boy is supposed to be Romanian. Despite being Japanese. And speaking Japanese.
- Elder!Vampire is possibly the most ridiculous character I've ever seen. He CACKLES EVILLY, has naked girls lounging in his bed, resides in this baroque apartment, and is kinda gay with the other vampires. Actually, now that I think about it, he's pretty pimpin.
- Main character girl, (Makoto... is it sad that I can only remember her name because it's Sailor Jupiter's name?) is super pretty, but also annoying. I like her, but do teachers really go that far for their students in Japan?
- Vampire boy keeps making these horrible faces...
- OSCAR FROM HANA KIMI IS THE SCHOOL PRINCIPAL (or something)!! I flailed over that, because come on, it's Oscar! I wish he had facial hair though (As we know from Mei-chan, Oscar + facial hair = HOT)
- At one point in the show, I yelled aloud "YEAH! You slap him, girl! He's insolent!"...
- I AM IN LOVE WITH THE FACT THAT VAMPIRE BOY GETTING HIS FANGS = ERECTION. Like, he keeps trying to get his fangs by smelling girls, and he gets all frustrated that he can't get it up get his fangs. And when he DOES get his fangs (which happens after his teacher and him fall into the water, and she stands up, and OMG YOU CAN SEE HER BRA), he's all like "holy shit! *hides behind an umbrella*". Just take that in for a second. Did I mention he carries around a cheery red girly umbrella?

I also think I might be going to hell, because Nakayama Yuma, who plays the vampire boy, is pretty hot. HE'S ALSO SIXTEEN. He was only fifteen when they filmed this. I am 10 years older than him. I HAVE NEPHEWS OLDER THAN HIM. So creepy. Thanks for that, Japan.

Seriously though, you gotta admit that he's hot (or at least super pretty in the face). The rain doesn't hurt either.

ETA: I just watched the ending... I don't want to watch the rest anymore... It's gonna make me sad.

(Yay for being awake at 2am, huh?)

Today (or yesterday, rather) after class we went to Ximending. Ximending is an area in Taipei that is likened to Tokyo's Harajuku district. This is apt. It is also the closest you'd get to Japantown here. Japanese pop culture influence is EVERYWHERE. There was even a maid cafe!

We basically just walked around for awhile. Our mission was to find the eslite bookstore, which was quite the feat, as apparently eslite owns several mall-type buildings in the area, so we kept ending up in those. And then when we finally DID find the eslite, they didn't have what I was looking for (MUSIC), or what Lisa was looking for (manga that wasn't in Chinese). We did, however, amuse ourselves by looking at the magazines. It's interesting, because all the magazines are plastic wrapped, which is, I guess, so people won't read the magazines while sitting in the bookstore. (But OMG there were some NICE magazines. Mike He is on the cover of Men's Uno, Joseph Chang is on another magazine, Wu Zun and his utterly flawless face were on yet another, and finally there was one with Cheryl Yang!!!)

We ended up at a Daiso, a store I know of from when I was all into bento-ing. In Japan they're 100 yen shops. In the US they're $1.50 shops. In Taiwan, they're NT$39 shops (~ $1.18 USD). There was much amusement to be had at these shops because the engrish is just amazing. I haven't seen a LOT of amusing engrish (or rather, chinglish) in general here. Japan seems to be the master at engrish, as I saw more in Daiso than I have in my entire time here so far.

We also visited a music store that DID have the Big Bang CD I was looking for. However it was weirdly wrapped in paper, and it was kinda sketchy, so I decided against buying it because seriously, wtf?! I'll just wait to buy it... (Seriously, though... Why does Taiwan hate Korea?! Again the only Korean music I could find was SuJu, SS501, the Boys Before Flowers OST, and a random Kim Jeong Hoon "John Hoon" album.) Also, interestingly, we found an alley of tattooists.

Walking around Ximending was amusing, mostly because I kept stopping to take pictures of ads. Because, hello, FAMOUS TAIWANESE PEOPLE ARE MY FAVORITE. (Speaking of! I keep seeing this ad in the subway of a guy hugging a golden retriever while advertising for mooncakes, and I swear to God it's Eric Tsang, but why the hell would he be advertising mooncakes while hugging a dog on a subway advertisement?!)


Ximending is one of the nicest neighborhoods in Taipei that I've seen so far.
( More pictures, including highly amusing engrish, scary shop buildings, fun ads, and what Ming Dao does in his spare time )

Other awesome tidbits from Ximending!
- There's a restaurant there called "Cola Forest" that is American themed. They have a HUGE drink menu, and some interestingly named food, notably the "chicken naggets"... (NOW the chinglish is starting to rear it's head!)
- Apparently Show Luo is a spokesperson for EVERYTHING. I saw him in ads everywhere. I only really remember the Edwin Jeans ones though. I still prefer Brad Pitt though.
- Have I mentioned how awesome Taiwanese Haagen Dazs' are? The one in the 101 has these awesome ice cream mooncakes that I'm dying to try!
- We were apparently around an area that is famous for it's corn and peanut ice, but we didn't try it. Sometimes I wonder about the preoccupation they have with corn here.

Crap, I hate it when this happens. I know I just posted, but I DID NOT KNOW the new season of jdramas was starting so soon!

Yamapi's new drama starts airing today/tomorrow, and Nagase's airs on the 18th! Otomen starts a little later (01Aug09).

I'm not sure how I'm going to handle watching five live aiiring dramas (Buzzer Beat, Karei naru Spy, Otomen, Triple, AND Easy Fortune Happy Life), plus I will inevitably fall into the crack that is Koishite Akuma. Plus Meteor Shower starts airing this August, and possibly Down with Love and Calling Big Star will be airing soon... maybe. Not to mention the new MingEn drama which might air sometime, and I will not miss FOR THE WORLD.

I kinda hate Japan for how many goddamn dramas they put out in a year. I CANNOT keep up.

Oh God, this drama is going to destroy me. I'm so glad I'm watching it though. It's currently my third favorite jdrama. It might even surpass Summer Snow.

I'm glad they added the other Aki and her son to the drama though. I so desperately want Saku to be happy.

Earlier this week the jacket art was released for two of the Big Bang "My Heaven" singles. Personally I like Jacket B the best out of the two. But, of course, they haven't released the jacket for the edition that I bought (Version A, the CD+DVD one). It better be kickass. Ah, who am I kidding, of course it'll rock, because it's Big Bang, and that's just how they are.

I can't wait to get it though. I bought first press, so it's even more special. There are no more first press editions available on cdjapan! I haven't preordered the second single yet though. A title hasn't even been released, so I'm waiting until at least that goes down.

I wonder why Version C is so much more expensive than Version B on YesAsia.... It's a good $7.50 more expensive... (Ahhh, that's why... that one comes with a poster... of course the one on cdjapan came with the poster as well, and it was a ton cheaper. Stupid YesAsia's high prices...)

Also, wtf bank!? I thought I had more money than that.... Stupid stupid car repairs. Stupid brakes dying on me. Stupid school loans. It's cutting in on my manga money... Or, realistically, my "how not to go broke in Taiwan while possibly living there for three months without a job" money...

Big Bang were in Japan, at a press conference for their new single (which isn't new...). I'm not a big fan of it (I LOVE the song Heaven, but the Japanese version is kinda weird), but this post isn't about that. This post is about my dear GD's hair.


So my thoughts on GD hair-gate; I actually kinda love it. I don't love how he styled it there (it's not bad, just too flat). But man, I love me some long hair.
The other guys look fabulous too! Mmmmm suits :D

Image from yg_bigbang