Lovely Film - Kamikaze Girls!

Yesterday's film was the amazing Japanese comedy Kamikaze Girls, aka Shimotsuma Monogatari. That could be translated as "Shimotsuma's Tale", or "Shimotsuma's Story". Mark and I watched it and it was brilliant. Lately, we have been watching loads of Japanese films, since they are my favourite, and this one was such a nice surprise... I took ages to get it, and it was a real treat.

It tells the story of the very unlikely meeting of two Japanese girls from completely different backgrounds: Momoka is the goth-loli sweet and dreamy girl, who wishes she was living in the Rococo era, and thus dresses up in frilly outfits and lacy headbands. The other girl is Ichiko (in reality, Ichigo, but she hates being called by her real name). Ichigo is a "ianki", or a rebel (juvenile delinquent, I would say!) and member of the infamous Ponytail (poniteiro) girls motorbike gang from the Ibaraki region (where their hometowm, Shimotsuma, is located).

Their fashion sense is very diverse, although that is the exact thing that ends up by uniting them. Momoka commutes to Tokyo almost everyday to buy her frills in the most amazing Goth-Loli shop: Baby, The Stars Shine Bright. That is her salvation from the local Jusco (oh that so makes me think of our local Tesco here!) supermarket mega-store and their dull, suburban outfits. She lives with her Dad, an ex-Yakuza, and her Granny (who plays the senile lady when convenient). Mum and Dad are divorced, and the whole story of how they met and how and where they ended up is hilarious. At any rate, her wacky Dad is an entrepreneur: he produces counterfeit goods "by" Versace (VersaCH, ha ha!) and Universal Studios (that he understands to be Universal STADIUMS) and sell them in the streets.

Momoka, in need of some money, advertises them in the Internet and that's how she meets Ichigo - who was desperately needing an amazingly embroidered jacket for the Gang's leader wedding.

Well, the plot from then on will revolve around a mythical embroiderer, the discovery of Momoka's hidden talents, visits to Baby, The Stars Shine Bright, mopeds X motorbikes, pachinko parlours, Ichigo's first (frustrated) love and a near-death experience, none the least.

Amazing characters, beautiful colours and cool effects that make this movie seem like a "moving manga". No, not an anime in this sense, which would be too obvious, but a how a manga would look like if it was in colour, and real life and flesh. Brilliant, funny, and light.

The girls change quite a lot after meeting each other and it's great to see how they exchange their own distinct experiences and tastes, and how their friendship is reinforced by their differences and ideals.

Kamikaze Girls is based on the novel of the same name by Nobara Takemoto, published in 2004, and the author was twice nominated to the Mishima Prize of literature. He is also a clothes and accessories designer for Baby, The Starts Shine Bright that are now opening their first store in Paris. Yeah, it's a REAL store! Takemoto-san also creates some Gothic-Loli outfits for the Hello Kitty series, and I have some of his designs in my collection, as you can see below:

Very pretty, no? This is exactly how Momoko would dress herself up in the film! If you click on it, you'll be able to see a picture if Nobara Takemoto as well, quite charming (in a dark, gothic way that is!).

Vogue Japan - Hello Kitty Wears Dior

I finally managed to put my hands on the massive issue of Vogue Japan Jun'08! Why, and what is that, that I was so anxiously waiting for? Well, nothing less than a special edition featuring Hello Kitty dressed by no one else than John Galliano!

Well, it also displays some celebs that have succumbed to Kitty-chan's spell, but I wouldn't care less for them, especially the bimbo sisters Paris and whatzername-Hilton. No, that doesn't matter. I'd rather forget about it, even... Oh well...

What is really great is to get the drawings for 60 outfits Galliano designed for her, as well as pictures of her visiting the Maison Dior in Paris - kawaii indeed! To die for!

(It makes me think of Alexandre Herchcovitch - a wonderful Brazilian fashion designer - who also designed some pieces featuring Kitty-chan 4 years ago...)

I also got a special freebie, which is a lovely mascot of Kitty holding a Vogue banner. Here it is, at your left - I scanned it, but it doesn't look great. Just click on it to get a better idea.

Now I just need to know if the Kitties (60, in total) will be released as mascots or straps, so I can get some (my favorites at least)!

Yaji & Kita: The Midnight Pilgrims

... or... Mayonaka no Yaji-san Kita-san

Another Japanese gem we have watched last night! It's brilliant, surreal, absurd and hilarious. The plot revolves around a couple of gay samurai in the Edo era (1603 to 1868). Kita-san is a drug addict and Yaji-san, his married lover. Since Kita-san can make "no heads or tails of reality", Yaji-san decides to bring him in a pilgrimage to Ise Sanctuary, after picking up an ad about the place. Ise-san is said to be the solution for all problems, the cure for anything, thus ideal for a junkie such as Kita-san.

I have scanned the ad for your delight (up above!) - now if you can imagine a samurai getting such a leaflet in the Edo era, you can have an idea of the wacky stuff awaiting for you in these 2 hours +.

To arrive to Ise-san they have to follow the old Tokaido road and, on their way, they stop at several inns and meet a bunch of really funny and bizarre characters. The Laughter Inn (where to be accepted you simply must present the funniest stand-in comedy routine, for example), a green tea plantation in Shizuoka where they meet a drag queen with a daughter who cannot sing to save her own life (thus causing Mt. Fuji to be hazed all the time), a group of cute school girls that are die-hard fans of a famous local Yakuza boss, a guy who impersonates King Arthur in a tribute/reference to Monty Python (or so it seemed), the Souls Inn, and an undead bartender in the middle of the forest, whose drinks are made from magic mushrooms etc... Well, think about Alice in Wonderland meets Priscilla Queen of the Desert... Or something along these lines.

But that's not all. Yaji-san is actually being wanted for the murder of his wife Ohatsu (did he, did he not?), and Kita-san believes to have fallen in love with the singing-challenged Shizuoka girl who, by her turn, has fallen in love with no one else than Yaji-san! Not to mention that they also manage to record a CD and become famous as a result.

Some more hilarious characters here are the Police investigators (Kin-kin and assistant Non-no), the she-demon Datsueba, the bearded courtesans, and what have you...

Photography, soundtrack and costumes are all brilliant and colourful, and the film is loaded with puns and jokes, some of which are much probably lost in translation, but still quite enjoyable. I absolutely love when they arrive to what they think is Ise-san, but in fact is the department store Isetan, in the middle of Tokyo's Shibuya. Surreal, and straightforward hilarious.

Note that the beginning of the film is in black-and-white, until Yaji-san shows the leaflet to Kita-san and then everything seems to come to life and the colours appear - as if their lives now have gotten a meaning and aim (a quest in search of redemption/healing at Ise-san, that is). There is even a fantastic dream scene where corpses floating in the river become pieces of a supernatural Tetris game, and that's certainly one of my favourites.

Now I just need to find myself the soundtrack!

(Directed by Kudo Kankuro, dated 2005, starring as Yaji-san and Kita-san: Nagase Tomoya and Nakamura Shichinosuke II, respectively).

(Pictures scanned by me, from the DVD insert, by Asmik Ace Entertainment Inc., DVD ACBD-10302).

Matcha Ice Cream...

I had one today. We went to Aya for lunch and that's where I got it. We always go there for matcha ice cream... Aaaaahhhh...

kuriyama chiaki-glico wagokoro
Uploaded by acdticojp

The above ad stars Chiaki Kuriyama, and I got it from Dailymotion. I added the user to my favorites, since he's got the most fantastic Japanese ads.

Woman of the Water ("Mizu no Onna")

This gorgeous film has been recommended by fellow blogger World of Overcast. It is (of course!) a Japanese movie, starring Asano Tadanobu and the singer Ua. It was the first time I heard about her by the way, and she has a beautiful, strong voice (from what I could grasp from the film soundtrack).

Mark likes to call Tadanobu the "Japanese Ralph Fiennes", since he always appears naked in his films... Well, jokes apart, he is perhaps 90% right here! (Lucky us viewers, I must say...)

The film is directed by Sugimori Hidenori (dated 2002) and is a real gem. Somehow it recalls the beautiful images and words from Overcast as well, and it is a quiet, melancholy movie, almost like a watercolour - shades of blue and green seem to dominate most of the time.

It tells the story (or rather tale) of Ryo, whose life's meaningful events are always announced by rain. She is also a Pisces and, as her fiancé mentions in the beginning, could only be surrounded by water. Actually, she works with her Father in a bath house and, one day, during a rainfall, her Dad and fiancé both die in separate incidents. From now on, it is Ryo starting from scratch, new life, new beginnings.

She gets involved with Asano's character, Yusaku, a young man obsessed with bonfires. She hires him to work in the bath house working the fire, and they start a relationship. It happens that Yusaku is a wanted pyromaniac, as we find at one stage.

There are other characters in the plot, two females, who represent other elements: Midori, the crazy homeless woman who Ryo calls "Mom" and seems to symbolise Earth, and Yukino, an artist that Ryo befriends during a trip to Mt. Fuji and whom she meets again when it's time to repaint the Mt. Fuji's landscape in the bath house walls, and she comes with the master painter. This woman, a free spirit, always wandering around, may be associated with the Wind/Air. This interview with the director explains well this concept of the 4 elements and their symbolism in the film, worth having a look.

The relationship between Ryo and Yusaku relies on a fine balance. They both seem to complement each other: no questions asked, no demands, beautiful dialogues, poetic lovemaking. She is water but becomes strangely more "fiery" and assertive than Yusaku himself, whereas he seems to plunge more deeply inside the turvy waters of his memories and past.

Midori, the "green" homeless woman, has a crucial role in the conclusion of the story, which I will not disclose here, naturally.

I strongly recommend this little gem of a film, although I can understand it is not for everybody. From what I've seen, some people find it to be extremely boring and slow, but believe me when I say it is a beauty. And not because I am a Pisces as well, and my element is Water, and etc... No, not because of that, but simply because it is extremely rewarding. Now, please go ahead; you won't regret it!

Take ir or leave it - Tetsuo The Iron Man

For some time, Mark has been insisting that I should watch "Tetsuo The Iron Man", and I finally found it for a very reasonable price in Play. I ordered it, and last night, we sat together to watch it.

Short little masterpiece, I would say (to start with). Think unglamorous, monochrome (entirely B&W), grainy and dark. And gory.

Subjacent theme is a sort of post-industrial grudge. A man obsessed with metal fetishism, is ran over by a car and dies (at least, I think he died). The car is driven by this salary man and his woman who, instead of helping, start having sex in front of the (dead or alive by then) body. They dump the body into a ravine and he suffers a mutation. Or to put into alchemical terms, a transmutation. At the same time, the salary man starts to hallucinate and sees himself changing in real life, culminating in his metamorphosis into a pile of retorted metal - or something to that effect. This realisation of the change and how to cope with it is memorable, but I won't give details here.

Soundtrack is brilliant and the film edition is amazing, I must say. From the metamorphose onwards, the story enters a frantic pace and things start to gradually make sense.

Visually, it reminded me of H. R. Giger's artwork and some 1920's expressionist films (makeup, facial expressions, body movements etc). I recall Wegener's "The Golem" for the dark atmosphere and the inhuman character of the protagonist(s), albeit in a totally distinct scenario of course. Also, "Metropolis" may come to mind for the post-industrial, man-machine relationship theme. The black and white footage and lack of dialogue lends it an air of silent movie almost, which greatly contributes to such associations, I guess.

I think it's brilliant because the story hardly needs any words to be understood (that is a merit, in my point-of-view), except perhaps with the flashback scene with the doctor, and the last scenes where the two main characters talk to each other and one of them says something like:

"Together we can rust this world. With our love we can destroy this world together", while entering a post-apocalyptical Tokyo scenario, empty streets, abandoned buildings and no other human beings, dead or alive, to be seen.

Homosexual metaphor. Metal mutation epidemics. Technopop hallucination. Cyberpunk fable. I think it's all these things together perhaps. And perhaps none of them at all.

Who is Tetsuo in the end? None of the two male characters is called Tetsuo. But the being resulting of the salary man and the fetishist's fusion. Almost like a homunculus born from a twisted alchemical process, a perverted "conjunctio". That is Tetsuo, or at least that's how I see it.

The film is directed, produced and starred by Shinya Tsukamoto - as the fetishist guy. We recently saw him as the main character in Takeshi Shimizu's "Marebito", which, truth to be told, failed to impress (not him as an actor, but the story itself). In the other hand, he directed a little gem of a film called "Vital", with Tadanobu Asano, one of my favourite J-Horror films (although I personally don't see it as "horror" at all). All that makes me think he must be no short of a genius.

(Thanks Mark, for introducing me to Tetsuo. Owe you one!)

Shiba Wanko Books

I bought 2 of these books on EBay (where else!), and they are just gorgeous. These days I am quite obsessed with Shiba Inu puppies, and just could not resist to them. Since I cannot have the real pups, why not the books at least? And it can also help me to start drawing again, since it's very much the style I love, very colourful and detailed.

Hannari-Ya is the lovely Seller. I like buying from them because everything arrives super-fast and they have a great collection of Japanese goodies.

Well the 1st book in the series is called Wa no Kokoro, and explains the traditions and customs related to each season and holiday in Japan, from Tanabata to the Hanami season, and also how to hold chopsticks or to pray in a shrine, for example. The main characters are Shiba Wanko and his little kitty friend, Miike Nyanko, who introduce us to a typical day in the country and all its symbols and rich cultural background.

The 2nd one, Wa no Kokoro 2, demonstrates how to wear a kimono, and explains about Hina Matsuri (Girls Festival) and the traditional Kabuki theatre, among other customs. It also describes how to make incense for the Summer days, and how pleasant it must be to savour the colourful and exquisite wagashi (sweets). Ahhhh, that makes me think of Minamoto Kitchoan's delicacies... How I miss it!

The books are all in Japanese, no translation so far (let's hope!). However, the illustrations are so detailed that you don't even need a text to know (more or less!) what is going on, or what the meanings of such and such tradition or celebration may be. Of course, if you are already familiar with some aspects of Japanese culture it gets easier since you can recognise what it's all about. Otherwise, just don't worry, but relax and enjoy the lovely pictures. Not to be missed!

Le Japon Artistique

My Dad gave me a book years ago, an encyclopaedia of Japanese Arts, when I first entered the University, in 1979-80, some time before he passed away I think... It's an amazing collection of 3 books dated from 1888, by S. Bing, an art dealer specialised in Art Nouveau and Oriental art. It may be the oldest books I have and, unfortunately, way too heavy to bring it home to Dublin. It's called Le Japon Artistique.

When I was younger I used to sit down at a table and copy some of the patterns reproduced there. It's an invaluable reference. I just found out in my last visit that there is even a chapter on "manga", showing old manga reproductions. Not the manga that we know nowadays, but the manga as is, ie, "irresponsible (whimsical) sketches", inside the large section dedicated to Hokusai. The collection is exquisite, and has everything one needs to know about Japanese Art up to some years after the Meiji era. Lots of text, black and white and coloured plates. Hard it is to preserve such an old book. It is in quite good state, however not perfect. Rio's humidity is to blame for its not-so-perfect condition, but still, if you handle it with care and love you'll gain an endless number of delightful hours. A gem...

My JList Wish List!

One can only LOVE JList ! They now got this great Wish List feature! So, today I am blogging my very own Wish List in the hope that my friends will think of me on those "special dates", ho ho!

Well, it's not new there, but only today I though about blogging it. It's really cool and can give you an idea of all the cool items they have on sale there! For example, now I think I really need those healing froggy eye masks... What else can be cooler, cuter and handier than that??

Cool Engrish (Pt. 5)

I have another Cool Engrish of the Day today! It's from my lovely new pair of geta (Japanese clogs). I love using geta at home, there is nothing more comfortable than a woody, anatomic pair of traditional Japanese footwear! Then, I bought this lovely pair on EBay some weeks ago...
It says on the sticker at the bottom:

"Leisure supplies
carefully collisions
pathway slide"

Hhhhhmmm... Does it grip? Does it slip? Frankly, I have no idea! But it doesn't matter, for I will be using them at home, not outside. So, no slippery walks, or any chances to test it against the elements. Let's keep it inside, shall we?

Cool Engrish (Pt. 4)

Cool Engrish of the Day today comes from yet another brand of Japanese cosmetics: Fasio by Kosé. This time, it's a blush:

"Pure & smooth blush!
Come with brush too!"

(Yes, yes, I will also come with my brush, not to worry!...)

Cool Engrish (Pt. 3)

Now, our Cool Engrish of the Day. This time it is a much coveted makeup item, from wonderful Shiseido Maquillage. And by that I simply mean the name of the product, which sounds absurdly kinky.

It is a foundation and, as far as I know, the 1st gel foundation formula ever. An innovation as Shiseido always do. The name? ... Ehrm... The name is... Climax Moisture Gel Foundation. But there is also a Climax Moisture Powdery. I don't know, I don't know... It sounds like any thing, except like something you put on your face, no? As I said, kinky stuff. Or maybe it's just me with a slightly twisted mind!

I don't know how do they come up with the ideas for some names, really. It's a multinational, althoug this product is specifically marketed for Asia (not Europe or US)... If I bought it already? No, I did not. And not because of the name though, but because I think I have enough foundation at the moment, that's it. I would buy it hough, if it wasn't for that, since I love their products - especially the Asia exclusives.

The packing, as you can see in the pic, is gorgeous - as one can only expect from Shiseido.

Cool Engrish (Pt. 2)

Ta-daaaaaa!!!! Cool Engrish of the Day today was taken from a mini Hello Kitty puzzle from Sanrio. Again, super-kawaii, and it says:

"My Bear's
so smile-ish
when he
dresses
up stylish"

Cool Engrish (Pt.1)

I love Engrish! I think the way it's written is super-cool and kawaii. May not be "correct", but who cares? The important thing is to be understood, right? And Engrish is a pretty flexible way of communicating!

The Engrish of the Day comes from my Cosme Decorte Pure Grace eyeshadow set. Follows the scan of the box, and the text underneath - since it's quite impossible to read from the scanned picture, metallic purple over silver and beige!

"The only alternative
that ensures splendidness
to your impression"

The power of silk...

Aaaaaahhh... I got this kimono on EBay some weeks ago. It is lovely and so soft. The Seller is amazing: Japanese Antiques. Very helpful and friendly.

I wish I could use kimono when going out, but people may probably think I am going to a costume party. I will be wearing it at home, but probably need to shorten it a bit, or wear with some high-heeled sandals (or geta maybe?).

This type of kimono is a called an iro-muji. Iro-muji are kimono in solid colour, with no patterns, except in some cases a mon (ie, family crest) stenciled or embroidered in the back. This type of kimono can be worn on both formal and informal occasions, however if a mon is present it becomes more of a formal outfit. Mine is in rinzu silk, with textured pattern woven into the fabric - waves, in this case. It's a dusky rose colour, very pretty, and it is lined - the lining being in silk as well. It is also a mon-less iro-muji.

The picture I took from the seller's auction page on EBay. I still haven't had time to take any myself. I have other kimono to get pictures from: my red pre-WWII with urushi (lacquer) leaves, my nenneko (travelling kimono for carrying babies in the back!), and the haori (kimono coat) I am receiving this week.

The haori I also bought from Japanese Antiques, especially for my friend Audrey's wedding, in Sorrento next week. I will use it over a silk dress, and will post some pics later on hopefully. I also got a black silk haori with mon, in transparent soft rinzu, and that was very, very cheap, also from the same seller. Lovely!

For more information on mon please go to the amazing Japanese Emblem Library website. You can spend hours looking at those wonderful patterns, seriously! It's such a fantastic reference. Well-done!

Mark is back from Japan!

Last night Mark arrived from Japan! He was looking great, wearing his suit with a casual blue t-shirt. He was hoping to look like a young Yakuza fella, he said, but I'm afraid not... And he wasn't missing a little finger anyways.

He didn't seem too tired either, because he was up watching a gore Clive Barker film until past midnight.

He brought me lots of things. Lots of Minamoto Kitchoan sweets (my all-time favourites), a Kitty stash that he managed to get at Narita Airport and some wonderful perfumes, that can only be found in Asia, unfortunately.

Here's my boxes of sweets:


I could not resist to show the original package. The boxes come wrapped in that gorgeous green paper, tied with natural fiber cords instead of ribbons. The way the paper is folded is almost like origami. I couldn't possible work in that shop, since I am a disaster when it comes to gift-wrapping! Now the box itself (after unwrapped) is the one at the top. Sturdy carboard, and again, enveloped in white paper displaying a Japanese print and more fiber cords...

Now, these are the sweets...


The ones at the left are tsuya, adzuki bean paste inside mikasa yaki (pound cake)...
These at the right side, are a wonderful selection of their delicacies: a box containing a big yokan (solid bean jelly), 3 soft bean jellies with a chestnut inside, 3 soft white bean jellies with yuzu and green tea flavour and 4 fukuwatashi-senbei - crispy waffles stuffed with milky cream...

He also bought me some Pocky! These are very addictive... Mousse and White Chocolate:


And my Hello Kitty stuff...



As for the perfumes, they are simply gorgeous. But I will write about it in a separate post.

Ichiroya Kimono Flea Market!

Yesterday I was browsing one of my favourite websites, where I normally buy kimono and other lovely Japanese goods, like fabrics and so on... The site is www.ichiroya.com and they offer a truly awesome selection of kimono, geta, silk bolts, cotton bolts, yukata etc. Ichiroya is run by a lovely couple, Ichiro San and his wife Yuka San, from beautiful Osaka, along with their wonderful, helpful staff. They are a great authority in kimono matters indeed and, every Sunday, they do publish a fantastic newsletter, which is a treasure for whoever is interested in Japan, their culture and facts.

Some months ago I bought some vintage fabric samples from them, brought it to Rio and asked Cenira, who is a fantastic seamstress, to make some little cushions for my neko. My Mother bought some ribbons and tassles in the habberdashery, and we came up with lovely designs for the cushions.

I brought it to Dublin and took some pics of some of my neko sitting on the cushions. I sent it to Yuka San and Ichiro San and they have published it in the Ichiroya's photo album! It's so cool, I loved it! My neko now are famous, real "top models"! I was so happy to see them there! Have a look at them in Ichiroya's page here:

http://www.ichiroya.com/enjoyphotoalbum/mamekineko.htm

Yuka San and Ichiro San have a Photo Album space where they publish photographs of their customers and their kimonos, including handicraft, obi displays, kimono displays of course, and kitsuke (or "how to wear"). It's great. They also receive piles of wonderful pieces everyday and post their photographs every night! Lots of work involved! They do ship everywhere, and it's all very easy, since you can use Paypal and they can dispatch it via EMS, if you wish. It's so fast, you wouldn't believe it! And the service is amazing, they are always ready to help you, a real gem to deal with.

But what I really adore there is their newsletters. They are all super interesting, and it's a joy reading them. That's why I wait for it so anxiously every Sunday! If you wish to subscribe, you just need to join their Mail List. It's really, really cool!

My 1st Post!!!!

I am so excited! This is my first post to this weblog thingy. Welcome!

I have decided to make a weblog myself after Mark started to use Blogger. I must confess I was a tiny bit jealous, he he! Just a bit...

Ah well, I will try and use this as a diary, for friends and family. However, I'm a bit lazy and don't know if I'm gonna be diligent enough to keep doing it, you know, everyday and so on!

(Will try at least!)

Not much news today, except that i have received a new neko! This one I ordered from Cocoro, that great Japanese shop in Toronto. Murakami San is very helpful and, after ordering it on Tursday night, it's been promptly dispatched and arrived today (only 2 business days). Actually this neko is a picture frame. I still need to find someone fluent in Japanese to translate some of the characters for me. Not very likely to succeed here in Ireland, but let's see. If I were in Rio, that would be easy-peasy though.

It arrived broken, because it's quite fragile. The parcel was very well packed of course, but I can imagine how these things may be handled by those people in the airports, mail offices, delivery companies etc, and that in spite of all the "fragile" stickers that have been carefully attached to the boxes... It's a porcelain frame, thus, very likely to get damaged.

Thanks to Mark though, it's all fixed now (husbands are SO useful!!!). He used some Super-Glue and voilà! My neko frame is born-again! Here's a pic of my new neko acquistion (ain't that super-cute???)...



I've also ordered some new geta from Cocoro. Geta are Japanese sandals, made out of wood, this one is paulownia. Right and left foot are the same (differently from our Western shoes that have left and right foot), and they have a silk strap (well, I usually see geta with silk straps anyways, but I'm sure they can be made of any other material, or fabric). They are the most comfortable shoes I ever worn, and I use them as flip-flops (I think Ireland is a bit too cold and wet to go outside wearing them, unfortunately). This one has a black hanao ("strap") with an embroidered rabbit, and it looks and feels very nice. I want to take a picture, but now I am a bit tired!

What else for today? Emailed my friend Cíntia, my Mom is going bananas with no email (that Symantec anti-virus is messing up the dialup connection, it seems) and Mark is reading Love Hina right now! Who said Love Hina is "for gals"??? Nah-nah-nee-nah-nah... Boyz love it too, it seems! (Well, Mark does at least)... I'm also reading it of course, but I am only at volume 8. It's great, I highly recommend it, hilarious indeed. I will tell more in my next posts, hopefully.

Well, Good Night, if I'm not too lazy/too tired and things like that, see ya tomorrow...

Yaaawwwnnnn...