結果をもらいました！幸いに合格した！

It's been a short and busy, but eventful month for us. I've been sick for half the month, so that didn't help much. I've pretty much recovered from my fever, but the cough is still lingering around. Having to give multiple presentations at work was a horror because of it, but thankfully it didn't turn out to be too distracting. I really hope to recover soon, as I need to get myself back in shape really soon for the upcoming IPPT test in April.

Good news is that I've finally received the results for JLPT 2. It was a little earlier than I first expected, and I was really nervous upon getting the results. Failure would mean that I would need to retake again this year, and all the hardwork put in previously last year would be wasted. Thankfully, I passed! The grades were pretty bad, compared to my results for JLPT 3 and 4, but heck, the previous exam only had a passing rate of 22%, so I can consider myself top 20%, at least. All in all, I'm just really happy to receive the certification and hopefully it can open up more options for me in the future.

Haven't been posting Rena's pictures here for some time, so I'll post up some recent photos of her. If you haven't already, join me on Facebook for more updates.

Getting bigger, and more chubby these days. :)

Matching head dress for the win!

Matsuura Aya's (松浦 亜弥)been away from work for quite some time now due to her illness, but she's back with a new single just before her graduation from Hello Project next month. One of my favourite Jpop artist of all time, I've missed her voice and I'm really glad that she's returned, along with 2 songs which have really grown on me since last week. Her 21st single is called "Chocolate Tamashii", and was released last month on Valentine's Day, hence the association with chocolate. For those who didn't know, in Japan, Valentine's Day is observed by females who present chocolate gifts usually to a male, as an expression of love. On White Day, the converse happens: males who received a "honmei-choco" [chocolate of love] or "giri-choco" [chocolate of courtesy] on Valentine's Day are expected to return the favor by giving gifts, usually more expensive. Traditionally, popular White Day gifts are cookies, underwear, white chocolate, marshmallows as well as jewelry, and stuffed animals.

Kamen Rider Decade is now in its 6th week of broadcast. Although the stories are linked with the previous 9 series, the plot is told in an alternate reality, which is a convenient excuse of saying that the previous actors are all replaced by unknowns. As much as that sucked, it's still really satisfying to see Kamen Riders of different seasons facing off with one another, especially when they have similar forms using the same type of weapons. A very good example is Kiva vs Kuuga, since both of them share similar form upgrades with the same type of weapons.

Along with Kamen Rider Kiva, the Super Sentai series of 2008 also comes to its conclusion. Engine Sentai Go-onger's last episode ended a while back, and while I have the last 5 episodes around some where on my harddisk, I've never really got the chance to watch them yet. Will need to find some time next weekend....

And with the end of one series, comes the birth of another. Samurai Sentai Shinkenger (侍戦隊シンケンジャー) is the title of Toei Company's thirty-third entry in its long-running Super Sentai Series of Japanese tokusatsu television series. It premiered on February 15, 2009, the week following the finale of Engine Sentai Go-onger. It joins Kamen Rider Decade as a program featured in TV Asahi's Super Hero Time programming block. To be very honest, I'm not that interested in this one. In fact I hate the guy who plays Shinken Blue, due to the fact that he was in a picture wearing those bunny ears and acting cute. I hated him ever since then for acting so gay.

There are 3 games which I've been thinking about getting for the PS3 lately. They are: Resident Evil 5, Street Fighter IV, and Killzone 2. For RE5, it's almost a no brainer since I've been a fan of the Resident Evil series since the original on the PS1. Still one more week before it's release, and I'm already seeking for possible co-op mode partners to play together online.

However, I might not get SF IV simply because it's too expensive to get the game along with a PS3 joystick, which I believe one should get to enjoy the game to the max. It's just not that fun with the PS3 controller, although I believe I'll still do fine. For Killzone 2, the demo was great but getting the game might not be worth the investment, since I'm still not too much of a FPS gamer, and I'm still playing MGO regularly, which will have another major update coming soon. Well, having time to play games is still a luxury which comes with a sacrifice of rest and sleep. That pretty up sums up what I have to say this week, so until the next time, ja!

Rena - Determination

Was inspired to make this video after Mabel showed me what she captured while I was away from work. Quick one without lyrics, just captions. Hope you'll enjoy it as much as I did making it :)

自分の未来は自分が作る

It's been a busy period this Lunar New Year period, not just because of the many visits and events happening but also because of certain happenings regarding work, hence the lack of updates. I have many things to share, but as of this writing I'm still recovering from a case of fever and a really bad headache. So bad I had to wake up and walk around the house to numb it before attempting to get more rest again. Haii, what a way to start the "new" year of the ox. Mabel and Rena are doing fine, and we've uploaded more pictures on our facebook accounts so just add me if you haven't already to see those pictures. On to the rest of the entry:

First up, some of the Jpop singles which have caught my attention recently. They're still fairly new singles, and hence I feel I should post the PV here to share with those into the Jpop scene. A worthy mention is Hamasaki Ayumi's "Rule", which is also the main theme of the upcoming Dragonball Evolution movie. Sadly the record company has requested for youtube to delete all videos of the PV, so it's not there anymore. Well, at least for now. First song I'm talking about in this entry is Closer by Inoue Joe (井上ジョー). This single should be familiar to Naruto: Shippuden viewers as one of the main opening songs recently.

Second song is "Dream Fighter" by Perfume. Perfume (パフューム) is a female J-pop and electropop group from Hiroshima, consisting of Ayano Ōmoto, Yuka Kashino and Ayaka Nishiwaki, who debuted locally in 2001 (Ōmoto in 2003) and nationally in 2005. They call themselves the "Near Future Technopop Unit".

Kamen Rider Decade is currently into it's 4th episode, and all of them have been great so far. I've been watching the raws, and then patiently waiting for the subbed versions. The cool thing is that the past riders are making appearances, even those non-main riders. The sad thing is that not all the ex-actors have been recruited, so even the voices sound kinda off at times. It's a minor complain, since fans are already happy with appearances of past favourites such as Kaixa, Delta, and the Punch and Kick hoppers.

Kamen Rider G (仮面ライダーG) was a television special featured on Japanese boy band SMAP's television show SmaSTATION on January 31, 2009. Produced in association with Toei Company, TV Asahi, and Ishimori Productions, the special celebrated TV Asahi's 50th year being on the air as well as act as a promotional piece for the 10th Heisei Kamen Rider Series, Kamen Rider Decade. As with all Kamen Riders, G has access to several weapons and tools, and are all wine-themed. His Henshin Belt is a wine opener, and to transform into Kamen Rider G in a Kabuto-style manner, Goro opens up a bottle of wine with his name on the label. His transformation catchphrase is "Now, you'll meet the mellowness of my vintage when I… …Transform!" His sword resembles a corkscrew and a sommelier knife, and his finishing move is the Swirling Rider Kick. Having watched this parody, I thought it was pretty refreshing, albeit a little short. Still, a fantastic addition to the Kamen Rider family and a tribute to the 10th Heisei Kamen Rider year.

Just less than 1 month to the local release of the Dragonball Evolution film. I've already been hyped up to the movie, with more and more footage released as the days go by. Japanese interviews of the main actors have also been featured, an top of the PV for the main track by Jpop Diva Hamasaki Ayumi as mentioned at the beginning of this entry. Check out the new footage here, and I'll see you at the next update. Ja!