Hana: SICK :/

Sorry for the lack of posts :/

Rin's busy with her new job (yay Rin!) and I've had a hideous infection and been in bed most of the week. I'll update whenever I'm well again, but I have nothing to write for now...

Sorry!

Hana: Aku no Kyouten - Lesson of the Evil -

Apologies for the lack of posts all week, Rin moved out of her father's home and is getting some things sorted out. She got a job, too - congrats, Rin! 

Anyway, today's post is again about Japanese movies.

悪の経典 Lesson of the Evil was originally a book written by 貴志祐介 Yuusuke Kishi, the author of a series called 新世界より Shinsekai Yori (From the New World) which was then turned into an anime. I liked both original novels, and when I heard Lesson of the Evil was made into a film, I really couldn't resist, despite the amount of essays I should be writing right now.....

The book is about a high school teacher called Seiji Hasumi (AKA Hasumin to the students) who is very talented and popular among teachers, students and parents. However, he is also a psychopath - he lacks the ability to emphasize, and when things go wrong for him, he would do anything to set things right for his benefit, until he decides things have gone too out of control, and makes an unbelievable decision.

The genre itself is a thriller, with a few bloody scenes towards the end. I'm not entirely sure of the rating so I'd say it was probably a 15+, but there's no 'jumpy scenes' typical to horror films, so you should all be okay.

The main character of course is Hasumin, who is an English teacher. It must be strange to think that a Japanese man would teach English at a Japanese high school, but it happens a lot of the time.

It stars 伊藤英明 Hideaki Ito who was in the J-drama Buzzer Beat.

I'm sorry the image quality isn't great, but I hope that gives a small taster of what the movie might be... maybe.

You can watch the film here with Japanese audio & English subtitles.

Enjoy♪

*Update* Hana: Sea Life Aquarium Date *Update*

Happy St Valentine's Day to you all!

Have you heard of Sea Life Aquariums? It's the world's biggest chain of aquariums, all over USA and Europe. There's one in a town nearby where I live (about 1hr40min bus journey, or 25mins by train). I've not been to any aquarium since I was maybe about 6 or 7? so I am very much excited to visit one this Valentines Day.

The great thing about aquariums is that it's fun for all ages. There are varieties of creatures there, all unique and beautiful. Some aquariums even have a petting section where you can touch sea urchins and other small creatures. In the one I'm going to, there is an interactive rock pool where you can touch starfishes and little crabs.

Plus, it's CHEAP. If you book the tickets online in advance, you get a huge discount. This means that you can plan a whole day at the aquarium even with a low budget. 

These are some of the images I found on the Sea Life Brighton website:

(These images do not belong to me)

I would highly recommend a visit to the aquarium this Valentine's Day. It's dark with mysterious, dim lighting so it's very intimate, and the sea life is breathtaking. 

If you're single with no date, why don't you head over with a group of friends? And, if you're feeling brave, you can invite out your crush, too. 

For the first time in forever (song) I'll be spending the day with my boyfriend, doing something totally romantic: Building pillow forts, watching Avatar (James Cameron, not A:TLA), eating take away food and going to the aquarium. 

I hope everybody has a happy Valentine's Day ♡

***

So, I don't usually do updates but I had such a good time and took some pretty good photos (if I say so myself), I just thought I'd share some with you all!

The Sea Life Brighton was a lot smaller than expected, but the displays were still pretty good.

A giant crab that looked tasty (sorry)

Little turtle

Fishy

Tropical fishies

Derpy catfish

Lazy starfish

Some evil looking thing

Nemos

This happy little fella made my day ♡

She was called Lulu

Yellow fishy

Jellyfish. This one was floating the wrong way up, not sure if that's how it's supposed to be, but he swam with his legs up.

The mighty searhorse

Sting Ray - there was a tunnel you can walk through where the wall/arched ceiling were all made of glass, so you were walking through a giant tank. There were many different species there, including sting rays, sea turtles and sharks among varieties of fish.

When the stingray swam overhead in this tunnel, you could see it's little face. Sometimes the mouth was open, so it looked like he was smiling at us as he swam overhead.

Lots of little Dori's

And uh, some turtle-loving going on here. I mean, sure, it was Valentine's Day, after all.

This was taken from above the giant tunnel-tank. There was an area where you can sit and watch the tank (I presumed they would do talks/some kind of shows there) and a glass bottom boat where you could see the creatures in a boat, with a Sea Life worker explained stuff about the creatures inside.

This guy looked so shocked

And an octopus. They put human children toys in the octopus tanks because - and I didn't know this - octopuses are intelligent. We didn't get to see them play with these human toys but it was kind of cute.

Anyway, photos over. Thanks again for reading! 

Hana: Keitai Kareshi - Mobile Boyfriend -

Happy Friday! I hope the first Friday of February has treated you well ♡

In Japan, there are mobile novel sites/apps dedicated for people writing original stories. Some stories get really famous and are published, and occasionally they are made into movies.

携帯彼氏 Mobile Boyfriend is one of those stories found on mobile novel sites. 

The basic plot: 

Mobile Boyfriend is an app where you can create your ideal boyfriend and exchange messages on  a daily basis to move the 'Love Gauge' up and down. However, rumours begin circulating that if the Love Gauge reaches either 100% or 0%, the player dies under mysterious circumstances.

After her class mate Mayumi's suicide, shocked Satomi (Umika Kawashima, 9nine) and Satomi (Aki Asakura) begins to find out the truth behind their friend's death, and comes to the conclusion that Mayumi's virtual 'Mobile Boyfriend' Riku is somehow related to it. 

I'm not good at summing things up, and I didn't want to spoil anything... so that is all you get from me about the story.

It's not your typical bloody gory Japanese horror like 呪怨 The Grudge, but I did find the concept of having a mobile boyfriend that could kill you kind of creepy.

Here are some screen shots from the movie:

Umika Kawashima is just so adorable ♡

You can watch the whole film on YouTube with subtitles here.

I think non-horror movie fans could enjoy this too.

There are sequels to this, and I hope to write about it one day!

Have a nice weekend, and see you next Friday ♡

Hana: Setsubun Bean Throwing Day

Hey everyone! It's the end of January, and I thought I talk a little bit about a day called 節分(Setsubun), or 'Seasonal Division', happening on the 3rd of February.

It's the day before the beginning of the spring, and we celebrate it by doing something called 豆まき(Mame maki), or 'bean throwing'.

The oldest male in the household (or headmale... usually fathers or grandfathers if they're up for it) wear a 鬼(oni) demon mask, while the rest of the household throws 福豆(Fuku mame) 'fortune beans', which are roasted dry soybeans, at the masked-man, chanting: 鬼は外、福は内(Oni wa soto, fuku wa uchi) 'Demon out, luck in". 

The demon is chased out of the house this way, and once the demon is banished, everybody in the household eats the beans. The amount varies from person to person, as you are only meant to eat the same amount as your age. 

This is mainly done in households with younger children and kindergartens, as it is a fun activity for the children. Around this day, children usually spend time making masks of demons for displays or for their fathers to wear. It is supposed to drive the bad things out of the house and bringing good luck in for the coming spring.

It was the highlight of my kindergarten days, as one of the teachers would dress up as a scary demon. It was usually the teacher we didn't like, so you can imagine why throwing the beans at them would be entertaining Ψ(｀▽´)Ψ

Anyway, this is the end of my post. I'm not sure if there are roasted soybeans available in your area, but if you can find them, it's certainly recommended that you try... it's fun (for everybody, but especially the kids) as long as you tidy up the beans you throw on the floor （*^_^*）

It's a good way to start the spring, in my opinion anyway ♡

Have a nice weekend, and see you next Friday!!

Hana: Kyary Pamyu Pamyu

Hello! It's Friday again, which means it's my turn♡

Rin's post reminded me that I still haven't thought about what to get for Valentines Day... but I suppose I can wait a little longer (๑˃̵ᴗ˂̵)و 

Have you heard of a J-Pop singer called Kyary Pamyu Pamyu? If not, you may recognize one of her music videos which went viral a couple of years ago:

The artist herself is very iconic, with cute-borderline-crazy fashion and the catchy music with the quirky music videos. 

She did a world tour in 2013, and now returns with a second world tour: なんだこれくしょんツアーNanda Collection Tour. 

AND, I managed to get tickets to see her live again  ヾ(*≧∀≦)ﾉﾞ 

I went in 2013 when she visited Sheperd's Bush O2 in London, and absolutely loved it. She came on stage with the PONPONPON (video above) costume. It was amazing, I had so much fun!! 

Generally, a lot of people came in cosplay of Kyary's music videos, or fashion/style inspired by her and Harajuku fashion. We had to wait outside for a long time but it was nice to see everybody dressed up.

This photo above was posted after the concert took place. If you zoom in enough, you can see a glimpse of my friends and I in the second row! (*ﾉｪﾉ)

I couldn't take many pictures as my phone got drained of battery before the end of the night, but it was one of the best concerts I have ever been to ♡

You can buy tickets for Kyary's World Tour here:

America/Canada

UK 

Couldn't find a Europe one, sorry!

I'll leave you with one of my favourite Kyary Pamyu Pamyu songs, Cherry Bon Bon.

Have a good weekend, and see you next Friday♡

Hana: Introduction posts and pictures of food

Hello everyone!

My name is Hana and I'll be posting blogs on Fridays. I'm super excited to be doing this with Beth and Rin, who are both wonderful. ヽ(*´∀｀*)ﾉ.+ﾟ　

Since it's the first entry by me, I'm going to do a brief introduction. A lot of it is already on my page that Rin has kindly created for me, but here goes:

I'm 19 years old as of 10th January (WOO) and currently live in the UK. I attend college so much of my week is spent doing college work and such, unfortunately, but I'm hoping to attend university in September. Σd(ゝω･o)

My absolute favourite films right now are Up, Monsters Inc., Monsters University and Despicable Me. I know I'm 19, but I just can't get enough of those CG animated movies. Because of my near-obsession with Monsters University, my birthday cake was Mike Wazowski:

(I turned 1, mentally speaking)

I'm not sure if I have a style like Beth or Rin, and I'm always usually neck-deep in something or another, but I hope to post about lots of different kinds of things (`･ω´･ ●)

Anyway, yesterday my boyfriend came around for dinner and I made him a Japanese meal - something of a comfort food for me, since I was born and raised in Japan.

I made トンカツ(Tonkatsu), 炊き込みご飯(Takikomi Gohan) and onion soup. I was nervous the domestic Japanese food wouldn't suit his taste buds but he seemed to like it, especially the fried pork cutlets.

(mismatching plates, woo)

Cooking is a hobby of mine when I'm not fangirling over CG animated movies, and I plan to do a lot more in 2014 since I'm trying to have a healthier lifestyle. 

Before I finish this week's post, I have a question for Rin:

Where can I find those Ageha magazine scans you mentioned in your post? I'd love to look at them too, since those magazines have great beauty tips.

Anwyay, thank you for reading my post, I hope you enjoyed it!!