I went to Chicago with my friends last weekend.

The first day, we went to the museum and a karaoke box at night.
The karaoke box was located in one of the Korean street, and there were songs selection from English, Chinese, Korean, Japanese, and Russian.
We mainly sang Japanese songs.

It was awesome!
Actually last time I went to karaoke was like 3 years ago.
When I go karaoke, I like to sing Boa, Namie Amuro, and Every little thing.
We sang for 2 hours and each of us paid 15 bucks.
It is still cheaper than in LA, but still it is expensive.
When I use to go to karaoke in Japan, it usually cost me 2 or 3 bucks per hour.
But we enjoyed so much.
They wanted to sing more.

The next day, we went to Mitsuwa.
We ate ramen noodle there.
I ordered miso noodle.
I had not eaten noodle for so long.
There are Japanese restaurant in my area, but no ramen noodle.
Sooo good :)

I had grocery shopping there too, but I could not buy any fresh food because I had to drive back home and I was afraid I will spoil them.
So, I bought rice, otyazuke, and 2 takenoko no sato *that is my favorite!!*
I wanted to buy sushi too, but I gave up T T.

There was Japanese book store too.
I kind of wanted to buy magazine too, but it is expensive, so I decided to wait till my parents will come here (in August).

It was such a short trip, but I enjoyed it so much.
Next time, I want to enjoy clothes shopping too ^ ^

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I have seen Kappa Ebisen in almost every oriental market in the US (Korean version), so many of you might know, but this is one of my favorite!

The commercial song "cannot quit, cannot stop, Kappa Ebisen", almost every Japanese know this song.

In my house, we always stock at least one of them because all my family love it.

The shrimp flavored snacks are very tasty. You really "can't stop".

This song was used in animation movie called "Brave Story".
I have never watched the movie, and I did not know about this song until very recent.
I have heard the melody before in commercial, but never paid attention.
But recently I listened the song on youtube.
The lyrics touched my heart.
I emphasized with the lyrics.

Listen to Ketsui no Asa

Ketui no Asa means "the morning you make a decision".
I don't know if I can translate well, but let me translate one part.



I wish I could say I am in pain when I am in hard time. 
We are coward who smile to hide our weaknesses. 


The reason I pretend fine when I feel lonely is to keep myself from falling down. 
But our mistatkes, scars, days we cried...they are all our evidences we are alive. 
Anyhow, from now on, shall we, more than anyone... 
Draw our clumsy dreams to the best.



They are just portion of it.
Honestly, all the lyrics in the song is truly good.
Sometimes I feel stupid trying hard to do my job or have relationship with other people.
But this song makes me it is okay to live my way.
It is worth to live my life.

Kekkon Dekinai Otoko Episodes

Kekkon is marriage
dekinai is cannot
otoko is men
The title is The Men who cannot get Married

In this drama, there is a men called Kuwano.
He is a architecture.
He is professional at work, good looking, but he never got married even though he is 40 years old. 

He thinks that he does not need women.

As I watched the drama, I could tell why he did not have chance to get married.
He is very weird.
At first, I did not like his characteristics.
He is very selfish in his way.
He does not want to help other people, he say something mean to other people and so on.
However, as I kept watching him, I changed my mind.
Actually he is not good at communicating with people.
He does not know how to express honestly, that is why he acts weird.
Sometimes he is cute though.
One time he makes a lady mad at him.
He wanted to say sorry to her, but he could not say the word.
So he followed her to rental movie store.
And he was explaining her which one is good and which one is not.
He was just pretty much bothering her.

.... I know how you feel, Kuwano!
Sometimes I am like that.
I dont know what to say, so I keep saying something random.

Boa~!

Even though she is Korean, she is definitely one of top Japanese pop singer!

Boa was debut in 2001 in Japan.
I heard from my several Korean friends that Boa is more popular in Japan than in Korea.

I told them of course~!
She is so cute and adorable.
And her voice is great.
Her voice is very dynamic.
And her Japanese is good.
She has a little bit of Korean accent, but that makes her even cuter, and when she sings, there is no accent.
Konoyo no Sirushi

I did not know about this song until I listen in my friend's car.
It became my favorite song at once.
This song is very cute.
Acoustic guitar is used in the song and other music instrument makes this song very girly and cute.
There is English subtitles on the lyrics, so you can know the meaning:)

I used to eat Yukimi daifuku when I was a kid. 


I loved it so much.


This is more than just an ice cream!


"Daifuku" is a Japanese sweets on the right. outside is like mochi, and there is red bean paste inside. 








Yukimi daifuku looks similar, but outside skin is much thinner, and there is vanilla ice cream inside. 


There are two of those in one package, and it comes with small plastic stick to  eat. 


I don't know if they sell in Japanese market in the US, but if you find it or if you live in Japan, you should definitely try:)

This drama was out on 2004 when I was still in high school.
After I watched the drama, I was looking forward to  be a college student.
The campus life in the drama fascinates me.
Make friends, go to trips, dating, attend classes... everything looked like much better than high school life.
Also, sign language is used in this drama since Sae is deaf. .
Even she does not talk at all, her emotion comes out and we can tell what she thinks because when she talks in sign language, how she moves her hands, her face, speed of the sign language, sounds... she expresses her feeling by that.  


Orange Days episodes




Kai (Satoshi Tsumabuki) is senior in a university trying to get social work job.
He has best friends and girlfriend.
One day, he meets Sae playing the violin on campus.
She is very beautiful, but she has problems getting along with other people.
One of the reason is the car accident she had when she was studying abroad.
She became deaf because of that.
Love, job-hunting, friendship... Setting a campus in spring as a dorama`s backdrop, it's the start of a glittering youth drama

Monster-Arashi

This song was used in a drama called "Kaibutsu kun(Monster)".
Even though a title of the drama is a monster, he is very cute, not scary one. And Satoshi Ono(Arashi) is acting the monster:)

The melody is very ghost like and stick in ears.
The music video is pretty cool too.

The place is like old creepy castle with big tic tac clock.
Their dance is cool too!

Boss-Ep01 (Korean sub)

Osawa Eriko is a beautiful career woman who has just returned from training in the U.S. and is appointed as the "boss" of this division. But despite her intelligence and capabilities, she can never understand a man's heart, so she remains unable to find a husband. In fact, her assignment in the U.S. was really a demotion after she ruined her career track over a man. So why was she chosen as the boss of the new division? Even though the detectives are talented, they all have some kind of issue or flaw, and they are considered to be the "problem children" of the police force. In the end, the division's true purpose is just to isolate these problematic detectives. (http://wiki.d-addicts.com/BOSS)


Eriko is very cool and awesome women! 
Yuki Amami is a suitable women for that character. 
I like her acting so much.
In the drama, Eriko is not treated good with other police men since she is a women, but she is still confident and be competitive with those guys.
I fish I could be like her.
This drama is very thrilling.
I could not take eyes off from the TV!
The people in the devision are very unique and their characteristics are very different from each other.

Pink Key-Amuro Namie You can listen to the song by clicking.

I do not know when this song was released, but she sing this song on her live.

This song is very happy, cheerful melody with lyrics about challenging your self to go to new world and having hope in the future.

Namie has been popular over 10 years or more, but she still look as cute as when she first debut.

She is very gorgeous and is very popular with girls. Some Japanese gals called her "God".
A lot of women get inspired by her lifestyle.
She is very independent and strong.
She is a single mother, but still very sexy and fashionable.

I am addicted to chocolate.
I cannot finish a day without eating chocolate.
Chocolate is my life:)

Galbo is very interesting chocolate snack.
The taste is chocolate, but I cannot explain in detail.
It is somewhere in between chocolate bar and cookies.
I am pretty sure once you eat them, you will get addicted.
It is not as heavy as just chocolate, so you can eat them endlessly.

It is hard get them in the US, but certain oriental markets sell them.
It is a bit expensive, so I cannot buy a lot of them.
So when I go back to Japan, I buy tons of them.

Nao(Erika Toda) is a honest girl who believe every single word what people say.
One day she got an invitation from a company into a deceiving game.
If you win the game, the prize is up to a million.
In other word, if she loses the game, she can loose up to a million.
She asked Akiyama's help who is genioius swindler.

Even I have never read the comics, I could understand the story easily.
When they explain how games work, it is kind of complicated since it is unique games.
However, once they start the game, you can follow it by watching them.

In this story, I like Yuji Fukunaga.
Sometimes he is mean and annoying, he is funny when he scolds Nao.
He is called "mashroom" because of his hair style.
The story is thrilling, and use a lot of brain. It contains a lot of entertainment. 

This song was released in 1995, yet it is still one of my favorite song.
This song was used in Japanese drama called "Aishiteru To Ittekure (Say you love me)".

Love Love Love
Love love love English version

I was in elementary school that time and I remember my mom was watching the drama.
I did not know anything about love, but I liked the melody.
Now I am grown up, and listen to this song again, I realized how great song this is.
I love the lyrics. It is very pure and it reminds me of first time dating.
The lyrics express one girl's feeling who is fallen love with a men express her feelings.

I found Miwa(main vocal in Dreams Come True) sings in English, so please please listen! It is very good:)
The song goes slow, and I can feel her painfulness through the melody and lyrics.

I love Snacks in the US such as Cheetos, Pringles, and Lays.
However, I also miss Japanese snacks!

Today, I would like to introduce snacks called Jagariko.
It is stick-typed snack with a cup-shaped package.
"Jaga" is jagaimo which means potato.

There are many flavored, but I prefer the basic one the best which is "salad"flavored (green package).
Jagarico CM
As you can see the CM, it is very crunchy.
Once you start eating, you cannot stop eating!
I always finish whole package by myself in a second:p

Kaiji Trailer
Kaiji (Tatsuya fujiwara) is jobless and is broke.
One day, he kicked an luxury car to release his stress and the owner was inside of the car.
The owner asked him to pay for the maintenance, but he does not have money.
Then the lady asked him if he was interested in getting big amount of money at one night.
From that point, he was dragged into the gambling world.

The story is very intense.
Even I am not into gambling, I enjoyed it.
Especially I loved the game scene. I did not know what would happen next so I was holding my breath.
It might be scary if you are height phobia.

Always-Sunset on Third Street

Awarded 29 wins and 2 nominations on Awards of Japanese Academy!!

It is Tokyo when the world war 2 just ended.
People were as not rich as us today, they did not have all the technology we have today.
However, they were much much connected and treated with much love each other. 

This is one of the best movies that I have ever watched!
It makes me cry.
Even though I did not live that time, I feel a longing for that.
And by seeing how people treat each other in the town, it makes me realizing this is how people should be.
Today, we have money, technology, and live in such a convenient situation, but we always complain and never be satisfied.
This movie makes me think what is happiness.

Butterfly-Kera Kimura on youtube
This song was released in 2009.
She wrote this song for her best friends who was going to get married. 
Therefore this song is written from a person point of view who is celebrating her friend's wedding and marriage.
Her voice is very clear and cute and melody is very cute as well.
She is short and small and just like a doll.
In 2010, she got married with Eita who is a Japanese actor.
I guess now she is singing this song for herself:)

Magerarenai Onna (Episode1)