One of my students has already seen Ningen Shikkaku, or “No Longer Human” which is Toma’s latest (well, first) film. It has only just been released. I can’t wait to see it, even if I don’t understand a thing.

The movie is based on a novel by Dazai Osamu and is about someone who is troubled and feels like he can’t reveal his true self to others. He puts on a playful facade, while slowly travelling down a road of self destruction. It is said to be almost autobiographical of Dazai’s life.

To be honest it isn’t the type of story I am normally interested in, but I’m glad Ikuta is getting “serious” roles. I am looking forward to seeing this movie, hopefully next week!

As for this photo, it is of Ikuta Toma on the cover of all Dazai’s books. I actually want to buy the photo book for the movie but my book store (named “Happy Books”) didn’t have it I might order it off Amazon.

Here’s the 2 minute trailer:

Merry Christmas from ME! I have taken 5 paid holidays and added them together with holidays I already get, to create just under three weeks holidays. Woo! I’m going away for Christmas and still haven’t decided what I’m doing for new years. I hope everyone has a fantastic Christmas

I’m Liking The Sound Of…

• Atashinchi no Danshi

Horikita Maki‘s character marries a man who offers to pay off her debts that her father made, and moves into an eccentric family. I think (hope) this will be quirky and fun, and there are lots of well know guys in it: Kaname Jun, Okada Yoshinori, Mukai Osamu, and Yamamoto Yusuke have been announced so far.

• Hyoryu Net Cafe

Toki Koichi leads a pretty dull life. Until he meets his first love again in an internet cafe. Suddenly something happens with the electricity and he and everyone else get stuck in the cafe which has become a strange universe… or something. Perhaps it’ll be something like Long Love Letter, the drifting classroom drama. Stars Ito Atsushi who I hope wont be doing another Densha Otoko take with his character.
Also staring Asami Reina, and KIKI

Hmmmm? Dunno…

• Ghost Friends

Fukuda Saki plays a girl who can see ghosts after a car accident. Then she falls inlove with one of the ghosts. Nishijima Takahiro plays the love interest. Sounds OK, I like ghosts, but also doesn’t really sound that exciting at the moment… I think this one is aimed at a young audience, but I could be wrong.

• Smile

Staring Matsumoto Jun as a half-Filipino with no family and Aragaki Yui who can’t speak…. something about always smiling. Yeah, the story line sounds a bit twee but I’ll watch the first couple of eps for the cast!

• Majo Saiban

Ikuta Toma is chosen as a Juror on the trial of a suspected woman’s murderer trial. Yeah, from that name alone you know I’ll be watching, but at the moment this one feels like it is just going to educate us on the juror (jurial? I’m not sure) system. Hope it proves me wrong.
Also staring Kato Ai and Higa Manami

• Boku no Imoto

Staring Odagiri Joe and Nagasawa Masami, this is another “maybe” because of cast. The two are siblings with a close bond because of the death of their parents. However, Masami’s character isn’t the brightest and makes bad choices, testing the strength of the sibling’s relationship. Could be OK maybe…

Noteables

• Konkatsu!

About a single salary man in his mid 30s. Everyone around him talks about marriage so he begins to think about it as well. Noteable because Nakai Masahiro is staring in this! From Smap, for the past couple of Star Bowling eps that I’ve been watching he’s been wishing to be in another drama. His wish has come true!
- also stars Ueto Aya, Sato Ryuta, and Matsukata Hiroki

On our first day in Japan we ate some sukiya for breakfast and headed down (up? across? over?) to Osaka Jo.

It’s a great walk to Osaka Jo. We came in from the west entry. The moat was beatiful, some was water, some grass.

Osaka Castle is really stunning from the outside. Inside is a museum and on the top floor you get a 360 degree view of Osaka. There is an elevator to get to the top, however I walked up the stairs (exercise is good!). The view up the top is worth the climb.

After our climb to the top we sat on a bench in the garden and ate some ice cream. A Japanese man came up to us to have a chat in English. I have to say, his English was pretty good. He had been to Australia and Canada, and showed us some maps of the places he’d been. Nice man, we told him we were going to Nara and he talked about the deer. He also showed us his phrase book and opened it up to a page on swear words (unintentionally!) I want a copy of that phrase book.

I think it is interesting to see the different between the English and Japanese handout. The English one is nice and professional, where as the Japanese one is fun and cute. Also, to enter the castle we bought our ticket at a vending machine. Gotta love vending machines!

Walking around the grounds of the castle was very peaceful. I think, perhaps, we were lucky to go there on a day when there wasn’t a huge crowd.

After we exited we went to the Brava Theatre to stand next to the building where my future husband Ikuta Toma was at that very moment performing as Danny in Grease. *sigh* I wish I had tickets…

Brava Theatre in Google Maps

And thus was my first visit to Osaka Jo and the end of my first morning in Japan!

Voice
ヴォイス
Episode One
First Aired: Winter 2009
Carlie’s Rating:
Rate This Episode: Note: There is a rating embedded within this post, please visit this post to rate it.

In this episode a man collapses in the street with his grocery shopping. He has somehow been electrocuted. His wife worries that he died hating her. Meanwhile, our gang seems to be into food and cooking and their antics revolve around getting Kanako to cook something.

I feel sorry for Kanako. She is the most dedicated and serious one of the group. However, people tell her she’ll end up an old maid and seem to put her down. Well, one would rather be single than date someone who is like that!

My gripe with this show is that the characters and their past are interesting, but the “discover what really happened” angle is not. It is too sentimental, there doesn’t feel like there is any tension. I like some “investigation/medical” sort of shows that the US brings out that has a mix of great characters yet engaging story line, but this… As I said, it is really twee.

That being said, next episode seems to be more about Kanako’s past so I’m excited by it. It looks like there will be a case that is similar to her mother’s death. So, I am looking forward to the next episode!

I do like the characters.

Don’t like the whole point of the show though! eep.

So, I’m giving it

Rate Ikuta Toma: Note: There is a rating embedded within this post, please visit this post to rate it.

Where did I first see him?
I first saw him in Hana Yori Dango 2, where he played Junpei (I think that was his character’s name!) in the first episode. Everyone was so excited he was in it, I remember that, but I didn’t know who he was… Fast track a season or so later, and he was Nakatsu in Hana Kimi. I wasn’t so excited about Hana Kimi at first, until I fell in love with Nakatsu the character, and then Toma. We’ve been dating ever since.

My Opinion
I really like Ikuta Toma a lot. In variety shows he seems to be a bit shy, not a complete show off, but has a good sense of humour. As an actor he seems pretty versatile… but who am I kidding? I just like to watch

TV Shows:
Voice (2009)
Hanazakari no Kimitachi e SP (2008)
Maou (2008)
Hachimitsu to Clover (2008)
Hanazakari no Kimitachi e (2007)
Hana Yori Dango 2 (2007)
Akihabara@Deep (2006)

Voice
ヴォイス
Episode One
First Aired: January 2009
Carlie’s Rating:
Rate This Episode: Note: There is a rating embedded within this post, please visit this post to rate it.

A group of five medical students take on the task of conveying the “voices of the dead.” Eita plays Daiki, who fails to get into a popular heart surgery seminar but is somehow accepted into a seminar on forensic pathology. When he approaches the professor Sagawa (Saburo Tokito) and asks him why he ended up in the seminar, Sagawa challenges him by asking why he wants to study heart surgery. Daiki replies that medicine is meaningless after the heart stops, but Sagawa counters that medicine also applies to the dead. Along with fellow students Ryosuke (Toma Ikuta) and Kanako (Satomi Ishihara), Daiki begins to explore the mysteries of death.

from TokyoGraph

Let me start by saying Colonel Sanders haunts me. I must want chicken. As far as I can tell, it’s a different man than the Colonel Sanders linked above, but still, I’m making connections… I think my subconsciousness is trying to tell me something.


I am not really a fan of medical shows unless they are a comedy like Scrubs, but since I Eita and Toma, this show is a must!!

Still, my unlove (but not hate) of medicals means that this show will probably never make it on to my “Most Awesomest Dramas Ever!” list, but may be one that I just enjoy.

This episode revolves around a man who died from something heavy falling onto him from a construction site, but there is no sign of the object that hit him. It is an over all introduction to the characters and the show. I think some scenes felt really cheesy, but over all I did like it. It was sweet.

I do like the overall chemistry of the characters. There is one guy who is a bit too silly – however, the other guy who is “tough”, even though he was over the top I didn’t mind it. Over all, I think what will make this drama a pleasure to watch isn’t the story line but the characters themselves.

I hope that it doesn’t just have the same pattern week after week. I get the feeling it will. That may be tedious.

The Leading Men!!!

Not really a fan of medical dramas.

It was good but it wasn’t great, so I’m giving this one

• Official Website

I’m so sad that this is a TBS drama, and so I can’t show screen captures. I’m very very sad, as Ikuta Toma is HOT with his new hair do.

OK, on with the review. Usually with first episodes I’m a bit iffy on them – either they suck or they are OK and it takes a few more episodes for me to really appreciate or get into the first episode. I have to say, with this drama, I am going to be totally biased. I don’t think I can give a proper review. My heart was beating so fast all the way through this because a certain someone looks really good. Yes, I am a sad person.

But I have to say, I really enjoyed this. Ohno was great in his role, although I would love to see him be a bit more charismatic. Perhaps I am picturing this all wrong, but I was picturing from the synopsis that Ohno would be really likeable but a demon underneath, and that Ikuta would perhaps be not so nice on the surface but a really good person who always does the right thing underneath. We didn’t quite get that, but it is no fault to the show, just my assumptions.

I liked the way, I believe it was Toma’s character who said something to the effect of “Who ever did this is a monster with no emotions” (very much paraphrasing this from memory, I could be way off!) and then the next shot is of Ohno’s character crying. It was a nice contrast.

Ohno is the master of the evil smirk.

I have seen many criticisms that Toma was over acting. I didn’t notice, to tell the truth. Perhaps I should pay a bit more attention to his performance, rather than… um.. other things.

Over all the plot is engaging. There are things that remain unanswered and I am curious to see how things pan out. I don’t mind these types of shows but to be honest it isn’t my favourite genre. But I’m looking forward to the next episode.

Love the actors in this show.

It may have been my expectations of the plot or the fact that this isn’t my “genre” but I didn’t get the feeling of “this is awesome” compared to other shows. Besides the thought of “Toma is awesome”.

So yes, expect lots of raving this season from me. I’m sorry, I can’t help it!

p.s. I forgot to mention the shower scene! Less than five minutes in and we have toplessness! For the win!

Image is the Judgement card from the fantastic, as yet unpublished, Shadowscapes deck by Stephanie Pui-Mun Law. I’m soooo buying this deck when it is published. And check out her other work, it’s fantastic.

Hi Everyone. I’ve been sick. In fact, I still feel sick, I can’t shake it! Dammit! But, today I’m feeling a lot better – mainly because this week the new Japanese drama season has begun! I’ve spent most of tonight watching lots of promotional stuff of Maou, Ikuta Toma and Ohno Satoshi’s new drama that aired last night. OMG, I’m so excited. I love tarot, and I love Ikuta.

Even though I didn’t do as well as I usually do at university last semester, plus I was suffering from serious burnout, I got better marks than I was expecting, which is fantastic. In regards to my quest to Remember the Kanji, I’m still at the 600 kanji mark, however I’ve been practising a lot trying to get back up to where I was before. Over the next six months I hope to keep reviewing these as well as slowly increasing the amount of kanji I know.

I haven’t been reading manga, however I’ve been going through my copies of the Japanese Graded Readers, level two. For me, the only problem I really face with them is vocab. I can understand the stories except for a word here or there. Some I can get from context, but others I read the whole story and still can’t guess the word. I want to go through them again with a dictionary.

That’s the news, you’re up to date.

I’m excited because it is not long now until I will have a weekly dose of Ikuta Toma when he co-stars with Ohno Satoshi in Maou. Which has nothing to do with the rest of the post which is about Reviewing the Kanji. After a bit of a break from studying Japanese, I am back into it with my quest to Remember the Kanji.

I’m on uni holidays now, so I would like to get as many as I can done in the next four weeks. I’m not expecting to finish, but I would like to come as close as I possibly can. I’ve done the maths, I know how much I need to do in order to get close to finishing. However, I’m not going to try and reach a certain number and put pressure on myself. I’m going to do as much as I can each day, trying not to burnout. Here’s some things I’m planning to do:

• Use the Reviewing the Kanji Website to help me come up with new stories. There are lots of example stories there that give me something to start with that I can adapt for my own use. Saves lots of time!!
• Use Anki to actually review the kanji. I just love Anki so much, it is the best flash card program that I have used so far, and I have used a few. I have written a post on how I structure my RtK deck in anki for those who are interested.
• Because I am now working more hours at work, thanks to reduced time at uni, the good news is I will have a dedicated lunch time (instead of eating on the go between work and uni – not fun). So I plan to use my lunch break for actual study. Just to go through stories that I have had trouble with and need adapting, practise writing difficult kanji etc. This will be things I can do on paper, as when I write things down on paper often I remember them better. I also recommend this Practise Page Generator for RtK keywords.

So, remembering the kanji, here I come (again)!!

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