I love his face, it's  like "oooh, I get to kiss a girl, iiihihi" But that's just my personal opinion. He's probably very professional and only reads that 'cause he needs to get in character. Or 'cause he likes it, I dunno.
But that's really the face I have when reading something. The sort of creepy concentrated smile with the staring eyes that hardly blink. It's not something to be proud of, seeing as I can't read in public anymore.

Speaking of Hana Yori Dango, I've watched like five minutes of the movie now! But it was the raw clip and without subs, so I didn't want to spoil everything by watching it. But as my dear friend Alva said "That means that some little Japan-nerd will sub it soon and we'll be able to watch the movie!!!!!!" So we're counting on that.

Now I have to study for my socialeconomy's test which is TOMORROW. And I should study for the science test and do the booklog. But I just don't want to.

Questa è la veduta dalla parte del Taiko-mon (cancello del tamburo), che secondo me è quella più scenica:

Queste sono invece le scalinate interne, di un ripido più unico che raro e costruite secondo criteri di difesa dall'invasore, e per piedini giapponesi (il mio 43 e un terzo esce fuori dai gradini!): con ben 61° di inclinazione, sono... ripide!

Si nota che sono ripide? Comunque, un tempo venivano percorse regolarmente (ma qualche attempata signora che tenti l'impresa si può tuttora ammirare) da persone in kimono, che limita moltissimo la libertà di movimento delle gambe. Contenti loro...!

Qui un dettaglio del tetto, con tanto di uccellini e pesce decorativo (sarà un "koi"? Sinceramente penso di sì, ma non sono abbastanza sicuro da dirvelo!), gentilmente offerto dall'obiettivo della reflex con zoom 18x (!) di mio fratello maggiore:

Per finire, questa foto: guardandolo da questa prospettiva, si intuisce più facilmente perché sia soprannominato "Il castello del corvo". In effetti, questa angolatura mi ispira un certo qual senso di incombenza, il che, abbinato al colore nero, all'andatura "svolazzante" dei tetti ed ai due pesci ornamentali che sono in cima e disegnano quelle specie di "corna" che si vedono, giustifica il soprannome.

Che ve ne pare?
Io vorrei vedere il castello di Himeji (otoosan onegaishimasu!) per poter fare un paragone, ma mi è parso molto bello.

Marco

Per oggi, posto solo una foto, magari qualche altra la posto domani... il castello merita davvero! (^_^)

Oyasumi a tutti!!!

Marco

Summer brought an incredible amount of activity at the lodge, and every 3-4 days we were working with a new guest. We saw some old faces and some new during the one month of August that is Japan's summer holiday. During August, many people take vacations and travel to famous places. Most students are given summer homework and still participate in club activities most days of the week. In many ways, summer vacation really isn't summer vacation at all. When I told my students that summer vacation in America usually lasted about three months and there was NO summer homework, they were shocked.

Nearly every week I met someone from a different country. It was a very unique summer working with guests either living abroad in Japan or visiting Japan. Whether they were from Canada, the Philippines, Singapore, or Tokyo, I enjoyed introducing them to central Japan and Northstar. It was a great time to share what N* was all about.

My favorite weeks were working with a youth group who came from Hawaii for a service project with N*. They helped us do some maintenance around the lodge as well as work on a new trail the community is trying to open up for mountain biking. I was able to lead the work projects and share how serving is an important aspect of our faith. I will have to take up their offer to visit them and learn how to surf in Hawaii in the future.:)

One new friend we were able to spend time with here at N* was a summer worker from Tokyo. Daisuke met us one evening while we were working outside preparing for our BBQ dinner. We had been showing a big screen movie outside on our lawn when Daisuke was walking by. He stopped to check things out. After that, he continued to stop by every other day. We were able to chat with him about a lot of interesting things, especially our faith. He told us that he thinks he, "should believe in God." I believe he had more thinking to do, but we are still praying for him. The encouraging thing about this all was that he told us he felt much more comfortable talking about spiritual things with foreigners than with other Japanese which was what brought him to ask some of the questions he had. I think this is very true for many Japanese because they simply do not feel comfortable sharing about spiritual things with other Japanese.

The summer, though extremely short, was packed indeed. We are already a week into fall season now. New staff have arrived - Phil from Texas and Erin from New Zealand. We have been getting along well working with the incoming schools. We have already held a camp with a high school English class from nearby Matsumoto and a British school of 10-11 year olds from Tokyo. The rest of the fall will mostly be schools and bicycling guests.

The biggest news that I would like to share above the activities and my English classes is that of a more serious matter. The director and founder of Northstar, Dan, recently found out he has skin cancer. He was given the news from the hospital the first day we welcomed new staff and began fall training. We had a solemn start knowing that Dan would have a lot to deal with this fall taking tests as well as starting treatment. He will be going to the hospital this Monday for further testing. We have been praying for him and his family as well. Please join us in praying for God's will in this situation, for comfort over the Junker family, for Dan's further testing, the many decisions that have to made concerning treatment, etc., as well as the continued workings of Northstar. We have a lot on our plates, so to speak, and just as much on our hearts and minds.

Because of the new situation, we all have a bit more work to do. This fall, I will be planning and facilitating several of the groups coming to N* over the next couple of months. I am actually looking forward to this part because I have really been enjoying coordinating group activities, planning and leading initiative games, and leading challenge course activities besides regular biking, hiking, and rock climbing activities.

Last month, my visa was also approved by the Japanese government. Thank you for all your prayers concerning this vital part of my continued work and ministry here with Northstar Outdoor Adventures. I was so excited to find that my visa had been accepted. This is a huge blessing to allow me to stay in country. The best part is that this type of visa is valid for 3 years! Recently, it has been very difficult for foreigners to obtain a religious type visa for such a long term. As soon as I was able to get my visa stamped, I was also able to obtain my alien registration card which solves many other difficulties of residing within country.

There is much to be thankful for, but there is also much to be prayerful of. Thanks for all of your support.
ブラッド Brad

Fiquem com Jow, o nosso amigo dourado.

Sol.

Less about my thoughts, more about plot. The story in the movie revolves around Toushirou and a friend of his, Kusaka Soujirou. History. Toushirou and Kusaka were mates, before getting the Zanpukutos, but the problem lay in that they both wielded Hyouinmaru but at the time, Soul Society Laws did not allow to have two wielders of the same swords, so one had to be deciding, prompting to a fight to the death. Our awesome Toushirou beats Kusaka, and hence becomes the wielder of Hyouinmaru.

Toushirou's team had to protect a special ceremony handing over a King's Seal, which has the power to manipulate time and matter. However, things go wrong, when it gets stolen, destruction occurs and Toushirou goes missing. Soul Society decided to arrest Toushirou for disobeying laws, sending everyone after him. Toushirou's intentions are unknown at this time but we soon find out he's off to meet Kusaka, who was reincarnated thanks to the seal. Kusaka's plan was to cut the King's Seal to gain lots of powers, but to have Toushirou help him too. Ichigo finds out about Toushirou's situation, tries to help him but gets rejected.

Lala, man hunts to get rebelling Toushirou. But in the end, Toushirou atones for his crimes and rebels against his own friend, causing Kusaka uses the power of the seal to become this Ice monster, and attempting to gain revenege on the society for getting himself killed. Trying to obliterate everyone in Soul Society, the captains try to stop whilst Ichigo,Renji,Rukia,Matsumoto,Ikkaku,Toushirou and gay dude(forgot his name) and a load of other people to kill Kusaka. In the end, Ichigo does the killing blow to break the monster thing. Then Toushirou finishes his fight with Kusaka, and the winner is obvious.

My overall opinion. Not enough emphasis on Toushirou. It's his movie and you still give so many other character fight time. The story/plot is good on the whole. What can you do with anime movies lol. An okay movie, I probably enjoyed the firs tmovie over this one. Hope the next Bleach Movie will be better.

Urasoe-Sho (Okinawa) is leading the game against Kanto-Daiichi (East Tokyo) 3-1 in the top of the 9th right now. (UPDATE: Iha pitched a complete game in the 3-1 win and looked very strong even at the end of the game, getting strike outs (127 pitches, 9 strikeouts) and even hitting 145 on the radar gun. Kinda worried about his arm though, he's pitched all 27 innings for Urasoe so far at Koshien. Kanto-Daiichi lost without using their ace Matsumoto, who had pitched 4 days earlier on the 10th in the round of 32, instead they used a couple of younger pitchers who gained some valuable experience for next year and beyond.)

Follow up to yesterday's action, the remaining games after Tokoha's (Shizuoka) dramatic win was powerhouse Chiben-Wakayama (Wakayama) absolutely destroying Komadai-Iwamizawa (North Hokkaido) 15-3 with Chiben's slugger Sakaguchi smacking 2 homeruns in the 11 run 8th inning (a Koshien first). The last game yesterday saw Hotoku-Gakuen (East Hyogo) win 7-3 over Kagoshima-Jitsugyo (Kagoshima).

A draw will be held after game 1 today (5th game in the round of 16) to determine the quarterfinal matchups. (UPDATE: Draw has been held, here's the quarterfinals)

8.15 Day 14 (tomorrow!)

11:00 Hotoku-Gakuen (East Hyogo) v Toho - Osaka-Toin winner

13:30 Urasoe-Sho (Okinawa) v Aomori-Yamada - Keio winner

8.16 Day 15

11:00 Chiben-Wakayama (Wakayama) v Tokoha-Kikugawa (Shizuoka)

13:30 Seiko-Gakuin (Fukushima) v Yokohama - Sendai-Ikuei winner

Now I'm really worried about Urasoe's Iha's arm if he's going to pitch in the quarters, not sure how good their second pitcher is, as I haven't seen him (I don't think hardly anyone has).

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Olympics

It looks like Saitama Seibu Lion Hideaki Wakui will start against Taiwan tonight in Beijing. This likely means Japan's rotation will go something like this (if Hoshino is sane).

8.13 Darvish v Cuba

8.14 Wakui v Taiwan

8.15 Wada v Netherlands

8.16 Sugiuchi v Korea

8.17 off

8.18 Darvish v Canada

8.19 Wakui v China

8.20 Wada v USA (hopefully a meaningless game)

8.21 off

8.22 Sugiuchi (semifinals)

8.23 Darvish (medal game)

Don't count your chicks before they hatch and all that, but this looks likely (hopefully), as Sugiuchi has been one of the best pitchers in Japan this season, and Kawakami was a disaster in the warmup game against CL selects last week so he'll likely be used in relief, this rotation would make sense. (Yeah, I know I'm doing a 180 from saying that Kawakami is ace 1A next to Darvish, but this rotation will probably work best for Japan at the moment, and Kawakami could be valuable out of the pen.)

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Swimming

Kosuke Kitajima has just won the 200m breaststroke in Olympic Record time. With his double gold (100 and 200) in consecutive Olympics, the little man has shown that technique matters more than height and size in this discipline. (Kinda like how another short man, Shimizu, won the 500m speed skating in Nagano, surrounded by much taller opponents with longer strides.)

n this episode of bleach the new soul reaper is working for the old man then there is a captains meeting about the menos's renji,matsumoto, and hitsugaya are talking izuru is talking to some of the squad when the new soul reaper shows up to talk to everyone the soul reapers that izuru was talking to say that they are going to follow the new soul reaper some squads are trying to find a menos hitsugaya goes to talk to another captain ukitake is talking to his squad then head captain comes to where ukitake is then the new captain comes to his squad and then the menos shows up in the soul society there are now three menos's they kill the menos's quickly

Arashi Group Image

From Left to Right [Surname first]: Matsumoto Jun, Ninomiya Kazunari, Ohno Satoshi, Aiba Masaki, Sakurai Sho.

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Arashi [Arashi means "Storm" in Japanese] is a 5 man J-pop band under Jhonny's entertainment and is one of my favorite J-pop bands. Their songs are always romantic melodies or ballads and always uplifting. All of the members have been in talk shows, dramas and even some movies. They're so cute, to boot!

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NOTE: I will be updating this post for a WHILE so stay tuned~!

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Arashi Albums

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• [2003] Arashi - How's it going?

• [2006] Arashi - Arashic

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Compilation Albums

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• [2004] Arashi - 5x5 - The Best Selection 2002-2004

in this episode of bleach orohime has gotten a bracelet from the arrancarand says goodbye to ichigo well he is asleep ichigo is told to come with hitsugaya then hitsugaya talks to ukitake and they talk about how orohime they think that orohime is dead the head captain says that orohime is a traitor and has joined the arrancar ten captain zaraki and captain kuchiki come threw the gate from the soul society tatsuki is running around trying to find orohime ichigo is at home kon acts stupid ichigo gets attacked by the teacher and then keigo tries to attack him tatsuki runs to talk to ichigo and asks where orohime is tatsuki freaks out on ichigo to find out where orohime is ichigo refuses to tell tatsuki anything ichigo talks to urahara about orohime

in this episode of bleach everyone is fighting a arrancar uraharasaves matsumoto ichigo's 18 seconds are up orohime is told to come with the skinny arrancar urahara was attacked from behind by another arrancar hitsugaya has turned all of the girl arrancars arms into ice hitsugaya kills the espada girl arrancar and now there are only two arrancars left urahara is fighting the big arrancar urahara has been using a gigai ichigo is still fighting grimmjow ichigo tries put his mask back on to use his hollow powers but grimmjow stops him rukia comes grimmjow breaks threw the ice and attacks rukia one of the vizards come to fight grimmjow and is using his hollow powers grimmjow is about to attack the vizard but the skinny arrancar stops him and now all the arrancars aresent back to the hollow world

in this episode of bleach ichigo is fighting grimmjow hitsugaya is fighting the big arrancar the girl arrancar is now number 6 espada ichigo finally gets to use his hollow powers against a real enemy yumichika is fighting the espada hitsugaya releases bankai but fails to attack before the girl arrancar releases her zanpakto hitsugaya just kills hitsugaya rukia finds renji grimmjow is bleeding all over the place because ichigo is using his hollow powers grimmjow attacks ichigo with a soul blast but ichigo blocks it ichigo's 18 seconds are up everyone is attacking the espada the big arrancar isn't doing anything urahara comes and saves matsumoto orohime goes back to the human world the one arrancar tries to attack urahara the first arrancar that came to the human world attacks the two soul reapers that are supposed to protect orohime there all hurt and orohime is healing them then orohime starts talking to the arrancar

in this episode of bleach they are making another arrancar and ichigo is training with the vizards still then it is time to eat now and ichigo has to clean the dishes rukia is training with orohime ukitake and the other soul reaper are talking next to where orohime and rukia are fighting they talk yumichika is attacking a rock matsumoto is with him hitsugaya is with ikkaku the gate opens from the hollow world to the human world and grimmjow and the other arrancar are coming grimmjow is now not one of the espada hitsugaya attacks the big arrancar ichigo fights grimmjow and can use his hollow powes for 18 second

in this episode of bleach everybody is fighting three arrancar and you find out the arrancar that was killed was actually aizens zanpakto ururu and jinta leave and renji is going to fight the arrancar alone with his bankai hitsugaya and matsumoto are fighting the girl arrancar ikkaku fighting the other arrancar renji is fighting the arrancar at the bottom of urahara shop ururu and jinta got chad,urahara,and the other one then they run into the arrancar that was the first to come to the human world the two renji is fighting the arrancar then theres an illusion and he gets out of there renji finally kills the arrancar with his bankai urahara gets here after its done then the rest of the gang comes and the hokioku is a fake

in this episode of bleach kon is with matsumoto and to  save the little girl in the lake matsumoto throws kons pill into the girls doll and kon fishs her out of the  water then kon has to stay with her at her house and then they go to whereshe used to live and there was originally a dog who lived here then a hollow attacks them and one of the spirits is the original dog

in this episode of bleach ikkaku is teaching a class and sucks at doing it then he almost attacks one of the kids keigo is still with him hitsugaya has to fight in the tournament renji also has to do it keigo has to be in the fight also everyone steps out to fight a menos grande and now must get to the touurnament ikkaku goes crazy and attacks all the opponents