As always, I’m ridiciously late to the party (or maybe you could say I’m just barely on time). MorningBerryz has a new contest going on at her blog. Which closes… in just under 6 hours. XD

Basically, she’s asking what 5 J-pop songs you would recommend “to turn a friend onto some of your favorite music♪♪”.

In my choosing of songs, I have mainly picked older songs which have stuck with me through the years. No matter how many times I listen to these songs, I’m still mesmerized by the beauty of the melody, instrumental track, beat, vocals and/ or PV – just as much as I was when these songs were still new to my ears.

So without further ado, in no particular order (except the last one), here are my songs:

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I love Japanese music. I think that’s evident from this blog (alive for 2.5 years), my fairly new (which is sadly lacking in updates) Arashi blog and my involvement as an admin International Wota. However, even though I’ve been a pretty constant fan of Hello! Project for nearly 9 years now, adopted Angela Aki into my favourite musicians list, and have dabbled here and there with other J-artists over the years, there is one act which will always stand above all the others – and they’re not Japanese! (*shock!* *gasp!* *watches her readers faint*)

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It’s been quite some time since I last did a memoerable snippets post, but I’m back! Now, what made me come back to this series (though I actually have another video clip snipped and ready to, I’ve just been too lazy to do it)?

Who has listened to Morning Musume’s latest album? I’m figuring most people reading this post will have. Well, when the tracklist was announced, I was absolutely ecstatic to see a Gokki song. Aichan and Risa are obviously my favourite members of Morning Musume, and have been for quite a few years now. When I got the album, I would have loved to listen to their song first, but I always listen through albums from start to end the first time through.

However, when their song came on, I made sure to fully tune in (if you ever chat with me on #wotachat, you will know that when I’m at my computer, I often don’t hear the music I have playing in the background. The best time for me to really listen to music is during my commute to work). And from my first listen, Risa’s first line immediately caught my attention:

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Does listening to that make you think of anything…? Anything at all?

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It’s hard to believe that International Wota is 3 years old today! A lot has happened with the site since I last celebrated IW’s Cake Day. But before I get into that…. CAKE!!!

As you can see, this year’s Cake Day message is not as elaborate as last year’s. But this year, I did my best to draw out IW’s logo. I got better drawing materials this year, which is why I was somewhat able to accomplish the feat. However, I don’t think I’ll be joing Buddy’s staff on Cake Boss anytime soon… (Anyone watch that show? If not, you should, ’cause those cakes are AMAZING!)

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Please excuse me as I have a massive fangirl attack.

For those of you who don’t know, today, March 9, 2010, marks the North American release of Final Fantasy XIII. I bought my Playstation 3 back in December 2007 thinking that FFXIII would be coming out soon (I know… stupid, naive me… XD). Well, after all my waiting, it has finally arrived!!! My fandom of the Final Fantasy series has absolutely nothing to do with the fact that my co-favourite Morning Musume member, Takahashi Ai, is a huge fangirl of the series – I just really needed to point that out. XD

Anyway, with the purchase of the game (and the collectors edition strategy guide), any posts I had planned for this blog will have to be postponed for a bit… I was really hoping to get some posts up before this released, but that obviously didn’t happen. -_-; But I swear this blog isn’t dying… Just bear with me as I finally get to play the game I’ve been waiting years for. ^_^

The long awaited annual fields awards are here!!! (haha. People probably didn’t even realize that I hadn’t done them yet. XD) I’ve gotten a little distracted recently with a test that I’ve been studying for and venturing into a new fandom – Arashi. I gotta say the timing of my foray into the work of Arashi was horrible. But this is my H!P blog, so I won’t blab about them here. If you and want listen to those ramblings of mine, check out my new Arashi blog – Stormy fields of maiZe.

I will be mainly using the same categories that I used last year, but seeing as the blog moved and changed names, a new seal had to be made… So the winners of all categories are given the maiZe and Momusu seal of approval!

And now, without further ado, let’s get to the awards.

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This obviously has absolutely nothing to do with J-music… But I’m an avid sports fan and the Olympics are on (I don’t think there’s anyone out there who doesn’t know that).

This is Canada’s third time hosting they Olympics, and until today, we had never won a gold medal on Canadian soil.

However, that terrible streak was broken this evening by Alexandre Bilodeau winning the men’s moguls!

Congratulations Alex!!! I was really hoping that I’d get to watch Canada win its first gold live on tv, and I did! I’m so excited! This is just the beginning for Canada, and I’m looking forward to watching Canada get more golds during these games!!!

And to make this at least a music related post, check out the Olympic theme song for one of our national TV stations – I Believe by Nikki Yanosky. (Side note – this girl is 16 years old and she’s got an amazing voice. Check out youtube and watch her belt out jazz songs at the age of 12.)

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I had really hoped that Aya’s fall concert DVD would arrive while I was on Christmas vacation. Alas, it didn’t arrive until yesterday. That of course meant that I had to drop anything I had planned so that I could pop in the DVD and watch (and review)! Below, you will find my review of the concert. The majority of my comments are my initial reactions to the performances. This was another excellent performance put on by the lovely Ayaya. You better believe there’s a reason that she is my favourite Hello! Project member of all time.

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I came home from work yesterday and was very happy to find a package had arrived from Hawaii! Now I wonder what that could hold for me? ^_^

I have been an Aichan fan for many years now, but I’ve never been much of a photobook buyer. I own over 75% of Morning Musumes singles, a bunch of their albums and some of their concerts, and with the opening of Hello! Store USA, a bunch of photocards (and I’ve got loads of Berryz Koubou and C-ute things too). However, I’ve never bought a new photobook of any of the Hello! Project girls before.

I have 4 previous photobooks – Suzuki Airi’s first (bought from one of Ray Mescallado’s garage sales), Yajima Maimi’s first 2 (bought from CatchFiveBats at Anime Expo, and Niigaki Risa’s “Isshun” (a gift from the lovely Misa).

However, I now have my first brand new, unopened Hello! Project photobook! You see, little while ago, MorningBerryz held a giveaway contest with Takahashi Ai’s photobook “Watashi” as the prize. Anyone who gave their thoughts on why Aichan is “one of Momusu’s most endeared leaders” was able to enter the contest. TO get into the finals, I had to pick drivers in NASCAR’s Homestead Miami Speedway event – basically 6 drivers who would get the lowest times.

Now, I don’t watch NASCAR at all, but I somehow got the best average time! ^_^ That sent me into the finals, and MB got my fellow IW admin, CK did an interesting draw to decide who the winner of the photobook would be. And I won! ^_^

Thank you so much MB (and CK)!!! ^_^ It’s still in it’s shrink wrap… I want to open it, but at the same time I’m hesitant to, because I’m a weirdo. XD

I’m sure I’ll get to the opening of the PB soon (probably right after I post this). Seeing as it’s pretty much MB’s Christmas gift to me, I can’t NOT open it. That would be mean. XD

So, I’m off work for the next week and a bit, so hopefully I’ll be getting back into some good old blogging again. I actually had a post in the works, but while I was at work today, there was a power outage at home. And me, being the awesome person that I am, did not save the text file…. So bye bye post! T__T

But until I do get back into bloggin, I just want to wish a Merry Christmas to everyone!! (Or a Happy Hanukkah! Or… any other holidy you may be celebrating!) ^_^ I everyone who’s celebrating has a lovely time with friends and family this holiday season! <3 47MGVBGU5E65

Welcome to the new home of my blog! For nearly 2 years, I’ve been hosted by the awesome Ray Mescallado over on intlwota.com, but recently I started thinking that I should maybe get my own hosting and domain, seeing as I’ve lasted a lot longer with this blog than I originally thought I would.

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