Bought the November issue of Lala last Thursday after work. Have been so busy with training that I didn’t manage to read it properly until today ;;^^.

Love the front cover! It is rare to see Tsukimori-kun smiling so earnestly with his violin! It would be better if Kao-chan is on there blushing at his cute expression~

Absolutely adore the front cover of the new PSP game Haruka 3 – Unmei no labyrinth (at the top right hand corner)! As for the game itself, there will be new events and new CGs and an original UMD video for the Treasure Box. I wonder what the video is about… The Treasure box will contain the game itself; a photo album; special drama CD; original UMD video; special UMD case and a keyring within a box. I don’t think I will get it because I still haven’t started the PS2 version of this game: just don’t have a lot of interest in it I guess ;;^^. The game will be out on 22 October.

Nyanko-sensei’s hot water bottle!!! Want! I didn’t manage to buy the big Nyanko sensei’s plushie in Japan due to its enormous size…  Will try to get my hand on this one *o*~

Kaichou wa Maid sama! will be made into an anime next year! I have just started to follow the series on Lala from February so I need to catch up with earlier chapters. Do you follow any manga featured in Lala?

Have you tried Japanese dessert before? I have stuffed myself with Japanese desserts during my one month travel in Japan and I must say if you were to go to Japan, you must try them!

Traditionally, Japanese snacks and desserts were shaped to reflect the season. For example, in Spring they would be shaped as Sakura and in Autumn they would be shaped as Autumn leaves. They are often made with tea; sweet flour; azuki paste (red-bean paste); nuts; sugar and the fruits of the season. Japanese people like to eat their beautifully decorated snacks with their green tea, while admiring the view of their zen-garden and becoming one with nature.

Nowadays, it is harder to find traditional Japanese desserts: many of them are tailored to suit the preference of the younger generation as well as tourists. That doesn’t mean that they are not good! In fact, there is a wider variety available!

During my trip, I have tried green-tea parfait with green-tea cake; green-tea cream; chestnut; green-tea ice-cream and dumplings at Saryou Tsuriji in Kyoto. I am a green-tea maniac therefore I absolutely adore the green-tea parfait! It has everything that I ever want in a dessert!

Another amazing dessert that I had at Saryou Tsuriji is green-tea shaved ice. It contains green-tea ice-cream; shaved ice; azuki beans and a side dish of dumplings and wheat tea. It is heaven to eat this on a hot summer day!

Had more shaved ice for dessert in Kurokawa Onsen near Kumamoto. The first one is milky shaved ice with grapes; azuki beans and cream! The second one is again a green-tea shaved ice ;;^^. We had them after visiting an onsen (hot-spring) . We were feeling relaxed and warm so the shaved ice was perfect to cool us down!

Above is cold jelly with azuki beans soaked in sweet green-tea with wheat tea. We had it in Uji, which is famous for producing green-tea.  I bought many green-tea related goods at Uji… Will have a post dedicated to Uji sometime soon.

Lastly, green-tea ice-cream sprinkled with green-tea powder! I love the creamy texture of the ice-cream and the rich aroma of green-tea! Totemo oishkata!

I am longing for some green-tea dessert to indulge in while I watch Reborn! Would you like to try some Japanese dessert?

I just found out that La corda d’oro 3 will be released next year! The seiyuu cast will remain the same, but the characters and the story will be altered completely. The new story will take place eight years after La corda d’oro 1 and 2. Unlike the previous games, the protagonist will be living in a dorm with the male characters!

Nooo I don’t want Kiriya-kun; Hihara-senpai; stalker Kaji-kun and Tsukimori-kun to leave… And from the official images released so far, it seems that we have a blue-hair Hihara-senpai and Wakaouji-sensei from Tokimemo GS 2!? I hope that the characters’ design is not finalised yet… I don’t want to see Hihara-senpai cosplaying as Tsukimori-kun!

I guess it is time for La corda d’oro to release 3, as much as I don’t want it to! I remember me getting really obsessed with La corda d’oro 1 five or six years ago? That was the time when I was in high school. Now I have finished a Master and working… Time does fly ;;^^. Anyway, this is definitely on my buy list (even though Koei is so evil and they would probably release expansion packs…).  Will update with more information when it’s available!

Images and information from Fami.

A portion of my loot from Japan/Hong Kong!

A break-down of the anime/manga/game/Japan-related items above:

- Tokimemo GS Artbook
- Junjou Romantica TV Guide
- Zetsubou Sensei Nendoroid
- Kuroshisuji Nendoroid
- Hetalia Axis Powers One Coin Figure (Japan)
- Hetalia Axis Powers Multi Plate Collection (Italy)
- Hetalia Axis Powers Trading Cards
- Hetalia Axis Powers Posters
- Kingdom Hearts Roxas Phone Charm
- Starry Sky Virgo Phone Charm
- Natsume Yuujinchou Nyanko Sensei Phone Charm
- Gintama: Gin-sans Donut Shop Petit Chara Land Box
- Katekyo Hitman Reborn Hibari-san’s File
- Katekyo Hitman Reborn Hibari-san’s Posters
- Pencil boards (Gintama, Junjou Romantica, Natsume Yuujinchou)
- Natsume Yuujinchou Cushion Cover
- Postcards from around Japan
- Hello Kitty from around Japan
- Hetalia Axis Powers Vol 01 and Vol 02
- PASH July issue
- Animedia July issue
- Lala October issue

… And Ikebukuro station keyring. You can play the station’s tune by pressing it! Whenever I want to be reminded of Ikebukuro, I would press the button and listen to the tune. Ikebukuro is where Otome Road is located and you can read about how amazing it is here.

Other items:

- Green tea flavour hand cream
- Body whip cream (they look identical to whip cream, but in fact they are lotion for the body ;;^^)
- Make-up
- Random plush…

Apart from what you can see here, I have also bought clothes; make-up; bags; jewelery and manga and more manga ;;^^. Since the books are too heavy and I have only 20kg allowance, I have posted a box of manga and books by ship and they should arrive in a month or so. Maybe I will do another loot post when they have arrived!

My favourite purchases have to be my adorable Nendoroids. They are so cute! I wish that GS company would release more male Nendoroid… I would love to have Italy from Hetalia Axis Powers as a Nendoroid! Some pictures of my Nendoroids:

"Zetsubou da! I can't stand him moe-ing over a kitten! XD"

According to Italy, yes it's all a fantasy...

My table for now! It’s a big change from before right? Hopefully I can stock more figures soon!

Have you purchased a lot during the summer?

Came back after two months of rest, and realised that the stats has reached over 7000 already! Thanks everyone for visiting! Moreover, there are so many news on new releases of Otome games, so will need to catch up quickly. Now I am back so should be posting regularly again.

Was browsing for 2010 calendars on animate! Most of them is released from mid-October. I love buying anime calendars: for a cheap price, you get poster-size of eight or nine new illustrations. After the year has ended, you can cut the images out and make them into posters!

Thinking of buying either Natsume Yuujinchou or Hetalia Axis Powers for 2010… but can’t decide which one is better… If I were to see Natsume and Nyanko sensei every morning, it would bring a warm and fizzy feeling inside! If I were to see wacky Italy every morning, I would be happy for the whole day! It’s a tough choice ;;^^…

Do you buy anime calendars? Or do you buy anime trading cards/ pencil boards/ art books instead?

I am back from Japan but not back from Hong Kong yet! I still do not have internet at home so it might take a little while before I could reply to your messages. My holiday has been great so far: managed to spend a lot of money on anime pencil boards and… well… more anime pencil boards ;;XD. I just couldn’t resist getting them! Also spent quite a lot on figures and Nendoriod and manga and clothes and make-up and camera stuffs… very unhealthy for wallet! I have been reading Hetalia Axis Powers and falling in love with the cute baby version of Italy! Haven’t watched the anime yet so will need to catch up after I am back. Is the anime any good?

Hope that everyone is having a brilliant summer so far! Will spam 26 Hours after I am back for sure~

A little review before I head off to to Japan… Began working on this post since last month, will finish it off after I am back!

Finished Garnet Cradle completely today! It took me more than eight hours to get Sou’s ending, then I skip-play Touya, Rihito and Kiichirou’s routes because I really really wanted to see Saariya’s endings! Will rant about Saariya’s route in this post (Warning: MAJOR SPOILERS AHEAD, don’t proceed if you haven’t obtained Saariya’s good ending yet!).

Saariya’s Route

From the first encounter, Saariya has always acted unpleasantly around the protagonist. He threatened to kill her if she denied that she was not the holy Miko; dragged her to his bedroom and restrained her from escaping. During his route, he was cold towards the protagonist (well the fact that the protagonist fought back did not help much XD;;) and towards the end, he tried to keep a distance from her by forbidding anyone from entering his castle.

Despite his cold attitudes, he loves the protagonist really! In fact he has loved her since he was young!  You could see his affections for her through the small things that he did, such as sending fruits and flowers to the protagonist’s castle daily (without letting her know); protecting her when she was in danger and the occasional blush during their conversations! However, why did his actions contradict his feelings? You would need to refer to the background of the game to understand what our baka ouji was thinking XDD!

Background

Saariya's mother and father

Since the beginning of the game, the protagonist has been living in two dreams: both her reality as a student and her dream as  the holy Miko Azura Sayaraan are worlds created by dream monsters. Her real self is fast asleep in the real world. Mifutafu is a dream that was created by Saariya’s mother -  a human, and Saariya’s father – a dream monster. Despite the difference in races, they fell deeply in love with each. Saariya’s mother agreed to dream forever to be with her lover, and with them dreaming together Mifutafu was created. Saariya’s mother and father along with many holy Miko gave light to the kingdom.

The young protagonist

The protagonist’s father’s occupation is to stabilise the dreams of others. When the protagonist was young, he used to take her along to Mifutafu. That was the time when the protagonist met the young  prince Saariya. Being half-human and half-dream monster, he did not have a human form but he fell in love with the protagonist anyway. After Saariya’s mother discovered his one-sided love, she decided to use up all of her power to transformed him into the one and only prince for the protagonist. As a result, she fell into a coma; the light of Mifutafu disappeared; Mifutafu began to fade away and Saariya’s father went mad. Saariya was reborned from a cat to a human and appeared ‘miraculously’ in the holy fountain, deep inside the palace where no one could have possibly entered. Due to the sudden transformation and his loss of memory, some people suspect that Saariya is a fake prince (the prince was a cat after all ;;XD!) and hold a grudge against him for being recognised as a prince when he has not worked for it like the other princes.

Saariya's real form

Many years have passed. Eventually the protagonist entered Mifutafu as Azura Sayaraan. Her duty was to choose her one and only prince and then sacrificed her memory, her emotions and her freedom in order to bring light back to the kingdom. In the middle of Saariya’s route, his father – the most powerful of the dream monster, said to him that if he were to seduce the protagonist and bring her to him, Mifutafu would continue to exist; the light would return and they would not disappear. Since Saariya knew that his father could control his every move and he loves the protagonist too dearly to let her endure such pain, he chose to stay away from her as much as he could!

Back to Saariya’s Route

I will let the CG scenes do the talking now XD;;!

The protagonist was nearly tempted to enter the forbidden woods by the mysterious voice calling out to her, but luckily she was stopped by Saariya. She hesitated about the callings and tried to look back, thus he covered her eyes gently to prevent ‘her eyes from reflecting any darkness’. The protagonist broke down and confessed that she was just a normal student with no special power (like the 1000th time already, but this time accompanied with tears to squash some love from her prince XDDD). Saariya comforted her by hugging her and telling her that in this world she is stronger than anyone and that he believed in her. I love the way he said ‘hime’ (princess) here. It was so soft and loving that I had to listen to it twice!

At the end of the event, Saariya gave his most important treasure – small dagger from his mother, to the protagonist. Our baka ouji lied though and said that it was worth nothing!

*hearts*

After the protagonist found out that the dagger’s importance, she crushed into Saariya’s place to return it and she was shocked to see Saariya half-naked, getting dressed (He always gets half-naked in the game: it’s certainly great fanservice XDD;;). Ran out after a while so he chased after her. The protagonist explained that she came to return the dagger but he refused to take it back, saying that if she didn’t want it, she could throw it away into the fountain.

Kiinchirou and Saariya making yummy jam here! Saariya was laughing  joyfully and having a great time. The protagonist became emotional and wondered why he wouldn’t be so happy around her. She joined them but Saariya ran to get some more wine straight after she came. I think he was just embarrassed here~ The protagonist’s journey was sure tough in his route because it was filled with rejections! She even believed that he hated her!

The protagonist dreamed that Saariya managed to follow her to the real world. Let’s all thank her terrific imagination for she has dressed Saariya as my favourite: BUTLER-STYLE! Sorry I am just a little obsessed with butlers at the moment ;;^^… it’s all Swallowtail’s fault! Anyway Riihito challenged him to a duel: if Riihito wins, Saariya would have to leave immediately, otherwise he could stay. Sadly Saariya lost and after some provoking, Riihito killed him… I really did think that he died there and at that moment I hated Riihito for being so cruel…

Now I don’t hate Riihito at all. After going through Riihito’s route, I just feel sorry for him for moulding himself into a prince for the protagonist knowing that he was not the one since the very beginning.

When Saariya distanced himself from the protagonist, she began to worry and decided to sneak into his palace to see what’s going on. Had a argument (as usual); she ran to the fountain to go back to her reality and he followed her there. Saariya saw the sun, which he has never seen before, and the cherry blossom tree that she adores in her world. They returned to the fountain after some brief moments, both soaked and became very embarrassed after seeing each others’ body through those silky, wet and half-see through clothes theirs ;;XD. Saariya carried the protagonist to his place to dry herself off and gave her some warm alcohol to drink, which made her drunk and she fell asleep on his bed.

Anyone would fall in love with him after hearing that song *_*

She was awoken by Saariya’s beautful song. It was that song which made me felt in love with him!  So sad, and yet so beautiful~ Saariya’s voice is already very seductive to me and with that song, I was KO completely ;;^^! Afterwards he was being a baka Ouji again with that ‘don’t get near me’ attitude…

After the event where Saariya lost his mind, he ordered the guards to prevent anyone from visiting him. The protagonist sneaked in from the back and bumped into him (as usual). She confessed her love for him there and tried to run away but our baka Ouji did the right thing and invited her to his bedroom. He sang again for her and fed her! He said that he was only feeding her to not her her hand sticky but I know that he is just trying to get an opportunity to touch her lips XDDD;;!

It only lasted for a while before our baka Ouji said to her that if it would be better if he hadn’t met her. After getting the both endings, I know that he didn’t mean it that way: he was having a hard time holding in his feelings and protecting her, but still it was heart-breaking to hear him say that

Will continue my ranting in a future post ^^! O tanoshi mi ni!

Sorry for the lack of update in the past month! I have been working very hard on my dissertation – the final final thing that I have to do to end my four years course! It was interesting, maybe a little painful towards the end, but at least it’s done! I am off today evening for my one month graduation trip to Japan and then to Hong Kong for another month. Will be back in the beginning of September and spam you guys with many unnecessary pictures! Have a good summer everyone and see you all soon ^__^!

Have you listened to drama CDs that involve seiyuu interacting with the listener? They are one of my personal favourites! It makes me melt to hear my favourite seiyuu saying things that most guys would never have the courage to say XD;;. Will discuss some of the recent series in this post.

Starry Sky

The Starry Sky series by Honeybee is a big thing for seiyuu lovers and Otome games’ fans right now. It features twelve male characters, with each representing a star-sign and voiced by a top notch seiyuu cast. A drama CD for each character along with three Otome games are scheduled for release in 2009.

Four of the drama CDs have already been released. I have listened to Midorikawa-san and Sugita-san’s CDs and they are both very good! The seiyuu are amazing as usual; the Japanese is easy to understand and both characters are adorable. Made me toki doki when I was listening to their love confessions on the train ;;;XDD! The first game was released in March and you can hop over to white butterfly for a English review.

Gekkan Otokomae

Ishida-san as the serious megane guy and Mamo as the cute megane idol!

The Gekkan Otokome drama CDs focus on five popular moe categories of guys: the glasses type; the wild type; the princely type; the younger type and the teachers. For each category there are two drama CDs: the innocent white disc and the slightly evil black disc. I am interested in the white disc of the glasses type (Mamo and Ishida-san!) and both discs of the teachers (Inoue-san and Okiayu-san!). I hope that I won’t fall too deep into this pit-hole *stares at wallet*…

Rikei Danshi

The character in charge of chemistry~

The Rikei Danshi series features four guys with each of them specified for a particular subject. They would sing and cheer for you while you study! I don’t know how that would help: they are more like encouraging you to fangirl right ;;^^?

Kiss X Kiss Collections

There is even a Butler type in Kiss X Kiss!

As the name Kiss X Kiss Collections implies, the series is all about kissing with a particular type of character! Some of the names of the tracks are: ‘Goodnight kiss’; ‘Birthday kiss’; ‘Tearful kiss’; ‘Goodbye kiss’ and ‘Seductive kiss’. Would the seiyuu have to kiss the mic constantly to achieve realistic kissing sounds ;;XDD?

Have you listened to any of them? Which one do you like best?

Found some very funny Tokimeki Memorial GS video on nico-nico and could not resist the urge to share! First up we have the Tokimeki cast trying to persuade fans to buy Gatsby hairgel:

Teru cosplaying as Takuya Kimura!

Begin by watching the original version starring the dashing Takuya Kimura:

Then watch the parody version featuring the Tokimeki cast ;;XD:

Next up we have hane’s underwear commerical! Watch the original version first to ensure maximum satisfaction:

Then the parody one featuring half-naked Teru in a black hood (Awww poor  Teru why is he the only one half-exposed for all to see? Does he want to show off his muscles from surfing?) and Waka-sensei showing off his superb dancing skill:

Finally for all of our male readers out there, here is hane’s underwear commercial featuring characters from Gintama:

I died laughing at Gin’s strawberry pants XDDDDD! Do you browse nico-nico often to watch whacky video?