OHHEY~

Wow, it's been what, three weeks since I posted last? Something like that. To be honest, I'm not even sorry. I don't really have a good reason why, either. Forever a useless blogger... XD

Since my last post, which I just reread and am now shuddering with embarrassment over how much of a loser I am, I've still been feeling a little down every now and then, but overall I'd say I'm feeling more like myself. I've been feeling pretty happy with most things. But I didn't want to post for a while. I'm not really sure, but I just didn't want to. I wanted to sort out the weird slump that I was in and come back with a fresh attitude. I'm trying to be more positive about things. It's hard, seriously. I've been so negative about everything for so long, it's hard to just turn that off. I don't think I ever will, really. I just want to be able to look at things in a more positive light. So I'll keep working at that. 

I guess another reason for my lack of blog is for this past week I've had practise exams at school, so I was studying hard for those. Nerd alert. I don't know why I studied quite so hard for them, as it was just practise for the end of year exams, but I did and I kind of wore myself out. Honestly though, I think it's because I hate the feeling of failing. I feel like when I don't pass with good grades, even if its just a practise exam, then I'm letting people down. Not only myself, but my parents and especially my teachers. I feel like I wasted their time. Seriously, I respect four out of five of my teachers a lot, they're really intelligent people who genuinely care for my education. The fifth one, well, I don't think he gives two fucks, but hey. He's fun to have as a teacher for a subject that I don't care about. Anyway, my last one was on Thursday last week.  Overall, I think I did okay. There are some subjects that I could have done better in, but I certainly could have done worse! Wait, is that a good thing or a bad thing? Also, for a couple of weeks before last week I was also studying. So yeah. 

Lastly, and mainly, I'd say it's just because I'm lazy, and frankly I find myself to be an extremely boring person. I just never really had anything interesting to say. Honestly, I still don't. I'm just rambling here, and I will continue to do so for the rest of this post, and all the posts to come. I hope there is at least one person who finds my ramblings interesting, or just likes to read to laugh at me, or just to be a mind-numbing distraction from something. I'm happy to be anything you need! Feel free to laugh at me or numb your overworked mind. ^^

So I'm hoping to get a job interview really soon. I need one. I've already talked about the place where I applied, and my friend who works there said that her manager is going to start calling in lots of people for interviews over the next few days. I'm crossing all my fingers and toes hoping that I'm one of those people. My friend also put in good word for me, so hopefully that'll up my chances. I really hope I get the job, and I don't mean to sound full of myself here at all, but I should have a pretty good chance of getting it. It's like, the lowest place to start in terms of part time jobs, right alongside working in a supermarket. They hire anyone if they need to. Plus, if you'd seen the kinds of people that they have working there already, then I seem like a pretty good choice. That's saying something, right?

I really wanna buy FEST VAINQUEUR's new album! I really love them, their music has a really good energy. If I got it from CDJapan, so long as I got first press, it would come with a signed poster! Eeeeep! This is one reason why I desperately need a job... I am also quite interested in buying Mejibray's new single Emily, but then I think I'll wait for another full album release from them. I've known of Mejibray for a while, and I always thought their music was really good, but I've only just started really listening to them a lot recently, as in the past couple of months. And I know this is going to make me sound really noobish, but I'm still not over the fact that MiA used to be in Toon Factory. I liked MiA before I knew he was MiA. I really liked Toon Factory, but then it turned out that they had disbanded like, a month before I got into them. So I didn't really keep up with them or what the members were up to. Then Mejibray and then MiA and then whaaaaa. Now that I think about it though, Toon Factory started out all oshare and colourful, but they did become darker in look and sound towards the end. So maybe its not so weird that MiA ended up in Mejibray. And it seems that he is really enjoying every minute of being in Mejibray, which is great. He's such a wonderful musician.

Still on the topic of music that I really want to buy but seriously lack the money for. THE KIDDIE have another album coming out! Two in one year! They're really on a roll! And of course, me being an uber KIDDIE fangirl for life, I have to get it. I don't care if I have to sponge of my parents to get it. I'm just waiting for CDJapan to list it, and then that baby is mine. Awww yisssss. I just have one problem, though... Yusa's new hair. What in the world was he thinking?! It's awful! I just can't even deal... What's he going to do when he is just dressing casually, say, to go to the supermarket or something? He's going to have this ridiculous looking fringe thing going on. Oh well, I hope, for his sake at least, that his hair grows out fast.
And there's more! UNiTE, new album. I adore UNiTE. And I don't have any physical copies of their music yet, so I really want this album too. Also, Mix Speaker's,Inc. are releasing a new album. I don't have any of their CDs either, so I want that tooooo. PLUS, oh this just keeps getting better and better (both in a serious and sarcastic way), LM.C are releasing a new single! Which, because LM.C are my favourite band in the whole world forever, I want desperately. I'm pretty sure that there was a couple of other things, but these are the ones I want the most as of right now, this day. Oh can you imagine what this is going to do to my parents wallets? This is exactly why I want a job, because I want all these things, but I can't possibly ask my parents to buy all that. I need to be able to get things like this for myself. I'll feel okay with asking my parents to buy me necessary things, like socks or toothpaste, but when it comes to things like music or expensive clothes, I really want to be able to get them with my own work and money.

Last thing for today, as I just remembered something else on my want list, BURU2! SuG's Takeru x Kera book. I have the first one, and it consistently makes me so happy. Even if I can't read it, just flicking through and looking at the photos, seeing Takeru's beautiful face on almost every page. Thinking about how much I love, and am thankful to him for. So I would really like to get BURU2, for sentimental reasons more than anything.

Yup. So it turns out that this post was just me updating, or whining, take your pick, about all the things I want right now. This second half of the year has been just as packed, if not more, than the first in terms of music releases! But I'm not complaining. New music just means that the bands I love are doing okay. That's the way I see it, anyway.

I'm really sorry for this long and shit post. I realise it is completely boring and lacking in flow. My writing is crap right now, plus I'm really tired today. As always, I'll try to do better next time!

NP - LOSING MY WAY OF THE PROUD by Sadie

Boiling Point

I'm feeling kind of down about myself at the moment. I feel like I'm always going to be this plain, boring nobody. Everyone on the internet is so good at fashion and then I'm just here like umm I have this sweater which is kind of cool and sometimes my eyeliner turns out semi-okay. Or they're really great at crafting and making things, or art or music. Or all of the above. Ahh, I dunno. I'm being an idiot. It's probably because I was blog-hoping on Tumblr, and there are so many beautiful, fashionable and creative people on there. I just wish that I could be one of them. I wish that there was something about me that was special. But I came to accept a long time ago now that I'm average, and that I'll probably just be average for the rest of my life. Honestly, my fashion choices aren't entirely my own. I just copy everyone else's ideas, follow whatever the people who I think are cool are doing, and even then I don't do a very good job of it and end up looking like a twat. It's not that I don't actually want to wear the things that such people do, because I honestly do and I would love to be able to pull it off, but I just don't have the means. That, or my outfits are half-baked. They always end up being just really average, even though I try really hard to make them nice. But in the end, it's not entirely my own personal style. I don't like that. I want to be able to come up with things that are unique, things that are special to me. I try, but like I said, I don't have the means. I can't just go and buy whatever I want, and I definitely can't make it myself. Don't get me wrong, I love my clothes and I love to wear them, but still... I can't seem to shake this feeling. I seem to like to tell myself that eventually, if I buy a whole bunch of clothes and things that are cool, then I'll be fine. I don't have a job, and finding a part-time job as a teenager in my country isn't exactly easy, and I'm really lousy at anything to do with crafts. I hate that I have to mooch off my parents for everything, but I don't have any other option. I've applied for jobs before, yes, but I never got any of them. I recently sent in an application to a store called The Warehouse, which is essentially my country's equivalent of Walmart. That's how desperate I'm getting. I hate the feeling that I haven't truly earned anything I own, that it was my parents hard work that put all my clothes in my closet. And to be honest, writing all this doesn't help at all. It just makes me feel even more shit. I'm such a lousy person. All I ever do is complain. There are so many people who have it much worse than me, yet I'm daring to sit here and whine about pointless shit. So what if I don't always like myself. It's probably just teenage insecurities. I'm happy enough, for the most part, right? I have a great life, with wonderful family and a nice home and I'm getting a good education. So why the fuck do I think it's ok to not like myself? It's not even that big of a deal. When you get right down to it, all it is, is me looking in the mirror and going, wow you're ugly inside and out huh you try so hard to be cool but none of your ideas are your own you hypocrite, and walking away. Most of the time, I just ignore the feeling, I accept it, and I move on. That's what irritates me the most. I'm so lucky, yet I still find something to be unhappy like this about, for no good reason. I feel like such a pathetic douchebag right now. I feel so crap, I wasn't even going to post this, but then I remembered... Hey, who gives a fuck, it's not like anyone reads your shit anyway.

I'm sorry. Really. That escalated quickly. I didn't intend for it to end up quite so... well, you know. But, I've always made a point my policy when it comes to blogging - backspace doesn't exist unless for grammatical errors. Whatever I type, stays. Because it's my blog. My feelings. My rants, and my rambles. It's just really late where I live right now, and I've been running on six hours of sleep for the past eighteen hours. I tend to get more angry with myself when I get tired. I'm not usually like this. I mean, I've always been a very self conscious person, but I'm actually pretty ok with it usually. It's just times like this when my brain stops working the way it should. But I guess, if I was able to spill my guts and write that much, then I really needed to write it down. It's like, I had been keeping all these thoughts shut away. I didn't want to acknowledge them, I didn't want to accept them. Like I said, feeling this way makes me feel bad. I'm so grateful for everything in my life, and so I feel like I don't deserve to be upset about something as small as my fashion choices or appearance. That's all. So I try to push the feelings away. I suppose that's not the most healthy thing to do though. Because it leads to these weird little outbursts of anger. That's what a blog is supposed to be for right? Getting all your feelings down. Lifting weight of peoples' shoulders. So from now on, I'm not going to keep my feelings shut away inside until I reach my boiling point. I'm going to do my best to let it out in a calm and constructive way, through this blog. My blog. And actually, I do feel a lot better now. I know the feelings will come back every now and again, they always do, but I'm going to try and handle them better.

Ugh, another thing I don't like about these weird outbursts is that I'm not able to say properly what it is I want to say. I don't think before I type, I just type whatever. Sometimes, it's okay, but in some cases I feel that what I've written can be easily misunderstood or misinterpreted. But then, I can't actually think of how else to say it. So I'll leave it. And it doesn't flow very well at all! Usually I try to give my posts a nice flow, from one point to the next. Boooo.

Ahh, I feel like my usual self now, so I'm thankful. Glad I was able to get this off my chest. But I'm also feeling really fucking tired. So it think it's about time I got to bed. I know I said in my last post that my next post would be in a couple of days, but I clearly needed to get this off my chest now. Otherwise I wouldn't be able to sleep. So, if you're interested, please still expect a more normal post from me in a couple of days!

I'm listening to my sleepy/calm music playlist right now huhuhu~

NP - Hirogaru Sekai by Golden Bomber 

Something... Different~?

Yep, I decided I wanted to start a new post just to talk about my new layout! Whoooo!
I'm actually really excited about it. I don't even know why!

I know, it's nothing really special. Even so, I feel like it's much more me. I've always been more inclined to simple things, when it comes to design. The old template I used was simple, yes, but I feel that it was too dark, too claustrophobic. Can a blog be claustrophobic? I particularly didn't like the width of the actual post - it was way too narrow, and made it look really cramped. Anyway, I like how light and plain this new layout is. I always like to use white as a background colour, for everything. I really like light purple, and light grey, so that explains the colour combination. I personally think they go really nicely together, but that could just be me... I also love the title font! It's so cute and childish. Like me! The childish part, anyway. Definitely not the cute part. Maybe one day I'll get around to making my own header or something, but for now, I really like the way it is. Seeing as I was actually able to figure out how to do it, and edit it to make it my own, I feel quite pleased with it. It's plain, simple, average, but a with a tiny splash of individuality. I feel it suits me just fine.

So that's all. I'll be writing again in the next couple of days, back to my normal routine. Sorry for the random, waste of time and effort post~! ^^;;

NP - Sumire September Love by Megamasso ft. Izam

Tenso Shopping Service~!

Ok, so I know I said last time, that the next review would be of SID's M&W, but since then (as in Tuesday morning) my order that I placed using Tenso arrived! Eeeeeeeep! So now, I'm going to do a run-down of how it worked out. It's not really going to be a review exactly, but anyways. Also, this has ended up pretty damn long, I'm really sorry. ^^;; Here we go.

Now, this was my first time using a shopping service. I'm always extremely, probably unnecessarily, suspicious of buying anything online, especially when I've never ordered from a site before. I'd say the only website I feel 100% comfortable using is CDJapan. So deciding to use a shopping service was a pretty big deal for me. And plus, let's be honest here, most shopping services are really fucking expensive. Yes, maybe their own service fee isn't too unreasonable, but when you add on the cost of your original items, plus the shipping within Japan, plus the international shipping fee (almost all services use EMS)... you're looking at a pretty big number.
I've already briefly explained the reason why I ended up using the service, but I'll explain again quickly.
There were a couple of things listed on CDJapan from SUPER LOVERS that I'd been really wanting. I was just browsing the internet, and I decided to go to the official SL web store, to see the new seasons items, out of curiosity. It turns out that SL are having a huge sale right now (30~70% off!), to make way for the new stock. I checked out the sale, which is a really fantastic sale and if there are any of last seasons items that you were wanting, buy them now from the web store (http://www.rakuten.co.jp/superlovers/)! Even though CDJapan does have some SL things on sale, they have nowhere near as much as the actual web store. It turns out that quite a lot of the things I wanted were included in the sale, but I was able to narrow it down to two things that I wanted the most. Both were around 50% off. And neither of the two were on sale at CDJapan.

SUPER LOVERS uses Rakuten as their shopping platform, but unfortunately they do not ship internationally. So this is where I was like, dude, I need a shopping service. Now. I wasn't going to let this chance slip through my fingers. Obviously I had seen Tenso through Rakuten, and I had read many a good review of it around the internet. So I looked into it a little more, and I was pleasantly surprised. Their service fee is definitely the cheapest, and most reasonable. Yes, they do use EMS shipping, but they actually stick to the EMS rates! I'm going to go off on a slight tangent here. CDJapan MARK UP THE SHIPPING. A LOT. It's actually extremely obvious if you check the EMS Japan rates table, and then compare it to what CDJapan charge (http://www.post.japanpost.jp/int/charge/list/ems_all_en.html). I always thought their shipping was quite reasonable, but the heavier your order gets, the more they mark up the shipping. Back on track now, and long story short, I found that even with using Tenso shopping service, it was half the price of what it would have cost for the exact same order from CDJapan. I had to do it, I would have been stupid not to.

Registration with Tenso is free, and upon registering they'll send you and a Japanese address. That address will have your ID number in it, and you MUST make sure that you include that number when entering the shipping address info. You register with your own address, i.e. the address that you want Tenso to ship your package to once they receive it.
I'm not going to tell you exactly how to use Tenso because it's really quite straightforward, their way of breaking it down and explaining how it works is very clear (here's their guide, http://www.tenso.com/en/guide/flow/index.html). Anything you need to know can be found on their site. The breakdown of costs is also simple. It's just:

• Price of your items (from wherever you order from) + shipping fee (from wherever your order from to Tenso warehouse) + handling fee + international shipping fee (from Tenso to your door)

Essentially, the 'handling fee' is the service fee, and it's a very small fee. Their lowest fee is 490 JPY, and that's with orders up to 1kg. You're gonna need to figure out *roughly* what your order will weigh if you want to calculate the total Tenso charge before ordering, using their Calculation Tool, which is down the bottom of the page. But hopefully that won't be too difficult.

The bit that confused me the most was how to enter the Japanese address, because I can't read Japanese, so I didn't know which part of the address went where. Fortunately, I have a Japanese student who helped me out, and she had to rearrange to address in order for it to make more sense. [UPDATE] So Tenso actually have a page where they show you how to enter your address when shopping on Japanese websites, here is the link -> http://www.tenso.com/en/guide/buy/address.html
Their examples are actually still in Japanese, but if you play around with Google translate and just try to work it out as logically as possible, it should be fairly simple (as told by a friend of mine who recently ordered using Tenso). If you're still have trouble, then I recommend emailing Tenso with your query. They're really friendly and should be able to help you out.

So, go about ordering from the webstore the way you would any other site. When you go to check out, you'll need to use all your own details, like your own name, and payment details (like credit card, PayPal etc). Also, use your own email address. It's just when you get to the shipping address that you put the Tenso address you were given, not forgetting your number. That's all, all other information you enter should be your own. PLEASE NOTE, you pay for this order separately to the Tenso fee, i.e. you pay the price of your items plus shipping to Tenso when you order from the web store. Your payement to Tenso, for handling and international shipping fee, comes later, once Tenso actually receive your package (they will notify you via email once they do). Then proceed to checkout, and proceed to freak out, if you're like me. I joke, I joke, don't freak out. I only did because I'd never used a shopping service before.

You'll get the automatic confirmation email from the web store you ordered from, use Google Translate if you want to double check things. And then you wait! Because the store that I ordered from only accepted credit card or cash payment, not PayPal, I had to wait a while for my payment to go through. But when it did, I got an email from the store that said, with the help of Translate, that my payment had gone through and my order had been posted to my Tenso address. Then, when Tenso receives your package, they'll email you with their fee (handling + international shipping) and you follow the instructions to pay for all that. Don't worry, I know this description is vague, but it will be very easy to follow if you use the service - they'll give you links and everything in their emails to you. Oh, Tenso allows PayPal. Once they've got your payment, they'll email you saying so and that your package is being processed, and then a final email saying that it's been shipped to you. Because they use EMS, you should get your shizz within 3-5 days! And that's it!

So, here's how the pricing, of my order at least, went:

• Item (1) - 3938 JPY 
• Item (2) - 2888 JPY
• Shipping (to Tenso) - I forgot, but it wasn't a huge amount. Maybe like 800 JPY?

The total of this is what you pay for first, with your own credit card or whatever. You pay it to the actual store you order from.

Then:

• Tenso handling fee - 490 JPY
• International shipping fee - 1000 JPY. I ordered when they were having a promotion, all international shipping was 1000 JPY, or something.

The total of THIS is the price you pay to Tenso.
So you make two seperate payments.

This is how they packaged my order. (Sorry, the second and third photos are the wrong way round. I'm learning~! Also, sorry for the crap quality... they were taken with my iPod camera x.x;;)

As you can see, there was a small rip on the back of the bag, but luckily it had an internal lining, and no damage was done to my stuff. 

My stuuuuff~ It's cute that they sent me the original bag, too.

Alright, I think that's everything covered. Reading back through this, I've realised that some things may not make much sense. I'm really sorry if that's the case, I just can't think of how else to explain/word it. Please, if you have a question, feel free to ask me! I'd be more than happy to help in any way I can. I have only used the service once, so I may not be the most knowledgeable, but I can try to advise and guide you, based on my own experience. ^^

I hope all this is useful to at least one person. If just one person gains something or benefits from this, then I'll be very happy. And I hope this has erased any doubts that you have about using Tenso. Believe me, I understand that you may be wary and that you can never be too careful. Tenso is a reliable and easy to use shopping service, their customer service is brilliant, and I would recommend them to anyone. Seriously. I'll never worry about ordering from Japanese web stores again. I can't say the same for other services, as I've never used any others, but from what I've found, Tenso is your best choice anyway. 10/10 all round. So get out there and get shopping, children!

NP - Recipe by vistlip

Review All The Things~!

Well, actually just two things...
Alrighty kids, so this time I'm going to do a review, of sorts, of AYABIE's new album ANSWER. Aaaand then next time, I will also do SID's album M&W! I'm aware that both aren't brand new, with M&W being a month old already, but hey, better late than never. Now, when I say review, I mean a Misa-style review, where I basically (let's be honest here) just fangirl about how awesome things are. I've already said it, I'm not very good at describing music and what it is I like/dislike about it, but I try, really! I'll try my best to keep things as brief as possible. Sometimes I can tend to ramble on a bit though... Hopefully it won't end up as long as my review of SuG's Lollipop Kingdom. And, just one more thing before I start, please remember that what I'm about to say is JUST MY OPINION. You know I will never say anything to intentionally hurt anyone's feelings or to just to be mean. Plus, I really don't have anything bad to say about this album at all. Both AYABIE and SID are special to me, so please bear in mind that just because I think one or two songs are 'okay', it doesn't mean I hate them or don't like them. Ok, without further ado, let's begin!

ANSWER
1. Prelude - This is the intro song, and honestly, it is lovely. I love that they made it to the tune of Ryuusei, which is the last song on the album. It makes a very nice mirror, and it was very beautifully done. It's understated and elegant, not too in your face. It was a perfect introductory song.
2. RISE - Great. Just, great. I don't know what else to say. The composition is great, it's position on the album with the way it flows from the prelude is great, it's energy is great. It really sets the album off with a bang, and I love it.
3. Reflector - The thing that I kept thinking when listening to this song was, this is a song with sass. It's got this awesome attitude, which I love, and it keeps up the pace with RISE. I actually wish they made a PV for this song, I imagine that it would be really sexy and sophisticated.
4. Kakusei Sprechchor - This song was released as a single, so we already know it. But that doesn't make it any less kick-ass. It's got this brilliant, catchy vibe and energy. And it's just a really good, cool song.
5. Niji - Ahh, this song was pretty cute. Although at the same time, it sounds kind of epic. It's quite magical and lovely to listen to. It's less intense than the previous songs, yet it maintains the energy of the album.
6. LOVE SONG - Damn, this song is smooth. It's almost jazzy, and it's really chill. It has a good relaxed pace, a nice break from the pumped up songs, but it's still fun - not dull at all.
7. Paradise Paradox - Oooh, this one is fun. It's quite techno-ish, I'd say it's probably the most electronic sounding song on the album, even though yes, I know, most of the songs are electro-ish in some aspect. It's a good, catchy song that makes you wanna dance. I love Yume's voice in the chorus! It also reminds me a liiiittle bit of LM.C's GAME of LIFE. It has an awesome transition into track eight, too...
8. MERRY GO ROUND - FUCKING LOVE IT. I already knew that. This song is easily one of my favourite AYABIE songs. Easily. I love it so much, I can't say anything more about it, other than KURU KURU KURU, FUWA FUWA FUWAAAA~!
9. Koma - the intro for this song is really good! It stuck with me. The song as a whole is very good, so AYBIE-ish. It's upbeat, with strong vocals from Yume. It uses an interesting mix-up of instrumentals/tempos/beats etc. I think the key thing about this song is the way it transitions into the next song. It's so smooth, I didn't even realise the track had changed...
10. SICs - Ohshit. Ohhhh shit. This song is probably my favourite new song on the album. The music is fanfuckingtastic, and Yume's voice is amazing. It's so fucking awesome and unbelievably kick-ass. The intro is just omfgasjgdfg. I really wasn't expecting it at all. It's almost like a little bit of DEATHBIE came through in this song, I love it.
11. HERO - Wow, talk about a turn around. There is a complete change in tone with this song. It's super happy and positive. It makes me feel like I can take on anything, and I'll be ok. It has a comforting cheerfulness, like, Hey! Don't worry, everything is gonna be fine! Don't worry! Just be young, have fun! It's a youthful song. It had me jumping around and dancing, smiling like an idiot the whole time. Takehito's solo was cute, too!
12. Season - This song is cute, Yume's voice is lovely. This song was on the MERRY GO ROUND single, so it's not new to us. But it's still a nice song. It's chill, cool. Yup. Personally, I wouldn't have included this song on the album. I'll be honest, it's not their best song. But it's still good.
13. Ryuusei - RYUUUUSEI~! This is also an easy AYABIE favourite of mine. It's just such a beautiful song. Yume's voice is gorgeous, the music is composed and arranged beautifully. It's a prefect song, from to beginning to end. I am so in love with it. It's magical and wonderful. Ahh, the riff! I lvoe Takehito's riff, and solo! The beat is perfect, the bass ties everything together and it just works. I feel so happy listening to this song, it makes me feel so secure. It's mirror with the prelude, and it's general loveliness, make it the perfect song to end the album with.

And so that's my thoughts on ANSWER. I don't really want to rate it, because it's really hard to detach myself from my fangirl love for them and look at it critically. So I won't. I would say the only problem I had, and it isn't even really a problem, was Season. There are other songs they could have chosen, but honestly, the album is perfect. It's intelligently arranged, so it has a continuity and flow to it that make the listen experience a real pleasure. Great work, AYABIE!

Please forgive my incoherent and frankly crappy writing and reviewing skill. I try my best. But I enjoy writing these reviews regardless. So, to anyone reading who is interested in SID, please look forward to my next post, which will be a review (in the same style as this) of M&W~!

Thank you for reading. ^^

NP - SICs by AYABIE