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

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Most of the new dramas airing next season have now been announced and it’s that time where I can’t wait for the new season to begin! Here I will highlight some of the ones I’m looking forward to or at least have some curiosity in. 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

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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.

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!

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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

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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

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