Giiiiifts [Daily Photo #999, #1000, #1001]

#999, 25.12.18: New family members! ^u^

This one is very playful!

Many, Many Carbs [Daily Photo #989, #990, #991, #992]

Today's daily photo digest features food, with background appearances by my plants! =D

#989, 15.12.18: Noodles with veggies and tofu, oh yeah!

I like adding sesame to my meals because it's so nutritious! ^u^

Three Pigs [Daily Photo #988]

Piglets together: “Oink my god!”

Japanese Rock and Metal

A few years ago, when I started learning Japanese, I realised that being a fan of Japanese bands could help with my studies. Watching interviews with them, reading their tweets, etc. would be great practice with new and exciting studying material coming all the time! And that would certainly be much more fun than grammar books. So, I went to YouTube and spent a lot of time looking for rock and metal bands from Japan. At first I wasn't very lucky – the easiest to find mainstream bands didn't grab me. But eventually I found Janne Da Arc, BUCK-TICK, exist†trace, and D'espairsRay, and my 'listening to lots of Japanese rock and metal' era began. ^u^

Last year, when working on my Women of colour in rock and metal Twitter thread, I revisited a few Japanese bands that I knew had women in them, and some of them I became a fan of! And then I just kept finding more and more cool bands that I liked, with or without women, and now I don't even know how many Japanese bands I listen to! =D So, I figured it was time to make a post featuring some of my finds! There's something special about Japanese metal, and I love how many all-female bands they have! Also, I used to be mostly indifferent to guitar solos, but I enjoy so many Japanese guitar solos now – perhaps I just didn't like what kind of solos I heard in European metal and not the guitars themselves? After all, my favourite guitarist is you from Janne Da Arc! ^u^

These are all bands I started listening to no more than a year ago, in no particular order.

And no, I didn't become fluent in Japanese yet, but my knowledge of attractive Japanese musicians is pretty vast now haha.

Aldious – We Are

Mary's Blood – Marionette

Miyako's Gifts [Daily Photo #944, #945]

#944:

“Hello, my name is Miyako!”

“I have something to show you.”

Sailor Moon and Matcha Latte [Daily Photo #827]

I have been blessed with surprise gifts! ありがとうございます！\(^u^)/

Candles and Metal [Daily Photo #817]

Candlelight.

Bonus music: three metal songs by Onmyō-za (陰陽座)!

Japanese Popcorn [Daily Photo #662]

OMG

Sleepy Friend [Daily Photo #661]

An unusual guest for this time of the year.

It's been sitting there all day.

Also, have some beautiful music! ^^

Aldious – We Are [Daily Photo #646]

Time for one more souvenir from Japan from my brother-in-law, aka The Bringer of Japanese Gifts!

For some reason many Japanese bands don't sell their music digitally on international sites like Google Play or non-Japanese iTunes (looking at you, Buck-Tick), so you gotta order actual CDs from online shops (unless you have The Bringer of Japanese Gifts in your family, of course ;p). But, some bands are worth the trouble!

One such band is…

Capybara [Daily Photo #645]

 “Hello, my name is KapiKapi. I'm from Japan!”

Chocolates and Music [Daily Photo #633]

It's Xmas gifts time!

These are DELICIOUS lemon-licorice chocolates from Indiska.

So yummy I ate too many…

Kitsune [Daily Photo #570]

Kitsune: “Hello, have you been studying Japanese lately?”

Um...　Does singing in Japanese count?.. No?...

Kitsune: ...

あの。。。 頭が痛いです。

Almost Autumn [Daily Photo #515]

さびしさの

うれしくもあり

秋の暮れ

Fragrance [Daily Photo #486]

Yesterday I got a surprise gift, a huge amount of incense! \^u^/

日本から [Daily Photo #288]

We received unexpected gifts that came all the way from Japan! 

サプライズプレゼントをありがとうございます！ 嬉しいです。(^o^)/  

Iyemon Tea [Daily Photo #177]

Iyemon teabags from Japan! 

ありがとうううう！～～～

Daily Photo #53: Future Chef?

“I see, I see.”

My April Reading: Lies, Dials and Cyborgs

My April reading is introduced to you by Tiny Basket Owl! ^^

• Marissa Meyer “Cinder” [USA] 
• Anu Holopainen  “Welman tytöt” [Finland] 
• Agatha Christie “The Seven Dials Mystery” [UK] 
• Fumi Yoshinaga “Ōoku: The Inner Chambers” vol.4-6 [Japan] 
• Frances Hardinge “The Lie Tree” [UK] 
• Riad Sattouf “Tulevaisuuden arabi: Lapsuus Lähi-idässä” (L'Arabe du futur, The Arab of the Future) [France]

Daily Photo #17: Book Pages

A collection of Japanese poetry in Russian translated by Alexandr Dolin.

Шедевры японской классической поэзии в переводах Александра Долина.