whoa, you think you know a person

I was watching one of those music programs on tv a little while ago, and they had a short interview with Shiina Ringo. I realized I'd never heard her speak before. o_0 It's been what...2 years since I came to the knowledge of her existence, and I've only ever heard her sing. Wow, her speaking voice is different from her singing voice. It's all deep and normal sounding. Not nearly as interesting, cool, odd and unique as her singing voice. It's...it's boring. It hardly lives up to the crazy, weird persona I had formulated for her through listening to her music. I feel betrayed. T_T kidding

Speaking of Shiina, I bought Tokyo Jihen's debut album this morning when I went to the HMV. Needless to say, it absolutely rocked, and I don't know what took me so long since it came out in 2004. They've got a new album that came out recently; I'll most likely pick it up. I also bought Kimura Kaela's new single, You, and Tommy Heavenly6's new (and only so far) album. I had meant to buy Utada Hikaru's new single "Keep Trying" but um...it kind of doesn't come out till 2/22. Stupid me because the night before I read a thread at a forum about it and actually look right at the date. Somehow, my eyes only saw the day, and my mind assumed the month was January. I guess it's because I keep hearing the song in the AU commercial, so I assumed it had come out already. The 22 is too long to wait. It sounded so good. T_T

So I've been going over possible ways of spending the spring break. One is to study from the books I used in Japanese class when I was back in the US. Maybe I'll actually be able to learn something. Second is concert going. So far I only have 2 tickets, and one isn't until the end of March. I'll have to step it up.

Third was to get a "baito" and make some money. The job will of course revolve around the fact that I am a native english speaker and not deviate from that. First idea came from Mr. Yokoyama which was to tutor/be a speaking partner for the people in the dorms who study english. I've been meaning to make a poster to hang on the bulliten board. I'll mostly likely give that a try.

Second came from my friend. There's a language website she uses where you can post a profile about yourself, and people will contact you for lessons in the language you posted about. I'm thinking of doing that since the lower rates start at 2000 yen per hour (20 bucks!).

Last idea was to go to one of those language schools, like NOVA, and get a job as a speaking partner. That might be a bother, though, because I'd have to go to the exchange office, get papers signed, and probably end up being confused because no one at the school speaks english even though it's a school set up for the purpose of teaching english.

Fourth way to spend the break is becoming a DDR freak which I suppose could go hand in hand with getting in shape. I brought my PS2 from the US with a ddr game. I'm realizing I'm a lot better at it then the last time I tried to play. All this bike riding and walking has strengthened my legs so I can actually play the harder levels.

Fifth and last is to practice music. I bought 2 Otsuka Ai piano books from a music store, "Love Jam" and all her singles. I started out trying to practice Planeterium. I haven't got the 15+ years of experience like my sister. I only have an attempt by her to teach me the piano at the request of our mom (and i wasn't a good student) and a year of piano class in 10th grade. Let's just say it should keep me plenty busy if I can actually stay focused. But the books have other uses, for instance, I was playing several of the songs on my saxophone. I'd have to transpose the music if I actually wanted to perform it, but, hey, at least I can still use my main instrument. ^_^

The other unofficial options are veggie out, play video games, hang with friends, and make more stupid music videos(at the request of my cousin who liked my first oen ^_^V)