What hapenned lately part 2/2

Like the last post, this post is a summary of what happened to me in Japan lately. Most of what you'll read here was previously published on G+. If you didn't read the last one yet, please read it here!

Poutine in Japan

Most play who say they sell poutine in Japan actually sell a very poor imitation of poutine. The gravy is awful, and often replaced with seir sauces, and the cheese is grated, and in very low quantity.
I found a place that's not so bad in Shimokitazawa, it's called Robson Fries. While it's still grated cheese, at least they put a decent amount of it, and their gravy is good... It's still not a real good poutine from Quebec, but they don't seem to have any fresh cheese around here so I think it's the best I'll ever find... I really miss Quebec's poutine!

Akihabara Again!

Of course I'll go to Akiba a lot, it's the main spot for Otaku after all!
But this time I didn't go for a fun purpose, I had something important to do, and I did it. That's all there was to it... but I spent a lot of time walking around until that thing was done. Akiba is still a great place to walk around, and you'll often see Itasha like this one while walking around:

Because I still don't have enough money to waste it carelessly, I didn't buy much, but I found an old album by Kimino-Museum, that I never though I'd be able to find, so I bought it. When I returned home I listened to it... it's fucking aweosme! Kimino-Museum are really the best. It's an album fro when Cherose was still around too so it's perfect... I'm still so sad that he left the bad :(
You can listen to a demo here: monologue ～交差する彼方の旋律～

View from my apartment's window

No real idea why, but I felt like taking pictures from my window. The weather was great, so I took a couple of shots, and this is the best one:

I really like it :)

Akihabara... Again! but this time, with friends!

So I went to Akihabara again, but this time with my 2 friends from  work (the same one I went to see the To Aru movie with). We walked around and visited a couple of shops.

I learned a lot more about each of them, especially the taste of the one on the left in the picture are really similar to mine.
We went to a maid cafe, both of them had never tried it, so I was the one guiding 2 Japanese Otaku in Akihabara. It wasn't my best maid cafe experience, but it was fun anyway. One of the maid was really cute and had a great smile. After leaving the maid cafe we visited a couple of shops, there was however a really b ad pollution cloud coming from china around on this day, and it was really bad outside with big gust of wind, so we enter a random shop and I was surprised to find portal related goods!

While it's really popular everywhere else, portal seem unknow to most people in japan, so I was really happy to see it.
After that we went to a Karaoke again, and finished the day while eating yakiniku at one of their house (guy to the right of the picture).
It was a really nice day. It's a little sad, the guy on the right can't really speak English, and I can't really speak Japanese, so we have hard time communicating. but we have similar taste, I really wish we could speak more.

That concludes part 2/2 of my summary.
Thanks for reading!

Flowering Night 2012!

Hello everyone, this post will be more like the usuall post from this blog used to be, it means it's about Doujin music!

Today was Flowering Night 2012, day 2! So there was 5 band playing today, Opening the show was, My favorite band, Kimino-Museum ( 君の美術館 ) They did a very good performance, even if Cherose was not there. They mainly did the song which only girls sing, except for the last song. Satoshi did a good job singing it, but of course it's not as good as with Cherose... whatever.

Next was Sound of Swing, which is a Jazz band. I don't really like Jazz, I don't like to listen to Jazz, but I can always enjoy seeing the Jazz musician playing, they are really skilled, and it was the case for SOS.

Next was Kairo, it's also the second time I saw them I think. Their signer is really weird, but she has a cute voice. Most band (read all except Kairo) loves to talk a LOT between songs in japan, but Kairo did just a non stop music performance, and this is also a band I like, and it was great.

The speaking the bands do between their song seems like something nice, a way to get close to their audience, but for us who don't understand Japanese so much, it's not so much interesting, but I understand this practice.

After Kairo was 岸田教団&THE明星ロケッツ (KISIDA KYODAN & THE AKEBOSI ROCKETS)
I didn't recognize this bad at first, because the name was in kanji, but it was clearly the most popular band there.  (when I came back home I went to their website and noticed I knew them and actually bought their last CD at M3). Good performance, but I don't like how their signer act on stage. She however has a good voice and the rest of the band has a really good stage presence. There was a mush pit beside me... but a Japanese mush pit can't move me so it stopped at me.

The final band was TaNaBaTa, Good performance too, I especially liked their version of cirno's song when he asked the crowd to sing "chiruno, chiruno, chiruno" while waving their towel it was a 'Refreshing' moment, in this very hot and smelly concert hall.

After this there was an encore, 1 song by TaNaBaTa, and then all the bands got on the stage for the final thanks.

It was a really good show overall, my only 2 disappointing moments were that Cherose was not there, and that, when fi-fy was just beside me I couldn't speak to her because of my lack of Japanese skills.

Sad news for music

The singer of Kimino-Museum ( 君の美術館), Cherose, left the band.
No announcement of this was made on Kimino-Museum website, and considering my limited knowledge of Japanese I can't understand all of Cherose's tweet. But his name is missing from the staff list on their website, and he was absent from the last DVD and lives too.
Fi-fy also said in the last live "君の美術館はこの１２３４５６７八人で" which translate about to "these people here, we are kimino-museum". Of course Cherose was not there anymore.

his profile is still up on the website if you know the address :http://www.kimino-museum.com/pr_cherose.html but he's not on the profile list anymore : http://www.kimino-museum.com/profiles.html

Cherose was one of the main reasons Kimino-museum was son great. His voice is really wonderful and he had a perfect harmony with the girls of the band. Satoshi's singing his songs are really far from being even close to him.

Update about random stuff

Hi everyone, Working on Nadeshicon is taking a lot of my time lately.Don't really have any time for this blog (or any other side project).

So just a simple update to tell you of what have been keeping me entertained lately.

First I discovered a MAD that I really love about a month ago, and I've listened to it over 400 times since discovering it.

About a week ago I discovered something really Awesome!
The dates of Flowering-Night 2012 have been released and I will be in Japan when the festival will happen!
I'm overflowing with joy from this news, and I really can't wait to see it!

Discovering this made me search for videos of last year's show which led me to another awesome discovery, even if they had sound problems which kept them off the 2011 dvd, someone recorded the live stream on nico or something and there is a video available for Kimino-Museum's performance from last year's Flowering-Night!

 

 

I'm also gonna use this post to remind everyone that I'll be in japan from April 28 to Mai 20, and I'll update my blog with travel reports like last time, be sure to follow me!

Kimino-Museum - ataraxia - 願うは儚き幻想の

My love for Kimino-Mueum's works is no longer a secret for anyone, I teel everyone who will listen how incredible they are. So this should review will not be a surprise for anyone knowing or following me.

ataraxia - 願うは儚き幻想の

When I first listened to this album, I was not too impressed, it sounded ok, but following Viator de Memoria, if felt somehow... ordinary...
The problem... or maybe the best quality of Kimino-Musem is that their music are not ment to be instant hit. Their music is an intelligent music, that needs a good listening to appreciate to it's rightful value. I didn't have much time lately to actually just sit (actually lay in this case) down and just 'listen' to the music, and concentrate on it.
The album I decided to listen to was Ataraxia, and when I decide to write a review a 12:30 when I work in the morning the day after it's because it deserve to be talked about.

This album is a Touhou arrange album, which means that all songs on the album are based on a theme from one of the Touhou project games.  all of these song can however be appreciated without any knowledge of the source... but shame on you if you don't  know what Touhou is.

I could say again that as in all of their albums, Tymizz's drum is flawless, the vocal harmony of the vocalists is perfect and soothe my soul, the guitar riff are impressive and yet subtle and the piano brings in a very strong emotive note, But I just dud that.

I'm pretty tired and can't write this review anymore haha, I'll edit/ continue this tomorow.

On a last note before I leave though. Tymizz is probably the best drummer in the Touhou music scene and track 6 of the album, 紅美鈴の心象風景 is just another proof of this!

Link to the album with a crossfade.
http://kimino-museum.com/ataraxia/

Edit: Finally I won't edit/continue it, juste listen to the album it's awesome :)

Peace, Mahjong and Music

So... Peace seem to have finally come in the Anime Community in Quebec city. Is it real? Is it to stay? No Idea but at least for now my blog will stop being a war zone... let hope this truce will last.

Last week-end there was the first found raising even for nadeshicon, and during that event there was a mahjong game... yes just one since we really suck at it right now. But everyone had fun, and we decided to start a Riichi Mahjong club in quebec city. I have been planning to start this club for at least3 months but had to find people (at least 4) to play with me, now it'S done, it's official, and all we need now is ... a mahjong set!
Since we created the club, I've been re-watching Saki episodes, this show is awesome, and I remember why it got me into mahjong... however... I still haven't found the way to make thunder when I get a tsumo...

I'm still listening to the C79 stuff that is coming out so no review yet, but here my opinion on the releases I got and listened to so far:

The Awesome:
Inocent Key - ココボク MUSIC PARTY
This album surprised me, especially after listening to the cross-fade... I was not expecting much, even if I love Koko's voice. But this album is full of energy, her voice is very cute and most songs are pretty good to listen to, especially "Shirley!!".

The good:
SOUND HOLIC - 文 -BUN-
While nobody would be able to like every song on this album, everyone should like about 2-3 of them, at least. This a mixed album, with about 1-2 song per music style. So even if I wouldn't listen to the whole album, everyone can find something for them in there.

Innocent Key - 叙聖のクオリア
The songs are good, especially koko's one, but this is a story driven cd, and I wasn't able to get my hand on the story part, so as of yet, not enough music, and no story, so I can't really tell much about this album... except: you should listen to "地底惨憺劇 ～Remontant rose～"

君の美術館 - Viator de memoria - Episode II - 
While not at awesome as episode 1, it's still a very good album, but I'll have to re-listen to it and make a full review of it.

The Meh...:
ALBATROSICKS - MERGE THE STRAWBERRY!
Only remixes of old songs, nothing new... while 1-2 songs are nice, the originals were better, kinda disappointed.

That's pretty much it for now, lots of good albums, but nothing awesome... (except koko's music party)

Comiket 79 is coming up!

Comiket 79 is coming up pretty fast, lots of new albums, especially awesome collabs coming, IOSYS&TANO*C is up there on my list, but the Album that makes me impatient right now is Kimino-Museum's second episode of Viator de Memoria. God I can't wait... I still have this awesome feeling when I listen to the first one, I sure hope episode 2 will be up to my expectations!

My to get list:
[君の美術館] Viator de Memoria Episode II
[君の美術館] Black Rock Museum 2
[Albatrosicks] MERGE THE STRAWBERRY !
[IOSYS vs HARDCORE TANO*C] dont know album name but this will be awesome
[IOSYS] 東方云符不普
[IOSYS x JOYSOUND] - 霧雨レクイエム
[SOUND HOLIC] 文 -BUN-
[いえろ～ぜぶら] 東方詠劫歌 ～Point and Eternity～
[5150] - シンフォニック東方Ⅳ
[ALiCE's EMOTiON x Alstroemaria Records x Sound Online] - THE TROIS PROJECT
[Hardcore TANO*C] TANO*C REMIXES 2
[HARDCORE TANO*C] Nanosecond Eternity
[豚乙女] 縁 (Ranko)
[豚乙女] 東方猫鍵盤2 (Paprika)
[Iron Attack] Poltergeist
[Girl's short hair] 幻想輪廻
[Silver Forest] 永き夜のロンド
[TAMUSIC] マクロスFinale-フィナーレ
[TAMUSIC] 東方弦奏歌-Sister-
[C-CLAYS] 煌彩 -KOUSAI-
[C-CLAYS] 氷凛 HYO-RIN
[Sync.Art's] Sweet&Fluffy
[Sync.Art's] ATTRACTOR
[Halozy] Cosmic Armonica
[Halozy] Halozy Remixes vol.1
[Syrufit x Cytokine] Dead man's hand (Cytokine CD), Love Hearts (Syrufit CD)
[Syrufit] - Live A-Round
[Innocent Key] 叙聖のクオリア
[Innocent Key] ココボクMUSICPARTY

Good thing I'm not in japan again... while less impressive than my summer list, it would still have ruined me!

Edit: strike trough of what I got so far.

君の美術館(Kimino-Museum) - Viator de memoria - Episode I -

This is one of the album I could not get my hand on during Comiket. It was sold out when I got to Kimino-museum's table. It took a while before it got out on the interwebs, but since I've downloaded it I can't stop listening to it. I'm clearly gonna get it, whatever it takes.
So here comes my first CD review from C78 (yeah im late) and also my first review on anything for a while, other should be coming eventually I guess, but probably only after Halloween since I've got to work hard on my costume!

First thing, Viator de memoria, while being sold at C78, by a Circle who does Touhou arrange, is not a Touhou arrange. It's an Original album, containing it's own world and own story. And it's pretty important since the album is a story told to the listener. I don't understand japanese that much so far, but from what I got by listening to it over and over again, the story is about a girl who buy a watch from a shop, and the watch contain the memories of other people, who apparently had a tragedy, and a love triangle.

This story driven album is strong in emotions, and even if you do not understand japanese, the performance of the musical genius that are Kimino-museum will make you feel these emotions, The singer are just perfect, the harmony created by the singers, singing different verse, all at the same time, conveying different feelings, It's just wonderful. The lead singer, Cherose, is simply as it's best, delivering a strong performance, full of emotions. Most people ignore this but Cherose suffer from asthma, it's not written anywhere, I was ust witness to it while I was seing them live, between songs he had to use an inhalator. This doesn't stop him from singing long and powerful notes full of emotion.

fi-fy and 723 playing Eris and Ceres and also giving a wonderful performance and often sing together to create an astonishing harmony. I'm personally a big fan of fi-fy since I saw her live, she's just so cute, and her voice if so nice. Her performance on this album is up to my expectation, and actually has even made me a greater fan of her... however, I didn't really care about 723 before this, now I'm also a fan of her.

This album carry a mood with it. There is a lot of piano, and even if it's not a fast beat, the drum is always there to intensify the mood. PHEVOTT (piano, guitar and accordion) composed the music from the album and did a wonderful job, especially with the vocal harmony wich is the strongest point of the album.

The only negativ point I see with that album is that it is a little short, and the story is unfinished at the end... that's why it's episode 1. I want to ear episode 2 already!

10/10

You can listen to a preview of the album here: http://www.kimino-museum.com/memoria_ep1/demo_memoria_cf.mp3

The information page for the album is here: http://www.kimino-museum.com/memoria_ep1/
and the website of Kimino-Museum is here: http://www.kimino-museum.com/

Time to go!

That's it! I'm leaving today for Japan, next time I write here I will be in the land of my dreams. Considering the path this blog will take I will translate my text in French for the people who can't read English well. But both version will still say the same so nobody will miss anything :)

Something incredible hapenned. Kimino-museum are doing a Live while I'll be in japan, so I wanted to go see them but I was unable to purchase a ticket on their website due to my inability to provide a Japanese address. So I wrote them a mail and they answered me, So i'm on the VIP list for the show! Isn't that awesome :D.

Well... See you all later !

C'est finalement le moment! Je part aujourd'hui pou le japon! La prochaine foi que j'écrirais ici, je serais au pays de mes rêves (sa sonne moins bien en français sa).
Je vais faire mes post en français ET en anglais pour la durée de mon voyage pour que ceux d'entre vous qui comprennent mal l'anglais puisse me suivre quand même.

Il est arrivé quelque chose de awesome, Le band Kimino-museum donne un live au japon pendant que j'y serais et ayant été incapable d'acheter des billets sur leur site pour cause d'incapacité a fournir une adresse japonaise, je leur ai écrit un e-mail. Et bien ils mont réécrit et je suis sur la liste des invitée VIP pour leur show! C'est tu pas awesome sa :D

A la prochaine tout le monde!