Hi, I'm Kuukai! I'm new to the blog, but I'm a longtime friend of AmakaseP and we have similar interests! I have no idea how to use Blogger, so bear with me! When Famitsu first ran the headline "Brand-New Sakura Taisen Game Underway" I pretty much joubutsu-ed in my pants. This excitement quickly subsided due to it being browser-based and a general lack of information, but now it's back! As they announced before, the game is an online browser-based game being developed by TRINITY.GS and published by RoCWorks Co., Ltd., but with all the art and concept work being done by Red Company. I didn't know what to expect, but probably should have. Feast your eyes on Daiteikoku Gakuen! Sakura Taisen: Taishou Rōman Gakuentan , newest game in the Sakura Taisen series, is a high school simulation game! It's like they combined Sakutai with Tokimemo Online! It seems like it will feature all of the characters we've met up till now, plus the players thems

I got my Nanoha-type and my Nanoha THE Movie 1st Blu-ray today! The first thing it had to do to me of course was make me sad I didn't get the Blu-ray from GAMERS, since the first page of Nanoha-type is an promotion that shows off a super special GAMERS edition of the blu-ray with all sorts of extra cool stuff. It's got a tapestry (i.e. wall scroll) that I could probably never put up and B3 posters and a tote bag and a clear file and an even more special box. NOOOOOO! Well, it would have been considerably more expensive though, so I guess I'm sorta okay with not getting it? No not really, but oh well. Anyway, Nanoha-type is surprisingly hefty, being about 13mm (1/2 inch) thick. So the biggest news I discovered upon getting Nanoha-type is that: Magical Girl Lyrical NANOHA The MOVIE 2nd A's has been confirmed! Ok, so you probably got that from a different site by now, since not only has the magazine been out for a few days now, it's just reporting on how they announce

So because a friend brought it up, I remembered that my very old transliteration of the song "Wind" by Megumi Hasegawa (長谷川めぐみ) comes up in a Google search for me. I looked at it, and while there are certainly things I would like to change (actually, I think it's just one thing in particular), for the most part it's good. There just isn't too much to mess up in a transliteration. Anyway, being unsatisfied with the translation that a friend of mine tried to make for it (to be fair, it was his first translation, and song translation is hard), I thought I'd give it a shot myself, now that my Japanese level has improved considerably over the years. It's not a straight literal translation, as I took a few minor liberties that I felt conveyed both the meaning and feeling of the words better. Anyway, you can find both the original lyrics and my translation below: My Tranlsation: Somewhere in this blue sky, there is someone I meet suddenly. The summer sun shine

While I was pre-ordering Nanoha-type a few day ago, I figured I would also pre-order the First-run Limited Edition Nanoha The MOVIE 1st on Blu-ray since it was also coming out within the next few days. I had no idea what it came with really, other than that I was pretty sure it had some kind of booklet with it. I wasn't expecting it to have English subtitles, but I figured I could find some fansub of it later to show people who didn't understand Japanese. However, looking at the what actually comes with it, I'm even more excited than before. Behold, the contents of the First-run Limited Edition Nanoha The MOVIE 1st Blu-ray box! First-run Limited Edition (taken from Amazon.co.jp ) First-run Limited Edition contents (taken from Official Nanoha Site ) 8,800 yen with tax included  Comes in a special package Pocket-sized movie pamphlet A 52-page booklet Blu-ray of the movie (Same as standard edition) 130 minutes long + extras at 1920x1080 on a dual-layer disc Audio

Cover for the first Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha-type I heard about this a while back, but now that I know more about it, I decided to post about it. They're coming out with a -type magazine for Nanoha! When I say -type magazine, I mean of the same series as Newtype and Nyantype, and as such, it will also be published by Kadokawa Shoten. As per the name, it will be a magazine dedicated entirely to Nanoha. The first issue, the January 2011 edition, will be released on 30 November 2010, so in just a few days really. It will cost 780 yen including tax, and will include things such as the following: An item set that consists of a Lyrical Schedule Notebook and a Magical Ballpoint Pen A Weiss Schwarz Nanoha Series Complete Pin-up A complete report on NANOHA The MOVIE 1st in commemoration of the DVD & BD release A special dialogue between Yukari Tamura and Nana Mizuki A long interview with Masaki Tsuzuki And much more!

THE IDOLM@STER 2 First Run Limited Edition Cover The release date for IDOLM@STER 2 has been decided! It will come out on Thursday, 24 February 2011. Pre-orders are slated to begin on 19 November, 2010 in Japan, which means they've probably already started, or will be starting very soon. It will be priced at 8,800 yen with tax included. There will be a first run limited edition version of the game with special extras. Once the limited edition version sells out, people will only be able to get the standard edition, so you should hurry up and pre-order if you want the special edition! There will of course also be pre-order extras as well. The details are given below. Illustration of the Contents of the First Run Limited Edition First Run Limited Edition Contents*: Sparkly package Specially commissioned promotional photos of the 765 Productions idols (Set of 4) 765 Productions employee identification card (includes employee no. + serial ID) If you register your serial ID

The cover songs for the first set of THE IDOLM@STER MASTER ARTIST 2 -FIRST SEASON- CDs have been decided, and you can submit requests now for songs you would like them to cover for the second set of CDs. The first set of song covers are: Haruka Amami Sekai de ichiban ganbatteru kimi ni ( Original by HARCO ) Hibiki Ganaha Nada sou sou ( Original by Ryoko Moriyama ) Miki Hoshii Squall ( Original by Eiko Matsumoto ) Haruka Amami, Hibiki Ganaha, Miki Hoshii Tip Taps Tip ( Original by HALCALI ) The second set of CDs will feature Makoto Kikuchi, Chihaya Kisaragi, and Takane Shijou, and they are taking requests now for a song that each one will cover, and what they will do as a group. For those interested, you can fill out a request here . It's a pretty long application, and it's all in Japanese, but if you succeed, these three will sing the song you choose. Good luck!

Lots of exciting IDOLM@STER news coming out now! I just caught up on the official blog, so here are the most exciting news bits I found. Starting with IDOLM@STER arcade news, the arcade machines no longer support online play as of the end of August. In commemoration though, they showed off an awesome device on the official blog, being a portable THE IDOLM@STER arcade machine in a suitcase! The pictures are below. The innards of portable IDOLM@STER arcade Slot for inserting your Producer Card, etc Portable IDOLM@STER arcade in action As you can see, it's totally awesome. With this, who needs IM@S PSP? For IDOLM@STER fans with a PS3, although they still haven't made any plans to release the game on the PS3, the people who participated in the THE IDOLM@STER SPECIAL LIVE in PlayStation Home could very well become part of the Guinness World Records. With 124,750 participants, they are aiming for a record in "Most Participants in a Virtual Concert". In IDOL

I don't remember it all very clearly, but I figured I'd try to put down what I can remember of a dream I had last night. Sorry for it not making a lot of sense, but I figure that's how dreams are. In my dream, there was going to be a new Lois and Clark TV show, and I was probably talking to a friend about it. It moved into being the first episode of the show, and Lois and Jimmy were at the Daily Planet office when Clark just kind of wanders in and starts listening to their discussion. It takes them a while to realize Clark is there, but then when they do they're like, "Oh my god, where have you been" because he'd disappeared for a long time. Then the Daily Planet is attacked by some kind of liquid alien that starts to fill up the Daily Planet building and I remember finding it bizarre that the roofs for different rooms in the building opened up as the water/liquid started reaching the top of the room. I was suddenly in the episode at this point, and we so

My friend Craig came to visit this past weekend for Otakon 2010; I've now posted pictures of that. You can find the pictures here . A selection of some of the more interesting images are provided below. We actually ate at Geno's, but I took a picture of Pat's Autograph and small sketch from Hiroshi Koujina Everyone evacuating due to fire alarm at Otakon This Talim was apparently quite popular; She told me I was the hundredth-something person to take her picture. Craig as Adult Akatsuki Naruto with Rasengan was surprisingly popular. Dolphin Show at the National Aquarium that we saw after the con.

For those that may not have heard, I was on an Alaska cruise last week. I went with my brother and parents, and we took Norwegian Cruise Lines' Norwegian Star. I had a good time for the most part, but I now know that even with Meclizine, small planes are bad for me. Got wonderful views of glaciers though before I had to cradle my head in my hands. Anyway, I won't be providing a travelogue of this trip, as my brother will already be doing so, with pictures that are probably better than mine. As such, I defer to him, and you can check his website - http://www.andeys.com/ . He doesn't have anything up yet, as we just finished the trip, but he'll definitely be putting stuff up. Look forward to it!

I was looking through my Niconico settings today, and while I was at it, I took a look at my favorited videos list and found some stuff that I had completely forgotten about. One of them is particularly awesome, because Macross 7 is awesome, so I have provided a YouTube link here for your pleasure.

Sunday, March 28, 2010 This was the last day in Japan. We got up and did any last minute packing, and Arnond borrowed my scale for his luggage. I headed out first, leaving my bags at the front, and went to Akiba for the last shopping on the trip. Arriving at Akiba on the last day Chris didn’t realize what time it was and ended up checking out of the room late. I hope that hotel isn’t unhappy with us, we certainly used their rooms in ways that I think they had never intended, but we certainly didn’t mess them up and properly paid for it all. I had lunch at Star Kebab, and I went back to the hotel to pick up my stuff, getting there a bit after 13:00. I ran into Chris there, and we both hauled our bags to Ueno, then Tokyo, and succeeded in catching the Special Rapid Narita Express that we had tickets for. Chris and our luggage in Tokyo Station We ran into Arnond heading to the hotel as we got to Ueno Station, so not surprisingly, he was unable to catch the same Narita Express

Saturday, March 27, 2010 Chris and I got up kinda late, since we both wanted a little more sleep, and Arnond dropped by before heading out. He actually hung around for a while as I was prepping to go and Chris was doing laundry, even though we told him he should go ahead without us. He finally relented about going on his own and left. I left not too long after, but came back since I forgot my coat and money. By that point, Chris was about ready to go, so we left for the fair together and picked up train tickets to the airport for tomorrow. We tried the “back by popular demand” Texas Burger at McDonalds for lunch, and didn’t find it that great. We then went into the fair, and began walking around the trade show. As to be expected, there were flyers galore, and official booth cosplayers. Booth babe for SATELIGHT It seemed showing off anime on 3D televisions was a big thing this year, with several booths doing that. I was able to get some free custom stickers from the GONZO booth,

Friday, March 26, 2010 I got up and checked out today, and had the front desk hold on to my bags. I then rushed off to the IDOLM@STER machines to get my producer name right, which I did do properly this time. I also succeeded in trying the Mega Muffin breakfast meal set at McDonalds, which was basically a Sausage McMuffin with Egg, but with ketchup, bacon, and another sausage patty added. It was interesting, but I think I prefer the normal Sausage McMuffin with Egg. I then did a small bit of shopping, picking up a few Weiss Schwarz cards, and then I picked up my bags and headed to Osaka station to leave my bags there. I met up with Chris at Settsu-motoyama station, and he had invited Justin to join us in our visit to Konan University. The front gate of Konan University We walked there from the station, commenting on some of the stores that changed, and upon arrival, we found that the Ajisai room layout had changed a bit, with more tables than before, and that the office area had

Thursday, March 25, 2010 Arnond and I both made our way to the IDOLM@STER machines in the morning and tried to get ourselves satisfactory Producer and Unit cards, but I messed up my producer name twice and decided to just try again the next day. I did a bunch of shopping, and then we headed to my host family’s house for dinner that night. We met up with Chris at Nishinomiya-Kitaguchi station around 6:30PM, and then went to my host family’s house. Some new greenery in Nishinomiya-Kitaguchi station I met their new exchange student, Ryan, and a couple of his friends. Both Ryan and one of his friends were from UIUC, and the third was from Canada. I got the feeling that Ryan was vaguely making fun of us and otaku in general during dinner, but I decided to not pay it much mind. I had a good time, and I probably interacted more with Reiko than I had ever done while I was living there. After dinner, Justin brought Chris, Arnond, and I to a Japanese plum wine bar that was cool, and I had

Wednesday, March 24, 2010 Today was more shopping in the morning, but since it was still rainy, and I wasn’t glad about how wet I had gotten the previous day, I finally got an umbrella from a 100 yen shop. We shopped around for half the day before we went together with Chris to Rokkomichi to visit and have dinner with his host mom. We originally planned to drop his stuff off, go to Sannnomiya, and come back for dinner, but instead we just stayed there once we got there. We ran into Justin, a previous exchange student I had met before, who was half living there, and we talked with him and Chris’s host mom. We had sukiyaki that night, and it was delicious. Arnond, Chris, Justin, and I all then went to have a quick look around Sannomiya, even though it was closed now, and then Arnond and I headed back to Osaka before it was too late to catch the last train. Chris and Justin in the closed Sannomiya shopping arcade Chris would be staying with his host mom for the remainder of the Osak

Tuesday, March 23, 2010 We headed down to Osaka today, and checked into Hotel Mikado by the Shin-Imamiya train station. We then simply spent the rest of the day shopping around Den-Den Town. I discovered that the area now had a mascot girl named Neon, and was very tempted to buy a netbook featuring her on it. The ad for the Neon netbook Luckily, I kept my cool, and by the next day had realized that it would not have been a good purchase for me. Otherwise, it was nice going around, seeing how things had changed, etc. Arnond and I found an arcade that still had THE IDOLM@STER, and both of us would come by the next day to play a bit on their machines. The day was kind of crappy, with on and off rain, but I still didn’t decide to get an umbrella. We had dinner together at Oushou, and Chris got a huge “Super Spicy” Korean kimchee ramen set that he couldn’t finish.

Monday, March 22, 2010 This day, I decided to take my time in going since I didn’t want to stand in line for as long to enter, and I knew I wouldn’t be going early enough to be able to get in before a lot of big groups sold out. I showed up at the line at around 10:30, and apparently, so did Arnond. The line had spilled over already to the second Cosplay Area, since of course no one could get in until the event started at 11:00. It didn’t take too long for the line to move after the event started, and we were led to the first Cosplay Area, where I had waited the day before. I got in at about 12:30, and as I predicted, the popular places were all sold out. I wandered around for a while, picked up a few books, and found some interesting stuff in the travel section that I picked up. I met up properly with Arnond today at the Cosplay Area for our lunches, and I hung around the area to take pictures of cosplayers. Some Gintama cosplayers I got a few pictures of Chris, and it was real

Sunday, March 21, 2010 First day of CS5! Arnond and I got up early and headed out separately to get into the line for entry at around 9:00. We both got in line by around 9:30. It was raining on and off, so it was interesting to see all the other participants suddenly whip out their umbrellas for the rain, then put them away when it cleared up again. Nearing the start of the CS5, we were entertained by some guys from a sentai series. Our entertainment as we stood in line CS5 then started at 11:00, but with the long line, I wouldn’t get into the doujin selling area until an hour later. It was amazing that even by that point in time, several groups had already sold out completely, and any popular groups were no longer taking requests for sketches. It was also quite a bit smaller than I had expected, and I was able to get around most of the booths with time still remaining before the doujin selling portion was over. I also stopped by the Bushiroad company booth to pick up some Nanoha

Saturday, March 20, 2010 We woke up for breakfast at the lodge, and took the provided 9:30 shuttle service to the station. We again left our bags at a coin locker in the station, and did a bit more exploring. A view of the mountains coming up from the JR station We checked out Inari Shrine and also a temple, Kanon-ji, which housed a statue of Kanon that Kuukai had carved on his way through the area. We then went back to the station, picked up our bags, and left. I called this tavern (Kayabukiya Tavern) that was famous for having monkeys as waiters to try to get in  a reservation for later in the day, but couldn’t get a hold of them, so gave up on it. We instead made straight for Mito. Upon our arrival, we headed to the Mito River Side Hotel and checked in. Chris stayed in the room and worked on his FFXIII costume, while Arnond and I scouted out the Comic Market locations around town and also stopped in the local Animate. We returned to the hotel to meet up with Chris for dinner,

Friday, March 19, 2010 We woke up the next day and took the 10:46 Yamabiko to Utsunomiya and switched over to the JR Nikko line, which we took the rest of the way to Nikko. Arnond then informed us that the place we were staying would hold our bags, but wouldn’t guarantee them, so we ended up stuffing our stuff in a coin locker at the station before heading out to do sightseeing. We headed up to the major shrine and temple complex of Nikko, walking our way up the major road to get there. Arnond and I still had our backpacks, and so upon arriving at the complex, we left our bags with a lady providing bag holding services. We then got the combined tour ticket, and proceeded to explore the complex. I took pictures when I could, but many of the places did not allow photographs of the interiors. The main hall of Rinno-ji, the Buddhist temple that administers Tokugawa Ieyasu's mausoleum It was an interesting contrast to come here, as the shrines and temples were much fancier than yo

Thursday, March 18, 2010 Arnond was in charge of the plan for today, and he graciously allowed us to go to Matsumoto Castle before heading to Tsumago, since we were unable to do it the previous day. We showed up at the castle not long after it opened, and it was a pretty chilly morning. It was a much less complicated castle complex than Himeji, with a very simple layout for the outer walls. There was a collection of donated period firearms on display in the castle, and the way displays were set up inside it was very similar to Himeji Castle. Some of the guns on display There were some interesting later additions to the complex, like one section that used lotus flower-shaped windows due to later influence of Chinese Buddhist architecture. This castle was also one of the few castles to have a moon viewing room, an addition used to entertain guests during the peaceful later years of the castle. The room was quite a bit more open than any other rooms of the castle, and the outside te

Wednesday, March 17, 2010 I ended up waking up very early, like around 4:30AM, but then went back to sleep for a short while. Then I got up again and decided to write up the trip so far. After finishing that up, I got packed up so we could have breakfast and then leave. I went down at 8:30 for breakfast, and found a gorgeous meal waiting for all of us. The nice Japanese breakfast that came with our room Arnond came down shortly after, but Chris had gotten out of bed around 8:25, since he slept through his alarm, and the rest of us just assumed he knew what he was doing, so didn't wake him. He didn’t come down until later, after he got dressed, and managed to make it to breakfast before Arnond stole any of his food. Our first stop after checking out was to leave our luggage at coin lockers at the station. We actually managed to fit all our bags into one of the large coin lockers there. We then traveled to Shimosuwa Station to see the remaining half of Suwa Taisha,