Ai no sphere e, Haleakala.
Sorry for disappearing from the internet intermittently, MSN peeps. Being a full-time university student means there are times when you involuntarily sacrifice the internet from your life. This is one of those times for me. I'll be back eventually!
Other than that, I guess there's not too much of note going on. Akino Arai is finally releasing a new album (keyword: finally) Sora no sphere, her first original album since Eden from way back in 2004. The release date really crept up on me, so I just rushed off to pre-order. Her last two singles were kind of underwhelming, and I listened to the samples from the new album and was similarly underwhelmed. From what I can tell there's a startling lack of synthetic elements in the new album, and pretty much all the new songs are guitar + drums + Akino, without much else going on arrangement-wise. Imho her most memorable songs from Eden were the atmospheric electronic pieces N.Y. and Pool, so I'm missing that element of her songs. However, my second impression was a lot better...I'd be shocked if Akino was capable of releasing a disappointing album.
Today I wrote my (last ever?) Japanese exam, and I realised how much fun I was actually having. It wasn't nearly as hard as the midterm, and a lot of the situations and questions were actually quite amusing or hilarious. There was a creative writing section at the end where we had to respond to a letter about Youko, who just watched the movies Mononoke Hime and NANA. The question wanted us to write about our favourite movie, so I just went on kind of stupidly about Hot Rod. Which was also immensely fun.
Well. One semester draws to a close, and another opens. I've never experienced going to school in the summer...will it be a nice change of pace or will I burn out from doing three full semesters in a row? Tune in next season to find out!
Other than that, I guess there's not too much of note going on. Akino Arai is finally releasing a new album (keyword: finally) Sora no sphere, her first original album since Eden from way back in 2004. The release date really crept up on me, so I just rushed off to pre-order. Her last two singles were kind of underwhelming, and I listened to the samples from the new album and was similarly underwhelmed. From what I can tell there's a startling lack of synthetic elements in the new album, and pretty much all the new songs are guitar + drums + Akino, without much else going on arrangement-wise. Imho her most memorable songs from Eden were the atmospheric electronic pieces N.Y. and Pool, so I'm missing that element of her songs. However, my second impression was a lot better...I'd be shocked if Akino was capable of releasing a disappointing album.
Today I wrote my (last ever?) Japanese exam, and I realised how much fun I was actually having. It wasn't nearly as hard as the midterm, and a lot of the situations and questions were actually quite amusing or hilarious. There was a creative writing section at the end where we had to respond to a letter about Youko, who just watched the movies Mononoke Hime and NANA. The question wanted us to write about our favourite movie, so I just went on kind of stupidly about Hot Rod. Which was also immensely fun.
Well. One semester draws to a close, and another opens. I've never experienced going to school in the summer...will it be a nice change of pace or will I burn out from doing three full semesters in a row? Tune in next season to find out!
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