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  •  [#76] Tokyo International Gay and Lesbian Film Festival







    Goldfish Memory Films

    Sexual minorities are the subject of celebration and reflection in the 13th annual Tokyo International Gay and Lesbian Film Festival that kicked off yesterday. With a selection of films that considers the diversity of sexuality, the event is intended not only for gays, lesbians and other sexual minorities, but as an introduction to alternative sexuality for the wider public as well. This year's program is divided into five sections: 'Humor', 'Romance', 'Touching', 'Packs a Punch!' and 'Sexy', with films by directors from Japan, North America, Europe and beyond. Ranging from light-hearted comedies to hard-hitting films such as Yossi & Jagger, a sensational 2002 Israeli movie about unintended romance in the armed forces, all films are screened with either Japanese or English subtitles.





    This is what Metropolis said about last week's L&GFF. I spent 2 days and a half there in the theatre experiencing this wonderful cinema paradiso and I felt like WOW! I'm walking on clouds 9! I never watched movies so intensely in my life, good movies, one after one and sometimes I was laughing to death and sometimes crying throughout the whole movie whilst the cast list rolling up untill the next movie is on (of course that was one of the shorts)! And some movies are on DVDs already so I will definitely keep two eyes on that! Check out the site here for Japanese or  here for English, hope you'll have fun there.

  • [#75] I Just Signed The Contract Of ...?


     


    A) A New Job


    B) A New Apartment


    C) A New Master For 10 Years...(!)


     

  • [#74] Party? Job? Spidey 2!


    What has happened in my life since my last update...almost half a month ago?




    Went to a friend's birthday party, and the bar Kinsmen, which is now a very quiet bar with few people visiting during normal time, was PACKED with people. Here are some fotos:


    Me and Eriko and her Monalisa-ish smile, as always...



    Yuki's great shirt:  'My body belongs to me...'



    ...    'But I share...'






    Finally last Saturday I went to this Job Conference at Sunshine City, Ikebukuro. Not that I've decided to run away from current company right away, but having a look won't hurt...okay, I hate my current job!


    It was a job fair for bilingual people, mostly undergraduates and a total of 150ish companies came to set their booth recruiting people. I only went there for one company: Deutsche Bank Group, and the only detailed resume I prepared had Deutsche Bank Group's name typed in the 'Objective' collumn. But the whole thing went weird. First of all the booth didn't look like a booth of an  'international company'. Secondly, I found out later that they were only recruiting newly graduates since next April! Shame that I brought that resume...


    But when I went past GE (General Electric) booth and saw the recruiting lady again (I saw her two years ago at exactly the same conference and same booth), I decided to take a chance though I knew that GE is a hard one to try. So I approached her and talked in Japanese...very hard and awkward coz we were communicating in Japanese..which is a very difficult-to-communicate language. Then I just assumed she speaks English and started talking to her in English, turned out that her English was amazing coz she was brought up in the states. The whole conversation just lit up so much and after a little chat she asked where were I brought up in the U.S.? I was like...lady I have never live there! LOL! She took my resume (another one I brought with no company name on it...)and gave me a little presentation about what does one have to go through during this 2 year program I'm applying for, I was like: HOLY SHIT! This is gonna drive people crazy: Working till 2 - 3 am and then worrying about the next day's test? I wonder if I'll survive but hey guess what, I was feeling a little exciting. How challenging will it be to work for the world's top company and suffer a little then have a bright future! She said she'll screen my resume and contact me via email in two weeks, then give me a phone interview in English...Well I was thinking who cares if they'll call me, I already had fun at the job conference and I'm a happy man. I never thought I'd have the chance to use the 'emergency resume'. Well aren't lots of things in life like that? You probably get something that's totally different from what you expected.






    Watched Harry Potter 3. Very good, a different movie from the previous two!



    ...and I'm not usually generous on movie comments!






    Watched Spiderman 2, finally!!! Sooo good and so touching. Even better than the first one though that was great too. And it's a great love story too... I JUST LOVE IT !


    Wow we had the same...shoe color...



    After the movie, who doesn't want to do something heroic!? So I put those on...Okay that was a mistake! :)







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    Go check it out and take a test to see how much time have you wasted in your LIFE!!!

  • [#73] It's All In The Stars


    The Horoscope last week said:


    Perhaps you have allowed events from the past to cloud your future. The Moon in Gemini on Wednesday and Thursday gives you a chance to open new vistas. That trip you were  thinking of taking, that move you wondered about making, is on the horizon. How you get there is less important than showing up. What you do when you arrive falls into place, with more time for joy than remorse.


    Now someone tell me that this is not true! How can that person who wrote this possibly know that I cancelled a trip 2 weeks ago but then re-booked the ticket again!?!?!? Just weird!


    Always envied Nemo...DAMN still haven't watched that movie, what a shame!



    Work has been making me wanna shout. Think I need a new job :)


    Was surprised by Britney Spears' ''Everytime'', very good!

  • [#72] Labor-and-Style


    Ok this site is changing from daily to weekly, then bi-weekly, hope it's not becoming towards monthly!


    2 weeks ago. Went to help at a warehouse of my company  for two days, to open a thousand paper boxes contained slot machine core parts, took the unneccessary things out, threw them away then fold the boxes and pile them up. Sounds easy but it was 3000 boxes and after a day's cutting, lifting, throwing and folding, the feeling I had was called 'Damn, I Can't Move My Wrist!'


    Outside of factory. Very sunny, hot day.




    Tired-but-smiling labours :)



    Same person as the dragqueen in our company's New Year party! I swear!



                       


    After hours of working, I went to wash the darkness off my face and found out, it was darkness also inside my nostrils! Yuk!! Ok too much info! On my way home, I found this shadow of my head on the train pretty interesting so took a foto, I swear I didn't wear anything on my ear that made me look like...Yoda!


              




    Tokyo Style:    Just a few ideas showing you how kids (okay! some are not even kids...) in Tokyo dress up.


    Pink Boys: Didn't take a front foto so you can see the rabbit ears! Are they really...boys?



    He tried hard but his voice was really making me want to go over and slap his face...


      


    Uhh...the hair.



    Cinderella's twin sister standing on platform with boyfriend at 0:00am


       


    AND I LOVE THIS ONE!!!


  • [#71] I Dreamed A Dream                                                              


    I wished my ears could hear everything from the distance                       
    I wished my eyes could see everything from a thousand miles away      
    I wished I could take off and fly without wings like Superman                   
    I wished I could swim across seven oceans carefree like Nemo              
    I wished I could be free                                                                                    
    I wished there is no more sorrow in my heart                                              
    I wished I were no more afaid of loneliness                                                 
    I wished I were immune from pain                                                                 
    I wished I had a heart made of iron so it would never break again          
    I wished the long nights were over and the light finally came through    
    I wished there was only joyfull time remains on earth                                
                   and I were no more the one who's left behind                                                       

  • [#70] Chink-It-Up!


    Sorry guys that I haven't visited your xangas for a while...as well as my own. My life just changed so much from a student and I hardly can find any time of my own now.


    Anyway this is supposed to be week-ends ago (29 May) and it was Eriko, a friend's birthday party at her apartment. And the theme was...Chinese. So there you go! Everyone must wear or cook or do something Chinese so we bunch of girls and gay boys gathered together and chinked-it-up! Here is how fun it was:


    Me holding one leg of Eriko whose China dress is wildly lifted like a curtain...



    Someone's legs dangerously open



    Umm...like this one. Yuki (far right) looks so...Moslem!



    Ya, of course we won't forget Mao!



    Even the beverages are Chinese...and as the only real Chinese there, I had to explain the poem written on the candle...



    Ya, we had some massage fun after dinner and got changed...which doesn't even look like a massage at all...



    Then went on Chinking Up in Ni-chome!




    Did my first soldering job at work before the Chinese party. This baby is my first work...an LCD panel that shows up words when connected to the computer...far not completed yet and I'm showing off already :)


     




    Hey! Someone is stealing my glasses!!! Check who's that someone out! And wish Motoki get out of wheel chair asap!


      

  • [#69] Week-end/day Blasts 


    I know that I owe you lots lots of blogs...I haven't updated anything since my birthday! So I decided to do a long one though it's past my bed time...Savi?


    Fiddler On The Roof party! On 22 May, my birthday.


    Great house inside NewZealand Embassey     by the pool     lots of  people    lots of fun   lots of photos taken      nice to see everyone again         the 'prize giving ceremony'      too much food!      birthday song from everyone to Jack (stage manager)         bought Jack a b-day cake...on my own birthday       b-day song from everyone for me         Jack hanging out his own prize for everyone...and I was The Best Ladder Holding Page Turner         lots of laughters       Video Party after the pool party      watched video of  the show but not totally edited yet         looked great!     Lenne the director cried               Jack cried





     


     











    Motokid In Town


    Ahh, my Xanga-mate Motokid in town, go check out his site. He, who's supposed to be 'straight', explores gay town with Hay-chan and E.   -- E reports.





    That night was a lota fun! Motokid was practising his sexuality in Dragon while Jack and his bf, also some people from F.O.T.R. were also there




    A Birthday Lunch On Sunday


    Me and my friend Rikard who has the same birthday with me,  had this co-birthday lunch on Sunday @ a Yumcha place! Yum...



    Went to Hay-chan's place and did all the girl talk, then went to Fuji and sang so many Karaoke that night and fucked up my voice again...which made the next day's audition miserable! But anyway I had fun on my birthday, what's to complain about!?




    I Got It! ...Monday


    Can't believe that it's such a beautiful Monday and I'm enjoying it!!!


    ...That's what I was thinking when I took a day off to go to the immigration office to get my visa. I knew it's granted but didn't know until I got to the window that I had got a 3-year visa! Woohoo! For most newly grads in Japan, getting only a year's visa is very common on the starting year of their jobs...but guess I was just extremely lucky. And it was sooo quick! After 25 minutes I already got away with my passport and 3-years visa sticker in it and singing my way home...on a bus, with the duckiest voice, Gollum, Gollum!


    Audish


    Went to audition for Cinderella by TTFC (Tokyo Theatre For Children) that night. Saw a few people from F.O.T.R and was so glad to meet them, my fellow Anatevkans :) The whole process was fun. It was the second time I've been to an audition and so good that I was having fun! But during the whole audition I didn't have much confidence coz my voice is so scratched and it was a torture to hear me speaking. Anyway I still enjoyed it and decided I'll do my old job this time again: helping at backstage -- just found out there that the rehearsal schedule is mostly during day time! Grrrr....  Kids! Why do we have to cast kids in the show! Ooops I forgot this is a play for the kids.




    Work


    Finally started going out and meeting clients. I sat at 6th floor on Tuesday and someone took me out to see clients. Thanks to that I'm under the sun again...at 1:00pm during the day! I felt so good. But the meeting itself was so...sleepy. I almost fell asleep coz I had no idea what they were talking about. I was just...there.




    Gym


    Went for a tour of the biggest,  most well-known, heaviest branched and also the gayest gym TIPNESS on Tuesday...before I decided to join. Was not as cruisy as rumour says it is but why does it matter?


    So on Wednesday I joined. OMG! It was 26th and I was still getting b-day presents!!! Hay-chan and Jona.C were spoiling me by buying me presents! Soon after I met Hay in the gym on my first debut in Tipness, he flooded me with 3 huge bags...which made me a bag lady at gym (had three from Hay-chan, two more of my own that day) and when I opened them, the contents were...also bags! Really nice gym bag, 'week-end' bag and a NIKE towel! And they are from the newly opened huge sports wear shop: FIELD! What nice gym-debut presents!!! Thank you guys so much!


    It's been a while since I went to a gym and I felt good! Did a check on my bones and was told that my 'left leg is slightly shorter than the right one'...exactly what I thought! That's why the way my shoe is consumed on each foot is always different and I feel pain sometime from walking too much...but from different parts of each foot! I did lots of machines on Wednesday and woke up this morning with a slight pain all over my body, not too bad yet. Then today, I brought my swimming suits and tried the pool -- one of the biggest reasons I joined this gym. So nice to be able to swim again and I just didn't want to leave! Think swimming is the best working out. It works on the muscles all over your body and you don't have to be bored to death by a machine. I'm expecting a huge muscle pain tomorrow morning coz I can feel it now already. The only prob was my friend bought this swimming shorts for me a year ago and it's too small! It's almost stopping my blood circulation and don't even call that sexy!!!




    Hey, you! Who lives so far, far away from me. I miss you so much and want to give you a loud shout out here on my site and I just switched the music to this song to match yours... And you know who I'm talking about !

  • [#68] Greates Show of All! (--and you know I'm gonna say that)


    Many friends came to either of the Sunday shows. I was glad. It made me a proud man coz the shows (especially the last one) went beyond my/the entire crew's anticipation, in another word, blew the audience/ourselves away. Especially the last show.


    We all knew that it's gonna be the last show and everyone couldn't be more serious. Before the show began, think every actor/ess pushed him/herself to get the best energy level they could and after the curtain was up, each scene just slided away so smoothly. I was standing back stage and had lots of  chances to see the audience. After each scene was finished, the actors came back behind the curtains and would give a huge triumph pose. Also when songs such as 'L'Chaim' and 'Wedding Dance' were going on the stage, all people hidden behind curtain would go frenzy and dance with the actors at back stage, just as to enjoy the last few moments and feel the happiness along with each scene for one last time...coz this was the damn last show. It's truly touching. It's almost ridiculous that we worked so hard for months but only had chance to give 6 shows...there is always something about the money isn't there?


    It really touched me when I saw a few audience wiping their tears with handkerchives or just their hands during the last song 'Anatevka'. We worked hard and touched them, now they cried and touched us. What a nice give-and-return process! And at the end of the show, the ovation just seemed lasting forever! And it's such a joyfull moment even for us standing at the backstage. I kept urging Jack, my friend aka stage manager to go out onto the stage but he always refused. He was doing an amazing job and this show wouldn't exist if were not for him yet most people dun know how hard and how stressful his job is! After the curtain is finally down, twice, behind it were screams of joy and thousands of hugs. We had a great time and everyone knew that we were also going to leave SunMall Theatre aka Anatevka! Outside the theatre was packed with people, as usual yet a little different after the last show. I was, too, enjoying my friends telling me how good the show was. Then we had to load out. Stressful work I have to say, and it's also bit bitter to see all those props we used for 6 shows were all dismentaled in 1-2 hours and mostly turned into garbage.


    After loading everying onto the lorry, it was already 1am...but the party just began! We went to Fuji, the bar I love to go all the time and flooded this tiny Karaoke bar with 20+ people! The master must be happy :) We put in 'Sunrise Sunset' and 20 people sang together...who needs a microphone!? And we all knew our parts just like on stage and we could do such harmony which made it the best Karaoke in the world! So much fun that night and I didn't go home until 3am! Wish I dun have work to do the next day!!! Grrrr.


    It took me so long to update this last one because I was working on the hundreds of fotos I took during the whole process of the show, reheasals, parties, dress rehearsals, real show... A zillion of them and finally I put them on the web...so have a look HERE!



    'How often does a man get complement like that!?'

  • [#67] Grrreater Show!


    Friday night (7:30pm ~~ )


    The show got greater on Friday night coz Ms Debby (Debi?), a.k.a. Debi Fujin was there. She is mega famous in Japan and she's also the ex-wife of the King of Indonesia. And last night she was there giving 'Tevye' flowers coz she is a friend of his.


    Then the 'bigger' person didn't show up and greet all of us in the corridor of back stage until the end of the show, the Princess of Japan! Yay, we got her to come to the show! She's a friend of 'Golde' and we knew she was coming but due to security reason we were not allowed to know which show she was coming to...but yesterday we could tell right away before the show according to the security situation and the number of the special police! She dressed so normally that anyone could've mistake her for someone else. It's a great honor to meet her! She had such powerful royal atmosphere around her and she has such Emperor's nostrils!


    Then went to the same bar yesterday and Debi Fujin went there too! All the other gay boys in the bar just stared at her and her pretty boy that she's been with for 12 years! Didn't talk to her but think she must be such a sweet person. Didn't stary long and before going home, had a Takoyaki with Jack and Lou (Chava). Soooo tired. But still went home on foot coz I don't already decided to sing all my way home and that's no good when there is a taxi driver around :)




    Saturday (2:00pm ~~ 5:00pm, 7:30pm ~~ 10:30pm)


    That's just such a lovely day! Except for a  bit stomach-ache when I got to the theatre coz I skipped breakfast. Then I had to do this and that so had no time to eat...meaning I'm not professional enough My ex dorm-mate came and I wanted to be some support coz he doesn't understand much English so I got the permission from the director and at beside him and the girl he brought and watched the show! Wow, I'm watching a great show for free, aha! My first-and-only time I stayed off backstage and watched the show. It was truely, truely amazing. I've been going to countless rehearsals but it just looked and sounded sooo great on real stage. Only problem was it is Saturday so lot of children, yuk! They talked so loud during the show, Mama Mama, and they have to pee, or climb up and down. I just wanted to deep fry them! Or perhaps their parents coz this is not a show for kids anyway. But anyway, my friend and his friend enjoyed the show a lot and he recognized a lot of people from 'You're A Good Man, Charlie Brown', which was also a show he went to see coz he was encouraged by me (see blog dated Nov. 17 2003 ).


    Had a big pizza party under the theatre during the break between first and second show. Coz we have 2 shows today so the energy level sort of went down during the break. I can tell from some tired faces...well I was tired, let alone the actors! But when the show started, it went boom! again. At one scene that Hodel kisses Perchik, a kid went 'Eeeeeew!' and it blew away all the romantic feeling or whatever that scene tried to deliver and the adults were just laughing! It was so funny!


    After the show finished successfully, I heard a lot sighs like  'it's gonna finish tomorrow'...or 'we are gonna part soon' kinda stuff and I was thinking Gosh! must be so much drama tomorrow and who is NOT gonna cry tomorrow after the final show? We went to the same bar...OMG, we were here every day! And the Master of the bar is so happy of that of course! Tonight was a huge group and Lenne again, sang her beautiful Summertime and shocked every one who listened to her first time. Talked non-stop with Katherine, the fiddler in the show and she is such a multi-talented, smart sweetheart with lots of stories!