It’s Valentine’s Day! Dan surprised me with a bouquet of tulips (he caught on recently that I actually prefer tulip bouquets to rose ones) and although the day started out overcast and dreary, it brightened up with the lovely California sunshine by noon.
We spent yesterday baking and decorating these red velvet cupcakes for a Valentines potluck dinner party with friends:
We spent Valentine’s Day low-key this year with a quiet dinner at home, and then we walked over to the movie theater in downtown Berkeley to watch the movie Valentine’s Day. With an all-star cast and connected stories (Ã la Love Actually), it was a really cute romantic comedy. (Dan enjoyed it, too!) We recommend it.
Hope everyone had a lovely Valentine’s Day with their loved ones! 😀
It’s Valentines weekend! My friend Megumi just dropped off these super adorable homemade Valentine treats! Red velvet cakesters and Valentines cookies. I already had one of each, and they are simply amazing. Thank you Megumi for the goodies! We love them. 🙂
 Valentine treats from Megumi!
Dan and I really don’t have any special plans for the weekend — we have a Valentines potluck dinner with friends tomorrow evening (which I will be making my own treats for), but nothing fancy for actual Valentine’s Day on Sunday. We tend to put more emphasis on celebrating our anniversary and each other’s birthdays, so Valentine’s often sort of falls by the wayside. We will likely have a quiet little dinner at home, since every single couple will be going out to eat. Some see the day as a stinging reminder of disappointments and betrayals of past relationships, unrequited love, or loneliness… some are sickened by the consumerism that surround the holiday. But at the core, Valentine’s Day is a time to reflect on and appreciate not only our significant others but everyone dear to us in our lives. So let us celebrate! Here’s to love and togetherness.
To celebrate, I’m going to post some things I love (in no particular order). I will update as I think or more…
cupcakes
design
cherry blossoms
my parents
sushi
chinchillas
snow
my siblings
cupcakes
staying home
crafts
reading books
musicals
friends
baby back ribs
grandparents West Side Story
blogging
sprinkled donuts
music
Japanese dramas
baking
photographs
offbeat humor
irreverent humor
dry humor
shopping
ramen
traveling
weddings
childhood memories
fonts
Christian Bale (in The Dark Knight)
Sorimachi Takashi (in Virgin Road)
John Krasinski (in The Office)
Hugh Jackman (in his non-hairy roles)
Hayami Mocomichi (in everything)
Danny Wanny (in real life)
gelato
green tea ice cream Zoolander
peonies
carnivals and festivals
yakiniku
unique proposal stories
watching figure skating
Korean BBQ
frozen yogurt with mochi pieces
turkey legs
the DMV area (DC • Maryland • Virginia)
cooking Glee
Hokie football
Shiba Inus
scarves
Japan
chocolate
Anthropologie
karaoke
the beach
peking duck
the changing of seasons
Virginia Tech Hokies
Etsy
dim sum
DIY projects
mysteries
fascinators • hair accessories
care packages
board games
knitting + crocheting
It’s officially “Celebrity Doppelgänger Week” on Facebook — the latest craze to hit Facebook is to change your profile picture to the celebrity you most likely resemble. I wanted to get in on it, but unfortunately, I’ve never really been told I look like anyone. I can, however, come up with some for the people around me. Take my sister, for example: whenever I introduce her to my Japanese friends, most of them tell me she looks like Japanese idol/singer/actress Aya Ueto. The ducky-faced smile is strikingly similar:
Ueto Aya (left) and my sister Miwa
And the hubby! I’ve heard various aesthetic comparisons of Dan to celebrities, both American and Japanese. Here are a few….
A picture of the hubby, for reference.
One is Japanese actor Kotaro Koizumi (å°æ³‰ å太郎), who also happens to be the son of former Japanese prime minister Junichiro Koizumi. I’m not so sure about this one, but a few Japanese friends have pointed it out. I think it’s mostly in the eyes (and the undereye folds) as well as the mouth area.
Japanese actor Kotaro Koizumi
Another one that is commonly pointed out is Kanjani8’s Yu Yokoyama. I sort of the see the resemblance here — again, it’s in the eyes and the mouth. Yu Yokoyama is more of a comedian than an idol in my mind, so this comparison always makes me laugh.
Kanjani8's Yu Yokoyama
Someone recently mentioned that Dan looks a lot like American comedian Steve Byrne. Steve Byrne is half Irish American and half Korean, so maybe the hapa common factor is what is at work here. I’m not sure how close the resemblance is, but I can say that Steve sure is a cutie! 😉
American comedian Steve Byrne
Oh! And we cannot forget the number one actor that Dan gets compared to. Drumroll please!
American actor Keanu Reeves
Whether or not the comparison is accurate, there’s a funny story associated with it. When Dan and I first started seeing each other, he brought this topic up with me, thinking that it would likely impress me. Here’s a summary of how it went:
Dan: You know, people have often told me I look like Keanu Reeves. (::silly grin::)
Misono: Eww, I hate Keanu Reeves. Worst actor ever.
So since then, Dan has not exactly been thrilled when people tell him he looks like Keanu Reeves, but I suppose there must be something there, since he gets it so often. I don’t really see it besides the faceshape and maybe the hair… and again, the part Asian ethnicity factor.
I actually submitted a photo of Dan to one of those celebrity look-alike generators and here is what it gave me.
Totally different results! Nicholas Tse? Chow Yun-Fat? And Shania Twain — interesting. I like how Dan also has a 56% resemblance to that terrifyingly creepy kid from the horror movie Godsend. Hmm….
GLAY’s US Tour this year ended on Saturday, September 12 with their second night at the House of Blues. Two of my friends were at each of the LA shows (one the first night, the other the second) and they both told me they were awesome. It seems like the final concert was the craziest and most climatic, according to TERU’s blog post. Apparently, at the LA concerts, the audience was allowed to have cameras, so there are some good photos and video of the show out there. So jealous! I wonder why cameras were allowed at the House of Blues and not at The Fillmore… I wish I had been allowed to capture those moments on camera.
GLAY just posted a video to their MySpace, which they had shot just prior to their final show at the House of Blues on September 12th:
TERU writes in his blog about how much love he felt during this tour, and how they were happy to be able to come to see so many of their fans who don’t have the opportunity to go see them live in Japan. One thing he expressed regret about, though, was the fact that none of the three shows sold out. Apparently The Fillmore had been about 80% full, and House of Blues at about 90% both nights — so close, and yet not quite enough of an audience to pack the house. I think that the fact that the show was on a week night in San Francisco (Wednesday night) is partially to blame…. TERU writes that it was tough to be confronted with the reality that, after just having performed at a sold-out concert in front of 140,000 at Nissan Stadium two weeks prior, they could not even reach 1,000 attendees at any of their US shows. But he accepts that it is a reality, and that it reminds him of the days when they had just debuted fifteen years ago and were trying desperately to sell out their first concerts at Shibuya Public Hall. In that sense, he was reminded of their starting point and how there are still challenges that they want to continue to tackle as they move forward, towards a worldwide stage. Unfortunately, I think there is a huge obstacle for Japanese artists to garner attention and a substantial fan base (outside of the typical anime otaku crowd) because of the language barrier, and the fact that the lyrics just cannot be understood. (Whereas English-speaking musicians stand a better chance, since English is a more commonly accepted universal language.) Still, despite the fact that these GLAY concerts attract hundreds of members of the local Japanese American communities, there’s also a substantial number of non-Japanese fans that can be seen at their shows as well. It’s not an impossible dream for them, just a difficult one that will not come very easy…. Although the lyrics may not be understood (which is a pity, since TAKURO always writes such poetic songs), the music itself is so good that it can even stand alone and win an international audience. There just needs to be an extra push — more aggressive promotion and perhaps a street team (which I would happily head up!) — and they will be able to sell out their international concerts, no problem. I hope that they won’t let this get them down and that they’ll continue to return to slowly but surely expand their audience beyond Japan.
