Welcome to the NHK!

So, it’s been a while. I apologize.

You see, when someone is as intense as I am, time just flies by in a flash. Days have no significance. Weekends don’t matter. In fact, weekends seem more boring than weekdays. Especially on a Sunday like today, when it was the most bizarre weather that I’ve experienced in a long time. Tokyo has some pretty messed up weather– it’s windy at times to the point where I feel like I’m going to be lifted up into the sky.

But it’s all good.

So, I have a few things I’d like to type about today. Let’s start with my recent television appearance.

Yes, two weeks ago I appeared on a popular NHK television programme called Eigo de Shabera NAITO– it was a three or so minute long interview about my thoughts on Tokyo and the Interwebs and some other random stuff which I don’t particularly recall. It was a completely last-minute television thing where I got called by miss Oshikiri Moe and in less than an hour I was at the filming location in Shibuya. Thus I wasn’t dressed properly, didn’ have time to put on makeup, and wasn’t prepared. Nevertheless, I guess it turned out fine. You can view the clip in my YouTube profile– someone else posted it and I favorited it. Not sure how long the clip will be up, because I do believe it’s a copyrighted clip.

Welcome to the NHK.

…Speaking of anime, two days ago I attended the biggest nerd orgy anime convention that I have ever had the honor of being at. The Tokyo Kokusai Anime Fair. The God of international anime-ness. I was nervous. I was scared. I didn’t know what to expect of such an event! But, since it was only 1,000 yen to get in, how could I possibly resist attending?

So I attended.

Adorned in my version of Japanese seifuku.

Please glance at some interesting photos.

This is what heaven must look like...

This is what heaven must look like...

Because I'm pretty intense and have name cards, I was accepted as Press at the event. Super official!

Because I'm pretty intense and have name cards, I was accepted as Press at the event. Super official!

I'm not really THAT tall, I promise.

I'm not really THAT tall, I promise.

Art by Miss Nishi Asuka... I spoke to her a bit and her art was one of my favorites there.

Art by Miss Nishi Asuka... I spoke to her a bit and her art was one of my favorites there.

Me asking a cosplayer if she stole her outfit from Uma Thurman.

Me asking a cosplayer if she stole her outfit from Uma Thurman.

Some super cute monkey stuffed animal things.

Some super cute monkey stuffed animal things.

Of course I was filming at the event... One of my super special awesome friends filmed for me!

Of course I was filming at the event... One of my super special awesome friends filmed for me!

Overall it was a pretty cool convention, definitely worth 1,000 yen. It was way more calm than any American anime convention I’ve ever attended, so I think for any of you who are used to conventions in the US that this one would be quite a shock. Unfortunately, though, I’m not quite up-to-date with popular anime anymore, so I don’ t think I appreciated the event as much as other people might have. But I spoke to some cool people and received a few free goodies, so it was fun… Nothing like attending the occasional anime con!

Hopefully I’ll have a video related to the event up within the next week. My computer is not working, though, so I’ll have to steal one of my friends for a day or so.

Friendship is the best thing ever!

That’s about all for my post today. But before we say farewell, recently I’ve been using Twitter for no real reason. If you’d like to follow me, please view this link:

http://twitter.com/applemilk19

I don’t quite understand Twitter, and maybe never will. But I’ll update it when I remember to. And of course, don’t forget to check up almost daily-updated Japanese blog, which can be found here:

http://ameblo.jp/c-cedille/

Until next we meet, Nation.

March 22, 2009
Categories: Musings . Tags: , , , , , , . Author: EMILY . Comments: 15 Comments

Video Nostalgia -Pretty Intense Japanese Lesson-

Good evening, friends. EMILY here.

I do apologize for how long it’s taken me to update this blog again. The past three or four days have been filled up with hours of band practice, which I’ll make sure to write about in more detail later.

In any case, let’s get moving onto the next segment of ‘Video Nostalgia’– today I’m going to talk about my most widely known video, Pretty Intense Japanese Lesson.

 

 

Truth be told, I don’t like this video. At all. I wasn’t even going to upload it until my dear friend, Mad1, forced me into uploading it. I find this video to be annoying, presumptuous, redundant, and absolute ridiculous. Every time I hear myself say ‘Hello, friends…’ in that voice I feel like some moron is standing behind me scraping his nails over and over on a chalk board. However, the story behind the video (and the series) is kind of funny, so maybe I’ll share it with all of you.

 

Pretty Intense Japanese Lesson was filmed in October, 2006– it wasn’t uploaded until January 2007 because I was ashamed of it and hid it in a safe in the corner of my room. In fact, this video was randomly recorded in a Panera Bread while Mad1 and I were waiting for a ride from one of our parents (I can’t exactly recall whose…) because we were both young and uncool. It was also filmed on the same day right after we recorded Pretty Intense Mall Tour and Pretty Intense Fashion Repair. Obviously, we were bored. And had no shame. At that point in my life I would record anything, anywhere. 

We were bored, and so young. Oh, back in the day. Nostalgic, really.

Anywho, Mad1 got mad at me because I had uploaded all of our other Pretty Intense videos, but not her favorite. Eventually I gave into her whining and begging and posted the damned thing, and for some God-only-knows reason it now has over one million views. Shameful, really. I’d much rather have another one of my videos be the most popular. Hell, even my ocarina video is cooler than Pretty Intense Japanese Lesson.

Oh well, that’s the Internet for you.

Also, this video was a featured video back in the day– Mr. Gimmeabreakman from Japan decided that he wanted to help out a fellow gaijin living in Japan, so when he was guest editor he put it up for me. I’m thankful, of course– being featured on a site like YouTube will really skyrocket your videos to the top, as it did for me to an extent. It still took ages after being featured for my videos to catch on, though. Why do you guys watch my insane YouTube videos?! Haha.

Enough whining.

 

Can you say sushi? I sure as hell can.

 

Anyway, muffins– have a lovely evening. And comment plox.

February 22, 2009
Categories: Video Nostalgia . . Author: EMILY . Comments: 36 Comments

Video Nostalgia -Pretty Intense New York Vacation-

Hello, friends and viewers of my brand new blog. Today I would like to begin a new segment in which I plan on talking about different videos from the past. I’ve been on YouTube for over two years now and have many videos– it’s probably overwhelming for someone new to view my YouTube page and decide which videos they want to watch.

 

Thus, this ‘Video Nostalgia’ segment will allow me to tell you all which videos I recommend, and I’ll give a little bit of insight on what went through my head when I made them back in the day.

 

Also, this is a question for you all… Would you prefer if I put these reviews under their own “Videos” tab, or should I keep them here in the main blog? What makes it easier for you?

_________________________________________________

 

Today’s video is one of my personal favorites, “Pretty Intense New York Vacation”.

I uploaded this video back in July, 2007 while I was visiting my family in New York over Summer vacation. It never got many hits, nor was really popular… But it’s still one of my favorites, and probably the one I show to my friends the most often. Not only that, it was also my earliest endeavor at video editing– it used to take me ages to paste clips together.

 

I suppose the reason I favor this clip so much is the fact that one of my younger sisters helped me to film it, and we had a lot of fun goofing off as our parents rolled their eyes at us. Also, this video showcases a small part of my father’s impressive guitar collection, which is also fun to see on film.

 

The song I used for this clip is actually by one of my favorite Japanese artists, Takagi Masakatsu. The name of the piece is girls. Lots of people thought it was the song from the Wii console menu, but it is not!

 

Anyway, my old videos were odd. I mean, my current ones are perhaps even more odd in their own sense, but I don’t really use my fake voice as much anymore and perhaps act a little less crazy. Just a little, mind you. 

 

Oh, back when I was 17. Feels like eons ago!

February 19, 2009
Categories: Video Nostalgia . . Author: EMILY . Comments: 29 Comments

it’s hard to make any sense of what i’m writing here.

I dream about corn flakes a lot lately.

Japanese corn flakes

Japanese corn flakes

I never ate them a lot growing up as a kid. I was more of a LIFE person, personally. But for some reason the one cereal I crave more than any other as of late is corn flakes. I suppose maybe it’s because corn flakes are the cheapest variety of cereal here in Japan… And one of the only variations, for that matter. The cereal boom hasn’t caught on here yet. Supermarkets carry a few random Kellogg’s cereals and a handful of granola types, but not anything comparable to the cereal aisles of supermarkets in the US.

However, the point of this blog is not to write about cereal, nor random food cravings. I’m not sure exactly what the point of this blog is, but please be assured that it has little or nothing to do with cereal. Or even apples, or milk. In fact, the only thing that triggered the slight cereal rant is the sole fact that I am a bit hungry on this Wednesday night, and would actually like to consume corn flakes at this point in time. Seeing, though, as I do not currently have any corn flakes in my possession, it will be nearly impossible for me to have any corn flakes until tomorrow.

On the continuing topic of cereal, I would like to discuss the milk that is sold in Japan. It’s not normal milk, you see. The ‘low-fat’ variation of Japanese milk tastes eerily similar to the ‘Vitamin D’ milk that graces the refrigerated aisles of US supermarkets. Of course, the higher fat content of Japanese milk probably means that it’s more fortified and less pasteurized… But it just doesn’t taste right! I’m much rather have the scientifically-engineered watery milk that I grew up drinking instead of the full fat, overly rich stuff that they sell in this country.

I don’t know what’s going on with this blog anymore. Or with this Web site. This is what happens when you write stuff late at night– you get a bunch of rubbish.

I’ve re-opened ‘applemilk1988.com’ as of today; it’s been almost two years since I had a first go at it, but I just didn’t like the feeling of the first site. There was nothing for me to update on there, nowhere for me to spread my ideas of corn flakes and other highly important topics at any time of the night. My fellow internet-nerd friend, Danny Choo, suggested that I make a blog-oriented Web site, and thus I have. Thanks to him for motivating me to do something a bit productive on the Internet again. So I’ll give this Web site business a go again, hopefully being more successful at it this time around.

I’ll try to write about as many things as I can… Be it music, anime, video games, YouTube, my own work endeavors… As long as you all keep reading, I’ll keep writing. I do not, however, claim to be great at writing or ‘blogging’ in general… But I suppose this will be a test! A test to see who’s best! I want to be the very best, like no one ever was!

 

…Yeah, it’s probably better if I stop for tonight.

February 18, 2009
Categories: Musings . . Author: EMILY . Comments: 22 Comments

MAIN

Welcome to the grand (re)opening of www.applemilk1988.com. This is the official Web site for some girl on the internet named EMILY. This is also where updates for this site will be noted of, because everyone likes to know when things are updated. I mean, just imagine a world without updates—what kind of world would that be?

 

Not a good one, that’s for sure.

February 18, 2009
Categories: Musings . . Author: EMILY . Comments: 5 Comments