Dancing queen

"You can dance, you can jive ....... Having the time of your life,
See that girl, watch that scene ....... Dig in the dancing queen!"


Yes yes, the wonderful music of ABBA is still ringing in my ears! If I am not sitting down and blogging now, I would have stood up and danced to my heart's content, hehe or until those old bones start to crack!

Last night, cloudnine (I heard that music is also ringing in her ears!), kiyomi, tamatamasan and I attended a special screening of MamaMia. Watching Meryl Streep and her 'young at heart' costars defying the odds on age and danced their sweats out, it just made me feel so alive and full of energy too! :)


How could we not think of our precious JunSang when the song 'Dancing Queen' came up? Hehe, we uttered Yujin and these images immediately popped up in my mind @@


This is an aside : It just happened last night there was a red carpet premiere event of Brad Pitt's new movie "The curious case of Benjamin Button", in the SAME cinema as ours! Well, I confess - we did try (not very hard though) to catch a glimpse of the glamorous Pitt-Jolie couple but was blocked by lots of young fans. They were not too far from us, so we did hear Brad Pitt spoke for a short while.


Coincidentally, last month I did catch a short glimpse of Keanu Reeves (by chance also) when he came to Tokyo for his movie premiere "The Day the Earth stood still". The guy looked pretty cool. Well, I guess if you live in LA/Hollywood, you probably bump into these stars in the supermarket everyday. But you have to excuse a country bumpkin like me who only lives in this glamorous city once, this 'convenient' chance is just too much of a waste to pass up :)

But for our Yonsama, I think he is one BIG exceptional case, even in the books of the Japanese entertainment industry and government. This man can cause airport shutdown, traffic standstill and throws media and public into total frenzy! Sigh, the chance of catching a glimpse of our gorgeous prince in Tokyo again, I might as well bet on bumping my coffee into Tom Cruise next time! Ah well, I prefer to keep my coffee :)

Unshaven heaven

Hi Hi sisters ...... when I read that our dear gosijo has taken a sudden interest in 'facial hair', the nosy me couldn't help but dig up my memory of the time our prince was showing a few 'natural' facial hair of his own. Hehe, this is what I found in my inventory ........

Sunny Place of the Young - our movie buff Sukjue

First Love - our tough Chanwoo caring for his brother in the hospital

GQ 2006 - a departure from his clean shaven noble prince image

Sexy and cool, I remember our dear liezle commented that she wanted to take the pendant of his necklace out (and we all know what she meant :)

Attending Manager Hwang's wedding amidst TWSSG filming - believe he had no time to shave?

Hehe, did I miss any other time? Another one I can think of is the sick Jaeho hiding in Hyunsoo's cottage and he didn't shave. Maybe the princess or anyone has more? So dear gosijo, get any inspiration?

So covered!

Hi Hi sisters ........ I saw this set of pictures in the Bassini Men website (www.abmen.co.kr) late last night and errrrrrr I think ......... shouldn't we be seeing some kind of swimwear (ok ok at least cruise wear) collection if our prince went all the way to sunny 33C Guam?? Yes yes, I was expecting some wet & sexy pictures by the beach with his long hair waving and dripping (hehe, cloudnine knows me best :) But then Bassini is targeting a more mature market, thus all those ajussi golf shirts! Well, at least our prince looks good in anything he wears, let's hope there'll be more coming soon??


They want our prince to suffer from heat stroke covering him up to the neck?!
As princess pointed out about the shoes. Being a perfectionist, I wonder how this could pass under Yong Joon's radar??
I guess aside from these little 'imperfections', it's still a treat to see HRH's new pictures from his long absence :)

More pictures from the website .......

Actually, some of these remind me of his Manstar CF shots.

Still so handsome, but I guess I am hoping for more creative fashion shots

I think I actually wore something like this when I was in university.

Seems like a staple in Korean men's wardrobe - shiny grey suit, anyone notice? Hehe, like the black suit look in Japan :)
original post in byjgallery/maron and korachan

Ruggedly Handsome

Hi Hi sisters .......... who's this mystery cowboy?

Looks more like he's on the FBI (Fanatic Bae International) most wanted list !

Yes yes, this hunk is responsible for the disappearance of thousands of women's hearts!

Hmmm........ he's definitely trying to hide something??

What else? His million dollar smile that melts all those hearts :)

Don't believe me? Try staring directly at his smile for 10 seconds and see if you still remember your name?

I found this set of old pictures in my folder and still remember very fondly how amazed I was to see him in such 'rugged' shape! If memory serves me right, this took place back in November 2005 at Incheon Airport when Yong Joon returned from a private trip to Japan (was it directly after the Beijing April Snow Bunggae?) The press didn't know Yong Joon was arriving and were actually at the airport waiting for a baseball star. This caught our prince in surprise, and thus all those camera-shy pictures :) This man has so many facets, like a diamond - gentle and gorgeous as a noble prince, cool and sexy when he's a rugged cowboy. Now, I think this also marked the beginning of his love affair with his beautiful long hair @@

pictures credited as shown

Gong Xi Fat Choy

Hi Hi dear sisters ...... Just like to wish the sisters who are celebrating Chinese New Year a very happy, healthy and prosperous year of the Ox! What better way to receive the New Year than our gorgeous prince's warm smile :) Let's hope we'll have another wonderful year together in the Bae family, and the economy will make a turn for the better!

fromn byjgallery/miemi

Gosireh Hwa III

Hi dear sisters ....... Just like Gosireh in Tokyo, Gorilla in Seoul; Gosireh Hwa has no sign indicating that this is a Yonsama restaurant. The décor is rustic, natural and calm as the owner himself.

The only hint of a celebrity is this pair of handprints at the entry

How do you know it’s him? There ......

The manager greeted us cordially, cloudnine recognized he is actually the manager from Tokyo Gosireh. He personally came all the way from Tokyo ahead of time to ensure our group was taken care of! Wow, kiyomi san sure has lots of 'face'.

Gosireh Hwa actually is not as big as when I watched Yong Joon touring the vacant unit, thus it seemed much warmer and cozier now. As soon as you walk through the entrance, you’ll see the busy kitchen and to your right, the long corridor adorned by this huge clay? fireplace.


The whole space is partitioned into 6 semi-open cubicles with these Flintstones style walls and twigs. Are we back to Geulmool Village in TWSSG?


Our sisters were already well settled into their seats. Their bus ride coming to Nagoya was very comfortable, they chatted and watched Yong Joon’s videos all the way here, I so wish we could join them! There were about 40 of us occupying 5 cubicles in the dining area. Hehe sorry, the pillar is strategically positioned in the picture to protect our sisters' privacy.


Our table had yonyon san, sakura san, umichan, (sorry, don't know the name of the other sisters) and the lovely Tamatama san was sitting right across, lucky lucky me! Tamatama politely offered me some beer, I wonder why? Oopsies, maybe she noticed the beer belly of mine?? Well, I normally am not a beer drinker (or any kind of drinker), but I felt so hot from all the running. And how could I resist this bottle?

Remember our prince’s Hite Beer CF? Woozy ....... 2 gulps down my throat, I already felt like I was on that jet ski with our prince!

Kiyomi san had arranged a special set menu with all-we-can-drink anything. My oh my, these are not just your usual tea, coffee, pops or juice. I mean REAL drinks like Korean soju, Japanese sake, plum wine, 20+ % alcohol-content type of SERIOUS stuffs! And our sisters also meant REAL business too, look at what they gobbled down ....... (cloudnine and I could only gasped with admiration as we sipped our oolong tea and pear juice)


I attempted to order my drinks in Japanese, but obviously my accent or bad grammar gave me away. A young waitress came over immediately and told me she can speak English and offered to serve me if I need anything. So I asked her if they have any English speaking customers at all, she replied actually none. So I was the first one, well hopefully not the last (hehe princess, you know what I mean).

By now, I was really starving from all the running around, look at what arrived first – toboki! I know this is JunSang’s favorite food and it had appeared million times in Korean dramas but I’d never tasted it once, not even in Seoul! Ummmm let’s see, the sauce was awakening – very spicy and sweet, kind of appetizing. Hehe, the other dish was seafood chijime, don’t mistake it for pizza huh :)


Next came the crispy sweet & sour fried chicken, sorry – half-eaten already

Then this grilled pork wrapped in fresh lettuce, yummy

Oh, this kebob thingy was potato wrapped in beef, cloudnine told me this has a funny name like ‘taro + meat eat together’, right?

One of my favorite - seafood tofu hotpot, the tofu was so soft and smooth, slurp slurp ;o

There were actually many more side dishes and cold salads. You felt so full afterwards but you also knew that you had eaten a healthy and balanced meal. Thanks to our health conscious prince!

Food is a tummy-satisfying part in Kiyomi’s gathering, the other fun part is the games. When I walked into the restaurant, this prize section at the front was already spread with all kinds of BYJ goodies – pictures, magazines, books, T-shirts, towels, you name it. Like inside a BYJ treasure chest!


First game – Drum, paper, scissors! Ok ok, technically it is but I heard kiyomi and the sisters were chanting something Yong Joon when they played it. It was basically her against all of us – whoever won at the end could go into the BYJ treasure chest and chose her prize. Haha, we had so many rounds that most sisters (including cloudnine and moi) got something :)


Next game – Bingo! Ha, we’re not playing with numbers of course, but with the main characters in Yong Joon’s dramas. We basically made up our own bingo card from the group of suggested names and kiyomi would pick it out one by one from a bag. Hahaha, guess what? Yours truly was among the first to say BINGO! Towards the end almost everyone won. If I may guess, I really think this is the intention of kiyomi, she wants every sister to have a little something Yong Joon to bring back home.


Fun times flew by so fast, the clock struck 4. Like Cinderella, our dear sisters had to shed their glass slippers as their carriage was waiting downstairs to take them back to Tokyo, to reality. Since our Shinkansen didn’t leave till 5:30, so cloudnine and I went outside to see them off. As I watched the happy and glowing faces of these sisters, I thought what wonders Yong Joon has done to the lives of these women. Out of our hurried and mundane daily routines, we were able to have an escape, just 1 day of fun and fantasy with other women who share the same love for an extraordinary man. As I waved goodbye to them, I am sure they (especially the ones who had a few of those SERIOUS drinks) would have a very deep and sweet sleep, hehe maybe even dreaming of our Yonsama .......


Lastly, just a lunch outing may sound easy but I can appreciate there’s a tremendous amount of preparations and co-ordinations behind the scene. Thanks to kiyomi san and the ‘April Snow & Now’ team for your caring and kind effort in giving us such a fun and memorable day.