BIG Warning #3

Hehe, final part of these big pictures. Hope you enjoy, until next time, sis ....

check out his looong eyelashes :)

hehe, like bb said, that bohemian feel.....

The most perfect nose in the world!




original by cafe.daum.net/byjgallery
reposted from Chinese Baidu BYJ thread/wlbyj

BIG Warning #2

So pleasing to the eyes, hope you enjoy :) Dear vegas, feeling warmer now?







all pics reposted from Chinese Baidu thread/wlbyj
original cafe.daum.net/byjgallery

BIG Warning #1

Hehe sis, don't say I didn't warn you. I have meant to share these ultra-beautiful, close up pictures with you for a while. These will guarantee to take your breath away. If this is your morning, haha miahnae, you won't be able to work today! and if this is your evening, hehe sumimasen, you won't be able to sleep tonight (just like me!) Enjoy, a lot more to come later .......







all pictures reposted from Chinese Baidu BYJ thread/wlbyj

TWSSG on Hi

Hi Hi ... promise this one's going to be short, sorry for being so late in finishing that wonderful TWSSG day. Remember that was a Monday eh and every Monday night at 10pm, NHK broadcasts TWSSG on its BS Hi-vision channel.


One way to learn our Japanese is to keep listening, so our next task was to purchase a TV in the weekend (plus I need a TV to watch my BYJ dramas too, right?). Now we are not the type of consumers who demand the latest and the best in audio/visual experience, as long as there is some moving pictures on the screen and we are happy. I know that NHK BS-hi is a subscribed channel, only TVs which are equipped with Hi-Definition can watch hi-vision. So when that poor store clerk (who can speak no more than 10 English words) was trying his darndest to explain to us the features of different models, all this crazy woman kept asking him was "BS Hi right? Hi desu ka?". Thanks to the good fellows who invented those internationally-recognized electronic jargons, or is it simply a case of 'man understanding man'? While the salesman could not entertain my silly question (since all new TVs have HD, boink!), he and hubby were actually speaking in electronic language!


Hehe anyway, come Monday night; both TV and us were all settled and ready for the King. BS-hi is showing another Korean drama 'Bluefish' before TWSSG's timeslot, the actress is Ko So Young (remember her in Barefooted Youth?). I had no patience watching other male actors but hey hey, wait a minute! The background was a hip and modern looking restaurant, it looked very familiar. That's none other than our Yong Joon's Gorilla in the Kitchen! Haha, they used his restaurant for filming, how come HRH keeps popping up everywhere here :)


Then right at 10pm, the opening song of TWSSG started playing and our handsome Damdeok riding gallantly on his horse towards us. I have to commend on this Hi-definition technology, the picture is soooooooo clear that I could see every single strand of MSR's eyelashes covered in mascara, isn't that something? Ok, next time I'll pay more attention to HRH's long eyelashes :) No wonder the Japanese sisters actually went out to buy a HDTV just to watch TWSSG on BS-hi. What a great way to end this wonderful day!

TWSSG Screening

It felt like a special day when I woke up yesterday, I was going to meet up with Mariko to watch TWSSG in Shinjuku Wald cinema. To be honest, I haven't really seen or written much to Mariko since my summer visit, but I remember very fondly of her warm and sunny smile. She was nice enough to dig me up knowing that I have arrived in Tokyo and invited me to join her friends for a fun-filled BYJ day.

Mariko didn't disappoint, not only that she brought sunshine with her, she brought along our MYMY too! Yes, our cute and sweet mymy, blossoming into a young lady now. I remember last time (also the first time) when I met mymy, I was on a packed schedule between dining the Omoni lunch in Gosireh and attending the Four Seasons concert in Tokyo Forum. I only had less than an hour to see mymy in this smoke-filled and stuffy coffee shop near a subway station. I was pretty overwhelmed as I always think mymy is an amazing young BYJ fan. I could also see from mymy's eyes that she got pretty emotional herself. I felt both apologetic and grateful to mymy, mariko and cloudnine for arranging that meeting as I didn't know (at that time) if we will see each other again.

Ha, fate brings us back together. Mymy, mariko, we meet again! We hugged and smiled, and proceeded to Shinjuku, which is a super busy hub for shopping, entertainment and dining. Another sister Olivia was waiting to join us to the Wald cinema. This is the giant billboard for TWSSG at the entrance :


Wald9 cinema is located on the 9th floor, this is the sign at the entrance to the elevator :

Since this is a national holiday, the cinema was quite packed with young people. Near the ticket reservation counter, I discovered there is a display case of BYJ merchandise! Can you recognize all these? (hehe sorry, no prize even if you get them all right :)

My smart Japanese sisters got ourselves a set of 12 tickets for 12,000 yen and mariko held it up for me to snap a shot of it.

We really didn't have much time left, so we ran downstairs to grab a quick bite. Olivia started telling us about their Taiwan trip to Yong Joon's AS Tour with mariko and bb, this is when I discovered how wonderfully cheerful this sister is. Olivia's account of their adventures was so animated, it made us burst out laughing and almost forgot that we were late for our show! We met up with another sister Cherish and stumbled into the pitch dark cinema, feeling our way to our seats. From the very occasional bright shots from the screen, I could tell the cinema was very big. We finally got settled in the seats and oh btw, we were watching epsiode 4, so the handsome adult Damdeok has not appeared yet, phew!


Wow, this drama is really made to be enjoyed in the theatre complete with 3-D and surround sound effects. Aside from the obvious benefits of seeing HRH in his full gorgeousness? on the big screen, this time it's the sound effects that really impress me. you know, every single sound is produced to perfection. Remember that scene when Sujini was a little girl, she brought Jumoochi to Bason's blacksmith shop and he threw his axe and chopped the tree stump into halves? My gosh, that quick, sharp chopping sound was so powerful that you felt like the axe was hitting at you! It's even more captivating during the polo match when the historical music, galloping horses and the sweeping weapons all combined to create this wonderful symphony. Since Wald9 is showing 1 episode per showing, so we had to leave the room and re-enter for episode 5.

The elegant Cloudnine onni joined us for this next episode and I was very happy to see her again. There seems to be a few other Japanese sisters that cloudnine was talking to. Then all of a sudden, a very graceful lady emerged and called me "Jaime!" and cloudnine told me "this is Pallet". Pallet? You mean the very famous artist Pallet, whom I have written to and admire?


Mymy and I were awe-struck, this was totally unexpected. We both admire the artistic talent of Pallet and love her recent drawings on the different 'gaze of Damdeok'. It was just too much happiness happening to me in one day. We didn't have much time to chat as episode 5 was about to start. In my heart I know we will have a chance to meet again.

As we were about to leave the cinema after episode 5 was finished, cloudnine pointed the stage to me where Hogae-nim (Yon Ta Young?) held his autograph session on the first day of TWSSG screening. I could imagine the crowds and excitement on that day already :


We still liked to talk a bit more, so we went to a coffee shop for desserts. It was another stuffy and smoke-filled cafe! Since it had been a long day and we all have obligations as housewives and mothers or students :), we decided to call off the day. Thank you mariko, mymy, olivia, cherish and cloudnine for another wonderful Bae Day!

Ha, but this TWSSG day did not end there, stay tune .......

Coming of Age day

OhaiyooGazaimasu ...... Today is a national holiday in Japan, it's called 'Coming of age' Day (Seijin no hi). This is to celebrate young men and women who have reached the age of 20 (hatachi), 20 is the legal age which they can vote and drink. This is a very cold morning and the streets are especially quiet. As I understand from cloudnine, the young ladies will head for the beauty salons later to have their hair and make up done, then dress up in the very formal and beautiful kimono. There will be civic ceremonies held in city halls and temples to recognize these young people, then they will celebrate with their families and friends. So I am eager to go out later to catch a glimpse of these fantastic sights.


But I have another reason to be exicted today. I will be meeting sister Mariko, her friends and cloudnine to watch the screening of TWSSG in Shinjuku Wald cinema. Mariko is a very warm and friendly sister and I love the chance to see her again. I am also eager to watch the spectacular cinematography of TWSSG on a big screen :) Will tell ya later, k?

'Barefooted Youth' screening

I really look forward to today (oopsies, I passed that midnight cutoff again, hehe I meant yesterday) cause I am attending the first day of ‘Barefooted Youth’ screening in Toho cinema.

Hehe, I am not a stranger to this cinema anymore as I had the pleasure of watching ‘Winter Sonata’ here this past summer while in Tokyo. I have such fond memory as that was the first time I met cloudnine, kiyomi, baba-san and other Japanese sisters. I remember when I was sitting in this big cinema together with hundreds of BYJ sisters, the theme song ‘From Beginning to Now’ started playing as the powder snow blew onto JunSang’s beautiful face, I was so overcome with emotions and tears was swelling up in my eyes.

You see other Korean dramas, 'Jumong' and 'Autumn in my Heart' are shown here too.

Hey, but this time I am like a pro, hehe sort of, with some handy instructions from my kind and sweet cloudnine onni. “Hadashi no Seishun, ichi mai O kudasai” (or simply Yonsama movie?), hahaha there, I bought my first movie ticket! In fact, my seat was pretty good considering it was almost a full house.


To be honest, I have only watched ‘Barefooted Youth’ once, never really like the story or settings. But hey, BYJ is BYJ, it really doesn’t matter even if it’s a frozen screen or no sound, and that’s exactly what happened. Ten minutes into episode 1, the sound was filled with static and was hardly audible, the audience started whispering and grumbling. To make the matters worse, the screen was suddenly frozen (see, I told u I am jinx)! Toho cinema was very lucky though, the screen froze right at a close up shot of Yonsama! Then a very courageous male staff came up, disregarding his risk of facing 500+ dissatisfied women, bowed 90 degrees, said something (funny?) and the whole audience broke out in laughter. OK, I guess then he is excused, so I just patiently stayed back in my comfy seat. Before long, Yeo-Suk is back with vengeance, gorgeous enough to drown us for the next 2 hours.

Good times didn’t just end there. After the movie, dear Kiyomi (leader of ‘April Snow & Now) has kindly organized a lunch get-together in the premier lounge for about 15 of us. Continuing with the waterfall design in the cinema, the premier lounge has an elegant modern décor with water running down 2 large glass panels backing onto natural lighting. The set menu is actually quite simple : choices of pasta + salad + drinks. I kind of like the self-serve hot/cold drinks that you can enjoy throughout the meal, perfect for a long chat with your friends.


Cloudnine was so nice to stay by my side and translated for me the whole time. Thank you cloudnine onni, I know this is your precious time too to socialize with your Japanese sisters, but you didn’t want me to feel left out, I appreciate it so much. I was very happy to see some ‘familiar & friendly’ faces again from our August Gosireh ‘omoni’ lunch. Some of the sisters cannot really converse with me but I can tell from their sincere faces that they welcome me with all their hearts.

Hehe ...... I guess this time I can really say “Same time next week, sisters?”


This New Year card is from Kiyomi, in front of Yonsama are thousands of 'good luck' paper cranes :

This is the MinHyung's scarf that cloudnine showed me from the Chinese loveyongjoon.com sisters during BYJ's Beijing tour. I take lousy pictures but the color of the scarf is very beautiful and brilliant :) Thanks for sharing, cloudnine.

Bye to my Homeland ......

Oh my lord, I started this post last night and must have dozed off while writing it. That's how sleep deprived I am! Anyway, allow me to pick it up again this morning .....

Every night after I have done my washing and scrubbing (pot, pans, dishes, floor, you name it), I just dragged my old and exhausted body in front of the computer. This is my quiet time to unwind, to reflect and to greet my dear sisters. Now, where was I in my Tokyo journal? Oh yes, bidding goodbye!

Did I mention that this infrequent traveller always get hit with major weather systems whenever she goes? It was the first snow storm last month I came here, this time I was met with another major snow dump! The highway had practically turned into a skating rink as we watched cars around us spinning like bumper cars! I thought to myself, "Er ... I just don't think I am going to miss this!", but in fact my mind was not on the weather. My heart was still overcome with sadness after bidding goodbye to my parents. It was very difficult watching their frailing figures behind the windows becoming fainter and fainter as we drove further away from the house :( No matter how old and independent you think you are, I think parents and children always tug a special cord in one's heart.

Well, we finally arrived at the airport without incident, in fact too early. We decided to check out the Air Canada Maple Leaf Lounge (kind of like a private waiting area) :



Hehe, even complete with a soup/salad and latte bar for hungry travellers :

I'd say this is more for business travellers as it is facilitated with small conference rooms, internet booths, hehe even alcoholic drinks and showers! Frankly, I think the regular boarding area is quite spectacular and spacious, and the duty free shopping is not bad either.

As expected with this kind of weather, the usual 2 hours delay for de-icing the wings. Hehe, I don't know if you have seen it before, these guys are sitting in a stretch arm of a de-icing truck spraying some brownish liquid on the wings. When the wings turn green, that means the plane is ready to go (sorry for explaining it in such a crude and non-technical way :)

Now I was thankful that I had some bread and coffee in the lounge, otherwise I would starve into a skeleton before the stewardess had the mercy to serve us some food. Hehe, the menu they gave us was so long as if they were explaining how to fly a plane. I didn't hesitate and ordered the Japanese dinner, of course la, I was flying to Japan! Hehe, I couldn't make out what the appetizers were but I tried them all :


The main course :

I couldn't say they were that good, afterall this is airline food, what can I expect? Hehe, in my humble opinion, I think this is better :

Ha, why do I keep talking about food? Hehe, I blame it on princess bb's influence on fine wining & dining. The rest of the journey was pretty uneventful. We had a pretty comfortabe ride and by the time we landed in Tokyo Narita, it was quite late already. The cool Tokyo breeze welcome us and we took a deep breath of the fresh Tokyo air to begin our new lives here. We checked into our hotel and had a long hot shower, jumped into the soft downfilled beddings knowing how hectic and tiring the coming weeks will be like. Goodbye Toronto, Goodnight Tokyo!


P.S. Before I slept, I looked out the window and noticed RSW's buildings (& his pics too) are so close by. This is the same sky (well, close enough) as my love BYJ and RSW. I said a prayer to the night sky and thank the lord for bringing us here!

A BYJ Phone?

I am rubbing my eyes, am I seeing it right? Japan is releasing a BYJ mobile phone featuring His Royal Handsomeness' pictures, voice messages and music. Haha, what perfect timing! Hubby has been reminding me to get myself a cell phone but I murmured to myself : how? where? why? what? when? who? U see, I am so used to everything (technolgy wise) being handed to me, I never really bothered investigating what's the latest and greatest in cell phone technology and style, never mind all the positives and negatives from hundreds of phone plans. Hehe, now HRH has made the easy decision for me, it'll be HIS phone!

reposted from Baidu/yj2829, original from JOB :

Now, the big question is : WHEN IS HE GOING TO CALL ME? Hehe, just kidding :)

Where do I begin?

Hi hi my dear sisters ..... I miss him, I miss him more and I MISS YOU ALL! Thank you for dropping your warm messages to me, I am so touched as I am in the middle of a new country. Let me also wish you dear sisters a very happy and prosperous 2008!!

From January 1, the moment I stepped on the plane to this very late night sitting in my new home looking out at the Tokyo skyline, I wanted to record this milestone in my life in details, but where do I begin? I feel like I have re-lived my life events for the last 10 years again, just that they are all condensed into this past 7 days! Ok , one thing at a time, maybe I should pick up what I have left off last time.....

Before I left for Japan, I had a last gathering with my Toronto sisters Gosijo and Ivy. Since it was 2 days before Yong Joon's MBC Awards attendance, we were quite eager waiting to see how his recovery has progressed. We were also speculating (without base, of course) and hoping that he would win the DaeSang (Grand Acting) Award. Hehe and he did, and much much more :

He has earned the respect from his peers and the industry. The Korean public recognize that the name 'BYJ' is a power house and the undisputed force in Hallyu Wave. He brings his talents and pure heart to the table, and now he is being rewarded many folds.


Oh, back to the gathering, we always know BYJ sisters are generous and caring. No matter how much gifts you prepare for a BYJ gathering, you are always showered with even more :) I hope Ivy and Gosijo don't mind, I cannot resist showing the pretty pink scarf, the purple crystal angel and those gorgeous HRH pictures from them. Can you believe it, that beautiful pink scarf is actually HANDKNITTED by Ivy herself?! Thank Q Thank Q ladies!

Hehe, my BYJ New Year's wreath :)


I have taken these wonderful memories with me in Tokyo now (hehe, and the wreath too :)