yakihito

Puffy Update

Just got a message in my in-box that the upcoming San Francisco Puffy show has been moved to Slim's. Date and time are the same: November 15 at 8pm.

See you there!

Hello, Kyushu

A while back I posted that I was applying to study in Kyoto as an exchange student from San Francisco State University. After waiting patiently for what seemed like eons, I found out this week that I won't be able to go to Kyoto Gaidai. There was only one slot available and I was second choice.

However, I was offered a slot at Oita University, to study in the Kyushu school's international program for a year. Truthfully I hadn't even considered the Oita program because the Kyoto program was so perfect. But the more I looked into Oita, the cooler it seemed. And it's affordable. Campus housing is like $50 a month. That's no typo: $50!

Oita is on the north-eastern side of Kyushu, just down the road from onsen-filled Beppu, the Las Vegas of Japan (apparently). It's a bit removed from the rest of the island, so that could be cool in a unique-culture kind of way, or it could be boring. Maybe a bit of both. Anyone ever spent time in Oita or that part of Kyushu?

I'm excited no matter what, but it would be cool to find out in advance about bars and such.

Classes start in April 2008, so I have lots of time to be excited, get scared, and be excited again about studying overseas.

Puffy Anticipation

I have officially purchased my tickets for the November 15 Puffy show in San Francisco. I do not, however, own the new album, Honeycreeper, yet. Why not, you ask? Simmer down and I'll tell you. I took myself to the Kinokuniya in Japantown to procure a copy but I had to balk at the $38.75 price tag. That's a lot of money for a little Puffy. So I ordered the Korean version off YesAsia.com for $15.99.

While I wait for that little gem to arrive, I watch this over and over:

It's the video for "Oriental Diamond," the Tamio Okuda-penned lead track off the new album. It's just about the cutest thing you'll see until the next cutest thing you see.

Oh, and check this out:

It's the German punk band Gigantor doing "Asia no jushin," complete with vocoder. They also have an "Umi e to" video on YouTube, but it's not as good so I won't bother linking to it.

See you on the 15th!