I can almost see it
That dream I am dreaming
But there’s a voice inside my head saying
“You’ll never reach it”

Every step I’m taking
Every move I make feels
Lost with no direction
My faith is shaking

But I gotta keep trying
Gotta keep my head held high

There’s always gonna be another mountain
I’m always gonna wanna make it move
Always gonna be a uphill battle
Sometimes I’m gonna have to lose

Ain’t about how fast I get there
Ain’t about what’s waiting on the other side
It’s the climb

The struggles I’m facing
The chances I’m taking
Sometimes might knock me down
But no, I’m not breaking

I may not know it
But these are the moments that
I’m gonna remember most, yeah
Just gotta keep going

And I, I got to be strong
Just keep pushing on

‘Cause there’s always gonna be another mountain
I’m always gonna wanna make it move
Always gonna be a uphill battle
Sometimes I’m gonna have to lose

Ain’t about how fast I get there
Ain’t about what’s waiting on the other side
It’s the climb, yeah!

There’s always gonna be another mountain
I’m always gonna wanna make it move
Always gonna be an uphill battle
Somebody’s gonna have to lose

Ain’t about how fast I get there
Ain’t about what’s waiting on the other side
It’s the climb, yeah!

Keep on moving, keep climbing
Keep the faith, baby
It’s all about, it’s all about the climb
Keep the faith, keep your faith, whoa

Life’s a climb, but the views great.

No matter how, we always have our own mountains to conquer, and in its place, another mountain. But we go on and on, to greater heights, cause that is what we are. Never ending determination to get what we want.

Ace wo nerae, or エースをねらえ in Japanese, means “Aim for the Ace!”. This drama is about this girl Oka Hiromi, who joined the Nishi High School tennis club after seeing this girl (nicknamed Ochoufujin, お蝶夫人) play gracefully on the court. She’s a total newbie, yet the new coach Munakata Jin took notice of her persevering spirit and made her one of the players representing the school for competition. Naturally this means the more qualified seniors are unhappy about the arrangement and seeks means and ways to make Oka feel bad.

The beauty of this drama is in how the coach spends time and effort grooming Oka, and even though Oka does not understand the coach very well, she continues to come back time and again after running away from tennis. Eventually Oka understands the coach’s feelings and at the end of the entire drama she made it as a representative of Japan to go to America to play in the Youth Cup.

We might find ourselves running away from time to time, not understanding what is going on. We may doubt and question ourselves in the choice we make. Oka frequently asks herself why she chose to play tennis. What does tennis mean to her. When Ochoufujin asks her to choose between tennis and herself, Oka initially chooses Ochoufujin, but realizes that she loved tennis so much, so she returned.

Sometimes life gives us challenges, and we may feel dejected for a moment. But as long as we truly believed in ourselves, and we truly worked hard for our goals, we will reach there. Even if the world didn’t believe in you, you have to believe in yourself. The world doesn’t owe us a duty to believe, but we can make them believe. With perseverance and hard work, one day we’ll achieve the things that we are aiming for, and then everyone would be forced to believe.

Ace wo nerae, minna.

I finished this JDrama a few days ago, and the time spent from the beginning of the drama at episode one to its ending at episode 9 took me almost 6 months. This is because the source for the stream was really bad and it took very long to load the parts. Thanks to Dom, I got to watch the rest of the episodes from episode 5 onwards without any lag.

Hotelier is a drama about managing a hotel. The hotel is facing a crisis as there is a person who is looking forward to take over this hotel through the acquiring of the majority of its shares. The guy’s personal reason for doing so was rather childish in my opinion.

Anyway, he hired a takeover expert who has successfully engineered several takeovers in the past. The expert then stayed in the hotel silently to evaluate the hotel.

Through a series of fortunate events, he fell in love with the Assistant Manager Odagiri (played by Ueto Aya). But his identity was eventually exposed and there were some confusion on Odagiri’s part as she was loyal to the hotel for being her home all these years, and on the other hand she had feelings for the expert.

Eventually after lots of ups and downs, the expert switched sides and saved the hotel.

Notice that I didn’t really remember the names of key personnel, and I didn’t give more review to this drama. This is because the drama isn’t really exciting, and it was slow at some points in time. Had it not been Ueto Aya’s work, I would probably not have finished this drama. Probably this is another reason why it dragged beyond 6 months. I guess people can skip this drama?

I finished watching Buzzer Beat yesterday, taking 4 days to finish this 11 episode Jdrama. I must say I took it nice and slow compared to most dramas that I finish within 2 or 3 days. This is especially so since I can’t sleep late due to the need to wake up early for work, so I watched 2 eps on Sunday, and 3 eps on the remaining 3 days till Wednesday. If you wonder why there’s lesser eps on a weekend compared to a weekday, well, I got the drama from Dom only in our Sunday sting ray outing, and I reached home at 8 plus.

Buzzer Beat is probably more of a romantic drama than anything else. There’s not so much of professional basketball than the development of the character’s affection and internal angst. In a way I can understand the feelings of Naoki (played by Yamashita Tomohisa, affectionately known as Yamapi) when he sees that his girlfriend (played by Saki Aibu of Zettai Kareshi) was cheating on him. The feeling would be really crushing, and from then on I was supporting his character all the way. But I guess I already knew he would end up with Riko (played by Kitagawa Keiko), so I was expecting them to have some development.

And Buzzer Beat didn’t disappoint. But Naoki made me very sad when he didn’t tell the truth to Riko. I think even if you saw your ex and passed her an umbrella, one should let one’s girlfriend know to prevent any problems from happening. Instead of letting her imagination go wild and stuff.

I loved Buzzer Beat because the characters are both 24 (which is my age!). Ok that isn’t true. The thing is, they were both chasing their dreams. Naoki wanting to win the Basketball championship, and Riko wanting to be a violinist in a concert. I was especially happy when Riko said she would stay by Naoki’s side because she didn’t want to leave him (but before you shout MCP!), and Naoki told her to pursue his dreams (why? because..), because Riko was his no 1 basketball fan, and Naoki said he would be Riko’s no 1 violin fan. Two people mutually supporting each other and chasing their dreams, and finally achieving it, I think it’s really sweet.

I like the Coach too, because he is really mature and sweet, and understanding too. He could have potentially caused problems for Naoki and Riko, but he didn’t.

There are a few quotes I liked in the show, but I can’t remember every single one. Perhaps one of the more memorable ones would be “I didn’t know it then, but the ball of fate has already unwind at that time”. Kinda makes you wonder whether some ball of fate has already unwind for you isn’t it?

But I guess in a way, the show is still a drama. Obsessively believing that someone that good will come is like gambling. Waiting for the odds to come. But for most mortals, we typically encounter bad traits and have to learnt to accept them. Life doesn’t always give you someone as nice and handsome as Naoki, or as understanding and pretty as Riko. But I guess what life is about is the mutual support and understanding you can give to each other.

Anyway, Buzzer Beat refers to the ball going into the net as the buzzer for the time out begins to sound. It signifies a last minute score, and it changed the winning team at the beginning and end games. I guess no prizes for guessing who scored the Buzzer Beat on the last one. Yes that baka hachi ban, Naoki.

“Awanai nante iwanai de” looks and sounds like a rhyme but it just means “Don’t say let’s not meet”.

I went to check the wiki, Yamapi and Keiko won the Best Actor and Best Actress last year using this show! I remember my first JDrama was Kurosagi, and Yamapi won the Best Actor then, and Maki won the Best Supporting Actress. At least now Keiko is considered the main and not the supporting.

I love this drama. Shall store it and watch it when I am bored next time.

Once again, Nakama Yukie comes back as everybody’s favourite character, Yamaguchi Kumiko (Yankumi) in Gokusen 3! I had actually watched Gokusen 3 first, after I learnt that there was no continuation in the stories, although later I found out that there were a few characters that were from previous seasons. But there is nothing to worry because it can be watched as a standalone season. I watched this season first because Gokusen The Movie was coming, and I’m glad I did because after I had finished season 3, I went on my Sydney Trip and I watched Gokusen The Movie on the plane!

Gokusen 3 takes place in a new school called Akadou. Once again, Yankumi had to take care of the delinquent class (Class 3D, again!), and teach them about loyalty and friendship. About respect for elders and about fighting and violence. You know it already.

I had nothing to compare when I watched Gokusen 3 first. But after watching Gokusen 1 and a little of Gokusen 2, I feel that Gokusen 3 is relatively boring. There were more fight scenes and it always ends with Yankumi coming and defeating everyone. For Gokusen 1, there are more parts dealing with non fighting things. There are times when it doesn’t end with fighting and rescuing.

But I guess it is always good to watch Gokusen 3 first if you’re thinking of watching Gokusen The Movie. The main character came from Gokusen 3, and it is a story about the same school but the class has graduated and Yankumi is teaching a new class 3D. Hence it is relevant to watch Gokusen 3 to get an understanding of the story.

I’ve watched the movie called “Valentine’s Day” yesterday, a day after the real Valentine’s Day. The movie theatre was packed, which I presume was due to the nature that it is the second day of new year, and those who have finished their visiting due to smaller family size would have some spare time to go watch a movie, since there is nothing much to do when most shops are not open. Wow. What a long statement.

“Valentine’s Day” is quite “Love Actually” in the sense that it is many different love stories happening at the same time. I forgot if “Love Actually” has any link between the various couples, but in “Valentine’s Day”, all the couples are linked one way or another. Plus “Valentine’s Day” seemed to have more of a darker feel compared to “Love Actually”. Why do I say that? Allow me to comment, but there would be spoilers.

Spoiler’s Alert

There are several characters in the show that have quite sad elements in them. Let me quote them one by one. Ashton Kutcher’s character proposed to Jessica Alba’s character, and she said yes. Being a newly engaged man, he is naturally excited and goes about telling everyone that she said yes. Most of the people didn’t believe it at first, because they thought she would never have agreed. When he went back during mid day to place a surprise in their room, he found her with all her luggages packed and an empty wardrobe. She just couldn’t marry him. I felt that it is a little sad because she shouldn’t have agreed if she wasn’t ready. And what’s more, to break up on Valentine’s Day, after a proposal. You can just feel how disappointed he would have been, from an all high climax to a all new low.

The second set of characters involve Patrick Dempsey and Jennifer Garner’s characters. Patrick’s character is a married man, having a mistress, who is the character of Jennifer’s. When he goes to Ashton’s florist shop to send flowers to both his wife and his mistress, Ashton realized that his friend Jennifer is the mistress, and struggled with himself to tell her. I hate infidelity. I don’t know how to express my plain disgust for such type of acts.

The third set of characters involved older actors. Hector Elizondo and Shirley MacLaine. They are a set of husband and wife, and on Valentine’s Day, Emma Robert’s character, who is the babysitter of their grandson, spoke to them about how she was going to have sex with her boyfriend for the first time. Emma said “Who only sleeps with one person in their life?”, to which Hector said that they did that, even though they had to endure long periods of time apart from each other. Shirley cried and went to the living room, and Hector followed. Guess what. Shirley confessed about an affair from some time ago. Gosh I could just feel the sense of disappointment that Hector has. And he said “The truth makes everything else seemed like a lie”. Can you understand how troubled he would have felt, and on Valentine’s Day itself? Knowing about your wife’s infidelity? I hated it. I didn’t understand why they got back together. Just because it was on Valentine’s Day? What does it mean by “You have to love a whole person, not just the good parts, but the bad parts as well”? What bad parts? In my opinion, infidelity is a rotten part. It’s an act of betrayal that is very hard to forgive.

I can understand if people had sex with other people before they got married, but I would expect that after marriage, it is of paramount importance to be faithful because you love that person. It is not about how having sex makes you feel happy, so you go around finding other people; it is about the love and the bond between two people that makes it special isn’t it?

Spoilers End

Well, those are the darker kinds of thing they bring out in the show, but in the end it was about love all right, and finding them. And being happy. I guess it is an alright movie, but some parts were just slow to me. But maybe romantic stories are like that and guys will always find it slow. But I enjoyed it though.

Happy Valentines to those who celebrated on the 14th. We should all celebrate White Day as well.

Recently I’ve been addicted to this song, and another one, Yume no chikara, which I will post some other time. I don’t know why but Jap songs seem nice. Even when you can only figure out a few of the words. Haha.

Here’s the translated lyrics from the Cherryblossom Garden:

For the sake of love, one more time, now my dream may wither, so I give it water
But I believe in just one thing, and that makes it all alright

I let my tears flow and put all the things I lost in my right pocket
I’ve hidden them, but you always see how they hurt don’t you?

Close your eyes as the sunset fills the sky
and the warmth won’t disappear

Even at a time like this, you smile
Shining upon this heart of mine

For the sake of love, I keep walking, protecting the flower that grows in my heart
There is only one thing that’s important to me, and it allows me to live like this
It’s simply for the sake of love

I smile as put the memories of our encounter in my left pocket
One day, I’ll be proud of the way I’m loving you right now

I thought that the time had stopped
I have not forgotten that night

The words you spoke that time
Even now, they lift up my heart

For the sake of love, I keep walking, protecting the flower that grows in my heart
One day, you and me will go the place of our dreams, always believing that we can get there
It’s simply for the sake of love

For the sake of love, one more time, now my dream may wither, so I give it water
But I believe in just one thing, and that makes it all alright

For the sake of love, I keep walking, protecting the flower that grows in my heart
There is only one thing that’s important to me, and it allows me to live like this
It’s simply for the sake of love

I think I like the chorus where “There is only one thing that’s important to me, and it allows me to live like this”. For me, currently its dreams, or yume in Japanese. And it is the reason why I love “Yume no Chikara” or “The power of dreams”.

I guess alot of people would be able to identify themselves in this song, and hence it is quite meaningful too.

At first I thought this song was a little stupid, but it’s pretty catchy. But still it feels a little stupid although its like so crazily catchy. Haha. It’s a little act cute though, something I guess is good for a girl band to attract the guys? Haha.

This is actually the first season of the Gokusen series. At the moment there are 3 Gokusen drama series and 1 Gokusen movie that has just been showing in theatres. Before I watched Gokusen, I didn’t know what it was about but I have heard about it. Initially I thought it was once of those Meteor Gardens kind of style of dramas. It was because Gokusen the movie came to Singapore and I heard the story over the radio, and hence I got interested.

Gokusen is about this teacher called YAmaguchi KUMIko, whose nickname is formed from the letters that I deliberately made upper case (YANKUMI). Her parents died early, and she was taken care of by her grandfather, who is the 3rd generation head of the Oeda family, a prominent Yakuza group. Basically it is like a gang but more professional and organized. Kind of like the godfather kind. So she is going to be the 4th generation head, but she is only interested in being a teacher.

This drama series is like the Great Teacher Onizuka type, where the teacher is not any normal teacher, but one with compassion, passion and feelings for the profession. One that bothers to understand the students and bonds with them so they felt that they were needed, and hence steering them to the right path. Due to Yankumi being the “heir” of the yakuza group, she is actually very strong and always fights to protects her precious students.

Gokusen 1 takes place in Shirokin High School, where the class 3D is full of delinquents. The “boss” of the class is Shin, a student who is super smart but ended up in a bad school due to him punching a teacher. There are also some of his friends, including Kumai, better known as Kuma, whose family owns a ramen shop. Kuma is a recurring character in all Gokusen series, with the 1st season being part of the class and the rest as the owner of the ramen shop.

The series shows how Yankumi gets into the hearts of her students and how she taught them important things like the difference between fighting and violence. She taught them to made friends that they can depend on, and as a result, she build an impressive class that graduated together, all these done whilst hiding her identity as a Yakuza heir.

There are smaller sub stories in the drama, providing some comedic relief. Whenever Yankumi suffers some humilation or hurt, her yakuza members would one by one get angry until Yankumi calls their name. Then something will happen and the second person will get angry and it goes on.

This is a light hearted drama, but occasionally it gets slightly dry. At this moment I have only watched Gokusen and Gokusen 3, and I think Gokusen 3 is repetitive and more dry. Gokusen is not always about fighting, and has much more plot and content that varies. This is a good drama, although in my opinion the guys there are not that handsome, except for Oguri Shun, who acted in Hana Kimi.

I have waited quite a long time for the high quality HD subs to be released, and the reason why I started watching this drama is because Maki is the lead actress. I admit that I did not know about the plot before I started, so it could be some potentially lousy drama, but I am happy to say that it is not.

Indeed, it has some traditional lame Japanese elements inside especially when one of the ways to distract someone goes like this:

“You’re a girl”
“You’re not a boy”
“I got a second thing to tell you”
*Waits a while*
“You’re human”

Seriously makes you think HUH but it adds abit of comic element in the drama.

The drama is actually about this girl who is running away from a 100 million yen debt. (Reminds me of Hayate the anime). Her father gambled and borrowed that sum of money and defaulted. The yakuza now hounds the girl, Chisato, for payment. A mysterious man came from a helicopter and paid the 100 million yen for Chisato, and Chisato leaves with him in a helicopter. On the helicopter, she signs a contract to agree to pay back the 100 million yen eventually.

Once she reaches their destination, she was told that the contract includes a clause that says she will be his wife. Now, Shinzo (the man) is actually old enough to be Chisato’s father. Chisato cannot escape from the contract unless she pays up the 100 million yen in a day, so she agreed to be his wife. Please don’t think of those kinky stuff because all she did was to keep him company as his wife for one month till he passed away.

Soon the one month passed, and the lawyer brings the contract. She then realizes that there is more to the contract. She has to live in a house with 6 “adopted” sons and be their mother. These sons do not get along well with each other, and keep to themselves. They think of themselves as people who just happen to live together. As their mother, she has to complete 10 goals, of which she started with needing to get the entire family to eat together.

Funny things continue and Chisato always finds out there is more to the contract. Eventually, she has to complete those tasks, find out her real identity, and create a family out of 7 people who are not blood related. Will she manage to complete the goals? Will she remain homeless after she finished her job as their mother? Will they learn to show care and concern as a family?

Atashinchi No Danshi is an 11 episode drama that is heart warming and funny to watch. It is not like those uber pro drama like Code Blue, but it is also not as lousy as some boring dramas Maki worked on before. Hence it is a must watch for people who is thinking of watching dramas but do not know what to watch.