important: my cute BBS has fallen under the attack of spammers T__T so I've decided to take it down. (you can still view it here if you left a comment lately and are expecting a reply from me though) I don't want to spend all day deletting spam messages. Since this blog has a LiveJournal version, from now on I'll add an LJ comment link at the end of each entry for those who want to leave comments. You can comment whether you are a member of Livejournal or not.
A few weeks ago I bought a few tearouts from a JE fellow fan, and among them, there was this wonderful, unexpected surprise: Ya-Ya-yah's article from the 2005 March issue of Duet, which has the cutest "Taisho" photoshoot. [I'm sure you'll be happy when you see this, Aki. ;-)] I haven't seen big scans of it elsewhere, so I thought I'd scan them and share them with you all. =]
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The bad news is that there's one page missing: Hikaru's page. -_- If anybody has that pages and wants to share, send me an e-mail. ;-) Click on the thumbnails below to see the pages in a bigger size (all image links open in a new window)
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The text of this article is as cute as the pics, because the guys talk about VD (Valentine's Day) and WD (White Day). Is White Day celebrated elsewhere apart from Japan? We certainly don't celebrate it here in Spain. ^^ Oh, and if you're not that familiar with Japanese traditions, you might be surprised to know that Valentine's Day is a bit... different in Japan. The clip below explains it all.
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I've always thought it's curious that in Japan it's women who take the first step on VD. I mean, Japanese society is a bit of a male chauvinist society, and it seems strange that women should be the ones to take the lead on VD. Then again, perhaps some narrow-minded Japanese men thought it would be kind of humiliating for them to confess their love for a woman first? I wonder if WD was conceived in Japan as a way of evening things out (like Boys Day has become Children's Day there). However, I wonder how many guys actually remember to buy chocolates on WD. Guys tend to get forgetful about special occasions, like anniversaries and such. XD;;;
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Anyway. In a recent Popolo's questionnaire Shoon said his first love had been in elementary school, a girl who gave him chocolates for VD and a letter that said "Want to walk back home together after school?". Well, in this article we learn the whole story about that girl. [Yui, you're gonna love this. ;-)].
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I haven't translated the whole thing (my Japanese is only so-so and it would have taken me pretty long), but I'll sum up a bit Shoon and Taiyo's conversation. [Yabu and Hikaru's is not complete as Hikaru's page is missing]
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Taiyô asks Shoon how many boxes of chocolates did he get on VD the year before. Shoon answers that unfortunately he didn't get any -that seems hard to believe. XD He then asks Taiyô is he got any. Taiyô replies he only received one from a girl at school. Shoon asks him whether he gave her chocolates in return, and Taiyô answers that yes, he did the right thing giving her chocolates on WD. Then I think Taiyô comments on how expensive it is when you have to give someone chocolates on that date and that it's better not to get chocolates from many girls. Then there's a bit I'm not very sure what they're talking about - about failing to remember WD I think. *ahem* And then comes the bit about Shoon's first love, which I've translated:
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鮎川: ボクはチコをもらえたら、ふつうにうれしいな。でも、義理チコか本命チョコかわかんないんだよね。告自つき でもらったことは１回もないから。[Ayukawa: Boku wa choko wo moraetara, futsuu ni ureshii na. demo, giri choko ka honmei choko ka wakannainda yo ne. Kokuhaku tsuki de moratta koto wa ikkai mo nai kara.]
Taiyô: If I get chocolates (for Valentine's Day), normally I feel happy, but I never know if they are chocolates given out of compromise, or chocolates given as a heartfelt gift. I’ve never received chocolates from a girl who wanted to confess her love for me.
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山下: ボクはね、あるよ。小学校低学年のときだけど、つき合ってた彼女から。[Yamashita: Boku wa ne, aru yo. Shougakkou teigakunen no toki dakedo, tsukiatteta kanojo kara.]
Shoon: Actually... I have. It was during my earlier years in elementary though, from the girl I was going out with.
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鮎川: エーッ、マジで? さっきバレンタインに興味ない、みたいな話してたくせに、ズルイなあ（笑）。低学年って、何年 生？[Ayukawa: Ee, maji de? Sakki barentain ni kyoumi nai, mitai na hanashiteta kuse ni, zurui naa (wara). Teigakunen-tte, nanseinen?]
Taiyô: Eh?! Really? A moment ago it seemed to me you thought there was nothing interesting about Valentine's Day, and now I can see why. You kept pretty quiet about it, eh? (laughs) So then, it was in your early years of elementary school. Which grade were you in?
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山下: 小学校２年生。相手はシンガポールから日本に来たコ。そのコが転校してすぐバレンタインだったの。チ ョコいっしょうに手紙が入ってて「いっしょうに帰りましょう」って。家がメチャ近くて，徒歩２分くらいのと こだったから、もしかして[ご近所なんでよろしくね」的なものだったのかな(笑）。４年間中よしだったけど、６年生のとき、彼女祖国に へ帰って行ったんじゃー(笑）。[Yamashita: Shougakkou ninensei. Aite wa Shingapooru kara nihon ni kita ko. Sono ko ga tenkou shite sugu barentain datta no. Choko isshou ni tegami ga haittete "Isshou ni kaerimashou" 'tte. Ie ga mecha chikakute, toho nifun kurai no to ko datta kara, moshika shite "Go-kinjo nande yoroshiku ne" teki na mono datta no ka na (wara). Yonen kan juu yoshi datta kedo, rokunen no toki, kanojo sokoku ni e kaetteittanjaa (wara).]
Shoon: Second grade. It was a girl who had come from Singapore to Japan. Soon after she transferred to our school it was Valentine's Day. She gave me a box of chocolates and a letter that said: "Want to walk home together after school?". Our houses were so close it only took around 2 minutes to get to each other's house. Maybe that was like her way of saying "Since we live so close by, take care of me, okay?". For four years things went well for us, but in sixth grade she had to go back to her country, you see. (laughs)
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Such a cute and sad story, isn't it? ;__; It's also pretty awesome that he went out with her for four years when they were so young. ^__^ After this bit Taiyô asks Shoon something I don't understand, and I'm not very sure about Shoon's reply either. ^^UUU Then they get back to the subject of VD, and Taiyô tells Shoon about his memories of VD from the past years. Girls would send him boxes of chocolates at home, but the letters that accompanied them didn't have their names, so he just sat there eating the chocolates while wondering "whom might these be from?". LOL And then, the next day, after eating so many chocolates, he spent all day paying visits to the bathroom. XDDDDDD This guy is so funny.
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He then asks Shoon about the time when he got the most chocolate boxes, how many did he get. Taiyô says he got 4. Shoon says in 2nd year of junior high school he got 5 or 6. And I think he says that even though he got so many, it was the chocolates from one certain girl among the others that made him the happiest. Awwwww. *___* I'm not very sure about the rest of the conversation, so if someone more fluent in Japanese than I am feels like translating the whole thing, I'd be very grateful, because this is a very cute and funny talk. ^___^
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