Novella: Dawn

I published this on an old no longer existing blog before. But I really like this little novella that I wrote when I was 16 (can't believe it's already that long ago!) So I'll upload it again for people to read and, hopefully, enjoy.

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She paused, suddenly very aware that there was a scent of something in the air, telling her that something was going to happen and she knew she couldn’t do anything to break the way of destiny.

It was a cloudy, windy day in the early days of November. It felt like she could touch the wind when it blew between her fingers. Touch it, grab it and bring it home with her, something so highly impossible that seemed so possible. But the wind was lovely, even though its strength forced her to move forward. She couldn’t help it, she just smiled and couldn’t stop. In that minute she was undoubtedly happy. Happy enough to feel like she could do anything – and live through it.

The tensity in the air seemed to grow stronger the closer she got to the beach.

It was still dark. The wind had tempted her to go outside in her nightdress and coat, but she wasn’t cold, at least not noticeably cold. The wind was cold, but just the air itself was chilly, and the tensity thrilled her. Somewhere in her subconscious mind a voice told her that she was bordering on pneumonia, but she didn’t care, as long as she could have this time together with nature, she didn’t care what disease she pulled upon herself.

It was perfectly quiet, despite the wind’s howling. The birds hadn’t awakened yet and the dawn was very soon to start. The birds were late but this fact didn’t bother her. Perhaps they just didn’t want to fly and sing in the chilly wind? It was a perfect reason and in this she trusted.

When she reached the beach the wind seemed to calm down. The tensity was unbearable and suddenly it just bursted. A second later the sun started to rise from the horizon and the dolphins that had been hanging around the last few days began talking and jumping in the water.

She smiled softly as the sun’s first light struck her bare feet. The sun didn’t warm them, it was just the wrong season for that to happen, but it felt nice and she was happy.

The sight of the sun colouring the water red and orange was astounding and the most spectacular she’d ever seen and she wouldn’t trade this moment for anything in the whole wide world. This was her moment and she was going to keep it in her heart forever. Keep it and care for it in the deepest parts of her heart. She was never to let it go. This moment was hers.


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I had a thing for dolphins back then. A little too much perhaps. But I still do love the water. And I love being barefooted.

A very Japanese day

When the alarm went off at 6am this morning I didn't want to get up. Bed so comfy. So cold outside. And it had been snowing all night apparantly. But I did get myself out of bed in the end and although my brain hasn't been completely functional for the entire day, I did have one of the most memorable school days yet. Our first lesson on Tuesdays is pretty much reading comprehension. Immediately in the beginning of the lesson one of the administrative people of the Japanese department came in and reminded us of the Japanese professor that was going to visit today; Usuba-sensei. Our teacher also told us that he'd be in the cafeteria during our 3-hours long lunch break and that we should all try and talk to him.

So during our lunch break while we (the girls) were sitting together at a table and talking, our teacher comes along with the professor and the administrative person. The teacher leaves us with them and we start to talk in Japanese. He's a professor researching how manga and anime are used outside of Japan, so he asked us some questions about our manga and anime preferences and basically we just talked about random things until some other second years from our class and some first years showed up. They moved to talk to the others and we continued where we left off.

Then we had our last class and that class is always great fun. Especially cause the teacher is always so energetic and happy ^^ Since Valentine's Day is coming up she had a large box of chocolate that she passed around the classroom while we were working on our video projects for this semester :3 We were let go early from the last class so that we would have time to get to the official meeting with the Japanese professor. Basically we filled out his questionnaires and a bag of Japanese hard candies was passed around. After everyone had completed the questionnaire he showed us some forms of iai-kenjutsu, which was really cool! He even passed around the katana for us to hold and feel (the blade wasn't sharpened). After that we asked some questions and the bag of candies was passed around one more time.

All these questions gave me the itch to start reading manga again. Lots and lots of manga, and maybe start watching anime again... I kind of miss that. I don't miss having 12 tabs in my browser (excluding the ones I always have) of different mangas I'm reading. But maybe I should just go to mangareader and press 'random'...

Today's random singing moments:
"Japaner i pyjamas..." ♪
"Matcha matcha man..." ♪

So basically lots of conversation in Japanese, Japanese sweets, martial arts and a katana :3

Western vs Asian

Since Yohio advanced to the finals of the Swedish outtakes to Eurovision Song Contest there's been some rageing about it. How he dresses like a girl, how it's a freak show etc etc. Mostly I've encountered some hating against Asian music and the Asian scene overall and I must say that I don't get it. If Yohio had sung in Japanese in his song, people would've raged even more. But there's not a word about the guy who sung half is song in French, cause that's perfectly alright. Why? There wasn't alot of rageing against the girl from Norway two years ago who sung the chorus of her song in Swahili. That it's a European language is no excuse there. So why's Asia so bad? Is it cause the stage performances are different? That the stage show is different? That the fashion is different? Or has Asian music simply gotten a bad reputation here because of all the high-pitched anime intros? So I'll show you a few examples of how Asian music isn't that different from our music. That may get you to learn something or maybe even realise how wrong you've been to have prejudices against all forms of Asian music.

Bubblegum pop: Toy-Box vs. W


Pop: Katy Perry vs. Girls' Generation


Dance pop: Rihanna vs. Morning Musume


Crazy music videos: Lady Gaga vs. Kyary Pamyu Pamyu


Rock music: Coldplay vs. Bump of Chicken


Guys in make-up and strange clothes: Twisted Sister vs. Yohio


Extensive make-up on guys: KISS vs. Karasu


Heavy metal music: Soilwork vs. Dir en Grey


Rockballads: Avenged Sevenfold vs. Kamiki Aya


Pop rock: Avril Lavigne vs. SCANDAL


Boybands: One Direction vs. Arashi


All-girl groups: Spice Girls vs. Morning Musume

I chose this song from Morning Musume cause it's from around the same time as the song by Spice Girls, and this song sold over 1 million copies. Otherwise I would've gone with AKB48.

So how is Western music different from Asian music? Except that it seems more publicly accepted that a guy dresses like a girl in Japan - it's even considered something nice! In the Western music stage make-up on guys and flamboyant clothes seems to be a way of rebellion, while in Japan it's part of some musical styles that not only focus on the music but on the whole package too. Now, I wasn't around in the 80's, but there seems to have been more of the same kind of movement going on in Western music back then, both on the pop scene (Madonna) and on the rock/metal scene (every goddamn rock band of the 80's). Where did that go? And why don't we have that today? Why is it such a fright when a pop/rock artist makes a flamboyant performance? Why are only rock and metal bands (Alice Cooper, Lordi, Slipknot, etc) and some special few pop artists (Lady Gaga) "allowed" to have flamboyant performances in the West? Why is cross-dressing wrong unless you're gay? I've heard a multitude of straight guys complaining about how there are no fun clothes at the mens' department, and that sometimes they'd want to be girls just for the clothes. I think it's interesting how Japan can be so advanced and yet so outdated when it comes to sex and sexuality.

So no, I don't see much of a difference really. So what is it with Asian bands that make people so reluctant to like it the way they like any Western band? One of the best moments for me last year was when I was on the bus to school and the driver had the radio on and Gangnam Style came on. Hearing Korean streaming out of the speakers and actually hearing an Asian song on Swedish radio made me very happy, and I thought that maybe, maybe we were actually evolving towards accepting Asian music.

Defending Asian music Gangnam Style:

The musical year of 2012

Way too late, I know, but I had to come up with an alternate way to do this, since the way I did 2011 didn't really work with 2012. Because in 2012 I kept track of way more releases than in 2011. So I've come up with a way to do it easily and without so much text:

Group/artist name. Genre. Amount of releases. My overall grade of releases. Favourite song.

Seems easy enough, right? Let's go.

• Bump of Chicken. J-rock. Two singles. ♦♦♦♦ Song: "firefly"
• Kikkawa Yuu. J-pop. Two albums & two singles. ♦♦ Song: "17sai"
• SadDolls. Gothic metal. One album. ♦♦♦ Song: "Bloodred"
• Lamb of God. Groove metal. One album. ♦♦♦♦ Song: "Terminally Unique"
• °C-ute. J-pop. One album, two singles, one compilation, one collaboration. ♦♦♦ Song: "Momoiro Sparkling"
• Kitahara Sayaka. J-pop. Two singles. No grade. Song: None
• Dream Morning Musume. J-pop. One single. ♦♦♦♦♦ Song: "Shining Butterfly"
• Berryz Koubou. J-pop. Three singles & one album. ♦♦ Song: "Momochi! Yurushite Nyan♡Taisou"
• Nick Jonas. Jazz pop. One single. ♦♦♦ Song: "Haven't Met You Yet"
• Tommy heavenly6. J-rock. Two albums. ♦♦♦♦ Song: "Call Me Princess"
• Nightwish. Symphonic metal. One single. ♦♦♦♦♦ Song: "The Heart Asks Pleasure First"
• The Pretty Reckless. Hard rock. One EP, one single, one collaboration. ♦♦♦♦♦ Song: "Kill Me"
• miwa. J-pop. Two singles & one album. ♦♦♦♦ Song: "Kataomoi"
• Mano Erina. J-pop. Three singles & one album. ♦ Song: "NEXT MY SELF"
• Ramin Karimloo. Classic pop. One album. ♦♦♦♦♦ Song: "Cathedrals"
• Yohio. Visual-kei. One album & two singles. ♦♦♦♦♦ Song: "Sky☆Limit"
• Otsuka Ai. J-pop. One single. ♦♦ Song: "Gomen ne"
• Berryz Koubou x °C-ute. J-pop. One single. ♦♦♦♦ Song: "Chou HAPPY SONG"
• Marilyn Manson. Alternative metal. One album. ♦♦♦ Song: "The Gardener"
• Kamiki Aya. J-rock. Two singles. ♦♦♦♦♦ Song: "UNREAL"
• Children of Bodom. Melodic death metal. One compilation. ♦♦♦♦♦ Song: "Blooddrunk"
• Slash. Hard rock. One album. ♦♦♦ Song: "Crazy Life"
• 12 Stones. Post-grunge. One album. ♦♦♦♦ Song: "Only Human"
• ABCHO. J-pop. One single. ♦♦♦ Song: "Me wo Tojite Gyusshiyo"
• S/mileage. J-pop. Four singles & one compilation. ♦♦♦ Song: "Choto Mate Kudasai"
• MUCC. Angura-kei. (Only got the compilation). ♦♦♦ Song: "Tsubasa wo Kudasai"
• Linkin Park. Alternative rock. One album. ♦♦♦ Song: "I'll Be Gone"
• Girls' Generation. K-pop. One album & three singles. ♦♦♦ Song: "Oh!"
• Amy Lee. Folk rock. One song on a tribute album. ♦♦ Song: "I'm So Lonesome I Could Cry"
• Seremedy. Visual-kei. One album ♦♦♦♦ Song: "No Escape"
• Buono!. J-pop. One album & one single ♦♦♦♦ Song: "Hatsukoi Cider"
• Miyamoto Karin. J-pop. Two singles. No grade. Song: None
• Melissa Etheridge. Folk rock. One album. ♦♦♦ Song: "4th Street Feeling"
• Moa Lignell. Pop. One album. ♦♦♦ Song: "When I Held Ya"
• Morning Musume. J-pop. One album & four singles. ♦♦♦♦ Song: "Renai Hunter"
• Within Temptation. Symphonic rock. Five covers. ♦♦♦♦♦ Song: "Somebody That I Used to Know"
• Plain White T's. Pop punk. One collaboration. ♦♦♦ Song: "Pet Sematary"
• The 69 Eyes. Gothic rock. One album. ♦♦♦ Song: "Red"
• Three Days Grace. Alternative rock. One album. ♦♦♦♦♦ Song: "Give Me A Reason"
• Corroded. Post-grunge. One album. ♦♦♦ Song: "Uncommon Sense"
• Stone Sour. Alternative metal. One album. ♦♦♦♦ Song: "Taciturn"
• All That Remains. Metalcore. One album. ♦♦♦♦♦ Song: "Asking Too Much"
• DIY♡/Peaberry/Harvest/Green Fields. J-pop. Two singles. ♦♦ Song: "Cabbage Hakusho"
• Stephen Lynch. Comedy. One double album. ♦♦♦♦♦ Song: "Let Me Inside"
• Miyavi. J-rock. One album & one single. ♦♦♦ Song: "Day 1"
• 3 Doors Down. Alternative rock. One compilation. ♦♦♦♦ Song: "Here Without You"
• Rabbit. J-pop. One album. ♦♦♦ Song: "UNLOVE" (Not on YouTube)

Because I decided to check out some bands I had only heard a few songs of before and H!P creating new units and Toni showing me bands... Well, the list somehow got bigger than last time xD

Anyway... 

• Most anticipated releases: Ramin's debut album, DoriMusu's first single, and Stephen Lynch's new album
• Best releases of the year: The Pretty Reckless - "Kill Me", Within Temptation - "Somebody That I Used to Know", DoriMusu - "Shining Butterfly", miwa - "Kataomoi", and MoMusu "Renai Hunter"
• Best song all-together: