Free stuff.

When I arrived to my room in my dorm, there was this box from the uni. Since it says student AID or something, I thought that there were some good to use in a case you get hurt or slight injuries. Yesterday, my friend told me that there're some candies in the box and I finally opened it after 6 days I first saw it. haha
These are what I got.


I was like "woa! there're some stuff I just bought the other day!" like toothpaste. haha They give us two chocolate bars, one bag of HARIBO, a bag of snack, energy cola, very lazy garlic paste, a small bin of Tabasco, a pen, a box of condoms, instant coffee powder and a card case for free. Thank you! Actually condoms and Haribo are not same as what my friend got. haha A box of condoms I got look more like what boys tend to carry since one that my friend has has a cute designe on its box..and Haribo looks more tasty than my friend's. :P well, whatever. haha Speaking of free, there's a welcome event at every accommodation tonight with free food and drink. It'll be a good chance to know my neigbours and also to make new friends. I'll def go since I've been a bit bored and tired of my days here. Isn't there any exciting stuff? Maybe I should look around the city. I'd like to go to a museum, art exibitions and cinema! I haven't found a cinema in Leeds yet. Where are you? Oh, I gotta go ask about my temporally enrolled class. I can't drop a class because of it.

I just read 'How To Save Rock 'N' Roll' by Nicky Wire in NME and it really made me want to write about it again esp about The Libertines! because he mentioned that The Libertines were a lifestyle and a mythology. What a great words he chose to describe the band.

Music Lover

I love music and am a huge fun of Indie Rock and other kinds of Rock music as well. I've been to clubs and music bars to listen to music I like and have fun in Japan. Then I found that I'm not really into those kind of places. Even though there're supposed to be like places for enjoying music, they aren't. Simply it's because they're places for drinking. In those places, I feel that music just turn into a tool to have fun and make the place sound enjoyable. I've felt pity when I was in a rock bar before because all music I like only sounded like accessories in that place. Since I'm a music nard, I'd rather talking about music with someone with the same taste as me. Talk about how brilliant songs the band makes, how I feel when I listen to it and what kind of emotion it brings to me. I know that music basically is considered as part of entertainment by most of people but for me, it's not. It's part of my life, emotion, expression and myself. There definitely is music that shouldn't just be entertainment or sellout. As music is categorized to Art in university, it's a way to express yourself and how you feel about things around you, isn't it? Music is what bring you up and also brings you down depends on the way you use it. It has such a power. It has something more than entertainment for sure and I just don't feel good about going clubs and rock bars. It's ok to go there to have fun with friends but it's not really a proper place for enjoying music. I've learnt many things from Music since my dad had me listen to The Beatles when I was a baby. I learned what love people think is, what family is, how sad to lose important things, how many sad things are going around in the world and how important peace is as well. Sometimes they don't teach what exactly it is, but they at leat give me a key or clue to think about those topics. Of course there're many people who take Music as a fun thing and it's not a problem at all if they really think so, but I can't take it like that because I know if there was no music in this world, I'd be nothing. Just think how music influences you. It's a big existence in my life.
and I'm gonna read How To Save Rock 'N' Roll by Nicky Wire in NME. People have kept saying that there's no Rock hero now. In a bonus DVD of Almost Famous, Lester Bangs said exactly the same thing that there's no Rock Hero at that time, but it's 70's! still the golden age of Rock! Maybe I can say so because I'm in 2010 and have never experienced 60's. haha When he said that, I thought he'd might change his idea if he encountered Nirvana. They're like the last Rock Hero I know. The Libertines can join the circle though. Rock will change and I don't think we can stop it but it'll never disappear as long as there're huge fans like me.

Not in Japan but the UK.

First post from the UK! I arrived to Leeds 14th Sep at night. It was like 11pm when I arrived to my dorm and there was nobody. I couldn't get in my room and decided to stay one night at my friend's room. It was lucky that I was with a friend of mine at that time! I thank her a lot. :) We couldn't find the main road to go to a friend's room in another accommodation and luckily, there were local people walikng down the street where we were and we asked them for the place. and again luckily, they graduated The University of Leeds where we belong to now and know the place of the accomm! We were very lucky. Thanks to them, we safely arrived to a friend's room and stayed one night inside. When Taxi that we caught from the station left us around my dorm, it was like a nightmare. but think it back now, it's a funny story though. I should be glad about my luck anyway. It's been 4 days since I came here and started living in dorm. It's not that bad so far. The uni is so huge that I can easily get lost, and in city centre, there're so many places I'd love to go! I actually didn't expect that the city has such a lot of fun places and shops. There's even MUJI which makes me sigh because of its sweet pleasure of reminding me of my home country. I haven't looked around the city very much yet. I'll do so before lectures start and become busy. I kinda like to walk to School from my place. It's a bit far and tiring for me since it takes 20 mins and there're some slopes, but there's a big and beautiful park on the way and it has a park for BMX and skateboard. That's more like it! haha and also you can see many poster columns which is like..ad towers and they make me wear a slight smile on my face because one of the famous palces for gigs in Leeds, Cockpit, puts their schedules on the towers and there's his name "Carl Barat". haha I always go like "I'm seeing him!!" so my playlist for heading school is The Libertines or Dirty Pretty Things. haha I thought Leeds could be like a country side but I was wrong! Now I can tell people that you should visit Leeds when you come to the UK for sightseeing. It's a lovely place esp City Centre. Around the uni, of course there're tons of students so I don't really recommend to come though. haha To be honest, I got bored and tired of my day going to School and coming back to my room. I should walk around the Uni and City Centre more and find something interesting. The uni keeps saying to us, international student, not to go out alone. It's a difficult request, isn't it? What about when I want to go shopping alone? but nothing can replace your life and that's not worth your safety...I know I know! Mmm, I get bored quite easily. Therefore, I decided to have part of Language exchange scheme. hope I can meet someone intersting and a music lover!

Irresistible

Big news for me! The Libertines reunited! No, it’s a bit old news since they’ve already had the first show in London the other day after their reunion. The big news for me is that part of The Libertines, the sexy Oscar Wild look-alike singer, is coming to Leeds! I mean Carl Barat. haha I’ve seen people saying that Carl looks like Oscar Wild online. Even though The Libertines got together again, he’s coming and playing in Leeds alone…Who cares! I love The Libertiens, I like Pete Doherty but I’m all excited about Carl's solo gig. The Libertines are like one of the legendary British bands for me since they already split up when I got into indie music. I didn’t expect to see him live soon like this! The place is a famous venue in Leeds, Cockpit. It’s not far away from my university. Now I have 5 gigs to go in October! sounds like a rich person, but you have no idea how much you need to pay for one gig in Japan! You gotta pay 5500yen for Hadouken here, which is like ￡42.20. The average price of one gig in England is ￡10.oo-12.oo. There’s no time to think if you should go or not. It’s crazy to go 5 gigs in a month in Japan for sure. Maybe in England as well? I hope not since a friend of mine who loves and studies music (more like Rock) in Leeds is going to 11 gigs in October. She’s real. haha I’ll definitely write how Carl Barat’s show is.

LEVI'S® CRAFT OF MUSIC - CARL BARAT from LEVI'S UK on Vimeo.

This is a video I found on ClashMusic.com
Carl played some songs from The Libertines in Levi's Craft of Music. His acoustic version of 'Don't Look Back Into the Sun' is really charming! I like how the crowd enjoys this song.

It seems like I have no mind to study in university but go to gigs. However for me, and maybe for my friend I named above, going to gigs is not just an entertainment…believe it or not. haha I’m also excited about taking classes in Leeds. I had a choice for classes and I luckily enrolled to all classes that I chose. There’s a class I’m not perfectly allowed to enroll though. It’s a Journalism class. I think they'll check my English ability to know if I’m enough for the class face to face. Nervous. haha A feeling I have for the classes is more like a fusion of an excitement and a worry though.♥

A girl who has a longing for Paris.

Somehow, people have a special feeling and image of France especially Paris. It's like a dream city for most of people. I saw a film 'An Education' the other day, and that was different from what I imagined since I didn't even know the original title but a Japanese title. It's about a high school girl who is charmed by an older man of intellect. Of course there is an unexpected twist in the end. For me, her French is really remakable! as a student who takes a French class, I'm jealous of her beautiful pronunciation. The movie has this scene that the girl sings along a French song happily lying on the floor in her room. It's after she meets the guy, so she must have a romantic images on her mind at that time. haha The song she sings is 'Sous le ciel de Paris' by Juliette Greco. I was fascinated by a unique air a chason gives me, then I found an omnibus album of chanson which belongs to my mom. I'm glad that my mom and grandma likes chanson! Luckily the album has the song 'Sous le ciel de Paris' by Juliette Greco and now I and my mom often listen to it. I found there're many chansons that are really beautiful and also enable to make me happy. Now I'm borrowing my grandma's vinyls of chanson. I wanna sing along Sous le ciel de Paris just like the girl in the film. I can't wait to visit France this winter!!


what dissapointed me by this film is a difference between the girl's and guy's appearance on an image for cover and their appearance in a film. The girl is cute both on the image and in the film, but the guy! kinda disappointing. To be honest, I thought he was more handsome when I first saw the image of the film. I don't understand why they edit photos and create people that don't exist. :/ Anyway, watch this film if you're interested. It's worth to see, and you'll probably understand why she is into Paris, by watching how boring England was at the times.