This week's musical treats came from AKB48's latest DVD release, the Kouhaku Uta Gassen 2012, basically a singing competition amongst the AKB girls where they are split in to Red and White teams, just like the annual new years countdown show of the same name in Japan.

This song is Oogoe Diamond and it's performed acapella style by some of the group's best singers. Masuda Yuka and Akimoto Sayaka are in the lead followed by Kasai Tomomi and Sato Amina singing the bridge towards the end. they were accompanied by Umeda Ayaka, Kuramochi Asuka and Nakamura Mariko with Oya Shizuka beatboxing.

It's a great arrangement right? Who said all idols can't sing?

Here's the original if you are still interested. :)

It's good friday! But I'm still spending most of it doing work. 

Well, I painted some eggs in school yesterday! 

Haven't touched a paint brush in years so it's kinda fun.

Can you guess which is mine?

I made the penguin!

Teehee.

Went to Yoshimaru Ramen Bar at Holland Village for lunch yesterday after school.

We sat outside but it was still pleasantly windy despite the scorchingly hot weather.

I had beef shabu shabu ramen! I've never tried it before, it tasted pretty light and I guess healthy but I think my personal preference is still the richer and more savoury Tonkotsu soup. Look at how beautiful the egg is!

We ordered a set so it came with Gyozas. You can get it with Tempura Ebi or Karaage instead as well. It also comes with a free drink. It is a fixed price no matter what noodles you chose and it costs about $18.

Everyone, I am alive.

Let's listen to Suki! Suki! Sukippu! today.

This song is by HKT48, AKB48's sister group from Hakata which appears to cater to the 8 year old audience.

They look like toilet brushes in this video but the song is really cute and adorable in an extremely child like manner. My favourite part of the video is when the two older girls who transferred into the group (Sashihara Rino and Oota Aika) appear to be conducting lessons for the rest of the girls. their attempts at trying to be sexy also cracked me up cause they looked so hilarious.

This week I bring to you Momoiro Clover Z's new song Neo STARGATE from their upcoming 2nd full album 5th DIMENSION.

This video is extremely impressive! Check this out even if you do not like J-pop. They take Japanese idol pop to extremes that have never been explored before with their avant garde and experimental look and sound. This song is futuristic Gothic pop tinged with dubstep. It sounds really dark and gritty but due to some stroke of genius they somehow managed to retain their traditional idol cuteness.

The studded neck brace and mask matched up with their fluffy cream tutus make for an interesting high fashion look that can easily pass of as Givenchy. And they did a pretty good job with their singing and dancing as well!

I'm definitely watching out for them!

Had a really really busy week in school. This time due to this crazy assignment. I didn't want to spend too much time on it at first but I ended up staying up til 3 am every night and was still sorting things out til the last five minutes to submissions. It was difficult and I had trouble figuring out some stuff but I guess I took so long with it because I had so much fun doing it with great friends.

The silly thing was, we got tickets to watch Warm Bodies just 50 minutes after the submission of our paper as if we weren't pressured enough by deadlines this entire week. The moment we submitted our work we had to scramble and get changed and run for our lives towards the theatre literally. I was so exhausted having drained all of my soul out for this assignment. My brain was also either pulsating with inspiration and rigour or quivering with fear due to the anxiety.

The movie is really cute and dorky in how awkard the zombies were. It's really cliched but also kind of sweet. And it has some thrilling action sequences and a rather confusing chick flick-esque middle section. It's a little of everything but nothing too spectacular on each aspect but it is nice generally and I enjoyed it.

NO PICTURES THIS POST CAUSE I LITERALLY LOOKED LIKE A ZOMBIE THROUGHOUT THE WEEK AND THAT IS NOT A CUTE LOOK ON ME.

Have some Nicholas Hoult on the cover of Esquire Korea though.

Who looks hot even as a zombie.

We look alike right? Keke.

Two days of break now before more work starts kicking in!

Wait what, who said I'll even get two days. I have papers due again this week, the following week and the week after.

Went to shop today despite my impending deadlines and here's some nice stuff I saw!

Cool badges that I want to accentuate my idol like charms.

And I went to have dinner with my friends at Nam Nam! Nom nom nom!

It's a Vietnamese noodle bar at Wheelock Place and I had Pho for the first time in my life!

I had the chicken pho but you can't really tell in this photo. I wasn't even sure what I was trying to do.

My friend's beef steak pho which is featured here because it is a much better photo than whatever I took.

My virgin pho experience was so satisfying! The soup was like a breath of fresh air tinged with the sweetness of the calamansi. The spring onions also made the soup really tasty!

The most important part of my blog posts.

THERE! Good bye!

I haven't mentioned this at all but I was involved in the NUS Symphony Orchestra's concert entitled Into the New World, which happened tonight! It is part of the National University of Singapore's Art Festival which is running from now til the 22nd of March! Find out more about it here. It was a really long and arduous experience and it was even painful (thanks to my massive 5 cent coin sized ulcer) at times but I nevertheless had fun tonight.

Back stage at the dressing room looking fresh and radiant.

During the rehearsal for Dvořák's Symphony No. 9 more popularly known as New World Symphony. This song was really tough and stretched my lungs to it's capacity! I never had to play with such force and might, almost felt the native spirits gush through my wind pipes.

Being vain on stage with my trombone.

My extremely talented and kind senior who listened to me grumble through all the rehearsals I attended and practiced with me.

Being vain on stage after getting changed for the full dress rehearsal.

I love the uniform so much! It's so cute!

Full dress rehearsal for the Butterfly Lovers Violin Concerto! I love this song so much! The melodies are so intricate and emotive it really made me feel as if I was in ancient China being a bright scholarly child, in other words, everything I am not.

Because I had lots of bars to count, I had lots of time to get vain and take photos of myself. I'm Paruru in this photo.

And even though I only had a really small part to play in this concert, my friends came to watch me! Flora gave me that pretty Sunflower that is as bright and cheerful as I am and as wooden and floral as she is. Aida made me some cute badges which appears to be inspired by me. Qianyu and Yuanjun provided me with sustenance by giving me a delicious blueberry muffin! I was starving by the end of it and I'm so thankful for the blessings it brought to my stomach.

That's it!

More school tomorrow T.T

As part of AKB48's Dareka no Tameni project (誰かのために -What can I do for someone?-) for the 2011 Japan Earthquake, the group released a beautiful new song for free download. All they ask is for you to make a donation to their fundraising cause as they help rebuild the disaster struck areas of Japan.

The song is called Tenohira ga Kataru Koto (掌が語ること) and it is a beautiful traditional ballad.

Here's a live performance of it!

Make your donations and download the song here!

I have been really busy this week so I didn't have the chance to do anything particularly exciting and there really isn't any point for me to whine about how busy I am so I didn't update. Sorry!

Let's talk about music!

I've been listening to Rihanna's album on repeat and my favourite song is Stay! This song is so hauntingly beautiful and it is also one of her best vocal performance ever! What I linked was her live solo performance from 2012's X Factor finale where she makes a medley with We Found Love. She looked amazing with her short jet black cropped hair and she sounded amazing!

She has come such a long way since her Pon de Replay days where she could barely sing. This song reminds me of Fleetwood Mac's Songbird which is already a classic with Stevie Nick's amazing vocals but I think Rihanna holds her own here as her voice is so expressive. Rihanna may not be an excellent singer in terms of technique but her voice is so special, it's as if she's telling you her own story. I don't really know who Mikky Ekko is but he did a really great job here as well. This is without a doubt my favourite song off Rihanna's seventh studio album, Unapologetic.

This week I've been listening to Tommy February 6's 愛の♥愛の星, the b-side of her latest single Be My Valentine.

I love the rousing synth beats which make the song incredibly fun and uplifting. I feel as if I'm soaring into a celestial shopping heaven with my swanky peppermint green convertible, peeking at the crowd through my luxurious Prada shades being incredibly chic and trendy. The dubstep breakdown also flowed really naturally giving the song a nice urban edge without seeming too contrived.

What I didn't know about this song is that it was actually a cover of a Japanese rock band, the brilliant green and the song was originally acoustic! Even more respect for Tommy now seeing how she could reinvent the song into something so modern and with the times. Bows head in respect an kisses her tender feet hoping that some of her genius will flow into me.