Sorry for not being around much lately. That's mostly because I started to make...investments. Meaning buying (I actually wrote "buing" before stopped to think about it ) old Final Fantasies.

I bought a Nintendo DS as you may know. Played FFXII Revenant Wings (that's 97% complete) and then I found FFIII and IV for DSr reeaaally cheap fro a web shop. But...they didn't have them in the stock after all. Nooo. So...they suggested that I could take FFVI instead. For GameBoy Advance (that works on DS too). I bought that. Then things happened....and I found myself a happy owner of Final Fantasies I, II, III, IV, VI, VII, VIII, IX, X and XII. Plus Revenant Wings. Dammit.

Only 3, 4 and 6 are new though. I will get V someday, too. And of course I will get XIII once it comes (that might be...in March already?! Hallelujah!) As for XI and XIV, they're online games so I probably...won't get them. Think so. Hope so.

But anyway, I feel like I've...been upgraded as a fan of the series....? Beyond PlayStation, right? In any case, I'm pretty happy now.

The weirdest thing: I haven't even touched III or IV. ( is amazed) I'm so involved in VI it'd be hard for me to start another...I shall pay my attention to them, too, dearly when the time comes. Yes.

.........Are you still there? Wow, I thought everyone left already. This has to be so BORING to read (unless you're an enthusiast like me). Um...so anyways...I guess I'll go back to give that rude Kefka loony cheating bastard a lesson Pardon my French.

So well. The 19th September. Night wish at Hartwall Arena, Helsinki. Magnificent. Splendorous. Disasterrific.

Still can't write anything coherent about the event, it seems.

We had good places again (with only 8 hours of queuing before the opening of the front gates) and the concert was the best thing ever. Since it was the last one of the tour there were extras. Like Meadows of Heaven (never performed live before this) Walking in the Air (this was a surprise for me) and they played both Poet and the Pendulum AND Ghost Love Score. Two superepiclong ones

There were special guests, too. The violinist and the ...ho-hum... piper? The Troy person


Anyhooters. So glad to see the band again. But now it's going to be a long time to wait till the next concert. Sigh. All the way until 2011.

Hmm the next album. What's it going to be like?

What shall this little me expect?

Thank you Nightwish, , and all the nice people we had a chat with at the queue and at the concert hall!

And also that nice, very tall person who kindly let this 159cm brat stand before him

Actually the title refers to yesterday. Because it was a proper Rainy Day for a change. Autumn is coming already...soon it'll be Christmas

Oh well. Not that I had anything special to write. I just had to make a new entry since the previous one was about Animecon. That wouldn't do.

Hmm I'm going to go to the library soon.

I seriously shouldn't be wasting my time on the computer again...I should be painting like crazy. Less than a week to complete my stuff for the school's art lessons. It's insane. Nooooo.

Sigh.

Happy autumn for everyone anyway

Since I've been a little late with everything recently, it only makes sense that I write about Animecon some 8 days after it actually happened. Hm.

For your information, I was "Emma" from the series "Emma" :'D The original idea was that and would have worn noblewoman dresses and I would've been their maid. But they didn't have time to do those so I was a maid hanging around with a schoolgirl (from VampireKnight) and a random (but really cool!) white mage.

It was fun though. It was the first time people actually wanted to take pictures of me (that was...weird.) There were so many great cosplays... I forgot my camera home (what a moron) but tok pics for me ^^ She'll send them to me later. I can't wait!

Cons are always a swearword for my wallet. I spent some 80 euros. My my. But I left the con very very happy. Three of the books were in Japanese. Yay I love Ribon manga since they use furigana (ronounciation for the Chinese kanji characters used in Japanese) all the time! Reading is so easy since you only need a regular dictionary and not an additional kanji dictionary! (Though I just recently bought an expensive but really great one for myself...I love to look up kanji now!)

What else? The lectures, panels and other stuff wern't as interesting as they've been before...so I spent the 2 (or more like 1 and a half) days just hanging around Though I watched the cosplay contest from the upper floor (she also had small binoculars! We saw all the details, too!)

PS: I took my apron and headpiece off whenever I used the underground. To fit in better. But...in my black shirt (with white neck and sleeves), long black skirt and black boots...I looked like a priest. Sigh.

So well I visited Paris. And the essence of the trip was....

KOKIA's ~infinity~ European tour 2009 June 12th @ La Cigale

First I must apologize that this is so long...please bear with me. I had many adventurous moments and got a little carried away.

I travelled with my mom so of course I couldn't even dream to go queue early. The gates (or well doors since the place was small) opened at 19 ( = 19:18) and we were there around 18:25. There were some people (a 50m queue in the street) but we still managed to get good seats. About 5th row or so.

Before the concert started I left my seat a couple of times to consume money. They don't sell KOKIA's cds in Finland and the prices at some online shops are terrible... The poor lady at the small counter was having a hard time as I came clutching some paper money in my hand "How much will it cost if I take this and this and...this too and..." I didn't even try to risk it and speak French there (at restaurants and such I did quite well in their language though)

I left the counter with 5 cds, a bag, a t-shirt and some badges.

The concert itself...was great. I've watched KOKIA's live stuff in the net before but of course it was much greater when I was actually there. The first song was Hanautage. Just like in Tokyo and Osaka. It never was my favourite but the way it was performed was really something. Looking back, some parts of the set list were similar to the Japan ones, like Hana, Usaghi and Douke. I was really happy that Usaghi was there since I like it

Some song choices were interesting, like Senka no hana. That's a piano+vocal song about a flower on a battlefield. I personally love it.

I was also happy that she sang Il mare dei suoni, a song in Italian. Opera style! Shivers running down my spine...it was so..grand

Then there were some of the KOKIA "classics". Arigatou, Chouwa, Utau hito... The two latter ones my super favourites. After Chouwa everyone just stood up clapping their hands and wouldn't stop... It was interesting that Chouwa had yellowish lights. I think it's a very "blue" song. But since the song before that (Il mare dei suoni) had been blue, of course there couldn't be two in a row so...

Oh yeah. The spoken stuff. (umm "välispiikit" in Finnish...well the artist talks about the songs and such...you know what I mean?) They were in both Japanese and English. But not word to word though. I was surprised at being able to understand all of the Japanese too Weird.

Before the last song there was a little extra. I believe it's referred to as "A short song - A message from KOKIA" in the Tokyo set list. It was a very short one, in English, kind of a thank you song I wonder if it's just something out of the blue or if it's going to be something more in the future.

The last song was INFINITY (the non-acoustic version) about in the middle everyone stood up again didn't sit at all anymore! My hands were getting sore from clapping.... KOKIA had mentioned it was the last song but people were calling for an encore. In the end KOKIA (having had a minute or two to change to more relaxed clothes) had to come on the stage again and say that the time was up (probably the staff wanted to go home already )

My troubles weren't over yet, though since I'd written KOKIA a letter. My original plan was to leave it onstage but when I was going to do that someone in the front row told me that it would be surer to give it to her manager. So I went to the person she had pointed and explained things with a little shaky voice. She took the envelope and assured me that she'd forward it. Later I recognized the woman I gave the letter to from a picture in front of La Cigale, next to KOKIA. So I guess she really was the manager lady (I’ve met a live-Ms.-Sasaki! o_O)

…Now I wish I could rewrite the whole thing since I read a grammar book and noticed some stupid mistakes in my Japanese. Dammit.