Pesta Tanglung USJ & Hari Malaysia 2012

I had celebrated a rather different Mid-Autumn festival this year. As much as my love for festivals, Mid-autumn festival is always not my top favourite due to my dislike of mooncakes. I always feel dreadful having to even eat a slice of lotus paste mooncake which I felt like swallowing some concentrated lump of sugar. But there's still good stuff about mooncake - the salted egg yolk and some other less sweet/more interesting flavors ^^.

 

Skipping the introduction, this year Mid-autumn I was invited to perform at Pesta Tanglung USJ & Hari Malaysia 2012 as a guest performer. This event is organized and hosted by the assemblywoman of Subang Jaya, YB Hannah Yeoh. Seeing that I have to at least perform songs which somewhat related to the theme, I had quite some fun (and troubles) finding songs relating to moon.

 

At first I was informed by the event organizer, Mr. Loka Ng, to prepare 3 chinese songs for the night; and so with the GREAT help from DJ Nataka (Amamizuka), he suggested 3 songs for me to sing for the event, with one of them a self composed song by truly himself specially for Mid-autumn. I was pretty excited and honoured and proud to have the chance to be the first human to cover his song (his songs were mainly for Vocaloid China version), and of course to tell the audience that I'm performing a song composed by a friend made me raise my head up higher. Being an even greater friend as he is, he helped me arranged the other two songs to suit the event/me better (if not my performance would be a rather boring one using karaoke available online), mine was one and only in the world!

 

Oh before I forget, around 2 days before the performance, Mr. Loka suddenly suggested for me to sing an English song, and my performance will be splitted into two sessions, 2 songs each. Thanks to Carlson (my CrestFall band leader), I managed to download the instrumental for the song on the same day itself.

 

I shall stop rambling how greatful I am, and move on. On the day itself I wore something pretty simple, as I don't wish to get all sweaty in an open air environment. Unable to think further I just mashed up my lovely lace top with my sky blue skinny jeans.

 

And since I have extra time (outfit was too simple; did some light, sweet makeup), I worked a little on my hair~ Reading magazines/watching video tutorials do work because images of new styles are like burnt into my head =_=. For this day I did a side braid bun with a red bow clip as my accessory. Am definitely trying out for more hairstyles next time!

 

I was asked to reach one hour before the event starts, for sound check; which I'm really glad I did. Mr. Loka was kind enough to provide me dinner (McD McChicken) but sadly I only had them after the performance because I can't really eat before singing. After the sound check I was pretty much left alone, lonely, with other kids who were performing dances that day. I wanted to have some chat with those older kids but they were either too shy to even have a normal conversation, or just don't know how to speak to someone elder than them.

 

After warming up and going through my singing/speech for countless times in my head, I was SUDDENLY called to perform first. Apparently all other 5 performances (dancing) brought their mp3s and none of them are working =_=. What luck. And so my first session was rather sudden, but everything is fine as I don't particularly felt nervous at all for this event.

My song list for the day:
Session 1:-
1. 月儿弯 by 彭佳慧 (rearranged by Amamizuka)
2. 秋月吟 composed and arranged by Amamizuka

Session 2:-
3. Talking to the Moon by Bruno Mars
4. 但愿人长久 by Theresa Teng/Faye Wong (rearranged by Amamizuka)

 

My two sessions were over in a split second. Well not really split second, but thats how I felt being alone backstage. I managed to get to know some volunteers there and am glad to have several adults to talk to that night. After my performances, I was given a hamper as appreciation. No one did tell me about it and so after my performance I was happily chatting around with the volunteers; therefore I'm really sorry that I did not appear on stage even after having my name called several times. Really sorry T_T.

 

Photo of me receiving the Hamper gift from YB Hannah Yeoh.

My hamper! Forgive the blings and cute editing~ It's pretty fun playing around with Iphone photography apps, don't you agree?

 

After the hamper receiving on stage, I finally have time to spend with my family! We had fun lighting up the lanterns, which my sis once again burned hers.

 



 

We were given goodie bags which includes lanterns, candles, water, and a mini mooncake (which is unexpectedly good since it wasn't very sweet). There were other programs that day as well, such as Lantern Quizzes - which was over once I'm done =_= (but my dad did joined!). Around an hour later there was this free ice-cream redemption which we could redeem from the coupon in our goodie bags. The line was long but we had fun waiting, especially due to the fireworks! It was rather romantic seeing fireworks at night, feels like matsuri.

 

And here comes the interesting story: there was a man, with his family cutting queues and formed another line in order to receive their ice-cream faster. And of course, the workers refused to give him his share of ice-cream because you know, it's unfair for those who have waited for quite some time. He was furious, scolding the workers and volunteers, screaming with vulgar words about how he should have the ice-cream first. We were speechless about the situation but we did let his family to have their turn first because it's funny to fight over a free ice-cream. After some quarel between him and the volunteers, he threw his ice-cream on one of the volunteers!! How ungentleman and crude. And being the collateral damage, mum, sis and I had some ice-cream splashed on us since we stood rather near from the volunteers. It's sad to see that there are still many uncivilized people out there.

 

Even so! The night was great as I get to experience the stage, the lantern and the ice-cream splash haha. I wish to be given more stage opportunity some time again soon~ See ya ^^

Jogoya @ Starhill KL//Delicious @ Sunway Pyramid



Shirley, Bao (ChenChin) and I had an outing/gathering before Bao flies to UK for her studies (although our outing were more like a food marathon). Shirley has this coupon printed online to eat at Jogoya lunch hour for only RM49.90, and both of us except Bao have not tried this Japanese buffet restaurant before, we decided to give it a go; Although Bao did warn us that the food was nothing great, just that it was better than Tenji restaurant.

 

Bao's words were right afterall. The best memory I had for Jogoya was just the small coconuts with refreshing and sweet juice, haha. Almost all the foods there were below average, some even tasted bad despite their looks. To me it's not really a Japanese buffet, more like international buffet with chinese, western food, etc..Personally I still prefer authentic Japanese cuisine above all, but anyhow here's the pictures!

 

Obviously the lovely coconuts. Can you count them? 11 in total!! We had all 11 of them in less than an hour! Amazing not? We decided to keep the coconuts on our tables so that we could take a group coconuts picture but were STARED by the waitress whom for no reason just wanted to keep our cocounts. Of course we won, since we stubbornly wanted our cool photo haha.

 

Shirley and Bao taking pictures of the coconuts after we decided that if we had anymore all of us would have stomach ache/diarrhea.

Bao borrowed Jogoya member card from her friend, and so we had the chance to try out some foods which requires member coupons. We were given 3 coupons, which we used it to try two so called more "rare" dishes.

 

King crabs in chinese herbs! It was meh..just that there's a lot of flesh in those shells. It would be a lot better if the crabs were fresher, or cooked in a different sauce.

Mantis prawn - this was terrible. Yeah you got me right, it's terrible. I just don't want to recall it anymore. I don't understand this dish at all.

 

Other lousy foods we had was the ramen. I remember it well because I was craving for ramen that time and I was getting hyper seeing ramen there. But it was an utter dissapointment. How sad. Sashimi there were frozen and not fresh at all. Thinking about it while writing this post made me lose my appetite =_=.

 

Desserts! Supposed to be the most anticipating one, but again a dissapointment. This picture is good though. None of the desserts were good as per my memory.

 

We left Jogoya after 2 hours because we had only 2 hours to eat before someone chased us off haha. Apparently we could only stay there for 2 hours for the lunch deal, maybe they were affraid that someone would swallow all their foods down and they would be bankrupt haha.

 

Some photos taken after the meal:

 



My outfit of the day~ Knitted blouse from Stradivarius (bought in Spain), Washed-turqoise colour shorts from Uniqlo Singapore, Over-knee socks from a Japanese brand I forgot (bought in Singapore too). I wanted to wear something casual with them and I love this colour combination!

 

Two group pictures~ Taken at a large mirror at Starhill after our meal. I really do miss our days together when looking at the pics. Eating was always fun with both of them (thanks to them I was fat during those days haha).

 

We walked around Pavillion, mostly to sports shops as Bao wanted to get herself a shoe to replace her old one. In the end she couldn't get the design she wanted at Pavillion, and the sales person checked that there's still stock in their Sunway Pyramid branch. And so? Off we go to pyramid.

 

After the shoe shopping spree, I got hungry. Hahaha, both of them were pretty shocked about it. I guess it was because I did not take much food during lunch at Jogoya. Shirley suggested that we go try out Delicious, I agree because it'll be my first and I thought I could find eggs benedict there.

 

But no luck. Their breakfast only available on weekends, before 12pm. I wonder where can I try a good eggs benedict T_T, who can bring me to try?? Anyway, we ordered two pastas and a main course meal to share among ourselves.

Spagetti Carbonara(RM25.50). The classic one. Except we switch beef to chicken (Bao can't eat beef). The sauce were too diluted, I had to add HUGE amount of cheese powder for taste. It was not too bad, just average; and I personally prefer fettucine to be together with carbonara cream sauce.

 

Spicy Crabmeat Linguine(RM26.50). This was rather interesting. After getting bored of the diluted cream sauce, this tasted slightly above average. One good point about this is that the pasta is not too heavy and thick, crab meat tasted good as well (oh that's two good points).

 

Pan-seared Cod(RM50.90). This is the best among the three. The cod were fresh and juicy, and lovely. I had thought that the meat would be dry since it's rather a big piece but it's totally not! The sauce is okay, but i like it more if it's grilled with some teriyaki/black looking sauce.

 

After the meal, I brought both of them to a Korean accessories shop - Da Louis. I was pretty happy that they both loved the shop and bought something for themselves. Shirley was looking for a thin designed ring that fits her finger and she got it finally; while Bao got herself a gorgeous earphone plug to match her iphone.

 

I'll end this post with one more group pic~ Edited by Shirley. I hope that we could stay like this as long as we could, with all of us busy with our own lives but still not forgetting each other; looking forward to see you guys sometime soon~

 

Bubba Gump @ Sunway Pyramid



 I'm not sure if most people tried Bubba Gump before, but we all must have at least heard it before. I'm blogging and posting food pictures of my second visit there; first time was with a friend of mine but I din't have any appetite to try out new foods (even though he was kind enough to pay for the meal, I've only tried one of the appetizer - Hush Pups [no pictures]). Hush Pups was average, rather dry to have it alone, perhaps it would be better as a side dish (opps it IS a side dish haha).

 

My 2nd visit was with Sayoko chan aka Sacchin! We wanted to have a great meal before our usual Karaoke session because redbox foods are just meh and we usually can't even finish a quarter of our foods. I suggested Avanti Italian Restaurant at first but after waiting for half an hour, we got told by the waitress that some event booked the entire restaurant and walk-in dining is not possible T_T.

 

When we ran out of idea of what to eat, I suggested Bubba Gump since Sacchin have not tried it before. Since it's Sacchin's first time, we let the polite (and hyper) waiter to explain to us about the flipping metal plate thingy (Run Forest Run/Stop Forest Stop). I'll skip the chats and proceed to the foods so here it is:

 

Cajun Shrimp (RM24.90) - One of our favourite side dish! The shrimps were very juicy dripping with cajun butter sauce and most importantly fresh~. Perhaps I'm a little bias since I've been a fan of shrimps (even prawns, lobsters or creatures of the same kind); but even Sacchin loves it so I guess it's great.

 

 

Dynamite Shrimp (RM22.90) - The least favourite of all the dishes we tried. Shrimps were fresh but I didn't really like the Thai sauce coating, they tasted fairly normal and we get tired of eating after few bites.



 

The all time favourite main dish! Bourbon Street Catch of the Day (RM35.90) - We loved everything about this dish, including the thin crispy potato strips on top of the mashed potatoes. The cajun sauce tasted great and so the fish is not dry. There's some shrimps too, I consider it added value ^^.

 

I saw several reviews from food bloggers that Crazy Cajun Chicken is great as well, unfortunately both of us were too full for anything else. But we definitely do hope for another visit to try more!

AniManGaki 2012 Day 1 (Band)

Finally here's my AniManGaki band entry. To be honest I was pretty skeptical about how this performance will turn out as our band is having a major member change and the leader had to go for a sudden trip (he could not join us on the day of performance). Can you believe it? We only met each other (all full new members) TWO days, 2!!! days before the performance; and worst we only had around 5 hours of jamming session together (you can minus out all the preparation time yourself). But you know the saying "Do or DIE", when humans are in desperate situation somehow we'll just do something that seems impossible. I remember our goal at that moment was to "NOT embarass ourselves on stage" and I guess that works. Afterall our reputation as a performer is at stake! So it's sort of a miracle that we can pull it off on stage.

 

The 5 hour practice went smoothly and I really LOVE the new members! They are all very fun people, and I'm sure we all enjoy music (even though some of them do not listen to Japanese music). It's hard to find people who clicks together but I guess we are doing fine (or maybe it's my imagination but I genuinely felt happy to have met all of them). Here's the new member line-up:

 

Vocalist : Sakurazuka Minori (me~)

[NEW] Lead Guitarist: Daniel

[NEW] Rhythm Guitarist: David

[NEW] Bassist: Dustin

Keyboardist: Joee

[NEW] Drummer: Crysler

 

And so, on the performance day we were supposed to reach at 8am for sound check, but only the drummer (Crysler) was there with me. Dustin (Bassist) and Joee (Keyboardist) were late due to unforseen circumstances - their car broke down in the middle of the road. For more you can visit Joee's Blog. The other two guys were late due to whatever reason I can't remember haha. Anyway in the end we decided to just fix the instruments right before the performance.

 

After the short, sorta sound check, Dustin's bass strings broke O.O , and so we had to go to guitar store to get them changed. Haha, all the bad luck seems to make the day more interesting. We had breakfast together at McD, and then everyone (except me) went to practice near the corner of the stairs. I was busy warm up for my solo performance.

 

3.30pm - Our performance time! I don't think we made any obvious mistakes, personally I think that this was good enough from a 5 hour jamming practice. I couldn't find any pictures that can see all full members during the live. But here's one of them:

 

 

Can't see the drummer in this picture T_T.

However! After the performance we had some mini photoshoot by borrowing Misao's photobooth, so here it is:

 

Joee and I: The only two girls in the band~

Daniel and I - Daniel studies music full time in UM, and has great guitar skills~

Two girls, Drummer (Crysler) and Bassist (Dustin): Dustin was really cool with his visual kei looks. Am amazed at his ability to pose in front of the camera. I'm sure he has many female fans wanting to take a picture with him, although he denies that fact haha. Oh and Dustin is a fan of Gazette just like me! He spends around an hour for that hair style too.

 

Two girls and the Drummer: Crysler always ignores me T_T...or maybe I'm too noisy hahaha. Too bad he might not be joining our band for performances anymore since he did not like Japanese music much, but am still happy that we worked together before!

 

I just realised I did not take any solo picture with David (rhythm guitarist). Wonder where did he run of that day. Anyway, David is also a very funny guy, whom I enjoy chatting with. I wonder if he feels the same too, bug am gonna continue bug him in the future haha.

 

This is my FAVOURITE picture of all! Our group picture!! Everyone looks cool (except me), it's definitely the best group picture I had for the band ^^. Too bad Carlson (band leader) was not there, but don't worry I'm sure we'll take more group pictures in future.

 

Hahaha, I really like this picture too. It looks like those behind the scenes pictures, like we are some super stars or something haha.

 

We performed 3 songs this time:

1. SCANDAL - Pride

2. Unlimits - Haruka Kanata

3. LiSA - Crossing Fields

 

Here's the videos:

 

 

 

 

I know I've repeated this many times but I really LOVE my band!! Like what Joee said in her blog, this is one of the best thing that happened on me as well ^^. Just like how happy I felt when I type this post, I hope my readers will feel the same too~.

 

Do visit my band's page: The CrestFall

As well as my fan page: jasmine minori

Thanks for the support!

The CrestFall Band (C2AGE 2012 mini report)

My band, as some of you might already know, is The CrestFall. We are a new 6-piece band, formed and started our performance activities this year. Here's what my band leader wrote as a introduction for our band (found in our FB band page):

 

"Our project was born of a deep admiration and respect for the artists and their music. What we hope to bring to our audience is not only the momentary joy of our performance but a lasting memory that would carve deep into their hearts. CrestFall strives to ignite the love and influence of J-POP more as widely it could known, rocking in 2012!"

 

And so, we have performed twice this year, up till now. First was at C2AGE 2012, sorry I'm too lazy to write up a proper entry for that because it was several months ago. But to be fair, since our band member changed almost drastically since C2age, I should post up some pictures of our old member line-up for C2age before writing my AniManGaki 2012 band entry:

 

Vocalist : Sakurazuka Minori (me~) 

 

 

Leader, Rhythm Guitarist : Carlson

 



Lead Guitarist: Eugene Cheah

Bassist : Nicholas

Keyboardist : Joee

 

Drummer : Ken Yue

 

I've had fun with all the previous members, and the performance on C2AGE 2012 was definitely a memorable one. As it was my first time collaborating with a band, I've learnt many things that I previously won't even encounter being the solo performer as I've always am. Working with people is of course more difficult than doing it alone, and there's 6 times the probability of having something wrong during live stage (excluding sound engineering/equipment problems); but thats the fun of it and I enjoy having variables in my life.

 

Here's more pictures of us in action during C2age 2012:

 

 

 

 

One last picture of my band leader and I, because he did not join us for our AniManGaki 2012 performance, just to be fair haha.

 

We performed 1 introduction piece and 2 full songs during C2age 2012:

1. Battle Soldier

2. KOTOKO - Light My Fire

3. LiSA - Little Braver

 

Here are the videos available on youtube. Video credits to Blaze Hee.

 

 

 

Do sit back and enjoy our first live performance ^^. AniManGaki 2012 Band entry will be up next.

AniManGaki 2012 Day 1 (Solo)

Yeah I know. It has been like more than 1 month since the event. But better late than none right? This will be my entry about how I felt relating to my solo singing performance + event. So anyway, here's some introduction of the event:

"AniManGaki is abbreviated from the words Anime, Manga and Gaki (Japanese slang for 'brat'). The event name was coined on 30^th of March at 3.00 am via MSN Messenger Chatroom between Yvonne and a crew member. The light bulb lighted eventually because of Yvonne’s nickname for the crew members. You’ve guessed it right; it’s the word 'gaki'."

And so, AniManGaki is a yearly event that aims to bring together "fans and lovers of anime from all walks of life". Apparently this year's theme was High School theme, so there's more cosplayers wearing school uniform themed costume - My band's keyboardist wore school themed stage clothes too~.

 

I know there's more reviews and walkthrough for this event done by other bloggers, but perhaps this review is a little different since it's from a performer's perspective. I'm happy to say that me (Sakurazuka Minori as solo singer) and my band (The CrestFall) was one of the performers for this event ^^.

 

Poster picture for bands and performances at AniManGaki. This was printed in the event booklet as well.

 

Event schedule for stage activities.

 

I was there in the event hall around 7.45am, in order not to be late for the sound check by 8am. Was not too worried about the sound check for my solo performance because it's just playing from my USB/CD. The main concern for sound check was the band, but the members were late, so...anyway this will be talked about in my next entry for bands~.

 

First I went to the ticket counter to get our stage passes, which was printed "Rock Band Superstar"; kinda funny but interesting. I was searching for Pau as she was the one who liase with me through emails regarding stage activities but she was not around (only met her later). After that I was lead by some helpful volunteers to meet Kenneth (the person who was responsible for the stage). He was a very nice person and we went through the sound check for my solo performance very quickly.

 

 

Stage pass.

 

After the sound check I was just hanging around with my band mates, having breakfast, rehearse quietly as many times as we can. P/S: So sorry I couldn't spend much time with some friends hanging around in the event. You all know I can't really enjoy myself before the performance >_<. Was always too focused on my preparation and warmup before stage.

 

My stage outfit this time was pretty simple. It was the first time wearing pants on stage actually. My band dress code was supposed to be semi-formal (which in the end all of us ended up wearing differently haha), and so I decided to keep my outfit simple. For solo performance I just top my white blouse with a punkish rock vest, braid my hair and decorate it with a mini hat (that'll do i guess haha).

 

Solo performance outfit for AniManGaki 2012.

 

Some pictures taken while I'm on stage. Photo credits to  photography and blue diamond photography.

I don't think I've made much mistakes for this performance, except for my final song, which I now learnt that I should not do a really tough song at the end of my performance (when i was fully exhausted). But oh well, it's always learning from mistakes ^^, will continue to do my best in my future performances.

 

OH but i've meet with several friends (Akiko, Sayoko, Nat and Fishie~). This was the first time I get to stay in the event longer after my performance since Akiko was kind enough to give me a ride home after dinner. Met Sacchin(Sayoko) and Nat while I was having breakfast in McD with my band mates, am feeling so sorry because I've forgotten that I was the one holding their entrance ticket. They had to go all the way to find me for the tickets O.O oh gosh so sorry.

 

This time, I get to walked around the event halls with Fishie~ We looked around the doujin stalls and obviously I'm too weak to resist buying stuff. Bought a pack of Kuroko keychains! I decided to get the entire pack which includes 5 generation of miracles + kuroko +kagami + 1 mysterious character; as I really do not have a favourite character in Kuroko no Basket (I absolutely ADORE them all!).

Full characters! Chibis are always so cute~ There's even Kuroko no2 on Kuroko's head ^^.

 

 Guess what's the mysterious character?
Drum rolls....TADAA~

It's Momoi~ I heard from Sacchin and Nat that there's Takao, would have been happier if I've gotten Takao instead.

After buying 2 sets of Kuroko chains (one for my sis), Fishie and I passed by a stall which erm..you can pay like RM1 (something like that I forgot) and pick a piece of fortune for yourself. And this is what I've gotten:

Quite a fun fortune telling hahaha. But I was not wearing blue underwear that day so I'm safe I guess? hahaha... and after that the booth helpers kinda poof some magic on me to increase my luck or something, don't understand but fun either way ^^.
 

Photo with Fishie + Kuroko no2. Wish I could have walked around more with her, and with other friends. Typing this post made me wanna go walk around events properly seeing booths one by one, wonder if I get to go CF, haha.

After the event, Akiko and I had dinner in Sakae sushi, which we had Sukiyaki and some salmon mentaiyaki (may have eaten more but I can't recall). Sukiyaki in sakae was sweeter than the one I used to had in Bdr Puteri, but still lovely all the same. Thanks Akiko for the ride home (and of course the chats and fun)!~

I'll end this post with my solo performance videos; I performed 4 covers on that day, sit back and enjoy~:
1. Hirano Aya - Lost my Music
2. Younha - Houki Boshi
3. Fukuhara Miho - Let it Out
4. Vocaloid GUMI - Setsuna Trip

 

 

A big hug and thanks for all who came and supported my performance, it really means a lot to me. Hope to have more time to hang out with all of you during events. See you guys in next event!

Please visit my FB page for more future updates: http://www.facebook.com/jasmineminori