Basically the story is that a father Uzaki Kentaro (Ishihara Satomi 石原さとみ) alone ever since his wife died when the daughter was just one year old. She is now 20, and starting her first job. The twist is that he is very protective and strict, but in a sweet and loving way, and now that she is heading out into the world he is having a hard time letting her leave the nest. On top of that, she is starting to date. There are several scenes where the father shows up at her workplace and pretty much causes an embarrassing situation. It’s really annoying! You can see the trainwreck coming from far away. But the relationship that is starting between Miura Seiji (Koizumi Koutaro 小泉孝太郎, the son of former Prime Minister Koizumi Junichiro. He’s ok, but his character doesn’t have many lines so far. Just a lot of brooding. Ishihara Satomi’s character, on the other hand, is funny and cute and has some hilarious expressions. The only problem with her is that she looks nothing like her father, plus he must be over 6ft tall, and she maybe is only 5’2″. But whatever, she’s beautiful and pretty much can carry the show.

By the end of episode 3, the story is really starting to advance more quickly, mostly on the dating front. I would have watched more, but it is 2:45am and I should get some sleep!

Here’s a three-part videography of ZARD’s works.

On Sunday we had a little dinner party. I made takoyaki and Mariko made okonomiyaki. It turned out pretty good, although Mariko said the okonomiyaki could have been better. Also, we didn’t have any tako (octopus) for the takoyaki, so I used hotdog! They tasted pretty good though. I was busy making the takoyaki, and was getting the hang of it. Later, I looked at the takoyaki pan’s box, and it showed someone making it, but only doing a half-batch at a time. So, instead of pouring batter into all the sections, just pour into half of them, then when those have been turned, start the other half. I think that might work out better. Anyways, takoyaki is so easy to make, I want to cook them more often. It’s nice because you can put whatever you want into them.

Besides eating and drinking (I drank a lot of Kirin and Asahi), we played a good amount of Wii bowling and Warioware. It was tons of fun! But we didn’t get around to playing Super Monkey Ball, which my friend Chris brought over. All in all, it was a fun evening. My only regret was that I didn’t take many pictures. And I was so busy cooking and drinking that I didn’t eat much food. I think I only had one takoyaki!

Monday was spent recovering from the night before… And then I was kind of bummed out because of Zard’s passing away. (see previous post) Last night I was falling asleep listening to her songs on my iPod and I still couldn’t believe it! It’s so sad. She had a great voice and wonderful music.

Part of the program was “A Whole New World”.

I just finished Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson. I guess I have a bit of pirate fever since I have been looking forward to the MMORPG “Pirates of the Burning Sea” with great anticipation. I found Treasure Island at good old Gutenberg Project, and downloaded the HTML version. It’s formatted nicely for easy reading in a browser, and the chapters are hyperlinked from the table of contents so you can pick up easily where you left off. I was worried about finding my way back to the last page I read, since the entire book is one long webpage and you can’t really save your spot, but it kind of forced me to finish a chapter so that I could just resume from there. It also made me appreciate when authors actually name their chapters, instead of just numbering them. Stevenson came up with some good chapter names, which actually made me want to read them immediately. Some examples are: “How the Ship was Abandoned” and “The Attack”. Maybe they don’t sound like much, but they really link with the previous chapter’s exploits well and keep the ball moving without giving away too much. Another cool thing about an HTML ebook is that you can bump up the font size, which makes it really easy to read from a distance. I guess I was about 2 feet from my laptop screen, which was very comfortable and not at all fatiguing to my eyes.

I had never read Treasure Island before, even though we had the book in our house when I was a kid. I kind of remember a couple illustrations, but I must have been about 6 or 7 at the time when I looked at it. Well, it’s a pretty darned good book. And amazing to think that it was first published in 1883. The pirate language is so rich in it. I guess it set the standard for pirate culture as we know it today. Reading the Wikipedia entry makes the story even more fascinating, since I found out that the book popularized the “X marks the spot” treasure map, peg legs, talking parrots, and lots of the cliched pirate lingo. At first, it’s a little hard to read because the language is so antiquated. It’s hard to tell if it is just the language of the author’s time, or his interpretation of sailors’ dialogue, or a combination of the two. But after a couple chapters it becomes easier and the language just adds to the ambience. The plot itself is surprisingly complex, especially the character of Long John Silver who filpflops back and forth with his allegiances. The story is mainly told by Jim Hawkins, a boy who happens upon the treasure map. Through his eyes you experience a bunch of different emotions and you really start to root for him. (at least I did) The ending was pretty good, although it seemed a little abrupt. Maybe I just wanted the adventure to go on a bit longer. At any rate, Stevenson really knows how to describe the setting. When I was reading the part where the pirates and Jim were looking for the treasure, I could easily imagine what the island looked like. In fact I still have a picture in my brain of that scene.

You know, I am pretty bad at finishing things like books and games. But I really tore through this one. I really recommend reading this classic if you haven’t already.