Crayon Pop is still one of my favourite groups. They’ve just finished recording their comeback album which will be released in June, if I’m not mistaken. Teaser images have suggested a different, non-tracksuit, concept. Perhaps a bit sexier. We’ll see. That makes me think of a clip I saw of Crayon Pop where someone mentioned a sexy concept and how they wouldn’t be able to pull it off and Cho-a said: “I would” . I hope they keep their cute and sassy style, though.

They’ve also announced that they’ll be adding a sixth member for their Japanese promotions. Her name is Arisa.

So, to the main reason for this post. I’ve been waiting for Crayon Pop to release their song “1,2,3,4″ that they’ve been performing since last year, but it hasn’t been released as far as I know. I’ve heard the song in English and Japanese. Not in Korean so far. The Japanese version sounds a bit cutesier than the English version, but both are very good.

Here’s the Japanese version. The audio is extracted from the video they posted on their youtube channel (which you should check out). I didn’t transcode it to mp3, but most mp3 players can handle aac. Works with iTunes/iPod.

• Crayon Pop - 1,2,3,4 (JPN Ver.) 4MB M4A (AAC)

As usual, you should check out their music videos/performances to see choreography that goes with the song.

Japanese version MV (audio source):

Japanese version (fan cam, where you can actually see the choreo):

English version (fan cam):

Hopefully the new album will be a full length album including all their old songs as well. Instabuy for me.

While on the subject of Crayon Pop, they posted some cute pictures on twitter last week from when they visited and performed for soldiers in the army. Cho-a’s picture in camo became my phone wallpaper .

They’re quite active on twitter (mostly on weekends). They have their own individual accounts, but mostly post via the @crayonpop account. I’ve even gotten a reply from Cho-a (my favourite) . They have facebook pages too, but it feels like someone else administers those, since pictures they’ve posted on twitter usually take a while before they end up on facebook.

I don’t watch anime so much these days. The exception was Vision of Escaflowne, which I watched after hearing the synopsis at an anime soundtrack concert. It was a pretty good anime, but didn’t quite live up to my expectations.

The other day I got Attack on Titan (進撃の巨人/Shingeki no Kyojin) recommended to me on Twitter (thanks Stephane). It seemed cool based on the single screen I had seen. I started watching it, and it’s very good. It’s different in a deceptive way. When you think you have the story figured out, it makes a sharp turn in another direction. That’s the impression I’ve gotten from the episodes that have aired so far.

The anime series is based on a manga by Hajime Isayama. It takes place in a world where titans roam the lands and humans, who’ve nearly gone extinct, have to live behind high walls to not get eaten. The walls are built in several layers so that if the outer wall is breached, the people can flee to the other side of the next wall.

The story starts out with humans having lived safely within the walls for a century, when two huge titans suddenly appear and breach the outer wall. Titans flow into the city, devouring its inhabitants. The people who manage to get away seek refuge behind the next wall, which causes a food shortage. We get to follow Eren, his adoptive sister Mikasa and their friend Armin, who decide to become soldiers to fight the titans.

So far the story seems like a slightly cooler and darker, but somewhat typical action anime. But after seeing episodes 5 and 6, that no longer seems to be the case at all. Uncertainty, emotional story telling and a brutal plot. I’m hooked, that’s for sure!

While the humans are drawn in normal anime style, the (regular) titans look slightly more “realistic”. They look super creepy as they walk around with their placid expressions.

The anime is scheduled for 25 episodes (episode 7 is next). Apparently there’s a live action movie in the works as well.

I was a bit sceptical about the drama series Gu Family Book judging by its first couple of episodes, which consisted of the back story for the main plot. However, I stuck with it to see when Suzy’s character would appear and after a few episodes the drama has really taken off. The main characters (Kang-chi, Yeo-wool and Chung-jo) are much more relatable.

Besides Suzy (the reason for my watching the drama in the first place), another beauty is Lee Yoo-bi, who plays Chung-jo (Kang-chi’s love interest and the daughter of the man who took Kang-chi in as a baby). She has a very “gentle” look, that I like. I haven’t seen her in any other dramas, but apparently she appeared in Vampire Idol and Nice Guy. She kind of reminds me of someone I know.

The drama is scheduled for 24 episodes and I think I’ll follow it to the end now (I’m at episode 8 ).

Another long drama I’m watching is You’re the Best Lee Soon-shin. It’s scheduled for 50 episodes! I’m still very much enjoying it and the more episodes the better when it comes to watching IU . I feel like both Suzy and IU have evolved since their roles in Dream High. Especially IU.

It’s kind of funny that the actual historical figure Lee Soon-shin, that IU’s character is named after, appears in Gu Family Book .

At the end of each episode of Gu Family Book, just like any other drama, there’s the obligatory list of sponsors. The last one that shows up has a very unfortunate logo, though. It’s supposed to be a stylized version of “pooq” (푹), but I misread it every time .

The audience was really supportive of the Swedish fighters. Except one. Chris Spång, who looked extremely nervous and tentative. People were cheering when he walked in with the Swedish flag and when the fight started, but after a couple minutes without action the cheers died down. A guy behind me shouted out his frustration “Men slååå-råååå!!” (”Punch FFS!!”).

The Brit Brad Picket, who fought at last year’s event too, faced Mike Easton. During that fight some guys had snuck down from their cheaper seats to some empty seats near where I was sitting. One of them was a self-proclaimed expert. I’m glad they only stayed for that one fight or I would have gone mad. He was so annoying. “Why does he keep missing? Why doesn’t he just walk straight forward and punch? Why is he just lying on top of him and not punching all the time? Yeah, NOW he’s punching him, but why doesn’t he just continue doing that? He would win straight away.” I could almost hear his buddy’s mental face-palm. The expert concluded “This was the worst fight tonight”. Brad Picket and Mike Easton earned Fight of the Night .

Another thing that annoyed me was how many were looking for their seat at the wrong side of the arena. It says on your ticket what entrance to use, FFS .

The main event was a real underdog fight when Alexander’s training partner Ilir Latifi (8-3-0) had to step in, making his UFC debut on short notice against former Strikeforce champion Gegard Mousasi (34-3-2).

Overall it was a good night. Too bad none of my buddies joined. The atmosphere was almost as good as last year and I hear that the UFC is planning on returning to Sweden within 12-18 months.

While I’m on the subject, I’ve found a couple of female fighters to look out for. One is Rose Namajunas. I saw this video that Ronda Rousey shared where Rose wins with a 12 second flying armbar! Very impressive.

Another female fighter I like is Joanne Calderwood from Scotland. She’s from a muay thai background and I was really impressed with her performance at Invicta 4. Very nice technique. Then I saw an interview with her and she’s just so adorable . Now I like her even more.

They’re both strawweight fighters so I guess they won’t appear in the UFC for some time (until the UFC has expanded the women’s division). They’re both fighting in Invicta FC, though.

I started watching another Korean drama series the other day. It’s called Gu Family Book (구가의 서). The reason I checked it out is because Suzy (Miss A, Dream High) plays one of the main parts, which the teaser suggests is a pretty bad-ass martial artist. The main character is played by Lee Seung-ki (The King 2 Hearts), but I haven’t gotten that far yet.

Gu Family Book is a period/fantasy drama. I generally have a hard time taking these seriously, since they look so… for lack of a better word, fake. Everyone is wearing pristine colourful clothes and all have perfect hair-dos. And the accents/way of speaking ruins the emotions at times (like the North Korean accents in King 2 Hearts). But, I’m giving this drama a go anyway.

I’ve only seen two episodes so far. At first I thought that things escalate a bit quickly, but it turns out that the first two episodes just provide the back story for the rest of the drama. It starts out with a noble girl, Seo-hwa, whose father has been branded a traitor, being sent off to be a state gisaeng/slave. One thing leads to another and she finds herself on the run from her captors. In the woods she runs into a man, who unbeknownst to her is a mythical creature (gumiho). He falls in love with her in a split second and decides to try to become human. But the people chasing Seo-hwa aren’t giving up the search… Let’s just say that Seung-ki’s character, Kang-chi, is a descendant to one or more of these characters .

The drama has been decent so far. Some awkward/forced scenes, like at the end of episode 2 where a character appears out of nowhere to explain what just happened to complete strangers. “You don’t know me, and I don’t really have any business being here, but take my word for what I’m about to say” .

I’m looking forward to seeing what Suzy’s character is like. That’s what I think could keep me coming back to this drama. It’s supposed to be a melodrama, but the story seems a bit cheesy and isn’t all that engaging, to be honest. At least, not so far.

I recognized the actress who plays Seo-hwa, Lee Yeon-hee, right away. Last weekend I watched the movie Hello Schoolgirl (순정만화), where she plays one of the main characters. That movie was quite good. It’s based on an online comic and is a mellow romantic story about a man who has recently moved into an apartment building. He befriends the daughter of one of his neighbours and feelings develop. At the same time a younger man, who is doing his military service as a civil servant at the same office as the main character, tries to win the affection of an older woman who is walking around the neighbourhood taking pictures. I really liked Yeon-hee in this movie. She’s very pretty.

It was kind of funny because I thought that the photo-lady looked a bit like Yoon-a in Girls’ Generation at first glance (similar hair and overall look when you saw her from afar). Then the character who Lee Yeon-hee plays, who is named Soo-young, has a friend who looks a lot like Choi Soo-young from Girls’ Generation. Because it is her . Apparently Yeon-hee, who is also under SM Entertainment, was in the pool of trainees that was being considered when forming Girls’ Generation.

I had been meaning to see that movie for a long time, so it was nice timing that I watched it right before Gu Family Book.

And yes, it was very tasty

Yesterday I was kind of in a funk and did nothing but watch TV series and movies all day. The last film I saw was A Werewolf Boy (늑대소년) starring Park Bo-young (Scandal Makers) and Song Joong-ki. I didn’t have any big expectations and only picked it since I like Park Bo-young, but it was surprisingly good.

The movie takes place in the 60’s and is about a family (a mother and her two daughters) that moves to the countryside because the eldest daughter (Sun-i, played by Bo-young) has problems with her lungs. At their new house they come across an orphan boy who can’t speak and behaves like a wild animal. They decide to let the boy stay with them for a while until they hear back from social services about finding a home for him. Sun-i gets tired of the boy’s wild behaviour and starts to train him according to a book on training dogs.

The main draw of the movie (for me, at least) is Park Bo-young. Watch it if you like her. Joong-ki also does a good job as the wolf boy. This type of movie can easily become cringe-worthy if the actor isn’t good. The film is a melodrama, so it’s kind of sad.

The same night I also watched Cloud Atlas. It’s an American movie, but Bae Du-na plays one of the main parts. It’s kind of hard to summarize that movie. It’s about events that take place and people that meet in different lives and times. It’s an interesting movie. I might have to re-watch it when I’m more focused. Watch it with subtitles, because some of the dialogue is in a made-up future dialect.

A week ago I was at the South Korean embassy again for a film night. That time the movie was Gone With the Wind/The Great Heist (바람과 함께 사라지다). It’s a period film where the story surrounds the supply of ice. The main character is played by Cha Tae-hyun (My Sassy Girl, Scandal Makers). It’s a bit over the top and silly at times, but I thought it was pretty funny. I actually preferred it to The Thieves that they showed the time before that. It’s about Tae-hyun and another guy, who has been wronged by the corrupt people in charge of the ice business, who round up a gang of “experts” to steal the ice from the storage caves. I recognised the child actress Kim Hyang-gi from this movie when I watched A Werewolf Boy. A rising starlet it seems.

Somewhat similar to Gone With the Wind was The Thieves. I was going to watch this movie before xmas, but I didn’t have any good subtitles at the time. That film features Jeon Ji-hyun (My Sassy Girl, Windstruck) and Kim Soo-hyun (Dream High) among others. It’s kind of Ocean’s Eleven-like and is about a group of thieves that are getting together for one big heist. It was just OK, in my opinion. It’s a fairly complicated story and not all that much actual drama.

Last night I started watching the Korean drama series You’re the best, Lee Soon-shin (최고다 이순신). The main character is played by IU, which I admit is the reason I checked this drama out. She’s very adorable as Soon-shin, but the drama seems to be very good as well.

I’ve only watched two episodes, but the impression I’ve gotten so far is that the drama is about being brave when handling adversity, even though no one else believes in you and that “when a door closes, a window opens”.

Soon-shin (named after a historic Korean figure) is the youngest of three sisters. Her other two sisters are (seem) successful and her parents are very proud of them. Soon-shin is unemployed and no one believes in her. After being fired from a part time job she gets scouted on the street by a man who wants her to become an actress. Could it be for real? No one believes that anyone could see anything in her.

The other main characters, apart from Soon-shin’s family is the president of an entertainment company (I recognize this actor from The King 2 Hearts) and two actresses, one of which seems to have a connection to Soon-shin’s father. A bunch of subplots.

After struggling with The King 2 Hearts, this drama seems very good. I started watching The King 2 Hearts because Ha Ji-won is in it and that Tae-yeon has a song on the soundtrack, but the story is a complete mess in the first five episodes that I’ve watched and the main character is a complete douchebag (”but maybe the girl will fall in love with him and change him” bla bla). I keep waiting for The King 2 Hearts to become better, but I don’t have too high hopes.

You’re the best, Lee Soon-shin, on the other hand, is good from the first episode. The only problem is that it’s airing right now, so once I’ve caught up, I’ll have to wait for each new episode and fansub.

I predict that IU’s character will face much adversity and have her hopes slammed down on several occasions, but still won’t give up. Being adorable all the way .

Official site: Korean, English (the English one is down right now, though).

A while back I bought a couple of budget friendly kitchen knives with a bit harder steel for my sharpening hobby. One was a shirogami#2 Japanese carbon steel knife. I was considering a Tojiro, which is a budget brand, but the online shop where I was looking had similar knives at a lower price. I figured they were just OEM:ed knives from the same manufacturer and went for that one instead.

I really liked that knife. You have to be careful about it rusting, but it’s really easy to sharpen and takes a wicked edge. I bought it as an experiment, but it quickly became my favourite kitchen knife. It did have some problems, though. The blade was ground very unevenly (the uneven line to the kuroichi finish was like that from the beginning, it’s not from my flattening) and the surface is kind of dented in places. I’ve thinned it a lot, but it’s still not flat. The handle seems to have a tendency to dry out, so the bolster comes loose. I’ve tried soaking and oiling it, but it just dries up again.

Last week I went back to the Japanese store and bought a Nakiri knife. It’s a different style of blade than the one I had and it was so cheap, so I had to get it. Comparing the blades side by side, it’s like night and day. Ignore the milky finish on the old chefs knife in the pictures, that’s from some experiments on thinning (last time it had a mirror polish), but the fit and finish on the Tojiro blade is miles ahead. The handle is much nicer (D-shaped) and the blade is nice and even. The blade on the Tojiro is much thicker at the handle and thinner at the front (excluding the tip, of course). Both knives are shirogami#2 steel.

I paid 390 SEK for it at the grocery store. The same knife costs nearly 600 in online stores here. I got it even cheaper than my old knife, which is of lower quality.

I guess the point I’m trying to make is that if you’re in the market for a shirogami knife, take a look at Tojiro (by Fujitora) and shop around for a good price. Check your local Japanese grocery/import stores if you have any. Then you can inspect the knife before buying it as well. Avoid the knife store’s own (OEM) brands.

Sorry for the out-of-focus-y photos. The battery was running out, so I had to snap them quickly.

It was such a small thing. Less than 8 minutes of my day, but it cheered me up somehow.

BTW, that sencha is very tasty. A bit expensive though.