okay, seriously now.

So it's the first few days of my spring break, and it is GOREGOUS outside, 65ish degrees (thanks a lot, Mr.Global Warming) and what do I choose to do with my time? Inbetween filling out insurence forms for my auntie, sorting through my old stuff my parents decided to ludge down from my attic bedroom to clutter the back of the house and running at the beach (where old men kick my ass in pumping out 'em miles), I'm glued to my computer screen. And no, it's not because i have essays to write, which I do because what spring break from Vassar is complete without homework? Oh no, it's because of this Japanese drama called 1 litre of tears. Oh my god, let me tell you something about doramas.... once you get start, you can't stop. No seriously. take a look at K's "Only Human" video, the theme song from 1 litre of tears.

K - Only Human

So, all my friends make fun of me for listening to really, really bad Jrock or Jpop (to which I say, it's all a matter of taste), however, K is a bit different from all of them. First off, he's slightly tame in apperance, and his vocalwork is fantasic. And read the lyrics man.. talk about really, really sad. Unbelivably so! Perhaps my favorite line in the song is the last two, in which he sings, "a stong, strong light/ pushes us to walk on. It's probably the saddest song I've heard sung in an language, and K's powerful voices fills the song with tons of emotions, perfect as the ending theme to quite possibly the best dorama I've ever seen.

So, what's 1 litre of tears about? It's one of those "typical" dramas, and that's to say, the main character is diagnosed with a diease and the drama follows her in her everyday life as she attempts to cope. But what makes this dorama different from others is that though the typical cliches are there - boyfriend who gets a affirmation of life due to his romantic involment with aforementioned girl, snobby classmaters learn to treat aforementioned girl with decency and respect and aforementioned girl inspires her basketball team - 1 litre of tears works because of the family aspect of it. Ikeuchi Aya comes from a rather large, typically Japanese family, dad owns a tofu shop and mom's a hygentist that works for a local clinic. She has an incredibly cute younger siste, Rika, a younger brother that makes me SQUEAL with his hyperness, Hiroki and a moody sister, Ako. The interplay between Ako and Aya really come to a head as the sisters are in constant sibling rivalry, furthered complicated by their parents' somewhat favoring of Aya over Ako. And then the family learns that Aya has spinocerebellar atrophy, a diease that eats away at her nerves, eventually causing Aya to lose the ability to use her limbs, or even talk. What's even more heartbreaking is the fact that this drama is based on the true story of a girl who suffered from this diease, Kito Aya, who passed away when she was only 25. She kept a diary that she wrote in until the day she could no longer hold a pen, and the diary entries became the inspiration for the dorama.

To say it's moving is an unstatement. I'm a sucker for tear-jerkers and though I'm on episode 4 of the 11 part series, I haven't cried this much from the get-go, EVER. Watch it. The actress who protrays Aya, Erika Sawajira is amazing and so is the actor who protrays Asou Haruto, Nishikido Ryo (he's a pretty, pretty boy by the way). Watch it. I have nothing else to say.

1 litre of tears, episode 1, part 1

Youtube has all 11 episodes up. Watch it, but make sure that you have a roll or two of toliet paper nearby. It's a tearjerker.

first things first!

Just to prove that I’m not dead, I’m going to start writing in this blog. Let’s see how interesting I can make this, or perhaps this is just another place for me to dump ALL of my obsessions, since I have so many of them (but nowadays who doesn’t?).