In spirit and energy with Sakura Gakuin – Part 02

My life was enriched with Sakura Gakuin (さくら学院) only days after watching Babymetal videos and concerts. It all happened so quick I hadn’t had the time to feel I might miss Hana, Yui, Moa and Yunano. All those feelings came later after I saw Road to Graduation 2012 and 2013. Here’s my previous blog post In spirit and energy with Sakura Gakuin I wrote on the day when these four girls graduated on 29th March 2015.

Today, five months after writing a blog post of Sakura Gakuin’s fourth Graduation Day held on 29th March, 2015, I come to think of times spent watching in earlier videos, live performances, LoGiRL shows, new releases, and expanding myself to becoming fans of Perfume and Nogizaka46 (乃木坂46) as well. Although this isn’t the end, I’m sure there is more than what can be seen.

Even when I became a Sakura Gakuin fan, I didn’t know of the wonderful Reddit community where its members shared a common likeness. As new posts were posted, I thanked each one of them in silent appreciation for their contributions. I also came to know after the graduation ceremony about Onji-san’s translation project he’d started on Sakura Gakuin diary entries. I hadn’t known they wrote diary posts before. Soon enough, I realised there were even more members who translated a lot of stuff, videos, graduation speeches, song lyrics, real-time live translations during LoGiRL and Night of Spica on Stolabo Tokyo shows, documentaries, and other videos where votes were taken from fans and members of the community.

I write most of my writings, both fiction and daily journals, accompanied with songs by Sakura Gakuin, Ayami Muto, and Babymetal, Nogizaka46 and Perfume. I can’t believe myself to have switched from English to Japanese songs. I could easily declare that I’ve been listening to Japanese music at least 95% of my listening time. Going back to Sakura Gakuin’s past, I still miss all the moments they occurred. There’s a different feel between watching things live in real, on screen, recorded, and those recorded long back in the past. I just watched Ayaka and Airi’s show yesterday, and I could feel their touch I had missed when they themselves had been in Sakura Gakuin. They sang and performed pretty well. I finally heard Airi-chan’s voice as she sang. I had heard her voice in the songs probably occurring less than the fingers could count. Ayaka-chan’s voice is still beautiful as it’d been in her Sakura Gakuin days. But listening to Airi-chan singing made me feel happy. I hope someday, I’ll see all the graduates make a legendary comeback and create an Alumni Unit with Sakura Gakuin’s collaboration to bring back the original Sakura Gakuin voices they had been back when they’d been in Sakura Gakuin themselves. Gosh, will I ever hear Suzuka-chan’s voice in “My Graduation Toss” or “Cherry Blossom Colour Avenue (桜色のアベニュー)“? Or even Second generation Minipati? And others as well. I can only hope for such an event. It’ll be the 5th Road to Graduation next year, but I can only keep my fingers crossed for such a performance. It doesn’t matter if they do not perform. It’s their voice and their presence that matters to me. Their aura brings positive change in me. Listening to their voice is already wonderful, but watching them as they perform is like a bliss. Oh, how quick and easy it is to leave the real world when they perform with such beauty, elegance and grace.

In the beginning, I had wondered whether I’d be able to recognise all Sakura Gakuin members easily. I had to keep watching the videos, and the Sakura Gakuin’s Sun episodes (e.g. Ep. 01). I got hold of them quickly. Nene-chan and Marina-chan had been off for quite some time. When they appeared at the Babymetal concert and I saw a picture, I did feel they had changed so much. Marina’s quick movements and Nene’s all-time smile-on-the-face had a charm on me from the videos I’d seen of them. Hinata-chan, Ayaka-chan and Airi-chan regularly posted pics on twitter. And finally, I recognise them all now.

I guess it’s time to talk about the current Sakura Gakuin members. After I watched Road to Graduation 2014, I couldn’t withstand my tears to flow on. Although I didn’t understand what Rinon-chan, Moa-chan, Mori-sensei, or Kuramoto-san said, their expressions spoke a lot of sentiments and feelings. Even after the latter two put forth some jokes to laugh and smile, I still lost my tears. Gosh, why it makes me wonder why I’m again getting the same feeling again. Now, I’m literally writing this a few minutes later. Well, I do miss Hana-chan, Yunano-chan, Yui-chan and Moa-chan more as I was already their fan. And missing them would simply break my heart. On the other hand, I was happy as they had progressed ahead in life. They were now ‘Super Ladies’ along with other graduates, and I felt good for them. Well, not all. I’m glad to see all but Yunano-chan’s progress. I didn’t know much about her until the graduation, but her playful approach and her style of speech had made it seem like that. Yui and Moa had been known. And Hana’s frank and friendly fashion on LoGiRL with her introductory dialogue was cool enough for me to miss her. Fortunately, she’s in Torahime Ichiza and I wish to see her performance there as well. From the promotion video, I’ve taken interest and plan to watch their musical play when I visit Japan.

It still sounds more like all the graduates been spoken of. But there is a lot to speak, and I might never be able to stop unless I hold my reins on my horses. This year Rinon, SakiS and SakiO lead the group with Sara, Aiko and Megumi along with the new transfer-ins of this year Mirena, Momoko, Marin, Maaya, Soyoka and Kano. I had some problems identifying them in the beginning. But replying to their comments on their diaries and watching the LoGiRL shows solved such problems. The new transfer-ins are now four months as Sakura Gakuin members and it already feels good to know them. I’m happy Sara-chan won’t graduate alone next year, but also feel a little sad that I’ll see a little less of Mirena-chan since she’ll graduate with Sara-chan. Whatever it is, I’m sure Mirena-chan will do her best that comes in front of her. With the new units set now, I look forward to all their performances, especially the new songs they create in the upcoming albums.

It looks like Aiko-chan read and implemented an activity I wrote in one of my comments on her diary. Aiko-chan had asked in one of her diaries what activities that we had during school. I had written about the spoon with the table tennis ball in it. Of course, in my case, it was carrying and passing the ball from one end of the room to the other without dropping them. Obviously, due to less space on LoGiRL, they must have shortened the distance to a table. Anyway, the comment may as well not be read and could be their invention as well. Nonetheless, it doesn’t matter. I felt glad that the activity was played.

There’s been so much activity and watching them grow through the years along with all the pressure gives me the motivation to write further. But I guess it could never end. So, I’ll keep it for some time later in the future. All-in-all, Sakura Gakuin transformed me to become something I never felt before. I shall always be happy for their presence through spirit and mind. And my blessings shall be over them all be they graduates or current, or not in Mariri-chan’s case. 🙂 I hope they will all receive the best of what the world has to offer them. I wish them all the luck in the world to have a great future.

Encounter with a Baby Squirrel

I had a wonderful experience with a Baby Squirrel. It was fortunate to live without getting hurt after it fell a height of a good seven or eight foot. Let me explain what happened.

After it fell down and hid itself in one of the dark corners, I somehow managed to make it hop into a bottle after scaring it from behind. Here’s what it looked like when it was inside as I searched for its parents or relatives nearby. (By the way, I live on the second floor and the squirrels climb pipes that run outside the bathroom.)

It lay alert and cautious for about 10 minutes. As I held the bottle and stand in the balcony when it squeaked to call its parents, there wasn’t a squirrel in the area. After about half an hour, I went down to show the baby squirrel to one of his relative (or so I assumed) and removed it on a small piece of cloth for comforting the squirrel, before it could walk out on the rough ground. Unfortunately, none of its relatives appeared. I tried all locations of the society ground, but there weren’t any.

As I removed the baby squirrel out of the bottle on my hand, it got a warm shake from the sun and became active. However, it didn’t risk jumping as it saw the ground about four feet below him. I guess he remembered his previous fall in my house before. With that, he simply sat on my palm and I covered it with my other hand to cover it from contact with direct sunlight. There was still no sign of any squirrels anywhere nearby.

I took the baby squirrel back home and took a picture. Well, it looked at the camera with caution in the beginning, the backside of the camera being red in colour.

Then after some time of clicking snaps (without the flash, of course), I guess the squirrel was comfortable. That’s when it went into more like giving different poses. Maybe it felt how it was to be involved in the glamour world.

It had become comfortable and did not even jump as I placed my hand close to the ground. What I could think of was that it was receiving the warmth from my hand and didn’t want to let go. Alternatively, maybe it was some other reason. Within minutes after my taking snaps, I tried feeding water, but it simply rejected it. It had already been about an hour and a half it was away from its family. If I didn’t keep it hydrated, it would die soon.

Minutes later, I saw the baby squirrel go to sleep. It slept for around twenty minutes. As it slept, I believe it was having dreams as its body moved all the time as similar to how a human body moves while in REM (Rapid Eye Movement) sleep state.

When I heard one squirrel making a noise on a nearby tree, I woke the baby squirrel and went down with it in my palm. When I reached ground level and saw the squirrel on the tree, I had to wait so that it saw the baby squirrel. Moreover, it started to make rapid vocal sounds as I mimicked him. When I placed the baby squirrel on the soft cloth, it didn’t want to get off me. When I went away, the squirrel didn’t come close. Instead, the baby squirrel had moved towards a trunk of a tree, where I had to pick it up. I placed the squirrel near a rough area so that it wouldn’t move out of the cloth and then started to make sounds of a squirrel myself.

After about two minutes, a squirrel came down off the pipes and became cautious towards the sound. Fortunately, the baby squirrel replied frequently, as it couldn’t get off from the soft cloth. However, it reached the baby squirrel, cleaned it, and then picked it up and reached for the closest tree to climb. I went back home then.

It was wonderful and felt like blessed with a baby squirrel for two hours. I hope you enjoyed it as well. Let me know what would you do if you had an unexpected baby squirrel come out?

In spirit and energy with Sakura Gakuin

I  shall write about a group, which inspired and motivated me, helped me live through depression and frustration, when irritation has had its height of implementation over me. Although those times do not exist any more, I find myself attached to this group. Sakura Gakuin (or さくら学院, or Cherry Blossom Academy) has become a significant part of my life. I shall not explain and describe who they are. One can find more information about it over the internet.

Today being 29th March, 2015, it is the Graduation Day for the fourth year. I’ve been their fan since somewhere around mid-January, 2015 after I came to know about Babymetal, a Kawaii Metal (Cute Metal) music band from Japan. Babymetal consists of Suzuka Nakamoto, Yui Mizuno and Moa Kikuchi, accompanied by Kami band providing metal music. As I kept listening to Babymetal every day, I was intrigued and curious to know more about the three schoolgirls who performed brilliantly, with such excellent synchronous dance performance. Every live performance I watched made them seem to look like perfect musical masters.

However, things did not stop there for me. I came to know of them as part of another group Sakura Gakuin, which consists of ten members as of today. Nonetheless, four of them shall graduate by evening today. Yui Mizuno, Moa Kikuchi, Hana Taguchi and Yunano Notsu shall have graduated by today evening. I shall miss them even more now. Moreover, I’m already having my tears take off from my heart as I write this. I cried even as I took a bath today, and it was when I decided I would dedicate this day towards Sakura Gakuin. I shall write about this lovely group that I have known to be like angels.

Sakura Gakuin’s past has had a lot of history as well. After watching videos about them during their academic years, I find it hard to see how surprising things went, year after year, and when things started to grow thereafter. They even have a session on LoGirl where they come every Monday. I shall miss these four graduates now on. I might never even see them anymore. Although I know that Yui and Moa will appear with Suzuka in Babymetal. But it has been beautiful to see them in their true colours, where they play pranks, have fun, and even do weird things out of the blue. I shall miss it all each one of them.

Speaking of which, I feel I have already missed out graduates who passed out in the past years. Ayami, Airi, Marina, Nene, Suzuka, Hinata, Ayaka, Mariri, and Raura. Although they’ve already graduated and have long been on their way ahead in their life, I find myself attached to them as well. In addition, I can’t even wonder why something like this has happened. There is something I feel constrained to do. I like them all, no matter how different and unique they all are, how good or bad they might be in their personal lives. Sometimes I start to think whether I’ve been charmed by an enchantment from these lovely girls.

Moreover, how am I to forget those who managed to get all of this in front of the world? Amuse Inc. has done an incredible job, hats off to them all. All the Sakura Gakuin teams, admin, camera, planning, to the head of Sakura Gakuin who leads with such a brilliant idea, and to Mori sensei who worked his way so hard into getting everyone to laugh most of the time.

Today I shall watch Graduation shows of the last two years back to back in the evening. I just wished there was a paid viewing of this year’s graduation ceremony over the internet. I hope they’ll release it for purchase soon.

It feels like happiness and sadness with tears come hand in hand as my feelings for these wonders simply run across through my view, although in my imagination, after I keep watching their videos repetitively in daily doses. Suzuka’s Delorean video is like a legend for me. After all, it is logically correct and I agree with her choice. Then there’s Einstein being called an old man. I shall never forget these class test examples. I haven’t seen all of them, but I’m sure there’s much more in store.

I completely forgot to mention something significant. I have had an interest in learning Japanese language since I was very young. However, most of everyone whom I spoke about it told me that Japanese is very tough and difficult to learn. All of this put a break on me towards learning the Japanese language. Nevertheless, the few days after getting to know Babymetal and after watching their videos of documentaries, it all seemed to have pushed me over the edge. I took the challenge and started on my own to learn Japanese language. This became a turning point for me. Everything seemed to flow like a stream, one step at a time. With no support from anyone else but the aura of all the members of Sakura Gakuin, I had enough motivation to push myself further. It’s been not more than three months I’ve been learning and everything is flowing smoothly. I would say ‘You were wrong.’ to those who told me that learning this language was tough. I might even add to it saying that it was most possible that they never faced such intriguing challenges. Moreover, to all of this, I would like to give my thanks to those who brought this beautiful language to me.

Although I still have to learn a lot about Japanese language, I still watch LoGirl, their videos, and even other shows where I can get to learn from hearing.

I believe I shall have to keep on writing about these wonderful people, and the topics on which I have in mind, seem to be endless. This has made me think of writing an episodic about them. I wonder now, why this never struck my mind before.

Strange Behaviours – Crows

Last week I went to Churchgate, in Mumbai, to pay the electric bill. While I stood in the queue, awaiting my turn, I saw a variety of vehicles approach the stop signal at the end of the road. There were people who appeared tense, with stress all over them, an aura of sorrow filled through their souls. On the other hand, some of the cars had a different meaning, a couple of teens were having a good time having something to eat, while few of them had children placing themselves in a complex manner all across the seating within.

The point of all this is not what I saw with the public racing towards their destination. Something strange occurred that I never had expected out there. As I saw a jeep covered with a roof pull to a stop, a crow landed on it. There were big trees planted along the edges of the road and they spanned above the entire four-or-six-lane one-way.

After the crow landed, it stared the sidewalk, waiting for an opportunity to grab as it came. The vehicle stood perpendicular to the direction of the crow. No sooner had the signal turned green, the motion of vehicles started to perform its musical harmony, the honks and horns of cars and buses, tempos and bikes lifted as if to notify everyone that a huge urgency had arrived.

As the jeep started to accelerate, the crow did not jerk and fly away. Instead, it stood there looking towards the footpath. Moments later, it turned itself in the direction of the jeep’s motion. It lifted its wings to feel the wind course through the wings of its body and then jumped up to fly above back towards a branch of the tree above. The crow stood along the branch for a long time there and then left elsewhere.

What came to my mind was something different, something that gave me an idea for my story on the crows. I wondered if the crows took the experience of travelling along with vehicles as long as the damage did not happen to their bodies and feathers. What would it be if they liked to travel free-of-cost at the expense of the humans travelling along the roads here and there? Hitching a ride over human vehicles was an exciting approach. Soon enough, the crows would mutate and have the ability to travel much faster than what they manage to fly with their current average speed of 30 mph.

Interview

Writing Challenge – The Daily Post – Interview

For this week’s challenge, let someone else do the talking.

Here’s an interview I had with someone very close to me:

Q: Are you happy with what you’re doing?

A: I feel okay. Although, I do feel insecure in various ways of life, based on the current trends in life. There’s no monetary gain since more than two years now, and I wonder how long I will have to wait until the situation get better.

Q: Are you going to do something about it?

A: In due time, yes. Time is a factor which needs to be considered significant here. But the fact that I have lived under expectations for so long, due to societal and cultural flaws, has aroused my rebellion character. I wish to free myself from such matters, which are unessential. I shall prioritise over a period (a time span which I cannot measure) in educating and experiencing the new course of life I wish to live. Hence, I might as well wait in patience and practice upon my newly acquired habits and skills.

Q: What do you wish to gain from your new life?

A: I believe I should let the world know of my thoughts, the way I see life. The different perspectives and narratives I produce along as I descend into the maelstrom consisting of problems, solutions, and the involved procedures to solve the indefinite and unending complications during my lifetime.

Q: I’m sure that is a great way to share the experiences you have by now, and shall have in the future as well. How do you intend to provide such massive knowledge to the masses worldwide? In other words, how would you let the world know about what you have in mind?

A: There are innumerable ways to express what one has experienced. Let’s say, if you’ve experienced death within your family who was close to you. One could reflect it well inside a story where tragedy occurs, creating shock to the readers, for the death of the character’s relative shall affect the character while trying to move on in his/her life. The feelings and emotions shall appear along as the story progresses. Sometimes, that tragic event might be the reason for the character to reach a failure in the quest or mission. You see, there are other ways to say different things. It’s not simply what the world says, but rather how it’s mentioned.

Q: Well, I wish to thank you for taking out your precious time towards your readers. Before we take leave, I’d like to ask one last question. Is there anything you’d like to tell your audience?

A: There isn’t much to say, but life has to keep moving. And that life needs change all the time. If your life remains static and stagnant, you’re as good as a weathered rock, kicked out by every living entity who watches you as a nobody. Unless you change yourself, and do what it takes to become what you wish to be, life shall put you down all the time (unless if you’re super lucky). I shall not enforce anyone to do what he/she wishes to do. Nevertheless, I shall only say one thing – Do what you feel and believe is right.

Refer to several similar entries of the same daily prompt on the next page:

Big Day Ahead

Daily Prompt Challenge – The Daily Post – Big Day Ahead

It’s the night before an important event: a big exam, a major presentation, your wedding. How do you calm your nerves in preparation for the big day?

Big Exam – It simply felt like a formality to feel educated under the education system.

Major Presentation – Give me a break. I’d rather work in private, research on the topic concerned, then start on creating it. Nonetheless, it’s nothing big.

A Wedding – Impossible (I’m still single, and haven’t experienced it yet. :P)

For me, an important event would consider things like changing the fate of our planet, saving a life, or work on something to make the world a better place.

The other day, a baby squirrel of about 3-4 weeks had lost itself around the house. It was born in a loft above the bathroom ceiling, and, unknown to all the members of the house, fell on the kitchen floor in the middle of the night. By noon, the baby squirrel was found in the balcony of the living room, which squeaked and hopped around everywhere in a desperate attempt to get away.

Unable to get a good grip, it fell each time while making an attempt. As I tried to calm it down, and brush my fingers over its fur, it would pop out and jump in fear of what I might do to him.

After half an hour, I managed to get the squirrel inside a bottle of Bournvita (1 kg) when it attempted to climb along the corner of the wall and fell straight inside. Along the course, It had climbed over me, on to my hands and head, and gotten on my back, ready to jump beyond the gallery into the depth of death. Nonetheless, I ducked down so he fell back inside.

The moment he jumped into the bottle, it curled itself up, eyes staring outside the translucent walls of the bottle.

Few minutes later, after I went downstairs, I got the squirrel out after constantly tapping over the bottle. He seemed to have become comfortable inside, I guess.

Once outside and at the ground level, I stood there for a minute or two, when it started to walk around and head back towards the building wall to climb on. As I thought and took a step ahead to push the baby squirrel towards the other grown-ups, one of them came down a tree and groomed him.

I stood watching the reunion for a couple of minutes. The grown-up squirrel picked the baby, the latter holding itself around the mouth with its hands, legs and tail, and climbed the nearest tree.

Now, where in the world would such important events have a night before to realise such a thing was going to occur the next day. Of course, it was expected that some day, a baby squirrel would fall into our house. Those squirrels have found a really good spot in our house after all.

I wouldn’t be surprised for any such thing called as a ‘Big Day Ahead’, unless I knew of such life-changing events about to occur in my life.

Refer to several similar entries of the same daily prompt on the next page:

Signs

Weekly Photo Challenge – The Daily Post – Signs

This week, publish an image of a sign — from the signs you encounter on the street to more personal, less obvious signs that hold meaning for you.
Situated in McLeod Ganj, Dharamsala in Himachal Pradesh, India, Momo Cafe was the place to have Veg. Momos. Wow, the feel of having Momos here was so different than having it at any other place nearby, or in other towns (those with good tastebuds would know).

I’d been there in 2009, and I hope to visit the place in the future as well. One just cannot leave Momo Cafe, and McLeod Ganj ignored.

Refer to several similar entries of the same daily prompt on the next page: