👗Lily Collins vs Jennifer Morrison

Lily Collins is not new here on #WWIB, but this time I have no doubts and, for me, she is the one wearing this Cristian Siriano burgundy red dress better.

Lily Collins wore it first at the L.A. screening of her latest Netflix original film, ‘To The Bone’ (my review HERE), back in June. The dress has a minimalistic design and Lily completed it with black pumps, a sleek hairstyle and reddish matte lipstick.

Jennifer Morrison showed up in the same dress at the ‘Rebel in the Rye’ N.Y. premiere, earlier this September. She opted for a white clutch and clear, ankle-tie sandals. The finishing touches were a bright red lipstick and a loose waves hairstyle.

Who do you think wore it better?

Lily Collins or Jennifer Morrison?

Photo credits: dailymail.co.uk & zimbio.com

#TTT: Top Ten Tuesday

Here's the movies and books of the previous lists that I've watch/read during last months!
- Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales 2/5 - this was a superfluous 5th chapter, has some of the original charme wiped off, but the special effects are incredible and it concludes the story started with Will Turner and Elizabeth Swan back in 2003. 

- Captain Fantastic 5/5 - when the movie finishes, the debates start: it's better to be brutally honest with young children and treat them like adults or is it better to protect them from how sad and mean life can be? One thing is clear, however: THIS IS A MUST WATCH!
- USS Indianapolis 2/5 - the story and actors are really good and you can tell they did their best to make this movie an authentic one and I like it for this...unfortunatelly, the scenography and the shooting techniques failed to make it an enjoyable experience.
- Shogun by James Clavell - my review HERE

- Salvaged by Jay Crownover my review HERE 

This month wishlist:

MOVIES

In This Corner of the World (2017) by Sunao Katabuchi. With Non, Megumi Han, Yoshimasa Hosoya, Natsuki Inaba and Nanase Iwai.

Kingsman: The Golden Circle (2017) by Mmatthew Vaughn. With Colin First, Taron Egerton, Julianne Moore, Mark Strong, Channing Tatum and Halle Berry.

Everything, Everything (2017) by Stella Meghie. With Nick Robinson, Taylor Hickson, Ana de la Reguera, Amandla Stenberg and Peter Benson.

Cars 3 (2017) by Brian Fee. With Owen Wilson, Jason Pace, Jose Premole, Armie Hammer and Nathan Fillion.

Hampstead (2017) by Joel Hopkins. With Diane Keaton, Brendan Gleeson, Lesley Manville, James Norton and Jason Watkins.

BOOKS

A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens
Prisoners of Geography: Ten Maps That Tell You Everything You Need To Know About Global Politics
by Tim Marshall

The Singles Games by Lauren Weisberger
The Tiger's Daughter by K. Arsenault Rivera

Heads Will Roll by Joanie Chevalier 


What should I see/read first?

Photo credits: impawards.com & goodreads.com

👘[Japanese Week] 📖 Novel of the Week: Shogun by James Clavell

So...we reached the end of this Japanese week and I wanted to finish with book review!
Hope you all enjoyed this week's contents and have a great Sunday!
さようなら!

1600 - A Dutch ship named “Erasmus”, lead by English pilot John Blackthorne, is in a terrible situation: the sea and wind are trying their best to sink it and is only by miracle that he's able to carry it to safety on the Japanese shores. But as soon as they hit land they're taken prisoners by the Japanese, who also confiscate the ship and everything on it, included Blackthorne's precious routers, the maps of the ways he followed during his journey.
Political situation in Japan couldn't be worse: the Taikō (absolute Lord and Protector of Japan) died and his 7 years old son is obviously too young to heir the power and all clans are making or breaking alliances so that one of the two most powerful daimyo, Ishido, Lord of Osaka, or Yoshi Toranaga, Lord of Kwanto, can surmount the other and take the lead of the country.

Add the unstable tollerance over Jesuit Spanish and Portuguese priests, who want to proselytize Japanese with Catholicism,  and you have a pretty good picture of how critic the situation is. Blackthorne somehow has to do his best in order to stay alive and find a way back home.

👍👎My Thoughts

This novel counts more than 1000 pages, but you'll barely notice them. The first part is about introducing the characters and Japanese hierarchies and society. The second part is the story is about how Blackthorne managed to become essential for one of the two contenders and for the future of the war.

I can't belive it was written in 1975, I like the writing style and how the author was able to simplify concepts like how Japanese deal with money and sexuality.
Probably a few of theses are over exaggerated to give some kind of solemn tone, but overall I think I'll keep on reading Clavell's Asian Saga!

My vote: 10/10

Other Japanese books reviews on the blog

(click on the cover)

Photo credits: studioremarkable.com & goodreads.com

👘[Japanese Week] Learning Japanese with Youtube & Apps!

Learning Japanese can be challenging, specially when you first approach to it: it has a complete different style of writing and symbols have multiple meanings, depending on where you put them!

I'm old style when it comes to learning languages: I like to have a teacher who's explaining me the basics and the pronounce, but ain't nobody got time for that, right?

Thank God, there are various apps (both for smartphones and computers) that can help you learning Japanese, or any other language! Let's start!

Youtube is more than kitties funny videos. I use it for movie trailers, book reviews and sometimes also to understand how to set up something on my smartphone or on the iPad...so it's no surprising that it has lots of people sharing their tips & tricks on how studing and learning Japanese. All you have to do is type "how I learned Japanese" and you'll get dozens of videos of people explaining it to you.

Now, you may want to select people who actually live or lived in Japan (or Japanese people directly) so you'll know those study methods are effective...these are the people I personally follow:

Japanese Ammo with Misa - HERE

Rachel and June - HERE

Orangetummy - HERE

Kimdao - HERE

This app allows you to talk and write to people from different parts of the globe that speak the language you want to learn and vice versa: a great way to meet new people and practice with your writing, which is as much important as being able to talk.

Same thing as Tandem, HelloTalk is more about being correct from native speakers. It counts more than 100 languages!

Italki is like having a personal teacher ready whenever you have time. This app connects students with proper teachers, scheduling the lessons based on your necessites. Since the professors are graduated and trained as so, this is the only app of the list that requires to pay the teachers.

Now you have all the tools to start learning Japanese...or whatever language you prefer!!

Just to clarify: I wasn't paid by any of these companies to promote their apps or services, it's just a list of things I personally use to learn and meet people all around the world!

👘[Japanese Week] Anime Review: Maid Sama! (会長はメイド様!)

おはよう!

Today's post is about an anime I saw recently, based on the same name manga by Hiro Fujiwara. The anime has been aired in Japan back in 2010, so it's a bit old, but I had the chance to watch it only a few months ago, so be patient...😉

Kaichō wa meido-sama! is the story of Seika high school student Misaki Ayuzawa, a 16 years old girl, who's incredibly focus on making the school an eligible and desirable place for female students to apply for.

Seika was previously an all-boys school and even if it was turned as mixed school, still 80% of the students are male and have lots of discipline problems. Misaki is also the first female student council president and uses her power to re-educate boys (expecially when it comes to interact with girls) by being inflexible, sometimes yelling and kicking them as well...

But this strict and glacial reputation could vanish if her school mates knew she works part time in a maid cafè: there Misaki has to be compliant and gentle, calling costumers "masters" and serving them like a Victorian house maid...

Of course, who could ever have discover her secret if not Takumi Usui, the most annoying and mysterious of her school mates? 
From day 1 he starts to show up at the cafè, following her at school and using every second of his time making sure to bother Misaki...
Beside this (frankly! a bit) weird behavior, Usui seems to have the ability to save Misaki from a variety of potentially dangerous or uncomfortable situations and so the two of them establish a 'love/hate' kind of relationship...

The anime has other characters and shows different moments of the accademic life of the protagonists and I really liked it! It's funny and has a good variety of personalities: Misaki is a strong young girl, knows what she wants or doesn't want, isn't afraid to challenge herself and never gives up! Usui is mysterious, taciturn and sometimes volgar, but his feelings about Misaki are true.

Do you like shoujo anime and want something relaxing and entertaining? Maid sama! is what you should be watching!

👘[Japanese Week] "Rebel" Princesses

おはよう! 

Good Morning!

Japan is a Parliamentary constitutional monarchy, which means they have a royal family like many other European and South East Asian countries. They don't have a king but an Emperor. On summer 2016 Emperor Akihito surprised everyone with a televion conference, where he said that, giveng his age, he no longer thought he could be able to do his job properly...in other words: he wanted to abdicate. 

In Japan exists the Meiji Constitution, which contemplate the ascension to the throne to male heirs only. The problem is that the Imperial Japanese family consists in 18 members, 13 of which are female...the next in line is Crown Prince Naruhito, who has one daughter, so she won't be Emperess after her father death, if the law remains the same. 

Today I wanted to talk about 3 of the memebers of the Chrysanthemum throne, how their decisions and mediatic pressure changed them and the entire family.

Princess Mako of Akishino - nience of Emperor Akihito and daughter of his second born son, Prince Akishino and wife Kiko Kawashima. On May, 16th 2017 it was announced her intention to marry Kei Komuro, a former University mate, now working in a law firm in Tokyo.

Masako is the first on the left, with a light blue kimono. Photo credit: japantimes.co.jp

According to the Imperial Law, by marrying a "commoner" she'll lose not only her last name but all the Imperial privileges as well. On the other hand, she'll gain the right to vote and will enjoy more liberties compared to rigid court protocols. This law is applied only in the case a female member of the Imperial family marries a non aristocratic person.

On September, 3rd it was formally announced her engagement! Congratulation to the couple and good luck! 

おめでとうございます

I really hope this means "congratulations"!

Crown Princess Masako - wife of the heir and future Emperor of Japan, Crown Prince Naruhito. She's also known as the "sad princess". Born in Tokyo, she moved with her family to Moscow when she was 2 years old and attended kindergarden there. Back in Japan, Masako attended private schools from elementary to second year of high school, then moved again, this time to the United States.  She graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in Economics at Harvard University. 

iodonna.it

Before her wedding to Crown Prince Naruhito, Princess Masako worked for Japan's Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
The strick rules of the Imperial Court affected a lot the Princess: she had to give up her passport, she also can't vote nor drive, even the use of the telephone is supervised.
The Imperial Household Agency and the public opinion increased her stress level for not being able to generate a male heir and that was the begin of a series of  stress-related ilnesses.
Crown Prince Naruhito, though, has been very supportive and sympathetic and showed all his frustration reguarding his wife's health and media pressure on her during a press conference in 2004, where he fiercely stated in her defense.

Sayako Kuroda - the only daughter of the Emperor, in 2005 she got married with Yoshiki Kuroda and so, like her niece, had to leave the status of Imperial Princess Royal family. Sayako has been the first Imperial family female member to marry a commoner: her husband is an urban planner for the Tokyo city government.

citifmonline.com

Sayako studied Japanese language and literature and then became associate researcher as an ornithologist at Tamagawa University. 
In April 2012 she became high priestess of the Ise Grand Shrine (in the city of Ise, Mie Prefecture ) to assist her aunt, Chief Priestess of the shrine. She replaced her as supreme priestess of the shrine in June, 2017.

So these three Imperial princesses (or former) saw their lives drastically changed thanks to their love choices. The "princess life" rarely is as we saw in movies and read in fairy tales, Crown Princess above all had hard times trying to fit in with Imperial life, but they all have the complete help and love of their spouses, so the journey won't be as difficult as it seems.

また明日

👘[Japanese Week] Animals Themed Parks in Japan

おはよう!

In today's post I wanted to talk about parks in Japan where you can interact with wildlife animals such as deers, foxes or squirrels as well as places were you can cuddle common pets, like bunnies or cats. Since I've never been in Japan (yet!) I've never been in one of these spots, I've discovered them thanks to bloggers/youtubers who travelled/live in Japan and visited these particular places.

Animals like foxes and deers are considered sacred in Shinto religion, as they're messengers from the Gods.

Fox Village - Miyagi Prefecture

Zao Fox Village is an animal sanctuary in Mitagi Prefecture, which is in the central part of the county, facing the Pacific Ocean. The parks has 6 different species of not domesticated foxes, however they're pretty used to human presence.

Nara Park - Nara Prefecture

Nara park is a public park in Nara, a city of the same name prefecture, south est of the country. Beside the deers, this park also has a 15 meters tall statue of Buddha inside of the largest wooden building in the world (according to Wikipedia).

Another beautiful place filled with deers is Miyajima Island, home of the "floating" tori gate that marks the entrance of Itsukushima Shrine. This island is the western part of the Seto Inland Sea and suggested as a must visit if you're in the Hiroshima area.

photo credits: japanforum.com

Bunny Island - Hiroshima Prefecture

If you're more a 'fluffy animals' kind of person, this is the place for you: an island in the Inland Sea, populated by no one except rabbits. Dozens of rabbits. How they got there is still to be understand, but since there aren't natural predators, they live unmolested. 
Interesting thing about this island: it was home of poison gas factory, that was evacuated and abandoned after World War II.

Tashirojima (cat island) - Miyagi Prefecture

Probably the most famous animal place in Japan, cat island is also cheap to visit: the roundtrip boatride ticket costs 2000 yen (15€ circa) and then you can spend as much as time as you like cuddling these cats, who outnumeber by a lot humans who live on the island.

Squirrel Village - Gifu Prefecture

Another rodent you can have a 'face to face' while visiting Gifu Prefecture (central Japan) is the squirrel. The place isn't a wide space like foxes village, but is equally interesting to see these tiny animals eating from your hands. These are not the Japanese 'flying' squirrels, but a Taiwanese species...still, they're super cute!

Cat/Bunnies/Owls/Hegdehogs Cafes

We all heard about the "cats cafes" or "neko cafes": places where people go to pet cats while drinking a coffee (or any kind of drinks you'd like). They do so because most of the apartments in Japan have strick policies and don't allow pets.
It's actually a win-win: anyone who loves animals can enjoy their company in a safe, clean environment and stray cats are saved from the street (or from shelters) and are cared for in a responsible way.

The first ever cat cafè was opened in Taiwan, in 1998. Six years later, Japan's first cat cafè was opened in Osaka and spread all over the country ever since. Furthermore, Japanese didn't stop to cats and have expanded to various other animals, for example owls and hedgehogs.

I don't know if the animals in the places I've mentioned above are actually treated well, but it's safe to say that it's very likely since they're so famous and surely are checked by competent authorities. Let's think positive! 
I love animals and yes! I would love to see them in their natural habitat, but lot of them are probably born in captivity so they'd not survive in the wild. 
These places anyway help spreading love for animals and teach people to fight strays and animal abuse. 

Photo credits: blog.shoppingdonna.it, thetravelsisters.com & jpninfo.com