The Complete Substitute for All Forms of Sociability

or HOLY CRAPCAKES, WE COULD'VE DIED! A slab of concrete that the local residents were using as a mock-bridge saved us from serious injury (and probably our lives) when it got caught by the wheel of my car. When it fell into the hole, it landed upright so that the car just ended up on top of it instead of nose-diving into the hole. It's a pretty big and deep hole. After the fact

I've heard about this story for sometime now. The Japanese title is Ooku , which refers to the chamber in the shogun's castle where all the women of the shogun's harem are kept. However, Yoshinaga Fumi's manga, on which this movie is adapted, adds a twist: the shogun is a woman and beautiful men fill her harem. THE STORY In the year 1716 Japan, most of the men have died from a deadly disease that only affects men, resulting in their population dwindling to as much as 1/4 of the total population of women. Consequently, women fill in the traditional roles of men, performing hard labor, managing businesses and running government while men are pampered, protected and allowed only to indulge in light entertainment. In this nonexistent Japan lives Mizuno Yunoshin (Kazunari Ninomiya), a teenager from an impoverished samurai class family. He likes fencing and his childhood friend, O-Nobu (Horikita Maki), but because of his family's financial status (O-Nobu is a daugh

There was a time when I was really into wuxia . My interest bore fruit: one website dedicated to the anime adaptation of Jin Yong's popular novel, Shen Diao Xia Lu and a few piecemeal translations of other wuxia novels. One of these novels is Xiao Shiyi Lang , a two-part series of novels by Gu Long . In particular, I've been sporadically translating the second installment in the series, simply called Houpin Xiao Shiyi Lang. Below is the completed translation of Chapter 4 of the same book (Chapter 29 if you count the chapters in the first book): Chapter 29: To Follow Somebody Closely When a woman has no choice but to accept her own destiny, then she has to let destiny take its course. However, who knew that Hua Ruyu would suddenly sigh, and say, "No need to wait for later. At present, I am already regretting this." Feng Siniang could not help asking, "You regret what?" Hua Ruyu said, "I regret I'm not a man." Feng Siniang could only