seoul hauls ♥

Though I wasn't able to go to some places due to weather/sold-out tickets and etc (Seoraksan and Yeosu), I still had a great time walking around, eating and shopping.

Spicy octopus bibimbap. All the side dishes are free and refillable!

Hwahongmun of the Hwaseong Fortress in Suwon, Gyeonggi-do.

Innisfree haul ♥

The hankies and row of sachets above the masks are freebies.

I bought so much cosmetics, they're sooo cheap and the quality is decent. Plus there are stores EVERYWHERE. For local Korean brands like Etude House, Nature Republic, Innisfree, Tony Moly, The Face Shop and etc, there is a store everywhere and anywhere. There are multiple stores each of the above-mentioned brands in Myeongdong alone.

There are stores in the transit/transfer areas of train stations where you walk to transfer from one line to another. In addition to main shopping districts, you can find them in little streets, not-so-busy places, exits of train stations, airport duty-free...so it's hard to resist buying anything!

Plus, most cosmetics stores give out freebies and samples with every purchase.

I only bought the pink boxes in the middle, the rest were all freebies!

One brand I fell in love with is Too Cool For School. Their products are really fun and cute, some designed to be like art class materials. I love the BB Cream! ♥ It feels light on the skin and gives a dewy finish. I also really like using the lip crayons, eye crayons and lip tint! Will be doing (many) Too Cool For School product reviews soon!

Their store is quite dimly lit compared to other brands, but I love the layout. It isn't a Korean brand, but it has been adapted to suit the Korean market. There are stores in Sinsa, Insadong, E-dae and 2 in Myeongdong. I don't know about other places, but these were the ones I went to!

All the freebies/samples I got from going to Too Cool For School. I visited it about 6 times! ♥

For the Too Cool For School stores in Myeongdong, I've dubbed one the "stingy" store and one the "generous" store...with regard to how much freebies they give. I bought around the same amount, if not more, at the stingy store, but they gave me so little freebies. I went to the generous store twice, bought different amounts, but the amount of freebies way outnumbered the ones I got at the stingy store! ♥ The Insadong store is quite generous too, the Sinsa one isn't. The E-dae one is pretty alright; somewhere in the middle.

Also got a lot of stationery, they're really cute and *really* cheap! ♥

Patterned envelopes were 500won (5ocents) for 6. Postcards were 100won (10cents) each!

Large notebooks were 3,000won. Pen sets were 4,000~8,500won!

I'm a JYJ fan, so I was really happy to see lots of their ads around! ♥

This one's for Mariokart 7 for Nintendo 3DS.

This one's for Sokcheong, a health drink.

This advert space was bought by Lovin JJ, a Japanese Jaejoong fansite.

I also bought a lot of hair accessories, will post about the another time!

JYJ concert in April! ♥

JYJ's gonna have a Singapore leg for their concert tour! That's the best thing I've heard all year (other than the lawsuit against them being dismissed), happy~ ♥ Can't wait!! I've been waiting for them to hold a full-length concert here since 2004, and finally, they will be~~♥♥♥

I've always connected more with their Japanese songs, as I became a fan of theirs while I was learning Japanese. I heard their a cappella and fell in love. And at that time, their Japanese wasn't very good yet, for like me, they were still learning as well. Over the years, as I continued studying Japanese and they continued their Japanese activities, I saw how hard they tried and how tremendous their improvement (in their language skills and as performers) was. Seeing them so all-rounded spurred me on.

There were times when I was getting sick of learning Japanese and wanted to quit because it was getting to the advanced stages of difficult and "boring" stuff like reading about politics and writing essays on societal problems, but I held on till the end of A-Levels because of a wonderful bunch of guys - DBSK. They were my inspiration and motivation (: (In 2006, I translated their Japanese magazine and news articles and television interviews for O-Level practice hehe.)

Whenever I hear certain songs they remind me of certain stages in my life. I've been listening to DBSK since I was 14, so a huge chunk of my memorable years can be linked to their songs, and now JYJ songs will forever be linked to my university years (: After they stopped activities in Japan, I was saddened, but I started learning Korean, so that I could understand them (: Now the world is their stage! Though I've still got a long way to go before my proficiency matches that of my Japanese, I hope I'll get there someday (:

Currently, I really like all the songs in their Music Essay. They've really grown a lot not just as singers and composers, but as people in general, since they debuted. Despite all they've achieved they're still very humble and still as or even more hard-working than when they first started out. They're very grounded and down-to-earth, and really love and care about their fans. Hearing them sing live just makes my heart swell and makes it want to burst from happiness. Their lives are really a whole lot better than their recordings, their voices resonate deeply and touch the depths of your heart. I'm so glad I got to become their fan ♥

Anyways, the point of this post was: I'm so happy and I can't wait! :D ♥

JYJ Music Essay! ♥

Guess what came in the mail today~? (Clue: Read the label!)

The other side of the package. Neatly wrapped.

Tada~! ♥ Yupp, it's the JYJ Music Essay: Their Rooms! ♥ Comes in a clear plastic box. I've been waiting for it for aaaages! Pre-ordered it on 11th Jan. It was supposed to be released on 17th Jan, but the release got delayed by a week to 24th Jan. Anyway, I received it today ♥

The back side. This picture is actually on a sheet/card that's separate from the book/diary itself ^^ So no, this is not the picture at the back of the diary. The back of the diary is brown, like the front. No pictures of the boys on the front or hind covers! So it looks like a regular diary from the outside, but on the inside...♥ The bottom right corner says it's 27,000won, but on Gmarket it was selling for 24,300won.

The book and the 4 bookmarks! ♥ There's a bookmark for each of the members + one group bookmark. The back side of each bookmark's a to-do list. So the book's basically a diary/planner, with yearly/monthly/weekly pages, with pictures of and essays by the boys scattered here and there. The first third of the book is Jaejoong, the second third is Yuchun, and the last third is Junsu. Starting from the front, the first 10 pages are group pictures, followed by the yearly calendar plan, then a couples of pages for goals and purposes for the year. Then comes 10 pages or so of essays/words by JJ, followed by 4 months worth (month+weekly) of planner pages with pics of JJ. Then 10 pages of Micky's essays/words, followed by 4 months with his pics, then 10 pages of JS's writings, then 4 months worth of pages with JS's pics.

Example of a JJ pic ♥ The pictures are basically of them in rooms/houses? Sitting, standing, reading, relaxing, with pets, with coffee, with a bed :D Sometimes there are words accompanying the pictures, in English, in Korean or a mix of both. Some of them are quotes from their Twitter.

A Micky pic~ The beginning of each member's section starts with a page like this, Essay written by xxx. Then pages of essays they write, or lyrics of the songs they wrote for the album. The essay section has concert pics.

A Junsu pic! See the Saturday/Sunday? The pictures are really randomly scattered so there's no fixed format or size of picture. But they're on every page hehe.

So all the way at the end of the book is the CD! ♥ Plus a lyric booklet. The CD is tucked in an envelope stuck to the back of the book, along with the lyric booklet.

The credit section of the lyric sheet. See the names for the PRODUCER, DIRECTOR, ALL LYRICS & COMPOSED BY, and ARRANGED BY portions? 김재중 ♥, 박유천 ♥, 김준수 ♥ Makes me feel so happy seeing that~

Lyrics for one of the songs, Pierrot. Written and composed by Jaejoong ♥ I loved this song the moment I heard the Seoul Concert version. I love the melody and the lyrics. Even the name Pierrot is meaningful. However I think the concert version sounds nicer, the CD version has too much music? The noise is a tad overpowering. For the concert version, the vocals are the focus so it sounds nicer IMO ♥ Anyway, the boys always sound better live ♥

Oh and I like Mission too, it's catchy! Mission's composed by Junsu and lyrics by Zuno, his twin! And Nine is a slower song that's lovely as well, written and composed by Jaejoong. Fallen Leaves is a slow, pretty ballad, love it too, written and composed by Junsu. IDS is upbeat, it was my 2nd fave after hearing the concert version, but again the concert version sounded better to me. Written and composed by Jaejoong. Nameless Song Part 1 is written and composed by Yuchun, it's the only song that's new to me cos I don't think it was sang at the Seoul Concert?

But anyway, basically all the songs are nice ^^ And all of them were written, composed and arranged by the boys so it just makes it so much more meaningful when you listen to them, knowing that the boys are singing something they personally wrote and composed ♥

The empty box. The card, which at the back of the is picture of JYJ shown all the way at the beginning of this post.

So yeah, I'm uber happy to finally have this in my hands! ♥ I don't know if I'll bear to use it, but on the other hand, I think I'll be so happy using it, because you use/update/check your planner often right? And wouldn't it make you happy seeing the boy's faces all those times you check your planner? :P But I've got like 4 or 5 other unused diaries ^^ Which oh which to use?

Pretty Pre-Christmas Gmarket Love ♥♥

♥♥ Merry belated Christmas and a Happy New Year~ I actually ordered this awhile back, but due to exams and the gatherings of the holiday season I haven't been able to post ^^ Anyways! This time I got a pretty pink bag from Suanna, a new diary, sunglasses, a Korean language book, some necklaces, the new JYJ CD, a cat doll and a blusher.

Tada~ ny new "Angel Wings Big Bag". First off I wanna say that this bag is gorgeous! ♥♥ It's really well made, and well-lined. And it's so sweet and feminine (: The bag was from Suanna, and it comes in other colors like white, dark purple, black, cocoa brown and milk tea brown. And the frills are on both the front and the back of the bag, not just the front (: It was 34,800won without discount. I used the 15%off overseas shipping and a 2,000won off GLotto coupon, so it ended up 27,580won.

The interior of the bag. The lining is of a soft pink shiny satiny material, which looks and feels luxurious~ I really love it! The bag has 3 main large compartments, with the middle one being a zipped compartment. There's also a zip pocket at the back, and two non-zipped pockets in the front for mobiles phones. Fits A4 perfectly and comes with a detachable shoulder strap.

Also came with a white dusting bag with the words Suanna Black Label.

I got this diary for the new year~♥ Actually I'm pretty much a hoarder, I still have a few diaries I haven't used ^^ But I couldn't resist because this one was so pretty, and came with a lot of stuff! Plus it comes in a box, perfect for gifts (: It's a photodiary, so the images inside are snapshots of Paris ♥♥ I got this from the seller 디자인팬시마켓11.

The lovely Paris, Je t'aime diary, which came awesomely packed with 50 mini postcards, 36 mini envelopes, a pen, and 5 sheets of stickers! All packed prettily in a clear plastic box. And it was only 16,800won, 13,950won after using the 10% off overseas shipping coupon and 7% off stationery coupon~♥

The seller gave this set of earphones as a freebie, just what I needed! Mine actually kinda broke a few days ago, this comes right on time, plus it's in one of my favorite colors! :D

And of course, when I heard that JYJ would be releasing a new "New Limited Edited" version of their album "The Beginning", I just had to get it, even though I have all the other versions already♥ ^^ The seller I got it from actually gave 2 posters, instead of just 1 which most other sellers did, so hurray! One was the new huuuuge 110cmx60cm poster, and the other was the old poster which came with the previous versions. Ehehe now I have 3 copies of that old poster :D This version comes with a photobook, and the case is 20cmx20cm. (The luxury edition came in a 25cmx25cmx4cm box).

And speaking of JYJ, since Jaejoong tweets about his cat (Jiji) a lot and posted some pictures of this cat doll (called GG) (and another which he called ZZ) that his cat plays with, I managed to find it on Gmarket!♥ I don't know if it's the same brand/model but looks close enough! I couldn't find the ZZ doll though :( This was 9,900won from the seller 모아사810.

I painted my nails red&black with JYJ on them ♥ Haha but faaailll, I can't seem to get the shape right :( Anyway, just wanted to show a photo comparing the sizes off the 3 different versions. Content-wise the Luxury version is the best as it come with 11 tracks, 8+3 remixes, 16 beautiful photo cards, a Tshirt and a poster. The New Limited Edition comes with 10 tracks, 8+2 remixes, a mini photobook and a poster. The Normal Edition comes with 8 tracks (no remixes) and a poster (same as luxury version).

Remember a while back I bought some Korean books, but was sad that Beginner's II didn't ship overseas when all the other books in the series did? So I sent an enquiry to the seller, who very promptly replied and made it available for international shipping! ♥♥ A big two thumbs up for their customer service! (I enquired in grammatically incorrect Korean and just put an English version hoping they read English, they replied within a few hours in Korean haha) So I ordered it plus the Intermediate II, and now I have the textbooks for Beginner's I, Beginner's II, Intermediate I and Intermediate II, all from the same seller. ♥

Here are the links for all textbooks in the series:

♥ Beginner's I (한국어 초급I)
♥ Beginner's II (한국어 초급II)
♥ Intermediate I (한국어 중급I)
♥ Intermediate II (한국어 중급II)
♥ Advanced I (한국어 고급I)
♥ Advanced II (한국어 고급II)

My new Beginner's II book! I've just about finished reading Beginner's I so this came just in time~♥

A note about this series of books: They are published by Kyung Hee University, and are good for self-studying Korean, provided you you have some basic/prior knowledge of Korean or you learn fast. (ie at least know the alphabet/pronunciation and recognizing stems of verbs). Because only Beginner's I & II have English glossaries and grammar notes (which are detailed and easy to understand. And there're also passages on culture and customs with English translation) However, from Intermediate onwards the book is purely in Korean. So you'll have to diligently check/look up a dictionary for new vocabulary and stuff.

Also got a blusher from Banila Co, as I had a 10% off coupon and it was Beauty Super Week (meaning extra coupons) and wanted to use it, and once I saw this blusher I knew I had to get it. I LOVEEE the lace design on the cover, it looks so pretty and intricate! The seller threw in 2 sachets each of the Let Me Start Make Up Essence in Muse (Pink) and Photogenic (Blue).

Sadly, (I don't know why though), whenever the EMS guy delivers me a package from Gmarket, I notice that the box is ALWAYS rather warm. Maybe the weather or near the engine or what? Butttt, the heat probably caused the glue holding the blusher pan and the case to melt. Hence it always comes off when I open it! But the blusher itself it reallly pretty! See the design? It's a pretty coral blusher with a pearly finish~♥

This is how it looks like from the bottom. The pattern on the top will get wiped off after a few uses I guess. But the blusher itself is still really pearly/shimmery (:

Got these sunnies from Pink Gongzang (핑크공장), it was 1+1! So for every pair you buy, they'll randomly throw in another pair for free~ And luckily for me the free pair was a pretty one! Each pair you buy comes with a free cleaning cloth and soft pouch. Only one cos they don't give it for the free pair.

The upper one's the free pair, the bottom one's the one I bought. All sunnies are certified 100% UV proof.

Got two lovely necklaces from 제나샵. ♥ I think the owl is really cute in that the feathers are like leaves and each one can move/swivel, so the owl looks more alive when you wear it^^. The hear-shaped mirror really is a mini-mirror, perfect for checking your lips or hair while on the go hehe! The teddy bear earrings were a freebie~

Overall a very satisfying haul~ I love you Gmarket!♥♥ Haha can't wait for the JYJ music essay to be released to get it and the recently released GD&TOP album!

JYJ Showcase!

Fangirl-time! Well, semi-fangirly, I'm not a crazy fangirl haha ^^ So, I've been a DBSK fan since 2004, and they've never performed in Singapore T_T I can't remember how many petitions and fan projects I've participated in hoping they'd be able to come. Anyway, after 6 long years, they finally came, as JYJ!

No, I wasn't able to get ANY photos of them at the airport cos there were mobs of crazier fangirls haha.

My ticket~ Block AA1, Row B, Seat 14. Basically it's two rows from the side of the stage, at the end near the backstage area. Bad cos I was 2 seats away from where the usher was standing so no sneaky fancam-ing, but good cos I had a good view of the stairs where the boys went up and down the stage. And I was only 7m away from where they stood! Jaejoong looks flawless even when he's tired. Poor boys must be exhausted doing 3 showcases in 3 days! Plus all the press cons they had to attend and flying here and there. Hope they rested well after!

Since the airport was one stop away from the Expo where the showcase was gonna be held, I figured I'd just go there to wait. I was within the first 5 people in the queue till late-arriving friends of the people in front of me cut and sat with their earlier-arriving friends. I guess it didn't bother me much cos tickets were seated anyway haha. I was there at 2:30pm, the doors were supposed to open at 6:30pm but only opened at 8pm. So I was 7m from stage and at the side where they go on/off stage, so I saw them a lot! And they looked/moved over to my side a lot too ♥ Showcase ended up starting at 9. But totally didn't mind, I had quite a good view!


One picture right after entering the venue. Anyway, who needs pictures/videos when they were right in front of me! The boys are really a lot better live and in person ♥ Their voices were so good, some of the time I was just closing my eyes and listening to them sing. But of course since finally they were standing in front of me after soooo many years I had to stare...and stare and their awe-inspiring presences. Yuchun was totally rocking the long tied-up hair! And he was super smiley despite looking tired. And he is such a sweet-talker hehe. They had a talk session and Micky was the only one answering in English. His English speaking-voice is soooo hot ♥ the translator was lousy though, could so obviously tell he didn't translate very well. They were sitting host,YC, JJ, JS, translator, so JaeChun soulmate moments! Chun was like Jae's private translator haha while Junsu was stuck with the translator. And Chun kept pushing Jae to answer qns. For intros Jaejoong was like 'How are you? I am JJ!' in English. So cutee ♥♥ Then he switched to Korean haha! They didn't sell the photobook or lightsticks like in the Seoul showcase :( Just CDs/posters. 찾았다 and Empty were amazing ♥♥♥ Their vocals never cease to amaze me, which is why I can go on and on watching their concert DVDs just cos their live voices sound better than their recorded ones. Actually everything was great, just seeing them so close and hearing their voices live! ♥♥♥ すごく感動した。 They never cease to amaze me with their sincerity and their effort, despite seeming really tired, they still gave it their all and put on a great performance. Their love for their fans is amazing and I'm really proud of them for having the courage to stand up for their dreams.

I don't think i could ever bring myself to scream for anyone else, not enough history. Bigbang maybe, Shinhwa maybe, FT Island probably not, SNSD probably not. But DBSK always and forever definitely yes ♥♥

Jaejoong had huuge eyebags but his skin was flawless, my heart skipped a (ok like 500000) beats when he was facing my side dancing/singing the Empty remix ♥♥♥ Why does he always look so good? While dancing the Empty remix on my side he really was looking at the crowd, looking at the faces of the fans who came to see them. After all these years he's still the same ^^ He was a bit quiet though so they must be really tired. Poor guys. Out of Junsu's outfit I like the last one most haha. It was the most casual/un-costumey. Cos for the opening, which Jae and Micky were wearing white suits (which they totally rocked), Junsu was wearing a...white frilly halter :/ But he was really cute when he talked, though the translator and MC made the atmosphere weird :/ Chun was wearing a black baggy thing that ended up falling to one side and exposing his left shoulder hehe.

However I must say that the organization/management of the showcase was really bad. Feel really bad for the boys as well. I know a lot of people were unhappy with ticketing issues and how they had a 60-40 sectioning of VIP tickets to local and international fans? What country does that!! I thought the whole point of bringing in an artist into your country was so locals could have access to see them. Plus the delay of transport and unprofessional translator and delays of everything and etc. Well, I do have a lot of complaints about the organization but everyone else is of pretty much the same opinion so I shalln't be repetitive ^^

Anyway, they were selling the CDs, they had 100 copies of the luxury edition and being one of the first few in line I was able to get one~ They were it for $90 and a bundle of luxury+normal for $100 so I got the bundle, got two posters too.

The front of the box, it really looks and feels luxurious~ ♥

The backs, embossed lettering and tracklist ♥

One of the posters happily up on my wall, the other's safely kept away for emergency ^^

Contents of the luxury edition! Comes with a photobook, 16 good quality glossy photo cards, a T-shirt and of course the CD, in the pretty black 25cm x 25cm box.

Luxury ed with normal ed (made in Singapore, not the Korean normal ed T_T)

The small poster they were selling with the lightstick at the venue. I have two of these, one's a backup in case of emergencies! Hehe and a GG lookalike ♥ If you realized, this is a backdated post ^^ Cos JYJ only started tweeting after BKK/SG/KL showcase. And GG only started appearing in Jae's tweets after. I got my GG lookalike from Gmarket!