Writing Adventures

I was inspired by something that happened yesterday. Hope you enjoy! ~~~ As I sat there staring out the window with the thin layer of snow covering the roads out front, I couldn't think of what I was doing. What was my purpose? Everything was the same as usual. Up in the morning, eat, let time go by throughout the day, and sleep at night. There has to be something out there. I want to experience the world, but how? An intricate plan must be in the works, but would help be available? I can't possibly do this on my own. There has to be something I can do on my own... bit by bit. "What are you doing in the corner by yourself?" "Coral, I didn't see you there." I looked over to her, as I couldn't hide the surprise on my face. "It's nothing. I wonder what life is like outside." "You still have aspirations for the outside? Let's just admit our fate here like everyone else." Coral shrugged as she sighed. "I can

Image used from: http://asianwiki.com/Chihayafuru_Part_1 Image used from: http://asianwiki.com/Chihayafuru_Part_2 A couple of months ago, I watched these two movies that are related called Chihayafuru Part 1 and 2. The Japanese titles are called: Chihayafuru Kami no Ku and Chihayafuru Shimo no Ku respectively. They were released in March 19 and April 29, 2016. The movie series is getting a third movie to round out the trilogy sometime in 2017. It was directed by Norihiro Koizumi, and based on the manga with the same name written by Yuki Suetsugu. The movies stars Suzu Hirose, Shuhei Nomura, and Mackenyu Maeda. The story is about Chihaya Ayase (played by Suzu Hirose) who meets and becomes friends with Arata Wataya (played by Mackenyu) a talented karuta player. After being introduced to karuta by Arata, she hopes to become the best karuta player in Japan. She also make friends with Taichi Mashima as they all play karuta together. Unfortunately, all three of them are separate

(Image used from: http://wiki.d-addicts.com/Boku_no_Ita_Jikan) I recently watched a Japanese TV drama (again) called The Hours of My Life (translated from Boku no Ita Jikan) that aired in Japan between Jan 8 to Mar 19, 2014. It starred Miura Haruma and Tabe Mikako. The synopsis for this Japanese drama on Drama Wiki is well done and not too spoilery, so I'll just copy and paste their summary here (with minor tweaks): "Fourth year university student Sawada Takuto (played by Miura Haruma) is having a tough time looking for a job. As the eldest son of the director of a hospital, Takuto's parents had expected him to become a doctor. But they began to focus their hopes on his younger brother Rikuto instead, some time during his junior high school. Although Takuto is popular and good at befriending ladies, he has no confidence that he will be loved and thus avoids deep emotional involvement with anyone. One day, he is informed that he does not have long to live becaus

(Picture used from: http://asianwiki.com/Wolf_Girl_and_Black_Prince) I recently watched a Japanese movie called Ookami Shoujo to Kuro Oji (translated into English: Wolf Girl and Black Prince) that is based on a manga of the same name created by: Ayuko Hatta. This movie was directed by Ryuichi Hiroki and was released May 28, 2016. The main cast as you see in the movie poster above is Fumi Nikaido and Kento Yamazaki.  Overall, I enjoyed the film. I've never read the manga so I can't make any comparisons to the source material, but I thought that the acting, pacing, and the story within the film were fine. The synopsis of the movie begins with Erika Shinohara (played by Fumi Nikaido) who is a first year high school student and have joined a circle of friends who all have boyfriends. To make sure that she doesn't feel left out, she lies about having a boyfriend and thinks of situations to have her friend in a different school call her to excuse herself from them in

I was inspired by recent events to write this. Sorry for the sad tone, but hope you enjoy! ~~~ I walked inside the front entrance to be greeted by someone where I signed in at the front desk. After having my name crossed off, I walked inside into a somber place. It was quiet, and there was a constant low buzzing noise in the background to ensure there was absolutely no silence in the room. Some people arrived already and sat in their seats. After stopping for a moment to take a full breath before continuing further into the deafening silence, I didn't think I would see her after so many years. It was a surprise to get that phone call a couple of days ago. Her voice sounded the same, but sad. She stood at the end of the middle aisle with her mother in tears. She wore a conservative black dress, and I stared forward at the casket that rested her father inside it. I could feel and hear every step I took down the aisle as I walked past people sitting there, some with tissues to w

(Picture used from http://asianwiki.com/Our_Little_Sister) I recently watched a Japanese movie called Our Little Sister, the English title from Umimachi Diary, directed by Hirokazu Koreeda, and premiered at the Cannes Film Festival on May 14, 2015. It is based from a manga by the same name created by Akimi Yoshida. The movie falls under the slice of life genre, where for the most part, it is devoid of unnecessary drama that many other movies try to create their story around. I actually like the slower pace that the director took in making the movie as the cinematography is really nice. It allows the viewers to take in the sights and admire the surroundings.  Before I get ahead of myself, the story focuses on three sisters: the oldest sister, Sachi Kouda (played by Haruka Ayase), the middle sister, Yoshino Kouda (played by Masami Nagasawa), and the youngest sister, Chika Kouda (played by Kaho). They live together who have inherited the house from their grandmother. Their pa

I saw this interesting writing prompt on Reddit... It inspired me to write a short scene about it. Hope you enjoy! "The only place to eat for miles is the Asian restaurant attached to the gas station. The food is great, but their fortune cookies always come true." https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/comments/51m31k/wp_the_only_place_to_eat_for_miles_is_the_asian/ (Note: I guess this doesn't really qualify as a flash fiction as it got a bit too long...) ~~~ "You hungry?" Sam glanced over at Rachel in the passenger seat beside him. Rachel tapped her chin as she pondered on the status of her stomach. Then she heard her stomach gurgled, and her face turned a bit red. "Hmm... I actually am." "Perfect. The sign says there is a restaurant coming up ahead at the next exit." "But it has only a Chinese restaurant. Where's a McDonald's when you need one..." Sam laughed. "If you want to wait another hour drivin

(Image used from: http://www.digihara.net/review-ore-monogatari-film/) I recently watched a Japanese movie called Ore Monogatari!!, which translates into English: My Love Story!! It's based of a shoujo manga of the same name, and it breaks the tradition of shoujo mangas where the main POV is a female character and she is attracted to a handsome counterpart. The main character, Takeo Gouda is often misunderstood by his big stature, but has a big heart to helping anyone in trouble. He has gain the respect of the male students at his school. On the other hand, he is best friends with Makoto Sunakawa from his childhood and he is hugely popular with girls including girls that Takeo had a crush on but he is indifferent to all of them. That is until he saves the female protagonist, Rinko Yamato, from being molested and the two of them fall in love at first sight. Due to his misunderstanding of Rinko's interest in him and Makoto, Takeo believes that Rinko likes Makoto and pushe

Here is another writing prompt that I found online. "How does your main character react to the idea of romance?" I'm taking the main character, Alexander Williams from one of my novels in progress called Twins (and to an extension, The God Sword which is the sequel to Twins). Hope you enjoy. ~~~ Alex lay back on the roof of his house as he stared up at the clouds moving across the sky during the sunset. He patted his stomach after he ate dinner as he stuffed himself way too much with the food that his mom prepared for the meal. "Are you up here, Alex?" He heard his older sister, Risa, called for him from the room below him. "On the roof, Sis." Alex replied back as he sat up to see his older sister climb up onto the rooftop to watch the clouds with him. "No wonder you come up here after dinner." Risa smiled. "It's so peaceful and quiet unlike at the capital. It's like our hometown is in a bubble of its own, away from

(Using image from http://wiki.d-addicts.com/Love_Song) I watched the Japanese drama called Love Song recently. It aired during the Spring 2016 season from April 11 to June 13. It stars Fujiwara Sakura and Fukuyama Masaharu. The premise of the series is that Kamishiro Kohei (Fukuyama Masaharu) used to be a professional musician for his band, and had a one-hit wonder before his contract expired and no one wanted to sign him. He retired from being a musician and works as a counselor for the hospital and a company.  Then comes in Sano Sakura (Fujiwara Sakura) into his office for counseling due to her poor communication with her co-workers and her boss. He finds out that she's a stutterer and lived a lonely life while growing up. However, when she sings, her stuttering goes away and she's blessed with a beautiful voice surprising her co-workers, Kohei, and her best friend. Kohei hopes to give Sakura hope and inspiration in life. That's the gist of the story line without g

(Picture used from: http://asianwiki.com/Orange_(Japanese_Movie) I recently watched a Japanese movie called Orange that was released December 2015. It starred Tao Tsuchiya and Kento Yamazaki with co-stars Ryo Ryusei, Hirona Yamazaki, Dori Sakurada, and Kurumi Shimizu. The movie is adapted from the manga of the same name by the mangaka, Ichigo Takano. The overall plot of the story is Naho Takemiya (Tao Tsuchiya) receives a letter from herself that was written 10 years into the future that details her school life of that year in hopes of erasing any regrets that she felt during that time in her life. One of her friends, Kakeru Naruse (Kento Yamazaki) passes away a year later and she hopes that her letter arrives in the past in time for her past self to change the future and save Kakeru's life. That's the premise of the movie without revealing anymore details about the story. Overall, I really enjoyed the movie and despite having a run time of 2 hour and 17 minutes, I wa

Here is another writing prompt from the same subreddit that is intriguing. "Time Travel exists and a new job exists! Your job is to take people from the past right before they die and show them their impact on the present for a day or two and then return them to their death" https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/comments/4f7wbe/wp_time_travel_exists_and_a_new_job_exists_your/ Hope you enjoy! Because of this writing prompt, this has the potential to be turned to a series on this blog where each story is independent of one another but the main character is constant. I may put it up on Wattpad or something depending on it goes. I know that I started a "Mini-Series" earlier, and that sort of died but this writing prompt idea seems to be interesting. Because I want to remain something quick and easy to write, I'll try to write at the length of a flash fiction rather than something like a normal chapter, or a short story segment. I decided to also uploa

(Image used from: http://asianwiki.com/Hinokio:_Inter_Galactic_Love) I recently watched a Japanese movie called Hinokio. It's relatively an old movie as it was released in 2005. It has a number of child actors that are now stars in the present. The movie stars Masatoshi Nakamura, Kanata Hongo, Mikako Tabe, Maki Horikita, and Ryoko Kobayashi. Excluding Masatoshi Nakamura, these are one of the first movies for the young actors and it's great to see them in something at the start of their acting career in my opinion. You can see them develop as actors compared to the movies and dramas that they star in now. Overall, I enjoyed it as it is a heartwarming, emotional, funny, cute, and a tearjerker of a movie.  The story is about loss, friendship, family, youth, and love. From the tagline for the movie is Inter Galactic Love, you can probably assume it has a sci-fi concept of some sort. Contrary to what some movies portraying robots as evil (ex. Terminator franchise), in th

I saw this writing prompt on a subreddit that is intriguing. "You awake in a hospital bed with an unfamiliar person referring as your wife telling you were in a bad crash and lost all your previous memory. Unknown to her, you remember everything" https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/comments/3zzdn0/wp_you_awake_in_a_hospital_bed_with_an_unfamiliar/ Hope you enjoy. ~~~ When the surroundings became clearer, confusion and worry were the first emotions that Jackie could think of at the moment. He thought, where am I? A woman that sat beside him laying in bed stood up filled with excitement. "Doctor! Nurse! He's awake!" "W-Where am I?" "You're in St. Michael's Hospital. Thank God that you're waking up." The woman continued to wipe her tears with a tissue, unable to contain the happiness. "I was so worried that you weren't going to wake up after the car accident a month ago." Jackie's eyes widened

(Using image from: http://asianwiki.com/From_Me_to_You) I watched Kimi ni Todoke a couple of years ago, but I recently watched it again. I remember when I watched it the first time, I really enjoyed the film. I read a bit of the manga to get a glimpse of what the characters were like but I never finished it. After rewatching it again, I can say that I still like the movie. It's a very sweet, touching and emotional movie throughout and I really like the main theme that plays at important moments in the film. I think the actors that they chose for the main roles (Miura Haruma and Tabe Mikako) fit the characters well in my opinion. Tabe Mikako played Kuronuma Sawako, the social outcast who is an introvert but has a caring personality despite her gloomy appearance. Miura Haruma played Kazehaya Shota, the popular guy in the classroom who is liked by all. The movie also shows to not judge people by its cover. Everyone misunderstands Sawako's intentions because she doesn't

I saw this prompt on the website, Wattpad. I missed the deadline to submit for the writing contest, but I still want to write about it. "A deal with the devil." Hope you enjoy. ~~~ This is what I always wanted to do, but it was never the way I would imagine everything would happen. What was it that made me this way? Why? This is what I get for wanting to succeed my dream. What did I end up giving up? My mediocre normal life? My family? My friends? If I had known everything around me would have change, I wouldn't have made that deal. I would take everything back to return to the person I love the most. Now I can only watch them from afar. I can no longer be a part of their lives anymore. I wanted to see them grow up to watch where their limitless potential takes them in society. But now, I'm just a monster. All I wanted to be was a superhero to protect the city and the ones I love dear.