Ayu Bomb for April 2011

Earlier this year (or possibly even late last year) a bunch of international fans decided to bombard Ayu and her producer, Max Matsuura, on Twitter to ask when the next Ayu-mi-x would be produced. Ayu has several remix albums under her sleeve. She even has Ayu-ro-mix and other of the likes. The last ones, Ayu-mi-x 6 -Gold- & -Silver- where released in 2008 so it was due for a new one (apparently). After much back and forth, Ayu and Max said "Yes, let's do it!".

Ayu-mi-x 7 was then born.

Originally planned to be released on March 30th, with the earthquake and tsunami disaster everything was post poned to April 20th.

Ayu-mi-x 7 comes in 4 different albums, and a 5th one "Limited Edition" that comes with all 4 albums, in a special packaging with bigger sized pictures of all the previous remix albums covers.

Ayu-mi-x 7 ~Limited Complete Box Set~

(You can see more details of the limited edition Here)

All this big, pretty, limited edition packaging for a big whooping US$135.75
You know, because we all have 135$ just laying around in our account...

Ayu-mi-x 6 ~version HOUSE~

Ayu-mi-x 7 ~version Acoustic Orchestra~

Ayu-mi-x 7 ~presents Ayu trance 4~

Ayu-mi-x 7 ~presents Ayu-ro mix 4~

While I have no doubt these are great, I won't be spending 135$ on a limited edition of remix albums... Though this could be a great idea for a birthday gift... :)

What do you think of these? Do you like the trend of Japanese artists releasing several products all at the same time? Would you buy limited editions of your favorite artist/band?

Quebec March 2011 : Part 2

Part 2 of Quebec city in March. A little heavier on the image front.

Showcasing the main event, the reason we traveled to Quebec city in the middle of winter...

Red Bull Crashed Ice!!
This is actually the end of the course... Hehe...

This is the start of it!

It's a pretty crazy sport event! Basically, a bunch of guys and gals go down the course on hockey skates... Twists and turns, and more twists and turns. It's super fast!

It goes on and on and on...

All of it, right smack in the middle of Old Quebec city.

As we walked around the course going down, there were a few test runs.
I got up close and personal :D

And then around 5pm we headed out to the Crash Zone!

Crash Zone was like a VIP area. Buy tickets to have access, alcohol, music, dance floor, etc. And of course, super close to the course itself that went right through the Crash zone.

As it got dark, big screens lit up and advertised other Red Bull extreme sport events. Snowboarding, downhill bikes, motorcycles, cars, etc, etc.
Also covered on backstage with the athletes taking part of the race and interviews.
Everything to pump up the crowd!

And then at 7pm the event started. There were a few people in front of us. But this is where I'm glad I'm a little taller than 50% of the population here :)

It started with a few guys going by with the different flags of countries participating.
(This is also around the time my battery started dying. You can imagine how much I was annoyed. It was fully charged and within an hour it was dead. I guess it was my camera's way of telling me she didn't like the cold...)

Japan!!
Then I stopped taking pictures because the camera was dying.
And also it's really hard to take good pictures with big puffy mittens...
And without the mittens my fingers were frozen within a matter of seconds.

All it all it was a great event! I enjoyed it quite a bit and would definitely go back. But next time, definitely dress warmer!!

Chateau Frontenac from the hotel room after the event.
I seriously need a new camera...

What do you think of this sport event? Extreme enough for you? Would you attend such an event?

Quebec March 2011 : Part 1

Last March, I went out of town for a weekend. We drove 5 hours to Quebec city, the capital of the province of Quebec. Quebec has always been a city part of my life, I had gone often in the past, but always in the summer (I was there last year, you can check on my posts back from August '10). I had never gone in the winter!

We were going there for a sport event taking place on March 19. We left Ottawa on the 18 and came back on the 20th.

Every picture I've taken was taken on the 19 itself. Since the sport event was in the evening, we walked around town and explored at our leisure during the day.

It was sunny and beautiful, but also pretty cold! Winter in Quebec is not like winter in Ottawa, even though it's just 5 hours away. It was at least 7 to 10 degrees less than where I live. So when we left home on the 18, it was -5C in Ottawa, then it was at least -12C in Quebec. Doesn't sound like much, but with the wind it could get pretty chilly~

Enough with the blah blah. Pictures for everyone!

The view from our hotel room on the morning of the 19th. I think it was 8 or 9am.
I was a little annoyed... the window was dirty... makes for crappy pictures. Bleh.

We staid at the Hilton in Old Quebec city. I'd never been to a Hilton, super pleasant experience.
Minus the dirty window...

Going down town to walk and find a place for breakfast.

Breakfast!

This is the best picture to describe Old Quebec city.
It's like going back in time. It's the way it was built and designed in the old days.
400 years ago!!

Hello Kitty store we stumbled on, totally random.

Chateau Frontenac.
Now the city's most expensive hotel.

Old Castle from back in the days. It's massive~

Part 2 coming up~ Stay tuned!

What do you think of Quebec city from these few pictures? Think you'd travel there even in the winter with the cold temperatures?

March update

Nothing super special for March (boo...)

I went to Quebec city for a weekend (detailed post on this to come soon), but the shopping there prooved to be unsuccessful to my disappointment.

I got my nails done, as per every month. I went in to have purple on my nails this time, but she didn't have purple left. This shade of green stood out to me though.


The past month or two, I've noticed she doesn't have as many colors available as before and I'm not 100% satisfied with her work anymore. So I decided to move on and see elsewhere. I found a nailist that does all her work from home, and she lives 5 minutes from my house! I can walk there!! From her website, her work appeals to me a lot more and she said she has over 80 different shades of color. I expressed my liking for pinks and purples, she said she had plenty of those to choose from. I'll be meeting her for a new set of nails for April, on the 21st.

My big buy of March was my new bicycle. A mountain bike to be specific.


I'm totally in love with it and can't wait to make use of it. I took it out once to far, but it's still too chilly. Last time I came back with a serious neck and ear ache from the cold wind.

I plan to bike every day this summer, as long as it's not raining. And hopefully get into mountain or at least, park trails later in June, to try it out and get a little more into the extreme of the sport.

Then the few other buys for March...

Hello Kitty strap and necklace from a little tiny shop while I was in Quebec city.


And two tops from Smart Set.


I went for the green one first and loved it so much I went back for grey. There was also a purple-blue and a black, but I found neither of those color looked all that great on me.

That's it for now~


Have you shopped and bought a lot in March? Are you looking forward to the summer as much as I am?

Photo apps

The past few weeks I've been experimenting with two apps on my iPod Touch (sadly I don't have the luxury of the iPhone). They're quite fun and I've been enjoying them a lot so far, so I thought I'd share.

1st: Princess Camera

This is like having a (though limited) Purikura machine in your pocket!

Snap a picture of yourself.

Then decorate it!

The stamps and decorations are limited, but they give you the option to create your own. I haven't tried it yet though, so I can't comment on that. But you can lighten or darken your picture, add frames, stamps, write stuff in your own face and all that other fun stuff a Purikura machine allows you to do. For 2.99$ I find it's a great app! I haven't used it with friends yet, but I hope to try that out soon.

Of course it's not purikura quality as I've known and seen it in Japan, BUT it's fun and you can send everything via e-mail right from your iPod/iPhone, or even post it on Facebook or Twitter.

2nd: DipTic

Lighten up, change coloring and put pictures together with DipTic! No need for Photoshop anymore!

It's quick, easy and does a pretty good job for an iPod/iPhone quality.

I used the random cute, girly things I could find in my room, but I think this would be even better for food pictures and clothes/coordinates as well!

For 1.99$ I think this app is definitely worth it.

What do you think of these apps?

Would you use either / both of them?