” The Sumida River (隅田川, Sumida-gawa) is a river which flows through Tokyo, Japan. It branches from the Arakawa River at Iwabuchi and flows into Tokyo Bay. Its tributaries include the Kanda and Shakujii rivers. What is now known as the “Sumida River” was previously the path of the Arakawa, however towards the end of the Meiji era work was carried out to divert the main flow of the Arakawa to prevent flooding. It passes through Kita, Adachi, Arakawa, Sumida, Taito, Koto and Chuo” (Wikipedia).

When some friends of mine and I first visited Tokyo in 2003,  I’ve tried to convince them to visit the Sumida River as it’s one of the land marks in Tokyo, they were partially convinced about it. Then, the next day, we’ve arrived in Asakusa train station which is just next to Sumida River, I didn’t know how far it’s located away from the train station, so once we went out the station we kept walking ‘n’ walking for ages! Nothing appeared on the horizon yet, as I’ve mentioned earlier, they were just partially convinced about visiting it, so suddenly we’ve they’ve decided to forget about it and go back to whatever is left to visit/see in Tokyo. FOUR years later, in 2007, a friend of mine and I, have made it at the Sumida River at the right time and the right place, the station this time was just a couple of minutes away from the river, and the timing was just perfect for it, it was late March, you know what I mean! Cherry blossom, Sakura trees, were covering the streets of Sumida. It was crowded with public enjoying the weather, the scenery and the river at that delightful moment. What’s so special about Sumida River in addition to the Sakura trees, the bridges, it has many bridges passing over it and some are dedicated for trains, it’s wide and relaxing for sight. I remember how people there were so happy and joyful! Sumia River now means a beautiful moment for me!

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Nanako Dojima x Yotsuba Koiwai again! Massive Persona 4 spoilers! OFFICIAL release? Of course not!

funny_bunny: GO TEAM.

nde: More “Nanako&!”.

funny_bunny: It’s parodelicious!

Kawaii Pattycakes: Why aren’t we doing them all!?!?

funny_bunny: BECAUSE. SILENCE!

prettyprophet: I’m just going to comment on the pages. I’m playing Arkham Asylum. It rocks.

funny_bunny: Ok! So because our terrible twins magicked up Nanako&!…and a P4 SEXY release…SO MORE NANAKO&! MUST BE MAGICKED.

Kawaii Pattycakes: This helped! But not the mug which I could really really really use……*kiss* *kiss*

prettyprophet: Like I say, slut. And fuck off, you didn’t do anything.

Kawaii Pattycakes: I was busy with other doujin work!

funny_bunny: HUSH.

Kawaii Pattycakes: Everyday’s great at your Junes!

nde: Junes sells dreams.

prettyprophet: Badminton, sport of gods.

nde: The same automated scam keeps calling us about credit cards. I think it’s a scam?

Kawaii Pattycakes: CREAM PUFFS ARE HEAVENLY! Hey let’s go buy some!

funny_bunny: But what’s this? P4 doujinshi, MORE MORE MORE! Nanako Dojima TEN YEARS LATER MORE!

prettyprophet: You know, I was going to load that one Teddie doujinshi with bear puns……..but nde’s like, “He’s under psychological/sexual duress, he won’t be able to think of many.” See? We care about our hentai.

nde: Still fit one in though.

prettyprophet: Two if you count Yukiko’s.

Kawaii Pattycakes: Three with credits!

funny_bunny: WHO THE DEVIL IS THIS??

Kawaii Pattycakes: NO CLUE!

prettyprophet: THE FUCK? GLASSES AND MUSTACHE, I DON’T KNOW ANYONE LIKE THAT!

Kawaii Pattycakes: Junes! BROSUKE!

prettyprophet: Why the hell does being older mean getting stubble in Japan? All you boys are clean shaven. Ok, you two aren’t good examples for……you know, masculinity.

nde: The protagonist/Seta would look the same without it.

funny_bunny: To show skin is to show FLESH and flesh is EXCITEMENT to the shackled heart!

Kawaii Pattycakes: I would SO buy P4: 2027.

prettyprophet: I’m SO going to buy Persona fucking THREE: Girl Protagonist Edition.

funny_bunny: Atlus has heard your prolific calls for female protagonists!

prettyprophet: They better change the social links.

Kawaii Pattycakes: As long as we get some shota-love, I am fine.

funny_bunny: ROBO-LESBIANISM.

prettyprophet: Oh, then I guess the Death Link ain’t yaoi no more.

Kawaii Pattycakes: AHHHH!!!!!!

prettyprophet: Bet that tears you apart.

funny_bunny: YAOI LOVE ON ONE HAND, BISH LOVE ON THE OTHER!

Kawaii Pattycakes: Oh they’re equally nom…..but there’ll be lots and lots of yuri now, so ok!

nde: This will change plot events.

prettyprophet: Yo, this thing’ll be more like a visual novel. How does that make you feel, Funny?

funny_bunny: But it’s NOT. There’s MASS DESTRUCTION.

prettyprophet: I think I prefer it this way. Less running around.

Kawaii Pattycakes: I liked running around!

nde: It could be like “Devil Survivor”.

Kawaii Pattycakes: As long as there’s lots of chatter!

prettyprophet: Yeah, if there’s one thing Megaten’s REALLY good at, it’s making the faceless side characters hilarious. Atlus, keep it up.

funny_bunny: Hear our Rabbit voices! HEED OUR BLESSED WORDS! That is all, amen.

Before I go to lunch, I’ll quickly write this up:

Miyuki is another manga by my recently favourited manga artist – Mitsuru Adachi.

But unlike his other works like Katsu! (review here) and Cross Game this manga was actually created before these two, furthermore it was also a non-sport manga!

While most of Adachi’s works tend to be Shounen, Miyuki makes an exception and is actually Shojo, but addition to that, is my favourite genre combination – Romance + Comedy.

Miyuki ~ 1980 - 1984

So some quick background – the time is the 1980’s and highschooler Wakamatsu Masato is reunited with his non-blood related sister, Miyuki (i.e. his dad remarried and his new wife already had a daughter) after 6 years of separation. Due to their dad’s business which requires constant travelling, Masato has always been living by himself (or with a maid), but is now living with his sister, Miyuki.

Masato also later befriends a girl from school, Miyuki Kashima, who later becomes his girlfriend. During this time, Masato is also fighting the feelings his sister has for him.

So just from the backgrounding of the story, you can tell already, drama, lots of drama. But not like stupid drama. Adachi, even though he tends to write stories with close to impossible factors in real life (e.g. such as having the exact same birthdays, names, etc) always has some way of making his stories interesting and engaging.

So the setting is around the 1980’s and the art/style/fashion etc stays very true to that. Once again, like many of Adachi’s works, his environment art is top notch.

The writing is very good too (some probably lost in translation due to Japanese jokes/puns etc). But it’s always a dilemma for me to read Miyuki because once I start, I have to finish the volume (10 chapters), and sometimes even more than that..

So that’s why it’s taken me awhile to finish.

Despite this not being a sport manga like Adachi’s usual works – it was still very well done, and I enjoyed it alot.

After this manga, I’ve wanted to see more of his works, there’s always something captivating about his style.

So if you feel like something easy, short and warm, Miyuki should definitely be up for consideration.

As a result of reading Miyuki, last night I started to read another one of his mangas, H2 and it’s looking promising!

MoeMoe Hado~kyun!

Nanako Dojima x Yotsuba Koiwai! Massive Persona 4 spoilers inside (and Yotsuba&!, I guess)! Not an official release!

prettyprophet: Unsanctioned, unilateral movement……by me and nde. That’s right, for once it’s not fuckhead Funny releasing any ol’ thing. Course, we can still blame him for setting this off.

nde: It was because of the bonus “Nanako&!” end page in “Nda!”.

prettyprophet: Yeah, I saw these P4 parodies of Yotsuba&! before too, but I didn’t know they were translated. Oh, and Funny, it wasn’t done by the anonymous; just check the notes and they got names. Which we now added. It’s all on Danbooru……..and I don’t have a Pixiv account.

nde: We’re not doing them all, are we?

prettyprophet: Nah, just a few where the jokes work. Yo, since this is unofficial and we didn’t translate them ourselves; don’t go off announcing this on Mangaupdates. Anyways, here’s the first one that started this done by Funny:

This one stars Nanako (no shit), Kanji, and the Protagonist/Souji Seta. They’re all randomly taken from chapters, so we don’t ever get a full chapter-parody.

nde: Starring Nanako, Yosuke, and Naoto.

prettyprophet: Well then, Chie just got some heartbeat, heartbreak. Nanako tries to cheer her up.

nde: Nanako can’t ask help from Naoto.

prettyprophet: But hey, they’re all precocious in the end, ain’t they? Except maybe Yukiko. So yeah, this is as close as it gets to a single cohesive chapter……kinda.

nde: Maybe there’s more parodies not on Danbooru.

prettyprophet: Yo, P4 fans, go find it for us.

nde: This one was your favorite?

prettyprophet: Hell yeah, great last panel. And……that’s all we did for now.

nde: Where’s Rise?

prettyprophet: nde choo-choo-choosed Rise in his playthrough. Ain’t that cute?

nde: It seemed fitting.

prettyprophet: Thanks to Pat, Lavie, Duck, and Funny for doing a doujinshi that had the two romance links we chose. Bastards. Anyways, yeah, there’s NO Yotsuba&!-Rise. There’s the rest of the cast…even Fuuka and PHILEMON. No Rise. C’mon, what the fuck? Eh, whatever.

nde: This was our way of returning the favor for the two releases in our names.

prettyprophet: Chea, last year we just said thanks…….and now since all the Rabbit idiots raised the bar, gotta reply in kind.

nde: But thanks.

A Tokyo park has started playing a high-pitched tone at night that only young people can hear to help drive away teenagers who keep vandalizing the toilets and other facilities.

“We were having trouble improving the situation and trying to decide what to do, when we found out about The Mosquito and decided to give it a try,” said Haruyuki Masuda, an official in charge of parks in Tokyo’s Adachi district.

“The Mosquito” is a device that emits a high-frequency tone that is unbearable to those who can hear it, Masuda said.

The local authorities decided to act after young people hanging out in the district’s Kitashikahama Park inflicted damage amounting to around 700,000 yen ($7,400) there last year.

“We could not do anything about it from just patrolling,” Masuda said.

People’s ability to hear high frequencies falls as they age. The device produces a high-pitch tone of around 17 kilohertz, which teens can hear but older people cannot.

While such devices are used at some convenience stores in Japan also troubled by teens, Masuda said district officials were hesitant at first.

“We were a little worried about…

continue reading from reuters.com

Click here to read!

Previously…

Adachi wanted the student council to be useful at once.  She came up with an advice forum but with their rough tactics, it failed at first but somehow it has found it’s use… thanks to the SC members themselves!

This Chapter…

Summer holidays are here! Adachi announces only to find the members of the Student Council uninterested!

Chiba and Izumi were comparing their test scores while the yankee, Shinagawa, as usual was lazing around finding comfort in a sofa but later joined the other two and compared results with Adachi as well.

Shinagawa was so looking forward on how to spend his summer that he decided to go straight home and take some refresher ready for the action the next day.  He opened his eyes however to the usual freaking faces of the SC thinking he was dreaming but when he found himself riding in a train, he realizedhi summer’s doomed!  They’re all going to retreat without telling him!

It’s a good thing that the hotel they were staying in both faces the ocean and the mountains which pacified Shinagawa at least!  But they shouldn’t be leaving the room nor start eating to fill their growling stomachs not until they could figure out something of a catchphrase for the school festival to consult with the 3rd year senpais the next day!  Plus, there’s a creepy old grandma welcoming them giving the entire place a horror feel!

Whoa! There were some guys coming to the hotel!  Talk about Mon Shiro… smells trouble isn’t it?

Babbles… Babbles…

Damn me, I just figured out the name of their school! It’s Mon Shiro! T~T

Okay, I just wish they’ll be having a good time.  And a horror plot for the the story would be a blast!  At least some creepy twist just this once! Hehe, I love that!

Got a secret to tell, promise you won’t leak it out?  I hate horror stories, not that I’m afraid of them but I feel like crying whenever I see one!  Shhh!   But I keep watching them to my chagrin! >////<