Fusanosuke

I was still reading 窮鼠はチーズの夢を見る (The Cornered Mouse Dreams of Cheese) by 水城 せとな (Mizushiro Setona) and on the page 29 I stumbled across a word which I keep forgetting and keep looking up in the dictionaries.

恭ちゃん...あのね ... 別れてほしいの。  -- Kyou-chan... well... I want to separate.

Seeing that she is married to that Kyou-chan I guess we could assume that she wants a divorce.

• 別れ --わかれ-- (n) parting; separation; farewell; (lateral) branch; fork; offshoot; division; section;

• 夫婦別れ --ふうふわかれ-- (n,vs) divorce; separation.

This is a compound of 夫婦(spouses) + 別れ(separation) .
夫婦 --ふうふ(P); めおと; みょうと-- (n) married couple; spouses; husband and wife; couple; pair

• And then at wiki the divorce is listed as 離婚 --りこん-- (n,vs) divorce.  I guess, this is a legal term, then.

I was reading 窮鼠はチーズの夢を見る (The Cornered Mouse Dreams of Cheese) by 水城 せとな (Mizushiro Setona) and right on page 4 I had to stop and contemplate the difficult nature of the Japanese language.

僕は今強請られている。-- Right now I'm being blackmailed.

• 強請 --きょうせい; ごうせい-- (n,vs) blackmail; extortion; persistent demand

• 強請る --ねだる(P); ゆする-- (v5r,vt) (1) (ねだる only) to tease; to coax; (v5r,vt) (2) to solicit; to demand; to extort;

I'm pretty sure of the translation, but what puzzled me is the reading for 強請 --ゆす. From what I gathered the primary reading for 強請る is ねだる, not even every dictionary lists ゆする reading... And then the noun 強請 has a yet another reading... Really, such a mess.....**sigh**

I saw it on a friend's blog - her collection of ties and though mine is very meager in comparison, I could not help, but wanted to show it ))

ネクタイ - tie; necktie;

クラバット-cravat

Then I started reading wiki page and got lost in the types of ties and techniques to make a knot. I just traditionally go for Half-Windsor knot (ハーフウィンザーノット or  セミウインザーノット), and the idea that there are 85 ways to knot your tie, honestly, scares me ))))

愛と青春の宝塚: 〜恋よりも生命よりも

I was recommended to watch Ai to Seishun no Takarazuka. Koi Yori mo Inochi Yori mo -  that's a TV mini-drama about Takarazuka's life. It's highly amusing, but at the same time it is Kansai-ben (関西弁) which means - I struggle to understand ))) But still lots of fun.

And I found the official website of the drama  and the picture just deserves to be worshiped )))))

Ai to Seishun no Takarazuka. Koi Yori mo Inochi Yori mo

薔薇 --ばら-- (n) rose.
That's an easy word, but such a difficult kanji combination...
黒薔薇アリス 3 by 水城 せとな (Mizushiro Setona)

This is the vol.3 of sensei's manga about vampires (!) and roses (!) - very pretty.  And as we all know it, vampires is the new!hot!thing.  Kuro Bara Alice (Black Rose Alice) - there is Alice somewhere, but the vol.3 cover rendered me speechless:

Vampires are just so in! )))))

I love knitting and I LOVE knitting using Japanese craftsbooks.  Here is my collection of the things I've made using Japanese patterns.

Crochet from Ondori 2004.

This was the pattern:

マフラー (n) muffler (garment, vehicle); scarf;

And this was my result:

While I was playing with an idea of going to Japan next year, I was checking out what's Takarazuka has on offer here and of course could not pass on this one:

The Sword of the Habsburgs / BOLERO (Star 2010)

宝剣 --ほうけん-- (n) treasured sword

I mean, I'm a rabbid Habsburg's fangirl (Spanish and Austrian ... Sisi and Margaret Theresa...), so this Habsburg's unapologetic fangirling is something I definitely would love to see...  A girl can dream, right?

There is no DVD yet released with this prettiness, but definitely something to look forward.

Kirschblüten - Hanami (2008) directed by Doris Dörrie (movie's website) .  This is one of the best German movies I've seen in years.  Featuring Tokyo, Fuji-san, Butoh (舞踏,).

花見 --はなみ-- (n,vs) cherry blossom viewing; flower viewing;