Here’s to a good 2009!

Courtesy of viviandodo

Personally, it’s been quite a year (especially the 2nd half). May 2009 be much brighter and better!

Far East Christmas concert videos

The beginning

After the 1st minute, JJ's performance begins.

《坚持到底》

Closing

This video is a bit shaky.

Ad for Las Vegas Christmas concert

A sniffer dog called A-do?

This dog is a Springer Spaniel trained to sniff out flammable fluids at a shopping centre in Beijing. It (don’t know if it’s a male or female dog so I have to say “it”) started work two days ago.

http://beijing.qianlong.com/3825/2008/12/23/3022@4802080.htm

19 December 2008 Haikou, Hainan performance blogged

http://blog.sina.com.cn/s/blog_4a3728ad0100bnly.html

There’s more on the stones mentioned in yesterday’s blog entry on A-do’s Sina blog.

22 December 2008 blog update

http://blog.sina.com.cn/s/blog_50d071b90100bzzy.html

5 December 2008 A-do's guest performance at Judy Chiang's Kaohsiung concert blogged

yuan's blog (traditional Chinese): http://www.wretch.cc/blog/yuan0311/8397189

5 December 2008 blog update

http://blog.sina.com.cn/s/blog_50d071b90100brqm.html

Side effects of watching Love Bakery?

I was watching Love Bakery until just before 10 last night. After that I switched back to Channel 8, which was showing The Little Nyonya. Xiang Yun and Ng Hui were speaking of Jeanette Aw’s character 菊香Juxiang (meaning “Chrysanthemum fragrance”).
Me: (inwardly) Hey wasn’t the floral tea shop in Love Bakery called 黄金菊 Huang Jin Ju (Golden Chrysanthemum)?

As we wanted to watch Forensic Heroes on Channel U, we changed channels. After a while a scene where Yoyo Mung was driving past a Mercedes-Benz sign came on.
Me: (inwardly again) In Love Bakery A-do was working at a Mercedes-Benz workshop…

Read my Chinese text at
bbs.youyou.com: http://bbs.youyou.com/viewthread.php?tid=75777&extra=page%3D1&frombbs=1
my Baidu blog: http://hi.baidu.com/%B3%CF%D0%C4%B3%C9%D2%E5%D4%C2%C3%F7%D7%D3/blog/item/2638df010d8bf6097aec2ce9.html

Some songs for Christmas

In line with the Christmas atmosphere which has been building up for a while (I heard Christmas songs on radio as I studied - and am still studying - for my exams in mid-November), here’s 2 Christmas related songs, 《下雪》Xia Xue (Snowing) from A-do and 《雪绒花》Xue Rong Hua from Kym Jin Sha.

Listen to Xue Rong Hua on sina: http://ent.sina.com.cn/y/v/2006-08-16/19591203754.html

A-do guest performing at Judy Chiang’s Kaohsiung concert on 5 December

News on yuan’s blog: http://www.wretch.cc/blog/yuan0311/8394708

Additional xin.sg news link: http://www.xin.sg/article.php?article=26178

And he will be singing 2 songs.

A-do’s 22 November 2008 performance in Taizhou, Zhejiang

Post on Ping’s Sina blog: http://blog.sina.com.cn/s/blog_4d1d223c0100c6hx.html

A-do's 16 November 2008 performance blogged

News updates will be a bit slow until 2 December 2008, the last full day I have to study for exams. In the meantime, here's what Chen Li, the Sichuan fan club president wrote on her blog about Sunday's performance:

http://blog.sina.com.cn/s/blog_50e269b10100b89w.html

On popups

Recently, I started seeing pop ups when I come in here to check the shoutbox.

I don't have any arrangement with whoever's advertising through these popups or make any profit from popups. In fact, I didn't start this blog for profit to begin with.

I have been clearing my cookie cache every time the popups start appearing, but there are some cookies I need to store my login names for other websites, so will be scouting for a cookie management freeware to block everything else.

In the meantime, do leave a comment if you see popups here. I hope it's just me who's having this problem.

A-do’s Hokkien song in a Taiwanese music class

I was talking with Victoria, a Taipei JJ fan, on MSN the other day. She said that in music class that day, her teacher had played A-do’s 雨衣 (Raincoat; read as Ho Sa in Singaporean Hokkien and Ho Mua in Taiwanese Hoklo) MV for them, and they would be tested on it subsequently.

Now, I wish that would happen to me.

爱上卡门 In Love with Carmen

Looks like there won’t be any performances of In Love with Carmen in the near future, which is a pity, because I heard the Taipei performance was very moving. That’s why a Singapore run tops my sidebar wishlist.

I particularly like the transliteration of Jose (A-do’s character) for In Love with Carmen. The usual transliteration is 荷西, but the name of A-do’s role here is 何曦, which can also be interpreted as a Chinese name, with 何 as the family name He, and 曦 as a personal name meaning “dawn”.

In the meantime, if you want an idea of the story, here’s a translated script of the 1999 Carmen adaptation by Takarazuka, a famous all-female performing group in Japan.

Addicted to Love to be aired on Channel 8 next year?

At least that’s what they said on Wikipedia. (The reference to the show has been removed from the Wikipedia page.)

I think I will still watch A-do’s episodes first on the ntv7 website though.

2002 i-weekly clipping of A-do at SPCA

This is one of my favourite cuttings!

In summary, what he did was to feed the dogs, clean the kennels, brush the dogs' fur, take one German Shepherd out for a walk and then answer some questions on pet ownership.

A-do’s Christmas performance at Las Vegas

Other artistes performing include JJ Lin and Vivian Hsu.

Time: 25 December 2008, 8pm
Venue: The Colosseum at Caesers Palace, Las Vegas

Ticket prices: US$88/US$128/US$228/US$288
Ticketing: http://www.ticketmaster.com/event/1700414E8C785A03?artistid=1265648&majorcatid=10005&minorcatid=0

Thanks to ob_greenny at JJ’s official youyou forum: http://bbs.youyou.com/viewthread.php?tid=74423

4 November 2008 Update on A-do’s blog

http://blog.sina.com.cn/s/blog_50d071b90100bggr.html

A-do’s organ donation ad in Taiwan

Seeing the organ donation ads on Singapore streets lately has reminded me of A-do’s Taiwanese organ donation ads.

View ad on A-do’s official pixnet blog: http://snowado.pixnet.net/blog/post/9055926

A-do's Canadian performance has been cancelled

Heard on youyou it was due to paperwork and timing problems.

My earlier post: http://much-a-do-about.blogspot.com/2008/09/do-in-our-chinese-heart-in-vancouver.html

An A-do song from 《都市恋人的追逐》Addicted to Love

I noticed from my visitor statistics that quite a few people were searching for the song(s) from the show since it went on air in Malaysia last week. I am only going to watch the show online after my exams end in early December, but I have heard from the others on youyou that A-do sang《单向的爱》Dan Xiang De Ai (One Way Love) live in the show, in his role as a singer at a music café. It is also one of the songs in last year’s 《撒野》Sa Ye (Release).

I heard it was also a song in 《爱情烘焙屋》 Ai Qing Hong Bei Wu (Love Bakery). (Speaking of which, I hope the DVD set Ping sent to me hasn’t been lost, it’s been 2 months! I emailed MDA last night to enquire if they are checking my copy of the 25-30 episode show.)

Voting for 2007 TVB music award ceremony

Chinese link to vote: http://ent.qq.com/zt/2008/tvb8/index.htm

The awards ceremony will be held on 7 December 2008, Sunday. A-do's song 《撒野》Sa Ye is one of the songs nominated as a top song(TVB8金曲榜金曲奖). In order to vote, it is necessary to make choices for all the categories. These are my votes:

Most popular male singer in mainland China/TVB8金曲榜内地观众最爱男歌手奖: Jeff Chang张信哲

Most popular female singer in mainland China/TVB8金曲榜内地观众最爱女歌手奖: Kelly Poon潘嘉丽

Most popular Cantonese song worldwide/TVB8金曲榜全球观众最爱粤语歌曲奖 (uh oh... I don't know any of the songs! So going by what I know of the singers alone...): Hins Cheung张敬轩

Best singer-songwriter/TVB8金曲榜最佳唱作歌手奖: Sky Wu伍思凯

Best duet/TVB8金曲榜最佳合唱歌曲奖: 《期待爱》Qi Dai Ai (Anticipating Love) by JJ Lin林俊杰 & Kym Jin Sha金莎

Best newcomer/TVB8金曲榜最佳新人奖: Jade Liu刘力扬

Best group/TVB8金曲榜最佳组合奖: Energy

Most popular male singer/TVB8金曲榜最受欢迎男歌手奖: Jeff Chang张信哲

Most popular female singer/TVB8金曲榜最受欢迎女歌手奖: Kelly Poon潘嘉丽

A-do at Singapore Hit Awards in 2002 and 2003

The ceremony was being held as I was typing this. Unfortunately, A-do didn’t receive a single nomination this year. (*>_<*) But happily, the nomination list for the Entertainment Association of Malaysia Awards was released on the same day as the list for the Singapore Hit Awards with one nomination for him, so I still had something to report on that day.

A-do has received a total of 3 awards in 2002 and 2003 combined: Best Newcomer (Gold) and Local Newcomer with the Most Potential in 2002, and Best Local Singer (together with Stefanie Sun) in 2003. These are the screenshots from the Singapore Hit Awards official site this year:

And here are the photos!

2002

This was when he was making his acceptance speech for the Best Newcomer Award (Gold).

2003

Making acceptance speech for Best Local Singer. The presenters were Selina and Hebe from S.H.E. (standing behind) and David Tao (not in photo).

Presenting the Best Newcomer Awards with Fish Leong. A-do had the pleasure of presenting JJ's Gold award.

There is also a group photo of all the award winners from Teens/Teenage, will dig it up when my holidays begin.

Another blog entry on A-do’s 2 October Harbin performance

http://blog.sina.com.cn/s/blog_4cab2f100100aqg9.html

Blog entry on A-do’s magazine interview in China!

http://blog.sina.com.cn/s/blog_4984b8c60100b550.html

Registration needed to view 《都市恋人的追逐》Addicted to Love on ntv7 website

And the timing for the Singapore telecast has not been fixed yet.

The good news is that registration is not restricted to Malaysians.

6 January 2008: A-do's Release Singapore autograph session

Reading the threads on youyou and saw Alice's request for an English blog entry on this (if I interpret this correctly). This is what I posted on my personal blog then.

Well, it’s been 6 years since A-do started out in 2002, but he’s the same nice guy.

Like when he and a fan were supposed to act out a skit where she forgot to buy for him and the number he wanted came out as the 1st prize, his response was, “What…!” and then “Never mind… I am sure I will win the 1st prize again next week.” It was only a skit, but it spoke volumes of how he didn’t want to hurt another person’s feelings.

When he was throwing posters to the crowd, one fell onto the downward escalator which was some distance away from the stage. He immediately said, “Oh, careful!” to the people who were fighting for the poster near the railing. (I saw one guy from that group run down to retrieve the poster later.)

During my turn onstage, my hands were full with the album and camera and I was so engrossed in passing on the message from the forum people that I almost forgot to shake A-do’s hand. After hearing the message, his reply was, “Thank you, thank you for your support!” and then he stretched out his hand. Not too different from my 1st time in 2004, when my camera had switched off and he told us, “Your camera flash wasn’t on just now.” This is why I have been so eagerly awaiting his albums for the past few years.

The people in charge of running the session were generally nice, just like what I saw when I went to get A-do’s signature in 2004 and 2006. Miss Xiao Xiong, who accompanied A-do to Jurong Point yesterday, said thank you to the fans who went onstage to get their albums signed, and the people from radio 1003 were keeping an eye on the little kids who were present.

One more thing I almost forgot to mention: The booth selling albums at the venue were soon out of stock, looks like more people than expected showed up!

xin.sg report and video: http://www.xin.sg/article.php?category=81&article=13439

《坚持到底》Jian Chi Dao Di (Perseverance)

I still remember the day when Jian Chi Dao Di first went on Singapore airwaves in November 2002. A-do had an interview on 93.3, and was explaining to the DJ that the cover of the single given to radio stations is different from the actual album cover.

Incidentally, the covers of the Singapore and mainland Chinese/Taiwan editions of the album are different. This is my Singapore edition album.

And this is the official wallpaper with the photo used for the mainland Chinese/Taiwanese album cover. I downloaded this from the Ocean Butterflies website in Taiwan after the album release and set it as my computer wallpaper.

This song has been out for nearly 6 years, and I have been listening to it through secondary school, JC (Singaporean equivalent of high school) and now university. It never fails to cheer me up! (*^_^*)

《坚持到底》
词：林怡凤
曲：吴剑泓

在水里　在火里
我的爱　不变不移
就算时光倒回去
我也追到十七世纪

在风里　在雨里
你的雨伞　吹翻过去
我绝对　毫不犹豫
为你披上我的外衣

是你让我看透生命这东西
四个字　坚持到底　喔~~
如果没有你　我的生活回到一片狼藉

是你让我翻破爱情这密笈
四个字　坚持到底　喔~~
不管有多苦　我会全心全意　爱你到底

当你看进我的眼里　我的心颤抖不已
你竟然温柔的说一句　感觉累的时候　让我抱紧　喔~~

Listen at A-do’s official youyou website: http://ado.youyou.com/skin/ado/player/YouYouPlayer-debug.html?cmd=PLAYSONG540

Pictorial reminder to self

Bring enough loose change for the vending machines in school! :P

I believe this photo was taken by Malaysian newspaper Sin Chew Daily in early 2006, because of this next photo:

Translation of message: To Sin Chew Daily readers, may you prosper in the year of the Dog and have your wishes come true.

因为在一千年以后 世界早已没有我 Because a thousand years later, I will have been long gone from this world

I was keying in my friends’ birthdays into my mobile phone’s calendar just now when I accidently typed someone’s birth year as 2079. I then saw that the ages of the others also celebrating their birthday in December had their ages as 91 and 92.

But by then, all of us will probably have long gone.

This made me think of JJ Lin’s 2005 song, 《一千年以后》Yi Qian Nian Yi Hou (A Thousand Years Later), one of my favourites from that album.

《一千年以后》
词：李瑞洵
曲：林俊杰

心　跳乱了节奏
梦也不自由

爱　是个绝对承诺不说

撑到一千年以后

放任无奈　淹没尘埃

我在废墟之中守着你走来　喔

我的泪光　承载不了　喔
所有一切你要的爱

（所有一切你需要的爱）

因为在　一千年以后

世界早已没有我

无法深情挽着你的手

浅吻着你额头

别等到一千年以后

所有人都遗忘了我

那时红色黄昏的沙漠

能有谁　解开缠绕千年的寂寞
缠绕千年的寂寞

Listen at JJ’s official website at youyou: http://jj.youyou.com/skin/jjv2/player/YouYouPlayer-debug.html?cmd=PLAYSONG52

25 January 2006 The Star: A-do does well

The Star Online (Malaysia, English): http://www.star-ecentral.com/news/story.asp?file=/2006/1/25/music/13192267&sec=music

Dug this up when checking my visitor statistics just now.

A-do @ Wikipedia entry Culture of Singapore

The original article has changed since the cache was taken, but here's the screenshot of the cache!

6 October 2008 A-do at a Yunnan food festival with Kym Jin Sha

(youyou URLs removed)

They were surrounded by so many fans that the police had to be called in to clear the way for them to leave. While they were being interviewed backstage, many of the backup dancers who had just finished their performance requested for photos.

A-do said he hopes his album will be out by the end of this year. I hope so too, it’s just been over a year since his last Release.

Survey of Chinese speaking public’s perception of Chinese artistes’ professionalism

(Pardon me if I sound a little academic in my translation, I am doing a project for school at the moment.)

Poll on sina (simplified Chinese): http://ent.sina.com.cn/f/s/2008mrdcsurvey/index.shtml

Multiple voting is possible. A-do is listed as a Hong Kong/Taiwan male singer on the list.

7 October 2008 Kiki Hu Ling’s mention of A-do on her blog

sina blog entry (simplified Chinese): http://blog.sina.com.cn/s/blog_497096d70100b3tf.html

Part 1: Hu Ling’s account of her birthday celebration on 5 July 2008
Part 2: 30 July 2008: Sequel to Kiki Hu Ling’s birthday party

圆满每个梦 (Fulfil every dream)

http://www.tudou.com/programs/view/IdJWu9fsjPk (link from taozideshouhou's blog)

The tune may sound familar, because this song was eventually recorded by Hong Kong girl duo Twins as 我很想爱他 (I really want to love him) A-do recorded this song in 2006 for a charity organisation in Taiwan called 阶梯梦想基金会 (which I shall take the liberty to translate as Step Dreams Organisation) which sends children from poor families to school, if I remember correctly. It's a nice and simple song, and I was a little disappointed when it wasn't chosen as one of the songs in his album.

A-do’s 2 October 2008 Harbin performance on the Chinese blogosphere

JJ fan Sally (also from youyou, thanks to ob_shcyj for the link): http://blog.sina.com.cn/s/blog_4de666830100awry.html

They went to visit A-do at his hotel after that. Photos in the link.

This is another blog entry linked to Sally’s post, written by an Anita: http://blog.sina.com.cn/s/blog_49a9f0590100ap4z.html
She gave A-do the Best Live Performance Award. :) One photo from the Chinese media up there.

English title of 都市恋人的追逐

Apparently, it's called "Addicted To Love".

From: http://celebs.mediacorptv.sg/en/FreemanWoo/biodata

《都市恋人的追逐》Addicted To Love going on air in Malaysia!

Just saw this on a comment left on yuan’s blog.

Date: 22 October 2008
Time: 9:45pm (Singapore/Malaysia time)
Channel: ntv7

Each episode will be uploaded on the website by the next day. As the video pages include the coding to paste the video on your own page like what Youtube does, I will be pasting the videos here too. More details when my midterm ends next Wednesday and I return to youyou.

The Chinese character 杜 in a Korean name

While doing research for my project this morning, I saw this name in my search results:

李杜鉉(Yi Tu-hyŏn)

Based on the Google results, it seems that he specialises in Korean folk drama.

Discovery of the day: not only can you register the character 杜 in a Japanese personal name, you can also do so in a Korean name.

Much A-do about...: A Japanese阿杜?

A secondary school memory

Once during recess I was playing with a racket and a ball with a few friends in the school courtyard. One of us hit the ball so far that it rolled all the way up to just before a barrier erected at one end of the courtyard, behind which renovation was taking place.

I said, “Luckily it didn’t roll inside, or we will need A-do’s help to retrieve it.”

News hiatus

With mid term tests around the corner, I won't be going to youyou to check the news, so no news-related updates. But I will be here everyday to check for tags and comments.

21 September 2008 A-do himself has spoken!

omy.sg (Singapore) report: (link removed because it has expired)

We can all heave a sigh of relief now! And nice photos!

But why wasn't there any prominent ad in the media about this event? Or should I say, why no mention that A-do would be there?

My previous post:
Much A-do about...: If you have read the report in today’s papers

A-do’s 2008 Entertainment Association of Malaysia Awards nomination

(English translation of awards ceremony name from Fish Leong Wikipedia entry)

A-do is in the nomination list for the top 20 international (non-Malaysian) Chinese singers. The award ceremony will be held in Genting on 22 November 2008.

What JJ said regarding the 10 September 2008 report

When reporters asked, he spoke up for A-do at a press conference for the Red Cliff Online (translated from Chinese) game ad he was filming.

Thank you so much JJ. And you look quite cool in period costume. Been popping by your photo sub-forum on youyou for the past few days to get photos from that day.

Sina report (mainland China): http://ent.sina.com.cn/y/2008-09-11/04012164735.shtml

There are reasons why fate arranges for you to change your plan

I wanted to use the Ladies nearest the school library entrance today, but there was a queue. So I went 2 floors down. (The Ladies and the Gents are alternated.) Thankfully, it was empty.

I walked into the nearest cubicle and then

Saw a book lying on the ledge behind the toilet bowl.

On closer examination I discovered it was I Write A Page by Kit Chan, A-do’s 师姐 shi jie/先輩 senpai. It wasn’t a library book because it didn’t have any library labels. And it was almost new, complete with a CD.

I put the book in my bag before I did what I had to do, and then brought the book to the enquiry counter after I was done.

So if you are a female (I assume the book owner is female because I found it in the Ladies) who misplaced this book in a local university library, that might have been your book I found today.

Happy Mid Autumn 2008

(URL to A-do's 2007 Mid-Autumn video broken)

I received the following SMS from lanmei this morning:
“差一点”就要“抬起头”看月亮啦~
记得要向嫦娥姐姐许下你幸福的心愿哦…
中秋节快乐。
(《抬起头》is a rock song of A-do’s I wrote about here.)

It’s just slightly less than 2 hours to the end of the day, but still, happy Mid Autumn!

On seniors

My CCA’s new exco just took over, so the previous president is now “Dai-Senpai” (Japanese for “oldest senior”).

One of the first thoughts to pop into my head was, “Oh, so now A-do is not the only 大先輩Dai-Senpai /大师兄Da Shi Xiong I know of now.”

Actually there are 2 terms for 先輩senpai /senior in Chinese, 学长xue zhang (for guys) /学姐xue jie (for girls) for those you knew in school, and 师兄shi xiong (for guys)/师姐shi jie (for girls) for other contexts. For the latter, this is the definition given in HansMaster:

1. senior fellow apprentice
2. the son of one's master (older than oneself)
3. father's apprentice (older than oneself)

And OB has a 大後輩Dai Kohai /大师弟Da Shi Di/oldest junior! That’s Jeff Chang who joined OB in August 2006. I am trying to find the page where I first read that.

But in this report Rynn Lim Yee Chung is introduced as Jeff Chang’s “师弟shi di”? Was that based on number of years as a singer?

In any case, I like A-do the most. (*^_^*) And if any other seniors of mine are reading this, it’s nice being with you. :)

A-do in Japanese blogs

One day in March this year, I decided to do a search of the keyword “A-do” on Japanese pages.

There were many Japanese web pages where one can purchase A-do’s albums, even 2007’s release, and Hong Kong best hits album Do the Best released in January this year.

And I found these 2 blogs:

http://ami2026.exblog.jp
This blogger studied in China and can write in Chinese, so all her posts related to A-do has Chinese text.

On《坚持到底》Perseverance：http://ami2026.exblog.jp/167769/

On《醇情歌》Those Love Songs：http://ami2026.exblog.jp/1225241/

On《撒野》Release：http://ami2026.exblog.jp/6561453/
I left a comment and she replied!

(translation of the Chinese/Japanese text)

Me: Hi, I am Singaporean. Thank you (for your support towards A-do)! Your Chinese is pretty good. I have been listening to his songs since 2002 and (as a Singaporean) feel proud of what he has done. A-do’s official website is at http://ado.youyou.com/ I am a member here, feel free to drop by.
ami2026: Hi! So you are from Singapore! What a pleasure. I really like him a lot and will definitely take a look at his official website!

http://keiya.cocolog-nifty.com/beijingbluesky/
This is written by a freelance writer living in Beijing.

http://keiya.cocolog-nifty.com/beijingbluesky/2006/07/ado_2680.html
She was talking about visiting A-do’s official page on OBMspace (the official website then) and hoping to meet him one day.

I feel so happy there’s so much information on A-do in Japanese out there. If I knew enough Japanese at the time, I would have posted my thanks on every page open for commenting.

This is the original thread with my Chinese text on youyou: http://bbs.youyou.com/viewthread.php?tid=54776&extra=page%3D1

Hopefully during the next school holidays, with slightly improved Japanese, I can resume my Japanese search.

To the person who came in from nuffnang.com.sg

Hi, could you please tell me what the nuffnang link to my Star Wars subtitle blog entry was like? I was checking my visitor stats and it appears to be a page only accessible to nuffnang members. Thank you. :)

A-do in 《中华情—亲情中华欢聚温哥华》Our Chinese Heart in Vancouver

Yahoo China report: http://ent.cn.yahoo.com/08-09-/353/29w9m.html

A-do will be performing in Vancouver, Canada on 1 November! This is news I am happy to report. Watch this space for the video link.

A Japanese阿杜?

http://www.saiki.tv/~swim-oita/2005/sokuhou/2005-07-31.htm

This looks like the results of a Japanese primary school swim meet.

In general, 阿杜 is a Chinese nickname for anyone with the Chinese surname 杜. And apparently, it can be registered as a personal name in Japan too…

ADO on a SPC oil truck?

That’s what I saw this morning on the bus as I was looking out of the window. 4 ADO signs on top of 4 tubes on the side of the truck, which look like the places where they connect a pipe to for the petrol to flow out at the petrol station. I couldn’t help smiling to myself.

I would have liked to get a photo of it as my description in words does not seem enough, but the bus had a fair number of people on it and I didn’t want to look like I had lost my mind.

If you have read the report in today’s papers

A few of us got together on MSN to discuss how we can show our support for A-do and the result is this thread on youyou:
http://bbs.youyou.com/viewthread.php?tid=70555&extra=page%3D1

This is an English translation of what I wrote:

Regarding the 9 September 2008 report on A-do

(The report came out in mainland China and Taiwan yesterday.)

I believe all of us have read it.

We are still waiting for Ocean Butterflies’ Singapore office to release their official statement, so we are currently not in any position to comment on the validity of the report.

For the past 6 years, A-do has brought us many moving songs. Even though he is a star, he does not put on airs and treats the people he knows very well, including us fans.

Whatever the result of this incident may be, we will still be behind him all the way.

Registration at youyou is needed to reply this thread. We are going to put this on A-do’s Baidu board too.

If you would like to comment, please do so courteously. Thank you for your cooperation.

More on JJ at the Beijing Olympics

Remember JJ’s friends shouting the names of Singapore food at the Beijing Olympics opening ceremony? JJ gave a demonstration of what they did in this interview with ourvoicebox.sg.

Read more at ourvoicebox.sg: http://ourvoicebox.sg/posts/jj_interview

They also have footage of him coming onstage at the Raffles City celebration with his (flameless) torch.

What appeared in the Star Wars: The Clone Wars Chinese subtitles

Apparently, R2 = 阿杜

@_@

Link: http://kib0sh-t0tz.blogspot.com/2008_08_01_archive.html (August 27 2008 entry)

Que sera sera, whatever will be, will be

活过

曲：吴剑泓　词：许环良、吴剑泓

一条路　有多少分岔口
走呀走　就不能再回头
痛哭过　因为执著
依依不舍　那又如何

一棵树　长多高才足够
风雨中　有过多少惶恐
叶凋落　也曾结果
花开花谢　只为活过

感动的最初　曾经的幸福
尽管我苦苦的追逐
再也找不到来时路

所谓的永久　放下无助　换自由
回忆埋在心中深处
种一棵会发芽　的祝福

This evening, this song really struck a chord with me (pun fully intended) as I listened to it on the bus.

I got together with some friends from JC, and learnt that a guy who was part of our group no longer wants to have anything to do with us.

I won’t go into the details here, but it reminded me that just as strangers can become friends or even a couple, friends or even your boyfriend/girlfriend can go back to being a stranger if things don’t work out.

And if your affinity has come to its end… if you are the only one hanging on, it can’t come back. It takes 2 hands to clap.

We will cry, but there will be other people waiting in the future to enter our lives and touch them.

To translate the last few lines of this song, if we can let go, we exchange our helplessness for freedom and keep the memories in our hearts. And maybe even plant a seed that will bud into well wishes.

Singapore may not have any gymnasts competing at the Beijing Olympics but…

They played JJ’s 曹操Cao Cao at one of the men’s gymnastics events!

Post on JJ’s youyou forum: http://bbs.youyou.com/viewthread.php?tid=69295
My reply: http://bbs.youyou.com/viewthread.php?tid=69295&page=4#pid1464346

A-do in 《同一首歌》

只要你过得比我好 Zhi Yao Ni Guo De Bi Wo Hao (Chinese New Year 2003/2004?): http://video.cctv.com/opus/subplay.do?opusid=68908

Other familiar faces here include Fish Leong (梁静茹Liang Jing Ru), S.H.E. and Jacky Wu.

坚持到底 Jian Chi Dao Di (end 2004/early 2005): http://video.cctv.com/opus/7918.html

爱字怎么写Ai Zi Zen Me Xie (end 2004/early 2005)

http://video.cctv.com/opus/subplay.do?opusid=7919

My goodness that’s a lot of torches he’s getting from his fans!

他一定很爱你Ta Yi Ding Hen Ai Ni (end 2004/early 2005)

http://video.cctv.com//opus/subplay.do?opusid=7920

坚持到底 Jian Chi Dao Di (19 October 2007):

A-do’s 20 August 2008 Sina blog update: Have been busy lately

http://blog.sina.com.cn/s/blog_50d071b90100anhb.html

This update includes 2 pictures taken in China! :)

But it seems that I am unable to see the new entry by going directly to the blog's home page via a Singapore connection. This happened to me too when Kiki Hu Ling wrote about her birthday party on her Sina blog. If any kind soul is able to see this post on the home page, do reply this post. Thanks! :)

Getting back to A-do’s blog entry, A-do is not the only one who has been busy lately. I just started school, so that’s why my blogging (both here and on my personal blog) has slowed down.

A-do and JJ on Beijing Olympics opening ceremony

cnhan.com report: http://www.cnhan.com/gb/content/2008-08/18/content_919551.htm
(retrieved from youyou)

While watching the live telecast, A-do said that it was as if what was on the TV screen was in a dream; until he rubbed his eyes to be sure he was awake.

ourvoicebox.sg report: http://ourvoicebox.sg/posts/jj_beijing_olympic

I was particularly amused (and so were the JJ fans when I posted this on the JJ board) by what happened at the Bird Nest when JJ got his friends, Jaycee Chan and S.H.E. to cheer for the Singapore contingent as they came out.

They ended up shouting, “Satay, Ya Kun (they sell local breakfast sets of kaya toast, half-boiled eggs and coffee) and pandan cake”! JJ didn’t know whether to laugh or cry.

Quite a number of non-Singaporean JJ fans responded, “Haha that is a very creative cheer!”

A-do at 14 August 2008 Coca Cola Olympics event

(A-do comes in at around 8:10.)

The songs he sang were 《坚持到底》Jian Chi Dao Di (Perseverance) and 《他一定很爱你》Ta Yi Ding Hen Ai Ni (He Must Love You A Lot)

Wow, looks like A-do gets lots of opportunities to appear at Olympic-related performances for this current Olympics. I really hope that he will get chances like these when we host the first Youth Olympics in 2010!

A-do’s Habitat for Humanity videos

June 2007 China trip in 13 July 2007 Frontline



5 January 2008 housecleaning

林宇中 淋雨中 Rynn in the Rain

I am writing this piece on Rynn Lim Yee Chung, after I tagged Weiquan (he was the one who introduced me to Zettai Kareshi), and he tagged me back.

What happened was that he wrote about the pun in Rynn’s March 2007 album Rynn’s in the Rain (Chinese album title淋雨中).

Rynn started out as a music producer with OB, and then later signed a recording contract to become a singer. His first album 1st was released December 2005 in Taiwan, and hit Singapore stores in January 2006. I had seen his name in A-do's 2002 debut album Tian Hei as composer of 你很好Ni Hen Hao (that was the first song he managed to sell) and thought when I heard he was going to release an album, "Oh, I am going to buy it then."

I remember when Rynn came to Singapore in 2006 to promote his first album and was being interviewed on Y.E.S. 93.3. He introduced himself as Lin Yu Zhong (He started using the English name Rynn in between his first and second albums, I remember he posted on OBMspace, the OB official website from July 2006 to July 2007, asking for suggestions from fans.) and the DJ commented, “That sounds like 淋雨中(lin yu zhong, Chinese for “being drenched in the rain”). And it’s raining now!” Rynn said, “Yes, that’s what everyone says.”

From young, every time it rained his friends would mention his Chinese name.
http://www.obmspace.com/board/archiver/?tid-10005.html

This was one of the times it didn’t rain on Rynn.
sohu.com report on 14 April 2007 Taiwan autograph session: http://music.yule.sohu.com/20070415/n249443917.shtml

Last October, I saw one of Rynn’s Taiwanese fans say mention him on either the OB forum or in our chat room and then add: Yes, I am calling him淋雨中because he brought that typhoon back with him when he returned to Taiwan (for work). So now it’s extended to his fans and even his friends’ fans (or is it just me? *looks around* :P).

Even as recently as 17 July 2008, when we were running around playing Treasure Hunt, it started raining halfway… and Rynn was due in Singapore to promote his new album, Homely Life (Chinese album title 干物世界Gan Wu Shi Jie) the next day.

Well... I think I have said quite enough about this pun already, so I will go on to his music next.

My personal favourites from 1st were 不打烊的店(Bu Da Yang De Dian/Store Forever) and 落脚(Lao Jiao/Station).

This is what I wrote in my private blog for my favourite songs in Rynn's in the Rain:

猫头鹰The Owl: The music arrangement has a strong Chinese influence which is pleasing on the ear. Owls are Rynn’s favourite animal, and that’s how he got the idea of writing this song.

复活Reborn: A duet between Rynn and Kym Jin Sha, also from Ocean Butterflies. This is the theme song of the popular Korean computer game Granado Espada, and I do get an “across the ages “ feeling when listening to this song.

对调Switch: Theme song of the movie Just Follow Law. I like the lively music accompaniment.

空秋千Abandoned: I became familiar with this theme song while following the drama The Beginning, in which Rynn had a lead role. It reminds me of my childhood, and the lyrics are closely related to the storyline. (Another song in Rynn’s in the Rain, Hide and Seek, has a similar effect on me.

Melodi (one of the bonus songs in the Singapore edition): A duet between Rynn and veteran Malay singer Sheila Majid, with some Malay interspersed in the lyrics. I knew why Shelia Majid is respected in the Malay music scene when I heard her voice, it’s really great! Combined with Rynn’s talent, it’s another good song!

As for Homely Life, the title track is rather catchy. 远嫁Yuan Jia with Chinese instruments in its music arrangement is pretty nice too.

I have come to the end of my piece, but I hope this is not the end of Rynn's musical story. I am looking forward to hearing more great songs from him in the future!

A surprise discovery on the CCTV podcast website

I honestly never thought I would get to watch these again, especially after PEACE disbanded.

I was looking for A-do’s videos when I saw the videos from the 2001 Singapore 同一首歌Tong Yi Shou Ge. (The show came back to our sunny island again in 2006 and A-do, JJ and their fellow OB singers were in it; those were the videos I was looking for.)

Although PEACE released 2 songs, unfortunately, they never got to release an album of their own. Gary released an album in Malaysia, and is hosting an entertainment news programme which airs every weekday evening (A-do was a guest on it in early 2004). Jeff’s album, I hear, is due early next year, and he has already finished the songs and filmed some of the music videos.

I still watch Jeff’s shows on TV; Say It If You Dare (有话好好说You Hua Hao Hao Shuo) is pretty entertaining and informative, and he’s got a new food show with Dennis Chew that started on Friday night.

Thank you so much, CCTV.

小人物的心声Xiao Ren Wu De Xin Sheng

爱与哀愁Ai Yu Ai Chou

2008 National Day special

While A-do hasn’t had the chance to sing a National Day song yet (by the way, congratulations to Joi Chua and Hady Mirza for being given the chance to sing this year’s National Day song), he did record a song《有你才完整》You Ni Cai Wan Zheng (Only Complete with You) for the Singapore Tourism Board when he was our tourism ambassador in mainland China, Taiwan and Hong Kong from 2004 to 2006. The original song title was 《一根红线》Yi Gen Hong Xian (A Red Thread) and the first time he sang it in public was at his 21 May 2005 Beijing concert.

Watch the music video at youyou: http://ado.youyou.com/mv.php?id=1197
More about the song (with lyrics) at sina.com (mainland China): http://ent.sina.com.cn/y/2005-04-28/1734714188.html

According to the sina article, when Chinese immigrants came to Singapore in the early days, the red thread tied on their wrists was often a reminder of home, and the family they left behind to make a better life for them all. Even today, the red thread features a lot in traditional rites at various stages of people’s lives.

To any Singaporeans reading this, happy National Day in advance.

《北京欢迎你》Bei Jing Huan Yin Ni to be performed at tonight’s Olympics opening ceremony?

xin.sg article: http://www.xin.sg/article.php?article=22072

Since this is the Olympic song which A-do is a part of, and JJ who also sang this song mentioned that he will be there, let’s all keep our eyes (and ears) out for A-do tonight!

Singapore telecast of Olympics opening ceremony
Channel 5: 8pm

PS: The Hong Kong stars mentioned in the xin.sg report did sing, but it was not telecast by CCTV and Mediacorp. JJ was invited as a guest to watch the ceremony by an Olympic sponsor.

But as my friend Ping says, to be selected as one of the 100 stars to record the song is already a great honour as a Chinese Singaporean.

The release date of A-do’s first album 《天黑》Tian Hei (Nightfall)

To our Sydney friend who came in looking for this piece of information:

I am sorry, but I think I wrote the wrong date at the side under “Who’s A-do?”

I just was talking about this with a friend, and she reminded me that it was in April.

A-do’s official website gives the date as 1 April 2002. I did the Chinese equivalent of your Google search, and the different April dates listed on various websites include 1 April 2002, 3 April 2002 and 21 April 2002. Since The Straits Times music review dated 3 May 2002 mentioned that the album had been released for about a month by that time, it is more likely to be 1 April 2002. 1 May 2002 was most probably the day of the Taipei press conference for the album release instead.

I have already amended the album release date written under "Who's A-do?". Sorry once again.

10 November 2007: A-do in China

Sina.com report on artistes catching up with each other backstage, with 1 photo of A-do with Kenji Wu and Evan Yo (mainland China): http://ent.sina.com.cn/y/2007-11-14/10581791336.shtml

My favourite A-do album cover! (as of 5 August 2008)

It’s the cover for I Do…!

It’s in my Baidu avatar…

And I used my I Do… album to show how big this dog book of mine is!

30 July 2008: Sequel to Kiki Hu Ling’s birthday party

lanmei’s Sina blog entry (simplified Chinese): http://blog.sina.com.cn/s/blog_3d13ad490100a4r2.html
In this company, the artistes and the fans (and sometimes even the staff) share jokes!

Part 1: Kiki Hu Ling’s blog entry on her birthday party: http://much-a-do-about.blogspot.com/2008/07/hu-lings-account-for-her-birthday.html

lanmei was saying that she heard about this particular performance from Hu Ling’s fan club i/c. On youyou where everybody’s (A-do, JJ, Kym Jin Sha, Hu Ling, Rynn Lim Yee Chung and the other OB artistes) discussion boards are, we post news about each other’s favourite stars if we happen to see anything. Some friends from JJFC came to show support for A-do at his Singapore autograph session in January, and even filmed a few videos. Most of us say “海蝶一家亲Hai Die yi jia qin” (OB is one family) and I hope it will be this way for a long time to come.

《撒野》Sa Ye/Release MVs

All other videos here: http://snowado.pixnet.net/album/set/13015102

The Cha Yi Dian and Sa Ye MVs are in the DVD which comes with the China edition Cha Yi Dian album.

《撒野》/Release=《差一点》Cha Yi Dian/Almost

This album is known as Cha Yi Dian in China, as the authorities found “Sa Ye（撒野）” (my Chinese-English dictionary defines it as “behaving atrociously”) too violent. The song’s title was changed to “Kuang Ye（狂野）” and the English title is the same, Release. On the youyou board everyone refers to the album as Sa Ye though.

Being chosen as a theme song of a TV show → lots of publicity

I remember when Kinship II (for which A-do’s 《新家》Xin Jia/New Home was the theme song) was being shown on TV, a friend of mine asked me if I knew what had happened in the show.

Friend: Hey, do you know what happened when (narration of part of the story)?
Me: No, I didn’t watch the show.
Friend: But A-do’s song is the theme song right?
Me: Erm well, A-do’s album is already out… （so I don’t have to turn on the TV every night to listen to his song.）

Kym Jin Sha’s songs were also chosen as the closing themes for both part 1 and part 2 of Kinship. When I posted on her board on this, her non-Singaporean fans were curious about the show for which the song had been chosen as the closing theme. If the show is good, the publicity can work both ways.

For more information on which of A-do’s songs have been chosen as opening/closing themes previously, this is the thread I started on A-do’s youyou board: http://bbs.youyou.com/viewthread.php?tid=41826&extra=page%3D6%26amp%3Bfilter%3Dtype%26amp%3Btypeid%3D38

To give another example outside Singapore, at the recommendation of a friend, I watched 《绝对彼氏》Zettai Kareshi (Absolute Boyfriend), a J-drama about an OL (Japanese term meaning “office lady”), Riiko, who is out of luck in love. After being approached by a salesman and answering a few questions, she has a robot in the form of her dream boyfriend delivered to her doorstep, much to her surprise. The robot, being a robot, in his earnestness to make his “girlfriend” happy, sometimes does things at the wrong place and time (the main source of the humour in this show). What I can tell you without giving away the ending is that Riiko’s life does change (as the “salesman” says in the first episode) after the robot enters her life. Although the script is based on the shoujo manga of the same title by 渡濑悠宇Watase Yuu (the Singapore title is《绝对男友》Jue Dui Nan You), the character backgrounds, settings and some of the plot details have been changed. Personally, I prefer the drama.

Getting back to this post’s focus on theme songs, the closing theme of Zettai Kareshi is 《おかえり》Okaeri (Japanese for “returning”) by 绚香Ayaka, the singer and composer of I Believe. This song really grew on me as I went through the 11 episodes of the show. Apparently, Ayaka was approached by Watase sensei to do the theme song for this live action drama, and she read through the manga series before working on the song with her music producer.

Both A-do’s and Ayaka’s singing styles change a little for Xin Jia and Okaeri respectively. While you can feel how powerful their vocals can be in some of their other songs (逃离Tao Li/Escape for A-do, I Believe for Ayaka), they go easy on the power (but not the emotion) for these 2 heart warming songs.

While Ayaka’s Okaeri is about the ordinary happiness of returning home to one’s loved ones, A-do’s Xin Jia was originally written for Habitat for Humanity Singapore last year and later chosen as one of the relief songs for the Sichuan earthquake. So the lyrics say, “We build with love, forgive what has passed and embrace hope again,”（我们用爱打造／原谅过往／再拥抱希望）and are generally on finding the courage to live life again after a disaster.

More about Ayaka
Ayaka’s official website in Japanese: http://www.ayaka.tv/
45 second preview of Okaeri on Warner Japan website
Ayaka’s Oricon interview about writing this song (English translation): http://forums.tokyograph.com/showthread.php?t=3357
Wikipedia entry on Okaeri: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Okaeri

Winnie Hsin’s The Answer of Love (with her duet with A-do Yue Guang Ri Ji/Moonlight Diary)

Just as I have said in my post about A-do songs I can’t find at online music stores, I bought Winnie Hsin’s 2007 album with her duet with A-do, Yue Guang Ri Ji (Moonlight Diary)

Usually the cover for the cardboard box and the liner notes is identical, so when I pulled out the CD case I inwardly exclaimed, “强いです！”(Sugoi desu, Japanese for “wow!”)

Apart from 《月光日记》Yue Guang Ri Ji (because of A-do), my personal favourites in this album are 《空窗》Kong Chuang (This literally means “empty window”. If someone says in Mandarin that “My romance status is currently “empty window”,” it means that the person does not have a boyfriend/girlfriend.), the 4th track, and 《你还记得爱情吗》Ni Hai Ji De Ai Qing Ma (Do You Still Remember (Our) Love?). Kong Chuan has a faster beat compared to the Winnie Hsin songs usually aired on radio, and Ni Hai Ji De Ai Qing Ma has a Chinese flavoured accompaniment, this being the theme song for the musical 《粱祝》Liang Zhu. (I believe it is the 2003 musical where she acted as the female lead.)

Winnie Hsin’s official fan site: http://www.winniehsin.net/winnie.htm

The songs from this album are in this website’s musical player, and you can listen to part of Yue Guang Ri Ji here.

30 July 2008《北京欢迎你中韩歌会》

Because it is a joint China-South Korea performance, the show will be aired in both China and South Korea. I was so busy with other things this afternoon that it was only a while ago that I realised that…
The South Korean audience will get to see A-do performing!

20 July 2008 欢乐中国行魅力南靖video

Video URL: http://space.tv.cctv.com/act/video.jsp?videoId=VIDE1216566980471499

A-do’s performance is from 2:40-9:14, and he sang 《惠安之春》 (theme song of mainland Chinese show《小城故事》) as well as《梦中的情话》.

欢乐中国行魅力南靖 Internet telecast

Almost forgot to post on this… my sincere apologies. In this show A-do sang his Hokkien duet 《梦中的情话》.

Day: 20 July 2008
Time: 7:30pm (Singapore time)
Telecast URL: http://www.eddy.com.cn/html/TVonline/cctv/20070924/232.html (no additional downloads necessary)

Programme preview: http://space.tv.cctv.com/act/article.jsp?articleId=ARTI1216195878807846

News sources: youyou and Baidu
The podcast will be uploaded onto the CCTV website later, so watch this space.

A-do’s song in compilation album Golden Dramas《黄金主题曲》

The A-do song in this compilation album is《新家》Xin Jia (New Home) as the theme song for the 2007 drama《手足II》Kinship II.

Super Man Hits《男得好歌》tops CD-Rama chart and sold 5000 copies within 2 weeks

Updated the English title in the earlier entry as well.

omy.sg (Singapore) report: http://www.omy.sg/showbiz/enews/200807/20080717_5247.html

There was also a music review in this week’s UW.

Previous entry: A-do's song in compilation album Super Man Hits 《男得好歌》

A-do’s public transport ad for绿色运输 (Taiwan)

To digress a bit, the new MRT lines will most certainly make taking public transport a more attractive option with more places on the MRT network. :)

Video of A-do’s appearance at Hu Ling’s birthday party on 5 July 2008

The song that Hu Ling singing for the first few minutes is 2 Become 1 by the Spice Girls.

The original video is of much better quality, this is the link: http://tieba.baidu.com/%BA%FA%C1%E9/shipin/play/92ceb68ba2d3d9b16b2ed197/

From Hu Ling’s baidu board and youyou.

Hu Ling’s account of her birthday celebration on 5 July 2008-07-12

The tale is best told in her own words. This is the link to her blog entry: http://blog.sina.com.cn/s/blog_497096d70100a4av.html

Please allow fellow passengers to alight before boarding the train

By the way, the background music that starts playing towards the end is Linkin Park’s What I’ve Done, a song which A-do introduced during a radio interview in Taiwan last year.

A-do at ourvoicebox.sg

A-do's ourvoicebox.sg interview

ourvoicebox.sg report of 6 January 2008《撒野》Release autograph session
ourvoicebox.sg《撒野》Release review

A-do's 2008 Chinese New Year greeting

View all ourvoicebox.sg content on A-do

(Text not available until 11 November 2008 as ourvoicebox.sg is undergoing a revamp.)

1 photo from the 28 June Sichuan concert on Kelly Poon’s blog

Link from Kelly's pixnet blog: http://www.pixnet.net/photo/kellypoon/95147904

A-do in 10 July 2008 issue of i-weekly

There’s 1 new photo, 2 existing photos (those already on youyou and/or in other reports on the same show) and 1 line of text. The celebrity on the cover is Chiling Lin.

A-do’s Olympic songs

A-do is one of the 100 Chinese stars chosen to record《北京欢迎你》Beijing Huan Ying Ni (Beijing Welcomes You), which was subsequently performed in Beijing on 30 April, 100 days before the Olympics on 8 August.

View《北京欢迎你》MV at enorth.com.cn (Tianjin, Mainland China): http://ent.enorth.com.cn/system/2008/06/04/003357239.shtml

Due to an error in the mastering (if I translated correctly) process, there is another version with A-do singing both his own lines and JJ’s lines (the lyrics displayed on most of the web pages are correct).

Listen to alternate version at QQ.com (Mainland China): http://ent.qq.com/a/20080418/000123.htm
Notice on JJ’s official youyou forum: http://bbs.youyou.com/viewthread.php?tid=58917

Another song A-do recorded was《唱响世界》Chang Xiang Shi Jie with the other OB artistes.
View《唱响世界》MV at JJ’s official website: http://jj.youyou.com/mv.php?id=934

It was originally《聆听世界》Ling Ting Shi Jie, recorded for the 15th anniversary of OB’s Malaysian branch.

Listen to《聆听世界》at haoting.com (Mainland China): http://www.haoting.com/htmusic/131272ht.htm (link taken from Kym Jin Sha’s blog)

A-do’s supporting role in Kym Jin Sha’s《刹那间》Cha Na Jian MV

This is a song in her 2005 debut album《空气》Kong Qi (Air). The MV was included in the Chinese 庆功edition of the album.

Watch《刹那间》MV at Kym Jin Sha’s official website: http://kym.youyou.com/mv.php?id=1100

A-do at Hu Ling’s birthday party 5 July 2008

sohu.com (Mainland China): http://music.yule.sohu.com/20080707/n257994983.shtml

More photos at youyou.com (registration required): http://bbs.youyou.com/redirect.php?tid=65709&goto=lastpost#lastpost

A-do @ The URA Centre

Like a centrestage, Singapore is a dazzling city.
Mr. A-do, Singapore-born pop singer, a celebrity in China, Taiwan, Malaysia and Singapore.

It’s supposed to be promoting Singapore as a “great place to work in”. What is worth noting is that he is the only local male singer featured in the URA Singapore City Gallery.

What I saw at the airport in Hokkaido last year

An airline with the code ADO? (As in All Nippon Airways is represented by ANA.) Apparently Air Do is a Japanese budget domestic carrier that mainly plys routes between Tokyo and Hokkaido.