I'm staying in Kariya, a town near Nagoya (fourth largest city in Japan) for two weeks. Many of you probably know that I'm learning Japanese so I plan on dramatically improving my speaking skills. I'm also going to try out all the possible sorts of washoku (traditional japanese food) and visit Shinto temples. I can't wait.

Therefore I won't be commenting on blogs (I know you'll miss my comments...) or posting in unions for two weeks. Sorry people. I might give a detailed account when I come back, or not...

I normally don't blog about levelling up but this time I just had to. I've finally reached level 21, after a few months on 20. To anyone that's still on that dreaded level, I share your pain. Just hang on and eventually it will be over. (I'm taking this way too seriously...)

Anyways I got a new profile banner, courtesy of Eucalypta. Now you may be thinking that I'm a Bleach, Final Fantasy and Linkin Park (well done to those who may have recognized them), and you would be... wrong. I'm not a particular fan of any of these, but the banner was so good that I had to put it up. Thanks again Eucalypta for making it!

Finally when most of you will be reading this I will have sent a union invite to all my friends. I normally don't do this because I know just how irrate people can get when they recieve multiple ones each day, however I lack any better way to make the union known. It's called the "All things Anime, Games, Music and stuff", and I would highly recommend you join. We now have only few members, yet the activity (due mostly to dedicated officers) is huge, and it would be nice to see you all there! Do make sure you take a look at the anime recommendation thread, one of the wacky threads that I've posted, or just the crazy off-topic thread.

Here is teh linky:

http://uk.gamespot.com/pages/unions/home.php?union_id=ATAGMS

Now I'm sure you're all expecting me to rave about some Gorillaz related thing or to talk about music that's so loud it busts your eardrums. If you were expecting the former you're wrong, if you were expecting the latter, you're right but in for a surprise. I am indeed going to dedicate this blog post to loud music but not to hard rock or metal. Instead I'm talking about classical music. "How can classical music be louder than rock and metal?" I hear you exclaim. Well it can, if it's played on the organ.

Today I've just spend a few hours listening to one of my friends play music by Bach and other composers on the organ. I was right besides him and one thing I can say is: it's loud, very loud. Before I met this friend I wasn't really into classical music, and definitely not organ and choir music. But he did a good job in getting me into it. Indeed there's nothing better than listening to a real organ play. CD's just don't do them justice, no matter how good your sound system is. That doesn't mean that I don't listen to other kinds of music anymore, but I've been adding some variety to what I listen lately.

The great thing about playing the organ in an empty chapel is that sometimes a random person will come in. Since the organist cannot be seen from down below the poor fellow has no idea that there's somebody in there. My friend and I had so much fun scaring these passer-bys by suddenly playing a really loud piece just as they were getting close to the organ. Yes, we're evil...