Kasumi Blog

Here’s the translation to Sugimoto-san’s blog entry:

I went to the shop that handled the mid-century United States furniture and miscellaneous goods the other day. It is for research of culture at that time and atmosphere.

Instead of taking a picture of the store and leaving, I decided to take a turn deliberately to see the inside of the store.

Large-scale..building..huge..store..all..retro..import..miscellaneous goods..overflow..inside..miscellaneous goods..category..exceed..thing..provide.

For instance, there were things, such as a gas can, and gas station and a road traffic sign, a parking meter, and a streetlight. They seeming are all valuable things obtained with proper channels. The design is very beautiful. The things in that age provide only one function for one tool is more exciting when designed and used for another.

I was satisfied of the shop as it was guided by a well informed beautiful woman clerk about the history background of the design and the miscellaneous goods of the shop for about two hours.

I bought one plate there. I took a photograph below. My office has become a parking lot except (Sunday is excluded. )haha

私は先日、ミッドセンチュリーアメリカの家具や雑貨を扱うお店に行きました。当時の文化や雰囲気のリサーチの為です。残念ながら店舗の写真撮影は不可だったので、じっくり店内を観てまわることにしました。大型のビルの一階二階の巨大な店舗には全てレトロな輸入雑貨で溢れていて、中には雑貨の範疇を越える物まで在りました。例えば道路標識やパーキングメーター、街灯らしき物、ガス缶、ガソリンスタンド？等です。それらは全て正規のルートで入手された貴重な物らしいです。この時代の物は、道具一つに対して一つの機能が在るのみで、その造形はとても美しいです。合理的に良くデザインされている物が多く、観ているだけでワクワクします。私はそのお店の、デザインと雑貨の歴史背景に詳しい美人店員さんにガイドされながら、２時間程そのお店を堪能しました。私はそこで一枚のプレートを買いました。私の仕事場はなんと駐車場になってしまいました。（日曜日を除く）haha

We are so excited that we’re getting fan art!!! ^_^ I’ve been getting emails from our fans and it’s really great to know that there are readers who love Kasumi! It makes all the hard work that Sugimoto-san and I went through all the more rewarding.

I heard from my editor today. She said that Kasumi, vol.2 is going through reorders. We started at 8000 copies and now we’re at 10,000 copies! Yes!! It’s really exciting. Del Rey is real happy too and I hope that means that we can go for vol.3? At the moment, we’re in a wait and see stage which is sad but can’t be helped considering the bad economy that we’re having now. So, because of that, we have to say - THANK YOU KASUMI FANS for supporting us!! Arigatogozaimasu!! (bow) (bow) (bow)

Recently, whilst waiting for Kasumi, vol.2’s release, I’ve been working on writing a book. A little side project to pass time. We shall see how that goes. Sugimoto-san, on the other hand, has been working on Cate West 2 - The Velvet Keys. It’s a game that is created by Gamenauts, Inc (www.gamenauts.com) and Sugimoto-san is responsible for creating the story scenes. Here’s a picture of one of the scenes that Sugimoto-san had created. Ain’t it cool? You can try out the game for free at this link and click download: http://www.gamenauts.com/games/catewest2.html.

I thought I would continue with the same line of thought as Sugimoto-san. >_< Spring is really in the air and so is the pollen. I was walking with baby G the other day and I caught a whiff of something. All of a sudden I’m sneezing like crazy. It was insane I tell you. Every 2 minutes the neighborhood will ring with the reverberations of my sneezing and baby G just laughs. He thinks it’s hilarious whilst poor me here…trying to hold back another loud one. :p

In our home, we are gadget crazy. I guess we need to be if we want to be ahead of times. Stanley, my husband, is a game designer and he needs to have the latest console, TV and whatnot. We just got ourselves an “Apple TV” last night. It is like an ipod for the TV. What I really liked about it is that it has all the latest TV shows. Even though we have a TiVo, we tend to miss the shows and it’s cool to have it at your fingertips as and when you want it. The only bad thing about it…is that darn it’s $1.99 per show?!!! That’s crazy. I could wait for Netflix but it’s too long…We have been hooked on 30Rock and I wanted to see the 3rd Season now rather than wait for the dvds. So, iTunes win - 1:0.

Hi everyone,

here’s the translation to Sugimoto-san’s blog post:

Spring Weather

Two volumes were put on the market the other day. I’m glad because everyone will have the chance to read about the many new characters in volume 2.

When the distance is short, I like to move around on my bicycle. I’ve used it for about 6 or 7 years. It’s a foldable bicycle named dibrasi. I like it very much. Especially, as the carrier is kawaii. I feel good [ku] on dibrasi. The sky cleared up well the other day and we went shopping together. I felt the bud of spring and felt good.

Dibrasi makes the sound [baki] [tto] when I ride and it felt good when my bicycle zoomed [ku] passed a group of junior high school students on their school trip. They were probably thinking that a drunken man was riding a bicycle.  The bicycle started to stutter and it starts and stops and starts again. At first I didn’t understand what was happening. The pedal broke and flew off. It broke as a result of overworking for a long time.  I was laughed by the group of junior high school students and when I tried to get on it but was impossible [yakotowari], a stranger said “Safe” and it was very embarrassing…

I treated to an interesting sense the other day though I jogged every day at night. There was a power failure that day or perhaps the streetlight by chance was not working. It was pitch-dark except for the moon above. The moonlight shone on the road brightly and seeing only moonlight with the view of the streetlight in the distance. In the almost pitch-dark situation and the smell of some flowers… my sense of equilibrium disappears…with the music of [yasushihiroshi] Kobayashi (COBA) that flows from my iPod. It was very mysterious though I ran into the light of the streetlight soon, when I reached it and I had returned to the usual jog. It was an indescribable feeling.

先日２巻が発売されました！とても嬉しいです。新しいキャラクターがたくさん出てきますので、ぜひ読んでみてくださいね。

–私は自転車で行動するのが好きで，多少の距離なら自転車で移動します。dibrasiという折りたたみ自転車を愛用していて、整備をしながらかれこれ６、７年程度乗っています。私はこれをとても気に入っているのです。特に荷台がkawaiiです。
先日良く晴れたので、気分良くdibrasiに乗り買い物に出掛けました。春の芽吹きも感じられ、とても気分が良いです。

修学旅行の団体中学生の横を気分良く颯爽と走り抜けようとした時、バキッっと言う音がして同時に大きくよろめきました。まるで酔っぱらいが自転車に乗っているように！最初何が起っているのかわからなかったのですが、再び発進しようとしたときに全てがわかりました。なんとペダルが折れて飛んでいってしまっていたのです！！長い間酷使した結果、折れてしまったんですね。団体中学生には笑われるし、その後無理矢理に不安定な状態で乗っていると見知らぬ人から「大丈夫？」と声をかけられたりしてとても恥ずかしかったです…。

–私は夜に毎日ジョギングをするのですが、先日面白い感覚に遇いました。その道はいつもは明るく照らされているんですが、その日は停電なのか，街灯がたまたま故障していたのか、月明かりしか見えない様な真っ暗な状態でした。遠くの街灯の光しか見えない状態で視野が殆ど真っ暗な状況の中、何か花の香りがしてきたのです。平衡感覚が無くなった様な感覚。ipodから流れる小林靖宏(COBA)のアコーディオンの音…。まもなく街灯の明かりまで走り着き、いつものジョギングに戻ったのですが、それはなんともいえぬとても不思議でした。

ではmatane!

A long time ago i had mentioned that i was going to list my favorite guys in Kasumi. i had to wait a while before i could finally reveal this! ^_^ i didn’t want to spoil the fun so early then but now’s not a problem cos vol.2 will be out within the month! So here’s my vote on my favs:

1. Ryuuki - my all time favorite - dark, brooding, the loner type who actually cares for people but doesn’t like to show it. I think some readers might have the wrong idea about him. It’s true he didn’t save Kasumi from the RSF but that’s the aloof, selfish side of him. The good side is that he really does care but doesn’t want Kasumi to be caught up in his world. He is one of elite so he behaves in an elite way…but then…if he’s so perfect, there will be nothing for him to change. *hehehe*

2. Seiji - the flirt with a brain. Don’t let his good looks and his groupies and playboy ways fool you. There’s more to him than meets the eye. I think he gives Ryuuki a run for the money. It’s hard for me to decide but i always like my guys with black hair!

3. The mysterious guy in vol.3 preview - I’ve a thing for the bad boys and that’s all i can say. i didn’t show him here cos it would be a spoiler.

As for the rest of the guys, they’re all cool but not boyfriend material for me. That being said, Yuuta (heard he’s really popular among the readers) is super nice and totally dependable and Isamu is the quiet, giant knight/samurai. As for Tsutomu, anyone would want to have a little bro like that and then again maybe not…especially when he’s pulling one of his pranks on you. :p

The suprise is out! I’m finally allowed to reveal the all too awesome cover for vol.2! It was really hard to keep mum about it especially when Ryuuki is so jaw dropping cool. I’m sure by now most of you have figured out that Ryuuki is a gifted too. He’s able to go through things when he closes his eyes. The question is has Kasumi figured out that Ryuuki is a gifted? She’s a little dense and slow, as you can tell from vol.1. It took her forever to figure out she has powers but who can blame her? Who in the right mind would think that you can become a superhuman just like that? Hahaha…Oh, btw, I’ve also added sneak peek pages and new characters so…to all fans, please check them out!!

To all Kasumi fans! Just wanted all of you to know that Kasumi vol.2 will be out late March 2009. You can start preordering Kasumi 2 on Amazon if you like. I’ll post more on the main site with sneak peeks in a few days. So, hang in there and thanks again for your support!! ^_^