In efforts to not only boost my casual Japanese, but to prevent myself from falling into a slump over the summer I started looking into Japanese dramas. (A bit more realistic language than say, anime)
The first series I tried out is
花より男子 (or, boys over flowers - a play on words from the phrase "food over flowers"). I was hooked instantly (as Berge can attest to,he was much less interested than I was).
First off, yes, it's a drama. There's a moderate amount of action, but mostly it's about a gripping storyline and an unending assortment of complicated love circles and awkward antagonists.
Our hero, Makino, struggles through a pretentious private high school full of arrogant rich kids. Meanwhile her and her family are in poverty. And if this was not enough, she weaves in and out of love with her greatest enemy and her best male friend.
I had a very easy time finding a fan-subbed copy of the first season, but I had a lot of difficulty getting working subs for the
second season. I wrestled with
vlc for a while, and finally got some of them to work, though the translations seemed to vary a bit.
Reassuringly enough, I understood at least a lot of the basic conversations, and this helped me a
lot with casual form, which is not enforced as much as masu form in my Japanese classes.
Be ready to see more drama posts from me!
They were very timid. And still recently sheared. My mother has their fleeces and is going to spin them.
This one was named mouse. He puts a new meaning to runt and will likely be bottle fed. But he was so cute. 
So were all the other babies. Awwwwww.
