Wednesday, April 04, 2001

Watch out for the electric shock, please . . .

Sorry I kept you waiting until now for my message, though it's been a couple of days since the album was released!
I didn't know what to say and actually I several times started to write, but then ended up erasing it all halfway through or just giving up uploading it here . . .
Right now, so many emotions are welling up in me while I'm reading emails from all of you who have listened to Distance, and I just cannot keep back my tears, cause I've already read thousands of emails and still haven't encountered even one telling me "This is a letdown" which I've been prepared for beforehand, and instead have kept receiving piles of "This is very good!" . . . up to now I wasn't frankly pleased being somehow half in doubt even though I got thumbs-ups from the interviewers and music industry people who had listened to my album a bit earlier, but it feels totally different when I'm told "That's a good album" by all the people like the schoolgirl who saved money and bought my album on its release day, the fan who pre-ordered it a month ago, the guy who saw it by chance at a record store and paid 3,000yen for it, the regular visitors here who was always criticizing me severely by email; and now I'm really surprised at myself being touched this much.
Though I've always tried to write here about myself as frankly as possible without the filter of media, I've been careful about using a proper character of mine with being aware that my messages are always public, cause this place here is not a private board after all; but (I bet you've already found it at this point anyway) this really is the first time I speak here running my nose and shedding tears, without thinking of anything at all!
I believe I've taken a real cool attitude toward the release of this album in interviews, and actually I'd completely forgotten that the release date came around until a friend of mine told me about it; I was sure I wouldn't care much whatever people might say about the album cause that's what I had already finished making. But reading emails from you all telling me "I'm so glad that I bought this album!" or "This is awesome!" this much made me really really happy and made me think from the bottom of my heart that I was glad I'd been doing music though I'd experienced many things I couldn't tell you for two years since I debuted, and made me realize why I'm presenting my music to the public as a professional, not just as a hobby, then somehow tears (and my nose) just flowed out . . .

I think probably I'll write a follow-up comment to hide my embarrassment and a couple of specific stories about my album that you'd like to know more about later after I calm down, so now I upload this message before I make a clean copy of it as usual or erase it by myself for lack of courage!
Thank you so so so much ----- !!!!