D O N E !

（≧▽≦）（≧▽≦）（≧▽≦） ! !

The last pinch!

All the song recordings for the album should be wrapped up by the time I update here next time ! ! ! Huh, but I wrote here "Everything will be finished tomorrow" the other day, didn't I? Huh? Well, two days ago I'd beeeeeeeeeeeen writing lyrics in a jail cell like room in the studio keeping all the stuff guys waiting, then when I sang it myself I found myself not satisfied, so I trashed it. (Yes, once again . . . ) I've gotta wrap up the lyrics and melody within 7 hours or this ballad will not be in the album ! ! Awwwwwww Can I be this desperate, in a way of Inca Empire ~ hey, that's a gag printed on Karamucho pack! This is an awesome gag, come to think of it . . . Can I possibly use it as a hint of song writing . . . hey hey, Am I really that desperate, like on the edge of a cliff!? (lol) I'll say loads of dumbest things and act goofy enough to make everyone step back from me, after I wrap up this serious ballad! (as always??) Yeaaahhhhh!

I turned an 18 years old girl!

I finally turned 18! I'm still 18! Oh boy, I've always adored this age. I kinda like the sound of the word "18 years old"!

The video shooting for my new song started at 10 AM in this morning, finished some while ago and just returned home. I'm sure it's gonna be a fun video!! It's so human in one sense, as well as so 21-century-ish in another sense . . . He he he he. I'm so sleepy . . . We thought of having some cups of coffee to keep awake around past 2 AM. That was just about it, but I was half broken and had hot coffee mixed with plenty of Mitsuya Cider and grapefruit juice before I knew it . . . On top of that, I'd been laughing my head off with the staff people throughout this weird behavior! All those things were recorded as a part of PV-making clips, so it might be released some day. So, you ask me what it tasted like? I discussed with Okita-san the director, like "Tastes like gastric juice" "It's the taste of regret" and such. Another leading theory is "It tastes like incomplete coke"! Aww the image of the song is about to collapse . . . (lol)

So all my appearances are already shot, but the staff people are still doing shooting works on site! I hope it's gonna be a nice video! At first things were supposed to be over by 10 PM of 18th but actually it delayed about 6 hours or so, and as a result of it! Yup! That means you'll see me both in 17 and 18 years old in the video! OMG I've never made such a video before! Could this possible excite the maniac people's interest?? Or it couldn't??

On this my birthday I'll take a little break, while wrapping up the last song for the album at the same time . . . on upcoming 20th I'll record the song, then all the songwriting and recording works will be over!! After that "mixing work" for each song is to be done, then comes "mastering" . . . Jeez the completion moment is just around the corner!! Things will all work out~!

Oops I just heard those cheery voices of Mezamashi TV . . . Their bright "Ohayou Gozaimasu" weighs heavily on me this morning(lol) So, now I go into the unconscious for the first time after I turned 18" Good night!

Go *Staff Diary*

You can find some new messages in Staff Diary! I regret to tell you that they are not about that happy thing though, well you'll get to know what I mean when you read it! Please read the messages written by the staff and Zanecchi canned in the studio, when you have time.

I missed the episode 2 of HERO as I was in a meeting~! Someone in the staff might have recorded it, so I'll relax and watch it on my next day off! I heard some romantic things is gonna start, so quite looking for it~
(ｏ＾∇＾ｏ) Hehe

A homecoming

Thank you for waiting! Here is Utada, update here to espape from reality due to getting stuck in a dead end of writing lyrics for a ballad!
ｏ(≧▽≦)ｏ Yeaaahh! Here we gooooooo!

For me there's something wrong with just using the words "alma mater"! I find myself, who expresses my senior high I went to till the last year that way, quite strange. I again realized I'm now a college student. I commuted to Chofu every morning in the past, but when I was on the way to the senior high by car, those every single scene I saw through the window for the first time in a long while made me so nostalgic, and I went into a weepy mode though I hadn't even arrived yet! I joined together with my friends at the entrance gate, went into the school building then found the inside view was just same as before - while we changed a lot just in half a year! Hmmm, changes in the environment might be a biggest change for human beings!

Oh, but then again, I found my junior fellow guys fairly changed. All of them had grown up. It's not so easy to perceive like growing pains of a childhood, but there's this moment of time you feel the change of yourself sometimes when you're at this age, right? This homecoming thing was exactly the moment for me, madam! I wanna keep growing up keeping the speed even after I've grown up~! But how should I do if I age fast? (lol) I got a food ticked from the vending machii~ine in front of the cafeteria, and the 600yen lunch I had after a long time tasted somehow more yummy than before! The cafeteria woman suddenly told me "Oh you have blossomed. Did you have a facelift?" which made me surprised! (lol) That magnificent Japanese woman power is just awesome. Am I gonna be like her when I get older??

The teachers who helped me a lot didn't change much, but what made me so happy was that I had a feeling I could talk with them on the same level of sight lines!! I talked with the headmaster about my recent works and such, and the headmaster told me "Let me know as soon as you release a new CD and so on! We're airing your songs in the school quite a few times~!" It was a day that my heart, exhausted by the very dry air in the studio, soaked in the warmth☆

Oooh, what a nice story! If only I didn't say it myself! (lol)
Maybe I'll pay a visit there again in the meantime♪

Friday the 12th (so close!)

A friend of mine who read the magazine at the convenience store this morning already told me "You're caught just too much! (lol)"! I told the staff people about it, and they told me "It's the photographer who paparazzied you too much, not that Hikaru was caught too much!" From my childhood I've always been watching my mom getting various kinds of press, and now I understand how she felt like. By the way when I was reading some articles on the internet, I found one of them telling "It's not uncommon to hear about Utada's boyfriends" that made me like "OMG, are you serious??"! I didn't know I was a femme fatale~☆ Oh my I've got such a wrong idea! (lol) Well, I was just being "17 years old girl," that's about it.

At least you'll be relieved to see me hanging around on my rare off day, that's just another cute story, huh? Just one thing that made me surprised, though, that they wrote like I was hanging around almost everyday, while I'm scheduled to do recording or songwriting or shooting everyday except 24th, 25th of December and the first two days of the new year, and I've been working from the next day I arrived back in Tokyo! Lately I've been working than ever, so that made me a little sad, rather than shocked. FRIDAY-san teases me. Oh, yes! I was able to watch Kōhaku in the studio last year!! We were watching the images of "孫(grandchild, the song name)" while making a super rock taste song. (lol) Some time ago I got a lot of emails worrying about me like "Hikaru-chan, I heard NHK staff people are angry at you! Are you all right?", but seriously, don't you think NHK people wouldn't make such childish speeches?? I wanna believe it would be either misunderstanding or some adaptations. 'Cause, it's something like I say "Why don't you guys buy my CDs when you got some money!" (lol) Nobody who's working seriously would say such a thing!

At first I couldn't decide which way to go when the staff people suggested me "Why don't you do the recording during the winter vacation in Japan, not in NY? The album will be wrapped up much earlier if you do both song arranging and recording in Japan simultaneously!" at the last moment of my year-end/new-year scheduling. For me, being in Japan in New Year's holidays means I cannot go out too often, right? BUT! I shouldn't be saying things like that! I thought wrapping up the album would be more important, so I replied OK. If I could've spent very quiet days in Tokyo without being noticed when coming back that would be the best, though. Put bluntly, I couldn't ask my Japanese stall to fly over NY in New Year holidays, ripping them off from their family! I'm such a chicken-hearted girl~! (lol)

But it was good I decided to do the recording in Japan, after all. I love Tokyo. The other day, I visited my alma mater in Chofu with a couple of my former classmates when I had some free time in the afternoon! It was a quite impressive experience. I'll write about that day at a later time since this has got too long this time. Stay tuned!

"Long-time-no-see people, hands up!" "Here!"

For the first time in this century . . . now this phrase has already been worn out and its freshness has been lost, and here I am! Here's my newest message, for the first time in this century! Yaaaay!
(ｏ＾∇＾ｏ)ノ A happy happy new year-! I checked my email after a long time and found one with this subject name from a friend of mine I haven't seen lately, and this fits perfectly with my current feeling. So I took it for the title of today's message! Tada-♪

Sorry for not updating here for a looooong time!! My excuse is, that I feel tired as I've been packed in the studio almost everyday. I haven't got a dose of sunlight of 21st century much yet . . . I wanna hang around in the park leaving both my ke-tai and purse in my home ! ! ! ! Hmmm, well I won't do that actually, 'cause it's too chilly (lol)

Oh yes yes, I was surprised to get a lot of your impressions like "You look kinda Yamaguchi Momoe san!" about my new photo on the site top. I have no idea what her images and such were like since I don't know her in real time at all. I asked my staff and learned that there existed a look-alike photo indeed!! Maybe I'm possessed by her as I trained her "Play Back Part 2" that hard for the tour . . . hey hey, she's sound and alive!! (lol) Whew, it's a great honor for me to be said I look a little like Momoe-san☆

Did you check "HERO" already?? I went straight to watch it! I'm type of the person who seldom watches dramas even in Japan unless on a special occasion (like my song is features as a theme song(lol)) and I have no idea about what drama is good or bad, but I thought this one interesting, by instinct. I was watching it just so normally that I had totally forgotten that my song was featured, and I got so surprised to hear my voice sung almost a cappella all of a sudden in the ending! It felt kinda strange~! I'm neither a prosecutor nor male, and I've never brought that large number of apples with me, but I sympathized with the main character guy a little. (You can easily tell that I haven't remembered the character's name yet, huh? (lol) I'm poor at remembering new people's name and such~) It's probably because I myself dived into Japanese entertainment industry in a T-shirt and jeans so to speak when I debuted, so I was kinda out of place. More than anything else, I sympathized with the word on the T-shirt of the main character guy, "S O N G W R I T E R"! (lol)

Ooooh that reminds me, I've gotta wrap up the song in a hurry~!!