Madam! When will the manuscript be completed!

I won't be surprised if I get a call now like "Ms. Utada! Are you really sure you can make it by the day after tomorrow, the deadline??" . . .
Right now I'm trying to write up a song by the recording, which is to be the day after tomorrow. Whining "Waaagh, No no no I can't finish it~~~" I snapped the TV on (seems like I still have time to spare, huh??) and you know what, what I saw on the channel? It was the show that the three guys of Coming Century were working hard on writing songs!! Oh, the show has just ended. Well, anyway what a great coincidence! Okada-kun whom I only met for a moment in "Utaban" was holding a guitar and they were trying to write songs together. I say I wanna that PC software called "Rakuraku Sakkyoku Meijin 2 (Songwriting Master 2)" too~!! In short, that software can automatically add chords to the melody just by humming it without the knowledge of chords . . . hm . . . sounds good. But after all it's of no use to me since the melodies don't pop into my head unless I decide chord progression first. Hey Utada, don't count on its support! (lol) And first of all you have no time to watch TV now~! (My eyes were glued to the TV as I saw Okada-kun after a long time and thought Wow . . . Toshiba-san please forgive me, I'm just a girl before a songwriter, no matter how close the deadline gets or whatever!)
Oh, and I just got a call from a friend of mine asking me to go out . . . Why do the people put so much layered temptations on me now, of all times! Well, it happens I guess. All right, let's get dressed and go out for . . . No no no!! Come on! (lol) Get serious. Now I resume writing the song!! I wanna start making the duet song I talked about in Nishikawa-san's radio program the day before yesterday, as soon as I finish this current song!

Here we go!!

Good bye, Ms. LISA! (sob)

Last night I appeared on a radio program after a long time!
My heart pounded all the harder as it was a live show! And what's more, I finally met Ms. LISA of m-flo, my senior at High School, and I had a great time working with her, or rather, enjoyed this work enough to forget that it was a business! Did anyone listen to it?? It was the last airing of LISA's show and we were so excited throughout the show. Oh yes, and this morning when I woke up and was reading entertainment gossips on the web (I really tend to do this) checking e-mails at the same time, I found an article saying like "Utada Hikaru finally to introduce her 'FINAL DISTANCE' on radio!" and I was surprised like "Huh?? Was that right? Did I already show that song??" What I actually played were two remixes of DISTANCE and I haven't let the radios play FINAL DISTANCE yet, so I was relieved a little bit realizing that the article was just wrong, but anyway it was indeed a false alarm in the morning! At first I was embarrassed cause I thought I was so excited to appear on the live radio show and meet LISA that I couldn't help but play it! (lol)

I'm gonna appear on various forthcoming radio shows! Tonight I'll be on Nishikawa-san's show! It's a live show! And oops, I'm gonna be late for it!! Gotta go now!!
Talk to you later - !


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(NOTE by Nuuk)
"Nishikawa-san" ... Takanori Nishikawa, a Japanese male musician. Also known as "T.M.Revolution."

Done

I've finally done it, the single! All finished!
Whew, it turned out to be unusually hard to make it this time . . . I mean, its production went as scheduled but I had been sucked up my mental and physical nutrition by this my baby during the past one month - conception period, so to speak - from when I started working out what to make till finished the recording!! It had kept sucking and sucking me up, growing and growing as it pleased, beyond my control. Sometimes I really thought "Aaaagh, this time I'm gonna be eaten up by the song!" But after all it really became a good one, all the better cause it had fully taken my energy! (I believe so . . .) It's something very, very special. The recording studio was like enchanted and I spent a week there being veiled by the mysterious sense, like attending an old traditional ritual, rather than creating something. I remembered the feeling when I attended a wedding for the first time. Though this may sound like everything has gone quite smoothly, I was actually very worried if I could really finish it, experiencing many happenings and mistakes. But amazingly enough, all of those kind of things became a chance for the song to be better! I've got a lot of wonderful episodes. I thought like "Am I being protected by somebody??" every time I experienced them.

This is the first time for me to do this - I would like to devote this single "FINAL DISTANCE" to a person. The word "devote" may sound pompous and strange, it's more like . . . "dedicate." I had been stuck in the studio since the 9th of this month and I was informed by my father on the second day of the recording in the studio about what had happened in Ikeda city in Osaka the day before the 9th. At that time I was also informed about the girl called Rena Yamashita and shocked more than words could express - I would sound so fake no matter what word I use, but I was really really mortified and sad, so I thought if there was anything I could do . . . and decided to dedicate this song - which I just started writing - to her (and of course to all the people directly involved in the case as well . . .) then and there. Given sorrow and anger, tenderness and power born from them, and what not, I found a new meaning in the song and thanks to it I was able to hold on till the end.

I don't know yet what you will think of this, but for me this is likely to be the most beautiful thing I have ever made, including the picture in crayon I drew for the first time in the kindergarden, chicken gratin I made in homemaking course in Junior High, essays I submitted in University, my past CDs, all of them! So now I'm worried more than usual if you would like it . . . see what happens! I wanna let you hear it soon! Please tell me your impressions on it. I wish Rena-chan had heard it too . . .


(Breathing out long) Whew! It's like, I finally told you lots of things I wanted to. I'm so sorry for being away from here for so, so long!!! (I'm worried no one would be checking here any more??) I've got so so so many things I wanna tell you, I wanna hear from you! I may write many of them in one go after this!


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(NOTE by Nuuk)
"what had happened in Ikeda city in Osaka" ... eight elementary schoolchildren were stabbed to death and fifteen schoolchildren and teachers were injured by one man on June 08, 2001. It was reported by some media that Rena Yamashita, one of the eight killed, 8 years old, was a big fan of Utada Hikaru.
[Related article]
Eight dead in school stabbing spree (The Japan Times Online - 06/09/01)