*I really love manga*

I've read all the volumes of "Hokuto no Ken" in the studio, in one go!! Whew it really knocked me out! It made me cry over and over. I learned a lot from it!! Reading it I fully realized it IS an important piece when we try to understand Japanese culture. Kindness, humanity, intentness and sacrifice . . . they can be found also in "Tora san" I guess?? (lol) Yes they are definitely the fundamental elements of "image of hero" in Japan! Hokuto and Tora san, I guess they'd have sort of same philosophy! Don't you think so?? (lol)

The studio also had "Salaryman Kintaro" and now I'm halfway to finishing it. Today I've read through the volume 12. I knew of it when I got a glimpse of its drama version on TV, and once I started reading this manga, I couldn't put it down!!! How interesting!!! It shows me how Japanese society works, even more directly than "Hokuto no Ken." See, I love manly men, so I'm really into Kintaro-sama(*heart*). Woow I'm getting to sound vulgar a bit! But I think he does have something in common with Tora san, like innocence, attractive manliness proper to Japanese men, doesn't he?? (well I think I'm not going like "I'm so into Tora san*heart*" though. (lol)).

Don't dig me like "hey I just thought you were busy doing something else!" - for me movies and manga are important sources of inspiration! (Really??) Yeah I'm not kidding!! I've been inspired by various kinds of manga, especially when I write lyrics. If we want to create something fine, I'd say the shortest way to reach it is to absorb fine things by touching, hearing and seeing them constantly. I think Japanese manga and animation are really great. The studio where I've been working has a selection of mangas which are to be changed periodically, and the selection is always excellent. So I look forward to going to work everyday! To tell you the truth, when I was recording "SAKURA Drops" which was to be the next single of "Hikari" in exactly the same studio, I was so into "Hajime no Ippo" that it might have, uh, well, a tiny influence on the lyrics . . . let's leave it until you actually listen to the song!!!(it may be *interesting* if you keep this story in mind) Hehehe!

Well, can you guess what kind of flavor "Hokuto no Ken" and "Salaryman Kintaro" will add to the album Utada Hikaru is currently working on?? (lol)


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(NOTE by Nuuk)
"Hokuto no Ken" ... a Japanese manga, made by Son Buron(writer) and Tetsuo Hara(drawer).
"Tora san" ... the main character appeared in the Japanese longest movie series called "Otoko wa Turaiyo."
"Salaryman Kintaro" ... a Japanese manga, made by Hiroshi Motomiya.
"Hajime no Ippo" ... a Japanese manga, made by George Morikawa.

(No title, just let my thoughts go)

Say we're living in a great time, indeed! Thanks for everyone who sent replies to my simple question so quickly!! Seems like all you guys do it that way too - I'm relieved. This would be a sort of tiny, but important communication. I really feel like we're linking with each other.

So!!! Has the PV of "Hikari" been aired on TV yet?? (and the release date is really coming closer now, isn't it??) Have you already seen it?? I'm really looking forward to hearing your impressions!! What do you think of it?? I think it, Mr.PV, is excellent!! I wonder if you'd be surprised. I'm happy if you'll be surprised. 'Cause, my last PV was "traveling", the previous one of that was "Final Distance"(or was that "FINAL DISTANCE"?? I always get picky when deciding how to spell the titles, but . . . err . . . I forgot which it was(lol) It's just slipped my memory!) and before that was "Can you keep a secret?", right? These PVs are really complex, making the most of computer graphics and I went to space or another world and played with a robot in them. Those who have seen these PVs would expect they could find my latest PV exciting again. Well . . . I made it!!! It's like, "You did what we couldn't imagine, Utada!" As far as I looked around my fan sites, it has a favorable reception so far!!! But I guess most of you haven't seen it yet, so I'll wait for your comments calmly! *Heh-heh*

By the way here I have one thing to tell you . . . I heard the DVDs of "traveling" are hitting stores, getting taken out with a rush!! Thank you for buying them!! That makes me really happy, 'cause in Japan we have very few chances to show PVs, while we put our whole heart and soul into making the PV. I think it's a big problem for both Japanese music scene and graphic scene, that music channels haven't been popular. I'm sorry for not releasing the single as the DVD format from the first! If only we could release DVDs instead of CDs to the market from the first . . . or CD players could detect the sound data of DVDs. It will come true in the near future, as time never stops!

Speaking of time, today I went shopping at ITO-YA in Ginza for the first time and it totally blew me away. What on earth are those amazingly plenty of pens and erasers?! I thought like "hey, do they really need to stock such various kinds of goods?" I make it a rule to use up a pen I like entirely when I write lyrics - not to break the flow of my thoughts off. So it's very important for me to find out a pen I like. I marched into the Pens Department and guess what, I saw this selling space as large as the soft drink shelves at convenience stores, and wide selection of goods which deserved the space!! It took a pretty long time to choose one since it was a really important thing for me, which could be a matter of life and death. I wonder if everyone is not so picky about choosing a pen . . . then we don't need such a various types of pens like that, do we? All of us are picky about choosing what to get after all, I guess. I learned that "to choose" could be the biggest suffering of today's people.

Hey this is really getting to be an ordinary diary, isn't it?? (lol)

Do you guys do this too??

Recently, when I was in a great hurry to prepare for going out getting to be late for something(was that right before I went to the Prime Minister's official residence??), I did something out of habit while I was in an extreme hurry . . .

That is, I squeezed too much shampoo from the tube.
Then I thought like "oops that's way too much" and pressed the tube to lower the pressure inside, put the mouth of the tube to the shampoo in my hand and stopped pressing to let the shampoo back into the tube . . . (Get it??) Do you guys do this too??
I've always done it this way when I squeezed too much body lotion, shampoo or whatever packed in tubes for 19 years till now and I can imagine all human beings would be doing it that way, but . . .
But! A question occurred to me like "am I a sort of thrifty person??" when I found myself putting the shampoo carefully back into the tube, while I was in a big hurry not to be late to meet Mr. Prime Minister and Mr. President.

So I just wondered if you'd do it that way too, even in a hurry.

Well, now I'll think up the lyrics to the English version of "Hikari"(seems like it will be used for some countries since it'll be the theme song of the game to be sold worldwide)!