Hey, come to think of it!

Did you see the shooting stars? (hey isn't it too late to talk about it? (lol))

I completely missed the whole thing - !! That night I was totally free, thinking like "let's rent a movie or something to see before going to sleep" and I was so into watching "The Seek for Red October" starring Sean Connery that I completely forgot about the stars!! It was not until I saw the young people enjoying countless arcs drawn by countless stars on the next morning's news that I realized I missed the shooting stars and regretted it very much!!! You know, I was watching "The Seek for Red October" out of all movies, "The Seek for Red October"! At least I'd say Sean Connery is too deep!! Ah, while I was gazing at Sean Connery's deeeep face, people were looking at the dreamy starry night sky . . .

I suppose it's OK! The shooting stars will fall again soon☆

. . . how many hundred years will it take - !!!

(by the way the movie was great fun . . .)

Petit love call from Ryuuguu Sho

Ah, yes, a couple of days ago I was reading Rockin' On Japan in the studio and found a review of my single at the New Releases' reviews near the back pages.

Uno sa------n! Thank you !!!! (I love you!)


********************
(NOTE by Nuuk)
"Uno san" ... Mr. Koremasa Uno, an editor of Rockin' On Japan.

Urashima Hikaru

Aaaaaaaagghhhhh is it really true that 5 weeks has passed since my last message???
For me last month and more flew by incredibly fast . . . anyways, long time no see again. I really feel like Urashima Taro! It's like, the time of the external world passed by rapidly while I was stuck in the studio. Huh? Wait a minute, does that mean . . . less than a month left till Christmas??? Woow that's so soon! Around this time last year I was writing the lyrics for "Can You Keep A Secret" desperately~.

The message started off with a small talk like this and now it's time to move on to the main subject . . . is it OK to talk about that loooooooong awaited "Mangos and Papayas"??? Did you forget about it already??? Or have you been thinking about it without a wink of sleep for these 5 weeks??? Oh my, I didn't mean to be away this long . . . and on top of that it's really not a big deal! It's just, the other day I tried a mango for the first time in my life, loved it very very much, and noticed I had been taking papayas for mangos until then. So I started asking people around me which was which and found many people had been mixing them up or got confused once they started thinking about it. You see, you over there, can you tell it to me now??

. . . . Eeeeeeeek forgive me!! That's all of the story!

Please forgive me, I really really promise I'll write soon and won't be away this long next time!

（」￣▽￣） heh heh (just kidding, I really regret having been away!)


********************
(NOTE by Nuuk)
"Urashima Taro" ... a well-known Japanese folk tale. Urashima - a fisherman - visits the Palace of the Sea God (Ryuuguu Jou) led by a turtle and upon his return home he finds so many decades passed over the sea while he spent just a few days under the sea.

It's only a paper, but it's a sincere paper

(I'm so sad! I've just had a compulsory shutdown on my pc and my message is gone just before uploading-! Damn my pc! I don't give up! Let's write it again . . . )

Yes! Messages for 2-days consecutive! Surprised, huh? Actually I was planning to write a message with the title "Mangos and Papayas" for today, but I've got another thing to tell you. Guess what, Utada Hikaru & Toshiba-EMI staffs finally published a free paper magazine, a real cool one! It will be placed in CD stores or anywhere else and can be taken home for free. Or have you already seen it? Please please take it in your hands if you see a bunch of them titled "UTADA MAG vol1" around the counter! (I'm shooting a beam of "please take me with you *heart*" from my eyes on the cover(lol)) You know, it's free♪ Nothing to lose♪ Er, can it be lost actually? . . . It's OK!!

The chief editor is *Mr. Nozomu Kaji* of Toshiba-EMI, our idol. His self-portrait manga is a big fun! Also Okita-san, director, writes a funny serial column which is very popular among me! This time I wasn't able to participate in the editing as I was too late, but I, who was the chief editor of the class newspaper when in junior high, got excited like "please let me do something for it~! I wanna make it with you all!" once I read the 1st issue. My super hand-made page will start from the next issue so please check it out! Also from the next issue the paper will have a nickname "UTA-MAGA" and its logo is hand written by me as well! Am I getting too excited??

To make and distribute a free paper, means of course, the staffs concerned work for free of charge in a sense, but we put our emotions in it all the more because it's free - we'll issue it every month for half a year, so please keep your eyes on us~!

From Utada, who tends to call Kaji-san "Chief Editor" lately♪
(are Mangos and Papayas still on your mind?)

To which do you attach more importance: outer appearance or inner beauty?

I finished the photo shooting for the jacket a couple of days ago and we are now putting the final touch on it! Huh? "Then tell us now what the photo looks like"? "Is it a sort of 'close-up☆shots' again?" No no no guys, don't sell me short, you'll see a new Utada you've never seen before on the single cover this time!!! The director, Okita-san, was saying like "but . . . say this is so Hikaru, isn't it" so it is, in a sense, more close to the ordinary me. You know what, this time Hikki is putting on the custom-made plastic. (it's a little weird to say "Hikki" myself even if it's intentional!) Well, that's all I can tell you now . . . heh. (I'd like to give myself airs once in a while, you know☆) I'm "traveling" OK!

The package of "MTV UNPLUGGED" which is to be released both as DVD and VHS copies on the 28th(same day as "traveling") has already been completed, and it is so damn cute! It's like, how can I explain it . . . let's see . . . something like "peeping in"!!! Aw, obviously this can't be helpful at all! Sorry but please look forward to it as well.

The reason why I can take a look at the photos and packages, which are still on the trial process, is that designer people or staffs concerned are kind enough to bring them to me for checking while I'm doing recordings everyday in the studio☆ Actually that's the moment I'm always looking for, to take a good rest from recordings. Watching people in the other section are steadily doing their best to do their best work makes me think I gotta keep up with them in the field of music. When we judge someone's humanity, we often do it alternatively on the basis of which we attach more importance to - outer things such as faces and figures or inner spiritual things . . . but it's not a matter of which we should choose, is it?? Both can't be separated from each other and both are equally important, I think. Both are good is the best☆ (it's just greedy isn't it?(lol))

Making music, creating packages and visual images for delivering music to you, all of them are stimulating each other to advance☆

I am alive!!!

When I see a child deeply hurt and crying, I somehow feel like the whole "human race" is crying. And I feel like the whole human race has to protect the child. We feel betrayed by all things in this world when we are betrayed by someone who was supposed to protect us, don't we? So I understand the feelings of the US government a little, who claim the sudden terror attack happened on September 11th is not only against America but against "the whole human race." But, although they say the US retaliatory bombing which is going on at this moment is "the war against terrorism," I cannot but think it is the attack against the whole human race as well. It's because I feel the child is crying harder somewhere. The 21st century is crying . . .

Politicians and people all over the world are arguing like: "there is a just reason to do so on this side like this" "that side has a history like that" "whether retaliatory measures should be taken or not" "which side is suffering more" "what sort of opinion I should have" "how I should show my stance to others" - and here I'm just full of anger for all of them. I again realized that wars are truly a matter of politics and economy. Governments and mass media who stir up people's anger; those who take their revenge on the foreigners around them; politicians who say they'll take part in the extermination of terrorism; Americans putting a tiny American flag of five bucks on their car front; Japanese who think "Yuck" even if it's just a little bit when Arab-ish person sits down next to them on the train - all of them are just hurting themselves, which is so sad. In New York I see the Stars and Stripes everywhere: at the cash register of a cigar store, in the show window of a Calvin Klein shop on 5th Street, at the antenna of cars passing by, on Major Leaguers' helmets, in the windows of apartments and houses which had once looked warm. It's not a "holding up one nation's flag" situation I suppose . . .

Here I keep singing music, for the time being.

So. I'm sorry for having kept you waiting. Here comes the new song, my new single! It's fixed ma'am! The start toward the next album has already been made! It has already begun!! My train has already departed! It's heading for the amazing place this time. I've made a couple of songs, and though things have just begun, some days ago I somehow had a feeling that this third album as Utada Hikaru would be the best and most meaningful piece I could make in my whole life. Hey this girl says something shocking out of the blue! (lol) Sorry, sorry if I surprised you! Please don't take it seriously, now I'm just moving with full conviction which simply makes me think like that. Yes, right now, music in me is getting great. Every each song is so earnest. I'm really gonna make this album at the risk of my life. Well, that's what I'm gonna do for the next few months!! I'm sorry for making you worry, having been away for a long time since my last message. I suppose I needed a sort of pause like this. But music is flowing continually. I'm making the best Utada Music I've ever made!

It will be very encouraging for me if you in front of the screen could come with me toward the completion of this album on the coming long journey. Next month I can let you listen to "traveling," which will be the first stop station. You can get the ticket by . . . purchasing the single of course, but the moment you listen to the song, strangely enough a one-way ticket appears in your heart . . . !! (Woow isn't it beautiful!) Every time I send each song off to the world people get on this my train little by little at each station; the number of passengers increases steadily, and finally we altogether manage to arrive the better, wonderful world I have yet to see - I'm now heading for "traveling" station, hoping that to be true!

Please stay and wait behind the white line☆

An incredible story!

Good morning.
Could be a sudden question, but don't you think I've been doing lots of things lately - here and there?? I took part in the OST in America, worked as a voice actress some days ago, gonna challenge MTV UNPLUGGED soon . . . any more? Ah yes, and I'm supposed to take part in advertising DOCOMO's new products! And my new single will be out soon, the analog version of my album as well, my video clip collection vol.2 out in Autumn . . . besides, there's a secret project in the works though the time is not yet ripe to reveal what it is . . . all these months I've been too concentrated on each of these works to notice it, but for the past couple of weeks I've often stayed up all night till morning, which made me see various news about me on morning TV shows and feel I've been having my hands in so much various, incoherent things in all directions(lol). Don't you think so?? Here, let me tell you about each one of them and put them in order in my head, too!!

Well I can't tell you all in one go, so first of all! The UNPLUGGED is a traditional event of MTV US composed of minimum electronic musical instruments plugged into the amp, a place where famous musicians show their other side - their simple, acoustic side. I've watched my favorite artists on it often since I was a child. Mariah, Maxwell, Eric Clapton, Jewel and etc., the great artists of the time! What was impressive was that all of them were sort of more relaxed than usual, enjoying the time defenselessly with a small audience at very-close range. So how come I could participate in such a great traditional program? Here's why: when I happened to have a meal with the staff of MTV International in NY we were chatting "Let's do something together," but I had no specific idea what to do at that time. This time I'm working hard on a round of promotion to get the new single heard by as many people as possible, and I . . . somehow think this song is not something which is supposed to be shown like, "Okay please get ready to sing - Here it is, 'FINAL DISTANCE'" after some talks with MCs, appearing a series of TV shows. I do enjoy works of TV appearances, but since I don't want this song shown like that, I've decided to do promotion mainly by radio and magazines. Still, I cannot help but appear in front of you guys, who have always been supporting me --- !! I wanna do something special - !! So I've been working on this project of the live concert and airing it with the MTV staff.

"I got it. But you know, come to think of it . . . what on earth does 'an incredible story,' the title of this message mean?! My eyes are getting tired!" - for those of you about to shoot a question like this at me, well, actually IT happened a little while ago. Yesterday I wrote the rehearsal of the UNPLUGGED was going to start from today, you remember that? I woke up at dawn this morning, started searching for my CD to rehearse the songs for the program . . . then noticed I didn't have even one copy of my CDs, and got in a panic thinking "Oh, no!! I can't rehearse the songs! I can't do rehearsing! What should I do!" for a while, alone early in the morning. (I'm to blame for not having done rehearsing till the last minute! I'm very sorry for it . . .) And then, a thought flashed across my mind a little while ago!! I've just remembered that the other day I was sent a mobile phone featuring "the music distribution service" with greetings by DOCOMO-san whom I was going to work with. Yes! They were kind enough to give me the phone with the Memory Stick on which they have downloaded my past singles!! Recently a friend of mine saw it and told me like "I thought you don't listen to your own songs, eh?" and I answered like ". . . Well actually I don't listen to my songs . . ." Whew, I'm saved!!! Indeed!! Thank you very much DOCOMO-san . . . I promise I will repay you someday . . . Oh yes, I see, I can repay you by putting my energy into shooting commercials and making songs! (lol) So that's why Utada is here, rehearsing the songs. Its sounds are very good and clear! I'm not trying to advertise them but I'm really, really relieved now. It happens, very rarely. Sounds like an incredible, unbelievable story, huh?

Okay the real rehearsal starts today - I'll do my best for it --- !

Once you make a promise you should keep it!

I'm back home from Yokohama!
Just a couple of hours ago I was on a live radio program of FM YOKOHAMA called "The Ranking" and I publicly pledged "to post a message here for sure for sure!" after return home. To tell you the truth, I announced I was going to get a driver's license last time I was on the program, but you know, actually I'm still far from it. That won't do, Utada!! Anywayz! That's why I'm here writing this now!

Yesterday I was on Mr. Chris "Sexy☆Dynamite☆Voice" Peppler's live radio program of J-WAVE and I was a little low-spirited while on the air, since I had been feverish from the night before, so I was helped by Mr. Peppler so much. Today I used up my energy all the more!! Yes, last night I slept very well and . . . thought I recovered pretty well but . . . I'm sleepy now, probably because I've just gone too wild in Yokohama . . . I've got many things to tell you, but I go to sleep for now as the rehearsal of MTV UNPLUGGED starts tomorrow!! It's very likely I'll get up at midnight or early in the morning if I go to bed now, so then I'll take my time and write various things.
At least I kept the promise this time~!! Yay, Yokohama!
Well talk to you later☆

Ah! yes,

I just remembered while checking emails from you guys! I've come to challenge the work of voice acting for the first time by playing the part of Pinoko! Sounds great, huh? You know, I've been thinking of talking about it to you, *yawn* but I feel sleepy now . . . it's natural cause it's almost dawn! So I'll write about it next time!

Good night --------- ヾ(＝＿＝)ノ

FINAL DISTANCE makes a move

Some of you may worry about me as I've left a few days blank after my last message like that - "Maybe Toshiba EMI got furious with Hikaru-chan for not having finished the song, and did her things like this or that . . ." actually that didn't happen to me and I've finished demo recording as planned! Although its completion is still very far, I think it's going to be a real good song☆

And what I've been doing these last few days is . . . shooting the PV of FINAL DISTANCE for two days in Yokohama! "What is it like?" Well you know, this video is off the hook. It's gonna be a really great one cause I touched a real sheep for the first time, at the back of the set. Huh, you say "What the heck is that??"? It's hard to say now what it will be like in the end as the editing process is just going to start, but I assure you it will be something quite good without doubt. This time I made this song giving as much weight to the message of the images as to the song itself. So far, making music and making visual images after I finish making music, had been completely different works for me; but this time the song and its visual images were made almost simultaneously reflecting each other in unison, from the aspect of scheduling. I also did the recording of the song imagining its visual images. That was the first time experience for me. As a result, it's likely the PV is gonna be something that synchronizes with the song itself naturally more than ever. It's like, the song and visual imagery make one piece of work. Well seeing is believing! Look forward to it~!!

In addition the 5th of July, which was day two of the PV shooting, was also my mom's birthday! After the shooting was over we celebrated her birthday together with many staff, with both the feelings of "Happy Birthday!" and "Thanks for all your hard work!" loudly like ( ^0^)/□☆□＼(~▽~ ) Cheeeeers!! It was so nice♪

Come to think of it, my previous PV was taken exactly on my birthday as well . . . it's probably because EMI had arranged it so?? If so I very much appreciate their warm concern . . . no, it must be just a coincidence! Well but I can't tell if something might happen or not on July 21, my dad's birthday . . . ??