I overslept and missed Kiriya-kun's chat event-!
He held an event where he joined the chat room on his site and I was like "I'll check it for sure! What if I join it with a fake name
" but I slept through it all.
Bwahahah!!! What a silly wife!
I suppose it's OK, maybe next time
The due date is now added to the (website's) renewal notice! 8th, it's the 8th. Heh-heh, I'm looking forward to it(Tanoshimi da wa).
Oh no, using "~yo" or "~wa" at the end of the words doesn't go with me . . . I mean, I just wanted to see it myself how incompatible I would feel if I used it. (lol) It's sort of weird. But wait a minute! Probably it's rare to see the people who can manage that way of speaking, isn't it?? We often find it in the subtitles of movies or something, though.
I wonder who would be the best person to ask the translation of English lyrics into Japanese this time. Doing it myself will be the best as a result, but the pressure would change if you were going to evaluate it as "lyrics." I mean, I can convey its meaning properly but it's too hard to make the lyrics something that can be considered as good on sight, and it's likely I would keep up myself too much as Utada Hikaru even if I translated it in a businesslike way. Hmm, I may try it if I have time . . . that's part of what I've been thinking of lately. It's about time to decide.
By the way, at first the renewal date of this site was supposed to be the 1st! But we changed it to the 8th as we realized that the 8th would meet the condition better and we'd be all set to reopen by that day as well. However!! I've just accessed this site some time ago and found the photo at the top page has already changed though we've fixed the due date on the 8th!! Besides it's a weird photo! Way too weird! I don't remember approving it! I haven't taken it first of all! What's going on!
. . . I saw a dream like that, getting worried.
Thank God it was just a *dream* It's wonderful cause I somehow felt very good
I made a mistake in the lyrics in the message I just uploaded!
It should be "Ute(shoot)," not "Ute(strike)"!
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(NOTE by Nuuk)
She used the wrong kanji for "U(te)."
. . . that would be the best phrase to describe my current state of being, probably??
The production of my album has officially started since last May. Production after production. Production while asleep(I mean it, I really start dreaming of recording or something all the time) or awake(after waking up I go to the studio!); production in Tokyo, then production in NY, in Tokyo, in NY, in Tokyo, in NY - Half a year has passed since devoting myself to the album making . . . and now I've reached the point where I can imagine its completion. Whaah. Whaah.
Hm, seems like I'll crest the last pass in New Year's Eve!! That season reminds me of the production of "First Love" album. I may be keeping the same pace as that time, too. At that time I was only 14! I started it from a while before the summer holidays and finished it after the winter holidays. Wow! That's about the same as this time around! I greeted the New Year in the studio while working and got "A Happy New Year" call from my friend who was hanging out in Roppongi . . . Wonder if this time will be the same . . . It's the New Year at the age of 20. Ack, am I still 20!?
We often use the phrase "I can see the light at the end of the tunnel" when we get to see the end in the good meaning of the word, but do we say the same as "Tonneru no mukou no hikari(the lignt at the end of the tunnel)" in Japanese? I might have heard "Tonneru no deguchi ga miete kita(I can see the exit of the tunnel)." "Mukou no hikari(the light over there)," it really sounds like a sort of *the world after death.*
Reading over the title of this message in a mood like *that* I find myself a little eccentric! (lol) I'm not supposed to see that world!
Up until now I'd casually used "light at the end of the tunnel," but for me it's easier to image "Tonneru no deguchi(the exit of the tunnel) than "Tonneru no mukou no hikari(the light at the end of the tunnel)." I wonder why . . . For example, there's this song called "Hikari," I mean my song. It has the verses that go like this: shizuka ni deguchi ni tatte(standing quietly at the exit)/kurayami ni hikari wo ute(shoot the light in the dark). It may not be the light but darkness that awaits me ahead of the exit. I feel that the deep darkness will take my breath away after I go through this tunnel.
Does that sound negative? It's more like a view that has no direction, no sound and no wind, no time and no breath, than something like "Hikari ga nai(no light)." I feel myself moving somewhere like that by way of tunnel. I rather think there would be more light in the tunnel as it has dim lightings. Actually I really love to go through the tunnels!! The longer the tunnel, the more I am excited to run through it by car and the easier I feel as well. (Come to think of it, I was the sort of kid who had to put the comforter over my head completely to sleep . . . )
The Universe?? Am I heading for the Universe?? (lol)
That means, the completion of this album doesn't seem like the end of the tunnel! How long does this tunnel last! Wonder if I'll dash through it as long as I live . . .
Hmm, well. Er, the correct answer rate was not so bad, and also many people pointed this out to me before the quiz.
1 
(="appear on magazines")
2 
(="cannot help but admire")
Above two are the words I corrected. About 30 percent of the people answered both correctly. Huh? You say "You're not so excited now are you"? "You have an attitude problem now"? "Where did you leave your heart you had last time"? . . . You know, it's because . . . I forgot to correct one more part that had "
," and also I noticed I didn't give you a proper hint cause conversion errors wouldn't generate "
" . . .
Doh! In short, I'm in the mood like "I shouldn't have set a quiz that complicated!!"~~
Doooooooooooh
By the way, let me ask you one thing in reverse! I got a lot of wrong answers saying "Was that '
'??" and I wonder to which word they thought '' was wrongly converted?? Seems like this is the last word to be wrongly converted, and I can't think of any puns using it . . . it was a sort of strange phenom . . . Oh no! I can't pump myself up mom! It's time to shut up shop for today, as our Draw Girl is out of condition!
PS: I got various reactions to the topic about the rankings of "Wanna get laid or not." (lol) Some people said, "That's just like you Hikaru-chan(What does it mean! Am I OK to be happy with it?)," and others turned pale saying "How come Hikaru-chan said such a thing!(Uh, I'm sorry)". I use more suggestive words in my lyrics and what's more, I talked about anything on my radio program, but I understand that sort of topic would get some people surprised if it appeared here suddenly. I'll be more careful next time!
It's tough being an idol. 
Heh-heh
Sorry! Sorry! I'm sorry! I'm not an idol! Please don't throw things at me - !
PPS: I got a question email like "What 'PS' stands for?" so here let me answer to it! It's the abbreviation for "Postscript." "Post" has plural meanings but in this case it means "after that"(such as "Post-Amuro," "Post-SPEED") and "script" represents "writings, documents or sentences." So that's why together they stand for "the words added after the main text." It's officially spelled as "P.S." since it is an abbreviation of words. Did you get it? I'm sorry again, this episode is like something that ended up not being adopted in "Trivia no Izumi."
I'm getting into the swing of things now, but it's really time to close the shop! *poof*
********************
(NOTE by Nuuk)
"Trivia no Izumi(Fountain of Trivia)" ... a Japanese popular TV show, in which the host and guest chat about the trivial knowledges sent from the audience.
Here is a quiz that only the people who read my message on 15th would know! (if you didn't, please look forward to the quiz next time)
I corrected 2 wrong characters! Can you tell where they are? The so-called error detection! Here I give you a hint again: these errors are often made as "conversion" errors. All right, here it is!
From here till the end of the message:
Title: I always set the title at the end but reading over what I wrote I find today's one is sort of eccentric!
You know the rankings of "celebs you like," "celebs you don't like" appear on magazines once or twice a year, right? "Celebs you wanna have as your brother," "celebs you wanna have as your teacher," "celebs you wanna have as your boss" . . .
(omission)
. . . Oh my, what a rambling message. 
********************
(NOTE by Nuuk)
She made two conversion errors (one hiragana character and one kanji character) in the Nov 15 message.
You know the rankings of "celebs you like," "celebs you don't like" appear on magazines once or twice a year, right? "Celebs you wanna have as your brother," "celebs you wanna have as your teacher," "celebs you wanna have as your boss" . . . it's sort of fun to read them cause I can see lots of rankings in many categories, way too many enough to make me wonder where they've found the people who answer to the questionnaire with such various items like that. And yesterday it suddenly hit me when returning home and unlocking the door - that we often see the rankings like "men that men/women want to get laid by / don't want to."(men's/women's poll for the Hottest Male and Least Hottest)
Then I wondered . . . was there any ranking like "women that you want to get laid"(women to cuddle up with)?? Or "women that you don't want to!". Or "women that women want to get laid!"(women's poll for the Hottest Babe). Er, does it sound strange?? Maybe the expression "want to gat laid" sounds too positive and a bit like sexual harassment?? Or maybe it's too rude to tell women "we don't wanna get laid by you!"?
Would be fun if there was one. Is there already one and I'm just missing it?! No I believe I haven't seen it yet . . .
"The ranking of the women to get laid by!" is just good but sort of boring cause votes will concentrate on older, elder-sister like women. "Women that women want to get laid by / don't want to" would surely be interesting, after all!
Hmm, let me see . . . I'm getting to feel that I've seen it before . . . (lol) Ah, so there is one? Is there ever?? Not sure if there was . . . if it does exist as one of well-known/popular rankings, what does this whole message stand for . . . and on top of that what's wrong with me, starting thinking in front of the entrance door, getting stuck in it a bit and thinking over things like this alone for a while tilting my neck while taking my shoes off . . . I mean, what the heck brought me to this . . . doh, this really doesn't matter at all!! (lol) Right now writing this here again I cannot help but admire its total senselessness. Oh my, what a silly message.
Oh, by the way here let me supplement my last message! I've found what needs to apply three months before is not called "absentee vote" but "overseas vote" . . . that's what I can do for now. Next time I'll do it *earlier.*
It was a happy day for me, cause I read the vol. 3 of "REAL" by Mr. Takehiko Inoue! It was good that I'd been looking forward to it from the day I found the vol. 1 and 2 and got into it more than two years ago I prefer "REAL" to "VAGABOND."
Among the recent Japanese music, I like THE BACK HORN~.
I'll talk about foreign music next time.
Oh my, what a rambling message.
Today is the first election day in Japan for me as a voter.
Kiriya-kun told me "What if Hikaru goes to vote and writes a message about it? Could be a good influence," and I was like "Makes sense!" thinking "even the people who don't like me wouldn't think like 'Okay Utada went to vote, then I don't,' but the reverse can happen! It would be nice if the people who weren't interested in election would get interested in it" . . .
Some days ago I checked how to follow the procedure of absentee vote. But . . .
. . . it turned out that I had to apply for it three months before!!!! doooohh! doooohh! doooohh!
*flop*
Aw, I feel miserable. Next time for sure. I'll apply for it five or six months before, much earlier than three months---!
So are you gonna go? I'd say, in Japan election campaigns are not organized in a very smart way. From the nature of my job, I cannot help but watch these sort of things like promotional activities or campaigns from the viewpoint of those who "set them(e.g. record companies, media)," and what I wonder is: if the promotions of Japanese elections are offered in a satisfactory way, cause, something is wrong with the country where students are not excited about those kind of things, isn't it?? Generally students get most excited, next to them comes the adult society, then the guys at pubs and bars, I suppose.
Enough ranting, after all I'm the one who failed to do absentee voting. *droop*
I learned one thing, at least. 
Bah, what a dork I am.
The host staring at the panelist . . . tilting his head to the mysterious angle which can be taken both happy and sad . . . "Uh oh, is this Jaws the movie!?"-ish BGM being played . . . everybody thinking "It's tedious, as usual" and . . . the host still groaning . . .
. . . cutting to the commercial . . . then five months or so have gone by . . . that's not true!! (lol) (sorry this can't be laughed off)
My CDs would be thrown from all over Japan aiming at my head with full intent to murder me, if I kept you waiting for another five months.
You idiot! 
*whomp* augh!
So time is up, the answer papers to the last quiz are now closed and here I'd like to announce the correct answer!
sA, iI, gO . . . no, kiss wa . . .
tA, chI, dO . . . maru . . .
So the answer is "First Love"!
I've got a high rate of correct answers - maybe the hint told you too much!
The wrong answers I find are "Automatic," and a number of "Amai Wana" from the people who've got confused by lots of rhymes.
Well that means they really got trapped, literally! *giggle giggle* (aw, I know you guessed it already!(lol))
So! I thank you to all who tried the quiz with no prizes
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(NOTES by Nuuk)
"is that your final answer?" ... well-known phrase of the TV show "Who wants to be a millionaire."
"that means they really got trapped" ... "Amai Wana" means "the Sweet Trap."
I enjoyed reading various opinions from you like "No need to be that complicated, we can understand it and that's just OK!" or "I wonder what Japanese language will be in the future . . . " about my recent messages. Some people say "You're being so hardheaded! Are you always thinking about things like that, Hikki?", but . . . hm, honestly that's exactly what I'm always thinking about!! (lol)
To sing, means not only to express the meaning of each word but also to take words apart into pieces, sound by sound! I write the lyrics considering them as a series of sounds, while at the same time trying to write something that can convey my philosophy to you all, with some nice verses. You know what "rhyming" means, right? Besides that I rack my brains like doing a puzzle till I finish the lyrics, like "A word without a voiced sound would be nice for the phrase here" and "The first sound with quickly-ascending melody here, would sound better with the vowel o, so I've got to think up a word like that," "The first word's vowels go a/i/o . . . then a word with the same a/i/o order would be good for the second half part with the same melody," etc.!
I do research on this and that, like "The vowels '?' and '?' (trade secret(lol)) are easy to express sadness or pain when singing" and "When it comes to the consonants that can be sung energetically, the lines '?' and '?' (another trade secret) are the best choice," and so on. I've been doing this since my first album era. That's why I write the lyrics after I fix the melody.
Some of you might consider this a limitation, but actually it's a very good stimulation on creating something, that working-out process is needed. Here I think, not only imagination and emotion but scientific thinking is important as well for writing the lyrics/music and singing! Especially I suppose music and math could be closely connected with each other.
In the past several years in America, quite a few schools have stopped teaching music classes for cutting costs. And VH1, a music channel on TV, is now supporting the movement of "That's not good! Save the Music!". I heard there is data saying that the children learning to play musical instruments or studying music since a young age are also better at math and other subjects, and I do agree with it! Cause while writing lyrics I feel the same sense of brain-burning, which I felt when working out math equations thinking "Damn what the heck are these things, so difficult, but interesting! I'm gonna figure them out for sure!". You know, my dear Sting holds a title (or qualification?) of math teacher, and Inaba-san of B'z holds it too if I remember right.
I feel sorry for the kids who just ignore math saying like "We won't use it outside of school." The math part of their brain might work when they come on to their favorite person, when they try to write a love letter and when they aim to be a rock n' roller or singer/songwriter!
. . . Well, study-ish stories have lasted from "Huh? Y, Yankees?" thing . . . I suppose it's OK, just once in a while!
Lastly a quiz from me! Give it a try if you have some free time. - well then this leads to "You mean I'm an idle person cause I solved it!?" (lol) (maybe the idle person is me who's setting a quiz like this(lol) - No, no, that's not true! Now I'm able to connect to the internet in the studio, so I can write messages at break times~) If you're interested or insomniac, just try it, please!
To what song is the episode in the sentence above that the writer thought "The first word's vowels go a/i/o . . . then a word with the same a/i/o order would be good for the second half part with the same melody" related? (hint: the song is in the writer's first album, "FIRST LOVE")
Everyone who gives a correct answer will get . . . nothing really Mwahahaha!
