Emergency contact

To Satsuki-san in Osaka, 19, who sent me an email on 7th(yesterday)!

"I'm on!"

- I thought, but I couldn't read all of it because the last half part was garbled.
Please let me know where to send it.
Looking for your reply!

Something that's always been on my mind

I realized it when I was 19: I can very well hear something ultrasound-like from the rat repeller devices set on places like the back door of buildings. I would even yell out "Yeow!" and run off in certain places.

I asked "What's this sound??" when going into the garden of my friend's house and no one had any idea what I was saying, but later it turned out to be the cat/rat repeller sound, and I didn't hear it on the next visit when I had asked him/her to turn off the sound.

So far the worst time was when I went to see "Haru no Yuki" at Tokyo International Film Festival - when I went out by the back door of the hotel called the Grand Hyatt located right next to the festival site after finished putting make-up on and getting dressed. Though I was wearing high-heeled shoes in slightly larger sizes and the street was on a slope, I ran away! Ear buzzing x 500,000!

Poor rats! - I thought, but yeah it is a problem if rats get in the hotel. I'm absolutely sure that there are no rats in the Grand Hyatt! (lol)

It didn't occur to me until a staff person told me "How about covering your ears?" that it was a simple matter of covering my ears. Silly me~. I didn't notice that before as the sound, or rather pain, always pierced into my brain like a high whining . . .

"Yeah that's right! Me too me too! I can hear that too!" - if you're one of those then come on!!! Email Hikki!


The reason why I'm telling this story now, is that I thought I might be able to hear that only when I was young as the ability might decrease with age, and wondered if I could make meaningful use of it, when I searched the words "ultrasound hear" on the net and read this or that.

It seems that music has those kinds of ultrasounds in it, and that everyone sensuously hears or feels it a little bit, which is likely to make us feel good when listening to music - or something like that. (remembering it vaguely (lol)) I have always wondered if I might be getting more feeling of pleasure from music than others. If that's because I feel the ultrasounds very much then it makes very much sense to me.

I'm gonna check this out further~! Come on please, if you have any information on this!

Good morning~! (Everyone in the music biz(or showbiz?) uses this greeting anytime. I usually say "Hello")

Another long title - the part two.

I watched Bokura No Ongaku 2 (Our Music 2) go on the air. That's actually a rare case for me, because I'm too shy to watch or listen to the shows I'm on and usually don't check them(or try desperately to avoid them, is more like it)!

I just watched it normally. I think I liked it! The bright red dress, which my stylist Bone made me pricking his fingers many times, was beautiful. (Probably his blood was soaked into the dress. Glad the cloth was red!) Yukisada san was easy to talk to and I had a great time.


And it seems like, I've got to talk about my *bright* news! for a couple of minutes in the show I'm going to tape today . . . I've been thinking about it for the past few days but . . . nothing comes up on my mind!! I don't have such news~. I might be a negative type of person. (Or a person positive to others and negative to myself)

I was browsing iTunes music store just now and found "Be My Last" was still at number 1, which made me so happy! It might be somewhat because I'm a Mac user. But that's not something I can talk about as a bright news in the show. I can imagine people's reaction - "Okay."

Hmm. My own bright happy news. Gee, I think I'm really not good at this kind of thing - !


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(NOTES by Nuuk)
"my stylist Bone" ... could be Born or Vaughan or whatever. (no clue to confirm the spelling)
"Yukisada san" ... Mr. Isao Yukisada, the director of the film "Haru no Yuki."

Deja vu ~Anpan-man~

I just finished watching Anpan-man and you know . . . they were playing football. Shokupan-man kicked the ball nicely like "Shoku Kiiiick!". Then Currypan-man received it and -

"Curry Puuuunch!"

Huh? A hand ball? Wasn't that a hand ball? Was he that goofy type of man? - I thought so and then the next moment:

"Shoku Puuuunch!"

Eh?? Another hand ball! It's not a football game any more.

Now Currypan-man received the ball by blasting curry out of his mouth. (yuck)

And then what Shokupan-man said was:
"That's not fair to blast curry~"

I say, a hand ball could be more obvious foul than stopping the ball by blasting curry.

But that would be what the author aimed at. I wonder if it might be a message that says "Don't be slave to convention" . . .

Once again I'm puzzled by Anpan-man . . . Anpan-man is far too trippy to understand when you watch it on the late afternoon of the holiday from the busy, tiring time . . . Doesn't it happen to you too? Perhaps it doesn't. Probably.

Bye Baiolence~*

I'll go have a nap now . . .

I always think it strange to be called "The said person comes in" when entering the sites

Heya! Good morning~! Here's Hikaru, who's been taping a bunch of TV shows. You'll see them go on the air in a row starting tonight.
This time the taping has come late from the release date as a promotion for the single, which is rare, but I'm sorta enjoying it. I sang trying to be seen differently in each show with more spirit of challenge than usual, so they're all y, you chekku ya(a must see)! (meant to refer to SLAM DUNK)

Do you like baseball? I don't very much. (Hey.) Volleyball, figure skating(I luv Slutskaya) and tennis are all that I watch on TV. But in these days I often see bright images of baseball! Lotte's championship in 31 years . . . I was moved to tears a bit by Mr. Valentine's saying "Kono team ha ichiban de~su(this team is the number one)!!!". In America the White Sox won the World Series in 88(!) years. Great that people still remember the last time. (lol)

However, I saw a little gloomy news this morning. It's that Matsuzaka Daisuke san is negotiating with Seibu about his challenging the Major League, which hasn't been granted so far. That's what's called "due to the team's situations." I understand that his leaving could have a negative impact on the team management, still, that was the news that made me depressed a little - or more like mortified - first thing in the morning.

You might have a view with this strong image that athletes, musicians or actors have more freedom than those people working with the business-suit on, and free from the office shackles or age/gender discrimination. Actually it seems any kind of work has the same kind of problems. Not many musicians are getting along with their record company as well. There are some situations where we have to do what we don't want to, for the company management and whatnot. There are also needs for things like juggling artists. Like, for example, the younger artists often find it hard to make it big when the big-shot ones are in the same genre. Sounds office worker-ish a little, doesn't it? What has put Matsuzaka san in the current situation that I learned from the news and what makes many musicians stressed out - it all comes down to the contract, I'd say.

Work and life are never without frustrating situations, guys.

You want try your strength but you're not allowed to that: I think that's the last picture this society should produce. It may sound boastful, but I believe that to try our own wings is the reason for existence of life. It's a challenge both to protect something and destroy it. Those who give it away get old. Kids often get injured because they're always trying their wings, growing every day~.

I think human beings, all living things, know how to take adversity! Even the people who say "No I'm not, I get depressed easily" have grown up against gravity, fought oxidation and aging, seen schools and society; everyone has tough times and almost dies some times in their life.
The reason why the more peaceful a country is, the more depressed people and suicides it has, might be because they don't have much chances to have easy-to-understand hard times. So Nature needs adversity, yes, and living things are defined by adversity, I dare say!

Gasp, the topic started off with Matsuzaka san and then branched far off in the unexpected direction. Er, I'm sorry (:sweat:) > to whom it may concern

(Such a bearish closing for such a bullish remark . . . (lol))


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(NOTES by Nuuk)
"you chekku ya" ... literally means "gotta check out," which is a trademark phrase of Aida Hikoichi, a Slam Dunk character.
"Lotte"/"Mr. Valentine" ... Mr. Bobby Valentine is the manager of the Chiba Lotte Marines, a Japanese professional baseball team.
"Seibu" ... the Seibu Lions, a Japanese professional baseball team.

Shabby is a luxury

Lately I've been living mainly in three cities: Tokyo, NY, and LA. (Can the word "mainly" applied to numbers like three? Those are fairly covering the earth!)

We had a slightly distorted-looking full moon in LA last night; it was the most obvious face-like moon I've ever seen!! I thought "oh I gotta show this to all-!" and tried to take pictures of it by my digital camera, but it came out as just a white circle no matter how many times I took the shot. Oh my God. You know, my husband is also a photographer but all the cameras I find at home are average digital ones and throwaway ones only. This is just *normal* for us.

Come to think of it, I remember Mr. Daido Moriyama did the shooting in one hand by his tiny camera. Come to come to think of it of it, I myself have used those equipments only the size of hand luggage taken on board most of the time . . .

Oh yeah, yeah! Now to take up where we left off! The red toy piano I'm playing in the blog photo. I was doing the recording in Tokyo at that time. And there was this part where I definitely wanted to add the sound of broken toy piano to, so all the staff and I went to the toy section of the department store nearby.

The store had various kinds of pianos and by trying them out . . . I found that the one that had been on display, battered and missing a few sounds, had the greatest flavor. It's like "This is the sound I've been looking for!".

We asked "Can we have this one." and the clerk women in the section got a little panicked. Though we didn't ask them for things like a discount, they had a petit meeting about if it would be ok to sell that shabby thing. They replied "Would it really be okay with you . . . ?" and the deal was done~* uh-oh, they started wiping the piano at the register! We said "Oh, well! We'll take it as is! We'd like it as is!" then paid for it and it's done.

We found that shopping very satisfying and the recording went pretty well thanks to the piano. I wonder what happened to that piano after that. I think Kanzou Sensei (Mr. Liver, the director) said he would take it home for his kid . . .

Well the point is that it's not always good to stick with high quality equipments! That's what we learned this time! ( . . . is that, really? Well but I feel like it's not good to give that shabby piano to kids) I think it's not that you cannot be a professional photographer without money to purchase the equipments. Making a cappella demo tapes or using instant CD burner machines in game arcades would be nice, if you'd like to be a singer.

Aww anyway I really wanted to show you that face-like moon~ (/x_x)/

Not Seven*Eleven...but...

Nine-Eleven!!
(I'm not feeling good at all)
. . . Sorry for the silly start! But there should be a lot of people in America whose birthdays are this day and a lot of babies should've been born today as well; I hope many wonderful things will happen on September 11th for the future, not just those disastrous events.

Today is an eventful day!

It's the election day in Japan, the 4th anniversary of the terrorist attacks in America. I wonder if Earth might deviate from the orbit because of many people's thoughts! No that won't happen.

There is more! It seems September 11th is Nihyaku-Hatsuka(Two Hundred Twenty) Day-! It's the two hundred twentieth day from the first day of spring, and known as the off day that the typhoon causes damage in places.

. . . Wonder why such a day is the election day . . . I might lose my drive to go to vote if the typhoon comes (- - ; )


So it's been four years since that day of New York. I wonder if America has changed.

You remember the other day there were a string of terrorist incidents in subways and buses in London? I was supposed to go to London in a few days when the first explosion was reported. On business I mean. I had an emergency meeting with my staff! Like "What should we do? Should we cancel it? Or change the place?" I said "Let's proceed with the plan without changing the schedule to go, seeing how it's going," and we did go after all!

The second terrorist explosion fuss happened when I was there.
Still I wasn't afraid to go . . . because my friend living in London has to commute on the subway everyday, knowing it may be dangerous. I don't have that fear as I don't take public transportation, but I know the people who have to ride the subway, have to live normally. I can never say such things like "It's like, the city you're in is sorta dangerous so I decided not to go" to my friend!

Also I think that New York, Tokyo or any other place could be targeted anytime. I don't know where the safe place is! We may have to move way way out in the country then. We can't stay away from natural disasters though.

I was a bit worried about going to school by train when the subway sarin gas incident occurred, but looking back now I'm not sure if we have learned something from that incident. We haven't, have we?? We don't have measures, have we?? That sort of worry is much more real and scary to me!


Now to change the subject completely: I posted a message on Be My Last blog-!
That's my very first appearance on the blog thing~v
The picture is the super-fresh one my father took in the studio just a couple of hours before uploading~ (giggles) There's an episode of a sort about that toy piano.
To be continued to *the next issue*

Hi! It's been 2 months!!

I guess many of you would have got it from the news or tabloids, but my new song is coming soon finally! In Japanese! It's already wrapped up. The release date is a few months away, though, as it will be used as the theme song for the film ("Haru no Yuki") and needs to go on sale in timing with the release of the film. It's been received quite well by people at my work who have listened to it!! For your information, the title is "Be My Last." Bii Mai Lasuto. I didn't intentionally mean to release an another ballad following "Dareka no Negai ga Kanau Koro" and I also have some non-ballad new songs up my sleeve, but the release order turned out to deliver consecutive ballads. I want you all to listen to it soon.

Tokorode (by the way) tokoroten. (seaweed gel cut into noodles)
I wrote it to try to get a laugh but I admit this pun stands far from it! (I still like it, though, and that's why I leave it as it is)
I, who grew up in an obsessive-craze-for-vinegar family and love those foods that I can pour as much vinegar as I like, am a longtime lover of tokoroten for my age. I've always been a kid that ordered vinegar as a side along with tokoroten when I was taken to Wagashiya (Japanese-style confection stores) ("Toraya," to be exact) since I was little! Yes! My gags are not funny today. (Aw, this is hopeless . . . I gave up . . . )

I'm not a brand-obsessed gourmet so I usually get packaged ones, easy-to-open like creme caramel packs and easy-to-find in convenience stores, but this summer I've had a dramatic experience for the very first time in my life of 22 years.

Tokoroten disappeared from the towns on the day after tokoroten was featured in "Aru-aru Daijiten." All tokorotens were sold out, even in my usual supermarket and convenience store!! That was a shock to me. I won't forget this summer. I felt frustration, like that of when the girl you secretly had had a crush on blossomed quickly after summer break, got popular and you had a bunch of rivals everywhere. I actually don't know that sort of frustration, though.

Soon the situation became normal and now I'm able to buy as many of them as I like again. Lately what I've been struggling with is draining off packaged tokorotens. No matter how carefully I do the draining, some of tokoroten itself often drain into the kitchen sink and sometimes almost a half of it . . . it occurs in an instant. Without a sound! Exactly like "the door to you vanished without a sound." Am I so bad at draining things? I feel rather powerless. Those which were to have slid down my esophagus, actually ran down the water pipes without knowing my mucous membranes . . .

When about a half of tokoroten run into the sink, I look at them lying down helplessly in the sink and think "oh my, please let it be . . . Be My Last . . . to have this painful feeling . . . (*cries*)" but the tragedy repeats itself.

Does this mean I'm all too poor at draining?? I have no object of comparison as I've never seen others draining off tokorotens.

I'm s-sorry to write this long about things like this, in ages . . . it's what I wanted to say most of all---.


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(NOTES by Nuuk)
"Haru no Yuki" ... "Snowy Love Fallin' in Spring" aka "Spring Snow," written by Mishima Yukio - a Japanese writer. (1925-1970)
"Aru-aru Daijiten" ... "Encyclopedia of Living," a Japanese TV show.

A report I worry about a bit

I just came back from an XBox/MTV event with Kiriya-tan a little while ago.

Wahaha just joking! I never call him Kiriya-tan! As a matter of fact I usually call him "Kaz," but it looks kinda boring when written down. I just cannot but tweak and make things funny, even though I don't really need to . . .

It's not a joke that I went to the event, okay? The venue was a big club in LA and we saw The Killers' show, witnessed the debut of the brand-new XBox, ran into a friend - overall it was an enjoyable night.

I've brushed my teeth and washed my face; now I'm gonna give it a try to write some lyrics and hit the sack if I feel like giving up. That's about it. But there's just one thing I worry about and that's why I'm writing here now.

There were MTV crews from around the world, among the reporters on the red carpet.
Eh.
Woahh! A guy in hakama stood in my way! Hakama Surprise! Hakama Surprise! (something told me to repeat it)

Yes, MTV Japan was there, too!
(So you say what's the problem? Well, uh, let's see . . . )

I talked to him and he turned out to be Teppei-san, a good young guy.

"Okay, then please shout 'XBox360' to the camera!" He asked me to do one-word advertising, as was usual in those kind of events. I agreed simply.
I . . .

Oh my, I'm in Nintendo commercials !!!


Am I a traitor now?!

Before you'd be surprised to see MTV Japan . . . I'm sorry, Nintendo-san!
Errr I'm sorry for sneaking into that event . . . on top of that, I even did an advertisement . . . Aaahh!

I'm so sorry & good night

Geeeez!

I've been meaning to write something but time slips by so fast lu-lu-lu-lu~~ :scats for no special reason:

The world is in motion, as it seems. The death of Pope and the new Pope; anti-Japanese demonstrations in China; major earthquakes in various regions in Japan . . . it's time for us not only to check the news but to read newspapers and political/economic magazines thoroughly. Well it always is . . . but especially now!! I'm so into Newsweek lately.

I remember having thought "So is this the new millennium, with such little impact??" as we entered the 2000s, but looking back after five years we find there have been serious incidents that never happened before.
Er, it sounds like the end of the century(^ - ^ ;)
Nope it's not the kind of end-of-the world feeling, but rather like a sign of change that something huge is beginning to move or about to wake up.

In this era of worldwide information network there's just too much to take in~! Doraemo~n! Is there any easy way to be an expert of world affairs~?

Well if you insist, then, here it is!
"News-juice"!


Oh my, I'm escaping from reality. (it sounds a bit yummy, though)
I'm just gonna go to cnn.com or something


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(NOTE by Nuuk)
"News-juice" ... she is mimicking Doraemon taking out fantastic tools from his fourth dimensional pocket.