Knut is bloody cute

Once in my life, I hope I can do Mushaburui(trembling with excitement and courage) before I die ! !

That's what came up to my mind in Tokyo where the sakura trees have already bloomed.

You know, lately I'm so so into Michael Jackson~.

When I first heard "Dirty Diana" a long time ago, I felt the similar sort of excitement that I did when I heard the beginning part of Sting's "I Burn For You," and I went like OMG I didn't know you got this great song Michael! You're incredibly cool ! ! ! You're a superhuman! ( in a good way, of course . . . you know . . . )

So, driven by excitement I bought his greatest hits album. Recently I listened to it again after ages and found that I loved Michael Jackson in the early days (by the time around "Dirty Diana" release)~. I can learn so much from his music of course, but what thrills me most is . . . his singing . . . just can't believe . . .
He's great, so great, too good singing and voice

If I name two greatest singers of all time, that would definitely be Misora Hibari and Michael Jackson . . .

My friends often ask me "How can I sing well?" when I go to karaoke or something like that with them . . . (I wanna know it myself) Put simply, the key point is how to start, stretch and finish singing each musical note, right? If I compare it to jumps of figure skating, it could correspond to takeoff, rotation and landing, I should say?

I say you've got infinite possibilities about that, I mean - even if you just sing "Ah~," you've got lots of options just for how to start singing it: you could start on key, slightly descending downward from up to down, or ascending upward from deep bass sounds to lighter ones. You've also got options about what to do with your voice volume - turn up full blast, start sensuously by hitching your voice to your throat, or start at low volume.

After that, you choose whether to use vibrato or not; put a big wave to the volume or not. Whether to sing open and cheerful by increasing breathing quantity or sing with gloomy voice by limiting breathing quantity.

Lastly, you decide whether to fade your voice out or just break off; how long you stretch your voice; whether to add some sounds with your mouth and breath after the song is over, to show your characteristics. Blah blah blah! The list goes on and on and on!

Michael Jackson works out all those kind of things just perfectly . . . He always makes best choices, and he sings just too well.
Oh~ Michael

By the way, you can clearly tell who plays well and who doesn't if you listen to guitars and basses this way.

Those people who've got nice grooves and rhythms, should especially be good at finishing the song. They can stretch their voice where it should be stretched; they can make a clean cut where a clean cut should be done! It's where everyone thinks "Ah, so you finish the song at that point!"
(Great R&B/Soul singers are crazily good at doing this!)

I'm not sure if this could be tips(?) to sing well, but your singing could sound a little better than now if you try to be conscious of how to finish each phrase at least - even if you think it's too hard to be conscious of each sound.

I myself gotta do my best too . . .

Sometimes I really feel like punching myself for my too messy singing

"Beat It" kicks ass, seriously *weeps buckets* *cries hic cries hic cries* The guitar sound almost knocks me out What the heck is this . . . OMG . . .

Sakura~

I'd say Japanese really love sakuras(cherry blossoms)~.

The image of sakuras may often come with various emotions, since you'd often come across and remember sakuras at each turning point of your life, like graduations, enrollments, initiations, and such.

I myself don't have a special feeling for sakuras that much . . . or rather not at all, probably because I grew up in the system that had graduations in June and enrollments in September. I strongly feel I'm missing some valuable things as a Japanese . . . ! ! ! (I've never done Hanami either, by the way)

So, the other day I went on a walk for the purpose of viewing sakuras, to take its beauty into my heart!

And you know what - Oh! There's a sakura tree here! There's another one over there! Hey I never thought I'd see a sakura tree in this place! Tokyo's got a lot of sakuras in bloom, which amazes me. So all these sakura trees are planted just for this one week out of one whole year! Amazing! Bravo!

I saw a lot of sakura trees, and filled up my heart with the beauty of them. Sakura petals fluttering in the wind are so beautiful. I wonder if there are any other flowers that drop lots of petals at one time like that?

On my way home from such a nice walk . . .

I saw Marc Panther san coming out from his home


That's why the memory of sakuras in my heart has come with Marc Panther san in the sleeveless shirt.

I remember Marc Panther san was nicely tanned . . .

Kuma Chang in current-year

(a photo is uploaded. please check her official site)

. . . He looks pretty same as usual, huh.

That's natural because he is a kuma.

So, new school/business year has begun. A big cheers from me to all of you who have made a fresh new start! Bon voyage!

I also cheer for the people who have been suffering from Noto peninsula earthquake.

A week has passed from that time. In Tokyo I feel time goes by fast, but the days may be going by much more slowly over there. Some of them may not be able to browse the internet yet I guess? I hope everyone can return to their old life as soon as possible.

Kuma Chang at year-end

(a photo is uploaded. please check her official site)

. . . He looks pretty same as usual, huh.

That's natural because he is a kuma.

A baby polar bear protected by a - German? zoo if I remember correctly - has been in the news lately, and I found the shiro-kuma (polar bear) kun in the photo used in the news looked like saying -

Bonjour

I was excited to find that, and today I missed the studio with a touch of cold.

Wanna take a forest bath

Yesterday I picked up a 100yen coin in the studio-!!!

Man, that made me so excited-!!!

(I rushed straight to Glico's "office thingamajig" which stocked sweets of 100yen flat rate and got a sweet from it!!!)


So.
I've wrapped up the lyrics of the song I talked about the other day, finished the recording of singing with no problems as well, and I've already been working on the next song from the day before yesterday. I happen to have a lot of deadlines that all need to be completed in this period, because of tie-up related things . . .

I've gotta think up melodies by the end of today! (actually I was saying I'd finish it by the end of yesterday, though(lol))

I was so agonizing over what melody to write, but now I sorta feel the wind of change is blowing after I picked up that 100yen . . . ! (I'm so simple)

So.
Alright let's get down to today's work-

I cleaned the house through the night as my songwriting got stuck

Well, seriously, I thought I gotta write about this as soon as possible.

My interview article in the magazine called MUSICA, released this month, was partially picked up by the media from time to time.

The interview explored various things related to myself deeper than the usual interviews, and I naturally came to talk about my mom because her presence means so much to me.

I believe everyone has special or mixed feelings toward the presence (or absence) of their parents, keeping them as the eternal theme of their life no matter how old they are . . . It seems like, what I said created a far more negative impression of my mom than I could imagine, so I deeply regret it now. I referred to a very personal topic of mine in a halfway manner.

As her daughter, even I myself often think she is an eccentric person, but she is the purest, most adorable person with a strong sense of justice I have ever met. She is very apt to be misunderstood, though.

I made a sort of apology here as it's been hurting me so much that I've contributed to the creation of another misunderstanding while I'm in a position to protect her.

I love my mom, and I always think I want to get closer to her.

Put simply, that's what I wanted to tell you.

Thank you for reading!

Someone, cook Sekihan~

Hey hey, you know what~!
I heard Flavor Of Life topped the single ranking for three consecutive weeks!

Yaaaaay!

Thank you so much for your support as always~!

I wonder if this happened because a lot of young girls who was watching HanaDan bought the CD
Or was it because of the eye-catching Onigiri on the CD jacket (Everybody keeps asking me "why Onigiri?" - Never mind.)

Well. you know, I've already been working on recording my next song since last week. Those works related to sound composing have been settled for the time being, and I'm now working on writing lyrics at home. Hmmm~. In the process of making a song, writing lyrics is the demanding task that requires most concentration and time - that's what I've re-realized these days.

Composing music is a hard task too, but the surprising fact is that you'll see something coming out while you're trying various things and playing the sounds. It's a fairly sensuous kind of thing, and above all, music is music. I mean, basically music sounds similar no matter who listens to it, doesn't it?

I don't know why but I feel lonely when I write lyrics. I'm pretty sure I go like "Aaaaghhh, Jesus!!! Damn it! Wee~~~~p! My Kuma Chang~!" tearing my hair more frequently when I write lyrics than when I compose music . . . It's like, you keep frustrated like "the word that once slipped your mind is right on the tip of your tongue but you can't recall it" . . . until you wrap it up . . . it's like a "I'm so concerned about it that I can't sleep!" situation.

So, that's where I'm at right now.

Awwwww!

I have a feeling that I may have written the same sort of complaint message here before . . . I suppose it's OK.

Picky eating burst out

I've eaten saba no misoni (mackerel with miso) 4 times in the past week.

Tastes too good ! ! (more like "eaten too many times," I say)

I just ate saba no misoni bento again a little while ago, watching Hana Yori Dango 2 . . . When my song was playing I was thinking like *chomp* *chomp* . . . "Hmm? They*chomp*play it*munch*longer than I*chomp*thought~," then came to find out that they aired the song in full length!

Oh My God

They aired the song from start to finish~! That's incredible.

Whew.

Flavor Of Saba no misoni . . .

. . .



Damn you!! You dork!!

I know it's hard for you to write a new message right after that "Important Announcement," but do not play to the gallery halfway !


Aw, all right this will do! (lol)

*uploaded a message*

Important announcement

Yesterday, on March 2nd, I, Utada Hikaru, and Kiriya Kazuaki, officially divorced.

To all the people who have supported us until now, we would like to thank you very much. Our apologies for surprising you with the short notice.

We believe that both of us have learned so much and grown up with the 4-year and a half marriage.

While we mutually keep changing, a perception gap on the direction of the future and concept of marriage has gradually emerged between us. Another big reason is the lack of communication in our life, passing each other while both are working internationally.

"Though divorce is a pity, it was good that we have met each other" - that is what we talked. As a creator and a dear friend, we hope we can continue watching the growth of each other.

I am looking forward to following Kiriya-kun's career in the future.

March 3rd 2007    Utada Hikaru




This is to let you know that yesterday I, Kiriya Kazuaki, and Utada Hikaru divorced. Until now I have shared a lot of things with Hikaru and created various kinds of things together. Those are wonderful, treasured memories. However, we think that we were not able to emotionally depend on each other to the end, keeping severity, rigors and loneliness of creation in each other's heart. Though we came to this conclusion, I sincerely appreciate it that I met Hikaru and spent very happy times together. I am very much concerned about Hikaru's well-being.

I truly would like to thank all the people who have supported us until now. I hope you will continue supporting Hikaru and her music in the future.

Kiriya Kazuaki    March 3rd 2007

Done *M-Ste*

(a photo is uploaded. please check her official site)

Today I did M-Ste! (the date has already been changed, though)

I think it was like, I was able to talk with other costars most normally ever, which made me happy.
Also I was able to have more talk with Dou-san than usual, which made me so excited.
Heheh

And I had this big accident for the first time~! It was an in-ear monitors' problem and I couldn't sing the first line as I couldn't hear the count at the head of the song! I got tensed for a moment, but my performance seemed to be unexpectedly well received, probably because the crisis situation got the better singing out of me. Whew, but then again I must never, ever let that happen again~! (to M-Ste staff people, I'm so sorry~!)

By the way. I was browsing some articles on Flavor Of Life on the internet a little while ago . . .

" . . Utada Hikaru, who is showing us her talents of not only music, but also radio, literature and KAKUKAI."

Oh my~, not that great~, you're overpraising me~, Hehehehe . . .

. . .eh, Hmmmm???!! Hey, hey, wait a minute!

"KAKUKAI()" . . . ?!




. . . That means "sumo world"!

Hmghahh----

Just when did I perform Dohyo-iri~! (lol)

I believe it was a mistake of kanji conversion for "KAKUKAI(=various fields)," believe the more I wish to believe, the more it hurts for some reason~

Since this find made me laugh so much, I thought it would be nice to share it with you and decided to wrote about it here! (Sorry for the writer person! I don't mean to trip you up . . . but it was just too funny!!)

So, good night