2010-Jun-03 (木) 11:09 -7:00
✯ 「花冷え」とか「梅雨」とか…・"Chilly Spring" or "Rainy Season"…
最近の天気がマジへんです。だって、6月になったのに、気温が全くあったかくない。あったかいどころか、先日は零度ほどに下がってたこともあるし、雪が降ってたこともあったんだよ。まあ、こっちに来る前にすでに聞いたことなんだけど、カルガリーの天気はすっごく気まぐれだって。なのに、梅雨に入るはずの季節に雪が降るなんて…
いまは「梅雨」の季節なんだけど、全く梅雨っぽくないカナダの日々です。けど、気温といわばやっぱり、「花冷え」の方が似合うんだと思うの。ただし、6月の花冷えなんて…
まか不思議ですね、ホントッニ。
先週から振り続ける雨でずっと思っていたの、もしかしたらカルガリーさえも入梅できるのって。でも、雨の中に歩いていて、向かいから風が吹く時に、「寒いなぁ」と思い切り感じた時に、「はぁ~やっば無理だね」とにがわらいをしてた。
出来るなら本当に、世界中のどこでも四季の移り変わりをゆっくりと感じられますように。
ちょっとわがまま過ぎる願いだね、これが。
。.。:+* ゚ ゜゚ *+:。.。:+* ゚ ゜゚ *+:。.。.。:+* ゚ ゜゚ *+:。.。:+* ゚ ゜゚ *
I'm experiencing the weirdest weather recently. Even though it's June already, the temperature is not warm at all. Well, how can I say the word "warm"? It was near zero a few days ago, and it even snowed. Anyways, I was already warned before I came to here, that weather in Calgary is extremely caprice. But, how can I express myself about the snow in those days when they are supposed to be called "rainy season (tsuyu)"…
Currently, every day is not like rainy season, which is what it should be like, and this is a part of my Canada life. Yet, it is way better to say the temperature is just like "chilly spring (hanabie)"… but, can you imagine a chilly spring in June?
Really amazing.
I was thinking since the last week when it started to rain a lot – so that was possible to enjoy the time of rainy season in Calgary. But when I walked in the rain, and when the wind blew toward me; "wow, it's still cold," and I was like "hmm, so it's really not possible to enjoy the so-called rainy season, sure enough."
If on it could come true, that the switching of seasons can be well experienced at everywhere in the world…
But this is just my over-willful wish, you see.
2010-May-24 (月) 13:36 -7:00
❅ You're almost perfect, you know?
I've become a foobarian since May 24, 2010.
I was (and still am) a big fan of the media player "JetAudio". But since this afternoon, I officially switched to mainly use another player "foobar2000".
I like JetAudio because it meets almost all my needs of playing media files – it supports for a bunch of formats, it's very customizable for the interface and displaying info areas, and, the most important feature made me loving JA was that it has a nice lyrics viewer, which can display the lyrics tag of a track. I'm also a last.fm user, so to enable autoscrobbling for the player is also important for me. There isn't an official plugin for JA, but JA fans made one. Very good except it doesn't scrobble the album tag. I don't mind this point though. That's why I could use JA till now.
But, JA doesn't support cue index file, which is a pain for me to deal with a lot of lossless files. To be able to read those cue files, I started to use foobar. Before, I only used foobar to convert and batch-tag. I also tried to get foobar work for last.fm, but it didn't work and thus I gave up.
So, how came I switched?
Because I wanted to display my current music in my google talk status field. Unfortunately JA doesn't support it, but there is a plugin of foobar can do it. From this, I started to install more plugins and tried to get foobar more fitted my needs. – As a result, I managed to customize all my needs~ which included: google talk status displaying, go to tray, support last.fm autoscrobbling, and tag-lyrics viewer.
Because I wanted to display my current music in my google talk status field. Unfortunately JA doesn't support it, but there is a plugin of foobar can do it. From this, I started to install more plugins and tried to get foobar more fitted my needs. – As a result, I managed to customize all my needs~ which included: google talk status displaying, go to tray, support last.fm autoscrobbling, and tag-lyrics viewer.
It took some time, but all plugins worked well now!
Before on JA, album tag was missed during scrobbling, now I can finally scrobble with them (I disable it though)! I even do not need to start the last.fm software; I can scrobble directly via foobar! But, I still need JA to do some convert works. Foo can convert from cue to flac, but it's too slow to force me convert into wav via foo first and then convert into flac via JA. Luckily, I can do batch-tagging in foo, so the tagging won't be a pain. Then, the only problem would be the icon. Foobar's icons are … kind of scary for me. It's also easy to change icons, what you need to do is only to replace the icons in its icon folder!
Foobar is open source software, that's why it has so many plugins. Jetaudio has integrated most of good features. Both are nice. So, currently I'll mainly use foobar but I'll still keep JA in my computer. Both of them have their strong points. I need to switch using them to maximize the effect! XDD
Foobar is almost perfect, and JA is probably in the second position.
2010-May-15 (土) 16:54 -7:00
♢ 夏がやってきたにゃん・Summer is coming
あるながーい眠りのあとで(約9時間30分ほど)、私はもう一度元気をちゃんととり戻った。訳があんまり分かんないけど、今週はずーっと忙しくて忙しくて過ごしたんだ。そして自分もいつも自分に「あぁ、疲れたっ」とか、「眠りたーいっ」とか呟き続いた。
やっぱり自分のいる国は寒い国なんだね。先週(先々週かも)まで雪がまだまだ降り積もっていたのよ。雪のほうが嫌いじゃないけど、降り続ける雪のおかげで、私は今までまだ「わぁっ、今はもう五月なんかなぁーっ」とカレンダーを見るとすごく驚いた顔をしたの(笑)。
大好きなKOKIAさんのインタビューを翻訳することさえもしたくないほど疲れたの、
です。
でもしょうがないじゃん。自分のボスは出張したので、約二週間もいなかったもん。(汗)
というわけで、あの二週間の時間を十分に利用して、ずっとしたかったKOKIAさんに英語のファンサイトを作る願いを叶った。
あんまり内容がまだまだ弱そうに少ないけどね。^^;
やっぱり自分のいる国は寒い国なんだね。先週(先々週かも)まで雪がまだまだ降り積もっていたのよ。雪のほうが嫌いじゃないけど、降り続ける雪のおかげで、私は今までまだ「わぁっ、今はもう五月なんかなぁーっ」とカレンダーを見るとすごく驚いた顔をしたの(笑)。
大好きなKOKIAさんのインタビューを翻訳することさえもしたくないほど疲れたの、
です。
でもしょうがないじゃん。自分のボスは出張したので、約二週間もいなかったもん。(汗)
というわけで、あの二週間の時間を十分に利用して、ずっとしたかったKOKIAさんに英語のファンサイトを作る願いを叶った。
あんまり内容がまだまだ弱そうに少ないけどね。^^;
やく一ヶ月前、youtubeにてたくさんの紹介ビデオを見て、CS5しかないの「fill」というフィーチャーを試したかったため、この火曜日、私はただ発売したばかりの「Adobe Master Collection 5」をインストールした。
ただし、私の想像したようにうまく上手に使えなかったのね、はうぅ~ >_<
ただし、私の想像したようにうまく上手に使えなかったのね、はうぅ~ >_<
そして木曜日、ラブミーティングにて、なんとなくみなさんはパソコンにPhotoshopがインストルしたかしないかというトピックにしった。
途中こんな対話になったの。
A:「ライセンスのあるPhotoshopをインストールしたのはたった二台しかないので、他のパソコンにインストールしたかったら、まずこの二つの一つからアンインストールことにならなくちゃ。」
B:「ただあるサイトからクラックヴァージョンをダウンロードすれば?」
A:「だっだ僕はCS5があって、ダウンロードするなど必要はない。」
C:「あぁ、君はすでに入手したの?いいね」
Boss:「ちょっと待って、君たちの行ったCS5って?」
C:「あれはものすごいだよ。新しい"fill"ってフィーチャーで、ひび割れをフィクスしたり、パノラマの空白を補完したり、どんなこともできる。僕たちの実験データを修正するのもできると思う。」
Boss:「はぁ?実験データまでも?」
C:「ええ、例えば君はあるゲルを選択し、その"fill"を利用して、自分のほしいバンドやみたくないバンドも、自分の思うとおりすればいい」
Boss:「むんんんん…次の話題に行こう」
と、ラブミーティングからこんなに妙な雰囲気になったの。面白かったけどね… ^^;
途中こんな対話になったの。
A:「ライセンスのあるPhotoshopをインストールしたのはたった二台しかないので、他のパソコンにインストールしたかったら、まずこの二つの一つからアンインストールことにならなくちゃ。」
B:「ただあるサイトからクラックヴァージョンをダウンロードすれば?」
A:「だっだ僕はCS5があって、ダウンロードするなど必要はない。」
C:「あぁ、君はすでに入手したの?いいね」
Boss:「ちょっと待って、君たちの行ったCS5って?」
C:「あれはものすごいだよ。新しい"fill"ってフィーチャーで、ひび割れをフィクスしたり、パノラマの空白を補完したり、どんなこともできる。僕たちの実験データを修正するのもできると思う。」
Boss:「はぁ?実験データまでも?」
C:「ええ、例えば君はあるゲルを選択し、その"fill"を利用して、自分のほしいバンドやみたくないバンドも、自分の思うとおりすればいい」
Boss:「むんんんん…次の話題に行こう」
と、ラブミーティングからこんなに妙な雰囲気になったの。面白かったけどね… ^^;
ついに金曜日になって、フライデーと言っても、フリーデーとも言えるのよ(かな?^^;)
夜から、7、8年ぶりの「エンジェリック・コンサート」ってゲームの進級ヴァージョン(?)を手に入れた。
「あぁぁぁぁ、なつかしぃぃぃぃぃぃ」
と、無我夢中になった。
さすが私のプレイした最初のゲーム。
最高ですっ!
堀江由衣さんの声が好き!!(´∀`;)
夜から、7、8年ぶりの「エンジェリック・コンサート」ってゲームの進級ヴァージョン(?)を手に入れた。
「あぁぁぁぁ、なつかしぃぃぃぃぃぃ」
と、無我夢中になった。
さすが私のプレイした最初のゲーム。
最高ですっ!
堀江由衣さんの声が好き!!(´∀`;)
夏がだんだん近くなってたの。私、より涼しい壁紙がほしいの。今は前に描いた「虹の電車」という壁紙を使っているので、オレンジの夏の夕方をテーマにしたけど、やっぱり暑いなぁと感じるの。そう言えば…binariaさんの音楽からなにかを描こうね。binariaさんの音楽がいつも夜の静かさを感じさせるように、涼しくて美しいだよ♪
ということでこれが私の夏がくるときに書いていた長っぽいブログエントリなのです。(なかなか日本語で書かなかったので、能力が下がっているのがいやぁ!)

After a long – which was about 9 hours and 30 minutes – sleep, I regained my energy. I didn't know the reason, but this week was so busy. I was like "ah, I'm tired", or "ah, I wanna sleep".
The country I'm in is such a cold country sure enough. Until the last week (or maybe week before last), it was still snowing. I don't dislike snowing, but thanks to the snow, I could show you a surprised face when I looked at the calendar "What? It's May already?!" (laugh)
Yes, I was tired, and I even didn't have the energy to translate my beloved artist: KOKIA's interview.
You see.
But, I couldn't help either. Our boss was out for two weeks before the last week. (sweat)
So, I fully used the time of two weeks, and made my wish came true: an English fansite for KOKIA.
Although it still needs much of content to make it better. ^^;
The country I'm in is such a cold country sure enough. Until the last week (or maybe week before last), it was still snowing. I don't dislike snowing, but thanks to the snow, I could show you a surprised face when I looked at the calendar "What? It's May already?!" (laugh)
Yes, I was tired, and I even didn't have the energy to translate my beloved artist: KOKIA's interview.
You see.
But, I couldn't help either. Our boss was out for two weeks before the last week. (sweat)
So, I fully used the time of two weeks, and made my wish came true: an English fansite for KOKIA.
Although it still needs much of content to make it better. ^^;
About one month ago, I watched a lot of videos about Photoshop CS5. I wanted to try the unique "fill" feature, so I installed the just released "Adobe Master Collection 5" on Tuesday.
However, it was not as easy as what I imaged at first. >_<
However, it was not as easy as what I imaged at first. >_<
Then, on Thursday, we got the topic about whether or not our computers have photoshop installed during the lab meeting.
And we got such a conversation.
A: "Only two computers have licensed photoshop; if you want to install PS onto other computers, you've to uninstall from those computers first."
B: "Then can we just download a cracked version somewhere?"
A: "In that case, I have CD5. You need not to download again."
C: "So, you've already got CS5? Nice."
Boss: "Hold on, what's the story about CS5?"
C: "The new CS5 is almost perfect, it has a new feature called 'fill', and you can fix cracks, or fill up the blank for panoramas, or even our experiment data."
Boss: "Your data?"
C: "Yeah, you choose a region of your gel, and you can get the bands you want and delete those you don't want."
Boss: "Hmmmm…. Well, next topic"
Like this, what an ambience at that time. Although it was interesting… ^^;
And we got such a conversation.
A: "Only two computers have licensed photoshop; if you want to install PS onto other computers, you've to uninstall from those computers first."
B: "Then can we just download a cracked version somewhere?"
A: "In that case, I have CD5. You need not to download again."
C: "So, you've already got CS5? Nice."
Boss: "Hold on, what's the story about CS5?"
C: "The new CS5 is almost perfect, it has a new feature called 'fill', and you can fix cracks, or fill up the blank for panoramas, or even our experiment data."
Boss: "Your data?"
C: "Yeah, you choose a region of your gel, and you can get the bands you want and delete those you don't want."
Boss: "Hmmmm…. Well, next topic"
Like this, what an ambience at that time. Although it was interesting… ^^;
Finally, it was Friday. We call it "Friday", but I think it's okay if we call it "free day" (no? ^^;)
In the evening, I got the upgraded (?) version of PC game "ANGELIC CONCERT", which I used to play a lot 7 or 8 years ago.
"Waaaahhh, so nastalgiiiiiiiic."
So, I was absorbed completely.
My first game.
It's THE BEST!
And I like Yui Horie's voice!!(´∀`;)
In the evening, I got the upgraded (?) version of PC game "ANGELIC CONCERT", which I used to play a lot 7 or 8 years ago.
"Waaaahhh, so nastalgiiiiiiiic."
So, I was absorbed completely.
My first game.
It's THE BEST!
And I like Yui Horie's voice!!(´∀`;)
Since summer is coming, I want a cooler wallpaper. Currently, I'm using the wallpapaer "Niji no densha / rainbow train" which I draw before. Although this one has the core of an orange summer evening… I feel a bit hot for this. Well… this time, let me try to draw something with the ambience of binaria's music. Their music always gives me the feeling of a silent night, cool and beautiful ♪
Here, I've written this a bit long blog entry at the time when summer comes. (oh, noes, I haven't written in Japanese for a long time, wish my ability to write in Japanese won't decrease!)
2010-May-09 (日) 11:23 -7:00
❋ KOKIA, fansite and me
The basic idea was born in the last week. Suddenly I wanted to create an English fansite for KOKIA for no reason. That day was April 29, the same as KOKIA's debut date, nice.
The very beginning would be in more months earlier. A friend of mine ever asked me one day.
- "You like KOKIA so much, do you want to make a fansite for her?"
- "A fan site? What would you like it to be? www.cyouwa-oto.net?"
I said this imaged domain name immediately, because she was the owner of the Yuki Kajiura fansite (that is, www.canta-per-me.net), that would be my parallel thinking (you see, both domains were named under a song title)… well, don't you think so? XD
- "You like KOKIA so much, do you want to make a fansite for her?"
- "A fan site? What would you like it to be? www.cyouwa-oto.net?"
I said this imaged domain name immediately, because she was the owner of the Yuki Kajiura fansite (that is, www.canta-per-me.net), that would be my parallel thinking (you see, both domains were named under a song title)… well, don't you think so? XD
However, at that time, I didn't yet have the desire to create a site: it needs time and energy. But, a few months later, that was, on April 29, I was like being spelt and got the strong desire of making one.
Of course, like I've said before, I know it needs time. I firstly searched online, after confirming that there were no any really active fansites available (based on first 3 pages of google search), the idea became one of my tasks.
Now, I want to talk about my thinking about KOKIA. I think I've talked about it for many times on this blog before about how I like her music, and my thoughts about them. But… have I ever written something more detailed about how I knew and fell in love with her?
I guess not, so let me say it here.
I knew KOKIA from her song "ありがとう(Arigatou)" in 2006 summer. I just liked that song and didn't think she's my favorite. Then, in the beginning of 2007, I listened her single "調和oto / 愛のメロディー (Cyouwa oto / Ai no Melody)", and thought "ah, this artist is very nice." Yet I still didn't consider her as one in my top artist list. I can't deny that at that time, I was a big fangirl of Yuki Kajiura, so I mainly paid more attention on Yuki Kajiura and related artists but KOKIA.
In 2008 February, I by chance listened to her new album "The VOICE". Although I still didn't think KOKIA was in my top list, I have already started to listen to that album once and once again (till now, this album is still in my top album list). I liked that album, and finally, I started to take more look at the artist: KOKIA.
I listened to almost all of her music during 2008; her rank in my artist list was increasing day by day. Yet my favorite artist was Yuki Kajiura.
I didn't think I would change my mind about my best artist at that time… but the fact told me, that I was wrong.
Yuki Kajiura's No.1 position kept until the end of last June. I watched KOKIA's Live in Paris in 2007 DVD. That was the FIRST time I cried because of listening to music. I myself didn't know the reason either: My heart was full of happiness from listening to her music, but tears were coming out uncontrollably. Why I was in tears? Even though I felt so happy!!
Later, I thought it should be her unique charm. The voice was so gentle and the melody was so warm. When you listen to her music, you would feel like that nothing was left out; everything was like being blessed to be in the eternal heaven.
After watched that concert, I started to play all her music in my library like crazy. According to the record of last.fm, I played her music more than 1000 times within one week, and I even didn't try Kalafina's new single because I just wanted to play KOKIA again and again. Also, thanks to my crazy playing, KOKIA made her top position in my artist rank. Finally, there was an artist beat my to-love-only-Yuki-Kajiura rule!
I still love Yuki Kajiura's music, but not as much as how I used to be anymore.
Start from zero was such a big effort, but I managed to organize all data I had since last week. Although there is still much of stuff being missing, I thought the current site was enough to be put in public.
The most interesting part was about writing the "decipher 'gematria'" post. It was impossible to decipher it if only based on data we already had. I even took three or more hours to write down the booklet lyrics and try to order each letter from the lyrics in the correct position… but, I gave up due to lack of data eventually. orz…
Anyways, since yesterday night, my fansite was finally available to all people around the world. I will do as much as possible to update the site and make it better. I will also try to translate more articles about her and her music. I don't know how I can do, but, because there is the love, I believe…
Everything is because of love.
2010-May-02 (日) 23:44 -7:00
❀ Cheese Cake, Badly Baked
Like what I said in last week, I was going to try baking a cheese cake.
I got the recipe from Diana's Desserts, and collected all materials needed. Then, in Saturday afternoon, I started.
Because of the experience of making petit fours in last week, I knew that I had to beat the mixture completely, if not, sugar would still be lumps but liquid. This time, all works of mixing and beating went well, and I was very satisfied with the "noisy" beating work.
However, the problem came. It said in the recipe that I needed to bake the cake in waterbath… I've never done it, and I didn't know anything about what and how. "Well, just give the temperature it requires and maybe it would be fine." I thought, and did.
And what I got was not like a real cheese cake. LOL
Only say the taste, it's not bad. It tasted like cheese, of course (it required 250g of cream cheese, gosh)! It got harden, but didn't become brown; the shape… it didn't look like fluffy, yet it just looked like a piece of cheese pudding, although it was harder than a pudding…

I searched afterwards for a more detailed recipe, and I got a better one. Finally, I knew what the so-called waterbath was. Seems I mustn't make a cheese cake without it. Fine, if I can find those waterbath required baking apparatus, I'll try it again.
Since I would not find them out currently (and I don't want to buy them), the next week, I think I would just try to bake petits fours again. ^^;
2010-Apr-24 (土) 13:29 -7:00
❋ Fake Petits Fours
Everyone has the first time to do something. Now, let's see what happened during my first time to bake a cake.
I always wanted to try baking cakes; after my final, I found a recipe for making petits fours online randomly. Why petits fours? I've no idea too. Because "petits fours" was the first thing floated up in my mind. I guess, it's must because Akiko Shikata's music box album… hmm, who knows?
Anyways, as that recipe, I collected everything needed, and followed the instruction. However, I was a bit surprised by the "1 cup of sugar" – that's really a lot! Using the mixer was also interesting – that was my first time to use a mixer either, by the way. I didn't know that one would make so much noise. As the instruction, I made a bowl of thick mixture of egg white, sugar, flour, shortening, butter, vanilla exact, and milk. That smelled so nice – OMG!!
When I poured the mixture into the baking pan, the problem was out. The mixture was way too sticky, and thus, it's hard to get all of them into the pan at one time. I'd got to use a spoon to get the rest off from the bowl. This would be the reason for why the surface of my final baking stuff wasn't that flat. Also, later, when I cleaned my measure tools, I suddenly realized, I added too much vanilla extract! Only one teaspoon (tsp) was needed, yet I misread it and added one tablespoon (tbsp) of vanilla exact into my mixture. So, my cake was tooooooooo sweet, although totally that was not bad. x_x
The cake itself was not like the ones of the food mart. Mine tasted like that of lacking enough mixing. Because the whole cake was not very flat, after cutting it into small pieces, I thought it's not easy to coat them with jelly. As a result, since I've already prepared some dissolved jelly, I had to put it into refrigerators for making solid jelly… likewise, it was difficult to cover the cakes with cream… so I just kept mine without any garnish; yet I tried to write on the surface, but the icing "pen" was so hard to use! XD
Although I got only some fake petits fours, it had lots of fun. I wanna try again soon!!

↑my baked fake petits fours lol
2010-Apr-15 (木) 22:22 -7:00
♤ REAL WORLD, in our eyes, in our hearts
April 12-15, 2010

KOKIA, REAL WORLD, released on March 31, 2010.
Comparing to the two "balance" albums, which were her new (full length) albums in the last year, "REAL WORLD" is obviously more excellent and adorable. I don't want to skip any songs when I start to play it, although there are songs that are not very impressive. Her three iTunes singles were included in this album too; this is very valuable because there's nowhere to find the lossless version of those iTunes releases!
The theme of "REAL WORLD" is "life and death". A pretty large topic, isn't it? I loved its jacket first. The background was the Sahara Desert. Sky and sand, blue and gold; there is almost no life, yet there is life. Desert is kind of a boundary between "life" and "death" on our planet; and derived from there, what kind of music KOKIA will bring to us this time?
I like large topic, I like to think about life and death, I like KOKIA's music. I believe this album would be very nice; that's why I preordered it soon after its release was announced.
1. Birth
2. Road to Glory~for Dragon Nest
3. U-CHA-CHA
4. REAL WORLD
5. 最終上映
6. Love is Us, Love is Earth
7. ジュゴンの空
8. 孤独な生きもの
9. single mother
10. 君をさがして
11. 音の旅人
12. 私が見たもの
13. この地球がまるいお陰で
14. The woman
Now, it's free time to talk about the album itself!
First, I want to say something about my favorite song in this album: "Road to Glory~for Dragon Nest". I have much to say, but I don’t know where I should begin… I loved it even before one time of complete listening, and soon after, I made 200 consecutive plays of it. People were saying that I was listening to that song like crazy ^^; but… everything is so nice in this song: the introduction, the arrangement, the harmony, the lyrics, and, of course, KOKIA's voice. One point I have to mention here is, in the very beginning, when the introduction just ends, KOKIA sings in some self-made language: "Sakkati busueiwou Krazare immunerume". Oh my god!! I was like, "what? Am I listening to a new Akiko Shikata song?" Although this feeling only stayed for a bit while, I still insist to say this song is pretty Akiko Shikata like, no matter how many I listen to it! Then, after I listened to it for more times, I found there were something very familiar: Hikaru Nanase's arrangement! I have become a Hikaru Nanase fan since I've watched the anime "Phantom". I especially love her way of arranging. Talk more about music theory isn't my strong point; it's difficult to describe exactly the special charm from her arrangements. I just love and can (sometimes) recognize it. So did that time. That was Hikaru Nanase's arrangement! Waaaaah~~~ I really think Hikaru Nanase is good at making music with a fantastic theme; KOKIA is always good at singing with ANY kinds of music. The two have excellently made singles like "KARMA" and "Transparent". Later, I believe lots of people have also listened to songs made by the two from "Ar Tonelico Hymmnos III -Side Blue". What an unbelievable combination!! This song is incredibly epic!
The song "最終上映 (Saishou Jouei / Final Screening)" attracted me and made me to make 50+ plays within 2 days. I even drew an image picture for it! The ambience of this song is a bit weird (?). I mean, it gives you a feeling of being in an imaged world. Sounds from a winding-up music box are firstly brought out, and then, the background sound effects (some specially made sounds, uneven drum beats, the "sound-of-coin", etc.) were introduced to make out this imaged world. Similar hint is also in the lyrics: "Welcome to the magic world" is its first sentence. XD In the lyrics, things like "a world under the magic which won't disappear, no seed, no proof; I was from a giant's dream, small and fragile…" What I feel was like time has gone back to the beginning of 20 century, and we are watching an old silent film (sounds weird? ^^). By the way, although not exactly, of the ambience, this song is a bit like her "Pinku no Zou (ピンクの象 / Pink Elephant)"… hmm, don't ask me why, I just think so!!! Also, KOKIA sings in the song for many times of "Pappadiya." I wan to know what it means!!!! That must be KOKIA's special spell, isn't it?
"U-cha-cha" is also kind of special. Many people would think it's a new song. But you know? This song was firstly performed in (as far as I know) in 2002 on her live, "That's why I was born"! – On that live, a stream of drum beats introduced that song, on the dark stage. KOKIA was dancing with the beat; her shadow was the only thing you could see at that time. Then, the drum stopped suddenly, her shadow lay down as well. Then, the drum beats came back, with a brighter feeling. "U-cha-cha" was sung by her, with a gentle and slight voice. Finally, here came KOKIA's singing. The melody flowed out at a rather free pace; the ambience was like what you would feel from a night of darkness to a dawn of lightness. On that live, her voice was a bit unstable (being tired after dancing? ^^;), yet I like that style of singing. XD However, in the "REAL WORLD" version of "U-cha-cha", KOKIA's voice sounds more stable and strong and mature. With a different arrangement, the feeling of dawn was not in the new version anymore, but the new version does sound like an even brighter early morning. Dark – light – even brighter, that's what I felt from listening to two versions of "U-cha-cha". This is really a nice song can make you feel comfortable. (you may watch that live here, starts from 1:40)
Another very beautiful song, "ジュゴンの空 (Dugong no Sora / Dugong's Sky)", is what I'm going to talk about. At my first time of listening, I didn't find out how special it was, but after a few times, I suddenly realized it's a very delicately written work. The "ha-ah-ah" part in the introduction, together with the dugong voice (although I think that sounds like a dolphin's lol), was extremely beautiful! The introduction gives its listeners a scene of a sea under a stretch of orange twilight. The melody is peacefully and a bit sadly flowing. The lyrics alone are very "environment friendly," because – it mentioned things like "save the species in danger" and "we human have to save them," and so on. What does the sky being seen in a dugon's eyes look like? It must the same peaceful and vast like their home, the sea. The blue sky, the blue sea, and the blue planet, we are all living there, we're seeing them everyday, and we really have to protect them from being erased by human activity. In this song, KOKIA's gentleness has introduced all of us to a place of absolute beauty and naivety. Every time when you listen to this song, stop all things you're considering; just relax your mind, and feel the sweet breeze of her voice.
Now, I want to switch to her iTunes releases. The three "main" songs were included in this album, although others are very good too, I have to talk only about the ones in this album.
"君をさがして (Kimi wo Sagashite / looking for you)" is in typical Jpop style. But since the singer is KOKIA, this song isn't just as ordinary as most Jpop songs. Everything in this song is gentle like a breeze. Softly, KOKIA's voice echoes around everywhere. Although this isn't a song I especially love, I can still loop it for tens of times!
"single mother". I have to say this one is a song from the real heart. As soon as I heard the piano in the introduction, I believed that would be a very nice song – and I was right. Like others' comments, the song itself is like a story; the lyrics is so touching that I even tried to translate it with my crappy translation skill ^^; But anyways, I really love this warm, gentle, delicate and beautiful song.
"孤独な生きもの (Kodokuna Ikimono / we are all lonely)". This song is very encouraging and adorable. We are lonely, yet we're not all alone. The song itself is still in standard Jpop style, but also, it's full of hope. When you're lost, listen to it; no matter what happens, there is always someone beside you, supporting the lonely you. Just keep going, keep chasing your dream. Then, you're not alone anymore; you will become the "someone" who supports others…
"音の旅人 (Oto no Tabibito / Traveler of Sound) " is a song full of ethnic influences. I love its arrangement (OMG Hikaru Nanase must be the person who arranged it! I can't tell now, because I haven't received my ordered CD ^^;). This is a beautiful song, and it fits the ambience of the album jacket – the Sahara Desert – very much.
"REAL WORLD" would be the most special felt song among all songs in the album. As a song has the same title to the album, it has a very effervescent ambience, and thus gives the album a lively impression (because other songs are rather gentle and even a bit sad). However, personally, I prefer KOKIA's not-so-lively songs. ^^;
Overall, this album is really, really nice, beautiful and impressive. Other songs so far I haven't mentioned, including "Birth", "Love is us, Love is Earth", "私が見たもの (Watashi ga Mita Mono / Things I Saw)", and "この地球がまるいお陰で (Kono Chikyuu ga Marui Okagede / Because the Earth is Round) " are all typical KOKIA-ish songs. Now, however, I'll just stop commenting on the rest ones, but that "Birth" fits the feeling of an opening song very well; either its title or its whole feeling.
Finally, I'm at the very last song.
"the woman".
Before the official release of "REAL WORLD", the promotion video "the woman" had already been available on youtube (unfortunately that video is time limited). As the last song, "the woman" is a very good choice. I can't stop remembering the scenes in that video… *__* but, even without the video, only the music can get you into a world of gentleness. The melody is so calm – the song relaxes our minds, introduces us to the vast world, where we can see the blue sky, the golden ground, and the endless horizon. Feel the breeze, feel the air, and feel our existence.
"the woman".
Before the official release of "REAL WORLD", the promotion video "the woman" had already been available on youtube (unfortunately that video is time limited). As the last song, "the woman" is a very good choice. I can't stop remembering the scenes in that video… *__* but, even without the video, only the music can get you into a world of gentleness. The melody is so calm – the song relaxes our minds, introduces us to the vast world, where we can see the blue sky, the golden ground, and the endless horizon. Feel the breeze, feel the air, and feel our existence.
Real world, it's in our eyes, it's in our hearts. We embrace this world, and this world embraces us. Everything in our life isn’t a dream; even though it may have gone away, it's still in our memory.
We're here, in this real world.
—What are needed in this world, include water, air, and this "voice."—
