Part 1: Intro
Part 2: Acoustics

Electric Guitars

Warning: Pictures overload. I might get sued for putting up so many pictures =.= The specs are taken from Fender Japan website. The prices are just for references, if you wanna buy it in Japan.

The pictures are the 'evidence' that YUI actually uses these guitars, not just posing with it. Hence, mostly are screencaps. Another purpose is to refresh your memory hee, I'll try to put captures from different videos.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

ALL Fender/ Squier

1. American Series American Telecaster : Chrome Red



From 160,000 yen = RM 4,847 = USD 1,383

This telecaster became one of YUI's favourite after she test played it for some music magazine. At first it was selected as sub-electric for YUI's Squier Standard Fat Tele, and then became YUI's main electric on her 1st concert tour. Specifications are the same as the original model, just the neck was modified to match YUI's hand. This guitar is used in Rolling star (PV, cover) and My Generation (PV). YUI used this guitar to record the solo in My Generation as well.

Extra: According to this Hong Kong magazine, YUI said that her favourite model is Telecaster. However, since I believe in the possibility of 'Lost in translation', I chose to be neutral about it, unless YUI 'said' it in Japanese =x

2. Classic Series '50 s Stratocaster : 2-Color Sunburst

From 105,000 yen = RM 3,145 = USD 904



YUI's first Stratocaster and she has a 'secret' history with this sunburst Strat. According to Fender's staff, one day YUI paid a visit to Fender's showroom for a magazine interview. After the interview, as usual, dear YUI had some chat with people around while strumming along her guitar. Suddenly YUI begin to run, then stopped in front of a Stratocaster, gazing upon it. "Ah, it's been a while", YUI recalled. This 2-color sunburst Stratocaster is the colour she longed for ever since she stepped in the music instrument store for the first time. Apparently she used to stand in the store, and kept on staring at this Strat back then. However after debut she became busy and forgotten about that long yearned Stratocaster. "Ah, it's been while, this is the one I want...." That Fender staff still vividly remembers YUI's expression when she said that while holding on that Stratocaster tight (lol).

Direct translations: This Strat was modified to suit YUI's taste. The neck of the guitar was changed to an original '57 V shape neck. The base of the neck was also re-coated with another layer of lacquer satin finish. In order to reproduce the classical tone, pick up was changed to Vintage type Texas Special. Bridge was also switched to USA Vintage type. Guitar body is alder with polyurethane finish, just like the original version (hope my translations sounded 'geek' enough =x if not please correct me, to make as if I'm a guitar geek lol).

This Strat was used in Rolling Star (the guitar YUI 'threw') and My Generation PV, and the cover of CAN'T BUY MY LOVE album.

3. Classic Series '50 s Stratocaster : Black



From 105,000 yen = RM 3,145 = USD 904

Same model with no.2. This guitar was picked as YUI's sub-electric for her sunburst Strat in School Festival Tour 2006. Pick-up was changed CUSTOM SHOP Texas Special, and the neck was reshaped to match YUI's hand size. The rest is the same as original model. YUI will be using this guitar in LOVE & TRUTH performances.

4. Squier/Standard Fat Telecaster : Candy Apple Red



42,000 yen = RM 1,262 = USD 362

YUI's first electric guitar. She got it around 12 April 2005. I think this is the first guitar she bought using her own $$$ too. Featured in the cover of YUI's first album, FROM ME TO YOU.

5. American Series American Telecaster : 2-Color Sunburst/ Maple Neck



Used as sub-electric in her Spring and Jump tour. Same model with no.1, just different colour. Featured in Jam PV as well.

Direct translation: This model has mounted with Samarium Cobalt Noiseless Pickups. Even though there are other pickups such as Vintage Noiseless (on Eric Clapton model) which produces distinguishable edgy tone using Alvino (magnet), or Hot Noiseless (on Jeff Beck model) which produces this vibe middle range tone using Ceramic (magnet), dear YUI seems more interested in Samarium Cobalt's (magnet) classical devilish tone.

For Strat, YUI will use Super-Sonic amp, and for Tele, she'll make it sound using Twin Amp '01 (at home will be G-DEC). Right now instead of humbucker's distorted rough tone, perhaps she's more into single coil's overdrived bright tone? As expected, able to tell the difference (girl!). But it's the sound of classic rock which YUI likes.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Looks like YUI modified her sunburst Stratocaster the most. Will YUI get something other than Fender next?? My bet is on Les Paul.

Me want Tele!!!

Happy early 50th birthday to my 'beloved' country Malaysia.

So many mega sales going around now =.=

Got a weekly part time job at Japan Airlines (technically lol)~ Means that I have to give up my elective class (entrepreneurship) trip to Seremban =(

Gotta stop ranting. This is an info post =x

Pictures were...either from Fender Blog, stole it from Channel 2, Jpopsuki, JPM, YUI Lover, or YUI-forum.

Special thanks to whoever edited this Japanese YUI's guitars wiki page (especially 沈黙の堕天使さん), and all the YUI Lovers (Natalie, JKDragoon etc) out there who keep on supporting my discoveries lol!! I will do accessories (strap, amp, pick, string, tuner etc) next =D

Till then.

Album: Garbage - Absolute Garbage (nice album name lol)

As stated on title,



Watch it @ YouTube (I like this one, has Japanese lyrics hee) - Stage6

Featuring creepy cello player + strings for the first time (22 strings musicians were included in the actual recording)



Since the movie, Closed Note is about some girl found some diary, reading scene is a must =P



Erika looks very pretty in this shot ^^

Trailer of Closed Note. After watching it, the lyrics really connect with the story. I think YUI was writing about what Erika's character felt. Since it's a one sided love thingy. Plus the 'profile' part. Might be wrong though.

I really like how they edited this PV to match the lyrics, examples (translations and roomaji taken from here, credits to zuttodayo and uchihamel):

Onaji e wo nido to egaku koto wa dekinai no ni



I can never draw the same picture twice

“Ai no uta” wo kikasete yo sono yokogao sono saki ni



Let me listen to your “love song.” Your profile… (ok just wanna show Erika playing mandolin, she practised 2 months before that, and seems that producer was surprised at how good she played).

Anata ga ima mitsumeteru hito ga iru to wakatte mo



I understand there’s a person you’re gazing at right in front of you but…

Guess that it's not that related =x

Anyway, as usual, constipated look:



woot!! Most emotional scene in this PV. You can sense the feelings within this song dear YUI's trying to convey. When I first saw this scene, suddenly me wanna see YUI acting in drama/ movie again very the badly >.< She's really improving day by day (wishing that I can improve myself too...)

The notebook YUI holding was actually English translations of LOVE & TRUTH, I wonder who translated it:



I was means to meet you anyway (??)
...neverends...
love&truth

Translations by zuttodayo:

My “love song” never ends - I’ve already met you
…It never will end… LOVE & TRUTH

Not to be mean but to those who think dear YUI's English is VERY good...*RUNS AWAY* (Note: I mean that "is YUI really ok with that translation??"). They should at least ask a 'professional' to do it. No complaining no complaining =x

But then we can refer to it, for formatting purposes.

Dirty + Wet YUI = XD



Yay for another solo~ Did YUI play it during performances??



Again, wishing that my guitar skills can be better day by day =.=

The ending is kinda shot in a way to match the movie, gazing far away shot?



Movie version doesn't have the little boy shown here. Wonder how the normal version will turn out.

Over analysed things again =.=

Till then, ciao~

PS: Comment widget screwed up >.<

Do you guys interested in audio of YUI singing traditional birthday song?? Found out she actually sang it full once in some radio show.

After listened to it I can totally understand why dear YUI seldom sings it. And purposely wrote another birthday song, to 'avoid' singing it lol.

EDIT: I've uploaded the song =)

Album: sakanaction - GO TO THE FUTURE

Lets start of with the covers of LOVE & TRUTH (will be released on September 26), taken from STAFF DIARY 17/8.

Limited Edition (Pre-order @ HMV/ YesAsia/ CD Japan/ Amazon Japan):



Limited edition includes DVD with music video of LOVE & TRUTH.

Normal Edition (Pre-order @ HMV/ YesAsia/ CD Japan/ Amazon Japan):



I prefer the one with guitar =x But the make up......I'm still gonna buy it anyway. Next will be PV!! PV!!

More reports on 3 live events dear YUI participated.

ROCK IN JAPAN FESTIVAL 3/8 - Muta san's diary 8/8a (YUI's drummer). Find YUI in those pictures, she was relaxing on a green field. And Staff photo report, credits to Reset.

GIRL POP FACTORY 07 4/8 - Muta san's diary 8/8b. And Staff photo report, credits to Reset for 'smuggling' out for us =D This show will be aired on 8 September @ FujiTV.

ZUSHI MARINA LIVE FESTIVAL マツリ～ナ2007 16/8 - Muta san's diary 18/8. A short video report (Mezamashi) can be found at stage6.



Might get that blue strap someday...This show will be aired on 14 September @ MUSIC ON! TV. Can't wait!!

YUI DIARY 17/8 - YUI said that she saw sunflowers xD Nothing much. General stuff.

YUI Radio #26 'What will it be if we see heart shaped fireworks from the side?' episode - Back to the regular casts, YUI and Shigezou san. They were talking about fireworks, as the title stated. A fan asked them about it. Since it's illegal to play fireworks in Malaysia, I can't really get what were they talking about (lame excuse). Other highlights in this episode will be (quoted from YL, by vivi):

About Wikipedia part, a boy who just started to listen YUI radio didn't understand what they were talking about because YUI radio is already #26, so they said that they needed a kind of encyclopedia about YUI radio like Wikipedia.

About the narrator, you mean the part of a strange male voice which said "LOVE & TRUTH IN STORE", right? That is a radio ad of LOVE & TRUTH and the voice is recorded by YUI's manager. He is not a professional narrator and of course it's amateurish, that's why they were laughing.

YUI suggested Adieu-pedia LOL. Since the Japanese fans have made this YUI board wiki thing, plus dear YUI requested it as well, I think someone will create one specially for YUI Radio. Don't look at me, I still cannot fully understand the whole show >.< And for the narrator part, it seems that Waji san (YUI's manager) has been doing this narration since CHE.R.RY lol. These narrations are only available on radio shows (I think) around Osaka area. Us YUI radio listeners have to 'privilege' listen to it xD

LOVE & TRUTH piano version.....*melts*

YUI LOCKS! 9/8, 15/8 (Why 15? Not 16 meh?) - Paper Plane Diary in Summer continues. In the latest episode, dear YUI called this girl named Shiori from Fukuoka. See the resemblance?? Sitting down with the guitar and stuff. Shiori didn't manage to get through some audition by SOL but she managed to convey her wish to SOL's 'principals', which is to perform street live. Hence dear YUI called her to support her and stuff (YUI already saw Shiori's performance before that). Apparently Shiori will perform at Tenjin (YUI used to perform there) as well. From the conversation, seems that our dear YUI has gradually becoming a mentor, not that shy looking girl we saw few years ago. It's a good thing. Wonder when I will be one =x

Nowadays I listen to all these radio shows when I drive to school. Another way of 'podcasting' lol. The other day I was listening to an old interview (TOKYO FM Vodafone COUNTDOWN JAPAN - 060624, if you wanna know), YUI said that she dare not try the instruments in those music stores because she's too shy to 'play' in front of the salesperson. Most of the time she'll just 'stare' at those instruments xD Don't know if it's true or not. Or maybe the people who selling it didn't recognise dear YUI.

Speaking of music instruments, some Fender guy 'forced' YUI to try out the latest coiled cable. We might see YUI starting to use this KOILKORD someday. Which is something look like this:



That one white though =P

Till then, go watch Hula Girls. It's surprises me that Aoi Yuu can actually 'shake' so fine xD No wonder she got best actress for this (joking). I thought her performance in Dr. Koto's clinic were just so-so (maybe because of Shibasaki Kou? xD ). Notice that tall girl besides dear YUI in the picture?



Her name is Yamazaki Shizuyo, member of a comedy duo, Nankai Candies. She won Best Newcomer as well, together with dear YUI. Imo, if there's a ranking between these newcomers, YUI might be placed lower than her *RUNS AWAY*

Au revior.

This thread will be just all about me, shocking sendiri (<- Manglish?), to commemorate my 20th birthday LOL so full of myself.

3/8 - Morning did presentation with another class mate on how to make use of it to learn Japanese. People seems disinterested though...maybe my presentation skills suck. Then noon I was kinda 'forced' to eat the chocolate cake at some freaking lousy Hong Kong style restaurant (SS2 天下). My classmates knew that I have white phobia, so they got me chocolate cake. I should say that I hate cream lol. Appreciate that they willing to celebrate it, because back then in high school I never had such nice 'treatment'. Feeling awkward, I decided to stay at home for the rest of the day. Really appreciate it though, felt abit guilty at the same time. What if I don't remember yours?? Something like that. Always have the mindset that if people do me favour, I should pay it back. But if I'm the one who's willing to help, I hope that I don't want (won't expect) anything in return. Hope la. Don't get me wrong, I'm really happy, just not used to it. Thank you guys very much. Really.

This is the first time I received so many birthday wishes, from all over the world, big thanks to dear YUI. My life really changed because of her, hence all the biased reports. Can't help it, she literally 'saved' me, should do something to pay her back =) Hence, hereby I present a cover of her song:

Teo (2nd YUI cover attempt) - Thank you My teens

Can't really make a 'prefect' version so...sorry about messing up the intro, lyrics, mistakes can't be heard clearly since I placed my guitar so near...drop the singing part, doesn't sound like me at all =x To whoever hitting 20 soon, I can do the guitar part in case you need it lol.

Again, happy 20th birthday to me me for the last time xD Wish? Secret.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The next day I went back home and attended some orchestra band concert thing in my high school because my brother was part of it. You know seeing all these 'kids' worked so hard just for that particular event, was regret that I never done any of it back then. Okla maybe Tai Chi, performed at Sukan Sea. That time I just think that I'm not good at any of these activities, plain wasting time and what not. Of course I still think such activities waste alot of time now, but with different perspectives. Experiences don't come cheap, if you sacrifice some of your time and gained something you can use it for the rest of your life, why not?? Frankly playing Maple Story wasted a lot of my time too lol. What did I learn from it? There's such things called bots? Well I learned a lot of 'technical terms' from Diablo, Baldur's Gate, Dota whatever though, but I suck in these games. Now I'm almost 'game-free' haha. No more games for me.

So...I shall sleep less from now on =.= Maybe less YUI-ing too.

After the concert, went to mamak stall with Emily. I never said this to her but I'm glad that we can actually talk about such stuff after graduated from school. Before that even if we sit together in class we rarely 'talk', as far as I can remember.

Then I managed to figure out another mystery behind Japanese file sharing system, and yay for my first RADWIMPS live video. It's their Harumaki Tour 2007 during March.



Besides YUI's albums, RADWIMPS 3 & 4 are the next most played albums in my car (yea I'm running out of albums to play....care to recommend me some?). After watching this concert, they are officially my favourite band xD



Constipated look of vocal Noda Youjirou. I lurve his lyrics XD Especially futarigoto (YUI played it YUI LOCKS), iin desuka (so sweet >.< ), and yes his English is good too. Otogi, イーディーピー～飛んで火に入る夏の君～ (warning lol). Suddenly so many songs uploaded at YouTube, back then only a few =.= 'Discovered' this song, kanashi. Sounds sad T.T Of course not just lyrics, I like the arrangements too~ They managed to create love songs with so many variations on guitar riffs and stuff. One of the main reason I don't listen to Chinese songs that much is because arrangements are boring (no offence).

They have nice rockish songs too (with bad languages as well), compare with other bands, their concerts are more, how should I say, warm? Noda san doesn't act all cool, instead he treats his fans like 'family' lol. Sing along together, smiles from time to time *melts*

Someday gonna watch their concerts for sure!! After YUI lol. But their concert tickets sold out within 5 minutes...hmm...btw who wants to make a English Wiki page for them??

Was going to rant more but time to sleep =x Maybe next time haha. Rant about YUI instead, don't wanna talk about myself anymore.

Till then.

YUI



It's summer. It's about festivals. Yay!

Kinda late for this, apparently some director copied YUI's My Generation PV. The singer is 張懸 (Zhang Xuan), a songwriter + plays guitars as well. Thanks to this copycat director, I got to know this Taiwanese singer lol.

張懸 - 喜歡 (my surname is 張 too lol!!)

Watched some of her other performances, I like the way she talks, very...inspiring. Yay for the more Penny Tai, Cheer Chen, Tanya Chua!! (I still live in that generation...only know 3 of them *swt*). Kinda wish that YUI will do some plucking songs too...*runs away*

As for the PV, it's very....the....similar. Watch it yourself. Good thing that the director and manager apologised and the PV will not be aired any more.

YUI LOCKS! 2/8 - This week featured the segment Paper Plane Diary in Summer. She started of with something irrelevant though.「イギリス？」(United Kingdom?). It was regarding a competition organised by SOL called English Samurai 2. This time, 'Students' are required to translate Van Halen - Jump into Japanese. The winner will get the chance to have one week study trip at London. Dear YUI hopes that she will get some 'interesting' sweets as souvenir LOL.

ROCK IN JAPAN FES 3/8 - From the pictures, YUI seems having fun. Hopefully they will air Highway chance on TV *prays*

STAFF PHOTO REPORT 4/8 - Regarding ROCK IN JAPAN FES.

GIRL POP FACTORY 07 4/8 - Set list. Our forum member, SamuraiZack went to the concert and 'secretly' recorded it lol. Got the chance to listen to new song + guitar solo *envies* This concert will be aired on September 8. Again, hope that FujiTV will play the whole thing. Especially during the MCs, 'sounded' interesting, wanna see YUI's expression xD Especially when she 'rejected' all the marriage proposals, date invitations haha (only small part, don't get too excited). Oh and LOVE & TRUTH live *prays harder*

YUI DIARY 5/8 - Talking about ROCK IN JAPAN Fes & GIRL POP FACTORY. Apparently she was too shy to do all her 'signature' moves (Billy, Mickey, etc) requested by fans in Girl Pop lol.

Till then.

PS: Thanks for all the birthday wishes!! Will talk about it in next post.