Wednesday, July 30, 2008

YUI RADIO #33 ~It's Natsu!! It's Summer!!~ with Translation!!

Miss uchihamel @ YL has done a transcript/translation of latest YUI RADIO #33. She is complaining saying that no one noticed her effort, after listened to the same thing over and over again, and did her best to translate it.

ah Mel, 泣かないで~一定有人发现的(笑)。

So here it is:

YUI RADIO #33 transcript by uchihamel

Translated by uchihamel@YL
Special thanks to depyon@YL
Credits would be much appreciated! =D


It is a very detailed translation, with a bunch extra info. I bet she must have spent quite amount of time doing this. No wonder she's been missing these few days.

If you want to tell ah Mel how much you appreciate her for translating this episode of YUI Radio, or wish to see more translations in the future (hopefully), you can:

1. Flood her inbox in YL.
2. Thank her directly in YUI Radio thread.
3. Reply in this post. I'll inform her about this.

Back to YUI RADIO #33. It was a funny episode. SUMMER SONG a cappella version was hilarious. The TOKYO story in the end was touching T.T Do check it out~

Next, Mr. depyon has made a transcript/translation of YUI 3rd Tour 2008 in Tokyo NHK Hall.

If you want to thank him, go stalk his blog.

And check out The YUI Lover Random Talk Show by Fanny and br4d137 under YUI Cast section in YL. I'm a big fan of podcasts, I was surprised at how professionally it was done. Great job guys!!

I wonder who will be their next special guest.

So many activities going around our little YUI community. I shall sit back and continue my medical dramas marathon. Just finished House season 4 (so tragic, so dramatic), now watching Code Blue and Tomorrow.

Seriously, will Aragaki Yui pins her front hair so that it won't drop/ hanging around all the time??

Monday, July 28, 2008

4 Essential Tools For Japanese-English Translation

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Misc YUI Info:

I have created the live audio thread, enjoy.

Someone is translating the Tokyo live. Stay tuned.

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This post is meant for my classmates. We have Malay<->Japanese<->English translation class this semester, and apparently it is driving everyone crazy.

I'm still a novice when it comes to Japanese language and translation but still, I have to start it some where. I used these 4 tools for ROCKIN' ON JAPAN translation. Basically I can't do a thing without them.

1. My brain, which sometimes doesn't function properly due to short term memory loss.
2. Asahi online dictionary + firefox search engine.
3. Eijiro on the WEB + firefox search engine (My fave!!)
4. Google dot com

5. Contacts in MSN
6. Wikipedia
7. The Free Dictionary
8. Firefox with a bunch of addons

First I use Asahi online dictionary to look up Japanese words, to double confirm the exact meaning. You can use other dictionaries such as Sanseido, Yahoo Japan etc. Sometimes I use Excite for Japanese<->Chinese stuff.

These dictionaries don't really have all the words, especially slang words. Hence, Eijiro is my best buddy when I want to look for not so conventional phrases. Since it is some sort of a search engine, gathering data from numerous source, some of the translation might be incorrect. That, I have to use my brain to determine.

Interpreting/ figuring out what the sentence means isn't that difficult, if you are translating simple stuff like normal conversation. The hardest pain in the butt part to me is to form a new sentence in another language.

I cannot talk in proper Chinese (according to some of my friends), didn't learn English grammar properly when I was in school (second language), I always have problem constructing sentences, somehow these sentences don't feel right.

That's why Google is my friend. Lets say I wanna know if this phrase sounds normal or not: We go together-gether.

Just add quotation marks and look for it in Google: "We go together-gether"

You will notice that the result is usually written by people who:

1. Can't spell or no spell checker in browser.
2. Prefers abbreviations.
3. Likes to mix their writings in different languages.

This is what we called Malaysian English =P Inspired by the Malay word, bersama-sama. That's what I normally do if I'm not sure whether my sentence is correct or not.

My boss once asked me to translation 50 Malay haiku into Japanese and I relied on these two websites, and of course, google. Normally people will ask native speakers to do such translation. Although my native tongue is Chinese, people sometimes think that I'm a banana, or thought I'm major in English instead of Japanese. This is sad.

I'm trying to speak 'as standard as possible' these days, but it's hard >.<

Feel free to make fun of me whenever I mispronounced something or misused certain words/idioms, then I might force myself to study/work harder.

I only use these 4 tools primarily. What do you use??

Note: In half-banana dot com, we talk about YUI not languages and linguistics. I still have a long way to go when it comes to languages, I guess practise makes perfect.

Wednesday, July 23, 2008

YUI 3rd Tour 2008 Comes to an End

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Misc YUI Interviews:

BJ emailed me and asked whether there is a translation for that interview between YUI and Avril Lavigne in WHAT's IN October 2007 issue.

So here it is. Credits to harmonium @ JPM.

Is there any translation for that YUI x Kenichi L guy something in BARFOUT magazine?

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Aichi Prefecture, June 6. That blue Tele looks smexy. (Credits: Excite Music Japan, yupeh)

Started from May 5 in Fukuoka, after 2 months, YUI 3rd tour was concluded on July 19 in Osaka. YUI & her staff updated their diaries respectively to celebrate the success of YUI 3rd Tour. Scroll down for English translations.

Fellow YL forum members, depyon, artunee and gotchi had witness YUI's performance in Kanagawa and Nagano prefecture.

As for me, I just sit here in Malaysia, getting all jealous after reading countless live reports from the internet. Luckily someone helped me to buy a bunch of tour goods, at least I can hold on them and imagine myself being there someday.


I have the red shirt YAY! Tokyo NHK Hall, July 3 (Photo credits to: Entame Ichiban)

Plus, I get to 'listen' to Niigata and Tokyo live, with a little bit of snippets from Osaka live courtesy of some nice people in 2ch. The OH YEAH part in Osaka was hilarious. Muahahah. I wonder if YUI did any rehearsal on it before that.

Okay okay I'll ask someone to upload them soon. The connection in Malaysia is very bad these days.

To those who share the same fate as me, your next chance to see YUI live is in ROCK IN JAPAN FES.2008 (August 1), and ZUSHI MARINA LIVE FESTIVAL '08 (August 14).

I'm still stuck in Malaysia though. Haha.

After summer live, what's next??

Wednesday, July 16, 2008

Misc SUMMMER SONG Facts


Some where in Nanyang Technological University, Singapore (July 2008, Taken by CCDDSS)

1. It was written 3 years ago, and somehow turned into a summer song.

2. Apparently no other Japanese artist has used 'Summer song' as song title.

3. Continuation of Laugh away. Laugh away = Boy's perspective, SUMMER SONG = Girl's perspective.

4. Non tie up single since I remember you.

5. The music video was filmed in Izu, Shizuoka, starring Hayashi Kento and Okamoto Anri.

I was digging around their blogs, both of them watched each others' movies, and they are from the same management company, Stardust. YUI too. That explains the tie up.

I wonder if they've watched Taiyou no Uta.


6. The lyrics:

砂に書いた 未来なんて あてにデキナイ
Suna ni kaita mirai nante ate ni dekinai
Can’t depend on the future written in the sand (Translated by uchihamel)

Means that we should take the initiative to try it out, not just only dream about our own future. The waves will easily wash away what we've written down in the sand.

(Source: PATi PATi, B-PASS July/August 2008)

EDIT: uchihamel has translated PATi PATi interview, which can be found in YL. Interesting interview =D

What other facts do you know?? Share under comments~

Sunday, July 13, 2008

ROCKIN' ON JAPAN Interview Part 7 (page 050)

It took more than half a year (8 months) for me to translate this, I wonder what does this indicate??



For some reason, triper san decided to hide his Chinese translations in his previous blog. No more Chinese translation and you guys have to settle with this unpolished English translation, unless someone copy pasted the Chinese translation at some where.

Disclaimer: Please correct me if I made any stupid grammatical/ spelling errors and tell me if I made any factual errors. Don't believe in everything I have translated. If you want to copy anything from here, please ask your future readers to stop by my blog, to increase my blog traffic, thank you.

Previous translations: Part 1 - Part 2 - Part 3 - Part 4 - Part 5 - Part 6

Teo: Italics

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Music Learning

# And that boosted your confidence, don't you think? Something like there's no such thing as zero possibility after all.

YUI: That's true. It made me to be able to think that, it's not zero. Since that was around end of high school first year, a great timing I supposed. Hence, I can persuade my teacher easier on quitting right here. Of course my teachers gave me a lot of advices too, they were really worried. "I don't know much of this since I took the normal path, but I never heard of people taking such path and debut or something." They used to say this to me.

# Did your mother say anything?

YUI: She thought that since I have decided so, that shows how mentally prepared I am, and somehow she could feel my strong enthusiasm. She didn't really say anything harsh, instead of disapprove, "If you really wanted to do this, just move forward with the path you have chosen." she said something like that. Even if she didn't say anything, I could feel it.


Picture credits to Reset.

# Even if you have prepared yourself on pursuing music path, I think there must be a point when you started to think: What specific move shall I do next. How was it like?

YUI: It is true that I have those days worrying over all these things. I had absolutely no idea on where should I move forward, it was as if I could see nothing but darkness ahead of me. And then, I had the chance to watch a street (live) performance. That encounter was bianco nero's (ビアンコネロ) live performance. Up till then I seldom went to the city area, and I never even watched any street performances before.

Everything started from here thanks to bianco nero. Romanised version of their name is bianco nero, bianco in Italian language means white and nero means black. White and black = Juventus haha.

YUI: There is a girl friend of mine, who always goes to see bianco nero's live. When I asked her to tell me if there's anything going on, she told me that there is a live on that day. Hence, for the first time in my life, I took a bus from Hakata Station, kept on asking where is the actual place I should alight while getting off from the bus. That girl guided me and said, "This way, this way." At there, I saw musicians standing on the street to perform for the first time. I listened to the voice and guitar live in an extremely close range, I was really moved.

YUI did two live performances with bianco nero on Bokura no Ongaku, covering Michelle Branch's Goodbye To You and Matsutoya Yumi's Yasashisa ni tsutsumareta nara. YUI once aired bianco nero's Shokichi, which is a song about their home town in YUI LOCKS and recommended their album in MTV M Size, if I'm not mistaken. Bianco nero mentioned YUI in their blog too, and someone retrieved a picture of super young YUI with fringe + her real name in old bianco nero website xD

If you really want to dig deep, there are a lot of places you can look into. Btw, the guy with spectacles left bianco nero, now bianco nero has 3 members.


YUI: I talked about this incident quite often, after the live finished, I approached bianco nero. Due to the fact that I was moved by their performance, of course, my curiosity, and thinking that "It's now or never!" Since I couldn't really see any other paths, I guess at that moment, I would like to ask about it as much as I could right on the spot. Hence, as usual, I started with "Konbanwa" and tried to talk to them, I can still remember that I asked them something like, "I really wanted to pursue music, what should I do?" Up to that time, I kinda knew that there are these vocational schools available, I thought I couldn't attend because I didn't really go to high school and all. Then, "It's not vocational school, there is a music cram school if that's what you meant," they told me. After that I had a little more extra time, but I also started to show up in bianco nero's lives, I got the chance to know people from music cram school. And then this person noticed me and said something like, "Well then, bring that girl here." That was the starting point.

That person is Nishio Yoshihiko, I believe. The founder of Voice music school. Ayaka is from that school too. Nishio san talked about how he met bianco nero, YUI and ayaka in this interesting article. I think he bought that Yamaha guitar on It's happy line CD cover for YUI. He only produced It's happy line and feel my soul.

YUI: Finally, I could see which direction I should be heading towards to, I was able to see what needs to be done. However, I never thought that I would receive this much help from them. That encounter was really important. I think that opened up the possibility for me to step into the music path, yea. Because of that, I started to attend that music school, and since I went to the city area, I changed my part time job too. If I recall correctly, at first I worked in a Japanese restaurant which serves lunch meals. I thought, if it's on lunch hours, time wise it shouldn't be a problem. By putting a microphone looking thing on my ear like this, there's this thing which will make 'beep' sound right? That was really amusing. If pressed excessively it will be-be-beep non stop *laughs* I began my music school life, while receiving transportation allowance from that restaurant.

# How often did you go each week?

YUI: It was like, I went there everyday after finished part time job. I didn't have my own guitar, so I borrowed my friend's guitar and played with it, things like that. From there I sort of trying to do different covers and so on. I got all excited by just strumming the open strings. "This is amazing! What a beautiful sound!" I can remember that I was really touched by it. And when I saw people around me seemed to enjoy their guitars, the sight of them playing guitar happily, it really got to me. Instead of teaching, telling someone that "I can finally play the F chord, how does it sound?" while strumming the chord, and getting replies such as "It's awful," we had more of these mindless chatters.

To be continued. Next, song writing and performances.

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Imagine that YUI started out with no guitar, even had to borrow from someone else. It is possible for everyone to get a Martin or Fender, someday. Yea, itsuka.

Thank you for reading. Hopefully I'll be motivated/ hard working enough to translate remaining 4 pages.

Next: ROCKIN' ON JAPAN Interview Part 8

Saturday, July 05, 2008

YUI has more than one Martin acoustic

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Misc SUMMER SONG News:

SUMMER SONG Limited Edition is currently sold out at HMV, Amazon Japan, YesAsia, Play-Asia, Tower Records, and Sony Music Shop.

Except CD Japan. Grab it fast!

No wonder HMV, Amazon Japan and Play-Asia set this policy on limiting one person to one copy, for YUI's SUMMER SONG Limited Edition. Namie Amuro, ayaka, no limitations.

Since when YUI becomes so famous??

Or maybe Sony reduced the amount of first press. Or they just don't like YUI fans, because we like to buy her CDs.

Special thanks to CCDDSS for bringing up such interesting phenomenon.

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So uchihamel received the latest All Song Score book, together with SUMMER SONG CD. She told me that in the YUI guitars page, it stated that YUI has two Martin acoustics.

I asked her to show me that page, because I don't have the book. Obviously.


We know that YUI has more than five guitars. They are just showing her newer, more expensive ones.

Ooo Martin 1977 D-28 and 2007 HD-28V.

Then uchihamel told me that the guitar pickguard in SUMMER SONG PV is black.

I thought her Martin acoustic should be a D-28, with tortoise pickguard. In All Song Score, they have noted that the D-28 model in the pictures might be different from a 1977 model.

Why black??? Another Martin? Both D-28 1977 and HD-28V's pickguard suppose to be tortoise.

After comparing both D-28 and HD-28V closely, and watching all YUI videos I have with Martin acoustics, I came up with a theory.

Basically both D-28 and HD-28V look almost the same, the more obvious differences are fingerboard inlays and the lines along front body.

Let us solve the mystery of the Martin with black pickguard in SUMMER SONG PV first.


Why black???

If you look closely enough, the pickguard is actually thicker than usual. This screenie below confirms my theory.



Don't ask me why they put a black patch on top of the original pick guard, I wonder why too. Both are Martin D-28 (1977), same guitar. Mystery one solved.

So where is the HD-28V??

Lets check out the latest Mezamashi clip with footages from the 3rd tour in Tokyo.

YUI uses D-28 in Laugh away and CHE.R.RY. Looks closely at the guitar strap holder, it is at the side of heel.



Then in SUMMER SONG, YUI uses another Martin guitar. The guitar strap holder is on the heel/ at the back. That should be the '07 HD-28V, I think.



Or you can look at the guitar nut. 1977 one should be yellow-ish while 2007 model is still very white. Of course, YUI can change it if she wants to.

According to All Song Score, YUI got both guitars around October 2007.

Another Martin. USD 3,899, RM 12,476. Oh My God.

What about the other Martin in YUI LOCKS?!

PS: The purpose of this post is to show that, don't mess with my YUI guitars expert title lol.

PS 2: YUI used Martin D-28 in CDTV.