The remaining of this interview is translated by non-other than uchihamel 大先生 from YL.



Say thanks to uchihamel for the translation ;)

Previous translations: Part 1 - Part 2 - Part 3 - Part 4 - Part 5 - Part 6 - Part 7 - Part 8 - Part 9 - Part 10

uchihamel: Italics

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Even if I get lost, music teaches me a lot, and saves me. I think that was what kept me going, guiding me.

YUI: … Plus, Bianco Nero went to Tokyo about a year before me so I thought “Bianco Nero is in Tokyo too, so let’s do my best!” and that kind of made me more reassured. To have someone you are close to around definitely makes you more reassured. At first, I was feeling a mixture of anticipation and uncertainty but after moving to Tokyo, it became a sort of mental preparedness. Or determination. As such, I was ready to advance forward, and that was how it worked out.

# In YUI-san’s songs, even when there is a lot of darkness, loneliness or sadness, one will always strive towards that ray of hope. Which part of you do you think made you write such songs?

YUI: To not allow oneself to get defeated by that situation. When it seems that you are about to be defeated by the situation of things, if you do not have strong will, you will be defeated. To put it generally, hope. In order not for whatever circumstances to overcome you, you need to have strong will. Without it, you will definitely be unable to overcome various things. After debuting, many people are now listening to my songs, but hitting sales at a certain number is not my final goal. Even if there is a set target, upon achieving that, it becomes a new starting point. That was what I kept in mind as I went along. But there were definitely many times where I was saved by music. “Music is something which I cannot live without” is something which I said before debut but it still holds true now. Even if I get lost, music teaches me a lot, and saves me. I think that was what kept me going, guiding me.

# Tomorrow you are finally turning 20. How would you describe your 19 years of life?

YUI: ……… As usual, music plays an extremely vital part in YUI-san’s (jokingly referring to herself) life, yup (lol). It has influenced me a lot.

# That seems very true indeed.

YUI: I think so. Seeing that I was so obsessed with music. Though without doubt there was much hardship and trying times. Yet, precisely because it is something that I love which enabled me to overcome all obstacles and be where I am today. Up till now I have been carving a path by myself, so from now onwards I hope to continue doing so as well, while receiving support from the many people around me or new acquaintances, and moving forward positively with a strong will.

# The album「CAN’T BUY MY LOVE」is an album containing numbers with musical diversity, as well as a cheerful track which expresses gratitude towards one’s teenage years even though it consists of hardship. I think this album is reflective of how YUI-san will be in the many years to come, believing in music as well as things dear to you as you progress in life.

YUI: Yup. Right now, I feel very blessed to be able to do music. I hope to be able to continue doing music for a long time, and will give it my all in order to achieve that. I hope to work hard and show a truthful side of myself to everyone. In addition, I want to be able to excite people, put a smile on their faces and also make people say “Oh this is interesting”. I want to take on new challenges and enjoy my 20s.

# Your determination to do so won’t be swayed?

YUI: If it does, I will speak about it. And get encouragement, yup. But I think by going to watch more live performances, and recalling about how touched I was when I first watched a live, I will gain new inspiration. And also not wanting to change, in a good sense. (not being obstinate, but sticking to one’s own beliefs) I don’t want, for example, going to live houses to become part of my job. I have always loved music, so I hope to keep that touching memory of watching a live for the first time in mind as I go along. I also wish to learn many things from many people.


Picture credits to Reset.

# I see. Thank you very much for today.

YUI: Thank you very much!

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YUI first released feel my soul in year 2005, and this interview was done in year 2007, time really passes fast.

Thanks to YUI, my 4 year university life became much more interesting.

Big thanks to uchihamel for helping out to finish up this long due project, can't wait to see you again in August =P

The remaining of this interview is translated by non-other than uchihamel 大先生 from YL.



Say thanks to uchihamel for the translation ;)

Previous translations: Part 1 - Part 2 - Part 3 - Part 4 - Part 5 - Part 6 - Part 7 - Part 8 - Part 9

uchihamel: Italics

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… For quite a period of time I was in Fukuoka working on song writing, and it was then I began to think that I might be debuting. When I was told to go to Tokyo, since there were many things which I was not familiar with, my feelings was a mixture of uneasiness as well as anticipation. Therefore, I spent quite some time considering about things.

# As a result, you had to go to Tokyo several times a month in order to prepare for your debut am I right?

YUI: Yes. A lot of preparation was in progress. I took the plane to Tokyo, and then switched to the monorail. When I viewed Tokyo from the monorail, it gave me a sense of disbelief. The scenery of Tokyo as seen from the monorail left quite an impression on me. And so after that I started song writing again. …… But I think I was doing so without any distractions. Instead of saying that I was overwhelmed with emotions, I was really able to concentrate working on compositions.

# You brought along the tortoise and goldfish that you were keeping when you moved to Tokyo?

YUI: That’s right. About a year or two before I moved to Tokyo – or perhaps longer than that? I bought them myself. They have lived really long haven’t they? Like my tortoise for example, it has grown so unbelievably big (lol). Even now I still wonder how much bigger it can get. I had to come to Tokyo several times a month for work and when I got the confirmed news that I would be moving to Tokyo the thing that I naturally thought of was how to bring my tortoise and goldfish along as well (lol). It seems that there was some discussion about that issue. Though I only heard about that later. My pet tortoise and goldfish which I so naturally and wilfully brought along to Tokyo are so pitiful (lol). In any case, during the later period in Fukuoka, in order to concentrate on music, I was not staying at my house, but living alone. I focused on song writing in that place. As it was a place which belonged to us, I guess that is why I naturally thought of bringing them along (to Tokyo).

# How was it coming to Tokyo and interacting with the people in your current label company and all sorts of people?

YUI: I think I was definitely nervous at first, and so I ended up keeping quiet most of the time, or either I could not really communicate well with them. But when my debut song “feel my soul” was confirmed as the theme song for drama airing during the 9pm slot on Mondays, days where I had to work with the drama producer began. Of course, the decision for the Monday 9pm slot was made before my debut, so that period was really crazy, but in a good way. Those days I had to work with the drama producer, and create several A melodies (verse) within a day. For the last time, I met up with the producer in a spacious conference room, bringing with me my guitar as well, and spoke with him for 4 hours. Based on my understanding of that discussion, the final version of the song was created. It was the first time I wrote a song in that way, so from the beginning it was really rough, and I was totally caught up with it. Because there were a lot of things which I could not understand clearly. All the struggles, exploration and trial and error were attempts at trying to see which one would actually be suitable. Coupled with the fact that I had to suddenly debut based on such a large scale project. Although for a brief period after my debut I continued performing street lives, there were a lot of things going on, and I think it took me some time to completely rationalize and comprehend everything.


Picture credits to Reset.

# After all, everything happened within such a short span of time isn’t it.

YUI: Yeah in the blink of an eye. I guess I felt a little fearful at that time too. But I think that fear was in a good sense. After all, since I was in a position where I totally couldn’t grasp an understanding of the current situation, there must have been a certain amount of insecurity and uncertainty about where it would all lead to.

# The theme song “feel my soul” for the Monday 9pm slot is a song which illustrates YUI-san’s emotions when you moved to Tokyo, and it is about searching for a ray of light in the darkness. To start off your major debut song with the phrase “I’m tired of crying”, what sort of feelings did that contain?

泣き疲れてたんだ　問いかける場所もなく
迷いながら　つまずいても　立ち止まれない

Nakitsu karetetan da Toi kakeru basho mo naku
Mayoi nagara Tsumazuite mo Tachi domare nai

I got tired of crying. Life doesn’t hand out answers.
I might wander and stumble, but I can’t stop.
Translation: Gin

YUI: It was like a lot of pent up emotions from experiencing so many different things. I think that’s precisely what it was about. I think there are many factors involved, but a part of it would probably have to do with the seemingly impossibility of doing music in my future ahead back then when I was a first year high school student, and that was really saddening. It felt like I had nothing in my life.

# What was the most important reason which made you decide on coming to Tokyo and make your major debut?

YUI: ……… Firstly, I wanted to be a filial child to my mother. I’m sure that feeling was in me. For instance, to talk about something more practical, when I entered high school there was surprisingly quite a sum of money set saved for that. There were such things. There was somewhat a feeling that I wanted to be filial. As I was always seeing her working hard (to support the family). And also, there was a part of me which genuinely loved music. Bianco Nero and everyone else also gave me much support so I decided to do my best.

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Next: ROCKIN' ON JAPAN Interview Part 11

The remaining of this interview is translated by non-other than uchihamel 大先生 from YL.



Say thanks to uchihamel for the translation ;)

Previous translations: Part 1 - Part 2 - Part 3 - Part 4 - Part 5 - Part 6 - Part 7 - Part 8

uchihamel: Italics

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I was told “Should you lose interest in music someday and neglect it, I will be asking for that back” when I received my guitar.

… At the beginning, back in the past when people randomly stopped or just walked by, I was nervous, and didn’t know what was what. However, halfway through I began to calm down and sing more smoothly. Should the performer of the street live be nervous, people who would stop to listen will end up not stopping, thus with the thought of creating a relaxing and pleasant atmosphere in mind, I managed to calm myself down. Then, it was like one person would stop to listen a while, and then maybe another person would stop too. That was how it was like. There were people listening every now and then, and at times people who also performed street lives would chat a little with me when they pass by on their way home, like “Oh you’re doing a live today?”

# Did you feel that you were taking a step closer to your dream of doing music if you continued performing lives like that?

YUI: At that time I was simply thinking of the present, I just thought of improving my guitar playing skills.

# So this means that you had no serious thoughts on wanting to debut?

YUI: That’s right. I was not thinking about that yet. When I was just beginning music, I went to an audition that the people at the music school recommended me, and talks about debut began. I was simply doing things which I liked hence when it developed into talks of debut I was very surprised.

# That audition was Sony’s SD Audition right?

YUI: Yes, that’s right.

# It is an audition where many musicians make their debut, did you not think of anything related to that?

YUI: Not at all at first. Up till then I was not aiming to debut, but it was more like there happened to be an audition, and I went as part of the music school. At the audition I sang cheerfully as I usually did. As the talks went on should I say, rather only towards the end did the actual feeling and realization of debuting dawn upon me. I began to think about more things. During that time, I took an airplane for the first time and came to Tokyo for the first time too. The people at the music school were worried about me so they accompanied me. My thoughts were like ‘there are many people here after all’, ‘the buildings are really tall’ as I walked around looking upwards. And if you carried a lot of luggage with you, scouts would approach you. Though since I had this sort of image in my mind, I was not too surprised in a way like “So this is what Tokyo is like!” But as expected, going to an entirely unfamiliar place and meeting people you don’t know was a little unnerving. I went to this hall where there were a lot of people from the record company, and a final assessment was held. I got permission to perform in my usual style and sat cross-legged while playing the guitar. Although I was instructed to perform 2 songs, I sang a bit of a third song. I did the songs the way I did during my street lives. That is why instead of expecting some kind of response from the audience, I treated them as if they were casual listeners who stopped by to listen to my performance. Since I was really nervous, I recalled how I did my street lives, and decided to perform in the same way. Memories of how amazing Bianco looked when I first saw them surfaced, and I wanted to reproduce that same feeling in my performance. Instead of 2 songs, I did 2½ songs. The song “I know” was a song which I composed a little while back, and since it was a song full of hope, I wanted for them to listen to it, hence I sang just a teeny bit of it. But as I was kind of afraid that they might be annoyed at me for singing more than 2 songs, I quickly left the place after that before I got told off or something (lol). I left without making eye contact with anyone.


Picture credits to Reset.

# When and how did talks of debut take on a more concrete form?

YUI: There wasn’t exactly a detailed notification that I was going to debut. Rather, after discussions with the record company, I began to do a lot of compositions. So it was like I sort of saw that coming.

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Next: ROCKIN' ON JAPAN Interview Part 10

The remaining of this interview is translated by non-other than uchihamel 大先生 from YL.



Say thanks to uchihamel for the translation ;)

Previous translations: Part 1 - Part 2 - Part 3 - Part 4 - Part 5 - Part 6 - Part 7

uchihamel: Italics

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Song writing, Performances

# How often did you go each week?

YUI: … And in the midst of all that, I could feel myself wanting to learn more about music, becoming better at playing the guitar, and I was really happy. As such, one day, when someone from the music school said that he was giving me a guitar, I was elated. Having my own guitar made me feel very happy. That person also said to me “Should you lose interest in music someday and neglect it, I will be asking for that back”. And so I brought that guitar home. When I was going to practice at home, the sound of the guitar was loud, so I figured that I would not be able to practice at home. Instead, I went to places such as the paths in the rice paddy field or the seaside to practice the guitar. Doesn’t the body of the guitar feel a little chilly, or cooling? Or it could also be due to the fact that I played it during winter, I’m not sure. But I think I definitely became accustomed to this coolness over time. This allowed me to calm down. I felt secure too. Gradually, I became better at playing the guitar, and probably as there were many people around me who were composing their own songs, I naturally thought of trying it out too. As such, I started by attempting to create a melody in accordance with the chords. Before then, I had no idea that this was the way in which tunes were composed, so when I learnt of it, it had quite an impact on me. I was extremely thankful for being able to gain such knowledge. I would first strum a chord, and then somehow affix a tune that gave me a good feeling to it. Then as I went along, it gradually became a melody that was reflective of my own style. From there, I worked on the finer details of the song.

# The first song that you ever composed was “Why me” am I right?

YUI: Yes.

# What was the process of composing that song like?

YUI: As it was my first time trying to match the lyrics to the melody, it was pretty much trial and error. It was rather difficult indeed. I think I approached some people for advice, but I tried to match the lyrics to the melody in my own way. At first, the lyrics of ‘Why me” was entirely in English. Halfway, I changed the lyrics to Japanese and sang it. Upon completion, that special feeling of having a song which belonged to me just felt very unbelievable, and I was simply overjoyed. From then on, whether I was at home, or in a vacant room at the music school, I worked a lot on compositions. I was in contact with music every day, yup. And so, I composed 2 to 3 songs based on my feelings. Rather than saying that I got the hang of things and knew which direction to go in, it seemed more like I composed melodies based on the chord progressions I liked and so on, and in this way, more songs were created.


Song making session. Picture credits to Reset.

# Even now, you said that you are not familiar with things such as fashion, or other more girly stuff, but are there no other things which have caught your attention?

YUI: I don’t think there was any. I do read books now and then, but besides that I don’t think there was anything else. Music was really enjoyable and so, in a good way, I was totally engrossed with it. I was happy that it (my music knowledge) was slowly taking shape.

# Around when did you begin your street lives?

YUI: If I’m not wrong, it was after I composed “Why me”. It was to train my courage (to perform live in front of others). Other artistes such as Bianco often did street lives, and had their own following of fans. And so I was allowed to perform the opening act during their lives. It was truly good training for gaining courage. As it was my first time performing at a street live, I did not have the slightest idea about how it would be like, my mind just went blank and I could not even play my chords properly. However, Bianco was just next to me playing their guitars, and also sang the chorus along with me, so somehow I managed to get through my first ever performance like that.

# Approximately how many people were present at that live?

YUI: I think there were more than 20 people. They were all spread out in front. That’s why I was really nervous. But as they are all Bianco Nero’s fans, the atmosphere felt warm, so I was less worried about making mistakes. After that, when Bianco Nero performed at summer festivals or at temples, I would go along with them, and then perform a song for the opening act. And after singing, the uncles who came to the summer festival would approach me for an autograph. At that point of time, I recall simply writing my full name in kanji on their backs (lol). I was thinking if it would be okay since it meant ruining their t-shirts (lol). Those were good memories, yes. When I first started out doing solo street lives, I chose the spot where I first watched Bianco Nero’s live. That time the 4 of them were sitting cross-legged on the ground and playing their guitars, and now it was my turn to do the same at that spot. Everything began from there. Bianco Nero appeared dazzling when I first saw them, and as I kept wondering to myself what they were seeing and what sort of emotions did they have while singing, when I performed solo street lives it really held a special meaning for me.

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Next: ROCKIN' ON JAPAN Interview Part 9

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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.

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

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Misc Rants on March 27 YUI LOCKS:

I listened to this when I was commuting to work.

That Sapporo guy reminds me of Hata Motohiro. Me (and YUI) love his voice.

YUI x Hata Motohiro......nice collaboration?

Piano x Dreamatone x Drum version of CHE.R.RY was GREAT too!! 12 years old these days...*ashamed* Mari chan wants to join badminton club too when she enters secondary school. Every time I hear CHE.R.RY's intro, I'll get all 'goosebumps'. Superb cover!! Saikou~

Btw, Dreamatone is something like this. It is the name of a synthesizer by Kawai, with two keyboards. Hence YUI (and me) didn't know what Dreamatone is, just like when we talk about Telecasters and Stratocasters in front of non guitar players haha.

Japanese dialects are interesting, both Hakata and Hiroshima dialects. Good thing that I have learned a little bit of them this semester. Can understand abit.

In Jyuugyou ato no hitokoto, YUI said that she'll play three songs from new album I LOVED YESTERDAY in next week.

Let me guess...No way, Love is all, and OH YEAH??

Our present will be delayed for another week then. Maybe more than a week, because YUI has to promote her new album.

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I will love you

YUI: It's not I love you, but I will love you.

Listen it at YouTube.
Chords: tsunvun86
Chinese translation: triperさん
Romanji: Ibara no Umi
English translation: Teo aka atheon
(Special thanks to ah Mel and Fuji Apple for helping out)

Lyrics: YUI
Music: COZZi

Close the book that I have been reading
I received a call from you unexpectedly
Wanting you to take me out
Without thinking further I say Right after this

Nee come and pick me up

Even though you were smiling unenthusiastically
On the other side of phone
You answered. Didn't you?
When we started getting to know each other, even by just a bit
That kind of joy I'm feeling it
I will love you.

With T-shirt matching jeans
In my usual clothes Not even try to dress up
Looking at myself through the mirror
I'm sorry, do forgive me

Car horn sounds

Even though you were smiling unenthusiastically
From the car window You waved your hands toward me
When we started getting to know each other, even by just a bit
That kind of joy I'm feeling it
I will love you.

Every time love starts to take off
I always suffer from all these negative dreams
These feelings seem to go away
As the time quietly passes by

When our eyes met each other That serious look of yours
startled me even more than usual
Ah, is it my imagination?
When we started getting to know each other, even by just a bit
I'm feeling you
I will love you.

I LOVE YOU~

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I'm sure you guys will love this song even more once you understand the lyrics. As the album director, Hishashi Kondo puts it:

Love is filled with things such as insecurities and missing out each other. The moment when we realised that we are in love.

This beginning of love
Which has never had before

Being able to be oneself as spontaneously as possible
Feeling the joy of oneself

We present you this affectionate and charming song.

In my opinion, the melody and arrangement of the song will decide whether you'll like it or not on the first listen. However, it's the lyrics which is gonna decide your love towards certain song. When I first hear I will love you, the arrangement caught me. I like it's soothing, relax-y combination of drums and guitars.

And then the lyrics, it is simple and straight forward. I don't really believe in love at first sight, falling in love should be something like what YUI described in this song. As you get to know that person bit by bit, your feelings toward that person will get stronger and you will start to think: Okay, I might love this person. You wanted to make yourself more presentable in front of that person but at the same time, you don't want to be too obvious. Hence, it is better to remain as it is, being yourself.

My friend once told me, if your impression towards certain person starts with 100% (aka perfect match), 100% can only go further down but not up, or worse, fluctuates lol. If certain person leaves you a bad impression (maybe 10%), as you know more about that person, the percentage will slowly go up at the same time. I think this is what I will love you is all about. Loving someone should be joyful, not suffer.

期望越大，失望越大。(Higher expectations, bigger disappointment).

Sometimes we should be more contented. Simplicity is the best. I love to play this song too, because it is not too difficult to sing along, haha.

Somehow I started to think that I LOVED YESTERDAY really will be the 'Greatest Third Album', like what YUI said confidently in almost every interview. We shall wait and see.

Oh I think I will like other 'love songs' xD


Finally, a live performance of Laugh away~ I LOVE Bokura no Ongaku~

I tried to come up with a more attention grabbing title (kononnya SEO), wonder if this sounds right or not.

Finally, after 3 months, my letter to YUI has reached Japan and was read out aloud in YUI Locks, YUI's regular radio show, on Thursday, 6 December 2007.


Our letter is the square one with blue airmail sticker.

Before that I thought I might have to send it again if YUI didn't mention our covers in the next F Generation segment, in case the letter got lost. Didn't want to waste all the effort done by fellow YUI lovers, spending god knows how much of their precious time to make these wonderful covers of YUI songs. Excluding my cover of Thank you My teens lol.

As the Chinese proverb said: 皇天不負有心人, at last, after all the anticipations I had every week for the past 3 months, my letter...my letter...was read by YUI, well ironically, when I was sleeping.

The next morning after YUI Locks was aired, I saw natsumi's text message around 4 am. Without thinking further I walked slowly towards my computer, trying to act all calm. But I was extremely excited inside.

To my fellow readers who is not members of YL and wondering what on earth am I talking about, please refer to this thread. This is regarding "Send your guitar clips to YUI @ YUI LOCKS!" thing going on in YUI LOCKS. YUI played our fellow YL member, Alanna's LIFE and this time...

She aired another forum member, anas604's English version of TOKYO on December 6 YUI LOCKS, and mentioned my name. Since I was the one who wrote + sent the letter =P I get the recognition~

Normally I don't post download links (upload them at somewhere else) but since this is such a memorable event, I cut out the part where YUI mentioning us and here's what she said:

Oh before that, download the file here.

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Before that it was some crazy rock version of LIFE. Interesting stuff lol.

Minute 00:00

YUI: There's more. Next is another oversea entry, by Teo san from Malaysia.

Hajimemashite, my name is Teo. I'm a Malaysian Chinese, as the representative of YUI International Fan Community (with members around 3000 presently), I have something to give YUI sensei. Actually the cover aired on July 5, by Shinigami from Canada, they are members of this community too. After I listened the broadcast, I really couldn't believe it, I was so happy until I couldn't sleep. Immediately I informed this big news to our members, and Shinigami was glad about it too. This time I represent our community to send YUI sensei covers by members from different countries. YUI sensei, please come to oversea someday ya.

YUI: The letter too...was written in Japanese, well normally people from oversea will write something such as "konnichiwa, YUI san you are angry? You have angry?" they wrote things like that but this one feels like it was written effortlessly, jyouzu desune. (She's good don't you think so?)

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LOL I'm honoured *blush* Before that she was kinda poking weird Japanese written by foreigners, just like us making fun of their Engrish. Btw, from what I've heard, if you can speak even a little bit of Japanese such as greetings, kawaii and things like that, it'll be enough to be complimented by Japanese. So I shouldn't be that proud of it, even if the compliment is from dear YUI. Of course I'm happy. Like YUI always said:"ureshii desu." every time she received nice comments from other people. To me, no other words can describe this.

Notice that every time YUI mentions Alanna's band, Shinigami, she will make those funny accents. Very the cute.

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Minute 01:05

YUI: So Shinigami san was glad about it too? Great! Seems like my message...reached there too. Arigatou gozaimasu. えー this time, among the 16 songs included in this cd-r, I would like to listen Awa Amran san's TOKYO English version.

*anas604 - TOKYO (English Lyrics by Kevin Hilde)*

I even tried to call my family before I got too far 
But then what was there to say, so changed my mind
I rolled along a little suitcase, carried one old guitar
I've left all of my photographs behind

If I'm to allow myself to grow, Some things I must let go
Is this what's repeating in my mind?

Minute 02:11

YUI: This has yet another different feeling, this English version. But changing from Japanese and sing in English relatively might seem very difficult, yet the English lyrics fits the melody well. It's like...a totally different feel and I think it's really suteki (wonderful). Ureshii. A CD consists of 16 songs, sent to me, that means every one submitted their covers to this Teo san, to me right? I'm really happy, and grateful about it. Shinigami's version of LIFE was great and at the same time, Awa Amran san's TOKYO is wonderful too, ureshii desu. Why am I sounding as if this one's better? *laughs* And Teo san mentioned that "Malaysia has lots of delicious food so please come ya", included in this letter. Delicious food sounds good. Anyway, thank you guys for all the entries I received!

BGM: HELP

arigatou gozaimasu - thank you
ureshii - happy, glad, delighted
suteki - wonderful, lovely, marvelous

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That's all. Did I miss out anything? In the end dear YUI said that since everyone is enjoying themselves, making different covers, from now on submission is open to ANY YUI songs, it does not have to be LIFE. In the future she plans to have fans sending in their original works *hint* *hint* It can be any genre, please write and sing it, and she will support us!

So people, start flooding School of Locks' mail box!! Just send anything to the following address:

〒102-8080
SCHOOL OF LOCK内　バンド部「YUI課題曲」係

If you guys have any questions feel free to ask me. Good luck!!

Btw, fellow YL anas604 is a Malaysian too, check out her other YUI covers, AMAZING stuff. Judging from YUI's comment, I think she really likes it a lot. I am just a representative, not the one who's singing, we should congratulate anas604 instead. Japanese fans seem to love it too, some of them left nice comments in YUI-net message board. According to anas604, this English version was requested by Kevin Hilde after he saw her covers in YouTube.

My actual thoughts: This doesn't feel right lol. I'm really happy about this. It is not often that your name mentioned by the artist you look up to, more than once. It was as if a dream, and I thought that 'Teo' YUI mentioned is somebody else instead. It's amazing that though us fans never seen each other, we do all these cool stuff together, thanks to the internet. I really appreciate it. Hopefully someday, we can meet each other in 'somewhere'.

Once again thank you guys for your wonderful comments! I re-listen some of the covers (not my pathetic attempt) again, all I can say is great job YUI LOVERS!! Keep on 'covering'~ and ROCK ON!!

If I make any mistakes, I might not be able to correct immediately, because I cannot access to the internet in my house.

Till then!

PS: I wonder how many times I have listened to this xD

This translation needs to be digested slowly. It is freaking long.



Chinese translations can be found at triper san's blog, he had translated the whole thing.

Part 6 & 7

Disclaimer: My JLPT level is only 3, my MUET (some stupid Malaysian English test) is band 5, just giving you guys a guideline on my language ability (I don't really know how to measure these things anyway, what do mean by 'fluent'?). Sorry if I made any stupid grammatical errors and tell me if I made any factual errors. Don't believe in everything I wrote. If you wanna copy anything from here, please ask your future readers to stop by my blog, to increase my blog traffic LOL.

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

Teo: Italics

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Quitting School

YUI: Of course there were times that I spilled tea on customers too. Then a lady whom I respected that time came and said:" Go ahead and do something else instead ya." while lowering down teapot, apologised to the customer for me. I always think that they are wonderful grown ups, when seeing such figure from behind. I was motivated by such consideration, kindness, too. I thought of wanting to improve myself even more, hence I tried my best in just about everything, with utmost effort as much as possible. To me, that time turned out to be quite a beneficial period.

I can sense redundancy...screw it lol.

# But- having only ~2 hours of sleep, means almost no free time, right?

YUI: That's true, yea.

# The time during classes or recess will be...

YUI: I ended up sleeping most of the time.......Instead of communicating, I felt asleep. It was such a waste right? Too many things just need to be done. And...because of not having much time, I even stopped singing songs as well. Besides, I realised it by chance. "Ah, I don't even sing these days..." I started to have such thoughts. I'm sure from there, "Ah, I really wanna sing." Such simple emotion was born, and gradually these feelings were accumulated to a certain extent. Passing through paddy road, on my way home by bicycle after finished part time, I would lean on the telegraph pole, taking off one side of earphone, listened to the music, and sang along. After doing so every time, it relaxes my mind. While thinking along that I really like music after all. Yea things like that somehow calms me down. Because of that, when I happened to think of my future, things like perhaps there isn't any music path came to my mind. When I thought of that, somehow I would feel as if a gaped hole opening in my heart.

# Continue living that way might be the reason you decided to quit high school. But how was it like the whole process?

YUI: Well, something like that, because of living in that way laid quite a burden physically, or around end of high school first year, one day my cold went bad and admitted to hospital. It was pneumonia by the way. All of a sudden my time was less occupied after entering hospital, because of that I had more time to think. It was about two months. On that time, the feeling of "ah, I want to do music after all" grew even bigger.

Besides thinking, dear YUI finished whole series of Harry Potter available that time too lol.

YUI: On the way back from high school, every day as usual I would stop by musical instrument store, looking at some band recruiting members poster thing, always thinking of joining. I like to look at guitars too. I have contacted those who recruiting members before as well. Actual meeting with them and asking them about it was around twice. However, maybe I was too young in terms of age, plus I thought that it would be difficult for me, I never received any follow up.


Picture credits to Reset.

YUI: That feeling of wanting to make music raised when I was in the hospital, was accumulated as well, and in some way it became stronger. Hence, I was thinking of maybe I should quit school or something. Plus, I was having problem, financially. No matter how hard I tried to pay the school fees, it was still not enough, and kept pilling up more and more. That worried me too. If I were to put my utmost effort into something at any rate, only the feeling of wanting to make music can make me stronger. If that is the case, since it is impossible for me to swing both sides for sure, thus when it comes to the time when I have to decide which one I really wanted to do the most, of course I felt more towards the feeling of wanting to pursue music.

Even more redundancy lol.

YUI: This is gonna be the first time I talk about...I once participated in one, small audition thing. I think I saw it in commercials or something and I had no idea how big the scale was. That thing was small, and I happened to come across it. I joined it before I was admitted to hospital. I was informed that I entered final stage when I was still in the hospital. Since I was already getting better, I requested for permission to go out, and went to that final audition. I really thought a lot about whether I should pursue music or not around that time, hence if I failed that audition, I will give up once and for all. It wasn't because that without the talent, no matter how you tried it will still remain meaningless, since this is a serious matter...that was how I thought. Even though I was still recovering, I sang in the audition and guess what, I won the competition. Because of that, I had this proof to persuade my parents, maybe I should try to work on this, such feeling came to me as well. And that started to motivate me. If it wasn't for that audition, maybe I would just quit from there. After discharged from hospital, I thought of trying my best in the path towards music. Definitely it wasn't because that I was told that I have the talent but, they could sense that I had this strong urge to pursue music, hence it turned out that I wanted to pursue the music path after all.

# Around that time you still haven't start writing original songs, right?

YUI: Yea I didn't write any original songs. I didn't even have a guitar. That time I sang Japanese songs.

# 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.

To be continued.

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Hmm I actually translated the whole thing...almost word by word, so that you guys can interpret it in anyway you want. Hopefully after reading this, you will get to know more of this girl called YUI.

5 more pages to go.

Till then.

Next: ROCKIN' ON JAPAN Interview Part 7

Finally part 5 lol.



Chinese translations can be found at triper san's blog, he had translated the whole thing.

Part 4 & 5

Disclaimer: My JLPT level is only 3, my MUET (some stupid Malaysian English test) is band 5, just giving you guys a guideline on my language ability (I don't really know how to measure these things anyway, what do mean by 'fluent'?). Sorry if I made any stupid grammatical errors and tell me if I made any factual errors. Don't believe in everything I wrote. If you wanna copy anything from here, please ask your future readers to stop by my blog, to increase my blog traffic LOL.

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

Teo: Italics

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High School

# In the second half of secondary school, I'm sure people around will start to think about their futures and paths. How about you?

YUI: For me......I couldn't foresee how will it turn out at all, I think I became really anxious about it. And then came high school entrance examination. It was quite difficult to travel back and forth as well. So, since I heard there are places with so called distance education system and it's cheaper, I have decided on my own to take distance learning. However deep down I still hope that I can attend high school. That's why I only said it at the very last minute, after I have decided on distance learning. Of course parents will let you attend schools for sure, it is not money related or any other matter, because they kinda have this feeling of sending you there. Even though I was the one who suggested that, I kinda had the feeling that they wanted to send me there. Because I knew that, I chose distance education system. But I still wanna go, I thought. Hence, I entered a private girls high school.

The main thing is, YUI wants to go to school, instead of study at home. When I first knew about this, I was like, people only 15 already considering lighten up her mom's load, and me?? Still receiving money from them, till now =x

# You decided to attend school at the very last minute, why is that so?

YUI: When I was in secondary school 3 year, I think it was from a soccer player, in a magazine or book or something, his comment was in it. "We have to cherish encounters when we are still young, and it's important to talk with as many people as possible." was written on it. He is a very famous person, and has this persuasiveness. That really fired me up. Meeting up with different people, it is important after all. I thought. It's like, having that interest towards new encounters or something. I thought it will be a real waste if through distance education system, I lost the chance to involve myself with people. Hence, when I said "I want to attend high school", in me I have decided I will pay the school fees myself, as a condition. If it's distance learning, on the contrary, I think I might earn more if I just work for a little bit. But if I went to normal schools, I understand that just paying the fees will be not enough for sure, and I think it will be difficult. Hence, even before entering high school, I started to look for part time jobs. Then I began to work in a Chinese restaurant nearby my house. I felt that I tried real hard to memorise things, because I entered this busy place immediately, without knowing anything or any practice. After a while I started to go music cram school, on the other hand since I frequent to city more than hometown, I began part timing in the city. Being able to get travel allowance was another reason. That was why I think I worked in the Chinese restaurant around half a year. but I gained really valuable experience from it. Such as how to deliver, mainly on serving customers. In school there was such thing as forbidding over working, and we have to submit a form regarding part timing. But if submitted I will be restricted to just twice a week or something. That was why I kept silent. "I've managed to enter, based on this let me in , please", because I said that, and just entered.

# Attending high school at the same time, doing part time almost everyday, physically it was quite tiring isn't it.

YUI: Yea. But, going to school using my hard earned money, I think it's a wonderful thing. Plus it was fulfilling, mentally. Because of that, I'm gonna get perfect attendance prize for sure! Filled with that spirit, I treated schooling seriously and enjoyed it.

# In the mean time, regarding music, and your future things like that, what, and how you thought of it?

YUI: I didn't even have enough time to sleep. Roughly 1 or 2 hours per day. It was quite a blurry period of time (laughs). I felt because of that, the time for me to think of these things gone slowly. I remembered that when I was in a packed train 5 or 6 in the morning, I wished to make a bed here and sleep on it (laughs).



# (laughs). 1 or 2 hours of sleeping time consider really impressive.

YUI: It was quite...a great feeling, I suppose (laughs). But my main goal was: Going to school, wish to treasure every encounter I have, and, looking at the adult world and gained new experiences through part timing, motivated me a lot as well. However among all these, mostly were a bunch of difficult stuff. After considered about what I thought and my worries seriously, I was able to look at things in a new perspective. And realising that I must work harder. I got a lot of criticisms when part timing, it was inevitable but, through that, I realised that we cannot wait for assistance from others forever, or having the thought of waiting people to spoon feed you everything. We have to take responsible on every action we made. That's what I felt the most. I really learned a lot from that place, one thing by another. There were a lot of great people around me, I think I have learned a lot on how to be a better person as well.

Next, hospital and quitting school.

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This is what I managed to 'squeeze' out. Hope you guys can get to know more about dear YUI from this. It is a really inspiring interview, no matter how many times I read it, I am still touched by it. I know it's long, but, that's how to get to know a person. Successful people usually don't complain about all the hardships they faced to reach the position they're in now, those who complain are the ones not working hard enough.

So, I shall do my homework and stop YUI-ing lol.

Till then.

Next: ROCKIN' ON JAPAN Interview Part 6

Just wanna share this with you YUI fans out there that everything is possible, and someone did it =D

Finally, someone from YUI Lover forum was mentioned by dear YUI!! Some more YUI read her name and played her band's cover of LIFE!!! I'm kinda part of it so I was really happy about it as well, proud to be a YUI Lover~

It all started from this thread in YL:

Send your guitar clips to YUI @ YUI LOCKS!!

Which you can either play F chord or do a cover of LIFE and send it to YUI Locks. Dear YUI will play these audios from time to time in the show.

Our forum member Alanna16's CD reached YUI Locks!!



It's the white color envelope with Fragile CD written on it xD



Dear YUI holding the ACTUAL CD *gasp*

I shall cut the crap and tell you guys YUI's comment in that episode of YUI Locks.
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Minute 10:55. Before that YUI was talking about how she recorded her stuff, from cassette tape (pressing both record and play at once lol, brings back all the memories) to MD (remember TOKYO PV??). Then to all the different recording gadgets available now.

Again, sorry for the weird English. And yes I translated word by word. Because it was something...really important for us YLs =P

YUI: Next, this one's awesome, crossing over the seas, received it from a place called Toronto in Canada. Seems like it was from a band called Shinigami. "We've played our favourite song, LIFE!" "Take a listen to Shinigami's version of LIFE ya~" or something were kinda written on it.

Original message was all in English:
"Dear YUI Locks, We are from Toronto, Canada. We hope you enjoy our version of LIFE (it is our favourite song!) Thanks for listening. Rock on!"

It's obvious that YUI (or someone else) translated it to Japanese, if not YUI won't use so many times of 'mitai na, mitai' when introducing this clip lol.

YUI: In the end of the message you see, 'Rock on!' was written on it. Kakkoi! For no apparent reason you will just feel like wanna say it out, "ROCK ON~!" うん. Lets hear it shall we? LIFE, Shinigami's version.

Music: Shinigami - LIFE

YUI: はい、*in western-ish tone* Shinigami's version of LIFE (laughs). You know, the writings on the CD, as I said earlier "listen to it ya" that comment part, members names (probably) were written on it. Vocal, Nezy, lead guitar, Ahin? Rhythm guitar, Alanna (our dear forum member!!), piano, Jimmy, bass, Eric, percussion, Nido (or Niro?), drums, none, were written on it. Oh yea, seems like there's no Japanese names on it isn't it. But then it sounded very Japanese isn't it? Wonder if they can speak Japanese or not...However the best among all was this included "Rock On!", and with the band name 'Shinigami', without thinking further it was "SOFT!" (laughs). I was really surprised by such soft/ gentle sound. うん. And then you know, I was thinking how on earth they managed to listen to YUI LOCKS, maybe their friend (tomodachi) told them about it?? I guess so.

That 'tomodachi' YUI mentioned was ME!! ME!! LOL!!

YUI: It seems that not just Japan, there are also LIFE covers from different cultures, I think it's great and I'm really touched by it. Such warm (atatakai) sound was sent to me, I'm really ureshii! (happy, delighted). Hopefully this message can be heard, it will be great. うん. I'm really happy with all the entries received, all of you, thank you very much!!

To dear YUI: Yes we got your message 4 hours later after you made that comment. Or should I say through YUI LOCK's website? (lol rock turned into lock on xD )
YUIさんのメッセージをいただきました～私たちもすごく感動しました!!ありがとうございます!!ロックオン!!

Minute 17:20 - ROCK ON~!!
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Actually I've sent an email to TFM asking them about the address but their reply was...too formal and didn't provide any much info. But since Alanna managed to send it, it doesn't matter anymore.

So, if you guys wanna send it to YUI Locks and have questions regarding it, I'm willing to 'support' you guys.

What about the YUI Lover collaboration?!

Till then~

PS: I just found something, again LOL.

Album: Michael Buble - Call Me Irresponsible



Before that, if you can read Chinese, triper san has translated this interview too, detailedly word by word in his blog. And very the fast too *ashamed* Now I can 'peak' his blog to double check whether if I did any mistakes lol. To triper: Sorry for not leaving any comments in your blog, 'lazy' to create a new account =x

Page 1
Page 2 & 3

So....read his translations instead of mine, because I'm lazy LOL. And, Mr. Reset has 'created' a new Chinese forum, YUI-Forum. Feel free to take a look at it. I mostly 'appear' in the media section hee.

Disclaimer: My JLPT level is only 3, my MUET (some stupid Malaysian English test) is band 5, just giving you guys a guideline on my language ability (I don't really know how to measure these things anyway, what do mean by 'fluent'?). Sorry if I made any stupid grammatical errors and tell me if I made any factual errors. Don't believe in everything I summarised. If you wanna copy anything from here, please ask your future readers to stop by my blog, to increase my blog traffic LOL.

Part 1 - Part 2 - Part 3 - Part 4 - Part 5

Teo: Italics

Today me will attempt to translate it 'detailedly' LOL. See how far I can go.

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Secondary/ middle school:

# You studied in local secondary school?

YUI: Yes. It was a coeducational school. School uniform were those normal sailor school uniforms, and we will wear light blue-ish uniforms during summer.

# Did you join any club activities?

YUI: I joined track-and-field club in first year because I enjoyed running (she REALLY loves to run). However, I was not really good at those human relationships kinda stuff, quited after wards. I participated in long distance running and long jump (*suprised* :O ). I really liked to do long jumps, it was very interesting. Then when I entered second year, I thought that if there's anything I would like to do in school, somehow it will be fun. So I joined basketball club. But, since I only started it during second year, it was difficult to become real good at it isn't it.

Yes I can totally understand it T.T I was 'isolated' too when I joined Chinese orchestra club during secondary school. They rather focus on primary school kids or intermediate ones >.< That's why I can only play 'do' and 'so' in Erhu =x

YUI: However I think it mostly because of the existence of human relationships. I have always been real....suck at fitting in myself, couldn't really get along well. But in second half of first year, I participated in both school club and played badminton at the same time. It was only around 300 yen per month, so I joined. That side was more fun instead. I went there really really often up until I graduated from secondary school. Twice a week, such as Wednesday and Saturday, started around 3 pm. With the thought of wanting to know more and more about badminton, in between practices, I managed to improve myself too day by day. (<- not sure correct or not)

# Do you have any people you were in fond to in secondary school?

YUI: Somehow I think I had. Maybe this person? Might have thoughts like that. But I didn't do thing such as letting that person know or made any positive actions. I think I only did things such as for some reason watching him wherever he went. (<- again, not sure, weird)


(Look at people just like Amane Kaoru LOL)

# How were your interest in music turned into around that time?

YUI: I guess I spent a lot of time with it. Plus, for singing, I just sang whenever I wanted to (weird). I started to write down poetic verses since third year, might have something to do with my interest towards music.

# (Very difficult to translate this part...) At first you just write down things you've heard, then you started to write down your own words isn't it. (<- weird)

YUI: I think so. When I was in third year, somehow I started to talk more with my mother, she once said that when she was in primary school, her sensei praised the poems that she wrote. When I heard it I thought:" Ooo...I shall try to write it too then.", and started to write. Well I always liked to recall back lyrics and write it down, that influenced me as well, perhaps because of these influences writing has turned into a smooth process. I felt as if I'm writing diaries, continue writing it everyday. I had no idea what I was writing at all. Of course those poems written in the beginning kinda stinks (laughs) I think, yea. Once started somehow I just couldn't stop, continue writing it till now, without any sense of discomfort. I guess. (<- I kinda translated word by word, hence the weird flow *swt* )

# That, in the beginning has nothing to do with music? (again, very difficult to translate...)

YUI: Yea. At first singing was just singing out songs, things like that. However, I will write down things in a notebook, and rewrite it neatly too. Or write down things that came into my mind. Even when I moved from Fukuoka to Tokyo, I brought along all the notebooks in case I wanna have a look at it again. The amount just get more and more. Since I moved to Tokyo it increased by a lot too. The ones I've wrote when I came to Tokyo were included in my songs also. When I see it I can recall back what I felt at that moment. Even though I didn't think further when I was writing that time, I think I was able to readjust (rearrange my feelings) myself from it.

......好像答非所問，還是翻譯功力有待加強（汗）

# Do you still remember the very first CD you bought?

YUI: I remembered that it was Yaida Hitomi's CD, album...which mixed in between red and orange-ish colours. (<- don't wanna say the name of the album, again). A uncle I know said that he's gonna buy me one CD, I couldn't really decide which to buy. After listening to a lot of it, picked Yaida Hitomi's CD and told 'I want this!', because the album was in Japanese, maybe easier to understand, and seemed like a good choice. Yea. Since it was the first CD I own, I was really happy about it, listened to it very often too. And memorised all immediately.

# Any other things you enjoyed when you were in secondary school?

YUI: It was still badminton that I enjoyed the most. Entered contests, even joined tournaments for a couple of times. It was really fun. It was fulfilling indeed the time during practices, even when I practiced alone hitting along the walls was fun. I enjoyed serious trainings too. Aiming at the suttlecocks vessel and hit, defeating it as a practice. During summer, it felt great after sweating and returning back home riding bicycle in the night. Really refreshing (laughs).

# In the second half of secondary school, I'm sure people around will start to think about their futures and paths. How about you?

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I think I'm not gonna translate in 'detail' next time.........weird....stick with 'summarisations' better =x I will recheck this post when I'm back, now too 'exhausted' to see it @.@

Really disappointed with YUI Fan Club......guess can't help it. Hopefully I won't missed out that much from all the 'benefits'. Looking forward to this week's YUI LOCKS at the same time. Yuuko sensei~

It's 5:15 in the morning now, and still haven't collect my magazine at Kinokuniya....today I'm gonna go for sure.

Till then.

Next: ROCKIN' ON JAPAN Interview Part 5

Album: Lifehouse - Who We Are (ooo I love Lifehouse~)



Disclaimer: My JLPT level is only 3, my MUET (some stupid Malaysian English test) is band 5, just giving you guys a guideline on my language ability (I don't really know how to measure these things anyway, what do mean by 'fluent'?). Sorry if I made any stupid grammatical errors and tell me if I made any factual errors. Don't believe in everything I summarised. If you wanna copy anything from here, please ask your future readers to stop by my blog, to increase my blog traffic LOL.

Part 1 - Part 2

Teo: Italics

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Kindergarten + Primary school:

# YUI's presence in the class.

YUI said that she considers herself the quiet one, because she was not the ones who talked much or made a lot of noise back then.

# Whether YUI had a crush on anyone.

She can't really recall any of it, she might have liked someone back then. However, she didn't make any moves or what so ever. Even if it's so called 'first love', that person wasn't really the ONE. Some might said it was their nursery school's sensei, but YUI cannot recall any of them. She thinks that perhaps she didn't really understand what is kakkoii (cool) or whatever at that time (laughs).

# Whether YUI feels that she still continues to sing, naturally. (<- weird)

YUI spent most of her time alone at home back then, so somehow she will sing out the songs she heard from CDs or in the radio, and time just went by quickly. Maybe by doing this she was able to distract herself from the loneliness. She can't remember what she sang mostly but since she really liked to memorise the lyrics and sang it back then, she remembers that she memorised a lot of it. When she entered secondary school, YUI remembers that often herself will recall back all the lyrics and wrote it down.

# Any stuff she enjoyed doing around that time.

Plays soccer with neighbouring kids when she went back home. YUI said that a lot of them practicing soccer, and they were really good. It was really interesting. She played soccer in a park just in front of her house in Shinguu. A very big park for soccer playing. You can hear the voices of the kids playing around. YUI lived kinda far from her primary school, about 30 minutes of walking distance. Not many girls stayed around her area, a lot of boys though. Because of that, YUI thought that it was a normal thing for her playing soccer with the boys.

Extra info: The paparazzi of a tabloid magazine named FLASH EXCITING interviewed YUI's neighbour back then and the neighbour kinda confirmed her story about her playing soccer with the boys lol. And in Marquee (Volume 55) interview, YUI said that she would like to play soccer if she have the chance to become a boy for a day.



During midsummer, it was really torturing walking back from her primary school. 30 minutes walk was so intense, as if the journey back to home never ends. YUI will either walk back alone or with some of the girls staying nearby. When somehow no matter how far they've walked and still couldn't reach home, they will start to think things such as: "If somehow we can fly, it should be great ain't it? And we will reach home sooner for sure."

# Since YUI always mentioned her favourite place is the beach of Shinguu, the interviewer asked whether she went there often to play when she was small.

YUI answered yes. She likes to collect seashells and stuff. And, they will have this 'clean your region' battle thing going on, everybody went to the beaches and forests to clean it up, collecting the rubbish and then YUI went home happily with a bottle of juice. She used to do it quite often. Since it was an annual practice, she will have that 'summer has come' feeling each year.

# We all know that dear YUI loves reading, what about the YUI when she was in primary school?

She liked places such as library but she didn't really read that much. That time horror stories were really popular. YUI: I will take a peak at these stories, close the book immediately when I read something really scary (laughs). Even though it didn't really showed on my face, surprisingly I was scared (laughs). With such character, I was kinda a troublesome kid. I won't scream out 'GYAA-!' or anything, but deep down I was really afraid (laughs).

# So there isn't really that much 'overflowing feelings' from you? (sorry lack of vocabulary)

Nope, I think. I don't get angry or something that often too.

This explains the 'lack of expression' from dear YUI =P

# Not even crying out 'Waa-' when feeling sad?

Yea, nope. Ah but when I was in lower grade, I tried real hard to clean up the class and when I was going to take out the rubbish, someone did me a favor and helped me. Not sure why but I was kinda mad about it. Mad as in, I felt that "I've tried so hard to gather it! Just let me finish it myself!!" (laughs) Well, only by that much.

I'm sure I made a lot of mistakes in this section....

Next, YUI's secondary school life.

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Sorry for taking so long, 'busy' sneaking into Japanese forum things these few days. I was listening to GIRLS LOCKS just now (stole it somewhere bwahaha), WOAH Horikita Maki cut her hair short!!



For her latest drama, Hanazakari no kimitachi he (yes...花樣少年). Oh...my...god. I kinda watched the Taiwanese version, *coughs*. I wonder how Maki chan gonna pull it off this time, acting as a tomboy. PLUS, the lead is...OGURI SHUN!! *screams* So, I'm gonna watch it for sure even though it might be cheesy as hell. It won't be that bad right?? Seems Maki chan's been acting a lot of manga adapted dorama lately...



Speaking of Maki chan, back to GIRLS LOCKS. Maki chan played YUI's Umbrella in her show. Apparently she went to dear YUI's concert too~!! After the show she even asked dear YUI to take a picture together, she started to laugh hysterically in the show after saying it =.= 'Excuse me, can I have a picture with you?', that's what she said to dear YUI lol. So cute. Me wanna see picture of them together too >.<

'Stole' Ajikan LOCKS (AKFG) too hee. I have to say that, YUI's voice is still the best to listen to LOL. No matter how much she screws up what she supposed to say, her voice still as soothing as ever =x Listening to a bunch of radio programs with YUI for the past few days (thanks to todd @ YUI-Forum), kinda feeling glad that I took Japanese......

Okla give you guys another info. Apparently to YUI (in 2005), her earliest sleeping time will be 2 AM *speechless...*, and normally she will stay up till 5 AM. And she said that she's trying her best to sleep at around 2 =.= No wonder you can always see eye bags on YUI. That's just show that how dedicate/ hardworking she is, making songs up till so late *salutes*

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Oh yea, Reset 'created' a new Chinese forum, YUI-Forum. Feel free to 'switch' to there, if you know what I mean =x

I'm going to KLCC later and see if these magazines are available:

1. PATi PATi July (<- MUST BUY)
2. R&R Newsmaker July (another must buy)
3. ROCKIN' ON JAPAN July
4. B>PASS July (collecting it)
5. BARFOUT! May (busy buying other magazines back then...)

BROKE T.T

Long post....again.

Till then,

Adieu from


Next: ROCKIN' ON JAPAN Interview Part 4