いまいなかんじ
-This Month's Drinking Diary-
Translation: Lola

Day after day I keep hearing more about the major earthquake in the Szechwan province.
Terrible news like this has been going on ceaselessly since before I was born.
I hate this feeling, of so much noise closing in around my heart and mind.
I wish I wasn't so sensitive.
I'm glad and relieved it didn't happen here.
All I can do is pray that it doesn't.
And once again, get up today, take my bath, eat and face the recording machine.

(I've been really bad at trying to keep a journal in the past, but from today I'll begin again.)

Tonight, I did an interview in my favorite oden shop *shock*.
It was nice though because it felt like winter outside.
The beer, the octopus and the kelp were delicious.
(You can see the octopus in the picture)
Of course, pickled vegetables are a must have with oden but because we ordered them during the latter half of the meal...they were all sold out...
But that can't be helped at this oden shop, its pickled vegetables are the best. You just have to have seconds.

I woke up late again because I'm chronically hungover.
I'm so out of it, I was exhausted after only being under the hot shower for two minutes.

Huh? ...why do I have a ton of mail...?

Oh right, my wedding announcement.
I got a lot of mail saying 'congratulations'. Thank you very much.
(Actually, the nicest e-mail I got was from Higuchi Yutaka.)

...oh no, I have messages from friends saying, 'why didn't you say anything for two months? Explain yourself!' and the majority of the other messages are people booing me.

Do I need to explain? ...ok then, let's see...

I'll try to explain it so it's easy for people to understand...
The amazing truth is, I wanted people in the fan club, Fish Tank, and friends and acquaintances and everyone to be notified at the same time. In other words, I wanted the fan club notification to appear at the same time as the cards I sent out. (1)

Then...I thought I really can't let it drag on until June. It's just too annoying trying to keep a secret for that long....

(...and then somehow two months passed...)
...and I thought huh? When did that happen?
● Oh!
● Then I thought, hey, we have a home page.
● So all I'd have to do is tell people on the home page!
● The home page is super convenient!!
But by the time I realized that I could post a memo on the site it was sooooooooooooo~ late!!
Anyway, the point is that putting it on the site is convenient for the whole world.
...I just hadn't thought of it sooner. Truly. That's just me.

● So then, I had to talk to the office staff first about it, that was on May 13th and they were all surprised.
I asked them to post the message on May 14th since that's the same day people would get their postcards.
And that's how it happened.

It's nothing special!!
It wasn't a Shotgun Wedding. It was regular. And normal.
(Maybe I should have posted this story on the home page.)
Having to keep people quiet about all this for close to two months has been a real pain you know.
Well, really the only annoying ones were Kacchan and Kiyoshi. *smiles*

(This is so lo~ng. There's no way I can do this everyday.)

● Thank you to Kubo-san for the card design.
● And thank you to Hikage-chan for the nice picture for the Okinawan version.

Some time ago, I got a mail from Hotei-san saying that he started a blog so I bookmarked it and I peek at it from time to time....
So I looked today and was so surprised by the post. And happy. And shy.
I was so dazed I didn't know what to do with myself, so first, I printed the page out.
After that, I wrote him a 'thank you' e-mail from my cell because he really made my day.

Now, I can continue song writing today.

(But I think blogs with pictures are better.)

When I'm working on songs, I can be pulled in a different direction than I expected and those times I feel things sort of complete themselves on their own.
I'm not saying that I get wrapped up in some divine inspiration or anything but rather, it's like the song takes on a life of its own...and I am drawn in by the image it creates.
As a result, I can do things convincingly. But then I wonder if it's really ok or not.
I debate things with myself a lot. I hate it, the songs have complete control over me.

●Today I'm plunging into upbeat song writing with punk and disco.

They say that in spring one sleeps a sleep that knows no dawn but lately, I've been so sleepy~!
Rainy days always make me sleepy but what's spring without rain right? That would be like me without fluctuating alpha waves. (2)

Ah! If only I had pizza to eat!
Oh?!

I bought this figurine earlier when I went out because I was fond of the liberal art concept.

When I was working on songs, my friend Billy came over and made me food.
-sauteed mushrooms
-tuna and onions (that's Billy's specialty)
-tomato salad.

So I took a little break. The food was so damn good and salty!

But...Billy's cooking is made for drinking with...So I wanted a beer.
But if I drink, there's no way I can work on songs.

So I kept thinking about it while I resumed working.
...then he brought the second course...
-French Fries
-sauteed eggplant

...isn't that the most perfect side dish?
No, can't drink. Must write songs.
While I'm drinking it's impossible for me to work and write songs in a magnificent way. I know that.
So, I told him to make himself at home in the living room but that I wanted to work on this song's intro first...........

...I'm siii~ck again. First, I'll take a bath! Yes, a bath!
After that, I'll work on the intro!

I never even gave in to the temptation of drinking!
Just so you know!

I got tons of fresh wild vegetables from my friend.
So I made my brain food to work in the middle of the night.
-Basil spaghetti with taranoki and udo.
I'll eat it and work on music until morning.

.....................................................................................
I'll be blogging again soon. But I don't think this is really a drinking diary is it?

(1) Traditionally, once you get married in Japan you send out these little postcards to pretty much everyone you know announcing your marriage. It's usually a picture of the couple, with a short blurb of text.
(2) Basically, that's like Imai saying 'it's like me not being dazed'. But I kept it literal because...it just amused me how he said it.