Miki's Fat City

Unlike the previous month, things have been moving at top speed since the beginning of this month. It's always like this at this time of the year. They only give me about a week to translate interviews after it is done, which certainly makes me feel pressed. I somehow manage to deal with this pressure so far. The first interview I interpreted is the one with Chuck Rainey. We exchanged emails some years ago for the reason I don't remember so I didn't feel he was a total stranger. But an editorial staffer DI, who has met Chuck before, said to his coworkers that he is slightly a nitpicker. I think it's got to do with how DI sees people. He doesn't seem very open to everybody. I'm afraid that his tendency as such unconsciously appears on the surface that eventually closes the gate to his heart for other people to enter. Poor thing! I find, however, many Japanese people are more or less like him. Is it something like the instinct to protect oneself? I don't kn...

Wow, it's been almost a month since I wrote my previous blog! Well, I wasn't busy for the first 3 weeks of November and maybe because of that, I caught a cold and took me at least 2 weeks to recover. Some of my friends out there must have thought my email response was really bad around that time. Sorry, folks! Blame darned runny nose and hard coughing for that!! I just couldn't be friendly to anyone even if I wanted. I don't know if it was because of sort of misery I felt at that time but I really got into an American TV drama "Criminal Minds" showing on WOWOW in Japan. They have shown 18-19 episodes of its first season so far and will be showing the second season next month. I once got into books about profiling and serial killers in my late 20s but I forgot about it until I saw that drama. At first, I saw the Japanese dubbed version and gradually became interested in the original version. But my initial concern was jargons in English. So, I saw a couple o...

It's sometimes interesting and inspiring to work with music magazine people. When I was chatting with my coworkers in my office a couple of weeks ago, Miyoshi suddenly started talking about a kind of human voice he named "Jacaranda voice." Jacaranda is also called Brazilian Rosewood which was often used for acoustic guitars. It has become a rare wood material that acoustic guitars built with Jacaranda wood are extremely expensive these days. As I don't play the guitar, I don't know how it sounds and how it is different from others. But the word "Jacaranda" just hit me. If he said Brazilian Rosewood, I wouldn't be interested in it. I don't know why but the sound of that particular word sounded very interesting. Miyoshi mentioned a couple of Japanese actors' names to explain what voice he uses Jacaranda for and they are Akira Nakao and Toru Emori. His definition of Jacaranda voice is a mixture of low, deep, fat sound with a sharp edge to it. ...

At last, I could listen to and see the video of one of my favorite songs from 1985! This particular song by Dokken was somehow on MTV whenever I read letters from my friends in Japan when I was living in Colorado. Their letters -- no email/internet at that time -- made me feel far away from my homeland although I never became homesick because of all the lovely people there I became friends with. I still cannot figure out why it was always this combination of the "Alone Again" video and the letters from Japan. But this memory stays in a special place in my heart that often reminds me of the basement of the house I lived in and the chair I usually sat on. A part of the basement was a TV room. I had no idea of what life I would live in the future at that time. Never thought of working in the music industry. It all happened by accident and I never quit once I found my work interesting and unique. I guess a huge seed of my life was sown in Colorado that eventually led me t...

I don't work with Japanese musicians very often but I worked for a talk sessoin of Carsten Nicolai from Berlin, Germany, and ASA-CHANG from ASA-CHANG & Junrei for a web magazine yesterday. I first met Carsten back in 2001 or 2002 when he came to Japan for the first time to exhibit his works at WATARIUM in Toyo. He is an interesting artist who combines visuals and the abstract audio to complete his works. Actually it is hard to appreciate his works for me because it's too complicated and too abstract. Some people would love to indulge in his unique art world for sure. Amazingly enough, his English became better and better each time I met him since then and once he learned how to utilize his new linguistic tool added to his repertoire, he became eloquent. What a man! I was also assigned for the event at Apple Store Ginza on October 22. We didn't have enough time for preparation beforehand so it didn't go well for me. Carsten seemed a bit nervous. It's differe...

Without my asking him or his asking me, Okami, whose desk is right behind mine in my office, suddenly became my manager just for one day! He needed an interpreter for some face-to-face interviews he was going to have at Loud Park '07 on October 21. I had already accepted to work at an interview with Daniel Erlandsson from Arch Enemy and one with Michael Monroe from Hanoi Rocks before he asked me. Then, he assigned me 3 more interviews. 5 interviews total in 5-6 hours! What an operator he is!! Each one is about 30 minutes, which is shorter than usual interviews, and he thought it wouldn't be a big deal for me. Well, it wasn't actually but I had to skip one of Okami's interviews because it started 30 minutes late and I only had 20 minutes before the next interview. One of my fellow interpreters/translators Mariko was there and we had to ask her to be my replacement. Thanks Mariko! I thought she was perfect for that interview because the interviewees are from England and ...

I took a day off to cure a cold yesterday. All I did was watching TV sitting on my couch slumbering. Plus cold medicine upset my stomach badly and I couldn't go back to sleep around 3am this morning. Then I decided to watch a late night movie or two until I became sleepy. They aired this old American movie "SAYONARA" which I had never seen before. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sayonara It's not bad - I should say it's pretty good - because the scenery of Japan in that film is from years before I was born that looks very new and fresh to my eyes. First, I thought Eileen Webster was pretty. But I found I didn't think so anymore after I saw Hana-ogi. She is the beauty! Katsumi was an average looking Japanese woman at that time. I don't know how Hana-ogi is seen to Westerners' eyes and probably definitions of beauty are different now. But this movie shows something true about Japanese people and culture in late 1950's unlikely those weird typical ...

It's a great photo taken by Harper. I never saw such a cute lantern! We don't have Halloween in Japan but people seem to accept it as an imported festivity without knowing what it is about. Just like Valentine's Day and Christmas, some companies picked it up as a new strategy to expand their market. Still, there are not many people in this country that actually make a jack-o-lantern to celebrate it. Japanese people, however, tend to absorb something new easily. Once it is accepted and becomes popular, they would soon make unique lanterns incorporating Japanese anime characters. We'll see. It was quiet this week. I didn't have any interview so I could focus on my work at the magazine publisher I regularly work for. Nothing unusual happened, really. Just go to my office, do my work and come home. It's what most of poeple do on weekdays but the biggest difference I have is that my work there is not a 9-5 type of thing. I can go and leave there anytime I want as ...

One of my coworkers Yuko told me today that she uses online translation software to read my blog. I never thought of it and was surprised to hear that. She also said it worked well. She seems to believe it's because my English is grammatically correct. Well, I never liked or studied grammar, so I suppose it's only because I use easy words and my sentences are short enough to be machine friendly. But I thank her for reading such a boring blog like mine :) I always forget to write about a saxophone player I met the other day, Dave Koz. He is really good at doing interviews. He used to host a radio show and knows how to do it very well. I don't usually go see Jazz musicians play live just because I'm not interested in Jazz. But I became curious when I heard that his fans go see his shows repeatedly. I wondered why and wanted to see one of his shows. It was the first set of the first date of his Japan tour at Blue Note in Tokyo. Fortunately he mainly played movie themes...

I got an oil massage yesterday. I found this massage salon nearby a couple of months ago and liked it very much. The massager there is pretty good and it's really relaxing. I wasn't interested in any massage in my 20's and 30's because I didn't feel stiff in my shoulders or back. I knew the word "stiff" and had heard it a lot from people around me but didn't really know as much about it. I was lucky, I guess. I got interested in massage right after I got divorced. I felt so tired that I needed something to ease the pain inside of me. There was nothing I could do except getting someone else's help. There, I found a messuer in a free paper and booked. I went to see the messuer twice a month for about 6 months. It was mainly for keeping in shape but I began to get fatter for some reason. Then, the massager, who I became friends and often hung out with, got into a cult. Her behavior became weird. It was like I got more fat but lost energy whenever I ...

I just kept hearing this weird short tune in my head on my way back home this evening. I knew it was from a cartoon. I knew a cat and a dog were the main characters. I actually recalled their faces and some scenes from that cartoon but couldn't remember the title no matter how hard I tried. As you can imagine, I ended up searching it online. Thanks Wiki! You are always there for me when I need your help. It's a song from "Ren and Stimpy" and Stimpy's favorite song! You can see Ren and Stimpy dancing to the song on YouTube. This cartoon was one of my Ex's favorites. At first, I didn't like it very much because the characters are not cute and stories are sometimes stinky and gross... I remember saying "Ewww..." many times when seeing it with him. Eventually I kinda got used to it and started liking it somehow. But I forgot it for some years and suddenly this song hit me out of nowhere! What was wrong with me??? Well, I guess it was probably bec...

I worked at a face to face interview with Candy Dulfer this evening. I had not met her before but thought she was pretty when I saw her on TV. When I entered the room, there she was, smiling and guess what? She suddenly gave us chocolate before we introduced ourselves. What a sweet lady! She seems very friendly, honest and open. I have worked with some American horn players but she is difinitely one of the nicest players to talk with. One of the funny stories she told us is about a review in a newspaper after she played with Prince. It said she was like one of the Victoria's Secret's super models playing like David Sanborn. People around her were disappointed to read it but she was actually happy with it and took it as a great compliment! Just because she loves David Sanborn!! Candy, you are funky!!! I forgot to ask her what she felt about being called as a Victoria's Secret's model. But I guess if you were a girl and if you knew what Victoria's Secret is about, y...

Hi to all who happened to come here! I'm a freelace translator living in Kanagawa, Japan. I don't know exactly what this blog will be but I really wanted to do something new that I hadn't done before. As a translator working in the music industry in Japan, I have to think and write in both Japanese and English almost every day. The thing is, everything I do at my work is usually for someone else, which is sometimes boring and frustrating! Now that I have found a place where I can write what I want to say or share with other people, I hope to say goodbye to my frustrating days and hello to exciting future... hopefully. Just hope you guys out there will help me become a better bilingual communicator. Yoroshiku!!