Friday is here again! Phew, it has been a long week. Let's round-up everything that's been released in the past 24 hours.

Firstly, Maaya has a new regular radio show: 'from everywhere' to be broadcast on JFN radio stations around Japan from October. The official page of this new website is here, and you will be able to listen via podcast each week as well - hurray! A really cute picture of Maaya as well. There's going to be a little diary part of the website as well, it looks like. A nice surprise! You can email in to the show as well.

Next, Maaya's official homepage has updated her profile with a new Buddy themed photo, you can see that here.

Finally, the official mini promo websites for Buddy, okaerinasai and (well, not yet) driving in the silence have been set up. Mostly the content is what we already know but the photos are beautiful. So go take a look if you have time ^^

'Okaerinasai' Lyrics by Ear

This is certainly not official but I had a go at translating the lyrics to okaerinasai from the PV uploaded on Maaya's official channel by ear. So forgive me if (and when!) the official lyrics come out and they turn out to be completely wrong. That said, they are shaping up to be lovely.

A couple of weeks ago on Vitamin M when she was talking about the song, Maaya mentioned that the lyrics are about the friendship between girls and I certainly know what she means. I've moved around so much in the past three years and now I'm on the other side of the world, but when I go home it is like nothing has changed and my childhood friends are always there to welcome me home.

Anyway! These are certainly not 100% accurate, but for the next month they should keep us going till the official lyrics come out.

Through the remains of the summer rain
I ran to the station
And saw you from behind
In my half sleeved school uniform
I ran after you in a hurry
Drops of water hitting my eyelashes

We knew the beautiful colours of all the kind things in the world
But we didn’t know anything about the world back then

Welcome home to the memories
When you want to cry, when you want to meet up
We will be here
Welcome home
We’re still protecting the dreams we had,
the things we loved
And you

Maaya releases 'Buddy' and 'Okaerinasai' PVs

Well, Maaya certainly kept this one quiet! I open Youtube to find Flying Dog have uploaded two brand spanking new promotion videos to Maaya's Youtube account! Get read for odd clothing, pretty windmills and overall 'Where is this going?' concepts.

The songs are excellent though. I have been won over by Buddy! Maaya looks beautiful in the videos. Another piece of news is that an official concert report of the Tomioka Mill live has been posted up with pictures of everyone getting wet on Maaya's official page. Good Tuesday evening, I'd say!

Enjoy the videos!!

I.D Essay Book - My Ideal 'Thirties' Woman

I seriously love the new edition of I.D. It is the perfect size to hold in one hand! Do I mind that I have two copies of the same book? No! Anyway, I think Maaya answered her own question at the end of this essay at the Budokan concert - sharing her birthday with thousands of people can't be bad!

I really wish that one day an official English version of I.D is translated by a professional and released by Flying Dog or someone...does anyone think that is possible? Would there ever be enough international interest in these books to warrant publication overseas? Girls' Generation have shown it is possible to get official English versions released but...is Maaya just too niche to get the same attention?

I guess that it would cost too much money for an official translation and publication (T_T) still, an official English homepage would be nice!

My Ideal ‘Thirties’ Woman

By Maaya Sakamoto 
Originally published in I.D.

Among my acquaintances there is a woman I shall call Ms. M who is very popular with both men and women. She is eight years older than me and works as a promoter at my record company. She isn’t flashy, has a strong sense of justice and is always smiling. She can get along with anyone. 

Something unforgettable happened when my single ‘Hashiru’ was released. Ms. M had just become my PR manager and it was at the beginning of our working relationship.

In order to promote ‘Hashiru’ Ms. M had been making the rounds of various media outlets such as radio stations and magazines. But without a big tie-up and because I wasn’t famous even if she gave them a sample CD more often than not she was brushed off with, “We’ll listen to it later.” It wasn’t unreasonable, they were receiving several CDs a day and on top of the desk would be a mountain of sample CDs all piled up. Most likely they would not listen to them all.

One day she was more pushy than usual: “This is a great song, please listen to it,” and the other party replied, “Really? What’s good about it?” I don’t know what she was thinking but apparently she sang the first chorus of the song right there on the spot. Ms. M’s unexpected action took the person off guard and it seems they put the CD on straight away saying, “You’re quite a character. OK! Let’s listen right now.” She says that she did it because at that moment she wanted to make them listen just once with all her heart, but I’ve never heard of another promoter who would promote the song by singing it themselves.

Ms. M always puts her all into what she’s doing. She will fall in love with the artists she is put in charge of and does not hold back on her affection. She treated me with more kindness than I deserved.

The night before my third album ‘Lucy’ was released, I went drinking until the early hours with some staff members in Harajuku. At 5am when the shop was closing there were about two other groups of customers besides us. Ms. M, quite pissed, was babbling drunkenly, “She’s amazing! Maaya Sakamoto is amazing! I’ll follow her to the end!”

She accosted the waiter who brought our bill saying, “I’m really sorry to bother you but can you please put on this CD? It goes on sale tomorrow. It’s really good, please put it on.” She’s a pretty devious drunk…I was embarrassed and brought the conversation to a close with a friendly smile, “No, don’t worry about it.”

A little while later, thinking that Ms. M had been in the bathroom a long time I looked around to find her in the back of the shop chatting to the staff about something. She was pressuring them to put ‘Lucy’ on.

Finally, after Ms. M had put the heat on them, the staff really did play the CD. ‘Lucy’ is a nice album but I wouldn’t have said it was a particularly good fit for a French-style bar. But I was really happy and Ms. M cried again.

When she comes to my concerts or plays she is always crying somehow. Before she comes to see them, when the opening night draws near, she will go to pray at a shrine dedicated to a god of the arts on my behalf. She has the quick reflexes of a Kansai woman on her comebacks. She is quick to realise when there is something up with me. She lectures me when I complain. Always laughing, always crying, always getting cross. If I was a man I would want to make her my wife.

When she entered her thirties, as it was an important turning point age-wise I secretly planned to give her a special present. It was something I couldn’t possibly do on my own: I got all the people who knew Ms. M well to write her a message. After I floated the idea to them, over sixty people took part out of their affection for Ms. M. 

What was surprising was that it was not in the least bit difficult to gather all these messages together. All of the participants were really helpful, and all the messages were incredibly detailed and overflowing with words straight from the heart. There was no flattery or things said out of politeness. I understood once again how far and how deep her personal connections went. I had thought of the idea for the present and stuck the messages into an album but in reality I hadn’t done anything at all. This wonderful present was a success of Ms. M’s thirty years of life. This was a treasure that she had created herself. 

When I go over to her house to hang out the album is always on display for everyone to see. The front cover is a cute portrait of Ms. M drawn by an artist she manages. She says that, “If there was an earthquake then this is what I would escape with.” 

When I turn thirty, I wonder if I will be able to celebrate my birthday together with so many people like she did.

I’m not very confident!!

'driving in the silence' tracklist released

Well, the tracklist is finally out! That was a rather exciting thing to wake up to this morning. Looking good! Although when I saw the title of Maaya's own track at the end of the CD my mind did automatically go 'wedding'. Not sure if that is the right train of thought, but there we go.

The site also confirmed that the first pressing edition will have the short movie from Ireland, something telling you how to pre-order concert tickets for December and a postcard with which you can enter a competition for a special gift. Hurrah.Looking forward to Vitamin-M to hear what Maaya's thoughts on this are, and her official site have gone back to Friday announcements - curious! Maybe someone else noticed they were off track too.

1.Driving in the silence　　　 　　　　
Lyrics: Maaya Sakamoto  Music: Shibakusa Rei　

2.Sayonara Santa 　　　　　　
Lyrics: Maaya Sakamoto  Music: Rasmus Faber & Frida Sundemo

3.Melt the snow in me 　　　　　　　
Lyrics and music:Rasmus Faber & Frida Sundemo

4.homemade Christmas 　　　　　　　　　　　
Lyrics: Maaya Sakamoto  Music Eguchi Ryo　

5.Kotoshi Ichiban (No.1 This Year) 　　　　　　　　　　　　　　
Lyrics Maaya Sakamoto  Music: Nagano Ryo


6.Tatoeba ringo ga te ni ochiru you ni (For example like a ringo dropping into my hand) 　　　　
Lyrics: Maaya Sakamoto  Music: Nagano Ryo

7.Kyokuya (Polar Night)　　　　 　　　　　　　　
Lyrics: Maaya Sakamoto  Music: Rasmus Faber & Frida Sundemo　

8.Chikai (Vow) 　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　
Lyrics and Music: Maaya Sakamoto

9.Driving in the silence―reprisel―


Sound produced and arranged： Kono Shin

Tomioka Silk Mill concert gets rained on

The set list for the Tomioka Silk Mill concert has been posted around the internet and the lovely Megumi (who I went to Maaya karaoke with on Saturday!) kindly posted up a report on the Maayas.net forum here. I am very jealous that she got to go to such a one-off concert!

Unfortunately due to typhoon no.15 Maaya and everyone who attended the concert got very, very wet apparently but it seems to have carried on regardless with this rather lovely set list:

1.Purachina
2.Yasashisa ni tsutsumareta nara

3.Hashiru
4.Kaze ga fuku hi
5.Tsuki to hashirinagara
6.SONIC BOOM
7.Kiseki no Umi
8.Ame ga furu
9.Kazamidori
10.Bokutachi ha koi wo suru riyuu
11.stand up, girls!
12.Get No Satisfaction!
13.Magic Number
14.everywhere
ENCORE
15.Okaerinasai
16.Poketto wo kara ni shite

Looking at reports it seems like it was more of an acoustic concert (a bit like the fanclub live I went to in 2009) with a small band. I really like the set list, I want to hear acoustic versions of Magic Number and Get no Satisfaction!

News updates: cover art and bonus goods

Is it just me or has someone on Maaya’s official website gotten so excited about the releases that they forgot all about that whole ‘every Friday we will announce something’ theme and just got hyper-active with the upload button? They are certainly very upload trigger-happy at the moment.

So! News roll. Maaya’s official site unveiled the covers for the okaerinasai single – and very nice they are too! I think we can now safely say all the covers were shot on her trip to Ireland. Very pretty! I really like the limited edition covers for both singles. Really nice!

It’s also just a few days until the concert at the Tomioka Silk Factory in Gunma Prefecture (lucky Megumi from Maaya’s has a ticket!) and on Twitter it was announced that both the re-issue of I.D. and from everywhere would be on sale along with some CD’s – I assume the new singles. 

The latest volume of the Full Moon Recital Hall Bedtime Story is on sale from today and Sai-zen-sen is re-broadcasting it tonight at 10pm (Japanese time.) They also released information about the final volume, it will be spread over two discs with full illustrations etc. and a bit more expensive because of the extra disc and massive illustration book. Looks like a nice volume!

A lot of special gifts at different stores were announced as bonus’ for the new releases as well. Driving in the silence will have a message card at Animate online, the…er…Broccoli(?) Online store will have a special postcard with a message on it as well. Nice one!

Buddy has also been leaked in full on the internet for those of you who are internet savvy.

I also managed to get a ticket for Maaya's performance in Recita Calda which is rather exciting. Apparently it's not a musical, a play or a simple recital but a NEW KIND OF THEATRE EXPERIENCE! Going from the PR material at least, haha. Will let you know how it goes!

Tamayura event reports released - Maaya performs 'Okaerinasai'

(c)Moca News

We heard a few weeks ago that Maaya was a surprise guest at the Tamayura PR event that was held last month. She appeared just after announcing her marriage and sang Okaerinasai to a bunch of lucky fans. Well, reports and photos of the event have turned up. Specifically the seiyuu news site Moca News put up two really pretty photos of Maaya's performance.

Very interesting dress!

Source: Moca News

Kono Shin teases us yet again

With a picture of Maaya and the guys at a recording session. Apparently they've been recording this album this the end of May! Well, this with blog entry and photo, apparently all the recording is finished. Awesome!

See the photo and blog here.

Maaya's official site releases previews of both singles

I think they took pity on us! Listen to the two songs from the okaerinasai single here, and listen to the two songs from the buddy single here.

The okaerinasai single sounds beautiful, two thumbs up for Yumin being involved. Both songs are lovely. buddy is pretty good but something little sounds like a filler track. I know it's a b-side, but still! A big thank you to Flying Dog for uploading the previews!

I have the okaerinasai previews on repeat ^^;;

By the way, a couple of goodies for this release are floating around at various shops. Some are giving away reversable covers if you pre-order both the Tamayura OP and ED singles (the opening is by Megumi Nakajima) whereas the freebie being offered for Last Exile is a stamp card...whatever that is.

Enjoy the previews!

Usagi Drop Essay - Playing Masako by Maaya Sakamoto

Last week or the week before, the Usagi Drop anime website unveiled a collaboration between Maaya Sakamoto and Gekidan Inu-Curry (the illustrator for the universe music video and Maaya’s Newtype column) as one of their website’s special sections. It was an interesting essay but parts of it were a little tricky! Anyway, here it is.

The original can be found here.

EDIT: This post is getting a lot of traffic, I'm glad people found it interesting! Enjoy!

Maaya Sakamoto: Playing Masako in Usagi Drop

Ayu Matsuura, who plays Rin, always stands straight in front of the microphone, her voice cool and relaxed. When I look at her I feel nostalgic, reliving my own days as a child actor, and strangely, I start to want to tickle her. She’s asked question after question from the adults around her, “What year are you at school?”, “Which school lunch do you like best?”, “How is your summer vacation homework coming?” And even this is somehow very familiar.

I wonder, when exactly did I become ‘an adult’?

I started this work when I was eight years old. It’s been twenty-three years from then until now and I’ve never done any other sort of work.

When I was a child acting and singing were simply fun, nothing else. But one day, there was a moment when I thought, “huh?” Wait a second, how did I did I do this acting thing up until now? For some reason I suddenly became unable to do the thing I had always been able to do without thinking. Despite enjoying it, or maybe because I did enjoy it, work stopped being just ‘fun’. And it was because of that I was no longer able to quit doing it. It’s difficult, I want to get better, I want to learn more…Those desires became the driving force for why I have done this for so long, and maybe they pushed me towards adulthood. It’s ironic but if it had just been ‘fun’ I probably wouldn’t have come this far. That’s how I feel now I’m 31 years old. For me, everything that happened was one thing in a long, continuous period of time with no relation to my age or experience, I never feel like I’ve become an adult. .

In Usagi Drop I play Rin’s mother, Masako. Even though she’s a mother Masako is still young and mentally very immature. She’s got a unique point of view and viewers might frown a little thinking, “What’s wrong with this woman?” A childish way of talking, her actions and words showing a lack of common sense…There are probably few people who can emphasise with a woman who has made the decision to keep her own daughter at a distance. She’s an elusive, difficult character. But it’s because she’s difficult that from an acting point of view she caught my interest. I feel like there’s a mysterious link between someone like me who was a child actor playing the role of mother who can’t become a true adult.

I know it’s a little presumptuous of me to put this in as an example in this essay but on this production I worked with Takkou Ishimori for the first time in a long time, and while we were looking at the children in the cast he commented offhand, “I was also a child actor and I started out at about their age. It’s difficult growing up, you know. It was really tough turning from a boy into a man.”

Those words where somehow really deep, and left an impression on me. As a pro he is on a completely different level to me so I was too shy to say ‘I know what you mean’, and could only stand there and nod silently but…Wow, so Takkou-san was also brought up with these two personas, the actor and the normal boy, and with time grew up into this wonderful person…it was a dazzling revelation.

Everyone starts to live as an adult without really noticing when it happens. Even though there are still lots of things you don’t understand or don’t know how to do, there are less and less people who will teach you or get angry with you. Even though you’re busy with your own problems people will rely on you. How others see you and how you see yourself…there’s so much you don’t understand.

“It was really tough turning from a boy into a man.”

Yes, it is difficult, really difficult. Even though I’m pretty much an adult at my age I still can’t catch up with who I want to be. In acting, in life. I think until I can say something like Takkou-san with the same gentleness, I think I will try one thing at a time..

Working on Usagi Drop, it seemed like I was looking at the distant future and the distant past at the same time. Then I came back to myself in the present once again and took a deep breath. I came to work on this show thinking, ‘ok, let’s take a step out into this new scenery’, in full knowledge of my immaturity, and giving it everything I had. Standing next to Rin, I think I started to understand Masako’s restlessness and passion. 

Fin.

  

Maaya composes song for 'driving in the silence'

We’re currently being battered by a typhoon here on Honshu. This is my first proper one, and I’m actually surprised at how strong the wind is even though I have a whole bunch of mountains between me and the centre of the storm. So! I decided to listen to last night’s Vitamin M.

So I was hoping my apartment block wouldn’t get blown away when Maaya announced something that was a pleasant surprise: the new concept album will have a song composed by Maaya herself! This will be the first one (that’s made it to release, at least) since everywhere! And she played everywhere, building up to the news perhaps? She played the first half of buddy again as well, what a tease for those of us on the internet stream!

Other information I gleaned was that Tomioka Mill isn’t a World Heritage Site yet but is currently aiming to be one. I stand corrected. Still, must be a pretty special place. She also had a chat about visiting Europe and Egypt. Including the marketplaces of Egypt and being offered a million types of ball pen.

Maaya said that the recording was almost finished: “The end is in sight!” Recording both the singles and album at the same side, she got confused at times about which song was meant for which release. Then she moved on to announcing that her own song would be included. Hurray!

And ended with Okaerinasai…argh, I want to hear these new songs so badly! Especially since they are on air each week and she already sang Okaerinasai at the Tamayura event. Perhaps I should buy a radio.

Buddy single cover released

Both of them can be found at Maaya's official site here.

©FlyingDog, Inc.

Beautiful. This is the limited edition cover, the regular edition is a monochrome version.