Another song of Mitzuki Nana. This is quite a rhetorical song, as there are many in contemporary Japanese music. Something like "I am good and I will overcome the bad things, if I put my effort in that"; that wouldn't be bad, I think that we occidentals would really need some of those songs to be sung by our children, but after you hear the 100th in a row, the thematic begins to grow a bit boring.

Yet this is different. If not for anything else, the the poetry used in this song is ranging the highest levels I have ever witnessed. Researched words, when not ancient terms, and elegant expressions, as well as strong images and strict metric, makes this song worth being known above the mass.

This song won't change my life, as it's just a stylistic exercise over a well known and possibly easy thematic... yet, as a stylistic exercise it is nothing less than stunning.

Or "Princess purple". One of the most beautiful rock ballades ever, this song is love pain from the very first note to the very last one. Very dramatic, the lyrics resound of many classical Japanese middle age poems words. I can't take out of my mind the fact that this song may be related with (i.e. inspired by or dedicated to) 紫式部 - Murasaki Shikibu. She was the authoress of the Genji Monogatari, in the first half of 1000 (generally accepted historical records date around year 1021), and that she was a "hime", a title similar to the European "princess", but actually bestowed on many noble women (from about the title of Earl up to the Emperor's wife).

The incredible voice of Mizuki Nana is just perfect here.

Or "The legend of the snow petals". Actually, in Japanese "Sekka" just means "snowflake", but the title of this song uses another ideogram that gets the meaning of "petal", or even "enlightenment".

This is the master's masterpiece. KOTOKO is well known across Japan to be one of the finest lyricist, if not the finest at all, and believe me, even a mean Japanese lyricists is by far better than what we are accustomed to.

One of the most difficult part of learning Japanese is that of learning the writing system. Japanese language is based on a combination of phonetic and ideographic systems, which may be a formidable foe for even the willful learner.

I am explaining here the technique I am employing to learn kanjis, that is, the ideographic characters that Japanese language has borrowed from Chinese.

This song is one of my favorite ever. It's just two guitars and a gentle female voice, which sings a wonderful lyrics. The second part of the song is entirely instrumental, with the voice echoing with the guitars.

Btw, I have learned to play this tune on the guitar, and I must say it's not that easy at it seems.

Always btw, this song was part of the soundtrack of Chrono Cross, a PS2 game. I have never played it, and know little about it, but it's remarkable that one of the best songs I have ever heard was in a game. I think this is another proof that when Japaneses are up to something, they always do their best.

Another cutie song from Bokura Ga Ita. This is the opening... as my wife wanted it so much!

The singer is named "mi". This song is from a girl band of three elements. Personally I don't think anyone of them is particularly skilled. The only thing that makes this song worth listening, which is the electric guitar, is played by a professional session man.

Yet the lyrics are very cute. There's nothing wrong about cute lyrics, isn't it?

Well, a cutie song.

It's part of the well furnished set of cute Ending Themes of "Bokura Ga Ita" (We were).

Actually, I am not in cuite songs at all, but my wife is. So I translated this for her.