September 19th, 2025 It is now spring here and it's also Takanori Nishikawa's birthday, so I will now unseal the page for the end of genesis T.M.Revolution turbo type D . (customary: haha how is ur name so long)
I've wanted to translate Suite Season FOREVER. The overlooked gem of the TMR canon... Suite Season you will always be famous... Anyway I knew I had to do this properly, i.e. translate the whole thing in one go and make sure I preserve all the intertextuality.
I decided to start in summer and draft each song as the seasons changed. I revisited my drafts over and over again, making small changes every time, while I read an absurd number of interviews from 1999-2000, and thought about what it all meant, until I finally felt that I had figured it out for myself.
So it turns out that translation is a lot like Suite Season itself.
In conclusion,
August 30th, 2025 Two new TMR translations just dropped π I always told myself I would NEVER attempt to translate Aoi Hekireki. Well, in the spirit of the song itself, I've said one thing and gone and done the opposite. The silly idea that maybe I could out-pun Akio Inoue herself just wouldn't leave me alone, so here we are...
Probably. I haven't actually checked. Congratulations!
I'm a kanji nerd tho so I'm actually obsessed with this song. But oh to be 17 again and thinking I could "just go learn Japanese" and then I'd know what TMR was singing about. I had NO clue that he has some of the most idiosyncratic lyrics you'll ever find in pop music. It's SO GOOD. And yet... I have suffered for his artpop... You Are Tricky indeed...Fun fact! The costume in the Aoi Hekireki music video was inspired by Mick Jagger! Harry Styles eat ur heart out.
THANKFULLY the other song, tomedonasasou na bokura, is much more straightforward. For me that is. Not for TMR himself. Hehehe. translator's revenge!!!!!!!!
Made some other small updates to html and whatever... little blurb on the homepage too! WHOA!
Next update will be in a few weeks and it should be a big one π Just letting it marinate a bit more. It's always important to get the seasoning just right! And don't forget to salt your pasta water!!!
May 13th, 2025 heyo! I've been busy lately, hence the total lack of updates...
It's T.M.Revolution's 29th (π±?!) anniversary today! so, I finished up something that was sitting in my drafts for a while.the 1998 KING of JOKER tour performance feels very deliberate too.
I also have another ongoing project I'm working on at the moment with a whole set of songs, but I won't be posting any until they're all complete. I've been trying to work on it as the seasons change (a bit of method acting for the soundtrack to a non-existent movie)... except we keep having concerningly summery weather in May (translator's note: winter solstice happens in June here) π
Anyway if you came here looking for a certain family of artists about you probably know exactly what I'm talking about lol. see u in spring ππ¦
December 24th, 2024 greetings... seasons etc... this year has been busy so here I am doing my second update of the year in December π΅ I'd really like to spend more time on here next year!!!
I translated something a little longer than usual: a Daisuke Asakura interview from 1991, which you can find on his page! I've been reading more non-fiction in Japanese this year so I wanted to try translating something more long-form. The source version didn't feel like it was that long tbh (it's also split across a few sections of the book, which makes it feel shorter), but it's probably at least 6x longer than the average song translation. Didn't really think about that at first though and kept underestimating how long drafting/editing my own writing was going to take me lol (also the danger of getting sent down multiple internet rabbit holes as "research"... π€‘)
In some ways non-fiction feels more straightforward to work on than lyrics, but the length makes up for it!
The other updates are some minor HTML/CSS updates, and changes to my 11ty templates to accommodate more non-song translations in the future π
June 10th, 2024 I've been away for longer than I would have liked lollll. After being sick in December I had this really specific brand of brain fog for a while where I'd be mid-conversation (in English...) and completely forget the ONE WORD I wanted to use. So I took a break from translating things for a while, since that whole process involves swapping out different words/phrases until it feels right, and brain fog on top of that would just be like playing on Hard Mode. It all got better eventually but then I was just super busy for a while π₯΄
Sooo since I was last here, Jaejoong came to my city on his 20th anniversary tour! He did a Q&A thing at the concert and sadly he didn't read out the message I sent him about HYDE, but I like to think he saw it because WHY ELSE would he do his best HYDE impression in Melbourne and nowhere else lmao. he knew that we would understand his artpop...
I'll always hold fond memories of the night Kim Jaejoong decided to discuss the Victorian state budget with us at Festival Hall β‘ And on that note, he has his own page now!
