A Very Special Letter For You All

I promised posts and here we are.

Still having problems uploading piccies though, grrrr.

So instead I have something special to share with you all.



This is a video of an artist called Angela Aki singing a song called "Tegami Haikei Juugo no Kimi e" or "Letter to my 15 year old self".

Tegami means letter in Japanese and the song is a letter from the singers 15 year old self to her future self despite what the name would imply. The future self reads the letter and reflects back on difficult times and how the important thing is to keep struggling on with life.

It is the most recent song I have encountered that unerringly makes me start crying for reasons I cannot quite articulate.

I found a translation of the lyrics online here.

Greetings,
You who are reading this, where are you and what are you doing now?

I’m 15 and there’s something worrying me
That I can’t talk to anyone about

But if I address a letter to my future self
Then I know I’ll be able to speak my mind

I feel like giving up now, I feel like crying, I feel like I’m going to disappear
Whose words should I trust as I move forward?
My one and only heart has broken into pieces time and time again
And I’m living through painful times now
I’m living in the present

Greetings,
Thank you, I have something to tell your 15 year old self

If you keep asking yourself why and where you should go
The answer will become clear

The seas of adolescence can be rough
But keep sailing the boat that is your dream towards tomorrow’s shore

Don’t give up now, don’t cry, when you feel like you’re going to disappear
Then you should trust your own voice and move forward
Even an adult like me gets hurt and has sleepless nights
But I’m living in the bittersweet present

Everything in life has meaning
So don’t be afraid to follow your dream
Keep on believing

I feel like giving up now, I feel like crying, I feel like I’m going to disappear
Whose words should I trust as I move forward?
Ah, don’t give up now, don’t cry, when you feel like you’re going to disappear
Then you should trust your own voice and move forward
No matter what stage of your life you’re in
You can’t get by without going through sadness
Show me a smile, let’s live in the present
Let’s live in the present

Greetings,
I pray that you who are reading this
Will be happy


Not the finest poetry in the world ever but decent enough considering it has rendered into a foreign language. And whilst I can agree with the sentiment the words themselves do not move me.

Rather it is Angela Aki's performance that gives the words life, even in a foreign language the pained expressions and the mixture of joy and sorrow are immediate and clear. It is a beautiful performance, trying to be histrionic but always just enough
restrained that it avoids being whiny.

Aki is an Italian-American/ Japanese singer songwriter (oddly her Dad is the owner of the English language school AEON). She has had some success with English audiences but she is huge in Japan. I only recently discovered her as a singer but I had come across the song before. Every year schools hold a chorus contest between classes and this year one of my classes decided to sing Tegami. The songs are all invariably from the "enka" genre of music. Basically Japanese folk music veering into singer/songwriter territory. It's not really my thing and thus something I don't pay much attention to but I did like this song. In fact it was my favourite of the day, despite being sung in a language I didn't understand and by amateurs.

I didn't think much of it until I heard this video whilst waiting in Tsutaya (a video rental shop) and I was blown away. Aki's performance just lifts the song out of the usual singer/songwriter whiny syrupiness and makes it soar.

She has swiftly risen to become my favourite Japanese language singer (sorry Gackt).

It helps that she's gorgeous too.



She can do English too. This is her version of the ending theme to Final Fantasy VIII.