Wow, it feels like SO much has happened since my last roundup post!
In addition to translating tons of random songs here and there, I was featured in This Side of Japan’s “Friends Recommends” corner! Make sure to check out this fantastic newsletter focused on Asian music, along with the other awesome friend picks.
Friends Recommends #3: Emergency Calls and a Grand Sense of Hope
I also wrapped up the final chapter of the amazarashi “Starlight (スターライト)” novella yesterday. What a wild ride that was! Big thank you to everyone who contributed to the crowdfunding goal on my Ko-fi page, or just followed along as I posted new chapters. I absolutely love translating prose and this story was super interesting, so I hope you give it a shot.
To catch up on some important business outside of this blog before I’m in Japan next month, I’ll be putting a brief hold on commissions. Any commission requests I’ve already received will be responded to and worked on as soon as I’m able to process them, but otherwise the commission request form will be closed until May 1st, 2025. Thank you all so much for your passionate support! I look forward to doing more in the very near future as soon as my schedule clears up 🥰
I’ve been writing this same blog post for ages, so I’m going to post what I already had written even though it doesn’t cover everything I wanted to talk about. Read on for everything I managed to check out in the last few weeks!
The celebration of Nakamori Akina’s anniversary and general return to the public eye returns with another fun surprise for Akina fans: “Meikyo,” a tribute album featuring covers of her most beloved tracks.
I’m super excited to hear Ado’s cover of Jukkai (1984) , especially since I loved her previous cover of Kazari Janai no yo Namida wa. Other notable contributors so far include Nakashima Mika tackling Akina’s heart-wrenching ballad Nanpasen (which is actually a cover itself) and the lovely Hitoto Yo putting her own twist on Kita Wing. More details will be revealed at a later date, but I’ve listed the confirmed covers below.
Confirmed tracks: