The best feeling in the world

To my heroes, this song is for you

When you ask different people about what is the best feeling in the world according to their own view, you would definitely get a bazillion of different answers.

To me, one of my favorite moments is looking through my blog dash and my posts.

I started off this blog in 2008 out of boredom. When I created this blog, I didn’t even know what I wanted to do with it. I simply thought that it would be cool to have a blog because at that time, everybody had it. Unfortunately, though, since back then I was a mere kid who didn’t have any idea what to post in a blog, not to mention that I also didn’t have as much internet access as now, I abandoned this blog for months, maybe years.

It wasn’t before 2010 that I finally remembered that I had a blog which I hadn’t updated since ages ago. Then I began taking care of it, I posted several meaningless stuffs only to delete them again a few days later, I changed the URL for a hundred times (okay that was exaggerated… XD) before finally setting on my current one, and I also changed the layout only to delete it and return my blog to its default setting. At that time, I haven’t had an idea about what I wanted to do with this blog.

When my craziness about Hey! Say! JUMP bloomed in late 2010; I finally posted a decent something in the blog. I wrote about my craziness and how I felt about JUMP like I would do in my diary. My love for JUMP also led me to my first lyrics post. I found out that JUMP’s Hitomi no Screen lyric in JPopAsia was inaccurate; in fact, it had so many mistakes that even an amateur would notice. Then I decided to post the lyrics I wrote down from listening. My post wasn’t popular, but I liked how it felt. So I decided to post more JUMP lyrics.

At that time, I already began some translation attempts for a few simple songs. I gathered enough courage to post my first translation a few months later, more precisely in February 2011. My first translation that I ever posted anywhere was the opening soundtrack of Ultraman Cosmos, titled Spirit. The song had some personal connection to me, seeing that Ultraman Cosmos was a legendary series back in my childhood. Besides, it was the first time I wrote down lyrics entirely from listening and with very little mistakes. I guess I got a bit confident from that… XD

Then my journey in translating songs began. For some people, I might seem really lazy and unproductive for posting less than a hundred translations in three years. But I like having some kind of connection to the songs I post, and I have a reason for that. It relates to the heroes of my childhood, the ones I never knew, but constantly encouraged me to write and write more translation.

I mentioned in Ijime, Dame, Zettai that I was a victim of bully once. Well, it was true. Though it was not as severe as other bully attacks, it was still a form of bullying that I never noticed until I was older. It all began in elementary school when a quiet me had almost no friends and was constantly being avoided by my classmates. Some of them even directly called me names and say bad things behind my back.

When I got to middle school, I thought things would change. It did, for a few months. Then the indirect bullying happened again. I was avoided like a plague. Maybe it was because I was naturally a quiet person that didn’t talk much and had, well, different interests with people around me. That was when the heroes stepped in.

I’ve always loved manga, anime and Japanese music since my younger days. In elementary school, I read a lot of manga and listened to anime soundtracks on TV. When I got to middle school, my love for Japanese music exploded. I never spent a whole day without listening to at least one track. At home, in between classes, during recess, I listened to Japanese music the whole time. Then as time went by, listening became not enough for me. I wanted to learn how to sing. The only friend I had at that time told me that her sister knew a bunch of Japanese song lyrics, and that kind of encouraged me to remember the lyrics of the songs I loved most.

Then after remembering became too easy, I wanted to know what each song meant.

The translators that put song translations in their sites; they were my heroes.

I would never forget the happiness that bubbled inside my chest when I found the translations of the songs that meant so much to me. Reading the lyrics and translations one by one and learning what each and every word meant while listening to the melody was like an injection of strength I definitely needed. When I understood the meaning of the song, I could feel what the songwriter and singer was trying to convey.

Back then, it was the best feeling in the world.

Years have passed since then, and now here I am. I didn’t know how to thank the heroes of my childhood, the translators; because it’s thanks to them that I could learn Japanese without any professional help. It took me very long to be able to get to this level (which I am pretty sure is still really bad… won’t even qualify for Level-5 JLPT), but it was worth every second.

Somewhere else in this world, someone might be dying to find an English translation of a song that means so much for them. I had been there too. During these moments, I was saved by my heroes. Now I wanted to do the same.

I know I sound overly dramatic; but that’s what I felt.

Right now, the best feeling I ever get is when I open my blog and saw somebody comments about what the song meant to them. It was a small gesture, but to me it was warming. The songs touched me; and I’m always more than glad to see how they touch other people around the world.

Knowing that my translations help someone to feel better is the biggest joy in my life; I could only imagine how it feels for the people who wrote the lyrics and sang the song.

Therefore, right here in this post, I want to thank each and every one of you my readers, followers and passersby. This blog started off as a small invisible site in the ocean of internet. Years later, it had grown into a site with thousands of readers every month. True, it was still very tiny compared with other blogs, but every view counts. It is pretty unbelievable that I, a weirdo, a socially awkward girl, am honored with this kind of achievement: getting to know thousands of people all over the world that share the same kind of love with me.

You, my readers, are my heroes now.

Thank you.

I love all of you.

-mihoshi-