It has been five years since I first heard “Arigatou” by the hip hop group Funky Monkey Babys. It was one of the first Japanese hip hop songs I had listened to. It was also one of the best songs I listened to in 2013.
2013 was one of the most trying years in my life and one of the best too, in terms of music and experiences. There are negative experiences, of course. They could have sidetracked me but I realized I could not control those circumstances. I moved forward with some sort of strength and happiness, which I always have.
I lost people and money that year. I never lose the songs, though. They are always fresh and alive in my memory.
I also do not lose my sense of gratitude and my spirit of thanksgiving.
Funky Monkey Babys gearing up for "Arigatou", their last single. Image from https://mghorn.com
I would not have survived 2013 without the help of a very few people who provided me the tools and leads to move forward after the loss of a job I held for almost five years. They helped me look at the bright side behind the negative events I went through and bolstered my character of strength and happiness. They are the people I keep in my heart up to now.
I feel sad that I was not able to sustain or make better the many relationships I made years before I was forced to resign from work in 2013. The people I met too that year… well, they were just extras in my cinema of life.
I wonder where I did go wrong in my relationships with people. But I believe I am good with the ones I could keep. I pray for all of them, though. I hope they do not have a bad memory of me. In some ways, they helped me make sense of 2013 and make me the person I am now.
Because of them, I strive to find joy in the little things and to live each day as if it is Thanksgiving Day. Forever grateful I will be.
A visit to YouTube to check out Nogizaka46’s single “Synchronicity” and the single album’s coupling songs led me to GReeeeN’s “U R not alone”. Call it good timing.
By the way, “Synchronicity” could be the best post-Nanami Hashimoto single to date. I have yet to confirm if this is Ikoma Rina’s last single with the group.
I have been an avid listener of Jpop songs for years now, yet I have not taken any serious attempt to study the language. My bad! But my ears… or rather, my mind and heart know no language but sounds – beautiful sounds, beautiful harmonies and melodies.
I know, for sure, that “U R not alone” is beautiful but it’s not only beautiful but also inspiring and empowering. The title of the song alone speaks volumes.
What memories does “U R not alone” bring? What it made me recall in life? Lots!
Events 10 years ago
My college graduation
I graduated from college 10 years ago. I graduated without a clear plan or purpose in life. I was unsure what to do, where to go, how to move forward and enjoy life after college.
My college friends went to places and got jobs due to connections or sheer luck. Then I lost contact with them. I felt alone and, in some ways, abandoned.
I was stuck in my hometown for months, wondering what to do and who to approach for help. But I did not spend every day wondering. I did not choose indolence. There were house chores and gardening works to do.
College mates approached me for help
Four months after my graduation, a few schoolmates visited me. They asked if I could help them with some educational activities they were planning to do before they would apply for internship. I did not refuse them my assistance.
If it was not for them, I would end up without income in the second half of 2008, the year of recession. I was fortunate enough to land some short-term jobs.
High School Musical
2008 was also the year I watched the Disney movie High School Musical. Already out of college then, I was without Internet access, newspapers and literary magazines (I read Liwayway and Bisaya), and cable TV (at times, I watched MTV at the homes of rich classmates).
One day, I managed to borrow a few VCDs from neighbors. One of the VCDs was High School Musical. The movie was good to watch but the plot and the themes somewhat turned me off. I liked the songs, though. I have them on my Spotify.
Failed attempt at romance
I graduated from college without a girlfriend or a “conquest”, if you know what I mean. Think my college years were somewhat lame? Say what you want to say. I won’t be offended.
Weeks before my graduation, I met a girl from another school. To make a long story short, I attempted to win her affection. We did hang out together. We even went to places. No conquests, though.
After then, we lost contact in August. Weeks later, we met again in another town. There was an inter-school event taking place and I happened to be in the vicinity to visit a computer rental shop. I saw her – and she was with a man.
I immediately went out of the computer rental shop and ran to her. We exchanged pleasantries. She happened to be on her way to the home of a common friend (more about the common friend later). I went with her and the man she was with. At the home of our common friend, we made arrangements to meet at night after dinner.
When I returned to the place, I was told she left for home. I then learned that the man she was with was her boyfriend whom she reconciled with some time ago. I spent a few minutes at the common friend’s place to process my thoughts before leaving.
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows
Two months after my college graduation and just weeks after hanging out with that girl from another school, I visited the common friend to bring her some roses. She wanted to plant roses in her backyard garden. Sunny afternoon it was then.
I went with her and her family to a nearby elementary school’s ground where a firesoft competition was taking place that time.
Before I left, I borrowed her Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, British edition. Back home, my family was excited to read it.
Helpful advice from a would-be pastor
I and an old classmate met again for the first time since our high school graduation in 2004. He sympathized with me being unemployed and lacking the connection and resources necessary to land meaningful jobs but he raised my spirits. He advised me to be patient. The right job for me will come at the right time, he told me.
Christmas dawn services
2008 was the year I completed the Christmas dawn Masses for the first time. I had the urge to attend all nine mornings of the Misa de Gallo since knowing in 2007 that completing them would make one’s wishes come true.
I admitted I attended the Misa de Gallo out of need but since I was unemployed (or underemployed) that time, why not something different? I had the time… all the time and the energy, so to attend I did. I completed all nine services and made a wish.
Events 5 years ago
GReeeeN, PASSPO, and Morning Musume
2013 was the year I was first exposed to the music of GReeeeN and Morning Musume.
From GReeeeN’s MV for “Sakura Color”, I learned that cherry blossoms are an important part of Japanese culture. By listening to PASSPO’s “Next Flight” and Morning Musume’s “Ren’ai Hunter”, I reaffirmed my taste for dance pop songs.
Of course, GReeeeN, PASSPO, and Morning Musume were not the only Jpop acts I listened to for the first time that year.
Days before leaving the company I worked for that time (more on that), I listened to Tomomi Itano’s “10nen go no Kime e”.
Employment
I left my first company, my employer of four years. I could have remained until Christmas but I was “forced” to leave by one of the managers, an illegal alien who talked too much but did nothing to help me and my workmates.
Days before my last day, I applied at what would be my best employer to date. I was hired the next day after my preliminary interview and application exam. Two days after my last day with my first company, I started at the new one.
Typhoon Haiyan or Yolanda
2013 was the year super typhoon Yolanda devastated the eastern part of the Philippines, leaving thousands dead and millions worth of property and livelihood damages.
For many Filipinos, it was a difficult time to rebuild, much less move on as the people were financially broken and morally and emotionally affected. Many villages experienced blackouts and lack of food, water, fuel, and electricity. In some towns, looting and criminality were isolated incidents, which drove the local officials to implement curfew.
Thanks God, help from abroad poured in.
Reflection
Good songs such as “U R not alone” can help evoke memories, both worth remembering and worth forgetting… lots of them. One memory leads to another.
I may not understand Japanese. I cannot speak the language as of now, but I can feel the lyrics of “U R not alone”, its power and its intent. The lyrics are encouraging, the tune is empowering, and the storyline of the video is inspiring.
I can feel that GReeeeN is speaking to me, reminding me that I am not alone in life.
I may not expect my friends to help me and to be there for me and with me at all times, especially when I need them… when I am at my worst. But God will always send a few people and opportunities to help me live and enjoy life.
Love a song in a language that is foreign to yours? Then it pays to read and understand its lyrics in your language. As in the case of this coupling song from AKB48's sister group, I browsed through its English translation in the Stage48 website – and one word makes certain things “coming back to me now”.
CD+DVD Type-A (Regular Edition) cover of Banzai Venus by SKE48
Graduation Ceremony's Forgotten Things. That's the English title of SKE48's “Sotsugyoushiki no Wasuremono”, a coupling song from their 2011 maxi single “Banzai Venus”. This was released a few years after my graduation, and the keyword “graduation” in the title struck a chord in my memory.
SKE48 ace Jurina Matsui attempts to place a note in someone's shoe locker. Sweet!
Recalling college graduation
Graduation. I forgot to enjoy the days leading to my graduation because I was preoccupied with “helping” my classmates graduate. I was done with my research paper during the previous semester, and I should be relaxing on my last months at school, but no.
Matsui tearfully looks to heaven
I got dragged into my classmates' problem regarding their overdue research paper. Well, mine was overdue too, but I worked on it and completed it weeks before graduation semester. While I spent my summer vacation interpreting and encoding data, my classmates were enjoying theirs, going to places and hanging out with friends. Unfair!
Matsui and company dance to the music
I got dragged because the research instructor told me to help them because if they don't graduate, I don't graduate too. More salt into my wounds as some classmates even “blackmailed” me. I was at a disadvantage, but I don't want trouble. They should be thankful that The Purge movies were not in theaters that time. I could have brought them to meet their Creator.
Friends share a smile
Graduation. Other than that research paper matter, I was preoccupied with wooing a classmate, who didn't graduate that semester. I even helped her research paper group just to get close to her, but to no avail. Five semesters of spurned love, and I can't move forward post-graduation with an emotional baggage, so I decided to stop pursuing. Decision hour was just less than two weeks before graduation day.
Rushing to play tennis
Graduation. I failed to have a graduation portrait taken. I don't have the money.
The pain of recalling due to just one word in a title of a pop song. "Sotsugyoushiki no Wasuremono" is my current LSS. I listen to it with the hope that my counterpart in an alternate reality is enjoying or had enjoyed his/her last days at college. I listen to the hope that I can pierce my classmates' shins with a pitch fork even just in my dreams.
I listen to this song with the hope that I can date SKE48's ace Jurina Matsui one day.
For the music video, please click here. For the English lyrics to the song, please click here.
About Nogizaka46
To date, this is the only "new" song featured here in this blog. So why am I writing about this song? What do I remember about the past that I am relating to this Japanese pop (Jpop) song?
But first, some introduction:
Nogizaka46 was created as an "official rival" group to the world's biggest female group AKB48, which also has the same founder.
Nogizaka46 debuted in 2012, the same year AKB48's "queen" "graduated", in other words, departed from the group.
"Senpuuki" is Japanese for electric fan. The word sounds cute, right?
The keyword for this post is electric fan.
Member Saito Asuka "speaking" to an electric fan. She is the center of the "Senpuuki" music video
The past involving an electric fan or two
The ceiling fan was the kind of fan that I grew up with, as far as I can remember of my childhood. Every time I went to sleep or took a nap, I would stare at it, watched it turn its blades around. I used to have a fear that it would come off the ceiling and fall on me, either wounding me or killing me.
Ceiling fan
The time came when my family decided to own our own house. We moved to the province and stayed for a while at a house owned by one of my mother's relatives. My father thought about buying the house and its lot because he liked the idea of living closer to the beach.
The house had no ceiling fans, so a relative lent to us her standing fan. A standing fan? It was the first time I ever saw such type of fan. As someone who was accustomed to ceiling fans, I found the invention strange. I can't remember if we returned it to our relative after we bought our own electric fans and moved to a permanent home.
So at our permanent home, we moved on with life. We went to school, our parents took up some farming and fishing, and two years later, my mother went to the capital for work. Her employers sought her out, persuaded her to work for them again. She was allowed vacation. At times, she brought new electric fans home.
Standing electric fans
Electric costs: the suffering
Like every other family, we struggled with rising electric costs and broken electric fans. My father managed to fix them, so we would not have to pay a repairman or buy new ones. But we were powerless against rising electric costs.
I don't know but I seemed to be the most affected about electric costs than anyone in my family. The situation (or perhaps fear or worry) got hold of me, pushing me to make sacrifices. I was forced to forgo the electric fan. It wasn't easy at first for me to live life, sleep, or do things under the sweltering heat. I urged or appealed to my siblings to forgo the electric fan too, but they weren't ready to make such a sacrifice. My insistence led to quarrels.
Desk fan
I felt that my sacrifices would be for naught. We did see some decrease in the electric bill but my sacrifice weren't worth it, especially that my family did not support me much. But the best thing was that it helped me endure the heat, get along with the warm weather. I am now used to hot nights.
I am now used to life without electric fans. Family and friends would ask if I use one at my place. They even tell me to buy a portable fan, the types sold at stores that sell China-made goods. But why buy when I have a hand fan (the one given away by politicians during elections)?
Oh yeah, the portable fan. A classmate once donated a portable fan to my class as our classroom was the only one without an electric fan. Speaking of donations too, the parents of one schoolmate donated a big electric to their sons' class and even got a recognition for it at the closing and recognition program 13 years ago.
Think about everyday household items that bring back the memories.
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