Lyrics Translation: HEART ~ Ai Otsuka (大塚 愛)

I see the sadness now. I guess I tend to look at the beat of the music rather than the lyrics when I don't understand it (hahaha). When she sings "I want to see you" in the first two chorus sections, is that her talking?

In the PV, when she was in the night club, I just tied it into the whole concept that she wasn't really suppose to be there. She looks like she is waiting for someone and they never came. Especially when she is singing with people in the background, she seems a little awkward and out of place. I guess that can go along with the theme of illusions in the song because at the end of that PV she seems a little melancholy - regardless of the fact that she seems to be dressed for a good night out and others around her seem to also be having a good time.

That is interesting to note the cultural differences between the Japanese and American way of thinking. Maybe the creativity that seems to be there is just a result of the Japanese culture being different. It would be interesting to see how the Japanese view American music, or entertainment in general. It seems to me that Japanese entertainment deals a lot more with things that are ambiguous and uncertain, unlike American entertainment. In Anthro two years ago, I was taught that the Western world emphasized individuality and independence more than conformity and group dynamics. Children are expected to be able to do things on their own so that one day they can detach from their parents and becomes individuals. Thus, you see an emphasis on relationships in Western dramas. Maybe this is incorrect, but the television dramas that are aired on TV here are centered around human relationships because it becomes a difficult thing to be able to relate and share life with others.

What has been apparent to me in Japanese dramas is that though they also deal with relationships, they mostly deal with the intangible aspects. What I mean by that is that they aren’t necessarily focusing on what two people share, but how one person can change inside to improve the relationship – reverting back to the group dynamic.

I don’t know how to explain what it is that I am trying to say. The Japanese dramas and music that I listen to seem to focus on the human emotion and not the action. If you watch American dramas, there is a lot of movement and action because people like it straight to the point, as you said. Those actions often reflect the emotional well-being of the characters in the story but rarely do you find them actually ‘talking’ about those feelings. The Japanese dramas I’ve viewed also include a lot of action but it is apparent that they talk way more about philosophical and spiritual ideas than Westerners do.

I’ll give you an explain.

This is a song by Blue October called “Into the Ocean”. Here is the chorus:

“I want to swim away but don't know how
Sometimes it feels just like I'm falling in the ocean
Let the waves up take me down
Let the hurricane set in motion... yeah
Let the rain of what I feel right now...come down
Let the rain come down”

The song is filled with verbs of swimming in an ocean. The song is superficially about a boy that has fallen into the ocean from a ship and can’t swim because he really isn’t strong enough. If you listen to the song, it’s filled with things he wants to happen/do. But obviously, there is a deeper meaning to the song. The images of the waves crashing down, and hurricanes swirling, and rain coming down are very busy ones but he is simply conveying his desire for his pain to go away. When he sings ‘fall into the ocean’, he is talking about all his sorrow and pain disappearing into something so vast and powerful (like the ocean) that it is overwhelmed and unable to resurface. But instead of saying that, he sings about all these actions.

Do you see what I meant by the difference between the Japanese and Western style of entertainment? I don’t know if that’ accurate or not though.

Eh...lol, long enough. :D