Cherry Blossom Adventures

I saw a post on Amanda`s blog the other day and couldn’t`t wait to try it myself! You set your ipod to shuffle and write about the memories you have from each song….

I skipped two songs in the shuffle while doing this…Just thought I should let you all know I cheated a little! One was dialog though from a movie and the other song I don` think I had ever heard before and I still have no idea how it ended up on my ipod. You might notice that there is nothing really new on my ipod…This is because since my computer broke earlier this year (Late last year even?!) I haven`t been able to upload any new music to my ipod…I have to be content with listening it at home on Shumpei`s computer or on the cd player!

OK, here goes…

Sgt.Major- Jet

Don`t have any particular connection or memory with this song in particular but this album has been played over and over again. I know I got completely sick of the song Are you gonna be my girl….but even now when I listen to this album I still can`t help but think you can`t bet much better than Aussie rock (Most of my favourite bands are Australian!)

The way you make me feel- Michael Jackson

This comes from a number one hits album that my friend bought in Hong Kong! The first tape I ever got was Michael Jackson (after tapes with kids songs and nursery rhymes I mean) and it brings me back to a time when I had a little white tape deck….that I swear still worked until a couple of years ago….You could also record voices with it and my brother and I would sing and talk into it and send it to my grandparents in New Zealand. Michael Jackson always makes me think of primary school when we learnt `Heal the world` and sang it all the time in school….we even had actions. I know this song, `The way you make me feel` quite well but there are other Michael Jackson songs that I know better….I also have some Jackson five on my ipod somewhere.

Four Seasons in one day- Crowded House

Wow, I have had this CD for such a long time. My second ever CD after Tina Arena (Which strangely enough I do not have on my ipod :p) Any time I hear songs by crowded house now I can`t help but think of Paul Hester`s suicide….I had a cousin commit suicide when I was very young…I did not know him well but anything about suicide makes me think of him. I adore crowded house, it has been a love that started young and has lasted the long haul………When I think of the amount of music I have, some of which I might never listen to again, this is a song and band that I will always come back to, no matter what the trends in music bring.

Fly- Lenny Kravitz

On a mix Cd my brother sent me the first time i was in Japan. Lenny Kravitz was all the rage in high school and this is one of my favouirte songs by him I`d have to say. This song made me realize that I used to know all the words to this song and many others but now I have to be content with just humming along because I seem to have forgotten most of the words to the verses.

Paint the Silence-

I have no recollection of this song…but I really like it. At first when it came on I wondered if I had even heard it before but I realize now that I have….I have added it to my on-the-go list so that I can listen to it and develop memories of it for the future! (The memory will be discovering it while doing a meme for my blog!)…In fact I have no idea who the artist even is since it didn`t come up on my ipod. It is a mystery song!

Did you ever love somebody- Jessica Simpson

I would first like to point out that this is the only Jessica Simpson song on my ipod…I think! It brings me back to high school when Dawson’s`s Creek was my world and how I wanted to be just like Joey. This song comes off a Dawson`s Creek soundtrack and is one of two that I own. I can`t say that it was my favourite song on the album but I have listen to this album about 500 times or more so that means I have probably listened to this song that amount of times also….

Strawberry Sex- Ken Hirai

Japanese pop….This is the funniest song although I do not know the whole meaning of the Japanese lyrics…It starts of with the words love love love over again. This song reminds me of conbini music….some conbini`s have music playing in the background of their stores and it is always this kind of genki Japanese pop music. I fell in love with a singer called Ai Otsuka from listening to her music at the local conbini near my university when I studied here in Tokyo originally….I was given a mixed CD of Japanese pop from a friend before I returned to Australia in 2006 and this was on it.

From what I can tell strawberry sex refers to holding hands and hugs!

Weir- Killing Heidi

This brought back memories of BDO 2001 and receiving this CD for my birthday. I saw Killing Heidi live in 2001 amongst a bunch of other bands…It was my first BDO (and so far my first!). I had a crush on a younger boy at the time and he was at BDO with me that day…and my friend Clarie! We came home covered in mud…..

Til I hear it from you- Gin Blossoms

Empire Records how I love you so! This has got to be one of my favourite films ever…and this song is from the soundtrack…You might start to notice that I have a lot of soundtracks on my ipod…after Aussie Rock it is is probably my favourite genre of music….I love that on one CD from any film you can find music from all over! I can`t remember the exact first time I watched this film but I can remember the many numerous times I have seen it since. I love this soundtrack almost as much as the movie…

I used to have quotes from this movie scattered through my school diary at LHC….

Warren:: Who glued these quarters down?
A.J: I did.
Warren: What the hell for, man? A.J: I don’t feel that I need to explain my art to you, Warren.

Full Forever- Goo Goo Dolls

Every song on this CD reminds me on the kaikan at Cat K and the third floor kitchen. The kaikan is where I lived the first time I was in Japan…….Cat K had a copy of this CD and we played it over and over while sitting around in the third floor kitchen, cooking dinner, drinking wine, vodka, beer and anything else we could find and smoking cigarettes. There might have even been some dancing……One of my strongest memories of Cat K and this CD was Christmas Day 2004 in which we polished of several bottles of wine and champagne after breakfast and wrote to her friends in Britain to tell them her boyfriend of several years had dumped her on Christmas eve…….we were drunk by 9:30 in the morning and spent most of the day watching 24 and listening to music. Cat K and I are not in touch so much anymore….and I really regret this….but every time I hear any goo goo dolls song (Or Matchbox 20) I think of her….and every time Christmas rolls around I remember this day!

No Eleanor Rigby- B.B Seaton (Trojan Beatles Tribute)

A reggae cover of the this famous beatle song. I have a vague memory of buying this Cd and I remember that it was cheap and that I bought it hear in Japan. I love the Beatles and at the time I was going through a huge reggae period…The first time I was in Japan I made friends with some people that DJ`d reggae music and I went to a fair few gigs…This is going on my must listen to again sometime pile!

Waterloo- ABBA

What ipod is complete without something by Abba or The Beatles…Abba and this song remind me of three things….my fathers hate of ABBA, My high school friends Jen and Nicky dressing up as ABBA for a dress-up party because they love ABBA with a passion and a pub that used to called the Waterloo although hasn`t been called that in years….Although I doubt they every played ABBA there. At the old Waterloo was where poor Shumpei was refused entrance because he had no ID and he was so embarrassed because he was 24 at the time!

One Love- Bob Marley and the Wailers

Vivid memories of this song. Camping in Chichibu in Saitama three and a half years ago. First time camping in Japan and Ryomei played this CD non-stop for the whole time we were there….I woke up with one of the worst hangers of my life and it was also the weekend that I found out that in Japan camping food is curry…….and that in Japan GIANT bugs do exist. This is also a favourite Karaoke song……

Commerce.TX- Ben Kweller

I totally forgot I had this guy on my ipod. I guess that is what happens when you have 20GB…I got this CD from a good friend Anna. Her and I share a love for similar music (Including our biggest joint passions The Whitlams and Powderfinger. I have no recollection of this song whatsoever but I feel myself and Mr Kweller are going to be getting a lot more acquainted again over the next couple of weeks. He reminds me of another artist…I can`t quite put my finger on it. Ben Lee perhaps?

I`ll be Okay- Amanda Marshall- My Best Friends Wedding Soundtrack

Not my favourite song off this soundtrack but I like it all the same and the lyrics of the whole song fit the movie so well (`I want you to be happy…you`re my best friend). I got this CD when I was 12, the Christmas before I started high school and it has got to be one of my favourite CD`s of all time. The title always striked me as so simple but yet so perfect….

Big Brother- Stevie Wonder

Well I remember when I knew I loved Stevie Wonder and I have my friend Hiro to that for that……This song reminds me of a DJ event I went to by the afore mentioned Hiro. I owe Hiro a lot because the reason my Japanese got better over the summer that I was off from uni in Japan is because he spoke no English really and spoke only to me in Japanese. The DJ event was a mix of soul and RnB music. I love to raid Hiro`s record and CD collections too and this song is off a CD I got from there.

Stevie Wonder is someone I would really love to see live!

I Wish- Alex Llyod

I am noticing that I tend to have memories of artists or albums more that I do from particular songs. This if from my favourite Alex Lloyd album and I do love this song….I am a big believer in wishing and hoping and songs with words and lyrics like this.

I remember when I first discovered Alex Lloyd…summer of 2001/2002 December….Stradbroke Island with my high school girlfriends….camping for a week. I was 16 and it was the song `Amazing`…not sure if Straddie was the first time I heard it or if it is just the first time I remember hearing it….I could make a life soundtrack from that summer with a bunch of music from all over and this song would definitely feature on it. That was an amazing week. I met my first bf and first love that week and we were together for two years. This was one of the funnest weeks I ever had as a highschooler……I guess it had a lot to do with freedom. I was 16, going into my senior year and away for a week of fun, playing in the sun and drinking and I guess Alex Llyod and his song Amazing and his songs that followed remind me of that week!

Little Sister- Jewel

I heart Jewel…I am so glad she came up on this. This is off the first Jewel CD and my favourite song off the CD. I can`t explain it, but its the pace of this song that I like…….

It reminds me of a time when I was in Choir…I had never really met anybody else that liked Jewel much until I started singing for one of the really small choirs at school when I was 14. I made friends with two girls Lucy and Alana……both of which had these amazing voices. They both adored Jewel also and we used to sing some of the songs together…I only did choir for a year and a half but it was a fun time.

And it Stoned me- Van Morrison

I have some strong connections to Van Morrision and my love for him started in the summer of 2001/2002 that I mentioned earlier. If I listened to too much Van Morrison I would start to cry…..He was introduced to me by my ex-boyfriend and his father…….Him and The Eagles. I knew of him and the Eagles before this of course but when I told the ex`s father that I didn`t really know that many songs by them he made me listen to the cd`s over and over again. The ex once wrote a message about missing me with some lyrics taken from a Van Morrison song…

Thrillology- Powderfinger

I have seen Powderfinger live a couple of times and they are the most amazing band. I adore them! This song reminds me of my senior year when this CD was played so many times I could probably have sung the whole CD from beginning to end in my sleep….I am pretty sure that the song `My Kind Of Scene` featured on my senior video.

Any time I hear a Powderfinger song I think of a concert I went to near South Bank, I don`t remember the name of the place they had it but they have a lot of concerts there and it is an open stage. Lying on the grass waiting for them to come out (John Butler Trio was the start act) and when they came out and started…….and their encore. Amazing…

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This has taken me a long time to write out (I had most of it written in my diary….I wrote some of it on the train on the way home from work the other day)….but 20 songs is now finished. I loved doing this……..It is amazing to think how much music really does play a soundtrack to our lives….

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