Cool Utada Hikaru story

So I was at work today, hammering away on the keyboard, when out of nowhere, as if coming through faint elevator speakers off in the distance, I heard Hiki’s first song on her latest Ultra Blue album, entitled “This is Love”.

I thought to myself, “Man, am I hearing things? What the hell? I know this can’t be coming from the sound-deadening cubicles of a large Southern corporation…”.

But I got up and searched for a bit. About 5 cubes away is someone showing off his iPhone to a fellow co-worker. When I arrived, there wasn’t any music playing, but I asked anyway. “I’m sorry to interrupt, but was someone here playing Utada Hikaru?”

They looked at me a bit funny at first, but then the guy holding the phone thought a second and said, “Oh, this?”, and played the song.

I was like “Yeah! That’s it! I love that girl…”

He said, “Oh yeah, its a song my daughter put on to my iPhone – she’s into Japanese things.”

Then I proceeded to tell them about my interest in Japanese culture, having been there once, etc. It was kind of cool.

But mostly I was really surprised to hear that song in this building. It was bizarre, since most people in the South have no clue who Hiki is. (My future wife just to clarify for you in case you don’t know)

Good stuff