<333 Hikaru! I couldn't describe how much admiration I have for her since she first entered the music scene.
Her own words
*"It's a bit confusing being a young girl, because my taste in music and what I do is more like a 35-year-old guy. Sometimes, I feel as though I'm caught in this girl's body and I like, 'No! I want to be Trent Reznor.'"
*Though she abandoned biology studies at Columbia, Hikaru has a bookish approach to her music: "The same parts of my brain get as excited as when I study bio or read a novel and write a paper on it. You begin with a thesis, take through the next paragraph, bring it to a conclusion."
*Trying her luck at a whole new market [she's trying to enter the US market] is a nerve-racking affair: "It's frightening to think 'Oh my God, no one is going to like it, no one is going to hear it," she says of her eclectic sound. "I just want people to see that I do my own stuff, that I'm not stupid, and I can make fun of myself."
*When creatively blocked, Hikaru takes baths or tries yoga or Pilates at home: "I don't like going to the gym because I don't like being with people I don't know in that intense environment. That's like telling someone to do squats on the train."
*Of marrying young [she married to her video director who is 15 years her senior when she was 19, but they have recently been divorced.]: "I figure no matter how old you are, it's always going to be your first marriage and no life experience is going to make you a better judge of who you should marry."
*"Being a foreigner is kind of like being a permanent outsider when you go to a new place."
*Mobbed in Japan, she relishes anonymity in America. "I can never really enjoy being famous," she says. "So when I can just take a walk and go grocery shopping in New York, it takes a huge load off my back and I feel great. I feel human again, almost."
*Like her mother (who was also a famous singer), Hikaru plans to retire young—as early as 28—and perhaps pursue neuroscience. "I kind of see myself in a white coat in a lab, working till late evening in front of test tubes," she says.
*Hobbies:
- Literature will always be my thing. Books are assets to be treasured - I keep every book I read, and they now take up more space than my clothes.
- Hot and spicy seasonings and condiments
- Snapping pictures, without warning, of friends when they're having hungovers or snoozing.
- Late-night web-crawling. I learned of a few cool sites from an EMI recording engineer ---Modern Living and otogaiworld are definitely worth checking out, especially in the wee hours.
*Specialties: "Touch typing, Tetris, biting the bullet, reading minds, moving just the smallest toe of my left foot, full leg splits and other instances of flexibility."
*Dream: "Become a writer (I picked my pseudonym a long time ago), open a small bookshop and become a clerk there, work part-time at a cafe"
*Favorite words and sayings:
Kinomi kinomama (with only the clothes one happens to be wearing, with the barest necessities), Shogyo mujo (all is vanity), Fuyukai da kaeru! ("I am not liking this and I'm goin' home!"), munya munya, "I will not play at tug o' war. I'd rather play at hug o' war ...." - Shel Silverstein