SImply Pop: Dreams Come True and their Map of the Future

I picked these songs as my Song of the Day before over at the Golden Rock, but seeing them perform again after lead singer Miwa Yoshida's hiatus from performing and reading this blog post (in Chinese) made these songs leave a bit of an impact on me.

I'm talking about the three Mirai Yosouzu songs by the Japanese pop group Dreams Come True. I was first introduced to the second song by my girlfriend, who still sees it as one of her favorite songs. The first two songs were released two years apart, telling the story of a couple who uses five flashes of a scooter's break light to signal the words "I love you" in Japanese (or its five syllables: A-I-SHI-TE-RU. I first thought it was morse code, but it's not). The third song (called The Sign of A-i-shi-te-ru ~ Our Map of the Future) came out to coincide with the release with the film The Sign of Love, based on the two songs.

Written by lead singer Miwa Yoshida, the song wraps up the story by taking place during the "happily ever after" part of their story. It contains lyrics such as "Can the words 'I love you" be expressed to you?" , "Being with you brought me to where I am today", and of course, the first line: "Is (my love) being expressed to you correctly?" (I assure you, it sounds a lot better in Japanese).

The single was released days after the death of Yoshida's husband, which came days after they had just wrapped up their tour. This means they never got to publicly perform this song on TV (they probably performed it on their tour, though) until these last few weeks. The one I saw, and can easily be found on Youtube, is the performance during the annual Kohaku show on New Year's Eve. Reports indicated that Yoshida is still trying to come to terms with his death, and was even seen being consoled during the show's rehearsal.

These songs are great pop ballads in their own right, and Yoshida performs them exceptionally every time, but seeing her deliver lyrics so close to her heart after all that's happened without fail has to melt your heart to some degree. Forget Gackt and his band of warriors, this was the best performance during this year's Kohaku.



Tracking back, here's part 1:



and the more popular part II:



Here's the translated lyrics for part II:

http://utau-inu.com/translations/miraiyosouzu2_dreamscometrue.htm

And the Japanese lyrics:

Part I

Part II

Part III