Five years.

I vaguely remember the days of my youth, when five years seemed like an eternity. Maybe it only seemed longer because I was stuck going to school or because I couldn't legally buy alcohol. Then you graduate and enter college and/or get a job and suddenly the years start flying by and before you know it, you're an incontinent, gibbering old person battling prostate cancer and Alzheimer's.

I mean, I sit there and rattle off how I spent three years of my life living and working in Japan, four if you count the time I spent, blissfully ignorant of why I couldn't get a date to save my life while attending the lovely, 80% female filled Kansai Gaidai (I wonder if Yamashita-Sensei still teaches there, walking around the lunchroom like a constipated duck and getting cheered on by the foreigners while the Japanese students look scared out of their minds) and the time seems so distant and inconsequential.

I guess my point is, you don't realize how much things change, little by little, until a good chunk of time has passed and you're forced to take a good, hard look back on how things are and how they used to be.

I may sound like a bitter old man or at least in my case, even bitterer than I used to be but I remember a simpler time in my existence. Whenever you're introduced to something new and exciting, there's always that span where every day is a discovery. Where it all feels so great and expansive because your general knowledge of the subject at hand is so limited and it feels like you'll never be able to get a good grasp of it. And then, at some point, it changes to something that's old hat and fails to get the blood pumping any more.

And the worst part is, though I'm sure it happens gradually, I'm still standing by my belief that there's a very quantifiable point where you move from one state of affairs to the other and if you spent enough time snooping around the inside of your own head, you'd be able to pinpoint exactly when it happened.

I'm getting ahead of myself though. The page is five years old now and I was asked by the great and enigmatic boo to comment on things.

As I'm sure all two of my fans have noticed, there hasn't been an update by yours truly in a very long time and I'm sure you already know the reasons behind this so I won't waste your time reiterating them. I will however, talk about my fandom.

It used to be so simple then. I heard something I liked and I bought it.

I remember sitting outside the Kintetsu department store after a night of heavy drinking, waiting for it open so I could get terrible seats to see Rouage at the Koseinenkinkaikan, which makes me wince just thinking about it now, both because I can't believe I didn't know about Lawson Ticket and that it was one of the many reasons why I fell out with my host parents.

I remember Space Shower TV playing Utada Hikaru's Automatic whenever they had a spare moment as the power push and hereby ushering in the era that exists now.

I remember attempting to sing songs that I didn't know any lyrics to and failing miserably and a time when Glay's Yuuwaku was too fast for me to even think of singing. This has passed, though Survival should only be attempted by those much more insane than I am.

I remember the very first time I got gLaidh at Eccentric Fantasy VI.

I remember being horribly disappointed at finding out that, after releasing singles for approximately two years, L'arc decided to finally release not one, but two albums after I'm going to leave the country. (Thank you cdjapan)

I remember having to leave what would be the last Siam Shade concert ever because I was sick like a dog.

There are tons more but they seem to taper off as the years go by. Certainly, music industries change. They are always evolving but I guess I was just a little bit disappointed that the normally predictable Japanese one would go in directions that I adamantly hate. Factor in not being in the country. Not having the huge Japanese section of music in the Tower Records and the used section of Book Off doesn't help either. Now I can't get a cursory exposure to it so I can rail about how much it sucks ass.

I sometimes wish I could go back and relive the heady days of when it was all new. Be able to replicate listening to Luna Sea's Eden or L'arc's Tierra or even Shazna's Promise Eve for the very first time, remembering how completely blown away I was by them but I don't think it's going to happen.

At any rate, we've been here five years and hopefully, we'll still be here when it turns full circle and draws me back in again.

And with that, I bid you adieu. Hopefully I might get the chance to contribute more to the page, even with my new gainful employment.

Pull yer cranium out from yer anus.