I interviewed YUI today for a newpaper assignment. A few days ago, I only vaguely knew who she was, and I got a lot of useful information from this site. Thank you.

Contractually, I can't post the interview contents here, but when the article appears online, I will post a link here.

But I can tell you what it is like to meet her. She seems a bit shy and is very, very softspoken. This is surprising after hearing her sing. I saw some videos on youtube of her TV interviews and press coferences, in which she speaks loudly and clearly, but this interview was just the two of us sitting at table with no cameras and just a small mic to the side, so nothing like a press conference. I recorded the interview but I know I am going to have to strain to hear her voice on the MD.

And she is very polite. Actually, I was completely embarrassed because I was 5 minutes late for the interview due to a bad map, but she didn't mind at all. She was a bit taken aback when I shook her hand (rare in Japan, as you probably know), and kept standing until I said "Shall we sit down?" She was wearing jeans, a jacket or sweater (not sure which), and over it a very wide wool scarf, like a shawl and seemed to be cold. No make up and very natural hairstyle, but naturally pretty. She made a gesture as if to say "Sorry for looking like this."

At the end of the interview I mentioned when looking up information on her on the internet I found a website that was a YUI fan forum but the surprising thing was it was all English (this site). She said "Oh! I never knew!" Some of the other people in the room (Sony Music people) let out a gasp of surprise when they heard this. I told her that some people overseas listen to her music even though they don't understand Japanese, and she kind of smiled and looked at the ceiling, unsure of how to reply to that.

I always give interviewees a small gift, since I get paid for the interview, but techinically they don't (at least not directly.) I usually pick out a bottle of wine, but of course giving her that would be against the law. I gave her a book. Later on, I interviewed the director of Midnight Sun (a great guy) and gave him a bottle of wine. He knew that I had just interviewed YUI, and he said "You know YUI-chan is still 19, right?" I said, "Don't worry." YUI seemed rather surprised to get a gift from a journalist, and held her hand in front of her mouth, which is a Japanese gesture like blushing. As she was walking out to go to her next interview, I noticed she was wearing white low-top Converse. I said, "Hey, the same kind of sneakers..." She looked at my feet (I was wearing black boots) and said "Huh?" I said, "No, I mean the same kind of shoes as in the movie." and she replied "You really must have been watching closely." (Actually, her shoes are an important part of the movie, don't you think?) She bowed several times when backing out of the room, surrounded by Sony people, and that was that. Definitely a nice person.

Once again, I will post a link to my feature when it is available (a week or so).

XD WoW XD

:huhuhu ( happily crying)....thanks for sharing the story :huhuhu (happy tears, happy tears) XD

i would like to bid on the minidisc that recorded the interview...

wow..?

WOW NICE...

thanks for sharing this information, we're indeed privileged to be informed of this, is this the only forum you went to?

cos now i note that YUI might be aware of such forums now...?

may i ask which press are you working for and in which country? curious.

I work as freelance journalist in Tokyo. The article is for a Hong Kong newspaper to coincide with DVD release of Midnight Sun in HK.

I didn't know there were other YUI forums in English, and was refering to this one. Actually, I wasn't so surprised that she didn't know about it (she's busy after all). But I was surprised that the sony people didn't know. It seems that they don't do any market research on if their Japanese artists have a following overseas. I found this forum through the Japanese version of wikipedia. It was easy to find.

wow!!
wat a great opportunity.... XD
i wanna b a journalist too!!!!
but only to interview YUI..... :P

i wonder, will she pay a visit to this forum?
wat if she or sony found out bout the media section??

yea, plz let us know.... im curious too.....
about which press u r workin for... :huh:

yeah i wonder too...someday...

Now she knew our YUI Lover forum :D :guitar

Hope to see the actual interview soon :)

Checked Japanese wikipedia, our forum was there :wub: instaed of other japanese forum lol, what an honour~

You knew that she likes reading??? That's why you gave her a book? :P

and make an account of herself in the forums...

it'll be great if she made an account and start chattin with us!
:lol: i hope for 2 much

Wow cool. Didn't u take a picture with her? :P

no it's not...i hope too...^^

i hope she gonna make more rolling stars freebies for our this forum members.

no, i dun wish she gonna talk with us on this forum, i'll feel so unease.. maybe its becos for me, other than music, hormones plays a part in liking her..

P.S: i hope it aint april fool kind of day in japan rite? haha, i give u 100% faith. anyway, u are the 1st guy to meet and talk to YUI! FACE TO FACE! SHE BLUSHED AT YOU! OH MAN! i'm starting to hate u already.. haha..

Ohhh yyyeeaaaahhh!!! This is how a girl has to be!!!

time to hide the media stash section or else sony sues us

tokyo story, did u speak with her in japanese? If you are Japanese, I must say your English is very good and all of us would love to be in your position, that includes me XD.

thanks for the publicity of this forum. it'll certainly be nice to have her amongst us. That way, I can ask her to be my guest for yuiINdepth, which is lil radio podcast of interviews I do for the forum :P

LOL must ask Aditz to lock it now XD

No, no picture unfortunately. I didn't get the feeling that it would have been OK to ask. Not because of her, but because of all the suits in the room. I brought a polaroid just in case, but no luck.

The book I gave her was a collection of Bob Dylan lyrics in English and Japanese. It weighed a ton, since he has written about 400 songs. I don't think that YUI is a Bob Dylan fan, but his lyrics read like poetry and can probably be enjoyed without the music.

By the way, I interviewed her in Japanese. I was told that I could interview the director in Japanese or English, but I was told that she wanted to have an interview in Japanese. I don't know if that means she doesn't understand English at all, or if she is just not comfortable enough to do an interview. When she sings a few lines in English in her songs, the pronunciation is usually spot on, unlike some Japanese singers. I wanted to ask her if she was interested in studying English, but ran out of time.

don't hate him...^^ haha...

Her English is probably "conversation" English, and not quite at the stage where she can do an interview with it.

Thank you for sharing your experience with us all. I'm sure it has made a lot of people jealous, but there is no doubt that you have worked hard to be where you are.

Domo arigatou gozaimasu.

arrrr

-fallens for YUI more-

-dies-

haha...dies? you sure do like yui THAT much.. :thumbsup: XD

Wow, interesting. Thanks for the information.

LOLx! That's right! :D

Btw thanks for the story~

It's because she listens to alot of english songs :D Even if the interviews is in japanese, YUI always have a hard time figuring out the proper way to answer the questions, let alone english XD

Cool book :thumbsup: *imagining YUI's expression when she received this*

we should interview Yui like in the yuiNdepth...cool eh.. XD

ah!!!
really wish that she would check out this forum.....
then she will know how much we love her....
n how many fans of her outside japan....

Ps:- n hope tat she will make Sony exports more of her stuff overseas

hehehehe :P

Is that before or after Sony have the site closed because of all the media made available through here? :P

natsumi

yeah you're right...all over the world...all her cd's released...

I quite like the idea that we're like an underground faction, spread out all over the world, dedicated to Yui.. ^_^

yeah...all around the world... :thumbsup: XD

That is so awesome. Ooo, Hong Kong newspaper! That's pretty cool! Thanks for taking the time to post your interview with YUI. Maybe, she'll visit this forum on her breaks... :)

Oh, yep, I saw the YUI-Lover site as one of the links on the YUI on Japanese Wikipedia. Pretty neat. But this link wasn't on the English YUI Wikipedia page... hmmm?

did you ask what kind of guys she liked? 1 year younger can or not? is language a barrier? non-musically inclined can or not?

LOL, so desperate..

I imagine boys are quite far down the list (unless she has one already..) since she is so busy running around doing shows, and interviews.

wow`.. kewl kewl kewl~!!

Oh my God This is.....AMAZING!
You just made my day :thumbsup:

Thanx for sharing your interview with YUI, Tokyo Story. Very glad that there's a journalist who's willing to share his meeting with our fav artist. I just hope you had a great experience in interviewing YUI. But I can't really 100% certain about your experince with YUI althought deep inside me I'm really asure that you have met her with the way how you described her, we'll wait for your link here. And for that please forgive me. :)

You're welcome. Glad to help!

A bit shocking that sony music didn't recognize us. And is a great thing that YUI may know the existence of her fans overseas. I just hope that Sony may take this as a reconsideration to release an overseas version of YUI's album and singes. This may help YUI's music to spread world wide. I'm also surprised that Sony Music didn't know that she has fans world wide...a big question...

Did you show our site to her directly? I mean maybe you were bringing your laptop?

Definitely, sometimes our members here made a big fuss around her shoes. :biggrin It's converse then.

Wow.. that unbelivable... I hope that this interview is true....

The idea of YUI visiting our forum is incredible.... I would give anything in the world for YUI to know my name or who i am... even if its just for 10 minutes and she forgets about me afterwards... i would still give anything for that... I can die happily knowing that I existed in YUIs mind...

Tokyo Story would you be meeting YUI again? I hope you do...

I hope YUI does come to our forum and meet the members and even read some of our comments...

I will guarantee her that her TRUE DIE HARD FANS are on this forum and living outside of japan...

We have fans spending $1000's of dollars just import Magazines, books, Cd's, First Single, Guitars... for their moment of YUIness

we have others that practice and play day and night just to spread the music of YUI to others...

i dont think we would ever stop supporting YUI.... if you do meet her again.. please give her the address to this forum... www.YUI-lover.com