"僕のこと" ("About Me") opens with a simple question: "僕と君とでは何が違う?" (What's the difference between you and me?). The answer comes straight away: we're the same kind of creature. But the singer admits he's scared of something, and hopes everyone else is too. That small, honest wish sets the tone for the whole song. It isn't about being brave. It's about not being the only one who's struggling.
The chorus keeps saying "なんて素敵な日だ" (What a wonderful day), and it applies that to the good days and the days when dreams fall apart. I love that it doesn't pick one. Then comes the line that gives the song its weight: "僕らは知っている 奇跡は死んでいる" (We know that miracles are dead). Hard work and loneliness don't always pay off, he says. But the days you walked to get here are what people call a 軌跡 (kiseki, a path or trail). Here's the fun part for learners: 奇跡 (miracle) and 軌跡 (trail) are both read kiseki. The song swaps one for the other, so the miracle you were waiting for turns out to be the road behind you.
There's lovely imagery too, like flowers blooming in winter and "青すぎた春" (a spring that was too blue). In Japanese, 青春 (seishun, literally "blue spring") means your youth, so this is a youth that was a bit too green and clumsy, which he still never wants to forget. Look out for 足搔いている (agaite iru, struggling or flailing about), which keeps coming back. It ends gently: each of us has seen our own scenery, and living now as yourself is "とても愛しい事だ" (a very dear thing). Big, earnest, a little much in places, and that's exactly why it works.
Mrs. GREEN APPLE is a Japanese pop-rock band from Tokyo, formed in 2013 by vocalist and songwriter Motoki Ohmori. They made their major-label debut in 2015 with the mini-album Variety on EMI Records.
Since the start of 2022 the band has been a trio: Ohmori, guitarist Hiroto Wakai and keyboardist Ryoka Fujisawa.