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Miram and Ban Obara's Exchange Diary, "With my chin resting by the window"

Winter to be overcome at any cost

2023.4.2

#BOOK

Miram and Ban Obara’s Exchange Diary, “With my chin resting by the window”

An exchange diary between a singer-songwriter “Miram” and a writer “Ban Obara” has started. It began in mid-February 2023. The season is gradually turning into spring, but Miram has “a winter that I want to overcome at any cost” and Obara has “something that I haven’t overcome yet”…….

from Miram #1

Hi, Ban-Chan, it’s Miram!

It’s mid-February, the month in which we start to see the word “spring” in various forms. People are waiting for spring, spring has come, and people are going to meet someone when spring comes. Some people write about it honestly on their Instagram. They also add pictures of their favorite things. I’m kind of itchy…spring, huh? I have a winter I want to overcome at all costs before spring. I think, “I have a winter to get over at any cost”.

Almost every day, I’m on some kind of schedule, and when I get tired in the upper part of my stomach, I fill it up with beer.

But yesterday, I went to see my favorite band. I think I had a sip of red wine before I left the house, which made my steps easy.

I have a lot of fun when I’m watching live music. It’s fun, it’s fun, it’s fun, and it makes you think seriously about all kinds of things and want to talk to all kinds of people. And yet, in reality, all of that melts away with a smile. Don’t melt. Don’t melt. I smile and smile and smile. By the time I get back home, there is nothing left to smile about, and by the time I take a bath, I realize that I have smiled too much today. People’s smiles are really wonderful, so I think it’s probably in poor taste to show my wonderful smile too much. What about the people I really want to show it to? Just as I was about to fall into the swamp of reflection, I remembered something. The first summer night when I played with you, we were sitting next to each other in the park and talking, and I was surprised to see your nose so high in the moonlight. I had known for a while that your nose was high, but your nose, the moon at the end of it, and your eyelashes were so beautiful, so beautiful, that I strongly thought to myself, “Ban-chan, you shouldn’t let anyone see that profile”.

From the swamp of reflection to the night of the moon, I am glad that I am able to put my words together so honestly now. I wonder if the evening might be getting itchy.

「I went to see the Hachimarizer. My favorite band.」

from Ban Obara #1

Hello, Miram-chan.
This is Ban Obara just after the start of March.
It’s chilly at dusk if you go out without a jacket. At night, I walk home shivering, but a cup of hot coffee is all I need to keep me going. Spring is near, isn’t it?

The other day, We had a photo shoot for our exchange diary, and it was a beautiful day. It was not at all cold, even though I was walking around with only a shirt on.
I was entranced by how picturesque Miram-chan was as she posed softly and looked straight into the lens, and I wondered why some people are able to do this and others are not.
By “capable” I mean you, who can act freely in front of the camera. (I don’t know how you really felt about it, but that’s just the way I see it.)
By “those who can’t do it” I mean me, who becomes tense in front of the camera.
Of course there is a difference in familiarity and experience, but I felt that there was something different about me that could no longer be described only in that way, and as I looked up at the bright blue sky, I felt like “giving up” and it was not a backward-looking resignation, but a bright, refreshing, and peaceful feeling like the sea I happened to see from the car window. It was a bright and fresh kind of resignation, like the sea I happened to see from the car window.

I am aware that being overly conscious of myself is not good for being photographed.
But I am sure that someday, I would like to pose softly and smoothly, and look straight into the lens.
You looked so relaxed and comfortable in the spring light as you was being photographed.

Now, as to the question of whether spring makes me itchy or not, so far I have not been itching.But I feel itchy when I start to write “I’m not itchy”.

By the way, Miram, do you prefer thin fries? Do you prefer thick fries?

「Having said that,I like thick and thin equally.」

from Miram #2

Hey there, evening.
It’s 1:00 a.m. and I can’t fall asleep for the first time in a while.
Maybe it’s because I just received the photos I took with you, and they’re all so good and exciting.
I can feel the softness of the two of them and the wind flowing beside them. I can’t choose just one. They are treasures.

I was trying to capture the feelings of you, who wrote in your diary, while I was taking pictures with your dazzling face.
There are people who can do it and people who can’t do it. I often think about it.
There are endless others like this,
There are people who can go home and people who can’t. There are people who can cry and people who can’t. There are those who can cry and those who can’t. I wonder what it is. But when I put them all together, they are so cute!

Yes, potatoes. Thin potatoes and thick potatoes.
I’m wondering why you wanted to ask me this. I think I like the thin ones. I’m looking for more oil than potato here. Hmmm. I also like them chunky, not squishy or crunchy. I wonder if this is of any help to anyone.

Recently, I’ve been doing a lot of things like photo shoots, recording, and a sing with a guitar tour, and as I mentioned last time, I got over this winter that I wanted to get over at any cost, so I suddenly cut my hair.
I had been growing out my hair for about a year and a half, and I made an appointment at a hair salon with the intention of just letting it grow out and getting it trimmed a bit, but when I went outside that day, the sun was shining and it felt so nice that my hair ends were damaged. I felt like I wanted to be a person who could fit in with the outside. I told the hairdresser how I felt, and she cut my hair very well.

Thanks to her, I now have a romantic short haircut. I wonder if I can do it again with a lighter head. I’m in great shape. I am blessed with people. But sometimes, I feel like everything is totally wrong. I know it’s just a repetition of the same thing day in and day out. Spring weather is especially flexible and strong, so beware! I guess.
It can be pretty when you put them together, and cruel when you compare them. It’s there. I can’t sleep, but I’m going to sleep.
I’m getting hungry. What should I eat to make me sleep? I just close my eyes, imagining it.

from Ban Obara #2

I have been writing something since early summer last year. I had planned to finish it in about three months at the latest, but after summer, fall, and winter, the cherry blossoms are already in full bloom.

It is horrible. I still can’t get over the “winter I want to get over at any cost” as Miram-chan calls it, and I’m still thinking, thinking, writing, fixing, going crazy, dancing wildly, up, down, day after day. When I finish writing, I want to buy a bunch of tulips.
It’s hard to grow up, but it can’t be that easy, that’s true, but I want to do it, I want to do this all the time, I want to do better, more interesting things, I want to put all my passion into this, and the fact that I can think that way is a very dense thing in itself, a happiness.

When I can’t fall asleep well, I get hungry and there are many things I eat, but recently I’ve been addicted to MOW Earl Grey milk tea flavor. I really like the taste and eat it all the time. It’s a taste that suits me at night.
And the reason I asked about fries is because I was writing this exchange diary “while eating fries in the park”. I’m sorry I don’t have a very deep meaning.

Today, Miram’s new song “As You Like It” was released, and the music video is out. Congratulations! It’s a happy day. Miram’s song has the power to dazzle the fleetingness and sadness in its entirety, and I am always struck by the strength of believing in the light.
In the song “As You Like It” there is a lyric, “Even the love of coconut ice cream” which reminds me of something.
On the first summer day we played together, Miram took me to a Thai restaurant and said, “Everything here is delicious, but especially the coconut ice cream. I wonder if the song” you was talking about at that time was “Sukinayouni “.
We talked a lot, enjoyed the food, drank a lot of beer, laughed a lot, and then went to the second restaurant. We laughed a lot, and then went to the second restaurant. We forgot to eat the coconut ice cream, which we still have to this day. Let’s go back to that restaurant again someday.
The music video for “Sukinayouni” shows us flying something (shuriken …… ?) at the second izakaya, and us shooting sparklers at the third park, and us at the last photo shoot. I am so happy and ashamed.

「The spring rolls I had with Miram on the day I first played with her.」
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BhsFBO0G2YU
Miram – “Sukinayouni ” (Official Music Video)

from Miram #3

Now that “Sukinayouni” has been successfully released, I take a breather and read the novel while drinking a highball. What a good time.My fluffy head and dizzy eyes are running dynamically on the rails of the small print, and I feel like I’m on a galactic train.
To make this bliss even more special, we now have two kilos of coconut ice cream. My summer love affair with coconut ice cream turned into a song, which turned into love, which eventually grew to a commercial size. It tastes exactly the same as the coconut ice cream from the Thai restaurant that I really wanted you to have for dinner. But let’s go back to that restaurant sometime to try it again.

I am writing this diary “With my chin resting by the window” and it is really difficult to string words together. The title of this diary is not written with my chin resting by the window, but with my arms folded and my head in my hands. When I start having trouble with words like this, I usually look back at the words I have jotted down on my cell phone, looking for something to pull out. It’s so true, and it’s so true, that it makes me crazy. I’ve released a new song, the cherry blossoms are blooming, and I’m feeling happy, but it seems I want to break through one more time. Oh my god, I want to do this all the time. But I’ve been wanting to do this for a long, long time. I think so, too.
I always think that expressive people should anticipate the seasons, so I wonder what I will fall in love with this year in the summer that awaits us soon. I am very much looking forward to it.

Miram

Born in 1999 and lives in Hyogo Prefecture. In 2021, she released an EP with Shuutanegi (WANG GUNG BAND, ex.Valley Boys), CD of her 1st AL “Houfu”, EP “The Day I Played with a Peachy Pelican”, and a cassette single co-written with vocalist Miura from Neko Sen. On March 16, 2022 (Wed.), he released his second album “Ducky” including “Low Airplane” (producer: Keiichi Sogabe), the theme song of the movie “Ai ni natta” directed by Hideo Josada and written by Rikiya Imaizumi. After that, he invited Yusuke Kume (Special Favorite Music) as a producer and released “Natsu no Boku ni mo” and “Lemon Tree” for distribution, attracting attention, and released a new song “Like You Like It” on March 22 (Wed.).

Ban Obara

小原晩

Writer, born in Tokyo in 1996, published her first collection of essays, “Don’t Eat Karaage Bento Here,” in March 2022.

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