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I had the opportunity to go on a trip to Japan to study Japanese this summer. Since then I've been practicing a lot more, and recently I've returned to the works of Japanese rock band Yorushika, whose name roughly translates to "Only at Night" or "Except at Night"

I started self-studying Japanese on a whim in late 2017. It wasn't until a year later that I would discover Yorushika through their song 行って, which was not only a catchy song with a great music video, but also had really interesting lyrics. (I wish we still had community captions.) Pretty soon I discovered they had more music, and I got into them just in time for the release of their 2019 album, Dakara Ongaku wo Yameta (That's Why I Gave Up On/Quit Music).

Dakara Ongaku wo Yameta is a concept album that tells the story of a depressed musician who calls himself Amy. He leaves Japan and moves to Sweden. The entire story is told in reverse order, and you trace back a depressed man desperately longing for someone but trying to rid himself of them as life has become too unbearable. The physical version of the album shipped in a box with a series of letters written to the musician's friend, Elma, who he taught how to play music before disappearing one day without notice. The whole album essentially functions as pieces of a journal sent to Elma.

The album was followed up by the album Elma, which as you might guess is about Elma. She also travels to Sweden after receiving these notes, trying to find out what happened to Amy.