During the year end and the beginning of the new year, I wrote some blog texts for our “personal” Japanese website. It’s really nothing. I’m not even sure if we should post them on our English “official” website or social media pages, because those are very personal, spiritual, and may dismay some people. However, at the same time I want to see how Automatic Translation by Mr.GPT performs for this kind of long, complex and personal texts.
So here it is. The New Year Blog Post part3 of 3.
(Originally written in Japanese, in a very personal style. This English translation might be incorrect in some parts.)
[Translation accuracy evaluation: 85%] (Some parts tweaked manually)
“R.I.P. His America”
At the end of the year, I wrote a short piece titled “Anti-war songs by Imari Tones” as an article for the “Katte Blog” section of this website, and also shared it on some of my social media accounts. It was a brief text, but one I had been unsure about posting for several months.
I do not believe in violence or war. I do not believe that problems can be solved through violence or military force. That was the message I intended to convey, yet in the end it was released at a strangely symbolic moment.
I have no power at all, and I have never believed for a second that we, an essentially unknown indie band, have any real social influence. Still, I am convinced that God listens to my prayers. In fact, I am convinced He listens to them first, as if I were being given special treatment. That is not something I suddenly started believing recently; it is something I have felt from the very beginning. By “the beginning,” I really do mean the beginning.
There are many ways for people to pray. For me, facing music itself, playing music, is one of them. Walking and meditating is another. Standing under the shower and letting my mind drift is probably not so different from standing beneath a waterfall. In darkness and silence, as thoughts wander, even where you are or what time it is starts to feel irrelevant.
That is why writing words down, putting thoughts into text, and posting them somewhere without any particular reason is also, without a doubt, a form of prayer. Looking back on my experiences, I sometimes feel that the personal words I have written on this very Japanese-language website, in this decidedly un-bandlike “Katte Blog,” have influenced real events in ways that resemble prayer being answered. I am not joking. I am, in my own way, a stand user too, if I really wanted to be. Not that I want to, or ever would. It is not a Death Note. Calling it a “death blog” would be scary, and I have no desire to curse anyone. If anything, I would like to call it a blog of hope. A hope blog. A hope note.
“His America.”
That refers to the America dreamed of by Edward Van Halen. The America he played, and kept playing. In that sense, it is fair to say he was sounding out a kind of heaven, a heaven on earth.
In other words, this text is also part of my ongoing homage to Eddie Van Halen, and at the same time, a homage to the history of rock music itself.
As I mentioned earlier, over the year-end and New Year period I was reading several books about Eddie Van Halen. At the beginning of “Eruption: Conversations with Eddie Van Halen,” there is a quote from Pete Townshend that reads, “I was hoping he might be president one day.” My translation may not be perfect, but the meaning is something like: “I used to hope that Eddie Van Halen might become President of the United States one day.”
It’s funny. A rock musician becoming president is absurd. And someone like Eddie Van Halen, a deeply flawed human being with emotional struggles, as well as problems with alcohol and drugs, could never be a politician.
But then again, by that logic, an actor should never become a politician or president either. A comedian should never become president of a country. And yet, even a reality TV villain becoming president is not impossible. An idol, even. At that point, you start to feel like democracy itself might be broken.
I do not think I am the type of Japanese musician who harbors an excessive longing for Europe or the West. Of course, I have great respect for British rock, and I do understand its brilliance to some extent. The history of American music is also deep, great, and magnificent. But if we are being honest, Japan too has its own history and legacy of incredible musicians.
Either way, I never really had that kind of romantic longing for “London,” “Abbey Road,” “New York,” or “glamorous Los Angeles.” Los Angeles, to me, feels almost like hell, and personally it is not a place I particularly want to live. Apologies to those who live there. Of course, I will visit.
I want to study and experience the music cultures of many countries, but if you want to truly learn about British rock, for example, the right approach is to study that country’s history, nature, culture, and climate. That is the essence.
I love British rock and British heavy metal, and I have certainly been influenced by them. I also think the concrete jungle of Tokyo that gave birth to classic Japanese metal, and the raw energy of Osaka, are both incredible.
Still, as a guitar player and songwriter, the single biggest influence on me has been Edward Van Halen. I have no intention of hiding that, not even a little. Because of that, the idea of “American rock,” and the idea of “America” itself, has always been right in front of me.
After becoming a Christian, I also found myself facing the idea of America in terms of faith. That included my roots, pride, and identity as a Japanese person. To face America is, in a sense, to become more Japanese, because it forces you to confront who you are.
With that in mind, let me talk about admiration. Admiration leads to respect, and respect leads to learning.
This is something I have mentioned from time to time over the years. I think there were moments in my life when I truly admired America as a country. At least twice.
The first was when I was a boy and started listening to rock music. One day, I encountered a band called Van Halen. “1984.” “Jump.” “Panama.” I thought it was incredible. Everything changed. “Amazing” does not even begin to describe it.
A one-of-a-kind individuality, expressed freely, brightly, innocently, with humor. It was explosive. I remember thinking, is this kind of freedom even possible?
The America I first admired was the America of glamorous, large-scale arena rock.
Van Halen was called the king of American hard rock. They were described as the ultimate, quintessential American rock band. Through their sound, I came to believe that America was a country like this, filled with people who expressed themselves through music in this way, a country with this kind of culture and temperament.
But as I grew older and listened to more and more music, I eventually realized something. There were no other bands like Van Halen.
They were supposed to be a “typical” American rock band, yet no matter how many American bands I listened to, there were none that boldly played such free, cheerful, powerful, large-scale music the way Van Halen did.
So then what was the America I had been admiring all through my childhood?
Some time passed after that.
For my generation, who spent our youth during the era when rock was said to be dying, commercial arena rock and mainstream bands were no longer very interesting.
The next America I discovered was in the 2000s and early 2010s. Small indie bands were playing their own sounds in small venues. The sight of carefully selected indie bands from all over the country filling the streets of Austin, centered around 6th Street, was a perfect symbol of that era. This was back when SXSW had not yet become fully commercialized, when it was still a true indie music festival.
People of many different skin colors played uniquely hybridized music in many different styles, and together they created a massive wall of noise. They might never achieve visible, numerical success, but they played music that reflected their lives, their beliefs, their existence. Some of it was far more forward-thinking than anything coming from the mainstream.
I want to be a part of this. I want to mix into this, to become part of this swirling sound. That is what I thought.
And perhaps, just a little, we did become part of that swirl. We toured the United States six times. Every one of those tours was a reckless indie tour. For a small indie band like us, being able to do that was a blessing.
Diversity. Personal expression. Rock that sounds out individual roots. Indie music that understands, blends, and points toward the future. Messy sounds, mixed races, true alternative, noisy chaos. Is this the true form of rock and roll?
That was the second America I admired.
But that America, too, was swallowed by the times. Social media, streaming, algorithms. The music scene itself was stripped bare and culled. Then came the pandemic. Then AI. And of course, political chaos and the social division it created.
I began to wonder what America I had really been looking at.
So I listened again to Eddie Van Halen’s words. And I listened again to the sounds he made.
He may have appeared relaxed and easygoing, but I believe Eddie Van Halen was someone who thought very seriously about music from a vast perspective.
I think about the music he made later in his life. “Later years” may not be the perfect phrase, but I mean Van Halen from the 1990s onward. Who the singer was at the time does not really matter. In the end, Dave, Sammy, and Gary all sang Van Halen in the 1990s and beyond.
If we are talking about the essence of Van Halen as a rock band, and the essence of rock and roll itself, then yes, it is the first six albums, the classic David Lee Roth era.
But if we are talking about Eddie Van Halen as a musician, we cannot ignore the music he made in the later stages of his career.
Perhaps something changed in him after his son Wolfgang was born, when he became a father.
From that point on, the music he tried to play contained love, family, humanity.
I will just say it outright.
The sound EVH was making in that era is probably the America I imagine as ideal. The real America.
And before he could fully sound it out, he disappeared from the spotlight. That was, without question, a loss for America.
There is a song that expresses this perfectly.
“That’s Why I Love You.”
Ironically, this song was never officially released. It was originally planned for inclusion on the 1998 album “Van Halen III,” sung by Gary Cherone, but for various reasons it was cut and remained unreleased.
I love this song. I feel that everything about Eddie Van Halen as a human being is contained in it.
The fact that such an important song was left unreleased feels like proof of “America’s loss,” and of the defeat of its pop culture.
“Eddie Van Halen becomes president.”
Yeah, right.
And yet, I feel like there was a future where that could have happened, if just one, two, or three gears of fate had turned differently.
In recent years, something always seems to happen at the beginning of the year. Usually something bad. This year was no exception.
At the start of 2026, I witnessed the final disappearance of the ideal America that Edward Van Halen had envisioned.
Justice. Freedom. Ideals. Society. Order. Rule of law. Harmony. Love.
All of it blown away, replaced by something no better than a gangster organization power game and its logic.
What follows is a ruthless struggle for survival, for winners and losers.
I am not interested in global politics.
I am not interested in who wins or who loses.
What matters is the battle of the spirit. The battle between God and the devil, on earth and in heaven.
That is why I will not say who is right or who is wrong. There are no pure villains here. In the human world, everyone is gray. Human beings contain both white and black.
But the devil’s methods are always the same.
Deception. Threats. Intimidation. Manipulation. Brainwashing. Condemnation. Self-justification. And pushing forward at all costs.
For what purpose?
Desire. Endless, insatiable desire.
Because it believes that the fulfillment of desire, conflict, sacrifice, and bloodshed are proof of its own prosperity.
Will humanity be dragged into that darkness, or break free and create a new future?
The odds are probably fifty-fifty. No, maybe sixty-forty. Or seventy-thirty against us.
Most of the time, it is a losing battle. That is the kind of world this is.
But if even 0.1 remains alive, rock and roll will continue.
So how do we fight back against this demonic spirit that is spreading over the entire world right now?
There is only one way.
Rock and roll.
Turn it up to eleven!
p.s.
Of course, you are free to interpret “His” that way if you want.
p.s. p.s.
I really loved the unreleased Eddie Van Halen song “That’s Why I Love You,” and because of that, I’ve written several songs with my own band that aim for a similar sound and atmosphere. I’ll list a few of them here.
“That’s Why I Love You”
This one shares the exact same title. There is an original Japanese version, and also an English version that we recorded with Producer Y. Both are still incomplete. If I’m still around, I’d like to make a definitive final version someday.
“He’s Still With Us”
I think this song carries my feelings about rock music, and also my feelings about America. Listening to it now makes me feel a little bittersweet.
“Not Of This World”
In this song, I poured in my life experiences and personal thoughts, adding my own elements to a Van Halen–inspired sound. It’s far from perfect in terms of production and performance, but I think it came out very close to what I was aiming for.