Before you contact us with questions and requests, be sure to read this F.A.Q. page. Additional questions and concerns may be added at a later date. The current version is shown above. Now, let’s start the questions and aswers!
Q: Is this site free?
A: Yes! This site is entirely free to use, there is no membership or hidden costs with anything. Links to CDs that can be purchased
will direct you to YesAsia, the largest online marketplace for Asian entertaiment.
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Q: When is this site updated?
A: The Artists, Albums, and
Singles pages are updated every week. The index page where
all the updates are listed, is updated once or twice a week.
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Q: What format do lyrics come in?
A: Lyrics come in two standards: Romaji (romanized, readable Japanese) and Kanji (traditional Japanese writing). Lyrics that have
english translations will be listed on seperate pages. A link to translated lyrics can be found on the artist’s main page.
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Q: Can I use these lyrics on my site/journal/blog/forum?
A: Lyrics are copyrighted by the their respectful owners. We do not hold copyright over romanized lyrics, so if you use them, you will
have to credit the original composer. If you want, you can credit us for the romanization, we also ask if you copy romanized
lyrics from our site you use a link back to our site. Translated lyrics, however, may not copied just
that easily. We spend a great deal of time translating lyrics, so it is only fair that you ask permission before you post translations, you
can do that through the contact page.
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Q: Can I request lyrics?
A: Yes, definitely! As long as you can write a polite request, we have no problems doing that. However, please do not request lyrics of
albums from outside Japan, and make sure that the CD has been released. Requests can be made through my contact page.
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Q: What are featured artists?
A: Quite simply put, featured artists are artists that we give special attention. Which means that I will translate their lyrics
and add extra information such as a biography, discography or picture gallery. I also post a great deal of news about our featured
artists on our news page. Currently, these are our featured artists:
Angela Aki,
Arashiro Beni,
Crystal Kay,
Ito Yuna,
Izawa Asami,
FictionJunction ASUKA,
FictionJunction YUUKA,
K (Kei),
Koda Kumi,
Nakashima Mika,
Nobuchika Eri,
Ohyama Yurika,
Sowelu,
SE7EN,
Takahashi Hitomi,
Tamaki Nami,
TiA,
Ueto Aya,
Younha.
(New featured artists may be added at any time)
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Q: Why is your romanization different from other websites?
A: You may notice that sometimes I write lyrics differently than other sites, for example, I always spell “Wo” (を) as “Wo”
and not as “o”, and “He” (へ) as “He” instead of “e”. Why? Because the kana for wo is not the same
as the kana for o, and the kana for he is not the same as the kana for e. This is the only grammatically correct way of doing this, regardless of
the way the kana is actually pronounced. Another one is a tsu with ten-ten (づ). Technically, this is pronounced
as “Dzu”, however, most Japanese wordpad software that allow romaji input do not allow you to use the d-z-u syntax. It would be incorrect
to spell it as “Zu” (ず) because there is already a kana for that. So the only other possibility is to use
“Du”. Once you know how to pronounce this, it should not be a problem to remember all this. Please, do not send me
any “corrections” concerning these three kana.
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Q: Can you send me a song/album/single?
A: No. We do not distribute music files through this website, so any request for them will be denied. Also, when requesting lyrics, please
do not send us music files of any sort.
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Q: What is the relationship between the Cherryblossom Garden and YesAsia?
A: The Cherryblossom Garden is a YesAsia affiliate, this means that we simply link to the products that they offer. Our site receives
a 10% comission for purchases made through YesAsia. That money goes to buying new albums, which of course means that more lyrics will
become available. Purchasing through YesAsia helps me keep this site affordable. Any purchase you make on YesAsia is a contract between
you and them. The Cherryblossom Garden is not in any way responsible for the content or the service offered by YesAsia.
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Q: Does this site make any money?
A: No, in fact, it only costs money. We do not have pop-up ads or other money-generating nuisances, and we use a very good host for
the site, which is costly. Income generated through YesAsia is merely store credit, not real money, and that credit goes to getting new
releases, and from those releases we get the song lyrics you see on this site!
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Q: What are the best places to buy Japanese Music?
A: We have our own Jpop Shop which is through YesAsia.
They offer a lot of music as well as great benefits such as free shipping to the United States and $5 coupons for orders over $5. They
have a lot of cool stuff and interesting deals, so I would suggest them as your prime source of Jpop online. Sometimes when YesAsia does
not have something in stock that I want, I use CDJapan. The biggest drawback with CDJapan is their
outrageous shipping fees. Buying a single for $11,- can cost you $17,- just for shipping. They do offer frequent buyer points, but it still
ends up being expensive when you have to pay so much for shipping. If you are looking for something really rare, like an indies single,
you should try Tower Records Japan. I have used them to get some really rare stuff, but be
aware that their shipping is also insanely high, so only use this if money is not a problem. They actually stock a lot of Indies singles,
which is a real treat for collectors. Most of the interface for that site is in Japanese, so if you need help ordering through Tower Records,
just contact me and I will be happy to help you out.
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Q: What are the rules for the download section?
A: First off, hotlinking is forbidden as it costs us bandwidth, so please do not repost download links or link to them from your own
site. Secondly, the Cherryblossom Garden is in no way responsible for what you download. Live Performances, CD Cover Scans and images
used for Wallpapers are under copyright by their respective owners. We do not host illegal forms of media such as MP3s, applications or
cracks. We only provide overseas media for your private use. Please use the download section at your own risk.
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Q: Can you link to my site?
A: We only exchange links, so if you want me to link to your site, then you will have to link back to me. We will link
only to sites about Japanese music, culture, language or arts. So if you have a website about your favourite
JPop or JRock star, you can submit your link through our contact page. Please bear in my mind that we
do not link to forums, fan-listings, blogs, or sites that offer mp3s.
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Q: Can I join your staff?
A: Our site staff currently consists of only three people, therefore, we really don’t have much of a staff as such.
We have a handful of regular and occasional contributers who send in lyrics or translations. So as it is right now, we are happy with
any kind of help. Here are a few things that contributers can help us with:
- Providing lyrics in Kanji and Romaji (but not just Romaji)
- Post news articles on our news blog (permission is needed to post news)
- Translators (Send us a translations for review first)
- Album reviewers (Details on how to submit album reviews are on the reviews page)
If you think that there is something you can help us with, please by all means send me an email through the
contact page.
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Q: Who is your favourite Jpop artist?
A: I do not have a particular favourite, but the ones I like most are Nakashima Mika, Sowelu, Crystal Kay, RYTHEM, Utada Hikaru,
Nobuchika Eri, Kou Shibasaki, Ueto Aya, Asami Izawa and Porno Graffitti.
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I still have a question!
Then by all means, send me an email through our contact page. I will try to answer your question as
quickly as possible.
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Q: What is the Gallery?
A: In February 2006 we installed a PHP based gallery on one of our subdomains,
http://gallery.cherrblossom-garden.com. It is where
we put up all our Jpop scans, from singles, albums, magazines, or DVDs, for everyone to look at.
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Q: When is the gallery updated?
A: Whenever. Jennifer and myself get new Jpop constantly, so when we have the time we scan it, and
upload it. There is no way to tell when we update the gallery, however, when you go to the gallery you
will see little signs that say “New” or “Updated” below the thumbnail. This
indicates that the album is new or updates since the last time you checked the gallery.
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Q: What kind of pictures do you have?
A: We scan covers and pictures from JPop singles and albums that we buy. We also buy magazines
and scan articles with pictures.
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Q: Can I upload images?
A: No. Not unless your account has been activated by me. We currently are not accepting any uploaders.
If you think you are elligible to be one, you can contact me. We only allow
access to the Gallery to people who can provide their own scans.
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Q: I registered, but I can’t upload, why?
A: All registrations are useless until activated by the administrator.
If you think you are elligible to be an uploader, you can contact me.
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Q: Is it okay to hotlink images?
A: No, no, no, no, no. Hotlinking is forbidden. Do not post direct links to images in the gallery
for use on blogs, forums, my space, your own personal website or whatever. We have a limited amount of
bandwidth available to us, and every time someone hotlinks an image they steal bandwidth from our site.
You can save images onto your computer and upload them on your own website when we give you permission to do so.
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Q: Why is the gallery so slow?
A: Unfortunately, Gallery 2 is a rather slow piece of software. Perhaps the speed issue will be fixed when a new
version is released. It is not a problem with our server.
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Q: Can I request images?
A: No, sorry, it is too much of a hassle to be taking requests for the gallery too. Whatever is uploaded is uploaded.
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Q: Can you send me an image without a watermark?
A: No. It defeats the whole purpose of the watermark. We try to place watermarks in ways which will still allow people to
use the images for site layouts, banners or icons. We will not remove any watermaks, no exceptions.
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Q: Can I upload these images elsewhere?
A: I would prefer that you do not do that. The whole point of the gallery is that it’s well...a Gallery... a place where
people can go to see images. You can always link to specific folders on our gallery, but please refrain from reposting our images
elsewhere.
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Copyright © 2005-2006 the Cherryblossom Garden
Site design & content by Jonathan Wu
All lyrics are copyright © of respective owners - Disclaimer
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