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 or CDJapana, the largest online marketplaces for Asian entertaiment.
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Q: When is this site updated?
A: The Artists and Albums
pages are updated every week. The index page where
all the updates are listed is updated in real time, so it will list new songs as soon as they are posted.
Members of our Announce List (sign up on the main page) will receive one email per update cycle, which is usually a week.
Because of work and family commitments I am no longer able to frequently update the site. I will try to update when I can, but this website is no longer a priority for me.
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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: At this point in time I᾿m not taking requests; perhaps when I get one or two volunteers to do some work on lyics I can consider doing requests again.
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Q: Why hasn’t a specific artist gotten any updates?
A: There are thousand of J-pop artists, who release countless new albums and singles every week. I cannot keep up with every single one of them, and some artist pages
will be updated later than others. I try to keep up with trends in Jpop and give popular acts a bit more priority, but there is no specific order in which I update
pages. Please do not email me asking why a page has not been updated, it will not make me update it any faster.
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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/CDJapan?
A: The Cherryblossom Garden has affiliate programs with both YesAsia and CDJapan, this means that we simply link to the products that they offer. Our site receives
a variable rate comission for purchases made through these sites. That money goes to paying for our web hosting, domain names services, promotions and other things.
Purchasing through YesAsia and CDJapan helps me keep this site affordable. Any purchase you make on these sites 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 or CDJapan.
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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/CDJapan is not enough to pay for everything so most of this comes out of my own pocket.
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Q: What are the best places to buy Japanese Music?
A: We have our own Jpop Shop which is hosted by through YesAsia & CD Japan.
Both stores have different deals and customer rewards. YesAsia offers a wider selection of CD versions and free shipping, which is great for Jpop lovers on a budget.
CDJapan has frequent buyer points, incredible fast shipping and excellent customer service. CDJapan generally has higher shipping fees, but YesAsia also has slightly higher pricing
for certain items. Check out both stores so you can make an educated decision on where to shop. I personally use CDJapan for anything I need fast, or if I need
a garanteed first press edition; I use YesAsia for large orders (free shipping is awesome for those) and for orders that contain Chinese/Korean versions of Japanese
CDs.
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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.
Q: What is your policy regarding translations?
A: Any and all translations found on our website are the intellectual property of their respective translators. Translators have the right to remove or
alter their translations at any given time. Translations do not have to be literal, and translators are encouraged to be creative with their work.
Words may be omitted from translations because of this. Phrases and sayings that are not easily translated into English or create awkward song structure
may be reworded or altered by the translator.
Please keep in mind that fan translations are not the same as literal translations or translations done by paid professionals.
Why can we longer request translations?
A: I am currently the only active translator for our website, and my full schedule of work, school and family activities has severely limited the amount of time I have available for work on our site. I no longer feel that I should be spending that time translating on request when there is little to no compensation or acknowledgment.
Q: Who is your favorite 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 © 2005-2010 the Cherryblossom Garden
Site design & content by Jonathan Wu
All lyrics are copyright © of respective owners - Disclaimer
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