I believe it may have been mentioned in an interview from that release period... let me see if I can find it.
Got it! It was in the 2002 Zappy. masa featured it in one of his analyses.
Quote:
There are two usual summer events to me. One is the party held every year on June 30, the birthday of the owner of this bar (in Tokyo), when many old friends of mine I can't usually see gather here. To me, that is the one and only unhealthy night of the year, from June 30 to July 1st. (Laugh) ...(omission) ... And the other is the event of watching fireworks after gathering at the shop of my acquaintance near the sea in August every year ... ("Zappy" Aug. 2002)
This article makes it clear why the second song is titled strangely as "July 1st." But the scene sung about in this song is not the party place at night but the sea in the daytime. Why? -- In fact, there was one more thing which lead her to make this song. In the interview of "Hamasaki Republic", she and the interviewer were talking as below, looking at a photo of the sea in a magazine.
O: How do you think about the sentence? ("If it's fine tomorrow, let's go to the sea.")
A: Nice. I'm glad to hear someone tell me so, for example. A family member or a friend or a boyfriend. Because if someone tell me so, I'm in his or her future. I'm in his or her tomorrow. I'm glad of that. ("Hamasaki Republic")
The sensitiveness of her heart to feel the human warmth in a commonplace sentence. Maybe the photo and the sentence remained in her memory then, and revived when she was going to make "July 1st", a song of friendship. When the two things which apparently have no relation but are substantially close link together, a poem is born. This is what many poets have related as their own experience of making poems, though she doesn't know it maybe. Her poetic quality is seen well here, too. It can be said that "July 1st" is the type of song she made for the first time as well as "independent." As she herself described it suitably as "though the lyrics are bright, there are some minor parts in the melody, but never lacking in released feelings", I think it's a beautiful song with a thread of sadness in the brightness.
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Japanese fans seem to have picked up on the 'tears of yesterday' for some time now. It does seem possible that the anniversary just so happens to also share a similar date with the mysterious 0630. I am thinking perhaps Ayu at the time had two meanings to the song, one that was something she could share to magazines and one that was a bit more personal. There is a
theory that Memorial address tells the story of when she found out about her father divorcing her mother on June 30th which in turn leads into July 1st but of course, we've only got so much to go on.