This is about a Japanese fan who wrote a letter to lead singer Rivers Cuomo after hearing Weezer on the radio. Cuomo responded to her letter with this song.
In this song, Rivers tells of his obsession for the Japanese fan who wrote the letter. "...So I sniff and I lick your envelope and fall to little pieces every time. I wonder what clothes you wear to school, I wonder how you decorate your room, I wonder how you touch yourself and curse myself for being across the sea...."
Cuomo says they never met, stating: "Even if I did see her, she was probably some fourteen-year-old girl, who didn't speak English." (thanks, Joseph - Salt Lake City, UT)
Rivers Cuomo was asked by Kerrang! magazine June 21, 2008 if the Japanese fan ever realized the song was about her. The Weezer frontman replied: "Yes, she knows it's her. When I wrote the song I took her letter and I literally lifted lines from the letter and put them in the song, so she actually collects royalties on that song."
The album is named after a character in the opera Madame Butterfly. The album is loosely based on the opera, which is about an American military officer who goes to Japan and falls in love with a geisha.
The laugh heard at the beginning of the song comes from drummer Pat Wilson.
Cuomo wrote this while studying at Harvard University and recovering from a leg surgery. The strength of this song inspired him to shelve the rock opera/musical Songs from the Black Hole and develop Pinkerton, instead.
Five years after this song's debut performance, Weezer brought it back to their setlist for the 2002 Japan World Cup Tour to satisfy the overwhelming fan requests.
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