Mitsuko Nakamura -- Wasurezake（わすれ酒）

For me, when it comes to drinking, I do that at an izakaya and I try to forget but it doesn't go too well. I remember my first birthday spent in Gunma on the JET Programme so my board of education guys decided to take me out for dinner and drinks. Of course, one of the things that a new teacher learns on the programme that his/her liver has to be in fighting trim since at those parties, drinking the harder stuff is what one does to socialize. That was not easy for me since aside from the sweet cocktails in university, I barely touched alcohol.

Anyways, I was doing a lot of chug-a-lugging at that birthday party in that izakaya in Numata City, and pretty soon, the room was spinning faster than disco lights. My memory was still intact enough to remember getting dragged up the stairs to my room in my host family's house and hearing repeated grunts from my fellows to the effect that I was a pretty heavy guy. I think my colleagues learned a valuable lesson that night and so I don't recall getting plied with as much booze from that point forward.

Mitsuko Nakamura（中村美律子）must be doing a lot better with her own "Wasurezake" (Drinking to Forget). This is her latest single from April 2019, and I first heard it on last week's episode of "Gogo no Uta"（ごごのウタ）. She remarked that through this song, her character doesn't simply drown her sorrows in that ladylike manner; she can just as easily glug it down and collapse into a messy heap on the counter. I'm sure her buddies would be able to carry her home more easily than my colleagues did with me back in 1989.

Still, despite Nakamura's explanation, I think "Wasurezake" does have that enka elegance although the actual recorded version sounds like her getting quite soused at the nomiya. Veteran composer Chiaki Oka（岡千秋）took care of that lovely music while the late Akiko Shimoji（下地亜記子）provided the lyrics.