Toshimi Tagawa -- Onna...HItori Tabi（女...ひとり旅）

 

Ah, yes. The post-relationship trip to someplace unknown...a classic enka lyrical theme. I've come across it a number of times since first posting Sayuri Ishikawa's（石川さゆり）1977 hit "Tsugaru Kaikyo Fuyu Geshiki"（津軽海峡・冬景色）all the way back in 2012. I still wonder if there are melancholy folks who flee to that strait up north.

Well, not too long ago, I encountered this enka for the first time during an episode of NHK's "Shin BS Nihon no Uta"（新BS日本の歌）. Titled "Onna---Hitori Tabi" (Woman...A Journey Alone), this was enka singer Toshimi Tagawa's（田川寿美）debut song from April 1992, and the song even faintly hints at Ishikawa's trademark tune melodically speaking. However, instead of Takashi Miki（三木たかし）handling the composition, it was Jun Suzuki（鈴木淳）who created the sad melody. The lyrics of a woman going to this unknown place up north all by her lonesome without her erstwhile paramour as had originally been scheduled were provided by Keiko Yuuki（悠木圭子）, who recently passed away in March of this year at the age of 90.

Reaching No. 45 on Oricon, Tagawa made her debut on NHK's Kohaku Utagassen at the end of 1994 with "Onna...Hitori Tabi". She would make three more appearances thus far on the New Year's Eve special in 1995, 1998 and 2002.

Jazztronik feat. Taeko Ohnuki -- Ameoto（雨音）

Tony Webster via Wikimedia Commons

Happy Sunday to you all! Although we had some dire warnings about heavy rain throughout yesterday, things have settled down in the Toronto area. It's still overcast but it looks like the worst-case scenario luckily hasn't come to pass.

Over the past several weeks, we here at KKP found the collaboration between Taeko Ohnuki（大貫妙子）and STUTS so nice that Rocket Brown and I wrote about it twice. When I was digging a bit more into "Ohayou"（おはよう）, I found a few more collaborations that Ohnuki had done with other artists in the past.

Jazztronik, aka Tokyo DJ/pianist/producer Ryota Nozaki（野崎良太）, is also one for working with other singers such as Miki Imai（今井美樹）. In 2007, when he released his album "Grand Blue", he included his own collaboration with Ohnuki for the track "Ameoto" (The Sound of Rain) which is this exquisitely contemplative song sung by Taeko in this lovely jazz waltz style. This is the type of song that can be heard in a sparsely populated and stylish Tokyo cafe whose windows and walls are holding back the raindrops while a customer is slowly savoring her cuppa. The rhythm does quicken toward the end (caffeine kicking in?) but then it abruptly goes back to its simmering tempo before ending with a sloshing of water.

Nozaki was responsible for the composition while the lyricists were BEBE and Shoko Fujibayashi（藤林聖子）.

Toshiyuki Nishida -- Ii Yume Miro yo（いい夢見ろよ）

By Toshiyuki Imai via Wikimedia Commons

It's been close to about a couple of years since the passing of actor and singer Toshiyuki Nishida（西田敏行）. I will always remember him for his biggest hit "Moshimo Piano ga Hiketanara"（もしもピアノが弾けたなら）from April 1981 , and it'll probably be difficult for his fans to prevent anything flowing from the eyes whenever the telly shows him singing this one.

Well, out of curiosity, I had been wondering what was on the B-side of Nishida's famed single. I've said it only recently but it's often been the case that a quiet A-side would beget a more upbeat B-side and vice versa. As it turns out, "Ii Yume Mire yo" (Sweet Dreams) is just as adorable and perhaps a bit more tenderhearted. Not surprisingly for a song with that title, it has a kayo lullaby-type melody and rhythm as if Nishida himself were singing softly to his own little children back in the day. The same songwriters for the A-side were behind the B-side: lyricist Yu Aku（阿久悠）and composer/arranger Koichi Sakata（坂田晃一）.

Kirinji feat. Tomomi Oda/Chiaki Takahashi & Azumi Asakura -- LEMONADE

From E4024 via Wikimedia Commons

How does that saying go? When life throws lemons at you, make lemonade!

Apparently, that is the premise for this track from Kirinji's（キリンジ）January 2026 album "Town Beat". The appropriately titled "LEMONADE" is the melodic elixir for all that ails you as prepared by Takaki Horigome（堀込高樹）and served by both him and singer-songwriter Tomomi Oda（小田朋美）in a nice tall glass with plenty of ice. The album also has another collaboration between the two, "Room Dancer"（ルームダンサー）, but unlike the Motown vibe of that one, "LEMONADE" has more of a fleet-footed Neo-City Pop/technopop feeling. At the same time, the harmonies and maybe some of the chords also have me thinking some Steely Dan as well.

When I looked at the J-Wiki article for "Town Beat", I also realized that "LEMONADE" was a cover of a song that Horigome had provided the Idolmaster album "THE IDOLM@STER MASTER PRIMAL POPPIN' YELLOW" from December 2017. This was a duet between seiyuu Chiaki Takahashi（たかはし智秋）and Azumi Asakura（浅倉杏美）as their characters of Azusa Miura（三浦あずさ）and Yukiho Hagiwara（萩原雪歩）respectively. The original here goes a bit more for the technopop but also has a funkier groove. If I had heard this one before the Kirinji and Oda cover and then found out who was behind the songwriting, I most likely would have exclaimed "Oh yeah! That's Kirinji to a T!"

Rainy Street by Tchabows (1976)

I don't remember exactly when or where I first heard this song, but I do remember discovering it sometime last year. I was already familiar with Masami Yoshida thanks to his 1980 solo album My Tune, My Turn, but I had no idea he had been making music before that.

What initially caught my attention was the band's unusual name: Tchabows. Written in Japanese as 茶坊主 (Chabōzu), the term traditionally refers to a Buddhist temple attendant or, historically, someone who served tea to a feudal lord.

To be fair, the mellow sound of their 1976 album Tree of Life actually feels pretty appropriate for sitting indoors with a warm cup of tea while the rain comes pouring outside your window.

"Rainy Street" quickly became my favorite song on the album. It has this wonderful pseudo-bossa nova groove, a folksy, down-to-earth acoustic guitar, and a quirky yet strangely endearing synthesizer floating around in the background.

To top it off, vocalist Mami Kikuchi could honestly give Taeko Ohnuki a run for her money. Her voice has that same wonderfully soft, warm, and inviting quality—the kind of vocal performance that doesn't need to overpower the music to grab your attention.

While a few other songs on the record venture into more  Progressive Rock territory, everything about "Rainy Street" feels gentle and unassuming. 

Hidari Tonpei's Hey You Blues

Some songs just sound TOUGH.

And when I say tough, I mean you can envision someone who demands respect—or maybe even a little reverence—having that song as their personal theme, whether they're just walking down the street or kicking some serious ass.

50 Cent has "Many Men (Wish Death)." Warren G and Nate Dogg have "Regulate." Curtis Mayfield has "Pusherman." Hell, even Boz Scaggs' "Lowdown" comes to mind.

There are very few Japanese songs that I would personally classify as "tough." But if there's one that makes the cut, it's "Tonpei's Hey You Blues."

Damn, that bassline stanks!

Somebody come get their Uncle!

Look at this guy! Look at his fit! Look at him gangster-leaning against that pipe. Look at him pointing at me like a JoJo character. Whoever this man is, he means business.

Obviously, that's the titular Tonpei Hidari (左とん平), a Japanese actor and singer known for his comedic touch and appearances in productions such as Monkey (1978), The Ballad of Narayama (1983), and Yakuza Wolf: I Perform Murder (1972).

Hidari often portrayed a sort of "regular working man" character—someone who could be funny, irritable, streetwise, and unexpectedly sympathetic. That archetype definitely shines through in "Tonpei's Hey You Blues."

Produced by Mickey Curtis and arranged by jazz-fusion keyboardist Jun, the song feels like somebody accidentally recorded something years ahead of its time.

Although it isn't "rap" in the modern sense, Hidari's forceful spoken-word cadence sounds remarkably similar to the work of Gil Scott-Heron, who is often regarded as one of the important precursors to conscious rap and hip-hop. Songs such as "The Revolution Will Not Be Televised", or "Whitey on the Moon" immediately come to mind when listening to the way Hidari talks like he's standing on a street corner telling you exactly what's on his mind. Reminiscing about how life had worn him down like a lonely pestle.

Funny enough, the record would later be rediscovered by Japan's hip-hop community thanks in part to a sample featured in Scha Dara Parr's 1990 track "Scha Dara Parr no Theme Pt. 2." That track also samples a few other Shōwa-era classics, including Godiego's "Monkey Magic."

Fridays and Saturdays

 

As I've mentioned in the past, I've sometimes used the 5th and final slot for my articles on Urban Contemporary Fridays to place something a little out of the ordinary. This time, I'm going with an Author's Picks devoted to songs that have some form of Friday or Saturday in the titles since we're going to transition from Friday into Saturday in a few hours, and not surprisingly, a lot of these songs are City Pop in nature. Friday night is the time in Japan to whip off the tie and go crazy at an izakaya or karaoke box while Saturday could be more of the same or maybe friends can meet up for brunch or coffee in the morning. One song actually doesn't haven't a Friday or Saturday in its title but I figure that "Pay Day" by EPO is close enough to a celebratory Friday to get an honorary nod. Anyways, have a good weekend everyone!

(1977) Tetsuji Hayashi -- Rainy Saturday & Coffee Break（レイニー・サタディ&コーヒー・ブレイク）

(1982) EPO -- Doyou no Yoru wa Paradise (土曜の夜はパラダイス）

(1983) EPO -- Pay Day

(1983) M. TOSIKAZ -- Friday Night

(1992) Dreams Come True -- Kessen wa Kin'youbi (決戦は金曜日）

(2015) Lucky Tapes -- Friday Night