Iyo Matsumoto -- Sentimental Journey (センチメンタル・ジャーニー）

I have to say that I was quite taken by aidoru Iyo Matsumoto（松本伊代）when I first saw her in the pages of  a Japanese junior high school book way back when. She was just a few months older than me, had those smiling eyes and good teeth as she was about to down some ramen. The Tokyo native debuted her aidoru career with her most famous piece, "Sentimental Journey", which was released in October 1981 and made it as high as No. 9 on the Oricon weeklies. Matsumoto won the Newcomer Award the following year at the Japan Record Awards but never made it onto the Kohaku Utagassen.

The song was composed by Kyohei Tsutsumi（筒美京平）and written by Reiko Yukawa（湯川れい子）. It struck me as one of the quintessential aidoru songs for the early 80s as the melodies were slowly transitioning from the electric guitar to synthesizers. "Sentimental Journey"kinda shows that slow transfer to me.

Here is an older Matsumoto hoofing it with the zany comedic duo The Tunnels as she performs her signature tune. According to an anecdote from J-Wiki, the production staff discovered that her voice was relatively low for an aidoru although she was still groomed as such. One of them threw her a tape of the American female vocal group The Ronettes and told her to study their vocal style in preparation for her debut.

Since her aidoru days, Matsumoto has also gone the actress/TV personality (tarento) route, mostly in the latter category. But once in a while, she has popped up on stage to perform "Sentimental Journey". Several years ago, she teamed up with other former aidoru-turned-parents Yu Hayami（早見優）and Chiemi Hori（堀ちえみ）to form a "mamadoru (mama aidoru) unit"called Cutey Mommy.