(karaoke version)
How about some hot buttered shochu to go with that roast oden with all of the trimmings? Finish it off with some fine Yorkshire purin?
Just out of curiosity, I just put in the Japanese words of "kayo kyoku" and "Christmas" into the YouTube search engine, and this song popped out. Until tonight, I had never heard of "Otoko to Onna no Christmas" (Christmas for a Man and a Woman), but right from the title itself, the melding of Xmas and enka was right there.
Written by Tsutomu Uozumi（魚住勉） and composed by Koji Makaino（馬飼野康二）, the same duo who had come up with an earlier Mika Hino（日野美歌） hit, "Otoko to Onna no Love Game"（男と女ラブゲーム）, "Otoko to Onna no Christmas" was released as Hino's 20th single in November 1991. Paired with Shuji Aoyama（青山修二）, the song answers the question "How would an Xmas Mood Kayo song sound?" Well, the jingle bells are in there along with the flirtatious melody of a couple meeting cute in some nomiya in Shimbashi. Uozumi's lyrics talk of a man and a woman alone and lonely on December 24 (something that should never happen in Tokyo on a day that rivals Valentine's Day for romance in Japan) until they meet up at that tinsel-decorated bar by chance and resolutely decide not to be lonely anymore.
To be honest, I wasn't quite sure what to make of it on that first listen, but after listening to it a second and third time, I think it's starting to grow on me. Maybe somewhere in a karaoke box after one of the many, many year-end parties this month, some folks may actually try it out for a bit of fun. The above video actually has a civilian karaoke duo performing it well. The video below has the actual pair of Hino and Aoyama taking it to the max with the choreography. As you might imagine, the two aren't taking the musical experiment too, too seriously (well, not anymore...the video has been taken down so here is another karaoke version).
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