Chiyono Yoshino -- Tsukiyo no Monologue （月夜のモノローグ）

I'm glad I could finally find this one by mellow pop singer, Chiyono Yoshino（吉野千代乃）. "Tsukiyo no Monologue" (Moonlit Monologue) starts off with some percussion that sounds slightly African before it takes off to become this pleasant J-AOR tune that feels like a nice nighttime flight over the city. I first heard this one on "Sounds of Japan", and it took me some years but I was able to track the song down through her album, "Montage" from April 1988. It wasn't the easiest hunt since I was still wrapping my mind around the kanji and Yoshino wasn't exactly the most well-known singer out there. Fortunately, I did live in a town called Tsukiyono. In any case, the lyrics were written by the singer and the music was by Tsukasa Fujita（藤田司）.

As for Yoshino, she hails from Chiba Prefecture and debuted in March 1986 with the single "Kanashimi no Tapestry"（悲しみのタペストリー....Tapestry of Sorrow） and the album, "Rain Ballade". Her singing career lasted into the early 90s, and since then, she has been a vocal trainer for some of the groups under the Hello Project umbrella such as Morning Musume, Melon Kinenbi and Country Musume.

Chiyono Yoshino