Meiko Nakahara -- Funky Christmas

Yes once again, Xmas is getting ever closer and so I'll probably be throwing in the audiotapes and CDs for the next couple of weeks and listening to good ol' J-Xmas music. I think I may have mentioned the above disc...or at least, posted up a similar picture of it...in past J-Xmas articles. From "Kiss -- Xmas Love Story", I've heard some familiar ol' tunes and come across some new ones.

Meiko Nakahara's（中原めいこ）"Funky Christmas" was one of the new ones. Y'know, I don't think I had ever heard of a J-Disco Xmas song but my ears can no longer make that assertion. Written and composed by Nakahara as a part of a 12-inch remix single in November 1984, "Funky Christmas" pretty much sums up what it's like to enjoy an Xmas in Japan. One may not have the day off on December 25th there (some of my fellow newbie NOVA teachers found out that fact and reacted in utter horror...and in some cases, tears), but a lot of the hedonistic young folks know how to party it up whether it be on the ski slopes in Nagano or on the streets of Tokyo.

I'm not quite sure whether Xmas was always the big party holiday of the year back in the early 80s, but Nakahara's music sure hints or perhaps even foresaw the megawatts of Xmas lights (even with LEDs, there's still a lot of power going out every December) and the crowded, impossible-to-get-a-reservation restaurants throughout Tokyo on Xmas Eve. An old friend of mine and I found that out the hard way back on December 24 1994 when we were crawling through wide Omotesando Avenue in Tokyo with the tens of thousands of other merrymakers being herded down the block by cops like farm animals. There was absolutely no place to get a bite to eat. We ended up having some burgers at a Lotteria.

Considering the several minutes crushed among the humanity, we definitely experienced a "funky" Christmas that year.