Yumi Yoshimura -- V.A.C.A.T.I.O.N.

Not really feeling in vacation mode myself but, hey, it's the Fourth of July weekend coming up in the States, and I'm sure Americans are on the move. So I thought what would be another ideal J-Pop song to profile that reflects an American vacation.

Well, it was a song that I had been thinking about doing for a while but now that July 4th is upon us, it's a fine time for Yumi Yoshimura's（吉村由美）"V.A.C.A.T.I.O.N". I guess it didn't take long for the folks surrounding Puffy (or Puffy Amiyumi in North America) to decide that with the success they'd had so far that they could have Yumi and Ami Ohnuki（大貫亜美）do some solo stuff. Of the two solo debut songs, Yoshimura's "V.A.C.A.T.I.O.N" is the one that I still remember for her cute if unpolished vocals and for her travelogue music video through the United States.

"V.A.C.A.T.I.O.N" came out in July 1997 and listening to it, I thought that there was a bit of Shibuya-kei in there, and as it turned out, it was Yasuharu Konishi（小西康陽）from Pizzicato Five who had written and composed the song. But I also heard some of that old-style jangly rock which reminded me of Tamio Okuda's（奥田民生）work for Puffy. All in all, it wasn't exactly a song that I was willing to buy, but it was still a short-and-sweet aside from the usual Puffy works. It peaked at No. 7 on Oricon.