Second Chance - Larry Chan

This is the continuation of The First where I talked about my first Japanese song that got me into Japanese music.  Technically, it's not a single song but rather Akina Nakamori (中森明菜) herself.

Departure

As I progressed through secondary school, I rarely listened to Japanese music. I would sometimes listen to that Akina tape that I made back in my cousin's home in the summer of 1984. And as the Hong Kong music scene grew, I paid more and more attention to Hong Kong singers. DJs rarely played Japanese songs anymore. If I remember right, there's probably one hour per week on Radio Hong Kong dedicated to Japanese music. But I wonder if that program survived after a few years. I knew no friend in my secondary school who listened to Japanese music.

In the 80s, Japanese songs were covered left and right by Hong Kong singers. I looked up the year 1985, the Top Ten Chinese Songs of 1985, sponsored by Radio Hong Kong, registered 7 songs of foreign origin, 6 of them were Japanese songs!  I always joke that Hong Kong should give Kisugi Takao (来生たかお), Tamaki Koji (玉置浩二) and Tokunaga Hideaki (徳永英明) a Hong Kong Lifetime Music Award as they really contributed greatly to Hong Kong music :)  Naturally, one may think that I would go behind the cover song and seek the original Japanese song. But I didn't. Somehow I had no interest.

I still got entertainment news from Japan from time to time, like Akina's attempted suicide, but these are passive information that I got while reading the entertainment section. In the 90s, I went to Madison Wisconsin for my undergrad and that further insulated me from Japanese music. Not just Japanese music, but anything Japanese.

First Japanese Album Owned

In 1996, something happened. There was a "must see" Japanese drama among my Hong Kong friends -  Long Vacation, starring Kimura Takuya (木村拓哉) and Yamaguchi Tomoko (山口智子).  Well, I guess the "must see" crowd mainly consisted of girls who found the drama extremely romantic.

As I mentioned in The First, I never bought any Japanese music.

And I did not buy my first Japanese album, it was more like a gift.  Also, it was not from a singer or a group, but a sound track!

In 1996, I met the future founder of YesAsia by chance (friend of friend). In 1997, when he's just started his business, he told me that my first order would be free over lunch.  And so, I ordered the original sound track of Long Vacation. Looking back, I was surprised at myself that I got that CD.  I think I ordered it out of fashion at the time.  I liked the piano piece played by Kimura in that last scene in the drama, but I didn't really like the rest of the music. I probably played that album once or twice, and a few years ago, I donated it to the local library, upon finishing the Marie Kondo exercise.

After Long Vacation, there was a period of a few years when I watched quite a number of Japanese dramas including Love Generation, Hitotsu Yane no Shita (ひとつ屋根の下) etc., and I even went back and watched the legendary Tokyo Love Story. But still no Japanese music in my life.

First Japanese Album I Bought

In 2009, I asked a friend of mine to download the Japanese drama Galileo for me.  It was adapted from various short detective novels from Higashino Keigo (東野圭吾), starring Fukuyama Masaharu (福山雅治) and Shibasaki Kou (柴崎コウ).  When he gave me the DVD, he said he downloaded a "bonus track" for me. It turned out to be another detective drama called Triangle, starring Eguchi Yousuke (江口洋介, Moriyama Chisato's 森山千里 husband), Inagaki Gorou (稲垣吾郎, he's a SMAP), and Hirosue Ryouko (広末涼子).

I love Triangle, especially the first half, when it kept me guessing about what happened, and the story was unfolding at a fast pace.  The latter half of the drama was slow and there's too much back and forth. The ending is surprising though.  I highly recommend the drama.

Not only did I found the drama exciting, I also love the music and decided to buy the sound track from Amazon Japan.  In my experience, most of the sound tracks are disappointing because you can't listen to it alone. It's meant to be an accompaniment to the movie or drama.  But Triangle is different. Its music can stand on its own.  It's so rare that I love every piece of music in there.  Every piece is my favorite.  I also want to note that the theme song is called Sayonara wa Iwanai (さよならは言わない) by Koda Kazumasa (小田和正).  I like the song too.  Too bad they can't put that into the sound track (I downloaded it later from the Internet). Maybe I can write about it sometime.

So, like my first Japanese Album, my first "paid" Japanese album is also a sound track.

Studying Japanese

In winter 2009, I took a trip to Hokkaido, visiting Sapporo (札幌)  and Biei (美瑛), among other places. This was my 2nd time in Hokkaido, and my 6th time in Japan. In Biei, I stayed at a family owned bed and breakfast place called Jacatra.  The best part of this b&b is that you can request a paid photography tour, where the owner would drive you to all the scenic spots around Biei and take photographs.  I took the tour with 3 other Japanese residents, all of them serious hobbyists, if not professionals.  They're shooting wide format (120) color slide films with their Pentax 645s.  It was very very memorable.  This is a photo I took during the tour:

I highly recommend this b&b if you are staying in Biei.

After the trip, I had an unusually strong urge to study Japanese. I guess the trip was so fun that in the back of my mind, it'd be super exciting if I could speak the language, especially during the photo tour.

In April 2010, 4 months after the trip, I decided to enroll in Beginning Japanese at Foothill College.  Initially, I thought my enthusiasm would die down quickly, but now I've been studying Japanese for 7 years already and still going!

Back to Akina

Shortly after I started my Japanese studies, I decided that I need to find something Japanese that I'd enjoy.  This was the lesson I learned when I was studying English.  English was part of the curriculum and I was forced to do it. That's why it was so tough because I never found anything related to English that I enjoyed reading or listening.  This time, I decided that I need to find something Japanese that I  would regularly read, watch, and listen. What better place to start than listening to Japanese music, I thought. And what better place to start than picking up where I left  off in that summer of 84, when I stumbled into Akina.

So, I was searching on YouTube fanatically.  At that time, there were a lot of Akina's live performances, mostly on TV like The Top Ten.  I found myself rediscovering Akina in a whole new way.  First of all, I realized how good she was when  she sang live.  Many idols, regardless of era, do not perform well live.  They're called idols for a reason, I guess.  And I always wonder if the TV appearances of AKB 48 had a prerecorded track to make them sound better than they are .  Akina's live performances, on the other hand, sounds authentic -  authentically good.  Second, I like that Akina doesn't hide her emotions when singing live.  I'm mostly talking about her TV appearances singing Nanpasen (難破船) and Yokan (予感) in her concerts .  In one video, I saw her hands trembling upon finishing her performance of Nanpasen.  In another, I can see tears coming from her eyes while performing it .  And in one concert, she bursted  into tears at the end of Yokan, as she was singling the last line: もう疲れたの (I'm already tired) , as if it invoked her  painful  memories with Kondo Masahiko (近藤真彦).  Unlike most celebrities, Akina feels close because I can see her human side.  Last but not least, Akina can really dance, compared with most idols around her time.  It just made her so much more special.

I have a bad feeling that in a few months, these videos would have been erased by YouTube police.  But I'll still post them here for you to enjoy, albeit for a short period.

Akina Yokan Live
https://youtu.be/xWlQeth-wVg

Akina Nanpasen Live
https://youtu.be/srBusfN4C3c
https://youtu.be/6e1bJ05a__s

So, to answer J-Canuck's question, "Which song triggered my final plunge into Japanese music?" - my answer is Nanpasen.  Not only the song itself but Akina's stunning live performance as well.

First Japanese Song Album

By now , you would have guessed that my first Japanese song album is from Akina.  And yes, it's Akina Ballad Best 25th Anniversary Selection.  Interesting enough, there're 2 versions - the Japanese version vs the rest of Asia version.  I have the latter only and so I can't confidently say there are no differences, but the list of songs are definitely the same.  However, the price doubles for the Japanese version!  So if you want to go for the cheap, you should get it from YesAsia or something like that, or maybe get a 2nd hand CD in Japan.  Like J-Canuck said, 2nd hand CDs  from Japan are usually very good deals.

Last Words

Japanese music entered my life in a weird way.  If not because of my Japanese study needs, I probably would not have discovered Japanese music. Don't get me wrong, I enjoy it.  I also learn quite a lot of vocabulary through song  lyrics. It just shows how unexpected life can be.  I never thought I already sowed the seeds of Japanese music in 1984 for myself in 2010.  It's fascinating!