Kyoko Koizumi -- Country Living（カントリー・リビング）

My image of Kyoko "Kyon-Kyon" Koizumi（小泉今日子）will always be of that of the cheeky, fresh-faced aidoru of the 1980s who then parlayed that image into a long and pretty successful acting career. Frankly, it's been the actress rather than the singer that I've been seeing on the screen for many years now, so it was surprising to discover this video on YouTube.

The thumbnail here is the cover of her most recent album in October 2012, "Koizumi Chansonnier" (which peaked at No. 21 on Oricon) featuring a scene with her that seems new and old at the same time. One of the tracks from this album is "Country Living", a musical equivalent of several long sips from a Mint Julep out at some cottage far from the unforgiving city...mind you, there is also a Caribbean steel drum in there.

Written and composed originally by Thomas Bell & Linda Creed with Seikou Ito（いとうせいこう）providing the Japanese lyrics. It's heartening to hear that Kyon-Kyon hasn't lost any of that light and whispery voice when it comes to her ballads. "Country Living" seems to describe that Slow Life trend that was gathering steam in my last several years living in Japan with folks being drawn from the urban rat race and setting up home and shop in the more rural areas of the nation. As someone who used to live in the mountains of Gunma, I can certainly vouch for some of the attractiveness of living by a quietly babbling brook and snow-capped peaks, although I still needed to get to Tokyo or some semblance of a metropolis at least once a month.