Ruiko Kurahashi -- Ame Agari no Doubutsu-en（雨上りの動物園）

I haven't been to a zoo proper in many years, let alone been to one just after a rainstorm. Perhaps it could be quite wistful...even romantic, although my rather cynical mind is currently thinking "wet dog" on a grand scale.

Happily for all of us Ruiko Kurahashi（倉橋ルイ子）fans, one of my favourite chanteuses and a representative of 1980s Fashion Music, the Hokkaido singer was most likely thinking the first setting of a post-precipitation zoological garden as a pleasant place to take a walk. It's not easy to find an original Ruiko song on YouTube outside of her biggest hits, so it's always a pleasure when I can provide something new by her.

Case in point: "Ame Agari no Doubutsu-en" (A Zoo After A Rain) which was the lead track for her October 1984 album "RUIKO". Written by Machiko Ryu（竜真知子）and composed/arranged by Yasuhiro Kido（木戸やすひろ）, it has that sophisticated and languid aura with the feeling of years gone by, something that I've usually related with Ms. Kurahashi all these decades. Generally speaking, I think it's a fresh and breezy tune.