Yasuhiro Abe -- Juu-ni-gatsu no Yuki（12月の雪）

Yeah, the above was an October photo of snow in our city. That isn't happening this year for Xmas. The temperature is 9 degrees Celsius as I'm typing this and my window is open to let in some of that fresh balmy air. It's gonna be a green December 25th with all of the positives and negatives.

However, we kayo kyoku fans in Toronto can imagine a bit with the help of this song that I first heard on the Xmas edition of Come Along Radio last night. This is Yasuhiro Abe's（安部恭弘）"Juu-ni-gatsu no Yuki" (December Snow) which was the coupling song for his 14th single, "China Rain In Christmas" released in November 1990. The song was also a track on his 8th album "Tengoku wa Mattekureru"（天国は待ってくれる...Heaven Can Wait）.

At first, I was thinking about categorizing it as a City Pop Xmas tune but after listening to it a few more times, I realized that this was more of a sentimental mix of jazz standard and pop...kinda like the stuff that I used to hear decades ago and more along the lines of a Michael Buble seasonal song. Written by Rui Serizawa（芹沢類）and composed by Abe, "Juu-ni-gatsu no Yuki" is a classy and cuddly ballad crooned ably by the singer about those tender white flakes coming down one night before Xmas. Maybe it's one of those tunes to imagine while taking a breather outside away from the jolly cacophony inside the house during the annual get-together.