Fuyumi Sakamoto -- Iwaizake（祝い酒）

I may have mentioned this before, but there was a period during my Japan days which seemed to be filled with wedding invitations for friends and students. For one student, the reception took place at the dance club Twin Star around the Ichigaya area in Tokyo. That establishment was apparently one of the birth places for the para para dance craze but there was none of that occurring on that day. Anyways, when the announcement came for a toast to my student and her new husband's happiness, some of us at our table went slightly into Ricky Gervais (indeed he was in a feisty mood last night, wasn't he?) mode and surreptitiously muttered something like "Yeah, that's what they all say at first.". Since it's been many years since I've heard anything about that student, I have no idea how the marriage is doing.

That old vignette was brought back into memory by Fuyumi Sakamoto's（坂本冬美）"Iwaizake" (Celebratory Drink) which the veteran enka singer performed at last week's Kohaku Utagassen. There was plenty of brio in Sakamoto's time on the stage as she was backed up by a small battery of taiko drums and a large temple background.

At first, I'd assumed that this was a new single by Sakamoto, but I found out sheepishly that "Iwaizake" was actually her 3rd single released all the way back in April 1988. Layered onto Kosho Inomata's（猪俣公章）stately march-like music, lyricist Takashi Taka（たかたかし）provides not only reason to celebrate but also some forewarning about what married life is all about, and it's unsurprisingly not a bed of roses all the time. It almost sounds like everyone involved was infusing "Iwaizake" with that necessary parental advice.

"Iwaizake" hit No. 16 on Oricon and sold around 330,000 copies with it earning a Gold prize at the Japan Record Awards. By the end of 1988, it became the 24th-ranked single for the year, and it got Sakamoto the first of her 31 invitations to the Kohaku, and in fact, her performance of the same song last week was actually her 4th time doing so.