Southern All Stars -- LOVE AFFAIR ~ Himitsu no Date（秘密のデート）

Another one from my memories of living in Japan in the late 1990s, it's good ol' Southern All Stars（サザンオールスターズ）with a typically summery hit.

Keisuke Kuwata（桑田佳祐）and the gang came up with their 41st single in February 1998 (hardly summer in timing but summery in execution), "LOVE AFFAIR ~ Himitsu no Date" (Secret Date), a joyful jangly guitar song about having those illicit trysts. There's also something rather reminiscent about the 1960s when I hear it. According to the description in J-Wiki, Kuwata's lyrics match up with the various date spots shown in the TBS drama "Sweet Season" for which "LOVE AFFAIR" was the theme song. Those spots apparently include Yokohama's Daikoku Wharf（大黒埠頭）.

"LOVE AFFAIR" was also used as a commercial tune for Mitsuya Cider, and indeed, it was another hit for Southern All Stars as it went Platinum, reaching No. 4 on Oricon. It also finished 1998 as the 39th-ranked single. The song also showed up in "Sakura"（さくら）, the band's 13th album from October in the same year which spent 2 weeks straight at No. 1 and quickly became 1998's 32nd-ranked album, going Triple Platinum.