Hiroshi Itsuki -- Sasameyuki（細雪）

Get this: yesterday morning, the temperature outside was a supremely balmy +18 degrees Celsius. This morning, it was actually -8 degrees C. Go figure on Toronto's weather, eh? Plus, we may have some snow early next week. Meteorologically speaking, it's never a boring time in my city.

For this Saturday night, I have some tenderhearted enka for you, and who else to sing it but Hiroshi Itsuki（五木ひろし）himself. "Sasameyuki" (Light Snowfall) was the veteran singer's 58th single from September 1983. Written by Osamu Yoshioka（吉岡治）and composed by Shosuke Ichikawa（市川昭介）, the titular snow from the title provides the atmospheric background outside of a small town bar where the protagonist may be crying in her sake over a lost love before she heads on out into the cold....which may not be a great thing, health-wise.

Couldn't get more shibui than this, and listening to the graceful "Sasameyuki", I almost feel like heading straight to Japan again to head to some small watering hole out in the mountains to order a steaming tokkuri and o-choko. There's something about a snowy landscape that gets the romanticists in Japan waxing plaintively whether it be in some rustic drinking establishment or a rotenburo (outdoor hot spring).

"Sasameyuki" managed to hit No. 9 on Oricon and after becoming the 62nd-ranked single for 1983, it would climb up the Oricon rankings even further by finishing as the 47th-ranked single for 1984. The song also earned Itsuki a Special Gold Prize at the Japan Record Awards in 1983 plus another invitation to the Kohaku Utagassen to sing it.