Hikaru Utada -- Hanataba wo Kimi ni（花束を君に）

Happy Mother's Day! Even during this time, I hope all of you have had the chance to give tribute to your okaasan. My Mom got something from my brother's family, and since she's a big fan of roast chicken from this place, I made my absolutely delectable...phone call to Swiss Chalet for delivery.

With the current pandemic wreaking some havoc on TV programming all over the globe, Japanese TV as well has probably had to go to reruns or do their variety shows sans audiences. I was also wondering what would become of NHK's regular Sunday-afternoon "Nodo Jiman"（のど自慢）singing contest since I think audiences are pretty key to the success of the show along with the actual participants. Well, as it has been for the past couple of weeks, NHK has thrown out recap episodes summarizing each of the winners for the 52 weeks of 2019.

Two of those participants won due to their performance of this particular song, and I thought it an appropriate one considering today is indeed Mother's Day. Moreover, it's been a long time since I've put up anything by the one-and-only Hikaru Utada（宇多田ヒカル）. To be honest, as I've most likely mentioned before, my interest in her music basically ranged from her beginnings in the late 1990s to the early 2000s. However, on listening to her digital download single from April 2016, her "Hanataba wo Kimi ni" (A Bouquet of Flowers for You) as voiced by those two contestants on "Nodo Jiman", I was reminded of the original somehow although I have obviously been back in Canada for several years now. The original by Utada had me realizing how her voice has evolved over the past few decades into something richer and more elegant.

One reason that I remember the original is that "Hanataba wo Kimi ni" was the theme song for an NHK morning serial drama "Toto Neechan"（トト姉ちゃん）from that same year, and of course, my parents have been faithful viewers of those dramas. The song is also a track on her 6th album "Fantome" from September 2016 which was at the top spot of Oricon for 4 weeks straight. It ended up as the 3rd-ranked album of the year and it even hung on to become the 34th-ranked album in 2017.