Miharu Koshi -- Coffee Break（コーヒーブレイク）

 

Although it's not always the case, I've often seen television meteorologists in North America as the court jesters of the news teams. They can whip out the quips as readily as the high temperatures and the low pressure systems. Until very recently, I was accustomed to seeing one such fellow on the local CTV affiliate for many years after returning from Japan.

His name is Tom Brown and he was always the giddiest fellow on set. Brown was also in charge of the annual Xmas charity campaign, Toy Mountain, and many was the time that he would do location shoots doing stuff while talking about the weather. The above video had been put up a year or so on YouTube before I returned back to Toronto for good, and though bloopers were rare with Brown, this particular video had a bit of a boo-boo. Happily, the polar bears were alright.

Recently, I've been seeing what is perhaps becoming a bit of a YouTube sensation in the form of a certain weather forecaster on Japan's Weathernews broadcasts. Her name is Saya Hiyama（檜山沙耶）from Ibaraki Prefecture, and her very bubbly personality has made ripples all across the platform although I'm not quite ready to call her the personification of "Plastic Love".

To be honest, I subscribed to the Weathernews YouTube channel some months ago not particularly because I needed to know what the weather was like in Japan that desperately. Instead, without looking at the live broadcast, I have been simply enjoying listening to the weather folks talking away along with the calming music. Perfect while I'm working away at my assignments. Just want to say though that I still love New J Channel.

Now, how does all this talk about weather forecasters on either side of the Pacific come into play for this song? Well, the Weathernews broadcasting day is broken up into various segments with cute names, and the 11 am to 2 pm slot has been called "Coffee Time" (I guess Lunch Time was a tad too pedestrian). And as such, it reminded me of this song by chanteuse Miharu Koshi（越美晴）that I'd been putting on backlog for a rather long time.

Called "Coffee Break" from her 1981 album "Make Up", it sounds like the type of song that would get played on the overnight non-host segments of Weathernews when just the maps would be put up. With lyrics by Yu Aku（阿久悠）and music by Koshi herself, there is a soothing reggae beat accompanying this number that I wouldn't place among her very early City Pop creations but neither would I consider it as being part of the out-there New Wave tunes that she would surprise her fans with a couple of years later. Maybe New Music and pop would be the answer here? I've already put up another track from "Make Up", "Sarigenaku Ginger Ale"（さりげなくジンジャエール）.

Getting back to good ol' Tom Brown, sad to say but he and one other weather veteran on CTV Toronto, Anwar Knight, were let go along with many other employees (including whole radio stations) throughout Canada owned by a certain part of the media industry some weeks ago. Unsurprisingly, viewers and listeners didn't take the news well, and I'm left wondering what is to become of Toy Mountain which was really Brown's baby all these years.

Well, I hope that Tom Brown is doing well in whatever he is doing right now and he's being missed. I will leave you tonight with a video of his appearance as a contestant on CBS' "The Price is Right" game show in the United States. He rather surprised us with that news a few years ago but apparently he and his family were on vacation in Los Angeles when he got to come on down.