H2O -- Tsugi no Magarikado（次のまがり角）

 

Happy weekend! The above is a shot of a hamburger joint in Tokyo called Brozers that came about just when folks there were discovering that they didn't need any golden arches or a king nearby to enjoy good burgers. Not certain whether the place is still there; I gather like any big city, restaurants in Japan's capital have a very high turnover rate.

Speaking of restaurants, I did mention in a recent article that my favourite izakaya Kingyo decided to close up shop for good on Halloween to transform into something new by January 2022. Although some of the ramen shops here in Toronto have managed to hang on and even thrive in these uncertain pandemic-influenced times, I still wonder how they and other dining establishments will do in the months or years to come. There are definitely bridges to cross and corners to turn.

And that brings me to the first of Saturday's articles. I've encountered this typically wistful and breezy song by the folk-pop duo H2O from their fourth and final album "Next Corner" which was released in February 1985. "Tsugi no Magarikado" is the title track since it does translate into English as "Next Corner", and this time around, neither H2O members Kenji Nakazawa（中沢堅司）or Masaki Akashio（赤塩正樹）have put pen onto paper for this particular song; it was actually lyricist Yasushi Akimoto（秋元康）and composer Ryo Matsuda（松田良）, a member of the band NOBODY, behind "Tsugi no Magarikado".

May I say though that both Akimoto and Matsuda got the H2O aesthetic right there and then through how the song sounds? Plus the wistfulness of "Tsugi no Magarikado" hits even harder since 1985 was the year that H2O disbanded after 10 years or so, with Nakazawa and Akashio taking different routes in their musical careers. The latter decided to head over to the United States to study at New York University. They indeed turned their own next corners.

Definitely not a Big Mac!