It's no longer the case but whenever the year was on the verge of ending, my parents used to bring home a box of those Mandarin oranges, aka mikan, from the downtown Japanese food shop. My brother and I always looked forward to those since they were almost always sweet and darn easy to peel. What I wouldn't find out for a few decades is that the mikan was also the staple fruit to nosh on during those early days of the New Year while dug in deep under the kotatsu in Japan.
Not that the above video signifies anything remotely related to New Year's Day. In fact, I'd say that the music video for Miho Yonemitsu's（米光美保）"Orange" is more for the summery days that probably a lot of us in the northern hemisphere are already longing for. It was -4 degrees Celsius this morning but with the wind it was feeling more like -11! Talk about wanting to dive under the kotatsu.
"Orange" is indeed a nice slice of groovy pop which was released as Yonemitsu's 17th single in August 1998. Along with her creamy vocals, the accompanying guitar and, well, just the overall arrangement of the music are very relaxing and reassuring. Singer-songwriter and current sake brewmaster Caoli Cano（かの香織）helped create "Orange" with Yonemitsu. It may be getting cold out there but perhaps something like this song can help with the warmth.
Fortunately enough, I never had any allergic reactions to mikan either. It was probably one of the few things that I could eat in mass quantities that my mother approved of.
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