Ai Furihata -- Secret Sugar（シークレット・シュガー）

 

There was a time during my long stay in Japan in which I was attending my fair share of weddings. It seemed as if I were heading to the ceremonies and receptions every few months. Naturally, they were very happy affairs although I was worried about the amount of money that I had to hand over in those special envelopes as part of the traditions. However, I definitely enjoyed the lion's share of food at those receptions, and if anyone is lucky enough to be invited to a wedding in Nagoya or the larger area of Aichi Prefecture, accept it! Those folks especially really go all out for the party atmosphere and the cuisine.

I've been out of the wedding-attending zone for about two decades now. At my age, most likely the next wedding that I will attend will be the one for my niece and that probably won't be for many years to come. So, listening to Ai Furihata's（降幡愛）"Secret Sugar" and watching the adorable video above, I got some of those old memories of seeing friends getting hitched, although in a couple of cases unfortunately, they ended up in divorce.

When it comes to Furihata's contributions on the blog so far, I've been accustomed to hearing her provide her form of Neo-City Pop and 80s-style synthpop such as the first song that I'd ever heard from her, "City". "Secret Sugar" is a totally different animal altogether although it was created by the same duo behind those urban contemporary tunes, Furihata herself on lyrics and Akimitsu Honma（本間昭光）on melody. "Secret Sugar" is a song that was provided on her September 2021 single "Honeymoon"（ハネムーン）and it's very much in the happy and folksy pop vein, almost along the same lines of an old Carpenters song and maybe some of those 60s Brill Building tunes. The two even incorporate a grand version of "The Wedding March" in the instrumental bridge. The single, by the way, peaked at No. 29 on Oricon.