Good golly, the old Akasaka Prince Hotel...one of the more distinctive architectural examples of temporary accommodations that I got to see during my time in Tokyo. But it had its time and got knocked down almost a decade ago.
Seeing that urban structure in the thumbnail up there, it means that we're into urban contemporary Fridays. It's been around 4 1/2 years since I first discovered the City Pop delights of the late jazz singer Kumiko Hara（原久美子）via her tropical punch of "Magic Night" from her 1978 "Neppu"（熱風...Tropical Wind） album, and this time I was able to discover another genre-friendly tune.
"Chance" comes from her 1981 album "Unhappy Birthday" (I guess she didn't like that grand piano on the cover), and although it was written by Machiko Ryu（竜真知子）and composed by Makoto Yano（矢野誠）, there is something about some of that keyboard work in there that reminds me of music from another Makoto...Makoto Matsushita（松下誠）, to be exact. With steady-on vocals by Hara and that melodic march on the pavement, there are also those horns which take me back to the 1970s.
My first sighting of the old hotel was through a photo that my brother had taken when he went to Japan back in 1982, and after that, I knew that I had to see this place in person. Never stayed there, though.
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