Shoko Arai -- Kansho Ryoko（感傷旅行）

 

Happy Thursday! And as I type this, the Japanese are entering the Golden Week holidays which may be the first time in a few years that folks there have been able to travel within the nation, let alone overseas. My good friend and student is planning an outing with his family, and KKP contributor JTM has informed me that there will be a number of Japanese travelers entering the Aloha State over the next several days. I myself would love to head over to Japan to see old friends but I don't think that the opportunity will come for a while at least. Regardless, for all those over there heading out, have a very safe trip!

So I wanted to start the Thursday April 28th 2022 edition of "Kayo Kyoku Plus" with something somewhat travel-oriented, and I came across this YouTube video put up last year by Island Fantasia, aka HRLE92 here on the blog. Titled "Kansho Ryoko" (A Sentimental Journey), this is a track from Shoko Arai's（荒井尚子）one-and-only album "Je Vous Aime" released in 1990. As noted by my fellow contributor, the album was produced by the one-and-only Meiko Nakahara（中原めいこ）and it has quite the luxurious lineup of composers and arrangers helping Arai out including artists such as musician Masahiro Ikumi（幾見雅博）, Tohoku Shinkansen's（東北新幹線）Etsuko Yamakawa（山川恵津子）and singer-songwriter Masayuki Kishi（岸正之）. You can read the rest of the lineup under the video on Island's page for it. One other website mentions that the album has a very refined pop sense along the lines of the works of singers such as Anri（杏里）, Misato Watanabe（渡辺美里）and Eri Hiramatsu（平松愛理）.

And I definitely can agree with the luscious arrangement behind "Kansho Ryoko". For this number, Keiko Aso（麻生圭子）was on lyrics while Tsunehiro Izumi（和泉常弘）took care of the melody with Shingo Kobayashi's（小林信吾）arrangement which has that feeling of 1980s Quiet Storm a la Anita Baker. It's quite the refreshing cocktail of a song, thanks to those sparkling keyboards.

Shoko Arai has her own J-Wiki article but with a slightly different kanji configuration（荒井晶子）. Additionally, there is no mention of the music part of her career aside from the fact that she is listed as an actress and a singer. Hailing from Tochigi Prefecture, she won the Miss Nippon beauty pageant in 1987 and entered show business in 1990. In 1994, she married actor-singer Shingo Kazami（風見しんご）.