Well, after a hiatus of about three weeks, NHK's "Uta Con"（うたコン）will be coming back to television, and for me, it's the prime source of any enka that I can get on TV Japan.
Enka singer Natsuko Godai（伍代夏子）won't be on this episode according to the NHK schedule, but I think it would be nice to have her come back here at least. It's been a while. Here is her 3rd single "Shinobu Ame" (Enduring Rain) from May 1990. A story of enjoying some sake while the precipitation is coming down hard outside. I'm unsure whether "Shinobu Ame" had been used in a sake commercial, but perhaps it should have been. It certainly feels as comforting as sipping from an ochoko of the stuff. Eiji Takino（たきのえいじ）was the man behind the lyrics while the reassuring melody was provided by Shosuke Ichikawa（市川昭介）.
"Shinobu Ame" hit No. 12 on Oricon and spent a whole year on the Top 100, selling over 420,000 copies. It became Godai's biggest hit which had her invited to the 1990 edition of NHK's Kohaku Utagassen for the first time, and then Godai returned once more in 2009 to perform the song once more. In total, she has come onto the network's New Year Eve special a total of 22 times with her 2015 appearance being her last one to date. For the yearly Oricon rankings, the song came in at No. 68 and then in 1991, it even went up several ranks to No. 56.
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