Ichiko Fujii -- Allergy（アレルギー）

 

I've already declared that one of the very few things about Japan that I don't miss is the summers. Swimming through atmosphere for three months was never my favourite activity. One other thing that I also do not miss is hay fever season. I also suffered from that for about three months just before the three months of torrid heat and humidity. The supremely ironic thing is that I lived in Chiba Prefecture for seventeen years, the biggest source of cedar pollen in the entire nation. Sometimes I marvel that I lasted that long. 

Once more I bring you that preamble ramble to introduce "Allergy" by aidoru, actress and TV personality Ichiko Fujii（藤井一子）. I've seen her name all over the place but this is my first time bringing her onto "Kayo Kyoku Plus", so I bid her welcome. "Allergy" was Fujii's 5th and penultimate single from March 1988. Sounding like a song by Journey with the mix of pop and rock, it's a rumbling number about opposites attracting and repelling as a rough-and-tumble young girl might be falling for a fellow and needling him about it. As she says in the chorus, "I am your allergy!". Lyrics were provided by Masao Urino（売野雅勇）while Kisaburo Suzuki（鈴木キサブロー）handled the melody under Hiroshi Shinkawa's（新川博）arrangement.

Fujii hails from Fukuoka Prefecture and made her debut in show business through a television drama in 1985 before starting her music career the following year. Along with those six singles, she also released two original albums up to the middle of 1988. She did some more acting up to 1990 and then left showbiz in 1991. She's now married with two kids with the family business being a mentaiko shop. Also, according to this online article, she recently set up her own Italian restaurant called Ichico Jam.

Testpattern -- Modern Living

 

In addition to the various music-based YouTube channels, I've also subscribed to a couple of channels having to do with architecture and civil engineering because I have a glancing interest in urban planning and how homes can be designed. Heck, to show you good KKP readers how much of a nerd I was with my lone PlayStation 1, one of the games that I bought was something called "My Home Dream" (if my memory serves me correctly) which involved me designing my own home or apartment from scratch with all of the various rooms, garages, furniture, etc. 

Anyways, the two channels that I have are The B1M and Stewart Hicks. The latter is represented above with his analysis of the famous modular Habitat '67 which was built for Expo '67 in Montreal. The fascinating blocky Lego-like structure was to have been much more ambitious in that it was supposed to have been a new way of looking and living in communities but the usual money issues and red tape prevented that from happening. I remember that there was a similar structure in Shimbashi, Tokyo for decades called the Nakagin Capsule Tower which was finally taken down last year due to the inevitable stresses of aging. But both had been seen at one time as a potential future to modern living.

One reason that I got so into Japan during the summer trip of 1981 was that I felt that the cities around me like Tokyo, Osaka and Nagoya were greatly representative of the best of that modern living as it was in that year. All that technology, architecture and convenience all wrapped up in one ball. And I thought that technopop was the ideal melodic medium to show that off.

So, we come across the enterprising graphic designers-turned-technopop musicians Fumio Ichimura（市村文夫）and Masao Hiruma（比留間雅夫）with tutelage from Yellow Magic Orchestra member and producer Haruomi Hosono（細野晴臣）as the unit called Testpattern. It was a little over a year ago that I first wrote about the guys via their 1982 album "Après-Midi" and one of the tracks "Techno Age". This time from "Après-Midi" is the track "Modern Living" which was written by Hiruma and Scott Kajiya and composed by Hiruma. 

However, instead of the shiny idealistic life that I hinted at above, "Modern Living" as sung in English describes a far more humdrum existence for a typical salaryman and his family, especially the aspect of the working guy spending most of his waking hours at the company. As is sung like a mantra, "Work is life, life is work". There's something eerily Orwellian about that. Hiruma's melody though is pretty interesting due to the technopop imbued with traditional Japanese influences though the rhythm humourously matches that humdrum bliss. Gotta have the「和」in there.

Taeko Ohnuki -- Hitorigurashi no Yousei-tachi（ひとり暮らしの妖精たち）

 

I kinda figured that singer-songwriter Taeko Ohnuki（大貫妙子）would delve into the sub-genre of Fashion Music, admittedly a name that I kinda ran with after seeing one newspaper or magazine introduce it years ago to describe the Japanese version of Baroque pop. The late Chika Ueda（上田知華）with her group Karyobin was the poster child, but with my image of Ohnuki from the late 80s onwards being that of a chanteuse of all things whimsical pop, she could easily have a piano and strings backing her up in the recording studio or music hall.

Well, no strings attached here but there is still something old-world-ish and whimsical in her November 1986 single "Hitorigurashi no Yousei-tachi" (Fairies Living Alone). This time around, Ohnuki provided just the lyrics while Ryuichi Sakamoto（坂本龍一）and Saeko Suzuki（鈴木さえ子）worked on melody and arrangement. It's a hypnotically relaxing song with the undulating rhythm and then the bluesy sax later on. But of course, Ohnuki's light and clear vocals make all the difference.

"Hitorigurashi no Yousei-tachi" was used in a Family Mart convenience store commercial as well as for an NTV interview special. As the title might imply, there is something quite fantastical about the song although I'm not quite sure about the significance of fairies living alone. Mind you, if those fairies are indeed living alone, they may need to rely on the konbini more than usual.

Okamoto's -- 90s Tokyo Boys

 

Having arrived in Japan for my second stint in the mid-1990s, I still clearly remember about the yamumba（ヤマンバ）phenomenon and the loose socks that the high school girls wore back then, but I can't really wrap my memories about the guys at the time. Mind you, though my trips to the Youth Mecca of Japan, Shibuya, were mostly during the day, there were a few times that I got to move around the neighbourhood late into the night. There was plenty of busking into the early morning hours with dedicated fandom and unfortunately quite a few teens who were still looking for their sea legs when it came to drinking and not quite succeeding. 

Those images came to mind as I was listening to Okamoto's' "90s Tokyo Boys" although it looks like the setting in the lyrics was Shinjuku rather than Shibuya. But it's still about having that wild Friday night with the guys and gals in the clubs, and considering that this was a track from their August 2017 7th album "No More Music", I gather that the band may have been doing their own reminiscing. "90s Tokyo Boys" is an interesting blend of alternative rock and funk which also had me thinking of Suchmos to a certain extent.

Okamoto's got started in 2006 when the four members were junior high school students. They were all fans of the late artist Taro Okamoto（岡本太郎）so they took on his name for the band. In fact, taking a page out of The Ramones, every member stylized his name to take on the family name of Okamoto so at this point, the lineup consists of Sho Okamoto (vocals/guitar), Kouki Okamoto (guitar), Hama Okamoto (bass) and Reiji Okamoto (drums) with former members Masaru Okamoto and Ryosuke Okamoto. Sho and Kouki were responsible for "90s Tokyo Boys".

Their first album, "Here are Okamoto's" was released in June 2009 and the guys became the youngest group at the time to perform at the South by Southwest music festival in Austin, Texas in 2010. Okamoto's covers rock, hip-hop, and alternative R&B although in their early days, they also covered garage rock.

Often Mofun -- Gozen Rei-ji wa Tameiki Bakari（午前０時はため息ばかり）

 

Well, I started today with a pretty sunny song by Serani Poji（セラニポージ）so allow me to finish off the day with something similar.

And it's also by a group with a distinct name, Often Mofun. I actually wrote about them a couple of years ago through their song "CITY DANCER" with Rumi Ishikawa as the vocalist and lyricist. I saw them as an example of the Neo-City Pop and/or Neo-Shibuya-kei bands. "CITY DANCER" leans toward the City Pop but this other track, "Gozen Rei-ji wa Tameiki Bakari" (Nothing But Sighs at Midnight) from their sole album from 2016, "Tiny boxes", perhaps goes a bit more into the Shibuya-kei since the arrangement strikes me as being a bit of that 1960s sunshine pop that I thought was represented by groups such as The Mamas and the Papas. It's a nice song to end a day upon.

I checked their website again but the latest entry is the announcement for their "new" music video for "CITY DANCER" and "Tiny boxes". Perhaps Often Mofun has indeed disappeared into the wind.

Michi Aoyama -- Shikaranaide（叱らないで）

 

Michi Aoyama（青山ミチ）was born as Fusako Yagi（八木フサ子）in Yokohama in 1949 to a Japanese mother and an American soldier. She was barely into her teens when she won a prize in a jazz singing contest in 1961 which got noticed by the then Polydor Records, and by the following year, she made her debut as a singer. Over the next four years, she would release around 25 singles for the recording company which would have included a song called "Kaze Fuku Oka de"（風吹く丘で...On a Windy Hill） in late 1966 (and also her own cover of "Namida no Taiyo"（涙の太陽）in May 1965). However, Aoyama was then arrested for drug possession which got her kicked out of Polydor, and "Kaze Fuku Oka de" was shelved until a few years later, when it was given a new title and presumably new lyrics and arrangement. It was then called "Amairo no Kami no Otome" （亜麻色の髪の少女）which became a classic for The Village Singers (ヴィレッジ・シンガーズ) in early 1968.

Despite the seriousness of the incident, Aoyama was able to transfer to a new company, Nippon Crown, surprisingly quickly and was even able to release her first single with them in December 1966. In February 1968, at approximately the same time that her former song was released by The Village Singers, a new Aoyama single came out, "Shikaranaide" (Don't Be Mad). A relatively upbeat Mood Kayo written by Tetsuro Hoshino（星野哲郎）and composed by Jinzo Kosugi（小杉仁三）, it relates the story of a mother who beseeches the heavens above for mercy for her wayward daughter. Taking into consideration the genre, I can imagine that the daughter may be working in Shinjuku. There is also some irony of Aoyama singing this song considering her past troubles.

Unfortunately, the troubles continued for the singer going forwards. Aoyama was arrested for the same crime in 1978 and 1999. Earlier in 1974, she had even been arrested for shoplifting. There was a second release of "Shikaranaide" in 1975 but her final official single had come out in May 1972. In January 2017, Aoyama was found dead in her home in Yokosuka due to acute pneumonia. She was 67.

Maharajan -- Sailor Muntaro（セーラ☆ムン太郎）

 

I haven't gotten to know the singer-songwriter Maharajan（マハラージャン）all that long or well especially considering that my first article on the Tokyo-born fellow was only posted a few months ago in January. My impression though is that he's got quite a bit of that Weird Al Yankovic sort of humour in his music videos while putting out dynamic melodies.

Weird Al was more than happy to emulate folks like Madonna and Michael Jackson so his genre tastes were all over the place but it seems like Maharajan has enjoyed either rock or R&B. Come to think of it, I can also pick up on some Ginger Root in the execution as well.

I found his 3rd EP (his first with a major label), "Sailor Muntaro", an obvious riff on the iconic "Sailor Moon", which was released in March 2021. Once again as the zany music video will display, the title track's disco funk sense is paired with a tongue-in-cheek look at the superhero and tokusatsu genres. The heroes and villains may be verbally challenging and physically intimidating each other, but our calm heroine simply is above and beyond such pettiness. Sailor Moon would lose her dumpling hair balls at how capable this not-damsel-in-distress is.

For your information from the music video's information underneath, the young lady is bodybuilder Misaki Sakurai（櫻井美沙季）. There are some online photos of her posing but otherwise, there isn't a whole lot of additional information about her.

Serani Poji -- Smiley wo Sagashite（スマイリーを探して）

www.goodfreephotos.com

 

The final Tuesday of the month and it's possible or probable that folks are already getting weary of the work week. I hear you and will try to alleviate the situation here as best as I can.

Commenter Brian Mitchell once professed his love for the whimsical in Japanese pop songs. They can often be on anything under the sun whether it be a beloved bowl of steaming ramen or a bear that can't stand medical checkups. I'd go along with that.

And we have another lovely prime example here thanks to Serani Poji（セラニポージ）and her "Smiley wo Sagashite" (Finding Smiley or Where's Smiley?) from her 2002 album "one-room survival" which shares space with "Pipo Pipo"（ぴぽぴぽ）, the basis of my second article on the whispery singer-songwriter all the way back in 2018. Compared to the French pop/Shibuya-kei of "Pipo Pipo", Poji's delivery is less breathy and the arrangement takes things into a more Bacharach direction as the singer gives out her story of trying to find her imaginary smiley face friend although it seems like she's enjoying the search just as much as her re-discovery. It's a happy-go-lucky upbeat tune that could put a bit more of a skip into any commuter's step to and from work.

Bread & Butter -- Yume ga Tobu（夢がとぶ）

 

Although KKP readers probably know by this point that I had this summer 1981 trip to Japan that was a major turning point in my life, I have yet to relate that one of the last stops on our graduation trip was Mikimoto Pearl Island in Mie Prefecture. According to Wikipedia, the island is the birthplace of cultured pearl cultivation.

It's been over forty years since I've been on the island but I remember that we got to stay in a Japanese-style hotel which was very luxurious, and frankly we teens (being teens) underappreciated and over-deserved the accommodations. We also got to visit the Mikimoto Pearl Museum which actually owns the island and I distinctly have that listed price of one small black pearl seared into my head: $10,000 in 1981 US dollars. Try to imagine how much it would cost now.

Our first set of accommodations was the Tokyo Prince Hotel next to Tokyo Tower and that was also a mighty fine and distinguished place to rest our bones for the first leg of our tour, but the Mikimoto Pearl Island hotel was truly something of a resort vacation. Not sure if the place exists anymore; I see a number of hotels around the bay listed but nothing on the island itself.

In any event, perhaps I can interest you in a slice of Resort Pop? I mean, this particular tune by duo Bread & Butter（ブレッド&バター）, "Yume ga Tobu" (The Dream Flies), has that vibe reflective of this subset of City Pop where all those Seizo Watase（わたせせいぞう）and Hiroshi Nagai（永井博）citizens head out to the beachside hotels and inns outside of Tokyo for a weekend before heading back to the megalopolis. Written and composed by the husband-and-wife team of lyricist Kazumi Yasui（安井かずみ）and composer Kazuhiko Kato（加藤和彦）, the 80s arrangement aside, there is something quite 1970s about that melody.

"Yume ga Tobu" was released as Bread & Butter's 22nd single in September 1985. It was also a part of the duo's BEST compilation, "Miracle Touch", whose title track I've already provided an article for.

Kirinji -- Good Day Good Bye（グッデイ・グッバイ）

 

The lyrics for the song of this article had me pondering about the ideal town to live in. And as such, I threw this question into the Google search engine: Where is the happiest town in the world? Well, as of April 2023, the answer is Tampere, Finland. The above video, by the way, was uploaded five years ago by YouTuber Honest Guide. 

Considering some of the urban woes that my home city of Toronto is suffering right now: rising crime, moribund downtown life, long-delayed construction and repair projects being undertaken in one big mass, etc., I have thought about where a nice town to reside would be. In the province of Ontario, the university city of Kingston a couple of hours' drive away has been indicated. But wouldn't that be the thing? Happy industrious citizens, booming economy with a plethora of interesting shops and restaurants, safe and clean streets and the whole ball of wax. 

I really have to stop assuming that amazing music unit Kirinji's（キリンジ）early works were all about the love balladry, just from the moving "Aliens"（エイリアンズ）. That was my introduction to Takaki and Yasuyuki Horigome （堀込高樹・泰行）and it's been a grand journey so far. But this particular song by the Horigome brothers had actually been released as their 4th single in April 2000, half a year before "Aliens" came out.

"Good Day Good Bye" is an uptempo song that was created by the Horigomes with Tomita Lab（冨田ラボ）helping them out in the arrangement as well. And it's one of those scrumptious songs that I don't think is that easy to categorize in one Label. I hear some Motown and Shibuya-kei (some Santana and even Chicago thrown in there?) in this tune that seems to describe the eccentric but fun antics in an ideal town. The wonderful thing is that I've discovered another splendidly catchy Kirinji song.

The video featuring the brothers along with a heartbroken customer, a café owner and his lone waitress looks like it had been created in the 1980s. It's a very sumptuous video for me because I've always appreciated those Mom-and-Pop coffee houses in Tokyo with the owners whipping up the home-cooked dishes by themselves. And I've had some lovely tuna salad sandwiches over the years in one particular establishment. I didn't exactly have the staff pull off a dance suddenly in the middle of the place, though. Incidentally, the single peaked at No. 54 on Oricon.

Seiko Matsuda -- Sukoshi Zutsu Haru（少しずつ春）

 

Happy Monday! Well, it's more of a Happy-and-still-slightly-sleepy Monday for me, so I'm starting this week of KKP with a nice idol glass of orange juice. To wit, as a fan of the 80s aidoru scene, I've always cherished the discography of Seiko Matsuda（松田聖子）up to the point that she got married in the mid-1980s although there are still a few songs afterwards that I still like. 

However, I have a special place in my ears and heart for the very early Seiko, circa 1980 and 1981. At that point, she still didn't have that light and breezy voice that all of her fans have known. Back then, the aidoru possessed a slightly lower, raspier and for the lack of a better word, rawer, voice which I still appreciate. 

I heard that especially in "True Love", the B side of her July 1980 2nd single, "Aoi Sangoshou"（青い珊瑚礁）and I also hear that in "Sukoshi Zutsu Haru" (A Little Bit of Spring) which was the B-side for her 4th single, "Cherry Blossom"（チェリー・ブラッサム）that was released in January 1981. As with "Aoi Sangoshou", the sprightly "Sukoshi Zutsu Haru" was created by lyricist Yoshiko Miura（三浦徳子）, composer Yuuichiro Oda（小田裕一郎）and arranger Masaaki Omura（大村雅朗）.

Another thing that I also liked about the very early Seiko singles was how gallopingly summery they sound, so I have to be in existential shape to keep up with the melody. "Sukoshi Zutsu Haru" is definitely no different with that chugging West Coast AOR rhythm. Now, I'm posting about this song in late spring, but with the January 1981 release, Matsuda sings about hoping for the arrival of an early spring and an arms-wide-open beau while things are still wintry around her.

As was mentioned in the "Cherry Blossom" article, the single hit No. 1 on the Oricon weeklies and would earn the No. 9 ranking in the annual chart. The A-side would get onto a studio album, "Silhouette" which was released in May 1981 to a No. 2 ranking. However, "Sukoshi Zutsu Haru" wouldn't get onto an album until it was placed onto her November 1985 7th compilation of BEST songs, "Seiko Box", which earned a No. 7 ranking.

Citrobal -- Reutlingen

 

Commenter BasicallyHuman was asking about singer-songwriter Miyako Yoneyama（米山美弥子）, aka Citrobal for the last article that I wrote about her earlier this morning and what has become of her. I dutifully checked out her website and blog, and frankly if dust could exist online, then I think that there would be a fairly thick layer there since nothing seems to have been written in several years. To add insult to injury, I accidentally referred to her as "Cristobal" when I gave my response. Of course, I corrected myself as soon as possible.

That last article was for "Signal" which I wrote up in 2021 and then there was the first article for Citrobal, "Celluloid" (both songs of which appear on her 1999 album "My Caution Line") which I provided in 2019, so I've been rather biannual with my entries on her. In any case, being reminded of her again, I decided to seek out another song of hers. Luckily, that wasn't too difficult and I did find "Reutlingen". However, unlike those two tracks, "Reutlingen" actually appears on a compilation album "rabid chords compilation vol. 1 -standby for "action"-" which also came out in 1999. I don't know whether the album specializes in Shibuya-kei and it appears that it has long been discontinued.

Citrobal has once again cooked up some really happy pop here and at first thought, I'd assumed that this was more straight pop but on listening a bit closer, there was some of that Bacharach-inspired rhythm coursing through its veins, so I ended up throwing in the Shibuya-kei label, too. It's just a cheerful sunny Sunday tune. Her lyrics talk about some schlub with a huge cloud over his head that simply isn't dissipating when a young lady comes by to insert a ray of sunshine in his life. 

The title does pop up in Yoneyama's lyrics and apparently it's some unpopular literature by an author named Reutlingen. However, I couldn't find any evidence of there being a real author by that name. Instead, Reutlingen is a city located in southwestern Germany that boasts the world's narrowest street, Spreuerhofstraße, according to the Guinness Book of World Records (I guarantee that there would be a major tragedy if I tried to traverse that street). It's also the hometown of racing driver Michael Krumm who was once married to Japanese tennis player Kimiko Date（伊達公子）. I actually noticed the former couple from afar when we were all at the same Xmas party years ago in Tokyo. Allow me some namedropping.

Hiro Tsunoda -- Believe

 

My friend Scott from "Holly Jolly X'Masu", the podcast that deals with all things Japanese Christmas, has put up his most recent episode which deals with singer-songwriter and musician Hiro Tsunoda（つのだ☆ひろ）and his 1991 album "Ballad Xmas". There are some really nice soulful tracks including the first one "Merry Christmas Baby", so I hope that you'll give it a try. I'll be holding "Merry Christmas Baby" for either later on in the annual KKP Xmas season or I may just post it in the dog days of summer as I sometimes do simply to remind folks that, yes Virginia, there is an Xmas season within some months.

As a bit of an aside, does anyone remember Paul Verhoeven's 1997 take on Robert A. Heinlein's "Starship Troopers"? It was tongue-in-cheek but I loved the action and I did like Michael Ironside and Clancy Brown as the rough-and-tough military men.

Had no idea about this one. Well, almost a decade earlier, there had been a 6-episode Japanese OVA created in 1988 based on "Starship Troopers" titled "Uchuu no Senshi"（宇宙の戦士...Warriors of Space）. 

Despite the limited number of episodes, there were a slew of theme songs included in the OVA. One that was used for Episodes 1 and 6 in the opening and Episode 2 for the ending was Tsunoda's "Believe". Composed by the singer and written by Linda Hennrick, "Believe" has that soulful melody which could have been used for an old Miller Beer commercial when the guys have gone through a hard day of work and have earned themselves a sunset round at the nearest bar. Otherwise, the guys were space soldiers who had spent days and nights mowing down gigantic insects and now have earned a reprieve at the local canteen. It's Miller Time!🍺

Ringo Shiina -- Ito wo Kashi（いとをかし）

 

I remember as a kid having Jell-O chocolate pudding as a dessert so that was my template when it came to this particular sweet. As a result, I was rather thrown off course when I tried out my first Japanese pudding or purin（プリン）since it was quite different in taste and texture. I guess the more accurate description for it would be crème caramel and despite the instructions given on this video by YouTuber ochikeron, I think for me, purin is something best left to the professionals like her and others. But the moral of the story is that I enjoy my purin now.

Purin also happens to be the favourite dessert of one Ojarumaru, anime's favourite Heian Era prince, and it apparently is the basis for the "Ojarumaru"（おじゃる丸）series' 25th season's ending theme last year. I'm not 100% sure but I may have provided an article on another opening or ending theme for the show but my memory isn't working on all cylinders anymore, so if there are any fans out there who can jog my engrams, please let me know.

Seeing the long list of opening and ending themes as would be the case for an anime that has lasted a quarter of a century, there has been a fair share of singers, famous and not-so-famous, contributing to it. Last year's ending theme was recorded by one of the former, the ever-charismatic singer-songwriter Ringo Shiina（椎名林檎）. Titled "Ito wo Kashi", this was a digital single released in April 2022, and although just looking at the hiragana alone, I thought it meant "lend me a string", according to Shiina herself in a Tokyo Hive article, it's actually an abbreviated version of "Itoshii no Okashi"（愛しいのお菓子）which actually means "My Beloved Dessert".

From what I know about Shiina's brand of music over the last several years, "Ito wo Kashi" sounds like a short-and-sweet classical pop waltz, and I'm wondering whether if and when the songwriter will actually put out something like a symphonic suite after her years as a growly rocker and then a jazz chanteuse. Also from Tokyo Hive is the observation that "Ojarumaru" debuted in 1998, the same year as Shiina's debut on the music scene. That fact alone has me reeling that it's been about 25 years since I was first intimidated by this teenaged banshee warrior and her guitar.

Shibugakitai -- Koibito-tachi no Blvd.（恋人達のBlvd.）

 

Toronto has a main road alongside Lake Ontario called Lake Shore Boulevard. Even before I learned how to spell well, I knew the word "boulevard" by its abbreviation "Blvd". When we were kids in the family car, we sometimes drove on either Lakeshore or the overhead Gardiner Expressway, and at the time, the smell from the sugar mills and the dying fish in the lake was very...distinctive. In the last thirty years or so, things have been considerably cleaned up so that the area has had this cachet of being a neighbourhood of tourist-friendly establishments and condo towers

However, it's become painfully evident that Lake Shore Boulevard has now become one of the largest parking lots in the nation due to increasing traffic and ongoing long-term construction. At this point, I sure wouldn't get anywhere near the area which is congested with metal, exhaust and steamed and frustrated drivers.

I gather that the boulevard mentioned in "Koibito-tachi no Blvd." (Lovers' Boulevard) is a whole lot more spacious and happier. Perhaps it may be the Champs-Elysees in Paris. In any case, this is Shibugakitai's（シブがき隊）22nd single from November 1986. According to the J-Wiki article regarding the song, this was the boys' 6th single from that year alone, so they were really busy.

Written and composed by Yuuji Ozeki（尾関裕司）and with Yukinojo Mori（森雪之丞）helping out with the lyrics, Toshikazu Fukawa（布川敏和）, Masahiro Motoki（本木雅弘）and Hirohide Yakumaru（薬丸裕英）are tripping the light fantastic on the titular avenue which is supposed to be the place to go for all of the lovers out there. Interestingly enough, the techno-jazzy song was used as a commercial jingle for SMBC Nikko Securities; mind you, being in the Bubble Era at the time, I guess that even securities officials felt like dancing all over the place while spending their millions at golf clubs and English classes. In any case, "Koibito-tachi no Blvd." broke into the Top 10 at No. 9 and was included in Shibutgakitai's 10th studio album from December 1986, "Horoscope".

Songs of Doors and Windows (Tribute to Doors Open)

 

Happy weekend to everyone! The final weekend of May in Toronto has traditionally been the one devoted to the Doors Open event. To explain, a lot of facilities in our city which don't usually open to the public generously open their doors for a couple of days for people to explore. I won't be attending this year because of other stuff but I did go to a few places last year in 2022 including the Thomas Fisher Rare Book Library at the University of Toronto as you can see in the thumbnail above. It kinda has that Enterprise-D Main Engineering under mood lighting, doesn't it? Geordi, I'll have a bottle of the Chateau Picard Red, please.

So, I was kinda thinking that out of my personal sense of whimsy that occasionally pops up like gas after having too many beans, I can put up a quintet of tunes whose titles have something to do with portals. To be honest, most of them are doors while I have one window. One of them has also garnered a lot of fame recently, too.

(1980) Tatsuro Yamashita -- Natsu e no Tobira（夏への扉...The Door Into Summer）

(1981) Seiko Matsuda -- Natsu no Tobira （夏の扉...The Gates of Summer）

(1980) Mariko Takahashi -- Uramado （裏窓...Rear Window）

(1979) Miki Matsubara -- Mayonaka no Door （真夜中のドアー...Midnight Door）

(1990) Yumi Matsutoya -- Tengoku no Door （天国のドア...The Gates of Heaven）

Yutaka Kimura Speaks ~ Japanese City Pop Masterpieces 100: Eiichi Ohtaki -- Ame no Wednesday（雨のウェンズデイ）

 

Number: 007

Lyricist: Takashi Matsumoto

Composer: Eiichi Ohtaki

Arranger: Eiichi Ohtaki

From his 1981 album: "A Long Vacation"

Found within an excellent album that needs no explanation, "Ame no Wednesday" (Rainy Wednesday) is a stylish* ballad that stands out for its simple band sound from the lineup of Tatsuo Hayashi（林立夫）, Haruomi Hosono（細野晴臣）and Shigeru Suzuki（鈴木茂）. The interweaving of Ohtaki's（大滝詠一）unpretentious melody and Matsumoto's（松本隆）superb depiction of a scene is just like something out of the movies. Anyone who likes this song must have their own Volkswagen, a sea and that special someone.

*The word "stylish" is something that I came up with after seeing the original word of sumire iro（菫色）to describe the ballad. It literally translates as "violet" which had question marks popping up around my head. My usual dictionaries didn't go beyond the literal translation but going to a Japanese site regarding colours, I found out that the colour has been associated with haikara（ハイカラ）or "high collar" meaning "stylish" or "fashionable".

The above comes from "Disc Collection Japanese City Pop Revised" (2020).

Tan Tan -- Nigai Hohoemi（苦いほほえみ）

 

A nice shot from one of the relatively new skyscrapers overlooking Shiodome nestled in between Shimbashi and Ginza. I'm no fan of heights but this was a good view.

If we can recap the life and career of the late Taeko Morino（森野多恵子）, she was once a member of the Group Sounds band The White Kicks alongside bassist and future solo singer/actor Akira Terao（寺尾聰）, and then into the 1980s, she took on the name Harumi Ohzora（大空はるみ）in techno jazz mode. But in between she was also known as Tan Tan in her City Pop element.

The last time I spoke about any incarnation of Morino, it was for Tan Tan's lone 1981 single "Weekend Love" which was some jazzy footloose-and-fancy-free City Pop. On the B-side is "Nigai Hohoemi" (Bitter Smile) which has quite a bit more boogie piano, boppy bass engine and a melodic purpose that is repeated over and over. The lass really needs to get to the disco! The same fellows who took care of the A-side also came up with the catchy "Nigai Hohoemi": lyricist Yoichiro Fukuda（福田陽一郎）, composer Kyohei Tsutsumi（筒美京平）and arranger Masaaki Omura（大村雅朗）. It does sound fit for a drive downtown.

GWINKO -- Kiss Kiss Kiss

 

We have some more of the Okinawan dynamo who went by the name GWINKO when she was singing in the late 1980s. From her September 1987 debut album "Yesterday, Today, Forever", this is "Kiss Kiss Kiss" by the teenage R&B singer.

Written by Ichiko Takehana（竹花いち子）and composed by Masatoshi Nishimura（西村麻聡）, I have to apologize in advance if I don't have my R&B sub-genres accurate here, but I'm considering "Kiss Kiss Kiss" as an early form of New Jack Swing with some Prince-ly funk and maybe even some Janet Jackson attitude. Regardless, the nostalgia waves are flowing in loud and clear here. 

I don't think that I ever put up this piece of trivia regarding GWINKO but according to J-Wiki, she was one of the first graduates of the Okinawa Actors' School which was founded in 1983 to make it big in show business. Afterwards, Namie Amuro（安室奈美恵）, the group SPEED and Da Pump made their own mark in music.

Yogee New Waves -- Climax Night

 

Yup, that's Tokyo's Hard Rock Café on top of Tony Roma's in Roppongi. I've been to both establishments many times. They can be accessed through a small alley just off the old main drag in the neighbourhood. I think it was Tony's that had the famous Onion Loaf: a deep-fried block of onion shreds that could be the restaurant's equivalent of the Outback's Bloomin' Onion. Try as we did, we could never finish either of them. Maybe that's a good thing.

Believe me, it wasn't by design that this and the previous two entries have involved song titles that ended with the word "night". Yet, we have here "Climax Night" by Neo-City Pop and rock band Yogee New Waves. A story of a man pining over a woman who is possibly on the verge of leaving him, the song was written and composed by vocalist Kengo Kakudate（角舘健悟）, and there is something imbued into the arrangement that reminds me of the band War's most successful hit "Why Can't We Be Friends?" from 1975. 

I'm always intrigued by a song that seems to have so many influences going for it, and with "Climax Night", I'm hearing Kakudate's alternative-happy slightly loopy vocals, the sudden injection of 70s rock in the bridge, the feeling of nighttime Shibuya and some reggae rhythm. Basically, it's fortified with plenty of melodic juice. "Climax Night" was released as an EP in April 2014 and then became the first track in Yogee New Waves' first album "Paraiso" later in September.

MIO (MIQ) -- Paradise Night

 

Recently, there has been a trend of micro-tours, individualized tours for one person or a pair. So, instead of the generic Hato Bus rides traveling through Asakusa, Shinjuku, and the like, that one tourist can get their own choice of visiting, say, the temples and shrines of Tokyo only. Another example is instead of opting for doing the all-in-one thing at Yokohama's Ramen Museum, they can tour through the most famous ramen joints all over Japan (extra medical insurance and defibrillator not included).

Being a City Pop fan, I have wondered what a City Pop micro-tour would be like. Not sure if it would be easy to put together and it may just be a one-night thing involving a microbus ride on the Shuto Expressway in Tokyo while listening to the sounds of Tats, Miki and Fujimal onboard. However, maybe there can be stops in West Shinjuku (since those early "City Hunter" opening credits include the skyscrapers there) or Roppongi. A stop could be made in front of any of the recording studios where Tatsuro Yamashita（山下達郎）made his greatest hits although I doubt that tourists could get inside.

Alas, I'm just waxing whimsically here. You can figure out what you would like in a City Pop micro-tour and it would be a paradise night...which is why I'm segueing into "Paradise Night" by MIO, a track from her December 1985 album, "Mr. Monday Morning". I've already covered the title track but "Paradise Night", which was created by the same duo behind "Mr. Monday Morning": lyricist Machiko Ryu（竜真知子）and composer Masahiro Taniguchi（谷口雅洋）, is a romantic ballad that sounds like a night with a happy ending involving a couple after a few too many drinks and not enough discipline. There is something woozy and wonderful in the arrangement which fits the scenario.

Go-Go 3 -- Baby, Good Night

 

Last December, I was listening to Holly Jolly X'masu's podcast regarding the 1987 compilation album "Mint Sound's Christmas Album". There were quite a few interesting tracks including one by a band called Go-Go 3 titled "Yumemiru X'mas"（夢見る X'mas...Dreaming Christmas）, but alas I couldn't track that particular one down on YouTube.

There isn't a whole lot written about this group online on any one site so I've had to pull in the various scraps of information, and if indeed by the name of the band, there are three members, I could only find two of them according to Discogs: Takako Ono（小野隆子）and Tomoe Eno（江野智絵）. From different sites, they've been described in the following genres: rockabilly, punk, garage rock, garage punk and Group Sounds girl rock, for example. 

But from listening to one track, "Baby, Good Night",  from their 1988 LP, "Everybody Prefers", Go-Go 3 sounds like a cheerful pop/rock band along the lines of Princess Princess or a really pop Shonen Knife. The squeaky English-language interlude did have me thinking 1950s and 1960s, too. A couple of sites have mentioned some Motown influence with "Baby, Good Night". 

Junko Tokumaru -- Ai no Shinwa（哀の心話）

 

In December last year, I introduced the aidoru Junko Tokumaru（徳丸純子）who had a relatively brief go behind the mike before changing her career into acting and then modeling instead. As I mentioned then, her March 1983 debut single "Sei First Love"（聖・ファーストラブ）struck me as the quintessential early 80s aidoru tune.

Well, this time around, allow me to introduce her fifth and final single from November 1984, "Ai no Shinwa" (Sad Talk from the Heart). Before I was reminded that this was indeed Tokumaru, I had imagined that the lady on the cover was far older than the 18 years of age that she was. Since her career as an aidoru was so brief, I've kept that particular Label for her, but I think that "Ai no Shinwa" rather takes things into the sophisticated pop area although I don't think that it qualifies as a City Pop tune. 

Written by Kumiko Aoki（青木久美子）and composed by Tsunehiro Izumi（和泉常寛）, despite the fact that "Ai no Shinwa" didn't even chart on Oricon, I still believe that it is a pretty smooth tune nicely delivered by Tokumaru. The interesting thing is that the intro and outro come straight out of Francoise Hardy's "Comment te dire adieu" from 1968. It was covered by Jun Togawa（戸川純）under the title of "Sayonara wo Oshiete"（さよならをおしえて）a year later.

Tina Turner -- What's Love Got to Do with It

 

Yesterday, the news came down that the iconic Tina Turner had passed away in Switzerland at the age of 83. As a result, I wrote up a special ROY article then to describe the song where I first got to know Turner, "Proud Mary" from 1971. Her presence on the stage to perform that hit had basically been the lone image that I would have of the singer when I was a kid.

It was going into the 1980s that I actually started getting interested in music on both sides of the Pacific Ocean, so as I was getting into kayo kyoku in Japan, I also got into and purchased American, Canadian and European pop music. What certainly helped was the blossoming of music videos on MTV and Canada's MuchMusic and all of the local music video shows such as "Toronto Rocks". 

Well, a few years into that, I got reacquainted with the Queen of Rock n' Roll after many years through a song titled "What's Love Got to Do with It" which was released on May 1st, 1984. A story of someone going through internal turmoil about falling in love again after getting romantically burned previously, the song by Graham Lyle and Terry Britten struck me as this very calm and grounded tune very much of the 1980s. Naturally, hearing it again brought lots of nostalgia and warm feelings, especially with the sunny video of Turner taking a leisurely walk through New York City. And man, those 80s fashions!😎 To be honest, that image of her in the denim jacket, short black skirt and mounds of hair replaced the one of her singing "Proud Mary".

The Wikipedia piece on "What's Love Got to Do with It" has already stated it, but it became Turner's first and only No. 1 single on Billboard (hit the top in Canada, too) with over 2 million records sold globally. Also included in all of the accolades was that the song won three Grammys: Record of the Year, Song of the Year and Best Female Pop Vocal Performance.

I will give my condolences to Turner's family, friends and fans but I have a feeling that the legend is probably and very happily performing all of her discography in another realm.

Seeing that last week's ROY was also a record from May 1984 which I then compared with entries from the Oricon Top 20, this time around, I will go with three of the singles that were released in that month.

Hiroko Yakushimaru -- Main Theme （メイン・テーマ）

ALFEE -- STARSHIP - Hikari wo Motomete （光を求めて）

Mariko Takahashi -- Momo Iro Toiki （桃色吐息）

Hiroshi Inoue -- Tokyo Waltz（東京ワルツ）/Wakare no Tango（別れのタンゴ）

 

I've mentioned this to people and readers before but my favourite era in Japanese history isn't particularly the Muromachi or Taisho periods for example. Actually, the one group of years that has been interesting for me is the postwar era extending to the early 1970s because I had always wondered how Japan was able to rise above the ashes to become the 2nd-largest economic power behind the United States at one point. But before I end up wearing those rose-coloured glasses of romanticism, a lot of those years were ones of struggle and with the sudden ramp-up in industrialization once more, there was a heavy toll on the environment and health.

Still, I've been able to get a glimpse and a feel for the Tokyo of the 1950s or 1960s thanks to visits to the Ramen Museum in Yokohama. The time warp walk around the city seems to make one's vision go sepia and the ramen is pretty darn good, too. 😋 I must thank the good people at Nippon Wandering TV for the above video.

But of course, this is a kayo kyoku blog and not a ramen one, although I imagine that there are far more of those than there are of mine. And perhaps filtering over the speakers in the mockup Tokyo underneath the ground floor of the museum is a September or October 1961 single by crooner Hiroshi Inoue（井上ひろし）depending on whether you go with the J-Wiki article on Inoue or YouTube uploader Ka Fu respectively. "Tokyo Waltz" is a Mood Kayo written by Sou Nishizawa（西沢爽）and composed by Itsuro "Raymond" Hattori（服部逸郎）and has the rich tenor of Inoue expressing a man's heartbreak within the Tokyo nightlife. The melody indeed takes on a sad and slow waltz.

The B-side is "Wakare no Tango" (Farewell Tango) which continues the themes of dancing and imminent romantic loss, but this time as the title says, the melody by Tadashi Manjome（万城目正）has a bit more of that Latin spice. Ko Fujiura（藤浦 洸）came up with the lyrics, and listening to the song, I can imagine a couple born of the nightlife in the megalopolis having one last teary cheek-to-cheek dance on the nightclub floor before having to part permanently.

Ike & Tina Turner -- Proud Mary

 

The news has been rolling in from all sources over the past hour. I hadn't heard anything from Tina Turner in the last few years and I knew that she was getting up there in years, but it's still hard to believe that even in her 80s, the vivacious Grande Dame of R&B and the Queen of Rock n' Roll would be anything but the rapidly sashaying and high-powered entertainer. Alas, her death has been announced today at the age of 83.

This will be a special Reminiscings of Youth then regarding Tina Turner. In the early 1970s, I was too young to know much about Turner aside from her appearances on various music-variety shows on TV. My image of her had been of her in that slinky spangled dress working hard on the stage and behind the mike, and I thought that she vibrated so hard that she threatened to disintegrate the floor beneath her.

The song that I always associated with her in the early days was "Proud Mary" in partnership with her ex-husband Ike Turner. Released as a single in January 1971, I had no idea that it was a cover of the original version by rock band Creedence Clearwater Revival back in 1969. But arguably, Ike and Tina took ownership of "Proud Mary". The part of the Turners' song that I am most familiar with is the latter half where the song clicks into high gear with those horns, and my image of Tina begins shimmying on the stage. She could have powered the electric generator for Memphis with her performance.

"Proud Mary" by the Turners hit No. 4 on US Billboard and it went as high as No. 11 on Canada's RPM charts. I'll be devoting the regular ROY article tomorrow to Tina as well since it's also a song that has remained with my memories as I was growing up in the 1980s.

The following were winners at the Japan Record Awards in 1971.

Grand Prize: Kiyohiko Ozaki -- Mata Au Hi Made （また逢う日まで）

Best New Artist: Rumiko Koyanagi -- Watashi no Joukamachi (わたしの城下町）

Performance Award: Hiroshi Itsuki -- Yokohama Tasogare（よこはま・たそがれ）

Cherish -- Ochiba no Mori no Bansankai（落ち葉の森の晩餐会）

 

It was about nine years ago that I put up folk duo Cherish's（チェリッシュ）famous and amiable "Tento Mushi no Samba" （てんとう虫のサンバ）which was their July 1973 7th single. My, how time flies. 

Well, the B-side of the single is "Ochiba no Mori no Bansankai" (The Dinner in the Woods of the Fallen Leaves) which was taken care of by the same duo behind the A-side: lyricist Daizo Saito（さいとう大三）and composer/arranger Shunichi Makaino（馬飼野俊一）. Melodically speaking, it sounds just a bit more contemporary kayo than the folksier "Tento Mushi no Samba", but personal as well as professional partners Yoshitaka Matsuzaki（松崎好孝）and Etsuko Matsui（松井悦子）still bring their happy-go-lucky charm to their vocals.

All in all, "Ochiba no Mori no Bansankai" is a cheery and breezy tune that could any accompany any picnic on a Sunday. In fact, there's something about that title that has me thinking of that tea party in "Alice in Wonderland".

GANASIA -- Grow up Potential ~ Yume ni Mukatte（夢に向かって）

 

When it comes to car racing, if I'm lucky, I am able to catch the Indianapolis 500 or the odd Formula One bout.

I know that Japan has its fair share of Formula One fans and there is even one weathercaster on Japan's "Weathernews Live" who's such an F1 maniac that viewers wonder if she chose the right career and should be calling F1 races instead. For me, I'm such a casual viewer that I had to look up what the differences were between Formula One and IndyCar.

To no one's surprise, there has been at least one manga and anime adaptation on car racing in the past 30 years. "Bakusō Kyōdai Let's & Go!!"（爆走兄弟レッツ&ゴー!!...The Racing Brothers Let's & Go!!）had its manga run between 1994 and 1999 with three seasons of an anime going from 1996 to 1998 with the focus on a couple of brothers really hard into a form of miniature car racing known as Mini 4WD.

One of the ending themes for the second season of the show was the rousing and driving "Grow up Potential ~ Yume ni Mukatte" (Face Your Dreams) performed by short-lived duo GANASIA (1996-1998). This was their 2nd and final single from February 1997 as written and composed by one of the pair, Takumi Ozawa（尾澤拓実）, with the other member being Kana Takahashi（高橋佳奈）. There had been one other person, Mimi Murakami（村上ミミ）, as a part of the band although whether GANASIA had once been a trio or Murakami had been replaced by either Ozawa or Takahashi isn't known. I have to say that the CD cover for "Grow up Potential" is one of the most 90s J-Pop photos that I have ever seen. 

Hitomi Hayase -- Kita No Misaki（北の岬）

 

I don't know about some of the enka-listening veterans out there, but I often find it difficult to discover female enka singers outside of the most famous people such as Hibari Misora（美空ひばり）and Sayuri Ishikawa（石川さゆり）in the 1970s and 1980s. Not sure why but perhaps at the time, girls or women who wanted to get into a singing career tended to aim for aidoru, folk or pop singer.

So, it's always pleasant when I do find such a singer. Case in point: Hitomi Hayase who was born Hitomi Chiba（千葉仁美）in 1961 in Iwate Prefecture.  According to a local newspaper feature (1983) in her home prefecture via J-Wiki, the singer has been a great fan of kayo kyoku through TV and radio programs since she she was little, and lucky for her, she was blessed with a great voice without any particular need for vocal training. 

Winning as Grand Champion on the audition show "Star wa Kimi da!"（スターは君だ!...The Star is You!）, Chiba took on the stage name Hitomi Hayase（早世ひとみ）and made her debut with "Kita no Misaki" (The Northern Cape) in November 1980. A melancholy enka with a folksy bent, the song had been created by lyricist Makoto Kitajo（喜多条忠）and composer Takashi Miki（三木たかし）and deals with a woman wondering what went wrong when her wonderful relationship with a man suddenly ended while they were walking along one of those spectacular capes. There is something rather Ishikawa-esque about her delivery.

As far as I know, I don't ever recall seeing her appearing on any TV program, certainly not on NHK, and it looks like Hayase never quite hit A-level stardom. However, she had been steadily working until the early 1990s. Since then, she's released a couple of singles and an album in the 21st century. With a slight change in her stage name kanji（早瀬ひとみ）but with the same pronunciation in 2003, Hayase has been focusing mainly on live performances.

Dance for philosophy -- Heuristic City（ヒューリスティック・シティ）

 

After having a rather large roast chicken dinner with all of the trimmings earlier tonight, my metabolism is having an inner war involving all that protein and carbs against the cup of strong coffee. Who will win? Stay tuned.

However, I will try to support the coffee side by writing up another article for KKP. Let's take things forward into time to the end of 2018 when funky aidoru group Dance for philosophy（フィロソフィーのダンス）released their 23rd digital single "Love Variation with Scoobie Do/Heuristic City" in December, and I'm looking at the lightly soulful "Heuristic City" here. Written by Sho Yamamoto（ヤマモトショウ）and composed by Gento Miyano（宮野弦士）, it looks like the video has the group going off on a fun road trip. Meanwhile the lyrics are more wistful and melancholy as a woman talks about the impending breakup between her and a guy.

I'm no computer scientist so when I saw that word "heuristic", I began thinking of all things circuit-like but tracking down the definition for the word, I came across the following from The Oxford Dictionary: 1. enabling someone to discover or learn something for themselves. 2. (computers) proceeding to a solution by trial and error or by rules that are only loosely defined. From these definitions, I can assume that the woman sees her surrounding city (maybe not the one that she's originally from) as the setting where she first learned the whole process of love, from falling in and falling out of it. The wisdom that she's learned is sad, precious and invaluable.