Do I have a favourite spot in Yokohama? Well, I haven't explored the entirety of the famous port city but within what I have seen, I would have to go with Minato Mirai 21 because I get to walk all around Yokohama Bay and see some wonderful structures such as Landmark Tower and the Nippon Maru Museum Ship. I also have to point out that a friend and I once had dinner inside a restaurant inside Landmark Mall, and it was a garlic-themed establishment. Had a roasted garlic bulb with butter, garlic pizza, garlic salad, garlic pasta, garlic steak and even garlic ice cream. Surprisingly, we were able to get some empty seats on the train ride back home to Chiba Prefecture.🧄
For a lady who hails from Nagoya in Aichi Prefecture, singer-songwriter Yuko Tomita（とみたゆう子）did have her love for Yokohama in Kanagawa Prefecture. A little over a year ago, I posted a song by her titled "Yokohama Kaze no Station"（YOKOHAMA風のステイション）from 1986 from which I noted that it possessed "...the intriguing combination of 1960s romantic pop balladry through the synths, some Taeko Ohnuki（大貫妙子）quirky pop and even a bit of Ruiko Kurahashi（倉橋ルイ子）Fashion Music." Quite the heady combination, indeed.
Well, even earlier, Tomita had released an April 1983 single titled "Yokohama Monogatari" (Yokohama Story) whose words and music had been taken care of by her. Once again, it's a song that has quite the tantalizing melange that made things initially hard to categorize. Eventually though, I decided that the song captures the soaring phrasings of an 80s Hiromi Iwasaki（岩崎宏美）ballad, some underpinnings of City Pop (especially through that bass) and some hard-to-grab feelings of New Adult Music although I can't say that it approaches enka. Perhaps kayo kyoku?😕 Whatever it is, "Yokohama Monogatari" is a pleasant tune.
I have always wondered about Yuko Tomita. While not the first City Pop singer that I discovered. (That was the late Cindy due to her song One Track Mind being played in the background of the an episode of 1980's Anime Maison Ikkoku) some of her songs from Shampoo came up on a Youtube algorithm/suggestion. Since then I have bought all her albums.(I just bought her 1991 and 1992 albums from a Japanese seller). I love her voice and her song First Love with its hypnotic synth is one of my favorite of her songs. Do you know why she pulled the plug on her career in 1992 and what she is doing now? I know she had an accident in the mid 1980's leading to a gap between her 1986 album and her 1991 album. I wonder if she was planning on ending her career after the accident but was required by contract to create 2 more albums? the pics of her in the 1991 album show her to be frail looking and while she looks better in the pics of the 1992 album, she still does not look like a health person in their early 30's.
ReplyDeleteHello, Leon. Like yourself, I found out about Tomita through the almighty YouTube algorithm as well and began enjoying her songs. There were also some of those songs that got adapted into the Vaporwave or Japanese Future Funk scene.
DeleteNot sure what happened to her. Her J-Wiki article is very sparse but I could imagine her just pulling out of the business altogether as was the case with Takako Mamiya.
Happy I found this single. Both songs are fantastic. The B-side is a 7" exclusive. She is a great blend of Kayo and Techno Kayo.
ReplyDeleteGlad that you were able to find the single, too.
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