The above is a picture of a couple of kids playing a Japanese New Year's game called fukuwarai. I have never played this myself but it's a bit reminiscent of Pin the Tail on the Donkey for Halloween although I think the idea of placing multiple facial features on a blank head has even more possibilities for mirth. Just to give credit where credit is due, this image comes from the website Illust Plus so if anyone there sees this and is not happy about it, please let me know and I will take it down. I just wanted to show readers what this game was all about.
I gotta hand it to Weathernews Live Japan. Although I don't really take in their weathercasting to heart since I don't live in the region anymore, I've been able to use their live YouTube broadcasts to find out about some fine music via their BGM from Nash Music Library and also songs that are presented on their Weather Music segments. The service has been quite generous in its selection which has ranged from SURFACE's disco "Going my Ue e"（ゴーイングmy上へ）from 2000 to the more recent cover of "Timing" by Klang Ruler. Of course, the choices have gone even further back to the time of Queen of New Music Yumi Arai（荒井由実）and her "Chuo Freeway"（中央フリーウェイ）.
Another song that I've discovered from Weather Music in the last week or so is "Fukuwarai" which I wrote about at the top. Written, composed and performed by singer-songwriter Yu Takahashi（高橋優）from Akita Prefecture, it's a two-thirds pop and one-third rock song about the idea that he got from his fans that English is not the global lingua franca but the act of smiling. Released as Takahashi's 3rd single in February 2011, "Fukuwarai" is the type of guitar pop (takes me back to the 90s) that I enjoy listening on a cool quiet Sunday like today.
The song managed to reach as high as No. 15 on Oricon and it was included on Takahashi's debut album as a major artist, "Real Time Singer-Songwriter"（リアルタイム・シンガーソングライター）, from April 2011. It broke into the Top 10 at No. 8. "Fukuwarai" was also used as a commercial song for Tokyo Metro.
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