Mikiko Noda -- Travelin' Heart

 

One observation that I've had about the Japanese is that they are heads-over-heels for their wine. I know that they love their beer, sake and shochu, but they have kept their eyes, ears and palates finely tuned for any of that Beaujolais Nouveau and other such libations. Japan was also the place where I first learned of the term sommelier, the trained and knowledgeable wine professional. There was even a J-Drama in the 1990s titled "Sommelier" starring Goro Inagaki（稲垣吾郎）of SMAP and there is a sommelier who pops up quite a lot on TV over there named Shinya Tazaki（田崎真也）.

Mikiko Noda（野田幹子）is a name that I've come across now and then over the years but as surprising as it may sound, I hadn't put her onto KKP until today. She's not only a singer-songwriter but also a sommelier who got her credentials sometime in the 1990s. Hailing from Osaka, she appeared on the TV audition show "Star Tanjo!"（スター誕生！...A Star is Born!）during high school in the early 1980s and in 1986, she participated in the 3rd annual Yamaha Vocal Auditions after which she debuted as a singer in 1987. She was noted for her velvety voice and was compared with another singer-songwriter Yumi Tanimura（谷村有美）who had the same vocal qualities and debut time.

Now, what triggered me to finally bring Noda aboard was a bit of "scouting" into the City Pop Masterpieces 100 list from Yutaka Kimura's（木村ユタカ）"Japanese City Pop" book whose translations I post at the end of my Fridays on the blog. You won't be seeing this song up in Yutaka Kimura Speaks for several weeks but it's No. 55 (today will be No. 49) and it happens to be called "Travelin' Heart".

Noda's 7th out of 12 singles up to 2017, "Travelin' Heart" isn't something that I would call a City Pop tune per se. It's actually more in the snazzy Shibuya-kei vein but that's obviously no denigration against it at all. Written by Noda and composed by guitarist Tomofumi Suzuki（鈴木智文）, it's a smooth take-that against an ex-boyfriend while the female protagonist takes that exotic vacation to finally get that man out of her hair. Lyrically, it might be a slap in the face but melodically, it's a slap-banger. "Travelin' Heart" was released in November 1990 but it did get an earlier exposure since it was included in her 5th out of 18 albums, "Vacances est Vacances"（ヴァカンス、ヴァカンス）which had been released in August of that year. 

I also read in her J-Wiki file that Noda has quite the gift of the gab so she's been a regular on the TV and radio circuit for years. At the same time, I would also think that along with her sommelier skills, she would be an excellent dinner companion.