Hiroshi Saeki -- Night Cruise（ナイトクルーズ）

 

The above is a shot of the pool deck on board the Harmony of the Seas during our Caribbean cruise back in 2017. It makes for a wonderful night shot but I haven't dived into a swimming pool in decades. Me and water simply don't mix outside of the daily ritual of bathing.

Also, some years ago, I posted an article for the moody song "Ai wo Somete, Lisa"（愛を染めて、リサ）, a 1986 solo effort by Hiroshi Saeki（佐伯博志）who had once been known as Hiroshi Koide（小出博志）, one half of the duo Buzz. That duo was famous for the folk song-turned-car commercial jingle "Ken to Mary ~ Ai to Kaze no yo ni" (ケンとメリー〜愛と風のように〜) back in the early 1970s.

Lisa may have been the lucky lady in that single but the B-side seems to be focused on some lass named Stella in "Night Cruise". A playful and nocturnal song that probably indeed takes place on a ship rather than a car since there is a reference to window blinds being closed, it's got that bouncy urban  rhythm and some of those Fender Rhodes notes jangling away. Written by Hitoshi Shinohara（篠原仁志）, composed by Saeki and arranged by Michiru Oshima（大島ミチル）, Saeki's voice is pitched really high here which makes me wonder whether "Night Cruise" was actually meant to be a slower ballad in tempo.