The Aoyama Roll

Nope, not Aoyama but a sushi place in Akasaka

As I mentioned in the previous ROY article, my family had gone for sushi for dinner over the weekend, and it was at a favored restaurant called Aoyama. We've usually gone there on New Year's night since it's perhaps the only Japanese eatery that's open on January 1st in Toronto, but this time, we decided to try it out over the Canadian Thanksgiving long weekend.

The restaurant has a rather interesting setup. There is the main restaurant which isn't too big inside so some years ago, the owner managed to secure space a few doors down and that is now called the VIP Lounge for Aoyama. And so whenever I make the reservation, we get to dine in VIP...the only time in my life thus far that I've been able to boast anything like that.

It used to be the thing that when our family went to Japanese restaurants decades ago, the usual koto classic "Sakura" was playing on the speakers. You might say that it was the theme song for Japanese restaurants everywhere. Nowadays though, and this was also true of Aoyama a few nights back, such places are now playing all kinds of Japanese pop and/or kayo kyoku (and playing ancient Japanese commercials on the TV screens), including some City Pop. Kuri, my old karaoke haunt during my university years in the 1980s, did the same but that wasn't a restaurant but truly a lounge to sing out those hits.

In any case, some of us were playing "Name That Tune" for the songs that came through the speakers at Aoyama. My brother and I did pretty well; if I hadn't done well, I would have had to turn in my blog in shame. Moving forward, this is some of what I heard that night. It's quite the mix.

(1976) Eigo Kawashima -- Sake to Namida to Otoko to Onna （酒と泪と男と女）

(1976) Shigeru Suzuki -- Lady Pink Panther

(1979) Judy Ongg -- Miserarete （魅せられて）

(1984) Hiromi Go -- Ni-Oku Yon-Sen-Man no Hitomi (２億４千万の瞳）

(1988) Shizuka Kudo -- Mugon Iroppoi (ＭＵＧＯ・ん　色っぽい）