Cola Hazuki (Kaoru Nakahara) -- Day In Vacation

 

Back in the 1980s, Japan and Coca-Cola pretty much equaled good times in the big city as you can see above. All the more reason to grab the fizzy stuff. Ironically, I don't drink it nearly as much as I used to since the rest of my family prefers the clear stuff: Canada Dry, 7-Up, Sprite, etc.

As I mentioned in my last article regarding singer-songwriter Kaoru Nakahara（中原薫）, she'd been given the rather appropriate if somewhat cringey stage name of Cola Hazuki（葉月コーラ）earlier in her career because she'd become known at the turn of the decade from the 1980s into the 1990s as someone who sang a lot of cola jingles. Hey, if the gigs pay the rent...

In June 1991, Cola Hazuki and comedian Kanpei Hazama（間寛平）put out a single titled "Anata dake wo"（あなただけを...Only You） as the ending theme song for one of Hazama's variety shows. However for this article, I wanted to focus on the coupling song which Hazuki handles on her own called "Day In Vacation". If the song sounds familiar, then you must have heard the original version by the summery supergroup Nagisa no All-Stars（渚のオールスターズ）when they recorded it back in 1989.

Nagisa no All-Stars included the band TUBE and at least a couple of their beloved songwriters, Tomoko Aran（亜蘭知子）and Tetsuro Oda（織田哲郎）, and not surprisingly, those two were the ones behind the creation of "Day In Vacation". Hazuki gives the song her summery best as well and perhaps I'm imagining things here, but it even sounds a bit ZARD-ish. Furthermore, my timing isn't too bad either because next week will introduce the annual Golden Week holidays in Japan. Enjoy guzzling down that Coke!