I've been a fan of Japanese popular music for 40 years, and have managed to collect a lot of material during that time. So I decided I wanted to talk about Showa Era music with like-minded fans. My particular era is the 70s and 80s (thus the "kayo kyoku"). The plus part includes a number of songs and artists from the last 30 years and also the early kayo. So, let's talk about New Music, aidoru, City Pop and enka.
Credits
I would like to give credit where credit is due. Videos are from YouTube and other sources such as NicoNico while Oricon rankings and other information are translated from the Japanese Wikipedia unless noted.
I've seen my fair share of Humphrey Bogart movies such as "Casablanca" and "The Maltese Falcon", but alas, I've yet to see anything with him and Lauren Bacall in its entirety. So, I'm still waiting my chance to catch "The Big Sleep" among others with the legendary duo of Bogie and Bacall.
I specifically referred to them over a decade ago when I wrote about Mariko Takahashi's（高橋真梨子）"Uramado"(Rear Window), a track from her 1980 3rd album, "Monologue"（モノローグ）. You couldn't get more film noir-ish torch song than this solemn jazz ballad.
Well, "Uramado" was composed by singer-songwriter Kingo Hamada（濱田金吾）and written by Akira Ito（伊東アキラ）. Hamada covered his own creation in his 1981 album"Gentle Travelin'". His take on the ballad is more refined nighttime soulful and Fender Rhodes-fueled City Pop up in those luxurious penthouse floors overlooking the metropolis and any bay that might be in the vicinity. Maybe the couple du nuit when this song first saw the light of day could have been Harrison Ford and Kathleen Turner.
With the announcement of veteran singer-songwriter Anri（杏里）returning to NHK Hall to perform at this year's Kohaku Utagassen on New Year's Eve, I just thought it might be interesting to put up her short history of her performances at the annual event.
"Takeshi no Koko dake no Hanashi"（たけしのここだけの話...Takeshi's "Just Between You and Me" Talks） was a relatively short-lived Fuji-TV evening talk show that lasted between 1988 and 1990 on Sundays, so I guess it must have preceded the music show "Music Fair". I never saw it myself but I gather that compared to some of comedian and cinematic auteur Beat Takeshi's（ビートたけし）other chaotic programs, "Takeshi no Koko dake no Hanashi" was slightly more civilized.
Takeshi's co-host was TV broadcaster and tarento Mie Yamaguchi（山口美江）, a refined and vivacious lady that I used to see a lot on the the telly in various capacities. She was very popular as someone who could handle the wilder male celebrities with a silk-and-steel approach if need be and I knew that she was also quite fluent in English. Her premature death at 51 in 2012 was a true shock to everyone.
Yamaguchi also provided the lyrics to a song that was composed by singer/saxophonist Kaori Kuno（久野かおり）for the latter's 2nd album"Sincere" from 1989. "Time is Up" also happened to be the second ending theme song for "Takeshi no Koko dake no Hanashi", and true to Kuno's discography, it's another light and classy number with bright piano and shimmering strings that could have its place in the more expensive and stylish areas of Tokyo. But I think rather than City Pop, I would put it in AOR or sophisticated pop. You can also check out another track from "Sincere","Just Only Tonight".
I'm still in thrall to Ryuichi Sakamoto's（坂本龍一）supermarket jingle "Daiei" and his racing "G.T.", and now I've got to expand my memories to include this winner.
This one comes some years following the first two, so allow me to introduce you to "A Day in the Park", the final track on The Professor's October 1995 11th studio album"Smoochy". I'd heard of "Smoochy" before and I felt that the title made it sound a little too artsy so I never bought it. I may be regretting that decision but I'm sure a Xmas wish and a credit card will resolve that issue.
Anyways, compared to the high-octane "Daiei" and "G.T.", "A Day in the Park" is about as laid back and comfy as a real walk in the park. There are even recorded sounds of that traipse among all the greenery which makes it all the more enticing to track down your nearest patch of grass and trees. New York's jazz and R&B artist Vivian Sessoms provides the smoky vocals and the lyrics while Sakamoto comes up with the dreamy and soulful goods. There are a couple of more stars involved here: guitarist Yoshiyuki Sahashi（佐橋佳幸）and singer-songwriter Hiroshi Takano（高野寛）who's manning the electric sitar. I can easily imagine this being played at some jazz festival right in the middle of Central Park on a sunny Sunday.
Yup in about five weeks, The Avengers, The X-Men and The Fantastic Four along with other individual superheroes will meet for the first time and perhaps even the last time in "Avengers: Doomsday". Nope, I don't have an advance ticket but I'll catch it for sure somehow.
So, of course, I've gotta come up with something with that feeling in mind and yet it's Urban Contemporary Friday on KKP. Fortunately, I did find something. "Hero wa Anata"(You're My Hero) is a Rie Nakahara（中原理恵）track (the final one) from her February 1978 debut album, "Touch Me". The album also contains "Asa made Issho ni"（朝まで一緒に）and "Togire Togirete"（とぎれ とぎれて）.
"Hero wa Anata" has an intriguing galumphing rhythm (the best way I can describe it) that might steer it toward reggae but not quite. I would have to ask the trio of amazing songwriters for their opinion about what they were making here: lyricist Minako Yoshida（吉田美奈子）, composer Tatsuro Yamashita（山下達郎）and arranger Ryuichi Sakamoto（坂本龍一）. I bet you that it was The Professor who was on the piano in the latter half of "Hero wa Anata". But with those three involved, I was pretty assured that I would get a quality product and this is a really interesting slice of disco City Pop fusion.
Well, so far, I have just the one Miyuki Hara（原みゆき）article and that was for her 1989 "Yude Tamago to Boku"（ゆでたまごと僕）from her album "Rin"（凛...Dignified）, and I gave it the thumbnail of a Sunset Grill breakfast plate. So, I thought, why not do the same here and place an omurice from Japan at the top?
I must admit that I had a little bit of a tough time categorizing this lovely tune which begins Hara's 1988 album "la noon". Hara was responsible for both words and music, and "Koishikute" (Missing You) has this shiny technopop sheen throughout but ultimately I also heard that familiar City Pop groove pulsating underneath that synthesized tissue, so I ended up categorizing it as both City Pop and technopop. Apparently, I hadn't been all that enthused about Hara's vocals on "Yude Tamago to Boku" but they seem fine on this particular song, and hearing them, I felt that there was something in there to remind me of Akiko Yano（矢野顕子）and Taeko Ohnuki（大貫妙子）."Koishikute" involves the young lass missing lots of things and it made me feel like I was missing those certain musical elements of the 1980s.
For all those who have been kind enough to read "Kayo Kyoku Plus" regularly, you know that the year is coming to an end when the announcement for the lineup for the annual Kohaku Utagassen is made on NHK. I saw the lineup introduced last night on Yahoo Japan but was too tired to make the article then so I am doing so now in this special bulletin interrupting the usual Urban Contemporary Friday on KKP. The Kohaku will begin at 7:20 pm JST on the national network on December 31st 2026 at NHK Hall in Shibuya, Tokyo.
[Red Team]
ILLIT (3rd appearance)
Ado (2nd)
Anri (4th)
=LOVE (1st)
Sayuri Ishikawa (49th)
AKB48 (14th)
Kyary Pamyu Pamyu (4th)
CUTIE STREET (1st)
Fuyumi Sakamoto (38th)
Mizue Takada (8th)
Chanmina (2nd)
Yoshimi Tendo (31st)
Nogizaka 46 (12th)
HANA (2nd)
FRUITS ZIPPER (2nd)
MISIA (11th)
Kaori Mizumori (24th)
Ryoko Moriyama (11th)
YOASOBI (4th)
Misato Watanabe (2nd)
[White Team]
Ayumu Imazu (1st)
Ae! Group (1st)
EBiDAN (1st)
&TEAM (2nd)
King & Prince (7th)
Sakanaction (3rd)
Junretsu (9th)
Masayuki Suzuki (7th)
SixTONES (5th)
TM Network (2nd)
T. M. Revolution (6th)
Leon Niihama (3rd)
Vaundy (4th)
BE:FIRST（5th）
Masaharu Fukuyama (19th)
Macaroni Enpitsu (1st)
Mrs. GREEN APPLE (4th)
M!LK（2nd）
Monaky (1st)
Yuzu (15th)
L'Arc〜en〜Ciel (6th)
[Special Guests]
Koshi Inaba
Your congenial hosts will be actor Masato Sakai（堺雅人）, former Arashi member/actor Kazuya Ninomiya（二宮和也）, actress Mana Ashida（芦田愛菜）and NHK announcer Naoko Suzuki（鈴木奈穂子）. The theme for the Kohaku this year will be "Let’s move forward together in song."
Some thoughts from me:
1) Looks like the former Johnny's Entertainment acts are coming back in from the cold such as King & Prince and SixTONES.
2) The White Team looks like it has no enka singers whatsoever up to November 13th. I consider Junretsu（純烈）and Leon Niihama（新浜レオン）to be more into Neo-kayo kyoku than enka nowadays.
3) Anri（杏里）is coming back for the first time in about 30 years. I'm betting that she's going to do a mini-medley consisting of "Olivia wo Kikinagara"（オリビアを聴きながら）and "Cat's Eye".
4) There will be new acts such as EBiDAN and CUTIE STREET marking their presence on the show while this time representing the seniors are folks such as the aforementioned Anri, Masayuki Suzuki（鈴木雅之）and Sayuri Ishikawa（石川さゆり）. The one surprise omission for me isn't just male enka singers but Hiroshi Miyama（三山ひろし）in particular. For several consecutive years, he'd been doing the annual kendama World Record thing in his Kohaku performances, but I guess the producers and/or Miyama himself decided it was time to put that finally to rest. However, I'm wondering if enka singer Kaori Mizumori（水森かおり）will be doing another song to the clacking of falling dominoes yet again.
As has been the case every year, the lineup will see further additions so male enka singers may be represented. This article will be updated to the last minute on December 31st when news comes in through J-Wiki about any changes. You can also take a look at the J-Wiki article on No. 77.
Ah, yes. That's indeed actor/singer Yuji Oda（織田裕二）...maybe several years before he got that starring role on everlasting cop show "Odoru Dai Sosasen"（踊る大捜査線）. He's looking a whole lot more weathered on the latest movie in the franchise.
My Author's Picks have consisted of favourite tunes but I've also amassed a summary of commonly-themed songs and this time, it's the themes for the Japanese cop show across the decades. Of course, the ones that I have tonight aren't the only ones from the blog but these are the ones that I could remember off the top of my head. The big surprise for me is how the various themes can spread across a whole plethora of genres. It isn't just a military march. So, without further ado, let's recap.
My previous article was a Reminiscings of Youth posting and yep, musically, those were some good times back in the 1970s and 1980s. However, along with the good came the bad and blue periods, and it was a matter of being able to avoid them or toughing them out to various degrees.
That's the impression I got from Shoko Sawada's（沢田聖子）wistful and folksy "Seishun no Hikari to Kage"(Light and Shadow of Youth) which was the title track from her April 1981 sophomore album. Also, the first song on the album, it was written and composed by folk and City Pop chanteuse Iruka（イルカ）while she was a university student and I guess that she and Sawada were good buddies (they were about the same age) as Iruka was kind enough to provide "Seishun no Hikari to Kage" as a gift to Sawada.
The only thing at the time was that the song didn't have an official title. Iruka then opted to name it "Seishun no Hikari to Kage" after a song that she had a fondness for at the time, "Both Sides, Now" by Joni Mitchell whose Japanese title was "Seishun no Hikari to Kage". The song and the album also marked a drastic departure for Sawada in that up to 1981 during her first two years in show business, she'd been seen as a particularly talented aidoru. I will have to check those early years out.
Iruka would cover her own creation as a track on her September 1983 album"Loop Child". The wistfulness remains but the arrangement sounds as if the protagonist from the original version has grown up by a few years and become more seasoned in life.
Once again, it's time this week for another Reminiscings of Youth where I talk about some of the Western pop songs that I got to know in my callow childhood and teenage years. When I first truly got into music at the turn of the decade into the 1980s, I discovered all the wonders of synthesizers, the cool of groove and the boppiness of aidoru music in Japan.
And years before I knew about Kaori Kuno（久野かおり）and Mariko Takahashi（高橋真梨子）, I'd realized that women could sing main vocals and play the saxophone. That is thanks to Rindy Ross from the Portland Oregon band Quarterflash. I don't know too much of Quarterflash's discography but I did get to know their September 1981 debut single"Harden My Heart" as one of my touchstones for 80s pop music. The memory of this smoky pop-rock tune with Ross' sultry vocals and tenor sax exhortations has managed to remind me of my favourite decade in a musical sense for decades now.
I think I first saw the music video on either "America's Top 10" or one of the local music video shows in Toronto. The video was the usual adventurous dreamscape and I was amused as Rindy was running around in what might have been a prototype for the Backrooms. Just taking in all that visual atmosphere gave me that dark urban impression of West Coast pop from those years. "Harden My Heart" peaked at No. 10 in Canada while it did even better Stateside when it hit No. 3.
So, what else was being released in Japan in September 1981? We have three songs here.
Ahhh..."Yasashisa ni Tsutsumaretara nara"(If It Could be Wrapped in Kindness), a classic Yumi Arai（荒井由実）New Music song from the 1970s. It also served as the ending theme for the classic Studio Ghiblianime film, "Kiki's Delivery Service", from 1989. If Yuming（ユーミン）songs could be analogized into animals, it would be a farm puppy or kitten, something to be relentlessly hugged.
It's not surprising then that the song has probably been covered over and over again throughout the decades. And I remember singer-songwriter Ayaka（絢香）performing it on an "Uta Con"（うたコン）episode a few months ago. As such, I thought her vocals were quite close to the young Yuming when singing this one in particular.
Tracking her version down, I found it on her September 2013 album of covers"Yuuon Club - 1st Grade"（遊音倶楽部 〜1st grade〜...The Playful Sound Club）. In fact, it starts the album with an arrangement that is quite close to that of the original: an amiable country jazz tune to accompany a drive through the farmland. Maybe it's even got a bit more pep thanks to what sounds like some whisk drumming in there.
As I mentioned in my first posting of a Junko Sakurada（桜田淳子）song, the September 1981 single"This Is A 'Boogie'", that song was my introduction to her with all of its jazzy pizzazz.
Well, the previous 35th single from June that year is "Misty", and certainly from the single's cover, she was looking rather coyly kittenish and leggy in the pink outfit. This song which was written by Kazuko Kobayashi（小林和子）, composed by Yuuichiro Oda（小田裕一郎）and arranged by Masaaki Omura（大村雅朗）is quite different in that it sounds like a New Wave aidorunumber with the synths and the wailing nostalgic electric guitar. Plus, Sakurada takes on a breathy and just-as-kittenish vocal approach.
For her live performances of "Misty", she was able to sport a tight shocking pink leotard which probably had fans lollygagging; it was an outfit that Sakurada had requested herself, inspired by Olivia Newton-John's concert costume. A few weeks following its release in early June 1981, Sakurada even pulled off a June 26th campaign called "Junko’s Airwave Takeover: Misty Day" during which she blitzed the television airwaves from morning to night with appearances, presumably in that shocking pink. Her peak No. 53 ranking on Oricon would mark the final time that Sakurada would chart in terms of her singles.
If I were to ever take up social dancing, I would probably start with the waltz. I mean, the steps seem easy enough but it's the improvisation that scares me.
But for some strange reason, the next dance that I would tackle is the tango. That seems like a huge jump from the waltz but I guess maybe it's because of the class and grace involved. I don't particularly possess either in any great degree but perhaps I can gain some.
Now, before I end up going into some ambling rambling, let's take you to singer-songwriter Mayumi Kojima（小島麻由美）. I hadn't written about her for a few years and she has always struck me as one of the more eclectic Japanese pop singers. She's been described on Wikipedia as a Shibuya-kei singer but aside from my first article on her, I haven't really seen her do a lot of that genre. In fact, I've treated her as a chanteuse in the jazzier areas of town.
In September 2026, she released her latest single "Tango" and yep, she's given her own fun and sultry take on Latin jazz, presumably in tribute to the titular dance. I love those familiar illustrations of herself along with her simian buddy on the cover. It makes me wonder whether there is a music video for "Tango". Alas, I have yet to find one. Anyways, I also have to give some belated congratulations to her for celebrating her 30th anniversary in the music business last year.
During my decades being interested and then living in Japan, I knew my fair share of Japanese Prime Ministers ranging from Yasuhiro Nakasone (good buddy to US President Ronald Reagan) to the current PM, Sanae Takaichi. But before all that, as a little kid, I had really only known of one Japanese Chief Executive and that was Prime Minister Kakuei Tanaka（田中角栄）...basically because he had been involved in the Lockheed bribery scandals back in the 1970s. As time passed though, I came to realize that he had been a very powerful politician and that certain comedians loved to do impressions of him...usually by speaking in a very high-pitched crackly voice and pretending to flutter a hand fan in front of his own face.
I have the impression that he had been quite the popular Parliamentarian before he took the reins as PM in 1972 and I take it that he's one of the prime examples of a rags-to-riches story after being born poverty-stricken in Niigata Prefecture to eventually reach the highest position in the land. In fact, I guess he was so popular that the legendary enka and minyo singer Haruo Minami（三波春夫）wrote the glory-filled lyrics and recorded a minyo in tribute to him titled "Tanaka Ondo"(The Tanaka Song). Composed by Futoshi Satogawa（佐藤川太）, the song was released sometime in 1972 (maybe it was meant to commemorate his achievement of the prime ministership) and it sounds like any sort of traditional summer festival song. I think the back of the single cover page even had dance instructions. Couldn't quite find out whether Tanaka himself appreciated the musical gesture.
It was a dozen years ago that I first posted on the short-lived aidoru trio GAL（ギャル）. Lasting between 1977 and 1979, just to refresh folks' memories, GAL consisted of Mayumi Kuroki（黒木真由美）, Hitomi Meguro （目黒ひとみ）and Michiyo Ishie（石江理世）initially. Ishie left the group in 1978 with Akiyo Nakaseko（中世古明代）taking her place for the remaining time into 1979.
That article that I posted back in 2014 was for their debut single"Bara to Pistol"（薔薇とピストル）in October 1977. Well, for this long-awaited grand reunion on KKP, I have their second single"Magnet Joe ni Ki wo Tsukero"（マグネット・ジョーに気をつけろ...Watch Out for Magnet Joe） from February 1978. I had no idea who Magnet Joe was and I'd assumed that he was some sort of anime or manga character but actually I think he's just an especially charismatic cad who pulls the women in and repels them once they've served their purpose. Created by the same songwriting team behind "Bara to Pistol", lyricist Yu Aku（阿久悠）, composer Makoto Kawaguchi（川口真）and arranger Koji Makaino（馬飼野康二）, the music is nice and disco kayo, and in a way, I think the ladies dressed the part as well. In fact, I could even say that they kinda hit a refined middle ground between the more girl-next-door types of Candies（キャンディーズ）and the hyperactive dancing duo Pink Lady（ピンクレディー）.
The songwriting sibling team of lyricist Etsuko and singer-composer Takao Kisugi（来生えつこ・来生たかお）is pretty much legendary through the annals of Japanese pop music. I don't quite know how far their history goes back. Brother Takao starts from 1976 but his elder sister Etsuko has it mentioned in her J-Wiki profile that it's sometime in the 1970s.
This particular song recorded by Teruhiko Aoi（あおい輝彦）will probably go down as one of the Kisugis' earliest joint works. "Epilogue" (although the kanji is formally read as "shuushou") was arranged by Shunichi Makaino（馬飼野俊一）and it's appropriately the final track on Aoi's October 1977 2-LP BEST album"Aoi Teruhiko ~ Anata dake wo -- Johnny's wo Kikinagara"（あおい輝彦 – あなただけを～ジャニスを聴きながら...Only You -- While Listening to Johnny's）.
When it comes to the Kisugis, I've usually said that they can come up with some nicely lush ballads, and "Epilogue" is perhaps one of their earlier successes in this mold. It sounds proud and elegiac and there's a hint of Frank Sinatra's "My Way" in terms of the overall feeling as the protagonist seems to be looking back on a life well fed and well led.
I think I may have mentioned it before but one of my regrets was that I never learned how to play the piano. But then again, considering how much I struggled with the French horn and the clarinet, perhaps it was just as well that I didn't bother with keyboards. The number of piano teachers who would have ended up in a fetal position because of me scarcely bears imagining.
Still, I wonder from time to time about handling something like a synthesizer like the folks in Yellow Magic Orchestra and Kraftwerk did. Nope, neither of those two groups is directly involved here, but Haruomi Hosono（細野晴臣）, one-third or one-quarter of YMO, did produce Sandii's 1980 solo record"Eating Pleasure" and arranged this track "Hey Rock-A La La". Compared to the more technopop track "Idol Era" which starts the album off, this particular one, which has Sandii starting off like a squeaking dolphin, has more of a body-thrashing B-52s tribal rock vibe although I think we're still firmly within the New Wave. Ronnie Barron and Jim Nash were responsible for the songwriting here.
The above photo by Basile Morin is of Maison Hermes in Ginza. Yup, it's the building for the Hermes company in Tokyo and I actually taught classes there for a while. The glass blocks used to create the exterior were all shipped over right from Italy. And one benefit from teaching there was that I could get a nice brand wedding present for my brother and his wife.
But the point that I actually wanted to make is that for newcomers to Tokyo, seeing architecture like Maison Hermes and a lot of other buildings can be really dazzling. And the Japanese megalopolis was just as dazzling to me back in 1981 when I was on that graduation trip for a month. Elevator girls, plastic food displays and the Toyota Asteroid (nope, it doesn't look as great as I remember it) concept car....got to witness all that and more. It partially explains why I'm communicating with you right now in 2026.
I think that's why the band Satellite Young is communicating with us through their June 2019 single"Shin Sekai Banzai" (New World Banzai) as they entice us to join the world of the digital and neon. The music video's setting is Shanghai, China and I've noticed that there are a few cities in the People's Republic that could be very enticing to futurists. Satellite Young's technopop style is perhaps the ideal music to get folks to escape from the gray and mundane to the colorful and exciting. My question is whether there is a soul within all that crystal.
I'll be honest...when I first saw the thumbnail of the above YouTube video and that name of Miki Nakayama（中山美紀）, I wondered if this was some sort of AI construct. But as it turns out, the young lady here is a real flesh-n'-blood aidoru from the 1980s. And most likely, she is one of the rarest of the rare in that she only put out one single in March 1983 before her record label, Climax Records, collapsed apparently, according to YouTuber nothingmuch;). As did her singing career.
"Just Now" is a rollicking song that does have that 80s vibe of swinging synthesizers and a beat that reminds me of a lot of the more upbeat American pop songs that were coming out back at the same time. The melody was provided by veteran Katsuo Ono（大野克夫）but the interesting here is that the lyrics were written by none other than Leiji Matsumoto（松本零士）, the man behind the original manga of "Uchuusenkan Yamato"（宇宙戦艦ヤマト）and other classics. I had never heard of the legend ever writing song lyrics and so I'm now wondering if he worked with other singers.
Although I can't take credit for the photo itself (which is provided by nesnad via Wikimedia Commons), it is a shot of my old subway station on the Tozai Line, Minami-Gyotoku Station, in Ichikawa City, Chiba Prefecture. When I started living in the area, I quickly learned that my station could only be served by kakueki teisha or local subways which stopped at every station. The station just west of Minami-Gyotoku is Urayasu and it has both kakueki teisha and kaisoku（快速...rapid express）. It was often the case that on my way home, I took the kaisoku as far as Urayasu, got off and then waited for the kakueki teisha to take me to Minami-Gyotoku. If I ended up sleeping on the former train, well, I'd end up several stations east of my home, much to my chagrin.
Some of my salarymen students have fallen prey to the kaisoku trap due to drunkenness or fatigue. They ended up all the way in the countryside by failing to get off at the right stop. One guy ended up on the final kaisoku of the night and by the time the train reached the terminus out in the dark woods, even the last local train had shut down. That was one expensive taxi ride back to civilization and then a confrontation with an angry wife.
About a couple of months ago, I introduced singer Ayumi Amano（天野歩美）who had once been part of the duo Kilala & Ulala (キララとウララ) in the 1980s. Well, going solo in the following decade, she released her first album in 1992, "Okurimono ga Aru no"（贈り物があるの...I've Got a Present For You） from which I introduced the track "Suki na Mono wa Suki"（好きなものは好き）. I found out about the album through kinuzure's blog "Tamaranaku, AOR Kayo"（たまらなく、AOR歌謡...Irresistible, AOR Kayo）.
Well, another track from "Okurimono ga Aru no" is "Kakueki Teisha". Although kinuzure had indicated that the album was a hidden City Pop treasure, I didn't particularly find "Suki na Mono wa Suki" to be from that particular genre, being more straight-ahead pop in my estimation. However, "Kakueki Teisha" is closer to urban form. It starts out with a nice fresh riff that to kinuzure sounds reminiscent of Christopher Cross although I think it's more Pat Metheny. Written by Kumiko Yoshizawa（吉澤久美子）and composed by Amano herself, it's a bright and light 90s tune that definitely doesn't sound anything like the unfortunate incidents involving my students by not transferring to the local train.
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