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.
For the Friday edition of NHK's "Asaichi"（あさイチ）, we all got the delight of being serenaded by Takao Tajima（田島貴男）, aka Original Love. It was a reminder of how great a singer he has been for well over thirty years. Ever since I first heard one of his tunes on my friend's car radio, I've been hooked by his distinctive voice and his happy adoption of various genres including jazz, rock and soul.
Much to my surprise, I realized that I had yet to provide a Favourites list regarding Original Love so here it is to finish today's cadre of urban contemporary on KKP Friday! Have a great weekend!
I knew that the city of Mississauga right on the west side of Toronto has had a sister city relationship with Kariya in Aichi Prefecture since 1981. For one thing, an old friend of mine from my hometown had a position as a liaison between here and Kariya by being assigned there on the JET Programme. What I hadn't known was that Toronto itself has had a similar relationship with the city of Sagamihara in Kanagawa Prefecture since 1991 (so I guess we're celebrating (?) 35 years of friendship this year). I only found out about the connection in the last year when I was curiously looking for whether Toronto itself had any sister cities in Japan. The ironic thing is that I had a couple of students who hailed from Sagamihara including one who was my regular Wednesday night Arashi-loving superfan student.
As for singers from Toronto, we have Drake, The Weeknd and Alessia Cara. But I was also wondering which singers hail from Sagamihara. I could find three such people.
I remember watching Christopher Nolan's"Tenet" and concluding that the famed director should have spent more time planning things out with this one like he had with "Inception", although I realize that he had taken around a decade to figure things out with that one. Still, the idea was interesting and the effects were pretty trippy.
Why am I writing about "Tenet"? Well, for one thing, the music video for Cibo Matto's "Sugar Water" reminded me of the premise of the movie, although this video (and song) hailed all the way back in 1996, a couple of years before Nolan had his feature film debut with "Following". Still, I rather doubt that mere sugar water would get one in the state of mind to experience what Yuka Honda（本田ゆか）and Miho Hatori（羽鳥美保）had gone through in the video.
It's been a while since I've written about Cibo Matto. The last time I posted anything about the band was back in 2020 when I wrote about"10th Floor Ghost Girl" from 2014. From my admittedly brief impression of their career, they had a couple of phases of active duty: 1994-2002 and 2011-2017 according to their Wikipedia profile. "10th Floor Ghost Girl" was a song from that second phase and I was so overwhelmed by all those genres threatening to rip through the song that I basically chose the easy way out and categorized it as a pop tune.
Well, "Sugar Water" is from their first phase; it is a track on their January 1996 debut album"Viva! La Woman", and the album has been given the genre labels of trip hop, avant-pop and alternative hip-hop. I also hear it in a couple of layers. One layer seems to contain some psychedelic 1960s lounge material while another deeper layer has a hip-hop rhythm. Meanwhile, the ladies are intoning their vocals like beatniks at a poetry reading. Time to burn the incense!
I found out maybe a year or so ago that singer-songwriter UA and her family had moved to some remote area in Canada for good quite a while back. Maybe things are a good deal cooler there than they are in Toronto which is feeling like 40 degrees Celsius on the Humidex today. Looks like I'm getting some of that ol' Tokyo feeling again.
Anyways, it was early in KKP's time that I posted UA's"Rhythm"（リズム）, her 5th single from September 1996 that was the very first purchase I ever made of her. I have no regrets at all since it has all sorts of old-school cool infused into the melody and arrangement. Well, thirteen years following that posting, I have the coupling song from "Rhythm", "Akai Anata" (Red You).
Written by the singer and composed/arranged by KING 3K and LITTLE MASTER FLASH, I'm not sure whether UA was referring to a blushing fellow or someone who's been literally painted red. However, her lyrics are filled with plenty of colour to make Benetton happy. Could be quite existential with purple eyelids, rainbow bridges and stars filled with tears. In any event, UA really wants to meet this guy no matter what.
The interesting thing is that UA's normally low and throaty voice has been pitched pretty high...almost to aidoru levels. That and the relaxed sing-songy hip-hop nature of "Akai Anata" make the song feel like an urban kids' tune. It hadn't been placed as a track on any of her albums...only making room on her September 2003 BEST album"Illuminate 〜the very best songs〜" which hit No. 4 on Oricon and ended up as the 66th-ranked album of the year.
I love my various sandwiches but one of my favourites is Chicken Salad Sandwich. All I need is chunks of chicken and generous dollops of Kewpie Mayonnaise along with a few more ingredients and it's time to stuff it between two slices of bread. I will be a happy camper.😋And of course, that's what I had for lunch today.
Several years ago, I introduced a 1990s pop duo with the name of Tokyo Q Channel（東京Qチャンネル）and the song "Ni-juu-kyuu-sai"（29歳）from their 1995 debut album"Switch On!". It was quite the luscious classy song about a woman celebrating the end of her 20s.
Well, from their second and final album"SandWich" from September 1996, I give you the penultimate track "Genshoku no Kuni ~ Where Shall We Go?"(Land of Primary Colours) which is mostly a simple pop love song before it goes into power ballad mode near the end. It's not quite as epic as "Ni-juu-kyuu-sai" but it still fulfills its purpose as a contemplative cool-down song near the end of the album. It was written and composed by one-half of the duo, Yasuhiko Warita（割田康彦）, with Mayumi Sudo（須藤まゆみ）on vocals.
Perhaps it's a bit early in the week to bring in the dance stuff but hey, it's trf. Still have quite the nostalgia for them after first hearing about them just a little before I headed for Japan for my second tour of duty as an English teacher.
Of course, there were their heyday in the mid-1990s with big hits like"Boy Meets Girl" and then their contribution to the 1998 Nagano Olympics, "UNITE! THE NIGHT!", brought them back to the charts. But there are probably some trf songs in between that I most likely didn't give my full attention to. For example, the title "Hey! Ladies & Gentlemen" rings a bell but I can't say that I could remember the song off the top of my head.
Released in June 1996 as the group's 14th single, this was another one of Tetsuya Komuro's（小室哲哉）creations. It's got some of that House beat in there although for some of that other techno stuff in the arrangement, I'll probably need YMOfan04's or Marcos' wisdom in terms of categorization. Within all that synthesized rumbling, there is a story about sweaty bodies being invited for some fusion on the dance floor. Hey, it's the 1990s! "Hey! Ladies & Gentlemen" peaked at No. 4 on Oricon and it went Platinum. As for an album, it appears on the January 1998 album "WORKS -THE BEST OF TRF-" which was at No. 1 for a couple of straight weeks and eventually became the 25th-ranked album for the year. It also became the campaign song for Tokyo Beauty Centre.
Earlier this morning, I accompanied my father down to the hospital. Nothing serious; only his semi-annual eye check and everything was copacetic. Plus, I had some really good pizza in the hospital food court after the examination. I'll have to try a few more slices next time.
I was considering what to start today's batch of kayo kyoku with and I figured that with the hospital visit, I would start looking up some of the theme songs for the numerous hospital shows that have been on Japanese TV over the many decades. Basically, the medical drama over there, as it is over here in Canada and the US, is an absolute staple of scripted works on the telly.
To be honest, I've never followed Arisa Mizuki's（観月ありさ）discography or filmography all that intently during the past few decades. She started out as this rather tall and willowy innocent in her early years and then in the last several years, she has morphed into suffer-no-fools-gladly roles that show off her steely will and power as folks like police squad leaders.
However, in between those two phases, there was that middle phase where Mizuki landed her franchise role as a goofy and clumsy young lady trying to become the best nurse as one could be. And thus came her Izumi Asakura（朝倉いずみ）who made an impression upon me as the live-action version of Usagi Tsukino, aka Sailor Moon. "Nurse no O-shigoto"（ナースのお仕事...The Duties of a Nurse） was a Fuji-TV series that lasted four regular seasons and a few specials here and there up to 2014.
But Season 1 began in 1996 and so the first theme song for "Nurse no O-shigoto" was "Promise to Promise" as sung by Mizuki herself as her 12th single, released in July that year. Written and composed by Tetsuya Komuro（小室哲哉）with Takahiro Maeda（前田たかひろ）helping out on lyrics, this was a pretty calming and button-down song about sticking with things no matter how tough they get, and Mizuki the singer therefore contrasts with Mizuki-as-Asakura. Asakura might be spilling tongue dispensers all over the ward but there is still a little bit of that calm blue ocean of Mizuki to right the ship. To be honest, the first time I heard this song was when one of the other cast members sang it during the blooper reel of the show. "Promise to Promise" scored a No. 17 ranking on Oricon and sold about 150,000 copies.
This article can probably come down under the banner of "Don't judge a book by its cover". Years ago on KKP, I posted an article on somewhat obscure singer-songwriter Kaoru Nakahara（中原薫）and her refined love song "Sabishigariya Futari Bocchi"（淋しがりやふたりぼっち）from 1995. As I mentioned there, I bought the CD single based on what I heard nightly on the late-night docu-vignette "Rooms" on Fuji-TV. It is basically the only song that I know of her and so my impression has been that Nakahara was a singer of ballads.
Well, twelve-and-a-half years later, I've gotten my education. Nakahara also released one (and perhaps her only) album in June 1996 titled "Dolce". It not only has "Sabishigariya Futari Bocchi" but it has this very upbeat track called "Mou Ichido Ai Shitakute" (I Want to Fall in Love Again). Written by Nakahara and composed by Yasushi Suzuki（鈴木康志）, it feels like a night out on the city set to a dance club rhythm. I even got some Cathy Dennis vibes.
In the midst of writing up this article, I also got a bonus in terms of information and music. For one thing, according to one Ameba blog, Nakahara had once been known as aidoru Hiroe Sato（佐藤弘枝）about a decade previously. It's possible that Sato only released one single titled "Sepia Iro no Natsu"（セピア色の夏...Sepia Summer） in May 1985. Written by Hitoshi Shinohara（篠原仁志）, composed by Eiji Takino（たきのえいじ）under his pseudonym Hifumi Roku*（緑一二三）, and arranged by Makoto Kawaguchi（川口真）, the vocals by Sato/Nakahara are certainly very familiar and similar, and the song stands out for the use of a soprano sax and a galloping beat that sounds like something the late Eiichi Ohtaki（大滝詠一）would use.
Apparently, soon after the release of "Sepia Iro no Natsu", Sato pulled a disappearing act and wouldn't return for several years until she made her re-debut as Cola Hazuki（葉月コーラ） (she was singing for Coca-Cola ads at the time) in 1991. And then two years later, she changed her name to Kaoru Nakahara.
*That family name has a number of readings, so my choice is a guess. If anyone can confirm or correct me on the reading, please let me know.
Ah...yes. Shiroi Koibito（白い恋人...White Lovers）...commenter Brian Mitchell (who lives in Aomori Prefecture) and a lot of Japanese travelers ought to know the above wafer cookie very well. I even bought some of them myself as souvenirs. It's one of the more famous ones from the Tohoku area and it goes well with coffee or tea.
Now, I realize that it's Urban Contemporary Friday but when I was watching Jme earlier tonight, I was quickly reminded that March 14th is indeed White Day, the day when the guys give their own version of Valentine's Day chocolates to the gals at school or in the office. So it's a bit of a rush job and after looking out for the appropriate songs on this list, I just didn't want to throw all that out and wait until tomorrow, so the fifth slot today will be for songs that have the word "white" or "shiroi" in their titles.
Y'know...I should have posted this one up right on New Year's Day almost a month ago, but then again, I was rather busy with family stuff on January 1st. But I digress. This year is once again the Year of the Horse; people who were born in that year are supposedly responsible, confident and agreeable.
As such, I'm not sure whether I can find any kayo kyoku that are responsible, confident and agreeable, but at least I can find some songs that have some sort of relationship to horses.
I realize that this last one may not have anything directly to do with horses, but dang it, the rhythms here just remind me so much of taking a running ride on a steed through the countryside!
So far, singer-songwriter Miyuki Kajitani（梶谷美由紀）has been represented on "Kayo Kyoku Plus" for her contribution to the "Sailor Moon" franchise with the happy-go-lucky ""Rashiku" Ikimasho"（”らしく” いきましょ）ending theme. And on her J-Wiki page, it's been said that she's been mostly known for her anison.
However, Kajitani did release her 5th single in November 1996, "Kiss The Sunlight", which apparently didn't have any anime connections (although it was used as the ending theme for a weekly animal documentary program on TBS). It's also quite the peppy bossa-pop number that starts with a rollicking keyboard sequence that I quite like. For a while, I thought maybe it could also qualify as a Shibuya-kei piece but ultimately I went with Latin and Pop. Kenzo Saeki（サエキけんぞう）and Kajitani were the lyricists here while Hirofumi Suzuki（鈴木博文）took care of the amiable melody.
Once again, I meet up with a singer who doesn't have a lot of information online backing her up aside from her name: Calin. But she did make her debut in 1996 with the (probably one-and-only) album "Teen Tonic" and one of the tracks is "Tomodachi no Samba" (A Friend's Samba). Although the producer was Yukihiro Fukutomi（福富幸宏）, the biggest name here is Shibuya-kei king Fantastic Plastic Machine who came up with the words, music and swift arrangement, and yep, it's Shibuya-kei in spades including that "dabadaba" vocal effect which I've heard in one 1960s novelty song. Calin herself is kept on her toes with her mixture of scatting and light and dainty singing.
"Teen Tonic" is available on iTunes. The only significant comment on the album is that Fukutomi had invited a number of guests including Swedish producer Tore Johansson aboard the production of the album (and the following year, he would help out one other more well-known singer), and the commenter was wondering aloud whether the producer had been going for his own Pizzicato Five with Calin. I wonder myself but if any of you have any other information on her, please let us know.
My friend and fellow writer on "Kayo Kyoku Plus", HRLE92, posted this one up on his YouTube channel and it's a really nice find.
This is "South Summer Lady", a track from Nanako Minami's（南夏々子）1996 album"For My Friend" which has been called the rarest of the rare. In fact, at least some of the sites that I've visited have branded it with the dreaded "discontinued" status. That's too bad since "South Summer Lady" is quite the fun and dynamic fusion number composed and arranged by Yasushi Sugiyama. And true to its title, the summer is living large, my friends.
"South Summer Lady" is an instrumental but Minami does sing on the other tracks that are up on YouTube (just do a copy-and-paste of the kanji for her name). Not sure if she is playing the piano in that one. However, she was a DJ on several of FM Yokohama's programs during the 1990s.
When I finally pulled the trigger on my wallet and purchased Sony Playstation 1 in the late 1990s, I wasn't exactly the most adventurous player. I was more than happy to tackle the awesome challenges of Marbles and Tetris. Then, when I felt a little more peckish, I even strove for something like Sim City which never worked out all that well for me since I actually had the responsibilities of my day job as an English conversation teacher.
Then, when one of my otaku friends stayed over at my Ichikawa apartment for a few days, he lent me some of his games which were more in the single-person adventure genre...something that I had never dared try. And that included the dating sim "Tokimeki Memorial"（ときめきメモリアル）. I gather that from the large number of YouTube videos devoted to it, it has become a classic of its type. My first reaction was somewhat more subdued...more along the lines of "Man, date nights at the library aren't your thing?".
I only tried it out for a few minutes before closing it up. To be honest, if I'd actually try to play it through, I probably would have ended up like Nozaki and Mikorin above.
Well, we meet again, "Tokimeki Memorial". And strangely enough, I find out that another acquaintance on KKP, singer Masayo Kawaguchi（川口雅代）, did pop up here as one of the seiyuu for the game...specifically as the character Ayako Katagiri（片桐彩子）. That's quite the revelation because I remember her when she started out as a City Pop singer in the early 1980s. In fact, all of her entries on the blog thus far are centered on her album "Salute" in 1981 such as the track "Melty".
My anime buddy once told me that when it comes to anison, for whatever reason, a lot of them were arranged in a fashion that is five to ten years older than the year when they were released. So, a 1990s anison could sound like something from the 1980s. Perhaps that's also the case with "Suki na Mama de Suki de Ii"(It's OK to Love It As You Like It) which was a track on the audio CD "Gekkan Tokimeki Memorial No. 3"（月刊ときめきメモリアル(3)...Monthly Tokimeki Memorial No. 3）, released in October 1996.
And that's where I'm a bit confused. For one thing, according to the video above, Kawaguchi recorded "Suki na Mama de Suki de Ii" although I found her voice quite different from what her vocals had been like back in 1981 and I don't think it's just the passage of time. I found this other YouTube video below with the same song and yet it's supposedly sung by fellow "Tokimeki Memorial" castmate Mami Kingetsu（金月真美）. So who is who?
In any case, the song itself is very pleasant. It's a nice pop tune with a bit of Latin swagger. But if someone could give me the story on who really sang "Suki na Mama de Suki de Ii", that would be wonderful. Ah, and before I forget, Minako Aoyagi（青柳美奈子）was the lyricist while Toshikazu Minami（南利一）was the composer.
Just to reiterate, I'd first gotten to know singer-songwriter Yurie Kokubu（国分友里恵）through her heart-on-a-sleeve cover of Miho Nakayama's（中山美穂）"Tada Nakitakunaruno"（ただ泣きたくなるの）in the 1990s. Eventually, I did learn of her City Pop debut through her 1983 album"Relief 72 Hours".
And it was basically a ping-pong exchange between those two time periods. However, I have come across this track from her February 1996 6th album"whisper whisper", "Mou Dare mo Aisenai"(Can't Love Anymore). It's a sad topic, to be sure, but this ballad created by lyricist Yasushi Akimoto（秋元康）and composer Kokubu herself, has a refined pop arrangement and lovely chorus backing up the singer's reassuring vocals. I wouldn't be surprised if it had been used in some J-Drama about affairs taking place.
It is (or was in Japan) July 7th 2025 which means another day to celebrate Tanabata, commemorating the star-crossed lovers Orihime and Hikoboshi. This year, though, is particularly auspicious because July 7th is falling in the 7th year of Reiwa (another way of saying 2025 in Japan) and so people noticing that it is the 7th day of the 7th month in the 7th year, much hay has been made out of it. For example, couples have been flooding their local city halls to register their marriages today and in a lot of supermarkets, some products have been priced at 777 yen.
Now, I've done my commemorating of the holiday sometimes on "Kayo Kyoku Plus" for specific songs in the past, but this time, I've decided to become a little more ambitious by applying a few gimmicks to this Author's Pick.
First off, let's provide three songs that have something to do with the number 7.
(1967) The Echoes and The Misuzu Children's Choral Group -- Theme from Ultra Seven （ウルトラセブンの歌）
I had family over tonight for dinner after which most of us ended up watching the New York Yankees-Boston Red Sox game and the Edmonton Oilers-Florida Panthers Stanley Cup matchup. Drowsing off a bit in my armchair which is something that I tend to do with alarming frequency these nights, I started entertaining one of my fantasies which is wondering how it would be like to be an all-night radio DJ.
"Man, you must have been hitting the Canada Dry pretty hard, J-Canuck!" is probably what a lot of you might be thinking. But yeah, I've always wondered about a career in radio, and not just during the daytime drive time but also in the wee hours of the morning. After all, although I'm not sure whether I have a voice for radio, I certainly have a face for it! Plus, not only have I loved Donald Fagen's classic 1982 album "The Nightfly" as you can see above, I've also loved the cover of Fagen himself dressed up as a 1950s or 1960s disc jockey handling the overnight shift in that tiny room while he's charismatically spinning tales and records between midnight and 6 am.
One reason that I would love to try to give this particularly distinct job a whirl despite the hours is that I've read recently that live overnight radio in North America, at least, has been dead for a long time now (wherever you're reading this, perhaps you can tell me if this is also true in your neck of the woods). Financially speaking and in terms of personnel, I can understand why a radio station manager would cut all ties to all-night radio with a real human being; subscribing to a nationally-provided streaming service from a computer while the lights are all out at the station can save a lot of dough. However, I've also read that there had been DJs in the past who relished the overnight shift because they were a whole lot more free to talk and play their own kind of music and talk with the other all-nighters out there ranging from desperate university students cramming for exams to security guards at their lonely stations. Maybe they could have their own favourite guests or buddies come by to keep them company and nosh on pizza and stuff. As someone who used to man the Tuesday night shift at the International Student Centre at the University of Toronto, I was accustomed to seeing and chatting with all sorts of people who passed by the front desk and enjoyed it most of the time. I could enjoy that too as a DJ perhaps (of course, as long as the station manager was a nice and generous person).
But what would I play? Well, this is something that I was musing about for a long time and the six choices that I have are only a mere fraction of what I would like to play during a stint in the booth. Not surprisingly, it would be a mix of Japanese and non-Japanese music. So, typing this close to 11 pm EDT, here's a sextet of cool-down nighttime music coming up here on WKKP in Toronto. I'd also welcome any contributions by you out there.
Well, I'm only putting up one article tonight since I'm getting at this rather late in the day. And that's because earlier today, I caught the latest "Mission: Impossible" movie, "The Final Reckoning" with a good friend. I'd heard that it got somewhat mixed reviews from critics and viewers but when I saw it, I thought it was better than I'd assumed although there were at least a couple of handwaves at physics and physiology to show that Ethan Hunt would have been an Avenger in the Marvel Universe. Still, it had a style and tone that distinguished it from the last few entries as much as those entries were quite different from the very first movie in 1996. To be honest, I thought "The Final Reckoning" probably had more in common with a cinematic adaptation of a Tom Clancy novel.
Is it the best IMF movie? Uh, nope, but it isn't the worst either. And maybe Tom Cruise is going to hand in his IMF ID for the final time but money and ambition will probably have the series coming up again at least once more with a new leader.
Well, now, I did do a ROY article a few years ago on the famous theme song for "Mission: Impossible" and I also gave my opinions on the original TV series and the movie that started the film franchise. Therefore, I'll just cut to the chase and provide three of the Japanese pop songs that were in the Oricon list around the time that the very first movie premiered on May 22nd 1996. I'll give you Nos. 11, 12 and 13 from May 20th.
A few years ago, I posted the first article regarding United Future Organization, a trio starting out in the 1990s with their way-out Daddy-o cool take on jazz. The article was for their 1993 "My Foolish Dream", a collaboration with J-R&B chanteuse Monday Michiru that was so cool that in another universe, listeners needed to be the beautiful people type to go to a very exclusive club hidden away in depths of the city to hear it.
Well, in 1996, United Future Organization released their 3rd album"3rd Perspective" and one of the tracks is "The Planet Plan". And yep, as a number of commenters on the YouTube page have stated, there is a definite similarity between this particular tune and the works of movie/TV composer Michael Giacchino on "The Incredibles" soundtrack. It could have even been included on the soundtrack secretly without anyone being the wiser. As it is, with the inclusion of the vocal excerpts, there is very much of a conspiracy thriller vibe with "The Planet Plan" as a select group of cool and stylish Earthlings attempt to investigate a subtle takeover by aliens. Think "The X-Files" set to 1960s Quincy Jones music. Finally, I have to mention that I've delightfully realized that the repeating riff right by the end at the 4:00 mark is a piece of BGM that had been used on one Japanese variety show's segment.
I also have to mention that one of the three members of United Future Organization, Tadashi Yabe（矢部直）, sadly passed away last July at the age of 59. My belated condolences go to his family, friends and fans.
I remember this time last year when ski resorts in both Canada and Japan were major ugly crying the blues because they simply didn't have two snowflakes to rub against each other. There had been a serious lack of snow which caused the resorts to wonder about their livelihood for the 2024 season. But cue ahead nearly a year later and fate decided to give everyone a huge break and then some. The white stuff has been pretty much non-stop for the past few months and business is booming once more. Maybe it's booming a little too much since all those blizzards could also be making transportation to the slopes a tad difficult.
Considering I'm from the Great White North, my interaction with skiing has been minimal at best (generally, sports and I are not good friends). I did some cross-country skiing during one elementary school trip and then when I was in Gunma Prefecture on the JET Programme, I joined teachers and students on the annual one-day field trip to the slopes (northern Gunma is famous for skiing) and after a few minutes of trying to glide down the bunny slopes, I quickly retreated back to the warmth of the hut and drank down a few gallons of cocoa for most of the day. Additionally, I remember on Wednesday mornings on the local train as I was heading to the weekly visit to the smaller school when it was packed with skiers and had to be careful not to be poked in the eye with a ski.🎿
However, this won't deter me from the pleasure of presenting some of the kayo kyoku/J-Pop ski-themed tunes I've heard over the years. After all, back in the late 1980s with the Bubble Era, skiing became a huge hobby of the Japanese as they hit the slopes of Naeba or Gala Yuzawa. Moreover, although skiing isn't quite the trendy thing to do now, I'm sure that there are still many dedicated skiers taking advantage of the powder snow all over the nation. And as such, allow me to show just five of the many songs that have reminded me of skiing. Consider this the kissing cousin to "Snow Songs".
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