Crazy Ken Band -- Shinpai Muyo Bushi（心配無用節）

 

Last night's "Uta Con"（うたコン）was a pretty entertaining episode, all told. We had new popular group Monaki（モナキ）with their senpai group Junretsu（純烈）, an old favourite in the form of an Anzen Chitai（安全地帯）and Yosui Inoue（井上陽水）duet that my friend and I used to sing at karaoke in the late 1980s, and quite a bit of soulful stuff. As well, there was a brief announcement of the passing of enka singer Nobue Matsubara（松原のぶえ）.

As for the soulful stuff, Crazy Ken Band（クレイジーケンバンド）appeared with their leader Ken Yokoyama（横山剣）to sing their latest digital single from July 2026, "Shinpai Muyo Bushi" (The No Worries Song). Usually when I add the Labels for this group, it's pretty simple: the music is always gonna be J-R&B. Ahhh...but this time, I have to add an extra genre...that of enka. Crazily enough for Crazy Ken Band, "Shinpai Muyo Bushi" may have the usual funk and soul in there, but even my mother could distinctly hear the traditional undercurrent of enka popping in and out of Yokoyama's melody. I had been thinking of whether to apply the hybrid New Adult Music tag, too; however, the enka and funk n' soul were in there but separate rather than blended so I just kept it as enka and J-R&B. 

Lyrically, it's all about brushing off any of the problems since after all, they really don't even amount to a hill of beans in the grand scheme of things. With good ol' Ken by your side at the bar, the song is the reassurance that everything will be A-OK!

Miharu Koshi (Haruomi Hosono) -- Figlio Perduto

By Dick Thomas Johnson via Wikimedia Commons

Recently, I came across a series of YouTube videos from the channel "remain" which has provided recognizable songs with titles that are unknown to a lot of people. The second entry in the first of these videos is a good example. Until a week ago, I hadn't known the title "O Fortuna" by Carl Orff but this 1936 song is something that I have heard often enough to depict some massively epic scenes in movies, TV and commercials. I'd even thought that "O Fortuna" had been the song to accompany the trailer for the original "Cliffhanger" with Sly Stallone back in 1993 but I was totally wrong.

Just a few minutes ago, I finally found out the title for this other classical music piece that I've heard many times in my life. This happens to be "Allegretto", the 2nd movement of Beethoven's "Symphony No. 7 in A Major Op. 92" from the early 1800s, and perhaps not surprisingly, I've heard this being performed as background music in certain pensive scenes in movies. Apparently, a version with lyrics by Chiara Ferraù was made under the title "Figlio Perduto".

Now, one might ask why I am talking about classical music here since I'm not a classical music fan per se. Well, as I've indicated above, I may not be a fan but I have heard my fair share of the genre over the years through public media and the rare concert I've attended. Also, I was informed by an anonymous commenter last night and I'd actually read a "New York Times" article back on Sunday regarding Haruomi Hosono's（細野晴臣）latest album "Yours Sincerely" that was released a mere few days ago. 

According to a review of "Yours Sincerely" on Pitchfork, it seems as if Hosono in his old age has decided to tie up some loose ends in some of his music over the decades, and the products of his tightening up (inside joke here) make up the tracks. Going back to that Beethoven movement, one of those tracks is Hosono's rendition of "Figlio Perduto" which is supposed to be based on Sarah Brightman's approach to the song back in the year 2000. As well, according to the notes underneath the YouTube video, additional lyricists were Hosono himself and Johann Wolfgang von Goethe. 

The "Figlio Perduto" here is ancient, intimate and perhaps even tearjerking as if only a very few of us were invited to a tiny salon in Hosono's house thanks to the reassuring plucking of the guitar and the haunting and halting delivery of the lyrics by frequent Hosono collaborator Miharu Koshi（コシミハル）and someone named KuKuKu. But no matter the dramatic change in arrangement, I could instantly recognize the tune and it finally inspired me to find out how it's been identified. 

Milk Talk -- Milk and Honey

 

I'm coming at this from an unusual angle, and at the very least, you can watch an entire episode of "Space:1999", to boot. I remember "The Last Sunset" as the one where Moonbase Alpha and its residents actually enjoy a brief respite of terraformed paradise thanks to some seemingly benevolent aliens. However, thanks to some hallucinogenic food sources, one of the more dependable crewmen goes a little bonkers. One of the lines that still come to mind is when Paul Morrow ravenously spits out "...land of milk and honey".

Yup, that's a reference to the Bible and yep, I take it as paradise. Honey is good, by the way, and from what I've read and heard, it might be getting rarer and more expensive to get from the hives due to declining bee populations, unfortunately. I don't have honey a whole lot but I do remember making one delicious drink called Honey Hot Chocolate. Give it a shot.

It's been a couple of years since I've posted anything by the duo Milk Talk so I'm happy to hear that they've got a new 2026 single out called "Milk and Honey". Written and composed by the band, it's some intoxicating spacy funk in both melody and lyrics. Honey is quite the ingredient but the way Hair Kid and Q.i. put their sexy ways onto it instrumentally and vocally respectively, it can also be very dangerous and seductive.

Comments Not Being Published

 

Apologies...it's not exactly the biggest screenshot, is it? Well, I just wanted to let folks know that a few hours ago, I had been informed by commenter Brian Mitchell that he hasn't been able to provide any comments as he usually would. It seems as if when he has done so, he has been left "hanging" without anything being provided.

I've also tried to provide my own comments through a recent article ("Testing the comments") as you can see above, but I can't seem to get through either. Therefore, I've sent a message over to the Blogger administrative folks with the above screenshot to see if anything can be done on their end. For those who have tried to comment over the past several hours, I'm very sorry that you can't and hope that this will all resolve itself shortly. However, I will still be posting my usual articles today.

J-Canuck

September 5th 2026: Looks like the issue has been resolved so thank you to the Blogger gods for helping out.

Orange Range feat. Soy Sauce -- Curry Tabetai（CURRY食べたい）

Wikimedia Commons

 

Knowing that I have mentioned curry-based kayo in the past, I have waxed philosophically on the type of curry I like. First off, I was weaned on the Japanese style of rice curry through the good folks at S&B but going into my university years, I did discover the varieties from other nations such as India and Thailand. I also discovered the limits of my gastrointestinal tract (but they were all tasty, I assure you).

Back in 2015, the Okinawan-based rock and hip-hop band Orange Range gave their tribute to one particular dish "Sushi Tabetai"（SUSHI食べたい）with help from a fellow named Soy Sauce（ソイソース）who's a guitarist from the band NAOTO. Over a decade later, the collaboration came up with a sequel in July of this year titled "Curry Tabetai" (Wanna Eat Curry). With a bit more rap and a tongue pressed further into the (curry-laced) cheek in addition to an even more deranged video, the boys focused their voices and stomachs on the wonders of the Japanese style of curry.

Well, whaddaya know? There was a method to the madness!

Penthouse -- Koi Suru Kamisama（恋する神様）

 

When I was listening and reading up on this song, my mind made its own associations and my brain materialized that summer pastime in Japan, going to the rooftop beer garden among the skyscrapers. I'm basically a teetotaler but I had been to a few of these with friends and there is something appealing about having a mug and fried chicken under the stars. By the way, the above was provided by Samurai Junjiro Channel.

I guess all this beer garden on the brain is due to me coming across this latest album by the City Soul band Penthouse's latest album "Neon Garden" which was released on July 29th this year. One of the tracks here is the rapid-fire "Koi Suru Kamisama" (God of Love) that was written by vocalists Shintaro Namioka（浪岡真太郎）and Maho Ohshima（大島真帆）and composed by Namioka. It's quite the sangria of genres: technopop, jazz, soul, City Pop and all that as a young lass is going a little crazy about falling for a guy and asking for divine help to get her out of a sticky situation. Unfortunately, the titular deity probably has to deal with tons of other people in similar circumstances.

Just to let folks know, the above is an official music video for "Koi Suru Kamisama" and not a creditless anime opening or closing sequence, although seeing how polished and adorable it is, I wouldn't be surprised if fans are wondering if there shouldn't be an anime created because of it. Apparently, the story played out here has a more self-assured couple than in the lyrics.

Kirinji feat. Tomomi Oda/Chiaki Takahashi & Azumi Asakura -- LEMONADE

From E4024 via Wikimedia Commons

How does that saying go? When life throws lemons at you, make lemonade!

Apparently, that is the premise for this track from Kirinji's（キリンジ）January 2026 album "Town Beat". The appropriately titled "LEMONADE" is the melodic elixir for all that ails you as prepared by Takaki Horigome（堀込高樹）and served by both him and singer-songwriter Tomomi Oda（小田朋美）in a nice tall glass with plenty of ice. The album also has another collaboration between the two, "Room Dancer"（ルームダンサー）, but unlike the Motown vibe of that one, "LEMONADE" has more of a fleet-footed Neo-City Pop/technopop feeling. At the same time, the harmonies and maybe some of the chords also have me thinking some Steely Dan as well.

When I looked at the J-Wiki article for "Town Beat", I also realized that "LEMONADE" was a cover of a song that Horigome had provided the Idolmaster album "THE IDOLM@STER MASTER PRIMAL POPPIN' YELLOW" from December 2017. This was a duet between seiyuu Chiaki Takahashi（たかはし智秋）and Azumi Asakura（浅倉杏美）as their characters of Azusa Miura（三浦あずさ）and Yukiho Hagiwara（萩原雪歩）respectively. The original here goes a bit more for the technopop but also has a funkier groove. If I had heard this one before the Kirinji and Oda cover and then found out who was behind the songwriting, I most likely would have exclaimed "Oh yeah! That's Kirinji to a T!"

Satoko Shibata -- Pool

Swimming_Pool_Grundarfjordur_Kirkjufell

 

Ahhh...the community swimming pool, an environment of chlorinated intrigue, romance and strategy. (Young) People are conglomerating in different cliques within or without the water admiring from afar or, if they are brave enough, communicating up close and personal. And once in a while, there may be some actual swimming taking place. But always beware of the "chocolate bar"!

But to get away from that horrifying scene, I can introduce you to singer-songwriter Satoko Shibata（柴田聡子）and her June 2026 "Pool". With those Latin dance beats and conspiratorially whispery vocals in there, there is plenty of fun and intrigue as a saucy young lady is enjoying the facilities of the pool (especially the shower) while driving her boyfriend up the wall by ignoring him. In a way, she reminds me of another songstress, bird.

Hailing from Sapporo, Shibata is also a musician and poet who started her career in 2010 with at least a dozen digital download singles and seven albums under her belt.

Ego-Wrappin' -- Riviera

By Olivier Cleynen via Wikimedia Commons

 

It's been a while since I've posted anything by the bohemian jazz outfit Ego-Wrappin'. Can't quite believe that a quarter-century has passed since I first heard their stomping "Psychoanalysis"（サイコアナラシス）led by the booming voice of Yoshie Nakano（中納良恵）.

To be frank, I'm not sure what Nakano and her songwriting/musician partner Masaki Mori（森雅樹）have been up to in the past several years. Their J-Wiki article seems to be several years behind the times. However, last month Ego-Wrappin' released a 12-inch single titled "Riviera" which is quite different from the jazz that I got to know them for. But then again, I have heard Nakano and the band try other genres such as ska for their collaboration with the Determinations. 

Ego-Wrappin's also provided some examples of avant-pop although I forget the name of any of those songs. However, "Riviera" may be one of those inhabiting this particular genre. Certainly, the music video adds to that feeling as we see the adventure of a sentient water faucet through a forest. Looking through Nakano's lyrics, I'm not quite sure what the message is aside from the observation that there is some travel going along the titular existential Riviera. The slow groovy rhythm underlying this river can be quite mesmerizing on a beatnik level. Snap them fingers!

King Gnu -- Go Ghost

 

I barely remember watching the 1995 anime feature "Ghost in the Shell"; there was the iconic scene of Major Kusanagi flying off the roof and going into stealth mode and the scene where a row of techs had their fingers disjoint to show a whole bunch of metal rods typing at warp speed. But that was it for my memories. I guess the movie was so mesmerizing in how everything and everyone moved that it left me mind blind.

Then in 2017, there was the live-action version of "Ghost in the Shell" starring Scarlett Johansson which I also caught with some friends, but it frankly left me a little cold. I kinda thought it was like the "Black Widow" movie before the actual "Black Widow" movie of 2021, except that it had some special guest appearances by Beat Takeshi and Kaori Momoi.

So I gather that if I were a member of a fictional Iconic Anime Enthusiasts Association, there would be a demand that I shamefully hand back my card and lose my executive washroom privileges right now, because I have never been an avid fan of the "Ghost in the Shell" franchise. And to be honest, there are certain well-regarded Studio Ghibli movies that I never cottoned onto either. 

And this brings us to the newest addition to the franchise which is titled "The Ghost in the Shell"; gotta have that definite article for emphasis. The anime series began running from last month and apparently the animation style is pretty much along the original manga style that Masamune Shirow had gone with. I've only seen some excerpts and reaction videos. Episode 2 got quite the number of whoops, and I'm glad that this iteration shows a sense of humour.

I haven't written on the mixture rock band King Gnu in a few years, but here they are providing the opening theme for "The Ghost in the Shell". "Go Ghost", which was written and composed by vocalist Daiki Tsuneta（常田大希）, is a propulsive story of the life of the Major with blippity-bloppity percussion and a haunting digital tribal chorus to contrast with the futuristic city that is the setting for the show. At a length of merely 2:50, it's quite short and sweet. I've got a feeling that the Kohaku may call on the band to show up on December 31st once more.

Spitz -- Mishiranu Ito（見知らぬ糸）

 

I haven't really watched a J-Drama in many many years although I know of the usual types of drama that get onto the commercial networks such as TBS and Fuji-TV. There are the medical dramas, the ones dealing with cops and also the legal battles, and to be honest, they sound a lot like what's on American prime-time television.

Frequent commenter Brian Mitchell told me about this drama that he and his family are currently watching on TBS called "T-shirt ga Kawaku made"（Tシャツが乾くまで...Until the T-shirt Dries） which began its run a month ago. It sounds innocent enough but peel the layers back and one can discover that this is actually a romance mystery regarding two people seemingly losing their respective spouses in the same tragic accident but then finding out something shocking as a result. 

But before I go any further, this is after all a music blog and not a drama blog. Brian asked me to write about the theme song for "T-shirt ga Kawaku made", "Mishiranu Ito" (Unknown Thread), which was released a few days ago as Spitz's（スピッツ）48th single. Now, I've always enjoyed the vocals of Masamune Kusano（草野正宗）and his band has always been symbolic of one aspect of 1990s J-Pop...guitar rock via hits such as "Cherry" and "Namida ga Kirari"（涙がキラリ☆）, so it was great to know that Spitz is still there strumming away with that same comfortable sound from 30 years ago. By the way, Kusano took care of words and music.

STUTS & Taeko Onuki - Ohayō (おはよう)

Its always refreshing to know that older artist you grew up listening to still have "the sauce", and they can still turn out great music years later. It's kind of like seeing an old friend years later and knowing that he's doing great in life. That's kinda' how I felt after hearing Taeko Ohnuki's voice in the new song "Ohayo"( (おはよう) / Good Moring).

Produced and arranged by the artist STUTS, Ohayo feels like the perfect marriage between Ohnuki's 70s sophisticated jazz sound and the modern indie/ lo-fi vibe that us chronically online folks have grown accustomed to. We even get a relaxing music video accompanying the song, which I gotta say, this is probably the best music video I've seen for a City Pop song, ever. 

We follow a day in the life of nameless woman as she runs her motorcycle garage, located somewhere what looks to be Kamakura, Kanagawa Prefecture (feel free to correct me if I'm wrong). We even gets some lovely shots of Enoshima Island in the background as she rides her own bike down the highway as she greets all her neighbors throughout the peaceful coastal town. We even gets some cameos from SPUTS and Ohnuki scattered throughout the video. 

I've never heard of STUTS before this song, but after exploring some of his other work, he seems to be a really good producer. The Nagoya born musician really excels at creating a nostalgic sound clearly influenced by 90s hip hop, House, and R&B. I think any Nujabes fans will gravitate forwards this guy real well. 

If you want to get a good sense of his style, I'd recommended checking out his Tiny Desk concert.

 Overall I think Ohayo is the perfect marriage of old & new and show cases both artists strengths very well. I think anyone who misses the easy listening quality of Taeko Ohnuki's music and those who are on the search fore more beats to study to will both be satisfied. 

Blogger Announcement: False Positives for "Malware and Similar Malicious Content policy"

 

Hello, folks. J-Canuck here and usually when I put up the apple pie photo, it means that I have an APB on an unknown song that we are searching information on. But this is not that sort of article but I needed to have something up, so I chose the apple pie.

Anyways, I wanted to inform readers and fellow bloggers on the Blogger platform that I received a message from KKP contributor Oliver Ebisuno92. Apparently for the past couple of days, there has been a rash of blogs getting flagged or even locked out due to Blogger automated systems going on a misguided search-and-freeze operation. From what I've read of some of the comments, it looks like any blogger on Blogger who has recently made any changes to the basic template may get smacked unfairly, although actual postings won't trigger anything. You can take a look at the actual announcement here.

Masashi Sada -- Kamisama no Iu Toori（神さまの言うとおり）

 

Welcome to Hump Day! And yeah, it feels even more like a Hump Day than usual. For one thing, I've been noticing for the past three days that our household has suffered micro-power outages of less than a second at around the same time in the morning. Now as I said, they are very short in duration so the power is back on lickety-split but it's enough to require me to wait five minutes for the Internet to return and I have to reset all of the clocks. Very annoying. I've sent our electric power company a letter of inquiry and complaint for which I've received a reply stating that it may take up to five days for a proper answer.

In any case, I've learned that people having a bad day tend to be more productive at work, presumably because they want to focus on anything other than the source of the bad day. Well, I'm focusing on this one here. And it has to do with a couple of observations regarding recent Japanese society. The first one is that Japan may have one of the larger populations of centenarians in the world and the other is that when the patriarch of the family retires from decades of work, he may tend to just lounge around the house with nothing to do all day which can aggravate the wife and perhaps even the children to no end. 

That seems to be the premise of the Japanese comedy movie franchise "Oshûkatsu Jukushun! Jinsei, Hyaku-nen Jidai no Sugoshi Kata"（お終活 熟春!人生、百年時代の過ごし方...The Final Years: The Golden Years of Maturity—How to Spend Life in the Era of the 100-Year Lifespan） that started in 2021. A third movie was released at the end of May this year. As to why I'm talking about this, well....last night, singer-songwriter and tarento Masashi Sada（さだまさし）appeared on "Uta Con"（うたコン）to sing this old-time jazzy number called "Kamisama no Iu Toori" (As God Says). I've heard Sada sing folk and City Pop but this is the first time that I've heard him sing anything jazz and this is where I found out that "Kamisama no Iu Toori" was the theme song for the third movie. Written and composed by Sada with Toshiyuki Watanabe（渡辺俊幸）handling the arrangement and the conducting of the orchestra, it's a sweet nostalgic tune that had Sada doing a bit of Vaudevillian soft-shoe on the stage and maybe the movie characters dancing cheek-to-cheek on the floor.

Mitsuko Nakamura -- Jinsei Banzai（人生万歳）

 

I was watching "Shin BS Nihon no Uta"（新BS日本の歌）last night when I saw the ever-beaming enka veteran Mitsuko Nakamura（中村美津子）appear on stage to perform a song that I'd initially assumed was one of her oldies. As it turned out, it was her latest (her 73rd) single from May this year.

"Jinsei Banzai" (Here's to Life) was released to commemorate Nakamura's 40th year in the music industry and I'm pretty sure when it comes to the annual Kohaku Utagassen, her name will probably be in the Red team lineup. Written by Kyosuke Kuni（久仁京介）and composed by Koji Tokuhisa（徳久広司）, it's a very genki song showing off her satisfaction and gratitude to everyone over the past four decades. The enka is in there of course, but I could hear a rumbling rhythm reminiscent of a 50s Latin-tinged number. 

Mrs. GREEN APPLE -- Brand New

 

I bumped into this video purely by accident yesterday when it was released onto YouTube, and I know that the band Mrs. GREEN APPLE has been known for participating in some really snazzy music videos. However, although the song was another supremely upbeat tune by the guys, I was rather marveling at the very ambitious parkour the three were doing all over the city in their latest video.

And then I saw the title: "Brand New". Then, 2+2 started popping up in my head immediately after which I checked the relevant J-Wiki article and sure enough, my rushed suspicions were verified. Mrs. GREEN APPLE's latest digital download single from July 13th was indeed the theme song for the Japanese release of "Spider-Man: Brand New Day". Reading that all three members were big fans of the superhero, they must have had the time of their lives acting like the webslinger.

Written and composed by vocalist Motoki Ohmori（大森元貴）, "Brand New" isn't actually the first time that Mrs. GREEN APPLE has come up with a theme song for people with super powers. I recall writing about another song of theirs that fits the bill years ago. In any case, "Spider-Man: Brand New Day" has come out here and in Tokyo, so I gather that my old movie viewing buddies there are already planning their big outing to see it. I will be catching it myself pretty soon.

Gen Hoshino -- Suki（好き）

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With all of the various issues happening locally and abroad, it's no surprise that people could use some more of a salve for what ails them. 

Nothing medical here but musically, perhaps KKP can introduce singer-songwriter and hookmeister Gen Hoshino's（星野源）latest digital download single "Suki" (Love Ya) which was released only yesterday. And yep, it's got that catchy Hoshino hook along with some Hoshino scatting. Furthermore, I'm always going to be a sucker for any song that has those mellow horns from yesteryear...especially a snazzy flugelhorn. 

Not surprisingly, Hoshino came up with "Suki" for a TBS drama titled "Kimi no Suki wa Muteki"（君の好きは無敵...Your Love is Boundless） that started up a couple of weeks ago. He can come up with some of the great theme tunes such as "Kigeki"（喜劇）for the anime "Spy x Family" some years ago. According to one part of the J-Wiki article on "Suki", I was able to Google translate this paragraph regarding the song:

This track marks a new frontier in pop music for Gen Hoshino, characterized by a melody that instantly lifts the spirits, a groove that makes you want to dance, and a sound brimming with vitality. It captures the inner radiance felt the moment one falls for someone —as well as the immense power of that emotion—and serves to encourage anyone who is evolving with that passion as their driving force, adding vibrant color to the world of the drama.

I'm not sure if I would say that this is a new frontier for Hoshino. His reputation has usually involved very upbeat tunes and "Suki" is no different. But I would certainly agree with the groovy assessment and indeed, falling in love can pack quite a punch of positivity. I'm assuming that the final word "drama" is referring to the TBS show (unfortunately I couldn't find any footage on YouTube).

Kyary Pamyu Pamyu -- KURU KURU HARAJUKU

By Chris 73 via Wikimedia Commons

I've made my fair share of visits to Harajuku. Takeshita-douri, all those crepe stands, the fashionistas and the bubblegum-coloured stores...it's quite the amusement park. Of course, by entering the area (even back in my old Japan days), I immediately skewed the age line so I can't even imagine what it would feel like going there now. 

Speaking of age, it's hard for me to believe that the vivacious Kyary Pamyu Pamyu（きゃりーぱみゅぱみゅ）is 33 years old now. She has always struck me as someone stuck in her late teens or early twenties, and her overall aura is such that she doesn't even have to physically appear in a music video to make it worthy viewing. Et tu, "DODONPA"（どどんぱ）?

Well, a couple of days ago, her latest single just dropped. Titled "KURU KURU HARAJUKU" (Spinning Harajuku), it's another percolating blippity-bloppity technopop treat from KPP about a Harajuku denizen's dramatic day in her favourite area of Tokyo. And this time, the mesmerizing video has multiple Kyarys of differing sizes bopping about in what looks like a costume of the Michelin Man in battle mode. Maybe the techno trio Perfume is off on indefinite hiatus but producer/songwriter Yasutaka Nakata（中田ヤスタカ）still has plenty of work.

Tokimeki Records feat. Mai Zaitsu -- Tsuki wa Mirror Ball（月はミラーボール）

 

Not sure what the situation is regarding the huge billowing mass of forest fire smoke that's been coming down into Southern Ontario for the past few days. Apparently, some winds were supposed to give us some respite from the smaze before returning tonight. Well, so far, I've got the window open but I haven't exactly been coughing up my lungs yet, so maybe this is a good development.

Anyways, I have another song by Tokimeki Records. Up to now, I've collected a small group of their songs which have been covers of some of the City Pop classics. But this time, the unit has come up with an original tune "Tsuki wa Mirror Ball" (Under the Mirror Moon) which came out in June. Still, as usual, a featured female vocalist is on the mike and her name is Mai Zaitsu（財津マイ）. I couldn't find out anything at all about her although she's been depicted as an anime character thus far in Yahoo Images. Her voice is nice and smoky alongside the Neo-City Pop showing some of that nocturnal bouncy rhythm (maybe good for the car stereo). The only other question that I have about the singer is whether she is a relative of Tulip singer-songwriter Kazuo Zaitsu（財津和夫）.

Tomita Lab -- Futari no Amaterasu（二人の天照）

Wikimedia Commons

Amaterasu is a name that I've been hearing since I began university in the mid-1980s. I've heard about her in lectures within my Japanese Studies major and read about her in books on religion and mythology in Japan. In Shintoism, she is known as the sun goddess and the mythical ancestor of the Imperial family.

But enough of the professorial lecture from me. This is "Futari no Amaterasu" (The Amaterasu of Two), the latest single by Tomita Lab（富田ラボ）that was released last month, and according to the good folks at the Otomo website, it's "...an urban pop song focusing on the inner workings of people whose days shift under the influence of the weather". Man, considering the weather that Toronto and Tokyo have been wrestling with over the past few days, I'm hoping that our collective inner workings are hanging on for dear life.

With vocals provided by Yo from the duo Natsudaidai (about whom I posted about back in 2024), it's a cute and blippy tune whose modern arrangement may actually hold an old-fashioned melodic vibe of optimistic American sitcom spunk theme tunes, along the lines of "That Girl" and "The Doris Day Show" from the 1960s. Not sure if Tomita Lab had meant it to be so, but that's how I'm taking it. Then as we approach the grand finale, things go all techno jazzy harmony. Maybe "Futari no Amaterasu" should be looking for a cute Japanese rom-com somewhere. While Tomita took care of the music, Sasuke Haraguchi（原口沙輔）provided the lyrics.