Ai Otsuka -- Kingyo Hanabi（金魚花火）

 

Once again, it is July 7th and that means, it's Tanabata in Japan. The holiday surrounding those star-crossed lovers has gotten folks to write wishes on those colourful strips of paper to be tied to tree branches. And there are also a lot of festivals taking place throughout the nation so perhaps Tanabata is the first major festival of the season.

A year ago, I posted a commemorative article in tribute to Tanabata（七夕）...a bit tortuous getting to the final product but I got there regardless. This time though, I'll be going with just one song. I was searching the Yahoo Japan engine for a song that has a connection with Tanabata. There were quite a few but one that stuck out to me was Ai Otsuka's（大塚愛）5th single from August 2004.

"Kingyo Hanabi" (Goldfish Fireworks), about summer festival love, seems to be more about finding that special someone at any summer festival taking place throughout July and August, but hey, I'm not going to complain. Plus, it was Otsuka's stab at a calmer love ballad compared to the very upbeat and perky songs that she's been known for such as "Sakuranbo"（さくらんぼ）and "SMILY". Written and composed by the singer, its arrangement seems to be in that contemporary healing music style that Ryuichi Sakamoto（坂本龍一）was recording at the time. Its contemplativeness matches the goldfish-like swishes of emotion that are flashing within a young lady's heart.

"Kingyo Hanabi" peaked at No. 3 on Oricon and ended up as the 59th-ranked single of the year, going Gold in the process. The song was also included as a track on Otsuka's 2nd album "Love Jam" from November 2004 which reached the top of the charts and became the 30th-ranked album for 2005. "Kingyo Hanabi" was also a theme song for the long-running NTV Monday night documentary series "Super Terebi: Jouhou Saizensen"（スーパーテレビ情報最前線...Super TV: Information Frontline）.

Ai Otsuka -- Ramen San-pun Cooking（ラーメン3分クッキング）

 

Officially, the high temperature was supposed to hit the heady heights of 15 degrees Celsius. Well, thanks to the winds whipping up something fierce this morning, it sure didn't feel like 15...more like 5 lonely ones. Fortunately, I was out today to meet up with a couple of friends who are fellow translators at a central branch of Santouka for lunch.

But of course, ramen was on the menu so I tucked myself into a savory bowl of spicy miso ramen (although the picture above is that of a similar bowl at Raijin that I took last December). That bowl sure came in handy for bringing back some warmth. I also noticed that there will be a new branch of rival ramen restaurant Sansotei opening up just up the street in a few months so with two other ramen places in the immediate area, that Yonge-Eglinton neighbourhood is certainly looking like Toronto's ramen yokocho.

Buoyed by my taste experience today, I have been inspired to search for yet another ramen-based kayo or J-Pop tune to start this week's KKP songs. Well, it didn't take too long to find one to join Akiko Yano's（矢野顕子）smoky and tongue-in-cheek "Ramen Tabetai"（ラーメン食べたい）. Cheerful singer-songwriter Ai Otsuka（大塚愛）whipped up her bowl of fun called "Ramen San-pun Cooking" (3-Minute Ramen Cooking) as a track on her third original album "Love Cook" from December 2005 (great month to give a musical shoutout to ramen).

The above recording though actually comes from Otsuka's "LOVE POP TOUR 2022" DVD + CD set. Regardless, "Ramen San-pun Cooking" is an interesting mix of light synthpop, echoes of 70s Motown R&B and fun delivery by Otsuka and company as they sing and wax philosophically on the three minutes of waiting time between the pouring of the hot water and the time that their instant cup ramen is ready to go. Apparently, Otsuka also likes her miso ramen, too.

The original recording of "Ramen San-pun Cooking" in "Love Cook" actually fit into three minutes exactly. The above video has her doing the song at twice the speed so dare I say it, it took exactly one minute and thirty seconds. Incidentally, "Love Cook" reached No. 1 on Oricon and became the 10th-ranked album for 2006.

Ai Otsuka -- Rocket Sneaker（ロケットスニーカー）

 

Well, Happy Monday! Going into the final days of official summer, it's looking like the season is going to be dragged kicking and screaming out of the 22nd. It's been feeling rather warm and sticky out there to begin the week.

Then, shall we start with a very upbeat tune? I remember seeing the music video for Ai Otsuka's（大塚愛）17th single from May 2008, "Rocket Sneaker" (which was officially titled "Rocket Sneaker/One X Time") and noticing how snazzy it was seeing multiple versions of the singer as if being caught in succeeding shot frames for the entire footage. My compliments to those behind its creation, and the ending credits appear like the end of a proper motion picture.

But "Rocket Sneaker" on its own is a happy experience in the usual Otsuka way. Written and composed by the singer, it's all about someone taking those first tiny steps onto a grand celestial journey but also not forgetting how much their beloved Earth had helped raise that person to get to where they are now. I would have thought that "Rocket Sneaker" would have made a great theme song for an anime, but actually it was used in other projects such as the ending themes for a couple of variety shows and as a jingle for a commercial.

"Rocket Sneaker" made it to No. 4 on Oricon and had a place on Otsuka's 5th original album "Love Letter" which was released in December that year. That album hit No. 3 on the charts and ended up as the 44th-ranked album of the year.

Pet Shop Boys -- Flamboyant

 

Never wore an Issey Miyake although I do love the colour black as a fashion choice. His clothes were too expensive for me although even I heard about this Japanese designer who came up with the duds for a lot of celebrities (and perhaps the vast majority of citizens in chic Daikanyama, Tokyo) including the mercurial Steve Jobs via those black sweaters. It's been unfortunately a crowded week with celebrity deaths including the one for Olivia Newton-John, and as was reported a few days ago, the one for Miyake. He died on August 5th at the age of 84 due to liver cancer.

The late Miyake for me was immortalized in music thanks to a shoutout given to him in Pet Shop Boys' March 2004 single "Flamboyant" which was also included in the duo's big BEST compilation, "PopArt: The Hits". Being a fan of Neil Tennant and Chris Lowe, I was more than willing to part with my yen when the album came out some months ago in late 2003. As soon as I heard the mighty bass thrum of those synthesizers with the following suspenseful arrangement and Neil's familiar warblings regarding the enticement of celebrity, I just thought that "Flamboyant" was the catchiest PSB song which I'd heard in a good long while. Considering some of the amazing hits that they've provided since the early 1980s, that is indeed saying a lot. Ironically, the whole sound of the song made me think that this would have been the ideal theme for a master thief or assassin, someone who would absolutely eschew celebrity.

"Flamboyant" on its own is a great song but the music video takes the message of the song and puts it on its ear via the wonderfully wacky world of Hollywood stars and Japanese commercials. For those who have been their fair share of silliness with folks like Arnold Schwarzenegger, Bruce Willis and Sigourney Weaver spouting out nutty catchphrases surrounded by surreal images while hawking everything from isotonic drinks to ramen to real estate, this really hits the spot. But interspersed with PSB going WTF with the J-ads is a story of a salaryman trying to grab his fifteen minutes of fame by appearing in a real NTV contest show called "Kasou Taishou"（仮装大賞...Kinchan and Katori Shingo's All Japan Costume Grand Prix） despite the disapproval of all around him including his wife.

The whole video used to be on YouTube but for whatever reason, it was taken down (even the Wikipedia entry on "Flamboyant" mentions that it isn't currently featured in my nation). Maybe there were copyright strikes involved or Neil and Chris were just a little too embarrassed about their tongue-in-cheek shenanigans (personally I thought the latter looked great with long flowing hair). However, it can be seen on Vimeo. The video above just has the Boys' appearances which is hilarious enough.

Although nothing is mentioned about how "Flamboyant" did in either America or Canada, it did hit No. 3 on Ireland's dance charts. As for what else was doing fine on the Japanese Oricon charts in March 2004, it looks like I'll be going with multiples of 3 for this week's Reminiscings of Youth.

No. 3 Ayaka Hirahara -- Jupiter

No. 6 Ai Otsuka -- Sakuranbo （さくらんぼ）

No. 9 Yo Hitoto -- Hanamizuki （ハナミズキ）

Ai Otsuka -- Happy Days/Hoshikuzu（星くず）

 

We interrupt this regularly-scheduled article of "Kayo Kyoku Plus" for this explanation of Tanabata（七夕）, aka The Star Festival, the observed holiday in Japan on July 7th. Have a look at this video with English subtitles by uploader mtanakaunis.

For some reason, I couldn't find any specific anime on YouTube showing an example of Tanabata although I recall that it is a frequent setting for an episode. In fact, I was watching one episode of Season 2 of "Teasing Master Takagi-san" which had the students doing something for it. However, I did find the ladies on Japan's Weathernews celebrating the holiday by writing their wishes on those strips of coloured paper known as tansaku and tying them up to bamboo branches.

As such, I was trying to look for something relevant to the festival, and lo and behold, I saw the ballad "Hoshikuzu" (Stardust) in my backlog. This was actually the coupling song to down-to-earth pop/rock singer Ai Otsuka's（大塚愛）fourth single, "Happy Days", which was released right on July 7th 2004. And I'm fairly sure that "Hoshikuzu", written and composed by Otsuka, was created in tribute to the holiday not just because of the date of release but also since the lyrics involve a couple in love holding hands looking up at the starry sky and wondering what the future holds.

Going to that A-side, "Happy Days" is how I've always seen and heard Otsuka, upbeat, up-tempo and rocking away. I haven't heard this one in years and it took me hearing her chirp the title to jog my memory cells once more. The song peaked at No. 3 on Oricon and ended up as the 55th-ranked single for 2004.

Otsuka also appeared in a commercial for Morinaga's Ice Box frozen treat which had "Happy Days" as the jingle. The song was also used as the theme for NTV's 24th edition of the All-Japan High School Quiz Championship that year.

Ai Otsuka -- LUCKY☆STAR

 

Now that the Beijing Olympics are in full swing currently, it's been nice to hear that both Canada and Japan have already been earning some medals of various colours. My mind then goes back a dozen years to the Vancouver Games in 2010...and doesn't remember very much at all. In fact, I had to go to some of those impromptu shots by my ancient Casio that I took of some of the televised footage, including the above photo showing off Aiko Uemura（上村愛子）on the moguls.

Singer-songwriter Ai Otsuka（大塚愛）is someone that I've known for her 21st-century bubblegum pop through songs such as "SMILY". I must have then focused solely on the NHK coverage of the Vancouver Olympics since I had no knowledge that the happy-go-lucky Osakan was also behind Fuji-TV's official theme for their Games broadcast in 2010. Indeed, she came up with "LUCKY☆STAR" which was a part of her 20th single "Zokkondition/LUCKY☆STAR"（ゾッ婚ディション/LUCKY☆STAR） as released in April of that year.

"LUCKY☆STAR" has got quite the mixture of spacey dance beats and jangly guitar and it doesn't really sound like the usual inspirational Olympic J-Pop song, but it is indeed catchy. I would have thought it was a tune created by Denki Groove（電気グルーヴ）but it's actually all by Otsuka. The official music video has a goodly dollop of computer graphics to the extent that I wondered if the Pet Shop Boys' 90s videos had been any inspiration. The entire single hit No. 6 on Oricon. "LUCKY☆STAR" would also be included in Otsuka's 6th original album "Love Fantastic" from July 2014. The video below has the instrumental version which is in itself pretty cool to listen to.

Ai Otsuka -- SMILY

Not exactly summer days here with the temperatures now unseasonably cold (high of just -9 today) and the first mammoth snowstorm threatening to inundate us tomorrow. However, that is just the reason to put up this particular number that I had almost forgotten about.

Singer-songwriter Ai Otsuka's（大塚愛）adorable "SMILY" was her 8th single from May 2005, and with a title like that, it's awfully hard to forget...at least in short-term memory. Plus, the song has got all of those cute chirps by Otsuka herself. Basically, it's all about having a great time with friends and getting rid of all those blues, something that we can use right now since Blue Monday is coming up (post-Holiday bills and all that). The music video, by the way, was filmed on the island of Managaha in Saipan, a favourite tropical destination for the Japanese.

"SMILY" was Otsuka's first No. 1 and it went Platinum, eventually ending up as the 26th-ranked single of the year. It is also third among her most successful singles, behind "Sakuranbo"（さくらんぼ）and "Planetarium"（プラネタリウム）. I'll have to do that latter one sometime soon and not wait another 5 years. "SMILY" was also a track on Otsuka's 3rd original album "Love Cook", released in December 2005 which reached No. 1 on the charts and ended 2006 as the 10th-ranked album.

Otsuka appeared on NHK's Kohaku Utagassen a total of 6 times between 2004 and 2009, but "SMILY" wasn't one of the songs performed. For the 2005 edition, she ended up singing "Planetarium".

Ai Otsuka -- Sakuranbo （さくらんぼ）

I believe I mentioned in a recent article on actress Ryoko Hirosue（広末涼子）about It Girls...those breakout ladies who suddenly cannot be avoided anywhere in the mass media. The same goes with singers whether it be Morning Musume（モーニング娘。）or Seiko Matsuda（松田聖子）. Last decade, I remember one of those young singers being Osaka-born Ai Otsuka（大塚愛）.

With her breakthrough (second) single, "Sakuranbo" (Cherries) from December 2003, Otsuka was popping up everywhere on the music shows and then commercials. She just seemed so bubbly and friendly with an infectious giggle (I got to see her laughing up a storm on "HEY!HEY!HEY! Music Champ"). And of course, the music video was getting heavy rotation with her dancing around on that guitar and singing in that high-pitched voice (especially with the "Yea!").

Otsuka took care of both music and lyrics for "Sakuranbo", which was about her cheerfully relating about the ups and downs of her relationship with her beau. With all that's happened, the two are just cherries joined at the stem. The song peaked at No. 5 on Oricon and later became the 16th-ranked song for 2004, and hung around even longer to be the 86th-ranked song for 2005. The singer-songwriter also won Newcomer of the Year honours at the Japan Record Awards and also got that invitation to the Kohaku Utagassen on New Year's Eve 2004.

No cherries, I'm afraid.