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 would expect that there may still be a number of Canadians enjoying their Holiday vacations in the Caribbean for at least a few more days before they have to come back to the bitter cold and work come Monday. Allow them to enjoy the warmth and good feelings for a little while longer.
This is a fairly raucous song for Junichi Inagaki（稲垣潤一）in terms of the arrangement by Akira Inoue（井上鑑）. That percussion and beefy saxophone which start "Bahama Airport" can probably trigger a few tremors but they don't allow themselves to overwhelm Inagaki's tender vocals. It is definitely his style out there. "Bahama Airport" is the second track on the City Pop crooner's debut album"246:3AM" from July 1982. Kozo Endo（遠藤幸三）was the lyricist while Akira Mitake（見岳章）composed the summery happy melody.
For my last article tonight and for that matter, the final article for September 2025, I'd like to refer you to an article I did a couple of years ago featuring actress Maiko Kawakami（川上麻衣子）. In her J-Wiki article, she is identified as an actress only, but she did put out her albums and singles between 1981 and 1984, and in fact, I highlighted her sophomore album"ÄLSKLING"（エルスクリン）from June 1983.
Well, another track from that album is here tonight and this is "Watashi to Iu Tanin" (That Other Person Known as Me). Written by Yasushi Akimoto（秋元康）and composed by Akira Mitake（見岳章）, the song follows that certain arrangement I've often heard from tunes by aidoru and other female pop singers of the 1980s; there is that footloose-and-fancy-free vibe with the plunky piano/keyboard rhythm as if the arranger...in this case, Hiromoto Tobizawa（飛沢宏元）...is following the daintily-dressed singer as she is skipping down the street while sporting a parasol. Ah, those were innocent times.
It's been nearly a couple of years since I posted my most recent Go-Bang'ssong and there's nothing like one of their songs to get the blood flowing.
Never heard of "Ultra Peace Go!Go!" before but then again, I never got their May 1989 second album"Special 'I Love You'". In fact, I don't have any albums by them...just the singles. So I guess I missed out on quite a bit.
Starting off with a weird riff that sounds like either an intro to a news program or a New Wave song, the arrangement happily shifts into the typical Go-Bang's footloose and fancy-free happy pop-rock melody that probably would have been fine as an opening or ending theme for a similarly-themed anime. Certainly, with that title, perhaps it should have been. Written and composed by vocalist Kaori Moriwaka（森若香織）with arrangement by Akira Mitake（見岳章）, too bad that there wasn't a video to this one.
I saw and heard the news on NHK a couple of days ago, but comedian Takaaki Ishibashi (the taller, louder and even crazier one) of the duo Tunnels（とんねるず）announced that he was suffering from esophageal cancer and would be leaving the entertainment industry for a little while to get it treated. He mentioned that it was in the early stages so it's still very treatable and here's hoping that he makes a full recovery.
Still remember this outtake from their Thursday night Fuji-TV variety show "Tunnels no Minasan no Okage desu"（とんねるずのみなさんのおかげです）from the turn of the decade (80s to 90s). I gotta say that as outrageous as the duo could be, they did suffer for their art.
Also, I've had to remind myself that the Tunnels had their time in the recording booth cutting some raunchy records. The first time I even heard their name was through an "Eye-Ai" issue in which one of their records was being sold. I think it could have been their 1985 "Ame No Nishi Azabu" (雨の西麻布) which was their parodic take on the enka genre. Supposedly, the boys hated enka but I think they certainly did a nice job with that one.
But their 7th single from May 1986,"Yabusakadenai", was definitely not from the traditional Japanese genre. No, this was a rockin' boogie stomp by Takaaki and his partner Noritake Kinashi（木梨憲武）. Written and composed by Yasushi Akimoto（秋元康）with arrangement by Akira Mitake（見岳章）, I couldn't find the lyrics but from what I could hear, I don't think I can really describe the situation in a family-oriented blog, but let's say that Nori was feeling really randy.
As for the translation of the title, I found out that there had been an original meaning of doing something with gusto but in recent years, that meaning of yabusakadenai has been considerably watered down to mean "Well, I'm not opposed to doing it, but...", and apparently it was jargon within the business world. In any case, "Yabusakadenai" reached No. 2 on the Oricon weeklies and ended up as the No. 59-ranked single of the year. The song was also used as the theme for the TBS drama (well, comedy really) "O-Bocchama ni wa Wakarumai!"（お坊っチャマにはわかるまい!...You Wouldn't Understand, Kid!）which starred the Tunnels.
I chose this single because I had never heard of Mayumi Dan（壇まゆみ）before and the arrangement of Side A grabbed my ears. Her J-Wiki profile has her listed as a former actress who had been born Mayumi Mitome（三留真由美）in Fukuoka City in 1962. She wanted to become a thespian and started out her entertainment career as a campaign girl for a local bank while in high school. Then her first foray into acting came about from an appearance on a NHK historical drama in 1980.
Her dip into singing was just that...a mere dip. She only released two singles; her debut single in 1981 was a cover of The Four Saints'（フォー・セインツ）"Chiisana Nikki"（小さな日記...A Little Diary）. Then later on in the year, her second and final single,"Say You Love Me" was released. Considering how short her singing career was, I probably wouldn't put her in the aidoru category even though her singing ability had me tempted me to do so. As well, "Say You Love Me" which was written by Akira Mitake（見岳章）and composed/arranged by Akira Inoue（井上鑑）has that sing-songy aidoru feeling although as I mentioned off the top, the arrangement with that country-sounding guitar and the way that the intro and outro go were enough for me to get my attention. At 4:15 is the B-side"Hatsukoi Epilogue" (First Love Epilogue) which was also handled by the Double Akira. Slightly sprightly and tropical, Dan's vocals fairly fly lightly over the ocean.
Dan retired from show business in 1989 and afterwards, she's been very busy by first starting out designing children's products with one company and then setting up her own. She's also gotten into corporate training, counseling and being a representative of the local Kyushu Actors' Club. As of now, her name has been Eri Ishimaru（石丸愛梨）.
Can't say that I have ever been to Kanazawa City in Ishikawa Prefecture although I've heard all about it. My impression was that it was a resort city but perhaps I mistook it for Karuizawa（軽井沢）. However, Kanazawa is famous for having one of Japan's Three Great Gardens, Kenroku-en（兼六園）which was a place for which I once had a translation assignment years ago, and I've read on Wikipedia that it's famous for its traditional architecture.
Not sure what weather conditions are like in Kanazawa in the fall but Onyanko Club（おニャン子クラブ）aidoru-turned-enka singer Sanae Jounouchi（城之内早苗）had her feelings about the city through her "Kanazawa no Ame" (Kanazawa Rain) which was released as a single in October 1987. Marcos V. was kind enough to first open the Jounouchi file on "Kayo Kyoku Plus" with her first single"Ajisaibashi" (あじさい橋) and then I followed up with her second single"Ryuuhyou no Tegami"（流氷の手紙）.
So I figured that it was natural to come up with her third single, "Kanazawa no Ame". Created by the same songwriters behind her debut single, lyricist Yasushi Akimoto（秋元康）and composer/arranger Akira Mitake（見岳章）, I have to echo in a way what my friend Marcos said about "Ajisaibashi" in that this particular outing by Jounouchi doesn't come across as the prototypical enka tune. For the lack of a better description, it sounds airy and perhaps even somewhat mystical thanks to how those traditional instruments are used. The story behind the song uses the oft-used trope of post-romantic breakup travel with the poor lass riding alone on that train which stops at Karuizawa Station but the way it sounds, it could have been made as a theme tune for "Kimetsu no Yaiba"（鬼滅の刃...Demon Slayer）. Personally speaking, it even feels like some of that languid Fashion Music even got into Mitake's arrangement.
I'm not sure how common it was for an aidoru to make that shift from teenybopper music to serious enka back in the 1980s, but I have to say that Jounouchi was off to a solid start. Nope, her voice obviously didn't have the gravitas of veteran enka singers, but her delivery of "Kanazawa no Ame" can make me forget that she was ever an aidoru.
The comedic duo Tunnels（とんねるず）do have their representation on "Kayo Kyoku Plus" although some of their early stuff was taking the piss out of enka/Mood Kayo, and they did have a huge hit out of "Nasakenee"（情けねえ）in 1991. But basically, I've always seen them more as one of the most anarchic pairs in the geinokai rather than singers.
Last night, I was watching the 8th-anniversary special of "The Best 10"（ザ・ベストテン）from 1986 and one of the highlight scenes that the show put up was Tunnels' onstage rendition of "Ikki!"(Chug-A-Lug). I then realized that after all of those other Tunnels' songs on KKP, I had totally forgotten to put this one up. For one thing, Takaaki Ishibashi and Noritake Kinashi（石橋貴明・木梨憲武）had placed their names into eternal showbiz notoriety very early in their careers due to one incident on live TV.
To explain, the nutty guys were performing "Ikki!" on the January 19th 1985 broadcast of "All-Night Fuji"（オールナイトフジ）, and Taka-chan got a little carried away with his prancing about on set. He started tugging on a TV camera simply to horse about...only for him to bring the entire thing crashing onto the floor to everyone's shock. Now I used to watch the guys go crazy on their own show and everywhere else, so nothing fazed them but the faces that I saw on Taka-chan and Nori when they witnessed several of the production staff struggle to hoist up zillions of yen of equipment told me that even they were thinking "OMG! What the heck did we just do?!".
I wouldn't be surprised if the two had wondered whether their time in the limelight was at an end and I'm sure that they got the dressing down of their lives after the broadcast. Even in the video above, the Tunnels admitted that they'd gotten the glare of death from the cameraman at the time of the incident. But obviously, they escaped a major bullet and went on to have a long and very successful career.
Well, at the very least, their "Ikki!" got the best promotion ever. After all, as the saying goes, any promotion is good promotion. The song was actually Tunnels' first bona fide single from December 1984 although they had put out a couple of demo songs beforehand, and the timing couldn't have been better since it was coming on the cusp of the annual bonenkai（忘年会...year-end party） season when some major drinking takes place.
During any performances on TV, Tunnels and their backing dancers showed up as punk high school students in the formation of the school cheerleading club but the lyrics by Yasushi Akimoto（秋元康）were all about enjoying copious amounts of alcohol and food, presumably at the local izakaya. Knowing some of the middle-aged mothers that I used to teach, they were probably far from happy to have this connection between high school kids and drinking, but these are the Tunnels that we are talking about.
The music was made and arranged by Akira Mitake（見岳章）. As it starts out sounding like "Dance on Your Knees" by Hall & Oates, it's mostly a bass synthesizer and other keyboards providing some minimal existence (aside from some parodic AOR in the middle) while Taka and Nori have fun with the vocals, especially the latter guy who sounds like he owns a bar in Shinjuku Ni-chome. With all behind this song, "Ikki!" made it up to No. 19 on Oricon.
The very first song that I had ever heard from City Pop/J-AOR crooner Junichi Inagaki（稲垣潤一）was "Natsu no Claxon", this very relaxing end-of-summer ballad that I saw performed by the Sendai-born singer-songwriter on an early morning episode of Fuji-TV's"19xx" while I was shivering in my futon in snowbound Gunma Prefecture. Listening to this one was enough for me to get my first Inagaki album which turned out to be "TRANSIT", his 2-CD BEST compilation released in December 1990. "TRANSIT" was actually his 6th collection of his best stuff and it hit No. 7 on the Oricon weeklies.
Seeing that cover of him in the cool pale clothing and the tasteful silhouette, I figured that Inagaki was going to be about the classy urban contemporary. But as I gradually discovered over repeated playings of the discs, within that particular genre, the singer touched upon a number of influences whether it be Doobie Bros. AOR, some light doo-wop or down-home City Pop.
In any case, because of the number of total tracks involved, I've decided to do this first entry for "TRANSIT" by focusing on the entries for Disc 1 only today. Several of those have already gotten their own articles so you can click on the links. By the way, all of the tracks featured here were arranged by Akira Inoue（井上鑑）.
First off is "Aoi Tsuioku" (Blue Recollections) which was the B-side to Inagaki's 3rd single"Dramatic Rain" released in October 1982. Written by Reiko Yukawa（湯川れい子）and composed by Akira Mitake（見岳章）, as the title hints, it's a minor-key mid-tempo song about picking up the pieces after a breakup and realizing that there so many pieces remaining on the wet ground. It's got all of the feeling of a modern film noir in 1980s Tokyo but there is one passage near the end which actually shows a melodic beam of light shining in through the clouds for some reason. "Aoi Tsuioku" also ended up on Inagaki's debut album"246:3AM".
The opening notes for "Getsuyoubi ni wa Bara wo" (Monday Rose) struck me as being so Boz Scaggs or Bobby Caldwell. Also a track from "246:3AM", this is a gentle ballad over what seems to be a disagreement in the philosophy of love with one believing that love is nothing but a fleeting little game while the other feels that their relationship should be taken with the seriousness it needs. With lyrics by Yoshiaki Sagara（さがらよしあき）and music by Toyonobu Ito（伊藤豊昇）, I especially like the part near the end where Inagaki stretches out the title phrase of "Monday Rose".
"MARIA" is West Coast AOR concocted by lyricist Masao Urino（売野政男）and composer Tetsuji Hayashi（林哲司）and the message is clear as a bell...a guy is in love with a lass named Maria. Hopefully the lucky fellow and Maria are in that convertible bombing down the Ventura Freeway. "MARIA" was a track on Inagaki's 1983 3rd album"J.I.".
When I hear "Natsu no Yukue"(Summer Whereabouts) which followed "MARIA" on "J.I." and is the B-side to "Long Version", I gather that Inagaki had wanted to infuse some of that 1950s/1960s balladry into the music, thereby joining the likes of singers like Mariya Takeuchi（竹内まりや）. Once again, that oft-traveled theme of the end of summer meaning the end of romance is parlayed again as a man stands alone at the countryside cottage after his paramour has gone back home to the city. Maybe they'll have that tryst again next year or maybe not. AKB48 Svengali and lyricist Yasushi Akimoto（秋元康）provided the words while Kazuhiko Matsuo（松尾一彦）came up with the sweetly lilting melody.
This time, it was Akimoto and Hayashi working together to create "Iidasenakute" (Can't Say It) for "J.I.". A breakup doesn't sound much more bittersweet than this one, and with the shimmering strings and the electric guitar solo working with Inagaki's high-toned and resonant vocals, I wouldn't be tremendously surprised if there were quite a few fans who grabbed the nearest box of Kleenex. There are also some similarities between this one and "Long After Midnight".
From Inagaki's May 1984 4th album"Personally" comes "Kanashiki Diamond Ring" (Melancholy Diamond Ring) which has the singer returning to some of that old-fashioned vocal group pop. This song starts off the album and though it can be called bittersweet, there is more of the sweet rather than the bitter in this one written by Urino and composed by Hayashi. A man returns to his hometown to see an old flame getting married to another fellow and the wedding has him thinking about opportunities lost but well wishes given out all the same.
I really love the epic intro and the rich piano behind "Dare ga Tame ni..." (For Whom...) as Inagaki takes on a slightly more measured delivery and he sings about a happy relationship going through the usual things before the vows are taken. Also, a track on "Personally", Sagara was the lyricist with Hayashi on music. I think among the ones that I've covered on this Disc 1, "Dare ga Tame ni..." is about as straight-ahead pop as I've heard so far.
But then we come to "J no Kanojo" (J's Girl) which is an upbeat pop number which launches his May 1985 5th album"No Strings". In fact, there is one frantic instrumental bridge that almost takes things into New Wave...and maybe a bit of Dire Straits thanks to the guitar. However, generally speaking, this is a good-time pop tune about having some risky thoughts for J's girl on the dance floor. I have no idea who this J is. Is it Junichi himself or is it someone with a scarier name like Jaws or Jack the Knife? It was lyricist Akimoto and composer Yasuhiro Kido（木戸やすひろ）on this one.
(I'm sorry but the video has been taken down.)
At 1:04:40, there is "Traces" which ends Disc 1 on "TRANSIT". It is not only the B-side to Inagaki's April 1987 11th single"Omoide no Beach Club"（思い出のビーチクラブ...Beach Club of My Memories）, but it's a cover of the original 1968 ballad by the American band Classics IV that ended up becoming its biggest hit.
Hopefully I'll get Disc 2up and running sometime in August.
I've been watching "WandaVision" over the past few weeks and although the series is now over with all of the spoilers thrown out there and such, the show, now that I can watch full episodes, is still very enjoyable. And I'm not even binge-watching; I am viewing one episode per week as originally shown so I've just completed Episode 3 when Wanda and Vision are in the 1970s sitcom world. The jokes are appropriately cornball and as someone who grew up seeing the sitcoms that "WandaVision" has been lovingly parodying, it's been great fun admiring the set design and fashion. Plus, to see the two main characters being able to show themselves much more fully has been good fun especially when they were more in the role of supporting cast in the main Marvel movies.
Of course, the fly in the ointment has been Agatha Harkness all along, and her emergence as the ultimate (?) baddie in the show was punctuated with her own theme song. It was a wonderful riff on the jazzier version of "The Munsters" theme song, the version that I've always preferred.
In a way, Kathryn Hahn's portrayal of Agnes/Agatha comes to mind when I listen to this particular song by chanteuse Miki Hirayama（平山みき）, "Joyū Ni Narenai" (I'm No Actress) from her November 1987 album"Chess". The lyrics by Ren Takayanagi（高柳恋）depict a rather wicked and manipulative woman who seems to have had her cover blown but hasn't regretted one sin in the big bad city. The only thing missing is the cackle that Agatha burst out after admitting to killing Sparky.
The melody by Akira Mitake（見岳章）is of that jazzy sophisti-pop of the caviar-and-champagne variety that I've often mentioned for the latter half of the 1980s. Moreover, the synth bass is good and boppy against the slick horns, and the former instrument reminds me of the material from Matt Bianco. I'm glad that I could write about Hirayama again "just" nine months after my last article on her, "Joudan janai Asa"（冗談じゃない朝）, which is also included in "Chess", because there were a good eight years between that article and the very first article that I had written about her.
Anyways, looking forward to Episode 4 of "WandaVision" next week.
Yesterday,
looking at Oricon’s 1986 Top 100 hits, I was surprised to see how many
female aidoru tunes were in the list – I counted nothing less than 54 songs. In
other words, half of the list was occupied by female aidoru tunes, leaving the
other half to Enka singers, Rock bands, City Pop artists, male aidoru
singers/groups, among other genres of Japanese popular music we could add here.
Apart
from some usual Akina Nakamori (中森明菜), Kyoko Koizumi (小泉今日子) or Miho Nakayama’s (中山美穂) hits (to name a few big aidoru from
the time), the huge majority of aidoru singers in 1986’s list were members of
the big group Onyanko Club (おニャン子クラブ)
going solo or being divided into subunits. For the critics, it was probably a
very similar nightmare to what happens with AKB48, its subunits and sister
groups nowadays, and we can thank – or blame – the same man, Yasushi Akimoto (秋元康), for both phenomena.
Among
the many singles released by Onyanko Club’s members in this particular year, I was able to
discover an interesting and unusual one: “Ajisaibashi” by Sanae Jounouchi (城之内早苗).
Released
in June 1986 as Sanae Jounouchi’s debut single, “Ajisaibashi” was meant to be an enka song. It somehow succeeds, but I find the vocals really light in this one,
if compared to the usual vibrato-heavy and more traditional enkasinging style. Maybe
Sanae was still learning how to sing enka in a more mature way (I still have to
listen to her more recent singles), but “Ajisaibashi” ends sounding more like an
usual ballad with a warm melody and just some enka flourishes in the
arrangement. In the end, it was probably due to this “light way of performing
enka” that I liked the song so much.
Here’s
Sanae singing “Ajisaibashi” in a more recent performance.
“Ajisaibashi” reached #1 on the Oricon chart, selling 155,000 copies.
Lyrics were written by Yasushi Akimoto, while music and arrangement were done
by Akira Mitake (見岳章).
Those wild n' crazy guys! Takaaki Ishibashi and Noritake Kinashi（石橋貴明・木梨憲武） were the reasons for my must-see TV on Fuji-TV on Thursday nights when I was living in Gunma. I would always have the telly on Channel 8 at 9 p.m. to see what limits the Tunnels（とんねるず） would push and often burst through on their flagship program, "Tunnels no Mina-san no Okage Desu"（とんねるずのみなさんのおかげです...The Tunnels' Thanks to Everyone）. No matter what was put on the screen that night: movie parody, high school sketch, game show, anything...I knew that the two nutbars would have me laughing my guts out while my lower jaw was firmly planted into the floor. I cannot really explain some of their past antics in words, but let's say this; prime time nudity was not an issue for these guys.
But even before then, the Tunnels were already making their marks as the wild n' crazy comedic duo for years, and once in a while, they would also cut records. JTM has already given his account of the boys' take on Mood Kayo via "Ame no Nishi-Azabu"（雨の西麻布）. Well, the song did so well that they and songwriters Yasushi Akimoto and Akira Mitake（秋元康・見岳章） did another round and came up with.... the title of my blog! Yep, "Kayo Kyoku" was the title, and it was released in January 1986.
The lyrics have the guys pining for their favourite Ginza club hostess, Achako. In addition, there were the other genre tropes of Takaaki and Noritake giving their introductions in humble and hushed tones, the background chorus and the enka arrangement. The Tunnels may have been poking fun at Showa-era music, but I think they were good enough that they could've made a fairly decent living at being kayo kyoku balladeers. And in fact, the listeners thought so too. "Kayo Kyoku" did even better on the Oricon charts than "Ame no Nishi-Azabu" by getting as high as No. 2. And the Tunnels managed to win a few special awards, including one from The Ginza Music Festival sponsored by the radio station Nippon Broadcasting System.
Before ウッチャンナンチャン and ダウンタウン, the reigning "bad boys" of お笑/Owarai comedy teams was the とんねるず/TUNNELS. During the mid-80s, the comedy duo of 石橋貴明/Ishibashi Takaaki and 木梨憲武/Kinashi Noritake were everywhere from CMs, to TV variety programs to print ads and radio programs etc. During their prime, タカさん and ノリさん hosted almost a dozen TV variety programs from the teen idol program 「夕やけニャンニャン」, to the dating game formatted 「ねるとん紅鯨団」, to the late night variety show 「オールナイトフジ」.
The inspiration for their unique name was said to come from the initials of their first names 'T' and 'N' as well as from 60s comedy teams like 脱線トリオ and てんぷくトリオ.
Surprisingly, unlike some of their idols like ツービート (ビートたけし & ビートきよし) タカさん and ノリさん didn't start out as お笑いタレント but instead were more like standup comedians specializing in 一発ギャグ/Ippatsu Gag and モノマネ impersonations. Friends from high school, they both attended 帝京高等学校/Teikyo High School where they both played team sports (タカさん played on the baseball team while ノリさん was on the school's soccer team).
They got their first big break in 1982 when they were invited to compete in the 「お笑いスター誕生!!」/Owarai Star Tanjou talent show. While they didn't take the first prize, they did win a special recognition award. In 1982 they would compete again and place in the Grand Prix. They won special recognition again in 1983.
With their youthful looks, boyish charm, hip style and tall lanky frames they soon became a big hit with audiences especially female fans. Their comedy bordered on the crude and juvenile silly but their personalities were so infectious that young audiences identified with them.
It was not long that they soon experimented with singing. The above 雨の西麻布/Ame No Nishiazabu is probably their biggest hit. While the song seems to be a mocking sendup of weepy, melodramatic 演歌/Enka songs, it actually has a fairly impressive pedigree. It was composed by 見岳章/Mitake Akira who composed "Queen of Enka" 美空ひばり/Misori Hibari's biggest signature song 川の流れのように/Kawa No Nagare No Yo Ni. Misori Hibari was said to have also been good friends of the duo having been introduced to them through her son who was a fan. In the song, タカさん and ノリさん exclaim 「紅白を狙います」 half-jokingly but in reality were very serious about possibly making an appearance on the famed program. They got their wish as not only did they appear on NHK's 「紅白歌合戦」 for that year but their song also placed No. 1 on the 日本テレビ ザ・トップテン TV show and No. 2 on rival TBS' ザ・ベストテン TVshow. The song also reached No. 5 on the オリコン/Oricon charts and won the TUNNELS best new artist awards at both the 「全日本有線放送大賞」 and 「日本有線大賞」 award shows.
They would release several other songs in the subsequent years like 歌謡曲 (1986), YAZAWA (1988) and ガラガラヘビがやってくる (1992).
As other younger お笑 teams began to become more popular, the TUNNELSscaled back their appearances and focused on just a few regular variety programs and TV shows as well as various CMs.
In 2008, the duo would again tackle the world of music this time teaming up with 氣志團/Kishindan's flamboyant lead singer 綾小路翔/Ayanokoji Sho (otherwise know as DJ OZMA) to form the group 矢島美容室/Yazima Biyo Shitsu. In typical Tunnels fashion, タカさん and ノリさん would appear in drag in their "alternate" personalities of ストロベリ ー・カメリア・ヤジマ/Strawberry Camellia Yazima and マーガレット・カメリア・ヤジマ/Margaret Camellia Yazima complete with elaborate fake bios for themselves. Surprisingly (and perhaps even in a scary way) DJ OZMA's character of ナオミ・カメリア・ヤジマ/Naomi Camellia Yazima looks the most femine/convincing of the trio.
Their single ニホンノミカタ -ネバダカラキマシタ- would be a minor hit. The popularity of the group even spawned a movie「矢島美容室 THE MOVIE ～夢をつかまネバダ～」/Yajima Biyō Shitsu THE MOVIE ~Yume o Tsukama Nebada~
I'm not a big fan of お笑 and really don't quite understand it's appealin Japan. Growing up watching Laurel & Hardy, Abbot & Costello, Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis, the Japanese お笑 duos routines and comedy
sketches seem almost too silly and juvenile consisting mainly of shock and insult humor, word play humor and situational comentary. These guys must be doing something right however as they have huge followings and many have often gone on to become major stars. They even get huge female followings. タカさん and ノリさん scored pretty well in this department with タカさん marrying gorgeous model/actress 鈴木保奈美/Suzuki Honami and ノリさん marrying 80s J-Dorama princess pretty 安田成美/Yasuda Narumi.
Here's a clip of one of their regular appearances on 「オールナイトフジ」 TV variety program
And here they are with DJ OZMA in full drag as 矢島美容室
.JPG)
