Jun Shibata -- Ryokataomoi（両片想い）

 

We're back on Hump Day today with all of the fatigue that a Wednesday would convey. Plus, over here, there's a good chance that we'll be buffeted with high winds possibly leading to power outages and then some flurries tomorrow. Not exactly an ideal forecast although as I look out my window, things are looking pretty sunny but the weather folks warned us that that would be a mere prelude to the maelstrom.

So, let us start off this round of KKP with something a little mellow and healing. I bring to you singer-songwriter Jun Shibata's（柴田淳）"Ryokataomoi" from her September 2017 11th album "Watashi wa Shiawase"（私は幸せ...I am Happy）. I've heard of the term "ryo" and "kataomoi" but never brought together like this and I guess it could mean "Unrequited Love At Both Ends". I gather that the two people involved have feelings for each other but neither person is aware of the other's emotions and they are too bashful to take that risk.

The ironic bittersweetness aside, "Ryokataomoi" is a sweet ballad with a gently rolling piano and tender strings leading the way. There's almost something nostalgic about the arrangement, and I don't just mean that it's almost a decade old. The overall feeling could even go as far back at the 1970s. Anyways, the album peaked at No. 7 on Oricon.

Jun Shibata -- Ame（雨）

 

The following song was something that I first heard on the "Weather Music" segment that's become part of the Japan "Weathernews" broadcasts, and apparently the commenters under the YouTube video have echoed the same sentiment.

Pop singer-songwriter Jun Shibata（柴田淳）is someone that I have written about before when she recorded a cover of Hi-Fi Set's（ハイ・ファイ・セット）"Sky Restaurant"（スカイレストラン）for her 2012 compilation album "Cover '70s". There isn't a lot of information on her J-Wiki file aside from her discography (and that she's been called The Diva of the Blogs due to her positive writings online) but her website has been more forthcoming. Born and raised in Tokyo in 1976, she studied piano when she was three years old and got interested in J-Pop while in high school with her debut in 2001.

Well, that song that got featured on "Weathernews" was "Ame" (Rain) which actually came out on her 7th album from November 2009, "Ghostwriter"（ゴーストライター）. A non-single track, it probably slipped under the radar of anyone who hadn't already been a Shibata fan, but now that it's gotten its second look on a weather forecast, it seems to have gained some new fans. Starting off with an indies pop vibe, "Ame" involves a man who is walking in the rain, presumably without any umbrella as a way to punish himself over losing the love of his life. It's a laidback tune which is beautifully sung by Shibata and is definitely something to be heard while sipping some chamomile tea against a window spattered by the titular precipitation. "Ghostwriter" hit No. 9 on Oricon.

Yumi Seino/Jun Shibata -- Sky Restaurant（スカイレストラン）

Back in 2013, nikala was nice enough to write about one of her favourite tunes, "Sky Restaurant" by vocal group Hi-Fi Set（ハイ・ファイ・セット）which has ended up becoming a standard number in the kayo genre. No surprise there since it was written by Yumi Arai（荒井由実）and composed by Kunihiko Murai（村井邦彦）. Especially back in the 1970s and 1980s, it just seemed that anything whipped up by Yuming（ユーミン）was gold. Listening to the original version, there seemed to be that languid and luxurious feeling of what folks could aspire to in the days of the Economic Miracle. Furthermore, as nikala also mentioned, there was that famous "Pa pa-pa pa-pa-pa" by Junko Yamamoto（山本潤子）, the main vocalist for Hi-Fi Set, which could set off any nostalgia nerves.

As I said, "Sky Restaurant" has become a standard so I just wanted to reveal a couple of the covers done by other singers since it was first released back in 1975. Yumi Seino（清野由美）caught my attention almost a year ago as this obscure City Pop singer so I covered her "Katamuku"（傾く）from her 1983 album "Continental". She also did a splendid cover of the Hi-Fi Set classic for an earlier album, her 2nd titled "Natural Woman" from 1981 according to the Hip Tank Records website. Apparently, the album has been considered to be one of the representative City Pop releases.

Naturally, Seino's "Sky Restaurant" is less languid and slightly bouncier/breezier although the mood is still very much that of a good expensive dinner at the top of the Keio Plaza Hotel in Shinjuku (I'll have my steak au poivre medium-rare, s'il vous plait). Plus, the City Pop tropes are in there with the electric guitar and the saxophone. And I swear that the singer sounds a whole lot like another City Pop princess, Miki Matsubara（松原みき）, performing this one.

Jun Shibata（柴田淳）is a singer-songwriter that I've heard about during my years in Japan but never covered on the blog. I will have to rectify that somehow. From what I know, she's usually in the J-Pop field but in the video above, she gives a nice jazz performance of "Sky Restaurant". Her version pops up in an album of covers that she recorded back in 2012 titled "Cover '70s" which peaked at No. 7 on Oricon.

No matter what the arrangement, though, "Sky Restaurant" is quite the masterpiece.