Gerald Fried -- The Ritual/Ancient Battle/2nd Kroykah (aka "Star Trek" Fight Music)

Wikimedia Commons

Considering that I've become a lapsed Trekkie in recent years, I completely forgot that tomorrow will be 60 years to the day since the very first "Star Trek" episode was televised on NBC. 

It was the episode "Man Trap" that started the whole ball rolling on September 8th 1966...in America. But the crazy thing I found out very recently was that Canada had actually cut to the chase by broadcasting "Man Trap" two days earlier on September 6th on CTV at 7:30 pm. That's a little early in the evening to be showing a man-killing salt vampire but hey, maybe Gene Roddenberry was feeling a bit daring.

It is a holiday Monday so it is time for a special Reminiscings of Youth but several years previously, I already posted an article on Alexander Courage's original theme for "Star Trek" so I was kinda knocking my head about what I could do to pay further tribute to the series. And then, an idea struck me.💡

On September 15th 1967, the second season began with "Amok Time", the episode where we first got a taste of Mr. Spock's culture including the ultimate example of Vulcan randiness, pon farr. It all climaxes (sorry, pun intended...haha) with a battle to the death between Spock and Captain Kirk. I always love a good battle with a lirpa and an ahn-woon.

Also, accompanying the fight was composer Gerald Fried's music that may rival Courage's theme as the most recognized piece of music from "Star Trek" even for non-Trekkies. Titled officially as "The Ritual/Ancient Battle/2nd Kroykah", I'd just like to call it the "Star Trek" fight music. It kinda has that atmosphere of gladiator games and no-holds-barred hand-to-hand combat with the dissonant horns and rapid-fire percussion. No wonder it was used for a lot of other fight scenes in the show since.

I gained quite the smile when I heard the fight music being used again on one episode of the current series "Strange New Worlds" a few seasons ago.

Gerald Fried (February 13, 1928 – February 17, 2023) was a composer and conductor who created scores for many TV shows and movies from the 1950s to the 2010s, and I read on his Wikipedia file, he provided music for the original "Mission: Impossible" TV series, "Gilligan's Island", "My Three Sons", etc. So, basically I had plenty of Fried (aural) food even before I was five years old. Anyways, LLAP!

By Gage Skidmore via Wikimedia Commons

So, what else was coming out of Japan in September 1967? Well, I've got two singles that got released around that time.

Masayoshi Tsuruoka & Tokyo Romantica -- Otaru no Hito yo （小樽のひとよ）

The Tigers -- Mona Lisa no Hohoemi（モナリザの微笑）

Hayabusa -- Yogiri no Serenade（夜霧のセレナーデ）

 

I'm not quite sure what the rationale behind it is, but it's a unique thing within the JR Shinkansen lines for different Bullet Trains to link up (in this case above, the green Hayabusa and the red Komachi) and travel together from one station to another after which they decouple with each going in other directions. Then they loop back and link up once more and head back down. Well, in the last few months, there have been some sudden and unexpected decouplings of these trains while en route which have snarled schedules all over the place and even made the top spot on the news. Hopefully, the problem is resolved as soon as possible.

As I mentioned in the last article that I put up for the singing group Hayabusa（はやぶさ）, even they had a decoupling of sorts when one of the former trio, Shouya（ショウヤ）, left in 2018 due to health reasons. So since then, it's been just Hikaru（ヒカル）and Yamato（ヤマト）holding the kayo kyoku fort.

On a recent edition of "Shin BS Nihon no Uta"（新・BS日本のうた ）, Hayabusa appeared to perform their latest single from December 2024, "Yogiri no Serenade" (Night Fog Serenade). Written by Sho Asakura（朝倉翔）and composed by Masayoshi Tsuruoka（鶴岡雅義）from Tokyo Romantica（東京ロマンチカ）fame, it's a classic Mood Kayo right down to the Spanish guitar and the mournful backing chorus. It almost sounds like the song materialized right from the 1960s into the 2020s.

Johnny Williams -- Lost in Space (2nd Theme)

 

Years ago, when I was doing my usual hemispheric voyage between Tokyo and Toronto, I opted to watch one of the offered choices for movies on a plane. Of course, to make me forget that I was flying in a pressurized tin can thousands of metres above the land and sea, I opted to catch a movie that involved a lot of flying...mind you in outer space. That movie was the 1998 redux of the old TV series "Lost in Space" starring the late John Hurt and Gary Oldman. I had a basic idea of what the original 1960s show (1965-1968) was all about but unlike another sci-fi franchise from that decade, "Star Trek", I never became a fan although I was aware of the Robot and the goofily villainous Dr. Smith. The movie did have its charms including a new Robot and some nice effects, but it was just a timewaster with the characters spewing technobabble that appeared to have been lifted straight from "Star Trek".

It says something when the really good part of the movie is the ending credits with a pretty kickass theme by electronica band Apollo 440. At the time, I just had no idea that the group had based it on the second theme song for the original series. 

Listening to both the first and second theme songs, yeah, I agree that the latter was the better one for being more upbeat and adventurous. It was used for the third and final season of "Lost in Space" from September 1967, and it's a nice touch to have that visual countdown at the beginning of each episode of Season 3 just to add to the excitement. To add to the epic nature of this story, both themes were composed by one Johnny Williams (cool, daddy-o!), aka master movie soundtrack maker John Williams.

Of course, Williams is already on the blog for "Star Wars" and I noted in that ROY article that the music legend had already been making his mark in the industry during the 1960s, but at the time, I hadn't really realized that the man who was also behind the great music behind "Superman", "Indiana Jones", "Close Encounters of the Third Kind", etc. had a decade previously come up with cool television theme tunes for those pulpy sci-fi shows including "Land of the Giants" and "Lost in Space". It must have been great training for Williams because even back then, those TV themes were also thrilling blood-pumpers.

I have to admit though that as much as I discovered this Williams theme via an electronica band cover decades later, the same goes with "Star Wars". Months before I finally got to listen to the original overture, I'd first discovered that movie's theme from the disco cover by Meco, so I gather that I will have to talk about disco "Star Wars" in a future ROY.

Anyways, I could only find one single in Japan that was released in the same month that the newer and more improved "Lost in Space" theme made its presence known. 

Masayoshi Tsuruoka & Tokyo Romantica -- Otaru no Hito yo （小樽のひとよ）

Hayabusa -- Akasaka Rainy Night（赤坂レイニー・ナイト）

 

Although I have been to the tony district of Akasaka in Tokyo a number of times, nighttime visits were pretty rare for me (maybe two or three times?). For one thing, going there at night often meant dining and drinking at some expensive joints, something that I really couldn't afford on a teacher's salary. Still walking in Akasaka past sunset gives that feeling of being in a cool and well-to-do district as an alternative to Ginza. Incidentally, giving credit where credit is due, the above video has been provided by the YouTube channel Tokyo Night District.

Just my two pennies here, but I think when it comes to the Mood Kayo genre, there are a couple of popular tropes: one being rain and another being Akasaka. Mood Kayo is seen as the urban cousin to enka with a lot of bars and clubs in its songs, so Akasaka is just the place for that, and for some reason, rain adds to the atmosphere or the mood. Therefore, I guess it was a done deal that a song titled "Akasaka Rainy Night" would be created. After all, we've had songs such as "Una Sera di Tokyo"（ウナ・セラ・ディ東京）and "Ame no Akasaka"（雨の赤坂）.

In any case, "Akasaka Rainy Night" is a February 2024 single by the kayo kyoku group Hayabusa（はやぶさ）that was released just yesterday, and I saw it performed on the NHK program "Hayauta"（はやウタ）which is why I'm writing about it here. Written by Naoki Yasuoka（保岡直樹）and composed by Masayoshi Tsuruoka（鶴岡雅義）of Tokyo Romantica（東京ロマンチカ）, it sounds like a classic Mood Kayo with that Latin guitar plucking and harmonies by the duo's Hikaru（ヒカル）and Yamato（ヤマト）. At the same time, though, I can also pick up on some swinging French jazz lurking under the main melody.

At first impression, I thought that Yasuoka's lyrics would depict another tale of heartbreak in the big sad city, especially with all that rain. However, the words don't really show that, instead illustrating some sort of rendezvous happening in Akasaka while the precipitation is happening outside. Well, the weather may be cold and wet outside but at least the love is keeping them warm. 

I first wrote about Hayabusa back in 2017 with their "Romantic Tokyo"（ロマンティック東京）. At the time, they were a trio but  Shouya（ショウヤ）left the group in 2018 for health reasons.

Masayoshi Tsuruoka & Tokyo Romantica -- Buenos Noches Tokyo（ブェナス・ノーチェス東京）

 

First off, my congratulations to Lionel Messi and the Argentinian team for winning it all at the World Cup earlier today. In addition, I also give my thanks to both Argentina and France for what could have been the best finale to a World Cup ever witnessed, and I'm not usually a soccer fan.

In tribute, I was actually looking all over YouTube for a kayo kyoku that would have something to do with Argentina or Buenos Aires, but I couldn't find anything. I wasn't even able to track down a tango kayo. Eventually, though, I could find "Buenos Noches Tokyo" (Good Evening Tokyo) by Mood Kayo group Masayoshi Tsuruoka & Tokyo Romantica（鶴岡雅義と東京ロマンチカ）, just because of the Spanish used in the title; my apologies but that was the best that I could do under the circumstances. I realize that it has nothing to do with Argentina or soccer.

Still, Argentinian nationals living in the Tokyo area probably did or do have the need to celebrate their nation's win (although the final game was held overnight according to Japan Standard Time), much like the couple in "Buenos Noches Tokyo". The pair are painting the night red in all of the fun areas of Akasaka, Aoyama and Shinjuku. I wouldn't think that either of the lovebirds would be carrying credit cards back in those old days; cold hard yen was probably stuffed solid in their wallets.

"Buenos Noches Tokyo" was the follow-up single to Tokyo Romantica's September 1967 hit, "Otaru no Hito yo" （小樽のひとよ）, and this particular record was released just a couple of months later in November. As was the case with "Otaru no Hito yo", band leader Tsuruoka was behind the bouncy Latin melody while Mitsuo Ikeda（池田充男）took care of the lyrics for "Buenos Noches Tokyo" with Masato Sanjo（三条正人）as the vocalist.

Lalo Schifrin -- Theme from "Mannix"

 

First off, allow me to wish everyone in the United States, including friends there such as Larry Chan, JTM, Rocket Brown of "Come Along Radio" and Scott of "Holly Jolly X'masu" a Happy Thanksgiving today. Hopefully, you're enjoying some of that scrumptious food and good company in some of the weather that we in Toronto have been having: not too brisk but with a good amount of sun.

For this week's Reminiscings of Youth (but once again, I should actually say Reminiscings of Toddlerhood), I'm going to go with the legendary Argentinian-American composer Lalo Schifrin. I call him thusly because I don't know of too many composers who can whip up themes that even a kid in diapers could get into and enjoy for decades upon decades. Schifrin will always be known for coming up with the theme for "Mission: Impossible" which is cool, jazzy, urgent, sneaky and suspenseful.

However, Schifrin also came up with a theme song that is probably only known to a far smaller demographic which was around in the middle of the 20th century in North America. The theme was for a long-running detective series on CBS called "Mannix", and not only did it share the same TV network and theme composer as "Mission: Impossible", but "Mannix" was also created by the mastermind behind the spy show, Bruce Geller. As much as I remember the opening credits for "Mission: Impossible" with the lit fuse and then the flashes of upcoming scenes for the episode, I also fondly recall the opening sequence for "Mannix" in which all these different frames of tough guy private eye Joe Mannix (portrayed by Mike Connors) pop up on the screen showing different aspects of him (he can duke it out with the bad guys, romance the women, and burn his fingers on toast!). My only question was what was he running from on that highway bridge? Doesn't matter...it looked cool.

One thing that I wouldn't realize until I was well into my university years (the show had already ended some ten years before) was that the premise of "Mannix" was slightly different in Season 1 when it premiered in September 1967. Joe was the old-school detective who was working for a company whose staff boasted resolved cases via computer, and he had to work under supposedly stodgy Lew Wickersham played by veteran character actor Joseph Campanella. Mannix was the one piece of grit in the oyster that was the Intertect Detective Agency, relying more on street smarts and fists rather than spinning spools of data. When I was a kid, I always knew Mannix as a solo private eye in Los Angeles with his assistant Peggy, played by Gail Fisher; he would also occasionally have a line of police lieutenants drop by for expositional purposes.

It would take even longer for me to find out that it was Schifrin who was also behind the marvelous theme song for "Mannix". In comparison with the "Mission: Impossible" theme, the "Mannix" theme was also cool and jazzy, but it was much more open and swinging. There was nothing secret about this song which fit Joe's character. The brassy blasts and the percussion showed off the fisticuffs and car chases that the detective would end up in, while the soaring and sweeping main melody led by the saxophones was Joe in his off hours enjoying the drive or that dinner with his latest romantic date. At the time, I didn't know that Schifrin had formed the theme into a jazz waltz; I couldn't conceive of jazz having a waltz since I thought of the waltz purely being in the classical music vein.

The "Mannix" theme was released as a single in 1969, but I'm going to go with the original first airing of the show in September 1967 to see what was coming out in Japan or thereabouts. 

The Peanuts -- Koi no Fuuga (恋のフーガ） (August 1967)

The Spiders -- Bang Bang Bang （バン　バン　バン） (October 1967)

Masayoshi Tsuruoka & Tokyo Romantica -- Otaru no Hito yo （小樽のひとよ） (September 1967)

Go-Touchi Songs（ご当地ソング）: Hokkaido and the Tohoku region

 

When we were watching the venerable historical TV drama "Mito Komon"（水戸黄門）as kids, I noticed that each episode followed a set pattern. It would start out with the disguised former vice-shogun Tokugawa and his heroic party entering a certain area in which by coincidence, someone was being victimized by evil officials. Then, there would be the gradual infiltration and investigation of the crimes being committed before the final sword-flashing mayhem takes place. Then, Tokugawa's samurai retainer would whip out the inro case near the end showing the villains and victims alike that justice has arrived and will be served.

Unfortunately, I couldn't find that particular scene on YouTube, but I'd like to go back to one of those tropes of "Mito Komon". I'm not sure if this had been the case with every episode, but whenever Tokugawa and his band entered a region, one of them, the ever-famished Hachibei, would always remark (or swoon) that the area was famous for some sort of food. And this was where I got my first hint that the prefectures and territories of Japan prided themselves on some aspect that set themselves apart. Yup, food was and is one example.

But of course, this is a music blog and not a foodie-based one. Watching the most recent episode of NHK's "Uta Con"（うたコン）, the theme was go-touchi kayo or songs that made the case for a certain city, region or prefecture, often with the name of such place as part of the song's title. I've been hearing the term for years now, but last week's episode finally sparked within me the idea of putting up some of those geographically based tunes up here. By the way, the above video by YouTuber Roman Hiko gives a full rundown on the go-touchi songs for the entire country so that ought to give you folks a good grounding of what we're talking about here.

Let's consider this particular article the first of a short weekly series of go-touchi songs representing areas of Japan, and for this week, I'm going to cover the northern area including Hokkaido（北海道）and the Tohoku（東北）region (Aomori, Akita, Miyagi, Iwate, Yamagata and Fukushima Prefectures). Obviously, my humble list is way too small, but I just wanted to display some of the songs. As well, you can check out the J-Wiki link to see the whole kit and kaboodle of go-touchi tunes.

1. Hibari Misora -- Ringo Oiwake （リンゴ追分）for Aomori (1952)

2. Saburo Kitajima -- Hakodate no Hito （函館の女）for Hakodate in Hokkaido (1965)

3. Masayoshi Tsuruoka & Tokyo Romantica -- Otaru no Hito yo （小樽のひとよ）for Otaru in Hokkaido (1967)

4. Masao Sen -- Kitaguni no Haru (北国の春）for the Tohoku region in general (1977)

5. Sayuri Ishikawa -- Tsugaru Kaikyo Fuyu Geshiki （津軽海峡・冬景色）for Aomori (1977)

6. Muneyuki Sato -- Aoba-jo Koi Uta （青葉城恋唄）for Sendai in Miyagi (1978)

7. Yuji Mori and Southern Cross -- Suki desu Sapporo（好きですサッポロ）for Sapporo in Hokkaido (1981)

I'll go into the Kanto area next week. By the way, I know that I said above that "Kayo Kyoku Plus" isn't a foodie blog, but I will simply leave this article with a couple of dishes from Hokkaido and the Tohoku region: jingisukan（ジンギスカン）and kiritanpo（きりたんぽ...Akita, to be specific） respectively.

Masayoshi Tsuruoka & Tokyo Romantica -- Wakaretekimashita（別れてきました）

Saw NHK's "Uta Kon"（うたコン）for the first time in a couple of weeks, and we were surprised to find out that the main vocalist for Mood Kayo group Masayoshi Tsuruoka & Tokyo Romantica（鶴岡雅義と東京ロマンチカ）, Masato Sanjo（三條正人）, had passed away earlier in October. So the show gave a brief tribute to Sanjo and the group with the two remaining members of Romantica (member Kosho Okuyama（奥山浩章）died in 2015) teaming up with Keisuke Yamauchi（山内恵介）to perform their biggest hit, "Otaru no Hito yo"（小樽のひとよ）.

As such, I would like to give my own tribute to Sanjo by putting up another song by Tokyo Romantica, "Wakaretekimashita" (We're Breaking Apart). Released as their 26th single in April 1974, the ballad's theme of romantic loss plays well with Sanjo's mournful delivery, and this would be another ideal song to cry into a mug of beer or glass of shochu at the neighbourhood watering hole.

Hayabusa -- Romantic Tokyo（ロマンティック東京）

Ueno-Hirokoji

On the news tonight, CTV told me that the top 4 safest cities on the planet were:

1. Tokyo
2. Osaka
3. Singapore
4. Toronto

Yeah, my hometown is the 4th-safest city on Earth for 2017. Perhaps...no, probably, it is my well-honed cynicism and the supposed self-effacing nature of Canadians, but Mr. Survey....YA GOTTA BE KIDDING ME! Really? Pedestrians are getting killed and injured by cars almost nightly, there seems to be regular gun battles in the northwest of the city and certain other neighbourhoods, and now I'm starting to think that any Tim Hortons coffee shop past sunset gains a bullseye. Maybe we're a distant No. 4 way down below Singapore. And perhaps we're not quite as bullet-ridden as Chicago but still that ranking for us is hard to believe.

Shibuya

Anyways, enough about my minuscule rant. I can believe that Tokyo would get the No. 1 ranking although lifelong citizen students over there have confided in me that the megalopolis is getting more dangerous. I guess it really depends on one's point of view. But for me, there are some really nice areas at night in The Big Sushi. I loved walking through shiny glittery Ginza, Akasaka, and even slightly seedy East Shinjuku and Ueno.

Therefore, with that prelude, I bring you "Romantic Tokyo" by Mood Kayo trio Hayabusa（はやぶさ）. I first saw Hikaru（ヒカル）, Yamato（ヤマト）and Shouya（ショウヤ）on an episode of NHK's "Gogo Uta"（ごごウタ...Afternoon Songs）, the afternoon kayo program (I will have to write about that one someday soon), and they performed something rather offbeat which I will also explain in a future article. However, I want to write about a song that has been part of their raison d'etre since Hayabusa first started in 2011.

(karaoke version)

Only Hikaru is from Yokohama but Hayabusa's first three singles centered on the bayside city. "Romantic Tokyo", their 4th single from October 2014, shifted things to the capital, and it is truly a romantic musical ride through Tokyo. You can just imagine a mature couple tripping the light fantastic through the various neighbourhoods peeled off in the song.

(empty karaoke version)

Tsubasa Kazu（かず翼）provided the lyrics while Masayoshi Tsuruoka（鶴岡雅義）of the veteran Mood Kayo group Masayoshi Tsuruoka & Tokyo Romantica（鶴岡雅義と東京ロマンチカ）composed the song with that old-fashioned Latin flavour of the genre from the 1960s. Old is truly new again. "Romantic Tokyo" made it all the way up to No. 19 on Oricon.

Ginza

Masayoshi Tsuruoka & Tokyo Romantica -- Kimi wa Kokoro mo Tsuma dakara (君は心の妻だから)

Ah, I really do love watching the Mood Kayo-themed episodes on "Kayo Concert", last night's one was no exception. That's when some of the geriatric Mood Kayo All Stars make their rare and much anticipated (by me) appearance on this music program to sing hits from way back in the 50's, 60's and 70's when the genre was at its peak of popularity, some of which have already been profiled on this blog. For this week's episode, the All Stars that performed were Los Primos, Los Indios and Masayoshi Tsuruoka & Tokyo Romantica (鶴岡雅義と東京ロマンチカ). Unfortunately no Mahina Stars or Happy & Blue's former lead singer, Hideo Morimoto (森本英世), like last year, but oh well. I was actually hoping that it would be like last year's episode where not a single performer was below the age of 50 - that was a lot's of fun to watch.

Coming to today's main topic, I've decided to write about Tokyo Romantica's "Kimi wa Kokoro mo Tsuma dakara", which is a staple when it comes to these Mood Kayo-themed episodes. It's quiet and haunting in terms of its music, done by Tsuruoka. The notes from the acoustic guitar gives it an air of mystery too. Then we have Masato Sanjo's (三条正人) fruity and heartbreaking vocals that make this song sound extra melancholic; I can't help but think of some poor sap staring despondently into his brandy/sake as he struggles to deal with his problems (lady trouble, perhaps?) when this song comes up. But Rei Nakanishi's (なかにし礼) lyrics seem to tell a different story. From what I gather, our lead is trying to comfort his wife (I think, I'm not sure if the wife mentioned in the title is literal or figurative), assuring her that he loves her and that they'll see each other again. Such a scenario brings to mind another classic from this genre, "Nakanaide" (泣かないで), by the Mahina Stars.

To be frank, when I first encountered "Kimi wa Kokoro mo Tsuma dakara" via monomane talent Korokke's (コロッケ) shenanigans close to two years ago, before I even knew anything about this genre, I did not like it at all due to its sluggish pace. I had half the mind to skip it and move on to something more lively, but stayed because his impression of Sanjo that, while not particularly spot on and heavily exaggerated as I had learnt after watching the man himself sing, was pretty amusing. Over time and many viewings of that same video - it had his other performances as well - the tune slowly grew on me. However, I must admit that I still have to be in a more patient state of mind if I want to appreciate it.

"Kimi wa Kokoro mo Tsuma dakara" was Tokyo Romantica's 10th single that came out on 5th March 1969. Besides "Otaru no Hito yo" (小樽のひとよ), it's one of their most successful singles, selling around 500 000 copies. The group sang this song two times on the Kohaku, first was in 1969 (2nd appearance) and the next was in 1973 (6th and last appearance).

You know, the thing that bugs me the most about these Mood Kayo groups is that they hardly, if ever, look cool when posing for the single covers. I think it's because there are just too many of them.

www.asahi-net.or.jp

Just a little fun fact to round things up for this article: Tsuruoka (leader and guitarist of Tokyo Romantica) was one of renowned enka composer Masao Koga's (古賀政男) students. Why am I not surprised?

Masayoshi Tsuruoka & Tokyo Romantica -- Otaru no Hito yo （小樽のひとよ）

I heard "Otaru no Hito yo" (Man of Otaru) the other night on NHK's "Kayo Concert", and as with a lot of the other songs from the genre, I started getting images of a heartbroken man sitting by himself at some small bar while the bartender is shaking a cocktail or heating up a ceramic bottle of sake. It starts off as something of a more traditional enka in the first few bars with that guitar and flute, but then the light Latin rhythm comes in and the sweet, sorrowful tones of lead vocal Masato Sanjo（三条正人） then reassure me that this is indeed a Mood Kayo song.

Although I was able to get up to Sapporo in Hokkaido for a few days of R&R, I didn't get a chance to head over to the port city of Otaru not too far away. That earned me some half-joking reprimands from a few of my students when I got back since, as they told me in no uncertain terms, the place boasts of having some of the best sushi and sashimi in the entire nation. That struck me as high praise indeed considering that I have yet to remember a bad sushi place wherever I went in Japan (well, there was one kaiten sushi restaurant in Asakusa in which some of the fish was partially frozen...nice crunch, though).

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j4oBlv6V20c

Composer Masayoshi Tsuruoka（鶴岡雅義）started up the Tokyo Romantica vocal group in 1965 and in the first couple of years, he filled in as a "guest" vocal (his official position is guitar) since there was no official lead vocal. Then, when "Otaru no Hito yo"became a hit when Sanjo performed with the group, he was made the official lead vocal.. Tsuruoka, by the way, was behind the creation of the melody for this song with Mitsuo Ikeda（池田充男）writing the lyrics.

"Otaru no Hito yo" was the group's 5th single which came out in September 1967, but it wasn't until May 1968 that it finally cracked the Top 10 of the then-embryonic Oricon charts. It peaked at No. 2 and became the No. 4 song for that year, selling about 1.5 million records.Their newfound hit status got Tsuruoka and Tokyo Romantica onto the Kohaku Utagassen, a show that would invite them back for the next 6 years during the time when Mood Kayo was at its peak.

There was a bit of history behind the song.. At first, a song titled"Denwa de Ai wo"（電話で愛を...Love By Phone） was created, but Tsuruoka nixed it as having very little punch, so he asked Ikeda to take over on the writing of the words. From that collaboration, "Kona Yuki no Love Letter"（粉雪のラブ・レター...Powder Snow Love Letter）was the result, but then the people representing the city of Otaru asked whether a song couldn't help sell their city as a tourist spot, so "Otaru no Hito yo" was made. The requisite Otaru sites were incorporated into the lyrics while the usual Mood Kayo trope held firm about lamenting that lost love. And several decades later, the song is still seen a representative anthem of sorts for the northern Japanese city.

As for me, I'm currently lamenting that lost opportunity for great raw fish!