J-Canuck's Six Favourite Ringo Shiina Songs（椎名林檎）

Wikimedia Commons
via 高野水理 

Over the past number of years, singer-songwriter and musician Ringo Shiina has broken down some walls that I had once constructed around her. In the approximate quarter-century that I've known about her, I had assumed the following things: 1) she was the scariest punk-pop-rock singer that I have ever seen or heard (that psycho stare and the growling r's), 2) she would never show up on the Kohaku Utagassen and 3) she would never agree to a long-form interview on any show.

Let's start with 3). A few weeks ago, Shiina actually appeared on NHK's "Asaichi"（あさイチ）for over an hour to banter with the hosts about her career. That got a ton of viewers putting eyeballs to screen. She even had a belly laugh on camera about one of her friend's remarks. As for 2), she has shown up on the New Year's Eve special several times either as herself or as the vocalist for her band Tokyo Jihen（東京事変）. And for 1), Shiina has more often than not appeared in a kimono including that "Asaichi" interview and she couldn't have been more down-to-earth and polite and friendly. She looked like the graceful owner of a particularly expensive ryokan somewhere in the countryside.

After that special experience on "Asaichi", I figured that I just had to post up six of my favourite Shiina songs. Not surprisingly, some of them are her early jangly hits and the rest are her jazzier/orchestral fare.

(1998) Kabukicho no Jou（歌舞伎町の女王)

(1998) Koufukuron (幸福論) (try link for "Kabukicho no Jou")

(1999) Honno （本能）

(2001) Mayonaka no Junketsu （真夜中の純潔）

(2001) Sid to Hakuchumu （シドと白昼夢）(jazz version)

(2007) Yokushitsu/La Salle de Bain（浴室）

Ringo Shiina & Atarashii Gakko no Leaders -- Dora Ichi Dokusou（ドラ1独走）

 

I was away from the computer for all of yesterday since I met up with friends which culminated in the annual dinner at Shinta, the Japanese BBQ place up north. The photo above is actually from my very first visit to the restaurant back in 2023 but yep, that's what I've been engorging myself on every visit for the past few years.

Getting the whole day off on Sunday has become quite rare in the past several years so it was nice to step away from things, including "Kayo Kyoku Plus", to refresh myself. But getting back behind the keyboard once more, I can tackle like this follow-up of sorts to Ringo Shiina's（椎名林檎）"Hobo Mizu no Awa"（ほぼ水の泡）, just one of the many tracks on her most recent album "Hojoya"（放生会...Carnival） from May 2024.

"Hojoya" is smack dab filled with collaborations between Shiina and other artists, and with "Hobo Mizu no Awa", I was surprised and delighted that Momo of accordion-accompanied sister act Charan-Po-Rantan（チャラン・ポ・ランタン）was one of the collaborators. However, discovering that the song-and-dance act Atarashii Gakko no Leaders（新しい学校のリーダーズ）was also in on the fun didn't surprise me at all. I had figured that one day AGL would be working with Shiina since the two of them both possessed that anarchically appealing side, and even seeing Wild Child Suzuka behind the guitar in the music video above convinced me that if she ever went solo, she would be an heir apparent of sorts to Shiina.

Their song together is "Dora Ichi Dokusou" and I have to admit that I don't really know what to make of that title or the official English one which is simply "FRDP". Noticing the baseball theme in the video, I was wondering whether an acceptable direct translation would be "One Solo Run for the (Chunichi) Dragons", although Shiina's lyrics don't make any mention at all of the Japanese major league baseball team. Incidentally, the lyrics refer to someone going through internal hell as they think about their next tactic or grand strategy ought to be. It could refer to sports, baseball or politics but they seem to be heading into a nervous breakdown as the music goes rock and funky at the same time.

Ringo Shiina & Momo (from Charan-Po-Rantan) -- Hobo Mizu no Awa（ほぼ水の泡）

 

In the last few hours, my family was able to watch another perennial Japanese New Year's example of TV programming along with the Kohaku Utagassen. The Hakone Ekiden takes place over two days on January 2nd and 3rd, and although none of us have ever run a proper ekiden before, there's something rather quite relaxing about watching it play out on screen. It had always been shown on TV Japan and fortunately it's being run on Jme. For the record, Aoyama Gakuin University won again.

It's hard to believe that it's been over 25 years since one of the most terrifying yet attractive teenage rock singers ever hit the Japanese music industry in the form of Ringo Shiina（椎名林檎）. My first impression was that I would be most interested in attending a concert of hers but I would never approach her for an autograph, lest I get my face ripped off for being so plebian. But in the years since, we would all learn that it wasn't just punk and rock that she loved but also the genres of jazz and kayo kyoku, and a lot of times, Shiina brought all of those influences together into one album or even one song. And in recent years, she's even collaborated with other artists such as Ulfuls'（ウルフルズ）Tortoise Matsumoto（トータス松本）for "Menuki Dori"（目抜き通り）; that partnership had them performing on the 2017 edition of the Kohaku Utagassen.

And speaking of the Kohaku Utagassen, Shiina was once more at NHK Hall for the 2024 edition, this time partnering up with Momo of the eclectic sister act Charan-Po-Rantan（チャラン・ポ・ランタン）. The two of them performed "Hobo Mizu no Awa" (Cheers Beer) which is the final track on Shiina's May 2024 album "Hojoya"（放生会...Carnival）, a release filled with collaborations ranging from Hikaru Utada（宇多田ヒカル）to Atarashii Gakko no Leaders（新しい学校のリーダーズ）. As for "Hobo Mizu no Awa", the tribute to drinking has got Shiina and Momo snarling happily away as if they were knocking back the suds with abandon while musically, we get the cocktail of jazz, rock and rockabilly. I don't really think that Shiina goes for just the mono-genre anymore. As with their performance on the Kohaku, the music video is also a treat for the eyes with Shiina and Momo's costume changes, choreography and all those Japanese and American jazz set designs.

Just as an aside, I found this video of Charan-Po-Rantan covering Shiina's "Ringo no Uta"（りんごのうた）. As for "Hojoya", it scored a No. 2 ranking on Oricon.

Tomita Lab feat. Ringo Shiina -- Yasashii Tetsugaku（やさしい哲学）

 

I have to admit that I hadn't known what my ears were getting into as the first thirty seconds of "Yasashii Tetsugaku" (A Gentle Philosophy) were getting under way. A bouncing then galloping electro rhythm followed by strings and then French horns. I knew that Tomita Lab（富田ラボ）and Ringo Shiina（椎名林檎）were the collaborators so I was expecting something distinct and certainly those thirty seconds were slowly raising expectations within me.

Then, the guitars and keyboards that reminded me of 1970s progressive rock and West Coast AOR simultaneously crashed right in. The rest of "Yasashii Tetsugaku" rises and falls in level of intrigue although the overall song is solid as I get to hear Shiina sing something that's not jazzy or supremely techno for the first time in a while. Tomita Lab took care of the melody while Shiina was the lyricist for this track from the former's 4th album "Joyous" from October 2013.

As for what this gentle philosophy is, looking at Shiina's lyrics, I get hints of the Force, Zen and the need to work together to reach that Nirvana. 

Chiaki Kuriyama/Ringo Shiina -- Oishii Kisetsu（おいしい季節）

 

When it comes to thespian/singer Chiaki Kuriyama（栗山千明）in the West, she will always be known as the teenage ball of furious insanity, Go Go Yubari. Her role was relatively brief but she did make an impression.

I know since then she's appeared in a number of movies and television dramas in Japan over the last twenty years although I've barely seen any of them. There was an episode of one mystery series that I saw where she played a skeptical police detective; it apparently was a mix of "The X-Files" and "Rain Man". Aside from that, Kuriyama has also done her fair share of goofy commercials and variety show appearances to repeatedly display that, no, she's not really a psychotic killer.

Kuriyama has also had her time behind the recording mike. She was even included in a Kayo Kyoku Plus article all the way back in 2017 but her "Seishun no Matataki"（青春の瞬き）was taken down by the powers-that-be on YouTube although her songwriter, Ringo Shiina（椎名林檎）, provided her take on the song which is still intact.

So for all intents and purposes, this is Kuriyama's first time again on the blog, this time with "Oishii Kisetsu" (The Creamy Season) which was released in March 2011 as her 4th single. Looking at the video (sorry but it's not available anymore) and listening to the song about falling in love, I think a lot of folks will quickly see and hear the Shiina influences and indeed Shiina did create the song. In fact, I'd say that "Oishii Kisetsu" is a nice reminder of the songwriter's early works. Mind you, Kuriyama in the video doesn't appear nearly as scary as Shiina did back in those days. The single peaked at No. 37 on Oricon.

According to J-Wiki, Shiina has covered "Oishii Kisetsu" a few times over the years such as via her No. 3-ranking December 2017 second album of covers, "Gyakuyunyū: Koukuukyoku"（逆輸入 〜航空局〜...Reimport vol. 2: Civil Aviation Bureau）. Her version seems to be a bit more along the side of progressive rock and her more contemporary classical approach to music. This take was also included on the November 2019 "Newton no Ringo ~Hajimete no Best Ban~" （ニュートンの林檎 ～初めてのベスト盤～...Newton's Apple ～First Best Edition～）which hit No. 1 on the weekly charts and ended up as the 22nd-ranked album of 2019.

Ringo Shiina -- Ito wo Kashi（いとをかし）

 

I remember as a kid having Jell-O chocolate pudding as a dessert so that was my template when it came to this particular sweet. As a result, I was rather thrown off course when I tried out my first Japanese pudding or purin（プリン）since it was quite different in taste and texture. I guess the more accurate description for it would be crème caramel and despite the instructions given on this video by YouTuber ochikeron, I think for me, purin is something best left to the professionals like her and others. But the moral of the story is that I enjoy my purin now.

Purin also happens to be the favourite dessert of one Ojarumaru, anime's favourite Heian Era prince, and it apparently is the basis for the "Ojarumaru"（おじゃる丸）series' 25th season's ending theme last year. I'm not 100% sure but I may have provided an article on another opening or ending theme for the show but my memory isn't working on all cylinders anymore, so if there are any fans out there who can jog my engrams, please let me know.

Seeing the long list of opening and ending themes as would be the case for an anime that has lasted a quarter of a century, there has been a fair share of singers, famous and not-so-famous, contributing to it. Last year's ending theme was recorded by one of the former, the ever-charismatic singer-songwriter Ringo Shiina（椎名林檎）. Titled "Ito wo Kashi", this was a digital single released in April 2022, and although just looking at the hiragana alone, I thought it meant "lend me a string", according to Shiina herself in a Tokyo Hive article, it's actually an abbreviated version of "Itoshii no Okashi"（愛しいのお菓子）which actually means "My Beloved Dessert".

From what I know about Shiina's brand of music over the last several years, "Ito wo Kashi" sounds like a short-and-sweet classical pop waltz, and I'm wondering whether if and when the songwriter will actually put out something like a symphonic suite after her years as a growly rocker and then a jazz chanteuse. Also from Tokyo Hive is the observation that "Ojarumaru" debuted in 1998, the same year as Shiina's debut on the music scene. That fact alone has me reeling that it's been about 25 years since I was first intimidated by this teenaged banshee warrior and her guitar.

Tomita Lab feat. Ringo Shiina -- Yasashii Tetsugaku（やさしい哲学）

 

It's been standard operating procedure for me to listen to any song that has any connection with songwriter-producer Keiichi Tomita（冨田恵一）, aka Tomita Lab（冨田ラボ）, basically since I found out about him years ago. He's provided truly mellow and classic café-friendly pop fare through numbers such as "Nemuri no Mori"（眠りの森）, groovy soul via tunes like "Shiawase no Blue"（しあわせのBlue）and even earlier PSY-S-reminiscent synthpop fare, thanks to his time as part of KEDGE in the late 1980s.

Now there is another delectable dimple to add to his face of music genres. This time, Tomita Lab was joined by force-of-nature rocker and jazz muse Ringo Shiina（椎名林檎）to create "Yasashii Tetsugaku" (A Gentle Philosophy). A track on his October 2013 album "Joyous", the first several seconds of the song contain a relentless rainstorm of synth, and so I'd been expecting something quite new right from the get-go, but then a TOTO-like melody suddenly comes crashing down like stuff from a late 1970s/early 1980s album.

"Yasashii Tetsugaku", though it has that underlying Tomita sound once more, also contains that sensation of AOR and even some progressive rock. Plus, although I've heard Shiina for years performing her blasting rock and then big band swing, this is the first time to hear her sing to something of this nature. But somehow, everything fits quite nicely here. Maybe there is indeed a gentle philosophy at work. In any case, Shiina was responsible for lyrics while Tomita took care of the melody.

Ringo Shiina -- Yami ni Furu Ame (闇に降る雨)

 

When I first heard about the initially terrifying and terrifyingly talented singer-songwriter Ringo Shiina（椎名林檎）just around the turn of the century via friends, my impression of her at the time was that she wasn't one to cross...ever. Shiina seemed to have this thousand-kilometre glare in her performances back then that said "Hi! My hobby is vivisection!". But then, I discovered this YouTube video and realized that she can goof about like the rest of us.

But heck...back in those years, she certainly made an impression from her music, singing and visuals via those music videos. And so is the case with "Yami ni Furu Ame" (A Driving Rain in Darkness) which was a track on her March 2000 2nd album "Shoso Strip"（勝訴ストリップ...Winning Strip）. 

Looking at the translation of her lyrics at Anime Lyrics, I gather that she has been seduced by a darker entity of the real rather than the falseness of the light and happy. Fair enough, but dang, I love the music. With the strings in there enhanced by the music video images in that huge mansion (a treat for both Ringo fans and psychoanalysts), I can imagine this as being Shiina's rock version of Fashion Music, kayo kyoku's take on baroque pop...with some Beatles-like psychedelia with what sounds like a sitar.

And yet, I was surprised to read in the blurb for "Yami ni Furu Ame" on J-Wiki that Shiina stated that this was the song where she gathered all of the classic enka tropes for it! In fact, when she listened to the complete product, she declared that this was so Masako Mori（森昌子）. I guess that I'm going to have to listen to this some more. In any case, the originating album hit No. 1 for three weeks in a row and ended up as the 3rd-ranked album of the year. 

Tokyo Jihen -- Onna no Ko wa Dare de mo（女の子は誰でも）

 

This week's "Nodo Jiman"（のど自慢）took place in Gotemba, Shizuoka Prefecture, a city that I've known mostly for a famous outlet mall (I had a lot of students who enjoyed shopping at the place). One of the participants today sang a Tokyo Jihen（東京事変）tune that I hadn't heard before and wanted to try some further listenings.

In recent years, vocalist Ringo Shiina（椎名林檎）, who I first got to know as the rock girl with some great growl and a terrifying stare, has been embracing her jazzy inner self, and I think that initially came true with the Big Band version of "Sid to Hakuchumu"（シドと白昼夢）which was on her 7th single "Mayonaka no Junketsu"（真夜中の純潔）from 2001. At the time, I believe that I was in the middle of my jazz obsession, so to hear one of the most original Japanese music acts try a genre that I wouldn't have imagined that she would ever tackle was pretty darn refreshing.

Well, since then, it seems like Shiina has been getting more and more into jazz as we all got deeper into the new century, a genre that I had read somewhere that her father very much enjoyed. And in 2011, as the vocalist for Tokyo Jihen, she and band bassist Seiji Kameda（亀田誠治）came up with "Onna no Ko wa Dare de mo" which can be translated directly as "Girls are Good with Anyone" but the official English title is "Fly Me to Heaven", one-half of the double A-side for the band's 7th single "Sora ga Natteiru"（空が鳴っている...Reverberation） released in May 2011. For the first time in TJ's history, though, they left the arrangement with an outsider instead of handling the song by themselves, and guess what? The outsider was really an old friend, Takayuki Hattori（服部隆之）, who had given the sparkling Big Band swing treatment to "Sid to Hakuchumu" as mentioned in the previous paragraph. If you go through the Hattori file, you'll find that he also provided the epic soundtrack to a particular PlayStation game that I owned and a very popular theme song for a drama series.

Not surprisingly, I've fallen hard for "Onna no Ko wa Dare de mo" which seems to not only draw in the old-time swing but also some of that 1950s or 1960s razz-ma-tazz show tune feeling on the old American variety shows and specials featuring folks like Frank Sinatra and Dean Martin. Shining Shiina and even the TJ members get in on the show time act in the music video; the only things that were missing were the frame of an old cathode-ray tube television set and black-and-white. And where were the Radio City Music Hall dancers?

The single itself made it to No. 6 on Oricon, and both A-sides have also been placed onto Tokyo Jihen's 5th studio album "Daihakken"（大発見...Discovery） which came out in June of the same year. It hit No. 1 and went Gold.

The crazy thing is that after all I'd said at the top about not hearing this Tokyo Jihen song before, it turns out that I did. It was the commercial tune for a Shiseido cosmetics ad featuring Shiina. This I do remember seeing before but probably had assumed that the jingle was just a quick jingle. Knowing full well about tie-ups between commercials and pop songs in Japan, I should have given myself a Gibbs slap upside the head. Not only that but apparently "Onna no Ko wa Dare de mo" was part of the singer's performance at the 2011 Kohaku Utagassen but I don't remember seeing that at all. Then again, it was my first Kohaku viewing back in Toronto after many years in Japan, and the rest of my family has had the penchant to fast forward anything they didn't like. Let's say that I'm the only in the J-Canuck clan that appreciates a good Ringo!😁

Ringo Shiina -- Ishiki（意識）from Heisei Fuuzoku （平成風俗）

"Ishiki" (Consciously) originally appeared on Ringo Shiina's（椎名林檎）3rd album "Kalk Samen Kuri-no-Hana"（加爾基 精液 栗ノ花...Kalk Samen Chestnut Flower）, a release that I currently don't have in my possession. The original tune as sung by Shiina doesn't seem to exist anywhere so I don't know how it sounds.

However, I do have that amazing "Heisei Fuuzoku"（平成風俗）which was basically the soundtrack for the film adaptation of "Sakuran"（さくらん）. It may have been the music for the rise of an oiran courtesan but not having seen the movie, I've kinda considered "Heisei Fuuzoku", the collaboration between Shiina and arranger Neko Saito（斉藤ネコ）, as the singer-songwriter's full dive into jazz bringing in elements of Latin and even James Bond.

The album includes a jazz version of "Ishiki" which is neither Latin jazz nor the music backing Sean Connery as 007, but it's still a song of intrigue and high class. I don't know when "Ishiki" popped up in "Sakuran", but I imagine a scene of a quiet but intensifying cat-and-mouse chase in a huge mansion while a lavish ball is being held as this song is playing. The actual lyrics and their English translation were found on this site. The translation isn't 100% accurate but I've gotten the gist of it, and it seems to involve quite a tempestuous couple. For some reason, I keep getting images of the Joker and Harley Quinn. But wouldn't that be a movie...totally devoted to the toxic love between her and her Mister J...with some crazy jazz.

Ringo Shiina -- Marunouchi Sadistic（丸ノ内サディスティック）

One of my earliest entries on "Kayo Kyoku Plus" for 2013 was Ringo Shiina's（椎名林檎）masterpiece February 1999 debut album "Muzai Moratorium"（無罪モラトリアム）. This was basically where we all got to know about this mesmerizing singer-songwriter with her catchy creations sung in a voice that can dive from momentary angelic highs to a growly buzzsaw rasp. I failed to mention in the original article that "Muzai Moratorium" ended up selling more than 1.7 million copies that year.

In a bit of an OOPS! moment, I had neglected all these years since then to include one of the tracks, "Marunouchi Sadistic"  that was also released as the coupling song to Shiina's 2nd single, "Kabukicho no Jou"（歌舞伎町の女王）, released in February 1999 just like the album. Well, allow me to rectify the situation.

Taking a look at the translation of her lyrics for the song, I've realized that "Marunouchi Sadistic" is a story of her life in Tokyo, specifically going through the stations on the red Marunouchi subway line and including her love of guitars and music. One station is Ochanomizu and it's notable since my anime buddy has been a huge guitar collector for the past few years and he did mention that he would stop by that very area during his current trip to the megalopolis and pick up yet another guitar.

When I've heard "Marunouchi Sadistic", I always wondered about that high and buzzy instrument that was being played. I finally found out that it was Shiina playing the melodica, something which I've barely known about here in Canada but has been a regular instrument for all those elementary school students in Japan. Over here, I think it's the recorder for the kids...I know, I used to play one of those.

I enjoy the concert version above since there is a bit more jazz and blues. At one point, I had thought that Shiina only got into her jazzy phase later in her career, but I've realized that with "Marunouchi Sadistic", there may have always been some part of that genre in the background of her music. Strangely enough, the original single didn't seem to chart on Oricon.

One revelation on the J-Wiki article for the song is that Shiina followed a similar chord progression to that of the one used for Grover Washington Jr.'s classic "Just The Two of Us" which definitely lit a light bulb above my head. Shiina returned to "Marunouchi Sadistic" to provide the English-language soulful EXPO version in her 2009 album "Sanmon Gossip"（三文ゴシップ...Superficial Gossip）. The crazy thing about this version is considering Washington's influence on the original, I can't help but feel that in the EXPO version, DeBarge's "I Like It" is rather echoing in there.

In any case, I have a crazy idea. Since the anime "Sound! Euphonium" is still sticking around in some form and it has used a band arrangement of a famous song each year of its time on the air, I wonder if "Marunouchi Sadistic" would be a new candidate.

Ringo Shiina -- Tsumi to Batsu（罪と罰）

One of the things that I remember about Ringo Shiina's（椎名林檎）"Tsumi to Batsu" (Crime & Punishment) is the music video in which the singer-songwriter looked like some character from a 1970s yakuza movie (complete with katana) and there was a car sliced in half like some fish in a sushi restaurant. As we all know, Shiina always had some stunning music videos back in the day. Unfortunately, I couldn't find that video anywhere online.

Shiina slinking about in a teddy? OK, I can definitely live with that as well. "Tsumi to Batsu" was released as her 6th single in January 2000, and though the J-Wiki description (Wikipedia description right here) has it said that the original recording wanted to infuse some of that 1970s rock ballad style, the videos that I could find of her actually performing "Tsumi to Batsu" has it sounding more like a raunchy soundtrack from a 1950s film noir.

No complaints, though. I like the style and the lyrics certainly come across as if Shiina is relating the story of a woman who's been through the wringer of life and has been pouring out her guts to someone in some dive hidden in the big city. That ragged delivery of hers really is effective here, and the lady plays it up on the stage. I'm surprised that "Tsumi to Batsu" didn't end up getting dramatized on TV or in the movie theatre in some fashion.

I also like this lush orchestral treatment of the song, too, and I almost expect Michael Buble to suddenly jump right in. The song peaked at No. 4 and sold close to 550,000 copies. The single was also included in Shiina's 2nd studio album "Shouso Strip"（勝訴ストリップ...Winning Strip） from March 2000, and that album hit No. 1, ending up as the 3rd-ranked release of the year, selling around 2.5 million copies.

Ringo Shiina & Tortoise Matsumoto -- Menuki Dori（目抜き通り）

When I first heard about the Ginza Six complex opening up in... well, Ginza, naturally, I just thought that most of that high-priced neighbourhood was already difficult to enter for a bloke like me. Now, Ginza Six seems to be an even more exclusive place with representation from stores like Fendi, Yves Saint Laurent and Vivienne Westwood. I'm being a bit snarky here, but I think to get in, you have to show proof in the form of an American Express Centurion Card or its equivalent at the entrance to the doorman (WHAT? Only a Gold card? Shoo! There's a Fujiya family restaurant across the street..go!). One of my students actually possessed that card, and yes, she was that wealthy. She could buy her own island with that card (maybe she did).

G Six is built upon the former site of the venerable Matsuzakaya Department Store, an old-style emporium that I sometimes visited with friends for some tea on the first floor. The most notable thing for me there was the bakery which sold the Baumkuchen cake, a dessert from Germany that has long taken hold and gained a popular following in Japan. It was a trademark for Ginza Matsukaya to have those spits rolling the iced cake. Ah, times do change.

Anyways, the new place came with a theme song. Titled "Menuki Dori" (The Main Street), it was released around the time of the opening of G Six in April 2017 as a digital download song and was performed by Ringo Shiina（椎名林檎）and Tortoise Matsumoto（トータス松本）from the Osaka band Ulfuls（ウルフルズ）. Written and composed by Shiina, it was the song that the two performed on last year's Kohaku Utagassen with plenty of glitz and glamour.

I will be honest here. I like Ulfuls' hits from the 1990s such as "Gattsu Daze!!"（ガッツだぜ！！）and of course, I've got a good listing of Shiina's songs on the blog all the way from her debut in the late 1990s including her later, more jazzier offerings and have loved them all. Having said that, watching her and Matsumoto perform on the Kohaku, it was frankly a bit of a hot mess on the Shibuya stage on New Year's Eve, so I was a bit disappointed. It just sounded like all of the instruments including Shiina's and Matsumoto's voices were all ferociously competing to get on the Olympic podium and there was only room for Gold.

Watching the short version of the song and the campaign video for Ginza Six, there was a better fit between the two, and I think Matsumoto looked a whole lot more dapper. I gather that the tone was supposed to be one of giddy chaos and glamour in good ol' Ginza so having the recent Shiina tropes of urgent orchestral strings followed by the fast n' hot jazz were no surprise. And the producers of the video certainly wanted to match that with some pricey fast-paced scenes of life there with the tempo of a screwball comedy. But for me at least, the song seemed a bit too scrunched in. As I said, it was the short version so if I ever decide to download my own copy, I hope that the full version has a larger opportunity to breathe.

Ringo Shiina -- Jinsei wa Yume Darake（人生は夢だらけ）

Kinda hard to believe that it's starting to approach 20 years since I first heard of Ringo Shiina（椎名林檎）, the urban firebrand singer whose voice could be a match for Superman. My first impression of her was that of a fairly terrifying force of nature with an iceberg-melting glare who could pull off some catchy punkish pop.

But it seems in recent years, Shiina has been embracing her inner jazz chanteuse. And it's not just a particular type of jazz from a certain decade. I think she did her tribute to 1920s flapper-era jazz with the playful "Juudam"（ジユーダム）, for example.

However, with "Jinsei wa Yume Darake" (Ma Vie, Mes Reves), it feels like French jazz with a swinging 1960s element. I mean, it sounds so much like some of the standards that I used to watch and hear on American variety shows as a baby that I actually expected the hired pedestrians in the music video to suddenly go into dance mode.

"Jinsei wa Yume Darake" wasn't released as a single but is the first track on Shiina's 2nd album of self-covers, "Gyaku Yunyuu - Koukuukyoku"（逆輸入 〜航空局〜...Reimport vol.2 Civil Aviation Bureau）which was just released less than a week ago.

I did mention that her latest album was one of self-covers. And so it was that "Jinsei wa Yume Darake" first saw the light as a campaign song for a Kampo Life Insurance commercial performed by actress Mitsuki Takahata（高畑充希）the year before. As the ad shows, the song was more of a grand musical number. Just kinda wonder what wonders could be done with AFLAC and that duck.

Ringo Shiina -- Jiyu-dom（ジユーダム）

Wednesday nights at the household are often tuned to NHK's "Gatten!"（ガッテン!）show which has rakugo comedian Shinosuke Tatekawa（立川志の輔）overseeing a trio of guest tarento and assisted by announcer Fumie Ono（小野文惠）. "Gatten!" focuses on health-related issues such as the classic katakori (stiff shoulders), the latest trends in so-called superfoods and various exercises.

In early 2016, "Gatten" decided to undergo an overhaul (it has been on since 1995) with a new set, no Mami Yamase（山瀬まみ）as permanent panelist, and even a snazzy theme song. And it's been a theme song that I've been searching for on YouTube but for whatever reason, the original "Jiyu-dom" (Freedom) by Ringo Shiina（椎名林檎）has yet to be put up on the site although the cover versions are present (Ahh...look above).

The knowledge of "Jiyu-dom" doesn't seem to exist on the English-language sites pertaining to Shiina although it has been acknowledged on J-Wiki as a digital download-only single associated with "Gatten!". I've been hearing it weekly for almost 18 months now and I enjoy the playful jazz aspect of it. Shiina sings about having a good happy life with friends so it's well placed with the purpose of the show. 

Tomita Lab -- Kono Yo wa Fushigi featuring Yuko Hara, Ken Yokoyama, Ringo Shiina and Yu Sakai （この世は不思議 - 冨田ラボ feat. 原由子、横山剣、椎名林檎、さかいゆう）

Up to this point, I had always seen Tomita Lab as this wonderful weaver of laidback cafe-friendly songs such as the ones that I fell in love with on his debut album "Shipbuilding" from 2003.

Then, a few nights ago, I happily encountered this cute video with these kids emulating a typical "Law & Order" episode a la "Bugsy Malone". Even better, the child actors were lip-synching to this cool tune titled "Kono Yo wa Fushigi" (This World Is Strange). Composed by Tomita Lab and written by Shintaro Sakamoto（坂本慎太郎）for the former's 4th original album "Joyous" from October 2013, it brings back some nice memories of Stevie Wonder's brand of funk.

And it's got Yuko Hara（原由子）from Southern All Stars, the divine Ringo Shiina（椎名林檎）, Ken Yokoyama（横山剣）from the Crazy Ken Band, and singer-songwriter Yu Sakai (さかいゆう ). Nice to hear Tomita Lab go a bit more uptempo and downtown here. I'm such a sucker for Stevie Wonder and the horns and can only fantasize this superstar lineup performing this onstage someday. Now I gotta wonder about catching up on the Lab's collection. The album by the way peaked at No. 39.

Ringo Shiina/Chiaki Kuriyama -- Seishun no Matataki （青春の瞬き）

OK, in all honesty, watching Ringo Shiina's（椎名林檎）performance at Tokyo City Hall (I know that's not the official name of the place but it's easier for me) on the 2016 Kohaku Utagassen a second time didn't have quite the impact that it did when I had first caught it about 10 days ago. I was never a huge fan of that "Let's all pretend to be mannequins!" craze and I'm starting to get a tad tired of Shiina's vocals often cracking up near the end of a song. Still, her performance of "Seishun no Matataki" (Flicker of Youth) with her old band Tokyo Jihen（東京事変...Tokyo Incidents） ended up as my one highlight from the 2016 show.

"Seishun no Matataki" was a song created by Shiina and arranged by Keiichi Tomita（冨田恵一...aka Tomita Lab） for her album of self-covers "Gyakuyunyū: Kōwankyoku"（逆輸入 〜港湾局〜...Reimport: Ports and Harbours Bureau） from May 2014. I have yet to hear the original version but so far I've enjoyed her concert versions. When I found out that Tomita arranged the song, I nodded appreciatively since from some of the other songs that I've heard, mostly from his great album "Shipbuilding", he has had that wonderful ability to add that cool and classy urban contemporary feeling to his works. I'm not sure whether Shiina meant it to be so, but the song almost seems to be a love song or a lullaby in tribute to Tokyo itself. Moreover, the tune has included the genres that the singer-songwriter has dabbled in all through her career: rock and jazz with some technopop thrown in. I wouldn't mind if Shiina performed this again at the 2020 Olympic Opening or Closing Ceremonies...and with that projection mapping.

(I'm sorry but the video has been taken down.)

Now I did say that "Gyakuyunyū: Kōwankyoku" was Shiina's album of self-covers so there was an original version and that version was sung by actress/singer Chiaki Kuriyama（栗山千明）as the coupling song for her 5th single, "Tsukiyo no Shozo"（月夜の肖像...Portrait of the Moonlit Night/Identité de la Lune） from November 2011. The arrangement there sounded a bit more straight-on pop but I have to say that the former Go Go Yubari didn't sound too bad at all. Kuriyama's version also received the French title of "Le Moment". The single peaked at No. 62. As for Shiina's album, "Gyakuyunyū: Kōwankyoku" went as high as No. 3 on Oricon.

Ringo Shiina -- Gips (ギブス)

When I bought the CD of Ringo Shiina's（椎名林檎）5th single way back when, I already had my impression of the singer as this terrifying ball of energy armed with a guitar and an assassin's glare. Still taking a look at the cover above, I had thought it was a fairly innocent looking photo of Shiina slicing up an apple...aside from the death glare. Then, I decided to take a closer look at the bottom right corner of the cover and realized that it wasn't the apple she was slicing; it was her wrist. Bloodless, to be sure, but still, I just went "Yeah, that's the Ringo I know and love."

"Gips" (Orthopedic Cast) was released in January 2000 as basically the singer-songwriter's first ballad single in which Shiina is screaming her heart out for a guy. And according to J-Wiki, she had created the song before her debut some years previously to relate her memories about an old flame. I hope the guy was properly flattered. In her lyrics, she even made reference to Kurt Cobain and Courtney Love since he was a big fan of Nirvana although she wasn't.

(cover version by Eri[?] Uchida)

I remember the music video for the song which unfortunately I could no longer find online with Shiina slowly and powerfully striking the guitar in a dark foreboding landscape. It's probably one of the most famous images I have of her along with her in that nurse's uniform in the video for "Honno"（本能）. Apparently, that pink one-piece dress was something that she simply purchased at the famous fashion emporium Shibuya 109 in Tokyo.

"Gips" managed to hit the charts right at No. 3 soon after its debut and that's where it peaked, ultimately selling more than a million copies and going Gold. It is still the 2nd-biggest hit for Shiina after the aforementioned "Honno", ending the year as the 27th-ranked single. The song also appeared on her 2nd album "Shouso Strip"（勝訴ストリップ...Winning Strip）which came out in March 2000. By the end of the year, that album came in at No. 3 in the yearly rankings.

To leave off, I had always wondered why the Japanese word for orthopedic cast was "gips" or as I had thought it was spelled according to its pronunciation "gibbous". Well, "gips" comes from German, meaning "plaster". A couple of years before Shiina's single came out, I regrettably had my first experience with a plaster cast, thanks to a trip down some steps at what is now the Japan Bank for International Cooperation during a teaching session there. Ended up having that thing on my leg for 3 weeks. Mind you, there was one fortuitous consequence during my convalescence at home. It was the 1998 Winter Olympics in Nagano and I got to see the Japanese ski jump team win a Gold live on TV.

Rie Tomosaka/Ringo Shiina -- Cappuccino (カプチーノ)

A couple of things led me to write about this song tonight. One was writing about "Escape", the hit single by the band Moon Child that also served as the theme song for the suspense series "FiVE" starring actress Rie Tomosaka（ともさかりえ）who was at the time seen just about everywhere on TV. And even recently, I saw her in some drama in period dress as a youngish-but-wiser character which is how I usually see her nowadays during the relatively few times that I catch her now. But her claim to fame was when she acted alongside Kinki Kids' Tsuyoshi Domoto（堂本剛）in the live-action adaptation of the kid detective series "Kindaichi Shonen no Jikenbo"（金田一少年の事件簿...Kid Kindaichi's Case File）as the high school sidekick to Domoto's teen sleuth.

The other thing was that I had been trying to find Ringo Shiina's（椎名林檎）latest effort, a song called "Juudamu"（ジューダム）that has become the new theme song for NHK's long-running variety information show "Gatten"（ガッテン）. I gather that I'm too early since perhaps the song hasn't even come out publicly but I did come across another number by her called "Cappuccino" many years back.

In her early years, Tomosaka also had her time as a singer, releasing 8 singles between 1996 and 2000 (she also released 3 singles under her "alter ego" of Eri Sakatomo). Her 2nd-last single to date was "Cappuccino" released in January 1999. Shiina wrote and composed the song right on the eve of her big splash in Japanese music. In fact, it was so early that her name was written down in the credits in katakana（シーナ・リンゴ）instead of the usual familiar kanji. I kinda saw this encounter between Tomosaka and Shiina as somewhat being like the passing of two ships: one leaving music to fully focus on acting while the other about to make it big in music.

I also found the arrangement by Seiji Kameda（亀田誠治）interesting since the original song sounded as if it was following the work of Swedish arranger Tore Johansson. At the time, his sound was permeating music in and outside of Japan as he helped out singers such as Tomoyo Harada（原田知世）, Bonnie Pink and The Cardigans. The bossa nova is quite nice and I have to admit that young Tomosaka crawling and wrapping herself around a pole like a human Slinky in the video wasn't too bad either.

And apparently, she was also willing to put on the same sort of evening wear for her live performances (although the video has been taken down). Well, from what I could understand of the lyrics, it was about a young lady who was pretty much willing to do everything to get her guy to notice her. "Cappuccino" went as high as No. 67 on Oricon and it was apparently the lowest top ranking for any of her singles so perhaps the writing was starting to get on the wall as far as Tomosaka's music career was concerned. The song did get on her 2nd album "Murasaki"（むらさき...Purple）from February 1999 which peaked at No. 40.

Still, for Shiina, it was the humble beginning to way bigger and better things. The singer-songwriter performed a cover of the song she had originally created for Tomosaka in 2014 via an album of self-covers titled "Gyakuyunyu - Kowankyoku"（逆輸入 〜港湾局〜...Reimport: Ports and Harbours Bureau）which hit No. 3 on the charts. I think this one has that familiar Shiina-esque bluesy flavour.

I don't drink cappuccino so here's a latte instead!

Ringo Shiina -- Nagaku Mijikai Matsuri （長く短い祭）

As I was commenting to Noelle on her fine opinions on the 66th Kohaku Utagassen a couple of days ago, the most recent version of the NHK New Year's Eve special had quite a bit more meat to chew on. Although I read that the special experienced even lower ratings overall than for the program in 2014, I actually enjoyed the Kohaku for the first time in several years, and this is somewhat of a reversal on my more dour feelings on the show, but in an age in Japan when there are so many more things to do outside the home on December 31st and people can just as easily record the program for later viewing, managing a 39.2% in the Kanto area and a 43.0% in the Kansai area during the 2nd half of the show is not too shabby. But yeah, the glory days of the Kohaku are pretty much a part of history now.

For me, one of the highlights of No. 66 was the appearance of Lady Shiina. It wasn't so much seeing singer-songwriter Ringo Shiina（椎名林檎）come onto the Shibuya stage as it was witnessing a sliver of a Ringo Shiina concert appear magically in the middle of the Kohaku. She performed her latest single from August 2015, "Nagaku Mijikai Matsuri" (A Long Short Festival), and it's obvious that she has cornered the market on sexy and sultry Neo-Japaneseque fashion.

"Nagaku Mijikai Matsuri" brings a bit of club and a bit of fusion for a nice aural evening on the town accompanying Shiina's purring vocals with vocal assistance from guitarist Ukigumo（浮雲）who used to perform on her old band, Tokyo Jihen, for several years. The song strikes me as being more reflective of her more recent jazziness than her early jangly rock roots, and it would make for some good musical accompaniment on some bar hopping in either Shinjuku or Shibuya. The single managed to peak at No. 6.

http://www.letv.com/ptv/vplay/23220338.html

The music video has got its own story. As the song is playing on with Shiina and Ukigumo popping up in excerpts, the main scenes deal with a young woman having one final fling in the city before unrepentantly facing her fate following dealing with some ugly business at home. Not a lady to cross.

"Nagaku Mijikai Matsuri" even became the summer campaign tune for Coca-Cola as well.