Japanese Pop Music x Bon Odori（盆踊り）

 

Being summer, it's festival season in Japan and I know that it's in full swing whenever I hear about or see Tokyo's Sumida River Fireworks Festival on the final Saturday of July. I've seen it on television from the air-conditioned comfort of my Ichikawa apartment and around thirty years ago, I actually saw it with my own eyes from the apartment of a student who generously invited teachers and fellow classmates over for a fireworks party. We were very fortunate in that the apartment was right by the Sumida River in Asakusa where I used to work, so the fireworks literally exploded right over our heads. Getting back home, though, was quite the adventure in time and physics.

Festivals in Japan also mean bon odori...the great communal dance around the raised stage all draped in red and white like the colours of the Japanese flag. Nothing says the dog days of summer than doing those rhythmic steps while sporting a colourful yukata and geta while a min'yo is being sung and performed on stage.

However, in the last several years, there has been some relaxation of the rules in terms of the music, so instead of the traditional stuff, examples of kayo kyoku and J-Pop have been used to get the crowds all roused up and dancing. Thanks to an NHK report yesterday, I was rather inspired to put up this list that I got from a far bigger list on Line Music. Yes, you can dance to these in the Bon Odori style!

(1984) Ann Lewis -- Roppongi Shinju （六本木心中）

(1985) Yoko Oginome -- Dancing Hero （ダンシング・ヒーロー）

(1993) Pizzicato Five -- Tokyo wa Yoru no Shichi-ji (東京は夜の七時）

(2001) B'z -- Ultra Soul

(2013) AKB48 -- Koisuru Fortune Cookie (恋するフォーチュンクッキー)

P.S. They could even make a Bon Dance out of this classic!

Cibo Matto -- Sugar Water

 

I remember watching Christopher Nolan's "Tenet" and concluding that the famed director should have spent more time planning things out with this one like he had with "Inception", although I realize that he had taken around a decade to figure things out with that one. Still, the idea was interesting and the effects were pretty trippy.

Why am I writing about "Tenet"? Well, for one thing, the music video for Cibo Matto's "Sugar Water" reminded me of the premise of the movie, although this video (and song) hailed all the way back in 1996, a couple of years before Nolan had his feature film debut with "Following". Still, I rather doubt that mere sugar water would get one in the state of mind to experience what Yuka Honda（本田ゆか）and Miho Hatori（羽鳥美保）had gone through in the video.

It's been a while since I've written about Cibo Matto. The last time I posted anything about the band was back in 2020 when I wrote about "10th Floor Ghost Girl" from 2014. From my admittedly brief impression of their career, they had a couple of phases of active duty: 1994-2002 and 2011-2017 according to their Wikipedia profile. "10th Floor Ghost Girl" was a song from that second phase and I was so overwhelmed by all those genres threatening to rip through the song that I basically chose the easy way out and categorized it as a pop tune. 

Well, "Sugar Water" is from their first phase; it is a track on their January 1996 debut album "Viva! La Woman", and the album has been given the genre labels of trip hop, avant-pop and alternative hip-hop. I also hear it in a couple of layers. One layer seems to contain some psychedelic 1960s lounge material while another deeper layer has a hip-hop rhythm. Meanwhile, the ladies are intoning their vocals like beatniks at a poetry reading. Time to burn the incense!

Nagisa Cosmetic -- Life Balance

 

I remember when Sanae Takaichi（高市早苗）first took the reins as Japan's first female prime minister and she exhorted she couldn't care less about work-life balance as it pertained to her. She said that she would be a machine and keep on working. For me, it's more about life balance since I'm basically semi-retired now. And for today, it's all about heat dissipation because for the first time this year, I'm baking again in my own juices since we've got a summery day out there.

Anyways, we've got cutesy-voiced Nagisa Cosmetic, aka former model-singer and current creative consultant Nagisa Ichikawa（市川渚）. When I was going through that eclectic compilation album "Contemode V.A. 2" and found acts such as spaghetti vabune! and Plus-Tech Squeeze Box, I also saw Nagisa Cosmetic in there, too, and I remember posting her first article almost a year ago.

Well, within "Contemode V.A. 2", she's contributed "Life Balance" which was also originally placed as a track on her lone 2004 album "NAGISA COSMETIC". Yasutaka Nakata（中田ヤスタカ）was once again behind words and music for the techno-Shibuya-kei-esque "Life Balance" and there's much about it that reminds me of Nakata's other project, capsule, when the duo was more into Shibuya-kei in their early days.

"Good" Songs

Wikimedia Commons

No particularly good reason to do so but I just wanted to post up another Author's Picks with the theme today being "good" songs. That is to say, songs with "good" in the title and they are good songs, to boot. Plus, it is a Sunday so a lot of whimsy to share.

(1980) Plastics -- Good

(1988) Keiko Kimura -- Good Morning

(1995) Kahimi Karie -- Good Morning World

(2001) Kirinji -- Good Day Good Bye（グッデイ・グッバイ）

(2025) Mrs. GREEN APPLE -- Good Day

Jun Matsue -- Fatty

Wikimedia Commons

Happy Mother's Day! Hopefully, wherever you are, you and your mother are enjoying a meal, flowers and other things this day. The above photo is that of a Chinese buffet and although we're not going to one tonight, we are going to get some Chinese food delivered to us on Mom's request. Calories be damned!

Speaking tangentially and delicately on buffets and calories, I have this song "Fatty" here by singer-songwriter Jun Matsue（松江潤）. Now, Matsue has representation here already as the leader of his later project Spoozys which was something of a late 1990s/early 2000s group, and from the songs that I've covered under that band name such as "Plastic Planet", we got to hear some raunchy techno rock along the lines of POLYSICS.

Well, "Plastic Planet" may have been Spoozys' debut outing, but "Fatty" was Matsue's first single all the way back in September 1993.  And I'm assuming that it was also a track on his first album from that same year, "Sunny Pop Generation". It's definitely some sunny guitar pop/rock...venturing more into the Shibuya-kei sphere than technopop. Instead of POLYSICS, I get more Flippers' Guitar with perhaps a bit more liveliness in the guitar. Maybe it's not really a Mother's Day tune (well, with a title like "Fatty", it shouldn't be😨) but it can still fit the feeling of a nice sunny Sunday song.

Kirinji -- Good Day Good Bye（グッデイ・グッバイ）

 

We've got some decent weather over the past couple of days and hopefully that means we can actually start dressing for spring. Drivers can finally replace the winter tires.

And on a nice day like today, especially on Urban Contemporary Friday on KKP, we should bring back the Horigome brothers of Kirinji（キリンジ）. This time, I have their 6th single from April 2001, "Good Day Good Bye". To quote the person who came up with the article for the song on J-Wiki: This upbeat song features a lively brass arrangement and a distinctive urban, poppy sound. And indeed, when I listen to it, I can get shades of City Pop and Shibuya-kei at the same time. Lyrically, the song seems to be about life in an idealized metropolis, one with lots of flowers and humour, efficient subways and friendly people that the protagonist would love to strike up a chat with (although he's too busy handing out flyers, probably near the station). Not surprisingly, Tomita Lab（富田ラボ）was the one producing the source album, "3", which came out in November 2000.

spaghetti vabune! -- Favorite Song

By Paolo Piscolla from Wikimedia Commons

I do have a love for pasta, especially spaghetti. I grew up on Bolognese made by my mother but then in Japan, I realized that the Japanese absolutely adore pasta of all kinds and so that's how I discovered other types such as Pepperoncino, Carbonara and Napolitan (which actually doesn't come from Naples but is a purely Japanese type).

Of course, it's not as wonderful as actually eating the stuff itself, but I also indulge in watching the many pasta-making videos on YouTube such as this one by Preppy Kitchen for his take on Carbonara. His way of cooking actually makes the sauce look less intimidating to create...since I have some PTSD from making something that involved raw eggs from long ago. 

Once again, my preamble ramble leads us to a group called spaghetti vabune! which I discovered by happenstance a few weeks earlier. When I posted an article on the technopop unit Plus-Tech Squeeze Box, I found out that their "Kitchen Shock" hadn't come from their own discography but it actually belonged to a December 2004 compilation album titled "Contemode V.A. 2".

Well, I looked through the rest of the tracks and saw some other dynamic-sounding acts there and tried looking up the titles. And spaghetti vabune! was one of them. According to their website, the group began life in 2001 and perhaps currently consists of vocalist/guitarist Keiji Tokuda, vocalist/multi-instrumentalist Chihiro Yoshii, guitarist Takayoshi Umeno, drummer Naoya Shimai and bassist Shuhei Kinukawa. Their J-Wiki article has them categorized as a unit into indies pop, jangle pop, Shibuya-kei and alternative rock. 

spaghetti vabune!'s contribution to "Contemode V.A. 2" is "Favorite Song (contemode bossa mix)" which does have plenty of Brazilian swagger to the extent that I was wondering whether it should have been called "contemode samba mix" instead. But no complaints here. It makes for some fun and summery listening. I did wonder whether there was an original version of "Favorite Song" and the answer was Yes! The much shorter guitar pop original does appear on the band's April 2003 album "summer vacation, sunset vehicle". Incidentally, the bossa mix was created by Yasutaka Nakata（中田ヤスタカ）.

Plus-Tech Squeeze Box -- Kitchen Shock

 

For the purposes of this song, I had been searching for any bloopers from any of the famous cooking shows on Japanese television. I distinctly remember that there was one such program with former aidoru hosts Ikue Sakakibara（榊原郁恵）and Miyuki Imori（井森美幸）getting themselves into a pickle in the kitchen one time, but alas, I couldn't find it on YouTube. However, I can settle for the above video of a lady cheerfully admitting to carbonizing her gratin. Well, at least, it has one thing going for it...it sounds delightfully crispy.

A YouTube commenter noted that "Kitchen Shock" by the technopop unit Plus-Tech Squeeze Box has an intro that sounds as if it should have been made into a theme song for a cooking show on Japanese TV...perhaps a comedic one. But instead, this happy-go-lucky number of techno-Shibuya-kei skippiness was placed onto a December 2004 compilation titled "Contemode V.A. 2". "Kitchen Shock" itself doesn't appear on any of the unit's own albums.

The video below is from YouTuber Orange Glider who gives his take on what makes Plus-Tech Squeeze Box tick. Enjoy!

Plus-Tech Squeeze Box -- Dough-nut's Town's Map

By Angeldm via Wikimedia Commons

Well, I never thought I would ever see a video combining the hilarity of a "Looney Tunes" cartoon with the macabre nature of a particularly sour "Outer Limits" episode. But to be honest, I haven't seen a "Simpsons" or "Family Guy" entry recently.

I am referring to the above music video created by YouTuber xchemix for the Plus-Tech Squeeze Box song "Dough-nut's Town's Map", a track on the band's second album "CARTOOOM!" from 2004. The track itself is one friendly ball of looniness that sounds like an especially insane and grand soundtrack to one of those old Warner Bros. cartoons from the 50s or 60s. And apparently, the gaggle of singers, represented by the catch-all group name of The People of Dough-Nuts Town, includes Chinatsu Furukawa from the duo Sonic Coaster Pop.

The melody reminds me a bit of "Heigh-Ho", the famous work song performed by The Seven Dwarfs in the 1937 animated feature "Snow White" by Walt Disney. That makes the "Gotcha" moment in the video all that startling when it arrives at the end. There is something quite "Soylent Green" about that. One-half of Plus-Tech Squeeze Box, Tomonori Hayashibe（ハヤシベトモノリ）, was responsible for words and music.

instant cytron -- Shiawase na Jikan（しあわせな時間）

from Amazon.ca

Ten days ago, I introduced a duo known as Les gibis consisting of whisper-voiced singer-songwriter Tomoko Kataoka（片岡知子）and graphic designer Takashi Okada（岡田崇）through their 2004 song "Dancing Cat On The Optigan". It has quite the old-timey spacy loungy feeling as if it originated on some sort of game show from the 1960s.

Well, almost a decade prior, Kataoka was involved with another unit called instant cytron (1992-2006). Kataoka was joined with bassist and songwriter Muneyoshi Matsuo（松尾宗能）and guitarist and songwriter Goro Nagase（長瀬五郎）. They had gotten together while studying at Seinan Gakuin University in Fukuoka while Kataoka and Matsuo were starting up a prior band called House Condition and Nagase was involved in the band Bremen Rocks. 

Starting up instant cytron in 1992, they went for a sound that brought in lounge music, AOR and J-Pop, and in 1995, they released their first singles which included their second release "Shiawase na Jikan" (Good Times) in September. Starting with some cute scatting by Kataoka, the song seems to tow a line between Shibuya-kei and upbeat indies pop. What also helps with that image is the music video which takes on that sepia tone and a slightly jittery filming style (maybe that's the default style for Shibuya-kei music videos). The song was also a track on their major debut album "Change the World" from October 1995.

Les gibis -- Dancing Cat On The Optigan

 

According to Wikipedia: "The optigan (a portmanteau of optical organ) is an electronic keyboard instrument designed for the consumer market. The name stems from the instrument's reliance on pre-recorded optical soundtracks to reproduce sound. Later versions (built under license and aimed at the professional market) were sold under the name Orchestron."

That is indeed news to me. I have heard of the pianica/melodica and a celesta but had never heard of an optigan before. Thankfully, the ancient commercial above set me straight.

Why I even mention this instrument that got its debut in 1971 is the title of this song, "Dancing Cat On The Optigan" from the 2004 compilation album "BGM Vol. 1 for Modernica". I've referred to this unusual compilation album because I had featured one of the other tracks, "How To Cook Macaroni & Cheese" by singer and sound creator Takeshi Nakatsuka（中塚武）early last year. 

As with the Nakatsuka track devoted to the popular quick dinner for any college student, there's plenty of whimsy in "Dancing Cat On The Optigan". And listening to this one, all I can say is that cat must be a genius. But all joking aside, the track is by the duo Les gibis (The Game) consisting of Tomoko Kataoka（片岡知子）and graphic designer Takashi Okada（岡田崇）. Although it hasn't been definitively stated, I believe that the two were married since Kataoka was the maiden name for Tomoko Okada（岡田崇）.

Kataoka was also a member of another musical unit, instant cytron（インスタントシトロン）which had its time between 1992 and 2006, and it specialized in lounge music, AOR and J-Pop. I'm assuming that Les gibis was similar in its choice of music. The Okayama Prefecture-born vocalist and musician was into a number of instruments such as accordion, toy piano and regular piano. 

"Dancing Cat On The Optigan" definitely has some of that 1960s spacy lounge but it also reminds me of background music from an old-time variety show or game show, thanks to that optigan, even though the instrument is from the 1970s. Plus, it is also rather inviting for tap dancing. In any case, you can shake up a few martinis to this.🍸

In late 2020, Kataoka succumbed to cancer. She was only 51 but left her imprint on TV shows, commercials and games.

J-Canuck's Days of the Week

By Abby the Pup via Wikimedia Commons

And here I thought that all I needed for a bit of suspense during the Holidays was to watch "Die Hard". However, it looks like the next couple of days in Toronto will be seeing wind warnings which could lead to power outages. Not great during a cold time like now. A lot of folks here including myself still remember the Ice Storm of 2013 which knocked most of the city out for at least a couple of days and many for many days after that.

Still, I'm gonna still slog my way to 1000 articles as best I can. I've got another Author's Picks based on days of the week since I recall that certain Japanese songs have used days of the week in their titles and even their own artist names. All but one of the songs that will be included in the list are already represented on the blog.

(1998) Monday Michiru -- You Make Me

(2006) Ossan -- Kayoubi（火曜日）

(1991) Hideaki Tokunaga -- Wednesday Moon

(1993) Pizzicato Five -- Yasashii Mokuyoubi（優しい木曜日）

Yup, "Yasashii Mokuyoubi" (Sweet Thursday) is the odd group out this time, but it is most certainly not an odd song. It's a very pretty tune by Pizzicato Five evoking a pleasant spring walk in Paris on that day. With the feeling of Shibuya-kei, the Divine Ms. Maki Nomiya（野宮真貴）vocally gives her version of a waltz along the Seine. I had a bit of a time tracking this down regarding when the song was originally released but thankfully its inclusion in "The Band of 20th Century: Nippon Columbia Years 1991-2001" gave me the big hint. It was just a matter of looking up those albums under Columbia and finding out that "Yasashii Mokuyoubi" had been placed in the June 1993 album "Bossa Nova 2001"（ボサ・ノヴァ2001）.

(1992) Dreams Come True -- Kessen wa Kin'youbi (決戦は金曜日）

(1982) EPO -- Doyou no Yoru wa Paradise (土曜の夜はパラダイス）

(2009) Chikuzen Sato -- Sunny Sunday Morning '09

Pizzicato Five -- Lover's Rock

 

Looks like in recent days, the YouTube movie reactor brigade has caught the "Austin Powers" trilogy, and apparently one of the most popular scenes happens to be the opening credits for the first movie "International Man of Mystery". And what's not to love? Austin is gaily dancing and running through the streets of Swinging 60s London while having an entire army of women chasing him down like a pack of wolves. He may be a contradiction in profession as the world's most famous spy but his mojo is never in doubt. Plus, it's all set to Quincy Jones' "Soul Bossa Nova".

Of course, seeing all this had me thinking about the one group and one genre which emulates the joyful style of that decade from long ago, and that would be Pizzicato Five（ピチカート・ファイヴ）and the whole Shibuya-kei thing. I've already posted a lot of the big songs by the Divine Miss Maki Nomiya（野宮真貴）and Yasuharu Konishi（小西泰治）such as "Tokyo wa Yoru no Shichi-ji" (東京は夜の七時）and "Baby Portable Rock".

But strangely enough, I never experienced the very first single where Nomiya made her presence known and that was "Lover's Rock", P5's 3rd single from May 1990 which came out about four-and-a-half years following their previous single in 1986. It's an interesting song for not only the fact that the above version is an extended mix which lasts over ten minutes, but with Nomiya making a surprisingly demure debut here, original P5 member Keitaro Takanami（高浪慶太郎）seems to be showing the young lady the ropes and easing her into the cold pool gingerly through both sets of vocals. "Lover's Rock" has that P5 touch but also has that "slowly slowly" approach with none of the usual brash panache that Nomiya would soon show via sound spectacular and music video.

bridge -- christmas jam

 

I have heard of egg nog, hot buttered rum and After Eights as seasonal favourites but I have to admit that Christmas jam is a new thing for me.

And this "christmas jam" is a new thing for me as well. The band bridge is a group that I've known for only the past couple of years and they've struck me as this somewhat Shibuya-kei and indies pop unit that lasted between 1989 and 1995 with a brief reappearance in 2017. They came up with "christmas jam" for a compilation album of Xmas songs titled "The World in Winter" which was released in 1999. I couldn't find any sign of the song on any of bridge's past singles or albums, so I can only assume that vocalist Mami Otomo（大友真美）and the gang got back together for this one tune.

It's quite the jingly tune as well. I don't think that there is much in the way of the usual Shibuya-kei, but there is quite a lot of indies pop-rock feeling along the lines of Go-Bang's. And I also couldn't help but feel there is a similarity between "christmas jam" and Princess Princess' big hit "Diamonds".

Plus-Tech Squeeze Box -- A Day in the Radio

 

A day in the radio? Oh, here I thought that I was going to have to put on my English teacher's hat once more to rectify a prepositional issue.

But then, I figured out that this was a track from the 2000 album "Fakevox" by Japanese duo Tomonori Hayashibe（ハヤシベトモノリ）and Takeshi Wakiya（ワキヤタケシ）who are collectively known as Plus-Tech Squeeze Box. They first got together in 1997 and have released a couple of original albums including the aforementioned "Fakevox". Their genres of choice happen to be electronica and Shibuya-kei, and "A Day in the Radio" is a good example of the two genres put together like a Reese's Peanut Butter Cup. 

Hayashibe was responsible for both words and music, and it starts off like something for a Nintendo video game but then explodes into a cute Day-Glo danceable (privately, if you wish) ditty. From the sounds of it, I would have thought it ideal as a theme song for some zany gag-filled anime.

Yukari Fresh -- Yukarin' Disco

 

I don't know supremely much about singer, songwriter and DJ Yukari Fresh but it's interesting to note that her own Wikipedia article is a fair bit more detailed than the J-Wiki for her old unit, Snapshot. And for that matter, the Snapshot J-Wiki piece has only added Fresh's record as part of the article. Fresh, aka Yukari Takasaki（高崎ゆかり）, and her professional partner-turned-husband Yugo Katayama（片山祐吾）, formed Snapshot in 1992 with six releases to their names before disbanding in 1996.

Fresh started her solo career the following year, releasing albums up to 2008. Her last album to date was one of her BEST compilations, "Flammable Tapes", from October 2008 from which I offer her "Yukarin' Disco". Perhaps it's disco for The Smurfs, but for me, it's a really happy 1980s technopop piece that has a bit of Shibuya-kei, especially with the samples in the latter half of the song. 

Calin -- Tomodachi no Samba（ともだちのサンバ）

 

Once again, I meet up with a singer who doesn't have a lot of information online backing her up aside from her name: Calin. But she did make her debut in 1996 with the (probably one-and-only) album "Teen Tonic" and one of the tracks is "Tomodachi no Samba" (A Friend's Samba). Although the producer was Yukihiro Fukutomi（福富幸宏）, the biggest name here is Shibuya-kei king Fantastic Plastic Machine who came up with the words, music and swift arrangement, and yep, it's Shibuya-kei in spades including that "dabadaba" vocal effect which I've heard in one 1960s novelty song. Calin herself is kept on her toes with her mixture of scatting and light and dainty singing.

"Teen Tonic" is available on iTunes. The only significant comment on the album is that Fukutomi had invited a number of guests including Swedish producer Tore Johansson aboard the production of the album (and the following year, he would help out one other more well-known singer), and the commenter was wondering aloud whether the producer had been going for his own Pizzicato Five with Calin. I wonder myself but if any of you have any other information on her, please let us know.

HALCALI -- Otsukare Summer（おつかれSUMMER）

 

A few days ago in the Comments section for Galali's "Clear Summer", I received an anonymous statement about the Okinawan song and dance duo HALCALI getting the "Plastic Love" treatment. Their 22-year-old song "Otsukare Summer" has hit the big time via SNS.

Apparently, the song from their September 2003 debut album "Halcali Bacon"（ハルカリベーコン）(I posted on another track "Electric Sensei"（エレクトリック先生）back in early August) went viral on TikTok over the past number of weeks or months, and though it was one of the relatively rare songs that didn't originally have Halca and Yucali dancing all about in a music video, no problems. Folks around the globe have picked up on that and provided their own choreography such as KanzakiAnna through her YouTube account. 

The love has bounced back to the original recording company, FOR LIFE MUSIC ENTERTAINMENT because just yesterday, they released an animated music video for "Otsukare Summer"! Y'know, I had never heard of a loungy Latin-infused Shibuya-kei rap song before...now my life is complete. We can all thank not only HALCALI but also the songwriters Fantastic Plastic Machine and Masayuki Kumahara（熊原正幸）for providing this classy and catchy paean to the end of the hot season (which is next week).

As for the title, it's a pun on the very common phrase "otsukaresama"（お疲れ様）which literally means "Thank you for your hard work", so it's something that is used by folks in Japan to commend fellow workers or others who have done a great service for them such as furniture movers. I gather that I can also treat the punny title as "Thank You, Summer!". For a lot of the local sun worshippers, they are likely saying the same and lamenting the fact that it's going away so soon.

bridge -- Pool Side Music

Wikimedia Commons

Can't quite believe that it's approaching two years since I posted anything up by the genteel Shibuya-kei band bridge. So, just on that point, I'm more than willing to put up another article about one of their tunes, but also, the YouTube powers-that-be have also taken down one of their early songs "He She & I" and I couldn't find any other videos featuring it so I've had to put that article back into Draft mothballs.

Having to put an article back into mothballs doesn't sit well with me so I usually look for another song of the artist as a bit of counterattack, and happily, I was able to find this sunny song by bridge recently. Their second and final single, "Pool Side Music"  from June 1994, was released as an advance single from their sophomore album "Preppy Kicks", and it's got that happy-go-lucky 60s pop feel. Band guitarist Nobuyuki Ohashi（大橋伸行）was responsible for words and music with Mami Otomo（大友真美）handling the vocals.

capsule -- Tokyo Smiling

 

I've been watching the NHK news recently and along with the stories on the recent election and bear attacks, there has been the information on the heat and humidity that have been pounding Japan relentlessly, even the northern regions such as Hokkaido. I don't think that much of the working class or even the academic class has been smiling about walking about my old stomping grounds of Tokyo while bathed in 35+ degree Celsius weather but I'm hoping that the various countermeasures such as shaved ice and neck fans have had some cooling effect.

Speaking of Tokyo and smiling, I've got another track here by the Shibuya-kei/techno duo capsule from their February 2005 5th album "NEXUS-2060" to accompany "happy life generator" which I had written about last month. "Tokyo Smiling" is another cheerful tune by Yasutaka Nakata（中田ヤスタカ）that has him and vocalist Toshiko Koshijima（こしじまとしこ）providing that mix of DeVol-friendly Shibuya-kei and technopop that infuses the lyrics regarding female smiles making things alright for one guy as a tonic for all that ails him.

The music video of Koshijima and company making like a 1960s jet-set team of cheerleaders prancing about is adorable. Anytime that I can actually see the vocalist beaming is a good day for me.