Sement Mixers -- Kiri ga nai（きりがない）

Wow! Those Japanese prime time game shows sure bring back some memories of my earlier years in my Tokyo/Chiba stint. One of the few that I caught regularly was NTV's "Magical Zunou Power!!"（マジカル頭脳パワー!!...Magical Brain Power!!）which was on at 8 pm on Saturdays for the first half of its time in the 1990s, then it switched over to Thursdays at the same time for the rest of its existence until the autumn of 1999. It starred the popular tarento such as veteran George Tokoro（所ジョージ）showing up to do battle with their wits and thinking speed through a variety of puzzles.

I'd actually taped a few of the episodes onto VHS tape and sent them back to Toronto for my parents' viewing pleasure. Last year, when because of some major misunderstandings, we had no television for a week, my family relied on those old videotapes to keep us occupied and that included "Magical Zunou Power!!".

Believe it or not, the game shows did have their own ending theme songs although only a segment was played while the tarento talked over the music. The very first ending theme was Sement Mixers'（セメントミキサーズ）"Kiri ga nai" (Boundless), and yes, that is how the band spelled their name.

One of the other reasons that I've put this up is that the other day, I wrote about the late Tsunekichi Suzuki's（鈴木常吉）atmospheric "Omoide"（思ひで）which was the theme song for the popular TBS late-night drama "Shinya Shokudo"（深夜食堂）. Well, Suzuki was a founding member of Sement Mixers. At the time, vocalist/guitarist Suzuki was 35 years old when he and 18-year-old bassist Toshiyuki Masuda（増田俊行）along with vocalist/guitarist Isao Motegi（茂木功）, percussionist Takayuki Matsumura（松村孝之）and drummer Akihiko Sato（佐藤揚彦）created the band for competition on the popular TBS battle-of-the-bands program "Heisei Meibutsu TV Miyake Yuji no Ikasu Bando Tengoku"  (平成名物ＴＶ三宅祐司のいかすバンド天国...Heisei Specialty TV Yuji Miyake's Cool Band Heaven) in May 1989.

Bands such as BEGIN and Jitterin' Jinn also participated on the show, and it was the latter band that was dethroned by Sement Mixers to become the 7th IkaTen King for the next few weeks before being defeated themselves by Totsugeki Dancehall（突撃ダンスホール...Attack Dancehall）. Following their reign on "IkaTen", according to their J-Wiki article, Sement Mixers were able to release one album "Warau Shintai"（笑う身体...The Laughing Corpse） in October 1990 before they broke up. Apparently, there was at least one single "Sore ga Doushita"（それがどうした...So What?）although a list of their singles hasn't been put up on J-Wiki, and that's where "Kiri ga nai" is located as a coupling song.

True to the theme of what "Magical Zunou Power!!" was all about, "Kiri ga nai" is also one fun and bouncy number. Written by Suzuki and composed by co-vocalist Motegi, it's got that some of that ska flavour which was permeating some of the other bands of the time. I also want to pay compliments to that happy trumpeter. It's kinda too bad that "Kiri ga nai" was probably subsumed under all of the tarento bantering with each other at the end of each episode. The song had its run as the ending theme between October 1990 and March 1991.

Tsunekichi Suzuki -- Omoide （思ひで）

Butter Chicken Curry in Kawasaki

There were a few restaurants during my time in the Tokyo and Chiba areas that I used to frequent enough that the owners became familiar and friendly towards me. One was the neighbourhood Skylark family restaurant near my subway station that I used to go for the all-you-can-eat buffet breakfast. Another was even closer to the station; in fact, it was literally under the tracks. That was Tonki the tonkatsu eatery and I'm certainly hoping that I visit it again once it's safe to travel to Japan. The last one, alas, closed up shop years ago but it was an English tea room in the Ichigaya district near my second school. I used to have some of the best tuna sandwiches that I'd ever had anywhere on the planet there while other teachers and students and I gathered there to chat. Ironically, I never had the tea service with the clotted cream and scones much to my regret.

The reason that I've started out with the restaurant story is that yesterday I came across the above video featuring some of the dishes that appeared in the 2015 movie version of "Shinya Shokudo"（深夜食堂...Midnight Diner）. It began back in 2009 as a TBS TV drama and is currently streaming on Netflix. I knew about the movie because of a review that I had caught in "The Japan Times" when I was still living there. It's basically about an overnight diner based somewhere deep in Shinjuku called Meshiya（めしや）which serves comfort food and advice from among the Master and regulars. And I gotta say that the dishes served above sure look scrumptious and are the type of food that I've seen and eaten at some of the older Showa Era eateries that I occasionally visited, including in Shinjuku (although I very rarely got the opportunity to try them in the middle of the night). 

Although "Shinya Shokudo" premiered well into the 21st century, there's still very much an old-style anthology feel as if the Master and even Meshiya itself are acting like the show's Rod Serling. It even has its own spoken introduction just like "Space, the final frontier..." in "Star Trek" and "You unlock this door with the key of imagination...." in the original "The Twilight Zone" spoken by the aforementioned Serling.

Hamburg steak at Royal Host

When people finish their day and hurry home, my day starts.
My diner is open from midnight to seven in the morning.
They call it "Midnight Diner."
That's all I have on the menu. 
But I make whatever customers request as long as I have ingredients for it. That's my policy.
Do I even have customers? More than you would expect. (found at the TV Tropes website)

The opening theme for "Shinya Shokudo" is "Omoide" (Memories), an immediately calming and atmosphere-inducing ballad about the seeming ephemerality of life. Sung by Tsunekichi Suzuki（鈴木常吉）, his well-worn voice directly reflects the old wood and metal that have absorbed the aromas of the food and drink of Meshiya along with the variety of conversations that have taken place in the little eatery over the years. The diner must be an oasis among the cacophony, visual and aural, of the neon and nightlife in Shinjuku, and I could imagine the singer coming into places like Meshiya as one of those traditional balladeers to offer to sing such an appropriate song.

"Omoide" was released on Suzuki's 2010 album "Zeigo"（ぜいご）. Suzuki came up with the lyrics but as for the composition, although one site has listed him as the composer as well, other sites including JASRAC have stated that "Omoide" was based on an Irish folk song.

Suzuki started out as the vocalist and guitarist for the rock band Cement Mixers（セメントミキサーズ）, although according to the cover of one of their CDs, the first word was spelled Sement. I'll give more details later since I plan on providing an article on this band but unfortunately I have to finish off here in saying that Suzuki passed away a little over a month ago on July 6th for esophageal cancer at the age of 65.

Hearty beef stew in Okachimachi