Miyuki Kosaka -- Season Off

 

I think opinions may vary here, but today's feeling like the coldest day of the year thus far in my city. The wind chill factor took things down to -24 degrees Celsius! Had wanted to get my hair cut at the local barber but when I got to the place, it still hadn't opened and one poor guy was waiting in his car for the salon to open up. Wasn't going to wait and even the walk over to the convenience store to pick up the paper was an arduous odyssey.

At this point, still several weeks away from spring, I wouldn't blame folks for wanting to take the season off and make like bears going into hibernation. Instead, I'll be content to listen to heartwarming tunes like "Season Off" by Miyuki Kosaka（香坂みゆき）. A track from her September 1985 album "Fairway", it feels like a summer breeze with the melody and arrangement by the late singer-songwriter Kazuhito Murata（村田和人）, and it does have that laidback Murata merrily-we-roll-along jauntiness along with, I suspect, his voice as the background chorus and his guitar in the instrumental bridge. Kazuko Kobayashi（小林和子）was responsible for the lyrics. Nice to have a bit of summer back again.

Hiroshi Itsuki -- Akari ga Hoshii（灯りが欲しい）

 

Hard to believe that enka singer Hiroshi Itsuki（五木ひろし）will be turning 78 in a couple of months' time. I haven't seen him on the Kohaku in over five years now since he retired from the annual NHK special. 

When I first heard his 28th single from September 1977, "Akari ga Hoshii" (I Want to See the Light), I had assumed that this was one very dramatic enka for a person looking to cadge a light for his cigarette. But looking through Masato Fujita's（藤田まさと）lyrics, I quickly realized that the light this particular protagonist is looking for is the light of hope and recovery because it became evident that the fellow is pretty much at the end of his rope after drinking himself into isolation. 

Drinking and enka have gone together like hamburgers and cola but "Akari ga Hoshii" is different in that Mr. Booze isn't seen as the good ol' buddy or salve for what ails someone but the thing that brings someone down to his knees. Prolific Minoru Endo（遠藤実）was also the composer of the very bittersweet melody including those silky and flourishing strings. There's no one better to tearfully beckon for salvation than Itsuki and the song didn't do too badly by scoring a No. 14 ranking on Oricon and selling around 200,000 records. It also got him his 7th invitation to the 28th edition of the Kohaku Utagassen at the end of 1977.

YONA YONA WEEKENDERS -- Yoyoi no Yoi（予酔いの宵）

 

In recent years through Japanese television, I've become aware of a type of vacationing called glamping which is a portmanteau of "glamorous" and "camping". From what I've seen, it apparently looks like bringing 5-star hotel accommodations out to the woods. I've seen tarento partake in the activity. I've gone camping only once in my lifetime so it's not something for me but there is a part of me that wonders whether glamping kinda takes the meaning out of camping...but I'm not judging. I only know of one person who has gone camping by herself so if I ever meet her again, I'll have to ask her about her feelings on glamping.

I was reminded of this by the music video for YONA YONA WEEKENDERS' September 2025 EP "Yoyoi no Yoi". Now, it translates into "Pre-Drunken Evening" but I have heard it before as a part of a chant during some Japanese party game such as a really intense version of paper, rock and scissors (the strip kind). If I'm mistaken, please correct me here. To extend the definition further, the expression was used to describe the early evening when partygoers are already feeling the effects of alcohol but are still looking forward to the main event of drinking, eating and carousing. For those 80s music fans, I guess it's the stuff before everyone wang chungs that night.

However in this case, vocalist Isono-kun's（磯野くん）lyrics seem a bit more toned down. It's all about having a few friends get together to chill or maybe for a couple to snuggle one night. I've usually categorized YYW's music as Neo-City Pop but this time, I would probably say that it's more really groovy pop. The environment shown in the video helps in my decision although I posit that Isono-kun and his bandmates are taking part in camping rather than glamping.

Caoli Cano & Haruo Chikada -- Mechanica（メカニカ）

 

Considering the music and age of this particular album, this might be one of the rarest of the rare. And yet, I would like to explore it further. According to the explanation underneath the YouTube video, this is "Tokyo-teki"（東京的...Tokyo-esque） from March 1993, a compilation of songs under the aegis of Haruo Kubota（窪田晴男）who had been a band member of Haruo Chikada & The Vibratones（近田春夫&ビブラトーンズ）and a music producer.

With each of the nine tracks on the album addressing some aspect of Japan's capital city, the first track is "Mechanica" which was written by singer and sake brewer Caoli Cano（かの香織）and composed by Kubota's old boss Haruo Chikada. Kubota himself was on the keyboards here. It's quite the way to start things off with Cano's light and breathy vocals fronting a half-strutting, half skulking House beat, it seems like, as if some guy or lady in a red convertible is making Shinjuku or Roppongi their territory on a Friday night.  There are also a couple of times when this musical flourish suddenly bursts forth like a fountain going several metres up into the night sky which in a way reminds me of some Pet Shop Boys tunes. This album may be quite the ride in my old stomping grounds.

Chiyono Yoshino -- Icy Doll

 

Chiyono Yoshino（吉野千代乃）may not be the most well-known singer even within the City Pop umbrella that I've often associated her with, but she has had performed her material with sophistication and grace such as has been the case with her "Birthday Eve" from 1994. This came from her album "Crescent Moon" which was her final album until her 2018 "Canary".

Going to her debut album "Rain Ballade" from March 1986 then, it was a bit of a revelation to hear one of the tracks "Icy Doll". It is indeed Yoshino's resonant vocals but the melody and arrangement sound so mid-1980s European synthpop that I'd expected to see a couple of songwriters from halfway around the world responsible for this. Instead, Kyoko Matsumiya（松宮恭子）took care of both words and music. There's something about it that sounded rather Gazebo to me and I'd also expected to hear some French mumbling during the instrumental bridge.

Testpattern -- Souvenir Glacé

 

One of the many amazing things that I learned during my time in Japan was something of a gastronomic nature. I realized that chestnuts could be used for dessert! All this time growing up in Canada, I only knew chestnuts could be roasted and sold in brown paper bags in front of Maple Leaf Gardens here in Toronto to eat as a salty snack. But chestnuts as sweets?! Mon Dieu! 

But the Japanese certainly love their French pastries and so there I learned and enjoyed marron glace (glazed chestnuts) in the higher of the two videos and Mont Blanc in the lower video. It was just like when I discovered the joys of eating my first pumpkin pie.

Well, speaking about marron glace, I've come across "Souvenir Glacé" (Frozen Memories), a track from the 1982 album "Après-Midi" by the technopop duo Testpattern. I first wrote about the musical odyssey that graphic designers Fumio Ichimura（市村文夫）and Masao Hiruma（比留間雅夫）had taken under the tutelage of Haruomi Hosono（細野晴臣）of Yellow Magic Orchestra fame when I wrote about another track from the album, "Techno Age", back in 2022. However, I have to give my apologies and note that it wasn't just Hosono who helped produce "Après-Midi", but also Hosono's YMO drumming and singing bandmate, the late Yukihiro Takahashi（高橋幸宏）. 

As for "Souvenir Glacé", Hiruma was responsible for the melody while someone named Linsui took care of the all-French lyrics which come across as rather avant-garde. In fact, I'd say that the lyrics could be taken apart into separate parts and used as oral signs and countersigns between two spies during a tradeoff somewhere in Berlin. There's something about mint promises and someone named Billetdoux but things don't get much more legible than that. In any case, Hiruma's melody is haunting and classical in a Kraftwerk crystalline way. It really stands out and away from anything that YMO has done which I believe that Hosono and Takahashi would have been proud about.

Momoe Yamaguchi -- Shikaranai de（叱らないでね）

 

Wow! It's been around 13 years since I first posted the article on Momoe Yamaguchi's（山口百恵）1973 debut single "Toshigoro"（としごろ）onto "Kayo Kyoku Plus". Going back to my earliest memories of the 1970s aidoru when she was already in the latter half of her career in the persona of that seen-it-all and done-it-all world-weary woman, it was rather surprising to hear her all the way back to her first single when she was indeed acting and singing as the high school kid she was.

This is actually the first time though that I've gotten to hear the B-side to "Toshigoro", "Shikaranai de" (Don't Be Mad). When I saw the title, my assumption was that the song would be a rather melancholy ballad about a relationship going sour. Instead, it's arguably even more happy-go-lucky than the A-side. The same folks behind "Toshigoro" also took care of "Shikaranai de": Kazuya Senke（千家和也）on the lyrics and Shunichi Tokura（都倉俊一）on the melody and arrangement. The tempo is even a slight bit slower as those lyrics describe a young girl getting all gushy with her beau and leaving the big decisions up to him. I don't really know for sure, but my impression is that B-sides don't usually get performed on stage or TV but if it had been performed by Momoe, I would imagine a lot of young couples behind her doing some very cute choreography.