Harumi Miyako -- Sen'nen no Koto (千年の古都)

A couple of weeks ago, I had been indulging in numerous episodes of the classic music program I wish was still a regular thing, "Enka no Hanamichi", as well as somewhat recent (within this decade) editions of "Nippon no Uta" on YouTube. Some were watched/listened to at work during lunch time to wind down or during times where repetitive admin work was done to prevent my face from slamming into the keyboard due to a mix of boredom and drowsiness. Others were watched and listened while training hard-to-level-up Pokemon in my second attempt at the new Pokemon Sun. Both kayo shows allowed me to revisit evergreen hits of yesteryear and uncover a few gems that I would have never known otherwise. The most notable are an obscure single by actor-singer Ryotaro Sugi, and the B-side to Harumi Miyako's (都はるみ) comeback single from 27th June 1990, "Otaru Unga" (小樽運河).

The Special Stage was good, but I have to say the best part is at the 1:15:00 mark. (The full video got taken down, so here's Special Stage minus the MC-ing)

I came across "Sen'nen no Koto" from a 2010 edition of "Nippon no Uta" that featured Hiroshi Itsuki (五木ひろし) and Miyako for its "Special Stage" segment. If I'm not mistaken, the topic of love for one's hometown and the thought of warm reunions when returning was brought up, and that was subsequently used to introduce the songs the pair would be singing at that point. Since Miyako hails from Kyoto, her choice was none other than "Sen'nen no Koto", which translates to something like "City of A Thousand Years".

For a tune that revolves around Japan's former capital and that is steeped in history, I found it rather peculiar to be greeted by languid strings and horns which sounded very Western. I was expecting some shamisen or shakuhachi or koto. The koto did kick in later to add that Japanese element, but it felt more like it was sitting in the backseat of Tetsuya Gen's (弦哲也) melody when the strings and horns became more robust and eventually raucously grand. Osamu Yoshioka's (吉岡治) lyrics then has Miyako softly crooning about what could possibly be memories of growing up in Kyoto. This all gently builds up to a triumphant and almost anthem-like chorus where she proclaims about how her beloved home prefecture has remained the same despite all those years. Now that's the right song to round things up for the Red team during the 41st Kohaku. It also fared decently on the charts that would've been filled with 90's J-pop by then, peaking at 13th place on the Oricon weeklies. What a way to come back into the music scene!

While I love the contrast within "Sen'nen no Koto", one of my favourite bits of it is Miyako's vocals as it adds sentimentality to the mix. The non-enka side of her voice she uses in enka-pop songs like this, and full-on J-Pop tunes is actually smooth and delicate and very welcoming to my ears. It's something I hope Miyako can use a little more often so I can look forward to something more than just her as cute character alone. In the meantime, I'm slowly (ever so slowly) getting used to her trademark enka trill (at long last!).

Here is Korean enka singer, Kim Yeon-ja's (キム・ヨンジャ) take on "Sen'nen no Koto" on Itsuki's music show to wrap things up. It was during a tribute segment that featured Miyako and Kim did an amazing job... but I'm still a fan of the original. In my opinion, another singer that could most likely carry this song well also is Kaori Mizumori (水森かおり).

dai41602.at.webry.info/201505/article_3.html

Now I just gotta wait for "Uta Kon" to have another Kyoto special and hope for "Sen'nen no Koto" to be picked to be in the lineup...

Ladybaby -- Nippon Manju (ニッポン饅頭)

I have seen everything! Well, knowing Japanese pop culture...no, I probably haven't. Still, this group takes a good chunk of the proverbial cake.

Cannot remember how I first came across this aidoru group Ladybaby. But I do remember talking with Marcos who's more knowledgeable about the current crop of aidoru than me. And we both agree that, the Alphabet groups aside, there has been this compartmentalization of aidoru over the past few years through genres as varied as heavy metal, shoegazing pop and City Pop. And the groups affected have stuck around only for a few years only to call it a day or just break up with individual members re-attaching into new groups with new identities. It's kinda like "When Enzymes Go Crazy".

Then I came across Ladybaby. As their motto went "Change the rules. Smash the boundaries". I'm not quite sure whether they were ever quite that revolutionary but the trio was unique. There were the two requisite cute aidorus in the form of Rie Kaneko（金子理江）and Rei Kuromiya（黒宮れい）, but the huge third wheel on this tricycle was some hulking Australian wrestler by the name of Rick Magarey. And he was more than happy to put on his maid outfit with some makeup to boot. Gotta look for the cameras, after all.

Their first single was "Nippon Manju" (Japan Sweet Bean Bun) from July 2015. Kaneko and Kuromiya squealed away in their aidoru voices while Magarey, under his nom de guerre of Ladybeard, roared away in his best Heavy Metal growl with a similar background music arrangement. For the first time, I could imagine "cute" and "guitar shredding" in the same song.

Yup, this was definitely one niche aidoru group. It's been categorized as kawaii metal (or kawaii core or idol metal or cute metal) so I think Ladybaby belonged to the same genre as the other group BABYMETAL.

"Nippon Manju" may not approach anywhere near my Top 10 lists in anything but it definitely got my attention. Natsumi Tadano's（只野菜摘）lyrics are a walking advertisement for the Japan Travel Bureau when it comes to Tokyo and Takashi Asano's（浅野尚志）music has that cute approachable metal feeling which probably could fit in any of the more recent shows from the "Pretty Cure" franchise. Plus it's awfully hard to avoid Ladybeard.

The song got as high as No. 109 on Oricon, and Ladybaby released two more singles before Ladybeard decided to leave the group in August 2016 last year. Kaneko and Kuromiya are still together and the duo has now been dubbed as The Idol Formerly Known As LADYBABY; a riff on a former name of a legendary rock singer who sadly left us last year. As for Ladybeard, I've got no idea what he has been doing. I would suggest that he write a book, though.

Yukiji Asaoka -- Furimuite mo Kurenai (ふり向いてもくれない)

Yukiji Asaoka（朝丘雪路）was a face that I'd seen from time to time on the telly back in my Japan days. I didn't know her by name but she was always a presence on some talk show or variety program although she is also listed as an actress and a singer. She also happens to be the wife of a respected veteran actor Masahiko Tsugawa（津川雅彦）.

Born in 1935 in Tokyo as Yukie Kato（加藤雪会）, she went through the education of becoming a member of the Takarazuka Revue in the Moon Troupe before serving in the actual revue for 3 years and then retiring in 1955. Following that, she entered the world of TV and movie acting plus some duties appearing on various shows such as "Yoru no Hit Studio"（夜のヒットスタジオ）for about a year from 1974 and "11PM" for 16 years (1966-1982).

As a singer, Asaoka released 9 singles between 1964 and 1975 including this one, her 2nd, from 1965. "Furimuite mo Kurenai" (He Won't Even Turn Around), a typically bluesy Mood Kayo about a woman pining for a man who can't or won't notice her. I can easily smell the alcohol, cigarette smoke and sadness wafting in from the bar. What sells the song to me is Asaoka's silky vocals that cleanly cut through all that atmosphere without sounding as if she knocked back a couple of bottles of Suntory a night. Strangely enough, the lyricist for "Furimuite mo Kurenai" is the late Yukio Aoshima（青島幸男）, the comedian and future governor of Tokyo. Jinzo Kosugi（小杉仁三）took care of the music.

J-Wiki listed this song as one of the hits for 1965 in the pre-Oricon age so I'm not sure how it did in terms of sales. And there are a couple of other singles which seem to have gotten more of a reputation since they have their own entries, but as an introduction to Asaoka's singing career, "Furimuite mo Kurenai" meets the bar (no pun intended) nicely. I'll have to take a look at those other songs since Asaoka had also had a long stint (10 appearances from 1957 to 1971) on the Kohaku Utagassen including one appearance singing this particular song on the 1966 show.

Keisuke Yamauchi -- Kushiro Kuukou （釧路空港）

https://www.flickr.com/photos/jetalone/1228326383?ytcheck=1
by Hajime Nakano

I saw my Skype student for the first time this year and one of the exercises we did tonight was about how to boost the tourism profile of a certain city in Japan. So we decided to go with Kushiro which is located in eastern Hokkaido. From what I've found out through my translation work of tourist articles and through talking with my student is that outside of the golden area between Tokyo and Osaka, a lot of the cities and towns has been suffering from a dearth of tourism, domestic and overseas, with the possible exception of Okinawa whose lifeblood is tourism.

Would a place like Kushiro benefit from having a major hotel chain set up shop there or having a spotlight placed on its local cuisine such as Kushiro ramen? Personally as 2020 approaches, it would be nice if some of that inbound tourism can be persuaded to take a look at areas such as Hokkaido, Shikoku, Kyushu and even the Japan Sea side of Honshu.

(karaoke version)

OK, OK...I'm getting off the soapbox now. But in any case, once I finished my lesson, I wondered if there were any kayo kyoku about Kushiro out there, and then remembered that I had written about "Kushiro no Yoru"（釧路の夜）as sung by Kenichi Mikawa（美川憲一）back in 1968.

However, much more recently, another tribute to the city was done by another bidanshi enka singer Keisuke Yamauchi（山内惠介）in 2013 as a single called "Kushiro Kuukou" (Kushiro Airport). Much like "Kushiro no Yoru", it has to do with another lament of lost love; since the title is an airport, it's pretty much a loud-and-clear signal that this wouldn't be a happy story of romance since airports tend to be the setting for many an unhappy affair in kayo tunes.

I'll be honest. I couldn't quite believe Yamauchi as a violent thug in the music video for "Kushiro Kuukou". Any scars would instantly leap away from his perfect face in terror! However at least it adds a certain dimension to what I thought was merely a dead-and-buried romance. And those brassy horns brought back memories of the good ol' days of enka from decades ago and gave me hope that the genre has still got plenty of fight in it.

Noriyo Suzuki（鈴木紀代）took care of the lyrics of bittersweet love while Hideo Mizumori（水森英夫）provided the music.

My student and I also talked about one of the tourist attractions of the city which happens to be the Kushiro Wetlands.

PSY-S -- Lemon no Yuuki/Cubic Lovers (Lemonの勇気)

Happy Saturday! However it's pretty darn cold here in my neck of the woods. I think if we are very lucky today, we may just reach a high of -7 degrees Celsius...and that's not taking into consideration the wind chill factor.

It's been a long time since I spoke about PSY-S. I did like the way that the Wikipedia writer for their article described the music of Chaka and Masaya Matsuura（松浦雅也）as progressive pop. It's not an expression that I've ever used for them; I've been content enough to describe their brand of music as a unique and bright form of technopop that set them apart from acts such as Yellow Magic Orchestra. But progressive pop is appropriate since the duo did stand apart from just about every musical act that existed at that time in the late 1980s.

Apparently, PSY-S is most famous among the collective fandom of anime and J-Pop for their 6th single "Lemon no Yuuki" (Lemon Courage). Written by Kenzo Saeki（サエキけんぞう）and composed by Matsuura for release in September 1987, it was made as the image song for the anime OVA that has supposedly become a cult favourite (although the fellow who provided the English translation of the lyrics here wrote a more backhanded compliment), "TO-Y".

In the J-Wiki article for "Lemon no Yuuki", I read that the song was never the official theme song due to some contractual issues (although Matsuura was in charge of the music for the anime) but the official music video was able to use a few scenes from the OVA. However from the opening of the actual movie at the top, about a minute or so of the song is right in there. I did think it kinda strange that something as progressive pop as this tune would be used for an anime about the trials and tribulations of the title character, Toi Fujii（藤井冬威）, trying to get his punk band, GASP, to fame and fortune.

Still it's a typically eclectic PSY-S song with Chaka's high vocals leading an interesting arrangement of guitar, bass, drums, electronics and even flute. There is something contemporary and old-world about it at the same time. Saeki's lyrics are pretty atmospheric but the basic gist is about holding onto love and hopes for the future.

The B-side to "Lemon no Yuuki" is "Cubic Lovers" which is a more introspective ballad about the wonder of waking up in the big city the next day next to your lover. I was half expecting some sort of sad breakup to happen by the end of the song but, nope, it's all quite hopeful. Everyone is content and happy. Apparently, "Cubic Lovers" is also present at the end of "TO-Y" with Matsuura taking care of the music here while Yukio Matsuo（松尾由紀夫）provided the lyrics.

Both songs originally appeared on PSY-S' 3rd album "Mint-Electric" from August 1987 but I first heard both of them on the BEST compilation, "Two Hearts" from 1991.

Spitz -- Scarlet (スカーレット)

I gotta say that if I were to analogize Japanese singers with comfort food (like a good pot of admittedly unhealthy poutine or a canister of Pringles), there is no one better for me than Masamune Kusano（草野正宗）of the band Spitz (スピッツ).

Long time, no see. It's been almost 2 years since I put up an article about Spitz, so on hearing them again through their 15th single "Scarlet", Kusano and company felt like an ASMR massage video. I forgot that a Spitz performance made for a nice tonic when I have heard a little too much of the Tetsuya Komuro（小室哲哉）technopop/dance music experience. "Scarlet" and their other hits during this time brought things down to earth as a nice melodic cool down.

Kusano's vocals and the guitars and the overall arrangement of "Scarlet" made it a nice welcome back to the mellower side of J-Pop. The vocalist was responsible for the words and music for the song which was released in January 1997 (20 years ago...sheesh). It was their 4th of 5 No. 1 singles with "Scarlet" becoming the 47th-ranked single for the year as it went Triple Platinum. The song also became the theme for the TBS drama "Melody".

Momoe Yamaguchi -- Fuyu no Iro/Izu no Odoriko （冬の色・伊豆の踊子）

First off, my apologies on starting this article on a somber note but I have been keeping tabs on the current situation at Fort Lauderdale Airport, and I'm feeling extremely sorry for everyone who has been affected by the shooting there especially those families who have lost loved ones in the rampage. A few years ago, my family went to that same airport to go on a cruise so it's unnerving to know that there are a lot of people who are probably there for the same reason, either coming or going.

Anyways, it's been a very long time since I put up a Momoe Yamaguchi（山口百恵）article. Up to now, I have been able to write about all of those wonderful hits that I already knew during her time in the spotlight in the 1970s. So now I think I'm going to have to explore some of those singles that I have yet to hear or perhaps have forgotten over the mists of time.

Today, it's her 7th single from December 1974, "Fuyu no Iro" (The Colour of Winter). True to a lot of her output during her early years, the song is a sweet and soft ballad which apparently according to J-Wiki was her very first ballad released as an A-side. It's a innocent love song given a measured delivery by Momoe as she sings about having those feelings for a young man who's been a stalwart friend but cannot find a way to express them and perhaps take things to a higher level. Perhaps the title isn't just about the season itself but also her feelings of frustration and despair over her dilemma. The song was written by Kazuya Senke（千家和也）and composed by Shunichi Tokura（都倉俊一）, the same duo who was responsible for her first 10 singles, and then arranged by Koji Makaino（馬飼野康二）.

"Fuyu no Iro" must have touched a sympathetic chord with many folks who have undoubtedly been in the same situation since it was not only her first ballad single but her very first No. 1 single that stayed at the top for about a month. Although it is a ballad, I do enjoy that nostalgic arrangement of horns and strings which go into overdrive in the refrain as if Momoe's heart can no longer take the strain of keeping her feelings to herself. And there was also the way the singer's vocals were undulating back and forth during the verses before they burst out in the refrain.

The single also ended up as the 10th-ranked single for 1975. Moreover, to add another accolade, Momoe became the youngest female singer at the time to get a No. 1 single at the time at the tender age of 15 years and 11 months.

The B-side for "Fuyu no Iro" is "Izu no Odoriko" (The Dancing Girl of Izu) which also served as the theme song for a movie of the same title starring Yamaguchi herself as the title character, a member of a roving band of entertainers, who has her heartstrings plucked by a strapping young lad. I actually found out about the movie when I was translating an article about a certain area in the Izu area; apparently the area was one of the settings filmed for the 1974 movie.

Although I'm not certain about when exactly the plot was set, my impression on seeing the clothes from the movie, I think it was probably the early 20th century. And so "Izu no Odoriko" the ballad almost takes the music into enka territory. I can only imagine if Momoe had extended her career and decided to go into that genre as a switch. Still, there is that pop aidoru aspect of the wistfulness of love in there. Once again, the song was created by Senke and Tokura although the arrangement for this particular song was done by Hiroshi Takada（高田弘）.

The above video has scenes from "Izu no Odoriko". As for the strapping young lad, he was played by actor Tomokazu Miura（三浦友和）who would act with Yamaguchi in some more movies. In the end, the two ended up getting married with Momoe breaking hearts all around at the end of the decade by announcing her retirement from showbiz. As far as I know, they have stayed together all these decades, something that doesn't often ring true with celebrity couples even in Japan.