Daisuke Kitagawa -- Omae wo Tsurete （おまえを連れて）

Well, the Canada Day weekend is just an hour from officially ending. However, I was able to get downtown earlier today and meet up with friends for some delectably Canadian fare...such as poutine pizza! No worries from me...I was quite accustomed to feasting on jaga mayo pizza (potato and mayonnaise) from the Tokyo branches of Domino Pizza for years.

Yesterday, I devoted one article which featured Ayumi Ishida's（いしだあゆみ）"Minato-Sakamichi-Ijinkan"（港・坂道・異人館）to Kobe's 150th anniversary. During my search for Kobe-themed kayo, I also found another one that I liked quite well.

Daisuke Kitagawa（北川大介）has already gotten his first article on "Kayo Kyoku Plus" thanks to Noelle, so I'm here to provide you with a second article about an enka ballad that had come out a bit earlier than "Hama no Odoriko"（横濱の踊り子）. Titled "Omae wo Tsurete" (Bringing You With Me), this came out as Kitagawa's 15th single in May 2009, and it is a more traditional enka about love blossoming and hopefully further growing in the titular city. Certainly Port Island would be the ideal spot for a date.

This was written by Toshiya Niitani（仁井谷俊也）and composed by Gendai Kanou（叶弦大）and although the instruments would befit something more Mood Kayo, I think the arrangement still keeps things within the enka realm. It went all the way up to No. 27 on Oricon.

I have to leave off by saying that he's got quite an interesting hairdo. It looks somewhere between a pompadour and Superman's spit curl.

Ayumi Ishida -- Minato-Sakamichi-Ijinkan （港・坂道・異人館）

With the entire country of Canada celebrating its 150th birthday, it's interesting to note that the city of Kobe in Japan is also having its own sesquicentennial this year. I've been to Kobe three times in my lifetime; the first time being during the 1981 summer graduation trip with the Japanese Language School, and twice during and at the end of my JET tour of duty a decade later. That 1981 stopover in Kobe was timely since it was during one of the big panda bear booms on Port Island.

However, it was during the JET Renewers' Conference in Kobe in 1990 that I realized how modern that area of Kobe was with the skyscrapers and the wide streets. In fact, I so enjoyed the city that a year later when it was time for me to head back to Toronto, I decided to make another stopover in Kobe during my own farewell trip. One place that I would love to visit in the city again is Kitano-cho which has the Ijinkan（異人館）Western-style residences. Basically, this used to be the quarter for the foreigners to reside when they arrived in the city back in the late 19th century, and I have a feeling that I didn't give enough attention to the district at first glance.

Well, I figure if I can track down a Canada-themed kayo, then it should be no problem finding a Kobe-themed one. And sure enough, I did find one that singer-actress Ayumi Ishida（いしだあゆみ）released as her 50th single in November 1977. "Minato-Sakamichi-Ijinkan" (Port-Hill Road-Western Residences).

The melody by Katsuo Ono（大野克夫）has that sound of a song that would have been written perhaps earlier in the decade so perhaps even when the single was released, it already sounded rather natsukashii. Makoto Kitajo's（喜多條忠）lyrics talk of a lady in one of the converted restaurants in Kitano-cho looking out to the bay while remembering a past love. I guess that's why the director for the above episode of "Yoru no Hit Studio"（夜のヒットスタジオ）wanted to give that windy effect into her hair. Not sure if Ms. Ishida caught a cold while wearing that slip of a dress, though.

J-Wiki hasn't stated whether "Minato-Sakamichi-Ijinkan" ranked onto Oricon but although it probably doesn't hold a match to her classic hit of "Blue Light Yokohama"（ブルーライト・ヨコハマ）from almost a decade prior, it's still a nice little kayo. I'm fairly confident that if "Uta Kon"（うたコン）ever goes with a Kobe theme, Ishida might return to perform this one.

Yuko Ohtaki -- Koi no Warming Up （恋のウォーミング アップ）

It's a good day always when I stumble across a winner on YouTube. Browsing is good!

I had never heard of Yuko Ohtaki（大滝裕子）before last night but when I listened to her "Koi no Warming Up" (Warming Up To Love), I felt like this would be a fine Sunday afternoon City Pop song to play on the stereo. It went well with the warm weather outside today and my memories of music decades ago.

This was Ohtaki's 4th of 5 singles that first came out in October 1980. Along with the smooth music by Kazuo Shiina（椎名和夫）, Yoshiko Miura（三浦徳子）provided the lyrics of striding confidently into the autumn while shelving away that tiny (but perhaps meaningful) memory of the summer. I would have thought that this would have made for a nice commercial song for a car or some cosmetics, but actually it was used for a Yakult yogurt drink. Mind you, Yakult has always been known for providing good health and pep. And that is indeed Ohtaki in the ad above.

Ohtaki, who was born in 1963, was only 17 years old when she recorded this really quite slick single. She had first gotten the bug to go into the singing business when she admired the accomplished vocals of Hiromi Iwasaki（岩崎宏美）and Junko Ohashi（大橋純子）as a kid. In fact, in 1978, she won the singing segment of the Miss Seventeen Contest for "Seventeen" magazine by singing Iwasaki's "Hatachi Mae"（二十才前）as a junior high school senior. She then officially debuted in July 1979 with "A Boy". Along with those 5 singles, she released one album in March 1980 "Million Kisses".

In the mid-1980s, she banded with Kumi Saito（斉藤久美）and Tomoko Yoshikawa（吉川智子）to form the chorus group AMAZONS, and together they found even more success by participating in concert tours involving singers such as Toshinobu Kubota（久保田利伸）and Yumi Matsutoya（松任谷由実）, and in 1987, they made their major debut with the single "GLORIOUS GLAMOUROUS". So far, they have released 12 singles and 9 albums. Ohtaki herself has also helped people in vocal training.

Taiten Kusunoki -- Nete mo Samete mo Lingerie （寝ても覚めてもランジェリー）

I remember that Dreams Come True song, the very cheerful "go for it!" in which vocalist Miwa Yoshida（吉田美和）sings of her character not liking her boyfriend's favourites, Monty Python and anything by Gerry Anderson. For me, I've had plenty of experience with both Japanese, American, Canadian and British comedy, and I'm good with all of them but I can understand someone born and raised in Japan not getting the humour of Python. In my case, though, I've watched John Cleese, Eric Idle and the rest of the gang since I was about 5. Good golly...I mean, who doesn't love THE BISHOP?!

And of course, there is the famous "The Lumberjack Song" by Michael Palin. It might be exaggerating a bit but I think even those from my generation who don't really know Monty Python would probably have heard at least an inkling of the crazy "The Lumberjack Song". It's certainly one of my signposts for the show.

Crazily enough, I got the same impression that I had for "The Lumberjack Song" when I first heard The Lingerie Song on anime "Love Lab"（恋愛ラボ）. Yup, I've enjoyed this deceptively heartfelt show which I had first assumed was another one of those nutty comedies. However, The Lingerie Song that is actually called "Nete mo Samete mo Lingerie" (Sleeping or Awake, It's Lingerie) definitely planted things on the wacky side.

It made its appearance briefly in one of the episodes through a DVD where it was discovered the father of the main character of Natsuo Maki, Masanobu Maki, was the president of the True Tree Lingerie Company. Papa Maki thought it would be neat to come up with his own campaign song for the firm and so "Nete mo Samete mo Lingerie" was born. Coming off as a proud anthem of sorts to underwear, Papa Maki as played by Taiten Kusunoki（楠大典）made the most of his minute on air, much to the dread of Natsuo and most of the Fujisaki Girls Academy Student Council Executive. Considering how much of a nutty girl Natsuo is, it says something when even she is horrified.

(instrumental version)

The Lingerie Song was actually written by Ruri Miyahara（宮原るり）and composed by Yasuhiro Misawa（三澤康広）. I can only imagine what transpired during the recording of this song at the studio. There's nothing perverted about the song from what I could glean from the lyrics. It's just President Maki and his straight-faced devotion to his product. Monty Python would salute in respect.

Yosui Inoue -- Canadian Accordion （カナディアン アコーデオン）

For those who are not aware, July 1st is Canada Day. And this Canada Day was a bit more auspicious than most in that 2017 celebrates our nation's 150th anniversary since Confederation. So most of us are taking notice of the Great White North's sesquicentennial. It's just too bad that I only had this luggage tag as a thumbnail. I had been planning to go out on June 30th to take some photos of the more festive areas of Toronto but since the weather was lousy, I've postponed it until July 3rd which is still part of the long weekend.

Once again, I was left thinking about a song that I could feature in tribute to Canada. I've already covered the most famous kayo tune about my country, the karaoke-friendly "Canada kara no Tegami"（カナダからの手紙）, and I even wrote about an obscure pop ballad sung atypically demurely by Junko Ohashi（大橋純子）titled "Canadian Lullaby"（カナディアン・ララバイ）.

Well, last month when I wrote about Yosui Inoue's（井上陽水）cool and rumbling "Make-up Shadow", I found out that his next (34th) single from November 1993 was "Canadian Accordion"! That title alone had me shaking my head. I know that the Canadian sport is ice hockey, Canadian food products include poutine and maple syrup, and of course, the Canadian tree is the maple. But a Canadian musical instrument?!

I'm not sure how Inoue was inspired to come up with "Canadian Accordion" but he whipped it up as the theme song for an NHK morning serial drama "Karin"（かりん）which seems to take place entirely in Nagano Prefecture right after the war. Perhaps it was all of the woody wilderness from the setting that had Inoue thinking of my country. Anyways, the ever-bespectacled fellow wrote the lyrics while veteran composer Kyohei Tsutsumi（筒美京平）created the melody which seemed more apropos for my cruise down in the Caribbean back in May. In any case, although Inoue doesn't croon the word Canada once in his lyrics, he does describe the stereotypical sylvan setting that would fit that drive from Calgary Airport to Banff (once and perhaps still a popular destination for Japanese tourists) while a fellow is trying in vain to extract the arrow from his heart due to a lovely passenger on the bus. He can only hope that he can get that love letter from Canada someday.

(karaoke cover)

"Canadian Accordion" managed to reach No. 35 on Oricon. As for me, we all had a pretty quiet unassuming Canada Day as would usually be the case for Canadians. We're proud but simply not as gung-ho about the national birthday as our neighbours down south would be. In any case, I will finish things off by leaving you a video on how poutine is made at the most famous poutinerie in all of Canada, Smoke's. Maybe someday, a Japanese songwriter will come up with a song for that dish. "Tasogare Poutine", anyone?

Yumi Matsutoya -- Dasanai Tegami （出さない手紙）

I've been throwing out quite a few of the 78s this week. Nope, not referring to the really old records but the fact that I've been writing about songs that came out in 1978. I think this might be the third in as many days. Well, perhaps it's a vintage year.

(karaoke version)

Furthermore, this is a Yumi Matsutoya（松任谷由実）song and I've not written about the Queen of New Music in some time so I think this would be the ideal song to finish off June 2017.

Around 18 months ago, I wrote an article on one of her tracks from her 5th original album "Benisuzume"（紅雀）from March 1978 which was also her first album after officially changing her name from Arai to Matsutoya (marriage can do that to you in Japan). I had said that the album didn't exactly light any fires under me on first listening which was quite surprising but I also allowed for the fact that it would most likely grow on me over time.

Well, perhaps it's a matter of listening to each track separately. This song "Dasanai Tegami" (A Letter I Won't Send) is from Side B of the original LP, and listening to it away from any of the other tracks, I have found it to be another lovely Yuming（ユーミン）ballad. I love the lush piano (I'm assuming that it is the singer herself on the keys) and the harmonies created by her and the backup chorus. Plus, back then, her voice wasn't quite as sharply nasal so there was that wonderfully mellow delivery.

There's even a bit of Bacharach in the arrangement as Yuming sings about getting on in life after a romantic breakup. The lady in question was feeling stifled in the relationship so she felt it was time to move on in separate directions. The letter in question was perhaps an emotional request for help to her old flame to be sent out at a point of weakness but as long as she's getting back on her feet again, it will probably stay firmly gathering dust in her drawer.

Yes, perhaps it's time to give "Benisuzume" another listen.

Kyoko Koizumi -- Nagisa no Haikara no Ningyo （渚のはいから人魚）

Zukin, zukin...

Good heavens! I should have remembered this song from that phrase uttered by Kyon-Kyon.

That doesn't mean I knew the title for the song. I actually found it again by accident a few nights ago on YouTube after having seeing it performed by Kyoko Koizumi（小泉今日子）way back in the 1980s via VHS. This would be "Nagisa no Haikara no Ningyo" (The Stylish Mermaid of the Beach), her 9th single from March 1984, and it's about as early 80s aidoru as it can get with this one. The arrangement of the chorus, the catchy summer beat and the coquettish vocals by Kyon-Kyon just spell it out for me.

Written by Chinfa Kan（康珍化）and composed by Koji Makaino（馬飼野康二）, "Nagisa no Haikara no Ningyo" relate the story of spotting and lusting after that beauty on the sands, and I'm pretty sure that a lot of the fans were casting the aidoru as that beauty.

The song was Koizumi's first No. 1 hit on Oricon and it would get the lass her very first ticket to the Kohaku Utagassen later on in the year. It sold somewhere around 330,000 records and by the end of 1984, it would become the 25th-ranking single.