Minami Shinoda -- Ashita mo Ashita（あしたもあした）

 

It was back in 2016 when I posted up the opening and ending themes for the oh-so-relaxing anime "Flying Witch"（ふらいんぐうぃっち）: "Shanranran" (シャンランラン) and "Nichijo no Mahou"（日常の魔法）respectively. For the opener, I think I noted that I would like to head up to Hirosaki, Aomori Prefecture where the show was set; alas, I have yet to head up there but my anime buddy has done the pilgrimage to Hirosaki a couple of times now because of the charms of "Flying Witch" though he hasn't braved the cultivation of any mandrakes.

After watching the apparently one-and-done series at my buddy's house back in 2016, I decided to visit Hirosaki vicariously one more by watching the season again and once again, a fine time was had by me. However, what I hadn't known was that at the same time that the main series was running on TV, there was also a two-minute per episode online series for several weeks called "Flying Witch Petit"（ふらいんぐうぃっち ぷち）. Done up in chibi style, some of the characters such as Makoto the teenage witch and her cat Chito to perform some cute vignettes. I opted to go through the entire package of ten episodes in one go.

I couldn't find a full clean version of the ending theme but it is still adorably worthy enough to cover. Seiyuu Minami Shinoda（篠田みなみ）who portrays Makoto sings "Ashita mo Ashita" (Tomorrow is Tomorrow, Too) which definitely fits the atmosphere of the Petit version of "Flying Witch" more than the original series. Sho Watanabe（渡辺翔）and Teppei Shimizu（清水哲平）were behind the creation of the song. Below is a mashup of "Ashita mo Ashita" and another song "Ah! Eto"（あっ！えとっ...Ah, Well!）by Happy Machine.

As a P.S., the above video by Inside Local Japan has the apple pie tour within Hirosaki and of course, my anime buddy partook in that. At 1:25, Fujita Memorial Park is featured and in the park, there is a Taisho Era café which did get its fifteen minutes (I think, literally) of fame in one episode of "Flying Witch". 

Natsumi Shimai -- Hotel Sabaku（ホテル砂漠）

 

In recent weeks, I've picked up a rather odd interest in that I've been checking out the websites for some of the more luxurious accommodations in Tokyo such as the Imperial Hotel and the ol' Keio Plaza Hotel. Maybe it's out of some envy for what other people can afford whenever they go on vacation. Mind you, I have stayed in some very nice places such as the Keio, the Tokyo Prince and the Portopia Hotel in Kobe, but those were very long ago.

Well, I know that a few Mood Kayo have had hotels as their lyrical basis because a number of those songs deal with those illicit trysts, so extrapolating from my hotel searches, I began to look for any hotel-themed songs. Surprisingly enough, I couldn't find very many with even the word "hotel" in the title. However, there was one new song that came out within the last few weeks.

And my search ended on a fascinating song. Through shows like "Uta Con"（うたコン）, I've often heard of songs created by songwriters that have long left this mortal coil such as Yu Aku（阿久悠）but never saw the light of day until very recently. Well, now to add to the legendary Aku, I discovered that the golden songwriting tandem of late composer Kyohei Tsutsumi（筒美京平）, who died almost three years ago, and lyricist Jun Hashimoto（橋本淳）, who is still with us thankfully, left a song that has also been unearthed to the listening masses.

"Hotel Sabaku" (Hotel Desert) was recorded by Natsumi Shimai（夏海姉妹...The Natsumi Sisters） consisting of long-haired stripper Jun Natsumi（夏海ジュン）and short-haired enkai entertainer Ai Natsumi（夏海愛）as their debut single. I noticed though that the Yahoo Japan interview with the two put the two professions in quotations so I'm uncertain whether the ladies really did work at those jobs or whether their names really are Jun and Ai, but I'll leave that for eventual confirmation.

In that same interview, "Hotel Sabaku" was described as a "beat enka". I'm not sure about that, but I am able to pick up on some old Mood Kayo, light funk disco and even some swinging 60s, so maybe the two could get together to create another example of New Adult Music. Gotta vouch for that adult part considering the music video above as we get a good eyeful of the night life in the big city as Jun sexily sings a pretty stark invitation for some boot-knocking in the titular hotel.

Interestingly enough, next week on "Uta Con", there will be a tribute to Tsutsumi but alas, Natsumi Shimai is not on the slate. Maybe they are a tad too hot for prime time on NHK.

The Genova -- Sakhalin no Hi wa Kiezu（サハリンの灯は消えず）

From Geography.name

 

Last Wednesday, I posted a 1962 song with the title of "Furusato wa Souya no Hate ni"（ふるさとは宗谷の果てに）, by Masao Kikuchi（菊地正夫）who would later take on the stage name of Takuya Jou（城卓矢）to even bigger success. Written and composed by Kikuchi's older brother, Jun Kitahara（北原じゅん）, the kayo kyoku was their paean to their birthplace, Karafuto Island, which had been taken over by the Soviet Union at the end of World War II and turned into Sakhalin.

Well, it looks like Kitahara's ardor for Sakhalin and perhaps Russia/the USSR in general continued forward for quite some time. Later in the decade, the songwriter took five young lads under his wing and whipped them into Group Sounds band The Genova（ザ・ジェノバ）. Led by bassist Shoji Sasaki（佐々木章二）, despite the band being named after an Italian city, their debut single in February 1968 was "Sakhalin no Hi wa Kiezu" (The Light of Sakhalin Will Never Die), once again which dealt with the love afar (well, not that far, geographically speaking) for the island or someone on the island. In fact, according to an Ameba blog, Kitahara would create a few more singles with that Russian theme in mind in what was called the Sakhalin Series.

Kitahara came up with the jangly melody while Kaoru Wakaki（若木香）wrote the pining lyrics. I noted some of that blog mentioning about Kitahara's rationale that Russian folk songs had been popular in Japan for a long time and so that particular sound would sell, but I never got any hint of underlying Russian music in "Sakhalin no Hi wa Kiezu". It struck me as being the usual GS song and it was a pretty successful one at that, selling approximately 100,000 records. But I don't know how long they lasted although the GS boom would fade out early in the 1970s.

Kayoko Tachibana -- S-M-I-L-ing Face

From Good Free Photos

 

Over the years that we've been doing "Kayo Kyoku Plus", we've appreciated almost all of the comments from fellow Japanese music fans that we've gotten (except the spam, of course) and hey, a few of the commenters have even become KKP contributors and friends in the nearly dozen years we've been up. It's not everyday though that we actually get comments from the singers that we've been covering. However, earlier this afternoon, I was happy and humbled to receive one such comment.

A few years ago in the summer of 2020, I posted an article on the short-lived band Kaja（カヤ）which was around during the turn of the decade from the 1970s to the 1980s at the recommendation of commenter Mike, and I enjoyed Kaja's 1981 single, the all-is-good summery "Marine Blue Sky"（マリン⠂Blue ⠂スカイ）. Well, I was surprised to get a reply from the vocalist and lyricist for Kaja, Kayoko Tachibana（立花賀曜子）née Ono, and I gather that she was also surprised to see an English-language article on her old band and single. You can head over to the article for "Marine Blue Sky" to see her comment and how she's been doing over the past few years.

In the meantime, Ms. Tachibana was kind enough to lead me to her YouTube channel and an album that she recorded back in 2017 titled "S-M-I-L-ing Face". It's a tribute to her husband, Norihiko（立花紀彦）, who was also her Kaja bandmate, and I've been enjoying the title track very much, especially since I am also a bossa nova and jazz fan. And for those who know me very well, you know how much of a sucker I am for harmonica solos. We may have just left summer but it's songs like these that can keep the hot season going. Additionally, I'm also hoping that commenter Mike will somehow see Kayoko's comment and this article.

Mari Ueda -- Kotoshi no Aki wa（今年の秋は）

From Good Free Photos

 

Well, now that we are in the first full week of autumn, I guess that it might be time for those roasted chestnuts and pumpkin spice lattes. Toronto might be jumping the gun, though, since so far, it's been feeling a bit more summery than usual although it's not stifling out here. 

I was looking for a nice autumn-themed J-Pop song or kayo kyoku today when I encountered a ranking list of such songs at the "Ranking Book" website. At No. 30 is "Kotoshi no Aki wa" (This Autumn is) by a singer and songwriter that I first introduced back in 2017 for her mellow "sunrichorange" from 1998.

"Kotoshi no Aki wa" was actually the coupling song to Mari Ueda's（上田まり）debut single "Tsutaetai"（伝えたい...I Want to Tell You） from September 1998. From listening a few times to both "sunrichorange" and "Kotoshi no Aki wa", I gather that the bluesy guitar could have been a regular accompaniment. Just like "sunrichorange", "Kotoshi no Aki wa" is plenty relaxing but with a few more interesting chord changes. 

In the last six years between Ueda articles, I've found out that her official website has gone the way of the dodo.

Cherish -- Yume - Shinkirou（夢・蜃気楼）

 

The duo Cherish（チェリッシュ）consisting of Yoshitaka Matsuzaki（松崎好孝）and Etsuko Matsui（松井悦子）have been their known for their adorable folk hit, "Tento Mushi no Samba"（てんとう虫のサンバ）from July 1973. However, they've been around since 1968 and according to J-Wiki, they're still around.

Up to now, Cherish has released 48 singles and 32 albums, but by the mid-1980s, the frequency of their releases was starting to lessen, and Album No. 29 was "Daydream", their first LP in five years which came out in 1986. One track that I found was "Yume - Shinkirou" (Dream - Mirage) and their sound for at least this song was dramatically different from the bouncy and upbeat "Tento Mushi no Samba", and naturally, the longer a group or singer keeps on going in their career, the more their sound evolves.

Written by Fumiko Okada（岡田富美子）and composed by Tsunehiro Izumi（和泉常寛）, "Yume - Shinkirou" fits the title of not only the track but also of the album. It really does have a hazy and dreamy arrangement with Matsui's soft and floaty vocals, and with that sudden engagement of that electric guitar going into the chorus, I was reminded of many a Hiromi Iwasaki（岩崎宏美）ballad in the early to mid-1980s when they were contributed as ending themes to that television mystery series. I'd be interested in listening to the rest of "Daydream".

Dark Ducks/The Peanuts -- Giniro no Michi（銀色の道）

 

Just in the last few minutes, I found out that actor David McCallum who had played the eccentric but super-sharp Dr. Donald "Ducky" Mallard on the original "NCIS" passed away at the age of 90 earlier today. I haven't watched the show in many years but when I was living in Japan, I did catch a lot of its episodes on cable TV. Although Ducky had his own moments of anger, he was usually the most level-headed and reassuring of the investigative team.

However, being a baby from the 1960s, I first knew McCallum as stoic but baby-faced super-agent Illya Kuryakin in "The Man from UNCLE" assisting his senior partner, suave Napoleon Solo, as played by the late Robert Vaughan. "NCIS" had some fun with the Mallard/Kuryakin thing a couple of times. In the 1970s, I also remember McCallum playing the title character in the updated television version of "The Invisible Man" which only lasted a few months, I believe.

Ironically, earlier in the morning, NHK reported that the last surviving member of the vocal quartet Dark Ducks（ダークダックス）, Hajime Tohyama（遠山一）, had passed away a few days ago at the age of 93. Members Tohru Sasaki（佐々木行）and Tetsu Kisou（喜早哲）died in 2016 while Hiromu Takamizawa（高見澤宏）left this mortal coil in 2011.

In tribute then, I wanted to post a Dark Ducks song tonight and what I have here is "Giniro no Michi" (The Silver Road), an October 1966 kayo kyoku of optimism and going forward. Written by Shigeru Tsukada（塚田茂）and composed by Hiroshi Miyagawa（宮川泰）, it was used as the theme song for the NHK musical-variety show "Yume wo Anata ni"（夢をあなたに...Dreams For You）. Speaking of the national broadcaster, Dark Ducks were able to get onto the Kohaku Utagassen to perform the song. 

According to the article for the song on J-Wiki, the legendary composer noted that "Giniro no Michi" had been inspired by a memory from his childhood when his father, who had been a civil engineer, was involved in the construction of a special track for the Konomai Gold Mine in Hokkaido. Young Miyagawa noticed that puddles by the track glistened in the moonlight which convinced him of the existence of a silver road.

As was often the case back then, songs often had multiple singers and/or bands competing to be the first to record them. "Giniro no Michi" was no different, and though Dark Ducks had been the first act to show the song on television, female duo The Peanuts（ザ・ピーナッツ）beat them (though not by much) in terms of the release date of the single record which was also early October 1966, although their version was actually the B-side to "Roma no Ame"（ローマの雨...The Rain in Rome）. Compared to the folksy country twang of the Ducks' version, The Peanuts' take on "Giniro no Michi" starts out sounding like hippie-ish Sunshine Pop before gradually turning into a bold jazzy number.

Some 30 years following the final closure of the Konomai Mine, a stone memorial plaque with the lyrics of "Giniro no Michi" was established in 2003 in the area of the mine near Monbetsu Station. In any case, my condolences go to both the families, friends and fans of David McCallum and Hajime Tohyama.