Kirinji -- Daikanyama Elegy（代官山エレジー）

 

I've been to the neighbourhood of Daikanyama, Tokyo on a few occasions, all due to the fact that my friend was living in the area at the time. My impression of this very stylish area is that it was filled with college students dressed all in black (and perhaps reading stuff like Sartre). I probably stuck out like a hillbilly in Beverly Hills (I think there was an old TV show about that😊) and perhaps not surprisingly, I don't have any photographs of Daikanyama, as if someone from the great beyond (but a spirit who could afford an apartment in Daikanyama) whispered in my ear "YOU ARE FORBIDDEN FROM TAKING ANY PHOTOS IN THIS VICINITY! YOU ARE NOT DAIKANYAMA ENOUGH!". Ahem...regardless, enjoy the above video by Tokyo Weekender.

Perhaps then, this song by the cool fraternal duo Kirinji (before they exploded into a full-fledged band some years later) can be considered to be a contemporary form of a go-touchi（ご当地）song. "Daikanyama Elegy" hails from the Horigome brothers' November 2002 self-cover album "Omnibus". I also read that the smooth-as-silk song was actually first sung by actor-comedian-singer Takashi Fujii（藤井隆）but I can't seem to find hide nor hair of his original version. 

However, I am not complaining at all at this self-cover which says Kirinji（キリンジ）all over. It was a combination of the brothers along with Takashi Matsumoto（松本隆）coming up with the result, and this "Omnibus" version sounds like the type of music that customers in a Daikanyama cafe would hear. It's such a kakkoii and laidback song that would make Tomita Lab（富田ラボ）weep for joy and envy. I can talk on the music to a certain extent but as I've mentioned in past articles, I'm not so much of an expert on lyrics. However, I have to state that one person's Japanese blog entry that covers the song is absolutely enraptured by the words in "Daikanyama Elegy" so that I felt I had to say something about it. Feel free to use Google Translate to find out what he's saying.

Pretty moody music video for such a relaxing song. You may recognize the two actors in there. As for "Omnibus", it reached No. 42 on Oricon.

Masayuki Suzuki/Yosui Inoue -- Kazarijanainoyo Namida wa (飾りじゃないのよ涙は）

 

Yes, the man so cool his sunglasses sprouted from his face organically is back on KKP. Indeed, I'm talking about the God of Love Songs himself, Masayuki "Martin" Suzuki（鈴木雅之）.

I'm usually not a huge fan of tribute albums of famous artists in Japan, although I did buy one for Taeko Ohnuki（大貫妙子）several years ago. And so I was surprised to find out a few days ago that such a tribute album dedicated to the songs of Akina Nakamori（中森明菜）had been produced and released in May 2025. Titled "Meikyo: Tribute to Akina Nakamori"（明響...Akina Resonates）, it apparently consists of two CDs with the first one consisting of those other singers covering her hits while the second one has the original versions of those hits sung by Akina herself back in the 1980s.

Speaking of Martin, he contributes his golden tones to one of Akina's biggest hits, "Kazarijanainoyo Namida wa" (These Tears Ain't For Show) and I gotta say that he hits this one right out of the park like a Kazuma Okamoto homer (which I hope the newest Blue Jay will do later today on Opening Day). I remember when I first heard the original version and thought it a pretty upbeat song which got my OK. But then when I heard the extended album version of the original 1984 single which launched her landmark "Bitter & Sweet" album from 1985, my ears and brain were sent into the stratosphere so that I ended up hearing the track a few times that night when I purchased it in Chinatown. 

A similar feeling rammed into me when I heard the Suzuki cover version a couple of nights ago, and it combines quite the potent cocktail of crystalline Neo-City Pop, funk and 60s guitar rock. Singer-songwriter Yosui Inoue（井上陽水）probably smiled through his own dark sunglasses and said "Yes, we have the singer" (a slight joke from "F1"). If there were going to be a fourth season of the anime "Kaguya-sama"（かぐや様は告らせたい）, I wouldn't mind having this be the theme song.

Continuing with the name segues, Inoue brought his own cover of "Kazarijanainoyo Namida wa" from his own self-cover album "9.5 Carat"（9.5カラット）from December 1984 which ended up as the No. 1 album for 1985. For some reason, I never got around to posting this one up until now, despite the fact that I remember hearing it on my old beloved CHIN-FM radio program "Sounds of Japan" decades ago. Anyways, Inoue's cover seems to have a darker and more haunting tone. Plus, the other notable thing about it is that it was arranged by Joe Hisaishi（久石譲）, the man behind all that Studio Ghibli music.

Kenji Sawada -- Minna Ii Ko（みんないい娘）

 

Apparently, there have been a few songs known as "Minna Ii Ko". One is the Japanese title for rockabilly singer Carl Perkins' "Everybody's Trying to Be My Baby" from 1956, and the other is the Beatles' cover of said tune.

Well, this "Minna Ii Ko" isn't that "Minna Ii Ko". For one thing, it's a perfectly homegrown song with lyricist Shigesato Itoi（糸井重里）and composer Kunihiko Kase（加瀬邦彦）having created it for Kenji Sawada's（沢田研二）14th original album "BAD TUNING" released in July 1980. Tsugutoshi Goto（後藤次利）took care of its arrangement as a somewhat New Wave piece. Not sure if the original Perkins' song title would apply for this "Minna Ii Ko". Perhaps we can go with "Everyone's A Good Girl" since although I couldn't track down any lyrics online, I get the impression that this one lass out of the usual flock that the song's protagonist runs around with is not only the one who doesn't fall for his charms, but she's the one that he's most interested in. Such is life and love. Maybe I ought to extend my translation to "Everyone's A Good Girl (Except You)".

Boz Scaggs -- We're All Alone/Miss Sun

 

Welcome to another Reminiscings of Youth article since it is Thursday. And one of the reasons that I've had this category in the first place is because of one William Royce Scaggs, aka Boz Scaggs. Up to now, I've had his cool, uptown-and-downtown and upbeat songs such as "Lowdown" and "Jojo" as ROY articles, but I had yet to post this one mighty ballad of his from the "Silk Degrees" album of February 1976.

Arguably my memory of the really old days when I was a kid isn't exactly crystal-clear anymore, but I think out of all of the Boz songs, "We're All Alone" might be the first one that I had ever heard by him from the radio. The music is automatically identifiable although way back then, I hadn't known who Boz was; I just knew that the song was a pretty epic one, and one that has been covered by a lot of other singers such as Rita Coolidge and Frankie Valli.

Now, as I approach old age, I can honestly say that they certainly don't make them like "We're All Alone" nowadays when it comes to pop balladry. Glad that I did get my own copy of "Silk Degrees" a couple of years ago. 

Anyways, what was hitting the top of the Oricon charts when the album was released? Well, I've got Nos. 1, 3 and 5 from February 16th 1976, just a couple of days before listeners got their hands on "Silk Degrees" at the record store.

1. Masato Shimon -- Oyoge! Taiyaki-kun (およげ！たいやきくん）

3. Hiromi Ohta -- Momen no Handkerchief (木綿のハンカチーフ）

5. Iruka -- Nagori Yuki (なごり雪）

However, as the commercial announcer often says: Wait! There's more!

I have never and will never categorize Scaggs' "Miss Sun" from 1980 as a ROY tune. For one thing, I never heard this one at all in my childhood or youth. I only got to hear it for the first time in the last month! And it's such a banger! I am assuaging my poor soul with weak pleadings of "Better late than never" but man, am I over forty years late to the party here. Mind you, I'm in good company. The good folks at View From the 502 who have become hardcore Boz acolytes over the years were the music lovers who introduced me to this one and I still haven't quite pulled out from its allure. Have a read of the Wikipedia article for the song but basically TOTO had a lot of influence on this one.

Tomoyo Harada -- Hoshi no Deja Vu（星のデジャ・ヴ）

 

The very briefly ominous intro and outro with the percussion aside, as soon as I heard the music for this one, I knew that this had to be a Takao Kisugi（来生たかお）composition.

And sure enough, I was right. "Hoshi no Deja Vu" (Star-Crossed Deja Vu) was the B-side to Tomoyo Harada's（原田知世）"Soushun Monogatari"（早春物語...Early Spring Story）, her 7th single from July 1985. The sweeping feeling of fantasy within those strings and piano was pretty much a dead giveaway to the magic of Kisugi under Masaaki Omura's（大村雅朗）arrangement. And it goes so well with Harada's floating vocals. Chinfa Kan（康珍化）was responsible for the lyrics of a woman's memory of romance being triggered by certain scenes. 

Although it's been categorized as a single with just the two songs on each side, "Soushun Monogatari" was packaged in an EP format, according to J-Wiki, so I'm thinking that instead of the usual 45" donut-ban, it got the full LP treatment. 

Testpattern -- Ocean Liner

 

The above is a photo of the exposed Central Park section on the cruise ship Harmony of the Seas. It's a nice area to stroll and one of the restaurants there introduced me to my first Beef on Weck. Ironically, the sandwich is most famous in Buffalo, New York which is across Lake Ontario from where we are here but I actually found out about it on a huge ocean liner in the middle of the Caribbean.

Cruise ships have been called small cities on the ocean or floating buffet restaurants. I see them as both and after engorging myself on a lot of their fare (I think Royal Caribbean still has a WANTED poster out for me), maybe this song is the one I want to hear as I beach myself on the deck chair. This is "Ocean Liner" by the technopop duo Testpattern.

Not that it has been intentional by me, but I've been apparently placing two posts by these guys in 2022, 2023 and now 2026. I'm basically spreading out their 1982 album "Après-Midi" and I guess "Souvenir Glacé" (that I posted about in January) and this one for "Ocean Liner" are going to be my Testpattern contributions for this year. As for "Ocean Liner", it does feel like a thrumming synthesizer version of a really comfortable and snoozy nap on that deck chair with a slow rhythmic deep ocean beat anchoring the mesmerizing feeling of going off to La-La Land before dinner time. Duo Fumio Ichimura（市村文夫）and Masao Hiruma（比留間雅夫）took care of the hypnotic melody.

Yes, indeed I did get that post-Beef on Weck high...after which I helped myself to some soft-serve ice cream. Relaxation on the deck chair was mandatory.

m-flo -- L.O.T. (Love Or Truth)

 

Welcome to another Hump Day in the middle of the final full week of March. We're still making our slow way to spring weather as we hover a little over 0 degrees Celsius here in Toronto, but at least we've made some progress with the sun. 

As such, why don't we lift some of those spirits up with a bit of m-flo? I haven't discussed about LISA, VERBAL & ☆ Taku in over a year, and I was able to find this nice pick-me-up which was released as the group's November 1999 6th single, "L.O.T. (Love Or Truth)". To be honest, I'd never heard of this one before since for one thing, it hadn't been included on the lone BEST collection I have of them, "Award Super Nova".

m-flo to me has usually meant hip-hop or hip-pop so to hear this one is quite the revelation because "L.O.T.", which was written and composed by m-flo with H.U.B.'s help on the lyrics, strikes me more as a contemporary Latin pop number with some jazz elements (although VERBAL has got his usual rap patter in there). It's also been recognized as the group's first ballad and it's beautifully sung by LISA. "L.O.T." was used as the theme song for a TV Asahi drama series "Best Friend".

Quite the atmospheric music video for "L.O.T." but that hotel corridor looks like it came straight from "The Shining"! I was expecting a couple of creepy twin girls to invite LISA and company to play. Anyways, the video below is of the Agape Mix of the song. The song scored a No. 24 ranking on  Oricon. It also appeared as a track on m-flo's first album "Planet Shining" from February 2000; it peaked at No. 6.

The above video from the channel Heisei Sound System is an AI City Pop version of "L.O.T." that was released a couple of months ago, and to be honest, it was the first version of the song that I had heard before I quickly tracked down the original. I have to admit that it does sound quite good, and usually I haven't been all that impressed with the AI attempts at urban contemporary.