2020 was the year when Japan discovered Eito（瑛人）, a singer songwriter who had been little known until then. On January 1, 2021, he released his first album “Sukkarakan”, containing “Kosui (Perfume)”, the song that made him famous. “Kosui” （香水）was previously released in April 2019 for digital download and streaming only, without producing an album. It is performed using an acoustic guitar, bringing out Eito’s...
Known as a “pioneer of black music”, Japan’s leading soul singer Toshi Kubota has released a new song called “Boogie Ride”, which I would like to introduce. We all know Toshi’s representative song “LA LA LA LOVE SONG”, a duet with Naomi Campbell released in 1996. It became a million seller as the theme song for “Long Vacation”, a tv drama starring Takuya Kimura...
Pickled cucumber🥒 (きゅうりの浅漬け) Japanese love pickled cucumber. The pickled cucumber in Japan is different from that in America. It’s based on salt, sugar, and a bit of soy sauce, so Japanese pickles are sweeter.😋 Cucumber can be substituted with radish and carrots.🥕 It goes well with beer and Japanese sake too.
There was a duo band that caught the eye of viewers of the TV music program “NHK Kouhaku Uta Gassen” on New Year’s Eve in Japan. Who was it? The answer is YOASOBI. Their debut song, “Racing into the Night”（夜に駆ける）has surpassed 300 million streaming playbacks, which was achieved in record time, and won the #1 spot in Billboard Japan’s “Hot 100” of the Year...
During a whirlwind tour of western Japan in spring 2019, I interviewed several craftsmen who work with sap from the Asian lacquer tree to make exquisite pieces of lacquerware. I imagined these craftsmen working in well-lit art studios or museum-like surroundings. Instead, I found them working out of their homes or in a warehouse-like office, their work aprons stained coal black from the urushi...
Seiko Matsuda, a Showa Kayo diva, debuted from CBS Sony in 1980 and celebrated her 40th anniversary this year. She is one of my favorite artists, who has so many masterpieces that I can’t possibly cover in one post. She had some good news to share with fans this year. As a special commemoration of the 40th anniversary of her debut, the first analog...
J-Pop queen Yumi Matsutoya, or Yuming, released a new album “Shinkai no Machi” on December 1st for the first time in four years. This is her 39th album, counting from “Hikoki-gumo”, which was released when she debuted in 1973 as Yumi Arai. As part of the promotion for this new album, Yuming has made several guest appearances in Japanese TV programs. We learned some interesting...
