My first exposure to Nishida Hikaru was through a zany comedy on NGN called “Natsu! Depart Monogatari” starring TOKIO’s Tatsuya Yamashita and Hikaru. Though it barely showed Hikaru at all in it (more of a cameo character), she did sing the ending song "C'mon, C'mon, C'mon," which piqued my interest!
Then during a chance viewing on MUSIC FAIR, I caught Hikaru singing a variation of Oldies with fellow guests Uchida Yuki and a woman whose name I can't recall for the life of me , including an extremely cute rendition of "Kissing On The Phone", before she broke out her new single “Melody”…and boy, did that voice blow me away! Sultry and silky, I had to have that single, so immediately went out and got it!
It could have ended there, but I loved that song so much (as well as the Natsu Depart Monogatari song),that I was DYING to hear her other stuff!
At the same time, Golden, the Tower Records J-pop buyer in town, told me he'd ordered Hikaru's entire catalog of stuff, which got sent to the wrong store and did I want to go along with him and pick it up? Hell YEAH! Seeing All of Hikaru's wonderful back-catalog, I couldn't WAIT to purchase them and start DIGGING IN!
Clear, Esprit, Nineteen Dreams, Silhouette, Sundance, File Of Life, Love Always…. Over time, I managed to acquire her entire back catalog of CDs and Singles, through Tower Records, Shirokiya's BOOK OFF and the good old OTOKICHI PREMIUM, and I have to tell you that each and every CD and single has incredible sentimental value to me. I’d just moved to another town, and I spent many days taking walks around the neighborhood, listening to my walkman, Hikaru as my only and dearest companion!
Probably my greatest Hikaru moment was watching a video collection of hers. In the PV for her song “Kitto Aiga Aru”, she is riding her bicycle through what I immediately recognized as my own town! She rode past my neighborhood park, down my street, and THEN RIGHT PAST MY APARTMENT! I was in utter shock! Hikaru-chan had ridden right by my house ! Where the heck was I at that time?! :)
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| Hikaru-chan rides past my apartment! |
I know that you all are wondering how it is that I even can tell that it's my apartment Hikaru's ridin' past in this screen capture. While it's true that there really isn't too much to go on, the CM for Kitto Aiga Aru shows a few different camera angles of this scene, including a pulled-back shot where you can clearly see Hikaru and my humble abode!
See that second story window up there? That was my apartment and that's my air conditioner hanging out of it, LOL
AHAHAHAHAHA!
I moved out from there some time ago and last I checked, the apartment had been renovated into a bank establishment....
