Favorite J-pop Singles: Koizumi Kyoko / My Sweet Home

After falling in love with Tomoko Yamaguchi in the incredible drama Long Vacation, I was eager to check out some of her earlier dramas, and my friend met my request with a quirky drama called “Sweet Home”.

This drama was a fun show to watch- it’s about Tomoko trying to get her child into a upscale elementary school, but to do that, she will have to overcome the obstacles of a domineering teacher (played by Tomoko’s co-star in Double Kitchen,Yoko Nogiwa) and an apathetic husband!

The theme song was the wonderfully lush “My Sweet Home” by Koizumi Kyoko, and here’s where the rub comes in! It seems the reason my friend had the series on VHS tape was that he’d taped it for his parents who had gone on some extended trip and didn’t want to miss the drama! Unfortunately, in the interest of saving space on the tapes (not to mention the fact that his mother would have just fast-forwarded over the credits, anyway), he cut out each and every opening theme! :)

The way each episode began was with a 5 minute-or-so teaser which would have its punchline, then- poing! the title would ”stamp” on the screen,and then it would segue into the theme song… it was heartbreaking to see about 2 seconds of the song before it would unceremoniously cut and go directly to the show!

Not that I’m really complaining, mind you…if it wasn’t for this chance of my friend taping the show in the first place would I have ever seen the show, period! So thanks for “Sweet Home”, braddah, and thanks for all the fish…

Favorite J-pop Singles: Hirose Kohmi / Shiawase Wo Tsukamitai

I was introduced to the world of j-pop through Pony Canyon artists CoCo and the spin-off solo artist ventures such as Miura Rieko and Senou Azusa.
One of the very first non-Pony Canyon/CoCo related j-pop artist I ever heard was Hirose Kohmi, and what an introduction it was! Performing her earth shattering single “Shiawase Wo Tsukamaetai”, Kohmi immediately floored me by her ferocious take on the song, and I quickly knew that I was going to be buying more of her stuff soon!
As I got more involved with Hirose Kohmi’s songs and performances, I realized that among other things, She was way outta left field, a real eccentric performer, or, as J-pop buyer Dave once said, “She’s Weird”.
Another artist that will appear many times on my Favorite j-pop singles list!

Favorite J-pop Singles: Sakai Noriko / Aoi Usagi

The first song I ever knew from Sakai Noriko, from the wildly popular Hoshi No Kinka series, starring Sakai as a deaf-mute nurse trying to win back the love of her amnesiac fiancee. (Wow, this just spells out Soap Opera drama, doesn’t it?!)

Best performance of this song for me just has to be the 1995 Kohaku Uta Gassen(yes, THAT Red and White, again!) where she hand-signed along with the song , man, it was like an art-form, so beautiful!. Noriko herself looked pretty fine, too!

One of the first major songs I've ever loved from j-pop, and the opening piano notes will always take me right back to those days...a sad, melancholy song befitting the sad, melancholy drama it was from!

Hoshi No Kinka would go on to spawning a sequel (which also starred Sakai and featured her song Kagami No Dress as its theme) AND a reboot series, as well!

Favorite J-pop Singles: Fukuyama Masaharu / It’s Only Love

The first song I ever knew from Fukuyama Masaharu was the single “Hello”, but it wasn’t until I got a chance to see him performing two older classics on Hey! Hey! Hey! Music Champ that I got to hear what would be my favorite song from him!

Along with the cool “Melody”, Fukuyama also performed fan favorite single “It’s Only Love”, a song that first caught my attention as a Beatles’ Tune title, then really caught my ear with the powerful beat and melody, with his sincere singing! I was hooked!

There are about three songs from Masaharu Fukuyama that I really love trying to sing at Karaoke, including “It’s Only Love”, “Heart”, and the rocking (but wacky) “Peach!!”, making him one of the BIGGER J-pop Single successes here!