Sakura song provides winsome melancholy

I like this sad cherry blossom ballad, in a video that helpfully includes all the words in Japanese and English. Unfortunately I don’t know the name of the singer. Maybe some reader knows? As someone else pointed out on the interwebs, this ballad seems to suit the unsettled mood of Japan post-quake.

Melting older ladies’ hearts is enka heart-throb Hikawa Kiyoshi

I discovered enka heart-throb Hikawa Kiyoshi (氷川きよし) on the New Year’s Eve Kouhaku show. He did a big enka ballad in an over-sexed Arabian Nights production with gyrating belly-dancers. I love how in this image above he’s in front of a (very not gay) rainbow. It’s good to see that some youths are willing to entertain the nation’s growing population of elderly.