(the) Road to the Deep East

In somewhere in the world, it looks a man turned 30 today.

When he was younger than today, he was amused by Kago-chan and Tsujichan ridicules Nakazawa-san from Morning Musume, saying 'Misoji!! Misoji!! Mousugu Misoji!!' (misoji = 30 years old in old Japanese), and never imagined he will become as old as Nakazawa-san in his life. However, unfortunately, he is now misoji. So, is Nakazawa-san over 40 years old now? I don't know, but he will just accept the reality that he would never be called 'young' anymore.

The fact some artists he admires are also over Misoji consoles him a bit though. Diggy-Mo-san from SOUL'd OUT is one of those O-30 artists. All members of Rip Slyme are also over 30. Bennie K's cico is just as old as him. KREVA-san is 32 years old. And... over? But all of them are still kakkoii as hip-hop artists. I guess some symptoms of aging are agonizing them in reality - ( I guess that's why Diggy-san won't take his cap off and Su-san from Rip Slyme shaves his head ) , but at least, we can pretend to be young and act like that.

Anyway, he is not a type who loves to think of the past, but when we look back his life of 30 years, there had been one thing always important to him. Needless to say, it is hentai - no, music. Music always intrigued him, and consoled him, sometimes encouraged him. So, today, for his unhappy misoji birthday, I'd like list up Top 10 music (album) of his life, and look back stupid his life as a music lover.

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-Bleach (album,. Nirvana, 1989)
-Downward Spiral (album, Nine Inch Nails, 1994)
-OK computer (album, Radiohead, 1997)

Since he was adopted to a Japanese family in Kobe from Lithuania, he'd been a very conservative student until high school, and it was for linguistic study that he began to listen popular music. He didn't like the Japanese pop music at that time – what is called 'Being-key', such as ZARD or B'z or some works from Komuro Tetsuya. Instead, he was attracted by some Western music – where the darkness which Japanese musicians can never depict in music exist. Since he met Nirvana, he devote himself into listening tons of Western music at that time. And his musical sense was built and trained in this era.

-Body And Soul ( SPEED, 1996 )
This song was his first encounter to idol pop world. As I mentioned above, he was not interested in Japanese pops, but this first single from SPEED was a shock to him. He wasn't into SPEED so much while it was active, but this discovery – when up-to-date popular music meet talented young girls, something explosive can be born – influenced his life later. And I'd say it was the first Japanese popular music he was interested in.

-Never Forget (Morning Musume, 1998
-Renai Revolution 21 (Morning Musume, 2001)
It was around 2000 that he was interested in Morning Musume, as many of Mo-wota of his age did. First, he was intrigued just for very characteristic way of promotion of this group, represented by WWF (at that time)-Esque skit of members and the culture on the Internet around Morning Musume. Later, he also found their music was very interesting. He is not interested in Morning Musume or Hello Project's music, but he won't deny Tsunku in this era (from 1998-2001) was a genius.

-Beat Goes On(album, Bon-Bon Blanco, 2003)
-Winter Greetings ( mini-album, Bon-Bon Blanco, 2004)
After he found the music from Morning Musume is not interesting anymore – (Especially, after 'As for One Day) , he was intrigued by another idol group, debuted after SPEED boom. It was Bon-Bon Blanco. When he listened this song, he was received a shock that he also felt when he listend 'Body and Soul' first. Especially, he was overwhelmed by the vocalist of group – 15 year-old at that time(!!). And he had been enthralled by this group, over 4 years.

-Perfume Complete Best (album, Perfume, 2006)
While he had been interested in non-hello-project idol groups, he found Perfume, and was shocked by their very unique music.

-Wake up people (SOUL'd OUT, 2002)
-Funkastic (Rip Slyme, 2003)
These two groups are what he just discovered in real time, but re-discovered as a Japanese hip-hop fan later. These two songs and the fact even Japanese can rap in their own style shocked him. Especially, SOUL'd OUT is now becoming a most influential group to him for their very unique music.

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(other candidates, which were very close but not selected.)
-Mic-a-holic (album, AI, 2005)
-Turn(album, 2BACKKA, 2004
-the Bennie K show – on the floor hen - (mini-album, Bennie K, 2005)
-Freaky Planet (m.o.v.e., 2005)
-Love is... (mihimaru GT, 2003)
-Zettai (Paradise something, 2004)


It is the list based on his taste in 2008, so there might be some albums or songs he used to be very into, but now he completely forget. As far as I remember, he used to be listening some heavy metal. And some may ask, 'Where is HINOI team or SweetS?' but he'll say he couldn't select one song which is as important to him as the songs above from theirs.

Anyway, what I could learn from this list is: He was also gaijin at heart, musically. JPOP is a unknown world to him before he meets some idol pops just like other foreigners, and found its attraction as a foreign music fan. It might be very natural that he started English blog to introduce Japanese music later.

Where will he go NEXT?

I don't know, but in somewhere, somehow, he'll be enjoying the music. His sense of music may age, and in 2018, he may be admiring Enka (if he could survive until then.) I wish his desire to search for a good music won't disappear, and he'll be a greedy ojisan who is always seaching for a good music , not the hentai ojisan who is always serching for girls who are as young as his daughter ( if he could have.)

*(And just in case, even if you are very kind person, please don't say 'Happy Birth day!!' to him. He is not happy at all.)