Posted on 06/13/2026 3:23:14 AM PDT by sushiman
This was the number one song on my sister's 8th birthday . I sent her the link today . Thought I'd share here .
Kyu died in the JAL crash in August 1985 ( I moved to Japan the following month ) . The crash is the deadliest single aircraft accident in aviation history . 520 died .
Kyu means 9 in Japanese . He was the youngest of 9 kids in his family . hence Kyu was his nickname .
Leave it to record execs to re-name the song Sukiyaki . It has nothing to do with food hehe !
Thanks for the nostalgia to start the day...
BTTT
Thanks for posting 👍
Well said.
Certain aspects of what happened after the JFK assassination were nice, and exciting, and appealing, for sure.
The Beatles, the pop music explosion, were wonderful, to be sure. My transistor radio was my internet. Late at night, I would listen in the dark, through my pillow. Through it, the world opened up to me. So many things to discover.
Within a year, I saw an operating laser for the first time. As soon as I saw that strange, speckled light, I saw scientific magic with my own eyes.
The space program, of course, was a source of constant excitement. Undersea exploration was very much on my mind. The Thresher disaster earlier in 1963 had literally sickened me. The picture of that one plastic boot cover on the floor of the Atlantic.
But under it all was the sense of loss and dread that I picked up from my parents. The people's choice for President had been taken away from us by force. The guy who took Kennedy's place was awful. Pandora's Box opened; the Gulf of Tonkin incident, escalation, the Daisy Ad, so much else that was bad. Charles Whitman, killing 17 before he was killed by the police.
A few years later, in early 1970, I heard Country Joe McDonald sing these words
Well come on Wall Street don't move slow
Why man, this is war-a-go-go
There's plenty good money to be made
By supplying the Army with the tools of the trade...
At the time I heard them, at age 14, I thought they were silly, just more of the "commie gobbledegook" I had begun to learn to detect at that age (although I didn't call it that).
But now, almost 60 years later, I believe Joe McDonald was really onto LBJ. I don't know how he knew, but I think he was right on the money. The Domino Theory and the fear of Communist World Domination was in there for sure, but LBJ ramped up the war in Vietnam to help his industrial friends back in Texas. Everything he did was to help his pals at LTV and Convair and Bell Helicopter, and many others. Halliburton and the oil boys, and many others.
And the nasty consequences of that war still reverberate today. To list them all would take hours to read; they've been catalogued by better writers than I, as I'm sure you know.
But that's the "unpleasant future" to which I referred.
https://kansaiculture.blogspot.com/2017/10/sukiyaki-japanese-to-english.html?m=1
Scroll down link for side by side Japanese/English lyrics
I was in Air Force OTS at Lackland AFB the summer of 1963. I had a tiny transistor radio that would reliably pick up WGN from Chicago at night. Listened to it under a blanket when going to sleep. Music station then. This song was cresting at the time as was “Blue Velvet” and “It’s My Party”. All three haunt me to this day! Anybody remember?
Am I the only one who can still SMELL their old transistor radio? It had a very distinctive smell. (Radio shack model).
My dad was posted at Ft Ord in California.
I was born there in August of that year. Dad was at the Naval Postgraduate School.
Am I the only one who can still SMELL their old transistor radio?
You never forget that smell.
Years later A Taste Of Honey had a hit with the English version.
One of the things I’ve discovered thanks to the Internet, is Japanese City Pop from the 80s and 90s.
Living in Hawaii, was my introduction to Japanese culture, we had a Japanese TV station. All of us used to watch “Kikaider”, and the Sumo matches.
Still have visiting Japan on my To-Do list.
I STILL play that song on YouTube.....memories flood my mind whenever I hear it.....
I remember trying to sing along with that song. I speak Zero Japanese.
After just listening to the song again, one word jumps out to me as a word I remember, “Sheet-hole”
Ping!
If it hadn't been for the absolute mess made of that war by the LBJ admin and Congress, bin Laden would never have had the nerve to attack us.
“After just listening to the song again, one word jumps out to me as a word I remember, “Sheet-hole””
Has to be the hittori of 一人ぼっち ( hittori bochi ) hehe which means to be all alone .
“One of the things I’ve discovered thanks to the Internet, is Japanese City Pop from the 80s and 90s.”
I moved to Japan in 1985 , got married in 1987 , and our daughter was born a year later . I worked in Tokyo and also played in a semi-pro band there . Many great memories . Still in Japan but we moved down south to Kumamoto back in 1995 .
Great song,
I remember being disappointed when the group 4 PM did a partial remake even though it wasn’t a bad song, it seemed wrong somehow. I used to play what I described as an R&B version on Guitar. Not claiming it was any good.
Also reminds me of ‘We’ll sing in the Sunshine”
Great place to be born. My youngest sister was born there too. My dad worked in the hospital there as an admin. I was born at Letterman General Hospital in the old Presidio in SF.
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