TOKIO's 20th anniversary album "HEART" and my love story with the band

TOKIO marks its 20th anniversary since its CD debut this year with a series of activities including appearances in summer concerts and of course, a commemorative hits album. What's slightly different is that instead of including all the song releases in one album, TOKIO got its fans to vote for their favourite songs instead as it would be difficult for them to decide which songs to include. Of course, having all the songs released to date in one album would be great value for money to the fans but it might have been a huge challenge to acquire the copyrights from Sony Music and Universal Music which were the record companies TOKIO used to belong to. I also think that TOKIO probably wanted this album to be one that had the involvement of fans in the sense that they could choose what they wanted to hear so they decided to hold this fan-voting exercise to decide on the track list rather than throwing everything into one album. Conversely, this also meant that there would be a possibility of some favourites being omitted from this list. Personally, I was a bit disappointed to note the exclusion of my favourites such as "Ai no Arashi", "Honjitsu, Mijukumono", "Kanpai", "Hitoribocchino Habrush" but it couldn't be helped since there is a limit to how many songs could make it to this album.

This 20th anniversary album titled "HEART" has two first-press limited editions and a normal edition which comes with slightly different content and covers. The similarity between all three versions is that they each have two audio CDs containing 16 songs each voted by the fans. CD 1 contains the top 16 most popular singles while CD 2 contains the top 16 most coupling songs and tracks from the album releases to date. For the limited editions, version 1 contains a DVD of the recording session of CD 1's bonus track "Heart" while version 2 contains a DVD containing the PVs of the 16 songs in CD 1. After much consideration, I finally decided on buying version 2.

Long ago when access to J-ent information was relatively restricted and I didn't know the Japanese language then, it was by chance that I discovered TOKIO through watching Kouhaku in 1998 when they sang "Love and Peace". It was just nice that I watched the same drama starring Matsuoka Masahiro around that time so that performance made me sit up and take notice of TOKIO.

From then on, I started to become more acquainted with the band, its members, the dramas and shows they appeared in and of course their music. Back in the late 90s, I always thought that TOKIO was a very neglected band by their agency Johnny's Jimusho. SMAP was in a different league of its own but when compared to TOKIO's junior groups such as V6 and KinKi Kids whose members were close to TOKIO's members and some of them are known to be buddies with one another, the contrast was sharp. From the late 90s to early 2000s, V6 and KinKi Kids were enjoying a lot of success outside of Japan where they held concerts in places like Hong Kong and Taiwan. TOKIO was never talked about in the same way as these groups and their CD sales paled in comparison to them. I never used to understand why TOKIO did so badly in terms of CD sales especially since I didn't think that their songs paled in comparison to their peers'.

When they were in Sony Music i.e. from their debut in 1994 to 2000, it wasn't as if the guys didn't have any good songs at all. However, sales figures were not very encouraging and I wondered then if the record company knew how to market the band properly. The big turnaround came in 2001 when the band moved to Universal Music and struck gold with its second single Message / Hitoribocchi no Habrush though arguably, the success was largely attributed to the latter song due to Nagase's drama "Mukodono" being a hit then. Nonetheless, this single was the very first Oricon No.1 song for the band and a very memorable time for the guys since they had finally tasted commercial success after so many years of being regarded as lagging behind their peers and juniors. Even Arashi was doing way much better than TOKIO then.

During their Universal Music days especially between 2001 and 2004, I bought each and every single and album released then and thoroughly enjoyed their music very much during this period. I don't know exactly why but Universal Music seemed to have the Midas touch in that TOKIO's songs became more widely received and popular than before and the packaging of its works was much better than before. As a fan, there is nothing happier than seeing the band emerge from the shadows of its competition and show that they have the quality to make it. In recent years, it is also very encouraging to see various reports about how rock fans have started to take notice of TOKIO for their music and live performance abilities even though they had been written as a half-baked band in the past due to their roots as a Johnny's group.

After the group switched to J STORM in 2008 (the third group to belong to their in-house label after Arashi and Hey! Say! JUMP), they are still doing relatively well even when compared to their days in Universal Music where 6 of their singles got an Oricon weekly single No.1. title. To date, only one of their singles in J STORM i.e. Haruka got No.1 but the remaining singles all got within Top 10 which I think is very commendable. Besides, with the passing of age, I find that the band seems to be more at ease with itself where they enjoy performing and singing songs they like rather than be too caught up with whether their songs are going to be hits on the charts. As such, there's been various collaborations with artistes such as Shiina Ringo (Amagasa), Sorafune and Honjitsu Mijukumono (Nakajima Miyuki) which led to songs that deviated quite a fair bit in terms of style, lyrics and music arrangement from those released by the band in the past but were very favourably received by fans.

20 years is a long time for anyone to be in showbiz. For TOKIO who has been through its fair share of ups and downs over the years, the ability of its members to stay together and weather through all these will surely mean more good years ahead for the band as more people come to see them as serious musicians. I do hope for more commercial success in the music front for the band but they aren't doing too badly anyway. As long as they continue to enjoy what they are doing and produce more good songs for the fans, I'll be content with supporting them from afar even though they may not get as many Oricon No.1s as other artistes. ^__^

My ramen top picks Part 1: Santouka

Finally, a post showcasing one of my favourite ramen restaurants i.e. Santouka! I've been to both branches at Cuppage Terrace and The Central and am glad to report that standards between both locations are largely the same so it probably doesn't matter too much which outlet you go to. However, the Central outlet is a bit more difficult to find since it's at a corner of the mall so you might need to spend a bit more time locating it.

The first time I went to Santouka, I had ordered the shio ramen which I felt was light enough not to have a lingering salty sensation and yet was rich enough for me to taste the flavours of what went into making that stock. Even though I did not order the specialty toroniku then which is supposedly available in limited quantities only, I thought that its normal chashu was already quite good i.e. tender, of the right thickness and not too fatty.

This time, I tried the famous toroniku ramen in shoyu stock. Compared to the shio version, I thought it was a tad heavier on the taste buds but thankfully, it did not leave me scrambling for water in the aftermath. The noodles were also of the right thickness and absorbed the stock well in a way that they did not turn soggy too soon. Sometimes, very thick noodles are used in Hokkaido-style ramen which is not really my cup of tea especially if they can't absorb the stock.What really impressed me was the toroniku i.e. the pork cheeks which were so tender and juicy that I can understand why it's pricier than the usual chashu. Once you've tried this version of the toroniku chashu, I think you might feel that most of the chashu offered in other ramen chains would not make the cut anymore.

As usual, any visit to a ramen place would involve a taste of their gyoza. The version I ordered this time was the kurobuta version which had a nice fragrance when the dish was served. Despite the skin being of the right thickness and having a nice crispy golden-brown surface on one side, I thought the filling was a bit lacking. The kurobuta version certainly didn't taste any different from the usual pork gyozas I've tried at other places before so I do wonder if it's worth paying a bit more for this version. I vaguely remember that the ordinary pork gyoza I tasted during my first visit at the Cuppage Terrace outlet was better though. It could be that the texture of the kurobuta wasn't so noticeable given that the meat was minced and the portion in each gyoza was relatively small. Nonetheless, I was expecting a bit more from this but was slightly disappointed. There's also the chicken version which I've not tasted before so I might give that a try next time. It's really not easy finding the perfect gyoza where the skin and filling meet my expectations.

This was the first time I tried the ebi-fry here and appearance-wise, it looked rather appetising and appealing. In terms of taste, I thought it was passable but I would have wanted to taste the freshness of the prawn underneath that batter. Unfortunately, I got a bit sick of this version after a few more bites because the prawn filling was kinda tasteless. If not for the mayonnaise, I think this would have fared worse in my personal views. It's not to say that this version is lousy but you can probably get something like this in any other Japanese restaurant so it's not really a must-have item here in Santouka. Well, as long as the ramen continues to impress, I'll be back for more ramen.

In all, I would say that Santouka does a great job in its core ramen offerings but it still has a bit of work to do for its side dishes especially if it expects to draw more customers to order items other than ramen only.