They named Tulip because they thought the sound of the name resembled the one of the Beatles’ record label of Apple.  Yes, they were deep fans of the Beatles, the sound they made was pretty much like Beatles flavour.

Some of the songs they produced actually reminds me of the Beatles songs as they are really similar to the Beatles numbers.

Tulip recorded some hit songs while they were active and their concerts were full of fans then.  Especially for the people of Hakata, Fukuoka, Tulip still is a memorable music group as the sound of them colorfully painted the beautiful time of their home town, Fukuoka.

Next video contains a song called Hakatakko Junjo, which should be translated like Purity of Hakata Guys.  They sing the mental colors of Hakata people through this song, which introduces tears and memory of people who live there in the city.

This song was not a big hit then but I comparatively like it rather than choosing other well known hit songs.

Last year I spent the summer time in New Zealand, and sometimes I lived in Hawaii in summer time. Compared to those places, Japanese climate is crazy.  People say Japan is already in subtropical zone. Indeed, this hot climate is unbearable, not like comfortable Hawaiian hot climate.

I sometimes visited home electronics appliance shops this summer for purchase of an air conditioner.  Answers I got from them were that I needed to wait for weeks to get it becuase over-demand. Makers can’t catch up with the upcoming orders.

I really missed the cool summer of NZ this time although I left NZ with a thought of never- returning. 

When I came back to Japan last year after 5 year stay in NZ, I really had a feeling that I finally arrived in the home town of my heart.  More of less the feeling is still true,  it will not fade as long as I live. 

But choosing the best place for life is not always giving me an answer that I have to live in Japan all the time.  That’s not what I expected when I got back in Japan.

I don’t know where to live next time……

Actually some decades ago, it was hard to find POOR dentists in Japan. However, it seems to have become a past legend of millionaire myth.

It’s said that dentists numbers are in oversupply situation especially in urban side or big cities.  Therefore the profit they earn is often  much less than the income of standard salaried workers.

1 out of 5 dentist are thought to be working under the annual income of 3,000,000 JPY or about 33000 UDS.  This is really unbelievable figure for us who know how the dentists were enjoying their life with luxury materials like expensive cars or deluxe houses.

That is why applicants for dental courses of Universities are becoming less and less every year, and 50% of the courses have want of applicants in  recent years.

I don’t always go for big gap of income among occupations, but dentists deal with human health or parts of human body, in this category probably the income for them also should be guaranteed at some proper level.   If a dentist needed to work with such low income, guarantee for the patient safety would be one of the anticipated matters.

I never imagined it would be like this for dentists…..when I was a student.

Some or maybe many have suspected this high rate since the crash of American Economy by sub-prime loan crisis. Also some of them even expect much higher Japanese Yen rate, which means US dollar would be much weaker than ever if this negative anticipation would come true.

For us Japanese, strong Japanese Yen is not always good because the most of exporting businesses will be damaged much with the foreign exchange rate. The exporting companies will have to suffer from hard condition for outbound sales from Japan. Indeed, it’s better for people in traveling abroad as they can buy things cheaper in calculation with Japanese currency.

Looking at world economy, or American economy, probably this tendency would not stop and US dollar would be weaker and weaker. 

However,  it would mean a collapse of market economy or capitalism in a broader sense.  In that situation, currency or our daily money will mean different to us, or in a desperate way of thinking, money might have less value than the one we know now.

If so, what could be the next tool for exchanging the value ???

Close to my hometown, there is a popular resort palce, NASU.  Emperor would visit there every now and then, remembering the time of his visit, the roads are crowded with people to celebrate the visit with national flags in their hands.

This summer, emperor and Price visited Nasu respectively. Both visits reminded me of those old days I remember as I spent summer time in Nasu after a long time overseas stay.

For me, nothing is so special even if they come, however, the Nasu town looks totally different with exciting atmosphere everytime it happens.

Usually Emperor or Prince spend a week or so here in Nasu for relaxing.

Being away from them for a long time, reguraly I miss their music in hot summer time. This sound feedback happens because I first touched their music on Japanese National TV in my summer vacation time. I was 13 or so then !!

Their name was already well known as they stood after the Beatles then, fans of the Beatles naturally caught their information in music magazines or through rumor brought by niche foreign trend chasers. In 60′s and 70′s, Japan was invaded by Beatles first, then, new music wave was being formed by Led Zeppelin, Deep Purple, Yes, ELP, and more creatively eye-catching ( and ear catching ) groups from UK.  This era was certainly a dawn of Japanese Rock movement. 

 Under this exciting time of new creations, Rolling Stones was regarded as an old type music group, thinking of fans mind, it was natural for them to take what they thought cool and trendy.  Stones was a little unlucky and they were left after the new waves.

During such time of Rock music movement in Japan, I saw this TV show of Rolling Stones.  Mick Jagger looked childish then, but Kieth Richards and the other guitarist ( Mick Taylor ?) were really cool looking.  They sang Angie twice in the beginning and in the end.  That was real cool and exciting show for me.

They were being shadowed by the colorful rock bands, over the selfish expectation, I thought they would last long !!

Time testifies it.  Now they still live.

My girl friend at the time liked talking about music and movies then, with talking on the phone,  she started mentioning Off Course as I being bored with the name of the music group with repeated information from everywhere then.  Indeed, such they were popular then.

We kept conversation with trifle topics and as usual, we would notice we had such happy time and sad time over the past years. Maybe I got a little sentimental just after the lovely talks with her.

Coincidentally I found the record of Off Course, WE ARE, after that.  I put it on and the melody coming out was just how my heart faced then.  That was my first recognition about this music group.

Since then, I have scarcely listened to their music.  However, sometimes the tenderly familiar music for my ears flows on from somewhere, I soon notice like ” that’s it”.  Also the pastel colored memory of my past time begins to play on my mind screen inside with the one and only music of the time.

For many of our generation, Off Course could be such a love story like music group. They made hits and they made times, and they lived with us…maybe still lives on.

The leader of Off Course, also the lead singer and main composer of this group, Kazumasa Oda, later left the group and kept solo career.  His sucess was propably promised then, as supposed by many, he is an icon of Japanese POP music still and forgood.

If my memory was right, the name, Off Course, was decided because the 2 main members, Kazumasa Oda and Yasuhiro Suzuki, dropped out the promised routes of top notch college graduates for music business tryout.  For them, Off Course means they stay OFF the standard COURSE.

But in the end, they went ON COURSE of honor with huge success in music business.

However, this experience is not always such bad thing, as some of the accumulated useless thoughts are also swept away with sweat.  Interestingly, I seem to think  ” Nothing matters! ” when my brain is raped by high fever.

Anytime I get back from high fever cold, everything around me stands out OK with my refreshed positive thinking.

I don’t have to do anything I can’t do, that’s what I always find out after heavy cold, therefore, having cold is not that bad for resetting my mind.  I can sing like Take it Easy !

In spite of such favorable recovery, I will probably again go back to my regular daily life with much troubles and problems to solve after sometime. In other words, I may like having some troubles or problems because I know many of them can be left untouched as I always do when I’m sick in bed, which means I don’t have to have them at all even when I’m OK.

We often hear an strange name of a disease called Gastroesophageal Reflux Disease on TVor at hospitals in Japan, however, it had been a strange illness for some recent years.  By the upsurge of oily Western food consumption in Japan, this strange disease has been on the increase.  This is not a cnacer but a inflamation of the esophagus, which means people are suffering from the decline of digestive power.

Probably this new illness trend symbolically expresses how people need to be afraid of the sudden notice of Esophageal Cancer. 

Actually Esophageal Cancer was found in 2 big music icons of Japan recently.

Seiji Ozawa, the conductor and the director of Wiener Staatsoper, announced his  Esophageal cancer some months ago and now he is already back in harness to work again with orchestra. When his new photo after he was discharged from the hospital appeared in media, we were deeply moved by his attitude to music work through his drustically changed appearance as an old man in the photo. He didn’t lose his artistic passion even after the hard illness struggle.

Some days ago in July, a popular music icon, Keisuke Kuwata, was reported to be sick in the same disease.  He had already taken the surgical operation and now he seems to be OK in the bed at a hospital. He is widely known as the leader of Southern All Stars, whcih has been the top popular music group of Japanese POP music scene.

Both Seiji Ozawa and Keisuke Kuwata probably will be working as enthusiastically as ever.  They are moved by the power of talent inside them, as far as it remainds inside, cancer can’t stop them creating new things.

Looking at them makes us know how human life power strongly continues by the desire of living action.

Now we have, what we call, Obon time in Japan, which is one of traditional national events with consecutive national holidays.  Usually people of Japan enjoy holidays from 13th to 15th of August, and many go back to their hometown.  The reason for their retruning home is mainly the memorial service for the dead by the custom of Japan, which should be what Obon is.  Recently this vacation time tends to expand longer, consequently companies often give workers to have discretion for longer vacation time. Now the trains or highways are all crowded in rush.

Origin of this unique tradition of Japan is not known well as it’s not stated clearly in the history documents either.  As one of the analogies, it’s said Obon comes from custom of Buddhism.

In the genesis of historic time of Japan, or maybe before 8th centry or older time, in the sense of ancestor worship, spirits of ancestors are believed to fall down on the world of ours to visit their descendant twice a year. One of the visits became the ceremony of new years day and the other one became Obon we have now. It’s not known when the present formation was completed as such 2 spirit fall down times, New Years Day and Obon time.

Also the influence of Buddhism can’t explain all the origin and history stream of this national custom, some say that it’s also under the shadow of Shinto of Japan, which is also an original religion that was formed in ancient time of Japan.

It seems true that this Obon used to be held on July 15th each year on the lunar calender ( old calender ) before the solar calender or Western calender was adopted in Japan.

Tomorrow, August 15th, will be the last day of Obon vacation time.  People who went back to their hometown are now on their way to their life places and they need to prepare for their work again with refreshed mind.

As a footnote, around the Obon time, there are many firework events, old style festivals called Omatsuri, visiting graves called Hakamairi, and also memorial events of the 2nd world war.  Especially the last one includes the memorial evens for the termination of the war ended together with a prayer for peace in the atomic bomb city of Hiroshima.