This is me in Osaka, Japan in late October 1998, in the CD department of a department store called Loft. I spent the week leading up to Hallowe’en in Southwestern Japan, visiting my friend Anne, who’d gone there to teach English for the year. It was the second part of my Asian vacation that year; I’d spent about ten days in the Philippines visiting family and having a grand old time. The fun would continue in Japan, and that couple of weeks still stand out to this day as one of my all-time favourite trips. I consider it a prelude to the era of the accordion, which I would take to the streets for the first time six months later.
In the photo, I’m checking out the international edition of Fatboy Slim’s then-new album, You’ve Come a Long Way Baby (the one with Praise You, Right Here Right Now, Gangsta Trippin’ and The Rockafeller Skank). I didn’t buy it, since I already had the North American edition, and 1880 Yen was a lot of money then. Instead, I bought a single, Everybody Singin’ Love Song, by a j-pop band called the MB’s (or Magokoro Brothers, or 真心ブラザーズ). It’s a catchy little tune from a time when a lot of bands seem to have rediscovered Stevie Wonder’s sound (Jamiroquai, I’m lookin’ right at you), and I apologize in advance if this song gets stuck in your head all day. Here’s the lower-fidelity version, featuring the video for the song…
…and for those of you who want to get your groove on, here’s a higher-fi version with just the album graphics: