Here are the two members of the pop country group Tsukiyomi (つきよみ) - Takako (left-violin) and Ai (right-vocals). Can you believe that Takako is 28 and Ai 26? They certainly didn't look like it. They are the youngest artists on Columbia's enka label. Their music is different from most other enka singers in that it closely resembles our American pop country music industry and artists such as Shania Twain (Ai has a powerhouse voice and Takako's violin was very beautiful as well). I have listened to all of Columbia's enka artists, and I like them the best (I think it also helps that I have a crush on the singer).

I met these two before their outdoor concert in Shinjuku as they were applying makeup and doing vocal warmups. My guide for the event, producer Kurata-san (second under Bucho Shimura) instructed me to only speak English to the girls as a joke when introducing myself. As with all enka singers, he knew they could not speak a word of English, but that didn't stop Kurata-san from laughing at Ai and Takako's deer-in-the-headlights reaction to my English words. I handed out flyers around the concert area and helped push CDs after their concert was over using my super polite Japanese - I now know exactly how it feels to hand out kleenex packets on the street corner.

After we were all done, the girls, me, and Kurata-san, along with some random staff members who worked the show, went to eat at a place that specialized in cow tounge dishes (all expenses paid of course). Ai & Takako are the Japanese version of Penn & Teller. Ai may quite possibly be the fastest Japanese speaker I have ever heard, effortlessly stringing sentence after sentence together at lightening speed with no room for breath. Ai will make jokes about your dandruff or call you on sexual harassment, laughing hysterically loud one minute, only to launch into a detailed childhood story the next. Meanwhile, Takako would smile and silently eat her food, pausing every 10 minutes to check that her violin was still nestled behind her seat.

After dinner I rode home on the train with Ai and we got to know each other. It turns out, she would tell me, that she was very nervous during dinner due to the presence of the record label, which accounted for her flash grenade style of speech and biting jokes. From Chiba, she lives with her musician parents and has to travel around Japan a lot to do concerts to promote their group which she said is tiring. Her older brother just had a baby and she showed me pictures of the little guy on her phone. All in all, a very nice evening with very nice girls. Ai was in my dream that very night. I'm trying to get in touch with her again to hang out...we shall see how that goes.