Welcome to episode 77 of Holly Jolly X’masu! In this episode, I’ll be talking about Mieko Hirota’s Christmas music.

One of the most fascinating things about collecting Japanese records has been discovering these phenomenal singers and musicians I’d had no knowledge of before. Mieko Hirota was an amazingly talented performer, and while she’d had some exposure in the US, I’d never heard her name until three years ago.

As much as I’ve enjoyed the Christmas aspect of my collection, I’ve gotten just as much pleasure exploring other aspects of these artists’ careers. If not my podcast, I likely wouldn’t have been exposed to a lot of the City Pop, Jazz and other great Japanese music I’ve found myself listening to over the past few years.

Mieko Hirota has been one of the real highlights. She recorded some of the best vocal Japanese Christmas music of the 1960s, and the rest of the songs I’ve heard from her were equally as good.

I hope you enjoyed Mieko Hirota as much as I have. She left an indelible mark on the Japanese music industry, and now that I have a little more experiencing collecting, I can see why her Christmas releases demand the prices they do. I’ve mentioned that I’ve fallen behind over the past month or so. I’m hoping to get back on track in April, starting with my next episode which will go live on the 1st. It’s one that needs to be heard to be believed.

As always, any feedback on this episode would be appreciated. If have any suggestions, or if you’d like to recommend a song or album for a future episode, drop me a line and let me know.

Remember, I’ve added a button to my Ko-fi page. If you’d like to support me one cup of coffee at a time, a donation is only $3. I’ve also opened a Redbubble store. I only have a couple designs up, but keep an eye on it as I’ll be trying to add more. Half of any proceeds or donations received will be donated to support the people of Ukraine, while the rest will be used to purchase new Japanese Christmas music to review for future episodes. You can also find me on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. And if you get a chance, leave me a review on iTunes. Thanks!

Welcome to episode 76 of Holly Jolly X’masu! In this episode, I’ll be talking about Hideko Kojima’s 1970 album, “Christmas On Hammond – Jingle Bells.”

This month has been a bit tumultuous, to say the least. I’ve had a lot of issues that have kept me from working on my podcast, and just about anything else. I wanted to make sure I got these two episodes out, so I’ll be cutting my blog posts short. I will point out that Hideko Kojima’s album was one of the most pleasant surprises of my collection. I didn’t expect much of it, but it ended up being an exceptional album. I just hope I can get a skip-free copy at some point.

I hope you enjoyed Hideko Kojima’s music and what little background I was able to provide. Over the past few months, I’ve reached out to several people who may or may not have been the artist I was covering at the time. For the most part, I haven’t heard back from any of them. At some point, I’d love to get some feedback from one of them. That said, I hope you’ll join me later this month for the second of my Women’s History Month episodes. Next time around, I’ll be covering Mieko Hirota’s 1960s Christmas music. She was an exceptional singer and you’re sure to love her records.

As always, any feedback on this episode would be appreciated. If have any suggestions, or if you’d like to recommend a song or album for a future episode, drop me a line and let me know.

Remember, I’ve added a button to my Ko-fi page. If you’d like to support me one cup of coffee at a time, a donation is only $3. I’ve also opened a Redbubble store. I only have a couple designs up, but keep an eye on it as I’ll be trying to add more. Half of any proceeds or donations received will be donated to support the people of Ukraine, while the rest will be used to purchase new Japanese Christmas music to review for future episodes. You can also find me on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. And if you get a chance, leave me a review on iTunes. Thanks!