9/28/2006

TAKAKO 2min 49sec MP3 format (3.9MB download) or streaming
Halloween is only a month away, so enjoy these frightening YouTube videos of “Tarako” TV commercials.

Creepy

Frightening

Pedophilic?

Tarako, tarako
tatsubu, tarako
Tarako tarako tsubu tsubu tarako tatsubu

Ok, now for some context.
“Tarako” is Kewpie (Q.P.) Corporation’s [たらこ キューピー] a cod roe topping for pasta. Kewpie makes all sorts of scarey things to put on top of Japanese food—it’s the top brand of ubiquitous Japanese mayonnaise. The girls singing are called Kigurumi (”キグルミ” ) which means a soft costume suit such as what a performers dressed as Mickey Mouse at Disneyland wear. That sounds cute except that it can also be perverted.
Anyway, these girls are only 10 and 11 years old but they made the Japan Top 10 which is some kind of record for their age. The hats they are wearing are the shape of tarako fish eggs.

Thanks to my friends KeitaiGoddess and also Charles for bring this to my attention, I now cannot get this Japanese cod-roe topping song out of my mind. The only way to exorcise the noise demons(c) in my head was to remix the tune and make a MP3 podcast out it, and give the noise demons to you. Enjoy?!
2min 49sec MP3 format (3.9MB download) or streaming

UPDATE: The TARKO song is by Koji Ueno (上野耕路) and that it was only “adapted” by Kewpie Corporation for the “Kigurumi” girls. Here’s the listing on Amazon Japan “たらこ･たらこ･たらこ たっぷりたらこボックス” (in Japanese).

Also there’s the Kewpie Corporation’s TV and radio site with the current broadcast version. Note that entire Kewpie page is full of “delights” (in Japanese).