Episode 27: To Okinawa for an Audition Show
It was a JAL-presented program, broadcast simultaneously on three stations: FM NACK5, FM Yokohama, and bayfm.
Here's how the audition worked. The first round was a song screening.
Only the one act that passed the first round would go to Okinawa. There, working a part-time job, they would write a song each week to a theme given to them and perform it live on air. Judges in Tokyo would then assess it.
Clear four weeks of themes, and it meant a major-label debut.
We entered right away with our own songs.
The first artist was announced, and the show began.
About three months after the show started, my phone rang.
We were going to Okinawa. It had actually happened.
I was desperate to seize this chance, no matter what.
October 2003. My first time in Okinawa.
A late, hot summer was beginning.
To be continued.
