Akiko Yano is a Japanese pop and jazz musician.

Her music is by tur… Read Full Bio ↴Akiko Yano is a Japanese pop and jazz musician.

Her music is by turns playful, heartfelt, melodic, ornate, and disarmingly simple, reflecting a love of music in all its forms and colors. She handles moody new wave, virtuosic fusion, traditional jazz ballads, straightahead pop, and singer-songwriter folk songs with equal aplomb.

Though she's recorded with many of the 20th century's greatest pop and jazz musicians, her primarily Japanese-language albums have kept her music below the radar of most English-language listeners. She's recorded with, among many others, Pat Metheny, Lyle Mays, members of Little Feat, Ryuichi Sakamoto, Haruomi Hosono, David Sylvian, Mick Karn, Kenji Omura, Jeff Bova, Yukihiro Takahashi, Charlie Haden, Peter Erskine, Anthony Jackson, David Rhodes, the band Quruli, and her son Futa Sakamoto.

Beyond her solo work, Yano has recorded with Thomas Dolby, Yngwie Malmsteen, The Chieftains, The Hammonds, Jamaaladeen Tacuma, Kazumi Watanabe, The Boom, Tetsuro Kashibuchi, and Ryuichi Sakamoto. She appeared on the recording "Snowflake" reading a children's story in Japanese with Peter Gabriel reading in English and music by Akira Inoue and David Rhodes accompanying both.

自転車でおいで
矢野顕子 Lyrics

Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴

○月×日雨のちくもり
僕はだれかを好きと書く
それがだれかはわからない
窓の外を犬が歩くてゆく
黒いはな黒いあし
いつもひとりでいる犬だ
知らないあなたに会いたいな
自転車でおいでよ

僕の家はすぐそこだよ
とうふ屋のかどから四軒め

○月×日晴れのちくもり
僕はだれかがだれかを知る
そして名前を書いてみる
庭の池を猫がのぞいている
小さな猫小さな水
いつもおなかをへらしてる

いつかはあなたに会いたいな
自転車でおいでよ
僕の家はすぐそこだよ
牛乳のあきびんがめじるしさ

自転車でおいでよ

僕の家はまだあるのさ
朝日と夕陽があたる家

Overall Meaning

The lyrics to 矢野顕子 Feat. 槇原敬之's song 自転車でおいで tells the story of someone who is in love but doesn't know who they are in love with yet. They express their feelings by writing down that they like someone, even though they don't know who that person is. They see a black dog with black fur walking outside their window, always alone, and they express their desire to meet someone they don't know yet. They invite this unknown person to come to their house on a bike and that it's just four houses down from the tofu shop corner.

In the second verse, it's a sunny day but then becomes cloudy again. The singer now seems to have found someone they know, and they write their name down. They mention a small cat looking into a small pond in the garden and how it's always hungry. They express their desire to meet this person who they now know and invite them to come to their house on a bike. They inform them that their house is still there, and it's a house where the morning sun and evening sun shine.

Overall, the song talks about the feeling of being in love without knowing who you're in love with and the desire to meet that someone special. The lyrics are simple yet poetic, and the use of imagery with animals and the surroundings add depth to the song.

Line by Line Meaning

○月×日雨のちくもり
On the day of month in which an overcast morning gave way to a rainy afternoon,

僕はだれかを好きと書く
I write that I love someone,

それがだれかはわからない
But I do not know who that someone is,

窓の外を犬が歩くてゆく
A dog walks outside the window,

黒いはな黒いあし
With black nose and black feet,

いつもひとりでいる犬だ
It's a dog that is always alone,

知らないあなたに会いたいな
I want to meet an unknown person,

自転車でおいでよ
Come on your bike,

僕の家はすぐそこだよ
My home is just around the corner,

とうふ屋のかどから四軒め
Four blocks away from the tofu shop on the corner.

○月×日晴れのちくもり
On the day of month in which a cloudy morning gave way to a sunny afternoon,