Mononkul -- Kūsō hikō（空想飛行）

For years and years since the late 1970s, it had been all about Narita Airport deep in Chiba Prefecture when it came to long-haul international flights out of the Tokyo area. But then, some years ago, Haneda Airport by Tokyo Bay, which had been long thrown figuratively into a dusty corner, underwent a major rejuvenation that has included a modern shopping complex and restaurant row done up as something from an Edo Era drama. As someone who first arrived in Japan in 1972 at Haneda, it was nice to see the old airport become the centre of attention again. Of course, Haneda is also more convenient to get into Tokyo than Narita although the latter does have those speedy Skyliners.

When the great re-introduction of Haneda Airport was being advertised on the various news broadcasts, one of the big advantages was that folks getting out of work on Friday can conceivably catch a flight there, fly over to a place like Guam or Saipan for a long weekend and arrive back at Haneda to get back to work the next day without too much fuss.

It was that point that I was reminded of when I first came upon "Kūsō hikō" (Flight of Fantasy) by the duo Mononkul（ものんくる）some months ago. As with the band BLU-SWING, which I had written about last night, Mononkul isn't restricted to just one genre in its performances with vocalist Sara Yoshida（吉田沙良）and songwriter/bassist Ryuta Tsunoda（角田隆太）going for a jazz and pop sound.

"Kūsō hikō" at least seems to go beyond jazz and pop to include that feeling of Latin and a hint of technopop. Tsunoda took care of both words and music for the song about taking off for that area outside of the city so fast that the young lady hasn't even had time to change from her high heels at work. And perhaps the flight is not just in terms of space but also of time, if that anime video is hitting me in the right spot, as an office worker remembers back to her high school days and maybe her very first romantic relationship. It's quite wistful.

The song made it onto Mononkul's 3rd album "Sekai wa Koko ni shika naitte Jouzu ni Itte"（世界はここにしかないって上手に言って..Say That the World is Only Here Skillfully）from July 2017. Their 4th album "RELOADING CITY" was released just a few days ago on September 5th.

I wish that it would be that easy for me to hop on a plane at Pearson and then be over in Tokyo within a few hours. Alas, nothing less than a hypersonic carrier would make that possible right now, but perhaps one might be ready by the time I become an octogenarian.