Songs from NHK's "Furu Café Kei Haru-san no Kyuujitsu"（ふるカフェ系 ハルさんの休日）

 

In a world of Starbucks, Excelsior and Doutour coffee shops in Japan, it was always nice to know that there were (and hopefully still are) also plenty of independent cafés run by coffee masters. I always had a soft spot for the mom-and-pop shops although I only had the franchises in my Ichikawa neighbourhood. However on occasion, I was able to visit such places with friends like the one you see above in Saitama Prefecture when I returned to Japan for a couple of weeks in 2017. From the décor to the aromas to the menu, every such café I visited there had its own sumptuous experiences for all of the senses.

So you can guess that an NHK program such as "Furu Cafe Kei Haru-san no Kyuujitsu" (The Old Cafés ~ Haru's Day Off)  would be right up my alley. Starting from 2015 as a pilot one-off, it got the green light for regular seasons in 2016 which have also been showing on our local Japan TV. I would say that the show is a "dramatimentary" (crushing together "dramatization" and "documentary") with actor Gouta Watanabe（渡部豪太）as Haru Sanada（真田ハル）, a blogger who has been traveling throughout Japan in search of those atmospheric and woodsy coffee houses. I can absolutely relate to him. Incidentally, the actual café owners and other real-life associates take part in the hijinks as well.

Now the reason that I'm even referring to "Haru-san" is not because of the theme song. It apparently doesn't have an official one but there have been rotating tunes over the past several years according to its J-Wiki article. I could track down three out of the four listed on YouTube and all four of them are cover versions of past kayo.

Ayano Tsuji -- Nantonaku Nantonaku（なんとなくなんとなく）

A cover of The Spiders'（ザ・スパイダーズ）classic from 1966 (and yes, that's partially the reason that I put the original up only a few hours ago), Tsuji（つじあやの）gives it her own quintessential spin via her trusty ukulele. Her version is on her 2004 album "Cover Girl".

Asako Toki -- Kimi ni Mune Kyun （君に、胸キュン）

I already gave my paragraph on Toki's（土岐麻子）cover of Yellow Magic Orchestra's hit in the article that features both original and cover. A track on her 2006 "Weekend Shuffle" album, it's a groovier rather than technopoppier, and it fits that feeling of enjoying an afternoon at the coffee house with a good friend or book.

Hiromi Ohta -- FUN x 4

An intriguingly Caribbean take on Eiichi Ohtaki's（大滝詠一）doo-wop original from his classic "A Long Vacation" from 1981, Ohta's（太田裕美）cover was a part of a 2009 tribute album for "A Long Vacation" titled "A LONG VACATION from Ladies". Pass the sunblock, please.😎

Now the one song that I couldn't find was "Hatto Shite! Good"（ハッとして! Good） which was originally recorded by Toshihiko Tahara（田原俊彦）in 1980 but was covered in 2011 by singer-songwriter Kazumi Nikaido（二階堂和美）who hails from Hiroshima Prefecture.