A few days ago, a veteran actress and entertainer left this mortal coil at the age of 92. Mitsuko Mori（森光子） was definitely a well-known presence on screen and stage. Especially on the latter, she was famous for a play titled "Horoki" in which one of the big scenes involved her gleefully pulling off a front-forward somersault, something that she did well into her 80s. It almost seemed like a custom for Japanese TV to show the annual somersault on the news.
Mitsuko Mori was known primarily as an actress but she also released 5 songs during her career. "Tokyo Shitamachi Atari"(In Downtown Tokyo) was her first single released in April 1973 as the theme song for a popular homespun comedy, "Jikan desu yo"（時間ですよ...It's Time!) during the 70s. Mori starred as the operator of a sento（銭湯）in Gotanda, Tokyo. Translating "shitamachi" as downtown in English is inadequate since shitamachi actually also involves the lifestyle and even how one speaks in traditional neighbourhoods like Asakusa and Kanda. Small wooden houses and old-fashioned mom-and-pop shops are compacted with each other in these areas so that very close-knit communities form. And the neighbourhood sento in Japan was the equivalent of the local pub in the UK in that folks often gathered in the bath to talk about the latest goings-on within and without the area.
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